book stringlengths 2 250 | chapter stringlengths 1 255 | text stringlengths 1 4.64M |
|---|---|---|
Ruler of Everything | Survival | Romana, Blueblood, and Granny Smith had barely returned to Ponyville proper when they saw Starlight running full tilt toward them. "Romana! Hospital! Golden rift! Growing!"
She came to a halt right in front of the trio, eyes bulging and spittle flecking her lips. "Help?" she concluded.
"Okay," Romana said steadily. "Starlight, could you take a few deep breaths for me?"
Almost resignedly, Starlight took a few exaggerated deep breaths. Nevertheless, she began to calm down.
"Alright," Romana said, nodding. "Yes, we're aware of the rifts. There's another one up at Sweet Apple Acres. Unless I'm very much mistaken, the two are spreading toward one another."
Starlight nodded. "That's what I would guess, too, based on the direction the one in Ponyville General was pointing," she said. She wasn't calm, exactly, but she seemed markedly less wild-eyed than she had moments before. "How long do you think we have before they meet?"
"I'd need to look at the other one to be certain, but at a guess... perhaps forty minutes."
"Right. What happens then?"
"Imagine the worst case scenario," Blueblood instructed.
Starlight stared off into the distance and nodded. "Alright..."
"Worse than that," Blueblood said.
Starlight's eyes went wide again. Granny smacked Blueblood on the withers. "Now you done gone an' set her off again," she grumbled.
"Fortunately," Romana said, "I have a plan."
"Alright," Starlight said. "What can I do to help?"
"Obviously, you're the greatest scholar of time travel born on this planet," Romana said. "And although I literally learned how to calculate temporal vectors in kindergarten, I have considerably less experience with magic than you, and I'd greatly appreciate you helping me to translate my ideas into concepts that make the most sense in this universe. At the same time, I urgently need you to hold back the rifts. Can you do both at the same time?"
Starlight laughed. "Can I do both at the same time? Yeah, probably. What kind of spell do you think would work best?"
"These things are rifts in spacetime, but the holes themselves are only three-dimensional," Romana said. "A spell to slow or stop time in a localized area ought to work."
"Ought?" Granny asked, arching an eyebrow. "Ah don't much like th' sound of that."
"This is entirely theoretical, I'm afraid," Romana said, "and even most of the theories concerned don't address any situation remotely like this. We're flying by the seats of our pants."
She paused at their blank expressions. "Er, that expression probably makes more sense for a species that wears pants," she admitted. "But you follow my meaning."
Starlight nodded. "C'mon, let's go back to the hospital. It'll be easier to shape the spell at one end of the rift."
The four ponies started back toward the hospital apace. "Did you actually learn how to calculate... whatever you said you did... in kindergarten?" Blueblood enquired.
"Oh, yes," Romana said. "I was in the gifted and talented program."
At long last, Dinky's horn wasn't the sole source of light on the stairway. As soon as the two mares saw the faint illumination on the wall, Dinky broke into a run up the stairs and out into the light of the hallway. "Oh, thank Celestia!" Scootaloo said, slumping down onto Dinky's head. "I don't think I could've taken much more of that."
"You might have to," Dinky warned her. "There's no guarantee that we're on the right floor."
"Well... I guess," Scootaloo admitted. "But at least we get a break, right?"
"Mm." Dinky looked up and down the corridor. "We can't really split up," she mused. "Which way?"
"Back the way we came," Scootaloo said firmly. "When we got thrown out of the tower, we landed right in front of the main doors, so the room has to be that way."
"Huh. Good call," Dinky said. "One problem, though. Which way is that?"
"What do you mean? It's obviously..." Scootaloo trailed off, trying to work something out in her head. "Um... Wait, wasn't the door downstairs on the other wall?"
"Exactly. The spiral stairs completely threw off our sense of orientation," Dinky said. "I don't think there's a good way to figure it out, either, given that we know the internal dimensions of the tower are completely screwed up."
"Oh."
"It was a good plan, though," Dinky said hastily. "If we were literally anywhere else, it would've worked."
"Yeah. Thanks. Uh, I guess I'll pick that way, then," Scootaloo said, pointing to the right.
"Right it shall be, then," Dinky said, setting off at a trot.
"Should we be worried about the staircase moving on us again?" Scootaloo asked.
"Probably," Dinky admitted. "But we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. We can't be so afraid to leave the stairs that we never find the right floor."
Scootaloo tilted her head in a noncommittal gesture. "Yeah, true," she admitted. "Alright."
They continued down the hall. Scootaloo kept glancing over her shoulder until the door was lost in the gloom. "I hope the others are alright," she said.
Dinky said nothing, but she squared her shoulders.
The corridor was wider than the one downstairs, and better decorated, too. Tapestries hung on the walls, and busts sat on plinths set into the walls. Many of them were recognizable as some of the incarnations of Rassilon that had been on display in the foyer. "Geez," Scootaloo said. "This guy must've had some kind of ego."
"What was your first clue?" Dinky asked drily.
"Yeah, okay, the tower-sized memorial in the middle of a death-trap desert probably should've been a giveaway," Scootaloo admitted.
"It says a lot about Time Lords in general, don't you think?" Dinky asked, half-jokingly.
Scootaloo was silent for a long moment. "What?" Dinky asked, glancing back at her.
"I just..." Scootaloo huffed slightly. "Listen. It's none of my business, but I really don't think you should be so hard on the Doctor."
Dinky stiffened noticeably and turned to face forward again. "He abandoned Mom. He forgot about us."
"Yeah. And she forgave him for that, like, ten years ago. He's been working so hard to be there for you, dude."
"He should have been there for me when I needed him," Dinky growled. "I felt so alone for so long. You don't know what that's like. You've always had friends."
Scootaloo crossed her hooves. "Yeah, think about what you just said. I've never been alone because I have friends. It's almost like letting ponies love you and loving them back is a good way to not be alone, huh?"
Dinky let out a short huff of air through her nose, but said no more. Scootaloo shrugged. "Alright. Your call, not mine."
"Yeah. It is," Dinky grumbled. Then she stopped. "Huh," she said. "This looks like it might be something."
Scootaloo peered over her friend's head. Laid out before them was a four-meter square chessboard, taking up the entire floor ahead of them.
Nurse Redheart studied her patients again. They all seemed to be in relatively stable condition. Shining Armor and Trixie had stopped suffering from magic drain, although Sombra and Rarity were going through the IV drips at an even more rapid pace than before. The alicorns and draconocci were still suffering from a variety of unique and unpleasant effects -- Sunset's flaming mane and wings had gone out completely, Cadance was dripping with dew, and Discord seemed to be in a state of total paralysis, not to say rigor mortis. There was little she could do for them, if anything. On the bright side, using the term very loosely, the black ooze that Luna was sweating seemed to be putting out the small fires that Celestia kept starting on their shared bed.
She sighed and took a seat on the lone chair in the corner of the room, shut her eyes, and rubbed her temples. Celestia, what she wouldn't give for some company right now. Whatever Romana had done to her earlier, she wasn't at all sleepy, but the loneliness and hopelessness of the situation was beginning to wear on her.
Her pager buzzed. She ignored it. She couldn't exactly tear herself away from the coma ward without anyone around to replace her.
It buzzed again. Redheart growled a little in the back of her throat and snatched it from the side table where it lay. She was about to shut it off when she saw the messages.
Hey, hon, the first one read in glowing white letters.
The second said, Cloudchaser, stop shoving!
Redheart took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, shakily. "This isn't funny."
The pager buzzed. It's not a joke, it said. We're still here, but we're ghosts.
Setting the pager down with hooves shaking, Redheart considered this. "Prove it," she said. "Tender, where did we go on our second date?"
There was a momentary pause. The pager buzzed again, and this time an image appeared on the screen. It was a picture of a clearing in Whitetail Woods, where the two mares had gone for a hike in early April.
You had to leave early because there was a cart accident near town square, the message below read.
Redheart nodded slowly. "Okay," she said. "...Okay. Um..." She blinked several times and then abruptly began to cry.
Almost immediately, the pager started buzzing so much that it nearly fell off the table. Redheart gave a little phlegmy chuckle through her tears. "It's fine, I'm fine," she said, wiping her eyes roughly. "I'm just so glad you're here."
I'm glad I could be here, too.
Yeah, okay, great. So what exactly happened to us?
Cloudchaser! Can you not?
What? We deserve to know.
And Tender and Redheart deserve a proper romantic reunion, but you just had to butt in.
Luna's tits, but you're a bleeding heart. No wonder you and Flitter got together.
Nurse Redheart cleared her throat. "Well, now that the moment's been completely ruined anyway, yes, I'm more than glad to tell you what little I know."
How did we die? Was it cool?
"You're not dead."
There was a long pause. Red, honey, we're ghosts."
Redheart sighed. "Look, Romana could explain it better than I can, but from what I understand, you were de-aged." ...?
"You got so young, you were suddenly never born. Most of the others got turned into babies."
...What.
"I know, right?"
There was a sudden noise in the waiting room. Redheart's ears pricked up.
Speaking of Romana... said the pager.
"Come in," Nurse Redheart said.
Romana pushed open the door and stepped into the room. "Were you talking to someone just now?" she asked.
Redheart passed her the pager. The Time Lady's eyebrows rose. They rose further as she looked through the list of notifications. "I see. That... is fascinating, but unfortunately I can't really work through the implications at the moment, because in a little over half an hour, relatively speaking, Ponyville is going to be the epicenter of a fracture in spacetime that might consume the planet entirely."
Redheart stared at Romana for a moment. "Seriously?" she asked, rubbing her head.
When it rains, it pours, said the pager.
Shining Armor and Trixie hurried down the corridor, shaking the pins and needles out of their limbs as they went. "How are you feeling?" Shining asked.
"Trixie has had better days," Trixie replied grimly. "But she will get by. That, however, is more than can be said for that Nightmare creep if it's hurt one flame on Sunset Shimmer's head."
"Yeah," Shining said. "If Twily and Cadance aren't alright... well, I'll try to leave you some scraps to stomp on. Where is the tomb from here?"
Trixie glanced around. "Trixie isn't sure. This part of the tower looks... well, Trixie was going to say 'unfamiliar', but really, the problem lies in the fact that every part of this tower seems to look a lot like all the other parts."
"Hm." Shining glanced around the corridor. "Yeah, that's a good point. Not to mention, there's no guarantee that the halls out here won't start behaving like they did earlier, sticking us in another endless loop."
Trixie glanced around. "Hmm... aha!"
"What? Did you find something?"
Trixie gestured toward an alcove. "Trixie will knock over that bust and smash it. That we, we will know immediately if we are going in circles!"
"...Okay..." Shining said. "Uh, but what will we be able to actually do about that?"
Trixie considered this for a moment. "You think too much," she decided, reaching up to smash the statue on the ground.
At least, she tried. The statue didn't seem to want to let go of the pedestal. Trixie struggled and pushed, but it barely moved.
Shining looked a little more closely at the bust. "May I?" he asked.
With bad grace, Trixie stepped aside and let Shining take her place. After studying it for a moment, he noted, "This is the same guy Rarity pointed out to us before. Pandak."
"Then we are going in circles?"
Shining shook his head. "No. At least, I don't know. This guy doesn't have a chip in his ear, see? So it's the same guy, but not the same bust."
"Fascinating," Trixie muttered. "By all means, take a last moment to appreciate the art before smashing it."
Shining ignored her. "Isn't it funny that Rassilon would put a bunch of statues of his political rivals in his own tomb?"
Trixie tilted her head, thinking. "Huh. It is," she admitted. "Trixie would never put anything in her tomb but herself, and some of the things that made her happy in life. Actually, Trixie might just ask to be buried in her wagon."
"It's almost like it was meant to stand out," Shining said, carefully taking the face of the bust in both hooves. "Like a way to mark a point..."
He pulled the statue toward his chest, and with a grinding noise, it slid forward. The back wall of the alcove receded, revealing a dimly-lit secret tunnel. "... or a door," Shining finished.
"Impressive," Trixie said, lighting her horn and peering into the gloom beyond. "You think this leads out of the tower?"
"Could be. I'm reasonably certain that it leads around the tower," Shining said. "We might be able to travel a little more quickly this way. We're almost certainly less likely to be detected there."
Trixie stepped into the darkness. "Very well. Trixie is down for this."
Shining followed her into the narrow passageway. A few minutes after they departed, the bust of Pandak slid back into place, the wall closing again as if it had never moved.
A few minutes later, Apple Bloom and Rumble wandered by the self-same bust. "Why is it so dang hard to get anywhere in this tower?" Bloom demanded. "What kinda idiot designed this place, anyhow?"
The going wasn't as hard as it had first seemed in the hall of mirrors. Between Spike's keen eye for detail, which had been honed over years of living with first Twilight Sparkle and then Rarity, and Applejack's innate sense of truth, they had a pretty solid system for determining how close to reality each mirror image was. If both of them thought it was too close to call, Pinkie's Pinkie Sense was a reliable backup system.
They had encountered an astounding number of mirrors that were almost correct, but not quite. In one, Applejack hadn't had freckles, but Pinkie did. In another, Spike hadn't forgotten to trim his claws. In a third, they were almost sure the reflection had been correct, but then Spike noticed that the image was moving a fraction of a second out of sync with their actions, predicting a quarter of a second into the future.
Those were pretty disturbing, but at least they were mundane. There were truly twisted mirrors in here, as well, where Spike was a gnarled and twisted kaiju of a dragon, where Pinkie was a grinning maniac, where Applejack was grizzled and covered in the scars of a hundred-score battles.
There was one where they were all changelings. There was one where Spike was a diamond dog. There was one where the two mares were, from what Spike claimed, their counterparts from the other side of the mirror portal.
And then there was the mirror where Applejack was gone.
She stopped and stared at it for a long moment. She could hear her heart beating in her ears. It was familiar, terrifyingly familiar. Spike said something, but she couldn't tell what. This was one of the universes that she had died in, one of the branching timelines that the Valeyard and the Nightmare had used to try and sabotage the TARDIS, one of the ones that had been balled up and thrown away when they had outlived their usefulness.
How close she had come to oblivion. But if she had died, like her counterparts, would the Nightmare have failed to gain a hold in this universe? Through her sacrifice, would her world have been safe from this scourge?
There was a hoof on her shoulder. "You can't think like that," Pinkie said softly.
"How th' Tartarus do you know what Ah'm thinkin'?"
"You have no poker face," Spike said. "Ever."
"Hmph." Applejack glared at the mirror. "C'mon. Gotta keep movin'."
From then on, Applejack always lingered for a moment over the other mirrors that failed to show her reflection before tearing her eyes away and trotting briskly onward.
How long she had been standing there, she didn't know. Stone didn't seem to experience time in quite the same way that flesh did, and the hunger made every moment that clicked past seem like an eternity. It was the hunger that picked at her, scrabbled at her from the inside -- if she had an inside. How could a statue feel hungry? How could a statue feel anything? Rainbow didn't know. She just knew that she was hungry, and she couldn't move, and that this was actually the best position she could be in at this point, really.
Because she knew that this was the only way to protect her friends. Scootaloo and Dinky would be gone if any of the three statues touched them. So would anypony else they happened to come across. Rainbow doubted that anypony could get through to Fluttershy and Ditzy now. If they were feeling half as hungry as she was, they'd devour anything they came across.
And that was the other half of the equation -- she was protecting Ditzy and Fluttershy, too. If they sated their hunger the way it was meant to be sated -- Celestia. It would destroy them. In her mind's eye, she could see Ditzy staring with sudden clarity and dawning horror at the spot where Dinky had been a moment before.
Rainbow wouldn't let that happen. She couldn't.
She heard hooves coming down the hall. Food? wondered a distressingly large part of her brain, but she beat it back. She couldn't see who it was. They were coming up from behind her. The hooffall was too heavy and measured to be Dinky or Scootaloo, or any of the other Crusaders.
The clatter of hooves stopped right behind her. "Pathetic," a familiar voice said. The Valeyard. She could hear the sneer in his voice. "How fascinating. The Element of Loyalty is the sole traitor."
She wanted to scream at him, yell about how he understood nothing of loyalty, of friendship, of anything at all. She wanted to turn around and knock him senseless. But she couldn't. She was trapped in a position of her own design that was meant to ensure she would never move again.
For a moment, she caught a glimpse of his face as he reached over and positioned a mirror right in front of her.
"Now, just sit here and... reflect on what you've done. The others will have to go now, I'm afraid -- they've got work to do."
As he dragged the other two statues around, Rainbow Dash stared into her own stone eyes. In them she saw hunger. Worse, she saw defeat. |
Ruler of Everything | Father Time | "So..." said Scootaloo. "I'm guessing that we can't just, y'know. Walk across."
"...Doubtful," Dinky said. "Hang on just a minute."
She shut her eyes and focused. The air shimmered, and an illusory golden duplicate of herself stepped onto the chessboard. Immediately, the board was electrified, and the magic copy blew apart with an anguished scream. Both mares' eyes went wide, and Dinky took a few steps back. "Okay," she said. "That's not exactly ideal."
"...How many of those things can you make?" Scootaloo asked. "If you do enough --"
"Even if I could make an infinite number of copies -- which I can't, they're very draining -- we'd still be here for hours testing random paths. This is a puzzle -- there has to be a clue around here somewhere..."
She trailed off, glancing around the corridor, which was entirely empty. "...Don't suppose you could just hover over this thing."
"Don't suppose you could teleport past it."
"Oh, that's a thought," Dinky said. "Alright, here goes nothing."
The two mares disappeared in a flash of magic. An instant later, they reappeared right where they had been standing. "It would seem not," Dinky said. "Must be warded or something."
Scootaloo frowned and glanced around the hallway again. She suddenly went stiff. "Dinky..." she said slowly. "Don't turn around. Just set me down slow."
Dinky did as she was bade. "Alright," Scootaloo said. "Now turn."
Dinky looked back. Some distance down the hallway were two distressingly familiar statues. "...Shit. Alright. Uh..."
She wracked her brain for anything that might be useful, any clue she might have missed before. She did it again, and again, more frantically each time. Then she started mentally screaming.
The Doctor had been dragged in ropes to the Old Harbor district, an ancient dock that was among the last reminders of when the Capitol had possessed waterfront property, some few dozen thousand years before the Doctor had been loomed. The Gallifreyan tides were so huge and powerful, it had been decided that such waters were an annoyance and a danger to the community, and so they had been terraformed out of existence. Now all that the Old Harbor overlooked was an enormous pit. It had never been destroyed or repurposed. That was life on Gallifrey.
It seemed that it was also death on Gallifrey. He was led through an angry swarm of familiar faces, grotesquely twisted into monstrous forms. Katarina was there, her broken body floating almost peacefully in the air. A kilted man without a face stood sentinel at the base of the crudely-built stage, alongside a zombified Captain Yates. Izzy and Destrii were fused at the hip, and still trying to rip one another apart, though they stopped and glowered at the Doctor as he was led past. Zoe sat on the ground, head in her hands. Sand was pouring out of her ears, and he could see within the sand images of past adventures -- memories stolen from her by his people.
As he was led up the stairs and onto the stage, he was made to look out at the crowd and saw still more familiar faces.
Sam Jones, flickering between dark and light, her face cracked in two. Princess Luna, corrupted once more into Nightmare Moon. Discord, half-petrified. Kamelion, burning in agony.
His heart sank as his gaze fell on Susan, his beloved granddaughter. Her face was lined and pinched and stern from years of labor and later years of fighting. She held the broken body of her son, Alex.
No less terrible was the sight of Ditzy, hooves over her eyes, mouth locked in a scream of pain. He blinked, and suddenly she was staring at him, teeth bared.
And at the base of the stage, six dirty, broken bodies stared up at him, their eyes empty. The Cutie Mark Crusaders.
The Doctor took in a long breath and let it out slowly. "Well," he said. "They say it's a good thing to die surrounded by friends. I shan't be alone, at any rate."
Someone behind him snorted a laugh. "You ain't got friends here, sunshine."
The Doctor turned. "Oh, my Bella Donna," he said sadly. "What have I done to you?"
Her eyes glowed golden with anger. "The same thing you did to all us broken toys," she said. "Played with us. Shattered us. Left us to rot." She laughed bitterly. "I begged you, d'you remember? I begged you to just let me burn. I would have died as I always wanted to live! I would have gone out in a blaze of glory, knowing that I had saved all of creation, and instead you turned me back into a damp squib."
"You were never that, Donna," the Doctor whispered. "Never that."
"Forget this," said another familiar voice. "Let's just smash 'im already!"
The Doctor blanched. "Ace," he said. "Oh, Ace--"
"Shut it," she said shortly, electricity sparking across her body. Her leather jacket seemed to be the only thing holding her glitching, mutated form together. She pointed the shattered remains of her metal bat at him. "I'm through playing your games, Doctor."
"Just toss him over the edge and be done with it," Sam shouted. "Let us go already!"
"No," Leela replied. "The time is not yet right. The executioner is not yet here."
The crowd broke into an uproar. The Doctor shut his eyes and flattened his ears, but that wasn't enough to shut out the roar of the crowd. But all that stopped when one singular voice rose high and clear above the others. "HELP!" Dinky shouted. "HELP! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!"
Everyone stopped and looked at the figure of Dinky, front-row center in the Doctor's mind. The Doctor flapped his mouth for a moment. "I... yes?"
There was a long pause. "Doctor? What are you doing in my head?"
"From my point of view, you happen to be in mine," the Doctor said. "You must have accidentally triggered a psychic link, all Time Lords can do it -- which means --" He blinked several times. "You're alive?"
"Yeah. All of us survived the fall," Dinky said. The other Crusaders blinked into life one by one around her, glancing around in surprise. "But that might not be true for much longer. Scootaloo and I are in the tower, stuck between a pair of statues and an electric chessboard --"
Romana pointed at Dinky. "Someone shut her up!" she shouted.
Several of the corrupted companions rushed forth, but the other Crusaders sprang into action, fending them off. "The statues... you mean Weeping Angels?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah? They move when you blink, is that them?"
"Yes."
"Yeah, mom and Fluttershy got turned into them. So did Rainbow Dash, but she managed to fight off her conditioning or whatever it is that's making them attack us."
"They can still be saved," the Doctor murmured, his eyes going wide.
Donna grabbed his collar and started pulling him away from Dinky. He struggled to call out to her as her voice began to fade.
"Dinky! Just remember -- easy as Pi -- just walk -- CIRCULAR!"
All that remained after that was static.
Dinky blinked several times. "Okay. Well, that was something."
"What was? You totally fuzzing out on me for ten seconds?" Scootaloo demanded.
Dinky looked at the Weeping Angels. They were barely ten meters away. "I was talking with the Doctor."
"...Come again?"
"Apparently I have psychic powers and nopony remembered to tell me. It didn't last long, but he tried to tell me how to cross the chessboard..." she relayed the message to Scootaloo quickly, pausing only for blinks.
"Circular," Scootaloo repeated, furrowing her brow. "What could that mean on a square board?"
"Same question with easy as pi," Dinky mused. "I'm gonna take another look at the board, keep your eyes open."
"Alright."
Dinky scanned the board. No, there was nothing circular around here. What else did she know about chess? Pieces -- king, queen, knight, bishop, rook, pawn. None moved in circles. The pieces would be set up along rows 1, 2, 7, and 8 --
Oh. Now wasn't that interesting...
"Scootaloo," Dinky said slowly. "This chessboard is set up wrong."
"Is it?" Scootaloo asked. "Imagine that."
"In chess, the lowest right-hoof square is white. On this one, it's black."
"Great. Is there a point to all this? Blink."
Dinky glanced up to stare at the statues, then back at the board. "I think so. In chess, the squares in columns are marked with letters, and the squares in rows are marked with numbers. They're flipped now, which suggests an alphanumeric code of some kind."
"And the code word is... circular? Dinky, I'm pretty sure 'R' and 'U' are a little outside of a chessboard's normal span."
"Yeah, so's 'L'. But the other part of the message, 'easy as pi' -- what if it's not just a straight conversion from letters to ordinal numbers? What if you line up the letters of the alphabet --"
"Blink. With the digits of pi?"
"Yeah!"
Scootaloo said nothing. "Scoots?"
"Shush, I'm calculating. What are the numbers on a chessboard?"
"One through eight."
"So if any of them line up with a zero or nine..." Scootaloo lapsed into silence. "They don't."
"Alright. I'm gonna put you on my back and go for it," Dinky said. "You gotta tell me the numbers and check my six, alright?"
"Okay," Scootaloo said. "Just let me refresh my eyes a second. Blink."
Dinky stared at the statues as Scootaloo pressed her hooves against her eyelids. "Alright," she said, opening her eyes again. "I'm ready."
Quickly, Dinky turned back to the board and lifted Scootaloo up onto her back. "Go," she said.
"Four," Scootaloo said. Dinky stepped onto the fourth square, wincing as hoof met tile. Nothing happened. "Alright," she said. "Good start."
"Five," Scootaloo said. Again, nothing happened.
From B5 to C3 to D4 to E6 to F8, nothing continued to happen. Then Scootaloo hesitated. "This one's another three," she said slowly. "Can you make it?"
Dinky gauged the distance. "I don't know," she said.
Scootaloo considered this. "Could you make it if I wasn't weighing you down?"
"...Probably. But I'm not leaving you behind!"
"Just get clear and levitate me over when you're over! I'll be fine, I promise. I -- Oh Celestia, I gotta blink."
Quickly, Dinky levitated Scootaloo off her back and turned to stare at the statues as Scootaloo blinked frantically. "I'm not leaving you behind," Dinky said fiercely. "I'll stay here and levitate you over first."
"Fine," Scootaloo said. "Let's just get out of here."
Neither taking their eyes off the statues, Dinky levitated Scootaloo into the air and tried to push her over to the appropriate square. However, she seemed incapable of moving Scootaloo outside the perimeter of their current tile. "Okay," Scootaloo said. "Let me think, let me think... how high can you lift me?"
"Scootaloo, you're not --"
"I can still glide, thanks, and I've had way rougher landings."
"Not with two broken legs you haven't!"
Scootaloo glared at her. "Lift me."
Dinky grit her teeth and sent her friend higher and higher, until her magic hit another invisible wall, some three meters up. "Okay," Scootaloo said. "Let me go."
Dinky did so, and Scootaloo buzzed her wings for all they were worth. Dinky wanted desperately to watch, but knew that she couldn't break her gaze on the statues for even a moment.
There was a thump and a squeal of pain, but nothing that sounded like lightning striking. "Scootaloo?" she called. "Are you alright?"
There was a long string of cussing, followed by a long pause. Then a pained voice. "Yeah. Fine. Landing on a broken leg hurts."
"I'm sure the medical community is fascinated by your novel insight," Dinky said acidly. "You haven't broken your splints or anything?"
"Don't think so."
"You can keep going?"
"Yeah, last one's a three, too. Keep watching them for a few more seconds, I'll crawl out of your way."
There followed a few more moments of near silence. Dinky's eyes burned, and she felt incredibly guilty about forcing Scootaloo to keep taking point on all the watches. But Scootaloo hadn't let her down. Dinky could do no less.
After an agonizing several seconds, Scootaloo said, "Alright. I've got eyes on them. Dinky, go."
Dinky blinked several times to clear her eyes, then turned and leapt for the penultimate square. She skidded into the landing, barely keeping herself from going over the edge. Fortunately, the wards only seemed to block magic traveling between squares, and Dinky was able to conjure a shield to slam into before she went over. Shaken, she hurried over the final square and off the board to sit at Scootalo's side. "So... can we stop watching them now?" she muttered. "We've got the electric chessboard between us, maybe that'll keep them at bay?"
"... Only one way to find out."
"On my count. One, two, three --"
They blinked.
"Your situation is, roughly speaking, as follows," Romana said, traversing row upon row of medical equipment in the storage closet. "The Valeyard attempted to erase you from existence through a thoroughly barbaric method which I'm pleased to say my alternate self expressly outlawed on Gallifrey. It was known as the Oubliette of Eternity."
The pager she was carrying buzzed. Oubliette?
"Yes, it's Prench. Loosely translated, it means one's deepest dungeon, one into which you throw prisoners so that they will be forgotten. It systematically erases your timeline and spits your soul out the other side, naked and shivering. You become a denizen of the anti-time -- a Neverperson, as they've come to be known. Of course, the Valeyard had only a fraction of the power of the Oubliette itself, hence why you can still be remembered."
... You would have forgotten us?
Romana grimaced. "It's possible. As a Time Lady, I'm better than more... temporal creatures, such as ponies, at remembering alternate timelines. But yes, you would have been erased from everypony's memories, photo albums, any records that existed of you... wiped out."
That's horrible.
"Yes, hence why I banned it." Romana slammed the last supply cupboard and leaned her head against the cold metal. "I promise you, I'll do everything in my power to restore you as soon as this crisis is averted."
Is there anything we can do to help?
Romana chuckled drily. "No. Nothing that I can think of, anyway. I'll be sure to keep you updated."
Nothing? Maybe we could inspect the rift?
Romana's face turned stony. "Absolutely not. It's too much of a risk for you to go near it. It would destroy any living thing that tried to go through."
We're not living.
Romana hesitated for a split second, but then she shook her head firmly. "No. I owe it to your friends and family to do what I can to keep all of you safe. I can't stop you from doing anything -- I can't even touch you -- but I beg you to consider what this risk could mean to Rumble and Button. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and raid the Doctor's workshop for spare parts."
Flitter and Tender Care exchanged worried glances. Cloudchaser brushed back her mane. "So, uh, if I could bring the conversation back to Las Pegasus," she said casually.
"Do what you want," Thunderlane said. "I'm going through the rift."
"'Lane..." Flitter said, putting a gentle hoof on his withers. "You heard what she said. Think about how Rumble would feel --"
"Think about Rumble?" Thunderlane asked. "I'm not thinking about anything else! My brother is trapped in some kind of nightmare world, and I'm not going to sit here and talk about burlesque while he could be in mortal danger! I'm going through. Anyone else want to come?"
"I -- alright, let's slow down and talk about this," Cloudchaser said, rubbing her forehead.
Thunderlane snorted. "That's rich, coming from you."
"Yeah? Think about the fact that I'm the one saying you're being too impulsive."
He paused and realized that he didn't actually have a good answer to that. "...Fine," he said, sitting down. "Make your case."
"Rumble's an adult," Cloudchaser said. "He can handle things on his own."
"Really? We're talking down facing down monsters on an alien world, not doing taxes."
"Fair enough, but point two, you are currently an incorporeal echo of yourself. You're not exactly gonna be a great help fighting."
"... Well. I, uh."
"So what, exactly, is the point of going through?" Cloudchaser demanded. "What do you gain from this?"
Thunderlane was silent for a long moment. "...I'll be there for him," he said simply. "Isn't that reason enough?"
Much to her consternation, Cloudchaser couldn't find a single retort to that. Thunderlane nodded. "Alright. I'll see you later."
Flitter rose. "Oh, no. If you're going, I'm going."
Thunderlane gave her a small smile and ducked his head. "Flit..."
"Don't you try that on me. I care about Rumble, too. If you're going, so am I."
Cloudchaser threw back her head and groaned. "Fuck me. Well, if the two of you are going, I'd better go, too. You two jags are just gonna get disintegrated without me. You'll just be staring into each other's eyes like a couple of lovesick twits and get eaten by whatever eats ghosts."
All three glanced at Tender Care. She pursed her lips and shook her head. "No. No, I'll stay here. Redheart needs someone to keep her stable, and right now, I'm the only available mare for the job. Just... look after Button too, won't you?"
"Of course," Flitter said.
Thunderlane rose. "C'mon. We'd better hurry before Romana and Starlight seal the rift off."
The three pegasi flew off, Flitter sparing Tender one last backward glance before following her coltfriend and sister off beyond where the earth pony could see. She watched the spot where they had passed through the wall for several long minutes before she allowed herself to walk away, tears running slowly down her face.
The creature followed them down the tunnels, as content as a kitten. Occasionally Button or Sweetie would give it a little scratch on the ear, and the creature would make a sound that was probably purring.
This state of affairs lasted until they arrived at the staircase, the door still open and letting in the ambient light from the stairwell. The creature squinted into the brightness, shook its head, and retreated several steps back. Button glanced back. "I guess it likes the dark better?" he said.
"Aw. Guess it can't come with us." Sweetie Belle patted it on the snout. "Alright. Be safe, bud."
"If you see a robot with lots of domes, try and make friends," Button suggested.
The creature snuffled. How much it understood, if anything, couldn't be known, but it seemed to grasp that they were leaving. It whined a little, and gave Sweetie Belle a lick before turning and trundling back down the corridor. Sweetie pouted after it for several seconds before turning and going back into the main stairwell, Button close behind her.
"Ugh," she said. "I'm not looking forward to going up all those steps again."
"Yeah," Button said. "Especially with all the earthquakes that've happened since the last time we went up."
Sweetie winced. "I didn't even think of that," she admitted. "You'd better go up first. I can levitate you to safety if you start to fall."
"I thought you were out of magic."
"Oh. Right." She lit her horn experimentally. "Yeah. I could maybe levitate your bag, but not you."
Button nodded. "I'll go up first anyway. You can try and catch me by the tail or something if the stairs give out."
"Right."
The two started to cautiously make their way up the winding flight of steps. They didn't seem to be any more crumbling or shaky than they had been the last time the duo had climbed them, but they seemed to seem that way. At first, Button and Sweetie walked quickly up the stairs, barely touching each step before moving off again. After they had gone some distance without incident, however, and their legs started to get tired, they began to slow down.
"So," Sweetie Belle said. "Um. Are you still going to that tech conference in Baltimare?"
Button paused for a moment before resuming his climb. "I dunno," he admitted. "I mean... I can't go back to Copper Hills. I just can't face that again. I was miserable there. But now my controller's been really beat up just running around here, and I gave them to Scootaloo..." He trailed off and shook his head. "I don't know. I'm stuck, Sweetie. I don't know where I want to go -- I don't know where I can go from here."
Sweetie nodded, then stopped when she realized Button couldn't see her. "I know what you mean," she said instead. "I don't really know what I want to do with my life, either."
"You don't?" Button looked back at her, surprised. "I thought you wanted to go into entertainment."
"Well, I mean... yeah, but it's not that easy," Sweetie said. "You have to be really good to make a living at it, and you have to be really lucky, too. You have to work for years to make a name for yourself, and even then you might fail. More than that..."
"Yeah?"
"I don't know if I'm ready to start," Sweetie said quietly. "I don't know if I'm good enough. I'm no Sapphire Shores."
"No," Button said. "But you are Sweetie Belle. Isn't that enough?"
Sweetie went slightly pink at that. "Well -- that's sweet," she said. "But I'm still not sure --"
Button stopped and turned to look at her. "Sweetie," he said. "You sang the Crystal Empire to sleep. You tamed that beast in the tunnels. You've got the most beautiful voice of anypony I know, and you use it wonderfully."
"But I'm--"
"Please, don't argue," Button said. "You're graceful and elegant and clever and creative and my best friend, and I think you deserve the world. I can't give you the world, even though I'd like to. Right now, all I can give you is all the confidence and love I have for you, and I hope to Celestia that you'll accept it."
Sweetie was silent for a long moment. Then, quietly, she asked, "Do you really mean all that? You think I can really do it?"
Button nodded enthusiastically. "I know you can! You just have to be brave, put yourself out there. I believe in you, Sweetie."
Sweetie sniffed back a few tears, then grabbed Button in a great big hug. "Thanks," she murmured into his shoulder. "Thank you. And for what it's worth -- I know you'll do great things, too. You don't need to go to Copper Hills or Baltimare or anywhere else for that. Because you're beautiful and smart and so skilled, so creative..." She stopped, took a sharp breath in. "Did you hear that?" she asked, her voice suddenly hushed.
"Huh?" Button said, as the stair he was sitting on creaked again and gave way beneath him. |
Ruler of Everything | The Unquiet Dead | Button didn't move. He didn't dare. There was a distinct lack of anything beneath him, and the only thing keeping him in the air was Sweetie Belle, her forehooves wrapped around him like a python. He could hardly breathe, but that didn't much matter, since he hardly dared to try, either.
"Can you -- can you lift me up?" he whispered, his voice hoarse with fear.
"I don't know," Sweetie replied.
"How far of a drop is it?"
"...About twelve feet, I think. I can't give you a shield spell this time."
"Right..." Button breathed out. "Okay. Sweetie, I need you to unbuckle the strap of my bag."
"What?"
"It'll make me a lot lighter."
"But all your stuff --"
"Is replaceable. Heck, we can walk down a level and pick it back up again. Sweetie, I'm this close to breaking my neck --"
She unbuckled the bag. It fell, and Button rose dramatically as Sweetie reeled backwards from the shift in the weight. She fell flat on her plot, her forehooves slipping free of Button's neck. "No!" she screamed.
Button, however, had gotten up high enough that he was able to scrabble for purchase on the edge and hold himself relatively steady. Sweetie grabbed him again and hauled him back to safety. For a long moment they just sat on the stairs, gasping for breath. After awhile, Button hauled himself upright and peered over the precipice. "Wow. Yeah, that would've been a bad drop," he said. "Looks like my bag's mostly alright. It's anypony's guess how much inside survived, though."
"That's good," Sweetie said. "So, we're going down a level to fetch it?"
"Yeah, I guess so -- uh?"
"What's wrong?"
"I thought I saw something moving down below," Button said. "Must've been a trick of the light..."
"You realize you just said one of the top lines that ponies in horror movies say right before they get killed really horribly, right?"
Button winced. "Yeah -- yup, there it is again. He's a fast sucker."
"What's he look like?"
"Uh, imagine a pony in a cheap rubber alligator costume, but black and white." He squinted. "Wait -- no, more like a faceless white pony. No, a shaggy black pony with too many teeth and glowing silver eyes. It keeps flickering into other shapes."
Sweetie joined him in peering over. "Is... is that a zipper on its back?"
"It doesn't look all that dangerous..."
A beam of silver light shot right between the pair, scorching the stone wall. "Okay, never mind!" Button said, his voice suddenly much higher. "Sweetie, can you lift us over the hole?"
"No. I think we could jump it, but not without exposing ourselves to fire."
Button glanced down again, furrowing his brow. "Do you have enough juice to lift my bag?"
"...Yeah? Why? Do you have something in there that might help?"
"Not exactly. No, don't lift it yet, wait until I give the word."
As the creature wound around the stairs, it seemed to become more real -- it gained color first, then became less like a pony in a cheap bad costume and more like a pony in a slightly more expensive bad costume. Nothing else about it was remotely consistent. Button kept a weather eye on it, just peering over the edge, dodging back each time the shifting monster fired on them. "Wait for it," he kept muttering. "Wait for it..."
The creature's form began to stabilize. It looked almost real now, standing twice the size of a normal pony, and it seemed to be consistently red, with arachnid-like features -- too many legs, a hideous crimson carapace, a whipping scorpion tail -- and it was still coming for them. It hissed at Button as it stepped over his bag.
"Now!" Button yelled.
The bag shot up into the monster's abdomen. Its eyes went wide as it lost its balance and toppled over the edge. It screamed as it fell, and Button winced in sympathy.
There was no crash, merely an echo of a scream that hung in the air far longer than it should have.
"What the fuck," Sweetie Belle whispered.
"Run now, ask questions later," Button said, but he glanced over the edge one last time as Sweetie Belle levitated his bag up to sit on a steps a little farther up the staircase. Glimmering below, for a fraction of a second he thought he saw a rift in the air. He blinked, though, and it winked out of existence.
Scootaloo opened her eyes. The two statues still stood, snarling and frozen, on the other side of the chessboard. She let out a sigh of relief. Beside her, Dinky did the same, falling back off her haunches to just sit on the ground, staring across the way at her mother.
Scootaloo glanced at her. "Hey. You okay?"
"No."
"You wanna --"
"I haven't been okay in my entire life, I think," Dinky said. "But I do feel even less okay than usual at the moment, yes."
Scootaloo pursed her lips. "I suppose talking about it would be totally out of the question."
"I don't think this is necessarily the best time," Dinky said.
"Fair enough. But if we survive this, we're going to have a conversation. All of us Crusaders are."
Dinky shut her eyes and nodded. "...Yeah. Yeah, alright."
"Huh." Scootaloo blinked. "Wasn't expecting you to agree so quickly, honestly."
"Mm. You know how I said I talked with the Doctor telepathically?"
"You mean the thing that happened about two minutes ago? Just about."
"I saw... stuff in there. I think I've seen what happens when you bottle up your emotions for about two thousand years. I don't want to be like that."
Scootaloo considered this, then nodded. "Yeah, fair enough. Should we go on, then?"
Dinky's lips flattened into a long line. She didn't look away from the statues for a long moment. "Yeah," she said, dropping her gaze. "Yeah, I guess so."
She rose to her hooves and together the two mares continued down the hallway. They didn't look back. This was rather a shame, because the next thing the statues did was really rather impressive, involving quite a lot of lightning and quick movement, and ending with a pair of really very angry statues on the other side of the chessboard. By that time, however, Scootaloo and Dinky were quite some distance away, facing an entirely different potential threat.
They had reached nearly the end of one corridor and were about to turn right, when they heard muffled thumps coming from inside the wall. Both mares froze and stared at the wall, where they could distinctly hear muttering voices and growls. Dinky lit her horn. Scootaloo braced herself on Dinky's back.
"Show yourself!" Dinky demanded.
"Y'know, maybe whatever it is just hadn't noticed us yet," Scootaloo muttered.
There was a long pause. Then, one of the nearby alcoves slid open. Both mares stared at it for a long moment, preparing to face down whatever came through.
Shining Armor popped his head around the corner. "Wait. You're alive?" he asked, his eyes wide.
The Doctor yanked and tugged at his bindings. "Let me go!" he shouted, glowering at Romana. "My daughter is in danger!"
"You've got your fighting spirit back," Romana observed. "Good. I rather wanted to see the light go out of your eyes."
The Doctor snarled. "I can still save her. I can still save all of the Crusaders, look at them!" He gestured as best he could to the six figures, still standing lined up at the front of the stage. "They're alive and well."
"Yeah?" Donna said, crossing her hooves across her chest. "How long's that gonna last them with you running around?"
"Rather longer than it will with me locked up in here." He looked around at the crowd. "I know you hate me!" he shouted. "Believe me, I know the feeling. But those six ponies have never done you any harm. They're innocent in all of this. Let me save them, please."
The assembled companions seemed at best apathetic. The Doctor raised his voice. "Please! It's not for my sake. It's for their sake, for your sake, and for the sake of all those like you. If you hate me so much for making you this way, then let me make a change! Let me save them from the corruption that you all had to face."
There was a long moment of silence. "Why should we?" Peri asked, her voice shrill and cold. "You didn't save us. Why should we let you save them?"
The Doctor blinked. "Oh," he said. "Of course. This is all just another trick, then. You aren't even good facsimiles. It's shameful, the way my mind's been twisted around to conjure up you sorry lot."
"What --" someone began.
"Shut it," the Doctor said, his voice suddenly cold. "You're not my friends. My friends had love, kindness, compassion. They formed loyalties to friends they'd barely met, and they were generous to the lowest of people. And, oh yes, we laughed. You dour crew, you never smiled a day in your lives! The joy's been sucked out of you. You wouldn't know an adventure if it bit you on the flank. And another thing! My friends were honest. You've been lying to me this whole time."
Leela grabbed him by the neck roughly, but he shook his head, the bonds slipping off him like water. "You're nothing but a deck of cards!" he shouted. "A horrid illusion to keep me captive. Well you know what? I'm breaking out to save my daughter and the other Crusaders, because friendship bloody well is magic."
Something strange happened with the light. The red-orange glow of the setting binary suns grew softer, lighter. The crowd glitched and spasmed, like something had crashed their systems. The Doctor stood there for a moment, breathing heavily.
The Crusaders looked up at him, as a single unit. "Not bad," Rumble said. "Definitely a good start."
"You're not free yet, though," Sweetie Belle warned.
"Run for it!" Dinky ordered.
The Doctor knew a good thing when he saw one. He bolted from the stage, racing through the frozen, flickering crowd that was already beginning to regain its composure. As he passed through, he thought he saw some of them actually smiling at him for a few fractions of a second before their cold, twisted faces flickered back into existence. He pushed that to the back of his mind for his subconscious to puzzle over while he desperately tried to figure out the best way to lose his pursuers.
There was only one place he could think of going where he could truly get away from this mess, the TARDIS bay. He could steal a ship, randomize the coordinates, and vanish. Trouble was, several of his companions had likely already thought of that, and it would be all too easy for Romana or Compassion or someone to trace him. Where else could he go where they wouldn't immediately think to find him? Where could he go to collect his thoughts for a few minutes without the world falling down around his ears?
The answer came to him like a bolt from the blue, and he changed direction immediately to dodge down an alley. Everything seemed to be clearer now, less jumbled and disorganized, and he navigated his way through the city to the nearest transmat. It was the work of moments to program his destination into the system, and it took him only a few minutes more to rig up a signal that would fry every other transmat in the Capitol once he arrived safely at his destination. With the roar of the furious crowd growing ever-louder, the Doctor stepped into the booth, shut his eyes, and hoped like hell that no one would be there to greet him when he stepped out the other side.
After all, he thought as he disappeared, the only thing worse than this would be a family reunion...
Romana and Starlight met in town square, Granny Smith, Blueblood, Fancy Pants, and Gilda were already there, each lugging behind them wagons filled with strange devices and parts. Gilda gestured to her haul. "Is this good?" she asked. "I didn't know what you were trying to build, and even if I did I wouldn't know what you'd need for it, so I mostly just grabbed a shit ton of clocks."
"Yes, all this should do marvelously," Romana said, looking around. "Starlight? Can you start the time-slowing spell now?"
Starlight shut her eyes and lit her horn. Waves of blue-violet energy poured off her, building around the golden cracks, forming elliptical shields around them. She winced. "Huh. Yeah, this thing's stronger than I guessed," she admitted. "I can hold it, but don't expect me to be much help actually putting this thing together."
"You can still offer advice?"
"Yeah."
"Then that's fine. Gilda? I'm going to need your talons for some of the more fiddly work."
"Me? I don't know anything about this."
"Can you hold a screwdriver?"
"...Yeah."
"Then you're the most qualified creature around."
"Hrm." Gilda nodded.
Fancy coughed lightly into his hoof. "Of course, you are a foreign dignitary. If you do not wish to help --"
"This thing's gonna erase the entire planet, she said," Gilda said, gesturing at Romana. "Last time I checked, Griffonstan's still on Gaea."
"As you say," Fancy replied with a nod.
Gilda picked up a screwdriver. "Alright. Where should we start?"
Traveling through the rift, Thunderlane found, was a singularly unpleasant experience. It was like every molecule which made up his nonexistent body had become carbonated, fizzing and bubbling through his blood, brains, and even bone. He, Flitter, and Cloudchaser all lay on the stone floor for several minutes, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for their eyeballs to stop effervescing. Eventually, Flitter flipped onto her stomach and pushed herself up to stand on wobbly legs. "Never again," she said emphatically.
She helped Thunderlane to rise to his hooves. Cloudchaser made no effort to get up. She merely groaned and flopped around like a dying fish until Thunderlane and Flitter forcibly lifted her off the ground and dropped her. "Where are we?" Thunderlane asked, glancing around the room in which they found themselves. The other side of the rift was clearly visible, a great gold-edged hole in the universe. Beyond that, they were in a great stone room. A tomb, actually. It seemed familiar for reasons none of them could place. All thoughts of that went out of their heads, however, when they heard, out of the darkness, the sounds of an approaching argument. They were far from being alone in this place.
"Quick!" Flitter hissed. "Hide!"
"We're invisible, you dork!" Cloudchaser said. Flitter and Thunderlane were already up in the rafters, however. With a sigh, Cloudchaser flew up to join them.
"I tell you, it can't possibly have been decaying!" one voice insisted. "The remaining power should have been more than sufficient to maintain the outer plasmic shell."
"Well, it wasn't," said a more familiar voice. All three pegasi stiffened at the sound of the Valeyard. "It must have been diverting that energy from the shell to some other function."
"It can't have been!" the other voice insisted. "I would have known about it."
"You're disconnected from it now. It could have acted without your knowledge since then."
"Hm." The first voice sounded odd, almost mechanical. As the two speakers stepped out into the light, it wasn't difficult to discern why that might be. "A mystery to be solved once we can get the damned thing open. And the rift?"
"An unfortunate side effect of my hasty escape from the hospital," the Valeyard said. "However, I feel that this may be an advantage to us -- we can easily stabilize it on our side and use it to conquer the town below, with the ability to easily walk back through and destabilize it again, ensuring that none will be able to follow us."
"Conquest was hardly an issue before," the Nightmare said coldly. "Your twisting words won't work on me."
"What about the fact that this rift will, when completed, be able to eradicate the planet below from all time and space? You could make it into your personal plaything, to destroy and revive at will. You could make test runs of new apocalypses, start wars between nations, simply smash it like a crystal plate over and over again whenever you felt bored. How does that strike you?"
"Hrmmm..." The Nightmare attempted to maintain its icy disdain,but was unable to keep the avarice out of its voice. "Very well. Leave it for now. The TARDIS, regrettably, will not yield its secrets until we can crack it open. There remains only one problem to be resolved, then -- those six ponies are still at large."
"The Cutie Mark Crusaders?"
"Don't speak that disgustingly cutesy name in front of me," the Nightmare spat. "But yes, have they been discovered yet?"
"No. All manner of defenses have been activated across the tower -- I had to reset two of the Angels, as you know. There have been further incursions at the top of the tower, along the middle floors, and under the surface. It seems they've split up to divide our attention."
"How foolish. Their deaths will be all the quicker with their strength divided."
Thunderlane stiffened and fluffed up, his protective instincts triggered. Cloudchaser bopped him on the head. "You're intangible, idiot!" she hissed. "If you dive down there, all you'll do is give us away."
Flitter placed a calming hoof on Thunderlane's back. "Don't worry. We'll find him," she said.
Slowly, Thunderlane untensed, nodding slowly. "Alright. Let's get out of here," he muttered. "I've seen enough."
Both twins nodded, and together the three of them took off up and through the ceiling.
The Doctor stumbled out into a dank and musty old passage. Behind him, he heard the transmat fizz and pop as it went abruptly offline. Positives: None of his pursuers could follow him. Negatives: He had no way out if this safehouse became dramatically less safe.
Safehouse. Good grief. If anyone had told the Doctor in the last millennium that he would ever call the House of Lungbarrow 'safe', he would have laughed in their face. Most recently, this would have been partly because the House itself had been utterly razed near the end of his seventh incarnation, but it had always been a ridiculous notion. This was the house where the Doctor had been raised as a child, for a given value of 'raised' and of 'child'. He'd had forty-four cousins in the house, and only one friend -- his mechanical tutor, Badger.
He took a few cautious steps out into the hallway. The floor creaked unpleasantly beneath his weight. After taking a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he realized that what he had mistaken for a misshapen rug up ahead was actually a huge lump of black mold, which he carefully skirted around, holding his breath all the while.
He made his way out into the vast atrium in the center of House Lungbarrow, where the gargantuan table and chairs stood, gradually being corroded by time, mold, and cobwebs. He was dwarfed by the size of them -- even if he'd wanted to, he doubted that he could have managed to climb atop one of the chairs. Their seats were easily four times his current height off the floor, and that was setting aside the question of whether, old as they were, they would still hold his weight.
However, the Doctor had no real desire to go up there, though he did vaguely wonder if old Quences' coffin still sat in the center of the vast table. The house, thankfully, appeared to be as devoid of Gallifreyan life as the rest of the planet. He turned to walk toward the back of the house, but nearly tripped over a figure lying in the dirt.
After a moment's panic, the Doctor realized that the figure didn't change his assessment of the amount of Gallifreyan life in the house. He was quite dead. It took the Doctor several seconds to work out who he had been in life. It wasn't easy. The chubby face now sagged with the weight of decay, the witless eyes had long since gone dark and staring, and of course, he had turned into a pony. However, the Doctor worked it out eventually.
"Cousin Owis," the Doctor muttered. "Of course. My replacement."
When the Doctor had been exiled from Lungbarrow, long ago, the family had attempted to erase the fact that he had ever existed there by looming a new Cousin, in order to bring their numbers back up to the requisite forty-five. This was quite illegal, and on a tip from the Doctor himself, had resulted in the entire house becoming disbarred from the Prydonian Chapter, a blow of enormous social and practical repercussions.
When the Doctor returned to Lungbarrow after some six or seven centuries had passed, Owis had been summarily destroyed by that murderous wretch Glospin.
The Doctor wasn't quite sure who was sending this message, but its meaning was clear. You are replaceable, it said. Expendable. You are a shallow copy, and you will be killed out of hatred for your very existence.
Well. When he thought of it like that, it was almost certainly the Valeyard leaving that message. Or, of course, it could be a warning from his subconscious, or an effect of his own guilt complex, or a particularly nasty twist on the part of his faux-companions designed to screw with his brain, which in turn could have been caused by any of the aforementioned parties.
That was the problem, rather. His mind was shattered and scattered. He was viewing the world through warped and broken lenses. He needed to start fresh, which wasn't a possibility in this hellscape of a decaying house.
He set Owis down again and went to move on. He paused in mid-step, reconsidered, and picked him back up. Even this illusory version of a dead cretin didn't deserve to rot in this miserable old place. He would carry Owis out to the back of the house, dig him as best a grave as he could manage, pay a few last respects. Only then would he set off up the mountain.
Mind, if he came across Glospin's body in the ruins of this place, he'd kick that bastard's corpse down the stairs.
In the end, the machine's construction only took about half an hour. Gilda grumbled quite a bit, but she was a diligent assistant, and the Doctor had been keeping far more scraps of alien tech in his shop than Romana thought was strictly prudent. The fact that he even owned a Monan Time Disruptor was almost criminally irresponsible, let alone the fact that he had simply left it shoved in a drawer in his workroom. On the other hoof, that particular device had saved her the labor of having to try and manufacture her own artron energy capacitor, which probably would have broken under the strain of what she was trying to do with this device, so she supposed that perhaps she ought not to complain.
The device itself was relatively compact, slightly larger than a breadbox if you didn't count the antenna. Gilda sat back and studied it. "Alright. So what's this thing gonna do now? Is it gonna fix the cracks? Slow em' down? Stop 'em in a bubble, like Star Girl's trying to do?"
Romana blew her bangs back from her eyes. "Something like that," she said grimly. "When I turn this on, everything in a five-mile radius will be put outside of space and time. The rift should be... more or less stable when it opens. Unfortunately, Ponyville will be cut off from the outside world."
"Until, I suppose, the machine breaks or gets turned off and the world gets turned inside out," Blueblood guessed, frowning.
"In so many words, yes," Romana said. "And while we're inside, there will be no backup to help us fight whatever comes through from the other side. Starlight? How long can you hold that spell?"
Starlight glanced up at the two sides of the rift. Golden cracks shimmered and rippled as they pushed against the blueish energy holding them back. "Thirty minutes until they collide," she said.
Romana nodded and turned to look at the others. "Go. Evacuate Ponyville and get yourselves outside the boundaries. I'll stay here and operate the machine."
Everypony glanced at one another. Fleur stepped forth. "I do not think it would be prudent to leave you undefended. Fancee and I will stay, as will the guards."
Blueblood sighed. "I suppose that goes for me as well. I came here looking for revenge. I haven't gotten it yet."
Granny spat on the ground, causing Blueblood to recoil. "Ah was here when this town got founded. Ah live here. Ah'll die here. But first, Ah'm gonna take out whatever bastard bin messin' with mah kin."
Gilda glanced up at the moon, thinking. "So... can I go for the eyes?"
"I strongly encourage it," Fleur said.
"Yeah. I'm in."
Romana frowned. "Oh... ridiculous. Fine. Go evacuate the rest of the town, then. If ponies wish to stay... well, I won't deny help will be useful. But make sure that they understand that if they stay, I cannot guarantee their survival. As a matter of fact, I think the odds of any of us lasting the night are slim verging on none. If any of you change your minds and choose to leave, I will think no less of you for it."
None of the assembled so much as flinched. Romana pursed her lips and shook her head. "So be it. Now go!" |
Ruler of Everything | Love and Monsters | Scootaloo and Ditzy stared at Shining Armor and Trixie for a long moment. Then all of them started talking at once.
"How did you escape?"
"How did you survive?"
"Where are the others?"
"Where's the Nightmare?"
"Are you alright?"
"Did the others make it out alive?"
"What happened to your legs? Why are your eyes so red?"
This continued for some time before they all settled down enough to start filling one another in on everything that had happened to them since the Nightmare's defenestration of the Crusaders. By the end of it, Shining Armor looked sickened. "They were turned into monsters and set on their own friends and families," he muttered. "Celestia. I thought being turned into a battery was bad..."
Trixie chewed at her lower lip, pondering. "You say the tomb couldn't have been behind you," she said. "That this is only the second story, yes?"
"Yeah," Dinky agreed. "Not that space means much in this building."
"Then we've been going the wrong direction all this time?" Shining asked.
Trixie frowned. "It seems so."
Dinky studied the hidden door to the secret passageway. "So this loops all around the tower," she said. "With hidden doors at regular intervals, I presume?"
Trixie nodded. "There are six on each level, and a pair of staircases leading up and down at the same point on each level."
"And the staircases are all the same length."
Trixie thought about this. "Well, Trixie assumes so. She didn't actually count the number of steps on each of them or anything."
"Um. I did," Shining said. "There were thirty-six every flight."
Trixie snorted. "Luna. You really are Twilight's brother, aren't you?"
Shining frowned. "As the older sibling, I prefer to think of her as being my sister, and we're definitely our parents' children."
"You realize that you're taking credit for your sister's ridiculous nerdiness, yes?" Trixie asked. "You're saying that you're a bigger nerd than Twilight Sparkle."
"Uh, I taught her to play Ogres and Oubliettes, so... yes."
Dinky was deep in thought. "How many flights did you go down?" she asked.
Trixie considered this. "...Seven," she said at last.
"And all of them were thirty-six stairs each," Dinky said, looking at Shining.
He nodded, then reconsidered. "Well, probably," he said conscientiously.
Dinky raised an eyebrow. "I lost count once," Shining said. "My mind must've wandered. But it looked the same as all the other staircases."
"Oh, you can't trust based on that," Scootaloo said. "Everything's a trick around here. How many flights up was it?"
Shining's lips moved, silently counting as he thought. "Four. Four flights of stairs ago."
Scootaloo looked at Dinky. "Let's check it out."
Dinky nodded, but then paused and glanced at the others. "Hey. Could one of you take Scootaloo? I'm starting to get kinda worn out."
Shining nodded, and Dinky levitated Scootaloo over onto his back. Then, lighting her horn, she reopened the secret passage and all four ponies trouped in.
A few minutes later, a pair of statues, their surfaces blackened and marred by lightning strikes, arrived on the scene, snarling. But they were too late. The doors had closed and their quarry had moved on.
Romana watched as the golden cracks in reality inched closer to meeting. Half an hour earlier, one would have to have craned their necks, looking from horizon to horizon to see both ends of the developing rift. Now you only needed to look straight up to see the glowing golden hairline cracks preparing to split open the sky, arching up and over everypony's heads like a rainbow, if rainbows were golden and fractured and ready to devour the world below. So, not really much like a rainbow if Romana was being honest.
Over the last twenty minutes or so, she had seen many Ponyvillians fleeing with their most prized possessions, desperate to make it out of town before it was sealed off from the world. Many -- but not all. As many as had chosen to leave, more had chosen to stay and defend their town from the onslaught, gathering around Romana to watch the sky rip itself in two. Many held pitchforks or two-by-fours or cast-iron skillets or whatever other improvised weaponry came to hoof. Overhead, the pegasi were rolling in a stormfront with lightning aimed at the center of the rift. Romana saw stranger defenses, too -- for instance, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia had brought some kind of massive amplifier on wheels that Vinyl referred to as her 'bass cannon'. Romana thought it bore more resemblance to certain medieval siege weapons.
She recognized almost all of the faces around her, and each one wore heavy on her conscience. It was a near certainty that all of them would die tonight, and equally likely that their deaths would be in vain. The Nightmare was a formidable and ruthless foe alone, but with the power of a TARDIS on its side, not to mention the Doctor...
Romana grit her teeth. Well. She'd done the impossible before. "Alright!" she called, struggling to be heard over the rumble of the crowd.
A hush fell over the crowd in a wave, rippling out from Romana. She breathed in deep and let it out slowly. "I'm going to activate the field now," she said. "If anypony wants to leave, now is your final chance."
Nopony said anything. Romana nodded and connected two wires together. The world flickered for a moment, and then all of central Ponyville and a good chunk of the surrounding landscape was encased in a shimmering violet bubble.
After a moment, Starlight stopped casting her time-slowing spell. The golden cracks started expanding at an exponential rate, the tearing of time and space now audible to the ponies below, a sound like ripping fabric and tearing metal all rolled into one.
Everypony watched as the two halves of the rift reached toward one another... and met.
It was rather anticlimactic, actually. There was no earth-shattering kaboom, no brilliant flash of light, not even a puff of smoke. There was just a rift, glowing golden against the swirling violet backdrop. As the crowd below watched, it split and began to widen.
The Doctor huffed and mopped the sweat from his brow as he patted the last shovelful of dirt down on Owis' grave. It was late in the evening now, and beginning to grow cooler. That didn't worry him much. Gallifreyan nights were much too warm to worry about anything like exposure. He stood for a long moment over the shallow grave he had dug for his replacement, trying to think of a few final words to say. He could find none. He had scarcely known Owis, really -- known of him, yes, but he had barely spent half an hour with the man before he had been killed.
The Doctor looked up at the sky, and at last found the words he was looking for. He turned his gaze back to Owis' grave and said, "Omega's teeth, but this was a miserable old house." He glanced up at the imposing edifice of Lungbarrow and continued softly, "At least we're both out of it now, eh? How'd that poem go? Move on, move under, said the undertaker."
He chuckled a little, his voice a little dry and hoarse, but it soon dwindled to nothing. He stared at Owis' grave. He could put it off no longer. Grudgingly, he turned to face the craggy face of Mount Lung. It was the highest peak on Gallifrey, and perhaps the most beautiful. It was, however, also the most confusing. It was known by many other names -- Mount Cadon, Mount Plutarch, Mount Rycadia -- and it was said that to call the mountain by a different name would be to climb a different mountain entirely.
The Doctor had had ample enough experience with the mountain to know that this was not metaphorical. He had climbed them all in his time -- and, occasionally out of his time. Today, though, he needed to climb Mount Lung and Mount Lung only. He trudged over to the base of the mountain and began picking his way up along the rocky path.
Behind him, the House of Lungbarrow was swallowed by thick mists that hadn't existed while the Doctor had been in his yard. This was entirely normal, and the Doctor didn't even glance back. Even if he had, he would never have been able to see the transmat blink back on, nor the grisly crew who appeared inside of it, walking in a single-file line out into the grim old house.
If he had seen them, had known how close his pursuers were, he wouldn't have stopped, or hidden, or even sped up. That would have defeated the purpose of the exercise. He was a child again, on the darkest day of his life so far, and he was climbing Mount Lung to visit the hermit.
Dinky stopped at the base of a pair of parallel flights of stairs. One went up. The other, the one that she had just stepped off of, went down. "This is the one where you lost count?" she asked, glancing back to look at Shining Armor.
He tilted his head, staring at the stairs. "Uh... yeah? I'm pretty sure it was, anyway."
"Right." Dinky said. "I'm going up one floor. The rest of you, stay here."
"Oh... kay," Trixie said, frowning.
Dinky trotted up the stairs. As the others watched, her hooves started to blur on the steps, as though they were moving faster than the rest of Dinky's body. Then she was gone.
Shining Armor's eyebrows shot up. "Interesting," he said.
"Dinky?" Scootaloo called. "Dinky, where are you?"
"I might ask you the same question," Dinky's voice said from directly overhead. "I lost count of the stairs, too. It seems that something is distorting space to keep us from reaching the floor in between where we're standing."
"So... we're on the right track, then," Trixie said. "We just have to figure out how to bypass the distortion."
"Easier said than done," Shining said. "This could be a complex system of interconnected spells designed to disorient and mislead any magic we use on it -- disentangling it all could take hours."
"Or we could walk up while Dinky walks down and stop when we meet in the middle," Scootaloo said.
"I-- er --" Shining Armor scratched the back of his head. "Okay, that might work, but -- well, there's a good chance -- the spell matrix just might not let us reach that floor at all."
"Worth a shot, though," Trixie said. "Dinky! Trixie is walking up now. Prepare to start walking down!"
"Alright!"
This time, as Trixie walked, Shining Armor and Scootaloo could see the same distortion on her hooves as they had seen with Dinky, but the effects seemed less obvious. Trixie's legs stretched like taffy, but they didn't blur, and Trixie successfully reached the top of the stairs to meet Dinky. There was a sharp snapping sound like a rubber band breaking, and everypony winced as their ears started ringing.
"What was that?" Scootaloo asked, shaking her head vigorously.
"Trixie thinks we broke something," Trixie said. "Whether it was the spell or some kind of tripwire or both, she cannot say."
Shining hurried up the steps to join them at the top. "Well, it certainly seems that the spell matrix was blown," he agreed. "But your point about possibly tripping some kind of alarm is well-founded. We should get away from here before the Nightmare or the Valeyard or whatever creature they've summoned as a guard dog comes to investigate."
Trixie nodded and opened the hidden door. "Come on. Everypony out."
They all hurried down the hall, leaving the door to click shut behind them. None of them noticed that the bust of Pandak turned its head as they walked away, its eyes glowing red.
The Interface paced the sepulchre, alone. The Valeyard had departed to search for the interloping Crusaders, leaving the Nightmare alone with the TARDIS and the rift, seething. The mathematics simply didn't work. It had calculated the power drain from the TARDIS. The box should have had far more energy left within, the Eye of Harmony refuelling itself over time for it to harvest again and again. Instead, the whole thing was teetering on the precipice of total collapse.
In a sudden surge of anger, it punched the blue box. A chunk of the exterior fell to the floor, revealing that the plasmic shell was rotting away. Inside, the silver cylinder that comprised the TARDIS's true form -- or at least as close to its true form as anyone could ever see -- was clearly tarnished. "What have you done?" the Nightmare hissed, steam rising from its jaw. "What have you hidden from me?"
There was a flicker of psychic energy from the TARDIS -- involuntary, which made the Interface's ears prick up. "Well well," it said. "You have been a naughty box, haven't you? Where have you put your power?"
For a long moment, all it got in response was golden light and static echoing through its mind. Then...
"Hi."
The voice was familiar, but it echoed and distorted through the Nightmare's head. "My name's Dinky. Well, not really, but that's what everyone calls me."
The Nightmare froze. No. It couldn't be.
"Please. I need help," Dinky's distant voice said.
IT WILL HAVE COME AT A PRICE, a voice in her head warned. WERE YOU WILLING TO BE PAYING IT?
The TARDIS seemed to laugh at the Nightmare. It saw the golden energy connect console and filly, filling the young Dinky Doo with a fraction of the TARDIS's energy, Gallifreyan equations and words writing themselves in the air in shining golden circles and lines.
Without even realizing it, Dinky absorbed the power that the Nightmare had set its sights on. "No!" it hissed. "No!"
The memory broke up, and the Nightmare fell heavily to the ground, mind reeling. After a few moments, it collected itself. This was fine. It now knew where the extraneous energy had gone. All that needed to be done now was to extract it, all the more easily done when the vessel was unsuspecting and defenseless. Soon, the power of a TARDIS would be the power of the Nightmare, and all time and space would suffer at its command.
It was quiet and still up near the top of the mountain. The Doctor sat in silent meditation, simply staring at a patch of earth in front of him, one where a scraggly, weedy-looking flower sat. He was smiling very slightly. He didn't stop when he heard the crunch of gravel coming up the path behind him. He didn't look around, either. "Hallo," he said. "Would you like to come and sit awhile?"
"What, with you?" It was distinctly Donna's voice, but if he listened closely, he could hear the buzzing undercurrent, nearly hidden behind the halo of humming golden energy that encircled her head. "I don't bloody think so."
"Don't worry, it won't take long. I want to tell you a story. Though, since you're all only projections of my worst fears and self-loathing, and therefore products of my mind, I suspect you already know it. Donna certainly does. Jo would as well, if she were here, but I'm content enough with how Jo left my life."
"Go on, then." Charley's voice this time, with enough of that same old teasing mock-weariness, those plummy tones, that perfect Charley-ness, to strike at the Doctor's heart. "Tell us your tale, old man."
The Doctor glanced up toward the sky. Both suns were setting now, and it had darkened to a deep shade of burnt umber. "When I was a child, growing up in this nasty old house, I bloody well hated everything," he said bluntly.
"Doctor! Language," Charley said, mock-scandalized.
He shrugged. "If I can't be brutally honest with myself --"
"You seldom are," Adric noted.
"Well, I'm working on it. Anyway, one day, I thought I might try and run away from home. I wasn't sure quite where I'd go, so I went up this mountain to talk with the hermit." He waved vaguely at the cave. "We had a hermit. I think he might've been a status symbol. Can't think of any other reason why old Quences would keep him around, not with Satthralope chewing his ear off about it every other week."
"Who?" Peri asked. "Those names sound ridiculous, and that's coming from someone named Perpugilliam."
"They suited their bearers rather well, then. Anyway, I went up the mountain and found the hermit. I only meant to ask him how I could become a hermit, but I ended up telling him all my troubles and fears, how I hated it in the miserable old House of Lungbarrow and loathed Gallifrey generally. I spilled my darkest secrets to him, and when I was done, he smiled at me. Pointed to this rubbish-looking little flower on the ground, hardly any more than a weed, and asked me if I thought it was beautiful. And the longer I looked at it, the more I thought it was -- it's a lovely shade of off-white, perfectly symmetrical, and so strong to be growing up here, in this harsh soil and chilly climate. The more I looked around, the more beauty I could see -- the smooth and bumpy surface of a rock, the glowing orange of an evening sky, the stars that shone so brightly on this isolated estate."
"But you know what happened next," Donna said coldly. "You grew up and you shattered this planet into atoms. No more hermit, no more flower, no more Time Lords."
"And yet here it is," the Doctor said. "Even here in my worst nightmare made solid, there's still that little flower."
"We'll see about that," Adric said, shoving the Doctor roughly out of the way and stamping the flower into the ground, scuffing it around until it was little more than a tangle of roots sticking out of the ground. "There. Story's over."
"Hm," the Doctor said noncommittally. "Is it? I still remember that little flower, and I can remember its beauty as well as the pain of you destroying it. Perhaps there's a lesson in that."
"Enough talk," Celestia growled. "Take him!"
The Doctor glanced up looked around the closing circle of shambling things, sizing them up one by one until his attention was snagged by a particular face. It was a withered, scruffy-looking thestral in a ripped jacket, carrying a broken guitar on his back. He wore the shattered remnants of a skull on his head, taken from a creature that had never existed. Even in this warped form, the Doctor recognized him immediately. He gave the creature an almost feral grin. "Hello, Fitz," he said. "What d'you reckon? One last kiss before I fall?"
Fitz lunged forward. The Doctor didn't flinch. Therefore, he was privileged to see what happened next. |
Ruler of Everything | The Eleventh Hour | The green was a surprise. No matter the era, Gallifrey had never, not once, been green. The rock was orange, the grass was red, the trees were silver, and the grand buildings of the great domed cities tended to be variations on brown, grey, and orange.
And yet, the Doctor lay on the vibrant green grass, breathing heavily as the remnants of an adrenaline rush washed away.
The stallion next to him shouldn't have been quite as big a surprise, given that he was the last thing that the Doctor had seen before he had arrived in the green. Of course, given that he was alive and well and whole again, the Doctor was a little confused, to say the least. Still, at least he could say it was a pleasant surprise.
He nudged his companion, who lay sleeping on the grass. "Oi. Fitz. Wake up!"
The batpony groaned and rolled over a little in his sleep. The Doctor nudged him a little more forcefully, and Fitz Kreiner, with one last growl, pushed himself up. He blinked. Glanced around. "Oh," he said. "That's nice, then. It worked. Whatever it was." He scratched his head. "Did you plan this?"
"Not as such. I thought... well, I thought I could forgive myself for what happened to you most easily. You turned out alright in the end, after all, for a given value of 'alright' and 'end'."
"Not to mention, a given value of 'Fitz'," Fitz cracked. He immediately regretted it as the Doctor winced. "Er. Sorry. You were saying?"
The Doctor nodded, visibly making an effort to repress his emotions again. "Aside from that, I've no idea. You were there too, do you know what happened?"
"Er..." Fitz considered this. "True love's kiss?"
The Doctor tilted his head. "I'm pretty sure you were going more for my jugular there, Fitz."
Fitz shrugged and picked up his guitar from where it leaned against a tree. "I've had worse makeout sessions," he said, absent-mindedly tuning it.
The Doctor nodded. "I can believe that, yeah."
Fitz moved on from tuning his guitar to warming up with a few chord progressions. "So. This is your mind, huh?"
"Technically, it's the collective consciousness of all Time Lords... but this bit seems to be pretty directly influenced by me, yeah."
"And so was that riot back there, then."
"...Yeah."
"You want to talk about it?"
"..." The Doctor's hackles rose at the very question. But he listened as Fitz began to play a melody. "Is that The Rainbow Connection?" he asked, surprised.
Fitz made a face. "So it is," he said, quickly changing over to Twist and Shout.
"No -- go back," the Doctor said. "I love that song."
Fitz looked at him for a moment, his face softening. He snorted a little. "You would," he said. "Alright. The Muppets it is."
The Doctor lay back on the grass. The soft blades, still a little dewy, tickled his ears. He didn't much care. He closed his eyes and let the gentle music sweep him away.
The Princess tossed her fiery mane and roared to the heavens. All around her, the City lay in shards of marble and ash and bone. The ceiling cracked open, letting in sunlight for the first time in centuries, and the walls tumbled down. The palace had become a courtyard.
Now that the walls had fallen, the Princess saw that there was one pony that hadn't fled deeper into the city. A short blue pegasus sat at a table, eyes shut. They were playing the spoons.
The Princess stormed over to them. "Why are you here?" she demanded.
The pegasus opened his eyes and considered this. "Do you mean that philosophically or geographically?"
She opened her mouth and coughed fire at them. The pegasus made a face and waved away the acrid smoke. "Ah. I see. A literalist. Well, I'm here because I don't have anywhere else I particularly want to be at the moment. What about you? Why are you here?"
"I am the Princess."
"And?"
"These are my lands."
"Ah. I like what you've done with the place. I thought it could use something of a more open-plan design when I came here, and I'm so glad to see you share the sentiment. Would you like to play a game of chess?"
The Princess reared back. "What... what is this?"
"Chess? It's a game. Half the pieces are red and half are white --"
"No. What is 'Would you like'? No one has said these words to me before."
"Ah. Well, Princess -- may I call you Princess?"
"No --" said the Princess, before realizing that was a very odd thing to say, given that she had always been called Princess. But now that she was thinking about it, she realized she didn't like it all that much as a name. "You may call me... Celestia. What am I to call you?"
"I go by many names," said the pegasus. "You may call me... hm. Chessmaster? No, that has rather unpleasant overtones. Mr. E is rather too punny. I'd say the Riddler, but he stole my aesthetic some time back, and I won't forgive that. What about... Ripple?"
"Ripple?" Celestia asked, taking a seat across from them. "Why Ripple?"
"The smallest things can have the most amazing consequences," said Ripple, pulling out a chessboard. "Influencing things long after the original cause is gone. But I apologize, I've gotten off topic. What I was offering you, Celestia, was a choice."
"A choice," Celestia repeated, tilting her head. "To play chess with you or not."
"Yes. Though of course, those are not your only options. You could roast me alive where I sit. You could knock over the table. You could suggest we play checkers instead, or go for a fly, or continue knocking down more of this city, or a thousand other things."
Celestia stared at the chessboard for a long moment, the red flames of her mane fizzling to orange, then yellow. "That all sounds nice," she said. "Or, well, parts of it did. Could I always have done these things?"
Ripple shrugged. "Perhaps. I find that it's best not to dwell too deeply or too long on what you could have done. Better by far to keep moving forward."
"I think I would like to free my city," Celestia said. "Later, after some of the dust has settled. For now... red or white, Ripple?"
The Mourner was surrounded by cold and wet and grey. She didn't care. She couldn't care. Not about the weather, or about the graves, or the ivy that was beginning to grow over her hooves and barrel and muzzle.
She observed a presence approaching from along the rows of gravestones. He was a gangling, tropical blue pegasus wearing a bright red fez and a matching bow tie. He seemed to be carrying a lot of sunflowers.
The Mourner ignored him. He, however, did not afford her the same courtesy. "Hallo," he said. "How are you today?"
She made no response. He didn't take the hint and sat down next to her. "I understand completely," he confided. "As it happens, I've been feeling much the same way myself."
This was a bridge too far. "You don't look like it," the Mourner muttered, snapping some of the ivy that had wrapped around her mouth.
"Well, perhaps not," the pegasus admitted. "My name's the Wizard, by the way."
"You can't be a wizard. You're not even a unicorn."
"And?"
The Mourner didn't have a good response to that. "Would you like to see my greatest spell?" the Wizard asked invitingly. "I think you might find it rather useful."
"There is no use," said the Mourner, spreading her wings irritably in an attempt to brush the irritating pegasus away, snapping more of the ivy in the process. "Everything comes to dust and rot."
The Wizard nodded, accepting this point. "True. But why rush the process?" he asked.
The Mourner studied him. "You're not going to leave until I look, are you?"
"Nope!"
She groaned and dragged herself upright, snapping the rest of the climbing ivy. "Fine. Show me."
He pranced ahead. She slogged behind. As they walked along, however, she noticed that the grass was drying out. The stones were getting better-kept and easier to read. And everywhere she looked, there were sunflowers, sprouting from the earth.
The Wizard looked back at her and grinned. "Impressed yet?" he called.
She looked around, bewildered. "Impressed with what?" she asked.
"My magic, of course! Look how I can take sorrow and turn it into beauty. I turn memories into a source of joy, not misery, and turn loss into love."
The Mourner pointed to a set of dying flowers. "Doesn't seem to be working over there."
The Wizard inspected the flowers and the graves they stood on. "Hm," he said, shaking the seeds off the flower and stomping them into the dirt. "Well, these things take time, of course, and a lot of effort."
She looked around. There were sunflowers out farther than the eye could see. "You must have lost a lot of ponies."
The Wizard's face fell. "Yes," he admitted. "I have."
"And you say you don't hurt at all?"
"Don't hurt at -- ?Of course I do, what nonsense."
"But you were just saying --"
"The pain and the love go arm in arm," said the Wizard. "But be gentle with Pain and welcoming with Love, and you can grow a magnificent garden. I see you've already picked up the knack."
"I -- what?" she turned around. A field of roses had sprung up behind her. Some were tall and hardy, others sick and withered. But they were growing and living and beautiful. "Oh," she said softly, running a hoof over a gravestone. "It's wonderful."
"Would you care to take a walk in the flowers with me?"
Cadance tilted her head at him. "Do you know," she said. "I think a walk with a friend is just what the Doctor ordered."
Sunset stared at herself herself herself herself herself herself over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, lost in the reflections and the apps and the feeds and the messages and --
"Miss Shimmer!" the Old Man thundered.
She sat bolt upright and glanced around. The Old Man tightened his grip on his lapel with one hand and his cane with the other. "Phones away in class, if you please."
"Right... sorry," Sunset muttered, quickly slipping her cell phone back into her bag.
The Old Man studied her for a few moments, his expression softening slightly. "I wonder, mm, Susan --"
"It's Sunset."
"Yes yes yes. I wonder if you might answer the next question for the class. Show that you've been paying attention, hm?"
Sunset swallowed. She felt a hundred faceless eyes on her. "Alright..." she said quietly.
The Old Man leaned forward on his cane. "Why is it," he said, "that you may never see your true face in a mirror?"
Sunset blinked. "Er... well, it's flipped, I guess."
The Old Man frowned. "Hrm. Well, there is that. Let me rephrase the question another way. Why can you never see yourself as you are right now in a mirror?"
Sunset blinked a couple of times. Then it clicked. "Because... it always takes a little while for the light to reflect off your face and into the mirror. Your reflection is always lagging a little bit behind."
The Old Man beamed, his monocle twinkling merrily. "Precisely! That's very good indeed, yes very good. Remember that you are not a reflection, my dear. You are in charge of your own destiny, and your past is not your future. Nor, indeed, is it your present."
"But..." Sunset faltered for a moment. "Everyone still defines me by my past. They think I haven't changed, even after all I've done. It's enough to make me want to go back to it -- I'm gonna get spat on either way. Why not embrace it?"
The Old Man's face had fallen. "Well?" he asked. "Why not, hm? Why not go back to being a destroyer of lives, a ruiner of friendships? What, pray tell, is stopping you?"
"I..." Sunset trailed off. "I don't want to be that person anymore. That's all."
The Old Man smiled. "Miss Shimmer. We all have terrible things in our past. Accidents..." he glanced at a pretty doll sitting on a high shelf. "... and things we did, mm... intentionally." His gaze fell on a large rock in the geology display, his smile evaporating.
"There are things that we have done which will haunt us for the rest of our lives," he continued. "But, my dear Susan -- Sunset -- we must strive every day to move on from our past, even if it can never be escaped."
Sunset nodded slowly. "This is a dream, isn't it?"
The Old Man nodded. "Indeed. What gave it away?"
Sunset glanced around. "Well, the fact that the classroom is empty was a pretty big clue. So's the fact that it's slowly turning into the TARDIS."
"Mm. So it is," the Old Man said, patting the console affectionately. "I see I've underestimated your psychic abilities, my dear. If you like, I could take you back to school -- you could give your dream a satisfying conclusion."
Sunset shook her head. "Nah. The premise was too contrived to be believable, honestly. If it wasn't a dream, it never would've happened. Let's blow this pop stand."
The Old Man smiled, and pulled a lever. "As you say, my dear. One Time Ram back to reality, coming right up."
Nightmare Moon laughed wickedly. She so often did that Luna barely paid any attention to what she was laughing about. It was some manner of prisoner that she had captured, a weary and grizzled unicorn, their face darkened by time and grime. "So," said Nightmare Moon. "You sought to overthrow me. How facile. How pointless. Did you not realize that even without me, the sun and moon still would not move in the sky? It would be a pointless victory."
The unicorn sighed. "Most victories are, in the end. Just look at you. You defeated Celestia. You killed the planet, half roasting in the endless heat and half starving in eternal night. I suppose that must make you very happy."
"You suppose correctly."
"But when it's all said and done, what will this victory give you? Another world dead, something to hang your hat on and hardly anything else. It's not like it wouldn't have died on its own anyway, in a few million years it all comes to much the same thing."
The Nightmare tilted her head. "Who are you to know so much of my motivations? Tell me your name, that it may be whispered as a cautionary tale through the cosmos."
The weary unicorn gave a slim smile. "Alas. If I ever had a name, I cannot recall it. I am Nopony."
Backtalk and flippancy, that was new. Luna's interest was aroused, and she peered through the Nightmare's eyes to get a better look at the prisoner. To her astonishment, she thought that in their weary eyes, she could see somepony looking back at her.
The Nightmare laughed. "Nopony indeed! Do you think me a foolish Polyphemus, O Ulysses? A beast to be fooled by wine and false names?"
She raised her voice mockingly. "Oh guards! Nopony is hurting me! Nopony is killing me!"
"Nopony can save you now," the Nameless One said. "Nopony remains. Nopony is keeping you distracted, and Nopony covets your eye, tyrant."
"You hope to take my eye?" Nightmare Moon chuckled, incredulous. "I'd vaporize you before you took your first step."
"Oh, undoubtedly. But Ulysses was famous for much more than blinding Polyphemus, you know. Off the top of my head... the Trojan Horse?"
Luna acted without thinking. She lowered her horn and struck out, stabbing at the slit-pupiled eye of Nightmare Moon and squeezing through the opening that was left behind. The Nightmare screamed, losing definition without a template off which to base its form. Before long, all that remained was a pool of black ichor and Luna, breathing heavily, covered in the stuff and with an eyeball stuck on her horn.
The Nameless One grimaced. "Nasty business," they observed. "Come have a roll in the snow, you'll feel better when it's all washed off."
Luna couldn't find it in herself to argue. Silently, she followed the unicorn out of the castle and into the world beyond. They stood, side by side, overlooking an immense snowy hill. She looked at the dour unicorn, with his weathered, grimy face and his cropped mane. They looked back at her, their expression stoic for a long moment. Then they grinned. "Last one to the bottom is a rotten egg!" They dove into the snow, sledding down on their belly.
After a moment of utter shock, Luna's competitive drive kicked in and she followed suit. It was exhilarating, the way the snow flew up around her in a great flurry, washing the sticky ichor from her as she flew, whooping, down the slope.
She reached the bottom and rose to her hooves. She stood with the Nameless One in a copse of pine trees. They too had been cleaned up by their snowy slide, and their mane seemed to have grown out. They smiled at her. "You may have some questions," they said.
"...I killed the world."
"Not quite. As I said, one half of the world is roasting, and the other half is freezing. However, there's quite a lot of middle territory, a kind of twilight zone, if you like, where life is doing rather well."
"I killed thousands."
"Well. Yes. You realize, of course, that this is all hypothetical, correct?"
Luna glanced at them sidelong. "A dream? Yes, I had gathered. If the Nightmare could have been so easily defeated as it was in the castle, I would have done so long ago. The point remains, however. I could at any moment backslide, lose myself to the corruption again."
"Ah. But that's the beauty of it, and the paradox," said the Nameless One. "Because you are afraid, you guard yourself. Because you might backslide, you won't."
"But if I let my guard down --"
"Then you can rely on your friends to protect you, rely on your sister to be there for you," the Nameless One interrupted. They smiled at her gently. "Our friends have always been the best of us, wouldn't you agree?"
Slowly, Luna nodded. "So. What happens now?" she asked.
With a childlike grin, the Nameless One looked up at her, their face illuminated by dawn's pale light. "I've no idea at all," he said. "But I think, you know, that it's going to be a lovely day."
"Hello?"
A shaft of light cut through the darkness. "I say, hello?"
The light fell on a series of stone carvings in the side of a tomb. A figure stepped into the room, a tall, silver-maned crystal pony in a long velvet cloak and ruffles. "Ah. There you are. I thought that you might enjoy some company. A little conversation, perhaps."
There was a long pause. "Well. You're not the one I was expecting," said a voice that seemed to come from everywhere. "The scarfy one, with the teeth and the goggle-eyes, I thought we really clicked."
"Oh, I don't know," said the Dandy. "We have more in common than you might think. We're both prisoners, though I'll admit, my remit stretched somewhat farther than your own does at the moment. We're both strangers in our worlds, we both like to irritate the authorities in any way imaginable."
There was a phantom chuckle in the dark and the Dandy grinned. "And of course, we both rather have a soft spot for sweet, plucky young adventurers who... oh, to put it politely, sand off some of our rougher edges."
"And to put it impolitely?" said the voice from everywhere.
The Dandy's grin widened. "They're fully prepared to wag their fingers in our faces and tell us when we're being bastards."
It was a phantom uproar this time. "Very true. Very true! Then tell me, Dandy -- you managed to escape your imprisonment, in time. How do I do the same?"
The Dandy smiled apologetically. "You'll think it's rather trite, I'm afraid."
"After this, anything would be novel," the voice said.
"Well -- alright. Your problem, my good entity, is that you always think that restraint and being trapped are one and the same thing. It's a matter of perspective, you see?"
"... No."
The Dandy tilted their head. "Imagine you're an omnipotent being."
"Gosh. How difficult. I don't know if I can."
"I have faith in you. Now imagine a pony, somepony you care about. Say, a pegasus mare with a fondness for animals."
"For instance."
"For instance. Now, imagine one day, you decided that you simply couldn't live without her, and you made her immortal, preserving her consciousness in a statue for all eternity."
"No."
"No?"
"I would never do that. Could never do that."
"You're omnipotent. Of course you could."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because -- because it would hurt her. She would hate me for it. I would hate me for it, for violating her consent and ruining her life because of my selfishness."
"That is restraint. You choose it. Imprisonment is out of your control."
"I see. So this is imprisonment."
"Yes. Of course, there's something to be said for imprisonment as well. It's all a matter of perspective."
"Now, I'm afraid you've lost me again."
The Dandy grinned and produced a large stick of dynamite from under their cloak. "If you're never imprisoned, you'll never experience the joys of a good old-fashioned jailbreak. Shall we?"
"It'll be... hard," Twilight admitted. "But I think that we can rebuild. We can make a life here, rebuild forgotten friendships and more... that is, if you want to. It might be... more painful for you."
Mac put a hoof on her shoulder. "With you by my side," she said. "Ah reckon Ah can face jus' 'bout anythin'."
There was a moment where they gazed into one another's eyes. Slowly, slowly, they began to move closer together, lips puckering, eyes drifting shut.
There was a slam and they sprung back. An unfamiliar earth pony mare was framed in the doorway of their bedroom. "Hi, yeah, sorry to barge in," she said, waving at them. "Glad you're not festerin' in misery or anythin' like that, you wouldn't believe some of these other dreams --"
"Dreams?" Mac repeated.
"Oh! Yeah. You're both asleep. This world was made up by the Nightmare to try an' corrupt Twilight into a vessel for its twisted desires, but Mac, brilliant mare that you are, stuck right by her side all this time! You helped stabilize one another, which as I said, lovely, but there is still rather a lot to sort out in the waking world. So, er. You're going to need to break out, I'm afraid."
She grinned at the pair, then faltered. "Sorry. Was I -- interrupting somethin'?"
"Er, nope!" Twilight said quickly.
"Wakin' up now," Mac said, squeezing her eyes shut tight and focusing on anything but the mortification of the moment that hadn't quite happened.
In the great sepulchre of Rassilon, unnoticed by anyone, the faces on the side of the casket began to crack. Just a hairline fissure here and there to begin with, little puffs of dust spraying off the surface, but they began to meet. Then they began to spread.
This went unnoticed by the Nightmare. Having accepted that it could do little about the problem of the TARDIS's missing energy aside from waiting for the vessel to show her face again, it had turned its attention to the other fly in its ointment. The rift onto Ponyville had opened, and it was irritatingly stable. In a fit of pique, the Nightmare had tried to intentionally destabilize it to rip the town into the void, but it hadn't worked.
Ponyville was sealed off from the world. Because of the connection via the rift, the Matrix was also sealed off from the world. Until whatever temporal chicanery had been done to Ponyville was deactivated, the Nightmare's sphere of influence would be contained to one dead planet and a hamlet full of talking horses. This was an insult that could not stand.
Its ears pricked up as he heard hooves clacking on the stone floor toward the tomb, too clear and too measured to be any of the escaped prisoners. "Valeyard," it said as the door swung open. "How soon could we mobilize to take control of Ponyville?"
"Define 'take control'," the Valeyard said, moving swiftly past the form of the interface.
"'Raze to the ground'? 'Annihilate'? 'Erase from history'?"
The Valeyard tutted. "You lack the subtle touch. If you destroy Ponyville, all our prisoners perish as well, and you know as well as I do how much use we can yet wring from them."
"Hmph." The Nightmare gazed down at the town. It was distorted by the shape of the rift, but the equine militia in the main square was clearly visible. "We cannot remain sealed off from the universe. Our plans would be useless in these conditions."
"I agree, of course, but there are more subtle ways of achieving our goals. They will take longer, naturally, but if there is one resource we have in abundance, it is time."
The Nightmare growled, but nodded in acquiescence. "A longer campaign, then, to retake control of the local time stream."
"I think that would be best, don't you agree? And if any in the town should try to fight back, well... we have no need of them as individuals."
The Nightmare smiled grimly. "Then let us prepare for slaughter."
The three pegasi drifted aimlessly through the tower. "Got to find Rumble," Thunderlane kept repeating at odd intervals, as though he was afraid he'd forget. This fear was not totally unfounded. All three could feel their minds growing foggier with each passing minute. It was already getting hard for them to remember where they had gone to school, or what their neighbors' faces looked like. It terrified Thunderlane to think that he might find Rumble and not even recognize him.
Not that there seemed to be much risk of finding anypony in these halls. They had been wandering for what felt like ages with no sign of life. "Should..." Flitter said hesitantly. "Should we head back?"
"Back?" Cloudchaser repeated. She blinked. "Oh yeah. We came from someplace else. Ponytown?"
"Got to find Rumble," Thunderlane said, his eyes hollow. "Can't go back now."
"... Okay," Flitter said. "We'll keep going."
They drifted on, trying to keep their focus. Cloudchaser stopped suddenly and squinted at something. "Hey... Hey! Do those things look familiar to you guys?"
Thunderlane scowled, following her gaze. "They're just statues," he said. "Ignore them."
Cloudchaser stared a moment longer, then shrugged and turned away. "Yeah. Probably nothing," she said.
The statues felt them go. They considered what they had sensed. All that potential energy felt absolutely delicious. As one, not looking at each other, Ditzy Doo and Fluttershy went into hunting stances as they went after their prey. |
Ruler of Everything | Listen | "Hey," Cloudchaser said. "Do you guys ever feel like you're being watched?"
"Not until you brought it up," Flitter said, glancing around skittishly.
"Guys, we're invisible ghost-things that haven't been born yet," Thunderlane said. "What could be watching us?"
Flitter looked over her shoulder. "Uh. Them?"
Thunderlane and Cloudchaser turned. "Flit... those are statues," Cloudchaser said flatly. "Y'know. The things famous for being inanimate objects?"
"They're statues I don't remember flying past..." Thunderlane said, frowning.
"I'm pretty sure those were the statues in that hallway we passed before," Flitter said, a note of fear in her voice.
"Don't be dumb, statues don't move," Cloudchaser said, floating closer to the pair. "Like I said, there's literally a figure of speech about how still these things are. Weird design, though. What's with the faces? It looks like they're wild --"
The lights flickered, and suddenly the statues were inches away from Cloudchaser's suddenly very pale face. "-- animals."
There was a pause. Then Flitter and Thunderlane raced down the hall. Cloudchaser, being a rather more lateral thinker, flew up through the ceiling and out on the next floor. "Follow me!" she bellowed. "You idiots! What do you have wings for if you're not going to use them?"
She chanced a glance back, sticking her head through the floor to look around. Her sister, Thunderlane, and both statues were gone. She felt a pit form in her stomach. "Aw, man. I got a bad feeling about this," she muttered, flying back into the corridor below and zipping off in the direction she'd last seen Flitter and Thunderlane flying.
Apple Bloom stumbled on the stairs. Rumble caught her around the barrel and steadied her. "You alright?" he asked.
She nodded, blinking rapidly. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, Ah'm alright. Jus' took a funny turn, is all. Felt like... Well, it felt like th' tower shifted."
Rumble furrowed his brow. "Dinky?" he asked.
"Well, not as extreme as all that," Bloom said. "More like... Ah dunno, like you think there's gonna be another step at the top of the stairs, but there ain't nothin there."
"You think it's another trick?"
Apple Bloom sucked in air through her teeth. "Dunno. But we can't stop."
Rumble sighed. "Yeah. True. Just keep your eyes peeled, I guess."
"Ain't gotta tell me twice."
They continued down the stairs, glancing around warily, until they eventually came to a landing. On that landing was a massive set of double doors. Both Apple Bloom and Rumble took a step toward it, then stopped, looking at one another.
"I'll open it, you be ready to pull me back?" Rumble asked.
"Sounds like a plan." Bloom stepped back and planted her hooves. "Go for it."
Rumble bit down on one of the handles and pulled it open slowly, bracing for whatever might be on the other side. There was a long silence. "Looks like a hallway," Bloom noted.
"...Could still be a trick," Rumble said.
"You fly through, Ah'll grab yer tail."
Rumble nodded, pushing one door all the way open against a wall before taking to the air. Apple Bloom grabbed his tail in her teeth and let him fly out into the hallway beyond, holding him like a kite.
He looked around and landed on the ground. "Seems safe enough..." he muttered, stomping a few times.
Then something came around the corner. Rumble screamed. Apple Bloom screamed, voice muffled by the tail. Four other voices also screamed. There was a long silence.
"Uh... hey, Bloom?" Scootaloo asked. "What are you doing with Rumble's tail?"
Apple Bloom quickly spit it out, wiping the hairs from her tongue. "Jus'... bein' cautious."
"Uh. Okay?"
Rumble nodded at Shining Armor and Trixie. "Where'd you pick them up?"
Shining relayed once more an abridged summary of their escape from the magic-draining room and how they had all arrived on this floor. The others kept a weather eye out, looking up and down the hall for dangers.
"So... you broke some kinda magic field that keeps folk from reachin' this floor?" Bloom asked, rubbing her chin. "Must be what Ah felt comin' down th' stairs. Guess this is where we wanna be, then."
"We're where we want to be, but not with who we want to be with," Scootaloo said.
Trixie scowled. "Hey!"
"She just means we're two Crusaders short," Rumble said. "We're glad to have you on our team as well."
"Oh." Trixie preened slightly, her dignity restored. "Well, that's different, Trixie supposes."
There was a sudden clamor from downstairs and everypony froze, staring down into the dimly-lit stairwell as far as they could, before the steps curved out of sight. "Do you think that's them?" Shining hissed.
"Maybe," Rumble muttered. "Or maybe it's some new horror that's going to try and eat us all."
Dinky tilted her head thoughtfully. "Could be both."
They all looked down the stairs, watching and waiting intently. Finally, two figures rounded the corner, one tall, one short. When the pair saw who was waiting at the landing, they broke into smiles and into a run. Button grabbed Dinky in a tight hug, while Sweetie practically tackled Rumble to the ground, both chattering excitedly about the things they'd faced on their way up.
Trixie and Shining both grinned as the Crusaders reunited at last.
"You know," Celestia said. "When Ditzy came to visit us this morning, I was prepared to accept that this day could go a lot of different ways." She attempted to shake her head, crumbling a little more of the rock around her. "I will admit that this was not on the list."
Discord opened their mouth, paused, and admitted, "Okay, I was going to say that I totally saw this coming, but honestly? No."
"So... how do we get out of here?" Twilight asked.
All of the imprisoned immortals (and Big Mac) had awoken with their faces sticking out of the stone. The rest of their bodies, on the other hoof? Not so much.
Discord grunted. "Hold on. If I can figure out where my fingers are, I should be able to snap us out of it."
"At least the Valeyard and the Nightmare are gone," Sunset noted, glancing around as much as she could. "Uh. The big golden rift is new."
There was a distant but distinct sound of snapping talons, and the entire side of the coffin slid out like a drawer, releasing the imprisoned creatures. Discord stretched. "Ahhh, much better," they said.
"Um," said Twilight. "You want to try this again?"
"Hm?" Discord glanced around. Mac's head had been supplanted onto Celestia's body. Sunset and Luna had switched faces. Cadance's pink face was stuck on Twilight's short body, Twilight was blushing hard enough to almost match the color of the muscular farmhorse body to which her head had become attached, and Celestia gangled over everypony else, trying to keep track of Discord's various mismatched limbs.
Discord themself glanced down at their own pink hooves and frowned. "A-huh. Celestia, could you possibly..."
The princess looked at the draconequus's paw, frowning. After a couple failed attempts, she finally managed to snap her fingers. In a flash, everypony's head was back where it belonged.
"That's a relief," Luna grumbled. "We had forgotten how unpleasant it was to be short."
"Excuse me?" Sunset said, scowling. "I'm a perfectly normal pony height. Just because you've got legs like beanpoles..."
"Ignore her," Celestia said, shaking the pins and needles out of her hooves. "She's developed something of a Neighpoleon complex over the years."
Cadance looked around the room. "Well, it seems like we're out of the frying pan," she noted. "But how long until we're into the fire?"
Discord grinned nastily. "Oh, Cady. Didn't you notice? I've got my powers back. No more cantrips for me, thank you very much. The Nightmare won't know what hit it."
Mac frowned. "Uh. Reckon we're still missin' somepony, y'all."
Luna tilted her head and did a quick count. "Nay, fair Mac, you are mistaken. Four alicorns, two draconocci, one earth pony."
"But zero Time Lords," Mac said. "Look."
They all did. The petrified form of the Doctor lay atop the tomb, eyes shut. "Not a problem," Discord said with a confidence they didn't really feel. "I'll have him out of there in a jiffy."
They snapped their fingers. Nothing happened. They tried again and again, clicking fingers on paw and talon alike, but the Doctor remained immobile. At last, the chaos god threw their hands in the air. "Alright, fine, be that way," they grumbled. "At least you're less likely to get into trouble in there."
Celestia's mouth was a grim line. "I saw them in there. We all did, didn't we? Before we escaped?"
Several subdued head nods were the sole response. Celestia shut her eyes and chuckled bitterly. "For a moment -- just a moment -- I thought that the Doctor had come to our rescue once again. What was I thinking? They can't even let themself be saved."
Luna reached out a hoof but hesitated at the last moment. Celestia shook her head. "What was I thinking?" she murmured.
After a long pause, her eyes snapped open. "Right. Battle stations, everypony, let's move."
She started herding the others around the room. Quietly, Luna wondered whether the Doctor had taught Celestia more than they had ever intended to...
None of them knew how long they had been walking. Time lacked meaning here. It was reflected back and forth across realities into infinity. All of them were starting to blur together now, enough to start distorting even Applejack's sense of reality. Once or twice they had stumbled on a mirror that looked perfect -- up until Pinkie grinned at herself and they saw her reflection's many sharp teeth.
Applejack chose to take the fact that the mirrors were getting closer to the truth as a good sign -- surely that meant they were approaching the truth. But at the same time, it was all making her head start to spin. She wasn't sure that she could discern such fine differences. And then the other Applejacks started disappearing. It wasn't an occasional thing. For five, ten, fifteen mirrors in a row, she simply wasn't there.
"The other Applejacks," she murmured. "Th' ones that Nightmare killed getting to me..."
Spike put a claw on her shoulder. "You gonna be okay?"
Applejack pursed her lips. "Eventually, yep. Right now, though... let's just keep goin'. We're gettin' close. Ah can tell."
There were ever more branching paths. Applejack didn't even stop to think about them. She just walked, Pinkie and Spike trailing behind her, nervously watching until she found it. The center of the maze. It was a fairly large intersection with paths that branched off from it every which way. Most of the mirrors didn't face directly in on the area, merely lining the many angled paths that led to the theoretical infinity of possible reflections that comprised this place. Only three faced the center. Two were in constant flux, shifting through different images. The third was stable, a perfect reflection.
Applejack pointed at the mirror that depicted a shifting array of orange fillies. "Past."
She pointed at the other fluctuating mirror, which was also shifting into a variety of more worn and wrinkled Applejacks. "Future."
With a big grin, she pointed at the final reflection. "Present. Let's go, y'all."
Spike studied the future mirror. "Huh," he said. "I sure get big."
Pinkie bounced over to join him. "Hee! Look at how crazy my mane gets!" she said happily. Then she paused. "Huh. Where'd Applejack go?"
"Hm?" Applejack glanced back. Sure enough, she wasn't in the mirror. "Huh. Well, Ah s'pose Ah can't exactly expect to be around as long as ol' Spike, can Ah?"
Pinkie nibbled her lower lip. "Well... no... but... I'm still there."
"Oh. Well, congrats, Ah guess, on yer longevity?"
"... You've been gone for awhile, Jackie."
Applejack frowned. "... Seems yer tryin' to tell me somethin', Pinkie."
"I'm sure it's nothing," Spike said hastily. "Maybe Pinkie turns into a chaos goddess or something and gets to live forever."
Applejack could taste the lie in the air. Frowning, she trotted over to sit in front of the future mirror. Her image flickered like a ghost as the timeline bounced back and forth. She was hardly there compared to the other two. The oldest version she could see of herself seemed barely more than a decade older than she was now.
"Oh," said Applejack quietly. "Ah see."
Beside her in the mirror, she could see Pinkie's lined face twist as the mare cringed. "Maybe... maybe it's wrong?" she asked tentatively.
Applejack shook her head. "It ain't. It's tellin' th' truth."
"...I'm sorry," Spike said.
Applejack nodded. "Well. Ah got plenty of time left, yet. Who knows? Maybe th' future can change. Maybe it ain't set in stone. Tartarus! If it can't be changed, 'least it says we all make it through this one alive, don't it?"
"Y- yeah," Pinkie said slowly. "That's true..."
Applejack scowled and turned from the mirror. "Can't put too much stock in that kinda thing," she said firmly, walking away. "Th' future ain't certain. Th' past ain't clear. Only thing you can ever know fer sure..."
She turned back toward the others, facing away from the third mirror. "... is th' here an' now."
She reeled back and bucked for all she was worth. The world vibrated like a gong, sending all three staggering as the hall of mirrors shattered around them
The Doctor awoke slowly. Fitz had stopped playing guitar at some point and was now resting against a tree, eyes shut. He wasn't asleep -- the Doctor could tell that just by the speed of his breathing. But he seemed to be at peace. The Doctor rose and stretched. He felt... he felt pretty good, actually. Or, no. He felt the absence of the terrible, bone-crushing dread that had been weighing on him for centuries. And really, it wasn't even that so much as it was the pressure relieving slightly.
But for a starving man, a slice of bread is a feast. The Doctor rolled over and rose to his hooves. Fitz cracked open an eye. "Morning," he said.
"Possibly," the Doctor said.
Fitz made the face he always did when the Doctor had jumped several sentences ahead in the conversation, or possibly jumped the rails entirely. "Come again?"
"Possibly it's morning. Could be afternoon, evening, midnight."
Fitz glanced around. The world was bright and colorful. "Nice weather for midnight."
"Not really. I find they're better by moonlight. Of course, there's not much chance of that in here. Nor sunlight for that matter."
Fitz struggled to arrange his face into a convincing facsimile of intelligent comprehension. He failed miserably.
The Doctor gestured up at the sky. "Do you notice something missing, Fitz?"
Fitz glanced up. "Um. It's blue. Got clouds. Looks pretty... sky-like. No birds, I s'pose."
"The sun, Fitz. There's no sun."
"Hm?" Fitz glanced around. "Oh. You meant the obvious answer. Well, yeah, no sun, lots of light, only one conclusion really."
"Mmm," the Doctor agreed. "Yeah."
Fitz waited expectantly. The Doctor merely studied the clouds a moment longer. "Right then. We'd best be off."
"Oh," said Fitz. "Off where?"
The Doctor looked at him, surprised. "To the edges of the simulation, of course."
"Simulation," Fitz repeated.
The Doctor tilted his head. "Are you feeling alright, Fitz? You seemed fine with the concept a moment ago."
"Oh yeah. Yeah. Simulation. That's er, that's what they call a virtual reality?"
The Doctor nodded.
Fitz chewed this over. "Am... I a part of the simulation?"
"Welllll..." the Doctor said. "Yeah, basically. Only trouble is, we have to work out which level of the simulation you're on."
"Eh?"
The Doctor sat down and started to count off. "The Dark Tower and the Death Zone was definitely a simulation. The ruins of Gallifrey were a simulation inside that, and this might be a third level down or possibly a reset of the ruins simulation. So you're either a second- or third- layer simulation, probably, unless you exist independently of the rest of this particular realm, in which case you're either a first- or fourth-layer."
Fitz considered this. "God, my head hurts." He fished around in his jacket and pulled out a cigarette and lighter. He clicked it a couple times before successfully lighting up. "'M not even going to ask how I did that with hooves," he said. "What you're saying is... this is like that thing the Faction did? With the clones? And every copy got a little less like me, right, until Father Kreiner came out the other side."
The Doctor smiled. "Well done, Fitz."
"I was right?"
"No. You were wrong in practically every particular."
"Oh."
"But you didn't try to kill me as soon as I said you were a simulation, so I think we can assume that you're probably not here as an agent, witting or otherwise, of the Nightmare."
"Oh." Fitz considered this. "Good. Should we carry on with business as usual, then?"
"How do you mean?"
Fitz shrugged. "We start wandering around waiting for some great horrible thing to try and eat us."
The Doctor grinned. "Why mess with a winning formula? Allons-y!"
Cloudchaser floated down the hallway, consumed by nerves. If those statues could see them in their timeless forms, what else could they do? Those teeth they'd had were needle-sharp, and from the looks on their faces, the pegasus statues had been eager to use them. "Flitter?" she called, trying to keep the fear from her voice and failing miserably. "Thunderlane?"
No response. Cloudchaser glanced around the hall. No doubt the statues could hear her, too. Oh, Celestia -- what if her sister and Thunderlane were dead? Could they die? Could a statue kill? She didn't doubt for a moment that the answer to the second question was a resounding 'yes', but the first was still very much up in the air. It was the only thing giving her any shred of hope about the situation, too -- if those two idiots were anything less than immortal, they were dead, no question. Survival instincts of a toothpick, the pair of them.
Her irritation couldn't fully mask her mounting dread. It wasn't just that her friends -- her family -- might already be dead. It wasn't just that that would mean that she would be alone in this terrible, timeless state, locked away from everypony else by time itself. It was that her memories were fading. Without them there to remind her, how long would it be before she forgot Thunderlane? How long would it be before she forgot her own twin sister? How long would it be before she couldn't remember who she herself was?
This was enough to make her throw caution to the winds. "FLITTER!" she screamed. "THUNDERLANE! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?"
There was a long and terrible silence. Then, out of the darkness, a faint voice called.
"Cloudchaser?"
Cloudchaser's heart no longer beat in any meaningful way, but it stopped nonetheless. Then she zipped forward. "Flitter! Oh, thank Celestia you're alright!"
"Cloudchaser? Where are you?"
"I'm coming, Flit! I'm coming!"
Out of the darkness, a smudge of lilac, a hint of mint, and a big magenta bow. Cloudchaser spread her hooves wide to tackle her sister in midair.
She went right through her and out the other side, zooming down the corridor for several more seconds before realizing that something was wrong.
"Cloudchaser?" Flitter glanced around, her eyes skimming right over her sister. "Where are you?"
Cloudchaser blinked several times. Flitter had aged -- become physically solid once more. Had the statues done that somehow?
Flitter's shoulders slumped. "Must've been my imagination," she said sadly.
Cloudchaser took a moment to regain her cool before floating over to her sister. It wouldn't do to come back weeping and frantic. She had an image to maintain. Once she had calmed down enough, she moved through Flitter. "'Sup," she said.
Flitter jumped what must have been six feet in the air. "Cloudchaser?" she asked as soon as she'd gotten her breath back.
"You were expecting maybe Shirley MacMane?"
"... You know, you're not half as funny as you think you are."
"Yeah, I know."
"...You do?"
"Sure. I'm twice as funny."
Flitter rolled her eyes. "And eight times as humble. Alright. Let's get back to the others."
"...Others? As in, more than Thunderlane?"
"Wait and see."
Cloudchaser could get no more out of her sister as they flew through the corridors. Eventually, they came upon three figures sitting on the floor, one in the center with the other two draped on his sides, weeping. Thunderlane, for it was he who was in the middle, was himself struggling to keep from breaking down in tears.
"Jeez," said Cloudchaser, zipping over to talk in Thunderlane's head. "What happened?"
"I'm a sympathetic crier," he muttered back.
"Yeah, no shit. But like -- I don't even know where to start. How are you alive again? Where did the statues go? Why are Fluttershy and Ditzy crying?"
"Well --" Thunderlane began.
"Snf. Cloudchaser? Is that you?" Ditzy whispered, her voice hoarse.
Cloudchaser glanced around. Her body was intersecting with all three of the pegasi in the pile. She hadn't really noticed. "Uh... yeah."
"Well. It's like this. We got turned into horrible monsters that fed on potential futures, killing creatures by sending them back in time to let them live out their lives."
"Okay."
"When we touched Thunderlane and Flitter, as they hadn't actually been born yet and theoretically, never would be, we managed to cancel one another out."
"Cool."
"And we're crying because --" Ditzy stopped, choked up. "We -- we --"
"We would have killed the-e-e-em!" Fluttershy bawled. "I was, I was so hungry, and they were so young, they would have lasted so long..."
"They met Dinky and Scootaloo," Thunderlane said quietly.
Cloudchaser's heart stopped. "But... they're alright?"
"No thanks to us," Ditzy said miserably, tucking her wings around herself in a tight hug. "I -- I knew she was my daughter, but I didn't care. I was empty. I was so, so empty..." She trailed off, her eyes hollow and dark.
"So, um," Cloudchaser said. She was really not cut out for this kind of situation. "I... look, not to seem insensitive or anything, but the longer I stay like this the more of my memories I lose, so is there another way I can get back to reality or whatever this place is?"
There was a long pause. "Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said with finality. "She's still trapped. We'll lead you to her, and then..." she trailed off.
"And then we're going to tear the Nightmare apart, gear by gear," Ditzy said. Her voice was soft, but the rage behind it was as cold and bleak as the outer reaches of space. She pushed herself up and made her way down the hall, not looking to see if the others would follow.
The return of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike had been an unexpected event, but certainly not an unwelcome one. Big Macintosh and Twilight galloped to embrace their lost siblings, and all of them were embraced in turn by Pinkie Pie.
Celestia stamped the floor to attract everypony's attention. "Applejack. Pinkie Pie. Spike," she said shortly. "Welcome back. May I suggest that you start running? Macintosh, that goes for you as well, I fear."
Applejack frowned. "Er, come again?"
Twilight looked at her. "We're going to fight the Nightmare," she said simply. "You don't want to get caught in the crossfire."
"Uh," Spike said. "Hey. Huge magic-breathing dragon, here? I can --"
"Spike," Cadance said. "You're hard to kill, but not that hard to kill. If you try to fight at our side, I can almost guarantee that you'll die. I can't -- I won't have that on my conscience."
"Keep the others safe," Sunset said, her face stoic.
"Excuse me?" Applejack said frowning. A quick glare from Twilight made her zip her lip.
Spike took a step back and rubbed his forehead. "...Alright," he said quietly. He looked down at Twilight. "If you die, I'll never speak to you again," he said firmly.
She gave a weak chuckle. "Understood."
Spike glanced around the room. "That goes for all of you," he said warningly, wagging a finger at all of them. "Stay safe. Please."
"Dying, dear Spike, is the very last thing we shall do," Luna said wryly.
Spike threw up his claws. "Don't say shit like that! Now it's gonna happen! Forget it, I'm stay--"
Discord snapped their talons. Spike and all three earth ponies vanished in puffs of smoke that smelled like spaghetti sauce. Discord stared sadly at the empty spaces where they had stood before lowering their hand. "Right. Let's get set up," they muttered, turning away quickly.
After a pause, the others set to work in silence, preparing their ambush.
"I'm telling you, there are more important matters than finding the Doctor's whelp," the Valeyard grumbled.
"She is the key to everything," the Nightmare said in response, walking at his side. "She holds the last piece of the power. Without it, I am incomplete -- worse, I am unstable. The power of a dying star lies within me, but if I use it overmuch it will rip through me and destroy only the merest fraction of what I aim to."
The Valeyard thought something quite rude about the Nightmare's stability at even the best of times. "Yes, but we have her, at least in a sense. We may not be able to drain the power out of her, but she's in our world, and there's no escape, not for her."
The Nightmare mulled this over. "There may be something in what you say," it admitted begrudgingly.
"Of course there is. Now, will you let me depart to take what is mine? Once I supplant the Doctor in reality, I can destroy the resistance in Ponyville, tear down the barriers that constrain our great vision of the cosmos, eating them alive from the inside out."
The Interface had no tongue to speak of. Nevertheless, the Valeyard could swear that the machine licked its lips at his words. Time to go for the kill. "Perhaps," he said, "the opportunity might even arrive for me to drain the girl of her power on the other side of the divide -- she is asleep, defenseless. It would take but a few moments, and then the power you seek would be obliged to return to its home."
"...Very well," the Nightmare said. "I doubt I would need your help here any further. You would be of little use in apprehending the escaped prisoners, and everything else has fallen under my control." It opened the door to the tomb and barely blocked a scorching ray of arcane might. Face darkened with ash, it looked in astonishment as the six gods glared at their former jailors.
The Valeyard glowered. "You know, you really set yourself up for this."
Then, all fell to sound and fury. |
Ruler of Everything | Ghost Monument | Fitz stared at the Doctor, all sharp edges and gob. He had long since come to terms with fancying blokes, especially blokes who talked a mile a minute, who had great hair and no fashion sense, who were named 'the Doctor', and who had, frankly, great bums. The horse thing was a bit more worrying, but since Fitz was also some kind of horse with bat wings, he figured that was basically alright.
The Doctor hadn't stopped chattering since they'd set off, telling Fitz about everything he'd missed since his departure and the weird things in the simulation around them, and how nice it was to see his old friend again. Fitz, as usual, caught only half of the words being said, of which he understood perhaps two-thirds as individuals, of which, in turn, he could string maybe three-quarters into phrases that made some manner of sense, for a total listening comprehension of 'holy fuck, this big dumb genius horse is hot'.
"...anyway, that's why I hate pears now," the Doctor concluded. "Ah, but look at me mammering on! How've you been, Fitz?"
"Er," said Fitz. "Well. I basically haven't, I think."
The Doctor frowned. "Eh?"
"I mean, I'm only a product of your mind," Fitz pointed out. "Last thing I remember is the last time I saw you. I can't even properly remember when that is, which I personally think is fairly compelling proof, right?"
The Doctor's face had fallen as Fitz had been talking. "Oh," he said flatly. "Right. Stupid of me, really."
"Well," Fitz said hurriedly, "I mean, nice of you to ask and all, I didn't mean to upset you or anything."
"No, no," said the Doctor. "You're alright, Fitz. I just... I haven't been thinking straight. Not for a very long time, as it happens."
Fitz looked at him dubiously. "Have you ever?"
The Doctor chuckled at that. "No, I suppose not. But it used to be fun, thinking at right angles to everyone else, folding my thoughts into paper airplanes and letting them loose, turning in corkscrews of rhetoric... Now it's all barbed wire and twisted metal."
Fitz said nothing. He couldn't think of any response to that, not really. Instead he reached out and put a hoof on the Doctor's back. The Doctor didn't say anything either, but he did relax a little at the touch. Fitz could remember Sam, back when she had been traveling with them, had commented that the Doctor would turn into an absolute kitty-cat as soon as you started giving him a backrub. Fitz had never worked out if that was something to do with alien biology or if the Doctor was just that starved for touch. Given the way the Time Lord was given to unexpectedly kissing his friends, Fitz was rather inclined to plump for the latter.
"Doc... mate... are you alright?" he asked.
The Doctor paused. Shook his head.
"...How bad is it?"
"You were there when I destroyed Gallifrey," the Doctor said wearily. "The first time, anyway."
Fitz's eyebrows shot up. "The first time?"
"Mm, yeah," the Doctor said. "Really, I think that about says it all."
There was a long silence. "...How many..."
"Destroyed by me personally, or in general?"
"Christ, Doc."
The Doctor huffed. "It was getting out of hand. The Enemy had become the Yssgaroth, the Vampires, the Master and Lolita, Time Lords from one of the Nine Gallifreys' Nine Gallifreys down the long end of the probability axis, even the bloody Daleks. Daleks with technology to rival the Time Lords. Daleks who'd retroactively been the Enemy all along, in the maze of alternate histories and the ever-shrinking number of futures that the War had become. The fabric of the universe was tearing itself apart. You saw what happened to me when my history came under attack?"
"Which time?"
"Exactly. Apply that to the universe, and increase that by a factor of about five or so."
Fitz tried to imagine that, but couldn't quite grasp the scale of it.
The Doctor pursed his lips. "Alright. Imagine San Francisco, but everywhere."
Fitz whistled low. "So you ended it."
"Permanently, I thought. I tried to send them all to hell, fighting forever in a Time Lock, like a bagful of cats. But no. Gallifrey's gone, the Enemy is... probably gone, but the Time Lords and the Daleks remain in some bare dregs. And I killed so many, Fitz."
He sighed, put his head in his hooves. "It was never meant to happen like this. None of it. Sometimes it seems like everything I touch withers and dies."
Fitz wasn't sure what to say to that, either. This Doctor felt much more tired than his had been, much more ground down by the universe. Still, a therapy session, even one with Fitz as a completely-out-of-his-depth therapist, was better than the usual constant peril of how his adventures with the Doctor usually went.
Of course, it was at that moment when something large, scaly, and sharp launched itself out of the foliage and sent both of them flying.
It was no longer a question of finding the tomb. That was altogether too easy. Approaching that miserable sepulcher, on the other hoof, was a rather more difficult affair. The air crackled with arcane force, the underlying power of reality itself brought to bear on this virtual realm. The structure of the tower had moved around often enough before, as the Crusaders and their compatriots were all well aware. Now, though, the corridor was glitching and crackling like a broken video game, as Button Mash commented.
"I'm not sure what the biggest problem is," Shining said. "The way the door keeps teleporting all over the wall, the way the floor looks... really unstable, or --"
A ray of brilliant silver light clipped through the wall, illuminating the hall and lowering the temperature about ten degrees. "Or that?" Apple Bloom asked. "'Cause, Ah'm just gonna say it -- it's that."
"Unless the place the floor leads is just some kind of infinite void like you get in some games," Scootaloo pointed out. "Then you're just falling forever, probably."
Trixie tapped her hooves together. "Trixie means... not to sound cowardly, but this probably means that all of the alicorns and draconocci are fighting the Nightmare now, yes? We are all agreed on this? Trixie does not think that any of us would be anything other than a liability going in there."
Shining Armor looked to be having a deep internal struggle. "I mean -- you know --" He shut his eyes. "Twiley's in there. And Cady. If they get hurt or -- die, or -- I nearly lost Twilight once today already."
Trixie nodded. "Trixie understands that. Twilight is Trixie's friend, too, and Sunset is... well, more than that. But there are other considerations."
Shining glanced at her. Trixie inclined her horn subtly at the Crusaders.
Shining tightened his jaw and nodded. "Alright. Everypony, back the way we came. They don't need our help in there..."
"But She does," Dinky said.
Everypony looked at her. Dinky put a hoof to her forehead, wincing and closing her eyes tight. "The voices again," she muttered. "The countdown, the nursery rhyme, and now the cry for help..."
Shining looked at the other Crusaders. "What's she talking about?"
Rumble mulled over his response for a moment. "She's been getting messages in her head all day, helping us along. It led us to temporal anomalies in Ponyville, showed us the way into the Tower, but we don't know who -- if it is a who -- was responsible for sending them."
"A who," Dinky repeated, her brow furrowing. "And a what. And a where-when, a how... and sometimes why."
Sweetie Belle took one of Dinky's hooves in hers. The other unicorn jerked back for a moment before settling into the contact. "Do you know where the messages are coming from?" Sweetie asked softly.
"Yes -- no -- complicated," Dinky grunted. "Something inside... it shattered, and there's a piece lodged in my heart..."
"What's it a piece of?" Sweetie asked.
Dinky shook her head. "Power. Unimaginable power."
"Where is it from?"
Dinky shuddered, her whole body shaking, feeling almost feverish with chills. Then her eyes popped open, flashing with golden light, her mane frizzing and glowing with the corona of a dying star. "TARDIS," she said.
Everypony stared as the aura of power faded from her. She clutched at her forehead for several seconds after it passed. "We have to get in there," she said firmly. "Or at least --"
She glanced around. Softened. "I have to get in there. To try. There's no need for any of the rest of you to risk your lives."
She ignored the low, ringing gongs in the back of her head and the screams of the TARDIS that yes there will be, the Crusade had to save me. She had been alone before. For the sake of her friends, for the sake of her love for them, she could be alone again.
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Fuck that noise. Ah'm with you."
The other Crusaders quickly agreed. Shining Armor pursed his lips and studied Dinky for a long moment. "You know this is necessary?"
"Yeah. I can't explain it, but... they can't win unless I get to the TARDIS."
Shining nodded. He looked at Trixie. "And you? Where do you fall?"
Trixie considered this. "Trixie wants to live," she said. "On the other hoof, it sounds to Trixie like if this goes south, everypony dies, including Trixie. And Trixie is not sure if Trixie's presence will make all that much difference, honestly, but at least if she dies first she won't have to see the rest of the world go. So, yes, Trixie is in."
"You know," Rumble said, "that's the most morbid optimism I've ever seen, and I'm friends with her." He nodded at Dinky.
"Funny," she said with a slight smirk. "I was gonna say the same thing about you."
"Touche," he admitted. "So we're agreed -- we have to get in."
Everypony looked back again at the flickering, unstable corridor before them. "Uh," said Shining. "I'll... I guess I'll put up a shield?"
"We'll help," Sweetie said, looking at Trixie and Dinky in turn.
"Trixie is... not experienced with shields, but she should be able to help us reach the ship unseen."
Scootaloo took the TARDIS key from around her neck and draped it over Dinky. "Let's go," she said.
Fitz lay on the ground, stunned for a moment, the shock making his ears ring. The Doctor recovered more quickly, it seemed -- Fitz could hear him up and about, dashing around and shouting.
Fitz managed to push himself upright. The first thing that he noticed was that his guitar was toast. He had landed on it awkwardly, smashing it. Hadn't done his back any favors, either. No time to think about that now, though. He took in the scene. The beast they'd been attacked by looked like some kind of alligator, or maybe a crocodile. Fitz didn't know the difference, and right now he didn't much care. It was some great bloody reptile with teeth like daggers and scales like armor, about half the size of a bus. The Doctor was yelling at it and brandishing his sonic screwdriver in its face. The monster shied away from the noise, but it didn't seem like it was planning on going anywhere.
Fitz looked around for anything that might make a decent weapon. Finding none, he snapped a branch off a nearby tree and charged forward with it, shaking leaves at the creature. It backed away a little more, snarling, then grabbed the branch in its teeth. He barely had time to react before the croc-thing flicked its head and flipped him like a coin.
For the second time in five minutes, Fitz hit the ground. This time he landed much more awkwardly, and he heard a distinct snapping sound from the region of his legs. He grimaced, biting his lip to keep from crying out.
When he looked up again, the Doctor was trying hard to keep the monster lizard at bay, the only thing standing between Fitz and half a ton of scales and teeth.
The Doctor glanced back. "Fitz!" he shouted. "Throw me your guitar!"
"It's shattered, along with my leg and what remained of my dignity!"
"I know!"
Fitz struggled to twist around and pull the ruins of his guitar off his back. He wrenched around his leg wrong, and this time he couldn't stop himself from screaming.
The Doctor hesitated, and the beast pressed forth its advantage, sending the Time Lord scurrying backwards. With a scowl, he cranked up the pitch on his screwdriver to the point where Fitz felt it in his back teeth. The beast snarled and cringed. "Fitz?" the Doctor said, starting to sound a little panicky now.
Fitz hastily tossed him the remains of his instrument, strap and all. The Doctor paused a moment to undo the strap, yanking it off the guitar with his teeth. Then he tossed the chunk of wood and metal into the beast's mouth. It chomped down, and the Doctor sprung forth, landing on its snout and holding on for dear life. "Get on!" he shouted.
Fitz groaned and pulled himself up to hobble forth on his three good legs, all but falling onto the reptile's snout. It tried to buck them off, but both stallions held on tight. The Doctor pulled the strap of the guitar out flat, then looped it around the monstrous maw, pulling it up tight.
He studied his work a moment, then nodded. "Right! Off we hop." He scooped Fitz up and pulled him into a rolling fall off the creature's snout.
Fitz cringed from the pain as they went, doubly so when they came to an abrupt halt by crashing into a tree. Once the spots had faded from his vision, he looked around to see the tail end of the creature stomping off.
The Doctor grinned at him wearily. "Crocodilians," he said. "Very strong muscles for closing their jaws. Very weak muscles for opening them again."
"Oh," said Fitz. "It was a crocodile, then? Thought it might be an alligator."
"Actually, it was an Egol, a crocodilian species from Betelgeuse VIII. Nasty world, that, all swamps and big reptiles and things. Got taken out by the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of 3758, along with Betelgeuse VII and IX. Terrible tragedy, that."
"What's it doing here, then?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Wandering around with a strap on its mouth, I suppose." Then he frowned. "Fitz, your leg."
"Oh, right." Fitz glanced down. "Not supposed to bend like that, is it?"
"No."
"Ah." He paused. "They don't shoot horses around here, do they?"
The Doctor didn't find that quite as amusing as Fitz did. "We'll have to set it with something. The branch might work, I suppose... gah, it's times like this when I really miss Martha..."
Fitz shivered suddenly, a chill running down his back. "Martha?" he asked.
"Dr. Martha Jones," the Doctor said, working on peeling the bark off the branch. "Brilliant woman, an absolute star. Not that I ever appreciated her for it. Still, she's happy enough now..."
The world started to get a little fuzzy. "Doctor?" Fitz said. "Er, I don't think you've got to worry about that leg anymore..."
"Hm? Fitz? Fitz!"
The sound of galloping hooves faded to nothing.
Dr. Martha Jones blinked several times to clear her head. There was a horse standing over her, his mouth agape. "What?" he said.
She looked down. She was also a horse for some reason. She let out a long breath through her nose. "Sure," she said. "This might as well happen." The stallion shook his head. "What?" he said again.
Martha smirked slightly. "Hello, Doctor."
"What?"
In the event, it was surprisingly easy to make it to the door. Although the hallway flickered and glitched around them, the stones under the travelers' hooves became solid as they passed, as though the ponies were temporarily imbuing the hallway with reality.
The beams of energy that lashed through the walls remained something of an obstacle. They hit the shield spell relatively infrequently, but each one was enough to make it ring like a gong and force Shining Armor almost to his knees with the stress of maintaining its stability. By the time they reached the door, Apple Bloom and Rumble had to stand on each side of him, trying to keep him standing upright as he sagged. Dinky and Sweetie Belle, each contributing their own power to smaller internal shield spells, were less affected by the forceful blows, but the effect was clearly still being felt by both mares.
The doors, it seemed, would be the most pressing issue, since they never stayed still for more than a few seconds at a time. However, as they approached the spot on the wall where the doors ought to have been, they shimmered back into place, much as the floor had done.
Shining moved to open the door, but Trixie held up a hoof. After a few moments, there came a particularly bright flash and Trixie shoved the door open, the others hurrying to keep up with her. As they passed into the room beyond, she lit her horn and cast an illusion over the shield, reflecting light off its surface. It wasn't quite invisible, not fully, but in the smoky, battle-torn tomb, it was good enough.
The battle itself was hard to follow, exactly. Six luminous beings, burning with arcane fury, were pouring their energy onto apparently random spots in the room. Their opponents were never quite standing where the gods struck. The Interface's eyes were glowing gold, and the air seemed to shimmer around it and the Valeyard alike. It took Dinky a moment, but she soon realized what they were doing -- using the energy stolen from the TARDIS to shift their positions in time and space so that the raw forces of the universe would never touch them. But it was clear that they couldn't keep it up forever. The golden energy leaking from the machine was evidence enough of that. It felt so familiar, somehow. Welcoming.
"Dinky!" Scootaloo hissed. "Come on!"
She blinked. She hadn't realized that she'd stopped. "...Sorry," she muttered, hurrying along with the others.
"The big golden hole is new," Button said quietly. "What is it?"
"Wrong," Dinky replied shortly. "This whole place... it makes me feel sick just being here."
"Don't worry. We're nearly to the TARDIS," Shining said, peering through the smoke and dust. The blue box stood sentinel in the center of the room, untouched by the fighting going on all around it. Nevertheless, there was something wrong with it -- the lights were off, and it had faded to a greyer shade of blue. It even seemed to have shrunk a little, as though it was shriveling up.
They were almost to the door. That's when it happened. The Interface, apparently tired of playing defense, struck out with a golden beam of light. It struck Twilight full in the chest.
Trixie's eyes went wide, and she tried to grab Shining's horn, but too little, too late, and Twilight was caught in a shield spell just before she would have plowed into the back wall.
There was a pause.
"It seems," said the Valeyard, "That we have some unexpected guests."
"Run," Trixie said.
In the next moment, the shield blew apart on contact with another golden ray, sending the occupants sprawling.
The gods were screaming, pouring more force onto the villains, but the Interface was not deterred as he walked forward to where Dinky struggled to rise from the ground. It reached her, put a hoof on her chest, and glanced up. "I don't believe I have any remaining qualms about my power supply," the Nightmare said coolly. An instant later, all six were stopped as though in amber, glowing faintly golden, their eyes blazing with fear and anger.
The Nightmare studied Dinky as though she were a slide under a microscope. "You have something I want," it said. The clouds of golden energy coalesced around the pair. The Nightmare fizzled and popped, smoke pouring from its body. "I intend to take it back."
Dinky tried to scream, but the golden energy poured into her mouth, her ears, nose, eyes, through every pore, like searching for like.
Then it began to pull back.
It felt like she was having her soul extracted. Surely there was no need for it to be this slow, this agonizing. She tried to struggle, but couldn't overcome the monster's force. The Nightmare laughed.
Then a big rock hit it in the face.
The energy stopped moving. Dinky had no time to think, she just acted. She pulled back on the energy, reeling it in. The Nightmare recovered and quickly started to fight back, but Dinky had inertia on her side. She pulled, and it pulled, both determined not to let the other overtake them --
And the tug-of-war rope snapped. Both of them went sprawling. Sweetie Belle pulled Dinky to her hooves as Apple Bloom hefted another rock. "Move!" she shouted.
Above them, the alicorns and draconocci began to move again, slowly. Shining and Trixie were busy fending off the Valeyard, preventing him from approaching the Crusaders or the TARDIS, defending their position and distracting the foe with illusions and trickery.
Dinky fumbled with the key around her neck, shoving it haphazardly at the lock as her friends gathered around. Finally, she opened the door and all but fell through, the others quickly following her. Rumble glanced back at the tableau. The Nightmare was regaining its footing, enraged. Shining and Trixie were slowly losing ground. He looked up at the alicorns and draconocci as they slowly unfroze. A lazy bolt of blue magic crept down and enveloped the two unicorns. When it had vanished, so had they.
Cadance looked at him slowly and gave a small, sad smile. Rumble nodded back and shut the door, locking it behind him.
"Okay," he said. "Now what?" He looked around for Dinky.
She lay on the floor, shaking, as her eyes glowed pure gold. "Oh," said Rumble. "Shit."
Dinky screamed with far too many voices.
Outside, the Nightmare shook its head as if to clear it, then gazed up at the thawing gods. "There won't be any round three, thank you," it snarled. The remaining golden energy coalesced into bubbles of time that surrounded each of the gods, sealing them off from the world outside.
None of them reacted. They merely looked at him, silent in their judgement. Well, except for Discord, who immediately started making armpit fart noises at their foes below.
The Nightmare snarled and sat back, temporarily stymied and weary. After a moment, it said, "This changes nothing."
"Good," the Valeyard said. "In that case, I'll take my leave, as agreed."
The Nightmare nodded. "There are too many rogue factions at work," it growled. "You see to the one in Ponyville. I'll take care of the ones up here."
"And the power of the TARDIS?"
"The child cannot hold it forever. One way or another, I will recoup what is mine by right of conquest."
The Valeyard nodded. "You may wish not to kill the rogue agents," he noted. "They could prove useful bargaining chips."
"Hm." The Nightmare said nothing more as the Valeyard walked over and passed through the rift.
Nurse Redheart stood in the coma ward. Things had calmed down somewhat. Fluttershy and Ditzy Doo's heart rates had returned to normal, the various gods were no longer oozing corruption from their very pores, and almost everything appeared to be fine. The alicorns and draconocci had higher heart rates than she would have liked, and they were going through magic drips like Pinkie Pie went through pastries, but they didn't seem to be in imminent peril, which was a nice change.
"How are you holding up, hon?"
The pager beeped. "I'm doing alright. Like I said before, my memories are... getting fuzzy. But I can remember the most important things, like Button and you."
"Romana said she could fix it. I'm sure your memory will recover when she does."
"I hope so."
Redheart sighed and held the device to her chest. "The coma, the attack, the shield... I don't know how any of us are going to make it out." She paused. "I'm sorry. That's not something you need to hear right now."
"No. But it's something you needed to say, and that's still impo --"
Redheart frowned and shook the pager. "Tender? Hon? You still there?"
"Something's happening. With the Doctor. I can see something moving, like a shadow out of time..."
Redheart glanced up, and immediately the Doctor's heartsbeat rose, his eyes shot open, and he sat bolt upright, gasping for air.
Redheart stepped back, ears flat against her head as her patient checked himself over from tip to tail, studying his hooves, running his tongue along his teeth, brushing back his mane.
"...Doctor?" Redheart said, her voice shaking.
The Time Lord's gaze flicked to her, and for a moment, his dark brown eyes seemed to cut her open, dissecting her mind and soul as he studied, dispassionately, her entire life. It lasted only an instant before he broke into a grin -- hesitant at first, then slowly more eager. "I'm back," he croaked, voice rusty from misuse. "I'm back!" |
Ruler of Everything | The Time Meddler | Dinky was burning from the inside out. She could feel her friends huddling around her, not quite sure what they could do to help. Rumble, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Button Mash, all their faces blurred in the golden haze that clouded her gaze and fogged her mind. The heat was terrible, but it was more than mere heat that was cooking her. She could see time as it unspooled, forking off in all directions. She saw possible futures, alternate nows, histories that hadn't happened, all laid out before her like a road map as wide as her field of vision. All the time it as growing, as though she was getting farther and farther away from reality, higher and higher in the air above a maze on the ground far below. What was the right path to take? Where was the path she had been on? How far could this maze go on for? Her vision swam as she tried to take it all in, the burning growing ever more painful, the heat muddying her mind
And then there was a blast of cold clarity and Dinky was dripping wet.
Everypony was staring at Sweetie, who was levitating a now-empty bucket over Dinky's head. "What? She was literally burning up. Would you rather I used a fire extinguisher?"
"Won't hold," Dinky said, steam curling off her coat. "Too much power. Not built to hold it."
"Er..." Button looked around. "Can you give it to the TARDIS?"
Dinky considered this as best she could. "... Maybe. Gimme a hoof..."
Apple Bloom hauled her upright and helped her stumble to the console. Dinky slammed both forehooves down on a panel. "Alright," she growled. "You're feeling hungry? Eat up."
Slowly, the pale golden flames shifted down to concentrate in her hooves. The other Crusaders watched as the energy flowed through the console, twisting around the controls in glowing coils and curls before being absorbed into the time rotor in the center. For almost three minutes, Dinky stood perfectly still, her hooves pressed firmly against the wooden panel, her brow furrowed in concentration. Then the connection seemed to fade, and Dinky fell back. Button quickly caught her and Rumble bent down to allow her to lie on his back.
"Feelin' better?" Apple Bloom asked softly.
Dinky took several long, labored breaths before nodding. "Better," she muttered. "Still bad, though."
"What was that?" Scootaloo asked. "Some kind of poison that the Nightmare was spewing?"
Dinky shook her head. "Energy. Artron. Very powerful. Runs the TARDIS. Useful if you can channel it properly. Fatal if you can't."
"But... you got it out in time?" Sweetie said hesitantly. "You'll survive, right?"
"... Probably?" Dinky guessed. "TARDIS took almost all of it. Just left me a little piece -- no more than what she gave me all those years ago..."
"Come again?" Apple Bloom said, tilting her head.
Dinky chuckled drily, her eyes still unfocused. "Of all the things the 'price to pay' could've been... I wouldn't've guessed this..."
"Alright, enough chatter," Rumble said firmly. "We need to get you to a hospital. Scootaloo, too. Probably all of us, actually."
Button started consulting monitors until he found one that purported to be a model of the TARDIS's interior. "Looks like there's something called a 'medbay' that's not too far from here," he said. "That sounds promising... uh?"
"What?" Scootaloo asked, glancing over.
Button frowned. "There's a flashing dot in another room. And the medbay's flashing too... hold on." He twisted a couple of knobs to increase the resolution of the screen, zooming closer to the two rooms. "The other one's something called the 'Zero Room'."
"Sounds kinda creepy," Sweetie said.
Button's frown deepened. "The flashing in the Zero Room... it's an icon of a pocket watch."
Everyone looked at Dinky's flank. The image of a pocket watch was proudly emblazoned there. "...Could be a coincidence," Apple Bloom said. "Maybe it's just some kinda alarm? Like, a timer that says it needs some maintenance?"
"Maybe," Button said. "On the other hoof, the medbay is a lot less ambiguous."
The others trotted around. Indeed, flashing in the medbay was an icon of Scootaloo's cutie mark.
"You think it's the TARDIS telling us where to go?" Apple Bloom asked. "Like th' Cutie Map?"
Button shrugged. "That seems to be the general idea, yeah."
Rumble grunted. "Guess we're splitting up again." He glanced at his back. "Guess I'm with Dinky."
"An' Ah'm with Scoots," Bloom said. "Button? Sweetie?"
The two glanced at one another. "Well, I don't have much medical experience," Sweetie admitted. "And I'm really curious to find out what a Zero Room is..."
Button nodded. "I'll go with team medbay, then," he said. "Can't believe the Doctor's never taken us there before, with all the scrapes we got in over the years..."
Rumble studied the map for a few more seconds, memorizing the route before nodding firmly. "Alright. Let's see what this place has got."
He set off toward one of the flights of stairs heading up, Sweetie Belle quickly bounding after him with a quick wave goodbye to the others as they trotted across a catwalk and into the hall beyond.
"Martha," said the Doctor. "Forgive me if I'm being a little slow today, but... weren't you Fitz a minute ago?"
"Yep," she said, looking herself over. She was a batpony. Her coat was a rusty brown shade, with a slightly darker blaze and socks. The icon of a golden caduceus emblazoned each flank. Her mane was black and tied back in a ponytail.
"Right," said the Doctor. "That's... a bit strange, I think. Usually I'm the one changing bodies."
Martha grinned a bit at that. "How is it being on the other end of it?" she asked.
"Er... confusing," the Doctor admitted. "Where did Fitz go?"
She shrugged. "Where did the you with the leather jacket go?"
"I... alright, that's different. I kept my continuity."
Martha let out a gasp of mock horror. "Continuity? You? Oh, Doctor, what would Iris say?"
"I -- alright, no. Martha never met Iris Wildthyme, at least not as far as I ever knew, and she certainly never met my ninth self. Who are you? Really?"
Martha smiled at him. "As far as anything goes practically, I really am Martha Jones," she said. "Just as much I really was Fitz Kreiner."
"You're a simulation, then."
She rolled her eyes a little. "Well, yeah. Thought we'd established that."
"But --"
She held up a hoof. "Look, I'm sorry, just let me... let me treasure this moment. Me knowing more about the situation than you, you quite desperate for my help... I don't mean to lord it over you or anything, but it's rather refreshing."
The Doctor frowned. "...Alright, I suppose I had that coming," he admitted. "But really -- who are you?"
"Call me... Companion," Martha said. "I'm part of your mental landscape, which is where we're standing at the moment -- at least, we're standing in a version of it that can be understood as a physical landscape."
The Doctor scrunched up his face. "So... this piece of the Matrix is..."
"Your personal biodata," Martha said. "Your life's experiences, your thoughts, your memories, your DNA. Everything."
"...Right," said the Doctor. "Okay. That makes a sort of sense. So you, as Companion... you could be any of my friends? You could be --"
"If you say Rose, I swear--"
"--Jo?" he said, not missing a beat.
Martha's form flickered, and the Doctor saw in her place a smiling blonde pegasus with a mint-green coat. She wore go-go boots and a fluffy white scarf, and she had a cutie mark of an open lock. Then Martha was back.
The Doctor nodded. "What about Fitz? Can you bring him back, or --"
She flickered again, and Fitz nodded at the Doctor. His leg was healed, and so was his guitar. Martha returned.
The Doctor considered this carefully. "What about... Adric?"
Martha frowned slightly at that and shook her head.
The Doctor exhaled slowly through his nose. "Some restrictions apply, then."
"Only the ones that you've placed on me," Martha said quietly.
He nodded. "There are some faces that I can't bear to see, some voices I can't hear without them breaking my hearts all over again," he said. "The twisted friends in the ruins of Gallifrey -- the ones I can't forgive myself for."
Martha nodded. "With some exceptions, of course," she added. "You saw that Fitz is fine, because in the end, he was alright. I could do Romana, because she forgave you in the end. Same with Sam, or Evelyn, and so on."
"...I see. And if you're Companion... does that mean that we're standing on Planet?"
"And that we were just attacked by Monster, yes."
"Hm." He nodded. "Alright. As fascinating as this all is, and no offense meant to you, but I have to get back to my real friends. They're in incredible danger, and --"
"And you're not in much of a position to fix that," Martha said, her voice firm but not unkind. "Do you remember what state you were in when you arrived in the ruins of Gallifrey?"
"Well... yeah, but I've moved beyond that now. That was just the Nightmare and the Valeyard manipulating my emotions, but I've beat them!"
Martha shook her head. "No. They were manipulating your emotions, yes. They picked at your wounds, your paranoia, and all your worst impulses, that's true. But those wounds didn't come from nowhere, Doctor -- you've been accumulating traumas for the past sixteen centuries or so, along with what are, in my opinion, some incredibly unhealthy ways of dealing with them. You had an adrenaline rush and a hit of serotonin, which adds up to trying to put a plaster and a bit of ointment on cancer!"
The Doctor blinked. "Er," he said.
Martha took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "All I'm saying," she said, her eyes softening, "is that you have your own problems to face before you can face the Nightmare and the Valeyard again. After all, they're facing off against not just the princesses and the former Elements of Harmony, they've also got to contend with Ditzy, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Discord. They can hold their own."
The Doctor nodded. "So... while they're in imminent peril from some of my oldest and deadliest foes... I'm going to have a therapy session?"
"Essentially."
The Doctor chewed his lower lip. "...D'you think they'd swap with me?"
Martha stared at him through lidded eyes.
"Kidding! Kidding. Mainly kidding."
As the five pegasi made their way through the tower, made their way toward Rainbow Dash and hopefully toward Cloudchaser's salvation, Cloudchaser herself made sure to always keep in contact with at least one of the other four. There was something comforting about it, something material, warm, something to hold onto. It was nice.
Of course, Cloudchaser would never ever let any of them know that, so she did her best to disguise it with constant grousing about the tower and how long this was taking and occasionally just swearing.
She was pretty sure they knew how she really felt anyway. Buncha sentimental dorks.
The chessboard wasn't a problem. Ditzy fussed a bit about trying to recite pi backwards, but then Thunderlane pointed out that they could probably just fly over and be fine. It'd take a lot of lightning to kill a pegasus, anyway.
As it turned out, he was quite right. Apparently the chessboard had been warded against teleportation and levitation, but not just flying. Whodathunk? Apparently not Rassilon.
And then they went down the spiral stairs, and that made everypony's skin crawl a little save for Fluttershy because Bird Brain Says Enclosed Space Bad.
But again, they were fine. They made it out at the bottom and moved on down the poorly-lit hall.
Everypony stopped when they saw the figure in the gloom. Nopony ever called Dash 'small', at least not more than once. She liked to boast that she was compact and zippy. Most ponies didn't usually realize how short she actually was because she moved too fast for them to get a good look at her. When she did, her brash personality and natural swagger always made ponies think she was bigger than she really was. Her habit of getting up in ponies' faces didn't hurt, either.
Now, though, she looked small. Motionless as she was, diminished as she was, imprisoned as she was, the determined posture that she had been frozen into now seemed rather cruelly ironic.
"Okay," Ditzy said. "I'm going to take away the mirror. Cloudchaser, you get right up in her face. The rest of you..."
"Don't blink?" Fluttershy said.
"Exactly."
Ditzy moved quickly and with purpose toward the statue. Hopefully, if she could keep that up, she wouldn't lose her nerve completely. Bad enough that she was making her way down the hall to free a deadly monster, bad enough that she would have to face a friend who she had betrayed, whether she had been in her right mind or not, but to face both at the same time was a more unpleasant prospect than the sum of its parts.
Nevertheless, that was what she had to do to save Rainbow Dash and Cloudchaser alike. So, as though ripping off a band-aid, she shoved the mirror away from Rainbow's petrified face. She winced slightly as the force sent it smashing to the floor, shattering it into shrapnel.
"Seven years' bad luck," Cloudchaser's voice observed in hr head.
"With the number of mirrors I've broken, I can all but guarantee that's wrong." Ditzy took wing, hovering over the shattered glass. "Alright. You wait here. When I give the word, blink. Dash will do the rest."
There was a sensation of agreement in her head. Ditzy quickly flew back to the others, who all had their eyes trained on the statue, blinking in turns. Ditzy settled down beside them, joining in their staring contest. "Okay," she said as calmly as she could. "Blink."
There was an instant of total darkness. When Ditzy reopened her eyes, there were two mares lying where the statue had stood. She sighed in relief and trotted forward, but stopped when she got too close to the shards of glass.
"Uh-oh," said Flitter.
"Ow," Dash groaned,
Fluttershy winced. "Okay. Um, Thunderlane, Flitter, you pick up Cloudchaser. Ditzy, you help me move Rainbow. We can set them down, injuries-up, in that main foyer, the light's a little better in there."
"You got it," Thunderlane said. "C'mon, Chase, let's get moving."
"Drop me, and I'll stab you with a shard of glass."
Ditzy grabbed Rainbow near the head while Fluttershy took the tail end. Together they led the way quickly and carefully down the hall. Rainbow looked up at Ditzy, her face haggard and her eyes dark. Nevertheless she managed a grin. "Thanks for coming back," she muttered.
Ditzy smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Of course," she said.
Privately, she was cursing herself for not being more careful, not thinking about the mirror, not getting ahold of herself in time to save Dash long before now.
Even more privately, in the parts of her brain that the conscious areas weren't yet ready to acknowledge, she wondered how many times something like this had happened to the Doctor to make him the way he was.
Romana waiting in town square with her ragtag militia of Ponyvillians. She wasn't totally surprised when a body fell from the rift -- indeed, it was just the other horseshoe dropping after the two other unconscious figures had fallen out earlier. She was gratified to see Lyra catch the mare in a pair of large golden hands before she hit the ground. "Nice work," Romana said. "Put Cloudchaser with her sister and Thunderlane, if you would."
Lyra summoned a third, smaller hand to flip the Time Lady a mock salute. "Aye-aye, captain!"
"Please don't call me that."
But Lyra had already turned away to place Cloudchaser's comatose form next to those of the other two victims.
Romana sighed. She had no idea what could have caused this reversal of the pegasi's time-altered states. That was frustrating to her -- she disliked not knowing what was going on. Unfortunately, pragmatism prohibited her from investigating further. There was a siege going on, after all.
"Blueblood," she said. "Organize a team to get them over to the hospital, if you would."
He nodded, then paused. "Ah. It appears that may not be necessary. The hospital seems to be coming to us."
"Hm?"
The prince inclined his head toward a pair of approaching figures, two earth ponies. One had a spiky mane, and the other wore it tied back in a bun. "Nurse Redheart -- Doctor?"
The crowd parted as the duo trotted toward Romana. The Doctor gave her a tight smile. "Hello."
She arched an eyebrow. "You've been trapped in the Matrix by a maniac entity for the last six hours, and all you can say is 'hello'?"
He rolled his eyes. "Fine. Hello, Romana. Redheart briefed me on the situation at large on our way over, at least in the broad terms. But what did you do to seal off Ponyville?"
"I'll explain when things are a little less busy."
The Doctor frowned at that. "They don't seem to be particularly busy now," he pointed out.
"That could change at any moment. Look -- Redheart, we've got three more coma victims."
Redheart cringed. "You're joking."
"Afraid not. On the other hoof, I'd say it's a step up from where they were before, no offense to Tender intended."
Redheart frowned. "--to Tender -- you mean the others?"
"Yes, come on, I'll show you." She paused. "Doctor? Would you like a look as well? I can't quite understand what happened. I'd appreciate your perspective."
The Doctor looked distinctly underwhelmed for a moment. "No, no. I'm sure you'll be fine on your own. I'll just be... investigating the rift. I wasn't able to get a good look at it in the Matrix."
"Of course," said Romana.
She led Redheart over to the three unconscious pegasi. "What happened?" she asked quietly.
Redheart frowned, glancing between Romana and the comatose trio. "I think I ought to be asking you that."
"No, not about them. They fell out of the rift, we can't know what caused that unless we can get to the other side -- what happened with the Doctor?"
Redheart shrugged. "He woke up. It was very sudden -- quite a relief, really. He insisted on coming here straightaway. He's recovered remarkably well, I must say."
Romana tilted her head thoughtfully. "Time Lords are hardier than we seem. Has he been acting at all oddly, do you think?"
Redheart hesitated. "Why do you ask?"
"Because he didn't want to inspect these three, for one," Romana said. "Not only are they a mystery, they're his friends. That's a virtually irresistible combination."
Redheart chewed her lip. "He has struck me as being rather... chilly," she admitted. "Perhaps it's just the stress of the situation?"
"That's possible, I suppose," Romana allowed. "On the other hoof, he claims that he didn't get a close look at the rift, but surely that's the only way he could have returned to this plane. Put that together with the fact that, in order to leave the Matrix, he would have had to abandoned everypony else in there..."
"You think he's been compromised?"
Romana rubbed her muzzle thoughtfully. "It's a distinct possibility, I must say. I'll rope Blueblood and Fancy into helping you get your new patients back to the hospital. Tell them our suspicions. I'll keep him distracted."
Redheart nodded. "You'll be alright here?"
"I'm hardly alone," Romana pointed out. "Three ponies missing aren't going to make much difference."
Redheart chewed her lip. "Tender?"
Romana tilted her head. "She's still with you?"
"Where else do I have to go?" echoed through the back of Romana's head. She repressed a shiver. She could sometimes remember events from her alternate self's life, in dreams. The battle with the Neverpeople was a fairly common one. She tried not to be prejudiced about this kind of thing, but the total slap in the face to causality was upsetting on a biological level as well as a physical one.
"Would you stay here with Romana?" Redheart asked. "If something goes... wrong... you can fly and get us from the hospital."
Romana didn't hear the response, but from the way Redheart smiled in relief, she guessed that it had been affirmative.
"Well," said the echo of Tender Care. "How are you doing, Romana?"
Romana attempted to smile back at Redheart and failed quite badly.
Rarity awoke slowly. She was no longer resting in Sombra's surprisingly comfortable embrace. She was no longer reclining on a hard stone floor, either. Furthermore, she was no longer having a terrible nightmare in which she was alone and totally without friends, living forever in a tower of gold and jewels and desolation.
So far, she was prepared to count all this as a net positive, until she rolled over and saw that the ground was far, far beneath her, and the only thing that stood between her and the all-too-solid rock was the thin golden membrane of a bubble. She squealed in terror, sitting bolt upright.
"Oh. Good morning, Rarity."
Rarity glanced up. "Twilight? Darling? What is -- what exactly is happening?" She glanced around. "Are we back in that dreadful tomb? Where are all the others? I see Sombra and all you gods, but --"
"Rarity, please," Twilight said, wincing. "Ugh. My ears are still ringing from that last attack..."
Rarity tilted her head. "Attack?"
"We are prisoners. Again," Luna said, scowling, from her own bubble. "Personally, I'm getting rather tired of it."
"Ah," said Rarity. "I see."
"Basically, almost everypony escaped from where they'd been trapped," Cadance said. "This is the more high-security prison, I guess. Once the Nightmare managed to beat us, again, he went straight for the only two ponies who he could still actually find."
"Ah," said Rarity. "Well... tits. I knew I ought to have gotten out while I still could have."
Cadance tutted sympathetically. "On the upside, your sister is still alive."
Rarity's lips tightened. "That's not funny."
"Rarity. Do you honestly think I would joke about something like that?"
"...No," Rarity admitted. "You're sure?"
Cadance nodded. "She and the other Crusaders -- mostly Dinky, really -- managed to, I guess, depower the Nightmare somewhat? Then they escaped into the TARDIS over there, and big, mean, and ugly can't get in after them."
Rarity sighed in relief. "Well. I'm glad that there's some good news in all this. That being said, I think I would rather like to escape. Thoughts?"
"The bubbles are impenetrable," Cadance said. "Magic can't get through, as Celestia found out the hard way."
Rarity looked around. Celestia had turned to face the back wall, clearly sulking. Her coat was singed and her wings blackened with ash. Her mane had shifted colors from soft pastels to warm sunrise hues. It had also been half burnt off.
"Don't ask," Twilight said.
"I'll tell you about it later," Luna said. "It was very funny."
"Our current theory," said Discord, floating above the others in a much larger bubble where they lay curled up on the top, "is that these bubbles are made of time, much like the shield we saw around Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and the Valeyard. We can still speak to one another through them because we're all coexisting in the same continuum of relative time, but we can't communicate with anyone outside them."
"Which, on the bright side, means that the Nightmare shouldn't be able to eavesdrop on us," Luna concluded.
"But that doesn't actually help us escape," Rarity said, tilting her head.
"At times like these, you really have to look for the positives where you can find them," Sunset said. "And, of course, keep up hope. After all, there are still ponies out there, and the Nightmare's been severely weakened. Maybe they can overcome it."
There was a *pop*, and suddenly Shining Armor and Trixie were floating in their midst, looking alarmed and confused.
Everypony looked flatly at Sunset. "I know, I know," she said with a sigh. "I jinxed it." |
Ruler of Everything | The Mind Robber | Rumble glanced around the corridor. "This is the place, then?"
"Looks like," Sweetie said. "There doesn't seem to be any other doors around here."
Rumble shrugged and pushed the door open.
The room beyond was bathed in a very pale pink light, which shone out from large circular panels in the otherwise grey walls. It was completely empty.
"Huh," said Sweetie. "Guess we know why they call it the 'Zero Room'."
Rumble scratched his head, stepping in. "I don't get it. It's literally an empty room. Why would we need to bring Dinky here?"
Dinky herself hadn't spoken a word since they had left the console room, instead burying her face in Rumble's mane. Now, though, she lifted her head, her eyes flat and golden.
"The Zero Room is cut off from the rest of the universe," she said in a voice that wasn't quite her own, and echoed strangely in her mouth. "Within these walls, electronic and radiological impulses are cut off -- even gravity can be negated with sufficient focus."
To illustrate the point, Rumble felt her weight lift from his back. Dinky floated in the air like a rag doll, gradually drifting to the center of the room. "This room is designed for neurological healing. Dinky must rest here until she is recovered."
"You're not Dinky," Sweetie Belle said carefully. "Are we addressing the TARDIS?"
Dinky's body nodded as it floated in the air like a marionette. "Well done."
"Can you help us?" Rumble asked, stepping forward. "The Nightmare--"
"Yes. I know." Dinky's face grew grim. "I helped you when the time was right. Am helping you. Would help you. Tenses are so difficult, you know."
"Um," said Sweetie Belle.
"For now... all I would have been able to do will be to have helped Dinky to have made a full recovery. Go. Join your other friends in the medbay."
Sweetie and Rumble looked at one another. "I think we'd prefer to stay here with Dinky," Sweetie said.
Dinky -- the TARDIS -- tilted her head. "You are not remaining for the healing process. You waited outside the door."
"Sounds fine to me," Rumble said. "We just want to be here for her when she wakes up."
The TARDIS smiled at that. It wasn't quite right, but the sentiment was clear enough. "You were good friends," she said warmly. "Remember that. You will be good friends."
Then the light faded from Dinky's eyes as they fluttered shut, leaving the mare floating, unconscious, in the air. Rumble and Sweetie, sensing that they were being dismissed, quickly left the room and shut the door behind them.
"Well," said Sweetie.
"That was weird, right?" Rumble asked.
"Extremely weird, yeah!" She sighed, taking a seat and leaning back against the wall. "One of us should probably go tell the others what's going on with Dinky."
Rumble nodded. "Alright. I should be able to find my way to the medbay. You'll be fine here on your own?"
Sweetie Belle hesitated for a moment, then nodded back. "Try not to be too long."
"I will." With one last backward look and faint smile, Rumble trotted off down the corridor.
Sweetie Belle tilted her head back and let exhaustion wash over her. The adrenaline rush was finally wearing off, now that she was safe for the moment, and the many aches and pains she had accrued over the last several hours were beginning to catch up with her. She slid down the wall until her muzzle was resting on her barrel. Her mane, sweaty, dirty, and matted, served as a very basic pillow. She was tired, but happy. For the first time since she and all her friends had been thrown from the tower, it seemed like they might actually have a chance of defeating the Nightmare. A slim chance, mark you, but a chance nonetheless. They had hope.
Sweetie smiled a little and pushed herself off the wall so she could lie flat on the floor and avoid getting a crick in her neck.
Facing up toward the ceiling, she shut her eyes for a minute or two while she waited for Dinky to emerge from the Zero Room. Just to make sure she didn't start to drift off, she started to sing again...
Meanwhile, in the Zero Room, Dinky's brain still felt like it was burning. The TARDIS had drained most of the artron energy from her body, as she had said. Why she hadn't removed it all, Dinky couldn't guess. She couldn't guess much of anything at the moment. She had seen countless timelines all at once, taken information from a thousand thousand versions of herself at once. It had been a shattering experience and now she needed to sort through the pieces, put herself back together.
She was floating in a void of infinite greyness. In front of her, the shape of a massive arched window frame appeared, apparently the only solid point in the world. Around her, jagged pieces of colorful glass swirled and spun, never staying still for long enough for her to register their true color or shape. It was dizzying and infuriating and Dinky found herself getting frustrated.
As soon as she realized that feeling and named it in her head, a piece of lilac-colored glass shot like an arrow from the maelstrom and clicked into place on the vast empty window.
Oh. This would be easier than she expected. She would just have to go back through her memories, one by one, and the picture should reform.
She thought about her time at college. She had gone to -- to --
A myriad of different schools poured through her brain, shining points and sharp edges sliding over her neurons. She was a thaumaturgy major, a mathematician, a historian, undecided, she belonged to a sorority, she lived alone, had a roommate, was on the buckball team, the writer's guild, the pride club --
She shook her head to clear it. The burning sensation grew stronger. Alright. Focus. What happened today? How had she arrived here?
Some shards of glass clicked into place -- butter yellow, off-white, chocolatey brown, cloud grey, bright orange. It wasn't much -- she doubted that she'd filled even a thousandth of the picture -- but it was a start.
She started thinking about ponies she knew -- her parents clicked into place easily enough, as did her close friends. The TARDIS came into view. So did Ponyville and Canterlot. But all of them were missing pieces -- which universe was she really from? Who of the Crusaders had gotten their mark first? Did Dinky have a sister or not? A brother? Was Bonbon a secret agent? Had Rarity and Spike gotten married? Broken up? Would they?
Her head was spinning again. She felt worse than useless. After she had come so far and fought so hard, she couldn't even save herself. She was losing her mind in the maelstrom, self-doubt making the pieces spin faster, the crash of piece against piece a maddening tinkling chorus, each fractured piece breaking on the others as events ripped themselves into more and smaller potentials, turning into little bits of shrapnel that tore at her, sandblasted her. Shards of glass ripped loose once again from the window-frame, and with them went pieces of her mind -- memory, feeling, sanity.
And then the clatter of glass died down.
And Dinky heard singing.
Through shady trees and light green glades,
We sally forth, never afraid.
A merry company of friends,
A quest for joy that never ends.
The pieces began to slow, as the music that had brought peace to the beast in the tunnels, the voice that had given sweet dreams to an empire, did the same thing for Dinky's tortured brain.
As the music flowed, the shattered glass began to move into position as Dinky felt, rather than consciously tried to force, her memories sliding back into place. Other pieces, those that were from universes alien to any Dinky might have experienced, flew off into the void and vanished into the infinite distance.
The tinker, the thinker, the rock, the lover, the adventurer, the entertainer. Apple Bloom, Dinky herself, Rumble, Button Mash, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle. Six figures stood tall and proud in the center of the frame, and other pieces clicked onto them as her neurons began to cascade through the memories of their crusades.
When all was said and done, the last notes of the melody hanging in the void, about sixty percent of the window was full, and around thirty percent of all the variant chunks of glass that had originally swarmed around her had been banished to the aether. That still left some several thousand shards left to sort through. That was alright. She had come so far, done so much -- this was nothing in comparison.
The cuts that the glass had left on her skin began to heal over. Some faded as though they had never been. Others left faint white scars. A few left far nastier, more gnarled reminders. But all healed, in time.
The TARDIS closed off the audio channels to the Zero Room. Technically speaking, there should never have been any leakage into the chamber -- that was exactly the kind of thing it was designed to stop, after all. On the other hand, the TARDIS, like her Thief, had never been one for playing by the rules. She knew what her passengers needed, especially the mare who was as much a daughter of Time as she was of Time Lord.
In the console room, where nopony was around to see it, one panel of the central console lit up, bathing half the room in bright blue light. Then it faded, leaving no trace that it had ever occurred.
Redheart's heart threatened to pound out of her chest until she and the other two had gotten out of sight of town square. When they did, she let out a sigh of relief.
Fancy blinked at her. "Something amiss, Miss Redheart?" he asked, tilting his head.
"...Yes? No. Maybe. You'll think I'm being paranoid. Even I think I'm being paranoid."
Blueblood snorted. "It's hardly paranoia if they really are out to get you," he said. "Go on."
"...It's... how much time have each of you spent with the Doctor since he woke up?"
"None," Blueblood said.
"Hardly more than a few seconds," Fancy said.
"Then there wouldn't have been a chance for you to make your own observations," Redheart said, her ears flattening against her head.
"Please, Miss Redheart," Fancy said gently. "Tell us what you're so alarmed by."
"It's the Doctor. Ever since he woke up, he's been... cold. Distant. I mean, he's been that way for the last few months, but this feels..." she shook her head. "I don't know. He always cared about other ponies before. I didn't get that impression in the square."
"It could be the stress of the situation," Fancy Pants mused. "He can always be counted upon to be serious when lives are on the line."
"Serious, perhaps," Blueblood said, tilting his head. "Uncaring is another thing entirely. Redheart, you know this version of the Doctor better than either of us. Would you say that this is out of character for him?"
"Well..." Redheart hesitated. "He has his moods, of course. And as I said, he's been very distant recently. But... he feels wrong. I can't explain any more than that."
"Who else suspects?" Fancy asked.
"Romana," Redheart said instantly. "She offered to keep him distracted while I shared my suspicions with the two of you."
"You left her alone with him?" Blueblood asked.
"She's in a crowd of her friends and neighbors. I also left the de-aged-out-of-existence shade of my marefriend with her to come alert us if something's gone wrong --" She paused and facehoofed. "When did my life get even weirder than regular Ponyville levels?"
"A question I haven't had the luxury of asking in a very long time," Blueblood noted. "Very well. Fancy, I believe Redheart and I can handle three bodies between us if you would care to round up the guards."
"Are you sure that there's a need?" Fancy asked.
"If there's a risk that the Doctor has been compromised?" Blueblood asked. "Oh, yes."
Fancy pursed his lips. "Right," he said, levitating his charge to lie on the backs of the other two. "Hurry."
"You too. Good luck," Blueblood said with a short nod.
Fancy hurried off toward the castle, leaving Blueblood and Redheart to haul the three comatose pegasi to Ponyville General. High above the town, the moonlight refracted oddly through the temporal barrier, casting strange shadows on the ground.
Romana was desperately searching the crowd for the Doctor and trying, if anything, even more desperately not to look like it. She couldn't say if she was being really paranoid or not -- her nerves were too rattled. The Doctor's increased distraction and distance over the last few months had been a concern to her, of course, as a friend, a fellow renegade Time Lord, and as a fellow citizen of the universe. She was rather ashamed of herself for not suspecting that something was amiss sooner. But then, this incarnation of the Doctor had always been a tad neurotic. But that shouldn't have stopped her --
"Romana," Tender Care admonished her, gently. "Don't let your regrets run away with you."
Yes. Fair point. She shook her head. There was no time for self-recrimination now. Later, once all this had been sorted out, she and the Doctor could have a nice long talk about all this. She suspected she would be far from the only pony with whom the Doctor would be speaking.
"Indeed you won't," Tender said, a note of stone coming into her voice. "No, not by a long shot... Romana, look over there!"
"I don't know where there is," Romana muttered testily. "I can't see you point --"
The image of an arrow flashed into her head, and without thinking, Romana looked round. Well. Speak of the devil. A tan shape was hunkered over her makeshift time-stopper, fiddling around where things were decidedly not meant to be fiddled with. "Doctor," she said sharply.
He didn't startle at that. Indeed, it took him a few moments even to register that he had been spoken to. He glanced over his shoulder. "Romana," he replied.
"I thought you were taking a closer look at the rift?"
"I did," he said simply. "Then I finished. Now I'm here. Is that a problem?"
"Yes," Romana retorted. "I thought I asked you not to touch this."
"No. You told me you'd explain how you locked Ponyville off from the universe later. I thought I'd try and figure it out for myself."
Romana studied him for a moment. There was something off about him -- the way he was standing. She was sure of it. But what --
"He's standing still," Tender said.
Yes. Of course. She might have expected it from her own Doctor, whose bouts of energy were interspersed with hours of lethargy. This one, on the other hoof, practically never stopped fidgeting.
He arched an eyebrow at her. "Well?" he asked.
She did her best to recover. "Well, what did you think?" she asked impatiently, gesturing at the device.
He glanced at it. "Slapdash," he said. "I suppose you were pressed for time, but it's hardly professional. I could barely make heads nor tails of it."
"Needs must when the devil drives," Romana said.
He gave a small smile at that. It was decidedly unpleasant. "True enough."
Romana suppressed a shudder. If there had been any doubt in her mind before that she hadn't been speaking to the real Doctor, this exchange had eradicated it utterly. The Doctor knew better than to try and impugn her abilities -- he knew that she knew him well enough to call him out on two dozen half-baked plans for any one of hers he could name. "And the rift?" she asked, keeping her voice as level as she could. "What did you find out about the rift?"
He pressed his lips tight together and glanced up. "Little more than I could have guessed," he said bitterly. "It's an unstable Matrix access point. You managed to balance this portion of real space with it so that the time differentials would sync up. Remove the barrier you built, and the Matrix would suck this planet through that rift like a straw."
"Which would probably turn it into a black hole."
"Not quite," the thing in the Doctor's body said. "You've neglected to consider that the time differential would increase. It wouldn't be able to compress correctly, not right away. No, what you'd really have is a brand-new Eye of Harmony. This world would become the second coming of the Caldera, ripe to become the site on which the Time Lords of this universe could be founded..."
His eyes caught the golden light of the rift and shone red.
Tender, Romana thought. Go find Redheart. Now!
The medbay was a well-lit room, its clinical aesthetic a sharp contrast to the rest of the TARDIS' homey design. It was a fairly sizable room, too, stretching on for what looked to be about a hundred meters in length. "...So where can we put you down?" Button asked, glancing around the room.
Apparently in response, a panel in the wall hummed open and swung down like a Murphy bed. Two pairs of legs popped out of the bottom and clicked into slots on the floor, creating a little cot.
"...Huh," said Apple Bloom. She bent down to inspect the bed. "Good quality construction," she murmured.
"Uh, hey? Bloom?" Scootaloo bopped her on the head gently. "You wanna wait on ogling the TARDIS' furniture until after we fix my legs?"
"Oh. Heh, whoops."
She rose, and with Button's help, Scootaloo shifted off her friend's back and onto the cot. It took a few more minutes for her to get into a truly comfortable position.
"Alright," said Bloom. "Ah'm gonna start lookin' fer a proper splint an' bandages. Button, you start lookin' for some miracle alien gizmo that fixes bones."
"Right." Button trotted over to the shelves of strange instruments that lined one wall of the large room. Fortunately, it had all been labeled. Unfortunately, the one who had labeled it all was the Doctor, so Button had to parse notes like, "HooLooVooian pigment repairer -- repurposed for red shades" and "Blood de-oxygenator -- not for use on animal-based species". Some of the more abstruse notes were paragraphs in length and detailed the precise instructions for the device's use without ever once explaining what it was to be used for. Others were covered with annotations and marginalia in several different scripts, from where the Doctor's various incarnations had found a new use for their machinery, or had decided to try taking it apart and 'improving' its functionality.
While Button was desperately trying to make sense of what a "Titian Cardial Pump" was, Apple Bloom had had rather more luck finding fresh bandages. She studied Scootaloo's legs. "Alright," she said. "Let's see."
"Do you actually know how to do this?" Scootaloo asked suspiciously.
"Kinda?" Bloom hedged. "Ah've seen it done, anyhow."
Scootaloo looked at her flatly. "Alright, alright, Ah'll try an' find a manual or somethin'," Bloom said, throwing up her hooves.
The doors to the medbay slid open again and everypony looked round. "Hey, guys," Rumble said. "Um. Need some help?"
Bloom waved him over to where Button was now sitting between two large piles of gadgets and one very small one. "He could use an extra pair of hooves most, Ah reckon."
"Uh, I'm gonna argue that that would be me," Scootaloo said, smirking.
Bloom rolled her eyes. "What happened to Dinky and Sweetie?" she asked.
Rumble gave them the rundown on the Zero Room as he helped Button sort the various medical instruments into the two large piles of 'definitely not helpful' and 'unknown', as well as the smaller pile of 'maybe helpful????'.
When he finished the story, Scootaloo shook her head. "That sounds really rough."
"Yeah. I can't imagine what she's going through right now," Rumble said. "I wish I could be there for her."
Apple Bloom sighed. "Yeah. So do Ah. Maybe we kin head over there after awhile an' check up on her, but fer now..."
"We've got to take care of the problem we can actually help with," Rumble said, nodding.
Button pulled a large tube off the shelf and squinted at the cramped writing on the barrel. His eyes went wide. "Oh, man. I think this might be what we're looking for," he said.
Rumble craned his neck to read the note. "Algolian Transference Needle: For bone regrowth," he said. "Yeah, that sounds pretty straightforward."
Apple Bloom frowned. "Uh, does it? Ah dunno about y'all, but Ah ain't to clear on what's bein' transferred in this situation."
"Or how," Rumble noted.
Button pondered this for a moment, then flipped the note over. "Oh! Uh, there's a diagram. So... the needle goes in near the fracture..."
"Bad start," Scootaloo said.
"Uh, gets worse," Button said. "Not for you, though. Somepony else has to stick a limb in the tube to facilitate the transfer of... stuff... from their bones to yours."
"Cartilage, probably," Rumble mused. "Maybe stem cells."
"So you gotta give away some of that to help Scootaloo heal faster," Bloom said. "What happens to you?"
Button scratched his head. "Uh, I'm not a doctor, but I'm guessing probably pain. Pain, probably some weariness, weakness... Probably not death? The Doctor wouldn't keep it in here if it killed the donor. Beyond that, no clue."
Scootaloo nodded. "Any volunteers?" she asked flatly.
Rather than responding, Button shoved his left forehoof into the machine and turned a knob, tightening it around the limb. He grimaced, but forced a chuckle. "Man, this fits like a glove. I'll have to study it later, see if I can copy the design for my boots."
Scootaloo's jaw dropped. "I -- Button, I wasn't being serious. You don't have to do this."
"Yeah, Ah could do it," Bloom said. "Ah mean... there ain't no way to say this politely that Ah can see, but seems to me Ah could probably handle that better than y'all."
"Or me," Rumble said. "We're both fit, we could handle it."
Button shook his head. "You're both really strong, yeah. That's strength we might need later. I can spare it without hurting the team."
Scootaloo held up her hooves. "No, stop. Stop. I don't want you -- any of you -- to hurt yourselves for me. You shouldn't feel obligated --"
Button hobbled over to the cot as best he could with the tube fit over his hoof and looked her square in the eye. "I'm not doing this because I have to," he said. "I'm doing this because you're my friend, and I don't want to see my friend in pain. If you really don't want me to do this, I won't. But this is a gift I'll gladly give for you or any of the others."
Scootaloo sniffled, her eyes starting to water. "You fuckin' sap," she muttered, wiping fiercely at her eyes. "Alright, fine."
Apple Bloom loosened the left boot enough to pull it off without too much pain. Rumble helped her set a rough splint around the leg, tight enough to keep the bone straight while still leaving Button an opening to put the needle in. It was inflamed and swollen, unpleasant to look at.
Button lined up the needle as best he could, then held out his free hoof to Scootaloo. "This is gonna hurt a lot for both of us," he said by way of explanation.
Wordlessly, she took the proffered hoof and gripped it tightly.
Apple Bloom stepped back as Rumble helped guide Button's needle. It pierced Scootaloo's flesh. She inhaled sharply but didn't flinch. A green light illuminated the tube. There was a high pitched whining noise. Button began to scream.
His wails echoed through the corridors, and into the console room. One panel sparked and lit up, glowing violet. It fluctuated in time with the stallion's cries, brightening and fading as his voice rose and fell, but on average getting steadily brighter. When the screams stopped, the violet light faded. For a few minutes, the room was dark. Then, back in the medbay, the needle was inserted into Scootaloo's other leg and the room glowed a brighter shade of violet than ever, flickering and casting strange shadows on the walls and out into the hall until the screams became whimpers became silence. |
Ruler of Everything | Carnival of Monsters | Much to the Doctor's surprise and relief, Martha hadn't insisted on sitting him down on a log and starting a therapy session. When he'd questioned that, she'd merely glanced at him and asked, "Is that what you want?"
"Well... no."
"Would you willingly sit through that?"
He'd scratched the back of his head at that and glanced away, much to Martha's amusement. "We're here on an adventure," she'd told him, quite simply. "Just like always."
Since then, Companion had willingly flipped through the available options of friends he could choose to accompany him. Most of them hadn't been part of the mob that had tried to kill him, except for the various natives of this universe. Now that he knew they weren't dead yet, they seemed to have been added back into the roster. There were a few others, like Evelyn, Romana, or Sam, who were still accessible as well.
Eventually, they'd settled on Bernice Summerfield. It wasn't for any particular reason, really. Not any intellectual ones, anyway. It was just that seeing Ace in particular transformed into a monster bent on revenge was particularly galling. Most of the others had been hurt because of circumstances outside the Doctor's control (circumstances he should have foreseen, fates he would have averted...), but Ace...
His former self had led her down the garden path right into the Time War. She, more than any of his other friends, was a monster of his own making.
Benny seemed scarcely any more inclined to chatting about the Doctor's mental state than Martha had, though she did make a little small talk about the weather and how the Doctor was handling domestic life.
After about ten minutes, the Doctor stopped dead in his tracks. "Right, that's enough."
Benny looked affronted. "Excuse me?"
He gestured around with his hooves. "All of this nothing, it's getting ridiculous," he said crossly. "You said this was an adventure, didn't you? Well, where is it?"
Benny chuckled. "What, you want me to be your Morpheus on this jaunt through the Matrix? Your Ghost of Doctors Past, Present, and Future, perhaps?"
"Alright, sure. That sounds doable, let's try it."
"Really?" Benny asked. "You want me to take you back through your own history? Let me rephrase that. You want to see your own history?"
"Well, if the current alternative is wandering around here until we starve, then --"
There was a rustling in the bushes and the Doctor and Benny froze.
"Don't think this gets you out of an explanation," the Doctor muttered.
Bernice glared at him. The rustling grew louder, and out of the bushes popped... a ball of fluff. It was blue.
Benny snorted and relaxed her posture. "What the hell is that? A tribble?"
The Doctor's face was grim. "No. Keep back, Bernice."
"Meep, meep?" The fuzzball pushed itself off the ground. It had a petite little snout and big eyes. It was painfully cute, like some kind of plush toy. Once upon a time, there had been a very successful line of toys based on its species.
"Oh, it's adorable!" Benny said.
The thing looked up at her, its lower lip trembling. "P-pwease hewp me," it said. "I'm just a poor wittle Meep, wost and awone. Won't you hewp me get home?"
Benny smiled broadly and reached out toward the thing.
"Keep back," the Doctor said shortly.
Benny frowned at him. "Oh, come on, Doctor. What's the worst that it could--"
"Doctor?" said the Meep, its sweet little voice turned to ice.
"Benny," said the Doctor. "Please meet Beep the Meep, inveterate conqueror of worlds and a war criminal even by the standards of his own bloodthirsty culture."
Beep the Meep sniggered unpleasantly. "The pleasure is all mine, meep meep!"
Benny backed up several paces. "Right. Okay. Yes. Er, what do you suggest we do about our new friend Mr. the Meep, then?"
Out from his voluminous layers of fluff, Beep produced an unfeasibly large laser pistol.
"RUN!" the Doctor shouted.
Benny didn't need telling twice, and the pair of them raced into the brush, pursued by blasts of crimson light that crisped the leaves around them to ash and the maniacal laughter of the Meep.
The six pegasi were gathered in the atrium. The lighting still wasn't the best, but it was better than going outside and risking being seen. Flitter and Fluttershy delicately picked out the fine shards of glass one by one while Ditzy and Thunderlane stood back, awkwardly hanging around the base of one of the statues. Fortunately, the damage was largely superficial -- several small cuts, not deep enough to damage anything beyond the skin. After several minutes had gone by, Fluttershy had stepped back and pronounced that she, at the very least, couldn't see any more slivers of glass in Rainbow.
"Yeah, I think you should be alright too, CeeCee," Flitter said, after a few moments scrutinizing her sister's wounds.
"They should heal well enough," Fluttershy said. "I'd prefer to wash them, of course, to prevent infection. I'd apply bandages too, if we could, but, well..."
"We don't have any," Rainbow Dash said, sitting up with a grunt.
"Or water. Or food," Fluttershy noted.
"So we're just screwed in general?" Thunderlane asked, stepping into the conversation.
Fluttershy considered this. "Yes," she said. "I think that sums it up."
There was a long silence. "So... where do we go from here?" Ditzy asked.
"The Crusaders," Thunderlane said immediately. "They're still wandering around the tower. We have to find them before... before something happens to them."
Everypony nodded. None of them gave voice to the very real possibility that they might be too late. Dash forced a laugh. "I mean. Knowing them, we should be more worried about them happening to something else."
There were a few chuckles, but they hung hollow in the vast hall and gave way to a long and painful silence.
"So," said Cloudchaser. "Back the way we came, then."
There was a murmur of assent, and all six made a hasty exit from the foyer and back into the halls of the tower.
High above the pegasi, the earth pony contingent and Spike wandered the top of the tower aimlessly. Applejack was still somewhat steamed about their ignominious dismissal and walked along with her ears flat against her head. Mac seemed to be lost in thought. Spike was busily checking every door on the off-chance that Rarity might be imprisoned behind it, leaving Pinkie Pie to be the level-headed one for the moment. It was a position which she didn't relish, but was prepared to accept.
"So," she said. "Where do we go from here?"
"Back to th' tomb," Applejack said.
Pinkie sucked in a breath through her teeth. "I dunno, Jackie. It seemed like Twilight really didn't think we should stick around."
Applejack snorted. "Well, if she thinks she can jus' teleport us away an' expect us not to go back an' help her --"
"Applejack," Pinkie said. "We're talking about the mares who move the heavens themselves, two of the most powerful unicorns in the world who ascended into something even bigger and better, the mare who blasted an invading army out of the country with love, and the most powerful reality warper in existence fighting against somepony they might not be able to beat."
Applejack winced. Pinkie continued, more gently. "You know as well as the rest of us that Twilight didn't send us away because she didn't want us to help. She did it because she didn't want us to get disintegrated in the first half of a second of the fight."
Applejack winced again, harder. "Thanks fer that particular reminder."
Pinkie blinked, not quite following. Then the bit dropped. "Oh."
"Yep."
"You mean you --"
"Three times. Three different Applejacks. All the same way."
Now it was Pinkie's turn to wince. "I'm sorry."
"Weren't yer fault," Applejack said gruffly. "Ah know -- Ah know why Twilight did it. Tartarus, Ah'll say it; she was right to send us away. But y'know, Ah -- Ah died 'round 'bout..." She glanced up at the ceiling, mouth moving as she counted. "Thirty-seven times today. An' then Ah saw somewhere 'round infinity of me. An' basically, what Ah'm gettin' at here is, Ah've had a real fucked-up day an' Ah gotta keep m'self distracted from that somehow."
"Thirty-seven?" Pinkie squeaked, horrified.
"Uh..." Applejack tilted her head. "Yeah. An' then there was th' mirror thing. Which, uh..." She spared a glance back at Mac, who was gazing vaguely into the middle distance while Spike chattered at her nervously. Applejack continued in a lower voice. "Don't tell mah kin 'bout what we saw in there, alright? Don't wanna fuss 'em."
"I..." Pinkie trailed off, her mane deflating. "I don't wanna lose you either, Jackie."
Applejack sighed. "No. Ah don't reckon you do. But it ain't tomorrow. It ain't next week, next season, next year. We got time, yet. Time enough."
"... You wanna change the subject?"
"Do timberwolves bleed sap?"
Pinkie looked over her shoulder. "Hey, Mac! What's on your mind?"
Mac shook herself back to the present. "Ah, uh, me? Uh, nothin' much. Nope. Um. Jus', uh, thinkin' bout bein' trapped. In th' tomb. With Twilight. Terrible. Bad time."
Applejack arched an eyebrow. "Mhm," she said. "Awful close quarters th' two of y'all were in."
"Um. Eeyup."
Pinkie grinned. "Aww! Did you two smooooooch?"
Mac blushed so hard that her freckles turned the same color as the rest of her coat.
Pinkie gasped, her eyes lighting up. "You did!"
"Almost," Mac said hastily. "A lil' bit. Maybe. She mighta just been, uh..."
"Trying to feed you like a mother bird?" Spike teased.
"Eeyup. Nope! Nope nope nope!"
The others laughed, the tension falling from their shoulders. After a moment, Mac chuckled a little, too.
The laughter stopped abruptly as the tower shuddered. All four stood perfectly still and silent, gazing around them. "Do you..." Spike hesitated for a moment. "Do you think that was it? The end of the fight, I mean?"
"...Could be," Applejack allowed, turning in a slow circle. "Could very well be. Which, Ah gotta say, begs th' question of just who won."
There was a hollow knocking sound that echoed through the corridor. Everypony glanced around in confusion. Then, Mac's gaze fell on Pinkie. "Uh. Miz Pie?" she said.
"Hm?"
Mac rolled her eyes and gestured downward. Pinkie's knees were knocking together. She brightened up. "Ooh! Pinkie sense says, um..." Her smile faded. "Run."
Nopony questioned the Pinkie Sense, even less so when the hairy blue spider that was easily a head taller than Big Mac rounded the corner at the end of the hall.
Dinky slotted the last few pieces of the stained glass window into place. It had gotten easier and easier as she went, not only because there were fewer pieces to sort through, but because she could compare them to the parts of her identity that she had already pieced together. She had never been a big fan of jigsaw puzzles, generally speaking. The picture was already on the box. Why waste the effort on recreating it?
Now, though, she understood some of the satisfaction other ponies felt slotting the last few puzzle pieces into place. The window shimmered with iridescent patterns, the colorful icons seeming to flicker into life.
Dinky squinted suddenly. 'Seemed to,' her flank. The whole thing was moving in a dozen different ways at once. The window fractured again, but not into little shards -- it peeled into layers, like an onion. The thin, colorful cross-sections flicked out, surrounding her. Her eyes went wide as she recognized them for what they were -- now that she had reassembled her past and present, she was seeing glimmers of the future.
Or rather, futures.
Each one was different. She watched as the Crusaders killed the Valeyard only to be annihilated by the Nightmare. She watched as they vanquished the Nightmare only for the Valeyard to trap them in the Matrix for eternity. She watched as her friends lived, died, disintegrated, were trapped, were freed, leapt from the frying pan, fell into the fire. She snarled. "I never much liked Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, either."
She tried to study them, to get some idea of how the Crusaders could do any of the things depicted in the colorful glass, but they skipped around oddly. She was missing something, some piece of knowledge necessary to these scenarios.
Still, that in turn was some kind of knowledge. At least now she knew what she didn't know, which was a start. Perhaps if she watched the stained glass windows carefully, she could get some kind of clue. She stared at one after the other, letting the brightening colors seep into her brain. They hurt to look at. It was almost impossible to keep watching. But she had to look, had to learn.
Didn't she?
Dinky's eyes widened. Then she snapped them shut, pressing her hooves against her forehead. "No, you don't," she growled. "That's how you got into this mess, remember?"
In her mind's eye, she could still see the bright colors swirling, swarming her, jostling together, threatening to crack apart once more on one another's fragile edges. The picture was still broken, just in a different way.
"Back," she growled. "Back, damn you! You're not real yet, none of you, and if you keep it up, you never will be."
The light began to fade. She could tell from the way the insides of her eyelids darkened a few shades, from white to pale pink. "That's it," she murmured, trying her best to sound soothing. "Just calm down..."
In her mind, she pictured the window as it had been when it was whole. Outside, the clatter of glass and the whistle of wind faded to nothing. The inside of her eyelids faded from pink to magenta to red to dusky orange to twilight violet to midnight blue to, at long last, the refreshing black of oblivion.
The Doctor raced through the undergrowth before tripping on a root and tumbling down a ravine. He landed with a heavy thump and a grunt. After a few moments spent regaining his bearings, he pushed himself up onto all fours and glanced around. He'd lost Benny. That didn't worry him too much. All his friends wandered off at some point in the adventure. Which, thanks to Beep the Meep, this was rapidly becoming.
He chuckled. "I suppose I should be careful what I wish for," he said.
He had landed in what looked like a quarry. Sliding down the gravel hadn't done him any favors, and he was now bleeding slightly from several nasty scrapes on his barrel and face. He glanced around, looking for the forest. It was nowhere to be seen.
He sighed, rubbed the bridge of his muzzle. "Sure. Why not? This may as well happen," he grumbled. "Where am I, anyway?"
He started trotting along. It was chilly out, barely above freezing. The silence and isolation reminded him uncomfortably of his dream of Quiesca. Wherever this world was, though, it wasn't that. The rock was grey, and the sun was too distant, a chilly white haze in the blue, blue sky. It felt familiar, but he couldn't place the world.
Then he heard a mechanical whirring noise, not too far off. He spun around. A hatch had opened in the ground. He took a step back, nervous.
He relaxed when a familiar face popped out. "Benny!" he called.
She grinned at him, pulling herself onto the surface. "Hope you didn't mind the sudden scenery shift," she said. "We won't have to worry about Mr. the Meep anymore, I lost him in the tunnels."
"Tunnels? Scenery shift? You did that?" the Doctor asked.
"Well, sure," Benny said, dragging a heavy rock over the top of the hatch. "I can change. Monster can change. Why shouldn't Planet?"
"I suppose," he allowed. "But Benny -- where are we? I can almost place it..."
"Ah. Yes, that is the bad news," Benny admitted. The hatch opened and the rock fell. There was the sound of crunching metal, and a modified howl of protest. She grinned, slightly manically. "Welcome to beautiful Telos, Doctor! It may not look like much on the surface, but the underground life is really hopping. Well, for a given value of life. Native home of the Cryons, adopted home of the --"
"In-tru-derzz -" a synthetic voice buzzed. "You - will - be - like - uzz."
"Cybermen," the Doctor said. "Benny, can you --"
She was already sprinting off. The Doctor raced after her.
The world swam before the Doctor's eyes, quite literally. The planet flickered from one world to another without rhyme or reason. Dry, cold, hot, wet, populous, spartan, barren, it made no difference. He recognized a few of them on sight as he ran -- the barren plains of Skaro, the lush and well-tended gardens on Trakken, the red, dry soil of Mars -- but most of them all ran together in a blur of rocks, water, and vegetation, with occasional buildings for emphasis. The Cyberman lumbered along behind them. The Doctor glanced back. Really, it was more of a Cyberpony, far less refined than the metallic soldiers the Rani had created all those years ago -- a monsterous draft horse of steel and plastic. But terminology didn't much matter -- not while it was in hot pursuit of them.
The Doctor's mind whirled. "Benny!" he yelled. "Can you get us to the mines of Flidor?"
No sooner had he said it than it was done. They were in a low-ceilinged tunnel, with rough scars running along its walls. "Now what?" Benny called.
"Now, this!" the Doctor replied, whipping out his sonic. There was a buzzing noise and the walls began to shake. Dust flew everywhere.
"What are you trying to do, make it sneeze itself to death?" Benny demanded.
The Doctor stopped and grinned. "Nope. We're in a gold mine."
Benny skidded to a halt and looked back. In the clearing dust, she could see the Cyberpony slumped on the floor. "Of course," she said. "Gold interferes with their respirators, doesn't it?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yep. Now, can I suggest getting us out of here before this one gets the wherewithal to turn into something nastier?"
"Capital idea," Benny said. She gestured to a wall that definitely hadn't been there before. "You first! Age before beauty and all that."
The Doctor stuck his tongue out at her before trotting along the wall. As he went, he found that the mine fell away, revealing a chilly evening sky and wet pavements. He tasted the air. London. 1963. That sounded familiar.
And then he came to the gate. Big and blue, made of wood, painted with white letters. He took a step back. It read
I.M. Foreman
Scrap Merchant
76, Totter's Lane
"Oh," he said. He glanced at Benny. "So we are doing the Ghost of Christmas Past after all."
She examined the gate. "Seems to be the size of it," she agreed. "This is the place you first landed, isn't it?"
"Not first," the Doctor corrected. "We had a couple of adventures, first. But... in many ways... it was where I really started to become the man I am today." He glanced at her. "What did you mean, 'seems to be the size of it'? This isn't your doing?"
Benny sighed. "You know, you're being quite dense today. It's your mind. You're the one making all this, consciously or otherwise. I'm just here to be your Jiminy Cricket."
"So before, when we were just walking in the woods --"
"There was never really a plan," Benny said. "Not until you came up with one. All of this is you, Doctor. Every aspect of it is influenced by your mind, brought into being by the Matrix."
"Including the ruined Gallifrey."
"Yes."
The Doctor looked at the gates. "I'm not sure I want to go through," he admitted.
Benny grinned at him. "Well, that's what I'm here for," she said, shoving the door open and stepping into the world beyond.
The Doctor hesitated a moment. Then he sighed and followed his friend through the gate.
He had expected to find the old junkyard there, with the TARDIS humming softly in a corner. What he found instead was a jungle.
"Benny?"
"Yep?"
"Is this what being high feels like?"
"A bit," Benny said. "Your brain gets fuzzier, though, so it's easier to accept things like this. Where are we, anyway?"
"Still on Earth," the Doctor said. "Just a very, very, very, very long time ago from where we were standing just now..."
He glanced back. Surprisingly, the scrapyard gate was still standing there, looking entirely incongruous in the vast, overgrown landscape. "To be precise," he said absently, "I'd say we're around... mm, 100,000 B.C."
Benny looked at him sidelong. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that date's rather important."
"You said my mind was controlling all this," the Doctor said. "If we were going to turn up anywhere to learn a moral about Doctors Past, there's one time and place that tops the list."
He set off through the trees. Now it was Benny's turn to hurry after him. His face was grim. "Do I want to know?" she asked.
"Don't you always? I thought that was one of the main traits of an archaeologist."
"True."
"You'll see soon enough," the Doctor said simply, stopping to stare over a bush.
Benny peered out alongside him to try and see what he meant. At first, she couldn't see anything more than matted plants, brush, and trees. But then, figures came into view, flickering into focus like an old television set. Six figures in all, three mares and three stallions. Two of them were wearing heavy fur pelts. One of them appeared to have been injured. Several of the other ponies were trying to care for the wounded one, though the mare in furs seemed to be trying to fend the others off her compatriot. It was almost as though she thought they were trying to do him further harm.
Only one stood aside from the rest of the group -- an old unicorn, wearing a monocle and a shock of white hair. His lips were pursed in a thin line as he glanced back at the injured stallion. He levitated a heavy rock into the air and inspected it, nodding grimly when he found it satisfactory. He turned to face the others.
The scene froze.
Bernice took in a deep breath through her nose. "Well," she said. "It's not as though I didn't know that you'd killed before."
"An innocent life," the Doctor said hollowly. "A wounded caveman, who was interfering in our escape. His name, I think, was Za? There's his partner, Hur, of course, and my granddaughter. Poor, dear Susan."
"And the other two?"
"Her teachers. The first humans I ever traveled with, Ian and Barbara. I hated them, at first! The things you learn on Gallifrey, all lesser species this and Laws of Time that... but really, they were the best things that ever happened to me."
The scene started again. The old Doctor moved toward the injured caveman, raising the rock. He was halted by a hoof falling on his shoulder. He turned, looking rather guilty, to meet Ian's stern gaze. He began stuttering excuses, and there the scene stopped again.
The Doctor sighed. "But for the grace of Chesterton," he said, "I would've done it. I would have distracted Susan first, naturally, but she would have suspected. She was always a remarkably gifted empath."
"You said there was a lesson here," Benny said. "What was it?"
The Doctor pointed to his earlier self. "I felt guilty," he said. "I was guilted by a piddly little temporal, marvelous, brilliant human out of killing someone for my own selfish reasons. That was the day I learned what a wonderful thing a little mercy, a little humanity could be." He knocked withers with her lightly. "That's why I like having you lot around so much."
"Was that the day you started calling yourself 'the Doctor'?" Benny asked.
"Er. Yes, actually, but for quite unrelated reasons," the Doctor admitted. "They called me Dr. Foreman, and I didn't want to listen to them butcher my actual name, and it just kind of stuck."
Benny nodded. "Reasonable. That thing has what, seven consonants in a row at one point?"
"It's easier to say when you're not stuck in four piddly little dimensions," the Doctor said.
"Oh, don't you start that again..." Benny trailed off as she realized that the scene before her had changed. Now, the two caveponies were both lying dead on the ground, and Susan and the two humans were nowhere to be seen. Hunched over the bodies, levitating a rock in his red magic, the Valeyard looked around, his eyes cold and his face spattered with blood.
Then the scene faded entirely. "There but for the grace of Chesterton," the Doctor repeated quietly as the landscape fell away from around them. |
Ruler of Everything | The Invasion of Time | The Doctor-thing hadn't spoken much since his comment about a new Gallifrey rising. Perhaps he'd realized that he'd let his mask slip. Perhaps he just wasn't all that talkative, which was, frankly, just another piece of evidence that this was not the Doctor that Romana knew and loved.
She hadn't let him out of her sight since; not tailing him, exactly, nor sticking to his side like glue. She was just always careful to keep one eye on him at all times. He didn't seem to be doing much. Mainly, he puttered around the barrier device, trying subtly to comprehend how it worked. How to deactivate it, like as not. She smiled grimly. She would be truly astonished if he was able to guess her little secret. She doubted he, egotistical as he seemed to be, thought her capable of doing what she had. Frankly, she had surprised herself, rather. She had to stifle a chuckle at the thought -- it was a horrible situation, after all, and she had to get her laughs where she could find them.
When the thing in the Doctor's body wasn't investigating her machine (read: when he realized she was watching him), he was studying the rift with his sonic, peering at it narrowly. He looked rather anxious. No, not anxious. Impatient.
The crowd of ponies around him, he disregarded utterly. That was rather convenient for the contingent of guards which seeped in through the crowd, slowly pushing the civilians to the outer edges of the square as they moved to surround the Time Lord.
Romana caught sight of Fancy Pants whispering frantically, furtively to Fleur de Lis. She saw the commander's eyes go wide, then icy and narrow. Her elegant, angular jaw clenched tight and she nodded grimly. She met Romana's gaze and arched a perfect eyebrow, inquisitive.
Romana hesitated a moment, then bowed her head and began to back out of the closing circle of guards. She almost screamed as she backed into somepony, spinning around to find a confused Starlight Glimmer. "Romana? What's going on here?" she hissed.
"The Doctor's been compromised," Romana said shortly. She considered the other mare for a long moment. "If things go south -- and mark my words, they will -- can I depend on you to help get the citizens out of town square?"
"I..." Starlight's face ran the gamut of emotions -- shock, fear, sorrow, anger -- before settling on resolute determination. "Yeah. Obviously. Er, your machine..."
"Don't worry about that," Romana said. "Even if they break it, the barrier won't come down."
"Oh. That's good. Uh, might make it a little hard to take it down later, though."
Romana was silent for a long moment. She forced a smile. "Don't worry about the machine," she reiterated. "Trust me. Breaking it won't do anything."
Starlight side-eyed her. "Y'know, I've got a lot of experience with ponies trying to hide behind half-truths."
"Have you indeed? Good for you. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Romana sidestepped the other mare and hurried out of the square. She didn't look back.
Sweetie Belle had stopped singing a while ago. Her throat had started to get rather strained, and her mind was still fuzzy with faded adrenaline. But to try and keep herself awake, she'd started trying to compose in her head, tapping out a four-note rhythm on the ground. Tap-tap-t'tap, tap-tap-t'tap.
"Ooo weeee oooooooh," she crooned. "Dah, dah, daaaa..."
"Sweetie Belle?"
Sweetie jerked back to consciousness with a snort and glanced around. Four of her friends were standing over her, concern and amusement present in equal measure on their faces.
"What's that y'all were singin'?" Apple Bloom asked.
Sweetie blushed and hurriedly struggled to rise to her hooves. "Oh, it wasn't much of anything," she said with a wave of her hoof. "Just, y'know. A little ditty I was making up, that's all."
"I thought it sounded great," Button said from his position on Apple Bloom's back.
Sweetie beamed. "Aw! Thanks!" She paused for a moment. "Wait. What happened? Why are you on Bloom's back? You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"Er..." Button glanced down. "Define 'hurt'."
"He donated some of his bone stuff to help fix me up," Scootaloo said succinctly. "So now we're both... not good, but I'm way better than I was and he's only a little worse. So, y'know, net positive?"
"Oh." Sweetie took a moment to absorb that. "Wow. That was really good of you, Button."
He shrugged, a little embarrassed. "It was nothing, honest. I know any of you would've done the same for me."
Rumble rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Believe me, we tried, but Mr. Martyr over here wouldn't let us."
"I told you guys, you've got to conserve your strength," Button said.
"I know, I know," Rumble said with a shake of his head. "I'm just giving you a hard time, man. We're all proud of you."
Button reddened further.
"So!" Scootaloo said. "Uh, any progress with Dinky?"
Sweetie Belle bit her lip. "I don't know," she admitted. "I can't see into the Zero Room, and it doesn't look like anything's changed, but..." she trailed off. "I just don't know," she repeated after a few moments' thought.
Apple Bloom rubbed at her chin, concern writ large on her face. "Should we... Ah dunno, should we go in an' check on 'er?"
Rumble scrunched up his muzzle at that. "I dunno," he said. "The TARDIS was kinda insistent about Sweetie and me leaving."
"Well..." Sweetie said. "I mean, that, or she was just looking at the future and saw that we left. That's kinda the impression I got, anyway."
Rumble thought about that and rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean... I guess? It's hard to tell when you're trying to talk to someone who doesn't really understand linear time."
There was a grumpy rumble that echoed down the halls. Rumble coughed. "By which I mean, someone whose understanding of the true nature of time is too far beyond that of mere mortals for us to comprehend?"
There was a more pleased humming sound in response.
Apple Bloom turned to the door. "Ah don't reckon it'd hurt t' check in on her, right?"
"I mean, it could," Scootaloo said. "Arguably, it very much possibly could."
But Apple Bloom had already set Button down next to Sweetie Belle and was opening the door.
Dinky was still suspended in midair, limbs hanging outstretched as some unknown will held back the effects of gravity on her. This was made slightly disturbing by the way her head hung limply, more disturbing by the way the room was lit up red, and most disturbing of all by the way Dinky didn't seem to be breathing.
"Aw, shit," said Apple Bloom. She grabbed for Dinky, checking for a pulse. After a moment, she felt it, faint but present. "Okay, she's alive," she said.
"What do we do?" Sweetie asked, her voice high with fear.
"Keep back!" Bloom said. "Uh, CPR, right? Ah know that, ya gotta give 'em space."
"Do you know anything else about CPR?" Rumble demanded.
"Yes! But not fer how t' give it t' somepony floatin' in midair!"
"Try to push her down," Scootaloo suggested.
Bloom nodded and put her hooves on Dinky's chest. Much to her relief, the smaller mare sank to the ground as she pushed, and she stayed there. "Alright. Compressions," Bloom muttered. "Forceful, but not so much Ah break her."
She started pushing up and down on Dinky's barrel, keeping time in her head as best she could, painfully aware that going too fast or slow might have terrible outcomes. Then she took a deep breath in, put her head down, and exhaled into Dinky's lungs.
The unicorn's eyes flew open, and she struggled to sit upright, bewildered. "Wha' happened?" she demanded, her eyes not quite focused. "Where 'm I?"
"Dinky? Are y'all alright?" Bloom demanded.
"Mmmph. Not sure yet." Dinky shook her head as the red light of the room began to fade to its usual tranquil pinkish-white. "Bright side... m'brain doesn't feel like it's charcoaled anymore."
"That does sound like a plus," Button agreed.
"You weren't breathin'," Bloom said bluntly.
"Huh." Dinky scrubbed at her eyes with both hooves and blinked to clear them. "Yeah. Okay, that explains a lot." She coughed. "Uh, thank you. For saving my life." She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "Words are... little hard right now. Think I might still be rebooting."
"Understandable," Bloom said, helping her to her hooves. "Can ya walk?"
Dinky took a few hesitant steps, then nodded.
"Good, 'cause Ah think we've reached carryin' capacity. But y'all can lean on me if ya need to."
"Right. Good. Thanks." Dinky paused. "Where are we going?"
"Back to the console room," Scootaloo said. "If we're gonna take down that thing, we have to know what we're up against."
In the console room itself, red lights like the ones that had illuminated the Zero Room were fading away, gone long before any of the Crusaders arrived to observe them...
The six pegasi flew along the dim corridors of the tower. The four who had received Wonderbolt training fell into a silent, diamond-shaped formation. This left Fluttershy and Ditzy fluttering desperately to keep up with the others as they wound their way up the tower, corridor by corridor in their search for the Crusaders.
It was Fluttershy who heard the noise first, her ears sharpened from years of searching for lost ducklings, talking with mice, and listening for when Angel Bunny became suspiciously quiet. There was something moving in the shadows. She stopped, hovering in midair, and Ditzy crashed into her, sending the pair of them sprawling and falling to the ground.
"Ow," Ditzy said. "Um. Oops."
"Shh," Fluttershy said, eyes darting around. "I heard something. There's something in here --"
A creepy cackle rose from the shadows, and all the ponies looked around. From the darkness, an old mare emerged. Then two more followed her. Time hadn't been kind to them, and they seemed eager to repay that cruelty. "Look here, Sister Doomfinger," one of the crones in the back croaked. "A pack of ponies out for a run."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Seriously? This is all the Nightmare's got? Old mares? Uh, yeah, see you all never. Bye!"
She made to fly over their heads, but a wall of crackling light halted her. "Old mares, you say?" the leader asked. "Oh, yes. Old indeed, older than you can imagine. We Carrionites were old when the universe was young, and with age comes wisdom. For instance..."
The one who hadn't spoken yet, Doomfinger, raised a hoof. "Imprison those who dare to fly, by oath I bind thee, pegasi."
There was a pop and a flash of gold, and the four who had been in the air vanished without a trace. Ditzy and Fluttershy gaped. The three old mares turned their gazes to the duo.
"Okay," Ditzy said evenly. "Now when I say run --"
Fluttershy was already nearly out of sight, and Ditzy quickly raced after her, the laughter of the Carrionites pursuing them.
Pinkie and Mac had become separated from the other two at some point, but at least they had managed to evade the giant spiders. This was something of a mixed blessing, because Mac had started to slowly shift into a ball of unraveling nerves, increasingly certain that her sister and one of her best friends had become spider food.
Pinkie didn't think that was especially likely. Those spiders were big enough to face the full brunt of one of Applejack's kicks and, well, spiderwebs were very flammable. But she didn't think that Mac was in any kind of a mood to listen. The silence was deafening. She was like that -- even at the best of times, she wasn't a big talker, and when she got flustered, she practically drained all the noise out of the room with how loudly she was thinking. Pinkie wasn't quite sure how best to handle a mood like this. Her closest reference was her baby sister Marble, and Marble's silences weren't quite the same thing -- Marble wanted to fade into the background, while Mac couldn't care less -- she was too absorbed to think about fading away or standing out or anything.
So, Pinkie merely walked right alongside the farmer, a silent companion for her to lean on.
Together, they wandered aimlessly through the corridors; Pinkie chose to look on the bright side of the thing; they were at least no more lost now than they had been before. And surely, if she hadn't known where she was before, but she now knew that she wasn't there anymore, then arguably she and Mac had become less lost, hadn't they?
She was very pleased with this twist of logic, and she was about to share it with Mac when they both heard the voices echoing down the hall. "Maaac! Pinkie! Where are y'all?"
Mac inhaled sharply. "AJ?" she called. "Applejack! Can y'all hear me?"
There was a momentary silence. "Yep! Keep talkin'; we'll find ya."
Mac hurried toward the voice, Pinkie hot on her hooves. "Ah'm comin', AJ! Where are ya?"
Down the hallway, a figure stepped into view. Mac ran faster, but Pinkie hesitated. She began to slowly back away as the Applejack-shaped figure expanded out into a big orange spongy thing dotted all over with pockmarks and suckers. Mac registered the deception too late, and with one touch from the creature, she fell to the ground, insensate, before vanishing in a golden flash. Pinkie turned to flee, but found a big, Spike-shaped presence blocking her way. In the fleeting moments before she lost consciousness, Pinkie learned what the Pinkie-sense for 'My friend has been replaced with a Zygon duplicate' was.
Fleur de Lis strode through the crowd, her face an icy mask. Fancy Pants walked at her right, Starlight Glimmer at her left. On the one hoof, Fleur didn't approve of civilian involvement in military affairs. On the other hoof, this was a messy situation, everyone was trapped inside this temporal bubble, and Starlight Glimmer's magic skills were nothing short of astounding. There were no better options; leave Glimmer to her own devices and her egotism and misguided heroism would mean she'd become a loose cannon.
She pushed her reflections to the back of her mind as she approached the false Doctor. He was waiting in the middle of the square, his expression sour. "You know, I do feel like we could do without all these soldiers tramping around, Fleur."
Her lips tightened. That line had sounded so like something the Doctor would say, but it sounded flat and emotionless coming from the horse's mouth, as though he was just trying to deliver a line. "Kindly do not insult my intelligence further," she said coldly. "You may drop the pretense."
The Doctor's face went slack with surprise for a moment as though he honestly hadn't expected them to have worked it out already. Then he sneered. "Very well. What gave me away? Was it the comment about the second rise of Gallifrey? Because I didn't really mean that one. The Time Lords have long since outlived their usefulness. The Doctor was right about that much -- they were decadent, corrupt, and, might I add, so terribly limited in their ambitions, weakened and dulled by their complacency. We were gods. Once upon a time, planets rose and fell by our command, but then the miserable fools thought that because of the Monan uprising and subsequent self-immolation, it was time to stop interfering in the affairs of the universe. Theirs was a pantheon that deserved to fall."
Fleur studied him with bored eyes. "Imagine my relief that you do not intend to turn Equestria into such a world," she said. "However, I must still ask that you vacate that body at once."
The thing laughed. "Or what? You'll destroy me?"
Fleur didn't blink. "Yes."
He tilted his head. "Really. You'd kill the Doctor for that? The pony who helped free you from the life of an assassin? The pony who introduced you to your dear husband? The pony who helped talk you through your dysphoria, helped you through your transition?"
There was a long pause.
"It's what the Doctor would want," Fancy said firmly. "Far better that, than to let a brigand like you cause mayhem and destruction in his name."
"By all means, then," the thing said, almost lazily. "Shoot me down. I'm not leaving."
The smile fell from his face abruptly as a crossbow bolt thudded into his shoulder, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"Ah," he said, bleeding rather profusely.
"That was easy," Starlight said.
Fleur's nostrils flared in fury as she erected a hasty shield spell. "Idiot!" she snarled. "Whoever shot that, if we survive this, you're on indefinite probation! That won't kill him!"
The Doctor's body began to glow unnaturally bright. He was laughing, blood dribbling from his mouth. Then his body exploded in golden flame. More shield spells were hastily thrown up, some of them too late, and Fleur heard the screams as her soldiers burned in the inferno. The flames blasted out for almost half a minute before fading. A new figure rose on shaking white legs. A hoof reached up, gripping its necktie tightly for several seconds before ripping it off. Blood-red eyes scanned the remaining soldiers.
"You were wrong, Fancy," said the Valeyard quietly. "I won't be causing mayhem and destruction in any name but my own."
The Doctor wasn't quite sure what happened. One moment, he was walking along with Benny through the jungle where he'd nearly killed a caveman, and the next, he was undergoing the psychic equivalent of being hit with a half-brick in a sock.
When he regained his vision and his powers of speech, he found a familiar, worried face peering over him. "Doctor! Doctor, are you alright?"
Grey face. Golden eyes. "Dizzy," he slurred.
"I bet you are," Ditzy said, helping him rise to a sitting position. "That was pretty nasty..."
The Doctor blinked, glanced around. He was sitting on a park bench on a sunny day in Ponyville. He shook his head. Had everything that had happened been no more than a dream?
Ditzy scratched her head. "So, er... Welcome to the Present, I guess?" she said. "Do you want to go to Ponyville General? I mean, I'm not medically trained, but I guess I could be Martha again, or Harry Sullivan..."
"Ah," said the Doctor. "Not a dream."
"No."
He pointed at her. "Not actually my wife."
"Define 'actually', I guess?" she said, glancing away.
"Please... choose a different face," he said. "Not someone I'm actually traveling with at the moment, please? It's unpleasant to separate the two of you."
Ditzy tilted her head, considering her options, and suddenly, it was Daring Do sitting before him. "Better?"
"...I suppose," the Doctor conceded.
"Great, because we actually have a lot less time than we thought," Daring said. "So. Good news or bad news?"
The Doctor winced. "Hit me with the good news first."
"Technically speaking, you're not dead yet."
The Doctor took in a long breath. "I see."
Daring glanced down. "The bad news is, uh..."
"It is a little self-evident from the good news, yes," the Doctor said waspishly.
"Yeah. Your body regenerated into the Valeyard."
The Doctor clutched at his forehead. "I... alright. But I'm not the Valeyard yet."
"Apparently? The Valeyard took over your body while you were out, and it looks like there's some kind of out-of-time barrier thing in place... I don't know, you're the expert in this stuff. All I can tell you for sure is that it wasn't caused by any ancient Mesoequestrian or Tenochtitlan artifacts."
"That's very helpful, yeah," the Doctor said.
She glared at him. "Look, I'm doing my best here, alright?"
He sighed. "Yes, quite. I'm sorry, that regeneration really rang my bell." He massaged his forehead with a hoof. "And I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that I did just die, in some way or another."
Daring moved to pat him on the shoulder, but hesitated. "Uh. Yeah, not really sure what the appropriate condolences are in this situation, and we don't have time to make tea, so that's basically all of my options ruled out. Can we just do whatever you need to do here? Because again, you're alive right now, but I'm not sure how long that's gonna last."
The Doctor sighed, nodded. "Fine. What are we looking at?"
Daring shrugged. "Dunno. Your mind --"
"My rules, right..." the Doctor said, glancing around. "Alright. If this is the present... Show me what's happening in Ponyville right now."
The atmosphere changed. The sky darkened, then was covered up completely by a shimmering barrier. A golden rift in reality split the air overhead asunder, and the world was cast in flickering golden light and dark blue shadows. After a moment, the streets flickered and blurred, and suddenly the Doctor and Daring were in town square. At least, they were in what remained of it. The surrounding houses were on fire. Soldiers were swarmed everywhere, their ranks decimated by the force of the regenerative energy that had been unleashed. All of it was frozen, a single instant of crystallized time. The Doctor saw Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis standing with a unicorn whom the Doctor hadn't met, but recognized nonetheless from photographs and stories. In the middle of it all stood the Valeyard, terrible in his triumph, skin still glowing with fresh regeneration energy. "Well," Daring said. "That's bad."
"You don't say," the Doctor retorted.
"But I don't think that's really what we're here to see..." she mused.
"Hm?" was all the Doctor had time to say before she grabbed him around the barrel and flew up and through the rift.
As they passed through, she released him, and the Doctor fell from her grasp and struck the hard stone floor. "Would you cut that out?" he demanded. "All this to-ing and fro-ing is making me giddy!"
"Uh-huh," said Daring, not really listening. "Hey. You remember how I said it was bad down there?"
"... Yes," the Doctor said warily, rising to his hooves.
"Fun fact, this is worse."
The Doctor looked around and grimaced. "Yes. Yes, it is."
Imprisoned ponies, beloved friends all, hung overhead in shining golden spheres, like horrible Christmas baubles. But there was something else, standing like a beacon of hope in the middle of the room.
"The TARDIS!" the Doctor cried, running toward his beloved box.
He scrabbled at the door handle, but could find none. Assuming that he'd just stumbled onto the wrong side of the box, he raced around the outside, but the doors were simply gone.
"I don't think she wants to let you in right now," Daring observed.
"Once again, your powers of insight astound me," the Doctor said flatly. He sighed and rested his forehead against the wooden door. "But you're right. The old girl has enough to worry about right now."
"Sure, sure. Anyway, I think there's another box you should take a look at," Daring said.
The Doctor glanced around. Daring was standing at the side of the sarcophagus in the center of the room. He groaned. "Archaeologists. What is it about death that so attracts you?"
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Why Dr. Pot, I don't believe we've been introduced. The name's Kettle."
The Doctor grumbled at that, but walked up to join her. She gestured at the carving on the surface. "Look familiar?" she asked.
The Doctor felt an uncomfortable prickle run down his spine as he studied his own features, carved as they were into the stone. "This was where I was sitting when..." he trailed off.
"When you fell into your own personal Tartarus?" Daring asked.
"Yes. The Valeyard was always rather theatrical. This must have seemed to him appropriate symbolism," the Doctor said. "Though I still can't understand why we're here. My subconscious may be guiding me, but my mind can't seem to make heads nor tails of it all."
"Can't?" Daring asked. "Or won't?"
The Doctor tilted his head at her. "I'm not sure what you're trying to say."
"It's like Totter's Yard all over again," Daring said impatiently. "You got all the way to the gate, and then you froze up. Well, I'm not pushing through this one, Doctor. You have to do it yourself."
He stared at the top of the sarcophagus for a long moment. "Will you... do it with me?" he asked hesitantly.
Daring's eyes softened just a little bit. "Yeah. 'Course."
Together, they pushed the stone casket open, the lid falling and breaking into a dozen pieces as it clattered down the steps, and they peered inside. They couldn't see the bottom.
"Allons-y?" Daring asked, elbowing him in the barrel.
The Doctor stood at the edge. "Allons-y," he agreed. Together, they leapt into the pit. |
Ruler of Everything | The Five Doctors | The fight was terrifyingly brief. The guards fought bravely and well, but every injury the Valeyard suffered was healed within moments, accompanied by a smaller, but no less deadly, gout of golden flame.
One by one the soldiers fell. Starlight tried desperately to protect as many ponies as she could, but whenever her attention was on one group of soldiers, the Valeyard would strike at another.
"Fall back!" Fleur called. "All of you!"
The remaining soldiers did as they were told. Starlight, on the other hoof, stayed dug in, firing spells and blocking shots from the Valeyard.
"Glimmer!" Fleur roared. "Disengage!"
"If I do that, you're all toast," Starlight shouted back, her face tight and twisted in a mask of concentration. "Go! I'll hold him off!"
"But --"
Fancy Pants grabbed her and pulled her out of the square. It was now empty, save for Starlight, the Valeyard, and dozens upon dozens of charred corpses.
Neither of the combatants let up for even a moment as the soldiers withdrew. Each of them knew that a moment's distraction could -- and would -- be instantly fatal. Starlight cast a ray of scorching flame, but the heat was dissipated by a blast of entropy from the Valeyard. That entropy moved on to age Starlight into dust, but she redirected it into the ground, making the grass wither and die, the earth itself crumbling under the forces of erosion.
And on and on it went. A freezing spell was met with a portal to Tartarus, was met with a beam of radiant fire, was met with a wave of despair, and so on and so forth. The battle wore on for what felt like hours, but was in reality closer to ten minutes.
And then it was over. There was no grand final spell, no last-minute trick. Starlight was only mortal, that was all. Eventually, her powers and energy waned. Her shield shattered under the Valeyard's onslaught, sending her sprawling into a pile of still-smoldering bodies. She groaned and looked up to see her opponent approaching her slowly, still expecting a final trick. Her horn sparked and spat, but nothing happened.
The Valeyard stood over her now, his expression unreadable as he gazed down at her over the bridge of his muzzle. "Well?" she spat. "Are you going to kill me or not?"
"I haven't decided yet," he responded. "On the one hoof... I want to. I really would enjoy that, you know. Besides, it would ensure that you can't do something stupid later on, for instance, continue trying to resist me. I really should kill you. And yet..."
He tilted his head, looking like a large, evil bird. "There's something about you," he murmured. "A note of potential that could become so very useful later on, once we've finished with this universe and can move on to the next one."
"I'll never serve you," Starlight spat.
"Perhaps not. But my associate is much, much harder to refuse. For now, Miss Glimmer -- au revoir."
There was a flash of light, and Starlight was frozen in time, golden frost etching complex patterns over her body. Her mouth and eyes were wide in a furious, silent scream.
The Valeyard smiled thinly, admiring his work before he turned his attention to the temporal machine still sitting in the middle of the square. He levitated it into the air, threw his head back and laughed, then ripped it in half.
The following moments were excessively anticlimactic. The temporal barrier did not crumble. The Matrix port did not destabilize and begin devouring the planet. In fact, nothing happened at all.
He looked at the machine. Sparks flew from either end. Nothing inside was moving. Yet, nothing outside had changed, either. He grit his teeth. "Romana," he snarled, pacing off to find his erstwhile companion.
The Doctor landed with a thump in the ruins of his home planet. He groaned, rolling onto his back. Daring fluttered down to hover beside him.
"Seven out of ten for style, but the landing's really gonna cost you," she remarked.
With some difficulty, the Doctor levered himself up into a sitting position. "Alright. Now that we're back in this nightmare, would you care to explain why I have to suffer through this all over again?"
"We're looking at the present," Daring said impatiently. "Your current state of mind is vitally important to how this is all going to play out."
The Doctor looked around. Shadowy shapes moved in the broken buildings. "Doesn't look very promising," he said darkly.
"Ruins usually don't," Daring replied. "The question is, as with all ruins, why do they look like this? What happened in the past to affect the present?"
The Doctor looked at her flatly. "Well, there was this little thing called the Time War..."
Daring rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay, but what about them?"
The Doctor caught sight of some very menacing glares being directed at him from usually friendly faces. "I led them to their deaths," he said.
"No, you fucking didn't," Daring said flatly. "Like, ninety percent of them are alive and well."
"Alive, maybe, but well?" the Doctor argued. "When people get near me, they end up getting burned. I know that, but every time, I still get close to them. I still invite them onto the TARDIS, knowing the risks, knowing that it isn't safe, knowing that they always leave in the end."
"You invited them," Daring said. "But they chose to come with you. Well, okay, not Ian and Barbara, but everyone else. You think we don't know that it won't be safe? When we start traveling with you, it's usually right after we nearly died three times in one day, but we come along anyway."
The Doctor pursed his lips and glanced away.
"I wouldn't have traded my time traveling with you for the world," Daring said. "I don't think any of us would. Why can't you see that? Why can't you accept that we made our own choices? You've saved all of our lives time and again, even given yours in exchange. But when you think of us -- your friends -- you see us like this?"
"It hurts too much," the Doctor said quietly. "What else could they be?"
Daring shook her head. "Doctor. What I'm about to say is going to sound hurtful, and I don't mean it to be, but these are monsters of your own making. You built them in your lab and set them free, and they're destroying everything else here."
The Doctor looked down at the ground for a long moment. "Can we please move onto the Spirit of Doctors Yet to Come?" he asked.
There was a long silence. "...You know that isn't going to be better."
"Please?" he asked.
Daring sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, alright."
When the Doctor glanced up again, Daring was gone. In her place was an older mare, golden curls spilling down her off-white back. On her flank was emblazoned a stylized question mark. She quirked a smile at him. "Hello, sweetie," said River Song.
The Valeyard found Romana in the town bar, empty apart from the two Time Lords. She had practically wrapped herself up in her pale pink wings, but turned to glare at him as he walked in. Sitting in front of her was a glass of sparkling golden liquid.
The Valeyard sneered. "Ginger ale? I expected more from you, Romana. Perhaps it was foolish to. You always were a rather weak leader."
"Killing people to get your way is hardly evidence of your strength of will, nor of your intellect," Romana noted. "Some of the greatest idiots in history have managed to do that. Anyway, why shouldn't I have a drink? I doubt I'll be around for long enough to have to deal with the hangover."
"True enough." The Valeyard walked toward her, letting the door to the bar fall shut behind him. "What did you do, Romana?"
She looked over at him archly. "You'll have to be more specific. I do so much these days."
The light in the bar took on a golden hue. Romana merely turned back to the bar and took another long chug of her drink.
"How does the barrier work?" the Valeyard demanded.
Romana didn't even deign to glance at him. "I would have thought that would have been obvious, even to someone who only got a seventy-two percent in temporal theory."
"Those grades were supposed to be locked--" the Valeyard clenched his jaw shut, pursing his lips tightly together. After a long moment, he spoke through gritted teeth. "How do I turn off the barrier?"
"You don't," Romana said simply.
The Valeyard chuckled, deep and low in his throat. "Oh, you'll tell me how. One way or another, I'll get it out of you."
Romana turned around on the bar stool and rolled her eyes at him. "No. I mean, there is no way to deactivate the temporal barrier, not with that device. I designed it to erect a bubble around Ponyville that would never be taken down. Obviously."
The Valeyard's mouth hung open slightly. He was utterly lost for words. Romana sniffed at him and turned back to her glass.
"But -- but why?" he demanded after several seconds of floundering. "You've damned yourself and this entire town alongside you. This is as much a prison for you as it is for us."
"Mm," Romana hummed with a short nod. "Yes, that seems to sum it up."
"You'll all suffer for this. You've built yourself a personal hell, and I will be your devil for eternity. You will die a thousand thousand times before the first moment of eternity passes, watch as your friends suffer the same endless torment, listen as they curse you for building this prison."
"Will I?" Romana asked drily. "Gosh. I hadn't realized."
The Valeyard snarled. "Don't you understand? The Time War will be as nothing compared to what I'll unleash on you and yours."
Romana laughed at that. "Good grief, you really are compensating for something, aren't you? And as it happens, I understand perfectly well. The one who's running behind in this conversation is you. You'll never understand my motivations, Valeyard, and you never will. I'm afraid you dissociated from that aspect of yourself quite some time ago." She picked up her glass of ginger beer and drained it, slamming it back on the counter when she had finished.
"Now. Is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked, turning to face the Valeyard dead on, not flinching at his furious expression.
The golden light in the bar burned brighter and brighter. Romana pursed her lips and shut her eyes tight. A single tear trickled through, then boiled away as the Time Lady burst once more into golden flames.
The Valeyard walked away from the Stick and Carrot, not once looking back as its thatched roof began to smolder and glow. Behind him, a pale grey unicorn with curly chestnut locks stumbled out of the bar, choking and wheezing. The first Romana glared at her departing foe with eyes watering from the smoke. She did not curse at him, merely watched him balefully as he walked away. She turned back to the bar and walked inside to try and put out the fire before it spread too far, though she suspected it would be an exercise in futility. Everything was, now.
"Why you?" the Doctor asked. "I barely knew you, and I saw you die --"
The mare from the Library smiled at him. "Oh, sweetie. You might not know me yet, but I certainly know you. Anyway, since the last two were archaeologists as well, it seemed like a good idea to keep the theme going."
The Doctor pulled a face at that. "I'm a time traveler. I --"
"Yes, yes, you point and laugh at archaeologists," River said briskly. "You know, you really don't have time to waste on rehashing old ground, so if you're quite ready to move on?"
"You know, all of you seem to be getting more impatient as time goes on, too," the Doctor grumbled.
"Well, as I believe I mentioned, you happen to be running rather short on that particular commodity," River replied, her voice clipped. "Which is why I've taken the liberty of changing scenes while you were distracted."
The Doctor glanced around, surprised. In all the fuss, he hadn't even noticed Gallifrey fading away and being replaced by... whatever this was.
"River? Where are we?" the Doctor asked, turning in a slow circle. They were standing in a plain-looking courtyard, filled with a faint mist. It was circular, made of smooth grey stone, and almost entirely unadorned aside from some very plain-looking columns along the walls. Between the columns, corridors branched off in all directions. At least, he assumed they were all corridors. Most of them -- all but two, in fact -- were blocked by locked doors.
She gestured around. "We're in the future, sweetie. Do try to keep up."
The Doctor shook his head. "I don't understand."
River sighed and gestured to the doors. "These are your immediate potential futures. As you can see, quite a lot of them have been closed off. I'm sure you can guess whose fault that is."
The Doctor nodded. "Only two choices left. So, what, I just pick the one I want?"
"When has it ever been that easy?"
The Doctor nodded reluctantly. "So what, then? If we don't go down the corridors, what are we doing here? Just waiting?"
"Yes."
"Oh." The Doctor pondered this. "...Waiting for what?"
"Us, I imagine," said a bright, Northern-accented voice. Out of the corridor on the left, three ponies stepped out -- a tall, gangly pegasus in a bowtie and fez, an old batpony with tremendously cross eyebrows, and a short earth pony wearing a rainbow-striped shirt and a grey coat.
The one in the bowtie waved. "Hallo! We're the Doctor!"
"Possibly," the old one added. "That's looking less certain than ever at the moment."
"Doesn't hurt to be optimistic," Bow Tie retorted.
Eyebrows rolled his eyes at that.
Rainbows sighed. "C'mon, you two. Would you rather bicker or ensure our continued existence?"
The other two grumbled a bit, but turned back to look at the Doctor.
The Doctor himself was frowning. "You're my replacements, then? A P.G. Wodehouse reject, a retired rockstar, and a kindergarten teacher?"
"Watch it, prettyboy," Eyebrows growled.
River smirked in the background. "You know, I simply can't tell you what I'm thinking right now."
Everypony glanced at her, then looked away with varying degrees of embarrassment.
"So..." the Doctor said. "If you represent one possible future, I suppose the other tunnel..."
"No prizes for guessing that, no," Eyebrows agreed, scowling at the alternate path. "Where is the Knacker's Yard, anyway? He never struck me as the fashionably late type."
"More the 'annoyingly early and looking pointedly at his watch when you walk in' type," Rainbows agreed.
"Flattering words," said a sandpaper-dry voice from behind them. "Punctuality is the politeness of princes, after all."
River and all four of the Doctors looked around in shock. Standing at the other side of the courtyard, a pale figure stepped out of the swirling mists that had concealed him.
Bow Tie took a step back. "That's... not quite what I was expecting," he admitted.
"You're not alone there, Sweetie," River said, taking several paces back toward the Doctors as the Valeyard advanced on his hydraulic metal joints, blue steel wings sprouting from a white-coated body as dark flickering energy hovered, crownlike, over his head -- the perfect fusion of organic and mechanic, Time Lord and TARDIS. The Valeyard smiled nastily at them, menace in his flickering red LED eyes. "And what am I if not a prince?"
No matter how fast or how far they ran, Ditzy and Fluttershy couldn't see the end of the hallway. On the positive side, the Carrionites didn't seem particularly inclined to follow them, and their screeching laughter was faint in the distance. When the two mares judged they had run far enough, they all but collapsed against the wall, panting. Fluttershy's eyes were glazed and wild, her coat shining with sweat. Ditzy was sure that she didn't look much better herself, but she reached over and took one of Fluttershy's hooves in hers.
Fluttershy didn't say anything, but she gripped that hoof like it was a lifeline. They stayed like that for several long minutes. Eventually, Fluttershy spoke, her voice thin and strained. "Do you... do you think that they're still alive?"
Ditzy closed her eyes for a moment. "I don't know," she admitted. "Those ... Carrionites? they ordered them 'bound', not killed."
"...That's something, anyway," Fluttershy conceded. "Not much. But something."
There was another long silence. "I don't know how much longer I can keep running," Fluttershy said. "There's nowhere we can run to, nowhere we're safe..."
"I know," Ditzy said.
"I'm so tired."
"I know. I am too. But we can't just give up."
Fluttershy tilted her head back and shut her eyes, resting against the wall. "I know we can't. But... can't we? Just for a few minutes."
Ditzy hesitated. "No," she said firmly. "If we stop now, how will we start again? We have to keep moving."
"Oh, dear. I suppose so," Fluttershy conceded.
Ditzy hauled herself back to her hooves, then helped Fluttershy rise. "Should we go back that way?" she asked, nodding toward where the Carrionites had been. "Or keep going to the foyer?"
"Foyer," Fluttershy said with feverish intensity. "Definitely the foyer."
"Alright."
The two mares walked side by side down the hall, ears pricked up for any signs of hostile creatures lurking in the shadows. They walked, it seemed, for miles, with no sign of life.
"Ditzy," Fluttershy said, a note of hysteria in her voice. "We can't -- we can't just walk forever."
Ditzy said nothing. She didn't want to betray how scared she herself was feeling. Instead, she merely glanced around the corridor, searching for something, anything that could help them. Then, she saw it. A glimmer of light in the darkness, down a side tunnel. "Look!" she hissed. "A way out!" She began to gallop toward the light, Fluttershy close on her tail.
As they drew closer to the light at the end of the tunnel, Ditzy thought she saw a figure in the light, but dismissed that thought quickly. There was nothing blocking the brilliant light, nothing casting a shadow, no door, no room, only a brilliant golden Light...
And then both mares were gone.
Light nodded. "Subjects collected for cataloging," it said, before going out and leaving the hallway in darkness.
Ditzy and Fluttershy both tumbled into separate golden bubbles, which jostled around all the others. Ditzy pulled herself upright and shook herself. "I just don't know what went wrong," she said sadly.
From inside the TARDIS, the Crusaders watched as the last two ponies still at large were captured. Rumble had gone very quiet. Sweetie Belle was crying on Button's shoulder. When Dinky saw her mother appear in one of the bubbles, she turned away, unable to watch any longer. Apple Bloom seemed to be having a dissociative episode, staring blankly and blindly at the screen before her.
There was a long and dreadful silence. "Well," said Scootaloo. "Now what?"
"I don't know," Dinky said.
"What are those bubble things?"
"I don't know."
"How can we save them?"
"I don't know!"
Dinky fell to the ground, her vision going blurry with tears. Almost immediately, she felt her friends gathering around her, worried. She shook her head vigorously. "Not a relapse," she said. "I just... I don't know what to do. All that stuff I saw in the Zero Room while my mind was healing, it was all so useless. Or maybe I'm useless. Or maybe everything's useless."
She felt a hoof wrap around her barrel. "Okay," said Scootaloo. "That's a lot to unwrap, and I don't... totally understand what you were saying about the Zero Room? But we can come back to that. You're not useless, Dinky. Alright? You got us so far, and you've done so much. We're your friends. We're proud of you. We love you. So don't go saying dumb shit about how useless you are and selling yourself short, because that's my friend you're insulting."
She paused and pulled a face. "That was cheesy as shit, but it's still true."
Dinky managed to crack a grin at that remark, looking up at Scootaloo. Then she frowned. "Hey. What's up with the light?"
As Scootaloo had been talking, the light in the control room had shifted dramatically, casting everything in a bright, rich, orangey-amber light. Even as Dinky spoke, however, the light was fading back to its normal pale yellow hue.
Apple Bloom shifted uncomfortably. "Was that some o' that Artron energy y'all were talkin' 'bout earlier?"
"Don't think so," Dinky said, struggling back to her hooves. "Entirely the wrong color, for one thing. Also, our brains haven't been microwaved."
"Oh. Yay?" Button said, tilting his head.
"I'm inclined to think that not having cooked brains is a yay-worthy occasion, yeah," Rumble said drily.
"It must have meant something," Sweetie Belle said, casting an eye over the console. "Doesn't look to me like anything's different, though."
"Hm." Dinky studied the console. "All the panels are color-coded, though. Pink, red, purple, blue, magenta, and orange. Maybe we need to look at the orange one?"
"That's... the flying one, right?" Button asked, peering at it closely. "Is the TARDIS telling us that we need to fly her at the bubbles?"
There was a long pause. "Okay," Button said. "But do we have any better ideas, though?"
"Gimme a minute," Apple Bloom said, her brow furrowed. "Uh... secret compartment, maybe? Look in th' panel fer one o' them."
Much to everypony's surprise, there was indeed a secret cupboard in the console under that panel. Unfortunately, all it contained was a boxful of cat-shaped pins and some jammie dodgers.
Scootaloo sighed. "Alright, fuck it, let's slam this box into the prison bubbles." |
Ruler of Everything | The Ultimate Foe | "What the hell is that thing?" River demanded.
"It looks as though the Valeyard fused with the TARDIS interface," the Doctor said, his eyes wide with horror. "Fused itself with the power of a collapsing star and the drive of the Nightmare itself."
"Part Time Lord, part TARDIS," Eyebrows murmured, half to himself. "Like some kind of... hybrid."
Rainbows glanced at him sidelong and rolled her eyes.
"Whatever it appears to be, it's not real," Bow Tie said. "At least, no more real than any of us. Which means, now that I come to think of it, that we're in just as much danger as we thought."
"Thank you so much for that brilliant insight," the Doctor growled. "Now what?"
"Now, Doctor," said the Valeyard-thing, "You choose. Surrender to the inevitable or keep pathetically struggling a little longer."
The Doctor set his jaw. "Then I choose to --"
"Wait," the Valeyard cautioned. "You haven't heard my offer yet."
"What could you possibly offer me?" the Doctor demanded. "I've no interest in power, or ruling, as well you know. Everything I want, you stand opposed to, and everything you have to offer, I despise."
"Woo!" Rainbows cheered. "Stick it to 'im!"
"Fuck the system," Eyebrows growled.
"That's not quite true, Doctor," the Valeyard said. "I offer you the thing that you desire more than you've craved anything else your entire life. An ending."
The Doctor tried to speak, but the words died in his throat. "You've fought so long and hard to stay alive," the Valeyard said, moving closer now, his hydraulic limbs hissing. "You were so desperate for life, none more so than this incarnation. You've always had so much more to do, so much more to see. But you've done so much already. You've seen things you can never forget, no matter how hard you try. You've lost. Lost so many and so much."
"I --" the Doctor sputtered, but he couldn't find the words to argue.
"When you become me --" the Valeyard said, "and please notice I said 'when', not 'if' -- that will all be gone. It will have been done by a different man entirely, and none of it will hurt you again."
The Doctor glanced back. River and the future Doctors had been swallowed by the mist. All he could see now was the swirling miasma and the Valeyard.
The mechanical fusion extended a hoof. "Let me give you what you really want, Doctor. Let me take you into oblivion."
Meanwhile, in the real world, the actual Valeyard was having a much harder time of it. He had channeled all the force he could spare into blasting the temporal barrier, wasting a good chunk of the TARDIS's power combined with a unicorn's natural magic and his remaining regeneration energy on trying to break through.
It hadn't even made a dent, although several houses near where he had been focusing his efforts were now all on fire, and the earth was ripped and torn and dying all around him. All that revealed was the curve of the temporal bubble continuing along underground. He scowled down at the shimmering surface that separated Ponyville from the rest of the universe. His eyes were as cold as the vacuum of space, his lips pressed thinner than a sheet of paper.
"Well," he said. "Well-played indeed, Romana."
He turned and stalked away from the border. Perhaps this would require a temporary strategic retreat for reinforcements. It was time for the Nightmare to make good on its promise.
The Nightmare itself had taken to pacing around the TARDIS, studying it intently to find some weakness in its defenses, some external system through which it could drain the Ship's power. Ordinarily, it would have made better use of its time mocking its prisoners, but as they were outside of time and couldn't communicate with it, it decided that such a course of action really wasn't worth the bother.
The last rogue elements in the Matrix were in that blue box. They were the only things in this place that the Nightmare couldn't control by force of will or arms. That was infuriating. On the upside, it knew, the miserable foals couldn't leave the sanctuary provided by the Ship without falling into its power.
Of course, even within the TARDIS, they could throw a sizable wrench into the Nightmare's plans. One way or another, it would have to remove them from the box. But how --
The Nightmare lost its train of thought as the light on top of the TARDIS began to flash. No! It couldn't be leaving, it wouldn't have enough energy to break out of the Matrix. As the Nightmare stepped back, it saw that the inhabitants of the Ship had no such goal in mind.
"Are we all ready?" Dinky asked.
"Holding steady," Scootaloo said, gripping a wheel in either forehoof.
"Manual steering's on standby," Button said, hooves hovering over the joystick in the center of his chosen panel.
"Ah've set th' course fer Discord's bubble. They oughta be able t' wreck that damn robot's day," Bloom said, smiling grimly.
"I don't know what any of the controls on my panel do," Sweetie said.
"No, me neither," Rumble agreed.
"Considering they're for communications and diagnostics respectively, I think that's okay," Dinky said. "Scootaloo, take us up."
"Roger that." She cranked one of the wheels around. On the monitor, the golden bubbles grew larger as the TARDIS flew toward them, gaining speed as they hurtled toward Discord's prison.
The Valeyard watched, nonplussed, as the TARDIS smashed into one of the golden bubbles, then bounced off and fell toward the floor.
"BAD PLAN BAD PLAN BAD PLAN!" Scootaloo chanted, trying desperately to realign the Ship as all six friends were jostled around the console, each hanging onto the edges lest they find themselves pitched over the railing.
Eventually, the TARDIS crashed against a wall, falling on its side. Scootaloo, practically bent double over the panel, fumbled around until she found the gravity controls. Everypony let out a groan of relief as they sank to the floor, while smoke wafted from the central console.
Rumble held up a hoof. "Okay," he said. "So I think it's possible that we may have misinterpreted whatever the TARDIS was trying to tell us with that orange light."
Sweetie groaned and fell to the floor.
"Hm," said the Nightmare. "Pathetic."
It walked a little closer, studying the box. After a moment, it smiled grimly. It had found the gap in the Ship's defenses. Rearing back, it smashed a hoof down on the light at the top of the TARDIS.
Glass and metal scattered on the floor. The Nightmare bent down to inspect the shattered remains of the bulb. It could faintly see flickering golden energy forming an aura around the glass. It was barely visible, not even a crumb of a crumb of the vast reserves of the TARDIS. But it was an opening.
The Nightmare grinned. "I can work with this," it mused.
Gilda had been pretty pissed off earlier when she'd been forced to vacate town square with all the other civilians. She could hold her own in a fight just fine, thanks. Having returned to town square after it was all over, though, having seen the carnage that had been wrought there, she had decided that maybe she wasn't so mad about missing out on this particular scrap. After all, she didn't want to end up as fried chicken, like all those soldiers had.
The image of Starlight Glimmer, covered in golden frost, flashed through Gilda's mind, and she suppressed a shudder. Turning into a frozen turkey wasn't too appealing, either.
Now, of course, it was looking that turning into a roast dinner was exactly what was on the menu for everypony in town. The fires were spreading fast -- the one at the bar had barely been extinguished before some unicorn had come running in yelling about how the south side of town was an inferno.
So now, of course, Gilda was part of the aerial bucket brigade, easily the smallest group of the impromptu firefighting brigade. There simply weren't enough pegasi in town to fill the roles. Meanwhile, the unicorns were casting freezing spells and telekinetically smothering the flames as they approached, and the earth ponies were trying to knock over and remove anything that might make good fuel for the flames. It was a losing battle. The entire town was sealed in, and the smoke was making it difficult to breathe even on the north end of Ponyville. If the fire didn't get them, they'd all asphyxiate.
Nonetheless, they fought on. What else could they do?
Weary and struggling to breathe, Gilda flew low to the ground to escape the choking smoke over the rooftops.
It was on a trip to the river to get another bucket of water when she spotted the prone body of a pony sitting slumped against a wall. Poor bastard, she thought.
Then she realized who it was and threw out the 'poor' from that description.
She dropped her bucket and swooped for him, picking him up by his throat and shaking him. "You! Unfuck this town before I drop you from the top of the dome!"
The Valeyard made no reply. His head merely lolled to the side, his eyes rolling back in his head.
Gilda hissed a Griffish curse under her breath and flew back toward the front lines. "Blueblood!" she roared. "Guess who I found."
The prince glanced up, irritated. "Unless it's some manner of water-breathing dragon, I don't particularly care."
Then he blinked the smoke from his eyes and stared at the Valeyard. "I stand corrected. Romana?"
An off-white unicorn with a long, curly chestnut mane hurried over. "He's not responding," Gilda said. "Can you fix him? I can't squeeze his miserable neck until he puts out the fire unless he's awake."
"Hm," said Romana. "Doubtful. He seems to have departed for the Matrix."
"So get him out," Gilda said. "Duh."
"If I had the power to do that, don't you think I would have used it on the ponies at the hospital?" Romana retorted.
Blueblood scratched his chin. "Didn't you say something about how dying out here would kill you in the Matrix, too?"
"Yes," Romana said. "Unfortunately, there are two problems with that --" She paused and turned to zap the fire with a spell, covering a sizable portion of it in smothering foam. "Number one, it won't put out the fire."
"I don't care," Gilda growled. "It's just personal, now."
"Number two..." Romana shut her eyes for a moment. "He abandoned his body in the middle of a raging inferno. The Valeyard was the Master of the Matrix for many decades, and apparently survived without a body for centuries with the help of the Nightmare. If anyone could get around that rule, it would be him."
"So..." Blueblood said.
Romana cast her eyes up toward the rift. "If we see him again, I very much doubt it will be in that body you're holding."
The Nightmare barely glanced up from the ruined bulb when the Valeyard reemerged from the portal. "Is the rebellion quashed?"
"Their trained soldiers are dead, their most powerful mage immobilized, and their town aflame. They won't give us any difficulties. The temporal bubble, on the other hand..."
The Nightmare made a sound low in its vocal modulator. "You couldn't destroy it?"
The Valeyard looked sour. "Romana cheated."
"Useless."
"I suspect that once we gain the full power of the TARDIS, we may overcome the barrier, with some difficulty. If we can travel back to a point before it was created and move out from there, it will no longer trouble us."
"Hm."
"Of course, first we'll need that power. How are you doing on that front?" the Valeyard asked nastily.
"It's progressing rather well, actually," said the Nightmare.
"Oh." The Valeyard was rather put out that he hadn't been able to catch his partner out, but that was tempered with the knowledge that the plan was progressing. "Good."
"I'm drawing it out through the bulb -- like to like, you see. My will is stronger than the TARDIS's, now that it's been weakened after so long fighting us -- I can pull the artron energy towards me, and the more I gain --"
"The easier it becomes," the Valeyard said, nodding. "Elegant. Of course -- it would be faster if we were to work together."
The Nightmare cast a glance toward the Valeyard. "Ah. You grow impatient, I see."
"Can you blame me? I've waited so long, formless, bodiless, for this moment. Apotheosis! At long last, Time Lord and TARDIS become one. Not even in the War did they go that far."
The Nightmare smirked. "I wonder why," it murmured, too quiet for the Valeyard to hear.
"Hm?"
"Nothing. Very well, come here." The Nightmare began to unfurl its great mechanical bulk. "Step into me... and I will step into you."
The Valeyard hesitated but a moment before stepping into the mass of wires and metal. "Just remember, you're taking my name," he warned.
"Oh yes," said the Nightmare, closing around him like a Venus Fly Trap. "I will. And you'll be taking my mind!"
"What?" the Valeyard demanded. And then the upload began.
"Miserable fool," said the Nightmare, barely audible over the screams. "Did you really think there could ever be an equal partnership between Time Lord and TARDIS? Your brain is that of a flea to me. Can you feel it burning away under the onslaught? Can you see the infinite paths of time as I can? Lose yourself in the universe, Valeyard. Lose your very mind to me."
The Valeyard continued to scream. "Oh, don't worry," the Nightmare added. "I've saved your personality template already. It's like possessing you, but with extra steps, really. On the upside, I get to feel your mind collapse in unutterable anguish! Such a treat, honestly."
After several more minutes, the screaming stopped. The Valeyard took a moment to collect himself, brushing the ash off his mechanical body. After he was convinced that everything was in order, he turned back to the TARDIS, but paused for a moment.
"The Valeyard is dead," he uttered. "Long live the Valeyard."
Chuckling grimly, he returned to his machinations.
The Doctor and the Valeyard stared at one another in the mist. "Well?" demanded the Valeyard. "I haven't got all day. Actually, I have. I have all day, all eternity, all of time and space. You, on the other hand, are running very short indeed. Embrace me, Doctor, and accept oblivion. Accept the inevitable."
The Doctor looked the Valeyard square in the eye. "No," he said. "I'll never become you."
The Valeyard sneered. "You pathetic masochist, you already have. The Matrix just hasn't caught up yet."
The mist began to clear. "Maybe so," the Doctor said. "But I still won't go down without a fight."
"Rage, rage, against the dying of the light," Eyebrows said.
"And go not gentle into that good night," Rainbows agreed.
"To be clear," River said, pulling a gun out of her mane, "we're talking to the Doctor, not you. You can sod right off."
She fired at the Valeyard, and it reared back, snarling. "I am inevitable," it said. "Irreversible. All this accomplishes is an extension of your suffering."
Bow Tie shrugged. "And what else is new?" he asked.
River fired again, and the Valeyard retreated back out of the courtyard with as much dignity as he could muster.
"Right," said the Doctor, his hooves shaking. "Right. That's..." His forelegs went out from under him, and his hind legs didn't last much longer.
"Oh, sweetie," River murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. "You have been through the wringer, haven't you?"
"But you can't rest yet," said Rainbows. "There's still time to fight back."
The Doctor groaned. "You heard him. He's inevitable."
Bowtie scoffed. "If we had a jammie dodger for every time someone told us that, we'd... we'd... Well, we'd have an awful lot of jammie dodgers."
"I think I'd prefer custard creams," Rainbows said thoughtfully.
"Jammie dodgers can be for inevitability, custard creams can be for every time we get sentenced to death," Bow Tie said after a moment's consideration.
River cleared her throat. "Excuse me. Your past self is dying in front of you? Can we possibly save the biscuit talk for another time?"
Both future Doctors looked instantly contrite. "Ah, yeah."
"Sorry, River."
"So. Now what?" Eyebrows asked, tilting his head back.
"Well," River said, looking down at the Doctor. "That is rather the question, isn't it?"
The Crusaders inspected the damage. It was their unspoken way of not addressing the fact that they were out of ideas. Stationed at the diagnostics panel, it was Rumble who first realized that the power was once again flowing out of the TARDIS.
"Well," said Apple Bloom in the long pause after Rumble announced that fact. "That ain't optimal."
"How long do you give us before it's totally dry?" Dinky asked.
Rumble inspected the gauge marked 'power'. "Dunno. It's slow, but looks like it's being drained at an exponential rate."
"Can we cut off the power to the system it's being drained to?" Button asked, peering at his own panel for anything that looked remotely useful.
"Uh..." Rumble looked at Dinky.
She peered at the panel. "It doesn't really say where it's going, only that we're losing it. So, no, I don't think so."
"Anypony got any other ideas?" Sweetie Belle asked, a tinge of panic in her voice. "Anypony? Anything? I'd take another 'crash the TARDIS into the bubbles'-level plan at this point."
Nopony spoke. The stifling silence was broken after a moment when the telephone on the console began to ring.
Sweetie was closest to it. She looked at the others, bewildered. "What is this?"
"It's called a phone, I think," Dinky said. "Communication device."
"What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?" Sweetie asked, her voice getting higher-pitched with stress.
"Maybe pick it up?" Apple Bloom suggested. "Looks like that part comes off..."
After several seconds, Sweetie picked up the phone and held it to her face. "Hello?" she asked warily.
"Crusaders," said a cold voice, echoing from the audio transmitters on every panel of the central console. "This is the Valeyard speaking. Kindly turn on your monitor."
"Why?" Sweetie asked, suspicious.
"I dislike ponies being unable to see me when I'm threatening them."
"Oh. Um. Alright..."
Button silently flicked on the monitor. A face swam into view, and everypony recoiled in horror.
The Valeyard's face twitched in a way that could have been a schadenfreude-filled smirk or a grimace of sheer agony. The Crusaders would have believed either. It was as though every mechanism that comprised the TARDIS interface had been stabbed through his body.
"Yes," said the Valeyard. "I've had some work done." |
Ruler of Everything | Battlefield | "I have a proposal for you," the Valeyard said. "I know that Dinky is still holding a fragment of the TARDIS's heart within her -- a small one, but vital nonetheless. I need that piece. Understand this; I will get that fragment one way or the other, but I would prefer it be given willingly. It would be much easier to reintegrate into the whole that way. Who knows, you might even survive the removal process if you cooperate."
"Not fucking likely," Dinky growled.
"Language," the Valeyard said shortly. "Here is the situation. Ponyville is on fire, and trapped in a bubble of time which I did not erect and cannot remove. It is likely to burn down totally, and all its residents will asphyxiate. Additionally, you can see that I have recaptured every last one of my former prisoners in separate bubbles of time -- I believe that at this point, you are familiar with the concept?"
The Crusaders all nodded grudgingly.
"Good. Surrender the last piece of the TARDIS's power, and I'll release them. I'll even be generous enough to extinguish the fires in your pathetic little town, and then I'll leave you all to your temporal prison for the rest of your lives. I imagine they won't be long lives, but considering the plans I have for the rest of the universe, you may consider that a mercy."
"And if we don't surrender?" Button asked warily.
"Then Ponyville burns and I force you to watch your loved ones die in agony before killing you all. Once I've done that, I'll do it again, and again, and again, trapping you in a loop for all eternity. Each new loop will feel like the first, and your minds and souls will never know rest."
This announcement was met with stunned silence. The Valeyard smiled at them, and a trickle of blood ran through his teeth and down his lip. "You have fifteen minutes to make your decision."
The connection cut out, leaving the room silent but for the echoing ring of the dial tone.
The Doctor pushed himself up from the ground, his head spinning. "What do we do?" he asked, looking at the others. "What can we do? He's already regenerated. He's already taken over!"
He slumped against a wall. "He's won already," he said gloomily.
"Nonsense," River said brusquely. "You're still here, aren't you?"
"Only because the Matrix hasn't caught up to reality yet," the Doctor snapped back. "Once it has, we'll all be gone, retroactively erased from time starting from my regeneration."
River shrugged. "Well, then what have you got to lose by trying? If the alternative is certain death, followed by the Valeyard and the Nightmare gaining unfettered control over time and space..."
"I'm not saying I don't want to do anything," the Doctor said. "I'm just saying I don't know what I can do!"
"Well," said Rainbows, arching an eyebrow. "Let's take stock. No TARDIS."
"No screwdriver," Eyebrows continued.
"No place to run, no place to hide," Bow Tie agreed, giving a giddy spin in place.
"No hope," River said. "Not even a body to call your own. It's your darkest hour, Doctor, one juvenile delinquent from a dead world against insurmountable odds."
"In short," Rainbows said. "It's where we thrive."
A hint of a grin traced the Doctor's face, and he looked up at the sky. "But I've never won when I've been alone like this," he whispered.
"Alone?" Bow Tie asked, affronted. "Excuse me?"
"You don't count," the Doctor retorted. "You know what they say about talking to yourself."
River cleared her throat.
The Doctor glanced at her. "I hardly even know you," he protested. He paused. "Although..."
"Although..." River prompted.
He shook his head. "No, it'd never work properly. My mind and yours would overpower his, but not by nearly enough to seriously inconvenience him in a psychic battle, not if he's allied his mind with the Nightmare."
"So we need more minds," River said.
"That shouldn't be too much of a problem," she continued as Benny.
The Doctor shook his head. "No, switching through bodies like that wouldn't do it, though it might help to confuse it somewhat."
"That's not really what we meant," Daring said.
"Look down," River suggested.
The Doctor did, frowning. His eyes went wide as he registered all three mares standing before him. "You can -- how long -- why --" he gabbled, before pausing and smacking himself in the forehead. "Of course. If there were multiple companions in the ruins..."
"Then why shouldn't there be more than one of us?" Benny concluded. "Well, exactly. We just didn't want to overwhelm you right at the start."
"You seemed a little, uh... fragile," Daring said. "And you didn't get better. So we just didn't mention it."
"But this seemed like the opportune moment," River said.
The Doctor nodded slowly. "Alright. Okay. Me and the about... twenty-some companions I've had whose fates don't still haunt me, against the Valeyard-Nightmare hybrid --"
"Hybrid?" Eyebrows snapped, glancing around. Rainbows patted them on the shoulder and shook her head sadly.
"-- I still don't think that's going to be enough."
"True," River said.
"On the other hand, you do have more than twenty-odd companions," Benny added. "Hint, hint."
"Yes, but apparently they all want to kill me," the Doctor pointed out.
"Doctor," Daring said, exasperated. "All of this is just --"
"Just a reflection of my mind, I know! I know. You're going to say that I've got to forgive myself and heal and they'll all rally 'round me and help save the day."
"Good. That saves some time," Daring said, satisfied.
"But I can't!" the Doctor said, turning away. "It's not that simple! I can't just flip a switch and forgive myself, not even after all this time. I've lost so much, so many friends." He bowed his head. "Maybe it would have been better if they'd never met me."
"Oh for the love of --" Benny turned to the other Doctors. "I don't suppose you can get through to him?"
She was met with three blank stares.
Daring ran a hoof down her face. "Perfect," she said. "Four of them, and not one who hasn't been repressing their emotions since the day they regenerated."
"Alright, alright," Eyebrows said gruffly, stepping forward. "I may as well try. At least we understand what he's going through. We all have a duty of care, you see. When someone's traveling with us, they're our responsibility. There have been times... many times... when we haven't fulfilled that responsibility. Times when we've let our friends down."
"They're brave and clever and kind and so, so wonderful," Rainbows picked up. "They always wander off and try to do the right thing. Sometimes that means they get hurt."
"But," said Bowtie, "if you think about people like that -- loyal and generous and brilliant -- do they strike you as the kind of people to hold a grudge?"
There was a long pause. "No," said Rainbows, sounding rather surprised. "They don't, actually. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't really know where we were goin' with this, but that was a good point."
Bowtie beamed.
"They wouldn't want you to destroy yourself like this," Eyebrows said gently. "Just... do it for them, if no one else."
The silence stretched on for several painful moments.
"... Alright," said the Doctor. "I can... I can try to make things better."
"Well, it's about bloody time, too!" Donna Noble said.
The Doctor looked around, startled, as his best friend stormed up to him and looked him square in the eye. "One day, Doctor. One day, we're gonna find each other again, an' there's gonna be a reckoning for what you did to my brain."
The Doctor shrunk back, and Donna softened. "But not today, spaceman." She sat down and hugged him, and over her shoulder the Doctor could see a sea of his very best friends spread out across an open plain. "Not today."
And slowly, not quite sure of himself at first, the Doctor hugged Donna back.
"There's no way he's gonna keep his word if we do what he says," Scootaloo said, pacing the console room. "He'll take what he wants and kill us all."
"But he's definitely gonna keep his word if we don't surrender," Apple Bloom argued. "Even if we put aside th' 'eternal torture' part, do we want that on our consciences?"
"The outcome's the same whether we give up or not," Scootaloo said. "This way, we get to live a little longer."
"Sure, an' watch every creature we care about burn," Bloom retorted. "Call that livin'? Anyway, at least if we surrender, we'll have a moral victory."
"Yeah, sure, that'll be a comfort when we're trapped in an endless loop of death," Scootaloo snapped. "We're suffering forever, but at least we weren't sore losers."
"I'm with Bloom," Rumble said. "It's the honorable way out, if nothing else."
"I don't know," Button said. "It's weird that he'd make this offer if he wasn't desperate to get that last bit of Artron energy. I think we might have more of a bargaining chip that we realize."
"Maybe," Bloom countered. "But how much better of a deal are ya hopin' t' get? He's got all of Ponyville on offer."
"And if we give in, he'll get the rest of the universe!" Sweetie Belle countered. "Think about all your family that lives outside of Ponyville, Bloom -- even if the Valeyard keeps his word, all of them are dead."
"You think Ah don't know that?" Bloom snapped. "They'll be dead anyhow! One way or another, that thing's gonna drink up all the TARDIS's power again and break out. They're dead either way. Ponyville's probably still doomed if we surrender now, but it's definitely doomed if we don't!"
Dinky was cradling her head in her hooves. She didn't know what to do. Worse, she was starting to worry that the Zero Room hadn't done its job properly. Every time she blinked, brilliant colors flashed behind her eyes, dazzling and dizzying her as the argument raged on.
The Doctor moved through the swarm of his former companions, trying to make eye contact with each of them as he passed. The responses ranged from huge grins to small smiles to slight nods, but none of them seemed particularly unhappy to see him. Or, if he was being totally honest with himself, at all unhappy to see him. In fact, most of them looked practically pleased.
To be honest, he found that a little unnerving. After so many years imagining what a reunion with his old friends would be like, full of regrets and recriminations, this felt altogether uncanny.
He looked around again. Ace grinned back, her eyes sparkling with mischievous delight. Rose smiled broadly at him, her tongue poking out between her teeth in that same old way that had always made him go a little weak at the knees. Liz even gave him a sidelong smile and a slight nod.
He smiled back. Uncanny it might be, but certainly not unwelcome. He continued to the center of the crowd. "Right!" he said, projecting so that everyone could hear him. "This isn't going to be an easy fight. The Nightmare is an incredibly powerful psychic force, and it stands an inimical force to everything we hold dear."
He paused to let that sink in. "But as a great man once said, "There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must --""
"Would ye stop quotin' yerself an' just get on with it?" Jamie heckled from somewhere off in the distance.
A ripple of laughter spread through the crowd, and the Doctor had to suppress his grin. "Alright, alright," he said, waving a hoof. "Be serious. I know you, and all of you know me. We've stood together so often in the past, sometimes against foes even greater than this. Now, united by the Matrix, I'm asking all of you to stand and fight at my side once more. If this is my last stand, I aim to make it a good one."
He looked around the crowd once more. "I certainly can't imagine one better than this," he said softly.
There was a little scattered applause at that, a few distant whoops and cheers.
The Doctor turned to the east, where golden light was beginning to shine on the horizon. The regeneration was beginning to catch up with him. "The Nightmare and the Valeyard have coalesced now," he said, talking faster. "That's bad, partly because... well, it's just bad, and partly because they'll have combined their psychic defenses. But, it's also good because the Nightmare is a parasite, feeding off the Valeyard, taking on his persona, his traits, his weaknesses. He's cut himself off from his past entirely, because it all hurt too much."
The Doctor paused, suddenly realizing how close to the Valeyard he'd become, all without even needing to regenerate. He cleared his throat. "With that in mind... how about giving him a few refreshers, eh? Concentrate on your travels in the TARDIS. Remember the good, the bad, the ugly. Bring it all in, every last drop. C'mon! You're part of the Matrix, the most advanced computer system the universe has ever seen. Dredge up those memories."
He looked around. Every face he saw was focused, brows furrowed in concentration. Some were laughing to themselves; others, quietly weeping. The Doctor nodded and looked up. "Alright, Valeyard," he said with a snarl. "Contact."
The Valeyard was draining the energy from the TARDIS bit by bit. He was really building up steam now -- the TARDIS's strength was sapped, and she was devoting all of her remaining power to keeping her occupants alive. Stupid, sentimental box. It had spent far too much time around the lesser species. The Valeyard could almost call this a mercy killing.
Then his head jerked back and he fell to the ground, his body spasming as electricity shot from his joints. Information was pouring into his brain -- memories long repressed now boiling to the surface, emotions that had been buried rising from the grave. He began to foam at the mouth, bloody spittle staining his coat. At long last, he began to scream as the feelings started to overwhelm his brain. The TARDIS long forgotten in the face of this onslaught, the Valeyard dragged his biomechanical nightmare of a body away, not to or from anywhere in particular, only away from the sudden overwhelming sentiment that burned his brain.
Somehow, another mind had latched onto his. No, many minds, connecting through a single channel. Through the growing haze, the Valeyard could pick out flashes of identity, perspectives in the message that identified their originators. Prince Blueblood, Fenella Wibbsey, Jack Harkness, Sharon Davies, Jo Grant, Applejack, the list went on and on. Companions, one and all.
The Valeyard sneered, his lip twisting unpleasantly around one of the metal poles that had stabbed through it. "Damn him," he snarled. "Very well, Doctor; two can play at this game. Contact."
The Doctor stumbled a little as the Valeyard connected with his mind, but he recovered quickly. "Get out of my head," he said flatly. "Get out of my body, get out of my life. This isn't your time, Valeyard, and I swear it never will be again!"
"Hello to you too," the Valeyard retorted. The Doctor was pleased to note how strained it sounded. "You'll have to pardon me if I'm not up to banter at the moment. Some fool's just started addling my brain."
"I'll do worse than that if you don't give me back my body. Now."
"Believe me -- you wouldn't want it in the state it's in," the Valeyard returned. "I didn't call to negotiate, Doctor."
"Good. I'm not asking you to negotiate, I'm demanding your surrender," the Doctor snarled.
"This is a simple courtesy call," the Valeyard continued. The Doctor got a brief sense of vertigo as the Valeyard looked up at his prisoners in their golden bubbles of time. "I'm giving you the opportunity to say goodbye, Doctor."
The Doctor's hearts sank like lead. "What? No. No!"
"No?" the Valeyard asked innocently. "No parting words, then? Probably for the best -- let's make this a clean break for you."
The bubbles started to glow. Inside, time began to speed up. The Valeyard laughed. "And here I thought that accelerated aging wouldn't come in handy!"
It was difficult to understand, in the first few seconds -- a few sudden new aches and pains, a swift and steady decline in vision and hearing. "Oh no," said Flitter. "No, not the other way now. No!"
Flesh wrinkled like raisins in the sun. Manes and coats greyed, spines bent, bones weakened. Spike howled in agony as he kept growing inside his unyielding bubble, until he came to a merciful stop. Rarity wailed in horror at the sight, pounding the sides of her prison until she could no longer stand upright. The alicorns and the draconocci simply expanded, glowing with heat and light and pure energy as the years whistled past.
"Twilight," Mac said, pushing her rapidly aging face up against the bubble. "If this is mah last chance to say it..." She coughed, her skin sagging and wrinkling on flabby flesh and bent bones. "Twi... Ah..."
And then she was gone. Twilight stared into empty eye sockets as Big Macintosh's body crumbled to nothing. She choked back a sob as her body convulsed. It convulsed again. She was growing, legs gangling, horn pushing against the inner shell of the time bubble, her mane lighting up with brilliant constellations and cosmic radiation. She was as big as Cadance, Luna, Celestia, bigger, bigger, bigger, until she, like Spike before her, was suffocating inside the little golden sphere.
"I love you too," she whispered at last, before exploding into a nebula.
The Doctor's jaw flapped in the wind. The Matrix had fallen silent. All that remained was the ringing in his ears. Slowly, he turned around. The joyful, festive crowd had been transmuted into ash, dust, and bone. There was nothing left of any of them.
Slowly, the Doctor toppled, sinking down to the ground and settling into the dust himself.
Inside the TARDIS all argument had stopped. All six Crusaders stared in mute horror at the dozens of golden bubbles, now empty but for piles of dust, bones, and cosmic matter.
In the long, horrified silence, the phone began to ring once more.
Nopony picked up. The Valeyard appeared on the screens nonetheless. He looked even worse for wear than before, and his eyes glimmered with mad fury. "New deal," he hissed. "Surrender, and I'll make it quick."
And then there was only the dial tone. |
Ruler of Everything | Blue Angel | Apple Bloom broke down first, her entire body wracked with the force of her sobs. Rumble helped her walk out of the control room though Celestia knew how he was keeping it together.
Or. Well. Not anymore, she didn't.
"I think," said Sweetie Belle, her composure as fragile as cobweb, "that I'm going to be sick."
She staggered out of the console room. Button hesitated a moment, giving anguished glances to Scootaloo and Dinky before hurrying after Sweetie.
The two remaining mares sat stock silent for a long moment. Then Scootaloo rose and trotted out the door. At the last second, she looked back. "It wasn't your fault," she said quietly. "It wasn't any of our faults."
The light flickered orange again, before fading in the silence.
"I just thought you needed to hear that," Scootaloo said softly, before leaving.
Then it was just Dinky. Or, just her and the TARDIS. She sat in the slowly-dimming light of the console room in dead silence, just staring at the monitor. Even after the display flicked off, presumably as an energy-saving measure, she kept her eyes fixed there.
When she spoke again, her voice was hoarse and dry. "So," she said. "Hello again, old friend. It's... been awhile since we last talked, hasn't it? Properly, I mean -- not just through proxies and crystals and things. I guess we really haven't talked in... must be ten years since we were stranded in the vortex."
The TARDIS made no response. Slowly, Dinky managed to tear her eyes from the black monitor and look at the console directly. "Did you know this would happen?" she wondered. "You must have known something, to put a little piece of your power in me, all those years ago. Is this it? Is this your price to pay for saving us back then? The death of everyone I love? The burning of my home? The annihilation of the entire universe?"
She thumped the console. "I should have just let us all fall into oblivion!" she thundered. "I should have just let us all die! You should have just let us all die! At least the world would have survived!"
There was no answer. Dinky hung her head. "But how could I have known? Even if I had -- if I had, would I have had the strength to do it?"
She felt increasingly uncomfortable now -- not as though she was talking to herself, more as though she was lecturing a corpse.
Dinky stared at the central console. Her reflection stared back at her, distorted in the glass, her eyes wide and watery as they stretched up the cylinder. "Please," she said. "Please. I need your help. I know you're still in there somewhere. This is bigger than you or me, or any of us. You have to be in there. You have to." She stared at the central console, dark and still, and her facade cracked.
"Don't you understand, you stupid box? This is the end of the world, the end of everything! If the Valeyard gets his way, he'll impose his will on the universe starting from the word 'go', and you, me, and everyone either of us has ever cared about will be erased, at best. No more flying. No more freedom. No more thief, no more TARDIS. Don't you know? Don't you care? I can't do this alone!"
She crumpled, the weight of the situation finally too much to bear.
After a long moment, she felt a hoof fall on her shoulders. "You... are not alone," Rumble said quietly.
Dinky said nothing. "You're not," Rumble repeated, more forcefully. "Dinky, you don't have to be like this. You don't have to cut yourself off from us, the way you always do. You don't need to be strong, you don't need to be brave, you don't need to be smart for us to love you. We're your friends. We love you because you're you, not because you're a monolith."
"You're leaving me," Dinky said quietly. "No more Crusaders. No Mom. No Dad. Just me."
Rumble was silent for a long moment. "That... sounds like an unhealthy amount of codependency," he said. "But we'll come back to that when we're not about to die."
He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry that I didn't see this sooner," he said. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry you feel like we're abandoning you. That was never any of our intent, I promise. We love you, Dinky. We'd never hurt you, and we'd never want to leave you. Right here, right now, whatever you decide... I will stand with you, and I'm confident the others will, too. After all, the thing we're fighting for is literally lodged in your heart. And if you decide you don't want to decide, we won't love or respect you any less."
Dinky pushed herself up from the console, turned around, and buried her face in Rumble's chest, finally letting loose a flood of tears.
Rumble wrapped her in his wings and rocked her back and forth, letting her weep as he stared sightlessly at the blank, black screen of the monitor.
Ponyville fought bravely.
It wasn't enough.
Slowly, the front line was pushed back, back, back, until the fire encircled them all. Ponyville General Hospital was the only building in town that wasn't on fire. Yet. There were only a few dozen left who hadn't succumbed to the flames or the smoke.
Fleur de Lis's eyes watered as she blasted the inferno with a ray of frost. The air was too dry for much of anything to condense, let alone freeze, and so all that resulted was a thin wisp of white fog that quickly evaporated. "Fancee!" she called, looking over her shoulder. "Where is ze water --"
She stopped. Oh yes. No more Fancy Pants. He'd died nearly... ten minutes ago, crushed under a burning roof. No more partner. No more husband. No more best friend.
She became aware that she'd been looking back for almost two seconds now, and furiously pushed her grief to the back of her mind. She'd have time to grieve later. Or not. Either way, she couldn't spare the time now.
"You," she snapped, pointing at the nearest pony. "Bring us water."
Octavia nodded mutely at the command and hurried inside, her body on autopilot as her mind replayed the scene of fifteen minutes ago over and over again in her head. She had barely escaped a collapsing building when she had come upon Caramel, desperately trying to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Vinyl in the middle of the street. He had failed.
High above, Nurse Redheart sat in the coma ward, huddled in a corner, eyes dead and hollow. She was surrounded by corpses, some of whom belonged to creatures never meant to die. The death throes of the gods had been terrible and awe-inspiring, storms of light and stardust that cut through the air like shimmering rainbow knives through reality itself, like the Aurora Borealis screaming and boiling in the air, like a nebula teeming with life simply exploding.
Constellations shimmered on the ceiling, but they were fading quickly.
A few rooms over, Granny Smith rocked babies in her lap, quietly whispering to them as they screamed. She wanted to scream, too. Her world was dying around her. Ponies she'd known since their birth were lying dead in the streets. The farm was likely so much kindling by now, and the only family she could get to were dead or as near to it as made hardly any difference.
But she rocked the babies back to sleep as best she could. It would be best if they weren't awake for what was coming.
Redheart rose on shaking hooves. She was still a nurse. There were still six living patients left under her care.
Octavia carried a water cooler out of the hospital to where Fleur was standing. Why not? There was nothing else to do.
Fleur took the water and turned it into an icy spray that actually put out some of the flames in front of her. But not enough. "Another," she said shortly.
The Doctor did not know when he began to walk through the valley of ashes. The scenery had changed around him so often, he hardly knew whether he was coming or going.
"Here, you see," said a voice from all around him, "it takes all the running you can do just to stay in the same place."
The Doctor said nothing.
"But you make no response?"
He staggered on.
"The Doctor and the Valeyard/Were walking close at hand; They wept like anything to see/Such quantities of sand..."
The Doctor grit his teeth.
"If seven maids with seven mops/Swept it for half a year, Do you suppose,' the Doctor said,/That they could get it clear?'/I doubt it,' said the Valeyard,/And shed a bitter tear."
"You're stealing from Zagreus again," the Doctor said, barely able to force out the words through his dry, ash-choked throat. "The Alice in Wonderland bit was old even when it started."
The smile appeared first -- bloody teeth in a mouth that couldn't quite make the right shape for it. The rest of the cyborg followed close behind. "Have you reconsidered yet?" it taunted. "I offered you such freedom, and you rejected me. Now see what it's gotten you."
The Doctor said nothing for a long moment. "It's all a projection," he said. "Smoke and mirrors. Most of my companions are safe and well."
"But not all. Not by a long chalk," said the Valeyard with relish. "Oh, and none of them for long, either. The good prince is next on my list, I believe. Shall we watch him burn together?"
A television set appeared in the ash, displaying Ponyville aflame. The Doctor kicked it over, shattering the screen.
"What is it that you want from me?" he demanded, turning on the Valeyard. "If you're so inevitable, so cold, so emotionless, why do you keep hounding me? What more can you possibly want from me, eh?"
The Valeyard chuckled nastily, his red eyes flashing. "I thought that was obvious. I want you to die."
"Been there," the Doctor growled. "Done that."
"You mistake me," said the Valeyard. He leaned in close, but the Doctor didn't flinch. "I want to watch you die," he snarled. "I want to see the last hope go out of your eyes. I want to see the great hero humiliated and defeated and suffering, and I want it to be all done at your own hand."
The Doctor stared at him mutely. The Valeyard stepped back. "Call it... job satisfaction," he said. "Catharsis, perhaps. I've been working on you for such a long, long time. I would hate to think it was all for nothing. Go on then, I'm feeling sporting -- how do you want to go out? You've had so many samples -- exhaustion, execution, a few different flavors of radiation, fall, poisoning, gunshot, crash... and that's not even getting into the War!"
Now the Doctor stepped back, unnerved at the maniacal glee with which each new option was offered up. "I get to choose?" he asked.
"Oh, yes."
The Doctor considered this. "And if I refuse to answer?"
"You know, I almost hope you do," the Valeyard said. "You must understand by now how skilled I am at manipulating the Matrix. It would be so simple to just -- cordon off this section. I could trap you in a ten-minute loop of anguish -- mental, physical, and emotional -- for eternity. Perhaps I already have. How long, I wonder, would it take for you to break? You're so damn close to cracking as it is. I so want to see it -- but no. Where there's life, there's hope, and I cannot abide either. Your answer, Doctor. Choose how you want to die!"
The Doctor stopped and thought about that for a long moment. He considered, 'asleep -- curled up next to Ditzy'. But that was cowardly -- making even a synthetic version of her suffer that was more than he could stomach. Perhaps he could goad the Valeyard into chasing him and escape somehow -- dying on the run would appeal to his evil alter ego's sense of the macabre. But where was there to run to?
He concentrated. There had to be a way out of this. There had to be an escape from this hellish cycle --
And that's when he felt the other mind in the Matrix. It was hard to discern when the pain it felt was so similar to his own -- the rage, loss, fear, and sorrow that had haunted him for so long now called out for help across the vast plains of ash. He felt that pain, that mind, and knew immediately who it must belong to.
"Dinky," he breathed. In that moment, he knew what he had to say.
He looked up at the Valeyard. "I choose to die as I have died every time before," he said.
The Valeyard looked vaguely impressed. "A compilation? I hadn't expected that of you, Doctor. Perhaps I did make an impression after --"
"No," said the Doctor. "I choose to die making a difference. Doing good in the world. Sacrificing my life for love, stupid and temporal and equine as it is."
The Valeyard looked perplexed. Very likely, it didn't know where to begin with that as a cause of death. That was fine. The Doctor knew where he needed to be.
And he took off running across the plains, ash flying in his wake. He threw back his head, and through his choked and dusty throat he roared, "ALLONS-Y!"
Many minutes had passed in the TARDIS console room. The lights were fading, and the emergency lighting seemed to be kicking in, bathing everything a pale pink. The other Crusaders had returned to the room, having all decided that no matter what, they didn't want to be alone right now.
Dinky's eyes had run dry, but she was still clutching to Rumble like he was a life preserver. He looked at the others. "So," he said quietly. "Options?"
"Go out there and die or stay in here and die?" Scootaloo said.
Rumble frowned. "Other options?"
"We could go to another room and die there," Scootaloo suggested, her voice and face strained.
Nopony said anything for a long time. "Fuck," said Scootaloo. "That's... really it, isn't it?"
"Kinda," Button said.
Apple Bloom bowed her head. "Ah gotta say, Ah never thought it'd end like this."
"I'd be astonished if you had," Sweetie Belle said.
There was another long moment of silence. "I love you guys," Rumble said quietly. "I mean -- I don't know what kind of pony I'd be if I hadn't joined the Crusaders all those years ago. You guys helped me to trust ponies again. You taught me how to love."
There were quiet head nods all around the room. "I used to be afraid to sing," Sweetie Belle said. "I was never good enough, and I was always in Rarity's shadow. Thank you all for helping me be myself."
Apple Bloom looked around the room. "Thanks," she said gruffly. "Fer helpin' me be more'n just another Apple. Fer gettin' into trouble. Fer reminindin' me that Ah... that Ah am loved."
"For getting me out of my comfort zone," Button said. "For letting me be a part of all these great adventures, and sharing your lives with me. I'd never ask for a better group of friends."
Scootaloo looked down and shook her head. "For wild adventures. It's been real, you guys."
The lights flickered, flashing gold for a moment of a second. The afterimage of a stallion in full gallop lingered in everypony's field of vision for a few seconds before fading away.
Dinky stopped breathing, her eyes wide. "...Doctor?" she whispered.
A dozen voices whispered back, each one murmuring advice and praise and telling her how brave she was and how proud they were and countless other things beside, but one message repeated itself over and over again in her head.
"I love you. Goodbye."
Dinky pushed away from Rumble, her eyes wide.
"...Dinks?" Scootaloo asked, looking at her in concern.
Dinky looked around the room as though seeing it for the first time. "Oh," she said. "I think... I see."
"Huh?" Button asked.
Dinky looked at Scootaloo first. "Your courage and adventurousness inspire me every day to do more."
She turned to Button. "Your compassion and thoughtfulness is everlasting, and you've only ever been nice to me even when I couldn't be nice to myself."
Apple Bloom, now. "You're the glue that holds us together, the first Crusader, always building new bridges and reinforcing the old ones."
Sweetie Belle. "Your wit and joy has lightened even my heart, which I'm sure you know is a heavy task. But you did it happily."
At last, Rumble. "You are so strong, and you only ever use that strength to hold ponies. Thank you for letting me break."
He nodded solemnly. "Any time. I mean that. You need to let out your emotions more."
Dinky looked around the room. "Thank you all for being my friends for all these long years. I would lay down my life for any of you in a heartbeat."
She held up a hoof to stop the concerned responses. "Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be an option here. So, I would like to propose a new option."
"Yes?" Rumble said, leaning forward.
"Raid the TARDIS for anything shaped like a weapon, surprise the Valeyard, and break his fucking kneecaps," Dinky said shortly.
"That... sounds like going out and dying with extra steps," Scootaloo said.
"Yeah," Dinky admitted. "It'd make me feel better, though."
Bloom nodded. "Yeah, you got a point there," she said. "Ah'm in th' mood fer a little revenge mahself."
"Then let's go," Dinky said. "Ten minutes, and we meet back here. Go!"
Everypony scattered. The TARDIS was draining faster than Dinky had anticipated. Already, the backup lighting had kicked on, suffusing everything in a dark, magenta glow. |
Ruler of Everything | The End of the World | When the Crusaders reunited, they were armed... not exactly to the teeth, but they made do with what they could find. Scootaloo had a bandolier across her chest, and was carrying easily a dozen throwing knives. Apple Bloom had a baseball bat and a viking helmet. Rumble had managed to dig up a sword, which was quite impressive given the time constraints. Button was laden with a number of gadgets and gear that he wasn't completely sure how to use, but had to do something, and Sweetie Belle had found a silver bow (but no arrows) and a slingshot.
Dinky had gone to the wardrobe room in hopes of finding some armor, but the best she could find was an old sonic screwdriver that had been left in a corner with a velvet suit. It was thick velvet, and time was running out, so she decided to just put it on. If she was going to die, why not go out in style, after all?
She looked around the room. "Listen," she said. "You guys have supported me this whole way. You've listened to me, helped me, told me when I was being an idiot. I want to be sure and extend that same courtesy to all of you. If you don't want to go out and fight, I won't respect or love you any less."
There was a prolonged silence. Apple Bloom smacked her bat against her hoof. "Ah reckon we're good."
Dinky looked around the room. Determination was writ large on every face. She caught sight of her reflection in the central console again and studied her own face. It was still tear-streaked and tired, but her expression matched those of her friends.
"Alright," she said quietly. "Let's go."
The Valeyard hadn't been expecting them. That was their one advantage. He hadn't really expected them to leave the TARDIS at all until they had to, and even then he had expected them to emerge dejected, devastated, and destroyed. He had expected heads hung low and red-rimmed eyes.
He hadn't expected a fist-sized rock to the face while he was busily siphoning the energy from the TARDIS, or for a knife to pierce his dead flesh in the next instant. The cut didn't hurt much, but the knife's hilt stuck in his hydraulics and limited the mobility of his left foreleg.
While he was still reeling from that, he was set upon by more melee-based weaponry -- bats and swords and stones pummeled him, while a horrible humming noise seemed to stall his ability to actually resist. He managed to shake off Apple Bloom and Rumble, but in the next moment, Button finally figured out how to use the Yeti web gun.
The Valeyard screeched as the deadly, suffocating substance gummed up his wings and one of his hind legs.
The Crusaders were winning. It seemed that the element of surprise had been enough to overcome the cyborg god for a moment.
Alas, that moment soon passed. The Valeyard roared, letting a little of the raw power of the TARDIS rip through him. Golden light poured from every crack in his body, burning out his fleshy, dead mortal eyes even as his new, LED sensors glared at those who would dare attack him.
Another rock flew at his head. It disintegrated before it got within a meter of him.
The weapons that the Crusaders had gathered shimmered with golden light as well before they too turned to rust and tarnish and dust.
"Well," said Scootaloo, looking down at her ruined knives. "That... actually went better than I was expecting."
The Valeyard snarled, and the TARDIS doors swung wide, a torrent of Artron energy flowing out and toward him.
The shimmering auras of the biomechanical abomination of an alicorn's eyes glowed red in triumph. "You miserable FOALS!" it sneered. "You thought you could stop me? I am corruption itself! The Elements were the only things that could ever hope to destroy me. Now that they're gone and their bearers have fallen, there is nothing to stand between me and the destruction of this universe!"
The six ponies huddled, terrified, as the Valeyard roared with laughter. The glowing, golden energy was seeping away from the TARDIS, into the demon's hungry maw. Dinky watched, helpless, her eyes wet with tears. She could see that the ship was fighting back, inside flashing with brilliant colors, but it was only prolonging its fate. Magenta light, then red, orange, pink, purple, blue, magenta, red, orange, pink... wait. Why did those colors seem so familiar?
Dinky's jaw dropped, her eyes growing wide in realization. It couldn't be. But those colors... and all this time, they'd been fighting over the power source, the heart of the TARDIS, the Eye...
Slowly, a massive grin spread over her face. "Oi! Scrapyard!" she shouted, stepping forward.
The clockwork alicorn's eyes flicked toward her. "Uh, Dinky?" Rumble muttered. "Maybe don't antagonize the angry time god, yeah?"
Dinky's grin was almost feral. "You've forgotten something," she said with forced pleasantness.
The steam-powered eyebrows furrowed as the machine studied the mare intently. "And what," it asked, "would that be?"
"The same thing you forgot as Nightmare Moon. As Sombra. As Barley Corn, as the TARDIS, as whatever else you've ever possessed. The same thing you will always forget."
The artificial eyes blazed brilliant vermillion in fury. "I repeat. What would that be, whelp?"
Dinky's face hardened. "You forget that the power to defeat you didn't come from the Elements. Never did, never will. Kindness, laughter, loyalty, honesty, generosity, and magic aren't found in old rocks. They're found in living creatures. In friends."
The Nightmare actually paused for a moment. Then it recovered itself, sneering. "A pretty speech, but one which proves nothing. The Elements were conduits, necessary for channeling the pathetic power of friendship that you ponies so cherish and which we have ably demonstrated that you can't even conjure with the accursed trinkets themselves. Your pathetic, puny, mortal values have no chance of defeating me."
The lilac unicorn smirked. "Yeah? Well, maybe. But there's something else you're forgetting. Hooves up, now, what powers the TARDIS?"
Apple Bloom got it first. "Th'... Eye of Harmony?" she guessed, eyes widening.
Dinky stamped her hoof down hard. The TARDIS roared its approval, echoing across the room and through the rift and throughout Ponyville and back again. It was a sound of hope that pricked up the ears and stirred the hearts of all who heard it. A rainbow of color and light mixed with the golden energy and flowed around the Crusaders. "No," the Valeyard gasped as the ponies rose into the air. It fired golden bolts of energy at the group of friends, but the attacks merely melted into the swirl of light that wrapped around each of them. "Not again!"
Dinky smiled viciously. "Rumble, who kept Scootaloo from panicking as he mended her leg and saved me from my own emotional spiral into Tartarus, represents the Element of Kindness!"
An oddly twisted silver pick topped with a pink gem appeared in the pegasus's hooves. He fumbled it, surprised, but managed to catch the object before it smashed on the ground.
"Button, who sacrificed his chance at fame and fortune to build a splint for Scootaloo, then gave the very marrow from his bones to help heal her, must be the Element of Generosity!"
A square, ivory-colored rod inset with a purple crystal shimmered into existence in Button's hooves.
"Scootaloo, whose open heart and honest emotions helped save us from the Weeping Pegasi and united us in our time of greatest despair, represents the Element of Honesty!"
Another stick, this one topped with a wheel with an orange gem at the center, appeared in the mare's hooves. She frowned. "I was hoping for loyalty," she muttered. "But this works too, I guess."
"Sweetie Belle, who calmed and tamed the beast in the tunnels and my own tortured brain with her love and musical skill is the Element of Laughter!"
A thin silver baton popped into life in said unicorn's hoof, a glowing blue coil wrapped around it.
"Apple Bloom, who gave up infinite power to help her friends and didn't hesitate to check on me when she was worried about my health, represents the Element of Loyalty!"
This one was a brass rod with a thick yellow handle, topped with a pointed red gem.
"And I--"
"And you," the Nightmare interrupted coolly. "The Element of Magic, I suppose? Of Friendship? You?" It snorted derisively.
Dinky's face fell. The bright aura began to fade and dim, the musical hum to steadily decrease in pitch, the six to sink slowly back toward the ground as the polychrome energy ebbed and flowed away from them and back toward the Valeyard's rapacious maw.
"You're cynical. You're introverted. Often, you're downright rude," the clockwork monstrosity continued, taking a step forward. Its red eyes bored into Dinky's own and cut, laser-like, into her soul. "What in the world possessed you to think that the Element of Magic would be you, of all ponies?"
Dinky sniffed, her eyes beginning to burn with tears as the ground grew ever closer. Everything came rushing back. How many times had she pushed away her friends? Her parents? How many ponies had she hurt over the years? The Valeyard was right...
"Hey!" Apple Bloom snapped. "You don't get ta talk t' mah friend that way!"
Dinky glanced up in shock. Bloom was scowling at the machine, clutching the Element of Loyalty like she was planning to jab it into a sensitive part of the Valeyard's circuitry.
"Yeah," Rumble agreed, glaring at the mechanical monster. "Who do you think you are?"
"Nothing more than a bully, I'd say," Button said. He didn't seem as obviously angry as Bloom or Rumble, but Dinky could tell from the steel in his voice and the way his eyes were moving across the Valeyard's body that he was trying to figure out the best way to take it apart with a rusty screwdriver.
Sweetie Belle put a hoof around Dinky's shoulder. "Don't listen to it," she consoled, gently rubbing her friend's back. "We all think you're fantastic!"
"Who do you think got us here, Smellyard?" Scootaloo challenged. "Who was brave enough to follow you? Smart enough to figure out how to get us here? Strong enough to lead us, and caring enough to know when the rest of us should take over? If Dinky can't be Magic, then I don't know who can!"
The Valeyard stumbled back, both from the force of the rebuke and from the far more physical force that was the gold and rainbow energies building up and swirling around the six ponies once more. It watched in fascinated horror as the Crusaders were consumed and illuminated by the brilliant display. One more stick appeared, the gem that crowned it glowing a rich, bright magenta.
"No," the Valeyard roared. "No!"
Six buzzing, glowing devices aligned themselves at the robot's chest. Dinky grinned, wiping the tears from her eye. "Allons-y," she whispered.
The world turned white streaked with rainbow as six notes sang forth in a sweetly warbling melody.
The Valeyard's scream was the grinding of rusting gears.
The Valeyard's scream was the failure of a thousand failsafes.
The Valeyard's scream was the squeak of a key in the wrong lock.
The Valeyard's scream lasted for the space of only a few seconds before it faded, incorporated into the gentle, musical hum of the Elements in their new form-- a sextet of harmonic screwdrivers.
The light and noise faded gradually, revealing the Crusaders standing on the floor once more, right in front of the remains of the Valeyard and the Interface. The organic components of the hybrid were crumbling away in front of their eyes as the Valeyard vanished like a sandcastle in a wind tunnel. The mechanical parts remained, standing docile and still, eyes closed as though asleep. The golden flames and glowing red eyes were extinguished. Gently, gently, ever so gently, Rumble stepped forward. He reached out a hoof... and poked it.
He jumped back as the whole machine spasmed. The eyes shot open. The head flew back, the top half flying off and clattering against the stone steps. The chest ripped itself open. A stream of golden energy shot forth from where its heart would have been, soaring over the heads of the assembled and back through the doors of the TARDIS, which closed after it with a sharp snap. The remaining machinery buckled at the joints, shuddered, and collapsed into a pile of gears and scrap metal. In accordance with the fundamental rules of the universe, one single gear rolled, wobbling, from the pile, following a comical drunken path until it spun around and fell down at Dinky's hooves.
But there was no joy in the hearts of the Crusaders. Skeletons and dust and stranger things beside floated in bubbles over their heads. In the world outside, Ponyville burned, twisted corpses blackening and charring as the last few survivors succumbed to smoke inhalation. To say the least, it was a pyrrhic victory.
"How long do you think we have?" Scootaloo asked quietly.
"How long until what?" Rumble asked.
Scootaloo took a deep breath in and let it out. "How long before... before our bodies start to burn?"
There was a long silence. Button choked back a sob. "I feel warm," he whimpered. "I feel so warm."
"There has to be a way out," Sweetie said desperately. "Right? There must be a way we can wake ourselves up."
"And then what?" Scootaloo demanded. "We saw Ponyville. It's on fire and in lockdown from the entire universe! What are we gonna do from there?"
Dinky blinked. "Lockdown," she echoed quietly, narrowing her eyes.
Apple Bloom said nothing. She just stared at the array of time bubbles, blind with tears. "Ah'm sorry," she whispered. "Ah'm so sorry, an' there ain't nopony left to forgive me."
Rumble took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "If this is the end," he said, "I'm glad it's with you guys." He looked around. "We had the best of times, didn't we?"
Button nodded, slinging a hoof over Rumble's withers, and another over Sweetie's. "Yeah. We did. But it looks to me like it's all come to an end."
Dinky's eyes went wide. "Lockdown," she said. "Bubbles!"
Everypony turned to stare at her. "Uh, Dinky?" Scootaloo asked, arching an eyebrow. "What exactly are you talking about?"
Dinky gestured to the floating corpses frantically. "They were all aged to death, put in pockets of accelerated time. Ponyville locked itself into its own personal time zone. Now, does any of that sound like something else we've seen today?"
Rumble frowned. "The... the weird temporal effects?" he guessed, tilting his head.
"Yes!" Dinky was beaming now. "Bubbles of time, which are easier to manipulate than entire timestreams! And guess what? All the bubbles are still there."
Button caught on. "Meaning that we can manipulate the bubbles, too?"
"I think so."
Scootaloo tilted her head. "Uh, how?"
Dinky's smile faded slightly. "That, I don't know," she admitted.
"Well, you better figure it out toot sweet," Apple Bloom said. "Ah'm startin' to feel real toasty..."
"Let's try the Elements again," Scootaloo suggested, gesturing with hers toward the rift to Ponyville. "They're supposed to be good at fixing this kind of thing."
"Worth a shot," Rumble agreed, following suit.
All six pointed out at their ruined hometown, and a bright rainbow of light hummed through the rift. It entwined around buildings, wrapped around bodies, bumped up against the sides of the temporal barrier. Dinky shut her eyes. "Come on..." she whispered. "Come on!"
Then, as the Crusaders watched with bated breath, the smoke slowed in its rise and spread. It froze. Then, before their wondering eyes, it began to flow backwards into the fire, slowly at first, then faster and faster as time rewound. Buildings rose and repaired themselves. Skeletons regrew muscle, flesh, hair, and rose, ponies staring at their hooves in astonishment.
"So far, so good!" Sweetie said giddily, spinning around to look at the individually bubbled bodies of their friends and families. "Third time's the charm!"
There was a third blast of light and sound, and the bubbles of time began to shimmer and shine. Everyone stared as the bodies reformed from the dust and bones, wizened and drooping with age, but gradually growing younger, smoother, as time corrected itself to match the world outside. While the Crusaders were all distracted, they didn't even notice as the rift above Ponyville gradually shrunk, closed, and sewed itself shut, vanishing with a soft pop and a burst of rainbow light.
Then, all the time bubbles popped as one, their occupants falling to the floor with assorted shouts of surprise and pain. Ditzy recovered first. "Muffin!" she gasped, rushing to embrace her daughter.
There was a sudden fizzing noise, and the Doctor popped into existence over the ruined remains of the interface. "Ah... ow," he said, crawling out of the mess of metal and wiring. "Er, right. I feel like I might've missed something--"
He was cut off as Ditzy reached out and pulled him bodily into another hug. He hesitated for only a moment before returning the favor, sweeping his wife and daughter into a tight embrace. |
Ruler of Everything | The Doctor's Daughter | After all the hugging and laughing and tears of joy had subsided, a few explanations were in order. Talking quickly, and interrupting each other often, the Crusaders told their tale. Their audience was a good one-- gasping at the scary parts, chuckling at the funny ones. Rarity actually fainted when she heard that Sweetie and Button had faced the beast in the tunnels all on their own. Upon her recovery, the Doctor explained that there had likely been no real danger, just a warning to keep away. "Ol' Aggedor, he's just a big ol' softie," he said, smiling warmly. "Loves a good lullabye, he does."
"Nevertheless," Rarity said, pulling Sweetie Belle over to her side. "I don't believe I'll be letting you out of my sight anytime soon, darling. You were very brave, and I'm very proud. Please never do anything like that again."
Sweetie just smiled knowingly and hugged her sister back. Then, realizing that Button had nopony around to hold at the moment, she beckoned him over and pulled him into the embrace, and then Spike wrapped his long body around all three of them, and there he held them safe and tight.
When Apple Bloom told of the temptations offered to her by the phantasms, Applejack rose to her hooves, her face grave. Macintosh stood behind her. They both trotted slowly over to their little sister, expressions unreadable. Orange hoof fell on yellow shoulder. "Never in my life," Applejack began quietly.
Bloom squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for the tirade. Could have fixed Granny's hip got the perfect harvest saved ma an' pa perfect Apple Family forever and ever no more worries 'bout anything oh Applejack I'm so sorry...
"Never in my life," Applejack repeated, her voice deep with emotion, "have Ah been so proud of anypony." She pulled the unresisting mare into a bear hug. Mac sniffled and threw herself into the fray, pulling her little sisters into a monumental bear hug. Apple Bloom blinked, but after a moment, she returned the embrace, tears pooling in her eyes. "Ah've never bin anything but proud of you," Applejack murmured. "Ah hope y'all know that."
"...Yeah," Bloom said. "Yeah, Ah think Ah get it now."
Rainbow kept one wing wrapped around Scootaloo the whole time, grinning proudly. When Rumble recounted how he'd had to set Scootaloo's legs, Dash's wings had tightened around her sister-in-all-but-blood. When Dinky started telling the story of the Weeping Pegasi, Dash's grip had slackened.
Scootaloo looked up to see Rainbow looking down at her, trepidation in the older mare's eyes.
"What's wrong?" Scootaloo whispered.
Dash arched an eyebrow. "You really gotta ask, Scoot? I nearly killed you down there. If you hadn't talked me out of it..." she trailed off, sickened even to think it. After a moment, she forced a smile. "It's just lucky you're that good, huh?"
Scootaloo looked down for a moment. Then she met Rainbow Dash square in the eye. "I learned from the best," she said.
Rainbow's eyes went wide. Then she sniffled. "Scootaloo, if you make me cry right now in front of my friends and the princesses and everypony --"
Scootaloo tilted her head.
"Aw, fuck it," Rainbow said, pulling Scootaloo up against her barrel like a stuffed toy and holding her tight, burying her face in Scootaloo's mane. This had the added benefit of hiding her tears.
Rumble sat surrounded by his family. Thunderlane held him tight, tucked under one wing, and Flitter sat on the other side of him. Cloudchaser leaned in and muttered, "Hey. Your parents don't mean shit, you know. You're part of our family, whether you like it or not."
Rumble nodded. "I know. It's a process, healing. Thanks for being there for me while I do it."
"... Dork."
Rumble gave a half-chuckle. "In the future, though? Please try not to come after me as ghosts. That would have been the most traumatic shit."
"If I die again trying to rescue your flank, I will literally hold off on going to Las Pegasus so I can haunt you until your dying day."
"Wouldn't have it any other way."
Cloudchaser's face grew stern. "But if you die before me, I swear I'll kill you."
Rumble actually laughed at that, and Cloudchaser's expression melted into a cockeyed grin.
The Doctor stared forlornly at the heap of scrap metal when Dinky told of their final battle against the Valeyard. "Never should've built that," he muttered. "Stupid, stupid Doctor..."
Ditzy lay a hoof around his shoulders lightly. "We all make mistakes," she said. "Yours just happen to be a little more..."
"Apocalyptic?"
"Yeah."
The Doctor huffed out a laugh. "Well. S'pose that's my lesson to be more careful in future. I just wish--"
"No," Dinky said firmly. "Stop that right now, dad. Blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong is how we got into this mess in the first place. Take it from somepony who learned exactly where her emotional constipation and self-pity was getting her today! So shut up, learn that ponies love you, and be happy."
The Time Lord blinked, trying to process something. Slowly, he smiled. "You called me dad," he said happily.
Dinky blinked, nonplussed. "Huh. Yeah, I did. Weird."
She looked at the Doctor, who was looking suspiciously sappy. "Don't make a big thing of it, or I'll stop."
"Make a big deal of it? Me? Never," the Doctor said, quickly glancing away.
And then the story was over, and a pall of silence fell over the room. It was Button who eventually broke it. He glanced awkwardly over to Rarity and held out his screwdriver. "I guess you want this back?" he asked sheepishly.
There was a brief moment of shock, and then the room erupted into chaos. The Crusaders all clamored forth, offering the elements back to their original bearers, who were equally adamant that they should stay right where they were. After a few minutes of squabbling, Celestia glanced at Luna and cocked an eyebrow. Her sister nodded her assent. She took a deep breath and roared, "QUIET!"
The Royal Canterlot Voice reverberated off the walls, followed by immediate silence.
Celestia stepped forward. "It would seem," she said calmly, "the Elements have chosen new bearers. I, for one, would not attempt to argue with them."
"Indeed not," Luna said with a snort and a toss of her starry mane. "That's the sort of thing that gets you thousand-year time-outs."
The assembled suddenly found themselves casting disturbed looks at the six little devices, as though they might go off at any second.
"Are they even real?" Sweetie asked, holding hers up to the light. It was silver, long and thin, more a baton than a screwdriver. A music note was carefully etched into the metal near the base. "I mean, we're kind of walking around the Doctor's brain, right?"
"It's... well, it's a little more complex than that," the Doctor said, scratching the back of his head. "Today's events are rather unprecedented. I don't really know how real those screwdrivers of yours are, I'm afraid."
"There's only one way to find out," Scootaloo said, examining her screwdriver minutely. It was all brass, and as she pushed on the head, it telescoped in and out. There was a dial at the thickest section for adjusting the frequency, and a wheel-shaped knob for turning the device on.
Everypony looked toward the TARDIS, idling in the corner of the room, still glowing faintly gold. Quietly, without anyone even noticing, the Tomb of Rassilon had faded into darkness, leaving only a few points of illumination like the starry sky.
"Is that how we get back?" Rainbow asked. "Like, I know it goes anywhere and everywhere, but from inside your brain to outside it?"
"Like I said, the Matrix is a little more complicated than that," the Doctor said. "But yes. The TARDIS represents our ticket back to the real world. All we've got to do is step through, most likely."
"Most likely?" Rarity repeated, raising a brow.
The Doctor hummed. "Yeah, I'd say, eighty, ninety percent on that. Worth a shot, right?"
The TARDIS doors swung open, revealing a bright golden glow. Ditzy put one wing around the Doctor's withers, and the other around Dinky's. "Allons-y," she said, gently guiding them forward. They passed into the light, and
Dinky opened her eyes. "Wha-- is this Ponyville General?" she muttered, sitting up.
"Gee," said Nurse Redheart. "You put yourself in a coma, fought a nightmare from the dawn of time, and at least one of you broke a couple legs. No, we definitely just left you in the TARDIS."
"To be fair," Scootaloo said, rubbing her forehead. "I think my legs are way better now."
"Same," Button agreed.
"That's probably down to the Elements," Twilight said. "They're very good at sorting out the minor aches and pains."
"Indeed," Rarity agreed. "My tail's been even more lustrous and rich since the day the Elements regrew it..."
Button looked around suddenly. "My bag," he said. "Where's my bag? Is my controller fixed?"
"It was probably never broken," the Doctor noted. "The Matrix wouldn't have affected it -- it doesn't have a mind, after all."
Button grinned broadly, and Sweetie Belle leaned over from her cot to pat him on the shoulder.
"You know," Celestia commented, glancing around the room, taking in the way the awakening ponies were sleeping two or more to a bed. "I really don't think this is standard hospice procedure."
"Desperate times called for desperate measures," said Tender Care, shaking out her hooves one by one, getting reaccustomed to the physical realm.
Apple Bloom was looking around frantically, patting down the bedclothes until she found what she was looking for under her pillow. With a whoop of delight, she held aloft her screwdriver, and the red gem on top of it glimmered in the fluorescent lighting of the hospital room.
All of the former coma patients were discharged in short order, after a cursory examination showed that all of their conditions were normal, except for Discord. Their condition came back 'Weirdo' every time, despite not being in any way an appropriate medical result, and definitely not having been marked on the thermometer before it went under their tongue.
It took them slightly longer to leave the hospital than it should have, because Pinkie wanted a lollipop for being such a good patient, and then Luna decided that she should have one too.
In short order, however, all of them were back on the darkened street, most of them with lollipops in their mouths. Granny Smith had joined them, along with Romana, Rarity's parents, Scootaloo's aunts, and Berry Punch, all of whom had returned to their normal ages, to Granny's great disappointment. Dinky looked around. "It seems so... normal," she said.
Indeed, nopony would ever have guessed that the town had burned down to its foundations last night. Of course, thanks to the Elements, it technically hadn't. Indeed, because of Luna's incapacitation, it was technically still last night. Some ponies were weeping, others embracing, and some were doing both, but many others only looked confused and disoriented. Several guards seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, shaking their heads at one another and peering down alleyways to look for hidden dangers.
The Doctor nodded, surveying the scene. "I imagine the temporal reversal that the Elements performed to restore Ponyville and destroy the bubble of frozen time resulted in partial memory loss for everypony in town," he said, shifting his banana-flavored lolly against his cheek. "Since the events of last night were edited out of the time stream, they can't have happened. The memories are still there, but blurred. Distant. Sort of like the way you remember a story that happened to someone else, there's a disconnect between everypony here and the events of last night."
"That seems no bad thing," Sombra said.
"Rather," said the Doctor. "I imagine that quite a few ponies in town are going to have some troubled nights for awhile -- sorry, Luna, I'm afraid you're going to be busy. Hopefully, though, they'll bounce back quickly and well."
"And for those of us who are troubled by sharper memories...?" Luna coaxed.
The Doctor sighed. "Yes. You're quite right." He looked around. "You've all been quite right this entire time, and I haven't listened. I'm so, so sor--"
He caught Ditzy's sorrowful eye. He closed his mouth. Reconsidered. After a moment, he tried again, his voice catching slightly as he spoke. "I'm so very grateful indeed to have friends and family as wonderful as all of you."
Everypony smiled at that. "We're glad to have you back too, old friend," Celestia said.
"Though, please, Doctor. For the love of all sanity, get a bucking therapist," said Cadance, imploring.
"Hear, hear," Ditzy agreed. "Or at the very least... talk about what's on your mind? We're all here for you."
The Doctor chuckled and nodded. "Yes, I think that would be a good idea. On both counts, actually. But, er, let's hold off on that until tomorrow."
"I'm holding you to that," Dinky said, giving him a mild glare.
"I know you will. For right now, though, there's one member of our merry crew still up at Sweet Apple Acres. I need to check on the TARDIS. In many ways, she's been through more than any of the rest of us."
Ditzy nodded. "Fair enough. I'll come, too."
Celestia glanced up at the sky. "We should be heading back to Canterlot," she said. "Doctor, the time?"
"Oh! Yes, quite. It's nine-seventeen. AM. Twenty-sixth of May, year 18 of the Harmonic Era."
Celestia and Luna lit their horns, and night faded quickly into morning.
"Nine-seventeen?" Button asked, alarmed. "My train to Baltimare leaves in less than an hour!"
There was a pause. "Do you want us to wait with you at the station?" Rumble asked.
"... Yeah. Yeah, I'd really like that," Button said.
The other Crusaders looked around at their respective family members, half-asking permission and half-apologizing for running off now.
Aunt Holiday smiled. "Go," she said. "We'll be waiting for you at home."
And piece by piece, the group divided off, each of them heading for home -- whatever that meant to them.
The train station was quiet. Nopony was out today. The Crusaders had the whole terminal to themselves. They shared two benches across from one another.
Button turned his Element over in his hooves, inspecting it. There wasn't a join, seam, or screw in it, just a perfectly carved piece of white stone and silver metal, embellished with violet accents. "We should've pushed harder for them to take the Elements back," he said.
"Why do you say that?" Dinky asked, studying her own Element, which was composed of dark wood and brass, topped with a magenta crystal.
"They're all established here in Ponyville," Button said. "Makes more sense to keep them together."
There was a long silence. "...Ah'm stayin," Bloom said after a long moment.
The others looked up at her. She looked back. "Ah don't need to go noplace else," she said. "Ah don't need t' run from mahself no more. Ah'm stayin'."
"I guess I am too," Dinky said. "I can do my research and write articles from anywhere. I don't really feel like leaving."
Rumble exhaled. "Well, when you put it like that, I guess I don't, either. Guess I can look into openings on the Weather Patrol here in Ponyville. I wanted to move on so bad, just so I wouldn't live my whole life here. But now... that sounds really good, actually."
Sweetie rubbed her chin. "I can probably sing anywhere, too. There are some nightclubs and things in Ponyville that'll pay well enough for a performer, and I can commute to other gigs..."
"Yeah," Scootaloo agreed. "Commuting seems like a pretty good idea. There are a few aerial stunt shows pretty close by, I can work with one of them."
Button considered his screwdriver a moment longer, flipping it over a few times. He was conscious of everypony looking at him. He nodded. "Yeah. I'm staying too," he said. "Maybe I can sell the controller for a cut of the profits at the show. If I can, great, I've got a steady income. If I can't, well, fine. I'd much rather work on it here with my friends."
"The fact that our ranks include an engineer, an arcanist, and a mathematician probably doesn't hurt," Dinky said.
Button grinned and shook his head. "Well, no. But I'd do it even if you weren't. The 'friends' part is the most important thing. I've been so lonely these last couple of years. I was chasing a dream of fame and fortune, because that's what we're supposed to want from society. But I want friends. Family. Love."
Sweetie Belle blushed and glanced down.
"So," Scootaloo said. "I guess... it's decided, then."
Dinky glanced around. "It doesn't have to be," she said. "I don't want any of you to give up your dreams just because the TARDIS's brain gave us some fancy new gadgets. If you want to go, I don't want to be responsible for holding you back."
Everypony glanced at one another. "No," Scootaloo said. "No. I think we're good."
Dinky smiled. "Oh," she said. "Good." She couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Group hug?" Sweetie Belle suggested.
Oh. Yes, that would have been a good one, Dinky thought as she fell into a pile of grinning, slightly tearful friends. Oh well. This said more than words could express, anyway.
The Doctor pored over the TARDIS console. Romana had elected to tag along to provide any second opinions that were necessary. Ditzy lingered at the edge of the console's platform, just watching.
Romana sighed, wiping some grease from her forehead. "Really, Doctor," she said. "Not all of this can just be the fault of the Nightmare."
"How do you mean?" the Doctor asked, glancing up.
"I sincerely doubt that the embodiment of corruption and darkness, no matter how desperate it was, would tell you to use a crazy straw and a rubber duck to replace the coolant tubing," Romana said, holding up the offending parts.
"Ah," said the Doctor. "You know, I kept meaning to replace that."
"For how long?" Romana asked, raising her eyebrows at him.
"Well, you know..."
"Before or after I stopped traveling with you?"
"After."
Romana sighed. "Well, it's something. Honestly, you could have at least used a turkey baster..."
She set the parts aside. "Right. I'm going to scrounge for parts. Try not to blow anything up while I'm gone."
"Who, me?" the Doctor asked.
Romana looked at Ditzy despairingly. "Try to keep him in line, won't you?"
"I do my best," Ditzy said.
"I know you do."
And then it was just the Doctor and Ditzy. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. After awhile, though, the Doctor said, "You know, there's an Earth film that said, 'Love means never having to say you're sorry.'"
"Is there?" Ditzy asked, confused.
"Yeah. I think that's rubbish." The Doctor frowned at the console and pulled out something that looked like a class ring. "Huh. I was wondering where that had got to."
"Why do you think that?" Ditzy prompted, coming to stand next to him.
"If you never apologize -- if you never see what you've done wrong -- what kind of person does that? To me, love is empathy. Love is always having to say that you're sorry, when you've caused somepony pain."
Ditzy considered this. "Yes," she agreed. "There's something to that. But it's empathy, not self-flagellation. It's understanding what you've done wrong, not punishing yourself for it forever. Love is forgiveness."
"I've done so much wrong in my life," the Doctor said.
"And you always try to make up for it," Ditzy said. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm so very sorry that I wasn't there for you all those years you needed me."
The Doctor looked flummoxed. "What -- in the Time War? Ditzy, I would never have -- I abandoned you, not -- I -- but --" He looked back down at the console.
Ditzy said nothing. She just looked at him evenly and steadily with those lovely golden eyes. At last, the Doctor, met her eyes again. "Thank you for being here for me now," he said, blinking back tears.
"That's the spirit," Ditzy said, patting him on the back.
Celestia and Luna reconvened at Twilight's castle, where a few platoons of royal guards were already milling about. "Aunt Celestia! Aunt Luna!" Blueblood called, pushing his way through the throng. "I'm so glad to see you up and about again!"
Celestia smiled at him. "Your concern is appreciated."
"Yes, yes, lovely, now can we please go back to Canterlot so I can stop being the ruler of all Equestria?" Blueblood asked. "One more minute holding court, and I swear I'll just disband the nobility and be done with it."
Luna simply arched an eyebrow at him.
"Well..." Blueblood hedged. "Alright, no more than half of the noble houses."
"What young revolutionaries the Night Court makes," Luna said, shaking her head in amusement. "Where are Fleur and Fancy? I doubt you came here alone."
Blueblood glanced around. "I believe Fleur's dragged her husband off to some dark room of the castle, either to snog him senseless or lecture him about being foolish enough to get killed by a burning building. Possibly both. Starlight Glimmer and the Griffonstani Ambassador are being debriefed at the moment, so I believe that you're simply stuck with me."
He paused. "Now, can we please go back to Canterlot? I wasn't joking about the not wanting to be crown prince thing."
Celestia put a hoof to her chin. "Well," she said. "We could. On the other hoof, it's been so very long since Luna and I have had a vacation..."
Blueblood looked singularly unimpressed. "I'm not going to stop you from taking a holiday, but if you don't remove me from the seat of power posthaste, I can and will start disestablishing the noble houses of petitioners who annoy me."
"Don't threaten us with a good time, nephew," Luna said.
"We have a list of ones to start with," Celestia added.
Blueblood pursed his lips. "On the other hoof, if you do take back control of the nation, I promise that my last act as prince will be declaring a holiday of hedonistic dessert consumption on which neither Day nor Night Court will be held."
Celestia and Luna exchanged glances. "Deal," they agreed.
"Excellent. Now for the love of sanity, let's get out of here before I run into somepony who recognizes me." |
Ruler of Everything | The Lodger | One Month Later...
Rumble awoke to the smell of frying eggs. He grumbled to himself, rolled out of bed and trudged into the kitchen. "Morning," he said.
"Good morning!" Button said, far more brightly than anypony had a right to be at six in the morning. "Are you excited?"
"I haven't had my coffee yet. Emotions are not available right now."
Rumble settled down at the kitchen table. It had been a couple of weeks since the two stallions had moved in together. Button was a pretty good roommate, if you could ignore the mechanical clutter that piled up everywhere. He was a good cook and he didn't snore.
Both of them had elected to move out of their childhood homes -- Button wanted to give his mom and her marefriend some space, and Rumble just wanted to stop living in the same house as Cloudchaser. Thankfully, Button had known one Miss Tea Cozy who'd had some rooms to let, and the two had settled in reasonably comfortably.
Button took the coffee pot off the stove and poured two cups, served the eggs up onto plates, and took the other seat at the kitchen table, still beaming incessantly. Rumble glanced around the table. As he had suspected, Button's tail was actually wagging.
Rumble looked at him through lidded eyes as he took a sip of his coffee. Button's grin only got brighter. Rumble rolled his eyes. "Yes, alright, it's exciting. I'm looking forward to getting back into the TARDIS."
"Have you thought about where you want to go?" Button asked. "I'm hoping for a real alien planet, or maybe the chance to meet an AI."
Rumble shrugged. "Sure. Sounds good." He yawned and blinked the last of the sleep from his eyes. "I'm gonna go for a fly," he said. "See you at the train station later?"
"Wouldn't miss it," Button said.
"Yeah, I know. As though you'd miss a chance to see Sweetie Belle again."
Button spun around. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
But Rumble was already out the door. Button frowned for a minute before it melted into a goofy smile. "I mean," he mused. "He's not wrong..."
Up at Sweet Apple Acres, meanwhile, Dash was on her fifth cup of coffee, her hind hooves hammering out a rhythm on her chair.
Granny was doing her best to hide her amusement at the situation. Big Macintosh sat next to Dash, casting awkward glances her way as they tried and failed to figure out how best to calm her down. They kept coming up blank, so instead focused on trying to enjoy their waffles.
Apple Bloom was the only one really doing anything to help. Sitting across from Rainbow, she patted the older mare on the hoof. "Look," she said. "Y'all are gonna be jus' fine, ya hear? This proposal's got it all, there ain't no way she'll say no."
"Unless she does," Rainbow said. "What if I'm going to fast for her? What if she's not ready for this? What if I'm not ready for this?"
Apple Bloom nodded. "Those sure are... concerns you got there," she said. "But ask yerself -- how likely are they, really?"
Rainbow gnawed at her lower lip.
"You want me to walk y'all through th' proposal again?" Bloom asked, her voice soothing. "Would that help?"
After a moment, Rainbow nodded.
"Alright. After breakfast, you ask AJ to look at somethin' you found out in th' orchard. You start leadin' her up to Ma an Pa's grave, all roundabout-like, while th' rest of us three sneak up there an' hide. Then when y'all get there..."
"I pull out the ring, and you three come out of the underbrush," Dash said, nodding. "Yeah. Yeah. I know. Good plan. Great plan. Romantic. Perfect for Applejack."
"Course, when y'all marry into th' family, yer gonna have t' change yer name," Granny said conversationally. "Can't have no Apple family members without Apple names."
"Granny," Apple Bloom snapped. "Stop teasin' her! She's gonna have a nervous breakdown as it is."
"Zap Apple," Rainbow Dash said, her eyes unfocused. "Good. Good name. Romantic. Perfect for Applejack."
Apple Bloom gave her grandmother the stink eye. The old mare just chuckled and turned back to the waffle iron.
"'Nother coffee," Rainbow Dash said.
"Any more coffee an' y'all won't be able to talk straight enough to propose," Bloom warned.
"She's askin' our Applejack to marry her!" Granny said. "'Straight' don't enter into it!"
"Granny!" Bloom said
There was a creak on the stairs, and the kitchen fell silent. After a moment, Applejack walked into the kitchen and paused, one hoof still in the air. "Uh. Mornin'?" she tried, looking around, nonplussed. "Is there, uh, somethin' Ah oughta know about, or..."
With a wild scream, Rainbow Dash stood up and threw the ring box at Applejack's head.
Applejack swatted the box away as a reflex, then looked at Rainbow, perplexed.
"Applejack!" Rainbow said. "Uh. Wife me. Please?"
Granny burst out laughing. Mac buried their face in their waffles. Apple Bloom shut her eyes, unsure of whether to laugh or sigh.
Applejack looked from Rainbow Dash to the small ring box on the floor several times. Realization dawned on her face and a slow smile spread from ear to ear. She started laughing, a deep belly laugh that about shook the rafters.
Rainbow sat frozen. Oh no. No no no. This had all gone wrong. Did Applejack think this was a prank? Or was she laughing at the very idea that Rainbow might propose to her? She needed to go, but she was petrified.
Applejack picked up the box and opened it, her laughter subsiding as she looked within. Her face softened. She pulled out a single silver earring, decorated with a sky blue feather.
Rainbow was just getting up the wherewithal to run away when Applejack came over and pulled her into a tight embrace. "Of course Ah'll wife y'all, sugarcube."
"...You're never gonna let me hear the end of that, are you."
Applejack chuckled. "Not a chance, you beautiful blue featherhead."
Granny let out a whoop of joy, and Apple Bloom began to applaud, her smile stretching from ear to ear. Big Mac sniffled and dabbed at their eyes with a napkin, too overcome to say a word as their sister and her fiancee kissed.
Applejack pulled away eventually, a playful smile on her lips. "Well," she said. "That certainly was somethin' to experience before breakfast. On th' subject of which... Granny?"
The old mare held up a hoof as she fussed over a plate. Eventually, she handed over a plate heaped with waffles and whipped cream and syrup, scattered with apple slices arranged into hearts.
Applejack chuckled. "Subtlety, thy name is Granny," she said drily.
"Hush up an' let me be happy for y'all," the old mare scolded.
Applejack sat down, pulling an unresisting Rainbow over to her side. She glanced at Apple Bloom. "Ain't you meant to be meetin' yer friends later today?"
"Yeah," Bloom agreed. "Not fer awhile, though. Ah can stick around fer another couple hours."
"Less'n there's a reason you'd want to kick all us outta th' house," Granny threw in.
Applejack went pink, and Big Mac nearly spilled their waffles. "Grenadine Smith, you dirty old mare!" Apple Bloom howled, putting her hooves over her ears.
Rainbow Dash merely smiled vaguely and took a bite of waffle.
Morning in Canterlot was an overcast affair. That suited Starlight Glimmer just fine. Her head was still pounding from the late night she'd had with her friends the night before. She wore sunglasses to shield her eyes from the brightness of the world around her, as well as to disguise their redness. She hadn't looked in the mirror that morning for fear of what she might see in it, so her mane was almost certainly a fright. However, she considered that a quantum superposition that hadn't yet been collapsed, and she was content to leave it that way until the hangover had subsided fully.
She sat alone at a table near the back of her favorite coffee shop, The Grounding Wire. Before her sat a cheese danish and the special of the week, a Graduation Cappuccino. She really didn't want to be here. She really didn't want to be awake. Given the state of her head, she didn't particularly want to be alive. However, she'd staggered home the night before and found a note sitting on her nightstand detailing a place and a time.
Starlight had never been one to resist a mystery.
There was a mare sitting across from her, she realized. Starlight hadn't seen her arrive, but she was there, nonetheless. Her pink mane was pulled back and braided. She wore a hideous scarf and a pair of thick glasses. Starlight wrinkled her nose. Clearly this was a student. "Come back during my office hours," she mumbled.
"Bonjour, Starlight," Fleur de Lis murmured.
Starlight removed her sunglasses and blinked at the other mare through sticky eyelids. "Huh," she said. "Didn't know you'd enrolled in the CMA, Fleur."
Fleur sighed. "A simple disguise, but an effective one," she said, taking off her fake glasses and setting them on the table.
Starlight grunted.
Fleur leaned forward over the table. "Do you know why I asked you here, Starlight?"
Starlight considered this blearily. "GUIDE... wants my magical expertise?" she guessed.
"Were that the case, I would have been sure to contact you well before you got a wooden mouth," Fleur said drily.
"Uh... wha?"
Fleur tilted her head. "Have you not that expression here? What is the Equestrian phrase, a 'hang-over'?"
Starlight nodded, accepting the point. "So... you're trying to recruit me?"
Fleur snorted. "You don't seem as though you would make a good subordinate. An officer, perhaps, but you would rankle at the rules we must obey. Better to leave you here, I think."
Starlight struggled to think of a third reason and came up empty.
Fleur tapped the table with a hoof, staring into Starlight's eyes. Her gaze was sharp and probing, but it was not unkind. "In your debrief," she said, "you mentioned that the Valeyard intended to keep you alive for something."
Starlight glanced down at her danish. She could still feel Fleur's gaze.
"Have you any idea why?" Fleur asked softly.
Starlight shrugged, taking a bite of her pastry. "I'm powerful," she said, covering her mouth with a hoof. "And I've been known to be... very emotionally-driven in the past. It must have wanted to try and manipulate me into doing something."
"Have you any idea what?"
"He mentioned something about what he'd do 'when he was done with this universe'," Starlight said, glancing up at Fleur again for a moment. "Perhaps all he wanted was a battery to help him get into the next branch of the multiverse. I really don't know."
Fleur sat silently for a long moment. Starlight did not meet her eyes again.
"I see," Fleur said at last. "In which case, I suppose this is somewhat academic. The Valeyard is gone, and can manipulate you no longer."
"Yes," Starlight said. It wasn't technically a lie. Whatever was lurking at the edges of her dreams certainly wasn't the Valeyard. She could feel that, somehow. All the same, she really ought to mention it to Fleur.
She really ought to mention it.
"I don't suppose that GUIDE has a secret alien hangover cure?" Starlight asked, glancing up at Fleur over her cappuccino.
Fleur gave a slight smile. "That depends. How do you feel about eating worms?"
Starlight made a face. "Yeah, never mind," she said, looking around for a napkin. When she looked up again, Fleur was gone, the sound of the bell over the door the only hint that the mare had departed.
Somewhere deep inside Starlight Glimmer's mind, something smiled.
Not too far away, Celestia entered her private dining room. Luna was there already, staring out the window, swirling a glass of red wine absent-mindedly around in her aura.
"Good morning, Luna."
Luna blinked and glanced at her sister, nodding at her.
Celestia tilted her head. "Bit for your thoughts?"
Luna considered that for a long moment. "Do you ever find yourself realizing that the world has changed? While you were so busy living your life, every other creature has been doing the same, and when you look around..."
"The world you see isn't the one you remember," Celestia finished.
Luna nodded.
"Well, yes. Of course," Celestia said. "Sometimes I forget how old Kibitz has grown since he first came to work at the palace. Sometimes I get turned around wandering the palace because I forget that the East Wing was remodeled after Tirek's invasion. Once, I'm sure you recall, I asked if Smart Cookie could be brought to court to advise me on a difficult question, neglecting to realize he'd been dead fifteen years."
Luna snorted softly. "Yes, I remember that well."
"What brings on this mood, Luna?"
Luna sighed. "It is... difficult to conceive that there are new Bearers," she admitted. "That the ones who freed me from the Nightmare... no longer hold that power. It should feel freeing, I think, that it has been so long since I returned."
"But it doesn't?"
"I..." Luna shook her head, frustrated.
Celestia nodded. "I see. You know, when Sunset Shimmer returned, I felt much the same way. Conflicted might be a good word for it. Frightened of my old mistakes coming back to bite me. Hopeful that I might finally be able to face up to them. Terrified that I couldn't rise to the occasion."
Luna pursed her lips and nodded.
"I was paralyzed with indecision. But a very smart mare came to me in my darkest hour and reminded me that what was past was past, and the future was dependent on what I chose. And she told me that she would always be there for me."
Luna's expression slowly melted into a small smile and she sat down across from her sister. "A smart mare indeed," she said. "Smart, attractive, funny, incredibly talented in all respects..."
Celestia's face was a picture, but after a moment it melted into a soft smirk. "And oh, so humble."
They chuckled for a moment. Then Celestia's face went serious. "Are you truly so worried that you will fall to the Nightmare's wiles again?"
Luna considered. "Honestly? No. I recognize it for what it is, now. But it still feels as though a safety net has been pulled out from under me. These new Bearers seem so... inexperienced."
"Compared to what?" Celestia asked. "Twilight and her friends went into the woods on the strength of an old book of fables, while you and I had no more to go on than the Doctor's word. They've already destroyed the Nightmare once."
"... I suppose," Luna allowed. "But it still feels as though we're entering a new era, doesn't it?"
"I hope not," Celestia said. "We already had to change all the calendars after Twilight's ascension." She smiled. Luna returned it after a moment.
Celestia reached out and patted Luna gently on the hoof. "Perhaps it will be a new age," she said. "But that need not be a cause for alarm. Your return, dear sister, heralded such a change as well."
Luna dipped her head, conceding the point. "Thank you, Tia. That does put this in perspective." She looked out the window again, where the pale shade of her moon still kept watch over the world below in the morning light.
It looked like it was going to be a lovely day. |
Ruler of Everything | Smile | The train ride to Ponyville was uneventful. Scootaloo had been working with a stunt team known as the Whirling Dervishes in Witherston, just a few miles north of where Sweetie Belle had been singing in a nightclub in Sire's Hollow. Therefore, the mares had arranged their schedules to catch the same train back to Ponyville.
"So," said Scootaloo. "How did it go?"
Sweetie beamed. "Really well! I even got called back for an encore, and a cute mare bought me a drink! What about you?"
Scootaloo shrugged. "It went okay. The Dervishes definitely aren't the Wonderbolts, but, y'know, who is? I helped them work out a few kinks and problem spots in their routine, but they didn't seem that interested in any of my ideas for new tricks."
"Oh, that's too bad," Sweetie said.
Scootaloo shrugged. "Their loss. Ah, well, maybe next time. At least I got a paycheck."
"That's good. Are you still thinking of moving out of your aunts' house?"
Scootaloo shrugged. "Yeah, eventually. Gonna have to save up for a place, though, unless you want to make like Rumble and Button and go halfsies on the rent."
Sweetie thought about that. "...Maybe. Seems like it might not be a great idea since we both have to travel so much, though."
"That's fair." Scootaloo leaned back in her seat. "So. Today's the day, huh."
"I guess so," Sweetie said. "Are you nervous?"
"Uh, well, considering the last time we got into the TARDIS we nearly all died... yes. Yeah, I'm a little nervous. But I'm looking forward to it, too. It feels... I dunno. Right."
"I know what you mean," Sweetie said, kicking her hooves thoughtfully. "I mean, I'm scared spitless. But I think things are going to be different this time."
"Well, I mean, yeah," Scootaloo said. "Obviously. I mean, even just the fact that we evicted the fuckin' Nightmare from the TARDIS is gonna have a pretty big impact."
"And Dinky mentioned that she thinks that she and the Doctor are making good progress."
"Good," Scootaloo said. "They both need it."
"...So, you know, sometimes I really feel like I'm fated to outlive all my friends," the Doctor said, staring at the floor. "It's like... I think Time Lords just live too long."
"Interesting," said the one in the armchair. "Is that why you rush into dangerous situations?"
"Probably at least in part," the Doctor admitted, rolling back on the couch. "The other part, of course, is being addicted to the adrenaline rush. Plus, if I don't... well, the fact is that there aren't always people around as well-equipped as I am to dealing with dangerous situations."
"Mmm... I suppose that's fair. But tell me, Doctor, is it that your friends die which bothers you? Or merely that you feel they outgrow you? Mortality or abandonment?"
The Doctor puffed out his cheeks and blew out a long breath. "Blimey, you don't pull punches."
"You specifically asked me not to."
"True. I mean..." The Doctor stalled for a moment. "I'd say it's both. But abandonment, that is a much larger part of it."
His conversational partner rose from his chair and looked out the window. "You know, Doctor, I once knew a diamond dog without a nose."
The Doctor hesitated. "...How did they smell?"
There was a glint of teeth in the light. "Terrible. Another creature of my acquaintance is a veterinarian, one who cares for the animals whom she loves so dearly. She holds them, feeds them, heals them -- yet they must all eventually leave her one way or another, for the wilderness or the cold earth. Each time it kills her anew, but her heart is still so open, so loving."
They turned dramatically. "Tell me, Doctor -- will you set your feelings to roam free? Or will you bury them?"
The Doctor looked up at the tall, gaunt figure who cast an antlered shadow across the ground. "Look, Discord, if you're going to play at psychology, could you choose literally any other archetype?"
"Spoilsport." Discord snapped their fingers and the sharp lighting of the room dissolved into the soft hues of a bright summer day spilling in through the windows of Fluttershy's sitting room."
"Thank you," the Doctor said.
"You haven't answered my question yet," Discord observed.
"I haven't," the Doctor agreed. He inhaled through his nose and slowly let out the breath through his mouth. "I mean, it's never that simple, is it? Just saying, 'Oh yes, let me take all of my emotional trauma and push it to the side and open my heart for feeling again,' doesn't actually accomplish that goal."
Discord shrugged. "It's a start. Frankly, if you're willing to come to me for advice, I'd say that you're probably desperate enough to try anything."
"It's not like I don't bring it up with my actual therapist," the Doctor pointed out. "But I thought that you... well, you might bring a certain perspective to this topic that not many on this world will ever possess."
Discord shook their head. "I spent a thousand years as a pigeon toilet, which I would argue is also not the best way to deal with other creatures' embarrassingly finite lifespans."
"Hrm. Well, did you learn anything from your mistakes?"
"Aside from 'If you see magic jewelry being aimed at you, duck'?" Discord stroked their goatee. "Huh. Uh... I suppose..." They glanced at the side table and saw a photo of them and Fluttershy smiling back.
They sighed. "What matters is spending time with the ones you love while you still have the chance. Even a Time Lord can't get that back."
They paused and gave the Doctor the hairy eyeball. "If you even think of telling anypony I got soppy --"
The Doctor grinned. "I know, I won't."
"Good," Discord grumbled, sitting back and crossing their arms over their chest. "I couldn't think of anything good to threaten you with."
"Well, this has been constructive," the Doctor said, rising from the couch. "Unfortunately, I've got places to be today, so if you'll excuse me..."
Discord waved him off and the Doctor trotted out the front door. Before he could make it to the gate, however, he was arrested by Fluttershy calling his name.
"Yes?" he asked, turning to face her.
She smiled and traced circled in the dirt with a hoof. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she said. "But Ditzy mentioned something to me the other day about how you were complaining about an empty room in the TARDIS...?"
The Doctor tilted his head. "An empty... Oh, the Butterfly Room, yes. Good heavens, that must've been weeks ago, now, and I haven't done a thing about bringing in new residents. What about it?"
"Well, you see, I've been asking around," Fluttershy said. "And, er, I found a few volunteers."
The Doctor tilted his head. "Volun--"
He cut himself off and turned around to see a flock of butterflies dancing in the air. There must have been some two hundred of them.
"Of course, they'd like to see the room first," Fluttershy said quickly. "Just to see, you know, if they'd be happy living there. I'm sure you've got it set up already, of course -- eep!"
She fell silent as the Doctor pulled her into a tight hug. "Fluttershy, has anypony ever told you that you're an absolute marvel?" he asked.
She blushed. "I do my best," she said.
The train squealed as it rolled to a halt in Ponyville Station. Scootaloo was among the first to disembark. Sweetie Belle, lugging several suitcases out of their compartment, trailed very much behind her. Scootaloo danced impatiently in place, waiting for Sweetie to catch up. "C'mon," she said. "Let's get a move on! I've been waiting for this all weekend!"
"Huh," said Apple Bloom. "An' here Ah thought y'all might be exited just to see yer friends."
Scootaloo spun around to give Bloom a half-teasing eye-roll. "You say that like you aren't excited, too. It's been so long, and now the Doctor says she's finally in flying shape again? Hi, by the way." She reached out and pulled Apple Bloom into a quick hug.
Bloom returned the embrace with interest. "Yeah," she agreed. "Ah mean, it's definitely thrillin', but Ah would hope that at least some of that enthusiasm would be reserved fer th' company onboard."
"Course it is, don't be a jerk," Scootaloo said, pulling away.
Bloom grinned. "Jus' ribbin' ya," she said.
Meanwhile, Rumble helped Sweetie Belle load her suitcases onto a cart. "How was the show?" he asked.
She shrugged. "It's a start. They certainly seemed to enjoy it. How's your brother?"
Rumble cocked his head thoughtfully. "Well, he's sort of past the point where he really had to grapple with the fact that I didn't need to live with him anymore. Now he's got to grapple with the fact that I'm the only one in that household who ever did the dishes."
Sweetie snickered. "I know. Up until Rarity and Spike got together, I didn't think I could ever move out. Who would make her stop obsessing over her latest commission for long enough to actually eat lunch?"
"But you still haven't moved out," Rumble said.
"Well... yeah," Sweetie admitted. "But I could, and that's what matters."
"Guess so," Rumble agreed.
"Sweetie Belle!"
Rumble chuckled quietly as Sweetie's head whipped around. "Button!" she said, her smile stretching from ear to ear. The two ponies galloped across the platform to crash together in the middle in a tight, warm embrace.
"Dorks," Rumble murmured, grinning.
"It's absolutely stomach churning," Dinky said, trotting over to help straighten the pile of luggage. "Do you think they even realize how sickeningly adorable they are?"
Rumble glanced over. Sweetie's tail was entwined around Button's leg as they chatted away excitedly. "Not a chance. You want to help me get this back to the Boutique? It would be a crime to interrupt those two when they're like this."
Dinky nodded, lighting her horn, and the two ponies, the cart, and the luggage all vanished in a flash of golden light.
There was a clattering that echoed through the Carousel Boutique as two ponies collided with a cart, sending a pile of luggage to the floor in a great heap.
"Y'know," Rumble said, struggling to rise and dislodging even more luggage in the process. "I was really just asking for you to steer while I pushed."
Dinky shrugged as best as she could while pinned under two suitcases. "My way's faster."
He finally managed to pick himself up and drag Dinky out of the pile. He didn't say anything, but his expression spoke volumes. She just grinned back at him until he rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Guess you're not wrong," he allowed.
"Hello?" Rarity called from the next room. "Who's that?"
"It's only us," Rumble called back. "Just dropping off some of Sweetie Belle's luggage."
Rarity poked her head through the door. "Ah! Dinky, just the mare I wanted to see. I've finished that suit you wanted."
"Oh, nice." Dinky said. "I was hoping it'd be done before the big launch."
"Suit?" Rumble echoed, arching an eyebrow.
Dinky just trotted deeper into the Boutique after Rarity, leaving Rumble to bring up the rear. "Here we are," Rarity said, levitating out a small dress form. "What do you think, darling?"
Both Crusaders studied the blue velvet suit and red ascot. Rumble glanced sidelong at Dinky. "Isn't that the outfit from the Matrix?"
"Yeah. Turns out it's not in the wardrobe room in reality, but..." She scratched the back of her head. "I dunno what to tell you, it just felt right."
"And how does the reality match up to the illusion?" Rarity asked.
Dinky nodded, circling the dress form slowly. "It looks just about perfect, right down to the tie pin. Do you mind if I change into it here?"
Rarity waved her over to the modesty screen in the corner, and Dinky pulled the outfit off the dress form and back behind the board.
Spike wandered in through the front of the shop. "Hey, Rares? Did you know that there's a bunch of suitcases on the floor? Oh, hey, Rumble."
"Hm?" Rarity said, turning. "Oh, yes, would you be a darling and take them up to Sweetie's room while I finish up with Dinky?"
He gave a joking salute. "Yes, ma'am."
Rumble turned. "I'll give you a hoof, Spike."
Spike grinned at him. "Thanks."
The duo made their way back to where Rumble had teleported in.
"So," Rumble said softly when they were out of earshot. "How're you holding up?"
Spike looked up at the ceiling for a long moment. "Better," he said eventually. "Rarity is... still putting on more aging cream than she used to, and I'm... I'm dealing with the fact that I'm going to inevitably outlive her. But we're doing our best to live in the present, y'know?"
Rumble patted the drake's back. "I know. Thanks for telling me."
"All things considered, I think we were some of the luckier ones," Spike said. "I mean, compared to what the Princesses went through, and Applejack, and you Crusaders..."
"Maybe," Rumble said. "Maybe not. Trauma's not a contest or anything, you know."
Spike chuckled, hefting a stack of suitcases against his chest.. "Yeah. I know."
Rumble tilted his head slightly, then continued, perfectly deadpan, "If it was, I'd be winning."
"Dude!" Spike said, nearly fumbling all the luggage to the ground as he tried to hide his laughter behind one clawed hand. "That's not -- are you sure you want to laugh about that?"
Rumble shrugged. "Better than the alternative."
Spike steadied the suitcases and stood upright. "Yeah," he admitted. "Yeah, I guess it is."
Up at the Castle of Friendship, it was a quiet morning. There were no diplomats or heads of state to greet, no friendship problems to solve with a smile and a song, not even any overdue library books that needed collecting.
Twilight was, therefore, doing some light reading in the library. She only glanced up from The Compleat Works of Spear Shaker when there came a knock at the door. She didn't get many knocks from any of her housemates -- Trixie and Sunset tended to just barge right in, whereas Sombra just snuck up on her by accident. It wasn't exactly his fault -- he was just very unobtrusive.
"Come in?" Twilight said, placing a ribbon in the thick tome to mark her page.
The door swung open in a manner that could only be called 'shy', and a square red muzzle nosed its way into the room.
"Mac!" Twilight said, shutting her book and setting it aside. She folded her hooves on the table and leaned forward. "How are you today?"
Mac smiled at her bashfully. "Ah'm well," they said. "An' yerself?"
"I can't complain," Twilight said. "What brings you all the way to my library? Did you finish that book on the history of zero?"
"Oh? Er, jes' about," Mac said. "But, um... Ah ain't here for a book today."
"No?"
"Nope."
There was a long silence. Mac's heart felt like it was about to beat out of their chest. They tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. They saw Twilight looking at them expectantly. They could only look back with helpless longing.
After a moment, Twilight nodded. "Would you like to sit down, Mac?"
"Eeyup."
They slid out the chair opposite Twilight and sat, hooves folded on the table.
"Would a glass of water help?"
"...Nope."
After a moment, Twilight tried again, hesitantly. "Would you like me to... try and guess what it is you want?"
Mac considered this, gnawing their lower lip. They glanced up at her. "Would y'all... wait fer me?"
"As long as you need," Twilight promised.
It took nearly fifteen minutes for Mac to gird their loins once more. "D'you... remember..." they began. "Well. 'Course you do. But... when th' Nightmare... made ev'rypony forget 'bout us?"
Twilight nodded.
Mac cleared their throat. "Uh. Well. Reckon we got a little, er, business that mighta gone... unfinished? Er, Ah mean, Ah don't want to assume nothin', but..."
Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. "I agree completely. Would you like to... finish it?"
Mac blinked back tears. "Eeyup."
Neither of them knew who initiated the kiss. Neither knew how long it lasted. Twilight knew only the scent of sweet-tart apple pie and dirt, the feeling of rough lips on hers. Mac knew only the taste of lavender and old pages, the passionate press of her hooves on their chest as Twilight leaned in, hungry for more.
The door slammed open. "The Great and Powerful Trixie wishes to... um... hm. Trixie will just... come back later, then."
Neither of them paid her the slightest attention, and there was no more reading done that morning. |
Ruler of Everything | Resolution | The bell over the front door of the Boutique rang. "Rumble?" Sweetie Belle called, trotting into the foyer. "Dinky?"
"Well, hello to you too," Rarity said archly, trotting forward to give her sister a quick hug. "How was the show, darling?"
"Good! I think I did really well. Um, have you seen Rumble and Dinky? They disappeared at the train station... along with all my bags."
"You'll find your luggage up in your room. As for Rumble and Dinky -- why don't you invite your friends in? I think we've got something to show you."
Sweetie tilted her head. "...'Kay?"
She waved out the window and beckoned Bloom, Button, and Scootaloo into the Boutique. All four of them followed Rarity into the back of the shop, where Rumble and Spike were already waiting in front of the modeling stage. Spike was munching on a handful of aquamarines. Rarity gave him a mild look as she approached, and he held up his free claw in protest. "I got them out of the scrap pile, honest!"
"It's not what you're eating, darling, it's that you're eating at a fashion show," Rarity said lightly. "I don't mind too much, but it's a habit you'll want to get out of before you come with me to an exhibition in Manehattan."
Spike nodded and quickly downed the remaining gems in a single gulp.
"Fashion show?" Button asked, confused.
"Hm, perhaps a slight overstatement on my part," Rarity conceded. "But, well... Dinky, darling, are you quite ready?"
By way of response, Dinky stepped out from behind the curtain. The others all sat and stared. They had seen her in this outfit before, of course, but the circumstances had been stressful enough that none of them had paid much notice to how she'd looked in it.
She looked sharp and dapper in the blue velvet suit, the red cravat accentuating the outfit. Her eyes seemed to spark with intelligence, and her crooked smile seemed deeply knowing. There was an aura of authority to her.
She glanced at her friends. "Looks good, doesn't it?"
"Uh, yeah," Scootaloo said. "I mean, very sharp."
"Ah think it might be a little hard to keep it clean an' tidy while travelin'," Bloom noted. "Seems a little impractical."
"Yeah, but it's got pockets," Dinky said.
"Ah. Yeah, that's convenient."
"Give us a spin now, darling," Rarity said.
"Huh? Oh." Dinky slowly turned in a tight circle, to the applause of her friends. When she faced out toward the audience again, she was grinning broadly.
She leapt off the stage and glanced over at Rarity. "Uh, how much do I owe you?"
Rarity arched an eyebrow thoughtfully. "Consider it to be services rendered for saving the lives of more or less every creature and everything I hold dear."
"Oh. Thanks."
"Think nothing of it, dear. Apple Bloom was correct in any case, I'm quite sure you'll be sending me a fair amount of business repairing it."
Dinky nodded, rolling her eyes as she did so. "Yeah, I guess that's true, too."
Button glanced up at the wall clock. "We've still got about an hour and a half before we need to meet with the Doctor. Anypony got anything they want to do until then?"
"Eat," Scootaloo said. "The train left too early for me to get anything close to a decent breakfast, and I'm starving."
"Same," Sweetie Belle agreed. "What do you guys think? Sugarcube Corner for donuts and coffee?"
"Sounds like a plan," Button said.
"Bye, Rarity," Dinky said. "Thanks for the clothes."
"See you later, Spike!" Rumble called, already halfway to the door.
Sweetie turned to go. Then she paused, turned, and hugged both her sister and Spike in turn. "I'll see you guys soon. Love you!"
And then she was gone. Rarity smiled, but it was a sad, tired smile. "How quickly they grow," she said softly.
Spike patted her on the shoulder, and she leaned into his side.
Sugarcube Corner was fairly quiet when the Crusaders wandered in -- it was well after most ponies had breakfast, but not quite lunchtime either. Pinkie was standing at the counter, and she waved excitedly to the Crusaders when she saw them. "Hi guys!" she said. "What can I get you?"
"Donuts," Sweetie Belle said firmly. "Uh, two cream filled for me, and a caramel latte."
The others all gave their orders, and together the six of them crammed into a booth in the corner. "So," said Scootaloo. "Should all of us get cool outfits, or is that just a you thing?"
Dinky shrugged. "You can if you want. Maybe check out the wardrobe room in the TARDIS? There's some cool stuff in there."
"Nah, I just didn't want there to be a dress code for time traveling," Scootaloo said, leaning back in her chair. "The Doctor always seems to have some kind of wild outfit, and now so do you."
There was a pause. Dinky frowned slightly, and the other Crusaders held their breath. "Huh," Dinky said after a moment. "Maybe there is a dress code." She grinned. "And maybe the TARDIS only likes me enough to mention it."
Rumble shoved her lightly, and she chuckled.
Pinkie skipped toward the table, carrying a platter full of donuts on her head. "Here ya go!" she said, plopping them down in the middle of the table. She turned to go, but paused.
"Sweetie Belle?" she asked.
"Mhmm?" the unicorn asked, her mouth already full of donut.
"Do you have your Element on you? I really wanna look it over."
Sweetie gulped down her bite of pastry. "Oh." She dug around in her mane, pulled out the slender wand and hoofed it over. "Here you go," she said, taking another chomp of her donut.
Pinkie ran a hoof over the screwdriver, smiling at it nostalgically. "Boy. I remember when I got this. Did I ever tell you that story?"
"Um," said Button.
Pinkie slapped her head. "Silly me! Everypony in Ponyville knows that story. And now everypony in Ponyville knows yours, too! I'm getting distracted."
"No," Scootaloo said, her eyes lidded. She took a long sip of coffee. "Really?"
"I know! I'm surprised, too. What I really wanted to do was offer you a little advice."
Everypony looked at each other. This was either going to be something incredibly prophetic and useful or something superbly silly. Both were worth listening to.
Pinkie looked down at the screwdriver. "You guys have had a lot of power given to you. This is a lot of weight to put on ponies so young, and I'd know! The six of you are gonna go far. I don't need Pinkie Sense to tell you that. You're gonna face down terrible things as you go; some are gonna be monsters, some are just gonna be ponies, and some of them... well, some of them are gonna be you. And that's true of everypony, but it's especially true for you guys!"
She looked each of them square in the eye in turn. "I believe in the six of you. You are strong enough to handle this kind of power. But nopony can be strong forever, and that's why you should always, always, always have friends. I mean, you do, but it's good to have even more outside your group in case you're all tired and angry and snappy all at the same time, and what I'm really saying is that you can depend on me and your families and friends and also the Princesses and really all of Ponyville and maybe even more ponies you meet along the way, and that's more than okay!"
The Crusaders were all staring at her now. She paused and scratched her head, thinking. "Uh... and also, have fun out there! What's the point of time travel if you don't enjoy yourself, right?"
"...Right," said Sweetie Belle. "Uh, can I have that back now?"
"Hm? Oh, sure!" Pinkie plonked the screwdriver back on the table. "I'll be back in a sec with your bill!" She bounced away, leaving the Crusaders reeling in her stream of words.
They left Sugarcube Corner shortly thereafter, full and content, heading for Dinky's house. When they arrived, Ditzy popped her head out the front door and waved at them enthusiastically. Dinky smiled and trotted up to the porch to hug her mom, the other Crusaders following in her wake as Ditzy led them all into the kitchen.
"Can I get you all anything to drink?" she asked brightly. "A muffin for the road, maybe?"
"What road?" Scootaloo asked. "Where we're going, we don't need roads."
"A muffin for the infinite void of time and space, then," Ditzy said without batting an eye.
"No thanks," Rumble said. "We just ate."
"I wouldn't say no to a glass of water, though," Button added.
Ditzy nodded and brought down a glass from the cabinet. "I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a little longer than expected to take off," she said. "The Doctor's making one last-minute addition."
Dinky pursed her lips. "Not to put too fine a point on it," she said. "But isn't that kinda why the TARDIS needed to sit around for a month to begin with?"
"Don't worry. This is nothing like the Interface," Ditzy assured her.
"Still --"
"It was a gift from Fluttershy."
"Oh. Well, never mind, then," Dinky said, sitting back in her chair.
"How is the Doctor?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Since, you know."
"He's... getting better," Ditzy said. "He still has a long way to go. Thousands of years of trauma don't go away overnight, and he's still got a habit of putting himself down... but he's getting better. Princess Luna can actually help with his nightmares now that the Nightmare isn't interfering with them."
"And how are you?" Rumble asked.
Ditzy took a muffin out of the breadbox and took a bite of it meditatively. "I think I'm alright," she said. "I think... I'm more or less alright."
"More or less?" Dinky asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"More more than less," Ditzy said quickly. "It's nothing to worry about. I'm sure it's basically nothing more than you could have guessed. It was a traumatic experience for all of us, wasn't it?"
"...Sure," Button said. "But it helped all of us to talk about it afterwards. Do you want to..."
Ditzy sighed and slumped into a kitchen chair. "The Nightmare said... it had been manipulating the Doctor's travels for lifetimes before I met him, trying to force him into impossible moral dilemmas. What if... what if I was one of them? He fell in love with me, and he had to leave me, and I know it broke his hearts as much as it broke mine. Did he fall in love with me by his own free will? Or was I set up for him? I mean, I know how egotistical that sounds, but it's not exactly outside the realm of possibilities, is it?"
There was a long pause. Dinky took her mother's hoof. "Mom... even if you were only ever meant to be a trap for the Doctor, you know he loves you. Whether you were set up to meet by an apocalyptic matchmaker, or you only did by chance, you fell in love because you're compatible. Whatever the Nightmare did or didn't do to make the two of you meet, it doesn't matter."
Ditzy nodded slowly.
"Also," Scootaloo said. "If it did get the two of you together for some big emotionally-destroying twist of fate, it's also responsible for Dinky being born, so it really kinda shot itself in the foot there."
That got a chuckle out of the assembled and the mood in the room lightened considerably.
The Doctor poked his head in through the door. "What's going on in here, then?" he asked, grinning broadly.
Everypony stared at him, smiling. Several of them were giggling. He tilted his head. "What?"
Ditzy chewed her lip, staring at his left ear. "No, seriously, what?"
"You've, um," said Rumble. "You got a couple of passengers up there."
"What?" The Doctor turned to the hall mirror. Perched on his mane and ears were no fewer than five butterflies, sitting on his head like a flower crown. "Oh." He grinned. "Y'know, I think it rather suits me!"
"Can't argue with that," Sweetie Belle said.
"Ah take it th' TARDIS is ready now?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Yes, indeed," the Doctor said. "The console is functioning, the Eye of Harmony is restored, the psychic wounds have healed, and the Butterfly Room is full again! Everything you need for a functioning TARDIS, save for a crew. Are you ready to go?"
The moment had been prepared for. Yet, now that it had arrived, the six scarcely believed it. Slowly, they nodded. The Doctor smiled at them. "Alright, then. I believe you'll be wanting these." He walked to each Crusader in turn and handed them a key on a length of chain.
There was a moment as they each secured their keys around their necks, in their manes, or, in Dinky's case, in her pocket. "Okay," said Bloom. "Let's go."
They all headed out to the backyard. The TARDIS sat near a corner, humming softly.
"So," said the Doctor. "Dinky? You remember what I taught you about setting the proper coordinates?'
"Yes, dad. I remember."
"You've still got the Laws of Time memorized?"
"Yes. Plus the list of exceptions you mentioned."
"And you know how to operate the Fast-Return Switch in case of any emergencies --"
"Dad."
He stopped and grinned weakly at her. "I know. You know."
She gave him a quick hug, then pulled away. "I appreciate it anyway."
The Doctor stepped back and took it all in. His daughter, her friends, the TARDIS...
"Should I take a photo? Commemorate the moment and all that?"
"Dad..."
"Alright, alright," he said, waving a hoof. "Try and be back by supper, alright?"
"Okay. Bye, dad. Bye, mom. Thanks." She turned. Hesitated. "I love you. See ya in a bit."
She stepped through the TARDIS doors, the other Crusaders clustering in afterwards. There was a thunk as the doors closed heavily. The Doctor stepped back, grinning slightly, and Ditzy put a hoof on his shoulder.
There was a great groaning roar that rose up moments later, bringing with it a wind that blew Ditzy's mane back and sent the butterflies on the Doctor's head flying. Grass clippings flew and swirled around the box as it flashed out of phase with reality.
"Allez-vous," the Doctor whispered as the police box faded out of sight. "Allez-vous." |
Naughty Bits | pre | "A thoughtful lover," said Twilight with a kiss, and continued across his face. "A faithful companion, who likes it when his silly marefriend talks in bed. A fellow bookworm. Somepony who will stand up for me when I want to sit down. Someone who takes away the fear and the tension of life, and replaces it with this roaring fire under my ribs. And eventually, after we work through the correct checklists, a good father."
"Our kids," said Greenie during a muffled kiss, "are going to be soooo screwed up."
"And if I catch one of them in bed with another pony, I'm going to be so hypocritical," murmured Twilight during the return kiss.
"You'll be hypocritical?" snorted Greenie. "I will be a raging example of hypocrisy. You will be able to look into the dictionary and see my face as the definition of that word. I will rant so hard my father will look like an example of tranquility and peace by comparison."
"You will not," said Twilight with a welcome laugh that loosened the faint lines of tension that had begun to creep up her sides again. "You will be the same adorable squish that every one of your young students have put on their own pillar. And that an older and far wiser one..."
It was either kiss or say the Forbidden Word she could not say, so they decided on the far more pleasurable option. She never finished the sentence, but she did start a new one after they broke for air.
"I'm sorry for pressuring you into intercourse," she started, "if you're sorry for pressuring me to write a letter to Princess Celestia asking for permission."
"Why should either of us be sorry?" He rested one hoof each on either side of her flanks, right over her cutie mark, which was a very ticklish and wriggly spot for her. "Every time you try to get at my body, I get this raging feeling of importance, that you desire me more than anything else in the world. That all those fears you've been fighting through your life are less important than us. And someday when you present that letter from your teacher, even that last fear will be conquered by the inestimable Twilight Sparkle."
She wriggled, despite her best efforts to remain still. "I'm not all that--"
"Yes, you are," said Greenie, nuzzling her nose. "You are afraid that Princess Celestia still thinks of you as a helpless foal. Do you think she will be angry that you have grown into your own body after you've done so much for Equestria? I certainly don't think so, or I never would have made that promise."
"Hypocrite." Twilight poked him gently in the chest. "Let's take the morning train to Canterlot. We can be standing in front of her by noon, so I can ask her directly." She managed to keep a straight face for a few seconds before breaking out in giggles. "And we... stop that... can borrow her bedroom... eek!"
It was not exactly an apology, but she still accepted the kisses and mutual touching while returning them in proper proportion until it was Greenie's turn to break for air, looking deep into her eyes and speaking from the heart.
"When we make love, I want it to be the right time, not the most convenient time, or the most horny time. I want no regrets, no reluctance, no fear at all for either of us. Other than the normal fear of trying something new, I suppose," he clarified with a soft kiss. "I don't think we'll ever get over all of our fears, but we can face them together."
After some more kissing, Twilight pulled away just far enough to rest her nose on his. "So... Until I'm properly documented, I can still tease you about fucking, rub my pussy against your cock, and do everything except that?"
Greenie wrinkled up his nose. "I would be disappointed if you stopped. It's a lot of fun, and an incredible ego boost."
"And we don't have to stop any other kind of sex, right?" asked Twilight, wriggling back and forth at the touch of his hooves on her rear to feel the press of his rigid cock against her belly.
"I've created a monster," murmured Greenie into her cheek. "Of course we can keep--"
"Good." Twilight lunged forward and grabbed onto the headboard with her forehooves, then settled down to press her wet pussy against Greenie's hot cock. "Because this monster is hungry, Spike is making pancakes downstairs, and I can't walk around town all day with you while dripping. Ahhh, yeahhh. Right there."
She trailed her tail over Greenie's balls while settling down down, allowing his cock to press into the crack of her pussy and her convulsive twitches to wedge it deeper. It could not reach inside and tickle the parts she really wanted tickled, but it could and did feel absolutely fantastic on the outside.
"And no fair cranking me up for hours of this," she panted. "One and done. Pancakes. Oh, stars that's nice," she added as Greenie's cock teased her clit out from its folds and the resulting bolts down her touchy nerves made her grab onto the headboard so hard it creaked. Even if she couldn't stuff that hot cock up her pussy, she could imagine the feeling of it plunging in and out as his cock rubbed again her clit, and the burst of hot marecum when he gently began to rub her cutie mark on each flank with the tip of his hooves and just...
She had been cranked up so hard to this point that it was far more powerful than any orgasm she had before, to the point where she was really concerned about either breaking Greenie's ribs with her back legs or tearing the headboard off the bed with her forelegs. She could feel the muscles of his barrel tense in the middle of her convulsions, and his cock jerked rhythmically, spraying hot ejaculate across his upper chest.
At one time in the recent past, Twilight would have been upset about making a mess in the long chest floof of such a snuggleable stallion. That was another fear she had put behind her with the assistance of the mess-maker clutched between her trembling legs.
Well, and an effective cleaning spell afterward.
She held still as the two of them cooled off, fully aware of how sensitive he was after orgasm, yet another lesson she had learned from their mutual educational experiences. It was such a quiet and floating time that she could feel her pulse where they pressed together, two hearts beating as one while their hearts slowed to a normal rhythm. After such a sensitive and intimate time, there should have been some romantic words to trade once they recovered, with gentle touches and affectionate nuzzles. She decided on a different action, before they got carried away and missed pancakes altogether.
"Greenie," she cautioned after quietly spitting out a small splinter from the headboard, "if you touch my teats, I'm going to nip your nose." As the gentle hooves moved away from her sensitive groin, she had to add, "After breakfast, and spending some time outside, we'll come back to bed and keep going. I swear, you're going to make me bite through the headboard yet."
"A librarian bookmark," he said with one long stroke of a hoof down her twitching tummy, adding a dot at the bottom that made her giggle.
"We can't spend all of our time in bed. A quarter, at most," she chided him while getting out the tissues and starting a cleaning spell to deal with the pool of ejaculate mostly contained to his furry chest. It was going to be so good when they both got over their respective resistances, and she planned on making good and proper use of every sticky drop internally once that day came. Of course, she would have to write the permission letter to Princess Celestia first, and she was not quite there yet. Nor was she ever under any circumstances willing to write said letter to her own parents, because they would keep it in the family history book, and she would be embarrassed in front of relatives for decades. And her mother might send advice. Cadence certainly would.
"Acting like newlyweds already," said Greenie with only a slight hesitation from both of them after the word was spoken, and the resulting damping of their mutual warm glow. "That shall wait for later," he quickly declared. "M'lady hath vanquished yon serpent with the power of her passion, and it already retreats into its lair."
"You're just saying that because you want to be in the sequel tonight." Twilight mopped up a last drip at the 'lair' of the serpent, then swooped down to kiss Greenie on the lips. "Come on, up," she added after rolling off the bed. "Pancakes."
"Right after you," said Greenie with a brief grunt to get out of his mattress dent. "I'd follow that happy tail anywhere. Um, dear? You left a little happy there."
"Got it." Twilight mopped away some of their mutual moisture with an additional tissue. "What are you going to do if I take this happy tail up the wedding aisle?"
"Check out the rest of you," chirped Green Grass in a happy trill while shrugging into his vest, "because I might be following the wrong mare, and someday when we wind up there, if we do, I want to be positive." He took an appreciative look from nose to tail before giving her a long, warm kiss. "Yep, that's the beautiful mare who captured my heart and totally scrambled all of my long-term goals."
"I remember long-term goals," said Twilight with a long sigh and a distant look. "Of course, that was before Nightmare Moon, that Ursa Minor, my friendship studies, and this horney, hat-wearing hunk." She placed Greenie's hat firmly on his hornless head and gave it a fashionable tilt.
"If I may be so crude," said Greenie, leaning closer. "Screw long-term goals." He kissed her, but drew back when her heart began beating harder and she leaned forward into his lips. "Short-term goals are far better for now. Pancakes. Dealing with our daily tasks. And then..."
Twilight kissed him on the nose. "Reading with you downstairs in the library until closing time."
He kissed back. "Finding an excuse for Spike to go visit Rarity this evening."
She smiled. "And maybe, just perhaps, writing the first draft of a letter to--"
He held a hoof over her lips. "Shh. Too long-term. Pancakes are calling."
And as the two of them strolled downstairs to the library's cozy kitchenette for breakfast, a lone piece of paper fluttered quietly on top of the dresser drawers. On it was the scribbled permission letter Twilight had been attempting to write as a joke a mere hour ago, barely legible due to the tickling she had been receiving during the process.
Hours later, when the two returned to the bedroom, the letter was long gone.
Neither of them noticed, or paid the slightest bit of attention to the lingering scent of dragonfire.
They had more important things on their minds. |
Number One | pre | "We got that in the barn. An' I pay you when it's done?"
"Not a moment sooner."
"Better than new?"
"You won't recognize it."
She brings her hoof to her chin. "Well... you said you were sorry." You nod. "And I can't leave a pony starvin'." She walks over to the nearest tree and gives it a light kick. A few apples fall from the branches with she gathers up and nudges towards you. "Here. Ah don't want you workin' hungry."
You are still wary of the apples. However, your stomach was fighting your better judgement and they did just come off the tree. Could there be anything in them already?
"You get yer tools and Ah'll have the wood ready for you," she says, turning away.
"Right! Be back in a minute..." you say, trailing off as you look at the apples in front of you.
Maybe just a taste.
*crunch*
Oh my goodness, that's delicious. ===
Finally, some familiar territory. You wonder how somepony could actually slam the side of this wagon into a tree, but nevertheless, you're happy they did. Once you fix this, that farmer might tell her friends. A couple of them have some broken things they bring by and afterwards they tell more friends. They tell more ponies and more and more and then you'll have a steady flow of customers.
Glorious thing, word of mouth. And nopony, not even Rainbow Dash, could do anything to stop it.
You brought your toolbox and Apple-something (might have to ask for her name again later) had long planks of wood ready for you in a pile next to the broken wagon. You begin to look over the task at hoof.
"It's a wonder it hadn't broke sooner," you say to yourself. The wood was old and rotten nearly everywhere. Thankfully the axles were in good enough shape or else it'd be your entire day sunk. You still had your work ahead of you and this wasn't even including any secret compartments. Although this wagon would have been perfect for such add-ons, you figure since this is your first customer that you are depending on to spread the word you'll just fix it up before slapping on things that racks up the cost. Maybe you''' ask later. You won't lie, you'd love to be able to have a little fun seeing what you could do. Brushing your hooves against each other, you take your measuring tape and pencil and begin work.
Taking a few measurements of the wagon, you mark off places on a fresh board of wood that you'd cut in a moment. Maybe you could do a double for reinforcement. However, that would make the cart heavier. You'll try pulling it and see after the first is put on and the wheel is fixed. You hum to yourself as you lose yourself in the job. You feel the sides of your mouth lifting ever so slightly... ===
"Hey, you still workin'? It's gettin' near supper, so I- whoa!"
You snap out of your personal little world when you hear the voice approaching. You were just sanding down the corners of the wagon; a little touch to make it look nice. Of course it has to look nice, it'd be too easy to guess some piece of trash was smuggling something.
"Why... that's... Ah..." She was at a loss for words.
"Well, the wood was old all the way around, so I picked off all of that," you begin. "The wheel wasn't so much of a problem, a little glue should hold it fine." You pat the side. "Two planks thick and added a little bit more support on the inside. This thing could crash into a hundred trees," you say with a little pride showing. "Also..." You couldn't help yourself and put in concealed storage in the back under the wagon bed. "This if you have anything that you might not want in plain sight."
Her mouth is still open in amazement.
"And I greased the wheels a little so it pulls smooth as anything." She simply walks up and hooks herself to it. She begins walking and, sure enough, the wagon glides along with ease.
"Wow... This is amazin'!" She said while the two of you walk back to the shed.
Her smile fades. Her eyes open just a bit wider, staring into space. The realization dawning on her that this piece of work she was admiring she now has to pay for.
"So, uh, what do I owe ya'?" she asks, chuckling nervously.
Here comes the fun part. And by fun part, you mean the part you dread.
"Well, it wasn't exactly easy getting the old wood off..." you begin, exaggerating each task. "While you did provide supplies, there was the work going into the inside support and that extra little space in the back wasn't exactly a picnic."
You go through each and every detail making it sound harder than it really was. This was a normal tactic you use because, more often than not, your customers would try to haggle with you for a lower price. They would still try to convince you to let the job go for less, but this made the inflated estimate you give them seem actually justifiable. Then you'd allow yourself to lower the price to something somewhat reasonable.
You finish up your spiel. "All things considered, I think it'll be about..." Suddenly, something catches your eye. You see a big basket of apples in the corner of the shed by the door. Remembering the tangy, sweet juices as they flowed over your tongue and lips after the first bite...
The farmer, who was looking worried while you talked, follows your gaze and suddenly looks back with a smirk.
"You want 'em?" she asks.
"Well, I don't normally take anything but money..." You eye the apples. The crisp, delicious, apples that tickled your taste buds with their juicy golden Damn it, you were hooked. "But in this case, it'll do."
You can almost see a wave of relief come over the orange pony. "Take 'em. Honestly, that helps me out a bunch." She looks to the ground. "Business hasn't been goin' too well these days. Bits are tight and I kind of owe somepony else at the moment."
You shrug. Not your problem.
"Here, let me help you with these," she says, picking up the basket. She loops it around in the strap of your saddlebag and, with a little work, you're able to get a nice balance with your toolbox on the other side.
"Thanks again, mister," she says. "You may not be the most... friendly of ponies." You roll your eyes. "But you sure do a fine job of fixin' things."
"You can tell your friends that."
"Ah will. See ya' later!" she says with a wave as you walk back down the path.
You think over the situation as you walk back to your house. The ball for customers had started rolling. You may have just done a repair job in exchange for apples, but then again, you aren't hurting for bits yet and food is what you need.
At that moment, your stomach decides to pipe up. While not the Dear-Celestia-I'm-Dying rumble, it's enough for you to merit taking an apple out of the basket on your side and munching as you trotted along.
Suddenly, you see up in the sky, a trail of rainbow cut through the wild blue. You remember what you were thinking about earlier today and are now considering whether or not you truly want to see Dash at that moment. It has been a good day and an encounter with the colorful pegasus can go in either direction. Not seeing any sign of her behind you anymore, you decide just to keep walking. ===
Sure enough, the next day comes with a knock on your door. A purple unicorn with mostly-violet mane stands there. She looks as skeptical as the farmer had.
You talk a little. Enough to say sorry for the two party incidents. She lightens up and pulls out a clock from her saddlebag for you to take a look at. It is a rather unusual design, but you had seen it enough to know how to fix it. It actually has everything, there is just one little piece out of place.
"I was looking at the design of this clock in a book, but I just didn't understand why it wasn't working."
"Yeah, few books mention that those two cogs connect like that."
"Well, thanks. How much will it be?"
You consider it. It was just a few flicks of your hoof. Perhaps you can get a couple easy bits off this, maybe one or two...
"How's this?" she suddenly asks, pulling out four bits with her magic.
"Um... sure!"
She takes the clock and leaves happily. "I'll be sure to tell my friends about you!" You simply nod, looking dumbfounded at the easiest four bits you've ever earned as she leaves.
The next few days brings even more customers. One with a blender, another with a camera, a couple more clocks, and more. The folding table somepony left and forgot about has turned into your work bench. Apologies are made to everypony that comes to your door and they all leave promising to tell their friends. Less enemies, more customers. Even the Cakes come by needing their oven repaired and they agree to sell you baked goods again. You did have to get another hug from Pinkie Pie who then goes off to throw you another party, this time at the bakery.
It was tonight. Perhaps you'll finally get it right this time.
You only have one more customer. A white unicorn with a dark purple mane who brought in a sewing machine that was actually taken to you before by three fillies in red capes who you turned away for lack of funds. She is also the first to take you up on your offer to put in hidden compartments, although not in the way you expect.
"Oh, I could store my spare thread in it and it'll save SO much space!"
"Yep..." you say, barely listening. You are just screwing in the final pieces after making sure it'll run fine. Of course even with simple compartments, it has to work. First sign of something not working, some officer opens it up and "Well, well, what do we have here?"
"Now then, darling, what will this be costing me today?"
You think it over. The problem was that it had string caught in all of the parts, easily cleaned out. With the simple modifications, you'd estimate it to be about a seven bit job.
"Twelve bits."
She floats out twelve bits with her magic. "Worth every one. And a little something extra for such an outstanding job," she says, taking out a couple more bits and putting it on the table. Before you can object, she takes the sewing machine and begins out the door. "I shall be seeing you at the party tonight, yes?"
"I, um... yeah."
"Marvelous. I'll be sure to come back if there is anything else. Ta ta!"
She closes the door behind her as you look at the pile of bits she left. That was another thing about this town. The ponies don't question the inflated prices you give them. They don't haggle or complain. They just happily pay, even trying to give you more.
"What a flank-backwards town..." you mumble to yourself. ===
"SURPRISE!" everypony shouted, jumping out of their hiding places. That will never not give you a heart attack.
"You're here! You're here!" the ever excitable Pinkie Pie happily exclaims as she bounces to over to you by the snack table. You munch on a piece of cake as she jumps up and down. Suddenly, she stops and faces the crowd.
"Everypony! The guest of honor has something he'd like to say!"
You did not plan this. The population of the party turns toward you. Some customers of yours are smiling. Some have the look of doubt you've seen many times before. A few barely know what is going on. Still, in some manner, large or small, there is hope glimmering in their eyes and you know what they want to hear. You put down your cake and clear your throat.
"Well then. Third time's the charm, huh?" you say, getting a couple laughs from the crowd. You take a deep breath.
"I'm sorry."
Some start clapping and some start cheering.
"Yeah! Wooho-!"
"Shut up, I'm not done." Surprisingly, this got a few more chuckles before they begin to quiet down. You start again.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you all. For telling you all off. And I'd like to thank you all for welcoming me to your town."
Silence.
"I'm done."
They begin clapping and cheering once more. ===
As the party officially starts, there are a bunch of ponies lined up to meet you. They start asking questions about where you were from. They seem a little off put at first hearing you are from Clopton. As you knew, the place has made quite the name for itself. Still, they ask more curious questions and you answer.
"Did you ever get into a knife fight?"
"I've been stabbed a couple times, and I've been in a couple hoof-fights, but I try to keep out of major conflict like that."
"Have you ever done drugs?"
"No. There's no faster way to lose bits."
"Have you ever been arrested?"
"A couple times I've spent a night in the cell for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but I haven't done any real time."
They quickly warm back up to you. You are actually having fun talking to them and learning a bit about everypony there. The music is pretty good and the snacks are incredible.
And then she shows up.
"Hey," Rainbow Dash says.
"Hey."
You both stand there. Awkward silence rolls in like fog. Not really knowing what else to say, you ask the first thing that comes to mind.
"Did you take down my fliers?"
She looks down. "Yeah..." She back looks up and shrugs. "Clopton, huh?"
"Yep."
She nods. "That explains a lot."
You shrug as well and she laughs. ===
You had planned to leave early like last time to avoid the inevitable violence that breaks out at every other gathering you have attended. However, you are so busy chatting with Dash and the occasional fellow party goer, when you ask where everypony went you hear that the festivities are over. You are surprised that you didn't hear anything from the police at all during the night.
After finally leaving, Dash had joins you in walking back to your house. She was telling you about more adventures she had gone on with her friends like that day before the second party.
"So let me get this straight..." you say. "Sleeping dragon was going to cover your town in smoke for a hundred years."
"Uh huh!"
"Big thing. Claws bigger than a pony."
"Yep!"
"And you kick it in the face?" you say, failing to contain laughter.
"Hey, we tried everything else. Reason, flattery, and... Pinkie Pie. What else was there?"
You shake your head chuckling. "You wouldn't last two minutes in Clopton, Dash."
"I could make it in Clopton, I bet."
"Trust me, you don't even want to try."
"Why not?"
"Because I came from there."
"You're not so bad," she says, ruffling your mane with a hoof. She pauses and then adds, "Eventually."
You straighten your mane as you open the door to your house. Expectedly, Rainbow Dash follows you inside. Going to the kitchen, you pick up an apple from the basket Apple-something (dang it, you knew there was something you meant to do at that party) gave you.
"Whoa, where'd you get the apples?" Dash asks.
"Fixed farmer pony's wagon for them."
"Oh, Applejack's?" That was her name. "She told me about that. How you apologized and did a great repair job."
You nod in recollection.
"Then I mentioned it to Twilight when her clock broke. And Rarity. Really, everypony when they'd talk about something that was busted."
You nod again for a couple seconds before the realization causes your brain to come to a complete stop as you nearly choke on your apple.
"You spread the word about my business? Why? I thought you took down my fliers to keep me from getting customers."
She reaches a hoof around to the back of her head. "Well... I kind of felt a little bad for that." She looks at you. "But, we're cool now, right?"
This bugs you. Why? She hated you before and that was that. When somepony hates you in Clopton, they don't pull strings or do favors for you behind your back. Well, maybe they did 'favors,' but not like this.
While you sit blankly, you realize that she's probably waiting for an answer.
"Yeah. We're cool." She smiles. The shiver ran down your spine.
"Well, I'd better get home. I have to get up early for morning cloud clearing," Dash says as she walks out the door. "See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah. See you tomorrow." She turns and leaves. You can ask her about everything in the morning.
You finish your apple and throw it away. Yawning, you decide that it'd be a good idea to get some sleep as well. You take off your jacket and throw it into your room, getting comfortable. That thing itches sometimes when you have to wear for extended periods. Then you begin to the bathroom to brush your teeth. Suddenly, you hear the front door open again.
"Hey, there was something I forgot to mention-"
And she sees you. Naked. Scars on display.
You don't like ponies to see your scars. To anypony looking, it would make you seem dangerous. Being dangerous was dangerous. Other ponies would think they need to attack first before you can do anything to them. They would do horrible things to try and keep you down or in fear. They'd strike you when and where you least expect. They'd take away whatever they could.
You try to cover yourself with your forelegs, but she comes towards you, a look of wonder on her face.
You back away into your bedroom, but Dash still walks towards you. You feel yourself back up against a wall. You simply sit there, waiting for whatever she's going to say or do. She brings a hoof to one of the scars on your forelegs you're holding up. Slowly, she rubs down the length of it.
"Cool..." you hear her mumble. Her face is beginning to smile.
She continues feeling around your forelegs. She closely inspects every inch, running her hoof over it again and again to see if they were real. She reaches up to your chest and inspects the area. You see her mouth out 'Wow...' as she looks. You let your forelegs fall to your sides as she rubs around your body, eventually leading up to the scar on your neck. She keeps a hoof on your chest as she looks closely. You can feel her breath blowing across the scar.
"That's deep..." you hear her say. "What happened?"
You look at her. She has the biggest smile you've seen all night.
"Did you get in a big fight with some tough ponies? Was it a big job gone wrong? Were police involved?" She only seems to get more and more excited, seemingly oblivious to the questions she's asking.
The scar on your neck starts to burn. You instinctively bring your hoof up to rub it, but it meets with Dash's. She doesn't pull away. You rub her hoof as you would your scar if she wasn't holding it. You are silent. Dash's smile begins to fade. You both sit there for a while.
"I don't like to talk about it..." you eventually say. She doesn't seem to like that answer.
"Oh, come on!" she says, looking at you no less than a hair width away from your face. "I won't tell if it's something illegal."
You remain silent. Her expression begins to turn into one of worry.
"Did you..." she begins, barely above a whisper. "Did you kill a pony?"
"Wha- no!" you exclaim. "It was..." You look deep into Dash's magenta eyes. You can almost see yourself in them. How vulnerable you must look.
"... a friend."
Dash let's go and leans back, giving you space. "What?" she asks.
"It was... I..." You feel them coming. Tears. You remember the last time you cried, as much as you try to block the memory out. You shut your eyes tightly.
"It was just... he..." You try to organize your thoughts.
"What did he do?" she asks angrily. It was the tone of one looking for justification to track down a pony and inflict violence upon them. "What's their name? Where are they?" she snarls.
"Gone," you say. "Simply gone. So now it's nothing."
Dash stares at you before putting her forelegs around you. She pulls you close, pressing her chest against yours and leaning her head on your shoulder. You can feel her heartbeat. Like a blanket, she gives you warmth and comfort in her embrace. For a moment, you let her sit there before bringing your own forelegs up to wrap around her. When you do, she sighs deeply.
"It's not nothing, is it?" she asks.
"What do you care?" you quietly retort. You really don't want to talk about this. About him.
Letting go with one foreleg, she softly smacks the side of your head with her hoof. "I care." She turns her head and you look into each other's eyes. "How can you have been here that long and not realize that ponies can care about more than themselves? How Applejack would sell you apples? How Pinkie would throw you yet another party?"
She just hit you. She did that to anypony else from Clopton, she would have been left bleeding.
"He's gone. Why should it matter?" you ask.
"Because it's bugging you," she says. You see her eyes slowly go wide in surprise. She brings her hoof up to your face, slowly passing under your eye, wiping away something small but wet. She brings her head up and looks at you, face to face, as close as you were before.
"I know how things with friends can bug you."
You feel her breath wash over you as she speaks. There was just a lot of things you want at the moment. You want to stop talking about this. You want your jacket. You want Rainbow Dash to leave, but at the same time you want her to stay. You want to ask her what she means.
You slowly push her away. Enough so that you can get up. You walk over to where you tossed your jacket and put it back on, thankful to cover your scars again without a word from Dash. You decide the least painful course of action would be to get Dash out of here and sleep this off.
"I'll tell you later," you say. She is not happy about the response, but accepts this is the best she'll get for now. "You came back for something?" you ask, remembering what she originally barged in on you for.
"Oh. Yeah." She's silent for a bit before walking towards the door. "I wanted to say thanks. For the party."
She leaves the room. "Remember, I'll see you tomorrow," you call out behind her. You hear the front door open and close, then the faint sound of flapping wings.
You let out a deep sigh and simply flop yourself down on the bed as you are. Your body felt numb. You close your eyes and simply lay there until sleep comes to claim you.
Tonight, you dream... |
Number One | Chapter 4.5: Dream | The sun shines down and the hard concrete claps lightly under your hooves as you make your way down the familiar roads of Clopton. Happy at the weight and jingle of the newly acquired bits in your pocket, you make your way into your apartment building, a dark and dull red brick structure with dreary windows, some broken. Opening the old wooden door, you walk up the steps to your home.
Of course, you don't live alone. Your best friend should be here since they didn't have anything to do today. Won't they be surprised when they see the payday you got. You draw a keyring with a single key out of your pocket and fit it into the dented gold-colored knob, a satisfying click as you turned. Putting the key back and with a twist of your hoof, you open the chipped black painted door and enter.
"Rainbow Dash!" you call out, closing the door behind you. Your place could be nicer. There is an old green couch with a crate acting as a coffee table. An old mattress in the corner with a torn up pillow, but no sheet. A few magazines here and there and the only light source is a cracked window. "I just got paid for the fake refrigerator job! You want something for dinner?"
You hear no response. "Dash?" you ask as you venture into the kitchen. The sink was full of plastic dishes and the oven has rust on the burners. The microwave has irremovable stains of grease. The counters are cracked, but at least clear of clutter save for a bag of apples from the store.
She's not here, either. Dash would have left a note if she went somewhere, wouldn't she? There's one more place to check. The workshop where you would often do your repair jobs. Sometimes Dash would need use of some tools and she is always more than welcome. Maybe she's in the middle of a project.
You begin to approach the door to the workshop when a sour scent begins to fill your nose. Was Dash using oil in there? Smells like she's using a lot. Damn it, that stuff is expensive. You knock on the door. You both like to keep it closed as you get into the zone while you work. Less distraction the better, and it helps that it has the only source of electrical lighting in the apartment.
No answer. You knock again. "Dash?" you say, slowly opening the door. It's dark, but the stench is nearly overwhelming. You turn on the light.
In a moment of blinding as the light illuminated the room, you begin to feel some icy sensation gripping you by the neck. It starts to make it hard to stay upright. Hard to breath.
Standing in the room was Rainbow Dash.
"Dash!" you call out. She stares blankly at you. "Something's wrong with me!"
You begin to feel a stinging sensation in a small point on your neck. An unseen force drags it across, an intense burning left in its path. Bringing a hoof up to it doesn't stop it, but you pull it back to see it dripping in blood. You try to breathe, but you cannot intake air anymore. You feel liquid sputtering in your throat as you try to fill your lungs.
"HELP!" you try to yell. "HELP ME!" You look pleadingly at the colorful mare who simply stands there. You stumble backwards out of the room, running into the work bench on your way out.
You fall back into your apartment. You notice that it's a little different. There are pizza boxes and other assorted pieces of trash strewn about the room. Where Celestia's day had once been is now Luna's night, her moon shining in through the cracked window.
With one more desperate look at the pegasus, still standing blankly there, you notice a glass bottle wobbling back and forth on the table. Your vision begins to fade, but not before you see it begin to fall. After darkness completely engulfs you, you hear one sound.
*smash* |
Number One | Chapter 5: Dinner | *smash*
The sound makes your eyes jolt open. You are in bed. The sun is shining. Now you remember that you're no longer in Clopton. There is no fake refrigerator job. No strange smell. Rainbow Dash is definitely not-...
You close your eyes and push the thought from your head while you are still good and groggy. You contemplate going back to sleep, but you have no idea what time it was. Customers could be showing up and you have to be ready for them. You lay there for a couple minutes to get your mind working a bit before trying to get up.
pit pat pit pat pit pat...
Hoofsteps. Light, but they're there. Is it a thief? With the time you spent in Ponyville, you are actually skeptical of the thought yourself.
You slowly open your eyelid just a bit to be able to see. An orange pegasus with purple mane was walking slowly towards the side of your bed. They're young, though. Only a filly. From what you could tell through your squinted eye, they didn't even have a cutie mark yet.
You groan as you put your forehooves under yourself to push against the mattress. As you brought yourself up, you hear a frightened yelp from the filly as they back into a corner. You look at them, before something catches your eye. Near your bed was a red ball in a patch of sunlight along with two pony-shaped shadows. You look over and see two more young fillies, one yellow and one white, quickly dart away from the window which was now Celestia-damn broken.
You begin a low growl as you put two and two together.
You turn back to the filly in the room, staring at you the sort of way one would when they are trying and failing to convince themselves that something bad wasn't about to happen. You recognize them as one of the three that came with the sewing machine you ended up fixing for another pony.
"What's your name?" you ask flatly.
"S-Scootaloo..." they reply.
"And the other two, how about them?"
She sits there, mouth partially open.
"Well?"
She closes her mouth and looks down. You slide off the bed and put a hoof on the ball waiting for an answer.
"What are their names?" you ask again.
She looks up for a moment before dropping her head again, lightly shaking it back and forth. After a moment of silence, you sigh.
"I'm not in the mood for this..." you say to nopony in particular. "Look at me."
Scootaloo keeps her head down.
"Look. At. Me," you repeat, clearly stating each word.
She slowly brings her head up.
"This..." you begin, gesturing at the ball under your hoof. "Doesn't happen again. Okay?"
She nods quickly. You kick the ball over to her.
"Get out of my house," you grumble.
She picks up the ball and runs out as fast as her legs would carry her. You are thankful you have your jacket on from last night or things could have been worse with your scars out in the open. You look back at the broken window and figure there was no way around buying a broom now. Groaning from the rude awakening, you stretch your back to feel a satisfying pop before shaking out your bed mane a bit. Looking at the clock, you see you have about an hour or so before ponies could start dropping by.
You take off your jacket and make your way to the shower. Few quick turns of the knobs and the warm water flows through the hairs of your mane as you pick up a cheap shampoo from the general store. Squeezing a bit into your hoof, it smells a bit like permanent markers and maple syrup. Regardless, you sit down on your hind legs and begin working it into a lather from the middle of your mane outward.
You simply let the water wash out the shampoo and let it run down the rest of your body before stopping the shower and getting out. Grabbing one of the towels off the rack, you begin wiping down your forelegs before drying your hind legs. Pulling the towel over your face, you guide it down to dry your mane and back before whipping it around to the front. You wipe off some of the steam on the mirror to get a look at yourself. That shampoo you bought makes your hair feel greasier than how it was before, but you figure there must be some good coming from it.
Picking up an apple from the basket in the kitchen, you let the rest of your coat air dry while you eat. You think over what you have to do today. Buy a broom, somepony was coming by for a mixer (wanted a hidden compartment, too), a few more jobs from yesterday, no idea what other things would show up, see Rainbow Dash at some point-
You stop chewing your apple. You said you were going to see Dash tomorrow, yesterday. Yesterday being yesterday meaning tomorrow was now today, meaning today Rainbow Dash would come by. Or maybe she was expecting you to find her? No, you couldn't reach her cloud house so she'll come here. Unless she said to meet her somewhere. Did she?
Thinking back to last night, you find nothing but more questions. You remember how she smiled when she asked about your scars. How she sounded genuinely concerned about you. How she tried to say she knew how you felt. Why?
Why would she act like that? Does she mess with you to entertain herself like taking down the fliers and then helping your business? Perhaps she pities you and this affection is out of charity? Or worst of all, maybe Dash wants to be...
Your friend.
You cringe at the thought. You remember what friendship put you through. If somepony asked you to do it all again, they'd suddenly need to learn how to eat and breath around a monkey wrench wedged sideways down their throat. Never again.
Besides, Dash was just an arrogant weather pegasus. Even if she knew a few acrobatic tricks and could fly really fast. Okay, she was a little fun to be around when she wasn't angry for some reason. She also was nice enough to help you clean up your house a bit. She probably had a hoof in setting up the multiple parties for you. And the way she held you last night was so warm and-
A knocking on the front door interrupts your thoughts, thankfully. "Just a minute!" you call out before biting off the last of the apple, throwing away the core, and going back to retrieve a jacket. It's the only jacket that hasn't been worn for multiple days already. You are going to have to do laundry at some point.
You hear the front door open. "Hey, where are you?" It's that familiar voice belonging to the mare you were just thinking about. You're dry enough to comfortably throw on the jacket and meet Dash at the bedroom door.
"Why do you always just let yourself in?" you ask.
She shrugs.
"Okay then, so..." you say with a sigh. "What do you need?"
"I'm bored, let's do something."
"What? I can't leave; I have to stay here for customers."
"Um... it's Sunday?" she says with a hint of 'duh' to it. "The day you said you were closed on the flier?"
Is it really Sunday? The past few days just sort of bleed together in your mind. "You put those back up? I thought you just told ponies about it."
"I made sure to mention Sundays. So today is all for us," she says wrapping a foreleg around your shoulder, eliciting that persistent shiver. "What are we doing first?"
You gesture a hoof to your work table with a finished piece of work on it. "There's a pegasus coming to pick up this mixer-"
"Oh, pfft," she says, with a flick of her other hoof. "Put a sign on the door that you're closed. Plus, they're a pegasus. It's not like it takes that long to fly out here. So they lose a minute or two, so what?"
You sigh. "I told them specifically to come by today. I want to be here when they show up, plus I have some work to do. Also, I need to go to the store."
"What do you need at the store?"
"A broom."
"Broom? What do you need a broom for when you got me?" she asks, spreading one of her wings out to show it off.
"Broken glass."
"Oh." She takes her hoof back to rub behind her neck. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to clean that up. How'd it happen?"
"Three little troublemakers, my window, and a ball. Not the best way to wake up in to morning," you say with a bit of ire in your voice. "Anyway, I still want to get some work done today."
Dash lets out a mumble in annoyance.
"...Fine," you concede. You don't really have any other plans tonight and it's good to get out of the house. "Just come by this evening and we'll do something."
"This evening?" she asks.
"Yeah. That a problem?"
"No. No, no. Not at all. So, uh... what would we do?"
"I don't know. You know the town better than I do. We'll find something."
"Okay," she says with a shrug. "See you later!" With a flap of her wings, she's in the air and flying back out the front door. You wonder what it is about Rainbow Dash that makes you okay with her just coming and going as she pleases.
You sigh before bringing a broken toaster to your work table. ===
The day had thus far been productive. The pegasus collected his mixer around four, so you walked to the store to pick up a broom, dustpan, and a new window pane. Although you haven't fixed too many windows in your life, your talent is to fix things so how hard could it be?
The window pane now lying on your bed, you sweep the last of the glass into the dustpan before dumping it into the trashcan. In that time, you hear the front door open again.
"Hey!" you hear Dash call out.
"Hey," you call back. She wanders into your bedroom.
"Wow, they really did a number on your window," she says, seeing the jagged remains.
"Yeah. It's going to be a pain to fix."
"At least the breeze is nice," she offers.
"Pfft," you respond, putting away the broom and dustpan. "Let's go." You both exit out of the house and you close the door behind you.
"So what are we doing?" Dash asks as you walk down the path, her fluttering in the air beside you. You have actually given it no thought during the day.
"I don't know. I thought you would had an idea by now."
"Oh. Nope."
You both walk on for a few moments.
"Well, what would you like to do?" she asks. You don't have time to think before your stomach growls, now remembering you haven't eaten since the apple this morning.
"How about we get something to eat? You hungry?" you ask.
"I, um... I could eat something, sure."
You notice the hesitation in her voice. "You alright?" you ask.
"Yeah, of course!" she says, getting her usual confidence back rather quickly. "Where should we eat?"
"Um..." you begin, seeing as you are beginning to come into the town. Scanning around for a place that looks like it'd serve food, you spot a sign above a door depicting lettuce, mushrooms, and carrots. "How about there?" you ask, pointing a hoof.
"Oh, that new restaurant?" she asks.
You pause for a moment. "Restaurant?" you say, turning the alien phrase around in your head.
"Wait, don't you have restaurants back in Clopton?" Dash asks. "Where you go in, sit down, and wait for them to bring your food to you?"
"Oh, you could sit down, but you had to get your food from the counter when they called your number."
"Those are fast-food places!" she exclaims. "Okay, I'm showing you what a real restaurant is." She grabs your hoof and drags you to the door of the restaurant. While she does so, you notice a faint trace of blush on her cheeks.
You both step inside. The tables and counters all around seem to be made of mahogany wood. The ceiling and walls are a deep calming blue while the carpet is a relaxed green. The late afternoon light seeps in through the window. There is some classical music playing over the scene.
Looking around, you can safely say you have never been in a restaurant before. You begin to walk forward to find an open table.
"Hey, wait!" Dash calls out. You turn back to see her pointing at a sign that says PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED.
"What?" you ask. "There's an open table right there!" You point at a vacant table no less than four steps away. "Why do we need to wait?"
"It's just how these places work," Dash says. You see a dark blue unicorn with yellow mane and a black apron approach you.
"Good evening!" she says. "Table for two?" You and Dash both nod. "Alright, I can seat you right-"
You trot past her and sit down at the table you had pointed out earlier.
"...Okay," you hear her say behind you. Dash walks over and takes the seat opposite from you. She's blushing even more than before.
"Well, here you are," she says, ignoring your antics and using her magic to float two menus in front of you and Dash. "I shall be back in a moment to take your drink orders."
You both open your menus when Dash hisses, "What was that?"
"What was what?" you ask.
"Just walking right by to the nearest table?"
"Hey, she said we could be seated. I waited."
"We're supposed to sit where they tell us to sit."
"Why?"
She just sighs and looks over her menu. You take a look and raise an eyebrow. "Wow, this is expensive," you say.
"It's pretty normal for restaurants around here. You got enough bits to pay?" she asks.
"Yeah, I have enough, but look. Ten bits for this..." You squint and look closer at the writing. "Vermackally..."
"I think that's vermicelli," Dash corrects with a little chuckle.
"Vermicelli," you repeat with a nod. "And it tells me how to make it in the tiny writing right under it. Noodles fried with vegetables. Why can't I buy the stuff at the store, make it at home, and save my bits?"
"Because they make it better here," Dash explains. "It's not store bought ingredients and it's good chefs cooking it on stoves and in ovens. You're paying for the service."
"I see," you say. "Better be some good vermackally, then." You hear Dash snicker behind her menu. You begin to smirk as you keep reading.
The dark blue unicorn walks back up to you. "Hello again, I will be your waitress," she says cheerily. She levitates out a pencil and notebook. "Can I get you some drinks?"
"Drinks?" you ask.
"Yes, we have apple juice, carrot juice, orange juice, tomato juice, pineapple juice, our new pear juice, sarsaparilla, water, milk, coffee, tea, and a list of wines from our wine menu if you wish to see it."
You are impressed she could rattle those off so easily. "No on the wine, but I'll have a tomato juice," you say.
"Orange for me," Dash says.
"Any appetizers to start with?" the waitress asks as she writes down your drink orders.
"What's an appetizer?" you ask.
"It's a little something for before the main course," she explains.
"Hmm. Well, I think I'd just like to start with the main course," you say.
"For you, ma'am?"
"No thanks," Dash replies.
"Okay, I will have those right out for you," she says before walking away.
As soon as she's gone, Dash speaks up. "No wine, huh? Why not?"
"Not big into wine," you say.
"Really, so you prefer other kinds of drink, then? I'm sure we could find you something," she says.
"Haha, no. I'd rather not."
"Why not?" she asks.
"It's well..." you start, trying to think of a good explanation. "I've done some stupid things drunk."
"So have a lot of ponies," Dash says.
"Really. Stupid things," you emphasize, hope to get the point across.
"Ah," is all she responds with before the waitress walks back up.
"Here is a basket of rolls for the table. Your drinks will be just another few moments," she says with a smile. She sets down a blue and green basket that matches the walls and floor full of golden brown buttery biscuits before walking off again.
"Ooh!" Dash exclaims excitedly, reaching out for a roll and taking a bite.
"So what'd you end up doing for the day while I worked?" you ask, trying to start up some conversation away from your past with alcohol.
"Ooph," she says with a mouth full of butter roll. She swallows before opening her mouth again. "Applejack was bucking apples, so I helped her out."
"Bucking apples?" you ask. "Is that when you just kick the tree?"
"Uh huh," she replies, reaching for another roll. "It's pretty busy for her this time of year. She gets really grouchy as well. She needs all the help she can get."
You nod, having seen Applejack's grouchiness before.
"Can be a bit of a pain," she says before stuffing the golden brown pastry into her face.
"Well, you did say your friends bugged you," you say with a shrug.
"Mmph. Wha?"
"Last night. You said that-"
"No no no," she says, having quickly swallowed before talking. "I said how things with friends can bug you."
"What's the difference?"
"It's... It's that..." She takes a moment to collect her thoughts, grabbing and biting another roll. "Have you ever owed somepony a favor?"
"Yeah, but that's not something that's really bugged me," you reply.
"...Really?" she asks.
"Yeah. 'You scratch my back, I scratch yours' and stuff like that. That's normal isn't it?"
"You never feel... bad for not doing something?"
"Oh, if you don't make good on your favors, there are ponies in Clopton that will make you feel horrible."
She sighs. "Nevermind," she says as she picks up and devours another roll.
"Here are your drinks!" the waitress announces as if on cue. She levitates the glasses off of the tray on her back and puts them in front of you and Dash. "Now, have you decided on what to order or will you need a few more moments?"
You take one last look through the menu. "Uh, I'll take the..." You hope you pronounce it right. "...Carrot Stroganoff."
"Mushroom Florentine for me," Dash says, before grabbing the last roll from the basket. You give her a sideways glance. That is one of the most expensive dishes on the menu.
"Alright then, I'll have those orders out for you when they're ready. Also, I'll bring you another basket of rolls." She finishes writing your order in her notebook before levitating the menus out of your hooves.
You glance over at the empty basket. "How much will the rolls cost?"
"Rolls and non-alcoholic drink refills are free," she explains, seeing the worry on your face.
"Oh, well then that'd be great," you say with a smile.
With a nod, she walks away from the table. You take a sip of your tomato juice when Dash speaks up again.
"How about you tell me a bit about yourself?" she asks.
"What do you mean?" you ask.
"I always tell you about things I've done. How about you?"
You shrug. "I explained a lot at the party. What else do you want to know?"
"Something personal," she says before bringing a hoof to her chin. "How about your scars?" she asks in a lowered voice, aware of her public surroundings.
You frown as you instinctively bring a hoof to the side of your neck.
"Not that one," she explains. "How about the others? How did you get them?"
You bring your hoof down and sigh. "Maybe later," you say.
"Oh, come on!"
"Not as later as..." You point to your neck. "But later. It's just they're long stories and, well..." You look around. "Ponies are eating," you finish with a shrug.
She just nods. Dash munches on another roll as you both sip your drinks and wait for your food.
"So, are you still trying to get rid of me?" she asks suddenly.
"What?"
"You apologized to everypony. Finally." She rolls her eyes. "Are you still trying to get me to leave you alone?"
"Oh, you and I both know that'll never happen," you say with chuckle, causing Dash to laugh herself. "I might just have to get used to you."
Dash takes a moment to respond. When she does, all she says is, "Yeah." For some reason, you're okay with that answer.
"So why do you follow me around?" you ask.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm, as you put it, a 'jerk'," you say using your hooves for airquotes. "And for some reason, you just keep coming back. Why?"
"Uh..." Rainbow Dash's gaze moves from you to something past you. "Hey, the rolls are here!"
Turning your head, you see the waitress indeed bringing a fresh basket of warm rolls. Dash happily digs in as soon as they hit the table.
"Your orders will be out in a little bit," the waitress says. You give her a nod in response.
As soon as she's gone you turn your attention back to Dash. "So?" you ask.
"Wha?" Her mouth full of pastry yet again.
"Two things. One, you're not going to have room for your order if you keep eating those things." You point a hoof at the basket of rolls she has already made a considerable dent in. "Second, answer my question."
"You should have one of these rolls, they're really good," she says.
"Dash." She looks up. "Why do you keep following me?" It's beginning to aggravate you that you have to ask so many times before you could get an answer.
She begins to drum a hoof on the table. Suddenly, she turns to you with a complacent look. "I'll tell you later," she says.
You let your vexed expression say all you need to.
"Hey, you don't tell me about your scars, then there are certain things I don't have to tell you." She reaches into the basket. "Also, I meant it when I said to try a roll," she says before tossing a one of the flaky biscuits toward you.
You sigh and pick it up to take a bite. The buttery flavoring did little to distract from the rubbery texture that almost seems to wiggle in your mouth. You force yourself to chew it quickly and swallow.
"These rolls suck," you say plainly, taking another swig of tomato juice to rinse the experience out of your mouth. Admittedly, you have little experience in rolls, but you had baked them once yourself. The fact that you remember those being better than these means something has gone wrong. You put the bitten roll somewhere out of the way on the table.
"They're not that bad," Dash replies, eating the last one from the basket again. You wonder where she puts all of it.
"Your food is ready!" the waitress announces as she brings two platters with your orders on them.
"That was fast," Dash comments as she sets the plates down. Steam rose up from the plate with your diced carrots, mushrooms, and onions served over noodles. Dash looked hungrily at her sliced mushrooms over a bed of spinach. A somewhat sweet smelling brown sauce has been drizzled over both.
"Enjoy your meal," the waitress says happily with a bow. "And I'll get you another tomato juice, sir."
Dash has already begun to dig in by the time the waitress walks away. You lean your head down to take a bite of the admittedly impressive meal you are presented with. You taste the sauce, a sweet with a hint of tang, but something is off. You couldn't tell the difference between the onions, carrots, and mushrooms. They are flavorless and all simply turn to a mush under the slightest pressure from your teeth. You try a second bite and found the same result, only this time you notice a distinct difference in temperature between parts of what you have just put in your mouth. You didn't know what to expect coming here, but you expected better than this.
"Hey Dash, this doesn't seem-" You stop when you look up, seeing Dash eyeing her food with the same questioning look. She has already taken four bites, but she is chewing her last one slowly.
When she swallows, she looks at you. "Something's wrong. I've eaten at restaurants before and it wasn't like this." She takes a hoof and gives the mushrooms a poke. "You want to try?" she asks.
"Your mushrooms?"
"Yeah."
She pushes her plate towards you. With a shrug you lean down and take a small bite. Sure enough, the mushroom is flavorless and spongy. You take a drink of your juice and then see your food in front of Dash with her about to taste it.
"Hey," you say. "I didn't say you could eat my food."
"I gave you a taste of mine," she says defensively.
You sigh and wave a hoof to give her the go ahead instead of arguing. You probably wouldn't eat all of it. She takes a bite and you watch her chew, her expression changing from neutral to ponderous to off put.
"That's really weird," she says, sliding the dish towards you as you slide hers back as well. You both sit, staring at your food for a while. "Well, it's not really bad, is it?" she asks.
You nod. It certainly isn't the worst thing you've ever eaten. You are also paying good bits for it, so you might as well eat what you can.
You start opposite from where Dash had taken her bite and resume eating. The various vegetable mushing together is a little unpleasant, but the sauce made it tolerable. The waitress came by with your new drink, which you took a gulp from as soon as she set it down. You look up and notice you are eating faster than Dash.
"Was I right about filling up on rolls?" you ask.
"Shut up," she says as she takes another slow bite of her food.
"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" you hear from a far off table. You both look to see an older stallion looking furious over his food. Your waitress is trying to calm him down. Other than the sudden outburst, you couldn't make out what they're saying. The stallion simply gets up from his table and walks past and out the door without another word. Your waitress stands there with a tired look before going to the next table where the couple sitting do not look any more pleased.
Dash looks concerned. "Wow..." she says. "We should leave her a nice tip."
"Nice what?" you ask.
"A tip. You know. Leave some bits on the table." You look at her blankly. This is obviously one of those restaurant things you've never heard of before. "When you give them money along with the bill for good service?"
"Wait, you mean pay her more then we have to?" you ask. "Why in the world would we do that?"
"Because it's nice. I've heard that ponies have given you tips before!" she says, pointing a hoof.
"Well, my client pays me what my client pays me. She gets her paycheck from the restaurant, right? They pay her to do this job, why should we?"
"Because most of her pay depends on these tips!"
You look at her confused. "Wait, really?"
"Yeah!"
You look over to the waitress who is now getting yelled at by a group of three ponies. One of them turns their plate full of food over onto the floor before they all walk out. You look back to your own plate.
"It's the food," you say, plainly. Dash looks at you then down to her remaining dish. "I'll be right back," you say, getting up.
"Where are you going?" she asks.
"Restroom."
You walk down the aisles of tables and see big double doors where a waiter emerges with a tray full of food. You remember it for a little later as you also see a sign against the far wall pointing out the restroom for stallions. Although you did have to make use of the facilities, there is something else you want to see. You enter the restroom only to have a gagging scent like a hospital full of sour cherries invade your nostrils. You hold your breath and quickly go about your business.
Emerging back out of the restroom you walk back to your table a bit back to the double doors. Another waiter pops out with more food and you slide in behind his back before the door closes completely.
Your hooves go from carpet to white tile as you enter the kitchen. You couldn't believe what you saw. There is a row of microwaves that stretches across the far wall. You see a chef take a plastic bag full of some yellowish ball things, put them on a plate and pop them into one of them. He stops the one next to it and pulls out a something similar and dumps it into a blue and green basket.
You only see two stoves with three big pots on them with another chef stirring. They pick up and open a can before dumping its content into one of them. You notice it to be like the brown sauce on your food.
Another wall with shelves holds cans of a few different sizes along with more plastic bags of varying substances. Another chef exits a freezer with a bag full of green leaves. They tear it open, put some on a plate along with some mushroom slices from another bag and pop it into an open microwave.
A group of four chefs are in the middle of the kitchen not doing anything but talking and laughing. Just standing around, wasting time. One of them looks towards your direction.
"Hey!" they yell. "No customers back here! Get out!"
You slowly back out of the double doors, nearly hitting another waiter on the way. Without a word, you guide yourself back to the table where Dash is waiting.
"You shouldn't have drank that tomato juice so fast," she says with a smirk.
"Cans," you say.
"What?"
"Cans and bags and microwaves. Nothing like you told me."
"Wait..." Dash begins, catching on. "You saw the kitchen? Do they use stoves?"
"I only saw it for sauce. Which came from a can. The food, the rolls, all microwaved. Most of the chefs don't even do anything."
"That's why the food tastes weird. Probably why everypony is leaving so angry," she says.
"And yelling at the waiters," you reply before holding a hoof in the air. "Hey! Over here!" you call to your waitress.
You almost see an expression of fear flash over her face before she walks towards you. "Y-Yes, sir? Is everything alright?" she asks a little shakily.
"How much do you make?" you ask the waitress.
"I'm sorry, sir, what?"
"How much do you make here?"
"Hey, what are you..." Dash cuts in, but you hold up a hoof for her to wait and let the waitress answer.
"Well, uh, with tips I-"
"Not with tips," you interrupt. "How much does this place alone pay you?"
"About a bit and a half per hour."
"A bit and a half!?" you exclaim loud enough to get some looks from the other tables. "How much do those chefs in there make?"
"I don't really, um, know. I think it's maybe eight bits an hour?" She sees the look of shock on your face. "Of course, they don't make tips... Will that be all?"
"Could we have the check?" Rainbow Dash suddenly asks.
"Oh, certainly," she says, almost relieved. "Will this be on one bill or two?"
"One bill. I got this," you answer before Dash could say anything.
"Okay, I'll be right back," she says, turning and walking away.
Dash looks at you with a mix of embarrassment and skepticism. "Are you really paying for all of this?" she asks. You simply nod.
The two of you sit in silence until the waitress comes back. "Here you are, the total is twenty bits. Bring this up to the front counter when you're ready." She places a small tray with a receipt on the table before going to help another group of customers.
"Twenty bits my flank," you mumble. "Hey Dash, would you ever eat here again?"
"Honestly, probably not," she replies.
"Good," you say, reaching into your bag and scooping a large hoofful of bits onto the table.
"Whoa, you're leaving a tip?" Dash asks.
"I should, shouldn't I?" you say with a mock sincerity, taking two more bits out, placing them in the tray, and picking it up to take to the front counter.
"Hey, what are you doing!?" Dash asks above a whisper as you walk.
"Paying for the service," you respond. Nopony is at the counter, so you leave the tray with two bits there as you walk out the front door as if nothing was wrong. Rainbow Dash follows beside you, looking back and forth for any witnesses.
As you both walk away from the restaurant, Dash begins to speak quietly.
"I can't believe you did that." She shakes her head. "You just stole from that place."
"Come on. Place thinks it can overcharge for shoddy food, expect the customers to pay their staff for them, and I'm the thief?"
"That's what those places do! That's what every restaurant does!" Dash exclaims.
"Oh." You walk a bit more in silence. "I don't think I like restaurants." All you hear is Dash's frustrated sigh.
Time passes and the sun begins to set on the horizon as you make your way down the path. You look over to Dash and see her nearly dragging her hooves, head hanging down, and blushing. You frown and think a bit.
"Hey, have I told you how I got this scar right here?" you ask, pointing to your chest.
"You haven't told me anything," Dash says with annoyance.
"Well, it was a cold December day in Clopton," you begin, unhindered by Dash's tone. "Just finished up fixing a clock for some gang down the street, so I go over to deliver it..." ===
The stars are out with Luna's moon in full force, illuminating the land with its pale glow. The relatively chilly night air didn't stop you and Dash from deciding to take the scenic route to your place. You let Dash finish her latest round of laughing.
"...and so, his name was Shakes. Actually, it wasn't but that's what we called him. He was a junkie that mostly caused trouble so not a lot of ponies liked him," you explain.
"Yeah?" Dash asks between giggles.
"Yeah. So, Shakes is coming after me with a knife and I'm just running. Now, on a good day if I wasn't tired, I could normally outrun him. This day was a good day."
"So what happened?"
"We were running down the street, but it had this huge downward hill. Made running a little easier if you could keep up with your legs. Either way, Shakes knew he wouldn't be able to catch up to me..." you have to suppress your own fit of giggles before continuing. "And so there's this bum in an alley with a shopping cart full of cans, you see."
"Oh no, tell me he didn't do what I think he did."
"So he takes this shopping cart and scoops out a bunch of cans before jumping into it instead of riding on the back." You take a breath to keep from bursting into laughter. Dash tries as well, but fails, her guffaws piercing through the serenity of the night. "And so with cans crashing on the road with various yelling, I looked back to see Shakes in the cart scooping as many cans as he could out with the knife in his teeth, swinging his head around like crazy." You clench your teeth together and spin your head around. "RRRRrrrrrRRRRrrrrrRRRR- I swear, that's the noise he made."
Dash is walking on three legs, one wrapped around her stomach as it sounds like she can barely breathe from all of the laughing.
"And on top of that, there was the homeless colt, running and screaming right behind him!" You couldn't hold your laughter anymore, barely being able to finish the sentence. After a few deep breaths, you go on. "So, Shakes is swinging his head all around, which is causing the cart to rock back and forth as it's barreling down the hill."
You look to Dash and see there are nearly tears in her eyes.
"The cart topples over, Shakes and the cans all go flying. The knife somehow hits the ground and bounces towards me and swish!" You flick a hoof across your foreleg. "Only time he ever got me. Then the bum caught up and started beating the hay out of him."
"Why am I laughing?" Dash manages to get out. "Why am I laughing so hard at these stories?"
"Because they're funny!" you say. "This scar's probably the only good memory I have of the guy."
With the conclusion of your story, you come up to the front door of your house. Turning the knob, you open it up and leave it, popping on the living room lamp and assuming Dash will close the door when she comes in.
"So, you want an apple or something?" you ask. After a while, you get no response. You look back to see Dash waiting on your doorstep, no longer laughing.
"You coming in?"
"Is... it okay?" she asks.
"You never needed permission before," you respond. She takes a couple steps in before closing the door. Although it's a bit weird, you are in a good enough mood to let it go. "So how about that apple?"
"Okay..." she says meekly. "So, uh, anymore scars to tell me about?"
You think for a moment. "Nope, that's all of them." You toss her an apple that she scrambles to catch. You plop yourself down on the couch. "Take a seat if you like," you say.
"What about the one on... you know. Your neck?" she asks as she sits next to you. You had avoided explaining that particular scar. "You said your friend gave it to you," she says. You notice her staring intensely at the spot where the jacket covered the scar.
"No, it..." You scour your brain for the right response. All you could do is sigh. "It's rather personal. Not really entertaining like the others."
Dash still looks at where the scar is covered. You can almost hear the ticking of the clock behind you. You try to think of something, anything, to say. Or at least you wish Dash would say something. Every passing moment, you feel the laughter and happiness you had just shared with her disappearing into the awkward silence.
Suddenly, you feel something press against your neck. You turn to see Dash has extended a hoof to touch it. Slowly, she begins to rub in a circle against your jacket.
"Can I see it again?" she asks. You pause for a moment before reaching up and tugging your jacket far enough down to expose it. Her hoof meets the scar as soon as it hits fresh air, causing the length of it to feel extremely warm.
You feel her adjusting herself on the couch, leaning forward to get a better look. You could feel her breath across your neck again and you begin to remember the previous night. Dash rubs your scar and your hoof rises up to meet it.
Which you did right now. She stops rubbing briefly before you start slowly rubbing her own hoof.
She looks up to your face when she resumes rubbing. Your eyes meet as you just look into each other for a few moments. You wonder what those eyes have seen. Incredible things if her stories are to be believed. And yet... you could almost see them all. A glint of mischief. A twinkle of daring. Almost a glow of loyalty.
Your look is cut short as she closes her eyes. She seems to just sit there, but then you notice she's gradually getting closer. She couldn't possibly be about to... could she? Whether she is or not, you don't pull away.
Her snout lightly touches against yours. She's blushing so much you can almost feel the heat coming off of her cheeks. You doubt you're faring any better, though. You both simply sit there for a long moment.
Suddenly, she tears her head away, looking down at the ground. She stops rubbing the scar and lets her foreleg dangle loosely. Your own grip the only thing keeping it from falling back to her side. "Dash? Are you okay?" you ask in surprise.
"I... I'm sorry," she says.
"What's wrong?"
She only gives an annoyed grumble in response. You wait for her to say something else, but she doesn't. Not knowing what else to do, you just start rubbing her hoof against your neck again. This succeeds in getting her to look up for a moment before having her head drop again. Her face is one of almost apathy.
Seeing her expression nearly blank triggers something in the back of your mind. All of a sudden, the dream you had last night comes back in full force. The stinging of your neck. The sour smell. You feel your whole body cringe.
"AH!"
You snap out of it when you feel Dash's hoof pull away suddenly. She's holding it in her other as she looks at you surprised. Did you squeeze her hoof? Oh no, you didn't squeeze too hard did you? Still shaken from to sudden rush of the dream, you try to find the right words to say.
"Dash, I didn't mean to..."
"What was that?" she asks above a whisper.
"It..." Your eyes drift away.
"Please just tell me," she says nearly exasperated.
You sit silent for a while. You hear Dash take a deep breath before getting up off the couch.
"A dream," you say suddenly.
"What?" she asks.
"I had a dream last night." Why lie at this point? Why try to hide it? "You were there when..." You look over to meet Dash's eyes. "...When I got this scar," you say, rubbing your hoof against it.
"And... you'll tell me later?" she asks.
You nod. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," she says with a slight nod of her own. "But you will tell me at some point, right?"
"Yes." The word came out before you even have to think about it.
"Okay." She turns and walks towards the door again. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"For what?"
"To talk. About something," she replies. "I don't know what." She opens the door and stretches out her wings, preparing for flight.
"See you then," you say as she flaps into the air, taking her apple, and closes the door behind her.
You don't feel like moving. You feel like all of the will to do anything has been sucked out of your body. All you can manage is to lean enough to fall over on the couch.
When you do, you feel yourself laying on a certain warmth. It's the spot Dash was sitting. It felt good, like a warmth that would relax away an ache. You close your eyes and simply let yourself feel it against your coat.
As time passes, the warmth fades. However, you have yet to move. The clock is still ticking, but it seems to grow more and more distant. You adjust yourself a little and breathe out a sigh before you let the last of your senses slip away into sleep. ===
The sun shines high in the sky.
You put the finishing touches on your latest job. An old pocket watch that was dropped off by the mayor's secretary. While it probably just belongs to the secretary, you aren't sure. There is a chance that the mayor herself is using your services, meaning you might have possibly become a real part of the community maybe.
You imagine yourself at sort of boardroom meetings, deciding in what ways to use funds. Standing at the front of crowds at big store openings while the mayor cuts the red ribbon. Speaking at schools with a bunch of little foals looking at you with aspiration.
You sincerely hope it's just the secretary's watch.
Although such thoughts are far-fetched to say the least, it did help keep your mind off of other matters. The colorful pegasus who would drop by today, if only for who-knows-what.
What is it she wants to talk about? Was she not sure? Was she regretting getting to know you? Did you hurt her? You almost couldn't believe you are asking these questions. You were desperately trying to avoid getting connected to anypony ever again, but now she's...
*knock knock knock*
She's here.
You sigh as you turn your head to the door. "Come on in," you call out.
Surprisingly, the door opens and reveals a pony not to be Dash. Instead, it's a white unicorn with deep purple mane you remember providing service for before. In fact, they came in with the same sewing machine you had fixed for them previously.
"Hello again, dear," she says as she walks in. "Sorry to be needing your services again after such a short time." She looks at you for a moment. "Are you alright? You seem a bit surprised."
"Oh, I'm fine. I was expecting somepony else," you explain.
"Really?" she asks, almost discerningly. With a little chuckle she adds, "Well, I shall not take too long."
"What's the problem?" you ask.
She levitates the machine onto your table. "Oh, my little sister decided she wanted to help with a particularly large order. Now something is jammed inside of it."
You nod as she talks. "I'll take a look. Come by in a couple days and it should be ready."
You take the machine and a screwdriver to begin unscrewing the outer case to take a peek inside. After the second screw is completely out, you notice that the white unicorn is still standing in your living room.
"So..." she speaks up again. A simple word that nearly causes you to shudder. This isn't just any old 'So.' It is one of those 'So's. A 'So' of curiosity. The beginning of an interrogation. But most unfortunately, it is a 'So' of "I'm not leaving your house, yet."
"How was your date with Rainbow Dash?" she asks.
You put down the screwdriver before looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "What?"
"Your date," she repeats twisting her head to point an ear at you as if to hear you better. "How was it?"
"My... date?" you say; not just as asking, but trying to find if there's a meaning to the term that she is using that you have yet to realize.
"Yes, yes, your date!" she exclaims with a little excited hop. "Did you have a good time? Was it absolutely romantic? Are you looking forward to another?"
Okay, she confirms what you were afraid she meant. You sigh at the obviously confused mare.
"It wasn't a date," you explain.
Her smile instantly vanishes. She leans back and looks at you in disbelief. "It wasn't?" she asks.
You shake your head. "No, we were just hanging out. I just finished cleaning some broken glass in my bedroom when she came by," you begin, recalling the day's events. "While we were in town we got something to eat at this place. Then we got out and decided to take a walk..." Something began to spark in your mind. "...And finally we came back here, I invited her in- oh."
It all clicks into place. You could see the purple-maned unicorn's smirk grow back as you spoke.
"Well, well, well..." she says. "Dinner and a walk under the stars, then back to your place; that all sounds to me like a- wait, what are you doing? Hey, no need to shove!"
You wordlessly guide the white unicorn out the door. As soon as she is on the doorstep, she looks back. "Oh, at least tell me what you think about all of this!" she pleads.
"When I figure it out, you'll be the first to know. Okay? Bye."
"But-"
You close the door before she can get another word out. You hear a "Hmph!" behind the door before she turns to leave.
You sit on your hind legs and rub your forehead with a hoof. You couldn't deny the possibility anymore. Maybe Rainbow Dash did want to be more than friends. And you were just having trouble deciding if that's all you personally wanted.
Of course, it may be nothing. The white unicorn may be making assumptions that are completely incorrect of Dash's intentions. Just because you went out and did things doesn't mean you two are that heavily involved. Even if...
Your heart flutters as you remember when Dash had her face so close to yours. That look on her face when she closed her eyes. When she touched her snout to yours. You desperately wish you knew what was going through her head at that moment. There is a pile of evidence building up that you can't keep ignoring that she-
A sudden knock on the door shakes you from your thoughts.
"Hey, you in there?"
Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah, I'm here," you call out. She quickly enters looking at you very critically.
"I just saw Rarity leave here," she says with a bit of urgency. That must be the name of that unicorn.
"And?" you ask.
"Did you two talk?"
"She was a customer. Customers tend to make a little small talk." She still stares at you as if waiting for more. You give small sigh. "Dash, about yesterday..."
"Oh, that gossip hungry little..." she groans before she lets you continue.
"Was... was it a date?"
"No!" she exclaims.
You feel your heart drop, gloom filling the void in your chest. You just look down away from Dash. Wait, it was a question you were worrying about answered. Shouldn't you feel relieved?
"I mean..." she stammers. Your ears perk up. "Maybe. I... I don't know."
"You don't know?" you ask looking up at her. She sits on her haunches with her head turned away trying not to look at you. You both remain silent.
Her eyes travel to the floor. "It wasn't supposed to be a date..." she begins. "I wanted to ask you during the day for, like, next week or something. But then you were busy so it got moved to the evening and you wanted to go to dinner. And then the walk, the talking, and then we got back here."
"Does... that really make it all a date?"
"It was everything a date was supposed to be, kind of..."
"Well..." you say after a moment. "Would you want to do it again?"
"Do... what?" she asks.
"Another date. If that's what this was," you say with a shrug.
"Well, Rarity said dates were supposed to..." She took a deep sigh and starts over. "She said that dates were supposed to end with a..." her voice trails off.
"With a...?" you ask. She doesn't give you an answer, but you think you know. You slowly move yourself to sit right in front of her. Placing your hooves gently on her shoulders, she looks up at you with curiosity.
You inhale deeply before pressing your lips against hers. Her eyes go wide before slowly closing as you hear a sharp intake of breath through her nose. Her lips are pursed together, but soon soften as she begins to push back.
As much as you want to continue, you only allow a second or two more to pass before you pull away. She's now holding her hooves to her chest, her mouth is partially open, and she looks at you very softly in wonder.
"So, was it a date n-"
You're cut off as Dash lunges forward, pushing her hooves into your shoulders and tackling you to the ground. She presses her mouth hungrily against yours, prying your lips open with her tongue. She forces her way inside, exploring around wildly. She presses down on your own tongue, causing it to rise and join in. Licking and lapping at each other, you feel yourself becoming lost in the sudden embrace. You close your eyes and block out the world to let all of your other senses become overloaded with the mare on top of you. The taste of her tongue dancing across yours, the smell of the sweat forming in her sudden passion, the feel of her body pressing against you. Much to your disappointment, she eventually breaks the kiss.
As you stare at Dash's face, now bright red, you grow increasingly aware of the dull throbbing ache in the back of your head from hitting the floor.
"Ow..." you say as you bring a hoof around to rub at it.
"Sorry," she says with a sheepish smile.
"No problem." You wave your other hoof dismissively. "So, how about another date if it ends with that?"
"Yeah!" she exclaims happily. "Tomorrow?"
You shrug. "Why not?"
"Awesome!" She leans down and gives you one more quick peck on the lips before climbing off of you. "See you then!" She leaps into the air with a mighty flap of her wings, bolting out the door and into the air with a wide array of flips and twirls through the sky. You think you hear a 'WOOHOO!' echo through the wind.
You watch her rainbow trail cut through the air, guessing that you're probably grinning like an idiot, when you think back to the question the white unicorn posed earlier:
'What do you think about all of this?'
You shake your head and prepare for the most honest answer you could give as soon as you are one hundred percent sure Rainbow Dash is completely out of earshot.
"...fuck." |
Number One | Chapter 6: Scars | You simply lay back on your bed, staring up at the ceiling. You yawn, but as long as you have been there, sleep has not come as easily as previous nights. You slowly lick your lips again. Although there is most likely nothing left even if the kiss left anything at all, you tell yourself maybe you could still taste a hint of Dash's embrace. The dream from last night kept playing in your head. Breathing in deeply and holding it for a while, you slowly breathe outward, looking out the window you had repaired earlier that day as you ponder the situation again.
A week. It had only been a week, if that, since you left Clopton, where you swore you would never get close to another pony ever again. What is it about this crazy blue mare that broke you down so suddenly?
"Well, speed is her thing," you comment to nopony in particular.
Enough worrying about that. What's done is done. So what do you do now? All you can think of is how much knowing Dash like this is going to eventually hurt. How much worse it would be this time, if you could imagine that. Why in Equestria are you setting yourself up for this again?
The dream began to play itself out again. You come home. You call out. You open the door. You turn on the switch and...
A colt is standing there. They are grey with a red mane, built strong and has two overlapping horseshoes as their cutie mark. It's him.
You feel yourself step back in surprise. They blink at you and smile.
"Hey," they simply say.
"...Odd Jobs?"
"You should tell her."
"Wha- Who?"
"Dash."
"What?"
"About me. That day. And that night."
"But..."
"You gotta tell somepony."
"I..."
"Who would you rather talk to?" he asks shaking his head.
You are getting annoyed that he kept cutting you off, but when you open your mouth to talk no words could come out. You feel tears beginning to form so you try to shut your eyes tightly. However, you still see the pony in front of you clearly.
"And that. Stop keeping it all inside."
"B-But last time I-..." you stutter.
"It'll be different."
"How do you know!?" you suddenly shout, full of anger. "You did this to me! If you hadn't..." You suddenly lose your voice again, simply looking to the ground.
They remain silent for a time while you choke back sobs. "Hadn't what?" they ask.
"...I don't know," you answer, defeated.
They nod thoughtfully. "It'll be different," they repeat. "Because things here are different."
You try to think of a reply. As you try to speak again, you feel yourself being shaken. The scene begins to fade away.
"Hey..." you hear somepony say. "Heeey."
You slowly open your eyes, closing them again quickly not expecting the brightness of the day. You feel a certain pressure on your shoulder as it begins to shake you again.
"Odd Jobs...?" you mumble out.
"What?" You begin to recognize the voice next to you.
You peek an eye open and see a certain cyan blue pegasus next to your bed with a hoof on your shoulder.
"Morning sleepyhead," Dash says with a chuckle while taking her hoof back. "Man, you were out."
You groan as you force yourself to sit up on your mattress, pushing aside the blanket. You let out a yawn before turning your attention back to the smiling mare next to your bed. There are many questions floating around in your mind ranging from the pleasant 'What brings you here?' to the not-so-pleasant 'What in the hell are you doing here?'
"What time is it?" you say, leaving the big questions for later.
"Half past eleven. Your first customer is waiting," she says.
"Wha-...?" Your brain finally processes the given information. "What!?"
You jump out of bed, pick up the first jacket within reach, put it on, and run out into the living room. Sure enough, a purple unicorn you remember as a previous customer is sitting there. You think her name is Twilight.
"I see Dash let you in," you say, trying to straighten your mane out somewhat. Thankfully, the current events push the dream from the forefront of your mind. You hear Dash follow you into the room.
"Yeah," she replies. Using her magic she opens her saddlebag and brings out another bag, levitating it over to you. You take it and notice the contents shifting loudly. Opening it up reveals shards of what could have been a lamp at some point. You visibly grimace at the sight.
"Sorry about the condition. Practicing magic can be a bit..." She shrugs. "Prone to accidents."
You nod, simply taking the bag and placing it on the work table. Rule number one is still to not ask questions. You frown as you hear the contents shift some more. That thing is going to be like an extremely annoying jigsaw puzzle.
"So, if you don't mind my asking," Twilight speaks up again. "What's going on with you and Dash?"
This catches you off guard. You look over to Dash who seems surprised as well. She looks at you, but then smiles and nods. "Go ahead," she says, waiting to see how you explain it.
"I knocked up your friend. Expecting in February. She threatened legal action," you state plainly, turning back to the bag as if examining it, but in truth to have your back turned towards them as you hide your snickering face.
You hear Dash stuttering, having difficulty forming coherent words. "NO!" she exclaims. "That is NOT what- I don't- he's-!"
"It's okay, Dash!" Twilight says to calm her friend down. "I realize he might be... exaggerating?"
Dash stutters some more. You couldn't help yourself from laughing audibly at that point. Turning back, you see both mares looking at you. Twilight with an awkward smile, Dash with an angry frown, and both of them blushing.
"You're such a jerk!" Dash yells.
The last of your giggles subsiding, you begin to talk again. "Okay, honestly what's going on between us... I have no idea." You turn to Dash, who still looks annoyed by your previous statement. "Can't say I really hate it, though."
Dash's scowl lightens as Twilight's smile becomes more friendly. "See?" Dash asks Twilight.
"Wow. So he is capable of connecting with others," Twilight remarks.
"What's that supposed to mean?" you ask.
"Well, Dash and I were talking on the way here. I said how you probably didn't have any friends, but she commented on how close you two were getting. I'll admit, I didn't believe her given first impressions were not particularly ideal," she explains. "Though, I'm curious as to why Dash was so determined to get to know you."
"I wonder why, too," you say, looking over at Dash who had begun poking at the finished repair jobs you kept in the corner. A thought pops into your head. "Hey Twilight, can you tell me something embarrassing about Dash?"
"What?" she asks.
"I can only imagine she's talked about me a fair bit. Help me get to know her. Tell me something anypony but her would say," you ask.
"Well..." Twilight says, rubbing a hoof to her chin. "There was this one time. She was holding this contest to see which animal would make for the best pet."
"Really?" you ask.
"Yep! At the beginning, she explained how her pet needed 'coolness,' 'awesomeness,' and 'radicalness.'" she said, using her hooves for airquotes.
You cock an eyebrow. "Aren't those all the same thing?" you ask.
"You would think that."
"And that's why you would never qualify to be my pet," Dash suddenly chimes in patting you on the head, apparently done with her curious snooping. "You two talking about me?"
"No..." you say dripping with sarcasm.
"So when can I expect my lamp?" Twilight asks.
"Um, maybe Thursday."
"Okay. See you later, Dash." She waves a hoof as she leaves.
You turn to Dash as she waves back. "You've been telling your friends about us?" you ask.
"Yeah," she says.
"And?"
"And what?"
"What do they think?" you ask, genuinely wondering.
"Well... they were surprised. They don't really believe that you can show that sort of thing." She turns to you with a smirk. "But you're not all bad. I bet there's something to you."
"Something to me? Like what?" you ask.
"I don't know." She wraps a foreleg around your shoulders and pulls you close. "But whatever's in there, I'm going to find it."
You look at her before smiling. "There's going to be a lot of crap to search through. Hope you're ready." She laughs at this while patting you with the hoof around you. "So what are you doing here? I remember we have a date, but I have to work." You look over to the pile of repairs yet to do that has steadily grown since your time here.
"Just making sure you remembered," she replies.
"So what's the date going to be? I don't think I can afford to eat out again so soon."
"Well, I got to choose last time. How about you think of something? What are dates like in Clopton?"
You thought back to the romance you've seen in your old home. It wasn't anything like this. Colts and mares were, like everything else, bought with bits and were almost like property as long as one kept paying. Then it was like you owned them and could even hit them if they so much as talked out of line. You had a couple mares try to get bits out of you in exchange for Clopton romance, but you always declined. All you could gather about what couples did behind closed doors were words that were shouted, whimpered, and the occasional glass thing smashing against a wall.
"Not what we're looking for," you say.
Dash looks at you blankly for a moment. "Okay. Rarity gave me a list of things we could do. And then we can come back here..."
You look at her who is already staring at you with a big smile. When your eyes meet, she waggles her eyebrows up and down. You couldn't help but grin.
"I look forward to it." ===
"Dash, this sucks."
You swat at the flies buzzing around before looking in the basket. Pieces of bread, lettuce, tomato, and other sandwich fixings are scattered around inside. Only those containing peanut butter had held together of which Dash is eating the last one.
When told of the idea of a picnic you thought it was a pretty solid plan. Go outside, sit on a blanket, eat food. Surely you could manage that, hopefully without any incident. Also, Dash had offered to provide the food since you had kind of sorta technically maybe paid for the meal at the restaurant in a way. However, what was not explained was the heat, the bugs, and the fact that the food may not hold together while in travel with the fastest aspiring stunt flier this side of the Equestria.
The mare on the opposite end of the blanket pops the last bite of sandwich into her mouth, then immediately swatting as you had done the moment her hoof is free. Taking advantage of the bugs currently attacking somepony else, you use a hoof to scratch at the underside of your legs from sitting on the so very itchy cloth.
You look over to see the annoyed expression on Dash's face that you have gotten to know. You took notice of all the details: the furrowed brow shadowing over her magenta eyes, the disapproving frown, and the little scrunching of her light blue nose. All of which you would admit to be cute when it isn't directed at you.
"Yeah," Dash admits, snapping you out of your daze. "It really does. Let's just go."
Still swatting a hoof, Dash picks up the basket with her mouth while you bunch up the blanket under a foreleg. Dash flies while you follow in a quick canter, both of you eager to put as much distance between you and the insects as possible. The trail back to your house is silent, only to get away from the buzzing menaces, but thankfully not very long. Another good thing about the picnic being outside is it was a relatively short commute to get there from home. Walking in the door, you toss the blanket aside as Dash puts down the basket.
"Okay, so now-" you begin to say, but are cut off by a sudden pressing of lips and nearly being tackled to the floor again. ===
"Dash, this sucks."
It has been a couple days since your last date and this one is going just as well. You lift your head up off the hardwood floor to look at the blue mare on top of you who is also dizzy after the latest in a series of falls. Couples around you are staring, some snickering, all of them dressed for the occasion moreso than your usual jacket and Dash's usual starkers.
"I don't think ballroom dancing is for us," you say.
"But Rarity said this was a big thing for couples to do," Dash says.
"Probably for couples who know what they're doing," you say, watching the ponies dance around you in perfect time and rhythm. "We're not like that."
Dash smiles. "You're right. We're not like these stuck-up ponies. Let's get out of here." She gets up off of you and helps you to your hooves as you look around at some of those offended by your marefriend's remark. You have to chuckle at some moments caused by Dash's mannerisms. She's not afraid to state her mind, which you sometimes find as a curse as much as an endearing quality. Still, you'd hate to imagine her any other way. Sometimes you wonder who's rubbing off who.
The two of you left without another word, back to your house for the usual after-date activities. ===
"Hark! For where art my brother?" the colt on stage calls out.
The day after dancing, Dash had suggested the two of you see a show. The play she had found had been described as one of warring kingdoms in a time before the two princesses. When the program toted promises of epic battles, both of you were convinced. You had bought the tickets yourself since business was going well a few days before the show. Dash couldn't wait and you were fairly excited as well.
However, sitting there resting your chin on a hoof, struggling to keep your eyes open, you couldn't help but feel that you had wasted your bits. What the program hadn't mentioned was this guy on stage, wondering aloud like an idiot what happened to his family after it was shown what felt like hours ago. The only battle so far have been noises off stage with another boring load of characters just talking.
You look over at Dash who seems to be fairing as well as you had been. You nudge her with a foreleg.
"Dash..." you quietly whisper. "Hey, Dash."
"Hmph... Wha...?" Dash mumbles as she blinks her eyes open, wiping a bit of drool that had begun to form in the side of her mouth.
"Dash, this sucks."
"Yeah..." she says in a yawn. "How much more of this is there?"
You open the program. "We're currently in the third act of..." You let out a groan before continuing. "Eight."
"Where are the epic battles?" she asks.
"I don't know. How about we get out of here?"
Dash looks at you taken aback. "You sure? You paid good bits for these tickets."
"Yeah, but leaving's free. Hay of a deal, I'd say."
Dash chuckles as you both get up from your seats. Thankfully you sat right next to the aisle so you could get out without having to shuffle past anypony else.
"I say, you there! Fair colt!"
You turn to see the actor on stage pointing at you.
"Have you seen my dear-"
"Your father's dead and your brother's banging your wife!" you call up to the stage, remembering certain tidbits from the previous acts. Some in the audience gasp and the actor's face is in shock as you turn to leave.
"I-I shan't believe it! I won't believe it!" they stammer, trying to carry on. You exit the theater and Dash bursts out laughing.
"Well, he wanted to know," you say nonchalantly.
She wipes a tear from her eye before stretching. "Let me tell you, those seats were not made for a pegasus," she comments, a little strain in her voice as she bends herself backwards. She also pushes her wings out to their full span.
You take a careful look as she stretches, taking notice of her athletic form. The curves from her body down her haunches and the tone in her forelegs. Her wings are also impressive, light yet powerful enough to drive her through the sky, her feathers seeming soft and fluffy. You never considered yourself much of a wingcolt before, but the way the sun's light reflects off of them makes them seem so vibrant, so warm, with a nice svelte form that you almost want to-
"Like what you see?" Dash suddenly says, snapping you back into reality. She's done stretching, but keeps her wings out to show them off. Unable to think of a proper response, you just turn away as you feel your cheeks grow warm. You gasp a little as you feel something begin to brush against you. Turning back, you see her dragging one of her feathery appendages up the length of your body. She flicks it off your chest before returning it to her side.
"Maybe I'll let you touch them when we get back..." she says with a playful smile. You stop, but she walks slowly on with a gentle swaying that makes you feel the shiver from before that you had forgotten about. You smile as you think you finally know what that shiver is before following. ===
You put the finishing touches on the coffee grinder you are working on. It had been in rough shape when you first got it. There was gunk throughout the entire thing, the turning parts were holding on by threads, and the blades were so dull that it probably just crushed the bean more then ground them. You'd have the occasional cup every now and again, but you never figured yourself a coffee pony.
It was a couple days after the little time and money waste of a show. Also, today is when you and Dash had agreed on your next date. You are not sure what she has in mind this time, but you are hoping it'd be quick so you could come back with her. You wonder why dates are necessary at all. It seems more like a chore than anything. Still, you are willing to work for this relationship, so you would go and do whatever Dash has heard to be an acceptable outing for couples.
However, it's getting late. You hope she didn't have dinner in mind because you had already eaten. You look back up at the clock. 8:47. Starting to worry a little, you walk over and look out the window to see if you can spot Dash's signature rainbow trail. It's getting a bit dark to see. Luna's moon beginning its ascent does little to help visibility.
Did Dash forget? Does Dash not want to go anywhere tonight? Did something happen to her? These questions flash in your mind before you take a deep breath to calm yourself down. You'd wait a few more minutes before-
*knock knock knock*
Is that Dash? Does Dash ever knock? Who else could that be?
You walk over to the door with your heart thumping. You have no idea why you are so anxious all of a sudden. If it isn't Dash, then it'd probably be somepony who would tell you what is going on. Like if she was hurt or if she never wants to see you again or-
You shake your head to clear your thoughts. No need to get worked up, it was probably nothing. You lift a hoof, turn the knob, and open the door. Internally breathing a sigh of relief, the prismatic mane of Rainbow Dash catches your eye first thing.
"Hey," you say as casually as you can manage. "So where are we going tonight?"
She walks in silently, kicking the door closed behind her with a hind leg. She turns to you with a smirk. "We're staying right here," she says, beginning to walk towards you. Before you can ask anything, she leans forward and gives you a quick peck on the lips. "I've been thinking. These dates haven't really been turning out that well. They haven't been fun like real dates should." She wraps her forelegs around your shoulders. "I figured, 'What's something we both enjoy doing?'" She rubs her muzzle against your neck as you begin to sit down. "So let's just do what we do after every date. Right now."
You begin to wrap your own forelegs around Dash as you think about the situation. Skipping right to the end of the date. Was that allowed? Would you spend less time together since this is just the end?
"Does that mean... it won't last as long?" you ask, feeling a little silly for it. She brings her head away from your neck and looks you in the eye, staring deeply. Letting out one of her carefree and spirited laughs, she presses her snout against yours.
"If that's what you're worried about, then I can stay as long as you want me to," she says, taking one of her hooves and trailing it around to your chest.
She taps at the zipper of your jacket and begins to unzip it slowly. Her hoof isn't on the fly, but over pushing it down as she drags the tip of her hoof down your chest as it goes. When the zipper is fully undone she pulls the jacket off around your shoulders. You lift your forelegs off Dash and allow her to pull the jacket down off of you, exposing your body to the air.
"That's better..." she coos. Resting her hooves on your shoulders, she begins to pull you gently. You let her guide you through your own house as you see she's taking you back to your own bedroom. You feel your heart begin to beat faster. You have never been with her like this in your sleeping quarters. The couch had been your traditional spot for such activities before this. You are glad you had cleaned up in there earlier. Or rather, shoved everything into the closet.
Simply walking in, nudging aside the ajar door, she takes a hoof off one of your shoulders to face toward your bed. The blanket on it has basically been left wherever you shoved it when you woke up that morning, but you doubt that would be a problem. She lets go as she climbs onto the mattress, laying down on her back with her head against your pillow. With half lowered eyelids and an enticing smile, she looks back at you waiting for her partner to join her.
As you step up, you had expected to lay down right next to her. However, your bed is not particularly large and she has laid directly in the middle, making such a position difficult. You worry a little about putting all of your weight on her, but her hooves come up and pull you over her.
"You can lay down on top of me. It's not like I'll break," she says, giving you another pull. You surrender to her and rest yourself carefully down, causing the blue mare to sink further into your mattress. She reaches up with her neck to connect her lips to yours again, bringing a hoof around to the back of your head to keep you together as she rests her head back down. You reach a hoof up and slowly rub it against her neck, causing her to tenderly moan into the kiss.
You feel something rub against your side. A silky, almost ticklish sensation. When you feel it rub harder again on both sides, you break the kiss with a gasp. You look down to see Dash's wings have unfolded and are grazing up and down your body.
"I know you like these..." As she talks she flicks the tip of her wings off your back, causing you to feel another shiver. She takes notice and chuckles. "You seem cold. I could wrap you up, nice and warm, right now." You watch her take her wings out to full span and flap them slowly against you, their touch crawling up both sides before leaving again. The sensation of the soft, feathery warmth continually coming and going is nearly maddening. Her wings curve around, hovering inches away from your body. You look back at her to see her mischievous grin.
"But... you have to say you want it."
You feel yourself breathing a little harder. "I want it," you reply.
"What do you want?" she teases.
"I want your wings around me, Dash."
She giggles and with another slow flap, her wings come down and tighten around you, holding you as close as you could be. The silken warm touch of her feathers, supple yet firm, envelops you. You tend to be rather chilly without your jacket having grown so used to it, but you would trade that for this any day of the week.
"Being a bit forward tonight," you comment, still half lost in the feeling of her wings.
"You deserve it," she replies. "After all those crummy dates I put you through."
"They weren't all bad," you say.
"Are you kidding? We were either bored, constantly falling over, or getting eaten alive by bugs. What good in that is there?"
"Well..." You prepare yourself for what would probably be the cheesiest thing you've ever said since moving to Ponyville. "They were all with you."
She laughs at your statement. "Really," she says skeptically.
"I know how it sounds, but that's it. Why do you think I kept agreeing to go out with you?" you ask.
She looks at you, seeming to have no response to that. "I... hadn't thought about that. I guess I'm pretty lucky you decided to stick around," she answers with a shrug.
"Seriously?" you ask, feeling another bout of cheesy coming up. "With everything I've done in this town, who I am, and you say you're lucky for me following you? If anything, I'm the lucky one because you kept coming back," you say while rubbing under her chin, making her giggle again.
You feel something nagging in the back of your mind. Something you want to say. You figure now is as good a time as any.
"I know I've asked before, but... why? Why do you keep following me?"
"Because you're cool!" she exclaims. "You don't take any nerve from anypony and you stand up for what you think is right."
"How do you figure that?" you ask.
"The restaurant. You just gave the waitress a huge tip and walked out on the bill because of how poorly they managed the place. The way you stood up to me all those times, too. And the way you yelled at everypony."
"You actually respect that?"
"Wha- I... Wait, that's not what I meant." She waves her hoof as she thinks over what to say. "I mean you show a lot of character. You have a sense of justice and you act on it."
You never thought of it like that before. You quite like the sound of it. "But wait, what about when I apologized? Wouldn't that mean I went against what I believed?"
"So you actually meant that apology? Really?" she asks. You feel like you've been duped, but you nod. You can honestly say that apology is genuine and if it wasn't then, it is now. "Then that means you can admit when you're wrong." Dash's smile, so light and caring, makes something in your chest feel like it's soaring through the sky.
"But what about before all of that?" you ask. "Before the restaurant. Before the apology. You hated me. Why did you follow me then?"
Just like that, her smile begins to fade. She turns away her head away and focuses on something other than you.
"Dash?"
"I told you before..." she says, turning back to you. "I'll tell you about that when you tell me about this." She brings a hoof up and taps your scar, suddenly making it feel very warm. You move your own hoof to cover it instinctively.
"I..." you say, but can't think of anything to follow up with. Your turn to look away as your gaze simply goes off the bed and onto the floor, your hoof still covering the scar. For a while, the only sounds you hear are the faint collective breathing of you and Dash.
Her wings suddenly unwrap from around you. You look back to see Dash pushing against the mattress trying to sit up. You get off of her and allow her to lean up onto her haunches.
"Okay..." she says. "You really want to know?" she asks.
Taking a moment for a quick sigh, you nod.
"Remember," she begins again. "You'll have to tell me about the scar when I'm done. Are you sure?" She points a hoof toward your neck that you're still holding.
"I'm sure," you say with little hesitation. You have actually put little thought into your response, but figure you'll cross the bridge when you come to it.
She scoots a little bit toward you to put her hooves on your shoulders again. You shift your hoof down from your neck to join one of them.
"I started following you because... Well..." She takes a deep sigh. "Have you ever had all of your friends dress up like a mysterious super hero because you were acting like a total jerk?"
You sit and wait for some sort of punchline to the statement. When none comes, you simply reply, "I can honestly say I have not."
"It's just that..." Dash sighs again. "I feel like I sort of mess everything up."
"What? How?"
"I don't know, it's just... I give my friends a hard time. I've done things that end up making the situation worse." She snuggles against you.
You don't feel comfortable at the moment. You were not really expecting to have to console a pony and you are probably not one of the best candidates to do so. Still, you listen to Dash's explanation.
"Have you ever talked to any of your friends about this?" you ask.
"I always act like I normally do around them."
With the only lead you can think of gone, you don't know what else to say at the moment
"I've just done a lot of stupid things," she says quietly.
"Everypony's done stupid things," you reply. You almost think of yourself as an authority on the subject.
"...I nearly got my oldest friend killed."
You feel your body go rigid in shock for a moment. "...What?" is all you could manage to get out.
"It was back in Cloudsdale when we were both still fillies. These two colts were making fun of her, so I challenged them to a race." You look down to see her closed eyes as she recalls the memory. "We took our places at the starting line with her to wave the flag for us to go."
"So... how does that exactly...?" you ask.
"She couldn't fly. She was young and still not able to. And so when she waved the flag..." You hear Dash sniffle. "We just all went as fast as we could go and... we knocked her off the cloud."
"But..." You remember she had said 'nearly.' "Was she okay?"
"Yeah. By some miracle, a cloud of butterflies flew by and broke her fall, but..." You wonder how such a thing is possible before she goes on. "I heard her scream. As she was falling, and I... just kept going."
"But she was fine."
"Still!" Dash suddenly exclaims. "She almost... if that freak chance didn't happen, she would be..."
"But she's not." You tilt Dash's chin up to look at you. "Does she hate you?" you ask.
"Of course not. She couldn't hate anypony," she says with a grumble.
"So there you go."
"But I still did a lot of other things. I laugh when things happen to them..."
"They probably laugh about it later."
"I tend to gloat and show off..."
"None of your other friends do? That white unicorn flaunts her dresses every chance she gets. Applejack is always talking up her apples for sales."
"I make everything worse..."
"Like those times you helped save Equestria?"
"There's more. Much more."
"And all of it is just you being hard on yourself."
She remains silent for a while. You are surprised by her confession. You never would have guessed the spunky pegasus actually felt like this. Also the fact that she hasn't told her friends but is willing to share it with you... It made you want to hold her a little closer. Still, you wonder what exactly this has to do with following you.
"Have I told you how I'm supposed to represent the element loyalty?" she asks. "Well, sometimes I blow my friends off to do whatever I want. I once skipped out on helping Applejack just to go nap. I actually felt bad enough about that to model dresses for Rarity once." have you been in any other setting you would have laughed at that. "What kind of element of loyalty is that?" She sighs before digging her head back into your chest. "I wonder sometimes if my friends would better off without me."
"Oh, come on. Your friends wouldn't say that."
"I know. I really know, but... I still feel bad about it all. When they're not around. And then, you came along."
"Me?" you ask surprised.
"Yeah. You come and just yell at the whole town. At first, I wanted to know what your problem was. What in Equestria would make you do that." She sighs before continuing. "Then you said you were going to apologize to Pinkie Pie so you could shop at the bakery again, but not to anypony else. You have everypony think you're a jerk and think nothing of it. I..." She looks you in the eye. "I wanted to know how you did it. How you don't feel anything when you do things like that."
"Well, it's because I-"
"I know. You don't think you did anything wrong. But still, you didn't care what the entire town thought of you." She shakes her head. "...how?"
"I just... don't care," you reply.
"How?" she asks again, almost pleadingly.
"I mean I just don't care. That's really all there is to it. I didn't want to get close to any of them, so why would it matter?"
"But what about making friends?"
"I... I didn't want any friends."
She looks at you intensely. You can tell she doubts you and she's trying to find something that gave away that you were lying. It is a technique you've used regularly enough to spot it.
"Why...?" she begins, but then looks down at your neck, scar standing out. "Oh," is all she simply says.
She's silent for a while before saying, "Well, I've told you why I follow you." Suddenly, she shifts her weight to throw you down on the bed. She stands on top of you with her forelegs against your chest. "And if you think I'm letting you get away before you tell me about your scar, then you're wrong."
You struggle a little before opening your mouth. Before any number of not-so-carefully constructed phrases could be vocalized, you hear a voice flash through your mind.
You gotta tell somepony. Who would you rather talk to?
The dream you had several days ago comes to mind. You stop and simply lay there for a moment. As the silence begins to weigh in between the two of you, you reach up with a foreleg and begin brushing Dash's mane with a hoof. You look up to see that confusion and concern has replaced what had driven the blue pegasus to hold you almost captive.
"I'll tell you. But I'll need a moment," you say. While you continue to move a hoof through her hair, she slowly lays down on top of you waiting. You take a deep breath before beginning.
"I... was coming home after getting paid for a job," you explain. "Nothing too special. Just bits that meant we could afford to eat a bit longer."
Dash adjusts herself to lay more comfortably on your chest as you continue.
"I went up to my apartment. My friend lived with me. His name was Odd Jobs." The two dreams came to mind again, but somehow adds to your confidence to keep going. "He wasn't an honest pony. He wasn't a good pony, but he was..." You stop rubbing and look her in the eye. "My best friend. We went through everything together." You give a small chuckle, remembering some of the times you shared with the colt. "Like I said, I went to my apartment, walked in and called out for him, but didn't get an answer." You blink a couple times to block back the tears that are coming up. "I smelled something... in the air. Something sour."
"What was it?" Dash asks.
"Well, at first I thought it was oil. It came from the room we used as a workshop. Mostly where I fixed things, but he had some use for the tools in there as well." You give a deep sigh before continuing. "So I thought he was in there. I knocked on the door and called again."
"And?"
"No answer. I slowly opened the door. The smell was strong," you say shaking your head. "A-and I turn on the light switch..."
Dash notices the tremble in your voice. "He wasn't there?"
"H-he was...," you say with a heavy sigh. You look down, away from Dash.
"What... was he doing in there?" Dash asks.
You clench your eyes shut and teeth together. You feel yourself begin to shake.
"Nothing," you finally say, breathlessly. "Nothing at all."
An air of silence hung heavily after your last statement. You feel as if something is pushing down on you besides the pegasus laying on top of you. A numb sensation is spreading from your chest down your limbs as you try to fight back the feelings while still preparing to explain what happened next. You focus on the silence, making it almost seem deafening as you take anything you can to block out the images from your mind. After a while, the only sound is a gasp from Dash when realization dawns on her. Slowly, she brought a hoof from your shoulder to your cheek. You felt her lean closer and her breath passed over your face, cooling in a small wet stream from your eye that has just come to be. Some time goes by before you start up again.
"Another regular customer came by a while later. Had some of his friends help clean up." You pause again. "I learned later that he had owed money to a large group on the edge on the city. Didn't make his payments, and apparently said some of the wrong things. He... he never even told me about it."
She brings her other hoof to your neck and starts rubbing the scar. It feels cold, as if she's holding ice to your neck. "But what about this?" she asks.
You tilt your head up and open your eyes to Dash. Your eyelids sting a bit, but you see the concern on her features. It's comforting enough to make you continue.
"After that, I... well, life just kind of went back to normal." She stops rubbing the scar. You shrug. "Kind of normal." She nods slightly and resumes rubbing. "I... started drinking a bit more. Been stressed after that." Although this is a bit easier to explain, you know a part coming up would be the hardest of all to get out. "Couldn't really bring myself to work sober. All the bits went to cheap pizza or cheap vodka. Started slipping on jobs. Yelling at customers. Overall, bad for business."
She opens her mouth again to ask something. "I'm getting to the scar," you say before she can get any words out. She closes her lips and resumes listening.
"What was really weird was, other than that, I didn't really feel anything." You move your hoof on her back in a little circle. "It was just like... he was away for a job or something. Then one day. About a week later..." You try to think of the words to describe it. You settle on something simple. "It just hit me."
"Hit you?" Dash asks. You nod.
"I never thought about it, but then I realized. He was gone. Forever." You look at Dash again, seeing her with a little confusion. "You ever lose somepony, Dash?"
She's silent for a bit before shaking her head.
"It doesn't feel like they're gone at first. It feels like they just left on some sort of trip. That you can talk to them, write to them, and one day they'll come back, but..." You begin to push back tears again. "They don't. And when the reality of it finally s-sets in..." You take a deep breath. "It's..."
Dash looks at you expectantly. You take a moment to breathe before continuing with the story.
"I was in the workshop when it happened." You bring your other hoof around to Dash's back. "The incident was reduced to just some... darker colored floor. I tended to avoid looking at it."
Dash settles her head on your shoulder, continuing to rub the scar.
"It was night and I was working on carving something. I don't remember what, just that it needed a place to stash something away. A bottle of vodka was empty on the desk, which became a normal thing." You take a pause to breathe and give your lips that had become quite dry a quick lick. "That's... when it happened."
You feel Dash stop rubbing the scar. "That's when it hit you?"
You nod. "It hurt... It hurt so much." You shut your eyes again tightly as more tears threaten to burst through. "It was... I was crying. I cried so much I could barely breathe and couldn't see. And I just... I-I grabbed something, and..."
Her head moves off your shoulder. A silence hung in the air as you feel Dash's hooves move toward and push against your chest. Despite the darkness of the night, despite your closed eyes, you could feel the stare of the pegasus burning right through you.
"...you didn't." She is barely above a whisper.
You could only have your head sink down in shame.
"You didn't," she repeats louder.
You try to take in a breath, but it could only come out as a snort as you try to keep yourself from breaking down right there. You only give another single meek nod.
Eyes closed and head lowered, all you can hear is Dash's light and jagged breaths.
"...why?" she asks in a strained voice. "Why would you do that to yourself!?"
You tighten your grip with your forelegs to bring her into a hug. She's standing on you, but her hooves move to the sides of your head. You bring her close enough to nuzzle up to her chest.
"How... How did you...?" she tries to ask after another moment.
You try to speak, but it only comes up in choppy words. "L-Late customer... I yelled... They got help..."
She slowly nuzzles the top of your head before asking another question.
"You don't want to... do that again, do you?"
"I... w-when I think of him, I..." You keep silent after that. You didn't know what to say or how to say it. You simply did not know.
"...I'm sorry," you hear her say, faintly.
You manage to hear it, but couldn't comprehend it exactly. "What...?"
"I'm sorry," she says again. "I shouldn't have... I-I shouldn't... I'm sorry."
Something clicks in your muddled mind. You piece together what you have said and what it sounds like. That Dash had just inspired such thoughts in the colt who had tried to tell her she isn't trouble to everything she touches. You feel a shock of terror, making the now one and only important thing crystal clear.
"Dash, no. No, no, Dash, that's not what I meant."
"Don't, please..." She slides down and pushes her face into your shoulder while wrapping her hooves around you tightly. "P-Please, don't. Oh Celestia, please don't..."
"NO! Dash, I'm not going to. You didn't do anything, I-"
"I'm sorry..."
"No, Dash!"
"Because of me... you..." Her speaking began to sound more and more choked up. You feel her breaths become ragged like yours a moment ago. Her body tenses up and begins to shake.
"NO! I DON'T!" you desperately plead. This beautiful mare nearly reduced to your level. Conflicting dreads of the past and present clash as you try to find something, anything, you would be able to do.
"Dash," you call to her. She is still holding onto you tightly. You bring a hoof to her cheek and try to get her to look at you.
"Dash, please..."
You feel her grip loosen and her body relax a bit. Enough for you to move her head to see her face. Her eyes are still clenched shut, but you could see her struggling against tears of her own. Tears of insecurity, bottled up emotions, and blaming herself for everything.
You tilt her head up to look at you while she opens her eyes, just barely red. You couldn't let this continue.
You leaned forward and put your lips to hers. Dry, but soft and warm as you stare deeply into those deep magenta irises that are now wide with surprise like the first time you've done this. It's this moment you feel yourself slipping. Whatever holds you have on your emotions are breaking while looking into the eyes of such a carefree mare now full of such sorrow. As you feel the years of grief begin to stream down your face, you could see the same happening with Dash. Tears long overdue have started and they would not be stopped.
You both slowly close your eyes as you tighten your grip around her back to pull her closer. She brings a hoof around to the back of your head again to make sure you don't pull away. Not that you would ever dream of it.
She pokes her tongue between your lips and you let her through. Meeting with your own tongue, you wrestle with hers roughly. Both of you seeming to try and take out all your hate and pain on each other inside your mouths.
You begin to move your hooves up and down her back between her wings. She takes her other hoof and rubs it down your side all the way to your flank, circling around your cutie mark. Both of you begin to moan and sob into each other. You could feel one another's chest shake as your lament escapes.
You feel her wings begin to expand outward slowly. You remember many a dirty joke about this from Clopton. You realize what it meant. You also know what to do next. As soon as they are fully extended, you stroke along the base of the wings and Dash gasps at your touch. A little worry goes through your mind, wrapping them around being one thing, but what you're doing now is something on another level. However, Dash doesn't make any opposition so you continue to let your body move on its own.
It isn't as much kissing at this point as you two simply roughly licking around each other's open mouths. Inside or out, your tongues would dance with one another. You felt a warm bit of Dash's saliva trail down your cheek.
You rub farther and farther along the wing. Reaching the tip, Dash gives out a little yelp into your mouth. You wonder if you should continue, but the doubt is pushed away when she begins sliding her body up and down yours. You feel the hairs of her coat push and brush up against your chest, bringing out and sharing the warmth it holds underneath.
Both you open your tear filled eyes briefly to gaze at each other. Disheveled manes and pathetic bloodshot eyes break down the last bit of the walls you two have built around yourselves over the years.
You rub her wings harder and faster as she presses her torso as hard as she can against you. Her moans grow louder as you continue to explore each others mouths. Your tongues tangle together as you feel every bump of her taste buds and experience them with your own.
Her rubbing stops as she just holds you tighter than ever before. Her moaning escalates before she breaks the kiss. She tilts her head upward and gives a scream riddled with sobbing. You're thankful you live on the edge of town or else another pony may have been awoken and alarmed.
She collapses on top of you as the two of you simply hold each other. Her wings fall limp beside the two of you. Even though you both have no more tears left, dry sobs filled the air. Eventually, they became quiet and less frequent, giving way to gentle snoring as you both slip away from reality into a deep peaceful sleep. Through the window, the moon shines down upon two injured souls finding solace.
Upon two broken hearts mending together. |
Number One | Chapter 7: New Day | *knock knock knock*
You begin to stir in your bed. As you hear the sound of birds chirping, your mind takes a quick inventory. Your eyes stung and your nose is a little stuffy, but other than that, you felt... good. You take notice of a blue pegasus laying beside you, sleeping peacefully. Your hooves have been wrapped around, holding each other as close as possible. Maybe the amount of warmth is a little uncomfortable, but you didn't want to let go.
*knock knock knock*
You grunt as you lean yourself upright. However, you're able to lift your body with an almost incredible ease. Like a great weight had been lifted from your shoulders. You look around the room and notice just how bright the sun is, how the light casts down upon everything. You breathe in deeply, the action extremely refreshing like drinking water after days without it.
All of these sensations are wasted as you flop back down onto the bed and snuggle back up to the blue pegasus who is now also beginning to wake up.
*knock knock knock knock*
"...You gonna go get that?" Dash asks in a sleepy voice.
"If it's important, they'll come back," you reply.
*knock knock knock knock knock*
Dash moves a hoof to your chest and pushes you away.
"Go answer it," she says before turning over to go back to sleep. You grumble as you pick yourself up again and walk out towards the door. Whoever this is better have a good reason for waking you up at... You glance at the clock. 1:30 in the afternoon. You sigh as you turn the knob and open it.
"Oh, howdy! Ah was just about to turn arooo-AAH!" exclaims the orange farmer pony on your doorstep. You wonder what brought on that response as you notice yourself without a jacket, scars on display, just getting out of bed from one of the roughest nights you've ever had. You'd probably have the same reaction looking in a mirror.
"Good morning to you, too," you say, dripping with sarcasm as Applejack comes out of her shock. "So what did you need?"
"Ah'm, uh... Ah'm really sorry about my little..." she tries to explain. Clearing her throat and trying not to look at you, she begins talking again. "Ah was wonderin' if ya'll seen Rainbow Dash anywhere. Really needin' a few extra hooves on the farm for some big orders an' she said she'd help." She chuckles a little awkwardly. "Heard you two have been... together as of late."
You give a little nod in response to the statement. "One moment," you say, walking back into the house, closing the door behind you. Walking back into the bedroom, you see Dash curled up under the blanket that had been tossed aside last night.
"Daaash," you call out, shaking her shoulder like she had woken you that one time. "Hey. Applejack's looking for you."
You see her peek open an eye at this. "Oh man, I forgot..." she mumbles into your pillow. Placing her hooves down, she pushes upward, lifting herself from the mattress. "Where is she?" she asks.
"Waiting outside," you reply. A hoof takes you by the chin and brings you up to Dash's lips. Simple and tender, it only lasts a short time before Dash pulls away again.
"Thanks for last night," she says. You give a smile and nod as she walks out of the bedroom. Hearing the door open and a little exchange between the two outside before the door shuts again, you begin thinking of everything you need to do to start the day. A shower, definitely. Some breakfast considering how late it is. You'd have some work to get caught up on.
Suddenly, you feel that one of your hooves has traveled back up to the bed and is now rubbing the spot Rainbow had been sleeping. It's warm. Very warm. Leaning down to it, you could almost smell a little bit of her left in the sheets.
Maybe... just five more minutes, you think, climbing back into bed. ===
Some time later... ===
"Okay," you say while bringing out a clock from the pile of finished repair jobs that have built up in your living room. "That'll be fifteen bits."
The yellow, brown-maned pegasus timidly reaches into their striped vest, pulls out a small bag, and gives it to you. You look inside and quickly count the number of bits.
Giving an approving nod you say, "Well, it's all here. See you next time." They mumble a thanks before taking their clock and flying out the door with a quick flap. That pegasus has become your best customer and is the kind you had back in the old days. The stuff he brought was never broken, but in need of extra storage. Of course, you never ask questions.
Better yet, he was your last customer for the day. You walk back into your bedroom, quickly flicking the knob of the closet door open and throwing the small bag on a pile of bits that you have amassed over time. You stare contently at the money you've earned as you feel a bit of pride begin to well up. You made it. You have an honest living in this town without any sort of worry from other ponies.
There are no gangs. No violence. No fear.
As much as you'd never say you were afraid in Clopton, it is nice to be able to sleep and ignore the possibility of somepony breaking into your place for bad or worse reasons.
At that moment, you hear your front door open and close with hoofsteps coming closer. Just as you thought how this situation would play out back where you used to live, now it only makes you smile more.
"Hey! You in here?" you hear a familiar voice call out.
"Back here, Dash," you respond.
The cyan blue pegasus with multi-colored mane pokes her head out from around the corner. She eyes you up and down. "Looks like somepony had a busy day," she remarks.
You do a quick once-over of yourself. Mane disheveled, couple stains of grease on your jacket, and your hooves have a couple new nicks in them. "I don't look that bad," you say.
"Yeah, you do." A sly smile appears on her face as she walks closer.
You chuckle. "Shut up, Dash."
"That's exactly what I wanted to hear."
She presses her lips roughly against yourself and wraps her hooves around your neck. You let her guide you over to your bed as you begin to pick up her subtle taste. An almost essence of blueberry along with the scent of sweat, though not unpleasant, as a result of her athleticism. Her back lies down on the blanket, sinking into the fabric as you follow and lay on top of her. The position doesn't last long as she rolls over away from the edge of the bed, leaving her on top of you. A tongue began to prod at your lips which you let through to greet with your own, giving a new almost spicy sensation.
You have been, for lack of a better word, dating this mare for a few months now. During this time, you two have come to a few understandings that all couples must do in one way or another. One of which being the Shut-Up-and-Make-Out sessions that is currently occurring. As per agreement, such may only be initiated when one is feeling tired, stressed, worried, or anything at all that may be helped with making out. This "anything" also included having a deep desire to make out; a reason that both you and Dash have used admittedly more often than not.
Your hoof begins travelling down her back, rubbing in a circle between her wings. Dash moans a little before pulling away.
"Sorry," she says, tussling your mane. "Afraid we can't have that much fun right now. We still have a party to go to."
You sigh in disappointment. She is always dragging you around for this party or that festival, trying to get you to socialize with other ponies. Not that it has been all bad, but there are times where you wish you had a choice. Taking now for example, go to the party or stay in bed with Dash.
"Come on," she says, climbing off of you. "How about we get moving?"
"Bit early, isn't it?" you ask.
"Yeah, but we'll get there before all the good food is gone. And they have a band there playing covers."
"They any good?" you ask, rolling off the bed.
"I don't know." She gives her wings a couple flaps to work out the excitement you tried to put into them. "But afterwards, we can come back and pick up where we left off," she says with a wink.
"Holding you to that, Dash." You walk over to your closet again, pulling out a clean jacket.
"I know," she replies, pressing against your side as soon as you get your jacket on. She begins rubbing her muzzle into your neck.
"Well..." you say, deciding to push your luck and wrap a foreleg around her shoulders. "Do we really have to go to this party? We could just stay here, and-"
"No," she says flatly. "But nice try." She gives a little peck to your neck while you both walk through the house towards your door. Opening it up, the wind of early fall blows in, making it difficult to shut on the way out. When you finally get it closed, you turn to make your way down the road.
"Why is it this windy?" you ask, looking at one of the head pegasuses for the weather patrol.
"Pressure fronts have to go somewhere," she says with a shrug. "But here, let me fix it."
Before you can say anything, she flaps her wings and lands on your back, wrapping her hooves around your neck. Then she stretches her wings out and wraps them around your chest, shielding your body from the wind. Her feathers are soft and warm, also pulling Dash's body a bit closer to you.
"Better?" she asks, snuggling closer to your neck.
"Much."
"Now come on. We have a party to get to."
You begin trotting down the trail, simply listening to the blowing wind and enjoying the warmth of the pegasus laying on your back. The dirt road is cool beneath your hooves. A few birds pass overhead, and squirrels are running, climbing up and down the trees. When the wind picks up, it sometimes blows Dash's mane around, tickling your neck.
"I love you," Dash says suddenly as you walk causing you to stop.
"What brought on that statement?" you ask.
"Nothing. It's just... I don't think I've ever told you before." You think back throughout your time with Dash, trying to remember an instance either one of you said those three simple words. It seems almost impossible with everything you've been through that you haven't taken the one second to say it. She hugs around your shoulders a bit tighter. "So I'm telling you now. I love you."
You smile. You feel something in your chest inflating and rising up almost like a balloon that is going to fly away. "I love you, too," you say as you begin to walk again. |
Number One | EXTRA: An Old Friend | This is an extra scene, taking place after the events of Number One.
This scene has no ties or relevance to the rest of the story.
~~~~~
You walk in the door of your house, back from the latest Pinkie Pie party. You are wrapped in one of Dash's wings, within the soft feathers' warmth, as she trots beside you happily.
"Say it," she says.
"I already said it six times on the way back," you reply.
"Don't care. You remember the agreement. Now say it again."
You roll your eyes. "You're the most awesome, Dash."
She gives a little giggle. "Again!"
"You're the most awesome, Dash."
"Again!"
"I am never betting with you on 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' again."
"Okay," she replies before pushing you to the ground on your back. You look up at the blue pegasus standing over you with a confident smirk. She leans her head an inch away from yours.
"But for now, say it."
You snort and look away in defiance. She lays her body on top of you, her weight and body heat easily felt through your jacket. A sideways glance shows her features have softened, her smirk now a full smile with half-lidded eyes.
"Say it." You couldn't resist that face. You sigh in defeat.
"You're the most awesome, Dash."
You feel her soft lips press against your neck. "Again," she says.
You smile, suppressing a chuckle at the new show of affection. "You're the most awesome, Dash."
This time, she kisses under your jawline. "Again."
"You're the most awesome, Dash."
She presses her lips against your cheek. She keeps them there for a while as you feel the warmth build on the spot. Eventually, she pulls away. "Again..." she breathes out in nearly a whisper.
"You're the most awesome, Dash."
She kisses right next to your mouth. You can feel the side of her lips brush against yours. She pulls away again and looks you right in the eyes with a look of soft compassion that has only been seen by very few. She doesn't say anything this time, but she doesn't have to at this point.
"You're the most awesome, Dash," you say, returning her look. Heart beating faster in excitement, you both close your eyes as she lowers her lips down slowly for a deep, loving, passionate-
CRASH
You both jump at the loud noise. Thankfully, Dash is a pegasus and now hovering in the air instead of crashing down on top of you. You both look at each other and then in the direction of where the noise came from. Your bedroom.
You get to your hooves and Dash lands softly beside you. "Stay here," you say.
She looks at you with a cocked eyebrow. "You know I'm not going to," she says.
"I know, but it felt like something I needed to say," you reply as the two of you walk toward your bedroom door, left ajar.
You could hear something. Some rustling and some plinks of bits of metal hitting the floor. A little bit of incoherent mumbling could also be heard. You don't know who it is, but they are in your closet going through your stash of bits. Slamming a hoof into the door, you and Dash storm into the room as you bark out a loud, "HEY!"
It is a light gray colt, white frazzled mane under a black ski hat. They have scars, dirt, and various other substances matted into their fur. It seems like there's a part of their body twitching at all times. They seem unfazed, like they don't even notice you. That is, until Dash flies over and tackles them to the ground.
"What do you think you're doing, buddy!?" she screams into the intruders face. As you walk over, she looks ready to buck this guy out the door, which you would let her do in a heartbeat if you aren't dumbfounded by who it is.
"Shakes!?" you ask, getting a good look at their face, confirming their identity. His eyes are shooting around in all directions as he continues his unintelligible muttering. A musty odor of sweat and burnt chemicals came off his body. Sure enough, it's the consistently strung out lunatic from your old hometown.
Your eye twitches a bit. You remember all the problems he caused, all the little annoyances from being around him. And now, when you thought you were away from all of that mess once and for all, here he is. How dare he? How dare he come here? How did he even come here? It took you almost a full day by carriage. No. You don't even care. You just want him out of your house, preferably letting Dash inflict all manners of violence that she looked ready to carry out, and then maybe-
"Uh... dude?" Dash suddenly asks.
"W-What?" you stammer, snapping out of your thoughts.
"You kind of zoned out for a minute," she says. "I asked what you wanted to do with this guy."
You turn back to Shakes on your floor. With a little sigh, you decide he's nowhere near worth the time and energy. You want him out and you want him gone for good. He was from Clopton and you are past that now. Simple as that.
"Just... get him out the door and make sure he goes the opposite direction of town," you say, bringing a hoof to rub your forehead. "He'll just wander back to Clopton somehow."
"Really?" she asks.
"Yeah. He used to go missing for a week or two. I didn't know he went out this far." You sigh again. "Just get him out of here. He's starting to make my place smell funny."
"How about we call the police?" she asks.
You give a little snort, trying to suppress a laugh. "And what'll they do? Shakes here has been arrested many times before." You shake your head slowly. "Most he's ever spent in a cell was maybe a couple days because of how loud he gets without a fix. They don't care."
Shakes mumbles something from the floor.
"And I absolutely do not want this guy here for any longer then it would take to kick him out right now and yoooou are about to say something to make me look like an idiot," you say, looking up at Dash's furrowed brow currently directed at you.
"Things are different here," is all she says.
"Oh!" you say, nodding your head with a mock smile. "Completely forgot! Things are different here! However..." you say, dropping the obnoxious happy tone in your voice. "There's one thing that is very much the same."
"What's that?" she asks, clearly unimpressed by your sarcastic display.
"Back in my apartment in Clopton, I still very much wanted Shakes out as soon as possible if he was ever there."
"I meant the police, you jerk!" Dash exclaims. "The police are different here. They'll keep Shakes off the streets and then-"
"He'll start screaming and they kick him out," you interrupt. "I've seen it before."
"And then," she carries on, not happy with your behavior. "They'll help him get better."
You actually stop, forgetting for a moment about the crazy muttering pony in the room that you wanted out of your house more than anything.
"...Better?" you ask.
"Yeah," Dash says, a little relief in her voice that she might be getting through to you. "Rehab and stuff. They'll get him off... whatever it is he's on, and he'll be normal."
"Normal...?" you ask, disbelievingly. "But... he's Shakes."
Another round of mumbling on the floor confirms your statement.
"And he can get better," Dash repeats as if talking to a small child.
All you can do is look down at the colt who probably has no idea what is going on. There are a few constants in this world that you knew of. Birds chirp, oranges are orange, the sky is blue, and Shakes is Shakes. Trying to change any of these, at least in your mind, would be like trying to stop the princess from raising the sun.
"Listen," Dash says, breaking you from your thoughts again. "I'll go and get the cops. Can you keep him here?"
You look down to the twitching gray colt. He seems like he's just coming down from something at the moment, so probably not that dangerous. You nod your head.
"Okay." She gets off Shakes with a flap of her wings and flies to the door. "I'll be right back!" she calls out behind her.
You close your bedroom door and lean against it. Shakes has gotten back onto his hooves, albeit after a couple tries. He is now trying to rummage through your bit stash again. You don't care. You could easily get those bits off of him when the cops took him away. A moment of silence, apart from Shakes' muttering, passes with you guarding the door.
Your mind drifts into thinking about what Dash said. Shakes... better? Normal? You still couldn't believe it. He was always a little trouble maker and everypony just assumed he always would be. It's a wonder that he survived in a town like Clopton for as long as he did.
And now... well, I guess he wouldn't be going back to Clopton anymore. You imagine that the town would thank Rainbow Dash for such an act, but then you remember where you are thinking of. Even if he is trouble, Shakes belonged to Clopton, and Clopton would go after anypony that took something of its.
"So... Shakes," you begin, not really knowing what to say. "How's Clopton been?"
As you expect, incoherent mumbles is all he replies with.
"Anypony there miss me?" you ask with a chuckle as he tries to open the window. Thankfully, he couldn't figure out the latch keeping it in place so he went back to meandering around the room, dropping the golden coins as he went.
You don't know why you are talking to him. Probably because this might be the last conversation you'll ever have with Shakes. Well, you knew that a minute ago when you wanted to throw him out, but now, if Dash is right, the Shakes in front of you would no longer exist. Now you felt an urge to talk to him, but what about? Are there any loose ends you needed to tie up with him before he changed?
And what about afterwards? Would you suddenly be friends with him? Would he be grateful that you pulled him out of that hole of a city? Would he suddenly be friendlier to those around him? Would he be happier, just like...
...you are?
The realization hit you like a ton of bricks. It's like you are watching yourself when you first came to Ponyville. Just bumbling around, only wanting to take other ponies' money and have nothing to do with them. Were you like this? Well, you weren't strung out on drugs, but was this how others had seen you?
He tries to walk over and push past you to the door, but a simple shove causes him to fall over and drop nearly all the bits he was carrying. After that, he just continues to circle around the room.
And now... Dash is going to fix him. Make him better. Just like you.
You hear a knock on the front door. "Police," you hear voices say.
"It's open," you call out. You open the bedroom door as they enter. You see two officers in blue uniform, one orange with a mustache, the other a darker blue, with Dash trailing behind them. "He's in here," you say, waving them over with a hoof.
You move out of the way, walking over next to Dash as you see the two go in and then come out with the intruder.
"I assume the bits he was carrying were yours, son?" asks the orange, mustached officer. You nod. "Sorry about the mess in there. We tried to clean it up a little."
"Right," is all you say as you watch them take Shakes away. He gave surprisingly little resistance apart from his normal shaking. They take him out of your house and close the door behind them.
"I'm going to have to let that room air out," you say, nonchalantly. You turn to Dash. "He'll be better, huh?"
"Yeah," she replies. "They have these programs to help ponies like him. We don't really see a lot of them in Ponyville, but I'm sure they'll help him," she says with her usual confidence.
So that's it. He'll be better. No more obnoxious Shakes. Just like you. All thanks to the colorful pegasus.
You bring a hoof up and wrap it around Dash's shoulder and pull her close, her familiar warmth from earlier returning.
"Sorry," she says with an awkward chuckle, bringing her own hoof up to push yours away. "That guy was... kind of a mood-killer."
You don't listen. You just keep your hoof on her shoulder and hold her close. You close your eyes and just enjoy the little embrace.
"...You okay?" Dash asks with a little concern.
"Yeah," you say with a little nod. "I'm okay."
As long as you have Dash, you would be. |
Number One | EXTRA: Years Later | This is an extra scene, taking place after the events of Number One.
This scene has no ties or relevance to the rest of the story.
~~~~~
"WAAAAAAAHH!"
You blink your eyes open, the loud scream disrupting your slumber for the fifth time this week. And it is only Wednesday. You turn your head to look at the other side of the bed you sleep in. Empty. As always. You don't know why you look over there anymore.
Your eyes glance over at the clock. "Two in the morning. Always has to be so freaking early with that little brat..." You push yourself upright against the mattress and fumble to the floor as another screaming sob travels down the hall into your bedroom. "Why does he do this?" you ask as you walk out the door. "Is he really stupid enough not to learn when I tell him the same thing over and over?"
Of course you don't really mean that. It just rubs you the wrong way whenever he would cry, wake you up, and then say the exact same thing almost every night. Still, you can't help but love him with all your heart. Every time you hear him sniffle late at night, you remember the times he smiles. Every sob is met with a memorable laugh. It's what made you get up and walk out every single time.
It doesn't make it any easier, however.
You walk into the child's dark room, his crying now a near ear-splitting volume. Going over to the child's crib, you sit on your haunches, reach down, and pick him up with your forelegs. He was a pegasus, orange with a multi-colored mane. Starting from red, going to a light orange, and then yellow down the back and tail.
"Shhhh... I'm here. Little Heat, I'm here," you say, rocking him gently back and forth. He looks up at you with those soft, tear stained magenta eyes. Closing them again, he resumes crying to which you resume your comforting shushing.
"I... I w-want Mommy!" he cries.
It's your turn to close your eyes. "Mommy's not here..." you say, giving him a little bounce in your forelegs. "Would you like a story?" you ask, reaching for the Daring Do book on the dresser next to his crib.
He doesn't respond. He just keeps crying.
"Would you like your bottle?" you ask, going through the list of what he could need. "Are you too hot? Too cold?"
It was the same every night. He'd cry for his mommy, something kids were known to do. The problem is, he always cries for his mommy, and his mommy is never here. Every time he woke in the night it's the same. He'd cry and cry for his mommy until he cries himself to sleep.
You wish you could be his mommy. Or bring his mommy here. But you couldn't, and that is what truly made this process hurt the way it did. It has nothing to do with interrupted sleep or the loud noises. It was the fact that you couldn't do anything. You could only hold him until he tires himself out.
"I-I want Mommy!" he cries again.
You hold him close, trying to stifle a sniffle. "I want Mommy, too..."
You feel something slip over your shoulders. You open your eyes to see a pair of light blue hooves draped over you. You look up, turning your head and see another pair of magenta eyes staring at you along with a small smile. A colorful mane drapes over her shoulders along with a Wonderbolts uniform.
"Mommy's here."
Little Heat stops crying instantly, reaching out for his mother. She drops the dark blue outfit on the ground before taking the child from your arms. She hugs him tightly as the child smiles, tiny wings buzzing happily, and tries to wrap his little forelegs around to hug her back.
"Dash..." you say, almost unable to believe what you are seeing. "I... I thought you still had another month on your tour."
"The next show is in Cloudsdale," she explains. "It's only a couple hours out the way, and... I couldn't wait. I just couldn't wait."
You slide over, putting a hoof around her shoulders as she nuzzles the little pegasus in her forelegs. Leaning your head down, you rest it against her neck.
You just can't explain how happy you are at the moment. You give a slow nuzzle every now and again as she holds the child she dearly missed.
"Does... does he cry for me a lot?" she asks.
Suddenly, doubt passes where once was relief. You don't know how to answer. You don't know if you should answer. You simply sit there in silence. A few moments pass before you hear Dash's voice again.
"Oh, dear Celestia..." she mumbles.
"Dash," you say, hugging her closely.
"I... I..." she begins, shakily.
"Shhhh..." you quietly say, rubbing her shoulder and gently rocking her back and forth. You are still in full child-comfort mode, so these are the only tricks you could think of at the moment. The only difference is it seems to be working with the blue full-grown mare. More time passes in silence as the family slowly rocks back and forth with the ticking of the clock against the opposite wall.
Eventually, you hear a quiet, steady stream of breathing. You look down to Little Heat who is now snoring peacefully in the embrace of his mother. You glance over at Dash who was now looking down at her foal. Glancing up at the clock, it was now quarter past three. It was the fastest Little Heat has ever gone back to sleep.
"Go back to bed," Dash whispers. "I want to stay here a while longer."
You sit for a moment before giving her cheek a small peck. Slowly dropping your hoof from her shoulder, rubbing it down her back, you turn away and leave the room, down the hall, and back into your bedroom. The lights still out, you walk the familiar path to your side of the bed. Laying down in the sheets, now cold from your absence, you lay your head against the soft pillow, your body instantly relaxing and drifting into the sleep you were in before the interruption.
A while later, you hear a small thump from the base of the bed and some light cursing, waking you again. You have to suppress a small chuckle at the pegasus now sliding into bed with you. She wraps her forelegs around your shoulders and snuggles up close, the warmth of her fur spreading against you.
"Did I wake you?" she asks.
"I'm glad you did," you say, wrapping your hooves around her as well.
You lay in each other's warmth. You try to fight off the oncoming sleep to stay in the moment; the embrace which you had gone so long without and sorely missed. Suddenly, you hear a little sniffle from Dash, who was rubbing her muzzle against your chest.
"I... I don't know if I can keep doing this," she says.
"What do you mean?" you ask.
"Just... the Wonderbolts. I think I should quit."
You almost can't believe what you are hearing. "But this is your dream."
"I know... but now there's you guys, and- OH NO, I didn't mean that!" she exclaims, hushing herself before she gets too loud.
"I understand, Dash. That's not what you mean," you say, giving her a little pat on the back.
"Thanks..." she says, calming back down. "But it's just... Little Heat needs me."
You aren't quite sure how to answer.
"A kid needs his mom, right?" she asks.
"You..." you begin, not quite knowing where you are going with it. "You... do a lot for Little Heat."
"How so?" she mumbles more than anything, as if not believing you.
"Well, with the Wonderbolts..." you start, rubbing a hoof up and down her back. "We already discussed this," you say, giving up trying to form a coherent thought at this hour.
"Yeah, but... what kind of mom am I being away from home for so long?"
"You were going to be the cool mom, remember?" you say with a little chuckle. "Little Heat gets to say his mom's in the Wonderbolts and brag and brag to all his friends about his super cool mom, and-"
"I don't want to be the cool mom!" Dash cries out. "I want to be the good mom!"
You are a little taken back by this. "But... you are a good mom, Dash."
"How!?" she exclaims.
"Well..." you start again, looking for any sort of point to grab onto. "All the money you bring in. You provide for us."
You listen for any sort of argument against this. When you hear none, you assume you're going down the right path.
"Because of you, we have this house big enough for Little Heat to grow up in. We have food, shelter, and when the time comes, he won't be going to some dead-end school."
You feel Dash snuggle up closer to you.
"He has his favorite breakfast cereal. He has all of the latest toys. The full collection of Daring Do books on his shelves. He wouldn't have that living off my meager repaircolt profits."
"Actually, I had the books before I became a Wonderbolt..." There is a small giggle before you hear another sniffle from Dash. "But... he cries for me. I stay up late worrying so much and he... he actually cries for me when I can't be here and..."
"And he has me," you finish plainly. "I can take care of him, and he gets to see you when you're off tour, and don't worry, Dash..." You nuzzle the top of her head. "I'll let you wake up in the middle of the night every time he cries when you're here."
This actually gets another little giggle from her.
"But for now... you have to be strong. For Little Heat."
All you hear is a long sigh. Eventually, you feel her pull herself up, her lips connecting against yours. You push back against her soft lips as you smell a bit of something salty on her face. She was crying, but she seems past it now. After a while, she pulls away.
"Thanks..." she says, adjusting herself in a more comfortable sleeping position. "Hey... I'm afraid I'll have to leave really early to make it back for morning drills. I'll probably be gone before you wake up."
"I understand," you say. You feel another soft kiss briefly against your lips.
"I love you," she says.
"I love you, too," you say, closing your eyes.
You hold onto each other again, the darkness of the night eventually overtaking the both of you. Sleep dividing you again, but there would only be so long before you got to be in her loving embrace again. Until then, you would care for the greatest gift she's given you, who you know will also be eager for her return. |
Good Morning, Class | pre | "Why not both?" Pinkie asked, "I'm feeling rather intouchmitated myself!"
In the hall, the two mares were too startled to do much of anything as they watched the battered math teacher...or 'instructor' as he kept demanding they call him, get dragged outside by his poofy mane by what appeared to be an angry ten-year-old.
"Derpy...you see what I saw??" Flare looked at her classmate, only to see her staring wide-eyed at the dragon, her face glowing scarlet. "Derpy?"
"That doesn't sound fun or comfortable, even with lube...!"
"You're a real piece of work, you know!" Spike grumbled, dragging Svengallop across the campus, "If it'd been just me you called names, this would've ended a hell of a lot better for you. I'd have just given you a broken nose if you called me that; nothing some reconstructive surgery couldn't fix. But no! You just HAD to go after one of my students!
"Ow! Y-yours!? gah! No they...OW!" The stallion squealed in pain from a hard yank on his mane.
"I'm the homeroom teacher, you self-absorbed-!" He growled something else in Old Draconic, "My classroom, my students! I intend to take my job seriously!" He continued to mutter as he made his way to the offices.
"Um, I think Trottingham's the only town in Equestria where it's still legal to use a cheese grater like that." Yearling commented idly from nearby, hearing one of his remarks in draconic, and trying not to laugh at Svengallop's predicament.
"I don't think the cafeteria'll spare one for that kinda use...but then again, it is Svengallop we're talkin' 'bout." One of the language teachers, a pale gold-colored mare by the name of Ms. Peachbottom, added.
Cadance glanced up from her work when she heard the door open, "Something wrong, Spike....aaand why are you dragging the math teacher in by his mane?"
"Well, to start with, I should let you know that B-5's classroom door is broken."
She slowly raised an eyebrow. Judging from the somewhat dark look on her newest teacher's face, and the teary whimpering of Svengallop, it was safe to guess that she was going to be angry at one of them. Very angry, "And exactly how did it break?"
"When I threw this asshole through it for insulting one of my students."
"C-Cadance!" Svengallop managed to get out after the pain subsided, trying to get Spike's hand off his mane, "This little hellion...!"
"Shut it, Svengallop!" She snapped, "You'll get to give your excuse soon enough!" She focused her attention back to Spike, "Now, I'm going to have to ask what he called her exactly, so he can explain himself."
"'Filthy reptite brute' I believe it was..." Spike' knuckles cracked audibly. The stallion let out a squeal of pain and grabbed his scalp, indicating Spike had just torn out some hair in the process.
"The damn lizard should've known better than...AH-HAAHAA!!" He screamed when more hair came out in Spike's hand, a few follicles visible.
Yep, she wasn't going to be just angry..."Svengallop..." She started, the deathly calm tone she used actually making Spike gulp slightly, "Congratulations, you've just given me more than enough reason to fire your ass!"
"F-Fire me!? You can't! My tenure...!"
"Well, that's where your math was WAY off; your tenure wasn't due to start until the next term." Cadance smiled when he started to sputter. "Then again, you would've figured that out if you weren't so busy getting into arguments with other teachers over petty crap. You were hired to teach Math, not stick your nose into their business and tell them how YOU think they should treat their subjects...and trying to give yourself fancy-sounding titles just made you look like an even bigger dickhead than you are; you're a 'teacher', same as everyone else! Or, you were."
"Wait! Please, I...!" Svengallop pleaded, quickly realizing his situation. He was screwed.
She stepped over to the file cabinet and began to rifle through a drawer, ignoring him. "And let's not forget the less than complementary things teachers AND students have heard you refer to them as, 'an army of sluts' I recall being one you used often...even though you claimed it was just 'a personal opinion', yet you always seemed to say it right when someone was in earshot." She tossed a paper on the desk, "Now, I'm a big enough filly to admit my mistakes, and hiring you has turned out to be a VERY big one on my part. Thankfully, I can rectify that. Mr. Svengallop, you have exactly thirty minutes to pack up your things and get off campus." Candance looked at Spike, "You can let him go now." Her horn began glowing brightly, "He knows what I can do to him if he tries anything. Besides, I believe you have a student who could use her homeroom teacher right now."
"Yeah, I should do that." He let go of the now blubbering pony's mane, shaking off the loose hair, and turned to head out.
"Oh, and Spike." She gave him a pointed look, "Don't forget, you and I still have a few details to finish out once classes are done."
"Oh, oh yeah." He nodded slightly, thinking the trip back to his place was definitely going to be interesting.
Once he got back to the classroom, he noticed it looked like the girls had managed to recover a little. Ember was currently in a hug sandwich courtesy of Pinkie and Twilight. A quick look at the damage showed the door itself was ok, but the hinges had been ripped right out of the frame, bent to Tartarus and back. 'Hope that's not gonna be too much of my paycheck...' He thought before going in. What little chatter that had been going on quickly stopped when he entered, everyone staring at him with a mix of shock, surprise, befuddlement, and a little more awe. "Sorry 'bout the wait." He said, not really paying attention to the looks, "Just let Cadance know about the door. How's Ember holding up?"
"Oh, uh, I...I'm doing ok." She replied, wiping an eye, "Can't believe a teacher would be willing to say something like that, though...!"
"Yeah, every walk of life has its douchebags. If it helps, he won't be coming back to class. Ever."
"Well, can't say I'm surprised." The almost marshmallow-colored mare in the back...Rarity, if he ready the seating right, spoke up, "Never liked him to begin with. Seriously, what respectable individual wears a peacock blue business suit? YEUCH!"
That seemed to cheer Ember up a little if the scattered giggles were any indication.
"Right...so, since we don't really know when a new teacher is gonna be hired, I'll go ahead and fill in for now." He picked up one of the textbooks lying on the floor, "Anyone tell me what you were working on last time?" |
Good Morning, Class | One Long Day. Pt. 3 | "Cadance, can I ask you something?" Spike looked over at his boss/current traveling companion. Math turned out to be the final class for B-5 that day, and every girl in that room was pretty quick to remind him that he had agreed to move to campus. So, he was now walking to the nearest subway station with her.
"Hm?" She looked over, now wearing a pair of body-hugging jeans and midriff-baring t-shirt that didn't leave a lot to the imagination. Though, given how she was dressed when they met, Spike didn't have much trouble worrying about imagining anything.
"Um, when you were in the classroom, how come you didn't tell them my real age?"
She simply responded with a mysterious grin, "How come you didn't tell?"
"With the exception of Ember-who already knows since SHE'S a dragon too, you really think any of them would believe me when I still look like I'm ten? I mean, my voice won't even start to crack for another five years!"
"Well, the main reason I didn't has something to do with that as well." She answered as they finally reached the entrance. By this time, most were already, or had finished, the commute home. So, the station was fairly quiet at the moment. "You saw how readily they embraced you as their teacher, and it's only your first day here. Do you really want to skew all that by making a fuss over your age? Besides," She took on a more humorous tone, "With how you're championing them, not knowing your age is probably the only thing keeping several of them from trying to seduce you."
Unfortunately, the humor flew right over his head. "But that's just it!" He responded, "They're all going to find out sooner or later; what if they think I'm some creep that's using his size to perv on them!?" Cadance had no trouble catching the worry in his voice. "My job, the reputation I'm gonna get, and whatever career I build here is going to hinge on maintaining a measure of professionalism. That's gonna be hard enough when some of the students snatch me up in hugs." He sighed, "And I've already slipped once in calling Macareina cute."
"You don't think she's cute?" She teased as they got in the subway car.
"Of course she is, but that's beside the point." Spoke slumped a little when they sat down, "But making remarks like that isn't something a teacher needs to be doing. I think she and Applejack missed it, but still..." He let out a deep breath, shaking his head, "And I...I just don't wanna mess this up." In doing so, however, he missed the brief smirk on Cadance's face that quickly got hidden in the shadows once the train started its journey.
With the exception of a stoned-out-of-her-gourd unicorn wandering down the cars, mumbling something about potato wedges, the ride proved to be uneventful. Less than an hour passed before they reached their stop. However, it was still about a three block walk until they actually entered the Heights.
The whole area had an eerie feel; the street and surrounding buildings seemed to get more and more abandoned the closer they got. Aside from the occasional distant shout or dog barking, it was unnervingly quiet.
"So, what's the name of the place you're living at?" Cadance asked, heading towards the district like she was walking to the store.
"Oh, uhm...the 'Grizzlehoof Arms'." He answered, almost stumbling when she suddenly took his hand, giving the image of a mother and son going for a walk.
"No sense making it look odd if we're heading the same way." She said, "Now, which way do we go?"
"Ah.. take a left there." He pointed to a nearby corner once they entered Everfree Heights. "There's one other thing I'm kind of curious about."
"Yeah?"
"You said something about a 'behavior code' earlier today..."
"Well, it's basically a set of rules to ensure students don't become troublemakers and ruin things for others. Stuff like no narcotics, if anyone smokes, they do it in an empty spot of the campus grounds at least."
"Give us yer bits, NOW!" A grubby-looking mare and stallion came rushing out from around a dumpster and pointed switchblades at them threateningly.
Cadance just gave them an annoyed look, her horn flashing twice, "Parties in the dorms are ok, provided they don't disturb students studying or sleeping. Alcohol's fine, as long as they don't get drunk on a school night. Otherwise it's their own fault if they find themselves having to attend class with a hangover."
"I'm guessing they never try that more than once." Spike replied, glancing at the pair, still holding out their knives.
"A couple of times for the more stubborn ones." She nudged the wannabe muggers aside, their immobilized bodies falling over with a clunk, "And the girls tend to change their minds pretty quick after seeing what passes for hangover cures"
A couple turns (and a third frozen mugger) later, the two were standing outside the apartment building.
Cadance looked at Spike in disbelief, "Are you insane!? This place has 'condemned' written all over it!" She pointed wildly at at least three broken windows-one with a half-assed boarding, a dilapidated fire escape, and an area where it looked someone tried to steal the brickwork.
"I know, but it's hard to be picky living on five thousand bits a year." He replied, missing the look of disbelief on her face.
'Five thou...?? Cadance shook her head and followed him in, feeling a LOT better about the idea of getting him out of there.
Inside, she scrunched her nose up at the musty smell, like the place hadn't been properly cleaned in years; peeling wallpaper, a carpet that threw up puffs of dust with each step, and a brief movement in the corner that she was sure was a rat.
"There's the owner, Gustav." Spike motioned to a mangy-looking yellow male griffon at the counter, reading a porno mag.
"Ugh...ok, I'll deal with him, go ahead and pack up what you want to salvage." She had to resist the urge to scowl when she caught him not even try to hide the leer he gave her.
"You sure? I mean, he thinks he's suave enough to get into any pair of panties he wants."
"Trust me." She gave the 'lobby' a look over and he noticed she seemed to be doing a mental tally of something.
"All right." Spike hesitated for a moment, before finally making his way up the stairs.
As soon as he was up the first flight, she marched towards the counter.
The griffon didn't bother to hide the mag, or look above her breasts when she got near, 'Well, hell-o ladies..."
"Can it, jackass!" She snapped, slamming her fist on the counter and making him jump, "And my eyes are up here!" A scowl crossed her face until he finally made eye contact, which meant tilting his head back a bit since she was a few inches taller than him. Before he could say anything she began, "First off, that little dragon going up the stairs; he's with me. He's also moving out of this overgrown roach motel." She lowered her head down a bit until they were even, "Now, you have two options; you can give him his deposit, since you and I both know that without a written agreement, withholding it until he prepays rent-like you are-is illegal in Canterlot."
The griffon reared back, evidently not accustomed to being called out like this, "Who the hell do you think...!?" He quickly shut up when her horn started glowing.
"OR, I can inform certain parties about the dozen or so violations I've already counted in this dump." She jerked her head head towards the entrance, "The wrecked fire escape, which is a fifteen thousand bit fine in itself. The compromised structural integrity, ten thousand bits plus repairs." She made sure he followed her gaze to a visible patch of fuzzy-looking black matter behind some peeling walpaper, "Black mold, up to five thousand depending on how widespread it is."
"Are...are you kidding me!?" He protested, trying to ignore the intimidating glow, "There ain't nothing...!"
"Possible vermin infestation, that's at least three hundred." She continued, catching another rat out of the corner of her eye, then pointed to a light switch with visible, naked wires sticking out, "The shoddy wiring I can from here; that's a thousand bare minimum."
"That's just one switch!"
"No sign of any fire extinguishers in the holders, which are required in buildings like this, five hundred per violation. And that 'lovely' planter full of Poison Joke in the corner." She looked pointedly at the mass of blue flowers, ignoring his strident shriek of 'they aren't mine!', "Which just so happens to be highly illegal to grow-much less own-in the city limits, is another one thousand bit fine PER PLANT, and I believe I see at least twenty."
"You...you can't do that!" He shouted, moving to jump her, regardless of magic...only to feel his feet get yanked out from under him.
"Can I?" She responded, pulling a phone out of her pocket after he faceplanted onto the counter. "A couple of phone calls is all it takes."
"You...you...!" He finally deflated after she started dialing. "Fine! Fine..." He muttered under his breath as he removed a nearby poster to reveal a wall safe, though Cadance caught the words 'bitch', 'cunt' and 'hooker wannabe'. A minute later a bag hit the counter in front of her, "There's the little reptite's deposit; I hope you both choke on it!"
"Right. Oh, by the way." Cadance looked him dead in the eye as he suddenly found himself faceplanting again, except this time, he was stuck to the floor, "That was being a creep. This is for being an asshole."
His eyes widened and began to tear up when he heard the sound of a phone ring, followed by 'Hello, Canterlot Health and Safety Commision?' He tried to scream, but she'd locked his beak shut as well.
Meanwhile
"He changed the lock, that feathered so-and-so changed my damn lock!" Spike growled, examining the door after he'd been forced to remove it from the frame when his key jammed. The lock'd been switched with a newer, microchipped model, the kind needing a key with the matching chip. A glance at nearby doors showed a couple others had been done same. "Probably thinks he can squeeze a few more bits out of the tenants for the new keys if they don't know already." He snorted and tossed the door to the side, "Yeah, agreeing to move was definitely a good idea. Ok, first off..." He quickly headed to the closet. The apartment-if it could actually be called that-wasn't much more than one room; bed in the corner, fridge, stove and sink on the other side, and a small bathroom off it.
Luckily, he didn't have too much to worry about in regards to what he had take with him. "Never thought I'd be happy this thing always jammed" He mused, wrenching the stuck closet open with a crack, and pulling out the old Saratrota trunk Scorpan had given him when he finally moved out on his own. Supposedly he'd gotten it from a pawn shop owner who thought it just looked tacky and wanted to get rid of it. A sigh of relief that it was still locked and he quickly opened it and began pulling out the compartments.
It took a few minutes, but he'd managed to double check that his books and winter clothes were still accounted for. A slight shiver ran down his back at the thought of how the girls, and a few teachers for that matter, would react to the blue,teddy bear decorated sweater he'd been forced to settle for last time he went for clothes. As he started getting clothes out of his closet and the cheap little dresser nailed to the wall, he had to fight another shiver while getting out some of his more tailored stuff; a pair of vest-slack combos in blood red and steel , and another business suit in dark green. Those, along with his regular shirts, jeans, and everything else he could find/remember, including a couple of posters he made sure to grab, went.
However, it wasn't completly flawless, "Son of a bitch stole my toothbrush!" He yelled, staring at the empty holder, "He even took the toothpaste and my jar of scale polish!" Being cheap was one thing, but this waltzed into petty shit! For that, he made it a point to turn the hot water on before leaving.
By the time he got back down, Cadance was putting her phone away...and Gustav was on the floor bawling.
"Got everything?" She asked when she spotted him.
"Yeah."
"Then it's time to go." She handed him the bag, "Here's your deposit."
He glanced to the crying griffin, "Um, do I wanna know?"
"Just explained a few basic truths he didn't enjoy. Nothing to worry yourself about."
The trip back to the college turned out to be rather uneventful, and the sun was already setting by the time they got back.
"Whew, feels good to be away from that dump." Cadance commented.
"I'll second that." Spike replied, "Never thought I'd be that happy to leave a place behind. So, do I just pick a room or just find an empty one?"
At this, Cadance stared blankly for a second, "Whoops..."
"'Whoops'? What 'whoops'? That's never a good thing!"
"Heh, I forgot to tell you...um...unfortunately, all the rooms in the teacher housing are currently taken." She said sheepishly, before quickly taking on a more cheerful expression, "However, there is a free room in the student dorm!"
Spike almost dropped his trunk, "The..the student dorm?"
"Mm-hm! And luckily for you, it's on class B-5's floor. Since we have a relatively small student body, each class has access to their own floor in the dorms, so you'll be able to be right there, just in case!"
"But..but..." He gestured toward the teacher housing, albeit a tad helplessly. "What about the one who got fired?"
"Svengallop was adamant about living off campus." She replied, rolling her eyes a little at the memory, "The idea of rooming 'among nudists' was apparently beneath him." Her smile then looked even more cheerful, "Don't worry, you'll be fine! I'll go let one of the girls know they can tell the others." She started to trot off, "Oh, one more thing, sometimes they tend to have sleepovers with each other from time to time, so you may wake up with company on occasion, but at worst most of them are just cuddlebugs from what I've heard."
As she left, he could only stand there, fin drooping slightly, "Aw, come on...!" He whimpered. |
Good Morning, Class | Getting Discovered | Spike's shoulders slumped as he stood at the entrance to the dorms. As if his day wasn't stress - and arousal - inducing enough, he was now being housed among the students...
The mostly naked and seemingly eager to hug him students.
He sighed and hefted up his trunk. 'Maybe if I'm quiet enough, I can find an empty room before they find me.' Taking a deep breath to try and settle his nerves, he went in. A small floor plan near the doors revealed a pair of elevators just around the corner. 'Ok, Spike, you can do this. Just move in...and pray there's one down here.'
Unfortunately, he was so preoccupied with trying to be quiet, he missed the telltale 'ding' of elevator doors opening, followed by light footsteps. "Spike?"
Said dragon squawked in alarm when he heard the voice nearby, almost dropping his trunk in the process. His head swiveled around to see Ember standing there.
"Oh...E-Ember, it-it's you." He stuttered, trying to catch his breath, especially now that he was getting a better look at her. Like the majority of dragonesses, she was fairly gifted in the curves department, straining the sling bikini she had on with breasts that seemed to be reaching F-cups and an ass that almost screamed to have his fingers sink into it.
"I take it you and Cadance just got back from the Heights." she chuckled a little. "You probably should know, soon as they they found out you'd left, Pinkie started planning a party for getting you out of that part of town."
"A...a party?"
"Yeah, she's always looking for an excuse to throw one. Let's just say she takes the term 'party girl' to a whole new level." she then looked at his trunk. "Um, not that I'm complaining; I mean, it's great that you're out of there, but why are you in the student dorms?"
He sighed. "According to Cadance, the teacher rooms are all full; apparently Svengallop lived off campus. So, she's having me take the empty room on B-5's floor."
"Oh." her eyes eyes widened slightly. "Oh....ohh. Well, that's gonna be something to see when they find that out."
"Yeah...right now I just wanna get unpacked before...." his gaze snapped down the hall when they heard the sound of a door closing. Thankfully, whoever it was didn't see him. "....Before I get spotted."
"Well, luckily for you, I know the floor like the end of my tail." Ember nodded towards the elevator. "Come on, I think I know when room she meant." Thankfully one of the elevators was already there so they were able to get in quick. After getting it started, she turned towards him, a slight hint of shyness in her expression. "Um, I didn't get a chance to say thanks earlier...for standing up for me to Svengallop."
"Ah, the guy was an asshole."
"Still," She leaned against the wall of the elevator. "I'm part of an exchange student program that's trying to improve pony/dragon relations, and it's kind of a long-term personal goal as well, so throwing a teacher through a wall for an insult - racial or otherwise - wouldn't have earned me any points."
"Well, hopefully none of the others'll be like that." Spike replied, flicking a bit of lint off his trunk. The two relaxed into a somewhat comfortable silence until the elevator came to a stop.
"Ok...um, I probably should've warned you; the girls can be a little frisky when we aren't in class." Ember said as the doors opened and rock music could be heard from the room opposite them. "Especially since it's the weekend now." she peered down the hall, and after seeing it was clear, motioned for him to follow her. "Luckily, most of them are probably relaxing in the hotroom right now."
"The what?" he asked, keeping his voice down.
"It's sort of a common room each class has on their floor. Works as a kitchen and entertainment room. Ooh, and the hot tub built in the floor."
Spike blinked. Hot tub...? They had their personal freaking HOT TUB?? His body went on auto-pilot as he tried to wrab his head around a college - much less one located in a place like this one - that was capable or willing to get the students luxuries like that. The buffet-style cafeteria was one thing,but this?
Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to think about it before his field of view was quickly filled with a round, blue object barely an inch from his nose. It didn't take much to tell him exactly what it was: Ember's backside. Spike gulped and felt his face rapidly heating at the thought of almost walking right into the plump, squeezable-looking, succulent...
'SHUT UP, DAMMIT!' he mentally snarled at his bubbling hormones.
'C'mon, man, look at that fine rump! You know you wanna give it a bite!' a small part of his mind weedled
'Grandmother in a thong.' he sighed in relief as the feeling quickly retreated, screaming, back to its corner. "Ember, what happened? Why'd you stop?"
"I-I thought I saw some....someone coming o-out of a room." She managed to get out, grateful that he couldn't see the intense blush she was sporting due to the heat of his breath on her rear.
"Oh." he quickly backed up, and in an attempt to kill the sexual tint in the air, said the first thing that came to mind. "You said it doubles as a kitchen?"
"Y-yeah." she replied, quickly taking the moment to try and calm down as she resumed leading him down the hall. "Kind of...the designers assumed everyone'd eat at the cafeteria so there really wasn't actual space allocated for any kitchen stuff. But, Pinkie's an aspiring baker, so she and her sisters brought a camping oven and a couple mini fridges with them when they arrived. We all tend to use it sometimes, especially if someone doesn't get up in time to make the cafeteria for breakfast or they're too busy studying to do for dinner. Have to use a lot of paper plates and disposable cooking pans, but it works." She stopped at a door midway down the hall. "Here we go. Right next door to me and Gilda. Just so you know, Twilight's room is right across the hall, Fluttershy's is on your left, and me and Gilda on the right in case you need someone to talk to."
"Right." while it was a bit of a relief that there was someone in the dorms who knew, he still had to fight the urge to sigh somewhat resignedly at the fact he was going to be surrounded by a group of attractive ladies his age who were also his students. "Thanks, Ember. Well, I better go ahead and unpack. Night."
"Night." she lingered a bit and watched him carry the trunk in, setting it down by the bed. Once again a blush crossed her face when he took his jacket off before the door finally closed. Now alone, she let out a shuddering exhale "Haa...down girl..." she whispered, catching herself as a hand drifted down to her mound. "Damn dragon hormones. Ok, deep breaths, Ember, relax; you know you've got a chance with him. Just gotta let him get comfortable then get his attention, while the others think he's a kid at least." she headed to her room to let off some steam. "Last thing I need is competition when they find out."
A short while later, Spike had managed to get some of his things unpacked. "Gotta ask if there's a dry-cleaner around." He muttered, frowning at what looked like a greasy splotch on the sleeve of his suit jacket. That also reminded him that he was going to have to go get some groceries. Even though he tended to get up early, he didn't know if the cafeteria operated on weekends. That and he was going to get the munchies anyway.
After a change into some more comfortable clothes, and grabbing what would've been his rent money, Spike ventured back into the hall. Thankfully, it was still empty. Tiptoeing back to the elevator, another floor plan on the wall (he guessed to help new and/or forgetful students) showed him the floor was basically a pair of t-intersections that wrapped around the common room, which made his trek back out far easier. It wasn't long after until he was reappearing back on the sidewalk
"Chocolate-covered sapphires...how does that dragon eat this?" Gilda shook her head before putting it in the cart. She didn't complain when it was her turn to go to the store, given that this was one of the few non-specialized grocery stores that catered to multiple races, but deep down she wished Ember would get her stuff a bit more often. "All right, now to see if they restocked the licorice."
"Amethyst pound cake, nice!" a voice she quickly recognized spoke up from nearby. Gilda wheeled around in time to see a small purple dragon walking off towards one of the nearby aisles. She noticed he wasn't in the business suit from earlier today, "Well, at least the kid's out of that part of town. Still feels weird having..." she trailed off when he suddenly loaded almost two dozen cans of deviled ham and a few jars of dill pickles into his cart. 'The hell!? she asked herself. 'I thought the Pies were just seeing things when they said he put all that stuff away during lunch!' the memory of an awestruck Pinkie popped up and she had to fight a giggle at Limestone almost having the same expression.
She was quickly yanked from her thoughts by at least three boxes of ramen cups being added to her teacher's cart as he weaved through the store, followed by a few cans of artichoke hearts and hearts of palm. A couple bags of marshmallows and beef jerky joined them before. Her own shopping was almost forgotten while she followed him in a haze of surprise and curiosity, keeping her distance as well. Multiple containers of peanuts, chips, even a box or three of cereal were added.
By the time Spike had finished his trek around the shop, he was having to pull the cart behind him since he couldn't see over the stuff he'd picked out. Gilda could only stare in shock at what she'd seen; that had to be at least three hundred bits worth of stuff. Granted, everyone tended to buy for themselves, but still...! However, it was where he was heading next that quickly brought her back to reality; a corner of the store that was separated from everything else, the large windows showing shelves of colored bottles and jugs...
The liquor section.
Gilda's eyes bugged out when he park his cart by the entry and strode right in. "W-what the heck is he doing?? No one underage is even ALLOWED in there!" She'd tried to get some beer a couple times, but still had another year before she was and got shot down. Throwing caution to the wind, she rushed over, getting as close to the entrance as she could. While she was too far off to hear Spike or the clerk, she could see them easily enough through one of the windows. What she saw wasn't what she'd expected.
"...seriously?" The clerk asked, holding up Spike's ID. "Kid, you really expect me to believe this is genuine?"
Spike rolled his eyes a little. "Check your species register."
The clerk glanced down at a sheet of paper under the counter. "Um...huh, forgot about that for male dragons. Sorry about that, dude...but I guess this ain't the first time?"
"Won't be the last, either. Don't worry about it, you're just doing your job."
"New around here, I take it?" He asked, handing the ID back.
"Yep, just finished my first day at the college."
The clerk did a double-take so fast, Spike could've sworn he heard a joint pop. "Dude...no way! T-the college?? The all-girls college right over there??" he pointed in the general direction.
"Yep." he sighed.
The clerk quickly looked around before dropping his voice some. "Um...is-is it true about clothes being completely optional there?"
"Pretty much. I found that out the hard way." He twitched a little and tried to put the image of the first mare he ran into there out of his head
"Dude...! Seriously!? You're hanging out with hot gals who can be naked whenever they want??"
"I'm a homeroom teacher. They're attractive, yes. But they're my students. And now I've learned that I have to room with my class in the student dorms."
"Come on, man. You've landed a gig most other stallions -pony, griffon, or otherwise - would die for! Hell, if they found out, probably half the guys who work here would see you as a celebrity!"
Spike just stared at him blankly for a moment before ticking things off on his hand. "Except that one: most of them think I am a little kid, and therefore they 'feel safe' around me. Two: I'm their teacher. And three: several of them are cuddlers."
"Oh." the clerk's expression of awe quickly faded when things finally soaked in. "O-ohh...s-sorry, dude. Didn't think about that. But, why don't you just tell them you're older?"
"Aside from the ones who know about male dragon growth, do you really think they'd believe me saying I'm really in my early twenties?"
"Oh yeah; got a point."
"Besides, they're all going to find out sooner or later, so the best I can do is have a measure of professionalism and show I'm taking this seriously."
"Well, all I can say is good luck, dude."
"Have a feeling I might need it." Spike looked over at the shelves. "Gimme a bottle of Zapp Black Label."
"Zapp Black?? You sure, dude?" The retrieved bottle of dark green liquid clinked lightly on the counter. "This' some of the strongest booze we sell."
Spike chuckled and paid for the drink. "Trust me, the stuff dragons need to get hammered is considered toxic by pony standards."
Outside the liquor section, Gilda could barely believe what she'd seen; Spike'd managed to buy alcohol with no trouble! The clerk'd looked skeptical for a moment before checking a paper under his counter, then everyone was ok! She knew how seriously this place was about making sure you were old enough, so there was really only one explanation for what she'd seen.
Spike was older than he looked, definitely old enough to get hooch. She quickly raced around a display when she saw him coming back into the main store. ' No way...no way! Is he seriously older than me? Maybe older than most of the class!?' her mind raced as she watched him head to the checkout. It was then that, a thought popped in Gilda's head.
Given the tough girl/rebel image she like to put out, plus the fact she had a tendency to be a bit on the intimidating side she'd never exactly been with anyone, though she and Rainbow Dash had experimented once.
But now there was a guy who, if she guessed right, was close to her age, even though he didn't look it. And, she had to admit, was kind of cute. ' Hmm, wonder if he's into griffons. If not, then I can definitely help change his mind.' She thought, a light purr escaping her. |
Good Morning, Class | A Dorm Welcome. (filler of a sort) | "Mff....gotta stop eatin' Choco-Muffin Bombs 'fore bed..." Spike groaned sleepily, trying to ignore the crack of sunlight hitting him through the window. "That was a wonky dream." He still remembered the whole thing; how he'd gotten a job at Canterlot College, only to learn that it was an all-girls campus, with almost every student and teacher almost or fully naked.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he yawned and started to sit up...only to feel a weight against him.
And a pair of round, and quite soft, pillows pressing against the back of his head. "Huh? I dun 'member buying big, round pillows...'specially ones dis color..." He reached up and pressed it, rubbing a finger over the dark-colored button on top. "Kinda squishy." He pressed his hand on it, watching his fingers sink in a little. "Warm too...and feathery...?"
"Oohh..."
The moan near his ear informed him of three things; he was not alone in the bed, what he was touching evidently belonged to that someone, and it was NOT a pillow!
"Mmm...teddy..."
It was then that he discovered he was being firmly snuggled by whoever was in bed with him, pinned against them by a pair of slender arms. Taking a risk, he slowly turned to see just who had invaded his apartment. "G-Gabby!?"
His eyes nearly bugged out when he saw the slumbering face of the bluish grey griffon girl. He realized then....it wasn't a dream...all the long legs, pert backsides, and plump breasts that had surrounded him had been very real. And he was also sharing a floor with that same class on their dormroom floor.
And somehow, one of his students, one of his quite...well-developed students, was in his bed, cuddling with him in her sleep!
At hearing her name, the griffoness yawned and opened her eyes slightly. "Hmm?" She murmured, looking around. When her gaze fell on Spike, she went from sleepy to wide awake in a heartbeart. "Spike!" She chirped, sitting up. "How'd you find my room?"
"Um, this is my room. Gabby...Cadance said the teachers' dorms are full..."
"Cadance? OOH, that means you're not living in Everfree Highs anymore, right?!" She scooted up near him, revealing just how curvy she was under the shirt, especiany since she was naked.
"Y-yeah..." He gulped, trying not to stare at her body. "Listen, how'd~"
"THIS IS GREAT!" She squealed, jumping on the bed in joy, making her DD-cup breasts bounce like crazy as she did. "We were all worried sick that something might've happened to you when you vanished last night!"
"Ok...um, not that I don't appreciate the concern, but MMMF!?" He tensed when he found his face wedged firmly in her breasts. 'Wow...these are softer than I thought. She smells really nice too...dammit Spike!'
"I know Cadance said she was going with you, but it's still Everfree, that place is YUCKY!" She 'yecched' before letting him go and rushing to the door. "I gotta tell the others!"
"How'd you get in my room!?" He blurted out, but she was already gone. "Oy vey."
Since the floor wasn't that heavily populated, it barely took the griffon five minutes to inform them all that, not only was their new homeroom teacher now out of that part of town, apparently he was also their new dorm mate. He soon found his room filled with nearly, or completely, naked girls. "All right. I know all of you probably itching to aaa-aashk!" He yelped slightly as he found himself scooped up into the lap of a now happy Fluttershy.
"It's great that you're outta that dump, halfpint." Spitfire said, grinning a little as she called him that. "But why are you sleeping here? The teacher apartments..."
"Are full, according to Cadance. Svengallop was off campus. So, she moved me in here." He took a slow, deep breath, expecing at least one objection.
Spitfire just shrugged. "Oh. Ok."
"Works for us." Aloe and Lotus said in unison.
"I don't see anything wrong with that." Fluttershy said, nuzzling the top of his head and making him blush
Needless to say he was surprised by that. "So...none of you are bothered with your homeroom teacher rooming with you? Your male homeroom teacher?"
"Come on, teach." Lemon Hearts piped up. "If Cadance....DEAN Cadance, trusts you enough to have you move here, then I don't really see any problem."
"Besides, we don't have to worry about a little guy like you." Rainbow smirked, ruffling his fin.
"Remember Svengallop and the door, Dash?" Ember reminded her.
"Oh...heh." She rubbed her shoulder. "Well, at least our virtue's safe."
No one noticed the knowing grin Ember had....and she missed the smirk on Gilda.
Once the relief of him living there now had receded a bit, he found himself carried into the common room.
Or as the girls had simply christened it: The Tub. Spike slowly traced the outside edge of the 'tub'. 'Hot tub?? This is a freaking POOL!' And it was! He didn't know how the college had managed to afford it, but it was a standard ten-by-twenty foot pool set in the thirty-by-thirty foot rooms floor. A third of his class was currently relaxing in or around it. Others were either reading, watching tv on the wall-mounted flat screen or eating a quick breakfast.
"Cannonball!" Pinkie squealed, tossing off her nightcap...the only thing she'd be wearing...and hopped into the water with a sizable splash, earning laughs and a few indignant yelps. Spike chuckled when he heard Twilight.
"Wanna join us, Spike? The water's just right." She patted a spot of water beside her.
Oh it was tempting...very tempting. But there was still the fact he was their teacher...even if they didn't mind...plus one, somewhat larger issue. "I..I appreciate the offer, girls....but I never learned to swim."
"Wha?" Flitter sat up, "You can't? Then I believe that's something we can rectify over the next few days. You can get some swim trunks later today and start tonight!"
"Yeah!" Carrot Top piped up, "Not fair if we all can but our newest dormmate can't!"
It was a nice gesture, considering there was a lot of agreement. "O...okay."
"Don't worry, dude, none of our hands'll leave you until you can do laps all on your own." Twinkleshine smiled.
"Heh...great." For the first time of many, Spike fought the urge to run to his room and lock the room for some 'solitary relaxation'. |
Good Morning, Class | Week No.1: The 'Tour'. | Once he accepted that this was to be his living conditions, and after a light breakfast - though Moondancer and Twilight got into a rather pointed debate about how a full box of cereal could be considered 'light' - he decided now was as good a time as any to get learn a bit more about the campus layout. More then he'd found yesterday, at least.
"Oh, Spikey, before you go." The unicorn who'd introduced herself as Rarity spoke up, stopping him as he was about to head to his room. One thing he'd learned about his class, it was getting very easy to remember their names, especially with bodies likes theirs and the fact Rarity seemed to enjoy wearing pasties over anything.
"Hm?" He looked straight at her nose, trying to pretend it didn't look like the voluptuous unicorn was just wearing body paint at the moment.
"If you are going to walk around the campus, be careful if you run into a little girl named Flurry Heart."
"Why? Is she trouble or something?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that." She paused for a moment. "Well, not intentionally. She's Cadance's daughter.
"Really?!" Spike didn't even bother hiding the surprise in his voice. 'Holy shit...the dean is a MILF..!'
Rarity smile. "I was surprised as you when I found, darling. Anyway, if you do encounter her, just be ready for a challenge if you find yourself having to tell her 'no'. She's only seven, and adorable as a teddy bear, but I'm afraid the word is alien to her. Not that she doesn't like being told it, but, it just doesn't seem to register."
"Ok, I'll keep that in mind." He said before heading back to his room to get dressed.
"Oh! One more thing!" She called out, catching him at the door. "Um, my seamstress class is Monday, and we're working on making full suits, but....well, the model we were going to use canceled on us with no warning. The class was all set up for it and we don't have time to hire another, so..." She trailed off, looking at him hopefully.
"And you're asking me to possibly fill in." He sighed when she gave him puppy dog eyes. "All right, I'll do it."
"Oh thank you!" She 'squee'ed, wrapping him up a hug and kissing his cheek. "I promise you won't regret it! I need to go tell Sassy!" With that, she scampered off, leaving a mildly stunned and red-faced Spike.
"Ooh, let me try that!" Pinkie chirped.
"Me too!" Gabby added.
"I wouldn't mind giving it a shot." A slender light grey unicorn named Fleur-de-Lis joined in
Ten minutes (and half a dozen kisses from other girls) later, he finally managed to get back to his room. He had yet to unpack, but figured he'd do that tonight. He quickly changed into some jeans and a t-shirt. "Mental note, gotta buy a new toothbrush later." He muttered.
The journey outside was a bit faster since they knew he was there now.
"There you are!" A somewhat familiar voice squeaked the moment he was outside. He looked to see the three fillies he'd met the other day; the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The speaker, who he recalled was Sweetie Belle, ran up to him with a big - and not that he'd say it out loud, kind of adorable - smile. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were right behind her.
"We were wonderin' where you were!" Bloom spoke up.
"Yeah! Rainbow said Dean Cadance was going with you to help you move to campus, but we didn't know it was from... Everfree." Scootaloo added, all three shuddering at the name.
"Ah heard some horror stories writtin' 'bout that place." Bloom muttered. "Anyhoo, we still gotta figure what to show you first-"
*RRRHHH*
All three stared at him when they heard the sound.
"Cafeteria?" Sweetie asked, getting nods from the other two.
"But I had some cereal!" Spike threw in as he was promptly dragged off.
He didn't know what it was about the campus cafeteria, but the moment he got there, the smell of the food had him making a beeline to the nearest platter. Sausage, eggs, bacon, waffles, pancakes, toast, oatmeal, a big bowl of gems, a jug of chocolate milk, and a flask of coffee with cream and sugar all made their way onto his tray.
"You really think you can eat all THAT??" Sweetie asked, looking at the spread in trepidation. Usually she was full after a couple of bagels.
Spike just grinned and set to dismantling his meal. A few minutes later and the fillies were gobsmacked.
"No way...!" Scootaloo blurted out, watching him calmly polish off the last few strips of bacon. "I don't think I've even seen Pinkie polish off that much!"
"Ah'm with Scoot there." A new voice spoke up, one that Spike easily recognize from the twang. "That was definitely a thing."
"Macerina?" He looked at the tall county gal. She'd traded in her hospital gown for a bikini top and daisy dukes, showing off her amanezon figure, complete with an impressive six-pack. 'Damn...!'
"Mac! Ah thought you were stuck in the infirmary fer a couple more days." Bloom said, looking at her oldest sister in surprise .
"So was Ah, but Nurse Redhead said Ah'd improved enough to let me out. Just gonna steer clear of alfalfa fer a while." She gave Spike a lazy grin. "So, what've these three rascals got you doin'?"
"We're showing him around campus!" Scootaloo answered. "At least, the spots we're allowed to go to."
"Which kinda leaves out the main buildin'" Applebloom muttered. "Lot of the office workers go skyclad."
Sweetie ticked off a couple more. "And we saw him come out of the dorms..." They all looked his way.
"Cadance said the teacher dorms were full, so she put me on my class' floor." He replied.
"Oh. And the gym area. Some of the older students work out on the weekends."
"The auditorium?" Scootaloo offered. " It doubles as the lecture hall, and sometimes we go to watch movies there when we get free time. Ooh, we can see if anything's playing later!"
"Well, ya'll have fun. Ah'm gonna head back to the dorm an' see what all Ah've missed." Mac said before she headed off.
"Bye, Sis." Apple Bloom replied. "Guess that leaves the class building. We can show you around there at least."
"That works. Just one thing first."
"Where is he putting it all!?" Sweetie asked, watching Spike munching on the double-decker egg, sausage, and, bacon pancake sandwich he brought with him.
Bloom and Scootaloo just shrugged.
"Well, I guess we can just work our way up." Sweetie said on entry. "Ok, the first three floors floor are mostly the school library and study hall, so there isn't really much to say."
Spike let out a whistle at the place, making a mental note to see what books he could find.
"The Arcane Studies Club meets here sometimes, but they can be kinda stuffy." She added, leading him to the elevator.
"Fourth floor's where the good stuff starts." Apple Bloom grinned when they reached the floor in question, the smell of clay and paints hitting Spike's nose as they passed a door, a sign on it saying 'Kiln in use'. "Like most of the art classes; sculptin', paintin', even stuff like engravin', pottery, and etchin'. It's fun to watch when they let us in."
"And the Tailoring ones. Design, identifying fabrics and the little doodads that get added, embroidery, knitting." Sweetie said, looking into the currently empty room. Manniquins with partially finished outfits, rolls of fabric and various material bins decorated the large room. "Rarity's been showing me how to sew some lately."
"I tried to sew some once." Spike muttered, looking at his fingers. "Bent four needles jabbing myself." That earned a wince from the fillies.
The next floor had a more...sterile feel to it. "Oh, this floor." Scootaloo muttered. This is where the chemistry and biology labs are. But we aren't allowed in them 'cause of the equipment. But..." She turned to look at Spike. "Being a teacher,you can. The professor should be in there right now, so you can go in no problem, introduce yourself, and maybe tell us what kind of stuff is really in there."
"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to at least say hi." He agreed. "Ok, I'll be back in a few minutes." He quickly stepped in, the door closing behind him with a sturdy 'click'.
Inside, Spike held back another whistle. The college was definitely going high-end for equipment; aside from the mass of the usual items; beakers, bunsen burners, scales, and microscopes, he noticed at least two fume hoods in the back, along with a set of centrifuges and a large reagent cabnet. There was even a ULT freeze and bioreactor.
"Wow...this place really DOESN'T spare expenses." He looked on in a bit of awe at the environmental chamber.
"Indeed, the college made no lie when they told me that all classes were given high quality supply." A deep feminine voice spoke up behind him, making him whirl around to see the owner; a zebra mare, standing almost as tall as Macareina, her mane done up in a mohawk and wearing a standard lab coat that showed off a pair of long, toned legs. The coat, however, was unbuttoned just enough to show off the cleavage of her considerable bust, and give a slight peek that she had on no panties, the lips of her marehood just barely visible. The grin and almost bedroom-eyes she gave him made him sweat a little. "I must admit today I expected no one to meet, but tell me, what is your name, my little treat?" |
Good Morning, Class | Week No.1 pt2: A...Friendly Faculty | "Oh, hi..." Spike replied, part of him wondering why he suddenly felt like prey for a moment. "I...I take it you're the chemistry teacher."
"The very same." Her smile widened a bit as she went over to the reagent cabinet, giving him a show of her long, curvy legs; her toned thighs flexing a little with each step. "Zecora is my name. You must be the new teacher of which I've heard. Whilst I work, won't you share word?"
"S-sure! Heh...no prob. Um, I....I'm Spiiiyy--" His voice cracked some when she bent over, the coat stretching over her plump, and VERY grabbable-looking ass. 'UNF!' "I-I mean Spike! Spike Drake." He tried to be subtle in pushing down the tent forming in his pants.
"Male dragons around here are a rare sight to see, though as for why...well, you know better than me." She set down a few jars filled with metallic powder.
"Yeah...I'll admit, I was actually kinda surprised that I was considered." He said. "Good thing the dean here was aware."
"Cadence always ensured she would see true." She replied before wiping at her forehead. "Whew...is it warm in here to you, too?" With barely a second thought, Zecora unbuttoned her coat a little and uses it to fan herself. In the process, it also teased him with a hint of her plump onyx nipples. "Now this leaves me a touch braced. So what brought you to this college, of any place?"
"W-well, tittie-TEACHING! I mean teaching's kind of had my attention." He faltered a little spying the satisfied look on her face. 'That's deliberate...she's as bad as Yearling!' He fought to keep his composure. "That and it also seemed the breas-best way to maybe be taken seriously. Was more than a little surprised when I got the call from my grandfather that he'd recommended me to take his place when he retired."
"Quite the god send. Has it since been pleasant?"
"Not too bad. My class seems to like me." 'At least...until they find out.' And the faculty I've seen so far are pretty nice Present company included." He added with a sheepish smile.
"A compliment you plainly know how to tend" He could swear she purred saying that. "I am sure you will be to me a very...good friend. Sadly, our conversation we now must end. Soon my next class will come to attend."
"Oh, that's cool. I'll leave you to finish getting ready." He started to leave when she spoke up one more time.
"Might you sometime be willing to aid me in research unique?" She looked back at him, licking her lips a bit, tail swishing tantalizingly over her backside. "You look quite skilled with...hands-on technique."
"Uh...y-yeah..." He gulped, bumping into the door, his face bright red.
Sweetie, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom quickly asked him what he'd seen inside, but didn't really recognize much aside from the microscopes, beakers and general items. Despite the slight disappointment, they quickly rallied and resumed taking Spike on the tour.
The next floor turned out to have some of the dryer subjects; sociology, political sciences, writing, and similar. The girls were pretty eager to get off that floor fast. Unfortunately, another look at the clock brought the tour to an end; the girls had classes of their own they had to go for that day. The quartet headed back outside, where they promised to take him to see a movie at the auditorium some time that weekend.
Once they met up, and left, with their assigned escort, Spike headed back to the dorm to relax, and probably unpack.
*Knock, Knock!*
"Yeah?" He asked, getting the last of his suits hung up. He looked over to see Twilight Sparkle peek in, wearing just a bra and panties that she looked comfortable in. It also showed off her curvy build. "H-hey...Twilight, right?"
"Mm-hm." She nodded. "We're all getting ready to watch a movie. It's Spitfire's turn so odds are it's a horror flick, you wanna come watch it with us?"
"Sure, just let me finish unpacking." He pulled out the compartment with his underwear, trying to ignore how she giggled at the fish-patterned boxers he was holding.
"Want some help?" She asked, stepping inside. "Could go faster with two."
"Sure. Don't worry about the books at the bottom for now. Can get those later."
"Ok." She went over and took out another compartment. "What's this?" She asked, finding what looked like a little tin for cookies, except it was a twelve-hundred piece mini-puzzle of a picture of Buckministerfullerene.
"Hm? Oh I got that as first prize for an algebra competition back in middle school. You can have it if you want. Not much of a jigsaw guy myself."
"R-Really??" She looked back at the picture and saw the picture even had info about its structure and properties. She'd done puzzles with her mom when she was little, but none of them were science-based. The fact she was being flat out given it made her squee a little.
'Ok, that was freaking adorable.' Spike thought.
After a few minutes, they'd gotten everything else out. Twilight was about to start putting the compartments back when one of the books caught her eye. "Spike...that...is-is that what I think it is!?"
"What?" Looking in the trunk, he pulled out the one she was looking at; a hardback copy of 'Grimbridle Brothers Fairy Tales'. "This one?"
"I LOVE that book!" She squealed, looking like she'd ran into someone she hadn't met in years. "My mom used to read the stories in this to me when I was a little filly!"
"Huh, well, if you wanna read it, go ahead. No sense leaving it in the trunk-mmf!" He was abruptly cut off when she snatched up in a hug on par with Pinkie.
"THANK YOU!" She cried out, before giving him a kiss...
"Mmmm!"
Right on the lips.
"P-pro noblem..." He responded in a slightly airy manner after being put back down, wobbling a bit while she skipped out of the room. "Did...she slip me tongue...?"
Twilight was already a short ways down the hall when she stopped, her face turning crimson as she lightly touched her lips. 'I just gave my first...my first kiss to my homeroom teacher! And a little boy to boot!' She reflexively ran the tip of her tongue over her lips. 'B-but, he is adorable...and tastes a little like cornflakes...' And let out a small, slightly embarrassed squeak as she realized what she was thinking.
More than a few of her classmates were bemused at the sight of her speed-walking back to her room.
By the time Spike managed to come down from the surprise of his first actual kiss being from one of his own students, figuring it was mostly out of excitement, and a couple of the others managed to get a still-blushing Twilight (who refused to say anything just then) out of her room, the movie was starting.
"Cool, Nosfertrotu!" Spike perked up from his spot as the filling in a cuddle-sandwich between Fluttershy and Marble. "Haven't seen this one." And unfortunately, he soon found himself having to wait to see it again; every time the two got scared, he was promptly dual-marshmallowed.
In a similar fashion, Twilight was rather distracted from the movie as well. 'I kissed him...' She thought, going over the scene in her head more than once. 'And...and it was kinda nice-gah! What are you doing, Sparkle!' She scolded herself mentally. 'He's young enough to be your little brother! Even if you did like it...it was still...' Luckily for her, the whine she made was covered up by Rarity's scream when the vampire showed.
"THAT THING'S HIDEOUS!"
"I know, it's freaking awesome!" Rainbow replied excitedly as the first victim was gotten.
Soon as the movie was over, Spike let the girls know he was heading to the store to replace a few bathroom items that his former landlord had stolen.
Most of them were offended on his behalf, most notably Aloe and Lotus. Juniper Montage was just thoroughly confused as to why a non-dragon would even like topaz-flavored toothpaste, much less steal a half-empty tube.
The trip to the store was pretty much cut and dry, except for the fact he soon found he had a bit of company. "Oh, need to pick up some stuff too, Gilda?" He asked, seeing the griffoness standing idly by a display, and trying not to look at how tight the spandex shorts and t-shirt she had on were, despite how much more they covered than her usual 'outfit'.
"Sorta, kind of looking for something...specific." She bent down low, legs spread and making sure he saw everything. 'Heh, this view oughta get him revved.' She glanced back at him, and hid her smirk when he blushed.
"O-oh...ah, w-what exactly?" 'Ok, just calm down, Spike. Just because those shorts look freakin PAINTED on...she's just limber, that's all...right?'
"Nothing major." She moved to act like she was going to climb the shelf, arching her back in the process, lifting her ass up some. "I kinda want some nice and...' He could swear her voice went husky. "Meaty for my buns back at the dorm. Poor things really need something between them."
Spike gulped, praying she didn't see the bulge forming in his pants. "heh, w-well, I'll leave you to it. Need to get back to the dorm!" With that, he scurried off down the aisle.
"Damn! Almost had him!" She muttered.
Spike nearly sprinted back to campus after that.
"Girls, if anyone needs me, I'll be in the shower." He told the group, once he got back to their floor and a clean set of clothes. "Um...where the one for our floor?"
Coco Pommel was the first to answer him. "The dorms don't have showers, Spike."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, since no one's really worried about being seen naked, we all take our showers at the gym area." Carrot Top added.
"But...but that's out in the open." He ran over to a nearby window that gave a view over the campus. Despite the fact that it was the weekend, there were still too many out there for him to be comfortable going down just yet. "Yeah...I think I'll wait a while." He looked at the clock.
Two in the afternoon. "Definitely a while."
The next few hours seemed to crawl by for Spike as he tried to kill time while waiting for the activity outside to die down enough; mostly with a mix of figuring out who's room was where for emergencies, listening to Rainbow and Gilda try to talk Twinkleshine into picking an action flick for the next movie they watched, and flicking through the channels when no one else was watching.
By the time the campus grounds looked empty enough, it was getting dark out. "Ok, let's do this." He told himself, getting his stuff. Luckily there was enough light for him to keep watch out for anyone who might've been near the gym area. Reaching his destination, he quickly selected a shower in the back. "Why'd it have to be outside?" Turning the shower on, he fiddled with the lone handle until it was at a temperature he liked and double-checked his surroundings before stripping down.
Soon he was the middle of a cloud of steam and covered in suds. Heh, I feel better already. Now, where's that polish...wait a sec...' Getting there, he saw there was a couple of lights about the showers, and one was behind him.
Except something was now between it and him....two somethings to be exact. He turned around in time to hear a slightly deep female voice.
Spike promptly took a step back at the sight that greeted. Standing less than four feet away was a dark orchid-colored mare, her mane done up like a mohawk, and wearing nothing but a pair of running shoes, showing of a toned and very curvaceous figure. Beside her stood a brownish-orange female buffalo, wearing nothing at all. She was a few inches taller than the mare, and had a more muscular build, but it did little to hide her own curves.
Both were giving him somewhat toothy smiles.
"Well, well. Look who we found, Strongheart." Even though there was a bit of amusement, he could hear a distinctive purr in the mare's voice.
"Mm, I heard our new male teacher had gotten the attention of a few mares on campus, Tempest." The buffalo's was noticeably deeper, similar to Zecora. "But I didn't expect him to be this yummy little morsel." |
Good Morning, Class | Week No.1 pt3: Bits and Pieces. | 'Ok, just...just focus on something; the water falling on you, the crow in that tree over there, the tiles under you feee-' "Eet!" Spike squeaked when one of Strongheart's nipples brushed against the back of his neck. The sensation snapped him out of his thoughts and he found himself staring straight at Tempest's bare breasts.
"Think he likes what he sees, Tempest?" Strongheart purred, slowly running her soap-covered hands over his back. "Don't worry, cutie." She leaned in to whisper in his ear. "We'll be gentle."
Spike gulped. "Well, I-uh..." He'd figured that they knew he was older than he looked since neither of them reacted like he was a kid. But he wasn't prepared for them to offer to help scrub him down...and do it before he could even give a response! He squeaked again when Strongheart gave his butt a squeeze. 'Did...did she just-?'
"Well, well...he might not be saying it, but I'd say he's definitely enjoying it." Tempest looked down, blatantly licking her lips.
"Huh?" Spike's face turned crimson as Strongheart looked over his shoulder.
"Hello! I always though it was just a rumor about dragon guys!"
'Oh...you double-crossing bastards!' He mentally cursed, realizing what they were looking at. "Heh...uh...it...it's nothing major..."
"Heh, maybe we could give them a good scrubbing next?" Tempest's hand slid down dangerously close to his upper erection.
"Ha-ahh..! Heh..whoa...heh." He tried to hop back a little, but Strongjeart was almost right on him. His head nearly wedged itself between her breasts.
"Oh, I nearly forgot. Tempest, we need to wash up as well." Strongheart said as she rinsed his back off.
"Oh yeah. Heh, think you'd be willing to help us with a couple places that could use some..." She took Spike's hand, and while crouched, slipped it up high into her inner thigh. "....extra scrubbing."
That did it; he might've been a dragon, but this was a bit more than he could handle. With a noise that seemed like a cross between a shriek and whimper, he took off back to the locker area, not even worrying about drying off.
"Heh, think I'm gonna like having him around." Tempest grinned, standing back up.
"You and me both." Strongheart picked the soap he had dropped.
Upon returning to the dorm, he learned from Spitfire, who'd been the first to see he was soaked, that Tempest and Strongheart were the resident coaches. Of course, that didn't help his slightly frazzled nerves and still raging hardons.
Before going to bed, he made a note to get more alcohol when he could.
The next couple of days proved to be less stressful. Sweetie, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom made good on their deal and got him to watch a movie with them. Unfortunately, it was a bad musical about a nanny falling for her boss. Even the girls seemed unimpressed by it.
At least they were allowed to bring snacks.
And like he promised, when Monday rolled around, he went with Rarity and Coco to their tailoring class. The rest of the girls there seemed a little surprised that he was a new teacher there when Rarity introduced him, but were more relieved to learn they still had a model. He was a little uncomfortable about having to strip to his boxers, but they were professional about it for the most part.
From what Rarity had said, their project was a contest of sorts. They were to work in pairs to design and construct an outfit from scratch, the winners would get to decide what kind of project for the class to do next time. As soon as the class started, they advanced on him in small groups to take measurements. During this, he noticed that the girls were nude, or mostly nude, were all wearing cloth wraps around their breasts. Probably to keep from accidentally poking themselves or each other while sewing.
Things weren't quite as bad as he thought it might be, but while watching the 'teams' work on designs, he did overhear a couple commenting that 'he'll look adorable in tartan'. 'Interesting, but not really a kilt guy.' He also heard fabric names he'd never heard of. What the hell was 'voile', or 'bengaline'?? Fortunately, he'd been able to get dressed again once they finished the measurements, though he'd have to come back in later for fittings and alterations.
It wasn't long before that class came to a close. Before he could leave, a couple of the girls came up to him. They'd heard from Coco that he was able to tutor in a couple of subjects and asked if he'd be willing to help them get ready for a math test they had later that week. He didn't see any harm in it, so he agreed to meet them in the library after classes were done.
Needless to say, they were pretty grateful.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. After the last class, he met up with them at the library. They'd introduced themselves as Sassy Saddles and Inky Rose (if Spike was honest with himself, he though goth girls were pretty hot sometimes), so it wasn't too hard to find them. They were both seated in one of those really big two-person bean bag chairs.
"Well, I see you two are comfortable." He started looking around for a chair himself. "Let me get a seat and we can staaaaart!" He yelped when a magic aura pulled him into the chair between them.
"Why? There's plenty of room for all three of us." Sassy grinned, before she saw him sink down into it.
"Mmmff...!"
"We got you." Inky help her pull him out...and move so he was halfway in both girls' laps, where he was promptly snuggled up in the middle. "Normally I'm not much of hugger or anything, but for some reason, I can get used to this."
"R-Right..." 'Why couldn't they have at least put panties on?' He asked himself, firmly tucked into the spot where he'd spend the next couple of hours helping them bone up on things for their test.
"Wha...you're out of Zapp Black?" Spike couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice.
"Sorry, dude, the newest shipment won't be in until tomorrow night." The cashier replied, shrugging helplessly.
"Aw man...well, what's the next best thing you got?"
"Um...if you like cinnamon, we got this." He brought over a bottle of dark red liquid.
"Huh. Thought they stopped making Cinder's Kiss vodka." Spike said, paying for the bottle. "It'll work." He took the bag with his purchase and decided to stop for something to munch on..
"Oh, hey, Spike." Gilda called out, looking out from around a display. "Surprised to see you here."
"Yeah, just grabbing a couple..." He nearly dropped his bag when he saw what she had on; a tiny, cropped bikini-style t-shirt, low riding leather short-shorts with the straps of her panties visibly poking out, and heeled, knee-high boots. 'Holy...!!' "A..a couple things."
"Same." She wiggled her hips a little, looking uncomfortable. "Damn, did these shrink?" Not even bothering to turn around, Gilda undid the top button on her shorts, giving him a view of what was little more than pussy floss underneath. "Whew, that's much better." She purred.
"OkwellIllseeyoubackatthedorm!" He blurted out, face bright crimson as he quickly headed out the door.
"Crap!" She snorted, looking a little annoyed at her second fail. "At least he noticed a little this time, I think." Leaving the aisle, she missed the fact that a third party was noticing as well. |
Good Morning, Class | Week No.1 pt4: Discovered | Listening to the faint chorus of 'good-night's from the girls heading to bed while heading to his own room, Spike found himself chuckling to himself as his first full week came to a close. Surprisingly enough, it didn't take him long to get somewhat accustomed to being around so many semi and fully naked gals.
The flirting was still gonna take a while. He had a feeling Yearling's offer to teach him yoga was meant to involve a lot more than stretching. It didn't really help that Tempest and Strongheart had learned about his preference for showering late, and managed to catch him each time. Though, despite their slightly aggressive flirting and offers to help him scrub down, they never really went farther than marshmallowing him. Zecora...was almost as bad, namely with how she'd tease him with her lack of panties under the coat.
Thankfully, Bulk had noticed how uneasy he got due to it all and told him about his only starting week. Poor guy had been scared to get within five feet of any of the female staff or students. That lasted until Cadance talked to him, explaining that if it was honestly accidental, or just something like a pat on the shoulder or back, he had nothing to worry about. If anyone decided they wanted a slice of beefcake, though, that was HIS problem. (That last bit didn't really help much)
While the other teachers were proving to be somewhat eccentric, his class was the true handful. Granted, he'd found that if he made himself ignore it, he could take finding company in his bed in stride. However, it was their own quirks that stood out.
Twilight, for instance; for some reason she was acting oddly around him the last couple of days. She was almost bashful, and when he tried to talk to her, she would blush and squeak like an embarrassed little filly. Considering she had been one of the more composed of the class when they first met, it was really peculiar.
Since he had to go back to the sewing class for the fittings, he noticed Rarity and Coco were watching one particular student like a hawk; a mare named Suri Polomare. He wasn't sure what'd happened, but the two seemed hellbent on keeping her away. Even the others in the class asked them if they'd overreacted about it, whatever 'it' was.
And Gabby. While she loved helping him out sometimes, she could easily overdo it...to rather embarrassing levels; like offering to help him dress, saying two pair of hands would make it faster, or feed him while he was looking over papers. One moment stood out - fortunately it was just once...so far - when she offered to help him wash the last time he was heading to get a shower.
"Ah, could be worse." He thought, heading into his room. He had a few papers to go over before heading to bed as well. "Least that's all I gotta deal with."
Knock on wood...
As Saturday night rolled around, Spike found himself back at the store to restock. "Maybe I should start buying in bulk." He said to himself, throwing a few cans of peanuts into his cart. In doing do, he felt the need to look behind him. "There you...aren't." He muttered, seeing no one. In the last few times he'd gone shopping, Spike had found Gilda there, every time.
And each time she'd been wearing skimpier clothing. Last time she'd had on denim shorts that looked more like a thong, and bikini top under a mesh shirt...he had a sinking suspicion as to what was going on, but hoped her was wrong and it was just something about her. 'Maybe she's just proud of her figure. Sure as hell has one.'
Now though, it looked like she decided not to come today. He had yet to see her at all in the aisles. "Huh, guess she doesn't need anything today?" He asked himself, heading to the candy section to fix his sweet tooth.
"HEEEELLLLLPPP!"
He jumped when the scream hit him. "The hell!? That came from behind the store...and it sounded like Gilda!" Without a second thought, he left the cart behind and took off out of the store.
Five Minutes Earlier
"Man, kinda drafty." Gilda shivered a little thanks to her current 'outfit'. Consisting of just a couple wide belts to form a makeshift skirt and a strip of cloth that was barely holding her breasts in, it was one she was certain would get Spikes attention. Either that, or she'd just pounce him and show what a horny griffoness was capable of! "You better be ready, Teach, cause this time, you'll be learning a few things." She purred.
"Maybe you could teach me instead, sweet thing." A grungy-looking pony with a mohawk stepped onto the curb in front of her. The smarmy grin he gave her made her want to brain him on principal.
"Piss off, prick." She snorted, moving to walk past him...only to have a mare who looked like she'd gotten into a fight with a tattoo gun, and lost.
"If Murky wants to talk to ya, then ya talk to him." She sneered, as a half dozen others came up, blocking the sidewalk.
"Talk to this, asshole!" She flipped them off and headed the other way. Reaching the back corner of the store, she cut through the alley behind it, knowing she could come around the other end.
"Where d'ya think yer going!?" The mare demanded, having ran to catch up with her. "Murky-!"
*Crunch!*
"Do I look like I give a shit, bitch!?" Gilda hissed, delivering a back kick that caught her in the chin. The mare had a glass jaw, since she went down like an onion bag. "Shit!" Gilda yelped, quickly closing her legs and looking around wildly. "I hope no one saw that!" Fighting down the blush that tried to rise, she almost facepalmed at picking today to go commando in a skirt. Making sure no one else was around, she resumed her walk.
Unfortunately, the rapidly approaching footsteps ended the return of her good mood. "Aw, now why'd you gotta do that to Babytail?" 'Muddy' or 'Mungy' or whatever his name was called out.
She snorted. "She pissed me off. Now scrape her up and get lost!" She snapped, not bothering to look at them. She knew she could whoop them, but her current attire put her at a disadvantage. And there was on way in hell she was letting these lowlifes get a peek at her goodies. With that she picked up her pace a little, hoping they'd get bored or forget what they were doing.
"Wait up, baby! We just wanna talk!"
"And I told you to FUCK! OFF!" She yelled. "I got better things to do than hang with bottom-feeders!"
As she walked down the alley, the catcalls got a little more aggressive, with some of his friends joining in.
"Hey, Murk, maybe she needs a lesson in manners?"
"You might be right. We just wanna talk."
Reaching the other entrance, Gilda froze and swore; the other entrance was blocked off by a large delivery truck. 'Oh, fuck me with a brick! I'm stuck!'
"Well, well, well, karma's somethin', ain't it?" 'Murky' crowed, his gang spreading out to pin her in. "Now, how about you and I get to know each other?"
"How about I stuff this up your ass!?" She snapped, moving to grab a length of pipe leaning against the wall. In her eagerness to get it, though, she failed to see the broken bottle in her path...until she felt it pierce her ankle and heel. With a cry of pain, she stumbled against the wall. 'Dammit! Just my luck...shit, that hurts!' She'd never been the type to cry, but the burning sensation was testing her limits, plus the fact that it felt like a shard was still in there.
"Aww, the poor birdie's hurt." One of the other punks laughed. "Maybe we should kiss it better?"
"Heh, why not. Ain't like she can stop us now." Murky smiled, leading the way as they slowly advanced on her.
'Dammit! Now I really can't fight like this! And I don't have time to get the glass out.' Seeing how limited her options were, Gilda did the only thing she could think of. "Hope someone in the store hears me... HEEEEELLLPPP!" She screamed as loud as she could.
"Ain't gotta scream, baby." Murky replied. "We'll take care of ya."
Doing her best to keep her balance, she grabbed the pipe with her free hand. "You fuckers better be ready to pay out the nose!"
"Gilda! Hang on!" Another voice call out on the other side of the truck, followed by the sound of metal being ripped apart, then the side of the truck blowing out as Spike plowed through it into the alley.
"The hell!?" One of 'Murky's friends shrieked, falling back in shock.
"Okay....THAT'S new." Gilda said, staring at the hole. She'd seen how strong he was, but she never expected to see him go right through a vehicle!
"Gilda, what happened?" He went over her. "Oh geeze! Your ankle!"
"Hey! Piss off, runt! The bitch is with us!" Another one snapped, stomping closer to try and intimidate him.
"Excuse me?" He asked, stepping closer to him, the calm tone in his voice quickly reminding Gilda of how he responded to Svengallop. "You did not just call one of my students..." Growling, the punk ran up and attempted to give him a good kick.
Key word: attempted. There was a light thump as Spike caught the foot, quickly moving his grip to the ankle. "A 'bitch'"
"The hell!?" The punk tried to pull away, to no avail.
"Mooch, quit dicking around!" Murky ordered.
"I-I can't! It's stuuuaaaUGH!" He screamed when Spike hurled him back at his friends, knocking Murky and another off their feet.
"Nice shot..." Gilda commented while he returned to her.
"Ok, this might sting a little. We'll have to get you to Nurse Redheart to make sure it's all out."
"What about the others!?" She asked, looking at them as they stared in shock at the now concussed trio, before feeling him take hold of her foot.
"They don't really matter." He slowly pulled the shard out, doing his best to keep the pain to a minimum. Once it was out, and he made sure he didn't miss any other visible pieces, he pulled his shirt off and wrapped it around her foot. "You really need to wear shoes more often."
"I-I tried, but they're uncomfortable as hell." She said, blushing a little when she saw he had visible definition.
"Wh-what the hell are you, kid!?" One of the still standing punks yelled.
"A dragon, duh." He snarked, turning back to Gilda. "Ok...this may be a little awkward, just hook your leg under my arm and hold on. It might be a little more comfortable than trying bridal style." After a bit of wrapping limbs around him, Gilda managed to get into a piggy back position. "You ok?"
"Y-yeah." She replied, resisting the urge to rub against him. Looking back at the hole through the truck, she shook her head. "How...just, how??"
"You already know, but I'm stronger than I look."
"I think the whole class guess that." As he carried her out out the alley, she couldn't resist flipping off the punks again while they tried to drag their unconscious members away.
"All right, before anything else...Gilda, what possessed you to dress like...like that?" He asked when they neared the sidewalk. "I can feel you sitting on the base of my tail, and..." He didn't think he needed to say he could tell she didn't have panties on. Luckily, the circumstances surrounding that discovery was allowing him to ignore it.
"Well, I...I've been trying to get your attention the last few days." She admitted, tightening her grip a little when he stumbled.
"W-what??" He coughed on the inhale that snagged in his chest.
"Why do you think I've been wearing less and less when I manage to find you at the store?"
"Me? But I'm...I mean, look at me! I'm barely half your height!"
"Spike, I know your older than you look." She replied, leaning in on him. "This store takes carding seriously, and I saw you buy that bottle of booze earlier this week."
"Y-you...you saw that?" He blanched.
"Yep. I'm not sure exactly how old, but you're at least a year older than I am."
"Twenty."
"Huh?"
"I'm twenty right now. I'll be twenty-one in a couple of months."
"Well, that's not bad. Though...I'm still curious about..." She gestured to his height.
"Why I look like I'm ten? They still haven't figured out why exactly, but male dragons age at half speed. I won't look like a twenty-year old until I'm in my forties. Some think it's so we have a bigger window to find a mate, but I don't know. Either way, it's a pain when it makes you hard to be taken seriously."
"Wow, guess that explains why you didn't tell us at first?" She paused 'Wait...Ember...she's a dragon, so that means...that sneaky bitch!'
"Would you have believed me if I said 'Hi, despite my size, I'm actually in my twenties' without any proof?"
"Got a point there." Gilda turned back to look at the alley. "One more thing...how the hell are you strong enough to do, well, all that back there!? You tossed that jackass and Svengallop like they were footballs!"
"It's kind of a defense mechanism for us." Spike replied as they neared the campus entry portal. "To make up for our smaller size, we're a lot stronger than we look. The most I can lift right now is eight thousand, one hundred and twenty pounds."
"F-four tons!?" Gilda nearly fell off him in shock. "Holy shit!"
"That's why I eat a lot. That kind of power requires a high caloric intake."
"Hey, I'm not arguing. That's...that's...damn!"
It took a minute, since Spike didn't want to jostle Gilda's foot too much, but they finally reaching the campus entry portal.
"Spike, hang on a second." She said as he was about to step on through. "Um, remember when you asked why I was dressed like this?"
"Oh...yeah. You said something, but I..."
"Nice try, but you know." She rested her head against him. "I'm gonna be blunt about it; you're just about the first guy I've ran into since coming to this college that doesn't just take the 'tough girl' act I like to do. And...it's actually kinda new to me. Not many guys care much for a gruff attitude, so I'm having to adapt to it." She purred a little in his ear. "Frankly, the thought of a guy who can actually make me back down gets me pretty damn wet."
Spike glanced back at her, too surprised to really say anything.
"And, well, you know about my attendance record..."
"Kinda." He'd heard from a few other teachers about how Gilda, and on occasion Rainbow Dash, would skip classes. However, it was the classroom teacher's duty to enforce that, and his duty was to B-5. All he could really do is tell them they need to go more often. Besides, she still managed to keep decent grades.
"So, what do you say to a little deal? I'll work on improving my attendance, and in exchange, you give me a little..." Spike squawked in surprise when she reached down to grip him through his pants, "...incentive to keep it up." She blinked and gave him a squeeze. "Fuck me...what've you been feeding this anaconda!?"
"G-Gilda!" He yelped, turned bright red. "We're in public!"
Once they were back on campus, and he'd gotten her to stop groping him, Spike had made a beeline for the infirmary. Thankfully, that one shard was all that there was. Nurse Redhead was able to clean up the cut and make sure it wouldn't get infected. Though, she'd need a few stitches, and his shirt was beyond saving. Aside from that, Gilda was going to be ok.
As he left the building to let her rest up, what she said just before he left still echoed.
"The offer still stands; some incentive, and I show up in class more."
Now that he was alone, Spike found himself just kind of drifting around the grounds. It was obvious what kind of 'incentive' she was looking for, but...academic improvement in exchange for sex? Last he heard, that was still illegal! That and if the others found that out...he didn't know what to expect, except that it didn't look good for him at all.
He really needed a place to think...or someone to talk to at least.
He turned to the main building. " Please let her be awake...' |
Good Morning, Class | Extracurricular Activities | "Ok, just calm down...you're a teacher now, a professional..." Spike said to himself, standing outside the door to Cadance's office. "Just explain things calmly...I can do that." He reached up and knocked on the door. "...I hope"
"Yes?" Came the response from inside. He steeled himself and entered. Cadance was at her desk, doing what looked to be last minute paperwork. "Spike, what brings you here at this hour?"
"Well...I...ah..." He scratched the back of his next nervously. 'What a time to get stage-freaking-fright!'
"What's wrong? You look like you're going to hyperventilate."
"Um...G-Gilda...thing...attendance offer...I-I..." He stammered, his mouth running on autopilot.
"Spike, calm down." Cadance spike up, stopping him. "Just start at the beginning and go slow."
Spike took a long, deep breath. "W-well, I was at the store, getting a few things..." He recalled hearing Gilda's scream and finding her being accosted by the thugs. She quickly turned concerned when he mentioned seeing her foot bleeding. "I already dropped her off at the infirmary to get the cut taken care of, so that's one thing." He added, seeing relief show on her face. He then got to getting her out of the alley...and finally the offer she made. "I-I mean, I knew it was only a matter of time before they'd start figuring out I'm older, but this is the last reaction I expected!"
Cadance was silent on the matter, so he continued. "I mean, she's attractive; I'll admit that...hell, they ALL are, but I'm a teacher! I'm doing whatever I can to show I'm a professional and that I'm taking the job seriously! Not to mention the fact this is a student propositioning a teacher about academics!" He whined as he scratched his head in frustration. "I'm worried enough about how the rest of them are going to react when they finally do find out my age-!"
"Haahaha!" Cadance's sudden laughter caught him off guard, and put him off a bit as he saw her leaning on her decks, shaking with a massive case of the giggles.
"Cadance, I'm almost ready to puke from nerves about this! What the heck is so funny about any of it??"
"You...*gigglesnort* you didn't read the guidelines about *squeak* student/teacher interactions, did you?"
"Guidelines...?" He faltered, indignation evaporating into being befuddled.
"Spike, you are the homeroom teacher. You don't actually handle a subject. Outside of moments like with Svengallop, at least, but you don't handle any actual tests, exams, or grading." Cadance smiled. "So, there's no question of academic indiscretions. And as for the guidelines, it's a regulation that homeroom teachers are trusted to use whatever method they think their students will respond best to that encourages them to achieve academic excellence." Her smile turned more than a little cheeky. "...so if you think giving her a ride will get her in class and paying attention, then by all means have fun. That's between you and her."
"H-hoovahebewu?" He responded inelegantly.
"Gilda's offering to improve her attendance, not exchange sex for grades; so there's no issue there. If the girls are willing to improve themselves academically for a chance to ride those twin-Ds you're packing, then it's more of an incentive system. Yes, I've seen pictures of male dragons; I know what you're armed with." She licked her lips a little to tease.
"I...I-da...eda..." He wrapped his tail around himself to try and hide the tent forming in his pants.
"Like you said, she's attractive, right?"
"Well...y-yeah, but-"
"So, she knows you're older, and she didn't start screaming 'pervert' or 'liar' or anything. Right?"
"Yeah..."
"So, I don't see any real problem. Hell, you've already proven you take the job seriously more than once. I'd say you've earned a little...extra credit. Also, I've seen a couple of the teacher have been eyeing you as well...Miss Yearling, for instance?"
Spike flushed when he remembered the way she kept showing off to him during her lessons. Along with the fact she didn't have any worries,either. He was still unsure about the whole thing. "Um...can-can I think it over first?"
"By all means...but, I'd recommend not thinking too long if you're worried about rumors at all."
"Rumors...?"
"About why she's acting like she is towards you. I can imagine what the students might speculate."
Spike winced slightly. "Yeah..." Given the griffon's 'tough girl' image, it wasn't hard to guess what they'd assume.
"Here, go and get some sleep. Maybe settled nerves'll help."
A quiet, almost empty campus greeted Spike as he left the main building, his head spinning slightly from what he'd just learned. "Ok, ok. Spike you've had to make choices like this before...well, not on the same level. J-just gotta weight out the pros and cons..."
Pros: He'd be hooking up with a hot girl, one who's actually interested in him. His boss is surprisingly fine with it, even telling him to go ahead. And like she said, he's the homeroom teacher, therefore he wasn't involved in their tests or exams, so that was a non-issue.
Cons: He couldn't really think of any, to be honest. Gilda'd figured out his age on her own, yet instead of calling him out, went with getting his attention.
'All-in-all, aside from nerves, I don't really have any reason not to.' He thought, with plenty of reasons to say 'yes' as an image of a naked griffoness formed in his head.
His trek took him to the outside of Gilda and Ember's dorm room. Thankfully, Ember was currently pulling an all-nighter study at the library with Maud for their geology test, so that saved him from a rather...awkward explanation. 'Here goes.' He gave a quick knock on the door. "Hang on...I left her with Redheart."
"Come in." Gilda's voice sounded out from inside.
He steeled himself and slowly began to open the door, only for his jaw to slacken at the look she was giving him as her face became visible.
"Nurse Redheart said the cut was thankfully shallow, so she let me head out with some bandages and painkillers. I was hoping you'd make up your mind, tonight, Mr. Drake." She purred in greeting. "I'm afraid I've been a very bad girl."
As the door swung open, the knob slipped away from his nerveless grasp. The sight that greeted him caused the dragon to swallow convulsively... |
Good Morning, Class | Griffin' Lucky | Gilda smirked, wearing a somewhat damp t-shirt, just long enough to give her something akin to modesty. "Heh, had to take a shower after being about those creeps." The wet material clung to her curves and outlined every contour of her body, along with the rock-hard nipples that jutted almost proudly. "I should probably tell you it's not just to scratch a mother of an itch" She said, visibly enjoying the way he was staring.
He tore his eyes away from her thighs to look at her. "It's not?"
"Well, it is a pretty big part; but the fact that even after your first night here, and waking up to Gabby's tits, you've refused to try and take advantage of how affectionate some of the girls can be. Shit, you do what you can to help us out more than the other way around, and that's just when it's involving your height."
"It's l-like I told Cadance, I'm trying to take this job seriously. I mean, aside from Ember you're the only one in the class who knows I'm older, and I wanna show that I'm a teacher first and a guy second, even if it is just homeroom."
"Considering you put that prick Svengallop through the door, then came back to fill in yourself, I'd say 'taking it seriously' is an understatement!" She sauntered his way, the hem of the shirt bouncing against each sway of her hips. "And like I said, the fact that you haven't batted an eye to 'tough girl' me..." The moment she got close, she slipped to her knees in front of him and pushed the door closed. "...is a serious turn on."
Next thing Spike knew, she laid a searing kiss on him, her tongue already slipping into his mouth. Meanwhile. her hands were already guiding his into groping her; making sure he had two handfuls of tit. He squeezed on reflex, making her moan into the kiss and push against him slightly, her nipples rubbing against his palms through the material, encouraging him to grip a bit harder.
In return, hers slid town to the growing tent in his pants. He tensed sightly when he heard the sound of unzipping, but ignored it, only to feel her pull his pants down as the kiss ended. "Mm, never had dragon meat before." She purred, staring hungrily at the bulge in his boxers before yanking them down...and her eyes widened at what greeted her. "Uh...I..i'm not seeing double am I?"
"No..." Spike replied blushing brightly while both of his nine-inch erection bobbed slightly from being freed. "Don't ask me why; guess it's something we developed to...double our chances of hooking up."
"Spike...you have two dicks!" He inhaled sharply when she grabbed both. "And their fucking huge! Geeze, morning wood must be a bitch...holy crap...you got..." She trailed off.
"G-Gilda." He asked, glancing at her...and seeing she was grinning widely...and starting to drool.
"Bed, now!" She commanded, snatching him up in her arms and semi-tossing him onto the bed.
He let out a weak laugh. "Why do I have the urge to say 'what are we gonna do on the bed, Nee-ch..." The sound of ripping fabric filled the room when Gilda tore her shirt off, giving him an unobstructed view of her bare figure. Dark chocolate-colored nipples topped breasts that nearly rivaled Ember's in size, followed by a flat belly and hips that screamed 'you love to watch me leave', and finally, a plump little mound, already dripping from arousal.
Gilda licked her beak as she crawled toward him. "Always loved a big, fat sausage..."
"Heh, dunno about-"
"That can't be possible!" Twilight whined, head in her hands. "It just can't...I shouldn't feel like this!" All because of that stupid kiss! "Why did I do it...and why did I like it so much!?" She threw herself on her bed with a whine of frustration. "He's young enough to be a little brother! A smart, insanely strong, caring, adorable...huggable..." Her cheeks pinked heavily. "Oh-"
"Sweet Faust...!" Spike moaned, gripping Gilda's head as she had one erection nestled between her breasts, and sucking on the other like her life depended on it.
"Kinda spicy." She flicked her tongue over both heads. "Gilda LIKE!"
Spike was forced to prop himself up. "How...when did...?" He couldn't help asking.
"Griffon's don't have much of a gag reflex, so our all night parties usually had me being dared to swallow a banana in one go." She smirked. "You're a hell of a lot tastier!" With that, she descended on him on again, the tip of her beak reaching the base while she rubbed his other cock between her breasts. "Mmm." While it wasn't long, her tongue was flezible enough to coil around him at least once.
While she was enjoying herself, Spike, on the other hand, was nearing his limit rapidly. "G-Gilda...I'm I think I'm gonna...!"
Gilda, sensing thing was gonna happen, pulled back a bit, but not enough, because with a whining growl, he came. "Eep!" he squeaked as he gave her both barrels, spraying her lower face and breast with hot, sticky cum. She coughed a little, mostly in surprise, and the fact she didn't expect to still get a mouthful, swallowing on reflex. "Heh, damn..." She chuckled when the shock'd wore off. "I thought only porn stars could blow a load like this." She smacked her lips, getting another taste. "Hm..." She ran a finger over a nipple and licked it. "Your jizz tastes like hot sauce..." She licked some more. "I like it!"
Unknown to her, the sight of her covered in his load, not to mention the fact she was enjoying it switched something on in him. "Spike want.." He hissed.
"Even smells spicy...say what, Spike?" She asked, looked at him...and pausing at the look of unabashed hunger he was giving her.
"Spike....WANT!" Without another word, he grabbed hold of Gilda and yanked her onto the bed, stomach first.
"Whoh! Easy, Teach, this stuff's still stick..." She turned back in time to see him positioning himself right behind her, grabbing hold of her tail to keep it lifted. It wasn't until she felt the head of a cock pushing against both her holes that she realized what was going on. Especially with the way he licked his own lips as he drew back.
'H-He's gonna...' Her eyes widened briefly, followed by an eager smile as she had to clap a hand over her mouth to muffle the scream of pleasure when he impaled her. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | pre | "I have not made my mind up, mainly because I am not entirely sure what the situation here is. And before you tell me, I'd rather hear it from one of the students, no offense."
"Well, when you do, be sure to come to use. If you do end up transferring, and rightfully so, you need to be here in person, no matter how much I'm sure you don't want to come back here."
"I understand. But is is really that bad here? As far as I know, only around four students don't think it's me."
"I honestly wish I could give you a honest answer on that. But as far as I know, most students just blame you, and put no thought into it. And I must say..." Celestia trailed off, her face suddenly becoming a storm of emotion, mostly directed at herself. "That I'm sorry."
"What for? You didn't cause this. You-" A strike of realisation lit up Sunset's face, as Velvet solemnly nodded in the corner of her eye. "You thought it was me too didn't you?"
Sighing and laying back in submission, the typically grand Celestia ground her head into her hands. "I was rash. I already was sick of stuff like demons and bullies and even an emotionally abusive family, and then this gets dumped on my desk. I wanted a scapegoat, just like most of the students. But now, I swear, I am going to see this through and find out who it was." She was near in tears by the end, clearly filling up with regret and rage, while Sunset was staring at her in confusion, before switching to a more concerned face, leaning forward towards the teacher.
"You don't need to do this. I frankly do not care, as long as the culprits accept what they've done. Besides, whether I stay here or not, I'm renewing my life here. If not, I guess I'll go..." Sunset paused, glancing at Velvet with some suspicion. "somewhere else."
Before Velvet could question what they were doing, her phone buzzed, and when she checked it, it caused her to cry out in frustration. "Oh for- sorry, it appears a supposedly urgent matter has arisen and I am needed immediately. Can I trust you to take Sunset back home, Celestia?" Seeing a sharp nod from the principal, Velvet swiftly exited, leaving Sunset and Celestia to conclude their conversation.
"Just let me know when you're ready to make a decision, I'll be waiting." Just talking to Celestia reminded her how much she had abandoned back in- 'This is not the time to think about that. Compose yourself, Sunset, damn it.'
"I know this meeting didn't exactly accomplise much, but I suppose we know we can talk to each other comfortably if we need to." Standing up, they prepared to leave. "But before I go, could you help me get my stuff from my locker? I can't with my current condition."
"Oh, of course. Mind telling me what your... aftereffects are?"
"Can't use lower arms and hands properly for a while, lost all feelings in the same areas permamently." Swiveling her head to face the principal on the way to her locker, she was surprised when she didn't appear shocked in the slightest. "I'm surprised you aren't more concerned."
"I try to look for the positives. You're alive and aren't missing any limbs. I think that's good enough, don't you?" Celestia gave a sympathic smile, and was met by a sort of shy grinfrom Sunset, thankfully for being reminded how lucky she was.
"Yeah, it's kind of incredible. I would comment on not getting hypothermia or frostbite, but I suspect that's due to me being magical." Almost becoming smug in tone at the last part, it quickly faded, knowing the principal's response.
"Have you thought about going back then?"
"I mean, I have, but I-" Sighing, Sunset struggled for a coherent response. "I just don't feel ready yet. In the future sure, and if any chance of a life here gets ruined, it'll porbably be sooner than later."
"Okay, it's your choice. I just need to know in case you suddenly go missing and everyone panics over it."
"By the way, how did you find out Mrs. Velvet took me in?"
"The hospital called us. After you told them you went here, they simply told us you won't be in for a while due to an... incident, and you would be in the care of Twilight Velvet, who I knew from before my days teaching."
Suddenly, Celestia's bowed looked up to gaze sternly, opening her mouth to speak, before being cut off by Sunset motioning to a nearby locker. "Combinaton's 247." Nodding, Celestia scooped up all the belongings in the metal container in one swift motion, closed, at then went back the way they came, to the car park.
"I must ask - why haven't you told those people about yourself yet?" Celestia wondered, cocking her head to the side in curiousity.
"Well, for one, two of them are avid scientist, and the truth may or may not blow their minds. Also, I do want to earn their trust first. I doubt they'll kick me out if I say something like that, but I want them to trust me." The rest of their journey was spent in relative silence, until they were interrupted yet again, by a text message, this time the ring tone emitting from Sunset's new phone. Deciding it can wait for when they were on the journey home, she left it to vibrate.
And, before long, they were on the way home, with Sunset expertly using her phone with nothing but her teeth and nose, earning an odd look from Celestia, before she made a quite 'oh' in unsderstanding. 'Suppose they don't have hands back where she's from.'
Letting curiousity get the better of her, Celestia spoke up. "Who is it?"
Caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the voice, Sunset sharply turned to the woman. "Huh? Oh, it's Vinyl Stratch, one of the few who don't think this whole MyStable mess is my fault."
"Good to see there's at least one of your friends who stuck by you."
Flinching at the word 'friends', Sunset nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I guess that's another positive, I just wish it wasn't needed in the first place..."
Understanding where Sunset was ultimately going with this, Celestia didn't comment further, to avoid any futher grief, allowing Sunset to see what the message was.
'Remember, if you want to restart your life, we'll be right behind you, because it's never this easy.'
Once again Sunset was confused at the strangeness of Vinyl actually typing properly, since she usually shortened everything for quick communication. Also wondering what 'this' meant, her curiousity was swiftly answered, as Vinyl sent a link to a song. Sunset linked the chorus with what Vinyl must have meant:
Runnin' out of lives so we hit the Reset like...
Dark thoughts, Grey Skies...
Hit a little button everything will be alright like...
Smiling at Vinyl's sympathy and understanding, Sunset tucked the phone away in her pocket, flicking it from her teeth, letting the rest of the car ride pass in relative peace.
Arriving at the house, Celestia quickly left claiming responsibility for her duties. Pressing the doorbell with what can only be described as her face, Sunset waited for someone to answer the door.
"Sunset?" Night Light appeared round the door, peering at her in confusion. "Why didn't you use the key we ga- oohh. Sorry."
"It's fine Mr. Light. I can't do much in this state. I can get by with my mouth if I have to." Ignoring the slightly confused look the scientist was giving Sunset, she brushed past him to get to her room, where she slowly slipped off the bag that was perched on her shoulder, carefully avoiding her bandages as she did so. Eventually, she managed to fish out her journal out of her belongings, since it was the true reason for wanting to empty her locker. That and she didn't trust the rest of the students would leave it alone much longer. Checking no one was at the door or in the room, Sunset realised something - 'I'm supposed to have someone with me at all times, aren't I? Does that mean they trust me already or... nonono, think about what Celestia said. Positives.'
To take her mind off of the worst possibilities, Sunset started to write.
Dear Princess Twilight,
Sorry for not writing for a few days things have been hectic recently. I would explain what has happened, but I'd rather tell you in person so you can see. But before you jump through the mirror, let me tell you a couple of things - my writing might seem worse, and that's because I can't use my hands, so I'm using my mouth instead. And I'd rather not see you now because I'm currently staying with a family. That family so happens to be one that includes the human Twilight Sparkle, and since they currently don't know that I'm actually from any universe, I'd rather avoid them meeting you. And I can't meet you elsewhere due to various... restrictions.
Regardless, what I'm trying to say is that alot has happened recently, and while I'd appreciate your help, it most likely will make things even more confusing.
Your friend,
Sunset Shimmer.
"You keep a diary?" A bespectacled Twilight Sparkle was poking her head through the door.
Sunset, suddenly on the alert, quickly put the book back in her bag and stood to face the girl. "It's more of a journal, but yeah. I guess I do."
Smirking, Twilight beckoned Sunset over. "Nothing to be ashamed of. I was simply wondering. Anyway, my mother's back and starting dinner, so be sure to come out in a few minutes."
Nodding, Sunset turned her attention back to the book, awaiting the response. It came sooner than expected, but it was also not what she expected at the same time.
Hey Sunset, this is Spike. (The dog remember?)
Twilight's away right now to sort out yet another friendship porblem, this time in Trottingham. I'll be sure to tell her when she gets back okay?
Ok, that's great, thanks. Be sure to stop her from going through the portal before finishing the first sentence!
Already boarding it up!
Smiling at the response, Sunset closed the book, knowing that Spike knew Twilight much better that she did, and would probably be blocking the portal at this very moment. She was snapped out of her thoughts by a bark at her door. Turning to entrance way, found a small, purple and green dog, strangely similar to the one she was just communicating with. Smacking herself on the forehead, she realised that the family dog was Spike counterpart. 'I can't believe I only just realised that. Mind you, he was usually in Twilight's lab, for one reason or another. Maybe one day I'll be allowed into it!'
It was almost sad at that last thought, since Sunset knew she would not be staying with this family forever. She was only with them until someone would be happy to take her in on a longer term. Making her way to the dining room, since Spike was most probably alerting Sunset to the presence of food, shr made a decision. She would be much more open with the family from now on. Starting with who she was.
"Why, of course I know it's Starswirl! He went to another universe and I had to teach him who he was all over again! Of course he's stil alive. Let me guess?"
"Neigh! 'Tis not-"
"Well I'm going to guess anyway!"
"Don't-"
"He's in limbo stuck fighting a huge shadow-y pony for all time! And we have to rescue him! Come sister, we shall save our teacher when you are ready!"
"Bu- tha- wh- ju- no-....... ARGGGH!" |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | CHS Intermission 1 | ~SCOOTALOO~
"Wha's gotten in to ya, Scoots?"
"Yeah, you really wanted this yesterday!"
Looking up, I saw my two closest friends staring at me in concern. We were looking through the emails we had recieved for the account, when I had made my statement.
"I'm not doing this anymore."
"I'm not. This is already going too far. If you two want to continue this, go ahead but I'm just not." With my point made, I walked with my typical stumble out of the libary, leaving my compainions in shock. 'I'm sorry. I just... I'm sorry...'
~VICE-PRINCIPAL LUNA~
"Why would Twilight Velvet take her in? Sunset Shimmer is nothing but a deceptive bully!"
Back then, I was watching what must have been my sister's fifth rant since the hospital had informed her that Sunset had been in an incident. Now she was slumped at her desk, with a very, very guilty look on her face. She had been talking with Velvet, or rather listening to what she had to say. So far, she had been holding the phone to her ear for five minutes without saying a word, a very guilt look on her face. I retired to my office after another two minutes, as it seemed I would not be needed any more, but only minutes later I was called back. Celestia was sitting there, staring gravely at a screen.
"We've made a serious mistake Luna."
"Let me guess: Sunset's innocent." Seeing my sister's questioning gaze, I answered her question before she asked it. "I was roughly in her position once. I took it too far though."
"No. Sunset took it further than that."
She swiveled the screen around so I could see it. It was titled 'Sunset Shimmer' had been marked by the Canterlot hospital. I skimmed through the text, picking out a few words. they included "Suicide" and "homeless". Taking a step back, I made a semi-surprised gasp. When I had to make a choice like that, I never saw good reason to take myself. I only started it, Sunset had actually tried to finish it. Still...
"I hate to say it, but I sort of expected this. Not to this extent though. This is actually ridiculous."
"What do you mean you expected it?!" Celestia almost erupted into a deeply upset fury. I kept my cool.
"Remember, I was in her position. I understand it better than most, and that sometimes, you can't stop it. If I had known she was homeless, I would have spoken to her myself earlier. You must remember that I told you it was not Sunset, and we should talk to her. You then rejected it as ridiculous, claiming that it must be her, and no one else." I hadn't moved an inch since I read the report.. I needed to make a point, and this was how I was going to do it. As simply and as sternly as I cold, I walked out of the office, into mine, and locked the door. This was how I was going to resolve this. Not by sulking for another person. By standing up for them.
~???~
"There they are! Those seven! I mean six! Oh now, wait, there's only five. Did I miss something?" A high pitched voice squeaks in my left ear, though there is no living being to my left. Her name was... is Screw-sphere. Or was it ball? She's there now, as she always will be. She used to be something else, and I long for that time once more. But I don't know if that time will ever come. I look to what it- she's talking about. And she's right. There are only five of them. The two missing are those I yearned for. I am over one of them, but they may not be seen again. Screw-something used to be the other, with two S's to her name. She went once, and then returned. Then, yet again, she is gone.
I return to my home, I hear my mother return home, calling to my sister, who makes excuses to speak tomorrow. I wonder if she will actually believe those excuses, or if sister will do as she said she would. The doctor who I call my mother tells me I will have to see a comrade of hers soon. She calls her a psychiatrist. I have not been to one before. It will, 'help heal me', so my mother says.
"Wow! She didn't keep her promise! That's rude!" I see my sister with two others, the others emit a poison, a cancer to spread throughout. They have decided the only verdict is vengance, a vendetta against the falsely accused. The one I wait for, and the Screw-person knows it. My sibling is shy, unlike her normal self. The contrast is remarkable from yesterday. I don't know what has happened to her, but now she is more like me, more... how did they put it? "Insane." Yes, thank you.
There is another group, one who helps comforts me, bolsters my patience. It encourages me to have faith, and for that I am thankful. But there is one amongst them. She can't understand her. "She begins with a M, ends with a N, but is a D and a Y. Waitwait-nonononono-what?!" It... doesn't make sense. It's all Screwball (it's definately 'ball') will tell me, or herself.
Then, my gaze looks back to those I first saw. And she says it again. They cause a cycle, one they have created. And I have tried to break it. And failed. But three of them are guilty, and they do not know it. I dislike them. Then there are two other. One is sad, shy, but she is taking it head on. The other is reclusive. They have swapped their places |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 5 - Revelations | It was a peaceful thing to wait through, eating simple food. Sunset knew she'd come to this point, but she wasn't sure if she should actually tell them about herself quite yet. So, in a last minute decision of cowardice, she decided to lay off the fact that she was a unicorn from another universe. Instead, she was actually going to be completely honest about why she tried to end herself for good.
"Sunset? Are sure about this?" Velvet was staring at the girl who had just spoken her thoughts out loud, perhaps knowingly, perhaps not. Twilight Sparkle
"Yes. I trust you now, and I want to show that. You've cared for me, and I never saw a reason why until now." It was true. They had brought a great many things for her, and she always asked why. They had simply said that it was because they should. Even when they took her to the hospital to check on her progress, and it had gone nowhere, they were there to comfort her. It was nice. It was more than she felt she deserved. And even with the holidays coming up, they helped pick out gifts Sunset could give to them. It was amazing. If Sunset where to put them into a story, one chapter alone would have to be dedicated to their short trip to the mall to buy clothes. 'Heh, that would be a pain to write.'
"And I feel I should explain why I didn't feel I deserved it. I- have a troubled past, and honestly? I'd rather not talk about it now. Maybe another time. But let's skip to the part where I start to attend Canterlot High. It was about three years ago, where I started to become really popular there. I got a taste of it, and because of what happened before that, I really liked it. I became near addicted to it, and would do anything to keep it. All in all, I became a complete bully, even keeping blackmail on alot of people, causing popularity to turn into power. And while I'd say I regretted some of those actions, stealing lunch money probably kept me alive while I was homeless." She was interrupted by a raised lavender hand. Nodding at Twilight to convey that she could speak, Sunset waited.
"Why were you homeless in the first place?"
"No family in the city, and no way out of the city either. As for why? That's much more complicated, so let's stick to the topic at hand." Seeing Twilight was content, Sunset continued. "So I kept on being awful and such until someone decides to go against me. I naturally tried to stop them, and well... I went a bit too far. After an incident earned me the nickname of 'raging she-demon', I had a sort of an epiphany. I tried to turn my life around, and survive in different ways. I made friends, even helped them stop a group of people from doing the same thing I did. Then..."
This was the worst part of her story. She would regret saying this, but knew it would work out in the long term. "Something happened. There was a MyStable account. It started to post other people's secrets, my friends first. They blamed m-me. It got out of control. People were at each others throats. When my closest friends c-confronted me. I-I just couldn't take it anymore. I was g-going to t-try and sort it o-out the n-next day. b-but when I came to w-where I had b-been making a shelter for t-the b-blizzard, when, I-I saw it collapse... I just gave up." It was almost impossible how Sunset had become so serious at the end, and Velvet had clearly noticed this.
"Sunset, are you okay? This isn't exactly something you should be so... calm about."
"Well, yes. But I made a decision during my... reformation. Hell, I even sang a song about how 'my past is not today' on top of the roof on the school, all throughout the night, about how I had been reborn. Hm... I might have to sing it again..."
After this rather unexpected confession, the next few days passed rather peacefully, with Sunset fully building up relationships with the family who had cared for her, and with consistant conversations with Vinyl and her friends, now including Derpy ('Or was it Ditzy?'), since it appeared she had been 'away' during the start of the Anon-A-Miss, Sunset had been building back up her social life, even if it was with only half a dozen people over a phone.
Soon, it was Christmas Eve, and while Sunset had never properly celebrated Christmas before, if ever, it was shaping up to be that not bad at all. Velvet had instructed Sunset what she should get everyone, even after assuring Sunset that it wasn't needed.
In Equestria, there were not such things as 'Hearth's Warming miracles', but it appeared that there really were Christmas miracles.
It was a typical afternoon for Sunset by this stage. Shining and Cadance had come over to prepare for the upcoming family dinner and Sunset had just returned from a hospital check up, which showed a bit of improvement, but unfortunately nothing noticable would appear for a while. Or at least that was what the doctors predicted.
Sunset had just returned to her room, before checking her journal. She was not expecting to see anything - she could understand that Twilight was already busy enough preparing for Hearth's Warming in her kingdom. She still found it strange that there wasn't any message from Spike though, since he said he would keep her updated. Assuming he was busy helping calm Twilight from one of her usual panic attacks, Sunset bent down with her hands to pick up the journal, putting it back in it's place. 'Wait, my hands?'
Experimentally, Sunset tried wriggling her fingers on each hand, and when that was successful, she tried grasping the door handle and opening it, as opposed to shoving it with her shoulder like before. When Sunset accomplised that, she let out a gleeful squeal, earning the attention of the passing Twilight Sparkle.
"Sunset? You okay?"
"Twilight!" Sunset continued to let out overjoyed, but also childish noises while rushing forward to grab Twilight with her newly functioning appendages. "I can use my hands! Yes!"
Twilight expression shifted from being slightly scared to complete excitement in an instant. "Oh my God! That's great! But how? I thought you said the check ups said nearly no improvement?" The young scientist started to frantically wave her hands about, motioning in every possible direction at once.
"Exactly! Hang on, let's be calm about this. We need to get this checked out. Let me tell Mrs. Velvet."
And that's exactly what they did, in a more frantic, overexcited, panicked and joyous manner than what they had intended. Regardless of how they stated what had happened, Sunset was on her way to the hospital once more, and after some very thorough checks and alot of head scratching, a number of things were declared:
Some of the bandages would come off, leaving a few to protect the cuts until they either became scars or started to properly heal.
Sunset would not need to come back to hospital for another two weeks.
Her hands were fully functioning, and she would not need any help with anything.
She still was not able to feel anything below the elbow, no matter how deep the feeling should be.
She would not be required to go to school, since mentions of it clearly held deep mental pains, and until they could be resolved the experience could prove damaging to Sunset's mind.
Her ability do to more technical things, like writing or playing guitar, she would need to relearn in a different way. Why Sunset could write with her mouth baffled the doctors.
She would be offered to be held under observation, to research this 'miracle'. Sunset hastily declined.
And then before she knew it, Sunset was out of the hospital, With the two Twilights who had accompanied her in tow. The trip felt like it had hardly been twelve minutes, but it was almost dinner by the time they came out. Sunset didn't really care about that though. She was just glad she could use all her limbs again, and that she never had to go back into that putrid building for a while. She kicked out of her thoughts by a small argument occuring between her comrades.
"I told you not to bring Spike!"
"I didn't - he must've followed us here!"
"Well, either way, lets take him home."
In between the mother and daughter was a small purple and green dog with long, floppy ears Sunset had seen scampering round the house before. The younger Twilight scooped Spike into her arms and then deposited him onto the back seat, motioning Sunset to join him. Doing as asked, Sunset graciously slumped into the back seat next to the canine, who was humming a quiet tune. 'Wait, what?!'
Lowering her voice to to low whisper, Sunset hissed to the young pup. "Did you just..." She trailed off when 'Spike' gave her a sly smile and extended a claw so it pointed up over his mouth. "Right, right, of course Spike would suddenly grow exteremly intelligant when I regain use of my arms." Sunset uttered to no one imparticular. Seeing the canine's confused gaze, she just whispered "Later." and attempted to make sense of the situation.
Sunset arrived at the house, still completely and utterly baffled by the recent events, and just retired to her room, Spike following her all the way.
"So what do you want?"
"I'm worried about you, stupid!" Sunset's eyes widened in shock at the sudden vocal ability of the dog, before relaxing almost instantly.
"How- oooh. You're Spike from Equestria aren't you?"
Spike the ex-dragon spread his arms wide, as if he was trying to glorify himself. "That's me! The one and- well, I guess not quite only, but still..."
"Could you keep it down? These people don't know that I'm actually a pony!" Sunset levelled a very stern look and the creature pacing below her. Spike was not going to be swayed, almost looking unimpressed. "Fine, fine, talk all you want. I'm going to eat."
"Twily, can you see what's taken Sunset so long?"
Jumping from her seat. Twilight nodded before hurrying towards her destination. Before reaching it, however, Sunset burst out the door, with a small look of defeat in her eye. "Sorry. got distracted. By that." Sticking a thumb behind her shoulder, Twilight followed it to see Spike, happily wagging his tail at the pair. "Come on. I'm hungry."
Glancing back at the dog as they left, Twilight called out to the 'pet'. "Food is ready Spike." The canine moved so fast he might as well of teleported.
Upon reaching the dining room, Sunset joined Twilight's parents as they eagerly chatted about Shining's and Cadance's upcoming baby. Upon hearing of Shining mentioning a disturbance at Canterlot High, Sunset cringed. When she heard a substantial amount of barking come from the doorway, she cringed even further. IF she could cringe anymore, she would at the next sentences she heard.
"AW COME ON! It was going so well!"
All but the former unicorn, swiveled in shock at the voice, which was eminating from one of two purple dogs from across the room. "SPIKE! You couldn't at least be a bit discreet?"
"What was I supposed to do? He started to bark at me and then sniff me!"
"Dogs do that!"
"It's weird!"
"You're still a dog! You look like a dog! You smell like a dog! Everything about you is like. A. Dog. That means, you act like a dog, even around another dog that so happen to be your... counter... part..." Sunset trailed off as she noticed everyone staring at the strange spectacle of a 18 year old girl getting into a heated argument at a talking dog, which an identical version of which was standing right next to the bewildered family, since the canine appeared to be just as confused as they were at this point.
"Well, I'm making all the confessions recently aren't I? Do you want to start Spike or should I?" An evil grin flashing across the canine's face, he simply barked. "Ha ha. Very funny. Funny dragon. Explain that."
"Good to see you still have your manipulation techniques in case of an emergency, little miss unicorn. You guys are okay with us just talking for a bit about stuff that probably won't make sense to you at all?" He got a general chorus of 'Uh-huh.' as a yes. "Good, let's begin."
"Hello, I am Sunset Shimmer, and this is Spike. We hail from another universe, specifically the country of Equestria."
"Equestria is mostly populated by magical creatures called ponies, and most of the beings that exist in that universe are mythical here, such as griffins and hydras."
"You'd think you've done this before."
"I have, thank you very much."
"Anyway, I am one of these ponies, specifically a unicorn. The other main types of ponies that exist are pegasi and earth ponies. Unicorns can freely use and manipulate magic using their horns, making them powerful spell casters compared to the other tribes. Pegasi have wings, and they can fly, rather obviously. They can control the weather and walk on clouds, as their two main features. Earth ponies have a strong connection with the bond, allowing them to grow crops and care for animals much better than most other ponies. They are also incredibly strong."
"I am a dragon (I know right?) and I faithfully serve Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, as her number one assistant. I am currently here on mission of my own accord to check on Sunset, particularly since Princess Twilight is managing the Hearth's Warming -"
"Equestrian version of Christmas."
"- celebrations in her kingdom at the moment."
"Wait that's why you're here?"
"Stay on topic. That and she doesn't know yet."
"Anyway, I, Sunset Shimmer, am the ex-student of Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria and the alicorn (a mix of all three pony races) who controls the sun and moon."
"Just the sun now, Sunset."
"Oh yeah, I forgot Princess Luna returned. Anyway, I ran away to here from the Princess after she caught me trying to ascend to an alicorn. Long story short, I got arrogant and angry over the fact than Celestia made Princess Cadance into an alicorn so she could be the Princess of Love, and she kicked me out. Found this place, ran over here, stole a massive source of magic belonging to Princess Twilight a few years later, tried to take over Equestria with an army of teenagers. Stupid I know. Got consumed by dark magic, then saved from it. I reformed, helped stop a trio of brainwashing sirens that Equestria had dumped here a few centuries ago, and the rest is sort of history. Oh, and if the talking dog duplicate isn't enough proof..."
Sunset quickly rushed off, returning with a bag of golden coins, dumping them on the table.
"There's the equestrian currency, bits. Princess Celestia's depicted on one side if you're wondering."
"So, any questions?" Spike was now casually lounging in a a nearby chair at this point, used to lectures from Twilight it seemed. "Or is this still too weird?"
"Stupid sister... can't say an entire sentence... who needs the sun anyway? Wait, what's that? A letter from Twilight? Hmmmm... Maybe that will work..." |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 6 - Reminder | "Sunset, we don't want to upset you..."
"Or hurt you..."
"Or make it seem like we're rejecting you..."
"But we must..."
"Absolutely must ask..."
Bark!
"ARE YOU INSANE?!"
Sunset was barraged by all members of the family at once, asking if she was of right mind. She was ready for this though. She was even ready for the inevitable long silence that would follow. Or at least that's what she would have expected if Spike (the dragon) wasn't there.
"Seriously?! I alone am not enough proof for you?" The ex-dragon's face was full of semi-surprise. It was clear he had heard this before, but thought they would believe it at least a little bit due to the presence of a talking dog.
First to break the eerie stillness of the room was the younger Twilight, with slightly casual shrug. "It was worth a shot." Noticing the odd looks be given to her by the rest of her family, Twilight was quick to justify herself. "What? The talking dog is pretty hard to deny. Even I'd struggle to find an excuse for that."
Again, way too relaxed for what they had said, the family talked in unison, generally content with the fact that if Twilight believes it, anyone can.
"I ask again," Talking-Spike once again spoke up, having declared himself the director of the current flow of events. "any questions?"
Strangely enough, the family actually struggled to find a valid question, before Shining, previously the most reserved of the group, found one. "Did you say, 'Princess Twilight Sparkle'?"
"Finally." Sunset had been leaning against the nearest wall, inspecting her nails while she waited. "Yes, everyone in this world, or at least Canterlot, has a counterpart in my world of origin. and I suppose you would like to know about your counterparts?" Sunset was met with nods from all, with Spike commenting that he'll update any out dated information.
"So the Twilight Sparkle from my world..." And so, the next hours was filled with an complete information dump, which was accompanied by frantic scribbling, as the scientists in the family took notes, producing 2,528 words of transcript, filled with details of Equestria, particularly the adventures of Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic. It was strangely relaxing for something of such a strange topic, allowing the evening to pass with relative ease.
When all was said and done, everyone concerned was exhausted. With few words exchanged between anyone, they agreed they would sort out this in the morning, and the dragon would go back to Equestria, all the while assuring everyone he wouldn't get run over at all. The fact they wanted to think about this, created doubt in the thoughts of Sunset, who then struggled to sleep as a result, taunting thoughts swirling around in her head.
'Why did I say say all that? They not going to help me anymore.'
'They'll reject you. You're an alien. No place among them. You should just go. No point in staying.'
Her own thoughts continued to plant seeds if doubt throughout her conscious, until the equestrian finally succumbed to her tiredness, drifting into a deep black vision.
Now, Sunset awoke in a dungeon, back as her original species of an unicorn. It was a cold still cube, with only the barred door offering any change from the dullened brown bricks. Noting the lack of any furniture, Sunset recognised this as the cells dedicated to those who have commited great criminal acts, such as direct treason against the crown.
'It was only a matter of time, I suppose. Someone sent for guards to fetch me, and bring me here. Now I'm facing potential banishment for an act of rebellion.'
Silently, the minutes ticked by, only broken at long last by hoofsteps coming down the row of cells, stopping at the door that Sunset was staring at constantly, awaiting news of her inevitable punishment. Instead of opening like the prisoner expected, the door shimmered with a vibrant blue, allowing entry of a tall alicorn. As the light from the entrance died down, Sunset was able to get a good look at the assumed royalty. The pony was a dark blue, with her mane and tail flowing not unlike Celestia's pastel hair, only with the night sky depicted on it instead.
"Hello Sunset." Recieving only a submissive nod in return, the regal pony bent down to reach under Sunset's chin, lifting her head up. "I am Princess Luna. I would introduce myself more, but my time here limited, so let's get to the point." Seeing Sunset's ears fold down, afraid to hear what was next, the princess of the night decided to check some very important information with the unicorn in front of her. "You are aware this is a dream, yes?"
"A drea- wha- wh-?"
"Well now you are, so listen." Sighing, as if in slight frustration, Luna simply sat down in front of Sunset, beginning to say what she needed to say. "I have been aware of your predicament, and despite my best efforts, I have been unable to inform my sister due to various... complications. Princess Twilight is now also aware of your situation, having sent a very panicked letter to Celestia commenting that Spike is missing, you may be in trouble, and she is seven ribbons short for the town decorations, as well as the breakage of a box of baubles. My sister has not seen the letter yet, and when she does she will most likely come over. I am also aware that Spike was in your world, since he sent a message to me to intercept the forementioned letter."
The amber unicorn, blinked several times, processing a new bit of information with each one. "O-okay... You are telling me this because?"
"I wanted to ask your permission to actually tell Celestia, because she will most likely rush over to your world looking for you. And don't think about it for too long. Since I am literally crossing dimensions to speak to you, my power's limited. As you can see, this dream is already disintergrating." Nodding to the wall next to them, Sunset could certainly see that the stone was being replaced by a void.
Sighing, Sunset was certainly reluctant to see Celestia again, but she knew it was going to be inevitable. "Well, go ahead. It's going to happen sooner or later."
With that, Luna dispersed the dreamscape, since it was starting to strain her power, but not before leaving a message. "Please remember that Celestia has..." Her words were drowned out as the crackling energies flowed back into her.
'Celestia's done what?!'
Slowly but surely, Sunset was shocked from her slumber by the rather panicked voice of Twilight Sparkle. Forcing her senses to activate, the buzzing sounds were converted into coherent words. "Sunset!"
"Urrhh. What is it Twilight?" Looking around the room, she noted that Velvet was missing from the recliner, and it was late in the morning. In her dream, she had been able to feel her forehooves, but any hope of that being reflected in real life was demolished as she pushed herself off of the bed, not feeling the covers.
"There's this crazy woman shouting at the house, saying something about her.... son...."
"What? What is it?" Twilight only directed a finger in a general direction past her shoulder. Craning her head around, Sunset found herself facing a wall of fire, seemingly sprouting from her back. "....Oh."
"I DEMAND THAT YOU RETURN MY SUN THIS INSTANT!" |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 7 - Together | While the mystery woman shouted, Sunset found herself more focused on the folded pair of wings made of fire that was attached to her back, directly where two scars were streaked down next to her spine. Muttering various swears of suprise to herself, the ex-unicorn started to recognise the wings. "The phoenix flight spell..."
"What?" Twilight Sparkle, still panicking from the verbal attack on the house, was standing in the doorway, clutching the frame as if there was an earthquake.
"It's the phoenix flight spell. First piece of magic I ever mastered. It's what got me my cutie mark." Sunset found herself hovering with the wings at this point, delighted to be able to use magic properly again.
"Cutie mark? The symbol on your flank, right?" Sunset nodded, once again reminded of the lecture from yesterday, how Spike had helped left a great amount of tension on herself but also make her worry. A lot. And judging by the rather royal tone the person was using to scream at the house, Sunset's fears from her dream may have become realised. Nevertheless, Sunset gathered the various accepting feelings she had been using for the past couple of days to deal with the dramatic changes, and walked out, wearing the blood stained leather jacket, which the wings had phased through, just to make a point to the stranger, who continued to scream at the house, unrelenting in her verbal assualt.
"RETURN HER!"
"Sunset!" Velvet was almost cowering against a wall, next to a window that displayed the perculiar scene. "Do you know who... she... is..." The already pale woman turned even palier as she eyed to fire sprouting from Sunset's back.
"I'll explain the fire later. And no I don't know who she- wait." Sunset eyed the raging woman with careful examination, letting out a small exhale as she started to note the colour of hair, the way she moved, and the odd glow being given off. "No- it's- I-"
"Who, Sunset? Who is she?!"
"That's..." Struggling for composure at this point, Sunset made a decision, stiffening herself. "Get me out to the back yard." Seeing that Night Light was about to ask for an actual answer from his hiding spot, she made her objective clear. "Now."
"LET ME SEE MY SUN. I DEMAND IT!"
'I wish it didn't have to come to this, but I traced her life force here. Judging from what I've been told, she needs me.' The woman, more frustrated than angry by this stage, started to stomp the ground, not caring for the other people in the neighborhood, who had either gone into hiding, or went somewhere to call the police, only to be met with static, with only a few select messages able to get through the mysterious field.
"CELESTIA!" The white skinned woman shot her head up to the source of her name. One Sunset Shimmer, complete with a pair of fiery wings and still glowing pony ears, even a horn made of light, stood upon the roof, looking down on the princess. "I am not going back to Equestria! I will not rot in one of your dungeons! And I don't care if I have to face a sun goddess to accomplish this, for I have earned my freedom!" With a yell of frustration, Sunset used her wings to her full advantage, grabbing Princess Celestia and rocketing them both up to the heavens, away from the only pair of eyes watching them. And the owner of the eyes was pink. Very pink.
The resulting fight lasted what seemed like a decade. Though, if one was able to see them past the clustered storm clouds that surrounded them, it would appear that they were caught in a loop: Sunset would dive at Celestia, who was now levitating, only to miss the target as Celestia teleported out of the way. A blast of fire was then directed at the Princess, who absorbed it in a shield, blasting it back at Sunset. She, in turn, absorbed the fireball with her wings, using the new energy to release a blinding light from her horn, only to charge at Celestia again, repeating their agressive dance.
Gradually, both sides started to sense something was up. Sunset noticed Celestia was only going on the offense when she had to, while Sunset was not putting that much fight into her attacks, rendering them useless, despite clearly having the power to form near-fatal attacks. Changing from their routine, they both decided to test each other's power, firing a thick beam at their opponent at the exact same time. It met in between them, clashing as each attack struggled for control. Trying to put more power into the beam, they both came closer to each other, making the beams instify, before they both spluttered out of existence.
The two magical beings floated away from each other, almost mirroring their own movements. Seeing that they were both misunderstanding of the situation, they both asked each other for the same wish.
"STOP!"
All fighting tensions ceased, just as they had commanded. However, just as much tension was reintroduced as they engaged in silently looking at each, examining the contrasting appearances of the two.
Sunset was still wearing her jacket, symbolising many signs of the past. Bearing the scorch marks from her defeat at the fall formal, blood stains from her recent suicide attempt, two holes in the back of her jacket, caused by both the dark magic wings and her current phoenix wings. Light bandages were wrapped around her lower arms and hands, there to allow the scars to form properly. Her face was one of mixed emotion, but she was clearly in pain because of them, as she was crying fiercely. Her current magic potential was also apparant because of this, looking more and more like a phoenix - her hair had started to shine and flow, giving the effect of being on fire, and her wings were glowing tremendously, radiating heat at a great rate. But most noticable were her eyes, glowing, their colour shifting between a deep red and pure white. And there were the tears. They flowed from the heated pools, almost floating as they left Sunset's face. It appeared she was crying actual magma, both from the heat and the colour.
Princess Celestia, on the other hand, was still using a more stoic expression, attempting to remain calm, but the twitching of her face betrayed her conflicted emotions, though it was impossible to read exactly what emotions were fighting. She was in regal robe, reflecting her status of royalty. The white sheets that flowed about her whipped in the wind, while the crown she was wearing reflected the light her opponent was giving off, as if attempting the balance out the power between them. Her pastel hair freely shook, as the air wrapped around it, going in every direction possible, while still maintaining the sky-like look. Starting to grasp the reality of both parties, Celestia gave a signal in the form of a carefully placed nod, to which Sunset only looked down, almost in shame, and they then descended together, each avoiding eye contact, and remaining a steady distance apart.
"Are they still fighting?"
"Who was it?"
"Where are they now?"
By this stage, Cadance and Shining Armor had answered Night Light's frantic messages, which had gotten through during a momentary lapse in the srambling spell Celestia had cast, and arrived, along with a complete myriad of questions. Spike the dog had managed to sleep through the entire ordeal, but was now in a confused state, almost attmepting to drown out the noise with his barking.
"STOP!" Velvet's voice shook throught the household, silencing all. "Let's be at least slightly calm about this."
"Alright," The younger Twilight was already thinking up a way to go about this, about to present it to her family. "Let's recap. Again."
Night Light slowly crawled out of his cowering underneath the table, starting off the listing of recent events. "We took care of Sunset, who attempted suicide after being abandoned by her friends." Velvet had accidently let slip of the reasoning behind Sunset's injuries as they were preparing for Christmas, but they had agreed not to mention it to Sunset. Velvet had hoped not to to something like that, but with the pressure she was under, she had no choice.
"Sunset then claimed, and kind of proved she was from another dimension, where she was suppossedly a unicorn." Twilight spoke up next, thinking of herself as being the best one to take apart fact and fiction.
"She then proved that further by waking up the next day with wings made of fire, and horse ears on her head." Velvet was still recovering from witnessing actual magic, which was strange considering the scientists appeared to be hardly phased by it.
"Sunset then flew using those wings and grabbed the random woman who was shouting at the house and was dressed like some kind of greek goddess, flying above the clouds." Shining finished off, using the only piece of information he had been told since arriving.
"Okay, so we know Sunset is magical, and there's nothing wrong with that, she still a human. But..." Cadance then asked the question everyone was wanting to know. "what do we do with her?"
The silence that ensued was agonising. They were even ignorant to the thunder that erupted from above them, as the two equestrians were engaged in their immense battle, it sounded as if reality was being reassembled around them.
"I can answer that." A small voice spoke, seemingly emmitting from Spike, who looked just as confused as the humans, only he was barking at the hidden magic duel, only to stop, then sniffing the air in search of the new speaker. Who turned out to be himself. Again. "You accept her."
"Pinkie! Ya'll called us here, it's Christmas day, and yes, only two of us turned up, but what did you see?!"
"TherewasthisbrightlightandsomeonewaslevitatingandtheotherwaswingsandfireandstuffandIdidn'tknowwhattodosoIgotyoutocomehere'cosIthinkit'smagicandwedomagicalotbutIdunnoanymore'costhisisconfusingevenmoremeImeancanyouevenunderstandmerightnownoprobablynotIdon'tevenknowsocouldyouhelpmeandsomeonejustcutmeoffalre-."
"Darling, while I appreciate you are probably worried, could you please say words me and Applejack can understand?"
"Okay. Right. So there was these two people, there was one with wings, and it looked like she was on fire but not actually on fire, and she grabbed the other one up, the other one didn't have wings but could float, so it must be magic, and the other one was all royal looking and stuff! She was shouting at the house that she needed her son or something, but no one was answering until the fire one was on the roof. OOO! Do you think she's looking for Charles?!"
"Charl- nevermind. Do y'know what the other one said, if anything?"
"It began with a C... uh... I think- hey is that Twi-"
"You're talking about Celestia. Now... What. Did. You. Do?" |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 8 - Confrontations | "You're the Spike from the other universe aren't you?" The human Twilight Sparkle had her head cocked to the side, not unlike her pet.
"Yeah, yeah it's me. Unlike yesterday, where I came to comfort Sunset and instead spilled alot of secrets, I'm here for more... official reasons."
"But what do you mean 'accept her'?" Spike wasn't even sure who said that, just that he knew it was coming, and he knew exactly what to say.
"She's still a living being. An intelligent one at that. One with a strange past, and an even stranger family. A being that may have a bad life recently, and needs others to get back on track, but is getting there, slowly but surely. And most importantly, she deserves a good life. She has been through things no other being can imagine. Everyone is unique, just she is more than others."
It was perfect. Spike said it just how he rehearsed, and the reaction was... different. Mainly, by the time he had finished, they had noticed Sunset was coming down with the mysterious woman, and they weren't fighting either, so none of them were giving their full attention to Spike, much to his frustration.
"HEY! Look, I know my inspirational thingy wasn't that good, but there is actually quite a serious point to all this!" At this, the entire family turned to him, slowly, with a raised eyebrow, their curiousity taken. 'Ooookay...that's creepy...'
"Whaddya mean what did we do?" Applejack was certainly not expecting this surprise entrance by her other worldly friend.
Instead of the usual nerd dressed in the plain attire the portal gives Twilight Sparkle, the trio of friends was confronted by an extremely angry looking Princess Twilight Sparkle, who appeared in a much more regal attire, consisting of a purple wrapped robe, her crown, and scattered pieces of armour, which gave off a multicoloured glint The portal had evidently decided she was here for much more serious reasons, and not to help a group of friends. Perhaps even more intimidating was the two dozen men behind her, who were all clad in golden armour. All had a mohawk sticking though their helmet, which changed colour depending on their skin colour, creating a very uniform look. To add to the threatening look, each of them grasped a gleaming spear, all planted on the floor, ready to charge, if the need arose.
"Do I really have to explain the situation? Alright, one moment." Turning to the armoured unit behind her, the princess of friendship sternly gave out orders. "Find and locate Princess Celestia. Do not approach her, she is likely to be rather volatile. When you do find her, use the communicators to signal your location, where everyone shall converge. Try to avoid attention, but Celestia takes priority. Am I understood?"
Getting a chorus of 'Yes, Princess', Princess Twilight gave a satistfied nod and allowed the soldiers to disperse in various directions.
Rarity was the first to speak out, leaving Applejack and Pinkie in a slight daze. "Not that we don't appreciate you visiting, but who were those people? And, as Applejack did ask, what did we do?"
"Those soldiers were part of the elite royal guard, trained to protect the princesses in any situation, including other dimensions. As for what's going on..." Twilight gave out a very long sigh, pinching her nose, venting some of her frustration. "Okay, right. Not fifteen minutes ago, Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, rushed into the portal on the edge of furious tears, in response to letter I sent to her concerning Sunset's situation. I immediately alerted the royal guard, who sent this unit to assist the princess in a potentially hostile enviroment. From what I learned from Spike, you three plus Rainbow Dash and possibly Fluttershy are responsible for Sunset being hurt, and as a result this entire mess. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for my questions, and then I shall leave." Twilight never broke her stance, utilising her position as a princess to assert her power.
"Twilight!" Spike dashed in, panting furiously, just like a... well, dog.
"What is it Spike?"
"I just came from where Sunset and Celestia is. Come on, we need to go!" Spike immediately sprinted back out of the cafe, waiting for Twilight to follow.
Twilight started to march out a some speed, but not before she had pulled a blue crystal from an almost invisible pocket, and touched it in such a way it started to glow, allowing it to float in her palm, focusing on it. All the while, Twilight fixed the trio with a glare that said 'I'll deal with you later.'
"Guards, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, home in on my location, I'm currently on my way to the Princess." Twilight put the gem back in the pouch, as it ceased to glow. Seeing that the trio was about to stand, Twilight paused at the door, glancing back at them will a cold stare. "Do not follow me."
The three friends stood in shock, ashamed at themselves, as it dawned on them something was, or rather is, very, very wrong.
"I'm sorry, Princess..."
"We both are, Sunset, we both are..."
The two equestrians embraced in the back yard of the house, while the rest of the family simply stood in awe in the sight - both of them were glowing intensely, melting the snow around them, but no one of them noticed that there was a slight bit of music emmiting from the guess room...
"There they are!"
Yet another yell at the front of the house roused them from their trance - where perhaps an either stranger scene was playing out - a girl, dressed not that dissimilar to Celestia, led a large group of armoured men to the front of the house. Night Light was the first to scream in panic.
"Who are they? Are they going to arrest us?" All of which was quickly followed up by Velvet, who had the common sense to assure him that they were here for the Princess, he was absolutely fine, and someone should go answer the door before they knocked it down. Shining, putting on his 'policeman' stance, obliged, with a suprisingly calm and expecting tone.
"Let me guess, you're from Equestria and are here for the two people glowing fire in the back? There's a side gate to the left, it's unlocked." Normally, anyone would be shocked by the way Shining turned around after instructing the burly men just to use 'the side entrance', but the Royal Guards were too duty bound to care. Princess Twilight, who was more suprised by the appearance of her brother in this world, instructed the soldiers to remain here, out of sight of anyone who might happen to pass by. Obeying their orders, the guard took various positions around the house, carefully remaining out of sight of the princess of the sun. However, one remained, one different from the rest of the squad - and not only because he was heavily panting for breath.
Instead of the polished gold that made up the rest of the unit, this man wore a lavender armour, bordered by a dull gold, and instead of just the spear the others had, this man also carried a purple shield, which contained are pink star in the middle. He was also pacing on all fours, for some reason.
Taking the sign of the open door as a sign of being allowed in, the two remaining people at the front of the house went in, but not before the girl had helped the armoured 'idiot' to a standing position, informing him that hands are not used for standing.
Once inside the house, the girl confronted the family, who were previously cowering behind the table, near terrified of the armoured man, despite him still attemtping to recover his breath.
"So. Can I assume you know of Equestria?" Only getting nervous nods from three of the family, the robed girl decided to introduce herself, only to trail off, as she slowly started to recognise who she was talking to. "I am Princess.... oh. Oh."
"Yeah, yeah, Twilight meet Twilight, Shining meet Shining, Spike already met Spike, we're all happy, can we get on with this please? It's Hearth's Warming and I want my rubies!" The impatient voice turned out to be Spike the Dragon, who had been pacing around the house ever since he got back from fetching Twilight, claiming he got help, which no one really believed.
The next few minutes consisted of the two Shinings staring at each other, the Twilights rapidly asking questions, all the while avoiding proper answers, and Spike the Dragon attempting to prevent his counterpart from sniffing... him, while complaining that he had to go to another dimension on a holiday. They were only interrupted when Sunset and Celestia finally came inside.
"Right. This is confusing." Sunset was the first to speak her opinion. "Okay, wait before anyone asks anyone anything, I don't know. This is moving too fast for me. So I'm just gonna pass out now." And she did, leaving the rest to stare in shock.
Once everyone had calmed down, and after the fire made by the wings on the unconcious Sunset was extinguished, Celestia revived Sunset, who woke up mumbling something about Luna's powers. Seeing the strange situation that she had been placed in, Sunset decided to try and sort out everything herself, giving her a tiny level of control. "Right. So. Princess Twilight Sparkle, Prince-Consort Shining Armour, Princess Celestia, Spike, meet Twilight Velvet, Twilight Sparkle, Night Light, Sergeant Shining Armor, Cadance and Spike." All the mentioned names merely nodded in acknowledgement, still too stunned to react properly, excluding Celestia, who Sunset turned to remorsefully. "Princess, I know we sorted out out difference back there, and we forgave each other but you never told me - what are you doing here? It's Hearth's Warming, I'd thought you would be busy with that."
"That's... complicated, Sunset." Celestia clearly showed strain as a result of their conflict, showing Sunset that she may have fought harder than she intended. "Well, I think... I think I'd rather let Princess Twilight explain, if that's alright." Celestia turned to Twilight, only to reliese it was the human one, before rotating further to Princess Twilight, who did indeed open her mouth to speak, only to be cut off by her brother.
"I hate to interrupt, your highness, but the only reason the rest of us are here is to fetch you. you weren't exactly... subtle in how you got to the portal and that caused quite a bit of disturbance, and now rumours are flying round that there's some new disaster. We'd need to dispel these before there's some sort of riot, and it seems they'll only listen to you."
"Then go back throught the portal. I shall join you soon enough. And do take the guards there, I know they were sent here too, and I am more than able to fend for myself, thank you very mu-"
"Captain!" A guard had appeared in the doorway, while Prince Shining wobbly stood up, only just balancing against the wall behind him, before motioning to the solider to continue. "We caught three girls. They recognised you and the Princesses. They also recognised us as Royal Guards."
"Then bring them in, Private." The guard turned to do so, swiftly returning with three girls that were easily recognisable thanks to the plastic looking necklaces that contained very poorly repaired gems.
"OWOWOW! Let go! Hey is that-?"
Deadpanning, Sunset spoke up. "Oh look, it's the sirens. Come for more magic have you?" Sunset flared her wings for effect.
"No that's not what we-" The purple one was quick to defend herself, carefully clamping the blue one's mouth shut, which failed as she got cut off.
"We needed magic to fully repair our gems so we could try again and we saw the magic releases and-"
"Ahem. Yes, we wanted to repair our gems, but we didn't realise it came off of the ruler of Equestria herself, along with two of her pets." The third one, who was yellow, attempted to justify herself, unsuccessfully.
"Guard, get them out of here, and ensure they don't come back." Sunset did not want to deal with this at all. Today, she had found she possessed powerful magic in this world, met up with her old teacher, then fought her, then silently settle their differences, and then she may have to deal with some old enemies. 'Avoiding the last one would be nice.'
Looking for the Princess for approval, she nodded, before the solider did a small bow, pulling the intruders out of the room. A series of small thuds could be heard outides, followed by a variety of equestrian curses.
"Princess, it's nice to see you and all, but would it be better if you came back tomorrow? It's a holiday in both universes, and Equestria needs you more than me." Celestia was about to object, but stopped when Sunset put up a bandaged hand. "Look, if we can meet up tomorrow, I'll explain everything that has happened. Lets just enjoy our Christmas or Hearth's Warming, and we can work everything out tomorrow." Sunset prepared to stop Celestia again, expecting her to make some statement about how she is much more important, but instead the princess simply nodded.
"If that's what you want. You mean a lot to me, maybe more than Equestria, but I shall respect your wishes." With that Celestia simply nodded her farewells, motioning for the rest to follow her, which they did. Celestia gave one last look at Sunset, who was just staring into her lap, before reluctantly leaving, creating one big anticlimax. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 9 - Festivities! | Once all of the Equestrian visitors were back through the portal, and Sunset got her magic to die down a little so she wouldn't accidently set stuff on fire, the family attempted to get on with Christmas Day normally. However, there was one complication they hadn't taken into account: Twilight Sparkle.
"Did you actually need the horn? Why was it made of light? What were the wings? Why does Equestria have so much gold? Who-"
"Waitwaitwait. What was that about gold? I mean I know gold is in mass abundance in Equestria, but why would..."
"These coins." Twilight held us the hefty bag full of bits, before dropping it with a gasp, leaving it to spill out onto the table. "24-carat gold. Must be worth... $1375 a piece. And there's about, what..." Sunset left her to count the golden coins out, still processing the information she had been told. "199, 200, 201, 202," Twilight continued to count, before finally reaching her total. "345, 346, 347! So that's...$477125! That's... Sunset?"
The girl was holding one of the coins, staring at it with a wide gaping mouth, with eyes even wider. 'I could've... I am... oh Celestia...'
"Are you saying... that I could... that I didn't need to be... oh Celestia... I really had no reason to be homeless after all of that, did I? Almost close to half a million. Heh. Ha. Hhahah, HAHAHAHAA!" Slightly, actually no, very concerned for Sunset's wellbeing, the family looked around at each other, then back at the girl who was now laughing, dangerously close to being mistaken for a maniac. "Oh... heheheeeha! That is SO ironic! I spend all my time taking over a school, then all my time making friends, so I never fouind out anything about that! I mean I knew gold was worth something, but... wow!"
"S-Sunset?" Night Light was staring at her with scared eyes now, perhaps even slightly intimidated. "You g-good?"
"Woo, yeah. I'm fine. Haven't laughed like that since... eeheeheeee! Okay, NOW I'm good. Thanks, I needed that." She looked up to the family, having doubled over in her fit of laughter.
"I wasn't joking."
"Oh, I know. That. Is. Hilarious!" Sunset slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent it from letting loose another bout of giggles. "Sorry to be an inconvinience, but could you possibly bring me somewhere? I need to fetch some more of my possessions. Just realised I left some stuff I'd like to have back."
"This wouldn't happen to do with you new found wealth, would it?" Velvet raised an eyebrow at the girl, not wanting to encourage greed.
"Only because it reminded me of something." Sunset let out a knowing wink, before whirling around to no one in particular. "So, anyone going to take me? Or is it too much to ask?" Despite becoming comfortable with asking for things from her adoptive family, she still didn't want to impose.
"I'll take her." Shining Armor stood up, with Cadance copying him. "Provided Dad can be trusted not to destroy anything while we're gone." The father shot a glare at his son, but when he didn't get a reaction, Night Light slumped in defeat, allowing the blue haired man to walk out the door, with his wife and Sunset.
After a few 'detours', which eventually led Cadance to take over driving, Sunset was driven back to the area were she previously took shelter. After parking and locating the alley that used to contain a makeshift shelter, Sunset walked over to a large mound of snow, which she presumed covered the wreckage. Shining, meanwhile, appeared to be examining a dark patch of ground, which was devoid of any snow. Cadance paced up behind him, with a curious look on her face, but she shook it off, turning to walk to Sunset.
"Come on dear, you can use your police skills later."
The officer's head shot up and his wife, trying to look stern. "Maybe, but I think there was blood here." Rubbing the ground, he found dark red spots showed on his gloves momentarily. "Hmph. Fairly recently too."
"That's most likely mine." Sunset was crouched down in front of the mound of whiteness, slowly freeing it's contents. "Hurn. This was where I used to li- stay. Someone help me clear this mess?" She gestured to the pile of scrap laid out before her.
Shining stood up and slowly made his way over to her, reaching down to a heavy wooden beam and starting to heft it up. Cadance was helping Sunset move a large sheet of metal out of the way, but she also had a concerned look in her eye. "This is where you lived?!"
"For almost three years, yeah. Or at least until it collapsed, which was just before... yeah. Got away with the excuse that I was from a bad foster home, and refused to go into one under any circumstances. Now, I know I could go through the portal as of a month or two ago, but I made a life here, and I don't want to leave it behind."
"Sunset..."
"While I would appreciate the grand speech on asking others for help and so on and so forth, I understand now. I really do. I wouldn't have asked to come here otherwise."
"No, it's something else. Velvet wanted me to ask you this in a more private scenario, so I suppose this is as good time as any." The woman put a hand on the girl's back, and ran it down the jacket in two spots inparticular. "The medical report said there were three scars on your back, much older than the ones on your arms, and in almost impossible locations for you to do it yourself."
Sunset pulled away from the gentle touch, and turned. "Remember what I said about turning into a demon? That's the price of dark magic. Any extra appendages are removed forcefully, including wings and tail. The wounds turned into scars instantly, that's it. They don't hurt, they're just yet another reminder of my mistakes."
They spent the rest of the work in relative silence before most of the collapse roof was shifted, and Sunset was digging through the snow in search of lost possessions. "Ah ha!" Sunset tossed a bag over her shoulder, not that dissimilar to the pouch of bits from earlier. Only this one was much larger. Not paying much attention to it, she continued to root through random objects.
"Is that more..." The couple were eying the package, curious to its contents.
"Bits, yes. About three times as many, making me own two million dollars. I figure if I'm going to lead a proper life here, I might as well get the funds to do it. I kept these, thinking I could sell them to a museum as artifacts, and the others were back up if I ever had to stay in Equestria." Sunset continued to scrape the snow away from the ground, before shaking her head in dissapointment. "Dammit. Not here, or broken. Oh well."
"What were you looking for?"
"Personal items, both from here and Equestria. Nothing too important, but nice reminders of the past. Not that it matters too much anyway." Sunset sighed again, but did not continue to search, instead opting to drag the sack of gold back to the car. "Come on. This was a bust."
"So the huge amount of gold wasn't worth the trip?"
"Money means power in this world, and as you should know by now, I hate having power. Or at least now I do. Still, I can use it to do some good in the world, at the least stop the bad." Sunset finished hauling the bag of coins into the car, gesturing for the others to get in too. Seating herself in the back, she chuckled to herself before peering into the bag. "Better get to counting. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7..."
"You'd better not keep on counting out loud." With those words, an devilishly evil grin spread across the young girl's face.
"212, 213, 214..."
"Yeah, yeah we get it you're rich, now shut up!"
"Now I lost count. One, two..."
"NO!"
"Skip a few, 99, 100!"
"746, 747, 748..."
"SHUT UP!"
"Tsk. One, two..."
"NOOOOO!"
"1039, 1040, 1041! Exactly three times the smaller bag! So that's...1431375! And..."
"We're here, Ms. Multimillionaire."
"$1908500 total! Which does not make a multimillionaire, thank you very much."
"Yeah, yeah. Now get inside!" For about the seven billionth time, Shining Armor rolled his eyes, ushering his passengers into the house.
The three other family members were waiting patiently at the table, talking about the recent events. Before they noticing Sunset doing a poor imitation of Santa Claus, hauling a small sack over her shoulder. "Ho-ho-ho. Merry Christmas." With that, she slung the bag onto the floor, exposing the treasure within.
"That's what you were looking for?" Velvet looked at the haul in a dissapointed way, giving a quick glare to Sunset.
"No, I couldn't find anything I was looking for. This is literally all I could salvage. Not the most personal value, but still..."
"How much?" Twilight was already reaching for the gold, before her father smacked the hand away.
"Almost $2 million, in total." Seeing the other family members' reactions, she shrugged. "I probably should be reacting more to this, but money isn't of as much importance in Equestria as it is here. We barter, alot."
"I suppose I should ask: What are you going to do with them?" Night Light was almost drooling at the sight of such a valuable figure.
"If I stay here: donate some to charity, some to friends, use it to create an actual life for myself. Hey, it could even be used to get actual records. If I go back to Equestria, then I'll take most of it, since it isn't worth nowhere near as much over there, and probably give the rest to people I know." Sunset was becoming more and more casual by the second, showing almost no sign of being excited over becoming one of the richest people in Canterlot.
Night Light just nodded, causing Sunset to start to drag the two masses of gold away. "Look, I thought we'd agreed to leave this magic stuff -" Sunset took the time to glance at Twilight in annoyance. "- behind us for today. It's even a holiday in Equestria, for Celestia's sake, so maybe we just ignore this and go about today normally?" Grunting, Sunset gave one extra large tug before falling into the room she was staying in. the other occupants of the house could here the light metallic clanging of the coins against each other and the floor, as well as the quiet giggling that their owner emmited.
Once everyone had gotten over the revelation of a complete treasure trove now residing in her house, and Sunset had attempted to stop Twilight's questioning with duct tape, the household settled down for the afternoon, eating lunch out at a local restaurant that had managed to be open on Christmas Day.
"Sunset, have you decided if you're going to stay at CHS, or go to Crystal Prep like Twilight?" Sunset knew this question would come up, and had given it some thought as a result. She knew what she wanted to do, but she didn't know what was best for her.
"Well, I haven't decided yet. While I'd like to salvage my life and Canterlot High, I honestly don't know if it'll be possible. I might go back the first week, and see how it goes." Sunset continued to eat her meal, having developed quite an appreciation for good food over her years of homelessness.
It was the only real question directed at Sunset throughout the meeting, since all the other questions were banned due to them being magic related, and Sunset simply busied herself with what she was eating, letting the other conversations continue around her, until one query imparticular picked up her attention again.
"Cadance, you said you had something to say concerning Twilight and Cinch. Now's a good time as any."
"Alright. You know I took you to that meeting with Cinch?" Twilight, almost surprised by the sudden question, just nodded. "Well, it was bugged. We know what she said, all of it."
The younger girl's eyes lit up in hope, swiftly turning to her sister-in-law to hear what she was about to say. "Does that mean?"
"Cinch is now being investigated by the school board for various possible offences." Twilight just gave out a victorious gasp, seemingly delighted with what she had just been told.
Night Light put up his hand, as if looking for attention from a teacher. "Uh, can we get some context?" He looked to Twilight, though he got no response since she was hyperventilating from yet another surprise. Shining Armor filled in for her.
"Cinch was attempting to blackmail Twi into entering the Friendship Games later in the Spring. Her application to university came up multiple times."
"Twilight..." Velvet had reached over and put her hand on her daughter's shoulder, comforting her. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"It was Christmas, and I just- I don't know, didn't want anybody's holiday to be ruined, that's all."
"Twilight." Sunset was standing now, and had wandered over to where Twilight was sitting. "You should never hold anything back from your friends, and never, ever your family. I didn't have any family, and I drove all possible friends away from me. When I finally did get some friends, I kept everything about me to myself, and ended up becoming completely homeless, even managing to get myself kicked out of an abandoned factory! Eventually, all that secrecy built up and led to all of... this!" By this stage, Sunset was gesturing with her bandaged arms, making less and less sense, but still keeping a firm tone in her voice. Susnet was broken out of her encouraging rant by a lavender pair of arms wrapping around her waist.
"Thanks, Sunset." Twilight smiled warmly up at the other girl, letting any negative emotions slip away from her. After a short while, Sunset gently slipped away from the embrace, and returned to her seat, earning soft looks from everyone. While she had everyone's attention, she decided to bring up a matter that had been eating away at her for days.
"Sorry to spoil to mood, but can I ask something?" Several nods. "I appreciate what you've done for me, but this is only temporary. What's going to go on after the holidays." Night Light shot a glance at his wife, earning a response in the affirmitive.
"When we were out, we were talking about some subjects, and you deserve to know..."
As soon as Sunset had left the house to fetch some possession, the remaining three people were around the table, talking about the plans for Christmas day. They decided to open presents after lunch, then turned their thoughts to other matters. "Dad..."
"Hmm?"
"You know how Sunset is only meant to be staying with us until a proper foster home is found, right?"
"Well, that's what's meant happen, but..." Night Light trailed off, acting like he was losing hope.
"What?" Twilight returned his deflating look on her father's face with one that showed confusion.
"What he's trying to say is that we might adopt her. If she want to of course." Velvet entered to room having gone to get snacks, and seeing Twilight's still confused expression, she decided trying to attempt to get a reaction out of her. "So what do you think? Is she... sister material?"
The younger girl's face instantly lit up in excitement, and it took all of her willpower not to yell. "Of course she is! Yes! I mean she-"
"Twilight." Her father put a firm hand on her shoulder. "Lets not think about it too much now, eh? No point in making plans if she says no."
"A-alright."
"So you want to adopt me?" Sunset raised her eyerbows while she sipped from her drink. "Alright. It would be nice to have a family here." Sunset took another sip, before her eyes went wide and she almost choked on her drink. "Not that I would take you for granted, it's just that-"
"Is everyone finished? Because I think it would be better to do this in private, hm?" While slightly offended about being cutoff by Cadance, Sunset was quite thankful about it, unless she wanted to start hyperventilating. Regardless of her reaction, everyone agreed this was not the place to make a fuss, and decided to table the matter until they got home. Which was starting to become a habit for all of them.
Soon enough, they were on their way home, while Sunset was humming a small tune to herself, something that Twilight picked up on. "What's that song, Sunset?"
"Huh? Oh..." Sunset shook her head clear of thoughts, finding the answer to her possible sister's question. "Something from Equestria. I told you about Heath's Warming?"
"The equivilant of Christmas which celebrates Equestria's founding?"
"Yeah, that. It's just an old carol, one that's my family used to sing. Haven't heard it for over a decade."
Twilight scratched her head sheepishly, and looked to Sunset. "We have this tradition where we sing old carols. Do you think you could.. do that with us? With maybe one of the Equestrian ones?"
Sunset brightened up at the thought, not that she could be much happier at this point in time. She had come to enjoy teaching Equestrian history and other facts, so much so that Sunset considered become a teacher if she returned to Equestria with a fresh start. "Sure! Not that one though. I don't remember the words. I think I might be able to do something with my guitar too..."
The rest of the ride was spent in relative silence, mostly with the occupants thinking of what was to come.
Sunset got in, happy to be back in the full warmth of a house, and stretched fingers out. While she was happy she could move them again, she was still annoyed at herself was losing all feeling in her hands, permamently. She knew it wasn't just her fault, but the shred of selfloathing that had survived the battle of the bands forced itself upon her. She was ripped from her negative thoughts by Twilight who was calling her to do the carol, which she seemed very excited about. Maybe she was just being very excitable as a result of recent events. Still, Sunset said she'd so this, and would continue to do so, as soon as she'd fetched her guitar. Once everything was set up, and Sunset had decided on a song, she started to strum her guitar, idly setting on a chair. This wasn't the best instrument to play this song, nor was it meant to be sung by one person, but she improvised nevertheless. Getting into the tune of the song, she put it onto loop through her speaker, allowing to start to sing to her audience, now including Spike, facing them directly, swaying her now free hands gently.
"As dawn shines on us every morn
The fire of friendship is reborn
And all the friendships we have made
We cherish in every way"
Sunset paced over to the family, shaking grabbing Night Light by the hands, much to his surprise.
"Loyalty binds us and makes us strong"
She then shook Shining Armor's hand gently, giving a soft smile all the while.
"Honesty shows that we belong"
Velvet was next, as Sunset locked arms with her and gave a small embrace.
"And kindness shared will unite us through each day"
Wandering back to her guitar, Sunset added in a quiet melody to go with the next part of the song, moving so she was illuminated by the window light.
"The fire of friendship lives in our hearts
As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart
Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few
Laughter and singing will see us through
We are a circle of pony friends
A circle of friends we'll be to the very end"
She could feel the magic all around her, wrapping itself around it's user. A new kind of warmth rose from within Sunset, not one from any magical wings, nor natural fire. It was something being loved, but magical none the less, as evidenced by the pony ears that emerged from the red and yellow hair.
"Though the winter brings all its cold and storm
The glow in our hearts keeps us warm
The friends we now call our family
Will always see us through"
The girl grabbed Spike, tossing him slightly up in the air, as her smile started to widen.
"Loyalty binds us and makes us strong"
Sunset gently threw Spike to Twilight, letting her set him down, before moving to Cadance, hugging her as warmly as possible, giggling a little.
"Honesty shows that we belong"
Spinning her way to Twilight, she locked arms, rotating each other around themselves.
"And kindness shared will unite us through each day"
Sunset moved back to her instrument, adding a little more to the music, creating a setup for the finale. By now everyone was participating in some way, singin, clapping or dancing along with the carol. More mgaic flowed around, and to Sunset it felt wonderful. It was not intense like the fight earlier today, nor was it gentle like the other times she played music. It was just... warm. Nice even. It was welcoming, accepting, and just made Sunset want to embrace it, so she did, creating her various magical appendages to appear, and she teleported out of the window, above the garden to really finish off the performance.
"The fire of friendship lives in our hearts
As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart
Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few
Laughter and singing will see us through
We are a circle of pony friends
A circle of friends we'll be to the very end!"
Flourishing with all her blazing glory, Sunset twisted around in mid air, allowing the heated snow to melt as it fell, creating quite a light show for the occupants of the house, but no one else, since the illusion spell around the garden prevented any snoopers. qaround of applause erupted from the window, which framed a selection of smiling faces, clearly impressed by the performance. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | CHS Intermission 2 | ~SCOOTALOO~
"Okay Scoots, ya'll called us here, what did ya want ta do?" Apple Bloom was almost eager, she wanted me back in their little coup. So I granted her wish.
"I want to do something to the account." As much as I would've liked to go along with what she wanted, I said it as sternly as possible, making Sweetie Belle, at the very least, curious.
"But I thought you said you were done with Anon-a-miss!"
"I did." No one really talked after that. All I did was type on the computer, logging into the page that had caused so much hatred in the school. With three simple clicks, I was presented with a error. It was exactly what I had hoped for. The others leaned in, to read what it said.
In typical unison, they read its contents. "This user has been dele- WHAT DID YOU DO?!" It was the response I had hoped for. I repeated what I had said several days earlier in school.
"I'm not doing this anymore." And I was making sure they didn't wither. It had gone too far. They hadn't seen what I had, and hopefully they never will. "And yes, I did just delete it." It was a weird sense of repetition, as, once again, I walked out of the room, leaving my 'friends' in silence, only this time it was in anger as well as shock. Maybe this time Rainbow would answer the door.
~FLUTTERSHY~
"SHUT UP ZEPHYR!" I was so done with him. First he actually made the MyStable account his homepage, and now he actually submitted stuff to it. Even I had to refrain myself from spouting several long cursing insults at him.
I wonder if there a universe where he wasn't a complete and utter dick... Nah, he'd have to be a completely different species.
Anyway, I had had enough of him. Without even realising it, I was already storming out of the house. I would 'deal' with him later. Right now, I had to see Rainbow. I didn't care what the others were doing, but I hadn't seen her for days. Or rather, I hadn't seen her face. She was always hiding it now. I can't figure out why. She did mumble something though. Something about how 'we've swapped places'. I didn't understand what she meant, however.
I was approaching her house - an appropriately multi-coloured building, though it seemed empty, held a singular occupant. Before it was possible to get close to the door, a purple and orange bundle almost slammed into me.
"And there goes the other leg... Ow." It was Scootaloo, apparently rushing to see her idol, who I assumed she hadn't seen in at least a week.
"You okay Scootaloo?" Despite my recent argument, I still had my personality - wanting me to be kind, even if it was suppressed by various... individuals. Seeing her nod as a confirmation, I helped her up. "Good. Now go home."
"NO! I can't! I know Rainbow doesn't want to see anyone, but I've got to tell her the truth!" This was... new. Typically, Scootaloo just wanted to stare in wonder at Dash. If she wasn't here for that, something was... wrong. I motioned for her to continue. "Well... you see..." She already was breaking down in tears, while I just stood here. It didn't feel right, but it was what was happening. "No... wait. Why are you here?! If you think it's Sunset who posted thse things, you should be going home, not me!"
I wonder what caused that sudden outburst... "Hmm. It seems we're on the same page. I don't know about that damned MyStable page, I'm just here to check on Rainbow." That much was true. Anything else, I would have been lying. Granted, I don't think it's Sunset, but at the same time, I don't really care who it is at all. Only that it's still up. "Okay, you can stay. Let's see if she'll answer." With Scootaloo in tow, still crying, we made our way to the door, which was unlocked - curious, considering no one else should be home. Dash's parents had been called away for serious legal reasons, a shame, since it was Christmas Eve. Still, none of our business, I guess.
Letting ourself in, I called for her to come out, only to get a small thump from a nearby room, something that neither of us ignored. Walking up calmly to the door, I made my... demands. "Dash! Let us in or I will break this door down!"
Scootaloo was staring at me in shock the moment I finished my statement. I couldn't imagine why. And when Rainbow seemingly chose the second option, I made good on my words, leaving Scootaloo to simply gape even more. It was strange. At least, it was from my perspective.
~RAINBOW DASH~
All I heard was a mumble, and then a softened crash. I didn't know who was here, I didn't care. I wanted to be left alone. I betrayed her, ignored my loyalty to her, and I don't like it. At all. I wish I could make it up to her. That account gets deleted, the culprits are revealed, and she's safe and happy. If it's with me or not, I don't care.
"Dash!"
Oh look, someone came to help me. I don't want to talk. And that's what I tell them, through the pillow my head is buried in, of course.
"Go away." It probably came out as a mumble, but frankly, I don't care. At least, until they forcibly turned me over. Seeing that I was going to have to deal with them, I cracked open my eyes to see who has come to me, all the while hding my face. No one shoudl see my like this.
Of course. Fluttershy and the squirt. Except... she had been crying? And why was the door hanging off it's hinges? Okay, I'm gonna need some help understanding this.
"Oh. Hi Flutters. Why's the door broken?" Normally, I would be concerned that Fluttershy didn't even seem concerned of the wrecked entrance, but neither of us have been acting ourselves recently, I suppose.
"I broke it down. Now, what's going on with you?"
She... broke the door down? No... she couldn't... Wow. We really are messed up from all this aren't we?
"Wait. Fluttershy. I need to..." Scootaloo had something to say, as always, but this time she looked... guilty? Summoning up all my sapped strength, I said something I knew she'd be honest to.
"You've done something squirt. What is it?" With that she broke down instantly, refreshed tears remarking the streaks down her cheeks. Slowly, she managed to shuffle her way over to bed I had practically bound myself to.
"I- I- I d-deleted it."
Looking to Fluttershy for any help, all I got was a confused shake of the head. So I decided to address the problem directly. "Deleted what?"
"T-they guilt tripped me into it, got me think Sunset crippled me, and I- I-"
"Scoots, I realise you're upset, but you came to tell me something. So say it? Please?" Despite how weakly I said that, I hoped acting quite kind to Scootaloo would get her to come out.
"M-my frie- Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, t-they made t-the Anon-a..." Scootaloo was basically curled up in a ball on the floor by this point. I wouldn't normally do this, but she needed it more than anything. So, slowly, weakly, and really wobbly, I made my way over to her, freeing my self from the soft prison I confined myself to. And, perhaps in a unexpected twist, wrapped myself around the quivering, albeit breathing, wreck.
Suprise showed in Scootaloo's face. She clearly did not think I'd ever do something like this. I didn't either, but deep down, everyone needs something like this. I'd come to accept that, even if I had isolated myself. I needed this, and so did she.
"Go on. But take as much time as you want."
"They made the Anon-a-miss account. They kind of dragged me into it. Kind of tricked me, but I'm still at fault for letting them. But I- I just came here from d-deleting it..."
She hardly stuttered. Amazing how much an embrace can help. but, there was still questions to be answered. Flutterershy decided to chime in, having calmed down from her hidden worry. "Why?" Both me and Scootaloo, now in a standing hug, looked to her to elaborate, which she did. "Why'd you delete it?"
"Couldn't take the guilt any more. Too much pain."
I pulled back looking Scootaloo in the eyes with a firm stare. "Guilty of what? And don't say of all the arguments, because I know that's not the truth."
"I- I- s-saw..."
"Compose yourself, and then try again."
"I saw Sunset... must have been staying in the shelter she was lying next to in an alley. It must have collapsed in the snow storm. I was just wood and sheet metal. B-but Sunset w-wasn't sleeping... she was bleeding out. Just in a pool of b-blood. Deep cuts all over her arms. Bloody knife in her boot. I-it was just..." She let out a wail of pain. I couldn't blame her. I knew Sunset must have been hving some troubles in this world, but I didn't think it was that bad...
"Flutters..." As I mentioned her name, Fluttershy looked up, tears staining the portion of hair she had been crying into. "Did we do this?"
Fluttershy's expression turned firm. "No. But we didn't know about it. That's on Sunset," She held up a hand beofre I could defend the accused. "but nothing else is. So we need to fix this. Scootaloo. Where is Sunset?"
"I t-took her to the hospital. I could... I could ask my mother. She works there."
"WAIT!" By this time. I had regained my confidence. We needed to do something about this to prevent further suffering. Now. "I know what we need to do."
~PRINCIPAL CELESTIA~
I had taken Luna's advice of just forgetting about school for the holidays. I felt bad about just leaving Sunset in her situation, but along as she was safe with Velvet, I would be content. For now, I would relax and enjoy Christmas Eve with my sister. At least, that's what I had hoped to do.
"I'll get the door." As if Luna would answer it anyway. Regardless, I opened the door, and all hopes of a peaceful holiday dispersed in a matter of seconds. At the step were three girls: Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. All three appeared to have been crying heavily. Deciding it was none of my business, I greeted them normally. "Can I help you girls?"
They all cried out in unison, all at varying levels of noise and emotion, but they all said the same thing: "It's about Sunset!"
Hoping they didn't know about her current situation, I montioned for them to continue. Fluttershy started. "We know she was homeless and tried to commit suicide." Damn it.
Dash was up next, unsually quiet for her. "We want to at the very least apologise to her. We- we also have other news..." She motioned to Scootaloo.
"Me, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are Anon-a-miss. I got roped into it by the other two, Doesn't excuse a-anything though." I should've expected it.
As much as I'd like to do something to Scootaloo right now, "I can't do anything in the holidays, but when we get back..." Seeing her guilty look, I knew I didn't need to continue. "Forgive me, but how did you know about..." I really didn't want to put this into words. "...Sunset?"
Scootaloo looked even more nervous than before, something I did not think possible. "Well I, uh, I kinda was the one who, uh, got her to hospital."
"Oh...okay... I mean-" Sighing, I tried to just leave the conversation at that, as wrong as it felt. "Look girls, I appreciate you telling me this, but I can't do anything about it at the moment, and I can't tell you anything to find her without me getting in big trouble."
Fluttershy, far from her usual self, was the first to turn, motioning for the others to follow. "Thanks Principal, good luck with this whole mess."
And you, Fluttershy, and you.
"Who was that, Celestia?" I turned to see Luna standing in the hall, holding a mug of coffee.
"Later, Luna. Right now, I need tea. Badly. And right now."
~DOCTOR TURRET~
Scootaloo was late coming back. Much later than usual, in fact. Must've gotten distracted by something. Again.
"MOM! Are you home?!" Or not. Sighing, I got up from my desk chair with minimal fuss. I didn't know where my son was, only that he was in the house, while I silently hoped he wouldn't show his face right now. Which was rude, I suppose, but I still had my reasons.
"I'm here, dear." Seeing that my daughter had two older girls with her, I knew something was up. "Isn't it a bit late to bring friends?"
"Well, we kind of got-" Rainbow Dash cut her off. The girl is a great inspiration, but she does get a bit... dominating.
"Well you see, Miss Turret, we were kind of wondering if..." Lacking her usual confidence, the athlete trailed off, while the other girl finished it for her.
"We know you work at the hospital, and we must ask, did you treat a Sunset Shimmer recently? On the day of the blizzard, to be precise."
How did they know of that? Did they hurt Sunset, make it look like a suicide? I suppose I must ask to find out. "I did. Do you know of... what she did?"
"I told them."
Oh that makes- wait what?! Scootaloo told them... how did she know? "Scootaloo, dear, how- how did you find o-out about it?"
Sighing, my daughter stiffened her composure, all the while balancing on her working leg. "Well, you see, this is what's been bothering me. I-I was the one wh-who brought her in."
"Y-you brought her... w-why?! I t-thought..."
~???~
Hey! Mate! There's a conversation we have to listen in on happening in the hall! We need to do it for the readers! Read- nevermind. And sure, I'll go listen in creepily, if it'll shut you up. YAY!
"What? You thought I hated her?"
"W-well yes! That's what you said less than a week ago." My sister was home, apparently.
"You see I- well I-" There was a long sigh. "I was kind of tricked but not really tricked into thinking she was the one that... hurt me."
"Right, I see." My mother - I think it was my mother paused, letting out a deep exhale. "You told the staff you found her next to a collapsed makeshift shelter?"
"..."
"And you're sure it was Sunset Shimmer?"
Sunse- SUNSET SHIMMER?! Quick talk to them now! What why- oh. Ooohhh. This is starting to make sense now. Thank you, Screwball, though you might not be around for much longer. You're welcome, Brad!
"My name's not Brad! It's Flash, God dam-" I clamped my mouth shut. But it was too late. The damage had been done.
"Flash... that you?" Now I could see the group I saw there were two others from the group.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy! Again, thanks. I could hide no longer, I stepped out into the hall. For the first time in too long, I would speak.
"What was that about Sunset?" |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 10 - Meetings | After Sunset's performance, Christmas proceeded normally, since the entire family generally agreeded upon the decision that everyone would just leave all 'this magic business' until tomorrow, as much as they'd like to discuss it now. And so they did. Everyone got presents, including Sunset, though her presents weren't as personal, since
Despite the fact that Velvet had helped Sunset pick out presents for the family, everyone complimented her for managing to pick out such appropriate gifts for Christmas, and Sunset returned the comment, despite there was really much that she got. As much as she'd like to have taken this positively, it only heightened her worries, particularly about what Celestia may talk to her about. Instead of allowing the family to give her even more questions about magic, Sunset headed to bed extremely early.
The next night didn't entirely help.
"This is the part where We get to say 'I told you so', isn't it?"
"Har har. And Luna? Stop with the royal voice. You're not in court, and all does is agitate me." Instead of the dungeon cell she had previously been in, it was instead a simple night sky, with the two ponies being suspended in it.
"Ah. Of course. How was my sister?" The princess had been stiff up until now, keeping with her regal image, despite Sunset already knowing better.
"Honestly? I don't know. I asked her to leave and come back tomorrow, which, surprisingly enough, she did. She said..."
"We'll see what happens after this. A much as I want to respect your wishes, there is something I must do."
Sunset looked up with worry at the princess of the night, who responded with a look of uncertainty. "I just don't know what she means by that." Luna opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the unicorn in front of her. "You know what? I'd rather not talk about it. As much as I'd like to trust you, I have literally never met you in pony."
"...Alright. I can understand that. Can I ask a few questions though?"
"Only if you answer a few of mine." There was sense of determination in her voice, perhaps out of defying a princess again.
"That's fine. Why do you always become a pony in you dreams."
"Look Luna - you can probably tell this already, but I'm near terrified of going back to Equestria unless I must. Dreams, or even nightmares may be the only time I get to become a unicorn." Sunset shivered at the thought of being a pony in real life, since she knew it would be under the worst circumstances.
"But why?" Recieving only a head cocked to the side, Luna elaborated. "Why are you so scared?"
Sighing, the amber unicorn reluctantly answered. "Okay, listen. I highly doubt I'll actually get thrown into a dungeon for all time or get banished, but I can't help but let my... demon side convince me slightly otherwise." To exaggerate her point, she utilised the power she wielded in the dream to create a construct which represent her dark magic form she had at the fall formal, which proceeded to silently mock Sunset, before dispersing in a great rainbow.
"I...see. You said you had questions." Her voice didn't show it, but Luna's face twitched slightly, perhaps in fear of the demon.
"Ah. Yes. Okay - one, how did you mange to come into my dreams?"
"I can only connect with indiviuals with substantial Equestrian magic inside of them. Did you suddenly have a lot more magic recently?"
Sunset merely gave a nod of the head, not wanting to create any questions she didn't want to answer about her... confrontation. "I'll ask you not to press the why on this question, or mention it to Celestia. But I... I can't feel my fore ar- hooves in the real world. Why can I here?" She gingerly used the hoof in question the poke the non-existant floor, feeling an odd tingle, now slightly unfamiliar to her.
"Dreams are created by the brain. As longas that isn't damaged, the dream should give the person a normal body, unless it decides not to." Luna put a hoof to her chin, stratching it slightly, thinking. "Well, that's what it's meant to be. Maybe things are different in your world."
"I suppose that makes sense. Same way an amputee could have all their limbs in a dream. Okay last- actually no. It doesn't matter."
"Are you sure?" A violent shake of the head was what she got as a response.
"I'd rather save it for Celestia. I have my reasons."
"Fair enough. I... think I shall leave everything else to my sister. And rest assured Sunset, even if is the day after Hearth's Warming, she will be coming."
With that, the dream once again started to vapourise into nothing, taking Sunset with it, who only appeared to blink at her own destruction.
Sunset slowly awoke, this time before everyone else due to her early end to yesterday. Looking around, her presents were littered everywhere, particularly some guitar equipment. She had hoped to relearn the guitar when she could, since her scars were getting in the way. So, for now, Sunset simply lay there, awaiting for Velvet to wake up, as it was still a requirement that she had to be accoimpanied at all times. At least, that's what would have done, until a loud crash was heard from the front room.
"Don't make to much noise, someone'll wake up! What? Nevermind, lets go find her."
'Was that one of the-' Pulled out of her thoughts by further movement, the ex-unicorn saw two pair of pink eyes and one pair of violet eyes peeking though the opening in the door.
"Oh no she's-"
"SIRENS!"
"See Sonata! This is what we get for not going though... the... window..." At long last, they had a good look at their 'target'. She had risen above the bed, and once again had her flaming wings and horn, using her powers to keep her self aloft. Her eyes were glowing less this time, and her pony ears were less responsive. The three intruders were now illuminated by the sudden light, which also woke up everyone in the house, generating a slow groan throughout the building.
"Run. Run!" With the simple command, the trio scampered out of the door, with the hairpin still sticking out of it, closely followed by the prey turned predator.
"AND STAY OUT!"
"Errr, Sunset?" Rotating around, the floating girl saw Twilight standing there, partially in confusion, partially in annoyance that she had been woken up.
"Yes?" Sunset raised her eyebow, as if there wasn't anything to question.
"Mind telling us who they were?"
Sighing, Sunset came down from her almost godly looking form, shrinking any extra appendages with an extreme amount of concentration. "Well, you see, they were-" Any futher words were halted - the moment her feet touched the floor again, she collapsed onto it. Feeling her back being gently yanked up, she gave out small whimper of appreciation.
"You okay?" A voice whispered into her ear. Again, a small whimper, followed by a mumbled request for food.
"Sunset? It's me, Twilight. Sparkle? Can you hear me?"
"Mmmmrrm. I-I'm good. Just exhausted." The words hardly could be heard, only slightly amplified by the fading magic slightly.
"I'll see if I can find something for you to eat and drink. You probably need it." Sunset's senses were still being returned to her, so the only indication someone did anything was the fact that she was propped in a chair, as well as supressed foot steps getting quieter. As her hearing was gradually returned, the girl picked up on a hushed conversation.
"What was that?!"
"I don't know! Ask her, not me!"
"Sunset? Can you hear me honey?"
"Hrrr- whu?" As yet another one of her senses returned, this time her sight, Sunset saw Twilight Velvet standing over her, not that dissimilar to their first meeting in the hospital. "Yes, yes, I'm okay, I can hear you now. Just completely exhausted."
"Mind explain what that was?"
"Well, those three were the sirens I mentioned a few days ago. They were probably after my magic. Maybe sensed the light show I put on. As for me... my magic used to be linked with my emotions, and since I may have gotten a little angry when I saw those three, I might have used a little too much magic, particularly considering yesterday."
"Okaaay...? Is that a good or bad thing?" Night Light had come back from inspecting the house for any possible scorch marks, adding his own confusion to the mix.
"Heh, dunno, depends how much you want to feed me. I need the energy."
"Speaking of which," Twilight Sparkle appeared in the doorway, holding a variety of vegatarian food on a tray. "here's some food for you. By the way, one of those... sirens? They knocked opened the door again."
"Let me guess: the blue one?" Twilight was about to answer, before she was cut off by a distant voice.
"Can we have some magic? Pleeeease?"
Sunset didn't even need to look at the window, she just made a gesture which involved a certain extended finger, and directed it at the siren, hoping none of the family would noticed.
"Well, that's just rude. Fine, fine, I'll go."
Sunset made a mental note to find a way to keep the sirens away, even if it meant giving them a bit of magic. "Celestia, they're annoying and persistant." Returning to her meal, the equestrian saw the others looking at her quizzically. "We swear by Celestia in Equestria. She's basically a god to us." Realising what she had said, Sunset almost rushed to elaborate. "Right. Sorry. I don't know why I've been using equestrianisms so much recently. I've been way too relaxed, I guess. That or I really am thinking about Equestria that much."
Her small rant and self contemplation about her homeland was cut short by a few sharp knocks on the door. Velvet went to answer it. While a distant conversation happened at the door, Sunset finished her meal.
"Sunset, it's the other Twilight."
'Great. Let's see if I can prevent her from being too freaked out. Probably didn't have a good chance to find out about anything outside of the journal.'
"I'll probably be gone for a bit, then. See you later, I guess." Sunset knew Twilight was probably having a small anxiety attack, but judging by how the human Twilight was acting, she shouldn't be too freaked out. Yet.
'Well, I was wrong.' Twilight was just coming down from an extreme panic attack, the cause being Sunset had to deal with the sirens again, even if they didn't have magic.
"Buh- but you had to- it was-" Princess Twilight was dressed in her typical blue blouse this time, since the portal didn't seem to think she was here on serious business.
"Ssh. It's fine. They're harmless at the moment. You came here awfully early, so you must've had something to say." Princess Twilight looked up with her with bleary eyes. At this, Sunset almost rolled her own eyes in response. "Look, if you're going to say you're sorry for not coming sooner, I know, and it's okay. You have more important duties in Equestria, particularly at this time of year. It's why I asked all of you to come back yesterday - you had more important stuff to do. And anyway, I'm fine now, so it's nothing to worry about."
"B-b-but-"
"But nothing. Now come here would you?" They promply pulled each into a tight hug, comforting each other. After a few moments, they pulled away from each other, but kept their grasp on each other. "I'm sure we both have at least some questions so let's answer them."
"Yeah. Okay. Thanks. So. Yes. Questions." Taking a deep breath Twilight was fully prepared to oblige to Sunset's request, before she was halted by and extended index finger.
"There's only so much time in the day, so let's cut down the number of them, hmm? We can't just ask the sun goddess to leave the sun up for longer here, alright?"
"Sure. I- actually no. I can ask my questions later, and their not that important. But," This time it was Twilight to stop Sunset from unleashing questions, and she continued. "we do need to find out about all this magic stuff. Safety first."
"You're right, You're right. So..."
Their conversation eventually drifted into terms only a student of Celestia would understand. All in all, Sunset learned that her sudden healing was a result of Spike crossing over from the mirror, and her sudden increase in magic abilities were a result of Princess Celestia coming over too. Why she naturally grew the horn made of light and the wings they attributed to her body making up what she was missing to cast proper magic, as well as some instincts.
"I asked Celestia to come back today. I was assured she was but... will she?"
Twilight nodded slightly sadly. "She'll be waiting at Sugarcube Corner. To be perfectly honest, the main reason I'm here is to offer you the chance to back out of this."
"No. I need to do it. But I'd rather be by myself with her. I... owe her that much."
"Sunset. You don't owe her anything. But... any idea where I can stay for the time being."
"Just go back to your counterpart. And be expected to answer a multitude of questions." Sunset sighed once again, showing a sign of reluctance this time. "Just be careful about what you say about me. I'd rather tell them about my past myself."
"Alright. Come back when you're done." Twilight turned but something caught her eye. "Is that jacket really what you're going to wear?" Just as before, the jacket looked like it had been through a war.
"Yes. It represents my past. Something I'm about to face." Sunset waved Twilight off, and started to journey to the cafe, making sure to be subtle in her approach.
And, of course, there was a massive argument going on. Between Princess Celestia. And Scootaloo. And Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. 'No... no!'
This was not what Sunset wanted. It appeared the cafe was empty - it was closed for the day, but it was unlocked for people to meet up or take cover from the snow, which was starting to melt. This was rather convinient for Sunset, as it allowed her to stop this debate almost immediately. As she approached the doors, she felt the heat built inside of her, her back imparticularly. With all her might. She slammed the doors open, once again lighting her powers, and shouted. Loudly.
"ENOUGH!"
A chorus of whimpers was the response.
"What is all this for?!" Her patience had already run thin.
"We didn't want to let her take you!" Fluttershy, dressed as if she was going to a funeral, said rather loudly.
"Take her?!" Princess Celestia snapped out her stance of awe at Sunset's rage, turning to her accuser. "You're the ones that drove her out!" The professional looking suit that the portal had given the princess of the sun threatened to tear, as its wearer became more and more agitated. The only thing differenciating her from her human counter part was the various regalia that was worn both over and under the clothing.
"That's exactly why we're here! If you'll just listen-" And now Rainbow had joined in again, envoking a rather profane and sarcastic thought from Sunset. The only one who hadn't reentered the grand debate was Scootaloo, who rather strangely had dropped to her knees, only to wince and shakily bring herself back up again.
"Scootaloo? Are... you okay?"
"I'M SO SORRY!" Scootaloo threw herself around Sunset's waist, sobbing wildly, before repeating choked out apologies.
"Sco- wha-" Sunset was more than surprised at the freshman's outburst, allowing for a very shocked expression to form on her previously infuriated face. Composing herself, she levered off Scootaloo, and knelt down slightly to be level with her. "Scootaloo." The younger girl continued to look down and cry. "Scootaloo, look at me." She did so, giving an extra sob when she noticed the older girl's eyes were still glowing. "What are you sorry for, Scootaloo?" Sunset spoke with all the authority she could muster, but not enough so she would sound angry.
"I- I- iahauhhh" Was all Scootaloo could manage before she broke down in tears again.
"I think what she's trying to say is," By this stage, Rainbow had managed to break free of the heated argument between the princess and Fluttershy. "she helped make the Anon-a-miss account." Seeing Sunset's fire start to burn even more intensely, Dash quickly rushed to defend Scootaloo. "But! She's also the one wh- who..."
"What?!"
"She got you out of the snow..." Rainbow almost looked away in shame, but managed to keep her brave stance between the two, before stepping out of the way, seeing what was about to happen.
'She got me out of... no... she's the one who-' Sunset allowed her glowing wings to die down a bit, before joining Scootaloo on the floor, whispering mumbled thanks to go with the apologies.
However, Sunset was torn out of her emotions, by the... conversation that was still raging behind her.
"But you-"
"Both of you, enough. Give Sunset some damn peace already." Perhap surprisingly, Rainbow, the only emotionally stable person currently in the room, was the one who broke them both up. "Just give her some time to recover alright?!"
"...Alright."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you..." |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 11 - Gathering | There was no shop.
Not to Sunset. There were no seats, tables, windows. No Sun Goddesses, no magical ponies. Right now, it was her, and the girl she was wrapped around. Nothing else.
The air was filled with choked apologies, and equally mumbled thanks, both coming from the pair of curled up bodies on the floor. Scootaloo had adopted the foetal position, while Sunset had even curled her flaming appendages around both of them, creating a protective wall of fire from all intruders. Both girls continued to cry, oblivious to what was around them, as the world turned slowly. They were there for what seemed like an eternity, only halted by the entrance of even more people. If it weren't for them, Sunset could have stayed there forever, until the end of time.
Eventually, curiousity got the better of her, and she opened her still glowing eyes, directing her gaze upwards towards the intruder. "F-Flash?"
There he was. His once spiky blue hair had lost its looks, becoming faded and uncared for. Hi face was a different story. It was very happy, there really weren't any other words for it. It was simply happy - Sunset had knew Flash almost all her life in the human world, but she had never seen him this overjoyed. He was almost giddy. "Sunset? That yo-" His expression turn to be annoyed, as if he had been rudely cutoff. In his mind, I guess he had. "Shut up, Screwball. This is for- Jus- No-"
"Flash?" Sunset was shaking on her feet, leaving Rainbow to tend to Scootaloo. All the while, her magic flickered, a moment of unsteadiness. "Are you..."
"Thank you, Sunset..." Almost immediately, Flash was around Sunset in a second, not caring for the fire erupting from her back, or the other people witnessing the scene. And, just like Sunset a moment before, Flash Sentry was enveloped in a feeling of carelessness, making him oblivious to everything around him. The shrinking voice in his head, the cars, the slowly closing doors behind him, nothing existed. "Thank you..."
Sunset, while appreciative of the gesture, was still confused to by his actions, looking to Rainbow for any help. She merely gave her look that simply said 'Later.'
So, the girl just let it happen, while Rainbow went over to the Princess and Fluttershy, who had been silent the entire affair, but were threatening to burst out in rage again. Sunset couldn't hear what was happening, but it visibly calmed them both down, and once the younger girl in the group composed herself off of the floor, all four of them sat down at a
nearby table, patiently waiting for the remaining pair to pull away.
They eventually did so, giving each other soft shows of comfort, mostly out of understanding for what each other must have went through. Joining the others at the table, they sat in awkward silence for a while, before Sunset found the courage to speak up. "I- Okay, I'm going to be honest, I'm really confused. Anyone want to help me catch up?" All of them opened their mouths to give them perspective, but Sunset cut them off. "Actually, better question," Sunset turned her head to Fluttershy and Celestia, who were almost lokcing horns again. "Why were you two fighting?"
They had no real response. It was just stutter after mumble after stutter.
"So you two just saw each other and instantly started fighting?" She was met with two ashamed nods, who didn't even bother to look at Sunset's lit eyes. They were sure of the look they would receive. Seeing anything else would be fruitless, the girl only sighed."I can't believe this. Regardless of your... argument, I do need to be caught up. First off," Sunset swayed her arms in such a way to encompass all of the native humans. "How did you find out what-" Pausing, Sunset attempted not to be too explicit. Everyone was in a fragile state at the moment, and reminding them of her attempted suicide would only make it worse. "...I did?"
"Well, it was like this..." Scootaloo, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash spent the next few minutes sharing their various perspectives of the story, far too calmly for what they had just been through. Sunset assumed they had already had their time to grieve, and while they weren't over it, they wasn't any need for them to break down. Yet. Instead of trying to play psychologist, Sunset paid her full attention to the tale, which included how Scootaloo deleted the account, ran into Fluttershy at Rainbow's house, which led them to Principal Celestia's home, and finally to Scootaloo's where they found Flash.
"I... I suppose I should thank all three of you."
"Us?! Why?" Rainbow Dash, suddenly quite aware of her past actions, put on her most confused face, even though she was expecting what came next.
"Let me put it this way: you three are here, and the others aren't you actually regretted what you did before you found out the truth. And while that may not apply entirely to you Scootaloo, you still saved my life, and I owe you everything. So, again, thank you." Sunset finished her miniture rant with her arms folded, exaggerating her seriousness. Celestia, on the other hand, sat with an eyebrow raised in amusement, something which did not go unnoticed by the ex-unicorn. 'Yes, I copied one of your inspirational speeches, sue me.'
"Wow, we, uh, we..." Flash was struggling to get words out, even though he had not been directly addressed.
"Flash, I'm not even going to pretend what's going on with you." He winced at the words. "I'm sorry. But really, I hadn't seen you like how you came in, since... well, never."
"Sunset?" Scootaloo was tugging at her blood stained jacket, almost flinching at the feel. "Can we talk 'bout... this outside?"
"It's still cold out. Let's go into the back of the shop. I'm sure the Cakes won't mind, since they're not here anyway." Getting up, the two girls slipped behind the counter and into the connecting corridor between the kitchens, leaving the others to talk amongst themselves, usually interrogating Celestia for princess-y facts, who in turn attempted to make light of the conversation. Turning back to Scootaloo, sunset saw her head was slightly bowed, and nervously looking away. "Is this a bit too much of a... sensitive topic?"
"No, no, it's fine. It's just that..." The younger girl looked up at Sunset, showing a broad smile across her face. "this is the happiest I've seen him in years!"
"Really?!" Taking a step back at Scootaloo's sudden enthusiasm, Sunset steadied herself. She honestly wasn't sure if she was ready for what she might hear next.
"I suppose I might as well tell the whole story." The smaller girl leaned against a wall, allowing her to take her weight off of her crippled leg. "Well, you know how you and Flash were a thing? He was so happy then. He claimed he saw the 'real' you one time, and he was overjoyed. When you said you had to split up for personal reasons, he was devastated, but he mnaged to hold it together. After the Fall Formal, he... there's no other way to say this..." The girl looked into her open palm, before clenching her hand into a fist. "He lost it. His mind. No one could figure out what happened, but he just wanted to find 'her'. Who that was, we didn't know. Maybe it was Twilight, maybe you, hell, it could have been my mother. Flash did eventually start to get better, kinda going along side your reformation..." Sighing, Scootaloo tensed up, bracing herself for what she was about to say. "I... the day your fr- Twilight's friends confronted you, and you..."
"Broke down."
"...Broke down, yeah. But basically, Flash saw that, he lost himself further than before. Started talking to no one. Might've been voices in his head, we simply don't know. But he said the word 'Screwball' like it was a name, and acted like it used to be some one. I think it was the one he was looking for, or something. But after what happened on Christmas Eve, I think he was definitely talking about you, regardless of how he was thinking of Twilight for a while."
"Question?" Scootaloo hummed in the affirmitive. "How'd you know so much?"
"Didn't we tell you? I'm Flash's half-brother." Sunset's mouth slowly shrunk, letting out a silent 'oh'. "Yeah, I know we don't look alike. We share a father. My actual mother left a while back. Don't even know who she is. Can die for all I care."
Shaking herself out of her daze, Sunset started to join dots together. "Die? Why- nevermind. None of my business. But does that mean Flash's mother is Dr. Turret?" When Scootaloo nodded, an almost ironic thought came to the equestrian. "Heh. Seems your family has a knack for saving my life." Seeing the younger girl's tilted head, Sunset opened her mouth to elaborate, but was cut off by a male voice from the entranceway.
"She means I got her off the streets while we were together." Flash Sentry approached the pair from the doorway, having escaped the conversation. "And I suppose I owe both of you an explanation. One that is more than just 'I was insane, and now I'm not.'"
"Yeah, that would be appreciated."
"Okay, this might take a while. I was hearing voices, thought I wouldn't be suprised if it had something to do with magic. That 'Screwball' was one of sad voices. Sh- it claimed to be a mix of Twilight and Sunset at first, then it said it used to be Sunset. I think that was when you... yeah."
"I hate to be so blunt Flash, but I tried to kill myself. Might as well just state it."
"Yeah... right. Anyway, I really don't know what caused all of it, but Sunset was definiately part of it." His face suddenly got more aggressive, facing Sunset. "And don't you dare feel guilty. This happen to myself, I-"
"Flash." Sunset put her hand on his shoulder, gripping it tightly despite not being able to feel it. "We all did this to ourselves. We've accepted that, so there's no point in putting more on our consciences. Alright?"
"A-alright. Regardless I-" A darkened peach hand waved in front of him.
"Flash. Maybe later? We do have alot of time."
"And I do have several questions, one of which you two are in the perfect position to answer." Seeing the half-siblings motion for her to continue, she discharged the problem that had been nagging away at her for a long time. "Why does your mother hate me?"
"Ah."
"Right."
"That's..."
"Should've seen that coming."
"Yup, totally."
Listening to the uneasy agreement didn't exactly sooth Sunset's worries. "Could I get an answer? Please?"
"Right, right sorry. You do deserve at least one." Flash smiled sheepishly, a look that wasn't exactly a rarity on his face.
"This comes in two parts, one for each of us."
"You know my part already. Our mother directly blamed you for my mental screw up. You'll have to ask her why." The boy gave a casual shrug, before looking to his sister.
"Well, you know how my leg's screwed up, right? Well the day it got messed up was the day before you broke up with Flash. Don't know why those two linked together in her mind, but they did. Not much else other than that, actually."
Sunset nervously glanced at the forementioned leg, before looking up to it's user. "You mind if I ask what happened to it? Not that'll make a difference."
She was met with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Nah, it's fine. It's a long story, but it involves my friend and sap. Lots of sap. Maybe once this is all over I'll tell you in more detail."
Slightly frustrated at the lack of detail, the older girl turned back towards the main area of the cafe, where the remainder of the group were awaiting their return. "Come on, they've waited long enough." Silently agreeing, the others followed them back to the table where they had previously been gathered. "Hope we didn't keep you guys waiting to long."
"Naw, it's fine." Rainbow Dash was looking as arrogant as ever, attempting to give herself an air of superiority, despite being next to a ruler of an entire nation. It wasn't working.
"Heh, good to have you back, Dash."
"And you, Shimmer."
"Hey, why are all you guys here? I mean, I know why the Princess is here but..." Sunset also took the time to chuckle at Flash's reaction to the knowledge he was with high royalty. 'Not that dissimilar from my reaction, if I'm honest.' His jaw was open wide, and his eyes were at least three times as big as they should've been.
"Um... we were actually here to discuss the situation with, uh, you, Sunset. We wanted to see if, uh, we could see you. If that was okay with you, anyway..." The amber girl rolled her eyes at Fluttershy's response. 'Aaaand now Fluttershy's back to normal.' Sunset could hardly be annoyed at the girl, however, as everything was starting to feel as it did before Anon-a-miss.
"Yeah, we wanted to see if we could help at all. Guess we didn't even need to bother."
"Hey Flash," The boy turned at the mention of his name, seeing Scootaloo rise shakily from her seat. "should we get going soon? Ma's gonna come looking for-" Yet another loud slam interrupted her. "Nevermind."
"There you are!" A woman, dressed in a thick coat, with the same sort of colouring of Flash Sentry entered the closed cafe, walking up to the table. Now that Sunset knew Dr. Turret was related to Flash Sentry, she did look remarkably like each other, just with a different gender. "You could've at least told me where you're going!"
The doctor abruptly grabbed her two children and started to pull them towards the exit, but not before glancing at Sunset, muttering something to herself until she finally spoke up. "I- I'm sorry Sunset. I jumped to conclusions. Though I can clearly see you have more important things to sort out right now. You must have alot of questions, but save them for later, alright?" And, with the shortest cameo appearence in history, the doctor walked back out of the building, awaiting for her children to follow.
Sighing, Flash motioned for Scootaloo to get her scooter (which was going to be impossible to ride in the current conditions) and go. "Sorry about that. Our parents are very protective, but can also be understanding. Even so, she had a point. You came here to talk to her, not us." The boy motioned to Celestia, before finally turning to join his sister.
"Well, that was... sudden."
"Yeah, I... y'know what? We should probably get goin' too Flutters. Let the magical ponies do... whatever they usually do."
"Um, okay..." Fluttershy nodded her farewells to the two equestrians, and she joined Rainbow Dash in her exit, just as abrupt as the last.
"So..." Sunset turned her attention back to her former teacher, gazing at her with attentive eyes. "This has been put off for too long." |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 12 - Talks | A pale woman, with flowing pastel hair, and a younger girl, with a particularly fire like colouration sat across from each other in the empty shop of Sugarcube Corner, sitting in relative silence, oblivious to the snow starting to fall outside. The older looking of the pair, secretly Princess Celestia, decided to break the silence.
"This has indeed taken too long to happen, hasn't it?" Celestia took a deep breath, and looked down, almost in shame. "It's a pity what caused this to occur in the first place though."
The shorter girl, Sunset Shimmer, nodded in agreement, struggling to contain her emotions. "Certainly. Though let us try to avoid the darker parts."
"Of course." Both equestrians were trying hard to make the meeting as calm as possible. "I must ask a question though - what did you think I was going to do to you when I showed up at the house? I grant you that my reaction might've been a bit much, but..."
The girl let out an exaggerated sigh, embarrassed at her own reaction. "If anyone overreacted, it was me. I saw you, and instead of using the courage I had gathered over the past few weeks, I let all my fears go to my head. It's funny, I used to pray to Princess Luna that I wouldn't have nightmares about being punished when you finally decide to see me. Funnily enough, I never had any bad dreams about it. Then, when you come over, I instantly freakout."
"I wouldn't be too suprised if the dreams actually had something to do with my sister herself. She had mentioned she was sensing great distress from someone in another dimension, but only recently connect her descriptions with you. Hmm. That is something to think about." Celestia noticed her ex-student's head had dropped, and extended an arm to direct it upwards. "And I did act rather agressively, so both of us are to blame. Shall we leave it at that?"
"It's still-" A quick glance at the royal's face told Sunset she was not going to win this argument. "I suppose I can accept that." Not knowing where to take the conversation next, Sunset spread her arms out on the table, examining the bandages on them. She was intending to keep them on for a long time. Her scars were deep, and would most likely be noticable for the rest of her life. Due to some over exuberance on her part, her hands were also bandaged, which was more than inconvinient, now she could use them again.
"I haven't really been told much. Might I ask what happened to..."
"Can't expect you to ignore it forever..." The girl held up her fore limbs in front of her, slowly turning them over. "Long story short, I was stupid."
"Ahem."
"Right, right, long version it is. Judging by what you were doing when I found you here, I'm guessing you already know about the 'Anon-a-miss' stuff. That's at least partially sorted out, for the moment. This is where I got stupid. Now I'm ashamed to admit that I was... I was homeless. There was a blizzard. I was highly depressed, and I doubted I could last the night, only made worse when I saw my shelter collapse. I could've gone back to Equestria, but I wasn't thinking straight. So I tried to commit suicide. No real way to soften the blow there, but that's what happened. Found by Scootaloo, who you met, and brought to hospital, where I was taken in by this world version of Twilight and her family. Wish there was more to say than that, but..."
Celestia hadn't reacted the entire time. She was using a stoic perfected over centuries worth of practice, letting no hint to what she might be feeling. Even so, the immortal ruler had to steel herself from the sheer volume of emotion building up in her, unless she wanted to weep with varying feelings. "Sunset. I would be lying if I said I wasn't angry. That was a very foolish thing of you to do. However. We should not dwell on the past. You are here now, and nothing can change that. What we should worry about, is the future. And perhaps the present." While most onlookers would have thought Celestia was still acting impartial, Sunset knew better. There was a stern look in her eyes, one that automatically denied any objections, but also showed endless amounts of care.
"I- Yes, I guess that is the most sensible course of action." Sunset tried to maintain her composure, but eventually cracked under the pressure, and all but jumped over the table, hugging Celestia in the process.
They stayed like that for some time, both letting their tears flow freely down their faces, not caring for anything else. No one came into the abandoned shop, leaving the equestrians with only the howling wind as their companion. Reluctantly, Celestia gently pulled away, but kept the deep concern in her voice. "Better?"
"Y-yeah, thanks."
"Good. We really shouldn't hold onto our emotions like that. It's just not healthy." The princess settled back into her seat, getting comfortable once more. "How's your situation? I understand the basics, but not much more."
"Well, They are really nice and everything, but I'm honestly not sure how I see them. I suppose I should tell you about this..." Sunset slumped back, unwilling to keep up the formality. "They want to adopt me, and I already said yes. That's because I like them, and they like me. It's just that... I don't know if anyone considers me family, or if they're hoping adopting me will make them feel that way."
"In my opinion, they do love you. They wouldn't of done most of the things they did if they didn't. It's more the question of if you love them back."
"That's the thing I-"
"Do you?" Celestia glared at Sunset, forcing a response.
"...Yes. But I can't tell if that's only because they took me in when no one else did. I just-" The girl abruptly slammed her face down, setting it on the table. "I just don't think I'm ready now, if ever."
"Then be patient. You of all ponies should know by now that waiting for something is a suprisingly effective strategy, rather than hungrily seeking it."
"Right, right. Patience is a virtue." Sunset brought her head back up, and rubbed her forehead in thought. "I'm not waiting months though. I honestly don't have time for that. Tell you what: I'll tell them I'm happy to stay with them, but give me a week back at school to think about it."
Celestia nodded in approval. "That seems like a valid course of action. Speaking of your school, however, what are you going to be doing about that?"
"And that's the main problem. I'm not going to Crystal Prep, the only other school in the area, since it's morally corrupt. I'd rather stay here. But that brings yet another problem - so far, there are only eight people who don't completely hate me, or rather, they don't think I'm behind that blasted page. Regardless, I'm staying at CHS. And before you mention it, I might be visiting Equestria more often now, but I won't be staying there, or at least not until I've finished school here. If things get too bad here, I'm definitely going back to Equestria. Maybe permamently, may not. We'll see."
"Again, sounds reasonable."
"Yeah, but that's really all I can do anyway. Run or actually try to do something about it. Not really much of a choice. Besides, if I ran, the school would probably tear itself apart without knowing the truth."
"You're choosing the better option, you have learned from your mistakes. You're doing well not to regress back to what you were."
"I guess. I just know my first few days will be absolute Tartauraus."
"I'm not going to pretend I understand this world's culture, but if you ever need any help coming to terms with it, there are a lot of people who'll help, both this side of the mirror and the other."
"I know, and while I understand the importance of friends, everyone needs to do some things one their own to become stronger - a better friend, if you will."
"Fair enough. Just don't be too afraid to ask if it becomes too much." Celestia tapped the table with her knuckles. "Not to sound impatient, I can stay as long as I'd like, but is there anything else you wish to discuss? My sister can only stay awake for so long."
Sunset's eyes went wide, and start scrambling to her seat. "Don't let me keep you waiting! I need to talk to Twilight anyway."
Nodding, the pale woman also stood up, nodding to her ex-student. "Very well. You know how to contact me."
They gave each other one last hug, before walking back out into the snow, giving their farewells.
"Well, that was an experience." Princess Twilight had just emerged from the house of her human counterpart, and was on her way to Sugarcube Corner, where Sunset and Celestia would be. Her time with her counterpart had been filled with questions, from both sides. It seemed Spike had come over on Heath's Warming Eve, and had revealed Equestria to the family. Still, the human Twilight did seem very eager to do some tests, and also was very curious about how she might be in the future, since Princess Twilight noted how many similarities between the human and her past self.
"Hey, Twilight!" Ahead, Sunset was walking towards her.
"Hello, Sunset. Where's Celestia?"
"She's making her way back to the portal. And before you panic, she's an ancient being that controls the sun. Magic or not, she can survive on her own." The girl had correctly guessed what was going through her friends head, and prevented her from hyperventilating prematurely. "Come on, I'll walk you to the portal. I need to talk to you anyway. Mostly magic."
"That's not something I'd expect from you." Sunset was an expert when it came to magic, whether it be in Equestria or the human world. Granted, Twilight was probably more experienced at this point, but that shouldn't really matter, considering the situation..
"Sure, go ahead."
"On Christmas Eve, or rather Hearth's Warming Eve, my arms healed. I could move them, and the formation of my scars was accelerated. They were a bit slower than before, but in terms of the use of my hands and arms, they're entirely back to normal now. I suspect magic, but I'm curious why."
"Most likely as a result of your connection to magic, and how Spike reopened the connection to Equestria the same day. Still need to talk to him about that..."
"Yeah, that's what I thought, just checking. But one of the things that confused me more..." Sunset wriggled her fingers, moving them in a particularly way. "The more refined things, such as writing or guitar playing, I was told I needed to relearn due to various complications. They were right, I find it next to impossible to write with my hands, but I can write better than ever with my mouth."
"Again, probably your magic connecting to Equestria, and therefore your pony side."
"Then here's the bit I don't get. I can play the guitar perfectly well, despite the predictions. And guitars don't even exist in Equestria!"
Twilight put a hand to her chin, entering a state of deep thought. "Hmm. That is strange. In this world, magic seems to have some sort of connection to music. I don't know why, but it just does. Only explanation I can think of, at the moment. I can do some tests, if you-"
Sunset put up a bandaged hand to halt her friend. "It's fine. I was just curious. Once this whole debacle is over, maybe. If it ever does end, that is."
Soon enough, they reached the statue that contained the portal back to Equestria, its colours swirling around slightly.
"It's now or never. Come on, lets go!" A yellow girl rushed forwards, reaching into a back pocket, pulling out a short blade. Her two companions reluctantly followed her, preparing to do as they were told. The blue girl rushed up behind one of their two targets - a lavender girl, named Twilight, stood in front of a statue. With a little hesitiation, she grabbed onto the girl, holding her still, while she struggled against the sudden attack. The purple girl went to her own opponent, one Sunset Shimmer. She was swiftly pushed into the statue without any time to react, and disappeared into the base of it in a flash of colour. "Very good, girls." The yellow one approached the captured girl, waving the blade about.
All Twilight could do was gulp. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 13 - Complications | Sunset, upon opening her eyes, found her muzzle was pressed up against a crystal surface.
'Wait, 'muzzle'?'
Picking herself up, on all fours, Sunset found herself back in the form of a pony. No matter. She had simply tripped into the portal by accident, nothing more to be worried about. Or at least that was what she was trying to tell herself.
As her memories came back, she remembered what had happened on the other side of the mirror. A purple girl - one of the sirens, she could not remember their names, pushed her through the portal. Frantically looking around, Sunset found there was no Twilight in sight.
"HEY TWI! You back yet?!"
"Spike?!" The mare looked around once more, but he was no where to be seen. At least, he was, until he entered the room and quickly as possible.
"Sunset? What are... You..." He trailed off, staring with an unhinged jaw at Sunset, his already large eyes widening even further.
"Spike? What are you- oh. Right. Dragon. Spike?" It seemed the baby drake had wandered off, but he soon returned, pushing a mirror on wheels. "What is this for?"
His only reponse was to rotate the reflective surface so Sunset could see her own reflection. In the mirror, Sunset of course saw herself. But there were a number of changes. Most noticably, she was wearing her leather jacket, something that was normally not kept whenever she crossed over. Sunset was also significantly taller, and looked slightly more muscular too. Her horn was longer, and the grooves in it gave off a bright glow of pure sunlight. Turning to examine the rest of her body, Sunset found her mane and tail appeared to shimmer slightly. The most shocking alteration was the blanket of flame that was draped over the mare's back. Suspicious, the unicorn attempted to feel them, and when she did, they extended, flapping slightly. Realization quickly came to her, as she recognized the strips of fire as the wings that she had been given in the human world. Experimently, she started to move them in a steady motion, causing her to rise off the ground, before she let herself drop back onto her hooves.
"Woah." By now, Spike had snapped out of his trance. "That's cool. But why are you here?"
"No time! I think-"
"Sunset?" It appeared Celestia had been waiting around for Twilight to return. "Not that's not nice to see you again already, but why are you here?"
"I think Twilight's in trouble! I need to-"
A golden-clad hoof found its way to the amber mare's shoulder before she could work herself into a panic. "Then we shall go."
Celestia didn't waste any time striding back into the portal. Not wanting to get left behind, Sunset dashed after her blindly, leaving Spike to comprehend what had just occured. "So that happened..."
Twilight slowly came back to her senses, letting out a soft groan. There was a throbbing sensation on the back of her head, and once she could see again, she found herself in a dingy room, dimly lit by a single light. Attempting to move, Twilight was prevented from doing so, as she was secured to a chair by several pieces of rope. Recalling her memories, the girl attempted to make sense of the situation. More pieces fell into place as a trio of girls entered the room, one looking extremely smug, and the other two quite guilty.
"Ah, the princess is awake. Tell me, do you know why we kidnapped you?" The confident, yellow one spoke. Her captive could only shake her head, too scared to do anything else. "No? Fine. We want our magic back, and we think you're the one who can help us. If you can't, then you can lead us to someone who can."
"What?! No one can do magic in this universe properly!"
"Oh, don't play the fool. We saw what happened yesterday. Both you and that other girl were there. And besides, if you don't tell us anything..." She brandished the same knife as before, guiding it towards the bound girls neck. "You know what'll happen. And what a shame that would be, hmm?"
"I didn't do anything there! I didn't even know what was going on!"
"Then what were you doing there with the ruler of Equestria?"
"Because she ran off in the middle of court! What was I supposed to do, just let her-"
"Alright, we get it." The purple girl was certainly reluctant to speak, but felt the need to nonetheless. "We don't need a lecture."
The yellow one shot a glare her way, before turning back to Twilight. "We want our magic back, and we'll do anything to get it. So are you going to help us, or are you going to sit there and be stubborn."
Twilight was too frightened to answer properly, and simply let her head drop, staying silent. Seeing she was getting nowhere, the captor removed her knife, and told the others to leave the room, which they swiftly did.
"Do you really have to be this difficult, princess? It's not this hard. You at least point us in the right direction, and we might let you go."
Something moving past the window caused the captive girl to smile, knowing what was coming. "In that case," She raised her voice, making sure she could be heard. "You should look up."
Right on cue, a flash of light came from just above them, and two figures now floated there. One, a pale woman with flowing rainbow hair far too long for what should be possible effortlessly levitated, and wore the same armoured robe she had been seen in before. The other figure, a younger girl, was kept aloft by a pair of great wings made of fire, and had a horn made of light coming out of her forehead. Her hair shimmered in any and all light, while her eyes glowed intensely. She wore a battered and bloodied leather jacket, but the rest of her clothes were armour of some sort, some had runes on it, some didn't. Both people had a fierce scowl on their faces. Twilight could only smile.
"Y-you tw-two, b-back in here n-now!" The yellow girl called for her companions while in a panic.
"No chance, 'Dagi! This is what you get." The two flying people glanced at each other, and they descended, the older exiting the room in search of the other voices. The remaining girl remained floating slightly, glaring at the free girl.
"So, siren, was this worth it?" The siren growled softly, finding new courage, once more taking out her blade, lunging at the girl. "Fine, be that way." She seemed to emit an even brighter glow, as she literally melted the knife, and surrounded the other girl in a red aura, causing her to rise into the air and stay frozen in place.
"Sunset? Any chance of being freed?"
"Huh? Oh, of course." Sunset landed, and after a flash of light, Twilight was able to stand, rubbing her wrists to work out the aches from the ropes. "Now..." The god-like girl rotated the face the yellow girl, approaching her. "What did you hope to gain from this, huh?"
The siren struggled against the invisible force holding her, before deciding it was futile to put up any resistance. "We wanted out magic back, was that too much to ask?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about 'Dagi. It was you who forced us into trying to get magic." The other two sirens, along with Princess Celestia, were standing at the door. "We were fine with living normal lives after that fiasco with CHS, to just become another few faces without names, but nooo, you wanted to go back to Equestria with magic."
This caught Twilight's curiousity, and took the oppotunity. "Why didn't you go through the portal, then?"
"I don't know if you knew, but those stones essentially acted like our hearts in Equestria. If we got magic here, our hearts would reform, and we'd be able to actually survive in Equestria." One of the free sirens shrugged. It was actually hard to differenciate the two at this point. "Don't feel bad for us. We're okay living here like any other human. We have a steady income, and we're able to just blend in."
"If we had magic, we'd be able to live again!" The bound siren snarled at her compatriots, causing some very unimpressed looks.
"Yeah, no. Rather stay like this than get what might happen to you. By the way, did you ever tell us why we decided to make two immensely powerful beings angry? Doesn't matter anyway. We've got our own lives to live. Seeya." The other sirens turned back into the door from which they came from, leaving their sister to her fate.
"Siren." Celestia stepped forward stiffly, letting no hints of her emotions show. "What did you seriously expect to come of this?"
"Magic, what else?" The captive was almost spitting by this stage, furious at how her endeavour had ended.
"You're blinded by your goals. You set your mind on one thing, and it stuck." Sunset stepped forward, using all her knowledge from her own experience from being a reformed villain. "The question is, what are we going to do with you? You could've just become another face, your fellow sirens did it quite well, but just had to go back for more. We need to make sure you don't do that again. You're the resident villain reformer here, what do you think, Twilight?"
"Resident vill- nevermind. But you're right. This is going to be a tough decision to make..."
"So what gonna happen?"
"Her sisters are going to keep an eye on her. Give them your phone number, so they have a way to contact you if things get out of hand." Twilight had just just finished her discussion with the other sirens, and they had reached a conclusion. Once Sunset had written down her number, and given it the the other Equestrians, they went back to the portal, preparing for the trip. "You're going back too?"
Sunset nodded, confirming Twilight's suspicions. "When I was pushed through, something happened to me. It'll be easier to show you rather than explain. But first... Hang on, be right back."
The girl ran back to the house, not bothering to activate her magical abilities and teleport, and quickly explained what was happening to the family. She also took the oppotunity to change out of her jacket and armour, claiming she wanting to keep it for a later date. She rushed back as fast as possible, not wanting to leave the princess' waiting
Once back in Equestria, the three ponies was quick to orient themselves, and Twilight was quick to stare in wonder at Sunset's new form, and then bombard her with questions.
"How much more powerful do you feel? How fast can you fly? Can you-"
"Twilight, please. Lets take this one step at a time." Sunset was flexing her new muscles, looking at the white fabric wrapped around her forehooves, stretching out her wings as far as possible. "Besides, before we do some testing, I'd like to go around of my own free will, test everything out." Sunset could've sworn she heard Twilight deflate in disapointment, before composing herself, smiling hopefully at the amber mare. "Plus, I want to know what it's like to properly fly."
She shot a quick grin at the alicorns, before dashing away, leaving them in a wave of heated air. They shared a brief glance, before taking flight and rushing after her. Celestia could already tell her ex-student was going to enjoy herself immensely, and that wasn't just from the loud laughter sounding from outside. Once the royal ponies did emerge, they were treated to the sight of Sunset's antics.
The mare was doing various stunts in the air, leaving behind a trail of fire where ever she went. Using the flaming wings, Sunset shot up into the sky, doing a loop in the process, then rotated in the air, twisting her self around, then diving down as sharply as possible. A shrill cry escaped her lips, something similar to a yell of pleasure, as she reve'led in the excitement.
"KIYIYIYIYAHAHAHA!" Sunset was certainly enjoying her wings, manuvering with all the skill of a Wonderbolt. Before she got too caught up in herself, however, she paused in midair, hovering. Her head snapped to the side, and she shot off once more, ignoring the alicorns now frantically trying to keep up.
Once they did eventually catch up, they found she was conversing with a particular cyan pegasus, and then they disappeared in a burst of flame and rainbows.
'This would be much easier if we could see things from Sunset's point of view.' Twilight mused, while in pursuit.
Sunset raced alongside a rainbow-maned pegasus, both starting to push themselves to their limits. They occasionally gave each other a competitive smirk, before focusing on their flying. Two loud bangs sounded. The cyan pegasus had a ring of rainbows expand outwards from her, while Sunset let out a burst of harmless flame, forming the world's biggest Venn diagram in the sky. At this stage, they weren't even looking where they were going, so they just went faster and faster. At least, that's what they were doing, until they reached Canterlot. Where they quickly reached the mountain. And crashed into it. Well, Sunset didn't, but that's only because she teleported herself so she would stop moving. The other racer, however, had no such ability, and smashed straight into the wall of rock, creating a pony shaped tunnel at least a foot deep.
"That. Was. AWESOME!" The mare's voice came from within her creation, sounding a bit too giddy for her own good.
"Yeah, great race, Dash." Sunset leaned into the miniture cavern so she could levitate the pegasus out in a deep red aura. "Draw?"
"Oh, no way! I was going so much faster than you when we stopped! You didn't even stratch the mountain!"
"That's because I didn't hit it. I can do this thing called..." Rainbow Dash found the other mare leaning into her face. "stopping! I know! It's great, you should try it sometime."
The pegasus pushed Sunset away, brushing off her comment. "Race you back? First one to reach the star on top of Twilight's palace?"
"You're on. Last one there has to explain to Celestia and Twilight what we were doing."
"Wait, Celest-"
"Three two one go!"
Neither of them missed the mark, and soon enough the world had transformed into a blur, greenery flashing by, and mountains being left in the distance. Letting out another pair of booms, two particular shapes flashed by - one purple, one white, tinted by gold. Not that either of the racers noticed. Instead, they focused on the tall spire that was coming into view. With one final push, Sunset extended her wings as fast as possible, causing her to rise up a little bit, before tucking them in as much as possible, shooting her towards the castle. If Sunset could turn her head around right now, she would see the most gobsmacked expression on Rainbow Dash's face, who was clearly not used to be beaten. Like a huge dart, the amber mare headed directly to the center of her target, her eyes, horn, and wings glowing even more fiercely.
Without warning, she extended her wings again, and tilted her self roughly upwards. The sudden resistance caused Sunset to slow down at a significant pace, and she came to a gentle stop just as her hooves touched the middle of the star. Wisely deciding to move out of the way before celebrating, she scrambled up the surface, balancing on the top spike of the star, and spun to view her opponent.
Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash was hovering at least fifty meters from the finish point, eyes wide and mouth open in a gape. A full minute passed, where the cyan pegasus continued to float and stare, and the cause of her dumbstruck look used various tricks to try and get her attention, to no avail. After even more time passed, two alicorn flew up to them, the smaller of the pair panting heavily, breaking out of her exhausted state when she noticed the look on the cyan mare's face.
"Rainbow? What happened to you?"
"I thiiink I might've broken her." Sunset gave a small giggle when she noticed a small stand of drool escaping the shocked mare's mouth. "I guess she isn't used to being bea-"
"You have got to tell me how to do that! It was sooo cool! I can't even be mad at losing! I have to-" Rainbow Dash rushed forwards, muzzle to muzzle with Sunset, and just as quickly has she had started, she halted herself, staring at the white alicorn floating next to her. "Oooohhh. That's what you meant earlier."
Now out of her trance, the cyan pegasus started to piece things together, and started to understand the situation, she perched on another one of the points, letting her wings rest. Seeing no one wanted to speak next, Princess Celestia approached her ex-students.
"I think I know what happened to you, Sunset. Come, I believe the answer to this will be in Twilight's library."
Leaving their multi coloured friend to calm down, the three horned ponies flew down to the entrance, Sunset still taking every oppotunity to enjoy her newfound ability. Soon, they found themselves looking for a book called 'Predictions of the Everfree', recently delivered to Twilight's library, and as a result unsorted. Never the less, Twilight's talents almost immediately located it, passing it over to Celestia, who nodded in appreciation. Quickly flicking through the pages, the royal stopped at a particular section, and then laid it down on a tatble in front of her.
"This book is where the most likely predictions are documented, typically taken from the words of some great mystic. It started when the rumours of my sister's... return were revealed to have stemmed from some sort of magical source. Any similar claims were documented in here. Most of the ones in this copy have been met, there's even one about how there will be six different element bearers, as opposed to the one. Anyway, read this." She tapped the open book lightly, prompting the other two to read on.
There will be a pony who possesses a great number of qualities. The start of the possibilities will be avarice. These qualities will be varied in type, both ones that could be linked to the Dawnbringer, the Chaos King, or a mere victim of society. A treasoner, a protector, a lost soul. This pony will achieve all of this while not a pony.
Once these quotas are met, there will be a short period of recovery, then, once the sacred magic of Horse-land Equestria reaches this being, they shall ascend, but not reach immortality. Their magicless form will regain a soul, a family, a bond, and they will use that bond to regain what they have lost.
"I believe this is relating to you. I could be mistaken, but it seems to match. The 'treason' most likely relates to you rejecting me and your bully period in the other world, the 'protection' being when you fought the sirens, and the 'lost soul' part is most likely reffering to... recent events."
"Just call it what it is, suicide. No point in hiding it." Sunset winced at how harsh it came out, but knew it was fruitless to apologise to Celestia.
"Ahem. Yes. Either way, you did most that while 'not a pony', a human rather, and these new abilities did emerge when the portal was next used, yes?" Sunset confirmed this, and started to work out the rest of the prediction.
"Does that mean I'm an-"
"Alicorn? No. I know not who wrote this, but the rumours claim he had a very close natural connection with phoenixes. As a result, I have reason to believe you have been infused with some sort of phoenix..." Celestia twirled her hoof around, looking for the right word. "essence. I would like the try and confirm this with Philomena-"
"Oh! Yes!"
"-but at a later date, once this fiasco is resolved."
"Awww."
It was hard not to smirk at Twilight's disapointment, even if it did perk up when she realized she could still do research later. Her changing expressions morphed into confusion, as she noticed Sunset was adjusting her bandages awkwardly in her dark red aura, letting her wings twitch irritably. "Something wrong, Sunset?"
"Just want to go back. The others must be getting a little impatient, at the very least."
"No one's stopping you from leaving. Just keep us informed, that's all we ask." Twilight gestured towards the whirring portal, giving a reassuring smile to the phoenix-unicorn. Thanking the alicorns for the chance to leave, Sunset quickly departed, feeling, much to her suprise, homesick.
"Starting to worry for your sister, eh?" Twilight was sat on her bed, nervously twiddling her thumbs, when her father came in to check on her.
"Dad! She hasn't properly confirmed anything yet! But yes, I'm kind of getting nervous. Not just about Sunset."
"You're right. I shouldn't make such assumptions. But what else is bothering you?"
"I was talking it over with Shiny earlier, and I don't really know what to do about Crystal Prep. I'm just-" Twilight buried her face in her hands, shaking her head in even more stress. "The thing is, I want to leave. That's not the problem. It's just that the only other place is CHS, and from what I gather from Sunset..."
"It's not the best place to go at the moment. Talk it over with Sunset, when she gets back. Speaking of which, I think she-" A blinding flash of light came from the nearby window, causing them both to groan at the sudden interruption. "She'll be back soon, or rather, now."
The both approached the window, only to find Sunset was inside already. Entering the corridor, they could hear the conversation from up the stairs.
"So what was that about? You just rushed in, tell us you'll be gone a while, in some armour at that, quickly change, then leave."
"Yeah, I should've explained properly. What basically happened is I got pushed into the portal by one of those sirens from earlier, they kidnapped Princess Twilight, I discovered I had this new form in Equestria, me and Princess Celestia went through the portal, saved Princess Twilight, made a deal with two of the sirens, came back here, went to Equestria to find out more about the new magic, had a race, almost crashed into a mountain, pulled someone out of a mountain, raced back, didn't hit anything that time, did research, found out I might be infused with phoenix essence, and now I'm here. Wow, that's a lot when you say it out loud."
"I-I... that's... Yes, I mean yes, it is."
A snigger was stifled at Twilight Velvet's dumbstruck reaction. "I'm going to head to bed, if you don't mind. This magic business takes alot out of me, and the sun's going down anyway."
Steps were heard coming up the stairway, and a red haired girl emerged, giving her greetings to the father and daughter. "Hey Twi, Mr. Light." With the simple acknowledgement, Sunset passed the pair, and swiftly moved to the room she had been staying in. Within moments, a soft thump was heard, followed by a sigh of content, and then snoring, which quickly turned into heavy breathing. Pushing back their laughter, the two people glanced at each other, before calming themselves.
"I should probably get to sleep too. I really need to get some rest." Twilight went into her own bedroom, and performed a less dignified repeat of what Sunset had just done, leaving her father to go downstairs, chuckling to himself. His wife noticed his descent from the stairs, and gave him a small smile.
"I didn't think I'd ever say this on such a day, but this has been fairly relaxing, at least for us."
"Agreed. No immortals shouting at our house, nor are there any mythological creatures breaking in. Only the foster child rushing in wearing armour."
"Now now, that sounded a little harsh. Sunset say anything concerning that? She already said yes, and casually at that, but I still suspect that was a heat of the moment response."
"We'll see in the morning. Both her and Twilight have a lot to work out."
The couple sat in the dining room, as the sun set outside, and they tried to leave the thoughts of magical ponies, sun goddesses, and magical phoenix girls behind them, and attempted to imagine a future without anything supernatural. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 14 - Induction | Contary to her name, Sunset could wake up quite early, even before sunrise, if she got to sleep early enough. This was one of these days, particularly since she had gotten to sleep the moment she got back. This, however, left her with a problem: she was awake, and no one else was. Now, with nothing else to do, Sunset flicked through her journal, in the small hope Princess Twilight would write to her.
"Woke up early too, huh?" Twilight Sparkle, of the human world, stood at the doorway, looking no less frustrated than Sunset was. "Might I ask: what actually is that book?"
"I wasn't lying when I said this was journal, though I don't keep track of my day in it." The girl patted a bandaged hand on the bed next to her, prompting Twilight to sit down on the bed. "I can communicate with Princess Twilight with this. There's another book in Equestria, which is basically just a duplicate of this one. If I write something in this, it appears in the other book, and vice versa. How it works? Magic."
"Why do I suspect that's going to be the answer to a lot of things these days?"
"Because you're right. I imagine magic does have some really complicated science behind it that explains how it actually works, but I don't think anypony knows." Sunset couldn't help but giggle at Twilight's frustration. "Hey, by the way, where's the scientist in you lately? I haven't known you for that long, but still..."
"Frankly, I'm just trying to take one thing at a time. Let's see all of the things I could be worrying about and/or researching right now. Why a girl I recently met has magic, where the girl is from, a literal sun goddess visiting us, meeting a exact duplicate of yourself, magic, magic, magic, that armour over there, and my own situation at Crystal Prep. Which one of those sounds most appealing?"
Sunset sniggered at Twilight's mini rant, before nodding her head in acknowledgement. "Alright, I get it. Aren't you panicking over this though?"
The purple girl dramatically put hand up the her head in exhaustion. "Trust me, I am on the inside. Ever since Shiny talked to me the other day, he kinda helped to convince me to take things slowly. Anyway, could I ask you something?"
"Of cour-" The book in Sunset's lap started to vibrate, glowing with a faint purple. Opening it to the most recent page, new writing swirled and glowed, taking shape on the paper.
Sunset,
We did some digging around on the prediction, and we were able to draw a number of conclusions. We believe the phoenix-master that the prediction came from was also very able in curses. You aren't cursed, but rather under a sort of reverse curse. We're not quite sure to make of it.
As far as abilities go, we were able to draw up a list, but I'd rather tell you that in pony/person, because then we'll be able to test them. Regardless, we know your magic potential had increased to just below an immortal alicorn's magic, so you're probably more powerful than me, since I'm still mortal. You're also significantly stronger physically to, probably akin to a stallion earth pony. One of the ones we are completely unsure of, is that you might have to ability to be reborn, like most phoenixes.
Anyway, I hope you get past your problems in the human world, please remember that you can ask others for help, whether it be me or someone over there.
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle
"Well, you wanted to know what it was. I'll write back later. Actually..." Sunset, still not able to write properly with her hands, took a pen in her mouth, and brought the book up to her face, allowing her to write on it.
Great! Now get to sleep!
Fine, fine. You let me have no fun!
"So it's basically a magic text message."
"Yeah, I guess. Never thought of it that way. I've been thinking too much like a pony recently. Anyway, you wanted to ask a question, yes?"
Shaking off her fascination of the book, Twilight quickly turned to Sunset. "Oh! Yes, right. I'm not sure if I want to stay at Crystal Prep. It gives you great exam results, but other than that..."
"It's really bad, got it."
"Yes, but the only other school in the area is CHS, and from what you've told me..."
"To be fair, the whole school's been really paranoid ever since a literal demon showed up at the school. Plus, with their history with the other Twilight, they should treat you just fine, if a little bit weird. When we can, we could speak to Principal Celestia, try and sort something out. Not now, obviously, it is the holidays."
Twilight let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. "That's great! I really don't want to have to go back to Crystal Prep. And it would be nice to have someone there I know."
"Awww. You're too kind to me sis!" Sunset wrapped an arm around Twilight, gently stroking her shoulder, jerking it away when she heard a small hum of approval from the door. Night Light stood there, with a soft smile on his face, nodding slowly.
"So, you've decided?"
"Y-yeah. I want this. Something that I've never had before."
"You sure this isn't from pressure? We don't want to force anything upon you."
"No, no, this is entirely my own decision." Night Light leaned in closer, a mischievious smirk growing on his face.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Are you su-"
"Just go do the paperwork, or call the lawyers, or whatever you need to do." Sunset was attempting to contain her laughter at her own teasing, only succeeding when she slapped a hand over her mouth.
"Are you-"
A pillow was flung in the man's direction, causing him to duck into the corridor, swiftly going down the stairs, fearful for any more soft projectiles. Sunset gave out a victorious laugh, while Twilight rolled her eyes at her father's antics. "Don't need magic to deal with that!"
Leaving Sunset to relish in her father's defeat, Twilight got up and walked out of the room, joining her parents down stairs. Her mother was stretching her amrs out, as if they hadn't been used in days. "Ahh, it's nice to sleep in a bed again. You sure Sunset isn't just doing this out of peer pressure?"
"Well, I did ask her several times until she attacked me, soooo..."
"Right, right, your annoyingly successful test of being a complete pain." Velvet was tempted to smack her husband over the back of the head, but she resisted the instinct. Twilight chose this moment to make her entrance, about to add her own comment when the doorbell rang. Velvet went to answer it, and was greeted by the sight of a pale woman in a light brown suit, a sun symbol pinned to her lapel.
"Good morning, Velvet. I hope I haven't interrupted anything this early in the morning." The visitor frowned when Velvet dipped her head slightly. "Why're you-"
"That's Principal Celestia, not Princess Celestia. Besides, both Celestias would hate someone bowing to them in such a way." Sunset sat at the bottom of the stairs, slightly amused by the display, before nodding to the pale woman. "Hello, Celestia. What brings you here?"
"Thanks for calling me 'Principal' when not at school, for one. Luna's out of town visiting friends, so I thought I might as well do the same. Might as well get some work out of the way while I'm here anyway."
"Work?" Velvet enquired, having believed the issue with Sunset was resolved.
"I heard from my niece that Twilight here might want to transfer." The purple girl brightened up at the possibility, smiling in confirmation.
"Wait, if you already knew about human Twilight, why'd you allow the other Twilight into the school?"
"I realized something was going on, given how she was acting. Let her in, mainly because the cameras caught you sneaking around. I figured the two events were related." Celestia shrugged off the question as if she had already been asked it several times. The conversation moved to more pleasant matters, generally updating each other on how their lives were going, followed by a long winded apology from Celestia, that could basically be summed up as 'I'm sorry I thought you were Anon-a-miss', which was swiftly accepted. Soon enough, the topic shifted to what Twilight wanted to do.
"So you're thinking you should go to CHS?"
"It depends. I don't know what's happening to Cinch, what's happening with CHS, and even how my own transfer is going to work out."
"I can answer two of those. From what I gather, Cadance may become the principal, but all the issues at the school will take a while to sort out, more than a few years, perhaps. Your transfer is should be absolutely fine - nothing out of the ordinary, particularly since the other Twilight was never officially enrolled. As for Canterlot High..." Celestia took a deep breath, before shaking her head. "I can't exactly do much about it over the holidays. The deletion of the blog will either be good or bad. I wonder why it was deleted?"
"I ca-" Sunset quickly cut herself off, not wanting to get Scootaloo in trouble. "I know who created the blog. But... only two of the creators are really to blame, and the other... I owe them, a lot. Can we try and sort this out when school's back? Not only will it be much eaier, it'll give me time to figure out what I actually want to do."
Celestia sighed at the unsurity of her pupil. "While I would normally tell you to give me their names, it is your choice. You've already been through so much, I don't want to force you through more."
"I appreciate that. How are you going to attempt to deal with this?"
"That's the question of the day, isn't it? I honestly want you to decide that, and I'll do as much as I can to help. But you know this will take a while."
"Yeah, I do." Sunset grimaced when she started to think of next monday, when she would go back to school. "I can't exactly plan ahead, so I'm just going to deal with it when it comes around. Not much else I can really do."
Celestia nodded and looked at her watch, suprise showing on her face when she saw it was eleven o'clock. "Well, I must be going. I do hope we can resolve this entire mess soon. Oh, and I'll be at school on the second of January, if you want to see me. Usual times." The woman quickly departed, excusing herself over meeting her sister.
It was a normal day for Paper Gavel, and he was working on the day after Boxing Day, when few other business were open. He sat at his desk at the offices of Gavel & co. Lawyers, awaiting a client, one Twilight Velvet, who had consulted him on multiple occasions before. It was a couple of minutes before the scheduled appointment, and the receptionist buzzed him, informing the lawyer that Mrs. Velvet had arrived, which he responded to by sending her in. When the woman did enter his office, a younger girl followed her, with bland clothing that had sleeves that were far too long for the girl. "Mrs. Velvet! Take a seat. And this is...?"
"Sunset Shimmer." The girl gave a simple nod as her name was said.
"Right, right. 'Tia told me to expect someone to come in with a young girl, but didn't have time for specifics. Anyway, what can I do for you?"
"Funny. Celestia said I should come here."
Gavel shook his head at his friend's cleverness. "That woman..." He turned his head back upwards to look at Velvet. "I owe Celestia a big favour, and she hinted this might be it. So I'm going to assume this is going to be harder than getting a young lady into her school. You're welcome for that, by the way, Sunset."
"You're the one who-" Sunset sighed in disbelief, before wisely deciding to let the lawyer just do his thing.
"Yes I am. Once this is over, maybe you can help me fill in the blanks on your profile? The only thing I've got other than visual stuff is your name, and potentially age."
"We'll probably be able to answer most of that in the process of this...'favour'." Velvet cleared her throat in preparation. "I for one don't know how far Sunset's legal statistics go in terms of what she can actually do, but we intend to adopt her."
"Right. Okay. That will be... difficult. But not impossible. First off can you fill in as many blanks in this form? Just as a start, I'll fudge as many of the details I can, might even be able to do this in a day." Velvet started to add to the piece of paper, inputting such things as the scars on Sunset's forelimbs and back, and correcting Sunset's age, among other facts.
Not much else appeared to be required of them, with Gavel constantly claiming that he would 'handle it'. However, once all the official documents had been signed, he promptly stood, walked around the table, and shook Velvet by the hand. "Congratulations, Mrs. Velvet, you are now the legal guardian of one Sunset Shimmer, and-" He moved to pat Sunset on the shoulder, tactfully avoiding her arms. "- well done to you, Ms. Shimmer, since you are now the adopted daughter to one Twilight Velvet. I wish you both luck in the years to come, no matter where they take you. Now I suggest you go celebrate, I opened just for you, and I'm not being paid at all for this."
"Wait, that's it? Really?"
"Yep! Now go have some tea. Or coffee. Or water. Or milk. Or whatever the hell you drink. Just have a good time! Merry late Christmas!" Gavel shooed off the two stunned clients out of his office, then took out his phone, dialing a number labelled as 'Sunny'.
"Paper?"
"'Tia, you're gonna have to get me a job at your school. I can't keep up with this."
"Aww, is the self-proclaimed 'King of Chaos' sick of spreading order?"
"I was thinking drama teacher. Need a new name too. I think...I'll get back to you on that."
"Are you going to tell me the real reason for calling or..."
"I am glad to inform you that Sunset Shimmer is now legally part of Twilight Velvet's family. Now, about that job..."
"I... can't believe it was that simple!" Sunset sat in the car, still processing the breakneck speed at which the adoption had taken place. Her adoptive mother nodded her head in silent agreement. "So... where do we go from here, dearest mother?"
"Oh for- you do not get to call me stuff like that. It's 'mum' or 'mom' or however else you want to pronounce it! I had a hard enough time with Cadance calling me stuff like that." While Sunset was suprised by the outburst, she could help but chuckle at Velvet's reaction.
"Heh, alright Mum. Home?"
"Home. And thanks for not wearing that jacket."
"No promises for the future, though." Velvet allowed herself to mumble to herself about awful clothes, concentrating on the drive home, letting Sunset think about her own future.
It was a short drive back, the office only being twenty minutes away from home, only slightly slowed by the lingering snow, which was quickly melting away.Sunset pasted the time by practicing her hand writing, something that had become a sort of hobby since she lost her ability to write with her hands. Writing with her mouth was very good and all, but looked quite weird to anyone who witnessed it. Plus levitating anything used to write would cause Sunset to sprout magical wings and a horn, something she wouldn't mind to avoid from now on.
For what felt like the thousandth time since Sunset had been taken into foster care, she was standing next to the door, patiently waiting for Velvet to unlock it. The door swung open, revealing Night Light, with a hopeful look on his face.
"Hi dad."
"Does that mean...?" His hope increased, and when he was met with a confirming nod, the man's emotions increased a hundredfold, and it took all he had not to squeal like a toddler recieving candy. Less than a moment later, Sunset found herself wrapped in a loving hug, a giddy smile on both faces. Velvet warmly smiled at the scene, closing the door behind her, then taking the papers and moving to another room top organize them. The father and adopted daughter broke apart, and walked into the living room together, greeting Twilight Sparkle on entry.
"Well?"
"Congrats on getting a new sister, Twi."
Twilight gasped in amazement, then giggled merrily. "What a Christmas gift, eh? Now about th-"
The girl was interrupted by Sunset's phone going off, leaving Twilight with an annoyed frown. "Sorry Twi. No experiments today."
"How'd you kn- nevermind. What's it say?"
"Hmm. I guess I know what I'm doing for the rest of the day. My current friends what to try and help me, and it doesn't say it here, but I know they want to know what's been going on." Sunset looked up at Velvet with a glimmer of hope in her eye. "Can I go? You don't ned to follow me around any more, right?"
"Yes, you can go. Can you take Twilight with you, though? It would be nice to get her a head start in terms of friends."
"Great! Come along, Sparkles!" Sunset grabbed Twilight by the arm and practically dragged her upstairs to get changed.
"But- but- but-"
"Have fun, sweetie!"
Twilight whimpered, resigned to her ghastly fate of a social life... |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 15 - Reveal | "You said she'll be here?" Octavia, Lyra, Bon Bon, and Vinyl were sat around a table in a coffee shop, next to a old libary. It was fairly quiet, not many people would be out while the snow was still melting. Vinyl nodded at her friends, then returned to flicking through her phone. The bell above the entrance ringed, and a golden-skinned girl entered, wearing a hoodie several times to large for her, followed by a nervous purple girl, glancing around the shop at nothing imparticular. The first girl glanced over to the group, face lighting up in recognition, and made her way over to them.
"Hi girls. Sorry I'm a little late. Someone forgot it was freezing outside." She glanced back to the other girl, who approached while sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
"Eheh, sorry."
"Before you all go into a panic or party or whatever, this is the Twilight from the human world, not Princess Twilight. I'll explain later." They both took a seat, recieving various greetings, mostly awkward ones. "See Twi? Not that hard."
"Fine, you were right. I still don't see why I had to come along though, Sunset." Twilight gave an annoyed pout, still reluctant to be there.
"Because you can't make every new friend part of your family, so best start now. And I'm older than you, so you bet I'm going to be a big sister to you from now on." Sunset playfully nudged Twilight, elicting a quiet giggle.
"Okay, we're clearly missing something here, what's going on?" Lyra held up a hand, interrupting the exchange.
"Heh, I suppose I owe you an explanation, don't I? Very, very, very long story short, I got adopted. Again. But this time, by Twilight's family. So I'm one of them now. Go me."
While it wasn't as shocking as past events, it still suprised the group that the ex-school bully had been adopted by the interdimensional counterpart to their school's multiple times magical saviour. Vinyl made some quick gestures with her hands, causing Sunset to snigger slightly. "Yeah, that's exactly what I thought at first too." Vinyl made some more movements, this time directing them at Sunset. "Yeah, I know sign language. First thing I learnt how to do with my hands when I first... came here."
Octavia was also following the movements, having been slowly learning sign language ever since meeting Vinyl, but was not as talented as the other two girls. The rest of the girls, on the other hand, were just sitting there confused, miserably failing to understand anything in the exchange, unti Lyra spoke up again.
"Eerrrrm, you said there was a really long version, could we just have the 'not quite so long but more than just a few sentences' version, please? There's kinda a lot missing."
"Sorry I'm late girls! I got caught up in the snow!" A blonde, grey skinned girl rushed up, wih a similar looking younger girl, looking to be around Freshman year. "Oh, hi, Sunset! You're the actual Twilight, aren't you? Nice to meet you!"
Seeing Twilight's shellshocked expression, Sunset leaned in and said, "She has a... different way of saying things. And her eyes are usually like that. It's not a sore spot, but she does get frustrated when people constantly mention it." Turning back to the newcomer, she cheerfully greeted her. "Hi Ditzy! Didn't know you were coming."
"That's because someone didn't give your number." She shot a mismatched glare at Vinyl, who nervously shuffled her arms, before slipping a piece of paper into the grey girl's hands. "And call me Derpy, all my friends do."
"Sis... why do I have to be here?" The younger girl whined from behind Derpy.
"Because you said you're gonna be spending your time with me during lunch, so you'd better get used to the other people you'll be around. Plus, you said you wanted to meet Sunset. Sunset, this is Dinky, my little sister."
A pair of golden eyes poked out from behind Derpy. "S-Sunset's here?!"
"Is she here to try and break my hand for what I used to do to you or-" Sunset was interrupted by a soft thud, finding Dinky had taken the comment as an invitation. If Sunset could feel her hand, she probably would say she was actually doing a good job, as Dinky had managed to bend a finger into an awkward position. Taking advantage of Dinky's small size, Sunset lifted her arm, the little girl still holding onto it. It was almost adorable, if not lined with malicious intent. Still, it was hard not to giggle at the display.
"Or what?"
"...Doesn't matter."
"Humf, Suffseth?" Dinky was just holding the bandaged arm in her mouth, dangling by her teeth.
"It would help if you didn't speak with your mouth full."
Unwilling to part with her 'victim', Dinky grasped the limb in her arms, before looking to its owner once again. "Are you not feeling anything because of these bandages?"
"That's-" Sunset sighed, knowing she would have to give an proper explanation now. "That's kind of the focus of this entire story. Take a seat, Derpy? Dinky, are you..."
The younger girl swung herself from the arm onto the table, settling on it. "I'm good."
Sunset leaned over to Derpy, whispering, "I'm not gonna lie, this involves suicide, is she gonna be alright with this?"
Sighing, Derpy shook her head. "She's more... familiar with the subject than she should be. Don't ask."
Pulling away, Sunset nodded in confirmation. "Right. This is going to be... I..."
Twilight put a reassuring hand on Sunset's shoulder. "Just take your time, Sunset."
"Look, I'm just going to straight out say it, I tried to kill myself."
Unsuprisingly, a loud round of gasps went round, concern showing in her friends' eyes. Fully expecting the oncoming questions, Sunset prematurely put up a hand to stop them. "I can assure you, I'm fine now. And please, I've already feel like I've answered enough question in past few days, so save them 'til the end, alright? Alright."
Taking an extra deep breath, Sunset steeled herself for her tale.
"You know what happened in the hallway? All the crying and stuff like that? I left the school and well... I used a knife to... yeah. It wasn't just because of that, though. Revelation number two: I was homeless. Living in a tiny hand made shack quite close to here, actually. The snow caused it to collapse, and well, I... I lost hope. Completely. And I commited, there and then. I was found by - you're not gonna believe this - one of the people behind Anon-a-miss. I'm not going to name them, at least not yet. I need to properly sort things out with them first. Went into hospital, some stuff happened that I'll tell you later, and I eventually got taken into foster care by Twilight Velvet, Twilight Sparkle's mother.
"It was pretty normal for a while, apart from the fact that I couldn't move my hands or lower arms. Then, Christmas Eve comes around, and I can move my arms and stuff again. I'm having trouble doing some stuff, like writing, but I'm good otherwise. I've also got some really deep scars, and a lot of them. The talking dog, Spike, comes to visit. Then, Christmas Day, I wake up with magical powers - I'll show you later Lyra - and end up fighting a literal sun goddess, who also happened to be my old teacher. Christmas proceeds normally, I sing a song (marvelously, of course), and all is well. Boxing Day, I meet with the deity, then talk with Princess Twilight. Princess Twilight gets kidnapped by the Dazzlings, me and the sun goddess goes back and rescues her, everything's good with them now (I hope)."
Sunset thoughtfully put a finger to her chin. "Errm... what else was there? Oh, then I got adopted. I think that's everything..." The girl almost lost herself in thought, before noticing the varying expressions gathered around the table, all of them still processing what they had heard. Twilight, having been through something a few times before, simply waited, drumming her fingers on the table.
"THAT'S SO COOL!" Dinky was the first to break the silence, unable to contain her wonder and excitement any longer. "Can you show me a trick? Can you?!"
"Heh, lets wait for the rest of them to come to their senses first." She gestured to the rest of the group, waving a bandaged hand in front of Octavia's eyes. She started to blink, shaking her head, bringing her mind back to reality. "You good, Octavia?"
"Y-yes, I am- I think... Give me a minute."
Sunset smiled, shaking her head, then turning to Twilight. "This is what I had to deal with when I said everything to you."
"And how long was I out?"
"About ten minutes. So give these people five. They're nowhere near as science-y as you." She surveyed the stunned girls, smirking a little. "Maybe three for Lyra. Oh, maybe you should move away fr-"
"MAGIC!" Lyra jumped forwards across the table, grabbing Sunset by the shoulders, jerking her violently. "SHOW ME!"
That snapped everyone else out of their trances, and the group as a whole, rushed forward to pull Lyra back, Vinyl tactfully putting a hand over the turquoise girl's mouth. She flashed an apologetic look at Sunset, before settling Lyra back in her seat, only for her to try and rush forwards again. Seeing she would not give up, Sunset stood up, gesturing for the others to follow. "Let's get this out of the way. Better sooner than later."
Stepping out of the shop, hoping no one was too disturbed by the outburst. Finding an alleyway just past the adjacent library, Sunset stepped into it, motioning for the others to follow, only to burst out laughing.
"Of all the places to come to! Of course it's here!"
The rest of the group looked at each other, confused at their friend's exclamation. To them, it was just a standard dead end alley way, with a thin blanket of snow covering the ground. Looking to Twilight for an explanation, she just gave the same clueless expression, shrugging.
"Uh, Sunset? Where is 'here'?"
"Well, to you, it's a random alley. To me, it was my home for a few years. That imparticular." She pointed to a bump in the snow. Noticing the expressions worn on the other girls, she giggled a little. "Hey, it's not all bad. Last time I was here I became a millionaire."
"What?!"
"Another story for another time." Noticing one of her friends was crouched down near the entrance for the alley, Sunset called out to her. "Hey, Bon Bon, what're you doing?"
"What's this red stuff? Is it blood?"
"Yeah, mine. Anywa-"
Sunset was interrupted by a loud stomp on the ground, and Vinyl, seeing she had her attention, started to sign.
<This is not something you should be calm about. Are you OK?>
"Meh. I've had time to get over it. I've been through a similar experience before. Granted, I never took it this far, but that's not the point. And anyway, I need to accept the past, and move on. 'My past is not today', I guess."
The DJ nodded, content with the answer she had gotten. Lyra calmly approached Sunset, a wanting look in her eye. Slightly intimidated, the girl backed a bit, now sporting a nervous grin.
"Now..."
"Uh, Lyra?"
"Now. Magic."
"Lyra..."
"Magic!"
"LYRA!" The light blue girl had Sunset pinned in a corner, only a foot away from her. "I can't do magic in a tiny space!"
"Oh." The lyrist blushed, before backing away, standing next to Bon Bon. "Right. Sorry."
"It's fine. Let's put on a show now, hey?"
Almost of instinct, Sunset reached out to the magic infused in her, and instantly, she felt a warmth rising throughout her body. As the others watched in wonder, Sunset felt her extra appendages appear. The horn, made of pure light, stuck out from her head, glowing softly. Two great wings made of fire shot out of her back, lightly flapping to keep the girl aloft. Her hair extended, and a pair of pony hear replaced her human ones. Most noticably, however, was the complete change in clothing. Instead of the plain hoodie and jeans she had been wearing earlier, her leather jacket had appeared on her body, battered and bloody as before. Under the jacket was a full suit of armour, the same set from when she had confronted the sirens earlier.
Deciding to show off a little, Sunset started to levitate the wreck of her shelter, sorting through it, reassembling it to its original state. Something glinting in the light she was giving off caught her eye, and she glided down to the small shack. Locating the shining item, she brought it out using her magic, floating it towards her hands.
It was a gem, red and gold in colour, not to dissimilar to Sunset's cutie mark. Her eyes lit up in recognition, and she automatically fed some magic into the jewel, causing it to suspend itself in the air. A purple string formed around it, threading though a miniscule gap in the gem. A tiny orb of light formed in the center, the two colours of the gem shifting and fighting against each other. Smiling at the jewel, Sunset reached out to take in her hands, and placed it around her neck, warmly grinning at her new neckpiece.
It gave Sunset a nice feeling, one which can only be described as pleasant. It tingled every inch of her body, causing a sigh of satistfaction to escape her lips. She stroked it affectionately, as if it was an old friend.
"I must say, it's very beautiful, my dear. Not to mention, impressive." Broken out of their awe induced stance by the voice, coming from the entrance of the alleyway, the group turned to face it, only Sunset recognising its owner. A man, dressed in what would usually be a extremely smart suit, ruined by various colourful patches smothering the clothing. He had yellow eyes, and greyed skin. His lanky body leaned against the wall, tapping his odd shoes on the ground, and twirling the cane in his mismatched gloves.
"Mr. Gavel?!"
"Pluh-ease! Call me Discord."
Sunset almost choked on nothing upon hearing the name. "D-D-Discord?!" It started to make sense now. All the passing comments he made when he was creating her adoption, his past with Celestia, they did seem to mirror his interdimensional counterpart. And while Discord was the man who did do alot for her, he was still the spirit of chaos.
"Now, now, just because I have a pony counterpart that you might've known, doesn't mean you have to be scared of me."
"Alright. Alright. Alright. You're a different person. I don't know how you know about Equestria, but you're human. But forgive me for being paranoid - your counterpart ruled the world ruthlessly for centuries, spreading complete disharmony and harm."
Sunset was forced to cast a calming spell, allowing her to think straight through her panicking mind. Even so, a billion questions were swirling around her head uncontrollably. 'Why does he know about Equestia? How? Does his past mirror the Equestrian Discord's past? Is he a criminal? He must've been a criminal. He's seen me do magic? How's he here- wait. How actually is he here?'
"Okay, Gavel, Discord, whatever, how are you here?"
"What you mean, 'how am I here?' Why, I simply walked through that empty space over there, and leaned against this wall." The man gave that look that made it seem painfully obvious.
"What- I- nevermind. I cast a spell which made anyone who walked by ignore what was going in here, and not enter under any circumstances. Evidently, it isn't perfect." With a quick flash of red, Sunset recast the spell several times, just in case anyone else happened to wander in. She dropped to the ground, folding in her wings, but keeping them at the ready, in case Dinky or Lyra decided to rush her. Luckily, they were still a little bit stunned by the magic to do anything, allowing Sunset to focus her attention on Discord. "First and foremost, how in all of Tartarus do you know about Equestria?"
"How does one cover up a huge hole in the front of the school without knowing the truth? You don't. Somehow, a student accidently mixing fireworks and propane on the night of the fall formal didn't seem true to me. I don't know how 'Tia knew so much, mind you, but that doesn't really matter now, does it?" Noticing Sunset's thoughtful expression, Discord helped fill in some of the blanks. "I've been the one covering for you legally. Your entry into the school, the papers sent to the hospital literally last minute, everything. But now, I'm retiring from all that. Gavel is closing down, and I'm getting a new job!"
"And you are telling me this because...?"
"I'm going to be teaching you drama! And it's going to be great! Oh! And you have got to tell me about magical pony land! I can only imagine what happens over there!" He clapped his hands together in giddy joy, hopping with enthusiasm. "Speaking of which, I'm meeting Celestia to sort out everything. I suspect you have a number of things you might want to sort out. And yes, I know she said she wouldn't be open now, but she will not turn you away. Ever. Now come on!" He rushed over, tapping his cane on Sunset's shoulder. "We should teleport there now."
"Girls, something tells me I'm going to lose this argument already. Continue this later?" She got a series of nods, some more reluctant than others, before turning to Twilight. "I trust you can get home?"
"Uh..."
Sunset rolled her eyes, knowing Twilight was completely clueless about the way home. "I'll teleport you." Not even able to get the chance to protest, the purple skinned girl disappeared in a sudden red flash, leaving the rest of the group to slowly disperse, all of them saying to Sunset that they'd better get more later on. She hated just to send them away like that, but something about Discord told her he wasn't to be argued with under any cirumstances. It might've been because she owed Discord alot, or it could've been the terrifying reality that his magical counterpart was thought to be completely evil.
"The school, Sunset. The office... Remember? Principal Celestia's office... any one home?" Discord waved a yellow glove infron tof Sunset's unmoving expression, before her lips parted slightly.
"Quiet. Concentrating." She barely mumbled, only just loud enough for the man to hear, and move away. Another few seconds passed, and they both disappeared in another flash, the world melting around them.
"Where is he?" Principal Celestia Ra sat at her desk, drumming her fingers on the surface infront of her.
"Relax, 'Tia. You can't expect him to be on time." Vice Principal Luna Khonsu stood behind her, placing a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder. A deep red light came from the other side of the door for a split second, a quiet zapping sound accompanying it. While Luna looked slightly stunned, Celestia simply rolled her eyes.
"Luna, please inform our latest employee that he is not allowed to set off flares in the school corridors, and then invite him in." She stopped tapping on the desk, and Luna went to open the door, gasping a little when she did.
"Erm, sister, you might want to see this. And by that, I mean stand up and join me at the door."
"And make sure you open your mouth in astonishment!" A man's voice called from the other side, childlike excitement tinting the sentence.
Smirking slightly at the unimaginable prank that she expected to come, Celestia rose up from her seat, and strode, with a little reluctance, to take a place next to Luna, and directed her gaze out of the door.
There, an oddly dressed man, who she knew as Discord, stood next to Sunset Shimmer. In addition to that, Sunset was floating slightly, great wings made of fire flapping to keep her aloft, and a horn formed out of what appeared to be pure light extended from her forehead. The girl's eyes, usually green, glowed slightly, a dark shade of red appearing to tint them. A leather jacket was worn over what appeared to be a suit of armour, symbols decorating some of the plates.
Celestia took a step back, unsure how to process the sight, as the girl giggled, before tapping the gem that was being worn around her neck. It let out a flash, and every trace of magic, including the armour, disappeared, the protective clothing being replaced by a plain looking hoodie and trousers, and the necklace glowed in a maginificent glow of gold and red. Nodding in satistfaction, Sunset chuckled to herself, smiling.
"I'm really doing a terrible job of hiding this, aren't I? There's now at least a dozen people who know." She shrugged, as if not truly caring about anything. "Oh well. I suspect I'm not going to be able to hid this from the school anyway. Hello, Principal, Vice Principal. Good to see you again."
"H-hello, Sunset. Care for an explanation?"
"I think 'magic' will suffice."
"Of course." Celestia rubbed her head, already feeling a headache coming on. "Come in, Discord. We have much to discuss."
"And Sunset, could you please join me in my office. While you're here, I need to speak to you about a number of things." Luna walked over to a nearby door and entered it, holding it open so the girl could follow her. Looking behind her, Sunset noticed Discord was now sat at the desk opposite Celestia, and opted to do the same in Luna's office. Settling into the seat, the girl looked across the table, seeing the vice principal take the seat. "I'm going to ignore the magic, because, quite frankly, I think I've had enough of it. /instead, lets start off with more... mortal matters."
"Anon-a-miss."
"Yes. I think the first thing would be finding out who it could be."
"Right." Sunset paused, planning her words carefully. "I'm going to be honest, I know who it is, but I haven't got proper evidence, save for one of them, who came forward and deleted the account."
"So who are they?"
"I'm not going to say yet." Seeing Luna was about to protest, Sunset held up a bandaged hand, letting her continue her argument uninterrupted. "Look, the one that told me everything, quite frankly, needs some time alone - without the entire school on them for revenge. If I expose even one of the group, the rest will automatically assume the rest of them are involved. I need hard evidence that only a certain number of the group are involved. First though, I'll probably confront them in private. I wouldn't be suprised, however, if they reopened the damn blog again. They're desperate. For what, I'm not entirely sure."
"Alright. Usually I'd insist to tell us all you know, but something deep inside me tells me I should let you handle it. Before it was an act of bullying and framing. Now, it seems personal." Luna could see the sort of emotions that were in the girl's eyes, and from personal experience, knew not to press it further. "Might I ask if you've found anyone who actually believes you're not Anon-a-miss?"
"I didn't think I'd ever be able to say this, but I can actually draw up a list."
"Oh? Do tell."
"If I'm honest, I've literally no clue why any of these people believe me, but they do. Let's see, there's Bon Bon-"
"Could you use full names please? I do intend on using this information in some way." Luna was poised with a pen above a notepad.
"Sure. There's Sweetie Drops, Lyra Heartstrings, Der- Ditzy Doo, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia Melody, eerrrr... Rainbow Dash, Flutter Shy... I think that's it. Oh, yeah, there's Flash Sentry, Scootaloo Turret, Dinky Doo, and my new sister, Twilight Sparkle."
"Congratulations on that. Oh, while we're on names, I need to ask you - does the name Sonata Dusk mean anything to you?" The darker woman tapped a nearby form, the title being the forementioned name. "We got an application from her, and it seems rather... wild."
"Sonata? She's one of the Dazzlings, currently trying to live a normal life without the influence of the other sirens." Sunset put up a thoughtful hand to her chin, remembering the brief conversation she had with the other equestrians. "She did say she still needed qualifications, now that I think about it. Probably trying to get them here. Terrible idea, considering her past here, but still. I doubt most of the students will actually recognize her. They've become just...there. Anyway, I'll vouch for her, if that's what you're asking for."
"I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, I note among that list is Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Are the others...?" She left the question unsaid, unsure of the girl's feelings about it.
"I'd rather not talk about them. At all. Not right now, anyway." Sunset's face gave away none of her emotions, but it was hard to mistake what she was feeling at that moment from the strained tone of her voice.
"Understood. I believe the human Twilight will now be attending here? Do you... want us to do anything about everyone thinking she is the princess?"
"I believe our parents are going to be coming over in a few days time to sort out the transfer. I'll tag along, do what I can. Best save it for then. By the way, are you just here for Discord?" Something sparked inside of Sunset's brain, a plan. The thoughts could been seen in Sunset's green eyes, burning with desire.
"Other than some pieces of paperwork we needed to do, that is correct."
"Then might I do something here? Over the course of my bully stage, I got extremely paranoid with my blackmail. I've disposed of most of it, but I stashed physical copies all over school, all very well hidden, and I can hardly remember were any of them are. With this new magic, however..." She gave a grin, one which could've been on a evil villain's face.
"You want to get rid of all of them now?"
"Correct."
"Go ahead. I need to tell Celestia first, though. Heavens knows how tired she is of magic messing with he school." Luna stood, pacing back towards her sister's office, poking her head inside for a minute or so, before striding back over to Sunset. "Go ahead."
"Great!" The girl all but jumped out of her seat, already making her way out of the office and down the hall, heading for the gymnasium at a swift walk. Luna, not wanting to be left behind caught up to Sunset at a jog, before slowing to match the girl's speed. Suddenly, Sunset paused, stopping at a door to a classroom, and reaching to the top of the doorframe, retrieving a black cuboid covered in tape. "One of the sticks. They're all identical, so this shouldn't be too hard."
"Sunset, question."
"Yes?"
"You were homeless with next to no money. How did you afford any of this?"
"I didn't. I was resourceful. I basically survived off of the school water and lunch meals. One day, I was passing a tech shop. They were throwing out a bunch of these sticks because they were 'obsolete'. Used the computers in library, and voilà! Blackmail on every single person in this school, all at my long, dishrivelled fingers. Mwahahah. Fear me." She stuck her hands out dramatically, putting on her best evil grin.
"Riiiight. So what's the plan here? Just become magical and poof, all the memory sticks appear in front of you?" Luna made a explosion with her hands, causing Sunset to giggle a little.
"Ha! I wish. Even magic isn't that easy. This shouldn't be too hard either, though. Provided nothing happened to any of the memory sticks, thet all should be exactly the same. I just need to make a spell which searches for more of these, and bring them to me. I also need to make sure they don't force their way through walls. That would be bad. Not to mention expensive. Mind you..." She trailed off, not quite willing to say that she had almost two million in golden coins. Instead, she opted to tap the gem again, making the armour, wings and horn appear again.
"What is that gem?" Luna, irritation in her voice, was shielding her eyes from the flash that the girl emitted.
"This? It keeps my magic under control. Something from my days in Equestria, when I would accidently cast spells, and destroy stuff. Very useful when your speciality was pyromancy. Heh. Good times..." She drifted off into memories, before clearing her head with a shake and entering to hall. Luna, slightly disturbed by the fact one of her students apparantly had a fascination with fire and potentially explosions, chose to stand to the side, away from the door way, but also away from the magical girl. "This might take a little while. You may want to take a seat."
"I believe that ends our talk, Discord."
"Always a pleasure, 'Tia. I shall look forward to teaching here for at least a few years."
Celestia and Discord, having concluded the introduction into the new job, stood, Discord enthusastically shaking hands with the woman. "Not planning on staying long?"
"I'm an old man, 'Tia, despite my looks. There's only so much energy I can expend before I wither away, lost to the ages." He dramatically waved his cane about, suddenly pausing in his movements, before crouching to look under Celestia's desk. "Hmm. Magic. Magic magic magic."
Before Celestia could ask what's wrong, his face was suddenly illuminated by a red light, and the source flew out from underneath the desk. It was a black cuboid, held in a red glow, heading directly for the door. Discord, acting like it was the end of the world already, quickly chased after the object, frantically reaching out to it and grasping it in his hand. Digging his heels in, the man found himself unable to halt the levitating item, and was dragged hopelessly along with it. Glancing around, Discord found himself joined by dozens of identical objects. A sly grin worked its way onto his face, something which did not escape Celestia's notice.
"Discord! Don't you dare!" |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 16 - Research | "WHEEEEEHEHEHEEEE!"
Sunset, who had cast a spell that attracted all the blackmail in the school to her, had her concentration shattered once more by Discord. This time, however, he appeared to be riding on top of what appeared to be a swarm of memory sticks, giggling like a maniac, waving his cane about as if it was a cutlass. The reactions to his performance were varied, to say the least. Sunset just had some added strain to carrying extra weight, Luna couldn't help but laugh at his antics, and Celestia put her head in her hands, sighing in part disappointment, part confusion.
"I must say, Sunny, I do believe we make an excellent team. I do look forward to completely and utterly abusing your powers in my drama lessons." When Sunset gave him a flat look, he got the point, and hopped off of his magical surfboard. "Don't worry. I won't force you to do anything. Paying you on the other hand..." He gave another devilish grin, one that earned him a light slap on the back of the head from Celestia.
Now that the added weight was off of her magic, Sunset could manipulate the objects she was levitating, and she moved them all into one large ball, the black items swirling and grinding against each other.
"So, Sunset. What are you going to do with all of this?"
"Well, first off, This is for you." She reached forward, plucking out a singular memory stick from the shifting mass, and pushing it towards Celestia. "I tended to stay out of illegal stuff, but some stuff in there are definitely against the law. I should go to Shining with this, but you're here now, and can give it to him if you think you can't handle it. I'll be honest, most of it is just stuff like X is cheating on Y with Z, but they're pretty easy to spot. I marked the really bad stuff at the bottom. Oh, and the password is Philomena. P-H-I-L-O-M-E-N-A."
"You should just destroy this. It could be used to incriminate you too." Celestia looked at the device now in her hand with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, but I need to pay for my mistakes, right? Besides, some stuff on there is seriously bad. I rather it actually be used to lock some people up for their crimes, rather than let them run free. As for the rest of it... hang on, meet me on the roof. I can't do it in here." She and the sphere of memory sticks vanished in another red flash, reappearing on the roof. Sunset waited for a minute until the other three people joined her. "Ready?"
"Ready."
Sunset closed her eyes, and then opened them again, replacing the red tinted eyes, with slightly orange pools of energy. Her wings and horn glowed even brighter, and she stuck out her hands, the black mass in front of her being surrounded by yet another red glow. It intensified, almost obscuring the ball, before seemingly melting onto its surface. It grew bright once more, matching the brightness of Sunset's eyes. Slowly, it appeared to melt away, taking the memory sticks away with them in a white hot flame. It didn't stop there however. Once the technology had been reduced to what looked like a miniture sun, Sunset started to shake, perhaps with power, perhaps with stress. The molten glob started to disintegrate, slowing fading away into nothing, dissapating into thin air, and, before long, it had completely disappeared, the only clue of it ever having been there was the man clapping with giddy joy and the two women standing in awe.
"That was amazing! I must say, Sunset, if this wasn't something you had to hide, you could make a fortune off of this!" Discord practically squealed, laughing like a boy riding his first bike.
"What..." Luna trailed off, completely unable to put her question into words.
"Vanished out of existance. Actually much easier here than it was in Equestria. Or at least, how it used to be. Maybe I've gotten stronger. I dunno." Sunset floated down, tapping her gem once more, trapping all magic back in the jewel. "Regardless, they won't be coming back."
"So that's it? They just got vapourised, nothing more needs to be done?" Celestia was slowly coming to her senses, and had regained the brain power to form words.
"Nope. That's all. Anyway, I should be off. Twilight's probably freaking out over being teleported. See you in a few days, Principal Celestia." Without any extra flair, Sunset calmly walked down the stairs, as if nothing out of the ordinary happened, leaving to stunned school teachers and a giggling man, whispering to an object in his hand.
"Now, little black box, what can I do with you?"
"So if I was transfered approximately eight hundred and seventy two meters at a probable speed of-"
"Twilight! You know you won't be able to work out magic now! Come out!" Sunset stood before a shed door, located in the snow covered back yard of her adoptive family's house.
"-which means that the energy was-"
"For Celestia's sake... That's it, I'm coming in!" She sharply twisted the handle, and pushed against the door, causing it to swing open. Sunset stumbled inside, taking in her surroundings, consisting of a fair amount of machines, most with some sort of flashing lights, screens or buttons. Twilight was hunched over a keyboard in the corner, face only a few inches from a screen. "And you were wondering about why your eyes were bad..."
"Mhm."
"Twi..."
"Mmphm."
"Twilight."
"Mmm?"
"Twilight!"
"Uhmmhm."
"For the love of..." Sunset stomped up to the other girl, and shook her shoulders. "Twilight! Sparkle! Stop trying to research magic and, for all that's holy, stop typing!"
"Wha? Oh, hi Sunset. What's up?" Twilight jerked up, snapping her head to attention.
"Other than the fact that when I left Equestria, the mechanics behind teleportations weren't fully figured out yet, you." She walked over to the computer, where characters were still appearing on the monitor. "I recognise almost none of this from my own studies, so it is highly doubtful this would actually get you anywhere. Besides, I'm hungry, there's food currently being cooked, and I don't care how 'not hungry' you are, you still need to eat to do this even more magical thing called 'surviving'."
"Well let me just-"
"Nuh-uh. Not happening. Look, you said it yourself a day or so ago, you need to focus more on your own problems, not something that'll take you years to figure out." Sunset practically dragged her adoptive sister out of the shed, before her captive stopped protesting.
"Fine fine, I guess you're right. Plus, I am actually a bit hungry, I could do with some food." Twilight paused to lock the shed, before joining Sunset in the house.
"There we go. See, you're smart, you just need to prioritise what you need to apply that ridiculously high brain power to." They made their way to the dining room, where Twilight Velvet awaited them.
"Ah, there you are. You took your time with your friends. How'd it go?"
"I think they're a bit... shellshocked after a brief show of magic, and I've made a... what's a good word for it?" Sunset twirled her hand around in a exaggerrated show of thought. "An interesting acquaintance."
"Oh? Who might that be?" Velvet laid some plates of food down, and the girls eagerly dug into their meals, Sunset pausing to give a response.
"You remember Paper Gavel? The lawyer? Turns out he's actually called Discord."
"Not news to me, I'll admit, but I sense there's something else."
"Yeah, well, you see, in Equestria, Discord was the spirit of chaos, the literal avatar of disorder." The ex-unicorn told the story of Discord, how he ruled Equestria spreading disharmony. "Supposedly, he's recently been reformed, the same as most of Equestria's villians. I'll quadruple check with Princess Twilight later."
"Don't trust her? I mean, this world's Discord wasn't the best person, but he's not a criminal, as far as I know..."
"Everything here's downsized."
"What,wdsawa like magic barely existing?" Twilight asked.
"No, like immortal princesses being school principals, or what is considered adults by pony standards becoming teenagers here. For example." Sunset dove back into her meal, before Velvet asked another question.
"What is that necklace, Sunset? It looks absolutely stunning, but it shines rather unnaturally."
Sunset held it in hand, inspecting it. "Something I took from Equestria. I had thought it crushed by my collapsed shelter, but it managed to survive. It helps my contain my magic, since it only seems to go away. Used to be used when I couldn't hold onto my magic, and I released it uncontrollably. Quite bad when I specialised in pyromancy. I miss that though. Blueblood's face when I set up." She drifted off into some long lost memory.
"Riiiight. Anywayyy..." Velvet nervously twiddled her thumbs, evidently thinking over the possiblity that her adopted daughter might be a pyromaniac. "What were you doing with Discord? Did something happen?"
"Other than discovering he knew a lot of things about me, including Equestria? He's Canterlot High's new drama teacher. Joy of joys..." Sunset could not be any for sarcastically enthusiastic.
"Wait, how did he know about the magical stuff?" Velvet was having a hard time keeping track fo the situation
"Apparantly, he's been the one covering for me legally. Got me papers, thought they aren't completely legit, and he covered me for blowing up half the school. Even though I didn't do that, now I think about it. A giant rainbow beam caused the huge crater. But that's a story for another time. And it's one that I've already told." Sunset finished her food, handing Velvet her plate.
"Sunset! Can you come here a second?" Night Light called from another room, concern tainting his voice. Getting up, the magical girl went to locate him in the living room, looking at a computer.
"What's up?" The man turned the laptop so Sunset could read the screen. It showed a MyStable page, one called 'Anon-a-mous'. "Very creative name, guys. Did you have to go to Google for that one?" She looked up at Night Light. "Mind if I have a look through this?"
"Go ahead. I need food anyway." He walked away, leaving Sunset alone with the computer, finding the first post. It was an update, saying this is the same account as Anon-a-miss, and the original account was deleted due to 'technical difficulties'. Instead of the red and gold theme the account was customised with last time, it appeared to be focused on mystery, with various symbols denoting the account as being anonymous. Regardless, the comments were filled with wild accusations that Sunset was still indeed guilty, including the real culprits announcing that she was still 'back to her old ways.' More posts were up, though there were now mostly harmless things, rather than the more borderline legal things that were being posted than before. Sunset took note of the fact, but didn't think it mattered. The point was still standing: Anon-a-miss, or rather Anon-a-mous now, was posting again, and everyone still believed it was Sunset Shimmer, the equestrian fugitive that currently was attening Canterlot High School.
'Still, all things considered, this could be so much worse. In fact, I'm lucky no one outside of CHS had come to 'investigate the magic'. That's me. Magical Lady Luck herself.'
Suddenly, an idea struck Sunset, and she called out, "Dad! I'm going to have to go out again!"
Night Light stuck his head back through the doorway. "What for?"
"Just going to try and end this early. Doubt it'll work, but it's worth a shot."
"Go ahead. The less I have to hear of this mess, the less I have to worry about. But before you go, why don't you talk to Shining about this?"
"They haven't done anything that illegal yet. If it ends up getting that bad, trust me, I'll go straight to him." Once more, Sunset's face lit up with another idea. "And I think I know how to get there..."
"And this is legal because..." Night Light stood in front of an all black motorcycle, recently magicked into existance, while Sunset sat on it, putting on a purple helmet.
"Because when I sold my old bike as parts for food for over the holidays, I never took away its registeration. Thank for that, Discord. And besides, isn't she a beauty? Laverda Jota, fastest bike of its type from 1976 to '81. And no, I'm not taking it to school, I won't force Twi to ride it, etcetra. Thanks for the permission, and goodbye, see you later, farewell, so long, 'til next time." Without any further delay, Sunset revved the engine, and zoomed off, leaving Night Light standing in the driveway, struggling for words.
In contrast, Sunset was having the time of her life. She only had the bike for a few weeks, and never had the chance to show it off. She found it in a scrap yard, and managed to get it registered, at the time, she had no idea. Now she had it back, and was already making plans for it.
'Maybe I'll do it up with a paint job. Hey, if I get a mask, I could be a superhero!' Sunset almost immediately mentally kicked herself, remembering her earlier advice. 'Priorities, Sunset, priorities!'
Soon enough, the motorcyclist found herself trundling down a farm road, orchards rolling by, and before long, Sunset came across a sign. She flipped up her visor to read it. "'Sweet Apple Acres'. Huh. Wonder if I'll have to deal with a shotgun or not. Okay, no stereotypes, they're going to be angry enough as it is." She took off her helmet, letting her red and gold locks flow freely once more, but also revealing her face once more.
"AND WHY DO WE HAFTA LET 'ER IN?!" A shout came from the house, followed by very faint mumbling. "AH DON'T CARE! SHE'S STILL THE ONE WHO-" More incoherant words. "FINE! BUT AH AIN'T SPEAKIN' TO 'ER!" Louder obscured words were heard, before an old woman exited the household, and approached Sunset.
"Sorry about that young'un, Applejack has been mighty stubborn of late, with all this 'ere internet business."
"That's fine, Missus Smith. Fully expected that. I know where Apple Bloom stands, but is there any chance MacIntosh doesn't completely hate my literal guts?" Sunset dismounted the bike, secretly crossing her fingers.
"Now, he says he's just 'neutral' 'bout the whole thing, but Ah think he's thinkin' yer as clean as polish'd glass." Granny Smith started to walk back to the house, where Big Mac was watching with a warm smile, which Sunset returned.
"I'll add him to the list." Sunset pulled out a notepad, where several names were written down, and scribbled 'BIG MAC' at the bottom.
"List?"
"Of everyone who doesn't depise me, not including any adults, since anyone of age seems to actually act their age too. Unsuprisingly, it's quite short. I think Mac's number twelve." Sunset hastily stuffed away the paper in a pocket, following Granny Smith to the door of the farm house.
"So what are ya'll comin' down 'ere for anyways? With all the spitting cats flyin' around, Ah woulda thought ya'll would be hidin' out somewhere."
"I'm done running. I need to speak with Apple Bloom, if she hasn't set up anti-Sunset traps."
"HA! Ah wouldn't be suprised! She 'n' one of them friends of hers are in their lil' treehouse in th' orchard, thatta way." She pointed to the left, where a small structure built around a tree stood.
"Great, thanks. Don't be suprised if you hear screams." Sunset walked towards the building, all the while secretly fretting over what might happen. Footsteps sounded behind her, and Sunset whirled around, hand on her gem.
"Calm, Sunset. Ah'm here to make sure things don't get outta hand, 'cos trust me, you don't want ta know what Bloom builds in there." Big Mac was following Sunset, smile still on his lips.
"Thanks for, y'know, not wanting me to drop down dead."
"Yer welcome. Frankly, Ah think AJ's just been stupid, clingin' on to the past. Ah don't know what Bloom's problem is, might jus' be her bein' immature." He gestured to the small door they were now in front of. "Yer want me to tell 'em or..."
"I'll do it." Taking a deep breath, Sunset readied herself, and called into the treehouse. "Hey, are you guys okay to talk to me, or are you going to...?" She left the sentence unfinished, truly unsure what they might want to do.
"Get in." A young voice answered, with fake bravery. Sunset did so, crouching to fit in the small entrance. Once inside, she found Apple Bloom, standing up in an false so of defiance, while Sweetie Belle cowered in the corner, trying to stop herself from shaking. "We just want ta know one thing. What happened ta Scoots?"
"That's not for me to say. Ask her yourself." Sunset said as calmly as she could. In truth, she was rather unnerved by how the two younger girls were behaving.
"Tha's the thing. She won' answer our calls, and she never told us where she lived. Fer all we know, she could be homeless." Apple Bloom remained motionless, but she was still clearly uncomfortable with Sunset's presence.
"Well, I can tell you that Scootaloo is not homeless. But seriously girls, she'll tell you when she's ready. I don't know what she's been doing, I don't know why she's not talking to you." Sunset feigned ignorance, despite believing that it was doubtful that the girls would belive her.
"Right. Did ya'll do something?" Without any warning, Apple Bloom rushed forward, grabbing the gem around Sunset's neck. "Did ya?!"
"Wait! Don't-" A bright flash engulfed the room, and once again, Sunset appeared with pony ears, etheral horn, flaming wings, and so on. "-touch the jewel." Sunset sighed, waiting for a reaction.
"D-D-D-DEMON!"
And before she knew it, Sunset was left alone in the room, face in her hands. "Well that went as well as could be expected."
Big Mac stuck his head back in, seemingly unfazed by the new appearance of magic. "Ah guess she ain't gonna be trusting you any time soon."
"Unlikely. Can't say I tried." Sunset shrugged - she knew that going after Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom would prove fruitless. No doubt that those two would be spreading rumours that Sunset had become a demon once more. "The list of people who know I have magic is far longer than the people who trust me. Ah well, it was worth a shot."
"What did ya'll even want ta talk to 'em about anyway?"
Sunset opened her mouth to answer, but quickly clamped it shut. She had wanted to talk to them about stopping Anon-a-miss/mous, but now any attempts at that would most likely be futile. It was a certainty that their over active imaginations were already creating various false claims. While trapping her magic back away inside the gem, Sunset had an idea. "How much can I trust you not to say a word of this to anyone?"
"Ya'll are a troubled soul, Sunset. If yer need to vent something, Ah'll keep it to mahself."
"Thanks." Sunset crawled out of the structure, and motioned to the barn. "Rather do this somewhere that I know no one would listen."
They made their way there in silence, trudging over the thin layer of snow that was melting. Once there, Sunset slumped into some nearby hay, while Mac simply stood nearby, waiting. "Look I-" She trailed off, unsure where to start. "Before I say this next bit - I don't want any sympathy. I got over it. Anyway. I got hurt. I'm not going to say how, but it was of my own doing. And I almost died because of it.
"Only reason I survived is because Scootaloo found me - lying in the snow, pool of blood forming around me - and took me to hospital. She couldn't take it. Found out her mother has trust issues, her brother has - or rather did have - schizophrenia. Hasn't seen her father for ages. Brother has a different father. Leg was crippled by an accident, possibly my fault, probably not. She had some sort of falling out with the other crusaders, or whatever they're calling themselves now. I'm not going to say what happened - not my right to, but she came to me.
"The problem is, I just not sure where to go from here. Let's list off my problems: Anon-a-miss, Anon-a-mous, my new family, this new magic, friends abandoning me, new friends who are somehow even more diverse than my old ones, the entire school hating my guts, some people who might be friends having really big problems, I got adopted, I'm no longer homeless, I'm with a new family I hardly know, I have to deal with a police officer as a brother, a over enthusastic scientist as a sister, said sister also happens to be the inter dimensional counterpart to a purple pony princess, I had a fight with a literal sun goddess, purple pony princess got kidnapped by the dazzlings, two dazzlings turned on the other dazzling because they were being forced into it, one good dazzling might be going to CHS-"
"Sunset."
"-I had to deal with the human counterpart to the spirit of chaos, who now also happens to be our drama teacher-"
"Sunset."
"-not to mention the gang that are supposedly out to kill me! And that isn't even-" A wail, Sunset couldn't contain her emotions anymore. "Look at me. A mess, that's what I am. A complete and utter mess. The bad overwhelms the good, but right now it feels like vice versa, and then vice versa again, and again, and again."
"Sunset. Take a breath. Get yerself under control. Ah know ya'll want to solve all of this, but ya can't do that in your current state." Big Mac placed a firm, but comforting hand on Sunset's shoulder.
"Right. Right. That's my problem right now. Control. It's funny, I've been so composed for the past couple of days, and now I'm breaking down." Sunset flashed Mac a fading grin. "Shouldn't be suprised, I guess. Never had this much going on at once."
"If ya ask me, ya'll need to take yer time, and move along. How ya'll are meant to that, on the other hand..."
"Exactly. I can make a motorcycle appear out of thin air, but I can't stop a school from descending into chaos. Always look on the bright side of life, I guess."
"If ya'll ever need to talk ta me again..."
"I've got your number, I'll call you. Got it, thanks." Sunset stood, all the while thanking Big Mac again, before setting off out of the barn and back to her bike. "I needed that. You aren't suprised by any of the stuff I said?"
"Ah'd be lyin' if Ah said Ah didn't have questions, but it ain't any of mah business at the moment."
"I answered what felt like several million questions of the Christmas holiday, a few more can't hurt. I'm currently with Lyra and Vinyl's group, don't be afraid to join us." She picked up her helmet, and put it back on her head. "See you later, Big Mac. Thanks again for letting me vent."
"Cady, please! I know it's snowing, but I'll be okay. I doubt there's going to be a car chase- What? No, it's- No... Don't worry so much, it'll be fine..." Sergeant Shining Armor was sitting in his patrol car, listening to his wife on the phone, when a female motorcyclist drove past, before stopping at some roadworks, presumably cursing. What struck the police officer, however, was the familiar red and gold hair escaping from the purple helmet. "Hang on, I've got to go... Thanks, love you too..."
Hanging up, the police officer rolled up next to the motorcyclist, who had paused, seemingly spotted the police car. He opened his window, but the girl spoke first.
"Good evening, Sergeant Shiny, what atrocious crime am I guilty of? This bike is perfectly legal, as much as it has been magically summoned into existance. Registered and everything. You can go look it up in that little database of yours if you need to." She flipped up her visor, revealing a pair of green eyes.
"I believe you, it depends if you're going to actually use this to do anything illegal. Still, that's a nice bike, Sunset."
"How could you accuse me of such a thing officer?!" The sarcastic offense was obvious, as evidenced by Shining's unamused expression.' "But it's nice to know my big brother can appreciate good machinery, such as this Jota."
"Where were you going anyway?"
"I was going to see if I can resolve this MyStable mess. Instead, I went and freaked the culprits of the account out, there's now renewed rumours of being being an actual demon, and I made a new friend. I think."
"And now..?"
"Home, unless I'm under arrest for whatever reason." Sunset flipped back down her visor, and prepared to continue her journey.
"Drive safely, Sunset. We don't get many road accidents in Canterlot, not much crime in fact, but I'd rather not have to make a report about someone I know." He closed his window again, nodding his farewells at Sunset, who responded in kind, before driving off. "I wonder how many times I'll run into her now, knowing my luck."
"Ahh, it's nice to be home." Finding space in the garage, Sunset wheeled her bike in, leaning it against the wall and placing her helmet on top of it. She stretched her arms out, yawning at the same time. 'I'll take an early night.' She walked up to the door, unlocking it, before entering and locking it behind her, relishing the use of her hands. She had taken the magical recovery in stride. She was sure if it was some sort of scientific miracle, she would have been much more concerned. She passed Velvet, commenting, "'Evening. I'm taking an early night. G'night." and made her way upstairs to her room, collapsing almost instantly, preparing to drift off into sleep before a quiet buzzing interrupted her attempt at rest.
Leaning over the bed, Sunset grabbed her journal from the nightstand next to her bed, sighing, then opening it to the latest page. It read:
Hello Sunset,
Other than the usual social greetings, that say "I hope you're doing well", I have news for you.
We did some research into the prophecy, and something turned up.
It was originally made by a pony called Foínix Róst. As we said when you were in Equestria, he was the leading figure of phoenix research, and had some sort of special bond with them. He died a couple hundred years ago, and that prediction was the only one that he made. We're still trying to get Philomena to cooperate in this but she remains... annoying uncooperative.
There's more. He had a sister, called Hiru Hikari Shimā. We think. The trouble is, everything we've got on her seems to be in an ancient form of Neighponese, even Celestia's having a hard time translating it. The thing is, she made a prediction too, we think it might be related. Once we've got it all in a language we can all understand, I'll send it to you.
Anyway, from what we can work out from Róst's work, your powers are, simply put, all powerful. Instead of your life force being regenerated like a phoenix, it's your magical potential. It gets depleted, and after a tiny bit, it comes staight back after a tiny bit of rest. As a result, you may have some trouble keeping those wings and horn of yours under control.
And it should be mentioned: you may be attracting equestrian magic from the portal. I got some strange readings the other day, and while it hasn't caused any trouble, it seemed to do something with the elements in the throne room. I suspect it's getting confused as it detected multiple element bearers. Shouldn't be anything more than that, I'll contact you otherwise.
Remember, if this business comes too much for you, don't be afraid to contact me for help.
Your friend, Twilight Sparkle.
Sunset smiled at the message, just another reassurance that her friends were helping her in anyway they could. She was about to try to go asleep again when another message started to appear on the page.
Sunset, we did some more research on Shimā, and, well, I'll let you take this in whatever way you please.
Shimā was a campainer for legal use of dark magic. But not for any evil reasons. She managed to get an unique permit to research positive uses of dark magic, and she did well in that aspect. Supposedly found ways to heal using dark magic, ways to tame the side effects of dark magic: mostly the malicious ones. Her most important discovery was how to combat other forms of magic - including dark magic and chaos magic - using dark magic. It was ground breaking.
The worrying part is that Shimā and Róst supposedly collaborated on research in both dark and phoenix magic. If that prediction was based off of something with dark magic, well...
To round off Shimā's story, she died in a fire, taking almost all of her research with her. Witnesses reported they say a phoenix start a fire. When Róst died, they found traces of dark magic. Take that however you will.
-Twilight
Slight disturbed by the new pieces of information, Sunset once again closed her eyes, finally getting to sleep, fifteen minutes after she had meant to.
"So. Hello again." Sunset, in her new equestrian form, sat in a cozy study, across from a dark alicorn, Princess Luna.
"Greetings. I hope you are well?" Luna took a sip from the mug of coffee in front of her.
"As well as I can be. We haven't spoken since Celestia and I fought."
"You had a fight?" Luna looked mildly shocked - apparantly she hadn't been told of what happened.
"Yes. I wasn't that big. I shoot, she blocks, the opposite then happens, we both fire beams, they deflect each other, occasionally there's a teleport and a physical charge..." Sunset was making motions with her hooves, as if she was trying to mime it out, before Luna stopped her.
"Wait. You had a physical fight? I had believed you meant an argument, a disagreement." The alicorn's expression turned even more shocked, but soon returned to be more neutral, similar to Celestia's typically stoic face.
"I preferred the physical fight. It was much more easily resolved, so I cannot complain. She seemed really riled up when she first got here though. Any ideas why?" Sunset remembered how Celestia was shouting in the sreet, with complete disregard for other people. A simple spell had solved any problems, but that in turn had caused even more problems.
"Ah that, that might've been my fault. I had been aware of your situation, as I told you before, and I attemted to tell Celestia of the situation. I know not why, but my sister was being rather...ignorant. There are less stars in the sky, than the amount of times Celestia tried to guess what I was trying to say. She has already apologised for cutting me off many times, but she still seemed slight frustrated by it. I only managed to tell her via Princess Twilight's letter about your plight. I think we are all ashamed to say, your situation could've been started to have been combated much earlier. My apologies for that."
"Well, the situation is stable, at the very least. If it'll stay that way is another matter." Sunset offered her assurances that it was not Luna's fault, which she accepted. "Besides, this mess has been caused by humans, and therefore it needs to be resolved by humans. Even if I have to get my hands dirty."
"Hmm. I have also got news on your new powers. As I'm sure you're aware, both Twilight and Celestia have been researching to origin of them. This old form of Neighponese, I recognise a good portion of it. It's still locked in my memory, but I'm having a hard time remembering some of it. I can give you the translation of the prediction within a month or two. Not the quickest time, but it's significantly shorter that what it would be."
"Thanks for that. If this new magic is somehow linked to dark magic, I'd much rather know sooner than later."
"Yes, about that. I managed to translate a portion of it already, and it read: '-In unison with my brother's chosen one, there shall be another, a polar opposite, yin and yang, one who falls for the first time, and then rises for the first time. They shall be possessive of-' And that is all I have. If you make anything of it, I shall be surprised. However, we have reason to believe that you have phoenix magic, and this other one will have dark magic. You are the pure one, and the other might be purified. It is merely a speculation."
"Well, I'll keep it in mind for when I find my opposite. Not top on my list of priorities, though." Sunset scratched the back of her head with a hoof.
"Right. I'm not going to pretend I understand any of the humans' culture, but I don't think you'll be able to get through it alone. I know that advice would be obvious, but I somehow sense that you are not going to be the one to uncover all of this." Luna, offered a small smile of comfort throughout. "Good luck in your quest, it seems my power here is fading. I still do not have a proper connection to the human world."
"I'll remember the advice, I'm going to need as much of it as possible in the next week." The world started to crumble, black voids filling in the gaps. Luna did the same, her form dissapating into nothing. Before she went, she gave a warm smile, one that reminded Sunset of Big Mac. "Lucky I've already got a lot."
The dream collapse, sending Sunset into an empty void, letting her sleep in perfect peace. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 17 - Return | "So, you excited Twilight?"
It was the first day back at school. Twilight had transferred to Canterlot High, and left Crystal Prep far behind in her memory. The day before had held an interesting conversation, and proven that not all school principals were as manipulative and Cinch was, and Twilight had concluded she would be quite happy at CHS. This conclusion was slightly confused, as Celestia had called them and asked them to come to school an hour later than usual. This meant that Sunset would have to show Twilight around the school during her chemistry lesson, which was good, but also meant that her first lesson would be drama, with Discord. Which could either be good, or very, very bad.
"No. Nervous would be more like it." Twilight replied.
"Eh, it'll be fine. As long as I don't walk in hugging you and singing songs about how close I am with you, you should be able to avoid being stoned to death by an angry mob." Sunset shrugged, not commiting to the action as much as she should've. "Seriously Twi, you'll be fine. I know for a fact Luna probably put us in classes together. She mentioned she was making changes to the classes to 'accomodate' us, which is basically the professional way of saying she's not putting us in with the bullies or any of the so called 'tough people'."
"I know, I know, it's just, I can't help but feel worried." Twilight idly fiddled with her hands.
"About what though?"
"That's the thing! I just don't know!"
"It's just something new Twilight. You shouldn't worry too much over all this. You'll get used to it soon enough." Sunset comforted her sister. "Besides, the only annoying thing that'll happen to you is people confusing you with Princess Twilight, or perhaps them avoiding you because you're not the princess. Oh Celestia, I just realized, I'm not looking forward to Flash Sentry meeting you." She didn't even want to imagine the awkwardness that would happen.
"Why?"
"Flash has a crush on the other Twilight, though I must be honest, that might be part of his mental... difficulties. Not my business to share, he'll tell you about it if he wants to." Sunset noted she was saying that a lot recently, maybe she was starting to learn more and more secrets.
"Okay, that seems..." Twilight tried to sound respectful, but was unable to find the right words, so she abandoned the sentence. "Why are you wearing the jacket again anyway?"
"I want to make a statement. Look at it: it contains my entire human life. The jacket itself was literally my first possession, the scratches are mostly from various fights, the tears in the back are from when I was a demon, the scorch marks from my defeat by a huge rainbow laser, the faded stains are from gaining my friends, and now my very own blood is on this jacket." She stroked the faux leather fondly, as if it was some long lost friend.
"But what about the bandages? I thought they could come off." Twilight pointed to white wraps covering her palms and forearms.
"I'm... still feeling a bit self conscious of my scars. It's not that they're there, more just how many there are. I can't die from cutting my palms and the back of my hands, except from blood loss, and I knew that at the time, so I was being really stupid, and that just lingers in the back of head." Sunset also had another reason - she found herself unable to get past the mental block that prevented her from writing. She could still write earth pony style, with her mouth, but it was far from convinient, not to mention weird.
"I suppose that makes sense, but you can't hide them forever."
"I have enough problems, I'm going to take them one at a time."
"GIRLS!" Velvet called from down stairs, "Time to go!"
"Coming!" They called back in unison, before exiting the room to go to school.
Sunset and Twilight climbed out of their mother's car, saying their goodbyes, and approached the front entrance of CHS. The car park was already filled with the teachers and students' vehicles, but it appeared to be deserted apart from one blue girl, absently fiddling with some non existant neck piece with a solemn expression on her face, which switched to a welcoming smile when she saw the two other girls approaching.
"Hey, Sunny!" She waved them over, "And you're Twilight! Nice to meet you! I'm Sonata, you might've heard how I might've mind controlled the entire school just a teensy little bit. Okay, a lot. But bygones be bygones, right?"
"Sonata, what are you doing out here?" Sunset asked, noticing the sad expression momentarily reappearing.
"I... I'm skipping music. It just makes me depressed. I want to sing, but I just can't any more. I don't care about losing my powers, it's just the fact that I can't sing any more. Simply put, I'm just... urrrrgh!" Sonata stoked the part of her neck where her red heart would've rested.
"Hmmm, you know, I might be able to help you with that." Sunset offered a small smile to the ex-siren. "But that's for later. We've got stuff to do in the mean time. Tell you what, if you prove you're genuinely trying to get a good education and a good life, and I'll see what I can do about it, I'll try my best."
"Really?!" Sonata practically squealed with hope.
"Really. Now come on, we've got a chaos god to get taught by. Well, I have, I don't know about you." Sunset almost winced at the thought of Discord. She had no idea how he would act.
"Waitwaitwaitwait. Wait." The siren waved her hands about, "That Discord is the same one as the..."
"Well, his counterpart anyway. Though from the way he acts, I'm not so sure." Sunset shrugged, before starting to make her way to the entrance. "Though we really should get moving. It's almost time for drama, I'll show you around later, Twi. We have to be in drama class."
They made their way through the empty corridors, arriving to the drama room early, before any of the other classes had been let out. Almost instantly, a man poked his head out of the door. "Come on in girls. You're early, but that's no reason to wait out there."
Discord went back in, but left the door open, and the three girls cautiously entered, not entirely trusting the man quite yet. Sonata whispered to Sunset, "I remember talking to Discord during his reign, we got along well, but... he was more the 'me and only me' type. I get that he is different here, but in Equestria, we would rather ally ourselves with the ponies rather than Discord."
"Did you know he's been reformed since? He supposedly broke free, was imprisoned by the elements again, before being let free and made friends with the element of kindness. I honestly doubt he'll hold a grudge, or so I've heard. And if he does, I know Fluttershy would be mad."
"It's not like I can go back to Equestria anyway. Our hearts, while not vital to survival here, was actually an organ in our hippocampi forms. We'd die in an instant if we crossed over to Equestria." Sonata sighed sadly, once again touching her neck.
"I feel like I've said this advice so many times before, but take it one step at a time. At the moment, the current step is..." Sunset flailed an arm at human Discord, "that. Whatever it is."
"Hey, as you're here early, can you help me work out how to operate the curtain and lights? They've literally told me nothing about using the equipment. For good reason, I may have blown up Celestia's stove at one point, sooo..." Discord called the girls over.
"Twi, can you handle the lights? Should be full of technology to work out. Come on Sonata, lets see if we can move some curtains." They set to work, temporarily forgetting their troubles for the time being.
The two equestrians easily figured out the curtain, and had set about helping Twilight and Discord work out the lights when more students came, and some of Sunset's fears returned. Luckily, a quick survey of the new students relaxed her worries, proving to be the same group as the one Sunset had met at the coffee shop a few days earlier, excluding Dinky.
"Yay, we're all back together! Happy happenstance!" Discord jumped merrily, clapping his hands together in joy. "Right! Register time!" He practically leaped over to his laptop, giggling all the while. "Rainbow Dash." Silence. "Rainbow Dash? Off to a great start, absent..." Before he could continue, a blue haired boy poked his head in, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
"Sorry I'm late, sir."
"Don't worry about it, I just started early. Nothing to worry about. Anyway, Ditzy Doo?"
"Here sir."
"Sonata Dusk?"
"Here!"
A series of whispers went around, leading Sunset to announce, "She's cool guys, don't worry. I'll explain later."
"Thank God I didn't have to clean up that mess..." Discord mumbled under his breath. "Sweetie Drops?"
"Present, but call me Bon Bon."
"Okie! Lyra Heartstrings?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Erm, Octavia Melody?"
"Present, sir."
"Vinyl Scratch?"
Two thumps on the ground, and a thumps up.
"Just so you know, Vinyl, I know sign language. Flash Sentry?"
"Yes, sir."
"Discord? What are you doing here?" A yellow skinned girl with pink hair entered the room, a rainbow haired girl in tow.
"Fluttershy? Didn't realise you were at CHS, let alone in my class! How wonderful! I haven't seen you since... well, then!" His face lit up in recognition, and smiled happily.
"'Then'?" Lyra asked.
"Me and Fluttershy go a while back. She helped me out while I was in a bit of an... oppressive mood, collectively known as 'then'." Discord made an exaggerated action with his hands, gesturing away from himself. "Let's stay on track. I assume you are Rainbow Dash? I'll let you both off for being late -"
"We're on time!"
"- but next time..." He jokingly tutted, before turning his attention back to the register. "Fluttershy, yes... Sunset Shimmer, yes... and Twilight Sparkle, yes! We're all here now, all eleven of us. Why this class is so small, I don't know, though judging by this email I just recieved from a Ms. Khonsu, I suspect it has something to do with your vice principal."
"Of course." Sunset mumbled, rolling her eyes at the same time.
The rest of the lesson passed with out any more personal drama, instead focusing on educational drama. Discord was kind enough to end the lesson ten minutes early, allowing Sunset to catch up with the group, confirming 'who's good and who's bad'. It hardly did anything to improve Sunset's mood, but made it easier to deal with her current situation, something that did relieve at least some of the pressure.
All of that, however, vanished the moment she got out of class and into break. In the presence of Twilight, everyone stopped themselves from any obvious physical actions, and even the name calling died down a fair bit, but the looks Sunset was getting was enough to make her shake. She fidgeted with her bandages, going so far to lightly stroke the blood stains, feeling the unusual texture on the faux leather.
Sonata, who was following Sunset, leaned in, whsipering, "Kinda amazed no one recognizes me."
"They're too busy hating me. If anything, it'll help them get used to you." Sunset shrugged, still nervously glancing around.
"Pssst! Sunset! Over here!" A young voice called Sunset over, seemingly from a rarely used fire exit.
Sunset turned to Sonata and Twilight, "Go find the rest of the girls or something. I'll deal with this." She walked over to the doorway, narrowly avoiding a paper plane on the way.
Once she was in the stairwell, Sunset found herself confronted by three young girls - the Canterlot Mystery Club, or the CMC for short. Scootaloo had a concerned and slightly hopeful look, while Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stared at the floor, finding it very interesting, purely out of guilt.
"Hello Scootaloo, I hope you're well." Her tone turned harsh in an instant, turning her gaze on the other girls. "You two, you'd better have a good explanation. I'll give you a chance to explain yourselves, but I'm already on an extremely short fuse. I don't even want to think about what will happen in the future."
"I told them about what happened. All of it." Scootaloo started, "They also didn't create that new account."
"We... never wanted it to go this far. We were almost drunk on the influence we had, and just kept on going. We had intended to delete the account by Christmas, but then..." Sweetie Belle trailed off, almost as if she was going to cry.
"Yeah, it all got outta hand. We knew yer weren't a demon or anythin' when ya'll came to speak to us, but jus' the shock of it..." Apple Bloom did the exact same thing as her friend.
Sighing, Sunset worked up a response. "Scootaloo, you quite literally saved my life, so I'm going to exclude you from this. Plus, as far as I can work out, you don't deserve this anyway. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, I'd be lying if I said I wanted to forgive you here and now. But I suppose I should give you a chance, like everyone else did for me. But I'm not willing to blast you with a huge laser and put you into a crater, so you're going to have to do a number of things for me." Her expression was cold, but unreadable. "One: do you have any idea who this 'Anon-a-mous' is?" Everyone shook their head. "Right. I believe you. Secondly, you're going to own up to what you did, and face any consequences you may be given."
"But, but, but they'll kill us!" Apple Bloom protested.
"Look, you have up until the easter break. If you don't do it by then, I'll report you myself, and I won't defend you at all. I've made sure I've kept it secret from everyone, but that won't happen if you can't take responsibility. I really shouldn't be give you this chance - I hypnotized a bunch of students, you made me try to commit suicide. That's the harsh reality of it, and yet, here I am, not trying to beat your faces in, or magicking you into nothing. Come talk to me, try to work something out, we'll see. But first, I'm going to try and sort out this mess out." Sunset furrowed her brow, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Aaaand now I've got to talk to Luna about this. And I don't have any clue who this account might be. Celestia, take me now!"
"Uhhh..."
"Sorry girls. Try and talk to me again in a few days, maybe next week, I really have been running low on patience." Sunset walked out back into the hallway, not letting the girls respond in any way. 'Okay, step one: find a quiet place; step two: scream. Simple.'
"Who d'you think was calling Sunset?" Rainbow Dash was sat at a table with Fluttershy, Derpy and Dinky, all of them attempting to block out the arguments happening around them. "I hear Gilda's gang, the griffons, are looking for her blood. Doubt she'll be dumb enough to fall for one of her traps."
"As if Sunset couldn't just melt them!" Derpy chuckled at what Dash had said, as if it was completely ridiculous.
"What?" Fluttershy put on a confused expression, not fully understanding what the other girl meant.
"Oh you don't know?!" Dinky spoke up, voice going even higher in disbelief. "She does this really cool thing where-"
Derpy slapped a grey hand over her sister's mouth, earning her a glare from the smaller girl. "Sunset will tell you soon enough. Long story short though: magic."
"Rrrright." Rainbow Dash shook her head, already slightly sick of magic. "I wonder if this new account is run by the same people?" She feigned ignorance, knowing who was behind the first account.
"They aren't." Sunset took a seat next to her. "Just had a talk with them. Worked out a deal. They have no idea who's behind 'Anon-a-mous'. Which I maintain as being the most ridiculous name ever."
The bell rang before she could get another word in, signaling that it was time to go the class. Standing up, they all departed their different ways, Sunset and Rainbow Dash moving together to their english class. The teacher, Mrs Harshwhinny, brought the class in the moment they got there, sparing Sunset from any torment. A quick survey of the class lessened some of Sunset's worries - Lyra and Bon Bon were still in the class, but so was Trixie. Everyone else was the typical Canterlot High student, shooting glares at Sunset the moment they saw her. Sunset took a seat at the very back corner of the class, so she could at least see any on coming projectiles. Rainbow Dash sat to her left, and Bon Bon and Lyra were in front of her. Looking for Twilight, who was also meant to be in the same class, Sunset found she was absent, presumably called somewhere else for whatever reason, shrugging off the issue.
The lesson started, being fairly mediocre throughout, students afraid to misbehave in this particular teacher's classroom. So far, no one was required to write anything, a relief for Sunset. Halfway through the english lesson, however, someone threw something through the air. Sunset only noticed it when it exploded in a great puff of smoke, and a dramatic and triumphant 'HAH!' was called from across the room, while Sunset's desk and Sunset disappeared in the smog.
"TRIXIE! Outside!" Harshwhinny shouted from somewhere at the front of the room. The smoke started to clear, and Sunset found everyone was staring at her.
Confused, she asked, "What?" before Harshwhinny came over, whispering in her ear.
"Your left arm is on fire."
Looking, Sunset saw that the bandages on her left arm were indeed flicking out licks of orange. "Oh, Tartaraus." She cursed, before Rainbow Dash, ever the quick thinker, sprayed the flames with a fire extinguisher. Once the fire was out, Sunset noticed her bandages were slipping, revealing her scars, and she cursed again.
Unraveling the loosened bandages, Sunset started to reapply them, hoping no one would notice the many red marks littering her hands and forearms. The scars were still there, but they had healed up as much as they could, meaning Sunset could still wear the now charred bandages without risk of infection. She didn't even wince when she wrapped a still glowing part of the fabric around her palm, before Dash sprayed that as well.
That reminded Sunset of how everyone was indeed staring at her scars, even Mrs Harshwhinny. She didn't even have time to shink away from all the shocked stares before the PA system was turned on.
"C-can Sunset Sh-Shimmer please come to the Principal's office?"
"Saved once again." Sunset mumbled under her breath, but frowned at the announcement. The thing that worried her was how Celestia stuttered. Celestia didn't stutter when announcing anything, whether she was a pony or human. The only time Sunset had ever heard Celestia stutter was in disbelief, and even that was quite rare. She picked up her stuff and started to make her way to the place she had been summoned to, ignoring Trixie look of anger and disbelief, probably because Sunset acted like she hadn't felt a thing, which was true.
She approached the door which led to Principal Celestia's office, nervously opening it, finding the pale woman looking worriedly at a photograph.
"Principal?"
"Sunset. You should take a look at this." She passed the photograph over. Sunset looked for less than a second before her emotions ran high. "They say they'll be in the hall when lunch starts. Go look now."
Sunset stormed out of the room, breathing heavily out of anger. The photograph floated to the ground. Celestia looked at it, resting on the floor. She picked it up, looking at the picture of Twilight Sparkle, being held by Gilda's cronies. "What has happened to this school?" She asked to no one in particular, before sighing solemnly. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 18 - Conflict | Sunset sat, magic activated in preperation. She looked over herself once more, attempting to distract herself from her rising anger. Her gem shone very dimly, as it had channelled all the magic in it into Sunset. Her horn almost seemed solid, yet still maintaining its form of pure light. Her wings twitch irritable, lick of flame occasionally leaping off of them. She had figured out why the armour kept on appearing on her at this stage, and knew how to control it, so she didn't appear like a knight anytime she used her magic. Regardless, she had it on now, as she wanted to prove a massive point, a point that might turn out to be painful. Sunset obviously couldn't see her eyes, but just by waving a hand in front of them, she could tell that they were glowing intensely, causing Sunset to ponder if they somehow pooled magical energy, before dismissing the thought as low priority.
The girl was currently sitting in the rafters just behind the stage curtains, where Celestia said they'd be. She fiddled with her almost astral like red and gold hair, as it shimmered in the darkness. The armour plates grinding against each other as Sunset swung her legs back and forth, her growing impatience fueling her now righteous fury. Her pony ears suddenly twitched, as voices were heard from below.
"Well?! Where is she?!"
"Why would she care about this knock off Sparkle, Gilda?!"
"You heard the demon! She called her her sister!"
Sunset didn't even bother to wait to listen to what else the voices below her had to say. She dived downwards, slamming into the floor, before rising back off of it, hovering above Gilda and her gang. "Why?" She whispered, before raising her voice, "Why?!" Orange tears streamed down her face as she waited for an answer. She didn't even notice the previously unconscious Twilight coming to, staring at her with wide eyes.
The powerful girl's anger couldn't be hidden for any longer, and she let out a powerful ear piercing shriek, something similar to that of a bird. Her animal instincts appeared to kick in, as she rose up higher, projecting a red bird like silhouette behind her, increasing her visual size tricefold. She screamed again, this time coming out with much more fury than before.
At last, her opponents restarted their logical part of their brains, and the vast majority of the gang fled in every possible direction. Infuriated, Gilda called out, "Get back here you cowards! You're seriously afraid of some... lights... and..." She trailed off, as Sunset moved to hover just infront of the dumber members' heads. She stuck out a hand, closing it into a fist, apparantly casting a spell which caused everyone but Twilight and Gilda to go unconscious.
Suddenly, Gilda saw sense in her cronies' actions, and made a mad dash for the stage curtains, with the knowledge that lunch had begun. Hopefully, Sunset wouldn't want to expose herself the the entire school, as they slowly shuffled in. However, Gilda did not factor in how blinded by rage Sunset was, and, as she raised a gauntleted fist, she charge after her, stunning several students at the certain approach.
Sunset let out an emotion filled roar, and grabbed Gilda shoulders, slamming her into the wooden floor. She moved her face to be an inch of her opponent's, and growled, "Before I smash your face in, tell me why you did this."
Spluttering, Gilda answered, mostly out of fear, "Li-Lightninh D-Dust got a-arrested, the c-cops got bl-blackmail th-that you pro-provided."
"So that's what it is? Trying to get revenge by any and all means? Pathetic." Sunset's face turned into a sneer, clearly displeased with the reasoning. "See, Gilda, this is a problem now. I am angry, and my soul is lost, drifting through a void. I'm trying to put it back in place, but people like you are preventing me from doing so. What I should do is pummel you until you can't think at all. What I am going to do, well..." She gave out an irritating sigh, which still somehow sounded aggressive.
"Sunset..." Twilight had managed to break out of her daze, and approached Sunset.
"One moment Twi." She started to breathe heavier, before releasing Gilda, who scrambled away, yet remained on the floor, still shocked. Sunset started to rise higher, her wings flapping erratically. She rose up further, and her armour disappeared, replaced by her usual purple and orange attire. Her leather jacket remained, but seemed to be more prominent. She bent her head back, closed her eyes, molten tear still flowing, and opened her mouth.
She screamed.
It was full of pain, full of anger, hating almost everyone around her but also hating herself. Emotion poured out of her mouth, as if it had been making Sunset ill. The sound pierced everything it met, metaphorically and literally. The entire school heard it, and every single living being felt it in their ears, whether it was a subtle buzz or a stab in the eardrums. Some of the closest students had to cover their ears, Gilda especially, as she was almost squirming under the sound.
Even as Sunset started to run out of breath, the scream never decreased in volume. It just got higher and higher pitched, until finally, Sunset's lungs felt empty. Instead of simply stopping, she disappeared in a flash of light, leaving a multitude of confused students in her wake.
"Hmmhm hmmm mmhmm mmm..."
As Celestia opened the door to the roof, a gentle humming reached her ears, and a perfectly normal looking girl sat, looking into the horizon. She glanced backwards when she saw the door opening, but soon continued to gaze at the landscape, still humming her song.
"Thought I might find you up here." Celestia said as she approached, "Might I ask what the scream was about?"
"Well, apparantly, my magic increases the levels of my emotions, and therefore I needed to vent really badly." Sunset explained, before asking, "Believe it or not, Gilda wasn't after me for the MyStable pages, she was after me because Lightning Dust got arrested after the police recieved what looked like my old blackmail material. Know anything about that?"
"I haven't even started to look through it, as important as it is, I simply haven't the time. Maybe someone else had found it." Celestia offered.
"Doesn't matter. It's happened, and it's over now. We can find out later, if it becomes a problem. I doubt it will though."
"Right, the police have been called about it." She lowered her voice, starting to mumble, "Should've done that in the first place, now that I think about it."
Sunset stood, but still continue to stare at the sky. "My biggest problem at the moment is getting Anon-a-miss to come clean, and find out who Anon-a-mous is."
"So they're not the same people?"
"Nope. I assume the original culprits will come out soon enough, they're already filled with regret. The new account, well, I honestly have absolutely no clue. The worrying thing is, they're doing illegal stuff to get content. One of them was about some toy Caramel Joy has. Literally no one knew about it. And guess what she found when she woke up? A smashed window, specifically the one in her bedroom." She gave out a worried sigh, fiddling with her red and gold hair. "Things are starting to look up, and that's great, it's just the question of for how long. How long before it all comes tumbling down again? How long before someone else comes after me? You get the idea."
"Mmm. I suspect no one's going to try and mess with you now though, particularly after you pulled that stunt." Celestia subtly chided, "Now most of the school knows about your magic."
"Look, you can't blame me for being angry, alright?!"
"Right, right. Come down when you're ready, I'm not going to force you to go back to lessons after that." The older woman turned and walked away, going back down the stairs.
Sunset sat back down, leaning so she was on her back, and continue to admire her surroundings, letting any and all remaining anger escape from her soul. She was examining the colours of the sky, and the cold grey clouds occasionally gave way to a deep blue. The snow had melted, but the air felt no warmer than before, and the chilling wind bit into Sunset's skin.
After another fifteen minutes, Sunset heard the door open again, and said, "Is there a problem, Celestia?"
"Um..." An unusually high pitched voice mumured behind her. Almost acting on instinct, Sunset turned, reaching for her necklace, before relaxing.
"Oh, it's you three." Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Applejack stood there, all of them seemingly slightly fearful about their own presence. "If you're asking for forgiveness, try again next week. But I have to know: why this sudden turn about? Be honest now. I heard what you had to say when I showed up at your farm, Applejack. And don't think I can do anything magical. That stunt depleted my reserves completely."
"Ta put it bluntly, we actually listened to other people. Mac had ta literally smack me outta a rant Ah was havin' 'bout all this. Finally got it into mah thick skull how far Ah'd gone."
Pinkie spoke next, looking through deflated hair. "Maud talked to me. Actually got angry. Realized I did bad. Not much more to it."
When she started her explanation, Rarity didn't even bother to act sophisticated. "Again, same thing, just with my new shop assistant, Coco. Drilled some sense into me."
"Look Sunset, from what we've heard, we don't expect you to forgive us anytime soon." Applejack once more became the focus of the conversation. "We don't expect ya'll to be friendly towards us either, but we just want ya'll to know we don't hold any ill will towards ya'll anymore."
"We doubt you'll come to us first, if at all, but just know we'll help you if you need it. We'll leave you in peace now." Rarity finished, before they all turned to leave, until Sunset stopped them.
"Before you go, I want you to know this: I still do believe I can trust you, but you're right, it might be a cold day in Tartaraus before we become close again. And for the sake of all of us, don't defend me too much in conversations. Celestia in both universes knows there's already enough strife." Sunset's words were void of emotion, as if she really didn't care at all. "Try to talk some sense into your younger sisters' for me. They don't hate me like the rest but..."
She left the sentence unfinished, then returned to humming, letting the others go without any interruptions. Sunset waited for another few minutes, taking in the air, before she too decided to return.
"Okay Gilda. Usually I'm more formal with my students, but in this case I'm going to make an exception. Mostly so I can say, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?!"
A very stressed, frustrated and mostly furious Luna sat up in her chair, yelling at the girl across from her. Gilda was shrunk down as small as possible, almost curled up into a ball. "You know what? Don't answer. I don't need to tell you you're going to be expelled, but what I do need to tell you is that you're most likely going to be arrested. You kidnapped someone, Gilda. I don't know how else to put this to you. You have a criminal record now. That's going to be with you for the rest of your life. This was all revenge for Lightning Dust, wasn't it? Now you're going to be in more trouble than her. The police have your address. Go to Celestia's office to wait. I'm sure she wants to have words too."
Gilda stood, but start to fidget in place, until Luna gave her a harsh look, when she completely disappeared out the door. Luna pinched the bridge of her nose. She had already spoken to the rest of Gilda's gang, and informed them of their own punishments. All of them were also too scared to even mention the fact that Sunset had magic again, something which made the vice principal relax a light bit. Still, it was not enough to deal with the recent stress that came from handing out dozens of punishments as a result of the recent conflict.
Luna slumped back in her chair, sighing from mental exhaustions. She checked the time - three o'clock, end of lessons.
"Vice Principal Luna? We have an admission to make..." |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 19 - Breakthroughs | "Would everyone please come to the hall after fourth period for yet another assembly."
For once, everyone in Canterlot High had the exact same reaction of groaning to show their dislike of the announcement. Even the tone in Celestia's voice showed the stress and general reluctance to even speak. Sunset, however, just sat back, as Celestia finished her announcement in front of her, still processing the recent events.
"Are you sure this is how you want to go about this?" The pale woman asked Sunset, whose head snapped upwards to look at her.
"Celestia. If you reveal them now, they will quite literally be lynched. As much as I should despise them, I don't wish that suffering upon them. No one deserves that. And besides, the school might be able to think a bit clearer and help figure out who the other account is. Them, on the other hand, can rot in Tarta- hell for all I care." Thinking for another moment, she added, "After this is all over, I might be okay with their identities being released. And don't get me wrong, I hate Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle with every fibre of my body right now. But I really should be mad at the one who decided it would be a wonderful idea to continue this clusterf-"
"Ahem. Right. I'm just not sure how much this will enrage the populace. They'll want to take their anger out on someone."
"I'll take the blame. After my not so little stunt, everyone is terrified of me. I doubt even Trixie would go up against me, particularly after her small round of pyromania." Sunset nodded towards her charred bandage. "Besides, I'm leaving you to punish them."
Celestia nodded in confirmation. "Indeed, detention until easter break and more if they cause any trouble whatsoever. Excluding, as per your request, Scootaloo."
"Have you made a descision to tell their families?"
"No. If they can find a plausible explanation for why they have a load of detention, they deserve an award. If they somehow manage to do that, I'll give them a damn award and then tell their families. At the moment, I'm done being kind." The woman's frustrated expression hardened as she spoke.
"I know the feeling." Glancing at the clock, Sunset saw fourth period was almost up. "Well, I'm going to head to the assembly. I want a front row seat for this."
She stood, saying her goodbyes, and started her journey down the corridors. As she walked, the few students who were currently in the hallways subtly tried to move away from the girl, clearly wary after her earlier display of power. Still, it gave Sunset some room to think.
While she had definitely expected the CMC to confess under the pressure she had placed upon them, she almost certainly didn't believe they would give themselves up so instantly. Not that she was complaining, of course, this just made things easier for her. Now the next biggest thing she had to deal with was Anon-a-mous, who she would like to have some very selective choice words with. But that was after the assembly. Plus, she had a few other things on her mind, more personal issues that she needed to at the very least sort out, and completely solve, if possible. Upon entering the assembly hall, Sunset was greeted by rows of benches and chair, all completely vacant, facing the stage, where a microphone had been set up. Striding down the center of the room, she noted a spot where the floor appeared to be slightly dented and burnt. She made a mental to pay the school a few bits once this was over.
Reaching the front row, she took the seat closest to the stage steps, as waited for the rest of the school to arrive. Careful not to activate it, Sunset brought the gem to in front of her face, and examined it. It had a rich history in the girl's mind. The combination of her powerful magic potential and her running emotions caused a large number of magical outbursts, so Celestia had given her the jewel to control her power. She had originally fled with it to the human world in the hopes of being able to use its magic there, but it had become a sort of memento from her old days. She never dared bring it to school, unless she wanted it to get lost. Now, however, it kept even more powerful magic locked away, protecting those around her from potentially catastrophic effects. Now that she knew that her emotions were influenced by the magic, she made another mental reminder to write to Princess Twilight about it, to aid in her research.
Someone took a seat next to her, and Sunset dropped the gem back to her chest. Looking across, she saw Twilight - the human one - had joined her, but wore a throughly confused expression one her face, which conflicted with the warm smile she was giving Sunset. She leant in, and whispered, "What's happened?"
"Shouldn't you still be in the medical room?"
"It was just a bump on the head. Only just enough to knock me out, but nothing more." She winced as she ran a hand though her hair, before returning it to her side. "Seriously though, why this assembly?"
"Anon-a-miss gave themselves up." Sunset answered, "Wait until the announcement is made, and then I'll tell you more. No point in having you hear something twice."
"And the other one?"
"Nope. Still no clue. I'm giving them a day or two before I go full magical Bryan Mills on them."
"Uh?"
"Nevermind. I'm just saying I'll find them, and then... perhaps something more." She was slightly disappointed Twilight didn't get her reference, having learnt so many to blend in, but all in good fun, she supposed. "We'll see. Now shush, I believe everyone's here."
She pointed a thumb over her shoulder, and the students automatically flinched at the action, proving Sunset's earlier words of how everyone was scared of her. Regardless, everyone had indeed gathered inside of the hall, with mixed expressions on their faces. Some were nervous and anxious, others were simply bored, and a few appeared to be terrified, shaking in their seat. No one, however, appeared to be aggressive or hateful at all. 'Probably pacified by my show earlier.' Sunset thought, almost giggling at the thought of how easily a previous hateful group of people were so stunned in submission. Still, the way everyone was acting around her reminded of her of her old days as the school bully, something she'd rather leave behind completely.
Vice Principal Luna appeared on the stage, behind the microphone on the lectern. Without any delays, she spoke, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.
"I'm not going to delay this at all, so here's the reason for why this assembly is being held. The people behind Anon-a-miss came forward. But-" She cut off the enivitable chorus of shouts, "due to the request of a very prominent victim of this entire ridiculous mess, their identities will not be released yet."
"Yes, that's right, I'm stopping you all from ripping someone to shreds in a blind revenge fueled rage. That's me, go on, complain." Sunset called out, and when utter silence followed, she added, "No? Fine then, buck you all."
"Ahem. Anyway, I can assure you that they will be severely punished for what they have done, along with their family's own punishments. They have also kindly provided us with a rather long list of those who sent in material to the account. The number of those is... disappointing, to say the least. While we would also hide their identities, it simply isn't possible due to the sheer volume. The more minor offenders we will send a notice to, since their punishments aren't very substantial. However, here are the more serious offenders." The projector flicked into life, and a list of at least fifty names were displayed. The absence of annoyed growls disturbed Sunset - there must have been more guilty people than she had thought, or at least everyone believed themselves to be guilty in one way or another. "We will be calling you to discuss what you have done, among other things. The rest of you, take the day off. If any of these names wish to speak with me or my sister now, you may line up outside of our office. If anyone has any clues to who is behind the other account, please contact us. Dismissed."
Luna walked off of the stage, leaving the student body to nervously shuffle out of the hall. Even Sunset's friends were walking awkwardly, perhaps to avoid bringing even more attention to themselves. Sunset waited until a particular student had started to exit, scratching the back of their head nervously, as per usual. She made to follow them, Twilight trailing behind. "Flash." The red hair girl came up behind her ex-boyfriend, and gave him a small smile.
"Hey, Sunset. Can this wait? I need time to think..."
"Just asking if I could talk later, actually."
"Come round to my house at four thirty. I pretty sure Scoots will want to talk to you to. Don't be surprised if her friends show up too. As fractured as they may be at the moment, they still will talk to each other about anything." Flash briefly sniggered as he thought of the CMC's complicated relationship, which seemed to change on an hourly basis, even in these troubled times. "You still have my number, don't you? You remember where I live, just come round. In fact, I do believe my mom also would like a word. Good or bad, I don't know."
"Got it, thanks. See you then." Sunset gave a short wave, before wandering off, Twilight once again in tow. "Well, Twi, this has been an interesting, but productive, first day at school. Let's get home."
"R-right." The purple girl gave a shaky nod, causing her sister to frown.
"Are you sure you're okay after that who fiasco?"
"I'll be okay, don't worry."
"Hey, I'm just making up for all the times you'll say similar things in the future. Because trust me, you will." Twilight gave her a pointed look, to which Sunset responded with a good natured giggle. "Relax. I may get into a lot of trouble, but I'm tough."
"Want me to call mom or are we going to walk?"
"Walk. I need to time to think. We can always catch the bus, no need to bother mum." Exiting the school, they started down the pavement, ignoring the various looks they were recieving from the other students.
"Ah ha, the one person who acted as if they had no part in any of this..." A girl stalked down the corridors, following her prey with great stealth. She wanted to prove herself. She knew Sunset was perfectly okay with her being around, but she needed to earn her full trust. And, as far as she was concerned, this was a perfect oppotunity to do so. Her target wandered out of the school, smug grin appearing on their face the instant they were outside. They happily strode down the street, walking about half a mile, before they came to a block of flats. Before entering the building, they pulled out their phone, pulling up a certain web page. Peeking over his shoulder, she saw the title.
'ANON-A-MOUS'
Thinking fast, the girl took out her phone and snapped a picture of the page and of their face, startling to culprit. She ran, not listening to whatever they were saying, preumably threats. Making sure the pictures were saved, she made her way straight to her home, ignoring the questions of one of her sisters. The girl flopped onto her bed, pulling out her phones again, and flicking between the two images.
"Gotcha."
"Alright, I'm off!"
"Have a nice time at Flash's!" Sunset waved goodbye as she wheeled her motorbike out of its place, adorning her helmet, and starting it up. She made her way to her destination on the vehicle, thinking back over the past few days, and what the future may hold. She was imparticularly concerned about how the blackmail that got Lightning Dust arrested got out. Celestia was the only one who had that material, and Sunset had no reason to think the woman a liar when she said she hadn't yet done anything with it. She doubted Luna had done anything either and Discor-
'Discord.'
Of course it was him. Why wouldn't it be? He hadn't thought it through, and someone got kidnapped as a result. Sunset would have words with him later, however. This came first. She felt as if she had neglected Flash for too long, and she did need to speak with his mother too, to work out Scootaloo's past, which had brought her brain much confusion. Not only was she a cripple, Sunset was apparantly the cause of said disability. She typically avoided anything physical concerning younger kids during her bully days - everyone had standards. She also didn't remember any sort of incident involving Scootaloo, or at least anything that didn't involve Rainbow Dash.
"Hey, Sunset!" A voice snapped her out of her thoughts, as Flash came up to her, having been looking at her parked outside his house for at least a minute. "You okay?"
"Sorry, just thinking. Had hardly noticed I had arrived." Sunset took off her helmet, letting her hair hang free once more.
"Clearly. Come on in. We probably won't be eating with my mother. She's still coming to terms with my, quote, return. Not that I ever truly left..." He trailed off, ending a complicated converstation prematurely. "Anyway, what did you want to talk about?"
They entered the house, immediately heading up the stairs. Entering Flash's rather bland room, Sunset gave her reply. "A number of things. I've cleared up most of my relationships in one way or another, but you and your family, well... At the risk of sounding cryptic, I don't fully understand what's happening with you. Between your mother previously blaming me for things I may or may not have done, the basis of the aforemention accusations, and the recent grand reveal, I'm not sure what to make of it all."
"Hardly surprising. You do deserve an explanation, though. Here, sit." He patted his bed, on which Sunset sat down on. "Sorry for the lack of... well, almost everything. I want to redecorate. Leave behind the, 'old me', I guess."
"Speaking of which, how long since?"
"Good, good, you don't feel the need to ask permission. No, don't apologise, as I said, you have a right to know. Anyway, right. Explanation." Flash took in a deep breath, preparing himself for what was to come. "You know what I told you about when and partially why? We're still having trouble really come to terms with all of it. I personally want to just put it behind me, and move on. New brain, new me, et cetera. But I can't do that when my family is still dealing with it. So to answer your question, I've only really 'banished' it, for lack of better term, a week ago, so I suppose I shouldn't really be so impatient."
"You said you had voices in your head. You kinda sounded sad when you said they were gone. Why?" Sunset asked, before she snorted in laughter briefly. "Listen to me, I sound like a news journalist."
"Heh, yeah." The short tone of amusement vanished, being replaced by a slightly more sombre voice. "Seriously though, I sort of gave it a name. I forgot it a couple of times, but it was Screwball. Sh- It sounded rather crazy, but almost lovable. It didn't really care at the time, not with my state of mind, but I did realise that once I became, er, sane again, I wouldn't ever be able to speak to her again. She just felt different. It didn't seem anything special, just like an actual voice of sanity in a sea of confusion. Not that she brought much sanity with me, of course, but still...
"The reason I almost regarded it as a proper person was because she actually helped me. Helped me remember things at first, then pointed things out I wouldn't normally notice due to my state. She just became something I felt I could trust, for once. Someone who literally couldn't betray me." Flash groaned, hearing his words himself for the first time. "It sounds ridiculous, but I honestly think it wasn't just something my brain made up to stay sane, but she might've been something more."
"Tell you what, Flash, once the rest of this entire fiasco is over, I'll look into it. See what I can find, at the very least." Sunset unconcsiously went to activate her powers, before silently scolding herself, and lowering her hand.
"Yeah, about that, care to explain the wings and stuff?"
"An explanation for an explanation. Fair. I don't really know myself. Did some research on it, back in the other world, and supposedly I'm a 'chosen one'. Not like saving the galaxy and all that schtick, but I'm just special. Supposedly I had to view the world from every perspective, and I did so, and here we are. Flaming wings and a horn made of light. Yay." Sunset shrugged, as it was the best honest explanation she could give. Now that she thought about it, she really would like to know much more about her newfound magic. She would have to write to Twilight when she got back. "It's supposedly phoenix magic, would you believe it?"
"I would, actually. After all we've been through, I think I can believe that."
"Heh. Right. Right. Well, in my world it's hard to believe, anyway. Which probably sounds weird to you. But trust me, it's almost unheard of." The conversation became simple small talk after that, generally just catching up with each other and sharing their thoughts on recent events. It continued on like that, until Doctor Turret came into the room.
"Hey you two. Food's ready for you, Flash. Sunset, I may or may not have made cooked pork, but I need to talk to you anyway." Nodding, they all went downstairs, where Turret pulled Sunset to the side just before Flash entered the dining room. "I'm sorry." She muttered.
"What for?" Sunset responded, her curiosity ignited.
"Making assumptions. I was rash in accusing you in everything I said. I don't know you, and I have literally no solid proof that you did what I claimed you did."
"Eh. Apologies accepted. I'm kind of used to random accusations. It was a daily thing for a while, after all. It's not like you could've known, unlike some other people..." Sunset trailed off, not wanting to guide the conversation in the direction it was already going. "I really should be going, Mrs. Turret."
"Go ahead. Oh, and my name's Microscope. Call me that, or at least when outside of a hospital. Let's try and dial down the hostility, alright? No need for that anymore." Smiling at the tiny show of trust, Sunset said her goodbyes, and exited the household, turning to her bike only to find a short girl sitting on it.
"Hey!" The girl looked up, and pulled her hood down, revealing a mop of violet hair.
"Hi Sunset."
"Scoots! Thought you were a vandal for a sec. Just got this bike back, don't want it ruined already." Scootaloo hopped off the bike, stepping forward to meet Sunset.
"It does look nice, I'll grant you that." The younger girl's look morphed into one with hints of confusion. "But we wanted to know this. Why did you even bother to defend them?"
"You heard me in the hall. I frankly couldn't care less what punishment you get, but I don't want to see you endless hunted down for something you didn't even take too far. Besides, if you ask me, I owe you, Scootaloo. That's why you only have two weeks worth of detention, isn't it?" Sunset, donned her helmet, preparing to leave.
"Yeah, I guess. But before you go: this other account, Anon-a-mous? They posted something when they first set up, something that the account itself claimed credit for. It was something literal seconds before by leg got messed up. And now that we know it's not Bloom or Sweetie..."
Sunset's eyes lighted up in recognition and hope. "Then we can find out who the account is! That's brilliant!"
"Not only that, but I'm pretty sure that person, in their rush to get away, might've been the on who ended up crippling me."
"Jeez, talk about catching the guilty. Can I ask about what happened, or is it a bit, y'know..."
"No, no, it's fine." Scootaloo sat on the ground, wincing as her bad leg was bent into an awkward position. "There's not much to tell. I don't remember that much, but I do remember a bike of some sort ran over my leg as I was lying on the ground after a, well, crash. Half the joints essentially buckled under the pressure. You know the rest, can't run, yadda yadda."
"Oh, who ever it is, I am so-" Her phone rang, cutting her off, checking it, Sunset found someone had texted her two images, and an address, with the words 'Have fun!'
"What is it?"
The older girl's grin grew. "Scootaloo, how much do you want revenge on whoever was on that bike?"
"A lot. Like, more than ever."
Sunset's grin went to massive proportions, with a hint of malice to it. "Then go ask your mother if you can come with me for the evening. I'll even buy some food. It's time to haunt a bastard." |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 20 - Vengence | The human behind Anon-a-mous sat at his desk, thinking about what had happened on his way home earlier today. This woman, she didn't know who she was, ran up to her, and, simply put, took a selfie with him. It was strange, but not something to be concerned of. That would be, if he hadn't been checking his latest project at that exact moment. However, there was nothing he could do about it, and he believed that waiting until the storm passed was a fairly good strategy, one that had worked out well so far.
Still, the recent announcement was either really good or really, really bad for him. Regardless of what will heppen, Anon-a-mous was still going to update. He had come so far, he was not going to stop now, or ever.
He was sitting in relative darkness, only his face illuminated by the computer screen in front of him, proudly displaying the latest post on his new MyStable account. It was also fairly silent in his appartment, so when two quiet thuds sounded, he instantly picked up on it. Sighing, he stood up, striding to his door, and opened it, only to be met with nothing but an empty corridor. Looking around, he found no one there, so he shrugged off the sounds as him imagining things, and went back to his computer. He could hear more footsteps, however, and the moment he was about to stand up again, he paused, feeling a tremendous heat on his back. Turning, the tempreture dropped back to normal levels, causing him to shiver at the difference.
Cautiously, and in a shaky voice, he spoke up. "W-who's there?"
Silence reigned, until he turned back around, and gasped at what found. The email for the account was open, containing a message, telling them who he was, along with some evidence. He moved his mouse to close it, when a eerily familiar voice whispered in his ear.
"You know what to do."
"WAH!"
"No, not scream. You know who I am. I just want this to be over." The heat moved locations, becoming fainter, before appearing on his other side. "Don't you? All this pointless suffering. You're the only one, now. You're trying to slander and slaughter, but it's being drowned in the sea of guilt that's now going on. It's a flood, and you're a tiny, hateful droplet in it all. Frankly, it's rather pathetic."
The voice grew slightly kinder, even a little understanding. "Now. I know this might be a big descision in your mind, the entire world rests on what you do next! Newsflash: it doesn't. Still, I shall show you a little bit of leeway. You have until the end of school the next day to confess. I'll say this now: I won'tbe as merciful as the others. But enough of that!"
They moved away again, always staying out of his line of sight. "I have someone who would like to speak to you. Debatably, they have a far, far, bigger grudge against you than I do."
His wheelless chair rotated on its own, and he came to face the doorway. He glanced at the mirror, hoping to confirm the intruder's identity, but only found his own, frightened, sweaty face. "Any moment now..."
The doorway remained remarkably empty.
"Give me a moment." He felt the burning presence leave, and, taking the initiative he span around, flinging the chair away in the process. He eargerly hit away at his keyboard, deleted all that he could. In fact, he was so determined, he barely looked up from his keyboard. "Ooohhh, what a shame I unplugged the keyboard. Ah well, things happen."
He stared at the screen - it was exactly the same as before. Not even the cursor had moved. He would've growled in frustration, had the intruder not returned. Instead, he felt hands - no, claws, grasped at his sides, rotating him back around. Instead of merely seeing an empty doorway, however, a short girl instead stood there. She had a mop of fuschia hair, and light orange skin, with violet eyes that stared with a maelstrom of emotions. Her right shoulder supported her as she leaned on the door frame, her expression completely neutral.
"You do recognise who this is, right?" He nodded in response the the disembodied voice. "Say her name. Don't just nod because you believe you do."
"Sc- Scoot- Scootaloo."
"Take one of the Scoots off and we're there. Anyway, I'll let her take it from here."
Silence reigned for a good minute. His face never changed from the terror filled expression, while Scootaloo's face went through the sublest of changes, as if it was still deciding how to react. Finally, the girl's face twisted into a sort of disappointed expression.
"I'm going to be honest with you here - I dunno what's meant to come out of this for me. Not my idea in the slightest, as much as I agree with it." She shrugged, a slightly more positive voice momentarily surfacing before being crushed. "I suppose I should ask if you have any idea why I'm here?"
He didn't respond, other than shaking a little more than before, earning a sigh from Scootaloo. "I'm gonna take that as a 'no'. You mighta noticed that I have a limp in my right leg. I got crippled a couple of years back. I say 'crippled', it's really just that I can't run. 's why I go around on my scooter so much. Now, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not sure if you're involved in this, but..."
She trailed off, eyes flicking to look at something behind the boy, before sighing. "Right. Long story short, my leg got run over. Just before that, my and my... friends were talking about some embrassing stuff. Now, that exact same stuff - which we never told anyone else, mind you - has recently appeared on that profile. Now, just after we were talking about that, we heard a loud laugh from one of the nearby bushes. We were gonna go have a look about what it was, when a motorcycle - a moped, now that I think about it - came from around the bushes. The driver ran me over. Better yet, no one else was around..."
"Do you see where she's going with this?" A shaky, almost unnoticable nod. "Good. Look, we both want some closure, and perhaps some reasoning. But, we'll give you time. I imagine you might want to explain some stuff to some people. Family members, perhaps."
Scootalo started to shuffle out, a sad look adorning her face, and the door closed. He sat there in silence, waiting for the other being to speak, but it was not so. Instead, he sat there, thinking, as a tsunami of emotions rushed in and out of his mind.
More over, he thought of his sister, Fluttershy.
"Well, what do you think?" Sunset asked as they exited the building, her pendant still lightly glowing.
"Still think it was a little much..."
"I want to make sure this is over with already. I've had it up to the friggin' sun with this whole mess. Still not the worst Christmas I've had, however." The older girl shrugged as they made their way down the street, descending into silence, before Scootaloo spoke up again.
"Why do you think he did it?"
"No idea. Fluttershy completely shoved him out of her life before I even came here. The rest of his family, while pitying him, also won't take direct care of him." She put a hand to her chin, as if she was thinking something over. "Did, er, you post anything about it."
"Nothing that's common knowledge. Which is basically him being a complete... yeah. Y'know. Creep."
Sunset nodded in approval at Scootaloo. "Mmm, nice censorship."
"Err, thanks?"
"You're welcome."
Silence reigned once more as they walked, remaining without words until Scootaloo's snow covered house came into view, where the younger girl finally talked once more.
"...D'you think Breeze'll actually do it?"
"Hope so. If not, I'm forcing this upon him. Already got enough evidence to put him behind bars. If he straight up admits it now, he'll get off light. If he doesn't... he'll see why I ruled CHS." Scootaloo only nodded at Sunset's firm statement. They entered the driveway, and the redhead declared, "This is where we part. You have my number, call me if you need anything."
She wandered over to her bike, grabbing the helmet that was resting on it before donning it. She climbed onto the vehicle, looking to Scootaloo, who had already opened her mouth to ask something. "No, you can't have a go on my bike, Scoots. Not until you actually get your mother's permission."
"Aww, man."
With a short chuckle, Sunset flipped her visor down and sped off back home, leaving Scootaloo to enter her house with a relieved sigh.
Meanwhile, in a small flat, its occupant panted uncontrollably, clutching his head until his hands turned red. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 21 - Solace | "Did I ever tell you of my personal life before my time as Princess Celestia's student?" Sunset sat outside in the garden, casually leaning against a tree, while Twilight sat cross legged across from her. She had gotten back from Scootaloo's house a while ago, and had promptly laid down on the grass, basking in the sunlight.
"Don't think so. You haven't said too much about your time as her student either, excluding the part where you grew too arrogant and stuff."
"I want to now. After all that's happened, I just now know how close I got to going completely full circle." The equestrian momentarily gazed off into the distance, remembering her past life in another world, before continuing. "I never knew my parents. No clue who they were, or are, anything. I just know I was dumped on an orphanage's doorstep just as the sun was going down. No note, nothing. Just my parents going 'Hey, we had this foal, and we don't want it. You take it!' Even Celestia couldn't find anything, so chances are my parents are dead. Not that I ever knew them anyway. I honestly can't tell you how long I was at the orphanage for. Everthing I have and am about to tell you I've heard from other ponies, so forgive me if I'm vague.
"I was the most anti social filly you could ever meet in the orphanage. Never spoke to anyone what so ever, always looking for something else to do. Princess Celestia came round one day and, I quote 'saw the potential stored in that short little stubby horn.' Most unicorns would take that as an insult. However, coming from the ruler of the nation that also controls the freaking sun..."
"It made you giddy beyond belief." Twilight finished off.
"Understatement, but yeah, basically. She gave me some books on magic, and said she'll return a year later. I think I would've been twelve by then, pony relative of course. I think there's some minor time dialation of calender differences between the two worlds. Anyway, when she did come back, I was determined to make a huge impression, idol worship and all that. I had been preparing a spell all week, I was sure it would get me into her good books, as if it were. It was a simple fire spell, but one most unicorns learnt at around eighteen, five years more than what I was. Instead of creating a small ball of fire that I could float around and change shape, I got wings. The fire wings, the same ones that I get when I transform here. Celestia knew there was something special about them, so she took me in there and then. I was overjoyed, Celestia hadn't taken in anypony as her student in literal centuries. She saw so much promise within me, and I returned that by becoming as much like her as possible. Over time I realized that was both unhealthy and a really bad idea. Then... well, either you already know it, or it's a story for another day."
They sat in silence as Sunset finished off her story, enjoying the fresh air, as their brother came over, a worried look on his face. "Something's eating away at you, Sunset. What is it?"
Glancing up at Shining's stern face, Sunset knew he wouldn't let the matter drop, and let out a long sigh. "You might as well sit. This could take a while. It's just- You know what annoys me the most about this whole thing?"
"Hmm?"
"The fact that while any of this really should not have happened in the first place, I'm actually better off because of it. Now, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change anything that happened. I have a full family, new friends, magic - magic! - and yes, well, I might have even more scars now, but that's beyond the point. However. There are so many things that could've, and should've, stopped this entire fiasco. Only, what, a dozen or so people actually stopped to think when the first accusation was made. I never denied that I wouldn't do something like that if I wanted to cause grief in the school, but I always had at the very least plausable deniability! Putting that profile picture up like that was just saying, 'Hey guys, want to bully the bully yet again? Well here's an excuse, have fun!' I mean, come on! At least Breeze had the extra brain cell not to do that! And speaking of Breeze, what possessed him to do that in the first place?! I know it's not a ridiculous 'I want my sister back, wah wah wah.' Which, by the way, was kinda dumb in the first place. There's this thing called talking to your sisters about it... Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Breeze has basically been disowned by Fluttershy, for a long, long multitude of reasons. First and foremost is harrassment, and not far behind is being a complete creep. Nothing criminal, Shiny, before you say it."
"Yeah, about that, I did actually do some digging into this guy. There's no solid evidence, but he's been reported many, many times."
"One of them's probably me. 'Master seductor', my two toned flank." Sunset snorted at the thought, before being interrupted by Shining's phone going off.
"Hello? Yeah, of course I know about it... Really? You did comfirm this, right? No, I'm not doub- No, no, it's- Right. Got it. Thanks." He hung up, with a look of disbelief on his face. Turning to his sisters, he gave a small smile. "Would you believe Gilda was being fully blackmailed?"
"Yes." Sunset answered instantly.
"Huh?"
"I've been thinking about it. Me and Gilda had a sort of unspoken agreement. 'Stay out of each others' way, and we're good.' Even after I got blasted, we both kept to that, though we never spoke to each other then. Plus neither account posted anything about her." Sunset looked up in thought, before continuing. "I don't know what she would've been blackmailed with though. She's already had a rough life, she's real low down, so low no one else can touch her with dirt."
"It wasn't blackmail, per se, it was more threatening. Believe it or not, but that gang of hers was actually threatening their own leader." Shining took on a more serious expression. "They were gonna burn all of her possessions, house, and all of that. If she still didn't do anything then, they probably would've attacked her."
"That's one hell of a plot twist. But it makes sense. All Gilda's ever wanted to do was survive, and she at the very least needs a home to do that. She's not getting off scot free though, right?"
"No way." The officer shook his head. "She's gonna be getting a few months in juvie, and we'll be keeping a much closer eye on her from now on. But compared to the rest of the gang, she's getting off fairly light. They've all got criminal records now, but when you compare two to six months in juvie to at least a year in prison, Gilda definitely comes off on top. Who knows, maybe she'll be able to reconcile with some people."
"Why'd she pretend to be so guilty for so long though? From what VP Luna told me-"
"Trust me, Sunset, the guys said the moment she was away from her gang, she spilled everything. Whatever they did to get her cooperation, it really worked. If she's lying about all of it, well, she's the best liar anyone at the station has ever seen. They're probably interrogating the rest of the gang now, we'll see how that works out tomorrow. Right now?" Shining stood up, starting to walk back to the house. "Let's go have some dinner."
As if on cue, their mother called out a window, "Dinner's ready!"
"Coming Mum!"
Also now standing, Twilight turned to her sister, asking, "Why do you pronounce 'mom' like that?"
"The matron of the orphanage was from Trottingham, guess I picked up the acc- what?"
"Sorry, sorry, just- 'Trottingham'? Really?!"
"Heh, guess that does sound a bit stupid. Oh but get this. Name a horse pun."
"What?"
"You heard me."
And so, the rest of the day was spent talking about the puns that make up the Equestrian language.
It was the next day, and Sunset was feeling... good. Excellent, in fact. As she walked through the corridors of CHS, without her jacket for the first time in a while, she actually had to force herself to keep a skip out her step. Everyone stared at her, but for a different reason than before. They all wanted to apologise, beg for forgiveness on their knees, but either believed they wouldn't be forgiven, or didn't have to right to even speak to her. So, the girl happily strode to her first lesson.
It was quiet. Everyone had heard the revelation that Sunset was not Anon-a-miss, and how many of them were hypocrites. Which was a lot, to say the least. Not much was whispered, though one topic did stand out.
"Who really was it?"
To say the decision for Anon-a-miss to stay, well, anonymous was an unpopular one was an understatement. Everyone wanted to know. Absolutely everyone. But, they respected Sunset's wishes, if nothing else. It was the least they could do, she supposed. Some of the less violent students were actually quite content with the result. They knew the real culprits would be lynched if things got out of hand. Even so, for all the break ups that the account caused, every student seemed to get along fine, so long as they didn't feel Sunset's judging gaze upon them.
Another lesson came and went, and Sunset pulled Rainbow Dash aside as they exited the room.
"Dash, I need you to be stgraight with me here. Are you still gonna be hanging out with AJ and the rest of them?"
"Uh, I mean, if that's-" Dash stuttered under the pressure of the sudden question.
"Nevermind what I think. Just yes or no?"
"i- I wanted to but-"
"Good."
"Huh?" The prismatic girl stated her confusion at the opinion.
"Look Dash. If it's just going to be those three, they're gonna be breaking up within days. I'm not going to let this whole thing ruin their relationship." Dash opened her mouth to respond, but stopped when she saw Sunset's steely gaze. "I'm not up to talking with them again yet. If that's me being a coward, or me being fully justified, or perhaps both, it doesn't really matter."
The ex-unicorn sighed, frustrated. "I want you to do this as a favour. Enough relationships have been torn apart here, no matter who caused it in the first place. Please, talk to Fluttershy about this too. I have no qualms with either of you talking to them. They're still your friends, but me? Right now? I just can't."
Rainbow gulped at the sheer emotion, or perhaps lack thereof, in Sunset's tone. This was a side of her she hadn't seen yet. It wasn't the meek girl who was trying to make up for her past, it was the unstoppable determination of the girl who had ruled the school for years. And yet, there was no malice in her voice, face, nothing. It was something she was doing out of kindness, and she was going to see it succeed. Nodding, Dash swallowed any arguments and responded.
"I get it, you just can't trust them right now. Sure, that's fine, I didn't intend on abandoning them on this anyway. But can you answer a question for me?"
Sunset beckoned for ther other girl to follow her to a less busy area. Wandering to a corner of the school, they stopped, at the amber skinned girl waited expectantly. "Why'd you forgive Scoots?"
"To quote you: huh?"
"I mean, she helped start this whole mess in the first place. You could've left her to rot with the rest of her friends, she's only feeling guilty because she found you. Anyone could've."
"If I'm honest, I don't expect you to fully understand. For one, she actively went and deleted the account herself, then looked for the rest of us. Same reason why I forgave you and Fluttershy, you actually thought about and gathered the courage to go out and try and face me. But you can't understand what it means to owe someone your life. Sure, she started the thing that made me try and commit, but she then managed to haul me to hospital. I still don't understand how she managed to drag a girl almost double her size to hospital."
"She's far stronger than she looks. So what your saying is that if someone goes and break your nose, but then sets it minutes later, you're always going to be thankful to them in the end?"
"To more significant end result, but yeah. You'll always focus on the final result instead of the initial one, because that's the one you're stuck with." The bell sounded, signaling the end of break. "Welp, we'd better get going. What even is it?"
"P.E."
"Horsefeathers."
Sunset had not been looking forward to P.E. She had agreed to take it to build up her physical strength, something she had greatly neglected in recent months. But she knew what she'd have to do now. She'd been advised to take her bandages off while exercising as to not agitate her scars anymore than they already were. She had previously also avoided the class at all costs - she really didn't like showing the scars on her back, but she'd have to change clothes now, and therefore reveal her back. As far as she was concerned, only the hospital and her family knew about them.
'No use complaining now. Let's get it over with.'
Fleetfoot entered the changing rooms, eager to get the lesson started, even if the mood in general was subdued. The vast majority of the football team had stayed neutral on the the recent debacle, with only Rainbow Dash (on Sunset's side) and Lightning Dust (against Sunset) having different opinions. Of course, now it was all over, but that didn't mean there was a bit of tension between everyone. Hopefully everyone could use this time to calm down. Fleetfoot looked over who was in the room: most of the football team was already here, and a few other students, such as Derpy and Tennis Match. Other girls started to enter behind her, Rainbow Dash and then-
The entire changing room went quiet as an amber skinned girl with red and yellow hair entered. Noticing this, Sunset rolled her eyes, before making her way to a secluded corner. Conversation slowly started back up, mostly between the football team. Several gasps were heard, and silence reigned once more as everyone turned to see what was wrong.
Sunset stood, facing the wall, topless. On her back were two reddened scar running down her shoulder blades. Then, near the bottom of her spinal cord was a smaller, circular scar, seemingly older than the others. She threw on her P.E. uniform, ignoring the sudden silence behind her. Sighing, she started to shed her bandages - she would rather not have them soaked with sweat anyway.
Several students' breath hitched, as the remains of her suicide attempt were on full display. Sunset had, by her own admission, gone over board on her arms. Still, there's no kill like overkill, or so she told herself at the time. What she had done, was stab the knife in, and then drag it through her flesh. It's how her major nerves were cut. They criss crossed all over her lower arms, wrists and even her palms. There was no true reason to cut her hands, but she did it anyway, perhaps for the pain, perhaps just to make sure. As a result of all of that, anyone could see it was excessive.
Sunset didn't really care what they thought - it was more how soon absolutely everyone else knew about her additional scars. She didn't really mind people knowing, it was more how the entire school would now talk behind her back, and she could do nothing about it. If nothing else, it was just frustrating.
An hour later, and Sunset had found out she was as strong as ever, but her stamina had definitely gotten worse. It was something she would have to work on in the future, if she wanted to keep in shape. Mind you, the reason she was so out of shape was because she had been missing out on many meals, and was border line malnourished as a result.
The next lesson passed uneventfully, but Sunset's mind was elsewhere. It was nearing the end of the day, and she hadn't even seen Zephyr yet, let alone an announcement involving his account. She fidgeted nervously as she waited for lunchtime to come around, hoping to talk to some friends so she could put her mind at ease. The bell sounded, causing the girl to rush out of the class and straight to the hall. What she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry herself to sleep.
So many things could go wrong. Someone could get hurt. Everything could go out of control. What if-
"Hey Sunset!" Bon Bon's voice pulled her out of her worrying thoughts. She was sitting at a nearby table with Lyra and Twilight, the rest presumably still on their way. Nodding a greeting, Sunset have a questioning look, gesturing towards the angry looking Lyra. "Sunset, could you please ask Lyra what is wrong with that?"
Bon Bon waved an arm to her right, were several people were sitting. "Uhh, sure. Lyra, what's up?"
"You're not angry?" The mint girl's face morphed into confusion, but the fire in her eyes remained.
"You're gonna have to be more specific there, Lyra. What did you think I'm angry about?"
"That!" Lyra flailed a hand in the same direction as Bon Bon, causing Sunset to frown.
"That was as helpful as you throwing a fish to your right. Actually explain with words, please."
"You're seriously okay with Dash hanging out with the rest of them?!"
Sunset turned her head, scanning for the rainbow hair, and sure enough, it was surrounded by purple curls, a stetson and straight pink-grey hair. Looking back to Lyra, she simply shrugged. "I asked her to."
"Why?!"
"It's depressing to see them like that. They're gonna start fighting soon if someone doesn't help, and then I'd feel even more guilt over it, even if it isn't my fault." Seeing that Lyra didn't fully understand yet, she sighed, before elaborting. "I'm not ready to converse with them yet. But, if someone will do it for me, then I'm definitely not going to stop them. Plus, even if I did, would that remind you of anyone that was around, say, a year ago?"
Bon Bon started to catch on to what she was implying, and answered, "You?"
"Me. I'm not going back to that, but I'm also not letting people walk all over me."
With that, the topic turned to more normal subjects, and before long, lunch was at an end. Standing up, they made their way to drama, picking up a few of their friends on the way. Sunset was feeling much more at ease after that, and was sure the next lesson would further that.
She didn't notice the pair of dark purple eyes looking at her from a nearby stairwell. Nor the frightened pair of the same colour below them. |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 22 - Cycle | As Sunset approached the drama studio, she spied Flash leaning against the wall, while Rainbow appeared to be talking to him, though she had a far more frustrated look on her face.
"I'm just wor- hey!" Noticing Sunset's approach, the girl called out to her. "Sunset! You seen Scoots around?"
"Nope. Actually, I saw her on the way to school with Flash, but not after that."
"Figures." Flash spoke up, a more subtle look of worry on his own face. "Same thing here. She went off to find someone, haven't seen her since. I asked the teachers, she turned up for the first lesson, but not after that."
"I went to Luna when I had the chance, and it seems she's overlooking any absenses for the first week back." Rainbow Dash added. "Seems too many people are still on holiday or sorting out family issues."
Discord's head popped out the door. "Sorry if I'm interrupting anything, but it's time to start lessons." He retreated back into the room, pushing the door further open. They filed in, the trio having thoughtful expressions. Everyone else slowly arrived, most looking exhausted from the presumably long day that was not yet over. The rest of the small drama class trickled in, and Sunset couldn't help but be reminded how much the principals had done for her. Perhaps she should get them a present, a sort of late Christmas gift, she mused.
The drama teacher began counting students, frowning when he finished. "It seems we are missing a student."
When he looked towards his students questionally, Octavia supplimented an answer. "I believe Sonata's the missing student. I think I saw her during lunch, no idea where she is now though." Shrugging, Discord rummaged through his drawers, the frown returning to his face.
"Talk amongst yourselves. I appear to be missing something. I'll be right back." He walked out, leaving the students to glance at each other.
Bon Bon and Lyra started up a conversation, prompting the others to do the same. Vinyl in particular sent a flurry of hand motions Sunset's way, leading the equestrian to raise her hands in defeat. "Woah, woah, woah. I'm versed in sign language, perhaps profficient, but I am not fluent."
Octavia quickly picked up on the conversation and quickly translated. "She wants to know what the deal with Sonata is. I am also wondering the same thing."
"Well, she's here because she needs educational records, which the other sirens already have. But I suspect that's not what you're asking. I think - think - that the reason that she's isn't trying to do anything... I dunno, bad, is because she genuinely feels remorse from her reactions. That, and she seemed to be really controlled with the other sirens. When she and Aria saw an oppotunity to live a more normal life, they completely bailed. Other than that? Dunno, have to ask her yourself."
Happy with the answer, Vinyl took out her phone, putting on some music, nodding her head to the beat immediately. Octavia, on the other hand, wanted to know more. "What happened with the other sister? What was her name... Adagio?"
"...That's not something I'm entirely sure I'm comfortable talking about." Sunset nervously glanced about, looking for a shift in topics. "Hey, what's taking Discord so long?"
Without any hesitation, she made her way to the door, intending to peek out of it. The girl almost stopped when she heard heavy footsteps, but continued when some sort of distressed humming reached her ears. The muffled sounds became louder, seemingly cracking on occasion, before dying down. Suspicious, Sunset gently put an ear against the door, while the rest of the room looked on curiously. A high pitching hummed, at high volume.
"What's-"
"Shh!" She put a hand up to halt any more interruptions. Focusing her hearing though the wooden door, Sunset made out words.
"Scream all you want, bitch, no-"
Eyes widening, the equestrian slammed the door open with a hard kick, similtaneously activating her magic, only to freeze up at what she saw.
Zephyr Breeze, with a crazed looked on his face, stood snarling in the middle of the hallway. In his right hand, he held Scootaloo's skull, his neglected nails leaving red trails across her face. In his other hand, a kitchen knife, dripping a red substance, was grasped, some of the green fingers twitching violently, much like both his eyes. His mouth, as twisted as it was, held the distinct look of a maniac, his frazzled hair only adding to the factor.
But on the ground, next to his bloodied bare feet, was a young looking girl, the streaked blue hair covering her face giving away her identity. There, Sonata Dusk lay, blood coming out of several openings in the flesh of her abdomen. Some of her now pale limbs faintly shivered, though that was all Sunset saw before she acted.
Horn and wings shining brighter than ever, she charged forward at immense speeds, cracks sounding as her fist made contact with Breeze's chest. She slammed him down magically, a pain filled groan escaping his lips as he went limp. Leaning over the bleeding girl, Sunset started barking out orders to the staring students. "Flash, call your mother and anyone else from the hospital. Dash, ensure that barstard isn't getting up. Twilight, get the police here. Someone check if Scootaloo is okay, then anyone who doesn't have any medical skills back off!"
When the stunned crowd remained still, she roared, "NOW!"
It had the desired effect, many students scrambling away. Surprisingly, Derpy came over, examining the wounds with skill. While Sunset wanted to know why the wall eyed girl seemed to be a medical expert, she acknowledged that this was not an appropriate situation to ask. Derpy looked up, both eyes straight staring into Sunset's own.
"Can you cauterise the wounds?"
Nodding, Sunset formed a solid magical pole in my mouth, clamping the ex-siren's jaw onto it. Her hand glowing with heat, she pressed down on the bleeding flesh. Sonata gave a muffled unconcsious scream, as the blood was trapped inside of her body once more. The ex-sirens's eyelids started to flutter in a weak attempt to open, though Derpy softly burshed them closed again, whispering in her ear to rest.
"Sonata, I'm gonna cast a sleep spell, alright?"
Instead of directly answering, the injured girl managed to choke out some words, which Sunset strained to hear. "...Sisters..."
Not willing to question it, the redhead magicked her phone to her ear, rapidly dialing Aria.
"Hel-"
"I don't give a crap if you bring Adagio or not, but get to CHS now." Not waiting for a response, Sunset hanged up, before levitating Sonata off the ground so she'd be at waist level. Casting the spell, she looked to Derpy for any sort of diagnosis, only to get a grim answer.
"Probably lost too much blood." She gestured to the large pool of blood around their feet. "Can't tell if there's any internal injuries either. I don't have th-"
A grunt cut her off. Looking up, she saw Sunset channeling a fire-like light into Sonata's body, most of the energy gathering in one particular place in one of the girl's skirt pockets. Slipping a hand in, the conscious equestrian pulled out an expensive looking box, and gazed at it questioningly. Carefully, she opened it, revealing many grey shards and a black band, the latter confirming to Sunset what it was. Before she could think on it, however, a rage filled shriek assaulted her ears.
"YOU!"
Aria stood there, eyes fulling of blazing anger, directed at Zephyr's sprawled body. "You αλάτι γλείψιμο, κώλο ψαριών, τρελό βράχ-"
"ARIA! You can insult him all you want later! Right now, answer me this:" Sunset held up the shattered pendant in her magic. "If I fix this, will she live?"
"I don't-"
"Will she?!"
"...Do it."
With a firm nod, the subtle glow around the shattered crystal carefully manuveured all the shards together, forming a solid, if very fractured, grey pendant. Placing it on Sonata's chest, she started to channel her magic into it. Aria, confused, panicky asked, "What's that meant to do?! Your magic isn't dark!"
"No. It's life." The white glow of the magic intensified at the words, and Sunset started to grunt, concentrating. "C'mon, c'mon, live dammit..."
Gradually, the grey gem started to regain its red hue, but the numerous cracks remained. Frowning in worry, Sunset cut the flow, before putting one bandaged hand on the injured girl's forehead and one on the stone. Magic rushed out of the appendages, flowing straight into the surfaces they were on. "Come on! Live!" She commanded, increasing the magic density, yelling out, "LIVE!"
The breaks in the gem started to seal, the fragmented look fading as the red colour seemed to become more pure, though some cracks remained. Feeling the magicless void in both Sonata's body and her gem become full, she stopped forcing magic into both of her targets. The crystal seemed to burn with some unknown fire, not too unlike the necklace Sunset now wore. "Come on..."
"She needs equestrian magic." Sunset looked to the new voice, finding Adagio held Sonata's hand, worry plastered on her face. A few surrounding students immediately cried out in alarm, and the ex-unicorn threw up a silencing bubble. "It's what we originally had, and we still need it."
"My magic isn't equestrian..." Seeing the other two siren's sad looks, Sunset fell back into deep thought, snapping her fingers after a few moments. A blinding flash enveloped her body, and when it cleared, the same armour Adagio had been attacked with before, this time without her trademark leatherjacket, as she had gone without it today. Quickly, Susnet started to shed the protective plates, both with magic and by hand. "Help me get this off!"
The conscious sirens obliged, but Aria still wasn't sure what was happening. "How is this gonna help?!"
"The armour was made by the portal." Sunset started to explain as the last of the protective clothing was removed, leaving Sunset back in her hoodie and jeans. "I figure it's got enough equestrian magic left on it. If that fails, we'll go to the portal."
"Well come on! We need to get it on-"
"No." Adagio interrupted, simply resting pieces of the armour on her sister. "We don't have time. Besides, we may need to heal her physical injuries manually."
'Good to see she actually cares.' Sunset thought, before returning to the task at hand. Already, most of the armour was touching Sonata, and soon, it seemed to melt into her body, bringing some colour into her face. Within a matter of moments, all the armour was gone, and her previously pale skin regained its natural blue colour. Sunset's gaze was brought back towards the gem, her eyes following the remaining fractures. Holding out a hand, the life magic started to flow from her fingers once more, funneling into the broken pendant, to no effect. Opening the metaphorical floodgates, Sunset pushed as much magical as possible outwards, starting to pant in exhaustion.
Hitting her limit, the ex-unicorn stumbled back, her magic retreating back into the crystal around her neck, while Sonata ceased to levitate. She looked to the fallen girl's own gem, and saw the glow that had erupted from within was starting to fade. When the red pendant was completely dim, it started to lose its colour once more, visually softening as it did so. Rushing over, Sunset ran her fingers over the gem, only for a dark grey dust to come off. "Oh, no no no..."
The pendant, which Sunset had pinned all her hopes on, was starting to disintergrate before her very eyes. It was rapidly becoming nothing but dust, threatening to fly off in the slightest breeze. Everyone stared on with wide eyes, fearful of what had just happened. Slowly, Sunset dropped down to the floor, the other ex-sirens looking on with tearful eyes.
"No..."
Sonata awoke in a great wind. Shooting upwards, she quickly made sense of her surroundings. Another dream, she quickly concluded. One she had control over. Normally, she would live out some fantasy, or just generally have fun. Right now though, she felt oddly... serious.
It was a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. Back before...
She shivered at the thoughts, swiftly banishing them to the very back of her mind. Right now, the siren decided to look around at her surroundings. She was on the side of a mountain, underneath a white arch, overlooking a vast sea. The waves crashed against rock just a dozen meters below her, creating a roar that could only belong to nature. She spotted something move under the surface, and almost on instinct, called out, "Κράκεν! Έχω την τροφή σου!"
It was a language she hasn't spoken for many years, and yet, it came to her tongue with ease. The wonders of both dreaming and being immortal, she supposed. She sat, awaiting for her words to be heard, breathing in the sort of air that she missed dearly. It was times like these that allowed her to fully think straight. She was always in control of her actions, of her mind, but that didn't mean she always acted how she felt she could.
Sighing, Sonata lowered herself to the ground, getting comfy, before looking to the stirring waters, tossing a large fish down into the darkening sea. Before it impacted the vast ocean, however, it seemed to rot, and disintergrate. Sonata couldn't place it, but the sight seemed familiar. Warily standing up, she gazed into the shadow in the water, which started to turn a hellish red.
Eye widening, she fled with as much speed as possible, away from the being that would surely follow her. And it did. Everywhere she looked, a blazing flame seemed to flourish, licking at whatever surface it could. Sonata moved in whatever direction she could, finding paths she didn't know was possible, all leading to the same destination, as the heated being behind her followed with a cry.
Her eyes snapped forward, seeing two blurred shapes nearby, one purple, one orange. Giving a gasp, muffled by her exhaustion, she rushed forwards, the colours get closer, almost forming recognisable objects.
Giving a finally burst of speed, Sonata shot towards her target, all for naught. A solid wisp of flame curled around her, pulling her back. She scream hoarsely, not out of fear but anger. She briefly contemplated fighting, but ended up sinking back into the tendril of fire, almost on instinct. It was warm, but not hot enough to cause any discomfort - the kind of heat one would want to cuddle in bed.
Without a second thought, she closed her eyes, curling up, as the life giving fire gently pulled her away.
Sonata awoke to a gentle beeping, the kind that while bearable at first, would start to become irritating if it went on for too long.
The siren internally slapped herself, setting her thoughts on priorities. Like finding out where she was, for one. Cracking open her eyes, she found herself looked at a dull, ever so slightly grey surface. The ceiling, she supposed. Sitting up slightly, she managed to turn her head on the uncomfortable pillow it was resting upon. Again, Sonata smacked these thoughts out of her head - she always took note of her surroundings more than others, but this was ridiculous even by her standards.
Regardless of her inner conflict, her gaze met a sleeping face, one she was glad to see. Sprawled awkwardly across three different plastic chairs, was Sunset Shimmer, shifting about as she attempted to find a nice position in her sleep. A small commotion rbought her attention to the door, where two siliouettes outside of the door appeared to be bickering about something, though the argument was too quiet for Sonata to make out words. She recognised the voices as her sisters, however, and couldn't help but smile a little. It was almost like old times, as Adagio would call it.
She opened her mouth to call out to them, but before she could, something felt like it was bubbling up inside of her. Like a geyser blocked by a boulder, just waiting to escape. Ignoring the sensation, she tried to speak.
Words did not come out, but instead, a very soft note of music. Sonata frowned at the unexpected result, as it was not what she had intended. Before she could try again, however, she realised what she had just done. Breathing in, she prepared to let more music flow out of her throat, but when she did, something inside her broke.
Sitting up, she clutched her chest, feeling something swell up from within her body, her very soul threatening to burst.
And it did.
A soothing, wordless melody came into existance, and Sonata became slightly aware that she was floating in place. The song wasn't anything special, not showing off, but the way the sound seemed to flow in the air captivated any who heard it.
Sunset, on the other hand, awoke with a start, frantically looking for the source of the sudden noise. Turning her gaze upwards, she saw Sonata floating, but with a few additions. She had the fin like wings like before, though they matched her skin colour this time, and were definitely bigger. Pony ears poked out from her blue hair, and small fins replaced her human ears similtaneously. Her eyes had a menacing blue gleam to them, and her teeth were visually sharpened. Her legs had taken on a scale like look, and her hands did seem to sport claws. The intimidating look, however, was almost destroyed by the calm, peaceful expression on her face. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back as the melody passed through the equestians' ears.
A whole minute later, and the soothing song tapered off, leaving the room in stunned silence. Sonata gave a friendly smile, looking from her gaping sisters to the half-asleep Sunset as she laid back down on the bed, and asked, "Anyone want t-"
She doubled over, grimacing in pain, as she clutched her midriff. "Sonata!" Sunset cried out, "You need to rest. You're lucky enough Fluttershy had some fish blood we could use in a transfusion."
"Wait, fish blood? We have human blood." Adagio asked, her voice clear of malice.
"You, maybe. But Sonata definitely doesn't. I wouldn't be suprised if I had K type blood when I transform, since that's what I am in Equestria." The ex-unicorn explained, turning her attention back to Sonata.
"Wh-what happened?"
"You got stabbed." Aria snarled out, Adagio putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I know that. I mean, y'know," Sonata gestured at her throat. "my voice."
Glancing at each other, Adagio nodded, and stepped towards reached to the collar of Sonata's shirt and pulling down. There, a few inches below her neck, was a red jewel embedded into her flesh, shining with a slightly blue fire within. As it's owner gasped, the flame flickered momentarily, earning a look of fascination from Sunset.
"From what I can work out, that thing is now your voice. Tartarus, for all I know, that could be your soul."
Sonata couldn't help but smile at the sight and feeling she had before her. Next to her were three beings from her homeland, all sympathic to what she had gone through, and if she looked towards the door, she saw a number of smiling faces, all of them helping her move on with her life.
She laid her head back on the pillow, the fire in her chest giving a warm feeling, and the siren let out a small giggle. Sunset looked at her fellow equestrian, knowing they were both thinking the same thing.
'Life just couldn't get better.' |
A Third Chance to Find a Family | 23 - Okay | Quick note; all but the last horizontal rule (the lines) indicate the start/end of flashbacks, as opposed to the small time skips they would usually represent.
Sunset sighed, absently poking at the fire in front of her with a stick, before throwing it onto the flammable junk that acted as fuel to the flames. Her shelter was holding together suprisingly well, holding off the wind with ease, though it did nothing to negate the cold, hence the fire she was currently warming her hands on. While the combination of the fire and the roof above her stopped most of the snow from bothering her, occasionally one slipped through, this one landing directly in Sunset's eye.
Blinking rapidly to dislodge the intruder, the homeless girl glanced up as she heard footsteps in the snow, subconsciously bringing the filthly blanket closer around her. Looking to her right, she saw a silhouette stalking down the alley. It was not called a silhouette because of the lack of light, but rather the fact that it was pitch black, despite the moon shining clearly onto the figure. Coming closer to Sunset, his face was lit by the fire, revealing the sole definable features of two white eyes, irises only noticable due to two black rings outlining them. Wordlessly, the unnamed figure sat down at the fire, shifting awkwardly in the melted snow he sat in. Looking through the fire at Sunset, he opened his mouth, revealing jet black teeth mouth, gums, everything, and spoke.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?" Sunset echoed, though with much more caution in her voice.
"...Leon." The man answered, maintaining his monotone, before repeating, "Who are you?"
"Sunset." The girl answered without much thought, knowing that she still didn't exist on paper.
"And what about the others? How have they treated you?"
"Well..."
Bon Bon, Lyra, Octavia and Vinyl waited inside one of two music rooms that CHS contained. Upon the discovery of Bon Bon's talent for brass instruments, the musical quartet had decided to form a group, each of them using there own musical skills, which appeared to cover a broad basis. However, upon their first try out, it was revealed that none of them could truly sing. As back up vocalists, perhaps, but as lead singers, they were all useless.
So, this had led to the four of them waiting for who would soon be their fifth member - Sunset. As she had proven in the Battle of the Bands, she had a powerful vocal range, and was very skilled with a guitar, something that was mostly lacking by the rest of the group.
For now, the group was filling the silence with various discussions, ranging to musical plans to other people.
"Well, if we get someone who's purely a vocalist, or focuses mainly on any kind of vocals, then we might be able to-"
"But who?" Lyra cut Bon Bon off, "Sonata's agreed to join once everyone stops giving her, and I quote, 'unhappy looks'. I don't know what that actually means, but if we introduce her too soon..."
"Got it. She still needs to recover anyway. No one recovers from being stabbed that quickly. What if-"
"Vinyl says we need a beat. Preferably a drummer. Any ideas?" Octavia gently cut in, turning away from Vinyl, before the pale girl walked forwards and made some more gestures, moving her limp fists up and down. "...Apparantly, someone is a skilled drummer? Sorry, do that again?" More signs. "Someone will be a skilled drummer? Just spell out who it is, Vinyl. I know you like to sign the word that they are named after, but this is getting nowhere."
Vinyl only got through one sign - the letter 's' - before the door swung open. She waved her hand dimissively, instead directing her attention at Sunset, who was walking through the doorway with a new looking guitar case slung over her shoulder. Nodding at her friends, she deposited her intrument next to the electric piano, leaning it against the stand. Grabbing a nearby chair, she pulled it over to the square that the four had formed, sitting back on it. "So."
"So?"
"I got a text. All it says is to come here and bring my guitar. So come on. Is this some insane sceme, or what?" She glanced around almsot fearfully, whispering, "Lyra didn't try inventing something again, did she?"
"Har. Har har har. Funny." Sunset only smirked in response. "But no. You know how we're thinking of starting a sort of band? Nothing big, just we play together, maybe we perform if we're good enough. I know Vinyl plans on making a 'Tube channel."
"And you want me to join with my guitar?"
"And your voice." Octavia added, before shuddering. "My ears still ache after that."
"'That'?"
"We don't talk about that." Bon Bon added, give Sunset a cold stare.
Chuckling, the equestrian pushed herself off of her chair, exclaiming, "Well then, what's the plan?"
"We figured we'd just experiment with what we can play. Y'know, find out what we can actually use, what sounds too bad, and so on."
And so it happened. Vinyl went around recording various pieces created by their group, each discovering their own capabilities. Octavia was brilliant on anything that could be considered 'classical', but tended to lend her skills most towards anything in the violin family, particularly the cello. Lyra was, as always, affectionate to harps and lyres, but was happy to play almost anything that involved strings, though she flat out refused to play an electric guitar, citing the reason as being 'past experiences'. Bon Bon shot a warning glance to everyone at those words, causing everyone to drop the subject. The confectioner was actually fairly talented in all and any wind instruments, going so far as to play the bag pipes, much to Octavia's chagrin. Vinyl, was of course most skilled in electronic manipulation, showing off in some dubstep she had created on a pair of portable turntables, though she also proved to be skilled in any type of piano, her hands being very swift from years of sign language.
As for Sunset, she proved to live up to expectations, her skill in guitars being matched by none, though she refrained from singing - for now. If she was honest, it was nice, even if it evoked bad memories. She was talking with friends, interacting in a way that she enjoyed, nothing felt forced. It was simply somewhere in which she could blend in, not living in any amount of fear, nor was any guilt brought upon herself.
Sunset could only feel comfortable in this situation. She could only feel like she actually fitted in.
"So you're happy there?"
"I guess you could say that." Sunset had shed her blanket, instead using it as a seat, the fire in front of her warming her. Leon continued to look through the flames, his skin seemingly unaffected by the light they were giving off.
"That isn't all though, is it? I can't just be them, can it?" Leon continued to question, though no questioning tone was found in his voice. "There are others?"
"But of course."
Derpy climbed into her classic mini cooper, painted light grey with yellow stripes, reminiscent of her own colouring. Sunset got into the passenger seat, remembering the first time she had found out the clumsy girl drove. She had turned up to school with an armchair tied to the small car's roof, having picked it up early in the morning and had no time to return home with it before coming to school. While she had been mocked for it at the time, Derpy was a surprisingly good driver for someone with a visual disability like the extreme case of strabismus that the blonde possessed. She made sure to be careful when ever any other cars were around, and even then she rarely drove with no one else in the car.
"Thanks for doing this." Derpy said as the car set off, its motor slowly humming.
"For doing what? Keeping you company?" Sunset responded, unsure if she was saying that jokingly or not.
"Well, kinda." She set off, pulling out of the school car park and onto the road. "I just like actually company, but there's something else... I dunno. You know how everyone used to do that 'no offence' thing to you?"
"Hard to forget..."
"Well, it's not as blantant with me, but it just happens everytime. It's not snide comments about how I can't see straight - most of the time - but it's just how people subconsciously draw attention to it. Absolutely everyone does it. Even people like Bon Bon, she looks from eye to eye, instead of just looking at my face. The only other one who doesn't do it other than you is Vinyl, but that's out of understanding and sympathy, as everyone looks at her hands when conversing instead of her face. You're not pitying me-"
"Red light, slow down."
"Thanks. But anyway, you're not pitying me or anything. You're just doing it because you can. Not because you feel a need to do so. Not because you're feeling the mob behind you, torches lit and pitchforks held. You don't want to join them, you're not only able to swim against the tide, you can see through the white water, the kind of stuff that would normally push you under and leave you for dead. Maybe that's because you've been there,-"
"Turn."
"Turn? Oh, right. Thanks."
"No problem. It might be because you know what it's like a little bit, it might simply be because you understand what people like me have to go through and what we want. Either way, it's not like everyone else. You treat me like anyone else, instead of how everyone else would. It's... I dunno..." Derpy's head rolled from side to side as she tried to think of the right phrasing. "Nice. Accepting. Not forced. I'm sure you can relate to that last one."
"Sis!"
Derpy's head turned to look out the side window momentarily, spotting Dinky waving at her sister. Slowing to a stop, the younger girl quickly got into the back behind Sunset, pushing the older girl's seat momentarily forward to do so. "Sorry, Sunset."
"...My knees..."
The driver of the car couldn't help but snigger slightly as she set off again, her oldest passenger rubbing her knee caps in a desperate attempt to negate the pain. And yet, despite the pain filled grimace that was on her face, Sunset couldn't help but smile internally at Derpy's earlier words. It was oddly philosophical for the bubbly girl, but it was comforting all the same. As she had said, it was nice. Nice to be helpful, instead of useful.
"You should listen to her." Leon commented, looking up from the base of the fire.
During the story, Sunset had taken to lying down on her side, before rolling over to face away from the fire, intent on going to sleep. "You can go now. I'm tired."
"Not quite yet. Tell me of your family. It seems they are far closer to your heart than any... previous family members."
Sighing, Sunset sat up, throwing some more fuel onto the slowly dying campfire, before turning to see Leon was now sitting next to Sunset, leaning slightly against the shelter. "Fine. Only because I can't be bothered to argue."
Books.
If there was something Sunset's new family all had in common, it was books. Velvet was an author, and as a result often looked through other books for help when stuck, and Night Light often read science books to make sure his own knowledge didn't dull. Shining and his wife had a thing for detective and romance novels respectively, while Twilight just ate any sort of literature she could lay her hands on.
Back when she was Celestia's student, Sunset rarely ever reread books, and had a custom spell she herself designed to automatically read the knowledge that was in them. As a result, the unicorn had threw herself straight into practice whenever she believed she knew everything there was to know. Once she had entered the human world, however, Sunset had found herself studying in the library that she lived next to for many hours, learning all she could about this world and commiting it to memory.
This was why Sunset had readily agreed to going on a short trip to the same library - she had not had the oppotunity to do so since before Christmas, and now intended to see if there was anything new she could look at. When the equestrian had been walking alongside one of the bookcases, her eyes rapidly reading each title, Twilight had come up to her, asking what she was looking for.
"Something new," She had answered, "I've read all of these books already. Excluding a few topics I absolutely refuse to delve into, and I never really liked any fiction. When you come from a place where many fairy tales here are real or even bigger, it kind of loses its charm." Twilight had opened her mouth for a counterargument, but seeing the book Sunset indicated that she would not read, the bookworm instantly conceded the point. She could see why that particular part of horse anatomy could be very weird.
That, in turn, had lead Twilight to presently ask, "Do horses exist in your world?"
"No," Sunset responded, gesturing for her sister to join her at a small table, away from any visitors, "at least not anymore. It's why I take being called a horse as an insult. The horses of the other world were the ancestors of the vast majority of hooved creatures. Calling a pony a horse would be like calling a human a monkey. Ponies were created when horses were exposed over time to different forms of energy, also known as magic. Almost every other hooved species were evolved from horses the normal way. Camels were horses that needed to adapt to the desert, for example. It should also be noted that horses were a slave race to some other ancient species, and the remainder of those slaves evolved into donkeys - magicless ponies were extreme amounts of stamina and strength equal to an earth pony, sometimes more. Of course, there are other reasons why the hooved species of my world became the way they did, but that's a story for another day. Mainly because I don't feel like explaining how all goats were stripped of the majority of their intelligence because of some ridiculous necromancer. A powerful one at that, but still stupid in my books."
Sunset stood, allowing Twilight to take in the new knowledge as the ex-unicorn went off in pursuit of new knowledge, or failing that, entertainment. Her eyes briefly wandered to the detective and mystery section. They were the only sorts of books Sunset even thought about reading, since they could probably pass for a novel in Equestria too. Shrugging, she made her way over, glancing about for any sign of Shining in his preffered genre.
Sorting through the various stories, Sunset found nothing that caught her immediate attention. She was about to pick out a book to briefly flick through when her brother's voice caused her to look away.
"Hey Sunset!" The man was making his way back into the library, apparantly having stepped out to do something momentarily.
"Shh!" Sunset put a finger to her lips. She had once been scolded by the librarian, and while fairly nice, she was very insistant on the rules to an extreme degree. Once Shining was closer, she answered, "Hey Shiny. What's up?"
"Thought you might want to know about Breeze." The police officer practically spat out the name, as Sunset had a similar reaction of disgust. "Been declared unfit of trial. He's going straight to the looney bin, family hasn't even bothered to help him."
"Good." The girl did have a twinge of guilt for allowing Fluttershy's brother to be taken away, but it was soon washed away by the anger Sunset had for the boy. While Sonata was up and about in less than a week thanks to magic, the mental effects don't always go away so easily. She flinches at the mere mention of a 'breeze', and was clearly no longer comfortable around Fluttershy. She did have plenty of support, most of all from her sisters - even Adagio had given up her petty plotting to give help to Sonata - but Sunset knew first hand that it isn't always enough.
In truth, Sunset had no idea how to actually help Sonata. Her sisters were the only ones who knew how a siren's mind works, but even then, they admitted that Sonata's past was a bit of a mystery. They weren't even entirely sure of their origins, though they were certain she did know. Aria had then grabbed Sunset by the neck and warned her not to even mention their pasts before the human world to Sonata. Sunset had hurriedly agreed.
"And about Gilda..." Shining brought Sunset out of her thoughts with a sour voice full of distaste. "The rest of that gang eventually confessed. Mostly after it was reiterated many times that their reaction was idiotic and extreme. The guys reckon she'll be in juvie for a few months if she's good, over a year if not. Too soon to say for sure."
"Thanks for letting me know." That was another thing that was bothering Sunset - Gilda. She honestly had no clue how to react to her. On one hand, she kidnapped Twilight and held her hostage. But on the other hand, she had been blackmailed into it. It made Sunset's think back to her own blackmailing times. The look of horror some people had when confronted with their own dirty secrets had given Sunset a new perspective on it. She knew how desperate teenagers could be over their social life - paranoid like their life depended on it. It's why Anon-a-miss was so effective, after all, as much as Sunset hated to admit it.
Nodding, Shining turned his attention to the bookcase they were next to, quickly picking out a book and taking it to a table, flicking through it. Sunset moved away, intent on finding something interesting to read, or at the very least look at.
Alas, it was not meant to be. A quick word to her adoptive mother, and Sunset was wandering outside the library, clearing her mind. She sat on the steps, having a quick look through the journal, reading through her ealier correspondence with Princess Twilight. Other than the 'dark magic prophecy' that Sunset more or less ended up ignoring, Sunset found that the alicorn almost felt the same way about her own friends not too long ago.
During her brother's wedding, and the subsequent invasion, she found that the normally friendly and outgoing mare had been feeling rejected after her friends had not believed her suspiscions, and when she was proven right, they just continued on when the changelings were defeated. Judging by the tear stains that had appeared on the pages, it had been something that had tormented the princess for a long time, and really needed to vent. Sunset was more than happy to provide sympathy for her interdimensional friend, but it also brought back thoughts of her own friends, and how conflicted she still felt. While she told herself she needed time to forgive, she honestly doubted she would ever truly forgive her three other friends.
That was yet another thing that was on her mind - why did she forgive Dash and Fluttershy so quickly? It couldn't of been just because they came looking for her. That played an important part in it all, but it just didn't seem enough...
Shaking her head, Sunset stood, absentmindedly meandering into a nearby alley. She couldn't help but chuckle at the shelter that had been collapsed once more. It was almost nostalgic, at least it had been until-
"Waitwaitwait. Wait." Sunset pinched her nose, sighing. "Dream?"
"Dream." Leon answered, giving a short nod.
"Luna?"
"Tis- It is so."
Giving a brief chuckle, Sunset slumped back, carelessly using the still burning fire as a foot rest, without a hint of pain in her body. "So, Princess, what's with Mr. Tall D. Scary?"
"'Mr. Tall D. Scary'?" Luna echoed, her voice fading back to a female tone as she morphed into her normal equine form.
"Tall, dark and scary." The girl said dimissively, waving a hand to dismiss the matter. "But seriously, why the disguise?"
"I am sorry for deceiving you. I had intended to test my abilities in this realm, and from what I have heard of you, I doubted you'd take offense at it." The alicorn gave an apologetic look to Sunset, but she just brushed it off with another wave.
"It's fine. I can respect someone testing their limits." She attempted to give a snort of amusement, momentarily forgetting she was still a human. "Unlike most of Equestria, it seems."
"Indeed, but this is not what I have come to ask of you."
"Oh?"
"My sister's dreams have been very... troubled recently. Usually I do not directly influence Tia's dreams, though I feel this calls for different measures." The blue mare gave Sunset a serious stare, causing the girl to sit up, returning an equally serious look. Seeing she had her companion's attention, Luna turned to face the fire once more, watching it lick the air. "It is not something I can solve myself. I shan't bore you with some speech on responsibility, but I would ask of you to enter my sister's dream."
"...Sure, lets do it."
Luna released a breath she didn't even know she was holding. Wordlessly, the entrance to the alleyway became a mass of stars, floating and moving about, before shifting to present a dark, empty room. The alicorn of the night gave a gasp on exhaustion, the creation of the portal taking a lot out of her. "The... C- Celestia's dream is only just starting. You should have until it ends before you wake up. Go, and do not tarry. I do not know how much longer I can keep this up."
Nodding, Sunset promptly stood up, and walked through the portal without any exceptional flair.
"Look into this mirror and tell me what you see." Celestia led her student into the room, presenting a mirror with a brief hoof gesture.
"I see a mare who almost never got the chance to forgive herself, and a mare who is struggling to do the same for herself."
The alicorn turned to look at the teenage pony, an ever so slightly confused expression on her face. "Explain. Elaborate."
Sighing, Sunset trotted to the side, levitating out two large cushions, taking a seat on one of them. "At one point, we both though the same thing. We both wanted to earn forgiveness, but we were both scared of rejection, fearful that we didn't deserve the other's forgiveness." She gave a short, humourless chuckle. "Sounds like a bitter break up in a romance novel."
As Celestia sat down on the other cushion, she continued. "But I digress. My point is, neither of us were willing to confront each other because of false beliefs. And even when we confronted each other under more... unexpected circumstances, it was, let's be honest, half hearted. Neither of us wanted to push too hard lest we lose the other. So now, let's sort it out. Oh, and would you kindly wipe that annoying mask off your face and figure it out?"
"Buh?" The princess eloquently responded, before her face melted into an expression of understanding. "This is a dream. Of course. Come to haunt me, apparition?"
Rolling her eyes, Sunset leaned over to her mentor, and promptly hit her with a hoof. "Did you feel that? Does it sting a little? Yes? That means either something is influencing the dream, or it's not a dream at all. And no, it's not metaphor for anything, nor am I Luna in disguise." Everytime Celestia opened her mouth to say something, 'Sunset' seemed to state and answer. "It is me. I am Sunset Shimmer. Believe it or not, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that you listen. Got that?"
The solar princess could only nod dumbly. "Good." Sunset sighed again, this time more sadly. She lifted a fetlock, looking at the numerous scars that had appeared on beneath the amber fur. "You know, there's something I heard recently. It was about injuries. There's three types of injuries. First is things like cuts. At the end of the day they're going to heal without a trace. These you can easily get past as if nothing happened. Barely anyone will remember it, and even those who do will shrug it off when brought up in a painful way. For example, our heated conversation about organisation. Seems stupid and silly now that we look back on it. Of course, enough cuts and it will eventually leave a scar, or worse. Enough conversations, can become something much worse. Several small fights in a boxing ring can eventually lead to murder if it isn't a friendly relationship.
"Now, a scar, or perhaps broken bones. They don't heal properly. Both can become discreet, but they will always be there. Whether it be a red line on skin, a wobble in a step, or a miniscule crack on a bone, someone will always be able to tell it was once there. For us, I suppose that would be me running away. We both have gotten over that initial act, or will definitely do so soon. I don't know which is the case for you, if I'm honest. But we will always remember it, we'll be reminded every so often that it happened, and won't completely laugh it off. And again, enough scars can end up becoming something so much worse, or, if you're lucky, just a ever so tiny mark, unnoticable to almost everyone.
"And finally, we are the more permament injuries. May it be paralysis, an amputation, or even brain damage. Any living being can find ways around these injuries using machinery, surgery, and the like. But that doesn't mean they simply disappear. They will always be there, always in some part of the being's mind, constantly being a hinderence. You believe our current relationship is like that, your guilt being the cause. You shall never forget it, always having it nag you in the back of your mind, forever leaving you worried, scared, traumatised." Sunset stood up, coming over to Celestia, bringing her muzzle inches away from the alicorn's. "That is not what it is. It is a scar. You can move past it, but only if you stop rubbing the scar and constantly agitating it. You're opening wounds over and over again. And for what?"
Sighing, she moved back to her cushion, lifting up a foreleg to show the scars once more. "It's going to take me a while to move on from me trying to take my own life. The scars run deep, both mentally and physically. They will be with me for the rest of my life. But I've accepted that, faced it and decided I can live with it. It's not something that you get over easily, but I can get over it, and I know I will. I've done well so far, actually."
She put her hoof back down, grunt with annoyance. "But you're not doing that, are you? What you need to do is accept that what happened, happened. There's nothing more to it than that. You understand that the past isn't going to change, and you forgive yourself. Those simple little things. It's all you need to do."
Sunset appeared to stretch, groaning a little as she did so. "Now that that's ingrained into your ancient mind, I've got more important things to talk to you about."
Celestia stared straight ahead for a long moment, her eyes unfocused, before she nodded her head softly. "I understand what you mean. But... after it happening so many times, I'm not sure I can."
The smaller mare snorted, before fixing Celestia with a short glare. "Horsefeathers. That's because you do the same thing each time. Well, in the past anyway. Say what you want about Princess Twilight's methods, but she is remarkably efficient at instantly reforming the so called evils of the world, elements of harmony or not. What you need to do is be more accepting both past and present, and not shove stuff in the back of the closet until it comes back out, murderer's axe and all."
Closing her eyes, Sunset gave a small chuckle, smiling at some passing thought. "You know, I remember when we wanted to be family. A mother and daughter. I think it was clear to me now that you thought the same, despite me thinking otherwise. I was just too... difficult to be treated with any sort of mothering instinct. And now, after, what three, four chances? After three chances at finding a family, I've got one. But, to me, I honestly don't want to exclude you like that. So what do you think, aunt Celestia? Do you think you can maintain a long distance relationship?"
A thin smile broke out on Celestia's face, and she nodded slowly. "I think that shall work, my niece." She leaned over for a hug, both parties gripping the other tightly. Sunset nuzzled the white fur, and Celestia rested her head on top of the red and gold mane protectively. Both ponies stayed like that, until a distant rumble drew the unicorn's attention, and she pulled away, much to the alicorn's displeasure.
"I think that's my cue to leave. But remember what I said." Sunset looked up with fierce green eyes, staring into the sun princess' soul. "The cuts are gonna heal and the scars are gonna look okay. Words to live by, if you ask me."
She practically lunged forward again, rolling Celestia over and embracing each other with every ounce of strength in their bodies as the dream around them disappated, leaving the two of them suspended in an empty void.
"It's going to be okay." |
Hidden by Shadows | pre | *BOOM*
When the dust settled, a stallion was revealed. He looked to be slightly larger than Big Macintosh. His coat was ultra-black, his wings were fully extended and at least 3 feet long each. When he opened his eyes, they glowed an eerie dark blue.
"Thought you could run from me dear Abigail? You can't get away that easily. I'm not letting you go so easily this time." His voice was dark, almost evil. His eyes read rage far beyond that which anypony has ever felt. He moved them towards the Everfree Forest, then towards the town Ponyville.
The Everfree could hide him until he could unfold his plan. Right now, he needed to preserve his strength. If he wanted to get Abigail then he would need all the strength he could get.
In Twilight's library, Authora jumped awake from a nightmare. She dreamt he came for her again. Removing anything or pony blocking his path to her. She laughed, knowing it was only a dream.
For now |
Hidden by Shadows | Reunion | It was morning, only two of the sisters had awoken. Abigail was always a late sleeper and took a few hits with Skylar's wing to get her eyes to open.
'Hey guys, what time is it?' Abigail asked her sisters with the thought-giver spell.
"After 10 Thora. What, cha have a bad dream or something?" Skylar asked. Abigail shifted uncomfortably on the spare bed in Twilight's house. "Gail, did you have a bad dream?" Abigail nodded.
'It was about him. I dreamt he came here to Equestria. He started...killing everypony... I tried to run. But that only made him catch up faster. He had Dandelion. He was hurting my little Lion.' Skylar began holding her unicorn sister as tears began to flow from her eyes.
Megan however, wasn't so emotional about this. She was too angry to cry.
"We escaped him and that bastard is still haunting us!" Megan yelled.
"Meg please you'll attract unwanted attention." Skylar explained. Megan was having none of it.
"When I see that blue loving bastard I'll wrap my hooves around his neck and watch his face turn his favorite color!" Megan said enthusiastically. Skylar let go of Abigail and walked up to the bright green filly.
"His three times you height Pipsqueak." Skylar scolded. "You'll be gone before we could even hope to help. You're just a filly here remember?"
Abigail suspected a fight between the sisters so she quickly intervened with happy news.
'Guess what I heard last night?' She tried. This got Skylar's attention.
"Huh?"
'I heard Fluttershy talk with Twilight. She found a baby dragon in her cottage. She was hurt all over and some of her teeth had been pulled out.'
"How is that happy news?" Megan asked. Abigail gave a warm smile, a tear of joy fell from her cheek.
"Gail, did she find...?" Gail nodded at her sister before the question was even finished.
'Fluttershy said the dragon's name was Dandelion. She found my little baby.' Skylar gave her sister a happy hug while Megan was dragged over by a white aura. 'She also said a mean pony pushed her into a bush. Megan, do you know anything about this?' She also said a mean pony pushed her into a bush. Megan, do you know anything about this?' Megan began trying to find an escape route.
"Maybe! You can't prove anything!" Megan shouted. Skylar grew a sinister smile.
"Authora, I noticed Twilight seemed a little low on quills." Megan's brown eyes widened.
'I did notice that. Now if only we had a way of helping her with that? Megan, you have anything to say on this?' Abigail asked.
Megan looked at her older sisters. She knew she was dead pony meat no matter what she said. "I might've played a game with Overbite that caused her to get lost inside the Everfree Forest but Overbite was just asking for it!"
Now, the sisters aren't to sure what happened next. They only just began to remember things as they came into
the view of Twilight.
Authora came down the stairs with a satisfied smile on her face. Flutterwing came not too long afterwards with a confused look and having trouble staying balanced. The filly that came down next made Spike fall over laughing.
Pipsqueak. With a sky blue coat, a white mane with a few yellow streaks, and purple eyes. The only sign of he little green filly from earlier was her haircut.
Twilight combined all her control to make sure she didn't fall over laughing. The shock from how she ended up like that helped.
They went up there to wake Authora up right? Twilight asked herself.
Authora sat down on the kitchen table, putting some of the delicious apple pancakes Spike had made on a plate placed before her, looking as though her sister's coloring was normal.
"Pipsqueak, what happened to you?" Twilight asked. Flutter, who finally regained her sense of balance, spoke for her mute sister.
"Thora got mad at Pip for something. This is her punishment." Pipsqueak kept looking down on the floor. "I don't remember most of what happened after that."
"How long is she going to be like this?" Twilight asked. A piece of paper suddenly floated up to Twilight and soon words appeared on it.
'As long as it takes for her to learn her lesson.' It read. The paper flipped over and more words appeared, 'Anything we can do today Twilight?'
While running calculations in her head, Twilight was barely able to speak.
"I don't think Twilight is up for conversation Thora." Flutterwing said.
"She's probably trying to figure out how you are keeping Pipsqueak like that and haven't fainted yet." Spike said, "Right Twi?" The purple unicorn only nodded.
Authora let out a sigh and walked up to the paper, slowly lowered it until she was face to face with the studious pony. Her horn began to glow a cloud white.
'Twilight Sparkle, just let it go. You'll be stuck like this all day and won't get any closer to figuring it out. I'm gonna head over to Fluttershy's. Flutter probably wants to spend time with Rarity, Flutter loves to design clothes. And I'm sure Pipsqueak wants to find those Crusaders or stay inside. See you later!' Twilight heard.
She finally began to show signs of life. She thought carefully, why couldn't anypony go to Fluttershy's house?
"Spike we have to stop them! She's going to see the dragon!" Spike quickly dropped the frying pan, turned off the oven and ran with Twilight towards the dark pink unicorn who was somehow well ahead of them.
Authora however, knew she was going to be followed and created a decoy her to distract Twilight long enough for her to see Fluttershy. Authora just couldn't let Twilight get in the way of the little yellow dragon she lost. Changing her colors was something too good for Pipsqueak, why if she had her way then Pipsqueak would've been transported home.
But, it would have to do for now. Because all she could think about was seeing her Dandelion and the shame of her being so hurt. At least she knew Fluttershy's house was a safe place. That the little dragon was being properly healed and not being sent off to the Princesses.
With a quick push, Authora eliminated the thought. She didn't want to know what would happen to her little Dandelion if she was sent to the Dragon lands.
After ten minutes of worrying and self-assuring, Authora saw the familiar cottage surrounded by small animals homes.
She teleported to the door and began knocking.
"Oh sorry, be right there!" Authora heard Fluttershy say. She also heard some more whispers and guessed Fluttershy was telling Dandelion to hide.
The hairs on Authora's neck stood. Somepony was watching her. She took a quick look and saw the Everfree Forest and bird nests. One of which held a Blue Jay staring his black eyes at her.
Authora was scared to death of blue jays. Back home, there was almost always one following her. Once she was completely surrounded by them and nothing she did would make them fly away. She knew why she feared them and why they followed her.
And it was all his fault.
Just before she ran off, Fluttershy opened the door.
"Oh Authora, what a surprise! Please, please, come in." The butter yellow pegasus slowly gestured inside her little home.
With one last good look at the blue terror, Authora walked inside.
Fluttershy was going about, putting some small things back in their places.
"I'm sorry the place is such a mess. We had an exciting morning." Fluttershy quickly explained.
'I bet you did.' Authora thought. She made sure she didn't project it out to others though, Fluttershy would surely faint.
"I forgot you couldn't talk. Here, let me get you something to write with." Fluttershy flew off into the kitchen. Authora used this time to try and get a message to Dandelion.
'Dandy, it's Mommy. I'm waiting for you downstairs. Please hurry.' Authora projected. No sooner had the message floated off towards what she could only guess was Fluttershy's room, Twilight busted in with Spike right behind her.
"Authora, wait," Twilight gasped, she had been winded out by chasing the double only to find she was fake. "You can't go to Fluttershy's." Authora giggled. Fluttershy flew in with a small notebook and writing utensils
"Oh Twilight, Spike. What are you doing here?" Fluttershy asked as faint footsteps walked towards them all.
"We came...to remind...Authora that...you were busy today...and couldn't visit." Twilight explained in between pants.
"What she said." Spike commented.
"I always have time for a friend Twilight." Fluttershy went up close to Twilight. "I made sure Dandelion was upstairs before I let Authora in." She assured. Twilight let out a sigh of relief. Authora just stared at the encounter with confused eyes. Twilight did know that she was already inside Fluttershy's house, right?
"Twilight, I think we have a problem." Spike told his friend. "Look," He pointed a purple finger towards the stairs.
There, for everypony to see, was a yellow baby dragon. Parts of her body were covered in white cloth. She walked into the room with her orange eyes wide.
"Dandelion, I told you to stay upstairs!" Fluttershy said. Dandelion paid no attention to it. Just the dark pink unicorn standing just a few feet away from her.
"You found her." Dandelion mumbled.
"What?" Twilight asked.
"My mommy. You found my mommy!' Dandelion screamed as she ran to hug Authora. The unicorn had been holding tears back in her eyes since she saw her yellow baby walk into sight.
She gripped the dragon as though she would never let go. The dragon did the same, letting her own tears fall onto her mother's coat.
They were together and they would never get separated again. |
Hidden by Shadows | Explanations | All the mares had gathered in Twilight's library. Fully waiting the explanation from the new sisters of Ponyville. The pink unicorn was simply playing with a yellow baby dragon. The purple pegasus hovered over them all along with a cyan rainbow manned pegasus. Finally, a unicorn filly waited by her older sister.
Twilight looked angrily at the sisters. She knew Authora had the strange magical energy from the forest those days ago. They would start explaining tonight.
Dash and Rarity were both a little shocked to be there. They were both having some alone time with Flutterwing and Pipsqueak when Twilight appeared and demanded that all four come to the library. She also got Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
What shocked the Bearers was he little yellow dragon they first saw when they entered the library. Flutterwing ran up to Dandelion while Pipsqueak hid back in shame.
But now here they were, all gathered to hear how they found a dragon and got into Equestria.
Twilight cleared her throat, finally gaining the attention of Authora.
'Um, ok. So, where do I begin?' Authora thought. Her horn began to glow white, telling her sister where to start.
Flutterwing continued hovering in the air space of the library.
"Thanks Thora. A few years back Mom and Dad decided to take Authora and me on a trek to Dragon Territory." All in the room gasped, minus the three ponies huddled together on floor below Flutterwing.
"Dragon Territory? You went into Dragon Territory and came out with a Dragon Egg?" Twilight said, stunned.
Authora nodded. Her horn glowed white. Her thoughts quickly filled the minds of everypony and dragon.
'Mom thought it would be a good idea to keep us on the straight and narrow. During our LAST visit, we ran across an abandoned nest. It was about a big as this house, if my memory is correct. Not a single egg there, until Dad used a dust clearing spell to reveal this little cutie.' Authora gently nudged Dandelion, getting a small giggle from the yellow dragon. 'I took one look and knew I would be taking her home. I begged Mom and Dad to let me take her home. She was an egg for three week, plus five for the journey back, before I had an outburst and busted the egg wide open.' Laughs came from Authora and Flutterwing. 'Dad was sure that my cutie mark would be in something like motherhood with how I took care of Little Dandelion. Even the occasional gem finding spell to get her something to eat.'
"Mom was FURIOUS when we found out that dragons ate. She really liked that necklace." Flutterwing laughed. She was sure their mother would burst into flames she was so angry.
'But, like I told Fluttershy, Pipsqueak had just been enrolled inside Magic Kindergarten. She had been there a whole hour before she came running into the house crying her eyes out. Saying everypony called her a 'blank flank' and a 'no-talent'. When I told Mom and Dad about this, they said that maybe if she had spent more time searching for a cutie mark than playing with squirrels and fighting with her sisters, adopted or otherwise, then she would have a cutie mark.' Flutterwing interrupted her sister, being filled with anger
"They blamed Pipsqueak for not getting a cutie mark. Like it was her fault. So we yelled at our parents. Or at least I did, Thora was making sure Dandelion didn't hear her when she would begin to yell. We told our parents that they needed to learn that maybe if they stopped going out and doing some lame adventure to raise their 10-year-old filly who was just going into school, the pegasus daughter and the eldest who was raising a baby dragon!" Flutterwing yelled.
The entire room became quiet. Shocked by the sudden outburst of Flutterwing, even Authora and Pipsqueak. She had been changed to her original color during the story telling.
Dandelion walked up to Twilight.
"Mommy, Auntie Fluttew and Auntie Pipsqueak wanted to go on a twip without Gwandma and Gwandpa. I was kinda sad to leave but Mommy told me that the place we wewe (Author's Note- pronounced 'were' but in a child-like voice) going had nice ponies who liked dwagons. But when you found my mommy you seemed weally weally mad at Mommy. Did Mommy do something wong?" She asked.
Twilight looked at her friends, mostly for some help answering this question. They all sat there in a moment
"That's sooooooooo sad." Pinkie Pie said. The four nodded with Pinkie's statement.
"Yer Ma and Pa just let cha go like that?" Applejack asked. Once again the sisters nodded.
"My poor dears, that sounds terrible, you are all so young!" Rarity exclaimed.
"So your parents tried to blame Pipsqueak? If I had bee there I'd give them somepony to blame." Rainbow Dash said proudly.
As much as the story touched Twilight, she was still confused on some details.
"If all of that is true then what happened by the Everfree Forest a few nights ago? How did you learn that spell to put your thoughts in my head? Tell us that Authora?" Twilight asked angrily.
The dark pink unicorn looked at her sister's, then to the small dragon her dark brown tail was wrapped around. Taking a deep breathe, her horn glowed again.
'To put it simple Ms. Sparkle.' Authora didn't know why she referred to Twilight like that, but it seemed fun to. 'We were running kinda fast. We had already run out of town by the time a police pony nearly caught up with us. I did something that, looking back, was stupid. I teleported us out of there.' Twilight gasped.
"You did what?"
"What did she do?" Fluttershy asked.
"She said she teleported all four of them." Only Spike seemed phased by this.
"So, what's that got to do with anything?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Because Dash, the only ponies I know that are able to do that and not pass out for a month are me and Princess Celestia." This got the others to freak out a little
Flutterwing lowered herself by her sister, eyeing her warily.
Authora knew what she was doing seemed wrong, but seeing how it was the only thing they could do without being sent back they had no choice but to lie to them.
'It helped that Pipsqueak was having a power surge. It seemed strange for her to be having one at such an age but I didn't care so long as she didn't have to go back to that awful place.' Authora explained. 'It wasn't til we found out we where did I notice something was wrong.'
"What else could've happened to..." Twilight asked as the answer became clear to her. It was still unclear to the others.
"What happened Sugarcube?" Applejack asked. Tears slowly streamed down Authora's face. Pipsqueak, who had somehow been silently watching, spoke.
"Thora lost her voice. The combined power of her magic and my power surge burned it out." Rarity made a dramatic faint.
"So that's what happened to your voice." Pinkie Pie said.
With their questions satisfied, the Bearers just sat or hovered where they were. Authora silently cried, missing her voice but knowing she lost it for the greater good.
It was late at night. Flutterwing was off to Dash's house, she had decided to sleep in a cloud house for she had never done it before, Pipsqueak and Dandelion were asleep in the spare bedroom Twilight had. Authora was left with her thoughts,
She was surprised that they could create such a creative back-story for themselves. It sounded way better than the truth.
Back home, on Earth, a madman had stalked Abigail. He could send Blue Jays to see where she was and if it was something he wanted her doing. Abigail first thought him a friend, someone to trust, but after she found her father...lying in a pool of his own blood and him standing over her father holding knife. She began fearing for the lives of her family and herself.
She had heard a legend years back. It said every thousand year a star the shape of a heart would fall from the sky, if you made a wish on it then it would come true.
Just before her sisters and Dandelion were taken by this man, she wished on the star to take her and her sister someplace safe. A place where he couldn't find them. A place where he couldn't hurt her little Dandelion.
The last thing Abigail saw as she was being hurled into the new universe was her old friend, covered in her mother's blood and yelling for her that he would always find her. Whether she liked it or not.
Abigail was finally safe here in Equestria. The place almost screamed love and care. She missed her parents too. Hating how she couldn't grieve over her mother or that she lied to her family about her being dead. Abigail wanted to give her sisters some hope about her though.
Her last conscious thought was how long she could keep both secrets before they crashed down on top of her. |
Hidden by Shadows | Mostly Flashbacks | Authora had terrible dreams that night. All of them of her time spent of Earth, as Abigail. She tossed and turned in Twilight's spare bed. Dreaming of all the sins she believed had led to her parent's murder.
Late June
It was a few days til Skylar's birthday and Abigail was preparing. The coven let witches in when they turned 14 and it would finally be Skylar's turn. Abigail was assigned to gather the flowers needed for the ceremonial crown. Their mother was sowing the white dress with purple (Skylar's favorite color) on the sleeves and neck hole.
Abigail was bursting with excitement. She remembered when she turned 14 and had her Entrance Ceremony, it felt like she had finally been a part of something. Now Skylar would be allowed to be included in Coven Meetings, to train her powers to their fullest potential, even though the Stream Family wasn't at the most powerful, they weren't the least powerful either.
She had finished placing the violets she had gathered in the basket and began picking daisy petals when she noticed a form walk up to her.
He was intimidating to say the least. She figured he was just over six feet without the shoes that added at most an inch to his height. He was wearing a regular blue shirt with a pocket around the chest with dark jeans with a few sowing marks here and there. His sneakers were all black, even the socks.
He looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties. His jaw was square, had a near square jaw, only slightly tanned skin with dark blue eyes. His hair was he same color of blood, but at the time she thought it to be bricks.
"Hello," Abigail said to him. She held her hand out to him and he took it gracefully. "Nice to meet you, my name is Abigail."
"My name is Jay."
Two Months Later
The ceremony had gone without a hitch. But that day had come and gone and school was coming back in two weeks, Abigail's 16th birthday in one. The Stream Family had decided to take her on a trip to celebrate.
Abigail had been seeing Jay weekly. He claimed to be another member of the Coven but he had very little power to his older sister went in his place, keeping tabs on everyone so he wouldn't be out of the loop.
She didn't tell him about the trip so when she showed up the week after the trip, a day after her birthday, he was mad to say the least.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you Jay. I just didn't think it was something you would want to know." Abigail explained to him. Her words fell on deaf ears.
"Of course I would want know! I was sitting here for a hour last week waiting for you to come back. If my sister hadn't told me you had went on a trip I'd have thought you were kidnapped by the Other Coven." Jay explained. Abigail looked down, ashamed.
All things had enemies. Abigail's Coven had the Dark Ones. They were a coven full of dark magic and only used white magic for little problems like house repairs or levitation. The two covens had been at war for two hundred years. During the trip Abigail had learned the Dark Ones attacked the coven.
"I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to leave you in the dark about it all. Next time I'll be sure to tell you. Can you please forgive me?" Abigail asked her friend, even going as far as to make a puppy-dog face.
She knew Jay couldn't be mad at her when she made that face. His had face quickly turned into a happy one.
"I'm just glad to hear you're okay Abby." Abigail blushed at the nickname. Everyone called her Gail after her power of wind but he was the first to call her Abby. "We shouldn't be wasting our time arguing anyway. You should be telling me about that trip."
The two talked as if nothing had happened for the rest of the afternoon. Abigail felt as though she finally had a friend who she could tell something to and it felt great.
Mid-November
Not another fight had occurred between the two friends. They sat and talked for almost two hours every day. Jay even helped Abigail with her homework as they talked. Almost all their talks centered around Abigail, not because she kept bringing it their, because Jay always had some way of doing that.
They hit another speed bump just before Abigail was going on a Family Vacation to Florida, that she made sure to tell Jay about, for Thanksgiving (Her coven saw it as a way to be thankful for family and help others who had no way of feeding themselves) and it was a big one.
"So tell me Abigail, have you set your sights on any boys your age?" Jay asked. Abigail felt her cheeks blushed. Thankfully a breeze blew her coffee brown hair into her face.
They always met not too far from where they first met, there was a bench under the shade of a tree that overlooked a lake. The view was breathtaking.
"Come on Abby, you can tell me. I might be able to give you some advice, better me than your father right?" Abigail began laughing at her friend. She had been looking at the opposite sex lately but none had caught her fancy and if her dad found out she was trying he would use what magic he had to ward men away from her for a long time. He already did it to Skylar, and it looked like Megan wasn't too far behind. Jay joined her in laughing, it was an almost evil deep-throated laugh.
"Ok, I'll tell you if it'll get you to shut up about it." Abigail chuckled, Jay slowly got back to his usually self. "I have been trying to find somebody but..." She trailed off.
"But what?" Jay asked, sounding a little angry. This went unnoticed by Abigail.
"But all the boys in my class are complete idiots. The guys at the mall are always on a skateboard or with some blonde piece of plastic under their arms. It is true, all the good ones are taken." Jay chuckled. "What? You got somethin' to say to that?" Abigail said, letting some of her country accent slip for a second.
"Yeah, some of the good ones aren't taken. They're just a little older than most people would like them to be." This confused Abigail.
"Huh?" Jay laughed at his young friend.
"I'm saying Abby, that sometimes the older boys are more of what you might want than boys your age. Because like you said, they either got no brains or a girlfriend with no brains."
"I didn't say it like that." Abigail corrected, blushing again.
"I summarized it." Jay countered. He moved a little closer to Abigail as she went back to working on her Math homework. "How would you fell if someone my age asked you out?" She dropped her pen but quickly picked it back up.
"Ok, um, well. A little socked at first. But then I would simple tell him two things; one my dad would kill him the second he got within fifty feet of our driveway. Two, if he had anything to do with dark magic my coven would kill him the second they got word of his feelings of me. Seriously Jay, don't go getting all sentimental on me." Abigail joked, checking her watch and seeing how late it was. "Plus look at the time. I should get going anyway."
Before Jay could say anything, Abigail had her things and was gone.
A week after Christmas
Abigail was missing Jay but didn't let it show. She had spent the holiday with a smile plastered to he face. Her little dragon Dandelion had been a new source of joy in her life. She had stopped seeing Jay after Thanksgiving, leaving a note saying her parents found out she was sneaking out to see him and forbade her to ever go back.
But it was a lie. She couldn't go back. But not because her parents told her she couldn't. After what Jay implied the last time they talked it would just be too awkward and things wouldn't go back to how the once were.
Wearing her new pink noise canceling headphones, Abigail danced in the kitchen to one of the new Christmas songs she downloaded, making a midnight snack.
Abigail almost missed it.
That magical feeling in the air. It wasn't like the usual magical feeling she had in her house.
It was dark magic.
Arming herself with a kitchen knife and her magic, Abigail began walking towards the magical energy.
She moved her headphones down and she heard noises coming from the den. When she arrived what she saw almost made her gag.
Her father lying in a pool of his own blood. His eyes having been gouged out and his faced locked in udder horror. Dark magic had kept him from screaming, probably even gave him horrible visions as he faded away into the next life.
Not even caring about herself, Abigail ran to her father's dead body.
"Dad! No, Dad please no." She cried.
"Abigail, I thought you were asleep." Came a male voice from behind her. A familiar male voice.
"No." Abigail didn't want to face the voice. If it was true then she could never forgive herself. "Why, why did you do this to my dad?" When she felt a hand on her shoulder she swiftly pulled it away.
"Abigail, I did what I had to." Against her better judgment, Abigail turned to face Jay.
His usually jeans and plain t-shirt were now black robes. Moist no doubt from her father's blood. Jay even held a blood soaked knife in the hand that didn't try to rest on Abigail's shoulders. What she saw next broke Abigail's heart.
Draped across his robes sat a wooden necklace lightly splashed with blood. The pendant in the middle was an inverted pentagram.
Jay wasn't only a member of the Dark Ones, he was the leader.
He led the attack on the coven during her birthday to search for her.
He killed her father so they would have a chance.
Jay would stop at nothing to have her.
Who would he kill next? Her coven leader? Her mother? Her sisters? Dandelion?
It was that thought that gave Abigail the courage to do this.
"Get out of my house Michaels," She knew the name of the Dark Ones Leader, another sign that Abigail should've caught on long ago was he never told her his last name. "Or by all that is holy I will call the High Priest to deal with you."
Jay Michaels walked out of the house without another word. Fully knowing he had lost Abigail for now.
The Two Months Following
Whatever peace the two Covens had was gone. As a magical battles began, the females of the Stream Family beat a hasty retreat. Taking what the held most dear as well as things they thought would come in handy, the rest was placed in storage. They ran for days, never staying at the same place for more than two days. They had to hide from Jay.
While the Coven was mad at Abigail, they weren't to angry when she explained Jay told her little to nothing of himself. Only that he had a sister, he worked very high up at his job, and that he liked her. It was the last fact that made all the anger disappear. They wouldn't get mad at her simple because a madman thought killing would get him what he wanted.
About an hour before the girls arrived in Equestria, they had received word that Jay had disappeared. This made things worse. Abigail had never let Dandelion go since they left their old home, Skylar was watching the windows of their newest motel room, Megan was sitting with their mother going over what money they had left.
Skylar knew exactly what to look for. Blue Jays. Ever since they had left their hometown those demon birds had followed them. Abigail once went to get food and as she checked out a boy a little older than her began talking to her. Before she could reply at least twenty of those birds attacked her, leaving small cuts on her arms from their claws.
Now if one was spotted; they packed as quick as they could, got in their car, and drove off to the next town.
Megan, as much as she loved making quips at her eldest sister, stayed quiet. She figured the guilt of their father's death was eating Abigail on the inside and she needed comfort. Making her angry could end up with her behind the next time a bird was spotted.
Skylar had found nothing in the sky and was about to switch with Megan when a Blue Jay suddenly appeared inside their motel room. In a flash it turned into one of the Dark Ones.
"Girls get the keys and run!" Was what their mother shouted. Abigail, Skylar and Megan ran out the door with the car keys and ran to the car.
They gave a sigh as the car turned on but before they could even budge another Dark One appeared behind them.
"Just give us Abigail and we'll let you keep your sorry lives." He ordered.
"This is for our Dad." Abigail said as she ran his ass over.
Abigail tried to move again but the car was surrounded by Dark Ones.
Jay being the one who was at the head of the car.
"Abby, just come with us. You'll be safe, trust me. Don't you believe a friend?" He asked.
"I did but then he killed Dad." She countered.
Jay gave an evil laugh, sending chills up all their spines, he snapped his fingers and made the Dark Ones turn into Blue Jays. "Bring Abigail to me alive. Do with the others what you wish." He commanded.
The chase for them was long. Coming to a stand still when Abigail, still holding Dandelion with all her life, came face to face with a blood soaked Jay.
"Ah what a lovely sight to see. Is this the Dandelion I've heard so much about?" He reached a hand to touch her but Abigail backed away.
"Touch her and you die." Abigail warned. Jay laughed at his friend.
"Nice try Abby, you couldn't kill me. I was your closest friend. I believe once you told me you told me things you didn't even tell Skylar. Such a beauty that one, such a shame she has to go."
"What makes you think that killing my family will get me to be with you?" Abigail asked, trying to keep Dandelion from looking at the man covered in her Grandmother's blood.
"You are the head of the Stream Family now. So really it's your choice which side you join Abby."
"STOP CALLING ME ABBY! ONLY THE JAY I KNEW COULD CALL ME AND HE DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE!" Abigail yelled at him. "If you eve touch my sisters whatever chance you think have with me is gone!"
Jay stared at her dumbfounded. This was different then the Abigail Stream he knew. This was the Abigail that saw her father's dead body shortly after he passed, who was now staring at an old friend and trusted friend soaked in her mother's blood.
"Fine, if you won't come with me peacefully then I guess I have to resort to kidnapping you." Jay said flatly. Abigail barely had time to duck as Jay had leaped out to try and grab her.
She ran as fast as her legs would take her, looking back when she thought Jay was catching up to her. She could fell Dandelion's tears soaking her shoulders, all she could do was rub her yellow scales and try t give comforting words. Abigail's muscles were starting to burn when she finally saw a shooting star.
Not knowing what else to do, she made a wish.
A wish that said what was left of her family would go to a safe place. A place like those ponies she say on TV, filled with love. Her sisters would be able to live in peace. Dandelion wouldn't be treated like a freak. She wouldn't be seen by her older family as the reason the Magic Battle started.
Getting a closer look at the star, she saw it was shaped like a heart. Abigail had once heard a legend about it, that if you made a wish out of love and the deepest reaches of your soul then it would make it come true. You only had to trade something that mattered to you greatly.
"Take my voice. It's what got me in this mess in the first. It's because of a simple gesture of kindness that my parents are dead. Spare my sisters, Dandelion and me by taking my voice."
The last thing Abigail heard before she faded away was the sound of Megan screaming for help.
Twilight's
Authora let out a gasp as she awoke. She had the nightmares again. She had one every night since they arrived. Always waking up with the fear he was right behind her, waiting to take her away. Making sure her Little Dandelion was asleep, Authora lied back down on the spare bed and tried to sleep.
She did have a big day tomorrow. |
Hidden by Shadows | Beware | A week had passed since our heroes gathered at Twilight's and things were finally settling down. Authora tried to find a job with her cutie mark but, seeing how her voice was gone, nothing fit. She decided to accept a job at Sugarcube Corner to help Pinkie Pie. Flutterwing spends her days simply lying on clouds and helping Rarity at the Carousel Boutique.
And Pipsqueak, well, was her usual self. A troublemaker. Her crusades with the Crusaders didn't help. It was after a small kitchen explosion at SCC did Authora and Flutterwing decide to do anything.
So, early that morning, the two sisters got to work on taking their sister to...
"SCHOOL!" Pipsqueak groaned. A dark green saddle bag with a dark red 'R' for a clasp as secured around her waist. Authora filling it with things Cheerilee told them Pipsqueak needed.
"Yep, all fillies your age go to school." Authora told her sister. Pipsqueak groaned, she always hated school.
"But I have other stuff to do." Pipsqueak complained.
"All of your friends are in school, your too young to do anything else, you know absolutely nothing about their history except for what we saw on TV. Pipsqueak, you are going to school and that's final." Flutterwing said as the three sisters began walking to the schoolhouse.
While her elder sisters greeted ponies on the street, Pipsqueak was creating the revenge plot against them for taking her to school. Once the red building with a large copper bell was spotted the idea came to her.
"Aren't you guys old enough to be in High School? How come you two don't have to go?" Pipsqueak asked.
Authora and Flutterwing laughed.
"Sis, there isn't such a thing has high school here. After Elementary school there's Magic Kindergarten and Flight Camp. Flutterwing has already mastered her wings and I have pretty good control of my magic." Authora lifted her head to remind her sister how she was talking. Pipsqueak huffed angrily, "We don't have to go. But you do. Have a nice day!"
With a final wave, Authora pushed sister into the schoolhouse. All of the other fillies and colts inside.
"Don't blow up anything Pipsqueak." Flutterwing said, only half joking. She and Authora then walked away, to their respective jobs.
Pipsqueak got a look at her new prison. It looked kinda big, about 20 desks filled with the fillies and colts. Almost exactly like the TV show's version of it.
"Class, today we have a new student. Come up here and introduce yourself." Cheerilee said, motioning towards Pipsqueak.
"Huh, my name is Acornia Pipsqueakerth Flame the 3rd. My sisters call me Pipsqueak or Pip but I like Acorn or Acorn Flame." Pipsqueak greeted.
"Say hello." Cheerilee commanded her students, she said it in a gentle matter but it was still in forceful.
"Hello Acorn." The students greeted. Cheerilee gave them all a warm smile.
"Now Acorn, go and find yourself somewhere to sit." Acorn was smiling on the inside. She outsmarted her sisters. She made sure to come up with the fanciest name she could think of (adding -erth, -nia and some random number) and gave herself the nickname Acorn.
"No one beats Megan Stream at her own game." Acorn thought as she sat near the back of the classroom.
If she was going to school then she was going to have some fun with it.
Authora left the schoolhouse with an uneasy feeling in her stomach.
"How long do you think Diamond Tiara will have after she calls Meg a 'blank flank'?" She asked her younger sister.
"A few seconds. Give or take if Pipsqueak decides to give her some crap speech about how she's better as a blank flank." Flutterwing explained, flying just over her sister. "I have to go. Rarity expecting me, have fun at Sugarcube Corner."
"K," Authora thought to her sister as she walked off.
She thought about her dream from last night for the umpteenth time that morning. Almost every ending the same. Her mom. Her dad. Her sisters. Her Dandelion. All of them dead. All of them by his hands. Yet all the blame on her shoulders.
Authora kept telling herself that it wasn't her fault but the blame kept coming back. She couldn't tell her sister's about their mother without feeling more guilt. It had been over a week since her death, month and a half since the death of her dad.
Seeing a familiar gingerbread bakery, Authora's mood perked up.
"Authora!" Came a pink earth pony. "Come on, we have the breakfast rush to catch up on."
With a small laugh, Authora began a long day of baking and the occasional helping Pinkie Pie with the Cake's Twins.
Authora was completely unaware of the blue jay that had been following her since she left the library.
Jay walked into the daylight of Canterlot. The light from the sun and happy air felt odd to him. He found it odd that of all the places Abigail chose it was one as happy and carefree as Equestria. When he had a vague knowledge of the show, thanks to Abigail, so he knew that unicorns and pegasi were common.
Things like Alicorns were less common.
Jay awoke a black alicorn, he used what magic he could find to hide his wings for the time being. He even changed his coat to a deep blue color, knowing in a place as happy and colorful as this would not treat an all black unicorn well.
His cutie mark was inverted pentagram, but he placed an a allusion spell to make it a bird with a heart on it's beak.
Soon finding himself at the entrance to the palace. He placed a simple thought in both the heads of the guards to let him in.
"Too easy." Jay thought to himself as he walked inside the white halls.
As he line of people to see Celestia moved, his plans for finding Abigail becoming more solid as he walked.
After 2 hours of waiting, it was finally his turn.
He counted at least 10 unicorn and pegasi guards inside the throne room.
"If it is any consolation stallions, I wish to speak to the Princess alone." The guards didn't move. Jay gave a small laugh. "I was really hoping to avoid this. But, that's a lie." His horn glowed pure black, slowly covering his whole body. Changing him back to his original alicorn form. The guards gasped while Celestia took a step back in pure shock. Another alicorn? " Now, before we have to stain these lovely halls in red. GET OUT! " A gray-black pegasus stepped forward.
"We will stay to protect our Princess. Stat your name!" Jay barely moved.
With quick flash, the guard was gone. Leaving his golden armor behind.
"I hate having to repeat myself. " The guards ran, not wanting to end up like their friend.
Celestia stood tall as the golden doors slammed shut.
"Who are you? What are you doing inside my castle?" She yelled at Jay.
"I'm here to get what is mine. And no, I don't mean your kingdom." Jay took a few steps towards Celestia, her horn getting a golden glow. "My friend escaped here over a week ago. I'm here to take her back, whether she wants to or not." |
Hidden by Shadows | Letter From The Princess | Dandelion was left with Spike for the day. She ended up dragging him away from the library and into the streets of Ponyvillev. The library was too boring. Twilight said it was fine only if they stayed in Ponyville.
She was pointing at just about everything. The ponies, the stores, the blades of grass. Everything.
"This place is way diffewent then my old home." Dandelion cheered as she and Spike walked away from the park. Seeing how she lost her last baby tooth, she had a small lisp.
"Really, how different?" Spike asked. Not too entirely interested
"Well, Mommy always had to make suwe I was weawing the dis guys befowe we left the house. She once told me that othews wewen't so happy about me living thewe. Gwandpa and Gwandma wewe some of those people- I mean ponies. I sometimes got lettews and pwetty pictuwes but Mommy always got wid of them, she said that they wewe fow hew but I knew they wewe fow me." Dandelion explained. Her mother had reminded her they weren't on Earth anymore. They were ponies, not people.
But she was still her dragon.
"Sounds like ponies hated you." Spike said. Dandelion stopped to look at Spike angrily.
Spike looked at her orange eyes staring a hole in his skull.
"No they didn't! Lots of ponies liked me. Some of them would come to ouw house and play." Dandelion told him.
Realizing he probably won't get anywhere with this argument, Spike decided to drop it. Dandelion went on as if nothing had ever happened.
About an hour later they decided for lunch (Spike brought gems and daffodil sandwiches). Dandelion had just finished her's when Spike burped a letter from Princess Celestia.
"Spike?" Dandelion asked. "What's that?"
"It's a letter from the princess. I gotta find Twilight!" Spike yelled. "Come on Dandelion." Spike grabbed Dandelion's yellow claw and ran back to the library.
"Which Pwincess?" Dandelion asked.
"Celestia." Spike answered quickly.
"Oh." Dandelion said, understanding Twilight's connection with the Princess.
She also understood that Twilight got a little crazy when she got a letter.
Twilight was sitting inside the library, waiting for the two dragons to come back. She began to worry, as Twilight tends to do. She was told by Authora before she got Pipsqueak ready for school...
"If anything happens to Dandelion, I will not hesitate to burn this library to the ground." fluttering assured her that Authora was just a little over-protective. Dandelion was the only dragonling in Equestrian to their knowledge and not a lot of ponies liked that. Twilight undertook completely, it was like what it was with Spike but less of the Royal Guards.
"TWILIGHT!" Spike yelled as he burst through the door.
"TWILIGHT!" Dandelion cheered as she came int behind Spike.
The sudden shock caused Twilight to jump, knocking over the jar of ink she had nearby.
"Why are two yelling? This is a library remember?" Twilight asked the as she began to clean up the ink.
Before Spike could open his mouth, Dandelion start talking.
"Spike buwped and the lettew fwom the Pwincess came out. We came hewe because you weally like those lettews. And I was yelling because Spike was yelling." She answered, sounding oh so innocent as she did.
"A letter? From the princess!?" Twilight said, not he verge of a mini freak out.
Quickly grasping the letter in Spike's claw, Twilgiht opened and read the letter.
My faithful student Twilight,
My dear student, there is an urgent matter that has been brought to my attention. Today, while I was talking with some of the ponies of Equestria, a stallion came in. Now this was no ordinary stallion.
He was an alicorn. A back alicorn with eyes that glowed blue.
He somehow was able to enter my halls without the slightlest detection. And is if to show hiw far he would go to meet his goals, he would do whatever he blasted one of my guards. Nopony has found the pony since.
I feared he was after Equestria but he quickly assured me otherwise, saying he was looking for somepony and I fear for this pony's safety. I ask of you to watch Ponyville with a close eye. Either for the pony this alicorn is after or the alicorn himself.
Yours truly,
Princess Celestia
Twilight read the letter three times to be sure she read it right. Another alicorn? . He snuck into the palace?after the changeling attack, the guard doubled at the palace and a spell was placed on the palace walls to detect cloaks this black alicorn would need in order to break in. If he was looking for some pony then why didn't he tell Celestia this pony's name? Maybe he knew Celestiamwould protect this pony and keep him/her from his hoofs.
"Twilight?" Spike asked his friend. This got her out of her mindset.
She gave a worried look to the two small dragons.
"Spike, go get the others." |
Hidden by Shadows | Diamond Tiara | *RING*
"Alright class. Recess!" Cheerilee cheered as her students ran outside as quick as their legs would take them.
Acorn was annoyed. School was so far as she predicted. Boring. Mostly there was a lot of math and history and blagh!
She looked at all the stuff other follies and colts were doing.
A couple were playing teatherball. Some were playing hopscotch. The CMC's were peacefully playing in the swings with Twist.
Letting out a happy sigh Acorn found a tree and climbed the branches til she found a satisfied resting place. She always loved hiding in trees. As Megan she would hang out with squirrels and trade nuts for silence.
After a minute or so a argument disturbed her. The CMC's and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
"See Silver, these blank flanks are losers." Diamond mocked.
"Can't kill her." Acorn reminded herself.
"I know Diamond. I bet even if they had cutie marks they would still be losers!" Silver Spoon joined in with her boss.
"At least we aren't so stuck up as you Diamond Tiara!" Scootaloo told her.
"Please don't let those stupid acting lessons Gail gave me fail me now." Acorn thought as she began to make crying noises.
The five fillies looked up the tree and found Acorn curled up inside the branches and leaves.
"Even the new filly is a blank flank. She probably knows her only friends are losers." Diamond joked.
"That's not *sniff* why I'm crying." Acorn said.
"Oh right." Diamond agreed sarcastically.
Sweetie Belle tried to join her friend but found she sucked at climbing trees.
"What's wrong Acorn Flame?" Sweetie asked.
Giving herself a quick evil smile, Acorn hopped down the tree with a VERY sad face.
"I'm sad Sweetie Belle," Acorn wiped the fake tears from her eyes, "because those two fillies are gonna be stuck as bitches for the rest of their lives."
The fillies gasped.
Now, you are probably wondering where an 11-year-old learned that word. Well, back on Earth Megan had a rebel streak since she could walk. She commonly hung out of skateparks, where words like bitches are used regularly. It annoyed her parents and sisters to no end.
"You said a bad word, I'm telling Cheerilee!" Silver Spoon warned.
"I thought you couldn't do anything without your bosses command." Acorn shot back.
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle giggled.
"She's not my boss!" Silver yelled.
"Right and Luna moves the sun." Acorn said. Others kids came around, hearing the blank flank fighting Diamond Tiara. Most were laughing at Acorn's joke.
Diamond however was hating the negative attention.
"Look Blank-flank," Diamond smilied as the insult reachd Acorn, "My daddy is the richest pony in Ponyville and when he hears about this..."
"Oh, whatta ya gonna do Daddy's Filly? Send Daddy off to my big sister? Buy my love for you? Sorry Princess Diamond Tiara, I don't lean that way." Acorn joked, earning the laughs of the older fillies and colts.
The whole school yard had gathered to see this fight. Diamond knew she was being cornered but wouldn't let a blank flank beat her.
"No. But my Daddy will run you out of town!" Diamond boasted.
"I'm glad I'm a blank flank DT. I'd rather not be like you and know I'll be stuck thinking I'm better than everypony else." The ring of students both giggled and gasped. "I would like you to tell me one good thing about you that doesn't involve you having money and I will walk out of here without looking back." Acorn challenged.
A round of ooo's went around the ponies.
"I'm popular." Diamond said quickly.
"Only because you think you're better than everypony because of your money. Try again." Acorn said.
"Everypony loves me..."
"Because you'll use your dads money on them if they say anything against you. Try again."
"I'm pretty."
"Expensive hair and makeup. Try again."
Diamond was getting annoyed.
"I have my cutie mark!"
"That you got from an expensive tiara. Try again." Acorn smilied, knowing she won.
"How about you say something huh?" Diamond yelled back.
"Easy, I never leave a friend hanging because I fear I'll break a sweat. I won't lie about a friend to safe my plot. I don't think that just because you have money you should act like you're better than a Princess!" Gasps.
Diamond Tiara's jaw dropped.
"I-I-I don't think that." She quickly explained.
"Then why do you wear a tiara all the time? Why do you think that just because you have your cutie mark that shows how rich you are..."
"Fillies!" Cheerilee yelled.
Acorn and Diamond looked over and saw Featherweight standing behind an enraged Cheerilee.
"Inside now, all of you!" She commanded
Abigail is going to kill me. Acorn thought as she walked towards the school.
To say that Authora was angry was an understatement. Pipsqueak had been in school not even one day and she got in a fight! It was bad enough that Flutterwing couldn't come. Rarity was called for an emergency meeting at Twilight's and Flutterwing just had to go too.
Plus, it was better the pony who push her thoughts right into the filly's head go.
When Authora arrived, a tan earth pony with money bags as a cutie mark was standing next to a small pink filly.
"Ms. Authora, how good of you to come."
Authora have the teacher a gentle smile and a 'I'm gonna kill you' glare to Pipsqueak.
"I suppose I should tell you why I called you here." Cheerilee said.
"It would be nice. I have a meeting in a few minutes Ms. Cheerilee!" Filthy Rich told her.
"I'm aware Mr. Rich. Your daughter and your sister got in an argument during recess." Cheerilee explained.
A piece of paper floated up to the teacher.
About?
"Some of the students said it was about Diamond Tiara and her friend Silver Spoon talking rudely to three other fillies." Rich scoffed. Cheerilee continued on. "Others said it was because of the language used by Acorn Flame."
"I should've known you'd get the name you wanted." Authora thought to her sister as another part of the sentence hit her.
The paper moved back to Cheerilee.
What language?
"I was told it was a swear by four students." Authora gasped and gavd her sister another glare that read 'if my last look didn't kill you, then this one will'.
Acorn cracked under the pressure.
"She was making fun of my friend big sis! I couldn't let her think I was gonna take it lying down!" Acorn screamed at Authora.
"She called me and Silver a bad name Daddy!" Diamond yelled, pointing at hoof at Acorn.
"Only because she disserved it!" Acorn yelled back.
Authora, hating useless arguments, slammed her hoof on the floor. Somehow silencing both fillies.
The paper floated to the teacher again.
I am SO sorry Ms. Cheerilee, I thought I had convinced Acorn to stop swearing. Believe me when I say Acorn will be grounded.
Another sheet of paper floated up to Filthy Rich as Cheerilee read her paper.
And Mr. Rich, my sister probably meant little harm to your daughter. I think it would be appropriate if both fillies apologized to each other, what do you think?
Rich nodded his head.
"Princess, Ms. Authora wants you to apologize to her sister. Don't worry, Acorn is told to apologize as well." Diamond groaned. Acorn felt the greatest relief, all she had to do was apologize to the brat.
"But Daddy I didn't do anything!" Diamond pleaded. Authora wanted to try something.
Diamond, if you apologize first you'll be seen as a role model to Acorn. Maybe her sisters will be even madder at her if your apology angers her. Authora knew it was a long shot, but she had to try something.
Diamond had an evil smile on her face for half a second before walking over to the bright green unicorn.
"Acorn Flame, I am so sorry for not being the mature filly and stopping the argument. I should have been a better role model to you and the other blank flanks." Diamond apologized, in the tone a back-handed complement would be in.
Acorn locked her brown eyes on Diamond's purple ones.
"Thank you Diamond. I am sorry that I called you that name. I am also sorry that I..." Whatever she wanted to say next was quickly quieted by her sister using magic to keep her mouth shut.
"Okay now we leave, goodbye Miss Cheerilee, Mr. Rich, Diamond Tiara." One finally piece of paper said as Authora dragged Acorn out in a magical white aura.
"... And if you think I gave it to you rough wait until we get back to Twilight's! Flutterwing will furious with you I won't even stop her this time!" Authora told Acorn as they headed back to the library. They had been walking for five minutes and the entire time Authora was using her magic to yell at her sister. Acorn was starting to get a headache from all the yelling her sister was giving her.
"I know already okay I don't have a fight with Diamond Tiara blah blah blah. Can you quit it?" Acorn complained.
Authora was about to yell at her younger sister when her eye caught something.
There sitting on a rooftop, sat a Bluejay staring his black eyes at Authora.
"Thora, you okay?" Acorn asked as she noticed her sisters silence.
"Run" Authora commanded.
"What?" Acorn asked.
"RUN!" Authora screamed as she dashed away. Acorn looked up at where Authora was just looking and saw the blue demon.
She ran too.
Everypony sat in silence as Twiliht finished reading the letters from Celestia. There was another alicorn. A male alicorn. A male alicorn with black fur and glowing blue eyes. He was searching for somepony.
Flutterwing had a fear of who he was. But she knew there was no freakin way he could've found them. So it must be a another explanation.
At least up until Authora came running into the library, clearly distressed. Having Acorn run in a few seconds later and locking the door didn't help.
The six mares and two baby dragons looked on.
"Thora, Thora, Thora calm down!" Flutterwing said to try and calm her sister. "What happened?"
Twilight couldn't hear what Authora was telling Flutterwing, but based on the reaction Flutter have it was bad.
"You need to read this. Twilight can I see that letter?"
Twilight was a little skeptical to do it at first, but seeing panicked the two sibling unicorns were it must've been bad.
"Sure." The paper floated towards Authora and soon wrapped in a white aura.
Her tear blue eyes grew with each word she read. Her horn stil glowing, Authora began shaking her head and crying.
"What is it?" Acorn asked seeing the scroll. She connected the dots. "How the hell did he find us?!"
"You know an all black alicorn?" Twilight asked.
"Good job Pipsqueak." Flutterwing told her sister.
"We were as far as we could possibly be from him and that bastard found us!" Acorn used swear words with confidence. "How else am I supposed to react? He even sent one of his demon birds after us!"
"Demon birds?" Fluttershy squealed.
"Blue Jays." Flutterwing and Acorn explained. Dandelion ran up to her mother, trying what she could to comfort her.
"What is so scary about a bunch of birds?" Rainbow Dash asked. Flutterwing quickly got in Dash's face.
"Have you ever been chased down the street by a flock of blue jays? Been attacked by at least twenty in broad daylight and nothing you did would get those birds to fly away? Has your sister been having nightmares about blue jays killing you and leaving her powerless to help? Any of that scary enough for you?"
Everypony (and dragon) was stunned silent.
Applejack walked up to Acorn.
"I think there was more to yer story Sugarcube." Acorn nodded, looking at her older sister and niece.
"It started a few months back. When Flutterwing was turning 14." Acorn began. |
Hidden by Shadows | A Still Growing Fear | "...Now Authora apologized at least a thousand times during our first few days out. We didn't even know that all the while we were being followed by his demon birds until it was too late, each time leaving within an inch of our lives." Flutterwing explained.
For the past ten minutes the two sisters, Authora would remind them of something every few sentences but other than that she was silent, were explaining how they knew the black alicorn or Black Jay as Acorn so cleverly nicknamed him in this dimension.
They left out some important details though. Like how they were humans but were turned into ponies. They changed their ending a little as well. Instead of running from a guard it was Black Jay but the outburst stayed.
Each of the seven listeners had different reactions. Twilight Sparkle was staring at them with rapt attention and using her magic to write down as much as she could to the Princess. Celestia would need to know about the pony this 'Black Jay' was after.
Applejack just stared wide-eyed. She was shocked that their story was true, being the Element of Honesty made her very able to tell a lie from a truth and these mares were laying their soles bare to them all.
Fluttershy and Rarity were a little teary eyed at the spectacle. Poor Authora, if it were them they wouldn't have been able to run very far without their friends. And this alicorn was so twisted he murdered her father. No wonder she kept apologizing afterwards.
Rainbow Dash was angry at first, but as the story went on she felt a tinge of sympathy towards them. She personally would have kicked Black Jay in the face if she was in Authora's hooves. When Dash told them all this Authora replied, using her thought-giver spell, that she always gave people the benefit of the doubt and that he was disguised as a deep blue unicorn when they met. Authora didn't know he was an alicorn until it was too late.
Pinkie Pie was doing something shocking. Paying attention to the whole thing. The story was so sad. She still had her dad, poor little Acorn would never see him again. They didn't even know what their mother was or if she was ok. Flutterwing assumed the Black Jay had taken her after they teleported near the Everfree as leverage for Authora.
"That's our story. You all know what happened after we got here." Authora finished as the white glow around her horn disappeared.
Twilight still had a couple of questions.
"You never explained how you came up with that spell and how about you explain why your horn glows white." She asked.
Authora gave Twilight a small smile, she didn't like when their were blanks. Neither did she. She used a piece of paper to answer this one, she was starting to feel tired.
"I don't know why my horn glows like this. It just always has. And as for the 'Thought-Giver' spell, I read it in a book believe it or not. I didn't get my cutiemark just by acting you know." The paper read.
Twilight, having finished explaining Authora's story, rolled up the letter and moved it towards Spike.
"Can I twy that?" Dandelion asked Twilight.
"Try what?" Twilight asked.
"Sending the lettew, can I twy it?" The golden baby dragon asked. Twilight gave a questioning glance at Authora who simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Sure, why not. Spike," Spike nodded his head and handed the letter to Dandelion.
She breathed out yellow flames that quickly sent the letter on it's way.
"I did it! That was awesothme!" Dandelion cheered with a lisp.
Authora trotted over to Flutterwing and used her thought giver spell again.
"I'm so sorry Skylar. I really thought it would be at least another week before we had to tell them. I had no idea he would follow us." Authora explained with a tear falling down her cheek.
"It's not your fault Thora. You just need a little time to get this overwith. You still feel guilty about all of this, do any of you mares know where we can find a spa?" Flutterwing asked the group as they began to move about her library again.
"A spa?" Rarity said. "Why yes, there is a spa run by Aloe and Lotus not too far from here. Fluttershy and I were going tomorrow for our weekly visit but clearly this is an emergency."
"Alright, Authora you go with those two. Acorn, you need to go out with your friends. Take Dandy with you." Flutterwing commanded.
"But why do I-?" Acorn argued.
"Thora is going to the spa Pipsqueak, somepony has to watch her and it ain't gonna be me." Flutterwing flat out yelled.
Then, and none of them know how but, Rarity, Flutterwing and Authora left for the spa while Acorn and Dandelion left to find the CMC's.
This left Spike, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Flutterwing at the library.
"If that's everything you need Flutterwing then I-" Twilight started. Flutterwing quickly interrupted her.
"Pinkie Pie how about you go get Spike a cupcake?" This got a happy reply from Pinkie.
"SURE! Come on Spike-y Wike-y. I think I can get you a emerald sprinkles today!" Pinkie cheered.
"Uh, Pinkie I WOAH!" Spike yelled as Pinkie dragged him away from the library.
Rainbow Dash flew towards Flutterwing, she had been hovering in the air since her sister's left. "Why'd you tell Pinkie and Spike to leave?"
"Because what I have to say stays between the three of us. You have to Pinkie Promise not to tell ANYPONY." A Pinkie Promise, this brought some concern to Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
"Flutter, what do you need to tell us." Twilight asked.
"Make the promise first."
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Rainbow Dash and Twilight said with the movements, remembering to close their eyes or risk pulling a Twilight.
"Will you tell us what this big bad secret is now?" Rainbow asked her.
Flutter looked around the library, then checked the door to make sure nopony was around. Giving a sigh that almost told the two mares how much she hated having to do this but knew she had no other choice.
"It's about Black Jay, and why supposedly why Authora's horn glows white." This got Twilight's attention, Rainbow only did because she really wanted to crack Black Jay's skull. "Back at our old home, he was a part of a cult. One that practiced dark magic." Twilight gasped. "Our mom, who is a unicorn, always told Authora and Pipsqueak to use Light Magic saying and I quote 'cause if I ever hear you touching Dark Magic I will disown you before you can even blink'. It's a part of why Thora is taking it so hard. She was best friends with a dark magic practitioner, and he was the leader of the cult itself! As soon as Thora learned magic she kept it clean as a cloud, so clean that her magical aura changed colors from blue to white.
"Thora is my big sister. She's our peacemaker. You've seen me and Pipsqueak, if she wasn't there we certainly would've killed each other by now." Dash nodded, Acorn had quite a temper. "I can't let anything happen to her. She has too big a heart to go with that thing. If it came down to it and he offered her our protection over her, Authora would give herself up without another thought."
"So why are you telling us this?" Rainbow asked.
"Because if it comes down to that, and let's pray it doesn't, then I need you two to hold Thora back and take whoever Jay has in his hooves. |
Hidden by Shadows | The Promise | "You want us to hold her back..." Twilight started.
"Yep." Flutterwing replied.
"To keep your big sister from doing what big sisters do..." Rainbow said.
"Yep."
"Even if the pony is you..." Twilight again started.
"For the last time yes! if Authora goes with Black Jay then Dandelion will lose her mother, Pipsqueak will lose her magic teacher and I will lose my best friend!" Flutterwing screamed at them. She even slammed her hoof on the wooden floor. "If I can do anything to keep that from happening I will but I need somepony with enough magic to hold her and a fast enough pegasus to grab whoever Jay has with him."
"What if he doesn't have this pony on hoof?" Twilight pointed out.
"And what makes you think we would be able to stop Authora?" Rainbow screamed at Flutter. She flew update to face with Rainbow.
"Because you care about her as much as we do! Because Thora has gone to Tartartus and back to make sure she doesn't end up with Jay! Because as a pony who lost her father and whose mother is missing I am asking you to!"
Tension filled the room, no pony dared speak. Tears streamed down the cheeks of Twilight and Flutterwing. Rainbow Dash just had a near staring contest with Flutter.
Twilight was still trying to get her answer.
"Flutterwing, what if he doesn't have this pony on hoof?" Twilight asked her again.
'Knew there a flaw somewhere in my plan.' Flutter thought.
She gazed at the two mares, "You still keep Authora from making the deal. My sister may be smart, but her heart will usually cloud her judgement, greatly. I don't even want to know what he will do to Thora if Jay takes her away. Look, I know this sounds hard but please, as our friends, just tell me you'll do it." Flutter pleaded.
Rainbow and Twilight exchanged glances. They both thought this was a bad idea. What worried them was if Black Jac was some dark magic using alicorn would he just break Twilight's defenses and take Authora? If he had their mother or some other pony as a bargaining chip would he kill her when he got Authora? Would Flutter end up being this pony? What if Rainbow wasn't fast enough and Jay killed the pony before she could be saved? What if it was Pipsqueak or Dandelion?
Rainbow was the first to speak.
"I'll do it." Flutter smilied. "But only because I want to see the alicorn in pain for what he did to you guys."
"Twilight?" Flutter turned to the purple unicorn, the one her eldest sister loved to watch on TV before this Jay business.
"I'll do it." Twilight said, sounding almost in pain. She liked Authora and knew if this deal should come up again Authora would be mad, no, pissed. Better yet, a whole new level of anger far beyond Twilight's when her mane and body burst into flames.
"Thank you so much." Flutter said, hugging both mares. Who both instantly regretted saying yes but wanted to give some hope to their new friend.
No matter what Authora did, she just couldn't relax. He had found her. He had gone right up to Celestia! She knew that her mother was dead and that whatever he would use as leverage would be her sisters or daughter. Or worse maybe some random pony. Or one of the Mane 6.
What would Jay do to her when he caught her? Authora knew he would get her a some point. Would he taint her with Dark Magic? Make her his slave that would ended up killing her sisters and Dandelion? No, that was absurd. No matter how much dark magic was used, Authora would never lay even a magical aura on Dandelion that would result in her harm. What if Jay decided to ra...
Fluttershy shook her out of her dark thoughts.
"Authora, are you alright?" Fluttershy asked.
With a little hesitation, Authora nodded her head.
"Mares, we need to get moving. Aloe says it's time for hooficures!" Rarity cheered.
Authora' eyes widened. Despite being 16, she hated manicures. Pedicures, having her hair done up all crazy, it was more Skylar's thing than her's.
"Oh, that sounds great Rarity." Fluttershy told her friend. Authora gave a fake smile to them both.
So far, they had received; the sauna, face mask's, and mud baths. To Authora it was; getting really sweaty in a wooden room, having guacamole spread across her face, playing in the mud. Hooficures were basically having a pony cut of the tips of your hoof and putting paints over it that stung if they got in a cut.
As the pink and blue earth pony twins and one random pony gave them all hooficures, Authora's eyes slowly closed at the calming effect.
She immediately regretted it.
Jay as an alicorn with glowing blue eyes. He was giving her a stare that struck her core.
"I will have you Abigail. Don't think something as foolish as that white horse will stop me. They didn't make me leader because of my parents. I am the most powerful of all Dark Magic Users. You will be mine. This I promise you."
Her tear blue eyes shot open, she shot up in an almost cartoon manner and ran for her life as though Jay was right behind her.
"Authora, where are you going dear?" Rarity knew her question was idiotic as soon as she finished. Authora was mute. There was no way she could answer her at the speed she was going. "Please excuse us. It seems our friend is still stressed." Rarity quickly explained to the pink and blue twins while she and Fluttershy rushed out of the spa.
A dark brown tail caught their eyes.
They chased after the poor mare. Turning corners, bumping into random ponies. Fluttershy even flew up just over the ponies' heads to try and find Authora.
And when she did Fluttershy noticed a pink hoof drag Authora across a corner.
"Rarity, she went this way." Fluttershy explained as she and Rarity ran in the direction she last saw Authora.
"...I know that the pony is a Mr. Scary McMeaniepants Thora. I'm sure Fluttershy and Rarity are in panic mode since you just ran out of the spa. Rarity might have even fainted for real!" Pinkie explained to a distressed mare.
"I know what I did was stupid Pinkie. But it felt like he was right behind me. I couldn't think of anything except running for my life. That I needed to check on my sisters and Dandelion." Authora told Pinkie.
"That does sound scary." Pinkie said, getting a worried look on her face for half of a second. "It doesn't mean he was silly. If that mean alicorn had been inside the I'm sure over ponies would have noticed. And, a stallion in a spa? That's just silly!" Authora laughed, it did sound ridiculous. Jay would never go into a spa, he wasn't that type of guy.
Most murders generally avoid spa's Abigail. Authora thought suddenly. It made tears burn in her eyes. She brought Jay into her family's life. How could they just forgive her for bringing her father's murderer and head of the most evil group in America into their life.
"Authora!" Pinkie and Authora heard at the same time.
"Rarity! Fluttershy! Authora and I were just talking about you!" Pinkie cheered. Fluttershy and Rarity ran up to Authora and wrapped her in their hooves.
"Don't scare us like that!" Fluttershy told her.
"We thought something terrible had happened. It. Was. The. Worst. Possible. Thing!" Rarity near yelled in Authora's ears.
"I'm sorry. I heard something and panicked. Just that news about Black Jay has made me paranoid. Forgive me?" Authora asked them both.
"Of course we do." Fluttershy told her.
"What are friends for?" Rarity assured Authora as a tear fell off her cheek.
Authora could finally admit it. She was safe as long as she had these great friends.
Alas, not all stories can have a happy ending. For a disguised blue unicorn was waiting in a clearing not too far from a familiar looking cottage. Waiting for his birds to come back and report.
He finally saw the blue bird of Authora's nightmares.
"Finally. Next time fly fasters. Did you find anything?" The bird nodded and tweeted a few times to his new master. "Authora. Was a lovely name for her." The bird tweeted a few more times. "They know I'm here? Perfect. Then they will feel crushed when I take Abigail. Good job my new servant. Go and get me more news on Abigail."
The blue jay flew off, not caring that when his master was happy it would ruin a mare's new happy life. |
Hidden by Shadows | Plans Unfolding | Night had fallen over Ponyville. Almost every single pony had fallen asleep under Luna's moon. All except, well, the Stream Sisters. Mainly the eldest.
Today she discovered that an old friend had found her. That he made it known the lengths he would go to get her back. And the fact they were old friends made her want to vomit.
Authora wrapped her dark link hooves tighter around Dandelion. Dandy always helped her sleep at night, even when she had trouble.
After another ten minutes of lying there awake Authora finally felt the call of sleep.
Darkness was all around her. She could almost feel the darkness seeping into her skin...
Skin?
An evil laughter filled her ears, but no matter how hard Abigail tried her hands couldn't...
Hands?
It was true. In her dream, Authora became Abigail again. It was too dark for her to see her fingers but she felt them.
"Looks like someone finally decide to join the party." Came a dark voice behind her.
Abigail noticed it slowly got brighter, well, bright enough to see her and him.
Jay looked almost exactly the same. His square jaw almost looked a little more square. Abigail could clearly see his muscles straining under his shirt. Midnight blue eyes stared at her, telling her he was slight enraged.
"You are one tough lady to find Abby." That name sent a chill up her spine.
Abigail wanted run but her fear kept her frozen. Jay knew this and took advantage of this fact.
"You forgot I could find you no matter how far you drove, I always found you. Not even changing dimensions could change that fact." He explained to Abigail. "I came to strike a deal with you."
Abigail shook her head fiercely. Jay gave a laugh, that sounded evil on it's own.
"Maybe you would like to hear it first." Jay tool her silence as a yes.He took a few steps closer to her."The terms are very simple. When you wake up, you go find the lone tree in that park in Ponyville, yes I know where you've been hiding, and wait for me to appear."
This deal felt wrong to Abigail, she again shook her head. Jay completed the last two steps needed to bring him face to face with Authora.
"Perhaps I should explain what happens." He grabbed her upper arm and pulled her close. "If you refuse." It was fair to say Abigail was scared for her life at this point. "I will find that little yellow beast and do to her what I did to her grandparents. I'll tear your sister's feathers off one by one until there's nothing left. For Pipsqueak I'll cut off that green horn of her's. Then, once it's all said and done. I'll send what's left of them to the tree you've been staying in."
Tears flew down Abigail's peach colored skin. As much as she hated it her mind was running images of Fluttering with her wings gone, Pipsqueak dying with no one coming to help. And her baby Dandelion...
Abigail nodded her head, wanting to keep something from happening to her sisters and adopted daughter.
"See you soon Abby." Jay said with an evil smile.
Authora woke with a fright. That couldn't have been real. It was just her subconscious playing her. But she felt a sharp pain as she tried to settle back to sleep. There, lying on her front leg, was a bruise shaped like a human hand. She didn't know how it got there so fast but didn't care.
Taking great care, she snuck out of the room from the window placed inside it. Authora looked at Dandelion one last time, knowing that that was what it was.
"I'll miss you." Authora thought as she ventured off into the night.
It took her ten minutes to get to the tree. The moon was still high in the sky so she knew it would be hours til anypony woke up. Authora still hoped that it was a dream, that the bruise was from running into something earlier but she knew better. She was so wrapped up in her little world of worry that she didn't she an all black alicorn creep up behind her.
"Nice to see you Abby." Authora jumped up to face him, her eyes filled with fear. "How does the alicorn look fit me?" It pained her, but she would have to say it fit him like a glove. "Let's talk Abby. I know how much you missed this anyway."
Black Jay lied down underneath the tree like anypony else, waiting for Authora to join.
"This is the longest I have ever heard you silent. Quiet doesn't fit you Abby." Authora kept silent, both out of force and she didn't want to speak to him. "Are you too scared to speak?" Silence met Jay. "Well maybe if I gave you something to get you to talk. Say a little dragon..."
"If you even think of hurting Dandelion I will ring your neck so tight it completely cuts off from your black body and use the head as a tetherball!" Authora threatened, using her personal spell on Jay. This time shocking him into silence. She was looking him right in the eye, her horn glowing a bright shade of white.
"Abby?" He asked after a moment of shock.
"Yes Abby. Now please do whatever it is you came here to do and leave my family out of this." Authora told him, her gaze not leaving his.
"What happened to your voice?" Jay asked her.
"I had to get away from you before you killed Dandy. So I made a wish on the 'Heart's Desire Star', in return it took my voice. It didn't matter so long as what was left of my family was safe." Authora explained to him. His face turned from shock to anger. Jay wrapped Authora in a black aura, one that made it nearly impossible for her to look past.
"I guess we'll just have to get it back won't we?"
Authora resigned herself to her fate. A fate that took her from her family but kept them safe. |
Hidden by Shadows | Not The Time To Panic | Dandelion woke up that morning with a bad feeling in her stomach. The one she always got on a bad day. It didn't help that her mother was gone. It was usually Dandelion's job to make sure her mother got up on time. She was shocked to find her mother just gone.
Hearing the Bad Man err-stallion had come back did little to help the hatchling.
With as much speed as she could get, Dandelion ran out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen.
"Mommy's gone!" She yelled.
Twilight, Acorn Pipsqueak, Spike and the newly arrived Flutterwing gasped.
"Gone? What do you mean gone Dandy?" Flutter asked.
"I woke up like I always do. But when I twied to check on Mommy she was just gone!" Dandy panicked.
"Alright. Alright. There has to be some explanation for this." Flutter worried.
"There is! Black Jay has her!" Acorn yelled.
"How, I placed a protection spell on the library?" Twilight asked. A look of horror fell on Flutterwing's face.
"What if he didn't get in, what if she got out?" Flutterwing said, hoping she was wrong.
"No way. Authora may be at times be a couple of apples short of bushel but that doesn't mean she would do something that stupid." Acorn argued.
"It makes way more sense than him getting in." Flutterwing argued back.
"Maybe he came in after weakening the spell." Acorn argued.
"Maybe he tricked her into coming outside!" Flutterwing yelled.
"You've had some crazy ideas Clutter but those are your dumbest!" Acorn yelled while Dandy rolled her orange eyes at her aunts. They were arguing again.
"At least when I have a plan I can use it Pipsqueak! How often have any of your plans worked? Can you think of any because I'm drawing a blank?" Flutter yelled. Twilight was frankly having enough.
"MARES!" She yelled. Silencing both sisters, who turned their backs to each other once the arguing stopped. "Authora was right. You two do argue a lot."
The sisters gave each other warnful glares. Telling the other the fight wasn't over. And it probably never would be.
"We need to tell the others. Spike, you go with Acorn to tell Rarity and Fluttershy. Flutterwing will come with me to get Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Dandelion you go get Pinkie Pie." Twilight said as the group went their separate ways.
All to get the Bearers together to find Authora.
Pain. All Authora could feel was pain. She could feel it from the tip of her horn to the bottom of her tail. In the seven hours she was with Jay, he had his newly acquired henchponies try whatever magic they could to get her voice back.
It wasn't working.
A familiar blue unicorn had tried the hardest, her familiar pink eyes were now midnight blue. A side effect of Jay's control.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie has tried all the spells she can think of. None of it has worked." Trixie told the alicorn.
"No duh Sherlock" Authora thought.
"Then get out of my sight." Jay ordered.
"I'll get like what? Three seconds of peace before he wants to talk to me again. First I get a magical attack by at least five unicorns, one the Great and Powerful Trixie, now I have to deal with his ego. Authora thought. She always got a little bitchy when tired or in pain. That or she laughs hysterically.
Jay was furious. The whole point of coming here was to get Abigail back but now she was mute. His favorite part of the week was listening to her voice.
He knows he screwed up big time. He killed both her parents but in his mind they deserved it. Just because she was meeting a 29 year old man in the middle of a field that people rarely visited doesn't mean they could tell her not to go. Jay was the most cautious of his dark magic but that's what made him so scary.
Jay could get you to confess to something you did when you were five just by looking at you the right way. His dark magic only added to that. People who knew him and feared him knew he had it, they knew if he wanted he could turn them into a star and catapult them into the sky without a second thought. It was all a matter of when and who to Jay.
The ponies he imprisoned, ahem, coerced were there as a pony wall. If any of those ponies wanted to get to Abigail they would have to get thru 30 others ponies. Some were mothers of foals, fathers, rich ponies, random ponies from off the street. Some Jay took for their abilities in magic like that showpony and a few teachers from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
But now wasn't the time to organize whom he had captive. It was time to find out how in the hell Abigail was going to speak again.
Celestia was peacefully doing her duties for the day, actually peaceful was too general a term. She was blasting thru all her paperwork only stopping to raise the sun and eat. Ponies had gone missing all around Canterlot and Ponyville. She had received a letter from Twilight telling her she had discovered the identity of the pony the Mysterious Black Alicorn was after as well as her family.
Luna was only slightly unaware of the last part. She knew that somepony had snuck into the palace and escaped. She didn't know the pony was an alicorn but she was likely to find out soon. Why with the palace guard practically doubled and her nightwatch being given more and more shifts didn't help.
With Celestia's guess as the last of the paperwork fell into the box labeled 'finished' was that Luna should be finding out tonight.
"Sister was is this the guards have told me about!" Or maybe she was awakened by the guards patrolling and decided to ask her big sister.
"Whatever do you mean?" Celestia asked innocently.
"Do not bother with that nonsense Tia. Why has the guard at my door been doubled as well as on my balcony? I even found a handmaiden inside my bathroom!" Okay, maybe that one was a step too far.
"You remember that pony I told you about? The one that managed to get pass all my security and escape just as easily?" Celestia asked.
"Of course I do but I don't see why a guard needs to be placed inside my private room."
"Because the pony wasn't just a pony. He was an all black alicorn. I received a letter from Twilight Sparkle telling me the pony he was looking for is in Ponyville under the watch of the Bearers." Celestia explained.
"And you waited this long to tell me?" Luna asked.
"Because I knew you would go to Ponyville to talk to these ponies yourself. Or better yet you would go after this alicorn yourself." Luna stomped her hoof. She hated when her sister knew her movements before she did.
As a letter suddenly appeared before Celestia, she wasted no time in reading, twice.
"Which might have been a good idea. Twilight has just informed me this pony is missing." |
Hidden by Shadows | Nightmares and Night Mares | "Jay just stop. Your brilliant plans to get my voice back have failed terribly. My throat feels like I swallowed fire rocks. The Great and Powerful Trixie isn't helping." Authora explained to the two ponies with her spell.
"Trixie is trying her best! Maybe it is just that you aren't being supportive." Trixie told the sunken pink form lying on the small cot.
In the now ten hours of captivity, Authora's throat had gone thru the wringer. Every spell Jay and Trixie worked for at most four seconds. Some of Trixie's made you able to see Authora's projected words. Jay's gave her either a technological voice or a male voice. It go to the point where while they were performing the spell Authora had to be held down so she didn't squirm on account of the pain to her throat.
"I think Trixie needs to learn that she's failing and no matter what she does it won't work!" Authora told only Trixie.
"Has Trixie not been trying to help you? Have you been trying any spells that would bring your voice back?" Trixie yelled.
"No because unlike somepony I don't like hearing the sound of my own voice!"
"Stop." Jay said. Stopping Trixie from continuing the fight.
"Wow. I have actually stooped to Megan's level. Never in my life did I see that happening." Authora thought.
"We don't have time for you two to be fighting. Trixie go join the others in the main hall." Jay ordered.
Trixie stared her now midnight blue eyes at Authora, then exited the room.
Now that Trixie was gone, Jay could give Authora his two cents.
"It would be good to have some help Abby." He told her. "To help you get your voice back after you lost after you tried to escape."
"I was saving my family."
"They would've been safe with my coven."
"I remember when I first got Dandelion, The Dark Ones tried to take her from me as to destroy half the town! My sisters would probably be used as leverage to keep me with you." Authora argued.
"Which would never happen because I wouldn't lay a finger on your sisters."
"You don't have fingers and Dandelion isn't my sister."
"Aw, there's the Abby that I remember." Jay taunted.
"That Abby never would have left if her best friend didn't kill her parents." There it was. The sentence that Jay dreaded to hear. After many hours of testing, he was beginning to grow a conscience. He, in a way, killed Abigail's parent right in front of her. The last time he saw Human Abigail he was coated in her mother's blood. And if that wasn't enough, Jay told her she could do whatever she wanted now that her parents were gone.
Authora turned away from Jay, using what energy she had left, so as to get some rest. She just hoped that a certain blue alicorn would come in her dream to help.
The Bearers of Harmony, two dragonlings, two Alicorns and two rivaling sisters were walking in the Throne Room. All of them trying to come up with a location of Authora and what to do when they got there.
After the discovery of Authora running away, Celestia called them all to Canterlot. Dandelion was taking it the hardest, she was in the same room as her mother when Authora left. Why didn't she wake up? How come her mother left when she knew that the Bad Guy was after her? Would her Aunties stop fighting long enough for them to find Authora?
Probably not, but she might as well hope.
Their fighting did stop when Luna ran out of the room, to raise the moon and check the dreams of ponies.
One of them was Authora's
"HELP!" A very human Abigail screamed as she ran in the darkness. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
She was running in a forest very similar to one where she first escaped to Equestria from. Even though it was too dark for her to see, Abigail could sense something chasing after her.
"Abigail?" Came a voice. Rushing to stop, Abigail turned and found the moving body of her father. He looked almost the same as when she last saw him. Dead.
"Daddy?" She asked him.
"Why?" He asked as he limped towards her. "Why did you let him into our lives?"
"I didn't. I didn't mean to Daddy. I really didn't." Abigail said while trying to back away. Until she bumped into something
Somebody.
"Why did you leave me there Gail?" Turning around, Abigail's tear filled eyes landed on her mother. Her entire chest was missing along with a single eyeball.
Abigail tried running away from both her dead parents but they had her cornered.
"You told me to run Mom. I was trying to protect Meg, Sky and Little Dandelion." Abigail explained.
"You still left me there to die." Her mother said flatly.
Abigail crouched down on the floor in a ball, wanting her dead parents to just leave her alone.
"I didn't mean to bring him into our lives! I didn't know he was evil I swear!" Gail yelled at her parents.
"BEGON YOU VILE CREATURES!" Boomed a voice far above Abigail.
With the sounds of shuffling, Abigail carefully looked up at was met with a pair of dark green eyes.
"Luna thank God." Abigail said as she hugged the Alicorn.
"Thou are not a pony as We have heard." Luna told her. Abigail refused to let go of Luna, the sight of her dead parents reminding her of all the pain she's gone thru.
"I was just trying to protect what was left of my family. I didn't know Jay was going to kill my parents." Abigail cried.
"Those were your parents?" Luna asked shocked.
"Jay killed them back at our old home. Skylar and Megan don't know Mom is dead, Dandelion doesn't either." Abigail explained as she slowly backed away from the alicorn.
Luna gazed at Abigail as a human. Her cheeks shined with the tears she cried over her parents. Her tear blue eyes were filled with such sorrow, grief and fear.
"Why don't they know Authora?" Luna asked.
"Because I'm already responsible for killing our Dad and our peaceful lives. I didn't want them to know I was responsible for Mom's death too." Abigail had fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.
"How are you, when you art awake?" Luna asked, resting a blue hoof on Abigail's shoulder.
"Black Jay has been using spells on me. He has imprisoned a lot of ponies and given them dark blue eyes. I know because one annoying showpony has been blasting my throat for the past twelve hours trying to get my voice back." Abigail cried.
"Dost thou know where you are?" Luna asked.
"No. I was wrapped in a black aura while being dragged away. It was too dark to see and it was the middle of the night so even if I could see past it I wouldn't be able to. All I know is that it's underground." Abigail explained as the tears slowly faded. "Please, please Luna don't tell Skylar and Megan about Mom. Skylar was so close I'd rather her not know."
"We have been told this Black Jay supposedly is keeping your mother captive. What of when the sisters find out otherwise?"
"That's Future Abigail's problem. Present Abigail is trying to get the images of her dead mom and dad out of her head." Abigail said, mentally laughing at a reference to How I Met Your Mother. It helped lighten her mood. Not the dead parents part, just the part of Future Abigail's problems that she knew would later become Present Abigail's problem.
Luna eyed the girl, not entirely sure if she should keep something like that a secret. How would she have felt if Celestia kept their mother's dearth a secret? Luna thought about it some more, what if Celestia felt responsible for their mother's death? How long would Celestia have kept that secret to protect her little sister and herself from facing the horrid truth.
"I won't tell them so long as you agree to do it." Luna told her. "We are sorry for the pain this stallion has caused your family."
"Just make sure my sister's don't let my sisters do something stupid. And also if they keep fighting like I know they are then just say 'Authora told me about the Christmas Party of '07.' It'll shut um up faster than lightning." Abigail said. She gave a fearful look back. "He's trying to wake me up, tell Dandelion it wasn't her fault. Poor thing must be..." Abigail slowly faded away, taking the rest of her sentence with her.
Luna walked back into the Throne Room.
"What happened Luna? You were gone much longer than we expected." Celestia said.
"It was nothing Tia. I was checking to see if Authora was dreaming so as to see her." Luna said, she would've said more but Flutterwing and Acorn's fighting distracted her.
She wanted to see what was so bad about the Christmas Party of '07.
"Flutterwing, Acorn. Authora told me about the Christmas Party of '07." Their pupils shrunk in fear.
"Sorry Acorn. We should really be trying to find Authora." Flutterwing said quickly.
"Good idea Big Sis. Hehe, let's get started." Acorn said as the two ran off separate directions. Leaving two confused alicorns.
"What happened at the Christmas Party of '07?" Celestia asked her sister.
"I do not know. Authora explained only that it would stop those two from bickering." Luna explained.
If the two Princess knew what really happened that night, they would be both filled with laughter and fear. The story involved a pineapple, three rolls of duct tape and a single match. Long story short, Skylar managed to put out the fire, Megan eventually paid back the workers at Home Depot for the damage caused to their story and their Christmas Presents were found the next morning three towns over. |
Hidden by Shadows | Heart's Desire Star | "And I think we should try searching the Everfree. Jay might have built a whole underground lair!" Flutterwing yelled at Acorn.
"I say we head towards the Badlands." Acorn argued.
It had been another long set of hours since Luna had been with Authora and the sisters just started arguing again. They moved back to Ponyville as to get more comfortable, that and it would be more peaceful to travel when Flutterwing and Acorn didn't argue.
"The Everfree is closer first of all, it's basically the place where everything evil lives! We barely survived a night in that place!" Flutterwing yelled.
Twilight remembered what Luna had told her before the left Canterlot.
"So how was the Christmas Party of '07 girls?" Both girls silenced again.
They were also beginning to suspect nopony actually knew what happened that night.
Authora was mad. Not just your basic sibling arguing mad. Not you didn't get the car for the day like you were promised mad. She was 'you're about to hurt what is left of my loved ones after killing my parents' mad.
She has discovered this to be highest level of anger. It was very close to the 'You Cheated on me with my Twin Sister, Niece, Mother and Aunt' level. They were only a hair's length apart on the anger scale.
Jay had left an hour ago, something about going to tell her sisters about their mother's death and how Authora knew all about it and didn't tell them. He told all of his followers that Authora wasn't allowed to leave her room and if he heard anypony even thought of harming her they would help him test his most painful spells.
She couldn't risk her sister's finding out. She just couldn't let them find out that way.
Authora stood up from her cot and used what strength she had to open the door.
"Stop!" Called a stallion. Authora paid him no mind. She kept on walking. They wouldn't hurt her without facing Jay's wrath. "I said stop!"
"Dude either shut up or leave me be." Authora told him using some more magic.
The green stallion debated whether or not he felt healthy enough to test the spells Jay was creating.
He made a bad decision.
The last thing Authora saw before the stallion tackled her was a picture of Dandelion flashing across her mind's eye.
"I'm so sorry."
Authora felt light headed, she remembered seeing a stallion jump at her then... nothing. It was all a blur after that. She stood on her feet...
Not this again
Authora was Abigail again.
"Tada." Abigail tested. Her voice worked here too. "Great, why can I only talk as a human in my dreams? That's just annoying. Is there anyone in this place that can help me?" Abigail yelled into the all white room she was apparently standing in.
"I can help with that." Came a smooth sultry voice behind Abigail.
Turning around Abigail saw a basic human Celestia.
Her skin was glowing white, literally it was basically light, with eyes the color of the night sky, it even had little lights inside it like stars. Her white hair flowed down to nonexistence, leaving sparkly lights in their place.
"Hi," Abigail told her.
"Hello yourself Abigail. I knew your name because I granted your wish ten days ago." The girl who looked about Abigail's age.
Abigail's eye widened.
"You're the...the...th-"
"The Heart Desire's Star. I have decided to take this form simple because it is my favorite. I came to help you." The woman walked towards Abigail, who was frozen to the floor.
"With what?" Abigail asked. "I can't think of anything that I need help with, oh right, the demon about to kill my family!" The Star laughed.
"You are quite the spitfire Abigail. I have been watching you as well as my other Grants. I believe you have earned it."
"Earned what?" Abigail asked.
"You have heard of my legend but you haven't heard what happens once someone has earned my trust."
Abigail stared at the star warily
"When someone makes a heartfelt wish on my star form, it is granted so long as it is a selfless wish. If the person continues to make selfless decisions I give back what was taken. You, Young Abigail, have gone thru so much in your young life and since your arrival in Equestria all of your decisions were based on the lives of your sisters and daughter. Even your attempt to escape the compound, hidden within the Everfree, was to protect them from Jay as well as your friends."
"So...does this mean that?" Abigail asked, praying that the star would say what Abigail hoped she would say.
"Yes Abigail. When you awake you will not only be outside the compound but you will have your voice back. Also, when all is said and done all of the ponies trapped by Jay should be released on their own."
Then, in a very Little Mermaid esc way, Abigail felt her non-dream voice return.
"You should hurry. You have little time to get to Ponyville before Jay can fulfill his plan."
Abigail felt the dream fade away, happy to know she would talk once back home.
Sunlight, it was too bright to be existence. Too bright to even be considered nice.
Authora rubbed her raspberry colored hoof over her eyes to try and get the last effects of sleep out of her.
Her dream's memory filled her mind. Jay. Heart's Desire Star. Sisters. Voice.
Her Voice
"I can talk. I can talk." Authora tested.
She was giddy. She almost jumped around like Twilight during that dance with Cadence. The reminder that she probably had minutes before Jay ruined her family for good.
She ran til her hooves burned.
Authora twisted and turned until she ended up in the alley right in the middle of the fight.
"...Well then I guess I should tell what happened to Mrs. Stream." Jay began.
"HEY!" Authora yelled as she ran out of the shadows and jumped in front of her sisters. "LEAVE THEM ALONE!" |
Hidden by Shadows | Fight (No Actual Violence) | Ten Minutes Before Authora Appeared
Black Jay had been in the town all of two minutes. Ponies had already locked their front doors, everypony was inside hiding, fillies and colts were either at home or the schoolyard. The Mane 6, Spike, the Princesses, Flutterwing and Acorn all sat inside the library trying to figure out where to find Authora before it was too late.
It wasn't until Acorn looked out the window did she see Black Jay.
"It's him!" Acorn shouted.
The group ran out of the library towards the alicorn.
There was a long pause after they exited. Mostly just getting a reading on the opponent.
After two minutes of waiting, somepony spoke.
"Where's Authora?" Flutterwing asked him as she and Rainbow hovered over them.
Jay gave them an evil deep throated laugh.
"Oh dear Skylar. I think it's time we got rid of those pesky names you and your sisters created." Jay said. The ponies eyes' grew wide and they looked to Flutter and Acorn.
"Flutterwing what is he talking about?" Twilight Sparkle asked the purple pegasus.
"Nothing." Flutterwing lied.
Jay looked at her coly.
"Oh but I think you do know Skylar." Jay said. "I think you do know but your pathetic mind still thinks you can trot anyway from here with these identities intact."
Flutterwing looked back at her sister in alarm.
Acorn ran up next to her sister.
"Where's Authora you bastard!" Acorn yelled.
"Megan, always such a little spitfire. Abigail did say you needed to control those swearing habits." Jay taunted. Acorn's nostrils flared at the mention of her sisters friendship with that thing.
The others were definitely confused.
"Abigail? Skylar? Megan?" Twilight asked. "Flutterwing who is he talking about?"
"Nopony. I'm sure he's probably confused." Flutter again lied. Jay laughed again. More deep and evil than last time.
"You haven't told them, have you?" Flutter and Acorn remained silent. "HA! How dare you call me evil when you have been lying to these ponies since Day 1!"
"What's he talkin' bout Sugarcube?" The Bearer of Honesty asked the pegasus.
"Nothing! I don't know who Skylar is!" Flutterwing yelled.
"It seems the shoe is on the other foot Skylar. Now I have to be the storyteller against your lies." Jay exclaimed.
Rainbow nearly flew into Jay's face.
"They already told us about how you killed their Dad and have their mom captive!" Dash yelled.
If it was possible, Jay's evil grin got eviler.
"Abigail didn't tell you?" Skylar's sky blue eyes widened.
"What did you do to Mom!" She yelled.
"Nothing I won't be doing to you and Megan when I win." Jay taunted.
"You bastard!" Megan yelled. Her eyes almost looked like they were on fire.
"If Abigail didn't tell... well then I guess I should tell what happened to Mrs. Stream." Jay began.
"HEY!" All ponies turned to the mare that jumped in front of the fight.
A raspberry colored pony with twigs, leaves and mud in her coffee brown mane. A cutiemark of a book with theatre symbols rested on her flank.
Authora.
"LEAVE THEM ALONE!" The teenage mare yelled.
Everypony was silent. Authora was talking?
Jay was the first to speak.
"Abigail how did you escape the guards?"
Authors gave a smug grin.
"Next time don't give them a threat if they touch me." She grinned.
Jay stared at his old friend angrily.
The unicorn turned to her sisters and the group.
"Go get the Elements. Those just might be the only thing that can help us." The two nodded and ran into the library.
Rainbow flew to Authora.
"Thora, who in tartartus is Abigail?" Rainbow asked her. Authora looked up at the pegasus.
"I'll explain once we deal with. Put your Element on." Authora commanded. She then turned to the Princesses. "A pleasure to meet you Your Highness. I greatly wished to meet you under better terms. Luna, nice to see you again."
The gracious Night Ruler nodded.
"You as well Authora."
Authora stared back at the dark alicorn she once called a friend.
"I won't let you hurt my family." She told him plainly.
"Well then today is going to be a sad day for you Abigail." Black Jay told her.
Authora flared her nostrils, and charged.
Three gallops later a portal with blue swirls appeared by her hooves and a strange creature popped out. The portal disappeared as the creature fell to the grass.
Her skin was fairly tan, tar black hair curling down to her shoulder. Bright amber eyes that looked very confused. She wore a sparkly gray shirt with what Authora recognized as jeans.
"Is this Equestria?" The creature asked.
Everypony, too shocked and confused to even speak, nodded.
"Do any of you know a pony named Raspberry Stardust?"
The ponies' heads shook.
"Damn. Wrong leyline. I apologize if I interrupted something." A portal appeared. "Just so you know I probably have nothing to do with what is going on here so, once again I apologize if I came in between some big fight. Morgan Spencer, just in case you wanted to know."
The creature jumped into the portal, making it vanish.
Authora was the first to speak.
"Okay, back to the fight." This seemed to get everypony back on track.
"Yeah," Black Jay said, "Good idea Abigail." Evil dripped from every word.
Authora turned to Twilight.
"I really need you to use those Elements...NOW!" Authora yelled.
Twilight nodded, still a little freaked out about what just happened, turning to her five friends. Telling them to begin.
"Are you sure about this?" Rarity asked. "It could be dangerous." Authora nodded.
"That bastard should've died a long time ago, it needs to be done."
The elements began to glow, making their respective ponies glow with it. The six ponies floated up. The lights from each element began to brighten.
"You think these Elements can destroy me? Your own coven couldn't destroy me Abby." Black Jay told the pink unicorn.
"I'm not planning to destroy you Black Jay."
Twilight's eyes opened, they were glowing white.
"I'm planning to save my friend."
A bright rainbow shot from the Mane 6's group, swirling around aiming right at the alicorn.
"Because I know he is inside there. And if this got rid of Nightmare Moon it can get rid of whatever controls you!"
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Black Jay yelled as the rainbow and him collided. |
Hidden by Shadows | Ending | The Bearers slowly stood up, the two dragons' eyes were swirling around from the sight. Smoke still rose from where Black Jay had been. What was there nopony could tell. The Princesses slowly stood, the power over the Elements had been so strong it brought them to their knees.
The ex-humans looked at the smoke. Two of them beginning to question if their mother was still alright, the third so happy to see her greatest nightmare was gone that she could form no words. A part of her still wondering if he was actually gone.
"Is he really gone?" The pink unicorn asked.
"Thora, I think actually he is. We finally did it." The purple pegasus told her. "We finally did it."
"Does anypony know what happened to him?" Twilight asked, feeling the effects of the Elements fade off.
The three humans turned ponies shook their heads. Still the smallest bit unsure over it.
One by one, the other five Bearers stood.
"Rainbow Dash, Flutterwing, Fluttershy, could you maybe fly over the smoke." They each looked at her with confusion, Fluttershy's was more of fear, "Your flying to could blow away the smoke. We need to see what happened to him."
Flutterwing flew up first, flying in and out of the smoke to clear it up. Rainbow went next, taking a fearful Fluttershy with her.
Within seconds, the smoke cleared and everypony could see the aftermath of the Elements of Harmony after their use on Black Jay.
In the middle of what had to be a large burn mark, sat an unconscious earth pony stallion. His coat was a tealish blue. His mane was blood red and was cut short. His tail was the same color but longer. His cutiemark was of a blue jay flying over a black leaf. He looked a little shorter than Big Mac, and a little less muscular.
"Woah." Pipsqueak said. Her brown eyes simply stared at the stallion. "Didn't expect it to do that."
"Me neither Acorn Pipsqueak." Authora said, trying to mash her youngest sister's two names together.
All the ponies looked at each other, then the Princesses.
"Tho what do we do with him?" Dandelion asked.
"I do not know Young Dragon." Princess Celestia said. "We should wait for him to wake up. We need to see if he still has any evil intent." The three pegasi flew back to their friends, not really wanting to be near Black Jay when he woke up.
After another moment and Jay had been left unmoving, Authora walked up to the stallion.
"Jay... Jay... Jay it's Abigail. Wake up." The unicorn pleaded. A tear starting to burn in her eye. "Please Jay, wake up. I need you to wake up." The tear came more into the view. "Jay if you don't wake the fuck up I swear I will buck you in the face so hard you'll look like the Hunchback from Notre Dame. Wake. Up."
Silence.
"I warned him." Abigail warned as she turned around, lifted her legs...
*SMACK*
The stallion was pushed back a few feet, the buck in the face causing his eyes to open.
"GAW! WHAT THE HELL!" He cried out.
"I warned you that if you didn't wake up I'd buck you in the face. That's what happens when you scare me like that!" Abigail yelled at him.
The stallion looked his midnight blue his at the unicorn.
"Abigail? You're a horse." He told her flatly. But fear edged on his words.
"Unicorn pony. And the name is Authora, I wouldn't look down if I were you." She warned again, the ponies behind them shocked and confused.
The stallion didn't listen. He saw the blue hooves.
"AW!" He screamed.
"Warned you, you should really start listening to me." She told him.
"I'M A BLUE HORSE! HOW IN THE HELL IS THAT POSSIBLE!" He yelled. Abigail shrugged her dark pink shoulders.
"I don't know. You brought yourself here." She pointed out. "Now, calm down or I'll have to buck you again."
The stallion's freaking out didn't stop. He continued to go on and on about how he was a horse.
"Applejack, could you do the honors?" Abigail asked the orange earth pony behind her.
Applejack trotted up to the blue stallion. Bucked his face, causing him to flip over.
"Could you stop doing that?" He groaned as he got back onto his hooves.
"Only if you stop screaming about being a pony. I can tell me friend Rainbow Dash wants to get in your face and start asking about if you're still evil." Abigail explained. "So, how about you get up so we can explain ourselves before you screw things up worse than you already have?"
The stallion only nodded, now in the shock phase of turning into a pony.
The next five hours were spent in questioning. Jay explained that he had no memory of what he had been doing since he entered Equestria as well as the last two months on Earth. His thoughts clouded but he only remembered blood. Lots and lots of blood.
None of it his.
But, that part led to some angry and saddened tears by three fourths of the Stream Girls. Megan yelling at Abigail for not telling them about their mother. Then more yelling from Abigail about trying to give them hope, false hope, but hope nonetheless.
The hardest explanation came next. The one where they explained they weren't born ponies. They were humans, transported here because of what Jay did to their parents.
Abigail had made a wish on what was called a Heart's Desire Star. It granted her wish but at a price. It took her voice. Not immediately, it faded as they entered Ponyville to the point of Nonexistence.
The Star had helped her escape and, because of her sacrifice to her family, gave her voice back.
But the most memorable part of the whole thing was when Pinkie Pie, at the end of all the explaining, hugged the teenage unicorn. Saying she was forgiven because it was so sad to hear about all the bad things that happened to them.
Fluttershy and Rarity hugged them next, including Skylar and Megan on the hug. Soon everypony except Spike the dragon and Jay were hugging.
Authora, was happy to have her old friend back. Happy to be in a safe place where the ponies weren't mad at her. Happy that she still had sisters to be with.
Happy to be free from the shadow that had been over her since her father's death. |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | pre | "Twilight, I really don't think that I'm suited to-"
"Snake! Please please please please..." Twilight was jumping up and down on the spot a little - apparently she really wanted me to help.
"Okay, fine," I finally said. It didn't look like there was a way out of this.
"Great!" Twilight replied happily. "I'll have to get up a bit earlier than you tomorrow to go over some last minute details and help organise some things before everypony gets there, but I hope to see you at the town hall for the mayor's speech at nine o'clock sharp!" Now that I had agreed to help, she was even more excited about Winter Wrap Up than before. I just hoped that there was some sort of husky-sledding job I could help with...
Twilight went to bed soon after that, and after another hour of fruitlessly researching spells, I followed suit.
===================
The next morning, Spike and I got up early, as Twilight had suggested, and got ready for the day's work after eating breakfast. As Twilight had said, she had woken up earlier than us to help with some last minute details, and was no longer in the house. I was hoping that she could find the time to assign me a job, because I sure didn't want to have to walk up to different ponies and offer to help them with their work.
"So... what's your job for Winter Wrap Up?" I asked Spike to break the silence. He was looking incredibly tired from the early start.
"I normally just get asked to help with small jobs here and there," he answered after a yawn. "Winter really makes me tired." It made sense, I supposed, seeing as how he was somewhat reptilian. I was barely noticing the cold myself - I was used to weather just as bad as this, if not worse, back in Alaska.
Ten minutes later, we were heading down to the town hall, as Twilight had asked us to. A large crowd of ponies were already gathered around it, in addition to the pegasi who were flying above the crowd. I spotted Rainbow Dash flying around impatiently, although as she was focused on the podium at the town hall, she didn't see me. Each pony was wearing a vest which was coloured either blue, green, or tan - to protect them from the cold, I presumed.
"Spike! Snake! Over here!" I looked in the direction the voice was coming from to see Pinkie Pie waving a hoof, inviting us to join her. Fluttershy and Rarity were also standing with her. All three of them were wearing vests, just like the rest of the crowd. Spike and I headed over to the group.
"Kept you waiting, huh?" I said to them. "Any sign of Applejack?" I already knew that Rainbow Dash was in the air, and that Twilight was up on the town hall stage somewhere.
"As she is the leader of the plant team," Rarity began, "she is back on her farm, organising everything for when the rest of the team join her."
"Plant team?" This was the first that I'd heard of it. "So what jobs do you all -"
"Thank you everypony, for being here bright and early." Up on the podium, the mayor had started her speech to the crowd. I stopped what I was saying to listen to her. "Most of you should be familiar with how Winter Wrap Up works by now - your vests determine your team, and your team leader shall give you instructions in how you can help wrap up winter." It suddenly occurred to me that the vests the ponies were all wearing only came in three colours, meaning there were three teams.
"If there are any problems, you should report them to your team leader, who in turn will inform Twilight Sparkle -" the mayor gestured to Twilight, who was standing behind her a little bit, wearing a vest incorporating the colours of all three teams "- the All-Team Organiser. I think that's all I have to say, so let's all get started! Good luck everypony!" As the mayor finished her speech, the ponies all cheered, before dispersing to their different leaders.
Spike stayed with Rarity and Fluttershy, who were apparently part of the animal team, as I walked up to the podium where Twilight was talking with the mayor. The mayor had more or less said to report any problems to Twilight, and I was hoping to catch her before she got flooded with demands. I stepped up onto the stage, and opened my mouth to speak to speak to Twilight.
"Three months of winter coolness, and awesome holidays!" Huh? I turned around at the sound of Rainbow Dash, who was ... singing, apparently.
"We've kept our hoovsies warm at home, time off from work to play." And now Pinkie Pie had spontaneously joined in. Well, that wasn't too surprising. Most of the crowd were watching the ponies sing, as though they had been expecting this.
"But the food we've stored is runnin' out- " wait, where had Applejack come from? "- and we can't grow in this cold." This was getting weird now.
"And even though I love my boots, this fashion's getting old." I turned back to Twilight as Rarity added in a line. I had no idea why those four ponies had suddenly burst into song, but I was hoping that that would be the end of it.
"Twilight, I -"
"The time has come to welcome spring, and all things warm and green -"
"Twilight! What the hell is going -"
"But it's also time to say goodbye," continued Twilight, either not noticing me or not caring. "It's winter we must clean." I sighed, and reluctantly followed Twilight as she trotted from the stage and through the crowd, singing all of the way. I was starting to regret agreeing to help with Winter Wrap Up.
"Now I can help - not new you see,
I have got a job to do!
How do I fit in with my planning?
I'll organise all of you!" As Twilight finished her last line, I caught up to her, and reached out a hand to tap her on the shoulder.
"Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!" I jumped in surprise as all around me, the crowd suddenly burst into song. I winced. Not only was this weird, it was incredibly saccharine. As the crowd sung what sounded like a chorus, I looked to see whether there was a unicorn standing some distance away casting a spell over them - but there didn't seem to be one. As weird as it was, this must have all been rehearsed and practiced.
"Bringing home the southern birds, a Pegasus' job begins - " I looked up to see Rainbow Dash singing once more "- and clearing all the gloomy skies, to let the sunshine in. We move the clouds, and we melt the white snow." I was still following Twilight, who in turn had been following Rainbow Dash with the rest of the crowd. As Rainbow Dash continued singing, Pinkie Pie suddenly joined her.
"When the sun comes up its warmth and beauty will glow!" As the crowd started singing the chorus again, I tried to get Twilight's attention for a second time, but failed. I had to admit though - the song was pretty catchy. At least the ponies could sing well.
By now, the crowd had reached an area surrounded by trees, small hollows in the ground which I assumed were some sort of animal burrows, and snow, naturally. Rarity had somehow beaten the crowd here, and was assembling what looked to be birds' nests out of raw materials.
"Little critters hibernate, under the snow and ice -" she began.
" - We wake up all the sleepy heads," continued Fluttershy, who was standing by one of the hollows, "so quietly and nice."
"We help them gather up their food, fix their homes below!" I had thought that Rarity would have been above singing, but it looked as though I was wrong.
"We welcome back the southern birds -" started Fluttershy, before being joined by Rarity in the next line:
"So the families can grow!" Maybe seeing them helping the animals reminded me of my huskies back in Alaska. Maybe I had just spent too long in Ponyville, and I was growing accustomed to all of this. Or maybe my first guess was right, and a unicorn somewhere nearby was casting a spell to make every pony burst into song. But whatever the reason was, I found myself grinning as the song continued.
Just as the chorus was being wrapped up, I suddenly felt an urge. I don't know what could have brought it on... but I got a sudden burst of emotion. Without warning, I felt ready to express all of my feelings about the Shadow Moses mission, and about what I was supposed to be doing.
"No easy task to fight the 'HOUNDs,
They've got a Hind D.
With my SOCOM and FAMAS,
I will make them bleed.
Psycho Mantis, Liquid Snake,
Vulcan Raven too.
I must stop so many guards,
It's just so much to do!" I faltered slightly on the last line as I realised what I was doing. Embarrassed, I looked around to see whether any pony had noticed my singing, but I seemed to be in the clear. They were all singing along to their own song, cheerful and oblivious to what I had just been singing about. Up ahead, I could hear Twilight Sparkle singing on her own again, surrounded by a crowd of ponies. I had no idea why she was allowed a solo part, but I assumed that it had something to do with her being the All-Team Organiser.
"Now that I've planned what they all do,
I have found my place.
And helped with all of my heart,
Tough task that I once faced.
I can assist without my magic,
Help the Earth pony way!
I wanna belong so I must,
Do my best today,
Do my best today!" The other ponies picked up the rest of the song for what I assumed was one last time as I approached Twilight. I really wanted to talk to her, and find out what sort of job I could do.
"Twilight! I need to speak to you!" The rest of the ponies had finally finished singing their song, and I wanted to get this over with before any other ponies approached her.
"Oh, hello Snake. What did you think of the song?" Twilight smiled as I approached. The crowd was spreading into their individual teams now that the song had been finished.
"The...song?" I took a moment to think before answering. "Yeah, it sounded pretty good," I replied, deciding not to tell her that it had moved me to singing myself.
"Excellent! A good song always helps get everypony in the mood for Winter Wrap Up!" Well, that explains that, I thought. "Did you manage to find a job to help with?" she asked.
"No, and that's why I'm coming here now - since you're the All-Team Organiser, I figured you could get me a job."
"I suppose I could help," Twilight replied, "but we'll have to go back to my office at the town hall - I'll need to look through the paperwork to see what you're suited for." I had been hoping that Twilight would simply suggest a job on the spot, but I supposed that this would do.
Unfortunately, when we reached the town hall, we found a few dozen ponies all standing outside, all of them apparently having been waiting for Twilight to arrive. I had no idea what they were doing here rather than working in their teams, but once they noticed Twilight arriving, they came over and started bombarding her with questions.
"Twilight! Where do I need to go if I'm part of the animal team?"
"Who's my leader, again?"
"Should I really be on the weather team if I'm not a very good flier?" The questions kept bombarding her without giving her a chance to respond - not that that stopped her from trying. Within moments Twilight was talking to the group of ponies, answering questions and asking her own frantically.
"Just find the rest of your team! Applejack! Has anypony seen my quill? No, there are other jobs to help with! No, you don't have to help if you're sick! I need scissors! Sixty-one!" As she was slowly pushed into the town hall by the ponies, she turned to me. "Sorry Snake, it looks like you'll be on your own for now. I'll try to help you if I get a chance!"
I grimaced. That would be just my luck. I sighed and started walking over to where Rarity and Fluttershy had been earlier, deciding that offering them help would be as good a start as any. Once I reached the area, I found Rarity weaving nests as she had been earlier.
"Good morning to you, Snake!" she greeted me. "Has Twilight assigned you to help with the nest-making?" I shrugged.
"I haven't got a specific job at the moment, but it sounds as good as anything else. What can I help you with?"
"If you take these materials here, I'll show you how to weave it together correctly. You should find this fairly easy, since you have hands rather than hooves," Rarity replied. I knelt down next to her and started dividing up the materials into individual groups. "Oh, and Snake, by the way?" Rarity asked as I was about to start.
"Yeah, Rarity?" I was unprepared for what she said next.
"That was very good of you to join in our singing earlier. I rather liked your improvised lyrics!" I winced. Damn. Rarity had heard me.
"... Please, let's not mention this again," I finally answered.
In the debriefing room, Colonel Campbell was shaking his head slowly at Snake.
"Snake..." he started.
"Yeah, Colonel?" Snake replied.
"Please don't sing again. Ever. I don't think my ears could handle that punishment again." Before asking Snake to continue, he added another note to the piece of paper he had hidden below the table - Likely tone-deaf as a result of being in proximity to too many grenades. Under no circumstances should Snake be allowed to sing. |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Nine: 'Cos Tomorrow Spring is Here! | "...and so then I thought, what if the suit could not only be used to disguise oneself whilst in the snow, but to fit in in a more elegant location, such as a field of flowers by a nice quiet lake, perhaps?" I grunted. Rarity and I had been working on the nests for several hours now, and although I would have been happy to do it in silence, Rarity insisted on telling me all about the suit she was still trying to design for me.
"So... what do you think, Snake?" she prompted after realising that I wasn't going to respond. "Does this suit sound like the sort of thing which you would wear?"
"Maybe," I lied, not wanting to flat-out say that I didn't care. "But I don't see why wearing a white suit in an environment such as the Everfree Forest would be beneficial."
"Well, it was just a thought," Rarity admitted, sighing as she telekinetically attached a bow to a birds' nest. There was a large line of ponies who were all working on the nests, passing them along one-by-one as they finished a minor task on each. Rarity and I were at the end of the line, and added decorations to the nests as we were handed them.
As we continued to work, with Rarity now telling me about some dresses she had made for her friends to attend a wedding in, a light-blue unicorn came up to us. Her mane had two different shades of blue in it, which reminded me of toothpaste, for some reason.
"We've just finished the last of the nests," she said to Rarity. "They're still being passed up the line, but we'll be finished within minutes."
"Really? That was rather quick," Rarity said, sounding pleased nevertheless. "I suppose I should chalk it up to Twilight's excellent planning skills... good to see that she's not trying to help directly again..." she muttered to herself. As the blue unicorn walked off, presumably to start another job somewhere else, Rarity and I were handed the last two nests to finish.
"So... what now?" I asked Rarity as I attached a red bow onto my nest.
"Well, now that we have finished with the nests, I suppose there is ample time to assist Fluttershy in waking up all of the creatures whom have been hibernating throughout winter," Rarity replied as she finished decorating her own nest. I grimaced. Decorating nests had been bad enough, but waking up sleeping animals? Not for me.
"...Any other jobs I could help with?" I asked. Rarity put a hoof to her mouth in thought.
"Well, I suppose you could always assist Pinkie Pie and the rest of the ice-scouring team," she answered. Ice-scouring, huh? That didn't sound too bad... even if I would have to cope with Pinkie Pie.
"Pinkie Pie, huh? Sounds like a plan," I said. I asked Rarity where I would find Pinkie Pie and the ice-scouring team, and headed there after thanking her. Rarity herself headed off to find Fluttershy and assist her.
It wasn't too long before I was standing at the crest of a hill covered in ice. Sloping downwards, the hill led to a large, frozen lake, where I could make out Pinkie Pie apparently skating her way back and forth across it. It struck me as odd that Pinkie was scouring such a large lake by herself, particularly after Rarity had mentioned a team of ice-scourers.
"Helooooooo Snake! Wheeeeeeee!" she called out to me as she spotted me walking down towards her. "What are you doing?"
"Hey, Pinkie," I said as I arrived at the edge of the lake. "I came to help with the scouring, but you must have made a mistake - Rarity told me that you were working with a team to break up the ice." Pinkie came whizzing towards me as I spoke, temporarily stopping her work to speak to me.
"Well, don't tell Twily this, but-" Pinkie giggled here "- I told the rest of the team to go work on the other lakes by themselves." I frowned.
"Why would you do that?"
"Because -" Pinkie leapt into the air and continued her complex skating "- I can't do this if I'm surrounded by all those other ponies!" She went into a complicated spin from there, which I had to admit was pretty impressive.
"Huh, not bad," I said. "So, where exactly are the other lakes?" If Pinkie was happy to break up the ice on this lake by herself, then I might as well go look for another group to help scour.
"Oh, no need to go find them," Pinkie replied as if she had read my mind. "You can help me here! I'm always happy to spend time with you, Snake!" I grimaced as I realised that by Pinkie's standards that meant that I would have to help her.
"...Okay, what do you want me to do?" I reluctantly asked. Pinkie skated back over to me expertly.
"You can put on those skates there -" she pointed a hoof at a pair of ice skates lying in an area relatively snow-free "- and join me in skating across the lake!"
"Won't they be too small for me, if they're designed to be worn on your hooves?" I asked as I noticed the flaw in helping scour the lakes.
"Nope! I had Rarity custom-make these for you, just in case you wanted to help me!" Of course she had.
"Pretty convenient," I muttered to myself as I knelt down to take off my shoes. Unfortunately, Pinkie somehow heard me.
"Oh, it's not convenient!" she cheerfully replied. "I have ice skates stashed all over Equestria, in case of ice skate emergency!" As I put the skates on, I opened my mouth to ask what the hell could constitute as an ice skate emergency, let alone how Pinkie could have known the exact size of my feet. I closed my mouth a moment later, deciding to just accept these things.
I stood up, and put both of my feet on the ice. Although I was pretty out of practice, I had past experience ice-skating, and was sure that I could help Pinkie scour the lake. "Okay, what now?" I asked Pinkie as I slowly and cautiously made my way over to her in the centre of the lake.
"Okay, Snakey, now what we have to do is- ITCHY NOSE!!!"
"Itc-" I started, before slipping over on the ice and smashing into it face-first. I groaned in pain, not wanting to get up as my body's momentum slowly kept pushing me towards Pinkie Pie.
"Sorry, Snake, but I did try to warn you!" Pinkie said cheerfully, before skating off as if nothing had happened. "Now, if you just skate in a right angle to my direction, we should have this lake scoured in no time!"
I slowly picked myself up from the ice, trying not to slip over again in the process. Once I was up, I started skating once more, being careful not to fall over again. My face was aching from the crash, and it felt as though I had injured my back in the process as well.
"You're getting the hang of it now, Snake!" Pinkie praised me. "Good to see that you're not so wobbly and bobbly! Otherwise you wouldn't be able to help so well!"
"I can skate just fine," I said, defending myself. "I'm just out of practice." I kept skating across the lake, slowly picking up speed as I got used to skating once more. After completing a lap of the lake, I felt I was ready. "Okay Pinkie. We gonna do this?"
"Of course, Snake! Pinkie called to me from the other side of the lake. "Just skate so that your path crosses mine! Wheeeee!!!" She started skating once more, this time taking a more deliberate path to avoid the places she had already skated across.
I did as she said, skating at right angles to her path as she had told me earlier. However, it wasn't long until Pinkie spotted a problem with the situation.
"Why are you staying so quiet, Snake? Don'tcha want to talk? Ooh, we could play a game!" After I grunted in response, Pinkie waited another moment to see if I had anything to add, which I didn't. She tried a different tact. "Want to hear the song I sing to my p-"
"No!" I did not want to hear any more singing today!
"Well, that's okay I guess," Pinkie said as she turned around and skated in the opposite direction. I breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll just have to sing a different song instead!" Huh?
"No, Pink-"
"Dashie's melting snow,
Fluttershy's cheering 'Yay!'
Rarity makes nice bows,
Snake's a grump today!
Take it away, Snake!" Pinkie had forgotten all about the scouring of the lake, and had been leaping around like a maniac whilst singing. I was amazed that she hadn't hurt herself yet.
Instead of complying with Pinkie's request, I instead skated to the edge of the lake, and stepped onto the ground. I had an idea to speed up the scouring of this lake, so that I would have an excuse to go and join some of the more normal ponies in breaking up another frozen lake. "Pinkie, you might want to step off the lake," I warned her.
"Ooh, why's that?" Pinkie asked curiously as she did as I suggested. A moment later, she got her answer as I equipped my Nikita missile launcher and fired a shot at the surface of the lake. As the missile hit it, large cracks appeared along the lines which we had carved out with our ice skating, although not as large as I had been hoping. I frowned, and was about to fire a second shot when Pinkie interrupted me.
"Good idea, Snake!" she called out from across the lake. "But I can take it from here!"
"With what?" I called back, confused. What would Pinkie have that could break the ice as efficiently as my Nikita missile launcher?
"Oh, I never leave home without my party cannon!" she replied as she produced a small blue cannon from seemingly nowhere.
"Party... cannon?" I said, although more to myself than Pinkie Pie. A moment later, she had aimed it at the lake, and fired it by pressing a button on the top of it. The shot fired too fast for me to make out what was contained within it, but whatever it was, it was powerful: cracks spread across the rest of the ice almost instantly, breaking it up and saving us several hours more of work. I did find it a bit weird, however, that there was somehow now confetti on the ice. I walked around the lake to where Pinkie Pie and my shoes were.
"Whee! That was fun, Snake! Let's do it again!" Before I could reply, Pinkie bounced away, off to the next lake. I put my shoes back on before following her. I was about to ask her where she had put her party cannon when I got an unexpected call on my codec, which I answered. "Hey, Twilight. Any luck finding me a decent job?"
"Sorry, Snake, not yet. I'm up to my neck in paperwork at the moment," she replied. Although she couldn't see it, I grimaced.
"Huh, figures. Maybe I should be the All-Team Organiser, so that I can find a decent job." Although the assistance I had given so far hadn't been too bad, I still would rather have had a more enjoyable job, where I got to see a bit more action.
"I would say yes, Snake, buuuuut...." - Twilight seemed to be taking me more seriously than I had intended, and was trying to let me down nicely - "... I am technically the boss here. And there's only room for one boss, and one Snake." She chuckled a little bit, not realising that I wasn't really listening to her.
"So why'd you call me anyway, if you haven't gotten me a job?" I asked Twilight.
"Oh, well I just thought I'd check up on you and see how you were doing. I remember how disastrous my first Winter Wrap Up was..." Twilight said, sounding concerned.
"Fine."
"What?"
"Fine. It's been a bit boring so far, but I'm coping. I've helped Rarity decorate the birds' nests, and Pinkie Pie and I are currently scouring lakes." As I spoke the words aloud, I wondered how I had ended up going from a dangerous infiltration mission to decorating birds' nests as a part of manually changing the seasons for the year.
"Oh, good work, Snake!" Twilight replied, genuinely happy. "So you haven't ended up covered in bees or anything?"
"Covered in ...bees?" I repeated, wondering why it felt like I had heard that phrase before. "No, nothing like that," I answered after deciding that it wasn't important.
"Well, good to hear!" Twilight answered. "I promise that I'll try to have you a job within the hour!" I was within eyesight of the next lake that Pinkie and I would be scouring next by now. There were already three or four ponies putting on ice skates and skating across it, and I could make out Pinkie about to join them.
"Twilight, I've got to go now," I said, before smirking slightly. "Any chance I could hear one of your famous proverbs before I go?"
"Uh, sure Snake! I'm sure I've got something here..." I heard Twilight shifting around some papers for a moment. "Oh, here we are! 'Your registration number is to be assigned by your team leader. Please leave this space empty.'" I hesitated.
"...You just read that from one of those paperwork forms, didn't you Twilight?" Did she really expect me to think that that was a proverb?
"N-no, it's a real proverb," Twilight stuttered. "It's a metaphor... for... life! You see, the registration number is your sense of self; who you are. Your team leader is... is... everypony who inspires you!" I thought about it for a moment. It made sense.
"Huh. That's some good advice, Twilight. I'll make sure to pass that on." As I said this and finished the codec call, I started thinking. What was my life here, in Equestria? Was it real? Was there such a thing as absolute reality? Most of -
"Snake!" Pinkie called across to me, bringing my train of thought to a halting crash. "What are you doing just standing there? Come down and join in the fun!" She turned around and started skating on the lake, starting to sing another of her nonsensical songs. Sighing, I put my ice skates back on and joined her and the other ponies in scouring the lake.
===================
"... hereby I declare that winter is wrapped up on time once again!" It was the end of the day, and the mayor was giving a speech now that winter was over. I had to admit - as weird as it was to help manually change the weather, it was at least efficient. Plus, unlike seasons changing on Earth, there would be no unexpected snowfalls happening months after winter.
"Let's all give a big thanks once more to our All-Team Organiser, Twilight Sparkle, and the leaders of the three teams for being responsible for the efficiency we all witnessed today!" the mayor finished. As the ponies around me stomped their hooves on the ground, I clapped my hands quietly, which gathered some odd responses in return. Twilight stood up to the podium to make a short speech of her own.
"Good going today, everypony! Despite some of the problems - " I could have sworn that I saw her eyes flick to some of the ponies that had been pestering her at the town hall this morning " - everything was a complete success!" I was about to clap my hands again when I realised that Twilight wasn't finished, as she got out a chart and levitated it next to her. "Now, as you can see, the weather team increased performance by 14% this year, but at the cost of a 34% decrease of the food team's efficiency. I hypothesise that this is due to..."
I found myself feeling more and more tired as Twilight went on about some of the data for the day, before the mayor cleared her throat loudly after a few minutes. Embarrassed, Twilight blushed slightly. "...So, basically, we did well this year, everypony," she said. "Good luck next year!" As she stepped down from the stage, the crowd dispersed. I made my way over to Twilight with the rest of her friends.
"Wow, great speech, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly once we were within earshot. "I really liked when you talked about how the thingamajig needed to be more... more... wowzaroonie next year!" It was a good thing that Pinkie didn't see Twilight roll her eyes, although she was also smiling a little.
"Thank you, Pinkie. I'm just pleased that everything went so well today!"
"Yes, once more a splendid job!" said Rarity, whilst Fluttershy nodded. Rainbow Dash had been hovering just above us all, but flew down to speak next.
"Well, Twilight's organising may have helped us, but we all know that it was my pegasi team that really helped with the snow and everything!"
"Yeah, but why'd they melt the snow? So that mah plant team could grow all them different types of food!" Applejack countered, although not spitefully. As they friendlily bickered, I noticed that Twilight's saddlebag had some papers coming out of it.
"What are those papers, Twilight?" I asked her, curious. She took a moment to look back at them.
"Oh, these? Just some last minute paperwork I didn't have time to get done today - I'm hoping to finish it tonight, as a matter of fact. Are you ready to head back to the library, Snake and Spike?"
"Sure."
"Yeah. The sooner I can get to bed, the better." Twilight nodded, and turned to the others.
"Well, we'd better head off now - I still have some paperwork to do, Spike wants to get to bed, and Snake no doubt wants to do some reading before the day is completely over. See you tomorrow, everypony!" The rest of Twilight's friends all returned her goodbye, before the three of us headed back to the library.
===================
"So, what did you think of Winter Wrap Up in the end, Snake?" Twilight asked me as I drew Star Swirl the Bearded's Abridged List of Master Spells: Volume Thirteen out from the bookshelf once more.
"Yeah, it was alright," I admitted. I wouldn't have called it fun, but it wasn't as bad as I had been expecting.
"Good to hear!" Twilight replied cheerfully as she started on the final few sheets of paperwork for Winter Wrap Up. "I'm sorry again that I didn't manage to find another job for you - when I wasn't filling out this paperwork, I was trying to manage and look after the teams. You wouldn't believe how many problems can come from simply changing the seasons!"
"Changing the seasons, huh?" I repeated as I flipped through the Abridged List to my bookmark. "A pity there's not a spell for doing that for you ponies, rather than having to do it manually."
"Oh, there is - it's how we used to do things back in Canterlot," Twilight answered whilst refilling the ink of her quill. "But since Ponyville was founded by Earth ponies, it's traditional to do it without magic."
"Huh." Twilight and I continued to fill out paperwork and read, respectively, in silence for the next few minutes. I was nearly at the end of this Abridged List, still hoping to find a spell to transport me back to Shadow Moses. "There are too many useless spells in this," I said, breaking the silence.
"Well, maybe for your situation, Snake," Twilight replied. "But I'll bet that any one of those spells can be useful in the right situation - read out one of the ones from the page you're on now."
"'Apples to Oranges - As the name suggests, this turns apples to oranges'," I read aloud. "See, now what sort of situation could that be useful for?"
"Well... how about if apples were cheaper than oranges at the market, but you'd rather have an orange?" Twilight suggested. "It would be pretty useful then, wouldn't it?" I grimaced.
"Yeah, but that's a pretty specific situation," I said. "And even then, some of these still aren't that useful. Like this one here -Dimension Locator. Can be used to -"
"Dimension Locator?!" Twilight asked loudly in shock. I double-checked the spell.
"Yeah, that's what it say - Can be used to identify the inhabitants and/or contents of any number of different universes. What's the point in knowing if you can't interact with them?"
"That doesn't matter, Snake!" Twilight said happily. "Don't you see - I can use the Dimension Locator spell in conjunction with my teleport spell to send you home!"
"Teleport... spell?" I repeated, never having heard Twilight mention it. "...Are you sure that it could work?" This seemed too good to be true.
"Of course, Snake! There's nothing that could go wrong with it!" Twilight leapt out of her seat and trotted up to me. "Snake, we've found a way to send you home!" |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Ten: Draw! | It took me a long time to get to sleep that night. Even though I was going to be returning to Shadow Moses, which I had wanted to do since the moment I arrived in Ponyville, I was worried about what could go wrong. What if I returned to Shadow Moses to find that the deadline had passed? What if Twilight's spell didn't work after all, and I was still stuck here? Hell, even if everything went fine, and I returned just moments after I left, I would still have to complete my mission, which was dangerous as it was.
I finally managed to drift off to sleep, and slept undisturbed for the night before waking up the next day. Although I had wanted Twilight to try out the spell as soon as she said that it could send me back home, she had insisted on waiting until today, so that the rest of her friends had a chance to say farewell. I had reluctantly agreed - if nothing else, it would be good to get a good night's sleep before facing the terrorists again.
"Morning, Snake!" Twilight said as I walked into her kitchen. "How did you sleep last night?" I shrugged.
"Yeah, pretty well. When are we going to do this?" If I had thought that the time looking for the spell to send me to Shadow Moses had been agonisingly slow, it was nothing next to how it felt now.
"Once you've had some breakfast, if that's not too soon. I've already contacted the others, and we can all meet outside before I perform the spell." Naturally, Twilight had been both efficient and organised.
"After breakfast, huh? Sounds like a plan." I started preparing my breakfast (two pieces of toast and an apple), whilst Twilight double-checked the specifics of the spells that she would be casting.
===================
I went over all of my equipment. I had used up some ammunition and rations during my stay, but otherwise all of my gear was exactly as it had been before Psycho Mantis sent me here. Although I was going to be leaving, I would always have my memories of Ponyville to remind me of my visit. I drew my final cigarette out of the packet - I had been saving it for this occasion.
I was standing just outside the library. All of Twilight's friends were standing around me, whilst Twilight herself was levitating the Abridged List and re-reading the spell she was going to cast. Although she seemed focused on her work, I knew that she was doing so to hide her sadness at me leaving.
"Please don't forget us, Snake," Fluttershy said to me in her quiet voice as I lit the cigarette. "If, um, that's okay with you..." she added quietly.
I gave a low chuckle. "Of course I won't forget! This stay... it's been pretty damn memorable." Each of Twilight's friends stepped forwards, and I leant down to hug them (making sure that I wasn't accidentally breathing cigarette smoke into their faces as I did so). Pinkie Pie was sobbing uncontrollably as I did so - almost comically so.
"I - I never got to bake cupcakes with you!" she bawled as I stood back up. Trust Pinkie to say something as random and non sequitur as that as I prepared to leave. But then again... even as I thought those words, it occurred to me that this might be Pinkie's way of masking her sadness, just as Twilight was hiding hers behind her book. Although it didn't feel as though I had made much of a difference to these ponies' lives, they were still going to miss me, in spite of how little they really knew about me.
"Y-yeah, Pinkie. Sorry," I said, genuinely meaning it. I turned to Twilight. "Is the spell ready? ...Are you?" Twilight levitated the book out of the way.
"Yes, it's all ready. The dimensional-locator spell should automatically teleport you back to your world... to where you were before you arrived here." I gave her a small nod.
"Okay," I said. "Let's do this."
Twilight's familiar purple magical field appeared around her horn as she closed her eyes and started concentrating. I looked at myself to see that the field had also surrounded my body. As Twilight continued concentrating, her horn slowly gradually began to glow white. As it did so, I felt a slight throbbing in my head, which increased as Twilight's horn continued to glow.
The intensity of the throbbing continued to grow until it started hurting me somewhat. I had been wondering what was going on, when it occurred to me that this was what had happened prior to Psycho Mantis sending me to Equestria. It's working! I thought.
Suddenly, just as Twilight's horn didn't seem as though it could get any brighter, there was a bright flash, which appeared at the same time as I heard a loud CRACK! noise. ... ...
I got a sense of dejà vu as I realised that I was lying face-down on the ground, just as I had been when Mantis had transported me to Ponyville. It did work! I thought. Thank you, Twilight!
"H-hey... what happened?" Even though I was face-down in the dirt, I recognised that voice. It wasn't the voice of Psycho Mantis, or any other one of the FOXHOUND terrorists, for that matter. It sounded more like ... Pinkie Pie.
I pulled myself up quickly. Had Pinkie Pie somehow been included in the spell, and sent to Earth alongside me? As I was standing up, I noticed a whistling-like sound... although I couldn't place where I'd heard it before.
Crap. All of the ponies - Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack - were all lying on the ground, as if they had been temporarily knocked out as I seemed to have been. Worse, I was still in Equestria. The spell didn't have seemed to have worked after all!
"Well, what have we here?" a voice behind me rasped. "Is that you, Solid Snake?" I slowly turned around, recognising the voice.
"Ocelot!" Standing before me... somehow... was Revolver Ocelot, a Russian gunman who was a core member of FOXHOUND. I had fought him just hours before facing Mantis. He was wearing the same leather jacket and dark suit that he had been then, and had an ammunition belt slung from his hip to his shoulder. Unlike when I had fought him, his right arm had been severed at the forearm, an act which I had witnessed, and was now wrapped in bandages. The whistling sound I had heard was Ocelot twirling his trademark revolver in his hand.
"Ooh, is that one of your friends, Snake? How'd he get here?" I heard Pinkie Pie say from behind me. I turned around angrily.
"No! He's a deadly enemy of mine, Pinkie! All of you - get out of here!" As I spoke, I drew my SOCOM, the nearest weapon on hand. Although Ocelot only had one hand, I wasn't going to underestimate him for a second. I had no idea why Twilight's spell had brought Ocelot to Equestria rather than sending me back to Earth, but for now, all that mattered was that I stop him before he hurt any innocent ponies.
"What did you do to bring me here?" Ocelot rasped as he slowly started advancing towards me. He was still twirling his gun - toying with me, no doubt. "Mantis contacted me just before and told me that he had dealt with you..."
It took me a moment to realise what that meant. If Mantis had only just contacted Ocelot... then that meant Twilight's theory was correct, and time was passing between the dimensions differently. I couldn't be too sure, but it sounded as though only a few minutes had passed between my encounter with Mantis and the present.
"Tell me, Snake," asked Ocelot as he continued advancing, "where are we?"
"None of your damn business, Ocelot!" I replied. There was no knowing what he would do if he knew that he was in Equestria. I took a quick glance over my soldier to see that the ponies were all peeking around from the side of the library to see what was happening. Obviously none of them realised how serious this could end up being.
"Hmph. Didn't expect to get an answer," Ocelot replied as he stopped advancing. He also stopped twirling his gun, and instead holstered it. "Not that it matters, of course. I have allies all over the world, in virtually every populated area -" surely he had to be exaggerating this "- that are at my command." He mustn't have noticed the ponies, or disregarded them as unimportant, judging by his words. "Snake! Prepare yourself!" Ocelot said dramatically.
As tempted as I was to pull the trigger on my SOCOM, I didn't - having Ocelot here could prove useful. I had already found out from him that time between the two worlds did flow differently, and if nothing else, I might be able to find out more about FOXHOUND's plans if I defeated Ocelot. I tensed myself, wondering what he was going to do next.
"MROWR!!" I jumped back in surprise a little as Ocelot moved his remaining arm in imitation of a cat's claws whilst making that... noise.
"Mrowr?!" I repeated, not understanding what he was doing. Behind me, I could hear Pinkie Pie laughing at the sound of Ocelot's call. "What the hell was that?!" I asked Ocelot, as curious as I was confused. I was trying to draw his attention away from Pinkie and the rest of the innocent ponies.
Ocelot smirked. "You didn't like my little signal, Snake?" he taunted. I decided that it was better not to antagonise him and point out how ridiculous he sounded - especially at his age. He looked around, evidently expecting some sort of response. I prayed that no pony came out of their houses to see what all the fuss was about. It was still fortunately early, so most ponies were still at home.
After a moment, Ocelot seemed to realise that whatever his signal was supposed to do, it wasn't doing it. "Hmph!" he said as he frowned. "I'm proud of you, Snake... you've managed to transport me somewhere the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo's influence doesn't-"
"La-Li-Lu-what?!" I interrupted. It was as if he was making up words on the spot. Could this be something to do with Metal Gear REX? I could hear the sound of not only Pinkie, but of all the ponies laughing at the words Ocelot had just spoken.
In response, Ocelot just smirked. "Don't worry, Snake, I'm sure you'll meet them some day," he cryptically replied. He reached into his holster and drew out his revolver. "But for now, let's finish what we started earlier. You got lucky last time - how will you handle yourself now?"
He aimed his gun at the ground at my feet, and I dove to the side as I realised what he was about to do. My quick thinking had saved me - a moment later, and the shot he fired would have ricocheted from the ground and hit my throat. I aimed my SOCOM at Ocelot, about to shoot, when I was interrupted. A bolt of purple magic flew towards Ocelot and hit him squarely in the chest.
I rolled over to see that my pony allies had all gotten over their laughing fit (minus Pinkie Pie, who was still giggling uncontrollably), and were galloping out to help me fight Ocelot. Twilight was at the front, shooting bolts of magic at Ocelot repeatedly. Behind her were Rarity and Applejack, whilst Rainbow Dash flew straight into Ocelot, knocking him over. Still behind the library, I could see Fluttershy timidly looking out to see how things were going.
I gritted my teeth as I got up. I appreciated their help, but this was far too risky for them to try helping me. Twilight's magic wasn't having a visible effect on Ocelot, and Ocelot himself was currently trying to shoot Rainbow Dash - fortunately, she seemed too agile for him. Acting quickly, I threw a stun grenade at Ocelot whilst he was distracted, whilst leaping to the side at the same time. As I planned, I crashed into Twilight Sparkle, stopping her assault.
"Snake, what are you-"
"Twilight! This man is too dangerous for you! Get out of here! All of you!"
"But we-"
"Now!" The ponies all realised how serious I was, and retreated before Ocelot could recover from the grenade. I could tell that they wanted to be helpful, but now was not the time.
"Would you believe that I'm out of bullets?" Ocelot asked me as he recovered. He swiftly moved away whilst somehow managing to reload with his single hand. "You know, I love to reload in battle! There's nothing -"
"Well, obviously!" I interrupted as I finally got a chance to shoot off a few rounds of my SOCOM. Ocelot's coat seemed to reduce the impact somewhat, but it still felt satisfying. "What did you think the alternative was? To surrender and reload whilst a prisoner?" I myself was now reloading, having emptied my clip.
I took a quick look behind me to see whether the ponies had fled, as I had told them to. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that they had.
Ocelot seemed annoyed at my comment. "You wouldn't understand," he rasped back to me as he fired off two shots. "This reload time - it's exhilarating!" The two of us were now hiding behind cover, leaning over and shooting each other when we felt it was safe. I was tempted to take back what I had said before about him being dangerous - Ocelot was making an idiot of himself.
"Ocelot!" I muttered to myself. "I'll kick your twisted mind out of you!" It was fortunate that I had only said this to myself, as I realised how stupid it sounded a moment later.
"You know, Snake," Ocelot called out as he fired off some further shots at me, which missed once more, "did I mention that I knew Big Boss when he was alive?" I had been about to fire some shots of my own, and this caused me to hesitate. Was it true? Or was Ocelot just trying to screw with my mine, and defeat me whilst I was distracted?
"Three times I fought him," Ocelot continued, "and neither of us could defeat the other." I squeezed the trigger on my SOCOM once more, hearing Ocelot yell in pain as the bullets hit him once again. I was through with this - I just wanted this battle to be over, before any ponies could wander onto the scene and get injured.
"Ocelot! I don't care about you and your damn crush on Big Boss!" I shouted as I got out from behind my cover and started cautiously moving over to his, keeping my SOCOM aimed at his position all the time. I was starting to run out of ammo for my SOCOM, and I wanted to end this quickly.
I was now right in front of Ocelot's cover, which had been an empty market stall. "Get up," I growled, ready to shoot him. I had been stupid not to do so before when he had been talking. I suddenly felt something cold and metal press to my temple.
"Game over, Snake," Ocelot coldly rasped in his gravelly voice. I had no idea how, but he had snuck around the market stall and ambushed me from the side. His revolver was pressed to my temple, and there was no doubt that he would fire it at any moment. Is this it? I wondered. No dramatic fanfare - no chance to try again? Sweat broke out on my brow as I considered the innocent ponies here. What would Revolver Ocelot do to them?
Click! Ocelot had pressed the trigger, but he had apparently been out of bullets - or at least, he had no bullet in the current chamber. I hesitated for a moment, half out of surprise, and half because I hadn't planned for what to do next.
"Hmm...funny," Ocelot muttered. "The last time this happened, I was hit by a motorcycle." I didn't know what he was on about, but I took advantage of the opening to knock his gun out of his hand before he could try something else. I spun around and aimed my SOCOM directly at him. There was no way that he could escape now.
"Ha!" he exclaimed. "That was some fancy close-quarters-combat - you're pretty good!" He made a gesture with his hand resembling a handgun. I was going to shoot him now... but something odd was happening. There seemed to be some sort of ... purple energy surrounding Ocelot. Was this Twilight's doing? "There's no Cyborg Ninja to save you this time, Snake!"
"Ocelot..." I growled, unsure of what to do. Could this glow actually be something he controlled? He seemed oddly confident.
Damn it all. I'd just shoot him, and deal with any consequences later... or at least, that's what I was planning to do. The moment I squeezed the trigger, there was a flash of bright light. The bullets I was firing shot through the space where Ocelot had been before he had disappeared with the light.
And that was it. Somehow, Ocelot was gone.
===================
"Any idea how he could have disappeared like that, Twilight?" Once I had been sure that Ocelot wasn't coming back, I had called Twilight on the codec, and told her what had happened. After I had told them to leave, Twilight and her friends had kept the other citizens of the town away from Ocelot and my battlefield, before retreating to Fluttershy's Cottage. We hadn't mentioned it yet... but they were starting to see how serious my work back on Earth was.
I had joined the group in Fluttershy's Cottage, where they were all drinking tea. "Well, I have a theory," Twilight replied. "It's possible that the spells that accidentally brought Ocelot to Equestria wore off, and sent him back where he had come from. At least, that would seem to be the case." I grunted.
"And you don't know why the spells didn't send me back to Earth?" I asked. That was just my luck, that rather than transferring me to Shadow Moses, the spells brought one of my enemies to Equestria. Twilight shook her head.
"The only idea I can think of is that my teleport spell isn't powerful enough... although why it brought Ocelot here instead, I'm not sure," she replied. "Unless I can find some way to increase the power of my teleport spell, I don't think we'll be able to use that method to send you home, Snake."
"Look on the bright side, Snake!" Pinkie said happily. "Now you get to spend even more time in Ponyville with us!" She suddenly gasped loudly. "This means we CAN bake cupcakes together! Oh, All you have to do is take a cup of flour--"
"Yes, quite," Rarity said, interrupting Pinkie. "But more importantly, now I can finish making you your new suit, Snake! I was so worried when you said that you'd be leaving, but now I have the chance to finish it for you!"
"New suit, huh?" I repeated. As I looked over this group of ponies who had taken me in and accepted me into their friendship group, I was only thinking of one thing. Sure, I hadn't managed to get back to Shadow Moses, and Ocelot arriving could have been deadly to either me or one of these ponies. Maybe I was going to be stuck here for just as long as I already had been.
But at least I was with these ponies... no... at least I was here with my friends. |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Eleven: Pinkie and Snake Bake Cupcakes | The promised day had finally come. All of this waiting... all of this time I had had to kill... it was finally over. I hadn't been sure whether I should have been looking forwards to this moment or fearing it, but now that it was here, I would just have to bite the bullet and find out.
"Stop with the shakin', it's time to get bakin'!" Pinkie Pie called out as she opened the door of Sugarcube Corner. I hadn't even noticed it, but once Pinkie mentioned it, I realised how shaky my hands were. Why am I so nervous about baking? I thought to myself. It's not as if Pinkie's going to drug me and then cut me up.
I stepped inside Sugarcube Corner and took it in. I hadn't seen the need to enter it since I had come to Ponyville, but with Pinkie Pie insisting that I help her bake, I didn't have too much choice. And besides, I had been sort of curious as to what Pinkie's workplace was like.
As it turned out, the store was no more different than any other place in Ponyville. The walls were a bright and cheerful yellow, and it was decorated with plenty of confectionery-like ornaments. I had been expecting something more wild and crazy from a place where Pinkie both worked and lived.
"So, what are we making today, Pinkie?" I asked as I crossed into a kitchen. The shop's closing hours had finished several hours ago, and I was just going to be helping her bake some of the confectionery and pastry that would be sold tomorrow. "Because it's more fun if you help!" had been Pinkie's reason.
"Ooh, how about cupcakes?" Pinkie asked me as she got bowls and cooking utensils out of cupboards. "They're great fun to eat and make! Oh, All you have to -"
"Sounds like a plan," I interrupted before Pinkie could burst into song. I opened some random cupboards, looking for further instruments which we could use in our cooking. Pinkie interrupted me, throwing something at my face.
"Here! Put on this apron!" she said, although not in an unfriendly voice.
"Apron?!" I repeated as I examined what Pinkie had thrown at me. "How'd you get it in my size, Pinkie?"
"Rarity made it, of course!" Pinkie replied, getting out ingredients now. As I started to put the apron on, I noticed the design sewn into it. It was Pinkie Pie's head, only wearing a purple turban with a jewel and feather set in it. She was also wearing two crescent moon earrings.
"What's this?" I asked, confused. "Is it you as a gypsy or something, Pinkie?" Pinkie turned to me from her work and gave me a funny look.
"I'm a baker, not a gypsy! Those two aren't even related!" Before I could say anything else, Pinkie sat down on the floor and put her hooves to her head in thought. "...Or are they?" I decided not to press the issue, and put the apron on compliantly. I couldn't find anything in the cupboards of use, so I went over to Pinkie for direction.
"Okay, what do you want me to do?" I asked gruffly. Although I was staring straight at Pinkie, she somehow managed to dart over to my side and take me by surprise as she answered.
"I'll cook up a solution with the knowledge I've accrued,
They say a -"
"Should I just start creaming the butter and eggs?" I interjected before she could continue her song. Pinkie stopped her singing as I started talking, which was probably a good thing judging by the way she was almost teleporting around the room in her singing frenzy.
"Oh! Yeah, that sounds like a good idea!" Pinkie answered cheerfully. "I can make the icing while you do that!" The two of us started our cooking shortly afterwards, with Pinkie directing me and telling me what to do.
"Tell me, Pinkie..." I started as I added an egg to the mix. She turned her head to me curiously whilst still continuing her own task. "Have you considered making these cupcakes more... useful?"
"Useful how?" she asked. "I tried putting streamers in the mix once before for a surprise, but they just burned in the oven." As she answered, I noticed that there seemed to be less icing in her bowl than there had been earlier, but I decided that it would be better if I didn't point this out.
"What if you filled these cupcakes with, say... cyanide?" Pinkie gestured for me to continue in my suggestion. "Think about it... you could fill them up... leave them for enemy soldiers... and, well, you can see where I'm going from here."
"You mean you could feed your enemies?" Pinkie repeated. I frowned, about to explain what I had been implying. "That sounds great! If there's one way to make new friends, it's by sharing around lots of tasty food!"
"No..." I said slowly, trying not to sound too extreme. "I mean, if the cupcakes are filled with cyanide... and then enemy soldiers ate them..." After a moment of putting two and two together, Pinkie leapt into the air as she worked it out, spraying icing everywhere.
"Oh! I get it!" she shouted enthusiastically. "They have to try and work out what's wrong with the cupcakes! It's like a game!" I sighed as I gave up on this idea.
"Yes, that's exactly it," I said. As she started making more icing, Pinkie turned to me.
"But... why would you fill it with cyanide? That could really hurt some people! You wouldn't be making baked goods, you'd be making... baked bads!"
"Huh, I hadn't thought of that," I said, humouring Pinkie.
"It would be better if you just made the cupcakes normally," Pinkie continued. "Then that way you can eat lots of them, and laugh and grow fat!"
Pinkie had evidently missed the point I was trying to make with the poisoned cupcakes, so I simply grunted rather than correcting her. The two of us continued to bake several batches of cupcakes for the next few hours whilst Pinkie told me some more of her random stories, before we put the cupcakes into the oven to bake. Although I wasn't much of a cook, I was fairly confident that they would come out tasting delicious.
===================
"Oooh, those look much better than the last batch," Pinkie said as I drew a tray of blackened, heavily burnt cupcakes out of the oven. So far, my cupcake making skills had been disastrous. One batch had been burnt down to ash, and another had somehow exploded whilst in the oven. I didn't know how it had happened, but it had happened.
Pinkie was happily chomping down several of these cupcakes, so I reluctantly decided to eat one. "Urgh!" I spat out as much of the cupcake as I could - it tasted like ash. Pinkie continued to eat the rest of the tray.
"Aw, what's the matter, Snake? They taste great!" I gave her a look. I couldn't tell whether she was just saying so for my sake, or whether Pinkie had a bizarre sense of taste.
"Forgive me. Damn!" I said, feeling embarrassed at the horrible way the cupcakes had turned out. After all, Pinkie's job did at least partially rely on how well these cupcakes tasted. "I'm a loser. I'm not the chef you thought I was. I'm nothing! Pinkie, I'm sorry! Forgive me." I realised as I said the words how dramatic they sounded, but at the same time, I didn't want to let any pony down if possible.
"You're not a failure!" Pinkie said happily to me. "I like the way these taste!"
I hesitated. "You like the way these... taste?"
"Yep! Cupcakes taste great, no matter how they're cooked!" As she spoke, there was a ringing sound from a kitchen timer, indicating that the final tray was finished. I sighed, wondering what would have gone wrong this time. "Yum! You have to try some of these, Snake!" Pinkie said as she drew the tray out.
To my surprise, this tray wasn't burnt. (Or at least not as badly burnt as the previous one had been). "So... what does it taste like?" I asked Pinkie Pie as she tried one.
"It'h gud!" she said with her mouth full of cupcake. I hesitantly reached out for one, and put it in my mouth once it had cooled down. To my surprise, it had cooked perfectly, and was much better than the other ones which I had tried.
"So, do you like it? It tastes great, doesn't it?!" Pinkie excitedly said to me. Unable to speak with my mouth full, I gave her a thumbs up to show my approval. "Whee! See Snake, it's just like I've been trying to tell you...
"All you have to do is take a cup of flour!
Add it to the mix!
Now just take a little something sweet, not sour!
A bit of salt, just a pinch!
Baking these treats is such a cinch!
Add a teaspoon of vanilla!
Add a little more, and you count to four,
And you never get your fill of...
Cupcakes! So sweet and tasty!
Cupcakes! Don't be too hasty!
Cupcakes! Cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAKES!" As Pinkie sung her silly song, I repeatedly tried to silence her, but with the cupcake still in my mouth, I was unable to. I sighed, and waited until she had finished. "That was fun! I love cupcakes!" Pinkie Pie said as she bounced around the room.
"Yeah, we did a good job," I grumbled. "Is it okay that most of the cupcakes ended up so... destroyed?" Pinkie nodded.
"That's no problem at all! I got to eat all of the burnt ones, and we can always bake more!"
"Bake... more?" I repeated, thinking about how long it had taken us to bake so far. Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. After a moment of hesitation, I nodded back and smiled. "Sure thing, Pinkie. If we have to, we'll bake until the sun sets!"
"The Cakes come back at five," Pinkie pointed out happily. I avoided her sight for a moment, embarrassed.
"Five?" I repeated. "Well, uh, in that case, we'll bake 'til the Cakes come back if we have to!"
Colonel Campbell looked at his notes and thought carefully. What's missing? he wondered. After a moment, he realised what was wrong - he had drawn himself as Big Boss, punching out the Russian soldier formerly known as The Fury, but had forgotten to add an eye patch to his cartoon face. Much better, he thought once he had finished adding it.
"...and so then she said 'Oatmeal? Are you crazy?!'" Snake finished. He had been so lost in his story that he hadn't noticed the Colonel doodling on his notepad below the table. Snake patiently stubbed out the remains of his cigarette as he waited for Campbell to take notice of him again. It took several minutes.
"Oh, is that what happened? G-good work!" Campbell said once he noticed the silence, hastily putting away his notepad (which in addition to The Fury, also had another soldier, The Fear, being taken out by Campbell-as-Big-Boss). Snake opened his mouth to continue the story, only to have Campbell hold up a hand to silence him.
"Look, Snake, you've spent -" Campbell quickly checked his watch " - two hours going on about what's happened in this... this Equestria place. We're supposed to be hearing about the Shadow Moses Incident, not the... the... the Great Big Pony Adventure!" Colonel Campbell sighed. "What sort of person would want to go to this Equestria place anyway?"
Upon hearing these words, Snake frowned. "It's all relevant Campbell, believe me. I've already told you about what happened with Ocelot, haven't I?" Campbell nodded slowly. "Good. Then you can see that it does relate to the Shadow Moses Incident." Snake leaned forwards over the table slightly, and smirked at Campbell. "Anyway, you might wish that you had gone to Equestria after you hear the next part of my story..." |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Twelve: The Big Shell Incident | "There's no such thing in the world as absolute reality," I began. "Most of what they call real is actually fiction. What you think you see is only as real as your brain tells you it is." I paused for a moment as I let these words sink in.
"Wait, ah don't get it," Apple Bloom said, breaking the silence. "Why is this important again?" I sighed. At the request of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, I was once again trying to help them get their cutie marks, and this time, I was trying to explain to them how you had to find your place in the world to discover who you are. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to get it. The four of us were all in Twilight's library at the moment, alone.
"Can't we just use your box to sneak around in again, Snake?" Scootaloo added. "That was way more fun!"
"NO! I mean, no, you can't Scootaloo," I hastily replied. Although I could empathise with the urge for these fillies to acquire their cutie marks, I didn't want them to do something silly again that would put them in danger. And besides, after what happened last time, I wasn't going to trust my box to anyone.
"How about sneaking?" Sweetie Belle asked. "You could teach us how to sneak around without being caught. Then we'll get our cutie marks for sure!" I sighed again - the Cutie Mark Crusaders were all far too impatient to listen to my carefully thought out speech. I was about to give in and teach the Crusaders something harmless, such as how to crawl through air vents, when the door to the library opened and Twilight Sparkle entered.
"Hello, girls! Hello, Snake! How are things going in here?" she greeted cheerfully. She had been over at Rarity's house for some afternoon tea, which I had politely declined when invited to join in.
"Snake's going to teach us some of the ways he sneaks into places!" Scootaloo answered before I could say anything.
"It's sure to get us our cutie marks!" Sweetie Belle added.
"An' y'all know what that means -"
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SPIES!" the three fillies all shouted in unison. I looked to Twilight apologetically.
"Well, it's not quite like that... but yeah, I was thinking of teaching them some of my... methods," I explained. As I spoke, Twilight nodded to show that she had heard me, whilst focusing more on writing something down on a piece of paper. "What's that you're writing?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Oh, this?" she asked, levitating the paper telekinetically to confirm what I was asking about. I nodded. "It's nothing much - I'm just writing down a reminder that I need to travel to Baltimare in the next few days to visit their local library. They've got some books there that I wouldn't mind having a good read of... come to think of it, they might even have some things to help you find your way home!"
"Find my way... home?" I repeated as I started to think. "How do you mean?"
"Well, it's nothing definite," Twilight answered, "but they're sure to have some spell books there which I don't have, and who knows what could be in them? You might be able to find a spell to transport you home in one of the books... but nothing's guaranteed." I grimaced as I went through this again in my head.
"I'll tell you what, Twilight," I answered after giving it some thought. "If it's okay with you, I'll come with you to Baltimare to check out this library, and -"
"Hey! No fair!" Twilight and I both turned at the sound of Apple Bloom interrupting our conversation. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had been squabbling (presumably over something minor) whilst Twilight and I had been talking, but they had now stopped to join in our conversation. "If Snake's goin' tah Baltimare, then ah wanna come too!"
"You want to... come too?" I repeated, confused.
"Why do you want to come with us to Baltimare?" Twilight asked, just as puzzled as I was. "All we'll probably be doing is borrowing some books from the library and reading them..."
"Because Baltimare is right next to Horseshoe Bay! Duh!" Apple Bloom replied. I looked to Twilight for clarification.
"Horseshoe Bay?!"
"It's a large bay, right near Baltimare," Twilight answered. "Nothing too exciting about it, although I hear that the pegasi usually work to make the weather quite nice most of the year."
"Don't 'cha see?" Apple Bloom answered impatiently. "We can go to the beach and get our cutie marks in swimming! Or... building sand castles! Or somethin' like that!" Behind her, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded enthusiastically in agreement. I honestly didn't know what to say to this, so I turned to Twilight and waited for her opinion.
"Well... if it's okay with your sisters and parents, then it's okay with me," Twilight answered after thinking it over for a moment. She turned to me before continuing. "Snake, you and I will have to go down to the beach to watch over them and make sure that they're safe after we visit the library - is that okay with you?" I nodded. That was reasonable enough.
"Oh, ah know! Ah'll bring Applejack along, too!" Apple Bloom suddenly said, speaking a bit louder than usual in her excitement. "We can build a sandcastle together!"
"Good idea! I'll bring Rarity!" Sweetie Belle said. "...If she likes the beach, that is," she added a moment later.
"And I'll bring - oh... never mind..." Scootaloo started before suddenly going quiet. Twilight put a hoof to her mouth in thought as the three fillies spoke.
"You know what, Snake?" she asked me.
"Huh?" I replied, not knowing what she was going to ask me.
"If Rarity and Applejack are going to come too, then why don't we invite all of our friends to the beach - make a bit of a day of it?" I thought about it for a moment before answering.
"Sure. Why not?" Thanks to Ocelot's brief appearance, I had found out that time was working fairly slowly back on Earth, and with that knowledge, I could afford to spend a day at the beach. And besides, I was going to pick up some books from the library whilst in Baltimare - it wasn't as though the trip was going to be a waste of time. "So, when should we do this?" I asked.
"How about... next Tuesday morning?" Twilight suggested. I nodded, as did the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "Good! Well then, if everypony else is fine with it, we'll take the early train on Tuesday to Baltimare, stop by the library, and then head to the beach!" Once Twilight had finished speaking, the Cutie Mark Crusaders started arguing once more over which activity they should try first to get their cutie marks.
"Beach trip, huh?" I muttered, more to myself than any pony else. I hadn't been to the beach in years, but from the way things were shaping up, it looked like this was going to be a fun trip.
"Wait a minute," Colonel Campbell interrupted. "You're telling me that the reason I'd wish that I had gone to Equestria... is because you and your pony friends took a trip to the beach?!"
Snake shrugged. "Well... it was pretty fun," he answered. Colonel Campbell waited for him to say the real reason why the trip to the beach was so interesting, but was met with silence. After a few moments of awkward silence, Campbell realised that Snake was being serious when he said that it had been fun.
"Snake... honestly, this story is meaningless. Can't you just skip to the end and tell me how you managed to return to Shadow Moses? Or better yet, pretend that this never happened, and that you stopped Psycho Mantis before he could do any of his mind tricks on you?" Although he wasn't saying it out loud, the Colonel was assuming that the entire trip to Equestria had taken place in Snake's head, courtesy of Psycho Mantis's psychic powers.
"No," Snake bluntly answered. "Colonel... I'm the one who stopped the terrorists at Shadow Moses, so therefore it's my story to tell during this debriefing. And if I want to tell you about where Mantis sent me, I will." He stared Campbell in the eye defiantly, almost daring him to raise another objection.
"...Fine. Continue on with your story," Colonel Campbell said, finally relenting. As Snake resumed his story, the Colonel withdrew his notepad from below the table, and continued doodling crude sketches of himself.
"Wow! What great weather!" Twilight Sparkle said as the entirety of our group arrived at the beach the following Tuesday morning. We had already been to the Baltimare library, and despite Twilight's best efforts to borrow every single book contained within, we had eventually left with as much as we could carry, and were now at the beach.
"Well, duh," Rainbow Dash said, although not condescendingly. "The Baltimare pegasi are under special orders to keep the weather at Horseshoe Bay in top condition for most of the year - it helps the tourism up." As we all stepped onto the warm, dry sand, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who had been trotting ahead of us for most of the trip, all ran off away from our group, eager to start the next activity in the hopes of getting their cutie marks.
Every pony had their own plans for what to do now that we were at the beach. Rarity was getting a beach umbrella out from a bag. Twilight had stretched out a towel and was now lying down on it to start reading one of the books which she had borrowed from the library. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were throwing an oversized beach ball to each other. Slightly down the beach, Applejack was chasing after the Cutie Mark Crusaders, joining them in whatever game they were playing. Finally, Fluttershy was over at some nearby rock pools, presumably searching for some of the wildlife which she couldn't encounter back home in Ponyville.
"So what are your plans now that we're actually here?" Twilight asked me, as she telekinetically opened her book to the first page (whilst being careful not to accidentally get any sand on it).
"I'm not sure," I admitted as I watched Pinkie Pie tackle Rainbow Dash into the water. I had come to Baltimare for the library more than the beach, and hadn't actually thought about what I would do now that I was here. "I guess I'd go for a swim, if I wasn't wearing my sneaking suit..."
"You enjoy swimming?" Twilight asked me, sounding surprised.
"Swimming?!"
"Yeah, you know - where you move around in the water," Twilight answered, sounding a bit more snarky now.
"Move around in the water, huh?" I asked. "I was thinking more that it's been a while since I've practiced underwater infiltration... It's not like I can let my skills grow rusty..."
"Your underwater infiltration - of course. Why didn't I think of that?" Twilight replied.
"You'd like to go for a dip in the water, as it were, Snake?" Rarity suddenly interjected. I looked over to her. She'd been carefully telekinetically spreading out a towel below her beach umbrella so that it was as straight as possible, and was now lying on it. Apparently she had overheard Twilight and I. "If so, then today is your lucky day!"
"Lucky day, huh?" I asked. "What makes you say that?"
"It just so happens that I have prepared a bathing suit for you -"
"Huh?!"
" - in preparation of today's outing," Rarity continued, ignoring my shock. Without moving from where she was, she telekinetically opened a nearby saddlebag, and withdrew a white pair of board shorts from it, which fortunately looked to be my size.
"...How did you know what size I am?" I asked after a moment. It was something which I had been wondering about since I had received the apron from Pinkie Pie, courtesy of Rarity.
"Oh darling, please, I am a dressmaker - it's my job to know what size to make everypony's clothes. Now, would you like to try them on?"
"Uh... sure, I guess..." I said reluctantly as I looked for a place to change. A few minutes later, I had changed into the board shorts, and I was back on the beach with Twilight and Rarity.
"Huh, these are pretty good," I complimented Rarity. "I guess I'll head into the water now. Thanks, Rarity," I said before heading down to the water. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were slightly further up the beach, still playing with the beach ball. Just up ahead of me were the Cutie Mark Crusaders, splashing about in the shallow waters whilst being watched over by Applejack. I assumed that the Crusaders were trying some sort of far-fetched scheme to get a cutie mark in swimming, or something similar.
As I approached the group of fillies and the older mare, they stopped what they were doing to pay attention to me. "Is that Rarity's super-secret project that you're wearing?" Sweetie Belle asked me excitedly. I smiled slightly before answering.
"Yeah, it is. I'm guessing that you knew about it?"
"She's been working on that for weeks! Do you like it?"
"Yeah, these board shorts are pretty comfy," I replied. I was going to keep heading into the water, when a thought struck me. "Hey, girls. You remember that I was going to teach you infiltration tactics?" The Crusaders all nodded enthusiastically. "Here, I'll show you how I got into the last place I needed to."
With that, I headed a bit further into the water, before taking a deep breath and diving under the water. Although I had actually made it to Shadow Moses Island through a one-man Swimmer Delivery Vehicle, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to show the girls some underwater swimming techniques.
After I had swum out far enough, and felt myself running out of breath, I resurfaced. I realised that whilst the Cutie Mark Crusaders wouldn't have been able to actually see me swimming, the distance that I had covered would hopefully impress them, and sate their need to learn more from me.
As I breathed in, I turned myself around in the water to look back to shore. I couldn't see very well, but most of the ponies both on the beach and in the water were looking in my direction and shouting. It wasn't until I pushed my wet fringe out of my eyes that I realised what was wrong - Sweetie Belle was missing from the group. As I started to feel myself growing anxious, Rainbow Dash zoomed over to me.
"Snake! Sweetie Belle tried following you - she's gone underwater and hasn't come back up!"
"Shit!" I answered as quickly as I could before diving back under the water again. I thrashed my way through the water, looking through the salt for the flash of white which would reveal Sweetie Belle's presence to me. I found her quickly, and got over to her as fast as I could; not even considering taking the time to resurface for air.
Fortunately, I could see that Sweetie Belle was still moving slightly in the water - she must have still had some oxygen in her lungs. I grabbed her (it was a good thing that she was so small), and kicked my legs, trying to reach the surface as quickly as I could. Fortunately, once we had breached the surface, Sweetie Belle started coughing and spluttering almost immediately - she was alright.
Whether it had been due to the panic or the fact that I had held my breath for so long, my heart was beating as frantically as it could. I hit Sweetie Belle slightly on her back to help with her coughing. I was starting to calm down now that I knew that Sweetie Belle would be okay.
At the shore, the rest of the ponies were all standing together, trying to see what was happening - at the distance Sweetie and I were from them, they probably couldn't tell, and for whatever reason, Rainbow Dash wasn't flying out. Helping keep Sweetie Belle afloat with one arm, I activated my codec communicator with my other.
"Snake, what's your status?" Twilight asked as my codec connected with her spell. Although she sounded concerned about Sweetie and me, she was trying to be as professional about this as possible.
"Twilight? I've got Sweetie Belle here... we've managed to avoid drowning!" I answered, perhaps a little bit more enthusiastically than I should have.
"Good job. Get her over to the shore as soon as you can." I confirmed that I could do so, before slowly paddling back to the shore. I more or less had Sweetie Belle tucked under my arm - although she assured me that she could swim, I wasn't going to risk her getting sucked under the water by a large enough wave.
We made it back to shore in one piece, at which point all of the other ponies came galloping up to us. Before I could say or do anything, Rarity telekinetically used a towel to harshly whip my face.
"What were you thinking, Snake?! My little sister could have drowned!" I winced and rubbed my cheek where she had hit me.
"I didn't do anything -Sweetie Belle who followed me into the water of her own accord." I turned to Sweetie Belle, who seemed to have mostly recovered. "Sweetie Belle, why did you follow me?"
Sweetie Belle clearly realised that she had done something wrong, as she avoided everyone's gaze. "I - I just wanted to follow Snake and see how he does things... I thought that I could maybe get my cutie mark..." Rarity moved closer to her sister and began nuzzling her to comfort her.
"Oh, Sweetie, I know that you didn't mean any harm, but you can't just do things like that without supervision - you have to be careful around water, you know," Rarity said.
"I know..." Sweetie Belle said dejectedly. There was a moment of silence from everyone before Twilight Sparkle spoke up.
"Well, it sounds like we've all learned a valuable lesson from this! Who wants to join me in writing a letter to Celestia?" As she spoke, we all started moving away from the water and back to the area where we had left our belongings.
"Who is this Celestia, anyway?" I asked curiously. I had heard the name several times during my stay in Ponyville, but so far I still had no idea whom it was or why they were so important.
"I haven't mentioned Princess Celestia to you, Snake?" Twilight asked. "She's the ruler of Equestria, who raises the sun every morning with her magic. Her sister Luna raises the moon at night."
"We send Celestia letters from time to time on the magic of friendship," Fluttershy added quietly.
"Magic of friendship, huh?" I repeated. "Wonder what she'd say if a human sent her one?" Twilight chuckled slightly before answering.
"Come to think of it, I haven't even told Celestia that you're in Ponyville! I should probably do that, shouldn't I?" I shrugged as we reached our belongings. Some pony had packed a towel for me, and I spread it out and sat down as I answered.
"It's no big deal, really. If you've heard of humans, then I'm sure that the ruler of Equestria has." I let out a short, sharp laugh. "Hell, I'll bet she's probably even got a human as an advisor or something at the moment!"
"Well, I somehow doubt that," said Twilight as she got out the book she had been reading earlier, missing the humour I had been trying to convey. I decided that for the moment it was probably best if I stayed out of the water, and got out a book of my own to start reading for the next few hours.
===================
The rest of the day continued as it should have - Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie set up a game of beach volleyball which every pony and myself joined in (my team lost); Applejack joined the Cutie Mark Crusaders in building a sandcastle (despite the complexity, none of the Crusaders got a cutie mark in sandcastle-making); and Rainbow Dash was buried in the sand, much to her discomfort.
"Oh my! Isn't this one beautiful, Snake?" asked Fluttershy as she picked up a seashell with one of her wings. She had spent the past few minutes looking for shells to collect along the beach. I was joining her out of a need for something different to do.
"Beautiful, huh? Yeah, it's not bad, I guess." To my eyes, it looked just like any other shell you could find on the beach, but I wasn't going to ruin the experience for Fluttershy. We kept walking along past the rock pools which Fluttershy had been examining earlier before we came upon a pretty extraordinary sight.
Half-buried in the sand was a large spiral shell. Although we couldn't see the entire size of it, the big shell looked to be around the size of a pony. "What do you think of that shell, Fluttershy?" I asked her, half-jokingly.
"Oh my, it's very big..." Fluttershy said as she cautiously trotted up to it. After a moment of hesitation, she tapped it with her hoof. Despite no outwards sign of anything happening as a result of this, Fluttershy flinched. It was almost as if she were expecting a gigantic crab to emerge from it.
"Wow! What's that big shell?" The Cutie Mark Crusaders had appeared from nowhere, and were fascinated by the size of the big shell.
"Who cares? Ah just wanna go swimmin', so that I can get mah cutie mark in deep sea divin'!" Apple Bloom answered.
"But the water makes me feel funny!" Sweetie Belle protested. I didn't know whether she wanted an excuse not to go into the water again after her near-drowning experience earlier, or whether she was making a legitimate claim, but the point was irrelevant either way.
"Who cares about that? Let's get this big shell out of the sand!" Scootaloo said, ignoring her two friends.
"Girls, I - I really think that you shouldn't -" Fluttershy began quietly as the Cutie Mark Crusaders all tried pulling the big shell out.
"Let them have their fun, Fluttershy," I said to her. "It's not like it will hurt them if they pull it out of the sand, will it?" As I spoke these words, it suddenly occurred to me that with my luck, there would probably be some sort of new Metal Gear hidden below the big shell. At least, if we were on Earth, that probably would have been the case.
After a few more minutes of struggling, during which Fluttershy and I patiently watched the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they finally managed to pull the entirety of the shell out of the sand. "Wow! This thing is huge!" said Apple Bloom. As I had guessed, the big shell was around the size of a regular-sized pony, making it roughly twice as big as the fillies.
"Huh. Good job pulling that out of the sand, girls," I said to them. I turned to Fluttershy to ask her something, only to see her opening her mouth and screaming. "Huh?!" I looked back at the shell, and to my surprise, a gigantic crab was crawling out of the bottom half of the big shell!
"Girls, get out of there!" Fluttershy said as she regained some of her composure. As if she needed to - the three fillies were already galloping away from the crab as fast as they could.
"Snake! Do something!" said Scootaloo as she ran past Fluttershy and I, heading back to the rest of our group.
"Do something?! What with?"
"Don't 'cha have your equipment on you? Like when we were in the Everfree Forest?" Apple Bloom questioned, temporarily stopping her fleeing to talk.
"No - why would I be able to access my equipment when I'm only wearing a pair of boxer shorts?" I asked Apple Bloom in return.
"Well... ah was just wonderin' how else yah could access all o' that stuff you've got - it doesn't seem like yah could fit it all in your suit." I opened my mouth and was about to explain, when Fluttershy interrupted.
"There's no time for this! Girls, get out of here! Snake, stop that crab!" I gave her a funny look.
"...Why? It's not doing anything to hurt us," I pointed out. In fact, since the crab had come out of the big shell, it had just stayed in the same spot, waving its antennae around harmlessly. "And anyway, aren't you supposed to be really good with animals?" I added. It wasn't so much that I didn't want to fight the crab; it was more that I couldn't see the point.
"This is a special type of crab- a Big Shell! It - it eats meat!" Fluttershy said fearfully. I made a mental note not to tell Fluttershy that I myself ate meat. I sighed - it looked like I was going to have to take out this innocent crab.
"Fine - it'll have to be a crab battle, then," I said to Fluttershy as the crab continued to wave its antennae obliviously. "What are you going to do?"
"I'll go and tell the others not to come around here!" she said as she flew into the air. Of course you will, I thought. How come it was that whenever I had to fight something, I always did it on my own? "Good luck, Snake!"
Sighing once more, I took a few steps towards the crab - the Big Shell, as Fluttershy had called it. "Urgh - this sucks," I said to myself. What did Fluttershy expect me to do, anyway? Punch out the - "Aargh!" The Big Shell had slashed at me with a claw - and without my sneaking suit to resist the damage, my side was bleeding quite badly.
"You bastard!" I grunted at the Big Shell. Now I was pissed off. Jumping back to avoid another claw swipe, I ran forwards and punched it in one of its bulbous, black eyes. The Big Shell let out a funny noise, and started flailing its claws and antennae, presumably in pain.
I was tempted to continue attacking the Big Shell, but decided to back off instead. The Big Shell started slowly pulling its enormous body towards me, so I kicked some sand at it. "Consider this a warning," I said to it. I was still bleeding pretty badly, and despite what I had said to Fluttershy, I didn't really want to attack this crab.
I headed back around the rock pools to where the rest of the group were. It was getting late in the day, and they had started to pack up the beach equipment. As I approached, several ponies came cantering up to me.
"Are you okay, Snake?"
"Didja stop that Big Shell? They're pretty dangerous, ya know."
"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered, covering my wound with a hand in a weak attempt to stop the bleeding. I went over to a basket which some pony had brought, and ate a tin of rations to give my body a chance to heal. Once I had finished, I changed back into my sneaking suit before assisting with the packing up of the equipment, which fortunately didn't take too long.
"So, did everypony have a good day?" asked Twilight Sparkle as we all waited at the Baltimare train station shortly afterwards. Every pony nodded in agreement, whilst the Cutie Mark Crusaders started going over the events of the day and trying to work out why they hadn't gotten their cutie marks yet.
"Yeah, it was pretty good," I answered in direct response to Twilight's question. "Let's just not talk about that... Big Shell incident again. I'd rather forget that." Thinking about it again, it almost made me wish that another FOXHOUND operative had faced the Big Shell rather than myself.
Before too long, the train to Ponyville arrived, and we departed, still talking about the events of the day. As I sat down on the train, I looked over the bag of library books which Twilight and I had borrowed from the Baltimare library. Although I didn't realise it at the time, one of these books would provide Twilight Sparkle with the information needed to help get me back to Shadow Moses. |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Thirteen: The Best Night Ever | "...I know, Twi - why don't we tell Snake about that time we had to break into the Royal Canterlot Library?" Pinkie Pie said excitedly.
"Such a good idea!" Twilight agreed. Twilight's group of friends - Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack - were all staying over at the library with us tonight. Although it was already nearing midnight, they had spent most of the time so far telling me about some of their past adventures, and didn't look to be stopping anytime soon.
"It all started in this library," Twilight began. "As I was preparing my monthly schedule one morning, I was interrupted by my future self, who had travelled back in time. She had come to tell me something important, but because of her ragged appearance, I assumed that she wanted to warn me of some sort of upcoming disaster."
"You had travelled back in time to prevent a disaster?" I repeated. I shook my head disapprovingly. "You can't go changing the future like that! You'll create a time paradox!" All of the ponies, who were sitting around on some extra beds which Twilight had set up, laughed at this. "I was being serious," I grumbled to myself quietly.
"Anyway, after spending nearly a week trying to stop this non-existent disaster," Twilight continued, "Pinkie Pie, Spike and I all snuck into the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the Royal Canterlot Library - I was hoping to find a spell to stop time, and therefore the disaster."
"Time paradox!" I repeated, reinforcing what I had said moments ago. It was the sort of advice which I was sure that Colonel Campbell would give if time travel were possible on Earth. "So what happened in the end, anyway?" I added, curious now.
"Well, we managed to get into the library, but after a while, I realised that there was no disaster to worry about," Twilight said. "Pinkie Pie found a spell which could send me back in time for a few moments, which I used to try and tell my past self not to worry so much - and the rest is history, I suppose."
"You suppose, huh?" I repeated. "Where is this Canterlot place, anyway? It sounds pretty important."
"Well, duh! The Wonderbolts perform there all the time!" Rainbow Dash said enthusiastically. I turned to another pony in the hopes of more useful information.
"You know that city in the mountains, which we can see quite clearly from down here in Ponyville?" Rarity asked me. I nodded as I recalled it. "That is Canterlot! Oh, the prestige! The fashions! The culture! If the ponies there weren't so high-and-mighty, I would likely move there in an instant!"
"Not to mention that Princess Celestia lives there," Twilight Sparkle added.
"Personally, I just like the different types of critters which live in the Canterlot Gardens," Fluttershy said, smiling as she did so.
"Really?" Rainbow Dash asked her fellow pegasus, looking confused by this statement. "After what happened at the Grand Galloping Gala?" Every pony in the room gave a small shudder, as if repressing painful memories.
"Oh, I'm sure that I was just too hasty and impatient that time," Fluttershy explained. "They're still all wonderful creatures."
"What's the Grand Galloping Gala?" I asked, feeling as though I was missing something. I vaguely remembered being asked about it on my first day in Ponyville, but I hadn't had it explained properly.
"It's the most horrible and boring event ever!" Pinkie Pie said, frowning slightly. "It sounds like it'll be tons of fun, but it's not!"
"It's full a' upper-class, stuck up, snobbish ponies!" Applejack agreed.
"The Wonderbolts aren't stuck up," Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath.
"It's not that bad - it's just not perfect," Fluttershy countered.
"It could be better, true, but for what it is, it is enjoyable enough - provided you know who to avoid," Rarity said. None of this had provided me with answers.
"Could be better, huh?" I repeated. "So what is it exactly?"
"It's an annual event held at Canterlot Castle," Twilight explained. "It's basically a ballroom dance and upper-class party."
"PARTY?! Those ponies should be sued for false advertising!" Pinkie Pie added, apparently feeling very invested in the subject.
"Anyway," Twilight continued, "the next Gala is coming up soon - Princess Celestia has sent us all free tickets to attend, but we haven't decided whether we want to go this year or not."
"Why bother thinking about it?" I asked. "It sounds like none of you really enjoy it."
"The Gala itself isn't that amazing," Rainbow Dash explained, "but we've learned from past experience that spending time together in Canterlot is good fun. So that's why we're not sure whether we should attend or not."
"How long do you have to decide?" I asked. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I could hear the rational part of my brain asking why I was so interested in this girly Gala gunk, but I repressed these thoughts.
"It's in just under two weeks," Twilight said. "In fact, now that I think about it, I think that it's the same night that we're planning to send you back, Snake!"
"That soon, huh?" I asked. Hearing this reminded me of that day, not too long ago, when Twilight Sparkle had found a definite solution to send me back to Earth...
===================
"That constellation is Canis Major, Snake - not Minor," Twilight explained as she showed me through her telescope. To tell the truth, I wasn't that interested in astronomy, but I chose to humour Twilight rather than outright tell her.
"Canis... Major?" I repeated, trying to sound interested. Fortunately, Twilight fell for it.
"Yes - it's an easy constellation to spot, once you know how to," she explained.
"I never would have put you down as a fan of astronomy, Twilight," I said as I tilted the telescope around in a random direction. "I'm surprised that you borrowed so many books from the Baltimare library on it."
"Well, after reading, astronomy is one of my favourite hobbies," Twilight said as she took over the telescope from me. "There are so many interesting things out there in space - look at this meteor shower, for instance!" She moved aside so that I could look through the eyepiece again. Sure enough, there were a series of white dashes hastily moving through the night sky.
"Does this particular shower have a special name, or anything?" I asked, struggling for something to say.
"No, I don't believe that this one does," Twilight said as she flipped through one of the books which she had brought from Baltimare. "That reminds me, though - I should look to see whether there are any upcoming astrological phenomena that will be visible from Ponyville." As Twilight continued reading her astronomy book, I took it as an excuse to walk away from the telescope and back to where I was doing some reading of my own.
Unfortunately, it looked as though Twilight had been correct when she had assumed that the spell books I had borrowed may not contain a definite way to return me to Earth. In fact, aside from the covers, the books that I had borrowed were almost exactly the same as some of the books in Twilight's library, with a few more useless spells thrown in.
I occasionally found myself wondering whether I would never return to Earth, and be stuck in Equestria forever. I was adapting to Equestria fairly well, but it was still a worrying thought. For all I knew, something in the air here could cause me to age faster than I should have naturally been, and leave me drowning in time. Well, if it turned out to be impossible for me to return to Earth, at least I would have another project to work on whilst in Equestria - finding a way to manufacture cigarettes.
After flipping past another spell which was useless to me ("Increase the strength of your telekinesis! You'll be lifting up train cars in no time!"), I voiced my frustration. "These spell books are just as useless as the ones that were already here, in your library!" I said. "There's nothing here to help me at all!"
Twilight walked down the stairs by her telescope, to where I was lying on my stomach, reading. She lay down next to me and sighed. "I'm sorry, Snake, but I did warn you that there might not be a solution to allow you to return in these books. I'm sure that there's a way, though - I know I've read one somewhere!"
"Have you really, or are you just saying that to make me feel better?" I asked bitterly. In retrospect, the frustration of not finding a spell, combined with the voice in my brain begging for nicotine, was making me much more impatient than usual.
"I'm certain that I've read of one before," Twilight confirmed, "but I just don't know where! We were so close with that other combination -if only my teleportation spell was more powerful!"
"More... powerful?" I asked. It was the first time that she had mentioned this, and it was giving me an idea.
"Yes - I've given it some thought, and conducted some research, and I'm certain that it was because of my teleportation spell being too weak that I accidentally brought Ocelot to Equestria, instead of sending you back to Earth."
"Ocelot," I muttered as I clenched my fists. "It's a good thing that he returned to Earth after the spell wore off - or he would regret it," I said. If he had hurt any innocent ponies, I would have cut off his remaining arm - at the very least. "But still," I said, continuing on from what I had been thinking earlier, "you say that you need to increase the strength of your teleportation spell? Is there any way to do that?"
"Weeeeelllll..." Twilight began, giving it some serious thought, "... the Element of Magic might be able to increase my magical prowess - it can do some pretty amazing things."
"The Element of Magic?" I repeated. This was new to me.
"Oh, it's one of the Elements of Harmony," Twilight explained. "My friends and I each have the ability to wield one of them - when used together, they can perform powerful magic. But what most ponies don't know is that each Element can be used on its own - they're just much weaker by themselves."
Although this sounded promising to me, Twilight Sparkle shook her head sadly. "But I doubt whether it would be able to increase the power of my spell just like that -" here, Twilight stomped a hoof on the floor softly, which I supposed was the pony equivalent of clicking your fingers "- it would probably need to be used in conjunction with some other magical effect." This didn't seem to make much sense to me, but I supposed that Twilight was the expert here, not me.
"So you need the Element of Magic, alongside another unknown magical effect, in order to send me back home?" I asked. Although it wasn't much to go on, at least I had a new lead on how I could return to Shadow Moses to resume my mission. "What sort of magical effect would you be looking for?" I asked, flipping to the Contents page of the spell book I had in front of me.
"Some sort of magical field, really," Twilight said as she gave it some thought. "Something like... oh my gosh! That's it!" She stood up and cantered back up the stairs to her telescope. After a moment of waiting to see what she would do, I picked myself up and followed her.
"What is it, Twilight?" I asked her. She was frantically flipping through the astronomy book which she had been reading earlier. After a moment, she found what she was looking for.
"This is it, Snake! This is how I can send you home for sure this time!" she said excitedly. She levitated the book up so that I could see what she was talking about.
"A meteor shower over Ponyville?" I questioned as I skimmed over the page. "That's nice, but how does that get me home?"
"Don't you see, Snake?" Twilight levitated the book back so that she could read from the page. "This upcoming meteor shower contains meteors made of Magicinesium - they'll give off the right kind of magical field that I can use the Element of Magic with!"
"So... if you get the Element of Magic, you can send me home as long as this meteor shower flies over Ponyville?" I asked. It sounded sketchy to me, and I questioned how Twilight could know that the meteors would project the right sort of magical field, but I wasn't going to complain if this really was a solution.
"Yes, that sounds about right," Twilight said as she went over the book again. "The meteor shower will fly over Canterlot prior to Ponyville, but that won't really affect us... I'll have a five minute window to perform the spell, which should be fine... Yes, it looks as though this really will get you home, Snake!"
Although this sounded like good news, part of me was still a little sceptical that nothing was going to go wrong, especially with the way that Ocelot had been brought to Equestria the last time that Twilight had tried sending me home. Still, Twilight had identified the problem that had happened the last time she had tried sending me home, so hopefully this time she would be successful.
"When is this meteor shower?" I asked as I realised that I might still have to wait for a while before I could return to Shadow Moses.
"You're in luck, Snake - a little over two weeks from now!" Twilight said. "It's a good thing that we found this now - it would have been terrible if we had only found out after the meteor shower had passed!"
"Two weeks, huh?" I repeated. "I can handle that. And where's this Element of Magic kept?"
"In Canterlot Castle, with the rest of the Elements of Harmony," Twilight replied. "I'll send a letter to Princess Celestia in the morning requesting it - I'd be amazed if she has a problem with me using it." She put a hoof to her chin as she thought of something else. "You know, Snake, if you're going to be leaving Equestria soon, we should probably organise something with all the girls - give you a nice send-off."
"...What were you thinking of?" I asked, not sure whether I liked the way that this was going.
"Well, Pinkie Pie is the best at parties - all the ponies will agree -"
"No thanks," I interrupted. "I'm not really the partying sort," I lied, in reality thinking of how chaotic a Pinkie Pie party would probably be.
"Well then, how about a sleepover?" Twilight suggested after another moment of consideration. Truth be told, I didn't really want any sort of large send-off, but a sleepover... this I could handle.
"Yeah, alright," I said after a moment of thinking it over. "Sounds like a plan..."
===================
"... remember that changeling that tried to be me?" Pinkie Pie asked, laughing slightly as she said so.
"Yeah, but that was only because you asked it to, remember?" Rainbow Dash replied, although she was chuckling slightly too.
"Changeling, huh? ...What are we talking about again?" I had been so caught up in thinking about the past that I had lost track of the conversation going on. It just went to show that as much as the past could influence someone, the memories people have are burdens that they have to carry. It doesn't matter if they're -
"My brother Shining Armour's wedding to Princess Cadance," Twilight Sparkle said, interrupting my train of thought. "We ended up under attack from changelings - it's a pity that you weren't here at the time."
"Why's that?" I asked, confused. Although it had probably been mentioned earlier when I was reminiscing, this was the first that I had heard of Twilight having a brother, or of these changeling creatures - whatever they were.
"Judgin' by the way you saved the Cutie Mark Crusaders from th' Everfree Forest, ah'd say that you'd 'a been mighty useful in helpin' us fight those Changelings," Applejack answered.
"I guess so," I replied dully. "Did Shining Armour and ... the Princess's wedding work out in the end?"
"Yes, everything was fine once the changelings were forced out of Canterlot," Twilight replied. "Say, Snake... do you have any siblings?"
"Yeah..." I replied slowly. "I've got a twin brother - his name's Liquid Snake."
"Liquid Snake?!" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding shocked. "What a stupid name! It's the exact opposite of yours!"
"Well... I'm sure there's a point to it..." I said. Now that Rainbow Dash had brought it up, it occurred to me that it was kinda weird that Liquid's name was the exact opposite of mine.
"Ooh! Is there a Gas Snake?" Pinkie Pie added cheerfully.
"How about a Solidus Snake?" Twilight suggested. I got the impression that these ponies thought that my brother's name was silly, but were too polite to laugh at it.
"Solidus Snake? What the hell is a solidus?" I asked Twilight. Surely she was just making words up now to tease me.
"It's a state of matter in-between a solid and a liquid, Snake," Twilight explained to me. I grimaced a little.
"It still seems a little... unlikely," I said. I thought it over for a moment. "If I did have a second brother, his name would probably be..."
"Gas Snake! Gas Snake!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly, wanting her suggestion to be chosen.
"I was going to say Vapour Snake. That sounds much better," I said, before shrugging. "Not that it matters - I only have one brother."
"Really, Snake?" Rainbow Dash asked, with a look of mischief upon her face. "How do we know that this second brother isn't someone important, and you're just jealous of him?" Although I knew that Rainbow Dash was just teasing me, I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, I've secretly got a second brother, and he's the ruler of my country," I said sarcastically. "...Actually, it's probably a good thing that I don't have another brother," I added as I thought about how I still had to face Liquid when I returned to Shadow Moses.
"Why not? Don't you get on with Liquid?" Twilight asked, sounding concerned now.
"I've never even met him," I admitted to her, "but when I do, it'll probably be... violent." I hadn't even thought about how my confrontation with Liquid would play out, but as I spoke, I started picturing it in my mind for the first time...
===================
In my mind's eye, I was in Shadow Moses once more. I opened a small, nondescript door, to find myself in a control room, where Liquid Snake was operating a control panel - presumably preparing to fire a nuclear missile from Metal Gear REX.
"LIQUID!!!!!" I shouted as I withdrew my SOCOM pistol and pointed it at him. He turned away from the control panel, and faced me.
"BRRRRROTHER!!!!" he replied, drawing out the word. For some reason, in my mind I was picturing Liquid with an exaggerated British accent.
===================
...No, the more I thought about it, I doubted whether our eventual confrontation would play out anything like that. Surely it would consist of more than the two of us shouting each other's name loudly. "Anyway, it doesn't matter," I said. "I'll see Liquid when I return to Earth - for now, that's all in the future."
"An excellent point, Snake," Twilight agreed. "That friend of yours that you mentioned to me a few weeks ago - Grey Fox, was it? Do you think that he'll be happy to see you when you return?" I thought back to when I had faced Grey Fox in Shadow Moses. It seemed so long ago now.
"Hurt me more, Snake! Harder! HARDER!" I grimaced at the memory of my former friend being in so much agony, both physical and mental, that he wanted me to end his life in one final battle. "Yeah, he'll probably love the sight of my face," I said, with only a hint of sarcasm. "Let's - let's talk about something different," I added, not wanting to think about the wreck of a human being which my mentor had become.
There was a moment of silence as the ponies tried to think of a new topic. "Hey Snake!" Rainbow Dash said, breaking the silence. "Remember that trick I was practicing a few weeks ago? I finally perfected it!"
"You mean the..." I struggled to remember the name of the stunt which Rainbow Dash had shown me when I first arrived in Equestria. "...Sonic Cloudboom?"
"No - the other one, of course!" Rainbow corrected.
"Wait - you've been workin' on a trick other than the Cloudboom?" Applejack asked Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash gave a small chuckle.
"Yeah - the second one's not as impressive as the Cloudboom, so I decided to show it to Snake before I showed any of you guys. That way I could tell whether it was any good or not!"
"Is it, Snake? Is it is it is it?!" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.
"Yeah, it's pretty good," I said, giving my honest opinion. Before I could add more, Rainbow Dash interrupted me.
" 'Pretty good'? Now that I've perfected it, it's way better than just 'pretty good'!" She made a sound of disgust. "You need to get better at your compliments, Snake - remember how I had to give you a lesson on how to cheer?" I grimaced slightly as I recalled the day, several weeks ago, when Rainbow had shown me her new trick...
===================
"Now - what have we learned?" Rainbow Dash asked me, flying back-and-forth in front of me. She was at eye level.
"Not to hang around arrogant pegasi," I muttered too quietly for her to hear me. She flew right up to my face.
"Excuse me? What was that?"
"Loss of control," I growled, saying the first thing which came into my head. She flew back to where she had been a moment ago, and nodded. "Screaming and hollering," I added , trying to remember what she had said when she had lectured me on cheering a few minutes ago.
"Yes - and most importantly?"
"Passion!" I said, remembering the final thing she had told me.
"Right!" Rainbow Dash said, landing as she said so. She looked up to me as she continued. "So now that you know the elements of a good cheer, let's hear one!" I gritted my teeth. I didn't want to do this.
"Good job, Rainbow Dash," I deeply said in my gravelly voice. Rainbow Dash put a hoof over her eyes in frustration.
"Urgh - you're gonna cheer for me like that?!"
"Yeah. So?"
"Louder!" she said, exasperated.
"Good job, Rainbow Dash!"
"Louder!"
"Good job, Rainbow Dash!" The pegasus closed her eyes and shouted at me -
"LOOOOUDER!!" I clenched my fists as tight as I could, and gritted my teeth even harder. Anything to get this over with.
"Good job, Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow Dash's legs collapsed and she fell to the ground, apparently giving up on the idea of teaching me how to cheer properly. "Too loud?" I asked sarcastically.
===================
"Yeah, I remember," I answered Rainbow Dash, "but it all worked out in the end, right?" She rolled her eyes and muttered something to herself which I couldn't make out properly.
All throughout the rest of the night, the six ponies and I stayed up, telling stories to one another, and singing songs - which of course, I declined joining in. As each pony began to grow drowsier and close their eyes, Twilight turned to me. "I hope this night has been fun for you, Snake," she said as she yawned.
"Yeah... it has been," I began hesitantly, not sure how to say what I wanted to next. "Look, Twilight... no, all of you." Despite how tired they were, the ponies opened their eyes to listen to what I had to say. "This stay in Equestria... it hasn't been as bad as I first thought that it would be, thanks to all of you... but still..." I sighed, trying to find the right words.
"The person who sent me here... he's a psychic. You know what that means? It means that I have no idea whether he's actually sent me here, to Equestria, or whether this is all in my head..."
"What's the point you're trying to make, Snake?" Rainbow Dash asked, somewhat impatiently. I sighed again. Couldn't they see what I was getting at?
"It means... none of you could be real. You could all be in my imagination, and that you'll stop existing if I leave Equestria -when I leave Equestria..." I wasn't sure how they would take the knowledge that they mightn't be real, but right now, they weren't showing much of a reaction.
"So what, Snake?" Twilight asked. "Even if you're right, and we're not real - that doesn't mean that our friendship isn't!" As she spoke, I felt a strange feeling inside my chest. I couldn't describe it perfectly, but it almost felt like... a spark.
"Hug attack!" Pinkie Pie said from across the room, and somehow launched herself at me as though fired from a spring.
"Aargh! Pinkie - no -!" I started to say as she hugged me as hard as she could. Before I knew it, the rest of the ponies were joining in the hug, all doing their best to convey their feelings of friendship through the group hug.
After a futile attempt to escape, I managed to squeeze my arms out... and reluctantly began hugging them in turn. After all - what are friends for? |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Fourteen: Oh, the Grand Galloping Gala is the Best Place to Sneak! | "...Twenty-four... twenty-five... twenty-six..." I grunted.
"...Three-hundred forty-three... three-hundred forty-four... three-hundred forty-five..." Rainbow Dash counted beside me. With the knowledge that I was going to be returning back to Shadow Moses to complete my mission in about a week now, I was going over all of my skills and preparing myself as needed. Right now, I was testing myself with sets of push-ups to make sure that I was still in adequate shape.
In turn, I had unintentionally inspired Rainbow Dash with my testing, and she was now bouncing a ball on her head, trying to break the record for the most consecutive bounces.
"...Twenty-nine... thirty!" After the last push-up, I stopped my exercises for the moment, and sat down to watch Rainbow Dash. We were both outside the Ponyville library - Twilight had insisted that I do any exercise outside.
"...Three-hundred forty-nine.... Three-hundred fifty-one... three-hundred fift- wait..." Rainbow Dash stopped bouncing the ball as she lost count, instead letting it hit her head and roll away. She turned to me, looking slightly annoyed. "Darn it, Snake! I was just about to break the record I've been trying to beat for months, and then you made me lose count!" I wiped away from sweat from my forehead before answering.
"Sorry, Rainbow. I didn't mean to."
"Didn't mean to?!" Rainbow Dash wailed. "I was so close! And now thanks to you, I've -" The door to the library opened, and Rainbow stopped talking for a moment to see who was coming out of it. Naturally, it was Twilight Sparkle, alongside Spike. " - I've got to start all over again!" Rainbow Dash continued.
"Start all over again, huh?" I repeated. Before I could continue, Twilight interrupted me.
"Snake! You've got to come inside straight away! It's important!" For some reason, Spike looked oddly apologetic. I shrugged to Rainbow Dash, picked myself up from the ground, and followed Twilight and Spike back inside the library.
"What is it?" I asked as I entered Twilight's main reading room, where Spike and she were waiting for me.
"This letter from Princess Celestia just arrived," Twilight said, levitating a piece of paper out for me. "You'd better read it - it's faster than explaining." I grabbed the paper out of the air, and began to read.
To my faithful student Twilight Sparkle,
It saddens me that I must say the following, but I am afraid that I must decline your request to temporarily borrow the Element of Magic. As has been pointed out by my new advisor Shalashaska, the Elements of Harmony are essential for keeping up the defence of Equestria - you yourself should remember how crucial they were in the downfall of both Nightmare Moon and Discord. Therefore, for Equestria's sake, I must insist that the Element of Magic be kept with the rest of the Elements of Harmony, in Canterlot Castle, unless something urgent should occur. I hope that you are understanding in this matter.
In other news, I still haven't received a reply from you or your friends on whether you wish to attend the Grand Galloping Gala this year. As always, you need only ask, and all of you shall receive free tickets to attend. Should you choose not to attend, I would still like to hear a reply - I shall understand if you don't want to.
From your caring teacher, Princess Celestia.
P.S. I apologise about the delay in replying to your request - I have had my hooves full organising the Gala.
"I'm sorry, Snake - it looks as though we'll have to travel to Canterlot if we want to use the Element of Magic to send you back home," Twilight said apologetically as I finished reading the letter.
"Do you want to write another letter to Celestia asking her to make an exception?" Spike offered, holding out a quill and paper.
"Make an exception, huh?" It was tempting... but something felt wrong about this letter. I read over it again and spotted what was wrong. "Twilight, Spike... have either of you ever heard of this advisor before? Shalashaska?" The name sounded vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn't think of where I had heard it before.
"No, I haven't," Twilight said, levitating the letter back to skim over once more. "I thought it was a little odd that at his - or her - word, Celestia is suddenly refusing to lend us the Element of Magic. She's normally quite understanding about this sort of thing."
"Celestia's never needed an advisor before," Spike added. "He must be new."
"New?!" It suddenly occurred to me who Shalashaska was. "Of course he is - Shalashaska is Revolver Ocelot!" Both Spike and Twilight gasped at this.
"But - how can he be? When the spell wore off, Ocelot was sent back to Earth!" Twilight said.
"Yeah! How could he be back?" Spike asked. "If somepony else brought him to Equestria, they'd need to use that dimension spell thingamajig that you two used to find him properly!" I thought it over for a moment. Both of them made valid points.
"What if..." I began, thinking carefully, "...Ocelot didn't get sent back to Earth when the spell wore off? We just assumed that he had been sent back there, but we never really got any proof." Twilight gasped again.
"That could happen! Once the spell wore off, it tried to teleport him back to Earth, but since it was too weak to do that, it could have sent him somewhere random instead - and he ended up in Canterlot!" Twilight's face was anguished as she realised how plausible this was.
"Wait a minute!" Spike said. "How do you know that Shalashaska is Revolver Ocelot, Snake?" No doubt he was hoping that I was wrong about Ocelot's presence in Equestria - it would make things a lot easier.
"Easy," I answered. "Shalashaska is an alias of Revolver Ocelot's." I had found this out from my support team after facing Revolver Ocelot at Shadow Moses, when I had asked for more information on him. "It doesn't really sound like a pony name, does it?" Both Twilight Sparkle and Spike reluctantly shook their heads.
"I wonder what he's doing in Canterlot," Twilight said worryingly. "Is he also trying to get back to Earth?" I snorted at this.
"I doubt it," I answered. "If he's Celestia's advisor, that means that he's probably just manipulating her without her realising it." Admittedly, this was just speculation, but it seemed to fit Ocelot's character. I sighed. "Looks like you'll have to find another way to send me home," I said to Twilight.
"What? Why would I need to do that?" she asked.
"If Ocelot's working with Celestia, he'll probably have told her to be wary of me. Assuming that's the case, then I'm guessing that it wouldn't be good for Celestia to find out where I am?" Spike shook his head.
"Not unless you want a one-way trip to the moon," he answered. Somehow, I doubted that he was joking.
"Exactly," I said. "We need Celestia to give us the Element of Magic - and Celestia's being manipulated by Ocelot." I sighed and clenched my fists. I felt like punching something in my anger. I should have known that some other obstacle would come up to stop me from returning!
"It's true that we need the Element of Magic..." Twilight began slowly. I got the feeling that she was thinking something over carefully. "But... I think that I can find a way to get it if we plan carefully..."
"You know how to convince Celestia to lend us the Element?" I asked. Maybe there was hope after all. Twilight answered me slowly - she was obviously choosing her words cautiously.
"Maybe... I'll need to think this through some more... I'll tell you what, Snake- we'll get all of the girls over tonight, and I'll explain my plan then." I nodded and left the room, already beginning to wonder what this all-important plan was.
===================
"So sorry that I'm late, everypony!" Rarity said as she entered the Ponyville Library and closed the door. She was the final member of the group to arrive. "I was sewing a dress up, and lost track of time. I hope I wasn't a bother!"
"No problem at all, Rarity," Twilight said. "We were just waiting for you - you haven't missed anything so far." From what I had seen of her today, Twilight had been nervous ever since she had begun working on this mysterious plan. I was interested in hearing why her plan was making her so.
Every pony sat down at a table as Twilight went over the details of the letter, and why the original plan to send me back to Earth couldn't be performed. Upon her telling them all that Revolver Ocelot was Princess Celestia's new advisor, they all gasped in surprise and denied it, until Twilight, Spike and I explained how he must have never left Equestria.
"You- you mean that not only is that monster still in Equestria, but he's working with Princess Celestia?" Fluttershy squeaked nervously, shaking as she said so. I nodded grimly.
"Alright, that's it!" said Rainbow Dash boldly. "I'm going to go and stop him right now, even if I have to fly all the way to Canterlot to do it!" She stood up and took to the air, and probably would have flown out a window and done as she said if Applejack hadn't bitten her tail to stop her. After a moment of futile struggling, Rainbow Dash calmed down, and sat down again.
"Urgh! Yer tail's disgustin', Rainbow!" said Applejack after spitting slightly. "Wash it sometime, ya' hear?" Rainbow Dash muttered something incomprehensible into her chest in response.
"Girls! We need to concentrate!" said Twilight Sparkle, her voice shaking slightly as she said so. "The news that Ocelot is subtly controlling our ruler is distressing, but I have a plan to both stop him, and still get Snake home on the night of the meteor shower!"
"I have a plan too!" said Pinkie Pie unexpectedly. Everyone looked to her in confusion, not expecting this. "We'll throw Ocelot a party! Then he'll lighten up and stop being so grumpy, and he can come live in Ponyville with us! Hey, do you think that he'd want to live at Sugarcube Corner with Gummy and me?"
There was a moment of silence before Twilight reluctantly said, "...We'll put that down as Plan B, Pinkie." Pinkie Pie cheered in agreement. "Now, before I tell everypony this plan, you'll all have to agree to keep it top secret - you can't tell anypony. Are we clear?" Every pony, Spike, and myself all nodded and agreed.
"Good," continued Twilight, "because this plan... involves us stealing from Celestia." There were gasps from all around the table. I realised why Twilight had been so nervous and reluctant to suggest this plan - to her, this was a crime of the highest order imaginable.
"Now Twahlight, ah know that extreme times call fer extreme measure 'n all... but don't ya think that this here's goin' a little too extreme?" Applejack said.
"I'll outline the plan, and if you can think of any better ideas, I'm welcome to hear them," Twilight said, already looking like she regretted thinking up of it.
"So what are you planning on stealing, anyway?" Spike asked curiously.
"Isn't it obvious, Spike?" I asked. "Twilight wants us to steal the Element of Magic." Twilight nodded, confirming my suspicions.
"Since we can't ask Celestia for it directly without Ocelot finding out, there's no other way for us to get it other than by...stealing it." Looking at Twilight, I could see that she felt anguished by the need to steal from her mentor.
"Wait - why is it bad if Ocelot finds out that we need the Element?" Rainbow Dash asked. Now that I thought about it, it was a good question. Surprisingly, Rarity was the one who answered.
"If Ocelot has already rejected the request for the Element once, then he obviously has his own plan for the Elements of Harmony," she said smoothly. After a moment of consideration, she added, "Of course, he may have just denied the request so as to continue his façade as Celestia's advisor, but one can never be too sure about this sort of thing." Could Ocelot really have plans for the Elements of Harmony? I wondered. It was possible, of course, but then how would he know to use them?
"Whatever the reason is that Ocelot denied the request for the Element, it doesn't matter," Twilight said. "The main point is that we can't get it by asking nicely. Now, I propose that we travel to Canterlot two days from now, and -"
"Two days, huh?" I interrupted. The ponies (and Spike) all looked over to me. "If your plan is to steal the Element two days from now, Twilight, then I doubt that it'll work."
"Why not?" Twilight asked me.
"Think about it. You ask for the Element of Magic, get your request denied, and then two days later, the Element goes missing? Looks kinda suspicious, don't you think?" I answered. "You'll have to throw suspicion off yourself by doing the last thing that Celestia would expect you to - steal all of the Elements of Harmony." There was another gasp from the ponies as I proposed this.
"Steal - all the Elements of Harmony?" Fluttershy asked quietly in the silence. "Isn't that a little, um, wrong?"
"It's not wrong, Fluttershy - because we won't be stealing the Elements of Harmony," Twilight answered firmly. She turned to face me. "Snake, I know that you want to return home, but stealing the Elements of Harmony is not the way to do that. Is that clear?"
"Yeah, whatever," I answered, frowning. "But if that's your stance... then what do you suggest we do next?" Twilight had failed to notice that her original plan still couldn't be carried out.
"Well, we could... uh..." Twilight stammered, trying to think of a new plan on the fly, and failing.
"I know what we can do!" Pinkie Pie said unexpectedly.
"...Another party, Pinkie?" Rarity asked her sceptically. Pinkie shook her head.
"Nope! We'll go to the Grand Galloping Gala!" she said excitedly. Quite literally everyone's jaws dropped. I'm sure that we were all thinking the same thing: She wants us to go to the Gala at a time like this?
"Now, Pinkie," Applejack began, breaking the silence, "there's a time fer goin' to the Gala, and there's a time fer more important stuff." Pinkie frowned at this.
"Well, duh! That's why we'll do both at the same time!" she explained. I frowned as I tried to work out Pinkie Pie's unique brand of logic. "The meteor shower's the same night as the Gala, right, Twi?" Pinkie asked Twilight. Twilight gasped.
"Of course! The meteor shower will travel over Canterlot, so - why didn't I think of this?! Pinkie Pie, you're a genius!" Twilight said. Every pony was nodding in agreement.
"No I'm not. I'm an Earth Pony!" Pinkie said, oblivious to the compliment.
"Earth Pony, huh?" I asked. "So what's the logic behind going to the Gala?"
"Don't you see, Snake?" Twilight asked me. "We can travel to the Grand Galloping Gala, acquire the Element of Magic there, and then once the meteor shower passes over Canterlot, I can cast the spell to send both you and Ocelot back home!" It sounded like a good plan... in theory.
"What about Celestia and Ocelot finding out?" I asked. "This still has the same problems as the original plan."
"They'll be too busy with the Gala," Twilight answered. "Celestia will be greeting guests, and I'll bet that Ocelot will have to be too, if he wants to stay in good favour with her." She continued thinking for another moment as a new thought occurred to her. "In fact, we can all keep an eye on Celestia and Ocelot, and make sure that they don't leave the Gala. This will give you a chance to steal the Element, Snake!" I had the feeling that she was asking me to personally steal the Element to ease her conscience.
The rest of the ponies were all nodding in agreement - it sounded like a good plan. "Okay, so I'll sneak into Canterlot Castle, steal the Element, get back to you guys, and then you'll send Ocelot and me home when the meteor shower passes overhead?" I asked to confirm the plan.
"And you'd better not be detected," Rainbow Dash added. "If you're caught stealing the Element, then Celestia or Ocelot would have to leave the Gala and be onto you faster than... well, faster than me, I guess!"
"Not be detected, huh?" I asked. It was an annoying limitation, but a necessary one. "Alright, this sounds like a plan."
"Alright everyone, we all agree to this plan?" Twilight asked. We all nodded. "Excellent! I'll write a letter to Celestia in the morning to confirm that we'll be attending the Gala, and then we'll get ready for our mission..."
===================
Dawn of the First Day - Six Days Remain
"What did you want to see me about, Twilight?" I asked as I stepped into the library. The library had undergone a drastic makeover - there were now graphs and diagrams everywhere, each one planning a different aspect of the Canterlot mission. It was almost as if Twilight was trying to monitor everything. I had to wonder what she'd do if some pony who wasn't in on the plan came over for a visit.
"I've got an update on the plan, Snake," Twilight said as she plotted something onto a graph. "Even though the meteor shower will be passing over Canterlot, it won't be for as long as it passes over Ponyville - I'll only have a five minute window to cast the spell in Canterlot." I shrugged.
"Five minute window, huh? We knew from the start that there would be a time limit - what's the big difference?"
"The difference is that we've got to arrive at the castle at seven-thirty, along with most of the regular guests - that way it won't look suspicious. The meteor shower should travel over Canterlot at nine twenty-seven, so you'll only have two hours and two minutes to get in, steal the Element, knock out Ocelot, and get back to me," Twilight said.
"Get back to you, huh?" I repeated. "That sounds - wait a minute - knock out Ocelot?"
"Well, the spell takes a few moments to be cast, and I doubt whether Ocelot will give me a chance to send him back to Earth," Twilight explained. "So yes - you'll have to knock him out so that I can send him back!" Or I could just kill him, I silently thought.
"Right. How am I getting into the castle, anyway?" I asked Twilight. She grinned and pointed to a diagram of what I assumed was Canterlot Castle.
"Oh, that part's easy. I've arranged for our carriage to be part of the group which goes directly to the castle, and to be at the back of the group," she explained, pointing a hoof to a road on the diagram. "You'll hide inside the carriage in one of your boxes, and when we pass over the bridge, you can leave the carriage, still in your box."
"So I'm guessing that you don't want any ponies to see me?" I asked. Twilight nodded.
"Sorry, Snake, but if anypony sees you, they could mention it to Celestia unintentionally - then Ocelot would be onto us." I grimly nodded, seeing the point she was making. "Anyway, once you're out of the carriage, you'll go into the moat. I've found a hidden underground passage to the castle which begins in the moat. You can use it to approach the -"
"Approach?" I interrupted. Twilight gave me a funny look.
"Yes, Snake - approach. It's not a difficult word." She went back to her diagram before continuing. "You can use this passage to approach the castle - if you follow it all the way through, you should come out in a side room from the main hall. From there, you can call one of us on your codec, and we'll give you further instructions."
"Codec?!" I repeated. "Does this mean that you've performed the spell on every pony?" Twilight nodded.
"Yes - I can give you their frequencies now if you want..."
===================
Dawn of the Third Day - Four Days Remain
It had been a while since I had entered Rarity's boutique, but I did so now at her request. "You'll never guess what I've got for you!" she said as I entered, jumping up and down on the spot slightly. I shrugged, honestly unable to guess. "Wait right here whilst I go and get it!" she said, darting off to some other part of the boutique. I sat myself down on a chair and waited patiently.
"Here you are, Snake!" Rarity said excitedly as she returned. Levitated behind her was... some sort of ugly, grey suit. "It's that new sneaking suit which I've been promising you for what feels like forever now!" I grimaced as I took the suit in.
The most prominent feature of the suit was the chest area, where it had some sort of metallic guard, designed to look like the ribcage it was protecting. The shoulders and elbow areas of the suit were covered in metallic banded segments, whilst the forearm sections seemed to have a simple metal guard. The rest of the suit was fairly bland and uninspiring, but it could easily be described as ugly.
"Well? What do you think?" Rarity asked, failing to realise the horror of what she had created.
"It's... not really what I was expecting," I said, trying not to give the wrong impression whilst still not hurting her feelings. "So what do you call it, anyway?" I took in the ribcage-like area again. "The Skull Suit?"
"Why in all of Equestria would you call it that, Snake?" Rarity asked, slightly shocked. "No, this masterpiece is my Smart Skin Suit! It is designed to place varying pressure on different parts of one's body, so as to maximise performance! The texture is not far removed from rubber, but - "
"No offence, Rarity, but I'll have to decline it," I interrupted, trying to keep my eyes away from it as much as possible.
"But Snaaake!" Rarity complained, "I was hoping that you'd wear it when we go to Canterlot!"
"Sorry, Rarity," I said firmly, "but I'm fine with my sneaking suit." For her sake, I added, "If you want, I can take your Smart Skin Suit with me - I know someone who'll probably have a use for it." If I gave it to Campbell, he could probably find some new recruit to give it to.
"Well... have it your way then," Rarity said, telekinetically folding the suit up. "But whilst we're speaking of Canterlot, I have designed something else for you..." She went back into the other room, and came out a moment later levitating something else.
"It's... a facemask," I said as I took it in. The skin of the mask looked unnaturally smooth - almost feminine. It had long white hair, which looked oddly realistic.
"Yes! I just finished making your suit, and then I thought to myself, 'What would go well with this suit?' So I designed this facemask to wear as a disguise!" Rarity explained. "Would you believe that I've even found a way to get the eyes to blink whilst you wear it?" she added, obviously pleased with her handiwork.
"Blink?!" I repeated. "What's the point?" Rarity looked offended.
"I put great care into that mask, Snake!" she replied. "Please do not pick on the small details of it - next thing I know, you'll be complaining about the fact that the lips cannot move!"
"You made it possible for the eyes to blink, but not for the lips to move?" I said. "That seems a bit of an odd thing to focus on, don't you think?" Rarity glared at me.
"Well I'm sorry for thinking of the mission," she said to me snarkily. "I'd lend you my invisibility scarf, but I used up all of its charge whilst fighting a dragon."
"I can't use this mask anyway," I pointed out. "Between Ocelot and I, how many humans can there be in Equestria? You'll have to admit that it would look a little suspicious for another human to suddenly show up at the Gala - Ocelot sure would." Rarity sighed, conceding my point.
"Well, I suppose that that is most certainly true," she admitted. Changing the topic, she said, "Tell me - why is your codename Solid Snake, anyway?" I shrugged.
"It was the codename I was assigned when I started as a stealth operative," I explained. "I'm not sure why they gave me the name, but it was the name they gave me, and I'll keep it until I die."
"Really?" Rarity asked. "I thought that there would be more of a story behind it than that... have you ever considered changing your codename? Snakes are such repulsive creatures."
"Change my codename, huh?" I repeated. It was an intriguing idea, and one which I hadn't thought of before. "Yeah, maybe I could..." I said as I started running through names in my mind.
"Excellent!" said Rarity. "It's good to see that you have some common sense. What do you think of, say, Raid-"
"No thanks," I interrupted. Whatever she had been about to suggest, it didn't sound like the sort of name a toughened operative such as myself should have. "I was thinking of something more like... Iroquois. I like that."
"Fine. Whatever you say, Snake..." Rarity said, obviously annoyed that I hadn't listen to her suggestion.
===================
Dawn of the Fifth Day - Two Days Remain
I was cleaning my pistol when there was a knock at the door. I walked over to the door and was going to open it, before hesitating. If it was her at the door... Instead of opening it, I stood to the side, and pulled it slightly ajar.
"SNAAAAKE!!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she burst through the door. She fired through the doorway with the speed of a rocket, probably planning to hug me had I been standing there.
"Hey Pinkie," I said from next to the doorway. Streamers had somehow accompanied her dash through the doorway, and were now lying on the floor. Pinkie Pie picked herself up from the floor, and bounced over to me.
"How's it going, Snakey?! What did you want me for?" she asked as she hugged me. I gently pushed her away.
"I've got a favour to ask of you, Pinkie," I said, heading over to a table where I had all of my equipment spread out.
"Ooh! Do you want me to throw you a goodbye party?!" Pinkie asked excitedly. "I could bring Gummy and Mr. Cake and Mrs. Cake and -"
"I'm fine for parties, Pinkie," I said. I grabbed an item from the table. "I need to ask you to hold onto this for me," I explained as I handed it to her. "I'm not exaggerating when I say that this could literally mean life or death for me, Pinkie. You understand?"
"You want me to hold a yo-yo for you?" Pinkie Pie asked confusedly as she took it. I sighed.
"No, Pinkie, it's not a yo-yo. It's a tin of rations," I explained.
"Oh! A tin of rations! Of course!" she said excitedly. "Why do you need me to hold a tin of rations for you?" she added a moment later.
"These rations can heal me in moments," I explained. I had never understood why, but I wasn't going to question it. "If something happens at the Gala and I'm badly injured, I'll need these rations - it could mean life or death for me."
"But why give them to me?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Let's face it, Pinkie," I started, "if any pony can suddenly appear out of nowhere to find me, it's you. This way, I know that I've got you backing me up, and I should be able to heal at least a little bit if I need to." Pinkie Pie nodded.
"Okey-dokey-lokey! Sounds like a plan!" she said happily.
===================
Night of the Final Day - Two Hours Remaining
"You sure you're comfortable in there, Snake?" Twilight asked me.
"I'm fine, Twilight," I answered from inside my cardboard box. We had been heading to the Gala for several hours now - it was apparently traditional to arrive by carriage. I had been inside the box for the entire journey, in case our carriage was inspected by guards. The ponies weren't expecting it to happen, but we couldn't be too sure with Ocelot manipulating Celestia.
"Okay, Snake - this is the drop-off point," Twilight whispered to me. I heard the door of the carriage open. "Fluttershy, you're closest to the door - push him out." I felt a light kick, and then I tumbled out of the door.
"Oof!"
"Oh my! I'm sorry!" I heard Fluttershy call out from the carriage as it continued to the castle. I looked around from my box. No sign of any guards or other ponies. No alarms ringing. No Ocelot lifting up my box and laughing that he had been onto our plan from the start.
It was time for the mission to begin. |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Fifteen: Fun with Codec Calls | Once I was sure that there were no ponies around to see me, I took off my cardboard box and stored it with the rest of my equipment. I headed to the side of the small bridge that I was on, and looked down into the moat.
"Guess it's now or never," I said to myself. I took a deep breath, and dived into the water. Fortunately, it wasn't too cold. I followed the path which Twilight had shown me on her diagram, and found the secret entrance into Canterlot Castle quickly.
A minute later, I had climbed out of the water, and was in a primitive storage area filled with crates. Eerily, it reminded me a lot of the dock where I had begun my infiltration mission at Shadow Moses. "This is Snake," I said as I called Twilight Sparkle on my codec a minute later. "Twilight, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Snake!" Twilight replied loudly and clearly.
"Twilight, aren't you trying to keep a low profile up there? Should you really be talking on the codec so loudly, or saying my name out loud?" I asked her.
"I would normally agree with you, Snake," Twilight answered, "but this codec spell makes it so that nopony else can hear you but me. So it's safe!" I frowned, even though I knew that she couldn't see it.
"Yeah... that's true..." I began slowly, "but you're still speaking, aren't you?"
"You should know as well as anyone that that's no problem!" Twilight answered cheerfully. "From what you've told me, the codec stimulates the bones of your ear, so nopony around you can hear-"
"Yeah, I know that," I said. "But you're speaking out loud. The ponies around you will be able to hear that." There were a few moments of silence before Twilight answered me.
"Oh. Good point," she said, whispering now. "That explains why so many ponies were giving me odd looks - I've moved away from them now. What's the situation down your end?" I looked around for the exit, and spotted a ladder.
"Looks like the ladder in the back is the only way - wait a minute," I started. "Equestria is inhabited by ponies. Why is there a ladder down here?"
"What's a ladder?" Twilight replied, sounding genuinely confused. I sighed loudly, which she probably heard, since her next words were, "You'll have to take it to the surface - but make sure that nopony sees you."
"Yeah, I know that," I answered, ready to continue the mission. "Anything else?"
"If you need to contact me by codec, the frequency is 140.85," Twilight answered. "When you want to use the codec, push the Select button. When I need to -"
"Select button?!" I interrupted. What was this new nonsense she was on about?
"You don't have a Select button on your codec?" Twilight whispered, sounding confused. "Then ...how do you select which frequency you want to call?"
"Twilight... Codec works on nanotechnology. It's not a physical piece of -"
"Nanotechnology?!" she interrupted. "I've never heard of that before. I wonder whether the Baltimare library has any books on it..." I sighed again.
"Look, I'm ready to go," I said. "I'll call you when I need to, okay, Twilight? And make sure that you tell the others not to go around shouting out when they're on codec." With that, I disconnected. I couldn't waste my time talking - I had an important mission to carry out, and a time limit on it. Besides, I was getting bored just staring at a box whilst talking to Twilight.
I headed over to the ladder. To my surprise, it went up a long way - I couldn't even see where it ended. "Urgh!" I said out loud as I started climbing up it. "If this ends up going on for ages, I'm really going to need some sort of catchy theme music to keep myself entertained."
===================
After climbing the ladder, I found myself in a small room filled with more crates and boxes. According to Twilight's diagram, I was just outside one of the main corridors of Canterlot Castle. I dialled the frequency 140.15 on my codec and called Rarity, as we had discussed in the carriage. After Twilight, who would probably be with Celestia by now, Rarity apparently knew Canterlot Castle the next best in the group.
"Rarity?" I asked once my codec had connected up with Rarity's magical equivalent.
"Snake? I - no, Fancypants, my mind was drifting," Rarity answered. "I was just thinking of something else - in fact, if you'll excuse me for a minute, I must go and think of it some more!" I heard Rarity trotting away for a few moments, before she finally replied. "Don't mind me, Snake - it's not as though I was just talking to Fancypants himself!"
"Sorry, Rarity," I answered, genuinely meaning it. "I've climbed up the ladder, and I'm now just off one of the main corridors - what's my next move?"
"There's been a slight change of plans," Rarity whispered.
"Plans?!"
"Yes, Snake - plans," Rarity answered in a monotone. "Princess Celestia gave Twilight a special key to unlock the Elements of Harmony, since she assumed that Twilight still wants the Element of Magic after the letter she sent."
"Element of Magic, huh?" I repeated. "So what, I'll just wait here until Twilight brings me back the Element of Magic, and then she'll send me home when the meteor shower arrives?"
"If only it were that simple," Rarity answered. "As you suspected, Revolver Ocelot is here, and he's with the Princess. Once she gave Twilight the key, he offered to escort her to the Elements of Harmony - it seems as though he may have his own plans for them after all."
"Plans for them after all, huh?" I answered. "That's just gre- say, where are you right now?"
"I am just arriving outside the room which you are in now," Rarity replied, confirming a suspicion of mine. "You can come on out and I shall tell you the rest in person - nopony is currently around."
"Huh? What's wrong with codec?" I asked. Although I couldn't put my finger on it, I was sure that there was a good reason to continue communicating with codec, regardless of the actual distance between us.
"...Snake, I have just left the most fancy party in all of Canterlot so that I could come and see you," Rarity said dully. "And you are just now telling me to stick to codec?"
"Fine," I grumbled, "I'll come out... Aargh!"
"Snake? What is it?"
"Dead leg," I answered, rubbing it. "I guess staying still in the same position when talking on codec is a bit impractical, huh?" Once it felt okay again, I left the room I was in to find Rarity standing outside, just as she had said.
"We can't talk for long," Rarity began. "Ocelot's keeping an eye on all six of us, and I'm sure that he'll suspect something if I'm gone for too long."
"Too long?!" I repeated. "How the hell did he know that you're all working with me? Come to think of it, how do you know that he knows that you're working with me?"
Shaking her head in answer to my question, Rarity answered, "I don't know how he knows - I can only assume that he recognises us from his brief visit to Ponyville." I was going to open my mouth in protest, when I remembered that I had talked to the six ponies during my fight with Ocelot. He must have taken notice then.
"And as for how we know," Rarity continued, "we're not one-hundred percent certain, but Twilight said that Ocelot seemed to be watching Rainbow Dash and I, so it's safest to assume that he is paying attention to us." I nodded.
"And do you know what Ocelot's doing now?"
"Twilight is trying to keep both his and Princess Celestia's attention - but that does not matter right now, Snake." Rarity levitated out a thin, cylindrical rod as she continued. "What matters is that this is the key which Princess Celestia gave to Twilight, which she in turn gave to me- you'll have to use it to open the vault where the Elements of Harmony are kept."
"Vault, huh?" I repeated as I stashed the key in with the rest of my equipment. "Got it. How do I get there, anyway?" Although it was necessary for Rarity to give me the key, it still felt like we had wasted too much time since I had entered the castle.
"Head further up this corridor, to the staircase at the end," Rarity answered, gesturing with her head as she spoke. "If you head up said staircase and follow the corridors, you should reach the vault without too many troubles."
"Up the staircase? Sure thing," I answered, starting to jog slowly up the corridor as I spoke. Rarity likewise started trotting back to the Gala, wishing me good luck as she did so.
As I reached the staircase, I heard the sound of someone coming down it. I quickly got out my cardboard box and hid underneath it whilst I waited for them to pass. Hopefully, it was just a civilian who had gotten lost, as opposed to a guard patrolling the stairs.
I didn't have to wait long. A pure white unicorn stallion with a blonde mane descended from the stairs. He was wearing the collar of a tuxedo. "Urgh!" he said as he spotted the box I was hiding under. I tensed myself in case he was going to lift up the box with his telekinesis. "What is this filthy box doing here? Obviously, somepony has been neglecting their cleaning duties!"
Inside the box, I clenched my fists in rage. No one got away with insulting my box like that! The stallion sighed before continuing, still watching my box. "I suppose that I shall just have to remove the box then - although why I should lower myself to the level of cleaners is anypony's guess." The box glowed blue as the unicorn's magical aura surrounded it.
"Oh no you don't!" I growled as I threw the box off myself and leapt at him. If I was going to have my cover blown, I might as well get revenge for the comments he made about my box. The stallion gasped in surprise as he took me in in the brief moment before my fist connected with his face.
"Why - why, how dare you!" he said as he raised a hoof to where I had hit him. I picked myself from the floor where I had landed, and raised my fists, ready to hit him again. I needed to knock this unicorn out before he could raise an alarm.
"I'll have you know that I am the nephew of Princess Cele- oof!" he started before I hit him again. Despite his protests, I continued punching and kicking him until he collapsed to the floor in a bruised heap. "B-but... why?" the stallion weakly asked, looking up at me.
"Nobody insults my box," I said gruffly to him before landing a final punch which knocked him out. I looked around cautiously. No-one had come into this corridor yet. I hid his body behind a column, hoping in vain that no pony would mind if they found this stallion's body knocked out and bruised.
===================
The stairs went on for nearly as long as the ladder, spiralling around and around repeatedly. It was a good thing that I hadn't accidentally set off any alarms before heading up it - that would have just made this section horrible. Once I reached the top of the stairs, I found myself facing three corridors. At the end of the middle one was a door which I assumed was my destination, judging by what Rarity had said earlier.
Unfortunately, the corridors were being patrolled by guards, who were each magically projecting lights from their horns to search for intruders. There weren't too many, but they would still get in my way if I tried to rush past them and straight to the door. It seemed that the three corridors were connected, as the guards kept moving between them.
I headed down the left-most corridor once the guard from there moved to another corridor. I had barely stepped onto the floor when it split in two. "A trapdoor?!" I said in surprise before leaping forwards to what I hoped was safe ground. Fortunately it was, and a moment later the trapdoor closed again, looking like just another part of the corridor.
I dialled the frequency 141.52 on my codec, and waited for the recipient to reply. "Hey Snake!" said Rainbow Dash. "What's up?"
"Rainbow Dash - you're the expert on weapons and traps," I said. "Tell me, why is there -"
"What? I'm not an expert on either of those," she interrupted. "Why would I know about them? I mean, sure, I've read a lot of Daring Do, but still..."
"Oh... I just thought... " I started. "I just thought... because of the frequency... Look, do you know why there are trapdoors here in Canterlot Castle?"
"Trapdoors, huh?" she replied. "Nope, I have no idea why they'd put them there. It seems kinda pointless."
"Yeah... I know," I answered. "That's why I was confused by them... there's no reason for them to be here. Tell me, do you- "
"You think I should show the Wonderbolts the Sonic Cloudboom?" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "Because I was talking to Spitfire before and -"
"Sure," I answered. "Especially if it distracts Revolver Ocelot - what's the situation with him, anyway?"
"I think Rarity's distracting him," Rainbow Dash replied absentmindedly. "Look, I'm going to show the Wonderbolts the Sonic Cloudboom now, okay? Talk to you later, Snake." With that she disconnected. It was a good thing that she had, too - the guard patrolling this corridor was approaching.
I doubled back and headed down the right-most corridor this time, jogging slightly to avoid any more of those damn trapdoors. Fortunately, the carpet muffled the sounds of my jogging. By following this corridor down after the guard disappeared, I managed to reach the door I had been heading for.
I opened the door, and was about to step through when - BEEDLYBEEP! BEEDLYBEEP! I spun around, ready to face the guards... only they weren't there. After a moment of confusion I remembered that the noise I had heard wasn't an alarm, it was just the sound of an incoming call on my codec.
I answered the call, which to my surprise was from an unknown frequency. "Snake, be careful! There are Claymore mines around there. Use a mine detector."
"Huh?" I answered quietly. "Isn't Claymore a bit of overkill?"
"If they go off, the alarm will be raised! Wheow! Wheow! Wheow! Wheow!" I hadn't been certain of who the caller was before, but I knew now.
"This is Pinkie Pie, isn't it?"
"Just call me Madame Pinkie! I'm one of your fans!"
"Pinkie Pie, I know it's y- wait a minute, how do you know where I am? Codec isn't visual."
"I'm above you!" Pinkie replied. I looked up, not sure what to expect, and sure enough, Pinkie Pie was on the ceiling, walking around with suction cups on her hooves. She waved as I looked up. "Hi Snake!"
"W-what are you doing following me?" I asked, confused. "Shouldn't you be back at the Gala with the rest of the girls?"
"Are you kidding me?!" she asked as she climbed down a wall. "Those Canterlot ponies don't know how to party or even partay! So I followed you, since you're always doing something fun!" Pinkie Pie leapt off the wall and right in my face.
"Okay..." I said slowly as Pinkie Pie took off her suction cups. "But how did you know that this area's been mined? It looks fine to me."
"Pinkie Sense! Twitchy tail, itchy hooves, scratchy back and then chattering teeth mean that there are mines around!" I frowned at her.
"How on Earth could that mean that -"
"So anyway," Pinkie said, ignoring me, "you just have to do a hop, skip, and a jump to get past! It's not very far, just move your little rump! You can make it if you try, with a hop, skip, and jump!" As she sang, Pinkie Pie ran up to the doorway and then jumped across an area of about three metres. "Now you go!" she said cheerfully.
"Alright," I answered as I lay down on my stomach and started crawling through the doorway. Pinkie started shaking her head when she saw what I was doing.
"Nononono! You have to sing the song!" Pinkie Pie leapt back and forth over the mined area. "Hop, skip, and jump! Hop, skip, and jump! Hop, skip, and jump!" I ignored her and kept crawling until I was past the mined area.
We were in a large hall with wide windows along the sides, alternating between regular windows and stained-glass. Fortunately, there were no guards here. I approached one of the stained-glass windows, where there was a large snake-like creature being defeated by a group of ponies... In fact, as I looked closer, I saw that the ponies in this glass seemed to be my friends.
I turned back to Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie... is this glass you and your - Pinkie, what are you eating?" She was happily chomping something which was lying on the floor. "Pinkie, are those my rations?"
"Well," she started, "I didn't know that cupcakes suddenly got the technical name of rations, but they sure are!" I sighed.
"Pinkie, do you remember why I gave them to you?" I asked her. "It wasn't so that you could eat them, it was so that- Pinkie! Stop eating them!"
"No!" she said in protest as finished eating. "These are my cupcakes now!"
"But Pinkie I might have - urgh, never mind," I said, giving up. "Just tell me - is that you and your friends?" I asked, pointing to the stained-glass window I had been looking at before. She bounced over for a closer look.
"Yep!" she confirmed. "That's all of us defeating Discord with the Elements of Harmony!" She stopped and thought for a moment. "You know, the first time we met him, it was in this room... wouldn't it be something if he suddenly came back now?!"
"Pinkie, I -"
"Ssh!" Pinkie held out a hoof to silence me whilst she waited for something. After a minute or so of impatiently waiting, she finally said, "Nope, doesn't look like he's returned!" I decided not to ask her what the point of that had been.
Looking at the stained-glass window again, I asked Pinkie Pie, "How far are we from the Elements of Harmony, anyway?"
"Oh, they're right behind this door!" Pinkie said, bouncing over to a large door at the end of the hall. It was surrounded by an ornate gold frame, and divided into six segments. At the centre of the door was a sun. As I moved closer, I saw a small hole in the sun.
"Guess that this is where I put the key in, huh?" I said as I got out the rod which Rarity had given me before. I had been wondering why it was cylindrical, and this hole explained everything. As I put the rod in the hole, it glowed blue, and two of the lines which divided the door into segments lit up.
"So... what now?" I asked Pinkie. The door was still shut - the only difference which had happened was the lines lighting up.
"Oh yeah! Twi told me what to do next!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "That key's made of something she calls a shape memory alloy!"
"Shape memory alloy?!" I repeated, already starting to see where she was going with this.
"It changes the type of magic in the key at different temperatures!" Pinkie explained. "You'll need to find somewhere hot to heat it up, then bring it back here -"
"-Then somewhere cold to cool it down, then bring it back here," I finished. "You mean I really have to do all of that backtracking?" She nodded.
"Yep! Seems that way!"
"It sounds like a stupid way to design a key," I said, frowning as I did so. "I've got a better idea. Pinkie, watch the door for guards." I got my Nikita rocket launcher out as I said so.
"Sure!" Pinkie answered, bouncing away. I fired a rocket at the door, which blew it to pieces. "Ooh! Nice idea!" Pinkie said as she bounced back over to me.
"There aren't any guards coming?" I asked as I stepped past the doors and into the room where the Elements of Harmony were kept.
"Nope! If they were, I'd let them have some of my party cannon!" Pinkie said. Somehow, I didn't doubt it.
Lying on the floor was a small blue chest, decorated with jewels. I picked it up and opened it. Inside were a set of necklaces, each with a unique symbol. "Ooh! Ooh! Right there! That's mine! The Element of Laughter!" Pinkie said, pointing a hoof at one of the necklaces.
"Element of Laughter, huh?" I asked. As I looked at it, I realised that the symbol on it was a balloon, the same as Pinkie Pie's cutie mark. "So... I guess that's Rainbow Dash's," I said as I spotted the necklace with a lightning bolt, "that's Rarity's..." I continued as I saw the necklace with a diamond.
"And there's Fluttershy's, Applejack's, and - hey! Wait a minute!" said Pinkie as she looked into the box properly. "The Element of Magic - it's missing!" |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Sixteen: Fission Mailed | "The Element of Magic is missing?!" I repeated, counting over the Elements of Harmony again in the off chance that Pinkie had made a mistake. Sure enough, there were only five necklaces in the box. "Where could it be?"
Pinkie Pie gave a shrug. "Dunno, but we'd better search the castle for it!" In light of the missing Element, she was acting the most serious that I had ever seen her.
"Alright... I guess we'll have to," I told Pinkie. "But don't forget - we're on a time limit here." By my reckoning, we had less than an hour left before the meteor shower would be gone for good.
"No problem, Snake!" Pinkie replied, bubbly and cheerful once again. "I'll start the search now!" She hastily bounced over to the doorway... before being stopped by the sound of an alarm. She had stepped on the mines which she had warned me about when we entered the room.
"What the hell, Pinkie?!" I asked as I caught up with her. She was sitting down on the spot, looking around frantically for the source of the alarm. "Why didn't your Pinkie Sense warn you about those mines?"
"I- I dunno," she said, panicking. "I completely forgot about them!" I grabbed her tail and started dragging her away.
"C'mon - we've got to hide before the guards -" Even as I spoke, the guards from the previous room burst in, and professionally enveloped Pinkie and myself in a telekinetic field, leaving us unable to do anything.
"Well, well, well - what have we here?" one of the guards asked. "Trying to steal the Elements of Harmony?"
"What's this one supposed to be?" the second one asked, jabbing his horn at me. "Some sort of mutated minotaur?" I gritted my teeth in anger. If only I could have moved and reached my gun...
"You idiot, Golden Breastplate!" the first guard said to him. "He's obviously the same race as Shalashaska - you know, the Princess' new advisor?" He looked a bit closer at me as I struggled to break free of the telekinetic field. "Come to think of it, Shalashaska was looking around in here the other day..."
"That's enough of that, men." A voice came from the doorway moments before its owner stepped through. It was a white unicorn stallion with a long mane, streaked with varying shades of blue. He was wearing purple and gold armour on most of his body. He gave Pinkie Pie and I a quick glance before talking to his guards. "I heard the alarm - tell me what happened."
Before the guards could answer, Pinkie Pie interrupted. "Shining Armour! What are you doing here?" To my surprise, she didn't sound worried anymore. Shining Armour turned to her as she talked, taking her in properly.
"Pinkie Pie? What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was at the Grand Galloping Gala," Pinkie began, "but then I got bored and came here with Snakey, and then I was on the ceiling, but then I had to teach Snake how to hop, skip, and jump, so I came down, and then -"
"Snake?!" Shining Armour interrupted, now paying attention to me. "You're Solid Snake?" The guards were being completely ignored by all of us now.
"Yeah - I am," I answered. I had just remembered who Shining Armour was - Twilight Sparkle's brother. "Did Twilight tell you who I am?" Shining Armour's expression turned from mild anger to disgust.
"I'd be pretty darn confused if she knew who you are," he snorted. "I heard about you from Shalashaska, of course - apparently you're quite the criminal where he comes from." If I could have moved within the telekinetic field, I would have smacked my forehead in frustration at that moment. Of course Ocelot would have told the guards that I was a criminal - and since Shining Armour was captain of the guard according to Twilight, he would have heard this too.
"Shining Armour! You still haven't answered my question!!" Pinkie called out from her telekinetic field. Turning his back on me, Shining Armour moved closer to Pinkie.
"I'm in charge of security for the Grand Galloping Gala," he answered. "Tell me, Pinkie - why are you with this human? I know that you're friends with everypony, but still..."
"Oh! That's easy!" Pinkie said happily. "Snake's a good friend! He's always doing funny things, like baking cupcakes with me, or hiding in boxes, or blowing up things! Twilight, Rarity, and the rest - they're all friends with him too!" Shining Armour looked back at me with a glance, before turning to the guards.
"You two - go back to patrolling the corridors. I'll handle these two." For a moment, one of them looked about to protest, before wisely closing his mouth and heading out the door with his partner. As soon as the guards dropped their telekinetic fields around Pinkie and I, Shining Armour put his up his own around us.
"Don't you see that Ocelot - I mean, Shalashaska - is using you?" I asked Shining Armour before he could talk or do anything to Pinkie and I. "To government figures like him, soldiers are expendable -they've only got one use, and that's -"
"Does Ocelot work for the ruler of your country?" Pinkie interrupted. "I didn't know that!"
"No, of course he doesn't," I answered, silently scoffing at the idea of Ocelot working for the President. "It's just that to bureaucrats, soldiers are seen as - wait a minute..." I lost my train of thought as I tried to explain that government officials only see one use for soldiers.
"I don't know what you're going on about, and I don't care," Shining Armour said bluntly. "But I want to know, Snake - how do you know my sister?"
===================
A door to a private room was opened, and Pinkie Pie and I were telekinetically thrown in by Shining Armour. "But Shining! I thought we were friends!" Pinkie wailed. My hands and Pinkie's hooves were being restrained by small force fields - as Shining Armour had explained, his special talent was creating barriers.
"Good job, Shining Armour," a familiar voice rasped. I had been thrown onto my stomach, and I rolled over to see Revolver Ocelot there as I had expected, in his trademark jacket and suit. As I got a decent look at the room we were in, I saw the rest of my friends - Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack - were here and restrained with ropes. "I hope you don't mind, but once you told me that they were working with Snake, I thought it best to restrain them," Ocelot explained to Shining Armour.
Shining Armour barely glanced at them. "Just what traitors deserve," he answered coldly. Next to Pinkie Pie, I heard Twilight let out a small gasp.
"But Shining - B.B.B.F.F.!" Shining Armour ignored Twilight calling out to him, and walked out the door without hesitating. Although I could see Twilight starting to fight back tears, I whispered across to her.
"Twilight - how much longer until the meteor shower?"
"I- I'm not sure," she answered back quietly. "It should be soon though."
"So!" Ocelot interrupted. "Here we all are - as we should be! I've waited a while for this moment, you know!"
"What do you want, Ocelot?" I asked as I struggled against the force field restraining my hands. "Does Celestia know about this?" He let out a short, sharp laugh in response.
"Celestia? Ha! What would I care about what she knows?" The ponies all gasped at this - to them, this was blasphemy.
"Nopony talks about the Princess like that!" Rainbow Dash said aggressively. Like me, she was struggling against her bonds, but failing to break them. "You take that back!"
"Why should I?" asked Ocelot, taking out his gun and twirling it in his hand. "It's the truth - and I would think that you of all people would know about honesty, Rainbow Dash." There was silence between all of the ponies and myself. "...What?" Ocelot asked, confused.
"Ah'm the Element of Honesty - not Rainbow," Applejack explained.
"Really?" asked Ocelot, still twirling the gun. He seemed genuinely confused. "I thought that you were the Element of Loyalty, Applejack, and that Rainbow Dash..." Both ponies shook their heads. "...Well. Not that it matters to my plans," he continued.
"What are your plans, Ocelot?" I asked him, intrigued now. "And what do you want with all of us right now?" He let out another laugh.
"Why should I tell you, Snake?" Ocelot leered. "We're enemies, after all. All I'll tell you is that I'm not really working for Celestia!" He holstered his gun before continuing, apparently having twirled it for dramatic effect more than anything. "Hell, for all you know I'm not really working for FOXHOUND! Maybe I'm working for the President of the United States! Maybe I'm working for the leader of a group of Russian mercenaries! Maybe I'm working for the La Li Lu Le Lo!"
"You work for a group of non-existent Japanese syllables?" I muttered under my breath.
"You see," Ocelot continued, "the truth is that at the moment I'm working for -" He stopped talking for a moment to think. After a few moments, he started whispering to himself under his breath. "...Wait a minute... but if I'm planning to backstab him... then if I'm really working for... but why would I pretend to work with them in the first place?"
After a few minutes of this, Ocelot gave up. "It doesn't matter who I'm really working for!" he said angrily. "The point is, I'm your enemy - and I've been planning to get you six ponies all together ever since I ended up in Canterlot!" The ponies all gasped, except for Fluttershy, who let out more of a squeak of fear.
"What?!"
"But how did yah know 'bout us?"
"I don't even..."
"That doesn't make sense! Scientifically speaking, of course."
"Ocelot! You scum!" As I said these words, Ocelot gave me an odd smile.
"You call me scum, Snake?" he asked. "Be grateful that I'm the one who captured you, not your brother Liquid. If he were here, he'd no doubt be spouting some crap about recessive genes and how he has to prove that he's superior to you genetically." Revolver Ocelot paced back and forth in front of the seven of us as he continued talking, minus the smile on his face this time.
"It's a pity that I don't still have my right arm... there used to be a nice intimidation trick that I could pull if I had another three pistols..." He faced me, drew out his trademark revolver, cocked it, and then aimed it at my face. "Now tell me, Snake - and no lying," he began, "why are you in Canterlot tonight, sneaking around upstairs? That's the one thing I can't work out." As he spoke, I heard the distant sound of fireworks outside - no doubt part of the Gala festivities.
"It's... the Element of Magic," I reluctantly answered. "Twilight figured out that she could use it to send you and me back to Shadow Moses. I decided to steal it tonight because everyone would be distracted by the Grand Galloping Gala." I decided not to tell him about the time limit we had, which was rapidly running out. "Tell me, did you take it from the vault?"
Ocelot smirked and holstered his pistol once more. "Of course I did. I realised that you knew these six ponies somehow after you talked to them during our earlier duel, so when Twilight Sparkle asked Celestia for the Element of Magic, I convinced her to deny the request. If you personally wanted the Element, I knew that you could be up to no good. Just for safe measure, I took the Element myself."
Ocelot opened his jacket cautiously, and drew out something golden and sparkling. "What do you think of it, Snake?" he taunted. Unlike the other Elements of Harmony, the Element of Magic was a small tiara-like crown adorned with Twilight's cutie mark.
"Yeah, he's got it," I said out loud. Ocelot frowned.
"What was that, Snake?" he asked. A moment later, the door of the room we were in was flung open. At the same time, the magical bonds holding Pinkie Pie and I disappeared. In through the door strode Shining Armour, followed by a small group of guards.
"I'll take that, Shalashaska," Shining Armour said confidently as he telekinetically lifted the Element of Magic from Ocelot's hand. "And don't even think about reaching for that 'gun'," he added as his guards untied the rest of the ponies from their ropes.
"Why the hell are you betraying me, Shining Armour?" Ocelot asked furiously. "When the Princess finds out -"
"Finds out what, Shalashaska?" Shining Armour asked. "That you stole the Element of Magic?"
"If you're wondering, Ocelot," I said, "I was talking to Shining Armour on my codec a minute ago when I spoke out loud. You didn't really think that he had betrayed his sister, did you?"
Grumbling now, Ocelot muttered to himself, "...and I could have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling ponies!" As he spoke, I thought back to earlier, when Shining Armour had found Pinkie Pie and me upstairs...
===================
"But I want to know, Snake - how do you know my sister?" Shining Armour asked me. "I swear to Celestia, if you lie -"
"Relax, Shining Armour," I said. "As you can see, I'm not from around here. Twilight's agreed to send me back home using her magic - I've been staying with her for the past few months." Shining Armour thought about it for a moment.
"That does sound like the sort of thing Twily would do..." he said slowly. Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically.
"She nearly did it once, but then the spell stuffed up and that big old meaniepants Ocelot was sent here instead!" she said quickly. "Which was a real pity, since Snake here really wanted to go home, but had to stay here - but then we went to the beach, and baked cupcakes, and-" As she spoke, Shining Armour released us from his telekinetic field.
"You know what?" he said to me. "If Pinkie Pie vouches for you, then that's good enough for me. Shalashaska seems a bit... shady to me."
"Thanks," I said to Shining Armour gratefully. "Do you know where Shalashaska is now? The Element of Magic is missing, and I'll bet he's behind it. Twilight needs it to send me back home." It made sense - first, he rejects Twilight's request for it, and then he steals it to make sure that she can't get her hooves on it. I was just pissed off at myself for not seeing it earlier.
Shining Armour grimaced. "It went missing a few days ago after he did an inspection of this area - now that you say that, I'll bet that you're right, and he stole it. We didn't tell the public that it was missing so that we wouldn't cause a mass panic."
"...and one of them was covered in bees, one went to the moon, like Princess Luna, and one of them was a ghost!" finished Pinkie. She had been continuing on in her story without noticing Shining Armour and I having a conversation of our own.
"Pinkie , what are you - " I started, before giving up. What was the point in trying to make sense of what she was saying?
"Anyway," Shining Armour said, "even if Shalashaska does have the Element, how do you plan on getting it from him? He's not going to just tell you where he's got it."
"Ooh, I know!" Pinkie Pie said. "Why don't you ask him to show it to you? Like one of Applejack's medals!" I frowned, but Shining Armour somehow interpreted her logic.
"Good idea, Pinkie! Snake, if you could trick Shalashaska into showing the Element to you, then I can stop him once you know where it is, and Twily can use it to send you home!" I thought about this for a moment as I formed a plan.
"Alright, here's what we'll do - Shining Armour, I need you to learn how to cast the codec spell..."
===================
As I finished thinking about how we had put our plan together, Twilight levitated the Element of Magic from where her brother. Ocelot was being held telekinetically by both Shining Armour and the Royal Guard - I doubted whether he could escape.
"Twilight- how much longer until the meteor shower?" I asked.
"You hear those fireworks?" she replied as she put the Element of Magic on her head. "Those were set to go off at the same time as the meteor shower - I found out that that's the reason why the Gala was set to be tonight."
"Set to be tonight, huh?" I asked. "So - wait! That means that the shower's going on right now! Twilight - you've got to cast the spell before we run out of time!" As I had been talking, Twilight's horn had been glowing brighter and brighter. I noticed a magic field around both myself and Ocelot.
"I'm sorry that you had to go so soon, Snake," Twilight said, closing her eyes. Once she opened them, her eyes were glowing a bright white, which I assumed was a side effect of the Element of Magic.
"So... soon?" I repeated confusedly as Twilight's horn continued to glow. All of my friends were standing with Twilight now, smiling sadly and waving goodbye. All of a sudden, the reality of the moment hit me - I really was returning to Shadow Moses! "Twilight...all of you... I -"
Everything went black. ... ...
I blinked. It felt like I was lying face-down on the floor. The floor was cold, feeling like marble or some similar stone. I slowly picked myself, and looked around. I was back in Shadow Moses, in the small corridor just before the office where I had fought Psycho Mantis.
"...didn't get to say goodbye," I slowly finished. |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Chapter Seventeen: It's Not Over Yet! | I looked around the corridor I was in once more... this was definitely Shadow Moses. I had spent all of that time in Equestria trying to get back here, and now that I was here, I felt more regretful than anything. Was it really just because I hadn't had a chance to say goodbye to my friends? Or had I found myself enjoying a life devoid of killing?
I shook my head. Now wasn't the time to be thinking these thoughts. I had to concentrate on the mission which I had been given so many weeks ago - I was the only thing standing in the way of Metal Gear REX launching a nuclear missile.
I headed up the corridor, and opened the door to the office where I had fought Psycho Mantis. As I had expected, he was still there, using his telekinesis to hover in the air - it seemed as though the time between Equestria and Earth really did run as slowly as I had assumed. Meryl was lying on the floor, still unconscious from the stun grenade I had used on her.
"Hello, Snake," Mantis sneered as I entered. "Back so soon?"
"Back so... soon?" I repeated. Did this mean that I really had been transported to Equestria physically? That it hadn't all been in my head?
"Ah, you're confused. Good, good, that's exactly how I want you," Psycho Mantis said arrogantly. "Tell me, Snake- would you like me to send you back? To your world of brightly coloured ponies - to your friends? Where all that you have to worry about is -"
"Shut up, Mantis!" I interrupted. "What the hell would you know about any of that?"
"I know plenty," he taunted, still floating above the ground. "Would you believe that my favourite pony is Fluttershy? She's so -"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Psycho Mantis was not going to stand there and mock the world which I had discovered - I fired several shots from my SOCOM pistol into his body. I could only assume that he couldn't read my mind and avoid the shots due to the blind rage I was in at the time. Taken off by this, Mantis fell to the ground as blood began seeping from his chest.
I cautiously walked over to him, keeping my gun aimed at his body in case he tried something. Although he was still alive, he was weakening rapidly, and it looked as though he wouldn't be able to use his powers - at least not effectively.
"... and in short, that's how I defeated Psycho Mantis," Snake finished. "Kinda ironic, isn't it? If he hadn't sent me to Equestria, I wouldn't have acted so instinctively and stopped him." Colonel Campbell was paying attention to something under the table, until Snake cleared his throat.
"Oh- uh, what was that, Snake? Something about... what was her name? Rainbow Dust?" Snake sighed irritably.
"Colonel, I finished telling you how I returned from Equestria several minutes ago. And I barely mentioned Rainbow Dash." To help relieve some of his frustration, little as it may be, Snake started another cigarette - he had lost count of how many he had smoked during this debriefing by now.
"Oh, good! Does this mean you won't be talking about those ponies anymore?" Campbell asked a little too enthusiastically.
"Talking about those ponies?" Snake repeated. "Well, just wait and listen to the rest of the story..."
As I moved closer to Psycho Mantis, he began speaking, to my surprise. "I... I wasn't able to read the future..." he coughed, a small bit of blood coming out of his mouth as he did so.
"A strong man doesn't need to read the future," I pointed out to him. "He makes his own."
"Perhaps so..." Mantis weakly replied. "But I will also read your future..." As he spoke, Meryl regained consciousness, and I helped her up from the floor. "To get to Metal Gear's underground maintenance base... you have to go through that hidden door... behind the bookcase.
"The overland route... it's blocked by frozen glaciers. Go past the communications towers. Then use the tower's walkway." He spent a moment gasping slightly for breath, before continuing. "But beware, Snake..."
"Beware...?" I repeated. As I asked this, I wondered why he was giving Meryl and me help.
"The stairs of the communication tower... they'll take a lot out of you. So many stairs..." I grimaced. That was what he was warning me about?
"I'm not stupid enough to go into something like the tower without at least throwing a chaff grenade first," I answered. "I'd have to be an idiot not to look out for cameras like that." I had been hoping that he would give us some more helpful advice, such as warning us of another FOXHOUND member planning to ambush us up ahead. "Why are you telling me this?" I added.
"I can read people's minds," Mantis began. "In my lifetime I have read the pasts, presents, and futures of thousands upon thousands of men and women. And each mind that I peered into was stuffed with the same single object of obsession. That selfish and atavistic desire to pass on one's seed... it was enough to make me sick. Every living thing on this planet exists to mindlessly pass on their DNA. We're designed that way. And that's why there is war.
"But you... you are different... You like ponies. Humans weren't designed to bring each other happiness - ponies were." I was surprised at how long Mantis was holding onto life for, considering how badly I had shot him up.
"Ponies? What's he going on about, Snake?" Meryl asked me, naturally unable to comprehend what Mantis had done. I ignored her, caught up in what Mantis was saying.
"From the moment you were thrown into that world, I thought that you would be fated to bring those ponies pain and misery," Mantis continued. "But you defied my expectations. You befriended those ponies... you didn't kill everything which got in your way, as I had expected you would."
"Mantis..." I started, worried about what he was implying. "Does this mean that my trip to Equestria was all in my head? That you controlled everything in there using your powers?" From his apparent intimate knowledge of what had happened, it would make sense...
He let out a hollow laugh. "That would seem to be the appropriate explanation, wouldn't it?" Mantis asked weakly. "But then again... how do you know that I didn't read your mind once you returned? That I didn't use that knowledge to find out what you had done in Equestria?" He let out another hollow laugh before continuing. "Maybe I even saw what those ponies had done for you... and realised that I'm pathetic next to them. That they'll always be better than me - so I let you kill me." This took me by surprise - could it be true? Before I could ask Mantis for a proper answer, he continued.
"I thought that I'd seen true evil - you, Snake. I thought that you were just like the Boss... no, you're better. You've let those ponies change you, and make you into a better person." Mantis entered a coughing fit for a few moments before continuing. From the looks of things, he was holding onto life through will alone.
Weakly, Psycho Mantis pointed a finger to the bookshelf that he had mentioned earlier. "I'll open the door for you." The bookshelf slid to one side silently, revealing the hidden door behind it. "If you want to find your future, go through that door. This is the first time I've ever used my power to help someone. It's strange... it feels... kind of... nice." His voice quietened as he spoke, and I was expecting him to finally die, before he spoke one final sentence:
"I wonder... would the ponies... be proud of me?"
Meryl and I were silent as Mantis breathed his final breath. His head rolled to one side with no force to keep it focused on the two of us. I broke the silence, saying "Let's go, Meryl." I started heading over to the door before noticing that Meryl wasn't following. "What is it?"
"Snake... what was Mantis saying? About those ponies?"
I hesitated before answering. "...It's a long story, Meryl. Let's just say that Mantis... without meaning to, he made me a better person. He showed me that I don't have to kill to save the world." I examined my handgun, and gave a wry smile. "Heh, next time I go on a mission, I should try to get a gun that only tranquilises my enemies."
"With that, we continued through the exit that Mantis had shown us," Snake said to Colonel Campbell. Campbell was paying full attention now that Snake was explaining the rest of the Shadow Moses mission. "But when we reached the communications tower we were ambushed by Sniper Wolf, the next member of FOXHOUND." Campbell nodded.
"I remember. You had to backtrack to find that sniper rifle to stop her," he said. Snake grunted at this.
"I hate backtracking," he grumbled as he stubbed out the cigarette he had lit earlier. "And I'm sure that you'll remember what happened after I temporarily stopped Sniper Wolf?" Once more, Campbell nodded.
"Liquid Snake managed to capture you, which led to..."
"Torture," Snake confirmed simply.
I was shackled to a revolving metallic slab. I had naturally been stripped of my weapons and equipment, in addition to the upper half of my sneaking suit.
In front of me, Revolver Ocelot was preparing some equipment. I had no idea what he had in mind for torture, but it looked as though it would be ugly. Sniper Wolf and my brother, Liquid, had already left after taunting me. "Finally, just the two of us," Ocelot said, smirking. "How are you feeling?" In truth, I was worried - just what was Ocelot planning to do to me? What if I ended up giving in to the torture - what would the consequences be?
What would a brave pony like Rainbow Dash say? I thought, looking to her for inspiration. "Not bad. I caught a nice nap on this revolving bed of yours," I said. "Too bad I was sleeping alone."
"Glad to hear that," Ocelot said, going along with what I was saying. "This is some bed alright. I'm about to show you some of its nicer features..."
"Not as good as the beds in Canterlot, I'll bet," I answered. "What's it like, sleeping in the same castle as Princess Celestia?" Ocelot gave me an odd look.
"What the damn hell are you on about, Snake?" he asked.
"Tell me, Ocelot," I asked him, dead serious, "did you get sent to Equestria by Twilight Sparkle's spell?" He continued looking at me oddly, whilst massaging his chest slightly with his hand.
"Snake, I realise that you're trying to confuse me and escape, and I applaud your imagination, but do you really think that asking me nonsensical questions will work?" Ocelot gave a short, sharp bark of laughter. "It really seems that the fear has gone to your head -you really think that I'd give a flying feather about what you're on about?"
Revolver Ocelot turned back to the equipment he had. "We're going to play a game, Snake. And we'll find out what kind of man we really are. When the pain becomes too great to bear just give up and your suffering will end. But if you do, the girl's life is mine."
With that, Ocelot pressed a switch on the equipment. For maybe half a second it looked like nothing was going to happen, before I felt a strong jolt of electricity coursing through my body. Within a few moments, I had already started to shout out in pain...
"I don't know how you managed to survive that torture," Colonel Campbell said, shuddering slightly in pain. "Ocelot sending all of that electricity through your body... you'd need some sort of healing factor to survive it!"
I shook my head. "Healing factor?" I repeated. "No, all I needed to survive that was a good hand and quick reflexes." Before Campbell could ask me what I meant by that, I got to the point I was trying to make. "Colonel... don't you think it's odd that Ocelot claimed not to have gone to Equestria?" Campbell rolled his eyes.
"Snake, you realise that I don't care about this whole -"
"I'm just saying," Snake interrupted, "because I find it odd that he was rubbing his chest when we were talking about it. That's where I shot him when he arrived in Equestria."
Campbell considered this for a moment. "So... you think he was lying to you?"
Snake shrugged. "Then again, maybe it was nothing. Or maybe I shot him there when we fought in Shadow Moses." He shook his head. "I can't know for sure - it's not as if Ocelot works for the President, and we can just ask him. Anyway, from there..."
===================
Snake told Campbell about the rest of the Shadow Moses Incident - how he escaped the torture, killed Sniper Wolf and another member of FOXHOUND, Vulcan Raven, and was tricked by Liquid into activating Metal Gear REX.
"You were tricked by Liquid into activating Metal Gear REX?!" Colonel Campbell repeated. Snake rolled his eyes, not sure why Campbell was so confused when he had been in contact with Snake when it had happened.
"I was tricked by Liquid into activating Metal Gear REX," he confirmed.
"Metal... Gear?" Campbell asked again.
"Metal Gear REX," Snake confirmed, resisting the urge to punch Campbell.
Although it had been less than two minutes since Liquid had jumped into the cockpit of Metal Gear REX and tried to kill me with it, it felt as though the battle had gone on for hours. I had fired countless missiles at REX's radome using my Stinger missile launcher, as Otacon had advised me to do, but it was still no good. Metal Gear REX truly was indestructible.
From the cockpit of Metal Gear REX, Liquid's voice rang out. "Nice try, Snake. Die!" One of the legs of REX rose to crush me. Although I started moving out of the way, I knew that I was done for... or at least, I would have been, if it hadn't been for what happened next.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a blur zoom past me, towards Metal Gear REX. Rainbow Dash? I wondered for a brief moment. I turned around to see that it wasn't Rainbow Dash - but it was still a good friend of mine.
"Hurry! Get away!" Grey Fox said, wearing still wearing the suit and armour which gave him the name Cyborg Ninja. He was holding up REX's leg by strength alone - his armour must have been stronger than I realised.
"Grey Fox!!" I said, still reeling from his sudden appearance. Although it had just been hours since he had last seen me, I hadn't seen him since before I had been sent to Equestria... when we had been fighting.
"You look terrible, Snake," Fox said, still straining to hold up REX's leg. "You haven't aged well." As he spoke, I took advantage of his distraction and ran behind a nearby box, so that I could catch my breath. I didn't get the chance to see what Grey Fox did next, but a moment later he joined me behind the box.
"Fox, why?!" I asked. The last time we had seen each other, he had been trying to force me to kill him - did he want another fight?
"I'm a prisoner of death," he said cryptically. "Only you can free me..." He had made similar statements when we had fought earlier. I was going to answer him, when Liquid's voice rang out from REX once more.
"There you are!" A moment later, a hail of bullets slammed into the box we were hiding behind. Fox stood up, ready for fighting as ever.
"We're just about out of time," he said. "Here's a final present from Deepthroat. I'll stop it from moving!" I looked from around the box to see what he was going to do.
Grey Fox ran straight to REX without any hesitation. Reacting to this, Liquid fired Metal Gear REX's rail gun at him - in response, Fox leapt all around the place to try and dodge it. Unfortunately, Liquid reacted much faster this time - using a laser weapon of REX's to cut off one of Fox's arms. I winced, amazed at how Fox could keep this up.
Despite this new disability, Fox barely reacted. He did some more flips and acrobatics, and managed to get to a ledge, high in the large room we were in. Spinning around, he drew out his gun - he can destroy REX's radome!, I thought excitedly.
CRUNCH! Or not. Liquid had managed to move Metal Gear REX quickly enough that the protruding cockpit of it crushed Fox against the wall, pinning him helplessly.
"How strong is that exoskeleton of yours?" Liquid asked, half-curiously, half-mockingly. It was hard to see from my vantage point, but it looked like he was trying to crush Fox, and get rid of him once and for all. "Snake, are you just going to sit by and watch him die?"
Despite having lost an arm, being pinned against the wall by REX, and being close to death, Fox somehow managed to raise his remaining arm and fire his gun. To my surprise, it was powerful enough to destroy REX's radome - REX could now be destroyed once and for all.
"A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal!" Grey Fox said to Liquid. As he spoke, Liquid opened up the cockpit of Metal Gear REX, exposing himself - since the radome could no longer be counted on for visuals, Liquid was going to have to use his own two eyes.
"Impressive. You are indeed worthy of the codename 'Fox'! But now you're finished!" Liquid said, sounding genuinely impressed.
"Wait a minute," Colonel Campbell interrupted. "Liquid Snake was in the cockpit of Metal Gear REX, a good fifteen to thirty metres away from you. He wasn't transmitting his voice through REX either. How could you hear him?"
"Hear him?" Solid Snake shrugged. "You know... I never really questioned it."
"But that just doesn't make sense!" Campbell exclaimed. "Are you just making up what he said, or is there some other explanation?"
"Look, Colonel," Snake started irritably, "what with all of the Cyborg Ninjas, Russian cowboys, Alaskan shamans, and telekinesis practitioners in Shadow Moses, I decided not to question it." He snorted. "What's next? A special effects expert who's really good at holding his breath? A fat man on roller skates drinking wine through a bendy straw? A bisexual vampire?"
Campbell shifted a folder on the desk slightly, so that he could read its label: Dead Cell. "Well Snake, you see..."
"The point is, Campbell, that how I heard Liquid doesn't matter," Snake said before Campbell could say what he was going to say. "Now, as I was saying..."
"Now! Fire the Stinger!" Grey Fox called out to me. I looked at the missile launcher in my hands... was he being serious? Firing a missile when he would surely be killed in the explosion?
"Can you really shoot? You'll kill him too!" Liquid said, echoing my thoughts. Part of me was tempted to... not only would the explosion destroy REX's cockpit, rending the great beast inoperable forever, but it would also probably kill Liquid, completing my mission once and for all.
"Now... in front of you... I can finally die," Fox gasped, the damage having finally taken its toll on him. "After Zanzibar, I was taken from the battle neither truly alive nor truly dead... an undying shadow in the world of lights. But soon... soon... it will finally... end."
As Fox spoke, I raised the Stinger missile launcher, and locked on a missile. I was ready to fire... when a voice from not too long ago came into my head.
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! Who are you?!"
Despite the fact that she had literally only known me for a few seconds at that point, Pinkie Pie had been willing to accept me as her friend. As were all the rest of the ponies I met, despite that I was completely foreign to them, and a newcomer in town. Hell, I could even admit that I was pretty rude to them at first. Yet... in the end, they had accepted me as their friend, and I had eventually learned to accept them as mine.
I wouldn't shoot the Stinger if any of my pony friends were in the situation which Fox now found himself in, no matter what the benefits would be. And I wasn't going to kill Fox, no matter what he wanted.
Fox finished talking, and Liquid moved Metal Gear REX back slightly, causing Fox's body to fall to the ground. I thought that that finished him off... but just to be sure, Liquid raised one of REX's legs, and stomped it downwards on Fox. Nothing happened. Grey Fox was still alive, and his armour was still strong enough to withstand the full force of REX's leg crushing it, despite how close he was to death.
"Die!" spat Liquid, thoroughly pissed off with Fox by now. I looked up to Liquid sitting in REX's cockpit, and smirked slightly.
"You think you can destroy Grey Fox just like that?" I asked him confidently. "Well, you're wrong, because the Stinger missile launcher is right here! The spirit of Grey Fox got me through every challenge you threw at me!" From the cockpit, Liquid gasped slightly, and paused in his murder of Fox.
"You still haven't defeated the sixth member of FOXHOUND! The spark didn't work!" Liquid spat. Despite his words, he looked unconvinced.
"But it did!" I said back, not sure exactly what he was going on about. I looked to Grey Fox, still bleeding profusely and dying beneath REX's leg. "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you... to see you... how much I cared about you!" I was trying to find the right words to inspire him to continue fighting.
I struggled to think of what next to say, before remembering that his foster sister, Naomi Hunter, had injected me with a virus as revenge for 'killing' him in Zanzibar Land. "FOXDIE ignited inside me when I realized that you... are my friend!" I said to him.
I turned back to Liquid now, and locked onto him with the Stinger missile launcher. "You see, Liquid Snake, when FOXDIE is ignited by the... the genes, that reside in the heart of us all, it creates a new element: the element of-"
CRUNCH! Ignoring me, Liquid had lifted the leg of Metal Gear REX, and crushed Grey Fox completely with it. "Foooooox!!" I cried out, looking at the bloody smear on REX's leg.
"Foolish man," Liquid sneered. "He prayed for death... and it found him. You see? You can't protect anyone!! Not even yourself!" Liquid turned REX slightly, so that it was facing me properly. "Die!!"
"And that's how Grey Fox died," Snake finished sadly. Colonel Campbell shook his head slowly.
"Such a pity," Campbell said. "He started out as such a great soldier, and in the end he was turned into that monstrosity... at least he can rest in peace now."
Snake nodded in agreement, and then continued to tell the final chapter of the Shadow Moses Incident - how he managed to stop both Metal Gear REX and Liquid Snake, and his escape from Shadow Moses with the help of both Otacon and Meryl.
"So... what are you going to do now?" Campbell asked Snake. The debriefing was officially finished.
"What am I going to do now, huh?" Snake repeated. He briefly went over the events of the mission once again - in particular, his fight with Psycho Mantis. "I'm not going to work for you or the government anymore, Campbell - and I mean it this time. I want to do good in the world. Something more... philanthropic... than before."
Campbell gave a hollow laugh. "Really, Snake? You're a soldier at heart. You always have been. And we both know that a soldier's place is on the battlefield."
"Not this soldier's," Snake said gruffly. "Anyway, I hear that they're thinking about shutting down FOXHOUND sometime in the near future. After the way Liquid took control of it and turned them into a group of terrorists... do you blame them?"
"Ridiculous!" Campbell said. "FOXHOUND is going to last decades! Next thing I know, you'll be saying that they should replace me with a computer program!"
Snake got up from the table and readjusted his bandanna, preparing to leave now that things were wrapping up. "Maybe they should, Colonel... You want my advice?" Campbell grimaced, then nodded.
"What is it?"
"Change FOXHOUND around a bit... maybe starting with the coding system," Snake simply said.
"Why's that?" Campbell asked, not understanding why Snake was suggesting this.
"Well... what if the highest rank wasn't Fox, but Alicorn? The next could be Unicorn, followed by -"
"Oh, get out of here," Campbell said angrily, getting frustrated with the whole pony business. Frowning, Snake nevertheless gave Campbell a civil nod before leaving the room.
===================
Several hours later, Snake called Otacon by codec. He was taking the advice which Twilight Sparkle had given him, and trying to maintain a friendship with Otacon.
"Hey Otacon. It's Snake."
"Hey Snake," Otacon answered. "Did you end up learning anything from that debriefing, like you'd hoped?" Although Otacon couldn't see it, Snake nodded.
"Yeah, just going over the mission again got me thinking... Otacon, take a letter."
"W-what?!" Otacon asked.
"It's something I want to get in the habit of," Snake explained. "Even if they never get sent or read, I want to get in the habit of writing a letter to Princess Celestia, to remember my friends in Equestria."
"But Snake- you never found out whether you really travelled to Equestria or not," Otacon pointed out.
"That's what I'm about to explain. So write the damn letter!" Snake said, before clearing his throat. "Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that it doesn't matter whether something is real, or fiction. What you think you see is only as real as your brain tells you it is.
"And with that in mind, I don't care whether I really travelled to Equestria or not. I don't care whether Psycho Mantis was just tricking my brain into thinking that I was in Equestria, or whether he really did send me there... because as a good friend of mine said, 'Even if it's not real, it doesn't mean that our friendship isn't.'
"From your faithful operative, Solid Snake. Did you get all of that, Otacon?"
"Sure did, Snake," Otacon answered. "Is it okay if I write to Princess Celestia, and ask her whether love can bloom on a battlefield?"
"Why not?"
"Thanks, Snake," said Otacon. "You know, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship between us two."
"I should hope so, Otacon. After all... friendship is magic." |
My Little Mission: Sneaking is Magic | Epilogue: The Best is Yet To Come | In a hospital thousands of kilometres away, Revolver Ocelot was just finishing up an important phone call, having just come out from an important and successful arm transplant. "...It takes a well-balanced individual... such as yourself to rule the world. No, sir. No one knows that you were the third one...Solidus."
As he continued talking on the phone, he flexed his new arm. It had been a stroke of genius, taking the arm from Liquid's body and using it for an arm transfusion. "What should I do about the woman?" Ocelot asked, still talking on the phone to this mystery person. "Yes sir. I'll keep her under surveillance.
"Yes. Thank you. Goodbye. Mr. President." He hung up the phone, looking around to make sure that no one in the hospital had overheard whom he was talking to. Fortunately, it was fairly late in the afternoon, and those who were in the hospital were too busy to pay any attention to an innocent-looking man in a business suit making a quiet phone call.
Confident that no one was watching him, Ocelot picked up the receiver of the phone once more. Rather than dialling the phone though, he dialled his codec, and pretended to speak into the phone so that he wouldn't look suspicious seemingly talking to thin air.
"Yes, it's me," he said. "As I anticipated, the entire unit was wiped out. Yes... yes, even him. I doubt whether there'll be any more visits." Ocelot paused to listen to what his contact was asking. "Those two are still alive. The vector? Yes, the spark should become activated soon... Right on schedule.
"Yes. I recovered all of Mantis's information. ...No. My cover is intact. Nobody knows where I really went. Yes, Vulcan Raven suspected something, but he's been disposed of." Before continuing, Ocelot looked around once more to see whether he was being watched. Just as before, no one was paying him any attention.
"Yes. The inferior one was the winner after all," he continued saying. "...That's right. Until the very end, Liquid thought he was the inferior one. Yes. I agree completely. It takes someone who has seen the dark side... such as yourself to rule the world. No. No one knows that you also were sent to Earth... Of course I'll help you get back.
"Yes. Thank you. Goodbye. Princess Luna." With that, Revolver Ocelot hung up the phone and exited his codec call. Walking away, he casually left the hospital, and started whistling to himself. Everything was going according to plan.
THE END |
The Protogen of Equis | pre | She then got behind me and began to push me.
"That's a surprise silly!" |
The Protogen of Equis | Party Party Party! (edited) | (Outside ponyville)
"Boss those ponies are at it again with another one of those stupid parties!" One of the diamond dog raiders pointed out to the night as the small town glowed brightly.
The leader of the group smiled as he raised his club.
"Good work Slug with those ponies fating themselves up we are going to take what is rightfully ours!" The leader spoke as the crowd of raiders roared with him. "With this shiny that princess of theirs won't even stand a chance!"
In the large pam of the dog held a strange-looking gem that glowed as the group looked at the gem in awe none of them noticed the red and black modified B-1 battle droid walk into their camp. Bone scanned around looking at what could be a problem for his master and decided to deal with this threat before it could become a problem.
The droid then lept into the air using its upgrades to not fly but 'jump good' over the crowd of diamond dogs and to the leader. As he landed the leader took a step back in shock but before he could react Mr. Bones hands snapped back as two large 9 in blades shot forth.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that meat bag,"
"What the-"
In the blink of the eye Mr. Bone snapped forward and strike his blades at the large diamond dog as a pair of diamond dog hands went flying into the air.
"Oh la dee da la dee de,"
As the leader screamed the droid sung and began to mutilate the diamond dog as the pack watched there leader be literary taken apart by the red droid. After the shock vanished two of the pack leaped at the droid but only for the killer machine to evade the attack and disembowel the two dogs as they died before hitting the ground. Fear shook the entire pack as the droid got up with a invisible smile on its becked head.
"Who else wishes to dance with Mister bones?"
"SURPRISE!"
A fake surprised look came across my face as pinkie and the rest of ponyville 'surprised' me, before me the entire town...no the town and the school was here and boy was it packed! Party supplies were everywhere along with a large banner that read:
"Welcome to Equestria/Ponyville Zero!"
All in bold and cyan blue typo with a black bag ground to match my color scheme.
"Aw shucks Pinkie you didn't have to throw me a party I mean after all we just meet,"
The pink pony popped up to me.
"Of course I do silly willie its what I do for everypo- I mean everyone!" With a smile I nodded.
"Thanks, Pinks,"
"OHHH a nickname! Should I come up one for you too lets see," She hummed for a moment before twilight spoke.
"How about destroyer of numbers?" The group turned to her with a blank stare but I only laughed.
Mostly because it reminded me of fallout new vegas.
Twilight smiled at how I got the joke as the rest of the group turned to me.
"How is that funny zero," Rainbow dash ask as I simply held out my hand.
"Well, when you divide by zero what happens?" I asked her.
"Um...you get zero?" I shook my head.
"Nope what happens is...nothing you can't divide zero but ironically there is one zero who does a lot of dividing," I mumbled that last part to myself.
"Well I will come up with a nickname soon Zero!" Pinkie stated before taking my arm. "But first you MUST have this cake I baked for you!"
'Uh-oh,'
Before I could say anything I was dragged over to the cake table where the cake was made to match my color scheme like the banner did.
"What kinda part would you like?"
"Well, pinkie I-"
"I can tell you're a cornerpiece type of guy!" She then sliced into the cake and placed the corner piece onto a paper plate and handed it to me. "Here you go zero you simply must try it!"
I froze as the entire town's eyes laid on to me as I just held the cake in my hands. ...
"Um...pinkie I can't really eat this right now,"
Pinkie pie tilted her head.
"Why not all you need to do is take off that mask and you can have all the cake that you want!" She reached for my visor but I grabbed her hand.
"Pinkie...to my people its consider extremely rude to remove ones visor,"
The party pony froze before snapping back.
"OH MY GOSH I'M SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY!"
With a smile, I waved it off.
"It's fine pinkie I'll have it later when I can,"
Before I could do anything a familiar orange dragon spoke.
"Hey Robo dude why can't you take off your mask thing and eat the cake now?" Asked the student dragon as I turned to her.
Turning to Smolder (as twilight was blushing from embarrassment as one of her students) as I held out my hand pointing to my mask.
"Well there my scaly friend my people where these visor's out of two reasons. One: these visors provide protection from elements or harmful threats. Two: Our Visors are something of our culture and our faces are not to be shown in public," I told her as she turned her head.
"Why is that space dog?" I forgot how the dragons were like this in the show were.
"Simply put our faces are like our most valuable possession and the only times that we show them to others are that of our most trust friends,"
"That's weird," Smolder stated but I laughed.
"To me all this is weird...you are all showing each others faces its strange to me," I stated but before smolder could ask another question Pinkie grabbed me.
"Enough questions its time we have some fun!"
And so began about a hour of different party games some stuff was basic for parties but a few added things from the MLP show were there like a mini iron mare contest along. Then there was the long line of those who wished to beat me in arm wrestling all of them failed and much to rainbow's pride I was conspired the best at arm wrestling. I got bored with the games and decided to dance for a bit.
These ponies didn't know how to TRULY dance and luckily with my new body, I was able to preform some stuff that Raiden pulled off in MGS4. Sadly my dancing was cut short when a certain two princesses decided to pop in, as they were announced the music stopped as I got snapped up from the ground.
Standing like a statue the two princesses stared me down with eyes filled with curiosity as they walked over to me, on the dance floor the ponies/other creatures on it moved aside as Princess Celestia and her sister Luna came before me and I had to say they were tall but they didn't tower over me.
(Note: Zero is 7ft 1in while Celestia is 6ft 10in and Luna is 6ft 8in)
"Zero I presume?" |
The Protogen of Equis | Royal pain (edited) | (Castle of friendship)
As I sat before the two goddess they studied me as I lazily slouched in the arm chair with my legs on top of one another.
"I'll say again...No," Celestia exhaled as she put down her tea cup as she gave me a motherly like stare and spoke.
"I wish you could reconsider the technology you have you could save millions of equestrian lives from war, diseases, and-"
Rising my hand I shook my head.
"Princess look its that I can't...I would be breaking my people's law and making me a enemy of my people for that I can't just give you my people's hard work,"
Celestia spoke again.
"Please Zero I know your people will be upset from you actions but I can assure them that you are doing something ri-"
"Not happening Celestia," I interrupted.
Then began the long ass speech in how in giving my tech will bring the ponies into a advance stage of life where ponies can sleep easy knowing they are safe and blah blah blah friendship blah blah.
'She just doesn't know when to quiet!'
After what felt like a hour of this I got up with my hands out stopping her speech.
"Look Celestia your a good ruler but I can't do that no matter what you say and to be honest your people aren't ready for the tech my people have,"
Celestia cocked a eyebrow to me.
"Why is that?"
"Well for starters from the research I have done of your world I found that your race is extra xenophobic and greedy," I stated causing her to blink and I kept talking. "Hell I even ran a simulation of what if it was like if I did give you my tech and you know what happen?"
Celestia crossed her arms.
"What happened?"
Holding out my finger I pointed at her.
"Your race destroyed your entire planet within 28 days of me giving you my technology and for that reason is why I can just simply give up the technology,"
Celestia glared as she slammed her hands down.
"By what right do you have to with hold valuable information and technology from my little ponies?!" She shouted as I simply held a cool look.
"You won't like what I have to say princess," She growled but before she could do anything rash Luna stepped in.
"Sister please I believe Zero is correct," Celestia held a look of betray on her face to her sister.
"LUNA-!"
She held out her hand as she got up.
"Sister ever since I have arrived I've seen that our ponies for almost 1,000 years haven't changed. Sure some medicine and other advances have come but we still are the same ponies not too long ago," Celestia was dumbfounded at what her sister said as I clapped my claws.
"Thank you Luna and with that I think its best for me to take my leave," As I began to walk to the door Luna stopped me
"But I have one thing to say to you Alien," I turned to her as she held a warning look. "We many have stopped trying to convince you to trade your technology but others may try to steal your secrets,"
I smiled as I waved to them.
"Let them try,"
Exiting the big ass castle I made my way back to my ship as I left town in the dark of the night, normally I would be wary of my surroundings but that when I was human but now as a protogen I was prepared for anything. I'm not trying to be a smart ass or anything but my onboard systems had me know known forms of combat along with the power system going through my claws (Both arm and leg) I could easily rip a tyrand in half if I wanted. Along with that, I had Mr. Bones watching my back and speaking of whom.
As I whistled my buddy came from the branches and with new...armor?
"Whoa Mr. B you've been busy,"
The psycho battle droid held out his hands happily as it walked over to me.
"Well, master while you were enjoying the party I decided to have some fun as well,"
Crossing my arms I smiled.
"Who did you kill?"
The droid moved one of the new skulls that rested on his shoulder slightly as he spoke.
"Just some Bipedal Canine meat bags sir," He began to walk alongside me as we walked to the ship.
"Diamond dogs?"
He nodded.
"Correct sir they were planning on raiding the village while the equine meat bags partied," Mr. Bones told me as I nodded.
"Good work Mr. Bones,"
If the droid could smile I could swear that he did as his hands waved in joy.
"Thank you, Master! Oh, hold on they had something of interest as well," His chest compartment opened as he pulled out a red-looking gem before handing it to me. "The leader had this on him. It seems to be giving off unknown energy of some kind,"
As I took the gem I looked at the small perfectly shaped red gem as my visor scanned it as I read the readings.
"Hmmm yes, this is quite the find you got Mr. Bones it might be something special I just need to put this under a scanner to see what we can do with it," I stated as I cupped my chin.
"Agreed master,"
(morning)
(Zero's room within the reach)
Do you know what's cool about having a 60% machine body? Well, its simple to say the least because having over half your body machine is so that you don't have to sleep quite often. Everyone loves to sleep, yes but when you are having to do a few day's worths of projects sleep becomes second thought, but after that party, I was drained so what do I do when I get home?
Well, first I throw that Gem into the scanner and go into my room and use my bed for the first time since I've been here. Luckily for my protogen body, I can go to sleep on a dime unlike my insomnia human body so sleep wasn't hard to do like normally.
Sadly the one day I wanted to sleep though wasn't going to happen.
It was a droid that woke me up.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck," Getting up my eyes blinked groggily as I looked up to see a B-1 pilot droid. "Why the fuck did you wake me up when I said not I was going to just sleep today?"
Rubbing my visor out of habit the droid spoke in its noseless voice.
"Well, sir our scans picked up something entering Equis space and is heading this way,"
Getting off my ass I took the datapad from the droid and looked at it and to my surprise, the radar of the solar system held a small ship entering the system. Before I could say anything more another larger ship appeared behind the other ship but unlike the first ship, it was red instead of yellow.
Turning to the droid I spoke.
"Have the reach exit the atmosphere and set a course to intercept the ships,"
"Roger roger,"
With that, I walked to the bridge with the droid behind me.
'Always one way to start the day,' |
The Protogen of Equis | PIRATES! (Edited) | (Equis space)
(The black death)
The Pirate captain smiled a toothy grin as he sat on his command chair of the stolen destroy class starship known as the black death. His crew stands at the controls of the warship as the room was lit a deep red to help with their night vision as the ship chased after a much smaller ship.
One that held a target for a job that they were hired to do, normally the blackhole crew usually avoid doing jobs and normally just raid ships but this job was given to them by their employer that wouldn't take no for an answer and besides this job fetched the right price.
Captain Tooth and his crew have been chasing this ship for quite some time and their chase has led up to this place on the edge of the solar system where a planet has a moon and a STAR orbiting it. Normally no one would dare come here since the two astral bodies would move at random and along with that, there wasn't anything that one would want from this backwater world.
"Boss she's heading to E-1 from the looks of it!" The first mate said as the captain just smiled.
He held out his robotic hand and shouted.
"Send in the boys I think it's time we finish this little chase," With that, the crow second in command nodded as he got on the loudspeaker.
"ALRIGHT LADS BOSS IS SAYING ITS TIME!" As the speakers announced this the entire crew roared as many began to run to starships.REMEMBER THE GUY WHO IS HIRING US WANTS HER ALIVE SO DON'T KILL HER!
As the pirates entered their ships the black death opened its hangers letting the modified stolen Corneria security ships shoot out into the void of space to the lone starship.
(Pasting luna's moon)
(The Reach)
"Sir our scans are showing the enemy starship is deploying fighters to intercept the lone starship!" One of the pilot droids announced to me.
Placing my arms on the controls I looked forward as the surface of the moon passed by as our stealth engine and cloaking device kicked it. Looking at the large ship before us I used my visor's zoom feature to try and get a look at the running ship only to get a blur of it.
'Must be going at sub-light speed can't get a read on it,'
I began to type into the controls and active the ships scanners to get a scan of the lone ship, as I finished the last of the commands a hologram appeared before me causing me to go wide-eyed.
'Is that-'
"Sir enemy fighters are closing in on the lone fighters what should we do?"
I pointed to the droid and spoke.
"Prepare the ships we are going to save that ship,"
"Roger Roger,"
Turning my back on the hologram I ran down the hall to my ship.
"These guys don't give up!" Krystal shouted as she evaded the pirate's fire with her cloud runner.
The Ex-member of star fox punched the throttle on her engine giving her a boost forward as she was pushed from the force. As her ship dashed forward closer to the planet the pirates on her tail still kept chasing her as she began to worry for her sake, she had been chased by these guys for almost 5 hours and her ship is losing fuel fast! She needs to do something but right now the pirates had the radio jammed preventing her from calling help meaning she was on her own.
She could fight but she was greatly outnumbered...
The deck was stacked against her.
That was until her radar began to pick up something in front of her.
"What how did they get in front of me?" Looking up she then notices ships seeming to come right out of thin air.
(If you guys want music)
Krystal was awestruck these weren't pirates but something else, and from what she could tell using her psychic abilities she sensed that these fighters weren't being driven by a pilot but drones. She prepared herself for any incoming damage but the ships just passed her as they began to attack the pirates. The vixen was surprised at what just happened but before she could react her comms flared up.
She turned to her comms screen only to be met with a scrambled image.
"C-c-com-e...i-n-n-n...a-a-a-llied...ve-sse-l,"
The image was fuzzy on her screen but she heard what was said as she pushed the speak button.
"Yes! Hello, can you hear me! This is Krystal of the Corneria pilot's guild can you read me," She spoke in with a smile as the voice came back a little clearer.
"Y-Yes...I...Ca-n-n...hear you,"
The image was less fuzzy but what she could make out was a male canine-like creature wear what looked like a visor over his face.
"Thank the goddess. I've been chased by a pirate group known as the blackhole gang and I need assistance they've been on my tail for some time. I'm low on fuel and Bombs I can use the help,"
She watched as the creature nodded.
"O-of...course...when...we...pi-ck-ck...you...up...entering...the...system...we came to help," The voice and image got clear as she got a good look at what she was seeing.
"Thanks I appreciate the helping hand Mr...."
"Names Zero I'm Captain of The Reach don't worry about a thing Krystal my boys and I have your back," The now named zero said.
Krystal cocked an eyebrow at Zero and looked around, there was no ship...well that was until like a vell a large ship uncloaked before her eyes along with a swarm of more fighters coming in hot. Out of all the ships one was different and this one unlike the others held a living pilot and was leading a neon blue set of different ships behind it.
(Note it's just blue with blue highlights)
The sight was amazing and as for the large dreadnaught class ship whose guns all turned to the black death preparing to fire when in range. Never in her life as a Mercenary with star fox has she ever seen a ship that big nor the number of fighters coming at the pirates. She was so entranced that she didn't notice the pilot coming up behind her and open fire upon her, her shields took the most of it but still, the force rocked her around.
"SHIT!"
She took action but more pirates were on her not letting their bounty escape, as the ace pilot flipped around with greedy pirates on her tail she took more fire as her shields burned out as her ship itself took damage.
"Don't worry Krystal I got your back,"
Sitting in my tie elite I moved behind the tailing ships on the blue vixen as my targeting computer began to get a lock on the pirate fighters.
As my computer got a lock I opened fired as the lasers fired a blue laser at the pirate, the advanced lasers easily ate through the shields and toasted the ship causing it to explode. Before the other pirates got a chance I opened fired as my targeting system got a lock as I took out two targets with one press. The remaining pilots broke off but only to be met with the interceptor vulture droids as my 'divison squad' finished them off.
"Thanks Zero,"
Pulling up next to the cloud jumper I nodded to the hologram on my display.
"Not a problem Krystal...hey your smoking on your rear," I warned.
"Crap those pirates must have nicked my engine I can't hold her for much longer!"
"Don't worry if we can make it to the reach everything will be fine,"
She shook her head.
"I don't think my controls will last that long,"
Looking down I flipped a few switches as I readied my ace in the hole.
"Don't worry I set my tractor beam on you and pull you in,"
"You can do that?"
"Yeah now hold on," I warned.
I snagged my beam onto the cloud jumper as I began to pull her to the reach as the pirates began to reach in but my squad broke off and opened fire providing covering fire. Punching my ship's superior speed with Krystal in my tractor beam we entered the safe zone of the Reach as I got onto the comms.
"Reach hanger 3 I'm coming in hot with a tow prepare a firing squad for any problems and a tractor net,"
"Roger roger captain zero,"
The hanger doors opened as I began to slow down but enough not to crash both of our ships, as we entered the hanger our ships were dragged across the floor as sparks flew before the tractor trap activated but the damaged cloud jumper's right-wing snapped off before flying across the hangar.
It exploded in a ball of fire as I got out of my ship before turning to the cloud jumper that was in blue field of energy before being let go as the ship flames grew. Jumping down I ran over to the ship and got onto the ship's nose, Krystal banged on the cockpit meaning that she was trapped.
When I saw this I dug my claws into the sides of the cockpit and ripped off the top of the ship before throwing it aside as Krystal couched from the smoke that filled the cockpit. Reaching my claw out to her she looked up and took it with her staff in hand as I pulled her out before holding her like a princess and jumping off the burning ship. As we landed I set Krystal down as I turned out and spoke.
"Where is my fire unit?"
As I said this a squad of fire-fighting droids poured out.
"Here sir,"
I pointed forward at the flames.
"Take out those flames before they spread to the fuel tanks!"
"Roger Roger," With that they poured on specialized fire suppressant foam onto the flames of the ship and wing.
As I waved across my face I placed a hand on a coughing Krystal.
"Welcome aboard The Reach Krystal," |
The Protogen of Equis | Abroad the Reach (EDITED!) | (The reach)
(one hour after the destruction of the black death)
(Med bay)
Krystal opened her mouth for the droid as it checked on her overall health, after all she was involved in a crash just an hour prior.
"Hmmm, I don't see any visible injures on you Ms. Krystal. How do you feel?" The robot asked as it moved aside letting her close her mouth.
"I'm fine, just a bit hungry. I've been cramped in a cockpit for almost five hours." She stated as she placed her hand on the back of her neck, massaging herself.
The droid turned to her, humming slightly.
"Very well, as far as I can tell you have not suffered any permanent damage from the smoke. I believe you are in the clear, Ms. Krystal."
Krystal put her white flight jacket back on as she got off the table, thanking the medical droid before leaving.
"It's fine...please don't get yourself killed." The droid stated as Krystal smiled.
"I'll try." With that she left the med-bay and into a hallway where a larger droid was waiting.
(He doesn't have the empire symbols on his arms)
"Krystal correct?"
'Whoa.'
"Um...yeah that's me."
The droid nodded before speaking.
"Good come with me Captain Zero wishes to speak with you." He waved for her to follow as she did.
Krystal had to admit in her whole life she has never seen a ship, nor robots, like what was before her...and she had seen andross's big face when he took control of dinosaur world's spirits. All of it made her wonder who did these guys work for?
The Corneria Navy?
Some science guild?
Maybe Star Wolf?
No, that last one couldn't be it. Putting aside that particular mystery, the whole time she was here all she seen besides the Captain were droids. No living creature...that made her wonder, was the ship manned by machines? Maybe. After all she had been using her psychic powers to detect any other living being on the ship, only to feel one other...which was Zero, so her theory must be correct. She didn't mind though, the droids were rather kind and nice which kinda reminded her of ROB 64 back when she was with 'him'.
They entered an elevator, the doors closing behind them as the droid pressed a button. They stood there in silence as the elevator brought them up.
Krystal held her hands together as the droid blankly stared at the door. She looked at the uniquely made droid, before looking forward as her curiosity grew. She has at least seen 15 different types of droids on this ship, all with different designs. Some were bipedal, some were a sphere with a head, some looked like trash cans, and others were boxes with legs. They all must serve a certain purpose on this ship, no matter how oddly shaped they were...which begged the question, what was their purpose.
*Ding*
"We are here," The security droid stated, as the doors opened to what looked like a viewing room of some kind.
In the room was the captain Zero, along with one of those droids she seen with red mark, however this ones were blue. Another droid, who was painted completely red with black markings that looked like a skeleton design, had more of a becked face along with a red telescope like eye and...bones. She shivered at the sight of the red droid as she walked up to Zero who was talking with the blue marked droid as he looked at what looked like a data pad.
"Shame the engines didn't survive, we could have put them to good use." Zero said to the droid. As he looked at the screen the black security droid spoke.
"Sir."
Looking up from the screen the expression on Zero's visior changed as he saw the two, smiling he handed the droid the data pad before walking up to the two.
"Thank you Kr-33, for bringing her here."
The droid nodded.
"Of course sir." with that the droid walked back to the elevator as Zero turned to Krystal.
"Doc say you're in the clear?"
Krystal blinked before realizing when he meant 'doc' he was talking about the medical droid as she nodded.
"Yes he told me I am good to go." Zero nodded.
"That's good to hear, Ms. Krystal."
Krystal blushed slightly, before rubbing the back of her head.
"Please, just call me Krystal."
"Of course."
"Um...Thanks for helping me out there Captain Zero,"
The Protogen waved his hand as his eyes were '^'.
"Well, I was raised thinking it was polite to help a lady in trouble." He stated as his eyes returned to normal. "Please call me Zero, the droids always call me captain...it gets tiresome hearing it constantly."
"Alright then, Zero..." Krystal said as she secretly tried to use her powers to read Zero's mind, to find out what he had planned for her...but for some reason she found it hard to do so.
"So, Krystal, since when does a pretty Vixen like yourself have a couple of Pirates hot on your tail?" Zero asked as she snapped out of her trance as she shook her head.
"Oh...well...um...it's kinda hard to explain and quite a long story." She tapped her fingers together as she looked away.
Zero walked over and sat down in one of the chairs as he leaned back in it.
"It's going to take awhile till I get a full report on all of the salvage from that pirate ship, so I got time." He gestured to the other chair.
Krystal gulped before sitting down.
"Can I get you anything water? Soda?" Zero asked.
"No I'm fine." Krystal told him as he nodded.
"Alright then Krystal let's hear that story."
Krystal sighed as she looked at her hands.
"Have you heard about a team known as Star Fox?" She asked.
The protogen placed a hand on his chin before nodded.
"I've heard reports but nothing too serious," Zero told her.
"Well, I was apart of the team not too long ago." Krystal stated as Zero's expression on his face cocked an eyebrow.
"What happened?" He asked.
The vixen exhaled sadly.
"Well one of our team mates was shot down on a mission where he almost died," She told him when Peppy was attacked by some pilot-for-hire when they were on a mission to save some soldiers.
"Is he alright?"
She nodded.
"Last time I checked he was in a hospital bed, in a coma." Krystal stated.
"I-I'm sorry," Zero apologized.
"It's not your fault," The blue vixen told him as he tilted his head. ...
Krystal began to tear up slightly as Zero saw this and spoke.
"We can stop if you want." Zero said as she shook her head.
"No, I'm good its just after that...Fox, the leader of Star Fox, and my...former boyfriend kicked me off the team." Zero leaned back in his chair from what Krystal said.
"What? Why?"
She held her arms as she spoke with a broken heart.
"Well, after what happen to Peppy he thought it was too dangerous for me to be on the team. Thought it was best to kick me off." Krystal said as she rubbed her eyes. "And he said it was better if we weren't together."
Zero was speechless at what her head as she cried at the memory, Krystal sniffed before she looked up to see the red droid hold out a tissue.
"Your eyes are malfunctioning Krystal." She took the tissue with a smile from the creepy droid
"Thank you,l."
"You are quite welcome Krystal." With that the red droid returned to its masters side.
She whipped her tears.
"I'm sorry to hear about that Krystal...truly I am," Zero stated as she looked up at the captain of the reach.
"It's alright, it has been almost three weeks since then and I've...have been getting better about it," Zero's visor held a look of sadness on it as Krystal looked up.
"It's not alright Krystal, just because something happens to one of your teammates doesn't mean he should just break your heart." Zero said angrily. "It's not right."
Krystal took a deep breath before looking up at Zero.
"I wouldn't break up my girlfriend if one of my friends got hurt...its stupid." Krystal didn't know what to think but as zero got up with a looked of determination. "As matter of fact if that happens I'll be sure to keep the ones I love closer, so I know they will be safe!"
The vixen held a look of shock on her face as Zero raised a hand.
"What your Ex did is unforgivable, and where is this coming from?" Zero stopped as he looked at his fist before turning to Krystal. "Um...sorry about that Krystal something must be wrong with my systems,"
"Oh no it's fine Zero it's...just I've never heard someone say that before, most people thought Fox was right in kicking me off."
Zero face palmed before humming before snapping his claws.
"Krystal?"
Krystal looked at her host.
"Yeah?"
"I know this may sound weird asking you this but..."
He sat back down in his seat.
"Would you like to join my crew?" |
The Protogen of Equis | Blue skies (edited) | (2 days later)
(morning)
(Skies above Equestria)
Krystal shifted in her new bed as she slept on before the alarm next to her bed began to beep as she awoke and slammed her hand down on the snooze bar. Her jade eyes looked up from her pillow as she growled slightly at the alarm clock as she was forced to get up, though Zero told her she could sleep however long she wanted but she didn't want to mess up her morning cycle so she set the damned clock.
Getting up the vixen stretched in her bed as yawned before lowering to her eyes and began to rub the sleep out of them as she moved her feet off the bed. Lucky thanks to her furred feet she wasn't able to feel the cold metal floor underneath her feet as she got up.
As she got up she hummed as walked over to the bathroom and flipped the light on as she began her day with brushing her teeth. After doing her stuff in the bathroom she turned to change from her black tank top and slacks to the new clothes that Zero gave her.
He had made her basic copies of her old clothes but those that did survive the crash were there as well she was just glad her home world's huntress outfit was intact.
She only had so much to be remembered from her home.
Her staff was given to her by her father, her mother gave her her amulet that she would wear sometimes, and then her huntress outfit was the last thing she wore before her home we destroyed. Besides that, she changed into her normal assault suit with her flight jacket and placed her folded staff on her waist as she exited her room and walked to the kitchen. As she walked she hummed.
'Whats Zero doing this morning?'
(Zero POV)
Pushing up the cover to the advance replicator I looked at what was before me.
After Krystal came to be the first of my 'crew' I saw her staff and began to wander, my claws could only do so much when I was in a tight corner if my guns ran out of ammo so I decided to make my own melee weapon. It took much thinking of what I was going to make before deciding on one weapon, first I thought of making a lightsaber weapon and thought of making a synthetic kyber crystal but I realized I had no idea how to make one so I turned to do something more simple.
A katana.
But not just any katana this one is much different.
How so?
Well, have you ever heard of the metal gear series? Yes? Good well, there was a spin-off for one of the characters and his name was Raiden. In a nutshell, he is a badass cyborg ninja who has a sword that can cut through almost anything...keyword anything.
His HF blade or the high-frequency blade could only cut through so much and luckily for him, he had a rival named Jet Streamsam whose sword was more badass than Raidens. Why? Well for starters it can cut through nanomachines (almost) which are harder than diamonds and along with that it also had a gun sheath.
If you don't know what a gun sheath is well its quite simple, once the trigger on the guard is pulled the blade is shot out as fast or faster than a gunshot to which the blade can be either fired at someone or (the preferred way to use it) is to use the force of the shot to create a powerful strike. So yeah I decided to make my own Muramasa (sam's sword) unlike the red blade that Murasama has this blade was on a much higher frequency that causes the blade to turn blue!
I was quite glad that the blade would now match my colors which in a way I thought was funny the other way.
Why?
Well, Krystal's colors are blue and white while mine is black and blue so...
its nothing much to think about but it's funny in a way...well I thought it was.
"There you are," Looking up from the blade I turned to see Krystal was at the door to the workshop as I got up and crossed my arms.
"Hey, Krystal how's your morning been?" I asked as she smiled.
"Good I have to say your droids know how to make a good cup of coffee," Smiling I nodded.
"Have as much as you like I got something better than coffee," I stated as Krystal raised an eyebrow.
"What may that be?"
I pointed to my chest and stated.
"Well, my cybernetics control my blood sugar level which means I'm awake when I want to so I don't need coffee," Sitting on my workbench Krystal. "Besides that how are you setting in?"
She smiled as she shipped her coffee.
"Good it been mostly quiet which is something I like most of the time there either a world threatening or-"
"-alarm going off,"
I snapped up at the alarm as I crushed.
"Looks like we got an unwanted guest,"
"WARNING WARNING CODE: BLACK! INTRUDER DETECTED IN SECTOR 09!"
"UNIT 32 advancing on intruders," The three combat droids ran through the hall with their weapons buzzing as they advanced.
As they advance the entire room flashed red as to confuse the enemy aboard and thanks to the droid's advanced systems they weren't affected by the light. The droids came to the door that the intruders were hiding in they opened the doors and began to fire upon the intruders. Red beams of light lit up the already red room as the unsuspecting intruders were hit by the advanced blasters that the droids used.
Acting fast the remaining intruders escaped the room as the droids went on to chase them but as they did another group of droids entered the room and turned to the bodies that remained.
"MOVE SUNLIGHT!"
"WHAT ARE THEY!"
"HOW THE BLAZES SHOULD I KNOW!"
"QUICKLY IN HERE!"
With that the Earth pony forced the door shut as they turned with their swords to the door as the ponies began to try and their catch breath. As one of them held their arm in pain he sat down on what looked to be a metal crate as the others looked at the door.
"I thought the princess said there was only one?!" One of the ponies stated as another turned to him.
"Yeah what are these things? Golems? Also, how did they detect us we were using the stealth amulets!" another said holding a purple gem.
"Whatever they are I say we keep move there can't be that many,"
"Oh I began to differ," A loud voice echoed through the darkroom as they turned around before being blinded by a bright light as they covered their eyes. "You are surrounded drop your weapons,"
As the ponies lowered their arms from their eyes they were meant with a room filled with all kinds of weird-looking machines.
In the middle of it all was a large box with legs and on top of it was the one known as Zero who held what looked like a blue oddly shaped sword.
"What will it be ponies?" |
The Protogen of Equis | Why did you do this? (EDITED) | (Same day aboard the Reach)
(2 hours later)
(Brig)
Two medical droids were overlooking a captive pony who was strapped onto a table as a bright light was forced into his face causing his eyes to tear up.
"Who sent you?" The droid asked
Spitting at the droid, the pony hissed.
"Go back to hole you came from, freak."
The droid's eyes blinked before asking.
"I'll ask one last time, who sent you?"
The pony only glared at the droid as the droid shook his head.
"We're getting nowhere, bring out the interrogation droid." As he said this, the light was moved away. The table folded itself, and the two medical droids backed away.
"W-What? What are you doing?"
They said nothing. The red shield that covered the door vanished as a new droid entered the room humming menacingly.
(Another room)
"I never thought that there was life on this planet." Krystal stated, as she held up one of the ponies swords in her hands. She inspected the gear that rested on the table before her.
I sat in a chair as I held my head in one of my claws studying one of the amulets the ponies had before speaking.
"Was this planet consider lifeless?" I asked, looking to her as she turned to me.
"Well, with this planets weird gravitational pull, we considered it would only have non-sentient life...guess we were wrong." Krystal said as she put down the sword before I spoke.
"This planet is full of surprises, like some of this planets inhabits know how to use magic." I told Krystal as she crossed her arms.
"Doesn't surprise me that magic is real, I mean I've seen spirits and the supernatural...so yeah not surprised." Smiling I leaned forward.
"Will it surprise you that two of this worlds leaders control the sun AND moon?" Krystal laughed at me before doing a Jonah Johnson.
"You serious?" I nodded.
Krystal went wide eyed at me before sitting down.
"Whoa...now that is surprising." Nodding I popped my clawed feet up on the table as I crossed my arms.
"Well buckle up, and let me give you a crash course of this world."
(Corneria)
(Medical station)
Fox looked at one of his oldest friends that rested on the medical bed with tubes and other medical equipment strapped onto his form as the heart monitor beeped. The leader of the mercenary team sat across the rabbit speaking to the sleeping veteran.
"-and you know Falco, always mad over the littlest things." Fox joked at he smiled at Peppy.
As he finished his story the door to the room open as the general of Corneria's navy enter the room.
"Fox."
"Pepper."
The old dog turned to one of his oldest friends and sighed.
"Ironic, isn't it." Pepper walked over to his old friend as he grabbed his cap and placed it over his chest.
"What is General?" Fox ask.
"Someone is always injured."
Fox nodded, remembering how it was the general last time when androssians attacked Corneria not too long ago. As the merc looked up General Pepper turned to him and spoke.
"How is the team doing?"
Fox closed his eyes and sighed.
"Falco is acting like its not affecting him, but I know better. Slippy took it hard, took him almost a week to get him out of his room." Fox told the general as he nodded.
"And Krystal?"
"I...I had her taken off the team." Fox stated.
Pepper raised an eyebrow.
"Why is that? Weren't you two-"
"It was for her own safety." Fox interrupted as he placed his hand on his fist.
The old general sighed before looking back at Peppy.
"You should not have removed her from the team just because Peppy was hurt." Pepper stated but Fox snarked.
"No, its because of this I should have realized this job wasn't safe for her in the first place." Fox stated as he got up.
"Fox."
"Your not going to change my mind General...and besides she's gone." Fox told the general as he tilted his head.
"What do you mean?"
"Like I said, she's gone...stole cloud jumper and boom never heard from her again." Fox said as he went over to the door.
"I think you should know something." Pepper said as Fox stopped.
"What's that?"
"There's a bounty."
The Leader smiled as he opened the door.
"I've had more bounties on my head than I can count I think one more won't be-"
"It's not on you." Pepper stated as fox turned to him. "It's on Krystal."
Fox froze.
"2.500.000 credits for her hide, Fox. I don't know why, it didn't say why, so it's most likely underworld...I think it's best that you find her first, before any hot headed bounty hunter or pirate finds her first." Fox turned to the door before stepping thought it.
"I will."
With that, the door shut behind him as pepper turned to his oldest friend.
"We're getting too old for this, Peppy."
(3 hours later)
(back on the Reach)
"So they got in though means of teleportation?" I asked as the droid nodded. "How? Our shields are designed to protect us from that."
"Apparently sir these 'ponies' must have used a 'spell' that held enough power output to counter our shields." The 'medical' droid spoke.
Rolling my eyes, I turned to Krystal who was currently sparring with a few new dark droids. After the thieves got on, I decided to make combat-ready droids. Decided on the design of the dark droids or dark troopers from the rebel series.
"Alright then who hired them?"
"Unknown they say they are apart of a guild and were hired personal and anonymously by an unknown client. The client provided the magical Amulets, along with the promise of 500.000 'bits' in exchanged for any 'important' technology aboard the reach." Turning to the droid I sighed as I placed my hand on my chin.
'Could Celestia have done this? Maybe I mean she was pretty pissed when I told her no, but these Amulets seem like a bad idea to give to some hired-swords...and from our scans of them, they seem to give of 'dark magic'. There are others out there that could have heard about the reach...hell this thing is so fucking big I didn't expect any one to not see us, so what to do?'
"Sir, if I can say something." Turning to my psycho friend Mr. Bones.
"What is it bones?"
"As you think on who could have done this, I think it would best that we exit orbit and head into space. That way no one can board our ship planet side."
"Not a bad idea Bones. I was really hoping to see Twilight and the lot, but I guess I'll have to visit them later." I stated, really hoping to get some cakes from Pinkie due to me not getting my piece thanks to the Princesses.
*CRAUCH*
Turning my head, I saw Krystal had taken down all three dark droids with ease as she stands on top of one of them with her staff pointing to the droid's head. I'm so grateful for this visor on my face. Why is that? Well I'm blushing like crazy because one: Krystal is wearing a white tank top, and two: She's sweating so much that I can see her bra.
'Damn.'
Krystal looked up before getting off the droid and walking over to me as she panted as she waved to me to throw her a towel. Doing so she grabbed it before whipping it on her face as she spoke.
"How did I do?"
I nodded.
"Well, I'd say you did great! The bots were on level 7, and you took them all down in a good amount of time...so I say about 9/10." She smiled as she wrapped the towel around her neck. I hand her a water bottle.
"Thanks, you didn't do so bad either...but you were kinda sloppy on time, I would say 6/10."
(Visor: WTF)
Krystal laughed as I growled. She sat down next to me, and took a drink from her bottle.
"I'm only joking you did good...7/10."
"I was on level 9, unlike you vixen." I told her as she turned her eyes to me as she took another drink.
"Well...there was only two not three."
"You asked for the third one." I stated as she smirked.
"Only to prove to you I can do better."
"You used a weapon I took them down with my bare claws and tail."
"You have bionics."
"You have psychic powers."
"I can't read robots Zero."
"Maybe you can, but your lying." I crossed my arms.
"Well maybe I am but you will never know." She smiled as I huffed.
Krystal smiled as she lightly jabbed my arm with her elbow.
"Come on Zero you know I'm just playing with you." Rolling my eyes I turned to her.
"How is that?"
"Cause I love how your mask does those things when you react." She said tapping on my visor as I narrowed my eyes.
"It's a visor Krystal."
"Same difference."
"Its really not," I stated as Krystal smiled wider.
"Well if you let me try it on, maybe I can tell the difference." As she said this I turned away.
"No."
"Awwww, why not?"
"I've told you why before." I reminded her.
"Come on we're friends right? It won't hurt."
"Krystal, I've known you for three days for makers sake, and Protogen's don't show their faces to their friends...we show them to people we trust," I said.
Krystal leaned in to my face with puppy dog eyes (which were very effective!).
"Pleassssssssssssssse."
"No."
"Fine then, let's do this the hard way!"
As she said this Krystal grabbed the sides of my visor and pulled...
Only to no avail. my visor had a locking system so it wouldn't fall off or be taken off as Krystal was trying to do. Smirking the Vixen pulled and pulled only to fall back panting.
"H-How?"
"That's simple my dear, locks." She got up and turned to me.
"Jerk."
"Say what you want...fluffy butt." Krystal back away slightly as she blushed.
This time I was the one laughing.
"Oh my maker, you should see your face! HAHAHA!" I laughed madly..
"W-w-w-well your one to talk, metal butt!" I rolled my eyes.
"How original Krystal." Krystal huffed as she blushed crossing her arms before turning away from me. "Aww Krystal I was just joking."
"Well, words hurt."
I sighed as I calmed down.
"Well Krystal, if it really bugs you that much, how about make it up to you?" I said she turned to me still blushing.
"What are you thinking of?" She asked as I smiled.
"How do you feel about cake?"
She dropped her arms before turning to me fully.
"Alright I'm listening."
Looks like I'm going to have that visit then.
Here ya go, edited to the best of my ability. |
The Protogen of Equis | A visit (edited) | (PonyVille)
(1 hour later)
PonyVille was having another day go by as normal as the ponies went about their day for themselves, that was until the sound of something cutting through the air was heard. Almost like screaming as the ponies looked up to see something that none of them have ever seen before in their lives.
Of course, anything new to these ponies meant one thing... Danger, so as it landed they shattered into their homes locking the doors and boarding the windows.
"You were right these 'ponies' are quite xenophobic," Krystal told me as we exited the dropship and she looked around.
"Yeah you get used to it after a while," I told her as I walked to sugar cude corner, unlike the rest of the town the cakes aren't as bad and Pinkie well she's Pinkie.
As I pushed the glass doors open we were meet with an almost empty store as some of the ponies decided to hide under the tables and desks at the sight of us. Though I paid them no mind as I walked over to the order counter and ringed the bell as I crossed my arms and on cue-
"ZERO!"
The pink blur known as Pinkie pie rushed to the counter as I smiled upon seeing the pink pony.
"What are doing here?" She asked as I rolled my eyes at the sight of her messy form.
"Nothing much just here to get some of your famous sweets for my new crewmate,"
"New crewmate?" Pinkie turned to Krystal who smiled and waved to her.
"Hello,"
The pink pony gasped as she darted from the counter to her and began to zoom from side to side of Krystal inspecting her as she shot questions.
"WHOAANOTHERALIEN!AREYOULIKEZERO!NOWAITYOUDON'THAVEAMASKLIKEHIM!WAITAREYOUHISSPEICALMAREFRIEND?HOWLONGHAVEYOUKNOWNZERO?ALONGTIMEIBET!HAVEYOU-" I placed my claw on her snout.
"Pinkie claim down,"
Krystal smiled as she waved her hand.
"It's alright Zero I've meet weirder individuals," Turning to her I shrugged.
"Very well," Letting pinkie goes she rubbed her snout.
"Owwies Zero that hurt!" Pinkie told me as she puffed out in an anime pouty face.
Rolling my eyes I pointed to her.
"You were overwhelming my friend with questions pinkie and besides I'm here for that piece of cake I didn't get to have," I started this cause pinkie to gasp.
"WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT!"
"She's quite the drama queen ain't she?" Krystal whispered into my ear I crossed my arms with a smile.
"You haven't meet Rarity yet Krystal," I whispered back as I did this Pinkie shoot to my faceplate.
"You haven't tried cake yet even after I make you a cake! How does that happen?" She asked as I gently pushed her back with a smile.
"Two words: Party crashers," Pinkie was going to say something but realized what I said.
"Oh yeah, the princesses did come in and pulled you aside, and then...I may have accidentally eaten your cake piece," Pinkie lowered her head in shame as I only shook my head.
"Pinkie it's OK that's why I'm here see I've gotten a sweet tooth lately and really need a pinkie pie special to help with that and also here to have Krystal try 'real' cake!" I started pointing to Krystal nodding.
(AN: "Look up Corneria cake...Ugh it looks awful!")
"Zero spoke highly of your cake-making skills and I had to see if he's right," Krystal stated as Pinkie smiled before rushing over back to her side of the counter.
"Alright, then one Pinkie special coming right up! For her or to go?" I reached into my belt and pulled out a few bits (That I may or may not have 'borrowed' from the guild members). "Don't this ones on me!"
With a slight chuckle, I gave a nod before placing the bits back in my belt before pinkie told me and Krystal to take a seat. As I took my seat in a booth so did Krystal on the other end as I leaned back looking out the window waiting for Pinkie pie to make the order.
"Quite the colorful place...Falco would have hated it," Krystal joked as she looked at the colorful inside of the sweet shop.
Turning to her I put on my 'Ihavenoideawhatstarfoxis' face.
"Isn't he the frog?"
Krystal smiled before shaking her head.
"No, he's the Falcon Zero. Slippy is the toad and he, on the other hand, might just like it I mean he has a weak spot for sweets," She joked with a smile as I nodded.
"They should quite the friends," I stated Krystal then turned to me.
"What about you Zero did you have any friends before going out as a captain?" Leaning back in the chair I looked up.
'Think of something! Think of something!'
"Well, I have Mr. Bones-"
"Droids don't count," Krystal told me narrowing her eyes.
I placed a hand on my chin humming.
"Well Protogens don't really have much contact with others while being grown and since I spent my time in the archives before becoming a captain I didn't have what you may call 'friends'," I started but I raised a claw. "Scratch that I think I might have one before,"
"Don't let me stop you,"
"F5-55 or Fives as he likes to call himself he was also in the Archives when we ran into each other once when we were studying combat strategies. He was pretty chilled and kinda relaxed...I think the last time I saw him was we he became a Lieutenant for a war station for a newly found world," I stated as Krystal nodded.
"Interesting is there any else that you knew that you could consider a friend?" She asked as I shook my head.
"Sadly no I mostly kept to myself," I stated as Krystal rested her arms on the table.
"Do you consider me a friend Zero?" The vixen asked as I turned to her slightly surprised at what she said.
"Well... yeah you're a part of my crew and what I was taught your crew is your family so yeah I see you as a friend Krystal," I smiled as Krystal blushed slightly at my kindness.
"Thank you Zero," The vixen stated.
"Your welcome Kryst-"
*SLAM!*
"ALRIGHT MONSTER COME ON AND GET THE BEATING OF A LIFETIME FROM ME!"
The two of us looked to the door to see...Rainbow Dash?
"RAINBOW DASH!"
(Zero's Face: -_-)
"That the hothead rainbow one you told me about?" Krystal asked as I nodded.
"Prepare yourself, princess," I stated as Rainbow looked around the room before resting eyes on me.
"Zero? What in the name of Celestia are you doing here there's a monster in ponyville you need *sees Krystal*-"
As she stopped talking my cybernetics kicked in as I shot forward as Rainbow 'dashed' to Krystal's fist out ready to knock her out but luckily I was faster catching her fist before lightly pinching her nose. The daredevil fell onto the floor holding her nose as she looked up at me.
"Zero why in the name of luna was that for! There's a monster next to you way are you-"
"One: She's not a monster her name is Krystal. Two: I always protect my friends even if they are someone I know," I told her as Rainbow got up rubbing her nose.
"But I was told there was a monster that came down in a weird do-hickey and ran through town and into sugar cube corner,"
"You ponies so Xenophobic," I stated out loud as Rainbow growled slightly as I turned to her. "What it's true,"
Before Rainbow could say anything Pinkie Pie came in with a Blue box with a black ribbon.
"Order for Mr. Zerooooooooo- Rainbow what are you doing here aren't you suppose to be teaching at school today?"
As Rainbow told her how she was told that there was a monster in town that was causing havoc in town she came here to check it out. Pinkie pie just laughed at Rainbow dashed saying it was only Krystal and I along with the fact they came for a new cake to try out since I didn't get to try my party cake.
Taking the cake from Pinkie I thanked her as Krystal and I left an embarrassed Rainbow and a waving Pinkie pie telling us to come again.
"Well that was something," Krystal stated as I nodded.
"Don't have to tell me twice let's just get back to the ship before any more ponies decide to show up,"
"Agreed,"
"ZERO!"
"Goddammit," Turning around with the cake in my claws I was meet with the sight of...spike?
The dragon came up to me with a few packed bags and holding his legs from out of breath.
"Spike? You alright?" I asked.
He looked up at me.
"Zero...Can I come with you guys!"
(Zero's face: ?.?)
"Come again?"
"Zero I know you barely know me and all but I'm asking if I am a part of your crew and all,"
"Why?" I asked. "You got friends and family here why would you want to leave all this behind?"
Spike got up before
"Well, to be honest, I read so many comics as a kid to wonder what is up there you know space and the endless reaches of it and everything," Spike started pulling out a comic that almost made me lose my shit.
It read the 'adventurers captain jangles the moon monkey'.
"And since I got my wings I been thinking about doing something that doesn't involve Twilight looking over my shoulder all the time," Spike told me. "Please Zero I don't want to be Twilight's bookkeeper forever,"
I looked at Spike then turned to Krystal who looked at me before giving me the eye look saying 'give the kid a chance' and since he was one of my favorite characters in the series and the most logical of the entire series I sighed.
"Are you sure kid?" I asked as Spike nodded. "Very well but there are few rules you're going to have to follow and I mean it! These rules are there for a reason alright you can just go around and break them no matter what even if your friends beg you to do so,"
"Of course I promise Zero!" Spike said with a smile before I turned around.
"Get you bags quickly I don't want Twilight coming out here and give a big speech saying why you shouldn't go and shit,"
"How did you kno-"
"Kid I know lots of things," as I said this I noticed one of my probe droids uncloak for a moment.
With that, we all got on the ship and exited ponyville back to the reach.
Man, what a day.
(In Cornaira land port aboard the Great Fox)
"Fox, why did you have to bring her onto the crew?" Fox looked from his datapad at the supply list for the resupply for the great fox to his trusted friend Falco.
"Well, she's one of the greatest pilots at the academy Falco don't you remember?" Fox said as ROB 64 lifted a crate of food over to the other side of the room.
"But she's so so so,"
"Falco she just has a crush on you its nothing to be overzealous over," Fox stated as the Falcon held a pained look. "Besides she most likely going to be with Faya and Miyu during the trip anyways Falco you need to claim down,"
Falco growled crossing his arms.
"Why couldn't you have just brought along Slippy's girlfriend instead,"
In the background Slippy: SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!
Fox turned to him with a glare.
"She's busy working on a project for the government like hell I'm going to bug her about anything so suck it up bird brain," Falco huffed before storming off as Fox turned back to his datapad.
"Yo Fox,"
"I don't catch a break do I?" Fox looked around to see the lynx known as Miyu walking up to him with her hands in her coat. "What's going on Miyu?"
The weapon nut moved a hand from her pocket to her head to scratch behind her ear.
"Well, I've been wandering ever since you called way did you pull Faya and Me back? I mean I don't mind getting out of that office and actually do something but what's so important for you to call both Faya, Kat, AND me?" The lynx asked as Fox turned to his list.
"You know about Krystal?"
She nodded.
"Yeah she went off with the cloud jumper and now there's a bounty on her whats to know?" Miyu asked. "And you broke up with her,"
Fox turned to her as Miyu held a look of slight anger.
"She told you?"
"Yeah she told me for goodness sake Fox she's almost my sister next to Faya you should know better," Miyu stated as Fox turned to her completely.
"Than do you know where she is since you last talk to her?" Fox asked as Miyu spoke.
"I know where she 'was' and where she was going to but beyond that your guess is good as mine," The gun nut said as Fox placed a hand on his side.
"This could have been useful before," Fox stated.
"Well, I'm telling you before we get off-world,"
"Fair enough...well then where was Krystal going?" Fox asked as Miyu rolled her eyes.
"Where do you think? Dinosaur Planet," |
The Protogen of Equis | Theme songs! | The reach's crew
Captian Z3-R0 (AKA) Zero:
Mr. Bones:
Krystal:
(made by a friend of mine)
Spike:
(Crew of the great fox)
Captain Fox:
Falco:
Slippy:
Katt:
Miyu:
Fay: |
The Protogen of Equis | Training and finding (Edited) | (In Luna's moon's orbit)
(3 weeks later)
"Focus!"
*Crack!*
"You're sloppy on your swings,"
*Crack Crack!*
"Go faster try and break my focus,"
*Crack Crack Crack*
"You're holding the grip too tight,"
*Crack Crack Crack CRACK!*
"Now you're holding it too loose," Krystal watched as Zero disarmed Spike who was on the floor panting heavily as the protogen held the plas-tech training sword in his hand.
She took a sip of water from her bottle as she looked down at the new crew member's training.
Zero held out his claw to Spike who took it as he pulled him up as handed him the training blade.
"Zero I have to ask why are we using swords when you have blasters and ray guys," This was meant with a strong chop to the head by zero as Spike yelped in pain. "What was that for,"
"We may have range weapons in our armory but there is one thing swords have that guns don't have," Zero stated pointing to Spike's blade.
"Whats that Captain,"
"They don't run out of ammo and it takes a real warrior to fight with a blade," Zero stated as he backed up before raising his blade. "Now again,"
Spike sighed as the two began to clash blades as Krystal watched as she leaned back as she used the towel around her neck to whip off the sweat from her fur. Ever since Spike joined the crew Zero has been teaching him how things work around the ship and how to fight properly than the 'sloppy pony training'.
Spike since then began to learn how to pilot a starfighter along with how to fire a rifle along with using his brains to win in a fight and finally he is learning how CQC. Zero has been hard on Spike but it's for his own good Krystal has seen enough to know so, after all, she has seen good ace pilots and harden vets of Cornaira military been taken out by the most simple mistakes.
Krystal even decided to get on the 'training train' as she went on toe to toe with Zero and she was thankful for her amazon training that her mother taught her otherwise Zero would have gotten the drop on her.
He was no joke thanks to his mechanical nature he moved faster than she could react only barely blocking his attacks, she was just glad they were on the same team. The only reason she won between the match they held was thanks to roll back and using her staff to get a chock hold on the Cyber Canine and slamming him down headfirst.
It was hard but she did it and beat the cyber canine, just as Spike was beaten by said canine just now.
"You did better but still not good enough in a fight I think it's best that you spare with the droids," Zero stated as Spike sighed before nodded.
"You're the boss Zero,"
"Good these droids I just made for melee," With that Zero turned over to a panel in the room as he punched in a few buttons and then a metal door opened. As it did the light from three pairs of eyes lit up the darkroom as three robotic figures walked out.
"Say hello to these prototypes droids I created just for close combat, Spike," As the droids stepped forward Zero spoke again. "Prepare Spike I set them to level five something you can easily beat but there are three of them so watch yourself drake,"
"Yes sir," Spike held his blade as Zero walked over to Krystal.
"Good begin,"
With that, the droids snapped forward with their bladed arms but spike easily pulled back and slashed his blade at one of them but only for one of them to block it with their shield arm.
"He's doing great Zero," Zero turned to Krystal as he sat down in one of the chairs next to Krystal. "You should be proud you train him for three weeks and look at him,"
The protogen crossed his arms as he nodded.
"I am but I wish he could be smarter in his actions since he's been living with those ponies they might have set his mind to see things in black and white so here I am hot wiring his brain to see things in the grey," Zero stated as Krystal nodded.
"Yeah after that day I can see how those ponies think," Krystal took another sip of her drink before lowering it. "Still no word on who hired those ponies?"
Zero shook his head.
"No...and besides those ponies who got on board have no memory of what happens when I whipped their memories clean," Zero stated as Krystal smiled.
"I'm glad you didn't kill them,"
"Well, I don't want Celestia to get on my ass about killing her quote 'sweet little ponies' Blckkk! it makes me gawk at the thought," Zero stated holding his Visor.
"Yeah that's so Cheesy I know mice would think so," Krystal agreed with Zero as he laughed.
"That was awful," Krystal narrowed her eyes as she gently hit him.
"AHHHHHH! NO! MY ONE WEAKNESS! A LIGHT SLAP! HOW COULD YOU KRYSTAL!" Zero held his chest as he overreacted as Krystal just smiled at the action. "I BROUGHT YOU IN AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO?! I TRUSTED YOU! I-I-I-I dead,"
This time Krystal was laughing as she turned to him.
"Now that is awful,"
"Heh I know it was but I love your laugh Krystal," Zero stated as he rubbed his head.
Krystal smiled at Zero as he smiled back, the vixen titled her head to the Protogen as she hummed.
"What is it, Krystal?
She bopped his nose as she stated. "Your face...I wonder what it looks like,"
Zero knocked her hand back before stating back.
"Keep wandering Krystal I'm not ready to show you just yet," Krystal pouted as Zero got up before turning to her. "Maybe later,"
With that, he began to walk over to a victorious spike.
Krystal rested her arm on the armrest before shaking her head.
'Your something Zero,' |
The Protogen of Equis | Dino-might! (Edited) | (Aboard the Reach: In deep space out of Equis orbit)
(1 week later)
(Zero's room)
Snapping the last piece to my newest weapon to my arsenal I held out on my take on the plasma rifle from the terminator series as its energy core glowed blue.
I was thinking of making a sith trooper blaster from rising of skywalker but I decided on making a plasma-based weapon besides a laser-based. Plus this weapon held some modern-day attachments something that reminded me of home slightly along with its design.
After all, I was going to need all the firepower I could get for where we were going...
I did think long and hard about making something similar to a lasgun from the Warhammer 40,000 series knowing how actually useful they are... Well outside of the Grimdark universe.
Krystal had requested me that we should exit Equis space and head over to a planet called...*sigh* Dinosaur planet, there was something that she needs to do. She didn't tell me why we need to go all she said 'it is important' and like the gentleman that I am, I agreed and exited Equis orbit and set a course to Dinosaur planet.
I was excited to say the least, besides Equestria I was going to set foo- Claw (still getting use to that) on a different planet, I didn't really play the game star fox adventure or whatever it was called but still, I was kinda squealing on the inside of being on a different planet though and though.
*Knock Knock*
I turned to the door before speaking.
"Come in,"
The doors opened as the gem fox herself entered the room.
"Hey Zero I can't thank you enough for doing this," Krystal stated as I smiled.
"Not a problem," She smiled back. "But I wanna ask something in return,"
Krystal tilted her head.
"What is that?"
"I'll tell you later Krystal when we finish this earn you have us on," I told her as she nodded.
"Fair enough,"
I nodded.
"Good,"
"Sir,"
Turning to my holo disk the image of Bones appeared as I turned to it.
"Bones what is it, my friend,"
"Sir we have arrived at 'Dinosaur planet',"
Cocking back the plasma rifle I nodded.
"Let's raise hell,"
(Hanger bay 2)
(5 minutes later)
"Why can't I come," Spike asked as I turned to him as Krystal boarded the dropship.
"Spike it isn't safe down there," I told him.
"But I've trained, hell I've beaten you on one on one combat the other day don't you remember! I'm ready!" Crossing my arms I spoke.
"Spike this is for your own good and besides it will just be me and Krystal on this mission cause we're going in as few in number cause we don't want the entire planet to know we are here," I stated as Spike backed off slightly.
"But,"
"No buts I am Ordering you to say aboard the Reach and inform us of anything that could be a threat alright Spike," the dragon sighed before nodding.
"Yes sir,"
"Good now head to the bridge Mr.bones will help you out as best as he can,"
"Him?! That droid makes my scales crawl," Spike told me causing me to laugh.
"Yeah he does that but don't worry he will harm a single scale on your purple ass unless I tell him, now get going spike we'll be needing you looking over us," I told him as he nodded.
Lightly bumping his shoulder with my fist I smiled.
"Hey don't worry kid the next mission I'll let you come with us what do you say?" I state as Spike lit up.
"Really?" I nodded before turning to board the ship.
"Count on it kiddo,"
He then smiled before turning around as the ramp closed behind me.
'Kid's got guts,'
(In the dropship)
As I sat across from Krystal who held her staff in her lap I asked as the ship rocked from entering the planet's atmosphere.
"So what are we looking for down there Krystal?" I asked.
"I don't exactly know Zero," She told me causing me to blink.
"I'm sorry?"
"I had a vision the other night Zero...See Zero I'm what you might call a psychic and I-"
"I know that Krystal,"
She backed up slightly before speaking.
"How did you know?"
"My cybernetics inform me if some psychic creature is trying to enter my mind and blocks anything trying to enter my mind," I stated.
Blinking she rubbed the back of her head.
"Sorry,"
I shook my head.
"It's fine," Opening my eyes I then spoke. "So your vision brought us dinosaur planet that we know but whatever it is will you be able to track it?"
She nodded.
"Of course even now I can feel it buts quite far away,"
Chuckling I slammed my fist against a button as the floor before us opened up reviling a speeder bike.
"I do hope you don't mind the sidecar,"
(On dinosaur planet)
"WOOOOOAHHH!" Krystal smiled as we jumped a rock that was angled like a ramp as we flew slightly in the air.
"When did you make this thing!" She asked as we raced through the forest.
"A while back before I meet you I have quite a few of these in the reach's hanger," I stated as Krystal pointed right.
Turning that way she then asked.
"Why did you bring me one?"
"So we can stick together and not get separated like in the movies," I told her as she nodded.
Krystal pointed left, as I took the turn we were meet with a clearing which in all honest looked amazing...
All kinds of dinosaurs covered the planet's planes and sky making me feel like I was back on earth but during the dino age of the earth. It was quite cool, to say the least seeing all this kinda made the dino-loving kid inside me go nuts about what was before me but luckily I kept down those feelings as I began to go downhill in Krystal's direction. Pressing on we went on undisturbed until Krystal turned her head, when she did this she grabbed my shoulder.
"Zero!"
Turning my head from the road and I turned my head and saw it.
What it looked something similar to that of a Wookie drop ship from Episode III but instead of fluffy aliens where what looked like lizard men aboard the drop ships roaring.
"Sharpclaws!" Krystal stated as I turned back around and punched the bike to go faster.
"I thought you told me you dealt with them!" I shouted.
"Well, it's been a while they must have regrouped!" Cursing I turned to Krystal.
"Take them out,"
"How the gun is pointing forward,"
"Push the green button,"
Krystal looked down at the cart's console before pushing the green button this caused the sidecar to snap a 180 as she was now facing the ships behind us.
"I love this bike," With that, she grabbed the gun and opened fired as I drove us forward.
The lizards roared before speaking something that I had no idea what it was as I spoke to Krystal.
"What did they say?"
"Oh nothing much just the usual surrender or else," She fired followed by the sound of something crashing into the ground. "Head right!"
"On it," Turning right we went over a lake as our tailers kept on us still even though Krystal was firing at them.
"Zero you got some guys on your tail!" Spike told me over the radio as I rolled my eyes.
"Kinda already knew that Spike,"
"Well there are more on their way,"
"How many more?" I asked.
"About five more...no ten more? There's a lot,"
"I don't think we can take them all," Krystal told me as I nodded.
"Actually I think we can flip back I have an idea," I told her as she did I reached for one of my added features to the speeder bike.
Which was in the form of a big red button.
"Hold on to your tail!"
As I said this I pushed the button causing the bike to rocket forward, the force from the speed boost caused me to shot back in my seat as did Krystal as he held onto the pod.
This is a good time to quote joker.
"BEST. BUTTON. EVER!" As we rocketed forward we used a hill to shoot up in the air as I decided to use one of my modifications.
You know bullet-time right?
Well, I added an implant when I built my HF blade to mimic Raiden's Zandatsu which took me a while to make but in the end, it worked. As I got up from my seat I pulled out a special grenade that its very similar to what is known as a Tesla pulse device.
As I threw it the top and bottom of the grenade opened up as electricity shot from those spots and a web of light grabbed the closet ship before chain linking to the other remain ships causing them to catch fire before crashing down into the ground and as my systems began to overheat I turned back to my seat. Landing back on the ground I stopped us as we turned around to watch the fireworks.
"What was that?" Krystal asked as I pulled out one more of the grenades.
"Lighting Grenade," I handed her one as she took it and looked at it.
"Another one of your creations?"
I nodded causing her to turn to me.
"What have you not made?"
"A black hole?" She gave me a scared look.
"Don't worry I'm not that crazy to make something that dangerous," I stated as he handed me back the bomb.
"Please don't,"
Nodding I turned us back around and we went on.
(with the great fox crew)
(moments before)
"GOD it's been 4 weeks and nothing!" Falco stated in his arwing as fox rolled his eyes.
"Claim down Falco it's not easy tracking someone down on a planet like this it takes time," Fox said to his bird friend.
"Well, Fox it has been quite some time I'm starting to think Krystal isn't here," Slippy told the leader. "I'm not picking up the cloud jumpers signal,"
"She must have turned it off Slippy," Fox told him as the toad nodded.
"Yeah, she must have," Slippy rested his head on his fist as Falco crossed his arms still thinking this is a lost cause.
Fox then turned his coms over to Fay and Miyu as he spoke over the range radio.
"Miyu...Fay anything on your end?"
"Sorry fox nothing yet," Fay stated.
"Yeah nothing...Whoa, where did that come from?"
"What is it Miyu?" Fox asked.
"I just picked up a large energy spike not fair from our location," Miyu stated
"Yeah I picked it up too,"
Fox smiled.
"Alright we will meet you there you two wait for us," Fox stated as the other two pilots got up.
"Finally some action!" Falco stated as the three of them cut through the air to the right as they went to the girl's location. |
The Protogen of Equis | What with spirits? (editied) | "Stop,"
I stopped the speeder bike as Krystal turned to me as I looked over to her as she held her head.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Were close...were going to have to go on foot from here," She told me as I nodded.
Turning off the speeder bike I hopped off as she did as she looked forward with her hand on her head as if she was trying to listen to something. Following behind her I readied my plasma rifle as we began to enter deeper into the forest, if I knew what I knew then I would have brought more guns with me.
(In orbit)
"Goddess this is boring!" Spike threw his head back as he leaned back in one of the bridge's chairs as the map of the dinosaur planet held nothing interesting just nature and more nature.
The usually busy dragon that did chores and read comics for the first time in quite some time had nothing to do.
If he was back on Equis he would be cleaning for Twilight, helping lecture hall for the students, helping Rarity out with her dresses, or lastly be getting the latest power ponies or Captain jangles the moon monkey comic. But he had at least re-read the comics he brought at least 100 times and it now got boring.
Was now kinda wishing he had waited till the latest issue had come out before he left.
*BEEEEEEEEEEP*
The beep had caused Spike to fall out of his seat as he shot back up looking around.
"What the fuck!?" (Au: as you can see Zero words had rubbed off on Spike)
Looking at the map he noticed something.
Krystal and Zero's signals had vanished.
"Oh, shit,"
"Agreed spike," Bones stated.
(Back on the ground)
As we entered the dark cave I placed my hand on my comms as I got a very broken message from Spike.
"Z....o...com...in...c...yo...r..ed..me..." I looked up at the cave ceiling before speaking back.
"Spike I can hear you. We entered a cave that must be a mess with our comms don't worry we're fine," I said but I only got back the same message from before.
'Eh, I'm sure it will be fine,'
As I walked next to Krystal as she seemed set to go on forward even without comms.
I stayed close to her so we won't get split up, as we went down the rabbit hole I began to notice glowing cyan blue crystals coming out of the cave. The deeper we entered the number of crystals grew along with how brightly they glowed meaning we must have been getting closer to whatever had tugged on Krystal's psychic mind. They were pretty though, to say the least.
Krystal stopped as we entered a large cavern that held more crystals in it that made me feel I was in superman's fortress of solitude. Turning off my light I walked forward before reaching out to one of the crystals and gently breaking it off and holding the glowing gem. As my visor began to scan the crystal I began to notice something about the crystal...it was like it was humming.
Finishing my scan I moved the gem to my ear and began to hear something...almost a whisper.
"Zero," Lowering the Gem I looked at Krystal.
"What is it?"
She looked at the largest gem that started at the floor and went into the top of the cave.
"Are you seeing this?"
I nodded.
"Glowing crystals that are whispering?" I stated.
She shook her head.
"No come here you got to see this," Placing the gem back I walked over to where Krystal was.
"What are we looking a-" I stopped when I saw it.
The insides of the Gem looked like they were moving.
"Whoa..."
"Yeah,"
I turned to her.
"What is it?" she turned to me.
"I don't know but whatever it is it has a strong amount of psychic energy almost it is alive," Turning back to the Large crystal she placed her hand on her chin in thought. "Wonder what it is,"
I hummed back as I placed my rifle on my back before placing my hand on the crystal to get an energy scan from my claw but as I did this something happened.
Krystal watched as Zero place his metal claw onto the Crystal but as he did so he was knocked back by a bolt of white electricity to his visor. Falling back on the crystal follow the vixen went wide-eyed at what happened and got down on her knees to see Zero's Visor glitching.
"ZERO!" She grabbed him in her arms worried for her friend but then a voice came forward.
"Don't fret dearest Krystal your friend is alright," She turned her head to the source of the voice to see it had light up even more.
"What did you do to him?!" Krystal demanded as the Gem spoke in a calm manner.
"What we did was meant for you but he seemed to awake us by accident," Krystal narrowed her eyes as she held the protogen in her arms.
"Who are you?"
"Don't you recognize us dearest child? We are your home,"
(???)
"Ugh what hit me," I opened my eyes to see that I was in some kind room in a... temple?
Get up from the fur bed I looked around... was I in some kind of amazon room? Looking around at the room I spotted various weapons along with armor and other kinds of belongings around the room that heavily reminded me of a certain DC superhero.
Then I noticed something.
Pictures.
But what made me freeze up when I saw them was that all of them had Krystal!
Each photo was of her with someone.
For the looks of it her father and mother along with friends and family...was I on her home planet?
How? I thought it was destroyed years ago!
"You aren't my little girl," I almost dropped the photograph of Krystal with her friends when I turned to see what looked like a male version of Krystal... but older.
"Um...sorry but who are you?" I asked.
"I should ask you the same thing you in my home after all,"
I nodded.
"Fine enough, my name is Zero and how I got here I don't know," I told the fox as he looked at me with his green eyes before speaking.
"You touched the crystal didn't you,"
I nodded again.
"Damn it...well, I can't blame you for touching it. Hell I bet I would in your shoes," He told me before crossing his arms. "But I have to ask what brought you here?"
"Well I was here with my friend Krystal to find out-"
"Krystal? My daughter!" He grabbed my armor in his hands as he looked into my visor.
"Um...yes?"
"DAMN IT!" He let me go as I gave a confused look. "Krystal was supposed to touch the crystal! Not you!"
"I'm...sorry?" The old fox took a deep breath before turning to me.
"It's fine... it's fine...now Zero I have to ask you something," he told me as I nodded.
"What is it?"
"What is your relationship with my daughter?"
"Nice bike," Falco walked over to the strange-looking bike that was parked next to one of the trees of the planet with a look of awe in his eyes.
"Yep whoever made it took a while to make it," Miyu said as she popped her bubblegum with her hand on her hip.
"You two coming or what?" Fox asked as the two snapped to him before following the leader as Slippy was in front of them with what looked like a scanner tracking two pairs of footprints.
"Sorry boss it's just a nice bike," Miyu stated as she held her blaster.
"Yeah well, focus were on a mission,"
"To find your Ex look Fox it could be just some guys that decided to come out and check out the sights," Falco stated as he walked forward with a bored look on his face.
Fox turned to him.
"Didn't you see the wreckage of scale folk ships not far from here? Whoever did that must have some serious firepower so it could be bounty hunters looking for her," Fox stated as Falco rolled his eyes as he did his famous 'hmpt'.
As the group of hero's for hire walked through the forest they were meet with a cave as they stopped, Fox turned before ordering them.
"Falco, Fay stay out her and guard the exit if they try to make for a break for it, zap 'em with a stun,"
"Oh come on the first time in ages we get some action you are putting me on guard duty!" Falco stated.
"Clam down you big baby just watch out if anyone tries to make a break for it, I'm sure you can handle any stragglers," Kat stated with a smile only getting a growl from the bird.
"More like leftovers," He whispered.
"Come on team," Fox stated with that the four entered the cave.
(Back with Zero)
Sitting in a room with Krystal's dad was...tense to say the least. Do you know that cliche when a girl's dad doesn't trust a boy? Well, that is happening right now and from the looks on the face of this spartan-like warrior, he could almost easily tear me a new one.
"So Zero you meet my daughter after saving her life from pirates?" He asked as I nodded.
"Yes sir my crew and I came in to save her as she was being chased," I told him as he held his tea in hand before blowing it.
"Interesting and you just so happen to be there when she need help?" Oh boy...
"We were...in honestly we were testing out our ship's systems when we came across her asking for help," I stated as he looked at me with 'dad' eyes.
"Hmmmm,"
"Darling be nice to the boy he saved our daughter in the end," Turning my head I was meet with what I guessed was Krystal's mother.
'Damn she takes after her mother,'
She sat down next to her husband as she smiled.
"After all, he could be our son-in-law someday,"
(Zero's visor: 0.0)
'WHAT!'
"My love please don't say that?" Krystal's dad stated.
She only giggled as turned to me.
"Tell me Zero what do you think of our daughter?" Snapping out of it I smiled.
"Well, Krystal is quite the friend ma'am. She's strong, smart, and sweet," I told her as she smiled.
"Do you love our daughter?" She asked causing both me and Krystal's dad to back up slightly.
"Uhhhhhhhhh,"
The father turned to me with 'say yes and I'll kill you'.
"I-I-I-," before I could finish the room we were in began to shake slightly.
"Oh, my looks like our time has come to an end," Krystal's mother stated as her lover crossed his arms.
"What do you mean?" I asked standing up as the room shook.
"Your body is waking up quicker than expect," Her father stated as I turned to them.
"I...I...is there anything you want me to tell your daughter?" I asked.
Krystal's dad looked at me in surprise before he could say anything her mother got up and handed me what looked like a letter.
"Give this to her Zero," She told me as I took it in my claws as the room began to shake more violently as it began to brighten. "As for my blessing, you have it,"
"What?!"
"No time my son I do hope we see you again and with my daughter next time," Before I could say anything the light got so bright I was blinded as everything went white.
(Real world)
Slowly I opened my eyes to be met with a pair of Jade ones.
"ZERO!" Krystal smiled as I awoke.
"Krystal?" I looked around to she was hovering over me and I was laying my head on something soft. "What happened?"
"When you touched the crystal it zapped you causing you to blackout on me," She hands her arms around my neck as hugged me slightly. "Don't do that again you jerk!"
"Sorry to scare you like that," I stated as felt something in my claw.
Lifting my claw to my face I saw the letter.
"I think this is for you,"
She looked at my claw as she held a look of surprise.
"When did you-"
"Long story," I told her as she took it in her hand.
Getting up (was kinda blushing when I noticed I was on her lap anime style) I watched her as she held the piece of paper in her hand.
"This is my mother's handwriting," She then looked up at me. "Where did you get this?"
"Well from your parents," A look of pure shock was on her face as she turned to the letter.
"B-b-b-but how? Cerinia was destroyed and my parents along with it," I pointed my thumb at the large ass crystal in the cave.
"Whatever this crystal is it sent me to them," I said as she looked at the crystal.
"It spoke to me,"
I titled my head.
"What does it say?" I asked.
"It said it was what was left of Cerinia," Raising an eyebrow I turned to it before turning to her.
"Do you feel alright Krystal?" I asked wondering if this was her krytonite.
"I don't know but... let's leave this place Zero," She got up as I nodded.
"Yeah this place is creepy best we take our leave before it gets weirder," I stated as began to walk.
But I stopped when I felt something pull on my claw, I turned to see Krystal holding it as I looked at her.
"Um...Krystal is something wrong?" I asked.
"Thank you Zero," I looked at her before I could say anything she ran up to me and gave me a hug as I knocked of breath.
Looking at her with surprise I then smiled as I gently returned the hug making sure I don't accidentally crush her using my cyber strength. As we hug I heard her began to cry as she held me tightly as I gently rocked her, as I began to enjoy the moment I turned when a light flashed on my face causing me to move my claw to cover the light.
"What the-?" Who was that?
Krystal must have noticed the light as she turned around still with one arm around my neck as she used her other to block the light.
"Krystal is that you?"
"What a minute Miyu?!" Krystal spoke as the light turned off.
Then I saw the four being before us.
It was the star fox team. |
The Protogen of Equis | Fox meets Protogen (editied) | "Guys? What are you doing here," Krystal asked the group before us.
To be honest, this day was coming but I had to say this wasn't was I expected to meet the Starfox team.
"KRYSTAL!" Slippy smiled as he rushed over and hugged the vixen with a child-like smile causing Krystal to look shocked before smiling and hugging back.
It was a heartwarming scene, to say the least as I crossed my arms.
"Guess us worrying was for nothing," Miyu stated as she walked over to us as the lynx turned to me. "Sorry for interrupting a heartwarming moment love,"
I rubbed the back of my head.
"It wasn't really that I would say... Miss," I ask her name as she held her hand.
"Name's Miyu lover and who might you be," I took her hand with my claw and spoke.
"Zero, I am a friend of Krystal," I state as she broke the handshake with a sly grin on her face.
"I doubt you to are 'friends'," I blushed behind my mask as she stated this before I turned to see Kat looking at me.
"Hello there Zero I'm Kat it's nice to meet a friend of Krystal's," She closed her eyes with a smile as I nodded.
"Likewise," I state as she placed a hand on her chin as she inspected me.
"If you don't might be asking are you some type of cyborg?" I waved my claws.
"No no I'm a protogen,"
"Proto-what?" Miyu asked.
"Protogen were made like this," I held out my claw.
"Made?" Slippy broke the hug and looked at me. "What does that mean?"
"Well my kind isn't born were created our fleshly bits were made in vats before were cyberized," I state as Kat holds my claw looking at it.
"Why would someone do that?" Slippy asked as I held a finger.
"To explore deep space and go where no 'normal' being can go," I state.
"How are you ok with that love?" Miyu asked as I smile.
"Well mostly we accept it at a young age if not we are free to do whatever we want," I tell them as kat lets go of my hand.
"Interesting," Kat says as I turn to Fox as he looks at me with caution.
"You must be Fox," I said aloud as he walks over his hand on his holster.
"Yeah, I am..." Narrowing my eyes I walked over to him.
"Well Fox I've heard a lot about you chief from Krystal and I have one thing to say to you," I state crossing my arms.
He cocked an eyebrow at me.
"What may that be Zero?" He asked as I clenched my fists.
"Your a fucking asshole," I didn't see what the looks were on the star fox's teams face but I stepped forward and jabbed a finger into his chest. "What were you fucking hell thinking when you kicked Krystal off your team,"
Fox snarled as he knocked my hand aside.
"I did it to protect her you fuck it was for her own good," I told me as I spat.
"What it was good for her to be all alone in a galaxy where there are a ton of enemies of your little band guns-for-hire. Didn't you even consider the fact when you kicked Krystal off your team there would be people chasing her down for her past with you guys?" I ask with my hands out.
"Like I know that will happen," He said.
"Bullshit,"
"Bullshit? Bullshit! If I hadn't kicked her off the team she would have ended up like my friend peppy who is now in a hospital bed breathing through tubes. Do you think I want that for her!" He pointed to Krystal as I only laughed. "What's so funny prick,"
"Your fucking stupidity," I state. "So what if one of your crew got a bad number it doesn't mean you have to kick off one of your fucking girlfriend from the team because 'it's for the best' seriously she was in more danger WITHOUT a team. Hell if it was for me to go in and save her from a bunch of pirates who wanted her she would have been captured and only the makers know what would have happened to her,"
"You don't know what your talking about tin can," Fox hissed.
"I think I do Fox Mccloud," I growled.
"So what if I don't know someone would put back a bounty on her head sue me. But I'm here now to take her with me and make sure she is safe," He told me as I cocked an eyebrow.
"What you taking her back on the team," I ask.
"No, I'm making sure she comes with us so I can ensure her safety," He told me as I roll my eyes.
"I think she safer with me Fox," I tell him.
"I beg to differ," He begins to walk away from me. "She is no longer your priority,"
I step in front of him with anger in my eyes.
"Like hell she is,"
"Step aside Zero this is your only warning," Fox said threatening Zero as the protogen stands still. "Or I'm going to take you down and it's going to hurt,"
"No,"
Krystal could only watch as fox took a swing at zero who dodged the attack before jabbing forward with his claw hitting fox in the ribs. Fox winched as he growled before kicked zero in the gut with his leg causing zero to step back from the attack before taking another punch from fox. Zero quickly reacted knocking fox in the chest before punching him in the face as fox backhanded zero from this action.
The protogen growled before coming up with an uppercut but fox dodged the attack before jabbing Zero's chest again before stepping on Zero's paw holding him in place. Fox began to send a series of punches to Zero who blocked some of them before striking his claw on fox pushing him back.
As fox stumbled back zero round housed kicked the leader of star fox causing blood to hit the floor. The leader placed an arm to his face and whipped the blood off it as Fox gave a glare to zero that of a predator.
Giving a war cry fox came out and punched forward hitting zero in the throat as the protogen gawked from the attack as his way of airflow was cut off for a moment. Zero held his throat for a second as Fox began to come forward with another punch but zero was ready this time and blocked the attack before it could hit.
Holding his fist zero sucker-punched fox in the jaw causing the leader to fall down on one knee on the crystal floor as fox rubbed his jaw. Narrowing his eyes fox grabbed a crystal from the wall as Zero held his fists out, fox got up with the crystal in his hand before he kicked zero in the chest. This caught the protogen off guard allowing Fox to come in with the crystal and smashed it on his visor causing the protogen to snap his head back.
*CRACK!*
Krystal gasped as zero slowly got up reviling that his visor was now crack causing his facial expressions to glitch slightly as she saw what looked like Zero's eye. Since she has never seen his face she looked into the crack to see a bright white eye that held anger in it as it looked at Fox.
Roaring Zero ran forward punching his claw out this time hitting Fox in the nose causing the leader to knock back before reaching and pulling out his laser pistol and pointing at Zero. This is when Krystal came forward in between the two fighters.
"STOP!" She shouted.
Fox panting spoke first.
"Krystal step aside," He said as she shook her head with her arms out.
"No I can do that fox I can't let you kill him," She stated looking at fox.
Fox glares at her before sighing and holstering his blaster.
"Whatever... Come on Krystal we're leaving," He waved to her but she shook her head.
"I can't do that either," She said lowering her arms.
"Krystal-"
"I'm going with Zero fox and you can't stop me,"
"But you will be safer with us way don't you see that," He tells her as she shakes her head.
"Fox please don't make this harder I'm leaving with Zero and that's final," She then began to leave the cave as zero still panting limps alongside her.
"Krystal!" Fox shouts but Krystal kept going as they began to disappear into the darkness. |
The Protogen of Equis | Love is a powerful thing (Editied) | WARNING!: EXTREMELY CUTE FLUFF, CUDDLES, AND COUPLE SHOWERING TOGETHER AHEAD IF YOU WISH TO SKIP THIS CHAPTER DO SO NOW!
Never thought I wake up to find I was the arms of a love one who was resting on my chest as she had buried herself into my fur not wanting to let go nor did I let go of her. Krytsal gave cute purrs in her sleep as I held her making me smile as she did so knowing that sound was of love for me I just wish I can purr back to tell her I loved her back.
I couldn't but that didn't matter I loved her too much to let her go as I moved her fully onto my body as I warped my tail around hers. Our nude bodies hugged one another as I looked at her sleeping form making me move my hand and brushed her 'hair' out of her eyes as I hold her close.
This by accident woke her up as she began to open her Jade like eyes to my blue ones as she smiled when she locked eyes onto mine like the night before. I felt her tail warp around mine as she gave a cute yawn before pulling herself out of my chest as she looked at me.
"Hey,"
"Hey love~" She purred as I felt my heart melt at what she said as I looked at her.
Looking at her as she looked at me. We stared at one another what felt like a hour till she broke eye contact as she placed herself back on my chest as she placed my hands on my chest and began to stretch like a cat on top of me before hearing a few pops to which she fell back down on my body making me stretch too slightly as I heard a few pops in my cybernetic bones as Krystal laughed.
"For some odd reason I love the sound of popping," I told her as she nodded.
"Yeah me too and I love the feeling even more," She told me making me tilt my head.
"Even more than me?" I asked.
"Yes,"
"Awwwww I'm now jealous of bone popping how can I ever rival that?" I asked to which krystal moved herself up slightly exposing her breasts as she did so making me blush slightly as she moved herself ontop of me making the covers move off her body as I got a good look at her as she sat on top of me.
Placing my hands on her hips to which she grabbed them as she moved them around her body making her blush as she played with my hands on her belly. Then it hit me as I smirked looking up at her, she looked at me and smiled back making me move slightly as I was able to pulled her back ontop of me as I began to giver her belly rubs.
She moaned slightly like a kitten as I rubbed her belly making her arms warp around my head as she wagged her tail. My robotic-like power claws where meant for one thing that was killing but if I was careful enough I would be able to give Krystal the best belly rubs she would have in her life.
And from her moans I was right she was enjoying this as she smiled before kissing me on the lips as I kissed her back. For the next hour (it felt like) I rubbed her belly as she kissed me before finally breaking the kiss and moving up as she grabbed my hand telling me to get up.
"Come on you stink of sex best we take a shower," I gulped even though I was no longer a virgin the thought of showering with woman made me kinda freak out.
Walking to the bathroom she let me go as she opened the shower door as she got in and bent over to turn on the water, this did not help me as I did everything in my power not to get a boner from her sexy state. She finally turned on the water as it steamed slightly making her smile, guess she like hot showers moving up with her eyes closed she turned to me as she pulled me into the the shower.
"Come on the water is great," Walking into the shower I joined her in the shower as she pushed me onto the shower chair as she sat down on top of my lap.
Normally I would get a boner from this but the feeling of the water felt great on my synthetic skin, placing my hands around Krystals waist I rested my head on her shoulder making her warp a arm around my head. I loved her smile, for some reason it made me smile back as it did I unknowingly held her tighter this made her say something.
"Do you love me so much your afraid to let me go?" She asked me to which I spoke up.
"Yes... I'm scared to let you go cause I'm a coward like that," I joked as she laughed.
"Zero I've known you for some time now and one thing you aren't is a coward," She told me as I continued to hold her in place as she moved on my lap to turn around onto me and grab me pulling me to another one of her kisses to which I gladly accepted.
Breaking the kiss I spoke up.
"Think we should start cleaning up now," I told her as she nodded.
"I'll wash your back for you if you wash mine first,"
'So anime cliche! BUT I LOVE IT!'
Turning around I grabbed the shampoo and began to scrub Krystals back as she smiled doing her front for herself as she hummed a tone that I could recall as the star fox game intro.
"Hey, Krystal?" I spoke up.
"Yes, Zero?" She turned to me.
"Do you wish to say in my room from now on? Or do you want to stay in your own room?" I asked her to which she smiled.
"Of course! After last night I don't ever think I can not be not by your side," This made me smile as I hugged her from behind.
"Thanks Krystal," I told her as she nodded.
"Of course hon~," She purred. "Now let me do you back,"
Moving up I turned around as she began to scrub my back as I scrubbed my front, it was nice showering with someone you love never thought I would get to actually have it done. Turning around I closed my eyes as I felt the vixen scrub my back as she hummed making me smile as I could feel her gently clean my fur and skin.
It was a nice feeling to say the least.
(On equis)
Cadence shivered for a moment getting a weird feeling almost like Deja-vu...
"Huh... weird," The princess stated while Shining turned to her while holding a sleeping Flurry Heart.
"What is it, sweetie?" The captain asked.
"Nothing just got a chill," With that Cadance returned to her paper work.
"Zero?" Rested on the bed the new couple held each other as the Protogen looked at his lover.
"What is it Krystal," He asked as she brushed his fur.
"Well it's about Fox and what happened," She told Zero as he sighed.
"I'm sorry Krystal things got out of hand and I-" She placed a finger on his lips.
"It's fine love I don't care what happened in the cave but if you ever run into fox again please-" She looked up at him with a serious look in her green eyes.
"Don't. hold. back,"
Zero was slightly taken aback at what she said but nodded.
"Alright Krystal if you say so," He said brushing her face with his hand.
She smiled as she laid on his nude body with her own before pushing her arms up and off his body as she looked down at him with a smile.
"How about we get dressed and get something to eat? I'm starving," She said as Zero nodded.
"Go ahead I can always eat la-" Krystal narrowed her eyes at him as she spoke.
"Without the mask," She told him as he sighed.
"Besides Spike is in training and it will be just you and me," She said as her tails wagged slightly brushing his legs.
Nodding he got up kiss her forehead.
"If you say so Fluffy Butt," He said as she giggles and licked his cheek surprising him slightly before smiling.
"I love you,"
"I love you more," |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.