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The Gems Of Creation: Part 1 | pre | "Why are you so upset?!" Coral shouted back, fed up with being treated like the villain in this argument. "You have a gemstone that is able to change the world! If you have the power to save lives with it, then-"
Furiously, Zecora ran up to Coral, getting in her face with an angry grimace. "I will scream this and shout until dusk and until dawn! I will not discuss this further! Now, BEGONE!"
Coral reared back after taking a verbal thrashing from Zecora's harsh rhyming rhetoric. She glanced at her partner, who was looking back at her, before making a hasty retreat out of the hut to save face. "Wait!" Cornfield cried out, about to give chase.
"Cornfield, come here!" commanded Zecora. "I must borrow your ear..."
"Huh?" Cornfield stopped in his tracks to look back at Zecora. "What is it, Zecora?"
Zecora breathed another heavy sigh and slowly approached him. He's almost worried that he would be next to recieve her anger, but her face looked more regretful than angry. "She's lost and confused. Unsure on what to do." She placed her hoof gently on his shoulders. "I'm sorry, but her future actions fall on you. She needs someone like you to help her decide. Do not be strung along in her own selfish pride."
"Is something bad gonna happen, Zecora? What's up with the gem?"
"It maintains the balance of the Everfree." said Zecora as she waved her hoof off his shoulder and around her. "It stimulates every plant, animal, and tree."
So, somepony could maybe use it...for bad?"
"Do you know how nature is uncontrolled here? Why the ponies who approach run in fear? It thrives on it's own. It needs nopony's aid. The Heart of Nature's light. But, what happens should it fade?" Cornfield thought on it for a bit. Seeing he's still struggling to understand, she added "If its light should disappear, the forest stands still. The animals begin to lose their will. Nothing grows naturally. Life will fade. All without the Heart of Nature's aid". Backing off a bit from him, she rubbed her hoof on her forehead in frustration. "Do you see why I'm upset? Why I'm flustered and mad? Taking that gem is nothing but bad."
"I'm sure she has good intentions, Zecora." He put his right hoof on his chest. "She showed me as much."
"I cannot stop her, though. I must only observe. As a humble witch doctor, I live only to serve. It must fall on you on what to do with Coral's inner hate." She put her hooves on Cornfield's shoulders and put her face close to his, whispering "Be her guide and decide her fate".
Staring into Zecora's troubled eyes, he thought about the idea of being Coral's consciousness, guiding her and keeping her company as she pursue her goals. He liked it. He gave a hardy nod as he smiled back at her. She smiled back as she let go of him. "Go and be well," she said softly. "Good luck to you. If you need further assistance, you know who to go to."
"I'll keep that in mind." With the bottle in his possession, he headed out. Before leaving, he gave her a quick wave goodbye. "See you around, Zecora." |
The Gems Of Creation: Part 1 | 1-4: Journey to the Ruins | Chapter 1-4
Cobalt Coral sat outside of Zecora's hut, fidgeting in her claws a gem that she had kept in her bag. Zecora's rhymes of warning echoed in her mind. Shaking the feeling she might be making a big mistake, she sighed and held her head low. "Is it really that big of a deal...?" she told herself. "The animals are going crazy according to her, and now they are now after me. Did Cornfield almost get eaten because of me?" She breathed another heavy sigh. "I'm not sure what to do..."
Startled by the sound of Zecora's hut door opening, Coral shot her head up and looked behind her to see Cornfield waving good-bye to Zecora before shutting the door. She quickly stashed away the jewel before he could see it and sat silently to herself. "So, are we ready to do this?" he asked enthusiastically.
"Yeah," she answered back with not as much confidence. "Yeah, I'm ready..." Turning her head, she glared with a very serious look at Cornfield. "Question is, are you ready for this? After all, you almost got eaten. That Cragadile wasn't after you." She looked away from him. "It was after me..."
"Well..." He walked to Coral's side and sat down with her. "Perhaps, no more than you, at least." Pumping his forelegs, he tried his best to psych her up. "I mean, we just need to stay focused, keep our senses peeled, and put our heads together!" A cold pause occured as he watched her. Even he felt a little dismayed for a second, thinking "I really thought I could get her excited with that. Guess I gotta work on my pep talk". When he saw he wasn't getting through to Coral, he put one of his hooves behind his head. "At least...I think we'll be OK if we just cover each other's back..."
"I don't get you." She got up from the dirt, causing Cornfield to back off slightly from the subtle movement, as she attached her bags around her barrel and took a few steps forward. "I've been bad news for you ever since I walked into your life. I've cheated you, broke your heart, and now I'm endangering you." Looking down from behind her, she couldn't help but feel she's dragging along some poor naive colt against his will on a wild goose chase. "And yet, here you are, trying to be some knight in shining armor. Somepony making the effort to keep me, the creature that hurt you, in high spirits." She turned around and shook her head. "If something happens to me... I'm ok with that. I knew the dangers when I chose this life." Deciding that he's better off with Zecora, she started walking towards her next destination.. "You should go home. Forget about me."
"Knight in shining armor...?" His eyes widened at the thought of being compared to Celestia's finest. "YES!" The newfound pride within himself drove him to run up to Coral and intercept her before she went any further. "Oh really?" he said, blocking her path. "And just what are you gonna do without me?"
"... Something that doesn't involve you getting killed..."
"What would you do if you were going up against that Cragadile alone? Throw rocks at it? Maybe give it a lil' scratch of the talons?" He placed his hoof on his chest. "What are your odds of surviving without me in a place you clearly have never been before? You don't even know what kind of monsters might lurk in the darkness."
Coral stood there staring at him in silence, contemplating his words. "Damn it, he's right," she admitted to herself. "If it weren't for him, you'd already be dog food yesterday..." She looked into his eyes, trying to read his inner thoughts. "Why? Why go through all the trouble. It can't JUST be for sex, can it? No stallion would go this far..."
"And here's another thing," he said, ready to brag about his exploits. "I know this area. Very well, in fact. Not just the terrain, but all the secret hiding spots! I've even found the Tree of Harmony! But I couldn't get it to react for some reason..."
Surprised, Coral's mouth was slightly agape with her eyebrows lifted. "The Legendary Tree of Harmony? He's gone THAT far?"
In the mind of Cornfield, he was impressed, even shocked to know that all the time he spent in the Everfree Forest is paying off this way. "If I wasn't so alone at times with nothing to do," he thought, "I probably would of ended up being discarded like tissue paper by her...ugh...best I don't think about that bit..." He shook his head and continued. "It's also a safe sanctuary from the carnivorous creatures." He chuckled at the memory of hiding around it's protective field. "For some bizarre reason, I couldn't even bait one over." All of his boasting pumped him up. "I may not be strong in a front-facing fight... but I've got some tricks I've picked up! Real ninja pony like! Yeah!" He laughed as he thought to himself "Also, being a bit of a stalker helps".
"You impressed me until that line, you dork.." she replied. A slight smirk formed on her face, seeing the childish stallion look up to her in the hopes that he impressed her. "Ah, who am I kidding, he's STILL impressive," she thought. "He's adaptable and sturdy. He's like a cockroach. Tenacious, hides well, and doesn't die." Shrugging, Coral put her claws up, surrendering to his upbeat outlook and superior navigating. "Fine, ok. You win. You are king of the forest. I'm lost and out of my element. I'm usually the girl that handles temples, clues, ancient texts, stuff like that. But, this is beyond me. You are one with nature." She tapped the tip of his nose with her claw. "Happy?"
"Very!" he said, smiling without a care in the world.
"Ok, good. Now, should you lead the way, or do you want me to go first so you can have something to look at again?"
"AH..." Cornfield reeled back from her. "HOW DID SHE KNOW?" he thought. Blushing furiously, he looked away, embarrassed. "H-H-H-Hey, I-I'm more focused in the adventure," he replied. "But...ah... It's nice to have something to look at once in awhile..." He let out a nervous chuckle. "S-so... What was this place we're looking for? A cave?"
"All right." she replied, putting up with his antics. "Consider it a reward for sticking with me this long. And yes, a cave full of Timberwolves. We go past them, we find our way into an ancient ruin where the gem is held." She walked around him, continuing down the path back to the cave. "So, shall we continue?"
"I'm ready!"
Determined to protect his personal princess from danger, Cornfield guided the purple hippogriff around the Cragadile's swamp and went on to prevent any more attacks by other creatures. Every few minutes, Cornfield would point to an animal in the distance and direct her to hide away. Zecora was right all along, the forest is actively hunting them, and the creatures were determined to scare Coral away or worse. After sneaking around every dark corner of the woods, they finally found their way back to the cave where the Timberwolves were sleeping. The time had come to test their mettle.
"Do you still have that potion Zecora gave you?" she asked him quietly.
"Yeah," he said blankly, but then realized something. "...Oh...wait, I snuck it in your saddlebag while we were walking. I didn't bring mine." He brought his hoof to his chin and thought "...Sure was a great view too..."
Sighing and rolling her eyes, she quickly dug through her bags. "Why didn't you tell me?" Grasping it in her claws, she handed it over to him.
"Because, it's your birthday," he responded sarcastically.
"Huh." Coral turned her head away from him and scoffed. "Well, with that attitude, maybe I should just rub this gunk on myself instead of giving you the opportunity to touch a lady for once in your life."
Cornfield popped the cork on the vial as a heavy stench flowed out. "Uhhh...I don't know about this stuff..." He took another whiff of it, but instinctively turned his head away. "Ack!...I mean, some potions are ok, but this...stinks..."
Leaning closer, Coral sniffed the air around the mixture. Her nostrils full of the odor, she gagged as she waved the smell away with her claws. "Oof! You are right, though... It reeks!" Coral plugged the nostril holes on her beak with her claws. "I hope that Zecora didn't give us liquified manure by mistake..."
"Ok... Here goes nothing!" With gusto, Cornfield planted his lips on the vial and swallowed some of it down like a shot of whiskey.
"HEY!" shouted Coral, glaring at him with disgust and confusion. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Cornfield coughed onto his hoof, trying to stomach the rancid taste.
"You IDIOT!" chastised Coral. "Zecora said to rub it on you, not DRINK it!"
"Wh-" He coughed. "What? I thought I was supposed to drink it?" Suddenly, his stomach turned and wretched, completely rejecting what went down. Cornfield placed his front hooves on his belly. "Uuhhh...I think...I'm gonna..."
"No no no!" Coral cried out, back away from him quickly. "Not on me! NOT ON ME!"
Gagging and hurling, he audibly and loudly expelled streams with the contents of his stomach through his mouth. He coughed and gasped as Coral leaned away from him, repulsed. "Oh, Novo... that was NASTY!"
"Ok," Coral leaned closer to him with her brow furrowed. "Maybe I should be the one to apply it to both of us, because you have the attention span of a gnat to follow directions!" All of the yelling she had done managed to stir the wolf pack inside of the cave. Disturbed by the noises, the wooden dogs shuffled awake to track and end the source. She could hear them coming to their direction. "Oh..." She stumbled backwards a little. "Oh no..."
"I-I think half is left." Cornfield said, queasily. His ears twitch at the sound of wooden claws slowly getting nearer. He glances at the cave in fear. "Oh, BUCK!" The sick pony was in no condition to outsmart all of the wooden manifestations at once. Their best bet was to use the very item they intended for this scenario.
Coral turned to Cornfield and pointed to herself. "Quick! Apply the rest to me and go hide!
You can fit in all the hiding spots from these dogs! I CAN'T!"
"Ah, OK!" Panicking, he throws the vial at her as its contents splashes on her side haphazardly.
"BLECH!" She gagged, reeling away from him. "After what happened to you, I don't want that anywhere near my mouth!" The wolves are walking out from under the darkness of the cave. Their drooling wooden teeth dripped at the sight of their prey. "Ok, quick!" She waved Cornfield away. "Hide!"
Not waiting around to be told twice, he ran behind a large group of rocks near a tree close by, watching what would happen. Coral was stunned silent as the wolves approached her, getting closer and closer. They were so committed to taking down the forest's intruder that they were ready to rip her apart."Novo, please let this work" prayed Coral in her head. Until, that is, they caught wind of her scent. One by one, each wolf sniffed her, winced and whine. A couple even dig their noses into the dirt and sneezed just to get the foul odor out of their noses. Even the larger alpha wolf couldn't tolerate it.
The Timberwolves decided to run after the other pony that was with Coral and ignore her completely. She stopped holding her breath, gasping for air. "Ah!" she cried out. "I can feel my heart in my throat!"
Meanwhile, Cornfield was having troubles of his own as his stomach protested further. "Oh, Celestia," he uttered "It's coming up for round 2!" He held his stomach, clenching to not go through all the vomiting again. "Gotta...keep it down!!!"
"NO!" Coral responded angrily. "I don't want you vomiting all over the place! You get it out of your system now! I especially don't want you spewing on The Heart of Nature!" The Alpha Timberwolf pinpointed Cornfield's hiding spot from the sounds of his whining, while the other wolves had already split up to find him in other parts of the forest. A giant shadow of the creature graced the ground near in front of Cornfield, followed by the Earth shaking from the force of the creature landing in said spot. Tiny bits of wood broke loose from the monster as it plopped onto the ground with the sound of its bodily leaves rustling. It stalked him, licking its chops with its green, leafy tongue. Cornfield could also see the alpha coming, and realized he's in danger, but his indigestion paralyzed him momentarily.
Coral, a little late to see the beast poised to attack, gasped as the boss of the Timberwolves checked his scent to find him clean of any of that foul-smelling deterrent. Satisfied to sense there wasn't any, it ran towards him!
"CORNFIELD!" she shouted. "Look out!"
Cornfield's eyes widened. "BLEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAACCCCCCCH!"
Abhorred by the sight of the alpha rather unfortunately receiving a face full of projectile vomit, Coral winced away. The force of Cornfield's projectile even caused him to recoil just enough to make him airborne for a second. The beast, realizing what just happened, whined and howled as it rolled on the dirt, trying to get rid of the scent. Humiliatingly defeated, it ran off with its tail between its legs. She approached the sick colt carefully, as he coughed a bit more, wondering if he really did get it all out of his system. "That..." she said, still shaking off what just happened "That has got to be the grossest way to solve a problem I have ever seen." She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her beak with her talons, and shook her head. "Seriously, this situation is so stupid, you give dumb luck a whole new meaning."
More uncomfortable than anything, he got up from the dirt and walked around her. "Excuse me," he muttered. "I really need to wash my mouth out..."
She sighed as she ruffled through her trusty saddle bags once more, pulling out a canteen that had plenty of water sloshing inside it. "I have water if you need to rehydrate." she informed, trying to catch his attention. "I don't want to drag you around if you don't have the energy."
Stopping, he turned around and walked up to her in the promise of water. "Oh...it's no problem. Here, let me have it."
Before he could reach and take it out of her claws, she yanked it away. "Try not to put your dirty, vomit-covered mouth on it, ok? Try to hover it over your mouth." Once she established her conditions, she gave the canteen to him.
"Ok..." he said weakly as he lifted the canteen over him and tilted it. As he drank, the water also spilled over his mouth, washing off the vomit.
Once again, Coral is repulsed. "Eeehh... I still don't know if I want it back..."
Wiping away his stained lips and cleansing the insides of his mouth, Cornfield sighed in relief from his acid washed away in his throat and glanced with a spit on the ground. "Ah, much better! Here you go!" He reached out to give her canteen back but hesitated at the last minute. "Wait, what was that you said?"
"Never mind, just... give it here..." She took it, whether he liked it or not, and put it back in her bag. Now that the wolves were gone, there was nothing stopping them from investigating inside the cave. Curiosity took over as they ventured closer and peered inside the entrance. "Looks to be empty now..." Prepared for any occasion, her saddle bags came to the rescue as she took out a lantern with plenty of oil inside. She twisted a knob and pressed a button, igniting a small flame inside it. "Keep up. I don't want to leave you behind!"
"I'm coming! Jeez!"
Meanwhile, outside of Zecora's hut, three ponies burst inside her domain uninvited. Startled by the door swinging open, the witch doctor ceased organizing her ingredients and turned her attention to the hooded figures.
"More visitors? How unexpected," said Zecora as one of the cronies reached in his cloak and aimed something at her. The zebra begun to shake in fear. "W-What's that crossbow doing pointed at my head?"
Animals passing by her hut could hear the sounds of the struggle. Glass breaking, pottery smashed, and hooves hitting the floor, until the forest echoed with Zecora's cry.
"HEY! Ouch! Stop! Let go! I won't go with you! I say NOOOOOOO!"
The two unlikely partners found themselves a little deeper inside the cave. The floor was wet with the sounds of dripping water hitting the puddles below. With only the light of the lantern to follow, Coral led the way while treading slowly. "So, did you finally get it all out of your system?" she asked as her voice echoed down the cave.
Cornfield followed behind her, looking around the magically ordinary cave of mystical lack of wonder as they continued spelunking "Oh yeah," he assured. "I'll never drink another potion again!"
"Unless it's specifically directed for you to do so, you ignoramus."
"Urrrhh...just the thought of it makes me a little nauseous..." His eyes wandered until he found himself hypnotized by the silhouette of Coral's hindquarters swaying in the shadows, with the light of the lantern barely illuminating her supple rump. Cornfield couldn't help but let out an awkward laugh. "Ah ha ha ha... But, I'm ok now."
"Yeah, well, if it decides to go to the other end, please stay far, FAR away from me."
"Roger!"
They hiked further in the cave, trying to navigate around any small stalagmites that could potentially hurt if stepped on. However, as they went deeper in, they noticed that the way ahead lit up with fluorescent moss and fungi hanging on the cavern's ceiling. The strange plant-life provided the two with dull, yet sufficient light to push through without the aid of a lantern. "Oooh, pretty." Coral cooed. "That saves me a bit of oil..." She extinguished the flame and carefully place the lantern in her bag.
"So, how much further is it, anyway?" Cornfield muttered while Coral still had her claws in her bags. She responded with but a silent look at him and a single eyebrow raised. "N-Not complaining, just wondering." He put a hoof on the back of his head, humbly.
Wondering how close her destination was as well, she pulled out her map and invited him to look at it beside her. He obliged, his hooves clicking on the rocky terrain. "It's not that long... We are approaching the halfway point." Her claw traced a line down the path the caves led. "At this rate, we will reach the ruins that are surrounded by tall, impassable mountains." She tapped the picture of the ruins twice to emphasize their position. "The mountains even have tall, winding trees on top, and it camouflages the ruins well. So well, in fact, neither pegasus..." Her wings fluttered. "...Nor hippogriff can see it from above. The only thing that is able to come down from those mountains is sunlight."
"Huh...that's convenient" Not completely understanding her plan, he scratched his head. "So, how are we supposed to get through? Unless, we pray for a flood!" He laughed as Coral rolled her eyes, rolled up the map, and put it away in her bag.
"We're going through it right now!" They continued walking as the light is getting a little bit brighter ahead. "This cave leads underground and through the mountain formation.
And once we get there, we can..." Glittery lights turn her attention away from her discussion as they walked deeper in. "We... can...."
Coral's jaw dropped as she gazed at the many different colored gemstones that ordained the cavern's walls. The light from the fungi above reflect from the gems and sparkle in her eyes. "By Novo's dorsal fin..." she uttered in awe.
"...What? Who?" Unlike his treasure hunting compatriot, he was a little unfazed by the brilliance of the gems around him.
"It's..." A wide smile formed on Coral's beak as her claws cupped the cheeks on her face. "BEAUTIFUL!" She hustled her pace, looking all around her with her eyes wide and pupils large with pure, unadulterated bliss.
"Well...I guess since you're a girl you're easily distracted by such things." he said, chuckling to himself as he followed her casually.
"Oh, this isn't just a flight of fancy." Wasting no time, she rolled up the map, placed it in her bags, and pulled out a hammer and a sharp chisel. "This is a passion!" Cornfield looked on curiously. She tapped some of the gems she came across with her hammer, until one resonated with an audible indication of the best to harvest. After chiseling the stone out, it fell to the ground. She bent down to pick it up, unknowingly flashing Cornfield a view of her rump in the excitement.
"Well, gee, I hope you don't plan on harvesting every-". Catching more than an eyeful of her shapely rump, and every uncovered part of her more feminine features, the rest of his sentence trailed off as he started to drool. "...Siiiiiinnnnngle wwwwhhhaaa..." Fireworks were going off in his head, thinking of many things he would do to her butt if given the chance. "So round," he thought. "So soft. So private and being exposed..."
"You're right, but I need to have something for my trouble, just in case this whole mission goes...awry..." Feeling that she's being undressed with somepony's eyes, even though she's not wearing any clothes, she looked behind to see a hypnotized stallion. Then, she saw where his eyes were looking and put two and two together. "Are you seriously staring at a lady's butt while she's busy with the finer things in life?" She grasped the shining diamond in her claws as she made no effort to fight back from his peering eyes. In fact, she grinned at the idea of him appreciating her good looks. "No tact whatsoever. But, at least, we're both looking at something beautiful."
"Uhhh..." Snapping out of it, he shook his head and managed to make eye contact. "Hey, it's not my fault...I think..."
Chuckling, she turned to place the jewel safely in her bags. "Strange," she thought. "On any other day, I would have rode my tail low and told him to knock it off... But, this is... kinda flattering."
"Oh! B-b-but I think that one is even prettier!" he said as he pointed to a light from a gem hiding in the crack between the cave floor and the wall. "Go on!" He motioned her insistently to go. "You want it, right?"
Knowing exactly what he's after, she poked him in the forehead with her claw. "Nice try, lover boy. It's time for you to come back down to Equestria."
"Oh, fine! It's probably too hard for you to get it, anyway." To his surprise, he found himself with her hammer and chisel in his face.
"Ok, then. You go get it." She laughed to herself with a snide grin. "Ha! Called you out on it. I wasn't born yesterday."
"Wha...? Me???"
"Anypony else in this cave?"
He growled before snatching the tools out of her claws. "Fine!" He begrudgingly made his way over to the spot. "How hard can it be anyway?" Even though he can see the light reflecting out from the crack, he can barely see the gem. He placed the hammer and chisel down somewhere while he bent down and put his head right next to the crack in the wall. "Ok, how do I do this...?" he thought to himself. "Do I just chip away at the stone until it comes off? Yeah, that's what I'll do!" He's so focused on where to begin that he didn't notice Coral walking behind him until she put two claws in her beak and whistled a cat call.
"Yeeeeah! Shake that ass, baby!" she called out, wanting to give him a taste of how it'd feel to have someone like him be at the receiving end of those remarks. "Show them what your mama gave you!"
Startled, he turned his head. "What did you say?"
His response made her laugh almost uncontrollably. "AH ha! I'm sorry! I couldn't resist. That being said, back that ass up." She snorted and giggled to herself again.
"Huh???" He was baffled on why Coral was acting this way, but he simply chalked it up to her being female. He reached for her tools on the floor, but found he misplaced them. "H-Hey where'd that chisel go?"
Coral's expression changed from light-hearted playfulness to being upset almost rapidly. "Wh-WHAT?! Don't tell me you lost it?"
"I could have sworn I put it..." He looked to his left and found her hammer, but her chisel must have rolled away somewhere. Regardless, he took in his hooves and held it in the air for her to see. "Ha! I found your hammer! I had you though, didn't I?"
Her expression softened a little bit. "Ok. Ok. We pushed each other's buttons. A shame that you had to make me flustered like that. I was planning on letting you keep that one. Oh well." She leaned in closer, looking around. "So, where'd the chisel go?"
Laughing nervously, he sat up from having his stomach on the cave floor to look for it, unaware that it rolled behind him. A sudden sharp pain hits his haunch once he was completely upright. "ffffHHHHHHNNNNNNN!" he held back a shout as his eyes widened and pupils shrunk. Surprising Coral, he burst out a scream and jumped in the air, holding his butt with both hooves. "YEEEAAAAAA!"
Seeing the chisel embedded in his rump, she shook her head as he danced around in pain. "Oh, you idiot...." she whispered before speaking up. "So, yeah. Chisels are sharp. We both learned something today."
When he bounced near Coral, he held his hooves around her forelegs and pleaded. "OW!...OW!...OOOOWWW! It hurts!"
"Is it in you still, or is it on the ground?"
"I-I think it's still in my...uh...Cheek...That's what's hurting right NOW! YEOUCH!" He stared up at her with pathetic puppy dog eyes. "C-can you pull it out?"
She sighed. "All right, hold still..." Softly pushing him off of her, she maneuvered around him to get the hammer he dropped, put it in her bag, then pulled out a first aid kit and sat down behind him. "You really are lucky I'm prepared for most occasions." Unzipping the first aid kit, a tent stake fell out as it rolled near Coral. She picked it up and handed it to him."Here, bite down on this."
"Uh, ok, but hurry! Ooooooooohhh!" Biting down on the stake, he steeled himself for the pain to come as he put his ass up and moved his tail to the side. She grabbed the handle and pulled the chisel out as fast as she could to get it out of the way! Tears form in Cornfield's eyes as his entire body flops to the floor. "UURRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNHHHHHHHH!" he spat out the stake, taking short rapid breaths. "Oh, finally..." he gasped, before recovering from the shock.
"You don't have an ice pack in there, do you?"
"No." she said bluntly while taking out a white bottle and rubbing cloth from the first aid kit. "But, I do have disinfectant. Be prepared, though..." She poured a bit of the disinfectant on the cloth. "This is PROBABLY going to sting like crazy."
"Err...On second thought...I'll be fine!" Cornfield is inching away from her until he felt her yanking his tail.
"Oh, no, you bucking don't. Stay still and take it like a stallion." Without warning, she rubbed the cloth on his wound.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" His cries echoed down the cave as he could hardly contain his tears. "Ooooooooh, you BITCH! Ah!" Realizing what he just said, he covered his mouth with both of his hooves.
After a moment of rather awkward silence, Coral asked "...What was that?".
"Nothing! It just...really hurt was all! I swear!"
"Do you want this chisel to go back in?"
Instinctively, he put his rear down to the ground and covered it with his tail. "No! It was nothing! Really!"
"Put that back up, I'm not done! I need to apply the bandage." Unwrapping a sterile bandage, Coral cleanly covered up his sore rump. "Whew. That's over."
"Aaaah..." Cornfield stood back up and stretched his legs. "Ok, that wasn't so bad... I'm ready to keep going!"
"I'm glad you like looking at my business end," she said as she put the chisel and first aid kit back in her bags and put them over her. "I've seen about as much as I could take of yours..."
"...Ouch..."
"Sorry. I'm being harsh, aren't I?" she sighed and she lightened up a bit more to him. "It's just that, what you suffered isn't the worst I've seen or even endured..."
"No," he said as he turned to reassure her. "It's just the...disinfectant. There's a mild sting left. But, I'm ok now." After careful reflection on how he was treated and how he treated her, he finally said "Thank you, Coral".
"Hm. You're welcome..." With her left claw, she pointed to a spot on her right foreleg. "I should tell you the story how I got one of my scars. That's a doozy."
"Ugh. Mares." he scoffed as he thought to himself. "They talk and they talk and won't shut the buck up!"
He sat down on his bandaged rump. "Ok." he said to let her tell it him.
"No, no, walk with me." Coral walked around him. "Get that pressure off your hindquarters. We might as well make progress."
"Oh." He quickly got up and walked alongside her. "So, tell me... What happened?"
"So, when I was exploring one of the ruins in the Badlands, where I found the old map that leads us to the four Gems of Creation, I came across another pony that was hunting the same thing..."
"Oh really...?" He leaned in a bit closer "Was she cute?"
"It was a stallion." She slightly pushed him away. "Rugged. Matted mane. Seemed to know a thing or two about raiding ruins. His name is Dr. Caballeron..."
"Oh wait. I've heard of him..." He thought back to the Daring Do books he used to borrow before Twilight kicked him out of the library for good. "But I thought he was a fictitious character..." He pauses "...Is Daring Do real? Hmmmmmm...She must have an amazing ass!"
"He and I were in a hotel. Then, he noticed me and vice versa. I saw he was the usual explorer." She brushed her claws through her feathery mane and shook it around. "And, I thought it would be fun to sweet talk him to getting the information I needed to get inside the temple."
As Coral was talking, focusing on him while they were trekking through the rest of the cave, Cornfield's eyes drifted upwards towards the sunlight pouring from the exit. "We share some drinks to loosen his lips, and I try to prod him with a few questions," she continued. "But..." She sighed and hung her head slightly low. "I got careless and asked one too many questions... Out of nowhere, his thugs come out to harass me. I took them down, no problem, but the bastard was able to dig a dagger into my right foreleg in the confusion."
No longer looking at Cornfield, she didn't notice that he had stopped completely when he stepped out of the cave. Instead, she kept walking slowly with her mind drifting elsewhere. "I cried out, as the hotel staff were alerted of his actions," she rambled. "He ran away like the coward he was, and he even managed to get ahead of me. I had such a hard time catching up to him on land..." She lifted her head and laughed. "But he forgot that I had wings, unlike earth ponies. So, needless to say, I'M the one with the map. Not him!" Before continuing her gloating, she noticed that she was alone and turned to face her companion. "Cornfield?"
He stood in awe, gazing at the ancient splendor ahead of him. "Coral...look."
Circling around, she was surprised to have completely missed the fact that they had made it to the ruins. She backed up to join him as they gazed at the environment.
"Coral..." he said. "...It looks like nopony's been here...for...thousands of years!" As Coral had said, the mountain sides completely surrounded the area, with trees on the top of the cliffs letting out spots of sunlight. The temple ruins were caked in moss, fallen prey to the abuse of time. Its structure was held up by carved stone columns that were cracked and seemed like they were willing to give out at any moment. There were large, imposing statues of one ominous-looking stallion. An alicorn, but one with four wings instead of two on each side of the temple entrance.
"We're here..." she said while taking the environment in."The Heart of Nature is somewhere deep inside that temple..."
"You don't suppose..." He eyed the temple's structure up and down, gauging its age. "This is where some ponies once lived before the EUP? ...Before...Equestria?"
Staring at the ruins, she considered the fact that these ruins were here well before the reign of Celestia and Luna. "Yes... It seems so... Before the three tribes ruled as one. Way before that, in fact." Coral walked closer towards one of the two statues places at each side of the door. "And... that stallion..."
"Oh...?"
The statue of the stallion alicorn with four wings had a beard of vines, a mane of fire, wings of water, and a horn of jagged, but smooth crystal. "That's an impressive piece... That might be their god..." speculated Coral.
"Hey, check that out!" Cornfield shouted out as he ran up to the wall of the temple. "Look at these markings! They don't look like wear and tear..." Delicately brushing his hoof on the wall, he found that there were many cuts and holes in the stone wall. "...I think there was once a fight here..."
"A fight? Let me see..." she replied as she walked over to observe the wall with him. While she was studying what weapons may have caused these marks, Cornfield looked around the columns and steps leading towards the door. There were a lot more battle scars to be found.
"A very BIG fight!" he exclaimed.
Coral stood in silent observation. This amount of damage wasn't just a fight. "A war. Not surprising... This place must still hold some treasure left inside that were sought out..."
"But wait...something's amiss..." Cornfield carefully examined both statues of the alicorn.
"Oh? What do you mean?"
"The statues are fully intact..."
Wanting to double check, she approached the statue as well. She brushed her claws against it and checked for any residue. "Not only intact, but...Untouched by moss..."
"If there was some kind of war here, and it really seems like there was some sort of last stand...why in Equestria are the statues in the best shape possible?"
Coral quietly walked around the statue and looked into its white glaring eyes for a minute."Not gonna lie, I'm creeped out..."
"Yeah...this is really weird. I have this feeling like we're not supposed to be here at all, and I know what that's like!"
"And yet," Clenching her fist and looking down at it, she gathered her determination. "I intend to press forward. The Heart of Nature, The Eyes of Fire, The Mind of Water, and the Breath of Life... Four gems, when gathered, make its collector a super being." She closed her eyes, keeping her goals focused in her mind. "When that happens, there won't be any wars. I'll make sure of it."
"Well, let's make it quick ok! I don't know how much I can take of this place!" The colt stopped and slowly faced Coral, who was looking back at him. "Hold up...a 'Super being'?"
"Yes. That's what it said in the ancient texts..."
"...But why would you want that?"
"I want to be that..." she placed her claws on her chest. "So no creature lives the way that I did."
Cornfield pondered to himself with concern as he walked towards the entrance. "I wonder if this place is starting to get to her?"
Surveying their surroundings, the duo proceeded together further inside the ruins. Coral noticed that the main hall was filled with broken down support beams. The only ones intact are barely holding the place together. "I feel like the slightest touch can make this structure crumble on top of our heads..." she thought aloud.
He gasped! "Really?!"
"Well, it feels like it..."
"I'm just hoping we can nab that Heart of Nature before something happens to us!"
"Also, I know this sounds strange but..." Coral looked above her to see vines tangling from the columns up to the ceiling. "The plants seem to be holding the place together."
"I can see daylight through the ceiling, Coral." Instinctively, he covered his head with one of his hooves as they progressed. "If this place is losing bricks by the dozen, I don't think it's safe to be here."
"Yeah, I know, but..." She noted how the vines created a weblike pattern across the ceiling.
"The vines up there are so thickly intertwined..."
Cornfield uttered a simple "Hmmmm" as Coral moved ahead. At the end of the main hall, straight across from the entrance to the temple, there's a stone door and a plaque with ancient writing along the adjacent wall.
"Oh," shouted Coral "An inscription!" While Cornfield excitedly galloped to her side, she observed the writings. "Just as I thought... This is old, old, OLD, Ponish language..."
He leaned closer, trying to read it before giving up. "...I can't understand this. I may be a pony but-"
"Thankfully," she interrupted while shuffling her claws in her bag. "I know what to do in a situation like this..."
"Oh, have you?"
She pulled out a small translation booklet, glancing sharply at Cornfield, who was looking at her bag curiously. "Before you think it, no. I don't have a magical bag of holding. This is the last thing I have that's stored away."
"Pfffft! Whatever!" he huffed, as Coral flipped through the pages of the booklet, trying to make sense of the writing on the plaque. "And? what's it say?"
"Hold on.... Hold on..." She stated as she frantically flipped through more pages. "This is REALLY old dialect... I'm only getting bits and pieces..."
"Hopefully, something about where the Heart is right?
"Ok... This is my best translation...." She extended her claw to the plaque and read each word she could understand one-by-one. "Lose... Smell... Lose... Senses... Deceived...."
"Yes, yes?"
"Lose... your smell? Lose... your senses...." She scratched her head, wondering if she was correct. "And... deceived. That's my very best guess. That's all I can get out of it." She put her translation book away.
"WHAT?" Cornfield yelled out, stomping his hoof. "THAT'S ALL WE HAVE TO GO BY? WHAT THE BUCK!"
She winced away from him as his echoing shouts rang in her ears. "Don't yell. I'm sure there's more, but that's the most I can translate..."
"Oh, great!" he sarcastically pouted, throwing his forelegs up into the dusty air. "Don't smell, don't sense, and deceived. What a find!"
"It's a clue!" she snapped back at him. "And any help we get out of it will help us!" Her eyes slowly panned to the imposing way inside. "Probably with what's going on behind that door..." |
The Gems Of Creation: Part 1 | 1-5: The Three Trials | Chapter 1-5
Cobalt Coral and her stallion companion, Cornfield, stared dumbfounded at the inscription on the plaque beside the large, intimidating stone doors. The confused hippogriff read to herself again and again to try and better understand the cryptic message. "Lose smell. Lose senses. Deceived." she repeated. "I can't seem to wrap my talon around what this means..."
Impatiently, Cornfield paced around behind her, growing more anxious every second. "Yeah, well, I'm starting to grow a beard here. How much longer?"
Coral glared behind her, increasingly sick of the whining since they arrived at the doors. "Huh. Well. All right. If you are so impatient..." Moving out of the way, she motioned her claws for him to either put up or shut up. "You go first."
With a heavy sigh, he approached the doors with whatever collected vigor he had. "Fine. Here I go!" Taking a deep breath and puffing his chest out, he placed both hooves on each door and pushed as hard as he could. He struggled to shove them open wide enough to walk through but, with a grunt, he slid them as far apart as he could muster. Without even remotely heeding the plaque's warning, he fearlessly marched forward as Coral watched from behind to see what would happen as he continued onward.
The corridor ahead was filled with vines and budding pink flowers that shivered in Cornfield's presence. Before he knew what hit him, they slowly opened their petals and blasted their sickly sweet smelling pollen in his face, causing him to choke and gag. "Aaah!" he yelled. "What the buck?!" He looked at the rest of his body as the pollen stuck to his fur. "What...is this?"
"Cornfield?!" Coral cried out, thinking the worst had happened to him. Perhaps the flowers had made it so they would have him propagate more of those pink flowers inside him. Maybe they poisoned him to slowly perish? However, the pollen didn't have any damaging effects. All that happened to him, after being blasted, was he couldn't smell anything but the sweet scent of flowers. At the end of the corridor, he saw a large room filled with a floral paradise, from the ground to the walls, of color and magnificence.
He hesitated from entering the room, as he didn't want to yet disturb the natural beauty. "Ooooooooooooooo." he marveled in awe before seeing a massive flower the size of a king-sized bed. It beckoned him to come closer with it's soft looking petals and center. "Hey! Check that out!"
"Check what out?!" she called back. He didn't respond and had begun to edge ever so closer. "Cornfield?" Not wanting to wait before anything irreversible happened, she dug through her saddle bag and pulled out the towel she used to treat Cornfield's chisel wound. She then wrapped it around her beak and tied it around her head securely.
Cornfield curiously walked toward the flower, uttering a single "...whooooa..." The hippogriff shadowing him successfully managed to pass by the pink flowers without smelling the pollen, thanks to the towel covering her nostrils. When she passed through into the room on the other side and unwrapped the towel, a heavy stench hit her hard!
"BLECH! This garden reeks... It smells like dead fish in here!" Indeed, the garden was full of plant-life, but nearly all of them were dead and rotting with flies buzzing around.
"Yeah, but... look at the flower!" he said in a hypnotic trance.
"What flower, there isn't any--" She screamed in horror when she saw the giant, spotted flower in the middle of the room. Its petals were decorated with razor-sharp teeth, awaiting somepony foolish to approach it. Somepony like a certain careless colt. "CORNFIELD! DON'T GO ON THAT FLOWER!"
"What? It's just... a pretty flower." Cry as she might, Cornfield was blind to the danger ahead. He wandered close enough for the mighty carnivorous plant to chomp on its prey! By dumb luck, the unevenly spaced teeth missed him by a hair, but he was still trapped between the folded petals and couldn't get out no matter how much he struggled.
"NO!"
"HAYULP!" his shout muffled inside the flower. "GET ME OUT OF HERE! I DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN ALIVE!"
Without hesitation, she galloped over and grabbed his tail in her talons. She started to pull as hard as she could, but time was against her as the digestive acids forming inside the flower's bud were nearly rising to his level. "I'm sorry! But this is the only way to GET. YOU. OUT."
He couldn't quite hear her, but the tugs on his tail were a clear indication of her assistance. "HURRY!" In the nick of time, she managed to pull him out with an audible pop! He ended up landing right on Coral as they crashed into each other from the force of his escape.
"OOF!"
Dazed and confused with the pollen's influence wearing off, Cornfield shook his head. "Ugh," he groaned. "What happened..."
"Gff yrrr aff ovv muh fcce."
"Huh? What was that? Coral, are you hiding from me or something?" He laid back as he looked for the source of the sound, putting more weight in his seat.
"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPH!!!"
The angry bird-mare hybrid from underneath shoved him aside onto the dead grass and gasped in an attempt to breath again, only for the smell of the dead plants to choke her again. "BLECH!" she coughed. "I don't know what suffocates me more: the garden or your ass!"
"Uh...why were you..." It then donned on him what occurred. Blushing, he got up from the dead grass and looked around for an exit. "Nevermind. Let's hurry up and get the Heart... thing! I've just about had enough of here!"
"Right." she agreed as she got up and brushed herself off. "Now do you see why I take my time with these things?" They both walk around the large carnivorous flower slowly. On the other side
of the garden, across from the corridor where they came from was another set of stone double doors.
"Hey, it's not my fault..." He paused as he looked at the next set of giant stone doors.
"But this time, you first... Ok?
"Fine!" She scoffed at him before digging in her bags and shoving her translation book forcefully in his hooves. "You want to read the inscription? There's another plaque, just like the one before." Turning her back on him, she sulkingly focused her attention on the door instead of looking at him. "Have fun!"
He opened the book and flipped through its pages randomly to get an idea of what to expect on how to translate the Ancient Ponish writings. "I should warn you I don't read these kinds of books."
"Fine, whatever. I just want you to get an idea of how hard it is."
"Uhh...let's see what it says." Identifying the first few symbols and committing it to short-term memory, he frantically turned each page until a few recognizable letters revealed themselves to him. "...T...T...Tea... Something about tea?"
"Tea?" Coral asked, cocking her head and looking bewildered. "Am I going to meet a rabbit and a stallion with a strange hat on the other side of that door?"
"Hold on...Lie...Lie...Mmmmmm..." He browsed the book some more, trying to make sense of the nonsense of letters and words that jumbled in his head. However, after putting enough of the pieces in place, something clicked in his brain. "Oh! Ok, ok... I think I got it. 'Tea away'... something...'reveal light...in...?' Or maybe it means to 'tear' something off...?" He looked back at Coral, who only just shrugged and motioned him to keep piecing it together. "Hmmmmm... 'Tear... away something to reveal light in...?'"
After hearing enough to get a good idea on where to get started, she removed her saddle bag off her back and placed it gently on the ground. "I will leave this here. Watch close. If anything happens to me, I hope to have you right behind me using whatever I have brought."
"Oh yeah! Gotcha!" He said with a smile before putting his nose back in the book. "Hmmmm... I wonder what's it supposed to mean?"
She planted her claws on the stone door and pushed. Although she was bigger than Cornfield, she wasn't physically stronger, so it took more effort to get it open than before. He barely contained a chuckle looking at her from the corner of his eye. "Oh, and before you get any bright ideas, no, you don't get my stuff if something happens to me," She blurted. Without giving him a chance to protest, she walked down the corridor, into the subtle darkness.
Cornfield got a hunch about something, and he shouted out to Coral, who was already deep inside the hallway. "Coral? Do you have anything we can use as light?"
"There's a lantern in my knapsack." she shouted back. "I'm keeping it there until I call you to bring anything to me." Proceeding down the corridor, she found the hallway to be a narrow walk until she bumped into something soft deeper in the darkness. "Huh?!" stymied, she felt around with her claws. There, a small tapestry hanged on the wall. "Did I hit a dead end already? I was only walking a straight line... right?" Upon closer examination of the cloth, it appeared worn and faded. It clearly has seen better days.
"Are you alright in there, Coral?"
"Yeah! I just... Didn't think that this room would be just a path leading to nothing!"
"I-I think you need to...press...something..." he chimed in, thinking back to all the adventure books he read before. "Do you see anything that might be a switch?"
"No, but..." She scratched her head as she thought about the clue given to her before. "Tear... away? Revealing light?" With bestial ferocity, she dug her claws in the tapestry and shredded it down into ribbons, revealing a small hole that looked like something could fit inside, large enough to insert a container of some sort. She tried her best to peer inside the cavity, despite the limited visibility. "Is this... a mechanism of some kind... " Looking around her proximity, she tried to find something to stick into the hole. Yet there was nothing, leading her to briefly put her foreleg in it. "Ugh, no, I'd be crazy if I stuck my claws in that. But there's got to be something..."
"Found it yet?" Cornfield called down the hall, but Coral was too preoccupied with the puzzle in front of her. Worried, he thought to himself "Maybe I should check on her". So he put on her saddlebags, and proceeded to accompany her. "ALRIGHT, CORAL! I'm coming!"
"Cornfield!" She shouted back. "Don't do anything stupid! Use the lantern!" Halting at her advice, he fished out the lantern from her bag, and lit it to guide his way down to Coral's position. "Hmmm. Am I thinking TOO hard about this?" she thought.
"Heeeeey...what's this?" He said, discovering shredded fabric and the hole behind it.
"Did you bring my bag with you?"
"Yeah! Why did you leave it behind?"
"I didn't think it would be needing it! I left it with you just in case!"
"Anyway, I gotta say..." Cornfield held the lantern up to Coral's face. The light from it brought her attention towards it. "This is a very nice lantern you have here!" Coral stared into the flickering flame inside the lantern as gears started turning in her head. "Did you 'borrow' it from somepony?" he asked, smiling with a discerning eye.
"May I see that lantern?" she requested, pointing at it.
"Oh, sure!"
"Thanks. And no, I didn't steal it." Swiping it from his hoof, she gently placed the lantern into the hole. A subtle click resounded from inside as a rumbling noise echoed from above. Coral stepped back, afraid of what might happen next. "Ooooooh no, what did I do...?" Fortunately for them, the worse the rumbling led to was a circular plate descending in front of where the lantern was placed. It was segmented into three circular layers - inner, middle, and outer - and had various holes embedded in each layer. The two approached the discus carefully.
"Uh...Coral?" Cornfield tapped it with his hoof to make doubly sure it was safe. "What is this?"
Reflecting back on her previous heists, she realized that this particular puzzle was nothing new to her. "Ooooh, I've seen this before. I think I can rotate the layers on the plate. Maybe I can make some sort of image with the lantern's light on the wall if I do it correctly..." She attempted to move the outer layer around to test her hypothesis. Sure enough, they can rotated.
"I don't see any rhyme or reason behind this, Coral." He looked around the disc and examined the lamp behind it, trying to figure out how an idea that can help them further.
"It's simple. I just gotta guess what exactly the image is supposed to be. Let's see." She rotated each of the layers to try and align the holes and make some sort of image, but she's only guessing at this point. "Hmm, maybe if... No, but... maybe..."
"Is there some sort of secret we missed that can help us?" He walked back to Coral's side to spectate her work.
"Not that I saw... This is pure trial and error and it's frustrating me more than it should. I know there's a pattern here." She looked at her handiwork again, pushed her talon across her beak in irritation, and stepped away. "But an image of what, I have no clue..." She stared at the image intensely while Cornfield observed her. He wanted so badly to be the absolution of the puzzle but didn't have a clue either. Yet, like finding the right puzzle piece to fit into place, she noticed a particular pattern. "I got it!" Excitedly, she toiled to finish what she started and put the layers of the disk into proper place. Once they all became aligned, there was a resounding click.
"Cornfield! Look at the wall behind us! Let's see what image the light is making to pierce that darkness!"
Intrigued, he looked at the dots of light along the walls, creating a familiar image. "Huh...a unicorn's horn. Go figure!"
"Hmm," Coral pondered. "The first room was a large garden, an inherited talent of earth ponies. And now, we have a unicorn, and the idea of it casting light in the darkness... Could that mean-"
The wall where the lantern was inserted rumbled and slowly shifted upwards with the sounds of scrapping stone, revealing a grand room beyond with stairs leading up to another set of stone doors. The completed disc had also lifted itself up, giving the two unrestricted access forward.
"Oh! Finally...-wait..." Cornfield looked up the stairs and gazed at the doors in disbelief. "Aww, again?!"
"Ah, of course..." Coral added while massaging the sides of her head with her claw. "It's always a rule of three with these temples..." Suddenly, a harsh realization snapped in her brain as she slammed her claw back on the stone floor. "HEY, DID THE WALL JUST TAKE MY LANTERN WITH IT?!?!"
Cornfield couldn't help but snicker at her misfortune. "I think it was actually meant for torches."
Growling and stomping her right claws on the stone floor, Coral was almost dead set at tearing the temple brick by brick to get what she lost back. "SHOOT! That was favorite lantern!" Air blasted in and out of her nostrils, but she managed to cool herself off a little bit after thinking about what she came her for. "...I suppose The Heart of Nature is a good trade-off for this."
"...Uhhhhhhh, you gonna be ok, Coral?" Uttered the colt.
Once she fully got her mind together, although she was still muttering obscenities under her breath, they scaled the steps to the stone door. "So," as if to challenge her. "What do you suppose is next, Coral?" He glanced slightly behind him to see her lagging behind. "Uh...Coral?"
Snapping out of it, she shook off her loss completely. "Yeah, I'm all here now. I know The Heart of Nature is worth it, but I just don't like being cheated out of what's mine. And no, the irony isn't lost on me." Suddenly, she stopped herself in the middle of the steps, lost in thought again. "Hey..." she said sheepishly. "I... want to ask you something."
"Oh?" Cornfield turned to face her. "What was that?"
"So..." She hesitated while brushing her claws through her feathery mane, a habit which he has caught on to. "I've shared with you my dream. Getting the four gems... But you know..." She stared into his eyes, showing genuine concern in her own. "I never got ask what your dreams really were. Surely, it's not to stick close to someone like me as she risks her life to raid temples, right?"
He didn't expect that kind of question at a time like this. Rubbing one of his forelegs nervously, he turned his head away. "Uh...No, not quite like that. I'd say my dream is more like-" He stopped himself before he said any more. "Ah...Never mind."
"Oh, come on. Don't give me that." She said as she approached casually to him. "You can't just lead with something like that and not finish your thought." Even so, he continued to look downward, embarrassed about what was on his mind. Coral sighed and shook her head. "Look, I know that we're both here for our own selfish purposes. But, if we're going to continue working together, I want to know more about my partner."
"Ahhh...Well..." He looked her in the eye and summoned the courage to just say it. "I just hope, maybe one day, females will start to notice me more." Saying what he needed to say, he went back to staring at one of the steps and drawing circles on its surface with his hoof.
"Yeah?" Coral placed a single talon lightly on his head and pushed it back. "And what exactly am I to you? I don't know if you've been getting tunnel vision lately, but you got a female noticing you now." She climbed a couple more steps ahead and turned again to face him. "And besides, even if you get a bunch of mares to notice you, fight over you even, what then?"
Mentally forced into a corner, he stomped his hoof as he faced her. "Well then, maybe I wouldn't feel like a friggin' ghost SOMETIMES! Maybe I'd feel like there something to admire about me! Or maybe, just maybe, I CAN GET LAID!"
"ACK!"
Realizing what he just said, he covered his mouth with his hooves as Coral reeled back with one of her forelegs lifted defensively. At first, she's shocked, but realized who she's talking to. She relaxed herself and proceeded to offer her shoulder to cry on. "You feel alone, don't you?" He said nothing, leaving her to really question what was aching him. "If it makes you feel better, Cornfield, there is one thing I do admire about you." He looked up into her eyes. "Once you have your sights on something, nothing short of death will stop you from getting it. If you really wanted to, you could accomplish great things with the right mindset. Maybe you haven't seen the good that does because you spend all that energy on a more negative outlook... A selfish end goal..."
"You admire that I'm selfish?!" Cornfield shouted, completely missing the point.
Her brows heightened, shocked by his reaction. "NO! That's-!" She sighed, closed her eyes, and grunted a flustered noise from the side of her beak. "No. That's not it. I'm saying that you spend so much energy with your good traits towards a short-lived and foolish end goal." She lifted her claws to his face and counted down each talon for what he had. "Tenacity.... Persistence... Determination..." She put her claws down. "You have that quality in you that drives you to not quit."
"So, what you're saying is, you appreciate my foolishness? Real good complimenting, Coral!" He motioned his hoof anxiously toward the plaque. "Just hurry up and read it. I want to go home and take a nap."
Her faced strained to contain her anger and, instead, it failed to do so. She latched her talons into the scruff of his chest and forcefully pulled him towards her, putting her beak to his snout. "LISTEN TO ME, YOU PETTY LITTLE COLT!" Her shout echoed down the halls and off the walls. "You do have good traits to you, but it's clear to me that YOU don't have the maturity to realize them! So, when something goes wrong, what do you do?! You wallow in self-pity instead of learning to improve yourself!" She freed one of her claws and pointed right at his face while he stared back in horror. "Is that how you want to live the rest of your life? Because I swear to both Princess Celestia and Queen Novo that it will NOT go well for you!"
She was breathing heavy, glaring at him, but a single tear was rolling down her cheek, too. After letting go of him, he slightly cowered away from her. "Ok...ok...I'm sorry...I'll be better, ok?" He never thought he could have some creature like her cut to the bone with her words, and he didn't want to make her resort to other measures. "Uhhhhh...So..." he asked meekly. "Can you please do something about this plaque?"
She breathed in deep, calming herself down and easing her mind. Once her eyes were dry again, she cleared her throat. "Yes." she said, focused on what's in front of her now. "Yes, I will... But..." She pointed in his direction as she climbed towards the door. "Don't think this is over. Once we are done here,I'll teach you what it means to be a stallion, even if it kills me." Once she was in reading distance of the plaque, she pulled out her trusty translation book again and flipped through its pages. "It's the least I can do before I set out for the next gem."
With a sudden gulp, Cornfield could only imagine what she might do. "...I just hope it doesn't kill me." As he peeked around her shoulder curiously.
Piecing together each word she found one by one through the pages of her book, Coral read aloud what was on the plaque. "One... set... of wings.... stays... caged... trust... one another.... or... die..." Her pupils shrunk and her heart jumped to her throat when she read that last word.
"Oh." Cornfield blurted out. "...Shit..."
"Ooooooh, well, um...I... guess that mean it's... good that I came with a partner?" She tried saying with no confidence in her voice. "I mean... somepony's life is now on the line, but..."
"Are they expecting us to fly? Because I can't fly!"
Coral stood silent, steeling herself on what might be behind the door. "That's not a problem for you, Cornfield. The plaque said that one set of wings stay caged..." She unfurled her large wings to further emphasize her point. "I'm the one with wings, so..." Folding them back down again, she struggled to push the door open. "No time like the present. I'm going all-in on this one..." Once the way was wide enough, she boldly continued forward.
'W-wait for me!" He cried out, and followed her closely. The room they entered in consisted of a narrow stone bridge, stretching from where they came in to straight across a large chasm. In the middle of the bridge was a circular path that surrounded a large cage hanging off a rusty chain. To the north, south, east, and west side of the cage were levers on the path that could be pulled. "I'm starting to think this was ethier to filter out the 'unworthy' or some architect's bad idea of a joke..."
Looking under the bridge, Coral could see that the cage seemed to descend into a hollow well, leading through a sea of thorny vines thrashing and writhing underneath. The thorns were also furiously squirting what seemed to be deadly acid from the tips. Coral gulped a bit at the sight.
"Uhhh... Don't worry, Coral." he said. "I won't get myself into danger this time..."
She walked over to the cage and stuck her head inside to get a better look. There were two open shackles hanging off the bars to her left and right. Carefully, she stepped inside to inspect them in better detail. She tried to close one of them with nothing inside it. It won't stay shut. As the only option, she put one of her forelegs in a shackle. Same as before, it refused to stay shut. "According to what the plaque said," she thought, "It's asking for a set of wings to stay inside this cage. I wonder if they are magically enchanted to accept only wings..." She gulped again, looking down at the well underneath through the iron bars. "I don't think you have to worry about being in danger, Cornfield." She cautiously stepped out of the cage and joined him in walking around the circular road.
"Wow, this is a little too perplexing for me," He said while passing by and examining the southernmost lever.
"Indeed... I don't know exactly what this expects us to do, but I think I know the first step."
"Can't we just walk past this bridge to the other side?"
This was a good question that didn't cross her mind until Cornfield asked it. She looked across only to find that the the stone door leading forward had an iron gate blocking it. "Not with that in the way..." Turning around, her curiosity got the best of her as she pulled the lever. The cage dropped like a stone, startling them both.
"Whoa, what did you do, Coral!?"
"Testing what I'm going to be up against..." They waited until the cage slowly lifted itself up out of the well. The puddles of acid covering it dissolved and evaporated with a loud sizzling sound.
"Hmmmm..." Cornfield let out a sarcastic hum. "Well, that's not intimidating at all! I wonder what the end game is here?"
"Seems pretty simple to me." She pointed to each of the levers as she continued talking. "These levers are here for a reason. I'm willing to bet my gem collection that it's probably the order to which they are pulled the decides if we progress. Pull the right ones, we go through." The crests on her head drooped as she imagined the pain of all that acid splashed on some creature at once. "Pull the wrong one... Well, I hope you enjoyed my company..." She desperately surveyed around the cage, the bridge, the levers, anything for a clue.*
"So," he scratched his head trying to figure this out. "How do we find the right order?"
"I'm not sure and there's no obvious answer... yet." Without a second thought, Coral circled around and climbed back inside the cage.
"Wait!" Cornfield cried out, rushing to the cage door. "What do you think you're doing?!"
The troubled hippogriff turned and stared back him with a sorrowful expression. "You know, Cornfield... When we apologized and reconciled back at your house, I told you that I trusted no one. It was me against the world." Lifting her claw, she pointed out towards his position. "But you? You told me that there's good in every pony, and maybe every creature... It's time to put your money where your mouth is. Show me that I should believe in you, despite everything we've said and done."
Panicking and confused, Cornfield frantically looked around, wondering what he missed to have her doing this. "Wha? What are you saying?" He reached his hoof out to her. "Dammit, Coral, DON'T DO THIS!"
"Listen close!" Coral shouted in a commanding tone. "I have a feeling that I'll need you to stay here to pull these lever while I'm in this death trap. The plaque says I should trust you, so that's what I'm going to do.
"B-But, I don't know the answer!"
She paused and sighed. Meekly, she whispered "Neither do I". Taking the shackles, she closed them around the base of her wings. As she surmised, they were enchanted as the magic surged through her each time they sealed shut. She grunted in pain as the cage very slowly descended into the darkness. "But... we don't win if we don't try..." As she watched herself slowly sinking down into the well, she thought to herself more about the situation she's in. "Ok... Hopefully, that was enough of a morale-boosting speech... Hopefully, that will put his head in the game... for my sake... Oh gosh, I might die here..."
"No!" He still attempted to reach out for her as her head lowered to hoof level. "Don't do this! We can come up with an alternative!"
"Focus!" she snapped back at him. "We already started. We can't turn back now!" She lost sight of Cornfield as she delved further down, with nothing but stone masonry all around her. But, just before she was convinced that she ran into this trap headfirst with no way out, she passed by some arrows etched into the bricks in front of her. Fate smiled on her. "AH HA!" she cried out. Ok, listen to me! I found the answer!"
"Huh? Really?! What is it?"
"Ok! Do you know which is north? That's in the direction of the iron-gated door!" She quickly double-checked the arrows before they disappeared from view. "Pull the north, then left lever! Hurry! But, try not to slip and fall off the bridge!"
"Ok!" He's about to take a step before doubting her words. "Wait! Are you absolutely certain?"
"Yes! Trust me! North and west! Upper and left! HURRY!" Beads of sweat dripped down her face. "Don't second guess me!" She thought. "My life is on the line here!"
"Alright!" Cooperated Cornfield as he ran to pull the north lever, then the west one. Each lever made the cage rumble with recognition. She winced with each sound of the lever being pulled. Fortunately, nothing bad happened yet.
"Oh!" she said with great relief. "Ok! Ok! Next is..." Her heart sank as she inhaled a sharp gasp. For instead of arrows, there were ancient texts etched into the stone. Frantically, she pulled the translation booklet out of her saddlebags and began translating as fast as she could. "Oh, no. No..." she cursed under her breath. "Uh... Opposites... Reversed?" She lost her cool as the words left her view. "UHHH...!"
"What?! What's going on, Coral?" As he cried out, he noticed the cage was going deeper in, getting closer to the toxic vines! "No!" he cursed to himself. "Come on, Coral! PLEASE!"
Coral worked through the message in her head, trying desperately to find the answer. "Uh... Opposite.... North? West? South and East... Reversed?" A light bulb went off in her head the moment she pieced it together. "CORNFIELD!" she shouted. "EAST AND SOUTH LEVERS!"
"Uhh...East...Oh! Facing right!" Without hesitation, he practically jumped for the eastern-most lever, and then reached for the south.
All the clicks startled her, but nothing happened yet. She was looking to the last hint, but it's on the last set of stone bricks. Underneath, all she could see was vines below her, reaching out to ensnare the cage. Her heart was racing as panic set in. She was staring death right in the eyes with nowhere to run. The clue was in ancient text again, so she frantically translated as fast as she could. "UM! UH! I...UH...!" she stammered, trying to piece it all together... "IT SAYS.... PATH... OF...SUN...SALVATION?!"
Completely misunderstanding the meaning, Cornfield laid down, put his hooves together, and muttered "Oh Celestia, thy name I bear, for I ask thine power to save thee. Oh Celestia, hear my prayer, Forein".
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?!" A droplet of acid hit Coral's hindleg, she let out a high-pitched screech as it burned her flesh. "CORNFIELD! THE PATH OF THE SUN! THINK!"
Startled by her screams, he got himself up and started racking his brain to save his fair maiden. "Uhh! Ummmm! Maybe...down? But how...?" The tips of the vines had reached the bottom of the cage. They worked their way upward, slowly entangling it.
"NO!" Coral shouted. "NOOO! GET AWAY! AAAAAAAH!" The vines were getting too close to her, spouting acid from their thorns. Then, as if the answer came to him in divine providence, Cornfield remembered which way the sun travelled in a day. He sprinted to hit the east and west levers as fast as possible. Coral put her talons over her eyes, anticipating the end. However, the cage stopped its descent suddenly, causing her to lose balance. Then, it began to ascend, slowly. "He..." she said with a pause, holding her chest with both claws. "...He did it..."
The vines lost their grip on the cage as it rose up the well into safety. Cornfield looked over the well's edge, watching the cage come closer. "Coral! Are you alright?!" The cage reached its peak as the shackles broke their own grip on her wings. She stumbled out, disoriented and a bit dizzy from the intensity of her latest brush with death.
She approached Cornfield until she was close enough, then she tucked her legs in and lied down where she was eye to eye with him.
"Cornfield..." she whispered weakly.
"...Uhhhhhhhh..." he responded back, pathetically.
She didn't know what prompted her to do it. Maybe because she saw her life flash before her eyes. Maybe it was overwhelming gratitude and wanted to pay her partner back. Maybe it was the fact that she did it simply for his reaction and still riding on the thrill. It didn't change the fact that she kissed him, right then and there, as she leaned in, opened her beak and surrounded his lips with it.
Cornfield froze, processing the spur-of-the-moment kiss he received. After all, he too, just went through an intense moment of his life. He's not even sure how they're still alive after what they've been through to survive the three trials of the perilous dungeon. |
The Gems Of Creation: Part 1 | 1-6: The Heart of Nature | Chapter 1-6
"What are you doing? What are YOU doing?! With HIM?!" Thoughts raced through the mind of Cobalt Coral as her beak locked on the lips of Cornfield. Although her eyes were closed and fixated at the moment, she couldn't help but mentally fight against why she commited to such an act. "Did the acid have some mind-altering effects? Is this why?!" She blanked out, before she begrudgingly accepted what she had done. "No... No, there's no other reason. You kissed him. You ACTUALLY kissed him. VOLUNTARILY!"
Meanwhile, Cornfield just sat there, dumbfounded over the fact that a lady had kissed him. Not on the cheek or on the hoof, but in the mouth. It was a new experience for the both of them. "Am I dreaming?" he thought to himself, "Oh, Luna, I hope I don't wake up to find out I had another wet dream..."
She broke off the kiss, forming a very thin strand of saliva tied between them before it arced downward, and stared into his eyes, almost in as much unbelief as he is. Blushing profusely, she cleared her throat and looked away. "And..." Her pride relied upon an excuse in the moment. "That's... what happens when... you show your... diligent and dependable side... to mares..." It was wishful thinking to hope he bought the moral lesson. However, he's still looking up to her in shock. "OK! LESSON OVER! I hope you learned something! I certainly did!" She laughed nervously as she brushed her mane with her talons.
"Uhhh... Is this really happening? I-I mean between the death staring us in our muzzles and you...!!!" Stopping himself before he became too hysterical, his body slowly leaned back until he found his hind legs laying on the stone floor. "I...I must sit down for a moment..." He didn't know how this happened, but it didn't stop him from smiling with his eyes closed.
Coral sat herself up after recovering enough strength from her perilous brush with death. From a distance, the iron gates opened to unbar the next set of stone doors ahead, revealing the way forward. But, she's not focused on that now. "Well, uh..." She struggled to string two thoughts together. "See, the thing is... I was... the one in the cage, having acid thrown at me, and then there was you... with my life in your hooves..." Lifting her foreleg up, she stared at the palm of her open claws. "That whole thing..." She clenched her beak and furrowed her brow as she banged her clenched claws on the stone bridge. "They made me feel... helpless..."
Not knowing what to say about Coral being in this certain mood, he paused to think of something comforting. "...This has been quite an experience, Coral... It's making us go through some really intense situations."
"I know... I'm just... Tired of being in situations like that... Being helpless... Trapped..." She hugged her forelegs around herself as her claws tightly clenched her shoulders. "Afraid."
Cornfield looked to the stone door ahead anxiously. He was so used to Coral being hot-headed and focused that he struggled when she opened up her softer side. Besides, he recognized that the temple ruins were hardly the place for a psychiatry session. "Ugh..." he groaned under his breath. "Do you think the heart is within reach now?"
Realizing that she still had a job to do, she dried her eyes and lifted herself off the floor slowly. "Y-yes... I believe so." She walked towards the doors and looked back at Cornfield, who was still contemplating the previous events. "Coming?"
Snapping out of it, he leapt to his hooves and pranced his way towards her. "Right behind you!"
They both approached the doors, wondering if there's yet another trial they must face. Thankfully, there was no plaque this time. Coral looked below her and detected a faint shimmering green light emanating from the crack under the door.
"This... Is this it?!" she shouted excitedly. Planting her claws firmly on the door, she pushed the door open with newfound vigor. The light trapped inside escaped through, blinding Coral with its brilliance. Meanwhile, Cornfield was still fawning over the new treasure he received, feeling his hoof on his mouth where he was kissed. He soaked up the feeling with him and was fully distracted from what was ahead.
Squinting until her eyes adjusted from the sight, she let out a slow and steady gasp, marveling what was inside. "Oh..." she uttered. "Oh my gosh...." A light from the ceiling casted down upon a large stone formation in the middle of the room, surrounded by and entangled with flowers and vines of many shapes and sizes. Firmly embedded in the middle of that stone was the fabled Heart of Nature, a large crystal as big as a pony's head and perfectly shaped like a heart to match its name. The sunlight reflected its brilliant green hue all around the room, Coral swore she saw sparkles twinkling around it.
The Heart's radiant light and visage was enough to even snap Cornfield out of his daydreams, as he slowly approached inside the room alongside his partner. "Hooooly mother of Celestia!" he exclaimed. Coral gingerly walked towards the center. She can feel the green, soft grass between her talons as she stepped closer, gulping down a lump in her throat as she gazed at the reflection of her face on the gemstone.
"This is it... This is The Heart of Nature..." The corners of her beak slowly raise into a wide grin. She'd dreamt about seeing one of the four gems for a long time, and now she's staring into its mystical glimmer. "We did it... It's so... beautiful..."
"Ha...aha...Hey! We finally got it!" exclaimed Cornfield as he could hardly believe they survived this long to make it as far as to see the gem themselves.
"We did..." A few tears of joy roll down Coral's cheek as they hit the grass. "We are one step closer to..." She reached out to pull it from the stone, but she hesitated at the last minute. Her claws began to tremor as her mind races. "...What are you doing? Take it. You went through Tartarus and back to get it. Take it. Take it. TAKE IT! REACH OUT AND TAKE IT!" Despite her best efforts, she's too afraid to move. "Cornfield..." she whispered.
"What's wrong? Is it cursed?"
"No..." Slowly, she put her talons down firmly back on the grass. "It's not cursed... I'm fine. I-I just... Am I doing the right thing?" Zecora's warnings echoed in her head, reminding her that the forest would surely and slowly wither without the Heart. "I want it. I REALLY want it... And yet..." She sharply turned her head to Cornfield, locked on to his face with scared and sorrowful eyes. Her beak hung slightly ajar, unable to say anything for a moment, before asking a very important question. "What do I do?" She leaned her head closer to his and asked again. "For Celestia's sake... What do I do?"
Cornfield stared back into Coral's eyes. At first, he was getting sick of how Coral was stopping to brood on and on before, during, and after the third trial on things that didn't matter to him. However, much like how Zecora's words coursed through Coral's mind, her request to guide the lost hippogriff in this unforgiving world rang loud in the back of his head. To see Coral plead to him to make the right call, to give her the right choice to make, welled up something deep inside. Right now, however, he was going to give her the push she needed to think for herself and establish her confidence again.
Faking a scoffing sound, he rolled his eyes and smirked at her. "Hey, if you want to go so far as come within inches of death just to turn back now..." he said as he looked her in the eyes. "Well, that's just STUPID! It's literally WITHIN YOUR GRASP!"
Coral reeled back and stared at him, wondering what she said for him to sound so callous. However, she knew deep down that he was right as her head nodded in agreement. "I know... I should... This is for my country..." She turned back to the gem and lifted her talons once more. "For me."
"I would not touch the gem if I were you." A familiar voice made Coral gasp as both she and Cornfield turned to face unwelcome company.
"Who said that?" asked Cornfield fearfully.
Her once surprised expression quickly turned into an aggressive one as Coral's brows lowered to a furrow. "Caballeron," she whispered.
Blocking their only exit was the infamous Dr. Caballeron, a rugged earth pony stallion with a golden skull cutie mark, a slick black mane and tail, a brown coat, and stubble on his chin. He looked back at Coral with a smug look on his face, while hooded hench-ponies approached from his left and his right, armed with crossbows strapped to the sides of their forelegs. The one on Caballeron's left was aiming its crossbow squarely at Coral's head. The other on his right was tugging on a rope, dragging the captured Zecora along with him. The poor zebra was forced against her will to follow with the rope bound around her neck and wrapped around the barrel of the thug to prevent her escape.
"Well, senorita," said Caballeron "It's good to see you've cleared the way for me to get The Heart of Nature much easier than expected. I admit, you gave me a headache when you took the map before we could, but we managed to catch up just fine."
"Uh oh..." uttered Cornfield as he slowly backed away from Coral a bit.
"Ahh, who is this? Another stallion won over by your charms, eh?" Caballeron let out a hearty, condescending laugh. "Ah, you break many a heart, Cobalt Coral."
"HEY! I'm not just some stallion!" Cornfield puffed out his chest with Coral quietly assessing the situation they were in.
The so-called doctor shook his head with a chuckle and gazed back at Cornfield. "Oh, sure, all stallions think that. But what does SHE do when she's done with them?" He motioned his hoof like he was throwing something behind him. "Trash them. Into the garbage they go. Face it, kid. You are a means to an end and nothing more to her."
"Oh really, Caballeron? Have you ever even been kissed by a girl?" Cornfield grinned smugly while Coral, surprised by his response, glared at him then groaned and covered her face with her claws.
"I had my share of sexy chicas. She and I are alike. We win with our charms and cunning. Your point?"
"Well..." Cornfield's eyes darted around to come up with a good answer. "I'll bet she never trusted you either! Ergo, it wasn't REAL! HA!"
Scoffing, Cabelleron waved him off. "Believe what you want, it makes no difference to me. On to business," He turned to Coral, who focused her attentions on him with a growing heart beat "My demands are simple. Step away from The Heart of Nature, and we all go home alive and happy. Refuse, and the zebra fertilizes the plants with her body."
"What should we do, Coral?" said Cornfield, concerned for the zebra's well-being.
Coral gulped with beads of sweat dripping down her face. She should have taken The Heart when she had the chance. Now, she's stuck with a difficult decision, one that brings more loss of life.
"We can't give up!" she thought to herself. "Not now! And he certainly must not possess such power! I know it's risky now, but giving up that stone would mean even greater risk!"
"What do you plan on doing with the stone, Caballeron?" Cornfield butted in once more.
Coral boldly took a step forward towards Dr. Caballeron. She's trying to show a sly smile, even though she's scared inside.
"Indeed..." she stated with false confidence. "The great Dr. Caballeron from Daring Do's tall tales never stooped to killing another creature before. What made you grow balls?" She sounded tough enough, but her head was repeatedly telling herself to stay strong. "Don't be scared. Don't show fear. Control the situation."
"It's not for me, amigos," the doctor clarified. "It's for a client of mine. And he specifically said that, no matter what I do, he'll cover my actions."
"Do something, Coral," Cornfield whispered in desperation. She glanced around, trying to find anything she could use. Her eyes spotted a statue of the ancient god's top half hanging on the wall above the entryway, right above her antagonist and his thugs. Its wings were spread and forelegs were rearing in pride. Unlike the statues outside, however, it was crumbling and cracked.
Leaning in, she whispered to Cornfield. "Find something here, anything, to make that statue fall on them. I'll work the negotiations. We need to give Zecora a chance to get out of the way."
"Ok," he whispered back.
Coral turned her attention back to Cabelleron, who was growing rather impatient. "I want Zecora first," Coral demanded. "If your intention is to kill, I would like to take her and move aside for you and your band of cutthroats to take the Heart."
"No!" shouted Zecora while being pulled back. "While I do not like this situation, I do fear that we are at an impasse here. Should the Heart fall to somepony's whim, I'd rather it be you than him!" Meanwhile, Cornfield was drifting away from Coral slowly, trying to escape every creature's notice.
"Rrrgh!" The hooded thug keeping Zecora captive groaned. "All she does is bloody RHYME! Will she do that all the time?" He stood silent over what he just said before putting a crossbow to Zecora's head. "I'll kill her! I'll kill this striped pain-in-my-ass, you hear me?!"
Coral was starting to fret, worried that the goon's hair trigger might end Zecora. She needed to put his attention to something else while Cornfield was slinking away, going behind the stone where the heart was kept. "Ok!" Coral shouted back, desperate to be as non-threatening as possible. "Ok! Look, you can have it! I'm making this clear. Let's not get hasty, my dear."
Both thugs were now pointing their bows at Coral. "Don't push me!" the crook shouted back. Stop your rhyming!" Behind the stone, Cornfield saw a broken hammer laying on the grass around loose bricks of masonry. He thought he could remove its head and throw it at the frail statue. However, he decided to wait for the opportune moment when Zecora was safe.
"Hey, ease up! I mean no harm," Coral snarked back. "I'm just a girl with good looks and charm."
"STOP!"
"Stop what? No need to yell or screech. Is there something wrong with my speech?" The thug was now itching to shoot Coral. Cornfield peeked around the stone, gauging the situation and hoping they don't end up shooting everypony.
"C'mon, Coral." Cornfield thought with his hooves trembling. "Get Zecora out of the way!"
"Aww, what's the matter? What did I do?" Coral said as she leaned in to further taunt the crook. "Go ahead and shoot, I dare you."
Unable to control himself, the criminal holding Zecora captive fired a warning shot at Coral. The bolt streaked by her and almost hit The Heart of Nature. "HEY! What are you doing?!" Caballeron shouted out. The henchpony, realizing he was temporarily defenseless, reloaded slowly. Taking her chances, Coral sprinted towards Zecora to pull her away from them, but not before the other henchpony fired a bolt in her direction. It hits its mark as the tip was buried in Coral's thigh.
"AAUUUUGH!" the hippogriff screeched as she pulled Zecora away further from Cabelleron's group. "Cornfield! Do it! NOW!"
Cornfield, with the head of the hammer in his hoof, chucked it at the statue with a good "Oooofmph"! Dr. Caballeron watched overhead as the hammerhead hit the statue. Pebbles falling from overhead warned him of incoming danger. He dived out of the way as the remains tumbled off the wall and onto his thugs, crushing them underneath the rubble with a crash.
Coral was relieved to find that both her and Zecora escaped the statue's destruction, but cursed under her breath when she discovered that Caballeron got out as well. She mustered her strength to walk towards the Heart while he was flat on the grass, but struggled due to the arrow in her side.
"Hurry! Get to the jewel!" shouted Zecora as she pointed her hoof towards the Heart. "Don't be beaten by that fool!"
"I got you, Coral!" shouted the eager colt as he ran to her aid. "Are you alright? I can remove it if you need me to." Caballeron shook his head and recovered from his dive from death. He glanced back at his knocked-out crew, but look ahead to the see the sacred jewel unguarded. Coral gasped as he's about to make a break for it.
"Don't worry about me!" Coral cried out. "Stop Caballeron!" She's limping slowly towards the Heart, entranced by its brilliant light calling to her.
Cornfield set his sights on Caballeron and galloped in full force to blindside him just before he reached for the jewel. Before the doctor knew it, he was shoved to grass and pinned to the ground by the intrepid young stallion. "Rrgh~!" the vagabond grunted. "You are playing a DANGEROUS game, amigo! You'd risk your life for some traitorous chica that would throw you away as soon as she's done with you?!"
In response, the brave but foolish colt shook his head with absolute refusal. "NO! She's my friend and she believes in what she's doing! And she's not a greedy dirtbag like YOU!"
"I know her better than YOU do, senior. She's strung you along in her many lies! Don't fool yourself!" Before Cornfield knew it, he endured a swift kick in the family jewels with Cabelleron's left hindhoof. The blow made him stumble off of the doctor and lose his balance.
"OOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!" All he could think to himself while doubling over in pain was "This guy's a bucking asshole!" Before he could recover from this humiliating blow, the dastardly Caballeron forced him down to the ground, pinning Cornfield down between his hind legs as he pulled out a dagger from inside his coat.
"If you want to die for her, then do so!" Cabellaron's victim screamed at the sight of the dagger about to be thrust into him, but their fight had interrupted when an explosion of light and a sudden yell from Coral startled the bad doctor from finishing the deed.
"KyyyaaaAAAAAAAAAH!" the poor hippogriff screamed.
"Ack!" cried out Cornfield, blinded by the light. "What's happening?"
The power of The Heart surged through Coral's front legs as she held it in her claws. Currents of energy travel through her entire body as her heartbeat increased in speed. Another flash of green light blinds the room. The hippogriff's eyes adjust from the blinding light, only to find The Heart was gone from her grasp, leaving behind only the indention where it once laid in the rock.
In the confusion, Cornfield leaned forward to shove the bewildered Caballeron aside and run close to Coral. The villain landed on the grass with a thud as he tumbled and lost his grip on the knife. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" her companion shouted.
"Yes, I'm fine..." she responded, facing away from him. "But... The Heart is gone!" She slowly turned to her partner as a glittering light sparkled from her chest. "I touched it, and it's gone!"
"Whoooa..." Cornfield stood in amazement gazing at the shining object. The glare was so strong that he couldn't make out what it was. "Coral... What's that?"
"It didn't disappear, Coral!" shouted Zecora, still bound in rope and tied to the unconscious body of her captor. "Your courage came through! The gem and its power is now in you!"
"What?" Coral shouted with a confused inflection. "What is she talking about, Cornfield?"
"How should I know?" he responded in a rush. "We need to get out of here NOW!" Before Cabellaron could respond to the events unfolding before him, Cornfield made haste to swipe his dagger off the floor and run to Zecora. Carefully, the colt cut the rope around her neck, liberating the zebra from her bonds. As he threw the rope aside, Coral slowly approached her friends, still wondering what exactly Zecora meant.
The twisted archeologist was none too pleased that the young stallion bested him and his arch-rival got away with The Heart before he did. "You fools!" he shouted angrily. "Get back here with my prize!" A single brick fell from above in front of Cabelleron, making him rear back in surprise. He, alongside of everypony else, glanced upward to find that the flowers and vines were starting to rot. The plants on the ceiling holding up the ancient structure were withering away, too. Soon, it would all come caving down over their heads. Another brick fell and landed by Cornfield to further emphasize this urgent message.
"Gah!" Coral shrieked. "What's going on?!"
Zecora motioned her hoof towards where they came in. "The Heart was keeping this temple intact!" she rhymed hurriedly. "We must leave and that's a fact!"
As more bricks came down around them, Cornfield let out a sharp yelp and pulled onto Coral's foreleg with his hooves, desperately getting her to move. "COME ON! RUN! GALLOP AS FAST AS YOU CAN!"
"Ah!" Coral gasped while she yanked her foreleg from him. "Ok! You've made your point, I'm coming with you!" The three climbed over the debris of the statue, still on top of Cabellaron's thugs, and got out of the room with dire speed. They galloped across the bridge over the thorny vines, which were also dying without the power of The Heart.
Breathing heavily and following behind Zecora and Coral, the panicking stallion called out to check up on his partner as they were running. "Coral, are you holding up ok?" he swiftly asked.
"Yes, I am!" she shouted behind her. "But I feel so-"
"No time for feelings! Let's get out of here before we're squished into haycakes!" All three of them shouted as a large chunk of the ceiling collapsed between them, taking out a large section of the bridge and making the way completely impassable on hooves. Cornfield was separated from the group and, to his horror, several bricks underneath him were falling out of the foundation and plummeting into the abyss below. Losing his balance and attempting to back up, he blurted out "Waah!? HELP ME!"
Coral immediately doubled back in distress after hearing her friend call for an S.O.S. "CORNFIELD!" she screamed.
More bricks underneath fell, he was running out of hoofing. In a split second, he decided that he would have to make a leap of faith now, or he would be too far away to make an attempt later. Steeling himself, he quickly braced his legs, held his breath, and ran to jump, leaping forward to reunite with them. His heart sank as he scrambled in the air, unable make it to the other side! "Coral, HAAAYULP!!!"
Coral extended her foreleg out from the edge of the bridge, reaching for him, yearning to catch him. Strangely, in an event that was as mysterious as it was fortunate, her claws changed color to forest green as her digits began to stretch out into vines. The vines extended and surrounded around Cornfield's barrel, somehow catching him and lifting him from certain death. "Wh-... WHAT?!"
"Don't let go and do not fear!" Zecora commanded Coral as she looked over the hippogriff's shoulder. "The Heart is reacting to save the one you hold dear!"
His heart beating a mile a minute, Cornfield dangled his legs and gulped, gazing down into the darkness below. "Ahh... C-Careful now, Coral!" he pleaded. "Try not to sneeze or anything! Just get me to safety like...anytime soon... I hope..."
"I don't even KNOW how I did this in the first place!" defended Coral as she thought of a way to bring him to safety. "If it reacted to me grabbing him like this, then... Maybe if I think about pulling him my way..." Slowly and carefully, she pulled the poor helpless colt towards her, as her vines shrunk shorter and shorter, before having him above stable hoofing. He reached for the ground, but found that she was still flabbergasted on what exactly happened, and still binding him.
"Uh, you can let go now?"
"Oh! Right..." The vines untangle and drop him down gently before turning back into her usual claws. She stared at her own talons for a few seconds. "That... That was freakish..."
"Yeah, I've just about had enough of Freaksville for one day! Er...no offense or anything!" A violent rumbling surrounded them as more of the temple fell apart. "Gah! I just wanna GO HOME!"
"RIGHT!"
Wasting no more time, the three resumed their escape, making it safely and speedily through the next few rooms. The temple could barely hold itself up for much longer as more loud destruction erupted behind them. For what seemed like eternity, they finally made it to the front hall, where they could see the sunlight pouring from the opened entrance leading out.
""There it is!" Coral shouted happily. "The exit!"
"Go! Go! Go!" Cornfield cheered on. "We're almost out!"
Zecora, Coral, and Cornfield passed through the entrance in the nick of time, as the ceiling inside the temple caved in completely. The three fell to the ground exhausted, catching their breath. They turned to survey the wreckage from a distance from which the clouds of dust and dirt settled, baffled to find that, somehow, the temple walls were still standing. The vined beards fell off the statues of the temple's god during the deafening rumbling and shaking of the earth, symbolizing that the Heart's power had completely left its dwelling sanctuary.
"We... we did it," Coral huffed and inhaled heavily. "We escaped..."
Cornfield rolled onto his back, even more short of breath. "Puff! Huff!... Ok!" he gasped, his voice severely raspy. "I've had about ENOUGH adventures for one week!" He stomped his hoof on the ground next to him. "I want to go home!"
"Yes... You really did pull your weight, though, Cor-!" Hissing, Coral could hardly finish her sentence without pain shooting to her thigh once more. "Ah! I forgot about the arrow in me... I think the adrenaline of escaping alive must have dulled the pain..." She strained to turn her body and face Zecora, who was also breathless from both travelling to the temple against her will and narrowly avoiding death. "Speaking of, where is the Heart, Zecora? You said it was in me," She pointed to herself. "Where in me?"
"Maybe...she means...it's...a part of...you?" Cornfield said between deep gasps of breaths.
Even though she was tired, Zecora couldn't help but let a strained laugh escape from her lips. "In a sense, but that's not right. The heart is still in plain sight." The wise zebra pointed to Coral's chest. Getting the hint, the hybrid carefully sat on her haunches and looked down towards her body. She discovered she did have the gemstone with her, but it was much smaller than its previous size and grafted into Coral's flesh. Dumbfounded, she tapped the gemstone to see if it was real. Then, she picked at it with her claw to see if it can be pried off. It can't. It's stuck on her chest, where her heart and The Heart were in sync. She stared in disbelief for a moment.
"UuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Coral screamed in fright at the top of her lungs.
Cornfield lifted his head off the grass in reaction. "Wh- Hey! What's wrong?" he asked, startled and confused.
"GET IT OUT! GET IT OOOOOUT!" Coral began to hyperventilate as her breathing increased the beat of her heart. The Heart of Nature responded to her heart rate with a shining glow, making the grass around her grow longer quicker. "What happened to me?!"
The colt with no clue got up from the ground and couldn't help but just witness in bewilderment as Coral melted down into a blubbering mess. "...Zecora, what's going on?" he said, still watching the grass continuing to grow around her.
"As I've said before, The Heart of Nature governs Everfree," Zecora explained as she looked to him. "It grows every grass, flower, and tree. Now that power is under Coral's commands, tuning The Heart with her own to fulfill her demands." Shifting back to the hippogriff, she felt empathetic about the changes she would have to get used to. "Of course, she hasn't learned how to control it fully yet. She'll need time to be used to its power, I bet."
Inching closer to Coral, Cornfield suggested "Maybe you should stay with Zecora for a little while, Coral? At least, until you become more...what was it...in tune".
"I didn't want THIS, though!" she snapped back. "I thought I'd just have to carry it with me and get the rest of The Gems of Creation! I didn't want to be turned into some FREAK!"
"Slow your lungs, Coral," Zecora warmly reassured. "Calm your nerves. Treat your new power with the respect it deserves."
"Oh, Celestia, I hope this won't make things awkward at home," the stallion wished to himself. "So, are you going to help her, Zecora?"
The witch doctor held Coral's talons on her hoof and rubbed her shoulder, trying to comfort her. "In helping her, I'll do my best," she agreed. "You go on home and get some rest." Slowly coming to grips with her new reality, the gem hunter tested once more if those strange powers wasn't her imagination. Her free claws wrapped and writhed as vines as green as the trees in the Summer. Sometimes, beautiful flowers would bloom on it. Sometimes, it had razor sharp thorns.
"Alright. Uh, see you soon, Coral?" Here, Cornfield sheepishly backed away as he walked toward the cave leading out of the secluded grounds. Leaving her with "I'll always be there in spirit".
Hearing that he was attempting to leave, Coral suddenly and completely snapped out of it and reached out for him. "WAIT! You aren't just going to leave me behind, are you?!"
"It's ok, Coral. Zecora will take care of you, right, Zecora?"
"I am," bluntly stated the zebra. "That much is true. But she'd be more comfortable with you." Zecora playfully raised up Coral's claws that were on her hoof. "You love this hippogriff, right? Would you rather be within her sight?"
Coral blushed as she yanked her claws away and reeled away from her. "H-hey! Don't get the wrong idea! We're just partners. It's not like... THAT."
"Well..." Cornfield hesitated a little. He didn't know if we wanted to be in the same hut with someone who was overly emotional. Considering the situation though, he also didn't mean to abandon her and feel like a jerk afterwards. "If you don't mind, I can join you on the road. Perhaps, there is room in your humble abode?" He planted his hoof squarely on his face. "Oh jeez! Now, I'm doing it!"
"She has that effect on ponies, it seems," Coral rudely pointed out.
"There's plenty of pillows and blankets galore," offered Zecora before she hesitated to say the next verse of her rhyme. "But only one bed. You'll both sleep on the floor..."
The chipper colt nodded his head. "Ok!" he agreed. "I can deal with sleeping on the floor."
"R-Right. Sure... Whatever makes you feel better," she said half-heartedly before thinking to herself. "Thank Novo! I'm not going to be alone if this crazy Zebra quack tries anything with me."
"Gee," Cornfield thought as well. "You could say thanks, Coral. Even one more kiss would be so awesome right now!" He let out a sigh before his head drifted upwards. The evening sun was about to set. Night was coming soon and he knew the dangers of being deep in the forest when it was dark. "Alright," he said. "Let's go 'home'."
"Right. No need to sit around and-" Coral was amazed to find that the grass around her almost reached chest-height as she stood up slowly. "Wow, did I grow all of this grass around me, or what?" She waded through the circle of tall grass she was in to join Cornfield and Zecora, as they began their thankfully uneventful trek through the cave and back to the hut.
The kind zebra opened her front door to allow them both inside as Cornfield helped Coral make the last few steps on her wounded leg. Then, Zecora opened up a few of her cupboards and unraveled out a few blankets and pillows. "Oh, could I maybe trouble you for some hot cocoa, Zecora?" Mr. Colt politely asked.
"Oooooh," the hippogriff cooed. "Actually, that sounds incredible. Just put some in that giant cauldron of yours and give me a big cup."
After she was done setting up a spot on the floor for her guests to comfortably sleep in, Zecora went to where she stored her medical supplies and took out a potion and a first aid kit. Bringing them both to Coral, she popped the cork off the flask and offered the potion to her. "Coral, drink this instead," she insisted. "It will help you soothe your head."
Delicately and with hesitation, the suspicious treasure hunter collected the flask from Zecora's hoof and squinted at its contents. "It's not going to make me projectile vomit like your last one did with Sir Listens-Not over there, right?" she crudely inquired. The witch doctor stared at Cornfield with a single eyebrow raised.
"Ha...hahaha..." he chuckled nervously with a shrug. "I don't know what she means by that, Zecora." She silently observed him for a few seconds before bringing her attention back to Coral. He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment during this time.
Licking off the edges of her beak, Coral prepared to gulp down the mystery concoction in one go. She swigged the flask back as a very bitter taste hits her tongue while the liquid splashed down her throat. Audibly gagging, she coughed with her tongue hanging out. "BLECH!" she wretched. "That's rancid! Can't you make these a TINY bit tastier?" Suddenly, everything in her body goes completely numb, "Whooooa, ok, what did you do to me?"
Cornfield cocked his head to the side, wondering what happened to her, before Zecora called him over. "Cornfield, do me a favor open my first aid," she said. "We need to tend to the wound that the arrow had made." Zecora stepped towards the arrow and took the time to cautiously but firmly bite and yank it out of her thigh. The wound freshly leaked of her blood, but didn't feel anything other than the initial pull.
"Whoa, ok! That felt weird!"
"Eeeh... are you ok?" asked Cornfield, wincing from the sight of the blood.
"Yeah, it's just... I felt the arrow removed, but there's no pain..."
"Cornfield, when I'm done cleaning her, take the gauze and wrap it around her thigh," Zecora instructed, pointing to her open kit. "We need to treat this before she's out of her numbing high."
"O...Ok." he said nervously as he reached inside the kit, obtained the gauze, and approached Coral's wound. She adjusted her hind legs and swayed her hips in front of him, unsure what to think of what's going on behind her. He began to wrap the gauze around her wound, circulating it thoroughly around her thigh, while also going over recent events in today's exploits. "...Coral?"
"Mmm. I bet you are on VACATION touching my thigh," Coral teased. "What is it?"
"Normally this would of been a pleasant opportunity, but blood is just gross..." After stating that, his hoof began to tremble. "...We nearly didn't make it back there, did we?"
She stopped her flirtatious joking after she found that, for once, he's serious. She rubbed the back of her head with her talons. "Yeah... More than once. I'm... used to facing the danger all by myself... I never had to worry about who was also in danger around me."
"Yeah but... It was just... TOO CLOSE!" Using his teeth, Cornfield wedged a metal pin to hold the gauze in place and prevented it from coming loose. "I mean, between being chased by blood-thirsty criminals and carnivorous creatures, I almost lost you...because of...me..."
Coral scoffed and looked behind her with her eyebrows raised. "You don't think that, if something happened to YOU, I wouldn't feel guilty? The one pony I show my true face to and he just ups and dies. That would weigh VERY heavy on me..." Putting her head down, she looked away and stared at the floor. "So much so that, if something happened to you, I'd probably go home... Back to Mt. Aris. Never going on another treasure hunt again." After a few seconds passed, a spark of light crossed her mind, causing her head and feathery crests to perk up optimistically. "But, you know what?"
"What?"
"We... make a pretty good team." She turned to Cornfield and smiled a little. "For some backwater pervert, you actually pulled your fair share of weight."
"Hey! That's not me!..." He muttered under his breath "not usually".
Coral chuckled to herself. "But you know..." She put her palm of her claws to her cheek and blushed a bit. "You did mature a bit since I first met you... Only a little, but you have improved..."
"After all that...only a little?!" Cornfield stared at her in disbelief. After risking life over limb for her, he only received a back-hoofed compliment? He sighed defeatedly.
Coral laughed again, louder than before. "You are fun to tease, you know that?" Suddenly all of her sensation came back to her, including the pain of the arrow being removed from her side. "Ahhn!" she cried out.
"Ah, your pain's returned in full force," Zecora chimed in. "But, if you didn't take that potion, it would have felt worse."
"Oh! Sorry!" apologized Cornfield. "I didn't mean to...!"
"You didn't do anything wrong, sir." Waving it off with her hoof, Zecora attempted to reassure him. "The pain of the procedure caught up with her."
Lifting her hind leg, Coral moved it around to get used to the feeling. "Oooof, I'll need to ask for more potions like that," she said. "It's better than biting onto a piece of wood..."
Letting out a big yawn, the sleepy stallion rubbed his eyes and shook his head a bit. "Well, I'm starting to feel tired after all that," stated Cornfield, fighting back another yawn. "I think I'll just rest for the night. We can talk about what to do then, ok?"
"Sure, but... I'm not sharing a blanket with you." She headed toward the laid out bedding, but stopped to look at him with flirtatious eyes. "You can sleep close to me, if you want, but not... TOO close."
Cornfield blushed, fighting back every male urge to run up and attempt to mount her instantly from her advances. "Uh! Fine by me!" He even sprang some drops of sweat.
Zecora giggled to herself. "I'm sure you two will be alright," she said while showing them both a knowing smile. "Looks like love is in the air tonight."
Coral's purple face turned a bright beet red. "D-DON'T JOKE!" she snapped back!
"Hey!" The small stallion blurted out as well, confused from both her and Zecora's reactions. Eventually, the two adventurers pulled the blankets over them as Zecora put out the lights and tucked herself in her only bed. With a big yawn, Cornfield rolled over to face Coral, while she struggled to get comfortable on the floor. "Goodnight, Coral," he said with a friendly smile.
Looking back at him, Coral smiled and said "goodnight" to him as well. As her eye slowly closed, her claws glided across her chest and rested on The Heart of Nature, which was glowing faintly underneath the covers. "... Partner." she whispered silently as her mind tuned off to sleep. |
The Gems Of Creation: Part 1 | 1-7: Echoes of the Past | CHAPTER 1-7
"Ouch!"
Woken up by a familiar voice, Cornfield eyes slowly opened with a yawn. Normally, he's the type of pony to sleep in but, after all the excitement, he wanted to make sure his friend was ok. He glanced over to the bedding where his temple raiding partner, Cobalt Coral, slept beside him. It was crumpled up and found empty. Looking around inside the hut of Zecora, who was gracious enough to let them stay for the night, he found that the zebra was gone, too.
"Ouch!"
The colt's ears perked up from noise coming from outside. Concerned, he unraveled the blankets off of him and walked outside. In the clearing in front of the hut, he could see Zecora meditating, upside-down, with her body balance on a bamboo pole. Coral, on the other hoof, was straining to balance small stones above her head with the tips of her green, vine-stretched claws. One of the rocks dangled out of balance and fell on her head. "OUCH!" she cried out.
"Uh, good morning, girls," greeted Cornfield, unbeknownst to what was happening. His well-intended politeness broke the hippogriff's concentration as she swiftly glanced over from the broken silence. Her derailed train of mind led to her vines restoring into claws and the rest of the rocks toppled over and hit her head, one by one.
"Ouch! Ow! Mmmmgh!" uttered the pained creature.
"Focus," commanded Zecora, who found her center and kept her balance throughout. "If you cannot protect yourself from what's above, how can you protect the ones you love?"
"Oh!" The young stallion reeled back after seeing his friend bonked on the head repeatedly, as she rubbed the bumps on her head with her claws. "Sorry, Coral!" he apologized. Sore in more ways than one that he broke her concentration and deciding it would be fun to freak him out, her claws transformed back into vines, wrapped around his torso, and pulled him closer. His hooves dragged across the dirt in protest. "WAAAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" shouted Cornfield as he hoped to himself he was still dreaming.
When he's close enough, she untangles her vines from him as they turned back to normal. "Well, look who finally got up!" sneered Coral, condescendingly.
Cocking his head slightly, Cornfield rubbed the back of his neck with his hoof. "Huh? I thought I woke up early today. What time is it?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong, you did." She inched a little closer to the confused colt. "But, I was up HOURS before you were." Bending her head down, she put her beak next to his ear. "Zecora has me on this harsh training course where I have to practice with my new found abilities," she whispered quietly. "She's nuts!"
"We still have more we need to do today," interrupted Zecora from her bamboo pole. "And yes, I hear every word you say."
"Crap," the flustered bird-horse begrudgingly uttered under her breath, loud enough for Cornfield to pick up.
"Oh," he said. "Alright, then. Well, from the sound of things, it's not going so well."
Zecora adjusted her body to fall off the pole and stuck the landing with all four hooves. She got in between the two as Coral backed up to allow the zebra some space to talk to Cornfield. "She's not learning, because change is something she's not willing to embrace." She turned towards the hippogriff with a knowing smile. "Or, do we need to go and put The Heart of Nature in its rightful place?"
The haughty hippogriff scoffed with a flick of her talons. "And give it to that creep, Caballeron? No way."
"Ah, well, good luck to you, Coral!" Cornfield stated quickly before moving on to a more important topic. "But, where's my breakfast? I'm famished after yesterday!"
Tapping her hoof to her chin, an idea sparked in the witch doctor's mind. "What fruit would you like immediately?" she asked. "Coral will grow us a healthy fruit tree."
Zecora's helpless guinea pig raised an eyebrow as she turned to her mentor. "Wait, what?" she questioned hesitantly.
"Oooooh!" said the easily excitable colt, hopping up and down on the idea. "I'd love a peach! Do it Coral! Do it! Do it! Do it!"
"Wait, back up," Her eyes rapidly shifted back and forth between Cornfield and Zecora in utter confusion. "What?!"
The zebra, completely serious on what she said, entered her hut. After a few minutes of digging around, she came back out with a peach pit between her teeth. Spitting back out to her hoof, she presented it Coral almost forcefully. "Plant the seed and attune your heart," she commanded. "Then, food and you won't be far apart. Place your claws on the mound where it will grow, focus your thoughts, and let your blood flow."
Eagerly, Cornfield cantered to Zecora's side and gave his ruin-raiding buddy the biggest grin. "Come on, Coral!" he cheered "You can do it!"
Coral backed away slowly, getting a little creeped out. "Y-you both must be insane," she said. I can't do that!" Despite her efforts, the witch doctor inched closer.
"You can because you have the Heart in you, though," chimed Zecora. "Remember. The more your heart beats, the faster it will grow. But don't overdo it, or you might suffer greatly." She was practically shoving it into Coral's face. "Now demonstrate its power to me."
"I believe in you, Coral...to make breakfast!" Cornfield added with his hoof in the air.
Growling in annoyance, Coral swiped the pit off of Zecora's hoof and looked at it sitting on her palm. She turned to her irritating stallion sidekick with a huff. "You are lucky I'm hungry, too, or I'd tell you to forage the woods on your own." she grumbled.
Cornfield let out a small disingenuous chuckle. "Haha...Oh, Coral. You kidder, you...haha."
Finding an empty patch of land near the hut, she dug up loose soil with her claws and planted the pit on the ground. Then, she placed both her claws on the mound where she buried it and tried to concentrate. "This is stupid," her thoughts raced through her mind. "Tune my heart to make this blasted tree grow? ...Fine. I'll play along. Let's see, now... What to think about to make my heart grow?" She fantasized herself surrounded by jewels and gems of all shapes and sizes. They were falling from the sky in a pile in her happy place while she laughed to herself. The Heart on her chest shimmered a bit.
"Ooooooo...." said Cornfield as he watched the light on her chest grow ever so slightly.
"Hmm, not bad, but what about...." She thought back to the time she was in iron cage at the temple. Her heart was beating a mile a minute in the thick of the action, but simply thinking about it only increased her heart rate a little bit. The Heart shined a little more, regardless.
"Hey, Zecora?" the concerned colt turned to Zecora. "Is she gonna be like this...forever?"
"Shhhh..." The zebra put her hoof to her mouth as she watched Coral closely. "She needs to find what will make her Heart pound. Let her focus on the mound...."
Huffing with his snout scrunched up, he mumbled "Don't shush me, you equine reject outcast." under his breath.
"I heard that, too. Strange thing to say. Aren't you living outside of Ponyville alone, anyway?"
Stumbling from the response to the point where he almost fell on his face, he strained to sit back up with a lump in his throat. With an audible gulp, he thought "How the buck did she hear me!?"
Trying her best to ignore the comments from the peanut gallery, Coral tried to find something more exciting than she previously imagined before. "No!" she exclaimed in her head. "It's not enough. The excitement is there, but the only reason I was so elated was when I got out and-" In her recollection, she pictured Cornfield's face as she ascended in the cage. Her brows furrowed in disgust. "No. What are you doing? Him? You're honestly thinking about him? The way he stared at you like a creep? The way he humiliated you in public? The way he walked into danger? The way he..." The harsh expression on her face gradually softened as her beak quivered. "...Saved you from danger?" The light on her chest was shining more brilliantly.
"Whoa, look at that thing glow!" the object of Coral's affection pointed out. "I wonder what's on her mind?"
"All right, that's enough!" Zecora shouted out to the hippogriff. "It should grow quick. What you were thinking did the trick."
Still lost within her thoughts, Coral didn't listen as her claws dug slightly into the mound, trying to hold back her emotions. "The way he bravely fought the cragadile?" she thought. "The way he distracted the timberwolves? The way he saved you from the cage..?"
"Uhhh... Coral?" Cornfield slowly snuck up behind her shoulder to see if she was feeling alright. He was close enough to see a couple tears roll down her cheek.
"The way you... kissed him..." she whispered to herself. The curious colt stood silently beside her as The Heart shone on very brightly. A slight tremble growled underneath earth. The vibrations snapped Coral out from her trip down memory lane before she peeked down to see a sprout pop out of the ground between her talons. Then, in a matter of seconds, the sprout violently grew into a full-sized peach tree. Resulting in the duo being thrown over from the mere force of its growth, they tumbled like ragdolls until they rolled to a complete stop around Zecora. The zebra stared in the sky in awe as the peach tree grew to an astronomical size. It's probably the largest in all of Equestria, let alone the largest in the Forest.
Peaches ripen and fall off, hitting the ground around them. Dazed, flat on his stomach, and not sure what just happened, this colt shakily lifted himself off the grass before a peach conked him on the noggin. He rubbed his head and asked "Uh, what? Did it work?"
The world couldn't stop spinning for the poor hippogriff beside him as she shook her head to straighten out her sight. Her pupils shrunk as she gazed towards the treetops. "Uuuuh, too well, I think..."
Realizing what happened, he joined her in marveling at her handiwork. "Wha-WHAT! But how...! I've never seen a tree like this before! It's...SPECTACULAR!!!" His stomach growling at the sight of the peaches strewn about around him, he couldn't help but lower his head to take a bite off of one on the ground. "Bucking delicious! YUM!"
Zecora, relieved but annoyed at Coral for not heeding her wishes, approached her with a stern expression. "Indeed, it is a spectacle." she begun to rhyme. "But I told you to be more respectful. The more you abuse the Heart at such a length, the more you weaken your OWN heart's strength."
Choking upon hearing this important bit of news that really should have been explained earlier, Cornfield spat out a chunk of peach. "Ah, what!? You mean she could...!"
"All power comes at a cost. Abuse it too much, and your life is lost." The zebra pointed towards the shining gem on her pupil's chest. "That's why I'm training you so rough. I'm building your heart to know what's enough."
The nervous hippogriff gulped at the very thought of dying by using the gemstone she sought to possess. She knew that The Gems held great power from the rumors, but never considered there to be a heavy price to using them. "T-then, maybe I shouldn't use this power anymore."
"In theory, you shouldn't. But, the time must come one day. You would not earn the remaining gems any other way."
"Are you saying that I have to learn all this if I need to succeed in finding the rest of The Gems of Creation?"
The wise teacher nodded her head until a certain overprotective stallion butted in on matters. "But why is that, Zecora?" he asked, running up to hopefully comfort his special some-creature by being at her side. "If these powers could kill her, why would we even train her in the first place to give her the temptation?"
"The Heart of Nature is needed to clear the Mind of Water's trial. That's why I want her here a while. Her temptation to misuse their powers may be great but, when the time comes to use it, she mustn't hesitate."
Cornfield looked to Coral, who glanced back at him. She only tilted her head and shrugged her shoulders before facing her current mentor, as if there was nothing more to add. "Alright," her sidekick agreed. "Well, we could use a break, anyway. We'll come up with a plan on what to do next later. Besides, if what Zecora said is true, then Caballeron can't get it, too. Ah- Oh, buck." He reactively planted a hoof square on his forehead.
"Hmm? What's wrong?" asked the hippogriff.
"I just... hate how the rhyming catches on so easily."
Boggled, she recalled what he had previously said. A silly grin stretched across her face as she pieced it together. "HA!" she laughed. "I told you! She has that effect on ponies."
"Haha... I wonder if it's on purpose?"
The zebra was unamused by their jeering, but she kept her retorts to herself when the towering hybrid approached her. "There's something about all this that's really bugging me about you, Zecora," The tall hippogriff stated. "Let's be realistic for minute. Ever since I came here, you knew exactly what I was after and the consequences of what would happen if I had taken The Heart of Nature." Boldly, she even brought a single claw pointing at Zecora's snout. "Now, here you are, training me and knowing EXACTLY what I would do with this power and where to go next." Proceeding to put her face up to Zecora's snout, she went eye to eye with her teacher. "How? How do you know all of this? The gems, the powers, and everything in between?"
Sensing a little hostility coming from his friend, the earth pony backed up a bit to try and not get between her and Zecora. "Look, ladies, I'm just glad we're all on the same side now. Coral, she's trying to help you. Sure, her methods are quirky, but she is always right in the end."
"No. This isn't quirkiness," Coral sneered at Cornfield. "Quirkiness is her constant rhyming. What she's doing is knowing a lot more than I do." Focusing back on Zecora, she went beak-to-snout to further demand answers. "I'm not training with you, Zecora, unless you tell me why. Why do you know SO much about this?"
"...Uh, I'll just leave you girls to discuss these serious matters," the sheepish colt uttered meekly before gathering 3 ripe juicy peaches and rushing inside Zecora's hut, slamming the door behind him. His cowardice caused Coral's head to turn away from the zebra's in reaction.
"Wait, Cornfield!" She raised her claws out at the hut in vain. "Ugh... Never mind... He's always the first to escape when the going gets rough."
The witch doctor couldn't help but chuckle at flustered hippogriff. While her student rolled her eyes and huffed, Zecora gently placed her hoof on Coral's side to comfort her. "The reason I know is simple and true," she explained. "My earliest ancestor went on the same journey as you."
Her eyes lit up as she stared back at the zebra in disbelief. "...What!?"
"Come with me, and you will see." Coral followed her back to the hut as Zecora kindly held the door open for her. Inside, they both found Cornfield stuffing his face with peaches and laying on his bedding.
"Oh boy!" he said chipperly. "These peaches are bucking sweet! You really should try some yourself!" He offered the two of them his last untouched peaches, before slowly taking it back. "...Unless that means it's actually a part of you..." The more the young colt realized it, the more he suddenly realized how unnerving that concept could be. "Ah! Hey I'm not eating 'her'?! Am I?!"
Kindly declining the offer, Zecora trotted to an old, dusty chest, while Coral approached her excitable friend with a chortle. "I think that's as close to 'eating' me as you are ever going to get, Corn," she grinned.
"I just hope I'm not eating what may have been a ventricular portion of your heart, Coral." Slowly losing his appetite, he put the half-eaten fruit on the floor to dispose of it later. "That would be gross, irregardless."
"My, look at you using big words," said the hippogriff with a hint of foal-talking. "But, no. I think what you are eating is the magic from The Heart of Nature. My heart is the one that powers it."
With that patronizing tone, Cornfield proceeded to defy her objection. "Well! Aren't we condescending this morning? I'm not some foal, you know!" Getting off the covers and out of his literal comfort zone, he stood up to her in justified defiance. "And, after what we've been through, I'd hope you actually would have noticed it!"
Opening the chest, the kind zebra pulled out a bundle of important-looking scrolls. She turned only to find her guests had become heated and, with a huff, decided to wait on the sidelines until it blew over. Coral, upon hearing her partner getting provoked, shrugged and sighed. "It depends on the situation, really. Sometimes, you act like a real stallion and turn out to be reliable. Sometimes, you act like a little filly and your immaturity makes you pitiful. It's a hard read with you."
"Oh sure. Blame it on the situation. 'It's not my fault. It's not your fault'," he mocked with a whiny feminine voice. "What's the matter? Can't take ownership of your actions now? I mean, the situation didn't bring us here now, did it?"
Scoffing irritatedly, she pointed her claw right in his face. "You think I don't realize that it's my fault that I'm in this mess and I've dragged you along with me? I certainly know you just want to go home and do whatever it is you do on your spare time." She shuddered at the thought of what that might be. Using another claw on the same appendage, Coral formed a gesture like she was pinching the air. "I'm just saying that you can stand to be a little more mature, instead of flip-flopping between the two."
"I do not flip-flop! I'm just progressing! That's what mom told me!"
"There. Right there. You did it again."
"B-b-but it's true! I'm getting better!"
At this point, Coral felt this conversation was going nowhere. "Yeah? You think yourself as more mature?" She leaned in close and fluttered her eyelashes. "Prove it. Right now."
"O-Ok... well..." The colt gave it some thought until he asked himself why she was being so difficult. They both knew the answer to how he's grown, even if she doesn't want to admit it. Sticking his nose in the air, he turned his back on her. "How about I don't have to prove anything? Because a real stallion wouldn't give up on a lady and save her life in the process. He spun around. "And that's exactly what I did! Several times!" He pointed back at her with a smug grin on his face. "So HAH!"
It wasn't a comforting thought that she had to be the damsel in distress during these past scenarios. The treasure hunter had plenty of adventures of her own without him and usually got out just fine. Yet, her expression lightened up as she smiled sweetly to his immature, but nonetheless correct response. She wouldn't have survived without him, even though she saved his life a couple times, too. Through fate or dumb luck, they were compatible to take on anything that came their way together. As a result, her claws transformed into vines and the tips stroked his cheek gently. "Well played, Cornfield. Actions DO speak louder than words after all."
"Huh." The vines felt smooth on Cornfield's skin and smelled of grass. "...I don't know how I feel about you being half-hippo, half-pony,... and half-plant."
"I'm half bird, you simpleton." said Coral, retracting the vines and turning her talons back to normal. Bringing them to her face, she stared into them with deep contemplation. "Still, you are right. This is a rather unsettling appearance, especially with these vines and the gem fused to my flesh." Picking at the gem with a natural claw, she attempted to pry it off again. It wouldn't budge. "I certainly hope that this isn't permanent."
Before he could say anything, his ears perked at the sound of Zecora stifling a laugh. "Hey! Did you just chuckle?" the stallion inquired.
"Ah, forgive me," the zebra confessed. "I don't mean to pry. But you two are funny together, I won't lie." With one of her forelegs grasped around several scrolls, she approached Coral and dropped them in front of her. "Their text is a bit faded, and the paper is old, but it holds the abilities of the gems as foretold." Guiding her on what to read first, the striped equine unraveled the first scroll on the floor for all to view. "Take your time to read them during the day. A little bit of knowledge goes a long way."
The hippogriff skimmed the text before deciding it would be a good idea to jot down the more important bits of knowledge she might need in the future. "Corn, get me my saddle bags, please," she requested.
"Gotcha." Dragging the bags over, he thrust them to her side; she laid on the floor to comfortably peruse what's on the scroll. "Anything ring a bell, mah lady?"
"Don't call me that," Coral groaned, opening her bags and procuring a notebook and a pencil.
"Well, I just thought I'd practice being a 'mature stallion' as you wanted."
"If you want to go full-blown Canterlot gentlecolt, you may call me 'your majesty'. Otherwise, 'Coral' will suffice for now."
"Fine... Hmph!" The whims of females continued to baffle the poor pony of the opposite sex, as he sat across from the scroll with a pout.
The studious explorer resumed reading the texts of the scroll carefully, jotting down notes as she went along. She noted how Zecora had done a great job translating the ancient zebra texts to New Ponish. "Let's see. It's said here that Zecora's earliest grandfather witnessed how the Earth ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns fought over each other, long before they were united under one banner. The old coot sought to take the gems and lead everypony himself after their needless arguing."
"Hmmm..." hummed Cornfield, getting interested in the story. "A zebra planning on leading the future of Equestria? I wonder what that would of been like..."
"He hated how they'd always yell and fight," explained the witch doctor as she joined them in sitting around the pile of scrolls. "He thought by bringing all four gems together, he'd shed some light."
"I heard that if you got the 4 together, you'd become a creature of great power." Coral added. "One to make your wildest dreams come true..."
"Well...she certainly has a portion of that power." the young colt laughed, drawing attention to the jewel raider's chest. "She should be able to reach anywhere her claws don't belong now! Haha!"
Coral sneered a knowing grin at him. "While it'd certainly make pickpocketing and picking locks a little easier, don't give me ideas, Cornfield."
"I don't have to. You're the thief here!"
"...Right," the intrigued hippogriff read on. "Your ancestor had The Heart of Nature, The Mind of Water, and The Eye of Fire. He was on his way to get the Breath of Life, but..." Something was off. The story ended abruptly with a conclusion she didn't expect. Perplexed on where the gaping hole in the chain of events might be, she unraveled a few more scrolls for an explanation. A quick analysis only gave more insight on the gems he already collected, nothing else. Silence filled the room as Coral struggled to finish the scroll aloud. "He...put them all back...?" Her talons, once relaxed, curled slowly but sharply, scratching the wooden floor of the hut. "Why? Why did he just... have all that power in his hooves and just... give it up?"
"...Wait a minute..." Both mares turned their attention to the only stallion who spoke up amidst his partner's musings. "He was able to remove the Heart? And all the other gems, too?"
Zecora nodded her head. "There are some ways to give up your ability." she informed with a warming smile. "One such method is to give it up willingly. Take it to where you got it before. Place your claw on the indent and it will be placed once more." Her positive expression faded, facing Coral with her eyes half-open. "The other is... not something you should do. If you die, at any time, it will escape from you. Then, your killer will claim it from the attack. So, it's wise to keep your head down and watch your back."
Cornfield choked a bit at the possibilities of how her grandfather lost his gems. "...And your saying he had given these up at will or-"
"He wasn't killed," the zebra quickly interrupted with her hoof, gesturing to relax. "The gems returned to their rightful place. Then, he returned with his kind: the zebra race."
He sighed a breath of relief. "Whew! Sooo... This is certainly a mystery!"
"Did he think he couldn't handle having that much power?" Coral asked quietly, mulling over the tale in her head. "I don't think there's a downside to being this super-strong demigod and changing the world with what you have."
"...Coral..." Although he didn't really give time to question her motives until now, that statement made her tagger-on very suspicious. Just how power-hungry was this hippogriff?
"I mean, he had a WAR to stop, right? He wouldn't be wrong to do it..." Hiding her eyes from the judging gazes of the company of the room, the suspicious bird-mare hybrid focused in the scroll. "At least, that's what I'd do."
"Yeah, but..." Cornfield raised an eyebrow, staring incredulously. "Don't you think a villain might of said what you just said? You know what kind of pony becomes a demigod? Either a really good one...or..."
"I do not know the reasons why," Zecora interrupted once more, "but you must forgive me if I pry. Do you believe that he was wrong? Should he have taken it all along?"
Not really knowing the right answer, Coral's head hung solemnly in silence. She didn't know the circumstances of Zecora's ancestor at the time. She only knew of her own on why she started her journey. Her talons drifted towards her saddlebag.
"Zecora... Is it possible we could gather the gems and give it to a museum or somewhere safe like the Elements of Harmony?" the naive colt asked. His ears received the sounds of his hippogriff friend rummaging through her bag and pulling out an item he never seen with her yet. "...Huh?"
"It's possible, but..." the Zecora stopped herself, joining in on Cornfield's curiosity on what Coral was clutching onto. Walking up for a better look, they deduced that the object was a golden clamshell with a valuable diamond ordaining the top. Much like a real clam, she pried the shell open and then stared longingly inside it with her brows shuttered. She didn't even notice the present company standing up to peak over her shoulders from both sides. They discovered that it was more than a clamshell, but a locket containing a photograph of four hippogriffs inside it.
Quickly piecing it all together, the empathetic zebra gasped. "Ohhhh, I see.... That's why you are on this quest..." she said as she gingerly placed her hoof on Coral's shoulder. "To right a great loss... I should have guessed..."
"Huh?" Cornfield muttered as he scratched his ear. "Try that again?" Carefully, the dismayed damsel handed her precious heirloom to the stallion as Zecora comforted her. The picture has a mare and stallion hippogriff. The mare was a sea-blue beauty with a kelp green mane, while the stallion was a red soldier with a purple plumage. In the middle below the two of them were a colt and filly. The colt had his mother's colors, but lighter. The daughter who sported her father's colors were also lighter, but reversed as well. The filly looks like... "Huh...is this your family or some-" Before he could finish, something clicked in his mind. "OH!" His ears perked up before slowly drooping. "..Sorry..."
A moment of honorable silence passed for the respect of the hippogriff family and their last remaining member.
Extending her claws out, Coral gestured for the clamshell back. Humbly, her friend closed it and gave it back. "If you had lost... everything to the wages of war... you would make that decision to take that power, too." A few tears escaped as she hugged the clamshell to her chest, above The Heart of Nature, dimming in color from the agony plaguing her beating heart. "You don't need to worry about me doing anything like killing or enslaving..." Finding it difficult to let go of it, she struggled to place it in the security of her saddlebags. "I've seen enough death to know it does no creature any favors."
"I still don't know. This is probably going to get rougher..." Cornfield mulled over the idea of scouring through all of Equestria and beyond to find them. "Do we really need to find every single one?! The Heart of Nature was challenging enough..."
The treasure hunter said nothing in response; she only considered the circumstances if she progressed with her rash and foolhardy plans. Obviously, she needed to toughen up more for the road ahead. The Heart on her chest was going to be a literal target for Caballeron or whatever mercenaries hired from the mysterious benefactor he spoke of in the temple. But, if finding all the gems meant protecting her race from any more massacres, she would play to win.
Standing up with her head held high, Coral turned to Zecora with her claws on her chest.
"Zecora, I want you to train me," she requested. "If what you said is true, he'll probably try to rip this gem out of me by force to get to The Mind of Water. Your training will not only give me the opportunity to use this newfound power to defend myself, but show me the path to the next gem." She extended her claws out to her teacher to offer a hoof-to-claw shake. "So, I'll leave it to you to teach me."
Without missing a beat, Zecora put her hoof in the hippogriff's grasp as she shook it gently. She made eye contact with her towering student with faithful confidence. "I believe the fates have orchestrated your events the way they should," she chimed as she rhymed. "After hearing your tale, I trust that you'll work towards the greater good." Mutually, they let go of each other's forelegs.
"And I'll do whatever I can to help!" offered Cornfield enthusiastically with his hoof in the air. Surprised by his response, Coral gave her attention to the colt. She thought he wanted nothing more than to go home. Now he wants to be part of her journey? Does he truly know what he's getting into?
"Ok. But you gotta understand," his partner cautioned. "I'm a girl with nothing to lose and I'm in this for the long run. I'm not about to turn around because you got cold hooves. So, if you want to go home..." She whispered quietly "Maybe forget about me..." and, with the possibility of him leaving her life open, she said aloud "Now's your chance".
"I...well...umm..." The young stallion scratched his chin in thought. Home did sound appealing; his comfortable bed was waiting for him over at his humble cottage. But, what was he going to do if Coral left? Stalk the mares of Ponyville? Take pictures in secret? Live alone in his house with nopony to be with? He had survived multiple life-threatening situations in the span of one day, and he would happily do it all over again if it meant that he had a beautiful mare to be right beside him, even if she's technically a half-mare, than to be alone for one more day. "...You know what? I'm in!"
The hippogriff squawked in disbelief. "You aren't leaving me!? No matter what? Like you said, it's gonna get tougher!"
"So that means I know what I signed up for!"
"Is there nopony better than him at the moment, or is he simply better than nopony?" she asked her herself in her mind while brushing her mane back with her claws. "He DID come through in the end, though, and he's proven to be reliable enough." She inched closer and leaned her head down, almost going nose-to-beak with a smirk on her face. "All right. Just remember, though: You asked for it." she said sweetly.
"Don't worry! I told you! You need me!" he remarked back, almost desperate for her not to change her mind. "Remember how I saved you? So, I can't leave you alone on this dangerous quest. And I don't go down without a fight!"
"All right, all right," Coral gestured him to simmer down. "Cool it. I do remember what you did to help." Her cheeks gained a bit of redness as she longingly sighed. "I really do..." The Heart's magnificent shine grew just a bit brighter. |
The Gems Of Creation: Part 1 | 1-8: The Storm Approaches | Chapter 1-8
"What's the first step?"
Cornfield questioned this as his friend, Coral, joined his side and awaited further instructions from Zecora. The zebra sized the two of them up to gauge how they would handle the road ahead.
"We need to train Coral to control the Heart for the sake of her health," Zecora proclaimed to her student before looking at her partner. "Cornfield, you could learn to better protect yourself."
"Hey! I can protect myself just fine, thank you very much!" said the rapscallion, puffing his chest. "It's Coral who needs better defensive abilities."
The hippogriff's eyes widened in shock. "You know, I held my own through cunning and charm before I met you, Cornfield," she rebutted. "I'm not as hopeless as you think I am."
"Yeah, but... I can't help notice you're always charging into a situation and getting yourself in danger! Sometimes even putting me in peril as a result!" Momentarily, he thought back to a similar scenario involving another pony. "Just like that time, I was watching Rainbow Dash playing buckball..." He thought with his mind in the gutter. "...and she tripped right at the beginning...Ah, I'm so glad I snapped that moment...The way her legs were spread revealing her tight little-"
"What about the time you got so impatient that you almost walked into that carnivorous plant?" Coral interrupted.
The daydreaming colt snapped out of it, stammering."W-Wait, hold on... That's not my fault!" He scratched the back of his head, getting the story straight in memory. "I was...in some kind of trance or something... I couldn't help it! Besides, you dared me to go in ahead of you, so it was your fault!"
"Enough! We have wasted enough daylight!" shouted the zebra, increasingly intolerant of their bickering. "Cornfield, if you are confident, I won't teach you to fight. You've proven yourself with Caballeron's brawl and Coral shouldn't be using you as her wall."
The treasure hunter growled with her beak tightly shut. "Fine," she blurted out. "FINE! I get it. You want me to prove myself to you both? Fine! I'll show you that I didn't and won't need Wondercolt over here to get me out of the holes I dig for myself."
"Ah..." the so-called Wondercolt uttered snidely. "So, I was right this time?"
"YES! HOLY CRAP, you are! Drop it already!" The flustered, feathered one sat up and crossed her forelegs in a huff.
"Now, now," calmed Zecora. "No need to pout. It's your best interests he's pointing out."
"Yeah," the excited stally-colt exclaimed. "The interests of me being awesome!" He raised his hooves in celebration. "Yeah! Woohoo!"
Coral's teacher planted a hoof on her face while she, herself, glared with daggers in her eyes at the annoying buffoon beside her. "Can we just get started already before I change my mind about him tagging along?!" she pleaded.
"First lesson: listen to Cornfield!"
Taken more than enough from his blustering, her claws shaped into vines and wrapped them around his muzzle. He tried to shout in protest, only to let out a loud grunt. The hippogriff leaned in close with a wicked smile. "A mature stallion doesn't boast."
Cornfield stared into her eyes. Knowing what's good for him, he simply let out an "Ok" from the end of his restrained lips.
Outside of Zecora's hut, underneath the giant peach tree, the treasure hunter's sidekick helped the kind zebra in her lessons by setting up three primitive-looking, shoddily-crafted wooden targets. She made sure he would make them purely for the act of practicing vine abilities for the first stage of her training. They were set side-by-side from each other with Coral facing them with a determined scowl.
"Thorns are deadly sharp and a show of force," her teacher instructed. "Use them when there's no other recourse. The scent of the flowers paralyze and pacify. Use it when large predators catch your eye. Smooth vines, you will find, are good for grabbing or to bind."
"Alright!" Cornfield huffed while wiping the sweat off his brow. "I can't wait to see it in action!"
Her claws writhing about as vines, Coral lashed them about to get a better feel for the weight of their swing. "This will be easy," she cockily stated. "I just need to think about it and it will happen, right?"
"Not quite," her striped mentor corrected. "The vines will change how your heart reacts. That's how you will mix up your attacks. Angry emotions bring out thorns. So, be careful to control your scorns. Flowers are tuned to happiness, too, but it requires concentration with a beast coming to you. If your emotions happen to be none of those, smooth vines are used to wrangle objects, friends, or foes."
A snicker escaped from Cornfield's gritted teeth as he held back a heavier laugh. "It's a good thing Coral isn't pregnant," he announced. "She'd be having a lot more mood swings!" Unable to contain himself, he busted out in hysterics, rolling in the grass wrapped in his forelegs. "Oh, Celestia! I'm too much sometimes! Hehe!"
The childish colt's insensitivities was enough to spark a flame in her heart. Embracing the anger, Coral swayed out her claws, allowing the vines to stretch and fly towards her target like a lion-tamer thrashing a leather whip. Razor-sharp thorns shot out from the vines and mercilessly shredded the target to tiny bits like a green whirlwind, leaving nothing but splinters behind.
"Haha...ha..." Suddenly scared out of whatever wits he had left, the young earth pony got off the ground with his legs shaking. He swallowed a deep gulp from the lump in his throat.
"Yeah, not so funny NOW, is it?" taunted the hippogriff before shrinking her vines to get a better look at her thorns. "Anger is easy. I just think of what I would do to the Storm King if he was still around."
"Jeez, ok, ok!" Cornfield cowered. "I'll try not to anger you next time..." He looked away from her judging sight, but not before whispering "tight ass" underneath his breath.
"Trust me, Cornfield," assured Coral. "You might annoy me, but you don't anger me as much as that pompous baboon does. Besides, as long as the vines aren't out, you're in the clear."
Knowing she wasn't willing to use the thorns on him yet gave him some comfort as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good!"
"As you had said before," Zecora said, continuing to educate them. "Anger is easy to do, but it's hard to control. So, let's give controlling your happy thoughts a roll." Sitting up, the zebra focused on her center, motioning the calm breathing through her hooves. "Channel your happiness and when you've gathered enough, you can make your vines grow flowers, blossom, and puff. Its sweet scent calms and pacifies, but enough of the pollen can actually make your foe paralyze."
Thinking back on the events when he went temple raiding, the young colt pondered with a hoof on his chin. "Hmmmm..." he hummed. "I wonder if it's related to the flowers we saw in the ruins?"
"Ah, no, these flowers do not hypnotize. They only calm and, in an extreme case, paralyze."
"See, Coral? I told you I couldn't help it!"
"Cornfield," his compatriot snapped back. "If the goal is for me to be happy, you are not helping with that argument. Knock it off already!" After a brief moment she tried to tune him and the rest of the world out. She calmed her breathing and dug through the memories of her mind. "Happy thoughts..." As per usual, she started with her gems and how she accumulated many priceless stones over the years. It's a couple happy memories, but not enough. Thinking back on how it worked before, she recalled meeting Cornfield and how they kissed. It made her heart race, but it had less happy moments than she realized.
"Come on, Coral!" she heard him shout from behind. "How hard is it to be happy anyway?" Grunting, she shook off his taunt and thought back, way back, to her family. With a foreleg outstretched, the vines slowly stretched towards another one of Cornfield's makeshift targets. Tiny buds formed on the vines as she imagined her mom, her dad, and most beloved of all, her brother. She smiled as her mom made them kelp wraps for lunch, her dad would return from his knightly patrols to nuzzle her forehead with his beak, and her brother would play on the beach with her afterwards. The buds grew into small, white flowers, similar to small white posies. However, before they could bloom and release their aromatic payload, the petals started to wither and brown as the poor hippogriff's face grimaced.
"Hmmm? Where's the pollen?" asked Cornfield, joining Zecora in their confusion.
The petals fell off, one by one, revealing their rotting core in the middle. Images of her family being happy were forcibly replaced with the polarizing memory of storm clouds blanketing the skies, followed by an armada of sinister attack blimps following suit. Flashes of her parents brutally slaughtered by the Storm King's foot soldiers flickered before her eyes, and the sounds of her brother dragged away screaming echoed in her mind. She opened her eyes with a gasp, before staring down at her vines laid bare...
"W-what?" asked the concerned colt as he stepped closer to her, but Zecora put her hoof on his shoulder, restraining him. He still proceeded to inquire "What happened?"
As Coral's vines turned back into claws, she covered her eyes with them and dragged them down her face like she's going to scratch her flesh off. Her hind legs hit the ground as the rest of her body slumped forward. "I can't do it, Zecora," she stated quietly before repeating it louder and slamming her talons into the dirt.
Her only other friend in all of Equestria looked to the zebra for an answer while she studied the hippogriff's face. Thanks to her wisdom in locating pain in ailing ponies, it didn't take long to find the source of Coral's happiness and sorrow, especially with her locket in the back of Zecora's mind. "Coral, why don't you let this lesson temporarily slide?" She walked around the earth pony, who had a confused look on where she might be going, before Zecora motioned him to her. "Cornfield. To my hut. Inside."
He checked his partner, who was still staring at the ground, then came back to Zecora, surprised. "Hey, why me?" he asked defensively. "I didn't mess up!"
"Don't be quick to think I blame you yet. I'm here to help you both, did you forget?"
"Alright, alright." The two leave Coral to sort her emotional baggage out as they entered the hut and closed the door behind them. Almost immediately, Zecora quickly double-backed to face him, startling him. "AH!"
"Cornfield, I want you to hear my plea. Your opinion on Coral. Tell me honestly."
"Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is..." Visualling her in his mind, he couldn't help to think back to her smooth, sensual face, down to her chest and back and, finally, her more supple feminine features. "She's smokin' HOT!" he exclaimed.
This reaction led to the striped horse doing her best not to roll her eyes. "Hmm, so you like her, do you not? That is, if you say that she is "smoking hot". She motioned her hooves in air quotes when she said that last part.
"Yes!" Cornfield sat up and held his hooves out, motioning to hold on. "B-But it's not just that, really! I mean, yeah, she talks a lot, is nosy, and can be super emotional, but there's a lot of good things about her! She's beautiful, smart, caring, and, and-" He leaned towards Zecora, pointing to his mouth with a silly, lovestruck grin on his face. "She kissed me! No other female, pony or otherwise with the exception of my own mom, has kissed me! That sealed it for me. I don't just like her! In fact... I LOVE HER!"
Zecora had her doubts about the unlikely pairing before. Indeed, his persisting immaturity didn't help any fears she had. Yet, Zecora couldn't help but smile at his response, hoping that his enthusiasm to stick with her, no matter what, would be enough to carry out her wishes. "Good," she said. "Then it's time to help her recovery. She needs somepony to help her be happy." After walking to her bed, she reached underneath, pulled out a satchel, handed it over to the curious youth. "They say that money can't buy happiness. But, it certainly helps. However, I digress."
"Money?!" He weighed the bag in his hoof. It's obviously full of cash. "What should I do with this? Go shopping?"
"No, Cornfield. Listen to me. Coral needs more than one bittersweet memory."
"Yeah? I'm listening, honest. In fact I'm just not gonna say anything to show how interested I am."
"While you are travelling, take side journeys. Introduce her to more happy memories. LISTEN to her. Treat her right. Give her joyous days and never a lonely night. To let you in her heart, it will take a few tries. A lasting, happy relationship is about compromise."
Scratching his head, Cornfield chuckled nervously as he said "That sounds a little TOO mature even for a pony as old as me."
The zebra raised a suspecting eyebrow. "Answer me this: are you too focused on the body parts that are more... round, or are you wondering what she's really like deep down?"
"NO!" Cornfield shouted, taken aback from her understandable, but incorrect assumption. "I love her..." Placing his hoof on his chest, he took a deep breath and before putting on his best serious face on for Zecora. "I'll do my best. For Coral!"
Giggling at how he was looking so stern that he would pop a vein, the kind alchemist patted his shoulder gently. "I know that you will both grow closer in time. You'll set aside your differences and your lives will be more sublime." Stepping back, she poised to the door. "I've rambled enough. Take that money with you. I just hope that you know now what you need to do."
"I do." He walked with her to the door. "Let's check back on how your student is doing, huh?"
They proceeded outside only to find Coral missing from the training grounds. Zecora, in frustration, pulled her hoof up along her face. "Oh, come on now. Am I seeing this true? We were only gone for a minute or two!"
"She doesn't like to sit still, does she?" Cornfield sighed. "I wonder where she is now?"
"She must still be around here. She wouldn't venture far with dangerous creatures so near. There are two safe paths that I know are around." She pointed her hoof down a dirt road behind her hut. "One goes to a water spring..." Then, she pointed down a path by her front door. "And the other goes to town. I'll go down one path, you go the other, and we'll meet back soon. I'd like to finish her training before noon."
"So, I'll head back to town then and look for her."
"Very well, don't stray too far and be back shortly. I'll travel to the spring and see." She descended upon her path, leaving Cornfield to fend for himself.
"Hey, That didn't really rhyme that time." Before he knew it, he was the only one standing out in front of the hut, alone in the dark forest. "Oh, I guess she didn't hear me... or is she just ignoring me." Looking back briefly, he cautiously began his journey back to town.
Minutes passed, Zecora approached familiar surroundings leading to the natural spring she used as her personal bath. Some creature must have thought the same idea as she could hear splashing disrupting the otherwise tranquil waters. Carefully, the zebra peeked around the bend, hiding behind the foliage to avoid being seen. Her fears were unfounded, however, when she discovered Coral washing her body and feathers in the spring, chirping a short song to herself as she scrubbed. "Oops, so much for that mystery." Zecora whispered to herself, blushing and looking away. "I'll leave and give her privacy."
Meanwhile, outside of the forest, Cornfield made it safely within the outskirts of Ponyville. Excited to find Coral and worried about where she might get into, he figured that the best bet was to first stop by his cottage and see if she's crashing there. He opened the front door and found the inside to be vacant. Annoyed that it wasn't going to be as easy as he thought, he closed the door and begrudgingly started walking around town in search of her. After about half-an-hour, he was getting tired trying to find her and thought about going back to his cottage for a nap. However, plans changed when he spotted a glimpse of the dastardly Dr. Caballeron making his way to the train station from among the usual townsfolk traffic.
"Huh?" he thought in disbelief. "What's he doing here?!" His first instinct was to make a dash towards him, but stopped himself when he remembered the time the crook put a hoof to his family jewels. Backing away, he decided that stalking him from afar to spy on what he was up to would be smarter. That idea led to another as a light bulb went off in his head. "Maybe I should run back home, grab my camera, and do a little RECONNAISSANCE!"
He did just that as he ran home as fast as his earth pony legs could and practically bursted through the door. Reaching under his bed, he pulled out his box that contained his pride and joy, his camera. He gingerly placed the valuable tool in a pair of saddle bags, along with the sack of money given to him by Zecora. "Secret Agent Cornfield reporting for duty!" he shouted out loud to himself. "Yeah! I like the sound of that!" Wasting no time, he latched the bags to his sides and ran back to the station, praying that he wasn't too late.
Thankfully for the plucky colt, Caballeron's aggressive hubris slowed his progress to a halt as he and the station teller butted heads. Furiously, the doctor shouted from the top of his lungs "No! YOU don't understand. I don't care if the tracks from here to Mount Aris is down. I have to be there soon! Otherwise, my boss is going to VERY upset, entender?"
"Sorry," the teller responded, barely trying to keep his best customer service face without snapping., "But, we have to ensure the safety of our passenger. No trains are going to Mount Aris. Now please leave.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Cornfield steadied his camera and snapped a shot from a distance. The flash was a mere tinkle in the distance. "Mount Aris?" a thought popped up in the back of his mind. "Isn't that where Coral is from?"
"GAH!" Caballeron fumed. "Fine! You don't want to cooperate! Fine!" He stormed off from the counter in a huff and crept away from the station entirely.
Cornfield stealthy pursued him to a secluded location outside of town, where no pony can see him. "Never thought I'd end up stalking another stallion..." he thought. When the devious archeologist thought he was in the clear, Dr. Caballeron uncorked the potion he had in his satchel bag and poured it on the grass. The mixture bubbled before small lightning sparks shot up and an image was seen from the wavy blue mist emitting from the puddle of brew. A shadowy figure turned and directed his attention to who called him. The figure looked to be thin, lanky, and wearing some sort of jagged crown. His voice made him out to sound young, like a teenager. "Whoa... who's this dude?" Thinking quickly, the brave colt shimmied up a tree and sat on a sturdy branch, getting a good view of the conversation to take place.
"Did you secure the Heart, Caballeron?" the young figure inquired.
Despite the young voice, Cornfield was surprised to see Caballeron take a step back with his tail between his legs."W-Well... No... It was... already taken, sir," the doctor stuttered. "B-But we can take the Mind of Water instead, right? I mean... It's location is so close to Mount Aris that it's practically outside your front door."
"IDIOT!" the figured boomed. "The Heart is NEEDED to unlock the Mind of Water. Who is the one who beat you to it?!"
"H-Her name is Cobalt Coral... She is the hippogriff that stole the map of the Gems' location from under my nose before and slowed my progress to beat her to the punch."
"She's kinda like Daring Do, but a lot more moody." thought Cornfield, chuckling at the comparison. "But, what did he mean by 'outside his front door'?"
"Unbelievable..." said the figure, exasperated and placing his lengthy paws on his face. "The first race to fall under the Storm King's might, and one of their kind is now causing me trouble. The irony doesn't escape me. And when were you going to tell me about losing the map to her?"
"Ah ha ha," Caballeron forced a laugh. "Well, I just figured that I'd tail her trail and get the Heart before she did at the last minute."
"Ha! Beat you to it, didn't we?" the cocky colt couldn't help but whisper with a smirk.
"But, you didn't succeed," the figure stated with an authoritative tone. "You failed. You failed to take the map. You failed to get the Heart. I put my faith in a mercenary, and I've lost time, money, and The Heart of Nature." A long finger of the creature's paw pointed menacingly towards the poor doctor. "Hide well, Caballeron. Should my army find you, they are ordered to kill you."
Caballeron doubled back in terror, weak in the knees and shaking profusely. "N-NO! Please! Lord Whirlwind! Give me another chance! I won't fail you! I'll find out where the Eye of Fire and Breath of Life is on my own! We don't need the map!"
"Lord Whirlwind?" pondered Cornfield. "I should take a picture now before he disappears or something." Aiming his camera downward, he shot a picture of the shadow in the mist with a resounding click, followed by a flash from the branches.
"What as that?!" the figure shouted. "Were you followed?!"
"Impossible, nopony would-"
Before the doctor could continue, Lord Whirlwind cut him off. "I thought it would be more sporting to let my troops hunt you down, but you've become too sloppy for my liking. This is your final failure, Caballeron." The mixture on the ground was starting to bubble and hiss VERY violently.
"Oops!" blurted the young photographer. "Should of turned off the flash." He turned the camera towards himself, wondering where the switch to kill the lights were. With another click, he accidentally shot a picture of himself, blinding and surprising him with the flash. "WAAAH!" He dropped the camera, tumbled backward, and landed with his ass hitting the ground hard.
"Ow! Ah..." he rubbed his backside to try and relieve the pain. His camera was missing, however. "Oh, shit! Where did it go?" He scanned the area around him before suddenly noticing Caballeron.
Caballeron wasn't noticing HIM, however, as the shadowy image was long gone. He stumbled back as he tried to get away from the potion as fast as he could, but the mixture suddenly erupted a violent, blue explosion that rocks the area, engulfing Dr. Caballeron in the blast and blinding Cornfield. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" the villain let out a blood-curdling cry.
The colt yelped, covered his eyes with his foreleg as the force of the combustion knocked him back onto the grass. The smoke cleared as he slowly picked himself up and dusted himself off. He couldn't help but think "What happened?!"
His misaligned sight focused on Caballeron's broken body lying on the grass. Clothing was burnt and shredded off. Third-degree burns covered his body as he fruitlessly and hopelessly tried to get up. He's grunting and crying in pain. "I-I think... my ribs... are shattered..." he gasped.
The sight of his mangled state made Cornfield pause, wondering what he should do. Realizing that he has a lot of sensitive information, he quickly thought "Better grab my camera and go!" He reached around some tall grass until his hoof ran into something boxy-shaped. Recognizing it as his camera, he grabbed it, shoved it into his bag, and went to run.
"Y-You! ..." a weak voice called to him. "Please.... H-h-help me..." Caballeron could barely breathe, choking on his own fluids. "I can't... I can't...."
"Ah! What?" This strange request had Cornfield's attention, as he slowly approached him. "Save you?! B-but... You tried to kill us!"
"I realize... that... but, amigo... If you... save me... I can help you... and your... chica girlfriend..."
He coughed up puddles of blood as they sunk into the soil and absorbed in the grass.
"Ah...umm..." Wracked with a rough decision, the colt cocked his head with a hoof on his chin. "Damn! What should I do!? What would Coral say...?" he argued to himself.
The mercenary was retching in pain. "Please! A doctor! A healer! Anypony!"
"Wait a minute... If the horseshoe was on the other hoof... What would you have done?"
"Why... are you... asking... these questions... I'm dying... Do you... want my death... to weigh on... your conscience?"
"If it was you...you'd probably say something like 'This is what you get, burrito' or 'You chose this fate, jalapeno'," Cornfield mocked with a fake accent. "I think we'll be better off without a greedy thug for hire in our lives."
"Ah..." sighed the archaeologist solemnly "So... this is... how I go... mocked and... betrayed..." He's slowly closing his eyes, residing himself to his fate.
Cornfield was in a cold sweat, his eyes were darting around, hoping somepony could come and make this decision for him. Unfortunately, there's no one or nothing to make this critical moment easier. "I can't just let somepony die, but..." he covered his face with his hoof and shook his head. "What if somepony comes after me?" At that moment, he stopped thinking about himself and started thinking about someone close to him: Coral. He remembered the tales of him and his underlings stabbing her. Then, he recalled the moment when a crossbow bolt punctured her thigh. Both moments where he could have potentially lost her, and the dying pony was behind her pain. "ARRRGH! I CAN'T DO THIS!" he cried out with his emotions reaching his limit, before turning tail and fleeing the scene.
The color fades in Caballeron's eyes as he watched the young stallion give up on him and run off. He can feel his heart slow as the internal bleeding worsened.
"Ha... Fool," He wheezed. "I could have... helped...you..." his last thoughts turned to the rival that indirectly bested him at every turn. "Coral... You trained him well... I hope... he... is... worth... it..."
His heart slowed to a crawl, giving up any hope of help. No one but Cornfield knew about this event. Whether or not he would have assisted them or not was left to speculation as he drew his last breath. The infamous villain starring in many novels around Equestria, Dr. Caballeron, was dead.
Cornfield ran through the town, as ponies witnessed him passing by them, wailing aloud. Caballeron was a crook and tried to kill both him and Coral. Yet, why were there tears in the young stallion's eyes? He stopped at the base of the hill towards his house, breathing heavily. He may not have seen the bad doctor's final moments himself, but the guilt of leaving behind a life in need of help would likely haunt him to his dying day. |
The Gems Of Creation: Part 1 | 1-Finale: The Journey's Beginning | Chapter 1-Finale:
Cobalt Coral, after her cooling and relaxing bath, continued her training with Zecora, who taught her as much as she could in the ways of The Heart of Nature. The zebra's methods combined with a lack of time was grueling, but the hippogriff endured. Her control of the vines and growth of plants were not perfect, but she learned enough that she could hold her own without her guiding mentor. Inside her teacher's hut, the gem thief was lying on the floor, going over the scrolls that provided to her about the gems and writing them down on a seperate notebook to take along.
"Hmm," the treasure hunter thought to herself. "The powers of the Mind of Water are interesting, and the Eye of Fire has a lot of potential, too... Shame there isn't any information on the Breath of Life..." Her mind drifted. Though her focus was more towards her next move on her journey, she couldn't help but think of her missing partner, Cornfield. "...Where even is that idiot...? I thought he knew the Everfree Forest like the back of his hoof. He can't be lost, can he?" Thinking back before her training, she wondered what would happen if the rowdy colt caught her bathing rather than Zecora. She couldn't help but let out a giggle. "If he wanted a show... It'd be REALLY funny to tease him."
"Still... he has been gone for a while..." After jotting down the last sentences on her notes, she stood up and called out to the striped alchemist. "Sorry, Zecora. I'll be right back. Cornfield hasn't returned and I need to make sure he isn't eaten on his way over to town or something." Picturing Cornfield in a Serpent's or Hydra's mouth shouting "HAAAYULP!", she couldn't help but snicker. Still, she hoped deep down that he was ok. After Zecora wished her a safe return, she left the hut and walked down the dirt pathway out of the forest to Ponyville.
Meanwhile, the stallion in question wasn't battling a creature, but rather inside his own cottage, battling his inner demons. It didn't matter that he was unable to locate Coral himself. He HAD to return home, where he could be alone and fully realize what transpired just recently. Cornfield slammed the door shut and sat down into a upright fetal position on the floor. The saddle bag he carried was also thrown in a random corner. Here he was again, alone and in pain. This time, however, it wasn't a terrible embarrassment or broken heart. It was the death of a pony he could of helped and the arrival of a new, more dangerous foe.
"I can't believe that guy KILLED him!" his mind cried out. "He left him for dead... No... I left him for dead! It was my fault!" He rocked back and forth as he tried to convince himself that he was in the right. "I... I'm responsible?! But... If I hadn't shown up...? No...I made the right move...but-" Tears flowed on his face, letting out a defeated sob. "But, why do I feel so terrible!? Will I really be blamed for this?"
On the edge of the Everfree Forest, Coral navigated through the maze of trees and explored outside the clearing. On her way through, she didn't find hide or hair of Cornfield. "Hmm.... well, if he followed the path I was in, nothing could have happened to him," she convinced herself. Her eyelids lowered in annoyance. "He better not be at the bowling alley ogling mares again." After a quick ponder on where to start looking in town, she spread her wings and took to the air, flying towards Cornfield's hut.
The poor colt sniffled back home. "I-I hope nopony finds out about this," he hoped to himself. "But what will I tell Coral? I pray she's safe..." He shook his head and slapped his forehead with both of his hooves, trying to psyche himself up. "I gotta get over this and make sure Coral is not in any danger!" he growled out loud. Slowly standing up, he tried to shake off what was plaguing his mind, only to angrily stomp up and down. "Ugh...I STILL CAN'T GET THAT IMAGE OUT OF MY HEAD! Lord Whirlwind. I'll never forget this..."
A sudden knock on the door spooked the burdened earth pony as a voice called out from the other side. "Hey, anypony home? I got a delivery of embarrassing personal items here for a Mr. Cornfield and you need to sign for them!"
"UGH!" he cried out in shock. "THAT MUST BE MY ISSUE OF 'NURSE REDHOT VOL. 32'... hey wait... C-C-Coral, is that you?"
"No, Cornfield, it's the mayor, here to give you the ceremonial key to Ponyville. Yes, it's Coral. Are you ok in there? What was that about a nurse?"
"CORAL!" Wasting no time, he swung open the door and jumped to Coral, bear hugging her. She could feel him squeezing the air out of her like a deflated balloon.
"ACK!" she squawked. "O-Ok... Could you step back...?" she strained to utter the last word "PLEASE!"
After reliving her of the pressure on her lungs, Coral coughed a bit before Cornfield questioned her. "Where in Equestria were you? Did Zecora find you?"
"Yeah, she did." She pushed his forelegs off herself. "Not that I NEEDED to be found, but-" She stopped herself after a quick glance at his face, witnessing that his cheeks were soaked and his expression was unusually sullen. "Ok, change of topic. Where were YOU? You look like you just saw something... awful."
"I...uh..." His mouth gawked open as he scrambled in his mind what to say next. "Should I tell her?" he questioned himself. "Will she understand? Perhaps it's for the best if I..." There was a moment in which he held his foreleg and let out a loud groan, the kind from a hurt soul. "It's nothing. I, uh, went to find you and I...that Alpha Timberwolf found me and hurt me, but I got away. No big deal. He's gone now."
Coral's eyes widened with growing concern. She knew too well that those creatures were no joke. "Where exactly is the wound?"
"Uh. My left knee. But it's ok. Let's go back to Zecora."
Her worries began to fade as she studied him closely. "He's applying pressure to it," she informed herself. "He's walking fine. If it was a small injury, he wouldn't be crying. He's handled worse." Standing firm, she looked down on him with a piercing scowl. "You'd make a pretty crappy salespony, Cornfield. Because I'm not buying your story."
"What?! Look, I just want to go back to Zecora's first, OK!" Coral couldn't help but stumble back a bit from his reaction. "Better we talk about it as a group," he thought. "And even then I hope she'll just let it slip from her memory."
Coral couldn't help but stare suspiciously before putting her beak in the air, scoffing at him. "Fine, if we must go back, then that's up to you."
"I get you don't believe me, but please, it's for the best you trust me." Instinctively, Cornfield put his hoof in his mane and frazzled it in frustration. "Like Caballeron trusted me?" he chastised himself. "AAAGH!"
"Right. Just remember something."
"What, Coral?!"
"When we made up and I came clean, we made a promise to not lie or hide secrets from each other. I'm many things. A deceiver, a liar, a thief, I am all that and more." Slowly, she reached for The Heart gleaming on her chest and then covered it with her claws, closing her eyes. "But, when I made that promise to you, I swore I would keep it. I hope that you will do the same." With the flick of the tail, she turned around and walked away slowly.
"Ah..." The young colt reminded himself this promise. It was more towards her and her tricks, but he did remember the same secrets he had to hide as well. This hidden information was no different. "Oh, Coral ...I'm sorry but, when we get to Zecora's, I'll explain, ok?"
Coral stopped dead in her tracks, assured to finally get a clear answer from him. "Fine. I trust you!" she shouted back. "Just know that I didn't mean to pry, because I wanted to make what wasn't my business mine by force. I'm not trying to coerce you to doing something you didn't want to do. I just..." She hesitated as The Heart begun to shine. She whispered the end of the sentence, "You know, I... care... about you..."
Although he wasn't close enough to hear her true intentions, it didn't stop Cornfield from noticing the respect that his friend gave to him the time he needed. He nodded his head once and forced a smile. "I understand. Let's go back to Zecora's. She needs to hear this, too." His ears perked up with him shouting "Oh" as he double backed inside his house. Not wanting to keep Coral waiting, he rushed in, grabbed his saddle bag, and ran out, nearly forgetting to close the door, he galloped to join her by her side. "I have some pictures..." he stated simply and bluntly.
The treasure hunter let out a flirtatious chuckle. "If they are of the mares you like, I don't want to see them," she teased.
"Coral..." An eyebrow raised slightly on the hippogriff's face. She expected him to act embarrassed, not stern. "This is serious," he said, focusing on the path ahead to the forest. "No more jokes until after we talk to Zecora, ok?"
"Goodness, you actually do sound serious... All right, I'll stop."
"Good, then keep up."
Had it been anypony else commanding her, her pride would have her protest. However, when she stared at his face, though it was soaked with tears, she witnessed a newfound determination brewing inside of him. She couldn't help but question if this was the same stallion she met before. Her heartbeat increased, growing the grass around where she stepped. His serious side was turning out to be a turn on for her. She blushed as she looked away.
It was as if nary a moment passed when they reached Zecora's hut, traveling as a pack. The kind zebra greeted them as soon as they opened the door, while she's cooking a sweet-smelling potion in her pot. "Oh, there you are!" she laughed, secretly relieved that she wouldn't be permanently down two guests. "See? I didn't know what you were worried for. Finally, you two are together once more."
"Yeah..." the emotionally-drained pony hesitantly agreed. "Are we going to start training again?"
"Well, Coral will have to really try to perfect her flower blooming. Why?"
"Yeah, well, I don't know if I'm in the mood to train with a clouded conscience," the student in question objected and pointed at her parallel partner. "Perhaps good ol' Cornfield can elaborate?"
"Ugh..." he muttered, not expecting to be put on the spot so soon. "Zecora, can you make us some tea first?"
"I think I can make us all a pot today," agreed the good alchemist as she walked to her cupboard of various herbal mixes. "Black, green, or earl grey?
"Oh, I don't care which," said Coral as she looked at the colt for his response. "Cornfield?"
"Anything that'll help me relax, please," he requested.
Zecora put a kettle of water on an iron stove and turned the heat on. She threw her own special brew of tea leaves in before going back to stirring her cauldron. "Your path will be dangerous, so I'm mixing both of you a vial of my best healing brew," she rhymed. "It might be my last mix, after all, since The Heart of Nature is in Coral."
"That's appreciated."
"Yeeeeah, about that..." Coral said as she brushed her claws through her mane nervously. "Ummm.... How long do you have until the Everfree Forest withers?"
"A season, give or take a few days," the zebra said bluntly. "Unless, the Heart is back where it lays."
"Huh... What'll happen after that?" Cornfield asked curiously.
"The animals will migrate and find a new place to stay. I suppose with no herbs for medicine, I'll also be on my way." Zecora's voice started to tremble a bit mid-rhyme, sad that she had to possibly leave her home and friends behind. "The trees will be dry, and land will be clear. There won't be a single flower, plant, or creature around here."
What a heart-rending answer. Quite literally, considering the fact that Coral forced The Heart of Nature away from the forest. She felt a tinge of guilt, as she never intended to take this zebra's livelihood away from her as well. "But, does that mean the animals might overrun Ponyville?" her partner questioned, worried about the other ponies in town.
"Oh, the possibility is certainly there. They might turn to Ponyville when they can't go anywhere." Aware that the two of her guests exchanged worried glances at each other, Zecora waved her hoof to try and ease their fears. "I'll talk to Twilight. Tell her about the land. Tell her about your circumstances. I'm sure she'll understand. It's better with Coral in the long run. Better than that scoundrel, Caballeron."
"Agh!" Cornfield shouted with his ears perked up as high as they could go, before slumping his head down with a pained groan. His cry startled Coral, as she flinched from the outburst. However, seeing the poor stallion in pain, she carefully approached closer and placed her talons gingerly on his shoulder.
"Cornfield...?" she whispered to him with a comforting tone. Feeling him tense up, the house hung in silence for what seemed like the entire day. There were no further complaints from the treasure hunter, however. She knew the signs of inner turmoil well enough to know something was eating him up inside.
"Caballeron..." he finally uttered with his voice shaking. "...He's dead."
Jerking her claws away, the hippogriff stumbled back in shock. "W-What?!?" Zecora's head turned toward him with her jaw hanging, almost dropping the tea cups. "D-do you mean back at the ruins when it collapsed? ...I know him. He probably escaped. I know his type. They tend to die hard."
"NO!" Cornfield shouted to shake her out of her ruminations. "He's dead... he's dead... because, I... REFUSED to help him! Breathing heavily, he hung his head to the floor. "So... it's my fault..." he whispered.
"Ok, Cornfield. It's time to talk." Coral stepped to put herself in front of him and, with his chin in her grip, gently lifted his head to encourage contact with her sparkling sea-blue eyes. "What happened when you were in Ponyville?"
"Well...You see....I...Er-" He struggled to put two words together in regards of the grim details. He pulled away from his partner's grasp and turned to Zecora. "Do you know anypony by the name of... um... Lord Whirlwind?" he asked.
"No," the striped host answered. "That name escapes me. Care to share who he might be?"
"... Lord Whirlwind?" Coral whispered, staring at the floor in contemplation. The name was new to her as well, but it also sounded familiar in a sense.
"All I have are photos," stated Cornfield as he reached into his saddle bag and carefully held his camera out for all to see.
"Are the photos in your camera developed?"
"Oh well, it's an instant camera. We just open this compartment and-" Fiddling with the bottom of the camera, the lid flied open and erupted a bunch of photos in the air before descending onto the floor. "Oops!" In the mix, unsurprisingly, were plenty of pictures of mares. The focus was on their buttocks, tails high in the air and docks underneath, with the shooter struggling to zoom in on their more intimate folds. Interestingly, there was also a up-close photo of an angry grey pony. Her eyes blaring green with the shimmer of limes.
Seeing more than enough of the photos, Coral jerked her field of view away with her face turning red in both embarrassment and anger. It took every inch of willpower to not slam his debaucherous face to the ground. "Oh, Cornfield, you pervert! I was kidding when I said you had photos of other girls! What is wrong with you?!"
"OH BUCK! I meant to put those away!" He scrambled to grab the photos from the floor, using his body to censor them from prying eyes. "DON'T LOOK!" Clutching his pictures in his forelegs, he aligned and shuffled them neatly. Trying to keep them turned over as to hide their contents. Coral and Zecora snuck to his side as he approached the zebra's table to find the card he's looking for. "Ok, hold on." He began to flip through each one carefully, rejecting each picture meant for his personal album. "No...No...No...No...No...No..."
"If I find that I'm one of the mares in your pictures, you'll feel the sting of my thorns," the hippogriff seethed, still disgusted from his private interests. And yet, part of her thought about what it meant if she was. "Of course, if it was JUST pictures of me, it wouldn't be as big an issue. Heh. Actually, it'd be a littler flattering. But, nope, I'd be just flavor-of-the-day mixed in with the rest of those whores. And to think I shown pity to him!"
"Heeeey... I would never-" The stallion cut his excuse short when he finally found the photo he was looking for in the stack. "Oh! This is it." He pulled out a picture of Caballeron and the mysterious figure, formed from the liquid on the grass, and put it on the table for all to see. Stealthily, he shoved the rest of his pictures back into his camera and the camera in his bag, whispering holding the final straggler. "Ah, she's definitely a keeper."
Coral peered closely at the picture, squinting at the shadow in the potion's haze. Then, her eyes widened as her pupils shrunk. Terrible memories flooded her mind as her whole body quivered uncontrollably. "A.... A-ah... N-... N-no..." Her tongue was failing her. She tried in desperation to get all her thoughts and words together, but it all came out in fragments. "N-n.... no... it... cannot... it..." Swiping the photo off the table, her eyes could not look away from the unmistakable jaggedness of the Storm King's crown. She stumbled back, falling on her haunches with the photo firmly grasp in her claws. Her breathing became sporadic as the gem on her chest dimmed.
"What is it, Coral?!" The young colt panicked, not knowing what to do. Thankfully, Zecora was able to come to her aid after she let out a worried gasp.
The good witch doctor did nothing yet but observe and ready a diagnosis. "Short, panicked breathing, fear in her eyes, her mind is no doubt replaying how her family dies. I had my doubts before, but I know what's deep inside her. She's suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder!"
Cornfield braced himself from this bit of news. He knew that she had her share of troubles, but he didn't think a creature as snarky and cocky would allow her worst memories to pull her down to this level. "And I thought Caballeron's death was traumatic!"
"Th- that's... but he's....He's supposed to be DEAD!!!" Throughout her life, this particular hippogriff learned that the Storm King was a buffoon. He had no business being in power, considering how childish he could be when seemingly no one was watching. However, that didn't mean his army was toothless. Their brutality, which he and his commanders fully utilized, conquered lands and slaughtered untold numbers. His crown and lightning bolt symbol was a stabbing reminder of that power. A shriek similar to an eagle's cry forced itself out of her beak as she wailed in agony.
"Shh..." Zecora quietly whispered as she stroked the suffering hippogriff's neck. "Shhhh... It's ok. We want to know what this is all about. Coral, breath in deep. In and out... In... and out..."
Trying her best to follow along Zecora's instructions, the nerve-wrecked avian took long deep breaths in between her whimpering. After several long exhales, her heart rate decreased enough to communicate clearly, though she couldn't stop herself from crying. Cornfield inched closer to try and comfort her, but also respected her space.
"T-That figure..." she said as she gasped for air. "That's the Storm King! B-but how? He was... shattered when he turned into a statue. He's dead!"
"What!?" exclaimed Cornfield. "That's crazy! The Storm King was huge! But, this guy sounded... small. I'd guess he's not even as old as me."
"He... He's not? H-he's got his crown... but..." Finally realizing that she had crumbled the photo in her fit of anguish, she slowly picked herself up and unravelled the photo in her trembling talons. She peered once more to make out the shape of the shadow, trying to pay no mind to the crown on its head. After double and triple checking that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, she confirmed the young photographer's claims as she handed it back to him. "It's not him... He's very similar looking... but it's not him..."
"Storm King and Lord Whirlwind... Do you think they may be related?"
"He might, or he might be one of his commanders who overtook the empty throne... Lord Whirlwind, is it? And he's working with Caballeron?"
Cornfield hung his head despairingly. "Was... Actually, it was Lord Whirlwind that murdered him."
Replacing the dark clouds of her own life, Coral feared the future of Equestria. "When you kill one of your subordinates for not living up to your expectations, I'm sure that automatically makes you a tyrant. Not that we needed another murderous monkey willing to fill in the Storm King's pawsteps..."
Both her and her earth pony friend turned their heads towards the direction of Zecora forcefully clearing her throat. "I don't mean to pry, but how did he die?"
Hesitating to respond but desperate to get it off his chest, he sat down on the floor to prepare his story. "W-well......it goes like this..." The afternoon sun was making its descent downwards, as Cornfield explained how he saw Caballeron at the station, followed him to his meeting with Lord Whirlwind, overheard him saying why he failed and the hippogriff that foiled him, and the moment the liquid blew up on Caballeron. "Then, he was just lying there...on his side." He paused as he replayed his dying moments in his head. "...Pleading for me to help him... as he bled to death...ugh..."
All Coral could simply add to this new development was a simple hum of understanding. Zecora, however, was more proactive in pressing further. "And even after he would beg and plead, you simply turned tail and let him bleed?" she questioned with a judgemental tone in her voice. "You should have brought him straight to me. I would have made his survival a guarantee."
It was Cornfield's turn to cry as tears pooled around his eyes and dripped to the floor. His head hung low defeatedly, as he tried his best to compose himself and explain his reasons. "I...I..." he muttered, unable to talk. The room fell silent as his chest spasmed a bit from trying to hold back.
"Hey, Zecora."
Zecora turned her attention to Coral, who was looking rather crossed while she watched Cornfield crying. "How's the view from the self-righteous soapbox you're on?" the haughty hippogriff asked sarcastically.
The crying colt lifted his head expectantly after his friend announced she had his back. She gave a small, knowing smile back at him. "...I-I couldn't trust him!" he continued with more confidence. "What if he went after us!?"
"Even if he did," Zecora interrupted with a disciplinary attitude, "The right thing to do would be-"
The smile on Coral's beak immediately became a scowl directed towards her teacher. "Yeah, ok, with all due respect, Zecora, shut UP."
Almost not believing what her student just said, Zecora was shocked silent after being reality checked and mate. Meanwhile, Cornfield had a twinkle in his eye as he inched closer to his object of affection. "Coral, you understand, don't you?" He wished deep inside that she would.
"Apparently, more than Zecora." She sauntered her way over to his side, and planted her talons on his back. Then, she faced the zebra, not willing to give her an inch on the argument. "Zecora, let's stop pretending this is a moral choice issue and look at the facts. One, he threatened to kill Cornfield. Two, he threatened to kill me. Oh, and before I forget, three, he threatened to kill YOU." She lightly scratched her friend's back, trying to loosen him up. For all it's worth, it felt soothing. "I know his type perfectly. He tried to play his cards so he came out on top and use everypony else as a stepping stone. Instead, he died a rogue's death, with not a friend to help him because he backstabbed them all."
Her talons could feel the muscles loosen up as he felt more relaxed after hearing a second opinion. "Thank you, Coral. I feel better about it now." He looked over his shoulder to her eyes as they exchanged smiles. "To tell you the truth, I asked myself what you would of done in that situation..."
Zecora huffed a bit, but also found their friendship budding to be endearing. "It's a good thing you changed your ways before he was gone. One could easily see you dying in the same position he was on," she said to Coral. Angry that the zebra wouldn't learn to drop it already, the hippogriff shot daggers from her eyes at her direction. "But I concede. You are right. He was a crook who would stab us in the night. Perhaps Cornfield's choice was, indeed, wise, if he didn't mean ill in your eyes."
Cornfield contemplated what happened today. "You know, between his death, you crying, me crying... This has been quite a day in itself..." At that point, he remembered that he needed something relaxing. "Hey! Where's the tea?!"
As if on cue, the teapot's spout began to whistle and the top rattled about. "Oh! Of course, how silly of me! Let me go and get your tea!" Zecora went to the stove, poured piping hot tea for her guests, and placed the wooden tea cups on the table.
Thanking her, they both took a cup and sat by the fire bubbling the cauldron in the middle of the room. The young colt was the first to take a sip, only for him to recoil and spit out what little scalding liquid was on his tongue. "GAH!" he yelled. "IT'S HOT!"
Chuckling, Coral nudged him playfully, almost causing him to spill more hot tea on his lap and burning more delicate areas. "Hehehehe, you idiot," she teased. "How are you feeling? Better about your decision?"
"Yeah..." Before taking another sip, he blew on the tea until the surface was cool enough. "But it still weighs heavy on me. I didn't see him die, but I could tell he did."
She solemnly gave a piercing look at him drinking his tea for a few seconds before trying to get him to brush it off. "Heh. Don't let it get to you. You were being smart and not giving him the chance to double-cross you." She followed Cornfield's example to cool her beverage before taking a sip herself. "By the way... I need to know. What was it that really made Lord Whirlwind flip his lid like that?"
"He didn't tell Whirlwind you stole the map from before and, learning this, he got REALLY angry with Caballeron." He took another sip. "It sounds like he's got his own gang, too. That low-down crook was intimidated by the threat they posed."
"... A gang?" She put her tea down before showing Cornfield a dead-serious expression. He saw it through the corner of his eye and obliged with his face to hers. "Cornfield. He doesn't have a gang. If that guy is serious... He might have an army of the Storm King's soldiers to back him up..."
"Aw. NOT AGAIN! How many times does some evil being wants to either destroy, enslave, or conquer us?!" He complained."
"Beats me. Equestria sure is a magnet for megalomaniacs. My homeland got invaded only once. Your country, on the other hoof? It's got aspiring tyrants constantly coming out of the woodwork."
Suddenly, the mentioning of her home caused another bit of Caballeron's conversation to strike his mind. "OH YEAH! I found out where the Time of Water is!"
"Err, what? The..." She cocked her head to the side. "Time of Water?" Her crests perked up as she mentally deciphered what he was trying to say. "Oh! You mean the Mind of Water, right? Yeah, I know where that is, too. It's near my country, Mount Aris. The map points towards it."
"Oh, you knew?"
"Yes. All of the hippogriffs that live in Seaquestria know about it. It's what introduced me to The Gems of Creation in the first place." Clutching the warm homemade brew in her claws again, she was about to take a sip, but hesitated. "How... did you come to know that it was in Mount Aris? I don't think I shown you the old map in full detail. Just where The Heart of Nature lied." Satisfied with her question, she took another long sip of tea.
"Oh, Caballeron said it was so close to Mt. Aris, but Lord Whirlwind said that he needed The Heart of Nature to get it."
A terrifying thought shocked Coral as she spat out her tea and dropped her cup, its steaming contents spilled on the floor. Scooching himself away from the mess, he cowered away from the angry hybrid as she shot him the meanest glare he's ever seen in his life! "CORNFIELD!" she squawked!
"...S-Something wrong?!" he muttered quiveringly.
She placed her claws on both of his shoulders and shook him to and fro mercilessly. "Why didn't you say anything SOONER?!"
"W-w-w-what's-s-s-s-s y-y-y-y-your p-p-p-p-problem!?" his words reverberated from being rattled like a foal and his new toy. Then, she pulled him close where he was practically nose-to-beak with her. The helpless colt flashbacked to when he'd get caught taking "lucrative photos" and getting a back-hoof to the face.
"He knows I'm a hippogriff, Cornfield! If Lord Whirlwind is from the Storm Kingdom, he's going to take whatever army that's left and tear Mount Aris apart looking for me and The Heart of Nature!"
Zecora, understanding what the reckless bird was planning to do next, gathered some bottles to contain her healing mixture. "And," Coral continued, "I want you to follow along on this one, the reason my homeland was taken over so fast was because the Storm Kingdom is to Mount Aris's immediate LEFT. It's practically a stone's throw away!"
She let the poor, dizzy stallion go as she scrambled onto her claws and rushed to her bags to pack as quickly as she could. Cornfield struggled getting back up, saying "Ahh... If this is what a relationship's about, I don't think I'm ready for commitment in this lifetime." Dusting himself off, he got on his hooves. "Why would he proceed to attack Mount Aris?" he questioned. "Does he even know that you're there?"
"Catch up, Cornfield!" she snapped back from across the hut. "Ponies live in Equestria, griffons live in Griffinstone, and hippogriffs live in Mount Aris. Even if I'm not there, it will be the first place he'll look and I don't know what he plans to do there."
"Then why even go to Mount Aris if they're going to attack it?" he yelled to try and snap her out of a rash decision. She responded by stretching her vines, wrapping them around his barrel, and pulling him forcefully along the ground towards her. Fear built up in him as he was dragged literally through the dirt to her murderous grimace.
"If it comes down to it, Cornfield," she rasped in a deathly low tone, "I would rather DIE than let that upstart lord bring upon another tragedy like the Storm King's first invasion."
The vines squeezing this stomach tight, all her poor sidekick could squeak out was a simple "ok". He inhaled sharply after she unraveled her vines and continued packing.
"I'm sorry, Zecora, but I have no time for more training," Coral called out to her mentor.
"I will have to learn how to make blossoms as I go on my trip."
"I understand your urgency, but don't do anything too hasty," warned the zebra while she was in the middle of filling, corking, and labelling a couple flasks. "Remember that The Heart unlocks the Mind's way through. Without the Heart, there's not much Whirlwind can do."
"While I wish we can share your patience, Zecora, if Whirlwind is so eager to kill Caballeron for failing to get the heart, that just tells me he's willing to kill as many hippogriffs as it takes before he finds me." After filling and strapping her bags to herself, she gazed down at her talons as they turn green and jut out sharp thorns. "I'll just need to make sure that I'm the first hippogriff he sees. And when I wrap my vines around his neck and puncture the arteries in his throat with my thorns, I will be the last."
Coral's digits return to normal as Zecora approached her and Cornfield with 4 potions, 2 for each. Both of the intrepid adventurers added the doctor's boon to their respective inventories. "Take caution to your anger, Coral," she warned the ferocious creature. "Do not let the Heart's wrath unwind. An eye for an eye will make Equestria go blind."
"Better heed her advice, Coral," her plucky partner chimed in. "We can't abuse the power or it could consume you. That's the whole point, remember?"
"I'm flattered that you would worry about me," the hippogriff said. "But, if I have to use it to fight for my home, I will." After a few glances around the room to make sure she wasn't missing anything, she looked at her friend who was raring to go. Not just because he was young, he wanted the opportunity to prove his worth. "Ready to roll, then?"
"Ok!" Being a gentlecolt, he ran to the door and opened it for her, gesturing to go through. "After you!"
"Thank you, kind sir!" Carefully navigating through the room and out the door, they turned towards the path towards Ponyville and sped to a gallop together. Cornfield was following right behind her with Zecora coming out to wish them the best.
"Farewell, dear friends!" the witch doctor shouted as she waved behind them. "Be safe out there! Coral, remember! Your anger, beware!"
Her visitors now gone, the zebra returned inside her hut, with something bothering her in the back of her mind. "If danger is bringing its ugly head near, it may be for Equestria's leaders to hear." Within deeper contemplation, she figured that it was too premature to call it in. After all, the laws that govern the safety of the land's inhabitants may not tolerate a sexual deviant and a vigilante thief. "Alas, help may not come as quickly as I desire. I'll meditate on what I should do to avoid unneeded ire."
Zecora's words echoed in Coral's ears as she left. She wondered if her emotional instincts would hinder more than help her on her journey. This slowed her to the point for the trailing pony to catch up.
"Hey! Aren't you in a hurry?" he yelled slowing his pace beside her. "Come on!"
"I am! I am!" she reassured as she kept his pace.
"But how should we get to Mount Aris so quickly? The train?"
"The train seems like the best option. It will take us to Kludgetown where we can take a ferry to cross the sea. I'm not carrying you while I'm flying the entire way!"
Coral followed the resident of Ponyville as he guided her out of the forest and across town, finally having reached the train station. Incidentally, this was where Caballeron had tried to buy a ticket from before. "Hey, this is-" but Cornfield was cut mid sentence as she wasted no time to make her way to the teller's window.
"Excuse me!" she addressed the teller on the other side, trying to catch her breath. "We need to tickets to Mount Aris and I'm willing to pay any price for it!"
The teller looked at her, curious as to why she was in a hurry, but continued his work. "Sorry, Miss," he answered back. "There are no trains going to Mount Aris. The tracks are busted from Appleloosa to Kludgetown."
"What?! NO!" Unable to control her temper, she slammed a clenched fist on the wall next to the window, startling the poor stallion on the other side. It stung upon impact, but the pain was completely overshadowed by rage. "Novo and Skystar, WHY NOW?"
"Oh, yeah, that's right!" Cornfield remembered. "Caballeron was here demanding the... same... thing." Even though she wasn't looking directly at him, he could still feel the red-hot fury emanating from her. He swallowed before letting out a nervous chuckle and tried looking away as she confronted him, sweating bullets.
"Once again! YOU withhold the most crucial bit of information until the very last minute!" The voice of her wise mentor chimed in, seeing herself yelling at her cowering friend. She took a deep breath to cool herself off before opening her saddle bags and pulling out her map and her trusty pencil. "You're just lucky I have a knack of finding a way out of jam."
"That was scary!" the colt thought as he place a hoof on his chest and sighed. "For a second there, I thought she was gonna bite my head off." He watched as she placed the map on the floor, then traced a line eastward from Ponyville on the aptly-named "Friendship Express" to Baltimare, and finally traced a dotted line through the sea, along the coast of the continent, southward towards Mount Aris. "We're swimming through the sea?" he naively asked.
"Get a clue, genius! We're taking a boat." Coral rolled up the map, placed it and her pencil in her bags, and turned to the teller. "Two tickets to Baltimare."
"That'll be 16 bits for the both of you," the teller informed.
"16 bits?!" exclaimed Cornfield as he gently pushed his date to let him be beside her. "Just to go to Baltimare?"
"We've increased the price because there's a farmer's market festival going on in Baltimare. There's increased traffic and we need to cover the cost of maintenance."
"Hey, buddy!" pestered the rowdy colt. "It's not our fault they hold a festival and your trains are ill-equipped for it. How about 10 bits?"
Without warning, Coral placed a shining gem on the counter. "How about I give you a diamond if we can speed this along?" she offered the teller, who was clearly taken back at how a rare stone was shoved in reach of his hooves.
"Yeah! Come on buddy," taunted the young photographer. "What are you gonna say to the nice sexy lady?"
Without thinking twice, the teller scooped up the diamond, hid it away, and gave them their tickets. "Train arrives in 15 minutes," he blurted out quickly, grinning ear-to-ear. "Have a nice day! And thank you for riding the 'Friendship Express. Your transport to other fun-loving Equines something-something-yadda-yadda'." The two travellers obtained their individual tickets. Happy to get her way, the alluring hippogriff trotted towards a nearby bench to take a seat, purposefully leaving space for her tag-along as she casually motioned him to sit next to her.
He obliged as he sat close to her. "So," he said still wary of her temper. "What should we do once we get to the city?"
"Certainly not any pleasantries," she answered bluntly. "I'm going straight to the docks and getting a boat to Mount Aris."
"I knew that!" he was quick to state back with an insincere chuckle. "What do you think I am? Some kind of idiot?"
"Heh. Not as dumb as the teller. I hope he enjoys his chunk of cubic zirconia."
"Hah! Yeah, I knew that was no diamond!"
Coral sharply jabbed the blabbermouth in his side with her elbow. "Not so loud, dumbass."
"Ow!" Cornfield exclaimed, rubbing where she might have bruised a rib. "Oh, sorry..." An awkward silence hangs over for a few seconds. "Ummm... What is cubic sir-corn-uh?"
"Zir-con-i-a," she spelled out slowly. "It's a synthetic made through apprenticeship spells. It looks like a diamond, but it's practically worthless."
"Oh..." Another awkward silence passes over as Cornfield started fidgeting. "So... are we gonna rent a boat?"
"If everything goes according to my plan. If not, I'll use REAL gems instead." As she gave more thought about what exactly those monkeys might do, especially when they get to her homeland, she grew more concerned for the poor fool she was dragging along. "Cornfield, I want to ask you something..." shifting her focus on said individual.
"Oh...?"
"Well, I'm actually giving you more of a choice." She leaned her head closer as she looked into the colt's eyes with a worried expression pouring over her. "I'm not going to lie to you... Um, intentionally, I mean... If this is as bad as I think it's going to get, you are going to be in serious danger. I know you said you wanted to tag along, but-"
"I've almost seen one pony die," he interrupted. "Not to mention survived those trials in that ruin containing The Heart of Nature. After going through those, I think I have the confidence to take on anything." Putting on his best winning smile, he uttered a phrase that would be famous last words for a lot of creatures. "What could possibly go wrong?"
She paused, taking what he said as seriously as she could. "... I don't know, and it's the fear of the unknown that scares me the most."
"If we keep our wits and your emotions in check, we should do fine!" Wanting to make a rebuke but thought better of it, Coral leaned back on the bench and closed her eyes, waiting for the train to come soon. "It hasn't been too long since you were in heat, has it?"
Her eyes shot open bloodshot as she wretched her body away from him. "W-WHAT?! What kinda question is that?!"
Panicking, Cornfield scrambled off of the bench and stood up on his hind legs trying to explain her as he's sweating profusely. "I-I just meant that...if we're out there and your.. you know... Feminine nature starts... I just want to be sure-"
"Y-You!" she stammered, red as a beet. "Here I am, worried of you and your well-being, and your mind is focused on when the right moment would be to stick your dick in me?!"
"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! No! No!" He reeled back, waving his hooves at her frantically and trying to defuse the scene. "Nothing like that I swear!" He leaned in closed with an anxious grin to whisper to her. "It's just...I've heard about mares getting really irritable when they don't get 'some' during their cycle. And... was kinda wondering how it is with birds- I mean, hybirds- I MEAN, HIPPOGRIFFS! ...uh...Th-that's all!"
She sat there, unable to believe what she just heard. Her jaw hanged before she pinched her beak in utter annoyance with a exasperated sigh. "... You're lucky you're dependable in a pinch, or I'd be tying you to the tracks right now."
The thought of becoming a damsel-in-distress by a damsel who BRINGS distress was a disturbing image. He hesitated to answer before thinking it was a joke. "...Oh. Hahaha! You're so funny, Coral! I really thought you meant it for a second..."
She sighed again and quickly emptied her mind with a deep breath. "Because of your resolve to come with me no matter what, I choose to tolerate your perverted gutter mind for the duration of this trip. I just hope you are ready to leave Ponyville behind."
Inching a little closer, he whispered again, "So, does that mean it was... recent? The last time...?"
She said nothing. Instead, Cornfield was faced with an expressionless femme fatale, sitting completely still, as vines sprouted from her claws. When the thorns thrusted out from the embedding plant flesh, they made a sharp, piercing sound. The fool slowly realized he pressed his luck too far as he slowly and carefully went back to his seat. "Aaaanyway...."
"Yeah. That's right. Drop the subject," Coral commanded as her claws reverted back. "And I wasn't kidding about tying you to the tracks." Looking down, her talons reached to feel The Heart of Nature grafted onto her chest. After glancing at Cornfield, then back to her gem, she thought to herself "This is going to be a looooong journey..." |
The Third Diary | pre | "Hey, ya have always said that ya should turn your weakness into strength. If ya think about it ya have way more chances to improve yourself than other ponies."
"Heh," I snort, hiding a shocked chuckle, "That's a way to think about it, certainly. Unfortunately, I'd need more than one lifetime of that to make me at least go even with any normal pony."
"Good thing ya keep rising from the dead then, eh?"
"Heavens above, how I miss you, Chokey!"
What's stopping you from seeing me again?
She is. Our past actions are.
"Huh?" I turn my head at her surprised voice just to see her looking around, "Have we been outside THAT long?"
The steel grey clouds above us are still moving at the same pace but the shadows around us are rapidly getting darker. It is completely plausible that my current resurrection is messing with my head and the entire landscape inside. On the other hoof, when were things ever easy for me?
*Siiiiiiiiiigh*
"You know... sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I wasn't right EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME!"
The rush of adrenaline is enough to wash away my exhaustion and I jump out of the wheelchair. Focus, something to deal with is what I needed.
On cue, black smoke pours out of the windows of shattered buildings all around.
Whether it's some sort of monstrosity looking for me or Mistake's creation designed to destroy my personality I don't care. All I see is an enemy, a riddle to solve. If I can't punch it I have to run away until I can.
At least one thing is simple - there's only one way to run. Am I being led somewhere? Maybe. Do I care? Not really. Is it faster than a running pony? Of course.
A crossroad. Broken traffic lights hanging from bent steel poles. Smoke behind us. Breath sticking in my throat. The trotting of Chokey's hooves by my side. Pure joy.
Question numero uno - how do we get back to the asylum? Question numero dos - do I want to get back? Question numero I don't speak said language - will there be cake?
With just one glance behind me I see the entire street is blocked by wall of darkness getting closer and crushing rubble along the way. Here comes clue number one - crunching pieces of concrete slows it down albeit just by a tiny bit. Solution appears - take to any of the streets perpendicular to this one and try to go around through a partially standing building. That could give the darkness something to munch on while granting us some time.
Any better idea? Nope.
And so we flee to the left. I could have taken the right path but I'm just trying to be thematic.
"Chokey-haaah-got any-haah-ideas?" I croak, galloping between overturned carts and avoiding trash cans strewn all over the street.
"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" she keeps to my side. Knowing full well that she's way faster than me I'm grateful for that but can't resist making a little jab.
"Heh, thought so."
"I'M NOT DUMB!"
"Never-hah-said-hah-that-hah-and never-hah-will. Atleastnotinfrontofyou."
"Love ya too, dummy. Oh hey," she grins as she looks behind her and gets easily in front of me, "it's getting closer."
"LEFT!" I yell at her and she turns at almost right angle, "MALL!"
The malls in Manehattan are large complexes with a long central hall leading through it on sides of which there are various stores, large and small. Ignoring the decorative greenery, potted plants, and benches, I try to keep up with Chokey.
Of course... nothing could be easy.
There's a crack in the floor leading down into the cellar and the depths of the sewer system. It's too wide for me to jump across and I still have no feeling in my new wings. Thankfully, my claws are really good at gripping so when Chokey says-
"Jump on my back!"
-I gladly obey.
"Right here and now, you dirty-minded bat?"
"Oh shut up!" she groans. The problem is that I'm heavier than ever before. My hippogriff form is bigger, although not by a lot, and I seem to have gained weight without my guard training. Chokey's never been strong anyway which drastically hampers her speed.
The few pony lengths may as well take eternity, especially after such a long run, and chewing through the mass of concrete, steel, and glass is slowing the black mist far less than I thought it would. It gets close enough and its destruction makes a loadbearing wall crumble.
I manage to jump from Chokey's back to the other end of the gap. My movement pushes her down, however, and I hear a wet slap from behind followed by one of my hind legs being dragged back into the tear in the floor.
A piece of rubble must have hit Chokey as she's now hanging by my leg with her hooves slipping before my eyes and one wing completely limp.
She's either just a construct of my imagination or Mistake's creation he's been using to manipulate me. I could easily shake her off and run. She would want it and I have no doubt she'd reappear back in the asylum.
Surely...
Probably...
Maybe...?
That's why I ignore the pain in my sides and pull my leg up.
Bending like a pretzel, I catch a glimpse of her resigned look right before my talons grab her hoof and I heave. Slipping on the dusty floor, I pull her up.
"What? Are ya stupid?" she slaps me weakly with her hoof before we instinctively run again. Even this tired we can outrun the darkness while it has to demolish the mall.
"I couldn't just leave you, you idiot!" I yell, disbelieving my actions need explaining.
"Why? You hate me!"
"WHAAAAAAAT?!" I screech and stumble over a piece of broken pillar.
Focuuuuus!
Running again, we clear the other exit of the mall and I see the high walls of the asylum gardens on the horizon.
I also realize I know my surroundings.
Of course the asylum wouldn't be far away from THAT. Mistake wouldn't create a fortress far away from the little piece of sanity I built in this place.
The exit leads to a destroyed city square far smaller than the major ones but much less derelict. There is no rubble strewn around, there are no deep scars leading to the depths of the sewers, there is only a small brown tent with a campfire inexplicably still burning.
The campsite I built.
I stop here and so does Chokey.
"Eeeerm?" she looks at me, eyes wide and breathing raggedly.
I realize the asylum is unimportant, that the entire city is unimportant. This is the only place worth protecting right now. The one and only result of me finally fixing the mess I made of my life.
Something which would be impossible without Mistake.
If I don't have power here then I don't have power anywhere.
"Mistake!" I call out.
The black mist surrounds the clearing and is stopped by an invisible dome, the flames of the campfire get weaker, and the black unicorn appears, blue mane moving in the rising wind.
"Glad you're safe," he smiles, "but I'm not sure how long that's gonna last."
"I need to sort something out and I need you and the others for it," Mistake raises an eyebrow and Cromach appears, followed by Heavy. Chokey's comment cut deeper than any insult could have but it brought a little clarity with it. I need to know something, "Do all of you think I hate you?"
"Well duh!" Chokey waves her hoof around, "I know I deserve it for cheating on you and taking time off for myself so I didn't have to feel guilty."
"Yes, you have a good reason to," Cromach looks at the ground for a moment, "I turned on you when you needed me the most. Without my selfishness you would have still been alive and, hopefully, sleeping next to me. I was so quick to believe what the others said about you that I didn't even bother trying to find out the truth from you."
Heavy looks straight at me.
"You hate me because I am everything you've ever wanted to be but never had the strength or courage to become."
Every single confession is like a spike through my chest but none of them hurt more than what Mistake mumbles while looking at me through tearing up eyes.
"You... actually believed this," he points at the black storm raging outside of our little flickering dome of peace and safety, "was my doing. I failed you. I wasn't good enough to make you believe in me so I'm not going to stop or try to persuade you anymore. You were right all along. Well, not in me doing this to get rid of you but... you know what I mean."
Aside from Mistake all of them are what 'I' believe them to be. Is this really what I think?
AM I THAT STUPID?!
"I do have a habit of seeing the worst in everything and letting it get to me, don't I?" I smile sadly, "No, guys, I don't hate any of you. You are the biggest blessing I could have gotten and I didn't appreciate you because I was selfish. Mistake got it right."
The unicorn in question looks up, eyes wide.
Taking a deep breath, I return to the old days of me just being an emotionally unstable young colt who got at least one thing right.
A mirror appears, showing a bronze hippogriff.
"I hate YOU, you insecure trash! You didn't give Chokey a chance to recover from feeling pretty awful while staying your friend, possibly with benefits, ehm. Yeah, you had a good reason but you had an even better reason to stay with her and the reason was THAT SHE NEEDED YOU! That's the ONLY thing that should have mattered to you. You used to be like that once but somewhere, I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE, you started thinking you were WORTH MORE for some reason! You saved the world just for her, after all."
I look at Cromach and then back at my reflection.
"You didn't treat him much better, did you? You suspected that Nightmare had something to do with his acts in Golden Sands but instead of letting him explain you tried to avoid him in case you were wrong. You were weak and terrified of the truth and, honestly, you still are. You made Heavy promise he wouldn't let him talk you out of getting blasted by the Elements and you took the 'easy' way out instead of just... being a stallion for once."
The mirror shatters and I turn to the white stallion.
"Heavy, you are the only one at least partially right. I can't ever become as good as you. You are... one in a billion."
He hangs his head.
"What I can do is look at you and with every look see what I can improve. You are the straightest, sorry for the joke, the kindest, and the most loyal pony I know. I distanced myself from you because I was jealous of Cross stealing you away. Just like with Chokey I screwed up and thought that just because you weren't at my side all the time you would never again be."
The three of them disappear.
"Mistake, do you really think I can forgive myself for all that?"
"Of course you can," Mistake smiles exhaustedly, "You always do the right thing... eventually... in the end... when there's no other option."
"All right then. I have a job for you."
He looks around at the shield shaking under the pressure of the black mist.
"Is this the right time and place?"
"Yes. You will remember this and REPEAT it to me whenever needed! I will keep fixing everything I broke. I will not seek death again, it will come if I fail anyway. I will keep going until I make everything right or until I mess up so bad there is nopony left believing in me. Every day, shard after shard, no matter how slowly, I will keep going. That is my punishment and, at the same time, hope."
I don't need to ask Mistake if he understood.
Oh, how easy would it be to just end it here. Looking at the dying campfire, I know all I would have to do to finally rest in peace is douse the rapidly cooling embers.
The tent, the piece of life I put together, is my destination.
*Crack*
The world shakes and cracks run through the protective dome around the clearing.
"Bite me!" I give the swirling mist around one final glance, open the tent flap, and step into the glowing whiteness inside. |
The Third Diary | Viva Alicornication | Whiteness again.
"I'm glad you've changed your decision," the calming voice of Harmony doesn't make me like her even in the slightest. The gods play games with the lives of mortals and they don't play fair, they play only to win.
"Don't play innocent. My decision had nothing to do with what was going to happen. I may be stupid but not THAT stupid. Using Mistake against me... that was pretty dirty though, even for you."
*Clip clop*
"Hmm?" I mumble and look down.
"WOW!" a black unicorn appears, staring in awe at me, "So that was the plan all along?"
"What, getting my hooves back?" I comment, looking at where the talons in the dream world used to be. So I'm a pony again, big whoop. Granted, one front leg is still black, presumably still as a memory of its loss, but that's nothing to fawn about.
"You don't look surprised," Harmony chuckles at Mistake's observation. Am I missing something important?
"I-I had a feeling something like that would happen. I mean he deserves it no matter what he or anypony else might say. I'm just thinking about what it means in all respects and implications."
"Still not in the picture but you don't seem to care," I grumble.
"To be frank, I underestimated him," says Harmony, "The hippogriff form was my original plan to make him more appealing to his lovers if he decided to return. Unfortunately, his special talent got in the way and I cannot purge my own power anymore. With Nightmare faded and lost and Discord behaving within limits the Pact of Harmony doesn't allow me to manifest my power in any significant way. It seems that the thief of magic will have to bear his curse despite my efforts."
"As much as I like the title could somepony tell me what the hay is going on?" I stomp the white not-ground and orange cracks spread from the place of impact, disappearing a second later.
Mistake walks straight up to me and leans his head closer. His horn touches something and the strange numbness makes me close my eyes. When I open them I'm looking at... myself.
"Oh no," I hear myself say as I start trembling.
The implications of everything that form means hit me like an ox cart.
No, I'm not a hippogriff like in the dream anymore. It's much worse.
I'm an alicorn.
On the other hoof...
...if there was something Mistake's intervention taught me it was not to focus on things that make me angry and right now, despite the slow horror freezing me on the spot, I'm SEETHING.
Thanks to the imaginary black unicorn I know what it means though. I can't do anything about it. Right now it's not in my power so I should not bother with it. I will think about it, I will solve the puzzle, and I will deal with it when I'm able to.
Focusing on myself, I dispel the link between me and Mistake and quickly stand back inside my body.
I can see the fear in Mistake's eyes. I can hear his quick breathing. I grin at his jaw dropping when I say:
"What? No singing or floating images of my past? No anything?"
The dead silence is enough of a reward for me. The knowledge that just now, for a single moment, I managed to confuse the living daylight out of a god and a part of me that always knows best.
"Come on, Mistake. Becoming an alicorn because somepony else screwed up? You've been around long enough to know that's just how things go."
"Let me send you on your journey then," says Harmony out of the blue. I get the feeling she wanted to say something completely different but what I said changed her mind, "I find you far too cynical for your age."
Get in the line.
Trying to outsmart a deity might not have been the greatest idea in the history of self-preservation decisions.
My own voice rings through my ears.
"I give up. I just want peace. They are better off without me."
Light engulfs me. Not the painful eye-burning sensation of staring at the sun but just the feeling of nothing around.
A soft and warm voice laughs and, as the bile from her judgement rises from my stomach again, Harmony says:
"Then build your peace with your own hooves."
Should I hate the goddess giving me another chance even if it is against my most sincere wish?
Once you spark the love for yourself others might find love for you as well. So... she probably means nothing bad for you.
Desert everywhere as far as the eye can see. Golden dunes offer no indication of where I am or where I should go. The sizzling air hits me like a hammer but the warmth seeping into my bones and burning the chill of the grave away is at least something to be grateful for.
*Sigh*
"Why am I not surprised in the slightest?" I roll my eyes to the blue sky with Celestia's cutie mark scorching the land.
Where?
Got nothing. We can either be somewhere in the Griffon Empire, in the desert south of Appleloosa in Equestria, lost in Zebrica, or in Saddle Arabia... or basically anywhere else where there is a huge pile of sand left lying around.
Why?
No idea. I think you made her mad.
*Siiiigh*
When?
The resurrection took at least a month and a half while you were resisting. When you decided to stop defying Harmony it was almost instant. So that's that.
Taking a deep breath, I point in a random direction-
"Thataway!"
-and start walking. There's not much to do besides it.
As I move an unexpected weight on my waist caches my attention. I might be out of shape thanks to having relied on magic way too much but I still notice these things even if my new body feels off in almost every respect.
I'm wearing a brown belt with cloth bag hanging on it which upon examination contains gold coins and a little black book.
"Did she really send me back with hundred bits?" I look at the sky in disbelief, "I completely destroy the Nightmare's access to Equus and all I get is enough gold to buy lunch at MareDonalds?"
A new body, new life-
All FORCED on me.
Then consider this. She could have left you with no money. Now you have enough bits to buy a train ticket to Canterlot and try to make things work with Crom and Chokey.
Do I really want to? As much as I understand why I should they might have already moved on.
Yes, you do want to. You might have no clue what to do with your life but the only thing you are sure of deep down is that the time with them was the best time in your life. As for the second thing, without meeting them you'll never know.
I guess.
Think of it this way - if Chokey still needs a break and Crom is free than you can ram your muzzle into his crotch and don't stop until the months since Golden Sands are just a memory.
*Pomf*
The sudden movement from my back throws me completely off balance.
"Whoawhaaa-oof, okay."
Buuut I guess that's not happening any time soon. Gotta compliment you though. As defective as you are there's nothing wrong with your imagination, you little submissive pervert.
Thank Celestia I'm flexible enough to reach with my front legs to my side and fold the damn wings one by one manually. Apparently this body and my brain aren't exactly in sync and the blasted things refuse to obey what muscles they are supposed to.
Chokey's toned butt in a thong brushing against your muzzle.
*Pomf* *Clink*
The bag of gold lands quite the distance away from me as my wing shoots back out like a spring and throws it away along with the belt.
"Cursed flames of Tartatus! Stop it, Mistake!"
Just testing. What's the plan then?
"Hmmmmm," I gather the gold coins and put them back where they belong.
The other things in the bag make me smile a little. They are a small black notebook and a pen. Both are of the cheap variety which can be bought anywhere where civilization has passed the point of a typewriter. The writing on the cover of the notebook reads:
The Journal Of SMARTASS.
As much as Harmony pissed me off she knows what makes ponies work. With just few strokes my new levitating pen scratches out the original writing and leaves a simple 'Blazing Light' in its wake. Upon a short self-reflection I add three vertical lines to the header.
I don't know. I've got even less money than when I left home. If things go well then I have no doubt Chokey or Crom will help me but if not...
Job, home, life?
I guess...
What is the problem now?
You know... a job requires skill and, the worse part, experience. It's not like I'm in a better position than I was when I ran away from home. I remember when I used to look for something simple before moving to Canterlot. Every ad was like - 'We need YOU to eat pizza and bone hot mares all day' minimum three years experience with C++ and Java.
What is that?
Dunno, something about the ocean? Brewing coffee?
How about returning to college?
'How to get out of an unknown desert, live in Canterlot for four years and gain high education with only hundred bits in your saddlebag' written by Blazing Light.
*Sigh*
The more I think about it the more I just want to stop here, curl up, and wait untill the night's cold claims me.
Think-ey bad. Do-ey good. I thought you were more determined than this.
That's the thing. The first time I ran away from my family's mansion I just wanted to get as far from home as possible. I didn't really care much what would happen to me but at least I wanted to try and see how far I would get finally on my own.
Not bad if you ask me. Over four years later and stil breathing... breathing again... something of that sort. You know what I mean.
I feel nothing like that now. I'm just, I don't know, going through the motions and hoping something good awaits me back in Canterlot.
Don't pick the shards up too fast, you might cut yourself.
Eeerm?
Don't think about your broken life as a whole. Just try a bit by bit. Seeing tomorrow without catching pneumonia might be a good first step.
And after that? Job, relationship, life, eternity... I don't know what to do!
Just think about tomorrow. If you can live another day without looking in the mirror and seeing a failure it's a victory for us.
Mistake, whatever I say or do... don't doubt for a second that I am glad you're by my side. So, we get out of this oversized sandpit, find a way to get to Canterlot with almost no money, and live happily ever after.
And we have to believe that's going to happen.
Otherwise, judging by our past experiences, we would go completely insane.
Yeah... otherwise.
My laughter goes completely unnoticed in this dead landscape.
Levitating the book and the pen in front of my face I begin scribbling.
[Blazing's Entry]
I want to say today sucked but because it's been at most twenty minutes since my return I'm pretty sure the suckage is going to continue and get worse.
So you know what? I'm calling it right now.
If all that happens today is me wandering through the desert I will believe my luck is getting better. What are the chances of that, eh?
I really don't want to think about being an alicorn but the damn emptiness all around me gives me no other option. Thank heavens for Mistake and his attempts at shifting my attention.
Eternity is terrifying...
[End Entry] |
The Third Diary | Desert-ed | "Stupid Harmony. Stupid Harmony. Stupid Harmony."
Why this time?
"Thanks to alicorn endurance I now have a UNIQUE opportunity not to quickly die in the desert without any equipment but spread the experience over several glorious days."
Do I really need to mention the increased chance of getting out of here?
"Nah, I'm just talking so it's not quiet all the time. The thing is that I have no idea where I am, where I'm going, or even if I'm walking - correction, hobbling - in the right direction. For all I know - COUGH - DAMN -!"
I stop until the hacking coughing goes away.
Thanks to my previous experience the night wasn't as deadly as it could have been but the frozen air still wrecked what little semblance of health I still had after being baked by the desert sun the entire day. Fortunately, this time I knew to take a rest and sleep for few hours in the evening on the cooling sand, keep going through the night to keep myself warm, and sleep again at the brink of the dawn.
"-For all I know I might be going in circles. Crom told me that was what usually happened to those who are lost."
You know you COULD just fly up and-
"Nooooooooooope! In case you missed it before - frying pan is better than height."
Your hooves are burned to the crippling point.
"BETTER. THAN. HEIGHTS."
Why heights anyway? I mean, you faced gods, unspeakable evils, tax collectors.
"Irrational fear, right? Even when I still wanted to die I didn't have the courage to jump off Canterlot city walls. I am completely aware that heights hold much less threat to me than most things I lived through but there it is. Not going away. Heights and mushrooms."
Mush-
"A PONY'S ONLY NATURAL PREDATOR!"
Eeeeeehm?
"SHUT UP, THEY'LL HEAR YOU!"
You're the one yelling.
"..."
Never speaking of this again?
"Yeeeeeeah."
Hours pass again. For once, I'm happy for my crapified eyesight because I can ignore the blinding light blasting me from the sky and its reflection burning me whenever I look down and just go.
Mountains?
There are indeed some darker shapes far away in the distance.
"Meh."
Thataway?
"Sure."
Thare's nothing more that needs saying.
"Can't YOU fly up and give me an eagle-eye view of the area?"
Unicorn.
"Imaginary unicorn?"
Unfortunately, my 'realness' doesn't allow me to break the rules anymore. That's the price I have to pay for not being just a shard of your mind.
"Flying spell? I sure as hay can't cast it. In theory, you could."
In theory. I might be able to supplement your inability to use standard spells with enough practice but our special talent still means somepony has to use magic against you to be drained.
And just like that it's back to simply walking the distance towards the shadows.
Blaze?
"Yes?"
What do you want? I mean really want.
"I'd have a bottle of Frostberry Ruby '94, thank you."
From life! What do you want from life?
"Stillll the same answer. Sweet wine is something that keeps me from hitting rock bottom or at least softens the blow."
Really? Are we going with that?
"Okay, you want an honest answer? Right now, what I want right at this moment is a mare, one in particular. I am walking alone, the company of myself excluded, through some desert towards what might be a mountain range or just a mirage and the only thing I can think of is the scent of Chokey's fluffy chest. Every time I drift off while taking another step just so I don't have to feel my bloody raw underhooves being seared I remember Cromach's wings wrapped around me. I don't know what you wanted to hear but this is all I want... somepony to hold me. I know I sound like a whiny mare but that's simply it - I don't want to be alone. Status, power, money can go down the drain as long as my life doesn't return to the way it was before I ran away to Canterlot. Surrounded by ponies who made me feel alone... mirror Sombra, Nightmare, the original Blazing Light, Holy Light... I'd face any of them again rather than that."
So... wine?
"Red, strong, and sweet."
Step after step my hooves burn but I keep walking and leaving a trail of bronze fur behind me. Not like I have a choice. Heh, there's always a choice but right now I don't want to pick the 'leave a set of bleached bones here' option.
The shadows draw closer over the course of the day. I wish I could focus my eyes but alas, the world of blurriness seems to be my new life.
"Do you think I would look good with glasses?"
Aren't alicorns the pinnacle of health? Shouldn't it heal by itself?
"With this body being a living monument of my experiences I doubt that's gonna work."
Hmmm. Maybe then. Spectacles could give you a more mature look, a touch of class.
Shadows start falling on the desert, announcing yet another day passing.
"Is that finally a hallucination or...?" I look into the distance where points of light slowly flicker to life.
The Griffon Empire was in days long past ravaged by pony magic and most deserts are the result of dessication spells rendering large stretches of the continent unlivable. As such it is possible for a desert to be right next to a mountain ranges or lush forests. Thus, one can assume that in the case that this is one of those places, not a natural desert of Zebrica or Saddle Arabia, it might be possible that the lights in the distance are a forest fire.
Forest means shade, water, and possibly some food.
I could keep walking to get there faster, to possibly not freeze like last night.
I don't.
Curling up on the still warm sand, I press my back against a small dune I made to protect me from wind and close my eyes.
Maybe I learned something, maybe I really am not the same scared colt like four years ago. Maybe I still am. Who knows?
All I know is that I just might be a little more patient.
Frost biting through my coat wakes me up and I resume my walking pace. The cooling night sand feels like a soothing balm on my wrecked underhooves. Focusing what little power I have left into my horn, the area around me flickers with faint light. I can't help noticing it's much weaker than last night. It's still enough to prevent me from stepping on a scorpion or something nasty though.
"Do YOU see as poorly as me?"
No, not really. I see just fine,
*Facehoof*
"What's with the lights in the middle of the mountain? Fire or something?"
No, they don't seem to flicker. My best guess is a standard lightbulb or stabilized magic which means civilization.
"Fake hope, LOVE IT!"
Perhaps the alicorn of Hope guess wasn't as far fetched as it seemed.
"No comment. Damn, I wish you were real."
What, still horny?
"Don't tempt me! No, I would be fine with carrying you as long as I had something to cover my back. It's so Celestia-damn cold."
Celestia-damn, heh. Why not swear to real gods?
"Discord-damn, Nightmare-damn, Harmony-damn... doesn't exactly really roll of the tongue. Maybe I'm just used to Celestia."
How about you? You had a power of all three for a moment.
"Me-damn. HAH! That sounds fun."
The cold grows from soothing to chilling as the night progresses. My only solace is that the lights steadily get closer.
"Look on the bright side. Not feeling my legs anymore is better than feeling grains of sand stab so far into my hooves they change my DNA."
What's DNA?
"Do Not Ask?"
Seems legit.
"I hate to ask but... how far is it?"
At this pace we'll get there some time tomorrow.
"Crap."
Anger restraining training engaged.
"Just crap. Not CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP! I'm simply frustrated and we know what that means. That will not stop me from punching the starlight out of- calm down! My mind is like a calm pool, no breeze passes by. Nopony dares to disrupt the stillness otherwise I WOULD STRANGLE- like a blade of grass, completely still. Like a continent, completely motionless... seemingly motionless until a MASSIVE ERUPTION OF LAVA MELTS EVERYTHING ON ITS SURFACE HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!"
I'm scared.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! See? Totally calm and collected. Crazy is a word that doesn't exist in my dictionary."
Insane, mad, touched in the head, cuckoo-
"That's it, I'm getting an exorcist."
What?
"I said I needed more exercise. A walk like this wouldn't even phase me in the past."
Maybe because you were immortal and so hopped on divine power that your waste could heal cancer?
"Or cause it."
I don't think even Discord knows what his chaos power does.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he just snaps his talons and when he doesn't blow up he smiles smugly and says - I meant to do that. Giant chickens breathing fire? All planned! What are those for? Eeeeerm, fun? It's eating Fluttershy! Okay, back to the incinerator with you."
Do you think they bang? Imagine the things that a god of chaos could-
*POMF!*
*Siiiiiigh.*
I'm going to have serious problems talking to a normal living being after this.
Moon decides to end its journey through the night and the soft rays of the sun pour over the horizon. This time I'm not in their path though because the shadow cast by the high hills protects me from another day of being scorched. I might be stabbed, eaten, or something worse but those are things I can somewhat control.
The words mountain range were heavily overexaggerated. This place looks more like several craggy hills presumably surrounded by the desert. Patches of grass and trees here and there offer an explanation that this place has to host an oasis somewhere.
In the world of blurs, I'm close enough to see the path leading to a fortress of standard griffon origin, one anypony could see near every bigger city or important strategic position. Do I want to possibly get captured, sent to the Holy City, and being experimented on for the rest of my maybe unending life?
Do I want to walk through the desert again?
With that, I step towards the fortified gate in the massive stone wall.
*Boom!*
Sand and dirt splatter my front legs. The only clue to what happened is a small hole in the ground in front of me.
Gunshot. Sentry. Take cover!
I look at the short grass and a single tree stump in the nearest vicinity. Yeah, that's SUUUUUUURE to work. Sitting down, I raise my hooves in the air.
"Come closer to the gate, slowly!" says a squeaky voice and I obey.
A slot opens in the massive gate at about head height and a pair of eyes look through.
"Friend or foe?"
"What if I said foe? No, seriously, who would announce themselves as a foe?" I'm sort of ticked for no particular reason, ehm, so I tease the obviously young guard behind the gate.
"I'm just supposed to say that. Nopony has ever said foe before."
"Friend then."
Not the smartest cookie, are you?
Smaller door opens in one wing of the massive gate to show a rather young looking unicorn aiming a griffon rifle at my face. His eyes bulge and the gun slowly aims away as his look darts from my forehead to my back. The unicorn is yellow with brown mane cut short according to what I heard were standard regulations basically everywhere aside from Canterlot. That place really puts emphasis on individuality.
At least something that being alicorn is good for.
Do you think you're gonna get crowned a prince of Equestria or something when you get back?
Right, because Void and Scream are such good examples of royalty. Oh.
Yeah, alicorns are alicorns, royalty are royalty. Case in point - prince Blueballs.
The unicorn guard obviously has no idea what to say so I have to take the initiative.
"Can you let me in? I've been wandering the desert for almost three days and I'm half delirious. Who knows? I might come to the conclusion that you are just a hallucination and try to eat you."
"Aaaaaah!" the rifle swings wildly, enveloped by a bluish aura of the unicorn's telekinesis.
Grinning, I weaken his magical grip on the weapon and feel a little bit of my strength recover. An orange aura overpowers the blue one and makes the weapon aim at the ground.
"Calm down, I was just kidding. Really though, I'm starving and parched. Can you help or at least tell me where I am?"
"Oh oh oh oh okay. Sorry, sir!" the guard salutes, "This is the Griffon Foreign Legion fortress Ironclaw, sir! You are in the biggest northern desert of the Empire."
North?
North, north, north, north. Foreign legion, that explains why a unicorn in this backwater place is armed and not a decoration hanging from a fortress wall.
Ah ha!
Remembering my last official visit to the Empire where I was aboard the Lightbringer trying to save Cromach from execution, I also recall the maps I studied exceedingly. Not that my precise location matters right now. I'm way too far from any means of travel back to Equestria so I guess this is my only hope.
"WHAT'S GOING ON, MAGGOT?! YOU WAITING FOR YOUR MOTHER TO SEND YOU A FRESH BATCH OF CUPCAKES?!" yells the voice of somepony who was undoubtedly born to be a sargeant. That takes me back.
The griffon suddenly appearing behind the young stallion and making him twitch is lightning fast and in a fraction of a second I'm looking into a barrel of a pistol held in his talons.
"Speak quickly," his voice turns from the amusingly loud one used for scaring newbies to a serious low tone.
"Stranded in the desert. Walked for three days and nights. My name is-"
Some fortresses have a Black Ops agent stationed in them. This one seems to be of very little importance but watching over some foreign soldiers might be of enough interest to the Intelligence Service. There are only about two or three Black Ops members who have met me but the name Blazing Light should be way more recognizable.
"Frostfire. Can I at least buy some supplies before you send me away? I've got a little gold."
"Well well well," the griffon lowers the pistol, "I'll explain to you exactly why that is not possible in a moment but I sure as heck won't turn a totally random stranger somehow getting here while we are surrounded by a week of travel's worth of a desert."
"Soooo, interrogation?" I roll my eyes at his not even barely contained sarcasm.
"Smart one, aren't you?" the griffon turns to the unicorn guard, "BACK TO YOUR POST, SENTRY!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" he trots off.
"You know, just in case we don't find out you're a spy we'll need you to pull your own weight here. What can you do?"
Yep, Canterlot all over again.
"Aren't you, by any chance, looking for a janitor? I know it would take away one of standard ways to punish recruits but having clean floors in the morning might be good for morale."
"Smartass."
Why does everypony keep saying that?
"Frostfire, my name is Frostfire."
That's why.
Gun barrel. My face. Again.
"Fiiiiiiiiine," I sigh and follow the griffon into the fortress.
[Blazing's Entry]
Frostfire, the janitor. He sweeps, he mops, he solves mysteries, but can he find love?
Find out in the next episode of: The Broom and The Handler.
Mistake is telling me I'm crazy again. After reading what I've just written I can easily say...
...I'm completely fine, just too tired to care.
[End Entry] |
The Third Diary | My Rightful Place | [Blazing's Entry]
The interrogation went on without a hitch. The Legion soldiers used a tried and tested method of concentrated yelling where one was like 'Who are you spying for?!' and the other was like 'Tell him, he's a loose cannon!'.
When I said that until like five minutes ago I had no idea any foreign legion existed he started crying. To make him feel better I asked if there actually was anything spy-able here in the middle of nowhere.
The other guy just watching until then joined in the waterworks.
As it turns out the Griffon Foreign Legion is incredibly unpopular among the ranks of Griffon military and griffons are sent here if they make their supervisor super mad. When I asked what the problem was the interrogators were happy to answer any question I had just to spite the Imperial Legion in case I really was a spy. So, things are like this - Griffons DESPISE outsiders, Foreign Legion EMPLOYS outsiders. Not much more needs to be said.
Despite all that the institution still stands because it helps evaluate the (undoubtedly much inferior) combat skill of the enemy and understand their thinking. It also serves as a great place to send those members of the standard Legion who failed their duty or are undesirable for other reason as mentioned previously.
My only reason to care is that I'm stuck here now. My guess that we're in the middle of a wasteland was correct as I was told that this place recieves fresh supplies only once a month via a caravan. As my usual luck goes, it left about three days ago.
When the completely pointless interrogation was over I got a room to myself, the directions to where I could procure cleaning equipment, and instructions to simply mop the floors in the fortress hallways at night. It's Canterlot all over again and, honestly, I'm at least a little happy to be in a familiar situation despite it slowing down my ultimate objective of returning home.
Right now I'm passing out in my room. It's never been more noticeable than now how much weaker I am than I used to be and it made me think. The transformation isn't at fault here, I guess. If my alicorn form was what ponies consider normal then I shouldn't have this much trouble even after wandering the desert, the endurance and natural regeneration should see to that. My aching muscles and painful slowness of every movement tell me something is as it should not be. Two things come to mind - either Harmony's transformation relied on my memories in more than just appearance and I really let myself go and got too reliant on divine power to carry me OR there's something big I don't yet understand about my new body.
The unfortunate answer is probably both. Let's focus on the first thing then - I'm weak, slow, and unused to my size, shape, and balance. That needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
Right after I...
Mistake here. Blaze has just passed out. I think we deserve a little rest. Also, embarrassing fact, Blaze prefers being a janitor rather than a temporary recruit because he hates hurting ponies. Perhaps he shouldn't think of his job less as punching and more as forceful nose booping.
[End Entry]
Is it wrong that the most interesting thing to me is the concept of a bucket with a sieve on top which filters the sandy water into something clean-ish? Well, if there ever was a proof that I have no ambitions whatsoever this is it. It's night, the fortress heating is not bad at all, and I'm mopping the floors in complete silence.
*Squish squelch*
It reminds me of my first days in Canterlot sooooo much. All that remains is for Chokey to come to my room and start bugging me about some small nonsense and possibly whining about how unsatisfactory her last night's bedwarmer was.
"Good times," I smile to the darkness and push a complex tray with an electric light holding most of my cleaning supplies to a new area.
The fortress is nothing special - a standard square outpost with high walls and a turret in each corner. Half of the walled-off space is taken by the inner courtyard where recruits train and various utility sheds stand while the other half is the main building itself, tall, menacing, and square again. This place must have some pretty bad feng-shui or whatever the weird pony in Canterlot called it.
The good thing is that my temporary job is more annoying than difficult but despite that I'm still exhausted when I'm done right as the new day dawns on the horizon. Grab the mop, swab the floor, slam it into the water bucket, repeat until the water is more sand than fluid, put the sieve on, pour the remaining water into the second bucket, refill the clean one, repeat until all four floors of the building are done. Simple, mechanical, physical, exhausting.
I've never been a morning pony and I don't think I recall ever waking up early enough to see the sun slowly rise over the desert and let its golden beams flow over the dunes. As exhausted as I am after a night shift I put the supplies away and walk out to the courtyard. Dry wind sweeps through my mane and few strands of bronze from my coat flow away with it. The sounds of a new day starting come from behind me as the fortress gradually wakes up. The sentries guarding the outer walls walk around me with hazy eyes, ready to drop down for now, and new sets of guards walk up to the crenellations.
Just another day in the desert.
"Hey, Frostfire!" a familiar voice says firmly behind me, "Good you're not sleeping yet, I'd hate to have to waste cold water on you!"
A sand-colored griffon who briefed me about my job after the interrogation grins wickedly when he sees what has to be my half-asleep face. His name is Hamilton and is of somewhat high status in this place. The Legions of griffon army have some strange rankings and I'm not sure where exactly he would rank against an Equestrian soldier but I'm sure he's somewhere on the top.
"What's going on?"
"Get to the storage shed and bring the weapon crates. The training starts in ten."
I could say that's not my job but I have enough experience to know that the only answer I'd get would be that my job is to do whatever Hamilton tells me.
*Sigh.*
I plod towards a small square building with wooden door secured by a padlock. Thankfully, my keyring offers the necessary key so I don't have to make myself an ass in front of the griffon asking for it. A light switch next to the door reveals crates upon crates of equipment none of which is what Canterlot guard would consider training.
Either the Foreign Legion has some really impressive doctors or they just don't care about having crippled soldiers around because I'm absolutely sure that if somepony gave these weapons to fresh recruits back at home the limb count wouldn't remain head count times four for very long.
Well, at least they are clean and so sharp that any cut would be easy to stitch.
"Crap," I mumble as my telekinetic grip slips and fails competely. I'm too worn out.
Mistake, little help?
No. Energy. Whatsoever. Need rest. Oh, I know! YOU CAN DO IT, BUDDY! You're the champ!
The heck was that?
Morale boost?
Yea... those don't work on me. So, nothing?
Sorry, I can only watch.
*Siiiiiigh.*
With no other choice, I walk around the nearest crate and start pushing.
Sure wish I was an earthpony now. Much better than an alicorn who is weaker than one.
When several crates of weapons and armor are out on the training field Hamilton stops me and waves me off.
"Now go away and don't bother the soldiers."
I ponder going to bed but the sun and my now flowing blood, plus a tiny bit of curiosity at the practice, keep me from leaving and make me watch the figures of various shapes and sizes do standard physical exercises and match against each other.
In all honesty, I'm shocked when a black shape with holes in his hooves walks without any fear between several minotaurs, a majority of various kinds of ponies, and most of all - griffons. The Foreign Legion apparently doesn't harbor the usual griffon xenophobia and while the griffons look at the others in a not exactly friendly fashion there isn't the hostile atmosphere I would expect.
Difference one has already been noted - the soldiers use real weapons for practice. Difference two makes my eyes bulge - they are doing their standard exercises in full armor and, according to the bags hanging on various parts of their body depending on species, carrying a full set of wasteland survival supplies. Difference three - the Legion apparently focuses more on physical exercises than technique and skill.
Makes sense. Cromach was crazy tough and strong even for a soldier, especially when your only experience with soldiers were Royal Guards. He wasn't the best fighter though.
True.
After about an hour of me making observations and debating whether to go to sleep or not the practice is over and the mixed groups start to disperse. Unfortunately, I probably should have gone to bed as Hamilton's grin tells me who's going to be putting the equipment back.
"Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap," I hum to myself.
"You're not getting any overtime for this, Frosty," he chuckles.
"Peck me, catbird," I lean against the first crate and ineffectively push against it.
"Perhaps you should join the training as well, weakling. Might make a griffon out of you one day."
No more species switching, please. I'm happy I don't bark some days.
"Tooooooo tireeeeeed for your craaaaaaaaap," I groan, pushing the defiant crate, running purely on willpower.
One down, five to go.
Hamilton apparently got bored with me because he walked away as I was wobbling back from the equipment shed.
"Mooooooooooooove!" I grunt.
The crate flies up.
"Good box! Now off to the shed with you," I wave and point.
I blink.
My eyes bulge.
I focus.
More bulging, not just of the eyes.
"Eeeeeerm."
Holy cleansing flames of our wings!
Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?
The crate is being effortlessly held by a cream-colored minotaur female at a head height for me. Watching her stride to the shed and back, I realize my first glance was correct.
Holy tits.
Literally.
Work brain, work! She's coming. Mouth, close! Mistake, HELP!
Diverting blood flow back to the head. Cute kittens, freezing water, something not sexy, anything.
So, you're broken too.
Soooo biiiig.
She's here. She's gonna get mad. She's gonna hit me. I'm an idiot I'manidiotidiotidiot.
"SORRY!" I yelp, shaking all over.
The minotaur is naked aside from a loincloth which is, logically, very useful here in the desert. The soft fur of her upper body ripples as she raises her hand and...
...pats my head?
"I'm used to that. You ponies and griffons react the same every time," she smiles as I lean back, still surprised I get to keep all my teeth.
My brain restarts.
I've been among the minotaurs for long enough to know about their physique but during my stay with Darkhorn I haven't seen a female minotaur naked. Granted, at the time I had very different things on my mind so only now one BIG difference sinks in, two differences.
Mares have their fine beauty points - soft mane, lean frame, firm rumps, red eyes, bat wings, short, carpet-like, black coat...
...no, that's just Chokey.
Anyway, even when pregnant, as I've seen in some magazines for lonely souls like me, mares' point of sexiness have never been breasts. No, not even the legendary milkmare from Trottingham. Minotaurs, on the other hoof, are a bit more endowed.
They're the size of our head!
I believe Mistake overexaggerates... and agrees. Her calmness and discipline as she picks another crate up and carries it off help me focus again. With all my remaining power I resume my work and both of us finish the job in no time. When we're done I cough nervously and collect myself.
"I apologize, it was rude of me to stare... even if it was... understandable. That was a really bad complim-UMF!"
My head is in a marshmellow heaven. Regrettably, only for a while.
"I said not to worry about it. My name is Rock Candy by the way."
"Bl- Frostfire."
"You're still staring."
"I'm not, I'm respectfully admiring all your fine points."
"Especially these two," she rubs her chest and two nipples harden right in front of my muzzle.
*POMF!*
My face meets the hard ground.
"Gnnn, lost balance thank to these damn things. I-"
She picks me up. She me-damn picks me up as if I was a feather! With her hands under my front legs I enjoy the hug. There is no strength left in me so I just ease myself and lay my muzzle on her shoulder. My wings slowly go limp, not even folding like they should but just hanging like drapes. Sun warms me up from behind. It's nothing compared to the warm softness of Rock Candy though.
"Better?" she asks.
"Thank you, miss," I push her away, "I'll try to control myself better next time."
"Oh, next time?" she grins.
"I'll be mopping this place every night this month, milady," I tip an imaginary hat.
"Well, I'll be here for two more years so, you know, who's got it worse?"
The shadow king, the god of darkness, my evil doppleganger, the avatar of doomsday. Who's got it worse?
"I'll be happy to lend an ear anytime... starting tomorrow. I'm exhausted. Thank you for the help, miss."
"Candy or Rocky, both are fine."
Smiling and bowing my head, I hobble my way back to the fortress. Maybe... just maybe something HAS changed. Maybe deep down I'm not just the awkward colt who ran away from home anymore.
Maybe my return to Canterlot won't be as pointless as I think it will. I'd never admit it to Mistake but... let's just say that no matter what I said about fixing things I still believe that sometimes it's just too late and all you can do is cut your losses and start over. |
The Third Diary | No, No, It's Fine. This Happens To Me On A Daily Basis. | [Blazing's Entry]
Weeeeeeird!
Apparently, at some point of my path to today I became somewhat desirable to the other sex... possibly, maybe?
So, yeah. Rock Candy is strangely friendly with me. Perhaps I'm just paranoid. I mean, thinking back about my first days in Canterlot with Chokey I can now understand her approach towards me. For Candy, though, I have no idea why she bothers with me.
Don't overthink things all the damn time!
Apparently, Mistake can fight me for control over telekinesis now. Great!
It's just unusual, that's all. I've never been a mare magnet and while becoming an alicorn has to count for something the change can't be that drastic. Apparently, she likes me, at least a little. It's been three days since I met her and she's kept me company whenever I didn't feel like going to bed in the morning. Granted, it also meant Hamilton making me prep the place for morning training but that was a small price to pay to get some nude minotaur 'hugs'.
Well, the way this place reminds me of Canterlot is uncanny and unbelievably relaxing in a way. Do my night job, watch the soldiers practice, get abused a little by the high ranks, and go to sleep while clutching my aching body... it's heaven. Boring, but exactly the place I need to recover my strength.
Funnily enough, nopony really commented on me being an alicorn. Most soldiers keep to themselves around me and I don't exactly have either the time or the interest to grow my circle of friends, I just want to return to the old ones.
Well, still three more weeks to go for that. No reason to rush and be blind to things happening right now.
Yes, yes, I get it.
[End Entry]
Moonlight is coming through the rectangular windows, casting patches of brightness on the dark floor of the Ironclaw fortress. It's long after midnight, my favourite time to do some actual work, and the serenity of the desert is like a balm on my wrecked nerves. Last half a year was too much for a normal soul to handle and if I wasn't surrounded by the few who tried to help me I have no doubt I would have gone crazy even if I somehow survived.
That aside, we are here and this is now.
*Squelch squelch*
Smiling to myself, I wrap my hooves around the mop. Magic is cool but with having no way to recharge I'm not wasting what little amount my body can make.
*Scratch scratch scratch tap tap tap*
Sudden silence.
Somepony was rushing nearby and stopped when they reached the wet surface. A griffon, according to the scratching. The hall layout of the fortress is a huge square with a cross in the middle splitting the floor into four squares of living quarters. There are stairs leading to upper and lower floor in each of the fortress corners. I usually sweep and mop the inner cross first before moving onto the outer square and since the morning must be quite close I'm on the top floor and I'm almost done for tonight. It's probably just a soldier returning early from night watch and hoping his superiors don't notice.
The thing is, I've been in Canterlot long enough to recognize that the best time to sneak somewhere is early in the morning when the night watch is tired and nopony else is around.
Who am I kidding? If I was THAT lucky I wouldn't be here in the first place.
Mistake!
Ready. It came from behind us and stopped. Whoever it was must either still be there or have means of soundless movement if needed.
Probable target?
Your guess is as good as mine. This place is in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps it's really just a lazy soldier.
I grin.
Hardly.
Hardly.
There is no way for me to be sneaky, as a pony, so I don't even try to be. An enemy underestimating me is my best protection. Like a curious janitor would, I slowly walk through the dark hall with only squelching of my hooves on the wet floor as my companion...
A griffon, all in black, right behind the corner. Not a Legion soldier.
...and Mistake's ethereal form scouting ahead of me.
Weapons - a rapier at the ready, a dagger in a sheath on his belt, a crossbow on his back. Oh, and a pistol! Can't see anything else.
Guy's a walking armory. I doubt he's gonna use the gun though unless he wants the entire fortress to wake up. What's his stance?
An image of a griffon slightly taller than me standing with one side against the stone wall, crouched and holding an ashen grey rapier in his left taloned arm, flashes through my head. His entire body is wrapped in black, showing him quite clearly against the grey wall. While black color is surprisingly not good for sneaking around it is definitely stylish which tells me this griffon is used to being seen and looking good. Still, his reaction to me stopping mopping was perfect. Somepony with less experience would either try to run or sneak away while this guy is standing still with glacial patience and is ready to kill.
Unfortunately for me, in contrast to his color choice the shape of his clothes doesn't give me anything to grab him by. His black jacket is tucked into his pants which in turn are-
A griffon wearing boots while sneaking?
That makes zero sense. The paws on their hind legs are much better than most commonly used types of soles.
Perhaps the same reason for the black clothes? Maybe he's somepony good at the technical side of stealth but too used to wearing a uniform? That's not the problem though.
A griffon outgunning a small combat unit is NOT the real problem?
I feel divine power from him. Extremely weak, in comparison to what we've been through, but it's there.
I'm only half listening as I clear the corner and immediately jump backwards, the blade missing my muzzle by a hair and the following arm occupying all my attention-
-the blade suddenly somehow scoring a glancing blow to my chest. Thankfully, more irritating than serious.
What?
Spatial manipulation?
The griffon is in front of me without seemingly moving from behind the corner.
Magic?
Rapier going straight for my face.
Dodge to the left. Easy blow to avoid.
Pain in my chest.
Rapier hilted inside me.
Yes, I just don't know where from!
"INTRU-" I try to yell but a punch silences me.
Vision darkening, the blow must be immediately lethal.
Can't breathe.
Cough blood.
BLAZE!
Can't feel anything.
Blackness.
Blue?
Good. Goodgoodgoodgood. He mucked up. Get up! No? Nothing? Blink at least?
Wha-?
Can you move?
Blue everywhere. It's cold, so cold.
The blue moves, dances, flickers.
"HAH!" I take a deep breath as my chest accepts air once again at the price of utter agony.
The griffon is standing with his back to me, clutching his chest.
"What?" the griffon croaks and turns to me, "How?"
Something is wrong when I blink. Something is off when I move. My head hurts.
Growling, I stand up towards the griffon taking a step backwards with his eyes wide open.
The blue all around takes shape as flames on my body, not burning but just moving. The griffon swings his rapier and more blue fire pours at me from the tip.
Can't handle much more by myself. FOCUS!
Breathing in, the flames penetrate me. It's not fire, it's not magic, it's divine power. Divine power is something I can use, a destructive force, the power of Nightmare.
Take.
Control.
Use.
The flames die out. Something is not right and I operate purely on reflex. Balancing the power of death has always been tricky but this time it's not so bad. Whatever the griffon did was shockingly weak compared to what I had to stand against in the past.
As he moves to a defensive stance with only his hand holding the rapier aimed at me, I jump to punch.
Right foreleg. Hit-
-miss.
Left. Black blur. Easy hit-
-miss.
He groans and coughs after... dodging?
A flurry of blows with my right hoof. This time he jumps back like a normal griffon, not some half-magical not-understood nonsense.
Left again.
He can't move in time and blood splatters the floor. The griffon covers his face with his empty arm to stop the bleeding. The next second he drops his rapier, reaches for his belt, and throws something at me.
Inferno. Air gets sucked from my lungs. Everything burns. Blinding white visible through closed eyelids.
One second.
Two.
Three.
Cold again.
He's gone. Good job! So, what now?
Blaze? You okay?
You there? Hey?
Not even cold anymore.
Nothing.
"Owwwwwwwwwwww!" I sit up.
I'm in a small, triangular space faintly smelling of old socks. The brown bedroll under my plot reveals it's... a tent?
"Oh great..."
It's THE tent.
Against my better judgement and my body screaming in agony, I limp out of my temporary shelter. A blue-maned, black unicorn is sitting by the heartily cracking firepit outside and roasting some marshmellows impaled on a levitating stick.
I am not surprised at all so I just look at the steel-grey sky, ignore the sundered skyscrapers, and join Mistake.
"What... the heck... happened?"
"You know... I've been mulling over it here for hours and I have no idea,"
"Hours? I thought I exploded."
"You did, but a quick-thinking mind can make seconds last for ages. I believe it's been at most three minutes in real time," Mistake stares into the flames and levitates a marshmellow to my mouth.
"Thanks."
He looks at me and smiles back.
"My only explanation is that the griffon was controlling time."
"I meant the blue fire. What about time? Was that how he dodged everything? How do you know?"
"That's too many questions for something I consider just a theory. Let's start with the simple stuff. I can assure you he didn't use any short-term paralysis poison or anything to move without you noticing. At this stage of our... separation that would not work on me. He just was there... and then he was not there while knowing exactly what you would do. The way he moved wasn't reflexive, it was as if your every attack and dodge happened before."
"Future sight? Prediction similar to what I can do?"
"No. You think I couldn't recognize that? As I said, it wasn't a reflex nor experience so it can't be the thing you do. As for future sight... it still involves being able to process the future information as well as the present and I think it would require massive amount of magic to be precise."
"And turning time back wouldn't?"
"Of course. It wouldn't take that much brainpower though. I think the griffon had something on him which allowed him to rewind time and speed it up for himself. That's all a guesswork though. What ISN'T a guess is that whatever he did hurt him somehow as well. He stabbed you but couldn't finish you off instantly because he fell down himself. When he got back up he set you on fire which brings us to the second topic."
"Nightmare's power, right?"
"Yes. It looked as if he tried to burn your body completely to hide his presence from anypony. Fortunately for you, an amount this small was easy to absorb."
"I remember... you healed me?"
"Not really. I just allowed your body to absorb the power and it somehow fulfilled your alicorn... instinct or something? Trying to keep you alive I mean."
"Do you think I was so weak as an alicorn because I had nowhere to steal divine power from?"
"I think you absorbed a lot from Harmony, enough to make you an alicorn at least."
"N-no. That's... wrong. I can't explain it. It felt as if Harmony's power was... not the usable divine power itself but... a tool? A tool to control and balance Discord's and Nightmare's power."
"Oh? OH! Is it THAT simple?"
"My head hurts."
"Sorry. I'll let you out in a second. Any idea WHERE a griffon would get access to divine power and an artefact capable of bending time?"
"Do I look like princess Twilight?"
"Well, speaking of looks," he conjures a mirror same as the one he had in his asylum office, "you weren't able to control even such small amount of Nightmare's power in that state. I had to do most of it for you and... I'm sorry... I have no affinity for it it seems. It gained access to your head through me."
The bronze alicorn looking at me from the mirror looks like a safe full of bad memories, memories I recognize instantly. My horn broken in half is what I lost in the arena, my right eye, white and glazed over, is what I lost to Void during our misunderstood encounter, and my left front leg, black in comparison to the rest of my bronze coat... is a mockery of a griffon arm made of twisted sinews and hard muscle, another loss from the arena which was replaced by a mechanical griffon arm prosthesis and which I regenerated after Nightmare's curse in Golden Sands.
I grasp with the talons of the abomination. Sensitive enough, flexible enough, strong enough...
...crappy looking.
"I can't do anything about it right now. I don't have enough power to change my body. I don't have the knowledge to do so either. Let's return to what we can deal with. Where did the griffon go?"
"I don't know. He ran away down the hall while I was trying to manipulate your power to shield you from the firebomb blowing up next to your nose."
"Alright. Thank you for everything. Sorry if I seemed... snappy. It's just... I'm tired of this. I want to go home. I want to finally have a rest without the need to lock doors and windows. I want some semblance of peace."
"I understand and I promise I will be there as long as it takes. Now, guess what?"
"What?"
I barely hear the voice through deafening ringing in my ears.
"Wake up!" something shakes me as a female voice comes from afar.
"Nghhkch!" I groan.
*Cough cough*
"Arrrrrgh!" and continue. My lungs burn, literally if what Mistake said happened really did. My thrashing around doesn't help.
Two points of force hold me down, pushing gently but relentlessly against my side.
"Calm down! It's fine."
"I kno-hhhhh!" paralyzing pain from my throat stops me so I just focus on breathing very slowly. Eventually I'm able to at least breathe without tears streaking from my eyes.
My eye.
It doesn't really come as a loss anymore. My right eye is gone again and with it also my depth perception, at least temporarily. I've been able to deal with it before and I will do it again. It's not like I have a choice.
When did I become such a fatalist?
You've changed a lot since my awakening.
Through closed eyelids, I see the black world of faint white outlines fading into nothingness. My magic is so weak I can't even keep the tracking spell going.
*Sigh*
*Cough*
"Crap-ghhh!"
Something reaches inside me, pats the inside of my head, touches me under my skin, and its soft dragging over my insides makes me get goosebumps.
My eyes open.
All I can see is a light brown to creamy hand just above my face touching my shattered horn.
"P-please," I whisper, "stop that... or at least... take me out to dinner first."
"Oops, sorry," I recognize Rock Candy's voice and the weird sense of somepony else touching me from within disappears, "Is it a unicorn, I mean alicorn, thing?"
"Unicorn... horns are sensitive."
The ringing subsides to the point where I can hear hoofsteps, clanking of armor, and scratching of talons all around.
"Ugggh."
"Don't move," she pushes me down again as I try to roll over to stand up. I feel a soft breath in my ear followed by a whisper, "Hamilton is coming. When he's done with you come visit me, sir."
Sir?
Heh. I knew there was nopony who would be so nice to me for no reason.
She sounds scared.
Well, at least we got to nuzzle some minotaur boobs before this.
Closing my eyes, I just wait for the inevitable.
"Take him down to the infirmary," orders Hamilton's voice, much more serious than ever before. Gone is the yelling commander act. This is the voice of somepony ready to take care of business, "administer some painkillers, and get him ready for questioning."
"No," a second stern voice contradicts him, one I've only heard on the inside of my head before, "he desperately needs rest. I'll answer everything you need, just let him sleep."
Mistake?
Let me handle this. I'll show you I can do more than just ruin your appearance.
You did all you could.
I need to be able to do more without draining so much of your energy.
"And who are you, mister see-through unicorn specter?" Hamilton's sarcasm returns.
"Somepony who can tell you exactly what happened. To do that, though, I need you to let my... owner rest."
"Alright. Medic! Knock him out and move on with patching up the burns. Rock Candy, morning practice starts soon. You have no place here anyway, this is official business now."
"Yes, commander!"
One particular set of hoofsteps fades into distance, one I can recognize despite all the others running around. Strange, minty smell assaults my nose without anything touching my muzzle and then I shut down completely.
"Nnnngh..."
EVERYTHING ITCHES!
Recalling my new taloned arm, I try to relieve the agony with no result. It seems I'm bound to some soft surface, a bed most likely.
"MMMRNGH! Little help?" I croak, careful not to irritate my burning, and itching at the same time, throat.
*Taptaptaptaptap*
"What's the problem?" asks a griffon dressed in a white cloak.
"Can't move! Can you scratch my chest and face a little, pleeeeeeeease?"
"Sorry, mister, but no. You heal exceptionally fast, alicorn thing I guess, and I don't want to mess anything up. Anyone else with burns of your degree would either be dead or disfigured for life but you seem to be plodding through well enough with just rest. The only thing I can do is either knock you out again or pour a healing salve over your bandages, they're to be changed every two hours anyway."
"And the restraints?"
"Standard precaution for burn victims. I'm sure you realize why now."
"But I reeeeally want to scratch my entire face off," I whine.
Mistake!
"I knoooow but I'm just sooo bad with knots so I can't help you," the griffon chuckles.
Mistake?
MISTAKE?!
"Ah screw it! Knock me out, doc."
He takes a deep breath, opens a bottle, and waves it near my head while struggling not to breathe. I drift off to sleep again. |
The Third Diary | I KNEW It Wasn't Just My Natural Charm | [Blazing's Entry]
I woke up the next day without any interruptions so I have to assume whatever Mistake told Hamilton was enough to let me rest. Now, as much as I could wonder about the mystery of a griffon using divine power and controlling time I feel not involved in any of this. There are power struggles happening in the Griffon Empire every day and this has to be one of those. Nightmare's power is also not a problem. If I get enough rest I'll be able to obliterate the griffon in case he shows up again. Not to mention that, once again, this isn't any of my business.
Well, since Mistake is still gone I have nopony to talk to and a break from my duties. Perhaps it's a good idea to deal with Rock Candy and see who she really is. Her friendliness is unreal and she seems to know something I don't. Also, cleavage.
It's a weird feeling being alone in my head... I almost miss having somepony to watch the area around me, to talk to when bored, or to second guess everything I do. Scary. I haven't felt this unsafe in a long time.
Once again, I'm SO HAPPY I LEARNED TO WRITE USING MY MOUTH.
[End Entry]
It might be crippling to a unicorn or an alicorn having no access to magic or telekinesis but after all that's happened to me I just don't care. Controlling the stolen divine power is coming back to me despite Harmony's power making it more difficult. The point is that I now have Nightmare's power without having any of Discord's to prevent it from destroying me like I had in the past. I believe Harmony's stolen power is allowing me to do it at the price of it being a lot more complicated and taxing.
All in all, time's all I need to ease into it. Soon I'll be able to control divine energy and counter magic like I used to. Soon enough? Now that's the right question.
I cannot wait and hide for that long though. With that in mind I'm now standing in front of a reinforced wooden door undistinguishable from any other of the fortress leading into Rock Candy's room. I'm still woozy from the day spent in bed but I should be able to at least run away from a minotaur in case of trouble.
*Knock knock knock*
I'm not sure about the afternoon soldier schedule because I've always slept through all of it after my night shift but I'm willing to wait to put my mind to rest.
*Click*
"Hello, Frostfire," smiles Rock Candy.
"How did you recognize me? I'm more bandage than pony now."
The explosion burned away all the feathers of my wings so I now just have two long coat hangers wrapped in gauze on my back. Once again, no real problem. Screw flying! Screw heights! I'm more worried about my face, neck, and big part of my torso which have suffered the same fate, making a rather acceptable sarcophagus filler of me.
Well, at least I don't look like a raw chicken. Don't judge me! There are griffons around and they have to eat meat.
"Come in, please. I hope the soldiers didn't bother you too much."
The room is very spartan and almost a copy of mine. The griffon fortresses usually don't offer much variety in soldier lodgings. I sit down on the bed while Rocky sits on a rug on the floor so her head is lower than mine. In her purple eyes I see something I've never seen before...
...aside from when I helped Heavy Hoof deal with being bullied in the Guard as a recruit. It is devotion and respect.
It makes sense I'm not used to it.
"Not as much as how you act towards me."
"Huh, what did I do?"
"You are too nice. Nopony's ever been that nice to me for no apparent reason. I'm just not the... type."
"I see. It makes sense you wouldn't remember me."
"Still drawing blanks."
"In Rift?"
"Rift? Never heard about the name."
"Oh RIGHT! My bad, sir. Sorry. The name was decided after you... left. The runners up were Crevice and Rupture. Still nothing?"
"Eeeerm..."
"A LOT of minotaurs?"
"The northern city inside of the mountain? WAIT! How do you-? What do you-? Who are you?"
"I am one of those who owe you everything, Prophet. One of those who would have been left to just pass on clan lore to other generations. I'm not really what minotaurs look for in a girl, I'm weak."
She's right. Female minotaurs are usually way bulkier, at least those whom I met during my stay in the frozen wastes. On the other very... arousing hoof, I can't help drinking in the curves of her body clad only in a loincloth. Her short, creamy fur only accentuates curves of her breasts-
Do not stare, do not stare, do not stare.
-followed by every abdominal muscle leading down to her waist. Her shoulders are wider than I am and her arms ripple with rope-like strands mirroring her ability to carry as much as a normal earthpony. I've seen her wave a griffon zweihander around. She is by no means a pushover.
"I know you minotaurs. Your 'normal' girls look like they could rip a unicorn in half."
She chuckles.
"As I said, I was considered weak so before you came and united the clans all that awaited me was either becoming a shaman, running away through the wastes, or being traded to some other clan for pelts. Then you came and made others see us as more than savages to exploit. Both griffons and ponies are now looking for minotaurs willing to join local forces and a lot of us are seeking to find what the world has to offer past the next blizzard.-"
She stands up and hugs me. I groan a bit, then a lot.
"-For that I love you, Prophet, I respect you, and I adore you. You are my future and my hope. There are hundreds of others out there who would say the same given the chance. I got the chance to serve a tour in the GFL and I gladly accepted. I've been here only for a month."
She sits on the bed next to me.
"Erm, I... you're welcome? WAIT! How do you know it's me? As far as I know only Darkhorn knows how I look."
"You've just admitted knowing the warchief's father so there's that. Plus, there's a huge statue of you at the entrance to Rift. After Darkhorn returned from your secret journey to Equestria he ordered it made and remade over and over to fit his memory. At first, I couldn't believe it was you, especially after Darkhorn said you died but I was willing to offer my company just on the off chance of him being wrong."
Great. So now it's Luna's statue in Hollow Shades, Scream's statue at the changeling hive, Celestia's statue in Canterlot castle gardens, and mine in Rift. I wonder if there's a statue of Void somewhere.
Rocky's words sparked a little something inside me. I'm not sure what but the world seems different now... just a tiny bit... brighter. The stuffy air of the room is easier to breathe, the boiling chaos of power inside me a little easier to subdue, the weight on my shoulders easier to bear.
"It's nice to hear I did at least something right," I smile, "although you give me far too much credit."
"I don't, Prophet... Frostfire."
"Ehm, my real name is Blazing Light."
"A strong name. The torch of hope."
"Oh shush. I'm just a normal pony, not some hero. I go to the toilet like anypony else."
"And are mesmerized by these," she wiggles her chest suggestively, "like every guy in this fortress."
"I don't know what to say."
"Compliments always help."
"You are very pretty."
Excellent! Now I sound like a grade school colt.
"Thank you. I didn't get to hear that much back at home. So yeah, that's all I wanted to say. I mean I didn't want to put myself forward and bother you but after I found you charred and still smoking in the hallway... I had to. I had to tell you how important you are."
Cuddles! Ask for cuddles!
About time you showed yourself. What happened?
I passed out after the interrogation. I materialized myself... partially.
Will it knock you out again?
Probably not. Check it out!
I feel tugging inside me and a brief moment of lightheadedness. When yellow dots stop dancing behind my eyes I catch Rock Candy looking at the pink-eyed, blue-maned, black-coated unicorn standing in front of us with fists ready to strike.
"Do you see him too?" I ask, trying not to sound like a lunatic.
"Who are you?!" she barks at Mistake who looks from me to her, slightly startled.
"My name is Mistake, miss. I'm a little piece of Blaze's head with extra privileges."
"Oh yeah, you talked to Hamilton, didn't you? I was wondering where you came from."
"Yes," Mistake bows and looks at me, "Speaking of which, you don't have to worry about him. The griffon doesn't care about you whatsoever as long as you don't cause trouble. Well, from what he told me they have no idea where the guy who attacked you went. He just ran away through the hall and then his trace disappeared completely."
"What's on that floor? Could he have flown away through a window?"
"The top floor is the same as the rest of the fortress. Rooms for soldiers, all searched, and some storage rooms, also searched. As for the window, none seemed to be closed in a hurry and there isn't really anywhere to fly from here. No matter the griffon's stamina he wouldn't get anywhere inhabited without survival equipment."
"I doubt Hamilton would tell you everything."
"True, but he seemed genuine. I don't think he's got any idea what happened."
"That makes two of us."
"Perhaps that's why the new guy is here," Rocky snaps her fingers, "to investigate."
Mistake disappears.
"Mister unicorn? Where did he go?" Rocky turns her head around.
"It's exhausting for him to appear like that. Just let him rest. So what about this new guy?"
"A griffon appeared yesterday night. I was on watch and he arrived riding thrusters through the desert. I think he was rushing here all night because he had almost nothing packed and only enough fuel to last the way here. Big guy in a black jacket with golden pin of the Black Ops. The two weird things about him were some strange weapon, looked like a claw of some sort, strapped on his back and an arm prosthesis I haven't seen before, a really complex one."
"Black Ops are always trouble," I mumble, "but maybe they know something. The timing seems too precise to be a coincidence."
"Do you want me to knock him out and bring to you for questioning, Prophet?"
"You do have a mischievous streak in you, don't you?" I raise an eyebrow, well, bandage brow, "Of course not. I don't want Hamilton to shoot me out of a cannon back to the desert."
"Well, that was all I wanted to say. You always look so lifeless in the morning so I wanted to cheer you up. You're welcome to stay, I don't have a watch tonight."
Take it.
"I-"
Take iiiiiiiiit!
"-suppose it's better than lying in my room alone, waiting for my shift to start."
Yay for boobies!
Dammit!
"Are you hungry?"
*Gurgle gurgle ROOOOAR*
"Just a little," blood rushes to my face. Thankfully, Rock Candy can't see through the bandages. Unfortunately, she's not deaf and she giggles at the protest of my stomach, "I don't want to be a bo-"
She positively jumps and runs to a small room adjoining the main one.
"-ther."
She likes you.
She likes the idea of me, the idea of what I did. She doesn't like ME me, she doesn't know me well enough to do so. Nopony can like me on the first glance.
Chokey did.
Rocky rushes back with some fresh apples, bread, and cheese. Strings of drool leave my mouth as soon as my bandaged nose catches the scent.
"Come on!" Rocky jiggles her chest annoyedly, "The food can't be better than this."
"I haven't eaten anything in over a day. Here, have Mistake!"
Wait, what?!
Knowing how it felt when he left willingly, I give the divine power inside me a little push.
Wait you can't do this to-
The black unicorn appears, shaking his head so fast the blue mane swirls around like a little tornado.
"-me Idon'tknowwhattodoI'mscaredshedoesn'tlikemeandthinkI'mnot-MMMF?"
Rocky picks him up and puts him down on the bed right next to eating me. I can't help smiling as she does the same thing to him she did to me and suffocates his muzzle between her fleshy orbs.
Feeling what can only be described as a shadow of emotion, I wonder whether that is how Mistake feels what happens to me. It's weak, detached, and... resistable, something quite new to me as I'm not too good at subduing my head in a crisis. Well, if this is the only way he knows things then he must be having a blast now. Rocky's warmth, softness, and the smell of soap with lingering faint hint of sweat... I know all of it.
Oh damn!
Before I even finish my my portion of food Rocky is lying on her back with Mistake snoring softly with head unceremoniously lying on her chest. For him, this must be heaven. For me, this is a useful knowledge. Putting the now empty tray on the table, I leave the room and let both of them rest.
So, if I give Mistake a portion of my divine power I can temporarily give him independent life. It's similar to what happened when I was brimming with power after the Golden Sands incident but at the time Mistake was practically untouchable considering the amount both of us held. This was the first time he could touch something by himself and feel it fully.
It knocked him out like a guard baton. Considering how wide his grin was I doubt he minded.
There's a plan of action growing in me. If the top floor is the same as the others then I could have a look in the storage rooms in case one of them served to hide the griffon at least temporarily. There is a chance the attacker left a trail in the dust I wasn't able to mop at the time and-
There isn't any.
The entirety of the floor is messed up from the previous search attempts. Well, it's come to the tedious part then. Looking into every storage one by one, I go through the whole floor and return back to one room where I felt something strange, something familiar, but couldn't exactly say what.
"Crates with," I pry one open, "clothes. Damn!"
More crates, furniture, nothing spectacular. In a fit of vanity I look into a mirror hanging on the wall to see just how bad the damage to me is. Surprisingly enough, without removing the bandages I have no idea. I close my eyes and shake my head.
Stupid idea.
The world doesn't disappear as it should. I got used to blinking and seeing the white outlines of everything in the vicinity but this time they move. With eyes closed, I see the mirror wobble and distort, continuously moving like grass in the wind.
To my open eyes it's just a window-sized square of glass but if I focus I can feel a touch of magic emanating from it. Seeing nothing smarter to do, I touch it and my clawed arm passes through with no resistance.
Heh, a portal leading somewhere. The mystery of the disappearing griffon solved rather quickly. The mystery of the place on the other side took its place even faster. I'm not willing to go to a possibly hostile territory without backup and my backup is currently mumbling incoherently in his sleep and-
A flickering image appears as I focus on Mistake.
-suckling on one of Rocky's nipples.
Well, if he returns to me with half of his teeth missing I'll know what happened.
*Sigh*
Perhaps I should join him. The minotaur girl seems to hold me in such high regard she might not mind another warm body in the bed and I could use the company.
Strolling lazily out of the room I clear a corner-
-and by breathing stops,
-my heart stops,
-my mind stops,
-my movement stops,
-my jaw drops.
The figure in front of me reacts in the same way. I recognize the Black Ops agent Rock Candy described. I recognize him better than she could ever describe. With the way his green eyes go wide and he begins shaking I know that despite bandages, despite time, and despite memory he recognized me as well.
I can't move, I have no control over myself. Through blurring eyes I see him take a hesitant step towards me.
The Black Ops agent sniffles, rubs his wet, emerald eyes, opens his shaking beak, and whispers:
"I pray to any and every god listening. I'll do anything you want of me... just... if this is a dream... don't ever let me wake up." |
The Third Diary | Sometimes Hope Comes To You | Neither of us knows how to break the silence.
My eyes slide over the official Black Ops jacket, tight fitting with golden embroidery, over the intricate mechanical arm taking place of his right one, and over the clawed 'weapon' on his back.
Him having that thing is what pushes me over the edge.
"Cro..."
"I can't believe this is real. Please let it be real," he mumbles again.
It's been months since my death in the mirror world and he still has my old arm prosthesis strapped on his back like last time I saw him. The question of how he's got one instead of his arm will have to wait for later.
"I wish you didn't have to meet the mummified chicken version of me," I look at him apologetically.
"You've never looked better," his smile grows wider with every step towards me.
"Cro..."
"Blaze..."
Both of us stand there in the dumbest fashion possible, stomping the floor nervously.
"How did you recognize me anyway? I mean aside from few strands of fur there's not much left," I try something innocent.
"I see you every time I close my eyes," he says simply, "Plus, the wings betrayed you."
"Wings?" I turn my head to see...
...NOT the bandaged featherless wingbones hanging limply by my sides.
They are still there, covered in short bronze fur. What is a throwback though are the see-through fiery plumes completing my wings like in the good old days.
"I wasn't sure you would even want to see me," Cromach looks at the floor, "but then your wings started burning and from what I remember fire means good, ice means bad."
The shock washes away. The idiot thinks I'm mad at him for what he did but I know now that the problem has been me all along. One of the problems.
I smile, worried but hopeful.
Uh oh.
Sometimes it's important to get things out of the way first... even if it might mean losing him again.
"Are you free for a while so we can sit down and talk?"
"Well, I'm here to investigate somepony smuggling mirror world blueprints into ours again. After what Icy Gaze did both sides want to keep an eye out and poke an eye out if necessary. I've got nothing to go on yet though-"
"Would a swirly magical portal in one of the top floor storage rooms help you?"
"Aaaaand now I have all the time in the world to talk to you, buddy. Investigation over."
"Don't get too carried away. I have no idea where it leads."
"I don't care. You've just told me more than all Black Ops information sources I went through combined. I'd love to spend some time with you... if you can... forgive me."
He closes his eyes and lowers his head when I reach out with my arm and slide my talons over his face. Being this meek is so unlike him and just that is enough for me to know he wants to make things return to the way they were. That, unfortunately, is impossible. There is somepony he needs to meet.
That doesn't mean I don't have several things I need to get off my chest as well.
"You did nothing wrong."
His eyes shoot open.
"I-"
"You. Did. Nothing. Wrong," I place a talon to his beak, "I didn't call on you for help. I USED Heavy Hoof because I knew he would feel guilty for what happened in Manehattan and do what I wanted. I tried to do everything on my own without telling anypony and it came to bite me in the plot. I did everything to cause the ending I wanted... and, unfortunately, I got it. Thankfully, I had the amount of control over my fate I usually have so I received another chance to return."
"You're not mad at me, at all?"
"Just a little," I smile smugly, "for not coming with me yet."
He wordlessly follows me as I walk through the Ironclaw hallways back to Rock Candy's room to see... Mistake. The final hurdle is upon me.
Mistake's form is what Cro loved, not mine. When Nightmare transformed me back into mine he almost went berserk. Granted, it was influencing him as well but Nightmare can't assume control of somepony outright. It used his memory of fighting insane Blazing Light in Manehattan against him. I wish I knew then what I know now. So much could have been prevented, so many lives saved, and most of it was simply my fault.
BUT, one big but, if seeing Mistake doesn't make Cro throw me away then all I need to do is wait for the supply caravan and then come home with him. If he does choose Mistake then...
...it's also good. I can pour my divine power into him, give him more life, more realness. After all, he's the better part of me, the smarter one, the one not so mentally and emotionally unstable. They would be so much more happy than... us. On the other hoof, maybe I'm just a selfish bastard but I want something for myself. I'm not going to give up before I see the result even if the other option is much better for all parties involved.
As I open the door to reveal Mistake sleeping by himself on the bed, Rock Candy pokes her head from the little storage closet on the side. Her eyes go wide and she snaps to attention, standing straight up and saluting.
"At ease, soldier," Cromach nods and Rocky's eyes dart from me to him.
"Wake up, Mistake," I say calmly, knowing my call will move the black unicorn.
He immediately perks his ears and jumps from the bed even before noticing anything around. As he looks at Cromach I feel a hint of pain in my head.
I know what you're trying to do.
Of course you do. You are me, only better.
I AM NOT. I have no experience with this-
You have all my knowledge. You have better access to the knowledge of all three gods than I do.
I have NO REAL EXPERIENCE! I chose not to share the feeling when I touched the minotaur for real because I thought you would stop trusting me. I EXPERIENCED NOTHING, I LIVED THROUGH NOTHING. I just KNOW things. That's different.
Courage, that's what we lack the most, Mistake. Both of us. Both one of us. Language doesn't really cover our situaton well.
Alright, but let me be me, not you.
Mistake bows to Cromach who is just staring, paralyzed.
"My name is Mistake."
"I know," Cromach nods his head so fast his feathers rustle, "I've known you-"
"No," Mistake's pink eyes lock with Cromach's emeralds, "You have met me only once and that was under less than good circumstances right before Holy Light almost successfully killed us."
"What are you saying? We met in Canterlot when I thought you were a pickpocket-"
"No. The two of you met," Mistake nods towards me, "I might LOOK like the pony you fell in love with but he's standing over there, thinking I'm something I'm not, and trying not to come between us, ignoring the fact that there is no US. There is only YOU. No matter how our appearances change I'm just a small part of the pony you know. The one you know is him."
"You thought I'd go for him instead of you," Cromach turns his head to me, shock and a hint of starting fury in his voice.
I raise my hoof.
"In my defense, you almost did."
That is enough to make him freeze.
"Yes," he grits his beak and comes so close to my face that I can feel his ragged breathing, "I almost did. I am a selfish and shallow griffon and yet you still tried to indulge that side of me despite even your body portraying how you felt about meeting me again. With that in mind..."
He sits down and grabs my disfigured arm with talons of both his own, both the real one and the artificial one. His voice turns firmer than tempered steel.
"I am yours. Your life is my life and your end is my end. I promise I will stand by your side in anything you choose to do. You are more important to me than the princesses, the Empire, or my own goals. I will protect you from all harm in any way I can and I will fulfill your every wish. No god, no mortal ruler, and no danger will stop me. This is a promise I make right here and now never to be broken. Will you give my life meaning and accept?"
"You... do realize you might not be the only one I want to spend my life with?"
"Yes."
"No objections?"
"No."
"Saddle and reigns."
"I will wear them proudly in front of Luna if you want."
"I might be going mad with power now."
"I'm glad I could be of assistance, master."
"I accept, Cro, under one condition."
"Anything."
"You will hold me on a tight leash. If I threaten to slip back to the way I was, to hurt those around me with my infinite stupidity then you are to do ANYTHING, even if I'm against it, even if it hurts me temporarily to make me see again."
"I will."
I put my hoof over his arms holding mine.
"I didn't understand it for a long time but I'm the luckiest pony in the world."
Both of us turn to a barely contained sqeak coming from Rocky fidgeting like a caged rabbit.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!"
"Rocky, as you might have, ehm, noticed we've known each other for a while, can you grab us something from the cantine?"
"I'll give you privacy, don't worry," she grins so wide her white teeth cast rays of light at us.
As she leaves Mistake shuffles over to Crom.
"I hope you don't forget me completely, sir."
"Wow," Crom's eyes glint sadistically, "he acts like a shyer version of you."
"A good way to think about him is like a different, although quite similar, guy who knows everything I do."
"Sooo... how about a creepy unicorn-griffon-alicorn threesome selfcest?" Mistake sticks his tongue out.
"I LIKE HIM!" exclaims Crom.
"I thought you would," I grin and nod towards the bed, "but first I'd like to know how you got here in the first place. They told me the only way in and out of here is the monthly GFL supply caravan."
"I got here on rocket thrusters. Unfortunately, this fortress doesn't own a supply of fuel so I can't go back until the caravan arrives. I sort of wasn't expecting to get a clue to resolving the smuggling problem this soon."
"And what about that thing?" I tap on his mechanical arm.
"Well, that's another reason I'm here. I lost mine in a fight and since I carried yours with me all the time I lent it to princess Twilight and some unicorns to examine and craft a similar one. That's about the only mirror world design we're legally allowed to copy."
"Who was good enough to beat you, some evil unicorn mage?"
"A griffon. Let me start from the theft three weeks ago."
I was tasked by princess Luna to rebuild the Guard after the war with Holy Light. Well, Darky was but I was stupid enough to agree to help. After princess Celestia incinerated the rest of the army who insisted on fighting after Holy Light died our forces returned to their respective bases but there was one big problem - most of those who returned resigned immediately. It appears Equestrian police and guard forces never actually witnessed combat before.
Unfortunately, Darky's idea of a good way to recruit more ponies was to make training simpler, like, WAY much simpler so anypony could join.
"Running activates your leg muscles, allowing you to cover more distance quickly," I scribble.
And I was tasked to write the basic field manual. At first I tried to summarize what I went through during Griffon Imperial Legion training but when Darky scrapped my first draft, saying it would make the still serving guards run away, I decided to blindly follow the order to make it... more accessible.
"Jumping costs you more stamina but allows you to reach high places without needing a boost."
*SLAM*
Twitching, I give the incoming annoyance a murderous glare.
"How's it going?" asks the red-maned, black-coated, and soon-to-be-dead batpony.
"I feel my brain melting just from trying to think the way you wanted."
She sticks her tongue out and trots over to the table in a small office in Canterlot castle I got as a part of my service to both the Empire and Equestria. Her hoof shuffles few of the papers on the desk where I scribbled notes related to certain situations. Before she came I was working on the 'physical training' ones.
"Wings are a great way to get over height differences. If you are not endowed with them, please refer to our description of 'jumping'," she reads out loud and slams her hooves together, "GENIUS, now anypony will be able to join!"
I facepalm, wishing I had hooves just so it would knock me out.
"I'm not sure I want to be in that kind of Guard."
"We need everypony we can get, Crom. I have my hooves full with keeping the patrol schedule going without having our guys collapse in the streets. We need ponies, at least temporarily, and as long as we can send them out at night from time to time I'm fine with them being a little less..."
"Intelligent? Self-sufficient? Capable of getting into the uniform in the morning?"
"CROM! We talked about this. I know how you feel about this. I'm not happy about it either BUT we have no choice. NOPONY wants to join. We are lucky that some of the minotaurs actually volunteered to help us in exchange for schooling."
My fist hits the table.
"Yes, and even they would consider this stupid!"
"Crom!"
"We have the best weapon trainers in Equestria. I can train our guards well enough just from memory so that in a month or two they'll be able to climb mountains with no gear-"
"And they'll leave to serve as private guards for some noble," she interrupts, "The few who are left are content with earning less money than bodyguards or caravan escorts thanks to having a little prestige and the good feeling of serving their country as long as we don't work them to the bone."
"How about a help from the Griffon Empire and princess Cadance?"
"You tell me. Didn't Vargaz say that him lending us most of Black Ops combat division during the attack shook your noble families to their paws? And yes, prince Shining Armor is sending us about a hundred crystal ponies."
"Well, doesn't that solve all our problems?"
"A hundred crystal ponies who are grossly undertrained and not too keen on working with the minotaurs who are helping us as well. Some faked invasion, rings a bell?"
"Crap," I slump into my chair and put my head on the table.
Darky ruffles my feathers.
"The sisters rely on us to put things back together. I wouldn't say it in front of princess Cadance but the Royal Guard was in terrible shape after Shining Armor left. There was almost no habit of documenting stuff and most knowledge went from older guards to the new ones. The Nightguard under Sharp Biscuit operated flawlessly and even with him being apparently a disguised alicorn of paperwork I had very little idea what to do when I took over. What I'm trying to say is that with how improvised things are we have to start small."
"THIS small?" I point at one of my weapon training scribbles saying 'Swords are not usable as cutlery no matter how subtle your telekinesis is.'
"This small," she nods.
"Uggggh!"
"Well, we CAN switch and you'll get the pleasure of telling both Royal Guards and Nightguards why they have to do three night shifts in a row without having time off."
"No, thanks."
"Good. Speaking of night shifts, you're guarding the museum of antiquities tonight."
"REALLY? I mean really really? Noone EVER goes there even during the day. There is nothing there, mostly because noone has any idea what the things that are there are good for."
"Congratulations on an easy shift?"
"I can't do the evening training, go for a night shift, and then go back to the morning training and keep going."
"The few recruits we have will have to do without physical training for once and I'll just assign them to Rising Thunder. I can cash in favors from him forever."
"The hanging thing?"
"No, he ate my lunch yesterday," she rolls her red eyes, "Of course it's 'the hanging thing'."
Sighing, I stand up and push the desk away to clear some space.
"What are you doing?" asks the crackwhorse lookalike and Nightguard boss pretender.
"If I'm to do the night shift while still being marginally useful tomorrow I need a rest."
"Oh? You don't have to sleep here on the carpet. Come to my office, I have a comfy couch."
"Thanks."
"Anytime. Just be sure to dream about some more lines for the newbie guide."
The museum of antiquities probably has got some official name but I doubt anyone besides the curator knows it. It's situated in a small two-story building with its back to the Canterlot mountain itself which, quite obviously, means it's in one of the shadiest parts of the city. Granted, from what I've heard even the darkest and the most evil places in Canterlot are hubs of peace and quiet compared to big cities like Manehattan or, Emperor forbid, Stalliongrad but I don't think I've ever read a report about the museum being broken into. Guarding this place must be sort of a relaxing shift just like patrolling the castle library.
The curator is an elderly earthpony who shows me around the place and tells me where the keys are before making me envious and going home. Eventually, sitting in the ticket booth at the entrance becomes boring and to avoid nodding off I stand up and go stretch my legs.
As I walk through the halls filled with curiosities, exhibits, and some unbelievably minor magical artefacts I read some of the descriptions. I've never been here before-
"An authenic piece of Starswirl the Bearded's beard trapped in stasis," it says on a lit pillar hosting a piece of grey fuzz which might or might not be a piece of a carpet.
-and I doubt I missed anything.
The inscription on a pillar on which a black and red necklace depicting an alicorn head and spread wings says:
"The scale model of the alicorn amulet which is being stored safely in Canterlot castle. It's JUST a replica which, under no circumstances, will not grant you infinite power."
"Guess what Darky wants from me isn't a total nonsense," I mumble, walking through the exhibit halls.
The feeling in one of them makes both my feathers and my fur stand on edge. It's strange, cold... but comfortable and familiar. I can't quite describe it as whenever I think too hard about it it hides away, like a particular memory you desperately need to recall but can't.
I do something smarter and try to find whatever is causing it.
Looking through mostly worthless memorabilia and historical curiosities I stop in front of an exhibit hosting a glowing blue ball marked 'A frozen phoenix egg'.
"Phoenixes are beings of pure life energy," I read, "and as such they can never truly die. This egg was recovered from a cult of Nightmare in the ancient city of Ghou'Lash in Zebrican rainforests. These voodoo shamans attempted to corrupt a phoenix by infusing the power of the god of death directly into a living one. Research showed that as a reaction the phoenix, instead of turning into ash, reverted into the form of an egg. Nopony knows what the zebra shamans meant to do after they performed the ritual but to this day the egg remains inert and no attempts at the phoenix's reawakening have ever succeeded."
*Scratch scratch*
Hiding into the nearest shadow, I slow my breathing down as much as I can. My pure white coat isn't the best for concealment but whoever or whatever made the scratching noise must have their night vision ruined enough by the spotlights illuminating the exhibits not to see me in the patches of darkness.
Considering how tight the Guard schedules are there should not be another one here tonight. Perhaps the curator returned to see if I wasn't doing a bang-up job? No, not this late.
Blocking the nearest spotlight with one arm from blinding me, I scan the shadows for any sign of movement. Minutes drag on and gradually I wonder more and more whether it wasn't just me being overworked and hearing things. On the other hoof, it's not as if I have somewhere to be. Some ten minutes into the standoff the scratching returns and I grin. I might not be on a timetable but whoever is walking in the next room definitely is.
A four-legged silhouette watching every shadow enters the room and the turning of its head stops when it looks at the egg. It walks closer and stops by the exhibit, slowly moving its front legs all around it doubtlessly to uncover any thin strings which might lead to triggering an alarm. The thief pulls something out of a pocket and the light around the egg reveals it to be a spray can. What is more interesting though is the fact that he's able to hold it in one arm.
It's a griffon. Here, in this ridiculously useless building, is a griffon who is pretty good at sneaking and working around mechanical alarms.
Spraying the area around the pedestal, I can almost hear his annoyed grunt as he shakes his head and simply pockets the egg. Now it's my time to move. Following the figure, I sneak to the upper floor and finally to the stairs leading on the roof. The door closes shut just as I reach the bottom and now I simply run up, kick open the door, and...
...sparks light the area for a second as I jump forward, purely on reflex, narrowly dodging a blade that scratches the wall after failing to stab me in the neck.
I don't even think before grabbing the pistol holstered on my waist and shoot in the air. A red and blue flare lights the sky above Canterlot, a special one meaning 'A guard needs help'.
Every guard now carries a way to use a flare like this. It was my idea when I saw how understaffed both branches of the Guard were after last attack. I expected the unruly elements of the city to become more aggressive but, fortunately, I haven't had to use the flare yet.
Unfortunately for the griffon, only the first cartridge in my gun is the flare, the rest are standard lead bullets so I aim at the griffon's legs.
Two shots and a scream of pain echo through the nearby streets and I lower the gun to look at the griffon falling over-
-standing in front of me ready to stab.
"Ooof," a quick jump and a roll to the side prevent my immediate deadification at the price of losing the gun. I've seen enough magic users not to question this and when he blinks in front of me, blade at the ready, again all he receives is the handle of my two-handed battleaxe into his stomach.
Falling on all fours again, he lets go of his weapon and I kick it away while swinging the axe, uncaring about the possibility of questioning him. It hits, shattering spine and-
-I miss as the griffon rolls away without even looking at what I'm doing.
As he reaches for his belt again I take the heaviest thing I have with me aside from the axe. Blaze's mechanical arm I've been carrying with me ever since he died fighting Holy Light smacks the griffon in the face, giving me enough time to jump at him and swing the battleaxe.
The only way to fight magic users is to never give them a second to recuperate. My muscles burn from the bursty movements but, at least from the weapon choice, I'm way stronger than the other griffon so I have to press the advantage. He screams for no apparent reason and blurs, ignoring me and moving at barely visible speed. He pulls something out of an almost invisible pocket of his black clothes and stands up, arms holding two steel sticks.
Is he giving up?
I release my battleaxe mid-jump with one of my arms and get ready to defend against anything. My other arm still holding the weapon follows the swing and flies, flies, flies, down from the roof along with my axe.
A thin strand of steel razor wire glints in the moonlight as the blood from my severed limb splatters all around. Groaning, I want to get up while I still have the strength but the griffon kicks me and spins the wire around my neck.
He coughs blood, mixing his with mine rapidly escaping from my arm cleanly severed from my body, and a bolt of light pierces his chest-
-hits the roof as the griffon drops his razor wire and takes flight.
Darkness induced by bloodloss is only pierced by hoofsteps for a moment as all strength leaves me.
Cromach waves his mechanical arm.
"And that's basically it. I woke up at the castle, princess Twilight and her engineers made this based on the one you got in the mirror world, and I've spent almost a month recuperating and learning what it can do. One day a message from Vargaz came, saying somepony in this fortress managed to get their talons on some mirror world designs and so I went immediately."
"Well, I suppose that's where the portal could lead then. Do we go check it out?"
"We?" Crom grins playfully, "You mean a Black Ops member slash Royal Guard and a janitor recovering from a second degree burns?"
"Well, I can help."
"I know, buddy, but let me deal with this for now. Get a plenty of rest, I'll arrange the security patrols, and when I think things are good enough on this side we'll go through the portal. As much as I trust Vargaz with his intentions towards Equestria I doubt the new Emperor has enough foresight and strength to defy the noble families asking for technology rivalling pony magic."
"Politics," I roll my eyes.
"Trust me, I hate it too. On the other armored and taloned arm, without it I wouldn't be here."
"Thank heavens for politics then," I grin and nuzzle Cro's neck.
"Exactly."
Rock Candy, having returned with our food in the middle of Cromach's tale, jumps from the floor and salutes again.
"I'll help in any way I can, sir... sirs!"
Cromach looks at me, eyebrows raised. I nod.
"Alright," he gets down from the bed, "I'll arrange your duties for next the few days. Whenever I'm not guarding the storage room, you will."
"Why don't we just move the mirror?" I wave my hooves.
"We have no idea whether the smuggler is on our side or the other. If we move the mirror we'll give away we know, IF we actually know, the access route. Let's just be sneaky about this."
"Okay, sir!" says Candy officially.
"Tell me if you need anything, Cro," I can't help feeling a bit useless.
"Oh, I will. Rocky, you will be patrolling the floor tonight. I have something... more important to see to."
She grins.
"I understand."
"See you later, Blaze, Mistake," Crom opens the door and shakes his head, "I... I still hope this isn't just a dream." |
The Third Diary | Love And Advanced Weaponry Is All You Need | [Blazing's Entry]
Nothing I could write would explain how much I missed having somepony to cuddle at night so I'm not going to bother. Cromach is here and that's all that matters. We're gonna mess around a little for the remainder of the month, probably have a look at what's on the other side of the mirror, and then go home.
Speaking of which, I'm mopping again, yaay!
It's been two days since Crom arrived and my power has been recovering at a much faster pace than before. The feathers on my wings don't show any signs of coming back though, not that I care that much but I'm hiding my power from the griffons so with no magical plumes I look like a plucked chicken.
Good development - my chest and face healed quite well and I can now walk without wearing bandages. It still itches from time to time but the fresh, carpet-like, short coat actually feels really nice in the morning air. As far as my horn goes, I managed to file it down so it doesn't look broken and cracked but simply a bone a part of which has been cleanly cut off.
I'm feeling better and better and Luna's words returned to me on the second night coupled with Rock Candy's and I realized my previous guess wasn't wrong. I... believe I really might be the alicorn of Hope and the knowledge that Crom is here by my side without hating me is giving me my power back.
[End Entry]
My shift is done and, slowly becoming used to working again, I don't keel over as I put my cleaning tray away. This also means that I'm finishing my rounds sooner and sooner so I can't just walk to the courtyard to watch the morning practice so I just sit down on the wide stairs leading out of the building and breathe in the cool almost-morning air.
It's unbelievable how bright the stars are out here. As somepony born in Manehattan and living most of my life there or in Canterlot I haven't had many opportunities at stargazing and, finally able to think about it, I haven't missed much. The sky is pretty but that's about it, no movement, just complete stillness everywhere besides directly above the fortress where the stars seem to wobble a little as if obscured by hot air coming from a chimney.
Are the cooks getting started early today or is it just my damn eyes playing tricks on me?
I could wake Mistake up but I prefer him sleeping for now and enjoying the opportunity to clear my head and think my own thoughts without having everything I go through endlessly examined for, well, mistakes. Looking at the strange sky, I come to the conclusion that the visual effect is too wide to be caused by just one chimney. To cover such area all the chimneys in the fortress would have to be fuming constantly. None of the sentries on the outer walls seem to be bothered though so I just walk back through the halls of the fortress to the top floor.
There is only one exit leading to the roof and, luckily, I have the key. Quite less luckily, the door is open.
*Sigh*
MISTAKE!
Wzrblh?
Strange anomaly hovering over the roof. The door that should be locked tight is open, and-
And the dark spot in the corner is definitely not marmelade. I get it.
Any ideas?
A sharp stab of pain in my head is the sign that Mistake is going through my memory of tonight with far too much speed to be gentle.
Not really. Go check out the corner and I'll be watching.
Trying to make as little sound as possible, I walk to what proves to be a puddle of blood smeared with paw marks. The door to the closest turret doesn't budge as I push against it but it doesn't seem locked.
There's a body on the other side.
So, there's somepony inside the fortress who killed at least one of the sentries. Considering none other noticed they might be dead as well. Go wake up Cromach, tell him to do what the usual procedure is or something and then to meet me at the teleport mirror. My best guess is that whoever killed the griffon came from there.
I have to guard you.
No, you have to guard him. There's no real point in guarding me if the only griffon making life worth living is gone.
He knows better than to argue and disappears. For now I'm almost blind, can't see around corners and behind me. The best idea would be to stay put so I stand up and go straight to the storage room. Strangely enough, the only interruption comes when I open the door and a minotaur aims a pistol at me. She quickly salutes and I take a breath of relief that she's okay.
"Rocky, did something or somepony come from the mirror?" I nod to the magical item.
"Nope, Prophet, all clear."
"Crap."
"Is there a problem?"
"Yes, somepony killed a griffon sentry and there's something weird going on above the fortress. I thought it had something to do with Cromach's mirror world smuggling case but..."
I drift off as my mind catches up.
What are the mirror world inventions I've seen until now? Husk, medical prosthesis, better train, crystal energy source, AND A GIANT FREAKING AIRSHIP CAPABLE OF HOVERING SILENTLY ANYWHERE. Who is to say that there isn't a mirror technology capable of making it near-invisible?
Okay, so the theory goes - somepony is flying above us, invisible and at the best time to infiltrate a place. There's a dead guard and presumably he's not the only one. Somepony is coming for more blueprints tonight probably. I wish I had something more to go on than just guesswork.
Is the mirror a dud, a false clue then? Doubtfully.
"Rocky, I'm going out. If anything comes out of the portal then shoot first, ask questions while shooting. I think we're under attack."
The sneaking griffon who attacked me must have been important. I'm sure that killing guards would have made this place impenetrable if it happened before I came so I believe this is a step caused by the encounter with me.
Mistake will be protecting Cromach who will wake the entire fortress up as soon as he can. What can I do to help, go there as well? Nah, I've never really worked well in a group. Time to go on the roof and see what is to be seen.
By the time I get to the stairs leading up various alarms start ringing from downstairs, giving me the cover to make it to the roof...
... just to dive back when a platoon of griffon soldiers use me as a practice target. The bullets denting the iron door make a strong argument for running the hay away and I don't think twice.
Unfortunately, neither do the soldiers and the steps followed by angry shouting are right behind me.
Galloping through the outer square of halls, I reach one of the corner staircases leading down. Strangely enough, even with the soldiers not too far away I'm not being shot at anymore. That's probably not a good thing. Nopony has ever wanted me alive just because they were nice.
"Blaze, HERE!" I hear Crom's voice from the left. It seems he made it to the mirror room fast enough.
Aaaand we're back.
What's going on?
We're under attack by about fifty griffons. All guards outside are dead. Hamilton is leading the defense, he's Black Ops just like Cromach.
Fifty? That should be a breeze for the guys stationed here. Are they immortal like the corrupted ones in Golden Sands or something?
No, just insanely well equipped. They have got guns that can easily pierce armor while their armor stops all bullets. That's not the worst part.
I ALWAYS love to hear somepony say that.
It's not just griffons. There are also unicorns out there.
Mirror world weaponry coupled with magic. That's just my luck...
With invisible Mistake keeping an eye out on the hall, I hide with the others in the storeroom. The soldiers don't run round the corner fast enough to see us go inside.
"Blaze, the fortress is-" starts Crom.
"Mistake told me everything."
"What do we do?"
"You're asking ME? I never have a plan, I always just wing it."
"And succeed. Also, I have no idea. The guys downstairs have barricaded all access from upper floors and outside when they heard the enemy could come from the roof. We're alone up here."
"I don't know, barricade the door?"
Without a moment of thought, Rock Candy pushes a large crate in front of the door-
*Flash*
-and a red beam melts through the lock, the box, and Rocky's side, instantly cauterizing the wound. Rocky falls over.
Yes, making a noise with a bunch of armed soldiers running past was a smart idea.
I NOTICED!
"Crom, throw her through the mirror. I don't know what's on the other side but it sure as hell can't be worse than dying here."
The mirror cracks slightly as Cromach slams Rocky's head into it.
"Got a small problem!" he says, almost drowned out by the increasing steps outside.
Did I guess wrong what the mirror was?
No, it sure is magical. Perhaps it needs some sort of magic to unlock it?
You're the mage in these parts, GET ON IT!
Right, right, right.
"Crom, Mistake is working on the mirror. I'll try to hold them off as long as I can. When you get a signal just jump in with Rocky."
He looks skeptically at the small mirror of barely enough size to reflect his entire face.
"It's a bit tiny for that. Are you sure?"
"It'll just, I don't know, suck you in or something. Just be ready."
Finally, the preparations of the soldiers are complete. I get the message from the wooden door shattering into pieces.
Pieces which turn to ash when they hit my fire wings. A short moment later the floor sizzles with tiny pools of melted lead.
The soldiers stop shooting.
"Strange alicorn encountered. Requesting orders!" mumbles one.
My wings hiss out and the fire plumes turn to black ice which shatters into tiny pieces floating through the room. I doubt the soldiers know what it means but if they try to rush inside they'll know firsthoof what it feels to be inside a blender.
Without aiming their weapons, three armored ones walk inside, followed by-
You know? Sometimes I wish I wasn't always right.
-a griffon in well-fitting black jacket and pants. What makes him recognizable are the rapier, the dagger, the pistol hanging on his waist, but mostly the several fresh scars crossing half of his face.
"One wrong move and you're strawberry jam," I growl and the levitating shards of my wings move in the air.
Why not do it now and save you some trouble?
I have barely enough strength to control even this little divine power. All I now have is the illusion of strength and a ton of hope that they don't find out.
"I strongly believe you would have done that already if it was in your power, mister janitor. Seize them!" he points.
Fffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-
READY!
"GO, CROM!"
I manage to assemble a small ice wall giving us a second of time to push groaning Rocky close enough to the mirror which slurps her down with a fairly creepy noise. Crom immediately jumps through and as soon as the weak flash signalling the translocation is over comes I follow.
Do you know why I hate flying? Mostly because of the fact that when you fall your stomach seems to be running away through your nostrils. Teleportation, unfortunately, feels fairly similar. Thus, I now hate teleportation as well. At least it's quick.
"BEHIND YOU!" I hear Cromach and reflexively buck back with both my hind legs.
*Crack*
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaarrrrrrrrrgh-"
The scream fades and I hear a wet slap from the floor which upon looking turns out to be a griffon arm wrapped in the sleeve of a black jacket. A quick blink reveals the mirror my kick shattered lost its magical properties.
Unfortunately, another look around reveals the three of us landed in a large room full of tables, chairs, food, and most of all... griffons and ponies sitting around, suddenly not eating.
This place is a cantine built in a very similar fashion to the one at Ironclaw. The inhabitants aren't soldiers though. Despite them looking fairly fit none of them is wearing armor. In fact, all of them are wearing white robes with differently colored belts.
A tall, grey griffon apporaches us. No, my left eye tells me different when I blink, not a griffon. A changeling disguised as a griffon. A changeling from whom I can sense immense amount of power.
"Who might you be?" he asks carefully.
"Before I answer, can somepony look at Rocky's wound?" I nod towards our minotaur friend with part of her torso charred.
The disguised changeling quickly turns his head and then calls upon a group of unicorns at a nearby table.
"Take care of her," he says simply.
As Rocky is being levitated away I smile at the 'griffon'.
"Thanks, I didn't expect to be greeted so warmly, especially from a change-"
Left, now!
I narrowly dodge a fast jab aimed at my face.
"What?" I hear Cromach's yelling and the snapping of the harness holding his battleaxe.
The changeling/griffon doesn't relent and since he apparently expected me to dodge the first blow he just swings his outstretched arm, clipping my head.
Block this one.
The wide swipe of his other arm is blocked by my disfigured one. He's strong but not overbearingly so. I have to stay focused on the changeling because his movements sure as hell prove he's good at close combat.
What about Crom and the other?
Crom's fine. We're surrounded but nopony is moving. You know, we could stop now and talk it through- KICK!
The changeling turns on one hind leg and I barely lean backwards to avoid the roundhouse kick. It's not enough though as he stretches his leg mid-movement and gains the short length needed to less kick, more push me on the floor.
Sure, we COULD, but I'm in a mood for serious asskicking.
As the changeling jumps at me when I'm on my back on the floor, I don't try to roll away but just kick up with my hind legs.
"Ooof!" the air leaves the changeling's chest as he's bucked upwards but he lands on all fours with no trouble and stands back up, arms at the ready, talons outstretched. I match his movements.
He waits for me to blink before moving but as soon as my eyes close he rushes at me and I have to avoid a flurry of quick punches. Thanks to my 'blind' eye I'm not too bothered by the move but his speed is alarming in any case.
Left, right, left, left, right, left-
With Mistake's input flowing directly to my head, I'm able avoid every blow and eventually weave a punch in. Since I have at least one normal front leg, I use the hard hoof to politely tell to the changeling to crawl on the floor and stop bothering me.
He disagrees as the punch makes him stop his assault and stumble backwards but not fall. I immediately follow with another blow of my arm which is diverted by his quick block and once again it's up to me to defend myself.
Left punch, left punch, right punch, KICK, jump kick-
A blow of both his arms straight to my face sends me to the floor. My ears are ringing from the force but I can hear the dull 'thud' of something hard hitting flesh from above.
SORRY!
The changeling is recovering from the blow of the handle of Cromach's battleaxe, clutching his chest. He doesn't hesitate for long and lunges at Crom, getting as close as possible for him to be unable to use his weapon effectively. As Crom tries to push him away with the handle held in both arms the changeling grabs the handle as well and-
A biiiig mistake, trying to outmuscle Crom.
-brings both his hind legs to his chest and, while Cromach stumbles against the combined weight of his weapon and the changeling hanging on it, kicks. Letting go of the weapon, Crom flies, crashing into a table nearby. The changeling throws the axe away and rushes towards Crom who is coughing and groaning.
The world goes red.
A shard of black ice shatters the floor between the changeling and Cromach. Both of them look at me and while Crom looks worried the enemy's expression turns from carefree to serious for the first time. He nods at me and steps away from MY griffon. The power of Death inside me subdued, I exchange blows with the changeling again.
The world spins and something hits me in the back. It's the floor.
The griffon puts a paw of his hind leg on my chest and one talon to his beak.
The heck was that?!
I... I have no idea.
Truth be told, everything felt fine up to the point when I was flying and subsequently slammed into the floor. I was predicting the changeling's movements with no real trouble, I knew what was going to happen and I moved to avoid the kick to my leg dropping me off balance.
The thing is that I was in no position to do so unless I was made of jelly.
Breathing heavily and not moving, I come to the conclusion that the changeling led me move by move into a position where my prediction ability would be useless because my body wouldn't be able to react at all to his next attack.
I lost in a martial arts duel. I may have landed two or three mostly just disorienting blows but that was it. If I was a normal pony and if the changeling wanted me dead then I wouldn't be here right now.
"You win, mister-" I groan.
He narrows his eyes.
"-griffon."
He smiles and I get what the problem was.
"My name is Antares," he bows politely as I get up, "I'm the grandmaster of this school."
"School?" Crom joins me, holstering his axe on his back again.
"Well, a monk temple, but I just consider this a place where anypony can learn discipline and self-control."
"Where are we?" I ask.
"Since you so obviously came from a magical portal," Antares grins and looks at the wall where...
...the mirror we came through USED to be.
"CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!" he facehoofs.
I pat him on the back.
"Don't worry and just expect the worst. It happens to me all the time."
"And what would 'the worst' be?"
"A small army of griffons attacking this place from where whoever stole the mirror hid it."
A gong rings through the 'school'.
"Well, for now it's time to lock you up alongside your minotaur friend. Go quietly and we can talk later. A new day is starting and we have a routine to keep."
"Thanks for your... hospitality."
"I could punch you again."
"No, thanks."
"Good," Antares smiles calmly. |
The Third Diary | "Annoyed Grunt!" | [Blazing's Entry]
Bullets that can pierce steel doors. Armor that can stop standard projectiles without being as heavy as a platemail. Invisible airship. Beam weapons and magic.
What a pain...
But none of that matters right now because I'm stuck in the mirror world. Yes, from Antares' explanations we really are on the other side where Twilight Sparkle rules, basically at the same geographical location where Ironclaw is on our side. That of course means in the middle of a freaking desert again but apparently the supply routes of a private martial arts school are better than the GFL ones.
Public institutions, am I right?
So, yeah, this is gonna be a long one.
I wasn't surprised in the slightest when I heard this place was being resupplied once a week and that the caravan left yesterday. What DID surprise me was that a temple in the middle of nowhere offers a supply of fuel and an emergency way out. When we explained our situation to Antares he immediately offered us to send Crom away on a glider which is a better version of commonly used griffon thrusters but Crom refused, saying the week wasn't a big deal and that he wanted to stay with me anyway. I guess the promise is something he intends to keep and I couldn't be happier.
The fact that we really are in the mirror world explained Antares' desire to remain unknown as a changeling because here they are considered night terrors and evil predators, basically what they were known on our side as after the invasion of Canterlot. I don't really have any desire to tell on him though. After watching few practice lessons I have no doubt his massive power is related to his students loving and respecting him. He might not be a queen-grade changeling but he sure holds more power than I've ever seen even Chrysalis possess maybe aside from the story about her forcefully draining Shining Armor and fighting princess Celestia.
I asked him how long he's been here and I certainly didn't expect the answer. Sometimes they say the world is small. I can now say that two worlds aren't much bigger. I once had a talk with Heavy Hoof about his coltfriend Cross and he told me the history of commander Shadowstep and her legion, mostly how they all died and she was tortured by a dragon sorcerer, resulting in the creation of Cross.
Where is this going?
Half a millenium ago, as Shadowstep's legion marched through the desert it shattered into straggler groups running away. Antares was in one of those groups and found what he thought was a mirage but in truth was a portal anomaly left behind by griffon-pony wars in an area which used to be so bombarded by magic it turned into a desert. As it turned out the building he saw wasn't an illusion but a temple belonging to some sort of monk order who took him in, especially when he proved to be an excellent fighter and obedient like most changelings. And just like that he stayed there, the anomaly eventually disappeared, and century after century he fed off the coming students and as the old grandmasters came and died he kept the place going.
My guess is that the portal anomaly lasted in some form, allowing him to remain in this world as long as he stayed in the area and recently somepony found out about it, binding it into a mirror and stabilizing it.
Rocky was up and walking around two days after we got stranded here and now she's doing some light exercises with the students here. I was shocked at how easily Antares defeated me so I decided to ask him for some lessons.
[End Entry]
"Tsk!" I hiss, getting up from the floor for what feels like the fiftieth time, "Again?"
Antares shakes his head.
"How to say it tactfully? You are bad, even worse than most of my newest students. There is no real point in us sparring anymore."
"What?" Crom, who has been watching us, relaxing and sharpening his axe, blinks in shock, "Back in the Guard he was considered the best hoof-to-hoof fighter possibly of all Equestria."
"Well, he's not," Antares says bluntly and looks back at me, "You have no feel for the flow of battle, you are slow, easily distracted, and you don't think about the fight. All you've got going for you seems to be an unnatural ability to predict the best course of action for the enemy. Something which I've been exploiting over and over by either putting you in a position where you can't react despite knowing what would come or simply by not doing the most effective attack at the time. Anyone who know what they are doing and have the time to measure you up a little would do the same, no matter what weapon they use. Simply put, you have no skill to carry you, you just react perfectly. You can't win only by responding to your enemy."
I watch him blankly, having no idea what to say. This has been my only pride, the only thing I was good at and now with just few words and several hours of fruitlessly trying to defeat Antares it's gone. I'm not physically fit anymore, my only ability is apparently worthless, and I don't have enough divine power to count as a force to be reckoned with.
I sit there silently, watching the wooden floor.
"What's going on with your wings?" asks Antares and I spread one, looking at the blackfrost plumes.
Yeah, I'm not in a great mood right now.
"Can't you, I don't know, give him a refresh on basics before we leave with the caravan?" Crom throws me a lifeline, "We still have few days."
"Not really."
"Come oooooon! I know we can't pay you but-"
Antares scowls at Crom's insinuation.
"I couldn't care less about money. The point is that I get students like him here. Soldiers or colts, it doesn't matter. They have so many bad habits ingrained in them that just getting rid of those takes months or years. Time that we don't have."
"We?" asks Crom.
"I would like to return home one day. When you told me I wasn't stranded in some other world similar to mine but just a twin world of the Equestria I was born in I started thinking about it and, if possible, I want to wrap things up here and see new horizons. I've been here for centuries and, trust me, things get stale after a while. Most of all, I want to see Shadowstep and apologize to her. If she survived then her course of action was correct. Those of us who deserted... were wrong and paid for it."
"You know we could just say we wouldn't take you to Shadowstep if you didn't help Blaze get better."
"It's not about whether or not I want to teach someone but whether I can and, as I said, I can't."
"Can't you help him improve his style or something quick?"
"It's fine, Crom," I wave a hoof dismissively, "We'll take you with us if you want, Antares. I don't know where Shadowstep is but one of my friends should be able to help you. I'm not gonna keep you from working with those students who deserve your attention."
"Blaze..." Crom sighs.
"Hey, it's not all bad," Antares smiles suddenly and pats Cromach's head randomly, "You might have zero feel for martial arts but just this little session told me there is something in you. You are a bruiser, a brawler, you refuse to hurt someone needlessly which reflects in your overly defensive approach to combat, and when a friend is threatened you go all in like you did in the cantine when you arrived. You know what?"
"Hmm?" I look up at him towering above me.
"I might not be able to smack some skill into you during next few days but I sure can make your muscles burn. Some basic training should do you good no matter what and, depending on how my meeting with general Shadowstep goes, I might think of a good style for you later."
"Won't you feel bad for leaving your school just to get closure?"
"The leadership of a temple is traditionally passed down from grandmaster to his best student and the poor guy's been patiently waiting for me to croak for decades. He's definitely responsible enough to take over although the shock from the good news might wreck his poor old heart. As for the closure... I like exploring, I like seeing what the world has to offer, being stuck here for centures since Shadowstep's march was a little too much for me. I might stay with you for a while or travel, it doesn't matter as long as it's a change of pace."
"How is the search for the mirror going?" I decide to switch topics.
After our appearance and first explanations Antares ordered the temple searched from top to bottom for the mirror which disappeared in the commotion but so far nothing has come up.
"Still no clue. The few older members I trust completely are going through all rooms and personal belongings but the mirror must be being moved around while we're not watching."
"Is it possible this is a group effort rather than some lone smuggler?"
"No, I'm certain of that. I know most of my students fairly well and the reputation of my school is impeccable so there's a good reason for everyone to be here. Old families, especially griffon ones, want their heirs to build endurance, self-reliability, and some close combat skills. There are only few students of questionable backgrounds and those enlisted at completely unrelated times. This has to be a solo effort or an incredibly long-term operation which is impossible since you told me the first rift between the worlds opened fairly recently."
"How is the guy getting the blueprints though, the supply caravan?"
"I see no other way. I'll have the caravan members watched during this visit so we'll know if someone makes a move."
"You are one sneaky bastard."
"Changeling soldier. I might not be an infiltrator but even I know how to cover my tracks and watch a target. Especially if everyone around me would immediately set me on fire."
"Well, at least that won't be a problem at home."
"Peace between the predators and the prey. Strange but welcome."
"Hey, if you want high quality love then the best way to get it is to take good care of your provider. Queen Chrysalis understood it and now things are fine... ish."
"We'll see. Now go get some rest. Beating you up any more would be pointless."
Struggling with each step not only due to physical exhaustion, I leave for my room. Crom comes as well, helping me move with a wing wrapped around my back. Back in my temporary room I crumble on the bed and Crom sits next to me. Thankfully, after our initial misunderstanding each one of us got a separate room. Not that it stopped Crom from spending every night in mine but it was the thought that counted.
"Can you stay here a while?"
"Sure, not feeling like brooding alone?"
"What can I say? Misery loves company."
I keep repeating what happened today in my head. With minutes ticking away Crom lies down and snuggles my back.
"Damn," I mumble.
"Hm?"
"It's the only thing I had going for me, you know? Now I get told what I was teaching newbies for years was wrong and might have hurt them nore than helped. What will I even do if I return? I can't go back to training guards."
"Sure you can."
"But Antares said-"
"First of all, how can you be so sure he was right?"
"He wiped the floor with me, few times literally. He knows what he's doing and what he's talking about. I can see he's right."
"Well, maybe. The thing is that noone cares about you not being the best of the best. You didn't teach the recruits martial arts, you taught them hoof to hoof combat. You showed them what to do when they don't have the time to do anything fancy. Thanks to you some of them actually sift through the orders they get instead of blindly obeying them."
"I... guess?" I press my back tighter against the griffon behind me, still unconvinced.
"Trust me, I've been through a ton of part-time jobs before I joined the army and it's not about being the best at something but being good at selling what you can do. If worst comes to worst you can start as a normal guard. It's not like we would turn anyone down these days."
"Moments like these just remind me how little experience I really have. I doubt I can really put 'defeated an evil dictator in a fight inside his head' in my resume. Even after all that I'm just a unicorn, ignoring the details, who dropped out of a university twice."
"No matter what, I'll be there to help, simple enough."
Not pressing Crom further, I just decide to rest through the afternoon, wrapped in a pair of soft, white wings.
A large surge of magic is occuring nearby. Wake up!
My eyes shoot open and I jump down from the bed even before I realize I'm awake.
"Mmmm," Cromach moans.
"Get up, Cro!"
What's going on?
It's almost morning and somepony is using some strange form of magic. It feels foul but powerful.
"What's up?" Crom blinks, immediately ready for action when he sees me standing in the room and looking around.
"Some weird magic is coming from the cellars."
"Changeling magic? Is Antares eating his students?"
"I doubt that. This magic feels like... death. I've never felt anything similar before. Let's go."
"Should we tell Antares first?"
As we run out of my room the temple shakes in its foundations.
"I think he knows now."
This place either must have been built on the site of the Ironclaw fortress or the fortress on our side must have been built on the layout of this temple because we have no trouble navigating through the halls down underground accompanied by surprised glances of students waking up and sticking their heads out of the rooms.
Rock Candy joins us as we run past her room and we spot Antares and a bunch of students standing in front of a shimmering wooden door.
"Soooo, we weren't the only ones who felt the magic?" I grin.
"Magic?" the fake griffon raises an eyebrow, "We ran here after we heard the explosion but the door is locked and shielded."
"Oh yeah, that won't last long," I focus on the aura around the door.
Mistake, as soon as I drain the magic unlock the door.
Sure. I've been itching to be a bit useful after I failed you during the training. Sorry, once again. It seems that me watching your blind spots isn't enough to beat that changeling.
Let's agree we both suck and see what's behind the door.
The barrier is simple to dispel but the amount of magic poured into is is staggering and I stumble as the drained power courses through my veins.
The door turns to vapor.
Oops, I just wanted to unlock it. What the hay?
The cellar is dark and rich with the heavy scent of blood sticking to our muzzles and making several of the students throw up on the spot. Brown puddles and smears on the floor accentuated by a heap in the corner only serve to unsettle the ones still standing steady.
I feel Mistake attempt to conjure a sphere of light in the middle of the room but he miscasts again and bright white glow coming seemingly from everywhere illuminates every spot in the room. Antares immediately jumps inside, talons at the ready to rip any threat to shreds. A short moment later he's grabbed by an invisible force and shoved into a wall. I don't wait for more and rush inside as well.
A brown, scarred unicorn is standing on the far end of the cellar with horn glowing bright red. Stains of drying blood all over the floor and the unicorn are explained as the heap in the corner reveals who must have undoubtedly been some of Antares' students.
"Blood magic..." I shiver as memories which are not mine flow into my head. Memories of cults sacrificing victims to make their life force fuel their magic. It's just a flash of explanation before Mistake cuts the flow of the knowledge of the gods but it's enough.
"Surprised, alicorn?" his eyes and grin go wide, "I'm a soldier. We know how to work with limited resources and on the battlefield there are only two things in abundance - blood and corpses."
"How could you do that?" groans Antares', still being crushed, "We took you in after you-"
The unicorn cackles.
"After Crowley sent me here to explore where the portal anomaly went? Oh dear, how easy was it to persuade you I was just some poor soldier lost in the desert after his caravan got raided by nomads. Well, now it's time to end your little school since your other 'visitors' revealed our ploy."
His horn's glow brightens and, letting Antares drop on the floor, a square on the wall behind him bursts out with blue light. Mystery of the missing mirror untangled, I don't wait longer, focus on the unicorn, and pull with my mind.
Red veins appear, glowing even through his coat, and his bloodshot eyes go wide. He coughs and I feel the formation of a general protection spell in his horn. It's obvious he has no idea what I'm doing and his horn cracks as I forcefully rip his magic out of him. Crumbling on the floor, he cackles again.
"Cool... trick..."
*Tink*
Something flies out of the mirror and hits the floor.
In the second I have I see Crom shield his face with an arm so I manage to at least close mine before a bright flash makes everypony unprepared scream. With eyes now completely useless I hear steps and clinking from the direction of the mirror.
Blinking, I still see nothing so I return to the tracking spell and see the black world filled with white outlines of griffons jumping out of the mirror and aiming their rifles. Reflexively, I cover myself with one fire wing and spread the other to protect anypony close enough. Cromach, being the only one not blinded by the flashbang immediately rolls behind me.
The hail of bullets and melted lead is short and precise. Despite my eyes not working properly I feel a sudden emptiness from where Antares was.
He's alright, the bullets just bounced away from him. Sure makes you wish you still had your changeling powers. Rocky and Crom are also fine. Both had enough experience with griffon weaponry to cover their eyes and hide behind you. The students though... didn't.
White outlines of six griffon soldiers aim their rifles at us, the remaining four survivors.
"The alicorn and the group encountered. Requesting orders," one mumbles into his mouthpiece.
Good. That means we have few seconds.
The room is bathed in green flames as Antares drops his disguise and goes wild. One griffon is ripped in half before he can turn his head, armor offering no protection against an overfed changeling.
In the despair coming from him I feel he realized one thing, something Void told me when I fought him in Rift. No amount of power is sufficient to prevent all tragedies.
The six soldiers are turned to bloody paste in moments and Antares turns on us.
"This is all your fault!" he growls.
"Hey, hey, we ran away from the guy who sent those soldiers. He did the same thing-" Cromach objects.
"You just HAD to show him the way here," says Antares, ignoring all evidence, reality, and sanity.
"That makes no sense-"
Antares lunges at me, mouth wide and snarling.
He freezes mid-air, covered in black ice.
"Chill out," I say firmly, "and think before doing something you'll regret."
The alicorn of Hope.
But it's not just hope, is it? Hope comes only when there is nothing else left. The powerless wish and hope because they have nothing otherwise they would change things themselves. Only the desperate ones truly hope.
Split into two, arguing forever, the alicorn of Hope and Despair, gains power from both but has to balance them otherwise he would either crumble and go insane or just become a useless wishing dreamer. The desperate and broken unicorn who decided the only way out was to give at least a little hope to the ones around him.
The sadness coming off Antares gives me so much power that even his love reserves can't break my blackfrost prison.
"Antares, are you listening?" I ask calmly, "I won't say it twice."
He growls.
"I'll take that as a yes. I'm going through and making sure the mirror can't be repaired. When I'm gone break the mirror on this side and I'll do it on the other. Help Crom get to the Everfree gate as soon as you can-"
"Wait! I'm coming with you," says Crom heatedly, "I promised."
"No. The royal sisters need to be told about a griffon unit armed with so much firepower they could take over a small country in case whoever is behind this sets their eyes on Equestria."
"But-"
"Don't argue! I'll come back to you and this time..."
I grin.
"...this time I mean it!"
Not waiting for an answer, I jump through my black and white world into the portal.
After brief sickness my legs touch the floor and I buck backwards as hard as I can, hoping my special talent and strength shatter the mirror.
They do, at least one does. The other leg hits something soft.
Turning my head, I see Rock Candy groaning on the floor with her muzzle bleeding.
The white silhouettes of a group of griffons aiming at us are, unfortunately, a rather more pressing matter.
"Mister janitor, you seem to have a habit of ruining my plans," says the familiar scarred griffon, "but where are my manners? My name is Crowley and, despite some evidence contradicting Black Ops reports, yours must be Blazing Light." |
The Third Diary | Remind Me, I Was The Element Of What Again? | [Blazing's Entry]
Crowley's soldiers captured us rather easily yesterday since Rocky was in no position to resist after I, ehm, nearly kicked her head off. I tried to fight but it seems my power comes in surges which go away as quickly as they come. Mistake's guess was that I lack enough control over Harmony's power to allow me to reliably use the other divine forces.
Strangely enough, most of Ironclaw soldiers survived the first attack and Crowley's forces don't seem intent on abusing them which is something I would never expect from an invading force. Speaking of the griffon himself, outside of him knowing who I was he didn't show any interest in me aside from telling me to stay put and don't cause trouble otherwise he would kill the hostages.
I got split from Rocky and locked up in one of the holding cells in the cellars with a trio of overly armed guards watching my every move. I suppose it must have been boring because aside from me scribbling here I've spent all the time by sleeping or lying around thinking, mostly about why the hay I'm still blind.
It seems the flashbang in the mirror world triggered something in my memory-driven body and blinded me completely. Whether or not it's permanent I have no idea but for now I'm stuck in a black world of white outlines, the only positive side being that the vision spell doesn't drain my power whatsoever anymore.
Stuck in a desert fortress, all I can do at the moment is rest and wait for the evil guy to reveal what he wants.
[End Entry]
The barred door to my cell opens as soon as I finish writing into my journal. I am completely and utterly not shocked when the visitor reveals himself to be Crowley, or the silhouette of a griffon with the only differentiating feature to my blind eyes being a set of thin white lines on his face.
I miss colors.
"I believe we need to talk," says Crowley.
"Are you an evil mercenary or my marefriend?" I snicker.
"Neither, young alicorn. I merely wish for my homeland to enjoy the same kind of stability like yours offers. Unfortunately, such goals are against the traditions of the Empire so there is certain... opposition."
"I'm not exactly sure that taking over a GFL fortress can be considered a revolution of some sort."
"Ironclaw was simply the best position to test our new equipment out and recruit those who aren't so set in Imperial ways."
"Do I fit into this in some way or was I in the wrong place at the wrong time as per my usual luck?"
"The latter, I'm afraid. Our observers in Equestria confirmed your death after facing the corrupted alicorn during the Zebrican army invasion. I was unsure whether or not it was you during our first... encounter but some further digging in my notes confirmed the idea."
"Notes? About me? Do I have a griffon fanclub?"
"Yes, it is called the Black Ops," Crowley grins, "You were quite the topic of our discussions at one time. A unicorn who repeatedly rose from the dead and possesses magic resistance capable of stopping the alicorn princesses in their tracks. Getting our talons on you was considered a prime objective at the point."
"Now you've got me, so what?"
"Well, our sides have changed recently so I'm not under orders to strap you to a table and tell a group of scientists to test the limits of your body. However, in light of my change of allegiance I would like to ask for your help."
"If I refuse?"
"I will personally shoot every single survivor of Ironclaw garrison starting with the minotaur who came with you through the portal."
"You DO realize that not even that will make me do whatever you want if it means putting far more ponies and griffons in danger of some crazy warlord, don't you?"
"You are mistaken about my goals. Let me ask you few questions."
"No military secrets, not that I know any."
"Why do you think Equestria has such a strong position despite it being such a weak military force?"
"As far as I know you griffons need our magic and natural remedies to cure the uninhabitable parts of your Empire. Zebras need our gems to fuel the infrastructure capable of delivering precious water throughout the continent. The rest... honestly, I don't know. I'm not too huge on politics and diplomacy."
"You are actually correct. Equestria doesn't export massive industrial engines or landscaping equipment but there still are untapped veins of resources which every country in the world would want. With that kind of interest, if it weren't for one pony then Equestria would have been torn to bits either by us or some other superpower, one pony granting the weak inhabitants peace and forcing us to trade rather than take by force."
"That's no secret. Princess Celestia, if pushed far enough, could wipe all life on the planet out."
"Exactly, and yet she's never threatened to use such power for the benefit of her ponies."
I shrug.
"Well, she's immortal. She's seen where threats and wars lead so she can choose the road to a better future than conquest. Plus, her power allows her to shrug off those who aren't that smart."
"And what if griffons had the same opportunity?"
"What?"
"What if the Griffon Empire was led by an immortal ruler as well? Someone who could grow into Celestia's wisdom, someone who would be more willing to embrace future rather than rot, locked in traditions and pointless customs."
"Okay, if you want my completely honest opinion... I think it would be terrible. Ponies aren't a warlike species like you. Griffons actually being united is a terrifying idea."
"That is where I must disagree. This land is the dying proof of how wrong you are. Ponies are capable of much greater destruction than griffons thanks to magic, magic which doesn't deplete resources, magic which doesn't destroy the economy, magic which allows them to triumph against technology requiring logistics, blood, and sweat."
"Ponies are peaceful, we only wage war when we defend ourselves."
"Really? You sit here, in the desert in the middle of a strip of moderate climate land of the Empire, and you can say that?"
It takes me a while to understand what he means. It's something I know but about which I've been thinking the wrong way around. Yes, there are spots of deserts in the Empire left by dessication spells after the great wars. Yes, those spots are in areas which should be lush and green. And yes, there are also natural deserts because the Empire spans a continent much larger than Equestria. The point is that while parts of the Empire are ruined even after so many centuries of help, diplomacy, and disaster relief there are no such places in Equestria.
"Ponies attacked the griffons first?" I try to wrap my mind around the concept.
"Of course," Crowley rolls his eyes, "According to our history books we had enough trouble keeping such a large area pacified under the rule of the first Imperial families and your pony nobles were afraid the conquest would spread to Equestria. The unofficial reason was of course that our technology, while clunky, would give them the power to resist the rule of Celestia and in their folly break the land up just to satisfy their hunger for power. The nobles riled the population through media to call for a preventive strike against the Empire consumed by its own little inside wars and Celestia couldn't stop the unanimous voice of the brainwashed masses without using force. Thus she allowed the catastrophy known as the great wars to happen. As you know, we lost pretty badly in a direct confrontation but your nobles realized the problem with ruling such a large piece of land - direct fight wasn't the problem. The guerrila warfare was out biggest strength, the ability to survive with nothing and still break the necks and supply lines of the occupants. That is what finally stopped the conflict. No matter how much magic was thrown at us there still was resistance. You couldn't trust a single living griffon to not slit your throat at night because yes, we are a warlike species but that does not mean we like war. We just fight until we win when we have to. The motto of the current ruling family comes from that time and it's a simple one - Victory or death. In the end your nobles learned there wouldn't be a single griffon left providing them with inventions and technology to challenge Celestia for power if they kept going and they gave up, offering help in return for future chance to get the technology to defy Celestia once again to satisfy their greed."
I'm not sure what to say because, no matter whether Crowley is lying or not, I still don't know where I fit in and what the reason for the history lesson was.
"Why do you think having an immortal leader would help then? Even Celestia wasn't able to prevent the wars."
"True, but she was able to say 'Stop, this has gone far enough'. If we had someone of such standing then we wouldn't have been fractured and weak from internal struggle when the wars came and we could have resisted."
"Turned the tide of war and destroyed our land in the same way we did with yours, right?"
"Why do you think an undying griffon wouldn't have the same foresight as an alicorn?"
It's difficult to get rid of the concept of griffons as ruthless and brutal warriors but once I manage to subdue it at least a little I realize I don't have an answer.
"Alright, I see your point. Where do we fit in though?"
"Simply put, I want to take over the Empire and become what princess Celestia is to your Equestria."
Aaaand here comes the crazy.
"I've dealt with one dictator seeking immortality already. Don't blame me if I'm not too keen on cooperating."
"Should I remind you of the shooting everyone part?"
"Should I remind YOU the last guy who wanted the same thing you do actually tried to take over a mind-controlling artefact and would have succeeded in doing so while executing every single pony in front of Celestia if I wasn't there? I'm sure this falls into the 'kill whoever you want and then I will rip your head off' category."
"I assure you I seek neither world domination nor bloody conquest. My plan to take over the Empire is far more subtle."
"Nope. You're now on my 'less sane than me' list."
"Fine."
"Huh?"
"I said fine. It's not like I expected to find you here in Ironclaw. Your refusal simply means that a random and completely unexpected way to make my victory easier is temporarily closed for me. My plan was set in motion way before you came in."
I don't like the sound of temporarily. On the other hoof, Crom solved the smuggling problem. This seems to be an internal problem of the Griffon Empire.
This is NOT my fight.
"Let's say, just as a theory, I succumbed to my desire to go home sooner and helped you. What would you make me do? I presume you're smart enough to realize there won't be any killing on my part other than me destroying you if your answer is wrong," I bluff, partially.
"About four months ago, shortly before your successful escape from our forces after the Golden Sands incident, we started having trouble with a spike of nomad raids coming seemingly from nowhere and the Black Ops was tasked with figuring out whether it was a set of random coincidences or whether someone was directly trying to divert our resources in some direction. All these incidents culminated into your escape on an airship from our Empire and disappeared shortly after.-"
Hmmm, did the Nightmare have trouble looking for me or something?
"-I feel I piqued your interest."
"Just a little. Is there a chance that... whoever was looking for me and found me at Golden Sands tried to look for me elsewhere?"
"Exactly. We routed quite a lot of these insurgencies and there were no traces of anything unnatural until your case. Our final report stated that someone put these rebels to use for their own goal which, as later revealed, was finding and killing you."
"You know quite a lot about me."
"Yes, which is why I'm here talking to you instad of having you locked up and waiting for you to escape and stab me in the back. I was in the group of soldiers tasked with extracting you from the unit that found you in the desert and bringing you to the Holy City for... examination."
"Vivisection."
"Quite likely, yes. I was wounded by a strange changeling during your escape from the tavern and as I felt my blood trickle away a voice began talking to me, a voice promising me life and power if I agreed to hunt you down and kill you."
"Eeeerm."
"I refused."
"What?"
"My loyalty, even now, lies only with the Empire. I would much rather die a good servant than live as a traitor to my principles and obeying shadow voices didn't feel good. I knew I did the right thing when even our non-fatally wounded soldiers dropped down after your death. Something took them over, made them immortal, and then disposed of them when it didn't need them anymore."
"You Black Ops are way more informed than I expected."
"I pieced things together over the next months. I would be lying if I said I wasn't terrified to my bones when the voice spoke to me but I'm glad my loyalty prevailed over my survival instinct. What happened later was more confusing though, I started forgetting things. I had my notes about the incident which I wrote immediately after it happened and what I wrote down didn't coincide with things I remembered. One of the notes spoke of a blue sphere which would give me the promised power and immortality hidden in Equestria and within that note I found a way to start fulfilling what until then was just a dream. The dream of Imperial stability and peaceful future."
So he's the bastard who cut Crom's hand off. As I look at the new prosthesis in place of his right arm I cut off by shattering the mirror during our escape to Antares' temple I wonder if there is something about the whole karma thing.
He catches my look.
"Yes, agent Cromach and I had a little of a run-in in Canterlot and yes, I know about your relationship. I know a lot about your history and, being an ex-member of the most powerful organization in the Empire, I know a lot about ours. Enough to, with the help of forbidden texts, find out about the connection of this-"
My black world brightens with shimmering blue flames I recall from our encounter spreading through his fur and feathers. So, Nightmare's power gained through... doing something with a frozen phoenix egg, omelettes maybe?
"-and someone called Void, as written in a diary of a griffon gone mad with power which felt fairly similar to how I feel now. The journal spoke of the death of our hero of legends, your friend Cromach's namesake actually, and a small group of changelings who later stoped the spread of the power similar to what I hold now in my talons. Now, I've been talking a lot but our roles should be quite the opposite. It is obvious you know what I'm talking about, I can read pony expressions at least that much."
"You... are in a lot of trouble, ex-agent Crowley," I stand up from the bed and spread my wing bones. Feather by feather, my blackfrost wings form from them. The trio of soldiers outside aim their guns at me but don't shoot when Crowley raises his arm, "I bet your power feels similar to this. Touch it."
Carefully, his talons touch my outstretched wing and he shivers.
"No, not... completely," he takes a deep breath, "Mine feels like raw power, wild, uncontrolled, and spread. Yours feels sharp, crisp, and, forgive me for using such simplistic expression, evil."
I can't stop myself from laughing. He's holding Nightmare's power and feels I am the evil one?
"Good one," I say when I calm down, "That just shows it's already gaining control over you. You see, the voice which promised you immortality was a god ponies call Nightmare. As you can imagine, it's not a good guy. My power is shaped by me from what I absorbed when you set me on fire and ruined my perfectly mopped floor. I've been fighting against the deity for most of past year and thus it's making your senses tell you I am the villain here which is hilarious."
"So, you know how to control the power inside me."
"Control is a strong word but yes, I suppose."
"That makes things a lot easier. Teach me how to do it."
"No."
"You are starting to test my patience."
"What? You want to bring your shooting threat again? Fine, do so. If the power gets loose then EVERYTHING dies. Do you even realize what everything means? There will be some resistance but even that will fade. I saw the world devoured by Nightmare once and I will do anything to prevent it from happening here even if it means letting every single minotaur, pony, griffon, zebra, changeling, and whatever else is serving in this fortress get executed in front of me."
Something in my voice must have told him I mean it because he looks thoughtful for a moment.
"Then help me subdue it."
"I can drain it from you."
"No. In the same way you don't want anyone to die pointlessly I'm tired of Imperial citizens becoming victims to politics and shattered rulerships. Our goals are the same, you just don't trust me."
"No, I don't. I doubt you can resist the incessant nagging eating your mind away over ages. You might keep it chained for centuries but then what? Somepony will have to deal with second Nightmare Moon, one who wouldn't be an outcast but a ruler with powerful army at his disposal."
"And what about you? What makes YOU special and capable of using the power you so warn me about."
It used to be the presence of Discord's power balancing Nightmare's but now? Harmony's power helps but somehow the divine power inside me feels mine, not Nightmare's anymore.
When I can't answer Crowley scowls.
"I thought so. You want power for yourself just like the nobility devouring our Empire. You are just another enemy I must get rid of to grant our Empire the stability it deserves. Guards, move him to the advanced interrogation chamber," his stormy gaze locks with mine which must be simply tired and... sad for him from my realization that Nightmare can't only corrupt those evil but also those with noble ideals. Nightmare can make use of any desire, "Now, don't try to resist, I will get the information out of you. Your only choice in the matter is whether you will bear the burden yourself or with company."
I know that if he wanted he could just speak into his mouthpiece and order the execution of everypony before I could do anything.
That just means he must die before he can do so. I can't allow another Holy Light to arise.
Empowered by Crowley's presence I rip his power from him and as he stumbles backwards thin black shards stab the guards. Crowley will have to be dealt with more thoroughly so I knock him on the floor and aim more blackfrost icicles straight at him. A quick kick to his face gets rid of the headset. It ends here. He will die, his soldiers will die, I will wait for the supply caravan and FINALLY GO HOME!
"Resistance. Execute order thirteen," he mumbles and his voice somehow booms loudly through the fortress before I can stomp his skull.
"NO!" screams a voice and my vision spell shuts down. Stuck in complete darkness, I try to make my magic work but it fails over and over.
"Interrupt order! And who might you be?" I hear Crowley scramble from the floor and charge towards the source of the movement. Headache assaults me with the strength of a physical blow and my legs fail me. Cold floor meets my face.
ARE YOU INSANE?
"My-my name is Mistake. I-I-I can make sure he doesn't bother you b-but, please, don't kill anypony in the fortress."
He'll kill Rocky!
"Abort order," Crowley's voice rings unnaturally through the fortress again.
He'll end up killing everypony if we don't stop him. Give me my magic back!
NO, she's too nice to die! She hugged me!
Are you going to risk all life on Equus just because you got some physical contact?
YOU USED TO BE THE SAME!
"Thank you," Mistake breathes heavily, "Thankyouthankyouthankyou. HEY! What are you doing?"
"You WILL help me, Mistake, my threat still stands."
You idiot!
I can't let him kill her, sorry.
Suddenly, my sight is back completely but I have no control over my body whatsoever. I realize it's not my vision, it's Mistake's.
"Hey, I said I wouldn't let him stop you, not that I'll help you," Mistake, controlling me, takes several steps forward, testing his new body, "This body is mine now. I'll make sure he does nothing stupid but he was telling the truth, your power is deadly and dangerous. I can't help you destroy life."
"WHY DOES EVERY GREEDY CREATURE TRY TO STOP ME FROM PROTECTING MY HOME?" Crowley swings wide and punches me. It feels distant and weak but from my scream I'm sure Mistake felt it more than I would have.
Crowley picks up a working headset from one of the dead guards and mumbles.
"Interesting reaction. Send two soldiers down here to bring the alicorn in for questioning."
I don't know what Mistake did to me but even with him crying in agony from a single punch I'm too weak to take my body back. Him being unused to physical touch made him long to protect Rocky far too much and, unfortunately, if Crowley applies any sort of physical torture I have no doubt Mistake will break and tell him anything he wants.
It pains me to even think it but I hope Mistake suffers so much that his control over my body breaks soon and I can end this before Crowley becomes too powerful. I'm sure Nightmare will accelerate the pace of assuming control since it now knows I'm alive and in direct contact with its new avatar. |
The Third Diary | The Worst Enemy, The Greatest Ally | I was wrong once again.
I believed I would be able to resist, to deny Crowley the knowledge about Nightmare's power but now, after hearing Mistake scream through my mouth, I know I wouldn't. If I had to see somepony else suffer next to me, to have them look at me as my silence spelled lenghtening of their torment... I know I would never forgive myself.
Mistake spared me all that, the disfiguring and torturing scar in my mind.
The price, however, was him talking. I was correct, Mistake couldn't handle physical torture at all. Punching made him beg, breaking of talons on my eldritch arm made him howl in agony, cracking of bones as Crowley's soldiers pounded away at my legs with mallets made him pass out. One thing has to be said about him - even after all that he didn't relinquish control over my body. However, when he woke up and we got dragged into the torture chamber again I sensed his realization that the pain wouldn't end with one day. Without anypony even touching him he, unable to move the mangled limbs, told Crowley everything.
Thankfully, it wasn't that much considering we have access, albeit very restricted and uncontrollable, to infinite knowledge of all three gods. Unfortunately, it was more than enough.
Some of the information was about the mirror world, the limits of their technology and the power of their magic. Some of it was about my travels, about who I truly was, and about what happened during my long journey here. Mistake filled every detail, every spoken and unspoken question, and I got the feeling that at a certain point Crowley understood what his newfound power meant and where it would lead.
What he understood most of all and deemed necessary to share with me was that he had little time. His self-awareness shocked me when he offered Mistake a deal - Mistake would tap into my power and use it to subdue Crowley's own in order to make it manageable. As a reward we would be spared further torture, released after Crowley's coming to power, and Crowley himself would seek to negotiate with the princesses the price for Discord's assistance in stabilizing and balancing his power sort of like I did.
Mistake agreed without thinking about it too much just to escape the pain. Strangely enough, it made even me believe Crowley wasn't lying.
Two factors influenced what happened after that. Mistake's ability to manipulate divine power is about the same as normal unicorn's so... not great. Plus, he was running on fumes after being chewed up by Crowley's torture machines the day before. Simply put, he only managed to drain a little of Crowley's power before the raw force of destruction became too much for him to handle.
He... shattered? I can't put the feeling into words but the sensations of ripping sinews and creaking ribs would figure in there somewhere if I could.
As I watch Crowley gasp for breath I, despite my body's exhaustion, store the stolen power for later use.
"Feels-"
*COUGH*
The burning of my throat scratched through unending screaming stops me as the sensations of a battered body assault me in full force. It takes all my self control to stop the fit of coughing and gasping and retain at least a little of my dignity. Tears streaming down my face don't help.
"-not so good to be back."
Whether it's the tone of my voice or the expression of raw hatred that must be etched on my face Crowley takes the hint.
"Welcome back, mister Light. What happened to the helpful fellow?"
"Something I will make you regret doing, eventually," I whisper, "So, what are you going to do with all he said?"
"You assume your importance is far greater than it truly is. Anything besides the methods of controlling my power was merely my curiosity rather than anything else. My plan still takes precedence although I might need to move faster than I expected which is why we'll be leaving in a week for the Holy City. I wonder though, what do YOU think about the arrangement?"
"Mistake doesn't have enough understanding of how things feel. He doesn't know how strong the pressure of Nightmare breaking into your head is. You presume that if you give the princesses enough they'll allow you to, I don't know, siphon some of Discord's power to balance yours but it won't change the fact that the god will eventually get to you, break you, and corrupt you. I will prevent that."
Crowley frowns.
"Hrmph. Then I'll just have to wait until the more reasonable and approachable part of you recovers and try again."
With that he simply leaves the torture chamber. Two guards come in, carrying a stretcher, and a third one instructs them how to transport somepony with all legs broken in multiple places.
I don't have the time to curse when one of them screws up and touches me in the wrong way. The sharp spike of pain knocking me out might be a blessing.
"Owwwww," I wake up to the feeling of something soft draped over something really hard under my back. A pony shouldn't be sleeping like that but whatever, I like it.
What else shouldn't be happening is me standing up using my completely normal, unbroken, and, unfortunately one of them still deformed, legs. The greenish-brown fabric close to my face reveals this must be the tent inside of my head. Sighing in phantom pain of my real injuries, I open the tent flaps and walk outside to see why I'm here.
Oh right, because the real world isn't exactly the safest place right now.
The ruins of Manehattan tower around me and a thin ray of sunlight shines through the grey clouds. The small circle of my campsite is completely empty of all rubble and the clear space reveals it's located in one of many Manehattan's parks. Perhaps if I find some sense of stability and meaning in my life this place will become something other than a giant trash heap. I walk out of the circle of cobblestone and concrete onto a well-kept lawn and enjoy the coolness of the grass soothing the lingering pain of my legs broken in reality.
In contrast to the outside of my head being quite hostile, this place is still peaceful and boring.
"Thank heavens for that," my voice fills the eerie silence and my parched throat stings. A quick look around reveals, or possibly the memory of this place creates, a small water fountain on the corner of one of several streets leading into this tiny plaza.
One very thirsty minute later I'm shaking my wet muzzle and, all major bothers subdued, wondering what to do here. I've never been here before simply to 'admire' the scenery so I believe there's something for me to do here.
That something has to be connected to Mistake.
"Now, where would he run to if he knew I would be looking for him? The asylum?" I mumble, scratching my chin.
There's nothing making me feel threatened so I might have time to look around. Shrugging, I recall the look and feel of the asylum that protected me during my ressurrection and a sense of tugging in a certain direction is my answer.
A short trip through several cracked streets is as uneventful as expected aside from the need to jump over crevices and leads to a large walled-off area with the only access point being a steel gate.
"Open?"
One of the wings of the gate is slightly ajar. If Mistake was trying to hide after what he did I honestly doubt he would forget something as basic as locking the door behind himself. Possibly, he could be pretending he's not here or, of course, I guessed his location wrong.
No barrage of magic, no distortion of this fake world occurs as I walk inside the asylum gardens and follow the main gravel road leading straight to the entrance. The wooden door isn't closed either but the sight awaiting me tells me my guess was correct. The tiled floor is dusty but the thin grey veil is disrupted by dots and smudges reoccuring in sets of fours as if somepony was walking and sometimes dragging their hooves. The trail heads to the stairs leading up. A quick look around brings back a memory which is and isn't mine at the same time and I finally identify this place. This isn't just any asylum. When I woke up here for the first time I was too confused and angry to recognize what memory this place was but now I know where the steps would lead.
The Ponyville Mental Institution where I recovered under Chokey and Bright Eye's supervision after I fought off Sombra. The hoofsteps lead right where my cell would be. If Mistake intends to fight me for control there or something then he didn't drag me to the best memory for him. I like this place, I enjoyed my short time in Ponyville, I am strong here.
And so will he.
On the other ethereal hoof, I failed to trust him before and it almost led to my death. Granted, I would have welcomed it at the time but now... things have changed for both of us. I shouldn't jump to conclusions although being careful can't hurt.
The noise of a blade being pulled out of its sheath accompanies the summoning of my blackfrost wings and I walk up the stairs towards what used to be my cell. My cell where Chokey told me stories, where she came to rest after taking care of the weird patient lady who tried to hug potted plants, where she sacrificed her career, her reputation, and where she commited high treason just so I had another chance for a peaceful life.
As much as I love Cromach there's way too much I've been through with Chokey to be happy without her.
I will return home and I will make sure no evil threatens them ever again.
Time might tear us apart eventually but that's what I realized when I became an alicorn. For now I want to make the time we have together count and no damn griffon will take more of that time away. As soon as I get out of here Crowley dies, screw diplomacy.
The door to the padded cell is wide open and inside...
...inside there is a black body stinking of sweat, blood, and urine quietly sobbing on the floor. With limbs sticking out in unnatural angles, Mistake groans and his eyes go wide when he notices me and presumably the shape of my wings.
"-hurts," is the only thing I can make out of his quivering voice.
He is in no position to resist as the wounds suffered in the real world were so harsh he feels them here as well. I could get control over my body and my magic right here and now but what would await me out there if I did so? It's the same as with my other friends. Mistake's been by my side for far too long to let this little thing come between, especially if I understand his point of view way too well.
I lean down to him.
My wings melt and burn. The flames go almost pastel red and flow through my transformed arm into him. It seems that even with stealing only Nightmare's divine power I can summon Hope.
"It is just power, young one. It is up to you how you use it... and bear the consequences," says a sinister lingering whisper and dark mist pours into the cell through the open door.
I wish Mistake said it. I wish Crowley said it. Heck, I wish Sombra or Holy Light said it. Or possibly I wish I didn't recognize it the second I heard it.
Anypony else but him - he, who might not be Nightmare's oldest creation but without a doubt is the most powerful one. A creature so powerful even the god itself has to fear him.
The walls of the cell float away into darkness and both me and Mistake are hanging in the blackness between stars. The fire of my wings burns brighter as I assert my own power against the one ripping us out of my mindscape but here my light feels insignificant and my threats empty. The stars blink out, leaving us swimming in ink.
With surprising gentleness, we are lifted and moved while seeing nothing. Blue wisps of light flicker to life close to us, illuminating the inside of an obsidian temple. There, on the throne of black glass, sits a massive black alicorn whose golden eyes bore into me.
"Void..."
"In the flesh, as much as it can be said here," he says calmly.
Good, I'm not dead yet although that can rapidly change considering the circumstances we met under last time were less than pleasant.
"Indeed," he interrupts my internal monologue, small smile growing on his lips.
"How...?"
"This place is still inside your head. I have been looking for you ever since I noticed your soul once again failed to pass through my hooves into my realm," the alicorn of Death's expression turns questioning, "But a true hunter does not follow, he lies in wait."
"And you're here to change that, aren't you?" I bark but it feels weak and pointless. Void spreads his wings and starts walking towards me. Reflexively, I stand up between him and Mistake, "I know I screwed up last time but it was necessary. Well, it wasn't but I couldn't see another way at the time."
The death incarnate doesn't stop.
"I will fight you again if I have to!" I barely keep my voice from trembling and myself from internally adding 'and I will lose'.
Another step the pressure of which makes me step back as well. The second oldest alicorn is far too much for me to deal with at the moment.
"I'm not alone anymore! I have somewhere to return to! I won't... I CAN'T let you kill me here!" tears streak from my eyes when I realize how futile my resistance is.
If this is still my head then I'm not alone though. One by one they blink into existence as soon as I think of them and Void's progress slows down as they do so.
All those who made me who I am today, all those who kept me from hitting the complete bottom.
Searing Light, the brother to whom I looked up to.
Chokey, the hope of my life.
Sharp Biscuit, the one who taught me how to understand myself and others.
Heavy Hoof, the pony I hope one day to become.
Queen Chrysalis who showed me I can make a mare happy.
Betty, the Element showing me what my power truly was.
Guiding Light and her dreamlings, my family and responsibility.
Cromach, the griffon who loves me for who I am.
And one by one they disappear, leaving me and Mistake alone to face Void who leans down to me. Paralyzed with fear, I have barely enough strength to jump away but Void moves first anyway.
"You have serious trust issues, young one," his wings wrap around me with the soft touch of the finest silk, "I assure you I am not your enemy despite your lapse of judgement during our last encounter. Also believe me when I say I could not be happier you finally found a reason to live."
"Huuuuuh?" the embrace ends with Void smiling widely.
"You still tend to assume the worst, Blazing Light. At first I was looking for you to make sure we had one last talk before you passed away but when I became sure that somehow, somewhere you were still alive my goal became to see what happened. Unfortunately, your innate ability did not allow me to do so, leading to my rather clumsy approach during your revival for which I have to apologize."
Our surroundings change again and the three of us are back at my campsite where I levitate a soft mattress from the tent and carefully put Mistake on it.
"I was so worried you wanted to kill me for destroying your mortal body."
"It was merely a shell designed to hold my power at bay in the real world. If I was there at full force the encounter would have ended rather differently and spelled misery for both us and countless others. After you killed Holy Light I had time to gather information and understood what you were trying to do."
"A pretty dumb thing that could have been done much better if only I listened to somepony other than myself."
"Do not be so harsh on yourself. Your failure just brings experience. Speaking of experience, where will you be returning to after you wake up? Who was it that made you open your eyes? Miss Darkness, finally?"
"No, it was Cromach. Chokey is and always will be special but Crom... I feel I need him now in the same way I needed Chokey before. The lucky part is that it looks like he needs me as well. I choose not to think too hard about that."
"As well as I know you I can say that is a good decision."
"At least I can finally say I'm doing something right."
Void doesn't say anything and looks at Mistake.
"How come he is not gone like the other memories? He looks like you did when you visited my temple last time."
"Well, he's real and pretty badly hurt. He's a part of myself which got a taste the real world and liked it so I keep him around. He controls my magic and, apparently, my vision while I deal with the gods and divinity thing. We got into a little disagreement and the current bad guy had his way with him."
"Current bad guy?"
"You didn't really think that I would spend my free time inside my head instead of hanging out with Crom and Chokey, did you? I'm here because Crowley tortured Mistake and both of us passed out from the pain."
"How thoughtless of me. Can I help in any way?"
"Come here and kill Crowley. He somehow got hold of some frozen phoenix egg and Nightmare is trying to get access to the world through him after I locked it out by killing Holy, your physical body, and myself. Speaking of the egg, he said some old book linked you to it."
Void blinks and raises both eyebrows.
"I have no idea what it is. My only guess is that if it is Nightmare's power than it might feel similar to mine or yours. As for locking Nightmare away... I thought about it and believe it to be impossible."
"What? But I... I did it. Nightmare had no more powerful outlets, no avatars."
"There will always be broken souls listening to the voices of their fears. They might be weak but step by step Nightmare will attempt to come back. It might take centuries or millenia but unless stopped at every point it will eventually create similar circumstances as last time."
"So... what I fought for was... pointless?"
"It helped assure few more generations will have a chance to live. You are an immortal now as well, young alicorn. Happiness and stability are not gained, they are only held. If you wish to stay happy then you will have to keep working for it over and over."
Chokey will die. Crom will die. He knows. He knows I know.
"How-how would you deal with things if you didn't have Scream?"
"Before I met Scream I was alone. My aspect and, frankly, the personality of my young self were not the most interesting for mares or stallions. I must admit I got incredibly lucky and, realizing that, I have been by Scream's side whenever she needed it... almost. Well, you know the rest."
"Yeah. Gotta hope I find a nice alicorn for myself as well then one day. Or at least one who wouldn't throw rocks at me."
"Enjoy what you have and remember what you had, young one-"
"-Don't dwell on what will never be. I know," I interrupt him. It's something I told to both Chokey and Heavy when I apologized to them for killing Sharp Biscuit.
No reason to mull over it now.
"So, no coming here and killing Crowley?" I continue.
"No physical body yet. It takes me a long time to regrow one due to the limitations of my magic. My alicorn form would probably kill most living beings in the vicinity if I came."
"Meh. Any idea how to heal four broken limbs with only destructive divine power at my disposal?"
"As I said, it is simply power. Try what you tried here in the real world. Our aspects shape our abilities and since you steal power without it taking you over you might be able to reap the benefits."
"Thanks, Void."
"I am glad I found you, young one. If you ever need to talk, you know where to find me."
"Buried under Scream's tail?"
"Indeed," Void nods, unphased, "Be sure to remove your griffon lover's instrument from your throat before you do so though, it might be difficult to understand you otherwise."
"Damn."
"Scream loves to taunt me in a very similar fashion. I am used to it."
"Heh, I hope I see you soon under better circumstances, Void."
"Good luck, Blazing. May you return home safe and sound from your current trial."
Bowing to him, I'm surprised to find out he repays me the gesture. One smile later he burns away in his signature purple and black flames, leaving me and Mistake alone.
Feeling Mistake has suffered long enough during our talk, I focus my power and resume my attempt to heal him. With bones creaking, he groans and cries but after the final snap his twitching stops.
"-rry," he whispers.
"Go to sleep, idiot," I say, smiling.
Sudden shift in reality takes both of us back to the asylum, namely to the head psychiatrist's office where a cot made from clothes and a sleeping bag serves to accommodate the black unicorn. It seems that my little traitor worked hard to make a place for himself inside my head as well.
One last time I look into the big mirror. Yep, bronze coat, short light grey and blonde mane recovering from being burned, featherless wingbones slowly regrowing bronze fur as well, patches of fur falling out on my body, all still there.
What's new are the narrowed eyes of somepony determined to obliterate every obstacle between him and his goal.
"Harmony was right. If I want my peace I have to work for it."
I blink.
My eyes open to the familiar black and white world of reality.
Time to end this, guns blazing. |
The Third Diary | The Complete And Utter End Of Enditude | [Blazing's Entry]
Dear diary,
I don't need you anymore. One day that might change again but for now there are those with whom I'd love to spend more time rather than locking my thoughts into a book.
Might?
I'm sure we'll meet again. After all, I'm not the most stable of all stallions but I'm getting better.
Blazing Light.
[End Entry]
My focus is sharp as steel as my blind-o-vision reveals I'm in a completely unknown place. Since my head is the only thing I can move without passing out again, I carefully measure the area.
Door, short plank of-
*Ding!*
-metal serving as a bed.
Note to self - don't try to use head to assess the hardness of materials.
Well, now I have a minor headache.
So, door, bed, table. Since I live in a black and white world let's just say the door is pink, the table is midnight blue, and the bed is white with red polka dots because why the hay not?
What now? Right! Healing.
"Buuuuuuckkkkerooni!" my curse ends in a groan as the divine power I pour into my legs turns out to be much stronger than expected. Apparently, being visited by Void even in my head gave me quite a lot to manage.
The problem was mostly the surprise, not the volume of power. I dealt with far worse in the past. After several deep breaths the divinity in me listens and starts realigning bones and mending torn ligaments.
"AAAAAAAAAARGH!"
It doesn't feel much better.
After an eternity of pain and unfettered misery other ponies would call at most five minutes I spit blood from my mouth and stand up, cursing every deity imaginable for not having a sexy nurse to inject me with so much morphine I think I'm a rubber ducky.
On the other heavily drugged hoof, this way I will remember my goal to kill Crowley instead of trying to make out with him.
Stumbling around the small room, I knock on the walls only to see that they are made of metal just like the bed. I don't really need to explore more to know that the door probably won't be chocolate.
Tiny rooms, metal but light furniture, distant humming of...
...silent turbines allowing an airship to hover above ground without being noticed.
Since I doubt I've been rescued by mirror Twilight's army or Icy Gaze's barely-legal airspace protection company slash mafia, I have to assume I was right during the raid on Ironclaw and Crowley indeed does have a stealthy airship.
No time like the present then to start blowing holes in the hull...
...and become the world's fastest pizza delivery. I turn my head to my empty wingbones.
"Nope!"
With the sole image of a thestral and a griffon in front of my mind's eyes I decide to test how far my recovery got while I was unconscious. Since healing myself was, while painful, simple I focus the cold part of my power me and others dubbed Despair on the door and pull.
The door obediently rips part of the nearest wall out as well right before crumpling like a piece of paper. The shocked griffon soldier standing on the other side and now staring right at me with beak wide open through the hole gets to play dodgeball, I mean dodgedoor, for one brief moment. Unfortnately for him, he loses and the impact of a metal ball thrown at a velocity known only to sleepwalkers from clifftop villages smears parts of his ribcage on the other end of a small corridor.
"Yep," I mumble after seeing the corridor with the same looking doors leads to staircases on both sides heading up and down, "Definitely just like Lightbringer. Either a stolen blueprint or a ship from the same assembly line."
Let's say the corridor is light blue and the griffon's insides dripping down the wall are green.
Knowing the layout of the ship way too well, I head straight to the captain's cabin which should be on the port... bow... starboard... the front damn part of the ship's inner deck. Strangely enough, me stomping through the corridor ready to blow somepony up doesn't bring any attention.
I rip the captain's door from its hinges, mostly for fun rather than testing purposes. I have far too much power for any normal being to stand against me so I have to use it while I can. All I can hope for is that this isn't just some random surge caused by Void's presence but a sign that I'm recovering if not physically then at least mentally.
I sigh in annoyance as the cabin proves to be empty. I was hoping to just slam Crowley's face into the wall and then throw him into a turbine but the entire room lacks one ex-Black Ops griffon.
FINE! I'll see what's going on first.
A quick search of the rooms on the inner deck reveals the ship must be almost empty. Almost, however, means not completely.
"WHERE IS EVERYPONY?!" I slam the head of who must be the ship's navigator into his controls.
"Mmmmh!"
*Thud!*
"Speak!"
*Thud!*
"You should be in your cell!" he squeals.
*Thud!*
"I'm not. I'm standing here and asking you where the hay Crowley is!"
*Thud!*
"I'm not telling you any-"
*Thud!*
"In case you haven't noticed I'm just a tad peeved right now, griffon. Do you know what happens when a demigod is tired of all the crap happening to him? Do you like being a donut? I'd sure go for a donut right now."
"Nnnnnngh!" he's shaking but refusing to talk.
I don't want to be mean to that guy, I really don't, but there's only one thing running through my head right now and that is:
"I WANT TO GO HOME!"
In short, I am an alicorn who desperately wants a hug and this griffon is in the way.
Four armed soldiers aim at me as I walk to the outer deck while dragging the navigator by his leg with my twisted arm. A quick one-two gets rid of all of them.
In this case it means one gets thrown against a railing with such force the steel bar splits him in two. The second soldier suffers a concussion which an experienced doctor would describe as 'caused by a thrown navigator'. The third turns to a pillar of ash when he starts shooting, something I only feel as splatters of molten lead on my coat, and meets a gust of flame from my fire wing. The last one assesses the situation well enough and jumps down from the ship himself.
You're not warning Crowley so he can run.
His wings freeze in mid-flap and he falls...
...and falls, and falls.
Only the navigator and the stunned soldier remain, both looking at me and trembling.
"I will ask one last time - where is Crowley?"
"H-H-He's d-d-d-down there," the navigator points at the wooden deck, "In the Grand Cathedral."
"We're hovering above the Holy City then, right?"
"Y-Yes."
"Why is he there? No matter how well armed you guys are the Imperial Guard will wreck you."
"He intends to-"
The soldier punches him, grabs a knife from his belt and both the arm and the knife hiss shortly before evaporating. A blackfrost shard impales the soldier's head to the deck.
"Keep talking," I unsummon my wings, "and if you promise to run really far then I'll let you live."
"Crowley wants to kill the young Emperor and the servants who know him personally. If he does that then he'll just assume the Emperor's position with those loyal to him relaying the orders."
"Nopony will follow him if he does that."
"Not if he does that in secret. There are only few of those who have met the young Emperor. If they die then Crowley will easily say he's been the Emperor since his brother died."
"Brother?"
"I assume you don't know much about the Empire, do you?"
"Emperor dies, royal families choose the next one, big festival, life goes on."
"Exactly, but the Empire is vastly larger than your Equestria. Just the Holy City oversizes your Crystal Empire. The logistics and bureaucracy are unimaginable. One griffon can't rule that so the Emperor is mostly a figurehead who decides what needs to be done and those orders get passed onto his servants on lower levels."
"The SHORT version, please!"
"There are at most twenty to thirty griffons who have met with the Emperor personally and most of them are his servants. If Crowley kills those and threatens the royal families who chose the new Emperor after Emhyr's death then noone will stand against him."
"Won't that cause a civil war more than anything?"
"Not if Crowley offers them what they want and didn't get under the old order."
"But... can't any politician just do that? Gain the favor of the families so they would choose him to be the next Emperor."
"NO! What do you think Empire is, a democracy? Crowley isn't just some nobody. He's Emhyr's brother, his own flesh and blood. He was supposed to be the Emperor after Emhyr's death but he refused in favor of his younger brother, Vargaz. Unfortunately, Vargaz was too outgoing for the nobles so they chose the next possible candidate - Emhyr's son. Crowley was against it but since he'd refused already he lost his right."
"So, Crowley is down there, in the Grand Cathedral, killing a small griffon who got sucked into things he didn't even understand?"
"This is all for the future of the Empire."
He really believes that. All the soldiers believe that. Their devotion wasn't something one could simply buy. Griffons die every day just because local rulers want a bit more territory and know the Emperor doesn't have time to deal with them.
Oh, what an unaging Emperor could do...
And that's all Crowley really wants - a brighter future for his kin.
The memory of shadows hunting in the darkness for the few stragglers still resisting the rule of eternal night resurfaces. As much as I love my daughter the circumstances of her birth must never happen again.
"Run," I tell the navigator firmly.
"You-You're really letting me go? No freezing mid-air or anything?"
"No, but I still need to stop Crowley. His existence threatens the entire world in the long term. If you still want to stop me then give it your best shot."
"I'm not stupid."
"Then go."
"Okay," he hovers above the deck for a moment, "You know? You're not that bad for a villain."
My wicked grin mkes him fly like an arrow into the distance.
"Yeah, I'm the bad guy here. Oh well..."
Stuck on an airship hovering in the clouds above Holy City, I ponder whether I'll have to fly down there. The idea of empty space below me makes my stomach tapdance instantly. Having no idea what to do, I return to the navigator's post.
Various screens, dozens of buttons, and levers all around the cockpit don't make me much wiser.
"Can I drive this thing?" I pull a lever experimentally.
The entire ship shakes and stops. Apparently, the way to move this thing is by a combination of controls which would take weeks to learn.
So, about the whole flying thing...
Taking the stairs down to the engineering deck, I follow my sense to a room full of condensed energy. There were some locked doors in the way but they disappeared while I was making sure my power still was flowing as well as before. A huge pink crystal lodged between four pillars in the middle of the room levitates on the spot and the cables leading into the pillars hum with tapped power. A red arrow with the words 'EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN' pointing to a big red button behind a square of glass greets me.
I focus my power on myself and answer the button's greeting with my hoof.
The dying humming of failing machinery is my only companion as black ice covers more and more of myself. For a short while I'm cut off from the rest of existence.
The room looks rather different when I wake up among melting ice fragments, Who would have thought? Slightly less engineery and more OH STARS THERE'S NOTHING LEFT OTHER THAN MANGLED MESS!
Fortunately, one of the holes in the walls leads straight out.
Spares me the effort of making one myself.
I walk out straight to a scene of a fight.
A completely frozen scene of a fight.
Several dozen Crowley's high-tech soldiers seem to have been fighting standard griffon soldiers pouring into the building through shattered windows and...
...a barricaded entrance which I unbarricaded rather meteorically.
I've never been one to marvel at architecture but the gigantic throne room decorated with gold, gems, and priceless paintings on the pillars on its sides makes even me nod my head in acknowledgement.
Dusting myself off, I take my first step onto the gold and red carpet leading through the center of the hall towards the raised dais bearing the throne and four figures, two of which I recognize. Unfortunately, the muffled sound of my hoofstep ends the temporary stop of time and Crowley's soldiers immediately start shooting at me.
Hidden behind my flame wings, I question their intelligence as several screams prove that Legion soldiers don't waste their bullets on me but snipe the heavily armored soldiers fighting for Crowley. The sharp smell of vaporized lead leaves the air while the sounds of fighting pick up again. Crowley's soldiers are using pillars and tower shields to create pockets of relative stability but it's obvious they will eventually lose. It is clear that Crowley didn't expect such resistance since the navigator's explanation clearly stated this was a stealth mission. As soldiers of both sides realize I have no intention of turning against any of them they decide to deal with the pressing matter of dodging bullets of the other side.
"BLAZE!"
For a second I wonder whether it's the image I see every time I close my eyelids but the quickly approaching silhouette of Cromach doesn't go away when I blink so I choose to be happy.
"ALICORN!" Crowley roars but has to defend himself from a flurry of quick stabs coming from the unknown adult griffon standing between him and a cowering young one who must be the new Emperor.
"Oh yeah, sorry I wrecked your ship... and your defense position... and most of this place... and some of your troops but it was either that or flying... I hate flying."
Crowley's incoherent scream as he moves too fast for eye to see and shoots three times at the opposing griffon is my only answer. The griffon seems to be ready for Crowley's time manipulation as, while much slower, he predicts the attack and escapes with only straps of his bulletproof vest getting tattered and falling on the floor.
Breathing heavily from the deflected blows, the defending griffon can't finish Crowley off when he clutches his chest and coughs up blood. I flare my blackfrost wings to end this but Crom's talons stop me.
"This is a duel between Vargaz and Crowley. I'm not letting Crowley kill the kid but until that's on the table this is Imperial business."
"Well, when Crowley uses the timeshift thingy again your griffon... Vargaz is going to die. Can we just skip to that part?"
"Crowley can't use the Clockwork Blade too often. It drains its wielder's life force. Plus, the Blade was being researched by Black Ops scientists so Vargaz knows its limits. Trust me."
"How did you get here anyway? Unless I was unconscious for weeks then you really shouldn't have gotten here before me."
"Heh, the mirror world long-distance communication is ways ahead of ours so Antares lent me a glider which took me to the nearest city with a working telephone-"
"Whatnow?"
"It's like telegraph, only you can hear the other person and communicate directly. Think of a long-distance two-way radio and you'll get the idea."
"Cool."
"Heck yeah! So, I called an emergency number which serves for agents stuck in the mirror world, evil Twilight answered, and when I explained things to her and told her you were in danger she immediately shut the main portal down which resulted in me getting spat out in the Everfree forest without weeks of travel. By the way, you should see what mentioning you does to that girl. I think she likes you. After that I sent an express letter to Vargaz and took the first train here. We got this place fortified yesterday and when Crowley just waltzed in unimpeded to kill the Emperor he got surrounded pretty fast."
"ALL IN VAIN!" laughs Crowley, standing over groaning Vargaz with blue fire coursing through his feathers.
Thanks to my reflexive response Vargaz has the chance to roll away when Crowley's rapier buries itself into the tiled floor. I now know what Crowley can do and it's terrifying.
"Hey Crom, how do duel rules work around one of the fighters being immortal and using that to not take damage from overusing a magical artefact?"
"I'm not exactly sure but- hey, is that a giant claw?"
My world blurs when a massive blue arm made of raw energy comes from the ground and its talons wrap around me.
"Help Vargaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaz!" I scream as the arm swings me from side to side.
"...this is the end..."
"...alicorn..."
"...you have defied me but that ends here..."
"...finally, I have an avatar worthy of my might..."
"Oh no you don't!"
Inside my mind I pull and pull and pull. The ethereal arm lets go of me but a set of black and white chains bind it to my horn.
...oh, so you finally wish to fight?...
...you wish to steal my power?...
...THEN TAKE IT!...
I was expecting Nightmare to fight me for control. I was expecting tricks. I wasn't expecting the full brunt of a god returning to this world through a pinhole.
My throat burns and as I shield myself with my wings there's nothing aside from the wingbones. Through blue flames pouring into me I see Cromach interrupt Crowley and Vargaz's duel by swinging at Crowley from behind with his battleaxe. The swing is dodged using the time rewinding ability and Crowley collapses on the floor. Crom gets ready to strike again but Vargaz points towards me. Crom's eyes go wide, he drops his axe, and flies straight to me.
The tension of a balloon ready to pop lessens slightly when Crom steps into the flow of blue flames forming the arm holding me. The moment of respite is brief but long enough for me to realize several things.
As long as I hold the Nightmare at bay Crowley can't use his divine power.
Holding it for too long will destroy me right when my goal is within reach.
I must not let go. I can't let my own happiness threaten the world.
I close my eyes not to see the griffon I failed.
The griffon who has got none of my inhibitions and no loyalty towards the world.
The griffon who grasps my disfigured arm with his real one.
The flow of power stops.
Blue fires are raging all around us but for now there's a little spot where there is a griffon and an alicorn holding hooves-hands-talons-something.
"Eye of the storm, eh?" Crom grins.
"What are you doing, you idiot?"
"Well, I figured that if Crowley can hold all this stuff then you can, I don't know, pour some of it into me until you're able to."
"Crowley's existence is just giving Nightmare time to come here through him. He controlled nothing compared to what I'm doing now. You are a mortal, I know what the stuff does to you. I felt it when I fought Luna in Ponyville without Discord's power. It will kill you."
"Can't say that without trying first," he lets go of my arm and jumps backwards into the flames.
Moron moron moron moron moron.
"...feed me more of your friends..."
"...struggle..."
"...fight..."
"...lose..."
I can't focus due to the voice whispering in my head. With seconds passing I know that my every breath brings Crom closer to death. Perhaps I should just submit to the Nightmare. It might give Crom time to run and the princesses could call Void and the others to destroy me.
I must. Crom can't die here. As I close my eyes the howling of voices drifts away.
Then save him instead of whining about how impossible it is!
My eyes snap open. The eye of the storm is back, wider than before, and a lone black unicorn is standing in front of me with brightly glowing orange cracks running through his horn.
"...you cannot win..."
Mine and Mistake's mouths move in sync.
That won't work this time.
That won't work this time.
In my mind I grasp for the feeling of a soul slipping away and divert a torrent of power choking Cromach. I don't see anything past blue fire all around but I can sense what's happening.
Control the flow... don't give in... when it's too much just let Crom bear a piece of this burden... over and over... he can take it... he will bear it as long as I don't give up and keep holding the god at bay.
I know it.
Suddenly, it's all over. No fire, no sounds, no feeling in my legs, nopony to lean on-
My fall on the floor is stopped by a white wing leading me with an irresistible strength as I drop like a wet rag on Crom's back. His fast heartbeat and heavy breathing tell my exhausted and sluggish mind he's alright, hurt but alright.
A bit of both. Perhaps things are not only black and white.
I smile as colours return to me and my blind world turns back to mundane one.
Yeah, yeah, I get it.
Vibrant red blood is dripping from a longsword Vargaz pulls out of Crowley's chest. With his last strength the dying griffon puts both arms on Vargaz's shoulders, smiles, and says:
"I... knew... it should have... been... you."
Nightmare's voice whispers through the demolished cathedral.
"...you mortals will never learn. I have agents everywhere..."
"...there is no victory..."
"Buck... you," I mumble, "I'm half dead and drooling on my pet griffon's neck. I call this a bucking victory."
"Blaze..."
"Let's go home."
"Yes, buddy."
And that was it. Vargaz's forces didn't press charges about me destroying the most sacred place in the Griffon Empire but politely asked us to go back to Equestria while ensuring us that our next visit would be far more pleasant as long as it took place several centuries later.
Hah, joke's on them!
The train ride interjected by a short boat trip took nearly two weeks but in the end we arrived back here in Canterlot.
The warm air of coming summer is nothing compared to the heatwaves in the Empire so I let the wind pleasantly flow through my coat.
"What now?" I ask uncertainly when we're down on the platform. Truth be told, I have been thinking a lot about what to do now but I have no clear result despite the time.
"Waaaait for it," Crom holds his real arm up and starts counting. . . . . .
A trio of white unicorns wearing gold-plated armor surrounds us, slipping from the crowd of ponies leaving the train.
"Six. That was quick," Crom grins and turns to me, "I was sure Vargaz would send a letter explaining what happened and estimating the time needed for us to get back."
"We are to accompany you to the castle," says one of the unicorns while eyeing me suspiciously, "And you are to wear this."
I look at the suppression ring and grind my teeth, making all guards take a step back, but Crom's wing on my back is all I need to just sigh in complete exhaustion from everything and slip it on my regrowing horn.
As the guards take a deep breath I let my wings change from orange plumes of fire blending with my coat to creaking black ice. One chokes on his own spit and starts coughing, one levitates a spear which Mistake immediately rips out of his mental grasp, and the last one just stares with eyes wide and mouth open.
"New recruits?" I ask Cromach while the suppression band levitates cleanly back to the leading guard.
Crom nods and snickers.
"Come on, guys. You have my word nothing bad is going to happen."
"But-but-but-but-but-"
"Private Riot Shield, are you mouthing off to your superior?"
"B-b-b-but the princesses-"
"The princesses surely know that it is not in your power to stop Blaze from doing what he wants and this is just another test for both him and you. Let's go, that's an order!"
His firm voice makes even me take a step forward before my mind catches up. Without as much as a word and eliciting a surprised smile from Crom, I nuzzle his neck and follow him to the castle.
The large double door to the throne room swings open and both royal sisters look up from the servants they were talking to.
Those are not friendly faces.
Hmmmm...
What are you planning?
Oh, nothing...
I feel Mistake sigh inside my head.
I'll watch your back.
Thanks.
As much as I need to hold back not to throw my chance for peace away I'm way tired of not being in control of my life.
Ignoring the guards and everything around, I walk straight towards the throne.
"Blazing Light..." the sisters say in unison.
Time to put into words what I've been planning during the trip back here.
I bow.
"Your Highnesses, I have no doubt you have recieved some sort of report about what happened in the Empire and I am sure you want clarification. However," I step back to be able to see both of them at once, "Ever since I came to Canterlot I've been killed, resurrected, betrayed, mind-controlled, and asked to deal with things far beyond my control or power. Due to sheer stupid luck I got here and now I HAVE the strength to stop it and move in my direction. What is more important though is that I do have said direction. The two of you might want to worry about politics and other big words like marmelade but I... I want to spend a day outside to walk off my wooden ass from sitting in a train for far too long. After that I want to eat something that didn't come from a tray and wasn't served using the same gloves as a fried chicken. To end all this nonsense, I WILL curl up in a bed with the griffon I love to my overused horseshoes. That is all that will happen today whether you like it or not. Tomorrow, you can have your audience."
The sisters stare at me but I don't look away, not this time.
"Blazing Light, since we do not wish to provoke any incident we will not force the issue as long as you don't cause trouble," says Luna, "Agent Cromach, on the other hoof, has responsibilities to both Equestria and the Empire which he-"
"I do not," says Crom firmly and both sisters gulp.
"You are the main link between-" starts Celestia.
"And I can assure you nothing major will happen today as the Empire has got enough of its problems these days. If that is not enough for you then," he takes a deep breath, "then you can consider this my resignation."
"What?"
All three of us are looking at him now, eyes wider and wider. He smiles at me.
"I made a promise and I intend to keep it. I will stand by this pony's side no matter what and his word means to me more than any royal order from alicorn or a griffon. If that means I have to choose sides then my choice is clear."
Luna leans her head to Celestia and whispers something.
The solar princess answers and smiles.
"I believe you if you say the matter can wait. We will arrange a table for you in the Gilded Hall for this evening and cover the bill."
"Thank you," Crom bows, walks over, and nudges me, "What about Darky?"
"Does she know I'm alive?"
"Nope. How about we make it a surprise?"
"Deal! Seating for three then, please."
Smiling again at the sisters, I bow and we leave the throne room.
"Kinda anticlimactic, eh?" asks Crom as we stroll through the marble halls.
"I'm still waiting for the meteor strike."
"Well, is it possible it's really over?"
I shake my head.
"Nightmare will return, the only question is when."
"Soon?"
"Probably not."
"Let somepony else deal with it next time then. We're not paid enough for this."
"I'm not paid at all."
"Moocher."
"Enabler!"
"But seriously, did you have plan in case the sisters disagreed?"
"Actually, I did and I intend to go with it anyway."
"Oh?"
"Harmony showed me a vision Heavy Hoof becoming a baron and taking over Order of the Silver Sun. I would like to talk to him about helping us train ponies who could stand up to enemies possessing divine power and other special traits. As far as I know Shadowstep and Cross are in Manehattan with him and they have enough experience as well. The Order is a semi-government organization anyway so you would still be working for Vargaz and Luna as well."
"That's... actually a good idea. Antares went there as well."
"So, are you in?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
"I guess not."
"Trust me. I will be by your side as long as life allows me to," he wraps his wing around me and several blue sparks run through his feathers. |
Friendship is Failure #25- Death to Twilight | pre | "You messed up! That's what you did!" Spike scolded. "You don't know to properly run a business like this-- it's nothing like the School of Friendship, and now you've not only ruined a perfectly good hotel, but you also wrecked our vacation, and you sullied the honor of the sisters!"
Those were all said in his mind, as much as he wanted to say them for Twilight to hear, despite them all being true, he could see she was already feeling crushed enough. All he could do was hug her softly. |
Friendship is Failure #25- Death to Twilight | Act Four: Trouble Begins | ACT FOUR
With the hotel being prepared for renovation under its new ownership, Twilight and Spike were forced to leave for the train station.
As she walked through town, many passersby called to her.
"Look, there she is."
"It's Princess Hotel Wrecker!"
"Thanks a lot! Oh, yeah, and I'm being sarcastic!"
This was all Twilight needed, taunting, and hooting from Equestrians.
Even at the train-station, a little colt who stayed at the hotel with his family blew a rude raspberry at her. His mom stopped him, but she gave Twilight a cold stare before moving herself and her away from her.
Twilight was in disgrace.
Spike could see she was far too lost in despair to be spoken to, so he said nothing to her the entire journey home.
Once off the train at Ponyville Station, all their friends were there to greet, but not exactly with open hooves.
Starlight Glimmer held up the front page of the Ponyville Times newspaper, which told the story of the doomed hotel and how Twilight played a large role in the bankruptcy.
"You were supposed to be on vacation, not on a friendship mission." she scolded.
"Ohh...!!" Twilight groaned.
"Twilight Sparkle... how in the hayfields did you do this?!" sneered Applejack.
"Yeah, how...?" repeated Pinkie. Then she acted genuinely curious. "...I'd really like to know."
"Oh, the shame of it!" cried Rarity. "I was planning to visit that hotel and open a boutique there."
This put Spike in mind of the gift he wanted to give to Rarity, but seeing as she was in a bad mood now, he decided to wait.
Twilight was deeply upset and embarrassed that all Ponyville-- nay, all Equestria had heard of her blunder. "What will Princess Celestia about this?!" she fretted.
"...She won't be very pleased, will she?" said a familiar voice.
Everyone turned and saw Celestia and Luna with extremely disappointed expressions on their faces and Luna was levitating another newspaper up which showed the story.
Twilight felt like passing out, but she managed to explain herself.
"...The hotel was just so beautiful, and I didn't want it to shut down."
"I understand your reasons, Twilight." said Celestia "But it was your lack of understanding the business world, and the feelings and wishes of others which lead to this."
Luna agreed, "However, part of the blame may also be rested with The Star Sisters. They should have known better than allowing someone of your inexperience in such a trade to assist them."
Twilight felt no better. Hearing herself being called "Inexperienced" or that her help should never had been accepted was too much to bear.
"Poor Twilight..." peeped Fluttershy.
Rainbow sighed, "It's going to take an awful lot of work to clean up this mess."
Fortunately, Twilight was more than given the opportunity.
She wrote letters to every newspaper across Equestria explaining her actions and motivations, and Celestia and Luna added their own comments about it, also being the Star Sisters' mistake as well.
Finally, one of Twilight's most-heart felt speeches to the story was.
"To Goldie and Silver Star... I would like nothing more than to find someway to make it up to them and give them back the money that they gave me."
This, combined with her sincerity saved her reputation as many were moved by her speech and willing to make up for her folly...
...Unfortunately, her wish to help the Star Sisters was easier said than done.
The Sisters were nowhere to be found-- not in Las Pegasus, nor any place in Equestria. They were obviously so depressed, ashamed, and furious, that they had fled to somewhere beyond the borders.
Twilight could never find them and hope to make up with them now, which really depressed her more.
All she could do with the large fortune she had acquired, was not only take her own investment back, but to use the remainder of the fortune to simply give to other businesses needing it, while not interfering with the work systems of said businesses, fearing for a repeat of her mistake.
She even made sure to introduce new subjects in the School of Friendship, such as Business Economics.
"What's this got to do with Friendship?" the students asked.
Vice Chancellor Starlight Glimmer told the class, "Working in business is a matter of trust, kindness, generosity, and deep thinking.
Also, you should beware of what strategies you try and understand the business you are working with before you decide to help or change things up."
The students felt this was interesting and took to the study.
Despite all the goodness going along, as well as Twilight's reputation remaining unharmed, Twilight never forgot about the sisters, this, and the fact she couldn't find them to make up for her mistake, ate at her soul day and night for months. ...
Back in the present, Celestia and her team were just flying over the desert. She was now concentrating hard to home in on the magic of Starlight's hologram.
"Come on, Starlight." She thought softly "Just hold up a little longer."
Poor Twilight didn't think she could last too much longer. "This heat...!" she groaned. "Her voice sounded very dry and weak. "...I need... water."
She was bound to get some in less than twenty minutes, for the dam would open, and all the water would rush in.
Starlight was feeling the magic weakening again as Twilight drifted off.
"Twilight, stay with me now!" she practically demanded. "You've got to hold up until Celestia gets here. Keep going with your story. What happened next?"
Twilight managed to keep awake-- barely!
"What... happened... next?" she paused. "...Oh, right, then Spike and I... we were... on our way... to Klugetown!" ...
The Friendship Map had called Spike and Twilight over to Klugetown, far, far away in the desert beyond Equestria's borders by their old friend Capper.
They arrived by airship as Klugetown was much to far away to fly to in just one go on their own-- especially with all the luggage they needed to bring.
Capper was delighted to see them, and he explained...
Ever since their first meeting and all the kindness Twilight and the ponies had shown him, he thought, "Maybe its time this town cleaned up its ways-- started brand new, and who better to help them than the Princess of Friendship."
Twilight was naturally delighted to assist in teaching the townsfolk about Friendship and how to better manage their lives as opposed to being con-artists and shady sales-creatures...
She and Spike even helped fix up buildings-- enforcing them with bricks, cement mixed from sands, mud, and water-- to help make them stronger and cooler against the desert heat.
With all this happening, Klugetown was on the verge of becoming a greater place, with proper shops, inns, hotels, tourist attractions, and even better laws to ensure fair play and safer living conditions.
In return for their work, Capper treated Spike and Twilight to good meals at an Inn he owned, as well as a free suite.
"It's the least I can do... for a friend?" he said with a smile.
Twilight felt grateful. "I'm really pleased that everyone around here is starting to embrace friendship."
"Me too!" Spike said with his mouth full. "This cooking is so wonderful."
Twilight was just relieved that she had learned from her mistake all those months ago and was able to use better and smarter skills to get the town on its way to bettering itself.
Little did she know that two familiar faces were watching her!
Two creatures garbed in brown burlap desert robes, and scarves over their mouths, and sheets over their heads, had stopped at the inn on the last day of Twilight's visit for a bite to eat.
It was Goldie and Silver Star, and they could hardly believe their eyes.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle...?!" Goldie growled softly so as not to be overheard.
"What is she doing here?!" grumbled Silver.
They were seated at a table right near Capper's. It was fortunate for them that Twilight and Spike didn't recognize them because of their coverings, and just as well.
The sisters carefully listened in on the conversation happening...
"Are you two sure you have to leave tomorrow?" asked Capper.
"I'm afraid so," replied Twilight. "We have a school to run back home, not to mention and a country to look after, but we'll come back and visit soon."
"You can bet I will..." Spike sighed as he stroked his full belly. "I could get used to this place."
Twilight giggled and said, "I hope you didn't eat too much, Spike. We have to catch the airship at first light, so no oversleeping."
Spike had already fallen asleep in his chair and hadn't heard a thing.
"Poor little guy." laughed Capper.
The sisters both snickered.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" whispered Silver.
"Mm-hmm," agreed her sister "I think it's time to give Princess Twilight a little payback for what she did to us!"
Early the next morning, the airship bound for Equestria was boarding, and Capper was bidding goodbye to Twilight and Spike as they boarded.
"You really know your stuff, Twilight." he said to her. "Maybe I'll come to Equestria and visit you someday."
"That would be wonderful." agreed Twilight. "It's always nice to invite new friends over, especially if it helps Equestria connect to other places beyond our borders."
Soon, Spike and Twilight were safely aboard, and the ship took off, bound for Equestria.
Capper kept waving until the ship was way out over the desert.
Little did he or anyone onboard the ship realize the trouble that was about to happen.
Spike and Twilight were relaxing on the first-class deck-- on big lawn chairs and just soaking in the sun like other passengers.
"Ahh, this sun feels great." sighed Spike.
"Sure does." agreed Twilight. "Oh, by the way, did you happen to write to Starlight Glimmer telling her when we'd be arriving?"
Spike bolted upright, "I thought you did?"
Realizing this blunder, Twilight aimed to correct this mistake at once, but she and Spike left all their writing tools in their suitcases, which were down in the hold with all the rest of the crates and the luggage.
Passengers were welcome to go down into the hold to get their own bags in case of emergency, or if they needed anything, provided they ask the guard at the hold door first.
Strangely, there was no one guarding the door to the hold.
"That's odd." said Twilight. She decided to get their writing stuff first and then report this to the ship's crew.
Spike looked up and down and all round for his little knapsack.
"Ah, here you are..." but as he picked it up, he almost screamed.
"What is it?" Twilight asked as she hurried over to him. Then she nearly freaked at what she saw. There was the guard to the hold, tucked behind the shelf and unconscious-- as if someone had knocked him out and stowed him behind there.
Twilight and Spike gawked at each other, and before either of them could say a thing to each other...
PEW!! "D'ah!"
PEW!! "Ow...!"
They both felt something sharp strike them on the backs of their necks, and they both instantly fell into complete and total blackouts of unconsciousness on the floor.
That's when the Star Sisters came out from behind large crates-- which they had used to stow themselves onboard-- and they had just shot their victims with tiny darts from blowguns.
"Out like candles in the wind." snickered Goldie.
Silver held up a small bottle of a knockout potion the darts had been dipped with and stroked it, "I love this stuff. Makes the job less dirty."
Her sister agreed, and then she said. "Let's get a move on while their out of it."
The ship was flying clear over the desert, far, far away from any civilization and any laws or witnesses.
The sneaky sisters, with their unconscious victims, leapt out through a hatch in the hold, and flew down, down, down, into the sandstorms of the desert.
Not a single soul saw them. |
Friendship is Failure #25- Death to Twilight | Final Act: Back to Start | FINAL ACT
Starlight understood now. "So that's why I didn't get any warning from you two."
Then she asked Twilight, "What happened then?"
"Ohh... uhnnnn...!" groaned Twilight. She had hardly any strength left, but she continued her story.
"Spike and I... we were... knocked out... a long... long time...!" ...
Twilight and Spike had been knocked out for exactly twenty-four hours, thanks to the knockout darts.
They finally began to awaken, the next morning, to find themselves buried in the sand up to their necks!
"Spike!" Twilight groaned. Her head was still spinning from a mix of the knockout and the desert heat.
"Twilight?" Spike answered, and they both discovered the trouble they were in.
"Well, well, look who decided to wake up one last time." hissed an unpleasant voice.
The duo looked up and saw the villains standing over and glaring down at them. They even removed their sheets and scarves, revealing themselves.
"Goldie... Silver...?!" cried Twilight.
The sisters chuckled wickedly.
"What's going on?" Spike asked as he tried to struggle loose.
"What's going on is payback time!" sneered Silver. "There's no use struggling; we've packed the sand extra tight."
Twilight then tried to magic her way out, only to realize the manacle on her horn. "Oh, no!" she cried.
"Oh, yes," laughed Goldie. "Just a little extra precaution we took so you don't try any of your tricks."
The Sisters then explained everything...
After their hotel was shut down-- thanks to Twilight's foolish business antics.
They couldn't accept the money because of their family's honor, and were so outraged and upset, that they fled from Equestria, wishing to start a new in a place where Twilight Sparkle could not find them and ruin them a second time.
Of course, rejecting the money meant they hadn't much to work with or to sustain themselves with for very long, and eventually they became poor, which lead them to becoming desert bandits...
...Slick and sly creatures, making a living by selling trinkets for unfair prices, or stealing whatever they could with their mad skills.
As settled as they were with their new lifestyles, they never forgot Twilight and the role she played in all this-- despite their own faults in trusting her in the first place and rejecting much needed money.
All they could think about was revenge, and how to do it.
"We may be bandits, but we still have some levels of standards." admitted Goldie.
Silver nodded, "We like to do things clean, without getting our hooves too dirty, and we also like to leave no traces or leads that can get back to us."
That's when the sisters pointed out that Spike and Twilight were buried in the river trench.
"You see that way over there?" Goldie said while pointing upstream at the large dam. "Soon, it's going to open, and the water will come rushing out of it.
If your heads don't get knocked off by the rushing currents, you'll surely drown.
Either way, you're both history!"
Twilight and Spike gulped hard.
"It doesn't have to be this way." Twilight begged, "You two don't have to do this, we can work all this out."
She explained how she felt guilty all this time, and she really wanted to make it up to the sisters.
"If you let us go, we can all go back to Equestria, and everything will be okay again."
Unfortunately, her pleas fell on deaf ears, or rather heartless ones. The Sisters only laughed at her.
"I don't think their interested." muttered Spike.
Indeed, The Sisters were not!
"We've come this far, why end it all now?" asked Goldie.
"Besides," added Silver. "You messed us up once already, why should we trust you again?"
Goldie pointed at Twilight, "Your time is up, for wrecking our lives."
Then Silver pointed at Spike, "And you... well, we just can't have any witnesses."
The two villains, satisfied with their evil deed gave a final snicker at the victims.
"So long, suckers!" sneered Goldie.
"Give our regards to oblivion." hissed Silver.
They took off, flying away laughing wickedly, leaving their helpless victims to their fate.
"They're gone, Twilight." Spike peeped.
"I know, Spike. I know..." groaned Twilight. ...
There was nothing left for her to tell, and not that she could anyway, she had totally exhausted her voice.
"Twilight, stay with me!" Starlight begged, but it was no use. Twilight finally passed out from the heat, causing Starlight's hologram to disappear with the connection being broken as promised.
Twilight and Spike were both out of it now-- unconscious, baking in the sun...
...That's when it happened!
The dam magically began to open as promised, and the waters came rushing out, and rapidly filling the river in a raging torrent.
The water had nearly reached Twilight and Spike, ready to knock their heads off...!
...When suddenly, it all just stopped!
Celestia and her team had arrived and not a moment too soon! She had used her powerful magic to encase the water in a stasis field holding it at bay.
While she stood where she was to maintain the spell, "Get to work, men!" she ordered her guards, and the men got straight to work digging Twilight and Spike out of the ground, and remove the ant-magic manacles,
Soon, they were safely out, and Celestia let the way rush. She was very relieved to have arrived just in time.
"Your majesty," one of the guards asked her. "What of the two ponies who did this?"
Celestia grimly remarked, "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. They may as well be a million miles away.
For now, we must get these-two some water, and get them home!"
Soon, Twilight and Spike were home and safe, much to the happiness and relief of all their friends, but Celestia had ordered Spike and Twilight to take a week off work due to the excessive amounts of desert sun and dehydration they had suffered.
Starlight managed all of Twilight's classes and office work, while the rest of the ponies maintained their own classes and duties as well.
Naturally, they all met up at the castle one night to check up on Twilight and Spike.
Starlight came out from visiting Twilight.
"Is she alright?" asked Fluttershy.
"Poor thing," answered Starlight, "She hasn't been sleeping well lately."
"I can hardly blame her." said Rarity. "Given all that she's been through, and that we nearly lost her in the process... Oh! I feel faint."
"I don't think it's all that." said Applejack. "I don't think Spike or Twilight will be sleeping too well, what with the Star Sisters still out there."
Rainbow was fuming angrily, "I don't get it! They just tried to kill our friends! Why don't we just go out there, and make them sorry they ever crossed our paths?"
Starlight shook her head, "We've been over this! I can't find them, not even with the Hologram. It worked on Spike and Twilight because we share strong bonds, it won't work with the sisters. Even Celestia can't find them. Who knows where they've got to by now?
Even if we did find them, there's nothing we can do.
They attacked outside of any borders-- where there is no rules, laws, or any form of penalties for crimes.
We don't have a legal leg to stand on."
The friends were all horrified and livid.
"So that's it?!" wailed Pinkie. "They just tried to kill our friends, and we just let them go? What if they come back? What if they try to finish Twilight off again?!"
Even Starlight felt her stomach turn at such a thought, but all she could say was, "We'll all have to keep our guards up if they ever try such a thing again.
As for Twilight and Spike..." she paused "...I just hope they'll be alright."
Poor Twilight was shut up in her room. She had enforced every window, all the walls, and even the floor and doors with her best spells to prevent unwanted creatures from sneaking in at night.
She even carried a large broom with her to attack anyone or anything that would dare sneak up on her, but due to her lack of sleep and paranoia, even the slightest sound made her jump.
"Who's there!" she shouted when saw something moving, but it was just her own shadow.
"Don't do that!" cried Spike, and he hid under the bed sheets shaking nervously. He was far too scared to sleep in his own room by himself.
Twilight nervously climbed into bed with him, and held him close to her, while they both quivered nervously while trying to get some sleep...
But all they could hear was the sound of the Star Sisters laughing at them and expected to one day come and try to get at them again! |
The Secret Lives of Doors, A Locked Up Story | pre | "I've had way too much time to think about this, so I'm just gonna say it." Rainbow fell silent again, and her hoof trembled on Twilight's neck.
Twilight looked closer and forced herself to focus on her friend's face. Rainbow Dash was crying. Rainbow Dash almost never cried. She wanted to say something, but nothing felt like it would be right. What did I say last night?
"Twilight," she continued finally, "I like you. I mean, I've always liked you, and you've been the best friend a pegasus could have. You were always there for me, picking me up when I was down, looking after me when my head got too high in the clouds. I mean, maybe you were a bit bossy about it sometimes, but you're Twilight. And I love that about you. I love all of you. I love you." She fell silent again, but it looked like the gush of words, barely comprehensible but also utterly clear in their intent, had unstoppered a well of deep feeling that Rainbow just couldn't, or wouldn't, stopper up again.
"Twilight, I more than love you. I'm in love with you. I want to be with you. It hurts so much being this close to you, and knowing that you don't think you're good enough for me. Twi, it's the other way around. I've been so worried..." What Rainbow would have said was swallowed up by a quavering gasp before she slumped against the wall, then slid to her belly, chin between her hooves.
"Rainbow." Twilight pushed herself up, wings flopping about for a balance that they threw off more than encouraged, and wobbled to her feet, then slumped again, letting her too woozy balance land her against Rainbow's shaking form. "Rainbow, I love you too."
Rainbow's breathing eased, and her wing unfolded to cover Twilight, something that she'd only done as a friendly gesture before. Now it felt like something more.
A thought came, What if all of those little wing snuggles were actually her trying to say something? Which was closely followed by, What did I say last night? She supposed that what she said wasn't all that important. She knew what she felt, and Rainbow Dash had offered her the other side of that feeling.
Rainbow had put her heart on the line because she trusted that Twilight wouldn't hurt it.
And she didn't intend to. Not in public, and certainly not in private. Not here. Not where brash, proud Rainbow Dash melted away, showing the scared mare that just wanted to prove that she was good enough.
"I love you too, Rainbow." She frowned down at her forelegs, and tried to lift one without toppling over. When all she could do was wobble, she used the most basic spell to nudge Rainbow back around to face her. Just using magic, even such a simple spell, threatened to bring the headache crashing down, but she had to. She kissed away the tears, then placed a light kiss on Rainbow's lips. "I'm in love with you. I have been in love with you. Somehow, I think I told you that last night."
Rainbow Dash's laugh told her that she had. Some of her lost confidence crept back into that quirky, smirking smile.
"You were so cute, Twi. You had me confused with Dashie and Rainbow Dash... And you tried to tell Dashie not to tell Rainbow Dash that you loved her. Oh, it was adorable." The smile faded. "But it broke my heart. To see you demean yourself like that, I mean."
"I'm so sorry." She tried to look away, but Rainbow brought her back around with a hoof hooked under her chin.
"Hey, it's okay now. I figured I had to tell you this morning. Or I wouldn't have the courage to, later." Rainbow paused to lick the side of her muzzle, then made a face. "You need a shower. You've still got a little vomit taste on your muzzle."
She laughed. "Okay." The headache that had been descending slowly crashed down, and she groaned, rolling harder into Rainbow's side.
"So... Does this mean we're an item now?"
She couldn't help it, she laughed again, even though the headache felt like a hundred angry pegasi were trying to recreate the second battle of Thunderhill in her brain. It felt good to laugh, in her heart.
"Yes, Rainbow."
Twilight snorted and stretched out on her back in bed as the happy dream faded away into what she remembered had been her first, and worst, hangover. Well, she amended, maybe not the first. Dad certainly thought it was punishment enough after I decided to try testing the effects of alcohol.
She giggled, rolling over to her side, and curled back up to tuck her hind leg over her muzzle. The faint, odiferous whiff of her dried arousal made her jerk back and sneeze, and the sound of the shower came drifting back into her awareness.
The shower'd been going for a while. She smiled to herself and stretched out; wings, forelegs and hind, and her back. A twinge from her spine jangled her all the way out of sleep and onto her side.
Maybe a hot shower will help. And letting Dashie catch up.
Rainbow was two points behind for the day. |
The Secret Lives of Doors, A Locked Up Story | Shower | "Rainbow Dash?" No answer came to her from the bedroom, and she thought she heard something from the bathroom, but the constant sound of falling rain coming from the bathroom thundered over anything Rainbow might have yelled back. She must have turned up the flow to full on downpour.
Twilight sighed. The water bill was going to be high next month.
She stretched again and rolled her shoulders, wings first, then fore-shoulders and grunted when she found the ache too soon. At least she wasn't stiff as a board. Rainbow had been as good as her promise to make her feel better, but... she was missing something.
Then it hit her. There was no steam coming from the bathroom even though the door was wide, and wedged, open. The oilcan was serving as a temporary door jamb apparently... She glanced at the door to their bedroom and noticed that Rainbow had already locked and bolted the door. And set a chair under the knob. She checked, just once, to make sure the wing-weights that she'd gotten from Dash for their anniversary weren't there also. They were.
Well. I suppose I don't have to worry about Spike getting in. She slipped off the bed and stretched out again, feeling the kink in her back loosening further. "Oh, Rainbow Da-ash," she sing-songed the name and made a few slinky, stretching steps forward before trotting the rest of the way into the bathroom.
"I-in here!"
Twilight frowned when she came around the corner to see Rainbow Dash shivering in the far corner of the spacious shower, her butt slid into the corner and her tail hanging up and over one shoulder. She looked proud, for some fool reason or another. It was just as well that pegasi were pretty well insulated, but even so, it had to be chilly.
"Dashie... Why do you have the temperature set so low?" Twilight started to turn the lever on the regulator, inch by inch, increasing the temperature of the downpour from spring shower to warm summer.
"W-well, you see, I wanted to hold myself back and let you be the one to get me off, Twi. But you really have no idea how wild you drove me. It was like sitting on a rough sponge when I had to sit there and watch you tease yourself into... sweet clouds, Twi." Rainbow shuddered again, but Twilight wasn't entirely certain it was from the cold. "Watching you go so slow, that just made me want to--" She sucked in a breath and shot to her feet, dancing away from the sudden heat pouring down on her.
Apparently, the castle decided that Twilight was moving the lever too slowly. Twilight hauled it back sharply. "Feathering piece of horse apple pie!" The steam in the large stall continued to build, despite her curse. She considered glaring at it, but that would probably just make it steamier. Stupid animated inanimate objects.
Rainbow stood, shivers fading, and thoroughly drenched from mane to tail, next to the circular bench in the middle of the shower. It was really almost a divan chair with grass instead of cloth cushions. It was one of the things that Twilight loved about the shower. Even in the depth of winter, she and her Dashie could lay on the grass and imagine that the warm sprinkle of rain around them was at the height of summer.
Shaking her head and filing away the memory for later, Twilight stepped into the stall, just outside the ring of rainclouds. "I have some idea, Rainbow. I know you wake up early some mornings to masturbate. I learned a lot of technique pretending to be asleep while you stroked yourself off."
"You, uh, you never say anything." Rainbow hooked a hoof behind her head and looked away, ears falling flat and cheeks turning faint pink, barely visible through matted fur. "How long have you known?"
Closing the glass door behind her, Twilight stepped out into the steaming downpour. "The first time was the first night we shared a bed. Then you did it again the next night after I'd fallen asleep. I almost joined you." She stopped in the rain, letting it soak her thoroughly and wash away most of the mess on and under her tail.
"I... uh, kinda wondered why you didn't wake up. Or why you didn't question my sticky tail in the morning."
Twilight laughed. "You weren't exactly quiet about it." She tossed her head, letting her wet forelock catch behind an ear. "I think my cheeks about burst into flame the first time I heard you grunt my name." Twilight smirked and closed the distance with Rainbow and kissed her, starting slow with just a peck. "That night, after you went back to your home, I tried what you showed me."
"Not from a book?" Rainbow returned the kiss and edged closer, sliding her tongue along Twilight's lips. She broke away again. "Was I a good teacher?"
"You were. It's not a lesson I think I could have learned from a book." Twilight stepped forward again, then past, bumping her shoulder against Rainbow's. "I wouldn't have learned so much about the joys of sex if it hadn't been for you."
Rainbow leaned into the bump as Twilight slid past. "Shared joys. Cloppin's fine, but nothing beats your muzzle between my legs."
Twilight felt a tug on her tail and looked back to see it caught in Rainbow's mouth. "Or yours between mine." She tugged her tail free and ducked her head down lower, running her nose along the point of Rainbow's hip.
Rainbow smelled clean, with just a hint of arousal still lingering from an hour or more ago, mostly sluiced away in the cold shower. But not completely. She shuddered, her tail flagging higher when Rainbow nipped the base of it, then trailed a series of quick little love bites down the back of her thigh. Desire thrummed between her legs, but she pushed it back and sidestepped to put her rear out of reach.
"Aw, come on!"
"I've got you beat two, zip today, Rainbow. Are you sure you want to let me increase that lead?" Twilight arched a brow at the currently losing pegasus and smirked.
"Are we still playing that game? Come on, Twi, you're... you're..." Rainbow's tail jumped, and she shuddered, muzzle dropping open.
Twilight's smirking smile grew gentler, and she lowered her foreleg from where she'd just touched Rainbow's belly. "Rainbow, you're so wired up that I could get you off just by breathing on you." She pursed her lips and blew a gentle whiff across Rainbow's flank. It didn't work, of course, but that wasn't the reason she did it.
"You're right." Rainbow looked away, then giggled. "You know, there's this position I've always wanted to try, from Hoof and Mare magazine. It was really, really hot looking. Like a reverse stallion style."
Twilight blushed and looked aside, the image from that particular issue floating through her mind. "You mean from issue eighteen, page forty-five?"
Rainbow glanced at her. "How did you...?"
"You don't exactly have a lot of reading material in your bathroom, Rainbow." She tapped Rainbow's side. "But I don't think that position would work." Twilight brushed her hoof against Rainbow's belly again. "You don't exactly have a bulging penis."
She shuddered again, eyes closing and hind leg lifting to push the teasing hoof away. "Cock, Twi. It's a cock. Penis just sounds too... innocent."
"A cock is a rooster, Rainbow. You don't have one of those either."
"Ugh, whatever. Look, I don't wanna argue terminology with you. I just want to spend the day with you." Rainbow turned to kiss her briefly. "However that happens."
"I know. I'm sorry." Twilight returned the kiss and settled her cheek against Rainbow's, and she thought about her first time with Rainbow, how uncertain she'd been, and how indulgent the more experienced pegasus was, up there in her cloud house. "Do you remember our first time?"
"Having sex? Of course." Rainbow nipped her neck, then kissed her ear. "You were so adorable, so uncertain about everything. I hadn't realized you were a virgin until that night."
"I was, but that's not what I was thinking about. You indulged me and my silly fantasy of having my teats sucked. I can indulge yours." Even if it's just more of my fantasy.
"You want it to be like our first time again?"
"I guess." Twilight took two steps back and pushed a hoof against Rainbow's chest. "But this is our home now, and I'm not an inexperienced, shy mare anymore. I want you."
Rainbow shuddered and her hind legs shifted, tail jumping higher and then flipping side to side. "So..." She looked down at her hooves, then back up. "Do I... just--"
"Put a hoof up here." Twilight tapped the edge of the grass covered bench, then ducked underneath Rainbow's barrel. It felt strange to crouch, but the warm weight that settled onto her neck and upper back felt good, even if she had to twist her neck awkwardly to avoid poking Rainbow with her horn.
She was in an excellent position anyway to twist her head to the side and reach between Rainbow's legs to close her lips over one of those soft teats, just begging her to be suckled on. She listened to the response and felt the tug back on her lips as she started to suckle with firm tugs and slid her tongue back and forth over the tip of the nipple between the long, slow pulls on Rainbow's flesh.
The belly against Twilight's cheek shuddered more the harder she pulled, though she was careful not to clench too hard and only touched her teeth to the base of the teat to press gently and hold Rainbow's hard nipple in place.
Memories surfaced of Rainbow's mouth plying the tender valley between her teats, then kissing gently over one, then the other before pressing down hard with her teat captured by teeth and lips. Twilight's back shivered and she felt her hind legs going numb from remembered ecstasy. She pushed harder into the soft flesh of Rainbow's teat and pulled the hard nipple and soft flesh around it more firmly.
The warm expanse of Rainbow's belly against her cheek was a spot of heaven, and she could hear the gusty breathing thundering distantly through the mare's soft belly. Not fully soft, but Rainbow's habit of eating fast food clung to her belly despite how much she trained. Being friends with Pinkie certainly didn't help. She could still feel the hard packed muscle pressing down, then clenching and relaxing with each slow draw on the hard nipple in her mouth.
Finally, Twilight let go and just listened to Rainbow's body over her, still shuddering. Twilight's tail flagged to the side as hard as if Rainbow had been going at her own teats.
"Twi... You know I don't care as much about my teats as you do." But the tone in Rainbow's voice suggested that was about to change. "But that was so..." Her hind legs trembled and her stomach clenched again. The smell of her arousal intensified, and two trickles of viscous fluid dribbled down the insides of her thighs. Her teeth nipped along the base of Twilight's tail, then her long tongue curled around the base and slid over the bare underside of her dock.
Her tail lifted more and her hoof stamped involuntarily, the urge to let Rainbow continue as she wanted rising. Instead, she shuddered all over and forced her tail to clamp against her sex. "That was so, what?" She mumbled, eyes closed and breath coming in lengthening gasps.
"Do that again?"
Twilight laughed and pushed her head a little harder between Rainbow's legs, then drew a slow lick along the crease between her belly and inner thigh. Rainbow's leg lifted, curling up tighter and lifting away from the lick, giving Twilight even more freedom to lavish the smooth, almost bare skin with even more warm, lingering licks followed up with cool brushes of her breath.
"Twi!" Rainbow's squeak was barely audible over the heartbeat thundering in the ear pressed against Rainbow's belly. The leg she was teasing tightened and curled up, then stretched out as the breaths moved away from the hypersensitive, soft skin between thigh and belly.
"Yes, Rainbow?"
"N-nothing... I thought you were gonna..." Her belly clenched, stretching taut over Twilight's cheek again.
"I can, if you want, but this awkward position is killing my neck."
"It's okay, Twi. Just... Hold on a moment, and get out from under me."
Twilight did as she was asked, watching as Rainbow climbed up on the bench. "Wait. Can you lay on your side, Rainbow? I..." She felt a blush creeping along her ears.
"It's okay, Twilight." Rainbow blushed as well, but didn't look away. "I trust you." She lay down, shifting about, and then lay still.
"Thank you."
"You were really getting me going with that..." Rainbow made a kissy face and suckling noises. "I mean, I know it drives you wild, but me... I figured I was too..." She shrugged awkwardly and lifted her uppermost hind leg, exposing her wet belly and the drier patch over one teat. Her hoof patted the drier teat, then lifted away.
"Too much colt in the filly?" Twilight followed the offering and trailed a series of nibbles and kisses down Rainbow's chest and belly.
"Something like that."
She didn't immediately return to suckling Rainbow's teat, instead she nosed against one of them, feeling the soft weight press back against her nose. "I don't think you've lain like this for me before." She kissed the nipple, then coaxed it into her mouth with a lick and a gentle suckle.
Rainbow blushed, but didn't change positions. She took a deep breath and let it out in a shuddering sigh. "It feels vulnerable." The hovering hoof descended to stroke Twilight's mane.
Twilight didn't stop to answer, but twisted her head slightly to look at the mare staring down at her. She dipped her ears briefly and leaned against the bench to support her weight and closed her eyes. There was something comforting about the simple action of suckling on a loved one's teat, even if it was part of sex. Maybe it's just that intimate feeling of trusting a partner enough to do something so... intimate.
"I don't think I could've done this a month ago and felt as comfortable as I do right now, Twi." She lifted the hoof away to kiss it, then returned it to Twilight's cheek. "You are awesome."
She answered the compliment with a soft bite and pulled harder on the firm nub, her tongue pressing and stroking its tip, then drawing back.
The hoof on her mane began to tremble, then pulled tight against her mane. Rainbow's breathing grew shallower and Twilight had to adjust as the pull and swell of Rainbow's belly grew more and more erratic.
"Twi!"
The breathy gasp was music to her ears, and only encouraged her to continue. Suck, stroke, and relax. Over and over, in time with Rainbow's increasingly erratic breathing. The hoof against the back of her head pulled tighter and she saw, out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow's head pressing down, eyes closed, against the grassy bench.
The leg above her trembled and kicked and the air filled with the fresh, heady aroma of Rainbow's fresh juices.
Underneath her lips, Rainbow's body shuddered once, then again, and relaxed. The hoof on the back of her head slipped down to rest against her back. She kept the nipple trapped, but let go of her gentle bite grip.
"I think I came." Rainbow lifted her leg and pushed herself up. "Sweet clouds... I never thought you could get me like that."
Twilight laughed and let the nipple slip from her mouth. "It takes a special kind of attention, and definitely a pegasus on the edge already." She stood and pressed down against Rainbow's belly with a slow kiss, then trailed a series of kisses up to her thigh.
"And a special pony."
Her trail of kisses paused at the crease where thigh met belly in a thinly covered area with only a few patches of downy hairs and an otherwise bare sky blue expanse of flesh.
"Have I ever told you that I love your legs? Because I do." And she was in such a gorgeously open position. "Rainbow, I'd like to use just a simple spell." She licked lightly along the forepart of her thigh, away from the sensitive, almost bare skin of her inner thigh. "Is that okay?"
"Twi, you know I don't like magic during sex." Rainbow lowered the leg to brush against Twilight's cheek. "But I trust you. You'd never hurt me."
"No, I wouldn't. Just a simple spell. I promise." It was the first kind of spell she learned. Simple levitation, and she infused just enough warmth into the magic to make it as comfortable as possible. She wrapped the whole of Rainbow's lower leg in a glowing envelope and eased the leg higher. "That's it."
"That's it?" Rainbow looked at her, then at the leg and chuckled. "Twi, I meant stuff like that one spell you said you 'borrowed' from Luna's private library. You know... The uh... The tingle way down deep spell. That's just way too weird for me."
With Rainbow's leg locked in place in the air, Twilight stepped around the bench, lifting her tail to give Rainbow a glimpse of just how aroused she was. Of course, the pegasus wasn't in a position to do anything but stare, and shen she glanced back, she saw Rainbow's eyes locked on, and used a bit of magic to spread her lips and give a deeper look before she turned and settled herself behind Rainbow.
"You are such a... a..." Rainbow licked her lips and closed her eyes.
"Such a what?" She laughed when Rainbow just glared at her, but not for very long, or very convincingly, and laid back down. "I know I'm a tease, Rainbow. And you love it."
The scent of Rainbow's musky marehood drew Twilight's attention down, and she locked her eyes on the wet, slick mess and the winking lips that invited her to kiss them back. It fascinated her that Rainbow's clit would do that. Her own didn't, and in her research, she'd found that some few mares just didn't have the right clit or labia or muscular support to let them do that. To have a marefriend who did had provided her with an endless amount of fascination, watching it while she toyed with Rainbow's dock, or her buttocks, or just blew soft streamers of air along the pink slit.
She bent to lap slowly from the base of Rainbow's mound, teasing her tongue briefly into her vaginal canal to taste the mare's musk, then slid along the parted lips, pausing along the way to turn her head and tease the velvety mound with a tender love nip.
Her teasing was making Rainbow pant louder, and the captured leg strained harder and harder in the grip of her magic. Finally her lips closed over the stiffly erect clitoris, just winking out of its hood. She slid her tongue slowly over it, barely touching, and drew a rising moan from Rainbow that ended in a hoarse squeal when she repeated the motion, faster and harder.
She pulled back and panted a hot breath over the still engorged clitoris, then stood up straighter and shook herself all over, sending a fine spray of droplets flying away along with a modicum of her own rising desires.
"Twi, don't you hoofin' leave me hangin'!" Rainbow lifted her head, her ears flushed, and glared. But she couldn't hold it for long, and her brow furrowed, giving Twilight the sad, 'do me, please' eyes that had resulted in more than one too-late night and a grotty morning. "Come o-on! You don't know what you... y-" She fell back again when Twilight gave in, sliding her tongue in a long, slow pass from Rainbow's needy opening to her quivering, engorged clitoris, and finally closed her lips over it once more.
But that was all. She let go and lifted her head to settle between Rainbow's teats, the throbbing, erect clitoris pressing against her throat. She swallowed, and felt Rainbow shudder underneath her, letting out a tiny squeak.
"Would you like me to try something new?"
She waited, not wanting to push Rainbow to try something she wasn't ready to. If she asked... begged, then Twilight would relent and push her over the edge. But she knew Rainbow; the adventurous mare, the one to lead by example and recklessly charge forward.
"Yeah. Oh, sweet sisters, yes."
That was music to her ears. "This might tickle a little at first."
Twilight turned her attention to the bare expanse of leg turned towards her and stood up to reach the point of Rainbow's hip with a nip and a kiss. She followed with a series of languorous, wet kisses, long backtracks of her tongue over already teased parts of the crease between belly and thigh, working her way down along Rainbow's belly. The occasional light nip, followed by a lick and conciliatory kiss, drew an increasingly strained series of gasps and moans from the pegasus.
A firm, shaking hoof returned to hook over the base of Twilight's horn, stroking slowly up and down the spiraled length and giving her not a small bit of distraction. But she held onto the spells doggedly, despite the thrills tingling down the back of her neck and the subtle, not quite audible rasp of fur over the smooth ridges of her horn.
Rainbow's other leg strained against the grass, but Twilight caught it too in a simple spell before it could kick, and held steady along the course of her kisses, licks, and nibbles. She could feel the muscles bunching and straining under her tongue, and felt the hoof against her neck straining to push her harder. The music in her ears continued, with Rainbow's pants and whimpers getting louder and louder.
"Twi!" The hoof against her head trembled and pressed harder. "Ah, Twi!" Twilight kept up the slow, steady and firm trail along the crease, pausing only to lap and nip at a whorl of fur or a bare patch devoid of even the downy light hairs.
The farther she got, the closer she came to the apex of Rainbow's legs, the firmer her laps got, and the more fevered her own desire. The agonizingly slow traversal of Rainbow's leg had made her very aware of not only the increasingly heady aroma, but also the slick, clinging mess spreading down her own thighs. Her drippings mingled with the steam swirling around the shower stall to dribble and run faster, tickling her in the same places she was teasing Rainbow.
Before she could be tempted further with the certain to be enticing sight of Rainbow's sex winking its encouragement to her, she pulled away, her tongue feeling like sand in her mouth. It'd been worth it, though. She'd set up the playground, and now, all she had to do was wait for the right moment.
"W-why stop?" Rainbow was panting, her hooves pressed hard against the cloud as she pushed herself up to look at Twilight. "I was just about to-"
Twilight pursed her lips and sent a stream of cool air across the wet expanse of Rainbow's exposed inner thigh. She watched, fascinated, as the cool air made the hairs along the crease stand up. More enticing was the way that Rainbow's breath caught and the way her body strained against the spells holding her legs immobile, lifting up from the grassy bench to grind her marehood against Twilight's neck.
She pulled away and stepped back to watch Rainbow's almost orgasm wind down again. "Stop? I can if you want, I suppose." She purred, pausing in her teasing breathing to look up, forcing herself to smirk, and trying to give it that trademark Rainbow Dash leer.
"T-Twi! You thunder kissing tease!" Rainbow flexed her legs, twisting herself in an agony of bliss denied, and tried to find release but seemed unwilling to use her hooves to finish herself off. Slowly, she settled back to the grass, legs still held up in the air by Twilight's spell. She let out a grunt and shook her head, forehooves pressed to the ground, ankles flexing and digging small divots into the spongy, not quite grass surface.
Breathing a mental sigh of relief, Twilight let herself relax. "Thunder kissing? Does that mean my kisses make you think of lightning?" She stepped back into the shower for a moment, letting the rainstorm wash away some of her desire and lifted her head to catch a mouthful of warm water and spit it out.
"Always." Rainbow's head settled back to lay in the grass, smiling, and stared back along the length of her body at her. "You know that."
"You say the sweetest things." She stepped back out of the rainstorm and used another spell to flick off the rainshower. More or less obediently, for once, the rain slowed to just a drizzle. "The question is..." Twilight stepped back up close with the same devilish grin, and ran a hoof over Rainbow's exposed belly. "Are you still keeping score?"
"Ah..." Rainbow lifted her head, one eyebrow quirked. "Really? I know you like rules, Twi, but come on!"
"Well, I was going to adjust the rules." Twilight slipped away, turning her head to hide a smile. "But if you'd rather stop playing our little game..."
Rainbow squirmed, and dropped her head back down. "Fi-ine. What's the score, then?"
"You know me." Rainbow shuddered, her smile slipping as Twilight trailed the hoof down the wet band of fluff along her belly, then tapped against a teat, and continued lower. "Well." She coughed. "I suppose the two little ones were just, uh, half a point each. You're still ahead by one."
Twilight smiled. "That's good. Because I was really looking forward to this." She pressed her hooves into the ground on either side of Rainbow's flanks and ducked her head to play her tongue firmly along the outside edge of Rainbow's twitching mound. The long moan that ended in a grunt was music to her ears, and another fresh trickle of musk scented dew reignited the itch in her own nethers. She finished and looked up. "It's been hard not to give in and just jump into the endgame." She cut the spells holding Rainbow's legs in the air, and felt them settle down on either side of her head.
Starting low, Twilight nipped at Rainbow's dock, then teased the crease at the base of her tail and started a trail of nips over the outer edge of her buttock.
"You just can't resist, can you?"
"Can you?"
"N-aah!"
Twilight turned from teasing far from Rainbow's marehood to slipping her tongue between its folds and pushing deep. The smooth contours of Rainbow's vagina pulsed around her tongue, and the full bouquet of scent and taste of musk assaulted her senses with the heady, needy smell of sex. She nosed aside the thick outer lips and pressed her tongue as deeply inside as she could, curling the tip to fight the constant press of muscle and stopper the push of Rainbow's juices.
The legs on either side of her head flexed, but stayed open, and the depths of Rainbow's vagina pulsed in time to the flick and twiddle of her tongue. Against her nose, she felt the tug and loosening of labia winking partway open and slipping back along her nose. She followed that pull and stared up at the taut, pink clit sliding back and forth from its hood, and let her tongue slip away.
She didn't leave immediately, though. She slid her tongue just far enough in to feel the heat and taste the slightly bitter taste of Rainbow's musk and flesh combined. Curling the tip of her tongue, she drew it up along the cleft between Rainbow's labia while she felt the legs against her cheeks tighten and heard a moan rising and then ending in a breathless pant when Twilight stopped.
Rainbow relaxed slightly and panted, her tail stirring against Twilight's neck. She shuddered again and her legs locked tight around Twilight's head once more as a trickle of syrup trailed down to trickle into the grass and along her dock.
It was fascinating to watch, and not only because Twilight wanted to stopper the flow again with her tongue, but because she could feel the same thing happening between her own legs. She waited for Rainbow to catch her breath, then repeated the curled tongue stroke from seeping slit to just under the bulge of her stiffly erect clitoris.
This time, she closed her lips over it and felt Rainbow's body respond as she pushed down and swirled her tongue around its base.
"Twi! S-swee-" Rainbows cry broke off into a hoarse cry as her body strained.
She kept up the teasing for a second or two longer, then slid her tongue over Rainbow's clit, feeling every pulse and throb, and those delicious cries of pleasure became muffled when Rainbow's legs clamped down tight over her ears, shaking and jerking in time with the music.
The length of her tongue slid over the engorged nub trapped between her lips again, bringing a fresh round of cries, though more muted. One last time, she lapped at Rainbow's twitching clitoris, her ears perked to catch and savor the hoarse cry that rose in the echoing shower.
Twilight let her tongue rest on the quivering, hard nub while Rainbow's panting settled down ever so slowly into something resembling normal. Finally, she let her lips part from their prize and ducked her muzzle to lap slowly, lovingly, at the slowing stream of slick juices trailing from Rainbow's still flexing marehood.
She lost herself in the activity, savoring the feel of her smooth tongue trailing over softer flesh and velvety furred outer lips.
"Twi?" Rainbow said, letting her head flop to one side and look down her flank. "Twi, you can stop now."
Twilight smiled into Rainbow's sex, and lathed one last lick from under her tail to the tip of her slit. "Okay," she said, her voice low and throaty. "Was that good, for you?"
"Y-you have no idea..."
"I think I do," Twilight said with a grin as she pulled herself up on the platform to plant a sloppy, creamy kiss on Rainbow's lips. "A few hours ago, you did much the same to me."
Rainbow licked the slick mess from Twilight's muzzle, her tongue tickling under and around her chin, and all the way up to her cheeks. "You can let go of the spell, now."
"Oh!" Twilight hurriedly cancelled the spell, and felt Rainbow's legs clamp tight around her flanks. "Hey!"
"All's fair." Rainbow snickered and stuck her tongue out. "Like I was ever gonna let you go."
"I wouldn't let you go, either," Twilight said, rolling over to drag Rainbow to lay with her, resting on her side, and tucked her muzzle up under Rainbow's muzzle.
Above them, the skylight was growing dimmer as they lay together, bliss swimming in Twilight's mind as Rainbow's musky scent dissipated ever so slowly into the misty shower, mingling with her own.
"You know we're gonna have to shower again, right?"
"Hush," Twilight grunted. "Let me imagine that we're already clean for a moment."
"Dirty," Rainbow whispered. "So dirty."
"Hush!" She nipped Rainbow's neck. "Clean soon."
Rainbow laughed softly and curled her forelegs around Twilight's neck. "Okay." She tucked her muzzle in close and whispered: "I have a question for you."
"'Kay." Twilight let her eyes slip closed as she started falling back to sleep. "Ask."
"Twilight Sparkle, will you go on a date with me tomorrow?"
"'Course," Twilight said, the words passing through her mind without remark. "Where?"
"I'll tell you when you wake up." Rainbow planted a soft kiss on Twilight's ears, then settled her muzzle against her marefriend's horn.
Rainbow sighed as Twilight fell asleep in her hooves again, her mind fuzzy still from the multiple, successive orgasms. Hey, at least you kept the reason you came home early a secret.
Her thoughts turned to the gossipy lock, and wondered just how much it had told Twilight of their time together. Had it seen her come home early once before and hide a little box? She sighed again and closed her eyes.
"I love you, Twilight." Sleep came up and claimed her moments later, dreams of a single question percolating through her mind. |
A Day in the Night | pre | "I was fascinated once!" Chinco Teagui said brightly. "Right here on my flank!" He looked back at it, then did a double take. "Hey! Where's my vaccination scar?"
"Honk." Assa Teagui grinned and showed his flank to his brother.
"Hey, you gotta my scar!" That's good!"
"Honk!"
Luna opened her mouth to speak, then noticed that, again, Assa Teagui was sitting next to her. He grinned at her cheekily and kissed her.
She spluttered and roared, "GUARDS! Clap this one in irons! He is accused of lese majeste!" As one, the Lunar Guard swooped down on the pony. A complicated scrum ensued, ending with Assa Teagui standing chained between two guards while four others writhed on the floor, having somehow managed to shackle themselves to each other.
"Aw, c'mon, don't give him the clap, Your Lazy Majesty," Chinco Teagui protested.
The moonlight visible through the windows went suddenly quite dark.
"Seize him as well!" she said as she pointed at Chinco Teagui.
Assa Teagui helpfully tossed out some packets from a Baltimare garden supply house.
"NOT SEEDS, SEIZE!"
"My, what a lovely singing voice you must have."
Fetlock Q. Colic's voice distracted the Lunar Diarch. "What?!"
"Have you ever thought of singing solo? So low nopony can hear you?"
Calling on her arcane abilities as an alicorn, Luna collected herself. Surprisingly, it actually took effort. "Guards," she said through gritted teeth, "take Chinco Teagui and Assa Teagui to the dungeons. I shall . . . deal with them tomorrow night. I further decree that Luton Assizes have his head examined - "
"Bet you ten bits you don't find anything," Colic interjected.
" - To determine if he's competent to be a lawyer," Luna finished as the chubby unicorn gaped in shock. "And for contempt of court, Mr. Colic - "
"Can you make this quick? I have to get a ladder."
"A ladder?"
"Yeah. I'm taking this to a higher court."
"I am inclined to give you a short sentence, as a warning." She was a bit surprised at how calm she sounded.
To Verba and the guardsponies, it sounded as if she was just barely managing to avoid flying into an equicidal rage.
"How about 'I am?' That's the shortest sentence I know," Colic said, taking another puff on his cigar.
"Careful, Counselor, lest you argue yourself all the way to the chopping block."
"Do I get a chopping bag to bring my head home in?"
"What?"
"Well, you have to have a bag with you when you go chopping." ***
"Halt! Who goes there?"
"The Guard."
"Whose Guard?"
"Princess Celestia's Guard." Iron Monger and Stone Breaker, now back at their original post flanking the main gate of the Castle, stood at attention as two earth stallions in gold armor came forward. A soft shiver in the armor as spell met spell meant that they were who they said they were.
"You are recognized. What is the password?"
"The word for the day is Halter."
"The password is correct. All post orders remain in effect."
"We relieve you."
"We stand relieved." The Solar and Lunar guardsponies exchanged positions. "Pretty quiet tonight," Iron said casually.
"Thank the Princesses for that," one of the Solar ponies said. "Means less paperwork for you lot."
"Right about that," Stone Breaker said. "Have a quiet day."
The junior Solar Guard rolled his eyes. "Not likely. School tour today."
"Who?"
"Trottingham Academy."
"Ouch. Try not to go crazy. Any coffee left in the mess?"
"Always."
The two Lunar Guards headed back to the barracks, for supper and debriefing. ***
"You're joking."
"Tia, does it look like I'm joking?"
"Hmm." Tia put a hoof to her chin and regarded her sister speculatively as Luna grumbled and went back to eating her dinner. Dawn was scheduled to occur in another forty-five minutes (although either alicorn could have told the time down to the tiniest fraction of a second), and the Princess of the Sun was enjoying her breakfast. "No, you don't look like you're joking."
"Thank you."
"But come now, were they really that bad?"
Luna almost did a spit-take, which would have put a broad streak of red wine across the immaculate tablecloth. "They bid fair to drive me crazy. It was just that kind of night, I'm afraid. Thankfully I don't get many of them."
Tia's eyes gleamed. "Afraid the Moon might get overpopulated?"
The two Princesses looked at each other, then they both burst out laughing. "Scant chance of that," Luna said as she finished the last of her dinner. A servant cleared away the empty plates and served dessert, a small but dense slice of chocolate torte. She tucked in, and after a few minutes to savor the confection she said, "Seriously, though, the idea that one might try to sell defense secrets, even in such a featherbrained scheme as these two had, is a very disturbing thing."
"Yes. Fortunately nothing would have come of it. We're on good terms with the Sultanates, and you know they don't like stepping on our hooves." Celestia gave her younger sister a knowing smile. "I think they still tell schoolkids there about the Battle of Akh-ni."
Luna perked up and smiled. "Do you think so?" The battle had been fought nearly a century before Luna's descent into madness as Nightmare Moon. Akh-ni had been a perpetual sore spot, a salient that infringed on their territory and a constant source of camel incursions. By the time she and Equestria's forces were finished lancing that particular sore, the Camel Sultanates had voluntarily offered to sacrifice their own leaders to her in hopes she would stop the fighting.
She was still proud of her little ponies for their prowess, even after all these years.
Celestia finished her glass of orange juice, and her inner senses judged the time. "How is your coltfriend?"
"Iron Monger? Quite well, I should guess. The Lunar Guard reported no problems anywhere in the city, apart from the usual petty crimes. Why do you ask?"
"He's your friend," the older sister said simply. "And I know it would hurt you if he had anything happen to him."
"True." Luna smiled, looking down at her now-empty dessert plate. She stretched and yawned. "Any way I can talk you into raising the Sun early today?"
"Uh-uh. I still have twenty-one minutes, and I mean to enjoy my coffee and doughnut before settling into the daily grind."
The Lunar Regent's expression went sly. "You know, Tia . . . I could rearrange the court docket - "
"Not on your life, Lulu."
The younger sister giggled. "Why not? You might need a laugh today. I know you have a meeting with the Stable of Nobles."
"Trade?"
Now it was Luna's turn to scowl. "Not on your life, either." She recalled the first time she'd had to confer with the assembled nobility of Equestria after her return. It hadn't been a pleasant experience for anyone involved.
Much to her dismay, Celestia had taken her aside and told her that she couldn't have Duke Windsoar executed for talking back to her.
"You know, I just thought of something."
"Oh? Another prank?"
"Maybe later. Tia, you and I should take a day off." Luna grinned as Celestia put her coffee mug down on the table. "I'm not talking about the Sun and Moon, of course, but apart from that. Let the Prime Minister and the government handle things - just for a day."
The Solar Princess' expression grew sly and knowing. "And that includes, I suppose, all of the pending cases on the court docket?"
The Lunar Princess' expression matched her sister's. "Of course."
"Anywhere in mind, then?"
"Hmm. Somewhere warm and inviting - ah! How about Neighples? Warm sun, pleasant nights, beautiful beaches, great swimming - "
"And the hot springs, and the wonderful night life," Tia finished her sister's thought for her. "A truly splendid idea, dear sister. When we exchange Courts this morning we'll start the ball rolling. The government will - when do you think we should go?"
"I think tonight ought to be perfect."
The two alicorns laughed. ***
"C'mon, guys, let me in."
"And how do we know you're not a Changeling, Iron? If that is your real name." The two Solar Guards at the door to the Princess' chambers smirked at each other. A few of the Guards liked to tease the earth stallion to keep him humble.
"We went to high school together, Kicker," Iron grumbled. "And don't think I've forgotten that little episode at the senior prom. What was that filly's name again?"
Kicker's glamored blue eyes widened. "You wouldn't."
"Oh? I'll shout it from the Observatory Tower. Now, let me pass, okay?"
"Wait a minute," Kicker's companion interjected. "Pictures."
"What?"
"We hear word you're sleeping with Princess Luna, but all we got is words. Pictures, or it didn't happen."
"Listen, you numbskull - "
"Iron?" All three ponies turned, and came to attention as Luna came around the corner. "Have a nice night?"
"Pretty normal," and he nuzzled her, deliberately catching the eyes of the other two guardsponies. Kicker just gazed back, while his partner looked dumbstruck. Iron let her go through the doorway first, and winked as he walked past the Guards.
The doors closed.
"Your night was pretty normal, eh? Mine was a bit interesting," Luna remarked as Iron helped her shed her platinum and silver regalia. The alicorn stretched and yawned. "Celestia and I will be going to Neighples tonight. Just the two of us."
"No Guards?" he asked.
"And no guards," she said firmly. "I'm afraid that includes you. My sister and I just need a little time by ourselves. We went to Mareami last year, remember."
"True." The Princesses were laws unto themselves, and some cynics occasionally questioned why a Solar and Lunar Guard was even required for their protection. Watching over two immortal goddesses incarnate tended to be among the more interesting jobs in Equestria. "Just be careful, okay? Captain Nightshade would tear his mane out if anything happened."
"And so would Captain Sun Streak, I know." She nuzzled him in return as they headed for the bathroom. "Besides, I know perfectly well that there'll likely be a division of the Guard hiding behind the nearest cloud, just waiting to see what might happen."
"Or keeping the paparazzi at bay."
Luna giggled. "True." They took turns brushing their teeth (Iron took a shower), and they settled into bed, curling their hooves around each other's bodies.
They shared a kiss, and a tiny movement of Luna's horn extinguished the lights. "Good night, Iron."
"G'night, Luna."
"Honk!"
"What the - "
"OUT!"
End. |
Equestria Crossover Confusion 2 HFC- It's time to get Digital! | pre | "Regardless, they're fates have been decided!" Gennai said with anger clear upon his face.
"By who?!" Kudamon snarled "By some old coward who didn't have the nerve to warn us about the Digimon Tyrants...if you had, we may have found a better way to fight back!"
"We have" a voice said from behind the door and Davis stepped out, he wasn't the boy he had been, gone was the happy look his eyes had brought, instead his single eye looked out with anger mixed with pride. His right eye was gone, covered by a black eye patch but he also seemed to have lost a lot of weight "We discovered a new form of digivolution called DNA! We no longer need them!"
"Where's your sense of loyalty?!" Rainbow snapped her heart began beating faster with fear as the chances of a fight breaking out increased but she then had an idea "What would it take to prove they are worthy?!"
Gennai raised an eyebrow and smiled "Hmm I suppose if they can get the eggs to hatch but they're not who they were. I suppose they are worth that much but if they should fail....then all humans not in this base must surrender their digimon! Including you!" he pointed at Rainbow as he spoke but Rainbow smiled with confidence "Alright you have forty-eight hours....if not one of the eggs has hatched...they fail!"
"Understood" Kudamon said with a nervous smile to Rainbow "Could you get us back to the portal?"
"No need" Yolei said as she stepped out, time hadn't been kind, her glasses were broken with many bits of tape holding them together, her hair was as messy as her glasses and her face bore many small scratches but the biggest change was the whiny tone her voice use to have, replaced by a voice that bore little joy or hope "We have access to a portal which will get you back"
"Oh thank you" Kakashi said as he turned to Kudamon "I'm going to remain here with Rukia, we'll try to find the other eggs but we'll be in contact. Let's move, Rukia!" and with that the two departed but there were further departures.
Leonardo stepped forward and mumbled in a voice full of grief "We have to recover Mikey's body...Splitter would want us to bury him" he said as he walked away "I'm sorry" the Ninjamon offered to guide them to which Leo merely mumbled "Thank you" the turtles followed the Ninjamon as Yolei set up one of the TVs to let Rainbow, Renamon, Pinkie, Gotsumon and Kudamon through the portal. Checkmate and Spyro opting to remain behind in case the turtles needed help.
"So why can't we come in?" Rainbow asked annoyed.
"Because we don't want you in our base" Davis snarled "Your wasting time, time we could be spending trying to think of ways to defeat the Digimon Tyrants but no, you have to waste it on those failures and ask us to be your friends?! Go to hell!" it was just as well when the portal was ready they were transported away.
"Did you get the eggs?!" Izzy asked as Rainbow held up one of the eggs, Pinkie held up the other and Renamon held the third but Izzy's face fell "None of those are...Tentomon's egg" Sora also sadly shook her head "I think that's Gatomon's egg, Agumon's egg and Gomamon's egg" he then added "We...we have some bad news...we found Joe outside while you guys were away..."
"He tried to kill himself! Thank god the rope he brought to hang himself snapped at the last moment!" Dorulumon said as he showed them to a bed with the shivering form of Joe "He's in a bad way"
"Hopefully this egg will help" Renamon said as she stepped forward putting the egg into Joe's hands "Come on, Joe...we need you" there was a bright flash and in Joe's hands sat the small form of Pichimon, he turned to Joe with a smile but Joe didn't react "Give him time, Pichimon"
Renamon soothed before the baby digimon burst into tears, as the tears disappeared from the baby digimon's cheeks, it began to chirp at Joe and nuzzled Joe's face.
"Gonamon?" Joe mumbled as he opened his eyes and looked down at Pichimon but the smile he wore was one unrivalled by the one Pichimon had as the two embraced in a hug "I....I'm so sorry" but the baby chirped annoyed by Joe's stupid comment and then bit him on the finger "OW! Okay get it...I never thought I'd see you again but I let Cody die...I'm not worthy"
"Don't talk like that" Izzy mumbled and added "We all failed him but we're not going to fail anyone else....you understand Joe" the fires of hope suddenly burnt bright in the eyes of Sora and Izzy as they approached Joe, giving the small form of Pichimon a gentle stroke but then Izzy punched Joe in the arm "The time for feeling sorry for ourselves is at an end"
"Couldn't have said better myself" a voice said from the computer, there stood TK and Tai both smiling at the sight of Pichimon but each seemed to have renewed believe. TK turned to Rainbow and Pinkie "Ever since you two arrived...hope truly has returned"
Tai smiled as Pinkie handed him his egg "Please, Agumon return to me" he mumbled as he hugged the egg and the egg opened a small mumbled purring coming from it "Botamon?" the baby digimon began to cry with its little eyes closing in shame "Shhh it's okay your safe" the crying stopped and the baby jumped onto Tai's shoulder snuggling up against his face "I've missed you too, old friend"
Kudamon coughed and said "We'd better get Kari here to open her egg. I'm just glad we've proved that old fart wrong" he then noticed the nervous look on Izzy's face "Is something wrong? Does it have anything to do with Kari?"
"Um about that, Kari has disappeared....we have no idea where she is" Izzy said as he then pulled out his phone "We called her an hour ago and then every five minutes but nothing. We also send Dorulumon to check on her but..."
"There was no sign of her!" Dorulumon snarled and pulled out a piece of torn clothing from his fur "This is the only sign I could find of her!" he shook his head and he continued "There is a possibility that she's been taken by the enemy. If that is the case, that castle is likely where they are holding her and they'll stack their defences ....we may be out of moves we can make"
"There is one we can make" Pinkie mumbled and the group looked at her with alarmed looks "A head on attack...it's what they won't expect like a big party and then we throw them a little party at that second entrance!"
"That...is insane!" Tai stuttered in shock but then the largest grin spread across his face "It's perfect!"
"What?! But we're not at our full strength!" Izzy shouted in shock "We need our eggs and we need to find some way to push to mega!" but then he smiled "One of you better have a plan!"
Pinkie smiled as she put a waste paper bin on her head and said dramatically "I have a plan....attack!"
"It's a plan I can get behind but Izzy is right" Dorulumon said as he then turned to Tamera "Unless you can find us some more friends?"
"Oh I'm sure the friends we have, also have friends who'd be more than willing to help" Tamera said happily and added "Looks like we'll have to put that big party on hold, Pinkie?"
"NO! We'll just have the big party before the battle!" Pinkie said and added "We could all use some cheering up....especially with my party cannon, it'll really bring the party to this glum place!" she then added "I'll need my party lists!"
"Typical" Rainbow said dryly |
Equestria Crossover Confusion 2 HFC- It's time to get Digital! | Chapter 7- Party! | Pinkie's party as always was as amazing as amazing could be, it had all the touches needed for the digimon, digi-destined and everyone else to really get stuck into it but more importantly it put a smile on everyone's face. There were cakes, pizzas, burgers, French fries, soda and so much more food to make everyone's taste buds dance in absolute joy. Pinkie looked on as the party excelled into high gear with a sad smile on her face "What's wrong Pinkie?" Gotsumon asked as he walked up with cupcakes and gave her a friendly hug "This party was a great idea....I've never seen everyone looking so...happy....we even managed to put that old fool's doubts to shame" Pinkie looked at the digimon, then at her hands and then the tears began to fall from her eyes "Pinkie!"
Pinkie's sobs were very quiet; however she managed to bubble out "I....I wish Mikey could be here" Gotsumon gently gave her back a pat, Pinkie's sobs continuing on regardless, the rock digimon unable to stop the constant flow of tears and Pinkie then added "He should still...be...here"
"He should.....but sometimes, the people and digimon that should be here...aren't and some of those that shouldn't be here...still keep drawing breaths" Gotsumon said as he then pulled away, meeting Pinkie's watery eyes and held her hands as he added "But we are still here, you certainly deserve to still be here and so long as you are make Mikey's sacrifice worth it!"
"But how?" Pinkie asked as she looked down.
"By making his sacrifice mean something" Tai said as he walked up, his face still showed the boy who had given into despair but his eyes shone with renewed strength "I still remember when we were fighting the Dark Masters that even though we too had digimon sacrifice their lives...I couldn't allow their sacrifice to go unavenged" he paused and added "I may have been trying to do too much too quickly but I couldn't just let their sacrifices go"
Pinkie nodded as she sniffed and looked at her legs "But I'm the element of laughter...I shouldn't be crying" she said as she then picked up her digivise "When I should be spreading happiness and laughter...I can't stop the tears?"
"Wait? So your crest means laughter and that mean you have to spread happiness?" Tai asked bluntly "If you don't mind me saying....that's completely stupid"
"What do you mean?" Gotsumon asked as he gave Pinkie a tissue and then added "I mean I think I know what you're saying...are you saying Pinkie doesn't always have to be happy?"
Joe suddenly walked up and said "Well no, Tai means that our crests or elements do not define us. For example Tai can have his moments of fear, sometimes they overwhelm him and he cannot easily recover from it" he paused and pointed to everyone "The fact is, Pinkie that your element maybe laughter but does that mean you are continually happy? Regardless of the pain you've suffered or the anger you feel?"
"I...I...don't know" Pinkie said as she looked out a window "I mean I guess I'm supposed to bring laughter to others but sometimes I just...can't" she put her head between her hands as the tears came faster "How is one supposed to laugh when a friend dies?!"
"Has it ever occurred to you that our crests and elements also require a certain moment where they're needed more than others" Tai asked as he sat next to her "I mean, both my crest and TK's crest are great on an adventure or in the middle of a battle but in the everyday courage is needed for facing our fears and hope is needed for the moments where we feel at our lowest"
"So what are you trying to get at?" Pinkie asked finally losing patience.
"Laughter strikes me as a crest that would be a cross between Hope and courage" Joe said as he gave her a cup of water "The courage to smile even when life gets hard and to have hope that life will get better"
"Wait...no Laughter is hope's sister" Pinkie said finally cracking a smile "It's making life easier even before hope can set in" she laughed "I love being the element of laughter"
"That's great! Look at the good you've done today" Tai said as he pointed round the room, Izzy was in one corner laughing as Rainbow Dash told him a joke. In another corner Sora was smiling as she pulled silly faces for Botamon and Pictimon. All gathered seemed happier than ever "This party has made even those of us completely lost in our pits of despair smile again"
Soon the party began to wrap up; Izzy looked at his computer and yelled "Great news guys! Our suspicions were right! The remaining three digieggs are in the primary village!" he then scrolled down the message send by the recon team and his smile failed into a look of horror "It's a trap....it must be" his voice sounded hollow and broken "The recon team swears they saw Kari....in chains"
"What does it matter?!" Rainbow asked looking as determined as ever and added "We didn't come this far to throw in the towel!? Come on let's come up with a plan!"
"But without Mimi....what are our chances?" Tai asked but then the door opened and in the door stood three people "But...it can't be?"
"Oh come on Tai, is that how you welcome me back and after all the effort it took to find you guys?" a tall girl with short pink hair asked as she stepped in and added "Did I hear you say my name?" Mimi smiled and hugged Tai "It's great to see all of you, again....everyone I trust you remember Michael? Oh and this is Merlin, he's the one who managed to get us here...he's great"
Michael had changed a lot since they'd last seen him, the left part of his face had an ugly burn mark over it and his left eye seemed to be glazed over "I trust everyone remembers my partner, Betamon?" the small digimon stepped out from behind Michael and smiled.
"But how? We saw you...how'd you get your egg back?" TK asked as he stood with a tearful smile "Also how'd you find us?"
"Well it was a close call and I'll tell you in a moment but Merlin here is the real reason we were able to find you" Mimi admitted "We got a weird message from someone with an address in London....it was from a shop called Kingsman...it's a tailor shop" she paused and looked at Merlin "So how'd you know about us? I forgot to ask"
"Well it's complicated if I'm being honest" Merlin finally said as he straightened the lapels of his suit "Kingsman Tailors has a long a proud history but if I told you what it really does...I'd be a dead man"
"Why? Because you'd be giving away some secret belt buckle design?" Sora joked laughing nervously but when Merlin didn't laugh in response she added "It's something more than that?"
"Well considering our belt buckles tend to be bullet proof, I'd say so" Merlin replied and then added "Now before I continue, all of you must swear upon your lives to secrecy or I'll simply have to kill ya" everyone within the room nodded their agreement to this and Merlin sighed "I'm taking a huge risk here but I suppose I've done more stupid shit" he then continued "Now Kingsman Tailors produces suits, that is true but something not told to our customers, or anyone else, is that they cover for a secret service group that also goes by the name of Kingsman"
"So you're like a spy?" Tai asked bluntly.
"Well yeah but I'm also Kingsman's tech expert" Merlin laughed and continued "Anyway one night, a month or two back, when I was going over some case notes of missing people....I found the unsolved death of one Cody Hida casefile. According to our records the case had been mysterious in nature....there wasn't even a body"
"That's because he's alive" Renamon suddenly said sounding very bitter over the whole business.
"What?!" Joe and Merlin said in unison.
"We'll explain to you later Joe" Rainbow said and then added "So you were saying how a missing persons file led you to finding this place?"
"Well yes and that helps explain why there isn't a body but anyway....after I finished reading for a full hour, I went for a glass of whisky" Merlin explained and then took a breath "As I poured myself a good sized glass of Glen Moray's 30 year old....I have to say it was a good choice but I'm getting off topic. I turned with my glass and found myself with a...thing calling himself Whis" Rainbow cracked her knuckles at the mention of the name "I take it you've met him?"
"Yep" Rainbow said sharply and then asked "What'd he say?"
Merlin nodded and whispered "Hello, Merlin" he then raised his voice "To be clear, I was in a top class underground facility that had at least 17 inbuilt alarm systems, many build in defences and at least two other Kingsman agents in the base...he managed to get in undetected!" he continued "It was a surprise to say the least....nearly dropped my whisky"
"Enough with the whisky" Kudamon deadpanned as he added "What did he say?!"
"Well he gave me a the contact information for Mimi and the location of this base...told me to get her here for a certain date" Merlin admitted and then continued "But then also gave me a warning that struck me as weird....he told me to tell you, it is a trap but go for it"
"It's time we decide" Kudamon said "I say we should all go for the eggs...It maybe a trap but if we plan it out well enough then we may have a chance"
Rainbow looked at the map of the area on Izzy's computer "We don't know where all the defenders are, yeah?" she asked as everyone nodded "Our old plan for the castle was good but because of..." she looked at Tai "Um changes? We had to change it....the plan is still good thou but maybe rather than splitting into three...we split into two groups"
"Why two?" Kudamon asked as he jumped onto her shoulder "Oh I see! You're suggesting that if we divide their forces, we could draw away the majority of their forces in the opposite direction from our main thrust?!"
Rainbow nodded "I say we get TK, Pinkie and Michael with Kakashi and Rukia supplying support" she said as she added "It'd be the fastest group and therefore able to draw the army away" everyone nodded "It's fool proof!"
"Not sure I'd say that but it's certainly a plan with merit!" Merlin said as he added "But what will the rest of us do?"
"If we send our group in twenty minutes before the second group...since the first group includes some of our best fighters...it should make them send their forces to engage the first group?" Rainbow asked seemly uncertain if the idea was okay "I mean it's not perfect?"
"No...but no plan ever is" Merlin said as he smiled "I say we should go for it!"
"Amen!" Izzy said as he added "I think the time for watching is over" soon the group Rainbow had requested was assembled and a message had been send to Kakashi, who had promised to meet the group at the TV in the digital world "What's wrong, Pinkie?"
"Rainbow....why can't I come with you?" Pinkie asked hollowly
"Because the other group need you Pinkie" Rainbow replied as she put an arm around Pinkie's shoulders and whispered "You remember back in Equestria, when I met Matt and Gabumon? Well Twilight helped Gabumon get to Mega with her element....it could be possible we could do the same for a crest that matches our element"
"So you think TK's crest and my element are similar?" Pinkie asked clearly not convinced by Rainbow's idea "I mean it could work but what about Loyalty?" she then sighed and couldn't help but raise one hand to her face, pinching her brows but then whispered "You don't know...your guessing!"
"Well yeah but you're making it sound like it's just normal guessing...it's not...I mean all we have to do is focus on our element or something and then boom! Mega digimon!" Rainbow whispered with a smile and added "Look we got this"
"You know when Sweetie Belle said that, what the results were?" Pinkie said and added "It's not all that reassuring" she then smiled and shook her head "I guess we haven't got a better option" she then turned to TK "Ready to go?"
"Um yeah sure...what were you two talking about, just now?" TK asked but sighed and added "Well Rukia and Kakashi have send a message saying they'll be at the meeting point but they need an hour or two to get there so we're going to give them three hours" he then turned to Rainbow "All our other allies have been informed of the other meeting location and they'll meet you there"
"Sounds good, so everyone is going?" Rainbow asked as TK nodded "Right...I'm going out for a walk" she turned to Renamon "Care to join me?"
"Um yeah but why?" Renamon asked as they headed for a set of stairs and walked down them before Renamon asked again "Why?!"
"Because I want to ask...do you trust me?" Rainbow asked as they walked out into the night air of the city's harbour. The cold night air made Rainbow's hair flow behind her and Renamon's fur stood on end. Renamon nodded but Rainbow looked away "When all this ends....do you trust that we'll still be..."
"Friends?" Renamon finished for her and whispered "You really think that after the hope and friendship you have restored to the Digimon Rebellion that we aren't friends?"
"It's not that...when all this crazy stuff is over....do you really think we'll still see each other?" Rainbow asked as she picked up a small stone and threw it into the sea "I get the impression that all the friendships my friends and I are making as we speak....all count for very little" she paused and threw another stone "I doubt Whis or Beerus or whatever his name is...will let us!"
Renamon wrapped her arms around Rainbow and embraced her in a hug "You really are loyal aren't you?" she joked "But it doesn't matter if these moments will be our only moments...I'm still glad to have a friend like you"
"Yea...Yeah me too" Rainbow said as she threw one last stone into the sea "Let's get back" |
Starlight Glimmer Nearly Doesn't Get All The Mares | pre | "Yes." Maud confirmed, not opening her eyes. "It feels good. Thank you."
That was so delightfully Maud. Another laugh burst out.
"Oh, you have thanked me enough!" Ellie grinned as she gave Maud a peck on the lips. That left a speck of cum on her muzzle, which led to yet another laugh, a stroke of the tongue to lick it up, and another kiss. Satisfied, she turned around to her left, to consider the two mares on the other side of the bed.
Trixie and Starlight were in their own little world, heads resting on each other's forelegs, gazing into each other's eyes, lazily stroking each other's faces and bodies with their hooves, all warm smiles. It was actually just a really nice thing to see. Even their coat colors formed a pleasing contrast of lilac pink and azure blue. Ellie felt a bit of voyeuristic delight as she just watched them for a while, enjoying a sort of secondhand intimacy that just seemed to radiate from their bodies. She felt greedy for ever wanting to interrupt something so beautiful.
But she did, tapping both of their bodies to get their attention. Trixie turned her head to look up at her, while Starlight just shifted her gaze. Ellie spoke to Starlight.
"Sorry, can I steal her for a sec?"
Without saying a word, both mares turned to each other to share one final, warm kiss (so cute!) before Trixie turned herself around to face Ellie. |
Starlight Glimmer Nearly Doesn't Get All The Mares | It's Pillow Talk! You Know, How Pillows Talk? | "Hey." Ellie grinned, excited.
"Hey?" Trixie sounded confused, if still content from the residual sweetness of Starlight's aura. "Why did you want to talk to me?"
"Oh, do I need an excuse to talk to the Great and Powerful Trixie?"
Trixie's eyes narrowed, the contentedness slowly dissolving. "You're humoring me."
"What?" Ellie blinked. "I mean, sort of, but not really? Like, I am a fan! But maybe not in the way..."
Trixie frowned.
"You don't take my work seriously."
"Well, of course I don't, it's not real magic!" Ellie blurted out without thinking.
"Gee, thanks." Trixie venomed.
"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Ellie protested. "Like, um... Like I don't go up to the ponies putting on a play and rip off their fake cutie marks or wings because they're not real. I appreciate the skill they bring to their craft. "
"Well, now you're really humoring me." Trixie muttered.
"What? You do have skills, Trixie! I've seen you!" Ellie reflected back. "I have to admit it, you pull off a lot of magic tricks really well!"
"Well, if they're any good, why do all my shows keep failing?" Trixie pouted.
"Because..." Ellie had to reconsider her previous assessments of Trixie's shows. "Because you always get to the end of your set, and everypony's entertained, and it should be enough. But then you always try for more. Some new trick nopony's ever attempted before, or an old one that hasn't been successfully done in ages. And a lot of times you fail, and since audiences are fickle they only remember that last trick that didn't work instead of all the ones before that did."
Trixie blinked.
"You're always traveling from town to town in your wagon, always working on the next big trick, never afraid to try and go big even if you fail. I think it's admirable, even if it didn't lead to the reputation and fame you've been looking for."
Trixie smiled sadly.
"That's a nice thing to say. But you never even knew me when I was living that life."
"Well, I mostly learned about you through my friends, and that was most of the time they knew you!"
Trixie blinked. "Your friends talk about me?"
"Of course!" Ellie hedged. "Well, a lot of the stories are about when you did, you know, kinda bad things but..."
Trixie frowned. Ellie tried to save it. "But there was also the story about how you saved them all from Queen Chrysalis! And also, you know..." Ellie shifted her eyes. "I thought some of the bad things you did were kind of fun. I mean, trying to steal Starlight's friendship from Twilight? I get it, you know?"
Trixie giggled at that, and Ellie could see Starlight glaring at her from behind her. Ellie gave an apologetic look, then looked at Trixie once more, who was smiling at her.
"Yeah, I know it was wrong, but it was fun sometimes." She sighed. "But still. My past is my past. I don't live that life anymore." She frowned. "I talk about this with Starlight a lot, but sometimes I feel like I gave up on my dream when I started working at the School of Friendship."
"What do you mean? You still do your traveling shows in the summer!"
"Yeah, but it's different. It's only one season instead of all year, and I have a house in Ponyville now. I just don't feel as desperate as I did when the wagon and my shows was all I had." Trixie frowned. "When I didn't have any friends."
"Trixie! Being comfortable and having friends is normally considered a good thing, you know!"
"That's why I feel so weird about feeling weird about it."
"But you like your house, and your friends, and your job here, and your students, right? You like your life here."
"Yeah. I do." Trixie admitted.
"Then you didn't give up on anything!" Ellie insisted. "You didn't even give up on magic, you still do it! You just found something else you wanted to do, too. And sadly, we can't live multiple lives at once, so if we want to do something new we have to do less of what we were doing before. That's not giving up or failure. That's just choosing to live with new things."
Ellie was stroking Trixie's mane with her hand at this point. She smiled, loving the wispy silkiness of it. Trixie smiled, too.
"That's really nice way to think about things."
Starlight coughed behind her. Trixie rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Starly, I know you've said the exact same things in our conversations about this a dozen times already! It's just nice hearing it from somepohy who isn't my boss." Trixie blinked. "Wait, did I just have sex with my boss--"
"Sshhhhhhhh," Ellie shushed, literally covering Trixie's mouth with her extended index finger. "Sshhhhhhhh," she said again, for good measure. "Let's not think about that now."
Let's definitely not think about how that retroactively made everything she saw happen between Trixie and Starlight about a thousand times hotter. Very problematic. Ellie squirmed a bit.
She removed her finger from Trixie's lips. Trixie smiled softly at her.
"I feel bad. I had no idea you took me so seriously."
Ellie did not say that before the conversation, she actually hadn't taken Trixie this seriously. It was through having to actually talk to her that made her reconsider how she saw the blue unicorn, who in her mind she always called "smug blue horse".
"I mean..." Ellie started. "Did you think that I thought the whole Great and Powerful stuff wasn't, you know, like, for fun?"
"Yeah, it was supposed to be..." Trixie sighed. "I don't know. At some point I just blurred the lines so much that it started being hard to tell the difference. Sometimes I think back to things I said and be, like, am I really that pony? So arrogant and... bad?"
Ellie squirmed again. She felt a little bad about this, but seeing a humble and vulnerable Trixie was actually arousing her a little bit. And by "a little bit" she meant "a lot". It felt homotopic to how she felt about seeing Maud without clothes on. But she tried not to show it.
"Trixie..." Ellie smiled. "Sure, sometimes you're a little too much, but that doesn't make you a bad pony. That makes you fun. And I'd rather there be one Trixie than a thousand ponies that are just nice and humble all the time!"
"Really?" Trixie said, in such a small and hopeful way that Ellie felt like she had to stop herself from coming right then and there. She fidgeted her thighs and tried to keep a straight face.
"Y-yeah. And not only that. You're loyal to your friends. You're not afraid to speak your mind. A-and when you believe in yourself, really believe in yourself, you don't need any of that fake confidence. You can do g-great things."
"Oh." Trixie smiled softly and looked away. "That's really nice to hear."
Ellie didn't say anything. She felt as if she could not afford to move a muscle. With horror, she saw that Trixie was turning to look at her, smiling warmly.
"I didn't know you could be so sweet. I... I feel like you see the me that I want to see in me."
Ellie began to breathe hard. Trixie's warm smile dissolved, replaced by a look of concern.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah..." Ellie managed. "I... I'm fine..."
Trixie frowned as the gears in her head turned.
"Are you... Are you turned on by emotional vulnerability?"
"I..." Ellie cringed. "Wow, that would be the most stereotypically lesbian thing ever, huh?" She choked out a laugh. Then she sighed resignedly, straining, trying not to squirm. "So, yeah, probably."
Trixie kept frowning, concerned.
"And you tried to hide it? I mean, it looks like you're still trying, just failing."
"Yeah..." Ellie admitted, trying to hold her thighs clenched. "I didn't want to interrupt the conversation..."
Trixie hmphed. "Well, I didn't either, which is why I never mentioned how your face is still covered with Maud's cum, by the way."
Ellie's eyes widened at the realization.
"But I understand. I was getting turned on by that and trying to hide it, too. I guess I was just better at it."
Ellie groaned, trying to suppress herself. "Please don't."
"Don't what?"
"Please don't say things like that."
"What? Like how hot it was when Maud came all over your face, and Starlight made sure to interrupt me so we could watch you together, then whisper to each other about how hot it was?"
Ellie groaned, biting her own hand to stop it from turning into a moan. Trixie laughed evilly.
"I mean, at this point we're not even having a conversation. You're just trying not to come."
"Yes." Ellie admitted. "You're making it very difficult."
Trixie snorted. "You know, the four of us still are technically having sex. You're allowed to come!" Trixie sighed. "I mean, it's not even just that. I'd like to make you come, and I'm up for using anything. Hooves, tongue, magic, all three..."
Ellie didn't say anything. She was studying Maud's bedsheets very intensely, imagining specifically what materials they were made of and what techniques must have been used.
"Could you at least tell me why you're trying not to come?" Trixie said with annoyance.
"I'd rather not..." Ellie trailed off, then reconsidered. "Actually, I do. Because talking about this is cooling me down a bit." She found herself being able to unclench her thighs. She looked up at Trixie. "You being annoyed at me is helping, too."
Trixie glared.
"Yeah, perfect! Keep doing that!"
Ellie smiled, finally able to relax a bit.
"Oof. Yeah. Coming right now just wasn't part of the plan, you know?"
Trixie frowned, raising an eyebrow. "Plan?"
"Yeah!" Ellie said. "We were going to make out for a bit. Maybe you sit on my face. Then when we were done I was going to flip you around so I could get to Starlight. Wow, that sounds really bad when I say it out loud."
Trixie frowned further.
"What!? Who does that? Who plans sex?"
"Wait, really? You mean that's not what you and-- "
Ellie looked at the glares of Trixie and Starlight, who were glaring at her for different reasons, and decided not to finish that particular sentence.
"Well, it wasn't a plan plan!" she protested. "Like, I just had an idea of what might happen, you know? I knew the whole Great-and-Powerful thing was a bit, you know? And maybe if I did that and you played along, we would have made out a bit and you'd sit on my face for a while like you did with Starlight. You know? Just use my face, get off, then get off."
Trixie started to protest, then stopped herself and frowned. "I guess that is what I did with Starlight, huh?"
Ellie nodded.
Trixie sighed. "I guess you're right. Maybe I am predictable."
"Well no, you're not just that, you know?" Ellie tried to save it. "I meant everything I said! You're fun and funny and interesting and ambitious and if you weren't all those things, I wouldn't have wanted you to sit on my face, bit or no bit."
She looked at Trixie. "But, wow. It turned out that not only were you all those great and powerful things I liked, but you also had this vulnerable side that's just..." She smiled. "I really liked it, you know? And not just sexually, because I-- Wow, I'm bad at this."
"Y-you're fine." Trixie smiled sheepishly at first. "I have to admit, I had a different impression of you, too. You're always talking. Always making those weird references to human things that nopony will get. And weird jokes too, at other ponies' expense! Sometimes really mean ones."
Ellie started to protest, then stopped herself and frowned. "Yeah, that is what I did with Starlight, huh?"
Trixie nodded.
"To be honest, I didn't think you were very serious or emotionally mature. But I still liked you because you were funny and you did try to show you care, in that weird way." She paused. "But you still said a lot of weird things all the time, so I was kind of looking forward to shutting you up and putting that mouth to good use for once."
"Oof." Ellie oofed. "Wow. See?" She looked at Trixie. "I would have been really into that! That could have worked out very nicely!" Ellie laughed. "Wow, we have a lot more in common than I would have thought."
"Yeah." Trixie smiled. "I'm glad we figured that out. As much fun sitting on your face would have been, I feel like after getting to know each other, we could have more intimate sex now." Trixie paused. "Y-you know, if that's something you'd want to do with me."
Ellie blushed and averted her gaze. "Wow, I..." She giggled. "You know, back when I was younger I used to pretend to be all cool, being into the best and most interesting kinks. But as I'm getting older, I think I've started to learn something new." She looked at Trixie, and smiled. "Intimacy can be the best fetish sometimes, and nopony should be afraid to admit that."
Those words hung awkwardly in the air for a few moments as Trixie frowned, then Ellie frowned.
"What was that!?" Trixie exclaimed.
"I--"
"Did you... did you just try to make this a friendship lesson!?"
"I-- I don't know!" Ellie panicked. "I don't know where that came from!"
"I-is that your fetish?" Trixie said with disgust in her voice. "D-do you have a friendship lesson fetish?"
"I really hope not!" Ellie groaned. She could not bring herself to look at Trixie, but neither could she look at Starlight, who was laughing uproariously behind her.
"You've clearly been hanging around Twilight too much!"
"Yeah, I guess that's it!" Ellie agreed. Though truth be told, she hadn't seen Twilight all that much since starting to date Rarity.
"You know, you're lucky!" Trixie put a hoof on Ellie's shoulder, and Ellie finally forced herself to make a sheepish eye contact with her.
"You're lucky you started hanging out with us! If you'd stayed under that nerd's influence for any longer, you'd never have gotten laid!"
A moment passed, and Ellie and Trixie burst into a shower of giggles, as one does at the end of learning a friendship lesson. When the giggles stopped, they looked at each other, smiled, and sighed contentedly.
"So, want to have that sex now?" Trixie asked.
"Oh, yes please!" Ellie confirmed. "Though you're lucky you're facing the way you are. You can't see Starlight being so excited. I've never seen her grin that wide..."
"Well, Maud's watching us from behind you too!" Trixie countered. She smiled wickedly at Ellie, then wrapped a hoof around the back of her head.
"That makes what we're about to do way hotter, doesn't it?"
"Oh, definitely," Ellie agreed, running her fingers up Trixie's mane until she had the back of her head in her palm.
They kissed. |
Starlight Glimmer Nearly Doesn't Get All The Mares | Into The Blue Again | They held their kiss, eyes closed, nose against nose as they refreshed their liplock with satisfying smacks. They pulled back, eyes open, faces locked at orbital distance by hand and hoof as they looked into each other's eyes and smiled. Then they folded into their kiss again.
As they did, Ellie's hand wandered down, fingers plowing a furrow in Trixie's coat as she stiffly massaged her neck, her withers, her back, pausing their downward trajectory only to knead a found muscle or joint in circles until Trixie released a snoot of satisfaction, then moving on. She stopped when Trixie unexpectedly broke their kiss. Ellie opened her eyes to look at her, and saw something that looked like determination.
She felt a hoof on her right shoulder, then a soft push that would have brought her back down onto the bed, had she not resisted it, bracing her right foot on the bed behind her for good measure. Ellie smirked as Trixie tried to push her again with a little more force.
"Why aren't you going down?" Trixie asked with a confused smile.
Ellie smiled nervously. "Why do you want me to go down?" she asked, innocently.
"Because..." Trixie seemed even more confused. "I want to be on top?"
"Are you sure?" Ellie asked cautiously. Trixie's smile dissolved at that.
"I'm... pretty sure? Why wouldn't I be sure?"
"Oh, you know..." Ellie tried to think of something. "I mean, you just learned your friendship lesson, right? It was really sweet! You and Starlight."
Trixie laughed. "This friendship lesson stuff again? Are you sure you don't have a fetish?"
"At this point, no. But I'm ignoring that for now." Ellie gave a short sigh before moving on. "My point is this. It was a really sweet lesson." She smiled. "One that I wish some of my exes had learned at some point. That just because you're a bottom," Ellie caressed Trixie's cheek sweetly, "doesn't mean you have to never reciprocate as if it were a part of your femme identity or something! Like, I do have tits you know, and just because I dress like your ex did doesn't mean I'm trans in the exact same way--"
"What in the HAY are you talking about!?" Trixie interrupted her, frowning.
"Oh, right..." Ellie cringed in embarrassment. "Sorry, I don't think that one was meant for you..."
"Were you even speaking Ponish? I'm not even sure I understood half those words!" She paused and narrowed her eyes. "Is this another one of those weird human things you say just for yourself?"
"More than you'd ever know..." Ellie sighed as she softly and apologetically caressed Trixie's chest. Trixie was still frowning.
"Aww, Trix, I'm sorry!" Ellie frowned. "I know nopony likes it when I do that! I'm sorry." She kissed her chest as sweetly as she could, slowly moving up to the crook of her neck. Ellie could not see Trixie's face, but she could imagine what she looked like based on the resistance she gave. First, insistently frowning and looking upwards, then acquiescing and opening up her neck to let Ellie plant her soft kisses, then the frown slowly dissolving into appreciative pants instead, transitioning into closed-eyed moans as Ellie's tongue experimentally probed until it found the sensitive spot just behind her cartioid artery.
Ellie ended the sequence with another kiss on the neck, then got up on her knees and began to gently stroke Trixie's face. Trixie, with a placated smile, looked up to see Ellie looking down at her. She realized something.
"Did you do all this just so you could be on top?" she asked suspiciously.
"Yes." Ellie flatly admitted. "Honestly, took more effort than I thought it would have..."
"Oh." Trixie sounded disappointed, which surprised Ellie. "You know, I wasn't teasing you with what I said earlier. I really do want to get you off." She smiled sweetly. "I think it would be nice to see you come."
The combination of the smile and the words hit Ellie like a gut punch, only lower and much more arousing. A pleasant wave of temptation rolled through her, briefly changing her mind, but she found her determination.
"Sorry..." she said reluctantly. "That actually sounds really nice, I just... maybe later?"
"Oh." Trixie sounded disappointed again. "Is it... me?"
Ellie cringed as another pleasant wave of temptation rolled through her. She tried her best to be reassuring, looking Trixie steadily in the eyes.
"No, it's not you! I... That's genuinely something I would like, and I'm sure you'll give me a great and powerful orgasm." Trixie couldn't help but smile at that. "Just..." Ellie cringed. "Not now, okay? Later. I promise."
Trixie seemed confused. "Are you still trying not to come?"
"Yeah." Ellie said apologetically.
"Do you still not wanna tell me why?"
"I just don't right now..." Ellie said evasively. "But I do want to get you off right now. If that's okay with you?"
Trixie snorted. "Of course!"
"Just checking in!" Ellie grinned as she grabbed Trixie's forelegs with her hands and pinned them to the bed. She bent down to give Trixie a deep kiss as she slid on top of her, luxuriating in the feeling of her coat against the length of her body. Her thigh found its way in between Trixie's and she felt a warm slick of dampness on its front. She slowly rubbed Trixie with her thigh, focusing on the pleasant heat radiating from her swollen marehood. Trixie moaned into her lips.
She rocked her thigh while focusing on not breaking either the kiss or the pinning, each undulation bringing with it a little kickback from the pressure of Trixie's thigh that she herself was straddling. She tried not to think of how her own dampness must be matting down the coat of Trixie's thigh, as the unicorn's moans cycled through varying durations and pitches. When they reached that delicious nasal whimper, she backed off, swinging her legs around and closing her own thighs, both for her sake and Trixie's
. Ellie watched contentedly as both the blush spread across Trixie's cheeks and the heaviness of her breathing slowly settled down into a slow burn. Trixie's eyes threatened to open, so Ellie reached up with a hand and gently motioned them closed. Trixie smiled, eyes closed.
Ellie gently stroked her still-warm cheeks, then traced a line with her finger to her jaw, down her neck, chest, then belly. She kissed the spot where her finger had stopped, then traced a line of kisses around her circumference. When she reached her side, she gently pushed against her body until the unicorn rolled onto her stomach so Ellie could continue tracing the line with her mouth, though she had to pause to get her knees over her tail until it was flopped safely to the side.
The line was, she imagined, where Trixie would hitch her wagon to herself for those long, lonely days of drifting from town to town.
The truth was, even before getting to know the actual Trixie, she kind of liked her, since she seemed fun. She had first heard of her through Twilight, though her retellings of their encounters always had a sheen of revisionist history. They sounded a bit too much like parables for illustrating her friendship lessons, practically written as chapter and verse. But she had gotten a fuller picture the truth from Rarity, who was always happy to share the real story, if hedged with "Well, a lady really shouldn't be saying this sort of thing, but"s.
No, wait. She hadn't known Rarity then. It was Applejack who'd told her about Trixie, hedged with "Well, Ah'm sure Twilight had a good reason for not sayin' this part, but"s.
Come to think of it, she hadn't really hung out with Applejack much ever since she started dating Rarity. At all, really. She just didn't notice because she'd always kind of thought Applejack didn't like her very much.
But yes, Trixie. But even after getting to know the actual Trixie a bit, she still thought of her as mainly "fun", yet another colorful horse with a colorful personality. She didn't stop to consider the Trixie she was being told about all along until now.
The Trixie she had in mind had something to prove against a world that was always spitting in her face. The Trixie she had in mind was the Trixie that was now a great guidance counselor and great friend, just trapped underneath her pain and despair and loneliness.
She imagined that Trixie, having faced only humiliation and defeat for so long that happiness was difficult to remember. She imagined that Trixie's back, chafed and sore from a day of hard travel hitched to the wagon that contained everything she could call her own.
She imagined her kisses, impossibly, illogically, somehow traveling back in time to give that Trixie relief on a particularly cold, lonely night. She made them as soft and as loving as she could. As if to apologize as well for having once dismissed her as that smug blue horse who talks in the third person.
Her kisses reached the other side of Trixie, and she rolled over again onto her back, brushing Ellie with her tail, and allowing her to complete the circle with one last smack on the center of her belly. Ellie wondered if Trixie knew what she had been doing, and then if that mattered at all. Ellie wasn't done.
Scouting ahead, Ellie's hands groped Trixie on the flanks, on both cutie marks, her favorite place to start. She worked her gropes down her sides and thighs as her kisses traced lower on her abdomen. She paused at her breasts, and took a moment to tease her stiff nipples with her tongue as her hands groped the bottom of her thighs. Trixie moaned with a clear undertone of whine.
Even though this was a ridiculous thing to do in this situation, Ellie attempted to spin up a miniature simulation of the past Trixie she was imagining. Could a past Ellie, blown into Equestria all those years ago, somehow end up comforting that past Trixie in the very same way she was about to go the hell down on present Trixie now? That would be what, five to seven years ago or so? She was at the height of her powers then. The coolest she had ever been. Having a lot more sex but not knowing enough to be dissatisfied with it. She would have resisted the allure of the mare body for far longer, and would have been even more insufferable than she was now to these poor creatures. And even if past-her successfully got over herself, how could she possibly find her way into the bed and past the defenses of a homeless traveling magician with such a huge chip on her shoulder?
No, that won't work. Restart simulation parameters. It doesn't make sense for her to be past Ellie, or Ellie at all.
No. Past Trixie is in her wagon. It is a cold, lonely night. She desperately wants to not feel so alone. But she is alone, the only pony out here on this road in the middle of nowhere between two middles of nowhere. So she reaches down with her hoof, and imagines a fantastical lover between her thighs.
Yes. This was so deliciously meta that this had to be it!
She lowered her face to plant a soft kiss on the upper part of Trixie's deliciously swollen lips, perfectly spaced so that the warm exhales from her nose would blow against the jewel of her winking clit.
Trixie squirmed, and squeaked. In her squirming, her clit brushed up against the bottom of Ellie's nose. The softness, the scent as she inhaled...
Ellie opened her lips and formed a seal around Trixie's clit, placing her tongue gently against the silky nub and taking the greatest care not to move it. Trixie squirmed some more, causing her clit to rub against the softness of Ellie's tongue. Ellie squeezed her thigh as if in disappointment and withdrew her tongue entirely. Trixie moaned as if in complaint.
Ellie rolled her eyes, her simulation ruined. Past Trixie would have been far more grateful and patient! Or maybe not. Ellie had suspected that about Trixie. For all her recent friendship lessons, "bratty bottom" might as well have been her cutie mark.
She slowly rubbed up the inside of Trixie's thigh with her hand, inching closer and closer to her vertex. As she got closer, she lightened her touch until it was just barely over a whisper as her fingers finally brushed against her beautiful, dark lips. Still, Trixie shuddered tastily. Ellie let her fingers linger lightly on the surface for a few seconds before slowly, gratefully, probing them inside. First one, then two, then three, knuckles curving upward as she slowly pushed them in and out, basking in the snugness and warmth.
At the same time, she let her lower lip brush ever so lightly against Trixie's throbbing clit. Then the tip of her tongue.
Closing her eyes, Ellie focused on her own sensations. The intoxicating smell of Trixie's musk, the softness and taste of her clit on her tongue, the silky texture of Trixie's insides on her fingers, the appreciative moans. She let herself get lost in the music, slowly contracting and expanding the tempo as needed, playing the instrument of Trixie's moans until they finally reached a crescendo.
Trixie started to come, and Ellie pressed her face against her throbbing marehood just long enough to acquire a nice sheen of Trixie cum to complement the dried Maud cum already there. Grinning, she lifted up her face, then crawled up the bed. She wrapped the mare's torso in an embrace as she planted kisses on a straining neck and held a tensing body close to her own. Ellie felt Trixie's body clench and unclench, tense and relax, undulate against her own. She whispered in her ear.
"You're so pretty when you come. So beautiful and vulnerable. We're all loving the performance."
Trixie moaned and writhed anew, as if realizing that she had been watched this whole time by two excited mares. Ellie felt as if she were tasting the writhes with her body pressed against the unicorn.
The tensing finally died down as Trixie settled into a nice afterglow, a peaceful smile on her lips. Ellie planted one last, sweet kiss on said lips before turning Trixie over into the forelegs of a waiting Maud. She smiled, lingering for a bit on the image of the earth pony cuddling up against the unicorn with care.
She then turned, at last, to face Starlight. |
Mi Amore Influenza | pre | "But we're talking about the same thing, aren't we? Quacks like a duck, right?"
"Huh," she said, noodling around with her last few bits of, well, noodles.
"Spitfire," I said, "What does 'love' mean to you? One word."
"Betterment."
I rolled the word over in my mind. "I wonder if that's what she's looking for."
"Who?"
"My employer. She asked me what the 'meaning of love' was earlier today."
"Quizzing you?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. It sounded kind of like she didn't know herself."
"If the Alicorn of Love doesn't know what love is," said Spitfire, "then we really are screwed."
"Yeah," I said.
A pause.
"Or perhaps 'penetrated,'" I added, soberly.
We laughed until we couldn't breathe.
"So, here it is. Home sweet home."
I took in the lumpy mass of residential cloud before me, barely illuminated by starlight in the gathering darkness. There were bits of it that looked like it'd been salvaged from a much larger and grander cloud structure, a hint of fluting column or carved pediment here and there. But the place looked sturdy and well-kept, and had the sort of cleanliness that suggested that nothing here was left to waste. Spitfire had clearly made good use of absolutely every discarded thing that had fallen to her altitude, and for a moment this fact alone made my heart hurt a little.
"I know it ain't much--"
"It's great, Spitfire," I said, meaning it.
"It used to have rainbows and stuff until they rerouted the viaducts. I guess they use all the rainbow the C.W.C. can put out up in the hoity-toity sectors."
I thought a bit guiltily of the Princess's weather-bath, rainbow readily available on-tap. "Yeah," I said, noncommittally.
"I'd invite you in, but--"
"I think I'd better go. The holiday'll be over soon. Duty calls."
"I figured, yeah," said Spitfire. "Listen, I know nothing's ever going to come of this. You clearly don't feel that way about me."
"It's not that," I protested.
"But it is that," Spitfire said. "It is exactly that. But that's beside the point. I know nothing's ever going to come of it, but I really enjoyed dinner anyway. And if you ever decide to go slumming in our neighborhood again, I'd love a repeat. I'll pay next time."
"I'll hold you to that."
"Unless I go temporarily crazy and hop ship to Canterlot. Like you said. Put on a uniform and get my mane cut. Then when your assignment here ends, we can be mess-hall buddies."
I grinned a little. "I'll hold you to that, too."
An awkward silence ensued.
"Well," Spitfire said. "It's been real, Lieutenant Armor."
"I'd say 'authentic,' but yes."
"Heh," she said. She grabbed my hoof and shook it, hard.
"Take care of yourself," she said, meeting my gaze for a moment. Then, with a halfhearted spin and a flurry of feathers, she vanished inside. Once again, I was alone in Cloudsdale, with nothing to do. Somehow, the prospect of time away from work didn't seem as exciting as it had this morning.
I turned to go, but hadn't made it a half a furlong into the night city when I heard a voice from over my shoulder. Polished and clipped, but forceful, like a stainless-steel broadsword. I recognized it immediately.
"So! That looked like it went well!" said Auric Turncoat.
I turned back around. "So, you've graduated to eavesdropping now."
"You wound me, Shining Armor," Auric Turncoat said, holding a claw lightly to his breast. "I was in no way 'eavesdropping.' I was merely intentionally lurking, just out of sight, listening to your conversation in an attempt to learn tidbits of interest about your personal life."
I stared at him for a moment, trying to work this out. "So, what, you're going to tell me that it's because clouds don't have eaves?"
"Exactly, dear boy! When you reach my age, technicalities like that are all that keep the wheels turning."
"I have no idea what you're even saying."
"And you don't have to. Let's talk about someone other than myself, as agonizing a chore as that might be. Let's talk about you and that fetching little dish you found, quite without my direct assistance, I should add."
"She's not a 'dish,'" I said, trudging along. "She's a pony with a lot of potential and not a lot of room to grow. Like a flower in bad soil."
"Sounds like you have a lot of affection toward her," said Auric, bobbing along behind me. "When's the next date?"
"We didn't set one."
"You didn't set one?" Auric frowned. "Lieutenant, I don't mean to intrude overmuch on your business, but are you certain that's the best way to develop this relationship?"
"We're not developing a relationship!" I shouted, rounding on him.
"Pardon?"
"We! Are not! Developing! A relationship!"
"Shining Armor, are you gay?"
"No!"
"Because, obviously, I'm not going to judge--"
"I'm not gay would everyone please shut up about--"
"Because I can think of two rational explanations why you are not inside that hovel, at this very minute, splitting an excruciatingly cheap cider with that mare and stealing admiring glances at her symbol-bedecked hindquarters. Number one would be that you are utterly, completely, hilariously gay. Absolute tree-full-of-monkeys territory. And number two would be that--"
Auric hit me with a savage body check, knocking me to the cloud stratum. As I struggled to right myself, I found the griffon towering over me. His yellow eyes blazed.
"Number two," he rasped, "would be that you are carrying a torch for a mare whom I have made clear is under my protection."
My horn ignited. Auric let out a startled grunt as I seized him in my telekinetic field and smashed him into a wall. It was a cloud wall; it could have been worse.
"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is under my protection," I said, pressing him into the cloudstuff. "I am her lictor, her personal enforcer. My actions carry the weight of the Royal Guard of Canterlot and are backed by the Voice of the Mountain herself, Celestia Sol Invicta. Do not bucking cross me, Auric."
I snorted in his ear to punctuate my threat.
Auric let out a huff. "This is charming," he said, his voice muffled by the wall. "Really, it is. I expect that now you're going to go trotting back up to the Resident Minister's place and report a well-spent holiday. Then you're going to present her with a Hearts and Hooves Day gift, a little treat you found at the Festival of Venus. What do you get for the mare who has everything? Why, one of the unique and irreplaceable Crown Jewels of Equestria, of course! Surprise, Princess! It's your tiara! The one you always regretted throwing away! I've fetched it back for you, like the good little paramour-slash-retriever that I am."
I increased the pressure on my aura because I had nothing clever to say in response. It was, of course, exactly what I'd been planning on doing.
"No rebuttals? Somewhere close to the mark, I expect."
"And what if somepony were to do exactly that? What then?"
"I would advise said pony," said Auric, "that he had no concept what it means to be one of the undying. That by engaging in this utterly selfish act of courtship, he was treating her to sixty years of pleasant bathwater marriage followed by a literal eternity of loss and grief. I have experienced this, Lieutenant Armor, and I have no wish to see the Princess do so."
I relaxed my pressure on Auric's form. He pulled himself back from the wall, immediately straightening his ruffled feathers.
"That's the difference between us, Shining Armor. I would spare Cadance that pain, and you would not. Because you don't care."
"I care for the Princess more than you know."
Auric gave a short, coughing laugh. "Oh, I doubt that. You have no comprehension what it is to care about us."
"Stop saying 'us' about the two of you. Princess Cadance isn't some kind of washed-up strung-out should've-died-a-long-time-ago vampire bird. She's a mare. A pony. Like me."
"You think she's like you?"
"Yes! That's what I'm--"
"You really think she's like you? An acceptable peer for you to bright-eyed-ly woo?"
My mouth moved practically without conscious impulse. "Why in Tartarus not?" I said, and I was startled at the words.
Auric regarded me with an even glare. "All right. Then go back to the Resident Minister's house. Right now. Not when your mandated holiday expires."
"The Princess is sick. I'm sure the last thing she wants is to summon up the strength for a disciplinary lecture about me cutting my holiday short."
Auric chuckled. "'Sick.' Certainly. Let's go with that."
"You're trying to tell me she's lying about her condition?"
"I am saying that it is merely the first stage of something much, much larger. Something she herself doesn't yet comprehend, because she's never been in this situation before. Never had an entire city to call her own."
"You're not making any sense."
"I don't need to explain it to you. Go home, right now, and see for yourself the mare you've had the naked audacity to begin to fall in love with."
"Fine," I said. I gave Auric a final, decisive shove and turned my head toward home, or at least the place that passed for it in this strange, stupid, frustrating city.
I wasn't sure how I'd even find the route, but one thing I absolutely would not do was give Auric the satisfaction of seeing me ask for help.
I located the tiara in my saddlebags, made sure it was secure. Gripping it tightly in my hornglow, I began trudging up.
I knew something was wrong when I saw the lights flickering in the window.
Against the midnight blues of the Resident Minister's manse, the crackling red and white illumination stood out like a series of lightning strikes. Auric's rather ominous pronouncements from the alley, which hadn't exactly stopped running through my mind in the first place, began doing so with renewed vigor. The air smelled of ozone and burning roses. I rushed up to the two lictors I had left in charge of watching over the Princess. They had apparently taken up position at the outer stairwell door.
"Sabre! Spurs! What in Tartarus is going on here?"
Sabre snapped to attention, as was his wont. Spurs elected instead to stare anxiously at the peculiar phenomenon that had taken hold of the guest wing of R.M. Weather Eye's manor, as was his.
"Sir!" Sabre fairly shouted. "We were busy tending to the Princess, as ordered, sir!"
"Fetching her lemonade an' such," said Spurs, glancing back at me for a moment before fixing his eyes once more on the window.
"Everything we could possibly have been asked to do, sir! Things were proceeding quite swimmingly for a great while, with nothing to report, and it could be said that our actions were a roaring success!"
"I don't need background! What happened?"
"Well, sir," said Sabre. "Begging pardon, sir. Your charge, the Princess, sir. She--"
"She exploded, Mr. Armor," said Spurs.
"She what?"
"Not 'exploded' as such, sir!" Sabre hastily added. "Not in such a way that there were any, well--"
"--little bits of princess everywhere or nothin'," Spurs said.
"Perish the thought!" said Sabre. "Celestia below and slightly to my left forbid it! But it was like--"
"It was pink," said Spurs, with haunted eyes. "Pink like the end of all things."
"We've been keeping a perimeter at a safe distance, sir! And a fine perimeter it is, I don't mind telling you! You could never ask two stallions to establish a finer perimeter than Spurs and I have here!"
"Inasmuch as two individual ponies can form a proper perimeter," Spurs admitted.
"We've sealed all relevant exits!"
"Shoved a divan right up against the door, we did."
"Also, we have appropriately alerted the household and relevant members of the surrounding public!"
"Via panicked screaming."
"I don't mind saying, sir, we were very loud indeed, thus making our screams all the more effective!"
"Okay," I said. "Fine work in a strange and obviously stressful situation, gentlecolts."
Sabre stiffened. "Thank you, sir!" he said, raising his hoof in an elaborate salute.
"The next thing I need from you is help moving that divan that you so skillfully maneuvered in front of the door."
"Yes, sir!" said Sabre. "Er, why, if I may ask, sir?"
"Because I need to go in there and check on the Princess."
Sabre rolled this over for a moment, then nodded sharply.
"Of course, sir. It is your funeral, sir."
Spurs nodded in agreement. "Your pretty pink candy-colored funeral," he said.
Everything was floating.
The bed, the blankets, the cut-glass lamps, the wardrobe, the vanity; every single item in the room not physically attached to the walls hung suspended in the air, drifting lazily like individual soap bubbles in the mind-bending fuchsia radiance. Whenever two of them drifted too close together, there was a flash of white and a sharp crackle, and they caromed away from each other on new courses.
This was all secondary to my area of primary concern, because there was something else floating in the room: H.R.H. Cadance herself.
The Princess hovered in an exultant posture, her head thrown back, back arched, wings achingly stretched, hooves wide. Her eyes flared an incandescent white, emitting cones of piercing light which penetrated the atmosphere of coiling pink. Her mane snapped like a banner in sharp wind. She was the very image of an angel, of the old and terrifying variety.
And, the whispers. Stars above, the whispers.
They ran like rivers through the room; faint, hissing, practically-visible curling lines of sound. One snaked too close to my ear, and as it passed, I heard a stranger's voice:
...can i never find a stallion who'll stay more than one night the problem has to be me doesn't it but what am i doing wrong what's wrong with me...
And another:
...perfectly nice colt but the mares don't like nice colts they like the bad boys so they come crying to me when they're hurt and i give them my shoulder but then they go right back to...
And still another:
...never the same she always used to love this day we'd go to the theater and afterward we'd split a malted what am i supposed to do now what am i supposed to do without her...
And then, it wasn't a stranger at all, but the prim and refined voice of Champagne:
...et apres tout apres tout demain je serai seule...
Cocoa...
...wish i could be the thing that fills that hole in your heart sugar but it's never me and it'll never be me no matter how...
And finally, raspy little Spitfire...
...just like that another one slips through your hooves thought maybe i stood a chance there for a second but it just goes to show you come on way too strong for the colts but what else am i supposed to do...
And then all at once, bursting my eardrums like a too-near thunderclap:
PRINCESS CADANCE IF YOU'RE OUT THERE IF YOU CAN HEAR ME
The Princess's lips parted. "I can hear you," she whispered, hoarsely. "I can hear all of you..."
"Cadance," I breathed.
She whipped around like a viper, and I tamped down the urge to flee, to leave this place and never return, oaths and promises be banished. The white glare of the Princess's eyes drilled into me. "Shining Armor!" she cried out. I could not tell if it was a plea, or a warning, or perhaps both.
"I'm here," I said, steadily.
"I can hear them Shining Armor I can hear them and I don't know what to do--"
"We'll figure something out," I said. "We'll get help."
"Nopony can help!" she screamed, and the mirror of her vanity cracked straight in two. "I thought you could help! I thought you might know my answer! But you're just as wrong as everypony else and it's not your fault but I wanted it to be you and now you aren't and I don't know what to do--"
"Princess!" I cried out, my voice barely rising above the room's howling tempest. "Your Highness. Cadance. I--I don't know what's happening. But whatever it is, whatever happens, I'm here. Do you understand me? I will be here."
A moment of peace seemed to find her and she settled down upon the bed, which in turn settled down upon the floor. The pinkness of the room faded slightly, to a level that only somewhat made you want to claw out your own eyes.
"Do you promise?" she said, her voice heartbreakingly childlike.
"Yes."
"Tomorrow will be better, Lieutenant."
"Yes. Yes it will be. We'll sit down together, figure this out, and make sure whatever it is never hurts you again. Whatever this is, you're stronger than it."
"I don't trust myself."
"Trust me. Trust my faith in you."
There came a moment's pause.
"Okay," she said.
"Get some rest. If you need me, I'll be in the sitting room. Right outside the door." I squared my jaw. "I'm not leaving you."
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
"You're welcome." I reached into my saddlebag, plucked her trefoil tiara of office, set it gently upon the most upright and least-floating piece of furniture I could find, and then left the room, closing the door behind me.
When I turned back around, Auric Turncoat was in the sitting room of the guest suite, having thrown himself upon the divan that Sabre and Spurs had used as a barricade. I could not have been in the Princess's bedchamber for more than a hoofful of minutes, but his posture was one of idle, postprandial languor, as though he'd been settled in there for an hour or more. Through some miracle, he had located a measure of brandy in all the chaos and was swirling it about in a gleaming glass snifter.
He struck a match and lit a candle, and despite myself I was immediately grateful for the normal, non-eldritch light.
"So," said Auric. "How did that go for you?"
"How did you get in here?" I asked, settling down onto a cushion, hoping and praying the griffon didn't see me shaking.
"I'm quite stealthy when I need to be," he said. "And those poor stallions at the door are literally driven to distraction. They aren't in a good state to be noticing anything at all, much less a creature who's trying not to be seen. You're avoiding my question. How'd that go for you?"
"She seemed grateful for the gift," I said.
"Liar," said Auric. "But you're such a terrible one, I can hardly take offense."
"Listen, what...are we dealing with in there?"
"An alicorn, Lieutenant." He chuckled, but it was hard to imagine any humor in it. "Haven't we covered this point already?"
"Yes, I know. But what--"
"Dear Princess Cadance has been experiencing a breakthrough, of sorts. She's always felt the love of the world, but now she feels in charge of it, and she's just been struck with the full force of an entire city full of ponies with love on the brain. Love, or the lack thereof."
"Was she right? Will it get better tomorrow?"
Auric sat up on the divan. "And if it isn't?" he asked, sharply. "What then?"
"I--" I stammered.
"What if it's like this forever? Or maybe even for half a century, hardly a blip in our reckoning, but a for-all-practical-purposes 'forever' to you?"
"I--don't know," I said.
"Exactly," said Auric, easing back down. "You know nothing, Shining Armor. At least you admit it, now. You see how much easier this would have been if you'd have made the effort to be sweet on those two lovely party mares? Or that spirited young bouncer?"
"I may not know the meaning of love," I said, "but I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be 'easy.'"
"That may be the closest you've been to correct all day."
"The maelstrom in there. She's feeling things she's never felt before. All the love in Cloudsdale, and all the pain from love's lack, or love's loss. It's overwhelming her because she doesn't understand it."
"Just so," said Auric.
"You knew! And you just left her! You spent the entire evening bothering me instead of trying to help--"
"Nothing is wrong with her!" Auric shouted. "Everything is working as expected! This is what life is for creatures of her kind! The only actual concern here is the upstart ruffian trying to set her on an inevitable course for heartbreak, and I am dealing with that crisis the way I see fit! How dare you presume to suggest I have somehow failed in protecting her?"
"How in Equestria are you helping her by trying to shield her from any experience that might break her heart? Aren't you making this worse? Wouldn't a Princess Cadance who has loved, and lost, and loved again, be better able to understand her role in the universe?"
Auric stiffened. We locked eyes for a moment. The griffon broke first, but it was a near thing. He paused, considering his brandy, swirling it around a couple of times in the glass.
"This is all an obvious pretext to get me to leave you alone as you romantically pursue the filly I've been watching for nigh-on a millennium."
I felt a lump in my throat, and swallowed it away. "I don't think I'm the pony she wants. I think she's looking for a pony who can answer this question she has, somepony who can help her understand what love is. She asked me earlier today, and I think I blew it."
"Ah," said Auric. I hated the note of satisfaction in his voice.
"There is somepony out there for her, somewhere," I continued. "I can feel it in my gut. And you're not doing the world any favors by taking that pony, or griffon, or whoever, and threatening them with immense bodily harm just to shield her from pain. Can we at least agree that you're not going to do that?"
"I don't easily bind myself with promises."
"Do it for her," I said. "Do it for Cadance."
There was a moment where the entire world seemed to balance on the edge of a knife.
"Oh, well, all right," said Auric, the old flitting tone creeping back into his voice. "We're all stuck here suffering, might as well spread the pain around a little. A burden shared is a burden halved, right?"
"Are we? All suffering, I mean?"
"Why, certainly," said Auric. "You're suffering because you'll never have the alicorn of your dreams. She's suffering because the cosmos has elected to make her an adorable little suffering-sponge. And me, I'm..."
Auric fell silent.
"Well," he said, at last, finishing the last of his brandy and preparing himself another. After a moment of thought, he retrieved a second snifter and poured another dram, setting the glass absentmindedly on the counter. "Never you mind. Suffice it to say that we're all a little damaged by love."
"On the way here, on the airship, you told me you knew her mother, a long time ago. All this time I thought you saw me as a rival for her affections, sort of an 'immortals should stick together' kind of thing. But that's not it at all. This is your twisted-up version of a doting father's 'have her home by nine' speech. Isn't it?"
Auric was silent.
"Isn't it?"
"Well?" shouted Auric, throwing his claws wide. "Who else is going to do it? Her father was barking mad, and is also, let's not forget, dead as a stone. Her mother died in childbirth. Her adoptive aunt is an utter lunatic who would incidentally be quite offended by my use of that specific term to describe her, for reasons that she's turned into a secret of state. The closest thing Mi Amore had to a parent was a literal order of nuns, who cared less about raising her and more about hermetically insulating her from the outside world."
"But isn't that exactly what you're doing? Right now?"
Auric gestured at me with one claw. His beak opened and closed, several times.
"Fine," said Auric. "Fine, fine, fine, you've made your point, fine."
"Good. So, you're not going to murder me?"
A pause, then, "No."
"And you're not going to murder the next young noblecolt who comes around plying her with gifts and affection?"
"Only if he mistreats her. And then, all bets are off."
"If he mistreats her," I said, "you will have to get in line."
"Very spirited, Lieutenant."
"I prefer to think of it as 'dutiful,'" I said.
Auric looked about the sitting room as the clock on the mantel clicked on toward midnight and the light from the other room began to fade. Eventually, he nudged the second snifter in my direction. "Drink?" he said.
"Not while I'm on duty."
"Thankfully for you, you're still on holiday. For sixty more seconds, at least."
"You play a strong rhetorical game," I said, accepting the glass. "Happy Festival of Venus."
"To you as well," said Auric.
And then we drank. |
Grazioso | pre | "Oh, you mean the Royal Voice. I have since learned that is outdated and seen as odd in these times, so I dropped it. My sister has been educating me on how times have changed."
Vinyl sat down in the large chair, and offered Luna a seat on the couch. Luna sat, admiring the quaint room.
"This is a wonderful place you have. I've always wanted a small house, far from the city's hustle and bustle."
"Why can't you? I mean, you are a Princess. You can pretty much do what you like."
"I wish it were so. Sadly, I have many duties as Princess that require me to be at the castle almost all night, every night."
"Of course, Pri.. Luna. Would you like something to drink or eat? We have a ton of leftovers from visitors."
"Oh, please don't worry yourself. I just ate breakfast."
"Breakfast? It's almost dark! Do you sleep all day, too?"
"It is required of me, Vinyl. I stay up all night, governing the moon and stars and other night business, and so I sleep all day."
"I see. I can totally relate. As a DJ, I'm usually up with the moon and getting home at sunrise. Speaking of it, isn't it about time for you to raise the moon?"
"Why, yes it is. Would you like to watch?"
"Totally!"
Luna smiled. It wasn't often she got to show off. She sometimes even felt under appreciated, but then somepony like Vinyl would remind her that ponies did indeed love the night. She closed her eyes, and a faint amaranthine glow surrounded her horn. Vinyl felt a pang of jealously at the horn, but then thought about Octavia in the next room and out it out of her mind.
After a moment, Luna opened her eyes.
"Done."
"No way! That's it? That looked easy."
"Oh, Vinyl. If only it was easy. Then I could have some other pony do it and I could sleep in!"
"Ah, I get it. It's some alicorn magic thing?"
"Yes, it is. Now why don't you go look outside?"
Vinyl went over to the window and pushed it open. Outside, just coming over the horizon, was the moon. But it was bigger, brighter, and more beautiful than she had ever seen it. She heard Luna speaking from the couch.
"I heard a scientist pony talking about what you did, Vinyl. I had never heard of such a thing happening, although when I told Celestia, she mentioned it had, once. A stallion by the name of Shining Force stopped a huge flood from destroying his village, but in the process used all his magic. Celestia said it is because his wife and kids were in the village and couldn't get out in time, and he loved them more than anything in the whole of Equestria. Somehow you did the same thing he did, something only possible when a unicorn loves something or somepony as much as a single heart can love. I find this incredibly romantic and beautiful. How long have you two been in love?"
Vinyl stared at the moon for another few seconds before answering.
"We've been dating for a year and five months, and we met almost two years ago. It's been the best two years of my life."
Luna had to blink away tears, so sweet was the sentiment. Never had she seen two ponies so deep in love. She asked a question she thought was an obvious one.
"So have you two considered marriage yet?"
Vinyl started at this, and gave Luna a shocked glance before looking at the moon again and sighing.
"Yeah, we've talked about it about it, but it's pointless. Gay marriage may be legal, but is frowned on. It might ruin our careers if we announced that. I've seen it happen. Thought you knew. Truth be told, I was thinking you would disapprove of our.... partnership."
Luna simply smiled.
"My dear, it would by very hypocritical for me to judge you on that matter."
A confused look came over Vinyl's face as she regarded the Princess.
"Isn't hypocritical when you say something, then do the opposite yourself?"
"Yes, Vinyl, it is."
"So you... you're... Ohmigawd! Luna! But... You're royalty! Isn't that improper or something?"
"It wasn't when I was last around. It's distressing that it is viewed as it is now. It used to be that a pony could love whomever he or she wanted. It's a sad state of affairs to be judged on your love."
"Yeah... I've been thinking about proposing anyway. Maybe some quiet ceremony, off in the woods or something. Ten, maybe fifteen ponies there. Small, private kind of thing. But I don't know how Octavia would feel about it."
"Well, have you asked her? She might feel the same way."
"I mentioned it once. We agreed it would be the best thing to do. Only problem is, there's only one pony in this area licensed to marry couples, and Octavia doesn't trust him. Says he's too familiar with some of the snooty Canterlot crowd, and she wouldn't put it past him to sell the secret to a tabloids for a few bits. Had a funny name. Pay-der something."
"Pater Matrimonium?"
"Yeah that's him!"
Luna sighed.
"I am familiar with him. Sadly, I would not put him past him to do that either. Are there none else who can do it?"
Vinyl left the window and went back to her chair.
"Not unless we went to Canterlot. It's an awfully long trip, though. We both are going to be busy soon, too. We've been out of commission for a few weeks now and we need to get back to work. If only there was someone else with the authority...."
At the word 'authority' Luna perked up. Her sudden movement made Vinyl jump in her seat.
"Vinyl! I just had a wonderful idea! I'm a Princess, none have more authority than me! Anything I or my sister say is respected by almost everyone! We can say things others without our positions can't!"
Vinyl started to catch on to what Luna was saying, but wasn't sure and didn't want to jump to conclusions.
"Where are you going with this?"
"I can wed you! I have the authority, I can arrange everything for you, and you don't have to pay a cent! And I would love to see the pony that criticizes a couple blessed by a Princess."
"No way! Luna, you'd do that for us? I mean, that's a lot! It would mean everything to us, but still! You'd have to fly all the way here, weddings aren't cheap, and you'd have to leave all your duties off for at least a day..."
Luna interrupted the excited DJ as politely as possible.
"Pardon me, Vinyl. Allow me to explain. Weddings might not be cheap, but you forget, I have the entire coffers of the Royal Family at my disposal for what I deem fit, and I have never met ponies more worth marriage. Also, I wasn't thinking so much of me flying here as I was you coming to Canterlot for a week. Think of it as my wedding present to you."
Vinyl sat and thought about it for a minute. Luna simply smiled at the hornless white unicorn as she ruminated. Finally, after seeing there was no counter argument, Vinyl gave in.
"I would be honored, and I'm sure Octavia will be as well. Damn, will she be surprised!"
"Yes I imagine so! Going to sleep, and waking engaged, with no less than a Princess presiding over the marriage. Quite a dream."
"Oh yeah. Now I just have to figure out how to say it."
"That I will leave to you, Vinyl. It's been a very, very long time since I have even thought of romance. I'll have to ask Tia about marriages these days..."
"Tia?"
"Celestia. Apologies. Sisterly nicknames and all. I feel comfortable enough around you to relax somewhat."
"I'm flattered. Not everyone can befriend a Princess!"
"Not many indeed. Everypony keeps getting distracted by our titles and forgetting that we are ponies too. That's another reason I came by tonight. I just wanted to get out and see some regular ponies and be treated like one."
"Well, I'm glad you thought of us. It's been a pleasure getting to know you, Luna."
"And likewise, Vinyl."
Luna glanced at the clock.
"Oh dear! How did it get so late? You must be tired. And you have quite a day ahead of you. You should get some rest."
Vinyl yawned and shrugged.
"I suppose so. I don't think I'll tell her for a day or two, though. I want to go get her a ring first and do it proper."
"I believe I can help there, Vinyl. I know the jeweler here in Ponyville. He mended a necklace for me a few months ago. I'll ask him if he can make you a good deal."
"Thank you very much, Luna. I am indebted to you."
"Don't worry about it. I'm just trying to be more than a simple Princess that raises the moon."
"Well, I think you're doing a great job. I can't wait to see what you come up with for the wedding."
"Are you wanting anything in particular? A theme or overall tone? Or any special requests?"
"None that I can think of, Luna. You just do whatever you like."
Luna's wings opened halfway as she clapped her front hooves in excitement.
"Gnarly! I can't wait!"
"Gnarly?"
"Apologies. Old slang I seem to have kept."
"I like it! Gnarly!"
Luna smiled and stood, taking a few steps toward the door.
"Well, I must go. I have a few things to take care of, not to mention a wedding to plan! I will personally come to bring you the news when I have set the date and arrangements. I expect it will be fairly soon, possibly within a month if that's okay."
"Yes, Luna, that would be great. Thank you once again."
Vinyl bowed to the Princess Of The Night as she walked outside into the chilly air and spread her magnificent wings.
"See you soon, Vinyl! Take care! Tell Octavia I said hello!"
"Will do! Fly safe!"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Octavia spent the next three days wondering why Vinyl seemed to be acting more strange than usual. Going off to the market for no reason, or a reason that made no sense. Finally, on the evening of the fourth day, she found out.
She came home from a short cello practice to find Vinyl standing by the door, jacket and shades on as if she was about to leave.
"Going somewhere?"
"Yes, and so are you, Octy! Leave the cello by the door, we won't be long."
Octavia obeyed, and followed her lover out into the chilly dusk. The sun had just set, and the moon was due to rise any minute. Vinyl led the confused Octavia to a hill just outside town. The hill was modest, but tall enough to raise above the trees, offering a breathtaking view of the moon just beginning to appear above the horizon. Octavia gasped as she beheld it, for it was more beautiful than she had ever seen it.
She turned to Vinyl, only to find she had to look down. Vinyl had gotten down to her knees, and had produced a small box from within her jacket.
"Vinyl... Is that what I think....."
"Octavia Philharmonica. You are the most wonderful pony I have ever had the fortune to meet. I want to be there for you every day for the rest of your life. Will you be mine, forever? Will you marry me?"
Vinyl opened the box. Inside was a ring, just the right size for Octavia's left leg. It was a gold band, mostly plain, except for a thin line of treble clefs engraved around the circumference.
"Yes, Vinyl! Of course, yes!"
Octavia felt herself tear up as she shakily took the ring and slid it over her left hoof, where it settled on her leg snugly. She never wanted to take it off.
Vinyl stood, and wrapped her forelegs around Octavia's neck, who returned the favor. After a handful of minutes of kissing and happy tears, they broke apart.
"Oh Vina! This is wonderful! Let's have the ceremony as soon as we can. I don't want to wait a minute longer than I have to."
"Don't worry about that. Princess Luna has it covered."
"What!?"
"Come on. Tell you the story on the way home. I'm freezing."
Vinyl told Octavia about the evening Luna had visited, finishing just as they walked in the house and sat down to cuddle in front of the warm fire.
"Oh, Vinyl. Only you could have a conversation with a Princess and learn a new slang word."
"It's just my natural charm. Everypony just wants to be my friend."
Octavia sighed dreamily as she layed her head on Vinyl's shoulder.
"I can't believe we're actually engaged. That's so exciting! And being wed by the Princess herself. Seems like my days just keeps getting more eventful when I'm with you. I'm almost afraid for my next birthday. Who knows what you're plan.... Why are you smiling like that? What are you planning? Vinyl!"
> Prologue
WARNING: Some grown-up language and innuendo.
It was the kind of warm summer night Vinyl Scratch loved the most. Crickets chirping, countless stars in the sky, and a club full of ponies waiting on her to party the night away. She was the best, if only, DJ in the town of Ponyville, and there was only one club, and that meant it was the best place to be on a Friday night. In other words, the perfect place for Vinyl. There was nothing more the white unicorn loved more on a beautiful summer night than to spend it in that particular club blasting various forms of trance, electro, dance, techno, and rock music. She had gained a veritable reputation as a talented DJ, and even though she had gotten offers to play at clubs as far off as Manehatten, she had refused, choosing to stay at her simple life at a simple club. Rarity was the owner and operator of the establishment, and Vinyl had never had a better boss.
Vinyl came around a corner, and there was the club. The Sapphire was usually packed with ponies, and tonight was no exception. A line stretched down the block, waiting to get in, held back by two massive stallions wearing tight black shirts and sunglasses. Vinyl chuckled at the sight of them.
Sunglasses at night? Well, I guess they are payed to be big, not smart.
The hypocrisy made a faint whooshing sound as it flew over Vinyl's head.
The white DJ walked past the line and right up to the bouncers, who let her in immediately. She smiled at the groans and complaints of the numerous ponies still stuck in line. Once inside the doors, she was greeted by flashing lights of every color, thumping bass music, and a sea of ponies dancing, drinking, or just sitting in booths trying to shout over the music, a task that was about to prove impossible once Vinyl got situated. As she reached the edge of the crowd, ponies began to turn and notice her, parting to either side to let her pass and shouting greetings. Vinyl just smiled and kept walking. Before long, the majority of the ponies in the club knew she had entered.
Mares and gentlecolts, the real party has just arrived.
Vinyl climbed up onto the stage and got behind her beloved control panel. Turntables, equalizers, a computer, and some synthesizers laid out before her in a meticulously arranged pattern. The multitude of knobs and switches might have confused a lesser DJ, but to Vinyl they were home. She put on her headphones and flipped a few switches, killing the music and turning on her microphone. Her voice boomed across the floor.
"How the hell yall doing tonight!?"
A roar rose from the crowd, but not nearly loud enough to satisfy Vinyl.
"I can't fucking hear you!"
Another roar, this one shaking the walls around the excitable crowd. Vinyl grinned widely. This was where she felt comfortable. All her worries melted away when she was here. Her music, her turntables, and her crowd always made a bad day better, and a good day ecstatic. Vinyl yelled into the mic again.
"And a good evening to you all! DJ-Pon-3 in the house! Are you ready to ROCK!"
A deafening third roar. These ponies were really ready to party.
"As I understand it, we have a birthday going on tonight! Cherilee, where are you? There's the birthday mare! Hey babe, your drinks are on me tonight! Happy birthday!"
Cherilee blushed and waved at the DJ, and presumably yelled a thanks, but was impossible to hear over the cheering. A silly hat was already perched crooked on her head, and the crowd around her looked already drunk. Vinyl loved it when there were special occasions like this, and always made sure they were fantastic. Cherilee was an old and very close friend of hers, so she was going to make damn sure tonight was going to be the best birthday ever.
"One more thing! I want this to be your best damn birthday ever, so I made you a little something. Who wants to find out what it is?"
Every pony cheered, and Cherilee blushed again.
"Well, here you go! I wrote you a song, Cherilee, and I dare say it's my best song ever! I worked very hard on this, so I hope you love it! So get your flank on the floor and get ready to move!"
The crowd around Cherilee swelled as she was swept to the middle of the dance floor, and Vinyl started hitting switches and turning knobs. Bass and synth swelled through the speakers, and the crowd started to dance. Then the lyrics hit. Vinyl had written them, but had never done vocals before, and so had gotten a friend to record them. She was very proud of them.
Hey Cherilee, hey Cherilee
I'm afraid to see you after school
I can't come to your office
and tell you that you're cool
It's not about my tests
or about my homework you should grade
I don't want you to tell me
I just want to go on a date
Hey Cherilee, hey Cherilee
Hey Cherilee, hey Cherilee
Hey Cherilee, I think I'm in love with you
Vinyl's grin threatened to split her face in two when she saw Cherilee's reaction to the lyrics now blasting over the sound system. The teacher kept dancing though, being too drunk to really care. Vinyl had spent several nights on this song, and it seems her efforts had paid off. Once the song was over, the crowd begged for an encore, and another after that. Vinyl put that song and a few others that were almost as good on a playlist and put it on repeat. She then left her Fortress of Bass, as she called it, and went onto the dance floor to dance with Cherilee and the other party goers.
Sweaty and tired, she eventually left the floor and went back to her booth. Song after song pounded through the speakers, each one carefully tuned by the DJ's careful hooves. She hated using magic to do her job, and was proud of the fact she almost never needed to use it. It had taken her years of practice to get as good as she was without it.
Hours later, even the energetic Vinyl needed a break. She turned the volume down a bit to give ponies a chance to talk, and put the computer on shuffle. She went to the bar and got a drink, and turned to survey the crowd. The crowd had shrunk a little since the birthday party had left, but there were still a lot of ponies there. Through a miniscule break in the crowd, Vinyl spotted the fluffy pink mane she had been looking for. Weaving her way through the crowd, she came up behind the pink pony the fluffy mane belonged to. Vinyl came up behind Pinkie Pie and spoke into her ear.
"Hey girl! Lemme taste some of your cotton candy!"
Pinkie turned around and winked mischievously at Vinyl.
"Hey DJ! Why don't you thump my bass!"
Vinyl laughed and enveloped Pinkie in a hug.
"Nice to see you, Pinks. Come on over here. I wanna talk to you."
"Okey dokey!"
The party pony followed Vinyl through the crowd back to a booth in the far corner. Vinyl liked it because it was at the very edge of the bar, but was out of the way enough ponies weren't standing all around it. She yelled at Berry Punch, the barmare, for a drink for Pinkie. Once Vinyl and Pinkie had drinks and were comfortable, Pinkie turned her concentration back to the DJ across from her.
"Alright, I'm here! What's up?"
"It's Lyra."
"Oh no. What now?"
"I just don't know what the hell to do anymore. It seems like everything I do is wrong."
"Well, as your best friend, you know what I'm going to say. I've been saying it since before you got together!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm starting to think you may have been right."
"My Pinkie Sense never lies!"
"I guess so."
"What's the problem now, anyways?"
"She accused me of cheating on her."
"Again? With who?"
"You!"
"Oh, Vinyl, I'm flattered! But you know I'm taken."
"Wait, what!? Did not know! Spill!"
"Yupp, it's official. I'm in love with parties!"
"You're ridiculous, Pinks. Anyway, apparently someone told her we are friends, and that I was at Sugarcube Corner all day the other day. That's enough for her to go off the deep end."
"Hey, it's not my fault I can't bake a five foot tall cupcake on my own! Oh well. Vinyl, I seriously think you should break up with her. Everyone who knows you to says so, and I've been telling you this, like, FOREVER! You have had the worst year I've ever seen you have, and it's always because of her."
"She wasn't always that bad! It's just the past few weeks."
"A few months ago she wouldn't let you go to one of my parties for some silly reason! I still haven't forgiven her for that, Vinyl!"
"I forgot about that."
"I noticed! Please, Vinyl, at least think about it."
"I am Pinks, I really am. Say, do you mind if I crash at your place for the night?"
"Of course you can! I love it when you stay! But why for?"
"Cause I wouldn't put it past Lyra to be waiting at my house for me to come home so she can bitch some more."
"Seriously!? Did you give her a key?"
"Yeah, last month. I don't know why. Ever since then she's been popping up at the most random times for no reason. I wouldn't mind it, but if I'm there and just chilling, she gets mad because I'm not spending all my time with her."
"That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Ugh. I can barely hear you over this place. What time is your shift over?"
"I'm off now. I was just coming in tonight for Cherilee's party."
"Oh, wasn't it great! I got her that hat! It was one of my last party hats! I need to get more. Anyways, you wanna go back to my apartment? I have food and movies and candy and stuff!"
"You had me at food! Let me find Rarity and tell her I'm off for the night."
"Okey dokey lokey! I'll wait outside."
Vinyl stood from the booth, and went to the back room, where Rarity was sitting over some paperwork.
"Hey, boss. You need me for anything else? Cherilee's party just left, so I was gonna go for the night."
"Oh, that's fine. Is Pinkie Pie still here?"
"Yeah, I'm actually going with her to her place."
"Would you be a dear and give her this jacket? She gave it to me to sew a button back on."
"Sure thing, boss! You have a good night!"
"Same to you, Vinyl!"
Vinyl took the violently pink jacket from Rarity and left the club. She found Pinkie leaning against the wall in the alley next to the club.
"Hey Pinks! Here's your pink jacket. Rarity got it fixed."
"Yay! This is my most favoritest jacket! Ugh, would you just throw it over my back and button it around my neck? I just got mud on my hooves and cleaning that thing sucks."
"Sure thing."
Vinyl was halfway through buttoning up the jacket when a very angry voice rang through the alley.
"VINYL SCRATCH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
SHIT.
Vinyl turned, and sure enough, there was Lyra. She looked very upset.
"Hey, calm down, Lyra. I was just putting Pinkie's jacket on for her, cause her hooves are dirty and it's her nice jacket."
"Oh, I'm sure! And it just so happens you were in a dark alleyway too!"
"Lyra, really, she was just-"
"Shut up, Pinkie! I guess it's also a coincidence Rarity just told me I just missed you because you two were going back to Pinkie's for the night? I'm not stupid, Vinyl!"
"Hey! You do not tell my friends to shut up! And yes, I'm going to Pinkie's! I didn't want to go home and find you on my couch waiting to yell at me for working tonight!"
"You weren't even supposed to work tonight! You'd rather DJ for a friends party than spend time with me!"
"Well that's because you've been a bitch lately!"
Lyra and Pinkie both gasped, although Pinkie's seemed decidedly happy.
"What did you call me!?"
"I called you a bitch! The past few weeks have been hell. You've been accusing me of one thing after another! All you ever do is tell me what I'm doing wrong, and no matter what I do I'm never right! I'm sick of it! I'm done with you. I'll take this."
Tears welled in Lyra's eyes as Vinyl's blue magic grabbed the house key hanging on a chain around Lyra's neck and yanked it off. Lyra flinched and stared first at the floating key, then at Vinyl. The DJ's eyes were hidden behind her ever-present blue shades, but behind them, they were seething. Without looking back, Vinyl turned her back on Lyra and walked away down the alley, with Pinkie following, a small bounce in her step.
The full magnitude of what had transpired didn't hit Vinyl until they got back to Pinkie's apartment. Vinyl walked in and was barely aware of anything except the pink couch she collapsed onto, head in hooves, sobbing. Tears ran from her eyes, and collected on her shades. Pinkie sat beside her and started rubbing her back and crooning reassuring words into her ears.
Before long, Vinyl had cried all she was going to. She never did like crying too much, especially in front of her friends. She looked up at Pinkie with red eyes, and the pink party pony simply smiled.
"I'll make you hot chocolate and some food. Find a movie to watch, and after that I'm going to run you a nice bubble bath. You're going to relax tonight, tomorrow, and any other days I deem necessary!"
"Oh, Pinks. You're too sweet. Thanks a ton. I don't know how I would live without you."
"Quite well, I should expect. You're too stubborn for life to get you down for long, me or no me! But no me would be rather boring, I think."
Before Vinyl could form a rebuttal, Pinkie trotted to the kitchen, and sounds of cooking soon emanated. Vinyl turned her attention to selecting one movie from the large pile next to the large television in front of her, reading them aloud as she dug through the stack.
"How to Lose A Mare In Ten Days? Pass. My Big Fat Pegasus Wedding? Gag. The Bridesmare's Diary? What the hell, Pinks? Where are all the good movies?"
"On the other side! You're in the sob section!"
"More like the vomit section!"
Vinyl moved to the other side of the television, where another plethora of movies awaited, although these were significantly better. She eventually decided on an older action move. She put it in and started it, and before the previews were over, Pinkie came in, somehow balancing a half dozen plates on her forelegs, walking on her back legs, and had two cups balanced on her head.
"Seriously, Pinks, you gotta teach me how to do that."
"No can do! It's a secret!"
"It's defying the laws of physics, is what it is."
Pinkie just winked at the confounded unicorn as she set the plates and cups on the table, and the ponies ate as the movie played out.
Later that night, when all the food was eaten and the movie watched, Vinyl was preparing her bed on the couch. She had her pillows and blankets layed out just perfect, and was about to crawl in when a wave of despair hit her like a bag of bricks. Before she could stop them, tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. A sob accompanied one particularly large tears, and before she could help herself, she was crying uncontrollably into her pillow. Pinkie heard the commotion and came from her bedroom to see if she could help.
Half an hour later, the sobbing showed no signs of abating. Vinyl just could not seem to curb the flow. All the stress from the past few months was pushing its way out of her system and all she could do was hold on and wait for it to drain out in her tears. Pinkie was in the same position as before, rubbing her back and neck and whispering reassuring words into her ear.
Abruptly, Vinyl felt herself being lifted to her hooves and led.
"Wha.. Where are we going?"
"I'm taking you to my bed, silly. You're in no condition to sleep on that old hard couch. You need comfy and fluffy, pronto!"
Vinyl was lead to Pinkie's bedroom, where she was pushed into the extremely soft bed and forcibly tucked under the blankets. After making sure Vinyl was comfortable, the pink pony started to walk away. The still sobbing Vinyl called after her.
"Where are you going, Pinks?"
"I'm gonna sleep on the couch. I figure you need your alone time."
"Get your flank back here! You are not going to leave me all by myself."
Pinkie came back into the room and climbed onto the bed next to Vinyl. As soon as she was situated, Vinyl enveloped her in a hug and continued to cry into the cotton candy pink mane for hours.
The next morning, Vinyl woke to the sound of running water. After a moment, she identified it as Pinkie's shower in the next room. This struck her as odd, as Pinkie hated to shower in the morning. It tended to flatten her curly mane.
After some minutes, a very wet Pinkie came into the room. Vinyl stared at her from the comfort of the bed. She had rarely seen Pinkie without her trademark fluffy mane, and every single time it was shocking. The pink pony always looked as if she had shrunk in size. Vinyl inquired as to the morning shower.
"What are you showering for, Pinks? You don't usually shower in the morning."
"I don't usually have my bestest friend crying into my mane all night. It was all teary and gooey."
"Oh! My bad."
"It's all good! So, what do you have to do today?"
"Well, usually Lyra demands I spend time with her before work, but now I'm a single mare, I guess I'll just chill until work."
"Free time is the best time! I wish I had more free time, but Sugarcube Corner keeps me pretty busy. I'd have sooo much fun with extra time. I could have parties, and more parties, and more parties!"
Vinyl smiled at the excitable party pony.
Nothing in the world can keep her down. Maybe I should take lessons.
Vinyl got out of bed, and the mares went into the living room.
"Well, Pinks, thanks a ton for feeding me and letting me sob on you all night. Especially feeding me."
"It's not a problem at all! If you ever need more sobby girl time, you know where I live!"
"Oh, I hope I'm done. I hate crying, especially over something stupid."
"It's not stupid! You spent a whole year with her. It's only natural you'd have some kind of negative reaction to breaking up, even if she was being a meanie. You just became so attached, it was hard to let go, even if there was a good reason to. She became so integral to your life that once she's gone, you don't know what to do."
Pinkie's appraisal of the situation surprised Vinyl with the astuteness and accuracy. Even if Pinkie was known for being a little goofy, she was very knowledgeable about ponies' feelings. Vinyl knew this, and she was still caught off guard whenever Pinkie gave some insight to things Vinyl was clueless about. Her extensive vocabulary was also a bit surprising.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, Pinks. I'll just go and watch sad movies until I feel better."
"Or happy ones! Laughter is better than not laughter! Oh, and are you working tonight?"
"True, true. And yes I am. See you there?"
"See you there!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vinyl was woken by a pounding on her door. Instead of answering, she pulled her blanket over her head and yelled at the door.
"I'm not home!"
Pinkie Pie's voice rang out from the other side of the door.
"Vinyl! It's been three weeks, and you have done nothing but work and mope! Let me in!"
Vinyl reluctantly left the couch she had spent the night on and went to her front door. She unlocked it and opened it to find a very indignant Pinkie.
"Pinkie, I'm fine. I just haven't felt like doing much lately."
"You're being all depressed and boring! You need to be happy and glad and fun! Lyra isn't worth being sad over!"
"I'm not sad about her! I'm just enjoying all the free time I have now."
"Lies! All lies! Tomorrow, party at Applejack's, at the big barn, seven o'clock. Be there! No arguments!"
"Aww, Pinkie, I don't have any of my portable turn ta-"
"No! No working! You're coming to hang out! Rarity is doing the music, I'm doing the food, Rainbow Dash is doing the decoration, and Twilight Sparkle is doing..... Whatever she does! You just be there!"
"Okay, okay, okay. I'll be there Pinks. Seven o'clock. Big barn. Party."
"Okey dokey! See ya there!"
And then the pink pony left. Vinyl shut the door and sank back onto the couch in blissful silence. She felt bad lying to her friend like that, but she didn't want anypony worrying about her.
Truth be told, Pinks was right. Dammit, Lyra! Why did you have to get into my head so good! Maybe a party will do me good.
And so the next night found Vinyl forsaking her now-usual schedule of watching a sad movie, eating ice cream, and crying herself to sleep. Instead she was trotting her way through the countryside just outside of Ponyville to the largest barn on the Apple family's ranch, to the party that Pinkie was so adamant Vinyl was to attend. She still wasn't so sure she wanted to go, but parties were always good, especially when PInkie was involved. A boring party was impossible with that pink party wonder on the scene. Vinyl chuckled to herself as she remembered a few of the more memorable moments from Pinkie's past parties.
A few miles down the road, the barn came into view. It was even larger than Vinyl remembered it, being at least two hundred feet long and three stories tall. The doors were wide open, and light was spilling across the gravel road, as were a number of party-goers. Vinyl was fashionably late as always, so the party was in full swing. Music was thumping, lights were flashing, and every few minutes, a resounding BOOM would echo across the fields from Pinkie's Patented Party Popper cannon shooting balloons and confetti everywhere.
Vinyl walked into the barn to see it was absolutely packed with ponies. Vinyl didn't immediately spot Pinkie, so she walked over to a very long and very full buffet along one side of the room and occupied herself with sampling all the morsels of food offered. Once she felt satisfied that the food was up to par for a party, she turned her attention to the swarm of ponies. They were dancing, drinking, some were playing beer pong, others were socializing, and some were eating at the buffet. What ever the activity, they all seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Except that one.
Vinyl's eyes were drawn to the only pony in the entire barn not seemingly enjoying herself. The mare was a middling shade of grey, with a long and flowing dark grey mane. Her cutie mark was a purple treble clef, and she was wearing a matching purple bowtie. Her eyes were a light violet, and she carried herself with a certain grace and poise that Vinyl found very attractive.
The beautiful mare didn't seem to be enjoying the party though, just tolerating it. She stood at the end of the buffet table and was nibbling at a plate of strawberries in a blase manner. Vinyl watched her from the other side of the room for a few minutes, wondering who she was. Abruptly, the grey mare looked up and made eye contact with Vinyl before she could avert her gaze. Before she looked away, Vinyl noted that the grey mare looked a little lost. Vinyl thought about going over and asking for the pretty mare's name. Before she could decide on what to do, her concentration was broken by a loud BANG from the middle of the room.
There's Pinkie! She'll know who that is.
Vinyl trotted to the middle of the crowd, now covered in confetti and cheering, and found Pinkie wheeling her cannon to the back of the barn to reload it.
"Pinks! Wait up!"
"Hey Vinyl! I was wondering if you made it! Isn't it great! The food is great, the music is great, and all the ponies are having FUN!"
"All but one, Pinks! Who's that grey mare over by the buffet table? The one with the treble clef cutie mark?"
"Oh, that's Octavia Philharmonica! She's new! Moved here from Manehatten, I think. Some big music school. I invited her because she doesn't know anypony here but me, and she needs more friends, because without friends she'll be sad, and if she's sad, she won't be happy, and of she's not happy-"
"I'm going to interrupt you there, Pinks. I just wanted to know her name. I'll go talk to her and make friends. No pony is allowed to not have fun at your party!"
"Okey dokey! I gotta go reload my cannon!"
Pinkie and her explosive contraption trundled away, and Vinyl went back to her previous spot, watching Octavia and trying to gather her courage to go introduce herself.
Octavia Philharmonica...... Pretty name for a pretty mare...... Go on, go over there! She needs someone to talk to.
Vinyl was wracked with indecision for a further few minutes. The plate of strawberries got lower and lower, and Vinyl felt like if she didn't do something by the time they were gone, she never would get a chance. After a time, there were only two strawberries left, and Vinyl still had no ideas.
Just gonna have to wing it I guess. Here goes nothing!
She carefully walked over to the grey mare. When she was a few paces away, Octavia noticed Vinyl, and turned her attention to the approaching white unicorn. Vinyl was almost put off by her disinterested expression, but decided to give it a shot anyway. In what seemed like no time at all, Vinyl was standing face to face with Octavia.
"Uh.. Hi there."
"Hello."
"So... Enjoying the party?"
"Oh, not really. I was enjoying these strawberries more."
"I noticed. Uh, not that I was watching you or anything!"
Octavia smiled and giggled a little, and Vinyl felt that maybe Octavia was more friendly than she had looked.
"It's fine, I noticed you watching me for the past few minutes. I knew you to come introduce yourself eventually."
"Well, that's right! I'm Vinyl Scratch, DJ extraordinaire."
"A DJ you say? That is fascinating. I am Octavia Philharmonica, cellist extraordinaire."
"Cello? That's pretty nifty! You play with any groups?"
"Yes, actually. I just moved to Ponyville a month ago for that reason. There is a group of classical musicians that do recitals in this area, and they asked me to join them. Ponyville is in the direct center of our circuit, so it's never a very far journey to the various concert halls."
"Well, that's awesome! I only really play at one place. I don't know if I could handle playing at a different place every time."
And so on went the conversation. The two musical mares talked for hours and hours, about their shared interests, their different interests, and anything else that came to mind. Vinyl learned that Octavia was from a small town very far to the north, her favorite food was pancakes and strawberries, and she didn't like to use contractions or slang while talking. In turn, she revealed she was from Ponyville, she hated blueberries, and had barely passed language class in school.
As Vinyl and Octavia talked, the party started to wind down. The time was approaching dawn, and many ponies were leaving to prepare to go to work, school, or if they were lucky, sleep. And still they talked. Eventually, Applejack came to tell them the party was over.
"Ya don't have to go home, but ya can't stay here."
"Alright, Applejack. I'll see ya around!"
"Say, I don't think I know yer friend here. I'm Applejack, apple farmer."
"I am Octavia Philharmonica, cellist."
"Pleased to meet ya. Maybe next time we can chat some more, but I got an awful hankering fer my bed. I'll see you gals around."
"See ya!"
"Farewell, Applejack. It was a pleasure to meet you."
The two mares left the barn into the predawn darkness. The stars were just beginning to fade, but were still very visible and shining. They stopped on the top of a hill just outside the barn. Stretching into the distance stood rows upon rows of apple trees, covered in dew and glittering in the starlight. Octavia sighed as she beheld the crystal clear skies.
"My, it sure is beautiful out here. I am rarely awake at this time of night."
"I'm rarely asleep. Usually this is about the time I get off work. It is kinda pretty. I guess I've seen it so much I got used to it."
"It must be dreadful to be awake all night and sleep all day. Do you never have time to spend time with friends?"
"I don't have many friends. Pinkie Pie is my only real good friend, and she's at the club as often as I am."
"I see. Well, you may be used to being awake this late, but I am not. I think I shall go home and to bed."
"Yeah, same here. Say, it was nice talking to you tonight. We oughta hang out sometime."
"I agree. We should spend some more time together soon."
"How about Wednesday of next week? There is a really big monthly market day in the square. It's really fun."
"That sounds agreeable. What time?"
"Noon sharp?"
"Perfect. Meet you at the north side of the market, beside the jewellers?"
"I can do that. See you later!"
"Yes, see you there."
Octavia walked off into the darkness. Vinyl watched her until she could be seen no more. She stayed on the hilltop for a little while, gazing at the stars and thinking about what had transpired that night.
Well, the party went better than expected.
Vinyl Slowly walked down the hillside and down the road. She walked, lost in thought, not paying attention to where she was going. Before long, she found herself at home. Unlocking the door, the DJ went inside to go pass out until it was time to go to work. She dreamed of treble clefs and cannons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vinyl woke just in time to realize she was almost late.
Eleven forty five!? Dammit! Why do I have to be so lazy!
Vinyl leaped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. She used her magic and combed her wily blue hair, brushed her teeth, put on her shades, and lightly sprayed on her best perfume all at once. After successfully getting ready without any major incidents, Vinyl made a final check, and then set off for the market at five minutes until twelve.
I can make it. I can make it!
At seven minutes past noon, a very tired Vinyl arrived at the jewlers at the north side of the market. She looked around, searching the crowded square for Octavia. Seeing no sign, Vinyl got panicked.
I blew it, I'm late, she's left. The nicest mare you've ever met and you already blown it. Good job. Maybe next time I should-
"Vinyl!"
Vinyl whipped around to come face to face with the very mare she had been looking for.
"Oh! There you are, Octavia! Didn't even see you there."
"You ran right past me, silly. I am surprised you did not spot me."
Vinyl chuckled and ran a hoof through her mane, which had fallen back to its usual spiked tangle.
"Heh... Well, I was in a hurry. I was running a bit late."
"Well, we are both here now, so shall we?"
"Yeah, let's."
As they wandered around the tables and booths, they talked more small talk and Vinyl realized she had left out one detail about herself. She was wondering if she should admit to Octavia or not. The thought invaded her mind while she was helping Octavia decide which beret to get from a table piled high.
If I tell her I'm gay, she might not want to be my friend, 'cause that's all we are, and that's all I think of her. Got it? She's only a friend. You do NOT have a crush on a mare you just met. But if I don't tell her and she finds out, what will she think? Gah! Why am I so complicated?
Vinyl pushed the worry out of her mind and focused on the task at hand.
"What do you think, Vinyl? The blue beret, or the red?"
"Blue, most definitely."
Octavia payed the stallion selling the hats, and they delved back into the crowd, Octavia now sporting a jaunty blue beret. More purchases eventually followed that, and by the time they went to a small cafe to enjoy dinner in the encroaching dusk, they both had saddlebags bulging with impulse buys. As Octavia ate her small salad, she eyed the green tie Vinyl had bought.
"Vinyl, I still say you should have gotten the blue tie. It would match your mane beautifully."
"Well, I still say you don't need a fish shaped lamp."
"That lamp is gorgeous!"
"And so is my tie."
Octavia laughed, and took another bite of salad.
"So Vinyl, tell me, what do you do other than work? You've told me all about DJing and Ponyville, but not as much about yourself."
"Well, I don't do much else. Nowadays, my life is pretty much either DJing or waiting to DJ."
"Surely you do something else. What do you do in between the hours of sleep and work?"
"Watch gooey romance movies, mostly. I like to write music too, but I have to have a wave of inspiration first, and those are rare. I hate when I'm forced to write music. I prefer to let it flow."
"I completely understand that. Once, I was asked to write a five minute duet with a violin for a wedding, and I only had a week to do it. I simply could not find any inspiration. I thought I was going to fail miserably, and never get hired again. I think I slept about one night out of the whole week. Two days before the wedding, I finally got five minutes of what I felt was the worst music ever composed. The night of the wedding, I was so nervous, I could barely tune my cello. But, I went out, and we did our duet, and it's become one of my most popular pieces-"
Vinyl quickly sat straight up and pointed at Octavia, almost overturning her plate of daffodil sandwich.
"Ahh! You did it! You said one!"
"One what?"
"A contraction! I heard it!"
"I did not! I always use perfect grammar."
"You said 'it's,' don't bother arguing, I heard you!"
"I..... It was one small slip! I am not perfect."
"Well, you had me fooled."
"What?"
"Nothing!"
Vinyl blushed at her slip. To cover herself, she clumsily took another bite of her sandwich. She glanced up and noticed Octavia's dreamy eyes fixed on the DJ's glasses, face bland but with a hint of something in the magenta eyes. Vinyl chewed, trying to figure out what was in those spellbinding eyes.
Is it curiosity? Did she figure it out? No. It looks like, amusement? I'm so lost.
Vinyl continued to study the eyes for well over a minute, until they blinked, and it was like waking from a dream. Both mares sat awkwardly in silence for a few seconds, trying to look anywhere but into the other's eyes. Vinyl was the first to risk a look, and what she saw confused her further.
Octavia seemed to be blushing, which wasn't the reaction Vinyl was expecting. More thoughts whizzed in the white DJ's mind, none of them helpful revelations.
Now what's the significance of that, I wonder.....
"Vinyl, may I ask you something?"
Dammit, here it comes! She knows! She's gonna get freaked out and leave and never talk to you again and then she'll tell everypony you're a freak and you'll never get hired again and then everypony will-
"Yes, Octavia?"
"Why do you always wear those glasses?"
Wow. Nice way to overreact, Vinyl.
"Well, these glasses are just kinda my thing. I got them from my parents when I graduated high school. I just loved them to death, and started wearing them. After awhile, it just became habit, and now it's to the point I can't be without them. I feel weird."
"Hm. That's interesting. I'm almost the same with my bowtie. I just feel naked without it."
"It's a very nice bowtie. Where'd ya get it?"
Octavia smiled as she reached up to lovingly caress the purple bow on her neck. Vinyl felt a small twinge of jealousy for the unmoved cloth ornament.
"Oh, there is not really much of a story. I bought it for myself after my first performance. It went great, and I felt so good, I thought I needed a souvenir. I went to a nearby dress shop and was looking at nice jewelry, and this thing caught my eye. It was many times cheaper, and I felt it was more classy, so I bought it. At first I just wore it for performances, and it became a trademark of mine. Then I started wearing it for formal occasions, then all the time."
"It suits you very well. Is it silk?"
"Of course. I settle for nothing but the best."
Nothing but the best, eh? I guess that kinda marks me out, doesn't- STOP IT!
They lapsed into another silence, but this one was far less awkward. Vinyl had her head turned slightly towards her now empty plate, but her eyes were studying Octavia again. Her purple shades hid her eyes and let her stare without fear. Octavia was sitting quietly, finishing her salad.
Once Octavia was finished with the salad, the pair paid for the food and left the market. There was little sunshine left, and the shadows grew so long as to be indistinguishable. Street lamps were already being lit, and most ponies were making their way home. A few ponies were still walking the streets, but the majority of crowd from the market was gone.
The booths were not closing, however. The night market as almost as intense as the day market. In the darkness, lit by the streetlamps, vendors laid out wares that were more targeted to the night crowd. Leather clothing, accessories with metal rivets and studs, candles in odd shapes and colors, and paintings and pictures of dark and macabre scenes. Vinyl walked the streets, entranced by the sights of the night life. Octavia seemed a bit ill at ease. Vinyl noticed this, and was thinking about suggesting they go elsewhere. Just before she could, however, she spotted a familiar flash of teal down the street.
No. NO, nonono, please no, not HER.
But it was. As Vinyl and Octavia wandered down the street, they got closer and closer to the pony Vinyl really didn't want to see. Vinyl started wracking her mind for ways to head in another direction without seeming suspicious. But before she could, Lyra spotted them.
For a moment, Vinyl's ex simply stood there, a blank look on her face. Vinyl stopped walking. Octavia stopped beside her, and looked at Vinyl, who was still locking eyes with Lyra, who was now only ten yards away. Octavia followed Vinyl's gaze and saw Lyra, and then looked back at Vinyl. By now Lyra had noticed the other mare standing beside Vinyl, and was looking between the two. Vinyl saw first the confusion, then the tears in Lyra's eyes. Then the tears burst forth with a sob, and Lyra ran off down the street, leaving a trail of tears and confused shoppers in her wake. Vinyl stared after her, mind blank as to how to react. A voice crisp and gentle, like running stream water, washed through her reverie and brought her back to the real world.
"Vinyl? Who was that?"
"Uh... Long story. I don't.... It's a long story."
"It is alright. If you feel like talking, I am here. If not, I am still here for you."
"But.... You barely know me."
"Well, help me get to know you well enough, then."
"Okay..... Let's go to my house then. It's only a few blocks down, and I wanna set down these heavy bags. It's a long story."
"So you have said. Lead the way."
Soon, the bags were discarded, and the pair of mares were sitting in rocking chairs on Vinyl's back porch, a bottle of fine Apple family apple juice and a pair of cups on a table between them. Octavia seemed very content to rock, drink juice, and gaze at the stars barely beginning to twinkle in the growing dark, but Vinyl knew the questions were coming. She nursed a cup of apple juice and waited for the inevitable. In the quiet, it seemed as if every detail had taken on a more vibrant hue, as if to mock her of her internal war. She thought and thought and thought of how she would answer, but when the the question came, she still didn't know what to say.
It seemed like such an innocuous question, nothing meant to be intrusive or personal. But to Vinyl, it was as if Nightmare Moon lived in the syllables. The fact it was delivered in such a sweet voice only made it sting more. A voice as delicate as a young flower, as refreshing as a spring breeze, as soothing as a hummingbird's hum. But it wasn't just the question that scraped against her ears like a raw bit on teeth, it was the fact that she was about to lay on the line a fact that could break the friendship before it even got a chance to begin.
Vinyl had never before had a problem admitting she was gay. She had always been comfortable in the fact, having been aware of it earlier than most were aware what sexuality meant, or could spell it. It was just a fact of life for her, something she never had to hide, or think about consciously. All of a sudden, though, it seemed like it was a dragon sitting on her back, crushing her. She had always been aware of the fact a lot of ponies thought homosexuality was evil, twisted, or sick, but she had never cared of them. They had always been boring stiffs, anyways. But now Vinyl felt herself hoping, almost praying to Celestia that Octavia wasn't one of those. She just seemed to nice to be judgemental. Either way, Vinyl was about to find out.
"So Vinyl, that mare in the market, what was that about?"
Okay, Vinyl, just do it. Do it now! If you don't do it, you never will! NOW!
"That was Lyra. Sh.... She.... Is my ex. We broke up about a month ago."
Vinyl felt the stone dam around her words break, and her blocked thoughts became a rushing flood. She could not control it, and neither could she even find where the words were coming from. It was as if they were coming from outside her, like some other pony using her mouth. But she didn't care; they were saying what she needed to.
"We had been dating a year and a bit. It started off great, but then she changed. She turned into a b- uh, unpleasant mare. She became so controlling, so suspicious. If I did anything without her specific approval, it meant I was cheating on her, or doing something illegal, or something. There was always something. It went on for a few months like that. The few ponies who knew all told me the same thing: I should leave. And I knew they were right, Lyra was hurting me. I just couldn't. I don't know, maybe I just got used to it. I accepted the fact she was in control, her authority. I just kept getting stepped on, and I couldn't do anything about it. Well, about a month ago, she accused me of cheating on her with a close friend of mine, and I don't know why, but it was different that time. Unlike the other times, I could do something about it. I broke up with her. I took my house key off her neck, and walked away. I thought I would feel so liberated with her gone, and I did, but I just spent it laying around and doing nothing. I was lost without her dominating my life. I jumped out of the frying pan and into the freezer. Then Pinkie invited me to the party, and I met you there. That's my life for the past year and a half."
Vinyl hadn't looked at Octavia during the entire soliloquy, choosing to intently study the left arm of her chair instead. She was expecting a gasp, sharp words, hooves walking away, something of that nature. However, all she heard was the quiet creaking of a chair rocking to and fro on the boards beneath them. After several long minutes, Vinyl risked a glance at Octavia.
Instead of angry eyes or a frown, Octavia was sitting just as she had been before the story: rocking in the chair, sipping juice, and gazing at the stars. Vinyl looked back at the arm of her chair, not sure what to expect. It was as if Octavia had listened to her explain the weather. After more quiet creaking, Vinyl couldn't stand not knowing what Octavia thought any more.
"Well?"
"Well, what, Vinyl?"
"You.... Mad? Shocked?"
"Neither, really. Every pony has relationship problems, and bad relationships. I am just glad you finally did what you needed to."
"But... What about..... My being gay?"
"What about it?"
"Well.... A lot of ponies think it's nasty, or improper, and you just seem very.... Proper."
"Oh, Vinyl. You cannot judge a book by its cover. You have the same secret I do. As for the relationship, honestly, I am glad you ended it youself. It can be so difficult. Actually, the whole story makes me think of a line from a song."
"What song?"
"The name escapes me at the moment, but the line goes 'Caught here in a fiery blaze, won't lose my will to stay.' "
"That's.... Cool, I guess. what's it mean?"
"Well, to me, the song as a whole means that one who turns themself into a beast, shunning society and rejecting emotion, living at will, only on need and instinct, will no longer feel the emotional pains of ponies as brought on by society. It pretty much means that if you cannot strive above the regular pony ideals, then drop below them, and thrive in the realm of the beast."
"Uh..... Beast... What?"
"Oh, my apologies. I get carried away sometimes. That was the song as a whole. The line itself seems to mean although something is destroying you, but you won't leave. Being stubborn, I suppose. It's all terribly abstract, but I love it."
"I think I understand. You're really good at this."
"I like more than just the classical music that I play. I love to listen to and analyze all kinds."
"Well, I mean the feelings stuff too."
"Music is what feelings sound like."
Vinyl could not think of anything to say in response. It was such a beautiful sentiment, she could not bear to spoil the moment following up with something anything less than that. Vinyl settled for refilling their glasses with more apple juice, then turning back to gaze at the stars, not glowing and twinkling merrily in the dark sky.
In the silence, Octavia sighed. Vinyl turned to find azure eyes on her. She met the gaze, and felt her heart skip a beat. They were so peaceful, so kind, Vinyl never wanted to look away. The eyes did her a favor by looking away first. Octavia looked at the moon, now high in the night sky.
"Vinyl, I am having a wonderful time with you, but it is late, and I am tired. I believe I shall go home to bed."
"Yeah, it's been a long day. I'll probably do the same."
Vinyl did her best to sound nonchalant, but in her mind she was begging for the grey mare to stay just a little longer.
"Vinyl, are you free Saturday morning?"
"I.. uh... Yeah."
Vinyl could barely contain her excitement.
She's going to ask me to hang out! Yes!
"Would you like to come over to my apartment? I would like to cook for you. It's been a long time since I have cooked for anypony, and I would like to see if I am still a good cook."
"Yeah, that sounds great! I'm always down for food."
Octavia gave Vinyl her address and set a time for ten in the morning, then she gathered her bags and left. As soon as she was out of sight, Vinyl danced around her living room, clutching the piece of paper with Octavia's address on it. She was so excited, she thought she would never sleep, but as soon as she lay her head in the pillow, exhaustion hit and she drifted off to sleep almost immediately.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday morning was upon Vinyl almost as fast as she wanted it to be. She woke at eight, and spent the morning uncharacteristically grooming herself. Hair was fixed precisely, glasses were cleaned, and coat groomed. She spent half an hour pacing her house, determined not to let her eagerness allow her to be unfashionably early. At nine thirty, she allowed herself to leave.
It wasn't a very long walk to Octavia's apartment, but Vinyl walked slowly, her mind embroiled with thoughts of Wednesday night. She had the nagging feeling something had escaped her, and for some reason she couldn't put her hoof on it. There was a detail somewhere, begging to be noticed, but she was failing to grasp it.
Finally, Octavia's building was in view. Vinyl walked up the stairs to the third floor, then down the hallway to room three twelve. Vinyl raised a hoof to knock, but the moment before her hoof hit wood, her mind found what it had been searching for in Wednesday night. It was one small sentence, but Vinyl wasn't sure how she had missed it. The implications were astronomical.
She said, "You have the same secret I do."... Could that mean.... NO WAY. How did I miss that!?
Lost in her deep thought, Vinyl's hoof forgot it was suspended in air, and fell against the door. The thump made Vinyl jump, and before she could regain her composure, the door opened. Octavia seemed slightly surprised to see Vinyl's hoof hanging in midair where the door had been. There was a pause as Vinyl stared at Octavia. Octavia was the first to recover.
"Well, Vinyl, are you coming in?"
"You... Uh. You said.... Wednesday night.. You said not to judge the the book by its cover, and then the part about the secret.... Does that mean..... Are you.......?"
Vinyl snapped her mouth shut once she realized what she was saying. She had let her mouth run faster than her brain and once again, she was afraid it had gotten her into a world of trouble. Octavia didn't immediately react, and Vinyl blushed and started to feel a bit anxious. She felt like she had outdone herself this time.
After a tense minute that seemed like an hour, a smile slowly etched it's way across Octravia's face. She winked, and turned away from a very confused Vinyl to walk back into he apartment.
"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, breakfast is getting cold. You coming?"
"Yes!"
[A/N] Song used it "Love Me, Cherilee" By WoodenToaster and TheLivingTombstone. Used with permission. |
Grazioso | Finale | The wind carried the refreshing scent of roses. A few dozen well-dressed guests sat at round tables underneath a large white awning. Behind them, a large ice statue stood, two glittering birds intertwined around a flowering rose. Outside, the sky was blue and clear, not a cloud to be seen. The faint sound of crashing waves could be heard from the bottom of the cliff, past which the ocean stretched to the horizon, and beautiful backdrop to complement the beautiful day.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to witness a union......."
On a podium in before the crowd stood three ponies. The pastor, dressed in somber grey robes, holding a brown book from which he read. Facing each other in front of him stood two mares. Octavia Philharmonica and Vinyl Scratch looked deep into each others eyes as they listened to the ceremony being read aloud. Nothing could distract them from this moment.
Looking close, Vinyl could see shy tears of joy gathering in Octavia's violet eyes, and she knew she had ones to match in her own. For the past three months, she had anxiously waited for this day. She had exercised the most patience she ever had while she waited for Princess Luna to come back and tell them the wedding was ready. Finally, when word came, Vinyl thought she was about to explode from excitement.
So now here they were, on a bluff high over the Eastern Sea, just outside of Canterlot. Princess Luna had searched far and wide for the best place, and to both mare's opinions, she had succeeded. Iron grey cliffs towered a hundred feet above the ocean's frothing swells, gleaming in the afternoon sun like uncountable gemstones. In the opposite direction, rolling green hills gently curved away towards the horizon. Canterlot loomed overhead, high upon the mighty mountain, a lone sentinel of the plains.
"Are there any here who have prior claim to Vinyl Scratch, and object to this marriage?"
Vinyl's breath faltered, and her heart seemed to jump into her thoat. She had gotten so lost in Octavia's eyes, she hadn't realized how far into the ceremony they were. She knew no pony had any objections, but that didn't mean it wasn't a tense moment regardless.
Silence.
"Are there any here who have prior claim to Octavia Philharmonica, and object to this marriage?"
Again, a moment of suffocating silence. Somepony coughed, but no objections were made.
"Octavia Philharmonica, do you take Vinyl Scratch to be your lawful wedded wife, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, as long as you both shall live?"
Octavia barely hesitated,her gaze remaining on Vinyl for just another second, before looking at the pastor, breaking eye contact for the first time the entire ceremony. Her voice came out proud and strong, but not loud. The wind was the only noise throughout the whole congregation, and even it held its breath while Octavia spoke.
"I do."
"Vinyl Scratch, do you take Octavia Philharmonica to be your lawful wedded wife, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, as long as you both shall live?"
Vinyl's heart suddenly decided to start beating in the place that her voice had just vacated. She felt a foolish smile accompany a blush to her face, before she turned to the pastor. She spoke, but her voice came out in such a whisper she wasn't sure if anypony but the pastor and Octavia heard.
"I do."
"By the power vested in me by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and the Grand Courts of Canterlot, I now pronounce you wife, and wife. Even unto death, may you live in each other's hearts. You may now kiss the bride."
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Vinyl relaxed against the soft pillows and sighed. The windows were open, tempting in any spring breeze that happened to pass. The gauze curtains fluttered gently, indicating a light wind had been tempted in, even if Vinyl couldn't feel it. She could, however, feel Octavia cuddled up against her on a large pile of pillows. Her dark mane smelled lightly of citrus, with just a hint of other scents, mingling together to create a silhouette of aromas.
It was the afternoon after the ceremony, and after the various celebrations Vinyl and Octavia had retired back to the high tower suite reserved for them for the entire week. They had spent two nights there so far, and were looking forward to another three nights of blissful peace and supreme luxury, with every amenity a pony could wish for.
Vinyl closed her eyes for what she thought was only a moment, but when the hornless unicorn opened her eyes and leaned up from her place upon the pile of pillows, it was dark. She looked out of the open windows, up to the moon that now hung in the sky, like a glowing vessel upon a dark sea, slowly making its voyage from one patient horizon to another. Stars floated like so many miniscule fish around the ship that was the moon, shining and shimmering and scintillating.
As Vinyl was contemplating this, she realized she was cold. It was still early in the spring, and the night air still had a hint of frost to it. However, for one reason or another, Vinyl had a nagging suspicion that she shouldn't be as chilly as she was. Further introspection into the situation lead Vinyl to the answer: Octavia had gone. Vinyl's new wife had been keeping her warm with body heat, but now had vanished. The white DJ decided her first course of action should be finding her beloved.
Vinyl stood, much to the protest of various joints and ligaments that had become accustomed to the soft and lumpy pillows. She made her way across the suite to the master bedroom, and looked in the doorway. She was greeted by the sight she had been hoping for: Octavia sound asleep in the massive circular bed. Pillows and blankets were sprawled around her, and she had somehow burrowed into them, making an arrangement that looked more like a nest than a bed. Either way, the grey musical mare looked comfortable.
Vinyl leaned against the door frame, enraptured by the sight before her. Octavia looked so peaceful, Vinyl simply couldn't bring herself to risk waking her wife up by climbing into bed.
My wife.... Heh..... That's gonna get some getting used to......
Vinyl rested her head on the door frame, watching Octavia's sides rising and falling with her breathing. Vinyl smiled, and managed to tear her eyes away from the beautiful mare in the bed. She walked through the several rooms of the suite, closing windows as she went. The chilled wind has picked up slightly, and the last thing she wanted was for Octavia to wake up cold.
The last window to close was the glass door leading to the balcony. Vinyl closed it behind her as she walked outside. She had a wonderful view of Canterlot, and countless miles of countryside beyond. The Everfree Forest stretched off to her left, rolling hills and plains directly ahead, with the sea far to her right, perfectly flat and endless. Vinyl's vivid blue mane fluttered in the breeze as she surveyed the sleeping city below her. It was all dark, and not a pony was to be found. She smiled. The DJ loved nights like this. She adored her time with Octavia, and treasured each moment, but she still liked her alone time as well. Even though loud music was her forte, she liked the sound of silence sometimes. Her eyes tracked across the empty battlements of the castle below her. All was dark and quiet. Then, she spotted a window that was lit, about one story down and across from hers.
It was beside a door that opened balcony, much like hers. She could see the door was open, and Vinyl thought she could almost see a figure standing in the doorway, but it was too dark to be sure. The light from the window was too faint to illuminate much beyond the window. Then her suspicions were confirmed as the shape moved, walking further onto the balcony and into the moonlight. Vinyl realized it was Princess Luna.
Vinyl could see Luna's head turn toward her, and knew the Princess was looking at her. Abruptly, Luna's wings opened and the alicorn took flight, soaring towards her. For a few seconds, Vinyl got to admire the Princess as she flew, so graceful and elegant. Then Princess Luna landed beside her on the balcony, and Vinyl was awed by her regal bearing and posture. Vinyl bowed deeply, but was ushered up by the Princess.
"Please, Vinyl, you know you don't have to bow when we are in private."
"I know, Your Majesty, It's ju-"
"Luna, please. Just Luna. You know I just want to be treated like a regular pony every now and then."
"Yeah, I just forget sometimes."
Vinyl stood from her bow and sheepishly smiled up at the Princess, and found that Luna was smiling back at her.
Alright, be casual. Treat her like any other pony.
"So, Luna, how is your night going?"
Luna shuffled her wings in what seemed to Vinyl as a mildly annoyed manner, then walked over to the rail around the balcony and sat. She looked out towards the ocean, tranquil and infinite.
"The same as any other night, I suppose. I raise the moon, sit around for some hours, then lower it. Sometimes I do some paperwork. Sometimes I read. It gets a little lonely at times."
"Why don't you have more to do? I mean, a whole kingdom to help run, surely you have something to do?"
"You forget, my sister had a thousand years to get accustomed to ruling on her own, and even I must admit, she has the process very streamlined and efficient. Even she is not as busy as one would expect."
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
Vinyl walked over to sit beside the Princess and contemplate the waters. For a moment the two sat quietly, simply enjoying the peace and calm. Luna was the first to break the silence.
"I guess.... Even though I do some work.... I feel a little.......... Useless."
Vinyl took a moment to reply. Here was the Princess, confiding in her. It would not do to speak hastily.
"You're not useless. You organized the best wedding ever, not to mention you bring the beautiful night."
"Yes, but it's nothing compared to what Tia does."
"Maybe... You should take it as a blessing. Spend the extra time doing what you desire. Surely you can find something that interests you. And not all ponies sleep at night. I'll bet you can find a lot of friends around."
"Hmm. I suppose I could take it as that. Some friends would be nice."
"Well, you got me and Octy!"
Luna smiled at Vinyl.
"Yes, I suppose I do. Off to a good start, I would think."
"Of course! Anytime you're bored or lonely or whatever, come to our place! If Octy isn't up, I almost definately am."
"I will keep that in mind. It is always lovely to see you you two."
Another bout of silence engulfed the balcony. This time, it was Vinyl who spoke first.
"Luna, can I ask you something?"
"You just did."
Vinyl stared at the Princess for a moment, dumbstruck. Then Luna cracked a little smile as Vinyl caught on.
"Yes, Vinyl, you may."
"Oh, you're good. Anyways, what I wanted to ask you was, why were you so enthusiastic about me and Octy's wedding? I mean, I'm eternally grateful, but what about us caught your eye? We're just two simple mares."
"You mean, other than the fact you did something most ponies thought were impossible to save her? Well, to be completely honest, I was fascinated by how much you two are in love. It's..... Quite poetic."
As Vinyl mulled over these words, Luna looked at her, the faintest hint of a smile on her face.
"And to be more honest, I was a little bit jealous."
"You, jealous? Of what?"
"Of your love. It's not exactly something I nor my sister get to experience."
"Love?"
"Yes. We love our kingdom, and all our subjects, but in a much broader sense. The love you share is more intimate, more.... Tangible."
"Well, what's to stop you from finding love?"
Luna frowned, and gazed at the sea with such intensity Vinyl thought it would simply evaporate.
"We're immortal, Vinyl. We can find love, and surely enough, we have both developed light infatuations over the years, but it is never to be. It would be terrible to let ourselves fall in love, and watch our beaus age and grow old, and eventually die. It is a heartbreak both Tia and I have had to cope with, and after so many years, we have learned to deaden our hearts to those around us. It is a lonely and cold existence, but we do what we must."
Vinyl looked up to the Princess and was shocked to see tears flowing from her eyes. Luna saw her notice and made to wipe the treacherous tears away, but others followed. Vinyl had not realized how deeply Luna was hurting, how lonely she was. Soon, Luna gave up trying to hide her tears and let them flow freely. So great was her sorrow that the Princess laid down on the balcony floor to cry into her hooves. The hornless unicorn put her hoof on Luna's shoulder.
"Don't cry, Luna. You'll find somepony."
Luna sniffed and wiped away more tears.
"That's all I want, more than anything. But at the same time, I don't want to. If I do, I will love them, and I will have to watch them age and die. I have had to see it a thousand times, with many, many friends, and even a few lovers. It hurts, Vinyl. A pain that time can scarcely heal. I think out of all the ponies in the world, you will understand."
"I guess I do, but not completely. She is still with me."
"And for that, you are most fortunate."
"Yes..."
Quiet reigned on the balcony once more, but it was not total. Luna still sobbed quietly, with Vinyl's hoof still on her shoulder. After roughly half an hour, the tears had run their course, and the Princess stood again.
"Vinyl, I would like to thank you very much for talking to me tonight, and being so understanding. I did not realize how much I needed this."
"It's my honor, Luna. Every pony needs a good friend to vent to once in awhile."
"Yes.."
"You are always welcome at our house if you ever need to talk again."
"I will be sure to visit as often as I can. For the meantime, I have a few things yet to do before moonset."
"Alright. If you're free, you should come over here tomorrow evening after you raise the moon, and me, you, and Octy will have dinner."
"I would like that, but are you sure Octavia will not mind?"
"I'll convince her."
"I will see you tomorrow, then."
"See ya!"
And with that, the Princess spread her wings and flapped them twice, lifting her just high enough to glide over the railing and back down to her own balcony. Upon landing, she turned back and waved to Vinyl, who waved back. Then the Princess went back inside, as did Vinyl.
Vinyl went back to the bedroom where Octavia was sleeping, still curled up in the middle of her nest of blankets. This time, Vinyl did not stop in the doorway, but walked to the bed and carefully crawled in to cuddle around Octavia. The grey mare mumbled a little in her sleep, but did not awake as Vinyl pulled some blankets around and over herself. As she wrapped her leg around Octavia's middle, exhaustion hit her, and she felt her eyes closing, drifting off to deep sleep. Before she lost consciousness, she mumbled a few inaudible words.
"I love you, Octy..."
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Octavia rocked in her rocking chair. The fall air was just beginning to show a hint of winter chill, but it was nowhere enough to send her inside. The leaves were still green, the flowers were still blooming and the birds were still chirping, so she had no reason to go in from the front porch that was now affixed to the front of the blue house on the edge of Ponyville. The blue siding had began to fade just the slightest amount, and Vinyl had been griping about getting somepony to repaint it.
Octavia smiled to herself as she passed the time by rummaging through this memory and many others, occasionally chuckling to herself as she found a particularly humorous one, which was often with Vinyl around. The blue maned wonder had long since retired from DJing and moved on to own a large record company, but she still had that trademark spunk.
Soon, Vinyl came around the corner down the block, walking towards the house. One of the perks of owning the company was getting to choose her own hours, and Vinyl hade it a point of fact to never stay late, choosing to spend her afternoons and evenings with her love. Octavia waved when she noticed her wife approaching.
Octavia rose from her seat to greet Vinyl when she reached the porch. The two shared a quick kiss, then headed inside. No doubt Vinyl was hungry. They went to the kitchen, where Vinyl sat as Octavia prepared a quick salad.
"Have a good day at the office, love?"
"Not too bad. I'm just waiting on a few demos from a few groups to see if they're contract worthy. Other than that, I have peons to do all the boring stuff."
"What about Equalizer? How is her first day going?"
"Excellent. She already knows more than half the studio staff. She bonded pretty quickly with Silver Strings. When I left he was showing her how to operate the recording booth."
"Really? Silver Strings, the big grey pegasus? He seemed like such a dry fellow."
"Nah, you just gotta talk to him about what interests him. He has no use for anything else."
"I see. Well when will she be home?"
"I dunno. Call her. She's supposed to get off in a few minutes or so, but she was having such fun I'd bet she'll stay late."
"Oh, that's fine. I don't want to meddle. Celestia knows I hated it when my mother did."
"Yeah same here. However, I always gave my mother a lot more trouble than just staying out late at cello practice."
"Yes, Vinyl, I know. You were such a wild filly! It's a wonder they didn't lock you up."
"It wasn't for lack of trying, I tell you that."
Octavia set the bowl of salad in front of Vinyl and kissed her forehead.
"Well I'm rather glad they failed. Now, I'm going to play my cello for a bit. Enjoy your salad."
"Hey, while you're at it, play that one piece you were playing last night. I like that one."
"I never thought I'd see the day when you would admit to liking classical music."
Vinyl shot her a look, but Octavia had already left the room. Vinyl busied herself with eating the salad, and soon the sounds of cello music wafted through the house. It was an energetic piece, flowing through Vinyl's ears like a coursing stream, rapid and undulating. Vinyl closed her eyes and gently swayed to the tempo, a smile tugging at her lips. Then, she opened her eyes as she had an epiphany.
Jumping up from her seat, Vinyl rushed to the music room. Octavia gave her a questioning look as she entered, but Vinyl waved at her to keep playing. She did, but Vinyl received another confused look. That look became understanding and excited when Vinyl got behind her old DJ booth and started to power up the electronics.
The first switches were for Octavia's cello, which had two wireless pickups in the body, routed to a few of the speakers around the DJ booth. The treble notes sang with undisputed clarity, and the bass notes thrummed with authority.
Vinyl sat back on her stool and simply enjoyed the amplified cello for a moment. Then, when she judged it was the right moment, her hoof reached out and stabbed a button. Immediately, a simple beat began to accompany the cello. The bass hits were muted, so not to overpower the cello, and the hi-hat was at an uptempo pace, with a high snare counting out the measures.
Octavia closed her eyes and her smile gave way to a blank face, not out of irritation, but because she was focusing so much on the music there was no room for extra thought for needless things like expressions. She swayed with her cello, bow sawing at the strings as her hoof glided up and down the neck, pinching the strings just right, with the grace and care of a professional.
Vinyl pressed more buttons and turned more knobs, adding a flowing melody behind the cellos. The room swelled and throbbed with the music. Vinyl reached up to a hook on the wall behind her. Hanging there were her old purple shades,a layer of dust on them. She had not worn them in years, but now she wanted nothing less. She blew the dust off and put them on. As they settled on her face, she felt a feeling she had not felt in years. A mischievous smile stretched across her face, and she swung her head to the beat. She knew the glasses would stay on, so she did not worry.
More button were pressed, switches flipped and knobs turned. Driving electronic sounds mixed into the cello and the beat. Years ago, Octavia would have protested against such an intrusion, but instead she rocked her body to the beat, playing the cello even more intently so not to be lost in the symphony. The song they were making was chaotic, and of seemingly opposite tastes, but beautiful at the same time. The driving club music was pounding and heavy, and the lines of the cello danced around the harsh electronic pulses and howls, tying it all together to create one beautiful song.
Octavia's mane swirled around her as she danced, playing, never missing a note. Vinyl cast one foreleg into the air, grinning wildly. Their song resonated through the room, the house, even echoing out into the street. Ponies walking past gave looks toward the house, but those who knew the ponies that live there smiled, a few even stopping to listen. One pony in particular was walking towards the house.
Equalizer walked in the front door, and immediately headed to the music room. She looked in the door, her dark blue mane spilling over her purple eyes. An iron grey hoof reached up to tuck it behind the horn spiraling out of her forehead. She smiled when she saw the cause of all the commotion. Neither of the mares in the rom were facing her, so she was able to watch and enjoy the music for nearly ten more minutes. At that point, Octavia had worn herself out and had to stop. Vinyl cut down the beats, synths and melodies to a fade out. Once the room was quiet, it seemed to shrink, as if the music had been pushing the walls back.
"Guys, why don't you record another album? That was awesome!"
Vinyl and Octavia both jumped and turned to the doorway. They smiled when they realized it was just their daughter standing there. Vinyl giggled as they hung her glasses back on their spot on the wall.
"Cause, we don't wanna put all these other hard working artists out of work."
"Aw, come on, mom! Just one! Last time you did, it went to the top of the charts in days and stayed there for almost a year!"
This time it was Octavia who answered, smiling as she set her cello back into its old and scarred case. It was the same one it had been in when the building had collapsed on her.
"How do you know we didn't just record a new song? Surely out of all that stuff on that mess over there, you wouldn't think there's a record button?"
"I... I don't know. Is there?"
Vinyl ruffled Equalizer's hair as she walked past, headed back to the kitchen.
"Of course there is. I just recorded that whole thing. I think that makes six or seven new songs over the past few months. Octy, we definitely need to do this more often. I think that was our best yet. Now come on, I feel like cooking."
"Celestia preserve us."
"I heard that, Equalizer!"
Vinyl heard both of the mares behind her giggle as they made their way to the kitchen. She went to the cabinets and started taking a tally of what she had to work with.
"Let's see..... Rice, various spices... Hey Octy, we got any of that broccoli left?"
"Yes, dear."
Moving to the fridge, Vinyl glared intently at the various foods there, as if forcing them to cook. After a moment, she gave up and looked around the rest of the fridge.
"Oh! Lookie here! Bourbon! I can make that bourbon fried salad with rice that Luna gave me the recipe for!"
"Oh, that was delicious when she made it! And speaking of Luna, Equalizer, will you invite Luna to dinner please?"
"Sure, Mom."
Vinyl set about preparing her salad in a large skillet while Equalizer scribbled a quick letter on a piece of nearby paper. Octavia looked over her shoulder and made a face of mock disgust.
"Dear me, Equalizer. Your writing is as bad as Vinyl's."
This earned her a glare from Vinyl, who was adding some brown sugar and bourbon to the ingredients browning in the skillet. Octavia responded with an innocent smile, batting her eyelashes in a way she knew Vinyl was weak for. Indeed, Vinyl just smiled and turned back to preparing the rice.
Once the letter was written, it disappeared in a dark blue haze, and the cloud flew out the nearby window and vanished into the sunset. Octavia sat down at the table and read a magazine while Equalizer watched Vinyl crush some pepper flakes and garlic to flavor the mixture. After a few minutes, a midnight purple vapor floated into the kitchen and solidified into a letter in front of Equalizer. She read the few lines on it quickly and tossed it aside.
"She said she'll be here in about ten minutes."
"Oh good. I can't wait to see what she thinks of my extraordinary cooking skills!"
"Extraordinary in how terrifying it is to see?"
"It's not that bad!"
Vinyl's last sentence was punctuated by a burst of flame from the skillet, where an excess of bourbon had caught on fire. Vinyl grabbed the skillet and moved it off to a burner that wasn't lit, and let it burn itself out.
"I meant to do that. Adds flavor."
Octavia laughed and turned back to her magazine, reading an article about a new music hall being built in Canterlot.
"I'm sure. Did you also mean to leave the rice cooking too long?"
"It's not cooking too long!"
Vinyl quickly took the rice off the stove and set it off to the side to cool.
"See? Perfect!"
Equalizer walked around the counter and examined the food.
"Well, look at that. It looks like you actually made something edible, mom!"
"I always make good stuff!"
"Except for the time you tried to make waffles."
"They were good!"
Octavia looked up at Vinyl from across the kitchen.
"You caught one on fire, Vinyl. Waffle batter. ON FIRE. I still don't know how you did that."
"It must just be my flaming good looks."
"Oh, you're a flamer all right."
"Hush, Octy!"
All three of the ponies laughed, then Vinyl and Equalizer set about setting the table with four spots. Octavia set her magazine down and helped them, glancing at the clock.
"Just about time."
Right on cue, a soft thump was heard on the other side of the front door, followed by knocks.
"Come in!"
The front door opened and Luna walked in. She was as tall and regal as always, even without her crown and other royal accoutrements. She smiled as Equalizer rushed to give her a hug.
"Aunt Luna!"
"Equalizer! How are you my dear?"
"I'm great! My first day of work was today!"
"That's right, I forgot! How was it?"
"Totally awesome! I got to play around with all kinds of really expensive equipment!"
"That sounds fantastic. I am glad to hear you're enjoying it."
Vinyl looked up from where she was setting the last of the cutlery from the table.
"Yeah, I was amazed she was home in time for dinner. I was half expecting her to ask to stay the night."
Luna eyed the food on the table.
"Speaking of dinner, that looks like a familiar recipe."
"Yep! After you made it for us last week, I decided to try and one-up you."
"Well, let us see! I am famished."
"Well it's ready. Everybody, dig in!"
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After all the dishes and plates were all washed and put away, Luna and Vinyl went outside to sit on the porch to bid adieu another day. Vinyl sipped on a glass of wine, while Luna had opted for a mug of apple cider. They sat, not speaking, for a while, watching in the night sky. Vinyl was gazing at the waxing gibbous moon, while Luna seemed to be staring at nothing in particular.
"Vinyl?"
"Yeah."
"You remember what you said to me the day of your wedding, that evening on the balcony?"
"Vaguely, yes."
"What if I told you I was thinking about following your advice?"
"I would be extremely happy, and ask you who."
"Oh, I know you would. But I think I shall keep it a secret for now. I haven't even revealed it to said pony yet."
"Well, when you do, I wanna hear everything! You know how nosy I am."
"Well, I'll be sure to keep you updated."
The rest of the evening passed in a similar and pleasant manner. The mares chatted about random trivial matters until it was close to midnight. The nearly full moon hovered almost directly above, and the stars glittered in the clear sky. Vinyl sat down her empty glass next to an almost empty bottle.
"Well, Luna, I hate to, but I need to be heading to bed. Work beckons in the morning."
"Of course. Thanks for the dinner, it was incredible."
"Anytime! Will you be able to come down Friday?"
"I believe so."
"Cool. See ya then!"
"Good-bye."
Vinyl watched as Luna stood and stretched her wings, dark and beautiful. She took off into the night sky, only visible as a silhouette, a dark spot where the stars were blocked. Vinyl watched Luna until she was no longer visible, then headed inside to go to bed.
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Princess Luna stood on a hilltop not far from the edge of the cliff, looking out over the ocean. It was a spot she had not visited in almost twenty years, and she felt bad for not coming sooner. It was a wonderful place, close enough to Canterlot she could come often, but far enough that it was completely isolated from the noise and bustle of civilization. She liked to come here to be alone, to think about life's great mysteries unbothered. She looked at the stone plinth, the only feature to the entire hilltop. It had been covered in lichen and moss in twenty years, a fact that bothered Luna. She used some magic to remove it, leaving the stone clean. She read the inscription on the face of the stone, one she had chosen herself, almost a hundred years ago when she had the monument built.
"Here lies Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Philharmonica. Ever in life and ever in death, none shall share the indefinable love they had. May their music play forever in the heavens."
A single tear fell from Luna's eye, but it was not one of sadness, but of joy, because she was remembering all that she had learned about love from these two mares.
From behind her, a violet unicorn walked out from the trees and came beside Luna. She noticed the tears on the Princess's face, and gently wiped them away before nuzzling her neck affectionately. The pair stood, gently cuddling, until the sun set and Luna raised the moon.
The unicorn turned and walked away, heading back to the castle. Luna turned to follow, but hesitated at the headstone. She summoned a cloud of violet magic, and enchanted flowers began to grow around the stone, blooming in purple. She smiled, and turned to follow her love. |
Traveler's Exile | pre | Suncloak's pacing became more and more frantic. "Okay, okay, just gotta figure this out. Some ponies must've found out about the Stone, somehow. But the only way they could've found out is..." He paused, his eyes becoming even wider.
Traveler raised an eyebrow. He'd only seen someling panic this badly when they were absolutely sure they had incurred the wrath of Queen Chrysalis. Which, considering the situation, was a very good description.
Suncloak suddenly bolted to one of the bookcases and pulled out a rather hefty binder, then smacked it on the desk in front of Traveler. "Read this, see if you can find anyling who was involved in your mission!" he blurted, speeding towards the door. "Stay here! I have everything under control, I just need to... Uh, I need to water my lobsters!"
Suncloak quickly went through the door, slamming it shut. "Make sure he doesn't leave," he told the two changeling guards. "I need to go see the princesses." Without waiting for a reaction, he went into the castle halls again, making his way towards the throne room at full speed.
After a few minutes of sprinting, Suncloak burst through the doors leading to the throne room, skidding to a halt in front of the princesses, who were currently talking to some very official-looking, monocle-wearing pony. "I..." Suncloak gasped for air. "I think I need to work on my condition."
Princess Celestia didn't seem phased by his sudden entry at all. The tall, white alicorn simply sat in her throne, her pink, green and blue coloured mane and tail lazily drifting in a nonexistent wind. "What seems to be the matter, Ambassador?" Like always, she sounded gentle and patient, though that did nothing to calm Suncloak down.
"Big emergency!" he shouted, flailing his front hooves about. "Everything going wrong! Bad stuff happening! Need to talk to you!" He looked around the lavishly decorated room, spotting the multitude of pony guards and the lone official, who was sputtering something about 'great injustices' under his breath. "Um, in private," Suncloak added.
Princess Luna tapped a hoof on her chin. While she wasn't as tall as her sister, her dark blue colours and star-filled mane were more than enough to make her look equally imposing. "You know, if the supply closet is out of toilet pa--"
"This isn't about that again!" Suncloak shouted. "That was only one time! This is serious! Really bad news serious!"
The two princesses looked at each other and both raised an eyebrow. "Very well," Princess Celestia said, turning to their earlier guest. "I'm sorry, sir. We'll have to continue our chat some other time." She turned to the room at large. "Guards, I'm going to have to ask you to leave as well, for the time being."
A few moments later, the room was empty, save for the princesses and Suncloak. "Now, what is it you had to tell us, Suncloak?" Princess Celestia said.
Suncloak sat down and twiddled his hooves. "Well, um, this is a little bit complicated, and I probably should have mentioned it earlier." He paused for a moment. "Have you ever heard of the Evershifting Stone?"
"I don't think I have," Princess Luna said, glancing at her sister.
"Neither have I," Princess Celestia said. "What is it?"
"It's the most powerful changeling artifact there is," Suncloak said. "It's to changelings what the Elements of Harmony are to ponies, I guess."
"Why only bring this up now?" Princess Luna asked.
"Well, all changelings are kind of expressly forbidden to talk about it." Suncloak cowered a little bit. "The Queen put big punishments on it. I didn't tell any ponies about it, nor did I change any of the rules surrounding it, because I don't really want to find out what the Queen would do if you knew."
"That's understandable," Princess Celestia said, giving a warm smile.
Suncloak took a deep breath and sighed. "The Stone is what makes Queen Chrysalis a queen. Without it, she'd be just like any other changeling. But with it, she's powerful, immortal, and rules over all changelings by right of ownership."
"Interesting. What, exactly, is this Stone?" Princess Luna asked.
"Noling really knows," Suncloak said, shrugging. "It's really weird. Every time you look away, something about it changes. That's why it's called the Evershifting Stone. We don't know what it is or where it came from, just that it's there, and that it's really powerful."
"Nothing?" Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow. "No records, no research?"
"Changelings don't really do either of those," Suncloak said. "Besides, research is pretty much useless. The Stone changes all the time, and it's completely random. Noling can agree on its past, either. Everyling has a different story, almost like the Stone keeps changing its own history. But that's impossible." He paused for a moment. "I think."
"But why tell us now?" Princess Luna asked. "Did something happen to it?"
"Um, yes." Suncloak stood up and took a step back. "There's a changeling in my office, an exile. He's one of Her Highness' elite, and he's here because it was stolen." He took another couple of steps backwards. "By your royal guards."
"What?" Princess Luna traded looks with her sister. "That's not possible."
"Oh thank goodness!" Suncloak blurted out, quickly clasping a hoof over his mouth. "Sorry," he hissed after a second. "It's just..." He put his hoof down again and started pacing around. "Not a single pony should know the Stone exists. On top of that, it was stolen during a mission, and considering the Queen keeps anything regarding the Stone top secret, not a single changeling living here could've known about it."
His pacing became faster and faster, more and more frantic. "There's no reason any pony should know about it, let alone any royal guard. But right now, I'm the most likely suspect, and I bet Queen Chrysalis will take any excuse to force all changelings to serve her again! I should've told you but I didn't and I'm so sorry and everything I've done will--"
"Suncloak!" Princess Luna shouted, magically amplifying her voice and scaring the living daylights out of the panicked ambassador. "Calm down and take a deep breath."
Suncloak stared at her for a few seconds, his heart stuck in his throat. "B-But I..." The following glare coming from the Princess of the Night made him carefully consider his next words. "O-Okay." He took a deep breath, and miraculously, it made him feel a little bit better, though not by much.
"Good," Princess Luna said, switching over to her warmest smile. "Panicking like that isn't very becoming of an ambassador, now is it?"
Suncloak meekly nodded.
"Since this is changeling business, what do you suggest we do?" Princess Celestia asked.
After a few seconds of silence, Suncloak looked around. "You're asking me?" He raised an eyebrow and pointed at himself.
"Of course," Princess Celestia said. "You're the one who's the most knowledgeable about this."
"Oh." Suncloak tapped a hoof on his chin. "Okay... The Stone is pretty much useless to ponies, so we don't have to worry about that. Though someling needs to have told those guards, or whoever they were, about the Stone."
"Could they wish to use its power for something?" Princess Luna asked.
"I think so," Suncloak said. "But not for long. The Stone operates under very strange rules. The only one who has access to its powers permanently is the Queen herself. Any other changeling can use it, but only for a short while. Half an hour, tops, I think. Could be shorter."
"Maybe Queen Chrysalis herself is involved," Princess Celestia said.
"No way. If she was involved, she wouldn't exile one of her own elites," Suncloak said. "Those guys are good. Really, really good. I'm absolutely sure she's serious about this."
The three of them remained silent for a while. "Then... which options remain?" Princess Luna said.
"I don't know," Suncloak said. "But one thing's for sure: there's someling, with some kind of scheme. A big scheme. They wanted to lure Chrysalis to the city, seeing as the Stone was stolen by royal guards. Or look-alikes. And I don't think they counted on us finding out about the theft."
Suncloak rubbed a hoof over his head for a second. "I think we should let the exile, Traveler, continue his search. Send someling with him to accompany him, make sure he doesn't do something he'll regret. Or something I'll regret. I'll help him as much as I can, while pretending nothing bad's happening. Don't do anything that might scare the Stone's thief into using it."
"We wouldn't want the equivalent of Queen Chrysalis running rampant through the city, even if it's only for half an hour," Princess Celestia said. "You're right. Subtlety would be our best bet. Any word of this getting out to the public wouldn't create a favourable situation."
"Alright. Ambassador, inform the exile of our plans," Princess Luna said. "We'll find a suitable escort for him."
Suncloak bowed. "Of course, Your Highnesses. Right away." He left the throne room at a slightly faster pace than was appropriate, heading back to his office.
A couple of hours later, Traveler found himself in the castle's lobby again, as requested by Suncloak. His search through the changeling register had been completely useless, as none of them had anything to do with the Stone's move. After that, Suncloak had returned and told Traveler his plan. Which he didn't like one bit, not at all.
But he had no other choice. It was either go along with the Equestrian government, or get locked up. Though walking around the city with an escort wouldn't be much different anyway.
Speaking of said escort, they were late. Suncloak had said that it wouldn't take long to assign a guard to escort Traveler, and considering a few hours had passed, this meant that said guard had to be incredibly lazy.
With a sigh, Traveler looked at his scarf. The Garb of Shame. Stupid thing. If it wasn't for this, he might as well have been out in the city already, looking for clues without any guard watching his every step. If it wasn't stuck to his skin, Traveler would've burned it already.
But no, fate had decided something different. Fate wanted him to walk around a Canterlot that might as well have been an entirely different universe, with changelings being friends with ponies, changelings being friends with changelings, and generally having no idea at all of how the world was supposed to work. And on top of that, fate wanted him to spend way more time around these ponies and changelings than was necessary.
Hardly a suitable job for one of Her Highness' favoured elite. He was one of the best of the best! He shouldn't be mucking about with this nonsense! He was above this! The Queen only reserved the hardest missions for ones such as him. Whether it was a high-profile infiltration mission in some faraway country, or a long stakeout in some inhospitable location, Traveler could deal with it.
But in the end, all he could do about it was complain and grumble. While it wasn't the way he had intended, this was the only way he'd find the Evershifting Stone right now.
A unicorn guard, a stallion, approached Traveler, pulling him out of his thoughts. "Excuse me. Are you Traveler?" he asked. Like the guards that had assaulted the changeling convoy, this one had a white coat, blue eyes, and wore gold armour with a blue crest and tail, hiding the pony's mane, tail and cutie mark underneath.
Traveler nodded. "You're my escort?"
The guard nodded and smiled. "Yep! The name's Bravery. I'll be keeping an eye on you while you're in the city." He held out his hoof in a friendly greeting.
"Really? Any particular reason?" Traveler glared at his supposed escort.
Bravery put his hoof down and shrugged. "Not really! I like helping ponies, and changelings I guess, so I volunteered!"
Traveler snorted. Right. It's never that simple.
"We should go," Bravery said. "It's getting late, and from what I can tell, you've been busy all day."
"Finally, someling with a sensible idea," Traveler said. "I suppose the ambassador, or one of the princesses supplied you with some information on where to start looking?"
Bravery raised an eyebrow. "Uh, no. They told me some stuff, like what the thing you're looking for is, but not more than that. I was hoping to form a plan first thing in the morning."
"Morning?!" Traveler exclaimed. "Then what am I supposed to do for the night? Walk around aimlessly?"
"I was actually hoping to get some sleep," Bravery said. "My house isn't far from here, and there's a guest room where you can get some rest, too."
"No way," Traveler said. "I'm willing to do a lot of things, but I'm not going to sleep in the same house as one of my suspects."
"Oh, right." Bravery tapped a hoof on his chin. "I was told your Stone thingie was stolen by royal guards. What'd they look like?"
"The exact same as you," Traveler sneered.
"Well, that doesn't help at all," Bravery said, lifting his helmet with his magic. As he did, his eyes turned green and his coat a few shades darker. It also revealed a scruffy orange and yellow mane. "Some of our sets of armour are enchanted. You know, for official events where all guards need to look uniform." He put his helmet back on again, disguising his features again. "It could've been any guard. Plus, a bunch of sets have gone missing a while back."
"So, you're saying any pony could be the thief?" Traveler asked. "Amazing! Just great!" He threw his hooves up in the air. "That means I'm back to square one!"
"Not entirely," Bravery said. "At least it's likely the same thief was responsible for both."
"And do you know who that is?" Traveler asked. "Any clues, hints, whatever?"
Bravery sighed. "No, nothing. Not even any signs of break-in."
Traveler growled. "Some help you are."
"I'm sorry," Bravery said. "Let's just go to my house, okay? Get some sleep, and we can start the investigation properly first thing in the morning."
"Do I even have any choice? If I choose not to, and go look around on my own, you'll just report me to the princesses," Traveler said.
Bravery shrugged. "I guess I'd have to. No offense, but I'd just be doing my job."
Traveler sighed. "Fine. Lead the way."
Bravery set off, with Traveler following suit. It was starting to feel like this following thing was going to be a regular occurrence. Just as well, because Traveler didn't even know the city all that well. And even though he didn't like to admit it, he was feeling tired. Sleep would probably do him well.
Like Bravery said, his house wasn't far from the castle. It was fairly well-hidden, in a secluded, quiet part of the city. Once there, Bravery pointed at the front door of the comparatively bland house. "There it is. Not all that big, but big enough for me and my wife. And the neighbourhood's pretty calm, too!"
"You have a wife?" Traveler asked.
Bravery nodded. "Yep! I could tell you how amazing she is for hours and hours, but I think I'll just let her speak for herself." He opened the door and stepped inside. "Honey, I'm home!"
As Traveler stepped inside, he noticed that Bravery's house was remarkably... boring. It was just like any other pony house, with boring floors, boring walls, a boring ceiling, boring everything. There were pictures of friends and family strewn throughout the hallway.
The living room the hallway lead to was pretty much the same, as was the kitchen. Though there was a rather tall, slender pegasus mare with a gold-yellow coat, a long, light green mane and tail, matching eyes, and a dress for a cutie mark setting a dinner table in the kitchen. As soon as she saw Bravery, she walked over and kissed him. "Welcome home, honey," she said, glancing over to Traveler, her face lighting up in the process. "Ah! You must be our guest."
"Yep!" Bravery said. "Glitter, this is Traveler. Traveler, this is Glitter, my wife."
"Yeah, okay," Traveler said. "I was told I could get some sleep. Where's the guest room?"
"It's ready and made upstairs," Glitter said. "But I actually wanted to invite you eat dinner with us!"
"Oh. That's..." Surprising, to say the least. But even though Traveler just wanted to start his investigation as soon as possible, he had to wait until morning. So he might as well take these ponies up on their offer of free, tasty food. "Sure, a few bites won't hurt."
"Great!" Glitter said, a wide smile on her face. "Let me just finish setting the table, and you two can take a seat."
Traveler took one of the chairs and sat down, while Bravery took off his armour, revealing a cutie mark of a side view of a lion's head, and sat diagonally across from him. In absolutely no time at all, Glitter had put down an enormous number of things on the table: plates, bowls, cutlery, and most importantly, salads, loaves of bread, and even two pots of soup.
"Take whatever you want," Glitter said, sitting down next to her husband, which placed her directly across from Traveler. "I didn't know what you'd like, so I just got a little bit of everything."
Traveler stared at the huge amount of food on the table. "I... see. You two sure eat a lot." And they weren't too bad at staying in shape, either. It was to be expected of a royal guard, but Traveler had no idea how Glitter could stay so slender. Maybe she exercised a lot. Or maybe she just drank a lot of prune juice.
Bravery chuckled. "Oh, no. I sent a message ahead so Glitter had enough time to prepare. But like every single time we have guests over, she's coddling you. Told you she was great!"
Glitter grinned and elbowed her husband in the side. "Were you bragging about me again?"
"Hey, I can't help it!" Bravery held his hooves up in mock defeat. "It's not my fault I married you!" After a pause, he added, "Well, I guess I could blame my rugged good looks and roguish charm."
Traveler rolled his eyes as he took a chunk of bread. The incredibly sweet scent coming from the two ponies in front of him was overpowering anything coming from the food. It'd be nauseating if it wasn't so appetizing.
Glitter giggled. "Well, enough about me. Can you tell me something about yourself, Traveler?"
Traveler paused in between bites. "Me?"
"Of course!" Glitter said. "You know, what kind of job you have, or your hobbies, or something like that."
Traveler raised an eyebrow. "I'm one of Her Majesty's elite. I take on the most dangerous tasks she has in store. That's it."
"Really?" Glitter said, serving herself a bowl of soup. "No hobbies, or friends you have fun with?"
"Changelings aren't supposed to have friends," Traveler said. "I didn't do anything besides my job. That's what the Queen demands."
"Oh." Glitter gave Bravery a very awkward glance.
"At least, um... That scarf looks good on you," Bravery said. "That's something."
Traveler grumbled. Stupid scarf. The fact that it apparently looked good on him was just adding insult to injury. He pushed his chair back and stood up. "I'm going to bed."
"Of course," Glitter said. "You must be tired from your long day. Come on, I'll show you where your room is." She stood up and led Traveler to a staircase in the back of the house, leading up. Once upstairs, she showed him a rather simple room containing just a bed, a closet and a wall-mounted mirror. There was a window, but the curtains were drawn. "It's a little bit bare, but you'll be okay, right?"
"Of course," Traveler said, heading inside the room as quickly as possible and shutting the door behind him.
Finally, some peace and quiet.
Traveler took a moment to look at himself in the mirror, though his scarf only reminded him of things he didn't want to think about. The faster he was done in this city, the better. He couldn't stand all this mushy stuff ponies were so fond of.
Though there was one advantage to this: at least sleeping in a bed was better than sleeping in the streets. And it looked pretty comfortable, too. As Traveler tested the bed with one hoof, he scrapped that last observation. It felt really comfortable.
No, he couldn't sleep just yet. Some planning was needed. Like what locations he wanted to check out tomorrow, and who were his most likely suspects.
On the other hoof, his bed did feel really comfortable. A quick nap wouldn't hurt. He'd just close his eyes for a few minutes, clear his mind. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.
Traveler slipped under the sheets. Normally, he'd never be envious of ponies, but beds sure did beat the tough rocks of the changeling hives. It was the only luxury he'd ever consider importing, though it'd probably turn some changelings into outright slackers. Not Traveler, though. He was a light sleeper, and usually took short naps.
Though this time, he fell asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes. |
Traveler's Exile | Chapter 5 | A gentle knocking on the door roused Traveler from his sleep. "Hey, Traveler," came Bravery's voice. "It's time to get going."
"Jus' five more minutes," Traveler mumbled, pulling the blankets up a little. Going out could wait a couple of minutes. Besides, that wouldn't be until morning anyway.
Wait, if they weren't going to go investigate until morning, why was Bravery waking Traveler up? It could only mean... Traveler's eyes went wide and he jumped out of bed, rushing towards the door and swinging it open. "What time is it?!"
Bravery took a surprised step back. Traveler hadn't noticed it before, but the guard looked a lot less impressive without his armour. It probably had to do with his messy mane. "Uh, it's about nine in the morning."
"Nine in the morning?!" Traveler shouted. "But I--" He glanced back at the bed. "I only closed my eyes for a few minutes." He glared at the bed. It really was too comfortable for it's own good. Traveler would have to put it out of its very comfy misery soon, if only because it ruined his plans he hadn't made yet.
"You must've been more tired than I thought," Bravery said. "Did you sleep well?"
Traveler looked at Bravery, then glanced at the bed for a second. "Yes," he grumbled. "Yes I did."
"Great! We're all set to go," Bravery said, heading down the stairs.
Traveler followed after him. "Wait, why didn't you wake me up earlier?"
"I tried," Bravery said. "So did Glitter. You didn't react to anything."
Traveler felt his cheeks heat up a little. Some elite he was, sleeping through wake-up calls. "So, we can go now? You don't have to put on your armour, or eat breakfast, or something?"
"Nope!" Bravery said. He had reached the front door, and even though he had his telekinetic grip on it, he hadn't opened it yet. "Me and Glitter already ate before you woke up. And I don't have to wear my armour because I have to be all incognito and stuff."
"Ah. Don't let on you're a royal guard, to keep things subtle." A sensible strategy. If Traveler had a clearly visible royal guard traveling with him, it might cause the Stone's thief to do something hasty. That could be disastrous, so this was a much better solution.
"I dunno," Bravery said. "These were just orders." He pushed open the door. "But hey, let's get started, okay?" He motioned for Traveler to go ahead.
Traveler rolled his eyes and stepped outside. He was giving Bravery too much credit. "Enough talking, let's get searching." On a whim, he decided to go right. Had to start somewhere.
"Whoa, hey," Bravery said, running up to Traveler and stopping him. "Do you even know where to start?"
"No," Traveler admitted. "Do you?"
Bravery took a step back. "Uh, not exactly. Well, probably in one of the seedier districts of the city."
"Then that's where we're going," Traveler said. "Er..." He looked around. "Wherever it is. Lead the way."
Bravery nodded. "The further you get away from the castle, the more... questionable the ponies get. This way." He set off into town, with Traveler trailing behind. "I guess we'll start near the far edge of the city."
"Questionable, huh?" Traveler said. "I didn't know ponies could do anything besides be nice to each other all the time."
"Oh, far from it. Though from what I've heard, we're nowhere near as bad as changelings." Bravery chuckled. "I mean, the ones still serving Queen Chrysalis. Changelings here tend to be a bit weird, but helpful."
Traveler snorted. "Helpful? That doesn't sound like any changeling I know."
"You'd be surprised!" Bravery said. "Changelings are excellent at construction. The speed of an earth pony, combined with the mobility of a pegasus. And that sticky goop you guys can spit out is pretty useful as well."
That made sense, at least. Changelings could create a new hive at high speed, blasting pieces of rock away with magic, and keeping everything from collapsing by sticking it together. "What else are they fit to do?" Traveler asked.
"Uh, lemme see..." Bravery paused, staring up at the sky for a second. "Acting, security, fashion, baking... A lot of stuff, really."
Traveler stopped and stared at Bravery. "Okay, I can imagine acting and security, but fashion? Baking?"
"Fashion isn't that out there, is it?" Bravery continued walking. "One changeling can be any model imaginable, so they can make every style work. As for baking, I think it has something to do with you guys not needing food, so you're better at focusing on making stuff taste great."
"That... That sounds really useless," Traveler said. "Shouldn't they be doing other things? Things that aren't useless?" He quickly caught up with Bravery. "You know, like military positions?"
Bravery shrugged. "No need. Everypony can do whatever they want in Equestria, as long as they make sure they don't break any laws. Changelings are included in that."
Do whatever you want? That sounded like a recipe for disaster. Traveler didn't want to imagine what the hive would look like if changelings could do whatever they wanted there. "Anyway, enough chatting. We've got a thief to catch."
"Yes," Bravery said. "Is there anything I need to look out for? I know those guards were disguised, but what about that Stone thingie?"
"That'd be difficult," Traveler said. "The Stone constantly changes. The only way you'll be able to recognize is it by testing every single gem in the city to see if any of them contains an enormous amount of power."
"Oh. So, nothing?" Bravery scratched himself on the head. "Then how are we going to find it?"
"It was being transported in a black box, padded with red velvet cushions," Traveler said. "It might be somewhere in the city."
"A black box with red velvet cushions?" Bravery raised an eyebrow. "I thought changelings didn't have luxurious stuff like that. We'll have to ask around if somepony's seen it."
"Ask around? We can't involve more ponies in this!" Traveler said. This really didn't need to be more convoluted than it already was. Why was secrecy so hard for these ponies?!
"Like it or not, that's the best way to find stuff. Most ponies will be glad to help," Bravery said.
Traveler rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I wonder how long it'll take to find--" he started, before something heavy bumped into him, causing him to wobble a few steps to the side. "Ow."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" a feminine voice sounded. Right next to Traveler stood an orange pegasus mare, with a dark blue mane and tail, light blue eyes, and a cutie mark of a sun, shining brightly through a circle of clouds. She looked a bit dazed, probably from just slamming into the changeling's side. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Traveler said.
"You okay, miss?" Bravery asked.
The mare nodded. "Yeah, it was just a bump. I guess it was kind of literally bumping into each other, huh?" She giggled. "Anyway, I'm really sorry. Anything I can do to make it up?"
"Nah." Traveler turned to leave. "Let's go."
"Oh, sure. See you, miss!" Bravery quickly took the lead again. When he and Traveler were out of the mare's earshot, he said, "See? Glad to help."
"Bet you ten bits that wasn't a coincidence," Traveler grumbled. "I'm leaving nothing up to chance."
Bravery rolled his eyes and mumbled something. "Well, we've got to find information somewhere. We need somepony who can help us."
Suddenly, the orange mare popped up in front of Traveler. "Hey, you need help? Why didn't you say so?"
Traveler took a step back in surprise. "Wait, how did you..." He looked over his shoulder. "How'd you catch up to us that fast?"
The pegasus flapped her wings. "Duh."
Oh. Right. "Well, I don't need your help," Traveler said. "So just go away and leave me to my job." He continued on his way, pushing the mare to the side as he went.
"Uh, sorry, miss," Bravery said. "We're in a bit of a hurry." He quickly caught up to Traveler, leaving the mare behind once again. "That was kinda rude, you know."
Traveler paused and turned to Bravery. "Look, I don't know if this has gotten through yet, but I'm not here to be nice. I'm here on a mission, and way too many ponies have already gotten involved in this!"
He paced left and right. He really felt like bucking something right now. Maybe the silvery trash can at the side of the street. "I don't care about your pleasantries, or whatever! I just need to find what I'm looking for, get my normal life back, and that's it!"
The orange mare's head popped out of the trash can, balancing the lid on her head. "You're looking for something? I can help! Please?"
"NO!" Traveler shouted, slamming the lid back down and pushing the mare back into the trash can. "Get lost!"
Traveler stared at the trash can for a while, panting heavily. After blinking a few times, he managed to compose himself. "Anyway. I just need to find that black box," he said, turning back to Bravery and the orange mare. "And then-- Aaah!" He jumped back in surprise.
"You!" He pointed at the orange mare. "How'd you--" He turned back to the trash can, then back to the mare. "How'd you get out?"
The mare shrugged. "I just got out. You know, hop, and I'm out."
"B-But..." Traveler lifted the trash can's lid. Nothing inside, except for some random garbage. "I was looking at it the whole time! I didn't see you come out at all!"
The mare shrugged again. "Not the whole time, apparently."
Traveler looked at the mare, who was entirely clean, then inside the trash can. "But how..?" There had to be some sort of secret passage in there, but he couldn't see it. He leaned in further. It had to be there somewhere!
"Uh, Traveler, what're you doing?" Bravery asked.
"You saw that!" Traveler said, now hanging half inside the trash can, inspecting its insides. "She had to get out somehow!"
Bravery sighed. "So, miss. Maybe you can help us. I'm Bravery, and he's Traveler."
"Nice to meet you! My name is Summer Gale," the mare said, giving a courteous bow. "How can I help you?"
"We're looking for a black box," Bravery said. "It's got red pillows inside, and a gem."
"A black box, huh?" Summer tapped a hoof on her chin. "I think I saw a black box with red pillows in it earlier, but I dunno about a gem."
"Hey, would you look at that!" Bravery said. "Hey, Traveler, I think we've got ourselves a lead!"
"We what?!" Traveler shouted, only his hind legs sticking out of the trash can. "You know, I think she used some kind of elaborate contraption to get out of there! She's already gone, right?"
Bravery sighed again. "Where'd you see it?"
"At the edge of town," Summer said. "Somepony was selling it near the harbour."
"Great! Could you lead us there?" Bravery asked.
"Of course!" Summer said. "Gotta make up for rudely bumping into your friend somehow."
"Awesome!" Bravery said. "Let's g--"
A loud crashing interrupted him, caused by the trash can tipping over and spilling some trash into the street. It rolled back and forth as Traveler tried to get out, but to no avail. After a little while, it stopped moving. Traveler remained silent.
Bravery and Summer glanced at each other. "Er..."
A soft grumbling came from the trash can. "Help."
The Canterlot harbour is not like your usual harbour. The main reason being the complete absence of water, which wasn't all that odd, considering Canterlot was built into the side of a mountain. Not that this did anything to deter ships: instead of boats, the harbour was filled with countless airships, from small cargo ships to massive cruise liners. Around these ships, many ponies loitered about, like tourists, dock workers and the occasional sailor.
"So, where's this vendor?" Traveler asked.
"Uh..." Summer looked around the harbour. "He should be around here somewhere. Err... Ah!" She pointed at a small, shabby shed. "There it is!"
Without hesitating, Traveler barged in. The shed itself was quite boring. No signs or anything, and the inside was mostly filled with random junk. There was a counter with a gray earth pony stallion behind it. His mane and tail were a silvery white and his eyes were red, with an ugly-looking scar over the left one. "You!" Traveler said, pointing at the vendor. "I heard you got a black box around here. Give it to me."
The vendor raised an eyebrow. "What, to you? No. Besides, I already sold it."
"Then tell me who you sold it to," Traveler said. "In case you couldn't tell, it's important."
"Don't care," the vendor said. "Can't tell you anything. Client confidentiality."
"Look, termite," Traveler said, inching closer to the vendor. "I don't have time to chat with you. Just give me that info and I'll be gone."
The vendor grinned. "Or else?"
"Or else I'll give you a matching scar, but over a different cavity," Traveler growled. "Up to you."
The vendor snorted. "Try me."
"Why you..." Traveler started, rearing up. Halfway through the motion, he felt a force stopping him, keeping him in place. Upon closer inspection, his hooves were covered in a light blue aura.
"Stop it, Traveler," Bravery said. "You're scaring him."
Though the vendor's expression portrayed nothing more than annoyance, Traveler relented. "Okay, okay, let me go."
Bravery tugged on Traveler, pulling him away from the vendor, then let go. "If you keep this up, I'll have to turn you in regardless."
"Fine. Do whatever you want," Traveler said. "But not before I get what I'm looking for."
"You don't have to be so fussy about it," Summer said. "Let me handle this." She went up to the vendor, chatting with him under her breath, soft enough that Traveler couldn't overhear what they were saying.
"Right. I doubt this'll get me anywhere," Traveler said, staring at the vendor.
"You have to calm down, Traveler," Bravery said. "You won't get anything done acting like this."
"I'll get things done regardless of method," Traveler sneered. "I'm one of Her Majesty's elite. I'd like to think I know what I'm doing."
"That's not how it works around here," Bravery said. "You can't act like you're the only pony, or changeling, in the world."
"It's how I work, okay?" Traveler said. "If you don't like that, just do your job as fast as possible so I can act like that somewhere else." He continued staring at the vendor. Maybe there was some kind of ledger in the store, or something containing the information of his clients. Traveler just had to find out where.
Throughout his conversation with Summer, the vendor didn't let anything on. He spoke too softly for Traveler to hear, and Summer didn't provide any cues. If this continued, Traveler might be forced to resort to a bit more legally questionable actions.
After a while, Summer thanked the vendor and went back to Traveler and Bravery. "I've got what we need!" she said. "He sold the box to some artsy type, who requested the box to be sent to a warehouse a few blocks away."
Traveler stared at her, wide-eyed. "How in the hive did you manage to get him to tell you that?"
Summer shrugged. "I asked nicely."
"See?" Bravery said.
"Impossible," Traveler said. "You must've used some kind of persuasion method."
"Uh..." Summer scratched herself on the head with a hoof. "Does saying 'please' and 'thank you' count as persuasion?"
"Wh... But I... How?!" Traveler tried going over it again and again in his head, but it simply didn't make sense. After a while, he decided to just give up. This whole concept was beyond him, for now. "Look, let's just go to that warehouse, okay?"
"Yeah, I know where it is. Follow me!" Summer said, heading outside.
Bravery followed after her, but Traveler lingered in the store for a second. The vendor quickly slipped away, to a room behind the counter. How was it possible to nicely ask a pony like that for information, and have him comply? Thinking about it made Traveler's head hurt. He knew ponies were soft, but this was a new low. However, the enigma that was the regular pony's mind would have to wait, as Traveler quickly headed outside.
Like Summer said, their next location was only a few streets away, so the trip wasn't long. The warehouse the box was supposedly delivered to was pretty small. Pretty dirty, too, as it was all run down. The windows were dusty and cracked, the paint on the wall peeled off in places, and the door was secured with only a rusty old padlock. There was a sign hanging on the door.
"Huh," Summer said, walking up to the sign. "Opening times? That's weird. Must be some kinda super exclusive warehouse!"
Traveler rolled his eyes. More like super terrible warehouse. "Let's just get inside."
"Can't," Summer said. "Look." She pointed at the sign. Listed on it were the opening times of the warehouse, like she said. Fairly normal times, with it being closed on Fridays and weekends.
"So?" Traveler said. "This isn't a problem."
"It kinda is," Bravery said. "It's Friday, so the place is closed for the next three days." He leaned in closer to the sign, thoroughly scanning it. "I don't see any contact information here, either. Maybe we can ask that salespony?"
"No, he told me I couldn't get back to him to ask more questions," Summer said. "Something about having had enough threats for the day and closing shop early."
"Not important," Traveler said. "Entry is easy. The windows aren't secured, so I can get in through one of those, grab the box, and get out. Easier than taking a love crystal from a nymph."
"No, Traveler." Bravery frowned. "You can't do that. It's--"
"--against the law, and you can't let me do that," Traveler finished, scowling. "Right. Is that really so bad, considering the importance of what we're looking for here?"
"Regardless, I can't let you do that," Bravery said. "I can't just forfeit my job."
"Then do you have any other suggestions?" Traveler asked. "Wait around and see? Go follow one of those other leads we don't have?!"
Bravery took a step back. "I... don't know." He gave a stern frown. "I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is."
"Oh, oh! I know!" Summer excitedly said, flying up behind Traveler. "We can do this!" She put her hooves on the corners of the changeling's mouth, pulling them up.
"Whah ih thih?" Traveler asked. This was hurting his mouth.
"Well, you've got a bit of trouble talking to ponies," Summer said. "You need to be a bit nicer!"
Traveler frowned. "I hon'h hee--"
"That's not a bad idea," Bravery said. "If you want to get around normally in the city, you'll have to treat ponies with a little bit more respect."
"Yeah!" Summer said. "So no more frownies, and more smilies!" She took her hooves off Traveler's mouth, and instead used them to push up his eyebrows, removing his frowns. This also caused the corners of his mouth to dip down again, which Summer decided also needed keeping up, so she alternated between the two. Eventually, she decided to stick one hoof on Traveler's forehead, and another on one corner of his mouth.
"It'll be worth it, I promise," Bravery said. "Ponies will let a lot more slide if you're nice, and the princesses might give you some more leeway as well."
"Leeway?" Traveler repeated. "That'd be... useful." Maybe he could somehow prove he didn't need a foalsitter. Make it so he could get rid of Bravery, walk around the city on his own again. That'd certainly open up new possibilities. Or rather, old ones that had previously become unavailable. "Alright, let's do it."
"Woohoo!" Summer let go of Traveler, flying up and making a loop-dee-loop. "Now, I don't mean to brag," she said, landing again, "but I'm the nicest of nice. It's even my special talent!" She all but shoved her rear in Traveler's face, causing him to take a step back. "See? I can make anypony's day the brightest ever!"
"...And?" Traveler asked.
"So I can teach you!" Summer whirled around again. "And totally for free, too. That's just how nice I am," she said with a smirk.
Traveler glanced at Bravery, who merely gave a confused shrug. "Uh, sure. Show me," Traveler said. "Teach me how I can be nice."
Ugh. That might just have been the second dumbest thing he'd ever heard, along with the dumbest thing he ever heard himself say. Regardless, it was necessary. And besides, how hard could being nice be? |
Traveler's Exile | Chapter 6 | "Being nice is very, very easy," Summer said, leading Traveler and Bravery through the streets of Canterlot. "But before we start, I want to see how good you are." She grabbed Traveler and turned him to face Bravery. "Show me!"
Traveler raised an eyebrow. "I don't get it. Show you what?"
"Show me how nice you can be," Summer said. "Ask Bravery how he's doing, and about his day."
"This is ridiculous," Traveler grumbled. But if ridiculous was going to give him freedom, then ridiculous it was. Rolling his eyes, he deadpanned, "How're you doing, Bravery? How's your day? There. I--" A sudden, sharp pain on his muzzle interrupted him. "Ow!"
Summer spat out the ruler she was holding in her mouth. "Wrong!"
"What was that for?!" Traveler complained, rubbing his sore muzzle. "And where'd you get that ruler?"
"I keep one on hoof, just in case," Summer said. "But that's not the point. You didn't even let poor Bravery answer! And you could've been a bit more enthusiastic."
"Yeah, Traveler." Bravery smirked. "You really hurt my feelings."
Traveler narrowed his eyes at the guard. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
Bravery shrugged. "Telling you that isn't part of my job description."
"Now, now, Bravery," Summer said. "Be nice to Traveler. He needs a good role model."
"What? Why me?" Bravery sputtered.
Summer picked her ruler up again and glared at the royal guard.
"Okay ma'am," Bravery meekly said, cowering ever so slightly.
"Now then, Traveler." Summer stowed her ruler in her tail. "To be nice, you have to say 'please' and 'thank you'. You have to let ponies talk, say what they want, and most importantly, you have to be interested."
Traveler stared at her. "I think you're going a bit too fast here. Do what now?"
"Better idea," Summer said. She fetched a little bag out of her tail and gave it to Traveler. "We're almost at the market. Once we're there, you can use this money to buy something. When you do that, try to be as nice as possible to the salespony, okay?"
Traveler slowly nodded. "Alright, but... How do I do that?"
"I'll tell you once we're there," Summer said, walking towards the market.
"Come on," Bravery said, following after Summer with Traveler in tow. "All the other changelings can do it, so I'm pretty sure you can, too."
"I'm absolutely sure," Traveler said. "That is, if I don't decide it's stupid and quit at some point."
"I'm sure you'll find it's worth it," Bravery said, chuckling.
A couple of seconds later, the trio found themselves in the marketplace. It was pretty much the way Traveler remembered it: crowded, filled with many, many different stalls and ponies, and the sweet scent of Sweetheart's stand filled the air. Even though Traveler wasn't hungry, the smell made him crave love crystals.
"There," Summer said, pointing at a simple fruit stand. "You should try that stand. I know the owner, she's very nice."
"Okay," Traveler said. "So what do I do?"
"Ask her for a box of cherries," Summer said. "Be courteous. Let her speak when she wants to, say 'please' and 'thank you', and don't forget to smile!" She gave Traveler a push towards the stand. "Now just go try it out!"
"O-Okay," Traveler said, taking the last few steps himself. The stand was simple enough, made up of a little counter with various fruits on top, and a drab, green tent standing over it.
Behind the counter was a bluish-green unicorn mare with an orange mane and tail and brown eyes, wearing a cream-coloured apron. "Hello, sir! How may I help you?"
"Uh, one box of cherries," Traveler said. "Please?" He thought for a second, before remembering to add a smile. He did so, curling up the corners of his mouth the best he could.
The salespony took a step back, a look of horror on her face. "Uh, okay, one second." She hastily turned around and grabbed a box of cherries, throwing it on the counter. "That'll be three bits." For some odd reason, she still held her distance.
Traveler raised an eyebrow. He was pretty sure this wasn't how salesponies were supposed to act, but okay. He took three bits out of Summer's bag and put them on the counter. "Tha--"
"We appreciate your patronage, now please move along as there are other waiting customers!" the salespony said, cutting Traveler off.
Traveler looked around. There wasn't even anyling there, let alone customers. The stall was absolutely deserted aside from himself and the salespony. "Err, okay," he said, dropping his smile. While he wanted to argue with the mare, it probably wasn't the nicest thing to do. He took the bag of bits in his mouth, and the box of cherries in his hooves, and flew back to Bravery and Summer.
"So, how'd it go?" Bravery asked. "She looked at you kinda weird."
Traveler gave the bag and box to Summer. "I don't know," he said. "I was just doing what Summer told me and she became scared."
"Okay, so... When exactly did she become scared?" Summer asked.
"When I smiled," Traveler said. "Like this." He flashed the other two the exact same smile he gave the salespony.
Bravery reared up in surprise and took a step back. "Holy moly, that's the most terrifying thing I've ever seen!"
"Please stop doing that!" Summer kept her eyes shut tight, waving a hoof in Traveler's direction. "It's awful!"
"Uh... Wow." Traveler quickly dropped the smile, returning to his usual scowl. "So, don't do that again."
"Yes. Please," Bravery said, gasping for air. "Never do that again."
"It's that bad?" Traveler asked. "It can't possibly be that bad." He searched for the nearest reflective surface. On the other side of the street was a shop with tall windows, which would suffice. Traveler went over and put on his smile, looking at his reflection.
He had to quickly look away, as his reflection looked like a monstrous abomination, straight out of Tartarus, with wicked, curled lips, a horrible grin and eyes that pierced one's very soul, obliterating it piece by piece. It was, without a doubt, the most horrifying thing Traveler had ever seen.
"See?" Summer asked. "You know, I think it'd be nicer of you if you didn't smile at ponies."
"Oh come on, it's not that..." Traveler trailed off, carefully considering what he just saw. "Okay, it is pretty bad," he said, turning back to Bravery and Summer. "What now?"
"We'll try it without smiling," Summer said. "Just your language. You did say 'please' and 'thank you', right?"
Traveler nodded. "Well, I tried thanking her, but she cut me off before I could. Which, strangely enough, isn't very nice, is it?"
"No," Summer said, "but you did show her the scariest thing ever."
"I guess you're right," Traveler said. "So, what now?"
"Let's try this again," Summer said, "but this time, without smiling, okay?" She looked around the market for a moment, pointing at a pink and white stand after a while. "How about that one over there?"
Traveler shrugged. "Might as well try," he said, accepting Summer's bag of bits again. As he walked towards the little stand, he thought it looked quite familiar, but he couldn't say why.
A few moments later, it was abundantly clear, as the stand's owner popped up from under the counter: a changeling with a messy, pink mane. "Hi there!" Sweetheart said, waving at Traveler. "Can I help you with--"
As she noticed Traveler's scarf, she trailed off and grimaced. "Oh, ouch. Sorry."
Traveler stared at her for a moment, then looked at his scarf. "What, this?" he said, absent-mindedly touching it. "You know, noling noticed it before."
"Really?" Sweetheart asked. "That's awful. You okay?"
"As okay as I can be right now, I guess," Traveler said. "Thanks." As soon as the word left his mouth, he looked at Sweetheart, eyes wide. "Uh, I mean, I... It's--"
Sweetheart giggled. "Don't worry. Being treated nicely sometimes makes you say weird stuff." She ducked behind her counter, reappearing a moment later and sliding a love crystal towards Traveler. "Here, you can have this."
Traveler looked at the bag of bits he was holding in one hoof. "Actually, I wanted to buy a box," he said. "Er, please."
"Coming right up, sir!" Sweetheart said, quickly diving under the counter again.
After a few moments of hesitation, Traveler spoke up. "Hey, tell me something. Why do you live here?"
Sweetheart popped back up. "Why do I live here?" She looked up for a moment, tapping a hoof on her chin. "Because my house is here."
"No, I mean, why did you decide to live in Equestria, instead of the hive?" Traveler asked.
"Oh!" Sweetheart said. "At first, I was just checking out the rumours. I mean, who wouldn't want to live with a free lifetime supply of love within hoof's reach?"
Traveler shrugged. He had to admit, that would entice many changelings, himself included.
"Anyway, that's why I decided to come here and take a look," Sweetheart continued, "and I actually made some pony friends, and from one thing came another. After a while, the all-you-can-eat buffet doesn't really matter anymore."
"How so?" Traveler asked, raising an eyebrow. As far as he knew, feeding was the most important thing to any changeling. After being a good servant to Queen Chrysalis, that is.
Sweetheart raised a hoof, ready to answer, but she quickly withdrew it, instead pensively tapping her chin with it. "Hm. Never really thought about that. It's kinda complicated, too."
"Complicated?" Traveler repeated. "How?"
"After hanging around ponies for a while, I just felt... different," Sweetheart said. "Yeah, that's it. Different."
Traveler gave her a deadpan look. "Yeah, I got that you guys are different, all right."
Sweetheart giggled. "No, not like that. The way of life here is just much more different. Instead of doing and saying as you're told, which is best in the hive, it's better to do and say like you feel is best."
"So, you mean, not thinking like a changeling?" Traveler said, raising an eyebrow. He was doing his best to understand what Sweetheart was saying, but this was really confusing.
"No, no," Sweetheart said, before pausing for a second. "Well, yes. A little. I still think like a changeling, but I do what I want to do, not what I'm told to do. More freedom, and a better life to boot. I do have to find out a whole lot of confusing stuff by myself."
Traveler gave her a blank stare. "You've lost me. How can not being guided by Queen Chrysalis improve your life? She always strives to give everyling the best lives possible."
Sweetheart shrugged. "I dunno. All I know is, living among ponies is different, but I prefer it above living in the hive, to be honest. So far, I've just been going with the flow. Maybe I can give you a better answer some other time."
"Maybe," Traveler said, a wry smile crossing over his face. "But then I'd have to come talk to you again."
Sweetheart gave a huge grin. "Hey, that sounds like a good idea! Come back tomorrow, and I promise I'll be able to tell you what you need, okay?"
Traveler stared at her. That wasn't exactly the answer he had expected. He briefly glanced back at Bravery and Summer. Maybe going along with this would help him be 'nice', or at least being viewed as such.
"Are they your friends?" Sweetheart said, nodding in the direction of Bravery and Summer. "I'm sure they're nice."
Traveler briefly looked back at Bravery and Summer again. Were they? It didn't feel like it. "I'm... not sure," he said, turning back to Sweetheart. "So far, they do seem to have... not entirely bad intentions. Or at least, that's what they want me to think, I think."
Sweetheart giggled again. "Don't be so suspicious! They don't have anything to hide from you. And if they do, it's probably some weird secret about being really scared of confetti or something."
Traveler raised an eyebrow at her. "That's... awfully specific."
"Uh, I know a stallion," Sweetheart said, giving a huge, fake grin. "Yup. A pony stallion has that. I definitely heard it somewhere." She paused, the grin slowly disappearing from her face. "Don't judge me, okay?"
Traveler opened his mouth to retort, but reconsidered as he did so. Normally, going with changeling standards, he'd tell her she's ridiculous, a terrible excuse for a changeling, and definitely not worth being around. But on the other hoof... "You know, I've seen some weird stuff lately. I'll just pretend you didn't say anything."
Sweetheart let out a sigh of relief. "Great. You know what?" She reached under the counter and set a box of crystal hearts in front of Traveler. "This one's on the house as well, because you're such a cool changeling."
Traveler stared at the box, then at the sack of bits in his hoof, and then at Sweetheart. "That's... very generous of you. Thanks." He stared at the box again and narrowed his eyes. Maybe a little bit too generous.
"I know what you're thinking," Sweetheart said, "but no, I'm just doing this because I like you, okay? No ulterior motives or complicated schemes or anything." She pushed the box towards Traveler. "Take it!"
Traveler gave her one last suspicious look. "Well, okay..." He switched the sack of bits to his mouth and grabbed the box. Seeing as talking to Sweetheart any further would only accomplish dropping what he was holding right now, Traveler just nodded in her direction.
"No problem!" Sweetheart said, waving at him. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
The only thing keeping Traveler from giving a weary sigh was the bag of bits in his mouth.
"Oh, by the way, you never gave me your name," Sweetheart said.
Traveler rolled his eyes. Figures. He took the bag of bits out of his mouth, now awkwardly juggling his hooves between holding two things and attempting to keep his balance. "They call me Traveler."
"Huh, that's weird," Sweetheart said. "I called a pony that yesterday. Oh well. My name's--"
"Sweetheart," Traveler finished. "I know. It's on your sign and everything."
"Oh, right," Sweetheart said, giggling. She leaned over the counter and looked up. "Hey, wait, I forgot to put it up today!"
Traveler looked up. She was right, the sign was missing. "I, uh... I walked past your stand yesterday, when you didn't forget it."
"Ah, that explains," Sweetheart said. "Though I don't think I'd have missed you walking around, with such a... noticeable scarf."
"Maybe you were looking the other way," Traveler said. "Because I definitely didn't talk to you, I just passed by." Yes, that's correct. Amazing save there. If this kept up, Traveler wasn't going to keep his job as an elite, and would probably be demoted to hive janitor, or something. "I'll get going now," he said, quickly putting the bag of bits back in his mouth and hurrying towards Bravery and Summer.
"Hey there, champ!" Summer said as soon as the awkward changeling approached. "Looks like that went much better, huh?"
Traveler quickly gave both the bag and the box to Summer, who somehow managed to store both away in her tail. "Yeah, it did. How can you tell?"
"It's pretty obvious," Bravery said. "Because of this." He pointed at his own mouth. "And also this," he said, pointing at his forehead.
Traveler raised an eyebrow. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Bravery sighed and rolled his eyes. "You know, for an elite, you're surprisingly slow on the uptake." He grabbed Traveler and shoved him in front of the same window he checked his reflection in earlier.
"This is..." Traveler said. In contrast to his earlier reflection, which had made him looking an abominable, horrifying monstrosity, this one was a lot more pleasant. His frown was gone, for starters. On top of that, the corners of his mouth were angled slightly upward, showing a little bit of his teeth. A soft, pleasant smile. Sadly, it quickly faded, giving way for a look of confusion. "Weird," Traveler finished.
"But it looks pretty good, right?" Summer said, gingerly flying above him. "Much better than a frowny face."
"I don't know," Traveler said. He tried putting on a frown again, like usual, but that turned out to be surprisingly hard. His mind kept wandering to his conversation with Sweetheart, trying to find out what made him smile like this, which in turn made the smile reappear on his face. "I guess it's not too bad."
"Yay! See?" Summer said, making loops and corkscrews while whooping with joy. "I knew you'd like it! You'll fit in in no time at all!"
"There's more?" Traveler's mouth fell open. "I thought this was it!"
"Well, no," Summer said. "There's a whole lot of other things, such as..." She paused, hanging completely still in the air, only flapping her wings. "Uh..." Her legs and head drooped. "I dunno." Her mood made another one-eighty, as she quickly perked up. "I just need some time to come up with the rest of our lesson plan!"
"It better not take too long," Traveler said, scowling. "I'm on a tight schedule here."
"Now, now," Bravery said. "Be nice to her." He added a big grin. "And no more frowning."
Traveler groaned. "Fine, fine." He lifted his eyebrows a little and raised the corners of his mouth, although it now looked more like a particularly pained grimace. "Happy now?"
Bravery shrugged. "Eh, that'll do for now."
"Let's just call it quits for today. You made a lot of progress, Traveler!" Summer said. "I'm proud of you."
"Proud?" Traveler parroted. "That's a strange choice of words."
Summer flew to eye level and raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Why?" She briefly looked at Bravery. "Proud is good, right?"
"A bit exaggerated maybe, but it's fine," Bravery said. "I just think our changeling pal isn't used to it."
"No," Traveler said. "No, I'm not. It sounds weird. And it makes me feel weird, too."
"Well," Summer said, looking back at Traveler. "Weird is also good."
Traveler mulled it over for a while. 'Weird' was really the only way he could describe it. An entirely new feeling, but it was sort of pleasant. Though it was also confusing and somewhat unsettling, but that was likely because of the newness of the experience.
He sighed. Maybe he was overthinking everything. What was it Sweetheart had said earlier? Go with the flow, or something like that. Seeing as stubbornly resisting was currently getting him nowhere, it seemed like a good idea for Traveler to take that advice to heart. Just a little, though. He couldn't risk getting all sentimental.
"You know, that reminds me," Bravery said. "I think it's something changelings often say when they've been in Equestria for a little while. 'Friendship is weird.' Don't know where they got it from, though."
"So you're saying that this feeling is friendship?" Traveler shivered. To think that he, of all changelings, would become this sappy!
"Yeah!" Summer said. "Don't you like it?"
"Of course n--" Traveler started, but something made him reconsider. A nagging little feeling, somewhere in his chest. Rationally speaking, the feeling of friendship was utterly useless. Nothing could be gained out of it, other than wasted time. And Traveler wasn't very fond of that. On the other hoof, it did feel nice. And when was the last time he felt genuinely good? He couldn't even remember. Ultimately, only a dissatisfied grumble left his throat. "I don't know."
"Well, that's better than a 'no'," Bravery said. "But hey, it takes every changeling some time to adapt."
Traveler shrugged. This was all getting too confusing. Taking a little break from being paranoid and going with the flow definitely sounded like a good idea right now. "Whatever. So, what's on the schedule for tomorrow? Going back to the market would be convenient, because I have to meet Sweetheart again."
"Oooh, you've got a date?" Summer said, her eyes suddenly growing to enormous size. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" She swept Traveler up in a gigantic hug. "This is so amazing!" She suddenly dropped Traveler, gasping. "You need to get her a present! How else can you be the perfect nice gentlecolt?" She took a quick glance at Traveler again. "Err, gentleling. What do you guys call it?"
Traveler picked himself up from the ground, grumbling while wiping the dust from his body. "How should I know? And it's not a date like that. She was just offering to explain to me why she's living here. She couldn't right now, so I'm heading back tomorrow."
"So what you're saying is, you have a gal-pal," Bravery said, grinning. "Don't worry, buddy. Your secret's safe with me. Nopony's gonna know the big bad elite has a soft spot."
Traveler groaned. "Yes. Fine. If I admit, can we get a move on?"
"Yeah, yeah," Bravery said, chuckling. "I'm just kidding. We'll go back here tomorrow. Let's just look at it as part of your lessons in niceness."
"It kind of is, isn't it?" Summer said, landing on the ground. She pensively tapped a hoof on her chin. "Talking to her already helped a lot, maybe you'll make another step forward, Traveler."
"Maybe," Traveler said. He was more looking forward to finally hearing some reason as to why changelings would stay in Equestria, though. He felt like Sweetheart could give him a satisfying answer, though he didn't know why.
"Traveler, we should go back home," Bravery said. "It's getting late, and I don't want Glitter scolding me because I'm late for dinner." After a second or two, he muttered, "Again."
"Sure." Traveler nodded. Not like there was anything left to do on the market. "I suppose dinner would be... fine."
"I should be getting home, too," Summer said. "I got a lot of things left to do! Water the dishes, wash the plants, stuff like that. Err..." She became lost in thought for a moment. "I think I have those two mixed up. I never water the dishes before I wash the plants."
Bravery gave an awkward grin. "Sure, you go do that, we'll head back home. We'll meet up here tomorrow afternoon, okay?"
"Yes, sir!" Summer said, giving a salute, followed by a giggle. "Bye Bravery! Bye Traveler!" She quickly jumped up and took off, heading towards a different part of the city.
Bravery watched her for a few seconds, until she disappeared behind the various buildings of the city. "She sure is odd."
"Tell me about it," Traveler said. "I sometimes can't make up my mind about who's crazier. Ponies, or the changelings living with them."
"We're all equally crazy," Bravery said, heading off towards his home.
Traveler quickly followed after him. So far, Bravery was right. The boundary between crazy ponies and crazy changelings was getting more and more vague. The only thing he hadn't seen yet was a pony acting like a changeling.
After a few moments, Bravery suddenly stopped and turned to Traveler. "Okay, stop. You're not going to address this at all?"
"Address what?" Traveler said, raising an eyebrow.
"This morning, you were furious," Bravery said. "Grumpy, short fuse, aggressive, that kind of stuff. But now, you're completely different!"
Traveler raised his other eyebrow. "I am?" Both of his eyebrows jointly went down, forming a frown. "You've got to be wrong. I didn't change anything."
"Yeah, you did," Bravery said. "After you talked to Sweatheart, or whatever her name is, you suddenly mellowed out. What did she say to you?"
Traveler growled. "There's nothing different about me, okay? And her name's Sweetheart!"
"Aha!" Bravery said, prodding Traveler's muzzle with a hoof. "I thought you didn't like changelings having names?"
Traveler took a step back, confused. "Well, that's... Yeah, but I... I have my reasons, okay? She just said... That she was sorry."
Now, it was Bravery's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Sorry? For what?"
Traveler looked down, glumly raising his scarf. "This. She was the first to notice this."
"Oh, that thing," Bravery said. "It's the symbol of your exile, right? That's gotta feel terrible."
Traveler nodded, but didn't look up. "Worst thing in my life. Her just noticing it, and not pitying me felt... liberating. Like this dumb piece of cloth wasn't there, for just a short moment."
Bravery sighed, then went over to Traveler and put a hoof on his shoulder. "I don't understand it completely, and I can't even imagine how painful it must be to be exiled, but for what it's worth, you've got my support."
Traveler slowly looked up at Bravery. He was expecting many things, but not this. A rough dismissal at least, even a scolding would've been fine, but this surprised him. "Thanks, Bravery. And I'm sorry for the way I acted. I've always stuck to the rules of the hive whenever I was there, so I think I can obey pony laws for as long as I'm here."
"You're getting along just fine, given the whole exile thing," Bravery said. "Deep down, you're pretty okay. There are ponies out there who are worse than you."
Traveler snorted. "Really? I doubt that."
Bravery sighed. "Oh, you wouldn't believe it. Some nobles..." His voice trailed off, ending in a low growl. "But enough about that. We should get home."
"Of course," Traveler said. "Lead the way."
As the two of them continued, Traveler couldn't help but remember one thing, if only for a very short time. He was taking these lessons in being nice so he could get rid of Bravery sometime soon. But against all expectations, that didn't seem like such an admirable goal anymore. |
Imperfect | pre | "I'll have you know, I'm not big on answering questions," The Doctor said plainly.
Rainbow Dash hit the roof. "Oh, is that so? Maybe I can acquaint my hooves with your face! Maybe then you'll feel like answering some questions?"
"Yes, why don't you do that? Lose the only friend you keep while you're at it? Sounds like a well thought out plan to me," the Doctor said sarcastically.
Rainbow Dash stopped, he was right. Rainbow couldn't beat him senselessly. Twilight wouldn't approve, and considering she already knew how the future went, she couldn't afford to lose her friendship, but then another thought dawned on her, if she knew what happened, then beating some sense into the Doctor wouldn't change that, at least by her own logic.
"I know that look," the Doctor said. "Time can be rewritten. Your choices still affect things to come, you make a choice, and you'll have to deal with the consequences."
Rainbow scowled at him. "Get out of here. Stop watching me."
"Fair enough!" the Doctor said cheerfully, rising from the bench, he trotted off around the corner, gone from view when Rainbow peeked around after him.
How did he do that?
"Rainbow? What are you doing?" Twilight's voice called out to her.
Rainbow turned around to see Twilight standing at the balcony of the Library looking down at her. "Oh... nothing, just getting some air," Rainbow Dash said back to her, she leapt into the air and flew up to the balcony, landing gently on it. "We need to talk." ...
"What in Equestria could Pinkie Pie want with that old rope?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Why do you even have that? I mean, I understand Applejack having some, but you?"
"There are plenty of... everyday uses for a six metre coil of rope." Twilight said, Rainbow could tell that she was blushing.
"Oh please don't tell me that you like being tied up!" Rainbow exclaimed at her.
Twilight turned bright red. "I... never have, so I don't know..."
Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "Tell me something, how does the sheltered-social-avoidant- bookworm-type end up being interested in every kink known to pony-kind?"
"I... read, a lot," Twilight said simply, her face glowing red at this point.
Rainbow Dash facehoofed again. ...
Snap!
The branch that Pinkie Pie had attached the rope to had not been strong enough to support the pony's weight, Pinkie Pie fell to the ground, branch tumbling after her and striking her in the head.
The reflection of Pinkie Pie burst out laughing. "You... just can't... do anything right can you?" She asked between gasps for air.
Pinkie Pie buried her head under her hooves, trying to ignore the reflection, which was getting louder and louder the more she tried ignore it. She burst into tears. The reflection's cruelty had worn her down to the point of breaking.
"What do you want?" Pinkie Pie asked.
The reflection stopped laughing. "Oh my dear, sweet, Pinkie Pie," the reflection said, feigning sweetness. "All I've ever wanted was what was best for us!"
"What's best for us?" Pinkie asked.
"Come, I'll show you."
Pinkie Pie rose to her hooves, and followed the hallucination before her, unsure of where she was being led to. The rope still tugged at her neck, dragging along the tree branch pathetically behind her. She only hoped that wherever they were going, it would be close to easy means of escape. ...
Rainbow Dash made dinner this night. Unfortunately for them both, Rainbow was a far worse chef than even Twilight. Rainbow recalled a time that seemed long ago, after she started living on her own, cooking was a problem for her. Even the simplest dish would be ruined by her touching it. She even messed up salads!
How someone could mess up something as simple as that was beyond her, but despite her shortcomings in the kitchen, Rainbow Dash had thrown something together that was at least (somewhat) edible.
"Are... these mashed potatoes?" Twilight asked. Rainbow's heart sank.
"That's a salad Twilight," the Pegasus reported.
"How about I just cook from now on?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow grinned at her. "I think both our stomachs will appreciate it."
After a few hours of talking Rainbow Dash helped Twilight into bed, she tucked the injured pony in and bidding her goodnight.
Rainbow Dash went back downstairs, upon reaching the bottom, her head began to split. She collapsed at the bottom of the stairs, blacking out. ...
"Hi Rainbow Dash!" a cheerful, enthusiastic voice from behind her called out. Rainbow Dash jumped in surprise, causing her to drop the 10mm pistol from her mouth. Rainbow Dash turned around to ream the pony that frightened her while she had an incredibly deadly weapon on her.
Rainbow Dash stopped herself from yelling when she discovered that it was Scootaloo. She must have flashed to some point before sabotaging the weather engines.
"Scootaloo... don't do that," Rainbow Dash said calmly, she pointed to the fallen pistol with her hoof. "These are very dangerous. Do not go near anypony who has one out. Understand?"
"Sorry Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo said with a frown. "I promise!"
Rainbow Dash smiled at the Pegasus filly. "It's okay squirt. What are you doing out here?"
"Oh! Me, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Bell are going camping!" Scootaloo said excitedly. "We're going to try and be Cutie Mark Crusader Wilderness Survivalists! We're leaving right now, but I saw you and wanted to say Hi!"
Rainbow Dash's heart sank. She'd flashed to the day that she sabotaged the Cloudsdale Weather Engine. She knew exactly what was going to happen to Scootaloo and her friends tonight. Rainbow Dash had half a mind to try and warn them off from doing it, but she chose not to, it wouldn't have made any difference. Scootaloo was young; the very young rarely do as they're told. Somepony telling them not to do something was going to make them want to do it even more.
"All right, have fun squirt. I heard it's supposed to be cold tonight, so be sure to bundle up!" Rainbow Dash said, knowing that it wouldn't help in the slightest.
"I will! Bye Rainbow Dash! See you when we've got our cutie marks!" Scootaloo said, dashing off.
Rainbow struggled to hold back the tears. It wasn't fair. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Bell were so terribly young. So full of life, and they were going to die. Rainbow Dash stiffened her resolve. Because she knew that if she didn't destroy the weather engines that they would die anyway. The gryphons would use the weather engines to kill every pony in Equestria if they could.
So not fair. I destroy the engine, Scootaloo dies. I don't destroy the engine, Scootaloo dies, some choice that is.
Rainbow Dash stiffened her resolve; she picked up the 10mm pistol and placed it back in her saddlebag. She had a country to save. ...
Standing outside the Library was the Doctor and Derpy Hooves. Derpy smiled at her, Rainbow Dash returned it to her.
"Doctor," Rainbow Dash said, looking at the earth pony.
The Doctor smiled warmly at her. "Hello Rainbow Dash!"
"Can we go over the plan? Just one more time?" Derpy asked.
The Doctor nodded. "We know that the gryphons are moving on Cloudsdale tonight, kangaroo armoured cavalry has reported a large contingent of airborne infantry on its way here. The Cloudsdale militia will do their best to hold them off... but with no training and no possible support from the kangaroos, they're not going to last long. Rainbow Dash, you have one job, ensure Derpy's survival, she can't handle a weapon with her vision and is going in unarmed."
The Doctor opened his saddlebag and pulled out a slender metal rod with a blue tip. "Derpy will use this to sabotage the weather engine... but in case something should go wrong, Rainbow, pressing down on the button on the end will activate it. Point it at the weather engines and it'll take care of itself from there."
The Doctor frowned. "I'd go and do it myself... but unfortunately I can't fly. So I'm trusting you. The faster you can get this done, the more likely the gryphons will see that they're wasting their time and pull back. Good luck."
Rainbow Dash nodded, the sun was setting rapidly, and they had 10 minutes to get to Cloudsdale before it hit the fan at the most.
Rainbow thought of Scootaloo again. I destroy the engine, Scootaloo dies. I don't destroy the engine, Scootaloo dies. It's not fair. Not fair at all.
The two pegasi leapt into the air. They had work to do. |
Imperfect | Chapter 7 | Chapter 7
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to find she was laying at the bottom of the stairs of the Ponyville Library, a surge of panic filled the pegasi mare; her flash had ended with her in the air. Rainbow Dash was fine here and now... but if her future consciousness didn't take back control of the situation quickly...
Rainbow didn't want to think about what might have happened. Her other flashes had clearly taken place after the one she'd just finished, so she had to have ended up fine. She also knew that there was still a fine line between ending up okay, and being unharmed.
Rainbow Dash rose to her hooves. These flashed needed to stop, she wanted to live in one period of time all the time from now on. No more of this going back and forth between the two, nonsense.
She opened the front door and stepped outside, it was mid-morning, and she looked down to the end of the High Street and discovered a sight that she was very happy to see.
Vinyl Scratch and company had returned.
Rainbow Dash galloped at full speed towards the unicorn and dove at her, giving her the most sincere combination of hug and tackle that either had ever seen.
"Heh, I missed you too Rainbow Dash," Vinyl said with a grin. Both mares got up and Rainbow greeted the rest of the group in turn. Rainbow Dash wouldn't really call herself friends with any of them, but she was happy to have them back all the same.
The group quickly scattered, Big Macintosh and Braeburn needed to get back to the farm. Derpy had to report in at the post office. Lyra and Bon Bon declared that they were going to get wonderful sleep in a nice comfortable bed. Trixie too needed to rest after the long journey. The kangaroo tank co-driver, Trooper Benjamin Willoughby needed to report to his commanding officer, Sergeant Tebbs. With that only Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch, and were left standing in the High Street.
Rainbow hugged the unicorn once again. She hadn't heard a single bit of information about Vinyl Scratch during any of her flash forwards, she couldn't be sure that the unicorn wasn't destined to meet a terrible fate.
"My my! Somepony clearly missed me, maybe we should get a room before anypony else starts looking," Vinyl said with a grin.
"Ha ha," Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. "You're so funny Vinyl Scratch."
"I know right? Ain't I grand?" Vinyl said. Rainbow smiled at her. After Pinkie Pie had lost her mind and attacked them, she needed somepony to help lighten the mood.
"Come on, walk with me, I got a lot to talk to you about," Rainbow Dash said. ...
"Woah, that's heavy stuff man," Vinyl said frowning. The two of them were sitting in the Ponyville Library, Rainbow Dash having just given her a rundown of what she had been experiencing.
Rainbow Dash nodded. "I'm not going to lie, if it wasn't for Twilight, I would have probably gone insane trying to make sense of it."
Vinyl looked at her, a grin forming on her face. "You're hitting that aren't you?"
Rainbow Dash turned bright red. "Well, not now... but in the future... yeah."
"Cool!" Vinyl said, grinning madly. "I would too."
Rainbow Dash gave her friend a sidelong look. "You would 'hit' anypony that's currently breathing."
"This is the truth." ...
Twilight came down the stairs to find Vinyl and Rainbow Dash sitting on the sofa, she trotted over and gave Vinyl Scratch a hug. Vinyl responded by planting a kiss on Twilight's lips.
Twilight turned beat red. Vinyl grinned like a madpony. "Well dayum! Now I know why Rainbow likes you! I'm reminded of a song that goes something like 'You gotta share, you gotta care...' Rainbow I think you should listen to that song and learn from it."
Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash glowed red in embarrassment. Vinyl Scratch was Vinyl Scratch all right.
"Stop that! There will be no late night cuddling from either of us!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"Heh, your loss!" Vinyl said.
They all broke out into laughter. ...
Vinyl would be joining them in living at the Library. Rainbow Dash insisted that the unicorn take Pinkie Pie's now unoccupied bed, she had grown accustomed to the sofa, or at least had reported that this was so. In reality, she rarely slept on it, due to the fact that she kept blacking out in every square centimetre of the Library but the sofa. Night had fallen; Rainbow Dash figured it was only a matter of time before she flashed forward again. She hadn't admitted it to either of her unicorn house-mates, but she was terrified of where she was going to go next.
Keep it together Rainbow Dash... Keep it together!
Clearly, her worrying had had an effect; she felt her head begin to split. Her eyes became heavy, and she laid herself down on the sofa. If she was going, she was going to be comfortable while she was doing it! ...
"Ah hmph da dur, hura..."
Rainbow Dash found herself standing in the weather engine control room in Cloudsdale, she'd never been here before, but judging by everything she saw around her, mainly Derpy pointing the thing the Doctor had given her at a control console, told her this is where they were.
Standing before her was a creme coloured Pegasus who Rainbow did not know, he was holding a cut down Kangaroo submachine gun in his teeth, and was there for difficult to understand, He picked up on this fact quickly, and spit the submachine gun out of his mouth and started over.
"I locked the doors, that'll hold them for a little while, hurry up and do what you need to do," the Pegasus said, picking the submachine gun back up with his teeth and pointing it at the door.
Rainbow Dash nodded at him, she turned to Derpy to speak, but discovered that she had her 10mm pistol in her teeth and looked away. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt some pony with it on accident. It was at this point that Rainbow realised she had never actually operated the 10mm pistol before. She figured that the Rainbow Dash who actually belonged here had used it several times, maybe she was even good with it, but she wasn't her, not yet anyway.
She put the pistol back in her bag, realising that she was just as likely to accidentally shoot Derpy or the creme Pegasus whose name she didn't know.
They heard gunfire from the hallway; it wasn't enough to drown out the screams of the pegasi militia, standing by to defend them. Rainbow Dash understood the need for the Ponyville Pattern Sen Guns now. Ponies just weren't built for this kind of thing, and using a pistol or a submachine gun was incredibly awkward.
The outside fell silent. Rainbow Dash knew that the militia ponies were dead.
The creases of the metal door began to spark; the gryphons were cutting their way through.
"Derpy! I really need to hurry up!" Rainbow Dash called out.
Derpy nodded at her and continued working.
The creme coloured Pegasus eyed her, nodding respectfully. "Ifsh ben ah 'onour," he said, mouth full of submachine gun.
"Likewise," Rainbow Dash said, understanding what he said.
"Got it!" Derpy said, and with that she dropped the tool the Doctor had given her in the bag.
"Warning! Please evacuate the facility. Weather Engine no.2 in critical overload!" Cried an automated voice from over the loudspeakers.
The gryphons cut through the door. It fell into the room, and the gryphon airborne infantry opened fire.
Rainbow Dash jumped on Derpy, trying to get as low to the ground as she could.
The creme coloured Pegasus hadn't stood a chance, his body exploded in the hail of gunfire, sending blood splattering all over the room, and the two Pegasus mares. Rainbow Dash struggled to stay still, pretending to be dead, Derpy did the same.
Warning! Please evacuate the facility. Weather Engine no.2 in critical overload!" cried the automated voice again.
"Let's get the hell out of here! Fucking ponies..." the gryphon leader called out, and with that, Rainbow Dash and Derpy were left alone.
Rainbow opened an eye, the gryphons had indeed left. The blood covering her caused her to panic, but fortunately, she discovered that it wasn't hers.
"Are you all right?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Derpy reported. The two ponies rose to their hooves. They needed to get out of here and the faster the better.
Rainbow Dash picked up the nameless pegasi's fallen submachine gun and put in her bag. They ran out into the next room and were forced to stop by the horrific sight before them.
The bloodied remains of a dozen or so militia ponies lay scattered about the room, more blood than either of the mares had ever seen coated the metal floor and walls. The victims of gryphon hollow-point ammunition had died horribly.
The sight was too much for the mares to take in, both of them vomited.
Warning! Please evacuate the facility. Weather Engine no.2 in critical overload!" cried the automated voice again.
It was this warning that forced them to stiffen their resolve. They needed to get out, and out now.
The pegasi mares dashed for the exit, running as fast as their legs would carry them.
They were 5 metres from the door when Rainbow Dash blacked out. |
Imperfect | Chapter 8 | Chapter 8
Somepony was poking her.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes; Vinyl Scratch was standing over her, prodding her repeatedly with her hoof.
"Do you have any idea, how long I have been standing here poking you?" Vinyl said without a hint of emotion in her voice.
"No, but considering how long my flashes usually last... an hour?" Rainbow Dash said with a guess.
"Two," Vinyl reported. She sat down next to Rainbow Dash on the sofa, embracing the Pegasus; she lifted the goggles of her eyes and sat them down on the table next to it.
"Hey... what's gotten into you?" Rainbow Dash asked, she noticed Vinyl beginning to cry.
"I have seen bad things before Rainbow Dash. Really heavy stuff, but ain't nothing as bad as the things you've seen. It's got me thinking. I've been up all night going over stuff in my head. I just don't want to be alone right now."
Rainbow Dash tightened her embrace; she didn't want to be alone either. ...
"For the record, this is a horrible idea."
Rainbow Dash blinked, Horseapples! She'd flashed again, and this time she hadn't even felt it.
"Oh don't I know it, but we really don't have a choice in the matter," Twilight said.
Rainbow Dash looked to her left, Twilight Sparkle was walking, levitating her 11mm magnum Revolver by her head, and to her right was none other than...
"Vinyl Scratch?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed in excitement.
"I'm sorry. Were you expecting Burnt Sienna?" Vinyl said with a grin.
Rainbow Dash looked at the unicorn oddly. "Who?" she asked. Rainbow was certainly glad to see Vinyl, during her flash forwards; she'd never seen or heard a single trace of her.
"Don't worry about it," Vinyl said with a chuckle. Twilight however was not amused, a dire look formed on her face.
"I was afraid this was going to happen now," Twilight said with a frown. "Listen carefully Rainbow, we don't have a lot of time to explain, but when we get to where we're going, your first instinct is going to be to use the Ponyville Pattern SLER that you're wearing. Don't, it won't do any good."
Rainbow Dash looked to her flank, indeed she was wearing a Ponyville Pattern, however, unlike the Sen Gun. This one was much lighter; Rainbow remembered seeing designs for a Self Loading Emerald Rifle on the chalkboard when she had been wearing the Sen Guns for the first time.
Recalling as much as she could off the top of her head, she remembered the rifle was a self loading, 8x60mm, 10 round charger fed. While Rainbow didn't exactly know what that meant, examining the SLENs on her sides revealed a simple feed system that would slide more ammunition into the top of the rifles, operated by two small levers next to the control yoke in front of her.
This would have helped at Cloudsdale, this was a weapon that could be operated efficiently by a pony and unlike the Sen Gun it didn't require a unicorn to load more ammunition. In fact, Rainbow would have guessed that she could fly and fire at the same time.
The trio of ponies entered a clearing. It was at this point when Rainbow Dash realised that they were in the Everfree forest. No wonder they were armed.
The trio heard a slight warbling noise, and out of the trees, a cloud of thick black smoke poured in.
Ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka!
Rainbow Dash's first instinct was to grab the control yoke and bite down on it as hard as she could. She remembered this creature from the dream she'd had during the healing procedure from when her wings had been paralysed. The memories of the black smoke flooded back to her. She listened to Twilight, however and did not grab the yoke.
The smoke began to change its shape, and three pitch black ponies seemed to glide out from it, their amber eyes looking intensely at them.
Rainbow panicked, she knew them! She did not recognise the earth pony, but she did recognise the Pegasus as Doctor Nightsinger, he'd been her doctor when recovering from the paralysis... and the Unicorn was Nightshadow, the apothecary of whom Twilight in the present was smitten with.
Rainbow couldn't stand it any longer; she grabbed the control yoke and bit down hard on it.
Blam Blam Blam Blam!
Rainbow kept shooting until, twenty rounds later, both her SLENs were clicking empty, but to her own horror, the three pitch black ponies were not only still standing, but had been completely unharmed.
"Well, that wasn't very nice," the earth pony said.
"Nice to see you too Rainbow Dash," Nightsinger said without emotion.
Rainbow Dash dropped the control yoke in surprise, her mouth hanging wide open. "What... what are they?"
Twilight frowned. "You remember Nightmare Moon?"
Rainbow nodded.
"That's who they are."
The earth pony snorted loudly. "We are not Nightmare Moon! Nightmare Moon was a pathetic synthesis between Nightmare Essence, the Herald of Chaos Undivided, and Princess Luna, created as a last ditch effort to keep Princess Celestia from destroying him with the Elements of Harmony."
"Nightmare Essence did manipulate the younger princess into doing his bidding, sure, but she did not become Nightmare Moon until just before banishment," Nightsinger said. "He and her spent a thousand years on the moon, together."
"What happened to him then?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"You happened," Nightshadow said. "The true wielders of the Elements of Harmony came along, and split Nightmare Moon into four."
"Nightcaller. Wrath," the earth pony said. Rainbow figured that Nightcaller had to be his name.
"Nightsinger. Hate," Nightsinger reported.
"And Nightshadow. Deception," Nightshadow finished. "The fourth, being Princess Luna of course."
"This isn't important," Twilight said, "practically ancient history at this point."
Nightcaller tilted his head to the side, "Very well then, why have you come, my little ponies?"
"We've come to make a deal," Twilight said.
The three Siblings Nightmare gave each other a quick glance, and turned back to the group before them.
"You have our undivided attention." ...
"NO!" Rainbow Dash screamed as she threw her eyes open.
Vinyl Scratch leapt to her hooves in surprise, tripping over a coffee table and sending the unicorn skittering over the floor with a loud crash.
Twilight Sparkle galloped down the stairs. "Rainbow Dash? What's wrong?"
"We were making a deal with the devil!" ...
Pinkie Pie trotted along through the Everfree forest, rope still dangling from her neck. She was following her reflection, the condescending other Pinkie Pie she had first seen in the Lake of Origin, deep in the Everfree.
"Where are you taking me?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"You'll see!" the reflection said enthusiastically, mocking her.
Pinkie Pie wanted to defend herself against the reflections verbal abuse, but found herself too defeated to try. She was a failure, she was alone and unloved. Rainbow Dash had picked Twilight, she'd seen it herself, and now her own reflection tortured her, continuing to make her own misery worse. She'd made up her mind, if they were going to the Lake of Origin; she was going to drown herself in it!
Unfortunately, they did not end up at the Lake of Origin. Rather, a small cave the likes of which Pinkie Pie had never seen before. The cave was not a natural formation, something had dug it out.
The reflection lead the way inside, and called out. "I brought her, just like you asked!"
Inside the cave as a very spartan campsite consisting of only a fire and a bedroll, sitting on the bed roll was a semi-translucent grey earth pony with an orange mane and blood red eyes.
"Thank you. You can go now." The earth pony said.
The reflection simply disappeared.
The earth pony turned and looked at Pinkie Pie, giving her a smile. "Hello Pinkie Pie."
Pinkie Pie recognised him immediately. "Monty?!" she cried out in surprise.
He nodded at her. Montana "Monty" Ulhan had once been an imprint inside Pinkie Pie's mind, a last bit of consciousness that stuck to her just before death, with a single goal, to destroy the Alicorn, Overdrive, by any means necessary.
The imprint hadn't been a full personality, it was had been so focused on its goal that it had ignored Pinkie Pie's physical needs, working her to the point of exhaustion, and then pushing her past it. It hadn't been its fault, it didn't know, it couldn't.
"You... you died," Pinkie Pie said, stating the obvious.
"Twice," Monty said plainly. "Double the amount that most ponies get."
"How... are you here?" Pinkie Pie said.
"I'm trapped, neither of my deaths were peaceful. I'm stuck part way between two planes of existence," Monty said.
Pinkie Pie felt bad, she didn't know what to say, thoughts were spinning in her head, but she didn't think that any of them were good.
"Do you want me to help you?" Pinkie Pie asked.
Monty shook his head. "No, you can't help me, but you can help yourself!"
Pinkie Pie looked up at him. "I don't understand."
"You, my dear Pinkie Pie, need to find yourself some limestone." |
Imperfect | Chapter 9 | Chapter 9
Fire burned in Twilight Sparkles eyes. She let out a scream in anger and marched out the front door.
Vinyl Scratch and Rainbow Dash looked in awe of what was happening neither of them had seen Twilight like this before. Rainbow had told them what she had seen, but Rainbow had never expected Twilight to react this badly.
"We have to stop her!" Rainbow cried out. "If we don't, they'll kill her! We can't hurt them!" ...
Twilight stormed into the kangaroo's makeshift workshop.
"Sergeant Tebbs!" She cried out.
Sure enough, Percy Tebbs stepped out from the back, smiling at her. "Hello Twilight! Something I can do for you?"
"I need a gun," Twilight said calmly. Her inner rage carefully concealed, if she was visibly agitated, she knew for sure that Tebbs wouldn't give her one.
"A gun? Sheila, what do you need a gun for?" Tebbs asked.
"Protection," Twilight said simply. "Precaution, I assure you. Princess Celestia has asked me to carry out a personal favour that will take me close to the border with the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms; I'd rather not be caught unprepared."
Tebbs thought it over a moment, unsure if it was a good idea or not, but eventually decided it was Twilight, he'd never known her to be anything but truthful.
"You'll be travelling then? If you want, I could always have one of my troopers go with you. Willoughby should be free," Tebbs said.
"No, that's quite all right, besides, travelling to the border with a kangaroo is just asking for trouble. I'll be fine, thank you," Twilight said.
Tebbs gave in; he brought out an 11mm magnum Revolver and set it down on the counter in the workshop. Twilight levitated it up, opened the breech and checked the ammunition; six 11mm Magnum rounds were in the cylinder.
"You know how to work one of those?" Tebbs asked.
"Yes," Twilight stated plainly. "A kangaroo by the name of Roy Melbourne showed me how when I met him in the mohoofie desert."
Tebbs raised an eyebrow. "Roy Melbourne? You don't mean the Roy Melbourne? The bounty hunter?"
"Yes. You know him?" Twilight asked.
"Know him? Shelia, I wish. Roy Melbourne was the most decorated soldier of the World War! He's an inspiration to every kangaroo in the service, and you met him? In Equestria of all places?"
"He said he was on holiday," Twilight said, sliding the revolver into her saddlebag. "Thank you Sergeant."
"Twilight Spackle? You're not planning on doing something rash with that, are you?" Tebbs asked.
"Of course not," Twilight said, feigning a smile and departed from the workshop.
She had an apothecary to visit. ...
Rainbow Dash and Vinyl had split up trying to cover as much ground as possible in their search for Twilight. Rainbow had kept herself on the ground in case she flashed-forward, knowing how it usually went, it would happen at the most inconvenient time, which would have to be several minutes after being in the air.
She was frustrated, searching this way was inefficient. She decided that she could wait no longer and leapt into the air, rising to a height of ten metres when she spotted the lavender unicorn heading for the edge of town.
As if on cue, her head began to split, and she blacked out. ...
Rainbow Dash had no idea what would happen if her body died during a flash-forward, she certainly did not want to find out. She had to have fallen, she knew that, but could she survive a ten metre drop? She wasn't sure.
Now here she was somewhere in the future, afraid to open her eyes because she knew she wasn't going to like what she was waking up to. Maybe she could just stay here, keep her eyes shut until she went back to where she belonged.
"Ya'll got a lot o' nerve comin' 'round these parts after wha' ya'll did Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes; she was lying on the ground at Applejack's feet.
"An' sleepin' on mah property, no less. Ya'll are lucky I don't beat the tar outta you!" Applejack exclaimed.
Now Rainbow was mad, it wasn't even her fault she was here! She couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't her fault that Rainbow Dash had done what had needed to be done. She was sorry Apple Bloom and the others were dead, but she couldn't fix it! It technically hadn't even happened yet.
"Wll why don't you?" Rainbow Dash said, spitting back at the earth pony as she rose to her hooves. Applejack responded with a roundhouse kick that landed squarely on Rainbow's muzzle, she could have sworn that she'd heard her jaw break, as she scattered back on to the ground.
Her nose was bleeding, but as far as Rainbow could tell, her jaw didn't break, Applejack must have been holding back, because she knew that the earth pony was strong enough to shatter every bone in her body.
"Cuz, Ah don' kick ponies when they're down! Not even you!" Applejack exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash got up again, and Applejack responded with another fierce kick to her flank, sending the Pegasus spinning to the ground, her 10mm pistol flew out of her saddlebag and clattered to the ground.
"What's this? Ya'll kill one member o' the Apple Family and decide that ain't enough, you come back to finish the job!?" Applejack called out.
Now that wasn't fair. Applejack was angry, sure, but that was simply ridiculous! Wasn't it? It had to have been!
Wasn't it?
"Applejack! Stop."
Rainbow Dash looked up, Big Macintosh was standing not five metres from where they were, wearing a Ponyville Pattern Sen Gun on his back, clearly, he was part of the Ponyville Militia.
"Go back in the house Applejack," Big Macintosh said.
Applejack didn't respond, she just simply turned her back to Rainbow Dash and walked away.
"You all right?" Big Macintosh asked her.
"I'll live," Rainbow Dash said plainly. Oh Celestia, please make that a true statement!
"Ah'm sorry 'bout Applejack, she's hurt and needs somepony ta blame. Don't make it right, but Ah understand it. Ah'm hurt too," Big Macintosh said, helping Rainbow Dash up. "Applejack may not like it, but ya'll did what ya had to. If you hadn't, there wouldn't 'ave been anypony left to burry us, let alone Apple Bloom," Big Macintosh said. "Go on home, don't come back, Applejack'll kill ya if ya do." ...
"Oh my gosh! Rainbow Dash what happened to you!?" Twilight exclaimed.
Rainbow had stepped through the door to the library, leaving a trail of blood drops behind her.
"Applejack," Rainbow said simply.
Twilight frowned. "Rainbow, you knew that was a bad idea. Why would you go there?"
"It's not like I'm choosing where I wake up Twilight. You'll have to ask me again after I flash back to where I belong," Rainbow said, her voice teeming with frustration.
Twilight frowned; she sat down and tended to her friend's wounds. "It's not so bad, considering what Applejack is capable of."
"I figured she was holding back... I don't know why though. I looked in her eyes Twilight, she wanted blood. I'd only seen that look once before from anypony... it was from you," Rainbow Dash said.
"Right... that, knowing you, that was where you were just before coming here," Twilight said sadly. Rainbow Dash nodded in affirmation.
Twilight began to cry. Rainbow Dash gave her a hug. "Shush now, It's all right, I mean, clearly I turned out fine!"
"It's not that... It's about him," Twilight said. Rainbow Dash froze.
"You... loved him, didn't you?" Rainbow Dash asked after a minute.
"Yes," Twilight said with tears flowing, "I loved pure evil. What does that say about me?"
"It doesn't say anything about you Twilight, he tricked you, he hid who he was from you, he manipulated you. It's not your fault! It's his." Rainbow Dash said giving Twilight a smile. "The Nightshadow you spent time with wasn't real. It wasn't your fault."
Twilight smiled at Rainbow, wiping the tears from her eyes. The two ponies continued to embrace. ...
"NIGHTSHADOW!" Twilight shouted at the top of her lungs outside the apothecary's home.
The black unicorn opened his front door and stepped outside. "Twilight? Is everything all right?"
Twilight levitated the revolver out of her saddlebag, pressing it against the black unicorn's head, and pulling back on the hammer. "Does that answer your question?" Twilight asked. Her voice filled with rage.
"Clearly... you've discovered something about me that you are angry about," Nightshadow said calmly. "Perhaps, you should put the weapon away and we can talk about it?"
"Drop the act. I know who you really are now," Twilight said.
"That is... most unfortunate," Nightshadow said. "Despite what you're thinking, I really did enjoy the time we spent together. I'm saddened that you've chosen this course of action."
"Stop. Talking," Twilight said.
"No."
Twilight's eyes widened, she was clearly missing something here. How could he not be afraid? He had no emotion at all.
"If you're going to do it just..."
Twilight pulled the trigger. |
Imperfect | Chapter 10 | Chapter 10
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. Her body ached, what was important was that she did feel pain. This meant that she was not dead. Not dead was good.
Actually she discovered that it wasn't really that bad. She'd gotten incredibly lucky and landed in a hay cart. Oh thank Celesitia!
Rainbow Dash fully realised how dangerous flying was right now. She wouldn't dare try it again, next time there wouldn't necessarily be something soft for her to fall onto.
Blam!
Gunshot. Rainbow Dash recognised it instantly. It rang though out the entire town. Twilight was in trouble. Rainbow climbed out of the cart and rushed towards the source. ...
Twilight's eyes were wide with fear. Nightshadow was still standing despite the fact that she had just shot him in the head! She hadn't missed. She couldn't have, it was completely impossible to miss when the barrel is pressed up against the victim's head.
"Put it down," Nightshadow said calmly. Twilight wasn't exactly in a position to say no, and did as she was told. She set the revolver down several metres away from where they were standing. "I truly am sad at this course. At first, I found you obnoxious, the typical of student of the Sun. You were everything Sun looks for in a minion. Meek, eager to please, clever-yet-unable-to-see-something-so-obvious-despite-the-fact-it-is-right-under-your-nose... but the more time I spent with you, the more I began to appreciate your company. A seemingly endless exile with only the moon to speak... well you can certainly begin to appreciate having others to talk to, and for this reason. I am not going to kill you."
Twilight was confused.
"Goodbye Twilight Sparkle. I shall miss you," Nightshadow said, he turned and walked away from town towards the Everfree forest, leaving Twilight standing, watching with her mouth hanging open.
"What are you!?" Twilight called out to him as he walked away.
"A fragment," he said, disappearing into the tree line.
Rainbow Dash and Vinyl Scratch rounded the corner to find Twilght standing there, facing west.
Rainbow Dash practically tackled the unicorn with her hug. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" ...
The trio had returned to the Library, they'd had a good long discussion over what Nightshadow had said.
"You can't trust anything he said! The Siblings Nightmare said that they were fragments of a personality, individual traits that were split apart, Nightshadow introduced himself as deception. He couldn't tell the truth if he wanted to!" Rainbow Dash cried out.
"I know... I know!" Twilight said. "I don't trust him... I just can't forget the time we spent together. We... did things."
Twilight turned bright red in embarrassment, which then quickly turned to disgust with herself.
"I... I feel so... unclean!" Twilight ran into the kitchen and vomited into the sink.
"My first love ended a lot like this," Vinyl said. "Well, except for the part where he turned out to be the source of all evil in Equestria a thousand years ago."
Rainbow Dash couldn't tell if Vinyl was serious, or trying to lighten the mood, either way, she wasn't helping. Twilight announced that she was going to be taking a bath for the next several hours, and asked not to be disturbed unless the entire world came crashing down on their shoulders... again. Knowing their luck, it would.
The hours passed however, and nothing horrible happened. In fact, looking out at the evening sky was quite calm.
"I'm going to go check on Twilight, make sure she hasn't accidentally drowned," Rainbow said.
"Probably a good idea," Vinyl said. "Be gentle with her?"
Rainbow Dash smirked, and climbed the stairs to where Twilight's washroom was.
"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked as she slowly pushed open the door.
"Is the world exploding?" Twilght asked sarcastically.
"No... but I would imagine Vinyl's brain is about to with all the dirty thoughts she has," Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight smirked and allowed the Pegasus to enter.
Twilight had been taking a bubble bath, but by this time, all the bubbles were gone, Rainbow put a hoof into the water, but pulled it back quickly.
"This is ice cold!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Oh... really?" Twilight asked, "I hadn't noticed." She pulled the plug on the drain and allowed the water to drain out of the tub. "Could you hand me a towel?"
Rainbow obliged, grabbing one and handing it to the lavender unicorn, who grasped it with her magic and began to dry herself off. "Oh! It is cold!"
Rainbow chuckled and the two mares went back into the main bedroom.
"Are you going to be okay Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked her.
"I don't know Rainbow Dash," Twilight said plainly. The two ponies sat down on the bed, Twilight grabbed Rainbow and held her close. "Just, don't go anywhere, okay? I don't want to be alone."
Rainbow hugged her back. "I won't. I promise!"
The two mares fell asleep in each other's grasp. ...
Rainbow Dash was in front of Rarity's shop. Perfect, now she had no idea what she was doing here. The flashes took her to the most wonderful places where she couldn't be any less useful!
Clearly Rainbow Dash in the future had thought ahead, and had written a message on her inside foreleg.
Get Rarity to design combat armour.
Okay, now that she had direction, she could get that done... she hoped. Rainbow Dash knocked on Rarity's door.
"We're open!" cried Rarity from inside, Rainbow Dash stepped inside. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique! How can I... oh, it's you."
"What do you want Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked in utter annoyance.
"I wanted to see if you would be interested in designing a suit of body armour for the Militia," Rainbow Dash said.
"No. Now if you have nothing else you need, go away," Rarity said plainly. "I have no interest in helping you or that bibliophilic bitch!"
Rainbow Dash's blood boiled, how dare Rarity say that! She wanted to beat the ever living daylights out of her for saying that.
"Well at least that bitch is actually doing something productive, instead of hiding in here all day moping because her stupid sister died!" Rainbow shouted at her, instantly regretting saying that.
Rarity was festering with anger; she levitated a 10mm pistol out of her saddlebag and pointed it at Rainbow Dash. "Get. Out." ...
Rainbow Dash returned to the Library, distraught and defeated.
"That bad huh?" Twilight asked. "Don't feel too bad, I pretty much figured that we wouldn't get Rarity to go for it... As much as I wish we didn't have to, we'll probably just have to bring in someone from South Island... Rainbow? Are you all right?"
Rainbow sighed. "I don't even know what we're doing anymore Twilight, I don't understand what these flashes are trying showing me! I want them to stop!"
Twilight trotted over to where Rainbow had taken her seat. "Hey! Don't worry, it'll be okay!"
"Funny. I was just telling you the same thing!" Rainbow Dash said with a smile, she leaned in and kissed Twilight gently. Felt appropriate, but she caught herself in surprise upon realise that she had never actually done it before. Twilight had kissed her several times before... but this was the other way around. Rainbow Dash had proclaimed several times over her life to her friends that she was not into mares, but now, after spending all this time with Twilight. She was starting to accept that the statement wasn't true. She liked stallions too, she could like both. Right? Vinyl clearly did, why not her?
Clearly, she'd gotten Twilight excited; she pulled Rainbow Dash close to her. Both mares fell onto the floor, but that was quite all right. They didn't have a much of a reason to get back up. ...
"Note to self. Floors are hard. Next time, restrain yourself long enough to get to a softer space." Twilight said, giggling to herself. She and Rainbow had repositioned themselves to the sofa, and were lying down cuddling with each other.
"It's nice, you know? Being able to forget about what's wrong in the world... for just a little while," Twilight said.
Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement.
So awesome!
Rainbow Dash hadn't felt happier in the longest time. She wanted this moment to last forever, just her and Twilight, lying here cuddling with each other until the sun burnt out and the world ended.
The world, however, unfortunately had other ideas. |
Imperfect | Chapter 11 | Chapter 11
Well, this wasn't so bad. It wasn't the same time, but here Rainbow Dash was, lying with Twilight. The lavender unicorn had fallen asleep, pinning Rainbow's inside leg to the bed. Not that she had been planning on going anywhere. Rainbow couldn't help but notice that Twilight was incredibly adorable when she was asleep.
"Rainbow?" Twilight asked sleepily, opening her eyes slowly.
"I didn't wake you did I?" Rainbow Dash asked softly.
"No... No I woke myself up," Twilight said, sitting up on the bed. "I think we need to talk, about us."
"I'm all ears," Rainbow Dash said, thinking that she knew where this was going.
"We've spent a lot of time together recently and... the more I've thought about it... I know that you're not into mares but..."
Rainbow had heard enough, she smiled and pressed her hoof against Twilight's mouth. "Say no more," she leaned in and kissed the lavender unicorn.
Needless to say, there would be no sleeping the rest of this night either. ...
Several hours later, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were lying on their backs hoof-somehow-in-hoof. Looking at each other and smiling.
"I really hope Vinyl didn't hear any of that," Twilight said with a giggle.
"You're going to be disappointed!" called the muted voice of Vinyl Scratch from several rooms away. "Really. Good. Ears."
Rainbow and Twilight smirked at each other, happy to be truly together at last.
The sun came up and the three ponies joined each other for breakfast, of which Vinyl prepared. Vinyl did not say anything about the ponies' behaviour last night, but she also refused to stop grinning at them.
"The two of you are adorable together, you know that right?" Vinyl eventually said. "I'll have you know. I totally called this when we first met at the edge of Whitetail Wood."
"I remember," Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. "I think we need to talk about what we're going to do."
Twilight nodded. "So far, we've done a lot of reacting, but not really any planning."
Vinyl nodded. "I'm going to travel back to Manehattan and see if I can't use Octavia's broadcasting equipment to spy on the gryphons in the Hoofson Bay... I know a few tricks," she said with a grin. "Now that winter's over, I can get there lickety-split on my own."
Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash frowned, Vinyl had just gotten back, and now here she was leaving again.
"I'll be fine! I know how to take care of myself! Despite what you might think!" Vinyl said with a grin. "I never liked staying in once place too long anyway."
"You can only run for so long Vinyl," Twilight said simply.
"I know," Vinyl said. "Trust me love, I know." ...
Vinyl packed a few days previsions in a saddlebag and departed several hours later, giving her friends a wave goodbye. She took off at a good pace, intending to make it through the heavily out of the way Whitetail Wood (lest she walk through Everfree) in several hours before cutting across open countryside.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight gave their friend a wave goodbye back. Both of them a little saddened, a light that was ordinarily held by Pinkie Pie, but had been taken up by Vinyl Scratch had gone out. Now both ponies that were able to keep the mood light were gone.
Rainbow Dash was worried about Pinkie Pie, who knows what that pony was doing? She'd wandered into the Everfree forest several days ago, and nopony (or any of the four kangaroo residents of Ponyville) had seen her since.
Around the corner, came Derpy Hooves lugging a rather large and heavy looking package, the grey Pegasus struggled to fly with it, but eventually made it to the front of the Library, setting it down gently.
"Special... delivery for... Twilight Sparkle!" Derpy said between breaths.
Twilight looked at the package. She wasn't expecting anything, and she took a look at the shipping address.
The box was stamped with thirty different customs stamps, apparently, whatever this package was had had a very long trip to get here. Twilight recognised a few of them, obviously, there was an Equestria stamp, but alongside it was one belonging to the Republic of Zhosa, which Twilight recognised as the Zebra homeland, another belonging to the Kingdom of United Welara. Which Twilight recognised from the book that Sergeant Tebbs had given her on their way back from the Hoofson Bay, of which she'd yet to have an opportunity to read. Another stamp with an alphabet that she didn't recognise:
Казаки́ конфедерация
(Kazaki Konfederatsiya)
Another one label "Bundesrepublik Schaferhund," and finally, a stamp for the Commonwealth of South Island.
It was upon seeing the South Island stamp that Twilight got excited, she knew instantly what this was. She levitated it into the air and thanked Derpy for bringing it to her. There were some kangaroos who would be very interested in its contents. ...
"All right mates! Let's fire her up!" Sergeant Tebbs called out. The kangaroo tank commander had spent the last hour installing the replacement parts the South Island Military had sent him.
Corporal McNair started the tank's engine, it roared to life for the first time in months. "All right! Now we're in business!" Tebbs called out.
The tank rolled a few metres down the road, moving out into the open countryside around town.
"Power to turret! Let's put this thing through its paces!" Tebbs called out.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash had followed them out, watching as the tank rolled through the open field. They weren't far from Fluttershy's cottage, and the noise had cause the yellow Pegasus to exit her home to see what the commotion was. Fluttershy squeaked in fear of the metal monstrosity rolling past her house, but was calmed by Rainbow Dash and Twilight's presence. The lavender unicorn waved Fluttershy over and the yellow Pegasus, reluctantly, went over to speak to them.
"Twilight? Rainbow? What's going on?" Fluttershy asked.
"Kangaroos fixed their tank," Rainbow Dash said.
"Oh! My!" Fluttershy said. She'd never seen it up close before, on the count of it looking very scary.
The three ponies watched as the M3 Light Tank's turret began moving, sighting in the field's lone tree, which happened to be the one that Rainbow Dash had crashed into nearly a week before.
A flash of light from the tank's gun barrel was seen, and the single tree exploded with a loud bang.
Fluttershy recoiled in fear. "How awful! Why would someone ever make something like that! That poor tree!"
The tank turned and began to drive towards the three ponies, the turret re-centring to a forward position. It stopped a few dozen metres from the three ponies and shut off.
The turret's hatch popped open and Sergeant Tebbs popped his head out. "God I missed this! I was beginning to feel like I was leading an infantry section!"
"Glad you feel better; I suppose you'll be leaving soon then?" Fluttershy said sarcastically, clasping her hooves over her mouth, she couldn't believe she'd actually said that.
Tebbs eyes widened, and he swore loudly, causing Fluttershy to jump in surprise. "Our little simulated combat manoeuvre pretty much guaranteed that we won't have enough fuel to make it back to regimental command... Not to mention that they probably moved it a couple times. We try to drive back to the Hoofson bay, we're going to get stuck in the middle of gryphon territory, and worse, we'll be a sitting duck."
So much for fixing the tank, the Kangaroos were still stuck here.
"Vinyl Scratch left for Manehattan a few hours ago to go use her friends Radio equipment, if one of you leaves now, you could catch up with her before nightfall," Twilight reported.
Tebbs nodded, he called Trooper Willoughby out from his spot in the tank, instructing him to catch up, he responded in the affirmative, and climbed out of the tank, hopping off at an impressive speed, he was certain to catch up to Vinyl in a few hours at best.
Tebbs slammed his fist on the tank's turret in frustration, causing Fluttershy to jump again. "Take us back to the garage McNair!" he retreated into the confines of his tank, the engine started, as the three ponies watched as the M3 Light tank rolled off back into town.
The three ponies sighed for each their own various reasons. Rainbow Dash looked up at the now smouldering tree that she'd hit just after wrapping up winter. Good riddance!
That tree had caused her more trouble than it was worth. Her head began to split, clearly caused by her vivid memories of the tree. ...
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes; she was hiding behind the ruined tree, the sole bit of cover in the entire field.
"I'm going to catch you!" a voice called out. Rainbow Dash peeked up from her cover, to her horror, Fluttershy was trotting through the field, wearing a Ponyville Pattern Sen Gun.
"You're going to be mine! All mine! Forever!" Fluttershy called out.
Rainbow had ducked her head back down, she didn't like where this was going.
"Gotcha!" Fluttershy leapt around the destroyed tree, training the Sen Gun right on her and biting down on the control yoke.
Click click!
Fluttershy let go of the yoke and gave a small pout. "Fluttershy! You silly filly! You forgot to reload!" She said to herself.
Rainbow got a good look at Fluttershy, and she did not like what she was looking at, Fluttershy's eyes were very small and twitching sporadically.
"Could you do me a big favour and not run away while I go back inside and get more ammo? Pretty please?" Fluttershy said with an insane smile, followed by an adorably frightening squeaking noise.
"Uh... sure?" Rainbow Dash said, not knowing how else to respond.
"Oh thank you so much! I promise I won't be gone long!" Fluttershy said, turning her back to Rainbow Dash and walking back to her cottage. Though cottage was no longer the word Rainbow Dash would use to describe it. Now it was more like a "hardened bunker."
She waited for Fluttershy to enter her bunker and bolted at high speed.
Thanks me! You always seem to put me in the best positions to wake up in!
Rainbow Dash didn't stop running until she reached the edge of Ponyville, which was now surrounded by a large wall.
Rainbow Dash leapt into the air, sailing over the wall and into the relative safety of Ponyville.
"RAINBOW DASH!" Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs. Clearly, Fluttershy's voice could carry when she tried. Rainbow then remembered that Fluttershy was still a Pegasus, and that she was not safe just being on the inside of the wall.
She took off running, hoping with every fibre of her being that Fluttershy would not follow her over the wall.
Figures, no such luck. Rainbow Dash looked back to see Fluttershy was flying after her. The insane pegasi reached out and took the control yoke in her mouth. No! She had clearly lost it, but she wasn't really going to try shooting the Sen Gun while flying was she? Was she?
Once again, no such luck. She bit town on the control yoke, causing the Ponyville pattern to erupt in fire. True to Percy Tebbs word, the recoil was immense, and it sent Fluttershy spiralling out of control, Fluttershy had never been the best flyer to begin with, and she tumbled to the ground, landing hard on her left flank.
Well, at least this way, Fluttershy had probably broken the Sen Gun. Fluttershy got to her hooves and bit down on the control yoke. Rainbow Dash had no luck this day.
Both of the twin Sen Guns fired as if nothing happened to them. Fluttershy trotted forward, firing the Light Machine Guns at full automatic.
Fortunately, the yellow Pegasus was an incredibly poor shot, and the high rate of fire that the Sen afforded, used up the 30 round magazines very quickly. Fortunately for Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy had missed her completely.
"This isn't over! You'll be mine some day! Some day real soon!" Fluttershy called out, she leapt back into the air and flew back to her bunker.
Rainbow Dash sighed, and made her way back to Twilght's Library. Oh what a story today was going to make for. |
Imperfect | Chapter 12 | Chapter 12
"Rainbow? Rainbow Dash! Wake up!" Twilight said, nudging and prodding the Pegasus. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes; Twilight had obviously carried her back to the Library, as she discovered this was where she was.
"Oh hey Twilight! I have the weirdest story to tell you," Rainbow Dash began, but was interrupted by Twilight.
"I'm sorry Rainbow, I don't mean to sound rude, but we really don't have time for this right now. You need to see this," Twilight said, opening the window curtains for Rainbow to look out. Night had fallen, but for some reason it didn't look that dark, Rainbow realised quickly why. The Everfree forest was on fire.
"Twilight! My first flash forward showed me the Everfree forest being on fire!" Rainbow Dash said.
"I know, Rainbow. I know, we don't know what's going to happen when it comes time for you to have the flash forward..." Twilight began,
"Yes we do! I saw it, come on we need to be outside!" Rainbow Dash said rushing out the door.
Twilight called after her, but it wasn't helping. Rainbow had misunderstood her. ...
Rainbow Dash had run into the centre of town. She recognised being here from the flash forward, any second now, the Kangaroo tank was going to be rolling through, followed by Trixie, Derpy, the Doctor, and the cloud of Black Smoke.
Rainbow Dash tripped, skidding to a halt right where she was supposed to be.
She heard a low rumble behind her; she turned to see the kangaroo M3 Light Tank rolling through the streets. Quickly thinking, she rolled out of the way as it kept moving past her. Right on schedule.
Trixie, Derpy, and the Doctor followed soon afterwards.
"Run!" the Doctor shouted.
Run? From what? Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically, knowing full well.
Rainbow Dash heard a loud howling noise. Run from that.
Docka-docka-docka-docka-docka!
Wait a minute, that didn't sound right.
Rainbow Dash passed a building before she felt somepony grab her and pull her into an alleyway, she struggled, trying to break free of whoever had grabbed her, but she soon discovered it to be none other than Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight put a hoof to her mouth, shushing Rainbow Dash. Rainbow obeyed, staying quiet. Well, at least that part was right.
A cloud of grey smoke darted past the alleyway.
Wait a minute, grey smoke? That was completely wrong!
Docka-docka-docka-docka-docka!
"Twilight? What is going on?" Rainbow Dash asked. "This isn't happening how I remembered it!"
"It's... not?" Twilight asked. "Oh no. That's bad, Rainbow that is really bad! We're not safe here we need to move!"
They heard another howl, and looked up.
Ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka!
The Black Smoke dove from the rooftops, striking Rainbow Dash hard and sending her flying into the back of another building. Rainbow hit her head hard, and slid down onto the ground; she struggled to stay conscious as the Black Smoke came towards her.
Out of the smoke, the three siblings Nightmare materialised and stepped towards Rainbow, she tried to keep her eyes open, but it was becoming much harder.
"She's in the Paragon's hold," Nightcaller said. "She shows the signs. Cleanse her."
"Leave her alone!" Twilight called out, rushing over to where Rainbow had fallen. The siblings became smoke again, wrapping themselves around Rainbow and encasing her in the cloud of smoke. Rainbow lost consciousness. ...
Rainbow opened her eyes. There was blackness, endless black space. This was no night. It was an endless void.
"Who's there!?" Rainbow Dash called out.
"Just us three."
Rainbow turned to find the Siblings Nightmare standing, looking at her with their glowing amber eyes.
"What are you doing to me?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Saving your life," Nightcaller said simply.
"I... wait what?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"The Paragon of Order has you in his grasp, he's been sending you false visions of the future," Nightsinger said.
"The Paragon of Order... isn't that...?"
"The Alicorn, Overdrive? Yes. Yes it is." Nightshadow said calmly.
"But, he's dead!" Rainbow Dash called out.
Nightcaller chuckled softly. "Rainbow Dash, Order is a concept, an idea, a school of thought. Its paragon is the physical embodiment of it; he is no more killable than a thought, as long as some vestige of order in the universe, he remains alive... His body on the other hand was destroyed. He can no longer directly interact with the world; instead, he must manipulate others into doing his bidding."
"Actually, considering the Paragon, nothing has really changed, has it?" Nightsinger mused.
"The grey smoke? Is that... him?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yes. That's a form he can take. He uses it to cheat the rules," Nightshadow said. "Don't ask about the rules. It's against the rules."
"Okay, fine. Answer me this then, why should I trust you? You certainly don't have our best interests at heart anymore than the Paragon does," Rainbow Dash asked.
"Oh Rainbow Dash, you're misunderstanding, you cannot trust us anymore than you can the Paragon. We don't want you to trust us," Nightcaller said. "We want you to obey us!"
"And why should we ever obey somepony like you?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Oh you poor, disillusioned creature. You don't even realise that you already do." ...
The black smoke retreated from the shell it had formed around Rainbow Dash. It howled and ticked away from the scene.
Rainbow Dash was lost, confused and disoriented, she vomited.
Twilight rushed to her side. "Rainbow Dash? Are you okay? What did it do?"
Rainbow Dash couldn't answer, she lost consciousness. ...
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, she looked outside, it was raining, and she was in Twilight's bedroom, looking out the window. It was morning, and it was raining.
The rain had put the fires out. Smoke was billowing from the Everfree, but the fires were out. Rainbow Dash struggled to remember what had happened the night before, but it would not come to her.
Rainbow Dash noted that her head felt much better than it had since her original accident, it was as if a huge weight had been lifted off her brain, and then she remembered that it pretty much had gone exactly that way. The Siblings Nightmare helped her.
No, not helped. They did what they had to so that they could use her another day. The ponies of Equestria were pawns to the Paragon of Order and the Herald of Chaos. Playthings that they could use for whatever agenda that they had, but Rainbow remembered what they had said last, that they already obeyed someone like them. What did they mean?
Rainbow dismissed it, the Siblings were liars, and it was their nature. Everything they said was suspect.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called out as she entered the room.
"Hey Twi."
"Rainbow, are you all right?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah egghead. I've never felt better!" Rainbow Dash said smiling.
Twilight smiled back. She had a feeling that things were going to be okay now. ...
Vinyl Scratch trotted along at a brisk pace, she hadn't been sleeping nights, choosing to continue to walk even in the dark. It was making her great time, as she was nearly out of Whitetail Wood.
She heard someone approaching her from behind. She turned to look and smiled at the approacher.
"Well hey Ben! Howya doing?" Vinyl said grinning.
"Vinyl Scratch," Trooper Willoughby said as he slowed down and began walking beside her. "Let's make something perfectly clear. You do not call me Ben, Benny, Benji, or any other pet name you can think of for Benjamin. You will not call me Benjamin either, you will call me Willoughby."
Vinyl sighed, "Oh come on! We're friends aren't we! Doesn't that give me the right to call you by your name?"
Willoughby scowled. "My friends aren't allowed to call me Benjamin, or Ben, or Benny, or anything but Willoughby."
Vinyl frowned, giving Willoughby a pout, "tightwad."
Willoughby merely rolled his eyes at her.
"So, what are you doing out here?" Vinyl asked him.
"Same thing as the last time, going to Manehattan to use the radio," Willoughby said.
"Cool," Vinyl said. "Well glad to have you on the walk, Benny."
"Don't make me hurt you."
The two of them heard a twig snap, followed by a rustle of leaves.
"You hear that?" Willoughby asked.
"Yep," Vinyl said plainly.
They heard it again. Willoughby drew out his submachine gun, and an 11mm Magnum Revolver. "You know how to use one of these things by chance?"
Vinyl nodded. "I know how to do a lot of things." She opened the breech, checking the ammo and snapped it shut, levitating it beside her head.
"Tell me something Vinyl Scratch... are there any Equestrian gift giving holidays any time soon?"
"Nope," Vinyl said plainly.
"Your birthday?" Willoughby asked.
"Not for another ten months."
"How about I just give you that because I like you?" Willoughby asked.
"I like me too," Vinyl said with a grin. They heard the rustle again.
"I figured as much," Willoughby said under his breath. "You ready for this?"
"Let's rock and roll!" Vinyl said grinning like a madpony.
The party responsible for the rustling noise leapt out from the bushes, roaring loudly, the air filled with gunfire, and then in an instant, all became silent. |
Anon A Miss Strikes | pre | "Making apple cider with mah family and other apple products."
"Time to go bed you three. Goodnight you all," Rarity called out.
"Okay! Good night, sis!" Sweetie called out and started typing on the computer.
"What are ya doing?" Apple Bloom asked as she leaned over her shoulder.
"Making a post about Lyra. She's obsessed with mythological stuff, just gotta tweak it. Maybe say she doesn't believe in narwhals or whales or something."
"Good plan," Apple Bloom mumbled and Scootaloo sighed.
God help me, she thought to herself. |
Anon A Miss Strikes | Chapter V | Diamond grunted as she helped Silver carry a big box inside her bedroom.
"Silver, what the fuck is this?"
"A gift for Button," Silver replied. "It's like an arcade machine or something. I'm not sure, it's something he was looking at when we were at Walmare."
"God almighty, this is heavier than that one thing you bought him for you guys anniversary."
"I know. Drop it and I'll tell dad you and Apple Bloom almost got frisky the night she slept over last month." Diamonds eyes widened.
"You wouldn't."
"Try me." The two sisters glared at each other for a second before they set the box down and approached each other.
"I have half a mind to slap you for eavesdropping on such a private moment," Diamond fumed. "You're so immature and annoying!"
"Do it, then bitch!" Silver shouted back. "Our rooms are right next to each other! Maybe get some brains in that tiny skull of yours." A loud slapping sound echoed and the sound of boots on the stairs followed. Diamond was glaring at Silver before Sunset got between them.
"What the hell is going on here?" She snapped, glaring at the two sisters.
"She pissed me off!" Diamond and Silver snapped in unison, pointing at the other.
"You mentioned Apple Bloom!" Diamond shouted.
"You slapped me!" Silver Spoon yelled.
"Only because you mentioned Apple Bloom!" Diamond retorted. Sunset facepalmed and rubbed her noses bridge in frustration.
"Separate! Now!" Sunset snapped and the two girls shrunk back. "This is absolutely ridiculous to be fighting each other. I get sisters fight, but this is beyond fucking childish. Go to your rooms, now and don't come out until you've calmed down!" The two younger girls glared at each other before Diamond trudged off to her respective room and slammed the door. Sunset gave a sigh and slumped against the wall in the hallway after leaving Silvers room. She hated yelling at the two girls who practically saved her life, gave her a warm home with food but she didn't want them having a screaming fist fight either.
"You're pretty effective at getting them to quit fighting." A voice came from the stairs. Sunset flinched and glanced up. She sighed when she noticed Filthy Rich standing there.
"Sorry for yelling, sir. They just got on my nerves with all that. I don't even know what they were fighting over, but it sounded petty and not worth it."
"First off, you don't have to call me sir. Rich is fine. And secondly, while I wouldn't have used that explicit language, it was effective at getting them to calm down," he sighed. "It's difficult being a single parent with two daughters. I have so much respect for those who do it now like I do."
"I imagine it's hard," Sunset agreed as she stood up. "I should probably go talk to them." Filthy Rich patted her on the back before heading downstairs. Sunset gave a sigh as she stared at the two rooms, debating who to talk to first. She decided Diamond Tiara and opened the door, walking in. Diamond was face down in the pillow, sniffling. Sunset sat down on the bed and cautiously stroked her hair.
"Hey, Diamond?" She asked softly.
"Go away," Diamond mumbled into the pillow. "I want to be alone." Sunset kept stroking her hair.
"No. I'm sorry, for yelling at you like that. It was wrong of me. This anon a miss mess is stressing me out, but that isn't an excuse to scream at you and Silver. Especially after all you guys have done for me. I hope you can forgive me." Diamond rolled over and lifted her head. Sunset was taken aback by the tears on her face.
"I forgive you, first off. Do you know why I went on my self appointed redemption quest thing?" Diamond asked her as she reached for a towel to wipe off her mascara.
"Because Apple Bloom, Scoots and Sweetie Belle encouraged you to do so?" Sunset guessed and Diamond shook her head.
"Well partially. It was mainly you who inspired me. I saw how much effort you put into trying to be a better person, how much happier you seemed after doing so. I wanted that for myself too. I followed your example. I always admired and looked up to you. Even when I was in the middle school wing of the school, I admired you for how you ran the high-school. Mainly that was back when we both we were evilish and mean, but that's a minor detail we can overlook. You still inspire me, you're the role model I've never really had. My mom wasn't a good person, but you already know that. Everyone does. You're the person I want to be, not the mean cruel person who you used to be, but the person who bends over backwards for anyone who she feels needs help." Sunset cut her off from talking any further by wrapping her in a hug and rubbing the back of her head.
"That was probably the sweetest, kindest thing I've been told in a long time kid. I'm honored you chose me to be your role model and the person you used as a model to change into a better person yourself. I love you, DT. I'll do anything and everything for you," she paused. "Minus cover up a murder for you, depending on the person." Diamond hugged her back and shoved her face into Sunset's neck.
"I love you too. And you don't have to worry about me murdering anyone, I'd rather avoid a life sentence in jail, I have things I want to do with my life," Diamond said, muffled by Sunset's neck.
"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Sunset asked as she quit hugging Diamond. Diamond turned red and rubbed her head.
"You'll laugh," she mumbled. Sunset stared at her and shook her head.
"No, I wouldn't. I support you in anything you do," Sunset said seriously. Diamond took a breath and nodded.
"I want to be a special needs teacher. They deserve to have a decent education without the hate or bullying they currently get. They're entirely misunderstood and are people too," Diamond said softly. Sunset placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
"I think that's very noble and kind of you," Sunset smiled at the girl. "I'll do whatever I can do help you achieve that goal." She slid off the bed and stood up. "I should probably go talk to Silver now and apologize to her." She moved to the door.
"Sunset?" Diamond mumbled. Sunset paused and looked back at the girl.
"Yeah, Diamond?"
"Can you sleep with me tonight? I don't want to sleep alone tonight. You can say no if you don't feel comfortable," Diamond said quietly. Sunset walked back to the bed and nodded.
"You can always ask me to sleep with you if you ever need it. You can always come to my room and sleep with me if you need. This is your house, after all." Sunset slid in the bed next in the bed next to Diamond and held her arms open. Diamond slid into her open arms and laid her head on the pillow. Sunset pulled the blanket over the two of them and gave her a squeeze. Sunset gave a quick kiss into her hair.
"This is your house too," Diamond mumbled. "You live here too." She yawned and closed her eyes. Shortly later, Sunset heard soft snoring coming from the girl and she chuckled.
"Thank you, Diamond. For everything."
Octavia gave a loud sigh as she packed her cello into it's case. Sunset glanced over at her and Vinyl in confusion.
"What's wrong?" Sunset asked.
"My performance tonight got canceled because of some stupid weather incident and they can't move it inside because they didn't plan ahead," Octavia grumbled. "No reason to let my cello get dusty by sitting out. Might as well keep it safe in the case." Vinyl grinned and wrapped her arms around Sunset and Octavia.
"All of us are eighteen, let's hit up a club tonight. We could all use the distraction. Well, minus Diamond and Silver Spoon."
"Oh yes, let's go to a club and get our ears blown out love. Perfect plan," Octavia retorted sarcastically. Vinyl stuck her tongue out in response.
"What about you, Sunset? This is the last night before the club closes temporarily. Christmas is in a couple days, let's take a break from anon a miss and have some fun."
"Could be fun." Sunset shrugged and flashed a smile. Octavia gave her a smug smile.
"Heard you become Diamond's mentor," Octavia said, smiling even harder.
"Yeah, she's a good kid. She's came a long way and I'm very impressed. She opened up a lot last night to me. And it could be good for us both. She's a very good kid and I could help look out for her,"
she admitted.
"Good on you," Vinyl punched Sunset in the shoulder with a grin. "She's been talking about wanting that for ages, it's been her dream. Must be fun, being a sister figure."
"It's been decent so far. Then again, it's the first day. Last night was the first time I slept with someone in a long, long time," Sunset admitted.
"I hate to interrupt this adorable moment, but if you guys are gonna go to the club, you should get going," Octavia pointed out. Vinyl grabbed Sunset by the shoulders and practically shoved her out the door.
"Have fun!" Octavia called out as she shut the door.
"So, what brought on you practically adopting Diamond?" Vinyl asked as she turned her car on.
"I accidentally screamed at her and Silver Spoon because they were screaming at each other. Apparently Diamond slapped Silver after an argument and I quickly intervened and yelled at them to separate and go to their rooms," Sunset explained, looking down. Vinyl frowned at that.
"Yeah, they do that. Remember, they're just teens still. They aren't eighteen like us."
"Yeah, that's why I was apologizing. I shouldn't have yelled at them. I didn't want them to have a fist fight either. This whole mess is making me irrational," Sunset mumbled. "How did you all get to be Diamond and Silvers friends?"
"It's a long story. Diamond and Silver kinda hurt us all, especially Lyra. They mainly took advantage of us and verbally abused us. Once Diamond decided to change, we were the first people they apologized. Once we decided they were being serious and we didn't want them to have lonely high school years, so we befriended them. The two have really grown. So have you, based on what I've seen. What we've all seen. Obviously, Diamond has Apple Bloom and you, Silver Spoon has her boyfriend Button Mash. Other than them and you, we are all they got unfortunately. "
"I've tried my hardest to convince people I've changed, but sometimes the hardest isn't enough," Sunset pointed out.
"You changed people's opinions about you once, we can do it again. So, Diamond convinced you to sleep with her?" Vinyl asked with a smirk as she pulled into a parking lot.
"Not like that in a sex way, that's creepy and gross. Strictly platonic, obviously. More so like how a sibling would sleep with their young siblings," Sunset explained.
"I didn't mean to imply a sexual way, I'm sorry," Vinyl apologized as she stepped out the car and shoved the keys in her pocket.
"It's all good, I know you didn't mean it like that. Figured people might misunderstand." Sunset and Vinyl walked to the bouncer, flashing their IDs. Sunset immediately went to the bar.
"Just a water, please. I'm not twenty one." She vaguely recognized the bartender but didn't know from where. She slid the water to Sunset and she gratefully took it.
"How much?"
"On the house," she said gruffly and moved on. Sunset raised an eyebrow but shrugged and sipped it. She smirked, watching Vinyl harass the dj about letting her use his system. She kept drinking her water and stood up. She stumbled forward and rubbed her head. She tapped Vinyl on the shoulder.
"I don't feel so good," she mumbled and Vinyl gave her a concerned look.
"Sunset? What's wrong?"
"Feel dizzy and tired." Sunset fell forward and passed out. The last thing she heard was Vinyl screaming her name. |
Anon A Miss Strikes | Chapter VI | Sunset groaned and rubbed her eyes. She took in the white walls and an annoying beeping sound. A small Christmas tree sat in the corner and a table had a few flowers and cards on it.
"Where on earth am I?" She demanded.
"You're in a hospital," Lyra commented idly. Sunset lifted and glanced over at the girl. She was sitting on a couch in the room with a sleeping Bon Bons head on her lap. Lyra glanced up and smiled faintly. "How ya feelin?"
"Like I just got hit by a car." Lyra chuckled and nodded. "What even happened?"
"Apparently the bartender switched out your drink when you weren't looking at one point and slipped a drug in it. You tried to warn Vinyl, passed out and she called for an ambulance. The police arrested Gilda and shut the club down because apparently the owners hired her underage and had her serve alcohol, so they're investigating that too," Lyra stretched her legs and yawned.
"I knew she looked familiar, I just didn't know from where. Damn it," Sunset fumed. "How long have I been here?"
"The past three days," Lyra commented.
"Three days? I slept through Christmas?" Sunset asked. "I was supposed to spend time with Diamond and her family. Get me out of here." She tried to stand up and Lyra shoved Bon Bons head off her lap and pushed Sunset back down.
"Your ass is staying in that bed," Lyra said warningly. "Diamond told me to make sure you do. She and everyone else has been visiting all the past three days," She gave a smirk. "You even have a visitor."
"Who?"
Lyra pointed to the other couch on the opposite side of hers and Sunset looked over, staring in shock. Pinkie and Rainbow were sleeping next to each other, snoring. Their hair looked dull and less vibrant than before, she noted. Especially Rainbows, hers was almost grey while Pinkie's was flat. She's never once seen Pinkie with straight hair, she always assumed it was impossible.
"They've been here the entire time. Refused to leave and eat. The only time they left was for the bathroom," Lyra settled back into her spot and started stroking Bon Bons hair. She flashed Sunset a smirk. "You and Pinkie are adorable, by the way."
"How do you know about that?" Sunset demanded as her head jerked to stare at Lyra, her eyes drilling a hole in the girl.
"You talk in your sleep."
"Why are they here?" Sunset finally asked. "Who told them?"
"Well, apparently you made Pinkie your emergency contact for stuff like this. When you got here, the hospital called her. She and Rainbow came in, she was having a full blown panic attack. Almost hit a doctor because she misunderstood what he said. She would have too if Rainbow and Lightning hadn't been here. Twilight is here too, she's at the vending machine right now."
"Princess Twilight is here?" Sunset whispered and Lyra nodded. "How?"
"Rainbow brought her here. Apparently they've been talking for a few days now. Wanna know the best part?" Lyra eagerly asked.
"What?"
"Rainbow and Pinkie know you're innocent and not behind the account!" Lyra shouted, making Bon Bon wake up with a start. "They've never suspected you to begin with." Sunset smiled as she processed the new information and she immediately felt a wave of guilt hit her for what she said to the pair when Applejack hit her.
"Oh my god Lyra, why are you yelling in a hospital?" Bon Bon grumbled.
"Telling Sunset the good news about Rainbow and Pinkie," Lyra explained and Bon Bon shot up.
"Hey, Sunset. Glad to see you awake, gave us all quite the scare there," Bon Bon smiled at her.
"Sorry." Sunset's eyes flicked to where Pinkie was asleep.
"How can she sleep sitting up I wonder?" Bon Bon asked, mainly to herself.
"Pinkie can sleep anywhere, trust me," Sunset mumbled. Footsteps entered the room and Sunset looked up. Twilight stood above her, smiling. Sunset could see through the act and could easily tell it was a mask to hide her concern.
"Hello, Twilight."
"Hey Sunset, you feeling okay?" Twilight asked as she sat down next to her.
"Yeah. Water would be nice," Sunset admitted. Twilight looked around to make sure they were alone and a cup levitated to her. Sunset gratefully took it and sipped. Bon Bon stared and Lyra was vibrating in excitement.
"How did you do that?" Lyra demanded and Twilight rolled her eyes, smirking. She pointed a necklace around her neck hidden by her shirt.
"That necklace was made specifically by Discord. It allows me to keep a small portion of my magic to do everyday tasks," she explained and Lyra sat back, nodding apparently satisfied with that answer. A pair of golden pieces of paper sat down next to the two.
"What's this?" Bon Bon asked as she picked one up and inspected it.
"Passes from the other princesses allowing you entry into Equestria. I've already given the others of your group theirs. Same with Pinkie and Rainbow," Twilight answered. She glanced down at Sunset and frowned.
"We need to talk. About the others," she said sternly. "Where would I find Applejack?"
"She went up to Appaloosa with her family to visit Braeburn. They'll be back next week," Lyra commented. "She posted a picture on MyStable of all of them together."
"I didn't even think she knew how to work the internet," Bon Bon mumbled and Sunset snickered.
"She doesn't, most likely Apple Bloom posted it for her. She always was the most tech savvy."
"This whole anon a miss thing reminds me a lot of Gabby Gums," Twilight commented and the three girls stared at her.
"What the hell is a Gabby Gums?" Sunset asked. Twilight sighed.
"A few years ago, the pony versions of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo made a bunch of news paper articles releasing a bunch of secrets in their school newspaper. They eventually apologized of course, but the damage was done."
"Think they could be responsible?" Bon Bon asked and Sunset shook her head.
"I know Scoots, she wouldn't do this. We're like, best friends."
"I hope you're right, Sunset," Twilight said softly. "I hope you're right." She glanced at the clock. "I need to get going, I'm supposed to give a lesson at Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns in three hours." She smiled at Sunset. "Stay safe, Sunset. I'm a entry away from you. And a portal away," she nodded at Bon Bon and Lyra. "Watch over her for me."
"We will," Bon Bon promised as Twilight left the room. "The doctors said you'll be able to go back to school tomorrow for the first day back."
"Great," Sunset moaned out. "I hate school. It's all so easy for me."
"Easy? How the hell is algebra easy?" Lyra demanded.
"Compared to what I've studied in Equestria, the classes here are pieces of cake. Where's Vinyl?" She asked, looking around.
"She feels responsible for you being roofied, so she's been making sure to stay hidden when visiting in case you woke up when she's here."
"Well, it's not her fault. I'll find her and tell her later. I'll be god damned if my friend keeps thinking like that," Sunset growled. She glanced at Lyra. "Do you still think I'm behind anon a miss?"
"No. While we had your phone, the account kept posting. Speaking of which, Diamond said she'll give you the phone back before you all go to school," the mint green girl admitted. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Sunset mumbled. "You were right, there wasn't much evidence proving me innocent." Pinkie groaned and opened her eyes.
"I slept so good," she said in a dead sounding voice. "Best sleep ever." She stared at Sunset and perked up. "Sunset!" She launched across the room and hugged her. "I'm so sorry. For being afraid to stand up for you." Sunset sighed and rubbed her back.
"It's okay Pinkie. It's okay." Lyra and Bon Bon exchanged mischievous grins.
"We can give you two some time alone if you need it," Lyra suggested with a smirk. Sunset rolled her eyes.
"It's not gonna come to that," Sunset reassured the two. Pinkie stared at her as she hugged her back.
"I understood if you don't love me anymore," Pinkie whispered.
"You idiot, I still love you. Even if you thought I was guilty, I'm gonna still date you after I proved myself innocent."
"Thank you," Pinkie mumbled.
"You're welcome." The pair fell asleep in the hospital bed and Bon Bon grabbed Lyra's hand.
"We need to get our school supplies, let's go and give them space."
Lyra nodded as she got dragged out by Bon Bon.
First Response sat at his desk and rubbed his eyes. This whole anon a miss mess was stressing him out. He already had to arrest a few students for fighting in the school. He took his job as the school resource officer pretty serious and loved his job. A majority of the kids liked him and opened up to him about their various issues. He had already been down to the hospital and checked up on Sunset after he heard about her incident. Sighing, he opened his email on the computer and read the email sent from another officer. He narrowed his eyes and shut his computer off after he read the contents. He stood up and left his office, walking down the hall. He gave a smile to Derpy who waved. He really liked Derpy, she was a good kid. Didn't deserve the insults she received, in his opinion. He reached the classroom he was looking for and pulled out his keys, unlocking the door.
"Hello, Miss Cheerilee," he greeted with a smile. She set down her book and smiled back.
"Hello, Sergeant. What can I do for you?" She asked. A few students watched in curiosity.
"I need to borrow Rarity for a bit, please." The girl nervously stood up and left the class room.
"Oooooh," the classroom said in unison and Cheerilee gave them a look.
"Where are we going, darling?" Rarity asked.
"My office. We have some things to talk about."
"What is it about?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I'll tell you in my office," he replied as he held open the door to his office. "Sit down, please." She complied and he sat across from her.
"So Rarity, do you know anything about anon a miss?" He asked and her eyes widened.
"Yes, my dear I do. My former friend Sunset Shimmer is behind the account." He raised an eyebrow at that. He knew all about Sunset and her past, but knew she changed. Plus, he knew more than Rarity did.
"If she's the one who's behind it, then why do half the posts come from your houses IP address?" He asked. Rarity scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Obviously she must have made it appear to come from my houses ip or something. She's a resourceful one."
"It wasn't her. It was either you or your sister," he pointed out.
"It was neither of us. It was Sunset," Rarity declared. First Response was a experienced police officer of thirty years, he knew when someone needed gentle pushing or aggressive pushing. He also knew he was able to lie to a degree to get a confession. Looking at how nervous Rarity was to be in the room with him, he decided to take the aggressive approach. He slammed a hand down on the desk and she jumped.
"This is not a game any more, young lady. A young girl committed suicide because of a post made about her and her family wants answers. The posts come from your houses ip. It's either you, or Sweetie Belle. Tell me what I need to know," he snapped. When she stayed quiet, he added his handcuffs onto the table and her eyes stayed on them. "I can take you down to the station and arrest you for involuntary manslaughter. You can be charged for this. Other officers are currently executing a search warrant on the house for all electronics." Well that part wasn't a lie but oh well. "Sooner or later, they're gonna find something. Do you know what a involuntary manslaughter charge will do to you? That follows you forever. It doesn't go off your record after a year like a speeding ticket does. Ever job you apply at will see that. Youre eighteen, you're legally an adult. They will charge you as an adult. Do you really want that?"
"No," Rarity mumbled. "Sweetie Belle has been acting weird recently."
"Weird how?" He pressed. She hesitated and he slid the handcuffs towards her.
"Spending lots of time with the laptop in her room with her friends, acting frustrated whenever someone mentions Sunset and gets nervous when me and my friends bring up anon a miss," Rarity hastily said. He nodded.
"And you think it could be her?" He questioned.
"I know it wasn't me. It wasn't our parents. I personally still think it might be Sunset but there's always a chance I suppose," she mumbled as she rubbed her nose.
"Thank you, Rarity. You can go back to class." She left the room and shut the door softly, crying as soon as she shut it. He listened for a second before sighing and picked up the phone.
"Principal Celestia? Can you send Scootaloo to my office? Thank you." |
Anon A Miss Strikes | Chapter VII | Scootaloo walked into the office and smiled. First Response helped her a lot with some bullying issues when she first got here. She still had weekly Go Fish and Uno games with him.
"Hello Scootaloo. How was winter break?" He greeted her as she sat down across from him.
"It was good, how was yours first?" She asked with a big smile.
"It was decent. Got Christmas off for the first time in ten years. Spent it with the kids and wife," he replied. "While I love our conversations, we have something to discuss." She cautiously sat down at the seat across from. He slid a donut and a chocolate milk to her. "Figured you might be hungry, so I stopped by Sugarcube Corner and got you some breakfast."
"Thank you," she mumbled as she eagerly bit into the donut. He laughed and handed her a napkin.
"We need to talk about this Anon a miss account. I know Sweetie was involved. Do you know anything about it?" He asked and she froze.
"N-no," she stammered out and his eyes narrowed slightly.
"You're lying," he pointed out calmly.
"How can you tell?" Scootaloo nervously asked, looking around the room.
"I've been a officer since I was twenty two, it's my job to know when I'm being lied to."
"Don't you need my parents here if you're gonna be interrogating me?"
"This isn't an interrogation, it's just two friends talking. That said, we have your aunts on the way because we couldn't reach your parents," he replied.
"Okay."
He rested against the desk and made eye contact with her.
"What do you know about the account, Scoots? Honestly is the best way to help yourself here."
"I may know something about it," she admitted and slammed her head against the desk.
"You're not a bad kid, Scootaloo. I think you're just in a bad situation and you don't know how to get out, isn't that it?" He asked softly and she nodded, raising her head.
"Yes," she answered in a whisper. She wiped the crumbs off her face and sipped her milk.
"What's going on?"
"It was their idea," she mumbled.
"Peer pressure can be hard to say no to if it's your friends, who is they?" He asked.
"You know who," she replied.
"I need verbal confirmation, Scoots. You know that," he pointed at his bodycam. "For that." She hesitated and looked away.
"Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle," she mumbled.
"And what was the point of the account, Scoots?" He questioned soothingly. She made eye contact with him.
"I'll tell you everything," she whispered.
First Response walked down the hallway with another officer, their shoes echoing down the hall. They reached the classroom they needed and the younger officer unlocked and opened it. The students looked up and Ms. Harshwhinny paused her lesson. The two officers walked to Apple Bloom desks and stopped.
"Get up," the younger officer ordered.
"W-why?" She stammered as she stood up. He spun her around and pulled out his handcuffs.
"You're not under arrest, you're being placed into custody alright. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney during any questioning, if you can't afford one, one will be appointed to you by the courts. Do you understand these rights as I've read them to you?" He asked as snapped the cuffs on her.
"Ah do, why are y'all arresting me?" She demanded nervously as they lead her out the classroom.
"You're not under arrest," he repeated as they shut the door, leaving her stunned classmates and teacher behind. Across the school, Sweetie Belle was getting the same treatment by Shining Armor. He lead her down the hall and met up with the other officers. They started to walk down the hall to the entrance of the school, guiding the two girls. Students moved out of their way and gazed in shock at the two freshman in handcuffs.
"What in Sam Hill is goin on here?" A furious Applejack demanded. Rarity looked away and bit her lip. Applejack stepped in front of them and First Response gently pushed her out of the way.
"Step aside, or you'll get arrested for impending a police function," he warned.
"Apple Bloom, what on earth did y'all two do?" She demanded as they kept walking her sister outside.
"Ah fucked up," Apple Bloom called out as she was put in the back of a waiting police car.
"Ah'll call Granny and we will sort this out, ya hear me?" Apple Bloom nodded as the Shining Armor got in the front seat and drove off, following the car in front of him that contained Sweetie Belle.
"What just happened?" Fluttershy inquired as she walked up to the pair.
"Ah ain't even sure. Three police officers just walked our sisters outta here in cuffs into police cars," Applejack fumed. Rarity sighed.
"You two, come with me," she pulled them into a classroom and shut the door. "Half of anon a miss posts came from my houses ip. The Sergeant questioned me extensively about it. Sweetie Belle has been acting weird. What about Apple Bloom?"
"What are ya implying?" Applejack folded her arms and stared at her.
"I'm implying nothing. I'm asking if she has been acting weird." Applejack rubbed her chin in thought.
"Ah mean, ah guess. No more than usual. She mainly just stays in her room with Sweetie and Scootaloo. We were like that too when were their age."
"I suppose. Maybe we should ask them if they know anything. I don't want to believe my sister did this, but a girl killed herself over this the officer said. That's a manslaughter charge, darling. Either of us and our sisters could go down for that."
"Alright fine, we will speak to em. Ah ain't sure about what we are gonna find, though Rares," Applejack conceded.
"Me neither."
"What makes you think I'm not anon a miss?" Sunset asked as she stabbed her potato salad, taking a bite. Rainbow sipped her pop.
"Just a gut feeling. This didn't seem like something you would do, especially not now. Especially not to Pinkie." Rainbow flashed a tired smile to her. "Plus, loyalty and all." She rubbed her head and winced a bit.
"You okay?" Lightning asked around a mouthful of pizza.
"Yeah, just a migraine," she mumbled as she bit into her hamburger.
"We all have them," Pinkie said.
"How do we know you won't go back to your friends when shit gets rough?" Vinyl asked she drank her water. Rainbow glared at her.
"We would rather die," she said coldly. Bon Bon and Octavia shot each other worried looks.
"Sunset has the same migraines," Lyra commented. Pinkie and Rainbow looked at her in surprise.
"Really?" They asked in unison.
"Yeah, I'm not sure why," Sunset admitted.
"Twilight seems to think it's related to the elements punishing us when I went and asked her," Rainbow pointed out.
"You went through the portal and asked her?" Sunset asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, it's the most painful thing I've ever felt." Sunset rubbed her chin.
"The elements punishing us all could explain why we all have migraines."
"What do you mean?" Octavia questioned.
"In Equestria, the Elements of Harmony are a force used to defended Equestria. Rainbow Dash is Loyalty, Pinkie is laughter, Rarity is generosity, Applejack is honesty and Fluttershy is Kindness," Sunset explained. Diamond gave a snort.
"Kinda funny how the last three are the worst right now," she grumbled. "So that's what you were talking about at the bakery when Applejack got arrested." Sunset nodded.
"That doesn't explain why Sunset has migraines though," Silver Spoon pointed out and Sunset sighed.
"Actually it does. I represent the Element of Empathy and Forgiveness. I haven't been very empathic lately with the school, so I betrayed my element in a way too." She rubbed her head.
"My migraine has been going away. Same with Pinkies," Rainbow pointed out.
"I'm not sure. I have been laughing more recently, so that's why Pinkies might be going away. And yours might be going away because we are back and talking again." Rainbow gave a nod.
"Makes sense. My hair has been turning more vibrant than it was before," she looked over Octavia and the others till her gaze rested on Diamond Tiara. "So this is the new group you're running with?"
"Is that a problem?" Vinyl asked and Octavia smacked her on the back of the head. "Ow."
"No, it's not a problem. I was just asking," Rainbow growled. She looked around the cafeteria and rolled her eyes. "Here comes trouble." Applejack walked up to them with a nervous expression and Lightning stood up, with a fist balled.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded as soon as Applejack was in earshot.
"Ah'm here to talk to Rainbow. About our sisters, now kindly move." Sunset and Rainbow exchanged a nervous look.
"Vinyl, ask Applejack if something happened to Scootaloo for me," Rainbow requested.
"Did anything happen to Scootaloo, Applejack?" The dj asked.
"Sweetie and Apple Bloom just got detained by the police. Taken out the school and everythang."
"What?" Diamond exclaimed. "Why?"
"Ah ain't sure. They ain't tell us anything yet. They said they were gunna stop by the farm later and talk to Granny."
"Gabby Gums," Sunset muttered to herself.
"Did Scootaloo get taken too?" Rainbow asked.
"Naw. She's around here somewhere," Applejack admitted. "Can ya talk to her for us?"
"I don't want to do you any favors," Rainbow retorted. "We're done." Applejack recoiled and stared at her.
"Fine." She glanced at Sunset.
"Move along," Lightning growled. Applejack glared at her and stood in front of her. "Go ahead, Applejack. Do something. Make my day. I don't care, I'll smack the fuck out of you. I'll even keep swinging on your unconscious body when the cops show up and try to pull me off." Her and Applejack glared at each other till Lyra slammed her hand down on the table.
"Get out of here, Applejack. This isn't the place for you. Hopefully, one day you can buy enough lube to pull your head out of your ass but that day isn't today. Now run before Lightning hits you," the green girl snapped. Bon Bon stared at her in shock. Applejack glared at her before nodding and walking away.
"I never knew you were so vulgar, Lyra," Bon Bon announced as she ate her salad. Lyra shot her a smug look.
"I'm an engima."
"You're something," Vinyl muttered. Lyra rolled her eyes and went back to trying to shove a whole cheeseburger into her mouth.
Pinkie gave Sunset a one armed hug.
"I missed this," she mumbled and gestured around the table with a fork. "Having more than one actual friend and Sunset being happy. It's nice to not be so down in the dumps." Sunset returned the hug.
"I know." |
Anon A Miss Strikes | Chapter VIII | Rarity sighed as she sat in front of Sweetie Belle. The younger girl was wearing a collared shirt and brown khakis.
"You look awful, darling," Rarity announced.
"Yeah well, this is the uniform we have to wear at the juvenile hall. Apple Bloom has the same thing on," Sweetie mumbled.
"Sweetie Belle. I want an honest answer and I want one now. Why on earth are we sitting here at the detention center and not at home. The police took all the computers in our house," Rarity said sternly. "I may have a faint idea, but I hope to God it isn't what I think."
"Fine. It was us. We did it. Anon a miss, all of it," Sweetie hung her head. "It was a mistake."
"Why in God's good name did you do this Sweetie Belle?" Rarity asked calmly.
"You've rarely hung out with me ever since she came to the group. Sure, I liked her at first but you traded me in for her. I'm your sister for crying out loud. And you threw me away for a non family member. You promised me yourself things wouldn't change at all and they did," Sweetie snapped. "You hurt me and you don't even care, you deserved to be hurt too like I was. I didnt expect it go this far, people started sending in all types of secrets of others and we knew Sunset wouldn't have just quit." Rarity stared at her. "By then, we were in too deep and scared."
"And you couldn't tell me any of this why? You framed an innocent girl, broke up my friend group. Someone could have committed suicide over this, Sweetie. You know that, right? What would you have done then? You are sixteen, there's a fifty fifty chance they could have charged you as an adult here. You're so lucky Sunset begged the judge to show you girls leniency. If it was me in her shoes, I don't think I would have done it," Rarity pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Do you still love me?" Sweetie asked in a whisper.
"You're my sister, I'll always love you. But I'm very angry with you right now. You could have handled this so much better. In a way, I'm to blame for this too. I ignored you, I didn't notice the signs that you were angry with us. I abandoned Sunset and didn't believe her. You're my little sister and I'll do anything for you, but you need to get this sorted out and be done. You got six more months here. After that, we will talk and sort this all out. There won't be any yelling, just two sisters talking. Like we should have from the start," Rarity sighed. "But you will be apologizing to Sunset."
"I know," Sweetie sighed.
"Ya did what?" Applejack shouted and Apple Bloom shrunk in her chair. Rarity and Sweetie Belle looked over.
"Hopefully she doesn't yell at her too much," Sweetie commented hopefully.
"I think we might be past that, darling."
"Ah want an explanation and ah want one now, Bloom," Applejack snapped.
"Ya ditched me for Sunset. Ya never come by my room and just have our sisterly talks, ya only talked to me at dinner time, school and when we harvested our crops," Apple Bloom said simply. "Ya hurt mah feelings, ah wanted ya feelings hurt too. It backfired." Applejack snorted.
"Ah'd say it has. We've hung out when Sunset was mah friend, have ya forgotten that? At the theaters, that horror movie ya wanted to see and ya were so scared to sleep that ah slept in ya bed," Applejack growled.
"And when was that, AJ? That was right after the fall formal. Ya barely done anything with me since. Ya preach how important family is, but then essentially abandon me. Ah have every right to be mad," Apple Bloom retorted. Applejack gave a long sigh.
"Ah'm sorry. Ah ain't mean to make ta feel abandoned like that. Just because ya got a right to be mad doesn't mean ya can go do whatever ya heart desires. Especially not something like this. Ah'm a tad bit mad at ya but ah'm mainly disappointed in ya." Apple Bloom flinched at that. Hearing she was disappointed in her and not mad hurt more in a weird way. "Ah ain't even sure ah can fix my friendship with Sunset. Because of ya, ah betrayed the core part of me."
"Ah'm sorry," Apple Bloom mumbled. "Ah think Diamond might be done with me."
"Yall are on a break while she sorts her feelings out, ya guys aren't broken up," Applejack reminded her. "Our time is up." The two pushed their chairs out and Applejack hesitantly hugged her sister.
"Why we only get two hugs?" Apple Bloom wondered.
"This place is meant to imitate a real jail, so we only get one hug at the beginning and one at the end. Hence the uniform ya got on. It's meant to put the fear of God into ya so ya avoid real jail," Applejack explained as she let go. "And ya will be apologizing to Sunset, this ain't a debate. Face ya consequences."
"Alright."
"Get your ass back in that room and make that bed again, young lady!" The women yelled at Sweetie Belle, getting right up in her face.
"I'm pretty sure you can't talk to me like that," Sweetie pointed out.
"Like hell I can't. We are supposed to get your act together so you don't go to real jail. We are way tamer than real guards, a real CO would be yelling at you even more than me," the women snapped. "Now get back there and make that bed again. I expect that room to be perfectly neat and clean like we showed you." Sweetie Belle sighed and walked back to her room.
"You know, they wouldn't ride you so hard if you did what they said the first time," Scootaloo commented as she flipped the page in her book. "Even I fell in line after getting screamed at the first month. People are gonna think some monster swapped our personalities around our bodies." Sweetie rolled her eyes as she made her bed and smoothed down the sheet.
"This place is hell," she mumbled.
"It's pretty bad, yeah," Scootaloo admitted. "I'd hate to see what real jail is like."
"It's kinda your fault we are in here," Sweetie pointed out. Scootaloo sighed and set her book down. She swung off the bed and stared at Sweetie.
"We were already caught. I never wanted a part of this anyway. At least Sunset is my new sister figure/ idol."
"What happened to Rainbow?" Sweetie raised an eyebrow. Scootaloo sighed as she straightened her collar.
"She hasn't come to visit me once. Sunset comes every week, hugs me at the beginning and end, sneaks us in candy bars and more. We messed up big time. Rainbow hates me I bet. I'd hate me, hell I do hate me."
"I'm sorry. We should have listened to you at first when you said it was a bad idea. It's our fault too," Sweetie mumbled.
"It is what it is. One day, she'll come around. Sunset always was an idol to me anyway." She laid back down on the bed as the same women came in.
"Good job, Sweetie Belle. I'm impressed." She gave a flicker of a smile and walked out.
"You've never told us your name, by the way." Sweetie pointed put. The women glanced back at her.
"Night Glider," she replied gruffly as she slammed the doors shut and locked it.
"She's a scary women," Sweetie shivered.
"A tad bit," Scootaloo admitted. Sweetie leaned against the door and peeked out the small window.
"You think this is what real jail is like?" She asked. Scootaloo let out an exasperated sigh.
"For the tenth time this week Sweetie, I have no fucking idea, all I know is I want to avoid it."
"We're really lucky, you know?" Sweetie asked as her eyes flicked down the hallway.
"How do you figure?" Scootaloo asked as she picked her comic book back and resumed reading.
"We got assigned the same room. Apple Bloom got assigned a complete stranger. What if it was a person who was violent with people?" Sweetie shivered as she pictured Apple Bloom getting hit by her roommate.
"Yeah, I doubt that's the case. It wouldn't surprise me if they did that though. In jail, your bunk mates are complete strangers and you have no idea why they're in there," Scootaloo replied.
"I'm scared to be honest. What if we die in here?" Scootaloo gave a chuckle and Sweetie glared at her.
"Sorry, laughing at my comic. And we won't die here, quit being so dramatic. It's pretty obvious you're related to Rarity. They wouldn't allow someone to kill us here."
"I sure hope so," Sweetie replied as she sat next to Scootaloo on her bunk and read the comic with her. "I haven't read this comic before."
"It's the new issue. Sunset brought it for me because I asked her to." Sweetie scanned the page.
"What's it about?" Sweetie asked.
"I'm not sure," Scootaloo admitted. Sweetie raised an eyebrow.
"It's your comic book, how do you not know?" She asked.
"It's in neighponese, while I can speak it, I don't understand the premise of the series. It's comedy apparently or something." The two sat reading the comic, with Scootaloo translating for Sweetie Belle. She occasionally gave a laugh, but she really didn't understand the premise.
"Wanna know the worst part of this place?" She suddenly asked.
"What's that?" Scootaloo idly asked as she flipped the page.
"The food here is really bad."
"That it is. Prison food or a close replica."
"How are you so calm about all this?" Sweetie demanded.
"Food is food. Remember, before I lived with my aunts my parents barely feed me and were shitty?" Scootaloo pointed out.
"No, you never told me that. What the heck, Scoots?"
"Oh. I told Apple Bloom, that's right."
"So you trust Apple Bloom more than me now?" Sweetie glared at Scootaloo. "That's fucked up." Scootaloo recoiled. Sweetie Belle rarely ever cussed, she had to be really mad to cuss.
"It's not like that," Scootaloo sighed and closed her book, marking her page.
"What's it like then?" Sweetie challenged.
"It was when Apple Bloom first introduced us. I didn't know you or anything about you. I didn't know how long you would stay or if you would even be my friend." Scootaloo made eye contact with her friend. "I had to be cautious with what information I gave out. I knew Apple for a bit longer than I knew you." Sweetie let out a drawn out sigh.
"Okay, that makes sense," she admitted. "What about now?"
"Whaddaya mean, what about now?" Scootaloo asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Do you trust me now?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
"Of course I do, idiot. You're my closet friend along with AB. And we're stuck in this six by eight room together."
"How do you know it's six by eight?" Sweetie asked in confusion. Scootaloo pointed to a small sign on the wall. Sweetie glanced over to where she pointed and the dimensions of the room were wrote on it. "Oh."
"Yeah."
"You still trust me, even after what we stupidly used our friendship to have you help us?" Sweetie asked suddenly in surprise.
"It was a bit hard at first," Scootaloo admitted. "It hurt a bit, but I wouldn't just up and abandon you guys over it. We all make mistakes, it's part of life. You two are my closest friends." Sweetie leaned into her and hugged her.
"I'm sorry. It was really wrong of us and we're all suffering the consequences. Especially Sunset."
"She's actually not that bad, she's working through it. She has a new group of friends I hear. Bon Bon, Lyra, Lightning Dust to name a few."
"That's good," Sweetie mumbled. "So do we just spend half the day in here you think?"
"Nah, I overheard us getting classes too here. They don't want us missing on our education," Scootaloo explained.
"Joy," Sweetie grumbled and rolled her eyes.
"I know right."
"Remember when Apple Bloom tried to ask for the harshest punishment instead of us?" Scootaloo suddenly asked. Sweetie Belle gave a laugh.
"I do. Dang her and her martyr complex," Sweetie chuckled.
"Lights out means go to sleep!" A fist pounded on their door and the two girls jumped.
"I should probably go to my bunk and sleep now," Sweetie whispered and Scootaloo nodded. She slid off of Scootaloos bed and climbed into her own.
"Night, Scootaloo."
"Night, Sweetie Belle." |
Anon A Miss Strikes | Chapter IX | Sweetie made a face at the food on her tray. She missed her sisters cooking and normal food, not whatever was in front of her. She poked at it with her spork and sighed. Scootaloo sat next to her, eating.
"How on earth can you stomach this disgustingness?" Sweetie demanded. Scootaloo swallowed the food in her mouth.
"First off, I'm not entirely sure if disgustingness is a word. Secondly, if you try to not focus on the taste and think of other happy things, it doesn't taste as bad. But there's a downside."
"What's that?" Sweetie questioned as she poked the food on her lunch tray again.
"When you go to think about those happy thoughts again once you're out of this place, you'll never be able to think of them the same because of the food."
"Interesting approach," Sweetie mused as she forced herself to take a bite. "What do you think about?" Scootaloo gave a shrug.
"Remember the time me, you and Apple Bloom went to Equestria World and we went on that one ride and it got stuck up side down on the loop and Apple Bloom vomited on everyone below her repeatedly?" The girls shared a laugh.
"That was disgusting," Sweetie snorted.
"Just pray if it happens again, y'all ain't under me," Apple Bloom scoffed as she sat across from them with another girl. "I want y'all to meet someone, this is Screwball." The pink girl gave a shy wave.
"Hello," Sweetie said with a bright smile.
"Sup."
"Other than talking about me, what are y'all up?" Apple Bloom asked she bit into her breakfast.
"Currently debating on the quickest hypothetical way out of here," Scootaloo commented. "We have bribe the guards and my awesome idea of launching ourselves over the gate with a giant rubber band."
"Ah like the second one," Apple Bloom announced as Scootaloo shot Sweetie Belle a smug grin. "Just one question."
"What's that?"
"Where in tarnation are ya gonna get a giant rubber band that can shoot four girls outta juvie?" Scootaloo paused and rubbed her head.
"I didn't think about that," she admitted. "What do you mean, four girls?"
"Screwball. We're bringing her with us, duh."
"Oh, right," Scootaloo focused on the quiet pink girl eating. "Why are you in here?"
"I ran away from home and school repeatedly, ran from the police and committed thefts," she replied with a slur, idly spinning the propeller on her hat.
"Are you okay?" Sweetie asked. Screwball raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, why?"
"You sound well uh a bit different," Scootaloo smacked her on the back of the head.
"Be nice," she hissed under her breath into Sweeties ear. Screwballs expression fell and she looked down. Apple Bloom gave Sweetie a dirty look.
"Sorry, that was rude of me. It won't happen again," she apologized.
"It's okay," Screwball mumbled. "I'm used to it."
"How long have you been here?" Scootaloo questioned.
"I come here off and on," Screwball sipped her water.
"And you haven't been arrested yet? How?" Sweetie asked in surprise. Screwball stared at her.
"I'm thirteen," she said calmly. "They don't arrest thirteen year olds often, if at all for stuff like this." She picked up her empty tray and waved shyly. "See you around, Apple Bloom."
"How did you meet her?" Scootaloo asked as she watched the girl set her tray down and leave the room.
"She's mah roommate, she's mainly quiet and just sits there, drawin," Apple Bloom said. "Sometimes she reads, she really likes to prank me. Ah ain't even sure how she gets half the supplies to do the pranks, the stuff she uses definitely ain't allowed in here."
"Maybe she has an underground criminal network and she's the boss," Scootaloo suggested.
"Ah'm sure that ain't it."
"Or maybe she is very talented at sneaking stuff in," Sweetie pointed out.
"Ah guess."
"We were worried your bunk buddy was a violent person, but she seems nice," Scootaloo commented.
"She's a nice gal. She's got what's it called where ya have hallucanations?"
"Hallucinations," Sweetie corrected. "And I think that's called schizophrenia, really messed up stuff."
"Yeah," Scootaloo piped in.
"Fascinating," Apple Bloom mumbled. "She ain't ever been violent with me, but when she gets one of her episodes she punches the wall hard as hell." Shouting made the three girls look up to a nearby table where a fist fight was happening. They nervously watched as the staff broke it up and forced the two girls out of the lunch room.
"That was brutal," Scootaloo commented as she pushed her empty tray away from her. "Looks like she has a broken nose."
"Thank God we haven't had that happen to us," Sweetie shivered.
"We just gotta stay to ourselves and stay quiet and we'll be golden," Apple Bloom said confidently. "It's only six months left of this, we will be fine."
"I hope so," Sweetie mumbled under her breath.
Scootaloo sighed as she walked down the hall to her and Sweeties room. She rubbed her knee and whimpered softly. She tried to keep the fact that she had to have a knee brace to walk comfortably. It irritated her to no end, but if it helped her run like she used to before, she was gonna handle it.
"Hey." She glanced up at a random girl with pigtails walking up to her.
"Uhm, hello?" She asked cautiously.
"I'll get to the point, you got a knee brace on and my friend wants it because her knee hurts. So give me it." Scootaloo snorted.
"Yeah, no. That ain't happening," she retorted. "How do you even know how I have one?"
"I'm not stupid, I can see it slightly pushing out against your pant leg, you're rubbing your leg." She pushed her to the ground and she yelped. "You're really not gonna give me it?"
"No."
"Fine, I'll buy one at commissary. You just put me back at least thirty to fifty dollars, asshole. Worthless cripple."
"Hey!" Sweetie Belle snapped as she stomped up. "Back the fuck off." She slapped her on the back off the head and she spun around, staring at her in shock. She quickly ran off around the corner. Sweetie stood of Scootaloo and held out her hand.
"Want a hand?" She offered. Scootaloo took it and Sweetie pulled her up.
"You didn't have to do that, I could have handled it," Scootaloo grumbled. Sweetie rolled her eyes.
"Sure you could," Sweetie said dryly. "I'd rather avoid you getting in a fight in general."
"So you'd rather make yourself a target then?" Scootaloo retorted and Sweetie paused.
"I didn't think of that," she admitted. "But friends stick up for friends so I'd do it again."
"Fair enough," Scootaloo admitted. She entered her room and threw herself onto her bunk. "This is so boring."
"Yep," Sweetie agreed, laying on her own bunk and putting her hands behind her head. "Wanna know what I just realized?"
"What's that?" Scootaloo asked as she traced her hand on the bunk.
"We're gonna miss the trip to camp everfree because of this," Sweetie grumbled.
"Ah shit. And the Friendship Games," Scootaloo sighed.
"Oh well, not like we were gonna win anyway," Sweetie replied bitterly.
"You never know. This year could be our chance to win," Scootaloo offered and Sweetie scoffed.
"You said that before."
"And?"
"And we lost. We always lose." Sweetie jumped off her bed and started pacing. "This is worse than the time Rarity grounded me. At least I had the park to go to."
"I remember that," Scootaloo recalled with a faint smile. "That was one of the first times I've seen you not wearing a dress or skirt because you wanted to use the swings and didn't want anyone seeing up your dress." Sweetie snorted.
"Well yeah, that isn't very ladylike," Sweetie pointed out.
"I guess, I've only worn a dress once in my life or so I think," Scootaloo rubbed her chin in thought.
"I know. I was the one who did your hair and makeup for the Fall Formal."
"You know, I've never seen you slap anyone. Just wait till Apple Bloom hears about this. Sweet, innocent little Sweetie Belle starting a fight," Scootaloo said with a smirk. She wasn't gonna admit it, but she was grateful for the help. Changed her perception of Sweetie Belle a bit.
"I didn't expect to slap her to be honest," Sweetie admitted. "It just sorta happened."
"That's how it sometimes goes," Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
"How do you think Apple Bloom is taking her break with Diamond?" Sweetie suddenly asked.
"I have no idea. You know that girl, she rarely talks about her feelings."
"Just like you," Sweetie pointed out.
"I do it sometimes. I don't like doing it but I do it," Scootaloo rolled her eyes. The door swung open and Night Glider walked in. She stopped at Scootaloos bed.
"Up." Scootaloo sighed and stood up. She held out her hands and Night Glider slapped cuffs on her. "Come with me."
"Good luck, Scoots," Sweetie smiled at her nervously. Night Glider placed a hand on Scootaloos shoulder and walked out the room down the hall.
"Where are we going?" Scootaloo asked, looking around.
"Misty Fly wants to see you." She pushed the door open and pointed to a seat across from the desk where a yellow women with blue hair was waiting.
"Sit," Misty Fly directed with a faint smile. Scootaloo sat down nervously and Misty nodded at Night Glider. "Thank you." The women left the room and shut the door. Misty focused her piercing green eyes on the younger girl and folded her arms on the desk.
"I'll cut to the chase, you're getting out because you helped the police end the account. Three months instead on the six months you three received."
"All of us?" Scootaloo asked in surprise.
"No. Just you. You leave next week, you're dismissed." Misty turned her attention to her computer and started typing. Scootaloo hesitantly got up and left the room. One thought was going through her head.
"Well, shit," she mumbled, voicing what she was thinking. |
Anon A Miss Strikes | Chapter X | "What?" Sweetie exclaimed. Scootaloo sighed in exasperation.
"I said, I get out next week," Scootaloo repeated.
"Ah'll be damned, that's great news Scoots!" Apple Bloom grinned. Screwball gave her a faint smile.
"I guess," Scootaloo grumbled. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each with raised eyebrows.
"Ain't that a good thing?" Apple Bloom questioned. Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
"If I leave, that means Sweetie gets a new roommate. What if it's someone way worse than me?"
"Ah'm sure ya ain't that bad," Apple Bloom reassured her.
"She does snore," Sweetie mumbled. "Ow!" She rubbed her head and glared at Apple Bloom. "What was that for?"
"Just take the offer and get out. There's freedom out there and you can come visit. Besides, it ain't seem like it was an offer," Apple Bloom pointed out, ignoring Sweetie Belles glare. Sighing, Scootaloo bit into her breakfast.
"I guess," Scootaloo admitted. "Or I can find a way for us all to get out early." She locked eyes with Screwball, taking note of her hopeful expression. "ALL of us."
"Thank you," she mumbled.
"You're one of us now. It's not a problem," Scootaloo smiled.
"So how ya gonna spring us all out?" Apple Bloom asked, shoving some food into her mouth. Sweetie made a disgusted face and looked away.
"Ask nicely?" Scootaloo offered with a hopeful smile and Apple Bloom facepalmed.
"Ah'm sure that will totally work," she replied dryly.
"You really think so? I've been working up the nerve."
"No, featherbrain! That ain't gonna work. How many people ya think kindly asked to be let out?" Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.
"Uh, probably a few?" Scootaloo replied hesitantly. Apple Bloom nodded.
"Ah'd reckon so," Apple Bloom agreed. "Ya gotta do something else.'
"Murder a guard and steal his keys?" Scootaloo offered.
"Ah don't get why Ah'm friends with ya some day," Apple Bloom grumbled. "We're in some deep shit as is and ya wanna add a murder onto ya rap sheet? Are ya insane?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
"I was joking, nimrod."
"I wouldn't even joke about it here. The staff would beat you up or something," Screwball scoffed.
"They wouldn't do that, would they?" Sweetie asked nervously. Screwball shrugged and gave her a smirk.
"You never knowwww," she sang off key.
"Ya know what ah don't get," Apple Bloom focused on Scootaloo. "Is how Sunset didn't murder ya."
"It's a long story," Scootaloo grumbled.
"Ah got time."
"Fine," Scootaloo rolled her eyes and told them.
Scootaloo clutched her book to her chest as she walked to the school library where Sunset was waiting for her. She had asked the older girl to wait for her. She took a deep breath and sighed, walking up to Sunset.
"Hey, Sunset." Sunset stood up and rubbed Scootaloo's hair, pulling her into a hug.
"Hey, kid." She grinned and Scootaloo hugged her back. "How ya doing?"
"Been better, you?"
"I'm doing good, I got exposed as innocent to the whole school."
"Yeah. We should talk about that," Scootaloo rubbed her head nervously and Sunset nodded. She gestured to the chair next to her and the pair sat down. Sunset's expression turned serious.
"What's up, kid?" Scootaloo took another deep breath.
"I was part of it. Of anon a miss. I made the posts about Rainbow Dash. I wasn't mad at you, I was mad at her. I didn't really want to be a part of it but well I have no excuse," Scootaloo hung her head. Sunset sighed.
"I know." Scootaloo jumped slightly.
"How?" She asked incredulously.
"When Twilight came over to see me in the hospital, she told me the Equestrian versions of you and your friends did something similar with the school paper. When you came up to me and said sorry for people vandalizing my stuff, you seemed off after I thought about it. Then I heard Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle got escorted out of the school by the police. At that point, pieces started to fall into place."
"I'm sorry," Scootaloo mumbled.
"I know."
"Do you hate me?" She hesitantly asked the older girl. Sunset gave a loud sigh.
"No. I'm disappointed, yeah sure. But I could never hate you. Any of you. You're just kids. You aren't a bad kid, you three just made a bad mistake. I've made far worse and been forgiven for it." Scootaloo gave a relieved sigh and Sunset continued. "But I expect you to tell First Response you want to go to the juvenile hall as punishment with the other two. It's a good learning experience."
"Why are you so forgiving about all this?" Sunset gave a soft laugh.
"Element of Harmony, remember? Forgiveness and Empathy, all that fun stuff. It's kinda my thing," Sunset teased.
"Oh right," Scootaloo mumbled. "You know, most people wouldn't be so forgiving about this. They'd be out for blood."
"I'm not like most people." Scootaloo chuckled.
"You got that right. An epic badass idol from another world who stopped three teenage girls from controlling us all with their music? I don't think many people have that on their resume."
"Damn right," Sunset agreed with a smug grin. She hugged Scootaloo.
"I already convinced the judge to lessen your sentences to six months. I'll come and visit when I can. If I'm feeling nice, I'll bring candy bars." Sunset gave her a wink. "Just hide them well."
"Okay." Scootaloo sighed and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Sunset asked.
"To go tell First Response to send me off?" Scootaloo said in confusion. Sunset rolled her eyes and stood up.
"You can go do that tomorrow. I'm in the mood for ice cream, let's go."
"You don't gotta tell me twice," Scootaloo replied with a faint smile. Sunset rolled her eyes and wrapped an arm around her, walking out the library. "Why are you taking me for ice cream after I admitted to helping ruin you life?" Sunset sighed.
"I realized I wasn't living up to my element. I wasn't being emphatic or forgiving. It's gonna be hard, but might as well start with you three girls." Scootaloo nodded.
"That makes sense," Scootaloo admitted.
"Anyway, what flavor you thinking?" Sunset questioned. Scootaloo hesitanted.
"Probably strawberry." Sunset raised an eyebrow.
"That's new, you typically get chocolate." She looked over the girl. "Who are you and what have you done with the real Scootaloo?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
"I want to try something new," she shrugged. Sunset nodded and gave her a knowing smirk.
"Gotcha."
"And that's how it ended," Scootaloo finished her story.
"Wow," Sweetie mumbled. "I didn't know you two were so close."
"Yeah, me neither," Apple Bloom admitted sheepishly. "Jus makes what we did even worse."
"If you start feeling sorry for yourselves again, I'll punch you," Scootaloo threatened. Screwball nodded her agreement.
"I'll help her," Screwball mumbled softly. Sweetie finished eating the gross food they were served and stood up.
"My head hurts. I'm going to our room where it's a bit quiet." She picked up her tray and left the room, tossing the tray onto it's pickup spot. Scootaloo watched her the entire way.
"Got a crush?" Screwball teased.
"What?" Scootaloo gave a laugh. "Absolutely not. She's one of my best friends, you can't have a crush on friends. Plus, I'm not gay." She shot an apologetic look to Apple Bloom. "No offense." The farmer shrugged it off.
"Nun taken. Ah ain't gay anyway, ahm bi."
"Oh."
"What are ya, Screwball?" Apple Bloom focused on Screwball. The girl shrugged.
"I don't know. I've never had a boyfriend or girlfriend. People always called me retarded for how I speak and act. I'm usually alone, you three are the first to accept me," the girl admitted and she looked down at her tray. A yellow hand fell on her shoulder.
"We dun judge here. We accept anyone," Apple Bloom smiled at the younger girl.
"As long as they aren't rude assholes," Scootaloo piped in. The three shared a laugh.
"At least Sweetie Belle isn't here to hear that," Screwball smirked. "Did you tell the others that Diamond Tiara visited you, Bloom?"
"Ah was just about to. Tiara visited me."
"And? Are you two still dating?" Scootaloo asked hopefully. Apple Bloom nodded slowly.
"She said she's mad as hell at me still, but she was gonna help me fix this mess with the school."
"Well, that's good," Scootaloo smiled at her.
"Ah honestly thought she woulda broke up with me," Apple Bloom admitted.
"Me too." Apple Bloom glared at Scootaloo.
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence," she said dryly.
"You almost got Twist to fight her. It seemed logical," Scootaloo pointed out.
"You and logic don't go in the same sentence together," Apple Bloom argued with a smirk.
"Shut it," Scootaloo scoffed as she looked around. "Where'd everyone go?" A loud yelp made them glance down the hall and Scootaloo growled. "How the the hell didn't we notice this?" She stood up with her lunch tray and stormed off. Sweetie grunted as she got punched in the stomach again.
"You literally challenged me in front of everyone," the girl from the other day growled. "Makes me look weak if I didn't do anything." She prepared to hit the girl again when Scootaloo smacked her upside the head with the metal tray. She collapsed on the ground and Scootaloo kept hitting her. A pair of hands grabbed her.
"She's had enough," Screwball grumbled as she pushed the tray out of Scootaloos hands.
"She's down for a bit now," Apple Bloom agreed as she pulled Scootaloo back. Sweetie put her hands on her knees and resisted the urge to vomit. Scootaloo sighed and rubbed her head. Sweetie took off running and Apple Bloom pushed her.
"Go calm her down, me and Screwball will blame someone else for this so you don't go down for it and be forced to stay here longer. Go," Apple Bloom pushed her again as she picked up the tray. Scootaloo nodded and took off after Sweetie.
"Sweetie?" Scootaloo hesitantly asked. Sweetie looked up and focused on her.
"Hey Scoots." Scootaloo cautiously stepped forward.
"Are you okay?" She questioned.
"Yeah, just needed to get away from everyone," Sweetie stood up.
"Uh, why?" Scootaloo asked.
"For this." Sweetie stepped forward and kissed her. |
Anon A Miss Strikes | Chapter XI | Scootaloo's eyes widened as Sweetie kissed her. It was a sloppy kiss, Sweetie was evidently a beginner. After a few seconds, Scootaloo pushed her away.
"What the heck was that?" Scootaloo demanded. Sweetie rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
"Uh, a kiss I think?" Sweetie offered weakly. Scootaloo stared at her.
"But why?" She demanded. Sweetie sighed.
"I honestly have no idea," Sweetie admitted. "It just sorta happened." She sat down on the bed and dropped her head in her hands. "I'm so stupid." Scootaloo sat next to her and awkwardly patted her on the back.
"It's okay," Scootaloo tried to reassure her.
"No it isnt," Sweetie Belle wailed. "I don't know why the hell I did that or what I'm feeling. I'm not even sure if I'm bi or gay or what. I'm leaning towards bi, i think."
"Me neither," Scootaloo admitted. "But it's fine. It wasn't bad though, I think." Sweetie lifted her head and rubbed her eye.
"Really?" She asked, sniffling.
"Yeah. I'm not entirely sure what to think if I'm being honest," Scootaloo sighed. "It's kinda weird though, dating and kissing my friend."
"I'm sorry," Sweetie mumbled.
"But I guess we can try and see where it goes?" Scootaloo offered nervously.
"Are you sure?" Sweetie hesitantly asked.
"Yeah," Scootaloo sighed. "But if it doesn't work out, we stay friends."
"Of course. I don't want to jeopardize our friendship," Sweetie nodded.
"Are yall alright?" Apple Bloom strode into the room. "Uh why are yall blushing?"
"We may or may not be uh dating?" Sweetie looked to Scootaloo for confirmation.
"Ah ain't sure about this," Apple Bloom sighed.
"Why not?" Sweetie Belle asked worriedly.
"Because this changes a lot yall. Mah two best friends dating each other? I love yall and ah support yah. Ah just don't wanna see one of yuh get hurt is all," Apple Bloom explained nervously. Sweetie and Scootaloo made eye contact before nodding and hugging Apple Bloom.
"We won't be making this awkward around you or abandon you because of this," Sweetie Belle reassured her farmer friend. "We love you and care about you. Hell, we're trapped in this same place together. We've been friends for years. Me and Scoots testing the waters will never change that."
"She's right," Scootaloo chimed in. "That would be super rude of us. We are the cmc, we don't do that to each other. We look after one another and our honorary members. Like Screwball."
"Alright," Apple Bloom hugged them back and grinned mischievously. "Just one question."
"What's up?" Scootaloo asked.
"How are yall sleeping tonight?"
"She has a point you know," Sweetie Belle commented as she laid on her back and stared at the ceiling. "How are we going to sleep from now on? We share a room temporarily."
"We have our own beds. Where else would we sleep?" Scootaloo raised an eyebrow curiously. "The floor?"
"With each other you nimrod," Sweetie Belle teased good naturedly. "People who are dating do that from time to time, ya know."
"They also have fun in bed but you don't see me trying to do that to you," Scootaloo pointed out. Sweeties face turned bright red as she glared at Scootaloo.
"I'm asking you to sleep next to me sometimes, not have sex with me. I'm definitely not ready for anything like that. You can share a bed without automatically having sex, you know?" Sweetie Belle scoffed with an offended angry look.
"I was joking," Scootaloo deadpanned.
"I mean maybe in the future but not the first day we started dating," Sweetie Belle continued as she didn't hear Scootaloo.
"Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo exclaimed.
"Yes Scootaloo?"
"I said I was joking. Relax girl. I'm definitely not interested in it either to honest. I'm too young for that and well so are you because we're the same age." Scootaloo got up and walked over to Sweeties bed and gave her a quick kiss. Sweetie gave a content sigh at the feeling before returning the kiss.
"Technically we are the age of consent because we are sixteen," Sweetie Belle retorted. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow and stared at her.
"Why do you even know that?" Scootaloo demanded.
"Rarity. When I first became a freshman, Rarity decided it was the time to give me The Talk. Most embarrassing moment of my life. She had pictures and everything. She made me put a condom on a banana so I knew how to do it. I wouldn't wish that fate on my worse enemy," Sweetie shuddered. "Think of your worst fear and multiple by a thousand. That's what I felt." Scootaloo cringed at that.
"Yesh. That sounds awful. Why would Rarity even have pictures of that and why did she think it would be a smart idea?" Scootaloo asked.
"Apparently it's what our parents did with her. I don't know what would be worse to be honest, her being the one to give me The Talk or my parents. Not like they did much of anything anyway, they are always out on some stupid trip," Sweetie grumbled.
"I can't relate," Scootaloo admitted sadly. "I don't have parents. I only got my aunts. And Rainbow Dash."
"I take it they gave you the talk then? How did you learn about it?"
"Google. I accidentally overheard some seniors making jokes about it so I looked it up. Found some funny memes at least so I guess there is an upside to all of that."
"I suppose that is a bright side yes," Sweetie Belle smirked.
"I know right. I was laughing for a solid thirty minutes just scrolling across the internet," Scootaloo laid down on her back next to Sweetie. "We probably can't do this often because of the guard people but ya know I'm down tonight."
"Thanks. And you are probably right. At least Misty Fly seems to be niceish I suppose."
"She's okay. She is strict in her own way," Scootaloo admitted as she rolled over on her side to watch the door. "Goodnight Sweetie."
"Goodnight Scootaloo." |
Metempsychosis | pre | Pain and her link with Scrivener amplified her concentration and her power... and then she threw her head back with a howl of fury, a shockwave of blue flames erupting from her form and ripping the skeletal hand apart, the colossus grunting in surprise as the end of its limb burst into sapphire fire before Luna simply let herself drop, her horn crackling with energy and her eyes glowing white as in the distance, Scrivener gritted his teeth and arched his back slowly, his strength and energy flowing to her.
The colossus roared as it brought a claw up to lash downwards... but too little, too late, as Luna grinned widely, her horn giving a short, sharp pulse as she flapped her wings and launched herself just out of reach of the monster as it leaned forwards into the attack. The sound of its claw crashing into the frozen tundra was loud... but it was drowned out by the deafening peal of thunder that ripped through the air as Scrivener turned and bolted as Luna shot through the air above the fields before twisting upwards to ascend towards the sky.
She spun around as the colossus looked back and forth with a snarl as there was another massive rumble, confused... and above its head, cracks ripped through the massive wall of ice known as the Frozen Reef, the enormous wall of frost giving a third mighty crackle as walls of frozen water shifted and ground together, sending more faults tearing through the glacial barrier before massive chunks of solid, crystalline ice began to hail down in a tremendous avalanche over the behemoth.
It was battered downwards with roars of frustration, bones splintering and breaking as blocks and chunks of frozen liquid larger that boulders crashed against it, sending it flopping forwards to crash to the ground on its ivory front in a burst of snow and powder, and Scrivener staggered at the shakes that tore through the tundra before he skidded awkwardly around in a circle once he managed a safe distance away, wincing and then looking up to watch as Luna flipped in midair and dropped into a straight dive.
She hurtled downwards as the last of the avalanche of ice pelted over the stunned colossus, the creature snarling as it twitched a bit and its hive mind scrambled to force the massive monstrosity back upon its feet... and then Luna arched her back at the last moment, shooting forwards across the field and just past the monster's draconic skull as Scrivener looked up and concentrated on what he had seen, filling Luna's mind with images of where to aim as she smashed into its upper chest and directly into a fused unicorn Velite, blowing the creature into pieces before her hooves sprinted upside-down along the box-like body of the construct as her wings flapped to keep her moving despite being upside down, lowering her horn as a startled unicorn Velite that was half-melted into the lower fused ribs of the monster looked at her with shock before she crashed through it, then leapt off the monster to hit the ground and run forwards through a hail of ice and snow as the beast arched its back with a miserable howl.
Powder, bony shrapnel, and chunks of frost spilled around her as the beast's body shifted, hailing down off its cracked and damaged form as she ran towards its hip, where another fused Velite unicorn rested with a snarl, horn glowing blackly and its lower body completely melded into the monster as it shouted at her, and the colossus roared with it in synchronization: "Your resistance is pointless! You cannot destroy us!"
The Velite unicorn lashed its horn outwards, releasing a blade of black fire that shot through the air towards Luna... and the winged unicorn snarled, sweeping her own horn into this as it glowed blue, sending it bursting apart in a cloud of smog before she leapt upwards and flapped her wings hard to shoot through the air like a missile and rocket into the unicorn, shattering it into pieces before she kicked off the hip of the immense colossus and shot skywards again, replying in a furious voice as her eyes glowed white: "Do not tell us what we can and cannot do, broken vessel!"
The colossus snarled in response as it began to haul itself upwards, shrugging the broken boulders of frost off its frame as it regained its senses, beginning to raise its head as its jaws fell open, breathing steam and smoke as it followed Luna's path of flight through the air. It roared at her, and the second, warped head twitched on its neck, shattered like an egg, bleeding smoke and dark fire into the sky even as its jaws continued to open and close as they spat streams of steam and ghastly black flames in arcs that twisted violently and unnaturally through the sky, trying to follow Luna's swift movements. "Stay still, Luna Lightblade!"
Scrivener Blooms cursed under his breath as he drew his eyes quickly over the monster... then he gritted his teeth before running forwards, sweeping in a wide circle around it. Luna darted back and forth around its skull, harrying its head with attacks and keeping its attention as she dodged bites and burst of black flames, and slow, now-lethargic snaps of its limbs through the air: it rested heavily on one front arm that had cracked near the center, and the other shoulder had been disjointed, making its movements clunky and rough as its limbs wobbled every time it put too much weight on one or swung the other too hard.
Scrivy leapt around chunks of fallen ice as Luna harried the monstrosity's skull with quick attacks and blasts of lightning, the colossus roaring and biting at her, locked on the winged unicorn as it snarled: "You cannot run forever!"
The colossus hissed as Luna gritted her teeth, her eyes flashing before she shot suddenly downwards as the monster opened its maw... and then its head snapped back in shock when Luna shot straight into its jaws, teeth clacking shut too slow to catch her before she spun upwards and ripped out the back of its skull, smashing a hole through the back of its head as black flames burst out around her, the winged unicorn covering her face with her front hooves even as her horn glowed and she shouted despite the burns over her body, dark fire whiffing out as she shot back into the air: "I run from nothing, monster!"
She snarled as she spun back around to its front, her eyes and horn glowing, hovering in front of it as the colossus glared at her furiously, leaning forwards even as cracks spread steadily through the center skull and dark fire spilled like blood from its sockets and burned slowly over the ivory of its features, rasping: "Then you must surrender. Give up to us. How can you kill us? Our spirits are fused into the colossus, we are one with it... you are not Celestia. You have no light to purge us with. Your exorcisms will not work upon us, anchored as we are in the physical. The night cannot destroy what walks it with impudence."
"Aye, perhaps not. Therefore, much as I am loathe to do this, we resort to a different method." Luna said disdainfully, flicking her starry mane to the side as she closed her eyes, and she channeled her powers forwards as the monster leaned towards her, snarling, not noticing Scrivener Blooms charging up its own spine, running between jutting bones and formations of frost before he dove through a broken hole in its case-like body, the monster rearing back in surprise as Scrivener crashed into the white-and-blanched tunnel of its chest, surrounded by sharp bones, staring skulls of Velites, and terrible spirits as he gritted his teeth and felt Luna's strength flooding through him, her magic empowering him even as bony claws began to reach out of the walls and dark fire boiled slowly towards him-
"Shallock..." Scrivener dropped his head forwards, his voice rough, the language guttural and terrible... and the single word made the black fire in the air turn to ice, made skeletal limbs hesitate before Scrivy grinned as he threw his head back, eyes glowing as blood leaked from them, shouting in a terrible, echoing language as electricity burst along Luna's body as she fed him the magic he needed to give the words their full and awful might and the corruption of the Tyrant Wyrm in his mind did the rest: "You shall bow before us, servants, for we are master and destroyer, and in our presence reality itself trembles... living death, feel the despair of your own cold suffocation, the emptiness of the grave inside your very soul from which you can never claw your way out of, be brought low by the fear of the very thing which your pathetic shells embody..."
Agony ripped through Scrivener's body, his vision blurring even as a horrible ecstasy writhed through his mind and his twisted soul at the same time, and he could hear Luna laughing despite the pain in her own body as the colossus howled and fell flat, bones cracking and splintering, black fire turning rapidly into obsidian, crystalline dark frost as blurred voices shrieked: "S-Stop, stop, what are you? The pain, the fear, the evil... stop!"
"Your soul bleeds dry; your suffering ends, for true torment awaits. You shall sink into the Void, where all things fade to, where the deep and eternal darkness lays, where rot and death and putrid life all comingle to one blasted essence that we, the controllers, the creators, the destroyers, shall glut upon... and know that even now, your eternal life is meaningless, but you shall feed us and from your death you will be given the moment of reason you do not deserve..." Scrivener continued roughly, leaning forwards, bracing himself against the monster's bony body as he grinned wider, reality around him rippling even as blood began to drip from one nostril and his jaws and his single, twitching ear, even as pain continued to rip through his body... but the pleasure was growing greater as well, the sense of strength, and the excitement that came with watching as Velite skulls exploded, as the bones around him shattered and bent, drool forming at the corners of his mouth as he rasped: "You are the broken and we are the breakers. You are the dominated and we are the dominant. Bow your heads now, pathetic pawns of death, and-"
And then Scrivener grunted in surprise, interrupted as the bony floor beneath him cracked and sank, looking down stupidly before it shattered outwards and the warped earth pony was sent plummeting out of the ivory case of the creature as much of its chest shattered, the colossus howling mindlessly as it tried to drag itself backwards at the same time. It narrowly missed ripping its claws across Scrivener as it backwards upwards into the frozen cliffs and the male crashed to a puff in the snow amidst ice and shale and deadly chunks of bone, and the pony looked up stupidly before he winced over his shoulder as the monster reared back, grasping at its draconic skull even as it began to crack apart, howling: "The words are like poison in our mind... what have you done? Merciful and beloved Veliuona, why do they ache so? What has the monster and its demon done to us?"
Scrivener looked groggily up as the pleasure rapidly faded into exhausted pain... and then he cursed under his breath as he felt Luna's emotions ripping through his mind as she sailed down through the air, the male gritting his teeth before he cursed under his breath as he staggered up to his hooves and fell into a stumbling run through the snow, ignoring the shrapnel of bone and blades of ice that bit at him from the ground as he gritted his teeth and the winged unicorn landed at the edge of the field, breathing hard as she leaned anxiously forwards.
Scrivy felt fatigue ripping through his muscles, his mind a broken haze as behind him, the Velite colossus howled miserably again before its grasping claws ripped through its own skull, twisting as it gave jagged, insane laughs amidst the howls that rose up from it as it shrieked in a thousand voices: "Y-Yes, we understand... Veliuona waits for us, doesn't she? This is the freedom she spoke of... we are going to her!"
Then it ripped upwards, tearing its skull off as the secondary, smaller head exploded in a blast of dark fire that rapidly froze over, becoming black ice that glinted like metal, cracks ripping through the body of the colossus as frigid frost violently spilled along the monster, and Scrivener risked a glimpse back over his shoulder, cursing and knowing it was going to be close-
Blackness surged across his vision... and Scrivy's eyes rolled up in his head as he fell forwards, flopping face-first into the snow as Luna felt a spark of agony rip through her mind, flinching... then staring in horror at the sight of Scrivy laying prone as the massive, dead skeleton of the colossus slowly began to tip forwards, countless tons of ice and bone, casting a terrible shadow that grew deeper and darker as it spilled forwards and stretched outwards, eclipsing Scrivener as it began to fall-
Luna snarled, horn glowing as she seized Scrivener Blooms with telekinesis, knowing she didn't have the luxury of being gentle as she lashed her head backwards and threw him with enough force to send herself flying to crash onto her back with a grunt of pain. Scrivy's body hurtled through the air bonelessly, out from beneath the shadow of the colossus before he crashed face-first and rolled through the snowy fields as the monstrous Velite-construct crashed down into the plains, sending up a gust of snow and ice and wind that knocked Scrivener's unconscious form rolling several times as Luna was blasted backwards with a curse from the force, winded by not only the overuse of her powers but the pain ripping through her system, her mind reeling, lost amidst shapes and signs and sounds as another blast of pain tore into her before she gasped and shivered, starting to climb to her hooves... before her body grew too weak, and instead she flopped forwards, falling into mindless unconsciousness.
Scrivener Blooms lay shivering and alone in the darkness, his subconscious, half-wyrm, half-pony self slowly sitting up as he breathed hard in and out. He looked tiredly back and forth, blood splattered over his face... and then he raised his head with a shiver of horror as a familiar voice said kindly: "Hello, cheating little mortal. It's such a pleasure to see you again..."
Slowly, Scrivy hauled himself to his hooves, turning around with a shudder... and then he stumbled backwards and fell to sit on his haunches, staring in horror at the sight of a bipedal, smiling white dragon in a pristine ivory suit, looking elegant and refined as the crystal, wolf-shaped bolo tie at his neck glimmered. Two long black horns stood out of his skull, and his amber eyes gleamed maliciously, his handsome features somehow childlike, petulant, for all his terrible splendor and grace. "Valthrudnir..."
"Yes and no, Scrivener Blooms, yes and no." Valthrudnir replied patronizingly, leaning back in a comfortable ash throne as he rested an arm on a table, grinning widely at the male. "You see, sadly, Brynhild was capable of killing me... merely a fragment of the Valkyrie she had once been or not, she still carried that divine spark necessary to outright kill me. A mortal like you couldn't do it, soul-bound or not... but her horn, unfortunately..."
Valthrudnir's smile faded for a moment, grasping at one eye, and Scrivener snorted in disgust before he winced when the dragon snapped his fingers, and a massive, terrible head loomed out of the darkness around them, the snarling bog-dripping features of a Tyrant Wyrm hissing lowly as the Jotnar gazed at him distastefully. "To continue my story, and answer your question... my lovely little pets, the Tyrant Wyrms, all share a mental link with me, and were made with certain pieces of other gods and Jotnar who... how shall I put this... were persuaded to donate their organs, blood, and souls to me for my good cause."
The dragon smiled slightly, and Scrivener only gritted his teeth in disgust, the pieces falling together in his mind before he interrupted rudely: "The Black Verses. When the monster shoved them into my mind, you got a hook into my brain, didn't you?"
"Oh, you're just as polite as you always were. The only improvement I see is that you look more now like the belly-crawling pet rock you are." Valthrudnir replied disgustedly, and he held up a hand, gold and platinum rings on his fingers glinting as his eyes narrowed darkly. "Tell me, would you like to experience a little something I've been working on called molecular anti-synthesis? It's when the bindings between the particles that make up your body begin to break down and you slowly and visibly begin to tear apart."
"Yeah, one problem. You're dead. You're just an echo, a ghost in the machine, a bad dream that won't get out of my goddamn head." Scrivener replied quietly, and he leaned forwards with a snarl as memories flashed through his mind as the dragon leaned back with a disgusted look, slowly lowering his hand. "Wait... you knocked me out somehow, didn't you?"
"Please, you fatigued yourself abusing my pet's overly-generous gift of the Black Verses. Do not blame the fact your plebian mind cannot handle their magnitude upon me, philistine." Valthrudnir retorted disgustedly, and then he smiled grimly and reached up to smooth the lapels of his suit slowly out. "At most, all I did was... invite you in. You're the one who fell down the rabbit hole... you're the one who seems so eager to linger in the darkness and pursue the abuse of the little power you have, rude little creature."
Scrivener gritted his teeth, leaning forwards as the bog-faced monster chortled beside Valthrudnir. Then the dragon crossed his arms, looking coldly down at Scrivener Blooms as he said softly: "I may not be the true Valthrudnir. An 'echo' is perhaps not altogether an untoward sentiment for this state I'm in. But rest assured, even at my weakest, I am still more than you ever are and ever could be. All your weapons, your strength, come from others: your pathetic little stories are stolen snippets of other pony's lives, and your physical aptitudes come from Brynhild and her romantic and devious soul-link with you... and your most powerful weapon, the Black Verses, are fueled by the link with the Void, by dredging up the raw destructive energy and endless despair that emanates from it and surges forever within its collective ranks.
"You cheated, Scrivener Blooms... you cheated, and it resulted in my demise. I will not forget that... and I will not allow you and Brynhild to go happily prancing off into the sunset together. I will not allow everything I worked for to go to waste." Valthrudnir continued, standing slowly up and looming over him, terribly tall as he reached into his suit jacket and produced a deck of cards, starting to calmly shuffle as the fourteen foot dragon glared down at Scrivener Blooms. "So we're going to play a game. The rules are very simple: I'm going to try and catch you at the right moment... and then I'll destroy you. I'll work through the corruption of the Tyrant Wyrm... and while I cannot reach out and simply make Brynhild spear you through the eye as she did me, fitting and ironic and sweet delicious justice as that would be... I can still make you suffer. I plan to make you and her suffer terribly before the end... I plan to draw this out as long as possible, Scrivener Blooms, because I don't entirely want to kill you.
"No. Destroy you, everything that makes you, yes. Kill you? Only if you force my hand or a particularly-entertaining method of death presents itself." Valthrudnir smiled coldly, squeezing the cards and sending them flying with a quiet hiss in an accordion to his other hand, before he swept up the bottom card and held it out, facing Scrivener Blooms... and the male shuddered and winced backwards at the snarling image of the Tyrant Wyrm on the card. "But the foundation has been laid to turn you into something a little more useful, and you seem to be eager to become it. I'd like to see if I really can convince you to just give in, one way or another... and become a new breed of destroyer. You see, I have a feeling, after all, that if I can convince you to become a monster... Brynhild will surrender, too. Maybe she even wants it herself... and just imagine, using the Black Verses and the old magic to fuse yourselves together into one awesome killing machine, a Tyrant Wyrm with the soul of a Valkyrie, and which could be even further empowered by using those magic cards of mine I know you have sealed safely away..."
Scrivener snarled and shook his head, setting himself and leaning forwards as he shouted: "I won't become that! You can't make me become that, you're insane, you're nothing but a goddamn nightmare that I can't escape!"
"Really, mortal?" Valthrudnir leaned down at this, grinning widely as he reached a single finger down to tap the male's nose as he said softly: "Take a good look in the mirror, Scrivener Blooms. You're far more than halfway there already. Now we just need to take down the rest of those mental stumbling blocks."
Then the dragon stepped backwards and laughed as the corrupt face of the leering monster grinned beside him, Valthrudnir reaching out to rest a hand on this before he held his other hand towards Scrivy, adding kindly: "Oh, by the way. Since I'm feeling generous, you may want to wake up... this entire little revelation will be meaningless if you're murdered by Velites, after all. Go on, Scrivener Blooms, now I don't know if I'm more eager to throw you into danger or watch you continue to persevere and survive... either way, after all, I win."
Scrivy yelled as he lunged forwards... but Valthrudnir vanished as the male felt his entire body jerk, before he shouted wildly again as he lashed his head upwards and his eyes opened... and he stared in horror as several Velites staggered away from him before a skeletal unicorn rasped: "Finally awake, demon? Good."
Scrivener Blooms breathed hard in and out, gritting his teeth as his eyes focused slowly... and then he grunted as he dropped his head forwards, looking dumbly down at the frozen ground and his manacled rear hooves before he gazed slowly to one side, then the other: he could feel a pole at his back, likely where the chains from his manacles fed into. A second pole rested horizontally, and the male's front limbs were stretched out to either side and secured to it by chains.
He cursed under his breath, struggling a bit, but the chains around his upper limbs gave him no slack and kept him standing in an awkward T, as he cursed under his breath... then he rose his head tiredly and gritted his teeth at the sight of Luna laying inside of a cage inside a circle of warding runes only a few feet away, her mane and tail sparking violently and flickering back and forth between ephemeral starlight and light blue locks as she said tiredly: "So nice of thee to join us, Scrivy. Tell me, did thou sleep well?"
"Shut up, Luna." Scrivener replied moodily, and then he winced when the Velite unicorn strode forwards and stood up on his rear hooves to seize him under the muzzle, yanking his head back and forth. "You could just ask."
The skeleton snarled at this, then slammed a hoof into Scrivener's stomach, making him gag and drop his head forwards, eyes clenching shut as Luna flinched in the cage and cursed under her breath, then gritted her teeth as she concentrated and sent him images, numbers, and a plan... and Scrivener groaned after a moment, not just because of the pain in his system but because of what her plan entailed. A dozen Velites, but only the one unicorn at least... although most of them are armored and armed. "So there's... no chance you can just let us go, right?"
"You destroyed everything we were working for, that we were building. In a few days, we would have had a mighty dracolich to serve as the vanguard of our deathless army. And instead, you broke the bodies and spirits of every creature here and annihilated a congregation of zealots." The unicorn Velite snarled, the flames in its eyes burning higher with rage as its horn began to glow blackly and it gestured at the devastated Frozen Reef behind it and the remains of the work site, where smoke still rose up from the shattered hulks of Velite drake and the frozen-over, destroyed colossus. Then the unicorn Velite looked squarely at Scrivy as it stepped backwards, rasping breaths in and out despite the lack of its lungs as it whispered: "How could you? Why would you?"
"Because we found your scouts' tracks at our home, maybe, and followed them back to your encampment... furthermore, you Velites have a nasty habit of holding grudges and coming after us given the chance. Well, Velites like you, I mean..." Scrivener looked coldly at the unicorn, saying disgustedly: "The ones who manipulate ponies and steal from the graves of the resting dead to replenish their sick army, still believing in Veliuona even though she was blown to kibbles and bits."
The unicorn snarled in fury and slammed its hooves into Scrivener's stomach, making him curse in pain before he hissed when it leaned forwards and shoved its horn against his body, not gouging but instead grinding the length of it into his chest. The terrible dark glow engulfing the horn burned against his body like fire, charring into his warped flesh and sending up a hiss of steam and smoke as the male leaned his head back, agony ripping through his body as Luna clutched at her own breast with a curse of pain and anger, a welt slowly spreading and darkening as the skeletal unicorn growled: "I would not talk so loudly if I were you, demon... we know you and Luna Lightblade are pact-bound... and we are very, very eager to hurt you both."
Then the unicorn stepped suddenly backwards, and Scrivener cursed as he dropped his head forwards... before the unicorn leaned back and slammed a hoof into his face, his cheekbone cracking and his head snapping to the side as blood flew from reopened cuts on his features, the unicorn asking coldly: "What are you, monster? How did you learn the words of the Tyrant Wyrms, the terrible monsters that lived a thousand years ago, in the time before Luna Lightblade became Nightmare Moon? And what are you doing with her... are the rumors true that it was Nightmare Moon who brought Ragnarok?"
"My great-great-whatever had a fetish for planet-destroying parasites." Scrivener retorted, and the Velite unicorn glared at him furiously. "Luna and I met through a dating service. We hit it off and got married because we were both reformed evil entities. We're both very sorry that trying to visit Helheim for our honeymoon destroyed the planet, you have my sincerest apologies."
The unicorn Velite snarled in fury, looking as if it wanted to strangle the male as Luna snorted in entertainment and grinned out of her cage, her eyes flashing in dark entertainment... but then the unicorn managed to get itself under control, cursing as its horn glowed blackly again before it slowly met Scrivener's eyes, saying coldly: "Fine, demon. It doesn't matter, because now I am going to peel the flesh from your bones to get the answers I seek. Once you are revived as one of us... once you become a Velite, a servant of Veliuona's memory... I think you will be much more willing to share your secrets with us. You and Luna Lightblade both."
The creature began to lean forwards, and Scrivener snorted and mumbled something off to the side... and the unicorn immediately halted, straightening slightly as it asked darkly: "What was that?"
Scrivy only shrugged, however, looking up... and the unicorn growled in frustration and fury before it rose itself up and shoved both hooves against Scrivener's shoulders, the glow fading out from around its horn as it leaned up and shouted in Scrivy's face: "Listen to me, ingrate, because this process can be as painful or as pleasant as you like, now what did you say?"
Slowly, Scrivener Blooms turned to face the creature as it leaned towards him aggressively... and then the distorted pony only grinned widely, and the Velite had a moment of dumb surprise before Scrivener slammed his skull forwards as hard as he could into the unicorn's head, knocking him crashing backwards before he threw himself back against the T-shaped poles as the other Velites stared in shock, and then Scrivener roared as he braced his lower hooves against the ground and shoved forwards as he yanked with his body and threw his weight and momentum into the pull of his upper limbs, and the push of every other fiber of muscle in his frame.
The wooden post tore free of the scraggy soil, and Scrivy staggered awkwardly forwards on both hooves, half-hopping towards the cage as he yanked the heavy crossed poles with him, Velites staggering out of the way and shoving at each other even as the unicorn howled: "Why aren't you idiots killing him?"
A Velite leapt onto Scrivener's back, but despite the added weight, he still managed an awkward half-step forwards even as the butt of the pole dragged against the ground... and then he threw all his weight and strength into turning around with a roar, dragging the butt of the pole around in a wide semicircle that tore a trench through the dirt and ripped through the circle of warding runes, the anti-magic ward immediately sparking violently out of existence even as Scrivener flopped forwards onto his stomach with a wheeze... but even as Velites began to step forwards with snarls and hisses, Scrivener only looked up with a weak grin of his own despite the heavy pole now pinning him. "You got this?"
Instead of a reply, there was a sizzle of energy... and then a crackling boom, Scrivener wincing as the cage behind him exploded in a shockwave of electricity and sapphire fire that knocked the Velites sprawling like dominoes and disintegrated the one on top of Scrivy's restraints, chunks of metal ripping through their ranks as waves of force rippled through the air before Luna stomped a hoof and cracked her neck loudly, pawing at the ground as she replied in a firm, serious voice: "I have got this, Scrivener Blooms."
The Velite unicorn at the back of the fallen ranks of skeletons looked stupidly up as Luna leapt upwards, using her wings to propel her forwards before landed and charged into him, crashing against him with her shoulder and knocking him staggering before she followed up with a quick, effective slash of her horn that sliced his head from his shoulders, and the skeleton topped backwards as Luna smashed the skull out of the air without bothering to look, reducing it to fine powder. Then, as the headless skeleton began to rise, she pounced forwards and smashed it into pieces before glaring over her shoulder at the rest of the Velite band, her horn glowing sapphire as she grinned sharply.
Seven were left standing: the rest had been damaged to the point where they could no longer move, and even these seven were burned, cracked, and one had several very large pieces of metal stuck through the armored vest he was wearing, rubbing awkwardly at these before Luna ran towards them. At the sight of this, one of the Velites yelled miserably and bolted to the side even as several others leapt to meet her: a force of violence powered by fury and necessity and a need to protect her beloved mixed with battle-lust and confidence in her abilities; a Valkyrie reborn, and living well up to her name.
She ducked low and swept a skeleton's front leg out from beneath it with a flick of her horn, knocking it staggering even as she moved with liquid grace to brace her front hooves against the ground and twist her body, kicking both rear hooves into the face of another skeleton and then launching herself neatly backwards with a grunt to narrowly evade the lash of a rusty sword. Then she grinned, leaping forwards, horn sparking as it parried and crashed against the rusted blade guided by the remaining Velite and not even having to look down as she stomped the knocked-flat Velite as she passed, crushing its skull in before she swung her horn hard to the side and disarmed the blade-swing Velite, knocking its weapon away before she slammed her head once, twice, thrice into its skull, the last vicious headbutt shattering the bony pate and knocking it in a broken, stupefied heap.
Two more Velites ran towards her as the rattled, cracked-skull survivor of Luna's hard kick charged at her back, and the winged unicorn glanced over her shoulder, tensing herself before she leapt upwards at the last moment and flapped her wings hard to boost her height, the charging Velite shooting past her and instead crashing into one of the head-on attackers, the two skeletons cursing as they collapsed in a pile together and the last staggered to the side... before he was crushed flat, bursting apart into shrapnel as the Luna landed on him and stomped her hooves up and down with a grunt. Then she disdainfully flicked her horn towards the two Velites on the ground, and a burst of sapphire fire washed over them, the two howling in misery as their bones rapidly charred, runes sparking violently as they began to fall apart as the flames ignored the rags and armor they wore and instead burned at the ivory of their bodies.
Luna looked towards the last Velite, but it was still only standing stupidly, staring at her... and so she sighed and rolled her eyes, approaching it and glaring into the sockets of the earth pony Velite, looking imperiously down at it as it stared stupidly up at her, rusted chainmail jingling with its shivers before she asked sharply: "Well?"
The Velite swallowed thickly, and then it slowly laid itself down in front of her and curled up, and Luna sighed and kicked it grouchily in the head, making it whimper and fidget weakly as she muttered: "Cowards. Thou art all great cowards. Very well, stay there then, it does me no honor to squash a whimpering bug."
"T-Thank you." the Velite mumbled, and Luna grumbled and kicked it in the head again before she glanced towards where Scrivy was smiling exhaustedly up at her, the winged unicorn sighing as she bowed her head towards him despite the faint smile that spread over her face as their eyes met for a moment, memories, emotions and pure relief sparking back and forth between them.
Then her horn glowed a faint blue as she flicked it upwards with a grimace, and the chains binding Scrivener's forelegs shattered, falling limp and letting the male wheeze and carefully wiggle his front limbs free as Luna stepped forwards and grasped the side of the T-shaped pillar... and then she looked up in surprise as the Velite scurried forwards and grasped the other arm of it, helping her lift the pole off and shove it off to the side so he could sit up and start yanking the bolts out of the manacles binding his back legs. "What devilry is this?"
"I... you know." the Velite said awkwardly, and then he stepped backwards nervously before simply dumbly sitting back on his haunches, looking at her awkwardly. Luna looked back for a few moments, then slowly looked towards Scrivener Blooms, giving him a pointed glare as the half-earth pony, half-Wyrm snorted and managed to yank one of the restraining bolts free.
He shook a manacle off... then winced as the other glowed blue before tearing itself in half as Luna bowed her head towards him, saying grumpily: "Come, Scrivy. Let us return home, this foray into the wilds has been more taxing than I expected and we still have much to do, and much to plan."
Scrivener grunted as he stood up¸ then he smiled as he approached her, the winged unicorn gazing up at him in surprise before she smiled faintly when the male leaned forwards and embraced her fiercely, whispering a 'thank you' into her ear, thoughts and emotions and worries and reassurances swirling between them as she hugged him tightly back, the two resting in silence for a few moments before they pulled apart... then quietly turned and began to stride away from the ruins of the Velite encampment.
After only a dozen steps or so, however, Luna halted as her face twitched, and Scrivener couldn't help but grin despite himself as she shot a horrible glare over her shoulder at the Velite that was awkwardly following them, the female asking rudely: "Looking to take me up on my offer of a swift death?"
"No, no, no!" The Velite flinched, shaking its head wildly as it held its hooves up, and Scrivener had the distinct impression that if the Velite could blush, it would. "I just... well..."
"Out with it creature, what?" Luna snapped grouchily, and the Velite twitched backwards before the winged unicorn added flatly: "I shall thank thee but we already have an undead pet, and one that is made of far sterner stuff than thou art."
"Wait, come on, can't I come with you guys?" The Velite winced a bit, gesturing at himself awkwardly, and Luna's face curled as if she had bitten into a lemon as Scrivener smiled in entertainment, half-turning and making Luna grumble as she shoved her face against the side of his neck. "I... I never chose to become this, you know, I was just... minding my own business, trying to survive in the wasteland the world had become, and then one day I'm being dragged out of bed and before I know it they're... torturing me and..."
The Velite hugged itself and shivered a bit, resting awkwardly back on his haunches and looking lamely towards the two. "But... a lot of us were like that, you know? They just kept trying to brainwash us between bouts of hurting us... and all the original Velites were fixated on was hurting everypony to make their own pain stop hurting, to... worshiping their dead goddess, Veliuona. But most of us... half of us were there because they thought becoming a Velite would let them survive in this broken world. And most of the rest were like me... poor slobs who got dragged off and tortured into these new shapes, spirits bound into our bodies as they skinned us alive and tried to make us just like them..."
The Velite hesitated, looking down, and Luna sighed against Scrivener's neck before mumbling a bit... and then the skeleton looked up, rubbing awkwardly at his vertebrae neck as he asked lamely: "So can I come and hang out with you guys? I mean. I don't want to go find the other Velite bands, and I definitely don't want to join up with Nibelung raiders... I just kind of... want to hide somewhere safe."
"And what makes thou think it would be safe with us?" Luna asked sharply without looking up from where her face was buried against Scrivy's neck, as the male reached up and gently stroked his claw through her mane, making her mumble a bit and press closer. "Scrivener I demand thou eats this annoying skeleton. Thou art a giant monster. Eat him."
"I'm not giant, Luna, and I'm not going to eat him. Try and be a little nice." Scrivener replied kindly, and then he grunted when she smacked her head against him firmly, the Velite looking at the two awkwardly as the half-pony, half-Wyrm smiled a bit towards him. "It's alright. We're both just a little grumpy on account of... well. What just happened. So you'll pardon us for being suspicious."
"What... are you two?" the Velite asked hesitantly, and Scrivy and Luna both looked at the skeleton with entertainment as the creature winced back a bit, waving its front hooves. "I-I mean, you... the zealot called you a demon and a whole lot of fancy names and said Luna probably was using you as a thrall or something. I mean... but you're and... her... and..."
"'Tis my husband." Luna retorted, glaring at the skeleton, and the Velite rose one hoof, then simply dropped it dumbly as it gaped and processed this. "Oh... dratted stupid skeleton. Very well! Fine! If Scrivener Blooms continues to insist that we 'play nice' and thou seems so determined to make a nonsensical nuisance of thyself, we might as well add another freak to our growing menagerie."
"I'm... I'm not a freak." the Velite said awkwardly in a hurt voice, but Luna only grumbled and spun around, storming forwards as Scrivener shrugged amiably before he followed the winged unicorn, and the skeleton winced and hurried after them, saying quickly: "My name's Pollen!"
"I don't care." Luna said grouchily, and Scrivy laughed despite himself as the Velite hurried after them, looking thankful despite the winged unicorn's tone for its new allies. |
Metempsychosis | Explanations | Chapter Seven: Explanations
~BlackRoseRaven
Pollen rambled almost the entire way back to the cabin, until Luna turned around and shouted at him in her thundering, echoing voice to silence himself, and the skeleton had wilted almost into the ground before Scrivener had given Luna a flat look, but she had only mumbled defensively to herself, then stormed across the lawn to the front door, saying finally with a glower over her shoulder: "Thou art... free to explore around the area, and may set up camp wherever thou likes. I shall send our other dead pet out to meet and become acquainted with thee, Pollen."
"Thank you?" Pollen looked nervously up at this, and then he winced a little as he glanced awkwardly back and forth before turning his eyes to Scrivener. "Can... can I come inside at some point?"
Scrivener shrugged a bit, glancing towards Luna, but the winged unicorn only grumbled and stormed through the door before the equine said quietly: "Luna has a big heart, she does. She just also hates it when we have enemies who... aren't really enemies. It might not seem like it, but neither of us enjoy even squashing skeletons when... they're victims too, in a way. She just needs to warm up to you a bit, alright?"
Pollen gave him an awkward look, cocking his head even as he shrank back a bit... and Scrivener smiled embarrassedly before he began to turn, and the skeleton scrambled a little after him, asking nervously: "How... how long will that take?"
"Shorter than you think." Scrivener smiled a bit, and then he turned and headed for the open door before wincing a bit as the Pale of Pinkamena ran through him, before she skidded to a halt and spun around, staring at Scrivy. Scrivener looked back at her awkward in his half-pony, half-Wyrm form, and then Pinkamena leaned forwards, grinning widely before she stepped towards him, her translucent form passing through his thick body and making him wince before his eyes widened as she teasingly pretended to kiss his lips.
"Pinkamena!" Luna shouted furiously from the den, and Scrivy looked dumbly down the hall before a blast of lightning slammed into him, knocking him rolling stupidly backwards off the patio as Pollen scrambled out of the way of Scrivy's fall. Then Luna winced and cursed even as reflected pain twisted through her frame, her horn glowing as she charged down the corridor, but Pinkamena only grinned mockingly at her before she winked and vanished, the winged unicorn looking embarrassedly at Scrivy as he wheezed and slowly began to pick himself up. "In all honesty, Scrivener Blooms, I meant to blast the cretin, not... thee. Thou art just... larger and... happened to be in the way. 'Tis thine own fault. Be not so large and in the way next time."
"I'll keep it in mind." Scrivy mumbled, and then he grimaced and cracked his back as he slowly stood up with a groan, muttering: "Glad to know my sex appeal is so high with the undead, though."
Pollen began to awkwardly raise a hoof, and Luna glared horribly at the Velite, who quickly shrank down with a wince and made a sound like he was clearing the throat he didn't have, mumbling: "Never mind."
"I do not blame even other males for being attracted so to my husband, but all the same, Pollen, he is mine." Luna said imperiously, and Scrivener only sighed and hung his head, Luna giving him an awkward grin. "Oh, worry not, I shall not blast or smite anything further, agreed?"
Scrivener only grumbled, and then Pollen looked up and said embarrassedly: "Actually I'm a mare. I know it's kind of hard to tell but-"
"Nay, all Velites are referred to as male, even thou none of thee have any... parts." Luna replied huffily as she gestured with her hooves, sitting back and tilting her head upwards slightly as Scrivener and Pollen both stared at her. "I shall therefore still call thee a 'he.' Unless thou prefers 'it.'"
"I. I want you to know that if I could cry, I would probably be crying right now." Pollen mumbled sulkily, dropping his head forwards before he sighed and flinched a bit when Luna glared at him. "Fine, fine! You're right, anyway, I don't have any... parts. Male it is."
"Good. Now excuse myself and my daydreamer, we must speak on things. If thou can make nice with Pinkamena, thou can come inside later and we shall... figure out lodgings for thee, Pollen." Luna said moodily, and Scrivener smiled a bit as Pollen looked up hopefully; the half-pony, half-Wyrm was aware that a lot of this was because Luna was now trying to get him in a better mood, but he did appreciate her attempting to be a little nicer and more forwards all the same.
The Velite seemed to smile at them as Scrivener gazed at it... then he winced a bit as his eyes focused, and for a moment, he was gazing at not a Velite, but a mare with an almost bright-green coat and hazel eyes. A moment later, however, Pollen was once more a Velite... a 'male' Velite instead of a mare, as Luna had put it. "Thanks, I'll... you won't regret it, okay? I'm... thank you, I really just... just want to survive this somehow."
Luna mumbled a bit, and then she turned around as Scrivener nodded to the skeleton awkwardly before he followed the winged unicorn inside, quietly closing the door behind him before he followed her to the den. They sat quietly, gazing at one-another for a few moments, their eyes locking together... and in silence, they traded emotions, thoughts, felt their hearts beating as one before a tear slipped down Luna's cheek as she whispered: "No."
Scrivener closed his eyes, and Luna stepped forwards and hugged him fiercely, burying her face against the side of his neck as she murmured: "Stop it, daydreamer. Thou art not a monster... and no matter what is in thy mind... no... no matter what happens, I will not abandon thee. I will not leave thee, never, ever..."
She squeezed him firmly, and Scrivener wrapped his own forelegs around her, silently reaching up to grasp into her ephemeral locks with her clawed hand as he held her tightly against his larger frame. She pressed closer, and her mane sizzled softly as she gritted her teeth. "Valthrudnir was no match for us, beloved... even now, even if... some echo, some repetition, some ghostly dissonance from that accursed monster is inside thee... I will not... I will not abandon thee. We will find a way to destroy him... and no, I... I am wary of telling Odin of this. He may wish to separate us and destroy thee... I... I will not risk losing thee."
"Maybe..." Scrivener hesitated, then he winced when Luna leaned back and glared at him before shoving him down onto his back, leaping forwards and pinning him against the bedding as the male swallowed and winced up at her. She glared down at him, and although her mane crackled with electricity and her body radiated anger for a moment, when their eyes met, the emotions they traded were despair, fear, concern, and love... and terrible, awful regret, before the male reached up and whispered: "This isn't your fault. How can you blame yourself, Luna?"
"Because I gave the monster the way in... because I am always the one who... who nurtured that shadow inside of thee..." Luna clenched her eyes shut... and then she shivered before sighing and slowly laying herself down on top of him, resting herself over the male's form as he quietly wrapped his front limbs around her. She leaned down, pushing her forehead to his as he pressed back, trembles running through her frame as Scrivy breathed slowly in and out, before the winged unicorn laughed weakly and murmured: "The corruption has grown stronger inside of thee because of my meddling, Scrivener Blooms. How can we share the greatest of all connections and at the same time... serve as such poison to each other..."
"Like how I poison your honor, your thoughts, make you... give up so much?" Scrivy smiled faintly as he reached his claw up, stroking along her face slowly... and Luna laughed quietly and shook her head slowly, smiling despite herself in return.
"Nay, monster, I shan't fall for thy deceit this time, thy treacherous words will not trick me into pummeling thee." Luna murmured softly, and she straightened a bit as she looked down at him, studying him quietly as he looked back at her... before she smiled faintly, closing her eyes and bowing her head forwards, and Scrivener closed his own before grimacing a bit as a surge of energy passed through his body.
He shrank down as he felt the claw locking together, morphing back into a hoof, as his scales receded and his features once more returned to that of an earth pony... and then he grimaced and blinked a few times before reaching up and rubbing at his face, now once more in his normal form. Luna's eyes opened after a moment, and the two looked at each other quietly before the male said softly: "I lost my glasses at some point... and you know, strangely... I feel a little hollow now. I learned that looking like that, doesn't make me a monster... but now, even looking normal again, I still have a terrible... thing inside of me."
Luna, however, only closed her eyes and laid down beside the earth pony, then wrapped her forelimbs around him and pulled his head against her chest, and he curled up against her willingly, thoughts and memories and emotions rushing back and forth as he clung against her and clenched his eyes shut, a shiver rolling down his spine as she kissed his forehead and murmured: "We shall take another day to rest, Scrivener Blooms... we shall take time to figure this out, and then... make another long trip. Our journeys, our little quests, sometimes clear our heads after all..."
Scrivy laughed despite himself at this, shaking his head slowly and muttering: "Is that a good or bad thing, Luna? That we often feel most comfortable, that things and problems most often happen to slide away whenever we're out... wandering this dead and gone world, finding Pales and herding them onto the Bifrost, and doing battle with whatever monstrous entities dare to challenge us on our path?"
Luna smiled at this, looking softly down at the male as she squeezed him gently before nuzzling affectionately through his mane as she said softly: "I think it is good, husband. Because we are doing something... because of what we are working towards; a world where our friends can and will be reborn, a place where there will again be a peaceful and warm Equestria, even if it will not be without danger and strangeness."
Scrivy nodded slowly, resting against her for a few more minutes... before Luna looked curiously up as the male wiggled free and stood up with a shake of his head, the winged unicorn climbing to her own hooves as the earth pony said softly: "Alright. I feel better, Luna... thank you for... for always knowing just what to do, and what to say. I'll fix us a snack, and maybe we can invite Pollen in... are you really going to call her a 'him,' by the way?"
"I meant what I said, Scrivener Blooms, Velites are all male, whether they were mares or fillies or colts or stallions in life." Luna retorted, and Scrivy rolled his eyes with a bit of a smile before grunting when she stepped forwards and headbutted him gently. "Be not so difficult, creature. And speaking of creatures..."
Scrivener turned around as Luna stepped past him, and the two approached the countertop, where Discombobulation was laying in his vial, looking bored and grouchy. The bottle was now only a quarter of the way full, and the Draconequus splashed moodily at the liquid before he glared up at them as they both peered down at the male, Luna remarking: "Well, he seems cranky, at least. 'Tis a sign of heightened energies, is it not?"
Discombobulation looked at them moodily, and then he stood up and traced a shape on the glass with a finger, a rough image of stick-figure ponies copulating that made Luna snort laughter... before the Draconequus sighed and dragged a large red X through it, and Scrivener and Luna glanced at each other before the winged unicorn giggled harder as the male blushed a bit. "Oh, you mean... before... when..."
Discombobulation huffed silently inside the vial as he erased the image moodily, and Luna grinned and shook her head before saying cheerfully: "'Tis our home, Discombobulation, thou art currently merely a paperweight. Besides, long have we abandoned the pretense of modesty in this destroyed world, especially with Pinkamena floating in and out of reality as she pleases. And besides, thou did not have to watch our celebrations."
The Draconequus glared at them, then he slowly rose his hand, gesturing at himself with his thumb, before pointing his index finger towards Luna. Then the chimerical creature firmly clenched his hand into a fist, fingers shuddering a bit as his knuckles whitened slightly as he continued to glare at her before wincing when Luna leaned down and bumped the vial with her nose, saying dryly: "Do not make threats thou cannot live up to, Bob, or I shall fill this bottle with Manticore urine."
"You're kind of a bully." Scrivener remarked dryly, and Luna huffed and glared at him before shoving him firmly, and the male snorted in entertainment as he staggered and Discombobulation grumbled, crossing his arms sulkily inside the vial. "You have my apologies, Bob, I guess we forgot you're stuck sitting out here on the counter. We'll try and keep our bedroom antics in the bedroom from now on."
The Draconequus grumbled but looked a little mollified, beginning to turn away... and then his head suddenly spun almost completely around to stare towards the door, Scrivener frowning a bit at this before both he and Luna glanced up as there was a loud double-knock. Immediately, the winged unicorn glared down the corridor as Scrivener winced a bit, and there was an awkward silence for a few moments before another knock slowly sounded, and Luna ground her teeth together before she stormed down the hallway and flicked her horn, the door flying open to reveal Odin standing awkwardly on the patio before he winced at the sight of the winged unicorn stomping furiously towards him. "By the Vale of Valhalla, how does thou always time thy visits to occur at the moments of utmost, absolute frustration?"
"I was here earlier as well, Brynhild..." Odin began... and then he winced and staggered backwards when Luna lashed her horn at him childishly, the falcon-headed not-god cursing under his breath as he almost fell over. "Ymir's beard, are you crazed, woman?"
"Yes!" Luna shouted angrily, and she reared back, pawing her hooves at the air as she glared at him and breathed hard in and out as Scrivener awkwardly strode up behind her as she sat down on the patio on her haunches, glowering at the not-god as he winced and Pollen stared stupidly from the side of the yard, the Pale of Pinkamena having a laughing fit as she rolled back and forth on the ground beside the skeleton. "Art thou here to tell us to hurry up with a process that cannot be hurried? To try and molest me again perhaps? To just spread thy old-man-misery unto others?"
Odin groaned and grabbed at his face tiredly, and Luna grumbled irritably even as Scrivy gently wrapped a foreleg around her and gave her a squeeze, sitting beside her. For a few moments, she continued to glower at Odin, and then she sulkily turned and buried her face against her husband's mane, Scrivener smiling awkwardly as the once-god surveyed them tiredly before he shook his head moodily.
He let the silence spiral out, however, and Luna calmed little-by-little as she rested with her face buried against Scrivy's neck... and finally, Odin sighed as he straightened and finally said: "I don't enjoy making trips like this, Brynhild. Traveling from one world to another is extremely tiring for me and my old bones... I am not the god I once was. But it was only moments after I returned to Valhalla that my few friends who have been so inclined to aid me - aid us, I should say, since this concerns you as well - came to me and told me of a problem."
Luna grumbled a bit, but looked up at Odin moodily, apparently willing to listen, and Odin looked relieved at the reaction before he explained quietly: "This world... this layer of reality... is not going to last much longer. Connected to nothing but a layer of Helheim, and constantly poisoned by corruption storms and the reality-warping influence of the Black Wolves of Hell, with so much of the land warped and distorted and destroyed... sooner or later, this layer is simply going to... dissolve. I need to ask you to begin final preparations to leave, Brynhild. Take everything that's important that you've left here, and bring it to your home in the Looking Glass World, along with any other materials and belongings that will be necessary for you. You've spent eight... no, in a week or so, it will be nine years here. Nine years is long enough. You have saved all the souls you can."
Luna frowned at this as Scrivener looked up quietly, the two hesitating as Odin looked down at them silently... and then the winged unicorn slowly shook her head, saying softly: "No, Odin. Aye, Scrivy and I shall find a wagon, load up the few items with meaning we have left here, and bring them across the Bifrost... but then we shall return here. We shall not abandon this world until we have saved every last soul we can. Thou shalt not amputate this planet and all those wretched souls until the last possible moment... I will not permit the soul of anypony that I can save to be destroyed forever because of an act of cowardice under the guise of 'safety.'"
"Brynhild, woman, are you insane? Do you want to be trapped in limbo or purgatory for eternity, when these layers of the ninety-nine worlds fall into darkness?" Odin asked incredulously, leaning forwards and gesturing violently outwards, but Luna only glared up at him stoically. "You have saved tens of thousands of lives, does your ego-"
"'Tis not about my ego, 'tis about doing the right thing. Those lives are but a drop in the bucket compared to the lives we are responsible for and the lives we failed, Odin." Luna retorted sharply, and the not-god winced back a bit and rubbed slowly at the scarred side of his face. "Not Scrivener Blooms nor I will abandon this place. We shall continue to work to save all the Pales we can, until reality begins to crack around us and we are forced to move on to complete the second half of our mission."
Odin closed his eyes, rubbing slowly at his face... and then he finally nodded slowly, muttering under his breath: "Fine. Fine, very well. Arguing with you, I should know by now, is pointless... but Brynhild, you cannot force every Pale to follow you across the Bifrost. Nothing is guaranteed when working with the intangible, as I have well-learned myself... and you have searched south, east, and west far and wide for many years, marching and collecting all you could."
"Then we shall march north. We shall march all the way to the Black Baroque, Odin... I know that it emits an energy, a putrid essence, that the Pales mistake for an escape from this world, when it is merely the door to a worse prison beyond... I know that even now, many are lured there. And I do not fear the fact that it has become a tomb of demons and that Fenrir lurks through his ancient hunting ground of the terrible mountains..." Luna looked up grimly, evenly facing Odin as he frowned down at her worriedly. "We shall save the few souls that deserve to be saved even in those barren wastes, where ponies were so cold in body and heart. We shall save the victims lured to the Black Baroque and the Gates of Helheim, if we can. And then, as we watch for signs of the world beginning to shatter apart, we shall sweep wide and far through Equestria, gathering the last of the stragglers we can."
"It's a foolish idea, Brynhild... you would risk battling Fenrir and the forces of Helheim, and the chance of finding only souls that are already beginning to corrupt into demons themselves... or that perhaps were never worth saving in the first place." Odin grimaced a bit and shook his head slowly, then he studied the two silently as Scrivener only closed his eyes and Luna gazed defiantly at the not-god. "But... I know I can't stop you. Perhaps part of me even admires you and chastises me for still being such a surly old coward."
He stopped, then glanced towards the Velite and the Pale of Pinkamena, the latter grinning, the former simply sitting and awkwardly staring. "I notice that you've added a new companion to your... little band. I do not think there is room in the next world for Velites."
"Yes, yes, Odin, but if the creature is kind enough I shall simply grind it to dust and exorcise the soul trapped in those bones, and her Pale may come with us to the next world as well." Luna said irritably, and Pollen glanced up, looking surprised before Luna grumbled and said flatly: "His, I mean. All Velites are male."
Odin looked at her for a moment, then decided it was better to disregard this as he reached into his jacket and produced his flask, slowly unscrewing the top as he said quietly: "I have one last bit of business with you, though, Brynhild, before I can leave. Something that worries me... something concerning yourself and your husband."
The not-god looked at them calmly as he sipped from his flask, and Luna gritted her teeth as she glared up at him challengingly, Scrivener wincing a bit before Odin said softly: "While I was heading towards the ruined village to the north, after getting no answer at the door here... I felt a very distinct ripple in reality. I must have just missed you after you had destroyed that Velite encampment and... taken a prisoner of war or freed an ally, whatever occurred with that Velite there. But you and Scrivener Blooms used the Black Verses again, didn't you?"
Scrivener glanced awkwardly away as Luna looked up and replied quietly: "We did, Odin. 'Twas necessary to destroy the monstrosity we faced, we had not the time nor energy to do it any other way."
The not-god shook his head slowly in response to this, squatting down and looking at them imploringly as he said quietly: "Brynhild, forget the past. Forget... everything about me, and about yourself, just for a moment, just for this moment, and listen to me: the very best outcome of using the Black Verses is that you'll shorten the spans of both your lives, or you will die. Valthrudnir wrote and designed them for his pets alone to be able to harness, creatures of destruction, violence, hatred, and corruption... and the worst possible outcome is that by using them, by continuing to open that... that box of evil... you will not shorten your lives, or die, you will become the very thing you have fought so hard to stop."
Scrivy and Luna shared apprehensive looks... and then Odin sighed quietly, straightening and sipping at his flask again before he quietly screwed the lid back on and tucked it back beneath his jacket. "I know you don't count me as a friend, much less a mentor, and I understand that. You were a Valkyrie, and I was Warrior King of the Aesir... but those days are past, and I was the author of my own ruin and the reason that now, you face me in the body of a pony and I face you in the disguise of a gaunt old falcon-man. But on this, please listen to me... I do not wish to see you die, Brynhild. I wish even less to see you make prideful mistakes as I did, and end up living out your own terrible tragedy."
"The difference, Odin, is that whilst thou loathed and was never loyal to thine wife, I love Scrivener Blooms more than any words can express... and everything we face, everything we do, we do together." Luna replied quietly, looking up at the not-god seriously and coldly, and then she closed her eyes as her mane sizzled and swayed behind her for a moment before her features smoothed slowly out as she softened visibly when her cyan eyes opened. "It is difficult for me to bow my head or acknowledge anyone, especially thee. It is difficult, but I do wish for thee to know I... appreciate thy concern, and I understand well of what thou speaks.
"But... Scrivener Blooms and I have been facing our worst fears together, in this accursed world. We have stood beneath a storm of corruption, and found purity in the most unexpected of places... we have washed away sin and evil with darkness, becoming like polished, black stone in heart and soul, if only for a fleeting moment of peace. We have faced down and slain many monsters... and we have even helped other beasts back up to their feet." Luna smiled faintly despite herself, glancing towards where Pinkamena and the Velite both stood, before the winged unicorn nodded slowly and returned her gaze to Odin. "No matter what happens and what we face, once-god... we face it together. We face it without fear. And the Black Verses... I believe ourselves invincible to even their power. Because yes, they are destruction, and evil, and raw power... but we do not try to control it, we only channel it, and as with all things, we do it together..."
"You're being romantic, Brynhild." Odin said quietly, but it was difficult to tell if he spoke admiringly or in chastisement, as he shook his head slowly and rubbed at his face with a quiet sigh. "What do you think, Scrivener Blooms?"
Scrivy winced a bit at being addressed by the being, and on such a sensitive subject... but he squeezed Luna quietly when she looked at him with concern, giving her a reassuring glance before he looked up and met the falcon's single eye, saying slowly: "I... I often am afraid of the Black Verses. Of myself... of what could happen. But I know that no matter what... Luna and I... nothing can stop us together. The same blood flows in our veins, our souls are mixed as one, in our bodies beat the same heart. Once upon a time, I was just a slave-hoof poet muddling his way through an unfulfilling life doing as little as possible. Now... I don't know what I am. But I know I'm proud to be beside Luna. I'm proud of the things we've done and we continue to do. And I have hope for the future... and as long as I have her, those hopes, and these dreams... I know that not even Valthrudnir can corrupt me."
Odin frowned a bit at this, and Scrivener grimaced at his choice of words... but then the not-god only nodded slowly and sighed quietly. "Alright. If you both are so firm in this belief, I won't speak any further on it." He stopped, then surveyed the two with a slight frown, rubbing at the underside of his beak slowly. "Is there... anything I should know, though, Brynhild, Scrivener Blooms?"
Scrivy grimaced a bit as he felt a stir of worry from Luna, even as she looked up and wrinkled her muzzle awkwardly as she lied: "No, not at all, Odin."
Odin looked at her dourly as her nose twitched, a clear tell Luna was lying... but all the same, he only shook his head and dropped the subject, rubbing at his side and saying moodily: "Fine. I'll be in Looking Glass World, waiting for you, if you do happen to need to speak to me... try and get there in the next few days. The deterioration of this layer of reality is growing worse with every passing week, and it could be within months that the collapse begins."
"Terrifying." Luna said flatly, and Odin sighed at her tone before the winged unicorn nodded with a grunt and grumbled a bit, looking up at him. "I suppose some measure of thanks are in order for telling us what will come to pass, then, old lecher. But be on thy way, then. Scrivy and I shall rest for a short period, then find a scrap wagon and begin the overdue process of pulling down what remains to be moved. But there are days yet before the Bifrost regenerates enough to be used again, even if only by us. Scrivener Blooms and I shall use that time to sweep to the north, and then make our way back here... I believe that we can cross such a great distance in a matter of less than a week."
"I already gave you my suggestions, Brynhild, I know by now whatever plans we lay out, the moment I'm gone, you'll bastardize them all into some grand scheme much to your own preference and leave me waiting for hours, days, or perhaps even longer." Odin replied tiredly, gesturing grouchily at the sky, and Luna shrugged agreeably at this. "Very well, here is my new suggestion. You do as you please, and when you arrive in Looking Glass World, contact me through Celestia's scrying mirror, a cast of the runes, or one of a thousand other possible ways. Is this acceptable?"
"Well, now thou art taking all the fun out of it." Luna said grouchily, and Odin threw his arms in the air as he turned around and stormed away, the winged unicorn calling after him cheerfully: "I shall send a Nibelung to thee, how about this? Nibelung may go to Valhalla if pummeled to death, correct?"
Odin only ignored her as he muttered to himself and continued over the bridge, however, Luna and Scrivener both watching as the not-god made his way to wherever he had hidden the means by which he passed back and forth between Valhalla. That he had never shared with them, grouchily guarding the secret... and Luna grimaced at the falcon being's back, muttering under her breath to Scrivener Blooms: "One day I shall discover where he has hidden the portal to paradise, Scrivy, or at least the means the old doddering relic passes back and forth between realms. 'Tis a pity... he may not be any god any longer, but the lecher is as sly as he ever wert, and makes following him nearly impossible."
She grumbled under her breath, then shook her head and glanced towards the Velite and the Pale, asking mildly: "Well, art thou two going to come inside or stay out and play like the mongrels thou often both remind me of?"
"I would definitely like to come inside, because I have absolutely no idea what's going on." Pollen replied quickly, and Pinkamena rolled her eyes before easily striding ahead of the skeleton, as the Velite nervously looked up. "I... I mean... you called that guy Odin. You said something about souls and Pales and... look at you, you're not a monster-looking-thing anymore and... I mean..."
"Oh quiet, addled creature. Let us retire inside and then thou can make a nuisance of thyself with thy questions." Luna said tiredly, rubbing at her face with a flat look at the skeleton, and Pollen grinned lamely in response before the winged unicorn turned around, Scrivener following her down the corridor as she murmured under her breath: "And on a serious note, Scrivy... there is no need to tell Odin of what has transpired, our worries or fears. It is better that he does not know, for I will not have him trying to 'fix' you himself, like as not by risking separating us... perhaps even imprisoning or outright attempting to kill thee."
"You don't really..." Scrivy frowned a bit, words falling away as Luna glanced at him apprehensively, and Scrivener closed his eyes, nodding slowly as emotions and thoughts twisted quietly between them. "Right. He might seem like a harmless old... well, whatever he is... but he's also an ex-god... ex-warrior-god-king, at that."
"Best not to take chances, Scrivy. I believe he has changed, perhaps, but... I do not wish to test how far his mercy and understanding now extend. Besides, 'tis more fun not telling Odin everything." Luna smiled a bit despite herself, glancing towards Scrivy as the male laughed a little and gave her a look that was half-entertained, half-exasperated. "I am trying to be positive, Scrivener Blooms, test me not."
Luna flopped down on the bedding in the den, and Scrivener sat beside her as he glanced down the hall, watching as Pinkamena floated moodily over to inspect Discombobulation's bottle. Pollen, finally, stared back and forth in awe, as if he had never seen the inside of a house before... and then he smiled embarrassedly as he dropped on his haunches at the end of the corridor, staring into the den room and murmuring: "I never thought... I'd see an actual home like this again. The Nibelung live in ruins and ugly tents, never fix anything up and just move on when something gets too damaged or broken... and Velites they... we... never sleep, never eat, never have homes. Just sheds to put our things in, and when we need to stop, we just... lay down on the ground..."
Pollen halted, looking down embarrassedly as Luna softened a bit, before the winged unicorn said quietly, as she tilted her head towards the fireplace and blue flames burst into being over the logs: "Come, creature. Be not afraid, rest thyself on one of the cushions and curl up closer to the fire. Warm thy bones."
The Velite seemed to smile at them thankfully as it gazed at the two, then nodded and walked carefully past the large bedding to a rumpled cushion, pulling it closer and hesitantly sitting down on it... before sighing softly as it settled slowly onto its stomach, gazing towards the sapphire fire as it murmured: "Thank you, Princess Luna. You're kinder and more generous than I ever expected."
"Nay, I am neither of those things, and nor am I any princess." Luna replied quietly, gazing towards the flames with a bit of a smile. "When I went into exile, that title was forgone forever... and even when I returned to mine sister's side, I was made Champion. And to be honest? I was far more comfortable in that role, fighting on the battlefield rather than trying to serve as figurehead of a nation."
She quieted, then studied the skeleton for a few moments as Pollen looked awkwardly back at her, before she asked curiously: "For how long did thou survive past Ragnarok, creature?"
The Velite laughed a bit at this, looking down and murmuring softly: "A few weeks, maybe a few months... it's hard to say. When the Velites... when they make you into one of them, they try to erase your memories, make you forget who you were, who you are, remake you as one of them... but they're sloppy about it. I think... a lot of the ponies... the Velites... I was working beside let themselves forget, because it's easier just to give in, but... I never could forget. I couldn't forget my family, or Equestria... I couldn't forget who I was. It was like a cult, but what's a cult without a goddess, without a figurehead, without a strong leader? There were just those fanatics... the original Velites, who dug up the bodies of dead unicorns so they could channel that unholy magic..."
The skeleton shivered a bit, then shook his head before he added awkwardly: "Also, am I really going to be referred to as a male for the rest of my... my... I guess it's not a life."
"Velites are male." Luna said staunchly, and Scrivener sighed a bit before wincing when she smacked him firmly. "Silence, creature. 'Tis true and thou knows it as well as I do. But worry not, Pollen... after we mash thee to pieces and turn thee from Velite to Pale, thou shall once more be a mare."
Luna grinned as she ground her front hooves together, the Velite wincing a bit as she said nervously: "Not that... I doubt you or anything, but... I don't exactly want to be mashed and don't know if you're... well... uh..."
"Sane, or telling the truth?" Luna leaned forwards curiously, and Pollen mumbled a bit to himself before the winged unicorn laughed and threw her head back. "Worry not. Besides, look at Pinkamena, she is but a Pale and..."
Luna's words fell short as she glanced over her shoulder and saw the half-demon once more chewing at the top of Bob's bottle, the Draconequus flailing his arms inside it as her ghostly hooves squeezed either side of the vial, and Luna sighed and snapped irritably: "Foul creature, thou already has tested the limits of my temper horribly today!"
Pinkamena grumbled silently as she floated away from the vial, holding up her front hooves irritably... and then she simply flickered out of sight, and Luna muttered under her breath as she turned her attention back to Pollen. "Very well, ignore Pinkamena, she is a foul example. When thou crosses the Bifrost with us, however, I think thou will better understand... and depending upon how trustworthy I determine thee to be, I may ask that thou remains in thy Velite body whilst thou stays in Looking Glass World, until final preparations are complete for the hopeful-rebirth of all that has been lost. We require a babysitter for our favorite pet, after all, and Pinkamena obviously would not be an entirely-intelligent choice upon our part."
The Velite looked confused at this... and then Luna smiled slightly, tilting her horn forwards as it glowed blue, and the vial lifted off the countertop to float quietly towards the skeleton, Bob looking surly as he crossed his arms and glowered out at the Velite. "This is Discombobulation. He is in a weakened state right now, which is why he is kept secure in the bottle. Bob, do be so kind as to greet our guest."
The Draconequus blew a silent raspberry at the skeleton as its jaw fell open in a gape, and then he winced when Luna rattled the bottle firmly before sighing dramatically and sketching an ironic curtsy. Scrivener snorted in amusement as the winged unicorn gazed into the bottle sourly, and then she flicked her eyes to the side, and the vial floated back over to rest on the countertop as she said distastefully: "Irksome beast. And thou should close thy mouth, Pollen, 'lest thou wishes for me to remove thy lower jaw in its entirety."
The Velite flinched as it quickly snapped its mouth back shut, and then the skeleton said awkwardly: "You know, I... I think I'm just getting more and more confused here about what's going on. I was just an earth pony who liked to work in the gardens, that's all... all these terms are going way over my head and I really don't know what to believe. So maybe... if it's not too much trouble, you could... start at the beginning."
"The beginning was a very long time ago." Luna said softly, glancing towards Scrivener Blooms... and the earth pony smiled a bit despite himself as he shrugged a little, the two trading thoughts and emotions before she said kindly: "Then go ahead, daydreamer. I enjoy thy voice and thy storytelling. I enjoy more when thou talks of me so highly."
Scrivener laughed quietly despite himself, before he smiled when Luna leaned over and rested herself against him, closing her eyes... and the male gazed at Pollen, feeling a faint pain spark through his mind, seeing her for a moment as she had once been: short chestnut mane and long, streaming chestnut tail intertwined with flowers, green, almost-glowing body, and big hazel eyes curious... and then a moment later, she was a Velite skeleton again. "Alright, but on one condition. Let's call her 'her,' alright Luna? No 'all cats are female, all dogs are male' thing going on."
"'Tis true, and to get new puppies and kittens thou must use magic to make it rain cats and dogs. And then catch them so they do not splatter against the ground." Luna retorted childishly, snuggling herself closer against Scrivener Blooms, and then she sighed and grumbled under her breath. "Very well. From this moment forth, I decree that there shall be one female Velite, and her name is Pollen."
"Thank you." Pollen said awkwardly, smiling back and forth from Luna to Scrivy... and Scrivy only shrugged a bit as Luna grumbled under her breath, half-shoving the male over so she could almost crawl on top of him and flop down. "I... I mean, if it's too much trouble..."
"No, it's alright, Luna's just..." Scrivener glared over his shoulder at the female as she hugged him like a stuffed animal, but she pointedly ignored him with a grumble, making him roll his eyes before he returned his gaze to Pollen. "Luna just doesn't understand certain social norms, so to speak. But the story begins a long time ago... back in Canterlot in fact, with the Princess of the Night and her humble assistant Scrivener Blooms..."
Scrivener told the story; he spoke from the very start, telling about how he and Luna had grown closer over a journey from Canterlot to the castle ruins in the depths of the Everfree Forest, to retrieve objects from the vault for Celestia. He talked of how they had returned, the battle that had erupted between a Celestia gone insane with power and the need to instill order and Luna, desperate to stop her sister from destroying the very country she had created. He spoke of how they had chosen to take the blame for Celestia's actions, and how they had fled into exile, building this very cottage they now rested in.
He told her about how the Velites had come back to Equestria, and other forms of darkness with it, and about how they had rescued a filly who would become their adopted daughter. He told her about a unicorn who had never learned humility, who was not as great and powerful as she liked to believe but who had proven to be among the bravest of ponies, and who they had lost to the treachery of Veliuona... and who, at the last moment, had destroyed both herself and the dark goddess possessing her in a magnificent grand finale.
He spoke of Ignominious and the attack on Ponyville, and how the demon had possessed him during the battle, before Scrivener Blooms had guided Luna's horn into piercing his heart. And he and Luna had gazed at each other silently for a moment, taking one another's hoof as he said softly: "But Luna wouldn't let me go that easy. She mixed our souls together to save my life... that was what that Velite kept yelling about. Not just a pact, though... we're soul-bound. We're soulmates."
They smiled at each other as Pollen gazed on, enthralled... and then Scrivener continued with the story, becoming more solemn as he told of the ill-fated Starlit Knights: of how they had left Ponyville behind after dealing with a terrible, monstrous Pegasus that had been as wicked as many of the evils they had faced on the road, and of how in Canterlot, they had not only met Discombobulation through a communication ritual gone wrong, but Luna had also been confronted with the first of many memories. He described how as they had marched northwards, more and more memories had awakened... and to make matters worse, they had been chased the whole time by Ignominious, back from Helheim. His first attack against them had actually resulted in the creation of Pinkamena... but his final attack against them had stolen away the life of the pony Pinkamena had been shaped from, before the demon had finally been completely and utterly destroyed.
And North Neigh, the town they had journeyed to, had been Scrivener's hometown. Where he had been called slave-hoof, seen as less than worthless in the eyes of the traditionalist unicorn elite. They had fought to save them... and it was in that ignoble village that everything had been taken away, as friends were killed, as the filly they had adored as daughter was kidnapped and they were faced with the menace of a Tyrant Wyrm that had been hidden away in the depths of the dark tunnels beneath Equestria. Scrivener had been courageous, reckless, and stupid enough to decipher its words as it had spoken, using both his natural grasp for language as well as his link with Luna to access her memories, her knowledge of the creatures and their terrible ways... and in retaliation, the Tyrant Wyrm had shoved every ounce of its terrible knowledge into the mind of Scrivener Blooms.
It had nearly killed him... but Celestia had saved them, helping them bring the terrible monstrosity crashing down amidst its own pawns and eradicating the parasite from the face of the planet. And Celestia had walked beside them, not as a leader, but as an equal, in that final march to the Black Baroque... where their friends had died one after the other until they stood before the Gates of Hell, and watched as their daughter was sacrificed so the Gates could be torn open... and the four Black Wolves of Hell awakened.
All the same, they had almost stopped Ragnarok... they had almost triumphed, when Luna had brought on the eclipse, and the Black Wolves had been frozen in their tracks, reduced to whimpering mutts... but then Valthrudnir had appeared. He had walked in as calmly and casually as if this had all been planned from the start; but then again, it had been. The Jotnar had orchestrated the events from the beginning, planning and adjusting for every last detail... and he had captured Luna and Scrivy with ease before setting the Black Wolves and Helheim itself loose on the world, bringing death to an entire planet as if their world was nothing more than a hive of harmless but disgusting bugs.
Scrivener explained quietly how Valthrudnir had challenged Scrivener to a duel of sorts: a battle in a destroyed layer of reality called Alfheim, where they had sat and played a sick, twisted game of cards. They had used the cards to illustrate stories to one-another... and despite Valthrudnir's meddling and cheating, his arrogance had led to his own downfall, when Scrivener had twisted his own 'perfect tragedy' against him. Still, Valthrudnir had been determined to destroy the earth pony for what he had done... but Luna, freed from her imprisonment, had used the fatal moment of the Jotnar's distraction to kill him and put an end to his scheming.
It had all been over, and they had been left with only one-another... but then they had been joined by Odin. He had explained the last of what needed to be explained, and offered them an escape... and a blank world, and a way to perhaps save everything that had been lost. Their prize for conquering Valthrudnir, after all, had been his powers sealed in three miracles, three cards... with the powers of the Jotnar in hand and Odin's guidance, they had a chance to replenish and restore all that was lost.
Scrivy fell quiet, finally, then he sipped at a glass of cola Luna had brought for him, the winged unicorn laying beside him and massaging gently along his back as he smiled awkwardly over at Pollen. "And... that's the story. Ever since then, Luna and I have been working as... soul-gatherers, bringing Pales across the Bifrost to the Looking Glass World, we call it. We don't know how well this is all going to work, at the end of the day... we don't know what's going to happen in the future. All we know is that... we're both determined to do everything we can to save what's broken. What in a way, we feel... responsible for."
"That's an amazing story." Pollen said quietly, looking from one to the other, and then the skeleton laughed faintly, Scrivener gazing at her, no longer flinching when he saw the mare's shape overlaying undead frame. She studied them, and they gazed back at her... and then the skeleton only bowed her head silently forwards, the glow in her eyes faint but admiring as Luna and Scrivener both relaxed slowly in the presence of their strange new companion. |
Metempsychosis | Plans And Schemes | Chapter Eight: Plans And Schemes
~BlackRoseRaven
Dark clouds rolled gloomily through the violet sky above, and Luna grimaced a bit as a cold, chilling wind shot by, blowing a few loose boards down from a collapsed building nearby before she shouted irritably: "Scrivener Blooms, search faster!"
"Shut up, Luna!" Scrivener's voice was strangled and frustrated as he struggled through the mostly-collapsed building that had once belonged to Kilby Kwolek and her team of engineers, the male cursing under his breath as a jagged piece of metal sticking out of the ceiling scratched along his shoulder: not deep, but more than enough to sting a bit as Luna winced and glanced at a faint scratch that appeared on her own shoulder. "Horses of Heaven, it's not even the fact that everywhere I turn there's another sharp object trying to stab me, it's... the freaking reek! It's like oil and rotten corpses and... can't Pollen or Pinkamena do this?"
"Nay, I am still unsure as to how much I can trust Pollen, and to send Pinkamena into a den of inequity filled with knives and weapons and Odin knows what kind of nonsense is sealed away in Cowlick's labs would be like giving a foal the keys to the candy shop. She would come back outside with everything apart from what we require." Luna retorted, then she winced a bit as another strong wind burst by, and the entire warehouse creaked, a few panels of broken glass falling out of a shattered window.
The upper levels of the three storey building had both collapsed inwards, giving it a look like a deflated cake... a cake made of metal, steel, and large planks of rotten wood covered in peeling paint, that was. Luna grimaced a bit as she stepped back, looking quickly back and forth over the wreckage... but they had just barely been able to pry off the front door, revealing a narrow tunnel beyond... and after a quick argument, Luna had shrunk Scrivener down to about half his normal size and then firmly booted him into the passage.
Scrivy cursed under his breath as he scampered through the damaged hallways, muttering to himself irritably and not caring whether or not Luna could hear every word, roughly the size of a foal and carrying a satchel bag almost as large as he was. The ceiling above was covered in cracks and rumbled ominously now and then, as if it had been waiting for a victim to try and enter the catacombs of the strange building. It was half storage facility, half jumbled cluster of engineering laboratories, and the male cursed to himself as he ran into another blockade of rubble, the ceiling above half-collapsed and all manner of beams, chunks of metal, and what looked like several broken crates forming an unstable wall. "Luna, this isn't worth it..."
"Scrivener Blooms, we have searched everywhere else, and found little we could use: in Rarity's boutique, aye, there was a good supply of precisely-cut gemstones, and in searching the few storage warehouses that had not suffered demolition or arson, we discovered more of what we require." Luna replied half-forcefully, half-pleadingly, and she pawed at the ground with a hoof as she grimaced a little. "A simple wooden wagon will not survive passing over the Bifrost, and even the Pegasus wagon we used to move some of other possessions barely made it through the buffeting energies... or does thou want all our things burning up to dust as we run across the rainbow?"
"And what makes you so sure that Cowlick's crazy composite junk on a layer of gemstone armor is going to actually let a wagon survive?" Scrivener asked dryly, as he inspected the barricade before carefully beginning to wiggle his way through an open corner, adding in a mumble: "Your warrior instincts aren't right about everything..."
"Thou shalt eat those words when thou finds the composite." Luna replied flatly as she glared at the structure, huffing. "'Tis a jar of goo. How difficult is it to find a jar of goo?"
"It's a jar of goo inside a demolished structure twice the size of a hoof-ball field that's mostly collapsed in on itself."Scrivener muttered, and Luna only grumbled in response as the male wormed his way down the corridor beyond with a curse, past large chunks of rock and metal debris that stuck out of the walls and ceiling like teeth as he tossed an apprehensive look at the sunken, cracked roof.
Then Scrivy winced as dust pattered down, something shifting above as Luna's eyes sharpened outside the structure, leaning forwards nervously as she felt the twitch of emotion before she asked in a quiet voice, her words continuing to carry to Scrivener as if she stood right beside him instead of outside the building: "What is it?"
Scrivy only shook his head quietly, edging forwards before his eyes flicked to the side, where a doorway stood open... and he hurried into the room beyond with a quiet sigh of relief. The ceiling here was damaged but didn't slump as low, and the shambles and debris scattered from the room were obviously from some battle that had once taken place here, not a destructive collapse. "Just need to be careful, that's all... place is a wreck, talking too loud might be enough to bring some parts of it down."
Luna nodded slowly outside, then she closed her eyes, asking in a clear thought: Should we communicate in this fashion then, my daydreamer?
"No, no, that actually creeps me out a little and I'm in a safe bubble for now..." Scrivener halted as he looked around the mostly-empty square room, heading towards a set of dust-covered cupboards and accidentally pulling one door off when he tried to open it, wincing and tossing it aside to peer inside. "Yeah, this must be an old lab."
There were broken beakers, dusty glass objects, and instruments of every shape and size in the cupboards, much of it overgrown with ugly mosses and molds, and Scrivener took his time checking through the room before he sighed a bit as he glanced nervously back towards the doorway... before pausing and frowning as he looked over the room again. His eyes settled on a pile of debris in one corner, the wall behind this cracked and the paint peeled and broken... and Scrivener carefully brushed some of the rocks aside before he smiled a little as he found a hole that had been hammered in the wall, broken duct-work beyond leading into another room.
He carefully slid into this, making his way past dead wires and cables and wincing as he stepped carefully over broken metal before stepping out and into the room beyond... and he grimaced a bit, looking back and forth as his eyes watered from the smell that assaulted his nose. Half-collapsed and decayed shelves leaned against the wall, slumping and broken here and there, many long-having spilled their contents into a congealed mess on the floor, and unidentifiable molds crawled over much of the rest of the room as Scrivener grimaced before he glanced towards the doorway... but the door was laying in cracked pieces, and had been blocked off by a collapse of debris likely a long time ago.
The male studied the shelves... and then he winced as he stepped forwards and noted a large, broken glass jar, touching it and gazing down at the petrified gray sludge that had solidified over and around it. "Well, I think I just found the composite, Luna. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to be of much help or use to us at this point."
Luna grimaced at this, muttering: "And passing over the Bifrost will dispel any magic I cast... art thou sure?"
Scrivener made a face as he looked over the shelves, looking over the chemical mixes, large cans, and the other odds and ends that rested in various states of decay over the shelves before he sighed and glanced to the side... then frowned a bit as he realized there was a sign under the dust, muttering: "Wait."
The male stood carefully up on his rear hooves, blowing the dust away... and he coughed a few times with a grumble as it burst back over his features, blinking a bit before he read quickly over it: a master list of the chemicals kept in the storage room, and which noted... "'Additional supplies are available on request from the storage vault located in the basement.' Great. How the hell am I supposed to get to the basement?"
"Get out of the facility, Scrivener Blooms, we shall find a way down to these vaults. I did not expect it to be so expansive." Luna said quietly, and Scrivener nodded inside the storage room as the winged unicorn sighed and restlessly began to pace outside, grumbling: "Damn thy remaining squidgy eye, Odin, for being so all-seeing and yet leaving us to forage for ourselves in a dead world for a plight as simple as a wagon..."
Scrivener, meanwhile, was carefully making his way back through the duct... but when he emerged into the room beyond, he staggered dumbly and frowned a bit as he looked up, realizing it was darker... before he slowly gazed to the side and grit his teeth as he saw Valthrudnir standing nearby, one hand leaning on the countertop, the other flipping a coin as the Jotnar smiled at him disdainfully. "This is a bad time."
"No time like the present, I would argue... besides, I'm just here to give you an offer." Valthrudnir caught the coin in mid-fall with an easy flick of his wrist, then he tossed it towards Scrivy, and the earth pony winced back a bit... but the coin halted in midair, hovering slowly in front of him as the dragon said mockingly: "Do you know how pathetic it is that the rainbow bridge is giving you all this trouble? Why, I can pass through the world's layers as I please... even as an echo, I'm more powerful than you can ever dream. And all that power... can be yours. You just have to give in... you just have to ask."
Scrivener studied the coin silently: it rotated slowly in front of his eyes, Scrivy's profile engraved on one side, and Luna's on the other... and then he closed his eyes and shook his head briskly, and when he opened them, the dragon was gone. Instead, he could hear Luna's worried voice, asking him what had happened, why she had felt a burst of unnatural static that had blocked out their connection for a moment... and then Scrivener shuddered a bit before he murmured: "Uninvited guest."
Luna gritted her teeth outside the compound, saying quietly: "Then hurry thy way out, Scrivener Blooms."
"Yes, hurry, Scrivener Blooms... hurry up and die." Valthrudnir's voice added eerily, and Scrivener flinched even as he headed towards the ruptured hall, turning and fighting shivers as he began to make his way carefully back towards the barricade, before he risked a glance over his shoulder... and then stared in horror at the sight of a wave of black goo slowly rising up behind him, making metal and debris stir as the rumbling wave of dark mud and muck hissed towards him like a living thing. "You'll give in to me, cheater, one way or the other."
Scrivener cursed as he spun around, panicking, and he yanked his way through the narrow tunnel in the barricade as Valthrudnir laughed, the earth pony crashing against walls of metal and fallen wooden rafters as he heard that horrible sound growing, dust pattering down as rotten boards and stone shifted and debris began to rumble unsteadily... and then the male yanked himself free of the tunnel and staggered to his hooves, looking over his shoulder with hard, anxious pants before he cursed as he saw nothing there.
It had all been in his head... and then his eyes slowly roved up as a rafter he had banged against during his terrified attempt to flee cracked loudly, as a few more large pieces of metal and debris fell... and the earth pony's eyes widened before he spun around and sprinted down the hallway as one of the rafters gave away with an almost-agonized scream, cracking loudly down the middle as tears ripped through the ceiling, chunks of roof and building beginning to collapse inwards as Luna shouted desperately for Scrivener and Valthrudnir's laughter ripped through his mind.
Scrivy couldn't even keep track of where he was running, as dust and chunks of ceiling and wood hailed down around him, cursing as chunks of metal bit at him and the ceiling rumbled, throwing himself forwards into a low skid over his stomach beneath a broken pipe and hurling himself to his hooves as he shot through a doorway, twisting towards where he could see Luna leaning down in the exit, shouting for him... before the winged unicorn glanced up in shock as the front of the building shattered and a hail of wooden boards and several enormous rafters fell towards her, the female snarling as her horn flashed and her eyes glowed as she leapt backwards and anchored herself, catching the avalanche in midair with grit teeth.
Scrivener ducked as he scrambled through the narrow, broken passageway leading out before the foal sized male bolted through Luna's legs with a wince, continuing to sprint away before the winged unicorn leapt backwards and gave a mighty flap of her wings, launching herself to safety as the glow faded out from around the floating debris and it fell with a rumbling crash. Dust and wreckage burst upwards from the warehouse as Scrivener half-fell over as he spun around, breathing hard, a multitude of small, shallow cuts and scours over his frame as Luna gritted her teeth, her eyes glowing slightly as the building rumbled and shuddered.
Finally, the collapse halted, leaving it looking more deformed and broken than it had been before as Scrivy breathed hard in and out, tasting dust and apocalypse air as Luna shivered a little and drew her eyes slowly along the front of the building... then she looked silently towards Scrivener Blooms as the male grimaced and rubbed at his face, murmuring: "Sorry, Luna."
"There is no need to apologize, Scrivener Blooms... I am only thankful that thou art alright, and still in one piece after what happened." Luna said quietly, looking down at him silently, and then she smiled faintly as she bowed her head towards him, the male wincing before he flexed as his size slowly returned to normal, breathing hard as he dropped his head forwards and a shudder ran through his frame: both from the pulse that went through his body as well as the shock of what had just occurred. "I could not... see what happened. I only sensed thy panic... it seems that the echoing corruption is capable of barring our link."
"I don't like this." the male muttered, and Luna smiled at him faintly before they quietly nuzzled one-another, then stepped closer and embraced tightly, the earth pony sighing softly. "I'm sorry. It's my fault that the place collapsed and my fault that we lost access to the composite. I panicked."
"Fear not, Scrivener Blooms, we need only reach the bottom levels of the facility... and 'twill be a much easier task, especially with my mood so soured." Luna said mildly, and then her horn began to glow as she turned to look at the structure, saying distastefully: "I never much cared for such large and ominous structures, after all."
And with that, Luna flicked her horn and sent a blue fireball rocketing into the front of the building, and it exploded in a sapphire burst that began to greedily spread flames over the collapsed structure, the winged unicorn looking pleased with herself as Scrivener stared before she huffed and waved a hoof grouchily. "Oh, think not so badly of me! It will burn quickly to the ground, and then we shall easily be able to find our way to the basements with that death-trap out of the way. Furthermore, it sits on the outskirts, with debris of metal wall to its back and nothing else nearby... and 'tis not like it matters even should a wildfire occur, in this damaged world."
"That's... not the point, Luna, the point is more that you don't just set buildings on fire because they're in the way." Scrivener said flatly, and Luna snorted at this and shoved at him, the earth pony grumbling before he shoved back at her before they both winced and looked up as a large section of the building collapsed beneath the inferno now surging hungrily over it, black smoke rising high into the air. "This better not attract Hellhounds."
"Hellhounds fear fire. Besides, their kind hunts near the Gray Mountains, where the world is cold and warped." Luna muttered, and she shook her head slowly before she said softly: "Come, Scrivener. By the time we dig up a serviceable wagon from Ponyville, these ruins should be nothing but ashes and cinders."
Yet the two lingered for a few moments all the same, watching the building burn and black smoke rise into the air, leaning against each other as Scrivener closed his eyes and Luna silently wrapped a foreleg around him, the brilliant, destructive flames reflected in her dark cyan irises.
Scrivy and Luna were both covered with dirt and filth and sweat, a carriage filled with gemstones, salvaged wagon parts, and several large metal containers of sealed composite held up by several large sawhorses in their front yard. It was in an ugly state: the yellowed paint indicated it had probably once been an enclosed taxi carriage, but the walls had mostly rotted and would need to be replaced, and it had been a miserable pain dragging the carriage back as it had limped along on three wheels, one of which was cracked and misshapen.
They had removed the wheels from the carriage, replaced the axle completely, and were currently fitting large, studded steel wheels in place of the old wooden ones: these would likely melt as they passed over the Bifrost, since very few inorganic substances seemed capable of surviving the crazed pulses of energy that the rainbow bridge emitted. Living things seemed to be able to handle it without nearly as much trouble... and Pales were energized by the run, their strength restored, almost brought into physical being by the surges of power.
Scrivener wheezed a bit as he finished tightening the last wheel on his side, while Luna grimaced and shook her mane out, ashes floating up from her body: after enough of the facility had been burned down and destroyed, she had hit it with a hurricane-force gust that had sent rubble and ruin scattering backwards and snuffed out the remaining flames. They had wandered into the remains of the burnt-out building... and Luna had fallen through the weakened floor, making Scrivener grin and laugh at the fact that for once, he hadn't been on the short end of the stick.
For obvious reasons, this had put Luna in a less-than-pleased mood, but the basements had been in surprisingly-good shape and it had been easy to find the storage safe. They had found plenty of the composite they needed... the composite that Luna was still for some reason so sure would provide the extra armor their wagon would require.
The winged unicorn smiled a bit as she stepped around the front of the wagon, asking mildly: "And precisely why art thou so convinced that mine warrior instincts cannot be correct in this regard, as they have been in all other things? Be not so foolish, poet, thou should know I am not without my reasons, 'tis no simple fancy."
"Then maybe I'm just being a grouchy fool." Scrivener smiled a bit despite himself, looking quietly at her as she gazed back, before he added softly: "It was nice of you to send Pinkamena and Pollen out on that little scouting trip together. I think they both like being helpful. And maybe this is just my monster fetish talking but I do think we can trust Pollen."
"I don't think it's just the fact that thou enjoys the presence of the freakish, 'tis also the fact that Pollen is more harmless than Ross. Possibly much more foolish as well, whatever the appearances may have been." Luna added meditatively, and Scrivy rolled his eyes but smiled despite himself before Luna glanced over the wagon, then grumbled and looked irritably down at herself. "Come, enough of this. We have much to do, anyway... an exploration to plan. We can leave much of the rest of the work of repairing this wagon to our ghostly pet and our awkward Velite... I-know-not-what whilst we go upon our trip, anyway. 'Tis good that at least the creature will be able to take care of Bob, as well, for I fear what would happen were he left in Pinkamena's hooves... doubtlessly, at some point, the abject creature would end up in Pinkamena's teeth. Then where would I find another beast of chaos to torment so, I ask thee?"
"This is why I love you, Luna, you're always thinking about others." Scrivener said mildly, turning around, and the winged unicorn laughed before she quickly jogged around the wagon to fall into pace beside him as they both smiled and headed along the side of their home. "So you really... think..."
"I know, Scrivy. I know how it sounds. I know that all things considered, 'tis also not the wisest course of action... but I have never been all that wise." Luna smiled despite herself, nudging him gently with her shoulder, and Scrivener gave her an amused look as they stepped into the backyard and headed towards their natural hot-tub. "Yet all the same, beloved, I do not fear what may come of this, and I do not fear what we shall be faced with. Instead, I invite it, with open embrace. And although we will be heading into an area rife with danger..."
Luna halted, looking thoughtfully down into the water: today, the hot tub seemed placid and calm, but when the female leaned forwards, she could feel the heat emanating clearly out of it... and she smiled a bit before glancing towards Scrivy, saying quietly: "I do not enjoy the idea of heading back towards that accursed place that caused us so much misery and loss, that ended up being the great, dark root of evil, and I know it will hurt us both. But I have also learned that we must cease to flee not just from our darkness, but also from what we fear. We must face this with courage... and remember that there are souls there, being led astray by a false and cruel hope of finding escape from this apocalypse-riddled world."
Scrivener nodded slowly, rubbing at his face gently before he asked distastefully: "But we don't have to save Bramblethorn, right?"
"Nay, Scrivy, there are certain souls who gave up their second chance before they had even lost their first." Luna replied grimly, then she stepped forwards and slipped into the water, sighing after a moment in relief as steam rose up quietly around her and she sank slowly downwards, water whispering up through the sparkling, starry mane. "But enough of that. Get in the water, Scrivener Blooms, 'tis time for a refreshing bath after a long day."
The male rolled his eyes, but he stepped carefully over the edge and into the tub, sinking down into the hot water and feeling the soothing heat relaxing his muscles, tingling against his scrapes and cuts as he and Luna rested against one another. They both smiled a bit, pressing their sides together, and then the winged unicorn turned towards him and grasped his head gently, shoving him lightly down and making him roll his eyes even as he allowed her to dunk him beneath the water.
He straightened after a moment with a grumble, but Luna only gave him an entertained look, her own soaked ephemeral mane glowing faintly as it twisted and swirled back behind her. "Thou art a mess, Scrivener Blooms."
"You've still got some ashes on your face." Scrivy replied mildly without looking around, and Luna scowled at him and dunked his head again, and he surfaced with a half-splutter, half-laugh before wincing as she began to vigorously work her hooves through his mane and over his scalp. "Luna, my head is not dough!"
"I would argue that." Luna grumbled, and Scrivener huffed a bit, crossing his front limbs as the winged unicorn continued to roughly massage along his head and work through his faintly-glowing white locks. "Perhaps at some point we shall find some shampoo. Or soap. Or perhaps only some stones, treated with herbs or scented oils or crushed flower petals, they work just as well."
"Luna, this isn't the dark ages. Pun intended." Scrivener replied dryly, and then he winced when Luna dunked him again before mumbling to himself beneath the hot water, eyes tightly shut as the winged unicorn held him under the surface while she continued to massage along his scalp and through his mane, before she finally let him raise his head out of the water with a cough after almost thirty seconds, wheezing: "You know if I drown, you'll die too, right?"
"Oh silence, Scrivener Blooms, be not so insufferable. I shan't let thee drown in a tub. Besides, if I do one day decide to kill thee, there are many far-more-appealing options, such as tossing thee into a volcano or perhaps feeding thee to one of the mutant dragons that lurk in the darker bogs of this fetid world." Luna grumbled, and then she suddenly leaned away and turned around, raising her head imperiously. "Now, take pains in washing my mane, Scrivener Blooms. 'Tis relatively self-cleaning but I must take pains to ensure I look my best whilst I terrorize and annihilate my enemies, after all."
Scrivener rolled his eyes, but he began to lightly massage along her scalp and work his hooves gently through her mane all the same, gazing down at her with quiet entertainment as he felt her ephemeral locks humming gently against him as he murmured softly: "You're such a princess sometimes, you know that?"
"Call me not that, Scrivener Blooms, or I shall shove my horn up thy nose." Luna threatened grumpily, and Scrivy smiled despite himself. Luna relaxed beneath his ministrations, sinking backwards as he rubbed and massaged along her scalp, and her eyes slipped closed as she sank deeper into the water with a mumble of: "Some days, though, 'tis nice to be treated as if I was not made of thorns and nightshade... I imagine this must be what little fillies enjoy and dream of. I wonder if Celestia ever partook of this... but she was always particularly-fussy over her appearance."
"Luna, compared to you, Nibelung can be fussy about their appearance. Usually you won't have a bath until you reek like the barrens and you're covered in blood or some other horrible substance." Scrivener grumbled, and Luna shrugged disdainfully with a huff. "Even I have better hygiene than you."
The winged unicorn looked amused at this, saying dryly: "Only because thou has such effeminate habits. Sometimes I think thou should have been a mare."
"And just as often, I think you should have probably been a stallion." Scrivener replied dryly, but the winged unicorn only laughed at this, grinning amusedly up at him as her eyes half-lidded, and Scrivy winced despite himself as he leaned backwards. "Please stop purposefully twisting my words."
"I twist nothing, thou says what thou says and thou means what thou means." Luna replied comfortably, and then she took a breath before allowing Scrivener to push her head under the water... before she fidgeted beneath the liquid when one of the male's hooves flicked her horn before rubbing along it lightly, and she surfaced a moment later with a glare over her shoulder. "Cease that."
"Please, I don't have to be an over-analytical poet to make snide remarks about the imagery of you plunging your horn into things." Scrivener retorted, and then he winced when she threw an elbow hard back into his chest, making him cringe a bit even as the same faint twist of pain went through her own body. "You're evil."
"Yes." Luna said simply, and then she turned around, pinning him back against the wall of the tub and leaning forwards to kiss him firmly for a few moments, and Scrivener kissed her slowly back before she grinned and half-lidded her eyes, drawing back slightly. "Shall I prove to thee that I am most assuredly a mare, and a mare whom is ample feminine enough at that?"
Scrivener couldn't help but grin back as he grasped her sides gently, leaning towards her and remarking mildly: "Luna, I don't know if we can act like teenagers forever. Especially not when we're supposed to be responsible and-"
Luna simply pressed a hoof to his lips with a wink... and twenty minutes later, the two were climbing out of the tub, both looking much-more relaxed as Luna flicked her horn towards him and a warm, drying wind blew past, both ponies closing their eyes before the winged unicorn murmured softly, as the last of the breeze passed: "I want a foal, Scrivy. I badly, badly, badly desire a foal. And while the death of this world fills me with sadness, knowing that this pilgrimage we make now may be our last great harvest... knowing that soon, perhaps within months, we shall be moving to the Looking Glass World, to put together the last pieces of this great puzzle... it fills me with joy and hope."
She glanced towards him with a blush, her mane sizzling quietly around her as she said quietly: "We are going to have a child, Scrivener Blooms. A foal. And while I worry about what will become of this... while sometimes I fear that we will not be good parents... it is all I think about. And think not I do not see into thy mind, both thy apprehensions as well as thine own eagerness..."
She stepped towards him as Scrivener smiled a little at her, meeting his eyes as she reached up and said firmly: "Thou shalt be an incredible father. And... I shall be a good mother, nay, an excellent mother. This is something to look forwards to, to take pride in. We will have it, Scrivener Blooms. We will achieve this."
Scrivy nodded to her, gazing into her eyes as she looked back into his... and then Luna laughed a bit and shook her head, turning towards the back door and smiling to herself as she added easily over her shoulder: "And besides, even should I give birth to some awful monster of darkness, I am sure it will be as adorable as me and as implacable as thou art, making it a perfect fit for our strange little family."
The earth pony sighed and rolled his eyes, following behind her as he shook his head and said dryly: "Only you would joke about that, Luna. I swear there's something seriously wrong with your head."
"Perhaps." Luna only shrugged as she opened the door, however, still looking serene as she stepped sideways and let Scrivy stride past, kissing his cheek as he walked by. He laughed at this, and she shut the door loudly with a grin at him, adding quietly: "The future is bright, Scrivener Blooms. The near future is harsh, aye, and terrifying... but beyond that, the world is bright. And I intend to ensure we both push through to that beautiful world together, one way or another."
Scrivener Blooms smiled over his shoulder at her, then he glanced towards Discombobulation's vial... and he leaned forwards curiously as he saw the Draconequus was now sitting complacently at the bottom of the bottle, the Ambrosia completely gone. The Ginnungagap entity looked up as Scrivener leaned down, and then he gave a small wave before miming a drinking motion.
"Water?" Scrivy asked curiously, and Bob nodded almost solemnly before the male shrugged. Before he could turn, however, he heard the fridge open and then slam shut, and Luna walked over with a grin... and Scrivener winced at the loud crack of a can of cola popping open as it floated eerily above her head. "Luna, wait!"
"Oh shush, 'tis watery enough!" Luna retorted, Bob's vial glowing blue before the cork popped off the top of it, and Discombobulation looked dumbly up before he flailed wildly as Luna poured cola into the bottle, Scrivener grinding his teeth together loudly as he stared in horror as she filled the vial almost halfway up before firmly plugging the cork back into place, leaving Discombobulation flailing wildly around in the foaming cola.
"You probably never had a pet, did you? Or, I'm guessing, even a plant." Scrivener said dryly, and Luna huffed and looked at him sourly. "So alright. Even if Bob doesn't drown, develop diabetes, or worst of all go on the worst sugar rush in existence, we're still going to have to sit down and have a little talk about taking care of things. Especially if you really do want to have a foal."
"Scrivener Blooms! I am appalled, I know full well that if I were to give a foal a cola, 'twould have to be delivered in a bottle, not drowning the child in it." Luna retorted, and Scrivener dropped his face against a hoof as she huffed and added grouchily: "Bah, ponies are too concerned about 'healthy this' and 'nutritious that.' Our child shall be raised perfectly fine and grow up strong and happy without all these gimmicks and worries."
The earth pony sighed a little, then he looked towards where Discombobulation had managed to shove an island of foam together and was now sitting on top of it, shivering and hugging himself. He glared pointedly out at them, but Scrivy only looked flatly at Luna, who huffed and sipped at the cola that remained in the can as she corked the vial closed and said pointedly: "I could have drowned the fool in far worse things, thou both knows. In any event, Bob, why art thou so eager to submerge thyself in liquid?"
Bob glared at them at this, and then he flicked a hand, and a message rapidly scrawled itself over the bottle, Scrivener reading dryly: "'I was thirsty. I asked for water, not Waterworld.' You know, we should probably find something better than a bottle, too..."
Luna grumbled a bit at this, and Bob made a face, raising a hand and tilting it back and forth before the Draconequus sighed as he sat moodily down on his island, the message erasing itself from the vial... but even the small strain on the chimerical creature seemed to leave him drained. He paused moodily, then reached out and scooped up a handful of cola, surveying it suspiciously before he took a drink of it... and then shrugged a bit and laid back on his island of foam, seeming a bit less resentful.
The two ponies glanced at each other, and then they both simply made their way to the den... but instead of taking their usual spot at the bedding, they instead headed towards Scrivy's desk as the winged unicorn smiled a little, saying quietly: "If we travel by wing as well as hoof, we should be able to reach the bitter north in half the time, perhaps even less. And even if we travel only by hard march... we shall only have to break when we feel it necessary to rest, and we shan't have to keep to a slow pace. Besides, 'tis not like we have not journeyed northwards before..."
"Yeah, I remember. But we've never gone further than Snow Saddle, Luna..." Scrivy quieted, glancing down and shaking his head slowly as he said softly: "We were only lucky that... everypony was drawn back here. It's like after they died... they all marched back together. Ponyville... that sense of home, it must have drawn them all back. And we were so lucky that they... they never blamed us."
"We were. We are. Aye, maybe in ways we are cursed... but in others, we are blessed with miracles beyond comprehension." Luna said softly, lowering her head and nodding slowly... and then she smiled faintly, glancing up and reaching up to touch Scrivener's shoulder gently as her horn glowed, papers and scrolls and other messy contents over the desk taking on a soft sheen as they quickly and neatly arranged themselves before a large map laid itself out, and blank parchment, a jar of ink, and a beautiful white feather quill settled on top of this. "Come, Scrivener Blooms. Let us plan."
Scrivener laughed a bit and nodded after a moment, quietly picking up the quill and studying it, smiling a little before he glanced towards Luna. "Do you think Celestia ever knew how much it meant to me that she gave me this, just like you gave me one of yours?"
"Nay, so speak not of it, for I shall become jealous." Luna replied kindly, hitting him gently in the back of the head, and Scrivy laughed despite himself as he shook his own before dipping the quill into the jar of ink and leaning forwards, beginning to write a quick series of notes and plans, his thoughts mixing with the winged unicorn's own as she leaned over him and kissed his temple gently.
Luna gazed down as he worked, studying both the notes and the map beside the parchment with a thoughtful look on her face, rubbing quietly against the underside of her muzzle... and then she murmured quietly: "We could perhaps take a different route, Scrivy. If we fly, we can go over the mountains and around Canterlot and the dangerous, imprisoning peaks. The only thing that makes me wary of long periods of flight, however, is should The Stampede put in an appearance, or other wicked entities that have made the broken skies their home. It would let us move with great speed, however... and more importantly, let us avoid the dangers posed by many places over the earth."
"I hate flying. Hell, you hate flying, too." Scrivener muttered, and Luna shrugged a bit, touching his shoulder softly, and he smiled a little. "I know, Luna, I know, it's not just about our comfort... it's also about what's 'tactically sound' or in less-fancy terms, what'll get us there fastest with as little danger as possible."
"Well, perhaps not as little danger as possible. There must always be some risk and danger to any adventure, especially if they involve us." Luna replied softly with a slight smile, and Scrivener laughed quietly and nodded despite himself, giving her an entertained look. "And I think it best that we fly over the Northedge Strait... Charger's Crossing has long collapsed, after all, and the ice of that frozen river is treacherous and prone to shatter at any moment, no matter how solid it may seem."
Scrivener Blooms grunted, rubbing absently at the underside of his muzzle before he asked quietly: "And what about the Black Wolves of Hell? Fenrir dens in the north, Luna... the alpha, the leader. We do everything we can to avoid those creatures, and so does almost everything else, living or dead... only the insane or those looking for oblivion go to those monsters. The only reason we've been able to avoid them for so long is because they destroyed the world already... and then settled down in their individual territories."
The winged unicorn nodded, saying quietly: "Aye, I know what thou art getting at. We will be invading Fenrir's territory..." Luna closed her eyes, and then she shook her head and muttered: "But I would almost welcome a battle with the wolf, Scrivener Bloom. The monster killed my siblings and my beloved Twilight... and even in this chaotic world, I can still raise the moon when I please... and the eclipse may yet still be the key to destroying those monstrosities."
Scrivener nodded slowly, grimacing a bit as he rubbed slowly at his face. "I don't know what bothers me more, Luna. What you'd make those monsters do to themselves if the eclipse really did permit you to control them completely, or the fact that you'd much prefer to rip them apart one-on-one without any 'fancy tricks,' as you phrase it."
Luna snorted in bittersweet entertainment, grinning moodily at Scrivener as she rested against him. "And what, does thou not believe in my fighting prowess, supplied further by mine rage? Aye, Fenrir felled my brother, but we had no idea of what we faced back in those days... days long ago, before Celestia and I truly understand who we were, and what we were capable of, I must add. I do not fear barking beasts, not any longer, not with the other evils we have faced... I would welcome a chance to test my mettle against scarred and ugly Fenrir, and even more a chance to put the beast back into the grave he never should have been dug out of."
Luna fell quiet, looking down and shaking her head slowly before she closed her eyes, leaning forwards and resting her head against Scrivener's as the male smiled faintly, closing his own irises... and in the silence, thoughts spun back and forth between them before Luna sighed a bit as there was a banging at the door before it opened, giving Scrivener a quick, quiet kiss before she leaned into the corridor and looked meditatively down it.
Pollen and Pinkamena were back, the Velite with a saddlebag strapped over its body and Pinkamena possessing her marionette, the puppet saying distastefully: "Ran into some Haunts, and Pollen here decided to try and talk to them. Otherwise, it's clear out there... puddles of corruption here and there, the usual weird flora and fauna that crops up randomly, and there's a few more cracks and a little more snow, but that's it. Not too many Pales around, even."
Pinkamena shoved Pollen rudely ahead of her, the Velite wincing as she staggered forwards before the mare stumbled into the room and half-fell as she sat heavily on her haunches, wheezing a bit as Pinkamena shoved her face over the desk... then grumbled when Scrivener slowly pushed her backwards, saying mildly: "Personal space, Pinkamena."
"Did thou find anything of interest?" Luna glanced towards Pollen, but the skeleton only mumbled embarrassedly as she yanked the saddlebag off, then opened it to reveal a collection of bones as well as few gemstones and two large knives, and Luna grimaced a little. "Disturbing, thou seems to be more into the lifestyle of the Velites than thou let on, Pollen. Unless of course those belong to Pinkamena, that is."
"Well, any Velite can whittle some runes into some bones and then attach them to replace the ones that have broken off..." Pollen began embarrassedly, and then she gestured at herself, her bones damaged and yellowed. "It's not like I can give life or trap souls or anything. But unfortunately, whether I like this or not, I kind of need to attach... new bones every now and then. These are mostly Velite leftovers, though... the knives are for the... Pinkamena."
"Half-demon, piano. I'm a half-demon, but some days they swear I'm a lot more like a full demon." Pinkamena grinned, and it wasn't just the shape of her puppet jaw that made it look so dangerous, as the Velite shrank back a little. "And don't you worry, Luna, the knives are mine, that's true. I needed some new ones after I broke the last set I had off in that pesky basilisk that kept coming by."
Luna sighed and rolled her eyes, and Scrivener glanced moodily from one to the other before he said finally: "We're a very strange little family."
Pollen glanced up at this with a dumb giggle, and Pinkamena sighed and rolled her eyes before she said in an irritable voice over her shoulder: "He didn't include you, bones-for-brains. And if he did, it was in the position of pet rock. So shut your face before I rip your jawbone off, and sit nice and quiet-like in the corner. If I need you to bludgeon something with, I'll whistle."
"It seems to me, Scrivener Blooms, that our current undead child dislikes the idea of a new infant in the household." Luna remarked, and Scrivener snorted in entertainment, glancing towards her with amusement as Pollen looked awkward and Pinkamena shot her an undoubtedly-sour look, the puppet's body perhaps even hinting at a bit of embarrassment. "Well, worry not, Pinkamena, for even in Looking Glass World thou will be welcome at our side. 'Tis only for now that we require Pollen to act as babysitter. In life reborn, she will be able to return to her own old life, after all."
"The Gardens at Meadowmane. I miss that place." Pollen rubbed quietly at her jaw, then she shook her head and laughed a bit as she rested back, before wincing a little at the glare Pinkamena gave her with her gemstone eyes. "What... what do you miss, Pinkamena?"
"Nothing. This is my kinda world." Pinkamena said moodily, and then she turned and stormed off towards the bedroom, adding loudly: "I'm putting my goddamn body away and then having a snack. Scrivener, think nasty thoughts, I'm in the mood for something with a little spice."
Scrivy sighed and rolled his eyes at this, rubbing slowly at a temple, but Luna only kissed the other side of his head gently, saying softly: "Worry not, Scrivener Blooms. Besides, I know not for how long we shall be gone... which brings me, Pollen, to a point I wish to discuss with thee. I am normally not so trusting of others, but I am unfortunately in an awkward position at this point and time, and Pinkamena and Discombobulation will both require... company, so to speak. Perhaps even a babysitter. And if thou wishes to stay here, thou must be ready to look after them and aid with certain chores."
As she spoke, Pinkamena floated eerily through the wall and glared balefully down at them, and Scrivener winced a bit as the Velite looked awkwardly up, rubbing slowly at her face and mumbling: "I... really don't have much of a choice, do I? But how am I supposed to... I mean... no offense..."
Pinkamena grinned like a shark, and the skeleton's head shrunk back between its shoulders as Luna only rolled her eyes, giving the half-demon Pale a flat look before it sniffed disdainfully and burst apart into black smoke, rushing downwards and making Scrivy wince as he felt the half-demon slipping her way into his mind as her voice muttered: I'll behave while you're gone, don't worry. You don't need to leave a goddamn babysitter.
"It's alright, Pollen, Pinkamena is kinder than she seems. Or at least, she listens more than she seems to." Luna replied mildly, glancing towards Scrivy, and the male grunted and nodded after a moment as he felt the faint, tickling numbness of the half-demon feeding off his mind and memories, of her sampling and dredging through passions, desires, and dreams. He could feel her clearer than before, and knew she was delving deeper, digging with curiosity towards the darker depths of his psyche... and the male couldn't help but wince a little as she gave a quiet laugh in his head and whispered: Oh, don't hide the good stuff away. If you and Luna are going to be gone for a while, I need to make sure I've eaten plenty to stay strong and healthy... and like I said, I'm in the mood for the chili of the mental world, so gimme some passion, some anger, and burn me alive...
Scrivener mumbled something under his breath, and Pollen looked nervously towards him before Luna shook her head and said quietly: "Worry not. Pinkamena is a half-demon... and to keep her spiritual self alive, she must feed off emotion and memory. It is... uncomfortable... but so long as she keeps herself civilized, she does not warp or destroy as a full demon would. Nor can she possess thee, thou art in no danger there."
Pollen nodded slowly, and then she sat back as Scrivener looked up, saying softly: "Luna and I are more than willing to let you stay here. This cottage is safe... Luna will charge the magic wards before we leave, and even if Nibelung raiders attack you'll be able to safely hide out inside and Pinkamena can kill pretty much anything."
Thank you, Scrivy. See, this is why I like you. You respect me and my talents. Pinkamena said mildly inside his brain, and the earth pony glowered moodily at the ceiling as Luna gave him a flat look, and then the charcoal equine winced as he caught a vision of Pinkamena lounging in her strange little hidey-hole in his mind, grinning as she pieced together a model of a snarling Tyrant Wyrm. I respect you, you know. I admire you even. And I don't think you should be ashamed of what you have the potential to become, and the destruction you could unleash. Destruction and death are necessary, after all... sissy taught me that. Because if I had only been killing and slaughtering faster, she would have lived a little longer.
She fell moodily silent, and Scrivener's vision returned to normal as Pollen nervously voiced a question... but both the other ponies only looked at her dumbly before Luna smiled awkwardly and said finally: "Apologies. We were both... distracted for the moment. What was it thou asked?"
"Just about the wagon... you said something before about us helping with it, fixing it up while you were gone?" the skeleton said tentatively, and when Luna nodded and grunted, the Velite rubbed awkwardly at her face. "I really... don't know all that much about... fixing things..."
"If thou can fix thyself, thou can do this simple task. Once Scrivy and I have rested a little more and finished our planning, we shall return outside and finish the brunt of the work... most of what thou will have to do is paint the composite we have gathered over the gemstones, 'twill not be a difficult work for thou or Pinkamena because neither of thee will have to take great caution to avoid splattering thyselves with the strange material. Cowlick truly was a genius to have created this..." Luna shook her head, smiling faintly as she murmured softly: "'Tis only too bad that for all the lives I am sure it saved, our enemies proved too great for any shield to deflect, any armor to stop."
Then she looked up, shaking her head briskly and adding quietly: "But thou shan't encounter great difficulties, Pollen, worry not. The gemstones are pre-cut, and we have plenty of the adhesive by which to attach them. Pinkamena can attend to the finer details with ease and thou need merely follow her lead, the creature is bizarrely-good with such endeavors."
Pollen still looked unconvinced, but she sighed and nodded, saying apprehensively: "Alright. It's not that I'm ungrateful, I just... don't want to mess up or anything. And I'm kind of worried about this whole... Bifrost business. You keep saying you're going to have to smash me to pieces..."
"To free thy soul, I must exorcise thy bones and burn the remains... but 'twill not be for a while yet, worry not about it, and thou will be no less dead - or perhaps I should say alive - than thou art now, just lacking a vessel. Thou will be a Pale... but not for long, if things go as I hope they will." Luna replied quietly, nodding slowly, and the Velite mumbled a bit as she looked quietly down into the bag of bones. "Rest for now, Pollen. Go about thy business and worry not for us, we have seen and done worse than healed our injuries."
The skeleton glanced awkwardly up, then smiled a little before nodding silently and looking back down, looking embarrassed as she began to fiddle through the bag of bones, gemstones, and knives... but Scrivy and Luna turned their attention back to the map, the male beginning to work on the itinerary again as Luna traced out routes here and there over the map with her hoof, remarking quietly every now and then on locations they had visited before, or the types of creatures they knew nested or prowled in the area.
Canterlot, for example, had almost entirely collapsed: the city that was left behind was inhabited by Haunts and more hostile, zombie-like brethren, and throughout the Castle lurked worse abominations and miserable souls that cried out for justice, for daylight, for Celestia to save them from the darkness that had consumed the world. They were damned, wretched souls that desired salvation in one form, and one form alone: the coming of the radiant sun, of maternal Celestia, to tuck them in and give them back their precious, selfish, perfect lives.
Not that Luna could entirely blame them all... they didn't know how perfect life had been at the castle, how easy and good things were until too late... and the worship and almost-servility that was bred into so many of these sycophantic ponies meant they looked up to Celestia as leader, as harbinger of dawn in metaphorical as well as literal ways, as the only thing that could save them... never believing, even now, that she could be dead and gone.
Scrivener Blooms smiled faintly as he tapped the quill quietly against the paper, leaving faint black dots along the margin as he studied the feather silently... then he shook his head and glanced towards Luna as her ephemeral locks swirled slowly backwards, her own cyan eyes sorrowful and a little distant as she murmured: "Aye, but to dwell on it... will serve us no good and no purpose. Let us instead remember that in the future, much of what we have lost will be given back, in one form or another. Let us strive to be thankful, Scrivy... difficult as I know that is for a pessimist such as thou art."
Scrivy laughed a bit despite himself, shaking his head before he smiled a little. "Alright, alright, Luna, I'll do my best to, anyway. I've just never been very good at that, as you well know yourself. But do you really..."
"There is no time like the present, Scrivy." Luna replied softly, nodding to him firmly, and Scrivener looked at her thoughtfully as he leaned back in the chair, before the winged unicorn glanced towards Pollen as the skeleton looked embarrassedly up from where she was fitting a new rear leg into place, her old one laying discarded and cracked. "My husband and I have decided that we shall leave likely within twelve hours. More than ample time for he and I to regain what little strength we have spent, to calm ourselves, and to do the major work on the wagon. I am extending an immoderate amount of trust to thee, Pollen, does thou understand? Thou art a Velite and a stranger and all the same, I am leaving thee here in the care of my home, and to care for Pinkamena and Discombobulation. And worry not, 'tis not betrayal I fear from thee, 'tis some other terrible screwup."
"Oh, that. That helps my self-esteem a lot, thank you." Pollen mumbled, grabbing at her skull, and then she sighed a little and nodded, saying finally: "And I really do honestly appreciate it, Luna. I really honestly really do, you and Scrivy I know are... going out of your way for me, really. But I'm also really, really determined to do the very best I can, and even though I'm worried, I promise you guys I'm not going to mess this up."
Luna looked moodily at the Velite for a few moments... but then she nodded slowly and said softly: "Then I shall give thee the benefit of the doubt, or at least as much as I can manage. We shall be several days, possibly longer, depending upon how fast we march and what we encounter... but as we make our way back to where the Bifrost can be summoned, with Pales in tow, we shall send a letter to thee giving thee an estimation of our arrival and where to meet us. Thou shalt bring Discombobulation and the loaded wagon... and aye, worry not, we shall load the wagon before we leave."
Luna paused meditatively, then she looked at the skeleton and said softly: "Finally, not to worry thee... but I know not how a Velite will hold up through the energy surges of the Bifrost. Thou treads the thin line between 'organic' and 'construct...' and whilst the Pales are energized by these energies, thou art not... not a natural creature. Thou art held together much by ancient magic and ritual... it may be painful for thee to pass over the rainbow bridge. But rest assured, one way or another, thou wilt pass over it, I just do not wish to leave thee with the illusion that 'twill be a merry path."
Pollen winced a bit, but she nodded after a moment and rubbed at her head, mumbling to herself before Luna glanced at Scrivy with a small smile, saying quietly: "And now, daydreamer, let us be off to work a little on the wagon and permit the labor to relax us. We should have materials enough to replace the damaged sides of the wagon, and the rest we can scrounge... from here."
Luna glanced quietly up at the ceiling of their home, and Scrivener smiled faintly: their little cottage, after all, was made mostly of cut and polished ironwood that had withstood the tests of time and the apocalypse itself, thanks not just to magic, but the care and effort they had put into making this place, building from the ground up what had been their home for so many years now. The winged unicorn smiled as well after a moment, however, glancing towards the male and murmuring softly: "Well, 'tis only right that we bring a little of our home with us, is that not so? We shall tear up the deck, should be more than sufficient to give us the last of what we need and solidify the wagon's floor... and this reminds me, Pollen, thou must not forget to layer the gemstones over the underbelly of the wagon as well. Every possible inch that can be covered must be covered... with Pinkamena's help, it should be an easier task than it sounds."
Pollen, however, only gazed at them softly for a few moments, before the Velite asked finally: "This may sound weird... but what do you two plan to do when you're... when things are back to normal? I mean, won't everypony remember... what happened? Won't we bear memories of our time spent as... Pales and... other things? When you two talk, I dunno, it sounds like... you plan to stay in exile."
Luna and Scrivener exchanged a quiet look... and then the winged unicorn smiled faintly, meeting the softly-burning eyes of the skeleton and saying gently: "Exile is not a place, Pollen. Exile is a state of being... but those are all questions that can only be answered in the future, although aye, Scrivener Blooms and I make no plans to... move out of the wilds. We have been building a home in Looking Glass Equestria with our own hooves, during our short visits to that world... and as always 'twas for us, we shall be outside society. 'Tis where we belong, Pollen. 'Tis where we must be. And as the blocks fall where they will around us when the future comes, we shall find our place, whether it is to take the blame for Ragnarok, to serve as protectors of the world, or to allow the new lives of the ponies of Equestria to replace the old entirely."
She fell silent, and Pollen looked quietly from Scrivener to Luna before the two ponies smiled at each other, silently taking one-another's hoof for a moment as their eyes met, and Scrivener said softly: "But it's not so bad... because at the end of the day, Pollen, Luna and I always have each other. And no matter what, that makes even living the life of an exile, of the forsaken, even of the forgotten... it makes it okay."
The Velite looked at them quietly as she rested back, obviously not knowing what to say... but Luna and Scrivy spared her the trouble, both smiling to her before they headed down the corridor and towards the front door, calm and peaceful despite the uncertainties of the future and the pilgrimage to the cold north they were about to embark upon. |
Metempsychosis | Setting Out | Chapter Nine: Setting Out
~BlackRoseRaven
"That's the last of it." Scrivener glanced over his shoulder towards Luna as he carefully fitted a painting wrapped in several layers of thick cloth into the back of the repaired wagon: they had simply gutted the interior and broken down much of the frame to replace it with the squat, rectangular body that now made it up. It was smaller and left them less room, but Luna and Scrivener had long ago figured out the short list of things they wanted to bring with them to Looking Glass World when the time came for it, and they had few possessions that were irreplaceable that hadn't already been moved.
As it was, the ironwood-fortified wagon would likely make it across the Bifrost. The heavy-duty Pegasus Guard wagons they had found in the ruins of Canterlot, after all, usually lasted two, even three trips back and forth before the armored wagons became so brittle that a simple knock against them would cause their surfaces to crack apart like cheap porcelain. But neither of them wanted to take the chance that the ironwood could be eaten through, letting enough of the powerful energies of the Bifrost into the interior of the carriage that these few material possessions that held such meaning to them would be destroyed.
The paintings of Scrivener Blooms, Twilight Sparkle, Scarlet Sage and others, books and sketchbooks and notepads, an odd collection of quills and fancy ink jars and a few other odds and ends; these were all things that had been packed into the back of the wagon, all of it wrapped in thick cloth and often insulated further by pillows and cushions. Then Scrivener grimaced a bit as he stepped back, rolling his shoulders absently in his armor... and he smiled despite himself at the way it clung to his frame, at how natural it felt now over his body as he looked towards Luna and said softly: "I remember when I used to complain about this."
"Thou still complains about it, Scrivy. Thou complains about everything, 'tis what thou does." Luna replied with a slight smile, drawing her eyes over him slowly, all the same proud of the way he moved so naturally now in his armor after so many years of learning to stand and fight alongside the winged unicorn. "But thou looks good... if I may say so with perhaps only a touch of pride and self-satisfaction."
Scrivener smiled amusedly at her as he leaned back and posed for a moment: only the heavy helm protecting his head, engraved with the emblem of the ash tree, hadn't been forged by Luna. The rest, from the silver pauldrons that armored his shoulders, engraved with the crescent moon, to the black breastplate over his body, silvery chain mesh along his hindquarters and legs, and the supple dark leather that acted as cushioning between metal and flesh, had all been shaped and pieced together by the powers of the winged unicorn. "You, immodest? Never."
"Thou art a braggart and a fool." Luna smiled amusedly all the same, however, and then she stepped back and rose to her full height, spreading her wings slightly as she rose her head imperiously. "And 'tis done like this, Scrivener Blooms. Thou must be bold!"
Scrivy laughed as she posed, but he drew his eyes admiringly along her body all the same: she was clothed in armor just a tad lighter blue than her body, her helm designed to cradle her tall, spired horn, the layered plates of metal over the thick dragon-scale leather that tightly clothed her body spaced so that her wings could comfortably rest through the slots in the armor. She was beautiful, powerful, alluring... and Scrivener's gaze was both adoring and tender as he drew his eyes along the front of her armor, where she had etched both lunar symbols and a tangle of dark roses, the engraving almost glowing black.
Then Luna leaned forwards with a soft smile as she relaxed, reaching a hoof up and quietly adjusting the new pair of glasses on Scrivener's face, making the male snort in entertainment. "Don't do that, Luna. It's bad enough you insist on recreating them and shoving them on my face every time I lose a pair... I don't need your hoof-prints all over them too. Also, you have a very bad habit of sticking things in my eye."
"Thou has pretty eyes. Like a mare's. 'Tis only the natural course that something should end up being poked into them by their own gravid magnetism." Luna retorted, and Scrivener looked at her blankly, not knowing how to take this statement even with the link they shared. Then Luna huffed and swung a hoof at him, and Scrivy winced as he blocked this with a foreleg before stepping quickly out of range when she attempted to swat him again. "Frustrating creature."
"One day, Luna, you'll be normal. And that will be both a very boring and very happy day, even if I'm sure that the day after you'll be back to your usual insanity." Scrivener said dryly, and Luna rolled her eyes before the two stepped forwards and headbutted one-another lightly, then the male reached up and gently stroked a hoof across her armored breast, the engraved patterning glowing faintly as he felt not only it, but secreted beneath the armor, the black pearl that Luna wore over her heart.
She softened as she drew her eyes over him... and then both winged unicorn and earth pony glanced towards the deconstructed patio, where Pollen and puppet-bodied Pinkamena were pulling up the last of the ironwood boards that made up the front of their cabin. They were working efficiently, Pollen covered in dirt and Pinkamena grumbling as she roughly yanked boards loose, but then piled them neatly and precisely, every now and then straightening out the stack she had formed off to one side.
Pollen, meanwhile, simply tossed the boards aside into a messy heap, and Pinkamena twitched slightly at the clank of every wooden slat against the others, making Scrivener smile despite himself as Luna said mildly: "Children, thine parents are about to leave. Will thou not take a moment from the fun and games to bid us farewell?"
"Fine, if you insist, mother." Pinkamena rolled her head on her shoulders, sounding exasperated as she stood up and then glared over at them with her gemstone eyes, the look remarkably distinct even with her marionette features. "Gee, I sure will miss you and dad while you're out destroying the world and reaping the souls of the dead. Don't worry though, I'll take care of the pet rock and the bottled-up bug, I won't eat or kill either one of them... I'll try and restrict myself to just maybe breaking a few bones here and there."
She shot a look towards the Velite, who winced a bit and held a board up between them like a shield, and Luna sighed and rolled her eyes before her horn glowed blue as she irritably flicked it to the side, Pinkamena wincing as several screws and bolts loudly tore themselves out of her body before two of her limbs fell off and the puppet crumpled on its side with a grumbled curse. "Thou art not nearly as amusing as myself or Scrivener Blooms, Pinkamena. The color of jealousy does not lend itself in flattering ways to thy dead visage."
"So I should just stick with the colors of blood and death, then?" Pinkamena asked sarcastically as she half-rolled onto her stomach with a grumble, reaching out to begin fitting one foreleg back into place as she muttered: "Stupid touchy Nightmare Moon..."
"I'll touch thee back into the grave." Luna grumbled in return, and then she sighed and turned her attention to the Velite, adding dryly: "Worry not, Pollen, Pinkamena will grow more amiable as time passes, I am certain. Thou should be thankful and wary of the fact the creature likes to stick to its word."
The Velite mumbled a little in response to this, then awkwardly reached out as if to help, but Pinkamena only glared at her as she managed to yank a foreleg back into place, the possessed marionette grumbling as the fasteners that held her limb in place twisted themselves slowly back into their holes. "I want you to know you're all worse than sissy ever was."
"Worry not, Pinkamena, 'tis exactly what I always intended." Luna replied dryly, and then her horn glowed when the possessed puppet reached for a bolt that had torn loose, tossing it easily just out of reach, and the half-demon grumbled under her breath. "Well. This has been a rousing sendoff. Scrivener Blooms?"
Scrivy smiled a bit he headed over to the satchel bag they had prepared for the journey, filled with a few implements to aid with Luna's more-complex magic, parchment and ink and a quill, a few good luck charms and several other odds and ends. The weight was almost comfortable as Scrivener slipped it on, and Luna smiled after a moment at him before she glanced towards Pinkamena and Pollen, the puppet sitting grudgingly up on its haunches, the Velite standing and leaning towards them half-anxiously. "Worry not, friends, we shall return as soon as we are able. Finish the fortifications of the wagon, listen to one another, and take care of Discombobulation."
"Yeah, yeah, get going." Pinkamena said rudely, and the two ponies rolled their eyes as the skeleton sitting beside the puppet mumbled awkwardly, but this only made the possessed marionette snort and glare at her. "Fine, pet rock, go ahead and spit it out."
Pollen shuffled a bit, then rose a hoof and said lamely: "Good luck and... I hope things go well. We'll... be here."
"One of us will be, at least." Pinkamena said grouchily, and Scrivener and Luna traded looks, then both sighed at the same time before favoring the puppet with the same flat glare, the possessed marionette grumbling a bit as it flopped backwards. "Whatever. I'm out."
Despite her words, however, the puppet only moodily sat... and Scrivener rolled his eyes as Luna gave a sigh and turned around, saying irritably: "Come then, Scrivy. Before this grows any more theatrical, 'tis time for the march ahead. Perhaps we shall encounter some stupid Nibelung on the way that shall alleviate my sorrows and frustrations."
The two ponies turned as Pollen waved awkwardly at their back and Pinkamena grumbled to herself, and winged unicorn and earth pony both strode across the heavy planks they had laid over the ditch to pull the wagon across, stepping out onto the dusty path through the Empty Forest beyond. And as always, both glanced quietly back over their shoulders once, looking at their ramshackle cabin and the mostly-repaired wagon that stood in front of it, Velite and half-demon both gazing at them still from the ruins of the pulled-apart deck.
Then the two turned forwards again, and Luna smiled a little despite herself as she murmured softly: "We walked this very same path so long ago, Scrivy... I remember so clearly, daydreamer, how much hope we had. The tension, the excitement..."
Scrivener laughed a bit, lowering his head forwards as he said quietly: "Sounds like you remember a little differently than I remember, Luna... I remember a lot of whining and complaining. Mostly from me, of course, but you did a little yourself."
"Aye, perhaps there was that too, but I also remember that in our depths, there was a gladness for the journey... and we did discover so much, didn't we? We found my past, my origin... we made new allies, and new friends. We conquered old enemies and ourselves, and we clawed through the worst of evils that the universe could throw at us and still found a measure of success. Even if we failed too, aye... we all the same also found our shades of victory amidst the grimness and the gloom." Luna hesitated, looking towards Scrivy and murmuring softly: "And I am excited for this journey, even if part of me is saddened that reality has become so damaged, that... our time here is almost over, and we have saved so few lives compared to all that was lost."
"Yes, Luna, but we are saving everypony we can... all the same, we're pushing forwards. We can't let despair and the disappointment of... what happened, and in ourselves, overwhelm us." Scrivener replied quietly, glancing towards Luna, and the female smiled faintly as she nodded slowly. "Now come on. Let's go back to you trying vainly to be optimistic and me being pessimistic. Everything works a lot better that way."
"I am attempting to be optimistic, does thou not listen to the words I so speak?" Luna asked grouchily, and Scrivener snorted in entertainment as he shook his head with an amused look to her. "Silence, knave. Wretched creature, thou art utterly insufferable. 'Tis fortunate I am so fond of thee, 'lest otherwise I would be tempted to leave thee in the middle of the forest for the Phooka to gorge on."
"Now, you and I both know that the Phooka have better things to eat than us." Scrivener replied dryly, and Luna grunted at this and nodded thoughtfully. They both studied each other for a few moments as silence fell between them, sharing thoughts and images and emotions that seemed almost random... and then they both faced ahead even as they slipped instinctively closer at the same time, sides almost pressing together as they strode quietly and calmly past dead, warped trees along rocky, barren earth.
For an hour, they walked in silence... and then both of them looked up as an unearthly shadow flitted across the path in front of them before it halted near the edge of the forest. They both halted, studying this with curiosity as it stared back at them... and despite the strangeness of it, neither of them felt malice or aggression.
It was like a Pale, but instead of white and surrounded by sparkling, incandescent frost, it was deep black, smoke humming softly around it. Its eyes glowed solid ivory, blank and bright and yet not without a sense of intelligence, of emotion that made their rhombus-like shape twist as the large, pony-shaped figure leaned towards them almost expectantly for a moment, pawing a hoof against the ground... and Luna growled at it as she leaned back irritably, asking sharply: "Is that a challenge, creature? Well, I am sorry to disappoint thee, but I have not the time to have another race through the wilderness. My husband and I are heading northwards... thou will have to find other playmates."
The dark equine spirit looked almost disappointed as it shifted in place silently, then it half-turned and whinnied loudly, and a moment later several more dark spirits rushed across the road, seeming to form from thin air as the creature turned and shot into the woods alongside the rest of the group, and Luna shook her head as she muttered: "Strange creatures..."
The pack of dark equines vanished as quickly as they had appeared, and Scrivener and Luna traded a look before they started forwards again, the winged unicorn almost sulking as the male gave her a slight smile, saying mildly: "That was a very grown-up-"
"Shut up, Scrivy." Luna grumbled, and the male couldn't help but throw his head back and laugh, and Luna sighed before complaining loudly: "Well, 'tis incredibly irksome, they are... I know not even what they are! Strange entities, not Nightmare, not Phooka, not demons despite their odd and peculiarly-similar appearances, but they are more physical than the Pales of ponies yet all the same seem perfectly capable of vanishing as they please and move like the fleeting wind! And did thou not see what the creature did? It taunted us! Taunted us! And plainly, we are in no shape for any challenge... 'tis cowardly. That thing, whatever else, is a craven coward, asking for... another foolish race when... when we are obviously too busy for another foolish race. Foolishness."
"I love you." Scrivener said simply, and Luna huffed and headbutted him lightly, making the male snort in entertainment before he added mildly: "Also, you need to stop being so damned competitive about everything. We're living the apocalypse, and your immediate concern every time we see those things goes from 'we need to continue herding souls to Looking Glass World' to 'oh stupid ghosts I'm going to outrace the stupid ghosts and pummel them.'"
"I shall pummel thee if thou continues this." Luna grumbled moodily, and Scrivener laughed and shook his head, then frowned a bit as he caught a glint in the corner of his glasses... and immediately Luna shot a look over her shoulder as the two halted, staring in surprise to see one of the dark specters calmly standing in the road behind them, surveying them curiously. "And what manner of nonsense is this?"
It only continued to calmly look at them, however, and Scrivener and Luna both frowned a bit as they turned slowly around, studying it. It was closer than any of them had ever stood before, watching them without fear, and without malign intent... and this close, they could see it closely resembled an earth pony. But the build was a little different somehow all the same, subtle details that they could see but could not define... and then the creature calmly stepped towards them before bringing a hoof forwards through the dirt and scratching out an image in rapid, easy movements.
The two frowned and stared at the picture it drew for them: two circles, with an arch drawn between them. Then it leaned to the side and drew a quick X through one of the circles, and Scrivener and Luna traded looks before the dark shape patted this circle, then drew its hoof along the archway to the next and tapped it firmly.
Luna and Scrivener looked up at the dark ghost... then they looked at one-another, trading thoughts, ideas, emotions and reasoning in a tumult and immediately settling on one distinct possibility before they both returned their gazes towards the creature, Luna asking slowly: "Thou... perhaps thy whole strange herd... wishes to travel across the Bifrost?"
The thing nodded solemnly... and then, surprisingly, it bowed deep to them... but before Luna or Scrivy could speak, the specter simply vanished from sight, and the two stared at the space it had once occupied before Luna gritted her teeth, then blew a loud raspberry in disgust. "I am not a... a butler, or a... chauffeur between worlds, creature! Thou cannot just order me to do this for thee and then... damnable creature!"
Luna stomped forwards and mashed her hooves violently against the drawing, bludgeoning it into an indecipherable mess, and then she sighed and turned around, saying moodily: "Come, Scrivener Blooms. 'Lest the creature be foolish enough to show its face and we end up losing more time thanks to my need to pummel it roundly."
Scrivy smiled awkwardly as he turned and followed her, even as he felt beneath the anger her swirl of apprehension, mixing with his own suspicious thoughts. After all, they still didn't know what these entities were, nor what it meant that the creature had seemingly asked to cross the Bifrost to the Looking Glass World. It was more questions, more weight, added to the unpredictable future... and neither pony liked the thought of the possibilities that could be laying in wait.
Scrivener Blooms grumbled under his breath as Luna tinkered with his armor, sliding plates back and opening sleeves in the mesh, leaving two almond-shaped openings revealed on his upper back before she said kindly: "Now relax."
"I hate flying." Scrivy muttered... and then he winced as Luna flicked her horn with a grin, and the male arched his back slightly, his body glowing as dark skin pushed outwards, then expanded and spread into large, leathery bat-like wings that flapped once at either side of the male as he wheezed and leaned forwards, saying grouchily: "I really hate how much you enjoy giving me wings, by the way. Both the fact that it stings like hell, especially as my muscles have to limber up and my whole body has to get used to having them every freaking time, and even worse, how much you enjoy dragging me into the air with you."
Luna only grinned, however, and she gestured calmly at the tundra around them, which was speckled with cold, icy frost, the jagged peaks that surrounded the ruins of Canterlot in the distance. "Well, what would thou prefer, Scrivener Blooms? An extended march through demon-infested territory, or a quick, sharp flight that shall hopefully permit us to avoid the worst of the atrocities and simply wing past those few monsters that den in the sky?"
"I also don't like you." Scrivener said finally, and Luna laughed as she shook her head, then watched with a warm smile as the male flapped his wings moodily a few times. "Tyrant Wyrms don't have wings."
"Oh, stop it, Scrivy. Now thou art just being miserable for the sake of misery." Luna scoffed, and then she leaned over and kissed his cheek gently, adding softly: "Now come, handsome daydreamer. Let us take wing."
Scrivener shuffled for a moment on his hooves, then he leaned forwards with a grimace as he flapped his wings again, taking an easy breath as he felt his body adjusting, muscles that were both new and old flexing slowly and limbering up before he nodded and glanced towards her with a dry smile. "Alright. Weird, though... I almost want to run into The Stampede now and let off some steam."
"Thou art becoming far too much like me. Except thou always were a jerk, as thou likes to say." Luna replied mildly, and Scrivener laughed despite himself as he shook his head slowly before the two turned forwards, flapping their wings once in synchronicity before they both broke into a short sprint, then leapt into the air, taking flight in graceful time before Luna pulled slightly ahead, smiling slightly as Scrivener fell back behind her.
They sped over the ground, keeping themselves moving low to avoid attracting the attention of any beasts that might lurk in the moody clouds of the crimson-stained sky. As they flew, Luna bowed her head forwards, smiling faintly as the air whistled past her and she breathed slowly in and out, bittersweet feelings rolling through her body. Flying reminded her all too much of being distant from the earth, of being up, locked away in the ivory sphere of the moon... and she shook her head silently to herself as her mane sparkled and twisted out behind her before she glanced over one shoulder with a small smile, watching as Scrivener Blooms flew behind her with much less grace, bobbing a bit in the air as he all the same worked to keep pace a few meters back.
The male smiled back at her supportively, his own dislike of heights and flying pushed aside to encourage her... and she faced back ahead with a faint blush kept hidden by the wind whipping against her face, murmuring softly to herself: "Foolish, obnoxious, ridiculous... loyal... poet..."
She laughed despite herself, then arched her body slightly to sail higher, and Scrivy followed as their thoughts swirled together, his body guided by her own movements. And as they flew together, the discomfort slowly peeled away... until finally, they were again only aware of the fact they were together, traveling, on a journey to the north as they shared thoughts and images and words, their minds working as one as they flew tirelessly for hours.
They only had one close call: a snarling dragon raged at them as they passed, feral and foaming at the mouth, lunging to the air and clumsily flying after them with a ripped, wounded wing as it clawed madly at the air and spat streams of fire in their direction... but Luna and Scrivener were too fast, easily outdistancing the beast as it limped through the broken sky, and it had dropped back down on top of another peak to roar angrily at them before turning around and trudging back to its aerie. Luna had blown a raspberry at it childishly, but thankfully she hadn't gone back to kill the pathetic beast... dragons could survive in this hell-encrusted world, but from eating the gemstones that often became tainted with the poisons that seeped through the earth and appeasing the rest of their hunger by gobbling down Nibelung and demons, they rapidly degraded from intelligent creatures to rabid animals.
Scrivener Blooms and Luna pushed onwards, bypassing Canterlot, going over the wretched remains of Pegasus Point as sunken cloud houses that had once belonged to Pegasi floated listlessly in pieces that still hadn't yet dissolved. They flew, not stopping as the hours passed, even as their muscles began to ache, passing next over the once-bustling metropolis of Hosston, remembering their short and uncomfortable journey through a city that was now nothing more than a necropolis covered by crystalline ice, a den of Haunts and monsters with hearts colder than the snow they lived in.
The two finally came to a halt at the edge of the Northedge Strait: an immense, frozen river that had once been crossed by the largest bridge in Equestria, but Charger's Crossing had long collapsed into ruin, the ancient stonework of an unknown civilization lost forever. Scrivy and Luna quietly gazed towards where part of the pass rested, half-frozen over and covered in snow, like bones that were trying to defy winter's grasp. For a few moments, the two studied these remains silently, their wings furling against their bodies... before Luna smiled a bit, saying quietly: "Our time thus far has been excellent. We have pushed hard and fast... let us break for a short while to recover our strength. Thou brought us a meal, yes?"
"Of course." Scrivener smiled over at her as they both stood on icy tundra... and yet despite the snow and frost-covered rock beneath their hooves, all the same, the air wasn't cold. There was even a hint of warmth... although it felt ominous as it often did, as the two cleared some of the snow away and then sat down to rest before the male dug out several wrapped pieces of fish.
Luna flicked her horn, and blue flames burst up in front of them, melting away snow and ice around them... and Scrivener gave her an amused look before he rolled his eyes as Luna grinned, lifting the pieces of fish from his hooves with telekinesis and passing them into the flames. The paper didn't burn, however, even as steam began to rise up from the food, making Scrivy shake his head and remark dryly: "You need to stop abusing your powers."
"I do not desire to eat cold fish, Scrivener Blooms. Besides, 'tis what my powers are there for. To abuse, and to be abused." Luna replied kindly, and then she flicked her horn, and the blue flames whiffed out before one wrapped packet floated to Scrivy and the other hovered its way to her own hooves, the female ripping the paper off the top and then taking a quick bite.
She chewed meditatively as Scrivener only looked down at his quietly... and Luna's gaze softened as she looked over at him, inviting quietly: "Go ahead, Scrivener Blooms. 'Tis good. There is no reason for thou to be so shy, none at all... merely eat and enjoy."
"I'm not shy, I'm... worried." Scrivener admittedly finally, even as he unwrapped his own fish. He had salted it and treated it with spices, and when he bit into it, it was warm and succulent, the male chewing slowly, relishing the taste... but grimacing all the same as he swallowed and said quietly: "It's not natural, Luna. We're supposed to eat apples, and hay, and green leafy things. And now? Now we eat meat, and fish, and other living things. We're... predators, not just prey."
"Thou art worrying too much again." Luna said softly, and she slipped herself a little closer to him, her mane softly swaying outwards to tickle against his side as she leaned towards him and smiled a bit. "The food is good. And thou can handle it, at least in small amounts... too much, and even we get sick, after all. And is that not a good sign, Scrivener Blooms? That aye, we may eat of other living things... we may even enjoy it, when properly prepared. But Scrivy, all the same, to eat too much will make us ill, perhaps even kill us. Just as we may both enjoy battle on some deep dark level... but know that too much of it... will result in our demise."
She quieted, looking down... then she took another bite of her fish, and the two ate for a little while in quiet before Scrivener glanced up and said finally: "Your metaphor was a lot better before you tried to tag on that comparison at the end of it."
"Beetle." Luna muttered, and she hit him firmly in the shoulder, the male smiling a bit as he swayed to the side before she sighed a little and rolled her eyes, adding moodily: "One day thou shalt push too far, Scrivener Blooms, and I shall turn thee into soup."
"You're soup." Scrivener nudged her firmly, but Luna only laughed and shook her head at this, giving him an entertained and exasperated look. Scrivy smiled back as he tossed the last piece of his fish into his mouth, and then he laughed a bit and held up a hoof when Luna offered the last quarter of hers. "No, you need to keep up your strength too."
"Aye, but thou art hungrier, and I am the tougher one here. 'Tis my responsibility to take care of thee." Luna retorted, and she shoved the fish at him, Scrivener wincing as he took it before she winked and leaned forwards, kissing his nose gently. "Eat up."
Scrivener grumbled at her, but he smiled all the same as he ate, and Luna nodded firmly as she stood up and stretched her wings out, gazing northwards as she became more serious and said quietly: "The weather will grow more chaotic the further we push... and I think we had best rest for a time in North Neigh, much as I... dislike the idea."
The earth pony grimaced a bit, his leathery wings twitching as he leaned back... but then only sighed and nodded slowly, muttering: "I suppose you're right, it's just... going to suck, though, yeah. But if you were serious about pushing as deep as the Black Baroque..."
"I have second thoughts about it, aye. Many second thoughts... but all the same, I was serious, Scrivener Blooms, and I believe that... it is the best course of action." Luna hesitated all the same, however, grimacing visibly as she rubbed slowly at her face with a hoof and grumbled: "Terrible, awful place that it is, filled with... bad memories and worse designs and like-as-not monsters, but... there may be many souls there. We shall den in the very heart of inequity in North Neigh, to recover our strength when we reach that accursed place... then we push to the Black Baroque, and from there, drag free as many souls from the clutches of Helheim itself that we can."
"You're so poetic. And epic. You really missed your calling, Luna, all that exaggeration and pride would have made you a better poet than Buck Kiskaddon. Rancher, poet, interesting hard worker type." Scrivener smiled slightly, glancing over at her as he tossed the empty wrapper of paper away and said softly: "But as I've learned, the best poets are the ones who just... do it."
"Writers. Thou art all a strange breed of creature." Luna replied dryly, and Scrivener nodded agreeably to her before he smiled a bit as the winged unicorn's horn glowed, lifting the saddle bag back onto him and strapping it firmly into place. "In any event, Scrivener Blooms, let us be on our way again. We shall fly across the strait whilst the weather looks hospitable enough, then take another short break and judge the terrain ahead. Let us avoid Snow Saddle and as much of the Barrens as possible, however... those wastes were a terrible enough place in life, I cannot imagine what they must have crumbled and transformed into now that the world has plunged into such darkness."
Scrivener nodded after a moment at this in agreement, and then he grimaced a bit and stretched, asking mildly: "Is it really such a good idea to fly on a full stomach?"
"Thy stomach is far from full, glutton, I have seen thee eat ten times as much as that and still complain that thou art hungry." Luna retorted, and Scrivener rolled his eyes before she winked at him. "Fear not, Scrivy. I shan't force thee to do too many barrel rolls."
"Wonderful." Scrivener muttered... and then he sighed as Luna ran forwards and leapt into the air, flapping his own wings a few times before leaping forwards to take off and fly after her, calling loudly to her back: "If I throw up, you'll feel it too, remember!"
Luna only laughed at this, however, shaking her head as she flew onwards, grinning... but after only a few minutes, the two were flying with Luna in the lead and Scrivener following close enough behind that her starry tail kept brushing against his face, his eyes mostly-shut as they concentrated on one another and powerful winds whipped past, knocking both of them off course every so often even as Luna's horn glowed and her mane sizzled around her, cursing as she guided them more by magic than sight as the wind painfully whipped against her body and face.
Beneath them, to make matters worse, the ice was surging and transforming, twisting like it was alive and sending sharp, jutting spears and blades of frost clawing upwards, like the river had become sentient and predatory, like it was trying to stretch upwards and bite hungrily at the ponies as they passed.
They cursed as they forced forwards, the bitter wind ripping and gouging past them as the two shoved fiercely through the onslaught of the gale... and after almost an hour, the windstorm finally ended as the other side of the strait finally came into sight, the two breathing hard and beginning to descend as the ice crackled and settled loudly over the surface of the river as if it too had given up on trying to snare the ponies above as prey.
Large pieces of enormous stone bridge lay here and there amidst the ice, including a pillar that had been shoved upwards and stood like a tower frozen forever in mid-plummet, leaning with strange malevolence towards the shoreline. And beyond, the land was veiled in frost, sharp black rocks jutting here and there like thorns pushing through a skin of pale, dead ivory, the only other color coming from dark smoke that rumbled slowly upwards towards the sky over the horizon.
Luna and Scrivener Blooms both flew in low and slow, settling hesitantly on the frosted plains: the snow beneath their hooves was packed and solid, a thin veil over frozen land. For a few moments, the two only stood, surveying the land slowly... and then Luna grimaced and set herself as they heard snarls in the distance, Scrivener looking up with a mutter of: "Well, wonderful."
A howl rose up... and four dark shapes raced forwards over the tundra, their heads wolf-like skulls, their bodies semisolid, flowing and boiling like viscous liquid over bones of white ice. Terrible, sickening light burned out of their sockets as their clawed paws ripped against the ground, another one howling eagerly as the pack of four Hellhounds rushed towards the ponies: animalistic demons of Helheim, vicious and savage predators that possessed awful guile for all their bestial terror.
Blue, visible organs pulsed beneath the bony cages of their open chests, misty cold smoldering off the monsters as they shot eagerly towards them, moving with uncanny speed as the pack of monsters smoothly moved into a line formation to attempt to flank the ponies from either side... and then Luna snarled as she flicked her horn to the side, a wall of blue flames erupting from the earth between them, and the Hellhounds skidded to a halt with barks, snarls and yelps as Luna said disgustedly: "And to think, once upon a time I wanted a Hellhound for a pet."
With that, Luna cracked her neck before she and Scrivener both stepped quickly backwards and anchored themselves into place as the Hellhounds roared, the four creatures breathing out a terrible pall of white and blue mist that froze the burning flames solid before two lunged eagerly forwards, shattering through the barrier of now-frost with snarls... but Luna only grinned widely, her eyes flashing as she leapt forwards to meet one with a fierce headbutt, knocking it flat into a stunned heap before she shattered its skull with a savage stomp of her hoof, and the now-headless demon squealed from its throat and skittered backwards.
The other attempted to leap at Luna's exposed side, but Scrivener tackled it and slammed it down with a grunt before he smashed his hooves down, shattering its ribcage and crushing the bluish organs inside, the monster howling miserably as it clawed wildly at him before shoving itself backwards through the snow. Scrivy began to lean forwards, but then he caught a sharp warning that flashed into his mind from Luna before he instead leapt back, and a Hellhound crashed and skidded over the ground where he had been a moment before.
Luna snapped her horn downwards, sending a blast of blue flame rocketing into the Hellhound that had just missed Scrivener, and it was blown backwards in a torrent of sapphire fire before the creature shrieked, and then exploded into bony shrapnel in a gush of black smoke and icy fog. And, without a pause, the winged unicorn easily half-turned and lashed her horn across the chest of the last Hellhound when it tried to pounce on her, wincing as one of its claws ripped against her face in a lucky swipe that tore a deep enough wound for scratches to form over Scrivy's own features, but the demon dog was thrown backwards, and it spasmed in the snow with a yelp before it flopped over and hurriedly scuttled away.
The other two Hellhounds turned to follow it, the headless beast staggering drunkenly as it tried to follow after the other two wounded creatures. Luna glared after them as they fled, ignoring the slashes on her face as she leaned forwards and shouted at their retreating hindquarters: "Foul cowards! Run away then, like the mangy curs thou art!"
"Yes, Luna, antagonize the pack of Hellhounds." Scrivener said dryly, and Luna glared at him before the male stepped towards her and gently kissed her cut-open cheek, making her flush a bit as he tasted her blood, and ice, and the barest hint of sulfur. "Sit down and close your eyes, I'll help you heal that."
"I... thou art... fine." Luna mumbled embarrassedly, and Scrivener smiled as she dropped back on her haunches with a huff, grumbling: "All the same, 'tis ridiculous. Utterly, stupidly, grandly ridiculous. Stupid overgrown demon dogs..."
She closed her eyes as she continued to grumble, and Scrivy leaned forwards, concentrating on her wound and on their link, Luna's eyes fluttering a bit as she bowed her head forwards... and then she smiled faintly as her horn glowed brighter, falling quiet as the wounds took on the same aura and slowly healed as Scrivener Blooms focused her powers for her using his own concentration and energy. Healing wounds that couldn't be seen otherwise could be tricky... putting too much energy and effort into using magic to knit a wound back together could leave a large scar or other nasty side effect.
As the cuts on Luna's face closed, the shallow scratches over Scrivener's became smaller, not vanishing entirely but going from bleeding lines to shallow grooves, and he sat back after a moment with a grunt and a nod. Luna turned her gaze back towards him, smiling softly, and Scrivener Blooms smiled back after a moment, tilting his head curiously... but she only laughed a bit and shook her head, saying softly: "It always calms me, for some reason, when thou uses my magic. 'Tis strange, is it not? But many things about us are strange, aye... and I would not change any of it for the world, not one bit. We are wonderful like that, Scrivy. Wonderful and weird and... I love thee."
"I love you too, Luna." Scrivener said softly, emotions passing back and forth in a soft swirl between the two, and then they pushed their foreheads together for a moment, eyes sliding closed as Luna's mane swirled around her and her horn gave a faint pulse.
They relaxed as the last of the adrenaline brought on from the skirmish left their bodies... and then they both straightened and breathed deeply, Luna gazing over him affectionately before she said quietly: "The Hellhounds will not return. Furthermore, sent running injured as they were, they will attract the interest of any other predators in the area that may be looking for easy prey. Let us walk a little further inland, and then we shall stop to rest again... I do not wish to linger here. Charger's Crossing... I can only ever see it now as a bad memory."
Scrivener nodded after a moment, and the two quietly made their way forwards, striding over the hard snow and studying the tracks they came across every so often, the two quiet and contemplative as they shared memories and reassurances and worries. Luna's mane swayed backwards, sizzling softly, and Scrivener rolled his head on his shoulders, adjusting his glasses absently as he murmured quietly: "I'm worried that the memories are only going to get worse as we push further in, Luna. For both of us. And we'll need to be in good form for what's ahead."
Luna couldn't help but smile faintly at this, nodding slowly as she studied him for a few moments. "'Tis true, Scrivy, but... I also believe that we will be kept too busy facing other fears for even the most powerful and terrible of memories to sink their claws too deeply into us. There is much to do, after all... much to see, much to concern ourselves with. And perhaps another good fight or two, to keep our spirits high."
Scrivener smiled despite himself as they walked quietly onwards, striding northbound along a road that no longer existed, heading to the ruins of a town that they had saved from one evil, only for another to bring about Ragnarok. They had done good, for ponies who hadn't all deserved it... but despite the childish part of him that wished they had done things differently, that wished they had ignored the letter and somehow made everything work out okay even if it meant North Neigh would have been razed to the ground... part of Scrivener felt proud of the fact that he and Luna together had overcome their own worries, their own rationalizations, and their own selfish urges to help out the ponies of the bitter hometown he had grown up in.
Even if Ragnarok had still come, after all... they had saved innocent lives, even if the delay had only been for a day. And Scrivener smiled a bit as he and Luna shared a look before she said softly: "Sometimes, thou art so pessimistic thou transforms into the most indulgent, frustrating, annoying optimist there is, beetle. 'Tis difficult to keep up with at times, foul creature. Why must thou be so... wonderful and terrible, and in the same breath?"
"Beetles are often flesh-eating." Scrivy remarked mildly, and Luna laughed and shook her head before she checked him firmly, and the male smiled, staggering a bit but then firmly checking her back, making Luna grin as she stumbled and her eyes glinted with mischief. "Besides, you know me. I like being predictably-unpredictable at times. Although mostly I blame the fact that we're soul-bound so I get force-fed all your emotions, whether I like it or not. It's really all your fault, Luna."
"True, most things are, especially when it comes to thee." Luna nodded agreeably, drawing her eyes over him with entertainment. "Foolish daydreamer."
"Arrogant Nightmare Moon." Scrivener replied, and they traded a smile before they both turned forwards, gazing over the barren tundra and continuing onwards. As they walked, a quiet snow began to fall as dark clouds swirled slowly in the skies above, moving in strange, spiraling patterns in spite of the fact they could feel no wind... and yet it was almost welcome, blocking out the marred red-and-violet sky, darkening the world... but their eyes were used to darkness, and it was comfortable as they marched onwards, unhurried.
The thought of stopping to rest was forgotten as they continued the quiet walk: suddenly, the world around them was peaceful, and the two reveled in it, feeling almost more as if they were out on a comfortable stroll than on a rapid march to the far north. Above, the skies were a turbulent sea of writhing silver and gray cloud, and around them was nothing but devastated tundra with the occasional mutant, blackened tree here or there amongst the rocks... but all the same, there was an eerie, indescribable beauty to the corrupted world that the two felt in their strange mixed soul more than they saw with their eyes.
They walked quietly, taking their time, enjoying the scenery and the rare, odd feeling of serenity, letting it last. It felt like a good omen, more than anything else, and the two relished the peace it brought... the idea that maybe, just maybe, everything really was going to work out alright, and it wasn't just words they both mouthed to make themselves feel better but doubted in their heart of hearts. And then the two traded a soft look, feeling tingles running through their minds as they gazed at each other, catching the same thought at the same time: it wasn't that they doubted things would work out... only that they could make things work out for all the ponies who deserved it more than they did themselves.
Scrivener and Luna smiled faintly at each other, halting in the snow amidst a small grove of twisted and charred trees, and the two studied one another before Luna said softly: "Incredible, Scrivy. 'Tis incredible, what love is: but answer me a curiosity, will thou? We are soulmates and soul-bound... but after that, what am I to thee? Friend, beloved, or wife? Or, with thine chauvinistic attitude, should I say only 'mare?'"
She nudged him playfully, and Scrivener laughed as he leaned in and kissed her cheek before replying amusedly: "Oh right. And there's nothing wrong with the fact that you treat me like I'm only a stud at ranch half the time."
"Well, my handsome stallion, I do not think most males would complain about being that to me. I never had complaints in the past, after all." Luna retorted, giving him a teasing grin as she leaned towards him, and Scrivener cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to avoid the memories stirred up from the winged unicorn in their mixed soul before she threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, cease, 'tis not as if thou has any cause to feel envy or jealousy... 'tis not like thou did not have partners of thine own."
"Yes, but. Not five hundred years of them. Five hundred rather busy years of them." Scrivener pointed out, and Luna glared at him before headbutting him, knocking him back on his haunches in the snow with a grunt before he shook his head quickly, then winced and held up a hoof when she leaned forwards insistently. "Okay, okay! You're... you're my best friend, Luna. Soulmate and then... best friend. And wife is probably somewhere at the bottom of the list."
"Why?" Luna cocked her head curiously, sitting attentively, and Scrivener smiled a bit as the female surveyed him with softness in her eyes. "I remember our marriage... Celestia performed the ceremony, with perhaps a little jealousy, perhaps a little pride... and Twilight Sparkle sat on and watched. 'Twas in front of our home, and even before we were bound in soul... but all the same, thou wert so proud that day, Scrivy, I know thou wert. Thou gazed upon me with such adoration and happiness..." She grinned playfully, leaning forwards with a wink. "Does thou now regret thy decision and realize I am far too much mare for any single male to handle, even one as stubborn as thou art?"
Scrivy rolled his eyes at this with a sigh, and then he smiled as he leaned forwards, replying quietly: "Because while our marriage was a wonderful celebration of love, it was also a formal state of affairs. I didn't marry you to make you my wife, Luna... I married you because I love you enough to give up everything and everypony else in the world for you, if I had to. I'm honored and proud to have you as my wife, but there's something in those words, 'wife' and 'husband,' that makes them two different things, for two people that have chosen to go through life together on the same path. I don't look at us like that. I look at us as one pony, one person, one... soul. And if I have to look at us apart, I want us to be friends first... because best friends don't need to keep secrets from each other, but the wives and husbands of every community I've ever lived in always seem to be doing something behind one-another's back."
"Scrivener Blooms, thou grand and reckless and arrogant and stupid fool." Luna smiled faintly at him, her eyes warm and tender as she leaned towards him, saying quietly: "I... refuse to admit thy words have touched me. 'Tis only because thou art... so worked up over this and the soul-bond between us transfers thy emotions to me that I feel so... touched. So loved."
"'Twas never the ring that bound them, 'twas never the marriage that married their souls, they lived in one-another's eyes from the very first day." Scrivener recited softly, and when Luna turned beet-red, he grinned widely and leaned forwards despite the thrill of love and warmth and romance that spilled through him, saying teasingly: "Now who's the wife in the relationship?"
"Oh, shut up, Scrivener Blooms!" Luna reached ahead and seized him by the back of the head, firmly shoving his face down into the snow, and Scrivy laughed despite himself before he reached up and grabbed her, yanking her down with her. They wrestled and rolled together, sending up puffs of white as they rolled over the frozen earth, laughing and smiling before Luna shoved him down and pinned him by the shoulders, grinning as she straddled the male and held him firmly on his back as he winced at the unfamiliar feeling of his leathery wings squeezed beneath him, and then the winged unicorn leaned down and kissed him firmly.
Their jaws worked together slowly, lovingly, her mane sparking as it stroked gently down over his features and sizzled through the air around her, her hooves grinding slowly against the pauldrons covering the earth pony's body as his own rubbed up along her sides, feeling out the shape of her armor and the familiar adventure of the body that lay beneath steel and leather... and then the two pulled slowly apart, and Luna grinned widely down at the male as she kept him pinned in the middle of the snowy road, saying seriously: "We shall have to ensure our foal has better judgment and values than us, Scrivener Blooms. We find such romance in all the wrong places."
Scrivener Blooms snorted in amusement at this, reaching up as he gently grasped her face and smiled slightly. "Luna, when we have a foal, he or she-"
"'Twill be a colt, of this I am sure." Luna said pompously, and she slipped off Scrivener before half-helping and half-yanking him up to his hooves. "Mostly because I cannot imagine what it would be like to try and handle a filly whom is half-myself and half-thee. 'Twould be the most miserable, violent little filly ever to be born. But all the same, I would love her and cuddle her and kiss her bruises better, even should she burn down a city or two."
The male gave her an amused look, saying mildly: "And a colt could just as easily turn out the same way, Luna. Or even worse."
"Yes, but if it were a colt, more would believe me when I blamed thou for not raising him properly." Luna replied blandly, and Scrivy groaned and rolled his eyes. "'Tis true, thou knows. Ponies are always nattering on about sons taking after fathers and daughters taking after mothers. Even if there is no truth to the statement apart from the truth we choose to make, all the same, there is a comfort knowing that thou will be held more accountable if it is a boy, and a terror in the fact that they will hold me accountable should it be a girl."
"Luna. I. Days like today, I really just have no idea what to do with you or say to you." Scrivener said finally, and Luna nodded seriously to him, making the earth pony drop his head forwards with a grumble before he started forwards again, saying mildly: "Come on then, mother of the year. Let's keep going on the way to North Neigh. Maybe if you work out all your violent urges before you give birth, the foal will be born as peaceful and calm as a lamb."
"Wish not such cruelty upon our child, Scrivener Blooms! I will be thoroughly disappointed in both of us if the child is born tranquil and serene and loving and boring." Luna replied firmly, stepping forwards and bumping firmly against Scrivy, and the male snorted in amusement as he stumbled a bit before smiling over at her as they continued forwards, Luna nodding and saying quietly: "Believe me when I say I want the best for our child, Scrivener Blooms. Oh, from the bottom of my heart, I want nothing but the absolute best. But the best things in life often come from first experiencing a little pain, or a little rain, and all the other unpleasantries that existence has to offer. Yet without them... 'twould be no life at all, would it? I know that our experiences, for example, have shaped us both greatly... I know that we have been able to find serenity and true happiness in even the strangest and darkest moments because... of what we have lived through. Because we have lived those moments. And I would not change that, Scrivy. 'Tis cruel to wish a life of tranquility upon another. It would be a life without passion, adventure, and likely without any-"
"Don't finish that sentence, I know what you're going to say." Scrivener interrupted flatly, and Luna shot him a devious grin, making the earth pony sigh and then shake his head, giving her an entertained look. "But fine, Luna. What should I wish for our child-to-be, then? An interesting life, like the old oriental proverb and curse? Or a life full of storms, but with a few blissfully-sunny days here and there?"
Luna lowered her head thoughtfully at this, the two walking in silence for a few moments as the male looked at her curiously... and then she gazed up and smiled at him, saying quietly: "Wish for our child only to be, Scrivener Blooms, and that the foal will come into life, ready to stride upon his or her own path. Wish only for the foal, Scrivy. Let us not take away from the child's future by already trying to shape it into what we think is best."
Scrivener looked at her thoughtfully as they walked along... and then he smiled at her softly, lowering his head a bit as he said quietly: "You really will be a wonderful mother, Luna. I'm glad you'll be there to make up for my mistakes with everything."
The winged unicorn only laughed and blushed a bit, however, looking ahead as they walked down the snowy path together beneath the soft fall of ivory from above, and she replied quietly: "Nay, Scrivener Blooms, together we shall be good parents, and neither of us the greater or the lesser, as it is with all things between us however we might play at one-another. I am thine, thou art mine, the same blood runs through our veins, our heart beats as one and our connected soul swirls throughout our bodies. Where we may fail when apart, together there is no other possibility apart from success... and that is why I have faith that we will have a foal, we will love and cherish it, we shall make the best of parents. And why I feel that we can, we will, we must succeed in our given mission, my love... my friend."
Scrivener Blooms smiled across at the winged unicorn and nodded, and as they strode ever northwards, he felt the warmth and love in their bodies rekindling their hope for the future. |
Metempsychosis | Return To North Neigh | Chapter Ten: Return To North Neigh
~BlackRoseRaven
They had taken wing once more to pass Snow Saddle, and more importantly, the barrens beyond: now, as Scrivener Blooms and Luna flew slowly onwards over this rotten and decrepit land, they were officially traveling further north than they had gone in almost ten years. It was a strange feeling... made stranger still by the speed with which they had moved, the passage of a journey that before had taken days now gone by in only some twenty hours of almost-steady travel.
Yet neither of them wanted to stop even now, as they flew silently through the dark, moody skies above the rotten and torpid earth. It wasn't just because of the hostility of the barrens beneath them, it was because of the mix of anxiety and excitement racing through their bodies, as they pushed ever onwards with both hope and fear swirling in an endless dance through their linked soul.
They both breathed hard in the clogged atmosphere, the reek of steam and smoke and rot surrounding them as geysers vented up from shattered earth far below. The heat here was almost unbearable, as they passed over what had once been a blackened, rocky pass... and was now nothing more than a terrible, semisolid mass of shifting rock and slag. Rivers of magma flowed and rumbled here and there, and deep in the ripped gorges of stone and ravines of shale, terrible scarlet light glowed and pulsed, glaring upwards with terrible ill-omen. =
Luna grimaced in disgust as she flapped her wings, flying onwards as Scrivener followed closely in her wake, both covered in sweat from the scorching heat that burned up from below despite the wind and cold air whipping around them. Their armor didn't help matters, leather doing too good a job of insulating now, and metal heating with unnatural fervor, as if the heat was somehow sentient, as if the terrible, corrupt environment was trying its hardest to sap them of all the life and strength it could.
The winged unicorn gave a curse under her breath as she scanned the ground below: the terrain was more than harsh, more than brutal, more than simply dangerous, it would be impassable on hoof. Even the strange and hungry monsters that they could see roaming here and there amidst the wasteland were less threatening than the death-trap the barrens had collapsed completely into... and would have been less of a barrier to the two than the blighted land as well.
Passing over it now was difficult enough... but on the way back they would be leading all the Pales they could find, and the Pales of ponies could only stride across the ground and blink short distances to cross gaps and rivers. If they strayed too far from the congregation they planned to gather, the spirits and souls would either stand and wait silently, or wander away from the others, drawn inexorably back to the place they had been found... the place where they had either died, or that had held the most meaning to them in life.
Then Luna cursed under her breath as there was an explosion below, magma and fire bursting into the air, hurtling jagged rocks and broken boulders almost to the great height they were at as wildfire spread in an insane spiderweb across the charred earth. It burned red and orange as ash and smog belched out of the vent, and Scrivy and Luna hovered apprehensively for a few moments, watching as wild shapes that looked as if they were made from obsidian and slag greedily crawled out of the molten rip in the earth.
Elementals: one of the rare few creatures that were actually excelling and adapting in the twisted world. The energies of Helheim were empowering them, and the brutality of the terrain made the perfect nests and homes for the chaotic entities of raw power-given-life. They thrived off the carnage and the chaos, and the only thing that stopped them from blanketing the world was the fact they couldn't keep themselves stable and alive for long outside their homes of bitter cold or burning flame.
The Elementals ignored them as they cavorted across the fiery landscape: to them, after all, the magma and flame and burning-hot rock were all paradisiacal, the vents of steam like fountains of foam, the reeking smog like aromatic mist. Luna and Scrivener both traded looks, then forced themselves to continue on, only glad that at least the borders of the wasteland were in sight, past a collapsed and crumbled mountain... and that the Elementals were too happy in their 'beautiful' little world to pay any heed to the skies above.
There was no way they could pass through the barrens on the way back... they would have to plot a route around, no matter how much time it would add to their journey, and Luna cursed under her breath at this complication as they continued forwards. The Bifrost couldn't be summoned just anywhere, after all... not only would the rainbow bridge would remain open and vulnerable for a short period of time after they crossed it, allowing the possibility of other things to claw their way into Looking Glass World, the immense amount of magic and energy it required to leap from one reality to the next meant they required a certain amount of preparation, and an area that was already designed as a 'landing zone' for the dimensional-hopping arch.
They flew onwards, heads heavy with growing anxieties, made worse by fatigue, and fatigue was made all the harsher a mistress by the weight of their armor and the heat that made their blood and bodies boil beneath warm metal and clutching leather. But ten minutes later, they passed over the border from terrible, fiery wastes to cold, desolate plains, and the two let themselves sink lower as they flew into a biting, chilling wind, wincing as they flew across the frozen, snow-splattered tundra and finally settled to their hooves in a place eerily familiar.
It was all too close to where Pinkie Pie had died: the only difference was that in the past, there had been a looming, dark forest to their front in which eyes had warily lurked, distracting them from the true threat that had been biting at their heels the entire journey. And for a moment, all was forgotten but memory, as Luna and Scrivener Blooms both stood silently, gazing northwards as a voice screamed in memory: P-please, I made a mistake!
"Thou did, Ignominious. Thou made the mistake of crossing us not once, not twice, but four times... and never did thou pay enough for what thou did. Ruining lives, killing and tormenting countless innocents, summoning a world-killer, and so many other sins lay at thy doorstep... and worst, most-disgusting of all, thou wert only a pawn of a far-superior mind, less than a cog in the penultimate machinations of a terrible force." Luna murmured, lowering her head and closing her eyes tightly... and Scrivener slid a little closer to her, gazing at her silently, neither feeling the cold or heat even as they shivered at the memories that flashed through their linked mind and soul.
They sat quietly... and then Luna leaned against the earth pony, pushing her face against the side of his neck as she whispered: "And terribly, I still pity the fool, Scrivener Blooms. I still pity that broken and tarnished creature, whom I once thought I loved. Aye, I am glad he is dead, gladder still that he is gone and will never return, destroyed more by himself than outside forces... but all the same, I pity what he became and find that I myself am not without fault in what happened to him... in what he was transformed into."
"But he made the choice, Luna. Never forget that... we all make choices and choose the path we walk down. And there were so many things he could have done apart from sacrificing and murdering innocent souls to find strength... starting with being brave, instead of staying a coward and only seeking worthless tyrannical might." Scrivener replied softly, gazing towards Luna and kissing her forehead silently. "Don't blame yourself for what he chose to do."
"Still, Scrivy... I cannot shake the thought that I am in a way responsible, that some part of me..." Luna fell quiet, then she sighed and shook her head slowly, murmuring quietly: "I do not want to corrupt thee further than I have. I do not want to drag thee down into darkness deeper than we already are. No matter what, Scrivener Blooms, it is not other monsters that I fear at the end of the day... it is myself, and Nightmare Moon, and-"
"Now come on, Luna. We've talked about this, a lot." Scrivener said gently, and Luna glanced up at him with a faint smile as their eyes met, thoughts, emotions, passions playing back and forth between them for a few long seconds before Scrivy leaned forwards and kissed her nose quietly. "Anyway, I'm sure we'll shortly be beating things up. That'll make you feel better."
"Perhaps. 'Tis true, pummeling things does always make me feel better. Like I am once more on the correct path in life." Luna mumbled, and Scrivener gave her an entertained look before she sighed and stepped forwards, shivering a bit as she added quietly: "Let us not linger. My body is sore, but I wish to keep walking... the chill grows moment-by-moment and we are not all as freakishly-insulated as thou art."
The earth pony laughed a bit as the winged unicorn strode forwards, and then he fell into pace beside her, looking northwards as they marched onwards. The movement helped keep their bodies warm as a bitter wind whistled around them and short flurries of snow passed, dotting their armored frames with speckles of white powder as their hooves plodded heavily over packed tundra.
They followed a highway that no longer was, past drifts and dunes of snow and freakish formations of rock and ice and gnarled, misshapen trees that seemed to stare at them with listless, bark-shaped faces. And Scrivener grimaced a bit as he felt a flicker through his skull and a faint buzzing in his eyes, staring too long at one of these trees... and then gritting his teeth as instead of wood, he saw terrible compositions of bodies of skinned ponies, muscle and flesh and bone and sinew all twisted and melted together, frozen in silent shapes...
He clenched his eyes shut and stopped, grabbing at his skull, and Luna glanced worriedly over her shoulder at him before the male murmured: "I'm fine. Just... visions. They're not usually so intense, so... so awful. It might have something to do with being so close to Helheim, though..."
Luna nodded slowly, looking at him silently as Scrivy glanced up with a bit of a sigh, smiling faintly at her before he gazed back and forth... then shivered a bit. As long as he didn't stare at the trees, he didn't see what he hoped wasn't actually under bark and wood... but now that his mind and the corruption inside it was acting up, he could see other shapes, other things... Pales that stood here and there silently amidst the forest, watching them, and hooded Grimm that lurked and slithered amongst the specters.
Scrivener shivered a bit, then he forced himself to look forwards, striding onwards as Luna fell automatically into pace at his side even as she gave him a concerned frown, before gritting her teeth when the male murmured: "Grimm. Here and there... amidst Pales."
He shot a glance to the side, at one of the awful monsters: like an enormous raven, pony-sized and with not taloned feet, but instead thick legs and heavy hooves. Their wings were large and heavy and fat, and dark, black cowls covered their faces, mixing so subtly with their feathers bodies it seemed almost as if the hoods were as natural as the rest of their form. They were awful omens, feeding off despair, torment, death, and misery: they often appeared over those who were about to die, and clustered in places were events of great destruction were about to take place.
But that was in the past: now they were simply gleeful occupants of a destroyed world that fed their gluttony for destruction and suffering. More than demons, more than the living dead, more than even the Elementals, these creatures benefitted from the destruction that had ripped across the world... but they were only parasites, not schemers, a side-effect of the disease: maggots in the rotten flesh of the dying planet.
Luna glared back and forth, and then she muttered under her breath: "Wonderful. I cannot see them, though, Scrivener Blooms... but at least we know there are Pales here, even if they linger just beneath reality's subtle folds. Would thou prefer to take to the air to finish this journey, so we can evade their presence?"
Scrivener hesitated, looking over his shoulder at his leathery wings, flapping them once as he flexed his body... and then he sighed a little and nodded glumly, mumbling: "Yeah, or... at least in a little while. Let's walk a little longer, though, see if my eyes and the corruption settle down..."
Scrivener glanced down at the ground, then tossed a careful look back and forth as Luna stepped towards him, pushing their sides together as she said gently: "Be not so hard on thyself, Scrivener Blooms. This is not thy fault... and thou art handling thine curse and blessing with... much greater dignity and strength these days than in times' past."
"Oh, you mean like when I was first learning to adjust to this and I kept screaming at everything?" Scrivener asked dourly, and Luna sighed and rolled her eyes, giving him a flat look even as a faint smile quirked at her muzzle. "Well, seeing the shapes beneath shapes when you're in a world being flooded by Hell... that's not exactly pleasant, Luna. As it is, the fact that now I can look on these things and the only reason they bother me is... is because..."
He fell quiet, gazing ahead as a shiver rolled down his spine... and Luna softened, murmuring quietly: "Do not make me chastise thee with thine own words only minutes after thou gave thy pretty little speech to me about Ignominious, Scrivener Blooms. 'Twould be annoying. It makes me think thou just enjoys having thy hypocrisies repeated back to thee."
Scrivener smiled despite himself, looking ahead as he said softly: "I know. We talk about it a lot and I get... bothered by it a lot when by now, I should have adjusted to it. But some days... it's still hard. I worry a lot, Luna. And I'm... going to be honest. I worry that one day I might... hurt you. Especially with this corruption doing what it does to my head... especially with the fact that... it's not just desensitization. It's... this..."
The charcoal pony fell silent, looking ahead... and Luna softened visibly, leaning towards him and saying quietly: "Scrivener Blooms, do not be silly. Why, thou art not nearly tough enough to injure me, for thou would hurt thyself did thou pummel me."
Scrivy sighed and dropped his head forwards at this, and then he smiled despite himself over at Luna, saying dryly: "You know. I'm beginning to understand why ponies always got mad at me when I deflected serious questions and statements with my incorrigible wit."
"Oh, wonderful, thy humility is rising back up to its proud peak." Luna remarked, and Scrivener smiled despite himself at her as he leaned towards her, and they quietly butted their heads together before Luna added quietly: "Scrivy, I have full faith... thou will never injure me. I remember all too well thy selfishness in the battle against Ignominious, after all... making me perform such an awful act, trying to steal thyself away."
She smiled faintly at him, and Scrivener laughed a little despite himself before he looked ahead even as a faint blush heated his cheeks, before Luna continued in a softer, gentler voice: "We are linked in body, mind, spirit and soul... I feel thy pleasures, thou feels mine own, we share everything. And look at me, Scrivy... a Valkyrie who enjoys the thrill of battle like few other things in life. 'Tis not that I can deny I have some... instinct in me that perhaps even enjoys hurting others, not just proving my superiority over them or using my abilities to protect and defend those important to me, or the elegant dance, finesse, and skill that any true battle requires... aye, we are both damned, Scrivener Blooms. But like all things, we are damned together... think not that thou art more damned than I am, 'lest I be the one pummeling thee instead of thou attempting to childishly flail at me with thy great big hooves."
"Oh thank you, Luna, you're so good at saying just the right thing to make me feel better." Scrivener said flatly, and Luna threw her head back and laughed as they walked forwards, the sound unnatural, loud, echoing through this damned world... but so powerful and pure, it seemed to make the essence of Helheim trying to suffocate them recede, and Scrivener smiled despite himself. "But okay, warrior princess. So we're both sadomasochists, considering how much you beat on me despite knowing it's only going to hurt you, too. So we're codependent, violent, unstable, darkness-tainted, corrupted, cynical, pessimistic, meat-eating sadomasochists living in a post-apocalyptic, near-complete-collapse world filled with demons from Hell. Did I miss anything?"
"Yes, Scrivener Blooms, thou forgot the fact thou art stupid, and worse yet, a poet." Luna retorted imperiously, tilting her head upwards, and Scrivy gave an exasperated sigh as he dropped his head forwards. "And a poet is a far worse creature than anything I could ever hope to be myself, as I have come to learn. Than even Nightmare Moon could ever hope to be, as a matter of fact."
"Don't worry, Luna. As I recall, we decided a long time ago that you were probably worse than Nightmare Moon yourself." Scrivener replied dryly, and Luna gave him a flat glare for a moment as the equine rose his head with a slight smile. "Also, as I plainly recall, Nightmare Moon is nicer to me than you are."
The winged unicorn huffed at this, glaring at him for a few moments before she grumbled and looked ahead, replying in a surly voice: "Thou strikes low, foul beetle. Besides, Nightmare Moon is only nicer to thee because... she... she is manipulative. And evil. And... dumb."
Scrivener gave Luna a mild look, and Luna grumbled and shook her head quickly, her mane twisting backwards as inside her, Nightmare Moon laughed quietly before she mumbled: "And now thou hast gone and stirred up the creature, Scrivy. Perhaps I should go away then, and leave thee with Nightmare Moon for the next few hours." She stopped, then looked awkwardly at Scrivener as the male softened. "Thou... are not... I mean... oh shut up, Scrivy!"
"I... I didn't say anything yet." Scrivener said awkwardly, and Luna grumbled before he stepped closer to her and kissed her cheek gently, saying softly: "I said she was nicer to me, Luna. I didn't say I was fonder of her than you."
The winged unicorn smiled warmly at this, immediately brightening a little before she cleared her throat and firmly headbutted him, knocking Scrivener staggering with a grunt of dumb surprise. "Kiss not my flank, Scrivener Blooms, thy lying foul flattery shall get thee nowhere. I shall make thee apologize to me later, for I wish not to hear thy poetic nuances twisting thine apologies into cunning trickery... and the word 'sorry' holds much less meaning than other things I can make thee do."
Luna grinned widely as she looked over at him, and the male sighed and gave her an exasperated look. Then their irises met, and they traded emotions, thoughts, feelings, and apologies... before Luna smiled softly, saying quietly: "We have walked enough then, haven't we? And 'tis the journey, I know, making us both tense and hinders us further. Let us take back to the air... perhaps the biting cold will at least serve to clear our heads."
"For once, I hope you're right." Scrivener murmured, and the two halted for a moment as they studied each other, eyes meeting, more thoughts twisting their way back and forth before the two nodded slowly in synchronization and understanding. Then both turned, leaning forwards and running through the heavy snow before they both leapt into the air, wings flapping hard and propelling them sharply upwards into the wretched skies.
They flew northwards, keeping their course straight and fast as they breathed hard in and out. And, almost as if they were being lulled onwards, the winds died down even as the bitter cold deepened with the growing darkness, as clouds above became blacker and heavier and the very air of the world around them seemed to thicken with living shadows.
An hour and a half of hard flight later, the two slowly began to descend from the skies towards the ruined hulk of a town that had been half-buried beneath snow. It was surrounded by nothing but snowy plains that here and there were ruptured with deep, rotting gouges in the ground, and massive and alien ice formations that stood like silent, callous sentinels... it was a city of the dead, guarded by frozen souls colder than any reaper's grim touch as a quiet, soft fall of snow that flittered through the air like icy ash swirled slowly down from the dark clouds.
Slowly, Scrivener Blooms and Luna strode over packed, frozen tundra towards the gates of North Neigh, shivers passing through them both not just from the blistering cold but the memories that being here awoke: memories of failures, and of victories that had been more costly than defeats. Of happy promises and moments of triumph that had been all lost, all destroyed, when everything had gone wrong.
They gazed silently into the town, and then Scrivener smiled faintly as he murmured: "Apart from the snow that's covering half the buildings... it looks almost the same as it did before. Frozen in time... it feels like we're going to walk in there, and Bramblethorn is going to charge out of the Unicorn District and start right in on the whole 'slave hoof' thing all over again..."
Luna glanced towards him softly, and then they both glanced sharply forwards at the sound of crackling behind the half-collapsed, rickety fencing that surrounded much of the town, and a shape plodded slowly into the empty roadway, then came to a halt as it seemed to sense their eyes on it. It was enormous, ten feet tall and made of blue ice that was speckled here and there with streaks and stains of ivory rock, its arms long and gangly, its legs ending in thick, webbed talons, its body rigid and geometric. It was an Ice Elemental... made all the clearer when it turned to face them with an expressionless, featureless lump of a head, frozen mist steaming up from its body.
Luna and Scrivener stared at it, and the Elemental looked back at them, leaning forwards slightly, studying them with its featureless face... and then both ponies readied themselves as the creature lumbered out of the city towards them. Luna gritted her teeth as her horn glowed and her mane sparked, and Scrivy winced as he stared up at the creature... but it halted a few feet away from them, making a strange chirring sound in its throat as it studied the ponies silently.
The two equines exchanged nervous looks as the creature regarded them... and then the beast straightened and turned its attention away from them, and both Luna and Scrivy slipped quickly to the side as the Elemental passed, apparently deciding they weren't interesting enough to hold its attention. And both Scrivener Blooms and Luna gave sighs of relief as the Elemental plodded onwards, looking over their shoulders as the female muttered: "Thank Odin's hideous visage. It must be because we are both so cold... our body heat is suppressed, so the blind beast does not know what to think of us. Or perhaps thinks we are too small quarry to concern it."
Scrivener nodded slowly, and Luna shook her head with a grimace, tossing another nervous look at the Elemental as it wandered into the icy plains. "Let us hope our luck holds long enough to find a suitable place to rest... and hopefully, enough safety to permit us to prepare ourselves for what must be done."
The earth pony nodded again with a grimace, feeling Luna's instincts and thoughts as they slowly strode forwards and stepped once more into the town... and both ponies couldn't help but shudder a bit as they strode down the snowy streets, pushing past dunes of powder and gazing silently at the half-collapsed, half-frozen wooden structures that creaked and rumbled beneath the weight of the frost that covered them.
In silence, they walked through the town, heading northwards and letting their hooves carry them where they would, Luna's instincts guiding her as Pales flickered here and there, staring at them silently. And as they began to pass a dilapidated, wrecked shop with a shattered front window and a missing door, a Pale silently strode out onto the collapsed steps and looked miserably down at them.
Scrivener Blooms and Luna halted, gazing up at the broken storefront of the Allsorts Emporium, and the Pale of an old, aged unicorn looked down at them with sorrow and regret in his hollow eyes. Wisehorse, misguided Blood Bishop of Ekleíp, the insane cult that had worshiped and tried to control Nightmare Moon to achieve a maddened vision of the world's rebirth. A cult of Blood Seers and unicorn mages, who had been more obsessed with themselves and power than anything else, even if Wisehorse himself had seemingly been honest in his wish to 'save the world...' who had been a victim himself.
"But it does not excuse what thou did, Wisehorse. Strange to see thee here... why not the Black Baroque? Or perhaps Helheim..." Luna grinned bitterly, looking coldly up at the Pale as it half-turned away, eyes closing. "No, Helheim would be mercy, would it not? Aye, it would be, a mercy thou doesn't deserve. Wander this world forever, Wisehorse; wander this world, see what thou hast done, understand that thou wert manipulated the entire time. Understand that thou wert a victim, but also a sculptor and destroyer."
"You were so smart, Wisehorse, William Isehorse... whatever your real name is." Scrivener added quietly, looking silently up at him. "How could you miss the signs? How could you not understand that what you were doing was... wasn't just wrong, wasn't just foolishness, it was... you were so gullible, so obviously being led astray..."
Wisehorse looked at him silently, and Scrivener gazed back, the Pale flickering in his vision, becoming an old unicorn that stood in the shattered doorway with a sallow coat and features etched with pain and sorrow, as he whispered wordlessly: 'I'm sorry.'
"Sorry isn't enough. Cannot ever be enough." Luna lowered her head silently, and Scrivener closed his eyes as he dropped his own after a moment, the winged unicorn whispering: "And yet for all my malice, and all the pain I wish to wish upon thee, know that I also hold myself accountable, for we should have been able to stop things anyway. Perhaps the reason I hate thee most is because thou outwitted and outmatched us so clearly. That thou had such good intentions... and mine own? Mine own were destructive and selfish from the very beginning." She laughed dryly, looking up and saying quietly: "So does thou know the answer to the riddle, Isehorse? If good intentions pave a road that leads to the apocalypse, and my selfish intent to save my friends and family and pummel viciously that which seeks to harm me has led only to failure... what is left to do?"
She looked up, teeth grit, and the Pale only gazed back before the specter shook its head slowly... and Luna gave a soft sigh as she muttered: "Of course. What can we do? What is there to do but... push onwards, hoping bleakly for the best of outcomes, even when treachery and despair weigh us down in memory or reality. Wisehorse, now, heed my words: we are here to collect souls, and bring Pales across the Bifrost. But thou and thine brethren of Ekleíp... there shan't be a place in the new world for thee. It is not my place to condemn thee... it is not my place to say thou art beyond redemption. Yet all the same, I must: I cannot allow the risk of what would happen if thou, in full strength, were restored upon the world. And I..."
She quieted... then clenched her eyes shut and whispered: "Thou hurt me. Thou betrayed me... myself and Scrivener Blooms. Thou ruined so much, so fast... thou awakened a monster that thou should have destroyed, that I think thou knew thou should have exterminated the moment Ekleíp came upon it sleeping in its cursed burrow! And thou killed Scarlet Sage... thou cannot imagine what it was like, to see her die. Thou cannot imagine what it felt like, to find her Pale and the Pales of all my beloved friends in the wreckage of Ponyville, so miserable, so lost... and to lead them across the Bifrost, full of hope and yet despairing all the same, knowing that nothing is certain, knowing that even if we drag all the Pales we can into Looking Glass World, there is no guarantee they can all be revived, that even if we bring them back for a fleeting moment, the very shock and trauma of what occurred may kill them, and leave them gone to us forever! To know that my daughter is an ephemeral phantom, lonely and scared in another alien world, another layer of reality, without her mother or father!"
Luna snarled at Wisehorse, tears leaking from her eyes and freezing immediately over her cheeks as she shouted, her eyes glowing white, her voice echoing through the frozen town: "Wander forever, William Isehorse, in this world that thou hast created, for I can think of no greater punishment! And when the world shatters, may thee be forced to sit forever outside of Helheim's gates, never permitted in to allow the demons to offer their mercy of punishment, for I know that thou thyself will do a far better job of self-torture than the whips and chains and blades and bludgeons of the pit lords ever could!"
The Pale flinched backwards, and then Scrivener silently reached a hoof up, resting it quietly on Luna's shoulder... and she shivered violently before turning and burying her face against the male's neck, pushing her body closer against his. Slowly, Scrivy opened his eyes as he looked silently up... but the Pale was gone now, either fled or vanished into the folds between reality, and Luna whispered: "Damn the whole world wide, Scrivener Blooms. Damn everything that has happened... damn us for failing."
"Come on, Luna. Let's keep moving. Let's get away from this place..." Scrivy hesitated, glancing up apprehensively at the front of the shop and remembering how before it had been the Allsorts Emporium... it had been the gardening shop that had been run by his unloving parents. "I don't want to know what other ghosts might lurk inside. Bramblethorn is bad enough. But somehow I think... Tia Belle might be even worse."
He shook his head a bit, and Luna sighed softly as she drew back a bit from the male, turning and silently falling into step beside him as she closed her eyes, letting the earth pony lead as they headed past decrepit, broken buildings down snowy streets, ice glinting here and there across both tundra and structure before Luna halted to rub obsessively at her eyes, and Scrivener smiled faintly as he turned around, kissing one of the trails of frozen tears away and making her mumble. "I... I am fine. 'Tis only... the world in my eye. It hurts."
"I know." Scrivy said quietly, and she looked up at him for a moment before the two shared a tight, firm embrace, pressing against one another, cold armor grinding quietly together before they both stepped back. They took a moment to settle themselves, even as they both sensed and heard a rumble of movement not far away... and then Scrivener glanced up with a wince as another large Ice Elemental loomed out of an alley a block to the south and across the street, grasping the frozen edges of a wooden house.
It looked at them with the same curiosity the other had seemed to inspect the two with, and Luna snorted quietly as she tossed a glance towards it, murmuring: "Perhaps they simply do not know what to make of us, Scrivy. It has likely been many years since these wild entities saw living creatures... perhaps if they knew what we were, we would already be up to our necks in swarms of hostile and hungry beings of the primordial."
"Gosh, and we couldn't have that now, could we?" Scrivener asked dryly, and Luna smiled despite herself, looking at him with faint entertainment as she leaned towards him and once more pushed her face against the side of his neck. Then the male glanced towards the Elemental quietly, watching as it slowly receded back into the alley, and he added softly: "Maybe we just don't interest them. Maybe they know all too well this world is already conquered, already theirs, for the little time that's left. Maybe they even pity us."
"If they pity us, Scrivener Blooms, I shall shatter them all like the blocks of ice they are. I shan't be pitied, not even by embodiments of nature's elements." Luna grumbled under her breath, mashing her face firmer against his neck for a moment, and Scrivy shook his head with an entertained smile before she drew back and nodded firmly once, saying quietly: "Let us continue. These wooden homes are... in far better shape than I had thought they would be, and if we are fortunate, City Hall will make a serviceable place to stop and gather our wits."
The earth pony nodded after a moment, and he and Luna traded faint smiles as they continue forwards... but they halted after only a few minutes and a single turn around a blind corner street to find themselves faced with a grim trail of destruction that could only have been caused by one of the Black Wolves of Hell.
It was like a gorge had been torn through the town, a cut that was so deep and painful to the planet that reality itself had been wounded. Scrivener and Luna silently gazed at the twenty foot wide and countless foot long trail, the snow falling almost as if to avoid touching the rotten trench of mud and mire and jagged rock. And up and down the trail, they could see only more of the same: a dark, terrible wound, that even the ruins of houses it tore through slumped away from, as if they had been blown backwards from the sheer force hitting them... as if even these decrepit remains feared contact with the burnt wound.
"One of the Black Wolves left this... but 'twas not Fenrir. The trail is too small for that mighty pack-lord..." Luna grimaced and leaned forwards, kicking a spill of snow onto the dark path... and immediately, the white powder burst upwards into steam, the winged unicorn making a disgusted face. "This is truly foul, Scrivener Blooms. And worse yet, this seems fresh... but I do not understand. Did something disturb the rumbling rest of these terrible monsters? Have they been summoned by Fenrir for some accursed gathering? Or do they perhaps tire of this world, and instead return to Helheim like loyal dogs instead of savage destroyers?"
Luna shook her head slowly, and then she hesitantly began to step forwards as Scrivener Blooms winced, grasping her shoulder awkwardly... but she shrugged him off with a huff and carefully leaned down, stretching a hoof hesitantly towards the black trail. "Oh, stop it, Scrivy, I just wish to check if it will be safe to-"
Scrivener felt a sharp pain spark through his mind, and then he winced and seized Luna by the shoulders, yanking her backwards as she blinked in surprise... then stared in shock as skeletal and shadowy claws ripped out of the black mire, grabbing wildly at the air where her hoof had been a moment before as Scrivener breathed hard in and out, pain sparking through his mind as he heard Valthrudnir's laughter and saw a cluster of Grimm on the other side of the black trail... of what no longer looked like rotten terrain to him, but instead a river of dark, flowing corruption, skeletons, skinned monstrosities, and silently-screaming victims of every shape and size flowing through it as they swam helplessly for the surface of the river of the damned. "Helheim... they... that's a river of death leading straight to Helheim..."
"Scrivener Blooms..." Luna glanced up at him, leaning back at him as her mane fizzled quietly, breathing slowly as Scrivy gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut... and then she laughed faintly, looking at what to her seemed like only fetid and ugly earth... but in Scrivy's memories, she saw now what she had almost touched, and almost been dragged down into. "Thou... saved my life, Scrivy. I hope thou knows this."
"I saved you from having to pummel your way out of Helheim, that's all. And you might have enjoyed that." Scrivener replied dryly, his eyes still tightly closed, his leathery wings trembling where they were still on his back as he impulsively held tightly onto Luna's shoulders, his breath rasping slowly in and out of his jaws. Faint pain still sparked through his head, and even with his eyes clenched shut, visions still assailed him, he still saw not only the river of the dead flowing, flowing, roiling, boiling... he saw Valthrudnir, standing with five cards fanned out in one hand, the Jotnar grinning as he reached slowly up and plucked one of these free-
"Scrivener Blooms." Luna said quietly, and Scrivy's eyes flickered open as he realized he was sitting back on his haunches, staring dumbly at her: now she rested over him, her hooves on his shoulders, her eyes gazing silently into his. "Scrivy, come back to me. Everything is alright. The creature cannot hurt thee... Valthrudnir's echo is only proving that it is as stupid in arrogance as the real Valthrudnir was. Aye, blocking me out of thine mind using the corruption is a clever trick... but now that I know what it means when I sense that static, 'tis like loudly announcing 'excuse me, but I now aim to ambush and ransack thy sealed vaults.'"
"Just what I always wanted to be, Luna, a sealed vault." Scrivener muttered to himself, and Luna gave both a sigh of exasperation and a look of relief as the male looked at her through his glasses, then smiled faintly as he reached up and adjusted them quietly. "Thank you. I guess... being here, and the visions, and... I hope I don't have to live the rest of my life like this."
"I don't know, Scrivy, there's something romantic about the notion that thou art now even more weak and helpless than thou wert before." Luna replied kindly, and Scrivener sighed and gave her an exasperated look before the winged unicorn winked and added softly: "Or perhaps 'tis only the warm fuzziness that can only come from thou saving me, and me saving thee... and both of us, furthermore, saving the other from our own wretched selves more than any outside interference."
Scrivener looked down thoughtfully at this... and then he glanced back up and smiled faintly, studying her even as his vision flickered, seeing not just Luna, but Nightmare Moon... and then he closed his eyes and bowed his head forwards, murmuring softly: "But we've always been our own worst enemies, haven't we? And I'm not even talking about... Nightmare Moon or... that evil part of me. I'm self-destructive and self-centered and you're passionate and brash and... probably a little crazy."
The winged unicorn smiled at this all the same, however, nodding slowly, and Scrivener Blooms stepped up to her side as she turned around. The two stood for a few silent moments on the bank of the black wound in reality, and Scrivener could see the Grimm on the other side hissing at them and flapping their wings as they scattered, as lost souls tried to swim to the surface of the river, staring out at them mournfully... and then both ponies tensed before leaping forwards, their wings flapping in tandem and carrying them across the dark ooze together in one mighty leap, even as claws and grasping hands stretched eagerly out of the mire and wound before receding with a near-silent gasp.
Scrivy and Luna landed easily together, trading smiles before the earth pony looked forwards... and then he winced, a flash going off in his mind as a bolt of pain tore through his head, Luna looking at him with concern before she snarled, hearing it as clearly in her own mind as Scrivener did in his thoughts: Good. Keep struggling, ponies. I almost want you to succeed now... there's benefit in it for me if you do, after all. But either way, I want you to know that at the end of the day... you are going to lose this game we're playing.
"Cowardly animal... slinking through the shadows in my husband's mind, and now thou dares to mock us from thine so-thought 'safe haven?'" Luna snarled, her eyes burning as she glared into Scrivener's head as if she could somehow find Valthrudnir hiding in his ivory mane. "Think not that Nightmare Moon and I will hesitate to comb every last inch of my beloved's mind and soul until we find thee, festering tapeworm!"
Oh, Brynhild, I don't play children's games like hide-and-seek... the Jotnar replied mockingly, and Scrivener could almost see him, grinning and lounging back in a heavy ash throne, the terrible bog-monster-wyrm drooling corruption nearby as the dragon fanned himself with the five cards... and then suddenly reached a hand up, drawing one and stepping forwards, becoming crystal-clear in a black world in Scrivener's vision as the earth pony reared back and stared blindly not at the sky, but this horrible apparition and the card Valthrudnir spun around in his hand. The Hanged Man. A fitting card for you two and the start of our new game: prepare to have your whole world turned upside down.
Valthrudnir threw his head back and laughed... and Scrivener gargled weakly in his throat before he slowly keeled backwards and landed on his back, spasming once as he shuddered and stared at the sky, Luna immediately leaping forwards and looking down at him with fear... but then the male shook his head with a curse, holding up a hoof and catching her by the shoulder as he muttered: "N-No, I'm... fine. I just... my head feels..."
It was impossible to describe, the earth pony gritting his teeth as he clenched his eyes shut, letting Luna carefully help guide him up to his haunches and then onto his hooves... and a shudder ran through the pony as he dropped his head forwards, breathing hard in and out for a few moments before he nodded slowly and muttered: "Okay. Okay... I'm sorry, Luna. It was like my head was a balloon and there was so much pressure, such intensity, and... flowing water..."
He shook his head slowly, grimacing a bit as he realized he was only confusing himself further... but Luna only nodded, looking over him with concern as she said quietly: "I feel the ebb and flow of it, Scrivy, even if I wert fortunate enough to not be struck by the same pains... by the Horses of Heaven above, we... we may need to consult the old lecher on this, much as it pains me to say. The corruption of the Tyrant Wyrm, it keeps hurting thee, and... I cannot bear to see thee like this. Not when we're so close..."
"But that's why it's acting up, Luna. This... echo of Valthrudnir's will... it's because we're so close." Scrivener said tiredly, rubbing slowly at his face as he murmured: "It's tortured us for eight... no, nine years now. It's worked its way through my mind and found the chinks in my armor and the flaws it can exploit. But now we're almost done, and..."
He shook his head slowly, then stood up and smiled a little, saying quietly: "I'm okay. Once we're able to rest, I know I'll do better... all this exertion, being so tired, it's probably making it easier for Valthrudnir to get inside my head one way or the other. Let's... let's just get to City Hall. I don't want to slow us down further than I already have, warrior princess."
"Some days I hate thee, Scrivener Blooms." Luna retorted, and Scrivy gave her a wry, amused look over his shoulder. "And thou calls me bossy."
"You are bossy, Luna." The equine gave her a faintly-entertained look, and the winged unicorn grumbled as they fell into step beside one another, but concern for him still radiated from her body, and the two walked almost close enough for their sides to press together as they continued through the town. They hoped to find hope amidst the ruin and the decay... but the ponies remembered all too well that this place had been the grave of so many ponies' dreams... and the cradle only of the despair that had fed Ragnarok's birth. |
Metempsychosis | That Which Was Desired | Chapter Eleven: That Which Was Desired
~BlackRoseRaven
As they had both half-hoped, half-feared, City Hall was still standing... and furthermore, the ancient, massive stone building looked as if it had actually been further fortified by the enormous sheets of ice that surrounded much of it, even if the statue of Goddess Sol that had once stood on a platform between the set of steps leading up to the doors had been long shattered into pieces. Only a rear leg and the other hoof remained, along with a few random bits of stone, like it had been blown up by some tremendous, focused explosion.
Three Ice Elementals stood silently around the base of the huge stone building, one of them sitting calmly on the steps with its back to a frost-covered stone wall, the other two simply slouching and watching with strange curiosity as Luna and Scrivener hesitantly walked past, making their way apprehensively up the stone steps. The sitting Ice Elemental reached up slowly as they passed, but its movements were slow and less than hostile... even though the scrape of its fingers alone against Scrivener's armor was enough to send a chill through him, leaving a faint sheen of frost over the black metal as the Elementals turned to watch them calmly.
The enormous double doors were blocked by a thick mound of snow, the ancient wood petrified from the extreme cold and warped shut... but Luna and Scrivener only traded a look, then the winged unicorn grinned and cracked her neck, saying mildly: "'Tis not as good as a living object perhaps, but all the same..."
Luna flicked her horn as it gave a sharp pulse, and a burst of blue flames wreathed upwards from the ground in front of her, reducing the bank of snow to steam and mist before they burst out of existence, and then she and Scrivener both lowered themselves before they leapt forwards, slamming their shoulders into either warped, frozen barrier and sending cracks ripping through the heavy wood as the doors were knocked ajar, a puff of snow bursting into the room beyond.
Scrivener Blooms and Luna both wheezed in relief... and then there was a loud crackling from behind them, and they both slowly glanced over their shoulders to stare at the sight of an Ice Elemental now standing at the top of the stairs. Its body radiated cold, mist spilling off and frost crystals glimmering around the creature as it gave a low growl in its throat... and Scrivener and Luna traded awkward looks as the other two Elementals slowly lumbered up the steps behind it, the air growing colder and distinctly more hostile.
"They apparently didn't like what we just did." Scrivener muttered, and the two ponies turned around, backing slowly up... before both of them winced when the center Elemental leaned forwards with a roar that made the air around them shake, several icicles falling from the ceiling above to shatter like glass missiles as both winged unicorn and earth pony leapt backwards through the doorway, Luna cursing and snapping her horn hard upwards to smash the ruined entranceway with telekinesis, half-shattering the wooden doors even as they slammed shut.
Blue mist and white smoke burst out of the holes and cracks in the doorway, hissing upwards and outwards as ice rapidly began to spread along the structure. As the ice grew, snow spilled inwards through other cracks, and Scrivener and Luna traded surprised looks as they both realized that the Elementals weren't trying to force their way in... they were instead freezing the doors of the building shut, leaving the two ponies trapped inside as Luna winced and gritted her teeth, pawing at the ground with a hoof as she said disgustedly: "I know not whether to be glad or furious. We shall have to find another way out after this, Scrivener Blooms... wretched Elementals!"
"Can you get rid of my wings? They're starting to hurt a little. Plus I don't want to permanently be stuck with them." Scrivener said mildly, and Luna gave him a horrible look before the male rolled his eyes and sighed, adding tiredly: "Yes, yes, of course. Damn you silly Elementals. I'm going to write angry poetry about this later. Boo. Happy?"
He rose a hoof and shook it grouchily at the frozen barrier, and Luna gave a sour grumble before she muttered: "'Tis a little better, I suppose, but thou still frustrates me endlessly and I shall pummel thee for it later if I do not get the chance to pummel the Elementals." Luna turned towards him... and then she quieted, instead turning slowly to face the inside of City Hall, and Scrivener softened as he turned himself. "To stand here..."
She fell silent, and Scrivy only nodded slowly, looking over the rotting carpet, the dusty surfaces, the snow that speckled the area here and there and fell in through cracks in the ceiling high above. The enormous staircase at the back of the spacious lobby was half-collapsed, supported more by pillars of frost now than its own stones, and Scrivener and Luna both lowered their heads as the male heard his own voice shouting with raw anger: I'll kill you, Bramblethorn, I'll kill you!
"And that was even before I had the corruption in my head." Scrivy murmured, and Luna laughed a little despite herself at the irony in the male's words, the thoughts that she could sense swirling through his mind. "I guess... I always have had some part of me that just..."
"Aye, Scrivy, perhaps thou did. But... thou art also connected to me, in body, mind, and soul..." Luna bowed her head forwards with a faint smile, gazing towards him as she said quietly: "Besides, poet. 'Twas nice to see thee so passionate instead of just sitting back and letting thyself be booted around."
Scrivener Blooms laughed a bit despite himself at this, looking with a faint smile towards Luna before he nodded slowly, then leaned towards her and gave her a quiet kiss on the cheek, and she looked at him tenderly before winking as her horn glowed, the male wincing and then cursing as the wings on his back burst apart into smoke and ashes, before his modular armor clicked and shifted, plates locking firmly over the now-empty slots in the body armor. "Now, beetle. First of all, let us secure this area, and locate what supplies there are to be found here before we figure out where it shall be best to settle ourselves. We must rest and strategize, after all... especially now that the Elementals have become hostile."
"Probably because you used that fire spell." Scrivener remarked, and Luna gave him a flat, moody look even as she grumpily agreed with him in a grunt. The earth pony only smiled amusedly, however, winking at her before he turned and headed towards the stairs, saying easily over his shoulder: "I'll take the second floor, you can check around down here. Try not to kill anything while I'm gone, okay?"
"Silence, Scrivener Blooms, 'lest I toss thee outside to be pummeled by the Elementals." Luna retorted, and Scrivener cleared his throat awkwardly as he hurried towards the stairs and up them, absently rolling his sore shoulders. He paused halfway up to glance back towards Luna, but she was already on her way across the room, and the earth pony smiled a little at her back before he turned and strode the rest of the way up to the second floor.
He glanced to the side at a door that listed on broken hinges, and he quietly approached this to gently push it open... and grimace at the ugly interior. The bright colors had long since faded, but the clash of once-neon yellow and orange and other awkward hues was no less painful as he gazed back and forth, then grimaced as a crying unicorn Pale looked up from where it was sitting back at the desk.
The ghost of Caprice stared at him with a remarkable amount of terror as she shrank backwards and passed through the broken chair, her translucent head sticking through the back almost like some comical mounted trophy as Scrivener sighed softly at the sight of her, then he said quietly: "Caprice, this was not... I mean... Luna and I aren't here to hurt you, whatever happened in the past. You're a cringing coward but... we... you weren't the worst pony here. You were just another annoying politician and not much better or worse than we dealt with in other places at the end of the day, even if you were married for some godforsaken reason to Bramblethorn."
The Pale of Caprice leaned nervously forwards at this, flickering a bit, and Scrivener rubbed slowly at his face before he said finally: "Look. I'm going to turn and leave now, okay? It's your choice what you want to do, stay in here or run away or... anything else, we're not going to hurt you. And when you hear the call... we won't deny you crossing the Bifrost. I know that doesn't make sense to you now, but it will in the future; just... when you get to the other side, try not to be such a wimp, okay?"
Caprice winced at him, and Scrivener wondered if she was trying to grimace before he only sighed and left, grumbling a bit to himself as he yanked the door mostly closed behind him. Then he glanced down the long second floor walkway towards another door, feeling moody and irritable as he walked slowly forwards.
He glanced absently to the side, looking at the faded and tattered paintings and tapestries on the walls, the broken doorways that he didn't bother to check yet, the snow and frost that dotted the brick here and there... and then, as he faced forwards, something glinted in the corner of his eye as he passed it. He returned his eyes to the wall, and then blinked in surprise as he found himself facing an enormous, cracked mirror, staggering backwards and bumping against the heavy stone railing as he stared at the sight of himself.
Reflected in the mirror, he saw his twisted, darker self: half-Wyrm, half-pony, staring back at him as Scrivener walked slowly towards the cracked reflector and studied himself silently. He looked at the detail of every scale as he rose what was a hoof to him but reflected as a claw in the mirror, stroking it slowly over his cheek, chestnut eyes gazing into mismatched brown and unholy, glowing blue... and then he gritted his teeth, closing his eyes tightly before opening them... and cursing under his breath as the sight of his reflection didn't change.
Then, as he watched, the Wyrm half of his form began to spread, scales spreading over the rest of his features and frame, highlighting the scarring around one eye and making it glisten ivory as hooves cracked apart and became gnarled talons, as piston-like bone spikes shoved up from his shoulders and a second wing sprouted and flapped... and Scrivener stared, his reflection still moving in time with him even as it transformed. He stared into the eyes of the Tyrant Wyrm the mirror reflected him as... then he slowly, hesitantly reached a hoof up, touching it silently to the surface.
Hoof pressed against reflected claw, and Scrivener sighed quietly, studying the shape as he tilted his head back and forth. The Tyrant Wyrm possessed no mane and no ears, but large, gnarled horns... and Scrivy looked over it thoughtfully before he muttered: "You know, I don't look half-bad for a world destroying parasite, really. Scars look better on scales than they do on my coat... still kind of ugly though. But claws... claws are cool. Hooves are a pain in the flank..."
He paused, then thoughtfully leaned back before grunting as he stood carefully on his hind hooves: unlike him, his reflection bore no armor, and Scrivener looked curiously over his grayer underbelly as he balanced on his back legs, front limbs stretched out to either side. "I wonder if there's a giant eyeball in there. Do they have entire worlds inside their shells? Are we not all just worlds, though, each and every one of us a universe of incoherent thoughts?"
The earth pony grimaced after a moment, muttering: "Actually, no, Discombobulation is a better thief than me. Guess that means he's probably a better writer, too." Scrivy paused, then he threw a few easy punches with his front hooves at the mirror, watching as his reflection mimicked the motion, and then the earth pony swayed his tail back and forth and smiled amusedly as the Wyrm's tail twisted in the same movements. "Tyrant Wyrms are supposed to be big, though. I look more like the puppy-sized version. I'm a Tyrant Puppy. Or a Tyrant punt-dog depending on your view of purse-sized animals."
Scrivener Blooms leaned backwards slightly, then carefully attempted to stand on one hoof, holding his front legs out wide as his reflection did the same, grinning a bit despite himself as he rocked back and forth. "Not so bad, really. Hey, I wonder if I can make my individual claws flex or if-"
"Will you stop that?" Valthrudnir appeared in a flash in the mirror, the draconic Jotnar snarling and smashing Scrivener's Wyrm reflection savagely out of the way with a sweep of one huge arm, and Scrivy shouted a flurry of surprised curses as he toppled backwards and rolled into the railing with a loud thud, wincing as his head smacked against the stone column and he stared dumbly at the mirror. "Idiotic little miscreant, are you too stupid to appreciate what you're becoming?"
Scrivener grimaced a bit as Valthrudnir snarled in the cracked mirror, enormous and imposing, taking up all dozen or so feet of the mirror's height and most of its width, and then the earth pony grumbled to himself as he slowly climbed to his hooves, saying distastefully: "Look. We're in Hell. We're in North Neigh, which honestly? It's probably worse than Hell for me. I'm a monster, we've gone over this a thousand times, and you're in my head, whatever the hell you are, and I keep having psycho visions and I'm very tired and sore and nothing is working the way it's supposed to. If after all this time, you think that making my reflection look like what we all already know I'm turning into on the inside is the worst you can come up with, then I seriously have to begin questioning just how smart you ever were, and how lucky you must have been that you managed to cause all the chaos you did."
Valthrudnir snarled at this, looking infuriated as he pointed at him through the glass, saying darkly: "You listen to me, cheating mortal. I am in control here. I am going to win this game and-"
"Oh, so 'tis as I feared." Scrivy glanced over the railing, and Valthrudnir snorted in the mirror, crossing his arms and looking disgusted as the winged unicorn gracefully flew upwards and sailed over the edge of the walkway, dropping to land easily on it as she glared at the tall, cracked reflective glass. "I cannot see thee with mine own eyes, Valthrudnir, but I can hear thy loud, rude voice in my mind, and through my husband's senses I detect thy trickery. And yes, my beloved beetle may be an idiot at times, but his magnificent idiocy is very much part of the reason why I love him and am so proud of him, especially since the magnificent idiot so spectacularly outwitted the great and wicked genius of a mighty Jotnar like thyself."
The draconic entity narrowed his eyes dangerously at this, leaning forwards as he said coldly: "You talk a big game, Brynhild, for such a filthy little animal. For all your cherishing of him, Valkyrie, you're also the one who made it so easy to corrupt him... who skewered his values and twisted his morals and taught him indulgence in depravity... and killed the little conscience the filthy sewer rat had."
"Hi. I'm right here." Scrivener said dryly, holding up a hoof, and Valthrudnir's eye visibly twitched as Luna shot an exasperated look at the earth pony, but she was grinning slightly all the same, recognizing the surly, frustrated look all too well. It was the look the earth pony always got when he had finally been pushed too far, to the point where the self-destructive and stubborn parts of his personality commingled together and he started pushing back. "Also, I was plenty indulgent before Luna came along. I almost ruined myself drinking, for one thing. For another, I know that a lot of stuff Luna does, she does because she can see inside of me and knows it's something I'll enjoy. Even if she is such a dirty, dirty girl."
He gave her a pointed look, and Luna glared at him even as she snorted in entertainment, saying seriously in response: "Scrivener Blooms, be not so naughty, 'lest I bend thee over my knee and spank thee, heinous little creature."
"Is that a promise?" Scrivener replied glibly, and Luna threw her head back and laughed as Valthrudnir's jaw dropped... and then the dragon let out a snarling roar, leaning forwards as his eyes blazed with fury and frustration, his face alone filling up the entire mirror as both of the ponies winced away from the reflective surface.
"Cease this immediately and show me some respect, pathetic mortal animals! I am Jotnar, you are under my control, and I am the one who destroyed this world!" Valthrudnir shouted furiously, his voice echoing violently through Luna and Scrivy's mind and making them both wince and snarl. "You are nothing more than puppets dancing on my strings, alive because I have chosen to bide my time, because I want to watch you struggle and suffer and dance, because-"
"Because you're the one who's trapped in my mind!" Scrivener shouted back, storming towards the mirror as his eyes blazed, and Luna stepped up beside him, her mane sparking, her own eyes glowing as she and the earth pony both glared at the surprised draconic entity as its face drew slightly away from the strange window of the mirror. "You're the one who's all talk, who plays with illusions, who keeps dragging me into these long-winded verbal battles that are never anything more than a thin veil for you declaring 'look at me, guys, I'm the best, guys!' Well enough, Valthrudnir! Go back to your tumor in my mind, get the hell out of here until you have something useful to say, and then we'll talk!"
And with that, Scrivener leapt up and shoved his front hooves against either side of the mirror, then slammed his forehead into the glass hard enough to send a spiderweb of cracks through the reflective surface, the illusion of the draconic Jotnar fizzling out completely with a look of dumb surprise before Scrivener fell backwards on his haunches, wincing a bit and with several large shards of broken mirror clinging to his scalp as Luna winced, faint scratches forming over her own head.
But the earth pony only sulked as he sat back on his haunches, a single bead of blood rolling down his forehead and along his muzzle as he muttered: "Well. I feel distinctly stupid now but at least he went away. I'm starting to understand why Pinkamena is always biting things."
"Scrivener Blooms, thou loud, boisterous, foolish wretch." Luna smiled at him faintly, and then she strode quietly over to him and leaned down to brush the broken pieces of mirror from the earth pony's forehead, before she kissed his cuts softly. The faint droplets of blood smeared against her lower lip like lipstick as her horn glowed quietly, and then the earth pony laughed despite himself as he closed his eyes, feeling the wounds healing closed as Luna's magic washed over him before she drew back and gazed silently down into his eyes. "What am I to do with thee, foolish beetle? Worse yet, if thou continues to act like this, thou may no longer have need of me to pummel things. Thou art starting to actually act a little like the hero I have always felt thou could be."
This made Scrivener blush a bit and mumbled, shifting before he smiled awkwardly up at her, and Luna grinned slightly as she looked down at him, saying thoughtfully: "Or perhaps thou art still the same silly mare I married all those years ago."
"I guess I am. I'm so lucky you're a lesbian." Scrivener replied dryly, looking up at her mildly, and Luna rolled her eyes in amusement at this before she headbutted him lightly, making him wince as their scratched foreheads firmly bumped together. "Ouch. But okay, I'm happy you're bisexual. Better?"
"Thou art one to talk, poet." Luna retorted, and Scrivy glowered at her before he headbutted her firmly, and she winced and leaned back a bit before they both smiled at one another, eyes locking, trading images and memories and thoughts before she jerked her head towards the railing and said softly: "Come, let us return down to the lobby. I discovered an old storage closet, where various robes and coats were kept. They shall make sufficient bedding."
Scrivener laughed quietly and glanced past her hesitantly, then he met her eyes, saying softly: "I'll join you in a minute then, Luna. Let me take a quick look around here... the Pale of Caprice is lingering in her office, and I was just... I mean..."
Luna softened a bit, studying the earth pony... and then she nodded slowly, leaning forwards and kissing his cheek gently. "Fair enough then, my sweet daydreamer. But if thou needs my help... do not hesitate to ask. Even if it is just for support. Thou does not have to face anything alone... I am always there for thee, Scrivy."
"I know, Luna. And I appreciate it." He paused, looking down for a moment, before he looked back up and added quietly: "I love you."
Luna blushed a bit, but then she smiled softly, leaning forwards and murmuring softly: "I love thee too. But every time thou says such a thing so suddenly I always fear thou art plunging into some self-destructive spiral of rage and vexation. Especially when I feel thy mood... darkening. I worry for thee, fragile poet. Thy shell is tough, beetle, but thy insides are soft as a mare's fine skin."
"And you're such a good example of that." Scrivener replied with a slight smile as he turned away, and Luna opened her mouth, then huffed at his back as he strode down the walkway towards a broken doorway, adding easily over his shoulder: "Don't worry, Luna. I'll break down and cry later. How does that sound?"
"Just do not do it in the middle of battle, 'twill be awkward to explain to the Elementals." Luna replied quickly, and Scrivener grumbled as the winged unicorn snorted in entertainment before she turned and leapt over the railing, spreading her proud wings and gliding easily down towards the ground as she added softly to herself: "I only wish thou did not feel such unnecessary shame, beloved husband."
Scrivener halted at the broken door at the end of the hall, sighing a bit as he dropped his head forwards and clunked his forehead quietly against it, half-hearing Luna's words and catching her thoughts... and then he smiled a little, straightening and saying softly: "You hear that, Scrivener Blooms? Making your wife and best friend worry about you. Why do you have to be such a damn jerk sometimes?"
He laughed a little, then reached up and shoved the door open... and stared in surprise as beyond, he found that the ceiling had collapsed over a desk and several shattered shelves. Snow was scattered here and there, but the hole in the roof had been patched by ice and frost that had spread over it in sheets almost a full foot thick, several large icicles and thick roots of frost spread down the walls and offering both support and a death trap should the former decide to fall.
But most notable of all was the Haunt that stood, rasping silently in the corner of the room, the unicorn slowly turning its staring, blackened features towards him. It was ghastly, coat stretched and blackened with both rot and frostbite as it gazed at him for a few moments from its sunken sockets... and then Scrivener winced as a sharp pain went through his eyes before he found himself staring at a red unicorn mare, who leaned towards him and whispered: "Please help me... I'm so cold, and my hoof is stuck..."
Scrivener looked pityingly at the Haunt for a few moments as reality flickered in his vision and it became only the dead shape again... and his eyes traveled slowly downwards, to not a lodged hoof... but a missing leg. He looked at this silently, then finally gazed up and met its eyes as the unicorn mare flickered in his vision again, saying softly: "Close your eyes for me."
The Haunt looked at him worriedly, but then she did so apprehensively... and Scrivener walked slowly forwards, gently reaching his hoof up to its shoulder, carefully pushing against the dead thing's side to test the strength of its body before he wrapped a foreleg around it, supporting it against him as he instructed quietly: "Now carefully, we're going to walk forwards a few paces, okay? Keep your eyes closed."
"Are you sure? Am I free? Why can't I look?" The mare flickered in his vision, and then it was only a rasping, dead corpse again, and Scrivener closed his own eyes tightly as he carefully supported the corpse, walking a few slow paces with it before the creature's haunches buckled and it fell to a sitting position... but when he opened his eyes, he saw the shape of the red mare gazing up at him with relief, the unicorn smiling as tears rolled down her cheeks and she whispered: "You're not... not nearly as bad as the other unicorns said... I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for what the unicorns did. I'm so sorry for everything I did. I'm so... so sorry..."
"It's okay." Scrivener smiled faintly at her, gently settling her down... and the mare gazed up at him before the illusion flickered again, becoming the shape of the blackened Haunt once more, but Scrivener reached forwards all the same, touching its frostbitten cheek as he said quietly: "Now rest here. Lay your head down and sleep."
The Haunt rasped something to him wordlessly... and then slowly, it lowered its head and fell still and silent, its body giving a single pulse before it lost the sense of awful, clinging sadness and vitality that had clung to it. Scrivener looked down at it silently, glad that it had been set free... and then he closed his eyes, turning around and sighing softly as he let himself through the door and muttered: "Guess all unicorns... weren't so bad, anyway..."
He checked several other doors on the second floor, and found only a heavy cloak in remarkably good condition in one room, resting over a trunk. Otherwise, there was nothing of interest... marks where something had been burned, a few scars of battle, a few frozen and dead unicorn bodies that thankfully didn't move. He also thought he caught a glimpse of a Pale, but wandering ghosts were far from uncommon in this world... and for all he knew, it could be Caprice, spying furtively on them and trying to decide whether or not he was a sorcerer still.
He snorted in amusement at this thought as he headed down the steps to find Luna laying on several coats and cloaks she had gathered in front of a burning pile of debris, sapphire flames dancing greedily over the shattered remnants of desk and chairs and yet consuming very little of the wood as she glanced over her shoulder and smiled a bit. "Thou art either too kind or trying thy hardest to irritate me, Scrivener Blooms."
"Can't it be both?" Scrivy smiled back, tossing her the heavy black cloak, and Luna caught it before curiously inspecting the coat of arms on the back, of two unicorns standing on either side of three tall golden horns. "Unicorn monarchy symbol. Traditional, they call it, dates back some seventeen hundred years or so."
Luna nodded thoughtfully, then she shrugged a bit before carefully slipping the cloak on, saying quietly: "Well, 'tis not like I shall need this for very long, anyway. What about thou, Scrivener Blooms? Surely thou cannot seriously be fine in this accursed weather."
"I dunno. It just doesn't bother me, Luna... the cold, that is." Scrivener shrugged a bit, leaning over and resting against her, and Luna pressed her side back against the male's as she turned her face to bury it quietly into his mane, eyes closed. "Everything else about North Neigh bothers me but... the cold never does. It's like the darkness... the cold embraces me."
"Oh, compare not my pleasant and beautiful night that we both so miss to this damnable cold. Maybe thou art meant to go to Helheim." Luna said moodily, and Scrivener laughed despite himself as he gave her an amused look. "Silence, wretched creature."
Scrivener nudged her gently, and she grumbled and nudged him firmly back with her shoulder, grumbling: "Thou should pummel me for this idea. Wretched, damnable, silly idea that it is. I would rather be back in stuffy Canterlot, locked away in my room under motherly Celestia than here, now that we have arrived... and 'twill be a long few hours while we heal and regenerate, Scrivener Blooms. A long few hours I wish we could pass in... greater delights, but... this place makes me uncomfortable."
She quieted, then leaned away with a soft sigh, the two studying one another for a few moments before she lowered her head and murmured: "I keep remembering... what happened here. How much we suffered... how much we lost. And that this terrible place... this is what thou gave up thy mind for, Scrivy." She laughed faintly, glancing towards him, looking over him slowly as she whispered: "It humbles me that thou can be so generous of heart."
The male only smiled faintly, however, lowering his head and murmured quietly: "Not really, Luna... I mean, how often have we both regretted what we did here? But while I know that given the chance, you'd do it all over again, you'd save these ponies... I... I don't know if I would, if I could, knowing what... what it would cost. What it would just lead to...
"Every day, I wonder. If we had known what we were up against, and that the Tyrant Wyrm itself was only another distraction... would I have preferred to let it feed off of and destroy the city, innocents and all amidst the guilty unicorns? Would we have ignored the problem it posed, gone straight to the Black Baroque if we had known that was where all this evil was coming from, and... could we have made everything different, at the cost of..." Scrivener closed his eyes and laughed a bit, dropping his head forwards as he muttered: "I'm sorry, Luna. I'm not making sense, I know. I'm just... look at what I've become. Forget what I'm becoming, what I've already become is..."
He quieted, glancing away, and Luna hugged him tightly around the neck, pushing herself closer to him and murmuring: "And look at whom and what I am, Scrivener Blooms. Nightmare Moon, and yet still thou wert my friend from the very beginning, and worked to understand me... to care for me, and help me, and teach me. And I have learned much from being with thee, and nothing more important than that it is we who shape ourselves and our destinies... and that even the greatest of darkness can be used for good. But we have a promise, do we not, Scrivy? Come. Out of these dreary thoughts, on to better things, 'lest I pummel thee."
"I just hate feeling like I'm your greatest vulnerability... like I could become a threat to you. Like I might hurt you." Scrivener paused meditatively, then he smiled a bit at her, bowing his head towards the winged unicorn and adding with soft entertainment: "Although there is something darkly and delightfully romantic about the whole thing too, isn't there? Me and you, the Tyrant Pony and the Valkyrie. Our kid is going to be so messed up."
"Thou art not a Tyrant Pony, thou art a Jerk Pony." Luna retorted grouchily, and then she headbutted him and mumbled: "Besides, what is most awkward of all is that I almost enjoy said analogy. We would rule the battlefield with greater ease than perhaps even Celestia ever did... but 'twould likely be awkward in bed, though."
"I love how that's where your mind goes to, Luna. The battlefield and the bedroom... although to you, they're both battlegrounds, aren't they?" Scrivener asked mildly, glancing up towards the blue flame... and then he winced when Luna firmly bopped him with her horn, giving him a sour look. "Well, you said it, not me. I'm merely remarking on it."
"Oh, shut up, poet." Luna grumbled, and then she buried her face against the side of his neck with a sigh, saying sullenly: "We are strange, strange creatures, Scrivener Blooms. We have made each other better and worse over the years, just as Helheim has made us better and worse. I dislike this."
"I know Luna. I know." Scrivener wrapped a foreleg around her, and the two pressed close in front of the sapphire fire, curling their bodies tighter together. It was a long time before the two could relax, however... but eventually, they both began to settle and relax even in the shells of their armor, nuzzling each other softly and trading gentle affections as they clung to each other for comfort more than heat.
Luna slowly closed her eyes as Scrivener sat up a bit, gazing at her quietly as the winged unicorn yawned a little before smiling up at him as she settled over the cloaks, and then she murmured softly: "Only an hour, daydreamer, then waken me and I shall return the favor and watch over thee as thou sleeps. A little sleep may do a world of good for us both."
Scrivener nodded, rubbing a hoof gently along her back as he replied quietly: "Of course, Luna. Get some sleep now, and I'll wake you when it's time to switch."
The winged unicorn nodded, then she leaned up towards him and glared at him insistently, and Scrivener rolled his eyes in entertainment before he leaned down and turned his head to the side, allowing her to kiss his cheek before she flopped back on the cloaks and mumbled: "Wretched beetle. Wretched world. I shall pummel Odin for seeding Midgard like this in the first place. God of Wisdom my flank..."
Scrivener only gazed at her with entertainment as he reached up to adjust his glasses, and Luna huffed a bit as she curled up beneath the thick cloak over her body amidst the musty but comfortable cloth she had found... but the feeling of the black pearl against her chest and the knowledge her husband was watching out for her helped her steadily relax, falling steadily into sleep.
Luna's eyes opened in a dream world, gazing back and forth with a soft smile as she stood up and studied her surroundings. The floor was marble, the walls were obsidian, and beautiful tapestries and paintings hung over them; it was a magnificent entrance hall, with an enormous staircase at the back of the room leading up to an enormous open archway. Luna was drawn towards this, the oak steps murmuring beneath her hooves as she climbed the stairs and passed through the arch onto a wide balcony, and she climbed to her hind hooves to lean with a look of awe over the white marble railing, gazing down at a magnificent, wild valley lit by the moon and stars high above.
Enormous trees and strange fauna and flora played all throughout the sprawled vale, and she could hear the songs of night-birds mixing with the chuckling of a flowing, tranquil river. But it was not merely the beauty that compelled her... it was the strange knowledge that all this was hers, and yet was not: it was her kingdom, but it was wild, it was free, it did not require her to rule over it as Celestia had always ruled over Equestria... and she closed her eyes, tilting her head upwards and basking beneath the light of the moon as she whispered: "Wonderful."
"And it is all yours." Nightmare Moon's voice spoke kindly, and Luna turned around with surprise to gaze at the enormous obsidian equine was she strode out of the archway, smiling tenderly. Her eyes gleamed, and the wreath of black roses around her neck swayed slowly as she leaned down and said quietly: "This can and will be the fruit of our achievements together, my dear child Luna. Especially working alongside beloved Scrivener Blooms... that is what will make it all worthwhile, isn't it? Now look into the forest."
Luna frowned a bit, but then she slowly turned around when Nightmare Moon gave her a softly-imploring gaze, and the winged unicorn leaned up and over the railing to gaze once more through the forest veil... before her eyes widened as she caught sight of something enormous slithering amongst the trees, and a flash of strange, eldritch light. It rumbled... and yet it sent a thrill through her, before she gritted her teeth as Nightmare Moon stepped up beside her and whispered in her ear: "It excites me too. But remember... that he must choose for himself. Yes, we have both tampered with Scrivener Blooms over the years, let us both admit our faults in this... I have allowed myself too often to be blinded by my desire to make him strong, by forgetting that... my ideals, my thoughts of love, are tainted by my own darkness, and perhaps my own ego.
"But do not forget that I love him too. That he is most precious to me..." Nightmare Moon smiled as Luna gazed at her, the tall, black equine saying in a voice that was tender, that was somehow soothing: "He is more important to me than you, perhaps, Luna. And this comforts you and scares you, but not for the reasons many would expect... but he is more important to you than you are to yourself as well, isn't he? He makes you forget the instinct of self-preservation... but as you are both so tightly bound and bonded, perhaps he also inclines you to always remember your priorities... perhaps striving so hard to make him happy and please him and save him is merely selfishness. Did you not once believe it would be better to die than to serve as a thrall to evil?"
"Aye, I did, but Scrivener Blooms will conquer the corruption. Will conquer Valthrudnir, too..." Luna hesitated, looking silently up at Nightmare Moon as she whispered: "And I believe he will conquer us as well, and these terrible things we do to him, have pushed upon him. I do not know... why I do, Nightmare Moon. And I know 'tis not just thou, 'tis me. I wish to see him strong, I wish to see him happy, and I influence him and do... wicked things to him without meaning to. Encourage him in things I know, I know I should help mend instead of further test and pressure... what do I do, Nightmare Moon? What is it inside me that compels me towards... towards evil..."
"Shh, little one, it is alright." Nightmare Moon stepped forwards, gently embracing Luna and pulling her closer, and the smaller winged unicorn went willingly, resting her head against the enormous ebony equine's chest, smelling the perfume of the black roses as she closed her eyes tightly and shivered a bit against this being of darkness manifested inside her. "You are a Valkyrie. You are a warrior, with a warrior's instincts... but more than that, we have always been different, have we not? We are willing to do what is necessary, and to fight darkness with darkness, and to do anything to ensure the protection of our loved ones. We do not bend to the laws of others, but rather follow our own code... especially true now that we have lived here in Helheim for so long.
"It is in your nature, Luna, to... change... what you contact." Nightmare Moon continued delicately, and the sapphire winged unicorn winced and looked up apprehensively at this as Nightmare Moon gazed back down with a sympathetic smile. "And Scrivener Blooms has much that has left him... easier to compel into our dark world. The corruption of the Tyrant Wyrm only added to this... and is it so wrong we want to make him powerful? That we want him to be able to stride onto the battlefield with the same great strength as us? That we want him to be the most miraculous of treasures, the treasure that protects itself?"
She smiled encouragingly, then gazed outwards again towards the vale, saying softly: "I believe, beloved Luna... that Scrivener Blooms will maintain himself no matter what occurs. But to be honest? I also do not have the same... cares and worries that you do. Because I always remember that no matter what occurs... what path we choose... we always walk the path together. Scrivener Blooms will never leave and betray us, and we shall never leave and betray him." Nightmare Moon closed her eyes, smiling as she tilted her head back with an expression that was almost blissful. "Even if he did somehow transform into a terrible Tyrant Wyrm, we know he would not hurt us. And we would still stand beside him even if he had their awful hungers as well as their awful powers..."
"And that is what scares me, creature." Luna murmured, bowing her head forwards as she laughed weakly. "I do not believe that... Scrivener Blooms will magically transform into a giant, death-breathing lizard. That would be a vast and stupid overestimation of the echo of Valthrudnir's powers... I fear rather that he will be twisted inside, but I do not... I do not wish to imagine what that would do to him.
"But I know that whether or not I dove first into the shadows, or Scrivener Blooms strode fearlessly into the darkness himself... I would follow him, and he would follow me with no hesitation, no fear, only love. Terrible, dark love..." Luna laughed faintly, shaking her head slowly as she whispered: "We would save the world to make each other happy... and yet, we would destroy it, too, and gladly, if only to make the other smile. Is this truly love, Nightmare Moon? Is love truly such a dangerous, evil, and powerful thing? For even had I not this connection in soul to Scrivener Blooms... I still think that... that without him, I would wither and die. Just as he thinks so often that without me, he would lose all purpose... love is a killer, Nightmare Moon. Love is dangerous. Love is darker than thou and I put together. Love is a worse manipulator than Valthrudnir."
The darkness-touched equine only laughed quietly, however, looking down at her and saying tenderly: "Which is why it is perfect for us, and for you, and for our beloved treasure. We are not good ponies, after all... perhaps, we are no longer even ponies, whatever our shapes may belie."
"Say it not!" Luna snapped, looking up at her with teeth grit, but Nightmare Moon only slid her hooves soothingly along Luna's shoulders, gazing down at her kindly, and the winged unicorn gave a shiver as she dropped her head forwards against the broad chest of the creature and whispered: "Say it not. I fear every day what we are, Nightmare Moon... thou does not need to further remind me of the fact that I am a monster."
The larger winged unicorn only gave a tender smile, leaning down and whispering softly in her ear: "What would you rather be, precious Luna? A monster... or unable to protect and save these loved ones, these treasures? The abyss holds many secrets, if only you are willing to plumb its depths... a monster's eyes may be the windows to a soul more real and alive than that of many so-called heroes. I do not fear being a monster... and I do not think Scrivener Blooms does, either."
Luna fidgeted apprehensively, and Nightmare Moon finally drew back, gazing out towards the forest as there was a flash of blue light from the vale, as something rumbled through the trees as she said thoughtfully: "Still, there are many considerations to take into account yet, and much to be done before we allow other petty concerns to overwhelm our mind and spirit. Darling Luna, do not despair... only do what must be done. Embrace who you are... do not push Scrivener Blooms, but aid his own decision with empathy and compassion, things that I am not as familiar with as you are. Let us all work together, in our loving companionship... I am sure the future holds many wonders, no matter what path we take."
Then Nightmare Moon turned, striding back through the archway, leaving Luna sitting alone on the balcony as she breathed slowly in and out, trembling a bit before she clenched her eyes shut and murmured: "I do not understand what thou means to achieve, Nightmare Moon... but at the same time, I know that I must take thy advice. I only hope that thou speaks the truth of the future... that... things will work out."
She sighed a little, then shook her head and turned around, moodily throwing her front limbs over the railing and dropping her chin over them as she grumbled: "'Tis all nonsense. I wish that I could pummel it all into place... and here I am, dreaming of my husband becoming a world-eater. 'Tis worse than when he dreams of me permitting him to take care of me, although at least this is far more possible." She paused reflectively, adding musingly: "And at least Scrivener's goals are noble: he would never steal from me the thrill of the battle, and never fight for me did I not make it clear I wished him to... but sometimes, only sometimes, 'tis nice to know that should I somehow ever have all four of my legs cut off and my wings removed, then I could take a day off now and then to permit Scrivener Blooms to do more than the housework and cookery."
She smiled despite herself at this, then leaned out as there was another ripple through the forest, hoping to catch a clearer glimpse of the shape... but then the vale fell still and silent, and she sighed a little, saying grouchily: "There is something so very, very wrong with me. No wonder Celestia always mothered me, I am damaged and unwell. I am almost a poet. Not quite, but almost."
She leaned forwards a bit further, musing to herself as she looked back and forth over the beautiful night forest... and then Luna reared back in surprise as the head of an enormous, black-scaled, ivory-scarred Tyrant Wyrm rose slowly up in front of her, unnatural blue light shining from its eyes as it released a plume of foggy blue breath that hissed softly through the air: it smelled of spices and cooked meat, impossible to identify as the winged unicorn stared, drawing her eyes along features she recognized in spite of how changed they were, how enormous it was, as the creature's head leaned forwards before it grinned widely, ivory teeth glinting as it spoke in a soft rumble: "Dreams are powerful, aren't they? You can have anything you want in a dream world. Sometimes... I wish we could sleep forever, together..."
"Scrivy." Luna smiled faintly, stepping forwards and reaching up to touch the end of his enormous muzzle, and the creature's gaze was soft and tender as it gazed down at her, an expression she had never expected to see on the face of any Tyrant Wyrm... an expression that made her smile wider, almost brought tears to her eyes as she saw in it her husband, her beloved... as it reminded her that no matter what the shape, it was not a monster: he was not a monster, and to her, he never would be. "Did thou fall asleep, great foolish lout?"
Scrivener Blooms only laughed quietly, however, and he drew back slightly for a moment before he rose up on his hind legs, enormous, gnarled claws grasping either side of the castle as his head leaned down over her, and Luna gazed up at him with exhilaration and a wide grin, licking her lips and both loving and hating the thrill the sight gave her. "No, but you told me to wake you up after an hour. Well, it's been two hours, and I decided the easiest way to get your attention would be to slip into your mind. But with you thinking of me in this shape, and me... admittedly poking a lot through thoughts I shouldn't... this form seemed most natural to appear to you in." He paused meditatively, eyes giving a faint flash. "Funny, this form being the most natural. Yet... all the same... it helps somehow."
"Thou let me sleep for an extra hour? Foul beetle." Luna grumbled, and then she flicked her horn towards him, sending a small blue flare shooting upwards to strike Scrivener's breast, the fireball bursting over his scales and making him wince back slightly... but then only grin down at her, and she snorted in amusement at this. "Do not make me crack thee open to discover if thou really are the same as the other Wyrms, with a blackened and ashen world inside thee and a great and grinning eye."
"Eyes can't really grin, they don't have teeth." Scrivener retorted, and he leaned down with a flash of his enormous ivory fangs. "I have teeth."
"I have teeth as well, Scrivener Blooms. The difference is that mine are like this in reality, so thou should shut thy foolish gaping mouth." Luna grinned back widely, her own jaws like a trap filled with deadly, polished blades, and Scrivy laughed before the winged unicorn shook her head and said amusedly: "Retreat from my dreamworld, beetle. I shall be out shortly, and then thou can parade around however thy pleases in thine own mind."
Scrivener smiled... and then he leaned suddenly, impulsively down, kissing the side of her face quietly, and Luna turned almost beet-red at the contact before the Tyrant Wyrm-shaped poet winked and burst apart into blue smog. The winged unicorn grumbled in frustration under her breath as she closed her eyes tightly, willing herself towards wakefulness as she muttered: "Idiot stupid damnable beloved Scrivener Blooms..."
Slowly, Luna felt herself dropping downwards, breathing a little harder as her eyes flickered... and then finally opened, and she yawned quietly as she stretched her limbs out, once more feeling soft cloaks beneath her body before she sat up with surprise as she realized that not only had her helm had been removed, there was a pillow under her head and a blanket thrown over her body. She looked up with surprise at Scrivy, who was sitting nearby, calmly writing... and he gave her a soft smile, shrugging a bit and saying quietly: "It just took a few minutes of digging around. You know, you spent another half an hour flailing your way to wakefulness."
"Shut up, Scrivy, 'tis... tiresome." Luna mumbled, and she absently rolled her head on her shoulders before finally climbing to her hooves and shaking herself out briskly, ephemeral mane and tail sizzling softly around her before she smiled over at him quietly. "Thou... has my thanks, though. And... Scrivener Blooms, listen-"
"No." Scrivener smiled over at her, and Luna looked surprised before the male quietly put his quill and inkwell aside, then glanced over the sheet of parchment before he said softly: "We have a job to do that takes precedence over everything else right now. We have ponies to try and save, and I've... written my thoughts down, and don't think I need to mope about it anymore, now that all my worries are trapped in paper. So I'm going to have a nap now, and when you wake me up, we'll go out there, kick some flank, and then figure a way out to march those Pales all the way back home. Sound good?"
Luna looked at him for a few moments... then she stepped forwards and embraced him fiercely, and Scrivener leaned back in surprise before she kissed his cheek and murmured in his ear: "It sounds as if thou has finally decided to join the living instead of the moping dead, Scrivener Blooms. I'm proud of thee."
Scrivener laughed a little at this, reaching up and rubbing his front hooves along her sides as they leaned together... and then they pulled apart and smiled, studying one another before trading a short, soft kiss, and Luna gazed warmly after him as the male approached the cloaks and dropped over them. He pulled Sleipnir's helm off his head, putting it aside and tossing his glasses off, and the winged unicorn drew her eyes over his scarred features as he pulled the blanket up over his body and lowered himself to the pillow, yawning and saying quietly: "Don't let me sleep for too long. I'm not a magical unicorn like you and my body's already pretty well-rested."
"Unlike thou, I am not kind enough to modify my schedules for thee in any event. Rest for an hour, Scrivy, and then I shall awaken thee and we shall be on our way." Luna replied gently, and the earth pony smiled to her before he closed his eyes with a nod, and the winged unicorn gazed over him lovingly before she turned her head to curiously glance at the parchment, her horn glowing blue as she lifted it and smiled at Scrivener's messy writing.
Her eyes drew over the words: it was more like prose than poetry, but most of all it was a recording of the male's thoughts. They rambled, jumbled together, almost incoherent... and yet to Luna it all made perfect sense, knowing the male as she did, and she gazed over at him softly before putting the parchment down and quietly leaning over the earth pony, leaning down to kiss his temple... and the male smiled a bit, murmuring: "I'm not even asleep yet, mother Luna."
"Quiet, beetle, and accept the little gifts in life with grace." Luna replied tenderly, and she reached a hoof up to stroke along his back quietly before she gazed towards the sapphire flames, laughing softly and adding in a murmur: "Beloved Scrivener Blooms, my poet, my beetle, my daydreamer. Forget not that the quill is mightier than the blade. A sword may take a life, but a poem may take a nation."
"Only if you're good at it, and I'm not." Scrivener replied, eyes still closed as he dozed, and Luna sighed and rolled her eyes before she firmly smacked him, making him wince and start. "Should I just not sleep, then?"
"Nay, go on, rest now." Luna replied with a roll of her eyes, looking down at him with entertainment as she slowly shook her head. "We have time yet... even if the world is close to collapse, we still have much time left."
Scrivener smiled a bit at this thought, nodding slowly... and Luna sat over him protectively, watching as the male settled down into sleep, gazing over him with affection and love as the blue flames of the bonfire crackled quietly and cast warmth through the hollow room of the broken town that was trapped in Helheim's eternal frost. |
Metempsychosis | Ragnarok's Dark Cradle | Chapter Twelve: Ragnarok's Dark Cradle
~BlackRoseRaven
Luna sketched while Scrivener slept until she got bored and kicked him awake, after giving him some fifty minutes of rest. The earth pony had been surly, blinking sleep tiredly from his eyes and mumbling grouchily as Luna went about the task of cooking the last of their fish. They took their time with the meal, eating slowly as Scrivener finally came around to full wakefulness, his body a little sore, muscles tired but loosening up as he and Luna rested side-by-side, backs heated by the sapphire flames behind them as they looked at the frozen-shut doors and passed thoughts of planning and strategy back and forth.
Not that there was a whole lot of strategy about what they planned to do: get to the Black Baroque, perhaps dare to delve into its haunted depths, and then begin summoning and leading on the Pales. Of course, calling the spirits to them would also have the nasty side effect of possibly getting the attention of demons and other wicked things... but as long as they didn't attract anything that could injure the ghosts as well, Luna and Scrivener were confident in their ability to fight off whatever dared to try and attack them.
The two traded looks, trading thoughts... and then the winged unicorn nodded slowly, saying quietly: "Alright Scrivener Blooms. Thou may wear it this time, but only because we do not know what lays ahead. And if something begins to happen... do not worry for the relic. We can lead the Pales on with my horn, we have done it before even though it is... tiring, and will make the journey back rougher on us both. But our comforts and luxury can be sacrificed if it means protecting our, and the spirits within our care."
"I know, Luna. But if something does happen, I'm going to try and protect both." The male replied softly, glancing towards where the open satchel sat, and Luna sighed but nodded grudgingly as she turned her own gaze towards the saddlebag with a grumble as her horn glowed quiet blue.
A moment later, a cloth-wrapped object rose quietly out of the bag, and Scrivener smiled a bit as the blanket padding it carefully extracted itself from around the strange, long shape, revealing a thick collar made of segmented plates of pale-green painted bone: runes gleamed over it, etchings that were painted with the bright crimson of supernatural blood, and a single, tiny bell hung from the bottom of the collar, ringing softly as it floated towards Scrivener before he bowed his head forwards.
It slipped around his neck and locked tightly into place, a complex, cold iron buckle fastening and holding it tight as the male rolled his shoulders with a wince, the runes that covered the strange choker glinting brightly. The bell jingled softly, and Scrivener gave another grimace as he looked up... and was unsurprised to see several Pales standing and looking silently down at them, drawn by the quiet chime of the bell alone. The Khlōros: a collar said to belong to Grim Steed himself, and which even without being activated tended to draw out Pales... but once empowered with Luna's magic, would emit a phantasmal call that soothed and drew out the spirits of the dead, letting them form a vast herd of souls who would follow them anywhere they went for as long as the collar stayed active.
But it was also fragile: a single good blow to it would crack the collar or halt its spectral song, and then the Pales would quickly lose their focus and become disoriented, wandering away unless Luna replicated the collar's effects with a spell... a spell that was particularly draining and required both Scrivener and Luna to pour their concentration into it, severely weakening them both over the course of even a short march. It also left them almost defenseless... and worse, if they did get in a fight, Luna would have to drop the enchantment, and after the battle most likely rest... which in other words, would mean losing most, if not all, of the herd of Pales they would have gathered up to that point on top of everything else.
The collar had been broken more than once over the last decade, and then they had to give it to Odin for him to take it to be repaired. Whether he was a god or not, he still had a long line of discreet contacts he often put to use... but was also always careful to never mention any of them by name. They were likely other gods or entities from who knew where... and despite her past life, not even Luna was able to put forwards many guesses as to how and why and where and when Odin had befriended these other entities: Valkyries, after all, had essentially been soldiers and bodyguards, spending much of their time keeping the Warrior's Heaven in order and the rest running errands for the Aesir. They had only ever done what they had been told to do, and not asked questions or made judgments... although that was probably part of the reason why Odin had been so furious when his advances upon then-Brynhild had been refused.
Luna smiled a bit as Scrivener reached up and absently rubbed along the segmented collar, and then she leaned forwards and said quietly: "We shall activate it once we reach the Black Baroque... after perhaps scouting the accursed area. But for now, wear it proudly as the warrior poet thou hast become, Scrivener Blooms. Only remember... thine life comes first. Even should this break, we shall find another way to gather these lost and sad souls... it is important to save them, but we cannot save anypony if we ourselves die."
"No self-destructing, I understand." Scrivener replied with a bit of a smile, and Luna laughed quietly and gave him an entertained look before her horn glowed as she winked at him, lifting Sleipnir's helm and firmly shoving it down over the equine's head, making him snort in entertainment as his glasses half-fell down his face before he pushed them quickly back up. "But first we need to get past those Elementals and out of North Neigh, if you're so eager to go."
"I am not eager to travel into the Gray Mountains, and less eager to reach the Black Baroque... but I am admittedly very eager to be out of this awful frozen city of bad memories." Luna replied with a grimace, shaking her head slowly before she glanced moodily towards the door, even as her horn glowed and a similar aura surrounded the satchel bag sitting on the ground. She tilted her head to the side, and it lifted off the ground, floating over and firmly dropping into place over Scrivener as she shook her head briskly out, her own helm floating up from the ground a moment later and slipping carefully into place over her skull as she muttered: "Let us go the direct route. If the Elementals still wish for a battle, then a battle they shall receive."
"Oh wonderful." Scrivener remarked dryly, as he glanced around the area, and then paused as his eyes settled on the burning wreckage... but then only smiled a little. Even if the fires spread... what was there to lose here any longer? He shook his head slowly at this thought, then turned and hurried after Luna as she strode imperiously forwards in her cloak, her horn still glowing... but not with telekinesis this time, as he felt her focusing and concentrating her magic. "Uh, Luna, you know-"
The winged unicorn ignored him as she suddenly flicked her head forwards, however, sending a blue fireball rocketing towards the frozen barrier of the once-doors, and it exploded in an echoing bang that sent icy shrapnel and chunks of wood flying in all directions as blue flames obscured the doorway for a moment before whiffing out of existence, revealing three Ice Elementals that seemed to be staring at them from their featureless faces as Scrivener gaped and Luna strode nonchalantly forwards and out of the doorway, cracking her neck with a grin as she said calmly: "Hast thou been waiting for us this entire time? My most sincere apologies."
Slowly, one of the Ice Elementals creaked as it climbed slowly to a standing position from where it had been sitting on the stairs, turning around and lumbering forwards as the other two flanked the imposing creature, and then it leaned forwards and roared, vibrating as cold wind and snow burst forwards and blew past Luna and Scrivy, icy flecks dotting Luna's cheeks and frost spreading through her ephemeral mane as it sailed backwards and she leaned away with a grimace of distaste.
Then it halted, still leaning forwards aggressively, clawed, frozen hands twitching as it growled low in its throat... and Luna looked slowly over her shoulder at Scrivener Blooms, who winced and dropped flat on his stomach, covering his head with his forelegs before Luna's glare snapped back forwards and she cleared her throat loudly.
Then she leaned forwards and roared in return, her voice booming and rough, the very stone around them cracking as the Ice Elemental was sent skidding backwards several feet from the raw waves of sound alone, the creature directly in front of her vibrating violently from the terrible reverberations before it simply exploded backwards in a hail of frost and snow, fragments of Ice Elemental flying in all directions as the arm of one of the flanking Elementals burst apart and cracks ripped through the body of the second creature, the living ice falling dumbly backwards on its rear as Luna's voice finally sharply cut off.
She spat to the side, then glared balefully back and forth... and then the one-armed Elemental slowly tottered over and fell on its side with what sounded almost like a groan. The other Elemental only sat dazedly back against the wall as Scrivener winced and stood up, adjusting his glasses and rubbing awkwardly at one ear as Luna glanced over her shoulder, saying imperiously: "I believe the Royal Canterlot Voice has finally found its true purpose, Scrivener Blooms. Shall we move on?"
"I really don't like you sometimes." Scrivener replied dryly, and Luna threw her head back and laughed as she walked through the archway, the earth pony wincing as he followed after her, glancing nervously at the Elementals... but both of the creatures still seemed stunned as they made their way down the steps of City Hall, the male adding mildly: "I also really hope that didn't get the attention of any dragons or anything. You're really going to have to learn the art of subtlety at some point, Luna."
"I can be plenty subtle when I choose to be, Scrivener Blooms, but there is little fun and point in it." Luna retorted, glaring over her shoulder at him with a huff, and Scrivy smiled amusedly at her as they paused on the road, the winged unicorn opening her mouth... but then instead softening, glancing down the snow-covered street and saying softly: "Come. It occurs to me that we should follow... an old route."
Scrivener softened himself as he caught her thoughts, as memories of his own rose up and mixed with them... memories of a chase of awful horrors through the frosty streets, and of the trap they had been lured to... and the male bowed his head forwards as a flash of later memory caught in his mind like a fishhook, a snarling, grinning, demonic face rasping: We shall show you the true meaning of the Black Verses.
And then the visions he had seen, the memories forced into his mind, the eons of evil that had torn through him... but Luna reached up and shook his shoulder gently, and the male smiled awkwardly as he glanced up at her, murmuring: "Sorry, Luna. I'm ready, let's go."
"Assertive and bold, yet. Perhaps the closer we come to Helheim, the more masculine thou becomes." Luna replied ironically, and Scrivener looked at her for a moment... then a smile twitched at his muzzle before he threw his head back and laughed, and Luna looked at him oddly for a few moments before she couldn't help but join in his strange merriment.
Finally, the two quieted awkwardly and gazed at one another with small smiles, husband and wife studying each other as they traded thoughts back and forth. Then Luna tilted her head to the side, saying softly, a small smile playing around her features. "Come then, husband. Let us continue to move forwards... we shall see if thou becomes a hulking mass of machismo muscle as we near the Black Baroque. 'Twill be fun."
"Only if it doesn't affect you too, Luna. Heaven's Horses know the last thing I need is a mighty Valkyrie such as yourself turning into an Amazonian hulk on top of everything else." Scrivener quipped, and when Luna gave him a flat look, he added seriously: "That's what Nightmare Moon is there for."
"Oh I hate thee so much sometimes, Scrivy. Go back to being miserable. Wallow in it. Thou deserves it." Luna retorted, leaning towards him and glaring at him as they paced slowly down the snowy road, the winged unicorn drawing her eyes grouchily along him. "Mare."
"You're a mare." Scrivener grumbled, and the two firmly bumped their sides together as they continued through the snowy streets, trying to keep themselves as relaxed as possible despite the unease and tenseness traveling through their bodies, and the flickers of memory that kept threatening to spill through their minds.
Yet Luna and Scrivener both felt determined to see this through, to push forwards and to ensure that everything that had gone wrong was righted, that they saved as much as they possibly could... and around them, Pales lingered and watched silently, emerging here and there from shattered buildings and thin air as the two turned down a street that ended at a ripped gap in the mostly-collapsed wall surrounding the city.
Two Ice Elementals looked up from where they calmly sat on one side of the road as they walked towards this, but neither of the strange, slow-to-anger creatures moved: it was becoming more and more apparent that as long as there were no major bursts of heat or energy nearby, they were more than content to leave them well enough alone, even if they seemed exceptionally-curious about the living creatures in their midst. Luna and Scrivener only gave the two a passing glance, however, and neither of the Elementals seemed inclined to get to their feet, only watching with their featureless, jagged faces.
But as they looked ahead, a Pale flickered into existence in front of them... and Scrivener staggered to a halt as Luna frowned... then caught Scrivener's memories, saw through Scrivener's eyes, and she shot a sharp, surprised look at him before gazing at the Pale ahead, as it glimmered with frost... but in Scrivy's vision, looked at him with a mix of almost impossible-to-define emotions, chief amongst which seemed to be... sorrow.
The unicorn mare had a charcoal coat and gray mane, features vainly-beautiful, her eyes sharp, blue-tinged silver. Upon her flank was a vine of grapes, and she and Scrivener studied each other for a long, silent time before a second unicorn Pale appeared, striding up beside her but staying a few feet away, the distance between them like a tangible wall.
The newcomer had a paler coat and a black mane and tail both streaked with gray, his features disbelieving and angry and pleading all at once. His dark eyes stared almost stupidly at Scrivener Blooms as the symbol of brambles upon his flank seemed to writhe, the Pale shaking his head before he yelled silently, out of fear more than anger... but Scrivener only smiled faintly, shaking his own head slowly and saying quietly: "Bramblethorn. Tia Belle. I'd like to ask you both to get out of my way, okay? You're ghosts. You're less dangerous to me than my own memories now. I'm..."
He fell silent, looking down quietly at the snowy street and pawing a hoof at the ground as Luna gazed towards him quietly, and then the earth pony looked up, closing his eyes as he murmured: "Mom, Dad. I can't say that I love you. I also can't say that I never... tried to love you, that despite everything... once I was your son, once... I was... I always thought that you were right. I was a failure for not being a unicorn, and... well... anyway. What I'm trying to say is that after everything that happened, I have to move forwards. And you two are going to have to move out of my way."
He stopped, opening his eyes as Bramblethorn stepped forwards, yelling silently, his features terrified as the Pale stomped his hooves madly, but he was barely able to affect the snow and the temper tantrum only made Scrivener shake his head. Tia Belle, meanwhile, looked at him silently, and Scrivener felt his heart wrench in his chest as he hesitated, then looked at Luna.
Luna looked back... and then she smiled faintly, whispering: "Thou art too kind, daydreamer. It will be the death of thee one day... but... I do not see why not. We never discussed... this occurrence. Pales usually fade away after so long, but the rules of the world are... changed here, in this toxic place. Your memories of her are not good... but I suppose that while Bramblethorn made a nuisance of himself, the mare was dead. If thou... art sure..."
"Tia Belle." Scrivener Blooms looked towards the unicorn mare, and she glanced up silently, the male stepping forwards towards her decisively as Luna watched quietly, respectfully. "You mostly ignored me... you always went along with Bramblethorn, and you were elitist and nasty but... it was always Bramblethorn who threw me around, who used me in the shop, who spent his time taking his moods out on me." He stopped, then laughed a little, glancing down and adding quietly: "But at least now... I see you looking at me a little differently, while Bramblethorn..."
He paused, then winced when the Pale of his father strode suddenly forwards, reaching up to slam his icy but almost-incorporeal hooves into Scrivener's shoulders, making him wince back as he leaned forwards and shouted silently, desperately into his face... but Scrivener only responded by bringing his own front hooves up and grasping the semisolid Pale, a shiver running through him as he held Bramblethorn's shoulders almost gently, the ghost flickering as it looked surprised at the fact that Scrivener could make contact with it. But what Bramblethorn likely didn't know was that any Pale that worked itself up enough to touch something in the physical world... could be grasped back in return.
Scrivener leaned forwards, closing his eyes, and Luna clenched her own shut, her horn giving a faint glow before the earth pony whispered in his father's ear, in words that made terrible images twist through his mind for all the gentleness he spoke the awful language with: "Your bed awaits; return to sleep."
Luna's horn glowed, her magic fueling Scrivener's short quote, and black lines ripped through Bramblethorn's Pale body as he shoved himself violently backwards, gasping as the sparkling frost around the ghost faded. The unicorn specter shook his head wildly, his eyes turning ivory in his sockets as shocks of darkness writhed back and forth through his body, and Scrivener Blooms smiled faintly, sadly, as Bramblethorn stiffened... then slowly slumped, the Pale falling forwards and sparking out of existence as Scrivy lowered his head and closed his eyes.
The Pale of his mother stared at him with shock, with fear, but Scrivener only sighed softly as he murmured: "I'm sorry I had to resort to that, but I know Bramblethorn would have haunted us the whole way otherwise... he's not... destroyed. He's just gone for now... the Black Verses target the soul, but usually they're diluted by the mind, by the body. But a Pale is pure soul..."
Scrivener paused, reaching up to absently wipe a trail of bloody tears from one cheek, and he looked quietly down at this for a moment before returning his eyes to Tia Belle, saying quietly: "You can cross the Bifrost, Tia Belle. But then I don't want to ever see you again. I don't know why you're still here, why you're a Pale, what unfinished business you could have possibly had on this world, but... you can cross the Bifrost and get a second chance. Just stay away from me."
The mare looked at him silently... then she walked forwards, sitting on her haunches in front of Scrivener , and Scrivy gazed curiously back as he rose up a bit before the Pale awkwardly rose her front limb, hesitating, and Scrivener winced, leaning slightly away... but then the unicorn leaned forwards and hugged him carefully, slowly, and the male looked shocked as he leaned back before a voice whispered in his ear: "I'm sorry."
Then, slowly, Tia Belle drew away, and gave him a faint smile... before the ghost quietly began to fade from existence, white motes floating up from it as she looked suddenly peaceful and relieved, and Scrivener felt tears forming in his eyes as a shudder ran through him, watching silently as the ghost of his mother vanished bit-by-bit from sight. He could only stare, even as Luna stepped forwards and wrapped a foreleg around him, as tears fell from his eyes and rolled down his cheeks, before the winged unicorn said quietly: "Perhaps she never loved thee, Scrivener Blooms... but all the same, it seems she knew on some level... what she did was not right. It seems her unfinished business... it had been thee. Perhaps she did die because thou left North Neigh... perhaps she died of regret, for never speaking in life..."
Luna trailed off, lowering her head, but the words strangely seemed to help as Scrivy bowed his head forwards with a faint smile, more tears leaking from his eyes as a shudder ran through him before he whispered: "Life is so much goddamn easier when you can just... pretend there's good, and evil, and that bad ponies are bad and irredeemable and have no reasons for what they do and... oh, Luna..."
He clenched his eyes shut, grinding his teeth together painfully before the winged unicorn hugged him fiercely, and he sighed quietly as he let himself rest against her for a few moments before they both looked up with a wince and over their shoulders to stare at the sight of an Ice Elemental standing only a few feet away, leaning curiously over them. It studied the two, then slowly opened its arms, as if inviting them in for a hug... and Scrivy and Luna both awkwardly cleared her throats before the male hurriedly wiped at his eyes and adjusted his glasses, mumbling: "Thank you, but we. We have to be somewhere."
With that, Scrivener turned and hurried embarrassedly towards the broken fencing as Luna sat for a moment longer, staring at the still-standing, still-open-armed Ice Elemental before she gave a short, embarrassed giggle, then turned around and hurried after Scrivy, darting through the hole in the fencing and following the earth pony into the snowy fields beyond as they headed towards the Gray Mountains and hurried away from the strange ice-city of North Neigh.
Several hours later found the two ponies striding slowly down a valley between looming, shadowy cliffs and grim, blade-like peaks that stretched towards the mangled purple sky above, dark clouds ominously slowly across the violated ceiling of the Hell-invaded world like looming, malformed dragons. The weather here was strange and alien, the rubble-strewn earth beneath their feet blackened and burnt with frost as geysers of icy mist vented up every now and then from deep cracks in the fetid earth.
Worse were the visions, as Scrivener and Luna stuck side-by-side: the visions of flesh and death and chains as they walked forwards, the sights and sounds that invaded Scrivy's mind as he gritted his teeth, but forced onwards. Beside them walked Pales and ghosts of every shape and size... and here and there slithered Grimm, watching eagerly as they made their way forwards. And worst of all, the visions of Valthrudnir, sometimes whispering poison into Scrivener's mind, other times walking beside him as he played with his coins or cards or other tokens from games of strategy and fortune.
The echo seemed to have more power here... but that was understandable. The Gray Mountains had always been a place where reality was thin, in which terrible things lurked and were made all the worse by the way shadows were given a substance and reality all their own here. And now that it was further warped with Helheim's energies inundating the air so thickly... it was no surprise that even the echo of Valthrudnir was able to reach out of his mind and into the folds of reality as the Jotnar said pleasantly: "I think it's time for me to unveil the second card of this tarot reading I've done for you and pretty Brynhild, Scrivener Blooms."
"There is no such thing as prophecy." Luna muttered, glancing in the direction the voice seemed to come from... but while she could see Scrivener glaring at something, to her it only looked like a formless, twisted mist, and the voice spoke more inside her mind than in reality... yet it was disturbing all the same. For the echo to be able to enter reality even as much as it did without her concentrating on using Scrivener's senses to see what he saw, hear what he heard... "Such cards are meant for games and carnivals, and in rare case to seek guidance not from forces without but within. Thou art a fool."
"Oh Brynhild, so critical and pushy." Valthrudnir mocked, the enormous, bipedal dragon leaning over them with a teasing grin, and Scrivener grunted but refused to take the bait as he and Luna only looked ahead down the path leading through the rocky mountains. The Jotnar echo glowered at this, and then he held up a fan of four tarot cards before plucking one up and looking at it meditatively as the other cards vanished. "Oh my, though. I wonder if this is good for you... or bad for me."
Scrivener frowned a bit at this, even as Luna looked over her shoulder at him... but the earth pony finally sighed and turned towards Valthrudnir as the dragon looked at him seriously... yet there was a dark gleam of gleeful malice in his eye all the same, and Scrivener stood for a moment, hesitant. Luna was ahead, looking back at him almost pleadingly, and Valthrudnir stood behind him with that single card in hand a few feet away... before, just as Scrivener began to force himself to turn forwards, to avoid the dragon's trap despite all his curiosity and hesitance, the Jotnar spun the card around, the illustration showing Luna and Scrivener both snarling in fury, pressed back-to-back and with three enormous, terrible black swords ripped through their bodies. "The Third Card of the Suit of Swords... known in some circles as the Lord of Sorrow. War and arguments, violence and strife... but I have to wonder. Is it going to be between you and your precious? Because it's no divination to say that you two and myself are already at war... or is there someone else, lurking on the horizons, sniffing the air?"
Valthrudnir grinned at them as he tipped them a wink, and Scrivener shook his head in disgust as he turned away, Luna nodding firmly in approval to the earth pony as they two began to walk on... but even as the echo of the Jotnar faded away to nothing behind them, he threw his head back and laughed. "After all... Odin's always been a warmonger, hasn't he, and you're a mortal with his worst enemy inside him and the Valkyrie who betrayed him!"
Scrivy and Luna both only forced themselves to continue to walk forwards, however, as the last of the Jotnar's laughter and awful presence faded out... and then the winged unicorn gritted her teeth, muttering in disgust: "Foul, manipulative, endlessly-prattling monster. Worry not, Scrivy... one way or another, we shall pummel it out of thy mind and back into the grave."
Scrivener only grimaced in response, however, and Luna smiled faintly as she glanced towards him, but she could feel his anxiety... and knew that he could feel her own, the worries that the echo of Valthrudnir had stirred up through her soul. After all, it was hard to say when Odin was watching... a single eye or not, that eye could and did gaze far and wide over a myriad of events, and Luna knew all too well how fortunate it was that the once-god no longer had the reserves of energy and powers he once did... otherwise, by now he would have known all their secrets, and taken events into his own hands.
As it was, the winged unicorn knew that part of why Odin was hesitant to bring up certain subjects with them wasn't just because he had mellowed over the years spent with his pride broken and his powers lost... it was because he knew that trying to control or push them too much would result in a nasty backlash, and once-god or not, Luna would likely pummel him until he was nothing more than a blotch of broken bruise.
It was one of the things that made their alliance uncomfortable: Luna still didn't trust the old once-god, and thought that he was still too immersed in the old ways, likely only respecting them because of power. Not that Scrivy could blame her, or even was entirely sure himself what to think of Odin... and after his experiences with Valthrudnir, who was supposed to have been 'beyond godlike,' he had developed a distinct wariness for anything that thought it was from 'a higher plane of existence.'
"I just realized that I really don't want to go to Valhalla when I die." Scrivener muttered, and Luna shot him a look... then grinned a little despite herself as the male gave her a moody glance. "Seriously. The choices sound pretty crappy to me now... I can go to once-burnt-out paradise and hang out with a bunch of smelly hulking warriors and possibly the handful of 'friends' Odin's enlisted to help him out. Or, I can go down to frozen Helheim and Niflheim, where there's demons, torture, and worst of all, a possible Jotnar or two, unless Valthrudnir and Odin were both telling the truth and all the Frost Giants really did die."
"Aye, Scrivener Blooms, the choice is a foul one. Whilst I do not mind the presence of 'smelly warriors,' to be around Odin and his cohorts again 'twould be less than pleasant. Valhalla... no longer holds many pleasant memories." Luna quieted, glancing thoughtfully towards the sky as they paused for a moment at a steep incline down into a deep gorge: they would have to carefully journey down the slope to reach the bottom, then make their way through the stony vale to a northern pass and once more find their path ahead.
Before Scrivy could begin to move down the path, however, Luna reached out and gently grasped his shoulder, halting him as she said quietly: "Bide thy time a moment, Scrivener Blooms, we have made good progress. This is a safe enough place to rest... the cliffs flanking us are sheer and the path behind us straight and visible, and there are few things that could ambush us from up this wall. Let us take this rare moment of safety."
"Good, because I have something for you, anyway." Scrivener smiled a bit, and Luna cocked her head curiously as the male turned and reached into the saddlebag, mumbling to himself as he unzipped an inner pocket and added dryly: "You know how hard it was to not think about this the whole way here?"
Luna brightened as Scrivener pulled out two chocolate bars, tossing one to her, and she caught it and greedily pushed the still-wrapped candy bar against her nose with a laugh. "Exquisite! Such sweets are a fine way to lighten any mood... Scrivener Blooms, wretched beetle, thou went into our candy stash?"
"Well, I figured you'd need something to perk you up once we got here. Besides, what's the point of having a hoard of candy when you never eat any of it? You're not a chocolate dragon, Luna, and I'm sure even dragons sample some of their treasure every now and then." Scrivener replied dryly, and Luna huffed at him as the candy bar glowed faintly, floating upwards before the wrapper shredded itself from around the chocolate. Then a large piece broke off and floated into the winged unicorn's mouth, and she chewed slowly as she smiled and closed her eyes, Scrivener rolling his own in entertainment.
They ate and relaxed in comfort on the top of the slope, doing their best to push back against the oppressive atmosphere of the Gray Mountains as Scrivy kept his gaze focused down into the rocky valley, grimacing a bit every now and then at the visions of spirits and other things that lurked and skulked through the dark trench. Luna, meanwhile, watched both her husband and gazed every so often skywards to survey the mountain peaks, knowing how fortunate they were to have not encountered anything... wondering, in some cynical part of her psyche, whether or not it was only because the Black Wolves of Hell had already torn through this place and likely made even the mightiest destroyers nothing more than their prey.
Scrivy offered Luna the last of his chocolate after she had finished hers, and the winged unicorn smiled at him and took it gladly, tossing it into her mouth and chewing slowly as she gazed over him affectionately. Luna favored sweets and baked good, and Scrivener's favorites were salty foods... but like everything else, they still managed to find a way to get along all the same. They still indulged each other's habits and eccentricities and preferences... and the two gazed at each other as they stood up before the winged unicorn bowed her head forwards and said softly: "Foolish beetle. And think not I do not know about thou sneaking other candies from my stash."
"Oh come on, I take the ones you never eat anyway." Scrivener replied flatly, and Luna huffed a bit before she stepped forwards, bringing her head back as the male winced... but then she only smiled, and instead leaned towards him and kissed his lips chastely, and the earth pony blinked in surprise. "Well, that was a nice change of pace."
"Aye, but I cannot be predictable now, can I?" Luna asked kindly, and then she smacked him lightly with her horn, making him wince and stumble backwards as his glasses fell askew before she grinned and winked as he glared up at her. "Now, onwards, Scrivy. And let us hope that fortune continues to favor our boldness and we are able to push to the Black Baroque with little trouble on the way."
Scrivener nodded after a moment with a grimace, and Luna gave him a softer look before she took the lead down the slope, the male focusing on her more than on the incline and mimicking her movements and instincts. Still, he skidded awkwardly near the bottom when some shale broke loose due to his heavier weight, but he managed to leap down to safety with a wince, crumbled stone bouncing down the ridge behind and around his hooves as Luna gave him an amused look over one shoulder.
They pushed onwards into the mountains, as the dark clouds continued to swirl through the sky and lightning flashed silently here and there behind the wall of shadowy vapors. A faint black-tinged rain began to fall, and Scrivener grimaced a bit and lowered his head as Luna frowned curiously at him... and it was only after a few minutes of confusion that Scrivy realized it was a rain only he and the Pales could see and feel, making him shiver as the ethereal downpour spilled through his very soul and Luna murmured: "Hold fast, daydreamer... that which is not there cannot harm thee."
"I know, Luna. I wish it was that simple, though..." Scrivener murmured, looking back and forth and watching the way the Pales reacted to the dark rain, before he laughed faintly and shook his head slowly, closing his eyes tightly. "Horses of Heaven..."
Luna slipped a bit closer to him, and for a while, they strode onwards with their sides almost pressing together as Scrivy did his best to keep his eyes down... but even that helped little as the ground beneath them flickered on occasion, becoming fleshy, dark, pulsating... but as the dark rain finally halted, the visions lost some of their strength as well.
Only a few hours later, they finally emerged in an enormous valley, black, cracked ice covering the floor of the rocky waste, the bent and looming mountains to either side made of desolate, lonely rock. And all throughout this valley of the dead, bones that were polished to an ivory gleam here and laid in blackened ruin there were scattered, like countless people had died here... and the terrible truth was that countless had.
Even if Luna felt no pity for the bones of the Nibelung and other soldiers of Niflheim... she mourned the terrible losses that had occurred here. Where the heart and soul of the Starlit Knights had died... where countless friends had fallen into shadow, as Ragnarok had come to pass with the shattering of the Gates of Helheim and the awakening of the Black Wolves. Luna and Scrivener traded looks as they made their way slowly forwards, and the winged unicorn laughed faintly as she whispered: "Aleksandr... hardy, noble minotaur. I shall miss him, but hope that he at least found peace in wherever the minotaurs go once their spiritual pilgrimage is complete... Scrivy, how... how bad is it?"
"I don't know if I should answer that question, Luna..." Scrivener looked silently back and forth: for every skeleton - no, it seemed almost that for every bone that laid over the floor of the enormous valley - there was a Pale, staring and lost and confused, and among them slithered Grimm and other spirits of the ether, drawn by the congregation of ghosts. "How long have the Pales been unable to move on? How many of them clung to this... not-life for all those years? The answer's right here and it's not a pretty one..."
Luna gritted her teeth and nodded, muttering: "Aye, of course. Pales drawn towards this place, this twisted fold of reality that is not higher, but lower towards that which lurks both inside and beyond the bowels of our broken world... all they knew was that they were being drawn towards flickering light. And worse, Pales, countless souls were released from Helheim, those who survived one way or another in Niflheim... and the rest? The rest have perhaps faded away to nothingness... now sitting silently in ghostly limbo, beyond our far-grasping reach, or wandering the other empty worlds with the Vale of Valhalla burnt and destroyed.
"Does thou see any demons? And if so, what kind are they?" Luna asked quietly, as they halted halfway through the valley, and Scrivener smiled a bit at the calmness of her inquiry before he began to look up... but found his eyes drawn to the Black Baroque for a moment as the visions flickered out, only staring silently at the monolithic front of the awful fortress as Luna opened her mouth... then slowly closed it and only followed his gaze as they surveyed the terrible place in silence.
It was built into the face of a massive mountain that had once been shaped like a wolf, but now was only a deluded crumble of shattered and broken rock. Yet all the same both Luna and Scrivy knew only by looking at it that the fortress itself was intact... the ancient, scarred black stone that made up the windowless walls of its faceless front were ashen and dark, but they looked the exact same as when they had first blown the doors of the fortress open... just as the shattered archway was rougher around the edges, but all the same held as fast and gaped as unwelcomingly as it had in the past.
Then Scrivener shook his head before he moodily looked over at Luna, asking dryly: "Do you think if I shout the Black Verses in the ear of one of the Black Wolves, it'll make it explode? Or would it have the opposite effect? And why is it again that while you and Celestia and Sleipnir could all speak them to bar out the Tyrant Wyrms, when I say them they can actually do damage?"
Luna looked back at him cynical entertainment in her eyes as she retorted: "Be not so obnoxious, poet. There is a time and place for making such awful jokes and 'twas very rude of thee not to permit me to make the first." She paused, then added in a softer voice: "But it is because of the corruption of the Tyrant Wyrm inside thee... because of what the Wyrm filled thy empty skull with."
She smiled faintly, reaching up and knocking quietly on Scrivener's helmed head, and the male laughed a bit despite himself before they looked silently ahead as she said quietly: "The Black Wolves are terrible creatures, Scrivener Blooms. They warp and bend reality... but thou remembers Fenrir bore the scars of battle with my brother. The wolves shall bleed when cut, and I believe the wolves shall die, too, once they have bled enough... I only hope that we do not have to test thy theory."
She fell silent, and Scrivener glanced slowly back and forth before he finally replied quietly: "There's... three or four demon spirits, but they're not hostile. They look like scavengers... probably feeding off the despair of the Pales."
"Aye, the air is so rife with it even I can feel it." Luna muttered in agreement, nodding after a moment as she surveyed the valley slowly, and then she started ahead and Scrivener grimaced as he fell in step behind her, the winged unicorn's eyes narrowing as they flicked back and forth and she caught the occasional tremble in reality as the lost souls milled silently around them, Scrivener wincing whenever he and Luna accidentally passed through the shades here and there.
They halted in front of the Black Baroque... and then Scrivener's head snapped to the side at the sound of a dry chuckle, and Luna looked over at him with surprise as the earth pony gritted his teeth, staring at what looked only like a pile of broken rubble with horror... but when Luna concentrated, when she gazed through Scrivener's eyes, felt with Scrivener's senses, she saw not a jumble of rocks... but a misshapen pile of warped and broken metal, a single arm and an ugly, flexing claw reaching up out of this and a broken half of head laying and grinning insanely, one horrible insect-eye glittering in a socket of half-ant, half-dragon features. "Oh look... the little ponies are... back..."
"Do you hear it?" Scrivy asked quietly, and Luna nodded, gritting her teeth. The voice was clearer, closer to reality, the rocks trembling when the voice spoke... the petrified remains of the destroyed demigod, as it giggled with terrible glee despite the fact it lay in countless broken, dying pieces. "How the hell is it still alive?"
"You can't... destroy destruction... silly pony..." rasped the monster that had barred the way into the Black Baroque, that was responsible for the first of the many deaths that had taken place in this awful dungeon. "Silly, silly, silly ponies... oh, my magic ring doesn't matter anymore... no-no-no, not no more... now the whole world's magic. Now I'm happy. The whole world is destroyed, and me too, and it's so beautiful, more beautiful than Asgard ever was..."
"Sick and depraved wretch, then stay here alone and enjoy thy sufferance." Luna muttered, shaking her head in disgust and storming forwards into the Black Baroque, and Scrivener shuddered a bit as the head of the demigod tried to roll towards him, the rocks stirring visibly as its torn-asunder remains weakly shuddered.
"Oh don't worry, Valkyrie... there's plenty of pain for you to enjoy too... because no matter where you go, there you are, and you always carry that hatred, that rage, that suffering with you!" the creature crowed after them, and then it laughed insanely, voice reaching new levels of glee and echoing into the fortress behind them as it shrieked: "Goodbye, little ponies!"
"To think, the likes of Fafnir still exist..." Luna muttered moodily, as they strode over the scarred, broken tiles of the floor and through a shattered portcullis to enter into a hall with a gaping pit halfway down it... and both Scrivy and Luna closed their eyes, shudders rolling through their bodies as Celestia's voice shouted in memory: We have no time!
"We were fools." Luna whispered, lowering her head... and Scrivener gazed at her silently before he slowly looked up, over the black, dark stone walls and through the empty halls of the Black Baroque... the fortress between worlds they had striven boldly into, and which seemed emptier than either of them had expected.
They looked awkwardly at each other after a moment, knowing they shouldn't've allowed the mockery of the insane, in-pieces demigod to drive them forwards like it had... but then they both only smiled hesitantly before Luna carefully took the lead, her eyes flicking apprehensively down into the pit as they made their way around the shallow hole and she muttered: "We must be careful, Scrivener Blooms. This place... even were there nothing here but us, it is still... dangerous to us. It is a place of... wrongness."
Scrivener nodded slowly as he followed the winged unicorn closely, and they passed into what had once been an enormous library... but now, was merely an enormous, circular room that was splattered with wreckage and broken husks, and the two ponies both forced themselves to look away from the broken bones that lay here and there and instead towards a shattered stone archway, a twisted hulk of a ruined metal gate laying in pieces near this as Scrivener whispered: "Rainbow Dash would have been proud of you, Spike... and you too, AJ..."
"And Pinkamena... aye, she showed that she truly was among the worthiest of friends." Luna murmured quietly, as they carefully strode around a shattered bookcase that had fallen upon a splintered table... before the winged unicorn winced and stepped backwards, swinging her foreleg up and catching Scrivener Blooms as a shape stirred and creaked loudly on the other side of the shelf, before metal screamed against concrete as it slowly began to lift itself up.
It was made of blackened steel, its eyes cracked gemstones and warped and broken plates jittering against its frame as it tried to pull itself forwards on its one remaining limb. It had been mangled and torn apart, but yet the clockwork golem still moved as gears clanked inside it and sparks of electricity fizzled over its metallic frame, and Scrivener shook his head in disgust before Luna stepped forwards and stomped a hoof down, crushing in the weakened metal plating over its skull and knocking the creature flat as it spasmed, before a second hard stomp stilled the golem completely. "Damned, soulless machines..."
Scrivener muttered in agreement as he looked back and forth with a nod, his eyes settling on the hulk of another golem... but this one was clearly no longer functional, its mangled head connected only by a thin sheet of black metal to its shoulders, but the rest of its metal body laid in ripped-apart tatters, chunks of metal and crystal forming a scattered, dusty trail through the wreckage of the torn-apart room. "We were here for... literally minutes. And this already has brought back..."
He shook his head slowly, and Luna laughed faintly before she and Scrivener both turned ahead... then winced and snarled, setting themselves as they saw Valthrudnir standing there, the dragon smiling mockingly at them as he riffled a deck of cards in his hands, leaning forwards with a wink towards Luna as he said kindly: "Just a head's up, Brynhild... it's almost time for a new game. One that I think is much more suited to you than it is Scrivener Blooms, cheater and so-called 'writer' that he is... then again, I suppose between the two of you someone has to put the 'hack' in hack-and-slash, yes?"
Valthrudnir laughed at his own joke, grinning widely as he tucked the deck of cards back into his suit jacket as his eyes flashed, and Scrivy and Luna both glared at him before the dragon flicked his wrist and three tarot cards appeared. The Jotnar continued to grin, amber eyes all-but-glowing before he made the cards dance through his fingers, giving them flashes of what was on the other side of each as they spun dexterously in his grip before he halted one in mid-turn and leaned his head to the side with a slow lick of his lips.
The image was of a simple but magnificent battle horn of bone, surrounded by the nine runes for the nine worlds, and beneath the horn roared terrible, scarred Fenrir, as Valthrudnir pronounced softly: "Judgment. Which has already come to pass in the literal sense... but do keep in mind this is metaphor, both of you. I don't know if it's a very good sign though, Brynhild... the cards are forming such a strange and sordid tale, and these last two, well, if they're right... we're only just getting started."
The Jotnar's eyes flashed as he grinned wider, but then he vanished from existence as suddenly as he'd appeared, flickering out of reality as his voice whispered mockingly around them and Scrivener shuddered as he swore he felt something brush against his side: "This is proving so much fun... yes, I don't think I'm going to kill either of you after all. This is just far too delightful, far too entertaining... and soon, so soon, you'll be nothing more than puppets at my mercy... sooner perhaps than you can even imagine..."
"We overcame thy plans, we defeated thee in thine own wretched games, and we shall not back down to an echoing illusion, creature!" Luna snapped, looking back and forth with a snarl before she shook her head, saying fiercely: "If thou art so powerful and determined to make toys of us, pray tell, why continue to slither and hide?"
But there was no answer... and Luna cursed under her breath as Scrivener closed his eyes and bowed his head forwards... before wincing when the winged unicorn punched him firmly in the shoulder, knocking him stumbling dumbly to the side before she looked at him and said quietly: "And do not even think it, Scrivener Blooms. Thou does not need to apologize... this is not thy fault. If anything, I am only glad that... the creature seems incapable of actually doing harm to us, for all the rage his blustering words provoke. So do not ever apologize, or ever think thyself weak, or I shall smite thee with all the fierceness I wish to smite Valthrudnir."
"Remember that time you hit me so hard you knocked us both out?" Scrivener asked mildly, and Luna cleared her throat as she glanced embarrassedly away as the male rubbed absently at his shoulder. "After you did that, I realized that it was definitely in my best interests to keep from making you angry. Especially since it seems like ever since we became soul-bound you've been far less concerned about the effects of bashing me to make me listen to you."
Luna grunted a bit at this, but then she became a bit more serious as she turned towards the portcullis, responding quietly: "Aye, but for now, I feel we should save our energy for whatever lay ahead. For Valthrudnir seems to be spelling out an ominous prophecy to us, Scrivener Blooms... and whilst I do not believe in divination, a self-fulfilling prophecy that the Jotnar perhaps somehow works to see through to completion... now that is a different matter."
Scrivener grimaced and nodded as he followed after the winged unicorn, shuddering a bit as a vision sparked in front of his eyes for a moment, the floor like bones, the walls burning with unholy flames that were terribly, awfully cold, and screams echoed in his ears before they cut out the moment the vision faded from his face... and Luna shivered a bit, catching the tail end of the vision as it fled from their minds and she murmured: "And below us waits Hell's gaping jaws..."
"And here we are, ready to walk down into that maw even though we could probably just turn around and leave." Scrivener said quietly, and Luna gave him a wry smile and a nod before the two silently strode side-by-side towards the shattered portcullis, entering the archway and making their way calmly, quietly down a sloping, dark corridor. Scrivener winced a bit as he looked back and forth at the dark stone walls, the way they seemed to writhe unnaturally, thick roots and what could almost be bones jutting through here and there. It reminded him all too well of his own nightmares... and worse yet, he knew this was no mere vision. This was reality, as Luna winced away from a drip of black ooze from the ceiling, then shook her head in disgust as they continued forwards.
They were living the nightmare now, as they descended through this dark passage, towards the borders of where corrupted world met even-worse reality, and what truly filled Scrivener Blooms with terror was the fact that he was almost excited,, in some twisted and tortured part of him. Just as he could feel Luna's anticipation mixed into her apprehension: it was not that they were eager to see the dead and the damned, it was not that they thought Hell was some tourist trap for them to drool over... it was a cold acknowledgment of the power of the place they were striding towards. It was awe for the fact that for the second time, they were walking towards the very jaws of Hell, to stand before the realm of demons and monsters, to rest in the portal between worlds to wrestle as many souls as they could from the grips of the darkest of worlds and bring them to a new life.
Neither of them could describe it, both of them could understand it... and as the two ponies walked side-by-side down the corridor that seemed grotesquely, unfathomably alive around them, neither could deny the fact they were almost looking forwards to seeing what waited for them below, no matter how eager they both were in the same breath to escape the Black Baroque and even more, all the terrible memories that made this unwholesome place all the more unwelcoming to their hearts, minds and souls.
They were excited, though, oh yes... and they traded grim smiles before they looked forwards again down the dank passage, as they walked towards the birthing chamber of Ragnarok and the place where everything had gone wrong, together, ready to ensure that this time they would not only leave alive... they would leave triumphant. |
Metempsychosis | The Cost Of Revenge | Chapter Thirteen: The Cost Of Revenge
~BlackRoseRaven
A cold wind whispered past them, but the ground beneath their hooves felt terribly warm, terribly alive, and vile heat pulsed steadily up around them. They did their best to ignore the strange and awful climate as they pushed forwards, finally stepping past a pair of shattered double doors and entering the crumbling ruins of a once-magnificent hall that now looked more like an underground burrow; heavy stone tile and brick had collapsed here and there from the ceiling and walls, and broken pillars laid in desolate despair... and these were the most pleasant sights of the room.
The floor had been warped into half-ice, half-flesh, both pulsing with terrible, unholy vigor even as Scrivener and Luna forced themselves to walk slowly forwards, shivering as blasts of cold wind shot from the other end of the hall over their bodies and frost sparkled with unnatural maliciousness around them. The winged unicorn drew her eyes upwards, over the bone fragments that lay here and there, past the ruins of a shattered pedestal and a battle horn that had been cracked in half... and then she and Scrivener gazed upon the far end of the hall, and they halted as shivers ran through their bodies, and this time, not from the cold.
Broken chains and shattered pieces of stone were all that was left of the Gates of Helheim... and beyond, a wall of awful, living flesh pulsated and rumbled slowly, tumor-like growths and staring, malevolent eyes glaring out towards them warningly as cold, reeking wind burst out of the tunnel like the breath of a frozen corpse. For a few moments, Luna and Scrivener could only stare in disgust and horror... and then Luna stepped forwards before her hoof touched something, and she looked sharply down in surprise to see her hoof gingerly resting on top of a cracked skull, a tall, still-beautiful horn standing out of this...
"Celestia..." Luna whispered quietly... and Scrivener looked down in shock before the winged unicorn closed her eyes, sitting back and carefully scooping the broken skull up, lifting it so their horns crossed, forehead touched cracked crown as she murmured: "I shall not fail thee, sister. I shan't. We shall gather the souls here, bring them across to the Looking Glass World, and... everything shall work out. Worry not, sister, all shall be well..."
She shook her head slowly... then sighed before looking moodily at the skull, and Scrivener winced before Luna's horn glowed brightly and she flicked it upwards, the same aura surrounding the horn on Celestia's skull before it was torn free from the crumbling bone. The rest of the skull fell apart in her hooves, and Scrivener looked at her pointedly as Luna carefully guided her sister's horn over to the saddlebag the male was wearing, gently slipping it inside as she said quietly: "'Twould be ruder still to leave it behind, Scrivy. Our horns were like our weapons, and our weapons were like our souls. Celestia had not fought with her swords for more than a millennia and half... and thou saw the way she handled the blades when they were summoned. 'Twas like they had never left her side. I would not leave this, even more sacred than those weapons, to rot here on Helheim's borders. We shall either make use of it and the powerful magic contained within, or enshrine it... whatever sister would have wanted more."
Scrivener smiled a bit at this and nodded slowly, glancing over at her quietly before he frowned a bit as his eyes caught on something else, walking slowly towards the edge of the hall. He grimaced a bit as he carefully stepped around broken pieces of ancient, rusting metal, then he leaned down and carefully picked up a cylindrical object, frowning curiously... before smiling a bit as he suddenly half-turned and lobbed it towards Luna.
The winged unicorn glanced up from her reverie as it spun through the air, her horn glowing and her eyes giving a short flash, and the object immediately glowed. In a split second, it lengthened rapidly from a collapsed baton into a full, nine-foot long pole tipped with a simple, diamond-shaped spearhead, the weapon spinning violently around Luna before it dropped over one shoulder, still glowing faintly even as the aura almost completely faded from Luna's horn, seeming more like it was part of her body than something she had to exert any will, any thought over.
The spear glinted, dust and grime fading from it in a burst of steam as Luna looked up at this with a slight grin despite herself, the simple but dangerous tip all-but-glowing as she murmured: "Aye, Scrivener Blooms. It feels as natural as the first day I lifted this weapon... it feels as natural as wielding my own horn."
She smiled a bit as the earth pony strode towards her quietly, smiling faintly in return even as his eyes roved towards the pedestal... and then both he and Luna halted, their eyes locking on the remains of another skeleton. A small skeleton, that had been shattered into pieces... but when Scrivener looked at it, for a moment he saw Scarlet Sage's silent body laying there, the foal still as ice, her red eyes empty, her mane swirling backwards in the cold wind... but then once more it was only a broken skeleton, and Luna swallowed thickly before she whispered: "I am only so thankful... that her Pale came straight to us, Scrivener Blooms. It is the only thing that keeps me from feeling that I would fail as a mother... the fact that my beautiful little girl had gone past even Ponyville, even Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy, and come to us..."
She closed her eyes, then shook her head slowly before glancing at the earth pony as he forced himself to look up towards the ceiling, breathing a little hard despite himself as his emotions mixed with Luna's, memories twisting through both their minds. She opened her mouth, but fell silent as she followed his gaze upwards, to where roots of fleshy tendril and frost had twined themselves around the complex network of metal bars and celestial symbols that formed an alien spiderweb over the roof.
There was a hole in the very center of this strange network, directly over the pedestal, and ice had formed a crystalline window here that glittered and gleamed from the radiance of the strange sun that shone through the wisps of poisonous cloud outside. There was so much here, and it had all been dedicated to what had ended up being a sick joke by a self-obsessed monster... and Luna gritted her teeth before she flicked her horn firmly, and the icy window shattered, letting a greater pall of light shine in as chunks of frost pattered down around the pedestal and she muttered: "Come, Scrivener Blooms. 'Tis time to activate the Khlōros, and begin to draw these Pales back towards the Bifrost. The journey shall be longer with us being forced to route around the Barrens, but-"
Then Luna halted as a rumble passed through the ground and the chilling wind of Helheim died down completely, as if the throat of Hell were holding its breath. Scrivener and Luna both looked sharply up as the earth pony hurried to the winged unicorn's side, his hooves making the only sound as a shiver ran through Luna's body at the terrible feeling that spilled through her heart and along her spine, her eyes widening as the two looked towards the fleshy tunnel.
Ice spread over the awful layers of the gaping jaws of Hell, the hideous eyes clenching shut as they were layered by frost and the living walls shivering before they froze as solid as stone. Then snow burst upwards from the throat in a great, blinding mist, obscuring their vision for a few long moments as Scrivener and Luna stared down the long, shattered hall... and then watched with horror as a massive, monstrous creature emerged from the snow, drooling and hungry, its grotesque, enormous body covered not with fur but instead burning black flames and smoke. It rumbled as it strode through the haze of snow, its slavering jaws falling open to reveal a mouth full of ivory fangs, and its eyes glowed with hellish, animal light as it looked back and forth before throwing its head back and howling fiercely to the sky.
Ice shattered beneath their hooves and the snow was blown away as the terrible sound echoed around them, Scrivener and Luna both wincing backwards as reality flickered violently, before the Black Wolf of Hell leaned forwards with a snarl... and from the awful scars that glowed eerily over its body, from the way black-fire-fur had been torn in wide patches from its frame to reveal blue and red, bulging and flexing flesh and sinew, it was clear what they were dealing with. It was Fenrir, Alpha of the Black Wolves of Hell.
Luna's eyes blazed as she stepped forwards, her spear spinning once before it locked into a ready position hovering at her side, snapping to Scrivener Blooms: "Stay at the edge of the battlefield, Scrivy, do not draw its attention and survey its movements! Fenrir, I am thy opponent, and in the names of my brother and sister, in the name of Twilight Sparkle, in the name of this entire world, I shall destroy thee!"
Fenrir roared in response as it stalked forwards: a terrible, wolf-shaped mass of muscle and burning shadow, its presence dominated the corridor as it strode forwards, seeming to fill the entire hall as its eyes locked on Luna. It growled at her hungrily, the incarnation of destruction seem to recognize her with the little mind that it had, and its huge claws scraped eagerly against the ground as it stalked slowly towards her.
Luna glared up in response, refusing to move, refusing to show fear as Scrivener Blooms carefully slid sideways, breathing hard as he looked over the monstrosity, a quake of terror passing through his body as well as awe at Luna's bravery: and while it was partly fueled by rage, he knew all the same that Luna also wanted nothing more than to turn and flee herself, than to escape this abomination... but she wouldn't. Her warrior's instincts, her Valkyrie soul would not permit it... and moreover, her need to strike back at this monster that had destroyed the world and taken her family away drove her onwards, as she leaned forwards, the spear quivering in the air beside her, her cyan irises locking with the glowing, soulless, hateful eyes of Fenrir.
It leaned down, and they pressed almost nose-to-nose, the monster's rot-reeking breath washing over her as they glared at each other, warrior and predator, fiend-slayer and abomination... and then Fenrir roared furiously before his jaws opened, gaping and terrible and enough to swallow Luna in a single bite-
The winged unicorn's wings flapped as she leapt upwards with a snarl, and the beast's jaws smashed into the ground, tearing up snow and transmogrified flesh before Luna slammed all four hooves down and crashed onto its muzzle as she dug her heels in against it, leaning forwards with a snarl as her spear lashed out and viciously stabbed into its features. Fenrir howled in shock and agony, lurching backwards and shaking its head, but Luna dug her hooves in even the burning darkness that covered its body lashed against her legs like fiery whips, snarling as her spear thrusted again and again, ripping gouges through its features before she leapt forwards when it clawed one forepaw at her madly, diving over its slash to slam her rear hooves into its forehead as her spear plunged downwards and tore through one of the monster's eyes.
Fenrir shrieked, yanking its head back as it lunged away, ducking itself low to the ground as Luna's spear tore free from its now-empty socket and she hovered in the air, wings flapping powerfully as she glared down at it furiously, her eyes glowing ivory as she shouted in rage: "I am no tender morsel, cur! I am Luna Brynhild! I am Nightmare Moon! I am the one who will crush thee like the whelp thou art!"
Fenrir snarled as it rose its head, and Luna's eyes widened in surprise as the monster clawed into the ground, anchoring itself with a fearsome growl: the wounds over its features had already healed to ugly scars, and although corruption and blood leaked down its cheek from its socket, the socket itself had already filled with some awful, gelatinous black mass... and then Luna cursed when the monster pounced towards her, realizing she didn't have the room to fly up and evade, or the speed to drop down and get beneath it... leaving her with one option.
The monster's claws stretched towards her as its jaws opened wide... and Luna darted directly forwards as she thrusted her spear out in front of her, diving into its open jaws and kicking off its fleshy tongue even as its teeth snapped down around her like a bear trap, before her spear ripped into the back of its throat. The monster gagged immediately, eyes bulging before Luna slammed a hoof into the spear and sent it rocketing all the way through the back of its neck in a splatter of black fire and corruption, and Fenrir staggered forwards with another gag before Luna's horn glowed like a beacon as she shoved herself upwards, tearing into the back of its neck as electricity sparked along her body before she ripped straight through, the narrow hole becoming a wide, terrible tunnel as the winged unicorn cursed in disgust, body stained with blood, bile, and darkness as she flapped her wings and propelled herself away.
Fenrir arched its back with a breathy howl of misery... but in front of Luna's eyes, black, red, and blue tendrils slid smoothly into place over the wound, knotting themselves together in an ugly, fleshy barrier, and Luna snarled in disgust before she flicked her horn and sent a blue fireball rocketing into the back of the creature's head, knocking it staggering forwards before it growled over its shoulder at her, pain quickly fading away to fury. "Foul monster!"
The enormous, awful wolf spun around and bit at her savagely, but Luna elegantly flew backwards before her eyes flicked to the side, catching sight of her spear imbedded in the ceiling, and she shot immediately towards this before seizing the bottom of the weapon in her hooves. As Fenrir leapt upwards, Luna shoved hard up on the bottom of the spear, bending the body until it became almost a U-shape before the head of the weapon finally tore free from the ceiling and lashed viciously downwards to smack into Fenrir's muzzle, the huge beast flinching backwards in pained surprise before the winged unicorn released the weapon to let it float easily beside her as her horn began to glow. "Then if not by blade alone..."
Luna's eyes blazed with white light as she arched her back with a snarl, and Scrivener winced as several powerful blasts of lightning hammered across the monstrous wolf's features, making it snarl and back up several paces before the earth pony cursed and lowered his head, pushing his own energy and emotions towards Luna, fueling her further as she lashed her horn downwards and released a sapphire blast of flames from her horn that smashed into the black wolf like a battering ram, knocking it back another pace to stumble into the wall with a shriek as azure flames greedily spread along its body. They charred its features and flesh, mixing with and suffocating the black fire that made up its outer layers... but then Fenrir shook his head rapidly out before he stepped forwards and roared furiously, the hall vibrating violently enough to send rocks and chunks of ice pattering down from the ceiling as the last of the blue flames whiffed out over its body.
She had burnt away much of its outer layer... yet all it had done was make the creature more hideous, its lipless jaws peeled back from a sharkish grin of savage teeth, its white eye glowing, its naked flesh steaming faintly over more than a quarter of its enormous form. It lurched towards Luna, then leapt upwards in a sudden burst of speed and viciousness, and the winged unicorn's eyes widened before a paw batted her backwards and sent her rocketing to the ground, bouncing once with a curse of pain as Scrivener's eyes clenched shut and he arched his back with his own gasp, feeling his ribs creaking and knowing that at least one of Luna's had likely snapped.
The winged unicorn rolled quickly to her hooves as the wolf lunged towards her, her spear lashing out almost on its own and catching Fenrir across the face, barely distracting it for a moment as it bit angrily at the weapon. Both Luna and the floating spear quickly distanced themselves, however, the winged unicorn breathing hard and growing desperate, not knowing what to do before Nightmare Moon whispered in her mind: Eclipse the sun. At the very least, it will disorient the beast... you have no choice.
"Damnation..." Luna muttered under her breath, gritting her teeth... and then she winced when Fenrir lunged at her, diving forwards between its legs as she flicked her horn upwards and sent her spear rocketing into its vulnerable throat, and the wolf gagged and spasmed as it clawed madly at the ground and tried to skitter backwards. The result was that Luna was forced to sprint forwards beneath it, leaping back and forth with curses of frustration as rocks flew up around her from huge paws smashing the frost-speckled ground , the winged unicorn wincing before she lunged to the side and free from beneath the monster, rolling heavily once and gritting her teeth as she gazed up towards the opening in the ceiling.
Fenrir hissed, clawing at its own throat, still distracted by the spear buried in its neck, and Luna took the chance to leap into the air and fly directly beneath the window, gazing up at the sky above and only hoping this would still work as her horn began to glow, Scrivener Blooms clenching his eyes shut at the side of the room and dropping his head low, pouring his concentration, his energy, his strength Luna as she lowered her own head, the power building through her body before she arched her back and snapped her horn upwards as it gave a flash of bright blue light.
The black wolf looked up at this with a snarl, finally managing to knock the spear loose from its throat as a rumble rolled through reality around them, and the monster prepared to lunge as Luna floated, staring upwards desperately as the dark clouds above roiled and rumbled and blocked out the sky. Fenrir roared as Scrivener looked up in shock, watching as the creature began to pounce, throwing its front legs upwards... but even as it began to sail towards Luna, a strange darkness filled the air and the quality of light changed.
Fenrir half-fell to the ground, just missing Luna, landing shakily on its paws as the huge, dark wolf whimpered like a terrified puppy. It staggered backwards as Luna stared down at it with amazement, shooting a look towards the sky, red light spilling through the corridor as the throat of Helheim seemed to sigh and whisper, a soft breeze licking through the air around them as the winged unicorn slowly lowered herself towards the shivering beast.
The mighty Alpha of the Black Wolves of Hell had been reduced to nothing more than a trembling mess that now lay on its stomach, whimpering and helpless, and Luna descended slowly towards it as Scrivener hesitantly stepped forwards, then stopped when the winged unicorn gave him a wince and a quick shake of her head. She wanted to make sure first... and she quietly touched down in front of the monstrous wolf's head, standing less than a foot away from its huge, world-eating jaws... but the creature only whimpered, its ivory eye rolling in its head, body quaking horribly as its claws rattled against the ground. Even more, its recently-healed wounds had reopened, as if its fear of the eclipse had literally stolen its powers... and Luna gritted her teeth before she brought a hoof up and slammed it into the end of its muzzle, but the monstrosity only whimpered and cowered, flexing weakly against the ground but unable to even pull itself away as a faint stream of blood dripped down from one nostril.
"Crying, whimpering mess... can't even defend thyself... this is not the battle I wanted, nor the way I wished to destroy such a blight upon the land as thee." Luna muttered disgustedly, and then she slammed her hoof against its nostril again before she snarled, leaning forwards and pressing her hoof firmly into its muzzle, but it only whimpered, unmoving, unable to even focus its remaining eye on her as it trembled weakly. "But fear not, monster, I shall at least make thy death quick... wretched and terrible thing, thou can serve no purpose but death..."
Are you sure about that? whispered a voice, and Luna frowned a bit as she looked up at Nightmare Moon's scintillating tones, hearing them echoing through her mind, almost feeling the equine's hoof stroking gently beneath her muzzle. Perhaps it can... give me but a moment of your time, Luna, listen to me...
Luna hesitated, glancing towards Scrivener Blooms as the male frowned at her, stepping forwards another pace... but then the winged unicorn shook her head briskly, muttering: "'Tis fine, Scrivy, 'tis just a mind game of Nightmare Moon, and this beast is rendered harmless for the moment. I shall... be quick. But thou must stay here and be my eyes, understood? If the light begins to change or the beast to move, awaken me from Nightmare Moon's treachery."
"Of course." Scrivener said quietly, walking slowly forwards as Luna stepped away from Fenrir, and the winged unicorn sighed as she lowered her head forwards and let her eyes closed, hesitant and yet compelled all the same to hear what her shadowy other-self had to say.
A moment later, she was standing in a spotlight of white amidst darkness, Nightmare Moon smiling benevolently across at her on the other side of the ivory circle as Luna snapped: "Thy timing is awful, Nightmare Moon, now what folly does thou have for me to refuse before I can return and crush in this monster's skull?"
"Why would you waste such power, Luna?" Nightmare Moon chastened kindly, and Luna rolled her eyes in disgust before the dark equine slid forwards, whispering gently in the winged unicorn's ear: "No, I do not speak of binding the monster to our will, we are not like Ekleíp... we prefer to do the work ourselves. Fenrir is a magical entity, pure power focused into an unstable shell... but we could take his power. The monster is prone and vulnerable and its will broken by our glorious eclipsing of the blinding sun-"
"I am not a vampire! Whether it has a soul or not, whether it is truly alive or an organic machine of unstoppable destruction, I will not steal its powers for strength... down that road lays nothing but failure and destruction." Luna shouted, stepping forwards with a snarl as her eyes blazed and her starry mane swirled backwards, but Nightmare Moon only continued to smile kindly, patronizingly down at her, even as the smaller winged unicorn snarled: "If I knew not better, I would think thou wants us to once more become nothing but a mindless, self-indulgent, childish beast once more, to lose our treasured lucidity and all those precious to us!"
"Luna, I never said we should put Fenrir's powers into you. We can defend ourselves fine, we are strong enough that in open territory, where Fenrir's sheer size does not give it the advantage and we can better put our own talents to use, I am sure that together we could annihilate the dog-beast." Nightmare Moon responded kindly, and Luna looked up at her with surprise before her eyes widened and she staggered backwards as the equine whispered: "But there's another pony we love very dearly... who cannot defend himself nearly as well as we can..."
"Scrivener Blooms... oh sick and diseased traitor... thou wishes... thou wishes to turn him into a monster? Thou... thou wishes to perhaps accelerate the Tyrant Wyrm's corruption, and force more, more destruction into his already-wounded mind?" Luna whispered, staring in horror at Nightmare Moon... and feeling revulsion and self-loathing at the way part of her actually considered the proposition, shuddering and gritting her teeth before she snarled: "I shall not betray-"
"Such strong words you use!" Nightmare Moon laughed, however, looking down at Luna compassionately as she stepped forwards... and Luna trembled, stepping backwards despite herself, beginning to breathe harder as the ebony equine reasoned in a voice that was terribly alluring, terribly compassionate: "After Valthrudnir... after what we have experienced in our broken world, too... we cannot always be there to save Scrivener Blooms. We have an opportunity now to give him more power... to fill him with strength. And perhaps, Fenrir's raw strength will be enough to cancel out the compelling allure of the Tyrant Wyrm's corruption. You and I both know that part of the reason our beloved treasure is drawn by the very thing that poisons him so is because he feel so powerless, so helpless, next to our magnificence. He undervalues himself... what better way to give him confidence than to give him this gift? And do you not trust him to do what is right with this? Do you not love him? Will you not be there to guide him and aid him, Luna?
"No, we will be there, beside him, to love and nurture him every step of the way..." Nightmare Moon closed her eyes with a smile, tilting her head to the side as her ephemeral mane blew gently upwards as if in a breeze, as she stepped forwards... and Luna trembled as she bowed her head and took another fleeting step back, shivering a bit as she tried to pull her gaze away... but no matter how she turned her head, her eyes stayed locked on Nightmare Moon as the creature continued softly: "And he will become strong. Perhaps as strong as Sleipnir was, and no longer will he need to rely upon the Black Verses if he is forced to defend himself. For mighty as they are, they hurt our beloved when he uses them. Yet he is becoming less-and-less hesitant in their use as well, do you not see that?
"It would be different, my beloved Luna, if Scrivener Blooms wanted to give in. I will not lie about that... did he want to truly become whatever the corruption has a chance of making him into, I would gladly encourage and indulge this." Nightmare Moon smiled lovingly, opening her eyes, locking gazes with Luna. "And do not lie and say you would not. It is not weakness, Luna, to stand alongside our beloved no matter what choices he makes, even if those choices delve into darker realms. It is strength and loyalty. It is love."
Luna shivered and shook her head, whispering: "Cease this, Nightmare Moon, you... you do not understand... that is not all love is about..."
Nightmare Moon only laughed quietly, however, responding gently: "But don't I? Please, Luna. There is no need to complicate things, there is no need for... 'moral boundaries' for creatures such as us. We are the darkness... we shall always be the darkness. We love, and embrace, and care for others... but we are not without our appetites and desires. And what we desire most of all is to be able to keep our beloved Scrivener Blooms safe... and by making him strong, we shall ensure that he will always be safe, even if we are led away from him, even if our enemies seek to separate us. He is cunning and adept at analysis, but these things will only take him so far. We must supplement him with power."
"Stop it. Get out of my head... leave me alone..." Luna whispered in denial, shaking her head fiercely... and when she looked up with a tremble, Nightmare Moon gazed at her with tenderness and compassion, leaning down with what seemed almost like concern as the smaller winged unicorn weakly said to her darker alter ego: "I am afraid. I am afraid because you make sense, and I cannot deny that you... that I am you, and you are me, and together we love Scrivener Blooms more than... than..."
"He is more important to us than the night, than anything else in this world and beyond, yes. We depend on his guidance and affection... he bows to us, but really, we are his to command, are we not?" Nightmare Moon accented this with a low bow towards Luna, and then she looked up from her position almost laying against the ground, smiling tenderly as she murmured quietly: "We are a willing servant to him. Let us bring him the greatest gift of all, my little Luna... because unlike you... I have faith that he will not abandon us."
The accusation stung, and Luna reared back, gritting her teeth with a snarl as Nightmare Moon only looked up at her half-consolingly, half-pitying, and the winged unicorn shook her head fiercely, forcing herself away from Nightmare Moon and back into reality as she looked sharply over at Scrivener Blooms, who frowned in response... and then paled slightly as he staggered away from her, Luna's eyes glowing a faint ivory as she leaned towards him and whispered: "I love thee, Scrivener Blooms, and I do not fear what thou will do... it is not as Nightmare Moon says, I am not afraid of losing thee, I do not keep thee weak for my own gain as she implies..."
"L-Luna..." Scrivener staggered another step backwards as the winged unicorn gritted her teeth, taking another step towards him as their eyes met... and wild memories flashed back and forth between them, thoughts, passions, instincts, feelings, before opposed emotions clashed, and Luna hissed as electricity sparked through her mane and Scrivener dropped his head forwards with a gasp, trying to take in too many emotions and memories and sights at once as he grabbed at his head, then shook it in denial. "Wait, stop!"
"Scrivener Blooms, listen to me!" Luna shouted, her eyes glowing brighter as behind her, Fenrir whimpered and shivered on the ground... and Scrivy looked up, meeting her glowing eyes with shock as she stepped forwards, gritting her teeth. "Do not be afraid. Look at me. Do not fear, this will hurt only a moment, and then thou will be-"
"Luna, you can't put... put that thing's essence inside me, I'll die or it'll do worse to me... I don't think you're weak, and I know you love me, and I don't hold against you that you're stronger than me, I... I only wish I could do more for you but not like this, Luna, this power will... will poison me, I can't... it's not being physically weaker than you I fear, it's because I'm so much... my will..." Scrivener clenched his eyes shut, dropping his head forwards as Luna hesitated, the earth pony shivering a bit before he whispered: "I'm not afraid of turning into a monster, Luna. I'm scared that I'm already a monster, and more power will just make it worse."
"Scrivy..." Luna whispered, the glow fading from her eyes... and then she shivered a bit as she shook her head briskly, and a mist seemed to clear from her mind before she shuddered violently as she realized what she had almost done. What that dark part of her that didn't understand empathy, that didn't understand why limits had to exist or why blind hedonism couldn't be chased, had almost made her do... and she cursed under her breath before stepping forwards.
Scrivener flinched back: it was small, and he caught himself, but the flinch was there... and Luna halted in front of him, tears filling her eyes before he looked silently up and she gazed back, whispering: "It is alright, I... I merely... it was so much emotion at once. It was the power that flooded me, too, when I was able to drive the creature into my control... it is alright, Scrivener Blooms, I... I will not ever, ever force anything upon thee, it..."
She fell silent, looking at him quietly as Scrivy looked back for a few moments in quiet... and then he nodded slowly as emotions traded back and forth between them, swirling with much less conflict now as inside her, Nightmare Moon shifted and writhed. But immediately, Luna clamped down on that part of herself, blocking it out of her mind as she ground her teeth together before swallowing thickly, and then she looked up in surprise as Scrivener whispered: "But if... you... truly believe... I don't doubt in you, Luna. I was just... scared. I'm sorry."
"Idiot poet, why does thou apologize to me?" Luna laughed weakly, looking over him with a faint, sad smile as the two studied each other... before she sighed softly and shivered a bit, hearing once more the charm and allure of Nightmare Moon, feeling the tremble that went down her spine at the thought of the strength she could drain from the monstrous wolf-beast, and now tasting Scrivener's apprehension... and beneath it... "Oh Scrivy..."
"Forget I said anything, I... let's just get the hell out of here." Scrivener shook his head quickly, a shudder passing through his form, and Luna gave a quick nod to him as she looked worriedly over the earth pony. He only gave her a faint smile, however, then glanced nervously towards Fenrir, asking quietly: "Do we..."
"I know what to do, Scrivener Blooms. 'Tis what we should have done from the start." Luna replied quietly, her horn beginning to glow as she gritted her teeth, her mane sparking as it swirled backwards and her body flexing as she leaned forwards, beginning to open her mouth... but then she looked upwards in shocked surprise as three loud, mournful howls cut through the air, and Fenrir threw his own head back, giving a shrieking, echoing howl in response.
Cracks ripped through the ceiling as another pillar near the back of the hall toppled... and with it, a large portion of the roof shattered and collapsed inwards, shale and frost bursting in all directions as reality around them fluctuated before there was an awful, terrible, indescribable shriek as a wrenching feeling ripped through Luna's chest... and her eyes turned with shock to look at Fenrir as the light in the room transformed and the lumbering wolf slowly began to pick itself up, still disoriented but rapidly regaining its strength as a growl began to rise in its throat.
Luna cursed, then flicked her horn towards Scrivener Blooms, and the male arched his back with a gasp of pain as several plates of armor over his back tore loose and crumpled outwards as a pair of leathery wings ripped free from his back, before the winged unicorn half-turned and threw herself into the air, shouting desperately as barks and snarls sounded from the corridor: "Scrivy, upwards, upwards!"
Scrivener cursed as he leapt into the air and his wings flapped sloppily, leaving him half-hovering off balance for a moment as Fenrir turned towards them and then snarled, his jaws opening wide... before Luna smashed bodily into his head, knocking the giant wolf staggering back a step with a grunt of surprise. A moment later, the winged unicorn leaned forwards as her horn flashed and released a blast of blue flame over the features of the behemoth, and it yelped and shook its head wildly as it half-fell backwards, pawing madly at its face as Luna began to spin around before her eyes alit on her fallen spear... and with only a flick of her horn, she sent this rocketing up from the ground to shoot into the hole in the ceiling before it spun violently, smashing apart decorative metal bars and lunar symbols and sending down a hail of metal that Scrivener weaved awkwardly back and forth around with a curse.
Luna shot back towards the sky just as Fenrir lunged and bit at her, managing only to rip his teeth through the end of her ethereal tail and making her wince in surprise more than pain as she flew upwards, her spear falling into place beside her automatically. Scrivener flew behind her into the tight tunnel as the mountain around them cracked, and Fenrir roared, leaping up after them and shoving one enormous paw into the tight passage, huge claws ripping against Scrivener's armor and knocking him into the wall as he gargled in pain, but he managed to save himself from falling by scrabbling wildly at the jagged surface with all four hooves, propelling himself onwards as his wings flapped hard.
Below them, Fenrir fell backwards with a snarl, the scarred goliath landing heavily on its back and not noticing as massive rips spread through the ceiling and the walls, howling furiously and gnashing his teeth at the tunnel as he swept one claw viciously upwards against the entrance and ripped away a large, gnarled piece of metal. It tore free, bouncing loudly against the ground with a bang that drew the monster's animal attention for a moment before it looked back up as a thunderous crack tore through the air, snarling and glaring upwards as it sensed movement... and then its ears flattened back, and the wolf almost screamed as it tried to skitter backwards too little, too late, as the entire ceiling finally gave away and the countless layers of stone, fortress and mountain collapsed on top of the awful, terrible beast.
Luna and Scrivener cursed as the passage around them shattered and began to draw even narrower, the winged unicorn snarling before her horn glowed, electricity sparking along her frame and a blue aura glowing around her before she rammed out of the top of the tunnel like a bullet, sending chunks of stone flying in all directions as Scrivener managed to scramble out after her a moment later, the two shooting up into the air above as Luna grinned for a moment... then stared in horror at the sight of the moon in the sky above, coming to a halt some fifty feet above the collapsing Black Baroque as she threw her head back with a cry of disbelief.
The howls of the Black Wolves had cracked the moon into pieces like an egg, and massive chunks of stone were now slowly floating through the sky, some of them vanishing beyond the horizon, others seeming to fall steadily and slowly towards the earth as Luna snarled and leaned forwards... but then she only hissed in pain, magical recoil ripping over her body as she lurched backwards and fell slightly before Scrivener's hooves caught her shoulders before she could tip over, the male flying silently behind her as he stared up weakly and whispered: "It's going to be okay, Luna... this isn't..."
"This is proof that this world is dead and damned and doomed, Scrivener Blooms..." Luna whispered, and when Scrivener began to draw back, she reached a front hoof up and fiercely held one of Scrivy's down against her shoulder, trembles rolling through her body as the terrible, blinding, poisoned sun shone arrogantly down through the shattered pieces of the moon, and then she gritted her teeth and muttered: "And to think... I wanted to drain the creature's strength and put it to thee without thinking of the consequences... damn me, Scrivener Blooms, for what is worse? A lust for power, or a lust to make another powerful, for all the right reasons that led us in the first place right to Helheim's gates!"
Luna slammed her free hoof down against her own armored body, and Scrivener closed his eyes as he slipped forwards, wrapping his forelegs around her neck and embracing her fiercely, and Luna shivered a bit as they hovered in midair, bodies aching, wings flapping slowly. Then, finally, they parted and slowly began to sail downwards... and as the two gazed silently at one another, Luna couldn't help but smile and whisper: "And idiot poet... that knickknack around thy neck, thou protected it with thine supple hindquarters."
Scrivener laughed despite himself, reaching up and touching the still-intact bone collar before he glanced awkwardly over his shoulder: the chain mesh and plates that had protected his rear were shredded ,and he felt a faint, flaring pain from the large, ugly gashes that had been torn from only the glancing blow of Fenrir's claws... but he knew he was lucky. He paused, then returned his eyes to Luna... and smiled faintly at the fact that the spear was still floating on her other side, saying quietly: "Well, Valkyrie, it looks to me like you're just as guilty as I am of putting material objects over one's own life."
The winged unicorn glanced towards her spear with surprise... and then she smiled faintly despite herself, replying quietly: "Only if thou already forgot my lecture, foolish poet."
Scrivener looked at her for a few moments, and then he nodded slowly and smiled a little in return as the two slowly descended through the haze of snow and dust that was settling silently through the Gray Mountains around the fallen Black Baroque, and Luna grimaced a bit as they finally touched down to the frozen, rotten ground. Slowly, she and Scrivener Blooms turned around as her telescopic spear collapsed and floated quietly to the side to slip into the satchel bag, and the earth pony shook his head slowly as they gazed upon the wreckage of the once-mighty fortress.
It had completely collapsed in on itself, leaving only half of the front walls of the Black Baroque standing, while the mountain was nothing more than a slumped heap of debris barely as high as their heads. Chunks of broken rock, blades of ice, and ugly, mottled roots stuck out of the ruin here and there like feebly-grasping claws, steam and icy mist hissing softly up from the pile of shattered stony wreckage.
"May this accursed place rot." Luna muttered, shaking her head slowly, and then she glanced towards Scrivener Blooms as the earth pony nodded with a quiet grunt, and Luna hesitated only for a few moments before she asked quietly: "Art thou ready to activate the collar and leave, then?"
"Yeah, more than ready, Luna." Scrivener looked back at her with a faint smile, hesitating only a moment before he bowed his head towards her with a swirl of thoughts and images, and Luna blushed a bit as she heard whispered apologies and gentle promises kiss through her mind before she shook her head firmly, then stepped forwards and hugged him tightly.
The male lowered his head, leaning against her as she squeezed him slowly around the neck, and then her horn began to glow, summoning up the reserves of energy she had left as Scrivy winced a bit and his leathery, aching wings flapped once as electricity sizzled slowly over his body and Luna's ephemeral mane stroked along his armored frame and features, the winged unicorn murmuring: "Then may we walk with the favor of the Norns, my beloved."
Slowly, Luna drew back as her horn gave a faint pulse... and then the collar around Scrivener's neck slowly began to glow, taking on an eerie, sickly emerald glow as the male leaned back and clenched his eyes shut, wincing as it burned for a moment against his coat before rapidly cooling as steam hissed up from it as he muttered: "Always manage... to forget that part..."
"Aye, but magic is about more than pretty incantations and concentration when it comes to this. The Khlōros tests the wearer... and 'tis only my relief that neither of us have ever failed it so far." Luna replied softly, gazing over him with a faint smile, and Scrivener laughed a little despite himself. "Stand proud, Scrivener Blooms. Today, we save souls from the claws of shadow, and perhaps lives that were unfairly stolen away."
Scrivener nodded a bit as he rolled his shoulders, before twitching slightly as the collar began to emit a low, haunting hum... and all around them, Pales flickered into existence, their eyes staring towards the collar and the earth pony. Scrivener Blooms licked his lips nervously as he looked slowly back and forth, but Luna gave him a supportive smile as she said quietly: "Remember, thou art only the figurehead... or more aptly, the beast of burden that draws the plow."
"Well thanks, Luna. I'm glad I'm now allowed to pull a plow." Scrivener replied softly, and he felt himself relaxing a bit despite himself as they looked at one another amidst the congregation of ghosts, meeting each other's eyes for a moment before the male added quietly: "It's okay."
"Good." Luna said softly, smiling awkwardly at him with a faint blush tingeing her cheeks, and then she shook her head briskly before turning around and trying not to focus on the Pales even as she walked forwards and strode through the staring mass of spirits, saying quietly: "Let us now only focus on the hard march ahead of us. It will be a long and tiresome one, to be sure, Scrivener Blooms... but it will be most worthwhile too."
Scrivy glanced back and forth, at the mass of Pales that had already appeared... and more were clustering in now as well, standing in a rough circle around him, drawn by the phantasmal, almost-inaudible melody that echoed up from the glowing collar around his neck. There were already so many he couldn't count, pressing so close that they were mixing with one another's translucent, ethereal spirits... and Scrivener nodded slowly as he began to follow Luna, the Pales parting the way for him and naturally falling into large, uneven lines as they slowly followed, drawn onwards from perhaps miles around by the strange melody.
Luna and Scrivener approached the other end of the valley... and then something crashed loudly in the distance, the two ponies whirling around and the Pales flickering as they froze in place: and even through the misty ghosts, the two ponies were able to watch as rock and ice exploded into the air in bursts of snow and dust before a terrible, hulking form ripped itself free of the wreckage, barking and snarling as reality around it trembled and distorted, dark flames rippling over its awful frame.
The winged unicorn snarled as her entire body tensed... before her eyes widened in horror as a second Black Wolf of Hell pulled itself out of the tunnel the first had ripped. They were smaller than Fenrir, even from this distance... and Luna cursed under her breath in surprise, wondering how the monsters had managed to cross such distances so quickly, and yet all the same knowing that however they acted, whatever they were... the Black Wolves defied reality, defied logic, and would allow themselves to be enslaved by nothing: be it a law of physics, or a leash of steel, or a scepter of magic, they would refute it, fight against it... and more and more, Luna questioned if they could even be killed.
The Black Wolves snarled at them, and Luna cursed under her breath, torn between fleeing and engaging the monsters. But a moment later, instead of trying to pursue or attack, the two wolves only half-turned and began to claw at the wreckage of the Black Baroque and the mountain, ripping up thick chunks of stone and ice. It was clear what they wanted to do: dig out their Alpha, Fenrir, whom the Black Wolves seemed to hold some alien loyalty to in spite of living in their own territories... and Luna cursed under her breath, but then frowned a bit as her gaze sharpened, leaping upwards and taking to the air to get a better vantage for a moment.
She hovered and watched as they dug... and while one was using both forepaws and shoveling its way rapidly into the debris, the other was favoring a front leg, holding it up against its body and scraping almost gingerly at the surface as it shivered. It seemed pained... and Luna gave a sour grin despite herself, muttering: "So perhaps the vicious mongrels are not invulnerable... aye, they bleed, they wound... and their bones break. And whether or not Fenrir showed such freakish powers of regeneration, his weaker brothers may not possess the same vitality... this is good."
Luna hesitated, watching as the wolves continued their digging for a few more moments... and then she turned and sailed back down to the ground, landing neatly on her hooves and casting a grim glance over her shoulder towards Scrivener Blooms. "Let us make haste, and only hope that the last of the Black Wolves is still buried in the wreckage alongside Fenrir. We shall push hard, and distance ourselves from the beasts before they can hunt us in revenge... I do not wish to attempt to embattle the entire pack at once; even I am not foolhardy enough to think it ending in victory."
Scrivener nodded with a grunt, and the winged unicorn gazed at him for a moment, at the trust, the love, the compassion in his eyes, that radiated from him... and she smiled faintly before turning and breaking into a quick run, the earth pony chasing after her as she closed her eyes and whispered to the recesses of her own mind: And we almost damaged that, Nightmare Moon... does thou understand now why thou cannot meddle in such things, that even thy honestly-good intentions can have evil repercussions?
But Nightmare Moon was silent, wherever she was... and so instead, Luna only led onwards, Scrivener following as the Khlōros sang its spectral melody. And behind them, the Pales followed, their hooves making no noise over the frozen and blackened wastes, their bodies shimmering with frost and ethereal light. The last living ponies across the broken world of Equestria guided the souls of the dead ever onwards, as the Gray Mountains echoed with the voiceless melody of the reaper's collar. |
Metempsychosis | Shepherds Of The Dead | Chapter Fourteen: Shepherds Of The Dead
~BlackRoseRaven
Luna and Scrivener Blooms pushed onwards through the Gray Mountains, joined by more spirits as they roved through deep valleys and along steep, rocky passes. The spirits behind them kept in time, following loyally and never hesitating: the Pales didn't stumble over rocks or cracks, were unfettered by venting steam or rasping, chilling wind, and small gaps and short walls they could simply blink over, vanishing from sight to reappear some twenty feet away in a single moment's time.
The Khlōros garnered the attention of other things as well, however, which only made them push harder to travel quick even while Luna kept a sharp watch, sometimes running in front of the earth pony, at other times flying above. Grimm hissed and lurked around the edges of the convoy of spirits, hating the silent melody because it hinted at giving peace to suffering souls and stealing away their prizes, and while the insubstantial beasts of shadow couldn't directly attack them, they were all too glad to cause distractions by stirring up nearby beasts, attempting to cause avalanches of snow, ice, and stone by shoving rocks down the mountainside, and screaming from high vantage points awful, hideous shrieks that ripped through the veil of reality and made both Luna and Scrivener wince.
The effect of the Khlōros, however, also made the creatures visible to Luna's eyes... and with a single well-placed blast of her blue fire, the ghastly crow-specters would be sent squealing. Normal fire might hold no threat to them, but Luna's night-tinged magic was more than sufficient to char the very spirits of the foul entities. After a few of the monsters had been incinerated, the Grimm had finally made themselves scarce and relented in their attacks... Luna had only been glad that the foul beasts had never managed to provoke anything larger than a Velite Drake out of hiding and into attacking them.
After six hours of hard travel, Scrivener's muscles aching and Luna gritting her teeth as she paced beside him and ignored her own flagging stamina, they finally reached the pass that would lead them out of the Gray Mountains and back into the snowy fields. It was a greater relief than either could say: even if they couldn't afford to take a break yet, they would be able to slow their pace all the same, and it was like a weight had been lifted from their bodies as they made their way down to the frost-speckled tundra with the ominous peaks left at their back.
Luna and Scrivener both glanced back, past the pack of ghosts following behind them... and both stared in horror at what they saw. Standing there, at the very border of the Gray Mountain, was some indescribable monstrosity that had likely been tailing them the entire time, perhaps the very source of that weight and pressure they had both felt. A torpedo-shaped head, multiple arms, a handful of eyes that looked as if they had been shoved by an angry child into its clay-like features... and yet it only stood there, as if there was some invisible barrier that kept it trapped inside the surreal world of the mountains.
It leaned forwards, tentacles writhing around its face as jaws hidden beneath the flexing appendages clacked as it reached a hand towards them... and Scrivener winced as Luna shook her head, whispering: "Such things lurk in the Mountains that were never meant to see the light of day... things of nature's scorn, mockeries made by pedantic gods... sad and twisted creature, return to thy hovel. We are neither prey nor enemy... take relief that soon, this world and thy sufferance shall end."
The terrible monstrosity stared after them... and then it simply faded slowly out of existence as if it had only been a trick of the light, and a chill ran down Scrivy's spine before he glanced towards Luna and muttered: "Let's get out of here. I have a bad feeling that there's worse creatures than that on the move... and that whether the Gray Mountains are beyond normal reality or some kind of terrible prison and pit for... for failures of creation and evolution alike, that cage is going to break open before this world ends."
"Let us hope not, Scrivener Blooms. I wish for the last days of this planet to be peaceful, even for the demons and accursed of Helheim that lurk throughout it... if the gaol of the Gray Mountains shatters wide, then we may have no choice but to flee across the Bifrost and wish a quick death to this world." Luna muttered in response, even as she turned and began to run... and Scrivener ran beside her, no longer feeling his aches or pains as adrenaline pulsed through his veins and his chilled blood, doing his best not to glance back for fear that somehow, that thing would be lurking behind them, waiting eagerly to strike.
Instead of passing into North Neigh, the two went through the tundra, moving alongside the fencing and through the dunes of ice and snow. Elementals leaned curiously over broken defenses and watched past half-collapsed walls as they passed, and as they ran, more Pales flickered quietly into being around them, Scrivener looking back and forth despite himself for any sign of Tia Belle... but he knew she wasn't there. He knew that she was gone... and for some reason, it left a splinter in his heart to think that somewhere inside of her had been regret for how she had treated him, remorse, perhaps even something more...
He lowered his head forwards, swallowing a bit as they pushed onwards, and Luna gazed at him silently... but she knew better than to speak. She could feel him pushing through the emotions, and they were like a jumble of blocks that needed to be carefully pulled apart... and the winged unicorn knew by now when not to rush her husband on certain subjects. All the same, her emotions traveled to him, kissed his thoughts, shielded him in her mental embrace... and the earth pony smiled faintly as he whispered: "I don't know where she's gone now, Luna. But I do honestly hope... it's not Helheim. Bramblethorn I hope ends up somewhere... somewhere nasty, but I... I was never hugged by either of my parents before. Maybe in death it was a little late... but better late than never at all, right?"
Luna nodded to him, leaning towards the male as her ethereal mane flickered backwards, and she murmured quietly: "Whether she loved thee or not, Scrivener Blooms... at the end, she recognized thee. Saw some value in thee... and the way she looked at thee..."
"I'm gonna start crying again if we talk about it too much, Luna." Scrivener smiled faintly all the same, however, closing his eyes tightly as a shudder passed through him before he shook his head firmly and looked ahead, pretending it was the chilling wind and the sheer cold that was making his eyes ache. "Let's just keep pushing forwards. We have a long way to go."
Luna nodded firmly at this as she looked ahead herself... and pushed onwards by love and sorrow, hope and determination, they continued forwards. Their hooves beat against the frosted earth as they charged onwards, ignoring curious Ice Elementals as they finally reached the highway beyond North Neigh and pushed steadily south, into the tattered forest, both knowing they should slow down, both aching in body and heart, but neither wanting to stop as they kept themselves moving at a steady, firm beat, their hearts pulsing in time, their breath rasping in and out as they pushed themselves beyond their limits.
The result was that when the two reached the snowy desert beyond the road through the gnarled and tattered forest, the two staggered to a halt and half-collapsed against one another, wheezing for breath as their armor clanked together, throats dry and painful, eyes clenched shut as tears from the exertion, the cold wind, and the wild emotions that had driven them onwards for hours they couldn't even count froze over their cheeks. Scrivener Blooms cursed under his breath weakly as Luna arched her back with a grimace, her ephemeral mane and tail both sparking, flickering for a few moments before she leaned forwards and shoved her quaking front hooves against the ground, their bodies rippling with aches and soreness as the Pales silently formed a thick circle around them and the Khlōros collar continued to hum its ghostly resonance.
"We need to rest, Scrivy. I do not understand how thou art even still on thy hooves, wretched stubborn beetle, when my body aches as badly as it does and thou should ache all the worse..." Luna muttered, leaning forwards with a grimace before she snorted as Scrivener slowly laid down on his stomach, shivering as he coughed a few times and lowered his head forwards into the snow. "And thus my point is proven true."
"Shut up, Luna." Scrivener mumbled from the snow, and then he twitched a bit, his leathery wings giving an awkward flap before he groaned and mumbled: "Oh hell, you left my wings on..."
Luna only grumbled in response to this, replying flatly: "And thou shalt keep them for the entire journey. I am too tired to dispel them... either the polymorph will fade naturally or the Bifrost will do the job for me."
Scrivener mumbled to himself, and then he winced as he slowly forced himself up to a sitting position, breathing hard as the Khlōros burned quietly around its neck, still emanating its phantasmal harmony, still drawing the eyes and attention of the Pales. "Twenty minutes?"
"Thirty. It has been a long time since we have done such a march... and even if we slow our pace, even if we have the advantage of needing neither food nor rest, neither of us are invincible." Luna hesitated, and then she added quietly: "And I believe that... we are safe from the Black Wolves of Hell. We would have felt their presence and movement... I only hope that they have not succeeded yet in digging their Alpha free from the ruin."
Scrivener nodded slowly, and he and Luna leaned against one another as the winged unicorn dropped her head against the side of his neck, her horn gently brushing through his mane as she murmured in a quieter voice: "Thou does not need to push so hard, Scrivy. Nor does thou need to feel such guilt... we are both... we have both made mistakes."
"Yeah. I know, Luna, I do, I just..." Scrivener laughed a bit, looking down awkwardly as he slid a foreleg around her, pulling her closer and both used to the staring Pales by now, that watched them silently... but were more interested in the melody of the Khlōros than they were in the two ponies. Perhaps they weren't even truly aware of them... only that they were being led onwards by the enchanting song of the collar of the dead. "I trust you. I love you. I... understand you."
"And that last... that is the most precious gift of all." Luna smiled faintly, burying her face deeper against the side of his neck before she sighed softly and straightened slightly, gazing at him silently as he turned towards her, their eyes locking before she reached up and adjusted his glasses for him. "Oh, look at thee, thou art a mess. A jumble, in fact, Scrivener Blooms. Honestly, what would thou do without me?"
"Well, I'd be dead, for one thing." Scrivener said blandly, and Luna rolled her eyes before she headbutted him, making the earth pony wince back a bit before the winged unicorn simply grumbled and rested with her head firmly pushed against his. "You'd probably have somepony more handsome, too. Well, knowing you, Twilight, and you'd probably corrupt her into having some menagerie of armored 'bodyguards' at your beck and call..."
Luna snorted at this, leaning back and saying indignantly: "Oh, so this is what thou thinks of me? Rude and ungrateful creature!" She paused meditatively, looking up and muttering musingly as she rubbed a hoof under her jaw: "Still, 'tis a fun idea all the same. I only wish I had the power by which to make the Moon Blessed real, or at least there were loyal ponies still around whom we could enlist as so-called 'bodyguards...'"
Scrivener glowered at her, and Luna grinned back, winking at him as she leaned forwards and replied kindly: "Two stallions and two mares, would it not be perfect? Amazonians for thee and handsome Adonis-like figures for myself. Unless thou wanted to trade, of course."
The earth pony only replied with a sigh, rubbing slowly at his face and muttering disconsolately: "This is why ponies got so weirded out around us, Luna. On the one hoof, you're hyper-protective and we're both obviously codependent. On the other, you gleefully take any and all chances to come up with new 'adventurous fantasies,' as you put it. I'm going to make you sit in the corner of shame at this rate."
"'Tis no such thing, and thou cannot, anyway. I am older, wiser, and most importantly, far bigger and stronger than thee." Luna retorted, and Scrivener opened his mouth, but couldn't find a decent response before he winced when the winged unicorn added mildly: "Furthermore, if thou art so resistant to the idea, then I can just take all the bodyguards for my own self and my own 'protection...'"
"Okay, okay, you win." Scrivener rolled his eyes, and then he flailed a bit when Luna kicked some snow at him, grumbling and muttering: "You're evil though, Luna, so we're clear on that. You and Nightmare Moon both, and I don't know which is worse."
Luna smiled at this, then she leaned forwards and kissed his cheek quietly, and Scrivener sighed but relaxed visibly as they looked at each other... and there was a strange, visible lightening between them, as they studied one another and traded emotions back and forth, the weight of the world seeming to shift off their shoulders.
They rested together for another twenty minutes, sipping a bit of water from a canteen before refilling it by straining snow through a simple sieve, and then the two were once more on their way. Instead of heading towards the barrens, however, they instead set course to go around them... and after some three hours of travel, they reached the far eastern edge of the burning wastes, stepping from snow to gravel and mire and rock, entering into a wasteland that all the same was far-less-hostile than the magma floes and hellish hinterland to the west.
The two ponies had to pick their course carefully all the same, however, with Luna taking the lead and her spear floating ready at her side as Scrivener Blooms kept looking nervously back and forth. Every so often, some hideous centipede or serpentine, mutated worm would slither its way out of one of the holes in the rocks, eager to try and prey upon the few living things that dared the stony gorge, and the winged unicorn had to be fast to drive the beasts back down into their burrows. A few vicious stabs of her spear would deter the worms, who would retreat with shrieks... but the centipedes had to be slain and torn almost into pieces in order to get them to cease the attack, and they liked to try and pincer in pairs, the size of anacondas and covered in carapaces as hard as metal.
It made for slow going: with both the wildlife and the terrain against them and dark clouds beginning to brew in the sky, even their slow march was proving draining. Finally, Scrivener Blooms took to the air, flying slowly and low over the rocky barren with Luna coasting beside him, and the Pales thankfully continued to follow the pull of the Khlōros without any event. It was awkward and a little painful for the earth pony, but all the same it was safer and better than trying to pick his way over a seemingly-endless stretch of sharpened rock, and now they didn't have to worry nearly as much about the predatory insects that somehow managed to live out here in these barrens.
They had to pass through a narrow gorge, shepherding the Pales down an ugly slope that looked as if it was made of jutting spikes and blades, passing a massive, crumbled skeleton of a dragon that was covered in silken webs and had become a nest of enormous arachnids that glared balefully at them as they passed, but thankfully, there was little of event: at the bottom of the gorge, there was a narrow river of slag and magma, but it was narrow enough that the Pales simply blinked over it... or strode over the surface, bothered by neither heat nor the semi-liquidity of the lava that was so hot it made both living ponies sweat just to be within twenty feet of it, and had ached unbelievably to pass low over.
They had set down on the other side to let their wings rest as they guided the Pales up a long, dusty rock ramp... and as if the broken world had taken pity on them, when they emerged from the rocky gorge they found themselves standing on a straight, ghostly stretch of empty land, a frosty border visible in the distance and a faint snowfall beyond this. They had almost reached the edge of the barrens, and Scrivener Blooms sighed in relief before he grimaced as the Khlōros hissed quietly against his neck, charring him for a moment as he muttered: "Damned thing..."
"Is it draining thy energy? Strange... usually we are much further along before it replenishes its magic through vital force." Luna said quietly... and then she and Scrivener both paused before looking over their shoulders at the vast congregation of Pales, some stragglers even all the way on the other side of the gorge still... yet all the same, still following the call of the collar, still wandering silently after them, enraptured by the melancholic song of the strange supernatural device. "Although... today, we draw more souls than I had ever expected to find as well..."
"Yeah." Scrivener murmured quietly, then he shook his head slowly and glanced ahead over the stained tundra, saying softly: "Let's keep moving then, Luna. But we should probably rest once we manage to reach the Northedge Strait."
"Aye, I agree with thee for once, Scrivener Blooms." Luna gave him a bit of a smile, nodding slowly, and the male nodded back before the two resumed their journey forwards, calmly striding side-by-side over the tundra with the mass of Pales following silently behind them after the call of the Khlōros.
Luna guided them through the corrupted wilderness, and although they ran into a band of Nibelung, the wolf-pigs fled with yelps of terror: understandable, since it wasn't simply Luna and Scrivener Blooms they were faced with, but the two were leading an army of ghostly Pales that flickered in and out of reality, passing through rocks and gnarled trees as they marched silently onwards, and all while that strange, near-silent music thrummed through the air.
They reached the banks of the Northedge Strait after hours of travel, slowed by slush and heavy snow and the tiredness beginning to set into their muscles from their marathon march, and they halted for an hour to rest and recuperate together. The next part of the journey would likely be the hardest point: Luna would harden the ice with magic as they crossed the river, but it was a long trek, and the winged unicorn knew it would be draining... and made all the more difficult by the fact the river itself might attempt to claim them as prey.
Malicious things lived in these frozen waters, made the strait itself vicious and almost sentient... but by hardening the ice as they moved, it would hopefully give them a narrow area of safety and make their presence less-detectable to the things that lurked below. One way or the other, however, they needed to cross... and from there, they still had to make the journey all the way back to the tundra outside of Ponyville, where they could summon the Bifrost.
"Assuming the Bifrost has regenerated... 'twill be a great joke indeed to try and call upon the rainbow bridge, only to find that it not yet in serviceable condition." Luna muttered, shaking her head slowly before she glanced towards Scrivy as the male snorted in entertainment and carefully stood up, cracking his back loudly as Luna stretched her wings and flapped them once before they settled against her sides. "To think, I used to regularly journey across entire countries with Sleipnir and Celestia. 'Twas... different, though. We were better prepared, our marches not so fast, and most of all the world was beautiful, not in this state of decay and ruin... it saps our strength, I know."
Scrivener smiled a bit at this, nodding slowly in agreement before he absently rubbed at his chest, saying vindictively: "I'm almost hoping that nasty weather is a corruption storm. Might do us some good."
"Depraved beetle. But what does that make me, when I hope that thou art right?" Luna gave him an entertained look, and the male grunted in response with a shrug, which earned him a roll of her eyes as she nudged him with her shoulder. "Foolish fool."
The earth pony snorted in entertainment at this, nudging her back and replying mildly: "That sounds like one of my lines, Luna, so let me use one of yours, thou undignified and most maleficent strumpet."
Luna huffed at this, rearing her head back indignantly. "Awful creature, how dare thee! Did I not fear for the Khlōros I would bash thee roundly and rudely upside thy upstart head!" She paused, then huffed and started forwards, flicking her horn and making the ice crackle as it darkened visibly where it hardened, becoming more akin to rock than ice as she added grudgingly: "'Tis not fair. Thou can insult me in a multitude of dialects and I still struggle with the accursed slang of the accursed 'modern' tongue. In Looking Glass World, we should fill the heads of all these Pales with the language of mine own time, and then thou can be the odd pony out."
"Aren't I usually the odd pony out anyway?" Scrivener pointed out as he followed behind her with a smile, trying to ignore the fact for the moment that a congregation of spirits were following silently behind them, and Luna laughed quietly as she shook her head, gazing over her shoulder at him with entertainment.
"Aye, perhaps that is true, but thou knows what I mean. Wretched cur. Besides, that I speak like this is the fault of Celestia, and to a lesser extent, Sleipnir. Except that Sleipnir spoke mainly in exclamations and boorish remarks that would frustrate sister endlessly." She smiled a little as she turned her eyes back ahead, flicking her horn again as they neared the end of the path of darkened ice, and the lane immediately spread further forwards, forming another stretch of thick, rock-solid frost. "It... saddens me some days that we cannot disrupt the cycle of life and death completely, selfish and... childish... as I know that must sound, Scrivy. Some days even now I want my brother back, or to be able to visit him freely... 'tis no wonder Odin keeps Valhalla's entrance so secret and so hidden."
"Well, one day we'll die and we'll all get to hang out together then." Scrivener said mildly, and Luna snorted laughter as she shook her head with a wide grin as the earth pony added dryly: "This is me being positive, by the way. Or comforting. Or at least trying to be both. Do I get points for trying or does my blatant disregard for the sanctity of anything cost me all those?"
Luna only rolled her eyes in entertainment, however, giving her head another shake before she glanced up towards the sky as there was a crackle of thunder in the distance, the clouds roiling through the violet sea overhead seeming to almost glow as she murmured: "It looks like thou may be right after all, Scrivy... let us only hope the storm does not stir up whatever lurks in these foul depths beneath our hooves."
The weather, however, held off as they crossed the Northedge Strait: although the ruins of Charger's Crossing were barely visible to the west, and it was perhaps even a little narrower here than it had been at the bridge, a fierce wind kicked up that made moving difficult, and it was worsened by the fact that around them, the ice rose up in vicious blades and spikes. The Pales paid this no heed, walking calmly through these piercing stalagmites of frost as if they didn't exist as they followed after the two ponies, and they disregarded the ice shattering beneath their ethereal hooves and the clawed hands that grabbed wildly at pony and Pale alike with the same calm disconnection.
Luna and Scrivy weren't so lucky: thankfully, the ice pillars and spikes couldn't rip out of the ice that Luna solidified with her magic, but soon enough whatever forces wanted them dead began to angle the blades of ice whenever they emerged from the river, and the two had to move quickly to avoid being speared or sliced by the twisting frost. Worse yet were the claws: they were able to tear through the less-solid ice like it was only paper in a great burst of water and snow, snatching viciously at them whenever they drew too close to the edge of their solid bridge of dark blue rock-ice.
They only stopped when Luna managed to stab her spear down through the mottled, fish-scaled hand of one of the creatures, shrieks rising up from the ice as it had jerked wildly and blue blood spread over the ice, rapidly hardening into frost... and then Scrivener had stepped forwards with his teeth grit, half-driven by Luna's battle experience and half by his own anger and stomped savagely down on the elbow, cracking the joint with an awful crunch. The pain for the creature had been excruciating enough it had leapt upwards, and a hideous fish-beast had surfaced through the softer ice, ugly, pickerel-like features contorted with pain and fury as it grabbed wildly at them with its other arm, gills flexing in its neck as it screamed at them in a piercing, garbled language.
Scrivener staggered back, and Luna met its other webbed claw with her horn, slicing into its soft flesh and knocking its limb wide as it squealed before Luna flicked her horn upwards and sent a blast of lightning shocking into the creature, and it had fallen still and silent, gills twitching once as it shivered against the ice before Luna tore her spear free and gently used the weapon to shovel it backwards. The fish-beast had sunk into the water, and Scrivener had shivered a bit as mournful howls had sounded around them, the ice contorting into strange bumps and ridges and alien shapes, but no longer attacking them as the winged unicorn muttered: "Merfolk. They are not beautiful as the modern legends once described them... they are hideous, greedy, and cruel. But they are also cowards... 'tis Helheim's influence that must drive them to hunt so ferociously instead of remaining in their deep lairs and undersea kingdoms. Or perhaps there is simply no other food left to hunt, and they suffer as much beneath the waves as the world does above the tide..."
It was a grueling two hours, crossing the water: at some point, the Merfolk attempted another attack against them with the ice, but it was halfhearted and lasted for only a few minutes before they simply stopped, realizing their ploy wouldn't work against the two: whenever Luna or Scrivener couldn't avoid one of the ice spikes, after all, Luna simply used magic to either warp the ice in a different direction or shatter it before it could reach them. Every now and then, a silhouette of the creatures would pass near the thinner ice, but that was all until they finally reached the other bank... and once there, Luna called a halt to rest and dropped on her haunches as her spear buried into the ground beside her, her horn sparking faintly as her mane shivered around her body. Scrivener took the moment to slide behind her, quietly rubbing at her shoulders and along the bases of her wings to help her relax as she murmured: "We are... perhaps halfway there, Scrivener Blooms. But I must recharge a little after using so much magic... and thou should take the break we have to compose a letter to Pinkamena. It has been... I know not. Twelve, fifteen hours of relentless travel? Perhaps more, perhaps less. And we have at least twenty or thirty more ahead of us."
She stopped, then glanced quietly towards the earth pony, hesitating for a moment before she asked tentatively as she met his eyes: "Thy mind... how holds it?"
"In my skull, unless you're talking about the other one." Scrivener replied with a bit of a smile, and Luna sighed in exasperation... but at the same time, there was a faint glimmer of relief in her eyes, too, as the male laughed a little and held his hooves up before she could hit him. "It's... I'm okay, Luna, I can say that honestly, and... it's nice to be able to be honest about it, too. I think... I'm actually too tired to see things right now."
He stopped, hesitated... and when Luna cocked her head and leaned towards him, the male shook his head quickly before murmuring embarrassedly as he rubbed at his face: "Something... else feels different, too, though, to be honest. It's been a while since we pushed ourselves so hard... and I feel strange. My body hurts, I can feel our heartbeat pounding away, my throat feels like sandpaper and a lot of me is whining for a nap, even though I know I don't really need to sleep anymore. But beneath it, I feel..."
He looked down, then shook his head slowly and beat a hoof quietly against his breast, looking thoughtfully up at Luna. "I feel strong. I feel like... I'm growing and adapting. And on the one hand I'm worried, on the other, I wonder if maybe my body is naturally adjusting to the corruption, maybe all this... everything... is helping in some weird way to work that poison through my system. Wouldn't that be a laugh, though? Lazy poet saves himself from becoming a monster by getting off his flank and exercising instead of sitting around all day moping and writing whiny poetry."
Luna gave the earth pony a faint smile at this, shaking her head slowly and saying softly: "Oft, Scrivener Blooms, the way thou behaves makes me think that no matter how fiercely I can beat thee, 'tis nothing compared to the damage thou art willing to lay upon thyself." She paused as Scrivener blushed a bit, then added finally: "But... if it is true, and thou art gaining strength for one reason or another... I do not think it is something that we must worry on if the visions are not bothering thee, especially as we are amidst such a congregation of spirits."
She stopped, glancing moodily back and forth at the countless Pales that surrounded them, staring at them, enchanted by the whispering melody of the collar... and then Scrivener and Luna traded a look before the winged unicorn muttered: "I only wish that we could speak to them, Scrivy. It saddens me that they can only see and hear those whom they... connected with, so to speak, over their lives. And while some of them see us as well as the collar, I know most of them... do not. Most of them would not understand us if we tried to explain to them what we were doing... they are not like Fluttershy's poor father, seeking help from every source he could, whom Sol Seraph could not see only because of her own... monstrousness."
Scrivener nodded a bit, and then he shook his head and reached up to touch the glowing collar of eldritch-green bone. "I know, Luna. I think a lot about... how strange things are. Our country, our whole world, though, has become merely an extension of Helheim..." He hesitated, shaking his head slowly as he murmured: "I try not to let the thoughts overwhelm me, though, or I'll start... trying to make friends with Phooka and demons, and that won't turn out well."
"I do not know, Scrivy, I would rather have a Phooka for a friend than the ponies of the Royal Courts, any day of the week. I do not hope they are suffering in Helheim, for I did not hate them that much... but all the same, I also do not hope they end up with their old, snobbish lives back in full order once we reach Looking Glass World." Luna said meditatively, and Scrivener Blooms smiled despite himself as he turned, and he and Luna rested back to back, leathery wings and feathered, stronger, larger ailerons pushing gently against one-another's as their metal-covered spines grind together quietly. "Monsters make for fine friends, daydreamer. Thou and I both should testify to that."
"If I say you're less of a monster than I am, you'll hit me. If I say you're more of a monster than I am, you'll hit me. Why is it, Luna, that you always say things that we both know will end up with me being hit in response?" Scrivener asked mildly, leaning his head back to gently knock the back of his helmed skull against hers, and Luna snorted in amusement as she bumped her head firmly back against his own. "I'm just glad we haven't attracted any demons."
"Only because thou has developed a sick fascination with them. Not like Ignominious, thankfully, but thou studies them as I would study..." Luna paused thoughtfully, looking up and rubbing absently at her haunch before she grinned a bit at the dark sky overhead. "As I would study a particularly-handsome soldier of an army we were at odds with in the past. Warily, but with hope and curiosity, wanting to pull it apart and find out what makes it tick and more importantly bring it-"
"Okay, enough." Scrivener grumbled, and Luna laughed and bumped back against him teasingly before he added flatly: "Also, I don't really want to sleep with a demon, thank you. I am curious, though, to learn more about how Helheim works... and Pinkamena doesn't exactly answer most questions all that willingly. Plus you get really irritable when I start talking too much to her and paying more attention to her than you."
Luna grumbled at this, flicking some snow absently upwards with a front hoof before she grumbled: "'Tis not my fault thou has developed a fetish for the praying mantis. And think not I will save thee when she decides to eat thy head, Scrivener Blooms, ungrateful beetle."
The male smiled despite himself as he reached back and gently touched her hoof with his own, and she closed her eyes, tangling their forelimbs together and squeezing his hoof gently as he said softly: "But it just interests me. I mean, yes, plenty of them have tried to eat us when we come across them, or get into our heads... but others just kind of look at us, or even try to engage us in very awkward conversation, or just plain ignore us. Besides, I'm a poet. What's more poetic than Hell?"
"Oh, quiet, Scrivy, thou art not a poet. Thou art a word-murderer, sick and sadistic, and I think sometimes thou feasts upon the tears of ponies and their tattered psyches as hungrily as any demon does. Perhaps that is why thou art so fascinated, thou feels a kinship with them." Luna retorted, and Scrivener grinned... then it faded slightly as he looked upwards in surprised thought, as if struck by an epiphany, and behind him, Luna frowned at the feeling of the male's mind descending into deep thought as she said moodily: "I was not serious, Scrivener Bloom. Even if the idea that thou feeds upon misery explains so much about thy disposition."
"Oh, shut up, Luna, you know that's not what I'm thinking about." Scrivener replied grouchily, and the winged unicorn snorted in entertainment as their hooves squeezed absently together and they pressed a bit firmer back-to-back, before the male said softly: "But maybe I do see a kinship with them. Transformed souls, most of whom were once mortal, serving awful purposes and often darker masters, yet perhaps not beyond... reason, redemption. And the ones not insane or animal or broken... perhaps they too serve some ultimate purpose..."
"Oh, Scrivener Blooms, thou art putting too much thought into things again." Luna smiled a bit, leaning back against him as she said softly: "Things are merely what they are, 'tis all, and 'tis truly that simple. Besides, we shan't relax at this rate if thou keeps speaking of such wicked things. Not unless some demon of sloth wanders along and puts us both to sleep."
"Alright, alright, I'll try not to even think too loudly about it then, Luna. I'll just... close my eyes, and be with you." Scrivener replied quietly, and the winged unicorn gave a soft smile as they pressed firmer back to back, both leaning their heads back so the rears of their skulls touched, tangled forelimbs squeezing gently together as they both thought of the other in the darkness of their closed lids.
And in the darkness, an image formed, of the two locked together in tight embrace, leaning against each other front-to-front, forelimbs intertwined around one another's unarmored bodies. Their foreheads pressed together, unicorn and earth pony, and they breathed softly in time before Luna kissed his forehead gingerly.
A flicker, and a moment later, it was Nightmare Moon with enormous, half-wyrm Scrivener, bodies pressing together in an ivory spotlight amidst the shadows as they curled themselves closer to one-another, the rose-laced, black pearl necklace sandwiched gently between bodies painted with darkness before Nightmare Moon looked up... and Scrivener was surprised as he gazed into her eyes, the slit-like, dark pupils that gazed sorrowfully at him telling him that this wasn't just Luna... this was truly her Nightmare Moon side.
Silently, they studied one another... and then she reached up and slid her hooves against his shoulders, whispering softly: "It is difficult and painful for us to admit... but we made a mistake, beloved. We enraptured guiltless Luna into almost forcing a change upon you, because we desire you to be strong... we desire to prove our affection and our love to you, through gifts that we thought you were too shy to ever ask for yourself.
"But we understand now that you must not be rushed. We shall not goad Luna, we shall not force anything upon you... but know that we are here for you. The path you choose is the path we will walk together with you." Nightmare Moon leaned forwards, kissing the pony side of his face tenderly, and then the Wyrm side with just as much affection as she leaned back, smiling softly. "There is no you or I... there is only us, there has only ever been 'us' since our souls were bound together. Do not forget it. Do not feel embarrassment, or the need to try and hide away. We are together in this, and all things."
And then Nightmare Moon slipped backwards, eyes half-lidding before she burst apart into blue mist, and Scrivener grimaced a bit as he rubbed slowly at his face for a moment... then he winced as something shook him firmly by the shoulder before Luna's voice said quietly in his ear: "Daydreamer, awaken now. Thou hast gone and dozed off... and something strange has happened."
"Oh, wonderful. I slept and things got weird, that's nice." Scrivener mumbled tiredly as he shifted awkwardly... and realized he was laying on the ground on his stomach, yawning a bit as he carefully looked up and rubbed absently at his face... then winced a bit with a curse under his breath as he looked up and saw the horde of Pales around them. "I forgot what we were doing... why-"
"Because I also fell asleep for some twenty minutes." Luna admitted grouchily after a moment, and Scrivener snorted in amusement as he carefully stood up and stretched with a wince, his sore muscles complaining as they flexed and ached beneath his armor before he looked tiredly over at the winged unicorn as she added softly: "But once I saw what was happening... I figured it was better to let thee rest and observe."
Scrivener cocked his head, and Luna only smiled at him before she leaned towards him insistently, and the male sighed before meeting her eyes, trading memories with her... and then rearing back in surprise at what he saw and heard.
While he'd slept, the Khlōros had become stronger, the glow brighter and the melody clearer, voices singing a melancholy hymn of the dead that made the Pales sway slowly on the spot and had attracted more spirits into the immense herd. And when Scrivener opened his eyes as these memories flashed out, he looked slowly back and forth, realizing that there were so many Pales clustered around them now it was almost as if they had merged into one massive, flowing white entity... and Scrivener shook his head in slow amazement as he muttered: "Holy hell. So when I slept..."
"Aye, but we do not know how the Khlōros truly works. Perhaps we should have dragged Pollen along on this endeavor... the Velite, closest to death and yet not at all without life, may be able to make the Khlōros sing at its loudest." Luna replied quietly, and then she shook her head slowly before glancing awkwardly at the male. "And I... Nightmare Moon..."
"It's okay, Luna. Don't worry about it." Scrivener shook his head as he grimaced a bit, rubbing slowly at one front leg and muttering: "I feel stiff, though... and the weather..."
"Still holds. There has been some thunder, but..." Luna glanced warily up at the dark clouds overhead before she muttered: "'Tis impossible to predict anything in this world, though, Scrivener Blooms. Every time we attempt to do so it leads only to folly and frustration."
Scrivy smiled a bit despite himself at this... and then he looked up in surprise as Luna shook her head and added quietly: "But let us push onwards, and we shall rest again in another few hours, perhaps for a longer hiatus if we can find a safe lair. We can put off writing that letter to Pinkamena until we are closer, as the march is perhaps taking a harsher toll on us than I had expected at first."
"I can feel how eager you are to get across the Bifrost, Luna, I know we're not going to be having any big periods of rest in the near future." Scrivener replied dryly, and Luna snorted in entertainment as she rolled her shoulders absently before starting forwards, and the male smiled a little as he turned to follow her, the cloud of Pales parting silently for them and the enormous herd of spirits falling into step after the two.
The earth pony couldn't help but look quietly over his shoulder at the enormous congregation as they continued onwards, silent as he tried to estimate how many there must be for them to form a crowd so thick... and he laughed a little, shaking his head slowly as he murmured: "How many there must be... oh ye countless shades that follow in my wake, hear me but speak not to my lost and sorrow-filled mind..."
"Quote not poetry at the ghosts, Scrivy, 'tis rude." Luna chastised gently over her shoulder, and Scrivener smiled despite himself as he looked up after her, the female's ethereal mane whispering backwards as he laughed a little. "Come, let us set the pace a little faster. Thou should be able to handle an easy canter, with all the hot air that fills thy lungs and head."
Scrivy smiled a bit despite himself at her heckling, shaking his head as the strange green collar thrummed around his neck, and for the next few hours the two traveled in quiet, trading thoughts more than they did words. And as they strode onwards, a black rain began to fall, and this wasn't just in Scrivener's head as lightning cracked in strange shapes through the sky above and dark droplets fell around and over their bodies.
But they weren't afraid this time... if anything, they welcomed the corruption storm, as Luna's mane sizzled quietly with energy, the stars pulsing brighter as Scrivener's body flexed and he felt himself relaxing, felt new strength bursting through his being. And behind them, the Pales became almost solid, colors flickering through their bodies as life and vitality sparked in their eyes, drawn ever onwards by the Khlōros and yet at the same time, able to better recognize and understand what was going on as they pushed through the storm.
The black rain drove them onwards, and they only stopped to rest once for fifteen minutes when they came across a band of Velite and Nibelung hurrying through the melted snow through the dark rain, the dwarves yelling angrily as they covered their heads and the Velites all-but-sparking with electricity as they sought cover.
Luna and Scrivy went ignored, half-concealed by the black rain, while the enormous flock of Pales the Nibelung panicked at the sight of and the Velites hissed at in fear and anger for these souls that were one step closer to finding peace than the skeletons would ever be. The war band was large, but disoriented and panicked beneath the corruption rain as they sought shelter, and it wasn't long before the wolf-pigs and Velites finally passed... and after a few minutes of waiting for a straggler or two chasing after the band to go by, the two ponies continued onwards, barely noticing the rain anymore even as visions danced through Scrivener's head and Luna felt like her body had been electrified, like her Valkyrie spirit was rising up and giving her new strength from the days of old.
They traveled until the storm ended... and as the clouds finally dissipated above and the last of the droplets fell through the air, Scrivener and Luna slowed their pace along the desolate tundra, striding slowly through puddles of dark liquid. They had managed to find their way back to the main road at some point... but that was less interesting than the fact that above, the aging sun had set and given away to a beautiful, starry night, the two ponies gazing upwards at this rare show of miraculous radiance as bright lights twinkled in the velvety curtain and twists of beautiful light stretched back and forth through the skies.
The rare sight of the aurora grew brighter, and it was enough to make both Luna and Scrivener halt as a single large piece of the broken moon floated through the sky, vaguely crescent-shaped, surrounded by glittering ivory shards of the moon's shattered porcelain surface. They stared up at this, and behind them, the Pales massed, seeming to relax, seeming to gaze upwards as well as if the corruption storm had granted them a little more sanity, a little more recognizance of the world around themselves.
The aurora shimmered and glowed through the skies, and Scrivener Blooms and Luna both stared with fascination at this, the trail of multicolored lights snaking back and forth along the moon and throughout the stars as Luna murmured softly: "We're being called home, my beloved. The Vale of Valhalla... it urges us on, it beckons to us."
"Warriors, called home to rest..." Scrivener closed his eyes and smiled a bit, and the two leaned together quietly, armor gleaming faintly, polished by the rainstorm of corruption that had ended only so recently. "But we have to be gracious hosts before we can go home, right?"
"Aye, Scrivy, thou speaks far too true." Luna grinned wryly, looking over at him for a moment as the male smiled back at her... and for a moment, reality seemed to flicker in both their eyes, Luna gazing at the distorted self cloistered in Scrivener's subconscious, and Scrivener Blooms seeing the glowing eyes and black coat of Luna's passionate darkness.
Then they only saw one-another once more... but both smiled hesitantly, charcoal earth pony and deep sapphire winged unicorn leaning together, cyan and chestnut irises locking before they traded a quiet, gentle kiss for a short moment... then pulled slowly back and nodded to one-another, the female saying quietly: "Then as we are both feeling well... let us push onwards. Beneath the blessing of the lunar lights..."
Scrivener laughed quietly and nodded firmly, and Luna smiled encouragingly before she turned, striding through the darkness that covered their apocalypse-ravaged world, safer here in the deep den of night than beneath the blinding, murderous sun of the almost-endless days that ravaged the dead planet for months at a time.
The Khlōros continued to hum its ghostly resonance as they ran onwards, both able to see easily in the shadows even as Luna gave the occasional faint smile up towards the shattered moon in the sky. It was a ghastly omen, especially for her... but all the same, the moon had not been completely destroyed. Pieces of it still remained... and she wondered if that made it more of a symbol of what she had survived rather than some wicked portent of what was to come.
Scrivener Blooms, meanwhile, found his attention staying mostly to the ground as he caught wisps of movement here and there in the darkness. In the shadows around them, drawn perhaps by the collar - or maybe it was only because they were alive, perhaps the only two living ponies left in all of Equestria, if not the mangled world - were the shapes of equines with glowing eyes, running and staring at them with envy and curiosity, black horses with smoky manes that flickered out of reality when they caught Scrivener Blooms looking at them.
Nightmares: Horses of Helheim, somewhere between living dead and demon, feeding off fear and emotion and just as easily slain by both. They looked similar to Phooka and the strange shades that they saw prowling here and there, but Nightmares were tied to the darkness and could only make themselves known in the safety of shadows... and these strange entities had gone from feared haunts of Equestria to the prey of much-more-vicious demons. They could defend themselves with magic to a point, but their powers were next-to-useless against demons and even Velites.
And now they ran alongside them... and Scrivener thought that he caught flickers of other creatures as well that all the same looked to them with sorrow and curiosity and jealousy more than they did outright hatred. Their enormous herd of Pales was flanked on either side by a convoy of demons... but Luna only shook her head, eyes still studying the stars and the broken moon as she murmured: "It is of no importance. Demons can hurt the Pales, but even the most aggressive demon would hesitate with so many spirits in such close proximity, and the Khlōros ringing through the air with us at the herd's head. Certainly, a Pale is much like an ant compared to a snarling demon... but no matter how fierce and large the predator, a swarm of countless ants will all the same devour the single creature that opposes them."
Scrivener Blooms nodded slowly as Luna shook her head again, and the two journeyed in silence for several hours, even as more shadowy creatures flocked to either side of their group... until finally, the winged unicorn called for a halt, and the two slowed gradually before coming to a stop near a copse of warped and gnarled trees, Luna sitting down on her haunches and closing her eyes as Scrivener looked towards her, then smiled a bit at what she was doing.
As the Pales gathered behind them into one formless, enormous group, the creatures that had been stalking them - or escorting them, in their strange way - hesitantly slithered through the tundra past weeds and rocks and around patches of ice and frost and trees... before a great series of cries went up as Luna snapped her horn suddenly upwards and a burst of blue light bathed the area, revealing the shapes of cowering, shadowy entities as the winged unicorn leapt to her hooves and shouted in an echoing, powerful voice that rang through the cold, still night for miles around: "And what dares to cling to our coattails so, what sniveling creatures have barnacled themselves to our caravan in this, dark and glorious night, the bringer of beauty to even this collapsed world?"
Yells and babbling went up, and then Luna snapped her horn briskly upwards, and there was a sharp crack of thunder and a single powerful flash through the air, several of the creatures shrieking and fleeing as others simply dropped low... and for a moment, silence prevailed before hesitantly, a Nightmare almost slithered forwards towards them, leaning up as its eyes glowed red and its smoky mane swirled backwards, dark, polished body flexing as it whispered: "Sister, we are your humble servants..."
"Oh, sister, is it? I recall that thy kind tried to manipulate me into freeing Nightmare Moon, in the thought that she would bring darkness over Equestria... well, look upon the works of true monsters, foolish knave." Luna retorted disgustedly, leaning back and shaking her head slowly. "Prattle and flattery will do naught but anger me, creature. I have had more than one run-in with thy kind and never does it end pleasantly."
"This is different!" the Nightmare pleaded, leaning up and wincing as it looked back and forth, and other creatures hesitantly walked forwards as Scrivener gazed back and forth: not with fear, but with fascination for these entities of darkness and the way they seemed to be looking at them... for help, of all things. "The fools, the fools destroyed everything! They were like a virus, but we were not like them... oh yes, my kind, all of us here, prey upon mortals as well as beasts and anything else, but never did we try to destroy or hunt them all towards extinction... what meaning is there in this ultimate victory Helheim was tricked into taking now that it means all of us will die, that this realm will collapse? Helheim has no more victims and thus must cannibalize itself... but we've heard rumors there's another layer of reality. We've felt the energies... seen such sights... please take us with you. We will be your loyal servants... we will prey only upon those you permit us to..."
"Please." murmured another creature as it slipped forwards: a demon, with large ram's horns twisting out of its skull, its amber eyes glowing, its features skull like... yet terribly afraid as it flexed large claws against the ground, thin and dog-like body trembling. "Not all of us are only stupid, raging animals. Our emotions may be different, but not so alien that you cannot empathize with me and I with you..."
Luna snorted at this, looking at the strange demon as Scrivener frowned a bit and tilted his head, and then the earth pony asked before he could stop himself: "And just what are you, anyway?"
"I am an Esurience." the creature replied quietly, looking hesitantly towards Scrivener Blooms, backing up slightly almost as if afraid... but when the earth pony gestured for the creature to go on, it swallowed before explaining nervously: "I bring hunger and greed to those I bond myself to, however long or short that lasts. It is parasitic and symbiotic: the more of my hunger I push into a mortal, the less I feel myself... but the strong are able to turn that greed into a drive for self-improvement, not validation through selfishness. And whether positive or negative... their emotions, their psyche, their actions feed my spirit and strengthen me."
"The creature is honest, at least, and that is a start... even if it seeks to defend its own actions far too quickly. But why would I bring demons into a world that I am already sure has its share?" Luna asked distastefully, returning her eyes to the Nightmare, and the darkness-touched creature dropped low, groveling before her as the winged unicorn leaned back in disgust. "Oh cease. Hateful entities, I would almost rather thy lot of craven cowards brought battle to my doorstep than this pathetic whimpering and whining."
The creatures of darkness looked back and forth as Scrivy winced a bit despite himself, before he felt a chill run down his spine as another Nightmare slipped up beside him, stroking a hoof along his back and whispering into his ear: "Do not think we come blindly to you both... our kind cannot move freely around in the long and awful days of this apocalypse-riddled world, but we still watch with interest in the shadows and the silence what our beloved sister and her handsome consort are up to..."
"Step away from Scrivener Blooms, Nightmare, or I will bludgeon thee to death with thine own limbs." Luna growled, her eyes glowing faint ivory as she glared towards the creature that had slipped up by Scrivy, and the Nightmare immediately quailed back into the shadows before Luna shook her head in disgust as Scrivener winced a bit, feeling the hell-horse's words echoing through his mind with unnatural charisma. "Traitorous curs. Attempt to influence us again and I will destroy the entire lot of thee. Furthermore, I have no time for pleasant and extended conversation, and while I would delight in handsome servants, most of thee fall rather short on the 'handsome' half of that category."
There were mumbles back and forth between the cluster of shadowy creatures as they writhed uncertainly, forming an awkward semicircle before the Nightmare that had first addressed them finally stood and wheedled: "We'll pledge ourselves to you, please! Anything to escape this world, anything not to suffer and die at the hands of the demons that are so far bent and deluded they have decided that if the world must burn and break, they will rip and tear apart everyone else in it first!"
"I make no promises." Luna said coldly, and the winged unicorn started forwards, Scrivener looking at her with surprise even as he fell into pace beside her, and the dark entities scattered to either side to avoid being stampeded by the ponies and the horde of Pales. It wasn't the sudden start that had surprised him, however, or even the veiled sympathy Luna felt for these creatures she held as strange kindred to herself however she might treat them... it was the way she was wrestling with herself over what to do with them, and the fact that already, she was leaning towards trying to save even these creatures of shadow if they could.
Not that he had decided anything himself... and he couldn't help but smile as the sprinted forwards, and Luna glowered at him moodily, muttering: "Do not get used to it, poet... perhaps thou art... rubbing off on me more than I had thought at first. Besides, if this night does not last, then these demons will have to flee back beneath the ground and will not accompany us. They may never accompany us across the Bifrost... but if they are certain and serious..."
"I think what gets me is the fact that... you don't even want more than their word of honor. That you know..." Scrivener hesitated, looking across at her as he quieted, and the two traded an awkward laugh before he asked finally: "Are we going to bring evil as well as good into the world?"
"Have we not already, Scrivener Blooms? I was fairly certain we more and more qualify as evil creatures, after all." Luna replied with a faint smile... and Scrivener was unable to stop himself from smiling back in return even as strange thoughts rattled through his mind, as unidentifiable emotions twisted through his heart and soul as he wrestled with what they were doing... and wondered if good intentions would pave the road to Hell all over again, or if the presence of darkness was all that gave the world balance and worth. |
Metempsychosis | Crossing The Bifrost | Chapter Fifteen: Crossing The Bifrost
~BlackRoseRaven
They were on their way through the mountainous region near Canterlot's ruins when the sun began to rise, and the Nightmares and other creatures made themselves scarce... but over the long, long journey - and with the few breaks they had taken - Scrivener had been able to analyze the shadowy creatures. It held a deep fascination for him: evil and good, after all, described flawed concepts he could no longer put stock or belief into, and darkness seemed like it was all too necessary after witnessing what could happen in the absence of it.
Furthermore, some of the creatures had proven useful: desperate, furious Velites had staged an attack against them, likely only seeing Luna and Scrivener with how well the other entities cloaked themselves in shadows... and fearless of the Pales behind them, the skeletons had sent down a Velite Drake. Luna had blown this to pieces, but it had been enough of a distraction for the rest of the Velites to draw in close, attempting to pincer them... only to be torn apart by shadows that lashed back and forth through their brittle bodies, driving the rest of the group into a panic and sending the undead scurrying away in terror as shadowy Nightmares flickered into visibility around the two surprised ponies.
Four Nightmares and three demons: that was what had decided to follow them, and Luna was having particular trouble getting over the fact that of all the strange and thought-mythical creatures they had encountered, it was the horses of hell that were now eagerly trying to align themselves with them. Nightmares, after all, were capricious, envious, manipulative and cowardly; they preferred to operate by grouping together and hiding beneath a strong leader, making willing servants... but usually only so long as they were given generous pay for their services and didn't have to perform any tasks that were too daunting.
And Scrivy knew that the idea of Nightmare servants tickled Luna's sense of irony: Nightmare Moon, with Nightmare thralls... it would be just like in the nastier legends about her. Such creatures would be useful in mapping out the Looking Glass World and working towards discovering its secrets as well, and as even Celestia had once said, even demons could be compelled to serve a purpose or ideal... but what concerned both of the ponies was the cost and consequences of agreeing to such actions when they were already dark creatures paying a heavy price for the powers they handled.
But when daybreak suddenly came on, without a word, the shadowy entities had made themselves scarce, fleeing the coming light... and Luna grumbled under her breath as they walked onwards through the cracked and rocky path cutting through the mountains, the vast parade of Pales behind them gleaming beneath the light of poisoned, unnatural dawn. "I am frustrated, Scrivener Blooms. The world is too complicated. Make the world less complicated, do it now."
"Okay, how about this, then? We've been traveling for fifteen hours since we picked up the convoy of Nightmares, and with the corruption rain rejuvenating us, the night seeming to calm and strengthen us, and the fact that both of us pushed hard simply so we wouldn't look bad in front of half a dozen demon rejects, we're have maybe three hours to go before we reach our destination." Scrivener said mildly, and Luna perked her head up at this in half-surprise, looking back and forth as she judged their position... then grinned slightly as her eyes flicked back to Scrivener, sparkling with delight.
"See! Thou can speak and bring about happiness. 'Tis a rare occasion, but a most worthy and wonderful one too." Luna said warmly, and Scrivener laughed as he shook his head, the winged unicorn smiling a bit as she glanced upwards and along the sheer walls of the jagged cliffs to either side of them, murmuring quietly: "Aye, perhaps... there is still hope indeed, one way or the other. In any event, we had best stop for a moment and compose a letter to Pinkamena and Pollen, letting them know to meet us shortly at the bridge site."
Scrivener smiled a little despite himself as he nodded slowly, and they halted for a few minutes: just long enough for him to write a few sentences onto the parchment, then toss it to Luna, and she had caught it with telekinesis before the aura around the letter had built up... then burst into blue flames that had whisked off into the sky as she murmured: "Yes, it is sent and done... and I grow eager now, Scrivy, for what lays ahead. I have more than hope... I have faith in our future."
They pressed onwards after that; and the hike through the canyons and half-collapsed gorges, even at their brisk march, felt strangely comfortable. The weather was calm, the sky above was clear and dawn was seeming to last forever, painting the sky beautiful, brilliant gold instead of weathered purple or bloody crimson. It was almost enough to make them forget that the apocalypse had come and gone, that they were perhaps the only two survivors of its awful monstrosity.
Nothing attacked them in the mountains, despite it being Velite and Nibelung territory: the worst event was passing carefully by the body of a dead dragon, several crushed Nibelung warriors nearby, and a single wounded dwarf gasping quietly as he sat shivering and holding his wounded side, resting with his back against the stomach of the corrupted, scarred dragon, an axe buried in the hideous reptile's chest beside him. He looked up tiredly as Luna and Scrivener paused, his vision blurring as he shivered and whispered: "Death is... fancy-corn?"
"Not today, dwarf." Luna muttered, and then she rose her hoof and slammed it firmly into the wolf-pig's skull, knocking it unconscious with a gargle before she leaned down with a mutter, her horn glowing faintly before the Nibelung's wound resonated with the same light, and slowly stitched itself closed beneath his russet leather, the creature's shivers dying down as it relaxed visibly. "Tell me I am too kind, Scrivener Blooms."
"Or perhaps too cruel." Scrivy remarked gently, and Luna looked up thoughtfully over her shoulder at this as the glow faded out from around her horn... then she smiled faintly and nodded firmly once in agreement before the two continued onwards, past the battle site and continuing on their journey through the rocky, frost-speckled mountain wastes.
They emerged from the mountains unscathed... and with their goal in sight, hurried onwards with the Pales cantering behind them, the mass of spirits seeming to pick up on the excitement of the two as the Khlōros continued to hum its haunting melody. Scrivener and Luna barely paid attention to the snowy tundra around them as they ran across the barren land, the glowing golden sky seeming to pulse overhead with anticipation as they headed towards the long-prepared zone where the Bifrost could be summoned.
And they were both delighted to see that not only had puppet-bodied Pinkamena and Pollen arrived with the armored wagon, which was glinting with composite-painted gemstone armor and looked like it was even better prepared than either pony had expected it to be, Pinkamena was already sweeping away the snow and frost from the ground to reveal an immense stone platform covered with a circle of complex runes, left here for them by Odin eight or so years ago.
It was a channeling altar for the Bifrost Bridge, which, once charged by Luna's magic, would allow them to summon the rainbow road and travel to Looking Glass World... or, ever since Luna had learned to meddle with the coordinates of the path once used by gods, to several other layers of reality. Scrivener found it ridiculous and entertaining all at once... Luna, on the other hand, merely accepted it as part of things in her inimitable way and delighted in using it for her own selfish ends... and the only reason Odin put up with it, the earth pony was sure, was because between 'vacations' Luna was damned dedicated to her work.
Pinkamena glanced moodily up from the platform, striding over the imbedded gemstones that filled the center of the runic circle with the shapes of constellations and coordinates, as she said grouchily: "Turn that goddamn thing off. I might only be half-Pale but it still sounds like a whole opera of angels is howling their stupid praises in my ears."
"I like how that upsets you so much." Scrivener remarked dryly to the half-demon, and Pinkamena growled at him before the earth pony rose a hoof to Pollen as the Velite nervously stepped forwards. "Did you two bring Discombobulation along?"
"I ain't an idiot." Pinkamena said moodily as she stormed towards the carriage, and then she leaned up and knocked grouchily on the gemstone-armored wall of it, adding grumpily: "This thing should be plenty sturdy, I modified your crappy designs a little to make sure it would hold together while we cross. I guess I'm abandoning my body, though, aren't I?"
"Yes, Pinkamena. Thy company was very welcome, and it was wonderful to have thee at our side... but now thou must join thy other friends and sister in Looking Glass World." Luna said softly, and the half-demon shifted awkwardly before the puppet dropped onto its haunches, gemstone eyes glowing as the wooden frame rattled a bit, and the winged unicorn smiled despite herself as she said softly: "We won't forget thee, Pinkamena. And worry not, 'twill not be long before we are all reunited in any event... this world is not going to last much longer, one way or the other."
"Shut up." Pinkamena said sourly, and then she sighed and grumbled under her breath before she reached up and grasped her marionette head, twisting it firmly to the side. It clicked loudly, and Luna smiled as Pollen gaped in shock, watching as the half-demon easily unscrewed her own puppet head from her shoulders before tossing it towards Scrivener, who caught it with a grunt before the rest of the puppet simply collapsed as the half-demon Pale rose up from the vessel, then grimaced and wrapped her forelegs around her head as she glared pointedly at the Khlōros.
Scrivener only laughed, however, then he easily held the head out to Luna, and the winged unicorn smiled as she tilted her horn towards it: a moment later, the marionette head clicked several times as it glowed softly, the gemstone eyes spinning and several hidden panels moving and shifting before the top of the skull sprung open. It was a complex puzzle box... and Scrivener gazed quietly in at the three slowly-pulsing, ivory cards that sat inside of it before he nodded firmly once, glancing towards Luna and murmuring: "That's everything."
He reached up and hurriedly closed the box: looking at the cards made him feel... strange right now. After all, they had come from Valthrudnir, and all the Jotnar's essence existed inside those three glowing rectangles... and with them, the ability to make three wishes, grant three miracles, and they could be anything, anything...
Scrivener was snapped out of his reverie by Luna gently lifting the box-head from his grips with telekinesis, and he looked dumbly up at her as she passed this over to Pollen, instructing kindly: "Please place this in the back of the wagon, preferably near the center. 'Tis very important that it is not damaged, is this understood?"
"I got it!" Pollen replied with an awkward smile, nodding as she caught the box, then hurried awkwardly with it around the wagon's rear... and Scrivener blushed a bit as he looked towards Luna, but she only gave her head a quick shake as the two studied one another, emotions and reassurances swirling between them before the winged unicorn finally nodded with a grunt.
"Then we are ready, as well. I shall charge the base, and prepare the Bifrost." Luna strode forwards, then paused and glanced over her shoulder with a bit of a smile, saying quietly: "But I could use thy help, Scrivener Blooms, as always. Do not be so shy, I prefer thee rude and obnoxious, poet."
"You're... rude and obnoxious." Scrivener mumbled, and Luna only gave him an amused look before she sat down and turned to face the stone platform, and Scrivener rolled his eyes as he sat beside her, the two lowering their heads forwards as blue light began to spill along Luna's horn, as he felt their hearts beginning to beat in time as her mane swirled backwards and his muscles tensed and flexed, both leaning down and clenching their eyelids tight in the same expression of effort...
It was like lifting a physical weight, as their backs arched and they rose their heads in time, as their hearts thudded in their chests and they breathed roughly for air, limbs trembling as hooves dug firmly into the ground. The glow over Luna's horn built and built, lightning crackling not only through her mane, but energy sparking in arcs around Scrivy's body as he added his concentration and strength to hers and felt the recoil of the ancient magic twisting along his frame, helping to absorb some of the strain of the complex spell as he and Luna both began to murmur not magic, but meditation, trying to boost their focus further as bodies flexed and around them, dust and powder burst upwards as electricity crackled along the ground around the two.
And then their eyes snapped open, both arching their backs and raising themselves in a movement that could only be described as sinuous, forelegs half-lifting off the earth as Luna's eyes glowed white and the aura around her horn built higher, and Scrivener's irises darkened as his pupils expanded, jaw falling open as he stared at a fantastic vision above, as he saw space beyond space, stars beyond stars...
The stony platform crackled with energy, the runes lighting up one after the other before a maelstrom of multicolored light twisted in a circle over it, and lights of blue fire shot back and forth between the gemstones and made the constellations glow brightly. Waves of force burst of the platform, knocking both Luna and Scrivener sprawling, and the Khlōros sparked violently around the earth pony's neck... not breaking, but instead absorbing the energy, growing stronger, louder, even as there was a massive, crackling peal of thunder before a tornado of white fire erupted upwards from the stone platform.
Pollen shrieked as she staggered backwards, and even Pinkamena winced away from the cylinder of ivory flames before it twisted violently, arching forwards and across the sky as the air rippled around it before reality shattered like nothing more than cheap glass, shards of the sky falling through thin air and dissipating into dust.
The rip in reality widened, becoming almost perfectly circular as the tornado of flames spun into this, whirling violently before it burst suddenly apart... and in the wake of the ivory fire, left behind a rainbow that looked like it was made from solid crystal, sparkling and burning with clear flames that licked along the edges of the arched bridge. It was an incredible sight... and Scrivener Blooms and Luna both stared in relief at it before slowly pushing themselves up to their hooves as the winged unicorn breathed hard and the Velite gaped, whispering: "I've... I never imagined magic could... I..."
"Thou gazes upon the Bifrost... and I have just enough magic left to guide the lost souls onto and across this bridge." Luna said quietly, grinning a bit as she pushed herself carefully back to her hooves as Scrivener climbed to his own, head thudding and looking at her with relief as a faint white light began to shimmer over the tip of Luna's horn, coalescing into a sphere of ivory. The winged unicorn gazed warmly towards Scrivener as the male looked back at her with relief, while Pinkamena floated moodily and Pollen only spluttered and stared from the ponies to the Bifrost and back again. "Come, daydreamer, turn off thy collar. 'Tis time to go."
Scrivener smiled a bit and nodded slowly, reaching up hesitantly to touch the Khlōros, stroking over it gently before he shook his head and carefully reached back to the clasp, popping it open and pulling it carefully from his neck. The moment the clasp was opened, the collar hissed softly, the melody dying out as steam rose up from it... but still, the Pales lingered, staring towards the Bifrost. The energy in the air, the sense of being able to move on, pulled at the instincts of every nearby spirit... even Pinkamena, who kept shooting nervous looks towards the rainbow bridge. But unless guided, few would dare to cross it, which was where Luna came in.
With her horn glowing with what she called the 'torch of souls,' the Pales would obey her, following her... and once enough Pales began to follow her onto the bridge, others would naturally fall in behind the rest of the herd. And once they passed through the rip in reality above, there was no turning back: only charging forwards and hoping for the best as they ran through a vortex of light and sound and emotion to the world that waited beyond...
The earth pony smiled a bit as he slipped the Khlōros carefully back into his satchel pack: it wouldn't be damaged by passing over the Bifrost, but it wouldn't work either, and the Pales responded better, more intuitively, when they could feel Luna's presence leading them up the Bifrost. Perhaps it was because with her magic, they felt they were being led by someone who was alive, and they could feel her emotions, her hopes, her positivity.
She began to turn, perhaps to begin leading them forwards, perhaps to shout at Pollen, Scrivener feeling the order forming in her mind for him to go and get the wagon... but then she caught sight of a Pale in the corner of her eye, cocking her head curiously as it began to stride towards the Bifrost, passing calmly by the gnarled wreckage of a wagon that had failed to survive more than a trip to Looking Glass World and back. It was rare, but some Pales decided to try and cross the Bifrost on their own before the others, perhaps drawn by the lure of a new world, a new adventure, or hope that they were going to anywhere apart from the ruinous wasteland they had all been trapped in... but as Scrivener turned to look himself, his eyes widened and a chill shot through his system as he recognized the shape of the Pegasus all too well, and Luna snarled as she caught Scrivener's emotions, shouting immediately: "Thou art not welcome in the next world, return to Helheim where thou belongs, Sol Seraph!"
And slowly, the Pale halted before turning towards them, the Pale's eyes terrible and malevolent as she faced them as coldly as she ever had in life. As Scrivener stared at her, colors filtered in over the ghost: her coat was blonde, her mane and tail blood-red, the former stylized into a single large bang that fell over one side of her face and a waterfall that swept to the side and spilled down over one shoulder. Her features were cruel, attractive perhaps, but less than beautiful... and her scarlet eyes calculating, looking down at them with disdain even now, even long after she had died.
She surveyed them calmly: while the other Pales still only stared at Luna and at the Bifrost, entranced to a point by both her spell and the strange bridge, Sol Seraph seemed to be able to ignore both these things clearer than Pinkamena. But the focused mind of the cruel Pegasus had always been what had made her so difficult and dangerous an opponent: as the mark of Tyr upon her flank testified to, she was not just a predator and hunter, but a strategist who knew there was more to the dance of battle than raw power... and Scrivener stepped forwards, teeth grit, as Luna bowed her head and shouted: "Leave now, wander this hell of predators thou deserves, or be destroyed!"
Sol Seraph, however, only grinned coldly in response, and then she slowly reached her right, scarred foreleg up and drew it slowly across her throat in obvious threat and challenge before pointing her hoof at them... and Scrivener winced before he glanced with surprise at Luna as the winged unicorn said quietly: "Thou can defeat her alone, Scrivener Blooms. She is only a shadow of her former self... her blows will lack strength. I must maintain this spell, and cannot risk her disrupting it... then Pales will begin to wander away. And the Bifrost holds gamely... but thou has a window of perhaps ten minutes to drive the abomination away or kill her."
"Great." Scrivener grimaced, glancing at Luna with a wince... and then he sighed as he felt an additional mental warning, and he closed his eyes. While Luna couldn't concentrate enough to focus her magic into a second spell as she maintained the draw over the Pales, Scrivener was still able to use his own focus and concentration and draw on her magic... and he leaned towards her as he felt Luna's magic twist through his body, sparking in his chest and then making his hooves hum as they burst into blue flames. "How's this?"
"Excellent." Luna smiled slightly as Scrivener stepped slowly forwards, and the winged unicorn slid backwards as Pollen nervously strode over to stand by the winged unicorn and Pinkamena snarled, baring her sharp teeth towards the Pegasus as Luna added aside to her in a low voice: "Should things become difficult, half-demon..."
"Thanks, Luna." Scrivy said sourly over his shoulder as he stepped towards Sol Seraph, but he grimaced, knowing it was better to be safe than sorry all the same... especially since using even such a relatively-small spell as he had to let him make contact with a spirit form like a Pale was enough to make his body ache. Not to mention the march we did, and the drain from activating the Bifrost... can't let Sol Seraph cross, and can't let her slow us down... "Back off, Sol Seraph. Last warning."
The Pegasus, however, only narrowed her eyes, licking her lips slowly... and Scrivener winced a bit: in life, Sol Seraph had taken a beating that would have killed a minotaur before kicking his flank like he was a child, and even if Pales were so ephemeral their hardest blows didn't usually hurt a whole lot, the Pegasus was-
Gone. She had vanished from the spot, and Scrivener stared stupidly into blank space as his hooves burned with eldritch flames... before his head snapped to the side, saliva flying from his stupefied jaws as Sol Seraph blinked into existence beside him, her hoof already smashing across his jaw before an elbow caught the top of his muzzle, sending him half-bowing forwards. Then a vicious salvo of blows rattled down into his face, her hooves striking back and forth against his eyes and cheeks in savage jabs and hooks as Scrivener yelled wordlessly and scurried hurriedly backwards as his glasses were knocked flying from his features.
He gasped hard, straightening and glaring in shock more than pain despite the faint bruising over his features: her blows were definitely muffled, but they still were contacting with enough force to hurt. Either Sol Seraph was concentrating so hard she was making herself more physical somehow, or the Pegasus was simply that good at what she did and that savagely-determined to kill him that it was lending extra strength to every hit, the earth pony rubbing a hoof across his face and ignoring the ethereal flames that licked harmlessly at his features as he snarled: "Alright, come and get me, volk!"
The Pegasus Pale lunged forwards at this, flickering in Scrivener's vision as he concentrated on her, part of him wanting to shout the Black Verses at her and obliterate her but the other part wanting to beat her fair-and-square as possible: to prove that he wasn't just prey to this ghost of a predator, to show Sol Seraph that even a monster like her could be defeated by a poet like him... and he lunged forwards at the last moment, slamming his hoof into her face and knocking her skidding backwards in shock as the Pale's features flashed solid before Scrivy pounced towards her and slammed both hooves onto her skull, knocking her head lashing downwards before he attempted to ram a straight punch into her muzzle.
She slipped elegantly to the side, however, adjusting with supernatural speed to the fact that he could strike her as she brought up her front legs, twining them with Scrivener's before twisting hard and throwing the earth pony to the ground, and he gargled in surprise before she spun around, yanking his foreleg with her as she slammed a rear hoof down into his kidney, making him twitch and curse in pain as she twisted his upper limb around, likely meaning to snap it. Before she could, however, he half-rolled... and ethereal as she was, Sol Seraph was yanked through the air and slammed into the ground herself, but the spirit only passed uselessly into the earth even as Scrivener leapt up to his hooves... before cursing in pain and frustration as Sol Seraph half-tore out of the ground and slammed a volley of blows into his stomach before twisting upwards, yanking her ghostly form completely out of the earth and kicking both rear hooves into the male's crotch.
He staggered backwards as Luna groaned and dropped her head forwards, grinding her teeth loudly as her eyes bulged... and Scrivener, meanwhile, wheezed slowly as Sol Seraph blinked out of existence beneath him... only to reappear above him, dropping onto his back and slamming her hooves down to knock him flat before she grabbed him by the neck, likely meaning to snap it.
Scrivy automatically rolled again, and Sol Seraph threw herself off him, the Pale snarling as she aggressively lunged... and this time, the earth pony leapt up and met her, knocking her forelegs wide and attempting to strike her with his shoulder: it wouldn't hurt her as much as being struck by his hooves, but if she was physical enough to hit him, he could still physically knock her back. The Pegasus, however, had apparently long learned the abilities that came with being a ghost, and flickered out of existence before reappearing at Scrivener's side a second later and slamming her hoof into his kidney, only to vanish again and slam another into his face.
She blinked back and forth around him, laying vicious blows into the earth pony that made him stagger back and forth, the pony unable to do anything but take the hail of savage attacks before she appeared directly in front of him, seizing him by the head with both hooves and bringing her head back... and Scrivener slammed both his flaming hooves upwards as she began to swing her head down, catching her under the jaw in a lucky blow that sent the Pale flopping onto her back as cracks of light spread through the phantom's skull before she crashed to the ground, form flickering violently for a few moments as Scrivy half-fell back onto his haunches, breathing hard. A bit of blood was dripping from one nostril and his split lip, and his eye was swollen from the repeated blows against it... but Sol Seraph, even as she slowly sat up, was far worse off from the cracks that had radiated through her jawline and up the side of her skull.
She snarled in fury, even as a single piece of her face fell off like broken glass, misty essence pouring up out of the wound like smoke for a moment... and then she slowly cracked her neck, and Scrivener grimaced as he began to haul himself to his hooves, saying disgustedly: "Just get out of here, Sol Seraph. Because if there's a death beyond death, I can assure you you're going to a hell beyond hell."
Sol Seraph's eyes flashed, and then she lunged towards him as Scrivener leaned forwards... before blinking out of existence and instead reappearing in front of Luna, the winged unicorn looking surprised before a hoof slammed into her stomach. She leaned forwards, gargling in shock, her horn flickering before she snarled and threw herself backwards, struggling to maintain the link even as rage burned in her eyes... and Scrivener cursed under his breath, charging towards them even as he felt Luna's pain ripping through his body, making him panic.
And, expecting this, Sol Seraph vanished again even as Pinkamena lunged for her and Pollen only stared in aghast horror, and the Pegasus reappeared beside Scrivener, reaching a front limb calmly out and clotheslining him as he tried to run towards Luna, the male's momentum making him rear back and the vicious Pale using that to almost lift him off his hooves as his body skidded forwards but his head snapped back before she slammed him viciously down onto his spine. The blow hurt a lot worse than when her hooves had been pummeling him from the solidity of the rocky ground, and Scrivener snarled as he swung wildly out at her, but she danced away even as he began to haul himself to his hooves, anger starting to take over-
Sol Seraph shoved one foreleg into the ground, using it as an axle as she twisted her body and scissored her hind legs towards the earth pony before snapping them tightly around his neck, and Scrivener gargled in shock before Sol Seraph shoved hard off the earth and corkscrewed her body elegantly, yanking Scrivener off his own hooves and once more slamming him down onto his back as she landed on her own. The shock made him gasp... before Scrivy wheezed as Sol Seraph's rear limbs tightened around his throat, beginning to throttle him as she sat up on her haunches and slammed her front hooves in a steady, hard rhythm down into Scrivener's features as if she was working with a training dummy.
Scrivy grabbed helplessly at her hind legs, but they were locked too tightly around his throat, letting him wheeze the faintest gasps of air into his lungs solely because the Pale was still only semisolid, even with her unmatched viciousness and skill and the psychopathic desire to kill and destroy that powered her blows. And worse, his pain was affecting Luna, making her hiss as she half-staggered towards them, her horn flickering as she fought to concentrate and Pinkamena snarled, lunging into the fray... but even though she offered a momentary distraction, Sol simply leaned backwards and slammed a hoof into the half-demon's features as she shot past, knocking her spiraling off-course.
The Pegasus Pale leaned back forwards as she brought a hoof down in a hammer blow... and Scrivener managed to block this with one of his front limbs, grunting in pain at the surprising strength of the attack before he shoved his rear hooves against the ground and launched himself backwards... and as he'd hoped, Sol Seraph was carried back a foot or so by the shove with him before she simply blinked out of existence again. Scrivener crashed onto his back, skidding painfully over a decayed wheel of a broken wagon and cursing in pain as one of his hooves hit what felt like an axle, before Sol Seraph reappeared and landed on his stomach, straddling him with a snarl as she brought a hoof back.
Scrivener winced, then reached up and barely managed to catch her hoof against one of his own as his other scraped against something... and then the earth pony managed to grasp it enough to swing it wildly upwards in a single vicious lash, catching the other side of Sol Seraph's face, and the look of shock on the Pegasus's features as she was knocked flying backwards almost made the whole beating worthwhile as Scrivener scrambled up to his hooves and glanced down at the iron bar he had managed to seize from amidst the wreckage.
The Pegasus Pale snarled, not realizing how badly she had been injured as she leapt forwards despite the cracks that now radiated through both sides of her face... and Scrivy slammed the iron bar down between her ears, shattering the ghostly crown of her skull and knocking Sol Seraph flat on her stomach. She twitched once, and the earth pony glared down at her as the ghost looked stupidly up even as steam and mist began to rise from her body before he spat to the side, shaking his head in disgust as Luna gave a sigh of relief from across the battlefield.
"Know your prey, right?" Scrivener asked distastefully as he held up the iron bar, and the Pale snarled up at him... but then only shivered, unable to pull itself up to its hooves even as the glow died out from around Scrivy's own. "Demons, ghosts, and a few other supernatural entities seem to have a little problem with iron. Iron chains bind them, iron weapons... even improvised... can hit them as hard as if they were still physical. Now get out of here, Sol Seraph. Don't make me kill you."
Sol Seraph stared up at him... and then she slowly, sickeningly grinned as she half-rose herself, glaring up at him with a challenge in her eyes as he glared back down at her. She flickered, and a moment later, he was looking at her as if she was still a physical Pegasus, still alive but her features dripping with blood, as her eyes burned with contempt for him... and when her mouth moved, he could hear her speaking, could hear the disgust in her voice as she whispered: "You worthless prey-pony slave-hoof. Offering me mercy? Offering me a chance to leave? You can't stand the thought of staining your precious hooves with my already-dead blood, is that it? You coward. You weakling. I have failed myself today worse than any member of my family ever has, including my useless, worthless daughter Fluttershy, by losing to such a pathetic excuse for a stallion in combat, but you? You bring new meaning to the word 'failure...'"
Scrivener snarled, clenching his jaws, his eyes almost glowing as a shiver ran through his body... and then Sol Seraph looked up at him and licked her lips slowly, grinning wider, not speaking but challenging him with his eyes as she flickered from Pale to Pegasus she had once been. They looked at one another in the awful silence... and then she snorted in disgust and began to look away, and Scrivener yelled wordlessly before he slammed the iron bar savagely down in her skull, crushing her down into the ground before he lashed it into the Pale again and again even as she burst upwards into nothing but a swirl of fog.
The iron bar cracked the rocky earth as it slammed against it, and Scrivener half-fell forwards as it vibrated free from his grip, catching himself on one hoof with a curse under his breath as the last of the essence of the shattered Pegasus Pale floated up around him... and a shiver tore through his spine as he looked up with tears in his eyes, half-horrified... and half-wishing he could have hurt her more before her spirit had shattered. It made him feel sick to his stomach, but part of him even wished she was still alive so he could rip, tear, kill her all over again... and then he clenched his eyes shut as a presence stroked down his spine, shivering as Pinkamena looked at him with strange compassion in her glowing eyes and Luna hurriedly approached, embracing him fiercely around the neck and whispering: "Cease, daydreamer, cease. 'Tis... alright. Come now, we have more urgent matters to attend to, in any event..."
Scrivener nodded, breathing hard as he pushed against her for a moment... and then he drew back and shook his head quickly, muttering: "Alright, alright... I know you're right Luna. Let's... let's get out of here, then."
He stopped, then looked nervously over his shoulder towards the Pales, feeling suddenly self-conscious... but the ghosts were still either staring at the Bifrost, or gazing towards Luna and her glowing horn, and she smiled faintly as she said quietly: "Hurry to the wagon. Pinkamena, please assist him, thou may not be able to pull it but I know thou can manipulate physical objects all the same."
The half-demon gave her a sour look, but nodded all the same as she floated towards the carriage... and Scrivener hesitated only a moment longer as Luna gave him a quietly-imploring look. "Go on now, Scrivener Blooms. We must hurry; self-loathing can wait until later."
The earth pony nodded, knowing she was right as he gave an awkward smile to her before hurrying towards the carriage, even as a shiver ran down his spine. But her support meant worlds to him, and it helped him focus as he approached the armored wagon and smiled a bit as Pinkamena lifted the straps and attached the harness, before he winced as the thick cabling squeezed painfully into his body. "Hey! Tight!"
Pinkamena only rolled her eyes at this, however, and the earth pony glanced towards Luna as she surveyed the gathered Pales. Then he winced again when something nudged him firmly in his sore side, and he half-turned to glower at Pinkamena as she gestured for him to move forwards.
The earth pony grumbled before he did so, and the carriage rumbled behind him as he pulled it several paces before halting and glancing absently over his shoulder as Pinkamena flitted around him and then nodded firmly once to indicate all the straps were in place and the harness was fine. Scrivener rolled his shoulders slowly, glancing at this with a grimace: not rope, not vines, but insulated and jacketed steel cable, painful to pull - and more painful if the rubber-cloth jackets around the metal rope was eaten through - but also necessary. Normal rope would quickly snap, and vines would deteriorate away to ash from the frenetic energies: the thick cabling was all that could be counted on to hold for at least one trip over the Bifrost.
Pollen nervously strode up beside Scrivy, looking at him anxiously, and the male gave an awkward smile to the Velite before he said softly: "Just keep moving, okay? Even if it starts to hurt like hell, it's like running over hot coals. Keep your hooves moving forwards, and when you come out the other side, you'll be fine... but if you stop, you're going to get burned."
"Okay, I'll... okay. Are you okay?" Pollen glanced at him apprehensively, and Scrivener nodded awkwardly even as he reached up... then grimaced a bit as he glanced towards the broken, twisted wreck of his glasses on the ground. That was another pair lost... and then he shook his head and instead smiled a bit when Pollen glanced at his satchel bag. "Will that be okay?"
"Probably, yeah. It's weird... if I was carrying my armor in a wagon, it would probably be eaten up by the Bifrost, but when Luna and I are actually wearing our armor across the rainbow bridge, it doesn't take nearly as much damage. Luna says it's because... our natural energies bar the Bifrost's or something, I don't really... know or remember." Scrivener finally said, shrugging a bit, and the skeleton nodded a few times as she reached up and rubbed nervously at her skull. "Alright. Luna's ready."
The winged unicorn was striding towards them, now that she had managed to give the horde of Pales a quick look-over and assessed there were no other visible threats or unwelcome guests. She smiled a little to Scrivener as she walked to the foot of the rainbow bridge, the winged unicorn leaning forwards as she glanced over it before leaning forwards and resting a hoof against the ramp... and immediately, energy sparked up along her body, making her grit her teeth even as her horn glowed brighter, a distinct tingling filling her form as she turned her head and shouted clearly: "And now, to a new home, a new chance at life, a new rebirth! Fear not what is to come... only look ahead, and keep thy heads high and proud!"
With that, Luna turned, leaning forwards with her teeth grit before she charged up the ramp... and behind her, Scrivener grunted as he almost lunged into his own run, Pollen stumbling to the side in surprise as Pinkamena dropped to the ground to run alongside him, looking both scared and exhilarated all at once as the half-demon Pale grinned. The arched ramp looked almost impossible to climb, especially with a wagon dragging behind him... but the moment Scrivy's hooves touched the rainbow road, it was like he was magnetized to it and energized by it, running up the rainbow as easily as if he was a train that was smoothly sliding along the rails, Pinkamena wincing beside him as her body became more physical and the Velite that followed awkwardly along the wide rainbow road beside the carriage shivering in surprise as an outline of a mare sparked into being around her own body.
Luna had paused at the top of the Bifrost, near where reality had shattered... and she couldn't help but smile over her shoulder as she watched with pride as Scrivener Blooms hauled the wagon along the rainbow bridge, and behind him, the Pales had begun to follow, striding towards the base of the bridge. And as their ethereal hooves made contact with the fiery rainbow, their bodies seemed to solidify, a sense of self seemed to return to them, and they were compelled to push forwards as other Pales were drawn forwards not just by Luna's glowing horn, but by the strange magnificence and the growing draw of the Bifrost bridge.
Finally, the winged unicorn turned as Scrivener drew close, her hooves grinding against the crystalline surface of the Bifrost before she lunged headlong into the glowing light, and the earth pony followed after her only a moment later, his body filling with indescribable sensations as energy burned and sparked around his frame, as they ran through a rip in reality along a bridge of multicolored light and into a tunnel of swirling, impossible-to-describe dimensions, shapes and wild twists of color bursting into being around them as the clear flames over the bridge burned high around them. Luna ran ahead, Scrivener only a few feet behind as the wagon he was pulling felt as light as a feather now, even as it became to steam and smolder from the arcs of electricity and raw energy bursting along the silver-painted gemstone armor that encased it.
On one side, Pinkamena breathed hard, her eyes wide and her mane blowing back as if in a fierce wind, almost physical but with streaks of back twisting through her body as her hooves beat against the surface of the bridge... and on the other, Pollen winced as shocks of energy burned over her rune-covered bones, the ivory composition of her body beginning to char as steam rose up from her, but the distinct image of the mare she had once been flickering violently in and out of sight over her Velite frame every few seconds as she cried out wordlessly in disbelief and amazement more than actual pain.
Behind them, the Pales thundered over the Bifrost, all of their shapes made almost real, almost physical, as Scrivener threw his head back with a raw shout of what felt almost like elation, the energy thrumming through his body, the feeling of running not over, but literally through some kind of line of pure power, of pure energy, enough to drive even the lurking corruption in his mind back as Luna grinned widely ahead of him. The winged unicorn's eyes were glowing bright and her mane was sparking with electricity and blue fire, the starry constellations throughout it glowing and pulsing with a life of their own as her horn glowed brightly: not with any distinct magic any longer, but instead only with the raw, potent energies of the rainbow road.
Scrivener could feel his leathery wings stretching and flapping behind him before he arched his back, yet managed to keep his pace without staggering as a sharp pain ran through his body... and a moment later, the wings burst apart into ashes as the Bifrost's powerful energy current dispelled the polymorph effect. Several more plates of his armor popped off at the same time, and ahead of him, one of Luna's shoulder pauldrons steamed before snapping loose, but Scrivener only ducked as it flew back through the air, looking ahead almost eagerly, feeling a rush of daredevil adrenaline as he wondered not with fear, but with excitement if they would be able to make the other end of the Bifrost before the energies took a further toll on their equipment.
Pollen squeaked as several of her ribs snapped suddenly off, looking down in shock as steam burst up from her body before she half-staggered... but then gamely threw herself forwards, continuing to run with a shrill giggle. And on the other side, Pinkamena was almost crying even as her teeth gleamed in a wide, bright grin, her red-rimmed eyes glowing as the half-demon flickered violently, appearing as a Pale, her mortal mare self, and a strange and almost-shapeless entity with severed wings in a wild roil.
And then Luna looked up as golden light shone over them, gazing at a gaping, spiraling vortex of gold and white light that the bridge fed into, and she grinned in relief as she shouted: "Onwards, onwards, onwards and through, without fear!"
Scrivener roared in agreement, wordless, voice strong, energy surging along his frame as Pinkamena gave her own fierce yell and Pollen laughed, light glowing brightly out of the sockets of the skeleton as the Pales behind them stampeded with equal eagerness... and the four ahead of the herd plunged through the vortex, Luna laughing even as the world seemed to spin for a moment before they were crashing down the other side of the rainbow arch, light glowing around them and blinding them for a moment as they sped down the ramping bridge to the green grasses below, the winged unicorn not slowing her pace as she sped from overpass of fiery multicolored light to soft and warm field, throwing her head back with another wordless shout of victory that startled a flock of birds scattering into the blameless, cloudless blue sky above.
Scrivener Blooms followed her with less grace, several of the cables on the harness snapping and steel cabling screaming against his armor as he staggered off the ramp and lunged forwards to keep his balance, making it halfway across the field before half-falling forwards and skidding forwards with a wince as the wagon lurched threateningly behind him before one of the wheels caught in a rut, a few gemstones flying loose to patter against his back... but it was much better than the entire wagon rolling over him, as he wheezed in relief. And then Pollen flopped down beside him, the skeleton smoldering faintly as the light flickered in her sockets, wheezing for air as if she still had lungs before finally mumbling: "If I had skin, it would likely be on fire right now."
Pinkamena flickered a few times as she skidded to a halt herself, the half-demon staring back and forth in surprise as Luna turned around with a grin, the winged unicorn panting a bit from both exertion and exhilaration as her muscles trembled and her body flexed, before she winked at the shape of the half-demon Pale as it settled back into misty ethereality, saying easily: "What did thou expect, wicked creature? More Helheim, more darkness, more depravity? Nay, not so... 'tis Equestria. 'Tis a reflection, aye, but 'tis also Equestria."
And Luna smiled as she closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on face: not hostile like the sun of their ravaged home, but comforting and gentle. The sky above was a sea of azure clarity and the ground beneath their feet was soft and fertile and a mix of verdant, rich soil and lush green grasses. Trees grew here and there, and to the east rose the mighty and gorgeous version of this world's Everfree Forest, filled with beautiful and fascinating fauna and flora. It was a world that was next to paradise... and as Luna's eyes opened, she gazed with affection towards the Pales that stepped off the Bifrost and wandered slowly through the field, watching as the mass congregation of spirits continued to pour down the rainbow bridge.
The specters of ponies looked back and forth as if in awe, still energized from passing through the Bifrost as they seemed to study where they were: it was impossible to know what they thought, however, and many of them were already wandering slowly off, drawn by some supernatural instinct to find a place that would remind them most of their former home. It was amazing the way the Pales seemed to eventually recognize they were in a version of Equestria, and the way they would make a beeline for the places that most-resembled what had been important to them in their original layer of the worlds... and Scrivener Blooms smiled faintly as he slowly picked himself up, wincing a bit as he loosened the harness against his scratched and slightly-charred armor as he said quietly: "But is it really so incredible, so hard to believe? Maybe a lot of them think this is paradise... and they automatically assume there must be a place here that reminds them of where they were happiest, or what held the most value to them. And a tireless Pale can probably travel across this country in a single day, since it never has to rest, never has to slow down, and they don't seem to notice the journey... only when they reach the journey's end."
Luna looked thoughtfully at Scrivener Blooms at this, and then she returned her eyes to the Bifrost, watching the waterfall of ghosts pouring along the rainbow bridge, murmuring quietly as the earth pony approached her slowly: "Perhaps thou art correct, my beloved Scrivener Blooms... just as the Pales seem to naturally find one-another when they can, they group together as if to avoid loneliness. They even interact with things around them when their focus sharpens... aye, Scrivy. But it does not matter. What matters is that... look. We have done it. We have brought them across the Bifrost... and now, we can rest for a time before returning to the crumbling world and gathering the last Pales we can find and attending to the last tasks we must, but... finally, I feel as if we have made a difference."
"We have, Luna. We have." Scrivener said gently, gazing towards her with a smile... and Luna looked warmly back at him, leaning over and nuzzling the side of the male's neck affectionately before she impulsively hugged him, and the earth pony laughed as their scoured armor ground together and a few pieces of brittle metal fell off their forms. "We're going to have to leave our homes here, though, miss snail."
"Oh shush, Scrivener Blooms. Besides, as comfortable and fulfilling as mine armor is, thou art my true home." Luna smiled at him warmly, meeting his eyes as they drew back a bit... and then she shook her head before gazing towards Pollen as the Velite managed to push herself up to her hooves, then winced when one of her forelegs fell off, sitting back on bony haunches to awkwardly rub at this joint. "Art thou alright? Thy bones look scorched."
Pollen nodded after a moment, smiling embarrassedly as she picked up her foreleg and attempted to lock it back into place, but it only resulted in several parts of the bone crumbling and breaking away, and she sighed a bit before saying awkwardly: "I just... am going to need... a few new pieces and stuff."
"I am sure the Nibelung will be able to assist thee in one form or another, they regularly hunt and capture wild animals in the area. We shall take thee to them shortly, I only wish to ensure the rest of the congregation makes it across the Bifrost before it shatters." Luna replied quietly, and the Velite rubbed awkwardly at the underside of her jaw... then flinched when this fell loose, hurriedly snapping it back into place as the winged unicorn snorted in entertainment. "I am glad thou art still... I suppose 'twould be rude to say alive, but still... not-dead."
"Thanks." Pollen mumbled, seeming a little embarrassed as Scrivener gave Luna a curious look, and she nodded firmly before the earth pony made his way to the wagon, Pollen turning to watch curiously as the male walked around to the rear and carefully levered open the tightly-shut door, wincing a bit as a few more gemstones fell off... but the carriage had held up incredibly well, all things considered, and even the heavy wheels seemed to have only melted slightly from passing over the Bifrost.
Scrivener Blooms dug in the back of the wagon for a few moments, then gently lifted a bottle free from where it was sandwiched between a nest of cloaks and pillows... and inside, Discombobulation looked a little less than thrilled, the Draconequus laying flat on his back in an empty bottle, a bit pale and ragged. Scrivener winced a bit, but as he sat back, Discombobulation moodily looked up... then sat up in surprise, gazing back and forth through the glass walls of his safe prison as the earth pony smiled a bit. "Welcome to Looking Glass Equestria, Bob. It looks a little nicer than the wasteland we just left."
He paused, then carefully picked the bottle up with his mouth and gave a cursory glance over the contents inside the wagon: here and there, it looked almost as if some of the cloth cushioning had been charred, but that seemed to be the worst of the damage, and Scrivener was relieved. Furthermore, he could feel Luna's own relief as the winged unicorn strode through the field, half-ignoring the herd of Pales as they walked past and she gazed warmly over the Bifrost's arch, calling easily: "The last of the wayward souls seem to be making their way down, Scrivy... 'tis difficult, with the way they pass through one-another so easily, but this eager mob of ghosts has spread far and wide already and 'tis like being in a sea of living lost clouds."
Scrivener grunted at this comparison: he was trying not to look at the horde of spirits around them as they wandered and stared through the field. His gaze roved towards the Bifrost as he carefully set Discombobulation's vial down on the grass, the Draconequus continuing to stare around in amazement as the male smiled a bit at what Luna had said. "I hate how good your instincts are."
"I know, I know, but thou art jealous of me for many reasons, Scrivener Blooms, and while 'tis understandable, thou should not feel the need to compete with me. Thou art a plenty pretty mare as it is." Luna replied kindly, and Scrivy laughed a bit despite himself as Luna smiled as well, looking warmly over at him for a moment; here, in this beautiful Eden, after running through the invigorating Bifrost, even the cynical earth pony found it difficult to be anything but positive and hopeful. "Aye, but I feel the Bifrost beginning to weaken now as well, 'twill not be long before-"
And then Luna's words caught in her throat as she looked up and watched as the black shapes of the strange, dark specters burst through the vortex, nimbly darting back and forth between the Pales still charging down the bridge, moving with much greater speed and precision as they leapt down onto the field. There were more than a dozen of them, a herd of shadowy shapes all their own, and Luna and Scrivener both set themselves as the winged unicorn snarled: "How dare thee invade Looking Glass World! Creatures of speed and shadow or not, do not think I will permit thee to invade this place!"
The dark equines only surveyed them readily, however, leaning forwards almost eagerly before one stepped out ahead of the others... and then it reared back and whinnied loudly as it gestured firmly with a hoof to one side, and the herd of dark specters followed the clear instruction, turning and breaking into a run in indicated direction. And before Luna could even leap in front of the shadows, their bodies faded out of existence, turning invisible even if the beats of their hooves could still be heard... before the remaining specter, the seeming-leader, beckoned slowly at them before it turned and shot suddenly off through the field in the opposite direction, and Luna's eyes blazed with fury at the challenge.
She immediately leapt after it, and Scrivener cursed as he immediately ran after her, leaving the Pales, gaping Pollen, and snarling Pinkamena alone in the field with Discombobulation as he stared dumbly out of his vial. And even though Scrivy was fast, and Luna was faster, the shadowy specter moved with not only incredible speed but as if it was somehow familiar with the Looking Glass World's wild terrain, twisting around trees, springing over fallen logs, jumping past rocks and bushes as Luna shouted indignant curses and Scrivener scrambled after her, mimicking the winged unicorn's movements through instinct and luck more than anything else.
The dark shape led them on a chase towards the Everfree Forest, and Luna snarled as it leapt onto a natural path it seemed to somehow recognize, the creature shooting along this before the winged unicorn snapped her horn upwards, and brambles and nettles exploded upwards in a wall between two trees, the dark shape skidding violently and seeming surprised before it plowed into this, the creature physical enough to be stopped by the netting of thorny vines. It whinnied in frustration... then yelped in pain when Luna crashed into it, tackling the back of the black shade through the thick plant netting and crashing to the ground, skidding firmly for several more feet into an ugly, weedy clearing, the winged unicorn pinning the dark equine down on its stomach as she shouted furiously at its back: "Now reveal thyself and thine goals, specter! And thou had best hope thine pack of fools has not gone far if thou cannot give me a good reason for this intrusion!"
The dark shape wheezed beneath her, and then it flickered suddenly out of existence, Luna grunting in surprise as she fell flat on her stomach, and Scrivener Blooms winced before he hurried forwards beside her as the winged unicorn glared ahead as the dark specter reappeared at the other side of the field, facing towards them. It looked at them moodily, then reached a hoof up as if imploring them to wait a moment... and Luna's eyes narrowed darkly as it turned around and half-dragged itself into the cover of the thick bushes for a moment.
They rustled loudly before there was a crackle and a burst of smoke... and then the bushes rustled again before a figure pushed through them: with her distinctive black stripes through her otherwise ivory coat, tall, two-tone Mohawk, and the golden bangles around one foreleg and matching hoops that surrounded her neck and hung from her ears, it was clear who they were facing... and Luna and Scrivener could only gape as Zecora glared at them with her blue-green eyes, saying flatly: "I hope you know you almost broke my back, did I ever give you the reason to make such an attack?"
Luna spluttered for a moment as Scrivener leaned dumbly forwards, looking over the zebra: from the swirling spiral mark on her flank to her sharp, pretty features and aged, wise eyes, it was clearly her... and then Scrivy winced as Luna's eye twitched and her teeth ground together, head jerking slightly as he felt her confusion, frustration, and fury, and then she leaned forwards and shouted in a raw burst of sound: "And exactly why were thou parading around as a dark specter, foul and evil and mischievous... manipulator!"
"I manipulated no one, this much is true, I never got the chance to reveal myself to you." Zecora argued... then winced a bit at the horrible look Luna gave her as Scrivener carefully rubbed down the winged unicorn's spine, feeling her fury and frustration bubbling higher: it was only relief and dumb surprise that was currently keeping Luna from attacking the zebra, friend or not, and pummeling her into the ground, and Zecora seemed to recognize this as she cleared her throat and added hurriedly: "It was old magic from my tribe that let me take this disguise, along with those others from home who were talented and wise; in order to survive in that world we had to play make-believe, cloaking ourselves in darkness deeper than Nightmare Night's eve."
"And what, thou can... transform into that at will? And that pack, those are others like thee, shamans, magicians, zebras of thine tribe?" Luna asked in a stunned voice, and Zecora hesitated before the winged unicorn leaned forwards and gritted teeth that looked unnaturally sharp. "I do not understand!"
"Then I shall explain in a hurry, Luna of the Night, with you I certainly do not wish to fight." Zecora replied with a wince, holding up a hoof, and the winged unicorn ground her teeth together as Scrivener only leaned dumbly back. "They are the survivors of what has laid our world to rest, who came from my homeland - far away - when it was put to Hell's rigged test. They mixed up a potion as the shadows began to spread, and I performed the same ceremony as my heart ached with dread. I could feel the Black Wolves coming after the red sky's eclipse, I knew from the mourning of nature something had gone terribly amiss.
"Drinking down the potion let my form become that of a ghost's, now it was the intangible that hid the physical beneath smoky host's." Zecora hesitated for a moment, looking apprehensively at Luna as the winged unicorn leaned backwards, and then the zebra sighed and rubbed at her face, muttering: "And I suppose that since I've come this far I might as well say, I and the shamans have been doing the same job as you two, okay? It was supposed to be secret but I see that will not do, as I have no wish to be pummeled by you.
"As a shadow I was able to flit back and forth as I pleased, but in returning to my homeland I was far from relieved. Equestria fell first, but my country was far from last: we knew that to save our people we had to act fast. We hurried to our temples and other safe places, mixed potions, prayed for luck, and put on our best faces; we knew the world would fall from the visions the spirits said, and I only hoped that my instincts were right and you two wouldn't be left dead."
"So thou... what, prophesied this? Thou speaks with spirits and ghosts and gods, as well as performs such alchemy and magic as to veil thyself in the form of a spirit?" Luna looked incredulous, and then her eyes narrowed dangerously as she leaned forwards, asking coldly: "Then why did thou not tell us, or warn us?"
"How can I warn you of bad feelings I only feared might occur? Luna and Scrivener Blooms, I did not know about that fearsome wolf cur!" Zecora argued, looking almost hurt as she shook her head quickly. "I may be able to divine the near future's events, but always it must be taken with a grain of salt and common sense; had I know that the world was truly on the path to death, I assure you I would have done far more than wait with baited breath!"
She halted, then leaned forwards and added quietly: "Will it help if I give you my heartfelt apology? I know you and Scrivener both have suffered enough to fill an anthology. Maybe the rest of my story will help you understand, I at least have tried hard to do the best for our united land."
She stopped, then shook her head and murmured softly: "I could not save the ponies of Equestria at all... panic set in and they were all looking for a brawl. Any stranger who was different they lashed out at, not understand that if anything would weaken us it was exactly that. That is why I began mixing my potions and using the shadow-body brew, and I think you understand at least that this is true: I had to go where I could be of most use, and back to my home was obvious to deduce.
"Yes, like I said before, we had a similar thought: we would save all the souls we could and bring them to a sanctified spot. We did not think the world would suffer such devastation, that we would come to depend on the spirit potion to keep us from annihilation." Zecora shook her head slowly, and then she glanced up apprehensively over Luna and Scrivener Blooms. "We only started to hope that our work had not been in vain, when you two returned to our world via the rainbow lane."
"Then why did thou and thy kind not help us? In fact, thou even challenged us, to... stupid races that thou... cheating..." Luna ground her teeth together, but Scrivener relaxed a little as the winged unicorn dropped her head forwards and sulked, her rage dying down as suddenly as it had come as sparks traveled through her ephemeral mane and she muttered: "And souls. I saw a dozen, perhaps, of those shadowy specters. Thy country must be tiny."
Zecora, however, only sighed at this, but she looked a little relieved all the same at the fact that Luna's rage had faded as she responded gently: "When we understood what was coming, Luna of the Night, my people responded with courage despite their fright. While the warriors of the tribe fought against the hellish invaders, it gave us the time to place many of our people's souls to sleep in containers. These vessels are carried by several of the other spirit-forms you saw, and now are being carried to where they can be freed without being swallowed up by evil's maw. They will be spirits without bodies, Pales much like these here... I only hope you have a means to restore all we hold dear."
Luna smiled wryly at this, and Scrivener Blooms shrugged a bit before he replied quietly: "We hope so. And ponies and zebras, well... we're all the same really, right? But I have to admit I still wonder why you didn't try and contact us..."
The zebra fidgeted a bit at this, but when Luna picked herself moodily up with a glower, she answered finally: "In order to keep in my ghostly form I had to drink the potion every few days or more... I was worried letting my body return would be a choice most poor. Every now and then my overzealous friends tried to give you a sign, but every time it only led into a game of mischief more by accident than design. One of the downsides to becoming a spirit's shape and body, is that the inner self becomes outer and our judgment tends to be rocky."
"So... you were afraid that losing your spirit form in that world would lead to you getting preyed on by either the corruption or demons or something... and yet in spirit form, you and your friends apparently put competition above telling us clearly what was going on." Scrivener said finally, and Zecora looked at him awkwardly as Luna gave her a flat look. "We survived for nine years without being ghosts, you know..."
"When you put it like that it admittedly sounds bad, and there's a difference between you and Luna and everypony else I might add." Zecora said quietly, leaning towards them and looking pointedly at the two. "You two have become warriors who are fueled by the dark, and even though I know living in Helheim was no walk in the park, you could not be poisoned as severely by the corrupt world's essence... I, on the other hand, may not have been able to resist its putrescence. I was... afraid that if I gave it a chance, it would get inside... and everything I am, that poison would deride."
She quieted, glancing down... and Scrivener softened a bit as he lowered his head and even Luna seemed to loosen a little as the male closed his eyes and said softly: "I understand. I'm sorry, Zecora, I was just surprised. But if anypony can understand the fear of... losing yourself, well. It's me and Luna. But that's why your hut was always stocked then, isn't it?"
Zecora nodded at this, smiling a bit as she said quietly: "My kin and I spent much of our time searching near and far, high and low, always gathering more ingredients to keep our bodies gone and our shadow-forms on show. We wanted to cross into this world once we understood what you were doing with the Pales... but keeping up to you two was more difficult than sleeping upon a bed of nails."
"The trick is to spread yourself out evenly." Scrivener replied dryly, and Zecora gave him a sour look as Luna muttered and leaned against the male, the earth pony wrapping a foreleg around her as an awkward silence spilled out around them. Finally, Luna looked up at him and he gazed back into her eyes, the two trading thoughts and emotions before they both looked towards Zecora as the earth pony said softly: "Well, I guess we're both a little peeved, but... it's good to see you all the same."
"As I am relieved to see you both alive and breathing, and I understand if you are both seething." Zecora bowed her head forwards courteously, adding kindly: "Please know that I want to offer all the help I am able, and I would enjoy very much to hear your side of this fable."
Scrivener smiled despite himself, but Luna only huffed, replying grouchily: "Well, then that can wait. First, thou shalt come along with us to meet the Nibelung and other denizens of this place... aye, Odin thought it wise to bring Nibelung here to do these tasks for us, while I still think the God of Wisdom is mad for hiring such creatures as laborers." Luna grumbled under her breath as the zebra frowned, but nodded a bit as Luna turned around and added distastefully: "And thou should not have fled from us, or sent thy pack upon its merry way without telling us what was going on, shaman or... prophetess or... whatever thou art."
Zecora shrugged awkwardly at this, saying finally: "I recognized this world from the moment I set my hoof upon the field, my instincts told me that it was like a copy of our home before to Hell it did yield. Of course I understand that this cannot be entirely correct, but it is close enough to the truth of this realm, I suspect... it is no wonder that this place you were so eager to protect."
"That answers not my question." Luna grumbled, and Scrivy smiled a bit despite himself as electricity sparked through the winged unicorn's mane, Zecora grimacing a little as they worked their way through the wilderness back towards the field. "Speak not in riddles. Thy rhymes are vexing enough."
"Now, Luna, I think you're just being mean... I think even Scrivener Blooms would agree you're being a bit obscene." Zecora began, and when Luna shot her a curdling glare, the zebra sighed a little and added embarrassedly: "And I suppose that I forget you are even older than I... no matter how much you may act young and wry.
"And that has much to do with why I chose the path I tried... I figured you would tire out your rage if I exhausted you with a game of seek-and-hide." She paused, then added moodily: "It always seemed to work for my brethren when you gave them chase, but I did not think to take into account your protectiveness of this place."
"Aye, the shadows were annoying to chase but they seemed to be no great threat. On the other hand, when thou and thy kind invaded our world here, it seemed like less a game or distraction." Luna muttered, and she sighed a bit, saying grouchily: "And the creature yet seeks to make me the villain, Scrivener Blooms, can you believe her?"
"You do make a good villain, Luna, you have to admit that." Scrivener replied mildly as Zecora gave another sigh, and the winged unicorn mumbled a little as she glared moodily back and forth as they emerged into the field: it was now empty except for the wagon and Pollen, who was awkwardly sitting on bony haunches and examining the bottle with Discombobulation inside it, and the Velite looked up with relief... then flinched in surprise and accidentally kicked the bottle over when she saw the zebra, Discombobulation flailing wildly as he was knocked flying inside the vial.
Luna, however, only sniffed disdainfully before she flicked her horn upwards, and Pollen winced a bit as the bottle floated into the air and over to Luna, hovering silently beside her as Bob visibly grumbled to himself as he brushed himself off and sat moodily up. "Bob, Pollen, this is Zecora. I do not know her plans for this world, but in case thou sees her around, I wished to introduce all thee to one-another so there are no misunderstandings. Zecora, this is Discombobulation, and Pollen. He prefers to be referred to as a female even though I have told them all repeatedly that Velites are all male."
"I. I was a mare when I was alive. Why are you being mean again?" Pollen asked awkwardly, and Luna glared at her, the skeleton wincing a bit before she grabbed at her broken shoulder joint with a mumble. "Please don't look at me so hard. I'm already falling apart enough as it is."
Luna gave an exasperated sigh at this, while Zecora leaned forwards with interest as Discombobulation sulked and leaned back against the bottle, looking grouchily out at the zebra. "I did not expect you to have such exotic friends... a Velite and a Draconequus, both of whom you seem ready to defend."
"Aye, I am, if necessary." Luna replied quietly, nodding firmly as she leaned back a bit and smiled a little as the vial floated beside her head, Discombobulation tilting his head towards her curiously. "Pollen was merely a victim... and Discombobulation fought as ally beside us, and gave his life for us. He was a friend to us. I do not abandon my friends, ever."
The zebra smiled a bit at this, and there was silence for a moment as Discombobulation pretended to wipe a tear away, which made Luna sigh and then briskly shake the bottle, the Draconequus clawing at the glass as she added flatly: "But I shall not hesitate to smite thee either, Bob, think not that thou art safe from a pummeling if thou brings it upon thyself. I still beat Scrivener Blooms on a regular basis, and he is of more importance to me than my own self these days."
"She's mean." Scrivener added supportively, and Luna gave him a half-tired, half-entertained look before the earth pony shrugged and smiled a bit. "Would you rather I tried to tell them you were all bark and no bite?"
"Nay, my teeth speak plenty for themselves in that regard." Luna retorted, and then she grinned widely, her teeth a deathtrap of sharp, inwards-curving fangs. "Would thou like to test it?"
"If I may interrupt you two and your lover's quarrel, I'll be glad to tell you my future plans upon this world." Zecora said quickly, and both the ponies look at her before the winged unicorn grumbled a bit and nodded, and the zebra said quietly: "I intend to rebuild my home in the forest that seems to resemble Everfree, and once that is done I will be glad to lend all the help I can to thee. My brethren will let me know when they have found a safe place for the souls of the tribe... but I find that I like the pony-folk, and by them I wish to abide. So I am glad to offer the help I can in any way, shape or form... assuming your allies take kindly to my presence here becoming a norm."
Luna looked meditatively at the zebra for a few moments, and then she nodded slowly and glanced at Scrivener Blooms as the earth pony shrugged a bit. Then the winged unicorn looked at Discombobulation as he calmly rested back in his floating vial, and the Draconequus simply gave her a shrug as if in response, mimicking Scrivener almost perfectly. "Very well then. Perhaps thou can help take care of Pollen and Discombobulation, and aid in keeping Pinkamena entertained... although somehow I think the half-demon will find plenty to feed upon in the weak minds of the laboring Nibelung."
She grumbled under her breath, then shook her head before turning and saying briskly: "Come then. Scrivener Blooms, attend to the wagon... Pollen, can thou walk, or would thou prefer to ride in the crowded innards with Bob?"
Pollen looked surprised at this consideration, but before she could speak, Zecora said kindly: "Don't worry about being a nuisance, poor once-was-a-mare... even with you resting in the back, Scrivener Blooms and I can pull that wagon as if it weighed only a hair."
"I... thanks." Pollen said finally, smiling faintly as she nodded slowly, and then she flinched a bit as the bottle holding Discombobulation floated over to her before jamming itself lightly into her eye socket, the Velite looking a little less-than-thrilled before he sighed and mumbled: "I guess I'll just. Go ahead and take this then too."
She twitched her head a bit to the side as the Draconequus winced and rattled a bit inside the bottle, then he dropped grumpily to his hindquarters as Pollen carefully made her way around the back of the wagon, Luna calling easily: "If thou must, break thyself into pieces! We can always put thee back together later!"
Pollen mumbled a bit in response as she reached the rear of the wagon and awkwardly hoisted herself in, and Scrivener gave the winged unicorn a flat look as she shrugged absently, then glanced towards Zecora with a nod of approval as the zebra and earth pony both walked towards the damaged harness. "But this is good, at least. Shall I mend the lines?"
"No, these cables shall be fine. They are not damaged overly much, and will hold if we move with a gentle touch." Zecora replied, and Luna looked almost offended at the fact that the zebra had managed to rhyme off her as Scrivener only grinned and shook his head. Then Luna grumbled under her breath as she strode towards them, flicking her horn as the two began to fiddle with the lines and harness, and the thick cables snapped upwards and wrapped around the two as they glowed sapphire, knotting together here and there as Zecora winced and Scrivener let out a wheeze as steel wire ground loudly against his armor. "Luna, please be careful dear! You're going to constrict us like a python I fear!"
"Oh, silly me. Well, blame it all on... glee." Luna retorted grumpily, and Scrivener looked away as Zecora shot her a dry look. "Touchy, I see? 'Tis not thine... uh... tree."
Scrivener slowly reached up and dropped his head against a hoof as Zecora now only stared at the winged unicorn, and then Luna grumbled again before she strode forwards, calling irritably: "In any event, let us make haste to Ponyville. I wish to consult the Nibelung and possibly to pummel them and anything else that upsets me."
"Your wife is of a dangerous sort, and seems to prefer using violence to answer a retort." Zecora remarked to Scrivy, and the earth pony shrugged a bit as the two started forwards, the carriage rumbling behind them as a few more loose gemstones fell away from it, but thankfully it otherwise moved well as the zebra smiled a bit towards the earth pony. "I have to admit it feels good to be back in my body, as after a time being a spirit felt quite gaudy."
"How the hell do you do that? I hate rhyming. I can barely manage a single couplet and yet here you are, talking in them, and so far I've only heard you resort to a half-rhyme once or twice." Scrivener said finally, and the zebra laughed as she grinned at him with entertainment. "At least my poems would sound happier if they rhymed."
"Yes, but they would still be about death and fire. Making them bouncy would not change their ire." Zecora pointed out, and Scrivy grunted in agreement as they continued onwards. And as they followed behind the winged unicorn through the beautiful, luscious world, it felt for a little while like despite all that had happened, there was more than hope for the future now... there was almost a promise that everything was going to work out okay. |
Metempsychosis | The Reflected World | Chapter Sixteen: The Reflected World
~BlackRoseRaven
The Looking Glass Ponyville was almost a perfect replica of the Ponyville that had once been: thatch-roof cottages and homes, a friendly atmosphere, all of it built around the wide center square in which rested the enormous, ironwood tree that housed the library among other landmark buildings. Most of the construction here was finished, and while Luna had been glad to let the laborers attend to every other city as they saw fit, she had personally overseen every last detail of the construction of her little utopia, wanting it to be as close to the original version as possible.
A few Nibelung were still present, however, dressed in simple clothing instead of battle armor, grouchily wielding hammers and carrying supplies as they pieced together furniture, carved charms, and did other odds and ends, mostly staying away from the buildings. Zecora gazed back and forth in amazement as Luna smiled over her shoulder, visibly loosening up as Pollen's voice exclaimed from where she was staring out the ajar door at the back of the wagon: "This is incredible! It's... it's Equestria!"
"Ooh, sounds like you managed to save someone really smart to have made that leap of genius, fancy-corn." deadpanned a flat voice, and Luna grumbled as she halted in the square in front of the enormous tree. Zecora and Scrivener brought the wagon to a stop as well as they looked towards a Nibelung... but unlike the other dwarves, it was slightly taller, with grayer fur and its tusks cut down to only stubs, cleaner-looking than its greasy-furred, laboring brethren as well and with more of a distinct, cultured tone to its voice. "I saw the Bifrost and the Pales, fancy-corn. I have to admit, you've exceeded my admittedly-low expectations."
"Pollen, come and meet a wretched intellectual." Luna said grumpily over her shoulder, as Scrivener began to pull off the harnesses and Zecora automatically did the same. The Nibelung snorted in entertainment at this term, and then looked with surprise as Pollen awkwardly clambered out of the wagon, carrying the vial holding Discombobulation in her mouth. "Illyria, this is Pollen, the sole mare Velite. In the vial is a Draconequus, known as Discombobulation. And finally, the zebra is Zecora... she and her kinfolk have been working to save their people in a manner similar to the job given to me and mine by Odin. Finally, friends, this is Illyria. He is a Nibelung Architect, who follows the dwarves' ancient codes and principles. But he is as rude, ungrateful, and nasty as any axe-wielding thug, be not fooled by his ability to speak without growls and grunts."
"Hey! We speak fine, fancy-corn!" argued a Nibelung standing near the library with a hammer, the shirtless wolf-pig grouchily waving this back and forth and almost smacking another dwarf standing nearby with an armload of boards. Illyria, meanwhile, groaned and dropped his face in his hands as the dwarf laborer behind him continued haughtily: "We smart and talk good, not like Diamond Doggy dumb-dumbs!"
"Shut up and get back to work!" Illyria shouted over his shoulder, and the group of Nibelung squealed, half of them dropping their tools as the other half flailed around like children, and then the Architect grumpily returned his eyes to Luna before they flitted up to the wagon, and he frowned a bit, holding a hand out to her when she began to open her mouth to silence her.
She glared in frustration at him as the Architect stepped past her, examining the carriage curiously as he muttered: "Well, what have we here? A carriage built to travel the Bifrost, I assume, but it's held up spectacularly well... this composite looks fascinating, and from the state of the gemstones I'd say... yes, yes, I think that-"
Then he winced as a blue aura surrounded his body before Luna snapped her horn to the side, the wolf-pig thrown firmly backwards by a telekinetic lash to bounce once on his rear and end up half-sprawled on the ground as he barely managed to catch himself with his arms, cursing under his breath and glaring at the winged unicorn as she said moodily: "Thou can investigate it later, vile cur. For now, it requires minor repairs, and then I desire it to be sent out to our cottage in the wilderness. Furthermore, Pollen is in need of repairs herself... she is a Velite, so all thou needs to do is give her the bones and a carving instrument and I am sure she will do the rest."
"Ridiculous, she is merely a Velite pawn. I shall consult an engraver and have them prepare a set of cattle and deer bones for her within the hour." Illyria said dismissively, flicking his wrist as he stood up, and Pollen looked up at him, obviously unsure whether she should thank him or be insulted. The Architect only went back to ignoring her, however, returning his eyes to Luna and asking distastefully: "Will the fancy-corn and her maid finally be moving permanently to this layer of reality?"
"Nibelung, Scrivener Blooms could break thee like a twig, so I demand thee cease referring to him as that." Luna said flatly, and Illyria only sniffed disdainfully before the winged unicorn groaned in disgust, then added grouchily: "And nay. Whatever Odin or his lackeys have told thee, we plan upon returning to our poisoned homeland as soon as possible."
"It is not your homeland, Valkyrie, Asgard is your homeland." Illyria pointed out, and Luna's lips pursed and her eyes narrowed slowly as Zecora frowned and cocked her head. "Oh, fine, be that way then, fancy-corn. I certainly have no reason to attempt to dissuade you from a suicidal course of action. I dislike enough working beneath Odin and his foot-fellows... I dislike even more working with the dregs of my society, and even more than that, being forced to put up with your presence and bullying. I know my job. I do not tell you how to do your job, why must you insist on telling me how to do mine?"
"Thou may understand thy job well, but thou forgets that it is not for thee that thou art building this Equestria... it is for us. And furthermore, thou agreed to the terms years ago, did thou not? Thou and thy few remaining scholarly brethren were saved from Niflheim and brought up here, with a cadre of... less-intelligent Nibelung..." Luna grimaced a bit as she looked past at the workers, who were grumbling even as they efficiently went about their tasks for all their slovenliness. "And all of thee will be granted freedom and refuge here in Looking Glass Equestria to pursue thine hearts' desire. Unless thou wishes to return to Niflheim, the eternal ice, and dodging demons and mercenary bands and all the other horrors that exist in that sallow place."
Illyria sighed as he held up his hands, looking moody as he mumbled: "Very well, fancy-corn, you win, you win. I shall attend to your requests... but may I at least ask exactly what you plan on doing while here? Especially with that... striped-pony in tow, and for some reason dragging along these other entities like some freakish entourage."
Luna rolled her eyes at this, then she retorted rudely: "At least I have friends, lonely dwarf intellectual." She paused, then glanced at the vial, her horn glowing before the bottle was hefted into the air, and Discombobulation winced as he fell on his rear as Luna guided it quickly over to Scrivener Blooms and slipped it into the burnt-looking satchel he was still wearing over his damaged armor. "Pollen, Zecora, please feel free to familiarize thyselves with Ponyville and the surrounding area. Scrivener and I are going to wander Ponyville, ensure that our specifications have been met, and perhaps talk with another Nibelung of more pleasantness and use than Illyria could ever be."
"Greece is not here at the moment, the artificer is busy in Canterlot, aiding other Architects." Illyria retorted, and Luna groaned and threw her head back in disgust before the dwarf added moodily as he crossed his arms: "I am currently the only Architect here. Unless you wish to speak to the Strange Ones, but they do not count."
"Alas, the poor dwarf is jealous." Luna said drolly, and the Nibelung glowered at her almost angrily even as a faint blush tinged his cheeks. Zecora and Pollen both looked curiously towards her, but the winged unicorn only gave a slight smile, saying mildly: "Oh believe me well. Thou shalt know the Strange Ones when thou sees them. Worry not, they are far less hostile than these wicked, greasy dwarves."
Illyria grumbled under his breath, reaching up and moodily rubbing at one of his cut-down tusks before he said distastefully: "If that is all, I believe I have errands to run. Velite, wait here. Fancy-corn... pleasant as always to have seen you."
"Oh aye, the feeling is as mutual as can be, I am sure." Luna responded dourly, and she and the dwarf glared at each other for a moment before the Architect turned and stormed off, and the winged unicorn rolled her eyes before glancing towards Pollen, saying mildly: "Worry not, he is competent. 'Tis the sole reason I have not pummeled him into mush. These Nibelung who remember their past are nefariously good at their jobs."
"All the same, they seem like an unpleasant bunch... I am surprised you managed to restrain your punch." Zecora commented, and Luna grumbled a little in answer before she added thoughtfully: "I think that I will take a look around, and see what there is to see in this new stomping ground. Of course, Luna, that's as long as you don't object... after all, from your wrath, I wish to myself protect."
"Yes, of course, Zecora, thou may look around as thou wishes... 'tis not my Equestria, after all." Luna smiled a bit, glancing up towards the calm blue sky overhead as she said softly: "'Tis a new world, for all of those that we can save... 'tis an Equestria that will belong to all of us."
For a few moments, the zebra studied the winged unicorn curiously... then she smiled and nodded before turning away, saying thoughtfully: "It's all the more fortuitous it was you who weathered the storm... I know of few others who would be so generous and warm. It's refreshing to see the night is not so cold as most think, and that should light fail, darkness will bring us back from Hell's brink."
Luna smiled amusedly at the zebra's back as she strode away, and then she glanced over at Scrivener Blooms as the earth pony shook his head, saying mildly: "If I could rhyme like that, I would have actually made money off my books."
"If thou spoke in rhyme such as that I would likely beat thee all the more often." Luna replied dryly, then she glanced towards Pollen, saying kindly: "Once thou art repaired, thou too can wander as thou likes... or meet us back at our cabin, the path is fairly marked or a Nibelung can take thee. We shall see thee shortly either way, Pollen."
The Velite awkwardly waved with her remaining front hoof to the two as Scrivener Blooms and Luna turned away, and the two ponies headed past the library and into the streets of Ponyville, beneath the calm blue sky and the shining warmth of the golden sun above.
More out of impulse than anything else, when the sun was lowered at nightfall, Luna herself rose the ivory moon... and smiled in delight at the sight of the whole, beautiful orb in the sky, gleaming softly as the stars twinkled quietly around it through the darkness of the velvet, black sky. It was calm and peaceful, and Scrivy and Luna traded warm looks with one another as they rested on comfortable, plush black bedding in their beautiful cabin in the wilderness.
They had found a deeper spot in this world's version of the Everfree Forest: it didn't provide the same perfect cliff, but it had a small slope that Luna had been gradually shaping and expanding into a larger hill, giving them a slight vantage point almost at level with the tops of the enormous trees. With the aid of Nibelung workers, they had also hollowed it out and then shored it up with ironwood pillars, effectively turning the landscaped hill into a half-bunker, half-storage shed.
The cottage itself was roughly three quarters finished: one front corner was still skeletal, the walls unfinished, the ceiling there covered by tarps instead of shingles. It had been a last-minute addition due to the fact that Luna enjoyed adding things in on impulse while Scrivener tried to get her to step-by-step. The result was the cottage had several complete, furnished and decorated rooms, a painted and varnished - and gorgeous, if Scrivener did say so himself - front deck and back patio, and the rest of it was incomplete.
If they had the time, they would at least finish the walls and roof this week, however... and Luna was determined to make the time one way or another. She also wanted to work on their bedroom - it needed to be painted and the flooring needed to be finished - and finish setting up the garden out back, which currently was just a weedy, fenced-in lot next to a pretty, scenic pond in which a few bullfrogs could be heard singing in the clear night air outside, as a soft breeze blew and added its whispers to the melody of the night.
In the front yard, the wagon rested, and Pollen had actually set up a small home of her own inside of this: it made for a cramped living space, but the Velite seemed content and thrilled in the night air, and it helped that the gemstone-armored wagon was likely even sturdier than the black-polished, ironbark cottage. Luna had also provided some old bedding, blankets, and pillows for the Velite as a courtesy, and finally grouchily added that she was free to come and go as she pleased: she was welcome in their home.
But Pollen didn't want to intrude, saying embarrassedly she would feel awkward enough moving in while Luna and Scrivener returned to the corrupted Equestria. Luna had appreciated this thought, and now rested comfortably, side-by-side with Scrivener Blooms, their armor discarded and stored in their room as they gazed up at the mantel of their fireplace and the painting that now hung over it, of the male charging through the shadowy forest... and both of them smiled a bit as she said quietly: "Yes. This is good. This is right."
She drew her eyes down to the blue flames burning in the fireplace as Scrivener looked at her warmly, unable to do anything but agree: the room around them was beautiful and pristine, after all, with the large and comfortable bedding, pillows strewn here and there over the floor and the lamp in the ceiling above casting a soft glow over everything. Other paintings hung over the varnished walls and behind them, as in their old home, an archway and countertop was all that separated large and spacious den from a kitchen that was almost a perfect replica of their old one... apart from the fact everything was in much-better shape, and instead of a fridge they only had a box kept cold by magic.
Then they both looked up in surprise as Discombobulation calmly strode forwards and sat down on Luna's other side, the tall Draconequus grimacing a bit as he rested back on the bedding and blinking owlishly at them when Luna snapped: "Creature! Return to thy bottle, 'tis dangerous for thee to be out!"
"Oh shut up, Scrivener Blooms, no one likes you." Discombobulation replied tiredly, and Luna glowered before Scrivener winced and grabbed her before she could attack the Draconequus as the chaos entity rolled his shoulders, then picked up one of their blankets and half-wrapped it around himself as he gazed into the fire, muttering: "Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely-varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for the inevitably fatal operation. I would rather take my chances out here in the open air than live forevermore as a caged bird in a gilded prison."
Luna softened a bit at this, and Scrivener Blooms smiled a bit as he looked over the Draconequus slowly before saying softly: "Back to stealing quotes, are we?"
"Well, you know. Can't teach an old Draconequus new tricks and all that. Besides, Luna, I can't let you be the only scavenger of the dead around here, can I? Better to be ghouls of words together than grave-robbers apart." Discombobulation paused meditatively, and then he added dryly: "As long as you're not a necrophiliac. Several famous authors loved the dead a little too much, you know."
"Writers are a sick breed." Luna muttered in agreement, and Scrivener rolled his eyes in entertainment before the winged unicorn nudged him gently, saying softly: "Tea, I think, would be better tonight, poet. And perhaps something to eat, if the food is not stale."
Scrivener nodded with a smile, climbing to his hooves and heading into the kitchen to prepare the kettle and tea before Luna stood up as well, heading down the hall to a small closet. She returned a few minutes later with a thick blanket floating beside her, and this comforter gently draped itself around Discombobulation as he looked at her with surprise, but then quickly glanced back towards the fire as Luna flopped down beside him. "You ponies are a strange lot. Not as bad as everyone says, though."
"Thanks, Bob, thou art not so bad thyself, once one gets past the layers of... thee." Luna gestured at him widely, and Discombobulation rolled his eyes with a grumble. For a little while, they sat in quiet together... and then the Draconequus was once more surprised when Scrivener returned with a tray of three mugs of tea, some jam, and a loaf of sweetened bread as Luna invited: "Well, hurry up, Bob. We have to take care of thee, after all, do we not?"
"As long as this isn't my last supper and one of you don't betray me before the night ends." Discombobulation finally said, and Scrivener had laughed as Luna only sighed and rolled her eyes, giving him a flat look as the Draconequus moodily picked up his mug of tea... then shrugged a bit and added quietly: "Here's lookin' at you, kid."
He sipped at it slowly... then grimaced a bit as he leaned back and shook his head firmly out, looking moodily down at the tea. "I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety."
"Well, Discombobulation, if I was actually pretending to take you literally, I'd tell you the only ale around here is made by the Nibelung. And I'm pretty sure it would kill you. In fact, I'm pretty sure it would kill Luna." Scrivener replied mildly, and the Draconequus snorted in amusement at this as the winged unicorn gave the earth pony a challenging look. "No dear, that isn't an invitation to go and get drunk with the dwarves."
Luna grumbled a bit at this, and then she picked up her own mug and sipped at it slowly, saying finally: "To be honest, Scrivener Blooms, I do not miss drinking anymore as much as I did at first. Now that I have spent so long without even a glass of wine, it feels more like a challenge to live up to..." The winged unicorn gave him an entertained look. "Strange, the way we adjust to things, no?"
"Well, strange the way you adjust to things, Luna, but I understand all the same. You're a very strange winged unicorn." Scrivener replied blandly, and the female laughed despite herself as she swatted at him, making Scrivy smile as he swayed out of the way before glancing towards Discombobulation as the Draconequus studied them thoughtfully. "What?"
"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the whole world." Discombobulation answered after a moment, and Scrivener and Luna both looked at him curiously as he sniffed a bit and leaned back, curling the comforter tighter around himself. "Your concept of 'love' is strange and confusing. I like it and yet it gives me chills, much like horror movies about evil little girls. It makes me wonder what you would do for one another out of impulse, or wanting to see the other smile... it makes me wonder what you would do to the world, for the sake of one-another. Not that the old world is in much danger, mind you... the milk has long been spilled and the eggs have long since cracked.
"But what about this world? Oh, it's going to be so full of lies and confusion and mayhem... I think I'll like it here, since I'm sure that Ginnungagap must be all in a flurry over what's happened. My fellow friends and friendly fellows probably don't even know I exist anymore, to be certain: even though we're chaos, and we all should know so much better than to believe everything we see and read - especially on the internet - all the same we seem to be easily taken in by flashy sights and loud sounds and articles written by important-sounding names that come in the format first name, middle initial, last name." Discombobulation poked his eagle claw out of the blankets, gesturing at the air as he spoke. "I'm sure my magnificent kamikaze was rewarded with applause, a few crocodile tears, and then some more applause back home. Not that I was never not liked, you must understand, only that they would have liked what happened to me more, and the party and the funeral and the funeral-party that would have followed as they lied about fond memories of me."
The Draconequus quieted, looking down with a frown as he shifted the blanket a bit around himself... then he picked up his tea and sipped slowly at it again, gazing down into the liquid meditatively. "I wonder what it must have been like for Discord. Coming to Equestria, of his own accord, looking to meddle... but what gears turned in his mind beneath the dazzling lights and spackle of paint and chaos of the jumble? He was a true trickster, after all: designing grand schemes, thinking who knows how deeply, and hiding it with a grinning smile and a delight in anarchic madness. I, at least, like to think I'm a little more straightforward, even if I seem to go straight along the curves and curve along the straights."
He shook his head with a dry chuckle, then carefully put his mug of tea down and picked up the breadknife, studying this moodily. "It's the carpenter, not the tools, you know. But then again, a workhorse the size of Scrivener Blooms' ego helps get the job done much faster than a shovel."
"Thou truly missed talking to others, didn't thee?" Luna said dryly, and Discombobulation mumbled a little under his breath before he winced when the knife glowed blue, yanking itself out of his hand before swinging down and swiftly slicing several pieces of bread from the loaf, before swirling over to the jam jar. Scrivy winced a bit as the raspberry substance was splattered everywhere by Luna's forceful guidance of the knife, before she finally dropped the utensil on the tray and instead lifted one of the pieces of cut bread with telekinesis.
Discombobulation stared... then gargled when the jam-covered bread was shoved almost completely into his mouth, splattering him with a bit of jam as Luna said grumpily: "There, wretched, obnoxious, boorish creature. Eat. 'Twill help."
Discombobulation muttered grouchily around the bread in his muzzle, then he slurped it loudly back into his jaws before swallowing it almost whole, wincing and coughing once afterwards... then cursing and rearing back when Luna picked up another piece of bread with telekinesis. "What do I look like to you, a turtle?"
"If thou wert a turtle, Bob, I would not feed thee bread. I would feed thee mulched-up bugs." Luna retorted, then she thrusted the piece of bread towards his face, and Discombobulation half-fell over attempting to avoid it before the winged unicorn added flatly: "Think that I shall not shove this food into thy nose if I must, Discombobulation. Thou must eat. 'Tis good for thee."
"I'm not a pony, I'm a chaos entity of-" Discombobulation began to complain, and then the piece of bread was shoved firmly into his mouth, silencing him as he sat moodily with crumbs spilling from his stuffed jaws as Luna sniffed disdainfully. The Draconequus glowered at her, the piece of bread flopping a bit in his jaws, but the winged unicorn only gave him a half-kind, half-mocking smile as Scrivy rolled his eyes and sipped slowly at his tea.
Discombobulation mumbled to himself and curled the blankets tighter around his body as he chewed slowly on the bread, and Luna grunted and nodded as she returned her gaze towards the fire, saying softly: "Aye, and we are not so different, you and I. Thou art a swirl of manic energy and I am a Valkyrie, reincarnated in this body. I have no more need to eat than thou does, but... it feels good, does it not? And 'tis a fine enough way to keep up one's strength. Worry not, Bob, I am not just practicing my motherhood skills upon thee. I am also concerned for thy well-being."
The Draconequus grumbled a bit as he managed to swallow the piece of bread, before wincing when the last slice lifted into the air... but thankfully, instead it floated over to Scrivener, who took a bite out of it with a smile to Luna before Discombobulation said grouchily: "You're as beautiful and traitorous as the sea, you know. Likely about as comforting, too... one moment, we'll all be readying for the final battle, the next we'll all be covered in crabs and brine."
"Flirt with me not, Discombobulation. I may take thee up on thy offer and sadly, the end result is that I shall likely wear thy poor, sickly self out and kill thee." Luna replied kindly, and Discombobulation snorted in entertainment as Luna gave him a sweet smile. "But perhaps after thou feels better we can discuss it again."
"Luna, please stop trying to cheat on me while I'm right here." Scrivener said mildly, nudging her gently with his shoulder, and then he winced when the bread floating in the air in front of him shoved itself into his mouth, silencing him as Luna gave him an entertained look.
"Oh, as if I could actually cheat on thee, Scrivener Blooms. Thou feels the same pleasures and pains and everything else I do, and thou seems to appreciate my adventurousness, wherever it tends to lead." Luna nudged him playfully, then she grinned teasingly over at Discombobulation as he leaned away from them with a wince. "Great cowardly chaos entity. I thought thy kind was all about chasing pleasure."
"No, we're all about chaos, and each of us has his or her or it or their own particular preferred poison. As I know I've said before, I enjoy confusion most of all... not... touchy-feely nonsense. Especially not with ponies." Discombobulation looked moodily at them, grimacing a little as he added grouchily: "Besides, what is marriage but the prostitution to one stallion instead of many?"
"Oh, I sense thou art trying to anger me!" Luna, however, only grinned wider in response to this, leaning forwards and half-lidding her eyes. "But this is a topic I am fond of debating. Shall we debate, Discombobulation, upon concubines and prostitutes and sexuality? Thou can play the untouched activist fighting for so-called 'rights' I do not desire, and I shall be the mare who revels in her own power, not the power that comes from laws and essays and moralistic viewpoints ironically written mostly by males, and we'll get in a greater quarrel than the angriest of feminists could with the most grabby and grouchy of chauvinists!"
"Please don't encourage her. I made the mistake of trying to argue with her once or twice on this topic and it never, ever turns out well." Scrivener said dryly, and Luna huffed before she punched him lightly in the side, making him wince. "Well it's all fine and well for you, dear, but you're a Valkyrie. Most mares can't shoot lightning, kill dragons with one hoof tied behind their back, and transform into any shape they desire at will."
"Sleipnir was far more fun than thou. He liked prostitutes." Luna retorted, and Discombobulation snorted laughter as Scrivener glared sourly at the winged unicorn, who looked absurdly pleased with herself for getting a laugh from the chaos entity. "There, see! Thou should be more like Bob, appreciating the joy and wisdom I have to bring!"
Scrivener only rolled his eyes in amusement... and for the next little while, they sat together in quiet and comfort before Luna and Scrivener excused themselves to go out for a short walk through the night air. Discombobulation had only nodded, then flopped himself down on the bedding, and they had left the Draconequus to doze in front of the fire as they exited through the back door and over the square, furnished patio into their half-completed rear yard.
For a moment, Scrivener's eyes lingered on the garden, smiling despite himself: a few black roses had bloomed here and there, along with several white moon lilies, thriving despite the weeds and the wildness of the lot... and then Luna nudged him gently, her black pearl swaying quietly around her neck as she said softly: "Flight or hoof, Scrivener Blooms?"
"As if you have to ask." Scrivy smiled a bit to her, and Luna laughed despite herself before they stepped towards one another and traded a short, gentle kiss for a few moments, eyes closing before they parted and pressed their foreheads together, and thoughts and ideas and images swirled between them before the male began softly: "Luna..."
"It's alright, Scrivy. 'Tis only a pang. Besides, this world heals us, does it not? I haven't heard thee complaining much today, and thou has had a lot to complain about. Problems here are pushed aside and do not vex us... I like that. I wish to keep things that way, and not frustrate us needlessly. I have needs and wants and desires, aye, but I can wait." Luna smiled a bit, their eyes opening, irises glowing as they studied one another before she said softly: "We have a job to do, and I shan't forget that, Scrivy. We shall have a foal of our own in time, but we have no reason to rush... we have countless years yet to spend together. I have lived for... who knows how long? Even a decade should be nothing more than a drop in the sea to me."
"Yes, but you are remarkably impatient." Scrivener pointed out, and Luna rolled her eyes even as she snorted in amusement and turned to stride the path leading towards the forest, the earth pony smiling as he followed after her. "You know, you can't treat the kid the same way you treat Bob, too."
Luna grumbled under her breath at this as she stepped onto a natural, grassy path cutting through the trees, but she was smiling all the same, her mood and spirits feeling lighter and higher than they had in weeks now as she replied mildly: "As I have said before, I do not believe in all these... parenting gimmicks. Our child will grow up fine and strong, Scrivener Blooms... and he will do it without being force-fed disgusting and unnecessary supplements and living inside a ridiculous plastic bubble."
"You're referring to the baby-to-be as a he again, Luna. You are aware you can't just will it into being a colt, especially since your reasoning behind why you want it to be a colt is rather ridiculous?" Scrivener asked mildly, and Luna snorted at this as the male hurried to catch up to her, even as he gazed back and forth with a strange, bubbling warmth in his chest at the sight of the dark forest around them, his natural night vision slowly filtering in as Luna's ephemeral mane glowed softly and lit the way all the clearer for them.
For a moment, however, she was silent as they only enjoyed the embrace of the night together, slipping smoothly past enormous pines as the soft grasses kissed their hooves, trees rumbling quietly around them as the earth seemed to shift subtly, as if the forest was awakening to peek at who was visiting its depths... before there was a soft gust that rattled the branches of the trees above, like an exhale of welcome and relief. And then Luna smiled a bit as she paused in the middle of the well-walked, winding path through the thick trees, saying kindly: "Now, Scrivener Blooms. Just for what thou has said, I have firmly decided I shall give birth to a colt. I believe that we shall find my womb to be in accordance with this."
"Horses of Heaven." Scrivener could only look at her for a moment, and then he shook his head and laughed, asking in an amused voice: "Alright then, Luna, if you're so sure it's going to be a colt, what are you going to name him?"
"Thou art the poet, 'tis thine duty to figure it out." Luna retorted huffily, turning quickly away and trotting through the forest, and Scrivy smiled as he followed the phantasmal wisp of her glowing mane. "But it must be a mighty name. A name with great meaning to it, that will stay in the memories of those whom hear it for an eternity and a day, a name that is neither too short nor too long and holds a vast depth to it, Scrivener Blooms. Not a name like thine, thy name is boring. Almost as boring as thou art."
Scrivener snorted in entertainment at this, replying easily: "Something majestic, powerful, and more than a few letters long, Luna?"
Luna ground suddenly to a halt, and Scrivener winced as he ran into her backside, flopping forwards and half-resting over her rear as she shot him a mischievous grin over her shoulder. "Scrivy! We are discussing a serious topic at the moment, I am sure thou can wait five more minutes for that." She paused, then arched her back imperiously before firmly rocking her hips backwards, knocking Scrivener off to fall back on his haunches with a flick of her rear, and the male glared at her hindquarters as she added mildly: "And my name is plenty majestic, even if it is rather... short. What would thou have named me?"
"Oh, no, Luna works fine, and it's very pretty." Scrivener replied blandly, climbing back to his hooves as the winged unicorn started forwards again, and then she halted with a glare over her shoulder as Scrivener added mildly: "It can also be short for 'lunatic,' which suits you very well."
"Cur." Luna finally pronounced, and then she grumbled as she started forwards again, Scrivener smiling as he followed, then strode up and fell into pace beside her as the trees began to thin out, starlight shining down through the thinning canopy above as she continued moodily: "Besides, even before I earned the title of Lightblade, I was powerful enough to clearly demonstrate I was no force to be trifled with and soon my name became synonymous with 'respect.' Also 'miscreant,' 'rogue,' and for some strange reason, 'a masculine mare.' I do not know why they attributed to me the last. Am I not more effeminate than Celestia was, at least?"
"Oh please don't make me answer that question." Scrivener mumbled, and Luna huffed and checked him firmly, making him wince and stumble before he nudged her back, adding mildly: "I'm sure you were at least less masculine than Sleipnir."
"Oh, yes, how comforting a thought that is. I was less-masculine than my titanic older brother who could hoof-wrestle a dragon into submission and more than once put Celestia in a headlock and cheerfully mussed up her entire mane, with her helpless to do a thing about it for all her strength." Luna replied dryly, and Scrivener couldn't help but laugh at the images and memories that swirled through his mind at this, of a frustrated and yet resigned Celestia with ethereal mane in a sparking tangle as a burly, laughing equine affectionately and playfully ground his hoof against her scalp. "I shall have thee know I look very pretty in a dress."
Scrivener looked at her mildly, and Luna snorted at him before she muttered: "Well, I did not say that I enjoyed wearing it, only that I cut an attractive enough figure. In thanks mainly, I do believe, to my fine and supple flank."
"You're such a butt-pony." Scrivener said finally, and Luna gave him a look for a few moments, then she threw her head back and laughed as they strode into a circular field in the middle of the forest, Scrivener smiling at her warmly before he gazed towards two enormous, gnarled trees at the far side of this, reflected in a placid pool of water that stretched out before their hooves, the glassy water parted only by a tall, sweeping quartz monolith that stretched into the center of the crescent-shaped pond from a grassy hill behind it. It like a paradise inside paradise, and one of their favorite spots in the forest... and the two traded warm smiles before Luna slipped forwards and buried her face against the side of his neck with a soft sigh of relief.
The enormous trees creaked quietly, seeming to move despite the lack of wind: one stretched high to the sky above, its branches reaching up around it like countless limbs raised in exaltation despite the bends and twists throughout its tall body. The other, meanwhile, was bent and twisted, bowing forwards and looking more like an immense serpent, its branches lurching outwards in every direction: twin enormous ash trees, with a spiderweb of deep roots that were thought to spill almost throughout the entire forest. Hu and Ỏðr, thought to have sprung from Yggdrasil itself, the eternal protectors of this world's Everfree Forest.
The two ponies quietly circled around the pool, striding up the hillside and onto the natural, smooth quartz balcony that extended over the still and silent water. They laid down side-by-side on top of the strangely-warm stone beneath the light of the moon and the stars, under the somehow-comforting shadow of the enormous trees, gazing at one another before they looked up towards the constellations overhead, Luna saying quietly: "Some of these stars...so strange, so foreign to me even now, but in a way, I enjoy it. The stars shine during the day and night, but 'tis only beside the moon that they may be seen... pretty, vainglorious sun makes herself the center of attention all day long, after all, and not a thing may stand beside her in the sky."
Scrivener gazed affectionately at Luna... and then both ponies looked in surprise to the side at the sound of a rusty chuckle before a figure pushed itself carefully into the field, and Luna's features puckered as if she'd bitten into a lemon as she said sourly: "Wretched lecher, will thou not give us a moment's peace?"
Odin replied to this with a sigh as he brushed a few leaves off his fur-lined jacket, replying tiredly: "Brynhild, I remember asking you to contact me once you arrived in Looking Glass World. Do you not remember this as well? If anyone should be angry here it's me, but I am not because that would not only serve no purpose, we all knew ahead of time you were going to avoid contacting me as long as possible. Illyria sent a messenger to me earlier informing me you had arrived... and I figured that it would be easiest to catch you out here. You always visit this place in this vast forest the night of your return, without fail... and often around the same time, as well."
"Some traditions should not be forgotten or forgone. Unlike certain others, which should be torn to tatters and used as confetti to celebrate the dawning of a new age of reason and sanity." Luna retorted moodily, and Odin rubbed slowly at the scarred side of his face as he gave an exasperated sigh. "But yes, Odin, very well, we are here, thou has seen us, now go away."
"Brynhild, please." The once-god gave her a frustrated look, and Luna grumbled a bit before she half-turned and buried her face childishly against the side of Scrivener's neck, the earth pony giving an awkward smile as Odin looked at them for a few moments, then muttered under his breath as he turned. He reached a hand out, stroking slowly over one of the enormous trees, and it seemed to react to his touch, the tree rumbling and shifting as the branches swayed despite the fact the wind had long died down.
Then he turned back around, striding to the edge of the pool and looking pointedly up at the two ponies, and Luna groaned as she felt his eyes on him before she flicked her head firmly, her mane twisting and spiraling outwards to form into a starry, ethereal wall that hid her and Scrivener from view behind a wall of glowing translucence. Odin, however, only crossed his arms calmly, saying dryly: "Even a goblin would see through that ruse, Luna. And goblins are less intelligent than the most idiotic Nibelung."
"Oh, fine." Luna grumbled, and she flicked her head again, her mane twisting backwards and settling over her back as she glared down at him, but the once-god only smiled wryly as Scrivener awkwardly half-hid behind the winged unicorn. "Very well, I shall give thee the report thou so craves, annoying old dog. I do not know the count of Pales we saved... but it was many, perhaps even more vast than the first droves we led across the Bifrost, and I do not exaggerate. There was little else of note."
"So running across Fenrir and bringing the Black Baroque crashing down is not of note?" Odin asked dryly, gesturing towards her with one hand, and Luna huffed even as a faint blush tinged her cheeks. "Furthermore, I believe you found your old spear. To a Valkyrie like yourself, that must have felt like finding your heart after years of living without it."
"I understand not why thou asks for a report when thou clearly knows the answers already." Luna grumbled, and then she raised her head a bit, adding distastefully: "Aye, we dropped the Black Baroque on Fenrir's wretched head, but the Black Wolves shattered the moon and were digging their Alpha out of the wreckage when we left. I know not what his state is... but at least one of the other Black Wolves seemed to be injured, perhaps even crippled. I only hope fortune favors us and its wound does not heal."
Odin nodded slowly, rubbing at the underside of his beak as the falcon-headed male looked moodily down. "It's difficult to say. Skoll, Hati, Garm and Fenrir... they are forces of desolation and destruction. The fact they cowered under the eclipse was unexpected and I do not know why they did... perhaps it was Valthrudnir's tampering. Perhaps he had some ultimate goal for these creatures... they do not exist in the other layers of reality, after all, and I am unsure of who or what designed them. I do not believe it was even Valthrudnir... you have seen his machinations, his monstrosities. The Tyrant Wyrms and the Black Wolves seem to share much in common, but the Black Wolves seem only animals, driven by warped instinct to destroy... Valthrudnir's pets are intelligent, machine-like, and incredibly cruel."
He halted, looking slowly from Luna to Scrivener Blooms, and his eye seemed to focus in on the earth pony as he said in a soft, pointed voice: "After all, there is no evil in an animal hunting the most harmless of prey for food... but can willingly, knowingly inflicting pain upon another for the sake of pleasure or sport ever be justified?"
A shiver rolled along the earth pony's spine, and then Luna leaned forwards, cutting off the eye contact as she said sharply: "Perhaps there is no wrong in taking pleasure in pummeling another when they continuously beg for it, lecher."
Odin winced a bit even as he studied the sudden anger of the winged unicorn, and then he held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, saying quietly: "It is only an old man's rambles, Brynhild, I do not mean to offend. But let me ask... is there anything else... anything at all... you have to tell me?"
"No." Luna said curtly, despite the way her muzzle wrinkled up, and Scrivener grimaced a bit at what an awful liar the winged unicorn could be... and inside him, he wondered silently if this was the right course of action. Then Luna frowned as she looked over her shoulder at him, eyes imploring even as Odin studied them silently, before he sighed a bit and nodded at the look she gave him, trusting her decision, knowing that she would never willingly put him in harm's way. If she felt they could handle Valthrudnir without Odin's help... if she was still worried to a point that telling Odin would only result in more trouble... he would gladly follow in her lead.
They both looked towards the old once-god, and he gazed back from one to the other... then only shook his head slowly, crossing his arms and looking moodily down into the pool. "Very well. I am not your enemy though, Brynhild... let me make that perfectly clear. I know that in the past I destroyed the Aesir and did many things that have forever scarred my honor, and I know that you have much reason to distrust me. But Brynhild... you and Thor are really all I have left. I cannot face Freya's spirit with the shame I hold in my heart and the righteousness in her eyes, and all the other Aesir are gone, torn apart by Valthrudnir's machinations and scheming and my own damned failings."
He grimaced and shook his head, then finally looked up and nodded once, saying quietly: "But you have done well, Brynhild. I do not... entirely approve of the fact you carried a half-demon, Draconequus, and of all the things in these many layers of reality, a cursed undead skeleton. A Velite or some nonsense, was that the name for it?"
"Aye, 'tis. But be kind to her. And be kind as well to the zebra folk... they have suffered as much as the ponies, and are no different. Four hooves, a mind and a heart and a soul, and a will to survive that matches that of any other living creature." Luna paused reflectively, then added grouchily: "But if they all speak in rhyme such as Zecora does I may set the lot of them on fire, and drag them back across the Bifrost. 'Twould be too much of an insult on top of the indignity that such creatures outwitted and outmatched me."
Odin looked curiously up at the winged unicorn at this, tilting his head slightly. "So you did not bring those specters into this world by choice? I thought they were the results of another of your... odd moments of mercy, Brynhild."
"Will thou cease calling me that? My name is Luna." the winged unicorn said waspishly, and Scrivener smiled a bit despite himself as he rubbed a hoof slowly along her spine as Odin only looked at her patiently. "But aye, they slipped across the bridge after I had led the Pales through, but fortunately were not hostile. Only crafty and irksome, but... they seek to save their people. I cannot deny them that. I only wish I could save more souls..."
She quieted, looking down, and Odin smiled a bit as he spread his arms, saying softly: "As I learned myself too late, you cannot save everyone, and sometimes letting go... letting things pass on, letting the torch be handed down, or watching even those close to you fade away... it's the better choice, in the long run. I was God of Wisdom, but I do not claim to know all the intricate secrets of this universe... I came into existence long after its creation, after all. I multiplied these layers, but I did not create the world... I merely planted the first seeds across Midgard and watched what grew, and tended to it as I could."
He paused, then rubbed at the back of his head slowly as Luna looked at him quietly, seeming to soften a little as he gazed up at her with his single eye and smiled a little. "Listen to me, rambling again. An old, doddering relic, trying to remember his glory days, but they're so far gone in the past the memories have become all too faded... or perhaps all too clear."
"Yes, yes, old lecher, thou speaks of it often. Will thou not go away now, and return to thy rocking chair in Asgard or wherever it is thou finds thy scrawny self at home? "Luna asked irritably, and Odin grumbled a little under his breath as he looked at her irritably, and the winged unicorn gave a mutter of her own before she said grudgingly: "We shall be here at least for the week, Odin, we have time to... arrange a meeting later. Thou seems to little mind showing up as thou pleases at the door of mine home, after all."
"One more question then, Brynhild, and I shall go." Odin replied calmly, raising his hands, and Luna rolled her eyes... but then sighed and slumped, nodding a little as she looked moodily down towards the once-god. "On the subject of the Pales, and more specifically, bringing the Pales back their bodies... have you settled upon a course of action?"
Now Luna looked more hesitant than frustrated, leaning back a bit and exchanging a look with Scrivener Blooms as the male shrugged, their eyes meeting, thoughts and snips of discussion and other memories flowing back and forth before the winged unicorn sighed and looked back towards the falcon-headed once-god almost apprehensively. "Nay, we... we have not. I wish to consult with Greece upon this subject, or perhaps Roma. It... it is difficult, Odin. There is so much to consider... so much to measure, to calculate, to design with infernal preciseness, like we are doing complex science instead of utilizing instinctive powers that surge upwards from within."
"True magic is a mix of both, Luna. Powered by the self, theorized by the mind and soul, but ultimately at its peak only when combined with strategy and intellect." Odin replied quietly, gesturing towards them with a faint smile. "That's why Freya was always so powerful. For all her ruthless passion, it was her sharp mind that made her the deadliest of opponents."
"Oh, yes, Celestia's always the better." Luna grumbled under her breath, and then she sighed a little and shook her head quickly. "But if thou desires a guess all the same, I do not think one of Valthrudnir's cards alone will do the trick. I hope it shall require only two, and not all three... for the Jotnar was incredibly powerful, whether or not he was also a... what is the word, Scrivener Blooms?"
"A douchebag." Scrivener said mildly, and Luna nodded agreeably as Odin looked at the two with wry entertainment in his eyes. The earth pony hesitated for a moment, and then he glanced towards Odin, asking quietly: "Forgive me if I'm out of line, but... when you battled Valthrudnir..."
"A game of wits and wisdom, yes. Valthrudnir was always fond of his sick games." Odin rubbed at the underside of his beak, looking down moodily into the reflective pool... yet it seemed to be not with anger, but with self-loathing, as he said quietly: "I should have been more careful, but I was arrogant. After all, I had outmatched even Ymir, hadn't I? And this foolish Frost Giant wanted to play a game of wits with all our powers on the line. I was greedy... and I was prideful. And for the first few rounds, I was beating him, winning without any difficulty. It should have been obvious it was a trick but Valthrudnir... I never realized that he was not like the other Jotnar until too late. Despite the way he talked, the way he dressed, the way he acted, I thought he was just... a monkey in a suit, a barbarian only pretending to be civilized. No... no, I think we both know he really was the last, but all the same, that does not detract from his sharp and terrible intellect.
"Then everything turned. I do not know if he rigged his magic tokens somehow, but I fear that all he did was ensure the easy categories would come first... and then the questions became more pointed, sharper, and so much more dangerous. And I should have known from the start that it was a fool's gambit to play against him: he was the designer of this game, after all, he was the one who wrote the questions, but I did not think he would know every answer. And he was cruel..." Odin closed his eye, turning his head away slightly as he murmured: "He could have killed me with ease, when the game was said and done. I was at his mercy, all my strength sapped. Oh, believe me, back then my first instinct when things began to go wrong was to grab my axe to cut the Jotnar's grinning head off, but he couldn't be intimidated. Before the duel, he honor-bound us to the game, and too late I saw why. If I refused to play his game, it would be surrendering, and too late I realized that surrendering in defeat, or defeated through his wits, it would have the same result: I would be drained and helpless. He had me at his mercy, and I knew the moment I lunged for him, he would be able to declare his victory, and I... I was not brave enough to risk it. If only I had taken the chance... to rend axe into his skull, to plunge spear through his chest, to rip sword through his neck, to have throttled him with bare hands alone. Everything could have turned out differently..."
Odin fell silent, and then he chuckled wryly, looking tiredly up. "But maybe not. Here I stand now, thinking that in the past an act of dishonor would have cleansed the future. It makes no sense, does it? But I have talked long enough now. You see the results of the battle before you, Scrivener Blooms and Brynhild. We have all tasted the results of Valthrudnir's scheming. And I am terrified that even now, his machinations still move. Perhaps I am overestimating what he was capable of out of... out of an old man's fear, but... I have uneasy feelings some nights..."
He fell quiet again as Scrivener Blooms and Luna traded a worried look, and then the once-god cleared his throat and slipped his hands in his pockets, turning around to gaze over the two ash trees: dissimilar twins, one standing as a pillar towards the sky, the other a great and gnarled snake. "Do not hesitate to ask for my help if you need it, either of you. Brynhild... you and Thor are really all that I have left anymore. And despite Thor... or as you prefer, your brother, Sleipnir... living in Valhalla... I do not see him as often as I like, with how busy everything has kept me as of late. You have my promise that if I can help you... I will."
"I appreciate this, Odin, even coming from thee." Luna said quietly, and Odin gave a small smile over his shoulder before the once-god simply shrugged a bit, then strode without another word towards the woods. As he passed the ash trees, one of his hands reached out and up, stroking over the bark absently as he walked by... and the gnarled tree creaked as it visibly swayed in response, twisting as if trying to follow the old once-god as Luna and Scrivener watched him vanish into the forest.
For a little while, the two ponies were quiet... and then Scrivener closed his eyes and dropped his face against the side of Luna's neck, and she wrapped a foreleg around him, squeezing him quietly closer to her body as they curled together, comforting one another in the silence of the beautiful night, in a beautiful world, where all the same it seemed like their troubles were determined to pursue them. |
Metempsychosis | Wicked Words In A Wicked World | Chapter Seventeen: Wicked Words In A Wicked World
~BlackRoseRaven
Scrivener Blooms was back in the nightmare world, his sharp teeth grit as his half-wyrm, half-pony features contorted with frustration, claw scraping against the boggy earth as he stood in the middle of a blackened, thick forest. Overhead, stars gleamed callously like distant and ruthless angels watching mortals and demons struggling below as if they were only bugs, content and apart in the comfortable but icy heavens.
He could barely remember falling asleep: only that he and Luna had been curled together beneath the stars, their bodies close and comfortable and so warm, her mane spilling over them both... and then next thing he knew, he was here. He couldn't sense Luna's presence as he hurried forwards, cursing under his breath as he tore through a patch of brambles along the ugly, ashen floor of the forest, grimacing as he ground against the rough-hewn side of a tree with a wince of pain as he felt the sharp bark digging against both scale and charcoal coat.
Scrivy gazed back and forth as he shoved his way through the warped, dead forest, half-stumbling down a steep embankment and a boggier patch where the trees were sparser, rotten bones laying here and there across the earth as he hurried towards what looked like a clearing in the distance, shouting: "Luna? Can you hear me? Luna! I... even Nightmare Moon I'd welcome right about now!"
"Oh, in truth though, you welcome Nightmare Moon even more than Luna sometimes, isn't that right?" mocked a familiar voice, and Scrivener skidded to a halt before he slowly stared to the side, looking with horror to see Valthrudnir leaning against a particularly large, gnarled tree. The dragon grinned and straightened, then he knocked firmly twice against the wooden trunk... and in Scrivener's eyes, the vision flashed, the trees becoming mangled bodies of ponies that had been flayed and crudely pasted together, bones and limbs jutting in terrible jumbles in place of branches here and there, mishmashes of screaming faces standing out amongst the horrible pillars of the dead. "Welcome to the Forest of the Damned. But you already knew that, didn't you?"
"Leave me alone!" Scrivener shouted desperately, but it came out childish, weak, as he staggered backwards... and then the mud on either side of him rose upwards violently, seizing him in thick, bog-dripping claws of rock and clay that made him feel as if his ribs were being crushed, gasping for air as a terrible, grinning face rose up behind him. Corruption and ooze dripped off it as its eyes glowed with unholy blue light, and its growls mixed with Valthrudnir's laughter as Scrivy struggled weakly, then snarled and snapped: "This is pointless, this is just another bad dream!"
"You can be hurt in a dream though, can't you? So calm down, Scrivener Blooms... before I show you how bad the nightmares can really get." Valthrudnir replied smoothly, and then he reached out and knocked once against the awful 'tree' of tortured corpses, and they once more became nothing but rotten wood. A moment later, a polished black throne tore out of the ground behind the dragon, and he calmly sat back in this as he pulled two tarot cards out of his breast pocket, holding them up with their backs towards the pony as he said softly: "Besides, you should be thanking me. I'm giving you a glimpse of the future to be... not near, perhaps, but not as far away as you'd like, either. The future always comes without warning, after all... and claims its victims with the element of surprise and unstoppable, ruthless aggression."
Scrivener gritted his teeth... and then he stumbled forwards in surprise, falling on his face with a grunt when the monstrosity behind him released its hold on him. He shook his head out with a curse, then began to push himself to his hooves... only to look up in surprise as Valthrudnir held a card down towards him with an icy smile, his amber eyes glinting malevolently. "The World. And believe me, you don't have any idea just yet how scary and dangerous a place the most benign of worlds can be, even with everything you've experienced, pathetic little insect.
"But all the same, it's a very fitting card for you. The Great One of the Night of Time..." Valthrudnir smiled, raising the card slightly as he leaned his head down, and Scrivener grimaced at the image: a black circle, with the profile of a winged unicorn that was clearly Luna in deep blue over it, and four different heads all in each corner of the card; he saw the faces of himself, Twilight Sparkle, Celestia, and Sleipnir, all looking towards that center world. "Brynhild has become a very important gear in the workings of these worlds and layers... it's really too bad she has you slowing her down, giving her such an immense and easy-to-see vulnerability."
Scrivener Blooms gritted his teeth, but he forced himself to calm down even as Valthrudnir laughed and tucked the tarot cards away before the dragon smiled and tented his fingers as the half-wyrm, half-pony slowly sat up on his haunches, the terrible bog-monster looming and rasping breaths in and out behind him. "Oh, I feel how much you hate me, little so-called 'poet.' I feel how much you want to hurt me, and the thought is really quite entertaining. But in a way, I'm responsible for giving you all those powers, and I've been thinking this last while... thinking that maybe, we started off on the wrong foot. We could be friends. Would you like to be friends? Or at least pretend-friends, so long as you acknowledge my superiority to you and more importantly, your absolute inferiority compared to me."
"Why the sudden change of heart? I didn't think egomaniacal megalomaniacs usually tried to extend the hand of friendship." Scrivy said sourly, and Valthrudnir gave him a moody look as the half-pony, half-wyrm added flatly: "Furthermore, you'll pardon me if I think you have some obvious ulterior motive. You're only a world-destroying tyrant seemingly bent on annihilating all creation and replacing it with your own sick world."
Valthrudnir looked insulted at this, leaning back and snapping immediately: "And what do you know about my plans, philistine? Did it never occur to you that perhaps the reason Odin's worlds and ideals disgust me so is because they are the stuff of barbarianism and idiocy? Furthermore, look around you, Scrivener Blooms... this world is not my doing. This world is your doing... and yet you and Brynhild are supposed to be made the guardians of your pretty pony land? I have taken countless lives, and taken pleasure in that fact, oh yes... but I do not adulate myself with it like you do, and nor do I strive to relive the experiences again and again and again... and their deaths were always quick, only used to prove my superiority over lesser beings, who were my enemies. You? You would take friend and foe alike, creatures lesser, equal and greater than yourself, if you could, and do unspeakable things to them... and for all your hesitance and arguing and rationalizing and moralizing, you enjoy this depravity more than I enjoyed Ymir's death, and I at least had reason to enjoy watching Odin slaughter that ignorant bully!"
"You did this to me, Valthrudnir, your Tyrant Wyrm was the one who stuffed countless millennia of suffering and evil and corruption into my head!" Scrivener shouted in response, but the Jotnar only grinned cruelly, and even in Scrivy's own ears it sounded false and weak... and he gritted his teeth, clenching his eyes shut as he dropped his head low and whispered: "I'm not like you. I don't glory in death. I don't... I don't want to hurt anyone..."
"More and more, I understand why you survived my pet's corruption. Why if anything, it made you stronger... why you can utilize the Black Verses, and not die from them." Valthrudnir said softly, leaning slowly back and looking triumphantly down at Scrivener Blooms as he tented his fingers, his rings glinting almost as brightly as his smiling, sharp teeth. "Just like I think I've come to understand why you and Brynhild became so close, so fast, and in such a mockery of romantic 'love.' It's because, had you any power or prestige at all, you would never have even needed the aid of demonic influence to become just like Nightmare Moon, would you? And what a pretty, pathetic name that is... why not something with a bit more class?"
"Well gee, if I ever need to come up with a super-villain name for myself, I'll make sure to run it by you so I know whether or not it appeals to the refined tastes of calculating masterminds like yourself." Scrivener said dryly, and Valthrudnir gave him a disgusted look before the half-wyrm, half-pony began to turn away... then winced as the bog-monster slid quickly in front of him, the ground it extended up from rippling and rotting into sludge as roots and small rocks jutted hungrily up towards Scrivener Blooms, making him wince backwards a bit.
"Oh, we're not done yet, Scrivener Blooms. I desire a conversation... and I shall get what I desire, one way or another." Valthrudnir said softly, and Scrivener glared at him before the Jotnar smiled coldly as he spread his arms calmly. "There's no need to make this unpleasant though, is there? That would be foolish on either of our parts: you may be confident that I cannot harm you directly in your mind, but how willing are you to test that theory? Likewise, I do not wish to antagonize you to the point where you become overly-hostile... I would far rather take this moment to talk. The intelligent, the cultured, the noble all converse... we are not barbarians like the Aesir, savages like the Vanir, or crude as the other Jotnar, are we? Nor did I think you were as judgmental and unsophisticated as the other brutish earth ponies were... but maybe I was wrong in that respect."
Valthrudnir smiled mockingly, spreading his arms as he leaned down towards him, and Scrivener gritted his teeth in disgust before he glanced towards the corruption-monster, then returned his eyes to the dragon and said disgustedly: "You must be really goddamn lonely and pathetic to try and force me into a dialogue with you inside my own head."
"Oh please, mortal, as if I didn't expect you to try and insult my dignity. If anything, I'm a little disappointed that's the best such a mighty and creative 'writer' like yourself can do." The Jotnar retorted moodily, and Scrivener made a face before the dragon leaned back in his chair with a contrite smile. "Would you like a seat? Although in this world you should be more than capable of making one yourself, I am nonetheless gracious and glad enough to give your vulgar self a bit of a helping hand. I can be generous. I can be kind. And that is what this conversation is all about."
"Ooh, look at me, I'm Valthrudnir and I'm talking about how great I am again." Scrivener retorted, and the dragon fixed him with a dark look before the half-pony, half-wyrm snorted in derision. "I'll stand, thanks. On my own four..." He halted, then awkwardly looked down at his claw, raising it and flexing it slowly. "Or... three... hooves, thank you. By the way, where's Luna?"
"You should stop worrying about her. Since she would interfere, I have merely taken the precaution of disrupting the link between your minds for a short time." Valthrudnir flicked his wrist absently, shaking his head in distaste. "Incredible how you can feel such concern for Brynhild when you're the weak link, and you're the one face-to-face with me at this moment and time... but you know, it's not like you always have to be the weaker one."
Scrivener growled at this, and Valthrudnir laughed in response, looking entertained as he reached into his suit jacket and produced a deck of cards, beginning to easily shuffle these as he continued in a falsely-sympathetic voice: "It must be terrible, after all. She does so much for you, and you're so weak, so fallible, your only power stemming from the corruption that you constantly moan and whine about 'poisoning' you and your psyche, between the bouts of lucidity and courage where you acknowledge that you were damaged to begin with. I don't envy either of you, putting up with all this nonsense between one-another... but tell me, and be honest, Scrivener Blooms. If you were offered a chance to be strong, would you take it, even if it meant becoming a monster on a leash?"
"I guess that depends who's holding the leash, doesn't it?" Scrivener replied sharply, and Valthrudnir almost looked impressed at this as the half-pony, half-wyrm glared at him challengingly. "Maybe in some ways, regulation and control is better than freedom, especially when you know it could easily lead you into doing things you'd only regret."
"And this is why I wanted to talk to you, Scrivener Blooms. You and I may be dissimilar in many aspects, but there are points of fact we can agree upon... and when you're not trying to test my patience by being as insulting as possible, I dare say there may even be the vestiges of a mind inside that thought-hollow skull." Valthrudnir replied mockingly, and then he reached out and placed the deck of cards onto thin air, smiling coldly as it floated eerily before he quickly began to separate it into a straight line of different hovering piles. After a few moments, Scrivener recognized the formation as the dragon began to calmly play a game of solitaire as he continued with relish: "For you see, in my idea of a perfect world, there would not be all this... this wildness, this senselessness, this unnecessary... everything. Everything would have a purpose, a reason behind it... everything would follow the dictum of reason and order instead of irrational fluxes of nature, everything would be in symbiosis instead of driven by selfish primal instincts. My pets, the Tyrant Wyrms, are exemplars of this, are they not? Oh yes, they are destroyers, pure and simple... but that is exactly what they are programmed to do, and they do not permit anything to get in the way of this duty."
Scrivener only made a face, looking with disgust at Valthrudnir, and the dragon gazed calmly back with a slight, patronizing smile as he arranged floating cards slowly into lines, air rippling eerily around the hovering cards as he said quietly: "Wouldn't that be beautiful and right and good? Everything would work in perfect cadence with one another, maintaining an endless rhythm. The sun would circle at regular intervals, plants would grow and feed drones who would eat twice a day like clockwork, spending the rest of their time working for me or for the betterment of their species. They would have specific mating seasons and mating periods to propagate the species in the most effective manner, and any flaws of mutation or evolution would be weeded out. There would be no illness or disease, but they would all be programmed with specific expiration dates, and when they died, their corpses would be used as mulch and fertilizer for the flora. But there would be no flowers... I dislike flowers. They serve little purpose as it is, and in the world I envision there are no emotions to get in the way of my Drone's subservience or serenity."
"They wouldn't be serene, they'd be numb, soulless... all you're talking about is a world filled with gears and cogs, of clockwork and machinery. No choice, no freedom, no risk, no danger... no real life. Only you, likely sitting above it all and admiring what a beautiful little machine you've put together, with all its moving parts and different pieces... but it would still be nothing more than... than those perpetual motion toys where the beads click back and forth!" Scrivener argued, and Valthrudnir snorted in distaste as the male rose his claw with a snarl. "It would be hollow and pointless, even a control freak like you should be able to see that!"
"Really, Scrivener Blooms? And what about the opposite, a world like Ginnungagap without laws or rules, are you really saying that is a better alternative?" Valthrudnir snapped, looking down at him darkly. "You have a choice, a world of chaos, where barbarians will eventually take root and rule, or a world of law and order, which while premeditated, where every event is scheduled and predesigned, can at least be set in motion by a genius such as myself who will not leave the putrid animals to fend for themselves in wild worlds where they will ultimately destroy one another and themselves!"
Scrivener shook his head slowly, looking up at him coldly and replying quietly: "You were the one who destroyed and corrupted most of the layers, Valthrudnir. You were the one who did and caused all that. Echo or not, you should still know that... it was your fault."
"I only hastened the inevitable, and for the greater good cause. Look at what you and Luna dream of, you 'heroes' of Equestria..." Valthrudnir snorted in disgust, leaning forwards over his floating cards and resting one arm against the air as it rippled as if he were leaning over a solid tabletop. "Not to mention the gods, disgusting filth that they were, too! Delighting in depravity, passion, and pointless brutality... please. You are all supposed to be above that, but you all prefer to mingle your disgusting bodies together and speak with violence instead of articulating yourself through poignant speech, which is so much the more effective and evolved course of action. But you all have primitive minds, that cannot grasp such concepts... and gods, monsters, and mortals below all seemed to think themselves somehow worthy of making their own decisions no matter what I decided or said. I am Jotnar: I am a superior being, with a superior mind. And if I must show it, far superior power as well... and in my world, beauty is not determined by physical perfection, strength is not determined by raw power, intellect is not determined by the sharpness of the mind: from birth, everything only is, all things are equal, and no gear in my divine system is greater or lesser than any other gear or cog or piece of puzzle, and how dare you think that there is something wrong with that, selfish, evil little tapeworm."
Scrivener lowered his head, closing his eyes and shaking it slowly... and then his irises opened and he said softly: "You're pathetic and pedantic, Valthrudnir. You sound just like an arrogant child who never got his way, but now that mommy and daddy are gone, is determined to do all the things they always told him not to."
"As if you know anything about me. Do not psychoanalyze me, Scrivener Blooms. We're done talking about me. Now, I want to talk about you." Valthrudnir replied shortly as an eye twitched in visible frustration before he snapped his fingers, and Scrivy winced in surprise as a chair ripped out of the ground beneath him, knocking him flopping painfully back in the seat with a curse as he scrambled to sit up before the Jotnar looked down at his cards. He flipped over the top few cards of the deck... then picked all three cards up, showing the aces of hearts, diamonds, and spades. "Pick one."
"Fine, I'll be predictable and pick the ace of spades." Scrivener retorted rudely, but Valthrudnir only smiled icily, quickly regaining his composure as he smoothly dropped all three aces to float by the other cards as he continued to play his game of solitaire, even as the half-wyrm, half-pony leaned forwards. "Do you even know how to play this game? All I see is you jumbling the cards up in one big mess. Also I'd like to go, this is getting boring."
"Keep trying, mortal, but I know the way you work by now, and I will not allow your pathetic attempts to get on my nerves to work this time around." the dragon said distastefully, and then he rose a hand and snapped his fingers as Scrivener began to open his mouth, and the earth pony winced as the snarling bog-beast slid in closer beside him, sending a gush of hot, rot-reeking breath racing over his body as brambles and fetid, ugly roots twisted and stretched slowly up along the chair. "I do not intend to get angry. Bear in mind that there will be consequences if I do, however."
"For someone who claims to be trying to build a peaceful world, you sure seem to enjoy threatening to kill or maim me as often as possible." Scrivener replied dryly, even as he grimaced a bit at the sight of the looming draconic bog-beast, not exactly eager to find out what would happen if the monster did actually attack him. "So what do I win, anyway?"
"A chance at insight." Valthrudnir replied irritably, as he flipped another few cards over from the deck, continuing his calm game of solitaire even as his eyes focused in on Scrivener Blooms. "You have an obsession with death and destruction. With darkness, and monsters, and all the things that go bump in the night. You are enraptured by them... by their power, by their prestige, finding beauty in their ugliness just as you see ugliness in the beauty of daylight and all the things that cavort beneath the sun. You bitterly apply all the pains and frustrations you have lived through to the entire world, even though you know it's unfair: just as you know it's foolish of you to think so highly of most of the monsters you come across, just because you're married to a monster yourself... because you yourself became a monster long before you were marred by the Tyrant Wyrm."
Scrivener made a face, looking away even as the dragon's gaze drilled into him, and then the Jotnar gave a cold smile as he leaned back against his chair, putting several more cards into place before he moved an entire row of alternating red-and-black cards to an empty space in the air, flipping over the top card on the deck beneath as he said softly: "It amuses me that you will sympathize with the lower class and the monstrous, Scrivener Blooms. I find it interesting that now that he is dead and gone, you sympathize even with Ignominious, and that you recognize both a sort of alien value in him as well as the fact that much of his insane actions were compelled by love... but it begs the question: why do you hate me so much?"
"Well, I don't know. It could have to do with the fact that you murdered everyone and seem to revel in genocide... and what sickens me even more is that 'genocide,' 'holocaust,' 'Armageddon,' these words can't nearly come close to describing what you did." Scrivener replied coldly, looking across at the ivory entity as Valthrudnir only smiled almost mockingly at him. "Ignominious at least was insane, and came from a direction I could recognize... that I'm all too scared that I'm almost going down myself. You? You have... or rather, had ultimate power. And you squandered it all away trying to prove you were better than everyone, so you could build a clockwork world in place of Odin's. Here's a wild thought, Valthrudnir... why didn't you just make a layer or realm of your own, if you're so almighty? Why didn't you at least minimize the damage after you butchered the Aesir, and build your clockwork empire somewhere else? Why the hell did we pathetic little mortals become such a thorn in your side?"
Valthrudnir was silent as he arranged cards slowly out... and then he scooped up a row of alternating red-black cards in either hand before fanning them out with a cold smile: spades and hearts, arranged from black king to red two in the grip of one hand, and red king to black two in his other set of dexterous fingers. "Because to me, you mortals were an offense. Your creation, your existence... disgusts me. Do you see these cards? The arrangement is perfect, black and red, spades and hearts, highest ranking to lowliest single digit. You mortals are like a rainbow of colors, marked not with intelligent letters and symbols, but childish picture-drawings and bad imitations of alphabetical arrangements, not real A's and B's but ampersands and other forgotten, misused no-longer-letters. And if there is one thing I despise, it is lack of necessity."
"Then you must hate yourself most of all." Scrivener retorted, leaning back with a grimace as he looked down at the floating cards: Valthrudnir had most of the deck depleted, and diamonds and clubs arranged neatly in two rows, with a single remaining six of clubs sitting on top of a card that was still flipped over. "You're missing the last ace."
"Please, this is only a small exercise to pass the time." Valthrudnir looked at him irritably, snorting in disgust. "I never lose. The only reason I lost to you was because you cheated, filthy little animal. And furthermore, if we're going to talk about people who hate themselves, that list begins with you, slave pony."
Scrivener looked up with disgust at the dragon, and the Jotnar grinned coldly. "Oh please, I don't have to be as erudite as I am to discern your mix of self-repugnance and self-hate that tinges everything you are, mixed with that lust and longing to have power... all so that you can feel as if you're worth something, not merely to dominate. And more than worth something to yourself... you wish to have value to Brynhild. In spite of her link to you, her thoughts and emotions, you still feel as if you are worthless to her, an anchor, a flaw, a weakness, a failing - and rest assured, Scrivener Blooms, you are all these things and worse to the Valkyrie bitch - and I look at you, and understand that this mortal concept of romance is a flaw that should be among the first things weeded out of the new, sentient races. I always knew that compassion, love, empathy, that these things were only weaknesses... unnecessary, breeding contempt, egoism, and imperfection among the mortal races."
Scrivener snarled, leaning forwards as Valthrudnir looked at him with a cold smile, flipping over the two remaining cards in his deck... and then he made a face at the fact the ace was trapped beneath the seven of clubs. The eight of hearts was nowhere in sight... and the earth pony grinned sourly despite his anger as he said quietly: "Never lose, huh?"
Valthrudnir swept a hand out with a snarl, and the cards exploded upwards in a snow of paper through the air before Scrivy winced as the Jotnar seized him by the throat with both hands and hauled him into the air, glaring down into his eyes... but then he clenched his jaw and flicked his wrists in disgust, throwing Scrivener to the ground, the half-wyrm, half-pony gagging and clutching at his neck with horror at how real it had felt as Valthrudnir said contemptibly: "You chose the ace of spades earlier. The card commonly used to represent death, which is no great surprise. But does it represent death to others, or death to you?"
"I wish it could mean death for you." Scrivener muttered, but Valthrudnir only grinned slightly in response to this, crossing his arms and giving him a contemptible look.
"Oh really? I'm not so sure about that, little pony. I think you're beginning to come around to the idea that maybe we can benefit one-another." Valthrudnir replied softly, holding a hand out towards him as his eyes glowed, and Scrivener grimaced at the charisma in his tone... at the allure hidden beneath his words, as he looked slowly up towards the Jotnar. "After all, I would rather not die, and you want things that perhaps I can provide..."
"Leave me alone. Let me out of here." Scrivener whispered, beginning to turn away... and he cursed under his breath as he found himself face-to-face with the bog-monster, the beast looming over him with a rumbling growl. "We've talked enough! Let me out!"
Surprisingly, Valthrudnir laughed behind him and replied, false kindness poisoning his agreeable tone: "Yes, perhaps we have. Brynhild is worried about you, anyway... she's been searching high and low for you throughout your nexus of thought and soul. Your nightmare world awaits... go have fun in your dark little den of inequity."
Scrivener gritted his teeth as he began to turn... and then the bog-monster lunged towards him, the earth pony yelling in shock as its jaws descended and picked him up, then snapped him backwards, roots and vines twisting over his body and corrupt gunk splattering along the half-pony, half-wyrm's side as he howled in fear and pain as he felt himself crushed, swallowed whole, descending into terribly-warm darkness-
"Scrivener Blooms!" Luna's voice shouted, and Scrivy winced, looking dazedly back and forth as he shoved himself roughly up to his hooves, breathing hard and gazing around for the source of the sound as muck dripped off his distorted form... and then he grunted as the sapphire winged unicorn crashed into him and knocked him sprawling on his back, half-pinning him by the shoulders as she looked over him with concern, her luminous, ethereal mane swaying backwards as she drew her eyes worriedly over him. "Daydreamer, what hap-"
Scrivy impulsively reached up with his front claw, twisting it into her mane and grasping the back of her scalp, pulling her down into a firm, sudden kiss, and Luna's eyes fluttered in surprise before she kissed him roughly, passionately back for a few long moments, grinding her body down against his... and then a moment later, their mouths parted, eyes opening and meeting as a soft wind whistled past beneath the starry night sky, Luna framed in the sphere of the beautiful ivory orb of the moon above.
Then she grinned down at him with both relief and surprise, leaning over him and looking entertained as she pressed her hooves down against his shoulders, their noses almost brushing together as she said kindly: "Scrivener Blooms. Well, what has gotten into thee? I must say that either way I am very fond of it."
"Well thanks, Luna." Scrivener replied dryly, looking up at her with a bit of a smile even through the faint blush that tinged his features, claw slowly stroking down through her mane. Her ephemeral locks sparked against his gnarled digits as he closed his eyes and bowed his head, and Luna gently kissed his forehead as he murmured softly: "I just... I'm really glad to see you, that's all. Really... really glad."
"And I am glad to find thee, Scrivener Blooms, and fairing better than I had worried..." Luna halted, gazing over him quietly as she studied him silently, then trailed gentle kisses along his face, making him smile and laugh a bit as her lips brushed against both charcoal coat and darker, rougher scales, until he finally pushed her gently back.
She slipped off him, the male climbing to his hooves and gazing down at her with entertainment as she looked back up, studying him with a slight smile before she reached out and brushed a bit of muck from his features, saying quietly: "It has never failed to amaze me, beetle, how thou can even discover trouble inside thine own mind. I swear that I take my eyes off from thee for a single moment and away thou art on some adventure and likely as not already in the claws of some misshapen monster."
Scrivener snorted in amusement despite himself, and then he blushed a bit when Luna leaned forwards, feeling her reading into his thoughts and brushing gently through his memories as she murmured softly: "So thou did encounter a terrible foe once again. Art thou sure thou art... alright, Scrivy? I would not blame thee if thou wanted to awaken immediately, or needed a moment of respite, especially since thou art... well..."
"I'm okay, Luna." Scrivener replied quietly after a moment, and he gave an awkward smile to her before he glanced down at his claw, raising it and flexing it slowly. "I think the egotistical bastard just wanted to hear himself talk for a little while... and well, try to burrow himself deeper into my brain."
Luna nodded, then she glanced over him again before she shuffled a hoof against the ground, asking finally: "Would thou like me to assume the form of Nightmare Moon? I know it may be more comfortable for thee if both of us appear to be... well..."
"No, no, it's fine, Luna, this is... you don't have to ever change yourself for me." Scrivener replied quietly, smiling a little as he gazed into her eyes softly, and the winged unicorn smiled back at him tenderly. "I know by now that... it's not what's on the outside that matters. It's what's inside... and whether you look like Nightmare Moon or not, you're still the same rude, frustrating, obnoxious, and slightly-sadistic mare I know and love."
"I am glad thou knows me so well." Luna replied dryly, and then she stepped forwards and headbutted him lightly, making the half-pony, half-wyrm wince back awkwardly before he bared his teeth at her, but she only growled playfully, showing off a mouthful of sharp fangs in return as her eyes flashed with mischief. "Shall we spar, Scrivener Blooms? 'Tis one of the truly delightful advantages of being able to meet in the dream world like this, after all: the ability to mangle and maim one another horribly without any actual damage done to the physical self."
"Yeah, apart from the trauma done to my fragile psyche and the fact my ego still hasn't recovered from the last trouncing you gave me." Scrivener retorted, but Luna only looked pleased with herself as she sat back on her haunches, and the male rolled his eyes before he groaned when she looked at him pointedly. "So. Despite the fact that we're in the nightmare together, laying in the middle of a dark forest in reality, asleep and helpless, and I just got dragged into a one-sided debate with an echo of a Jotnar in my mind... you think that you beating me up will help."
"'Twill be good for thee." Luna replied cheerfully, and Scrivener gave her a flat look before she added with a grin, leaning forwards: "I shan't use magic. Nor shall I lord the advantage of flight over thee."
"Oh, yes, that evens things." Scrivener rolled his eyes, but he could feel his resolve weakening all the same... and then Luna huffed and stamped her front hooves, glaring at him challengingly, and the male groaned and grabbed at his face with his claw before he pointed at her, saying clearly: "No mangling, pummeling me after you've clearly won, or breaking bones. We still both feel some degree of pain in the dream world and the sensation of my limbs being snapped like twigs is not cool."
"Done, done, and I shall only break the smaller bones, then, and will do my best to avoid breaking the others... on purpose." Luna grinned, leaning forwards as her mane sparked and her eyes glowed challengingly, and Scrivener reflected for a moment on what a physical creature the winged unicorn was. "Acceptable?"
"Only if I can reserve the right to cry like a little filly when you beat me up, and you aren't allowed to make fun of me for it." Scrivener replied dryly, and Luna looked at him thoughtfully before nodding with a grunt. They faced each other for a few moments, and Scrivy couldn't deny the thrill rising in his body as he licked his lips, feeling a surge of anticipation, of excitement, of adrenaline in his body as Luna's eyes glowed and her horn shone faintly, their breathing roughening as they readied themselves, slowly backing away from one another to put a short ten feet of distance between them... and then Scrivener half-grinned, half-grit his teeth as he said sharply: "Go!"
Luna lunged upwards, her wings flapping once and launching her forwards before throwing a shoulder towards him, and the male immediately brought his foreleg up, catching her charge against it before he leaned forwards against her, applying a pinning pressure to stop her from knocking him backwards. In the real world, Luna's raw strength might have been enough to let her barrel forwards anyway and knock him off balance so she could start slicing her way through him, but in this mental world, where they both perceived him at least at the moment as larger, heavier, warped...
Scrivy gritted his teeth and shoved hard back against her, and Luna staggered backwards with a grunt of surprise before he lashed his claw towards her, knowing by now not to hesitate despite his instincts to the contrary... but Luna easily swept her horn out, cutting across his foreleg and making him wince as he cursed in pain, limb swinging back before she leapt forwards and smashed her skull into his, and Scrivener staggered backwards with a grunt before he felt Luna's forelegs seize him around the neck, then twist hard and throw him to the ground. He hit hard on his side, but rolled on instinct to carry himself quickly back up to his hooves, breathing hard as Luna flicked her head to the side with a wide grin and drew her eyes along his body with a lick of her lips. "Excellent. Now if only thou could be half as graceful in reality. These sessions of sparring in our dreams may be useful theory and helpful practice, but all the same... thou art nimbler and stronger here than there. It says something about thine ego, daydreamer."
"Oh, yes, I'm the one with the ego problem here, Luna. Need I point out the fact that we're once more doing what you want in a dream world shared between us... of your design?" Scrivener leaned forwards, and Luna laughed before the male added meditatively: "In some ways, even I'm part of your ego, really. I mean, would I look like this if you didn't see me this way, too?"
He looked thoughtfully down at his claw... and then winced when Luna lunged towards him suddenly. On instinct, he did the only thing he could think of, reaching forwards and catching her by the horn... and Luna grunted in surprise before the male twisted firmly to the side and sent her staggering with a half-throw, half-shove, the winged unicorn barely keeping her balance before she lowered herself to a ready position with a grumble of: "Luck. Thou aren't smart enough to play like thou art off-guard, only to better ready thine attack. And even if thou did think of it, thou would only end up shortly flummoxing thyself."
"Says the mare who just got caught by the horn." Scrivener retorted dryly, and then he winced when she pawed a hoof against the ground and glared at him. "Just please don't hit me in the groin."
"Now why would I damage the only valuable part of thine anatomy?" Luna asked dryly, and Scrivener glared at her, leaning towards her as she rolled her shoulders and tossed him a teasing wink. "How about thou takes the initiative for once instead of just letting thy mouth run, beetle? Show me thou art a stag and not a ladybug."
Scrivener grumbled under his breath, knowing he was making a mistake even as he lowered his head and readied himself, body flexing, single wing stretching outwards... and then he looked dumbly over his shoulder at this, flapping the draconic wing slowly and easily as the bone, piston-like spikes standing out alongside his spine thrummed and pulsed, before he looked at Luna... and she looked just as surprised as him, even though a moment later she cleared her throat and said pompously: "Well of course thy subconscious took hold of my earlier suggestion and made it permanent to thee, I am the guiding force in thine life, as it-"
The male broke into a sudden charge towards her, and Luna winced before she dropped herself low, Scrivener looking at her with surprise before shot forwards and rammed herself upwards, smashing into his breast and knocking him back on his hind legs with a grunt of shock, forelimbs flailing at the air before the winged unicorn lashed a smooth cut across his body with her horn, and the male cursed as he was sent crashing onto his back. He rolled several times with a wheeze of pain, then managed to catch himself and glare at her as Luna laughed and clapped her front hooves together before dropping back to all fours, grinning widely at him as she leaned forwards and teased: "A less-than-noble try, Scrivy, but I applaud it all the same. Thou almost utilized the moment of distraction. But I fear such parlor tricks shan't work upon a mighty Valkyrie such as I."
"I miss the days when you refused to believe you were a Valkyrie." Scrivener muttered, and then he carefully pushed himself up to his hooves, cracking his neck with a grimace before he lunged suddenly forwards, stomping his front hoof towards her... but Luna quickly leapt backwards before she swung her horn in towards his face.
Scrivy tilted his head to the side, wincing as the tip of her horn scratched over his features as he swung his claw up and seized her by the throat, and Luna gagged in surprise before the half-pony lunged forwards, yanking her into the air before he slammed her down onto her back, then dropped his foreleg down against her throat, pinning her and choking her in the same instant. Luna didn't panic, however, swinging both rear legs up and slamming them into his stomach, and Scrivener wheezed as he barely managed to keep applying pressure from the first kick... but the second hard slam of her back hooves knocked him backwards and loose.
He grabbed at his stomach with one hoof, wheezing under his breath, knowing that even if it was muted in the dream world, Luna was still feeling some degree of his pain, as he felt hers... but the winged unicorn only panted laughter as she rolled to her hooves, her eyes sparking as she rasped: "Better! But all the same, Scrivener Blooms, thou needs to learn to draw on my knowledge during battle, not just at the beginning of it."
"What I need is to learn how to fight myself, without constantly relying on mimicking you. If our mental link goes down or I can't get the time I need to concentrate and draw on your memories, then what am I going to do then?" Scrivener replied mildly, grimacing a bit at the thought all the same... and Luna softened visibly as she tilted her head towards him, their eyes meeting, memories and thoughts rolling between them and making the dream world shudder.
The black night trembled around them as the stars glimmered in the sky overhead, moon shining its ivory kisses over the two as they stood over rough-hewn, dark ground for a few moments, only surveying each other... and then Luna grunted and nodded, and she set herself as she said quietly: "Then learn, Scrivener Blooms. Thou has trained beside me for more than a decade now. What thou lacks most is confidence in thyself."
Scrivener smiled a bit as he set himself, long tail flicking to the side as they readied themselves... and then Luna dropped into a charge, and the male gritted his teeth as he watched her, sensed her movements, before leaping suddenly upwards as she half-dropped herself... and Luna looked up in surprise... then grinned and launched herself upwards, tackling his stomach and using her wings to gyrate their bodies before she flung him hard down into the ground, shouting: "Do not dance, fight!"
Scrivener winced as he bounced backwards and Luna dropped over him... and immediately, he reached up and seized her horn with his claw, Luna wincing in surprise before she gargled when the male slammed a rear hoof once, twice, thrice into her stomach, then twisted and rolled on top of her, pinning her firmly beneath him with the full weight of his body, his claw firmly holding her by the underside of the muzzle. He breathed hard over her face as she panted quietly beneath him, their eyes meeting and locking together as he mumbled: "I knew you'd just have to land on me if you did counterattack. You're too aggressive sometimes, Luna."
"I would much prefer to be too aggressive than too defensive like thou art, Scrivy." Luna retorted, and she struggled a bit beneath him before adding meditatively: "I can strike thee firmly in the softest part of thine body right now if I wish, thou should understand. Get thee off me."
"Not yet. This is the only way I can guarantee for five minutes you won't beat the crap out of me." Scrivener muttered... and then he winced when Luna suddenly brought her hind legs up, shoving them into his stomach before kicking off as she twisted his body and forced him to roll, slamming him down onto his back and reversing the pin as he lay sprawled with a wheeze, staring stupidly up at her as she grinned down at him and held him in place by the shoulders.
"'Tis not the only way." Luna replied mildly, and then she leaned down and kissed him for a gentle moment, and Scrivener couldn't help but kiss her slowly in return despite the circumstances, feeling an awkward flutter through his body before Luna drew back and sat up on him, looking pompously down at him. "And I am the victor, Scrivener Blooms."
"What a surprise. I honestly hope you take all the pride in that you should." Scrivener grumbled, but Luna only laughed, still seated on his broad body and looking down at him with a smile as the male awkwardly gazed up at her. "Can. Can you get off me?"
"No." Luna paused meditatively, then leaned down, visibly softening as she added quietly: "And thou feels better, does thou not? Sometimes, the physical can outweigh the mental... concentrating on something else, exhausting the body, leaves more room for the mind to cope."
"Yeah, but... this is all a dreamworld. Or a nightmare, depending on how you look at it... we're not really physical entities right now, this isn't physical damage, and neither of us bear wounds despite your damned horn and my claw." Scrivener paused, then he reached up and stroked slowly over Luna's face, running his claws back into her ephemeral mane, feeling it tingling quietly against his digits and along his scales as she blushed a bit but tilted her head to the side as he added in a quieter voice: "Sometimes I wish I did have claws. Just because of the sensation of running your hair through them..."
"Shut up, poet!" Luna blushed deeply, and Scrivener laughed before she rose a hoof and stomped firmly down on his chest, making him wince and arch his back as his laughter was abruptly cut off. Then she grumbled a bit before flicking her mane, looking ruffled as she said moodily: "So, Scrivener Blooms. Shall we awaken ourselves from the nightmare, then? Or do we descend deeper into our dark imaginings for the moment?"
Scrivy began to open his mouth... and then he frowned a bit, looking quietly away as Luna looked down at him, and she sighed a little, reaching a hoof out and brushing gently through his messy white mane. "Oh, do not worry so deeply, poet. The nights in this world are comfortable and long, and nothing would dare attack us in the shadow of the soul of the forest that, like our old home, has already embraced us as its own. And thou... should not be afraid of who we are. Of what we are."
"Valthrudnir... talked a lot about that, though. I'm scared he's right, that I am your greatest weakness... but not because when I'm hurt, you're hurt. Because... of this corruption spreading through me, exacerbating that... that darkness that may have been there from the start." Scrivener replied quietly, glancing down... and Luna gazed at him silently as he shook his head a bit and smiled faintly, bringing his claw between them, his half-wyrm, half-pony features almost seeming to glow beneath the light of the moon as he whispered: "Look at me, Luna. At what I've become. You worry that you're the one who's pushing me towards evil... but what if really, I'm the one pushing you deeper into darkness?"
Luna shook her head slowly at this, and then she leaned down and said quietly but firmly: "Enough, Scrivener Blooms. Thou art letting thy mind run away with itself again, and 'twill not help either of us. I think thou even knows it... thou has that hangdog expression that thou always gets when thou knows thou art doing something wrong and yet cannot cease thyself." She smiled a little despite herself and Scrivener looked up at her with a bit of a smile, and then she sighed a bit as she sat back and studied him quietly. "I shall say this now, and hope that I do not have to repeat myself again, though... even if we walk a path into darkness... I do not care. So long as we walk together, so long as we have one-another. I shall not abandon thee, thou shalt not abandon me... and even if we are destined for evil, we will always have one-another. And with one another, we will always be satisfied and glad... and why would we be bothered to hurt anypony, anything, when we have all that we desire between ourselves?"
Scrivener smiled a bit despite himself at this, looking up at her thoughtfully... and then Luna grinned widely, leaning down and half-lidding her eyes. "Not that I am against pursuing further pleasures, mind you... only that I would not be so inclined to take the pleasures of others away, or force them to adore me. Only thou shall be forced to adore me, handsome little poet. And possibly a few pretty thralls."
"I hate you." Scrivener said mildly, and Luna threw her head back and laughed before he shoved her lightly, and she stumbled off him with a snort of entertainment as the male picked himself up before the two glanced towards the distance, as the horizon seemed to glow and a black, enormous castle-city was silhouetted against the sky, made of gleaming, polished dark stone, towers looming high and battlements standing mighty and indomitable. They traded a look... and then Scrivener Blooms smiled a bit, saying quietly: "Let's look again then... at the world inside ourselves. Where the night has blessed this country, where the deep forest offers as much shelter as the towering stone city, and where even pain becomes pleasure."
"And what could be wrong with any of these things?" Luna asked softly, and Scrivener Blooms smiled a bit as she arched her back, closing her eyes as her mane sparked quietly and twisted backwards, before the two glanced curiously to the side as they felt something, felt a twist in reality... and their gazes settled upon Nightmare Moon, smiling benevolently at them, her head bowed as her black pearl swayed slowly upon the regal necklace of dark roses.
"Beloved children... would you mind some additional company? I wish only to spend time with you... perhaps to make up, if I can, for my honest mistake with Scrivener Blooms." Nightmare Moon said in her soft, gentle voice, and Scrivy and Luna shared a look... but then smiled despite themselves as the black-coated, enormous equine stepped forwards, looking affectionately over them both, standing a touch taller than Scrivener even in his distorted shape. "You hold no malice in your hearts. I admire this... I do not know if I could be so kind, even in this beautiful paradise, even knowing that I am sleeping in a world of safety and glory, beneath my ivory moon in my beautiful night."
She paused for a moment, then strode forwards, and Luna closed her eyes as Nightmare moon leaned down and nuzzled her gently, before the tall, darkness-tinged creature slid smoothly past to share a gentle, chaste kiss with Scrivener Blooms. Then she smiled tenderly from male to female as she said lovingly: "Yes. I shall always be beside you both, sharing my wealth of knowledge and strength with you both, my delightful and honored children. But I shall not overstep my bounds... I shall not impose, for I know that would merely be an act of self-destruction, and I am dedicated to preserving all of what is between us... and all things in this world that acknowledge the glory of our night. But come. Let us act, not speak. Let us know each other through what we do... not merely what we say."
Luna and Scrivener Blooms bowed their heads in silent agreement, and Nightmare Moon smiled as she turned, leading them towards the black city in the distance, Scrivener on one side, Luna on the other. They were three beings polished by darkness in a world of shadows and desire, mixed together for forever and a day, content in the world of night... and only wishing they could share the beauty of their shadowy realm with the rest of the wide, daylit world. |
Metempsychosis | Friendships New And Old | Chapter Eighteen: Friendships New And Old
~BlackRoseRaven
The newly-risen sun shone softly down over the black cottage, making it seem to all-but-glow as a soft wind blew gently past. It was the image of serenity, and inside, Discombobulation snored soundly, curled up in front of the still-crackling fireplace beneath a pile of blankets, several more pillows gathered around the Draconequus as he absently hugged one against his chest, drooling a little as Luna stood musingly over the chimerical creature.
Scrivener Blooms, meanwhile, was in the kitchen fixing coffee... and then he winced as there was a loud sizzling sound before Discombobulation hurriedly sat up, then groaned and grabbed at his chest as the blankets fell from around his shoulders before he glared at her, a short arc of electricity twisting along his body as the winged unicorn said kindly, her horn still glowing faintly: "Be not so angry, Bob. I easily could have simply set thee aflame, too. I assure thee, a little jolt is far less painful than fire or hoof." She paused, then flopped down in the spot where Discombobulation had been laying, adding with a wink: "Thou hast my thanks for keeping this spot warm, though, 'tis my favorite."
"Six in the morning and already the mare ain't right." Discombobulation mumbled, and he rubbed slowly at his face as Luna gave him a wry grin. "Did you two come back before curfew last night? Or am I supposed to pretend I'm the stern parental figure and give one of you a spanking?"
"It depends on whom thou wants to spank, Bob. I may be a little more open to the notion than Scrivener Blooms, but if thou really wants to lay thy mighty hands upon the hindquarters of another male, I am sure we can work something out." Luna replied seriously, and Discombobulation's jaw dropped as he visibly fought to come up with a retort before the winged unicorn leaned towards him with a wink. "Is that why thou art always so stuffy even when I flirt with thee?"
The Draconequus glared at her, and then he reached out and flicked the winged unicorn's nose with his eagle talon, saying grouchily: "As I recall, you were the one constantly trying to make a mare sandwich with Twilight Sparkle."
"A mare sandwich! Delightful!" Luna threw her head back and laughed, and Discombobulation only looked all the grouchier at the joyful mood the winged unicorn was obviously in, grinning wider as her eyes gleamed in amusement. "Oh, take it not so personally, Bob, I feel very refreshed after my nap. Thou cannot begin to imagine what it was like sleeping out under the watchful eyes of the stars, dreaming lucid dreams with my beloved in the safe shadows of the forest's soul, without having to worry about being eaten alive by monsters or possessed by demons or the world being shorn asunder. I have awoken with renewed health and hope. Can thou not simply be happy for me, insufferable beast?"
"No." Discombobulation replied in a surly voice, and then he leaned back as Luna only laughed again. Then he rubbed moodily at the back of his neck, adding tiredly: "Although... I suppose I do understand what you mean, Scrivener Blooms. I know that sooner or later I shall have to return to the sanctuary of my glass prison, but for now, I feel... hopeful. And whether or not I also feel nauseated and sore, I suppose the laughing fool was right. Treat the patient, not the disease, and you win every time."
Luna smiled a bit at this, and the Draconequus fell into almost-brooding quiet for a moment before he looked up as Scrivener Blooms approached carrying a tray. Luna gazed warmly at her husband as her horn glowed, lifting it gently from his jaws, and the male smiled at her with relief as the tray floated slowly past the bedding and settled in front of the fireplace, loaded with three mugs of coffee, a bowl of sugar cubes, and a small pitcher of cream as well as assorted baked goods, jams and butter. "Excellent, daydreamer, thou has my thanks... oh, this is the most wonderful thing about this world. Being able to sit down and gorge ourselves upon sweet treats that otherwise are far too difficult to get our greedy hooves on... incredible that some of the Nibelung have actually learned to bake well enough to replicate the most delicious of baked goods once available in Ponyville, is it not?"
Scrivener gave he an amused look as he laid himself down beside her... then rolled his eyes in entertainment as her horn glowed and she tossed two cubes of sugar into two of the mugs, before adding a dollop of cream to one, then the other. Discombobulation watched the two thoughtfully as Luna fussed a bit over the food, and then the Draconequus said dryly: "A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does, and pleases him like a prostitute at night. It seems you have all three of those bases covered well, Scrivener Blooms."
Luna paused in mid-spread of some jam over a muffin half, and Scrivener cleared his throat as Bob only calmly leaned forwards, picking up a cube of sugar before he popped this into his mouth. He rolled this back and forth loudly along his teeth before he sipped at his black coffee, and then Luna held up a hoof and said firmly: "Nay, thou may attempt all thee wants, but thou shan't spoil my mood today, Discombobulation. I shall merely thank thee for the insinuation that I am a good wife to my husband, even if thy chosen words are less than complementary."
"And here I thought you were a fan of prostitutes." Discombobulation remarked dryly, and Luna looked up at this with surprise... but then snorted in amusement and nodded a few times. "So, as I am curious and a little confused, and I enjoy knowing things that I really don't need to know since I'll be spending all my time here asleep, ignoring annoying ponies and pony-spirits, or trying to carry on intellectual conversations with volleyballs... what is it that you actually do here in this world that seems to need your presence as much as I need to have heard that the bird is the word?"
Luna shrugged as she sipped at her coffee, her horn glowing as she lifted two muffin halves with telekinesis, and Scrivener rolled his eyes as she nudged him firmly with a shoulder before he turned his eyes to the Draconequus and answered: "Not a lot, to be entirely honest. The Nibelung Architects are very detail-oriented and keep to a fast and tight schedule... originally, we used to help oversee Ponyville's construction, but now Ponyville's been completely rebuilt - along with the surrounding area and settlements - we mostly... concentrate on helping out if we're needed for some special construction somewhere, do little jobs for Odin, and spend the rest of our time fixing up our cottage here and getting everything in order. And I guess we talk with the Architects every now and then, too, but mostly our time is spent with the Chief Artificer, Greece... he's been working with us on ways to reconstitute the Pales."
"Aye, 'tis a daunting task... I have seen incredible feats done with far less magic than Valthrudnir's so-called 'miracles' will provide, however, so I do not worry overmuch. And neither should either of thee." Luna said firmly, then she ate the rest of a muffin half in one large bite.
Discombobulation looked at her as she chewed slowly... then he nodded and sipped calmly at his coffee before remarking mildly: "Interesting how it took the apocalypse for you two to be able to pursue the vestiges of a normal life. What a grand farce this has all been, however... and I still can't help but worry that the future holds even worse dangers within or without. For is that not the way of things? Time moves on, no matter what we do or say or want. Time moves on, endings trigger beginnings and beginnings trigger endings, and whose to say which is worse when so often, life lacks a middle? It's all well and fine and admirable even to think that the point is in the journey, not the destination... but can you deny that if every checkpoint along that journey leads only to destruction, depravity, death, or - if you'll forgive me the ironic pun - further discombobulation, then can you say that journey has been a good one?"
"Perhaps 'tis the hardest, most painful journeys that have the truest worth, Bob. Aye, the cost is high, the pain is great, but the experience for it? Even intangible as such things are, the experiences brought upon by sufferance are a thousand times more worthy than the experiences that come solely in pleasure, for joy teaches little." Luna replied softly, glancing towards Scrivy and smiling a bit as she silently took one of his hooves in her own. "Happiness is a good and well goal, do not get me wrong... but I only know that when we are happy, we tend to forget how others suffer. We often become self-focused... we often begin to take things for granted when we are happy, and ironically, look for reasons to become unhappy, see the bad in things when they are far more right than they are wrong.
"And I have come to believe, like my daydreamer, that there must be a balance in all things, one way or another. I do not pretend to entirely know what this means, because I do not think Scrivener even knows what it means." She smiled a bit at the earth pony, and he shrugged agreeably as Discombobulation sipped at his coffee and studied them thoughtfully. "It does not mean neutrality, that all things should be black-and-white, or live in eternal gray. Perhaps rather, only that everything will work out, one way or another."
Discombobulation nodded slowly, then he reached down and picked up another sugar cube, tossing it into his mouth. He rolled it between his teeth again, then rose his coffee and said kindly: "I want you both to know that no matter what happens, it's always sunny in Phillydelphia. Cheers."
With that, he took a deep drink of his coffee, then sighed a bit as he lowered the mug and added mildly: "Now if only I could find myself a goose to lay a few golden eggs. I'd like to skip the part about climbing a beanstalk and toppling a giant, mind you. Although maybe later we'll listen to the story of Snow White and the seven Nibelung... except I heard that Freya was always too good with dwarves, but they were never quite good enough for her."
"Oh, the sick jokes thou tells. Except I shall be striving hard to remember that one for later use on my sister." Luna replied thoughtfully, and Discombobulation gave a short, brisk nod before he shifted a bit and rested back against a pillow, sipping at his coffee again as the three sat in comfortable quiet together.
It was a nice breakfast: one of the most pleasant Scrivener could remember, as a matter of fact, and he knew Luna felt the same as she glanced towards the Draconequus every now and then with an awkward sort of pride in her eyes, her smiles relaxed and companionable as the chimerical creature every now and then gave some quip or easy remark he'd stolen from somewhere. To Luna, Discombobulation was like living proof that maybe all that had been stolen could be restored... and even though the Draconequus was tired, a little pale, and quite weak, he all the same seemed determined to survive and like he, too, had been infected by the hope that always spread through both of the ponies whenever they were in this Looking Glass World.
When breakfast was done, the mugs and tray taken away, most of the food eaten, Discombobulation shrank down and allowed Luna to guide him back to his bottle, promising that she would look for 'better lodgings' for the Draconequus while they were in town. Then, before anyone could argue with her, she removed a can of cola from the cold box, cracked it open, and filled the bottle most of the way up with the liquid, leaving Discombobulation moodily floating amidst the foam as Scrivener sighed and finished wrapping up the leftovers as Luna grinned and cheerfully guzzled the rest of the cola from the can.
They spent the next few hours working on the cottage, first concentrating their efforts on finishing off the roof, then doing a bit of work around the far-from-finished bedroom. Once Luna felt satisfied that they had done enough - or more accurately, she lost interest in what they were doing - they headed into Ponyville to find out whether or not Greece had returned, and to see if they could find any traces of Zecora or Pollen, since the Velite seemed to have left the wagon some time ago.
They came across the Velite at the edge of Ponyville, however: her new bones glinted, stark and polished white compared the marred and damaged older bones that made up the rest of her body, and she smiled at them awkwardly as they approached and sat down beside her, looking past the low, but well-constructed fencing surrounding the village: not enough to stop intelligent invaders, but higher than the average pony stood and more than ample enough to keep most wild beasts and most of the lurking creatures that slunk through the night out. "Hi... I didn't see either of you around last night. I hope you don't mind I decided to... wander a little."
"Not at all, 'tis what I hoped thou would do." Luna paused, then glanced up towards Ponyville, at the open gates, hearing the faint sounds of construction, but the loudest noises came from the wildlife in the Everfree Forest at their backs, from the wind in the trees, from the thrum of nature as birds flitted overhead and the sun warmed their bodies. "The Nibelung won't hurt thee, thou should know. And if they so much as mock thee I shall pummel them. 'Tis not their job to mock thee, 'tis mine."
"Thanks Luna." Pollen smiled awkwardly at her, then she shook her head and glanced towards the fencing, saying softly: "No, I've been sitting out here, watching, because... there, see?"
Luna glanced up... and softened as a group of Pales flickered into existence: three foals that ran by, ghosts that seemed to laugh all the same as they ran through the grass, like they weren't aware they had passed on... but Luna and Scrivener knew they were. The Pales were happy here, though... taken from a nightmare world into a paradise that was slowly becoming a replica of their old home, where what they had known as enemies now worked as allies, and perhaps sought penance in their labors... and Luna knew that somehow, the spirits even knew the hints of rebirth were in the air.
Scrivener smiled faintly despite himself, reaching a hoof up and rubbing it slowly along Luna's spine, and she took a slow breath before gazing up and saying softly: "The Pales are not usually visible here, Pollen, because they... they 'settle.' Oh, I could jar them all out of the ether if I wished, perhaps, with a well-placed spell... but why not let them sleep and rest and relax in this place for now? And admittedly, it can be very hard at times when they do make themselves known... I have seen my beloved sister Celestia, and I have seen my beloved... friend... Twilight Sparkle... and many others all here, too. They do not look at me with blame in their eyes for what happened, but... in some ways that hurts the worse. For I do blame myself over the things that have occurred, Pollen. I cannot forgive myself for allowing my friends, my family, to have died as they did... while I and Scrivener Blooms survived, all because we piqued the curiosity of a wretched Jotnar, and for no greater reason than that. Just as all was almost destroyed solely for the sake of that same foul Frost Giant's wretched ego."
She stopped, moodily looking towards the grasses for a moment before glancing up and smiling a little as the Velite looked at her and fidgeted a bit. "But 'tis alright, worry not, my friend. When everything is put right, then the guilt, the pain, and the self-loathing will all vanish as well, for none can hold themselves or another accountable for a mistake that is rightly-mended. Or perhaps I am only becoming an idealist, and hoping that all sins can be forgiven, all crimes paid for, and even the darkest of souls redeemed... I think the problem always has and always will be time, more than anything else. Too few of us have the time to make up for what we have done, have the time to repair what must be fixed, have the time to wait out anger, sorrow, and hatred's toil. But we have time in plentiful supply here, Pollen."
Pollen nodded a few times, rubbing absently at her glistening-white foreleg... and then she looked back up towards Ponyville, asking curiously: "What about that zebra? Did you guys see her at all, or..."
"Zecora can more than take care of herself, from what she has shown... and it sounded as if she had plans of her own to attend to." Luna paused, glancing meditatively towards Scrivener Blooms as she asked curiously: "What does thou think, daydreamer? Should we leave her be, or seek her out and perhaps help ourselves to her potion supply? All as a means of welcoming her to Looking Glass World, of course. Nothing is more welcoming than a delightful prank."
"I think you're just mad about the whole shadow-thing." Scrivener replied dryly, and Luna grumbled a bit under her breath before he smiled towards Pollen. "Don't worry, Pollen. She won't judge you or anything. Anyway, let's head into Ponyville together, maybe we'll even run into her... have you seen any of the Strange Ones yet?"
The Velite shook her head quickly, then added hurriedly, as the three started towards the open gates: "At least, I don't think so. Just Nibelung, Pales, and some wild animals... and I thought last night I saw something like a Phooka. We saw lots of Phooka where I come from... when... when I was alive, I mean, before... before everything that happened. They used to move in big packs, and there were all kinds of stories about them even before everything got so... so..."
"Dark." Scrivener supplied, and Pollen nodded with a bit of a laugh as they walked into Ponyville, the trio gazing back and forth before the earth pony said softly: "Well, things are still going to be a little... dark... in this world, a little wilder, a little more dangerous... but all the same, we're hoping for a... a middle ground between peaceful, placid Equestria and the wildness and darkness that everything descended into. Not because we want to see ponies suffer... but because we want to see ponies prosper without having to rely on everything being all-but-handed to them."
Pollen nodded a bit, and then she glanced curiously at the two, asking: "But then, does that mean you brought Phooka and all those things across too, so there's always going to be... monsters in the world?"
"Oh Pollen, no matter what world you go to, sadly, monsters shall always already exist there." Luna replied with a slight, cryptic smile, and then she shook her head and and continued in a more serious voice: "Nay, there are already shapes of shadow here even in this world. No ponies, perhaps... but dragons, Phooka, hydra, manticore, and countless other things all exist. The same magic works here that worked across our Equestria... if anything, it seems to resonate all the louder in this place, for reasons I cannot begin to guess at."
"And yet you'll try, anyway, won't you?" asked a mild voice, and the three looked up as they stepped into the center square of town in front of the now-completed library to see the Architect from yesterday in his flowing robes standing moodily next to another Nibelung with cut-down tusks that grinned at them as they approached, a thick jacket of heavy rawhide loose and open over his chest and a kilt of the same rough material around his waist as he leaned forwards with a wink. "I heard you were looking for me."
"Aye, Greece, and 'tis a pleasure to see thee. 'Tis not a pleasure to see thee, though, Illyria, why art thou not supervising the work crews?" Luna glared at the other Nibelung, but the Architect only rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath. "Oh, fine, I shall permit thy presence if thou does not be a pain. Greece, does thou have time to discuss some business?"
Greece smiled, reaching up and rubbing at the nub of one tusk absently, his dark blue eyes warm and his reddish-black fur almost glowing beneath the light of the sun. "Of course I do, fancy-corn. About contacting Odin, your home, or the Pales?"
"All three, but hopefully we shall avoid the subject of Odin as long as possible." Luna grimaced a bit, then she shook her head and explained: "I am still uncertain as to how to proceed with the Pales, and it is admittedly wearing on my patience that all courses of action seem to rely heavily upon the favor of fortune. Furthermore, with so many Pales of pony, zebra, and a few others... I wonder if Valthrudnir's miracles will contain enough power alone to grant all of them physical shells. Furthermore, I wonder as to the implications... if the soul is made physical, what will happen? Will they become as they see themselves, or always imagined themselves to be? Will they remember all that happened, and wear the scars of the journey upon their bodies, or will they instead forget, and be as newborn children whom will have to be raised anew all over again?"
She shook her head slowly, Scrivener giving her a soft look, and Greece nodded before he quickly reached a hand up and held Illyria's muzzle shut before the Nibelung could speak, the Architect glaring at the fellow Nibelung as the Artificer said kindly: "Worry not, Valkyrie fancy-corn... or Luna, as you prefer. Myself, Roma, and Illyria here should be more than enough to figure out the calculations, and we have other Architects we can contact if necessary, too. It would help if we could get a measurement of the energy emitted from what you call the 'miracles,' though... they come in the shape of cards, yes? Perhaps Roma could do this... his specialty is enchantment, after all."
"Perhaps, but I would honestly prefer thee to do it, Greece. Thou art less swindling than Roma and less obnoxious than Illyria." Luna shot the last mentioned a glare, and Illyria looked back at her with irritation as he finally shoved Greece's hand away from his muzzle. "Besides, Greece, thou art excellent with magic and relics. These cards are more like artifacts that contain vast quantities of unshaped power, and that is more in thine range of specialty, is it not?"
Greece nodded thoughtfully, looking a bit embarrassed all the same as Illyria muttered under his breath, and then he nervously picked at one cut-down tusk before saying slowly: "Well, would you agree to Roma and I taking a look at the cards together, then? And under your supervision of course, fancy-corn. I am not confident that alone, I can assess such powerful artifacts accurately."
Luna smiled a bit, trading a look with Scrivener Blooms... and when the male nodded, she returned her eyes to the dwarf and said kindly: "Of course then, Greece. 'Tis more than fair enough, and take the time thou needs to prepare... we will be here at least a week, waiting for the Bifrost to stabilize. Perhaps whilst thou art out at my cottage thou will also indulge me and aid me with setting up a few unnecessary luxuries for my home."
"Of course, it would be my pleasure, Luna." Greece bowed to the winged unicorn with a smile, then he straightened and gave Illyria an amused look when the Architect glared at him with exasperation. "It's not a problem to be nice, friend Illyria."
"Yes, yes it is. In our society, the Valkyrie would have been nothing greater than a Guardian, or perhaps a metallurgist with her abilities, but we pride ourselves upon our minds, not weapons and warfare. That is why we remain superior to the barbarian Nibelung." Illyria retorted, tapping his temple a few times, looking torn between frustration and a strange sort of meekness, raising his hands and then cursing under his breath as he suddenly deflated. "I just wish you would take your position seriously."
"I know, I know." Greece smiled consolingly, reaching up and patting Illyria on the head, and the wolf-pig almost snorted steam through his nose as he gave a glare of horrible frustration to the much-more-relaxed dwarf. "Still, if you didn't take these traditions so seriously, I'm sure even fancy-corn Luna would be kinder to you."
"Nay, I would not, for the foul creature would still be obnoxious and lacking a sense of humor." Luna remarked mildly, and Illyria crossed his arms grouchily as Greece gave her a half-pleading look. Luna, however, only sniffed disdainfully, arching her back and adding imperiously: "Furthermore, thou art wrong and thou knows it, Illyria. Thee and thine fellow Architects, whatever their specialty - engineering, enchantment, and all that like - would all bow to me before the end of the day 'twere I interested in gaining some sort of rank in thine great pig-pack. Oh sure, all of thee can think and 'tis a nice change from the usual Nibelung, who think only with their mallets and axes, but I can do magic without the aid of tools or supplements. Go ahead and lord thine ability to build and design and decorate, pretty prancing dwarf. I can set everything thou builds aflame and mash it all into the rotten earth with my hooves should I so desire."
"Oh because there is so much nobility in that." the Architect retorted, and Greece sighed and dropped his face in a hand as the two glared at one another, before Illyria grumpily crossed his arms and added moodily: "What if we built signal amplifiers? Echo-boards to boost the powers of... whatever magic you settle on to give these Pales physical bodies? Not that I care... but I look forwards to the day when I do not have to wake up in the morning to find ghosts wandering through my room, and when I don't have to worry about superstitious lesser Nibelung bringing my construction sites grinding to a halt because several Pales pass through it and they all have to do some silly little ritual to stop the bad omens from coming true or we'll all be gobbled up by the Black Wolves of Helheim."
Luna snorted in amusement at this, but then she looked thoughtfully over Illyria before sighing and saying grudgingly: "Well... as little as I like to admit thou has had a good idea.... thou has had a good idea, dwarf. Aye, I shall speak to Odin myself upon this subject, as a matter of fact, and see what he thinks. Perhaps he also has designs from Asgard that he can share with thee... but I do not claim to remember much of that far-flung past."
Illyria grunted, but he looked pacified and pleased all the same as he nodded once before Greece smiled and gestured at them, saying kindly: "See now? When we put our heads together, fancy-corn and Architect alike, we all do much better."
"Shut up, Greece, I no longer like thee." Luna said flatly, but Greece only laughed before the winged unicorn shook her head and asked curiously: "What about Canterlot? How does it stand?"
"The deterioration there is worse than I'd imagined... I was going over it with Illyria just before you arrived, as a matter of fact, to get his opinion on the subject." The wolf-pig gestured towards the robed Nibelung, and he grunted and nodded, but looked more serious than smug. "It will require years of effort to reconstruct... much of the labyrinth of tunnels running throughout the mountain structure has collapsed, turning the castle and surrounding area into a deathtrap. And while you know much of the city itself had long since fallen apart, we lost another section of it yesterday to landslides and... the simple fact that our attempts to repair the ancient stone are doing more harm than good right now. It may be a shorter - and safer - process to simply demolish and rebuild from scratch, fancy-corn."
"Aye, it may be, but as much as I loathe Canterlot I do not wish to destroy it, either. We are here to save and salvage, Greece... it may be easier to rip the whole thing down, but... somehow, I do not like the idea." Luna shook her head after a moment, then she smiled as she met the Nibelung's eyes. "Besides, we have time. 'Tis well and fine if the Pales awaken and Canterlot still lays in ruins, too... 'twill make it all the more convincing that they have all narrowly escaped some dreadful fate, however they may come to awaken."
Greece rubbed absently at the underside of his muzzle, then he traded a look with Illyria, who sighed and shrugged. "Don't look at me, Artificer, you're the higher rank here."
"Oh, I wish you would stop thinking like that." Greece grumbled, then he sighed and nodded, returning his eyes to Luna. "But as you wish, Luna. Odin told us to obey the flying fancy-corn as we would him, after all. Furthermore, after seeing what you're capable of, none of us are exactly willing to go against your orders. Right, Illyria?"
"Yes, yes, yes, right." Illyria said disgustedly, waving a hand and muttering moodily: "Barbarian Valkyrie. Physical might alone will only lead to death in this world."
"All roads lead to death eventually, Architect, 'tis only that some paths are shorter than others. Thou can live all thine life in a safe and guarded bubble, and Death will still find thee when the time has come for thou to be taken away... the only difference is that cowards who hide from life are thrown down to Helheim, and the Reaper treats them with haste and disdain, while the brave and the bold are granted prosperity in the Vale of Valhalla, and Death will walk with them as friend to the next life. He may even allow them to linger a moment of their passing depending upon how they died, granting them one last act before they pass on." She paused, then leaned forwards and grinned as her horn glowed, her ephemeral mane sparking slightly. "Furthermore, I do not have just my hooves and my horn. I also have lightning, fire, and a plethora of far-nastier magic at my disposal."
Illyria leaned away at this with a grouchy look as Luna glared at him, then she sniffed and sat back, returning her eyes to Greece. "Finally, on the subject I am least fond of, I must contact the old lecherous cyclops as well. Does thou know where he abides?"
"I spoke with him a few hours ago, and he mentioned heading out to check the traps in the wilderness." Greece shrugged a bit as he glanced over the two ponies and the Velite thoughtfully. "You can probably catch him out there, if you hurry... but then again, I know you're rarely in a hurry to see Odin."
"Aye, but dealing with him is often like ripping off a bandage. 'Tis best to do it quickly and get it over and done with." Luna replied in a grumble, and Greece smiled despite himself at this before the winged unicorn sighed and dropped her head forwards moodily with a grunt. "Come, Scrivy, let us go and find the lecher, then, playing with his big-boy toys. Greece, would thou mind looking after Pollen for a little while? She is nervous despite the fact most of the Nibelung are far too dumb to be a threat to her."
Scrivener was sure that Pollen would have blushed if she could, fidgeting awkwardly, and the dwarf smiled before he nodded, saying kindly: "It is no difficulty at all... Pollen, yes? Perhaps you can help me with some engraving work."
Pollen mumbled a little, shifting a bit, but then she nodded and said nervously: "If it's not any trouble, I mean, I'm sure I'll be fine either way... it's... it's not like anyone's going to burn me or anything."
"Not until we must." Luna replied agreeably, and Pollen looked at her and shifted awkwardly again before the winged unicorn nodded briskly. "Then our business is finished for now, Greece. I shall find thee at some point again, and if I do not, then simply head out to my cottage in a day or so when thou art ready and I am sure we will meet there. 'Tis not as if there stands much to be done, after all."
The Nibelung nodded, and Luna and Scrivener both gave Pollen a smile before the winged unicorn turned to leave and the male fell into step behind her. The Velite waved awkwardly at their backs as Illyria grumbled under his breath and Greece gave a cheerful 'farewell!' and sketched a salute to them.
The two ponies walked quietly and calmly through mostly-empty Ponyville, side-by-side, bodies almost touching as they traded looks and emotions in a swirl between them... and then Scrivener winced and arched his back as something ground firmly along his spine, skidding to a halt as he shivered before glaring over his shoulder as Luna shot a sour look at the floating Pale of Pinkamena, the half-demon grinning widely as she licked her sharp teeth slowly and looked down at them with entertainment. "What, has thou already succeeded in alienating thyself from the other Pales?"
Pinkamena only laughed silently as she floated backwards, rolling once in midair before she gestured easily outwards with a hoof, the two ponies glancing forwards and then both staring as nine Pales flickered silently into being in a line in front of them, hazy and indistinct, shimmering with frost... but memory filled in the details, memory was enough to make them almost real as Luna whispered: "Oh, most honored friends... darling Twilight Sparkle... beloved sister and cherished daughter..."
The smallest Pale stepped forwards first, smiling faintly, gazing up at them tenderly, without sorrow, without malice, without blame... and without forgiveness, because in her eyes, there was no wrong to forgive, no matter how both Scrivener Blooms and Luna faulted themselves for what had happened. She was beautiful, her eyes so red they almost glowed, and she mouthed the words 'I love you, Mom and Dad' before she flickered out of existence.
"We love thee as well, Scarlet Sage. Always and forever, our daughter... always." Luna whispered in reply, and then she laughed faintly and shook her head quickly to clear it, looking up with a faint grin despite her over-bright eyes as two more Pales stepped forwards. "And what an embarrassment to allow thee to see this side of me, Rainbow Dash. Although thou could always seem quite the mare still thyself, for all the evidence to the contrary."
The Pale of Rainbow Dash laughed silently, tossing his rugged mane as he grinned widely: proud and tall and strong, he stood side-by-side with another pony who shook her head with a quiet laugh and nudged the fellow Pale gently. The two traded a quick look, smiles on the faces of the shades before they gazed forwards, and Scrivener and Luna gazed back before the earth pony said softly: "I'm glad you're still there to take care of him, Applejack. You two look happy together even now. I think it's almost enough to make Luna jealous."
Luna laughed at this as she grinned with entertainment at her husband, and AJ and Rainbow gazed at them with warmth before the two Pales faded out and allowed another two to step forwards. One was a unicorn... the other, however, was a young dragon, his ghost a little more solid, tinged faintly with grayer hues and not emitting the same frosty cold that the pony Pales did.
The unicorn Pale flicked her corkscrewed mane, smiling at them softly as the dragon rose a hand and waved awkwardly at them, shuffling a bit on the spot before Scrivener said softly: "Another couple to make you jealous, Luna. They look good. And they're about as odd a pair as us, huh?"
"Aye, jealous... but happy, all the same. Happier than I can say, to see proven again that nothing can stand in the way of love." Luna replied softly, not taking her eyes off the two as they both smiled, then bowed their heads to her... but the winged unicorn only laughed before she silently bowed herself low in return, saying quietly: "Nay, bow to me not, friends. If we are not equals, then truly thou art the greater... thou has given more to me than I could ever pay thee back, and done more for Equestria, and more importantly, for thine friends and loved ones, than I ever have been able to give myself."
Scrivener bowed down as well after a moment, and the Pales of Rarity and Spike looked honored and touched before their eyes roved to one another, and the two shades smiled before flickering out of existence. And when Scrivy and Luna rose, they faced another Pale who gazed at them almost shyly as the ghost fidgeted a bit, then rose her head, studying the two tenderly.
They looked back at the Pale of the Pegasus as she slipped a little closer towards them, and Luna and Scrivener both softened before the winged unicorn said in a tender voice: "Fluttershy, of all the ponies I have known, thou wert always the most gentle, the most kind. And in that, that matchless grace and compassion... such strength thou had. Such resolve, in spite of thine awful upbringing. Such grace, that could tame the most savage beast."
The Pale shifted with a faint smile to them, humble, beautiful, before Scrivener added quietly: "I'm glad to see you safe. We're not going to let anything interfere with that this time... now, we promise to look after our friends, to be as kind and generous, as you have always been yourself."
Fluttershy smiled again... then she flickered out of existence, Scrivener feeling both warmth and the faintest twinge of guilt as memories of Sol Seraph twisted through his mind; before Luna could even look towards him, though, a pony Pale sprung forwards and skidded to a halt in front of them, beaming with such radiance it seemed to make the air around her shimmer with more than simply frost, as Pinkamena floated grumpily over and dropped to her hooves beside the Pale, a dark reflection of the bright and happy pony. Parallels, in some ways opposites, but in so many more ways so much the same... and Pinkie Pie laughed as Pinkamena sighed and threw her head back as if in exasperation, trying vainly to hide the smile that lit the half-demon's features all the same.
Then the twinned ponies both looked forwards, and Luna shook her head and said affectionately: "I still believe thou art both insane, so we are clear upon the subject. But thou art good for each other, too... and even with thine endless enthusiasm, I do not remember thee being nearly as cheerful as this before, Pinkie Pie. But I am thrilled to see it... and Pinkamena, lie not to me, I know thou art happy to be here thyself."
Pinkamena shifted with a grumble as Pinkie Pie looked towards her twin warmly, then leaned over and nudged the dark-tinged Pale lightly with her shoulder. Pinkamena blew a silent raspberry in return, but then she sighed and nodded grudgingly, and Luna nodded firmly as she looked from one to the other before saying softly: "Treasure thy sister. For there is truly nothing more valuable than loyal and loving kin."
Pinkie Pie nodded firmly as Pinkamena glanced awkwardly away, before wincing when the happier pony Pale threw a foreleg around her neck... but then the half-demon sighed and dropped her head forwards with an almost-embarrassed smile before the twins faded from sight, leaving only two last Pales standing and facing them. Luna gazed at these spirits quietly, then she and Scrivener Blooms both rested back on their haunches as the last Pales looked at one another, seemed to trade some silent dialogue between them... and then the smaller of the two smiled faintly and stepped forwards.
A winged unicorn, her horn tall, her form as large as Luna's, her eyes so alive even now... and the two living ponies smiled faintly before the Pale sat quietly across from them. She was beautiful even now... but more than that, she had always been driven, compassionate, sagacious; Luna had admired her, loved her, applauded her triumphs and helped to catch her when she fell.
But it was Scrivener who spoke first, the earth pony leaning forwards and saying in a gently-teasing voice: "Not driving you too crazy to be unable to control every little thing now, right? We'll clean up the Nibelung hair out of the library before we bring you back, don't worry."
Twilight laughed silently, then gave him an amused look, and the earth pony only shrugged a bit before he said softly: "Hey, I'd be a hypocrite if I let a little thing like death come between us, right? Don't worry, Twilight... one day you'll be back and able to hit me and shoot magic at me again, just like the old days."
The Pale nodded firmly at this in agreement, and Luna gazed warmly from her husband to the ghost before she said softly: "Aye. That is right... and 'tis amazing that it is thee of all ponies managed to find the positive note instead of harping upon the cynical."
"I can always do that later, Luna... besides, it's much more fun to crush hope after building it up as high as you can. Like knocking down a tower of building blocks." Scrivener smiled despite himself as he rose a hoof, and the Pale of Twilight gave him an exasperated look as Luna laughed and shook her head in wry entertainment.
Then the two looked back towards Twilight, and Luna's smile toned down to a softer, affectionate expression as she leaned forwards, saying quietly: "As always, I want to renew my promise to thee, though, Twilight Sparkle. I want to once more say that I am going to make things right... that everything will we okay in the end. And I want to apologize again for all that thou suffered, everything thou wert put through, even if I know well thy response by now. A shake of thine head, concern for me I do not deserve, never-wavering trust and loyalty and kindness. But let me speak these words, and nod for me: if not because thou believes them to be true, than as reassurance for me, for even a Valkyrie such as myself must need be reassured from time-to-time."
Twilight Sparkle sighed silently, looking at her almost imploringly, but Luna gazed back, half-pleading, half-glaring... and finally, the Pale nodded, looking a little sullen as Scrivener smiled despite himself before he winced a bit as pain shot through his eyes, and for a moment it was like he was looking at a real, physical pony, with a violet coat and a dark, straight mane, paired lines of brighter purple and pink running through her locks and tail. Her eyes still seemed to almost glow with their amethyst beauty as she looked at him, and when she spoke, he heard her voice... soft and echoing, as if it came from a distance: "Don't push yourself so hard, Scrivener. She chose you for a reason."
Scrivy closed his eyes with a blush at this, as Luna looked curiously from Twilight to her husband, then leaned towards him as he felt her paging gently into his mind, stroking through his thoughts, sensing the still-fresh memories before she blushed a bit as she glanced towards the winged unicorn... but Twilight only smiled softly as both of the living ponies rose their heads to look at her, then the Pale nodded to them before she faded slowly from existence, and Luna whispered: "Too kind, too sweet, too good for this world, let alone dark creatures such as ourselves, Scrivener Blooms. Her death and Scarlet Sage's remain my greatest sins..."
She shook her head slowly, then glanced up towards the final Pale that remained as it approached them, mane and tail still seeming to flicker with a multitude of colors as the enormous equine's shade towered over them. She was far from intimidating despite her size, however, radiating calm, tenderness, and a strange serenity. "Do not worry, though, sister. I mourn thine own death. At least most of the time, if not all. Sometimes I attempt to make light of it and other times I wonder how thou could permit thyself to be slain by four oversized vermin. 'Tis a most disappointing way for a mighty Valkyrie to fall, Celestia."
The Pale sighed silently, but it seemed in a strange way to appreciate this all the same as Luna smiled a little, looking lovingly up at her sister before Celestia turned her gaze towards Scrivy. She studied the earth pony, and Scrivener awkwardly looked back at her before she rose a hoof, and the male winced but then bowed his head forwards as a faint golden light twisted through the Pale's body, before he distinctly felt the large hoof settle against his head and he heard the whispered words of a blessing pass through his mind.
"Celestia, thou art no longer Queen of Equestria. Nor art thou Queen Freya of the Valkyries. I demand thou cease abusing thy... no." Luna halted, glaring at her sister as Celestia drew her hoof back and held it pointedly towards Luna. "Nay, I am a Valkyrie. I was Champion. I am thy little sister, aye, but that does not mean... oh, fine. But thou art overstepping thy bounds."
Luna grumbled, lowering her head forwards and closing her eyes... and Scrivener smiled despite himself, feeling the flurry of emotions through Luna's body, beneath all of which was humility and adoration and thankfulness as Celestia's hoof settled on her forehead, and the Pale gave a faint golden shimmer as she imparted the blessing of the sun on her younger sibling. Then Luna hurriedly rose her head and slipped back a bit on her haunches with a grumble even as her ethereal locks shimmered faintly for a moment with rosy luminescence as she mumbled: "Thy blessing is nothing more than pretty words, in any event. But the kind gesture... I suppose it is still deeply appreciated, sister. And that thou at least had the courtesy to do Scrivener Blooms first."
Celestia stepped back, the Pale looking slowly from one to the other with a kind smile lingering over her features before she returned her eyes to Luna, tilting her head... and Luna grimaced a bit, fidgeting on the spot before she finally admitted in a grumble: "We are... doing our best to behave for the cyclops, but... 'tis difficult. And... complications... have arisen with Scrivener Blooms..."
She softened, gazing towards the earth pony, and Scrivy blushed a bit as he glanced awkwardly around them... but the street around them was empty, and the library to their back a good distance away. And when Scrivener returned his eyes to Celestia, she looked at them without judgment, without reservations: only tenderness and concern for them both. It made both ponies feel awkward for their hesitance... for even though Celestia had been the one to give Scrivener Blooms the scar that marred half his features, she had found true balance in herself at the end of her long life, and begun to live up to the repute ponies across Equestria had always seen her with.
"Valthrudnir somehow has... found lodgings in my husband's mind, Celestia. He is... invisible to me, moving slyly, using the Tyrant Wyrm's corruption to hide and poison his thoughts." Luna said finally, lowering her head silently, and the Pale of Celestia looked startled as she leaned back, then turned her eyes to Scrivener: eyes filled with concern as the outline of the Pale seemed to crystallize and sharpen, and Scrivy blushed a bit as he dropped his own eyes, half-embarrassed and half-touched. "I am... we are both afraid."
Celestia nodded slowly, then leaned silently down, studying Scrivener quietly... and the male brought his eyes hesitantly up, looking back at the Pale as Luna said softly: "Thou art... wise and strong, sister, even now. And thou will always be my big sister... no matter who thou were in the past, no matter what happens between us, no matter what the future holds. Does thou... can thou offer any advice at all?"
Celestia shifted silently on the spot, looking slowly from Luna to Scrivy... and after a moment of consideration, she only shook her head silently. For a moment, the dark sapphire pony looked downcast... but then the Pale reached up and gently rested a hoof on her shoulder, gazing at her with silent encouragement and a faint smile, and Luna sighed a little and forced a smile in return, but her body loosened slightly as she said quietly: "Of course, thou art right. 'Twill only worsen the situation to worry upon it. Perhaps the echo will fade in time, perhaps it will only live for as long as the corruption wends its way inside Scrivener's mind... aye, let us hope the latter is the case, then. There is no fault, no wrong, in hope, correct? As long as we remember that while hope is a good start, we must continue to strive forwards to follow through with actions as well."
The Pale smiled softly in agreement, then turned towards Scrivener Blooms, and Scrivy looked back at her before Celestia reached both hooves up to gently rest them on his shoulders, leaning down beside his ear as he closed his eyes before he clearly heard Celestia whisper gently: "You are stronger than you think, Scrivener Blooms. You are not my sister's weakness. You proved that many years ago, when you earned..."
Her voice faded out, and Scrivener blushed a bit as the specter leaned back and drew a hoof silently across the scarred side of his face. He understood, and he looked up at her quietly as Luna smiled faintly, not needing to have heard what her sister had said to murmur quietly: "Wicked Celestia, thou now acts as if thou gave him a badge of honor. Self-justifying, rationalizing creature... 'tis almost as bad as Scrivener himself."
Scrivy laughed a little despite himself, smiling wider as he glanced towards Luna, then returned his eyes to the ivory Pale as she shook her head slowly before slipping backwards. The tall spirit hesitated, but Luna only gave a short shake of her head and gestured at her gently with a hoof, saying softly: "Go, get thee hence then, big sister. Scrivener Blooms and I have no more need for thee, does thou understand? Return to thy slumber, or find thy friends in the folds of reality... for thou does have friends now, does thou not?"
Celestia laughed silently at this, then she nodded once with a warm smile to the two before bowing her head low, gently touching the tip of her ephemeral horn to the ground. Luna and Scrivener bowed deeply in return, and when the two rose, Celestia had vanished from sight... and the two traded faint smiles before the winged unicorn slipped towards Scrivy and dropped her face against the side of his neck, closing her eyes as he gazed towards her quietly.
She rested like that in silence for a few long minutes, the only sound their soft breathing, the faint ringing of construction in the distance, and the hum of nature around them: the whispering breeze, chirping insects, singing birds. Clouds floated by overhead in the broad blue sky, and the sun shone down around them, warming their bodies, almost making the two glow even as their shadows seemed unnaturally deep, unnaturally dark.
Then, finally, Luna sat back and took a long breath before she nodded firmly once, saying softly: "Onwards ho, Scrivener Blooms. We still have the wretched cyclops to attend to, do we not? Aye, let us get this business with Odin over and done with as quick as possible, so we may spend the rest of this time in respite... I only fear what little tasks he may have for us to do, wretched, lazy old lecher that he is."
Luna grumbled a bit as she began forwards, and Scrivener fell into step beside her as he gave her a smile of entertainment, tilting his head towards the winged unicorn as he said mildly: "You mean, tasks we'll put off until the very last minute as always? Not to mention the fact he'll probably lecture you about abusing the Bifrost again... or well, maybe he's given up on that, since he didn't mention it last night."
"Aye, but I was in a rotten mood for his company last night, not crawling through the dirt towards him to beg an audience to the great and mighty Warrior King of the Aesir." Luna said moodily, and Scrivener fought hard to repress a snort of entertainment as the winged unicorn rolled her eyes and flapped her wings once, looking ruffled and grouchy. "I swear that is the reason he permits me to put off our meetings, Scrivy. For when I have to go and find him, 'tis like I am his handmaiden once more, reporting for duty."
"Yes, yes, Luna, I know. Odin bad." Scrivener said mildly, and then he winced when she checked him firmly, knocking him stumbling before he fell back into step beside her and snorted in entertainment. "I think you're just trying to cling to absolutely any vestige of hatred you can for him, to be honest. Maybe this is even his way of doing you a favor and giving you another reason to hate him."
"Oh, do not speak that way, Scrivener Blooms." Luna said disgustedly, throwing her head back with a grumble. "Thou fills my brain with paranoid thoughts, and thy spill over not just from thine own addled mind now but begin to twist themselves out of the depths of my own brain. Like tentacles. Wretched tentacles."
Scrivener gave her an amused look as they followed the path to an open gate at the edge of town, following the dirt road through a short field and into the edge of the Everfree Forest. Eventually, the dirt road became nothing but a grass path that broke apart into half a dozen different, barely-visible trails deeper into the woods and towards a deep ravine, but it ran a good distance on a curving, comfortable trail before it did so, making it a pleasant path to walk.
The twenty minute walk down the wide dirt trail relaxed both Scrivener and Luna, until they reached the end: here, the Nibelung had built a small storage yard surrounded by iron fencing. Inside it, they kept rope, oil, explosive supplies, and other odds and ends... most of which were dangerous and volatile, hence why they were stored out here. Luna, as always, was tempted to set the storage lot on fire just to see what would happen, and Scrivener gave her a flat look before the winged unicorn glanced up at a rustling in the trees on the other side of the lot. "Old lecher?"
"Yes, Brynhild." Odin said tiredly, and Luna grunted as she strode quickly around the fenced-in lot, Scrivener following awkwardly as they stepped onto a grassy, well-trodden trail. After only a few feet, however, Odin stepped carefully backwards into the path, a thick green rope in his hands as he glanced towards them with a bit of a smile. "Mind your hooves, friends. Some of the traps set here are more dangerous than just rope and vine."
Scrivener winced a bit as Luna only grunted, then the winged unicorn watched grouchily as the once-god knelt creakily to carefully set the snare in the middle of the path. He worked calmly, ignoring everything around him as Luna fidgeted... then finally asked as her curiosity overwhelmed her: "Raiders or beasts?"
"Thieves, mostly... and a few goblins, which I do not know whether to refer to as animal or troublemaker." Odin replied after a moment, then he shook his head slowly as he stood up and turned around, cracking his back with a grimace. "I don't know if it amuses or irritates me that no matter how many times I set the same trap in the same place, they always fall for it. I'll be glad when we can move most of these supplies to Canterlot."
He paused, then gestured gently at them, and the ponies both turned, heading back towards the road as Odin followed them with his hands behind his back, saying moodily: "At the same time, though, I cannot really complain... it's nice that even an old fool like me can be of some use these days, with or without my powers. I only wish the Nibelung were able to catch on to not setting off their own traps as fast as they are in learning to make them."
"Enough stalling. We are here Odin, what does thou want?" Luna said grumpily as she suddenly spun around the moment they stepped back in front of the fenced-in storage lot, and Scrivy winced as he staggered quickly to the side to avoid running into her, then half-fell to a seated position beside her as Odin only looked mildly down at the winged unicorn. He stopped a few feet away, single eye meeting Luna's dark cyan irises, and then the female asked insistently: "Well? What is it then, sing, old lecher. Thy face is bird-like, 'tis what birds do."
"Please don't bring up this failed disguise." Odin muttered, rubbing slowly at the scarred side of his features with a grimace. "One polymorph run afoul for lack of power and here we are. But if you must be so insistent, Brynhild, and you must continue to pretend that I dragged you out here and you did not arrive only seconds ago of your own volition, I do have a few tasks for you and your husband. Nothing strenuous or serious, I assure you. But tasks that you will be able to complete with much greater ease than myself or a Nibelung, and that I also do attribute no little weight to."
"Oh wonderful, I am an important errand girl." Luna grumbled flatly, and Odin reached up and touched one of his temples, closing his eye with a grimace. "And just what tasks does thou have for me, then?"
"As soon as possible, I need you to take a message of some importance to the Strange Ones in their village to the west." Odin began, and he winced a bit at the horrible glare Luna favored him with, but managed to continue calmly all the same: "The trip is difficult by foot. For you, it's three hours' flight. Furthermore, we need certain materials replenished: engraving tools, crystals, rune-stones chief among the list."
"Wonderful. I am a messenger as well as an errand-girl." Luna muttered, but she sighed and nodded before looking grouchily up at Odin. "Very well then. I shall go about this task. But listen to me, cyclops: on the subject of restoring the Pales, Illyria - and I do not lie, even though I question the sanity of the world around me that I am here, pushing forwards the Architect's ideas - has come up with the subject of building amplifiers of some sort around Equestria. I dislike enough as it is that I agree with the idea. Do not make me argue against thee that it is a good one."
"Very well, I will speak to Illyria on the subject, then." Odin replied after a moment, rubbing at the underside of his beak slowly, and then he frowned slightly as he leaned against the iron fencing, asking quietly: "Are you really so nervous about bringing back the Pales?"
"In this case, it's far better to be safe than sorry, and I do not wish to brashly charge in as I usually do. I cannot bear the thought of failing them... even more, I cannot bear the thought of hurting them." Luna replied quietly, looking up at Odin and losing some of her aggression as Scrivener gave the female a soft look. "I wish to take every precaution I can with this, so that when we reach that final, crucial juncture... we are able to pass it without hindrance. Then I may look back upon it and laugh, and resume using my horn to solve all my problems, but... until that point and day comes..."
Odin nodded slowly at this, and then he drew his eyes over the two ponies, hesitating... and then only giving a second short nod as he reached into his rawhide jacket to pull loose a thick vellum envelope, sealed with a wax crest. "Alright. If there's no other business, that is all I have for you for now. I would like for you to leave immediately if you're ready: the letter must be hand-delivered to the chieftain of the Strange One's tribe, understood?"
"Then permit me slice off one of thy hands to take it with me, as I only have hooves." Luna retorted dryly, and Odin sighed before he grimaced when the letter was yanked out of his hand by telekinesis, floating quietly in the air beside Luna as it pulsed with faint sapphire light. "But very well, then I shall go about this task. Come, Scrivy, let us first return to Ponyville and fetch some packs and a few supplies, and perhaps something or other we can trade to the Strange Ones for our own purposes."
"Thank you, Brynhild, I appreciate this." Odin said quietly, and Luna grumbled as she turned around, but then sighed and looked over her shoulder when the once-god added: "Do not hesitate if you need anything. I am here to aid you however I can."
"Of course, of course. As I am here to be thy errand girl." Luna muttered, and then she turned with a grumble as the letter tucked itself neatly into her ethereal mane, seeming to vanish as her glowing locks rippled over it. "Come, Scrivy, before he attempts to dress us in pretty saddle and vestments."
Scrivener smiled awkwardly over his shoulder at Odin, bowing his head quickly before he turned and hurried after the winged unicorn as she stormed off, and the once-god made a face at their backs before he shook his head tiredly, turning to head back into the complex catacombs of forest trails. The ponies, meanwhile, strode on in silence for several minutes, even as emotions and thoughts whispered back and forth between them, before Luna finally dropped her head forwards with a sigh and a grumble, saying moodily: "Aye, Scrivener Blooms. It's vexing. On the one hand, I am very glad our task is a simple one. On the other, I am frustrated at being used as a delivery pony. And I have thought upon the words thou has spoken before and further dislike the fact that perhaps thou art much more right than I like to admit, and I... perhaps cling unnecessarily so my distaste of Odin."
She halted, then shook her head as she murmured quietly: "Still, 'tis hard to think of him as anything but an ally I must be warier of than most enemies. Odin was God of Wisdom... but he was cunning, ruthless, and in a way he killed me not once, but twice, for placing me into eternal slumber for my 'disobedience' to him was a fate far worse than slaughter on the battlefield for a Valkyrie." She stopped, then grimaced a bit. "And the alternative was no fairer, either. Lecherous Odin. I may not be pure in many senses of the word but nor does that make me a toy for others to use as they please. I am proud of myself, and feel no shame for my desires, for who I am, I never have and never will, but nor does that make me a harlot."
"Believe me, I know that." Scrivener smiled a bit over at her, and Luna laughed as she grinned at him, the male adding meditatively: "But what do I really know, anyway? I'm rarely the one coming on to you, after all."
"Aye, thou would have been risked being considered most effeminate in the old days past, which would have been a terrible dishonor to the macho warriors of Valhalla." She paused thoughtfully. "'Tis amazing how they all could overlook the fact that while they sat around getting drunk, 'twas us, the Valkyrie females, that did all the work protecting them, and all of us could beat any of these so-called 'masters of battle' into the ground like they were spoiled children. Which, I might add, they were. But worry not. I would have pummeled anyone that dared speak out against thee, beloved wife."
"I'm so glad I'll always have you to hide behind, my big brutish Luna." Scrivener replied dryly, and Luna laughed, grinning over at him as the male smiled despite himself. "But tell me more. I like listening to you talk about the old days."
And Luna smiled softly despite herself, looking strangely delighted with the request as she nodded once and continued to speak as the two ponies made their way back along the dusty road, filling in the time between adventures with stories of the once-forgotten past. |
Metempsychosis | Strange Sentiments | Chapter Nineteen: Strange Sentiments
~BlackRoseRaven
Luna's wings flapped powerfully, propelling her easily through the bright blue sky as Scrivener followed behind her with a grimace, barely able to keep up to her as the saddle-bags on either side of his body twisted slightly in the wind, their contents rattling quietly. The winged unicorn grinned over her shoulder at him, her mane fanning out around her as she half-rolled easily, shouting cheerfully: "Come, Scrivener Blooms, do not dawdle!"
"You have natural wings, mine are not natural! Do you know how sore I am from all this excessive flying lately?" Scrivener yelled back irritably, and Luna threw her head back and laughed as she rolled easily through the air before diving down over the treetops below, and Scrivener groaned as he followed her on a gentler incline, unable to stop himself from marveling all the same as they passed over a green network of treetops that spread all the way out to the edge of a cliff, then dropped into a deep box canyon surrounded by greenery, a natural river flowing through it. It was several hundred feet wide and maybe fifty deep, and wild fruits and vegetables grew in natural rows and abundance, spiced here and there with flora that looked exotic and almost alien.
Luna shot down towards this, then dropped suddenly, Scrivener wincing as a burst of leaves flew up from the treetop she rammed into... and then a moment later, she arched her back and gracefully flew back towards the skies, grinning as several large yellow fruits followed her before she flicked her horn, and one of these flew back towards the earth pony before he could react.
It struck him squarely in the face and exploded in a burst of pink juice, and Scrivener gave a shout of surprise as he veered wildly back and forth, wincing and blinking his stinging eyes. He flailed his hooves uselessly at the air as he came to a halt, hovering as Luna laughed loudly and quickly spun around, two fruits still floating beside her. "Scrivener Blooms, thou wert supposed to catch it!"
"I hate you." Scrivy mumbled disconsolately, but Luna only snorted in entertainment before she leaned forwards, kissing one closed eye, then the other, and Scrivener's eyelids fluttered open after a moment as he looked at her with dry amusement despite the juice dripping down his face and the bits of exploded fruit still clinging to his features. "Will you please just clean me off? Sunfruit is smelly."
"Thou art a Sunfruit." Luna declared, and Scrivener sighed before he winced as one of the fruits shot by, but thankfully only slipped itself quickly into a satchel as the second glowing fruit twisted, then tore in half with a burst of juices, Luna turning her attention to this as the thick golden rind peeled itself quickly off the fruit halves. "Eat! Then I shall clean thee off."
Scrivener rolled his eyes in amusement, then he winced a bit as the large half of fruit shoved itself towards him before he opened his jaws... then cursed when Luna firmly shoved the entire bowl-sized fruit into his mouth, and he winced and chewed slowly as Luna cheerfully took several large bites out of her own half before gobbling the rest down greedily.
The glow around her horn faded only for a moment before she winked, still chewing loudly as she flicked it upwards, and Scrivy wheezed as he arched his back with a wince of a pain, steam hissing up his features as the goo from the fruit rapidly dissolved. Then she swallowed loudly, and released a sigh of pleasure as she said comfortably: "There. We are fed, and thou art clean. Come, Scrivy, I can see the smoke from the Strange One's encampment, let us make all haste to get this accursed business over and done with."
Scrivener grumbled under his breath, but he nodded quickly after a moment, still chewing what remained of his own fruit as Luna turned and flew onwards, past the canyon and towards where trees thinned into open plains and rough, dust-stained hillocks and heaps of stone. After only a few moments of surveying the area, Scrivener's eyes caught on the faint trails of smoke stretching up into the open sky above.
Luna gradually allowed herself to drop towards the ground, and the earth pony followed her example, wincing a bit as pain twisted through his back from sore, overused muscles. The winged unicorn gave him a sympathetic look over her shoulder, but then only winked at him when he caught her looking before she turned her attention forwards, steepening her movement towards the plains as she called easily: "Worry not, Scrivy, if all my poking and prodding at thee hasn't caused thee to permanently retain thy wings, fangs, or other additional body parts, I am sure these wings shan't become a new fixture upon thy body unless I were to leave them for at least another day or so yet."
"Wonderful." Scrivener Blooms grumbled, and Luna snorted in entertainment before she finally touched down in a weedy field, Scrivener awkwardly landing beside her and stumbling once before he managed to catch himself with a grimace, glancing awkwardly up towards the source of the smoke in the distance. "So are you doing the talking or am I?"
"I am the messenger, I shall handle most of it." Luna made a face and gave an exaggerated shiver all the same, her mane flicking backwards as glowered moodily at the large, wide huts and odd stone dwellings in the distance, several burning bonfires here and there throughout what was undoubtedly a strange village. "But thou can handle any additional conversation. I dislike trying to communicate with these creatures. They have a horrible invulnerability to taunts, insults, provocation, and threats. Truly I am powerless against them."
"Luna, you're the Valkyrie, I'm the writer, remember?" Scrivener pointed out, and Luna grumbled before she headbutted him, then strode quickly forwards, the earth pony falling into step beside her as he drew his eyes slowly again along the empty-looking village: when studied, it seemed to be nothing but chaos and a jumble, the huts and houses made of large sheets of stone and carved into the rocky hillside with no real order, no strategy to them... but both Luna and Scrivener always thought that there was some hidden pattern, visible only when you weren't looking at it, like a mirage, a reflection in a glass. "You could always attack them."
"Nay, I do not attack things until I have understood them. And I do not understand these creatures, and perhaps never shall. At least, not until I meet one in combat, but again... we have only managed to run in the vicious circle." Luna grumbled, and Scrivener gave her an amused look despite himself before the two ponies glanced up as figures began to emerge from the homes, looking towards them silently, with an impartial curiosity that made them both grimace a bit as the village filled with odd life. "At least we always receive quite a grand welcome."
The earth pony grunted quietly as they walked to the edge of the village, halting near a crackling bonfire as they looked over the Strange Ones, creatures that truly lived up to their names: many were hunched forwards and yet still loomed to at least six feet high, and all of them wore loose cloaks or robes and cowls, made of thick cloth material that hid limbs and bodies from view. The sleeves of these hung down past their hands and the hems dragged along the earth, the cloaks secured loosely around their waists by simple rope or vine; the same material was used to hold their cowls and hoods in place, looped loosely around necks and hanging down like ties, making them look - as Luna had cynically observed once - like zombies that had escaped the gallows.
Then one of the Strange Ones walked forwards, its raspy breathing louder than the sound its feet made against the gravelly ground as it strode in front of them, and creakily bowed. Luna and Scrivener bowed deeply in return, and then the winged unicorn straightened, saying seriously: "We come bearing a message from Odin for the Chieftain of thine settlement."
"Yes, Brynhild, Maiden of the Night. He is home." the Strange One replied calmly, and its sleeve fell back from its hand as it pointed towards a hut near the base of the mountain, revealing ivory, rubbery skin and a single finger tipped with an almond-shaped claw. "Go ahead. You and Scrivener Blooms are welcomed here. You are always welcomed here."
Luna smiled awkwardly at the creature as it bowed its hidden head forwards respectfully and stepped slowly out of the way, and she led the earth pony carefully around the bonfire and past several huts: with the arrangement in an awkward line that sprawled along the bottom of the hills and rocks, they didn't have far to go... but the sensation of all the Strange One's eyes upon them made the distance seem endless, as Luna muttered: "'Tis worse than when I attended that charity ball at the Royal Courts. Does thou remember that?"
"Too well, Luna." Scrivener smiled a little despite himself, glancing towards her. "But I don't think that this time all our problems can be solved by you setting the punchbowl on fire."
"'Twas an accident. I let my temper get the better of me. I am much better about setting liquids ablaze these days, am I not?" Luna argued reasonably, and Scrivener laughed a bit before the two glanced up as the door to the hut they were approaching opened, and a Strange One emerged, the ponies quickly becoming more serious as they halted and bowed their heads forwards politely. "Chieftain?"
"The term is not one we use, but it is close enough." the Strange One said softly, as it bowed its head slightly in return: unlike the others, it wore no cowl, and when Luna and Scrivener looked up they were able to study its strange features. They were rhombus-shaped, with that pale ivory skin, large jaws and no noses, only slits for nostrils. The eyes were large and slightly sunken back, its head bald and only a little more oblate than its rounded chin.
For a few moments, they studied each other, and then Luna quickly cleared her throat and turned to glare pointedly at Scrivener, who winced before he sat back and hurriedly dug in his satchel. A few moments later, he yanked the letter free, and a sapphire aura surrounded it as Luna grabbed it quickly with telekinesis and guided it to the Strange One. "We are here to deliver this to thee from Odin."
"The God of Wisdom, the decayed Aesir, yes." the Strange One said calmly, and he reached up and gently took the envelope, his movements slow but deft as he opened it and extracted a sheet of paper from inside. The creature's black eyes slid back and forth over this, and then it nodded slowly and seriously before folding the paper closed and tucking it back into the envelope, saying quietly: "We are glad to assist. I shall have the supplies prepared immediately. Do you have other business while here?"
"We have a few objects for trade." Luna said after a moment, looking almost hesitant, but the Strange One only nodded seriously before striding slowly past them and gesturing for them to follow, and the two hurried after the long strides of the strange creature as Luna grimaced a bit, then muttered: "Thou and thine kind truly earn the monicker of 'Strange Ones,' I must say."
"We are what we are, as you are what you are. We are no different." the creature replied gently, and Scrivener smiled a bit as Luna only looked torn between open frustration and attempting politeness.
They were silent as they made their way down the row of huts and stone homes, Strange Ones milling here and there, watching them through windows cut through the rock, standing off at the sides of the path... and then the leader of the tribe gestured slowly towards a large hut that stood slightly apart from the others, resting deeper into the fields than at the foot of the mountains as he said calmly: "You may trade there. Others will return shortly with your supplies."
"Thou hast my thanks." Luna nodded quickly, and the Strange One studied her silently for a few moments before it turned and left, the winged unicorn grimacing at its back... then glaring back and forth challengingly at several other cloaked figures standing nearby and studying them before she snapped: "'Tis rude to stare!"
With that, she huffed and spun around, storming towards the large hut, and Scrivy winced before he hurriedly followed her towards the building: the walls looked almost like they were made simply from thick cloth and stitched rawhide, supported by pillars of wood to make it more like an immobile tent than a solid home... but somehow, the Strange Ones lived in these huts through storms and the changing of the seasons without complaint, and it wasn't as if the homes made from large sheets of stone were much better, lacking solid windows and even doors as most of them did.
A Strange One emerged from inside the hut as they approached, slipping its hands into the sleeves of its heavy cloak, but like the chieftain, its hood was at least pushed back: its skin was the same rubbery consistency, with the same tautness to them, although the hue of its body was a deeper slate color. It studied them for a few moments, then bowed its head as Luna glanced back and forth distastefully, saying finally: "We wish to trade, Strange One. We have a few small items, and I was hoping to acquire a few pleasant trinkets for my home. What will thou give me in return for say... a Sunfruit, twenty ropes of Bitterweaver silk all at least ten feet long, and two jars of assorted teeth?"
The Strange One looked at them silently, and Luna grinned widely, showing off brightly-glinting fangs as she informed seriously: "They are not my teeth. But I know thou and thine kind have a fixation on such odd objects and I do not like to waste any portion of what I kill. They are manticore, Nibelung, and other assorted creatures."
For a few moments, the creature remained silent... then it turned and headed back into the hut, and Luna grunted and nodded as she looked over her shoulder at Scrivener, the earth pony sitting down to begin to fish the contents out of the bag. A moment later, the Strange One returned, this time carrying a wide, rectangular wooden chest, and it set this carefully down before pulling the lid slowly back. An inner shelf clicked as it lifted with the lid, popping back into place, and the two gazed over the countless metallic charms and objects that filled the different square compartments and littered the bottom of the box, the creature saying placidly: "Choose what you like, and I shall tell you the fair trade."
"Fair trade, aye, but since when is trading ever truly fair?" Luna asked ironically, and then she shook her head with a slight smile before gazing down through the box of jewels and charms, her horn glowing as she carefully lifted objects to eye level and studied them meticulously. Many of them were not just trinkets, after all, but infused with the alien magic of the Strange Ones... an effect she couldn't replicate no matter how she copied the runes, or what lengths she went to do dig out the same materials they used. "And what if I asked, pray tell, for the plans to make these?"
"You may ask, but you may not pay for them: knowledge belongs to all, and I would tell you for free as I have many times before." the Strange One said quietly, looking at her with its odd indifference: not entirely detached, the vestiges of emotions in their eyes and voices, but they were buried, and both ponies thought the emotions they felt were not the same emotions the Strange Ones experienced. "As your magic comes from your horn, what you call our magic runs in our bodies, our blood, our spirit. You may do half the work in the shaping... but you lack that which is necessary to do the other half in the giving-it-life."
"Thou creatures know well what it is to lack something, that is for certain." Luna muttered irritably, and Scrivy winced a bit, but the Strange One only continued to look at her as calmly as ever, unfettered. The winged unicorn grumbled under her breath, throwing the charms down and scattering the objects as she began to open her mouth... and then her eyes caught on something at the bottom of the box, and she flicked her horn to the side, yanking it free as she asked sharply: "May I trade for this?"
"You do not have enough to barter for that, Valkyrie." the Strange One said gently, its black eyes roving down to the floating object, taking in the distinct etching of silver ivy along the dark, thin metal collar. It was gorgeous, and Luna could feel the calming energies that ran through it even through her growing frustration as she ground her teeth together, the Strange One reaching a hand out to gently pluck it from the air and out of the grips of her telekinesis. "Even though I have not yet chosen a gemstone for it, it is not meant for you."
"I know this, 'tis not a gift for me, I have something far more beautiful than thy sordid collar. 'Tis a gift for my husband, Scrivener Blooms." Luna retorted, and Scrivy looked up in dumb surprise before Luna smiled a bit over her shoulder, softening as she said quietly: "Well, beloved... I wear this necklace. I wish to adorn thee with a symbol of my love for thee."
Scrivener smiled softly at this, and then he shook his head and said softly: "So you want to put a collar on me, huh? A collar without a gemstone? Besides, you've given me a lot of different pairs of glasses over the years."
"The gemstone will come in time. And the glasses were not... my original idea. Oh, shut up, Scrivener Blooms. Accept the gift." Luna paused and then glared at the Strange One as she yanked the collar out of its hand with telekinesis before glancing towards where the contents of the saddlebags lay in a large pile beside Scrivy, saying firmly: "All of that, and I shall bring thee more later if it is required, but give me the collar."
"It is not made for you." the Strange One said slowly, and Luna gnashed her teeth together in frustration before the creature looked slowly, thoughtfully towards Scrivener Blooms, and it gave a unhurried nod after a moment. "It may have been made for him. Time will tell. You may take the collar."
"Splendid!" Luna laughed cheerfully, leaping backwards in delight and swinging her horn around, and Scrivener had a moment to stare at her before the thin metal collar collided with his neck firmly enough to knock him staggering back a step, gargling as it quickly tightened around his throat and locked into place, almost sizzling against his body as he winced in surprise. The clasp at the back of the collar clicked loudly as it snapped shut and locked into place, the pony looking dumbly down at it and the enlarged hollow in the thicker, black metal front of the collar where a gemstone had yet to be fitted. "Perhaps thou and thine kind are not such awful creatures after all!"
"Wonderful way to do business, Luna." Scrivy said flatly, then he reached up and embarrassedly rubbed at the collar with one hoof, saying finally: "Also, not that... I'm complaining or anything, but-"
"Shush and wear it for now, it looks good on thee!" Luna said firmly, and then she leaned forwards and kissed his cheek firmly, Scrivener blushing a bit as she sat back on her haunches and smiled at him, her black pearl swaying quietly around her neck on its seemingly-unbreakable band of ivy. "'Tis a very late wedding gift, that is all. If thou likes, we shall find a matching collar for me one day as well, but... this ivy has worn over the years, ripped here and there, torn more and less... but it has never broken, and it has always been easy to mend. Perhaps it is a sign, and it does not do well to tamper with such things, I think."
Scrivener smiled a bit at this thought, nodding slowly before he awkwardly rubbed at the collar, adding dryly: "But couldn't you have gotten me... I dunno. Vambraces are cool. Or perhaps a hat. A marriage-hat, who would ever think of that?"
"Thou art lucky I find thy complaining about everything adorable or thou would be in the midst of a severe pummeling right now." Luna said grouchily, and then she glanced towards the Strange One as it silently stepped forwards to begin gathering up the pile of objects that Scrivener had dug out of the satchel bag. "Tell me, artisan. Did thou have any particular gemstone in mind to set inside this collar? And what charms rest upon it?"
Scrivener stared at Luna at this, and the winged unicorn shrugged cheerfully as she glanced towards him, saying kindly: "Well, obviously 'tis magical in nature, Scrivener Blooms, I am sure thou can feel it even with thine thick-skin when it comes to the arcane. I am sure 'tis nothing dangerous though, Scrivy, thou hast not exploded into flames or anything."
"Luna, this is why I'm always complaining about how whenever you try and do something nice for me, I end up on the thin line between 'enjoyable risk' and 'serious injury.' And why you're supposed to ask before attaching possibly-hazardous objects to my body." Scrivener said finally, and Luna shrugged amiably before she turned her insistent eyes towards the Strange One as it slowly stood up with an armload of spider-silk ropes.
It looked from one pony to the other, then nodded slowly and said calmly: "The Night Maiden is correct. We weave charms into all our adornments, as is natural for our kind... the collar will soothe the restless spirit, aid in concentration, and improve the mind's eye. It is a good choice for the uneasy. The gemstone used should be one that will be designed to work with and amplify these qualities... I will get to work immediately."
"What? I did not ask thee to make it." Luna frowned a bit at this as the Strange One turned to walk away, but it halted as Luna called sharply: "And what payment will this 'generosity' require?"
"None. The collar is incomplete, but I did not know who I was making it for until now. All works should be carried out from beginning-to-end, and this is no different." The Strange One looked over its shoulder at them for a moment, then it simply nodded and headed towards its hut, and Scrivy and Luna traded a surprised look at this. "I shall have the finished product sent to you in a few days."
It returned, but almost ignored them as it silently gathered up the rest of the materials from the ground before turning and leaving as Scrivener and Luna watched... and this time, the Strange One stayed inside its hut, apparently content with their completed business. Luna grumbled a bit as she pawed at the ground, but Scrivy reached up and gently touched her shoulder, saying quietly: "Thank you, Luna. It means a lot to me that you still haven't... let that go after all these years. That you still..."
He quieted and smiled a bit, and Luna blushed a little as she glanced towards him, saying softly: "Oh, thank me not... 'tis not kindness or altruism, 'tis... a purely-egotistical drive to show the world that we are a couple. And always, when... on the rare occasions we are separated, I can always still feel thy presence in this, this rare black pearl... and to have a physical memento of thee always here, strengthens the bond of our minds, bodies, and souls. 'Tis not the materials... 'tis what they represent. 'Tis all... very silly, really, but... bah, words fail me. Just know that I love thee. And that thou looks good with this regal choker around thine neck. Effeminate, aye. But good all the same."
Scrivener smiled despite himself at this, glancing towards her with amusement as he added softly, nudging her with a shoulder: "But of course we couldn't have me looking masculine now, could we? That would ruin the balance of the relationship."
Luna laughed, then stepped forwards and buried her face against the side of his neck... and she smiled softly as her muzzle slid down and nudged the top of the collar quietly, feeling a strange warmth emanating the black metal as the silver etchings of ivy over it all-but-gleamed, and she murmured softly: "Not even the Norns will separate us, my beloved. Not now, not ever. Aye, damned be everything: we shall always be together."
"We're so codependent. It's a little sickening when you think about it." Scrivener remarked mildly, and Luna laughed and headbutted the side of his neck firmly, making him wince and stagger as his sore, leathery wings flapped once before he gave her an entertained look. "Well, it's true. I'm pretty sure not everypony would look at us and go 'it's so cute how they need each other to survive and would sacrifice the world for one-another.' Particularly since you probably could ravage the world if you wanted."
"Aye, I could. Furthermore, I do not think we are cute. We are the greatest romance story ever told, and thou cannot be 'cute' and 'great' at the same time." Luna retorted, tilting her head upwards imperiously as she sat back on her haunches. "Regal, godlike Valkyries are not cute."
"Oh Luna. Every time I think your ego can't get any bigger, there it goes again. At this rate, the weight's going to grow so heavy you'll implode into a singularity that will drag the entire universe into it and gobble it all up." Scrivener said dryly, and Luna gave him an amused look before he leaned forwards and added kindly: "But I want you to know that you'll always be my crushing, universe-gobbling singularity."
"Thou says such sweet and wonderful things." Luna swung her horn at him playfully, and Scrivener smiled despite himself as he leaned quickly out of the way before he glanced curiously upwards, and Luna followed the earth pony's eyes to watch as two Strange Ones approached, carrying three large sacks between them. "Well, that was fast. Is this all the supplies for Odin?"
One of the Strange Ones nodded with its odd solemnity, Scrivener awkwardly stepping forwards so one of them could pack two of the bags into his satchel packs while the other calmly went about the business of strapping the last bag to Luna, who looked less-than-thrilled with the contact. "It is what we were instructed to bring you. We wish you luck and speed. We are here should anything further be required."
"Then thou has my thanks. Away with us now, Scrivener, to return to Ponyville and then back home to our cottage, unless the old lecher has a further task for us." Luna said quickly, and Scrivy nodded as the Strange Ones stepped calmly back and away from them, watching with their curious dark eyes beneath their shadowy cowls as the winged unicorn grimaced a bit over her shoulder, mumbling under her breath: "Odd souls. I do not mean they are wicked or unwelcome... but odd. I only wish what motivated the creatures so..."
Scrivener remained quiet as he followed Luna away from the village and into the field, until they both looked over their shoulders and saw the the huts and stone homes once more looked vacant and empty, the only sign of life coming from the crackling flames. The creatures had once more retreated deep into their dwellings or gone about their secret tasks... and the two ponies traded an awkward look before Luna glanced apprehensively towards the dwellings and said finally: "And once, these oddities lived across this Looking Glass Equestria... but at Odin's request, tore up their homes, moved their huts, and built new and alien villages like this one. They willingly made room for us, for our ponies, and they trade with us for such easily-attained goods: they barter with us with rare charms, strange magic, potions and supplies and such other exotic things, for food, and cloaks, and cloth and rope and raw materials, and it maddens me, Scrivy. I have met no other race so alien... not because of how they look, or act, or what they do... but because of how they so generously have given to us with little expectations in return."
Scrivener smiled a bit at this, the two studying one another... and then Luna shook her head and laughed quietly, saying finally: "Come, though, Scrivy. Time to take wing. Let us fly."
"I hate flying." Scrivener muttered, and Luna gave him an amused look before she turned and ran forwards a few paces, then spread her wings and flew into the air, and the earth pony sighed as he stretched his own leathery wings with a wince of pain before running forwards and following her quickly, resigning himself to another long flight that would likely be without rest but sure to include plenty of Luna's special form of motivation.
Luna and Scrivener had halted only for a late lunch when the winged unicorn had spotted a few berry bushes: at first, a large and grouchy bear hadn't wanted to share, but a roar from Luna and a likely-unnecessary follow-up blast of lightning had quickly taken care of that problem, and the two had enjoyed the meal together even as Scrivener half-lectured her on being nicer to the world at large and Luna had nodded along while stuffing her face with blueberries.
Then they had taken back to the air, veering towards Ponyville, the sun still shining overhead, still warm and comforting and resplendent; and even though both ponies far preferred the comfort of night to the light of day, it was still wonderful to feel the sun's warmth on their bodies, to see beautiful, fertile light spilling over the land instead of the poisonous, blinding vileness of the red sun from the corrupted layer of reality they came from.
It was something they cherished... but while they enjoyed it, had to ensure they didn't let themselves grow too used to it. Because when they did, returning to the Ragnarok-shrouded world was all the more painful, took all the longer to adjust back to from the comforting days and luxurious, utopian nights of this hallowed Looking Glass Equestria. Instead, it was better to treat this world like a dream, enjoying the slice of Heaven... but remembering, too, that they would have to wake up, and return to reality, and it always came too soon for both ponies.
Scrivener smiled as they flew along, letting himself be enraptured with the colors, the sights, the sounds, the feelings, as Luna arched her back ahead of him, her ephemeral mane and tail blowing back through the windy air as she sighed in relief, emotions and instincts and random feelings twisting back and forth between the two. The engraved black pearl swayed around her neck, lightly bouncing against her breast as Scrivener's new collar glinted around his, warm and comfortable and oddly soft despite being made of metal as his leathery wings flapped.
He could a building rumble in the distance, and he glanced up at the blue sky above, studying the white clouds that were both close and far before he frowned as the rumbling grew louder, absently glancing to the side... and then his eyes widened in surprise as he spotted an enormous dragon only a few hundred feet away, covered in armor-like blue scales and snarling as an icy mist poured out from the sides of its jaws, eyes glinting like diamonds as the earth pony let out a raw shout.
Luna's head snapped to the side immediately as electricity surged through her mane, her eyes widening before she snarled as she dropped into a dive, sending a mental command to Scrivener Blooms, and the earth pony lunged after her, letting her instincts drive him. The world was beautiful here, yes, but they had both relaxed too much, both forgotten that unlike the Equestria they had come from, that elegant beauty often went side-by-side with wild danger.
The dragon shot towards them, hungry and eager: the difference between them and the dragons of old Equestria wasn't a lack of intelligence, or the sharpened hunting instincts... but the fact that most of them had only known ponies as tasty snacks from over a thousand years ago. To this dragon, they were likely just flying meat, and there was only one way to convince the beast otherwise.
It twisted with surprising grace to dive after them as Luna and Scrivener skidded along the treetops, and then Luna flicked her horn as it glowed brightly, as the beast flapped its wings and shot after them, gaining rapidly... then yelped in surprise as vines and thorny brambles burst upwards from the canopy just below, seizing around its enormous body and lashing across its wings. It was more shocked than hurt, but the thick vines and tapers refused to tear and the dragon's wings were quickly bound, stopped in mid-flap as it hissed and half-lunged forwards before collapsing with another yelp into the thick forest below.
"Scrivener, encircle!" Luna shouted, and Scrivy winced but nodded at the order, twisting away from her and flying back up into the air as the winged unicorn spun around and hovered easily, making herself a clear target as the dragon roared in frustration before cold mist burst up in a wave from the hole in the canopy. Snow and frost settled over the trees around it as Luna grimaced in distaste, leaning forwards as her eyes narrowed balefully: they couldn't simply outrun a dragon this large, and she refused to hide quivering in the forest.
A moment later, the icy fog burst apart as the dragon lunged back into the skies, wings flapping as chunks of broken vine and ice fell from its body, and it seemed surprised to see Luna waiting calmly for it, halting its flight and hovering warily before the winged unicorn leaned forwards and shouted: "Listen to me, oversized lizard! If thou values thine existence, fleeing or parlay would be the commendable choice of action: but if thou does not, feel free to attack me with all thy worth."
The dragon frowned at her, then it barked something back in an unintelligible language, and Luna grumbled under her breath at this and rolled her eyes... then winced when the dragon suddenly snapped its head forwards with a rough hacking sound, and a volley of icy slugs of frozen saliva shot at the winged unicorn, the equine wincing and flicking her horn to the side as a barrier of blue energy formed in front of her.
The ice pellets bounced off this, but the dragon was quick to shoot forwards itself, greedily opening jaws that could swallow her whole in one bite... but Luna only snarled as her barrier vanished and she lunged to meet the enormous reptile, and the beast had a moment to blink at the unexpected maneuver before Luna's front hooves slammed down on the end of its nose, snapping its jaws loudly, painfully shut before she charged along its features, digging her hooves viciously against its face as it squawked and arched its back before leaping down onto the back of its neck and slamming both hooves firmly into the back of its skull.
The dragon lurched forwards, eyes bulging as it gave a roar of mixed fury, pain, and humiliation, and Luna grinned as she leapt off the creature's back, looking over her shoulder a moment before Scrivener's instincts called to her sharply, and she looked hurriedly frontwards just in time to see the creature's tail twisting upwards, striking her with a glancing blow that knocked her off balance. She cursed in pain as she was sent hurtling through the air, one of her wings bending slightly and refusing to catch the wind as the dragon spun around and then lunged at her with a snarl, batting her savagely down into the trees... and in the distance, Scrivener arched his back in pain, dropping towards the trees as he grabbed at his ribs and muttered: "Yep. I recognize that feeling by now."
Luna groaned and shook her head from where she had crashed amidst the boughs of a large tree, cursing under her breath as the shadow of the dragon passed over her as it looked back and forth, and then the huge reptile twisted around before taking a deep breath and leaning down as it vomited out a gout of icy mist, tracing the freezing cloud back and forth over the trees as it passed them and covering everything beneath it in frost and snow.
The winged unicorn winced and cursed, shoving herself out of the tree with enough force the snap the large branches she had landed in, and she grimaced as she skidded over the ground below before dropping low and bowing her horn to the earth, concentrating as her mane and tail swirled, then twisted and transformed, the stars throughout it glowing brighter and pulsing in rhythm as it became an effervescent sapphire dome around her. She hissed in frustration as she felt the icy breath passing over her all the same, feeling frost crawling along her body as a dome of ice formed rapidly over the barrier she had created... and then her eyes flashed the moment she felt the terrible mist pass, and she lunged to her hooves before shooting upwards, ice dome shattering around her and ephemeral locks bursting back apart as she tore through the frozen roof of the trees and rammed herself into the stomach of the dragon.
It gagged loudly, eyes bulging in shock as it began to lean forwards before Luna whistled loudly, then shot beneath it and twisted up in front of the beast. The dragon's eyes followed her as it snarled, opening its jaws as its head stretched upwards after her, Luna flying just out of reach of its claws and teeth before she winked... and for a moment, the beast looked confused before Scrivener Blooms simply rammed himself into the back of its skull, and the dragon's head was knocked forwards with another yelp and the earth pony winced as he flailed madly at the air to try and regain flight.
Before the dragon could recover, Luna quickly shot in, twisting herself elegantly and landing one final, traumatizing kick to the softened-up spot at the back of the dragon's head just as it began to raise itself back up... and the dragon gave one last, dumb wheeze before it fell forwards and crashed into the half-frozen forest below, sending up a burst of snow and broken chunks of wood and plant as Luna huffed and glared down at the fallen, prone giant, the dragon not unconscious but laying in a stupefied daze as a bit of drool leaked down its chin, bleeding profusely from several large, hoof-shaped indents in the back of its head as the winged unicorn snapped: "Irksome beast! I should break every bone in thy body!"
"Luna, seriously. You just beat the dragon up, that should be enough for one day. Please leave it alone." Scrivener said tiredly as he managed to fly up beside her, then he winced and rubbed absently at his shoulder. "Also, I wish you'd stop ordering me to act like a living cannonball."
"Thou art large, ponderous, and weighty with both thine body and thine thoughts. I can think of no better living ammunition." Luna replied calmly, and Scrivy sighed a bit, then winced when the female easily glided down and dropped in front of the dragon, turning to face it with a glare that made the much-larger reptile quail a little as Scrivener awkwardly followed the female to the ground. "I shall speak in a language thou understands, ugly beast."
The dragon looked at her dumbly, then watched as Luna's horn glowed and ice formed across the ground in front of her, before rising up in two crude sculptures: one of the dragon, and one of a winged unicorn, both roughly the same size. Luna flicked her horn, and the dragon and the unicorn reached out, hoof calmly shaking claw in obvious companionship, and the dragon snorted at this, glowering at her moodily.
Luna looked up with a smile in response to this, however, then flicked her horn again, and the dragon sculpture roared silently at the winged unicorn of ice, which reared back a bit... and then the sculpture of the winged unicorn lunged forwards and smashed the dragon sculpture into bits and pieces, stomping it savagely into the ground, and the living dragon now paled slightly as Luna leaned forwards with a sharp grin. "I see thou better understands my offer. Now, cur, make thy choice."
Luna flicked her horn, and the ice sculpture melted back into the ground before she stepped forwards and rose a hoof... and the dragon glowered at her, beginning to open its jaws, but the winged unicorn glared in response as her eyes took on a faint ivory glow, electricity sparking through her mane, and the dragon winced a bit at the malevolence that radiated off her before it finally awkwardly rose one enormous claw and gently, carefully grasped her foreleg. Luna nodded firmly... and then the dragon suddenly yanked forwards as it opened its jaws, and Scrivener winced in shock as Luna was tossed into the creature's mouth before its teeth slammed shut around her.
The dragon leaned forwards, hissing through its teeth with a grimace, and icy fog blasted out between the cage of its ivory fangs as Scrivener cursed in shock and staggered backwards, feeling frostbite spreading over his own body as he felt Luna's pain and surprise from inside the creature's maw... and then he winced and turned, sprinting hurriedly away from the dragon as it began to clamber to its claws as the emotions in his mind roiled from agony into rage.
The enormous reptile began to growl... and then its eyes bulged before it leaned forwards with a shriek as Luna ripped through the front of its mouth, teeth shattering apart into white confetti as she spun around with a snarl, her body marred with frostbite, bruises, shallow wounds and crawling tapers of ice as she shouted furiously, mane rumbling blue flames and eyes glowing ivory: "Oversized coward!"
The dragon stared at her stupidly, drooling and bleeding, its front teeth missing before Luna spun around and rammed into its head with enough force to drive its skull to the ground, and it yelped as Scrivy spun around and winced at the sight that followed, as lightning crackled through the air and Luna's hooves, horn, and body smashed against the enormous beast's. The thrashing of the creature would have been comic if not for the sheer anger radiating from Luna, and yet Scrivener couldn't help but laugh a little all the same, part-admiring, part-horrified, part-worried as he sat and then winced a bit as the dragon attempted to take flight, only for Luna to lift a fallen log with telekinesis and smash it firmly into the dragon's wing, making it flop awkwardly back to the ground so she could resume beating on it.
Finally, the dragon lay mangled but alive, wheezing loudly and twitching a little, barely-conscious as Luna grouchily stood beside its head, slamming her hoof into its skull with every word she grumbled. "And that is why we do not betray our betters when they offer us a deal. Is this understood?"
She accented the last with an extra-hard swing, and the dragon's head twitched as it wheezed in response, eyes rolling madly before it trembled violently when Luna stepped away and then spat to the side, looking disgusted and frustrated as Scrivener awkwardly strode up beside her, glancing over her carefully. Luna looked moodily back at him, and then she huffed and asked shortly: "And why did thou not help?"
"Because I did not want to get caught in the middle of the fight between the dragon and the Valkyrie. Not when there's lightning and ice shooting everywhere and you're in blind-pummel mode." Scrivener said delicately, and Luna grumbled a bit before the earth pony sighed, then awkwardly stepped forwards and firmly booted the dragon in the head, making it twitch more out of fear than pain. "Better?"
"A little." Luna mumbled, and then she sighed a bit and winced, glancing carefully down over herself, at her bruised and aching form. "Look at me, Scrivener Blooms, I am a mess. Thou too art a mess. We must return home and heal. Worse still, I believe I have lost some of the supplies for Odin, and I fear he will lecture me. I do not like to be lectured."
"I know, Luna, I know. We'll run out to the Strange Ones again tomorrow if we have to." Scrivener paused, then he glanced awkwardly towards the beaten dragon, slowly drawing his eyes along it with a bit of a smile. "I'm glad you're going to let it live."
"'Tis no point in killing him after such a severe pummeling, and he will serve now as a good example to the other dragons not to cross me. Assuming they are not as unfathomably stupid as this creature." Luna grumbled, then she kicked it one last time before nodding and turning with a mutter, looking at her torn satchel and shaking her head briefly. "Come, Scrivy. To Ponyville. Then to rest. Damnable creature."
Luna ran forwards a few paces, then leapt to the air with a wince, her wings sore, her body aching, the wind like a knife grinding against her bruised and wounded form as Scrivener followed quickly, flying side-by-side with her as he gazed at her with concern, apology, and gentle recrimination, and Luna smiled faintly as she looked back with much the same in her eyes, thoughts, emotions, images swirling between them as her mane sparked faintly. The dark and raw splotches of frostbite and bruising stood out all the clearer over her frame as they flew together, and Scrivener wished silently that he could have done more... but Luna only shook her head, replying in silence that she should have been more cautious.
The two faced forwards, and Scrivy wondered again quietly on the nature of things, of their relationship, as he reached up and touched the warm, calming collar around his neck, and Luna looked over at him with embarrassment. She could feel his worries, his concerns, and knew they had to play themselves out... just as she felt stupid, most of all, for taking a mighty foe for granted and almost getting them both maimed, if not killed. The wounds she bore were painful, but it was her pride and heart that ached worst of all.
The two ponies flew onwards in quiet through the air until they reached Ponyville and touched down in the square in front of the library, Luna grimacing a bit and shaking her head as she muttered: "And now to find either the old lecher or a place where we can drop... oh, I am too tired for this."
Luna looked moodily towards the library, then flicked her horn to send the door flying open, and there was a grunt of surprise from inside before Illyria strode into the doorway, the Nibelung looking moodily out at them with a book dangling from one hand. He glared distastefully at the two, drawing his eyes over their bruised bodies, and then he shook his head slowly before saying grouchily: "Well, Brynhild, so much for your grand physical superiority, it would seem."
"Oh shut up, dwarf, and be thankful that I am too exhausted to beat thee right now, for my mood is foul enough I would risk the lecture from Odin to pummel thee." Luna replied tiredly, and Illyria winced a bit at this before Luna's horn glowed as she glanced towards Scrivener, and the satchels on his body lifted themselves free and then floated over to the dwarf, thrusting themselves towards him. He barely caught them in his arms, then wheezed and staggered a little under the weight with a curse. "This is what Odin requested. As I am also too tired to lie, tell him that I will retrieve the rest tomorrow if there is a problem. There was an incident with a large dragon that had to be put back in its place."
Illyria looked at them moodily, but then he sighed as he carefully hefted the satchels, cursing again under his breath and muttering: "Very well, very well. Please do not think I am some lackey, however, I do this only as a gesture of... amiability."
"Thou art about as amiable as a porcupine with herpes." Luna said grouchily, and Illyria looked stunned by this response before the winged unicorn grumbled and turned, jerking her head to Scrivener Blooms. "Come, let us be off. I require relaxation, Scrivener Blooms. And to finally heal these accursed aches on my body."
Scrivener gave her a soft look, but the winged unicorn only grimaced and shook her head, plainly telling him she wanted to be back at home before she took care of her injuries... and he only nodded after a moment, then turned to follow as she left, both of them ignoring Illyria as he shouted some irritated half-goodbye, half-profanity at their backs.
They took to the air again after a few moments to shorten their trip across the Everfree Forest, and when they touched down almost an hour later, Luna staggered with a curse of pain... then smiled faintly when Scrivener gently caught her against his body, looking towards him and saying softly: "Wretched creature. I do not know why thou was so worried about the dragon... it's breath would have been nothing more than a taste of home to thee."
"Not if home is where the heart is. My heart was never exactly in North Neigh, after all." Scrivener replied softly, and Luna laughed despite herself before she straightened and gently shoved him away, then glanced at him awkwardly as he added quietly: "Come on, let's get your wounds healed up. You can't keep walking around like that, Luna. Frostbite is nasty."
"Aye, it hurts more than I expected it to." Luna grimaced a bit, then turned her eyes to Scrivy, flicking her horn upwards... and the male winced and arched his back as his wings dissolved, and the sapphire winged unicorn gave a bit of a smile to him as she said quietly: "Come then, Scrivener Blooms. Back inside."
Luna turned around, flicking her horn, and the door to their cottage swung open. Luna made her way to the den to flop down in her usual spot on the bedding with a grimace, and Scrivener instead headed to the kitchen first, putting on coffee before he returned to Luna's side as she fidgeted a bit and mumbled: "Life can be wicked, Scrivener Blooms. It truly frustrates me so at times like this."
"It's okay, Luna. We can be wicked too." Scrivener said gently, leaning down and kissing her forehead, then the side of her horn, and Luna smiled softly before she made a face when the male said mildly: "Now come on. You might heal pretty fast but you're in rough shape. I'll help you heal yourself."
"Oh, thou should do it all." Luna mumbled, burying her face against the bedding, and Scrivener rolled his eyes before he concentrated as he looked at her... and Luna twitched as a distinct mental image of the earth pony glaring at her filled her mind, cursing under her breath and childishly wrapping her forelegs around her head. "There is nothing thou can do or say to motivate me to move, I am too sore and too tired to do anything but assume thine role for a little while and whine and complain pointlessly about every little thing."
"If you don't at least sit up I'm not going to get you coffee. In fact, I'll sit here, just out of range, and drink my coffee in front of you." Scrivener said dryly, and Luna gave him a horrified look as she dropped her forelegs away from her face, but the earth pony only grinned a bit at this, saying kindly: "I learned from the best, dearest."
Luna grumbled under her breath, then she finally sighed in resignation as she carefully shoved herself up to her hooves, grumbling: "And thou learned far too well at that, it seems. Wicked and evil and monstrous Scrivener Blooms. Very well, I am sitting up, but thou can do the rest of the work."
"Alright Luna, but I'm tired too, so concentrate just a little." Scrivener replied softly, and the winged unicorn grumbled but then nodded, her horn beginning to glow... and Scrivener concentrated, drawing his eyes over her wounds as he sifted slowly through her thoughts and memories, gently guiding her magic as he powered her arcane talents with his own strength and concentration.
Luna closed her eyes, and her head slowly moved in synchronization with Scrivener's as he leaned back and forth, studying her form and her wounds, healing her frostbite and her scrapes first as he passed over the bruises. She winced a bit, flinching now and then as magic and injury burned at each other before the pain was numbed out, and Scrivener smiled awkwardly before he carefully reached forwards and guided her to lay down on her stomach so he could look over her back and flank, healing the icy scouring here and there as well as the winged unicorn moved pliantly for him. She only smiled faintly, concentrating on the link shared with her husband, feeling like they were one entity for the moment with the flow of their souls... and then finally, she settled with a sigh, and her eyes fluttered open as Scrivener grunted and flopped down beside her on his side, the two looking quietly at one-another before she said softly: "Thou didst not heal any of thine own injuries."
"They're just reflection wounds, Luna... they'll fade faster than yours will, and healing you has fixed the worst of the damage." Scrivener replied softly, and he smiled a bit as he absently tested his own ribs, saying quietly: "I just wish that our bones didn't fracture at the same time."
"Aye, 'tis annoying." Luna smiled back despite herself, then she reached a hoof up, the two quietly pressing hoof-to-hoof as they studied one another silently, their gazes locking and their minds trading a swirl of thoughts and images and affections.
Slowly, they leaned in closer, and then their mouths met for a moment in a gentle, slow kiss... before Luna's eyes opened and glared to the side at a loud tapping, and their mouths parted as Scrivener winced and flopped back against the bedding while Luna sat up and shouted at Discombobulation's bottle: "Do not ruin my romantic moments, foul creature, for I have just been eaten by a dragon!"
Discombobulation stared at this from where he was waist-deep in cola, a single hand raised... and then slowly he lowered himself to hide mostly in the liquid, only his head sticking free as Luna glared at him, one of her eyes twitching before she sat back and muttered grouchily: "I suppose that while I am up I shall fetch the coffee, Scrivener Blooms. Do me a favor, and attend to whatever the Draconequus desires."
She stormed into the kitchen, firmly checking the counter as she passed it with enough force to make the bottle rattle a bit, and Discombobulation winced before he straightened as Scrivener sighed and strode over to the bottle, looking awkwardly down at it as he said lamely: "Sorry. But we did actually encounter a dragon, and. It did attempt to eat her. Hence the... yes. What is it, Bob?"
The chimerical creature looked up at them moodily, and then he rubbed absently at his face before raising two fingers. Scrivy tilted his head, and Bob pushed them insistently towards him, and the male sighed a little, saying finally: "Let me guess, charades? Two words?"
Discombobulation nodded seriously, then he snapped his fingers, turning a purplish color before gesturing at himself as Scrivener stared... then he said lamely: "Twilight Sparkle was here?"
Discombobulation held up a finger as his mouth fell open, then he glared balefully at him before hitting the glass... and pausing at this. Then he nodded suddenly, rubbing his hand firmly over the wall of the blue tinted bottle, and the glass became crystal clear instead of sapphire as Scrivener realized that Discombobulation wasn't purple, he was- "Red. Red, right?"
Discombobulation made a seesawing gesture, and Scrivy tilted his head before the Draconequus held up two fingers as both he and the glass returned to their normal coloration, and Scrivener grunted, figuring it was better to play along before he resisted the urge to look up when Luna cursed over something. Instead, he kept his eyes focused on Bob as he put his hands together and bowed, looking very serious and solemn, and Scrivener said slowly: "You're... I don't know what you're doing."
The creature slapped its forehead, then leaned forwards and scrawled a flurry of short images over the glass: what looked roughly like a brain, an owl, a one-eyed face... and Scrivener settled on the last, saying dumbly: "Odin, but... oh, wisdom?"
"Red wisdom. What folly does the creature speak?" Luna said irritably, and Scrivener glanced at her as she suckled absently at her foreleg, and the male looked down at his own to see the skin had faintly reddened, but it wasn't serious enough to have been carried between their bodies. Then he gave her a flat look, and she cleared her throat and mumbled: "The coffee-glass was inhospitable."
"That's why I always tell you to use the handle on the carafe, Luna." Scrivener said gently, and Luna glared at him moodily before he returned his eyes to the bottle, and he frowned a bit as he saw Discombobulation had etched an editing symbol on the side of his bottle. "Cycle, you mean? Horses of Heaven, Bob, if you knew useful information you'd be a genius."
The Draconequus crossed his arms moodily as he sat back on top of the cola, and Scrivener smiled despite himself... and then he clicked his tongue as he understood, looking down with a wider smile. "I think I get it. He saw Scarlet Sage."
"Good." Luna's own mood immediately brightened, and both she and Scrivy shared a look before they gazed down at the Draconequus, who looked pleased even as he quirked an eyebrow curiously towards them. "Aye, Bob, Scarlet Sage tends to appear here often when Scrivener Blooms and I are present in this world... otherwise, she seems to spend her time with friends and kin in Ponyville, but whenever we are here, her spirit... it tries to find us. Tries to spend time with us... and... her presence comforts me in ways that are hard to describe. She makes me feel like... less of a failure."
Scrivener smiled a bit at this, and then Luna shook her head and glanced awkwardly towards the two mugs of coffee, and they floated into the air before she headed into the den room. "Come, Scrivener Blooms, and relax with me, if Discombobulation has nothing further to note. Nothing further that I would care about, I mean."
The earth pony rolled his eyes in entertainment, and then he shrugged a bit as Bob looked up at him mildly. "Well, at least she's honest, right? Anyway, don't worry about it. You may see other Pales here from time-to-time too, but they mean no harm. Do you remember when you saw Scarlet Sage, though?"
Bob shrugged at this, then he held both arms straight up before lowering one slightly to the side, and Scrivener realized after a moment he was miming a clock before the earth pony smiled a bit and nodded. "Thanks, Bob. Let us know if you need anything."
Discombobulation nodded, then he flopped back down on the cola, making it ripple like a waterbed as he laid on the surface of the liquid, and Scrivener turned to join Luna on the bedding. Blue flames danced in the fireplace as she lay with her mug of coffee between her hooves, sipping at it thoughtfully as she murmured quietly: "Scrivener Blooms, I feel... I do not know. A little tired, but I wish to do things I have not the energy for. A little lonely, but at the same time, I know that I am never alone, and never feel the same solitude and loneliness that I once did thanks to thee. Still, I look forwards to when we can see our friends in body again... they are more fun than thou art."
"I agree." Scrivener gave her an amused look, and Luna rolled her eyes and huffed, headbutting him lightly and making him flinch back a bit before he sipped slowly at his coffee and added mildly: "You know, it's perfectly okay that you want to spend time with ponies other than me. I like spending time with ponies apart from you, too."
"Thou art a liar." Luna said pompously, and Scrivener rolled his eyes before he nudged her firmly with his shoulder, and the winged unicorn grumbled a bit and nodded as she said moodily: "And perhaps, aye, but still. We are one, the same blood flows within our veins, the same heart inside our chest, the same soul fills us both. It seems strange to me, to do something without thyself along for the ride."
Scrivener Blooms smiled despite himself at this, tilting his head towards her and saying softly: "Well, long before I met you, Luna, I wanted to do stuff without me all the time. Even now, I still wish I could do stuff without me along for the ride. By me I mean me, not you, so we're clear and you can't hit me too hard."
Luna rolled her eyes in entertainment at this, sipping slowly at her coffee and giving a slight smile as she shook her head. "I figured such, worry not, daydreamer. There will be much to adjust to in this Looking Glass Equestria, won't there? Perhaps even ourselves will require... certain adjustments."
She halted, then turned and drew her eyes down to the thin collar decorating Scrivener's neck, and smiled a little as she reached her hoof out to stroke slowly along this, saying quietly: "Aye. A world to adjust to indeed, but adjust to it we shall. No matter what happens, no matter who we face, no matter what we must do, Scrivener Blooms... we shall rebuild all that was lost. I promise this, to thee, to myself, and most of all, to those souls we have managed to pull across the gap..."
She closed her eyes, then lowered her head for a moment against his neck, and Scrivener tilted his own towards her, feeling her mane swaying gently against him, ephemeral locks kissing up along his features as she murmured: "There is much work still to be done, but we have much time to do it in, and I feel only like lazing for the rest of today and tonight. Perhaps we shall even be fortunate and catch a glimpse of our daughter, here or there... perhaps others will visit us, or perhaps we will simply relax in our quiet solitude, comfortable together in this deep place with little on our agenda for the time ahead."
"Just no more dragon fighting, right?" Scrivener smiled a bit, and Luna grunted as she buried her face deeper against the side of his neck, and he wrapped a foreleg around her quietly, squeezing her a bit closer as he glanced up towards the sapphire flames rollicking in the fireplace. As he watched the fire, as Luna pressed closer, he felt the strangely-warm collar around his neck seem to pulse with life as the black pearl that hung from the winged unicorn's gently burned lightly against her breast, helping drive everything from the minds of the two except for thoughts of the other, assuring them that no matter what the future held, they would always have one another and their love. |
Metempsychosis | Wolf Hunt | Chapter Twenty: Wolf Hunt
~BlackRoseRaven
A week passed in relative peace and quiet: the most exciting event that occurred was returning to the Strange One village to fetch more supplies. Odin had taken the loss of the other materials in stride, and had given them an extra day to rest so that he could take another look through what they had available and append a few more supplies to the new list.
It had gone as creepily and smoothly as the first time: the only difference was that the Strange One artisan had found them just as they were about to leave, and presented them with a gemstone. It was a white pearl that had been carefully cut into a crescent, then layered on either side with black onyx so the layered gemstone formed a large oval. When inserted into the hollow in Scrivener's collar, however, the symbol was all the clearer: the crescent moon, the slice of white pearl seeming to glow as it was framed by the black onyx on either side of it.
It locked into place so tightly that it didn't wiggle around even when jarred... and Scrivener wondered dumbly how the artisan had managed such a snug fit as Luna had stared, but before either of them could thank the Strange One, he had vanished. And more than ever, the collar had felt comforting, natural, warm, resting low on Scrivener's neck, and more than once he caught Luna admiring it on him... which made him grin at her mix of egoism, love, and appreciation.
Apart from that, however, there was little of note: they spent their time working on their cottage, entertaining rare guests, and discussing with Roma, Greece, Illyria and Odin how best to use Valthrudnir's cards. Roma and Greece, after inspecting the cards, studying the enchantments, and recording several pages of findings, both concluded that two of the cards in conjunction with Illyria's magnification devices would be more than enough to achieve their goal of restoring the souls to flesh, especially when backed by Luna's magic power.
It was a surprisingly-bland week... but considering that most weeks they spent were made up of battling monsters across a Hell-ravaged world, bland was a nice change of pace even for the battle-lusting Valkyrie, who was able to indulge her nicer side and enjoy what for the two ponies had become a rare treat: the chores of normal life spent side-by-side. Things like Luna demanding to be taught to bake cookies and the resulting, horribly-burned unnameable things that they had to pry off the melted tray, and Scrivy spending his nights reading to her, and Luna painting as her husband transcribed stories new and old.
They saw the occasional Pale here and there, including the shade of Scarlet Sage, who sat with them for several nights... and it was strangely comforting to have her presence nearby, the filly smiling at her parents and watching them quietly as they looked back at her, talked to her, comforted her and each other. She would silently encourage them, urging them forwards, giving them more hope for the future, and it did a world for her adopted parents that the child was remaining here with them, even if both wondered from time-to-time if the girl's real parents were out there, Pales aimlessly searching for their daughter across this new and beautiful and strange Equestria.
Now, Scrivener Blooms and Luna were both standing in Ponyville's open square, revitalized and strong. Luna had a thick rawhide sheath on her back, the butt of her telescopic spear sticking out of this, and Scrivener wore a new pair of glasses. Around their necks, collar rested and black pearl swayed, and Odin looked meditatively back and forth between the two as he rubbed at the side of his face before saying finally: "I still believe this is folly, Brynhild. The world you came from approaches collapse... that layer of reality is dying, and you have already saved many souls. I will not stop you if this is what you truly desire, to return to that broken layer and continue business as usual, but I must implore you to be careful... to watch for signs and dangers, to be wary of any possible breaches in reality, and to not delay in retreating immediately to this world if the symptoms of collapse are even hinted at. You do not want to be trapped in nothingness for the rest of eternity, which not even I can save you from."
"Thou cannot save me from many things, Odin. Worry not, if I fall into nothingness, Scrivener Blooms and I shall merely build a new home there, at least safe from thy endless badgering." Luna replied mildly, and Odin rubbed at his temples but didn't respond to this obvious attempt on his patience. It made the winged unicorn look almost disappointed, and then she huffed and turned, saying easily: "Come, Scrivener. This place wears on me. Let us go."
"Wait, I'm not quite done yet." Odin said irritably, holding up a hand, and Luna groaned before she glared over her shoulder at him as the once-god asked seriously: "Have you tended to the Velite? What about the zebra, have you spoken with her?"
"Oh, as if I would go about ignoring them. Well, Pollen, perhaps, but either way I have seen that she knows her way around my home and how to take care of Discombobulation, and she will stay mostly out of the way. If she wanders into Ponyville, though, do be kind, lecher. Thou of all people should know what 'tis like to be trapped in a shape less-amicable than one desires." Luna said pointedly, but Odin only crossed his arms, continuing to look at her mildly. "As to Zecora, I kicked down the door of her hut earlier. She was not home, so I wrote her a message. I wrote it on the floor, in the most expensive-looking ink I could find. I reflect now that considering the speed with which she built this hut and apparently organized it into a replica of her old home, I should have simply burned it all down. The mess I made will be far too easy for her to remedy."
"I see you take losing as well as you ever did." Odin remarked, and Luna huffed at him grouchily. The once-god gave a wry smile, however, then he nodded and said quietly: "Do not worry, I will not interfere with either of them. I have learned to trust your instincts on these matters... and that if you need help, you will ask."
Luna quickly looked away at this, but then she smiled a little as she met Scrivener's eyes, and the two nodded to each other: the rest had done them both good, after all, and while they had still had more than one 'nightmare 'over the past week, Scrivener felt more in control of himself than he had in a long time, and his mind felt settled, with fewer visions taking sudden hold. Perhaps it was because of the charms in the collar and the unknown magic in the gemstone, or perhaps it was just because they had been able to relax and calm down after spending so much time being soaked in corruption and violence. "Yes, Odin. We shall... if it is necessary."
Odin looked thoughtfully from one to the other... then he finally nodded and gestured outwards with one hand, and Luna grumbled as she turned around and began to stride through the square, Scrivener falling into step beside her and the once-god following behind them as he said thoughtfully: "Very well, then. But permit me to accompany you and help you open the Bifrost, then. You can allow a little bit of aid there at least, Brynhild, I know it is a more-complex process than it is in your corrupted Equestria."
"Only because thou refuses to provide another channeling altar." Luna complained loudly, but Odin only smiled indulgently at her, which vexed the winged unicorn all the more as she glowered over her shoulder at him. "Do not look at me so. And do not stare at my flank. It is not for thee, it is for my husband. And possibly others if I say so, but never thee."
Scrivener sighed and dropped his head forwards as Odin rolled his eyes, muttering: "By Mimir's head, can we not walk in peace for one lonely time, Brynhild? I wish only for peace between us, or at least a semblance of it-"
"And thou art getting a semblance of it, old cyclops. Forget not that if the urge took me I could and gladly would pummel thee into oblivion." Luna retorted over her shoulder, and then she grinned when Odin made a face at her. "Oh, thou may want to doubt it, but look at thee, an old lecher sustaining himself off of a dwindling supply of ambrosia, whilst I am a winged unicorn with a Valkyrie's soul. Are thou sure thou would once again let thy pride speak before thy mind thinks, and wager thyself against me? I promise not to kill thee either way, Odin... I am not that kind."
"Oh, believe me, Brynhild, I would never accuse you of kindness. Arrogance, breeding hostility, and many other things, but never kindness." Odin replied moodily, and then he sighed and lowered his head, nodding with a grumble. "And I... acknowledge that I am not the warrior I once was. And one day all too soon I really will be nothing but a doddering old man, lingering in Valhalla... I hope I die before that day. I can think of nothing more shameful than dying comfortably in my own bed."
Luna looked awkwardly over her shoulder for a moment, seeming torn... and then she sighed and said finally: "Well, worry not, old lecher. I am sure that with so much still in chaos and thou refusing to retire quietly to thy rocking chair, thou will die horribly in battle. Perhaps the Norns will even favor us both, and I shall slaughter thee for making some rude remark or for thee allowing thy lecherous hands to wander where they don't belong."
"Brynhild, you are not attractive to me as a pony, you do understand this, correct?" Odin said mildly, and then he winced when Luna skidded to a halt and gave him a horrible look over her shoulder, Scrivener clearing his throat awkwardly as he winced and stepped carefully to the side.
Silence spiraled out for a few moments, and then Luna huffed and tilted her head imperiously upwards before storming forwards, and Scrivener sighed in relief as he fell back into pace beside her even as her mane and tail sparked, the female muttering: "Perhaps thou will die sooner rather than later if thou keeps this up, so-called 'God of Wisdom.' Truly, it is as if thou wants me to slaughter thee. Thou should keep thine foolish beak shut."
Odin looked tiredly up to the skies for patience, then simply shrugged at the sun overhead, muttering: "I am learning this, Brynhild, at least when it comes to you, worry not. Perhaps we should just enjoy the day's fine air."
"Perhaps we should." Luna said grumpily, and she shot a look at Scrivener, who sighed and looked back pleadingly, but she only gave him a sulky huff, and the male grumbled under his breath before he strode forwards and closer to her so she could drop her head firmly down against the side of his neck, mumbling irritably to herself as Odin looked moodily at the two, then back up at the sky as he walked with his gloved hands behind his back.
They continued in relative quiet to the field where they had first entered this layer of reality, and Luna loosened up a bit, gazing back and forth as Scrivener checked over himself automatically and then sat back on his haunches, adjusting his glasses. Odin, lastly, seemed preoccupied with his own thoughts as he stayed back on the trail, still looking towards the sky, and then Luna cleared her throat loudly, and the once god blinked before he coughed a few times and smiled awkwardly as he shook his head quickly. "I... apologize. My mind is not what it used to be... and once, I was vain enough to think I would never suffer the negatives of 'growing old...'"
"Aye, Odin, we have heard this story before. Perhaps thou should sit back under a tree, then, and watch whilst Scrivener Blooms and I open the Bifrost." the winged unicorn said moodily, but Odin only shook his head again as he reached into his coat, producing his flask and opening it to sip slowly at the contents with a grimace, and Luna looked at him for a few moments before she asked in a voice that was curious and surprisingly-polite: "Tell me, Odin. What effect would drinking ambrosia have upon a normal pony? Or say on a pony such as myself or my husband?"
"For a normal pony, it would grant them speed, strength and vitality. Perhaps permanent, but the ambrosia's effects upon a mortal are difficult to predict... some handle it better than others, a rare few die from their exposure to it. For you and Scrivener, it would likely be the same sort of effect it has on me... a temporary boost to strength of mind and body. Again, though, it is hard to say... and I would rather you two not help yourselves to my ambrosia to find out." Odin replied meditatively, then he carefully screwed the lid back on the flask and slipped it back into his vest. "In larger quantities, ambrosia carries more permanent effects... but it loses its ability to extend one's life. Instead, it often shortens the lifespan instead from so much energy being infused into a being at once. At least, that is the rumor."
"Thou should gorge thyself upon thy stash and discover if this is true or not, then." Luna grumbled, and Odin rolled his eyes before the winged unicorn turned around and said finally: "Very well, then. Scrivener Blooms, let us begin tracing the runes while the old cyclops prepares himself for a strain."
Scrivy smiled awkwardly as Odin only rolled his eye, rubbing his hands together slowly, and the two ponies approached a section of the field that seemed as if it had been seared by flames, the grass blackened and the ground splattered with what looked almost like a permanent layering of soot and charcoal. The two ponies traded looks, and then both dipped a hoof into this before they began to trace a rough diagram of runic symbols outwards, forming into a wide double-circle: the area where the base of the Bifrost would be anchored.
Odin watched them curiously, studying the way they moved in near synchronization even as they traced different symbols, and then he nodded slowly when the two stepped away and both lowered their heads forwards in visible concentration. He didn't have to ask what they were doing as he stepped forwards, closing his eyes and putting his own hands together as if to pray as he stood between them, murmuring an incantation in a language forgotten by time as the runes traced in ashes burst into flames and reality around them rippled violently.
The ground inside the circle began to glow, then burst upwards in a wild swirl of flames that twisted forwards and drilled into reality itself, forming a tunnel in the sky as the cyclone of fire burst apart and left behind the multicolored rainbow bridge of the Bifrost. Energy twisted over the earth as recoil shocked over the bodies of the two ponies and the once-god, Odin grimacing and grasping at his chest as Luna and Scrivener grit their teeth and arched their backs, faces contorted in that same expression of pleasure-pain as electricity burst through Luna's locks before they dropped their head forwards with gasps of exertion.
But it had been far easier on them with the help of Odin, as he straightened slowly and cracked his back with a grimace, looking moodily over the burning bridge of rainbow light as he muttered: "Rainbows mean many things, you know. And while you ponies have chosen to apply new meanings to them, I think for me they'll always mean bad luck, even if the Bifrost was once a symbol of the Aesir's power."
Luna smiled wryly at this, glancing over Odin measuringly before she turned her eyes back towards the bridge, beginning to stride forwards... and then the once-god stepped suddenly forwards and grasped her shoulder, and Luna glared at him before the falcon-headed being pointed with his free hand, saying sharply: "Wait, look!"
The winged unicorn frowned as she looked back towards the Bifrost, beginning to open her mouth to snap some bad one-liner out at the falcon-headed being... and then her eyes widened as she realized what Odin was pointing at. The colors of the Bifrost were fading and the flames burned gray instead of clear and white... and as she and Scrivener Blooms watched in shock, the flames turned dead black as the multicolored bridge began to twist and writhe like it was a living thing in tremendous pain.
Then Odin grabbed them both, hauling them firmly backwards, and the two ponies were surprised at his strength as they staggered and he said roughly: "Leave. Something is coming across the Bifrost, it could be anything, and I-"
"Will be a snack to it." Luna shrugged him off with a snort of disgust, then she glanced towards Scrivener Blooms, and the pony nodded quickly before the two turned and ran to either corner of the field before spinning around and anchoring themselves, leaving Odin standing in surprise by himself before Luna shouted irritably: "Get out of the middle of the battleground, old idiot, and let us do our job!"
"I am not leaving, Brynhild. I still have some strength left in these old bones." Odin replied calmly even as he spun around and walked to the foot of the road, then turned with a grimace, rubbing his hands together before he looked up with disgust as the Bifrost wrenched itself upwards, the different strings of color twisting apart as an awful hissing rose up from the bridge, black flames bursting over it before cracks spread through the now-colorless gray rainbow. "Not even enough time for one last drink..."
Luna grinned despite herself as she flicked her horn, her spear flying out of the sheath to extend quickly beside her to its full length, and Scrivener Blooms set himself with a curse under his breath before his eyes widened as the Bifrost gave an awful, almost-alive groan... and then it simply exploded in a blast of shadow and pallid radiance, the three wincing back as the tunnel in reality became an awful, cracked rip in the fabric of space and time.
The groaning rose into a scream as a cold, icy wind burst from the shattered hole in reality, terrible white light shining out of it for a moment before something huge and awful and bulky became silhouetted by the radiance... and then a shape smashed into the too-small hole, a head ripping through like the air was trying to birth a monster, like the corrupt Equestria had been but the womb for a beast that now sought a new world to feast upon and destroy... and Fenrir roared and snarled as the Black Wolf of Hell began to rip and gouge at reality itself, scars pulsing over its terrible dark-flame body, black and soulless white eye burning with what seemed like only hatred and hunger as Luna yelled in disbelief and Odin cursed under his breath before cracks spread through the air around the broken hole in the sky.
The tunnel ripped wider, chunks of reality falling like glass shards as the massive monstrosity tore its way into their world with a greedy snarl, dropping out of the sky to crash to the ground and rip its claws into the grasses, leaping forwards so it was only a few feet away from Odin, who staggered backwards at the raw waves of vileness that radiated off the scarred and misshapen beast. It was even more hideous than when Luna had fought it now, black fire burning in thin lines over a body that was covered in that warped blue-red flesh, lipless maw nothing but ivory fangs and broken, jagged teeth that made it somehow all the more fearsome, its missing ears making the monstrosity's features all the more skull-like.
It began to lean down... then looked sharply up instead, gazing at the blue sky, drool dripping from its maw as it dragged its claws against the ground... and beneath it, grass began to rot, bursting into short-lived flame that, the moment it died, left behind not ashes but thick ice... and Luna's eyes blazed with both fury and fear as she began to move forwards... before her eyes widened in horror as another Black Wolf ripped through reality, landing next to Fenrir. This one, too, was missing an ear, covered in red and blue lines of flesh bared through the black-flame fur as it staggered over the ground and strode to Fenrir's right side.
The hole in reality pulsed as another Black Wolf followed, Luna and Scrivener's horror growing as Odin only readied himself calmly, looking disgusted now more than anything else even as the final fourth Black Wolf half-fell out of the rip in reality, landing with a yelp but ignored by the other three that stood forwards, sniffing at the air, the field around them rotting and trembling as the wound in reality quaked and shivered, then finally, slowly began to close... but the worst of the infection of corrupt Equestria had now traveled, in the form of these awful, abhorrent abominations, into their Looking Glass reality. They were living destruction and corruption, greedily sampling the air, unconcerned with the defiance they faced as they slavered and drooled before Fenrir threw his head back and howled, and reality shivered, the clouds in the sky above darkening and lightning crackling through the air before it dropped its head forwards with an eager growl.
Odin faced it, not flinching even as Fenrir barked several times before it lunged towards him... and then leapt easily over the once-god, the falcon-headed being cursing in disgust as the second-largest, scarred Black Wolf roared as it shot past him as well, onto the road heading for Ponyville, and Luna's eyes widened in horror and rage as the last two Black Wolves split up, one running to the right and the other to the left, both barking gleefully as they tore into the trees and left trails of rot where their paws ripped against the earth. Before Luna could lunge for the nearest to her, however, Odin roared in a surprisingly powerful voice of command: "Brynhild, take down Fenrir! I shall deal with Hati, Scrivener Blooms, distract Skoll! The Nibelung will be able to delay Garm at Ponyville!"
There was no time for argument, and no point, as Odin ran with surprising grace to the side, and Luna cursed as she shot towards the road and gave chase to the two wolves now racing towards Ponyville, wings propelling her as fast as she could fly as Scrivener Blooms turned and ran after the last wolf: the omega, the smallest, and thankfully still limping from the wounds it had sustained in the collapse of the Black Baroque as it stagger-ran through the trees... but wounded or not, it was still large and solid enough to crash its way through the forest as if the pines and oaks and ash trees were nothing more than loose building blocks in the way of an angry toddler.
Luna snarled as she shot along the road as the ground shifted and rumbled ominously, cracks ripping here and there through the earth as rocks tore out of the ground and vents of steam burst up, frost rapidly spreading over soil that writhed as if nature itself was trying to scream. Her mane sizzled with electricity as her eyes caught on the two Black Wolves lunging ahead, running side-by-side: Alpha and Beta, gaining, gaining, gaining on Ponyville, and she knew that she couldn't stop them both from reaching the village... just as she knew that if Odin was right about one thing, it was that Garm was dangerous... but Fenrir was the true destroyer, the true living weapon.
As they began to pass into the plains outside the village, Luna put on an extra burst of speed as she angled her spear downwards and then shoved it savagely into the back of Fenrir's neck, and the Black Wolf of Helheim howled in shock more than pain as it reared back, staggering stupidly as Garm skidded to a halt ahead, looking back over its shoulder with a snarl... but even as Luna slammed her hooves into the back of Fenrir's head and quickly tore her spear back and free, the Alpha looked forwards, then barked and snarled at Garm, and the Beta seemed to take it as a command as it growled back before half-turning and continuing on its way.
Fenrir shook its mighty head, the black flames flaring up over its body for a moment before it slowly looked over its shoulder as Luna hovered, and its glaring, now-mismatched eyes seemed to recognize her somehow, the monster snarling as drool dripped from its jaws, and Luna glared back, fearless, enraged, and most of all, determined to destroy these monsters that had invaded her territory, that had come to ravage the paradise she had helped rebuild as her eyes glowed with ivory light and her mane and tail sizzled with blue flame. They stared at one another, bodies flexing and trembling, and then Fenrir began to turn away... and Luna immediately swept her horn to the side as it gave a sharp pulse, and a blast of blue flame erupted over the Black Wolf's side and haunch with enough force to knock it staggering to the side with a yelp of surprise before the winged unicorn shouted: "We have unfinished business, monster! And this time, there is no retreat for either of us!"
Slowly, Fenrir turned towards her as rot and frost spread over the ground beneath its feet... and then the Black Wolf threw its head back and howled, and a wave of awful malevolence ripped through the air, knocking Luna backwards with a wince before she looked down in horror as trees twisted and distorted into gnarled, blackened hulks around them, as the land rotted and frost spilled over the ground, as the simple presence of this abomination ravaged the earth around it with rot and ice... and then the winged unicorn snarled as she flexed and roared: "It will take more than a show of force to make me submit, creature!"
Fenrir snarled at her, running forwards and lunging upwards... and immediately, Luna flew gracefully skywards, avoiding a wild swipe of one of the beast's paws as her eyes flicked over the monster. It bore awful scars and deformities, but no real wounds, no real vulnerabilities she could see, as she quickly dropped to the black eye and shot in towards its cheek... but its jaws immediately snapped at her, making her curse and propel herself quickly backwards, just avoiding the deathtrap of its fangs with a wince before she stabbed her spear fiercely forwards into its nose, and it yelped and staggered backwards, shaking its head wildly back and forth.
It healed fast, too fast, and Luna gritted her teeth before she dropped to the ground, ignoring the ice and shale that crunched beneath her hooves before she ran forwards and smoothly sidestepped when the monster clawed at her, the wolf attempting to backpedal to try and keep up, but Luna was faster as she ran beneath its body, stabbing her spear fiercely upwards in a straight line through the underside of its chest and sending down a hail of black blood. It shrieked and lunged to the side, but again, the wounds healed unnaturally fast, and Luna cursed as she aimed to run beneath it again... only for it to stagger slightly in circle and slam a rear paw backwards into her, knocking her flying.
She crashed and rolled several times on her back as her spear flew to the side, rattled out of her telekinetic grip, and Fenrir spun around before lunging towards her with a roar... but Luna's eyes flashed as she lay on her back, snarling in return as she lashed out wildly with a blast of both telekinetic force and blue flames: it struck the monster directly in its open jaws, searing the inside of its mouth and shattering its ivory fangs, sending chunks of white shrapnel ripping through its throat and muzzle.
It shrieked as it staggered backwards, smoke rising from its maw, the damage catastrophic as it clawed wildly at its own destroyed, gaunt features for a moment, and Luna leapt to her hooves before her eyes widened as Fenrir lashed its claws down, wincing back and expecting some supernatural attack... but instead, it only tore both front paws into the earth, and Luna frowned in surprise before the beast arched its back and hissed as its body rippled, and the winged unicorn looked back and forth as cracks spread through the earth and the circle of destruction widened as the monster's tattered features rapidly regenerated themselves, new teeth ripping into place as it spat out a stream of bile before looking up with a snarl... and Luna's eyes widened in horror as she realized that the beast was drawing strength from the ground itself. It could feed off the life of the planet itself... and the winged unicorn gritted her teeth before Nightmare Moon said coldly in her head: Then perhaps it will not survive catastrophic damage if you take away its source of strength.
"Aye, then thou had best lend me thine powers, Nightmare Moon." Luna said grimly, and inside her, Nightmare Moon gave a strange, dark smile as the winged unicorn grimaced, then winced and lunged backwards as Fenrir went on the attack, its claws ripping down, its jaws snapping and biting savagely after her as she cursed under her breath but concentrated on avoiding the Black Wolf's fury.
She could feel the darkness inside of her pulsing and growing, could feel new energy pushing into muscles that were already strong, could feel a strange and wild plan being injected into her mind, laced with Nightmare Moon's ruthlessness... and Luna grinned, her eyes glowing as her mane and tail boiled, concentrating as her horn began to glow before her eyes flicked to the side as she leapt out of the way and landed by her fallen spear. With merely a thought, the weapon immediately threw itself off the ground and spun once beside her before shooting forwards like a guided missile when Fenrir's head lunged down... and then it shrieked in misery, staggering backwards, as its ivory eye was pierced by the spear, shaking its head wildly back and forth as it clawed wildly at the weapon with one large paw.
Luna immediately leapt into the air, shooting straight upwards, flapping her wings powerfully as the Black Wolf managed to tear the spear free as a new eye began to form in its socket, the creature looking back and forth, temporarily blinded as it trembled with fury and hate and confusion... and high above, Luna let her body gracefully drop backwards into a steep fall, her horn beginning to glow brightly as her mane and tail sizzled, her body sparking with energy and electricity as Fenrir looked up with a snarl to see the winged unicorn plummeting quickly towards the ground, the beast lunging forwards and raising both front paws high as if to crush her... and Luna's wings flapped once, giving her a final, extra boost of speed as she corkscrewed her body as her form burst apart into swirling blue mist, becoming a tornado of blue flame that twisted upwards just before it hit the ground and smashed the enormous Black Wolf into the air, the creature howling in misery and terror as its massive frame was shoved fiercely upwards, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty feet into cloudy sky.
The swirling storm of blue mist condensed and narrowed, then tore suddenly forwards, ripping straight through the creature's chest as it glowed brightly, Fenrir's body spasming as it shrieked... and Luna tore out the monster's back, reformed, snarling as steam and dark blood burst around her body and her wings flapped hard as she flew to the side, snapping her horn downwards, ignoring the pain in her body as Nightmare Moon laughed inside her.
The frozen ground shuddered as the ice thickened, then rapidly began to twist upwards, lengthening and shaping, glinting as it hardened even as it transformed... and knowing she had little time, little chance, not wanting to lose a precious second, Luna shot forwards as Fenrir began to fall with flailing limbs, fighting to twist itself over as its jaws shrieked. And in that crucial moment before it could, as its eyes rolled in its head, a force of destruction on the verge of panic, Luna slammed her hooves against the front of its skull, knocking its head back before she leapt forwards with a furious shout of: "For all thou stole from me, monster!"
She crashed into its already-torn ribs, throwing her whole body into the full-body ram above the awful wound she had ripped through it, and Fenrir was launched straight downwards... and then screamed as it was impaled on a single jutting spike of ice, the thick stake cracking at the force and weight of the monster that crashed onto it, but the almost-pillar long and thick enough that it only trembled... then stilled as the Black Wolf foamed at the jaws, shrieking beneath the sun as Luna half-fell to the ground beside it, crashing down hard and rolling several times as she gasped in exertion, then fell on her side... and grinned savagely at the sight of the monster as it convulsed once helplessly, even as tears rolled down her cheeks and blood flowed from her lips and nose, whispering: "I shall never permit anything... to threaten those I love."
Fenrir threw its head back with a scream that was too-sentient, too-alive, filled with fear and sorrow and pain as it arched its back... and Luna watched, breathing hard, body quivering as the black flames over the living force of destruction whiffed out as its body began to stiffen, its movements slowly before it began to freeze into place, graying and petrifying in death. Finally, all that was left was a statue splattered with black bile, impaled on a spike of jutting ice, Fenrir's last expression somewhere between senseless, animal hatred and sentient terror... and Luna could only grin as she breathed hard where she lay, exhausted from the battle as she closed her eyes and felt Scrivener Blooms locked in his own seemingly-impossible struggle. But thou can do it, Scrivy... if I can face my greatest fear... thou can defeat a wounded pack-wolf.
The ponies were not the only ones engaging the beasts, however, as Odin cursed under his breath, grimacing as he ran quickly down a narrow path through the forest as behind him, Hati roared, the Black Wolf clawing its way madly through the trees. The once-god was leading it through one of the networks of traps that had been set up around Ponyville, but it was doing little to slow the creature down, and to make the situation even more difficult all he had in terms of weapons was a simple longbow he'd made by transfiguring a branch.
The once-god coughed hard as he grabbed at his chest, shooting a quick glance over his shoulder... and grimacing as Hati lunged into the clearing. He quickly looked ahead, eyes locking on a nearby boulder, and Odin ran towards this as the Black Wolf snarled, eyes locking on him and following his movements before it lunged forwards as the falcon-headed being staggered to a halt in front of the rock.
Odin glanced up and leapt to the side, gritting his beak as its jaws lunged down and mashed painfully into the boulder, and it howled and staggered backwards... and a back paw slipped onto a thin covering, crunching through the expertly-camouflaged trap to land in a pitfall filled with spikes. The Black Wolf howled in pain, distracted for the moment, and Odin quickly ran around the boulder, snapping a branch off a tree as he passed, and with a flick of his wrist it became a simple wooden arrow that he quickly nocked into the bow, half-turning to fire it into the wolf's face.
It had little effect but to upset it further as its head snapped back, and it snarled as it dragged its rear paw upwards, shaking its head briskly before roaring and batting the boulder aside, sending it crashing through the trees as Odin hurried along the path with a grimace as he finally reached the trap he had been looking for. He leapt past it as Hati began to charge down the path, only to hit a tripwire, and a heavy log swung down from above to smash into the flank of the enormous creature, knocking it staggering. It did little to injure it, but the monster barked wildly as it looked back and forth before clawing savagely at the dangling log, ripping it down before it snarled as its eyes refocused on Odin as he reached the other end of the path, where several barrels had been stored by a small hutch.
The once-god wheezed hard as he knocked one of these over, then rested his foot on it with a grimace, cursing under his breath as he yanked a branch free from a tree... then clenched his beak shut, eye tightly shutting as a shiver of pain wracked his body, grabbing at his chest as Hati glared down the path at him, the Black Wolf snarling as it bristled visibly. But Odin was breathing hard, almost fumbling the loose branch as he leaned forwards, pained and weakened... and the monster roared before it broke into an eager sprint, smelling weakness as Odin looked tiredly up-
Its front paws landed in two large snares set up on either side of the path, and there was a loud snap as these tightened violently around its ankles before they were dragged taut on hidden pulleys, yanking its front paws backwards beneath it as its heavy body and rapid momentum tried to continue to carry it forwards. It yelped in surprise as it flopped forwards, hindquarters high in the air and face skidding against the grassy path as Odin straightened with a grimace, then kicked the barrel hard, the contents inside sloshing before it crashed into the creature's head and it twitched, then snarled and bit aggressively forwards, seizing into this as if to crush it as Odin took aim with the bow and nocked the branch as it became an arrow before the tip burst into golden flame, the once-god saying wryly: "Even better."
He fired the arrow just as the beast's teeth began to crush the barrel, clear oil splattering in all directions... and then the flaming missile struck, and the barrel exploded in a torrent of golden flames, Hati throwing itself backwards with a howl of misery as its entire head was engulfed in a torrent of fire, shaking itself wildly as Odin tossed his bow aside and moodily reached into his rawhide jacket to pull out his flask. The Black Wolf shrieked as it burned, then staggered forwards even as the holy flames ravaged its body, the monster's features rapidly petrifying as it began to throw itself towards the once-god... and yet only managed to come with in a few feet as its upper body petrified completely, its lower body shivering violently as its rear paws clawed weakly against the ground before gray spread through it and the entire beast was frozen from head-to-tail in stone, smoke and golden embers slowly rising up off the beast.
Slowly, Odin sipped at his ambrosia, looking fearlessly into the snarling, petrified face of the creature, and then he shook his head and muttered: "Reduced to using blessed oil and holy fire to neutralize a force of destruction. A moment of rest... and then I shall check on the others."
He closed his eyes, rubbing slowly at his chest as the petrified Black Wolf steamed quietly, forcing himself to calm down as he leaned against the now-statue... and then glanced up with a grimace at a tremendous crash, muttering: "I direly hope that was Brynhild, for once."
Scrivener Blooms cursed under his breath as he sprinted along the side of a jagged cliff wall, Skoll loping behind him and half-dragging its twisted front leg as it snarled and barked savagely: getting its attention hadn't been difficult, but now all the earth pony could do was distract it while waiting for Luna or Odin to show up, cursing his inability to do anything before he looked up and gritted his teeth as he realized he was heading straight into a narrow corner, beginning to turn... and Skoll lunged immediately to the side, cutting him off before it slapped him savagely with its gnarled paw, the earth pony cursing in surprise and pain as he was knocked flying backwards to crash against the stone wall and then fall to the ground with a wheeze.
The monster had chased him all the way to Horseshoe Pass, a rocky, gorge-torn region of tundra-like waste that cut through the forests and plains for miles, splitting the land with the natural barrier it formed. There were several ragged, difficult-to-pass cuts like this between Ponyville and the village of the Strange Ones several long hours away... and the terrain was only becoming all the more hostile as the ground rotted and froze over from the presence of Skoll, the monster snarling towards Scrivener Blooms even as it listed for a moment, growling and rasping for breath as Scrivy slowly picked himself up despite the aches rollicking through his system.
His body hurt, and he could feel Luna's tiredness and emotions seeping into him: she had put her all into fighting Fenrir, and even as her confidence in him lent him strength, and her victory over Fenrir made him feel like triumph was possible, it did nothing to combat the soreness twisting through his form as he breathed hard in and out as Skoll glared at him, then charged brashly forwards, barking furiously as Scrivener winced, then gritted his teeth as he drew on Luna's memories and his own training, spinning around to face the wall and leaping towards it, all four hooves pressing firmly against the surface before he shoved off and hurled himself higher.
Skoll began to look up, trying to slide to a halt, but its bad foreleg gave out beneath it and instead it bucked forwards, yelping before howling in misery as it crashed face-first into the looming cliff with enough force to send several loose rocks pattering down the side of it. Scrivener, however, yelled in pain as his lower body was pinched between forehead of the black wolf and the jagged wall, mashed into the stony surface as he tried to grasp at it with his hooves, back arching slightly before Skoll drew back with a snarl, shaking his head... and Scrivy winced as he began to turn as he fell, before his eyes widened in horror as the creature's muzzle shot towards him, throwing all four hooves out to shove into its nose as its teeth snapped wildly and it ground viciously forwards, biting madly at the earth pony's lower legs and tail.
Scrivener cursed in pain, feeling sharp stones digging against his back like claws as he brought his front hooves up to dig into its muzzle, yanking himself upwards as Skoll continued to grind forwards even as one of the equine's rear hooves shoved into its nostril, the Black Wolf growling... and then Scrivener winced as he fell forwards and skidded down its broad muzzle towards its eyes, and the immense monstrosity blinked stupidly before it snarled and flicked its head hard backwards, sending the earth pony flying in a wide, low arc over its skull and the entire backside of the Black Wolf to crash to the ground and roll painfully several times through the dust with a groan of frustration and pain.
Skoll shook its head wildly as if to make sure the pony was dislodged, and then its crippled foreleg twitched beneath it again and it snapped its head forwards, smashing its skull against the cliff face hard enough to stun itself and send cracks ripping through the stone with a yelp, falling to one side in a stupefied heap. The ground around it trembled at the heavy fall of the creature, and Scrivener's eyes flicked open from the dazed state he had fallen into... but when he tried to lift himself up, something was wrong.
He couldn't move: his body felt numb, and he realized with shock that he couldn't even blink... in fact, for all the clearness of his thoughts, his mind was filled with a strange buzzing. For a moment, he wondered stupidly if he had been paralyzed, as he stared ahead at a puff of dust that hovered still in the silent air... and a moment later, shock wrenched through his system as he realized that not only could he not move... it was as if all of time was frozen around him, still and silent, and he was trapped in this limbo, somehow conscious and able to think.
Panic surged through his body... and it only grew as he heard a quiet, mocking laugh before Valthrudnir slowly strode into his line of vision, smiling mockingly as he shuffled his cards slowly, his eyes ablaze with arrogance and delight as he turned towards Scrivener and said softly: "What's wrong, cheater? Feeling a little... trapped?"
The Jotnar threw his head back and laughed again, then he grinned as he riffled the cards between his dexterous fingers before continuing in a cocky voice: "Yes, yes, I know, 'what's going on?' It's all very simple, really... I did not freeze time, no. Time does not exist, after all... it is merely a system of measurement, using indefinite figures we all pretend define things that aren't actually there. Nor can you reverse time, because that would mean reversing the passage of molecules, the life of elements that have already whiffed out of existence, twisting the very world back upon its axis, and why would you do that, anyway? If something breaks, then it was no good anyway."
The dragon shook his head slowly, then he looked down at the cards he was calmly shuffling, his smile toning down to something alluring and threatening with its alien kindness as he said softly: "I have merely sped up your synapses temporarily, accelerated your ability to think and the way you perceive reality for an indefinite period while I give you a helping hand with your little problem here. Oh, sure, it will probably result in some... minor trauma and a little bit of hemorrhaging here and there, but what's a little bit of brain damage between friends? Besides. I'm saving your life."
Scrivener tried to speak, but he couldn't make his mouth move, couldn't force out the words, but Valthrudnir only gave him a look that was both entertained and patronizing. "Did I not just explain this? Do not make me repeat myself, little slave hoof, at least not so soon. It does not reflect well on you, only concerns me as to your mental status.
"Yes, yes, I understand all the same though, I can hear your thoughts." Valthrudnir reached up and tapped his temple, looking at him with a cold grin. "Why would I help you? What a foolish question to ask, that I have already answered several times before. Because it amuses me... and because, the more I help you, the more indebted you become to me, the more you suffer. You hate it, don't you? Me, of all the creatures in this wide, wide universe, saving your pathetic hide. It delights me, how you'd almost rather die than take my advice, and kill both of us... but on the other hand, where would that leave your precious Brynhild?"
Valthrudnir leaned forwards as he clasped the deck of cards between both hands, taunting, grinning, and Scrivener glared at him, the dragon throwing his head back and laughing loudly. "Yes! How delightful! Oh, insult me all you want but that only increases my enjoyment of proving my superiority, especially my superiority over a cheater like you, now reduced to crying and begging for my aid... who will have to thank me after we deal with this pathetic monstrosity." The dragon chuckled a bit, crossing his arms, looking at the earth pony with malicious glee in his eyes. "Some hero you are, Scrivener Blooms. This only proves that you defeated me through foul cheating: faced with a crippled animal, and you're already broken and beaten."
Scrivener tried to keep his thoughts, his anger, from bubbling up, but Valthrudnir sensed it all the same, the echo of the Jotnar shaking his head with a cruel smile. "Oh, worry not. I have eternity to gloat... besides, as I said before, whether or not I decide you live or die at the end of the day... the decision will be mine and mine alone, and due to my glorious plans and masterwork. It is still more fun - and obviously more profitable - for me to keep you alive, even if that means that Brynhild also continues to exist. But maybe one day I'll make you kill her. Would that not be poetic justice, mocking poet?"
Valthrudnir smiled again, and Scrivener snarled mentally, but the dragon only sniffed disdainfully and flicked a wrist. "Yes, you're right for once. Enough of this gloating, I can feel your brain beginning to bleed even if you can't. All you have to do is listen to me precisely, do you understand? And I could certainly be leading you to death and doom, yes... but again, why would I, when I have so much more to gain - and be entertained by - in keeping you alive? Furthermore, Skoll is the Omega of the Black Wolves. I will not permit myself to be slaughtered by the lowest tier of any pack of stupid animals, no matter whether or not they are engines of destruction, even though all I can do is plant directions in your mind. Now get ready, poet. We're going to begin playing the game."
Valthrudnir paused, glanced down at his cards, then he tucked these quickly into his suit jacket before he squatted in front of Scrivener Blooms, leaning down with a wide grin as Scrivener could only helplessly stare, snarling inside and yet knowing at the same time he had no choice, which only seemed to make the dragon grin wider. For once, however, the Jotnar didn't make any mocking remarks, instead saying kindly: "When reality returns to normal, your body and your mind will give you a pulse of pain that will disorient you. Ignore it: when you begin moving, you'll feel nauseated, but the act of moving will in and of itself be enough to begin restoring your mental facilities... helped along, of course, by a temporary boost of endorphins in your system.
"You have three minutes of running ahead of you. At first it won't seem like you can do it, but as you run, it will become easier. Do not look behind you: Skoll will follow eagerly, and it is important that you maintain the... I would say, seven second head start you'll get from the creature's disorientation." Valthrudnir nodded thoughtfully at this, and Scrivener could barely believe what he was hearing... the simple analysis made all the worse by the dragon's derisive enjoyment with what was going on. "I will inform you of your next move as things develop."
Scrivener's mind went blank as he stared stupidly at the Jotnar, barely able to believe what he had just heard... and then the dragon stood up and held up three fingers before he began to slow drop them one after the other. "Three... two... one... run."
A surge of agony ripped through Scrivener's skull, and he howled in pain as he grabbed at his head, something wet and warm leaking from one ear as he flinched and convulsed once against the ground... then he snarled as he dragged himself forwards, his vision hazy, his eyes watering, his mouth dry as he hauled himself into a weak stagger, gargling weakly as his stomach lurched. It was impossible to see, everything a blur of color as he staggered stupidly back and forth, but as he forced himself forwards, his steps began to even out and color and shape returned to the world even as pain pulsed through his system, rasping hard as he forced himself into a shambling semblance of a run.
Behind him, Skoll was picking itself up, snarling as it twisted around and glared over its shoulder... and its eyes locked on the staggering, fleeing back of Scrivener, immediately locking on to this prey, and the Black Wolf barked, then threw its head back and howled, the raw force of the sound making the walls of the jagged cliff tremble. Scrivy winced in pain at this, but the sound helped bring him back to reality, helped him tune out the pain and exhaustion with the reminder of what it was he was fleeing and why he was listening to Valthrudnir's madness in the first place.
Scrivener felt his body limbering up as he ran, breathing hard in and out as behind him, Skoll half-staggered, half-sprinted, the wolf moving in an awkward three-legged gait that sent it swaying firmly into the side of the cliffs every now and then, as Scrivy cursed under his breath, hearing the monster closing despite its injuries. He looked sharply back and forth, gritting his teeth: to one side, there was the cliff wall, to his front, dust and dirt and rock, and to the other, the dubious safety of a thin, ugly forest... but as Scrivener turned his eyes forwards again, he realized he was heading straight for a narrow, thin canyon between the seemingly-endless cliff and a small, square-topped mountain.
He thought about breaking for the forest... and in his mind, Valthrudnir's irritated voice snapped: Listen to what I instructed, idiot! It should be no great task to kill this wretched dog... it already is crippled and severely weakened from crossing between layers.
"How do you know all this?" Scrivener gritted his teeth, shaking his head quickly as he ran onwards, breathing hard, but he was greeted only by a snort of contempt from Valthrudnir in his own mind. Then the equine winced as Skoll yelped behind him as it ground against a particularly-rough portion of the cliff-side, then tripped over a rock, crashing heavily enough to the earth to send cracks through the ugly terrain and make Scrivener stumble as he risked a glance over his shoulder.
The Black Wolf picked itself up with a snarl, shaking its head out as it rasped for breath, and Valthrudnir gave a short laugh in the earth pony's mind as he said disgustedly: Easier than I thought. There is a pass ahead leading up to a narrow path along the side of the rock wall. Take it.
"It's a dead end!" Scrivener retorted, but Valthrudnir only laughed mockingly in his head, and the earth pony gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath as he ran forwards, trying to shove away the foreboding feelings in his mind as he ran into the dusty corridor formed between mountain and rock wall, breathing hard as he looked back and forth before his eyes settled on a natural, steep ramp.
Scrivener glanced over his shoulder and winced at the sight of the Black Wolf staggering into the gorge, the monster snarling after him before it put on a burst of speed in an awkward, drooping gait as it tried to haul itself along on its broken front limb, and then the earth pony winced as Valthrudnir ordered in a voice that was sickeningly amused: Stop here, wait three seconds, then continue to run.
The earth pony was tempted to keep running anyway, but curiosity - and wanting to know if the creature could actually be trusted - halted him, and he skidded to a stop partway up the ramp, standing beside the rocky wall, counting in his head as he watched Skoll getting closer, closer... and then he cursed and quickly sprinted upwards as he hit zero, the Black Wolf snarling as it lunged after him... and with its wounded leg, fell short of the goal, stumbling and swaying hard to the side to painfully smash its maw into the ramp and the side of its face against the stony wall, the monster yelping as Scrivener stared over his shoulder in shock... then watched in something like amazement and horror as several chunks of loose stone peeled away from the rock wall, dislodged from the force of the creature's impact to fall down one after the other on top of it, the heavy boulders knocking the beast flat and others crashing to the ground in the place Scrivener had been only moments before to roll down and strike into its features, adding insult to injury.
Scrivener Blooms halted at the top of the ramp, staring in amazement as the Black Wolf roared and swatted the boulders aside before it snarled up at him and began to awkwardly claw its way up the narrow, steep slope, and the earth pony winced as he turned and hurried down the path, breathing hard, his lungs and limbs aching before he cursed as he glanced over his shoulder, wincing at the sight of Skoll yanking its way up onto the narrow path. The huge wolf dominated the way as it slowly lumbered forwards, growling furiously as its crippled leg scraped against the side of the cliff and its other front paw gouged and tore along the stone at the very edge of the only ten foot wide lane, and Scrivy winced as he stumbled past a bush and then skidded to a halt as he reached the dead end of the pass, looking down at a jumble of shale, sharp rock, and broken stone at least fifty feet below him before he turned around and gritted his teeth as he saw the monster only twenty feet away now.
Skoll seemed to grin, its eyes blazing, covered in ugly wounds that pulsed through the dark fire covering its body as it breathed hungrily. The ground beneath it rotted and cracked as its maw opened wide with an eager growl, seeming to understand its victory as Scrivener cursed the Jotnar under his breath... and then snarled as Valthrudnir said patronizingly in his mind: Please, pawn. Apparent vulnerability is everything, don't you know how to play chess? But a true grandmaster never sacrifices any necessary pieces... that would be surrendering to a lesser mind, permitting the plebeians to have a victory when all they deserve is the ashes of defeat.
Scrivener gritted his teeth... and then his eyes widened in shock as the rotten ground under Skoll groaned loudly before stone and shale and ice collapsed, and the earth pony staggered backwards as the Black Wolf yelped in surprise as it was half-thrown, half-dragged off the cliff path, scrambling wildly for any purchase it could... but the mad attempt to stay on the path only ripped more stone and earth free and let the sharpened rocks and blades of ice strike the already-ugly ground below before the monster followed them down with a shriek.
It fell heavily and landed on its back with an ugly crunch and a howling scream... and then another section of the cliff cracked from the partial collapse of the path, and several enormous, jagged boulders twisted and fell out of place from the side of the rocky wall, crashing down and making Scrivener wince at their passage... and flinch again at the sound of them smashing into the Black Wolf as it gave one final, strangled shriek beneath the cloud of dust and rock. For a few moments, the short-lived avalanche continued, and Scrivener cursed as the path beneath him listed slightly... but then slowly, everything began to settle, and finally the earth pony was able to stare with horror over the side of the path to the bottom of the narrow gorge below.
The Black Wolf had become nothing more than a cracked statue, its features frozen in stupid horror, its body laying amidst rubble and ruin and a thick pile of rock and stone. It looked as if several ugly spikes of rock had ripped through it, and Valthrudnir snorted inside Scrivener's mind before the earth pony looked to the side with a shudder as reality rippled... and a moment later, the Jotnar was there, sitting beside him on the cliff path and calmly surveying the damage as he said thoughtfully: "I wonder what it would have been like to match wits with this creature at full strength. Oh, yes, you see... they were much weaker than when first released... like any fire, it burns highest when it has the most fuel. When your world collapsed, those flames began to gutter out, weakening more and more... I almost imagine that the pack came here knowing they were dying, seeking one last wild attempt at replenishing their strength. But I do not wish to attribute too much intelligence to these animals. They are interesting specimens, delightful in their own way... but they are not as perfect as my Tyrant Wyrms were. They felt too much, I see now... they had flaws and vulnerabilities that were very easy for us to take advantage of."
Scrivener didn't even know what to say, as he stared silently down at the wreckage of the monster... and Valthrudnir smiled coldly at him, stroking thoughtfully under his own muzzle as the dragon said softly: "Disappointed? I suppose I understand. You wanted to hurt it. You wanted to kill it, with your own hooves... or your own claws, if you had them. Such savagery lurks in the minds of mortals..."
"Shut up." Scrivy whispered, and Valthrudnir laughed before the earth pony snarled and rounded on the dragon, shouting in a haggard voice: "What do you want from me? An admission, for me to surrender, for... what? Why are you playing these games?"
"I want you to suffer." Valthrudnir replied kindly, and he smiled before he reached up and patted Scrivener's cheek mockingly, the earth pony trembling as he felt the touch as if it was really there, in spite of knowing this echo was only in his mind. Then the dragon slowly stood up and stretched absently, grinning as he looked up towards the sky before reaching into his suit jacket, saying in a gentle voice: "Here. I have a last gift for you."
He turned and leaned down towards him, towering over the earth pony, both merciless and amiable as he pulled a single tarot card free from an inner pocket and held it down in front of Scrivener... and he trembled as he stared at the image on the front of it. It was of himself, in his half-wyrm, half-pony distorted self-image, with a black crown that looked strangely like a fool's cap upon his head and his collar glinting around his neck, a bottle of whiskey sitting on one side of him, a sword buried into the ground on the other, and five overturned goblets laying around him. "The Five of Cups. The Lord of Loss in Pleasure. This is your last card, Scrivener Blooms... and it's very specifically about you. It's an ill omen but I'm sure I don't have to explain that even to a simpleton like you... the imagery should speak well enough for itself."
Scrivener cursed as he swept a hoof at the card, but his limb only passed uselessly through it, and Valthrudnir laughed as he said mockingly: "Striking at apparitions now, are we? Don't delude yourself any worse than you've already been deluded, fool... but it seems like I'm wearing you down piece-by-piece now, and soon enough we'll be watching the events of this fortune unfold. But until then, Scrivener Blooms... I'll be eagerly anticipating our next little meeting..."
With that, the Jotnar threw his head back and laughed again, even as he faded from reality, and Scrivy cursed as he turned his head away, covering his ears, trying to block the sound out and the thoughts. Then he shivered as he pulled his hooves away, looking down at some sticky substance on it and realizing that it looked like one of his ears was bleeding... and then he glanced up with a curse as he further realized his link to Luna was riddled with static, meaning they were at either a great distance, or something else was interfering with it.
Slowly, Scrivener checked himself over, seeing only a few nasty-looking wounds that were likely reflected from Luna's form... and then he looked down in surprise as a coarse voice called his name, the pony leaning carefully forwards to look over the edge and blink in surprise as he saw Odin standing by the petrified corpse of Skoll, the one-eyed once-god looking up at him with crossed arms. "There you are. Can you get down?"
"I... I think so. Where's Luna?" Scrivy asked apprehensively, looking back and forth as he hesitated... and then he sighed a bit as he received no answer, carefully making his way to the shattered edge of the path and testing a stone that jutted from the side of the cliff wall. He hopped carefully down onto it... winced when it shifted slightly... and then hopped down to another broken portion of cliff and scrambled quickly to a thicker spot on the half-formed ledge when part of it crumbled away to gravel.
"I do not know." Odin said finally, and Scrivener looked down at the once-god with more worry now as the falcon-headed being grimaced in the distance. "If your link to Brynhild isn't clear, it may mean she went to Ponyville to engage Garm. Come, we shall head there now."
Scrivy nodded awkwardly after a moment, and he leapt down to a steep slope, wincing and half-falling down it before he jumped to another ledge, and down a final rough slope made by the avalanche of rock to land in front of Odin. Then he winced as Odin grasped the back of his collar and held him in place for moment, and the once-god looked moodily down at him as Scrivy nervously looked back.
Silence spun out between them... and then Odin sighed and released the collar, and Scrivener's front hooves landed on the ground as he realized dumbly that old or not, Odin had still been strong enough to half-lift him into the air with one hand by the collar alone. It made him wince a bit as he looked apprehensively towards the once-god, but the falcon-headed being only started forwards at a loose jog, muttering: "We have no time for discussion now, but you and Brynhild are going to explain things to me one way or the other later on. Come, to Ponyville, before something happens."
Scrivener nodded, and he tried to swallow the foreboding in his chest as he ran alongside Odin, fighting back worries for the future... and fears for what may have happened in the present at the village they had tried so hard to restore. |
Metempsychosis | Spilled Blood | Chapter Twenty One: Spilled Blood
~BlackRoseRaven
Garm, the last remaining Black Wolf, snarled as it paced back and forth: it had torn through one of the walls of Ponyville and smashed down two houses, terrifying the handful of Nibelung workers... but Illyria and Greece had hurriedly distributed weapons and sounded the alarm, and other armed and armored dwarves had joined the fray, fighting the monster back before it could do more than smash another home to pieces even as its rot spread like contagion through the ground and presence alone sent frost spilling along the earth.
Half a dozen Nibelung had died and others were wounded, but they had fought on... and when Luna had joined them, her support had permitted them to drive back the monster further and force it into the fields outside Ponyville. The winged unicorn was exhausted, her mind torn between her duty to protect Looking Glass Equestria and her desire to find Scrivener Blooms after she had felt... an indescribable, hostile strangeness, and the link between them had become riddled with static. It distracted her from the battle, but thankfully, there was little danger: all she had to do was fly around at a taunting level as the Nibelung hauled barrels of oil into the field.
Garm lunged at her as her mind wandered again despite her best efforts to concentrate, and Luna looked up too little, too late before the paw smashed into her, knocking her flying and crashing through a barrel of oil before she howled in pain, rolling rapidly as her body steamed at the contact with it and Nightmare Moon flinched inside her. It was blessed oil, possibly all the way from Valhalla, and Luna cursed under her breath as she shoved herself to her hooves and then leapt backwards when Garm bit down at her, the Black Wolf biting only into the field and the puddle of oil before Luna began to rear back, shouting: "Foul monster!"
Then she winced as Nightmare Moon and her instincts both shouted at her, and instead she shoved herself up into the air, taking quick flight with a curse of frustration. If she blasted the monster with magic, it could set the oil on her own body alight as well... and it burned enough as it was without the addition of purifying flame as she muttered: "Accursed oil. Accursed Valhalla... what are the Nibelung even doing?"
Garm barked at her and lunged, clawing at her, and Luna threw herself backwards out of the way before she looked up and saw Greece gesturing wildly at her... and the winged unicorn grunted as she shot towards the Nibelung in the distance as he yelled something. Immediately, another Nibelung ran forwards and threw a torch as Luna sped towards where Greece was waving at her and Garm turned to give chase... and then Luna winced and hastily twisted herself higher into the air as the torch landed in a puddle of oil from a barrel that had been knocked over.
The Black Wolf, still fixated on her, missed the sight of the torch falling into the pond of holy oil... and it looked down too little, too late, as it staggered right into the wall of fire that burst into life in front of it, shrieking before several barrels to either side of this exploded in blasts that rocked the monster back and forth. It was saturated with holy fire as Luna shot towards the sky, watching from a safe distance with incredulity as Garm howled in misery... then snarled savagely even as it burned, a monster wreathed with an aura of golden flame that dragged itself through the growing inferno towards a now-fleeing group of Nibelung as Greece winced and staggered backwards.
He fell over with a grunt and a curse as Garm loomed forwards, growling even through the golden flames rapidly consuming it, as seemingly-unstoppable as Fenrir... and then Luna shot down with a snarl, picking up an unused barrel of oil with telekinesis and snapping it in a hard throw towards the monstrous wolf, and it collided firmly with the side of the creature's face before exploding in a blast powerful enough to send Greece flying backwards with a strangled yelp, crashing to the ground and rolling painfully several times before he came to a smoldering halt. Garm, meanwhile, was knocked staggering, its jaw shattered and hanging stupidly open as it trembled violently, gasping several times before it attempted to lunge and froze solid halfway, rapidly petrifying and tottering weakly before it collapsed forwards, and the golden flames covering its body went out with one great gasp of smoke and ash.
Luna touched down to the ground beside Greece, and she gave him a flat look as the Nibelung grinned back at her awkwardly before he rubbed slowly at his singed features. Then the winged unicorn sighed and rolled her eyes, wrinkling her muzzle at the stench of burning hair and the bittersweet oil she had been splattered with as it continued to steam faintly against her body, muttering: "Please do not die, dwarf. Thou art perhaps the single entity in this accursed place I actually like."
"Thank you, Luna. We all owe you tremendously." Greece said quietly, and Luna sighed, then gently helped him stand up, the Nibelung wheezing in pain as he forced himself to his hooves and then grabbed at his face with a mumble. "My ears are ringing from that last blast, though, and my retinas feel burnt... that... that thing was one of the Black Wolves, wasn't it?"
"Aye, but worry not. I feel with a strange confidence they are all dead... and 'tis not merely because I took down Fenrir myself." Luna halted, then moodily looked over the petrified remains of the monstrosity in front of them, the statue silently resting forwards on its face and half-extended paws. "It is dead, correct? The fire did not just neutralize it?"
Greece shook his head tiredly, then glanced over his shoulder as Illyria and other Nibelung began to approach, and he smiled awkwardly at them with a raised hand to indicate he was okay before Illyria began furiously: "That oversized rat has set back weeks' worth of work! The damaged houses are bad enough but the ground and terrain has been poisoned and devastated, and-"
Luna rose a hoof and shot him a dark look, and Illyria petered slowly to a halt before the winged unicorn asked quietly: "What of the dead?"
Illyria glanced towards Greece, who looked quietly back... and then a Nibelung rose a hand and said nervously: "Seven die dead. More wounded."
The winged unicorn nodded, then glanced towards Greece... but the artificer was now hesitantly examining the petrified Black Wolf, apprehensively touching the surface of the statue and looking slowly over it. So instead, Luna returned her eyes towards Illyria, asking quietly: "Thou art supposedly smart, even in the ways of thine kin. Tell me,what funeral preparations shall be made?"
Illyria looked dumbstruck at this, rubbing awkwardly at his head before he finally looked at the dwarves, and they simply glared at the Architect before Luna sighed and shook her head, muttering: "What use is thine intellect if it alienates thee from everyone around thee, dwarf? Very well, Nibelung. Tell me what thou does to honor the dead."
"Burn the bodies of the warriors." A Nibelung said quickly, raising a hand. "Send them with hope to better-life, not in Niflheim."
"Not in Niflheim, aye, that is a better life, is it not?" Luna smiled a bit at this even as tiredness flickered through her body, and then she said softly: "I shall honor thine dead side-by-side with thee, if thou will permit it. Aye, most days I may beat and bludgeon and abuse thee all, but here thou have all fought and died for Equestria. Thou hast earned the right to call it our Equestria. I respect that."
The Nibelung looked awkwardly at one another, but Luna didn't wait for an answer, instead striding towards Greece as she glanced towards the burning field... but the golden flames were rapidly dying down on their own now, even though more normal-looking fires had ignited here and there throughout the grasses... but they were slow-moving, the flames dark and heavy, the rot and frost that had spread from the destructive influence of the black wolf suppressing the worst of the damage and stopping the fire from becoming dangerous. It was one force of destruction canceling out another... and yet Luna didn't know why she still felt such foreboding as she asked quietly: "Well, what is it?"
"It's... hollow." the Nibelung said finally, and Luna frowned at this before Greece turned and struck the shell of stone firmly, and cracks spread through the petrified rock before he gritted his teeth and slammed his fist firmly against the side of the statue's body again, and it shattered inwards, Luna staring in shock as she saw that indeed, there was nothing inside anymore. "Obviously these things are dead... but whatever those Black Wolves were, they... well, I don't even want to guess at it."
"Aye." Luna murmured, looking silently at the shell and feeling a chill of foreboding... and then she shook her head slowly, muttering: "Very well, we shall save the deadly guessing games for later... but only because I sense that my husband draws near, and with him walks Odin. Our link is..."
She shook her head a bit, and Greece looked at her with concern before she smiled faintly, saying quietly: "I am fine. It is merely... stress and exhaustion. I have defeated two Black Wolves of Hell today, after all, Greece, and am soaking in holy oil. Do a tremendous favor for a Valkyrie in a state of vulnerability: go to the spa building in Ponyville and run the hottest bath in the largest tub you can."
Greece smiled a bit at this, and then he looked up in surprise as Illyria added quietly: "I shall take over cleanup operations for the moment, artificer. It is under my obligations, anyway, I am the Architect here. Nibelung... fellows... let us return to the village. And fancy-corn... I suppose a thank you is in order."
"Yes, but do not strain thyself, Illyria, it is not expected." Luna retorted, and Illyria gave her a sour look, but then the two nodded slowly to one another before the group of Nibelung headed into the village, leaving Luna alone with the hollowed-out statue.
She glanced at it silently, reaching a hoof up to rub over it, remembering how Fenrir too had turned to stone when killed... and she wondered silently if these terrible abominations were creations of some wicked but skillful hand, hands that had shaped the hollow shells, then poured so much evil, so much malice, so much destruction and corruption into them that they had taken on life as the Black Wolves. She shook her head slowly, shuddering a little at what it implied... and then sighed a bit as she walked quietly around the statue, and smiled faintly over the burnt and charred battlefield, damaged Ponyville at her back.
All the same, they had triumphed. They had wreaked a horrible vengeance upon the monsters that had destroyed their entire world... even though by now, Luna was well-aware the beasts had also been significantly weaker. She had not even needed to move the moon... not that she would have dared to bring another eclipse about anyway, with the chance that the monsters would shatter the ivory bauble in the sky... or worse, she would lose herself again to the temptations of power. She shook her head quickly at this thought as memories and emotions and terrible feelings twisted through her, from disgust to enticement... and then she closed her eyes and lowered her head forwards, muttering: "Scrivener has faced more than a battle with a Black Wolf, it seems... the closer he comes, the clearer I taste his thoughts and see his memories..."
She sat in silence for ten minutes, head bowed, half-brooding despite the tremendous victory they had accomplished... and then she finally looked up as Odin and Scrivy approached, the winged unicorn smiling faintly, eyes locked on her husband. She stepped forwards, and they nuzzled each other slowly before embracing tightly, pressing their bodies close together as ivy necklace and glinting metal collar rubbed together... and then they slowly drew apart as Odin said quietly: "I saw most of the battle, Scrivener Blooms. And I do not merely mean the fact that you showed remarkable strategy under pressure that I do not recall witnessing in you before... I mean also the shouting match with the invisible entity."
Scrivener twitched awkwardly, and Luna grimaced a bit as she looked up at Odin, asking in a voice more imploring than frustrated: "Can we not put this aside until later, old lecher? Please. My husband is tired and beaten. In honesty, I am tired and beaten. And thou does not look very well thyself, although I express it less out of concern for thee and more because I do not wish to have this conversation now. Can thou not let the subject rest, permit sleeping dragons to lie, and us to revive ourselves before we speak of this?"
Odin began to open his beak... and then he glanced towards the hollow statue of Garm, grimaced a bit, and instead reached into his jacket for his ambrosia. He took a deep sip of it, swirling it back and forth, then swallowed with a grimace before looking down at the flask... and offering it towards the ponies. "Don't be shy. I've shared my canteen with a horse before in times long passed now. I imagine this is no less hygienic."
"Please do not compare us to riding horses ever again." Luna said moodily, and then she hesitated before shaking her head quickly, adding finally: "Nay, Scrivy and I will relax in Ponyville and that will be enough to revive us. We need not thy drugs and magical concoctions, cyclops. Go peddle thy miracles to fools who cannot make their own fortune."
Odin chuckled dryly at this, then he glanced towards Scrivener Blooms, but the earth pony bit his lower lip and shook his head as he forcibly drew his eyes away... and for a few moments, the one-eyed once-god looked at him measuringly before he nodded slowly and corked the flask, saying quietly: "There is more strength in someone who feels and resists temptation than a pure-of-heart oaf who will never understand what it's like to face down longing and desire. Very well, Brynhild, I will... let this topic pass for the moment. But we will speak of it."
"Aye, but in due time. There is no rush, Odin, the Bifrost has shattered... 'twill be more than a week this time before it repairs itself in the ether for us to use." Luna replied quietly, and Odin nodded gravely at this, the winged unicorn looking up at him with an awkward smile. "But... thou hast my thanks, at least for this."
Odin nodded... then he sighed a bit and turned, sitting awkwardly down beside the statue with a grimace and looking moodily up at the sky overhead as he leaned back against the petrified shell of Garm. "It's fine, Brynhild. When I think for a moment, it becomes clear that for now, I may be better off not knowing anyway. We will talk in time then... for now, let us instead focus on the good."
"Aye. There is much good, no matter how much bad also exists." Luna said quietly, trading a soft look with Scrivener... and then the two ponies bowed their heads politely to the once-god, and he gave a small smile, raising a hand to them as they turned and headed towards Ponyville.
A group of Nibelung were already hard at work cleaning up some of the wreckage, Illyria supervising and looking over one of the destroyed homes, and the ponies carefully and quietly made their way through the damaged zone and deeper into Ponyville. They walked in silence, Scrivy's eyes on the ground and Luna looking at him with soft concern, walking closely enough that their sides almost touched.
They halted outside the spa, standing awkwardly for a moment before Scrivener finally gave her an awkward smile, and Luna gazed back as her mane and tail sizzled softly and settled back behind her, leaning down as she said quietly: "Thou art such a mess, Scrivener Blooms. A horrid, awful mess."
"I know, I know. I'm sorry, I am." Scrivener replied softly, and then he winced when Luna headbutted him gently, then pushed their skulls together, the male closing his eyes as their foreheads pressed tightly against one-another's before their muzzles slowly, quietly rubbed together side-by-side.
Thoughts and emotions traded back and forth, and then Luna smiled faintly and leaned back, nodding once and saying quietly: "Alright, Scrivy. Come, to the bubble bath. We shall relax, discuss ill thoughts if we must... but only if we must. 'Tis difficult to be frustrated in a bubble bath, is it not?"
"I dunno. We're both very good at being frustrated, aren't we?" Scrivener replied with a bit of a smile, and Luna laughed a little as she nodded slowly. Then the two turned towards the spa doors, walking side-by-side as their thoughts and memories and emotions swirled slowly together, both of them feeling such a wild mix of emotions that it left them all but numb to what had happened and with only concern for one-another bubbling through their mixed soul.
Luna and Scrivener spent the day resting in Ponyville, most of which was spent hiding in the hot tubs together in the spa, resting their aching bodies. Scrivener had soaped Luna down heavily to get the holy oil off of her, remarking on the fact that it didn't surprise him all that much blessed oil apparently burned her... and Luna had replied to this by dunking him under the water and then grouchily making him wash her mane.
Eventually, Zecora had found them, concerned for them and what had happened, and Luna had tried to splash her a few times before grumpily telling the story and complaining that she was interrupting their relaxation. Zecora had sighed at this, then left... and when she'd returned with a tray of cookies, Luna had become far more agreeable, cheerfully sitting back and munching away even as Scrivener Blooms glared at her as she dripped crumbs everywhere.
After a few more questions, Zecora left them alone, satisfied that they were alright and her curiosities sated. It was a gesture Scrivener knew that even Luna appreciated, even if the winged unicorn didn't show it and was still somewhat grouchy over the zebra's shadow-trick. After a few more hours of lounging around and using the various spa facilities, Luna had finally decided it was time to go, and they had cleaned up, cleaned off, and made their way outside.
The Nibelung were setting up a funeral stage in the village square, and Luna and Scrivener had sat quietly, watching respectfully as the sun had slowly set, and other forces that helped govern the passage of the day rose the moon. Odin was there as well, sitting beside the library now, nodding every now and then as Illyria spoke with him. Greece, meanwhile, was with the other Nibelung as they began to lay their dead out over the extended stage as they packed straw beneath it and spilled oil over it, and Luna murmured softly: "I have never seen a dwarf funeral before. I always assumed the Nibelung just left their dead where they laid. 'Tis strange... to see them with culture and etiquette all their own. It lessens them in my mind as beasts. I think that the next time I find myself embattled with their kind... I will be more hesitant to kill them."
Scrivener smiled a bit, nodding slowly as Luna dropped her head on his shoulder, and he rested his own skull against hers, closing his eyes as her mane swept gently to the side, half-encircling him as a front hoof of each slid towards one-another's, then quietly locked together. They both watched quietly as the Nibelung gave little ceremony, but there was ceremony all the same: the dwarves shouted their hopes more than prayed to any god or divine presence as they all raised pitchers of ale and alcohol, then drank deeply as one Nibelung tossed a torch onto the pyre and it burst into flames. It seemed strangely like a celebration more than it did a funeral, even as Pales flickered into being here and there, to watch quietly as the corpses were burned... and when Luna glanced to the side, she was unsurprised to see both Celestia and Twilight sitting beside her, Scrivener looking up himself as the two Pales regarded them softly.
They both smiled faintly, and then Luna looked ahead towards the flames as she said quietly: "Aye, sister. Finally, the Black Wolves have been destroyed. Whatever they were, they will never plague us again... but I worry. It seemed like they were things that were made, and things made once can be made anew... and perhaps made better. For whatever else, they were weaker in this world, perhaps because it had been infused with Helheim's corruption, perhaps because it is a different layer, perhaps because instead of passing through that energy-soaked place-between-places upon the Bifrost... they must have swam, or bitten, or ripped their way through, shattering the bridge in the process. And they must have been waiting on the other side for who knows how long... or perhaps 'twas only some immense stroke of misfortune, the gates opening right as the awful creatures began to pass.
"All I know is that I do not savor this victory as I thought I would. Aye, I am proud, and I am glad that I have defeated these monsters... oh, fine, Scrivener Blooms, we defeated them, with a little aid from Odin." Luna smiled a bit, glancing quietly towards him, and the earth pony laughed despite himself before the living ponies looked towards the Pales of Celestia and Twilight as they both looked at them with tenderness radiating from their spectral shapes. "And I know that their death removes many obstacles from the path. Their death symbolizes new hopes... but I wonder, again, what made these creatures, and whereupon they first came hence. 'Tis a mystery better left unsolved, I fear, however... I would rather their creator never find our Looking Glass Equestria, and I never have to gaze upon the sallow facade that would engineer such calamity."
Celestia nodded slowly, and Twilight smiled encouragingly as Luna looked over the two... then Scrivener Blooms added softly: "And it's not as if... we don't feel a sense of accomplishment or anything. It's not as if... you know. But I think to be honest, Luna's feeding off my emotions a lot. Luna's feeling my concerns, because... Valthrudnir saved me, guided me through taking down Skoll. And I'm pretty sure I don't have to explain to two ponies like yourselves why that's worrisome."
Celestia nodded again, looking unsurprised as Twilight reared back silently, the two flickering quietly in Scrivy's vision, becoming almost real as he winced a bit before they were once more only Pales in his eyes... and then Celestia quietly reached up and gently touched Luna's shoulder before she looked towards where Odin was seated, then back to her little sister, and the sapphire winged unicorn smiled faintly. "Oh, as if thou truly has to ask, Celestia, thou knows I was bad enough for keeping secrets from thee. Nay, we have not told Odin... but this of course is not to say he does not suspect something. He knows that Scrivener Blooms... something lurks in the recesses of his mind. I do not believe he knows it is an echo of Valthrudnir, however, for I suspect he would not be nearly so calm upon the subject."
The two Pales both nodded and glanced towards Odin, then Twilight looked at Celestia as the shade of the enormous equine looked silently up at the radiant moon high above. Luna glanced up after her, and then she laughed a little, adding softly: "Look, Celestia, the silly fools have again placed the moon upon the wrong side of the sky... I should fix it, but I do not feel like being responsible. I have already killed two apocalypse-bringing beasts of Hell, after all. I believe that means I have been responsible enough for one day as it is, does it not? I would far rather just sit back and not mind the details for now."
Celestia shook her head a bit at this, but the ghost seemed to be smiling all the same as Twilight gazed up towards the ivory orb overhead in silence for a few moments... then, finally, Celestia looked down at Luna, the sisters gazing quietly at one-another before the winged unicorn gave the smallest of nods. Then she flickered out of existence, and Twilight smiled faintly at them, stepping forwards and embracing Luna gently around the neck, and Luna laughed a bit as she bowed her head towards her and whispered: "I wish I was worthy of this kindness, Twilight Sparkle. Worthy of thee."
Twilight, however, only laughed silently, shaking her head slowly as she drew her eyes over Luna before slipping past her to embrace Scrivener quietly. He reached up, resting his hooves against the Pale's shoulders, and the ghost of the winged unicorn pulled back and studied him silently as he gazed over her, her form flickering between translucent and solid in his vision before she patted his cheek gently with one hoof and then faded slowly from sight, and the earth pony shook his head slowly as Luna gazed at him quietly before he murmured: "Sometimes I feel like I've failed you both, you know. You and Twilight Sparkle are very different in some ways... but in plenty, I think I see how you're the same, too. Makes me wonder what you must have been like when you were actually young."
Luna reached up and punched his shoulder gently, saying kindly: "I know not whether thou art attempting to call me a narcissist, compliment me, or merely frustrate me anew with the knowledge that for all the arguing that went on between thou and her, the two of thee were always such good friends."
"Yes, Luna, but you're the one who brought us all together, don't forget. Without you in my life, I'd have... well." Scrivener rested back moodily, rubbing at his cheek thoughtfully before he grimaced a bit as he realized he'd lost his glasses again. Luna only gave him an amused look at this thought, and he mumbled: "Well it happens so often now it's hard to keep track of anymore. But I was just thinking that without you, I'd probably be dead... or even worse, alive, now older and grouchier, still working in the Royal Courts assuming I didn't get myself thrown out or killed at some point."
"Aye, and the chances of the last are higher than most would have given thee credit for." Luna remarked pointedly, and Scrivener shrugged agreeably before the winged unicorn closed her eyes and dropped her head against his shoulder, the stallion looking towards the still-burning pyre surrounded by the crowd of singing dwarves, and Scrivener smiled a bit as she murmured quietly: "But I am glad for the way things worked out, all the same. Aye, I can be greedy, and we both are not without flaw, and sometimes it seems that the path not taken may be brighter... but all the same... I know in my heart, my soul... all that matters is that we are together."
Scrivener nodded slowly, closing his eyes as he bowed his head forwards and slipped his foreleg around her, pulling her a little closer, and Luna smiled a bit as she slipped herself tighter against his side as the two watched the Nibelung honor their dead in a world that awaited the rebirth of the living.
Luna and Scrivener returned to their cottage that night, surprising Pollen. The Velite fretted awkwardly for a little while, but the two ponies had only wanted to head to bed and get some sleep after the ordeals of the day, promising to explain everything afterward. Pollen had offered to go back outside to the wagon, but Luna had looked almost insulted at this and all-but-ordered the Velite to stay where she'd set up in the den.
The two living ponies had finally headed into their room: it still needed another coat of paint, and Luna wanted to detail the stars and moon and other celestial symbols over the ceiling as well. But other than those details, it was mostly a matter of arranging their furniture properly and getting rid of the extra boxes piled everywhere to get it into a finished state.
But the large, circular bed was more than comfortable, and it didn't take long for the two to fall asleep once they were curled up together under the blankets. As always these days, however, Scrivener soon found himself slowly climbing to his hooves in darkness, alone, not even needing to look at himself to know his form had warped and distorted as his claw dug slowly against the warm, bog-like earth.
Reality filtered in bit-by-bit around him, and the half-pony, half-wyrm shook his head slowly before he sighed quietly, lowering his head and murmuring: "Why does it always come back to this? Why the nightmare, every time I try to sleep... but I know. I know... what I... what I am. I know it's due to the infection of corruption, and the way I've been warped and changed over the years. And I know you have something to do with it, too, don't you?"
"Yes, I do." Nightmare Moon's voice said softly, sounding unsurprised as she strode slowly out of the darkness, and Scrivener gazed up at her silently as she walked towards him. She was smiling softly, however, even as blue and black armor gleamed over her body, the thick plates and tight dragonhide leather tight against her supple frame. And no longer did she wear the ivy necklace: instead, she wore an intricate collar that looked as if it was made of obsidian roses turned to metal, laced and held together with steel ivy, with the black pearl inset tightly into the front.
She wore no helm, letting her starry mane sway and flow freely back, the ethereal locks seeming to hum softly as she stepped forwards and gazed down into his eyes with her own dark, intelligent, and yet somehow animal irises, studying him calmly before she said softly: "You are not angry. You want to be; you know that you should be; you know that Luna will be... but all the same, you are not angry. You understand, do you not?"
"A little. Enough that... I don't..." Scrivener Blooms closed his eyes, looking down silently, and Nightmare Moon reached up and gently touched his chest. The half-wyrm, half-pony didn't even have to look down as he felt reality twist around him and a comforting weight settle around his neck, before he reached his claw quietly up and drew his claws gently over the engraved collar now resting there. He halted... then opened his eyes, looking up at her with his mismatched features as he said quietly: "This wasn't the right way to go about it, though."
"Yes, but do not forget what I am or who I am. I am Nightmare Moon: I am Luna's passion, strength, and her darker side. I am both the shadow beneath her, and the whisper inside her... I am evolution, and the primal: I am the reflection, the sinister conscience, and epitome of what lays within her very soul. Our very soul." Nightmare Moon said softly, and Scrivener knew she wasn't just talking about herself and Luna, but him as well. "I do not care about good or evil, right or wrong. What I care about is you, and Luna, and our blessed, beautiful night. I care about those within our domicile, and those whom we call friend and family and ally.
"I desire to be understood better by you, Scrivener Blooms. Perhaps I even aim to try and make myself more-loved than little Luna, but I can say with honesty that was never my first goal." Nightmare Moon tilted her head back moodily, looking towards the dark ceiling above, and then she flicked her horn absently as it gave a soft pulse, and the night sky filtered in bit-by-bit above them. Scrivener gazed up at this as stars twinkled to life through the darkness, as the moon shimmered into being and clouds formed, rolling slowly through the air amidst the glowing constellations. "It is funny, to be in competition with yourself. Even lucid as I am... some days I feel almost as separate and hostile an entity as what gave me life, as what once drove Luna into her dark dreams..."
She quieted, then looked slowly back at the male as he looked back at her, leaning forwards and explaining softly: "It was Pinkamena that gave me this idea, you see. At first, the half-demon's elation at your state of being struck as strange. Perhaps even disloyal... I almost wished to punish her for it. But then I came to understand why she felt such gladness... why she said that only now, and only you, could truly understand her, even if Luna and I could come close. It was because of the homogeneity between you two: the sameness, if I may borrow your artistic use of simpler words for such complex things, handsome scribe."
Their eyes met, and Nightmare Moon smiled softly, leaning forwards and murmuring quietly: "And it worked, did it not? Furthermore, I have never influenced you directly... I have only helped shaped the world you stepped into each and every night. Perhaps I have not even stepped outside my bounds: after all, are dreams not meant to be shaped and designed by the deeper, darker self?"
"You rationalize things worse than me and justify yourself more than Celestia does." Scrivener said quietly, but Nightmare Moon only gave him an entertained look, rearing her head back slightly. "But I understand. Like I was seeing the same things Pinkamena was... you wanted me to see the same way you did. You wanted me to experience things from you perspective... you used this world to shape me into something more like you."
"Yes, and no. What I have truly done here is merely... added a slant." Nightmare Moon said softly, gazing into his eyes from her only-slight height advantage over the half-pony, half-wyrm. "I merely ensured that when you slept, you stepped into this world... your enjoyments were your own, however, just as together, you and Luna designed the dark city and the black castle of desires within. Not even the Moon Blessed were my creation... they came into being as a result of a mixing of the desires of yourself and little Luna."
"And where is Luna?" Scrivener asked curiously, but Nightmare Moon only smiled at him softly, shaking her head slowly before she gestured gently with a hoof to the side, and Scrivener followed the motion to gaze past her, towards the outline of some dark, majestic shape near the horizon; a castle, a temple, a catacombs of shadows and desire. "She's distracted there, looking for me, isn't she?"
Nightmare Moon nodded, replying quietly: "You know how things work with Luna, beloved. She is always... hesitant... to take my advice. It is better to give her something else to distract her with when I want a moment to speak to you alone, even if later on I am sure I will suffer the consequences... but at the same time, I do not mind. I am satisfied with what I have accomplished and will pay whatever price is necessary for my actions if I must."
Scrivener lowered his head, and then he shook it slowly and murmured softly: "But your plan was flawed from the start, Nightmare Moon. Maybe you've made us more similar, but you... you lack empathy, and understanding. I've never lost that, no matter what I... what I've come to enjoy, or this desire for power and strength. And our motives are still different, tinging the world different colors... you seek pleasure and benefit for yourself first of all. Yes, I might seek both of those things, but Luna is always first. Luna has always come first... always will come first."
"Do not judge me so harshly, Scrivener Blooms, for do I not put you above myself?" Nightmare Moon sounded almost hurt, dropping her head to him humbly even as her eyes flashed with what seemed more like cunning than compassion. "Surely if I do lack sympathy, among other things, the fact that I treat you with such affection must prove my love and loyalty to you far more effectively than it would a gentler pony's."
"You love me because I'm want you want, Nightmare Moon. At least, that's what I feel sometimes." Scrivener replied softly, glancing down at his claw hand as he rose and flexed it... and then he glanced up in surprise as the armored, black-coated equine slid forwards and tenderly nuzzled him, smiling as she half-lidded her eyes, her mane swaying slowly backwards with a pulse of starlight that reverberated through both ephemeral locks and the constellations high above.
"No, I love you because you are what I need." Nightmare Moon responded gently, and the half-wyrm, half-pony shifted awkwardly at this, a hard-to-describe feeling twisting its way through his soul as she smiled at him lovingly. "Good. You like that. And you know it is true... that is why I seek to empower you. Why I have pushed you so hard to understand me and that even my deepest darkness can represent great happiness. Why I have purified you in these nightmares, helping you work your true desires and innermost self to the surface, even though so many ponies fearfully keep themselves beneath so many different masks for the endless, pointless masquerade they all partake in, knowing that to show themselves is to risk rejection and exile. But maybe our new world will be different."
Scrivener smiled a bit at this, glancing down and saying quietly: "Ponies wear those so-called masks for a reason, Nightmare Moon... obey those social norms and try to fit the status quo out of more than just cowardice-"
"But even that is an admission that at least part of it is indeed cowardice." Nightmare Moon interrupted pointedly, looking almost excited as she began to pace in a slow, predatory circle around Scrivener as the male followed her with his eyes, wincing a bit despite himself. "I do not believe anypony should have to feel they must hide who they are, or anything else about themselves. Order through conformity makes a mockery of freedom: it's just another system of constraint and subtle enslavement. It is a cruel manipulation, as well... thinking you are free to do as you choose so long as you do what is considered normal, and that any strangeness must be met with hostility and crushed out."
The earth pony made a bit of a face, then he cocked his head and asked mildly: "So bad ponies like us should be allowed to be bad even in public? What about Pinkamena, you really want her running her mouth off all the time?"
"Now darling, you know I enjoy Pinkamena greatly! She seeks to fit in, but does so without mutilating herself to fit the standards of others. In fact, she could be used to represent the ultimate end I would like to see all ponies reach... not madness, of course, but able to differentiate which rules are pointless and which rules must be followed." Nightmare Moon responded easily, continuing to pace in a slow circle around him as she studied him intently. "I do not believe in or promote complete anarchy... for freedom to have meaning, it must be structured, it must be monitored, and it must be policed. What I am saying is that there are much better reasons to persecute and punish ponies than for what they like, do not like, and what they enjoy in the privacy and sanctity of their homes."
"So what you're saying is that every pony should be free to do anything they want, as long as it doesn't interfere with what you think is best for them." the earth pony said flatly, and Nightmare Moon halted in front of him but smiled in an almost sultry way as she leaned forwards until their noses almost touched.
"The only difference between myself and anyone else is that I admit it freely." she answered coyly, then laughed as she drew back and gazed off towards the distance, looking almost longing as she said softly: "But I have taken up enough time, and had my fun for now, Scrivener Blooms. You understand my aim, and I understand a little more about you, and relish the fact that in our glorious night we remain together. Yes... you compliment me wonderfully. You seek to understand before you seek to destroy; you extend empathy, and relish pain... both as the giver and the receiver. And given the power you long for, you would strive to protect little Luna, not because she needs it, but to try and return to her everything she does for you, to find value and self-worth in being worthy to her..."
She paused meditatively, saying softly: "In this, I must confess, I find a flaw, a vulnerability, a weakness in you, my beloved, and I say this not for my benefit, but for yours. I speak out of love, not hatred or envy; you fail to understand how you may not protect from monsters outside of us, but you are the solid pillar that defends us against internal mayhem, and unites myself and my sweet and treacherous little Luna. Physical might is like a pretty thing, ornamental and good for the occasional show, but it is not as great and glorious as so many assume. Ponies never feared me because I was a titan, with dark magic that not even my sister could imitate: they feared me because I was ruthless, and merciless, and did anything that was required to achieve my ends. Likewise, Luna is not a good leader simply because of her horn and hooves, howsoever she exaggerates these qualities... it is because she analyzes the battle and pours both passion and experience into the fray."
The half-pony, half-wyrm studied her silently as she looked over him slowly, then said quietly: "But of course it is alluring for us, and perhaps we influence your lust for strength in its most vulgar form as well... both myself and Luna. We wish for you to be happy... we would do anything to see you smile, and you already have learned to mix the mental and the physical together well on even the roughest battlefield. And pretty things, of course, are always nice to have in surplus. But go now, husband. Luna awaits."
And with that, Nightmare Moon gestured gently again towards the distance as she gave one last, cryptic smile, bursting apart into blue mist that wafted backwards through the dark night air, and Scrivener watched the azure fog fade quickly out of sight before he shook his head slowly and muttered: "I can't tell if I'm more or less confused now than before... but I guess part of me is glad that it's not just me that's responsible for all this... everything."
He paused, glancing down, and then he closed his eyes and added quietly: "Not that I can pretend it's all her fault either, though... not with what she implied and said. I wish that I could... I wish that none of this was me, but I made so many choices here, I walked this path myself so willingly, I... I know it's like a drug but..."
Scrivener glanced up quietly, then he shook his head slowly as he began to stride towards the distance, a shiver tearing through him as he lowered his head and stared at the dark ground beneath his feet: mire-like, and yet so different from the rotten putridity that Fenrir had brought with it: this dark soil was fertile and suppliant, just waiting to be seeded for new and exotic life to blossom, only needing a little push in the right direction to perhaps become some wonderland forest of living trees and prehistoric ferns... or perhaps tapers and ivy and nettles and giant mushrooms and toadstools the size of houses.
He smiled wryly at this thought despite himself, shaking his head slowly as he gazed upwards, unsurprised to see that the shape in the distance was much closer than it should have been, distinct and almost glowing against the night sky. It was their ebony castle, towers and battlements standing almost in salute and the doors at the top of the twisting flight of steps gaping invitingly, as if it awaited his return as eagerly as a loyal pet.
The obsidian stairs were warm beneath his hooves and claw as he began to climb them, gazing over the fortress, feeling both enticed and hollow, desirous and fearful. It was a dark lure, and an aphotic treasure-trove: it was his nicotine, his needle, his siren and her song. But inside the Stygian disease awaited his compassionate cure... the one thing that gave meaning to his life, and soothed his savaged soul.
He passed through the gates above, and strode through the darkened courtyard, barely aware of what was around him; it was all just a blur, mixed with the strangest feeling of coming home. Doors opened before him, and he walked through them, until he found himself in the innermost sanctum, the heart of the dark citadel... and at the back of this, Luna awaited him with a smile and a gleam in her eyes.
She lay on the plush bedding, the engraved black pearl swaying slowly around her neck, mane glowing in faint pulses. Around her, the four Moon Blessed rested in their jewelry and golden adornments with heads respectfully bowed, eyes closed and wings furled against their ivory bodies, and Scrivener couldn't help but smile faintly himself as he approached, asking quietly: "You know, huh?"
"I am not an idiot, Scrivener Blooms, and Nightmare Moon underestimates my own guile. Mazes are less difficult when one knocks down walls." Luna replied quietly, and she stood up as the male approached before the two nuzzled one-another quietly as Scrivener stepped onto the bedding, then shared a tight embrace.
Luna buried her face against the side of his neck, breathing softly, and then she murmured quietly: "I am sorry, Scrivener Blooms. That part of me... that Nightmare Moon part of me... I know what it has done. The darkness inside me grows and grows, given endless sustenance from the carnage of our waking and sleeping hours... and it fuels my desires, my selfishness, my wanting. I was upset at Nightmare Moon for what she did... but I was more upset with myself, Scrivy, because part of me was glad for it. Because I think sometimes that between that manifestation of passion and ego and mine own conscious self, I am the one who comes out the worse."
Scrivener Blooms squeezed her quietly, tilting his head back and gazing up towards the ceiling as he laughed a bit, murmuring: "Internal struggles and warring with ourselves... the negative side-effect of this soul link. But maybe it's a hidden blessing, Luna... our darkness is mixed together but it only makes that light you shine with so much purer, my Valkyrie princess..."
Luna laughed at this, blushing a bit as she buried her face deeper against his neck, her muzzle brushing against his collar as she stayed tight and close against him... then she smiled a bit as she brought a hoof up to rest against his shoulder, asking quietly: "Then tell me, Scrivener Blooms. Do you fear the nightmares, or wish for dreams of sunlit day or tranquil dusk?"
"I am afraid of them. Of what we do here..." Scrivener glanced up quietly, gazing slowly over the four Moon Blessed as they rose their heads with calm smiles towards him. "Of what it looks like when you dig inside two ponies and force all their secreted and locked-down desires to the surface. I guess life in Hell, living without rules, has just amplified these things too... but yeah. I might be afraid, but I don't... I don't want them to end, either. Not anymore."
Luna looked up at him, studying him quietly, and then she kissed the side of his neck before gently pulling him backwards, guiding him to lay down before she slid overtop, lightly pinning him by the shoulders as she said softly: "They never have to, my beloved..."
And Scrivener smiled faintly despite himself, reaching up his gnarled claw to gently stroke over her face and bury into her locks as she leaned down and kissed him softly, both ponies loving and regretting, hating and delighting in the decision they silently made as they embraced the shadows in themselves and one-another. |
Metempsychosis | Deepening Shadows | Chapter Twenty Two: Deepening Shadows
~BlackRoseRaven
Luna sniffed disdainfully as they strode into Ponyville: only a few days had passed since the attack of the Black Wolves of Hell, but reconstruction efforts were well under way and another work crew of Nibelung had been sent in to help with the rebuilding efforts. Frames had been set back up for the destroyed houses and the wreckage sorted and salvaged as much as possible, and other dwarves were digging up the rotted and corrupted terrain, shoveling it into wheelbarrows to be taken to a dump site to the west.
Scrivener couldn't help but give the winged unicorn an amused look as they walked side-by-side, the earth pony absently flicking his head to adjust his glasses as he said finally: "You know, this probably won't be that bad-"
"Oh shut up, Scrivener Blooms." Luna said grouchily, and the earth pony snorted in entertainment as he grinned a bit despite himself. "Thou hast no reason to be so cheerful about this. We are going to meet Odin to speak to him on matters of grave importance. Matters concerning thee, as a matter of fact, and that which lurks inside thy mind, and I am sure a grand and awful lecture will follow. Why is it that thou art so cheerful in spite of all this?"
"I dunno, to be honest, I've just been... feeling better these last few days. I thought you'd be happy about that." Scrivener replied mildly, glancing towards her as he shrugged a bit, and they bumped their sides together lightly as they strode down the road towards dome-shaped city hall in the distance. "Maybe it's because we've been able to talk so much and... work through things together, I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just having a random happy bout. But either way... I feel good."
"'Tis a sickness." Luna announced, leaning forwards and inspecting him through narrowed eyes. "Wert thou eating poison joke while I wasn't looking? Licking strange mushrooms? Buying so-called 'miracle tonics' from the Strange Ones or Nibelung?"
Scrivener rolled his eyes at this, but he was smiling all the same as he gave her an entertained look, replying dryly: "No more drugs than usual, dearest. Besides, you know me. I'm a drunky, not a junkie." He paused meditatively as they halted in front of the narrow steps leading up to the doors of city hall, Luna giving him a flat look. "I could probably write a poem about that, as a matter of fact. I'm sure it would only be three-quarters as offensive as most of the poems I wrote while working at Canterlot."
The winged unicorn opened her mouth to reply, but she was interrupted as the double doors swung open, both ponies glancing up to see Odin standing and looking down at them calmly, crossing his arms and saying quietly: "I'm glad to see you both here. We have a few subjects to talk about."
Luna grimaced as Scrivener became more serious, the two nodding slowly, and the once-god turned and strode inside. The ponies shared a look, emotions and thoughts twisting between them in a flurry before they turned and strode quickly up the steps and into the building, Luna flicking her horn absently to close the doors behind them.
They joined Odin at a long wooden table he had set up in the center of the spacious front lobby, which otherwise was empty... or perhaps hollow was a better word, considering how ghostly and strange it felt in the echoing, destitute room. The ponies sat in the uncomfortable wooden chairs to one side, not too near or too far from where Odin was standing at the cluttered head, looking moodily down at books, maps, and other scattered papers and trinkets.
Finally, he sighed quietly and sat down himself, resting against the high-backed chair with a grimace as he fumbled his flask out of his jacket and sipped deeply from it, then looked over at the two ponies, studying them as they looked back at the once-god. For a few moments, that was all they did, surveying each other in silence... and then finally, Odin corked his flask and put it down.
Luna began to open her mouth, and the once-god held up his hand, shaking his head and saying firmly: "Brynhild, wait. As I said, we have several things to discuss, and in due time we'll work up to the subjects that perhaps hold the greatest importance. But haste is a fool's folly, and there are other matters I wish to attend to first."
The winged unicorn threw her head back with a groan as Scrivener reached up and adjusted his glasses nervously, and Odin surveyed the two before he asked quietly: "First of all, for example... I was recently in corrupted Equestria-"
"Either thou art nowhere near as infirm as thou acts at times or thou possesses a truly miraculous and easy way to move back and forth between the layers, Odin... especially as the Bifrost is currently regenerating, and in no fit state to work as a bridge between worlds." Luna replied dryly, leaning forwards moodily and glowering at him. "Would it really cause so much harm to permit me a safer and easier method to travel than the accursed burning rainbow bridge?"
"Yes." Odin said sourly, and Luna grumbled under her breath as the once-god continued irritably: "Unlike you, Brynhild, I use Valhalla as a stepping stone. If you brought dead souls into Valhalla, what do you think would happen? Furthermore, if I permitted you into Valhalla, what would you do?"
The winged unicorn grumbled as she slid back against the chair, muttering under her breath and crossing her forelegs, and Odin nodded after a moment before he continued quietly: "I encountered, among other things, a Nightmare that pleaded for salvation and redemption. It knew about you, and about what your task was... it said that you considered bringing monsters of that world into this one. I wish to hear your reasoning for this."
Now Luna shifted awkwardly, clearing her throat a bit and looking almost embarrassed before she said finally: "I am a firm believer in second chances, Odin. And I believe as well that there are few things in all these realms that are beyond redemption, beyond... serving a purpose of some sort. I have been cast in the role of both hero and villain, and come to understand that the only thing that truly makes them different is the perception of others... for a hero may hurt and kill countless people, while a villain may disrupt and destroy but never murder a single soul. It is... difficult to wrap one's mind around."
Odin continued to look at her, as if expecting her to continue, and Luna grimaced a bit before she said quietly, bowing her head forwards: "I... do not wish to see them perish. Demons, Nightmares, so-called 'monsters...' I often feel that I am a monster myself, after all."
"You're not a monster, Brynhild. You are a Valkyrie. Form and shape of a pony or not, you always have been and always will be a Valkyrie." Odin replied quietly, and then he smiled wryly when the winged unicorn glared at him. "I do not mean that you will always be my handmaiden by that, either. You know what I speak of."
"Yes, yes, I suppose that I do. But now thou art the one dancing around the question and not me, and no one likes to see old fools dance, 'tis unsettling." Luna replied drolly, and Odin reached up and rubbed slowly at his forehead before she added mildly: "Besides, this world requires a little evil to balance out the good. I think a few things to go bump in the night will not be remiss, especially if they are not killers, only fear-mongers."
"It may seem strange, but I do agree with you." Odin said softly, and the winged unicorn looked up in surprise, tilting her head curiously as the once-god gave a dry smile. "Not for the same reasons, admittedly. But assuming the creatures are oath-bound and keep their word, they will act as an additional layer of protection: it will be like introducing a new species of insect to the environment of a rival sibling. A Nightmare of this world and a Nightmare of your world will not interact with the same amiability as two creatures of the same plane. They will be distrustful, and may even work to weed one another out."
"You wish to use the monsters of our world against the monsters of this one... since they will likely be drawn to same territory, will have to claim places in the dark corners as their own by conquest of other beasts and creatures. And this first line of monsters will be honor-bound to serve us, and these creatures of darkness cannot break a solemn vow without dire consequence." Luna said slowly, and Odin nodded before he seemed to soften a bit... and Luna smiled faintly as she understood, closing her eyes and adding quietly: "And aye, I know. They also see kinship in me. They look up to me, as smaller, weaker creatures look up to a pack lord. For even though I walk in daylight... darkness is my true home."
"It is nothing to be ashamed of, Brynhild. It is something, furthermore, that we can use to our advantage, if you will permit me to speak in such strategic and remorseless terms." Odin replied quietly, leaning forwards and looking at her quietly, and Luna nodded awkwardly after a moment as Scrivener gazed at her softly. "I would like for you to be careful in your selection, however... many creatures of the night will bend to a strong master or can be convinced to serve a purpose, but there are still plenty that exist solely to cause disruption and chaos. There will be chaos enough in this world as it is."
Luna smiled a bit, and Odin looked at her thoughtfully for a few moments before he leaned back and said softly: "On a positive note, I wish to add that Illyria had worked out the schematics for the amplifiers with Roma's assistance... late tonight or early tomorrow, another Architect should arrive with several Nibelung specialists to figure out where the amplifiers should be positioned. But I am glad to say we are another step closer to revival."
"I am glad as well then, Odin. Thou has my thanks... but I am curious. Why art thou so invested in this?" Luna asked curiously, and the once-god gave her a smile in return, which only made her frown moodily. "Well, 'tis a good question, I think! Thou, as a warrior god, urged on the genocide of the Vanir. Thou replicated the layers, and many layers have already fallen and I have not seen thee shed a tear for the departed nor struggle to revive what may remain in them, and yet thou works tirelessly to revive these ponies who barely know thy name and offer thee no worship nor gratitude. The only reason I work so hard to save them is because among them are friends and family, because they are all ponies of my land, my home, because so much of what happened... was my fault."
"And do you think my reasons are so different? After all, everything that has happened here is my fault." Odin replied quietly, shaking his head slowly. "When I replicated the layers... I did not expect the results to be so... so tangible. I thought they would be more akin to illusions, enough to confuse and slow Valthrudnir down while I figured out how to put a halt to his machinations. But they were all real, all full of living lives... lives I have seen perish again and again, countless lives Valthrudnir killed over and over... countless deaths that were all my fault. Weeping over them is pointless, Brynhild, and serves no purpose but to make me seem even weaker and more self-pitying than I already am. I created these worlds, aye: but why should me worship or gratitude? I created them to be used as living shields and distractions for a monster I feared would kill them all, even after I dropped the scattered remnants that I could save from Valhalla across the layers to further slow the Jotnar down. That is not the act of a being that deserves worship. That was the act of a coward who must make amends to the poor people he shoved in front of the knife meant for him."
Luna looked quietly at Odin, and Odin gazed silently back, then he shook his head slowly and tiredly picked up his flask with a sigh, slowly opening it and sipping at the ambrosia quietly before looking down at the shiny silver canister, muttering: "There are fine lines between cowardice and caution, bravery and stupidity. I am somehow certain that over the course of my life I have often crossed back and forth over these lines countless times."
He carefully screwed the lid back on the flask, shaking his head slowly, then he continued quietly: "But we all make mistakes, I suppose. The longer you live, the more mistakes you make... just as the more victories you strive for, the more failures you're bound to accrue as well, and at the end of life who knows which is worth more? The point is in the journey and the trials, and how we rise to meet them, not in the defeats we give or take. I have learned that now... and that humility and mercy are the strongest of all vessels. Any brute can swing a fist in anger, few can offer an open hand."
Odin paused and looked down quietly, shaking his head slowly as he murmured: "How I wish to take back all I have wronged, how many regrets I have about the victories I achieved, the peoples I pushed down, everyone and everything that I brought ruin to. There were many enemies we had we could have made peace with instead of destroying outright... oh, at the time, total conquest seemed like the most strategically-sound solution. But if I had left those enemies alive, we would have had someone to turn to when Helheim moved against us, when Valthrudnir put his grand machinations into play. Now all my victories look sallow and sour... so much of what I have done seems only like bullying and childishness... my pushing the Aesir to be better and hardier nothing more than the pedantic 'knowing-better' of an old goat shoving his dreams onto others to live vicariously through them, because it is the easier path, because he can't let go of the past, because he refuses to move on and acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, there is value in things other than himself."
There was silence for a few moments, and then the once-god smiled again and lowered his head, saying softly: "I apologize, friends. I am old, I am tired, I have much weighing on my mind. Sometimes my mouth simply runs away from me before I can catch it."
"Well, get thyself in check, old lecher. I do not have the patience for thy speeches, when so much else hangs in the balance." Luna replied quietly, and Odin glanced up with a quiet chuckle before the winged unicorn hesitated, then asked softly: "But was everything we did so wrong? Does thou not have some achievements thou can be proud of, or is it the fate of all things to one day wind up old and regretful and miserable?"
"Nay, Brynhild, there are always things to be proud of. I am proud of my son, Thor, and if I am permitted, I am proud of thee and Freya as well." Odin replied quietly, and Luna gave a small smile before the one-eyed entity looked slowly up at the ceiling. "I am proud of the worlds I have helped to build. I am proud of the forces of evil we stopped. And, selfishly, I am proud of myself for living a little up to my namesake after so many years of foolishness. Mimir hang me, though, I wish I had done better."
He paused, then shook his head briefly before looking up, speaking in a drier voice: "However, enough meandering around the path, for I believe that the two of you are doing something that you will not be so proud of in the future. I do not wish you two to end up regretful and lost... Brynhild, my Valkyrie, you know that nothing grants invulnerability, and nothing grants eternal joy. Not even your love."
Luna bristled a bit, and Scrivener reached up and touched her shoulder as he rested against the table, looking quietly towards Odin as the once-god continued softly: "I do not say this out of spite, but only concern. I understand why you would be hesitant to speak of this to me, after the past, after the things that have happened. But Brynhild, I vowed to never again harm you as I have in the past, and that means I cannot harm Scrivener Blooms either, if that is what you fear. Not with you connected as you are."
"And would thou try and sever the connection between us, Odin?" Luna asked sharply, and the once-god frowned a bit at her as she leaned forwards over the table, but Scrivener could feel concern and fear beneath the anger. "For that would do worse to me than any blade or bludgeon ever could, and I know thou has many awful tricks up thy sleeve."
"That would be harming you then, Brynhild. As I said, I won't harm you." Odin replied tiredly, and he looked slowly over the two before saying quietly: "It's something from the Tyrant Wyrm, isn't it? It's a corruption that hasn't faded, a darkening that has only become deeper with the passage of time."
"Yes." Scrivener Blooms looked up and smiled a bit, and Luna glanced towards him with surprise, frowning deeply... but when they met one-another's eyes, as their thoughts and emotions swirled back and forth between them, she only sighed softly before grumbling and burying her face against the side of his neck moodily, and Scrivener wrapped a foreleg around her quietly as he closed his own. "I don't know how to explain it. I don't know what to say, Odin, and I am... I am nervous. You're... well... I'm not honestly entirely sure what you are, still..."
Odin chuckled a bit at this, and when Scrivener looked up in surprise, the falcon-headed being said softly: "Don't worry, I'm not sure what I am either. Would it be easier if I asked you a few questions about certain specific worries I have?"
Scrivener nodded hesitantly after a moment, and Odin nodded back after a moment, questioning gently: "Does this force compel you to do things? I do not mean whether or not it influences you to make choices... I mean, does it make certain choices for you?"
"No, it's never... taken control of me or anything like that. Sometimes it guides me towards this or that but... the choices are mine. I take responsibility for everything I've done." Scrivener said softly, and he smiled a bit despite himself: he sounded like a pony confessing to some horrible crime. "I see things sometimes. Not just... what you already know about, but other images, other... things. I guess you knew that too already, though, didn't you?"
"Finding you arguing with what looked to me only as thin air did give me a clue towards that, yes." he replied calmly, and Luna mumbled a bit as she buried her face deeper against the male's neck. For a moment, the once-god looked thoughtfully at Scrivener, and then he asked quietly: "I saw that Luna had polymorphed you before into something between the pony that you are and the Tyrant Wyrm you could become. Why did you assume that shape?"
"Luna and I discussed it and thought it would help if... wait, what did you say?" Scrivener frowned a bit and Luna looked up quickly, the two looking intently at Odin as he only calmly looked back. "Tyrant Wyrm that... that I could become? What did you mean by that?"
Odin rose a hand, and the two ponies leaned back a bit, still looking worriedly towards the once-god as he closed his eyes and explained slowly: "That response answers several other questions I had, in ways that both refresh me and concern me. But you have seen them for yourself, witnessed their nature: the Tyrant Wyrms are shells, living embodiments of reality twisted into sentient destruction and suffering. The outside only looks as it does because of Valthrudnir's ego.
"No, like anything else, it is what is inside that matters... but in the case of the Tyrant Wyrms, this is more literal." Odin continued quietly, sitting back with a grimace. "They are given power and existence by their organic souls, made up of energy and spirits and once-living things all polymorphed together into one engine of agony. They are a plague, figuratively and literally, and it seems that you have been infected, Scrivener Blooms."
Scrivy looked silently at Odin as Luna swallowed slowly, then she gritted her teeth and shook her head firmly, saying quietly: "But we can overcome this, Odin. Do not think that-"
"Brynhild, stop." the once-god said gently but firmly, and for once, Luna quieted and only looked at him silently as he slowly stood up, leaning towards them, but he was smiling faintly, and his eyes were not angry, not vengeful, but concerned. "If I wanted to take extreme measures, by now I would have, alright? But I'm not going to act with haste on this issue. Brynhild, the fact that only Scrivener is being affected by this is a calming sign. It may even mean that the infection can be contained."
Scrivener Blooms smiled a bit at this as Luna looked surprised... then she bowed her head humbly, and Odin continued quietly: "The worst case scenario is that you could begin to... change. In mind, more than in body. I know you already see things differently than most mortals can, but this is only a side effect, an... enhancement more than a danger, even if I know it must have its drawbacks. I know that you must see yourself as something dark and damned but you are far from that still, Scrivener Blooms."
Scrivy smiled awkwardly at this, and Odin looked moodily between the two before he asked slowly: "But what were you arguing with before? What drove you to such anger, to such a state of excitement? You looked like Helheim itself was biting at your heels."
Scrivener and Luna traded a nervous look before they both looked towards Odin, and the once-god looked steadily back at them as the silence spiraled out. Then, finally, Scrivener swallowed thickly and lowered his head, feeling another worm of fear through his gut before he mumbled: "I saw... myself."
He shivered a bit at this lie, feeling a twist in his guts as he thought about everything that statement could imply... and Odin looked moodily at them before he shook his head and sat slowly back in his chair, saying quietly: "Very well. But you should know, Scrivener, you're a worse liar than Brynhild."
Scrivener mumbled a little to himself as he shrank back a bit, and the winged unicorn grumbled under her breath, glaring towards the once-god. "Are we done here then, Odin? Or can we at least move on to whatever other tasks thou has for us?"
Odin looked at them for a few moments, then he sighed and nodded. "Yes, yes, enough is enough for now. Go ahead and return home, or stay and help out if you like: I have no tasks for you at this moment in time."
The two nodded, slipping away from the table and heading for the doors. Luna flicked her horn to open them, and then she and Scrivener paused as Odin called after them: "Be wary, friends. The worst enemy is always within."
"As if we didn't already know this." Luna muttered, and Scrivener smiled faintly despite himself as the winged unicorn stormed past him, the earth pony hurrying after her as he felt the turmoil and worries spinning through both of their minds and souls.
Two weeks passed without much of note: Luna and Scrivener felt almost as if Odin was purposefully avoiding them, the once-god not even giving them any tasks as the two ponies divided their time between working around their cottage and working around Ponyville, fixing the buildings that had been destroyed and laying new sod, soil, and sand where the corrupted ground had been removed. In those productive two weeks, they successfully restored the landscape and did most of the repairs to the destroyed homes with the help of the surprisingly-competent Nibelung.
They also finished off their own cottage, decorating and detailing their bedroom, setting up the furniture, and cleaning it from top-to-bottom as Pollen puttered around in the backyard and helped them by setting up their garden. Discombobulation often watched this from the safety of the small, covered aquarium Luna took out of a pet store in Ponyville for him: while still too weak to spend a lot of time outside his sealed sanctuary, he was now much healthier and starting to gain more of his old powers back as his body healed from its ordeal.
The aquarium was like a little safe room for the Draconequus, and Luna seemed to enjoy the task of taking care of the creature like a very strange pet: every now and then she would toss some candy in for him, refill his water dish with cola or coffee depending on what was at hoof, and shove her face against the glass as she peered in at him while Discombobulation pointedly ignored her. Scrivener often wondered how this boded for the foal they planned to have one day: she would either be an excellent mother, or she would accidentally kill the child with sugar and smothering affection.
All the same, time passed in welcomed peace: Pollen was friendly and quiet and liked working in the garden and helping out around the house, Discombobulation only made a nuisance out of himself on rare occasion, and Scrivener and Luna were able to feel like their home was left in good hooves while they returned to corrupted Equestria. Discombobulation and Pollen had seen them off that morning and wished them well.
They were both surprised when they found not only Odin, but Zecora in the field, awaiting them with a smile, and the once-god turned his eyes to them as they approached. "Your friend here is very interesting, Brynhild. Her knowledge of potions is most impressive, and her generosity a welcome sight."
"Your friend flatters me, I must admit, and my help I gladly submit. You've all done much for the world after all, helping to bring so much back from death's pall." Zecora said kindly, bowing her head humbly, and Odin chuckled and clapped his hands slowly.
"I think that will never cease to impress me." He gave her an entertained look, then turned his eyes towards Luna and Scrivener, glancing over them both before he asked curiously: "Brynhild, where is your spear?"
"Hanging in my home, hopefully out of Discombobulation's reach. I do not need it, Odin, my worst foes are vanquished... let that piece of my soul rest healthy at home." Luna answered, and the once-god crossed his arms as he gave her a moody look. "Oh, be silent, cyclops. I am not being arrogant, I am being cautious. I would be loathe to lose it."
"I... suppose." Odin rubbed slowly at the scarred side of his face, and then he nodded finally before holding up one finger as Luna began to step forwards. "I want to remind you to come across the Bifrost the moment you begin to sense reality heading for total collapse. I will attempt to send you a warning if I see signs of it beginning, but much of my time will be spent outside of Valhalla these coming months. Either way, be wary."
"Worry not, old lecher. Besides, it is not like thou shan't see us again, or we shan't be returning to this layer of reality. We have other entities to escort now." Luna smiled slightly, and Zecora cocked her head curiously before the winged unicorn grinned and tipped her a wink. "Worry not, Zecora, 'twill be nothing that I cannot handle. But we have brought the light to this world, now we must add a little darkness, for the sake of balance."
"For some reason that does not soothe my fears, it rather makes me nervous for whatever nears." the zebra said moodily, and Scrivener nodded agreeably as Luna continued to grin. The black-and-white equine sighed, then shook her head before saying moodily: "I suppose the choice is yours to make, just please take care for your own sake."
"Aye, that we shall." Luna nodded once, and then she glanced towards Odin as the once god reached into his jacket, producing his flask. "Oh, hurry up, old lecher. I am anxious to return and to begin making deals with devils. It should prove a far simpler task than saving souls."
Odin only rolled his good eye as he sipped ambrosia, then corked the container and put it back in his jacket. He laced his fingers together in front of his chest as he closed his eyes and muttered: "Please try not to enjoy this too much, Brynhild. It comes across as a bit evil."
"Only a bit? I shall strive to try harder, then." Luna replied mildly, and she and Scrivener lowered their own heads in tandem as her horn began to slowly glow, her mane and tail sparking and sizzling backwards as they took a long, synchronized breath, feeling the power building in the air as the ponies moved in time and Odin murmured under his breath, the sound helping Luna time her own magic as Zecora stepped slowly backwards in amazement.
The whirlwind of flames erupted from the ground, spinning forwards and ripping through reality before forming into the rainbow bridge... and while it looked pale and the white flames flickered low, it was still there, still tangible, and Odin grimaced as he stumbled back a step with a curse and Scrivener and Luna both arched their backs with pained winces, electricity sizzling over them both before they dropped their heads forwards with matching gasps. Then Luna cursed and shook her head quickly as Scrivener gritted his teeth and straightened, before the winged unicorn glanced towards Odin and said finally: "Old cyclops... thanks."
With that, Luna ran forwards towards the bridge, and Scrivener called an awkward goodbye to the two as Zecora waved a hoof and Odin looked up with a smile after the ponies as they charged up the arching, sizzling bridge and into the hole in reality. Energy surged along their frames as they passed through the tunnel beyond, making them both laugh despite themselves... and within what felt like seconds, they were out the other side, charging down the ramping rainbow bridge to the ground below, both leaping off into the rotted wasteland and skidding to a halt as they gazed over their shoulders.
The burning bridge of multicolored light sizzled and twisted... then shattered into pieces, bit-by-bit, as the hole in reality sparked closed. In only seconds, it had dissolved completely, leaving no trace behind except for a faint shimmering in the air that soon faded as well, and Scrivener Blooms and Luna traded a look and a smile before the two ponies stepped towards one another and nuzzled affectionately beneath the lowered, burning sun in the red sky.
They both breathed a little hard, still feeling a faint euphoria from the run as always... but it was quickly fading now, both ponies becoming more serious as they gazed back and forth at the reality they had stepped into. After only a few weeks in Looking Glass Equestria, they had both almost forgotten what this world was like, what they would be returning to... and it hurt them both to gaze at the world around them before Luna frowned and murmured: "Wait. Something has changed."
Scrivener looked towards the winged unicorn curiously as she strode slowly forwards, over rotted earth and icy tundra... and then she grimaced as she glanced up and muttered: "What wickedness is this?"
The earth pony allowed his eyes to draw upwards... and he shivered a bit as he saw the red sky had turned black in places, as if it had been torn like thin skin. Even stranger, here and there enormous, shattered pieces of stone floated, but they were not just from the demolished moon... there were too many pieces, of too many different sizes. And when his eyes traveled on instinct towards where the ruins of Canterlot were and the surrounding mountains, he realized that some of the peaks now looked as if they were floating, rocks and crags hovering silently, senselessly, and Luna shook her head as her own eyes gazed towards this. "Reality is losing cohesion. The beasts of Ginnungagap would not den here, after all... this layer of reality is too broken, too twisted with Helheim's perverse presence."
Scrivener nodded slowly as he looked towards Luna, and she shook her head as her mane twisted slowly backwards, murmuring: "I had doubted in Odin's knowledge before, to be honest... but this means that he is right, whether I desire him to be or not. 'Tis awful to see, and more worrisome than I can say... it is like reality is beginning to slowly lose its laws and sense."
"But we're not going to back down, are we?" Scrivener asked softly, and Luna gave him an amused look over her shoulder, which made the earth pony smile in spite of everything before he turned in the direction of their cottage, beginning to walk as he murmured: "I dunno why... but that strangely relieves me."
"Maybe thou art anxious to have some Nightmare servants to order around." Luna remarked airily, and Scrivener groaned and dropped his head forwards before the winged unicorn laughed as she strode quickly up beside him with a grin. "Or maybe thou art taking on some of my positive qualities. 'Tis about time, Scrivy, we have only been soul-bound for more than a dozen years now."
"Well, you know, you had all those negative qualities I had to learn first." Scrivener replied reasonably, and Luna gave him an amused look as they headed slowly over the barren tundra together, the male grimacing a bit. "I think there's more ice here, too."
Luna grunted in agreement after a moment, and she hesitated a bit before looking towards him... but the earth pony only shook his head, saying softly: "I know I've been quiet this last while, I know. I guess I've just been thinking a lot about things. But I'm... ready to keep pressing forwards now, and we've discussed this into the ground. And I haven't heard a whisper from Valthrudnir's echo... I think if I keep in mind that it's not really him, it's just some... some godawful memory-thing of him, some illusion brought on from the corruption eating its way through my brain... it helps a lot."
He quieted, then looked up and smiled a bit, glancing over at her. "And I think I am... trying to be more like you. Or well, I'm trying to learn how to do that thing where you just... finally laugh or break something and everything's okay for a little while. I want to learn to do that."
"Aye, it would be nice if thou didn't brood and sulk constantly." Luna replied gently, and Scrivener checked her lightly even as he laughed a bit before the winged unicorn bumped firmly back against him. "But worry not, Scrivy. Thou may take forever to get over the silliest of things, but at the same time thou compartmentalizes everything else and leaves me in awe - or perhaps just frustration - that thou can simply... move forwards even at the worst of times."
"Stubbornness issues." Scrivener responded mildly, shrugging a bit as he looked ahead. "What's important is important to me, what isn't... isn't. And what has to be done... has to be done. Should I say a few other repetitive, senseless sentences to sound even sager?"
"Nay, the point is clear. Thou art an idiot." Luna shoved him lightly, and Scrivener snorted in amusement before the winged unicorn's eyes flicked towards the low sun moodily. "'Tis like walking beneath a guttering lamp. We shall have to be alert when passing through the Empty Forest, Scrivy... long shadows invite wicked creatures to come out and play, and I am sure not all of them will be interested in our offering of peace."
"That's what I love about you, Luna, how positive you are." Scrivener said after a moment, and Luna rolled her eyes but smiled all the same as the male added in a more-serious voice: "How will we know what to save and what not to?"
"The same way we knew what Pales should remain behind; we trust in our instincts, and our knowledge of these creatures. I am a good judge of character and thou possesses a ridiculous repertoire of mostly-true stories about all sorts of creatures of the night in thy mind." Luna gave him an entertained look. "We shall mix generalization and astute observation, and this way, figure out what is worthy to cross and join our new world."
Scrivener nodded slowly, and they were both quiet for a while as they made their way towards their home. Their attention was soon drawn by the state of the world around them instead of thoughts of taming darkness, however, as they approached the Empty Forest and found it had become a sea of gnarled and twisting trees, the blackened hulks moving slowly but visibly in tandem, like ripples spreading through the surface of some forsaken pool.
Here and there, other trees had merged together and grown into freakish sentinels with branches ending in what seemed almost like grasping fingers that clawed at the air of their own volition, towering over the forest and seeming to peer down at it from their naked, headless trunks, and Luna and Scrivener avoided these on instinct; their worries were confirmed when they watched a Velite Drake snatched up by one of these strange tree-beasts when it drew too close before the skeleton was torn into ivory confetti like it was nothing more than wax paper, and the two ponies hurried onwards through the miserable forest.
In the distance, the Frozen Reef had slipped closer towards their home, and now leaned ominously forwards like an immense tidal wave, rivulets of water running off the melting ice. As the two equines made their way towards the cottage, they both wondered what had brought the world from a state of death to undead mutation, and if the Black Wolves of Hell no longer being present in this layer had something to do with it.
They pushed these thoughts aside as the sun fell lower in the sky, resting in a state of endless sunset that cast gloomy shadows across the world. As they traveled through the swaying, gnarled trees, stepping over roots that twisted like snakes along the ground, they were both aware of things following them in the darkness, of eyes watching them intently, and then shapes sweeping hurriedly ahead... and so neither were surprised when they reached their cottage and found five Nightmares waiting for them, half-hiding in the shadows cast by the looming trees and their damaged home.
Their bodies were steaming faintly in the red light cast by the lowering sun, looking apprehensively back and forth before one of them rose its head, whispering: "Look, our... our big sister approaches..."
"I am not thy sibling, and nor is Nightmare Moon, for the last time." Luna replied irritably, and the Nightmares looked back and forth nervously before the winged unicorn sighed and lowered her head, then grimaced up towards the stained and broken sky as she muttered: "But speak quickly, creatures. What business does thou have with me?"
"Our siblings found you before... sought to strike a deal with you. You seemed to consider, and we will do anything to escape this wretched world..." the Nightmare that had already spoken answered hurriedly, shivering a bit in the dark shadows beside the cottage, its eyes gleaming as the smoky black hell-horse looked back and forth nervously. The other Nightmares seemed content to allow it to talk for them, however, and the demonic horse continued nervously: "We are few now... so many of us have returned to the graves and the darkness and the ether... we need your help."
"A plainspoken plea for mercy. I do not know whether to be moved or sickeningly-amused, considering the trouble thy kind has given me in the past." Luna muttered musingly, looking down thoughtfully, and then she shook her head slowly. "If I am to save thy kind, the terms of the deal will not be fair to thee. And first off, I desire to know what is happening in this world... it looks as if in the time I have been gone Equestria has transformed from corrupted and dead into a falsely-living mockery of Helheim itself."
The Nightmare nodded rapidly, bowing itself low as it whispered: "The world sinks deeper and lower into Helheim, the place we all sought to escape. The demons smell the end approaching, and they have given themselves up to infighting and destruction. They no longer seek a method of escape... they only seek to kill as many as possible before they fall into destruction themselves.
"We are not a threat to you. If we threatened you, we lose our chance to escape. There are so few of our siblings left... thirty, maybe fewer if the demons have found our brethren, maybe more if others hide still. We cannot travel during the day like the more-powerful entities of shadow can... even with the sunlight's faintest rays, look at us, we burn. To demons, we are tender morsels... made up of broken souls and living emotions, they capture us and serve us as bribes to their betters to buy themselves more time to survive." The Nightmare looked up, whispering: "But in a world where there is deep night as well as endless day, we would stand a chance for survival. We'll be your spies, your whisperers, your conspirators. We'll swear loyalty to you. Honor is a concept older and more sacred than any mortal pony could ever appreciate."
Luna muttered a bit, looking down, pretending to consider, and Scrivener glanced towards her quietly, knowing why she was drawing this out. The Nightmares were conniving and would exploit any vulnerability they could find, from their experiences: they had to be handled with great caution. "I shall... accept the offer only on the condition that I have thine loyalty, without question, without consequence. Thou must do as I say, without argument, without seeking thine own ends. This is not a negotiable deal to bend to thy favor and I do not trust thee. All of thee will be kept on a short leash."
"Anything, anything you desire... but we do not wish to die. We have lived for centuries and you already know that we fear death and all it takes." the Nightmare murmured, shaking its head quickly. "You shall set the terms. You shall give us the contract. We will obey you, indefinitely and without question, but please just save our lives..."
"Then go for now, dark specters. Gather the other Nightmares and other servants of the darkness that I can trust, and in a week's time or so I shall bring about night to this poisoned layer of reality. Then thou shalt return here, and we shall seal a deal between us." Luna ordered calmly, gazing slowly at the Nightmares around her, and they whispered eagerly in the shadows. "Consider this thy first task, and 'twill set the tone for our future working relationship. I would therefore recommend doing thy best work."
"You shall not be disappointed then, mistress. Siblings... let us take our leave." The Nightmare by the house glanced quickly back and forth, looking strangely eager before it flickered out of sight, and one-by-one, the other shadowy equines vanished as well, until Scrivener Blooms and Luna were standing alone in front of their damaged cottage.
The sensation of their presence faded, and Luna shook her head with a quiet laugh before she glanced towards Scrivener Blooms, and the earth pony met her gaze as he murmured: "Well, I guess that could have gone worse, huh?"
"Aye, but we'll see what the creatures have to say when they return... and there could still be trickery and traps ahead, so we must remain wary." Luna hesitated, then she looked quietly towards their cottage, saying softly: "I hope we are doing the right thing. It is not that I have never worked with such ilk in the past, only that... I hope I am not starting down a path that will lead to frustration and pain in the future. Still, if the keep their word... I believe that it will benefit our Equestria in the long run."
She halted, then looked slowly over the damaged cabin and continued softly: "But we will need to be careful. This Equestria has become even more dangerous now... we will continue to live and fight here, to try and find any surviving Pales we can, but we must be wary. If the demons have begun destroying one another as well as everything around them, they will surely seek to challenge us as well, should the chance arrive."
Scrivener Blooms nodded slowly, then he strode carefully forwards towards the door of their home, pushing it open... and grimacing as he gazed inside to find the walls cracked and the floor torn-up, muttering: "It looks as if we've already had a few unwelcome visitors... the wards might be broken, too. Are we going to stay here?"
"Aye, Scrivy. I shan't let anything chase us from our home." Luna said firmly, and then she paused meditatively and added after a moment: "But thou should go in first. Thou art blocking the doorway anyway, and... thou makes a good scout, and a better shield. Just in case."
"Oh, thank you, brave and legendary Luna Lightblade." Scrivener muttered, and Luna huffed and poked at his flank with her horn, making the male wince a bit and kick lightly at her before he strode inside and down the corridor, grimacing a bit as he looked back and forth. Luna followed after a moment, and while Scrivy checked the den and the kitchen, she hunted through their bedroom and then checked on the magical wards both inside and outside.
Much of their home had been wrecked, and Scrivener grumbled under his breath as he squashed several ugly, gelatinous, but apparently-alive masses of bubbling slime, and when Luna returned from outside she said disgustedly: "The magical battery has been drained in its entirety. 'Twas likely wraiths, which attacked the wards and drained every bit of energy they could from our home."
"What about the living goo? I've never seen anything like that before." Scrivener said grouchily as he carefully wiped up the last of the mucky once-alive substance from the cracked kitchen floor, but Luna only shrugged a bit in response. It made the male sigh and grumble as Luna lit the fireplace, and he dropped his head forwards as he muttered: "And here, betwixt the first phase of life and the last phase of death, I enter now into metamorphosis, to become the unbecoming."
Luna smiled wryly from where she laid on the ripped bedding at this, the winged unicorn looking over her shoulder towards the kitchen as she felt a strange twist run through herself at the quoted poetry, as she wondered how much Scrivener's words applied not just to the world around them but themselves as well. She only hoped that while this world fell into shadow, its death would signal the beginning of their new life in Looking Glass Equestria, and not their own fall into the deep darkness of death... or worse. |
Metempsychosis | Metamorphosis | Chapter Twenty Three: Metamorphosis
~BlackRoseRaven
The warped, corrupted Equestria grew worse with each and every day that passed, and even fighting as hard as they could, victories were few and far between for Luna and Scrivener. The world had reached a new level of hostility while they had been away, gone from laying brackish and dead to actively hunting anything and everything that so much as moved, much less possessed even a speck of life.
It was like even nature herself had been murdered, and some ghastly phantasm had set itself up as pedantic god in her place, striving to do anything and everything that would incite further chaos and destruction. The sun moved jaggedly through the broken sky, impossible to predict, and corruption regularly rained from the clouds, poisoning the land and further warping the undead forests and the world itself.
Within the first few days, Luna was forced to set up new wards to help combat the wraiths that were attracted to magic and vital force, seeking to feed their endless hungers and create more mindless, vampiric specters like themselves, and to also work to keep out the pesky slimes that were much more nuisance than threat. They tried to attach themselves to the ponies like ticks to drain the nutrients out of their bodies, leaving ugly bruises whenever they managed to get a good hold on one of the two equines.
At the end of the long first week, Luna had forced the sun to lower from the sky: it had taken a surprising amount of energy, however, and it felt like something had fought them every step of the way until it had finally passed beneath the horizon. The period of 'night' had only lasted two hours... but in that time, no less than thirty-two creatures of shadow showed up at their home as Scrivy and Luna stood carefully just inside the protective wards they had traced around their run-down cottage.
A dozen Nightmares, a handful of Velites, low-level demons, and a few Phooka and other creatures that rested in that awkward zone that was halfway between intelligent beast and cunning monster. Out of the group, the Velites would be the least troublesome: in the Looking Glass World, their spirits could be extracted, and then revived alongside the other Pales when the time came for that.
All the same, Luna had ordered them all to pledge their loyalty to her, one after the other: for many of the creatures, it was a solemn task done with surprising calm and straightforwardness. Their word was their bond, even though they were thought of as liars and betrayers, but they were neither: their victims were first victims of themselves before they became the prey of these manipulators who twisted the words of those that asked these dark entities to grant their desires.
Luna listened carefully to their words, and was pleased when at the end of it all, she had only been forced to sharply ask a few of the creatures of the night to be more specific, or to change their oaths slightly. Little as she liked it sometimes, she was experienced in these dealings and the gathered monsters all-but-revered her. To them, she was still Nightmare Moon: and inside her, the darker part of her personality delighted in the new servants she had gained.
Once the oaths were sworn and the ritual of sorts completed, Luna made a promise of her own: in a few weeks, she would open the Bifrost and bring them over it into Looking Glass Equestria beneath the cover of darkness. Until then, their only job was to survive the threats of the corrupted world around them. What was unexpected, however, was the hesitance of some of the creatures of darkness to leave: the Velites claimed strength in numbers, the Phooka dawdled, and one of the Nightmares was eager to stay behind so it could send messages back and forth if necessary between Luna and its 'siblings.'
Most of the creatures had gone back into hiding, but Luna had ended up permitting the others to stay... and within a week, the Velites had built up some small but stable structures around their cottage, including a stables and slop-trough for the Phooka, and the Nightmare spent a lot of its time buzzing around the inside of their home, studying both Scrivener and Luna almost hungrily. It was never hostile... only creepy, and perhaps even more awkward than Pinkamena had ever been. Luna took to calling it their 'pet,' and the Nightmare seemed to consider this a term of endearment rather than mockery and deprecation.
It was now like they lived in a creepy little camp... a camp that grew a little bigger every few weeks, as even a few desperate Nibelung tried to join up with them, among other Velites, surviving beasts that slunk through the shadows, and strangest of all, Pales that were attracted for one reason or another to the congregation of the supernatural. But nor was it all positive: nastier demons bent on feeding or destruction sometimes attacked now, along with other creatures drawn in by the sensations of magic in the air or whatever other lures their twisted senses detected.
But something that truly interested Luna was when she declared she was ready to take the first wave of dark creatures cross the Bifrost, and several Velites and the eager-to-serve Nightmare had asked if they could stay behind for now. Luna and Scrivy had both been surprised, but permitted it, curious to see if it was a true show of loyalty or some kind of trick.
The first wave consisted of almost forty creatures of shadow they led quickly through the Empty Forest during starless, false night, Luna grimacing in disgust about how the sun had refused to set again and would likely rise all too quickly. Opening the Bifrost had tired her, and she had no idea how the creatures would hold up passing through the indescribable vortex across the rainbow bridge... but although it seemed to hurt the creatures, they all passed through... and into Looking Glass Equestria's starry night, the creatures staring around themselves with awe at the life and energy of the world they passed into.
They looked almost childlike: demons gaped innocently, Nightmares shivered beneath the starlight in relief, Velites touched the trees and dragged their bony hooves through the grass. These things, considered awful monsters, reacted with the same happiness the Pales often did to stepping into this new world for the first time... and in spite of everything, Luna smiled faintly. She was trying to think of them like a weak disease she was using to vaccinate Looking Glass Equestria against far-worse illnesses... but more and more, she saw in them herself, she saw in them life and dignity and a desperate desire to continue to exist.
She brought them first to Ponyville, to check in with Greece and Illyria and another Architect, Babylon, who registered each and every one of the creatures and assigned them jobs. Odin had apparently devised a system to help keep these beings of darkness busy and give them a place in the new world... and for the eight days Luna and Scrivener spent in Looking Glass World while the Bifrost regenerated, they observed the creatures of darkness closely and their interaction with the world around them.
Scrivener was so fascinated he had started keeping a journal filled with notes and observations, and Luna often added her own thoughts and feelings to this. It felt very personal to them both, like they were delving into the abyss as well as gazing into it, now no longer simply fighting monsters but dining with them as friends and family... and in many ways, both darkness-tinged ponies were excited and reassured by what they saw, despite the perverse natures of many of their newest additions to the world they were helping rebuild.
In some ways, it was easier to get the creatures of shadow to work alongside them than it had been to convince the Nibelung to act as laborers: the dwarves were not as tightly-bound by their word of honor, and furthermore required lodgings, provisions, and entertainment, otherwise they would regularly ruin half the things they built while trying to find something to do outside of work. Demons and Nightmares, on the other hand, immediately found nooks and crannies they could hide in during the day, hunted for wild prey in the early evening - often alongside Phooka, which they shared the scraps with - and then went efficiently about their jobs they were assigned. And Velites simply did what they were told, day or night, tireless and obedient.
Even Odin found it interesting, and for the most part, he left Scrivener Blooms and Luna alone after seeing how they were already keeping track of the new creatures they had brought into Looking Glass Equestria. It was a task that Scrivy took pleasure in, however... awkward as it was sometimes when some supernatural entity would catch him watching and wander over to look, or when he'd been writing notes on Nightmares and a Phooka had sat down beside him, and he'd absently petted the half-animal creature for ten minutes while reviewing notes until he realized what he was doing.
Pollen was both excited and a little scared to see other Velites roaming around... but once reassured that they were victims like her and not predators, she interacted with them willingly enough. The other skeletons were a bit brainwashed in a few cases, and a few others had forgotten what it was like to have once been mortal... but none of them were worshipers of Veliuona, and all of them were eager to obey once they heard that an end to their endless suffering was coming.
Discombobulation was a little flustered by the fact that now Nightmares and demons were regularly showing up at the cabin, the chaos entity hiding in his aquarium and grumbling about the presence of Helheim, but the creatures ignored him so long as he ignored them. Not that the Draconequus could always put safety first, but since Luna only had to stop a Nightmare from attempting to eat him once, she thought the chimerical creature was doing a better job of keeping himself in line than she could have herself.
When it was time for Scrivy and Luna to return to the corrupted layer of reality, they left their journals and logbooks behind and only took a bag of simple supplies. Odin warned them again about the state of the world when they left, and Luna had grumbled out a promise to be careful before they had opened the Bifrost and made their way across, back into the twisted, mutant world... and straight into an ambush.
The skirmish was brutal: low on energy from summoning the bridge but high on adrenaline and endorphins, Luna and Scrivener ended up in a melee with wraiths and a middle-tier demon. The wraiths they crushed first: awful entities clad in rags, hiding their skull-like features beneath cowls, they were halfway between zombie and ghost and drained the energy from anything they could sink their claws into. The demon, meanwhile, flitted around the edges of the fight until the wraiths had been killed, then attempted to grab Scrivener from behind... only to first get two rear hooves slamming into its horned, scaly features before the earth pony dropped flat as Luna lunged over him and plunged her horn into the monstrosity.
The wound was far from lethal, and had only enraged the demon: it gnashed its teeth, clawed at them, slithered rapidly around on its body table and propelled itself faster with the bony wings that extended from its serpentine back, claws ripping against the ground as it yanked itself along and looked for a vulnerability. It was hunger in a physical form, gluttony that longed to feast upon them, and far tougher than it looked.
Finally, after taking a bit of a beating, the monster tried to bite Luna... and the winged unicorn had replied by slicing its lower jaw off in a single neat parry. The demon had finally fled at this point, and Scrivy and Luna had grumbled, both bruised and battered and cut as they'd stumbled their way back through the Empty Forest to their cottage for some rest.
There were scars of battle around the cabin... and while the Nightmare and one or two Velites had survived, the other creatures that had stayed behind had not. Demons were sweeping back and forth across corrupted Equestria, as were other entities of destruction, all hellbent on taking down as much of the world as they could before they were taken down themselves. It was enough to make the living ponies uneasy, wondering if their time here was finally at an end.
They rested, and the Nightmare watched over them almost fawningly... a feeling that was still strange, even if no longer uncomfortable. Luna had started calling this particular Nightmare 'Melinda' after the witch in the famous poem, and the entity had only attempted to point out once that they already possessed names they held in secret and silence before Luna had glared at her and the creature had decided it would graciously accept its new name.
Over the weeks that passed, they fought against monstrosities, demons, and even what seemed like the world itself come alive: they gathered more creatures to their cause, found more Pales, and Luna decided that there was no longer any point in being too cautious or careful. Instead, she led Scrivener on wild adventure: they explored past the Frozen Reef, they dredged the sacred vaults and catacombs of Canterlot, they crossed back and forth across Equestria further disturbing the already-disturbed land, every now and then accompanied by creatures of the night that eagerly banded with them.
In the months that passed, Scrivener found himself battered and bludgeoned and beaten by everything from Nibelung and Velites more interested in one last battle than a chance at salvation, to mutant dragons, monsters that were all-but-legendary, and demons of every tier. And yet at the same time, despite the carnage, the mayhem, the violence, and spending every few weeks passing over the Bifrost to transfer Pales, servants of the night, and the few objects of value they managed to get their hooves on, it also felt strangely-quiet. The nightmares when they slept had become lulling and calmer, and even Valthrudnir had faded, showing up only once or twice, his presence and the feelings of corruption in Scrivener's mind both seeming to diminish as time passed.
Finally, after eight months of living in this rotted-out, self-cannibalizing Equestria, Scrivener sat up on his bedding and blinked his eyes tiredly, rubbing absently at his features as his collar all-but-glowed around his neck. It was a bit scuffed and worn now, and the earth pony's body bore several ugly scars from the battles he had fought... and he couldn't help but smile a bit as he glanced towards Luna, who childishly grabbed at a pillow and pulled it over her face with a mumble as she refused to get up. Her body was still almost pristine... there were only a few hints of marring here and there, and that was all they were: hints, hidden to even the observant, known only by Scrivy because he knew every inch of her shape and form.
He admired her as he reached out, rubbing a hoof gently along her spine... and Luna sighed a little as her mane twisted backwards, half-spilling up along Scrivener's frame as she mumbled beneath the pillow: "I do not wish to get up today, Scrivy. We just crossed back across the Bifrost yesterday. It had been nice and calm and quiet and for once I wish to enjoy this... I demand coffee to further my enjoyment. Make Melinda put on coffee, the creature can make itself useful for insisting on staying even after every other creature has long gone on to Looking Glass world."
Scrivener reached up and gently patted the pillow over Luna's face, and she grumbled a bit beneath it before the earth pony pushed himself off the bedding with a yawn, glancing absently around the dusty, damaged living room before he turned and made his way towards the kitchen, not bothering to look for his glasses. He glanced up, unsurprised, when the Nightmare materialized beside him, smiling at him kindly as she bowed her head respectfully: even after all these months, the odd creature was still as loyal as ever, and as polite and flattering as when they had first begun to work together. "Shall I, Scrivener Blooms?"
"No, it's alright, thank you." Scrivy smiled a bit as he went about the process of putting the coffee on, taking his time as the Nightmare nodded, then the earth pony asked curiously: "How are things looking outside? Any pests in the area?"
"It has been... empty." the Nightmare replied after a thoughtful moment, and the smoky, dark equine strode slowly past Scrivy, almost sultry, glowing white eyes seeming oddly soft. "Storm clouds are overhead, blocking out the sunlight and keeping the world dark. Corruption is trying to whisper something and the world gasps for breath: do you feel it, brother?"
"He is not thy brother, Melinda, do not be obnoxious." Luna called from the den, and the Nightmare sighed a little as she turned towards where Luna was finally sitting up in front of the fireplace, grumbling a bit as she attempted to keep the blankets up around her shoulder as her black pearl bounced gently against her breast. "Truly, though, nothing abound? Perhaps we shall actually get a day to relax after all."
Scrivener grunted in agreement as he turned the coffeemaker on, then turned to open the refrigerator... and cursed under his breath at the reek that floated out of it, shutting it firmly with a look of disgust as his eyes flicked back towards the coffeemaker and he realized it wasn't working either. "Something drained the battery. Looks like you'll have to go without your coffee."
"Nonsense, I'll do it the old-fashioned way, then." Luna replied moodily, and she flicked her horn towards the fireplace, blue flames immediately bursting into being. "Would thou mind checking the battery, then, Scrivener? Perhaps 'tis just a loose connection."
The earth pony nodded to her as the Nightmare looked curiously towards the machinery, murmuring as Scrivener headed for the back door: "Strange. We had no visitors while you slept, and no difficult weather."
For some reason, this didn't help Scrivy's foreboding as he stepped outside, glancing up at the cloudy, dark sky overhead before something caught his eye: not the floating chunks of stone here and there, not the foul clouds or the flashes of flickering light that danced throughout some of them... but something else beyond as he frowned a bit. Then, as he gazed back and forth over the splotchy clouds, he realized that the sky above had turned completely black... and for some reason, it made his stomach clench. No violet, no crimson, and no baleful glow of the red sun, even though the air around him seemed gray and listless.
Yet the luminescence had no source: it was as if the air itself was emitting that strange, phantasmal gray light, and Scrivener frowned deeply as he walked slowly out into the back yard before something chuckled quietly behind him, and the earth pony looked over his shoulder in surprise... then gritted his teeth at the sight of Valthrudnir lounging complacently against the side of the house, the ivory dragon grinning widely as he held up a hand of five cards... five tarot cards, the reading that Scrivener had almost been able to put out of his mind, as the Jotnar said kindly: "It looks like today's the day, slave-pony hack. Today is the day past and present and future all collide, and we see just how resourceful you and Brynhild really are. Can you conquer Fate? Can you outmatch the Norns? Only know one thing, Scrivener Blooms... this time I'm not going to let you cheat and change the ending of the story."
Scrivy began to open his mouth, but Valthrudnir only laughed and grinned, flicking his wrist and tossing the five cards into the air, and they floated in a row in front of the earth pony: the Hanged Man, the Lord of Sorrow, Judgment, the World, and the Lord of Loss in Pleasure. Scrivener's mouth closed and he fell silent as he gazed over these, as his eyes roved along their twisted images... and then Valthrudnir calmly pulled a platinum-framed pocketwatch out of his suit jacket and looked down at it as his amber eyes gleamed dangerously. "I'd say you have about sixty minutes before you die. Do prove me wrong if you can; I enjoy our games."
The Jotnar flickered out of existence as Scrivener looked up in horror, feeling a tremble roll through his body before he spun around and charged into the cottage to find Luna already on her hooves, looking at him with concern before her eyes widened as their gazes met and locked and traded memories and thoughts in a flurry before she cursed under her breath, turning and flicking her horn to the side to throw the steel kettle and metal netting out of the fireplace, snapping towards the surprised-looking Nightmare: "I keep a set of runes in the bedroom, fetch them now, creature!"
The Nightmare winced and scrambled away without questioning as Scrivener hurriedly tore through the cupboards and Luna leaned down to slice her own forelimb open, cursing under her breath before she flicked the blood into the blue flames as her horn gave a sharp pulse, and they immediately flared upwards and turned a darker sapphire as she asked the earth pony incredulously: "But what does the echo want?"
"I think he wants us to suffer, that's all... if we live, he gets to keep torturing us, and if we die, he gets to feel like he's won. I don't even know if he's right or not about the world collapsing but... something out there is wrong and he..." Scrivener shivered a bit as he dug several pouches out of the cupboards, then picked these up and hurried over to Luna, who took them with a grimace. "He knows things."
"The echo may not be Valthrudnir himself, but if it possesses his memories, instincts... aye, I do not doubt the sick and pedantic god studied the collapse of every layer he destroyed. He would know the signs well." Luna muttered, and then she cursed under her breath before the Nightmare hurried back with a black case, adding darkly: "The Bifrost is collapsed and if the monster spoke true we have but one choice and one chance."
Luna's horn glowed and yanked the case free from the Nightmare's jaws, and it winced and staggered before the case opened and dropped to the bedding, the winged unicorn's eyes flicking back and forth over the square tokens inside, each made of bone and engraved with different runes. She quickly but carefully selected a handful of these, lifting them into the air as she concentrated her magic, then flicked them into the fire... and the flames twisted and swirled upwards, filling the entire fireplace before they became almost crystalline.
The semisolid fire pulsed with iridescent light as Luna and Scrivener gazed into it apprehensively... and then Luna threw her head back with a sigh of relief as Odin's voice echoed out of the fireplace, concerned and surprised: "Brynhild? Has something happened? There's some kind of interference..."
"Then likely the creature spoke true. The world seems to be either nearing or beginning the collapse, Odin... we need to access thy portal to Valhalla in order to escape." Luna said sharply, and for a few moments there was a sense of hesitation from the flames before Luna gritted her teeth and and shouted: "'Tis no prank, cyclops!"
For a few seconds longer there was silence... and then a tired sigh before Odin said quietly: "It's in Ponyville. Go into the cellar of the house past the statue of the noble witch, there's a false wall to the left."
"Odin... I thank thee." Luna responded quietly, and then she nodded firmly before turning away from the flames and grimacing a bit as she ordered: "Nightmare, fly ahead! Scrivy, there is no way we can cross that distance by hoof or wing... I shall teleport us. But it shall be unpleasant."
"Just like our first date." Scrivener smiled a bit despite himself, and Luna gave him a look for a few moments before she shook her head with a snort as the Nightmare vanished from sight. "Wait, Luna, before we go... is there anything we need?"
"Coffee, still, but I'll settle for tea in Valhalla. Come, Scrivener, let us make haste." Luna muttered, even as a twist of fear spilled through her gut, and the earth pony nodded as they headed for the front door, the winged unicorn throwing it open... and grimacing at the gray aura that filled the air outside before her eyes flicked up to the clouds overhead, and she cursed under her breath. "The world begins to more and more to resemble the bastard child of Helheim and Ginnungagap, made up of all the worst qualities of both. But what else would a dying world resemble?"
Scrivener grunted in agreement... and then Luna turned towards him and embraced him suddenly and fiercely, and the earth pony looked up in surprise even as he hugged her back on instinct. For a moment, they rested together like that, the winged unicorn's mane and tail twisting forwards and around him as she pulled him closer, then shook her head slowly and murmured: "Perhaps this is Valthrudnir's truer and crueler plan... to make us indebted to his machinations and evil and terrible mind, to pretend to save us only so he may mock us..."
"It's just an echo. It's been... dormant for the most part, too. Let's just... hope for the best for now, and concentrate on getting out of here." Scrivy replied quietly, and Luna nodded slowly before she and Scrivener pressed their foreheads together, both of them concentrating as electricity sizzled along their bodies.
Luna's horn began to glow as her mane and tail pulled tighter around the pair, squeezing one another closer as Scrivener poured his concentration and energy towards the winged unicorn, and her magic spilled through the bodies of both ponies before a swirl of sapphire mist twisted around them, corkscrewing upwards before vanishing into sparkling motes of blue.
Moments later at the outskirts of Ponyville, electricity sparked through the air, and then a swirl of sapphire smoke rose from the ground before coalescing and reforming into the shapes of the two ponies, their bodies still pressed together, forelimbs still tightly-embracing one another. Then another jolt of electricity shocked through the air around them, and they knocked their heads together firmly before Scrivener fell backwards with a groan, steam hissing up from his body as Luna staggered backwards and her ephemeral locks flickered violently. "Damnation!"
They both looked at one another stupidly for a moment, Scrivener on his back, Luna's legs wobbling as she stood before she shook her head firmly as the two regained their senses... and then they both stared in dumb surprise as a Nightmare flickered into existence beside them, Melinda leaning forwards as if she had never left their side and saying quietly: "The atmosphere is becoming riddled with energy, laced with Helheim's corruption: the effects this will have are... undesirable."
"No, I did not imagine that." Luna muttered drolly, and then she shook her head quickly, grimacing a bit as the air around them seemed to pulse with the same unnatural aura as Scrivy climbed carefully to his hooves. "It is not yet enough to interfere too much with things, but it explains this supernal light. Come, let us hurry: I do not wish to tarry."
"I agree." Scrivener nodded as he fell into step beside Luna and the Nightmare followed them anxiously, the earth pony glancing back and forth as they strode towards Ponyville, hooves crunching ice and gravel beneath them as he added quietly: "It's so quiet..."
"The pureblooded demons would have sensed this first, and fled back to Helheim... then the shades that remain here in this world would have felt it next. Now that I am aware of what this energy means, I can feel the prickling of this energy... but it still confuses more than it does scare. It is not that I doubt your judgment, my wiser siblings... it is that I worry this is only a phase closer to destruction, not imminent destruction itself." the Nightmare said carefully behind them, then she winced a bit when Luna shot her a moody look over her shoulder. " I am only voicing an opinion."
"For once, I wish to err on the side of caution. And furthermore, thou forgets that a phase can last anywhere betwixt seconds and years." Luna grumbled, and the Nightmare bowed her head in respectful accord.
Then the three halted and looked up in surprise as electricity surged over a nearby building, the arcs of energy growing and strengthening, becoming almost blindingly-bright before the remains of the structure tore itself free from the ground and lifted into the air, dirt and rock and wooden debris tumbling off it... but the broken pieces of building fell towards the sky instead of the ground. It rose slowly, hauntingly, and Luna shivered a bit as above their heads, the clouds ripped themselves apart and revealed more of the void of the black sky above.
"And if there ever was an omen we should hurry on our way, 'twas that." Luna muttered, watching as rotten earth and a few broken boards floated out of the hole in the earth, and she shook her head quickly as she hurried onwards, looking back and forth for the shattered remains of the statue of her lost student, Trixie the Brave.
Scrivener Blooms and the Nightmare followed anxiously before the male winced as he glanced towards another ugly crater in the earth, and Luna's eyes flicked towards this quickly before she grunted in agreement. "The statue is gone, but aye, this is where it was located... that means... look, there!"
Luna pointed past a listing, collapsed house, to where a second building lay in complete ruin, covered with thick, jagged ice... but beside the piled debris of this was a half-imploded cellar door, and Luna ran towards this and then flicked her horn, yanking them off their hinges and throwing them both to the side with a single hard telekinetic pull.
Recoil surged along her body, and she arched her back with a curse, half-staggering as Scrivener felt a twist of pain roil through his own being as he skidded to a halt beside her, but Luna only quickly shook her head with a grumble, muttering: "'Tis likely due to the energy in the air, that is all. It amplifies everything... positive and negative. Let us hurry out of here."
Scrivener grunted in agreement, following quickly towards the steps leading down into the rotten earth, and she grimaced a bit in disgust at the reek of death and must that floated up out of it, the earth pony close at her heels and the Nightmare bringing up the rear. As Luna's eyes adjusted to the darkness, she winced at the sight of spiderwebs, and then cursed under her breath at the sight of the slimes clinging to the walls and floor here and there before her eyes flicked towards a wall that seemed to be vibrating faintly, small sparks twisting here and there over it.
The illusion was almost perfect, but the buildup of energy in the air was creating a strange distortion effect, and Luna grinned as she lowered her shoulder before simply charging into it. She crashed through in a hail of wooden splinters, runes violently sparking for a moment over the debris before sizzling quickly out, and Luna let out a grunt of victory as she grinned at the sight of an ancient, circular tablet of stone that rested against the back wall of the rot-smelling hidden room, gemstones carved into an intricate pattern of exotic symbols all-but-glowing over it as she called easily over her shoulder: "Scrivener Blooms, I require thy concentration. 'Twill sting only for a moment. Nightmare, halt the slimes from attacking us."
Scrivy stepped up beside the winged unicorn, looking awkwardly back and forth through the cubical, hidden room as Luna dropped her head forwards, and then he winced and hurriedly lowered his own. Slowly, the breathing of the two began to even out as their heads bowed further, their mixed soul swirling, their minds and bodies and emotions synching up as Luna's horn began to glow even as sparks of energy twisted over their bodies.
In front of them, the gemstones in the tablet began to glow in response before it began to tremble, a faint rumbling filling the air... and then, as Luna and Scrivener rose their heads and gave a final, firm shove with the combined strength of their energy and will, the circular stone slab glowed brightly and the light spilled brighter and higher, blinding and enrapturing the two even as they staggered backwards from the recoil that sparked and twisted along their bodies as it transformed into a golden, glowing portal.
For a moment, they could both only stare... and then Luna grinned widely, breathing hard as a strange tremble of excitement twisted through her before she turned her eyes to scrivener, saying firmly: "Come, husband... let us find out if my old home truly is as glorious as I remember."
Scrivener laughed a bit at this, and then he gazed towards the portal as the Nightmare hesitated at their backs, but Luna only grinned widely as she looked over her shoulder, saying easily: "Worry not, Melinda... there have been worse things in Valhalla than thee. Come, though, before the portal closes!"
She turned back towards the golden light, laughing as she leapt into it, and Scrivener snorted in entertainment as he followed quickly after her, wincing and yet grinning, exhilarated in spite of the pain that sparked along his body as the Nightmare followed last. The journey was incredible: running through a tunnel of sound and fire and light, it was like being inside the Bifrost instead of traveling overtop it, breathing hard as they sprinted for seconds that felt like hours before ripping out of the other side of the vortex.
Luna immediately skidded to a halt, and Scrivener staggered to a stop beside her, the Nightmare stumbling out last and then hissing in shock as it cowered backwards behind the two. A radiant sun shone down from where it hung in a clear blue sky above, and they stood upon a wide dirt highway that was lined on either side with immense trees filled with blue apples that stretched for countless miles. All that either of them could do was stare... and then the Nightmare slowly straightened, its eyes wide as it whispered: "The sun does not burn me here... there is a stabilizing presence in the air. Everything is different from the physical realm, even from Helheim... do you feel it?"
Luna answered this question by closing her eyes and tilting her head back as she took a deep breath, and Scrivener shuddered a bit as a strange euphoria rollicked through his system, filling his body with strength. Luna's ephemeral locks all-but-sizzled with new vitality as her mane and tail wafted backwards in the windless air, and then she grinned widely as her eyes opened and gazed up at the bright, but far from blinding sun overhead, irises sharp and intense with the strength flooding her form as she whispered: "Aye. I do. For we are in warrior's paradise: where the body is flooded with strength, where the strong are blessed to be who they truly are at heart, where we may laugh and sing and fight without grim death lurking around each and every corner."
She turned suddenly, and Scrivener and the Nightmare both turned to follow her gaze... and all three gazed with awe towards the immense castle that was only a short distance away at the end of the dusty highway, protected by a massive moat and an immense, half-raised bridge of polished wood. The outer walls were made of gray stone that seemed somehow vibrant, and immense towers stretched towards the sky around an immense central structure of stone and metal, simple and yet beautiful in its design before Luna threw her head back and laughed in delight. "Yes, Valhalla itself! Valhalla of Asgard... I feel both like I am coming home and visiting for the first time, and 'tis... 'tis truly strange."
Scrivener Blooms smiled warmly as the mare blushed a bit, and Luna's eyes roved towards him as his gaze trailed almost shyly towards her, the two studying one another as the link that bound them seemed to become almost like a physical, tangible thing for a moment, a radiance pulsing for a moment around them both in the secret shapes of their mixed souls... and then another reverberation echoed through the air, and Scrivy grimaced a bit as he glanced down in surprise. Luna frowned at him, and then she gritted her teeth as her heart thudded in her chest painfully and her head bowed forwards, her mane sparking violently as the Nightmare backpedaled away from the two in surprise and fright. "Siblings?"
"What's happening..." Scrivener grimaced in pain, leaning his head forwards... and then Luna's horn gave a sudden, dazzling white pulse, and the earth pony arched his back with a scream of shock and agony as blood burst from one of his ears and his features rippled like water, reality around the pony distorting as charcoal coat became ugly black scales, his eyes widening in fear as he began to shake his head violently and Luna stared at him with horror... then shrieked in denial as her horn gave another pulse and Scrivener's body began to glow brighter, feeling his pain, his terror, and something deeper and darker and fouler-
Scrivener clenched his eyes shut as his body warped and distorted... and when he opened them, he was standing in the darkness of his own mind, trapped in the claws of the bog-beast as Valthrudnir stood in front of him with a triumphant grin on his features and his arms crossed, eyes glowing with malicious pleasure as he said with delight: "You walked right into my trap."
"What are you doing? H-How are you doing this? Luna! Nightmare Moon!" Scrivener howled in agony as another pulse of pain ripped through his body, and then his head lashed and twisted to the side, his form warping, becoming half-pony, half-wyrm before he glared towards Valthrudnir as rage and hate flooded through his mind, trying to rip forwards through the bog beast's claws as he snarled: "I'll kill you!"
"Excellent, you're progressing wonderfully. Go ahead, give in to those primal emotions... anger, hatred, sorrow, and suffering; that's what feeds my Wyrms. It will only serve to accelerate the transformation. Scream all you want, your precious Valkyrie can't hear you when she has her own problems to deal with." Valthrudnir replied calmly, and Scrivener threw his head back with a raw, senseless yell even as horror flooded through his being, struggling to repress himself even as the rest of his very soul roiled with the need to give in to everything bottled up inside of him.
The Jotnar smiled knowingly at him at this as he reached into his suit jacket, then produced the hand of tarot cards, fanning the five out and saying mockingly: "But I suppose I can answer your question without worries... it was a brilliant strategy that I put together, I must humbly admit. And for a while, I was concerned that I would only be able to kill you and Brynhild, until I realized there was a much greater opportunity to be had if I bided my time. So that was what I did, feeding off you and Brynhild like a common demonic parasite. Degrading, yes... but some sacrifices must be made for the sake of victory."
"I'll rip you apart!" Scrivener snarled, and then he howled in agony as the claws of the bog-beast tightened around him even as he felt his body pulse with pain, even as his teeth grew larger in his jaws and terrible light glowed out of his transformed eye, feeling the scales spreading further over his pony-half as his body increased in size. "Let me go!"
"Temper, temper." Valthrudnir mocked, and Scrivener snarled, furious and maddened, managing to almost yank himself forwards before the monstrosity pinning him down tightened its grip and jerked him back. It only seemed to further please the Jotnar, however, as he laughed quietly and said softly: "Better than I ever could have hoped. Yes, emotions are such an immense flaw in mortals. They steal all perceptions away from them. Tweak them in the right directions... and you can make a mortal do anything you want. Then again, they are so often willfully-blind to begin with... it made it so easy to convince you and the Valkyrie bitch that I was focused on you alone, and that my Tyrant Wyrm's corruption was only able to affect your mind... when in reality, that pretty romantic link between your souls permitted me all the access I desired to Brynhild as well."
This made Scrivener freeze up, staring in shock at the ivory dragon as he smiled coldly. "I even almost had her convinced to start this process earlier, too. That dark part of her soul is so convinced it's a secondary consciousness it even thinks it has its own thoughts, you know... thoughts I dripped a little poison into now and then. So-called 'Nightmare Moon' was too arrogant to believe she could ever be influenced by outside sources... and Brynhild thinks so low of that part of herself she is eager to find more reasons to despise it. They further influenced your emotions, your passions, your... sickness... under my bidding, without knowing it. And they almost poured Fenrir into you because of my suggestion. It's only too bad that you and the Valkyrie are both cowards. The Nightmare Moon part I can at least respect for its ruthlessness."
Scrivener snarled... but even as he felt the fury bubbling up inside him, he forced it back, whispering: "I won't let you win. I beat you once, Valthrudnir. I won't let you win, not when you're nothing but a goddamn shadow in my mind."
"Oh, but that's only made me all the more dangerous to you, hasn't it?" Valthrudnir replied softly, glancing down at the fan of cards still in his hand before he reached up and gently tapped the last card in line: the Lord of Loss in Pleasure. "You are flawed, and pathetic, and easy to break. You give in easily under the right conditions, although it is admittedly a delightful change of pace that instead of torture, all I have to do is throw the vermin a piece of poisoned cheese, and he gorges himself happily to death on it."
Scrivener snarled, and then his head dropped forwards, feeling the scales spreading further, body thickening and warping in the awful claws of the monster as he tried his hardest to fight back... then threw his head back and snarled furiously: "Then why don't you let me show you what kinds of things I've come to enjoy, Valthrudnir?"
"Do not worry, beast, there will be time for that shortly." Valthrudnir replied mockingly, and Scrivener's body bucked as the last of his pony features were swallowed up by scale, the last of his mane bursting off his skull and falling in a useless hail of straw-like hair to the ground as he felt awful desires roiling inside him and the bog-monster shifted its grip behind him, seizing into his shoulders to pin him down as its heavy, filthy and terribly-hot body dropped over his to hold him in place. "Don't you want to hear the rest of my brilliance? How I continued to keep my presence known to you alone, how I made you two focus on what I was doing to you while this whole time I've been using that very link you yourself can control Brynhild through in order to complete my plans? I cannot express my delight that you both missed this entirely! If anything proves that you are both idiots and I am the supreme intellect in this pathetic set of worlds, it is most definitely that."
Scrivener's eyes glowed with unholy sapphire light as he lashed both gnarled front claws out and ripped into the ground, clawing savagely at Valthrudnir, but the Jotnar grinned as he continued to stand calmly, just out of range. "I even couldn't resist dropping hints about this, as you should be able to see from the reading I so generously performed for you..." He held up the fan of cards, pointing calmly at it as Scrivener only growled in response, feeling his thoughts becoming alien, monstrous instincts taking over. "I even warned you ahead of time... a Tyrant Wyrm, powered by a Valkyrie soul. You will be the body, and Brynhild will provide the energy, the strength... after all, here we are in Valhalla, a place where we become reflections of our true souls... and pretty little Brynhild just happens to specialize in transformations and polymorph effects on top of that."
Scrivener shivered in horror, looking up at this as he snarled... then he forced his passions down, struggled to get himself under control as he whispered: "But how did you know that..."
"All I needed to wait for was Brynhild to enter an energy-rich environment that would enhance her magic a little further, or to manipulate her into doing something that would increase either your power or her own... either effect would have helped greatly in getting me towards what I desired." Valthrudnir replied softly, and he finally closed the fan of cards into one hand and tucked them calmly into his suit jacket, his amber eyes glowing with malicious, savage glee. "And now you're all mine, Scrivener Blooms. I have all the ingredients: Brynhild's power, your mixed soul, an environment laden with energy that will actively influence and help the process of your transformation, and the last ingredient... the corruption that has been growing and spreading through you. And once it fuses into you, you will become a new pet, a new puppet who will do whatever I please... and my very first target can be that other cheater, Odin himself."
Scrivener began to open his mouth, and then Valthrudnir held up a hand as his eyes gave a flash, saying curtly: "Checkmate."
He snapped his fingers, and the bog-beast above Scrivener roared as it pounced downwards, bursting into dark liquid that swirled and roiled over the transformed once-pony, and Scrivener screamed in his mind at the agony of it surging over him, fusing against him, hardening and ripping into his veins, his mind, his heart, his soul. It ripped through him, savaging his spirit as he convulsed wildly, and the Jotnar only laughed as he strode backwards and spread his arms, shouting: "It's too late to struggle now, pathetic animal! You were mine from the very first moment the Tyrant Wyrm stretched its gift into your mind... now you'll make a serviceable warship until I can gather the materials I need to reconstitute my own body!"
A claw ripped upwards as the howls of agony became animals roars, and then it slammed into the ground as a head tore towards the sky, dripping with muck, its eyes glowing, unholy blue lamps as the mottled Tyrant Wyrm rose with a snarl. It was immense now, the last of the mud sliding from its worn dark scales, its features brutal and vicious, and Valthrudnir laughed as he clapped his hands together, his eyes glowing with triumph. "Perfection! A machine restored and rebuilt, the first of my pets renewed, destruction incarnate to destroy my enemies and-"
The Tyrant Wyrm growled slowly as it leaned down, narrowing its eyes, and Valthrudnir frowned immediately at this even as he hesitantly took a step back: the creature towered over him now, its eyes blazing, a bit of drool dripping from its jaws. For a moment, they only looked at each other... and then the Jotnar snarled, raising a fist and shouting: "I command you! I was the one who created you! As we speak, your host body is transforming to accommodate you and you will do my bidding, you are made of-"
"I am made of the corruption you used to hide and protect yourself, the corruption that links you to me... but that corruption was only a puppet, never alive, never with its own consciousness, and all of that has been poured into me. Valthrudnir, I am rage, and hatred, and destruction, but all of that is directed towards the only object I see right now in front of me." the monster snarled, and Valthrudnir's eyes widened in horror at the sound of Scrivener Blooms' voice, elevated to a terrible degree before the Tyrant Wyrm grinned widely. "You remembered to take away my fears, you transformed my body, you corrupted my will... but you forgot about my mind. You put my mind in this deadly puppet of your own design, forgetting that the puppet serves you, but I do not bow to you: all you filled me with is a need to destroy and kill. And guess what the first thing I'm going to destroy is, genius?"
Valthrudnir rose a single finger, his jaws falling slightly open... and then he simply swallowed thickly, looking stupefied before the Tyrant Wyrm's jaws lunged down and snapped shut over him, the ivory dragon shrieking as his legs managed to kick once before the Wyrm lashed its head back and its teeth crunched down with awful power. In moments, the echo of Valthrudnir was devoured, ripped apart and swallowed greedily down before the monstrosity slowly ground its teeth together, leaned back... and then spat out several saliva-covered, rotting playing cards that dissolved slowly into ashes as they floated towards the dark ground.
The enormous beast snorted in disgust at this, bowing its head forwards as it stood alone in the realm of its mind. It shivered weakly for a few moments, breathing hard, and then fell forwards with a howl of misery, grasping at its skull with its front claws before Scrivener's voice rasped: "No... don't give in... don't let it take over... no, no, no, no
"No, no, no!" Scrivener cried miserably, throwing his head back... and he stared up at the blue sky above even as his body gave another terrible pulse of pain, his eyes glowing with awful sapphire light as Luna shrieked, grinding her hooves against the ground as she tried to pull away... but her glowing horn was dragged inexorably forwards like metal towards a magnet, her hooves leaving narrow trenches through the dirt as it gave another pulse, and the earth pony howled in agony that Luna felt ripping through her own mind as well. It drowned out Nightmare Moon, it sent static surging through their linked souls... and Melinda had already vanished, fleeing in terror from whatever was happening to her so-called 'sibling' winged unicorn and earth pony.
Except with his rippling, changing frame, he no longer seemed like merely an earth pony: his body seemed like it was beginning to warp, distort, transform, a terrible, pulsing aura shimmering around him of mixed white-and-black. It made it difficult to even look at him as Luna felt herself drawn closer... and the closer she drew, the more she felt her energy drained from her body, poured into Scrivener, accelerating the transformation all the faster.
Tears fell from Luna's eyes as pain ripped through her body, trying to yank herself backwards again... and then a strong hand seized her shoulder and managed to shove her away, and the aura died down slightly as she was pushed to a distance. Luna looked up with a gasp to see Odin looming over her, the once-god looking with horror towards Scrivener... and the winged unicorn couldn't repress a cry of misery as she saw how he looked awfully... melted, twisted, trying to continue to transform even as he visibly fought against himself.
"By Yggdrasil..." Odin whispered, and then he shook his head quickly before Scrivener looked up at him pleadingly, and the once-god gritted his teeth as he reached down and yanked a sword free from where it was sheathed at his side, and Luna's eyes widened as the falcon-headed being quickly drew the blade back, muttering as Scrivener stared at him helplessly: "I am sorry, but this is all I can do."
He stabbed downwards... and Luna lunged forwards with a shriek, striking the sword with her horn, guiding the deadly, thin blade away from Scrivener's face and instead sending it plunging into the collar around the male's neck, shattering the gemstone and severing the thin metal, but only managing to score a shallow cut before Luna threw herself savagely against Odin, knocking him crashing backwards. He rolled once with a curse of surprise as the winged unicorn stomped in front of Scrivener Blooms, shouting furiously at him: "Monster! Thou wouldst sacrifice us both rather than save him?"
"No, this sword will kill the body but bind the soul." Odin grimaced as he slowly picked himself up from the ground, but his eyes were dark as he rubbed slowly at his chest, the sword hanging loosely from his other hand... but all the same, Luna held herself at the ready as the once-god said quietly: "I have to kill him, Brynhild. He's caught in the middle of some awful magic I recognize all too clearly as Valthrudnir's tampering. It will hurt you, but it will not kill you. Only his body will die, and then your pact with him will be severed. You can visit his spirit here in the warrior's heaven any time you like."
"Not good enough! I would prefer to die myself than sever that which lays between us, Odin, and if thou tries to harm him, then I will stop thee. I will kill thee." Luna snarled, leaning forwards as tears streamed down her face, and the once-god looked surprised before the winged unicorn looked over shoulder, trembling, as Scrivener stared back at her helplessly, gargling and shivering before he howled in misery and dropped his head forwards... and Luna moaned in not just pain, but horror at the way his body rippled and shifted.
"Brynhild... look at him." Odin said gently but firmly, straightening and gesturing outwards with his free hand, and the winged unicorn shivered as her eyes stared helplessly at the pony. "The transformation has already gone wrong... it will madden him or kill him anyway, and you will die if it fails... but if it succeeds, if he gives in to it completely, he will become a Tyrant Wyrm, and we cannot ever permit one of their kind to live. You know this. It will like-as-not consume you; they do not know love, it will not be your husband any longer... and while I admire Scrivener's bravery in battling this transformation, he cannot last much longer. Either he dies... or he becomes a monster."
For a few moments, Luna could only stare over her shoulder at Scrivener, trembling, as he looked back with his glowing eyes, his body rippling before bulking up, then shrinking downwards, letting out another scream of agony as a hoof split apart into a claw to rip at the ground, then seal tightly back together into a hoof once more... and then the winged unicorn clenched her eyes shut and bowed her head, whispering: "I understand."
Odin nodded slowly as he began to stride calmly forwards... and then Luna lunged towards him, and then once-god stared in surprise for a moment before he automatically swung the sword upwards, and Luna snarled as she slashed savagely into this with her glowing horn, shattering the blade of the weapon like glass before her hooves collided savagely with his ribs and crushed him down into the ground, the falcon-headed being coughing blood as he arched his back in shock before Luna pinned him and glared down into his eyes, snarling: "I will not abandon my soulmate."
Odin stared up at her, panting hard, and then Luna turned around and strode towards Scrivener, the aura pulsing, growing brighter and larger as the winged unicorn willingly stepped towards him now, her own horn glowing more and more as she smiled faintly at him until she was standing with their faces only inches apart. Then, slowly, she lowered her horn towards him, touching it to his forehead, and Scrivener felt the pain dying out as time seemed to slow, both surrounded in a terrible glow of radiance and darkness as Luna whispered: "It's okay."
She laughed a bit, then closed her eyes and continued softly: "I love thee. Thou art my husband, my best friend, my soulmate, my... my everything. Everything we have done, we have always done together. And now, thou stands upon the threshold of a change but I want thee to know... it's okay. It's okay, whatever happens. I love thee. I am going to stay beside thee, and I am not afraid. As long as we walk the path together, nothing else matters... not what others think of us, not what the world wants us to be or do, not society, not even the gods or the Norns or anything else.
"No matter what, Scrivener Blooms, I am here for thee. Luna Brynhild, Nightmare Moon... I am thine, thou art mine. We are each other's rulers and servants, but we are also always equals. We are also always together, and loyal, and fight for one another, not just beside one-another." Luna smiled faintly as she opened her eyes, looking slowly up, and Scrivener's own glowing eyes flickered before she kissed his lips chastely, then nodded once and whispered: "I do not care what we become, or what we do. I do not care about Valhalla, or Equestria, or the countless layers. Not if I can spend all that time with thee, together. If we are to become evil... if we are to become villains and destroyers... let it be. We will still be together, even if we are monsters... I would rather be a monster beside thee, doomed to Helheim's torments, than a heroine Valkyrie alone in Paradise any moment of any day. I love thee, Scrivener Blooms."
Scrivener stared at her, at the depth of her devotion, her love, her indescribable loyalty and affection as his body rippled, feeling their hearts beating in time, their souls mixing together, their gazes locked and countless thoughts and memories and feelings spilling between them... and then, even through the pain, even as the glow built higher, Scrivener smiled with faint but true happiness, and he whispered: "I love you too, Luna Brynhild. Always."
The glow around them built, swirled with darkness and shadow, and Odin winced back from it even as he sat up with a curse under his breath, covering his features with his arm... and when he slowly drew his limb away, he stared in disbelief, whispering: "Impossible."
Scrivener Blooms lay on the ground, the earth pony bleeding from several ugly wounds in his body, steam rising from his form... but he was breathing slowly and regularly, and his eyes were only half-closed as Luna rested with him protectively curled against her, one hoof stroking slowly down his back. She was smiling tiredly, and her ephemeral mane and tail had transformed back into light-blue hair as she looked down at her husband, saying quietly: "Sometimes, Odin, all it takes is a little love, and a little reassurance. That which lurks inside us cannot be fought with a sword or blocked with a shield, old fool. I had hoped you had learned that by now."
Odin only laughed faintly, and then Luna glanced tiredly towards the once-god as she slowly laid her head down atop Scrivener Blooms, closing her eyes as the earth pony closed his own, and she murmured: "Please do not kill us whilst we get some much needed sleep, old lecher. There will be time to beat upon one-another later."
"Of course." Odin murmured, and he rubbed slowly at his aching chest as he carefully pushed himself up to his feet, then looked silently down at these ponies beneath the blue skies and warm sun... and he smiled. |
Metempsychosis | Epilogue: Through The Looking Glass | Epilogue: Through The Looking Glass
~BlackRoseRaven
Luna paced irritably in front of a large wooden table covered in maps, scrolls, and other odds and ends, then she sighed in exasperation and moodily looked up towards the clear night sky: the moon shone radiantly amidst the twinkling of the stars that pulsed in time with those in her ephemeral locks, and she grumbled under her breath before turning around and yelling angrily at Odin and the Nibelung Architects clustered around the base of a strange marble and obsidian obelisk: "Hurry up or I shall begin the process without any of thee!"
"I know you're anxious, Luna, but it's going to be okay." Scrivener Blooms said mildly as he stood up from where he had been peacefully laying in the grass on the other side of the table... and then he winced back a bit as the winged unicorn glared at him balefully, half-ducking as he muttered: "Point taken."
Luna huffed and nodded firmly, black pearl swaying around her neck before she glared at the scarred earth pony irritably, adding flatly: "And look! Thou art not wearing thy collar!"
"It's uncomfortable to wear around Odin." Scrivener said delicately, reaching up to adjust his simple glasses before he poked absently at a crescent-shaped scar that half-twisted around his neck. "Furthermore, this is aching today. And more importantly than that, every time I look at it now, I think of all those things your brother said."
"Oh, it has been weeks since we left Valhalla. Nay, it has been two months!" Luna retorted, and then she grumbled a bit and added moodily: "Although aye, Sleipnir did press the point obnoxiously on both of us, at least until I pummeled him."
Scrivener smiled despite himself, then he glanced back and forth before ducking down and slipping beneath the table to stand up beside Luna, and she smiled warmly back and traded a quick nuzzle with him before he replied mildly: "I really like how that's your solution for everything. And I do wear it now and then Luna, I do... really treasure it, I just..."
"I know. I understand, Scrivy." The winged unicorn kissed his cheek gently, and then she sighed and reached up to gently bat her black pearl moodily, saying mildly: "Perhaps I am only frustrated that I still treasure this so dearly, and I cannot find anything to give thee that thou treasures."
"I treasure my glasses. You make those for me all the time and I always wear them." Scrivener replied pointedly, but Luna only sighed and rolled her eyes before the two ponies glanced up as Odin called to them and beckoned for their presence. "Looks like it's time."
"Finally. Although I admit that now I am rather nervous." Luna said awkwardly, and Scrivener sighed before he winced when she huffed and headbutted him, then flicked her horn towards a steel lock-box sitting on the table, this clicking loudly before it was flung open, and she and the earth pony both softened as they gazed at the two ivory cards sitting within, emanating faint pulses of light.
Then Luna shook her head quickly before flicking her horn, and the cards floated into the air, shrouded in a gentle telekinetic grip as she and Scrivener Blooms strode calmly through the field towards the immense, towering obelisk. It was designed with a slight twist to the pillar of stone and inset with crystals shaped into complex runes, and Greece gave the ponies a grin and a thumbs-up as Odin gestured gently towards the large, circular stone platform that rested in front of it. "You know what to do by now, I am sure. When you are ready, everything is in alignment. The amplifiers across Equestria - and set in other places across this world - will further power the spell. All we need now are you two."
Scrivener and Luna smiled at each other as they sat on the platform, looking not at the obelisk, not at the Nibelung or the Strange Ones, not even at Odin as he stepped politely backwards and crossed his arms... but continuing to gaze at one another. Even as the cards floated downwards and they gently took one each between their front hooves, the two had eyes only for one-another, sharing thoughts, emotions, a single heartbeat and a single soul... and then, in perfect tandem, they lowered their heads forwards.
Luna's ephemeral mane swirled backwards as she and Scrivener leaned automatically towards one another, breathing in perfect time, their thoughts swirling with memories and emotions too numerous to count. But as they concentrated, through it all a single wish began to rise, a single thought, a single powerful spell as the ivory cards glowed brightly in their hooves.
Then both Luna and Scrivener opened their eyes, gazing across at one another as they released the cards and rested back, watching as the ivory, glowing shapes of now-pure-light shattered apart, swirling upwards like the petals of white roses as the obelisk beside them thrummed and glowed, lighting the field up as bright as day... and all across Equestria, other amplifiers activated, carrying the signal, the wish, further, spreading it to every corner of the country and then throughout their wide, wild world.
Pales across the planet flickered into being, gazing around themselves in amazement, energy crackling over them before their ivory bodies first took on their old colors, then solidified: shapes and forms became distinct, details etched themselves over every body and frame, and very-physical, very-real bodies collapsed gently to the ground, falling into deep unconsciousness. From Ponyville to the ruins of Canterlot, from Manehattan to Appleloosa, from Hoofston to North Neigh, souls were restored to physical being... and they were left to dream as memories of what they had suffered through were gently sifted from their minds.
Nibelung, Strange Ones, and creatures of the night quickly whispered about their duties as the incredible sight ended, checking on the reformed ponies, ensuring they were alive and well. They went about their tasks with strange reverence for what they had seen, from lowliest dwarf to most powerful Nightmare... yet even the minor demons that now found themselves living in this Looking Glass Equestria could see something to admire in this act. Could understand the magnitude of it, and have respect for both the dedication of what had been brought about... and relief that everything had gone according to plan.
And, near the center of this newborn Equestria now baptized with its revived inhabitants, Luna and Scrivener both collapsed against one-another, hugging each other impulsively. They held each other close for a few moments... and then Odin reached a hand down and gently grasped Luna's shoulder and the winged unicorn glanced up at him before he said kindly: "I need you to lower the moon, Brynhild, and raise the sun. Your friends will awaken with the coming of the day... but none of us here will ever forget it was the night that brought about their rebirth, and when they are ready for it, they shall learn this truth as well. We shall tread gently first, though... see how they do in this world before we reveal to them the enormity of everything that happened. Let their minds and exhausted souls heal."
"For now, Odin, I agree... the only exception is Scarlet Sage, who I feel in my heart sleeps in our cabin... and awaits the return of her parents." Luna smiled towards the once-god, and then she laughed quietly and murmured: "Worry not. Discombobulation is well-rested and healed enough to check and ensure she is alright. And we will return shortly ourselves, after all. But thou art right. Let the first dawn of the first day come for Looking Glass Equestria... let the ponies awaken, unknowing of both their fall and their rebirth, beneath the gentle sun."
Luna halted, then she glanced towards Scrivener Blooms, who smiled back at her before he hugged her fiercely against his body as she buried her face against the side of his neck, her engraved black pearl swaying slowly between them as she murmured: "After all, I already have everything I need right here."
Every flaw hides virtue,
Every defeat holds triumph,
Every failure can lead to hope:
It's just a matter of finding it.
January 20th - February 26th, 2012 |
A “Friendship” Problem | pre | Only... she never had.
Despite having a key to the farmhouse, Rainbow had never turned up that night. It was only after her third orgasm, lying naked and out of breath in a tangle of sweaty sheets and limbs, Coloratura purring contentedly beside her, that Applejack had realised her absence. She'd immediately begun worrying, afraid that Rainbow had gotten lost somehow or hurt, but Coloratura had calmed her down, sensibly suggesting that Rainbow had probably decided to leave the two of them alone for the night. Applejack had accepted that, albeit tentatively, and the two of them had slept the rest of the night away.
The following day, the farmer had gone looking for Rainbow to find out why she'd not turned up. It had taken until the evening, but she eventually found the small woman alone, exercising furiously in one of the meadows outside Ponyville. Barely had she spoken a word of greeting when Rainbow had turned on her, yelled accusations of unfaithfulness pouring from her mouth almost faster than Applejack had been able to comprehend.
The argument had been short, but ugly, Rainbow refusing to accept Applejack's explanations of the night before. It had ended with the resounding crack of Rainbow's palm on Applejack's cheek. The farm girl had stumbled back a step, shocked; both at the sudden act of violence and the look of sheer fury in the other woman's eyes.
Tears stung her eyes now as they had then, the memory dredging up the same feelings she had been trying to suppress for the last few months. Applejack felt a drop roll down her cheek and swiped at it.
"AJ?" Twilight started, evidently concerned. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
Applejack stopped her with a shake of the head, drying her eyes with the heel of her hand. She sniffed. The past few months had given her plenty of practice at stuffing her emotions down inside.
"I- I'm okay," she assured Twilight. "I was just remembering somethin' painful."
"If you need to talk-"
"I'll be okay, Twilight, but..." Applejack looked down at her lap for a moment, considering. That little voice at the back of her mind was clamouring for her to shut up, to not say it, to change the subject.
"But?" Twilight prompted.
To hell with the little voice.
"Y'all asked if I wanted Rainbow back..." Applejack started, lifting her to look at Twilight once more. "But what about us? Maybe I wanna be with you, Twilight."
If someone had been holding a white sheet behind Twilight, Applejack was sure the woman's face could have blended in effortlessly. The princess' expression was frozen in place, her mouth a small "o" of shock. At the sight of that white face, Applejack felt every drop of hope that had built up in her heart over the past two months drain in an instant.
"Us?" Twilight finally managed in a small voice. She cleared her throat. "AJ, I... I enjoy being with you, but..."
"You don't feel the same way... do you?" Applejack finished for her. She let out a shaky breath. Twilight shook her head slowly.
"I'm sorry, Applejack, but no I don't. I didn't even know you felt that way."
"All this time... you didn't at all?" Again, Twilight just shook her head.
"I don't know what to say, AJ. This relationship wasn't supposed to be serious. I thought you knew that."
"But... I thought the three of us..." Applejack shook her head again, standing up once more. "Never mind what I thought, I guess. I-I'd better get home." She made for the door, intending to leave before her feelings could overwhelm her and she broke down in front of Twilight. She could already feel the tears building again. Her hand was on the door handle when Twilight called to her.
"Applejack, wait!" The farmer spun, tears flying from her cheeks.
"For what?!" she barked, her tone bitter. Twilight visibly jumped. Applejack hadn't intended to yell, but now the dam had well and truly broken.
"Wait for what?" she continued, not even attempting to hide her tears. She pointed an accusatory finger at Twilight. "Wait for you to pry with more questions about me and Rainbow? 'Cos it seems like that's all you care about!" An angry sob left her involuntarily.
"AJ, that's-"
"Forget it! I don't wanna hear it!"
With that, Applejack turned, opened the door and stormed down the corridor. She barely registered Coloratura coming the other way, her hair wet and a towel clutched around her. The singer called her name, but she just carried on, her pace increasing.
Nearly running out of the castle, she swatted angrily at her eyes. She gave up trying to clear her vision after only a few steps, the darkness outside making it pointless. More from memory than being able to see, she angrily stalked back through town, the occasional pool of yellow light from some building or other lighting her way.
The voice in the back of her head had been right, she never should have voiced her feelings to Twilight. Never should have opened herself up like that. Stupid, so stupid! She should've suspected something was up this entire time, that her feelings weren't being reciprocated, but she was so wrapped up in escaping her breakup with Rainbow that she'd refused to even entertain that idea. And even that hadn't worked, had it? She hadn't been able to get away from what had happened, the memories, the pain...
As she marched out through the other side of town, Applejack's anger started to cool as she recalled all the times she'd caught herself thinking about her time with Rainbow. All the times when she'd had to stop working in the orchard to dry her eyes and collect herself. And when she'd cried herself to sleep in the first few weeks after their fight, clutching the necklace of Rainbow's cutie mark she always kept tucked inside her hat.
Nearing home, another sob escaped her. She stopped walking, hand over her face as she leaned against the nearest fencepost, trying to prevent herself from completely breaking down. It was an exercise in futility. The more she tried to stop her feelings, the more they washed over her, overwhelming in their assault.
Her back to the fencepost, Applejack slid down it to sit on the grass, the cold of the ground seeping through her jeans to chill her backside. She paid it little mind, however, as she wallowed in her self-pity, tears soaking her face and her shirt. Head down, she tucked her knees to her chest, sobbing loudly into her legs.
Rainbow... Twilight... she'd lost both of them. Some part of her, far away from the bawling wreck that she currently was, registered that she hadn't been at all fair to Twilight. Her friend had only been trying to help, and she'd treated her horribly in return. The rest of her didn't care, though, and simply wailed inconsolably into the night.
It was there, against the fence of the orchard, that Applejack would remain for a couple of hours, her crying accompanied only by the hiss of the breeze through the trees. Eventually, the cold would get to be too much and she would pick herself up and make her way home, still sniffling, where she would stumble into bed and fall into an exhausted and restless sleep.
* * * * * * * *
Twilight watched helplessly as Applejack stormed out of the study, her hand reaching out in a vain attempt at stopping the farm girl from leaving. As the door swung slowly shut, she lowered her hand, clenching her fist unconsciously.
"Fuck," she whispered to the empty room. "Fuck!"
She got up and started pacing furiously, desperately trying to figure out how to salvage the situation. So fast did her mind work, and so deep into her thinking did she get, that she didn't hear Coloratura come in scant seconds later, towel still clutched around her, nor did she hear her call her name. She only reacted when the other woman grabbed her arm.
"Twilight!"
The princess turned to her girlfriend, her face a confusing mask of worry, panic and upset. Almost instinctively, Twilight clutched at her, not even noticing how her clothes were immediately drenched from Rara's bath-soaked hair.
"I screwed up," Twilight said in a low, panicked tone. "I just screwed up so bad and I don't know what to do."
"What happened?"
Twilight told her everything that had just transpired. She watched as Coloratura's face grew more and more troubled.
"Okay," she began. "While I admit that could have gone better, I don't know what else you really could have done. It was better to be honest with her, especially considering what we're trying to do."
"Don't you see, though?" Twilight asked, gripping Coloratura's shoulders, her voice still on the edge of panic. "She's not going to talk to me after this and I didn't get an answer from her! If I go after her for one, she's just going to push me away even further!" Coloratura nodded.
"You're right, she will. Let's give her a day or so, then I'll talk to her. She might listen to me."
"And if she doesn't?"
"Then we'll figure something else out." Twilight hung her head, sighing. Eventually, though, she nodded.
"Alright." She felt Coloratura gently grip her chin and lift her head up. Their lips met, the kiss brief but reassuring.
"It'll be alright," the singer said soothingly. "We'll work this out. Now come join me in the bath, you'll never get to sleep if you're this tense."
Twilight wished she had the confidence Coloratura did. Nevertheless, she allowed herself to be led out the room and upstairs. After what had happened that evening, however, she knew she wasn't going to get much sleep tonight, bath or no bath.
* * * * * * * *
Rainbow Dash shivered as she stood atop one of Carousel Boutique's display floors in nothing but her underwear, arms folded across her flat chest. Rarity was bustling around her, glasses perched on her nose and measuring tape draped around her shoulders. She kept applying the tape to different parts of Rainbow's body and stopping to take notes after every measurement.
Rainbow wouldn't have minded so much if Rarity had actually bothered to heat the store past opening hours, preventing the creeping cold of the evening air from pervading the lower floor. She shifted her weight and huffed loudly.
"Darling, if you don't stop fidgeting, this will take twice as long," Rarity admonished, her tone that of a mother chastising her wayward child.
"It's freezing down here, I'm standing in nothing but my panties and you're busy taking measurements of me I'm pretty sure you already have!" Rainbow complained back. As if to make a point, she rubbed her arms. "Why couldn't we have done this somewhere warmer?"
"It doesn't hurt to be sure," Rarity said, bending down to press the cold tape to the inside of Rainbow's leg. "Besides, you weren't complaining of the cold this morning with that outfit you were hardly wearing." Rainbow didn't need to look down to know there was a sly grin on the other woman's face.
"First, I'd been running," she shot back. "Second, the kitchen was warm from the stove. Anyway, those are my gym clothes, they're supposed to be small."
"Uh huh." Rainbow felt the tape switch from one leg to the other.
"What do you even need these measurements for, anyway?" she asked irritably.
"Oh, nothing in particular. I just like to keep them up-to-date." Rainbow scoffed.
"I can't have changed that much since you last did this."
"Actually," Rarity started, straightening up and writing quickly in her little pad. "The last time I measured you was for the first Gala we attended in Canterlot." She flipped the pad closed and slipped it back into her pocket. "Since then, you've grown taller by two inches, put an extra inch around your biceps, and another two around your thighs."
"Wait, really?" Rainbow looked down at herself, surprised, but all she could see was tight, firm muscle. She watched her diet pretty carefully, she couldn't believe she'd put on that much weig-
"All muscle, before you start panicking, dear." Rainbow stopped mid-twist, trying to see the backs of her legs, and looked over at Rarity.
"I knew that." Rarity merely raised an eyebrow at her.
"Of course." She pulled the tape from around her shoulders and started rolling it up. "Well, I'm all done for now. You can go ahead and get dressed."
"Finally!" Rainbow hopped down off the show floor, the thick carpet soft under her bare feet, and grabbed her clothes from where they lay in a disorganised pile. She threw them on hurriedly, shivering once more as the fabric slid over the goosebumps on her skin. She looked up to see Rarity smirking at her.
"What?" Rainbow demanded, crossing her arms.
"Come now, dear, it's not that cold," the fashionista chided playfully. Rainbow saw her eyes flick down for a brief second. "Or maybe it is."
The racer looked down at herself. She spotted it almost immediately, or rather, them. Two obvious bumps over her chest were sticking through the material of her blue hoodie. Rainbow rolled her eyes.
"Yeah yeah, enjoy the show," she said, striding past Rarity. "It's alright for you, Miss Vanhoover. You're used to even colder shit. I'm going somewhere warmer." With that, she started up the stairs to the living areas of the boutique.
"Really, it's only fall," Rarity called after her. "It's going to get colder still!"
Rainbow just grumbled in response. She made her way to Rarity's drawing room, where a wood fire crackled quietly in the fireplace on the back wall, the flames low from neglect. She grabbed a log from the stack nearby and threw it carelessly into the grate, flinching slightly as a shower of sparks shot up into the chimney.
Turning from the fireplace, Rainbow settled into one of the wing-backed leather chairs arranged near it. She tucked her feet under her and slid her hands into the single pocket on the front of her hoodie, leaving only her head exposed to the air. Finally comfortable, she watched as the flames greedily consumed the log she'd just thrown into the fire. Behind her, she heard Rarity enter the room and make her way over, watching her seat herself in the other chair out of the corner of her eye.
"You know, Rainbow, for a such a big, tough motorcycle rider, you sure are very sensitive about the temperature." Rarity's voice was light and teasing as she poked some fun at her friend. Rainbow, on the other hand, just gave her a churlish look.
"You know I hate the cold, and you had me standing there bare-ass for all that," she griped.
"Oh, come now, you weren't completely nude. I let you keep your underwear on," replied Rarity, chuckling. "Not that I needed you to strip, exactly."
"Wait a second, you mean I didn't need to take off all my clothes down there?"
"Well..." Rarity trailed off, a naughty grin spread over her features. "You did make for a nice view, though."
Rainbow's mouth opened, then snapped shut again. If looks were fruit, then the one she gave Rarity at that moment would have made lemons seem sweet. Of all the dirty tricks...
"You could have just asked me to take my clothes off if you wanted to see me naked," she grouched, turning away to look into the flames again. She couldn't believe she'd fallen for such a dirty trick.
"I did," Rarity replied, still teasing. "And you obliged me all too readily, darling." Rainbow just huffed.
"You are so hard to be around, you know that?" Her answer came in the form a giggle and another playful gibe.
"Yet you're still here..." Rainbow ignored her.
There was quiet between the two for a bit, long enough that Rainbow looked over at Rarity, thinking she may have dozed off. However, the stylish woman was simply sat watching her with those pretty blue eyes, her head resting on one hand as she leaned her elbow against the arm of the chair.
And those eyes were very pretty, much like the rest of her, Rainbow thought, even if her diva-like tendencies could be annoying sometimes.
She was still a little confused at how she'd ended up becoming Rarity's lover. Rainbow had always thought the woman was way too uptight, too delicate, and too far up her own ass to be cool enough to jump into bed with. Not to mention the fact that she'd always come across as straight. Never once had Rarity ever given even the slightest hint that she was interested in girls.
Yet, barely two weeks after she'd broken up with Applejack, Rainbow had found herself unzipping one of Rarity's fancy dresses. She'd watched as it had slipped from the woman's pale shoulders, her hands caressing that soft skin, moving down her arms...
She remembered them falling to the bed, Rarity lying underneath her, the two of them sharing heated kisses...
The feeling of her hand squeezing one of those huge tits she'd often found herself staring at...
The taste of Rarity's nipple on her tongue...
Rainbow suddenly realised she had been staring at Rarity this whole time and looked away quickly, clearing her throat, though she couldn't do anything about the heat she felt in her cheeks. Or the dampness between her legs. Thankfully, the black of her tracksuit bottoms would cover that up.
"My my," she heard Rarity begin playfully. "Do I still have that effect on you?" Rainbow just looked away, her blush deepening. No way was she going to admit to what she'd just been thinking about, not after the stunt Rarity had pulled downstairs.
"I guess I do," Rarity said, seemingly to herself, her tone pleased. Rainbow heard her shift in place but didn't look over, trying to will the heat in her cheeks to go away. When Rarity spoke again, her tone was much more conciliatory.
"Alright, darling, I'm sorry for making you stand naked in the cold for measurements when I could've done it somewhere warmer."
Rainbow glanced sidelong at her. Her apology sounded sincere enough, and it would be kind of a dick move to stay mad too much longer, especially since Rarity had gone out of her way to prepare a pretty good meal beforehand. That, and Rainbow had been looking forward to wrapping her legs around the dressmaker's head since about mid-afternoon.
"Alright, fine," she said, flashing a cocky grin towards the other woman. "But you're making it up to me in bed tonight as your apology." Her grin faded when she saw the expression on Rarity's face, a mix of seriousness and an awkward, lopsided smile.
"What?" she asked, suddenly pensive.
"Er, well, I'm all for that," Rarity started, uncharacteristically nervous. "But perhaps we could put a pin in that for just a moment? I have something serious I want to ask you. It's... about something you did this morning."
"This morning?" Now Rainbow found herself becoming nervous, her heart getting a little faster in her chest. Rarity was a bit ridiculous when it came to the rules she made about cleanliness, but other than maybe forgetting to take her shoes off after her run, Rainbow couldn't think of anything she might have done to annoy her. Certainly nothing that she might come down on her for now...
"Yes, you... you kissed me." Nervousness now replaced by puzzlement, Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at Rarity.
"I kiss you all the time," she said. A smirk found its way onto her face. "In a lot of places, too."
"Again, yes," Rarity reiterated, a hint of red appearing on her cheeks. "But I'm specifically thinking of the one in the kitchen. When I was asking about Applejack." It suddenly dawned on Rainbow what Rarity was getting at.
"Oh, that," she said with an awkward chuckle. She'd never intended to do that, but she hadn't seen any other way of convincing Rarity to drop the subject. Had she accidentally lead Rarity on? Looking away, she lifted a hand to rub the back of her head.
"Yeah, that was-" Rarity interrupted her.
"Rainbow, do you have feelings for me?"
"Wait, what?" Rainbow's head snapped back around, her eyes wide. Was she serious?
"Because if you do," continued the other woman, her gaze levelled squarely at Rainbow. "Then we need to seriously talk about what we're doing here."
She totally was serious.
Unable to help herself, Rainbow began to giggle. The giggles, however, quickly turned to full-blown laughter. Out the corner of her eye, she could see Rarity growing more and more confused.
"Er, this is hardly a laughing matter, darling," the dressmaker said, sounding somewhat cross. Rainbow managed to stifle her laughs down to mere sniggers.
"I'm- I'm sorry," she managed to get out. "But you really had me going there!"
"Rainbow, I'm being serious right now." Rarity had her arms crossed, her expression one of reproach.
"I know! I know, I know..." After a moment, the athlete managed to calm herself down, then shook her head. "No, Rarity, I don't have feelings for you. I like screwing you, but I'm not looking to make you my girlfriend or anything."
Something that looked a lot like relief briefly crossed Rarity's face before another wave of confusion set in.
"But then why did you kiss me?" she asked. "And why did you laugh just now?" Rainbow simply shrugged.
"I laughed because I thought you were catching feelings for me. And... I kissed you because..." Her voice caught in her throat slightly, prompting her to clear her throat. "Because it was the only way I could think of to get you to stop talking about me and Applejack."
Rarity seemed to process this for a minute. Rainbow shifted in her seat, slightly uncomfortable with the silence.
"I see," the fashionista said eventually. "To start, and just to be completely clear, whilst I too enjoy sleeping with you, I don't have feelings for you, either. We can both relax on that front." She sighed. "But you really must think before you act, Rainbow. What if I had had feelings for you? You could have caused a lot of hurt. For both of us." Once again, Rainbow just shifted awkwardly.
"Yeah, I... sorry." Another sigh escaped from Rarity.
"Well, look, no harm done I suppose. But it does lead me on to something else I wanted to talk about."
"Oh yeah?" Rainbow asked cautiously.
"Yes. But I want you to promise that you'll hear me out. No deflections, no redirections, no shutting me down. Okay?"
"If this is about me and Applejack again-" Rainbow started, only to be almost immediately interrupted.
"Yes, it is, and I want you to promise to listen to me, Dash."
Rarity hardly ever called her that, and it was usually an indicator that she was being serious. 'Do not test me' serious. About two months into their arrangement, Rainbow had gotten a little too grabby while Rarity was working on an important project. That was the first time she'd used that name and tone. Rainbow had pushed her luck and the result had been no sex for a week. She wasn't keen to repeat the experience.
"Ugh, alright, fine," she testily conceded. "Not gonna promise to like it, though."
Apparently choosing to ignore that last comment, Rarity appeared to gather her thoughts for a moment, staring quietly out into the darkness beyond the window next to the fireplace. When she turned back to Rainbow, both her expression and her voice were gentle.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
The question took Rainbow by surprise. What did she mean how was she feeling? What kind of question was that? She was Rainbow Dash, she felt great! This articulation was lost in her reply, however.
"Huh?" was all she managed to get out.
"How do you feel?" Rarity asked again. "Are you happy? Are you content?"
"I'm fine," answered Rainbow, confused. "Rarity, what-" The other woman's expression suddenly hardened.
"Because I assure you, Applejack most definitely is not."
"She told you that? And you believe her?" Rainbow asked, the questions dripping with disdain.
"No," Rarity told her, stonily. "Twilight told me, and I believe her. She's told me about how miserable Applejack is so much of the time, and how terrible she feels about what happened between you two."
"Pff, what does she know? She's just-"
"Our friend! And if you finish that sentence, Rainbow Dash, you can forget about staying here tonight." One of Rarity's fingers was pointed at her in warning.
Rainbow just sat in surly, glaring silence. Just what the hell was this? She'd come here for dinner and a quick fuck before bed, not this third-degree bullshit! She swallowed angrily.
"And how does Twilight know this?" she asked, struggling to keep the venom from her voice. "More importantly, why should I care? Do you know what Applejack did to me? How worthless she made me feel?!" Rarity took a deep breath before answering calmly.
"I am well aware of what you said happened, Rainbow. You should care, because everyone else around you is tired of treading on eggshells around you two. We're tired of trying to make plans that won't bring you two together. We're tired of the tension between the two of you when you do happen to be in the same place, and we're tired of being afraid that one wrong word might set one of you off." As Rarity spoke, she ticked off each item on one of her fingers. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Rainbow deflated, the wind blown out of her sails. She hadn't realised any of her friends had felt like that.
"You guys... really feel that way?" she asked. A nod of the head was her only answer. "I... I see."
Rainbow lowered her gaze to her lap. In all the time since she'd broken up with Applejack, she'd been so wrapped up in her own feelings, she hadn't stopped to consider how she'd been making everyone else around her feel. She'd just assumed that they weren't affected, or that they didn't really care much beyond what had happened.
"There's more," she heard Rarity say. Rainbow looked back up at her. "Twilight knows what she knows... because she has an arrangement very similar to our own. With both Applejack and Coloratura."
Of all the things to expect, that particular revelation was not on any list Rainbow had ever cared to make. Twilight was the last person she'd expected to make a move on anyone, never mind two at once. The rainbow haired woman simply sat in stunned silence. Twilight was sleeping with her ex and the woman who'd stolen Applejack away from her? What the fuck...?
Apparently taking Rainbow's silence as a cue to continue, Rarity spoke again.
"That's also how I know you're not being entirely honest, Dash." Rainbow reacted as if slapped. No, that wasn't true...
"Coloratura told Twilight and I what happened that night," Rarity continued on. "At least, from her perspective. She told us that she and Applejack had approached you about a... menage à trois, so to speak."
No, that wasn't right at all. It wasn't! She'd... Shaking her head, Rainbow attempted to defend herself.
"But-" Rarity interrupted her, however.
"And that you said yes, but you never joined them."
"No, that's not... I was drunk!" Again, Rainbow tried to defend her side of the story, but she was already beginning to sound hollow to herself. The news about Twilight and Applejack, combined with the knowledge that Rarity apparently knew a good part of what went down that night had left the sportswoman shaken.
"But that's not true, though, is it?" Rarity said gently. The question was spoken almost as a statement, but without accusation.
"I... I..." Rainbow stammered, trying to organise her jumbled thoughts. No, she'd been the one wronged, hadn't she? She'd been drinking, and Applejack had-
Her train of thought was once again interrupted by Rarity's voice.
"You had your first practice session with the Wonderbolts the next day, so you weren't drinking much that evening. In fact, I remember you couldn't stop talking about it, you were so excited."
Her story already shot through, Rainbow sagged even further, her already small frame appearing to become even smaller, the chair seemingly dwarfing her. She sniffed. Something tickled her cheek and she swatted at it, surprised to find her fingers coming back wet. Oh, so not cool...
"I'm right, aren't I?" she heard Rarity ask. Rainbow looked up at her through misty eyes, hoping to find some hint of cruelty or anger, something she could lash out at, but there was nothing. Rarity's face once again wore that gentle expression it had a few minutes ago.
"What do you want from me?" Rainbow asked, her voice thick with emotion. She wasn't crying... yet, but she was getting close. "Why are you doing this? What gives you the right?!"
"Rainbow, darling, believe it or not, I'm not doing this to attack you. I want to help you," explained the dressmaker.
"Help me?!" Rainbow cried, incredulous. "Oh yeah, you're doing such an awesome job at that!" She thumbed another tear from her cheek.
"Regardless of how you feel right now, yes, I want to help you. We, that is, Twilight and I, would like you to consider sitting down and talking with Applejack."
"What, why?" If she could be any more unbelieving, she would be, but Rainbow was completely tapped out. Just what the hell was going on?
"Because of all the reasons I already stated," Rarity answered. "Because we believe you two should be back together. And because I believe there is more to this than you're letting on. You know it, and I know it."
"But I-" Holding her hand up, Rarity interrupted her once more.
"Rainbow, stop. We both know whatever you're about to say isn't going to be true."
The young motor racer fell silent, turning away from Rarity once more. She'd simply run out of the will to contest her arguments. This was not how this evening was supposed to go. All she'd wanted was some good food, some good sex, and to curl up next to a warm body afterward. Apparently that wasn't on the menu tonight. Instead, she was being dragged into a conversation she most definitely didn't want to have...
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rarity stand up.
"Now," the seamstress started, her voice gentle, but firm. "I don't know what happened between you and Applejack after the party that night, I only know what Coloratura told me, but I know that it isn't what you've been telling me and everyone else. But," she paused, her tone softening slightly. "I do want to know, and I want you to know that you'll get no judgement from me when I hear it."
She walked over and placed a hand gently on Rainbow's arm, prompting the smaller woman to look up at her.
"I'm here for you, darling," Rarity said, smiling kindly. "As your friend, no matter what."
Those words, more than any others spoken that evening, somehow stung Rainbow the most. She looked away quickly before Rarity could see the fresh tears springing to her eyes. Beside her, the other woman sighed quietly.
"Look," she heard Rarity say, weariness evident in her voice. "It's late. It's been a long day for both of us, and this little discussion has obviously worn us both down. You don't have to say anything right now, but I'd like to hear your side of the story sooner rather than later." Her hand left Rainbow's arm, the unmistakable sound of a stifled yawn following soon after.
"I'm going to take a bath and then go to bed," she continued, her voice retreating. Through the tears still threatening to spill, Rainbow could just make out Rarity's reflection in the window, the woman pausing at the door to the room.
"You're welcome to join me in either... if you still want to."
With that, she was gone, and Rainbow finally let out a strangled sob. It was the only one she permitted herself, but her tears had their own plans. First one, then another ran down her face, dripping from her chin to land on her hoodie, leaving dark spots.
Where had this evening gone? When had it gone from simple dinner and fun, to ripping her apart for things that had happened six months ago? Why were Rarity and Twilight suddenly so interested in getting her and Applejack back together? What had she done to deserve this treatment?
Rainbow immediately knew the answer to that last question, even if she'd spent the last few months trying to convince herself and everyone else differently. She knew she deserved much worse that what Rarity had given her, and she had brought it on herself. Not because she felt she needed to be punished in some way, but because what she had done to Applejack had been horrible; utterly reprehensible. And she had done it because... because she...
Tears still trickling down her face, Rainbow took a shaky breath. Images and feelings poured through her mind like flood waters, churning and twisting. The party outside the castle. Her elation at becoming a test rider for the Wonderbolts. The proposition made by AJ and Rara. Her telling them to go on ahead. The feelings of guilt when she just went straight home. Her crying herself to sleep that night, her heart aching and empty.
She'd spent most of the next day almost entirely numb, somehow making it through her first practice session without screwing up or laying the bike down. She'd had to focus entirely on each individual task before her, or the events of the previous day threatened to intrude. And when the day's work had finally been over, she'd gone out of town to exercise as a distraction, hoping to tire herself out so completely that she wouldn't have time to think before bed.
That had gone out of the window the moment she'd been discovered by Applejack. All of the feelings she'd been suppressing that day had come raging back in an instant. With AJ there, representing at least one half of the apparent cause of her distress, she'd had a target to vent all her stress at.
Rainbow couldn't recall even half of what she'd said. No, that wasn't true, she remembered all of it, and it was far from pleasant. She'd raged at Applejack for several minutes, never even giving her a chance to explain her side. And then when her girlfriend, her blonde angel, the love of her life had finally been able to get a word in edgewise...
Rainbow didn't even remember delivering the slap, just that her hand suddenly stung like a bitch, and that AJ was clutching her cheek, a look of pure shock on her face.
Staring deep into the dying flames of the fireplace, her tears showing no signs of letting up, Rainbow realised Rarity had been right about one thing; she was worn down. Six months of heartache and denial had taken their toll. She was exhausted. By Celestia's sun, she just wanted to it stop. No more hurting, no more wondering, no more lying. Because that's what it was, really, wasn't it? Lying. To herself and to her friends. She wasn't the injured party, she was the injury.
Wiping her face with a sleeve, Rainbow stood from the chair and made her way to the hallway. To her right lay the stairs and the way out of the Boutique, to her left was Rarity and her questions. With an unsteady sigh, the rainbow haired woman made her way down the hall towards the bathroom.
Standing in front of the door, hands in her hoodie pocket, Rainbow could just make out the flicker of candlelight dancing through the gap where it stood ajar. The sound of water splashing could be heard from the other side. Steeling herself, Rainbow reached out a hand and knocked softly, the door swinging on the hinges almost imperceptibly.
"Come in," Rarity's voice drifted out the gap. Rainbow pushed open the door and slipped inside, the warm, fragrant air wrapping itself around her.
Except for the dim yellow light cast by the scented candles dotted around the room, which gave off some sort of soft, flowery smell, the usually bright white bathroom was dark. To one side was a toilet, a cabinet sink with a large vanity mirror on the wall above it, and a dedicated shower unit. Rainbow knew from experience that the latter could easily hold two people, probably more. What was in the middle of the room, however, was undoubtedly the focus.
Stood at a right angle to the door, a large, ornate bathtub dominated the centre of the arguably unnecessarily grand bathroom. Like the rest of the room, it was white, but the feet and fittings were a highly polished brass, the light from the candles reflecting in their surfaces. Inside the tub lay a mostly submerged Rarity, only her head visible as she lay back amid the suds, her hair splayed wetly around her against the slope of the bath. Wisps of steam wafted and curled into the air above her.
Turning to face Rainbow, she regarded her with a playful smile.
"You didn't have to knock, you know," she said teasingly. As Rainbow stepped further into the room, worry quickly replaced the playfulness on Rarity's features.
"Darling, your face is all puffy! Have you been crying?"
Rainbow just nodded sullenly. Pushing the door closed, she crossed the distance to the bathtub, the cold tiles seemingly almost freezing under her bare feet compared to the warm air. The rug next to the bath came almost as a relief as she perched herself on the edge of the tub, hands once again tucked into her hoodie.
"Rainbow, I'm so sorry. Making you cry was never my intention," Rarity said off to her left, her voice genuinely apologetic. Rainbow felt her lay a hand gently on her arm, bath water soaking through the fabric of her hoodie. She felt Rarity's thumb rub lightly back and forth across her arm, the tiny movement somehow immensely comforting, despite the fact that the other woman had been chewing her out not that long ago. After a few moments of this, Rainbow let out another unsteady sigh before speaking.
"I... I was scared," she said, still not looking over at her friend.
"Scared?" Rarity asked, obviously confused. "Rainbow, you know I would never-" Rainbow shook her head.
"Not of you. I mean back then."
"Back then? You mean with Applejack?" Rainbow nodded once more.
"Why?" continued Rarity, still rubbing her arm. "What could possibly scare the great Rainbow Dash?"
The friendly tease drew a wry chuckle from the racer, much to her surprise. She didn't think she was capable of laughing, not with how emotionally drained she felt right now. Regardless, she ploughed on.
"When me and AJ were together, she brought up the idea that we should, uh..." Rainbow paused to swallow. "'Bring another partner to play with', to use her words." Her voice carried an affectation of Applejack's accent as she quoted her.
"And what did you say?"
"I wasn't sure. I said I had to think about it. I mean, that's a lot to ask, right?"
"It is. Did you ever make a decision?" Rainbow shook her head.
"Not really. I never told her more than 'maybe'. But..." She turned and finally looked at Rarity, who was watching her attentively. "I still thought about it. The idea of it was kinda hot, in a way, you know?" A guilty smile played at the corner of her lips.
"I can't say as I've ever given it much thought, darling," replied the seamstress, shaking her head. "So how does this fit in with Applejack and Coloratura's request?"
Rainbow looked away again, suddenly unsure of herself. After everything Rarity had said to her that evening, she knew that she should tell her what had happened, but now that she was about to do so, she hesitated. What she had done was so bad, she wasn't sure if the other woman would want anything to do with her afterwards, promise or no promise. Rainbow stalled for time.
"Could I get in the bath with you? I'm kinda cold and I haven't had a shower yet."
It wasn't a complete lie, but neither was it totally honest. While it was true Rainbow needed to wash, she could have waited, and she certainly wasn't cold sitting in the warm bathroom.
"Of course you can," she heard Rarity answer. If she'd picked up on the white lie, she didn't show it.
Pulling her hands out of her pocket, Rainbow stripped off her hoodie before standing and pulling her tracksuit bottoms and panties off her hips, allowing them to slide down her legs. Naked once more that evening, she kicked her clothes away across the room, then turned towards the bath and slipped a leg into the water, hissing softly at the temperature. Much like how she couldn't understand how Rarity withstood the cold, neither could Rainbow understand how she tolerated such hot baths.
Regardless, she quickly swung her other leg into the bath and then bent over facing Rarity, lowering her whole body into the steaming water. As she did so, Rarity suddenly sat up straight, her breasts making an appearance through the bubbles. She placed her hand on Rainbow's chest, stopping her as she sat down.
"Don't be silly, darling, there's plenty of room at this end," she said, a small smile on her lips.
While the bath wasn't quite big enough for two people to sit side by side, there was more than enough room for Rarity to quite obviously spread her legs, allowing Rainbow to sit between them. Nodding, the smaller woman turned around and did just that, feeling Rarity's legs wrapping around her and crossing over her own.
Once she was sat down, Rainbow felt the heat working at her, her muscles releasing the tension that had built up in them over the evening. Unable to help herself, she let out a small coo of pleasure as the water did its work. Behind her, she heard Rarity chuckle.
"The bath feels good, I take it?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," Rainbow answered, dreamily. Rarity squeezed herself up against Rainbow's back, her breasts pressing into the athlete's back like they had that morning.
"Oh, I can," she replied, speaking mere inches from Rainbow's ear. "But you still haven't answered my question."
And just like that, Rainbow's focus was snapped from the hot water massaging her body, right back to the reason she was in the room in the first place. She sighed.
"You already know I said yes, right?" she asked, watching as Rarity's arms hunted around for something under the water. She felt something soft brush her leg, and then Rarity's hand came up, mauve washcloth tangled around her fingers. The hand and cloth disappeared behind her, as did the feeling of her lover's bust, which was immediately replaced by the sensation of water running down her back.
"That's what Coloratura told me, yes." As Rarity spoke, she began washing Rainbow, the soft washcloth moving slowly but firmly up and down her back, simultaneously cleaning her and easing more tension out of her muscles. The combination of sensations elicited yet another involuntary noise of pleasure from Rainbow before she continued.
"Well, she was telling the truth. They both came up to me and, well... straight up said we should all go back to AJ's place." She shook her head. "I said yes. I want to say that I wanted to say no, that I wanted to tell AJ to stick it, but..."
"You actually wanted a threesome." Rarity's voice carried no accusation, just a statement of fact. The washcloth made the journey up to Rainbow's shoulders, running down along and under her arms.
"Yeah," she responded, ashamed. "Isn't that the most fucked up thing? AJ asks me about it, and I spend forever brushing her off, but as soon as the opportunity is given to me, I jump on it."
Rarity ran the washcloth over Rainbow's fingers, then offered it to her. The smaller woman took it and cleaned her face before dropping it back in the bath. She watched as Rarity reached for a small porcelain jug sat on the bath rack, dunking it into the water. Her other hand came up to Rainbow's chin, prompting her to tilt her head back.
"Close your eyes, darling," she said. Rainbow did so, and almost immediately felt water being poured over her hair. Rarity repeated this a few times, fully soaking her multi-coloured locks. There was a pause and the sound of a bottle being opened, followed by something thick landing in her hair. She felt Rarity's long fingers begin working the shampoo into her hair and scalp, massaging the lather in thoroughly.
Rainbow didn't know if it was the shampoo or Rarity's deft touch, and she would die before admitting it, but getting her hair washed by someone else felt wonderful. She'd never had it done before, even in all the time she'd been sleeping with Rarity. Secretly, she wished that it would never end.
As she sat there enjoying every little nuance of Rarity's attentions, she heard her would-be hairdresser speak again. She almost didn't catch the question, lost as she was in the sensation of fingers trailing through her hair.
"So are you going to tell me why you didn't go, or am I going to have to guess that part?"
Her eyes still closed, Rainbow exhaled deeply through her nose. She took a moment to settle the butterflies in her stomach before answering.
"Like I said, I got scared."
"Of what? Coloratura isn't that imposing, dear." Rarity's reply was laced with amusement, no doubt intended to lighten the mood. As focussed as she was on trying to articulate her emotions, the gibe was lost on Rainbow.
"I started thinking... things," she started, fighting to keep her voice level. "Bad things. Things I didn't want to think about."
"Like what?"
"Like 'What if Coloratura is better than me in bed?', 'What if I'm not good enough anymore?', 'What if AJ likes her more than me?', 'What if she leaves me because of it?'" Rainbow felt a finger suddenly tap her harshly on the forehead.
"Foolishness, Rainbow, and you know it," Rarity admonished. "Applejack is almost as loyal as you are, and both of you were together for two years by that point. Do you really think she'd throw it all away over something as silly as a threesome with someone she hadn't spoken to for years?"
Before Rainbow could respond, she felt more water being poured over her head, some of it washing over her closed eyelids. This was repeated several times, just like before. When she attempted to lift her head again, however, she was checked almost immediately by Rarity.
"Ah, I'm not done yet," the fashionista said, her tone all business. The sound of another bottle being opened reached Rainbow's ears, followed again by something thick drizzling into her hair.
"What're you doing now?" she demanded, slightly irritated.
"Conditioner, sweetheart. Your hair needs it badly."
"My hair's fine."
"You might think so," Rarity said matter-of-factly, setting to work once more. "But your million and one split ends say otherwise. Now hush and tell me the rest."
Rainbow simply huffed and allowed Rarity to work, the incredible feeling of her fingers caressing her scalp causing muscles lower down her body to ease. She almost didn't want to ruin it by speaking, but she knew she had to at this point. She'd told so much already, she needed to finish. Reluctantly, she once again continued her story.
"Because I was so scared of any of that happening, I just went home. I didn't see AJ until the next evening, and when I did, I..." she hesitated. It was one thing to think about it, another to say it.
"Take your time," Rarity said reassuringly, still working the lather deep into the racer's hair. Taking a deep, unsteady breath, Rainbow pushed forward.
"I-I don't remember what triggered it, I was just so... mad. I don't even know why, I just was. I guess it was because all I could think about that day, when I wasn't busy, was those two... her and Coloratura, together, instead of with me." She shuddered, struggling to stay calm amid the storm of her emotions. "I said such horrible things to her. I'm pretty sure I called her a whore. I... Rarity, I slapped her."
The tears came again. Unbidden and heedless of her wishes, they welled up and ran down her temples, where they disappeared into her hairline. Rarity's fingers slowed as Rainbow's breath hitched. Through the sobs, the young woman forced out the last of her confession.
"S-She was my g-girlfriend, and I hit her! I loved her so m-much and I h-hurt her so fucking bad!" The last few words were spoken as little more than an outright wail.
Oblivious to the state of her hair, Rainbow jerked away from Rarity and buried her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. A moment later, she felt Rarity pull gently her into an embrace, holding her close. For her part, the smaller woman just wrapped her arms around the dressmaker, burying her face into her chest as she wept. The two remained that way for a short time, Rarity rocking gently as she tried to soothe the crying Rainbow Dash.
Eventually, Rainbow's tears exhausted themselves and the poor woman both. Reduced to just sniffles, she clung to Rarity for a few minutes, needing the reassurance of physical contact just a bit longer. She felt drained, yet oddly lighter. She'd been carrying that baggage around for half a year, wrapping herself up in the anger and the lies she'd told herself for so long, it felt freeing to finally get it off her chest. Like someone had removed a set of training weights from her shoulders.
Just then, Rainbow felt Rarity press the washcloth softly against her face, wiping around her eyes. Sitting up again, she opened them and blinked blearily, her pupils taking a moment to focus in the dim light. When they did, she saw Rarity sat with a sympathetic smile on her face.
"Feel better?" she asked gently. Rainbow shrugged, then nodded.
"A little."
"Good. Turn around and tilt your head back, please, I need to rinse your hair." Wordlessly, Rainbow did just that, closing her eyes again.
As Rarity poured more water over her, she wondered what the other woman must be thinking right now, having heard her confession. Rarity probably thought she was some kind of violent asshole, more used to using her hands than her words. A monster that had no business having a relationship, let alone being with someone as amazing as Applejack. Yet she was just sat back there, calmly washing her friend's hair.
"Rarity?" Rainbow probed, trying to feel out her companion's mood.
"Yes?" Her voice carried no hints either way as to her current state of mind, merely acknowledging her willingness to speak.
"You... haven't said anything."
"I'm thinking, dear."
Rainbow didn't like the sound of that, but sat quietly nonetheless, allowing Rarity to finish rinsing the conditioner from her hair. Once she had, the seamstress stood and stepped out of the bath, water running from her body to drip over the floor and bathmat. She bent over and reached between Rainbow's feet to pull the plug, offering her hand to her afterwards. Rainbow took it, standing and stepping out of the bath to stand next to her, another wave of water splashing to the floor as she did so.
As she stood there, the young woman watched as Rarity's other hand glowed blue. She felt a dull heat permeating her skin and hair, drying her almost instantly. At the same time, she was dimly aware of the water on the floor flowing back into the tub, the blue aura of Rarity's magic guiding it. Finally, with just a pointed finger, the candles snuffed themselves out, one by one.
Still hand in hand, Rainbow followed Rarity to the door, trailing slightly behind her. As they passed still naked into the hall, the cooler air outside raised goosebumps on her skin, but she kept her silence, preferring it over speaking. Whatever Rarity was thinking, she didn't want to interrupt it. Besides, if she was going to get yelled at, she'd rather have to wait for as long as possible beforehand.
Yelling, as it turned out, was not what was in store for her. Instead of that, Rarity simply led her to her bedroom, where a magic lamp glowed on the bedside table, lighting the room the colour of sunset. Once both of them were inside, she let go of Rainbow's hand and closed the door. Moving over to the bed, she pulled back the duvet and climbed in, patting the other side of the mattress in invitation.
Confused, Rainbow joined her, slipping her legs under the cover before lying down and pulling it up to her chin. She watched as Rarity turned and lay on her side facing Rainbow, simply looking at her, head resting on her hand. After a few moments of this, when it was clear that Rarity wasn't going to be saying anything, Rainbow spoke.
"I, uh, didn't think you'd want me in here after what I said," she admitted with a frown.
"I don't condone what you did, Rainbow," Rarity said, shaking her head. "But I'm not going to judge you for it. It was months ago, and what I said was true, I want to help you, not attack you." Rainbow nodded, but remained silent. Rarity continued speaking.
"To wit, whilst it took a long time, thank you for finally being honest and sharing your side of things with me. I appreciate how hard that must have been for you."
"If you knew all along, why didn't you just call me out?"
"Because I wanted to give you a chance to tell me on your own terms. I'll admit, I was nearing my wits end, but you got there. Eventually."
"You must think I'm a piece of shit," Rainbow uttered miserably, breaking eye contact with her.
"No," Rarity said firmly. "I don't. I think perhaps you got overwhelmed by feelings you weren't prepared for, and you acted inappropriately as a result, but you aren't a bad person, Rainbow Dash."
"But I hit-"
"Enough, Rainbow. I know what you said you did, and it doesn't change what I just said. Besides," she added, her free hand reaching up to Rainbow's chin, tilting her face up to look at her. "You crying all over my boobs once is more than enough for one evening," she finished with a teasing smile.
Unable to help it, Rainbow cracked a small smile of her own, the expression feeling somehow alien on her features after the events of the evening. A giggle escaped the back of her throat.
"Sorry about that."
"No need to apologise, dear. But if we can return to the matter at hand..." Rarity's expression turned serious once more. "If Twilight can convince Applejack to sit down and talk with you, would you do the same?" Rainbow's answer came with a lack of hesitation that surprised even herself.
"Yes. I miss her, Rarity. I wanna try and be friends again, maybe even... you know..."
"It's a goal," Rarity cautioned her with a nod. "But perhaps take things one step at a time, darling. Even if Applejack wants the same, you two have a lot of healing to do."
"I guess," Rainbow conceded. "When can we do this?"
"Well," started Rarity, appearing to think. "Twilight and I agreed to meet in a few days to discuss our respective results. I shouldn't think until after then."
"So when is that?"
"Not for another three days."
"Three days?!"
"Yes, but I don't think she'd object to me turning up a little early with good news," Rarity said confidently.
"You're seeing her tomorrow, then?" Rainbow asked, her voice the definition of hope. That hope was immediately tempered by the apologetic look on Rarity's face.
"Er, not tomorrow," she said, brushing some hair out of her face with her free hand. "I have to finish drawing up some designs for a client I'm meeting next week, but I can definitely see her the day after. You could come with me, if you like."
"I would," Rainbow answered. In truth, the idea scared her a little. Rarity had been kind, but she had no idea how Twilight would react to what she had to say, especially since she was apparently sleeping with Applejack as well. A thought suddenly occurred to her.
"Wait, why are you and Twilight so invested in this?" she asked.
"If you really want to know, Twilight and I will tell you everything when we go to see her," Rarity replied with a shake of her head. "Right now, it's late and I really want to get my beauty sleep, darling."
Rainbow groaned internally, but her own body was crying out for rest, so for now, she let it go. With a yawn and a nod, she curled up a little tighter under the covers, rolling over more to face Rarity. The other woman smiled and clicked her fingers, the lamp on the bedside table dimming slowly before extinguishing completely.
In the dark, Rainbow could just make out her hostess as she leaned over and kissed her cheek, a kind goodnight on her lips. As Rarity lay down and made herself comfortable, Rainbow scooted closer, seeking out the warmth of her body. Almost immediately, she felt Rarity's arm encircle her waist, dragging her closer. Once their bodies were in contact with one another, her hand ran up Rainbow's back to cradle her head, pulling it tenderly into her soft bosom. This was the young racer's favourite sleeping position; tucked into the curve of Rarity's body, her head nestled against her breasts.
It was like that the two lay quietly, breathing softly in the darkness, until Rarity's gentle snores gave away her lack of wakefulness. It took Rainbow a little longer to go, wrapped up as she was in her thoughts of what had transpired that evening and of what was to come, but she too eventually drifted off, a flicker of hope burning in her heart.
* * * * * * * *
True to her word, Rarity did indeed take Rainbow with her when she went to see Twilight. The day was overcast and blustery, the first loose leaves of autumn blowing about in the gusts. Rarity wished she'd brought her scarf as the wind buffeted her and Rainbow on the path to the castle. Even with her coat, picked for matching the shade of her hair, she could feel the bite of the cold air. She could only imagine how Rainbow felt, given her feelings on the cold, dressed as she was in a bomber jacket and a pair of faded jeans.
On the upside, though, she imagined Twilight would be happy to see both of them. Such success had eluded them through this endeavour so far, so Rainbow being willing, even eager, to go through with this plan would be a much-needed morale boost.
Rarity looked over at Rainbow as they walked. The young woman had her hands in her pockets, a thoughtful expression on her face as she kept her eyes on the ground in front of her. Since the other night, while Rainbow continued to stay over for convenience's sake, they'd both agreed that it was probably best they no longer shared a bed or each other. As a result, things had been friendly, if a little awkward between the two. Not that Rarity minded, in the grand scheme of things. A little awkwardness was a small price to pay, considering the potential outcome.
Turning her attention back to where they were walking, Rarity saw a figure leave the castle in the distance and start heading their way. As they drew closer, she could make out the unmistakable colours of Coloratura's hair blowing about. Rarity raised her arm and waved, earning a wave back in response.
"Look, it's Coloratura," she said to Rainbow, putting her hand back in her coat pocket. "I'll go say hello, she'll probably want to hear the good news, too." Without waiting for a reply, she increased her pace to meet the singer.
Meeting in the middle of the path, the two exchanged a friendly hug, Rarity complimenting the popstar on her choice of outfit; a long, black coat that reached her knees with a fake belt around the waist, a pair of thick, grey leggings and block heel boots. As they parted, Coloratura gave a questioning glance over Rarity's shoulder at the approaching Rainbow Dash.
"Here to see Twilight," Rarity answered simply.
"I hope it's good news," was Rara's weary response. "Twilight could use some after the other night."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Not what, who."
"Say what, now?" Rainbow asked as she joined them. "Um, hi, Coloratura." She briefly lifted her hand out of her pocket in an awkward wave.
"Hello," Rara replied politely enough, if somewhat stiffly. Rarity stood puzzled for a moment, before remembering that both had had reasons to be extraordinarily angry at the other in recent months, even if one side's grievance wasn't entirely legitimate.
"Rarity," the former diva continued. "Could we talk in private for a moment? It's important."
"If it's about what I think it is," Rarity said. "Then no need. Rainbow has agreed to talk to Applejack." She watched with no small amount of pride as surprise registered on Coloratura's face, the woman turning to eye Rainbow with an indiscernible look.
"Really? Well, Twilight will be glad to hear that, but..." Coloratura hesitated, the wind toying with her hair as she chewed her lip. Rarity felt her heart slowly sink the longer she waited. What had happened now?
"But what?" she prompted, after she judged the silence to have gone on long enough.
"But... Twilight's side of things... didn't go well." Rarity listened as Coloratura relayed what had happened, her hopes dashing further and further as she did so. Why could nothing ever be simple?
"Of all the things that could happen!" she cried out in a mix of frustration and despair. "This is the worst possi-"
"What do we do now?" Rainbow interrupted her tirade suddenly. Rarity shot her an annoyed glance, but the other woman paid her no mind.
"Well, I was just on my way to see her," answered Coloratura. "I was going to see if I could convince her to talk to you, but with you here now..." A thoughtful look appeared on her face. "We should talk to Twilight, I have an idea."
With that, she turned and quickly headed back in the direction of the castle, beckoning for the two other women to follow. Rainbow immediately set off after her, leaving Rarity stood all by herself on the path.
"Idea or not, this is still the worst possible thing," she groused, before chasing after them.
* * * * * * * *
Twilight sat on her throne in the map room, elbows on the giant table and chin resting on her hands, quietly contemplating the cutie marks floating above it. Ever since her disastrous attempt at getting Applejack to meet with Rainbow Dash, she'd been turning that night over in her head, examining it from every angle, but so far, she hadn't been able to come up with any way she could have done things better.
She knew she was focussing on the wrong thing, but her failure irked her conscience, knowing that two of her friends were hurting and she was the one tasked with ameliorating that hurt. She'd screwed up bigger in the past, sure, but the fact that she'd failed someone she was so close to stung in a way nothing else had before.
The added knowledge that she'd exacerbate the situation if she herself tried to fix the issue, only served to deepen her glum mood. She could only hope that Applejack would listen to Coloratura and agree to the meeting.
As she sat pondering the situation, a cold draught blew through the map room, accompanied by the sound of the front door opening and closing. Twilight shivered at the touch of the chilly gust of air. With the castle's magical warmth, she was dressed only in a shirt, knee-length skirt and stockings, an outfit reminiscent of her school years in Canterlot.
The doors to the map room stood ajar, and from the other side she could hear multiple, hurried footsteps approaching. Given their pace and the animated voices that accompanied them, she wondered what disaster had befallen Ponyville now. When the doors were pulled fully open and she turned to see who it was, however, she was rather surprised to see first Coloratura, then Rarity and Rainbow Dash walk in.
With a quick glance at the map, she confirmed that the thin aura of the illusion spell that she'd cast around it six months ago was still intact. Only the most astute observers would notice anything off about the map's appearance, and even then, only a slight blurring around the edge.
"Rara?" Twilight asked her girlfriend, perplexed at her quick return. "I thought you were going to see AJ?"
"I was, but then I ran into these two," she replied, walking up to lean on the edge of the map, arms folded. "They were coming to see you. I believe Rainbow Dash has some news that will cheer you up." She winked at the princess.
A small amount of hope started dancing in Twilight's chest as she looked over at her friend, who was settling into her own throne. Rarity stood on the opposite side of the chair to Twilight, placing a reassuring hand on Rainbow's shoulder as she sat down.
"Really? What is it?" Twilight asked, doing her best to sound both surprised and interested. She needn't have put so much effort into the façade, however, as Rainbow immediately called her bluff.
"You can cut the act, Twilight, I already know what's going on," she said, her voice carrying none of its usual cocksure arrogance, or even irritation at Twilight's attempt at deception. "Rarity already told me what you two are up to. And my answer is yes, I wanna sit down with Applejack."
On the inside, Twilight was overjoyed to hear those words. Finally, after six months of nothing, some progress! Outwardly, though, she sighed.
"That's great, Rainbow, really," she said, doing her best to sound upbeat about the matter, though sounding insincere by her own reckoning. "But... I don't think Applejack feels the same way."
"To be fair, darling," Rarity spoke up. "From how Coloratura tells it, she didn't really commit one way or the other."
"I... suppose that's true," Twilight admitted. "I don't think she's likely to see it that way, though."
"I have an idea about that," Coloratura interjected. "Why don't we just take Rainbow to see her?" Twilight boggled at Rara's suggestion.
"Are you nuts?!" she cried out, raising a hand in disbelief. "After what happened the other night, you want to-"
"Do what we planned to do anyway?" the singer finished for her, a sassy grin lighting up her face. The steam abruptly left Twilight's argument.
"Er, come again?" she said, lowering her hand. Rarity surprised her with a sudden squeal.
"Ooh, that's a good idea!" she said excitedly, practically bouncing on the spot.
"What's a good idea?" Rainbow asked, sounding annoyed at being out of the loop. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Twilight, think about it, darling," Rarity continued, ignoring Rainbow. "Applejack probably won't want to listen to you, and if Coloratura tries to get an answer out of her, she'll probably shut her out, too, merely because of her association with you. Even if I go, she'll probably realise something is amiss." The seamstress bent down to wrap an arm around Rainbow's shoulders, pulling her close. "But Rainbow here is the last person she expects to see right now, so..."
"So if we take her to see her..." Twilight said, following the logic. "Then it might throw her off-guard enough to listen! Rara, you're a genius!" She stood up and threw her arms tightly around Coloratura, who returned the hug with a giggle. Letting go, Twilight turned to make for the doors, intending to go fetch her coat, but was stopped when Rarity spoke up once more.
"Twilight, wait."
Looking over at her, Twilight did just that. Rarity had straightened up once more, and was now giving her a serious look.
"What is it?" Twilight asked, puzzled. "Shouldn't we head out?"
"In a moment," answered Rarity, turning slightly to one side. "But first, I think we owe Rainbow Dash an explanation, don't you?" She finished with a nod to the map. Twilight immediately understood, turning to look Rainbow Dash.
"It's probably easier if I just show you," she said. Turning to the map, she raised a hand, the aura of her magic appearing ever so briefly as she dispelled the illusion around magical table. The glow around the edge faded away.
It didn't take long for Rainbow to see the difference. Immediately, she sat forward, leaning in to get a better look at Twilight and Rarity's cutie marks floating above Ponyville.
"Wait, how long have those been there?" she asked, perplexed. "How come I never saw them until just now?"
Unsure how her friend would react, Twilight answered her questions with a small amount of trepidation.
"You couldn't see them because I put an illusion spell around the map that only myself, Rarity and Coloratura could see through," she began. "As for how long they've been there... they appeared around the time you and Applejack broke up." Twilight watched as realisation dawned on Rainbow's face.
"You mean..." she whispered breathlessly.
"Yes," the princess replied simply. "The map called Rarity and I to help you."
She watched as Rainbow processed what she'd just been told, the racer's jaw moving as she chewed on her tongue. She stayed that way for several moments, just staring at the map, making Twilight start to worry that she'd just reversed everything Rarity had accomplished with her. However, Rainbow simply nodded, stood up and headed for the door.
"I'm heading to Applejack's," was all she said as she left, leaving Twilight and the two other women slightly bewildered.
"Should... should we go after her?" Rarity asked, unsure. Twilight looked over at Coloratura, who nodded.
"Probably a good idea," answered the popstar, getting up and following Rainbow out, Rarity quickly following her.
Twilight was the last one to leave the castle, delaying only to grab her coat and leave a note for Spike.
* * * * * * * *
Heading in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow didn't run, but neither did she walk, her pace dictated by her tumultuous thoughts.
In her mind, the new information she'd acquired turned over, settling into place, though she wasn't really examining it in any detail. She was still reeling from the revelation of the map.
A friendship problem! She was a friendship problem! Well, okay, she had a friendship problem, but that was pretty much the same thing. What she couldn't understand was why Twilight hadn't told her. Or Applejack. Didn't they deserve to know? Stupid question, of course they did, that's why she was on her way to the farm. Not that it mattered now, it was done. She had other business to settle.
The wind blustered around her as it had all day, but she paid it no mind. She was focussed squarely on getting to Applejack. This shit had gone on for far too long. She'd been the one to start it, and she'd be the one to end it, for better or worse.
Behind her, she heard Twilight call her name. She looked over her shoulder at her friend rushing to catch up to her, her long hair blowing around wildly with each gust of wind. Clutching her dark grey coat around her, the princess drew level, though staying alongside obviously took more effort than she was comfortable with. Behind them, Rarity and Coloratura hung back slightly, enjoying a slightly more leisurely pace, though still hurrying by anyone's standards.
"What is it?" Rainbow asked Twilight, not slowing.
"Have..." Twilight started, panting slightly. "Have you thought about what you're going to say?"
"Nope."
"You should at least come up with a plan-"
"Don't need one. I'm just going to play it by ear."
"But, Rainbow-"
"Twilight, in all the years you've known me, when have I ever had a plan?" Rainbow asked over the wind. "I'll feel it out, like always."
"I really don't think that's a good idea."
"Deal with it, egghead."
The silence from Twilight spoke volumes. Rainbow could feel her worried glaring without even looking over.
"Alright, fine," she gave in, unable to take the silence any longer. "I started all this by not being honest about my feelings. I let it go on by lying to myself and to the rest of you. The only way I can finish it is if I just come clean with AJ." Out the corner of her eye, Rainbow saw Twilight nodding.
"That seems sensible, I guess," the princess agreed. "I'll be right behind you. We all will."
"Thanks, Twilight."
Twilight nodded and dropped back to Coloratura and Rarity, leaving Rainbow alone with her thoughts once again. Behind her, the sounds of the three of them discussing things drifted to her whenever the wind dropped, but no actual words. She didn't let it distract her. In fact, she picked up her pace slightly, eager to get to the farm. While Rainbow had no real reason to believe Applejack would even consider listening to her, the little flame of hope she'd had ever since her confession to Rarity pushed her onwards, filling her every step with determination.
Eventually, Rainbow arrived at the farm, the wind swishing through the abundant and bountiful apple trees that made the establishment famous, each one cared for as tenderly as the next and perfectly shaped to provide the highest yield. Even now, with yellows and browns veining the green foliage, the orchards were an impressive sight.
Hurrying through the gates into the main courtyard, Rainbow quickly scanned the area. Other than Big Mac, Applejack's big brother, hauling hay bales from the barn into a cart, she didn't see any activity. Having visited the farm on many occasions over the years, though, and during various seasons, she had a pretty good idea where Applejack herself was.
With a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure Twilight and the others knew which way she was heading, Rainbow set off towards the southern fields.
It was uphill all the way, the journey made all the more difficult by both the wind, and the ground itself, still soft from the rain the day before. Her trainers slipping on every fallen leaf, exposed root, and patch of mud, Rainbow struggled her way up the incline, occasionally grabbing a tree trunk or low-hanging branch for support. She chuckled to herself as she imagined what kind of a scene Rarity must be making behind her.
As she climbed, evidence began to slowly emerge that she wasn't alone. Boot prints in the mud, trampled grass, an empty canteen hanging on a branch, a streak of mud where someone had slipped, maybe even fallen...
Most importantly, however, was the fact that the giant baskets at the base of each tree, placed there to catch the fruit thrown by the pickers during the summer, were starting to appear in stacks.
With the wind hissing loudly through the trees, Rainbow looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of something between the tree trunks, a piece of Applejack's shirt, maybe, or her hair. Even movement would do, just something to give her a direction to head in. She was so wrapped up in her search, that she completely missed the sound of boots traipsing through the grass on her left.
Rainbow walked past the tree at the same time as Applejack did, her arms full with a stack of the picking baskets. The two collided heavily, Applejack knocking over the smaller woman and dropping the baskets in the process, sending them rolling every which way. The farmer cried out as she lost her balance, her hat falling from her head, and the woman herself ending up sprawled across the winded Rainbow Dash.
"What in tarnation?!" Applejack yelled, her voice carrying more surprise than anger. Turning to look at what she'd walked into, her eyes shot wide when she saw Rainbow's face.
"Uh, hi," Rainbow managed to croak out, struggling to catch her breath from the impact.
"Rainbow?!" Applejack's voice was incredulous. She practically shot to her feet, grabbing her hat and re-securing it in the process. "What in the hell are you doing all the way out here?"
"Looking for you," the racer said, reaching a hand up to her. After regarding it cautiously, as if Rainbow's hand might suddenly bite her, Applejack grabbed it and helped her up.
"Lookin' for me?" repeated the farm girl. She scoffed indignantly. "And just what makes you think I even wanna see you?"
"Because," Rainbow said, brushing herself off as best she could. She looked up at Applejack and grinned. "We're a friendship problem."
* * * * * * * *
Applejack stood dumbfounded. One minute she'd been minding her own business, the next, Rainbow Dash was stood in front of her spouting some nonsense about the map, and Rarity and Twilight being part of some big plan to reunite them.
Behind her, she heard someone else clambering up the hill. Turning, she felt her heart skip a beat as she found herself face to face with Twilight, somewhat out of breath from the climb.
"T-Twilight?" Applejack stammered. She noticed two others walking up behind the young princess, first Coloratura, then Rarity, the latter walking as daintily as she could manage, somehow avoiding the worst of the mud. Both of them stopped a short distance away.
"Rara? Rarity? What are y'all doing out here? Are you with Rainbow?"
"We are," Twilight answered after catching her breath. "And judging by how Rainbow was going a mile a minute when I got up here, I imagine you have some questions."
"Uh, you bet I do. What's all this about the map and me bein' a friendship problem?"
"Not you, us," interjected Rainbow. Applejack scowled at her.
"There ain't no "us", anymore, remember?" she retorted, venomously. The sportswoman recoiled slightly, but didn't offer a comeback.
"Easy, Applejack," said Twilight, placatingly. "Rainbow's here to try to make amends."
"That's gonna take some doin'," the farmer deadpanned. In truth, though, her heart suddenly leapt. To her left, Rainbow hung her head slightly.
"I know," Twilight acknowledged, nodding. "But first, let me answer a few of those questions of yours."
Applejack listened as Twilight told her first about the map, then the plan she and Rarity had concocted to try and get her and Rainbow Dash back together. She talked about how they'd included Coloratura, and about how they'd spent the last six months with nothing to show for it except new bedmates, until Rarity had made a breakthrough with Rainbow.
The more Twilight spoke, the more things started to make sense to Applejack. All the questions from her and Coloratura, all the offers to talk, to get things off her chest, they'd all been part of this plan to get her and Rainbow back together. She was so astounded that Twilight had come up with this, and kept it hidden for so long, she couldn't find room in her heart to be mad at her.
"And now we're here, you know everything," Twilight finished, brushing her hair back from her face with a hand. It took Applejack a moment to process everything, slightly overwhelmed by the scope of it all. To think this had all been going on right under her nose, and Rainbow's as well, without either of them knowing... It made her wonder if Twilight had any other secrets she didn't know about.
"Twilight, I..." Applejack began, unsure where to even begin. "Why didn't you just tell me and Rainbow from the start?"
"I... I was afraid if I said anything, it would somehow make things worse. I didn't want to completely destroy any chance of you two getting back together."
"Why are y'all so keen on us being together, anyway?" Applejack demanded to know. "People break up all the time, what makes us so special?"
"You're our friends, we care about you," Twilight responded, simply. A lighthearted smirk played across her features. "Besides... Honesty and loyalty together? Can you think of a better couple?"
Applejack looked over at Rainbow, who had gone to lean against a nearby tree during Twilight's monologue. She was watching the pair of them with a strange mix of hope and repentance painted on her face.
"Twilight, I don't know if we can make it work again," the farm girl said with a sigh. She turned back to the former librarian. "I know I told you I want me and Rainbow to be friends again, but what happened was... bad. You really think it could work?" Twilight just shrugged.
"I don't know," she said. "I hope so. What have you got to lose, after all? At worst, things go right back to the way they are now, at best..." She left the sentence unfinished, the implication clear.
Applejack hesitated, still unsure. Rainbow had been absolutely horrible to her, both in words and action. How could she forgive that? Could she forgive it at all? Enough to be friends again, maybe, but lovers? Girlfriends? The way they used to be? She didn't know. Apparently sensing her hesitation, Twilight spoke again.
"At least try," she urged. "For both your sakes."
Looking once more at Rainbow, Applejack chewed her lip uncertainly. She thought about all the good times they'd shared in the past, the rivalry, the jokes, the little glances they'd give one another when no-one was looking... She realised now how much she'd missed all that. Finally, she nodded.
"Alright," she said shakily. "Tryin' I can do." As she turned to go, a thought crossed her mind, stopping her.
"Shit, Twilight, I almost forgot... I owe you an apology for the other night. What I said to you weren't right, you were just tryin' to help. I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologise, AJ, I'm the one who screwed up," Twilight replied with a shake of her head. "I made a complete mess of all this. Never mind that now, though, just go talk to Rainbow Dash."
"Yeah, okay. And thanks, Twilight, even if this don't turn out as you hoped."
"You're welcome. I'll take the others down the hill, this isn't a conversation you should have with an audience."
With that, Twilight turned and started down the hill, taking Coloratura and Rarity with her, the latter audibly complaining about the conditions as she did so. Applejack watched them until the wind swallowed Rarity's gripes, though the drama-inclined dressmaker still somehow managed to make a show out of walking down the slope.
Once all three women were definitely out of earshot, the cowgirl turned towards Rainbow and headed over to her.
* * * * * * * *
Applejack glanced up at Rainbow for what felt like the hundredth time, only to see Rainbow doing the exact same thing. The two had been stood for a few minutes in uncomfortable silence, trading looks but neither one offering up any conversation. If she was being honest, Applejack wasn't even sure where to begin. How did you even start a conversation like this?
"So..." Rainbow said all of a sudden, prompting her to look up once more. Those magenta eyes were watching her tentatively, but couldn't completely hide the hopeful expectation behind them.
"So," Applejack replied, simply echoing the statement for engagement's sake.
Another moment of silence. The wind blasted between the trees, trying to yank the blonde woman's hat off her head. She reseated it with a firm tug.
"Do you want to talk first?" asked Rainbow, almostly timidly. "Or should I?"
"Ain't you done enough talking the last few months?" Applejack snapped. She regretted it the moment she said it, but she couldn't take it back now. Rainbow at least had the good grace to look apologetic.
"Sorry," she said, dropping her gaze to the ground.
"Sorry?" Applejack asked, incredulous. "Six months of you bad-mouthin' me and callin' me every name under the sun, and you're sorry?!" Still not looking at her, Rainbow nodded.
"Yes," was all she managed to get out.
"Oh, well then, that's alright," said the farmer, sarcasm dripping off of every word like oil. "All's forgiven, sugarcube, because the great Rainbow Dash is sorry! Do you have any idea what you put me through the past six months?! Do you?!"
Unable to stop herself, Applejack's voice had risen to a shout. Every minute of emotional anguish since they'd broken up was now crashing into her, full force. Tears were already running down her face, flowing so fast they barely blocked her vision. Somehow, she forced herself to lower her voice again, though her tone remained tense.
"People look at me funny in town, now. They whisper behind my back. I get turned away from, refused service, and called names." She pointed an accusatory finger. "All because they overheard you spreadin' some bullshit somewhere!"
Wiping at her eyes, Applejack took a second to compose herself before carrying on.
"I had to sit and listen as people I thought were my friends repeated the things you'd said. The names you'd called me. How I was the one to blame for everythin' that went wrong between us. Do-" Her breath caught and she cleared her throat. "Do you have any idea how humiliatin' that was?!"
Looking up, Rainbow appeared to be about to say something, but kept her peace. Applejack continued, tears still continuing to stream.
"But do you know what the worst part is?" she asked, her voice cracking. "I don't even know why. The woman I loved suddenly hated me, and I couldn't even figure out why she'd flip like that." A single, unbidden sob escaped her. "You were my everythin', Rainbow, and you destroyed me!"
The first sob paved the way for others, and soon they followed. Applejack turned away and furiously wiped the tears from her face, not wanting to give Rainbow the satisfaction of seeing her break down. Behind her, the racer finally spoke up, her voice small.
"Applejack, I don't hate you, I never did." The farmer rounded on her, forcing the smaller woman back against the tree, towering over her.
"Then why?!" she yelled, caught between fury and torment. "Why would you do all that to me?!"
"I don't know!" Rainbow wailed, her own tears making an appearance. "I just felt so angry! At you! At Coloratura! And after I hit you, it just seemed easier to stick with what I made up than to confront how I felt!"
"But why do any of it?!"
"I was scared! I didn't want to lose you!"
Of all the things the rainbow-haired woman could have said, that was not the one Applejack had expected.
"Lose me?" she asked, suddenly bewildered. "Lose me how?"
"To... To Coloratura."
"Rainbow, what in the hell are you talking about?" Applejack asked sharply, genuinely confused. Looking thoroughly miserable, the sportswoman answered her.
"After you two left that party, the night we were supposed to all sleep together... I got scared. I started worrying that Coloratura was better than me, that you'd start liking her over me, that... that you'd leave me for her."
"What?!" Shocked, Applejack took a step back. "Why?"
"Uh, hello! You wanted to sleep with her!"
"Rainbow, I wanted to fuck her! With you! Not spend my life with her!"
Immediately, she slapped her hand over her mouth, but the words had already been said. Even the wind couldn't snatch them back. She watched as Rainbow's eyes slowly widened, her jaw dropping at the same time.
"Spend... your life?" she said in a near whisper.
"Rainbow, I- that's not- I didn't mean-" Applejack stammered, trying to come up with an excuse. She hadn't meant to let that slip, her emotions getting the better of her. That was something she'd kept bottled inside for nearly a year, waiting for the right moment, a moment that felt like it had disappeared forever during the last few months. It was a large source of the pain she'd felt in that time.
"AJ, were you going to propose to me?"
The question was neither yelled nor whispered, nor did it carry any disbelief or conviction. It simply existed.
Applejack had always been a terrible liar. No matter the subject or the stakes, she just couldn't get the knack of the thing that so many people took for granted. Knowing that even her best lie would be instantly laid bare, she simply accepted defeat.
"I... was thinkin' about it," she admitted, unable to look Rainbow in the eye entirely. She fiddled with a button on her work jacket. "I was waitin' for the right time."
"I see," Rainbow said simply. She slowly slid down the trunk of the tree, ending up sat on the ground between two large roots, her knees raised up near her chest. Her expression was distant, as if she was looking far into the future... or the past.
"I really fucked things up bad, didn't I?" she asked after a minute.
"Yeah, you did," Applejack replied, sniffing. She dried her tears and sat down next to Rainbow. "But we're both here now, so I guess that means somethin'. Hell if I know what, though."
The pair sat in silence once more, the wind once again filling the gap between them, though perhaps not quite as blustery as it had been earlier in the day.
Applejack sighed and leaned back against the tree. She had no idea what to do next. Her mind whirled and her head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton. Normally, she'd go for a walk to clear her head, but that wasn't really an option here. Reaching up, she took her hat off, flipped it over and pulled out the necklace of Rainbow's cutie mark.
Made of some metal she couldn't remember the name of, the necklace was painted with the same colours as the real thing, both sides sharing the bright colouration. The craftsmanship was superb, the details replicated exactly, even at a quarter scale to the actual mark; clearly the work of a master jeweler. Placing her hat back on her head, Applejack allowed the delicate chain to slip from where it was wrapped around the charm. It clinked faintly as it hit its limit.
As she sat there staring at it, slowly rubbing her thumb back and forth over the shiny surface, she heard Rainbow utter a small noise.
"You still have that?" the athlete asked, sounding surprised. Applejack just nodded.
"Couldn't bear to throw it away, even after what you did. The first few weeks, I cried myself to sleep holdin' it. Plus it helps me think." She regarded the necklace a bit longer, wondering if she should tell Rainbow the real reason she kept it. She doubted a better time would come.
"I also kept it, 'cos I think, deep down, a part of me hoped that you'd come back... and we'd be together again." Next to her, she heard a shaky intake of breath from Rainbow.
"Applejack..." she started, clearly struggling to keep her voice level. "W-What are you saying?"
"I'm sayin'," she said, looking over at Rainbow, whose face was streaked with fresh tears. "That I think a small part of me never stopped lovin' you."
That seemed to tip Rainbow over the edge, her expression crumbling into one of pure grief. She hid her face against her knees and wept loudly. Applejack's breath came in unsteady hitches, though her eyes remained dry, her tears apparently having dried up for the moment.
"What have I done?!" Rainbow wailed next to her, rocking back and forth slightly. "All you ever did was love me, and I shit all over it!" Applejack remained silent, letting her get it out of her system. Like her own venting a few minutes ago, this was something the other woman needed to do.
"I'm so sorry, Applejack!" Rainbow continued between sobs, her head still down, voice slightly muffled by her legs. "For everything! All the shit I said about you... what I did to you... everything I put you through... it was all so fucking dumb!"
"Ayup, that's one way of puttin' it," Applejack agreed, though her words contained no malice. In truth, she'd never wished any on Rainbow, even at her angriest. She just wanted this whole situation to be over, for better or worse.
Rainbow looked up at her, sniffling, her eyes puffy and reddened. A small note of sympathy sounded inside of Applejack at seeing her like that, but she made no move to act on it.
"I... ruined it all." Rainbow spoke quietly, atypical of her usual self. "I blamed you all this time, because I convinced myself that I was the victim, somehow. That you should have been loyal, like me, instead of running off to sleep with some other chick." She scoffed, swiping at the tears on her cheeks.
"But the truth is... I wanted that threesome with Rara as much as you did."
"So why did you go off on me, then?" Applejack asked, careful to keep her tone as neutral as possible.
"I told you," replied Rainbow. "I got scared that I was losing you to her. I'd seen how close you two were getting after she arrived in town. The day after the party, I spent all day hiding from my feelings, not dealing with them. Then, when you found me in the field, I just... saw red." She leaned back against the tree, staring up into the leaves.
"All I felt was anger, but I wasn't really angry at you... at least, I know that now. I was angry at myself for not chasing after you and telling you how I felt."
The wind blew another gust, stirring the leaves above them. Rainbow turned her gaze from the canopy above down to Applejack, looking her right in the eyes.
"I know it's no excuse," the racer said earnestly, tears still coursing down her face. "There isn't one for what I did. But I want you know how sorry I am for all of it. I just don't want things to continue like this anymore. Please, Applejack... can you forgive me?"
Applejack stared deep into Rainbow's cerise eyes. Whilst she herself was terrible at lying, she had a significant amount of pride in being able to pick up on the untruths of others. There was always some tick, some mannerism, some flicker behind the eyes, that gave them away. Rainbow Dash had nothing. Everything she'd just said was the absolute truth.
With a trembling hand, Applejack reached out to Rainbow and pulled her into a tight embrace, wrapping both arms around her. A second later, the smaller woman returned the hug, nestling into the crook of her neck. Tears stung Applejack's eyes for the second time that day, but didn't fall.
"It ain't gonna be easy," she murmured in Rainbow's ear. "And it ain't gonna happen quick, but I reckon I can. Eventually." She felt Rainbow nod against her, whether in relief or acceptance of her judgement, she couldn't tell.
It wasn't until she was this close to Rainbow that Applejack realised how much she'd missed her. The wiry strength of her arms, the soft tickle of her hair, the smell of her skin mixed with that awful jacket she wore... She closed her eyes, feeling the tears spill down her freckled cheeks again.
Applejack held onto Rainbow for a few minutes longer, the two of them crying softly into each other's shoulders. Eventually, though, the farmer forced herself away, breaking Rainbow's grip on her. Both of them took a moment to dry their eyes before simply sitting and staring at each other.
The wind had calmed during all this, now barely a whisper in the leaves over their heads, though the clouds remained. Noticing Rainbow's gaze falling, Applejack followed it down to her lap, where she still clutched the necklace of Rainbow's cutie mark in her hand. Looking back at her curiously, she watched as the sportswoman reached into a pocket on her jacket and pulled something out.
There, laying in her palm with the same delicate chain pooled next to it, was a necklace of the exact same size and quality as the one Applejack herself held. Only instead of the cloud and multi-coloured lighting bolt of Rainbow's cutie mark, it was the same three red apples that adorned the back of Applejack's right hand. A small smile spread across her lips at the sight of the piece of jewellery.
"You kept yours, too," she said, unable to keep a glimmer of happiness from her voice. The necklaces had been gifts near the beginning of their relationship, just a way of showing how much they meant to each other. Applejack had been certain the impulsive Rainbow would have thrown hers away, and seeing the three pieces of metal joined by their stiff links sent joy into her heart, despite the last half a year.
"Yeah," Rainbow replied, her voice slightly hoarse from crying. She cleared her throat. "I didn't really know why at the time, but I guess I do now."
"I guess you didn't stop havin' feelings for me, neither."
"If you'd asked me before the other night, I would've denied it, but now... yeah. I guess I didn't stop loving you. I... I still do."
Applejack rejoiced at those words, although she didn't let it show. Instead, she merely nodded, looking away out over the orchard for a moment. She knew Rainbow was telling the truth, or at least that she believed she was, but she'd be a damn fool if she just jumped back into a relationship with her, no questions asked. When she turned back and spoke again, her tone was serious.
"Rainbow, I know what our friends want for us, and I'm guessin' that's what you want, too... But you hurt me. Badly. What you did... Land's sakes, Rainbow, you hit me!"
"I- I know," Rainbow stammered. "Really, AJ, I'm so sor-"
"Stop," Applejack told her, holding up a hand. She lowered it again once she was sure Rainbow wouldn't interrupt. "Let's not go down that road again. I know you're sorry. I'm sorry, too. I probably should've paid a little more attention to your feelings, instead of tryin' to get in Rara's pants. But that don't mean I'm just gonna jump back into things with you like nothin' happened." Although Rainbow's expression was unhappy, she nodded once again.
"I understand," she said. "So what do you wanna do?"
Applejack sighed. Part of her just wanted things to go back to the way they were. The rest of her knew that was childish and unrealistic, but if her friends thought there was a chance for the both of them to be happy again, and Rainbow wanted it too, then she was willing to try. However, it was going to be on her terms.
"I want..." she started, looking Rainbow in the eye once more. "I want to know I can trust you again. I want you to promise me that, from now on, you're not gonna let your feelings get the better of you. That if you ever feel the way you did again, you'll come talk to me, or one of our friends. And I want you to promise that you'll never, ever lay your hands on me again, or so help me Celestia, me and you will be done. Forever."
As Applejack watched Rainbow, she saw a mixture of sudden understanding, hope and relief fight a brief war on the athlete's face. The three emotions quickly reached a truce, and settled on contrition. For what seemed to Applejack like the hundredth time that day, Rainbow nodded again, this time much more eagerly than before.
"Absolutely, yes!" she exclaimed. "It'll never happen again, I promise! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"
Applejack hadn't asked for the Pinkie promise, and the sudden absurdity of the oath nearly made her burst out laughing, but the fact that Rainbow had done it without being prompted was proof she was utterly serious about making amends.
"Ya'll didn't need to go that far," Applejack said, smiling. "But I appreciate it."
Rainbow looked away slightly, a somewhat embarrassed expression on her face, though a smile of her own graced her features. Applejack reached out with the hand that held her necklace, taking hold of the one Rainbow held her own pendant in. The two pieces of metal clinked and scraped together as she intertwined her fingers with those of Rainbow, who met her eyes once more with a look filled with both hope and joy. Although she still smiled, Applejack remained serious as she spoke again.
"I wanna make it clear that although I'm givin' you a second chance, this ain't gonna be an overnight thing," she said. "We ain't just gonna be jumping back to how things were before. I'll need some time, understand?"
"Yeah, I get it," Rainbow acknowledged, squeezing her hand. "I'm going to have to earn you and your trust back if we're going to be together again. We... are back together, right?"
Applejack contemplated the question. If they were taking things one step at a time, from a point where they were basically starting over, and weren't really doing any of the things that a couple would normally do, could they really be considered a couple? Would they really be girlfriends again?
Just then, a memory surfaced of a letter sent to her by Princess Cadance. A letter sent in response to her questions about entering into a relationship with Rainbow Dash, and how she should go about it. One particular passage had stuck with her.
'The important thing to remember is that the only stipulation for a couple being a couple, is that they consider themselves one. Whether they're having sex several times a day, or simply holding hands every Sunday, their interpretation of what it means to be together is the only one that matters.'
Remembering that quote made Applejack smile briefly once more. It had given her the confidence to move forward then, and it did the same now. Thanks to Cadance, she knew just what to say.
"Would y'all feel like we were together, even if we do things at my speed?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow at Rainbow. Barely missing a beat, her companion answered positively.
"Yeah, I don't want to push my luck," she said. "I'll move at whatever pace you're comfortable with. You want me to give you space, I'll give it to you. You say screw me, I'll ask when and where."
"I think it'll be awhile before I ask you to do that," Applejack said, more than a hint of reproach in her voice. "But otherwise, I think we've got ourselves an arrangement." Standing up, she kept hold of Rainbow's hand and pulled her up with her.
"Now, what's say we go give the others the good news?"
"Absolutely!" Rainbow replied, beaming.
Hand in hand, the two women started off down the hill. As they stepped out from under the tree, a small parting in the clouds appeared and Celestia's sun shone down over the orchard, finally lending some warmth to the cold autumn day and reflecting the feeling of hope in Applejack's heart.
* * * * * * * *
"Why darlings, that's wonderful news! I'm so happy for you!"
Twilight and Coloratura stood holding hands under one of the apple trees, watching as Rarity gushed at the news they'd just delivered. Both were smiling broadly, mostly at their friend's exuberance, but also partly at finally having shared the secret they'd kept for several months.
"Obviously we want to keep it quiet for now, so the press don't hear about it," Twilight said. "But we thought it wouldn't hurt to start telling our friends and family now, while we still can." She looked over at Coloratura and kissed her firmly, but lovingly, on the lips.
"Plus, now we can do that around our friends, and not have to worry," she added, grinning slyly at her girlfriend.
Coloratura, for her part, just grinned back. She was glad that they were finally revealing their relationship, but she also couldn't wait to embarrass Twilight in a whole bunch of new ways around her friends. Of course, she'd get told off for her troubles, but the extremely aroused lover she'd get at the end of the day would make it all worth it.
Rarity was practically dancing on the spot, loving every second of what she'd just been told. She'd had her suspicions about the pair for awhile, but to finally have them confirmed... and to be the first to know! It was almost too much for the elegant woman, who could barely maintain her composure.
"Sooooo..." she began in a leading tone, clasping her hands together. "When should I start designing wedding dresses?"
"Rarity!" Twilight cried, her face flushing. Sometimes her friend could be a little too imaginative. "We've barely been together a few months!" She heard Coloratura chuckling by her side.
"I know, darling," Rarity said, somewhat apologetically. "But you two are so adorable together! I can't help but-" She stopped dead as a flash of light caught her eye. A flash of light from her hand. Turning it over so she could see her cutie mark, she gasped when she saw the three diamonds glowing.
"Twilight!" she squealed. "Do you-"
"I see it! Mine's doing it, too!" Twilight held her hand out, the stars that formed her own mark glowing brightly with the same magical light as Rarity's. After six months of hard work, worry, upset, emotional turmoil and several sleepless nights... they'd finally done it.
With a whoop and a cheer, both women ran to each other and embraced, laughing and jumping on the spot in celebration. Coloratura looked on in amusement, arms folded, as the pair divested themselves of half a year's worth of stress. After a minute of this, Twilight and Rarity parted, both out of breath, but beaming from ear to ear.
"It's finally over!" Twilight exclaimed, panting slightly. "We did it!"
"Y'all did what, now?" asked a familiar voice. Turning, all three women saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash coming towards them, picking their way down the final part of the hill. Most importantly, they were doing it while holding hands.
By way of answering Applejack's question, both Rarity and Twilight held up the backs of their hands to her. The glowing had already stopped, but simply seeing their cutie marks was enough for the farmer to understand. She raised her own hand, and Rainbow's with it, in acknowledgement.
"I see you had similar results," Coloratura remarked, indicating the pair's joined hands. While she'd been pissed at Rainbow for what she'd done, and still was if she was being honest, it was nice to see the pair apparently together again. And if Applejack was willing to give the girl a second chance, then the singer supposed she could as well.
"Yeah," Applejack replied, looking over at her. "We've agreed to give it another go, so long as Rainbow here keeps to a couple of conditions. No more outbursts, no more hidin' her feelings, and no goin' faster than I'm comfortable with. She's got a lot of trust to earn back." She looked over at Rainbow earnestly, who just nodded, shamefaced.
"I know," Rainbow said. She looked around the group, meeting each one of their eyes in turn. "I screwed up bad. I lied to all of you in some way, and I'm sorry. I'm not going to make the same mistakes again, and I'll do better from now on. I promise."
Each of the women murmured their recognition, accepting Rainbow's apology and her promise. Even Coloratura, much to the racer's surprise, who she'd thought would be the hardest sell of them all. Instead, she just nodded and told her that her apology was accepted.
Ultimately, though, and despite being incredibly lucky in getting it, the only thing Rainbow really cared about was that Applejack had given her a second chance. Even if everyone else had shunned her after all this, so long as she had her blonde angel by her side, nothing anyone else said or did mattered. Looking over at Applejack, she gave her hand another squeeze, the farmer returning it in kind.
"This is great news, you two, really," Twilight said, utterly delighted. "And if you need anything, you just have to ask. We'll all be here for you both." Inside the princess, pride, joy and satisfaction all vied for position. For her, seeing the two women holding hands once more was like getting a thousand-page thesis validated.
"Absolutely," agreed Rarity, feelings much the same as Twilight's filling her up inside. "But perhaps we could be supportive in someplace a bit less muddy? As it is, I'm going to have to spend an hour cleaning these boots when I get home." As if to emphasise, she lifted a foot, showing off a white boot caked in mud.
"Why don't y'all head on inside?" Applejack suggested, rolling her eyes at Rarity. "It's nearly dinner time, anyway. I'll make sure you all eat before you go home."
With more murmurs of assent, the group started towards the house. Twilight, Rarity and Coloratura walked up front, talking excitedly among themselves, though about what, neither Rainbow nor Applejack particularly cared. They stayed back slightly, walking slowly with their own thoughts, their hands never separating. It was only when she felt another squeeze from Rainbow that Applejack looked over.
"I meant every word I said back there," the rainbow haired girl said, looking at her sincerely. "I promise I'll do better from now on."
"I know," Applejack replied, smiling gently. "But we've been through all that. Now ain't the time for apologies or promises anymore, now's the time for healin'."
Stopping, she waited for the others to get slightly more ahead of them. Once she was sure they weren't going to turn around, she leaned in and, against her better judgement, laid a soft kiss on Rainbow's lips. It was a brief one, gone before the other woman could return it, but it carried with it a huge weight for both of them.
"Don't get used to that," Applejack said, holding up a finger and giving Rainbow a stern look. "That's only to show my appreciation for what you've said. Now come on, before the others wonder what we're doin'." Elated and grinning from ear to ear, Rainbow nodded eagerly.
"Yes, ma'am!" she said gleefully.
With that, the two of them set off after their friends. Once more, the sun found a parting in the clouds, this time much bigger than before, bathing the farm and much of the surrounding orchards in golden light.
It warmed the five women who walked the path back to farm, but none more so than the two at the back. The two who, while knowing they had a long road ahead, also looked forward to that journey for its ultimate goal. For while both would tread it separately, their friends would make sure they would never truly be alone. End |
Why Not? | pre | "What, I don't have all day."
"You can talk?!" she asked excitedly.
"No, your just crazy and imagining that I'm actually speaking, of course I can talk."
She slightly flinched at his retort but quickly shook it off, "What are you?"
'Lets have some fun at her expense,' he thought wickedly.
"I'm a Demon from the 12th realm of pain," he said so calmly.
''She went slack jawed at the answer and looked at one of her friends, a tanned orange mare with a blond mane topped with a old stetson. "Is he telling the truth Applejack?"
The one called Applejack eyed Jordan carefully, "Ah can't tell Twi, it feels like a lie but ah ain't sure."
"Are you telling the truth or what bub?!" yelled the rainbow maned mare.
"Temper temper, ask nicely."
Her face turned red and she snorted. She looked about ready to charge him, but was stopped by the lavender mare. "Twilight, let me at him, I'll cream him in 10 seconds flat!"
Twilight just gave her friend a pleading look. The rainbow maned mare calmed down slightly.
Twilight then looked at Jordan and asked, "Can you please tell me who you are and how you beat a Hydra?"
"Hmm see that wasn't so hard. To answer your first question, I am a Human."
Twilight immediately pulled out a small notebook and used her magic to scribble eagerly. She looked up at him when he didn't continue on. Before she could ask something else, she was abruptly interrupted. Behind Jordan, the Hydra burst out of the swamp, hissing angrily. The mares immediately backed up, the orange one carrying her still unconscious friend. Jordan casually turned around and spoke before the Hydra could attack, "I have a proposition."
The Hydra tilted their heads in confusion, "What?" asked one of the heads.
"I want your help."
"Why?"
"Lets just say very soon, I'm going to need your help."
"Whats in it for us?," one of the heads hissed.
"How about a bigger swamp?"
The Heads began to converse with each other, casting glances at Jordan every now and then. "Very well, we will help you but only if you make our swamp bigger. But how did you know that's we wanted?"
"Bigger swamp means bigger ecosystem, which means more food for you. Your swamp is small which makes you have to hunt further out. This benefits both of us."
"I see, well thank you," the Hydra slowly sank back into the swamp.
"Now that that's done, I believe you had questions?" Jordan asked the stunned and shocked Ponies.
"You can talk to animals!?" Twilight yelled with glee.
"Yes," 'No use denying that.'
"Do you have other powers or know any other magic?"
"Not gonna tell."
"Why not?"
Jordan smiled, "Everybody needs secrets."
"Its Everypony," Twilight corrected.
Jordan shook his head, "No, for you it might be but I am not a pony."
"Well that aside, I need you to come with us."
Jordan tilted his head, was she serious. Before he could answer, Sil and the Pack returned with Razlif. Jordan quickly made his way towards them, ignoring the mares gasp..again. He took Razlif and carefully set him down. He began to inspect his wounds and found something that stopped him. A bandage, a bandage made from a shirt that Jordan happened to be wearing. 'It was that Cockatrice huh, poor guy.'
Jordan immediately set to healing all his wounds. He was getting better at controlling his powers and for that he was thankful. Razlif's breathing slowly returned to normal and all his wounds had been healed. With him taken care of he turned back to the Ponies.
They were slack jawed..again.
"I won't go with you, I don't have time to play around. I have lives to save and Allies to gain."
Twilight tilted her head in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Simply there is going to be a war. I have been chosen to gather an army and lead them in battle."
The mares were silent, that was to be expected. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Hmm so you want to help, you can first alert your current leader of the situation. I will be honest, there will be deaths."
Twilight nodded grimly, she had to do something. "Could you meet with our Princesses?"
Jordan rubbed his chin thoughtfully, ''Sure, tomorrow will due. We'll meet here." Jordan looked at the Sun, he guessed it was around 4. He looked at Twilight, I'm sorry but I need to go, I'm burning daylight."
Twilight nodded in understanding, "Just be here tomorrow."
Jordan smirked, "We'll see."
Jordan picked up the Cockatrice and began walking towards the Nest. The Wolves followed loyally, watching his back. 5 pairs of eyes watched them leave. Twilight was the first to break the silence, "Well girls, what do you think?"
"I think I need to go take another nap."
''Rainbow Dash, be serious, there's a war that's about to happen."
"I know I know, lay off will ya, its just a lot to take in," Rainbow Dash defended.
"Well ah reckon he was telling the truth."
"What do you think Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked her usually bubbly friend.
"I wonder if he likes parties," she giggled while hopping in place.
"His attire is quite interesting and that bag on his back was quite peculiar darling."
"Well what do we do now sugarcube?"
Twilight looked at her friends, "We inform the Princesses and hope the Elements of Harmony can help us. Come on girls, we have work to do."
The 5 friends left the forest, Applejack carried poor Fluttershy to her cottage. Elsewhere, Jordan continued on with Razlif on his back. He now had the Cockatrices on his side, but he knew he needed more allies. He looked at Sil, but shook his head. He'd worry about that tomorrow, right now he had to get his cargo home safely. Today wasn't so bad, he got a Hydra to join him as well. Just a few more species to go, then maybe they might stand a chance. |
Why Not? | A Meeting Of Sorts | Twilight was giddy with excitement, she had finally met the Human that the CMC mentioned. His attitude was a tad bit rude and his attire strange. She stopped, his attire was strange. He wore clothing and seemed like any other colt. But any other stallion wouldn't be covered in blood and nor would they be able to fight a Hydra. They also wouldn't have a pack of Timber Wolves following them. 'He's definitely a weird one,' she thought idly.
She was currently in the Library going over her conversation, " I Don't Have Time To Play. I Have Lives To Save and Allies To Gain."
That reminded her, she needed to send a letter to the Princesses. She called out loudly, "Spike, where are you?" The sound of claws on wood could be heard. "Yes Twilight?" Spike asked as he found Twilight in the living room hunched over books on mythical creatures. Apparently Twilight and the Girls had met some weird creature in the Everfree Forest.
"I need you to take a letter please."
"Sure thing Twilight," Spike replied as he gathered a quill, some parchment, and an inkwell. "Ready when you are."
"Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, I am writing to you about the situation regarding the Human. It seems that something big is going to happen, well actually already happening. There seems to be a force intent on going to war with all of the lands. Jordan, the Human, is gathering his own army to fight them. When asked why, he said he was Chosen. As for Jordan's appearance, he seems to wear clothing and has a somewhat short mane. He is bipedal and a most notable quality would be what looks like a Cutiemark on the top of his hand. It appears to be a Tree of some kind with roots extending from the bottom. I can't explain why but that mark seems quite special. He has requested an audience with the two of you and wants to meet in the Everfree. Please reply as soon as possible Princesses, your faithful subject and friend, Twilight."
Spike finished with a quick flourish and rolled up the parchment. With a gentle breath of magical fire the Letter was sent to Canterlot, to the Princesses.
Currently seated on the throne was a certain Alicorn. She was currently in the middle of listening to the requests of the citizens of Canterlot. A stallion with a brown coat and short mane with a gold coin for a Cutiemark. "Your Highness, I ask that you would let me demolish the park next to Doughnut Joes."
Celestia tilted her head, "Why would you want to demolish such a nice little park?"
The stallion cleared his throat, "As you know your Highness, My name is Quick Bit and I deal in creating Super Stores. The park just happens to be in a perfect spot to open another of my stores."
Celestia sighed inwardly, 'These Nobles never learn do they?' "My answer is no, the park happens to be my favorite and I shall not deprive the foals of such a wonderful park."
Before Quick Bit could protest and make up some miserable attempt at an argument, Celestia signaled her guards to 'Escort' Quick Bit out of the throne room. They quickly 'Escorted' him, leaving Celestia alone in the throne room. Her thoughts quickly shifted towards Twilight's letter from yesterday. Apparently there was some new creature in the Everfree Forest and it had saved three foals. Since it didn't seem to be too much of a threat Celestia left it to Twilight her friends. She looked out from a nearby window and saw her sun slowly beginning to set. It was nearly time for Celestia to bring down her Sun and for her sister Luna to raise the Moon. As her thoughts turned to her younger sister, the large double doors that her guards had so kindly 'Escorted' a certain noble, opened. A tall mare with a Deep blue mane with what appeared to be tiny sparkling stars shining within the confines of it. Her mane was slightly that of two colors but only slightly due to the outer ends being a subtle purple. Her coat was a Dark almost navy blue with a picture of a dark splotch and a crescent moon in the center on her flanks.
"We hath come to relieve thou of thy duties sister!" The blue mare exclaimed loudly as she made her towards Celestia. "Luna, inside voice please," Celestia said in a gentle voice. Luna blushed and coughed into a silver hoof guard, "Ahem forgive me sister, We sometimes forget about fair Fluttershy's lessons."
Celestia smiled at her sister and brought her into a loving hug. "Its alright Lulu, its kinda cute when you do that," she teased and mushed her little sister cheeks with a gold hoof guard.
A whooshing noise and flash of green interrupted them. A roll of parchment marked to both Princesses was currently laying on the ground in front of the two sisters. They looked down at it with curiosity. Celestia carefully lifted with her magic and unrolled it. The two Sisters read silently, that is till Luna spoke, "Tia, pray tell, what is a Human?" She looked curiously at her elder sister. Celestia answered truthfully, "I have no idea whatsoever." They read further on and their eye's rested on one word, a word that had not been used for a long time.
Celestia released the letter and let it fall to the floor, she stared at it. She was tempted to banish it to the Sun, very tempted. War, a word that the citizens of Equestria knew but did not understand. She was ashamed to say that not even her Royal Guard could count as a military. They were more of a police force if anything. War was soon to be upon her beloved country and well loved subjects. She looked at the stained glasses that adorned the Throne room, her loyal subjects feats and accomplishments.
"Tia..," Celestia looked up at Luna, she was holding the scroll in her magical grasp. She was reading more, where they had left off. "It seems this Human is here to help us fight. It even seems that the Human hath requested our presence in the Everfree Forest. We believe that we should see what this Human has to say."
Celestia nodded, Luna took her sister into a warm embrace, "All shall be well, Tia." They embraced in silence, "Now, we belive that thou has a sun to lower and sleep to get to." Luna nuzzled her softly and took a few steps back as Celestia nodded and made her way towards a balcony behind the Throne. She closed her eyes and lowered head. Her horn began to glow a soft gold and she slowly began to raise it, the glow intensifying. The sun, began to noticeably began to lower itself. With a mighty flash the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. Luna joined her sister on the balcony and repeated the steps as her sister did, except her horn radiated a soft yet dark blue hue. The moon began to gracefully rise from behind the horizon from which the sun had retreated past.
Luna looked at her beautiful sky, her night sky. The moon was at first the only one in the dark sky but slowly yet surely, stars began to ease themselves into existence. Some appeared to be random while others made constellations to amaze stargazers and perhaps a sailor or two. The night sky was Luna's canvas to do what she pleased, not even the chance of war could even hope to have a chance of ruining this for her. She looked at her older sister and smiled, "Come dear Tia, we shall accompany thou to dinner/breakfast."
Celestia smiled at her sister, her loved sister, "That sounds like a wonderful idea, Lulu." Luna grinned mischievously and said, "As long as thou does not decide to gorge thy self with cake again, thy waist seems slightly bigger." Luna took off with "Eek" towards the kitchen as Celestia galloped after her sister yelling "My waist line is just fine!"
Jordan wiped the blood off of the wounded Cockatrice's bleeding wing. Poor guy had it rough, real rough. He focused the nature magic around him and used it to heal Razlif's injuries. The guy was knocked out and twitching every now and then in his sleep. Jordan looked around at his surrounding, they were currently camping in a small clearing. A fire was going and his Pack was out hunting. A pile of berries sat next to him, he was currently snacking on a few. After a while, Jordan reached into his pocket and brought out his cracked phone. He turned on the screen and looked at the time. 7:45, he didn't bother to look at the date, he didn't need to. Dates and days held no importance to him in this world. In the morning he would take Razlif to his grandfather and then wait for the "Princesses" arrival. 'I swear to all that is unholy that if they're snobs or act like they're better, I'm so going to throw them in the swamp.'
He put his phone away and pulled out his knife. He ran his finger along the edge while looking up at the starry sky. 'What am I supposed to do after all this? I guess I could go exploring and claim lands in my name, ha Jordan, King of the Forests. Interesting, but that is, if I survive and make it out alive.' It was funny in a way, here he was, a 16 year old in highschool who dreamed of being a writer, whisked away from his world and practically forced to take part in a war. The act of killing would make some people sick, but other would try to justify it. Jordan on the other hand, had no excuses, excuses are the nails that build the house of failure. His World History teacher told him that, damn good advice. Yes, he had killed and he had not once tried to justify it. The act of killing never bothered him, the strong do indeed prey on the weak, but the stronger prey on the strong. That's how Jordan felt, there always going to be someone out there abusing their power. They just need someone to put them in their place.
Because of this outlook on life, Jordan was sometimes classified as slightly mental or if a little insane. The truth was that Jordan had his views on life and the World had theirs, none which concerned him. He honestly didn't give a rat's ass about what others did, he did not care. Only his family and friends mattered, as selfish as that sounded it was true. 'Than why the hell am I trying to save these ponies and animals?'
Jordan didn't know, maybe it was the good in his heart..doubtful. He shook his head, this topic wasn't important at the moment, he needed to focus on the Now. ''But I wonder what happened to Discord?" The sound of a snap shook Jordan from his thoughts and he looked across the fire. A man with raggedy clothes and a raggedy top hat was sitting down casually drinking from glass of some dark liquid, actually it looked like he was drinking the glass itself while the dark liquid stayed in place!
The man gave a toothy grin, one canine jutting out, "You rang?~"
Jordan stared at the man, he looked at his eyes, to yellow eyes with misshaped red pupils. "Ah there you are Discord, where the hell have you been?"
Discord chuckled loudly, "Around, not around, just watching how your progressing in this new world. I must say, becoming a champion for the God of Nature, quite impressive." Jordan shrugged, "I'm still kinda iffy but at least I'm doing something top pass the time. Plus if I don't do anything this world will end and blah blah blah. So Discord, whats your angle?" He raised a hand and put it against his chest, "My angle, what angle?"
Jordan just gave him a flat look, "Really?"
Discord chuckled once more, "Alright you got me, I don't gain much exactly but its enough for me.'' Jordan raised an eyebrow, ''And what DO you gain?''
Discord smiled, just a regular smile, "I gain the satisfaction that My Little Ponies won't be slaughtered, that they'll be safe.''
Jordan still had a confused look on his face, ''But you look just like a regular guy to me.'' Discord smirked, ''Looks aren't everything Jordan, this is not my real form. This is what some might call a glamour, if you want to know more about me, just ask Princess Sunshine tomorrow. Oh and I am really impressed at how fast you're gaining allies, very impressed. And if I may, heres a little tip, theres an ally that could come in real handy to the East. I'm sure if its you you'll be able to convince them to help.'' Discord looked at his wrist covered by a long sleeve covered in stitches, ''Oh would you look at that, I have somewhere to be, Chaos to spread, and to throw a little spice in some pony's life. Ta ta for now, Jordan,'' with a snap of his fingers he was gone.
Jordan stared at the space where Discord was sitting not to long ago, "Strange guy, I like him, I really do.'' he checked Razlif and noted that he was still out. A few minutes later with the occasional cracks from the fire and the few sparks spat were interrupted by the sound of twigs snapping. Sil and the rest of the pack arrived, dragging a deer, nice sized too. Jordan knew that it was for him and Razlif. He got down to the messy part and disposed of the skin and part he didn't want or need. What was left was the meat and the liver. After wiping his hands on his pants, he gently shook Razlif, waking him.
He hoped that he wouldn't end up being turned to stone. Razlif blearily opened his eyes and coughed a bit. When he was fully awake he finally noticed his surroundings. He was wide-eyed at first but then he slowly began to remember the events that happened earlier. Looking at Jordan he asked, ''Why?" Jordan smiled and looked at his Pack, they had amused eyes, "Well, why not? You needed help and plus your grandpa asked me to find you.''
Razlif looked at him and asked, ''Why did you speak to my grandfather?''
Jordan was expecting this so he put it bluntly, ''Theres going to be a war and I need allies. If I try to fight alone, I'll die and then we all die. So to prevent that, I'm gathering an army to fight. Your people will be a great help and your grandfather said if I wanted your people as allies, I had to find and bring you back home safely. Any more questions?"
"One, What is your name?'' Jordan smiled, ''My name is Jordan and that's all that really matters. So Razlif, what do Cockatrice eat?''
"Well oh um we eat both meat and plants, and we aren't picky.''
Jordan smiled, ''Good, you hungry?'' he asked while pointing to the berries and deer meat. Razlif nodded slowly, ''Cooked or raw?'' Jordan asked. ''Raw will be fine.''
Jordan nodded and handed Razlif a slab of deer meat who wasted no time and tore at the flesh with beak and teeth. While Razlif ate, Jordan busied himself with cooking his portion. While the meat cooked slowly Sil asked, ''Why do you burn your food?" He scratched his chin and began, ''Well my kind are built differently on the inside. Some meat we can eat raw, while others if eaten raw will make us deathly sick. My dad once caught food poisoning, said it was like having a knife in your gut. I do admittedly like my meat rare and a bit bloody, but I'm not stupid enough to think I have a iron stomach.'' Sil nodded thoughtfully layed down with his head on his paw's, the rest of the pack followed suit.
The only sound that could be heard through the campsite was the sound of a few insects, some animals, and the sound of Jordan and Razlif eating. 'Funny, never thought I'd share a meal with a mythical creature in the company of a pack of Wolves made from wood.' He shrugged mentally, shit tends to happen, better to go with the flow. He popped the last of the deer meat into his mouth and chew while thinking.
He looked up at the stars, they were much clearer here since there was no smog. He could make out the Big Dipper, Canis Major, the Milky Way, and just maybe saw a shooting star. This place was a lot cleaner and peaceful than Earth. 'Hmm well that's debateable now I guess.'
He looked at the others and saw that they were all ready to drop off. ''Well, night, guys,'' he said as he layed his pack against the base of a tree behind him. He rested his head on it and closed his eyes, soon falling asleep as the rest mumbled their own ''Good Nights.'' The fire slowly burned throughout the night as if it were diligently keeping watch as the tired group rested.
It wasn't long before Jordan slowly opened his eyes. He rubbed them absently and looked around the camp to see Razlif sleeping, yes like a regular chicken does. He then saw Sil and the others sleeping just like any other canine save for Razor who was currently on his back with one paw on his stomach. Jordan chuckled at how human it looked and slowly stood up, stretching his joints and back. The popping caused six pairs of ears to twitch. The respective owners of these ear's also slowly began to wake up.
While the others began to wake themselves, Jordan grabbed his canteen from his pack and proceeded to pour some of the water on his head and face. He swirled a mouthful and spat this out onto the dying fire, causing it to sizzle and steam. He grabbed a handful of berries and munched on them, following with a swig of water. He looked up at the sky, the sun was just barely rising.
''Alright, while we got the time, lets go and drop off Razlif and then make a stop at that river.'' The Pack and Razlif nodded and Jordan began to kick some dirt onto the fire. ''You all ready?'' he asked as he grabbed his pack and slung it over his shoulders. eagerly
They nodded their consent and began their walk back to the Cockatrice Nest. They traveled in relative silence, only the sound of the Forest being heard. The trip was quite uneventful with the occasional sightings of the very large spiders, Jordan almost smashed one with his Terra forming powers. The same Cockatrice from yesterday met Jordan and the rest near the Nest. They bowed in respect towards Razlif and in gratitude towards Jordan and his Pack. He turned to Razlif and said, ''Tell your gramps to be ready when I need his help.''
Razlif nodded, ''I will and again, thank you for saving me, Jordan.''
Jordan waved his hand, ''Don't worry about it, because of you I gained an Ace and I plan on gaining a whole lot more. Just try not to wander to much, yeah?" Razlif chuckled softly, ''Yeah, I'll try and be safe.''
Jordan turned around and began walking towards the river while waving a hand towards Razlif and the other Cockatrice. The Wolves followed close behind and Jordan whistled a tuneless tune. They walked in silence, well if you counted no one talking but the Forest echoing with animals and insects going about their business as silence. While the Wolves followed quietly, Jordan began to think about his next Ally. He had Timber Wolves and Cockatrice, as well as a Hydra. All pluses, but it wasn't enough. He would possibly have the Ponies but he wasn't to sure about their fighting capabilities. He'd most likely use them for magical purposes such as healing and offensive magic. He had an Ace, the Hydra, he had a nice defence, the Cockatrice, and he had an okay attack force, the Timber Wolves. There were some more things he needed in his army. He needed heavy hitters, he needed some brute force. He also needed some forces in the air, he knew that there were some pegasus, but he didn't know how well they'd do in the air with the Corrupted's air force.
His train of thought was interrupted with a nudge from Sil. He looked around and noticed his surroundings, they were currently in front of the river. ''Damn, sorry about that guys, just thinking a little too much.'' Sil tilted his head curiously, ''Thinking about what, Jordan?'' Jordan looked at Sil, ''Do you happen to know of any possible allies that could be used as heavy hitters?''
Sil nodded, ''Yes, I have a few in mind but some of them might take a bit of convincing.'' Jordan shrugged, ''I'll do what I have to if it means gaining even just an inch of ground against the Corrupted.'' Sil looked at Jordan with respect, ''Well if its you, it shouldn't be too hard. The Diamond Dogs would be a good asset due to their natural ability to dig through most kinds of rock and because of this, most Diamond Dogs are exceptionally strong. Their only problem is their obsession over gems and low intelligence. Offer their Alpha gems and they're bound to follow you. They reside in the mountains. They look like bipedal dogs and their sizes vary. If you want a heavy hitter in the air, there are some Dragons scattered about in the Forest and in the mountains, offer them Gems and you just might be able to have them help you. Last but not least are what my kind knows as Shifters. I believe the Ponies have another name for them but I can't remember. These Shifters resemble the Ponies but differ in a few ways. For ne thing, their coat is always black. Another thing is that they all have holes scattered about on their body and their wings are insect like. We call them Shifters because they have the power to change their appearance of whatever and whoever they desire. Their magic is pretty powerful from what we've seen. They have a queen, I'm sure you could negotiate some terms with her if you tried. They live just inside the desert inside a big hive of some sort. This forest is also home to a rare type of Bear, Ursa Majors. The babies are know as Ursa Minors and are typically as large as a village, sometimes bigger. Ursa Majors could step on a village without noticing. They are very protective of their cubs and usually live in large mountains. I wound not recommend even trying with them, they're too dangerous. Not even a Dragon could fight a Ursa Minor.''
Jordan nodded and rubbed his chin thoughtfully as Sil listed possible Allies and near impossible Allies. He'd start with the Diamond Dogs and the Dragons since they seemed closer and both might want the same thing, 'Practically hiring mercs really.' The Shifter sounded really interesting, they'd be next. Later on he'd try to convince some of those Lion things to join him.
He grabbed his canteen from his pack and refilled it. He took a long drink and refilled it again. He set it back in his pack and waited patiently as Sil and the others took drinks from the river. As they refreshed themselves, Jordan took the time to enjoy his surrounding. He sat down near the waters surface, and watched as all kinds of fish flitted by looking at him curiously. Back in his world he fished whenever he got the chance, it was like a stress reliever. He looked past them and saw some turtles catching some sun on a thick branch sticking out of the water. Before Jordan got here, in his world it was the middle of Winter. Here, it was probably the middle of Spring or Summer.
His eyes wandered skywards and he saw that there was not a cloud in the sky and the sun still on the rise. He reached into his pocket and brought his cellphone out. He hit the Home button and looked at the time, 12:34. He slipped it back into his pocket and looked at his Pack. They were done getting refreshed and were waiting for him. ''Alright guys lets get back to that swamp, we got a meeting to attend.'' They nodded in acknowledgment and began to follow him as he began to walk.
Half an hour later, they were waiting at the same spot where they met the six ponies from yesterday. While they began their wait, Jordan decided to play with his powers to pass the time. He started with his Terra forming powers and brought up a block of stone, just a regular block of rock. He then began to form an image in his head. He raised his hand towards the block of stone and with a focused image in his head, he closed his fist in one fast motion. Almost instantly most of the stone crumbled away from the block, leaving a half formed Angel, a Weeping Angel to be exact. His head didn't hurt as much as it normally did when he used them and he wasn't breathing as hard as before.
Sil and the others were watching him curiously now as Jordan raised three more statues of the same Angel. Satisfied with their spacing, he began to walk away from them. After reaching at least thirty feet, he stopped. He picked up a small piece of rock the size of a quarter with his Terra powers. Making the same gun motion as last time when he fought Corrupted Lugia, he 'Pulled the trigger' and sent the rock flying. It whistled through the air at such an intense speed that when it hit one of the Angels in the chest, that Angel was completely destroyed. ''Damn, its like having a 50.cal at my fingertips.'' With a smile, he raised some more rocks, even smaller and began target practice.
Elsewhere, Two Alicorns were preparing a to visit a certain purple mare. Behind them stood a large chariot with two large pegasus attached. Behind that stood a small group of Royal Guard which consisted of Unicorns, Pegasus, and Earth Ponies all garbed in golden armor. The Earth Ponies and Unicorns each had their own chariots to be pulled by some of the Pegasus. Celestia looked at her younger sister and they both stepped onto their chariot. Soon after they were halfway to Ponyville, ''What does thou think this Human gain from this war?" asked Luna. Celestia looked at her sister, ''I hope to find that out when we meet him. I hope that he has no ill intent towards Equestria.'' Luna nodded thoughtfully, ''Well we can only hope that it is friendly.'' Both sisters turned their attention to the approaching town, wondering just what was in store for them.
In Ponyville, six mares were huddled in a certain Library going over todays plan. ''What gives Twilight? I was enjoying a nice nap,'' complained a grumpy looking rainbow maned Pegasus with a colorful lightning bolt coming out of a cloud plastered on her flanks. ''Now simmer down Rainbow Dash, ah'm sure that Twilight has a good reason why we're here,'' said a tan mare with a blonde mane topped with a old stetson. Her flank's were adorned with three apples. ''I agree with Applejack, I'm quite sure Twilight wouldn't call us together for nothing, right dear?" spoke a white mare with a purple styled mane. Her flanks were adorned with three diamonds. ''I wonder if that Human likes parties!? Or if he likes cupcakes or muffins!'' exclaimed a very hyper pink coated mare with a cotton candy looking mane. Her flank's had three ballons on each flank, two were blue and one was yellow. ''Ahem um yes the reason as to why I've asked for you to be here is that both Princesses will be arriving in a bit. We're going to meet the Human again with the Princesses,'' clarified Twilight, her flank's were adorned with a purple star surrounded with smaller white stars. ''U-um I think that one us should stay here to keep an eye on things...if that's okay with you..'' mumbled a light yellow mare with a soft pink mane. Her flank's were adorned with three butterflies. This one was currently hiding behind her mane.
''Sorry Fluttershy but we all have to attend,'' said an apologetic Twilight. ''Don't worry about a thing Flutters, if that Human tries anything funny, I'll stop him flatter than one of Twilight's pancakes,'' said a enthusiastic Rainbow Dash. Before Twilight could grumpily reply to Rainbow Dash's remark about her cooking, there was a firm knock on the Library's door. ''That must be the Princesses,'' said Twilight as she went to get the door.
Princess Celestia and Luna greeted Twilight with smiles and a small nod. Twilight returned both and backed up, letting the Princesses enter. Princess looked behind her and ordered the Guard to wait outside. They nodded in unison and placed themselves around the Library and chariots. With that taken care of, the Sisters turned towards the Ponies inside the Library. ''As you already know, there seems to be a Human inside the Everfree Forest and it claims that war will be upon us. Twilight could you please tell us what you know regarding the Human.'' Twilight nodded, ''Of course Princess, well when Applejack's and Rarity's sisters, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle also their friend Scootaloo hadn't been seen for most of the day. We then came to the conclusion that they must have entered the Forest. Just as we were about to go look for them, they came out. They said that they were attacked by a Manticore and that something called a Human saved them. If I'm correct they said his name was Jordan. When we went to go meet Jordan, we happened upon him while he was fighting a Hydra in the swamp, protecting a Cockatrice. From what we saw, he could either use Telekinesis or levitation at a proficient level. He was also commanding a pack of Timber Wolves and it seems that he can speak to animals. In the end, he made some kind of deal with the Hydra. He also seems to have other powers but wouldn't tell me,'' said a somewhat proud Twilight.
Princess Celestia nodded in thanks to her student, ''Thank you Twilight, you've given us a better insight on how to handle this.'' She looked at her sister who nodded. ''I believe its time to go meet this Human, shall we get a move on?"
All the mares save for a pleading mumbling Fluttershy nodded in unison. As the Princesses and the gang filed out of the Library, the Guard snapped to attention and awaited their orders. ''We will be traveling into the Everfree Forest to meet a possible Ally. When we reach our destination, do not engage. The Elements of Harmony will be coming with us as well.''
The Guards saluted and began preparing the chariots as the Princesses entered theirs. One of the Guard signaled Twilight and her friends to an empty chariot. They quickly entered this and with a signal from Princess Celestia, they were off into the sky heading towards the Boggy Swamps. While the Girls excitedly talked among themselves, the Princesses just waited patiently. It wasn't long before the Guard shouted that they had arrived. The Girls grew somewhat nervous and the Princesses a bit more serious as they began to descend.
Jordan was currently in the middle of shooting marble sized rocks at his targets, weeping angels. He found that the smaller the rock, the faster his 'Gun' shot. It was handy trick since it required less focus and energy than lifting boulders and smashing them onto an enemy. Just as he was about to blow apart the last of his targets, Sil and the Pack's ears began to twitch. They stood up from the shade they were lounging in. 'It's about damn time, I was getting bored.'
As he stood patiently, Sil and the others walked over to him and stood at his sides. Just seconds later seven chariots touched down from the sky and landed about 20 feet from him. These chariots were pulled by Pegasuses in gold armor. The chariots contained both Unicorn and regular Ponies also in gold armor. Two of the seven chariots however held something different. One chariot held two Ponies, definitely female. The odd thing was that they had both horn and wings as well as being an easy two feet taller than the other Ponies. They also had lone manes that had an ethereal look to them. One's coat was a proud Ivory with a mane that reminded him of the Aurora Lights. The other had a coat that was navy blue like the night and had a mane that resembled the starry night. Both had an air of power around them and both wore hoof guards and crowns. The Ivory's being Gold and the Navy Blue's being Silver and Black. They both had a crest of some sort on their chest, the Ivory's being Gold with gems and the Navy Blue's being Black with a crescent moon on it. 'They have pictures on their ass..why does that feel so familiar?' he thought randomly. The Ivory's picture was that of the Sun but more celestial looking. The Navy Blue's mark was a black splotch, like the night sky with a crescent moon in the middle. Now that he noticed, they all had marks on their ass, 'Didn't Torva have the same thing? Well whatever.' the second chariot held six mares that looked familiar, 'Oh yeah, they from yesterday.'
The Guard looked wearingly at the equally weary Timber Wolves. There was a tense silence, well for the Ponies. Jordan was just waiting for them to say something. He made a point to look at his wrist as if he were looking at a watch and looked at the Ponies imploringly. The two tall Pony..things seemed to catch on and the the Ivory one opened her mouth to speak, ''Greetings Human.''
''Hello to you as well tall Pony thing,'' Jordan said calmly back. Quite a few of the Guard, there were about 20 in all, looked a little offended. Before they could say or do anything, Princess Celestia spoke again, ''I see that introductions are in order. I am Princess Celestia, this here is my younger sister, Princess Luna. We both co-rule and I am Princess of the Day, my sister, of the Night. These here stallions in armor our our country's Royal Guard. Now who might you be?''
Jordan looked thoughtful, 'Princesses huh, that explains the crowns and soldiers. ''My name is Jordan, I originally came from a different World. I was bored and wanted a little spice in my life, this is what I got, I first decided to explore but through a series of events I was needed to lead an army to protect this land. So now I'm just playing the cards I've been dealt.
Celestia and Luna looked at each other and then at Jordan, ''What do you plan to do after this war?''
'''Who knows, probably explore,'' replied Jordan as he yawned.
''Who's side are you on?" asked Celestia. To an untrained ear, that sounded like a simple question but if you listened close there was a subtle hint of suspicion.
Jordan smiled, ''Don't worry, you aren't an enemy. I'm on your side since I plan to completely destroy the bastards who attacked me.''
Some of the mares slightly flinched at his choice of words. Even Applejack wasn't needed to know that he was telling the truth. ''Why should we ally ourselves with you?" asked Celestia curiously. Jordan shrugged, ''Wether you ally yourselves with me or not doesn't affect me much. When the enemy attacks, and they will, you'll be left to fend for yourselves. I just plan to gain as many allies as possible, strength in numbers. I already have the Timber Wolves on my side and the Cockatrice. I even have a Hydra as my Ace. After this, I plan on meeting more possible allies. Also let me ask you something, has your Royal Guard ever killed? The allies I currently have do that for survival.''
Celestia and Luna slightly looked down and the mares became slightly green at the mention of killing. ''No, the Royal Guard acts as a Police force,'' answered Celestia. ''We have not had experience with war for over a thousand years. So I ask, Jordan, will you accept us as allies?"
Jordan looked at the Ponies, he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, he then remembered the kids from a few days ago. ''Yeah, sure I did say strength in numbers. And don't worry, your Royal Guard won't even be apart of the main forces. They'll probably just be used as support. I don't think that they have it in them to kill in cold blood, to be merciless on the battlefield.''
At that last remark, one of the Guard spoke up, ''What gives you the right to say that?" Jordan turned towards the voice, a blue coated Unicorn. ''The fact that you all look like your from a cartoon and that you have cute little pictures on your ass. Also the fact that I'm leading this Army.'' The Unicorn sneered at Jordan, ''You don't look like much, I bet I could whip you in a fight.''
Jordan tilted his head and smirked, ''Is that a challenge?"
Celestia rose her hoof to intervene but was stopped by Jordan raising his hand, ''Don't worry, I won't hurt him too bad.''
Almost immediately, the remaining Guard backed up and stood on the sidelines as the Princesses watched with mild fascination and a bit of horror. Celestia wanted to intervene and stop this before it went of control. ''Fear not Sister, I belive that Jordan will keep his word and would it not be a bad thing to see his powers?'' Celestia hated to admit it but she was slightly interested in seeing his powers.
The six mares on the other hand were shocked, wowed, frightened, and a little excited. From what was a rough start at an alliance became a dual between a Guard and a strange creature leading an Army. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were betting on who would win, Applejack was rooting for Jordan while Rainbow Dash the Unicorn. Fluttershy and Rarity were slightly horrified at what was currently happening. Twilight was excited at seeing what Jordan knew and Pinkie was wondering if she'd have to give Jordan a congratulation party or a consolation party.
The match's rules were no lethal magic and first one to make the other give up wins. When the match started, the Unicorn, Cross Etch, quickly brought up a barrier. Jordan just looked at Sil and the others who had decided to go back to their shaded spot, and shrugged. Cross Etch fired a lightning bolt at him, it wouldn't kill him, but it'd definitely hurt. With a small gesture with his hand, a thick wall of rock erupted from the ground, intercepting the bolt. When the bolt struck the wall, the wall barely shuddered. ''Your gonna have to do better than that if you want to hurt me~,'' Jordan practically sang which only infuriated Cross Etch. He fired fire balls and bolts of lightning but each attack was stopped by the Wall. ''I'll give you this, that's a neat trick with the barrier but your attacks are lacking.'' Jordan raised his hand and a marble sized rock floated in the air. Jordan then made the Gun motion with his hand and 'Fired', ''Bang.'' The rock whistled like all the others and hit Cross Etch's barrier. It didn't stand a chance, with a shattering sound like glass, his barrier crumbled. With a flick of his wrist, Jordan made the earth around Cross Etch surround his hooves, immobilizing him.
Before he could even curse, Jordan fired his Gun once more at Cross Etch. The difference though was that the rock had the same force of being thrown. The rock smacked him in the muzzle and Jordan simply said, ''Do you give up?" as he raised his Gun once more. With a dejected sigh and a few choice words, Cross Etch looked at Jordan, ''I concede.'' Jordan nodded and the earth around Cross's hooves broke off, releasing him from their grasp.
Applejack chuckled as Rainbow Dash looked dejected. Fluttershy and Rarity on the other hand looked relieved that no one was seriously injured. Twilight looked intrigued and fascinated at Jordan's control over the earth and looked eager to question him. Pinkie looked the happiest out of all of them and giddy that she was going to throw a congratulatory party. Celestia and Luna looked impressed and also looked intrigued about his powers. The rest of the Guard looked at Jordan with respect.
''So are we done here?" asked Jordan as he looked around at the Guard for any other challengers. They all shied away at his glance, not wanting to look hostile. He turned to Celestia as she spoke up from her earlier silence, ''Does all of your kind have powers like that, Jordan?" Jordan replied, ''Well no, my kind and world does not have magic. Our only true weapon was our knowledge and ability to adapt. When the going got tough, we got tougher, and when the going got even tougher, we became even more so.'' Celestia looked thoughtful, ''So your the only one with magic?" Jordan shook his head, ''I guess you could say these were given to me.'' Luna tilted her head, ''Who gave thou thy powers?" Jordan rubbed his chin, ''It was a pony, same type as you two, but was a guy. He seemed really old, his mark was a tree with long roots at the bottom, like this,'' he said as he showed the back of his hand. Jordan watched as the two mares looked at his hand and their eyes slowly widen. He heard Luna mutter, ''It can't be,'' and Celestia say something similar. ''Does thou know the name of this Stallion?" asked Luna. ''Yeah, he said his name was Torva and he was the God of Nature.''
Celestia and Luna looked at each other, ''It was him, is he still alive?" asked Celestia, almost desperately. Jordan shook his head, ''He's dead, I just met what was left of his soul and absorbed it. So I take it you understand why I'm in a hurry to gain allies?" They nodded solemnly, ''May I ask, who are these possible Allies that you intend to meet?" asked Celestia. ''Well I plan to recruit the Diamond Dogs, some Dragons if possible, something that the Timber Wolves call Shifters, apparently they can change their shape. I'm hoping that these Shifters have some strong magic. If I get the chance I also plan to get some of these weird Lion looking things, the Timber Wolves call them Stingers. I want to try to recruit some Ursa Majors but I'm told that's a suicide mission, still gonna try though.''
Celestia's and Luna's eyes widened in shock and narrowed when he mentioned Shifters. ''Did they tell you what theses Shifters looked like?" Celestia said almost urgently. ''They said something about them looking like insects and that they could change their form, you know them?" Jordan asked curiously. ''Oh I know them, Equestria knows them as Changelings. They feed off love and take the form of the one you love the most. Their magic is strong and they get stronger off the love the feed on. They invaded our capital and their queen posed as my niece during her wedding. They almost managed it but thanks to my student, Twilight Sparkle, we were able to repel them.''
Jordan nodded and absorbed this newfound information. Yes they did try to invade Equestria, but it seems they did it for food. ''Did they kill anyone or severely injure any of your subjects?" At this question, Celestia shook her head slowly, unsure were this conversation was going. ''Well from what you've told me, it seems they did what was necessary and took action. If I were in their Queen's shoes, I'd do the same thing. From what the Wolves told me, they live just on the outside of the dessert outside of the Everfree forest. Now if I were a Queen and I needed to feed my loyal subjects and I lived in the dessert where growing food is near impossible, plus I have a lot of mouths to feed, what would I use as a substitute? And if you think about it, the Queen put herself in harms way just to ensure her plan succeeded. Her subjects need to feed on love or face starvation, but they didn't starve did they? Where did they get the love from, well its only a theory but I think that it was her love that kept them going.''
Both Princesses looked down in shame, just thinking that there was a species out there on the brink of Starvation, but kept alive by the Queen's love. ''I never thought of it that way..'' said Celestia. ''There are always three sides to a story, Your side, Their side, and the Truth. Now if you could, would you tell me the name of their Queen?" Celestia nodded, ''Very well, her name is Chrysalis and she almost resembles us in height, magic, and having wings and a horn.''
Jordan thanked the Princesses gestured for the Wolves to join him. When they reached his side, he turned around and began to leave. ''Wait, where are thou off to,'' said Luna who was mostly quiet during the conversation. ''I got Allies to gain and things to kill,'' he replied. ''Could thou at least join us for lunch, I'm sure Twilight Sparkle and her friends have questions they'd like to ask,'' Luna asked.
Jordan looked at the mentioned Ponies and saw their faces. He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, ''Sure, but only if my friends come too.'' Luna looked at her older Sister who nodded, ''It is settled, to Canterlot,'' she said just a tad bit enthusiastically. ''Question, is Canterlot your capital?" Jordan asked curiously. ''Yes, tis a marvelous city built upon the side of a mountain,'' she said proudly. ''And is it filled with nobles?" he also asked. ''Also yes, tis a city practically filled with nobles,'' she confirmed. ''I'm not going, I'll probably punch one of them,'' he casually said.
Celestia and Luna gave him a wide-eyed look while the Wolves barked a chuckle, they'd seen him punch one of those large spiders when it got to close to him when his back was turned. "Why would thou even say such a thing?" Luna gasped. ''I don't like rich people who think everyone else is dirt compared to them,'' he stated calmly. Celestia said inwardly, 'Lets hope Blueblood never meets Jordan.'' Before anything else could be said, Twilight stepped out of her silence, ''How about Ponyville? Its a small quiet little town and everyone is really friendly,'' she offered. Celestia looked at Jordan, asking, ''Is that okay with you?" Jordan looked thoughtful, ''Huh, yeah sure, as long as no angry townspeople chase me with pitchforks and torches then I'm alright with it. What would they say about my friends?" he asked, gesturing towards the Wolves. ''I'm sure if the Princesses explained everything it would be alright,'' she said confidently. She then took in his attire, ''Um but I'm not sure how they would react if they saw you with ripped clothing stained with blood,'' she said, her ears drooping slightly.
Jordan weighed his options, go to a snob filled capital and risk jail for assault or face an angry mob of ponies. ''Lead the way,'' he said with a sigh. Celestia told the Guard to head back to the castle and the let the staff that she and Luna were on important business. They saluted and took off into the sky, all that was left was her, Luna, Twilight and her friends, Jordan, and his Timber Wolve friends. In a matter of minutes, they were off. Travel was quiet save for Pinkie's rambling and Rarity's complaints about her dirty hooves. The mares were nervous inside the forest, even with two Goddesses and a Human with powerful magic. The animal noises and eerie trees put them on edge, especially poor Fluttershy. Jordan and the Wolves took the walk in stride, only weary of an ambush by the Corrupted.
It wasn't long before they reached Ponyville and Jordan prepared his eyes for the oncoming storm of bright colors. They crossed the bridge and entered the town with Jordan and his Pack in the middle. It wasn't long before the town's Ponies began to notice the Princesses walking through town and the strange bipedal creature walking with a pack of Timber Wolves. Some looked like they were ready to scream and run but the sight of the Princesses and Elements of Harmony eased their nerves.
They stopped in front of a building that looked as if it was made entirely from sweets. 'I already feel cavities growing just looking at this place' he thought while amazed at the architecture. They entered and were greeted by a tall lanky stallion and a plump mare. The color of their coats made Jordan's head hurt, he couldn't even describe the stallion's and the mares was like a neon blue. Her mane looked like a swirl of pink icing and the stallion's was that of a carrot cake color. ''Oh Pinkie dear, why didn't you tell us that the Princesses were coming for a visit,'' asked the pleasantly plump mare. ''I'm sorry Miss Cupcake for me and my sister's intrusion, we plan to have lunch here with our friend,'' Celestia said while gesturing towards Jordan. They looked to where her hoof was pointing and their eyes widened. Jordan just waved casually, ''Of course Princess, it would be our pleasure to serve you and your friend,'' the stallion manged to sputter. ''Thank thee Carrot Cake, we promise not to cause thou trouble,'' quipped Luna. They seated themselves at a large booth while Sil and the Others layed on the ground and closed their eyes, resting. The lanky stallion, Carrot Cake, came over to take their orders. Celestia ordered a chocolate slice of cake, Luna ordered a plate of fudge with a glass of milk, Fluttershy and Rarity ordered a strawberry smoothie, Twilight ordered a Vanilla shake, Rainbow Dash ordered some vanilla ice cream with sprinkles, Applejack ordered a apple pie, and Pinkie Pie ordered a cupcake. Carrot Cake turned to Jordan as he looked at the menu, ''I'll have the caramel sundae.'' Carrot Cake wrote down the orders and stopped Pinkie as she got up, ''Today's your day off Pinkie, enjoy it.'' As he left to go fill the orders Jordan looked at Pinkie Pie, ''You work here," slightly not surprised. The pink very hyper Pony nodded rapidly, ''Yup, I live with the Cakes and work here. Its super fun and I love to bake and bring smiles to everypony. I even watch their foals when they need me to,'' she finished with one breath. Jordan whistled in awe, wondering how many energy drinks and sugar he'd have to consume to be like her.
The Ponies chatted idly with each other while they waited for their orders. The Princesses stared at Jordan, feeling their stares he returned their stare, ''Can I help you with something?" The Princesses, realizing that they had been staring, blushed slightly, ''Sorry, we're curious about your age is all,'' said a curious Celestia. Luna nodded in confirmation, ''Thou speaks as if thou hath lived for a very long time.'' Jordan said casually, ''I'm about to turn 17, satisfied?" Luna spoke up at his answer, ''We would have thought thou would have been older.'' Jordan shrugged, ''I get that a lot, what about the rest of you?'' he asked. Celestia waved a hoof casually, ''I am around 3000 give or take a few years.'' ''We are 2000,'' Luna plainly stated. Twilight raised her hand, ''I'm currently 21.'' Applejack tipped her hat, ''Ah turned 22 not ta long ago.'' Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders, ''Also 22.'' Pinkie bounced excitedly, '' I'm 22 turning 23 in a few months!'' Rarity placed a hoof to her chest, ''It's rude to ask a mare her age, but if you must know I'm also 22.'' Fluttershy, behind her hair, muttered something like, ''23.''
Jordan shrugged, ''So what, you're not that much older than me.'' Twilight nodded thoughtfully, ''True but we already saved Equestria plenty of times. Just a few moths ago we fought against a tyrant by the name of King Sombra who enslaved an entire kingdom,'' she said. Jordan nodded, ''Okay I see your point, but my age has nothing to do with what I'm currently doing.''
Fluttershy who was mostly quiet spoke up, ''B-but your still a colt..'' Jordan looked her way and she quietly squeaked and dove under her hair. He smiled gently so he wouldn't scare her, ''Yes I am what some of you might call a colt but in some parts of my world I'd already be seen as a Man or in your terms, a stallion.'' Twilight seeing that Jordan was talking about his World seized the chance to ask a few questions. ''If you don't mind me asking Jordan, could you perhaps tell us about your World?"
He looked at Twilight and shrugged, ''Sure.'' Twilight clapped her hooves and the surrounding mares looked interested. Twilight pulled out a notebook and pen from her saddle bags. ''Okay, first question, what kind of animals do you have on your World?'' she asked while Fluttershy perked up at that question. Jordan rubbed his chin in thought, ''Well from what I've seen, we have almost the same animals as you do save for Timber Wolves, Cockatrice, Giant Spiders, and weird Lion things with wings and a scorpions tail. Also on my World, Ponies are not sapient and we don't have Unicorns or Pegasuses.'' Most of the Ponies gasped while the rest wore looks of shock. Twilight was the first to shake off the shock and asked her next question, ''How advanced is your World compared to ours?'' The Princesses tried to look passive but their ears perked slightly. 'No use holding back,' he thought casually. ''You can't even begin to compare to our technological advances to yours. If it was a race, we'd have already been finished before you could even take a step. My kind does not have any magic as yours does like I said earlier but we make up for it with our brain power. We are the Apex predator of our World and will always be for some time..But for all the advances we've come across, we are still weak and young. We have War, we have Famines, we have variations of Plagues, and we are not perfect. As much as my Kind like to believe, we are not perfect,'' Jordan finished with a subtle hint of sadness.
Twilight devoured all of this information voraciously as a glutton would eat at a buffet. He looked at the other Ponies and saw their expressions, some wore saddened looks, others awe, and the Princesses, pity and respect. Twilight although wasted no time to ask another question, ''Could you show me an example of your Technology?" she practically begged. He shrugged, it wouldn't hurt anybody. He reached into his pocket and retrieved his phone. He placed it on the table in front of the Ponies and a look of wonder registered on all the Ponies faces. ''This is a Cellphone, my kind use this to communicate with each other over long distances. This particular Cellphone is a special type, an Android. This Android has many features, such as being able to take pictures.'' He raised his phone and turned the screen on. He touched the camera icon and aimed it at the Princesses, ''Say cheese.'' Before the Princesses could react, the Phone made a clicking sound of some sort. He turned the screen towards the Ponies and showed the Ponies a picture of Celestia and Luna with bewildered expressions.
''Another neat thing about the Android is it's ability to play music, for example,'' he exited the camera mode and switched to the Music feature. He scrolled down his playlist and chose a classical piece, Canon D. He watched the the Ponies listen quietly, it was plain to see that Rarity and Fluttershy enjoyed it as well as the Princesses. Rainbow Dash and Applejack as well as Pinkie Pie weren't as impressed. So Jordan played a different song, You Can't Take Me, by Bryan Adams. Just enough Rock and just a bit of Country for the Ponies. This song seemed to have the desired effect as Rainbow Dash mumbled something along the lines of ''Pretty Awesome'' and Applejack nodded approvingly. Pinkie Pie was excited and nodded her head with the beat.
''These are just a few of the many things my kind can do,'' Jordan said as he stopped the music and placed the Phone back in his pocket. Twilight was amazed to say the least, ''How can your kind do such things without magic!?'' she exclaimed loudly. She received a shrug from Jordan, ''This isn't even the tip of the Iceberg, we have something called the 'Internet'. Imagine if you will, a place where vast amounts of information can be located and read and even copied with ease. Think of a Library at your hands er hooves, a Library with an almost unlimited amount of knowledge. But sadly I can't access this currently so I can't show you this 'Library'.
Jordan would have continued but he noticed that all the Ponies had grown extremely quiet. He looked at them and noticed them staring at Twilight. She looked like she had been told that there was something she always wanted and almost had it within hooves reach but was suddenly told she couldn't have it. |
Why Not? | A Fur Fetched Plan | Jordan was currently huddled behind a table he flipped over. The Ponies were standing off to the side, well most of them. He peered over his improvised cover and quickly ducked his head, narrowly dodging the bolt of lightning. Twilight had snapped. Apparently being told that there was a source of nearly limitless knowledge existed and that you'd never get to see it again really irked her.
So here he was, sitting behind an overturned table while eating his caramel sundae. It was just too damn good to leave wen the mares dove for cover. He quickly peered over the table and saw her. A twisted grin that would even make the Joker proud adorned her face. Her left eye was twitching too, real fast. He figured that if he just sat there she'd run out of juice sooner or later.
Just as he was about to take another bite of his delicious treat, a bolt of magic impaled itself onto the table, sinking through the wood and hitting his ice cream. ''...........,'' Jordan looked at the floor in front of him. The ice cream could not be saved and Twilight's soul wasn't going to be either. Sil and the others perked their ears and watched Jordan intently from the other side of the room.
Jordan stood up slowly and looked at Twilight, ''You fucking bitch.'' Twilight, the insanity of a thirst for knowledge egged her on to fire a bolt of lightning. Without even blinking, Jordan focused pure nature magic around his hands and basically bitch slapped the bolt, launching it back at her.
Jordan was pissed, very pissed. One does not simply destroy ice cream fit for the Gods and gets away with it. Not without paying the price that is. The bolt slightly staggered Twilight, seizing this opportunity he kicked the table at her. Twilight shook her head and aimed a blast of pure magic at the table, blasting it into a shower of wooden splinters and dust.
She readied her horn, expecting Jordan to follow up from the front, but only met empty air. Before she could scan the rest of the room, her body jerked forwards and she slumped unceremoniously to the floor. Jordan walked forwards, shaking his hand out. A quick chop to the back of the neck could do wonders in a fight. Jordan walked over Twilight's unconscious body and grabbed a chair. He sat down and called towards the shocked couple behind the counter, ''Mind if order another Sundae?"
They numbly shook their heads and both walked into the kitchen. Jordan tilted his head wondering why it took two Ponies to make a Sundae. The Princesses and the mares shook their heads out and rushed towards Twilight's side. ''What did you do?" asked a mortified Rarity. ''Relax, all I did was just knock her out, she'll wake in a few minutes. Plus she attacked me first and I held back,'' he answered before the Ponies could say anything else. Luna stepped forward and bowed her head, ''We wish to apologize for Twilight's behaviour.''
Jordan waved a hand casually, ''Don't worry about it, I won't hold it against her.''
''Are you some kind of ninja or something?" asked a curious Rainbow Dash as she poked at Twilight's face. ''I'm half Asian, so pretty damn close,'' he answered. The couple came out of the kitchen and Jordan walked over to them and took his ice cream. He happily dug in, Jordan is very fond of ice cream even during the Winter.
Jordan looked at his phone, the time read 2:45. He figured that he could at least get the Diamond Dogs to join him before he'd have to turn in for the night. He sighed as he started to eat his ice cream just a tad bit faster. He turned towards the Princesses and said, ''I'm sorry but I need to go, I want to at least have the Diamond Dogs as an ally before nightfall.'' The Princesses nodded in understanding, ''How can we contact you?" asked a curious Celestia. He hummed quietly, ''I dunno, do some freaky shit with the sky I guess, like raise the Sun and Moon at the same time or something. Meanwhile, I suggest you notify the allies you already have about this war.''
He finished his Sundae and placed the cup on a nearby table. He looked at the Wolves and motioned with his head for them to follow him. They complied and trotted over to his side, ''Well Princesses and Mares, it was nice meeting you and your tattooed butts and all, but I got work to do.'' He waved his hand over his shoulders as he left the quaint bakery, leaving 7 pairs of eyes staring at the door he just exited from. ''He was pretty cool,'' Rainbow Dash casually stated as she resumed eating her ice cream. ''Ah reckon he is, strange feller and all but ah guess he seems alright ta me,'' confirmed a mellow Applejack. ''As brutish as he seems, he seems to have an air of mannerism, I noticed that he knew table manners, like not putting your elbows on the table,'' Rarity stated while giving Rainbow Dash a pointed look who coughed and straightened up. "I thought he was nice....,'' mumbled a meek Fluttershy, hiding behind her mane. "Oh my gosh!!! I forgot to invite him to his party!'' exclaimed a frazzled Pinkie Pie as she began to hyperventilate feverishly. As the Ponies began to try and calm Pinkie Pie, something elsewhere was happening.
Jordan trudged up a another mountain, although this one seemed different from the last one. It seemed not evil, like it was just a plain old mountain. He climbed silently and it wasn't long before he and the others reached the summit. It was a flat area with a few bushes growing here and there. Other than that, it was a seemingly barren summit. He turned around and looked met the spectacular view that he was met with. Needless to say, it was breath taking. From the vast Forest, to the fringes of the visible Desert, and from the jagged peaks that surrounded the Forest. He even saw Ponyville and the river he had been to earlier. He even saw the Swamp where his Ace was laying in wait. After a few moments of taking in the awe inspiring visage, he turned back to the summit.
He asked, ''How am I supposed to talk to these Diamond Dogs, huh Sil?"
Sil and the others stood at attention with their ears perked, ''They're already here,'' he said in a deep calm voice. Before Jordan could ask a question, the rocky floor in front of them erupted blasting chunks of rock and pebbles everywhere. When the dust settled, seven large dogs in armor save for the one in the middle were standing in front of him with seven holes behind them.
'Well shit, that was actually pretty awesome,' Jordan thought quietly as he eyed the Dogs. The six armored ones were carrying spears and had short swords at their sides and seemed to have what looked like brown fur. The unarmored Dog was slightly taller than the others and stood straighter. A broad sword about the length of Jordan's arm was resting at his side. It's sheath was decorated with gems and intricate patterns that resembled Cerberus. His fur was black and he had a set of three scars on his chest.
The Leader, the one without armor, spoke up first breaking the silence, ''Ah Silent Fang, it has been too long old friend,'' he said while slightly bowing his head.
Sil bowed his head as well, ''Same to you Onyx Claw, although I hate to say that I'm here for serious matters than pleasure.''
Onyx Claw slowly tilted his head, ''Would that Serious Matter have to do with the Thing standing next to you?" he asked, genuinely curious. Sil nodded and gave Jordan a pointed look, catching the message he coughed once, ''Yes, this Serious Matter does have to do with me, the Thing.''
The armored Diamond Dogs began to slowly snarl but were halted by Onyx Claw, ''Well aren't you a strange one, tell me, what is your name?''
''My name is Jordan and I have a proposition for you and your kind,'' he said respectfully while slightly bowing his head.
''Interesting, Jordan, tell me more about this proposition,'' he replied in a interested tone while putting a paw to his chin. Jordan took a moment to prepare himself, ''Well you see, I am obviously not from around here and I'm quite intrigued with this land. I wish to explore but due to some unexpected setbacks, I can not do so. I don't know if you've noticed but a dark presence has began to reside in the Forest. I've been tasked when getting rid of it.''
Before Jordan could continue, Onyx Claw raised his paw and halting Jordan from continuing. ''Let me guess, you want my people's help? Well Jordan, I have indeed noticed what you speak of, but why should we help? My people are shunned by most races around these parts, what does it matter to us if some Ponies happen to die?''
Jordan nodded along with Onyx's argument which had valid points. ''What if I offer you gems? As many as you desire,'' Jordan said, relying on his only trump card.
Onyx Claw raised an eyebrow, ''Oh and what if we ask for a Dragon's hoard worth?'' he said challengingly. Jordan answered, ''I give you two Dragon hoards worth and you join my Alliance,'' he said confidently.
Onyx Claw smiled, he like this Jordan. There was something in those eyes and that tone, he had spunk. ''Haha very well, two Dragon hoards worth of gems and I'll gladly join your Alliance,'' he said while folding his arms across his broad chest.
Currently inside his head, Jordan was swearing up a storm. He could control rocks but gems, that was a new thing altogether. As he silently mulled over his thoughts while the Canines watched and waited for what Jordan would do next. As he began to think up of numerous plans, a voice spoke in his head, one he had not heard from in a while.
"Seems you could use a little help Jordan,'' said a calm voice.
'Yeah, you wouldn't happen to know any spells that can help me find gems would you?'
''You already have that ability, Jordan. In fact, you've already used it."
'Your shitting me, I don't remember jack.'
''You know how you've been using your Terra forming powers to fight, well you can also control gems and crystals. Anything that comes from the Earth and is made up of minerals of any kind, you can control. All you need to do is focus on the kinds of gems or etc and bring them up with your powers. All you need is focus and an open mind. I've given you the tools you need, now put them to use, don't disappoint me,'' Torva said as his voice began to fade.
Jordan silently thanked Torva, and looked at the Diamond Dogs. "Before the sun sets, I'll have your gems and you in my Alliance,'' he said with confidence. ''I just need you ready to pick them up.''
Onyx Claws clapped and laughed, ''You're an interesting one, I like you and I can't wait to see what and how you'll pull this off.''
Jordan looked over at his Pack, they nodded, believing in him, trusting him. With newfound knowledge and an itch in his knuckles, he started his race against time as the sun began to slowly decline towards the horizon. |
Why Not? | Two Birds With One Stone | Jordan cracked his knuckles and smiled, this was going to be easy. Then he realized a small problem, he had to remember all the gems names and what they looked like. 'Fuck...um emerald is green I think and ruby's are red or something like that.' He closed his eyes and focused on they looked like and used his powers to scan the surrounding area. There were pockets of the two gems inside of the mountain but he assumed the Diamond Dogs already owned them.
He focused harder and found a large pocket of Rubies and Emeralds along with what felt like Gold. 'Win, so much win,' he thought eagerly. He opened his eyes and turned towards the watching Canines and said, ''I found some gems and gold at the base of the mountain next to that dead tree. Do you want to retrieve it or would you prefer me to do it?"
Onyx Claw was silent, ''I'll trust you, I'll send two of my soldiers to pick it up. So please, continue if you will.''
With a flick of his ears, two of his soldiers lep into the hole they made earlier, disappearing from sight. With that taken care of, Jordan once again closed his eyes and focused on remembering the names of Gems and Minerals. 'Um amber is like golden brown or honey looking. Amethyst is a purple looking quartz, and Opal is like a chameleon like stone that um diffracts light..I think.' A little further away from the mountain, a pulse was set off, 'Okay, gotcha.'
He opened his eyes once more and looked at the remaining eyes, ''There's a very large pocket of Gems about 80"ft away from the mountain, I'll make a land mark of two pillars set up on its side. Have your Soldiers dig in between them.'' He concentrated on where the pulse was emitted and flicked his wrist, two pillars of rock shoot up from the ground and could be seen over the tree tops.
Without needing to be told, two more Diamond Dogs split off from the group and also leap into the hole. Before Jordan could begin locating more Gems, the two Diamonds Dogs from earlier, don't ask how he knew, leap out of the hole. ''Where are the Gems and Gold,'' Onyx Claw asked curiously. The two Diamond Dogs looked at each other then at him, ''There was too much to carry sir, we'll need a lot more Diamond Dogs,'' said the one on the right, the one on the left nodding in agreement. Onyx Claw was quiet, he cast a glance at Jordan who was wearing a stupid grin, ''Well go ahead and take some Workers with you,'' he said finally. They saluted and disappeared in the hole.
Not even 5 minutes later, the Soldiers sent to the pillars showed up empty handed. Before they could state their reason, Onyx Claw held up his paw,'' Let me guess, too much to carry?'' They nodded, and Onyx Claw sighed while running a paw down his face, ''Go ahead and take some Workers with you.'' They saluted and went to fulfill their orders. When Onyx Claw turned back to Jordan and his Pack, he was smiling. ''Your definitely filled with surprises. I think I might just join your Alliance even if you don't give me the required amount,'' he said with a chuckle.
Jordan just shrugged, ''I didn't even think there was that much to be honest. So I've been wondering, are you the only Diamond Dog leader here or what?''
''Good question, There are many packs of Diamond Dogs through out Equestria, mine just happens to be very large, well actually its the biggest, around 4,000 with multiple Dens. My Pack happens to be one of the few that doesn't rely on slave labor to get Gems,'' he said the last part proudly.
Jordan nodded, ''I can respect that, hard work goes a long way.'' Before Jordan could say anymore, multiple Diamond Dogs garbed in a sleeveless jacket hopped out of the hole, carrying the Gems that he had told them about. He also noticed they were carrying a type of Quartz, it was clear but had a rainbow tint to it. The Diamond Dogs carrying them, were grinning from ear to ear. They began to pile on the Gems, Gold and hardened crystals. The pile grew larger and larger, pretty soon it was almost towering over them like a tower of riches. If Jordan had to guess and he was a great guesser, he'd say there was about a few tons worth of assorted goodies. Needless to say, the Diamond Dogs hit it big and it was all thanks to Jordan.
Onyx Claw's smile grew wider and wider as the tower grew higher, thanks to Jordan, they had gained what they would normally be able to find in two years, only took them two hours since their meeting. After a few more handfuls, the Tower was done and it was beautiful. ''I think that's good enough, right?"
"More than enough Jordan, you can definitely expect us in your Alliance. You would honor us for accepting us into your Alliance,'' he said with a deep bow. Jordan rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, ''If anyone should be feel honored, it should be me. Your People joining my cause means a lot to me and if you ever need a hand with some Gem expeditions, let me know.''
Jordan and Onyx Claw looked each other in the eye, a feeling of respect for each other could be clearly seen. Onyx Claw turned his eyes to the excited Diamond Dogs and said, ''Take the Gems to the base of the mountain and distribute them equally among the Pack. Take the Gold and Quartz to the Vault, also be sure to bring some of the Gems to the rest of our Dens and take the rest of the day off to spend with your pups and mate.''
The Diamond Dogs wagged their tails eagerly and got to work at once, happy that they'd get to see their pups so early. As they worked quickly, Jordan gave an approving glance towards Onyx Claw, ''Even distributing the Gems to the other Dens, your a kind one.'' Onyx Claw waved a paw casually, ''We share when we can, whenever one of us makes a big find, we split it equally. Its always been that way with our Pack, All For One, And One For All."
Jordan nodded in agreement, 'I'm liking this guy well uh Dog,' he thought amusingly. He looked at the sky, there was still time to at least possibly talk to a Dragon depending on their living arrangements. He got a thoughtful look, ''Excuse me Onyx Claw, I was wondering, do you know where I could find any Dragons?"
Onyx Claw had a curious facial expression, ''Please, call me Onyx, and yes I do know the locations of a few Dragons. I must warn you though, they can be...peculiar. One lives in the River next to Ponyville, one lives inside a Cave in the next mountain, another lives on the peak of the mountain right next to us. One, who I sometimes do trading with, lives in the Dessert. All of them are quite powerful, even with their peculiar personalities. The river Dragon is a descent fellow, the others though, I wish the best of Luck,'' he said informatively.
'Well shit, I only have time for one and that's the one who lives on the peak'. He looked at the said peak, it was fucking tall. It seriously almost touched the clouds, hell he couldn't even see the peak. He thought about the distance and how long it'd take for him to just get to the mountain, 'Fuck that, too long.''
He rubbed his chin, he wanted to at least get a Dragon on his side and if his hunch was right, this one would be a great asset. As he began to think he was struck with an idea, it was simple in theory but actually putting it to use, probably fatal, but he needed some Dragons. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, this was going to be an interesting experience for sure. He turned back to the watching Onyx and his Pack after measuring looking at the distance from the summit he was currently on and the side of the other mountain. ''Alright guys, I'll be back, I'm going go meet that Dragon that lives up on that peak,'' he said while hooking a thumb over his shoulder. Sil and the others were about to argue but Jordan cut them off, ''Look guys, I know that you want to come with me but I'm pretty sure the frigid air would cause you guys to snap like well snap like twigs.'' They reluctantly nodded their consent, they didn't wish him luck, they already knew that their friend was to stubborn to die.
He breathed out deeply and looked at the other mountain in the distance, it was roughly 3 miles away, maybe more. This was it, with his eyes focused and his mind determined, he raised both hands slowly. At first nothing happened, but slowly a grinding sound could be heard, then immense shaking could be felt. The earth in front of Jordan was rising to create a pathway for him, he was creating his own road that would shave off hours. Onyx Claw was slack jawed along with the remaining Diamond Dogs that choose to watch the events unfold. Sil and the Others just watched with pride.
'Fuck. This. Is. Fucking. Hard. As. My. Morning. Hard. On's,'' he thought while exerting his mind and body, pushing them beyond his limits. The process was slow but it was progressing. Animals of all kinds scattered from the area, a few Cockatrice watching with awe as a bridge of rock and dirt was being raised before their eyes. Jordan was sweating, hell he was sure that he could taste blood in his mouth, he was already seeing spots appear in his vision. His knees were buckling and his arms were shaking, but he showed no signs of stopping, not now, not when he was so close. Another hundred feet and the Bridge would be level. Then it happened, it was faint, but to Jordan it was like a gunshot. *CRACK*, his left hand had just snapped from the sheer pressure and power that was being exerted. Jordan barley winced and only bit his tongue, drawing blood to stop himself from grunting. His broken hand was telling him to stop, to just rest even if only for a moment, but Jordan knew that if he stopped now, he'd look weak. He couldn't look weak, not now, not this close. With the last of his strength he used his broken hand to grab his still functioning hand to steady it even with it protesting with sharp stinging pain.
With one final push, the Bridge was level and Jordan could relax. He let out a deep breath that turned into a cough with red flecks leaving his mouth. He fell to one knee and held up his good hand to stop the others from rushing to his side. They stopped but continued to look at Jordan with worry and concern. He began to breathe in and out at a steady pace, the pain he felt was undescribable, his body hurt but it felt good in a way. Even through all the pain, he smiled a bloody smile brimming with satisfaction. 'Totally worth every drop of blood I'm about to cough up,' he thought with a bittersweet smile as the he hacked and wheezed while mumbling a string of curses when he began to slowly stand up.
"By my mother's teats...'' Onyx whispered in a barely audible voice. The Diamond Dogs were impressed, awed, shocked, and dumbfounded. Sil and the others were proud and worried, they chose to stay where they were at and only nod approvingly when Jordan looked their way. He stood up to almost fall, but caught himself somehow. He held his broken hand to his chest and took the first few steps onto the Bridge. There were trees and bushes on it but a path was clearly made between them. As he walked past all the plant life, he could feel them giving him energy, with each step he took, his power came back bit by bit. Soon he was moving at a steady pace, and had gathered enough power to heal his hand. He touched his mouth and found blood, he wiped the remaining stains off with his sleeve continued with his mission.
The journey was quiet, with only his thoughts to keep him company. He was so busy with his thoughts that he failed to realize that he had already reached the other side of the mountain. Instead of a summit, he came upon a path that led upwards and downwards. Jordan cared not for the second and traveled up with eyes forward. It wasn't long but Jordan could feel the temperature declining. Soon he could see snow falling and some already lying on the ground.
With a loud sigh and a mumbled "Fuck", he carried on, zipping up his hoodie and tightening the hood. Luckily it was a light snowfall and the there weren't any frigid winds whipping about. He breathed into his cupped hands and rubbed them. After an hour of walking he looked over the edge and slowly walked the inside of the mountain. He was currently above the clouds, no wonder he was having a hard time breathing. He kept going and eventually came to the entrance of a large cave. Ice crystals surrounded the area and frozen bones were scattered about. He took one step forward and immediately a thunderous roar was emitted from the cave that shook the crystals all around him. 'Shits about to get real..,' he thought as he prepared himself for a fight. |
Why Not? | Deal Or No Deal | Jordan covered his ears as the roar echoed about the peak, shattering a few Ice crystals and making the rest vibrate. Abruptly the roaring ceased and the only sound left to be heard was the howling wind. Shivering when a blast of chilling air shot down his spine, he decided that he should do what he came to do.
With one last look around the area, he proceeded towards the Cave. He was shrouded in darkness, but as he peered into the darkness he could see the soft glow of light. It was a strange looking light, it was white and moved about, like a fire, like a torch. He carefully made his way through the dark towards the peculiar torch.
When he reached it he was mesmerized by the "Torch", it was a beautiful white flame, it looked like snow and ice made into a flame. When he extended his hand, he noted the closer his hand crept, the colder it got to the point where it burned. Ice fire, he'd heard about in stories and comics but seeing it was something else, Ice so cold, it Burns.
He pulled his hand back into his pocket and looked around. He was definitely inside a cave, the Torch showed that much as he surveyed the weathered rocks and stone. As his back was turned, more Torches were lit behind him, creating a path. Jordan looked around to see if he could see or hear any signs of someone or something lighting them, he heard nothing.
With a quick shake of his head, he continued on. After what felt like hours, he came upon a large opening. The sight that met him caused his mouth to go agape. Crystals made of Ice surrounded a wide open area in the cave. It was not even a cave anymore, more like a cavern, and the crystals weren't what begged his attention. It was the mass of Ice Fire in the very center of the cavern, it was massive. Jordan couldn't even tell if he was cold or hot anymore. The Fire cast a beautiful light that reflected upon the crystals, making the walls come alive with their vivid imagery, a blend of colors that soothed the mind.
As he watched the colors dance around the cavern, he failed to hear the slithering that was being made behind him. He continued to watch the lights as the slithering grew closer and closer.
".......''
Jordan froze, there was something behind him, something big, and something scaly judging by the slithering. With a gulp, he slowly turned around, 'Holy fucking shit.'' He raised his head, standing in front of him was a Dragon, a very big Dragon, a very big Dragon with very sharp teeth. It was staring at him, watching him with curiosity and intrigue. It's scales were a Snow white with a tinge of blue, the kind of blue that leads to frostbite and amputation. Two ebony horns adorned it's skull and were pointing backwards. It's eyes were a soft blue, and it's claws were black as night and looked like they could cut titanium like butter. It's tail swept from side to side as it watched him. For some reason, Jordan felt as if it were a female.
"Um..hello?" he said awkwardly.
The Dragon tilted it's head, ''Not only are you the strangest thing I've layed eyes upon, but you can speak too,'' rang a feminine voice that sounded like the trilling of bells. It was soft but calm and full of grace.
''Hmm, well you see uh...basically theres going to be a war and its either save this land or perish with it. Before you get the wrong idea, I am in no way whatsoever forcing or demanding that you help me. I only come asking for your help, should you refuse to, I will leave at once to leave you to your own devices,'' he said respectfully.
The Dragoness frowned at the mention of war but soon wore a face of wonder. ''You are obviously not of this land, Strange One. What do gain from this war?"
He rubbed the back of his neck, ''Your not the first to say that or the first to ask that. I originally came here seeking to explore and learn all that I could about this land, but thanks to a pyramid and certain God or should I say Gods, I am now leading an Army to fight an Evil that wishes to kill everything. A Stranger in A Strange World if you will.''
She now wore a neutral expression, ''Your cause is a noble and worthy one, a Scholar turned Warrior. I have to ask, why would you risk your life coming up here, either the cold or I could have killed you,'' she said seriously.
Jordan laughed a little, knowing she was right. ''Your right, I could have died from the cold or you could have just eaten me or hit me with your flames. I believe that nothing can be gained easily. I am determined to win and destroy this Evil that threatens me and this Land that I have barely begun to explore.''
The Dragoness was silent when she heard Jordan's reason. She looked into Jordan's eyes, she smiled, revealing her very sharp teeth. ''What is your name?"
"My name is Jordan, and I am a Human.''
"My name is Borealia of the Big Four, its a pleasure to make your acquaintance,'' she said with a small nod of her head.
Jordan was grinning, ''So you'll help me?" he asked eagerly.
Borealia smiled softly, ''Not so fast, I will join you if you can do one thing for me.'' ''Lets hear it then," Jordan said, eager to gain her allegiance.
"If you want my help, get the other Three of the Big Four to join you as well. Do this and you'll have the support of the Northen Wind at your back.''
Jordan smiled, ''You have a deal Borealia, I was going to ask for their help anyways, but when I do convince them which I will, how am I to contact you?'' he asked curiously. She hummed which was basically like sound waves shaking the air, ''I have just the thing,'' she said as she reached into the Ice Fire that burned brightly. When she retracted her claw, she held a Gem, well what looked like a Gem. It was the size of his head and looked like a pebble compared to the Dragoness. Without the tiniest hint of concentration shown, the Gem began to shrink to the size of a golf ball. She could use magic, she could breathe Ice so damn cold it burned and she could use magic. He had to have her on his team.
The Gem was the color of Ice but it shimmered with an unyielding brilliance. It was white but blue at the same time, it was magnificent. She gently brought her large hand down and motioned for Jordan to pick it up. It was cold, but it also burned with a faint heat but a burning sensation could be felt, like dry ice. ''Speak my name only once and I shall race to your side faster than a snowflake can melt.'' Jordan carefully placed the Gem inside his pack.
He looked up at Borealia, her face was etched with sincerity, Jordan believed her. She smiled softly, ''Now go, Jordan, go forth and assemble your Army to battle the oncoming Darkness,'' she said with passion. Jordan couldn't help but become a little pumped, ''I will and thank you for believing me and not eating me,'' he said while turning around and heading for the hole he had entered from.
Borealia watched him leaving, laughing softly at his parting comment. After he had disappeared from her view, her face became serious in thought. War, something that this land hasn't seen for some time was now on the horizon. She slowly crawled into the freezing fire, eyes slowly closing. Something was telling her she'd need all her strength for the upcoming ordeals.
Jordan was pumped and hyped to say the least. He had basically convinced a Dragoness that could blast Ice from her mouth and that could use magic. All he needed to do was convince the other three to join him and Jordan was going to strike while the iron was hot. The next one on his list was other mountain Dragon and hopefully the mountain wasn't going to be covered in snow.
He exited the cave and braced himself for the chilly winds and freezing air but was surprised when he felt nothing but a pleasant breeze. He was sure that the air would be freezing at least since snow was still falling and his clothes were being whipped about. Yet he only felt the kiss of the wind on his face like the cold had little or hardly any affect on him. He pondered what was the cause and could only come to one conclusion, the Gem in his pack was making him immune to the harsh weather.
Thankful for such a gift, he quickly made his way down the mountain to convince the next Dragon to join his cause. He made it to the Bridge he created in less than 30 minutes and began to cross with an air of purpose surrounding him. He made good time and he could see the Diamond Dogs and his Pack waiting patiently for him. The sky was still lit and the Sun just reaching its peak had barely begun to sink.
Time, he still had some before he would have to find a place to sleep or he could try to pull an allnighter. He reached the awaiting canines and met them with waves and nods. ''I have somewhat convinced the Ice Dragoness to join our cause. She will join if I can convince the other three to join as well. I plan on talking to the other mountain Dragon,'' he said while casting a glance towards the mountain that housed the said Dragon. Onyx nodded and rubbed his chin, ''The other three huh, well I must say you're quite the ambitious one. I'll let my troops know that we prepare for war while you do what you must.'' He nodded his head and walked towards the hole and leap into the black abyss. Jordan sighed and ran a hand through his hair and stretched his body out, this Dragon was hopefully going to be just as easy as Borealia..but most likely it wasn't. He straightened and looked at his "Bridge", that might cause some problems for the locals. He grit his teeth and focused on pushing the "Bridge" downwards. Ever so slowly it began to sink, hardly rumbling and what surprised Jordan was how easy it was. 'Maybe I leveled up or something,' he thought while laughing a little, grateful for not having to use too much strength.
He turned towards Sil and the others, ''Well guys, lets get going.'' He didn't wait to see if they'd follow, he didn't have to. Their padding fell in match with his walking and soon they were off the mountain and in front of the next. They stood in front of a enormous cave, a little bigger than Borealia at the base of the mountain. The Pack waited patiently while he made his way inside, as soon as he entered the cave, a blood curdling roar was emitted from the darkness and the cave was lit with flames. A green Dragon definitely bigger than Borealia was on all four in front of him with red hot flames leaking out of his mouth, bathing the cave walls with dancing shadows. The walls soon became covered in fire, the Green Behemoth no longer having to breath fire, stopped. It stared down at him, as if trying to break his very spirit into tiny pieces. The stare was powerful to say the least, it reminded him of a police officers stare, challenging. So Jordan did the only thing he could do, he stared right back, beads of sweat rolling off his face from the heat and intensity of the Dragon's stare.
After what felt like 10 minutes of a extreme staring contest, the Dragon spoke, his voice a deep cross between a growl and grumble, ''Your stronger than you look, puny ape. Now state your reason for entering my cave less you end up like the rest of the foolish trespassers,'' he chuckled darkly while motioning towards a pile of charred bones.
Jordan gulped, 'Fuuuuck', he thought silently, "Well basically theres going to be a war and I need Allies. I have the Ponies, probably not gonna do much save for healing, I have the Diamond Dogs, the Timber Wolves, a Hydra, the Dragoness Borealia, and the Cockatrice on my side.'' The Green Dragon nodded his head and even tilted his head a little at Borealia's name. He rubbed his chin, ''You've been a busy one and its been quite some time since I've been in a good scrap, what are you killing?''
"They're called the Corrupted and they're some mean sons of bitches. I've fought a solider of theirs and almost died, they do not play. They want everyone dead, and I have things I'd like to do. Our goal are as you can see, are conflicting.''
"Well that's a good enough reason, but first tell me, what are you? I've not seen a creature like you and I've been around for quite some time now,'' the Green Dragon asked, voice full of curiosity.
Jordan smiled, ''I am not of this land or World, I come from a different realm because I was bored and I guess you could say I thirsted for adventure. I was given a chance by a peculiar man by the name of Discord who I later found out to be a God. I explored for some time and soon met another God, the God of Nature, King Torva. I was tasked with finishing what he couldn't and given power over the Earth and Plant life. But to ask exactly who I am, well I guess you could go with a Stranger in a Stranger Land.''
The Dragon grinned, ''I like you but that doesn't mean I'll join you. Just because you have lil old Borealia doesn't mean I'll join you as well. If you really want me as your Ally, fight me. You don't need to win, just hurt me enough to make me yield. Then will I join you, do you accept?''
'Say no, say no, say the fuck no,' ''I accept,'' 'Shit.'
The Dragon laughed loudly, shaking the cave with his booming laughter, ''Your a brave one, I'll give ya that. My name is Magnus, Dragon of the Earth. We'll fight outside so you have a chance.''
Jordan nodded and turned to walk out the cave, Magnus following. Sil and the others watched as he exited the cave and raised their ears when Magnus also walked out, stretching hid enormous wings. "Hey guys sorry to keep ya waiting, looks like I got another battle today,'' he said while laughing a little. In truth, Jordan was nervous as hell, seriously though, he was fighting a fricking Dragon. When Magnus fully exited the cave, Jordan had a better look at him. His scales were in fact green and his snout was sharp, full of serrated teeth ready to cut flesh.
Magnus looked down at the Pack of Timber Wolves and tilted his head, ''You even have a pack of Timber Wolves following you, impressive. Lets lay down the rules shall we, I won't kill ya, intentionally anyways, and ya have to fight me on your own. I won't kill, but I also won't hold back, seem alright to you?''
Jordan sighed, 'Well this is gonna be fun,' he thought grimly. ''I accept the conditions.''
Magnus grinned, his body was itching for a fight and something was telling him this was going to be a interesting match. ''You can start off with the first attack, child.''
Jordan inhaled and then exhaled, preparing for the first strike. With a quick gesture with his hand, a pillar of rock shot upwards, heading straight for Magnus's face. He didn't even flinch when it connected, sending out a small shockwave and creating an explosion of rocks and dust. ''Nice attack, but it seems you forgot something, I am the Dragon of the Earth, your Earth based attacks won't do much against me, child.''
As soon as he finished his sentence, Magnus shot a torrent of red hot flames towards Jordan. Jordan cursed under his breath as he used both hands to erect a wall of rock to block the attack. And just a second later a wave of intense heat washed over him, like the air itself was on fire, 'So this is a Dragons Flame, huh.'
As his thoughts raced, looking for a counter, Magnus raised his claws and slammed them down. The force jarred Jordan and he leap to the left as his rock barrier began to recede back into the Earth. ''I forgot to mention, I can also use Earth attacks too,'' Magnus said while aiming another gout of flame at him. 'Shit, can't use rocks, so lets try this,' Jordan quickly shot his his arms up, thick vines shot out of the dirt and wrapped around Magnus's snout, stopping him from bathing Jordan in flames, if only for the moment.
Jordan backed away from Magnus and saw that Sil and the others had gone a safe distance away from the fight. Glad that his friends wouldn't be in the way, he turned his attention back towards the Dragon. Magnus reached towards his snout and used one of his claws, cutting the vines with ease. ''Resourceful but not very effective, lets up the ante shall we?" Before Jordan could process those words, Magnus stretched his wings to their full length, and began to flap them. His flapping caused massive gusts of winds that almost blew Jordan away before he finally shot upwards into the blue sky. ''Lets see how ya deal with me in the air now, child!" he said while spewing gouts of flame at Jordan. He cursed loudly, all he could do for now was dodge the flames. What he didn't expect was a wall of rock to stop him dead in his tracks. More walls began to erect themselves around Jordan till he was surrounded by them, like a prison. ''What are you going to do now, child!?''
Everything seemed to slow down as Jordan watched the flames leave Magnus's mouth and slowly head towards Jordan. He knew that if he brought out a barrier of rock, Magnus would just bring it down. Time was running out as the flames drew nearer and nearer, 'Think damn it, think! Wait, he can only control the Earth, I can control Plants, Rocks, and Gems and Crystals! Its worth a shot,'' he thought grimly as he focused on a thick wall of Diamond to erupt in front of him creating a protective wall. Seconds later the Flames met the Diamonds, Jordan knew that the Diamonds would soon oxidize so he threw an extra layer up and ripped the wall of rock apart that was blocking his way. As he made his escape from the prison, he saw a look of shock appear on Magnus's face.
He ceased his assault and looked at Jordan with awe, ''So you can control Crystals as well? I'm impressed, but will it be enough to hurt me?"
"How about you come find out!" Jordan yelled.
"Now your talking, here I come!"
Jordan raised his hands and almost immediately sharp pillars of Quartz launched out of the ground next to Jordan. Not expecting this, Magnus tried in vain to dodge but was hit in the chest and his left wing. A few of the Crystals stuck into his chest, piercing it while other ripped clean through his left wing. He roared in pain as he began to spiral out of the sky. There was a mighty boom that could of been heard from Ponyville as he crashed into the ground. Before the dust could settle, pillars of rocks shot out of the cloud and one of them scored a lucky hit against his left shoulder, throwing his off balance. Immediately blood began to seep from the wound, his clothes becoming soaked with red.
Jordan began to cough out blood as he began to heal himself. Before he could finish, Magnus roared with enough force to dissipate the dust cloud. His left wing was adorned with holes leaking blood that were slowly closing. His chest had several crystal spikes sticking out of his chest, he reached with his claws and ripped them out, growling as each one left his body. Almost immediately his wounds began to heal.
Magnus began to chuckle, ''That was a surprise, a surprise that hurt but still a surprise indeed, but your going to have to try harder than that."
Jordan was clutching his shoulder, blood trickling down his chin as he tried to slow the blood loss. "Your a tough bastard, that's for sure, guess its my turn to up the ante, yeah?" he said while giving a bloody grin.
Magnus gestured with his claws for Jordan to attack. Jordan looked at up at the sky, the sun was close to setting, this next move was going to determine the outcome of this fight. He turned his attention back to Magnus, he was breathing hard and his wings hadn't healed completely. With a nod, he took his hand off his shoulder and raised both arms up and focused his gaze onto him. With a mighty yell, the ground behind him erupted as Crystal spikes began to shoot towards Magnus. Magnus smiled and let loose his own roar as he raised both claws upwards and brought them thundering down, causing his own spikes of Earth racing towards Jordan.
Crystal met Earth and Earth met Crystal, causing the dirt to kick up a cloud, covering the battlefield. Eventually the dust began to clear, when it finally cleared, Magnus lay on his back pinned to the ground by two Crystal spikes protruding from his shoulders. Jordan layed on his back as well, one rock spike sticking out from his left arm. He slowly and painfully reached with his right arm and grasped the projectile. Ever so slowly, he began to pull it out, gasping from the pain as every few inches the wound sent up a spurt of blood. Finally, with most of it out, he quickly pulled upwards, tossing it aside he layed his arm down.
He closed his eyes and began to focus on the surrounding plant life, drawing its power in, slowly healing himself. After sealing his wounds, he shakily got up and made his way over to Magnus, limping the whole way. When he finally reached the said dragon, he found him holding a large bloody Crystal in one clawed hand. He tossed this aside and reached for the other, quickly yanking it out with a sharp grunt. The wounds left by the Crystal began to slowly heal, Magnus raised himself just as slowly. They were left there, just staring at each other, not saying a word. They looked at each other's wounds, then they looked at each other. Magnus eventually nodded, ''I yield, this is your win, Human.''
Jordan smiled tiredly, ''My name is not Human or Child, its Jordan.''
Magnus smiled as well, ''Very well, Jordan, are all of your kind this strong?"
"Not really, I'm just a stubborn bastard,'' he said while laughing a bit.
Magnus laughed as well, ''I'll say, using Diamonds as a shield so couldn't control them, pretty smart.''
''That damn prison of rock almost got me, thought I was done for.''
As they chatted, Sil and the others made their way to them. Jordan noticed them and smiled, giving them the thumbs up, ''I won..barely, but still won.''
Sil nodded, and looked at the darkening sky, ''Its getting late.''
Jordan nodded, ''You don't mid if we set up camp here for the night do you Magnus?"
"By all means go ahead, you've earned my respect and I'd be happy to fight alongside you,'' he said while giving a toothy grin. Jordan nodded in appreciation and watched as Magnus entered his cave, most likely to rest and heal his wounds. Jordan sent Sil and the others off to hunt while he prepared camp. They returned shortly with another deer and Jordan cleaned it quickly and set it over the fire. He was getting better at this sort of thing, growing accustomed to living in the wild. As the deer cooked, Sil spoke up, "What do we do now?"
Jordan rubbed his chin, ''I'll head into the Dessert tomorrow to meet the Changelings and the other Dragon. But I'll head into Ponyville for more supplies. Also I'm having you guys stay here, I don't think you'll do to well in the Dessert.'' They nodded in understanding, ''We'll keep an eye on things in the Forest while your away.''
''Thanks, I'll be counting on you guys.''
Jordan began to relax as the scent of cooked meat met his nose, he had gained another ace of his sleeve and planned on another tomorrow. His Army was almost ready, the only problem was how were the Enemies doing. He cut a piece of meat off with his knife and began to eat, he'd think about those things tomorrow. |
Why Not? | The First Step | Jordan woke up as the ground began to rumble and shake. He shot up from from the ground and almost fell back down to it. When he he looked around looking for the cause of the ground shaking, he finally noticed Magnus moving about in front of his cave. The Dragon was busy shaking his body out, ''Hey whats up Magnus?"
Magnus turned his head to Jordan, ''Ah Jordan, sorry about that, its been a while since my body has ached like this, its quite refreshing.''
Jordan chuckled a little, ''To each their own, yeah.'' Jordan began to stretch his body out as well and kicked some dirt onto the mostly dead fire. Speaking of fire, he cast his his gaze about and saw the scorch marks from yesterdays battle. He was kinda relieved that none of the trees caught on fire. He looked at Sil and the others, they were somehow still asleep. With a small laugh and a shake of his head he began to poke them till they finally woke up.
"Was wondering when you guys would wake up,'' he said while grabbing his pack. ''We sleep when we can,'' Sil said with a small shrug with was quite funny to Jordan.
Magnus looked at Jordan, ''So tell me Jordan, what are your plans for today?''
"Well I plan to talk to the Changelings and the Dragon that resides in the Desert, gotta get those Allies. Then I plan to talk to the River Dragon as well.
Magnus nodded and rubbed his scaly chin, '' I'll handle the River Dragon for you, me and him go way back. As for the Desert Dragon, her name is Mirage. She's a master of illusionary magic, and her flames are hotter than mine. She's just a little smaller than Borealia, shes very playful so be wary.''
Jordan nodded, ''Thanks, that really does help me a lot,'' he said, thanking the Dragon.
''Oh and one more thing, are very hateful of the Ponies, so it might be quiet difficult to convince them. Your going to have to give them something worthwhile, something that could really help them,'' said Magnus seriously.
''Oh I have a few things in mind, thanks for the info, I need to go visit the town Ponyville for supplies.''
Magnus nodded and extended his wings before taking off into the sky. The force almost threw Jordan away but he somehow stayed grounded. He looked at the Wolves and them waiting for him, ''Guys, we''ll have to separate once we get to Ponyville.''
''We know, but we also know you'll be back,'' said Sil and the others nodded in unison. With a laugh Jordan gave them a noogie and he motioned for them to follow as he began walking in Ponyville's direction. The walk was quiet and uneventful, save for a few Cockatrice that bowed politely when seen. His thoughts soon began to wander towards the Corrupted. What were they doing, and how many were there? These questions could not be answered at the time, but Jordan would rather have something he didn't need then not have it when he needed it. He cleared his thoughts when the the town became visible. He hurried his steps and stopped in front of the red bridge. He looked at Sil, who nodded in understanding. He and the others nudged Jordan's waist and then turned towards the wood, taking off at a light trot.
Watching them go, Jordan smiled and then his smile became a slight grimace. 'My eyes are gonna hurt like Hell in a minute,' he thought as he began to cross the bridge. It wasn't long when he was hit with a multitude of colors, bright colors. Colors of all kinds assaulted Jordan's eyes, he resisted the urge to claw his eyes out and simply narrowed them, so not to see as many colors.
These Ponies looked at Jordan openly, well most of them, a few others either took off or fainted, ''Weaklings.'' He scanned the crowd that had gathered and finally stopped his gaze on a certain lavender mare. ''Ah Twilight, we need to talk,'' he called out to the studious mare. She looked surprised as well as the rest of the Ponies who seemed to relax. He shrugged it off waited till Twilight made it over to him. She looked excited as she neared him, but stopped when she saw his shoulder, ''Is that blood?!"
He looked at his shoulder, there was a rip, and most of the area a blood soaked red, ''Oh this, its nothing just got in a scrap with a Dragon is all, well two Dragons but only the second one hurt me. I won though,'' he said casually, enjoying her look as she stared at him. ''Your telling me you fought two Dragons and only one harmed you?" He scratched his chin, ''Well no, I talked to the first and we struck a deal, the second one would only join if I could hurt him, difficult but not impossible.''
''Are all Humans this strong and reckless?" Twilight asked skeptically. ''Well no, I'm just stubborn and uh lets say ambitious, yeah lets go with ambitious. Anyways that's not why I came here, I need some supplies for traveling in the Desert and a map.''
Twilight nodded, ''Do you mind if I contact the Princess first?''
"Yeah sure, I don't care unless she tries to stop me,'' a hidden message in his words. Twilight nodded and motioned for him to follow her. They walked in awkward silence, well awkward silence for Twilight, Jordan was busy being bored. Twilight tried breaking the silence with some small talk, ''So how do you like are land so far?'' she asked curiously. He cast his gaze over to her, ''I like it, plenty of adventure but not enough danger, well theres plenty currently. What I mean is, I get bored easily so I'm hoping after this War, there will be something to do.''
Twilight nodded at this, at least understanding for the most part, ''Well theres plenty of interesting places to explore in Equestria and there are other Countries like the Griffin Kingdom and Saddle Arabia. So I'm sure you won't be bored anytime soon.''
He looked at the Lavender mare, ''We'll see,'' was all he said as they stopped in front of a massive tree. It looked like it had been made into a house but the tree was still alive, quite nifty. A sign read Golden Oaks Library. Twilight stepped forward and opened the door with magic, motioning for Jordan to come in. He had to duck a bit but thankfully the ceiling was quite high. Jordan looked around, books, lots and lots of books were shelved all around him. ''Beautiful...,'' he whispered.
''I'm sorry, did you say something?" asked Twilight as she called for a Spike. ''I said this Library was beautiful,'' he repeated as he walked towards one of the shelves. He immediately began to run his hands along the spines, feeling how hold the books were. Twilight looked thoughtful, ''I take it you like books?" He turned to her, ''I fricking love books, its like a damn drug when I read,'' he said wistfully. ''I once read all the books my school library had, I even used to work in one over the Summer.''
''I've read all the books in this library,'' she said proudly, even puffing her chest out. ''Impressive, I was featured in my local newspaper for reading a certain amount of words in one month.'' Twilight was curious now, ''How many words?" He smiled, this always dropped a few jaws and earned quite a few Damns,'' If I remember correctly, it was 6,500,000+ words. That was still in grade school, mind you.'' Twilights jaw dropped in amazement, ''Holy hay, that's amazing!"
Jordan chuckled, ''Nah, it's nothing much, just had something to prove.'' Before Twilight could ask what he had to prove, Spike walked in. Expecting a pony to appear Jordan raised a brow, standing in a doorway that led to the kitchen he presumed, seeing an oven, a small purple and green Dragon stood in front of him. Most of his body was purple save for the green fins that ran down his head and back, including his ears. His tale ended in a spade shape and he came up around Jordan's knees, he was also bipedal. ''Who's this Twilight?'' the Dragon asked curiously, not in the least bit frightened or surprised, just curious. ''Spike, this is the Human I mentioned, Jordan, this is my number one assistant, Spike the Dragon.''
Spike and Jordan looked at each other, they each gave a synchronized nod, while saying ''Sup.'' Twilight facehoofed herself at their introductions, ''Spike I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia informing that Jordan is here at the Library.'' He nodded and fetched a nearby sheet of parchment and some ink with a quill. He began scribbling, not needing Twilight as he wrote the gist of it. Finished, he breathed in and let out a green flame that burned the scroll, but surprisingly instead of turning to ashes like Jordan expected, it flew out of a nearby open window.
Jordan whistled in amazement, ''Nifty little skill right there,'' he said, praising the little guy. Spike puffed with pride and shined his claws on his chest, ''It was nothing.'' Twilight rolled her eyes, ''Anyways, could you tell me how you convinced two Dragons to join you?" At the mention of Dragons, Spike looked excitedly at Jordan, piquing his interest.
''Well alright, ya see what happ-,'' before he could finish his sentence, a golden flash was emitted in the room. When the flash subsided, Princess Celestia was left standing where the flash started. Twilight bowed in her direction while Spike stepped back a bit next to Jordan as he waited quietly. ''Twilight, you don't need to bow when my guards or any citizens are not around.''
Twilight nodded, slightly embarrassed, ''I belive Jordan has something to tell you.''
Princess Celestia turned to Jordan, waiting for him to speak. ''As I was saying, I've gained the Diamond Dogs and two Dragons as Allies.'' Celestia was a little impressed at Jordans progress, ''And how did you exactly convince them?'' Jordan cracked a smile, ''Pretty easy, I met the leader of a rather large pack of Diamond Dogs and we spoke. He'd agree to join me if I could provide two Dragons horde worth of Gems, kinda easy really,'' he said shrugging. ''I then went to visit the Dragon that lived on the snowy peaks, Borealia was her name and Ice so cold it burned was her game. She was a wise one for sure, I like her. She'd join if I could convince the other Dragons, well I've got all of them basically. The next Dragon was Magnus who lived in a large cave inside the next mountain, now he was tough one. Oh he understood the situation but was reluctant to join. We came to a "Understanding'' so to speak. If I could make him yield in battle, he'd join, if not, well I'd probably be dead. Honestly, he had me cornered since he could manipulate the Earth like me except he could only control rocks and dirt.''
"You can only control Rocks and dirt as well as the plants right?" asked a curious Celestia. Jordan nodded, ''I just recently awakened a new power that lets me control Gems and Crystals, quite useful for convincing Diamond Dogs and makes a decent protection against flames,'' he said while laughing loudly as he remembered how close he was to a fiery death. His thoughts were interrupted when a skeptical Twilight raised a hoof, ''Wait, your telling me that you not only convinced the Diamond Dogs to join you, but also two Dragons who can apparently control certain elements?" her right eye was beginning to twitch, even Celestia took a step away from her. Spike just gave a sigh and rolled his eyes, ''Here we go again,'' he said as took a few steps next to Jordan.
Jordan scratched his chin, ''Yeah, I am and I did. Theres no reason to be surprised, I have things I'd like to do and to do them I need help. Anyways, before we get sidetracked any further I need some supplies for my trip into the Desert.''
Celestia nodded as Spike began to try and calm Twilight. "Very well, just state what you need exactly and it shall be provided. Twilight, Spike, if you could give Jordan and I a moment."
Both nodded as they exited the Library, with that attended to, Celestia turned her gaze over to Jordan. "How powerful are you Jordan?" it was a simple question, but it was straight to the point. Jordan just smiled and scratched his chin, ''Hmm honestly, I can create Mountains with a bit of effort, well actually a lot of effort, but it puts a lot of strain on me and I can control the Earth's minerals as well as plants.'' Celestia merely absorbed the information and nodded, ''What exactly are your plans after this War?"
"I plan on exploring, simple as that. I'm only creating this Army out of a necessity.''
She was silent, ''And what if some of your Allies were to go to war with each other and asked for you to choose a side?''
"Then I'd choose, I'd choose whoever I deemed the lesser evil, whoever deserves my sympathy,'' he said casually.
She nodded in agreement, she began to study him, ''What will you do after you have finished exploring?"
He was silent, what would he do when he was done exploring? "I guess I'd settle down somewhere, most likely a forest of some kind. Now if we're done with 20 questions, I'd like to grab the supplies needed for my trip into the Desert.''
She nodded in understanding, ''I apologize for asking such prying questions but I must do what I have to for my citizen's safety.'' Jordan shrugged, ''Do what ya gotta do.''
''So what exactly will you need for your excursion?"
He sighed and rubbed his neck, ''I'll need at least 3 canteens of water, dried fruits, a compass, a map of the Desert, and that's about it, I hope.''
Celestia mentally checked off each item, ''The supplies you require shall be provided with ease, when will you leave?''
Jordan pulled his phone out and hit the power button, the time read 9:36. ''I'll head out as soon as I get the supplies,'' he said as he put his phone back in his pocket. Celestia nodded and made her way to the Library's front door, ''Twilight, Spike, we're done, you can come in now.''
The two entered and looked at them, ''So whats going on?" asked a curious Spike. ''Just talking about the supplies I'll need and some other boring stuff,'' Jordan answered offhandedly. "Speaking of which, you'll need this,'' interjected Celestia as her horn gave off a golden glow causing a flash to be emitted. In her magical grasp was a bulging bag, a very big bulging bag and judging by the clinking, it was filled with coins. ''Our currency is that of Bits, golden coins, this bag contains around 200 Bits. Twilight, if you could be so kind and take Jordan to any nearby shops so he may purchase anything he needs. If you'll excuse me, I still need to run Day Court, it was a pleasure seeing you all,'' she said as her horn gave off another flash, teleporting out of the Library. Twilight looked at Jordan as he picked up the bag of Bits, ''Well I guess we should get going then.'' He nodded and turned to the door but was stopped by Spike asking, ''Mind if I tag along?''
''Sure, I don't mind,'' he answered as he exited the Library, Spike and Twilight following. ''Alright Twilight, mind showing me to these Shops?"
To his amusement he watched Spike lift into the air thanks to Twilight's magic and was placed onto her back. With a shrug he proceeded to follow her to their destination. Jordan ignored the stares once more from the early risers and raised an eyebrow as Spike tried to start a conversation. ''So Jordan, what were the Dragons like?" he asked as he turned his body around, Twilight's ears perked a little, obviously wanting to know as well. "Well Borealia, the first Dragon I met was real chill and made a deal with me. Said if I convinced the others to join, she'd be in too. She seemed really wise and I'm pretty sure she used magic.'' Spike nodded at this and asked, ''What about the other one?" Jordan smiled a little, ''His name was Magnus and he was a tough one, bigger than Borealia and had some really hot flames. His scales were green and he had a simple condition which you already know. If I could hurt him at the very least he'd join me, if not then I'd be barbecue."
"How did you beat him?" Spike asked with a curious tone. ''Honestly he had me beat since he could also manipulate the Earth like me. All my Earth based attacks were useless so I tried a different route. I used Crystal based attacks and aimed for his wings. Heck there was a moment in our fight were I was about to be roasted but I quickly threw a wall of Diamond up to shield me. Eventually I did enough damage with the Crystals to make him yield.''
Spike looked thoughtful and asked, ''Could you show me?"
"Sure just give me a sec,'' he answered before searching for any nearby gems or crystals. There was a golf ball sized sapphire just a few feet below. Jordan gave a quick snap and with ease the blue Gem made its way upwards before shooting out of the Earth and into his hands. Twilight immediately began to take notes while Spike was left awestruck. "Dude that was amazing," he exclaimed loudly.
Jordan just laughed a little and tossed him the Gem, "Take it, I can get plenty with ease.''
Spike clumsily caught it and looked at Jordan, "Thanks for the snack man," he said happily before tossing the Gem in to his mouth. Jordan watched curiously as Spike crunched on the Gem with ease. "Huh, Dragons can eat Gems?"
Spike finished his Meal and licked his lips, "Yeah Gems are like candy to us and another food source,'' he explained happily. "What do they taste like?" Jordan asked.
"Hmm well Sapphires taste like blueberries except they have a sugar filled center that makes my tongue tingle. Emeralds have a sour and sweet taste that shock the taste buds. Diamonds have a plain flavor but leave a cool mint after taste. Onyx acts like a alcohol for us Dragons but we have to consume a lot of it for it to take affect otherwise it taste like cough syrup but tastier. Rubies have a more spicy taste to them but a good salivating spicy. There are plenty more I could list but we'd be here for a while."
Jordan took in all this information and smiled, "Damn makes me wish I was a Dragon so I could have a taste."
The two shared a laugh while Twilight rolled her eyes and nudged him forward, "C'mon we're almost there."
The two stopped laughing and continued forward and eventually stopped in front of a grand looking shop called "Survival Shack". Jordan pushed the door open and whistled in amazement. The place looked like a Big 5 but dedicated to survival, camping, and hiking. He made his way towards the survival area first and began grabbing canteens and the other things he'd need. Twilight was busy calming the manager and assuring that everything was fine. "Hey Spike think you can find me a map?" With a small salute he hopped off of Twilight and was off in search of the best map he could find.
After assuring the manager once more that everything was fine and no one was in danger Twilight made her way to Jordan. "What were the things you needed again Jordan?" He thought for a moment and replied, "A few canteens, a map, either a sleeping roll or tent, some medical supplies, dried food, a compass, and that's it I hope."
The sound of writing caused him to look at Twilight only for him to see her making a checklist. With a shrug he decided not to question it. Picking up 6 canteens he made his way over to the register and deposited them onto the counter. "I'm not done yet, '' he told the surprised Stallion before heading back to the Survival aisle. Just as he grabbed a compass Spike came up to him and showed him a detailed map of Equestria and its desert. Luckily the desert on the map had oasis's marked so Jordan could refill his canteens and camp.
"Spike my Dragon you really pulled through for me, let me know if you ever need a favor done, '' Jordan praised while giving him a fist bump. He tucked the map under his arm and looked for packaged dried food. He found plenty of trail mix and grabbed a lot of those. He looked at Twilight and asked, ''What else is on the list huh Twilight?''
She looked at the list and checked off the map, dried food, and compass. "A sleeping roll or tent and some medical supplies," she said in a matter of fact tone. "Cool, I think I see a few sleeping gear up ahead. They walked further down and came to an aisle dedicated to camping. He looked at the tents and sleeping rolls and decided to take both. He carefully hand Spike the dried food to Spike and put the roll under one arm with the map and grabbed the tent with his free hand while putting the compass on top of it. They made their way back to the counter and also placed these next to the canteens, ''Still not done buddy," he said to the Stallion who had his eyebrow raised. "You wouldn't happen to have any First Aid kits here would you?" he asked the now patiently waiting but still confused Stallion. "Head pass the Camping aisle and you'll find them,'' he said professionally, trying to maintain his cool while he gave directions to a tall naked biped. "Thanks," he said before heading there with Twilight and Spike in tow.
They found the aisle with ease and Jordan grabbed two packs just in case. Even though he could heal himself, a few pills and antibiotics could mean a difference between life and death. He made his way back to the counter and nodded to the Cashier, ''Now I'm done.''
The Stallion merely nodded and simply began to rack up the total amount. ''That will be 64 bits... Sir?" he said questioningly. Jordan only nodded and opened the bag Celestia had before counting 64 bits and laying each one on the counter. The Cashier deposited them into the register and proceeded to bag the supplies. With a well practiced smile he handed Jordan the bags, ''Have a nice day.''
"You too,'' Jordan replied before turning around and exiting the store. As they exited the store Jordan asked, ''Can we head back to your place Twilight?"
"Sure, just follow me,'' she answered while Spike walked alongside him. As they walked back to the Library Spike once again struck up a conversation with Jordan. "So Jordan how old are you?" Twilight's ears perked slightly, "Well I'm 16 about to turn 17 in a few months." Spike just tilted his head, "Huh I'm three years younger then you. Whats the age for you to become an adult in your world?"
"Well like I said earlier, it varies depending on the region. In my country, you had to be 18. My father on the other hand said being an adult and man are two different things."
"Man?" asked a confused Spike.
"A Stallion basically. You're an adult when you turn 18 and can live by yourself. You're a man when you start your own family.''
"Your dad sounds like a cool person.''
Jordan just laughed, ''Yeah you could say that.''
They continued in silence, ''So what do you all do in particular?"
"I'm the personal student of Princess Celestia and the town's Librarian, Rarity is a Designer of everything fashionable, Applejack and her family own an Apple farm called Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie Pie works at a bakery, Rainbow Dash is apart of the Weather Patrol, Fluttershy acts as a Vet and caretaker among pets and wild animals, and Spike here is my number 1 assistant," Twilight said with an air of pride. Nodding, Jordan began to look around at the other Ponies he began to past. 'Hmm no direct signs of hostility but I can see bits of fear.'
Giving his head a little shake he looked his phone, time now read 2:26. Just as he was about to ask if they could speed up they stopped in front of the Library. As he laid his supplies out in front of him, he began to stuff his pack. As he stuffed his dried food into the smaller pockets he found a card. "Jordan, I give this little special pack here to help with your journey. I've imbued a bit of my chaos magic to greatly increase the inside of the bag to the point of being able to stuff a Manticore, just simply think about the object you wish to retrieve and you'll be able to get a grip. Oh and try not to fall in, it will most likely be a pain to get back out haha," he read silently. Looking at the end, he saw Discord's name and for some reason decided to stuff the card into his pocket.
Armed with the newfound knowledge, he proceeded to stuff his pack quickly. Of course stuffing a vast variety of supplies into a regular looking pack would cause some confusion, confusion which was written all over Twilight and Spike's face. "Its bigger on the inside," he said simply. Truthfully he felt quite silly for not noticing the card and tried to shrug it off. "Oh yeah, are you by any chance important to the Princesses? I was just curious about you and your friends having connections with the Rulers of this country."
"Me and my Friends are Bearers of the Elements of Harmony,'' she said happily. "Sounds sappy, whats the Elements of Harmony supposed to do?" Twilight looked a little offended and Spike had to stifle his laughter with a clawed hand,''An Element of Harmony is a representation of one the six Elements of Harmony or qualities. I am the Element of Magic or the spark that can create an opportunity for harmony or friendship. Applejack is the Element of Honesty, she'll never hide her thoughts if you ask. Rainbow Dash is the Element of Loyalty and she'd rather lose a wing then betray her friends. Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness and would even give a Dragon a scolding and even show a roaring Manticore kindness. Rarity is the Element of Generosity and she'd rather give a pony her own clothes then see them without. Pinkie Pie is the Element of Laughter and she'd turn the whole world upside down just to see you smile.'' She described each of her friends with a warm smile to which Jordan just nodded along. "With our Elements we were able to overcome many evils that have threatened Equestria in the past."
This piqued Jordan's interest, "Oh really, like what?"
She put a hoof to her chin, ''Well there was Nightmare Moon." "Who's Nightmare Moon?" Jordan asked, his curiosity rising by the moment. "Nightmare Moon was a split personality of Princess Luna who was born from her subjects neglect. She came to being and tried to plunge the whole world into in an everlasting night. She and Princess Luna were sealed inside the moon by Princess Celestia who used the Elements of Harmony. A thousand years later she was able to use the stars to aid in her escape and again try to plunge the World in eternal darkness. But thanks to me and my friends we were able to stop her and become the new Element Bearers."
Jordan listened to her prattle on how she and her friends also stopped Discord, The Spirit of Chaos. He kept silent about the fact that he was brought here by said Spirit and simply nodded every now and then. She then began to talk about how her and her friends stopped a tyrant called King Sombra and how he had enslaved an entire kingdom and had tried to do it again, but thanks to Spike and Twilight's babysitter who happened to be a Alicorn and ruler of the Crystal Kingdom they had defeated him.
"Well Twilight it seems you and your friends definitely had some crazy adventures but I should get out of here."
Twilight and Spike looked a little downtrodden. "Well don't let us hold you back any longer." Spike lifted a clawed fist, Jordan automaticity understanding due to the fact he was a guy, bumped his fist with Spike's, "Catch ya later bro?" Jordan laughed a little, "Course bro, I'll be sure to come back and hang with you."
Before he could leave though Twilight asked uncertainly, "I forgot to ask, but Jordan how did all that stuff we bought fit in your pack?" 'Oh yeah, was wondering when she'd catch that.'
"Well uh ya see..um..Magic, yep it was magic."
"Could you teach me that spell?" she asked.
".....no."
He quickly made his way towards the forest and ignored the shouts of frustration and smiled when he heard the snickering of Spike. He just lifted a hand into the air and raised it, waving to the duo behind him.
Just a few minutes later Pinkie showed up asking where Jordan was, "Hey Twilight have ya seen Jordan around?" she asked with glee. "Oh hey Pinkie, you just missed him," she explained to her hyper active friend. Pinkie who had been hopping in place stopped hopping, "Well can ya tell me where he is then?" At this moment Spike spoke up, "Sorry Pinks but he's heading off to the desert to pick up some more Allies.'' "But I didn't get to give him a Welcome to Ponyville Party."
On the outskirts of Ponyville Jordan shuddered a little and felt as though he had just barely avoided an unnecessary amount of annoyances. Blaming society he reached into his pack and began to look for his map. Almost as if it was pushed into his hand, he pulled it out and unfurled it to its full size. Taking a close look he saw that if he continued going straight he'd eventually enter the desert. There also seemed to be around 7 oases and they were relatively split up almost randomly. "Wait...where the fuck am I supposed to find the damn Changelings? Ah fuck it, I'll find them eventually, I mean they're black pony looking things with bug wings. Shouldn't be too hard to find in a barren wasteland and I really need to stop talking to myself.."
Before he could shake his head, a smooth voice entered the conversation, "Why Jordan, theres nothing wrong with talking to yourself, I do it all the time." Looking around he spotted Discord in his regular form sitting at a table that looked awfully like the one from Alice In Wonderland. "You really enjoy popping up unannounced," he said as he took a seat across from the God of Chaos. Discord merely smirked and snapped his talons causing a cup of tea to wink into reality in front of Jordan. "So Jordan, I hear that you're having a problem locating the Changelings." He took a sip of his own brew and awaited for Jordan's response. He looked at the clear liquid in front of him before sighing and grasping the cup and lifting it to his lips. After taking a sip he answered, "Well yes, I'm definitely having some troubles. I have no idea whatsoever where to find the Changelings."
Discord laughed nonchalantly, "My dear boy, that's easy. All you have to do is find their hive and mind you, its fairly easy to spot. Let me see your map real quick," without waiting for an answer Discord snapped his talons once more and the map was lain out on the table. "Ah yes, their hive should be right here," he tapped the space between two of the oases and slowly a large X became visible and above it was written "Changeling Hive". "Oh even better," he this time only tapped the map once and it rippled like disturbed water. At first glance there seemed to be nothing wrong till Jordan looked at the Everfree Forest. A stick figure was currently placed where Jordan assumed they were sipping tea at.
"We'll I'll be dammed, is that what I think it is?"
"Oh if you mean the stick figure that represents you and moves as you do, then yes it is what you think, awesome right?'' Discord said cooly while rubbing his lion paw against his chest. "Ha that is awesome, you're a real cool dude," Jordan said as he looked the map over. "Pish posh it was nothing, being the Spirit of Chaos does have its perks."
They shared a laugh and finished their tea, "Well as enjoyable as this was, I have places to be," said Jordan as he stood up and picked up his map. "Ah yes of course, but before you go Jordan a bit of advice, You are never alone till you're dead and even then you have your thoughts. What I'm saying is its alright to be a little mad," explained Discord. "Yeah I hear ya and thanks for the pack and map, see ya later Discord."
With that Jordan gave a little wave and began reading his map, heading towards the Hive. |
Why Not? | The First Night | On a decent sized map was a stick figure currently surrounded by a large forest titled the Everfree. Currently inside the Forest Jordan wiped the sweat from his brow and trudged through the large Everfree. Just a little longer and he'd finally enter the outskirts of the desert. Apparently the desert was called the Red Pan due to heat being so bad that plants would sometimes spontaneously catch on fire.
"This is just a picnic full of fun ain't it?" Jordan asked no one in particular. Swatting at the mosquitoes he quickened his pace, carefully navigating over roots and the nesting snakes that gave off hissing warnings. He sighed once and stopped, leaning against a tree he brought out his phone and connected it to his hoodie buddy earphones. Tossing his hoodie on and placing the earphones in, he put his music player on shuffle and carried on.
Wearing a hoodie in a humid forest probably wasn't the brightest idea that Jordan could of had but for some odd reason wearing warm clothes in the heat kept Jordan cool. After what Jordan assumed was an hour he looked at the map and noticed he was even closer to the desert. As he studied the map something compelled him to look behind him. There was a path of roots that should of definitely tripped him but for some reason he didn't. 'Almost as if the Forest is making it easier...'
This time when Jordan continued forward he watched the ground and his surroundings. He saw a gnarled root and purposely tried to trip over it but surprisingly as he neared it the root itself sunk into the ground. After he passed it he stopped and looked back to see the root rise once more back in its original spot. "That's trippy," he said aloud.
"How so?" asked a voice that belonged to none other then Torva. "Do not the subjects of a king bow before him?"
"Oh, so they're bowing to you, Torva?" he said aloud, not caring if anyone or thing saw. Torva gave a short laugh, "No, they respect me but no longer bow to me, they're bowing to you. Jordan you took my place."
Jordan stopped and took out his earphones, "Wait, what?"
"You heard me, you're the new King of the Wild. Well you're almost there, you haven't fully ascended but Nature knows, she knows all," he said softly.
Jordan slowly accepted the situation, "So I'm not gonna turn into a Pony or something? Like those Princesses?" he asked dreading the answer. "You mean becoming an Alicorn? You won't, you weren't a Pony in the first place so if anything I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually grew wings today or tomorrow. You do remember the changes that would happen to you, well those are just some of those changes."
Jordan rubbed his chin while he watched some more roots recede so as not to trip and injure him, "Will I be immortal?" Torva was silent for a moment, "Yes and no. You won't die of old age and you'll be immune to almost every disease or sickness out there but if you suffered enough magic trauma you'd be finished. But even then your tolerance for magic based attacks have been highly increased. But also you can end your own life if you choose to do so. Also if your body were to experience massive damage you will die."
Jordan stopped rubbing his chin and looked at the map noticing how close they were to the Red Pan, "Huh so basically I just won't age anymore and my immune system is literally Godlike. The thought of wings is a bit enticing but I won't worry about that too much. As long as I don't turn into a Pony or something else I'm cool with it. Oh and while we're talking, do you happen to have any idea where the Corrupted might be hiding?"
"Honestly I have no idea, I could never find out where they hid."
"Can you at least tell me about the head honcho?"
"The what?" asked a confused Torva.
"The guy in charge, the one who wants to kill you all."
Torva was silent for a moment. "He was a friend who became corrupted by black magic and Demons. The fool wanted power and he foolishly made a deal with a Demon and not just any demon but a Glutton Demon. His hunger for power grew each passing day and he soon decided that he deserved the world. I pleaded and tried to reason with him but he wouldn't listen, he didn't want to listen. Eventually he declared war against all living being and with his ill gotten powered raised an army from Hell, literally. Lesser Demons, Imps, the Undead, Shades which were shadows given life, Goblins, and other horrors from the Infernal Pit. He razed countless towns and slaughtered many innocent lives. Overcome by his pride, he made his way with his entire army into my kingdom. You saw what happened, thanks to my sacrifice he was sealed for a time but eventually he was able to whittle the seal down. On the Other Side I found that only an outsider was able to truly destroy him since the Demon that possessed him is not of this realm. Thanks to an old friend I was able to find that Outsider, you."
Slowly realization ran across Jordan face, "This old friend, would his name happen to be Discord?"
Jordan swore he felt the smile form on Torva's face, "Yes, I asked Discord to find me a Champion and he happily obliged. You weren't dropped randomly in the Everfree Forest, home to many deadly creatures of all sizes by coincidence. I had Discord drop you near my temple and we used your curiosity which led you to explore it. The only thing we didn't plan to happen was the pack of Timberwolves and the giant Spider. To simply say, Jordan you have gone far past mine and Discord's expectations."
Jordan put on a shit eating grin, "Ah you're making me blush, honestly I've just been going with the flow. A part of my brain is telling me to freak out and try to find a way home but the rest of it is saying just wing it and so far I've done pretty well. Shit, right now half my brain is telling me to be pissed I was used but the other half is stoked with the powers." He looked at the map and saw that just a few more feet and they'd enter the outside of the Pan.
"Jordan, from what I've seen of your progress since you've entered this World you've become closer and closer to the King I once was."
Jordan couldn't just hear Torva's words but he could feel the emotion behind him. Torva was genuinely happy that someone else would take the Throne. Just as Jordan was about to reply, he immediately felt the air change around him. In front of him were miles and miles of sand, rock, and cacti. The air became dry and he could see the heat waves dancing across the air, waiting to create mirages of all sorts. "This is going to suck,'' he said stating the obvious. "Yep,'' was all Torva said before settling back somewhere inside Jordan's head.
With a heavy sigh he took his first step into the Red Pan. Each step was met with sand, so much fricking sand. He passed cactus after cactus and rocks after rocks. He saw very few animals and the ones he did see seemed to give him a respectful nod and carried on with their business. At one point a trio of Vultures were flying ominously over him but with a few choice words they flew off to harass some other poor creature. By some stroke of luck the heat hadn't reached the point of catching plants on fire or Jordan would of had a heat stroke. He stopped what he assumed was every mile or so to take a swig of water and swish it around his mouth before swallowing. He was in no way about to waste his water which was his life preserver.
"Fuck~ how much further till I hit a damn oasis?" he asked himself as he looked at his map. He estimated that it'd take at least another day and a half till he arrived to the Changeling Hive. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw how close one of the oases was. In fact all he had to do was keep moving forward and within the hour he'd reach it. With renewed vigor he hurried on to his salvation to avoid the heat's wrath. As he made his way across the Sandy hills he looked at the sky and estimated he had around two more hours till the Sun would set.
With a strained breath he finally made his way over an unstable hill made of sand and dead plants. He squinted his eyes to not only minimize the heat's damage but to get a better look in front of him. He saw what he thought were palm trees and the shimmering of water but he was skeptical. Wary of mirages that might throw him off his path, he took a look at his map. There was the stick figure and literally just in front of it was the oasis marker. Slowly a smile began to form on his dried out face and soon that smile became a grin. With a "Fuck yes,'' he tore down the hill, careful not to fall down.
He finally reached the oasis and stopped to admire its brilliance. The watering hole was at least 30 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep he guessed. He dropped his pack and refilled the canteens that needed to be filled. Setting those next to the closest tree he began to take his hoodie and then his undershirts till he was left in his jeans. He knelt next to the pool of clear cold water and cupped his hand. He used his cupped hands to wash his face and to pour some of the water onto his head to remove the sand that was irritating his scalp.
After finishing his ministrations he made his way back to his pack and noticed the sun was beginning its descent. He opened his pack and reached inside for the tent. Again it felt as if it was handed to him and he brought it out with ease. Luckily his father had taken him camping and taught him basic survival or he'd have a tough time in the Forest. The tent was set up fairly quick so he began to look for some wood to burn. Although scarce he was able to scrounge up enough for a small fire that would suffice.
After getting the fire going he brought out his dried food and just sat next to the fire munching on dried fruit. As the sun got lower so did the temperature. Not wanting to catch a cold he put his clothing back on. As he pulled his shirt back on he stopped midway and had the feeling that someone or something was watching. Ignoring the sensation he proceeded to dress himself and resumed his place near the fire. He looked up from the fire and looked at the sky, the stars were shining. "I could get used to this," he said to no one. Poking the fire a bit he stood up and put everything into the tent and entered, deciding a early start in the morning would make the journey shorter.
Unbeknownst to him, a trail of fresh tracks that looked like they belonged to a dinosaur were effectively covered up from a sudden gust of wind. |
The Ghost Company | pre | Startled by the booming voice behind them, the ponies and dragon turned to see another pony standing on a bare staircase, leading away from the dungeon. He was wearing a cloak as black as charcoal, and the lack of lighting obscured most of his face.
"That stallion is innocent! I, and only I, know who murdered Thunder Thorn!"
"Who... Who are you?" Applejack queried.
Spike's eyesight worked somewhat better in darkness, so he had little trouble identifying this character as it spoke. There was a small detail missing from this stallion's earlier appearance.
"Imagine a bandage around his ear, and you get...?"
"Pennywell?!" Twilight was the first to connect the dots.
Overcoming their initial shock, the ponies advanced on him, but the butler just shouted some more.
"Maintain your distance! Or you will get burned!"
He grasped the side of the cloak with his hoof, and threw it around him as he cackled manically. Out of nowhere, fire erupted at the base of his hooves, and one scorching burst of flame later, he had vanished.
"Wha... Where did he go?!" Rarity asked, flustered.
"Please. That was just a fancy teleportation spell." Twilight reasoned.
"But Twilight, that's impossible!" Spike argued. "He's an earth pony, not a unicorn!"
With this revelation bouncing around in her head, Twilight just groaned. "UGH! Whatever! I don't even care to try and understand anything around here anymore. Let's just see where these stairs take us."
The staircase lead them up to...
"A wall?" Applejack said? "It's gotta be a secret passage. Why else would there be stairs here?"
Attached on the wall at the top of the staircase, was a depiction of a devil's face, carved in stone and glaring with empty eyes. As soon as the ponies approached it, its horns lowered and a stone tongue stuck out of its mouth.
"Puh, manners..." Rarity muttered.
"Hang on, ya'll, lemme take a look at this," Applejack perked up. "I've been reading Applebloom some scary stories lately. She seems to like them. One of them mentioned something the likes of this."
After a few moments of inspection, Applejack pushed down on the tongue with one hoof, and raised the horns back to their upright position with the other. Removing her hooves, the tongue snapped right back up, and with a grinding noise, retreated back into the mouth. A series of clicks and whirs could be heard, and to Applejack's elation, the secret door opened.
"Yee-haw!" she exclaimed. "Finally, we've caught a break!"
"I'm not so sure..." Rarity said, as she peered past Applejack, looking into an all-too familiar environment. "Looks like we ended up back inside the manor..." |
The Ghost Company | Revelations | "I can't believe we're back to square one..." Twilight muttered angrily.
As they tentatively rounded a corner, Twilight's eyes fell on the form of a pony, collapsed on the ground. Given her color and size, she quickly identified the unfortunate mare.
"Agate Wreath? What happened to her?"
Applejack walked over, and crouched down next to Agate. She was too busy looking for injuries to notice one of her eyes opening to a slit, peering at her.
"She looks to be out cold, Twi'. And look at this" - she pointed at an oddity in Agate's neck - "see those two holes in her neck?"
Rarity immediately recalled her encounter with the same supernatural being. "Has she been bitten by that vampire? But... That would mean..."
"Exactly..." Agate's voice rasped, as she righted herself. Applejack backed away instantly, keeping out of reach of Agate's fangs.
"Come here! Let auntie Agate Wreath give you a little kiss!" She said, as she stepped closer to Celestia's envoy.
"Rather not, if it's all the same to you!" Spike said, as the ponies broke into a gallop, creating a reasonable distance between them and the portly vampire. She pursued them, but her physical condition quickly made her give up her chase. Maybe her husband would be an easier target...
As the running ponies rounded another corner, they encountered a stallion they were not expecting.
"Pennywell!"
The butler pony got startled, and began to run.
"After him!" Applejack called, "He knows who the killer is!"
Despite the butler's age, he was surprisingly spry. The chasing ponies almost lost sight of him as he turned away into a familiar room.
"There! He went into the salon! We've got him now!"
Bursting into the salon themselves, Rarity and Twilight bumped into Applejack's rump as she suddenly skidded to a halt.
"Where in tarnation did he wander off to?!" she exclaimed.
Rarity, Twilight and Spike now saw for themselves that there wasn't a single trace left of Pennywell. The only oddity in the room was Thunder Thorn's casket.
"I don't believe it," Spike said. "That's the second time he managed to elude us. Maybe he's a ghost too!"
Twilight tapped her chin, as she cast her gaze towards the noblecolt's casket. "Unless..." And with a yank of her magic, she opened the lid.
"Twilight! What in the name of Celestia are you doing?"
Twilight peered into the coffin, and met Rarity's face with a smile plastered on her own. "Solving this thing!" she replied triumphantly. "Look!"
The dragon and the two ponies followed her gaze to the inside of the casket. But instead of a corpse, they saw...
"A stairwell?"
"We're getting close to the bottom of this, I can feel it!" Twilight chirped happily as they reached the end of the stairwell. They were looking down a stone hallway, lined with candles. Around the corner was another hallway, with a single steel door at the end.
They crept forward as silently as possible until they were at the door. Twilight used her magic to gently nudge it open to a crack, and peered inside. What she saw astounded her so intensely, she swung the door open and burst into the room.
"Thunder Thorn?!"
The noblecolt in question turned around from his multiple set of scrying orbs. "Ah, there you are." he said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dare Venture, manager of the Ghost Company. Welcome!"
"The... The Ghost Company?" Applejack asked confused. Just what in blazes was going on around here?
"Yep! We are a very distinctive company, specialized in horror parties. It just so happened you arrived during a party of Ponytastic Ltd., a company based in North Colttown. We have wide array of themes to choose from, and tonight's theme was "The Murder of Uncle Thunder Thorn."
"So... There wasn't a murder at all. Everypony was just acting!" Rarity stated.
"Exactly," the stallion formerly known as Thunder Thorn continued, "and the ghosts and creeps you encountered along the way were either controlled remotely by myself through magic or by electronics, or projected by laser beams." As Dare Venture spoke, a few ponies walked into the room. "Ah, allow me to introduce my crew.
"Gallant Marvel here took on the role of Pennywell. Though being an earth pony, he's an experienced, retired magician, specialized in disappearing acts."
"Yeah, we noticed that." Spike said.
"Silver Platter is a ventriloquist. For years, he had an act as a Siamese twin. Obviously with a fake head."
Platter gave a tiny glare at Applejack as he reached for the back of his head, rubbing the bump she created there.
"Heh... Sorry." She said sheepishly.
"Flare Charge here played the lawyer and the vampire in the graveyard."
"Didn't you notice my severed head in the guillotine basket was made out of rubber?" He smiled.
"And I myself played Thunder Thorn." He leaned in towards Rarity. "Sorry about the prank with the corpse falling from the closet, by the way. I just couldn't resist."
"Uh... it's quite alright..." Rarity said, unsure about anything at this point.
"And as you've seen already, I'm also specialized in the field of scrying orbs. From here, I can see whatever happens on the manor grounds. I was hoping the falling tree out front would turn you away, since this is a private party and all - don't worry, I deliberately missed you - but obviously, it didn't work." He winked.
Dare Venture looked at a particular orb. "Oh, looks like Celestia has started raising the sun. I'd suggest we all turn in for as long as we can, since we practically stayed up all night."
The next morning, which stretched out into the early afternoon, a couple of carriages were lined up in front of the manor. The "heirs" made ready to step aboard, while some of the stallions strapped themselves with bridles.
"Where did those the carriages come from?" Twilight asked.
"We've got an underground parking lot." Dare Venture answered. His attention got diverted as a couple of ponies walked up to him.
"We had a blast, Mr. Venture." Solace said. "The new line of monsters in our room were fantastic!"
"I agree." Majestic added. "Until next time!"
"I hope I get to turn into a vampire again next time," Agate Wreath said, "because I loved it!"
A groan escaped her husband. "Is there still something open? I've got a little something to celebrate..." Barley Brew place a hoof atop his forehead. "The birth of another hangover..."
'Lady' Solitaire and Darkly Bristle walked up to Celestia's envoy and Dare Venture.
"See you again soon, Mr. Venture." Bristle said. "And hey, Twilight Sparkle. Since you need to get to North Colttown, we could guide you there. Work beckons, I'm afraid."
"We would love that, Mr. Bristle. Thank you for your offer."
"Well, this certainly was a night to never forget." Rarity commented, looking back upon last night's shenanigans.
"That's what we aim for at the Ghost Company. I'm glad you enjoyed yourselves. Come again soon!" Dare Venture said. "Oh, and before you go, here's a parting gift." He levitated a small piece of paper towards them. "Here's your bill. I charged half price for the baby dragon."
The sets of carriages turned onto the main road, where Twilight and her friends left their own carriage the night before. Thankfully, it was left untouched by both malignant creatures and last night's storm.
"I can't believe how steep that bill was," Applejack complained as she strapped herself into the bridles. "And we didn't even get a decent night's rest!"
"I'll say," Rarity agreed, "my eyes feel positively droopy! As soon as I get home, I'm turning in for three days straight."
"Well, at least we've got an escort to North Colttown now, and our bellies are filled. Let's get those negotiations over with and go back home. I've had enough excitement for one night to last a few years." Twilight added.
As the ponies took off following the other carriages, Spike just moped in the back of their own, resting his head on his claws as he peered out the window.
"Charging me half price..." |
One Changeling, in a World of Foes | pre | With those final words, the possessed armor calmly, and slowly, turned about, and walked back down the hole it had emerged from. Once out of sight, all Thoraxis could do was lean against the wall, and wonder as to how life in this town would really turn out after all. |
One Changeling, in a World of Foes | Along Came an Egg | Chapter 6: Along Came an Egg...
Lying on the bed in her house, Twilight Sparkle laid, scanning the book she held, open, and suspended in the air in front of her, a purple halo of magic holding it. She steadily read through the book, until she reached the final page.
"Oh... grrr! I can't find anything!" she groaned to herself, closing the book, and tossing it onto the pile of other, thoroughly read volumes and tomes that sat next to her bed, each one she had spent the entire night reading.
"Was that the last one?" Spike asked.
"Yes..." Twilight yawned, stepping down from the bed. "...And still nothing."
"Any idea where else to look?" Spike inquired again, watching as his friend hopped down to the ground level of the treehouse, where he was.
"I have no idea," she spoke, shaking her head. "I bet I just missed something. Maybe I should read through them all again."
Spike growled in annoyance, and ran his clawed hand through his face. Owlowiscious, after rustling some of his feathers, hopped off from his perch, and into the air, before landing by Twilight's desk.
"Hoo," he hooted.
"Huh? What is it, Owlowiscious?" Twilight asked, turning to him.
"Hoo," he hooted again, this time gesturing to the quill and parchment on the desk. "Hoo-hoo."
"I think he want's you to write to Princess Celestia for help," Spike said, pointing to the bird.
"But... I don't need her help! The others and I can handle this," Twilight replied, obstinately. "All I need to find is just one, little thing that I can use to flush the changeling out into the open. It's not something I need the princess to help with."
Spike looked toward Owlowiscious again, and then stood there, a thoughtful expression on his face, before a lightbulb went off in his head, and he snapped his finger with a smile.
"Wait... do you think Princess Celestia has any information on changelings?" he inquired.
"Well, I she might... I mean, she has been around for a while. She probably knows a thing or two on how to deal with them," Twilight spoke, walking up to the desk.
"C'mon, all you have to do is ask her what you want to know, and not why," Spike shrugged again.
"Alright, alright," she finally conceded with a small laugh, levitating the feather quill with her magic. Looking at the paper, she dipped the quill's tip in the ink, and began to write down her message, reciting what she wrote.
"Dear Princess Celestia..."
Princess Celestia walked through the wide, and mostly-empty halls of the castle, a pleasant smile on her face. Peaceful, morning sunlight showed through the tall, stained-glass windows on the right of her, courtesy of the newly-risen sun. Soon, she passed by a butler, dressed in a formal tuxedo that covered his brown coat, cheerfully working on placing some lovely, multi-colored flowers in a pot on the nearby windowsill, and dusting it off. He noticed the shape of Celestia from the corner of his eye, and turned, in respectful attention.
"Oh! Good morning, princess" the servant greeted, warmly.
"Good morning to you, too," she replied, cheerfully.
Before either of them could talk further, a small, green flash appeared next to the Princess's face, followed by a wrapped-up paper scroll materializing just in front of the Princess, wrapped in a red string.
"Oh? Is that from your student?" the servant smiled, watching as the princess caught it in a magical halo. "She hasn't sent you one for quite a while, has she?"
"She hasn't. It must be from her!" Celestia replied, in a happy, and precedent manner, eagerly unsealing it, and unraveling the parchment. She began to quietly read the message, but her eyes stopped scanning the moment she read the greeting line, which was not what she had anticipated it to be.
To, my Little Butterfly... It said.
Her eyes suddenly widened, pupils dilating, and her smile simply disappeared, exchanging itself with an expression resembling sheer surprise, or even terror. She gasped, and began to walk backwards, not taking her eyes off of the writing.
"Um... princess? Princess Celestia, are you all right?" the butler asked, concern building up in his voice, as he watched Celestia's magic cease, dropping the scroll to the floor, where it sprawled out with a rustling noise, her eyes still focusing on it, despite it no longer being open.
"No... no..." she stuttered, terrified, oblivious to the castle's worker that she was now deeply scaring in the process. "It can't be... that's... that's i-impossible..."
Celestia's eyes rolled into the back of her head, leaving the whites of them exposed, and she keeled over on her side, collapsing on the ground after a final gasp. The servant, very afraid of what was going on, immediately ran up to her fallen leader, and knew what had happened.
Princess Celestia had fainted.
"You seem a little off again today, Mask," Chiphoof spoke to Thoraxis, as the latter was feeding some rabbits.
"Sorry... I had another long night," he replied, thinking back to the unholy aberration that was currently living in his house. The one that he was now, basically, forced to live with, seeing as how there were no other abandoned houses to live in.
"Well... that's unfortunate," Chiphoof said again, just before the doorbell rang. Letting out a small cough, and composing himself, he went to the door and opened it, but when he stuck his aged, grey head out, he didn't see anyone.
"Hello? Is somebody there?" the shopkeeper asked, looking around. After seeing no-one, he turned his face to the ground, and saw a colorful basket.
"Well, well. What have we here?" the old stallion asked again, bending over, inspecting some sort of bundle in the object by the doorstep, and the even smaller piece of paper that laid on top of it. Shrugging, he grabbed the handle in his mouth, and took it inside, closing the door behind himself.
"What's that?" Thoraxis inquired, noticing the object from the corner of his eye. "Who sent it?"
"Huh... the letter says that some feller what calls himself "D." sent it," he replied, after putting it down, and reading the note. "I wonder what it is..."
He flipped the fabric covering most of the basket, and saw a rather big, dark, grayish-green, spherical, but somewhat crooked-looking object. Gazing at it in awe, he took it out, and studied the object, which he soon noticed was an egg of some kind, and slightly bigger than his hoof, unlike anything he had ever seen before. The sphere had multiple, tiny bumps going along itself in random order, much like a cucumber, giving it the appearance of something trying to mimic a rock. He finally spoke, "It looks like an egg."
"Whoopie... someone abandoned their pet," Thoraxis said, sarcastically, and half-listening, continuing his work.
"Nah, I don't think so," Chiphoof replied, putting the egg back in the basket, and walking up to his worker. "It doesn't make much sense that someone would up and abandon an egg, of all things, at the door, without asking me to take it in. It hasn't had time to hatch yet, and either way, I haven't seen anyone with one like this before. Trust me, I've seen all kinds of eggs, and this one isn't something I've seen getting sold before..."
"Ugh... let me see it," Thoraxis groaned, deciding to look at the object out of curiosity. He looked down into the basket, and saw the odd shape of the egg. A shape he noticed right off.
"Wait... wait, I know what kind of egg this i-..." he spoke, before stopping, his tired eyes suddenly shooting open, almost to the point of being bloodshot the moment he realized what kind of egg this was. Chiphoof turned his head to the side, looking at his employee.
"You do?" he asked. "What is it?"
"Oh, uh... wait, heh, um... my mistake," Thoraxis hastily replied, in a nervous voice. "I-I guess I don't know what egg it is, b-but I would recommend you put is somewhere really... safe."
"Well, I know that," Chiphoof replied, before looking at him again, strangely. "You seem to have be acting weird around the egg. Is there something wrong?"
"Oh! Heh, nothing's wrong, sir. nothing at all, hehe... heh," Thoraxis chuckled, nervously, swiveling his head away, dumping more food into the rabbit's pen, which he didn't realize was more than what was required.
"Hmm... Well, I'm going to put this thing in an incubation chamber," the elderly pony said again, turning away. As he did, a single thought went through Thoraxis's head, as he watched his boss walk off with what he knew was an extremely precious object.
How could that pony have gotten his filthy hooves on a changeling egg?! the changeling thought with outrage, as he watched Chiphoof carry the delicate sphere away. A sudden feeling of instinct went through his body, and, without thinking, he walked forward in hot pursuit.
"S-sir?" he asked, once he reached Chiphoof. The elderly pony turned once more, put the basket, neatly on the ground, and looked at him.
"Yes?" he replied.
"Er..." Thoraxis stuttered again, looking toward the changeling egg. "That egg... can I possibly... have it?"
"Oh? So you want it now, do you?" Chiphoof smirked, looking down to the egg. "Why would that be, I wonder?"
The changeling stood there, pondering what to say next. The first excuse that came to mind was the one he used.
"L-lonely! I'm very, very... lonely" he stuttered. "That kind of lonely loneliness that only a... "pet..." could fix."
"Are you now?"
"Yes..." he sighed, looking to his disguised hooves.
"Well... I don't see why not..." he laughed.
"Y-you will?" Thoraxis smiled, walking up to the basket. "You mean... I can have it? Really?"
"Just promise me you'll get good sleep tonight, Mask" he replied, pushing it to him, gently. "And remember to take good care of it."
"I... will" he promised.
It wasn't long after, that Thoraxis was able to head home. He held the basket with his teeth, his basic instincts mistrusting any use of magic, and soon came to the old shack. After opening the door, the first thing he spotted was Moredread, who sat in the corner, near the hole that was made just the day before.
"Hello, peasant," the shadowy creature greeted, as he seemingly paid no attention to him, and was instead diligently looking at something in front of himself.
"Um, hello... you," the changeling uneasily replied back, as he transformed into his true, insect-like form in a puff of green flame. When he placed the basket down, he then noticed what the possessed armor was looking down upon, which was a rather large book, and it was open, and levitating off of the ground, through some invisible force.
"Is that... a book?" he asked.
"Why, yes it is," the revenant replied, in a cheery, but still low voice, before lifting one, ghostly foot up, showing off several more books just like it, stacked behind himself. "I'm catching up on some of the land's history in the eons I've been gone for, and I must say, It's quite impressive what has occurred in my absence. Utterly remarkable."
"Where? H-how?"
"Oh, it's quite simple, really..." Moredread chuckled, closing his eyes, as if thinking back to it. "I may have lost all of my destructive powers, but I still have just enough to perform some of the lesser spells, such as teleportation, levitation, and clairvoyance."
"But... where did you get those books?" Thoraxis asked again. "You're going to expose me!"
"From the town's library, of course" Moredread replied. "And don't worry. I used my clairvoyance spells and sorcery to spy on the local populace. Some place that was built inside a tree was the nearest I could find, and once I saw a book I wanted... "poof!" it came to me, with nopony none the wiser."
As he finished his sentence, he couldn't help but notice the bundle in front of Thoraxis.
"What's that you have, peasant?" the ghostly creature asked, once it laid its ghastly eyes upon the egg.
"It's a... changeling egg," he replied. "My boss found it by the doorstep, and... well... I couldn't leave it there. All I want to know now is who in Equestria left it there in the first place."
"I know who did it!" a completely new voice suddenly yelled out, in an unfamiliar tone that filled up the room in a loud echo. Thoraxis's chitinous face went as pale as physically possible as a changeling could make, and he spun around, looking for the source.
"Who said that?!" he shrieked.
"Me!" the voice said again. With a blinding flash, a large creature, possessing the body parts of numerous creatures appeared, floating in the air, between Thoraxis and Moredread. Thoraxis, despite only hearing stories about him, could tell who it was right off, the moment the shape got into full view.
It was Discord, the spirit of disharmony and chaos himself.
"You should see the look on your face!" he laughed out loud, pointing at the smaller, and clearly shocked being in front of himself. "Priceless! Hahahaaaa!"
"I... you... I... what... you... what in Queen Chrysalis is wrong with this town?! What in everything that makes sense are you doing here?!" the changeling screamed, as the glow on his horn disappeared. He backed into a corner, and placed his front hooves over his head, before he started whimpering, the sheer amount of confusion and stress finally getting to him.
"Sorry to "buzz" in in such a short notice, but I've got business with you, Mask. Or, should I call you, "Thoraxis,"" the draconequus said, as his wings briefly morphed into a transparent insectile pair, a dead ringer for Thoraxis's own, and hummed for a few seconds, before morphing back. As he was going on, a fabricated, cartoonish wanted poster of villainous-looking Thoraxis, wearing a cowboy hat, puffed into his griffin claw, and held it up to the changeling, as if comparing the image.
"My dear friend, Fluttershy, told me she was looking for a particularly nasty changeling matching your description, and according to this "completely legal" document I have here, I've got you dead to rights, leg-holes and all."
"You said you used the egg... where did you even get that egg in the first place?!" the changeling shouted again.
"I was... spelunking" he spoke, in what sounded like a blatant lie, as his attire changed to what a mountain climber would wear. "And then... Pow! There it was, sitting on a... Rock. Yes, a rock... Right in front of me. I couldn't just leave it there, so I took it, and then, whaddayaknow, it made the perfect bait in getting you out! Imagine tha-"
"I'm truly sorry to interrupt, my mismatched-looking guest, but who exactly are you?" Moredread's monotonous voice butted in. Discord turned to him, a sarcastic look on his face, before realizing what he was looking at.
"Take a wild guess," he spoke, folding his arms.
"Well then, hmm... give me a minute" Moredread sighed, levitating one of the books he was reading to his face, flipping through many of the pages. While waiting for his answer, Discord turned one of his hands into a file, and began to sharpen his nails.
"You must be... "diphthong," if I'm not mistaken," he finally said, a smile forming on his phantom mouth. "Strange name you have. Is your job around here having something to do with spelling?"
"It's "Discord," actually," the draconequus corrected. "Spirit of chaos, disharmony, and all that. Charmed to meet you, mister...?"
"Moredread," he replied. Moredread Enmity."
"And he said I had a strange name..." Discord whispered into Thoraxis's webbed ear, after teleporting to him. The changeling continued to look at him fearfully, as he flew away, into the open again. After seeing his expression, the draconequus changed his own to a happy one, reminiscent of that of a cherubic child, looking as innocent as physically possible.
"Oh, don't worry," he chuckled, flipping his wrist. "I'm not going to turn you in. I just want to watch what kind of beautiful chaos will unfold from all this."
"Then... why did you give me this egg?" Thoraxis asked, looking at the spherical object in the basket.
"Why, for added flavor, of course!" he chuckled. "Have fun taking care of it, by the way. I know how you changelings can get quite a bit... "attached" to them, if you know what I mean. Uncontrollable parental instincts and all..."
Thoraxis glared at him, before lowering his head, accepting the fact.
"Well, that's all for now, I suppose..." Discord sighed again, a watch suddenly puffing around the wrist on his lion-like arm, telling him the time. "Fluttershy and I are having our regularly scheduled Tuesday tea tomorrow morning. Need to get some rest if I don't want to be late. Ta-ta for now, you three! Oh! And Thoraxis..."
The changeling looked back up at Discord's face, now curled into a much more serious visage.
"...Good luck."
With a final wave, Discord vanished, leaving them there. Thoraxis quietly looked to the egg in front of himself, an unsure thought for the future going on in his mind, and unready look on his face, showing what he felt for it. Moredread, however, as if having already forgotten the encounter, shrugged his shoulders, and went back to reading. |
One Changeling, in a World of Foes | A Toy Thief in Ponyville | Chapter 7: A Toy Thief in Ponyville
Outside of her tree house, Twilight Sparkle trotted away, over the dirt-laden ground, with a saddle around her back, and several scrolls, or rolls of paper pocketed in the two sacks that hung on its sides. Beside her, the purple form of Spike walked as well.
The expression the princess wore on her face as she walked would have easily been interpreted as one of impatience, but at this point, it had evolved into one of pure frustration. Two days had passed since she sent the message to her mentor at Canterlot, and no response had come. She continued to reassure herself that Celestia was only busy with regal duties, but it didn't comfort her much.
It wan't long before she came upon the figures of four of her friends in the distance. While she looked at each of them, she also noticed that the fifth shape of Pinkie Pie was absent, to her slight confusion.
"Good morning, Twilight," Fluttershy greeted, once she was within earshot. "Did Princess Celestia write back to you last night?"
"No..." she sighed, lowering her head and ears in a solemn way, before perking them both up again, and taking out the multiple folds of paper she had in her saddlebags. "...But I spent a lot of time planning for our next move against the changeling. Some of them are still in the beginning stage, but a few others are ready for use, and I've got a good feeling about them."
"Ooh, then let's hear them!" Rarity said, in an enthusiastic tone. "I'm sure the first one will be a doozy!"
As she spoke, Twilight finally saw the appropriately bright pink form of Pinkie Pie, hovering around in back of everyone, snout, eyes, and upper body to the ground as low as physically possible as she could perform, crawling along it as if looking for something, but in an extreme, and impractical way, reminding her of a pony-shaped bloodhound. Sitting on her rump, with a blank expression on his purple, reptilian eyes, was the small shape of her pet alligator, Gummy. On his head was a doll-sized deerstalker cap.
Ignoring the usually strange behavior of her friend with a smirk, and a roll of the eyes, she flipped open one of the multiple papers, this one filled with the hastily scribbled writing detailing one of the multiple plans she formulated, when the sound of a belch suddenly interrupted her, coming from Spike's direction. When Twilight turned her head, she instantly saw, with a surprised smile on her face, that the dragon was holding a scroll of new design in his hand, wrapped in a red seal.
"Uh... Twilight..." he started, as he handed it to her. "I think this is for you."
"Finally, a response!" she cheered aloud, happily, as she clapped her hooves together with glee, instantly forgetting about the previous conversation, as seen by how she dropped all the notes she held in the air, letting them fall to the ground. She used her telekinetic magic to grab the scroll out of Spike's small hands, and brought it up to her face, tearing the seal off of the paper in her haste.
"Does it say anything on how to catch a changeling?" Rainbow Dash asked, no sooner than the princess had begun reading.
There was silence for the next few seconds, as she continued to examine what was written down. As she read on, her excited face quickly turned to a confused one, and once she finished, she looked back up to each of them.
"No... It doesn't" the alicorn responded, in a lower voice. "All it says is that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna want us to come to Canterlot... Immediately."
"What for?" Fluttershy inquired.
"It doesn't say" she spoke again. "It just says that there's something of "extreme importance" they want to tell us... In person."
"Well I've got nothing planned. Let's do it!" Rainbow Dash said, raising a hoof. "Everypony else in?"
"I'm in!" Applejack shouted.
"As am I" Rarity agreed.
"I... Guess I can go, sure!" Fluttershy said, cheerfully.
"Pinkie, what about you?" Twilight inquired, looking over her shoulder to the earth pony a few feet away, who had begun examining a small rock in her hoof, very closely, with a magnifying glass.
"Can't" she replied, abruptly, continuing her enigmatic search without hesitation, tossing the pebble away, and moving to the other side of the road.
"Well... Why not?" Applejack asked.
"Because somebody stole all of Pound and Pumpkin Cake's toys last night, and it's driving Mr. and Mrs. Cake crazy! I'm willing to bet my cutie mark that it was the changeling!" she continued, as she spied under a nearby rock with her magnifying glass. "At first, I was all like "I'm okay with you just skulking around, Mr. changeling" ya'know, doing nothing really bad and everything, but now he's stolen my bosses's kid's toys! You know what it is now? Personal. You know what that means? WAR!"
"Pinkie... What in tarnation would a changeling want with children's toys?" Applejack asked.
"I don't know... Yet... But I'm going to find out!" she replied, confidently. "You girls go to Canterlot without me. I've got a toy thief to find!"
Rainbow Dash shrugged, while Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight rolled their eyes.
"Pinkie, darling, are you sure?" Rarity asked again.
"Positively positive" she replied, with a finality to her voice.
"Well, alright... If that's your final decision..." Twilight sighed, with a shrug, as she set to gathering up the fallen rolls of paper she previously spilled on the ground. "We should all get ready."
"Meet back here in an hour?" Applejack asked.
"Race ya!" Rainbow Dash laughed, in a competitive tone, playfully punching the earth pony next to her in the shoulder with her hoof.
As she sped off, intent on winning the challenge, the others went off in their own directions, along with Twilight, who took only a few seconds to recollect her belongings, and turned, heading back to the treehouse with Spike in tow. Pinkie and Gummy were soon alone, and the pony took the baby alligator off her back, and placed him on the ground.
"Gummy, you check around the school, and I'll check around the spa" she said, giving orders to her pet.
The small reptile looked at her with its blank eyes in response, silence radiating off of him, until he let his forked tongue out, and slowly licked one of his glassy eyes with it.
"Good" she spoke again, as if replying to something Gummy said. Turning her pink snout to the ground once more, she began to crawl off, leaving no stone, no matter the size, unturned, as she traveled to her destination on the other side of Ponyville.
Gummy just continued to stand there, unmoving, the deerstalker cap he wore shifting to the side of his head as a gust of wind went by.
In the dug-in den, underneath the foundation of the rickety old house, laid the ghastly form of Moredread, each of his phantom legs lying beneath his own body. His wings were tucked by his side, and his helmeted head was looking in the direction of the egg he had been guarding over for the majority of the day, which was sitting on a rather comfy-looking, and secure pile that was a mixture of mud, dirt, and fuzzy children's toys, right next to him.
Still not understanding as to why the changeling had stolen the latter objects from the night before, but not arguing against it, he remained there, patiently watching the small, studded egg, with a stalwart, twinkling seriousness and somewhat zeal in his red-and-green eyes. A look only a parent would normally have had. A look he once remembered wearing, many, many ages ago...
The sudden sound of the creaky old door on the surface caused him to finally, albeit slowly, drag his eyes away from the precious object. He looked to the base of the tunnel, and, as he expected, saw a pony-sized shape, with an added feature lumped over its back, descending into the tunnel he and the egg rested in.
The shape was Thoraxis. The undisguised changeling appeared to be carrying something behind himself, over his back, which the phantom quickly realized was a sack, and an apparently filled one, at that, judging by the volume it possessed.
"How is the little one?" the changeling asked, once his glowing, blue eyes focused on him, and the egg next to him.
"The egg is well. Nothing touched, or moved it while you were gone" Moredread replied, looking back at it in a caring manner, as he, himself, began to stand up. "I did, however, perform several, small tests on it while you were gone, each absolutely harmless, I assure you."
"They better have been..." Thoraxis growled, his face changing to one of slight vexation, before lighting up again, once he was close enough to see it was alright for himself. He plopped the sack next to the makeshift nest where the egg was, and began to sift through the brown, stitched-together, raggy satchel. Out of it, the changeling pulled out a plush, red dragon doll, and put it with the others items, fixating it in place.
"Might I dare ask, what you are doing with those foal's playthings?" he asked, speaking to the changeling once more, as he watched the smaller creature adding the objects on the pile.
"Because these are the only things that can incubate the egg" Thoraxis said, as he pulled out a teddy bear, and put it down. "These toys were either given with the care only a parent could have for their child, or handled with the affection and attachment that only that young foal could produce. Without my queen to raise it herself, only this kind of care can hatch a changeling egg."
"Ah, yes... Love. The emotion you creatures apparently feed on, or so I've read" Moredread chuckled. "So... Even in the first stage of your lives, you creatures depend on it?"
"Only when my queen is not around to care for the eggs in her way, by herself" Thoraxis said again, as he made sure the last item, an old, gray, stuffing-filled pony doll, complete with button eyes, a yarn mane, and blue-and-white polkadotted pants, was out of the sack, and placed in a position of best comfort on the small nest-pile. "Without the queen to directly take care of them, they'll wither and die."
"So... These toys are they only thing that will hatch her successfully?" Moredread asked once more, as he neared the tunnel's entrance.
"Yes, that's what I'm say- wait... What do you mean by "her?"" Thoraxis asked, catching easily-missable word that the shade said at the last moment, causing him to turn back.
Moredread only stared back at Thoraxis in response, a cold, bland, stony expression on his otherwise transparent face, as if mocking him in some way, while his ethereal mane he bore shimmered behind him. The silence that came between them was broken as the revenant suddenly let a long, drawn-out, low, obviously entertained, and somewhat threatening laugh escape his mouth, that slowly escalated in volume as it went on, rattling the surrounding, tunneled-in environment they were both in with its echo, even a minute after he finally stopped.
The changeling's neck cricked to the side, and his face bore a confused expression, reflecting his perturbed reaction to what Moredread was hinting at, before his mind began to think of what "harmless" experiments he truly performed. It was at this point he shook his head, trying to rid it of the nightmarish, fabricated thoughts that entered it, as he looked back at the egg, noticing how it looked absolutely untouched.
"Gender... Doesn't really matter in a changeling society anyway..." he said, anxiously, in an attempt to change the conversation, watching as Moredread turned once more to leave.
"I shall be reading more on the latter-day history, should you need me" he said, his voice returning to its previous commanding, and controlled tone. "Golden Oak library, surprisingly enough, is the perfect source of information for my needs. I am ponderous as to what stallion or mare maintains the place..."
Even as Moredread left, still talking to himself, and leaving Thoraxis alone with his charge, the changeling couldn't remove the worrying thoughts of what his ghastly alicorn "roommate" (for lack of a better term) did to the egg, harmless or not. He checked it over once more, and sighed in reassuring relief as he saw it was perfectly fine. He slowly lied down next to the rather soft nest, and curled up against it, after making sure the egg was comfy enough. With his head on the ground, he looked up at the spherical object, which he now realized was slightly larger than it was two days prior.
"So, you're going to be a girl, huh?" he asked it, as he yawned, and his eyes began to close, as he drifted off into sleep. "I gotta... Think of a name for you, don't I?"
Less than a few minutes later, Thoraxis, unable to think of any in his drowsy state, fell soundly asleep, next to the precious object, hugging the nest. |
One Changeling, in a World of Foes | Everything Goes South | Chapter 8: Everything Goes South
"So, Twilight, d'you have any idea about what the princesses know about changelings?" Applejack asked, as Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spike, and herself trotted up to the castle's entrance. It had been only two days since their departure from Ponyville, and arrival to Canterlot, but to Twilight it felt like only minutes since they left the town, and arrived to the large citadel that was now before them. The moon showed down on them from above, bathing them in its silver rays, while the stars twinkled and shined.
"I still have no idea what they might know, but we're about to find out..." the purple mare replied, as they approached the door, guarded by two, large earth pony stallions. Each one bore a white coat, and were clad in well-polished, golden armor, with a blue crest adorning the helmets, and spears held in their hooves.
"Greetings, Princess Twilight," the first one greeted, in a deep voice, both of them bowing humbly to her. "Princess Celestia is waiting for you and your friends inside. She told us she had urgent business to discuss with you all."
"Thank you," she said back, in an appreciative tone, before turning to her friends. "Come on, girls. Let's go."
After a hearty, and almost simultaneous "Right behind you!" from everyone, including Spike, the guards opened the doors up, and the six entered the castle's entrance hall. Passing into the hall, the doors were closed behind them with a stony clap, and they all continued on, to the throne in the back, walking past the many stained glass windows that depicted important events of the past. Each pony couldn't help but gape in awe at their beauty and detail, despite having seen them dozens of times in the past.
"Hello, Princess Celestia!" Twilight greeted, with a large smile on her face, once they were within earshot of the tall, white, rainbow-maned alicorn sitting on the throne, her voice echoing from the walls. Twilight's expression slowly faded as she noticed that the look her mentor wore remained grim.
"Hello, Twilight," she finally greeted back, her voice somber and serious, and lacking any positive emotion at all, as she stood up, and walked down to them. "I'm glad you came."
"This is about the changeling, right?" she asked again. Celestia shook her head in response.
"This isn't about the changeling, no," she quickly spoke, much to the surprise of each of them. "This is something of a much greater magnitude..."
"What's wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked, pointing out the obvious question each one wanted to ask.
Celestia, her brilliant, multi-colored mane suddenly drooping in a melancholy way, let out a sigh. "Something of an unspeakable evil has been unleashed upon Equestria. Something I need each of your help defeating."
"Ooh. Is it Queen Chrysalis?" Applejack asked.
"Is it Sombra? Did he come back?" Fluttershy inquired, uneasily.
"My money's on that Discord turned evil again." Rainbow Dash guessed. Princess Celestia only shook her head once more.
"You've never faced him before, and, if I'm correct, none of you have ever heard of him either. His name is Moredread Enmity..." she began. "In the past, he was the ruler of Equestria before Luna and I, from over two-thousand years ago. He ruled the land with hatred and fear, and every pony under his reign knew only suffering, hardship, and terror in every waking moment of their lives. Friendship, happiness, joy, and beauty were all but unknown or forgotten to them during this time."
"Tis true," another, familiar voice agreed, from behind them all. Spinning around, they all saw who it was.
"Princess Luna!" Twilight said, not expecting her presence. "Where were you?"
"I was just arriving," she revealed, before continuing where Celestia left off, as she walked to her side. "As my sister said, Moredread was, indeed, a heartless, cruel being. He was the first foe we both ever faced, and defeated, with the Elements of Harmony."
"But... why have I never heard about him before?" Twilight asked. "None of the books on the history of Equestria ever mentioned him."
"Because his deeds were so brutal, so completely... horrific, that we decreed that every scrap of knowledge or record detailing him be destroyed, to keep the pain of his memory from blighting the land," Celestia calmly replied.
"Um... if you don't mind us asking, how horrific were they, exactly? Spike inquired, curiously, before the others could. Celestia and Luna looked at each other, before the younger sister nodded in agreement, and spoke.
"Every villain you've all encountered so far, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, even Discord, before he was reformed, have had one thing in common for their ultimate goals: domination." she started. "Moredread Enmity wanted something worse. That goal was the absolute destruction of our entire world, and the quietus of every living being to inhabit it. In more blatant words, he wanted to bring about the end of all life."
The look of pure shock on Twilight and her friend's faces told the two sisters that the words had the proper impact. "We know he has returned, because he sent my sister a letter, the day before we asked for your presence," Luna said again, just before the scroll in question materialized in a purple-blue flash over her shoulder. "This is the document of which I speak."
"Umm... may I see what he wrote?" Fluttershy asked in an almost-impossibly polite voice, walking up to them both. "I mean, if that's okay with you."
"Of course," Luna answered. She let the rolled-up paper hover down to the pegasus, and used magic to unravel it, so she could read. Fluttershy spent the next thirty seconds skimming through it, while the others waited in anticipation for what she had to say.
"It... looks like he's... inviting you both somewhere," Fluttershy spoke up, in her gentle voice, once she had finished reading halfway. "And he sounds... really well-mannered about it."
"Where?" Rainbow Dash and Rarity asked in unison. Fluttershy scanned down the letter as fast as she could, and let out a frightened gasp when she reached its end.
"Ponyville."
"Ponyville?!" every being in the room, except for Celestia and Luna, cried out. Twilight, clearly aghast, looked back to Celestia and Luna. "Wh-what's he doing there?"
"That we do not know," Luna replied. "When we sealed him away underground with the Elements of Harmony, for what we thought would be forever, we used a mind-wiping spell on ourselves to keep us from knowing where he was, just in case he corrupted one of us with his dark magic. It's certainly possible that his resting spot was discovered by a hapless pony, but even if it was, we placed enchantments on his coffin to keep any pony from being able to open it. Judging from what you told us earlier, the only possible culprit responsible for releasing him would have been..."
"...The changeling," Celestia finished.
"Princesses, why would Moredread attempt to do something so terrible, anyway?" Twilight decided to say, speaking about the previous subject as she processed what was going on. Celestia lifted her head, and looked to the ceiling with a thoughtful expression, as she tried to remember.
"He was once a noble alicorn, but went completely mad," she started. "How he was driven to his violent insanity, I do not know, and what he did to Luna and I... I do not wish to tell you."
"Okay..." Twilight said. "How do you think we can-"
"Wait a second..." Luna interrupted, as she took a second look at the group. "Where is the pink one? I do not see her with you."
"Pinkie Pie? She stayed at Ponyville," Rainbow Dash said, before her face froze, and paled in realization. "Uh-oh... Do you think she's alright?!"
"Quickly, all of you!" Celestia shouted, urgently, as a white glow started to form on the tip of her horn. "We must go there at once!" The orb of magic suddenly expanded as she spoke, and covered ever pony in the room in its light, sealing them all inside a bubble-like construction. One moment later, it vanished in a bright flash, as they all disappeared.
Back in Ponyville, there was much going on for Thoraxis. His shift at the pet store had just ended, and the cape of stars that was the night had fallen across the sky. With some haste, he had been trotting all around the town, looking through windows for anything of value to help the egg back at his house. He rechecked every spot that he had burglarized last, and peeped through the windows of some of them, but didn't see anything, and his list of abodes soon shortened.
"If I could just find one more stuffed toy..." he whispered to himself. "One more, and then..."
He stopped talking when something very noticeable caught his eye. Looking to his left, next to the house that he remembered belonged to Rarity, was a large pile of something he quickly realized, to his great (and, understandably confused) delight was exactly what he was looking for. A pile of toys and trinkets, leaned against the building!
"Ooh... Now THAT'S what I wanted to see!" he quietly shouted with glee, quickly running up to the pile of items. Crudely written on the wooden sign lying next to it, in green paint, was a large "FREE, USED FOAL'S TOYS," practically smeared on. The paint looked, and smelled fresh, but Thoraxis was too busy looking over the obviously more important objective at hoof without worry.
"These will do nicely," he continued, as he sifted through the pile with his magic, looking for the largest, and most love-filled ones. "Though, I can't help but think that this situation seems oddly familia-"
"Now!" a loud voice cried out, interrupting him. Jolting his head up in surprise, Thoraxis saw a large shadow of some sort, one he hadn't noticed looming overhead in his previous excitement, coming down on him. Before he could even let out a shriek of horror, it landed on him with a thunderous clatter, and a loud thump. The dust soon settled, and everything was silent for but a few moments, until, finally, Thoraxis poked his head through the top of what landed on him, his head pushing through net's webbing. To his absolute, and abstract horror, Thoraxis came to the realization that the pile he was now stuck in, at first unknown, was in reality...
...Stamps.
Confetti?
Stamps and confetti?!
And a net.
Paper stamps, not unlike the ones you would see at a post office, and confetti, the stringy kind to be used at parties, each previously held aloft by a net that was now covering him as well, trapping him in it. All he could see was red, blue, and the tiny pictures you normally see on stamps, only adding to the changeling's extreme, utter confusion. Some of the stamps had gotten stuck onto his body in the process, but that wasn't what he was worried about.
"Wha-what?" he stuttered, looking around rapidly for the pony that had performed the deed, while simultaneously trying to remove the net around him, so he could dig himself further out of the pile, all in a futile fashion that changed nothing. "What is this? Some sort of sick joke?!"
His question was answered, as a "Your trap worked, Pinkie!" went out through the crisp night air, said by a young, feminine voice. Thoraxis shot his head to where it came from, and saw three fillies appear from behind the house. "We got the changeling, Pinkie! Just like you said you would!"
"I'm not a changeling!" Thoraxis yelled out in protest, still struggling with getting out of the pile of colorful and adhesive paper. "I was just... walking by!"
"Nice try, but you're not fooling anybody," Sweetie Belle spoke, a smug grin still on her face. "There's no pony I know of in town who would steal a foal's toys."
"But... I wasn't stealing it!" he lied. "I was... taking them, because I was..."
"Stealing them!" Pinkie Pie spoke up, as she appeared from behind the house, where the three fillies came from.
"Y-you!" Thoraxis yelled to her, in an angry snarl. "But... but I heard that you left with your friends to go to Canterlot today!"
"Nope! I stayed," she revealed. "And while I was here, I pieced together a plan of UTTER BRILLIANCE made just for you, ""Mask!" Or, should I call you..."
She spun around, and struck a pose, pointing a hoof at him when she stopped.
"Mister changeling!"
"Y-you're kidding, right?" Thoraxis chuckled nervously, in an attempt to play along.
"No, she ain't," Apple Bloom spoke. "She told us about her plan, and we helped her set it up. You fell for it perfectly!"
With a growl, and coming to the realization that he had no other choice, Thoraxis morphed into his true form, with a green flash.
"Hah! I knew it!" Pinkie spoke again. Just as she finished her sentence, a green glow enveloped Thoraxis's gnarled horn. With a cruel grin, the changeling vanished in a flash of magic, teleporting away, to safety.
"He's gone!" Applebloom said, angrily. "Tarnation... we were so close!"
"No need to fear," Pinkie Pie said, calmly, as she placed a hoof into her mane, and pulled something out of it. "I know exactly where he's going."
"What do you mean?" Scootaloo asked, confused. Pinkie smirked, as she turned to them, a mechanical device of some sort in her hoof.
"Before Twilight left, I asked her to cast an enchantment on some of the stamps. The stamps then stuck to the changeling, and that's when the spell should go into effect."
"Let me guess..." Sweetie Belle said. "It was a..."
"...A tracking spell!" the pink mare finished, in a loud, joyful tune, as she jumped into the air in excitement. "One that coincides with this GPS I made. See that red dot on the screen?"
As she spoke, she motioned to what she spoke to on the device's dark green, glass screen. Sure enough, the three fillies saw a pulsating red circle, and it was moving around. Fast.
"That's him?" Applebloom inquired.
"Yooouuu betcha!" she replied. "We just have to find out where he lives, and then..."
Her voice deepened, somewhat menacingly.
"...He's ALL OURS."
"Yeah! This is gonna be intense," Scootaloo said, punching her hooves together, intensely. "Pinkie Pie and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, on the hunt!"
"Quick, Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Pinkie Pie ordered, cheerfully, pointing a hoof in the proper direction. "Follow that changeling!"
Thoraxis collapsed on the ground, inside his house. He peeled the last stamp off of his side, and tossed it away. He was out of breath, suffering the most unbearable of headaches, and, in general, a very stressed mood.
"This is just great... just great..." he started to moan. "Why do I have all the rotten luck? I never asked for this. Everything was actually starting to go good, too! I never-"
Then he heard the sound he thought he'd never hear. The sound he absolutely dreaded to hear: Knocking on the door. Thoraxis's eyes widened in shock as he heard it.
Oh... no... he thought, in horror.
"Helloooo?" an all-too-familiar, high-pitched voice spoke up, from behind the door. "Is anybody home?"
Quickly thinking of a response in his panic, he shouted, "No! Nobody's home! Now, go away!"
However, no sooner than speaking, the door was kicked open, nearly flying off of its rusted hinges from the force Pinkie Pie used.
"How... how did you find me?" Thoraxis shrieked in fear.
"That's not important. What is important, is that there'll be no more running from you, changeling!" Apple Bloom spoke, confident as the rest of her friends, as the four entered. "We're gonna bring you to justice for all you did!"
"I haven't done anything bad to you ponies!" Thoraxis shouted back, carefully backing into a corner as they surrounded him. "I've been eating love-filled food from that Sugarcube Corner place! I haven't hurt anypony!"
"Then why have you been stealing toys?" Sweetie Belle piped up.
"I... I can't tell you that."
"Why not?" Pinkie inquired, her voice raising in volume. Thoraxis responded in kind.
"Because!"
"Because why?"
"BECAUSE!"
"BECAUSE WHY?!"
"Umm... guys?" Scootaloo suddenly spoke up, interrupting the shouting contest. Slowly, but surely, everyone's voices died down, and they all stared at the young pegasus. She continued, "Does anybody smell... something burning?"
They all, Thoraxis included, soon took a sniff of the air, and smelled the smoky tang of which she described.
"It kinda smells like... cookies," Apple Bloom said.
"Hey, it does!" Pinkie agreed, yelling in what sounded like glee, as she licked her lips, the scent being familiar to her. "Chocolate chip-and-almond cookies! The real question is: where in Celestia is it coming from?"
Her question was soon answered as she saw a shape move out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head, Pinkie saw what was clearly a metal tray, filled with blackish-brown, burnt pastries of some sort, levitating off of the ground, emerging from the hole nearby. The one that lead to the egg.
"Thoraxis! I've baked some sweet cakes for you that I learned about in a cookbook! I was wondering if you could try them out," Moredread's deep voice shouted from the tunnel, approaching quickly. "They may seem a little burned, but I tried one already, and I think they are most fair in flavor."
No sooner had he said that, his large, shadowy shape appeared before them all. Over his armor, Moredread was wearing a white apron with multiple, smiling, cartoonish flowers of varying colors, making his scary demeanor seem moot. Each of the ponies stood in either awe, or confusion, of the large, alicorn-looking figure, trying to discern whether they should feel threatened by his presence, or not. As they looked at him, Moredread finally noticed them himself, when his head swung their way.
"Oh, changeling!" Moredread said, his demented eyes widening, surprised by the sight, his voice still no less intimidating, despite wearing the ridiculous getup. "You did not tell me you were having company over. Wonderful! Most wonderful!"
"I... wasn't..." Thoraxis replied, glumly, as he sat down against a wall in a defeated manner. Everything was unraveled. All he had attempted to hide was revealed. Ponies were in his house. The cookies were burned. Everything that could possibly go wrong, was going wrong at the most inopportune of times.
"...And the mystery gets deeper..." Pinkie whispered, as she looked to you, the reader, simultaneously piercing through the fourth wall as if it was a knife through wet paper. |
One Changeling, in a World of Foes | A Chance Meeting | Chapter 9: A Chance Meeting
So, let me get this straight..." Thoraxis started, in an anxious voice, to Pinkie Pie, who was busy devouring a cookie in her hoof. "You're not going to kill me, you don't mind that I'm a changeling, and I can stay in Ponyville as long as I like, so long as I don't hurt anypony?"
"What? Of course!" the pink mare replied. "Pff... what did you think we were? A bunch of intolerant creatures that would chase you out of town, and hunt you down like a wild animal?"
"Um..." he replied, slowly, scratching the back of his head. Pinkie, after realizing what image she just created in both their minds, gave an innocent smile, before finishing off the last of the charcoal-colored cookie, shoving it into her mouth, and swallowing it whole.
"Well, there's no need to worry about it now," she laughed. "You're welcome here as long as you want!"
"Heh. That's literally the first "good" news I've gotten since I got here..." he mumbled back. "You've got no idea how stressful this entire thing has been for me. So much has happened in a very short span of time... I'm surprised I haven't suffered a nervous breakdown yet."
"Say... why'd you start stealing toys, anyway?" Pinkie asked again, changing the subject. "You never told me that part yet. I bet it's a big reason, but I have no idea what stuff changelings like to do in their spare time. Is it a hobby?"
"It's not a hobby! It's because I, well..." he started again, his tone hesitant, as his field of view anxiously shifted to the wall. "...I came into the unfortunate possession of a changeling egg a few days ago, and I uh... need stuff like that to help it hatch."
Pinkie let out a small gasp, before the sudden, inevitable, irrepressible urge to ask as many questions as possible came into her hyperactive mind. "An egg? Why in Celestia's mane do you have an egg? Where'd you get it? How long have you had it for? Is it gonna hatch? Where's it now?"
As Thoraxis begrudgingly explained to Pinkie Pie how a certain draconequus got him further into the frying pan, on the other side of the room, the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat, diligently listening in to the conversation the whole time.
"Discord gave a changeling egg to him?" Scootaloo whispered, when the words came to her ears. "Well... when you really think about it, that sounds an awful lot like something he would do, huh?"
"My question is where in the hay Discord even got one," Apple Bloom replied, with a chuckle, before the three took a hesitant nibble of the charred "cookies" in their hooves. Just as she finished speaking, each of the fillies' heads swung to their left as a dark shape entered the corner of their eyes.
"So, how does it taste?" Moredread asked, politely, leaning his head in.
"Mmm... good." Sweetie Belle complimented, halfheartedly, as she struggled to swallow what felt like a rock in her mouth. She didn't put in much effort in making it sound sincere, and her friend's facial expressions told the same, but the ghostly character didn't seem to notice, nor care.
"I'm thankful you could try them. I haven't had the pleasure of cooking in centuries," he said.
"Wait, centuries? As in, literal centuries?" Scootaloo spoke, surprised. "Wow. You do look like a ghost, but I didn't that you were that kind of ghost."
"Tis the truth, young one," Moredread answered, his voice trailing off, like an elderly pony preparing to . "Long has it been since my body rotted away and my bones turned to dust, but my spirit still remains, bound to this armor. It is a burden to live forever at times, such as when-"
Before he could speak further about his adventures of being trapped for a millennia-and-a-half in a metal box, his ethereal head suddenly lifted, as if sensing something. He looked to the door, and his glowing eyes began to squint. He let out a hum as thoughts processed in his head, before staring back at the fillies.
"Hmm... I sincerely wish I could tell you more, but I request that you three should go back to your homes now," he started once more. "Firstly, it is late, and I presume you have the need to wake early in the morning. Secondly, I'm expecting company that should be over at any moment, and I do not wish for you to... devour all the pastries I have made before their arrival."
Of course, there was a bout of confusion amongst the Crusaders, as each of the three friends looked to each other, as if expecting one to speak. Finally, Apple Bloom, looking in the direction of Pinkie Pie, who was walking with Thoraxis to the tunnel, spoke, "Uh, Pinkie, he's right. We have school tomorrow, and if Granny Smith, or anypony else finds out how late we stayed up, I don't think things are gonna end well. Do you think you'll be okay here by yourself?"
"Oh, you don't have to worry about me, I'll be fine," she replied, nonchalantly, before bursting out into an excited squeal. "And guess what? The changeling said he's gonna show me his egg! Ooh! I bet it's gonna look sooo cute!"
"Wow. Well, I hope you tell us about it tomorrow," Scootaloo said, as she and the other two started to walk out the door. Moredread watched as they left, and his eyes followed them, before he went to the entrance himself to confirm their departure.
"Bye!" the Cutie Mark Crusaders all said, waving their hooves in the air to him as they took off. As soon as the three had disappeared, Moredread lightly closed the door, without making so much as a noise from the rusty-hinged object. For the next solid minute, he sat there, in front of it, his eyes closed, waiting, patiently for his guests to arrive.
Waiting.
A minute soon passed. Then another, but not a bit of him moved, save for the mist that leaked off of him. He knew what was to come next, and remained still.
Waiting...
His eyes suddenly burst open once more, not a second after he noticed a flash of light coming from the cracks behind the door.
"They're here," he whispered to himself, his voice as quiet, and sharp as a cold wind mercilessly snuffing out a candle in the blackest of nights.
"This is where we were able to locate him," Luna spoke, as they appeared out of thin air, in front of the rickety house of sticks and unstable tiles. "The dark energy he gives off practically acted like a beacon for us to follow."
"Without Pinkie Pie, and therefore, the usage of the Elements of Harmony, be warned," Celestia continued. "He may have lost all of his power, but he's still dangerous. Whatever company he may have in his presence, be prepared to face them."
"We're ready, princesses," Twilight said, confidently. The rest of her friends nodded and spoke eagerly in agreement. With a final look, Celestia walked up to the door, and raised a hoof to push it open. Before she could even attempt to do so, a sudden creaking heralded the door opening on the other side. Celestia and Luna stepped back as what appeared to be, at first, and oozing mist, followed by an armored, masculine shape of an alicorn, wearing an apron covered in cartoon-styled flowers, offsetting what most would see as a fear-inspiring visage. Pure, unadulterated silence came between every pony there, allowing Moredread, completely calm in their presence, to get a good look at them all.
The silence was pierced as every pony heard Rainbow Dash struggle to muffle a snigger with her hooves, as she hovered in the air, behind them all. A glare brought on by Luna quickly brought silence back into the fold, only to be broken once more, as Moredread let out a cough into his steel hoof.
"Ahem... I've been expecting you," he started, his deep voice exuding a most courteous tone. "I have much I wish to say, if you will listen."
"There is no talking with you, Moredread," Celestia replied, her voice low, and brow arching once more. "I don't know how you got out, but we're going to seal you back in your prison, where you belong."
"Oh... that's such a pity. And here I thought you were considerate of others..." he spoke back, wryly. "The history books said you had become a fair, just leader, who is more than willing to hear words, if they represent reason..."
"And what makes you think that we believe that those words will be as you say?" Luna asked. "Are you trying to tell us you're sorry?"
"I have had time to think about what I had done, you two," he said back, in what they each presumed was a sincere voice. "I've had more than enough time to think. One-thousand, five-hundred years, in fact. Alone. In an iron box. In the depths of the earth. "Sorry" is not even the prologue to the beginning of what I wish to say."
"Your prison was not deep enough, it seems," Luna callously replied. Moredread let a small snort escape, before his face returned to its previous, calm composure. He turned his back to them, and began trotting back inside the house.
"You should all come in. I didn't bake this batch of cookies, just so they could get cold," he scoffed. Each of the ponies, the princesses included, gave a shared look of confusion toward each other.
"Cookies?" Spike asked, in a puzzled tone. "I guess that explains the apron."
"Princess Celestia, are you sure he's the one that... ya'know... did all the stuff you talked about?" Rainbow Dash whispered into her ear. "He doesn't seem to be acting very, well... "pure evil.""
"I don't know why he is acting this way, but don't trust him for a minute," she spoke back. The ponies all, slowly, walked inside the small residence, and got a good look at the abode. Twilight could practically hear Rarity hold back the urge to comment on how run-down and dank the place was.
"Moredread, you seem to be acting as though you have... "gone off of the deep end," for lack of a better term," Luna said again, after seeing him turn back to her, a tray filled with levitating in front of himself. "Are you... well?"
He laughed, as if mockingly. "Thousands of years of isolation will do that to one's mind, you know," he spoke, in a perturbingly calm way, as his eyes focused onto her own. "Sometimes it can be for the worse, other times... for the better, I suppose."
"Princess Celestia... I think we should hear what he has to say, before we make any rash decisions," Twilight whispered into her mentor's ear. She let out a small sigh in response, and turned to Luna, who, having heard as well, gave a nod of assent. Celestia looked toward Moredread, her look of displeasure not ceasing.
"If talking is what you want to do, then very well, Moredread," she started. "We will hear what you have to say."
"Well... this is the egg," Thoraxis said, once he and Pinkie Pie reached the bottom of the tunnel. After letting a green flare light up his horn, illuminating their surroundings, he motioned to the where the nest was, which stuck out like a sore hoof in the otherwise empty, dark room. Before Thoraxis could bat an eye, the pink pony flew past him, and stopped only when she was less than a few inches from where the nest was.
"Aww..." she cooed to the seemingly inanimate object, as she stared at it with saucer-sized eyes. "You're da most pwecious widdle changeling in da whole wide world, yes you are!"
"Don't get too close!" Thoraxis piped in, placing a gnarled hoof on her shoulder. "I don't trust you, or anypony around it. The one closest to receiving that honor is the possessed armor upstairs, and even then, it's out of necessity."
"Oh, don't worry..." she replied, with a cheerful smile. "I wont hurt it. That's the last thing I'd want to do!"
"That's reassuring..." he mumbled in return. Pinkie continued to examine it for another minute, great fascination in her eyes, before speaking again.
"Say... how long till he-slash-she hatches, anyway?" she inquired. "I already can't wait to hear the sound of baby changeling feet patter on the ground. Oh! I know! I could throw it a hatching party!"
Thoraxis gave her an odd look, before speaking. "Judging from the size... I'd say a week... or less. Also, I found out it's a she."
"A she? Ooh..." Pinkie said, rubbing her hooves together in anticipation. "I know just what to do! There'll be pink, miniature cupcakes, red-and-blue confetti, giant balloons with pictures of kittens on them, and-"
Before Thoraxis could mouth his concerns, he suddenly heard a rumbling noise coming from the earth pony's direction, and quickly realized that it was her stomach.
"Oops! hehehe..." she chuckled, as she rubbed it, an image of faint embarrassment on her face. "Those cookies that ghost friend of yours made were a little too stiff for my belly, I guess. I know what'll fix the situation!"
She placed a hoof in her mane, before plucking out a small object. Thoraxis saw it was a cupcake with blue-and-white, swirly frosting, and multi-colored sprinkles. How she hid something like that in there, Thoraxis truly didn't want to know. As Pinkie took in a long, refreshing sniff of the food item, and opened her mouth to take a large bite out of it, she suddenly stopped, as both heard a voice, coming from where the tunnel was.
"Hey! That sounds like Princess Celestia!" Pinkie shouted. "What's she doing here?"
"Wait, Princess Celestia?! The Princess Celestia?!" Thoraxis inquired, panic emerging from his tone. "Are you kidding me?! How'd she get here?"
"Beats me. She probably teleported here from Canterlot," she replied, throwing the cupcake into the air, forgetting about it. "I'll bet my flank my friends are with them. I've gotta explain to them you're a good guy! Let's go greet them."
""Greet," yeah, of course... yeah..." Thoraxis said, nervously, just before they both sped out of the burrow, kicking up dirt in their wake. The previously-thrown cupcake landed idly on the ground as they left, its puffy, creamy top splattering as it landed, just a few, scant feet from where the egg lied. The only other things that remained in the abode, was quiet, and the sweet aroma of the pastry, which flew around like an invisible fog, enveloping the egg in its smell.
Then, as if the magical switch was pressed, the egg began to stir, as a crack, ever so small, slowly grew, and etched itself across the shell's surface...
As the two were exiting the burrow, they could easily hear a heated discussion going on, and, as to not disrupt it, slowed down to a tiptoe, and peaked their heads out of the hole. Thoraxis let out a gulp as he saw each figure in his home, noticing Pinkie Pie's friends right off, before shifting his view to what he easily realized was the princesses, Celestia and Luna, each one wearing curled brows of anger that made the translucent blood in his veins cringe in fear.
"I cannot see the reason you so adamantly stated you'd show," Luna said again, once Moredread finished his sentence.
"It's simple," he replied. "I wish to stay here for the remainder of my days, however long that may be, in peace."
"But the enchantments you placed on your armor are made to keep your spirit alive, until, as I heard before, the "day the world ends,"" Luna spoke again. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I do not like a pony with that sort of spell keeping them active."
"With great effort, enchantments can be changed, and I am without power to pose a threat to any being, ever again," he replied, motioning to the hole in his helmet's forehead, where his horn used to be. "I have no means to reclaim it, I do not wish to reclaim it, and never shall attempt to reclaim it."
"I think that the "mental breakdown" thing I talked about earlier is coming back..." Thoraxis muttered to Pinkie, from the hole they still hid in. His voice, despite being a whisper, was heard by Spike, who turned his head to their direction, before letting out a cry of alarm.
"Changeling!" he yelled out, pointing a claw at him, before noticing the other, more familiar shape. "And... Pinkie Pie?"
"Pinkie?!" all of the pink mare's friends shouted in unison, in both surprise, and alarm, as they, too, turned to face them. Rainbow Dash continued with, "What are you doing here? HOW did you get here?"
"Don't worry you guys, I'm alright, and you'll never believe what happened!" she laughed, walking fully out of the tunnel, leaving Thoraxis behind. "As it turns out, the changeling, whose name is Thoraxis, by the way, is the pony stealing the toys, but he isn't evil, and doesn't want to hurt anypony! He's actually pretty nice."
"Changeling," Moredread spoke, prompting Thoraxis to swivel his head to the ghost's direction. "Tell them how I've acted since you released me."
"Well... um... aside from his jitter-inducing appearance, Moredread is not evil," Thoraxis said, directly to Celestia and Luna, after mustering up a bit of courage. "When I first met him, he told me that he was "retiring" from whatever he was before. He's even watched over my egg for me while I've been gone working at the local pet store, and not a scratch has come upon it."
"Even the changeling agrees," the phantom spoke , whose expressions remained stiff. "Celestia... Luna... all I ask is a chance to show you I mean well. A chance to show you I wish to redeem myself for all my past sins."
"Give us one good reason why we should give you that chance!" Celestia thundered. Moredread was more than ready to reply, and just as he was about to defiantly speak his answer, a new sound entered the room.
The sound was coming from the tunnel - that was unmistakable - but what the sound was, was at first unrecognized by anypony in the room, save for Thoraxis, whose eyes shot open at the childlike mewling noise. There, at the tunnel, a small shape appeared, crawling out of it at a snail's pace. A small, insect-like shape, resembling a miniature version of Thoraxis.
A baby changeling.
The creature had pink frosting coated in messy fashion all over her face, along with a big smile, and a curious look in her large eyes. It didn't take Thoraxis and Pinkie Pie a moment to realize where the substance came from. The infant continued to crawl around, becoming more acquainted with her new surroundings, making the same childlike gibberish, when Moredread decided what to next.
"Because..." he started, as he became the first to walk up to the small creature, her greenish-tinted, teal eyes looked up to the phantom, like a loving child to a parent. When he was within a foot of her, she stretched out her front hooves, both riddled with tiny holes, as if in an attempt to hug him, only to plop over on her back, clumsily. Moredread lowered his snout, and nudged the flailing creature gently, until she was back on her stomach. She gave a happy glance back to him, and began to crawl around some more, this time toward the still-awestruck Thoraxis, who could only stand there with his jaw dropped open. As she was doing this, Moredread shifted his view back to the princesses of the night and day, before speaking again.
"...I now have something truly worth being around for."
A silence fell upon the ponies and changeling, and, while Luna's complexion looked collected and tranquil despite the moment, Celestia's had curled into one of a wide-eyed, but completely still visage of fury. Just as Luna began to open her mouth, ready to speak her mind of the situation's sharp turn, Celestia made one of her own, and faced the opposite direction, her tail brushing against her sister's, as she left the house without uttering a single word.
"Sister? Where are you going?" Luna demanded to know. When she showed no sign of stopping, Luna, with a begrudging groan, followed her out. The other ponies, save for Twilight Sparkle, trotted up to the baby changeling to get a better look at the precious infant, while Twilight herself, with a worried look on her face, began to leave as well, joining up with Luna.
"Sister. Celestia!" Luna shouted, when the three had walked a few dozen feet from the house, away from any prying ears. Celestia finally came to a stop, and looked back at her sister and student with a glare.
"We need to lock him away. We both know that we cannot trust him," she said. "He was the single most dire threat Equestria has ever encountered."
Luna shook her head in disagreement. "Sister, he is telling the truth when he said he had no ways to regain his power," she began. "I see no reason to imprison him again. Perhaps his time spent alone for the last few thousand years truly changed his warped mind for the better."
"Why do you believe that, Luna?" Celestia asked. Her younger sister gave a sure look before responding.
"For I, too, was once lost to darkness. I believe forgiveness is the path we should take, not wrath."
"I completely agree, princess," Twilight concurred, nodding her head to Luna. "If we could reform Discord, we can reform Moredread. He just needs the right help."
"What happened to you was different, Luna," Celestia protested. "We were young. It was his dark magic that played your jealousy against you, until it consumed you. None of what Nightmare Moon did was your fault."
"It was as much my fault as it was his," her sister argued. "That jealousy was mine, and mine alone. The seeds left by his magic only grew from my envy."
"Thousands suffered and died under his reign!" Celestia retorted, in a shout.
"And millions more would have perished under mine, if you had not defeated me!" Luna shouted back, as she stomped a hoof into the dirt. "Would you have been so forgiving of me then? If the eternal night I tried to enact stayed eternal, and everything slowly atrophied, until there was nothing left but dust... would you have been so easy to accept the words "I'm sorry" as they leave my lips? Would you, dear sister?"
For the first time in the conversation, Celestia didn't know what to say. She looked to her younger sister, then to her student, before, finally, she sighed, and lowered her head, in a defeated manner.
"If you truly choose this, then tell him... tell them... he can stay," she spoke to them both, through gritted teeth, her voice sounding as light, reluctant, and held-back as a minotaur trying to disguise itself in a crowd of breezies. "But we will watch every single move he makes as of this day. Every. Single. Move."
"I agree to that, sister," Luna replied, taking in an easy breath. "Absolution should not be mistaken for caution. Judging from what you said, do you wish to leave?"
"I cannot bear to be in his presence a minute longer," Celestia admitted, solemnly, as she closed her eyes, the wings on her side unfurling. "After all he did... you may be one to let the past go, and I can see the reason why, but I, still, am not."
With a single, quick, powerful thrust of her wings, the princess of the day ascended into the night sky, leaving their sight after several more, her shape disappearing into the glow of the full moon. Luna sighed, as if she had lifted a tremendous weight from her chest, and looked to Twilight, who still stood beside her.
"Twilight Sparkle," Luna spoke to the princess in question. "Shall we go tell him?"
"I'm right behind you, princess," she replied. |
One Changeling, in a World of Foes | Epilogue: A Story Ends, a Story Begins | Epilogue
Moredread laid on the ground of the house, his eyes closed, and his expression stiff, as if in meditation, or deep rest. By his side, curled up in a comfortable position, was the small, fragile form of the baby changeling, fast asleep.
Thoraxis was gone, out working late at the pet store, and in his real form, as the ponies from several nights before recommended. The first time he tried so, which was three days ago, was met with some scorn and fear, but with the backing of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, he was already on his way to being fully accepted in the community.
A week had passed since that fateful day the princesses had allowed him to stay, and the egg had hatched. Just thinking about the moment he heard the words signifying the fact caused Moredread to open his eyes, turn his head to the little creature sleeping next to him, and smile.
They had named her "Skia." The idea for the name was brought up by none other than Moredread himself, and Thoraxis, unable to think of anything creative, took a liking to the name, and agreed to it. "Skia" was an old name, one from a time far before this one, but one that once also carried a moderate gesture of mystery and awe in its wake.
"Goodnight, Skia. My little Skia," Moredread began, his voice soft, gentle, and soothing, as rubbed his spectral nose against her in the same manner. "Goodnight, my sweet, little shadow. Dream of pleasant things. Dream of beautiful things. Dream of good things to come, and more..."
A warm feeling mounted in his chest as he felt her chitinous body unconsciously snuggle up to him, a tiny, innocent smile on her resting face. It was a feeling he had not felt for an excruciatingly long time. A feeling he welcomed with open hooves. With the same, light voice, he spoke again to her, one last time.
"Goodnight, my precious, irreplaceable, little..."
Moredread's gaze went up to the roof, still littered with old holes from ages past, exposing some of the night sky, and allowing the moon's blue rays to seep through, illuminating the umbrum and his charge in its pale light. He looked back to Skia with semi-closed eyes, before lowering his head, wrapping it around her fragile form, as he, too, began to fall asleep.
"...Changeling."
THE END |
The Great and Powerful Escape Artist! | pre | Octavia gave off a small smile. "Well it's not quite what I am used to but the Apples are real nice, and treat me like family. Well, I technically am, however distant it is, but still family none the less."
"Excuse me," Dark Star interrupted, "but aren't you two from the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra?"
Beauty Brass looked the pair over for a few moments with a frown. "I don't know what they teach out here in this
unsophisticated little town, but it is rude to interrupt ladies when they are talking. However, yes, we are."
Dark Star smiled wide as his wife rolled her eyes at his obvious fanboying. "I just wanted to say that I saw you playing at the Royal Canterlot Hall and I was so moved by the way your group played. I hope you are planning on a performance here."
The two musicians looked at each other for a few moments before finally acknowledging him back. "We are planning a small get together tomorrow, yes. But we have some business to attend to first, so wherever we play will probably be at a friends venue or home."
Dark Star and Essence looked at each other in confusion for a few moments before they shrugged. "Well it was nice to meet you both, come on love."
With all that said and done, Essence and her husband trotted into town and had a quiet argument between them if they could manage to get money out of this or not. They were so into their conversation, that they did not realize that they never saw the tower of scrolls being carried by the town's resident dragon and assistant to Twilight Sparkle, Spike.
Poor Spike, he just simply could not catch a break that day. First he was forced to stay the night with Pinkie Pie. While it doesn't sound so bad to have a sleepover with the town's party pony, it lead to a long night, with Spike being kept up till nearly sunrise, talking to, or rather listening to Pinkie Pie talking about everything while getting nothing said at all.
Spike finally fell asleep at four thirty in the morning, only to be awoken by an alarm clock that was quite possibly invented by a mad scientist, or Pinkie herself. Either or; same difference. Moments afterward he discovered how Pinkie was so energetic all day. The answer was coffee. Lots and lots of coffee, which Spike drank a liberal amount of as well.
After a few hours Spike was picked up by Twilight, who took his sudden jumpy energy as a sign that he had a good nights sleep, and immediately sent him on an all day long shopping trip. It had taken till just then, to grab the last thing on the list: one hundred scrolls of paper.
With so much paper in his arms, he never saw the oncoming pair of ponies, bickering about whether or not they could get money out of some musicians. Soon enough he found himself flat on his back with the two ponies passing by him without even an "Excuse me." or "Here let me help you.".
As the young dragon lay on his back, under a pile of now-dirty scrolls, he groaned aloud. "Yep, it's one of those days..."
It was an hour after sunset before Lyra Heartstrings finally was able to close the shop. She was so busy that she had to forgo her lunch break, and stay open late for all the customers.
Nearly everything was sold, with almost one hundred special orders, and almost a hundred more for the things she ran out of!
Yet, she could not go home. Lyra looked outside her shop, up and down the road for a few moments, made sure the coast was clear, then locked herself in the closed shop and headed into the back room.
The back room was lit by a single lamp, and was filled with the sound of bickering ponies, as they argued about the best route to take in the situation at hoof. Lyra looked at the eight musicians before standing on her hind legs and whistling into both her front hooves. "Alright, everypony!"
Suddenly the loud sound of obvious fake coughing in the seek of attention drew the rest of the eyes on a gryphon sitting in the back, with his talons folded together and an intimidating frown on his beak. "Sorry, I have no idea vere dat came from," he spoke the words with a thick Gryphonian accent.*
Lyra paused as she took notice of the gryphon. "Sorry Sven, everybody, I think that it is time we get down to details, gathered here we have Beauty Brass, Octavia, Harpo, Royal Ribbon, and Fredric Horseshoepin from Canterlot, Fiddlesticks, Vinyl Scratch and myself representing Ponyville, and last, but certainly not least you all know Sven, the drummer from Germaneigh, currently on tour here in Equestria,"
"Ve know who ve are, get on vith it!" Sven called out from the back of the room before the rest of the group nodded and called out in agreement.
"Sorry," Lyra winced as she spoke. "I'm not used to speaking with groups and thought introductions would be needed. Anyhow, you are all here today to answer to the threat of boredom."
"The Boars are attacking?" Vinyl asked as she raised raised her shades and started to pull her bass canon closer to her.
"No, I think that she's trying to be dramatic again,"
"I MEANT, that Ponyville is in serious trouble!" Lyra finally interrupted. "Everyone here, I am sure, is finding it increasingly difficult to book a venue here, without raising suspicion with the local mob, the so-called Musicians Mafia."
FIddlesticks slammed a hoof down on the table. "Them goons charged me an' my group an' arm and a leg for playin' music last Nightmare Night!"
"I must say that my cousin is right. Two of those goons, as she called them, harassed Brass and myself at the train station, under the guise of being fans."
"Dey are currently extracting ten marks a day from me for holding my clarinet and reeds at a verehause I never asked to be put into!"
"AND THEY DROPPED THE BASS!" Vinyl screamed over the rest holding up a broken bass guitar. "My beautiful bass..."
"That's all fine and good, but why are we all here right now?" Fredric asked as he looked up from the notepad he was writing music notes on.
Lyra, Octavia, Vinyl, Brass and Ribbon looked at each other and shared a small grin before Lyra finally explained. "We have a plan."
Trixie tried to settle down in the same corner as last night, but found that she just couldn't get any sleep. Hunger gnawed at her stomach like a pack of parasprites and thunder rumbled across the sky, as several pegasi gathered storm clouds for the night. "Trixie demands to know if she will be struck down by lightning tonight!"
A passing pegasus stopped to answer, although briefly. "Don't worry, Captain Rainbow Dash has special instructions to make this a low energy storm. Besides, you're not grounded. If anything, it would just pass you by."
Soon enough, all the pegasi flew away, leaving Trixie alone for the first time all day. With the public eye off of her, she could finally drop the act and be herself, in the situation she was placed in. That of being a grown mare, scared to death of being cooked alive by lightning.
As she lay on the bottom of the box, she hid under her cape, and using her hat like a pillow, she tried to relax. That was when the first raindrop hit the box.
Thunder rumbled once again, as the storm really started to get some momentum to it. Rain pelted the box like an angry child, and she felt all-at-once terrified and glad that the water was not finding a way in through the wooden top of the box.
That security was short-lived. The hastily crafted wood that made up the topside of the box, was never stained or varnished to be water proof, and soon began to drip water into the box. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"
As the rain continued to pour, Trixie began to feel sick, while the wind howled and rocked the box on the chain it was suspended from. Furthermore, the rain continued to pour into the box at a rapid rate leaving an inch of water on the floor. "Well, it could be worse. At least I'm not grounded."
That was when fate decided to laugh at her and throw a lightning bolt her way, instantly frying the unicorn standing in an inch of water. "Joy..." |
The Great and Powerful Escape Artist! | Dawn of the Final Day, Six Hours Remain. | As the sun crested over the horizon, its light cast a warm glow over the now clear skies of Ponyville. Trixie awoke to realize that she had fallen asleep standing on her hind legs, in the corner of the box, with water nearly up to her haunches. "Ugh, what time is it?"
"It's sunrise genius. Now come on, splash some of that water on your face, you look all burnt up." Rainbow Dash said as she continued to buck the remainder of the clouds out of the sky.
Trixie growled under her breath for a few moments, before splashing the water on her face a few times, in hope of getting rid of the scorch marks the lightning had left on her throughout the night. "Just a few more hours of this, then I can finally get out of here and collect the bits from the ticket box..."
Firebird B. Tops yawned into his hoof as he walked down the stairs of his home and into the small kitchen of his professional life. It wasn't a glamorous job owning the Tops Tea and Coffee Cafe, but somepony had to supply the caffeine to Ponyville.
As he fumbled in the dark, he muttered under his breath about getting electric lights some day, right before tripping on a bit of loose floorboard in the kitchen. He cursed under his breath before rising to light a gas lamp in the wall.
With the light on, he could finally see the simple set up of his shop; the bottom story of a house converted to a cozy seating area, with a counter and several brewing devices. He smiled despite himself and immediately began the process of brewing select coffees and teas for the morning rush. But first, his personal stash of imported coffee from Zebrabwe, a particularly strong coffee that could only be drank one ounce at a time.
As the mechanized brewers began their work, Firebird quickly downed his shot of coffee and gave the dining area a once-over, before unlocking the front door and flipping the sign to open. Once it was all said and done, he opened a notepad and began to write.
A coffee brewer's day starts early. Dear Celestia, does it start early. When you're the one stallion in town that knows how to properly brew a cuppa, ponies expect that you'll be up and percolating before the moon goes down at the end of the night. Unfortunately, those same ponies who force me out of bed before the crack of dawn also tend to enjoy coffee most when eating their after-dinner dessert from Sugarcube Corner. Most times, they're in and out faster than I can say hello. Still, wouldn't trade it for all the riches of Canterlot. After all, I like to think that if I were to close down, the whole of Ponyville would collapse, since nopony'd be able to wake up and go to work.*
"I'm telling you darling, this little cafe has simply the finest tea outside of Canterlot. You simply must come inside and have a cup, my treat!"
Firebird stopped writing in the notepad, to look up and smile as he saw his best customer, Rarity, standing within the open door-frame of the shop. Two other ponies stood behind her, but he could not quite see who they were. "Really Rarity, you don't have to buy me anything. I usually get my coffee from Java Bean's across town anyway."
"Now now, not another word, you both must simply try the blend of Jasmine Tea that he carries here," With that said, Rarity entered the cafe at last, followed by a purple unicorn and a certain yellow pegasus.
Firebird felt his heart pop slightly in his chest as he remembered what happened the last time he was within twenty feet of Fluttershy, and the overnight stay in the hospital it caused. Quickly as he could, Firebird looked for something to look at, other than the three mares, in hopes of not winding up hospitalized again and found a newspaper. He opened it quickly and pretended to read the obituary.
Rarity paid no mind to the strange behavior of the shopkeeper and sat down at an open table with her friends, "Oh Firebird, please be a dear, and bring a pot of your lovely Jasmine tea for my friends Twilight, Fluttershy, and myself."
Firebird paused, closed his eyes and smiled at the three mares. "Of course Miss Rarity," He turned and quickly prepared a tray with sugar cubes, cream, cups and saucers, before grabbing a pot of the requested tea and carrying the tray over to the table.
On his trip over to them, he kept his eyes closed the entire time, fear clutching his heart as he hopped beyond hope that this would not be the day that he wound up back in the hospital, sharing a room with that insufferable 'prince' that raised taxes whenever he wrecked another private yacht. "Here you are ladies, please let me know if there is anything else you need."
"Thank you Firebird, I shall," With the business out of the way, he quickly made a retreat to the safety of his counter where he could continue to read the paper and not suffer from an overexposure of either Daww, or Hnnng.
"Oh my, but this tea is nice." Fluttershy commented as she sipped on the tea, "I wonder if he would sell any that I can take home."
"It is quite the cup of tea, but for my bit I still prefer Java Bean's regular ol' coffee," Twilight said with a smile.
"Oh, his coffee is fine enough if you just want to wake up and do something," Rarity replied, "but in my opinion, nothing says good morning like a cup of tea."
"Well, I suppose it depends on what I am in the mood for, but maybe I'll come by more often. After all, a change here and there is probably for the best."
The three friends continued to sip on their tea and make polite conversation, as they did the shop slowly let in the trickle of his usual morning customers. As the shop became more busy, the more he was able to be distracted from the three mares at the table and not have to worry about another hospitalization.
"So, what time is the big drop, Twilight?"
Twilight swallowed down her tea and looked at Rarity with a raised eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"
"You know," she started before whispering in her direction, "when Trixie makes her escape."
"Oh that!" Twilight laughed a little for not catching on sooner. "It's at noon. We still have a few hours to go before we have to be there." She stopped to pour herself a little more tea only to find that it was all gone, "Oh well, I guess it's time we get going."
"Yes, I am afraid that I have got a busy morning today, I simply have to finish that dress I was making, for an important client in Canterlot."
Fluttershy looked at her friend with some concern. "Oh, does that mean you have to leave later today?"
"I'm afraid so, but I did promise to be there when Trixie makes her escape, and I will not miss it. I'll take the next train to Canterlot once everything here is squared away."
The other two ponies nodded slightly before Fluttershy drained the rest of her cup. "It was so nice to have this outing with you both. Before we go, I would like to talk to the owner about taking home some of this tea," With that said, the timid mare made her way through the crowd to the counter.
Firebird felt a small pinch of panic rise in his chest. "Oh no, she's coming this way, what do I do, what do I say? I don't want to go back to the hospital. Okay, you know what, just give her what she wants and maybe things will work out."
Before he knew what was going on, he found the pegasus was on the other side of the counter.
"Um, hello. I was just wondering if I could buy some of your Jasmine tea so I can brew it at home. If that's alright."
Firebird B Tops never felt more afraid in his life, with a stoic face and panicked heart, he looked the mare in the eye and said, "Yes, let me get you a bag. Would you like two or three ounces?"
"Oh two would be fine, that should last a while."
Firebird quickly scooped some of the ground tea leaves into a bag and weighed it on a small scale before passing it over the counter. "Two bits please."
Once the exchange was made, she quickly trotted off to meet up with her friends. "Thank you darling, I left payment as usual on the table." Rarity called out before the trio headed out the door.
Firebird let out a breath he forgot he was holding and relaxed slightly at last. "Finally, I can have a nice, normal, boring day."
He walked to the table the three friends were sitting at and grabbed the tray with the empty tea set. True to her word as always, Rarity left the proper payment, and a very generous tip.
Once back behind his little counter, Firebird dropped the tray in the sink, and was just starting to place the bits into the register when a small voice suddenly grabbed his attention. "Hey! Have you seen my big sister?"
He looked over the counter and did not see anypony at first, until he looked down and saw a small white filly with green eyes, and a curly pink and purple mane, "I'm trying to find my sister Rarity, is she still here?"
Firebird shook his head, "Sorry little one, you just missed her."
The small unicorn gave off her biggest puppy dog eyes and stuck out her bottom lip, "You mean, you don't know where she is?"
Firebird grabbed his chest and began to lean forward, his heart pounded, abused once again by too much cute overload, "She... She's headed to work... on a dress."
"Thanks mister!" With all that said and done, Sweetie Belle skipped out of the cafe humming a happy tune that only she knew, and sent Firebird down to the floor, suffering another slight daww attack. With the last bit of strength he had, Firebird called out, "Somepony call a doctor..."
Vinyl Scratch held a few tools in her magic as she placed the final screw into place. "There, that oughta do it!" She slowly climbed down the ladder and looked at her craftsponyship, "You can't hardly tell it's there unless you're looking for it!"
Lyra looked up at the corner near the ceiling and nodded in approval. All four corners had been tackled in much the same manner, hiding four color-film cameras on loan from the disk-jocky. "Very good, Vinyl. Octavia, have you passed out the party favors?"
She nodded in consent. "Of course. Everyone here outside of Ribbon, Brass, Vinyl, you and I, all have the party favors at hoof when needed."
"Excellent. Once today is over, ponies will be able to play music in freedom, without fearing the extraction of their hard earned bits... At last we shall make a statement, against the villainous curs known as the Musicians Mafia."
Sven suddenly raised a talon in the air. "Excuse me, but vouldn't it be a good idea to practice some music before ve perform in public, just to see if ve, gel I tink is vhat you vould say?"
"Oh ja, I mean, yeah," Lyra stated, with a slight stutter, "Everyone, gather up your instruments if you've got them, we'll do a practice round in the back room before we meet at the park. Yes Sven, I know they have your clarinet, you can borrow one of our rentals."
Prince Blueblood usually wandered through the Ponyville Rehabilitation Clinic in a haze, feeling not quite sure of himself. It had been two days since his last bender, and the unfortunate side effect of that time, was clear thinking. For the first time in years he realized that he had a problem, and that this place was going to help.
He also realized that food was incredibly bland without salt. While not a necessity, he felt that he craved the stuff, and was losing his mind over the shear blandness of every food item they tried to give him. Perhaps it was simply the withdrawals talking.
As the morning slowly drew on, he looked around the room a few times to look over his fellow addicts. Not so surprisingly, there were very few in the small town, and he wound up continuing to stare at the same light plum and mulberry earth pony. Every time he caught her sight she would smile and wave at him before turning back to the window to stare outside.
Blueblood rolled his eyes before looking back down at the tray next to him, holding a cup of flat water, without any ice cubes. "Oh how the mighty hath fallen. Not three days ago, I was drinking my weight in champagne and sleeping with everypony that dared to come within thirty feet of me!"
"Only your weight of that light stuff? Try twice your weight in my home made punch and whiskey." Blueblood looked up to see that the light plum mare was right in front of him smiling widely. "Hi, my name's Berry Punch- Well actually, it's Pinot Noir, but that's a boring name, so everypony calls me Berry Punch, what's yours?"
He winced and grabbed his head as her voice, while under normal circumstances he was sure would be pleasant, on this sober occasion felt like drills screwing into his brain, "I am Prince Blueblood you simpleton! Ow... What do you want peasant?"
"Well, sorry, your royal snootiness! I just wanted to make polite conversation with anypony besides Nurse Hard Case, but I guess I, a mere brewer and fermenter of fine alcoholic beverages, is below you, oh mighty prince. By the way, thanks for voting on increasing the alcohol tax, AGAIN!" With all that said, she stomped across the room and sat back down by the window.
Suddenly Blueblood felt his heart pop. It was as if fate had brought him to this very hospital at this very time. How else would he have known that the famous brewer of his favorite local wine, Berry Punch, actually called herself Berry Punch? Or know that she would be here at the clinic as well? How else would he have known, that he could flirt his way to free drinks for life?
Blueblood mentally slapped himself, then quickly got up out of the chair he had been vegetating in for the last three hours, since his so-called breakfast, and galloped across the room to her. "Hey, wait! Let's talk more about you."
Only three blocks away from the budding love story of two alcoholics, one with power and money, the other with craft-brewing skills, the air was filled with a rhythmic grinding sound. Slowly at first, then quite suddenly, a small, blue box appeared on the side of an alley.
The box had two doors on one side, and two short windows near the top all the way around. The last thing to note about the strange, blue box was that over the windows, it proudly proclaimed Pony Public Call Box in big, bold letters.
Suddenly, the doors flew open and out galloped a tan earth pony and gray pegasus, "See Ditzy, I told you that it was no big deal, saving the future of pony kind by ensuring the fall of Ancient Gryphonia was necessary. I mean, do you really want to be subservient to the gryphons or do you like your freedom more?"
Ditzy looked like she was about to throw up, "Doctor, I don't think you know how to fly this thing... How late am I to work anyway? You said I would be back in time, and it was snowing that day."
The Doctor looked around nervously, "Ah, it would appear that this is the wrong day, and its not a thing, she's the TARDIS. Anyway, don't move. Don't even leave a trace you were here, or we are going to be stuck in this time-line for a while. If you read anything, or show up to work and they say you haven't been there in months or years or anything of the sort, then it's set in stone. See, time is in flux so long as you don't interact with it too much." As he continued to ramble on, he galloped back into the box, to the TARDIS control panel, and began to flip switches, spin wheels and pull levers at random, until an image came up on the small television screen mounted in the center of the console. "AH, here we are. Oh..."
Ditzy Doo walked up to the doctor and looked at the screen, "What is it Doctor?"
"You remember everything I told you a moment ago about how time was in flux, and to not touch anything?" He asked with a serious look on his face.
"Yeah? I remember."
"Well, forget about everything I said- Well, not everything, just most of it. The TARDIS brought us here for a reason. Today is the day of the great fall, and time is in flux, and it's up to us to ensure that it happens."
"Wait one moment!" The two ponies ran out of the TARDIS as Ditzy tried to get more answers out of him. "You picked me up just after the royal wedding, told me that you have a time machine and showed me sights and wonders I never expected, including the fall and rebirth of the Crystal Empire, and now you are telling me I can't go back?!"
The Doctor stopped and looked his companion in the face. "Ditzy, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, but it looks like you are going to be missing out on," He paused and looked at a wrist watch, "ten months of work. Don't worry, I'll fix everything."
With that said the time-lord galloped off again. "Wait, how are you going to fix everything, when I'm sure I've been fired by now?!"
"I'm the last Time-lord of Galopfrey! I'll fix it! Now come on, we have to make sure that the great fall happens!"
Dark Star and Essence stood in the center of a great warehouse filled with musical equipment. They were not alone; across from the duo stood the rest of the members of their little gang. "Now boys, the missus and I will be attending the fall of a certain star by the town square today."
The four other ponies laughed to themselves at the joke made by Dark Star, stroking his ever inflated ego. "Now, you four will be keeping tabs on our venues to make sure that those musicians from out of town don't play any venue without us getting a cut. After we are done with Miss Heartstrings, we are going to meet up with the rest of you here at three o'clock, got it?"
The four stallions all nodded and answered simultaneously. "Yes, fearless leader."
"Good." He paused and looked to his wife for approval, she nodded at him and he finished, "Let's head out and make a killing today!"
Everypony gave out an enthusiastic cheer and stampeded out of the warehouse to do their dirty deeds for the day.
It was almost ten o'clock before Twilight met up with Rainbow Dash. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
Dash waved a hoof as she floated above the unicorn. "Easy shmeezy, just buck the cloud at the last stroke of noon."
"Alright Rainbow, I'm counting on you." The pegasus saluted Twilight before taking off into the sky.
Twilight watched the rainbow contrail disappear over the roof tops of Ponyville before nodding at Spike. Spike nodded in reply and hopped up on her back. The two quickly took off to join the ever-growing crowd of ponies. Ponies that paid to watch the fall of Trixie, to see if she would live to become one of the greatest escape artists of their time, or to be another fool who bit off more than she could chew in the name of show biz. |
The Great and Powerful Escape Artist! | The Great Fall | The clock continued to climb ever closer to the noon hour as Spike rode into the back stage area with Twilight, "Do you think Dash will make it in time?"
"I hope so, last I heard she was at home, and I can't teleport there and cast a cloud walking spell, I would wear myself out and the cloud walking spell would cancel! Ohhh if only I had wings!"
Spike snorted a bit, "Yeah like that would ever happen."
Twilight and Spike kept looking around the small areas back stage in search of Rainbow Dash, but there was no sign of her, "Oh no, how could this happen? Did she fall asleep again?"
"Hold your horses Twilight!" She looked up to see none other than Rainbow Dash lounging in the rafters, "What kept you? I've been waiting here for the last fifteen minutes!"
Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash with annoyance etched out on her face, "I'm on time, in fact I'm early!"
As Dash glided down she waved a hoof through the air, "Doesn't matter, the point is you had me waiting. Now how much longer till the big drop?"
"Only thirty minutes, you had better make sure Trixie is ready now before you buck the cloud away," Twilight said with a slight tone of worry in her voice.
"No worries, I'll check in a minute."
Twilight and Spike looked around for a few moments before leaving the small back stage area to see the ever growing crowd, "I hope everything goes alright Twilight."
"Me too Spike, me too."
Prince Blueblood and Berry Punch were sitting on a pair of chairs and looking out the window together as they hoped to see anything of the stunt happening a few blocks away, "Can you see anything Berry?"
"No, can you?" Punch asked as she squinted into the distance.
"Does that little blob in the sky count?"
"No, that's just dirt on the window..."
After a few hours of conversation the two ponies found that they had a lot in common, mostly that they like to drink, but still it was something to go off of, That was when a brown and tan blur swooped passed the window, "What the hay was that?" Blueblood asked as he jumped into the arms of the mare to his right.
"I don't know, but your royal flank is heavy," Berry said as she dropped him on the ground, only for him to shoot in the air when a grey and yellow streak ran past the window next.
Prince Blueblood and Berry Punch looked at each other for a few moments before the prince finally spoke, "What do you suppose that was all about?"
"I don't know," she replied, "But if there is two things I know, its this. One, something big is going down if we saw what we thought we saw, and Two this place practically has a revolving door, COME ON!"
The two ponies quickly ran across the room before coming into the hall way, "Wait, what do you think is going on?" Prince Blueblood called out.
"There is a pony that comes by once in a while, and whenever he does Ditzy Doo is sure to follow, and if those two are together and galloping, then something big is going down. I don't know what but something!"
The two kept galloping through the halls until they reached the small lobby, there the found Nurse Hardcase sitting at the reception desk filing some paperwork. Blueblood and Berry looked at each other for a moment as the plum mare grinned wide and pulled a rubber ball out of her mane. He gave her a quizical look before she threw the ball at a file cabinet. The nurse turned to the sound, and as she did the two ponies quickly ran out the front door.
"Well that was pretty smart, but now what?"
Berry Punch paused to breathe for a few moments before pointing in a direction, "We try to catch up with those two, come on!" And so the pair took off in a hurry.
Meanwhile, just ahead of the two recovering alcoholics, The Doctor and Ditzy were galloping and flying along the road at break neck speed trying to find the next area, "Now Ditzy, according to legend today is the day of the great fall," he stopped to breathe for a moment and looked at his companion for any insight, she gave none so he continued, "If the fall does not happen successfully, then the land of Equestria will be thrown into an age of dullness, brought about by a lack of music!"
"Doctor what do you mean?"
"What I mean, is haven't you noticed that there has been a lack of something? Ponies that used to break out into song at any moment have all been silenced in Ponyville, and it's spreading! We have to find Song Lore, he works for them."
"Works for who doctor?" Ditzy asked in confusion.
"The musicians Mafia, we have to find him, and follow him. Find out where they keep the warehouse so the great fall will succeed, or the events that are supposed to take place in just two days will be catastrophic without music!"
"I don't understand!"
"You will, now come along Ditzy, I can see him up ahead, onward and upward!"
The two ponies came to a slow down before the doctor looked at the situation, "If only one of us had a mail bag or something, some way to deliver a message."
Ditzy looked The Doctor over a few times, "Really? Just, really? You couldn't have had me get my bag out of my cottage before we left," She looked at him as he smiled sheepishly, "Oh Ditzy, you don't need your bag, just leave it! THAT'S what you said, RIGHT?"
The Doctor looked down the road as he watched the goon go into a bar, "Ditzy, now is not the time for this, how far away is your cottage?"
She looked the Doctor over a few times before finally sighing and pointing to her left, "About three minutes that way if I fly."
"Then this is what I want you to do," he looked around for a bit before whispering something in her ear, she nodded a few times and smiled before backing away, "So I'll be tailing him, take this psychic paper with you, I'll let you know where I am got it?"
"Okay Doctor!" The pegasus took off as quickly as possible, headed off to the west end of town. Suddenly the sound of galloping reached The Doctor's ears, he turned to find Berry Punch running up to him.
"See, I told you we would find him here," Berry said to the stallion with her, "Doctor, this is Prince Blueblood the twentieth, we saw you and Ditzy run by the rehab clinic, what's going on?"
The Doctor looked at the pair and smiled a bit wider, "Berry Punch! How are you doing? It's been ages, well actually about a day for me, but still how are you doing? Still brewing that delicious punch?"
The mare giggled into her hoof before replying, "Not at the moment, I got busted for being drunk in public, again."
"Oh Berry, how many times must I tell you not to drink too much when you are brewing!"
"I Only had a glass to make sure it tasted proper," The mare started to defend as the prince backed away from the pair slightly.
"Bad news love, but a glass usually does not take two barrels to fill. Hello there, Prince Blueblood, I've heard of you. By the way, might want to give up the salts, settle down and not sleep with strangers. Just in case that one blue pony turns out to be a cop, hired by a rival of yours."
Blueblood looked at the tan pony in confusion for a few moments before finally giving the best answer that he could at the moment, "err..."
"Well, anyhow love to chat, but my target is on the move, follow me if you must, but I need you to stay silent if you do."
So it was that Blueblood and Pinot Noir were confusedly drafted into helping The Doctor spy on Song Lore to ensure The Great Fall.
It has been three days since Trixie has gone into the box.
Three days of ponies teasing her, three days of hunger, misery, and boredom. She had endured rain, thirst, hunger, electrocution, ponies pelting food at her, pegasus ponies shaking the box, and the need to use the bathroom with no chance of escape.
But that was all going to be behind her, as she looked down and watched the open grass of town square and the stage by it become more and more crowded with ponies, excitement began to fill her.
As she looked down, a blue and prismatic streak shot into the sky. The close it got, the more Trixie could tell that it was Rainbow Dash headed up to talk with her, "Hey are you ready up here?"
Trixie nodded to her from behind the glass, "Trixie is prepared, how long until you drop the Great and Powerful Trixie?"
"About five minutes, if there is an emergency just let me know before I buck the cloud away and I'll bring this to a halt."
Trixie nodded before Dash flew back down to the crowd below, no doubt to make sure that the crowd was truly excited.
Down below, Lyra had just walked onto the stage with Twilight Sparkle, Octavia, and Sven Biller to the roar of applause, "Thank you for coming," Lyra started as the applause died down, "We have just sent the captain of the Ponyville Weather Team to talk to Trixie to make sure that everything is alright, and here she comes now to give us the news!"
As Rainbow Dash landed on the stage the group of ponies applauded wildly, and Dash ate it up like a foal eats candy on Nightmare Night, "Thanks, The Great and Powerful Escape Artist Trixie is prepared for the fall, are you ready to watch her escape?"
The ponies in the audience again applauded, only to have the cheers inturupted by Lyra, "Everypony remember, Trixie will be available to sign autographs and there will be live music provided by a one time only performance by Octavia and her group from Canterlot, with Sven Biller, and others sitting in for a one time only super group! This show is free of charge to you ticket holders, so don't throw your tickets away!"
Everypony applauded again, everypony that is, except for two. Dark Star and Essence looked at each other with anger in their eyes as they nodded, "We break her horn for this, Essence. Keep an eye on the show, I'm going to get Bones and Pyro to help us out at Lyra's music shop."
"Good luck misser, I'll meet you at the shop." The couple kissed each other quickly before her husband took off to find his thugs to help him out.
As he left the crowd, the show went on, as Rainbow Dash flew up into the air, "Remember the after party will begin at Three O'clock!"
Rainbow Dash flew back up to the lone cloud in the sky, and the box suspended benieth it, and Trixie smiled, "It's time."
She looked down the clear flexible glass like material and made note of how far the ground was below her, and looked up at the solid wood top above. A small smile crept upon her face as she saw the gathering ponies below her begin to flash pictures.
Dash stopped just before the box and knocked three times, "Are you ready?"
Trixie nodded and swallowed down some saliva before answering, "As ready as I'll ever be, " this was it, time for Trixie to begin her escape.
Dash flew up a little higher, and turned to buck the cloud. Trixie breathed in and before she could let a breath out the cloud holding the box from above was bucked away from existence, and the box began to tumble to the ground.
The box fell quickly, as if gravity was pulling harder for avoiding this for three days. Trixie was thrown about the box like a rag doll for a few moments, breathed out and closed her eyes.
The ground was getting closer, and she made a motion as if stepping to the right, that's when the box smashed into the ground into shards of its former self.
The crowd of ponies, so intent on watching the events finally play out could not believe what they have just witnessed, a group of ponies suddenly ran forward into the rubble and began to sift through the pieces hoping to find the mare that crashed into the earth.
Twilight looked around, for a few moments before running to join the rescue team. She lifted wood and plastic high up in hopes of finding Trixie. After a few moments of frantic searching, all she or the rest of the crew could find was Trixie's hat and cape.
"She, she failed!" Twilight Sparkle called out suddenly to the shock of everypony.
"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE NEVER FAILS!" The call came out loud, and the entire crowd turned to look for the voice that called out, so smug and assured. There in the dead center of the crowd, a blue unicorn stood with an inhibitor ring on her head, "The Great and Powerful Trixie LIVES, and she demands her cape and hat!"
Confusion raged throughout the crowd, then joy and cheers as they lifted Trixie high into the air! The impossible has been done, and ponies knew that on this day, they have witnessed the greatest escape of all time!
The Doctor, Blueblood and Berry all were standing a few feet away from The Manticore's Mane Pub waiting to see if Song Lore would be headed out soon when Ditzy landed behind them, "Sorry I took so long, you won't believe how much dust a mail bag can have after sitting around for a few months."
"Never mind that now, did you bring the pen and paper?"
Ditzy fished out the requested items and passed them to the Doctor, "Right here!"
Quickly the Doctor took the items and began to write out a hasty message, "I need you to read this aloud to Song Lore, tell him that you have a message from Shred. Do you understand Ditzy Doo?"
The Grey pegasus nodded as Prince Blueblood and Berry Punch stood baffled to the side, "Then get to it, I'll be right here to back you up if you need it."
Ditzy Doo looked at the trio of ponies standing before her, raised an eyebrow then asked a question that's been bothering her all day, "How do you know all these ponies names?"
The Doctor smiled a bit as he explained, "Been here before, several faces ago when I was content to just observe, in fact here I come now!"
The rest of the ponies watched as a blue unicorn trotted down the road, he had a wavy mane and tail that was white and lighter blue and wore white shirt with ruffles, a black bow tie and a red crush velvet jacket. Most importantly, he had the same hour glass cutie mark as the doctor that was with them had. The unicorn kept trotting down the road, paying no mind to the quartet of ponies observing him, and instead observed the bar Song Lore had entered up ahead.
"That's me about seven faces ago, wish I could tell him about Metebelis III, but you know how that goes by now..." he went off into his memories for a moment before clearing his mind, "Anyhow, that's how I know so go to it Ditzy, off you trot."
Ditzy seeming satisfied with the answer took off to deliver the phony telegram to the pony inside The Manticore's Mane, Blueblood on the other hand had one last question on his mind, "Did you really just say I, I, I, instead of three?"
The Doctor turned to the prince and gave off a cocky half grin, "Prince Blueblood? Would you kindly shut up and just bask in my brilliance for a moment before you open your mouth, thank you."
Ditzy walked over to the pub and frowned as she adjusted her delivery bag, it felt so wrong being as light as it was, almost as if it had wasted away in the time she was gone. She reached her hoof forward only for the door to be cast in the golden glow of magic. She turned to find the pony that The Doctor pointed out as himself had just opened the door for her, "After you my dear," he said with a kindly smile as she moved to let her by.
"Your too kind sir," she stated simply as she trotted in and he followed after her. Ditzy looked around the seedy pub and nearly gagged at the sticky sweet smell of beer and cider spilled on the collection of tables, so long ignored that the sticky residue would take hours of work to just make the smell go away, let alone sanitary.
As Ditzy stood stock still looking for the earth pony she was sent after, she couldn't help but notice the former incarnation of The Doctor walk past her and set himself down on a bar stool. He pulled a hoofkerchief out of his breast pocket and wiped his hooves off from the sticky substance no doubt gained from walking across the pub's floor.
Ditzy gave a sigh of slight boredom as she looked for a sign of the grey and black earth pony, but could find none at the moment. That was until she heard a door open, "Now mister Tapper, aren't you glad to have seen things my way?"
"Yes Mister Lore, I'm happy to pay for my protection. I'll let you know if we have any bands performing of course Mister Lore."
Song Lore nodded at the pony in the other room before letting the door shut. Ditzy quickly trotted up to the stallion and tapped on his shoulder, "Excuse me, Mister Lore? I have a telegram from a mister, Shred?"
Song Lore turned around and looked Ditzy in the face, and Ditzy couldn't help but gasp at what she saw. While his left eye was a bright and vibrant green, his right eye was a dulled off white color. as if they had scrapped away the very stuff his eyes were made out of, "A telegram? What does that air head have to say now?"
Ditzy shook her head and blinked before pulling out the sheet of paper and reading aloud, "Mister Lore, stop. Forgot where to go after I make my rounds, stop. Send reply via this mare, stop. Signed Shred Guitar, stop."
Song looked at Ditzy and rubbed his good eye with his hoof, "You don't have to say stop aloud you know," he paused to breathe in deeply before slowly letting it out to calm down, "Tell that idiot to meet at the warehouse on Bridle and Saddle Soap, got it?"
Ditzy wrote the message down on a fresh sheet of paper as she kept her right eye closed, "Got it! That'll be a quarter bit collect for reply message Mister Lore!"
The stallion glowered at Ditzy for a few moments as he fished around in his jacket pockets for a few moments before fishing out a golden bit, "Here, since you got such a beautiful set of eyes, keep the change."
Ditzy looked the stallion over for any signs of insincerity at his comment but found none and gave a soft smile, "Thank you mister Lore! See you later!"
She galloped away as quickly as she could out the bar to meet up with The Doctor and the other two. To let them know the location of their secret warehouse.
Lyra sat in her music store, once again alone. She waited calmly for the arrival of Dark Star and Essence, but this time she would be ready.
Across the street from her small store, a team of ponies were doing some light repair work on an empty shop. Lyra paid them no mind, and they none to her as the time continued to slowly drag on.
A grey pegasus landed in the road and passed a piece of paper to one of the ponies, she dropped her paint brush to read the note before galloping down the narrow street as fast as she could, but Lyra paid it no mind as she simply waited for the inevitable.
When the sound of a door slamming shut from the store room echoed loudly, followed by the sound of a few rushing out the door only for it to slam again, Lyra paused to wonder what could possibly be so important to make the other musicians leave. Yet she still did not take her eyes off the front door and waited for the inevitable.
The pegasus stood in the road for a few more moments before a trio of ponies met up with her, they spoke for a few moments before finally they all took off together. Yet still she paid no mind to what was going on. All she wanted to do was wait patiently.
The sound of voices filled the air, and Lyra's ears perked up a bit. She looked out the window and saw four ponies walking up to her shop. The familiar duo of Dark Star and Essence, followed by a small elderly earth pony so thin he looked like a skeleton, and another red and grey earth pony. Older but not as elderly. All four of them were carrying bats and knives clearly visible.
As the quartet headed into the shop, Lyra took her rear hoof and placed it on the floor, lifted then dropped it down again to finally stand up, "Welcome Dark Star, Essence. It's a great joy to see you both here again, and you brought friends! Sorry boys but we're all out of stock on everything, perhaps you would like to order-"
"Cut the crap Heartstrings, you know why we are here," Dark Star interrupted quickly, "You set up a music show without informing us, and now you are going to pay."
Lyra looked at the four ponies in her shop, "I don't know what you are talking about. I'm not getting payed, its a free show you are invited to see it if you want to. I'll pay up the money I owe you now if you want as per usual."
Dark Star lit his horn and pulled forth a bat as Essence pulled her knives out of her horseshoes, "You messed with the wrong ponies, Bones! Pyro! Hold this unicorn down, I'm going to cut her horn off as a reminder of who we are."
Lyra to her credit did not even blink at Essence's threat as she stepped closer from behind the counter, "And who do you think you are? Demanding money from me? HUH?!"
Essence reached back and slapped Lyra across the cheek with the back of her hoof, "Don't play dumb with me girl! We are the Musicians Mafia, and you damn well know that what's yours is mine!"
As Bones and Pyro reached forward Lyra simply smiled, "Then you should know better than to bring a knife to a gun fight."
As if on cue, the front door and back door to the small shop burst open, "FREEZE!" The four ponies holding Lyra suddenly looked around in panic as they were surrounded by four more ponies.
Octavia stepped forward with Royal Ribbon, Octavia held up a bow with a blade running down where the hair normally would be in a defensive stance, while Royal Ribbon held a small kazoo at the ready, "By the authority of the Pinkieton Detective Agency, the four of you are under arrest for racketeering, strong arming, possession of illegal weapons and terrorism," Octavia spoke loudly with authority, "Drop your weapons and come peacefully."
Fiddlesticks, and Fredric Horseshoepin stood blocking the front doors holding up their own little devices, one a Tommy Gum, and the other held what looked like a recorder flute in her mouth. Dark Star and Essence looked around for a few moments, finally Dark Star let out a laugh, "So this is it huh? The end of the road for me? And what are you going to do? Party me to death if I don't?"
Lyra reached back behind her counter and pulled out her signature lyre, "Give it up, your out classed. Don't make us use these party favors."
Dark Star and Essence looked at each other. The tension was so thick in the air that you could cut it with a knife. Finally Essence spoke, "Kill them. Kill them all."
"WRONG MOVE!" Fredric called out before pulling the trigger on the Tommy Gum, covering Bones and Pyro in the pink goo that shot out sticking them to the floor. Essence reared up and brought her hooves to Octavia in an attempt to slice her open, only to be blocked by Octavia's own sword.
Essence blinked a few times and made several more attempts at getting to the grey mare, while Dark Star used his magic to swing his bat wildly at Brass Beauty's direction.
It almost seemed comical how things happened next. Lyra threw her lyre across the room, only for it to miss the target. Dark Star laughed menacingly as he continued to swing at Brass as she continued to swiftly dodge. "Give it up, your just going to wear yourself out before you hit me," she called out as he missed another swing.
"Stop moving so I can hit you!" Dark Star yelled right before the lyre boomeranged back and beaned him in the head, snapping the tip of his horn off, "MY HORN! I'LL KILL HER!"
While he turned back to Lyra, Fiddlesticks played a few notes on the recorder, releasing a sleeping dart and getting the mob boss in the neck, bringing Dark Star to the ground faster than a ton of bricks.
That only left Essence, who was still dueling with Octavia. Essence sliced upward as she flapped her wings to try and confuse Octavia, but the bluff didn't work. Octavia then gave a quick diagonal slice of her bow sword, clipping several feathers on her right wing.
While Essence was distracted the simple note of a kazoo filled the air, only to launch another dart into the orange mare's flank.
She let out a small scream before finally falling over into the pile of gum next to Bones. Octavia and Lyra looked at each other before smiling slightly, "Well that is one way to handle it I suppose. You remembered to activate the cameras and audio recording equipment right?"
Lyra nodded slightly as she picked up her lyre, "Yes, with this evidence the Musician's Mafia will be put away for a long time."
Brass Beauty looked down at the sleeping pair and tutted slightly at the still struggling stallions trying to get out of the bubblegum, "Give it up you two, its over," she then looked at Fiddlesticks and Fredric with a rare smile, "Good job you two, there might be room for you in the Pinkieton Agency after all this is done. Music Department could use a few good ponies."
The pair looked at each other and smiled slightly, "Maybe we should discuss this later." Fredric finally answered, "Lets get these four on a cart to the station, they need to answer for their crimes at Canterlot."
Lyra felt as giddy as a filly as she gave Octavia a grin, "So I guess you would say Operation Great Fall was a complete success!"
Octavia frowned as she looked down at the four thugs on the floor, "Not yet, we need to find out how things went with the other four at the warehouse. Come on, help me cuff them."
The Great and Powerful Trixie was exhausted in every sense of the word, it took nearly an entire hour to get away from all the ponies congratulating her before she could make it to the safety of the Golden Oaks Library where Twilight awaited.
There were a few things that she wanted to do, and was glad to be away from the thousands of suddenly adoring ponies, one of them was to use the bathroom for several reasons. Toilet aside, she smelled like a public bathroom from being locked in a plexiglass box for days on end with no real fresh air.
After a relaxing shower, Trixie ate a simple meal and drank a glass of water, and finally slept on Twilight's couch, waiting for three o'clock for the after party.
Twilight was very understanding to all this and kept relatively silent, only helping Trixie when she asked for it in the kitchen, or offering conversation when Trixie initiated it. The mood was somber despite the success, and Twilight almost felt awkward being around the magician.
When Trixie excused herself and passed out on the couch, Twilight frowned despite herself, and opened up a book to read silently, waiting for the party at three o'clock.
On Bridal Street it was very quiet on this end of town, a lone cockroach scuttled across the dirt road in an attempt to reach for a discarded banana. Upon reaching the rotten fruit it climbed up onto its rear most legs, threw the remaining four into the air and screamed, "WORLD DOMINATION!"
That was when the claw of Sven picked up the bug and ate him.
Vinyl, Harpo and Royal Ribbon looked at the gryphon with disgust as he shrugged, "Vat? I vas hungry!"
The three ponies rolled their eyes as they made their way closer to the intersection of Bridle and Saddle the warehouse came into full view. Like most buildings on this side of town, it was brick, industrial and filthy.
"So you think that they are in there?" Harpo called out as he stepped forward tentivly.
"They had better, or that derpy mail mare is going to get it from me," Vinyl said with a growl.
The quartet silenced up as they got closer and closer to the building. Finally when they reached the warehouse, they dropped the black cases holding their weapons and looked up at the building, "Vell, now vhat fearless leader?"
Royal Ribbon looked up at the building and spotted an open window, "Fly up there Sven and let us know if you can see them, or a way to get us in."
The gryphon nodded and flapped his wings a few times to become airborne, soon enough he was looking in through the window and could see crates and crates filled the vast room. There were shelves musical instruments lining the walls from floor to ceiling. Sven reached a claw up and wiped a tear from his eye, "It's, so, wunderschonen," he whispered out loud.
"HEY! Are they in there or not?" Vinyl called up to the gryphon.
"OH!" he shook his head a few times before blinking again, "Ja, dey are playing cards at de table in de center of de room," he then glided down and smiled, "Dere is an open door on de side of de building, Diss vey!"
The four quickly made their way around to the side of the building and sure enough, a giant rolling door was opened up all the way in an attempt to bring cool air into the warehouse. Royal Ribbon looked at Vinyl and nodded, "Alright, what equipment do we have with us?"
Vinyl smiled as she opened up the cases one by one, "We have a standard issue confetti gun, a pack of explosive play-dough, one Tommy Gum, and the Bass Canon, Ma'am."
"Alright, gather around, here's the plan."
Inside the warehouse, Song Lore and Shred looked at each other over their cards making some small talk, "When do you think his royal shortness is coming back?"
"Don't know, I still can't believe you sent a telegram because you forgot what was next on the agenda though.
Shred looked up at him with some confusion, "I never sent you such a message, why would I do something that dumb?"
Song looked Shred in the eye with his one good one, "Because you are a complete idiot, that's why."
The yellow and red unicorn was about to answer, when suddenly they felt a rumble throughout the building, "What's that? An earthquake?"
Suddenly the sound of shouts erupted from the far side of the room, and the pair turned to see three ponies and a gryphon making their way towards them, "We've been double crossed Song! Help me defend!"
Song Lore looked at Shred, then at the oncoming group and snorted, "Yeah right! I'm not going back to jail, your on your own kid!" With that said he took off galloping for the back door.
Sven took off into the air and perused the grey earth pony with gusto while Royal Ribbon pulled the trigger of her Tommy Gum with her magic, quickly disabling the unicorn before he could even attempt to throw a punch, "Quick get that inhibitor ring on his horn!"
"On it!" Harpo called out before slamming the small ring onto the unicorns horn, "Well that was easy."
Song Lore meanwhile was nearly at the back door, and was making a great leap for the escape when Sven suddenly cut him off, "Going somevhere my little mahlzeit?
Song quickly put on a stern face, "I aint ever going back, you won't take me alive!" The pony quickly pulled the first thing he could grab as a weapon, an over sized tambourine and smacked the gryphon upside the head!
Sven shook his head for a few moments before reaching back to punch him in the face, only for him to duck out of the way and smack him with the tambourine again, "COME ON!"
Sven frowned and let out the cry of a predator before taking one of his claws and scratching down across the left side of Song's face. At first nothing happened, but then the blood from the cut dripped into the only good eye that Song Lore had left, "ARGH! YOU BLINDED ME! YOU OVER SIZED CHICKEN, YOU BLINDED ME!"
Sven turned and grabbed a crate and threw it at the thrashing earth pony, knocking him out cold, "That's your problem," as he turned away he walked up to the shelves on the wall and found there among the hundreds of instruments, his beloved clarinet, "Hallo Schatz."
Royal Ribbon quickly galloped up to him with a serious look on her face, "A job well done deputy, listen, after the show come speak with me about signing you up with the agency."
Sven looked at his clarinet, then at Royal Ribbon, "Sorry, but I vant to play music, not spy. Do you tink dat ve should tie dese two up?"
"Quite right, come on there has to be some rope here somewhere."
Three o'clock came much too quickly for Lyra Heartstrings. It was no easy task finding the warehouse and returning all the instruments back to the original owners. The crates and crates of equipment however, had no owners and as thanks for her involvement were given to her free and clear along with the title of the warehouse itself.
The Musicians Mafia were all cuffed and had inhibitor rings on if they were unicorns, and rode the train back to Canterlot with Royal Ribbon acting as guard in the cargo hold with them.
But the rest of the group still had work to do.
Lyra smiled about her accomplishments as she knocked on the library door and waited. It did not take long for Twilight to open the door, "Oh hello there Lyra, how are you?"
"Great, thank you. Is Trixie ready? The rest of the band is all set up on the stage, and we just need her to make the party complete."
Twilight nodded a bit before answering, "She's sleeping right now, but is presentable. I'll go get her up."
Trixie was quickly awoken from a marvelous dream where everypony loved her, and she was the princess of magic all across the land. She was at her favorite part of the dream where she makes Twilight her official court jester when she was shaken awake, "Come on, your going to be late for your own party!"
Trixie woke up in a snap, "Oh my gosh, your right!" She ran quickly out the door, her hat and cape following after her before placing themselves on her body, "Come on! Trixie doesn't want to miss a moment of this!"
Not too much after Trixie arrived, the rest of the guests started to file back into the area in front of the stage. Lyra joined Octavia, Vinyl, Sven, Brass, Harpo, Fiddlesticks and Fredric on the stage with a smile, "Sorry I'm late, is everyone ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Octavia announced in her usual dry manner, "On my mark, one, two, three, four."
Octavia slowly drew her bow across the strings of her cello to start off a slow, somber song as the curtain rose. Lyra stood up on her hind legs and grabbed the microphone in a hoof, and her lyre in her magic, "Mares and Gentlecolts, in honor of the great fall may I present Equestria's first super group, Electronic Symphony!"
Applause echoed throught the party in front of the stage as the cello was now accompanied by the docile tones of a piano, harp and lyre. Then Vinyl dropped the bass.
The wubs echoed across the field as the traditional instruments weaved in and out of the electronica with a finite precision never before seen in the world. It was loud, it was new, it was exciting. The DJ lowered her volume slightly as Sven blew a solo into his clarinet and Fredric's electric piano took a small spotlight of its own.
Meanwhile across the small field, Trixie sat behind a small table signing countless autographs, while the party seemed festive, she had to settle for what she promised to do. Luckilly for her, Twilight and Pinkie Pie stayed close by to keep her company.
"Next," Trixie called as she gave the little filly a smile, "And what is your name little one?"
The young unicorn gave off a smile, "My name's Sweetie Belle, can I ask you a question?"
Trixie grabbed a pen in her magic and began to sign her name on it, "I don't see why not."
"Well, how did you do it? Without your horn I mean. I can't do magic at all even when I concentrate really really hard, all I can do is shoot sparks."
Trixie looked at Sweetie Belle and smiled, "Magic is more than just sparks and flashes little one, it took me a long time to understand that in subtlety there is power," she paused and gave Sweetie a smile, "I can't tell you how I did it, trade secret and all, but I will say this. You can learn a lot on a rock farm."
Sweetie Belle gave Trixie a confused look before shrugging and turning away to let the next pony get a free souvenir from Trixie. |
The Great and Powerful Escape Artist! | Epilogue | The party lasted from three in the afternoon, long into the night. Trixie partied with the rest of Ponyville as soon as she could get away from signing autographs. It seemed that sure enough she had finally been forgiven for her past deeds, and had an act so great that there was no need to exaggerate her skills any more.
The next day Trixie could be found sleeping for the most part, finally waking up late in the afternoon only to announce to Twilight, "It's time that I head on out."
Twilight blinked at her with confusion, "I thought that maybe you would stay, settle down at last since you found a good fan base here."
Trixie gave a small sad shake of her head, "Not yet, maybe down the road I might call this place home. But until then I feel I must travel."
Twilight nodded in understanding, "Well, have one last hot meal, who knows when you might next find one on the road."
Spike made soup that night, and the two unicorns and dragon ate in silence as the sun set behind the mountains, letting night settle over the world. Finally after it was all said and done, Trixie grabbed her bag of bits and headed for the door, "Before I go," she started as she opened the bag to pull out a few hundred bits, "I feel that I owe it to you and your friends for helping me out."
She passed the bits over to a jar by the door and smiled, "I'll be back some day Sparkle, farewell."
Just like that she was gone, with bits in hoof she walked out the door and hitched herself up to her cart with a smile on her face, "I think, maybe it's time to go back to Hoofington. Maybe its time that they know what I have done with my life."
As she took off down the road, a stallion with a delivery bag galloped toward her down the road. Trixie paused as she watched him gallop past her and knock on the front door of the library. A few moments passed before the door opened to reveal the librarian, and Trixie could just make out the conversation, "I have a delivery from Princess Celestia."
"Oooh!" Twilight squealed with joy as she clapped her hooves together, "It must be important to send in the regular mail!" She quickly took the package from the stallion, and slammed the door shut in his face.
The delivery stallion stood before the door for a few seconds before shuffling off to head back to the post office, no doubt to go home after a long day and this late delivery. Trixie watched for a few more moments before she saw out the corner of her eye a set of dim flashing lights from the bottom window of the library, "Time for Trixie to make her exit, before getting wrapped up in something crazy."
And with that, Trixie left Ponyville with her head held high, back on top, and a legitimate success at last. |
Symphonic Fusion | pre | Octavia nodded in response. "I haven't told anyone other than the group before you. I always felt...too ashamed, you know?"
Vinyl quirked an eyebrow at her and said, tone as serious as it could be, "I don't think I know the meaning of that word."
Octavia blinked, and burst out laughing, giggling helplessly. "Of course you don't. " she snorted. "Why would you?" She smiled at Vinyl with a shake of her head. She looked up, and sighed. "I'm lucky to have you."
Vinyl grinned at her. "Yeah. We're both pretty damn lucky. " |
Symphonic Fusion | Chapter 8: Sandwhich | Octavia nibbled at the sandwhich Vinyl had brough her, mind a bit elsewhere as her marefriend tinkered with the back of one of her speakers. She chewed slowly, thinking over the past few days. Unfortunately, her thoughts were interrupted by an abrupt and intensely unpleasant sensation beneath the bandages around her sprained hoof. She glared at the cast, and bit her lip as she tried to rub her other hoof against it. Sadly, the minute amounts that she managed to shift the cast around only served to further irritate her skin. She looked around, trying to find something to wedge under the cast--a fork, maybe--to scratch at the maddening sensation. Or, perhaps, a chainsaw to lop the offending limb off.
Some minutes later, she was interrupted by the sound of Vinyls laughter. Octavia glanced up and found the unicorn giggling helplessly. Looking back down, she thought for a moment about the display she was presenting.
Octavia had bent a wire hanger into a crude scratching implement, and was using one hoof and her teeth to vigorously jam it under her cast to try and reach the itching skin.
She...supposed it might look a tad ridiculous.
Coughing delicately, she stood and stowed the hanger away, before smiling at the still giggling Vinyl. "Ah...darling, I have a bit of an itch. I don't suppose you have any spells that might help?"
Vinyls horn lit up despite her giggling like a school-filly, and Octavia almost fell over the abrupt cessation of agony that was an un-scratchable itch. She almost purred. "Thanks." She murmured, sighing in relief.
Untangling the deformed wire hanger from her hoof and setting it aside, she flopped back onto the couch and eyed Vinyl for a moment.
"So...do uh. Do you want to meet my parents?" she asked, the words just kind of tumbling out.
Surprisingly, Vinyl didn't spew the soda she was drinking everywhere. She did have a hard time swallowing before she coughed and stared at Octavia, actually pushing her shades up to look at her.
"Uh. " Was her only reply at first, followed by an eloquent, "What?"
Octavia looked down, a bit sheepish. "Sorry. That was...kinda a bit much to spring like that. I mean, after last night, and this morning...." She trailed off, before looking up at Vinyl with a small half-smile. "I don't want to hide anything from you. And, well...we have been dating for awhile, and neither of us knows much about each others family, and I thought it might be nice and all, and I know my story might paint them in a negative light but they are good people, though we are a bit distant right now, though that might just be standard drift, and I'm babbling, aren't I, am I babbling, I'm just a bit nervous about the idea, not that you aren't lovely but my parents would expect me to date someone of, of, oh deer theres no way to end that sentence that isn't insulting is there, I--" She was cut off by magic clamping her jaw shut, much to her relief.
After a moment, Vinyl released her jaw with a wry smile.
"You are way too high strung, Tavi." She shook her head, chuckling, before flashing her a grin. "Yeah, if you want me to meet them, sure. I guess it won't be too bad. Maybe they'll have embarrassing pictures of you as a baby or something."
She perched on the couch next to Octavia and nuzzled her neck lightly. "And if they don't approve of me, eh, good. I'm a bad influence, and you know it." She stuck her tongue out at Octavia who just rolled her eyes.
"I'm sure they'll think you're just lovely, deer. Albeit flamboyant." She said dryly, back in control of herself. "I'll get in touch with them. How about this weekend? They should be free then."
Vinyl shrugged. "Nothing really planned, so sure. Sunday would be better--not nearly as much of a chance of a last minute call in to DJ. "
Octavia nodded, leaning against her special somepony. "I suppose it was inevitable anyway." She murmured. "They do try not to bother me, but mothers will be mothers." She sighed, before raising her voice an octave. "Darling, if you'd just put yourself out there, you'd be swimming in stallions! Or mares. We don't judge." She hugged another sigh before glancing at Vinyl, who was trying desperately not to laugh.
And failing.
"Oh, get it out of your system Vinyl." She said with a snort, prompting Vinyl to burst into giggles. Again.
"Sorry! Just, wow, that's like something out of a bad sitcom." She snickered.
Rolling her eyes, Octavia thumped Vinyl's side with an elbow. "Oh yes, and I suppose your mother is simply the paragon of "cool", hmm?" She said. The giggles stopped immediately, and Vinyl looked up at the ceiling with a scowl.
"Yeah...not talking about my mom." She grumbled, flopping over onto her side and taking up as much space on the couch as she could.
Both of Octavia's eyebrows rose at that. "Ah...can I ask why not? Surely she can't be that ba-"
She was cut off by Vinyl raising a hoof. "Not. Talking." She growled. "I don't get along with my family. Like, at all. It's a whole thing." She snorted. "And she's pretty far from being anywhere near cool. "
Octavia blinked before nodding slowly. "Alright, I...well, I suppose. I can't fault you for that, I know how straining family relationships can be at times. Just..." She hesitated for a moment, before walking over and kissing Vinyl's cheek. "I love you." She said softly, prompting a light blush from the unicorn. "I hid things from you, things I was scared of, but I'm never doing that again. Don't think theres anything you can't share with me, Vinyl. I'm with you through anything." She smiled and nuzzled against her marefriends neck, earning a slight squeak from her.
"...Yeah, ok. Just...not right now, ok Tavi?" Vinyl mumbled. "It's a good day so far. Tomorrow? I know you're probably really curious and all, but I think declaring a one or two day moratorium between big emotional breakdowns is understandable, huh?"
Octavia smiled and nodding. "Sounds perfectly rational to me darling." A slight pause. "Perfectly rational, and very well spoken. Moratorium?" She quirked an eyebrow at Vinyl. "Who are you, and what have you done with my wild, crazy, limited vocabulary marefriend?" She asked in a deadpan tone.
Vinyl snrked. "Hey, I can know big woods too! You're not the only one with access to nerd-books!" She stuck her tongue out before squawking as Octavia pounced and bit her ear firmly.
"I'll show you who'se a nerd!" Octavia mock-growled, followed by a strangled yelp as the two rolled off the couch and onto the floor with a thump. "Ah! Ow! Vinyl, get off my mane!"
"Hah! Now who has the upper hoof, nerd?!"
"EE! Vinyl, do NOT bite me there--EE! Ahah! Stoppit!" -|-
The sounds of two mares rolling across the floor, wrestling and tickling one another, continued for some few minutes, moving around the floor of the living room, until there was a resonant "thunk" as something dense struck a wall, knocking a frame from it with a crash.
There was a moments silence.
"Vinyl? Are you ok? That sounded like you hit your head pretty hard..."
"Eh, I'm fine. Don't worry about it Tavi. Mind helping me clean up?"
Octavia pulled herself up. "Of course darling. " She nudged Vinyl onto her hooves and grabbed the frame from where it had fallen. She looked over it, inspecting for damage as she moved to return it to the wall. "Hmm. Doesn't look like it's broken, glass is intact. Bit of a scuff, but nothing-"
She stopped dead mid-sentence, staring at the bottom corner.
Inside the frame were a few loose leaves of paper covered with musical notation.
That, in and of itself, wasn't too surprising. Octavia had a few framed bits of notation herself, mostly sentimental pieces from her old shows.
No, it was the signature, elegant loops and whirls in the bottom right hoof corner, that had shocked her into silence.
"Vinyl! Why do--is this--is--why do you have sheet music signed by Ivory Keys?!" She gasped, heart thumping as the name brought up memories.
She didn't see Vinyl stiffen, though the frustrated sigh drew Octavia's attention to her again. The DJ glanced back at her, magic plucking the frame from Octavia's hooves and hangnig it back up. "Mom gave it to me when I got my own place, something other than posters for the wall." She said begrudgingly.
Octavia stared at her, mouth slightly open. "Your mother? Is she a fan, or, o--" She was cut off by another sigh.
"I really didn't want to talk about this today." Vinyl muttered, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She took a breath and looked at Octavia, speaking louder. "No, not a fan. My mother....is Ivory Keys." |
Symphonic Fusion | Chapter 9: Olives | Octavia looked from the framed sheet of music to her marefriend and back again before cracking a smile. "Really, Vinyl? Oh, come on. You can't expect me to fall for something like that." She giggled, replacing the piece on the wall. "I'll hardly judge if you have some guilty pleasure for classical music. Celestia knows that I've managed to enjoy one or two of the frenetic maelstroms of noise you're partial to."
The smile faltered when she turned from adjusting the frame and took in her marefriend's face. She still had her hoof at the bridge of her nose, glasses pushed up, looking intensely annoyed.
"...Vinyl? It...you weren't joking, were you?" Octavia said quietly, prompting a quick, terse head shake from the mare.
Octavia opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but...nothing would come out. She didn't know what to say.
Ivory Keys was her marefriends mother. Ivory Keys. One of the most respected classical pianists alive, and rumored to be a mere stones throw from being declared a living national treasure for her talents. A unicorn who was just at home playing with her hooves as her horn, and who had absolutely shut down critics of her abilities by playing through a Pegasus opera with a horn inhibitor on for the full four hours.
One of the mares who had inspired Octavia to take up music as a child, one of her few solaces in life for a long time. One of the people Octavia viewed as a hero, as someone to aspire towards, and someone she could try to model herself after. A mare who it could easily be said had changed Octavia's life.
And she was dating her daughter.
Who, evidently, had some serious familial problems.
"...This is going to be an awkward conversation." Octavia said quietly, promptly another silent head bob from Vinyl.
There was a long moments uncomfortable silence before Octavia squared her stance and nudged Vinyl's shoulder. "Well, it's one that can wait for another day. We agreed on a moratorium, and I'll hardly press against that after last night." She said, trying to push her voice towards 'Cheerful' and managing to land in the near vicinity.
Vinyl gave her a surprised look before grinning. "Thanks." She said, the normally exuberant mare's voice just a touch subdued.
Octavia smiled and trotted over, bumping her hip against her marefriends. "Darling, we just finished with my own personal drama. We have to take a break before we dive into yours." She said with a chuckle. She felt warmer inside when Vinyl grinned in response to her attempts at humor. She grinned at a sudden wicked urge.
"We'll table this, say, until after dinner with my parents?" She said casually, and enjoyed watching Vinyl's train of thought come to a screeching halt. "You did say Sunday would be best, yes? I'll make sure of it. Sunday at seven. Don't worry too much about it darling, I'll make the reservations."
She hummed, moving about and sweeping a few of the other belongings they'd knocked over up here and there, ignoring Vinyl mouthing her own last word.
"Woah, hey, Tavi, this won't be, like, some hyper fancy thing, will it? Cuz, uh, I know I was cool about it but meeting your parents is gonna be weird and stressful enough, and I don't want to worry about which fork is for which kinda salad, ya dig?" Vinyl babbled.
"Oh, of course not darling." Octavia said serenely. She waited for Vinyl to relax, counting to three in her head. "I'm sure something low key will work. You won't need a formally tailored suit--semi formal will be just fine. I'm sure you can pull together a suitable outfit for, say, Chez Manger Vraiment Cher, yes?"
She allowed herself to enjoy Vinyls horrified expression at the name of the third most expensive and second most snobbishly Prench restaurant within the city of Canterlot for a few seconds before she burst into giggles. Vinyl looked shocked for a moment before she started to pout.
"So not funny." Grumbled the DJ as Octavia gently nuzzled her cheek.
"Oh, it was hilarious." Responded her lover with a chuckle. "You're just mad you didn't think of it first. You'd have piped up about taking us out to your favorite pizza joint, or that one diner that always smells like grease."
"Hey, you leave P. D.'s House of Butter out of this!" Vinyl paused before snickering. "But yeah, that woulda been funny."
Tavi chuckled and kissed her cheek. "We'll go to a decent local place. No worries, you won't have to wear anything uncool or even, shock and horror, formal." -|-
Octavia suppressed a sigh. "Did you have to wear the goggles?" She asked, a touch of exasperation in her tone. Neither pony was dressed up beyond what they normally wore, for the most part. Tavi had brought out one of her favorite bowties, while Vinyl had done...something with her mane. It was mildly less spiky than usual? Tavi couldn't really tell exactly what was different, just that it was. And, of course, her ever-present purple sunglasses.
Vinyl shrugged. "Hey, this place has those funky lights that mess with my eyes. It's either wear these or spend the whole night squinting." She said mildly.
They'd arrived just a touch early to their destination for the night, Jardin d'Oliviers. It was hardly the height of refinement, but it was a rather decent little place, one of several that had been popping up throughout Equestria. At least partly because of the sheer number of breadsticks they threw at customers.
(That last is not an embellishment. Before the Terrible Incident of Crusty Tuesday, it was quite literal.)
"I miss when the bread was fired at us." She said with a sigh, ripping a breadstick apart and starting to scoop the fluffy interior into her maw. The two sat at a table set aside in a semi private little nook. It struck a nice balance between being open enough to hopefully curb any shouting or emotional outbursts, but not so open as to curtail potentially sensitive conversation.
Octavia rolled her eyes. "Just because you think flying food tastes better doesn't mean--"
"Hey, that's not me, that science!" Vinyl interrupted. "It's totally, like, a fact that food that's flown through the air tastes better!"
Octavia snorted. "That is not scientifically sound at all, and you know it."
Vinyl snickered and ripped another breadstick in half. "Hey, just sayin'. If someone could figure out a way to magic some pie to mach two before it hits my tongue, I think it'd taste better is all."
The cellist rolled her eyes. Halfway through the action she froze as she spied a very familiar pair of ponies.
Her parents had arrived.
Vinyl cued into the body language and looked around. Her heart was thudding surprisingly loudly. Celestia's teats, she wouldn't even be able to hear them over this racket...
A white coated unicorn with a vibrant sky blue mane leaned in and kissed Octavia's cheek as she pulled her into a tight hug. "Darling! It's so good to see you. It's been simply ages." She smiled at Tavi, and Vinyl felt a little piece of herself ache with jealousy.
"Mother, Father. It's so good to see you both too." Octavia said with a smile, half standing to return the hug and peck her father on the cheek. He was a dark purple pegasus with jet black mane who shot Vinyl the most intensely curious look she'd ever received.
The two settled into their seats and gave their drink orders, leaving the four in silence for a moment. Octavia saved everyone from the awkwardness of a quiet dinner by clearing her throat. "I'd like to introduce you two to my marefriend. Mother, Father, this is Vinyl Scratch. Vinyl, these are my parents."
Vinyl managed a smile. She honestly could not remember the last pony she'd been with that had gotten to this stage. Maybe that zebra from college? She did not remember being this terrified back then, but she had been moderately drunk. OH crap she was supposed to say something!
"Hi! A pleasure to meet you two. Tavi's told me a...uh. She's said some very good thing about you!" Holy fuck, Celestia' teats, seriously Vinyl?! You know precisely two things about them! You don't even know their names! Oh, hey. Segue! "Though I don't think I caught your names?" Yes! Go me! Distract them from the stupid I said.
The stallion was still fixing her with that studying look when he spoke. "Summer Breeze. A pleasure, I'm sure." His voice was just a touch scratchy to her ears.
"Star Sapphire. So, how did you meet our daughter, Miss Scratch?" She asked, sipping her ice water.
Octavia froze for a moment. Visions of Vinyl regaling her parents with their initial night of debauchery filled her with horror for a split moment as the DJ opened her mouth, just in time for the waiter to interrupt and take their orders.Stuffed mushrooms for Tavi, alfredo pasta for Vinyl, ratatouille for dad and spiced curry for mom.
"A mutual friend set us up on a blind date." Vinyl said once the waiter had left. Yes! Good. No embarrassing Octy. Just the bare bones. Maybe bend the truth a bit--OH! "Your daughter was kind enough to ensure I got home safely after drinking a bit too much during the dinner." She said with a self-deprecating chuckle. Hah! Nice--wait, shit, you just said you got drunk on your first date with their daughter! Ahhhg. Oh shit her dad made a face. Did pursing your lips make a face? Whatever, he didn't look happy!
Octavia slid in then. "Honestly, I think we both over indulged that night. It was actually a rather dreadful affair, but for some reason we clicked afterwards. Fortunately, it seems to have been a single outlier. Otherwise, we've had the best of times together."
Her mother was giving them both a small smile and glanced over at her husband. "Remind you of any of our earlier date's darling?" He returned her smile with a tight one of his own before returning his attention to Vinyl. Who was rapidly starting to feel like one of those mounted butterflies.
"So, what do you do for a living, Miss Scratch?" he asked. She froze, trying to think of anything else to say besides 'drop the beat'. It was all that was running through her head. Thank Celestia their orders arrives, and she had a minute or two to think while chewing on a bite of pasta.
"Where were we? Oh um, right." She gave him her most winning smile! "I'm a musician, though of a different specialty than Tavi." No need to hide it, they'd just ask anyway, don't draw it out Vinyl! "I'm a DJ, and I compose some of my own music as well." She took a bite of her grown up macaroni and cheese. It was a very neat bite, which did not drip cheese down her chin.
Octavia fiddled with her napkin a bit as her parents drank in that information. They were very minor aristocracy, and she knew they'd never set foot in a club like the ones Vinyl played at.
"How...exotic?" Her mother said, just a touch questioningly, but Octavia shot her a look of gratitude nonetheless. She was trying not to be judgmental, and the earth pony appreciated it.
"That doesn't seem like the most stable career." Her father, on the other hoof... "How do you know you'll be successful?" he took a bite of his stew before continuing. "I'm an artist, and I know full well the dangers inherent to such a position. All it takes is one bad run of luck." Another bite. "I almost went under. Had to sell some very old furniture. If I hadn't run into Octavia's mother at the right time, her connections couldn't have kept me afloat until I got to my hooves again. A few clubs not hiring you could start a downward spiral." A third bite. "Unless you intend to simply mooch off my daughter."
Vinyls mouth was half open. It had been for some time, as she readied herself to answer his fears. Sadly, she had been a bit too shocked to get a word in edgewise, something shared by most everyone at the table. Until the last sentence at least.
"Father." Octavia's voice was low and tightly controlled. "I would speak with you. In private." She stood up then. "Now." And glared at him until he moved. Leaving Vinyl alone with Octavia's mother.
Silence reigned at the table, with Sapphire occasionally taking bites from her curry.
Vinyl was not used to feeling like this. Nervous. She'd never had these feelings before, never been so hyper aware of where her hooves were, her horn etiquette, the way she spoke, or what she was looking at.
Hence why she was now staring at the mildly gooifying cheese soaking into her vegetable pasta. She kinda wanted to try making it herself when she and Tavi got home. If they got home.
She'd give almost anything for this silence to break. When Octavia's mother stopped mid bite though, she didn't know what was coming.
"...I miss my daughter, you know." Said the mare who had her in such a state. Vinyl looked up, a bit startled--thankfully, the glasses hid it. The white coated mare had a strangely sad smile as she poked idly at her own dish, pushing the sliced and sauced vegetables around. Vinyl opened her mouth, but could think of nothing to say.
"This is the first meal we've shared together in..." Star sighed softly. "Almost a year, I think. And the last was a Hearth's Warming Feast. Not exactly a family meal."
The mare looked up from her plate and Vinyl was shocked to see tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. "I trust you know of the, ah...the issues she had?" The mare asked in delicate tone.
It took Vinyl a minute to catch on. "...Oh! oh. The um. The eating...and hospital thing." She said.
Star nodded, and looked down at her plate. "You must think me a monster, then." She shook her head. "I..." her voice hitched. "Miss Scratch, may I speak plainly for a moment?" she asked, her voice fragile. Vinyl could only nod.
"I knew something was wrong." she said, barely louder than a whisper. "I saw the way she just...shrank. Her plate was full at the end of nearly every meal. And she pushed herself so hard, but I told myself I was overthinking it. Reading too much into innocent actions. That everything would...work out." She sniffed.
"My daughter almost died because of our mistakes. And I failed to see what she was going through, the entire time." She'd given up on the pretense of a meal, and was staring down at her crossed forelegs now. She shuddered, giving another sniff, and looking back up with that same sad smile.
"We haven't had anything approaching a family moment since she got out of the hospital. And I wonder if, perhaps, I deserve this as punishment, but.." She shook her head. "I'm rambling. I'm dreadfully sorry, I shouldn't be dumping this all on your, I just--I-"
Vinyl shifted over and put a hoof atop the mares, eliciting a surprised look. "I...I'm not very good at this, but really..." She tried for a comforting smile. "I can't say it's no big deal, because it really is, but, like, you should really say all of that to Octy. I know she cares about you all a ton. Like...uh." She searched for a moment and grinned as something occurred to her. "Like, really, if she didn't want to have you guys in her life, would she really go through all of this to introduce me to you two?"
The smile grew just a little less sad. "I...yes. I suppose you're right. You know, I've never heard her take that tone with anyone before. Especially not her father or myself. Seen her defend anything other than her love for music like that. Ms. Scratch, it's obvious that my daughter cares a great deal for you."
"You are...not at all the kind of pony I expected Octavia to choose, but..." Vinyl blinked behind her glasses as a hoof slid around her shoulder, hugging her close. "You make my daughter happy, and for that I can never thank you enough." Star let her go and the DJ rocked back in her seat, cheeks burning.
"I um. Uh." Vinyl stammered, trying to flash her trademark grin, but her cheeks burned too much to move properly! "Thanks. I...I just love her, you know?"
The minute they were tucked away where nopony could see them, Tavi whirled on her father. "How dare you! You do not get to sit there and speak to the mare I love like that! How do you question her skills, or insinuate that she'll fail in such a fashion? Especially considering your own history, that you as much as admitted to! That entire little speech of yours was beyond rude father, and that last sentence crossed the line. We are going back to the table, and you are going to apologize to Vinyl the instant we do! I'll have you know she is wildly successful in her circles as well, and--"
Octavia wasn't quite sure what she'd expected when she'd laid into him like that. She'd never spoken to her father in such a manner before, but she angrier with him than she'd ever been before in her life.She had not expected him to interrupt her diatribe with a tight hug. Or for him to shake when he did so.
"...Father?" She said, her voice having dropped the harsh whisper for a gentler approach.
"I'm sorry." He murmured. "I'm sorry. I know you care about her, and I'm sure she's a wonderful mare, but I--I." he sniffed, and she had the horrible gut-wrenching feeling that she might see her own father start crying in the middle of a restaurant.
"Dad--"
He cut her off before she could continue. "I hadn't seen you in months. I keep up where I can, and we love your letters, but it's just not the same." He pulled back and fixed her with a gentle look. "I worry about you, out on your own, and..." he trailed off, sighing. "And I might have gone overboard. A touch over zealous. I just wanted to make sure she was a pony worth my daughters love." He ran a hoof through his mane and sighed. "I was out of line. I'll apologize."
He glanced up and gave her a little half smile. "Forgive an old stallion his mistakes?"
She blinked at him, thrown a bit for a loop. That was...huh. Ok. "You always said you're not old until you're a grandad." She said, somewhat thoughtlessly. The look he gave her then made her own eyes widen. "Not that that's a thing! Yet. At all! We're not--I'm not, she--"
He held up a hoof and his smile grew wider. "Let's stop before we both have to unwedge a hoof from our mouths."
A few minutes later, back at the table, he sat and offered Vinyl a much more sincere smile than before. No comment was made of any potentially puffy eyes, though that may have been due to masterful use of concealer.
"Miss Scratch, I believe I--"
She cut him off with a raised hoof. "I make anywhere from a one to five hundred bits a show, and average about three thousand a month. I'm probably in the top ten most requested DJ's at the moment, if not the top five, and my reputation has been increasing steadily for several years thanks to a lot of effort I put into it. I have two songs out in the radio circuit right now, though I admit they're on the niche stations, and I'm in negotiations with two record companies regarding a possible album deal. None of this is taking into account the rising trend of my style of music, and how demand for it is rising." She grinned at him. "I make enough for Tavi to mooch off of me and do nothing but play her cello for the next ten years if she wanted. I would never take advantage of your daughter." Don't say 'unless she tied herself up again'. Don't say it.
He stared at her for a long moment before nodding slowly. "I...had intended to apologize in any case, but thank you for correcting me. I apologize twice over then--once for doubting you, and the second for my rudeness. I hope we can move on from this amiably?"
She smiled and nudged Tavi's shoulder. "Yeah. I just figured awkward first meetings were a family tradition. -|-
Octavia and Vinyl looked up at the stars as they peeked out, settled next to one another on a park bench.
"So..." The cellist started, a touch unsure of herself. "That went...surprisingly well." She gave her marefriend an appraising look. "You make that much? And what's this about a record deal?"
Vinyl nodded and nuzzled the side of her neck with a smile. "Mm. I like'em. And yeah. It's just preliminary talks." She nibbles Octavia's ear, enjoying the little squeak she got. "I meant what I said. You could spend the next ten years playing your cello. I'd be happy to support you." She flopped her neck down over a blushing Tavi's. "What were you and your mom talkin' about?" She asked, settling her chin on Tavi's neck.
"You." The cellist smirked as Vinyl twitched, somewhat glad to change the subject. "They want to have you over for dinner sometime, at home. And she wants me to come by more often."
"Mm?" Vinyl considered it for a moment, thought of her own mother sliding into the back of her head. "Sounds like a good idea, I suppose. But I'm cooking." She pecked Tavi's cheek. "In a few weeks, anyway. Once the heart attacks stop." She teased.
Octavia nudged her with a snort of laughter. "Please." She sighed. "Still...that went well. I think they like you."
"Yeah?"
The two cuddled together on the bench, soft smiles on both their faces. "Yeah." |
Sharing the Nation | pre | "On his head?" Applejack asked, dripping scorn. "'Cause sometimes it embarrasses me that he's actually an earth pony and Ah wouldn't be too put out if it turned out he was actually a unicorn just pretending."
"You do realize that in this situation, you'd be the one getting the subsidy, right?" Twilight asked, to which Applejack scoffed.
"Please, Twilight, Ah wasn't born yesterday," she said, shaking her head. "Ah know perfectly well how much they'd like to spend a pittance of somepony else's money t'get cheaper apples for themselves--though honestly, much as Ah have pride in mah apples, Ah'm not sure Ah see them going to all the trouble just for them."
"Well, you don't just grow apples," Twilight reasoned. "Though I doubt that your earth pony magic is going to have a huge effect on your pigs, cows and chickens. The thing is, though, if they have their way, it won't necessarily matter what exactly you are growing."
"Uh, care to explain that one, Twi?" Applejack said. "It doesn't sound like Ah'm gonna like this."
"The legislature is still up in the air, but there's been some talking about classifying you five as something akin to alicorns, which wouldn't be a terrible idea, exactly, except that back when Equestria was founded, Celestia and Luna weren't in it for the profit. They came out of it with a lot of judicial power and prestige, but as far as raising the sun and moon went, after the whole hearth's warming thing, Ponies wanted to be assured that they would all benefit equally and Celestia wouldn't be able to hold the daylight hostage in order to browbeat ponies. It's one of the only things that could actually get an alicorn called up on charges of treason."
Applejack looked like she'd bitten into a rotten apple. "So, what--Ah'd have to go out t'all the farms and help them grow whatever they want? Carrots? Pears?"
Twilight noted the particular vehemence with which Applejack said 'pears,' but chose not to mention it. "Would that be so bad?" she asked. "You'd hardly be doing it for free, and the other farms wouldn't be allowed to just abuse it in order to rake in bits hoof over fetlock."
"Ah'd say that'd probably only make it worse," Applejack retorted. "Ya'll're talking about the regulation of an entire industry, possibly only in a small part of Equestria since there ain't no way Ah'm traveling around the country the whole year-round to work on other ponies' farms. Do you have any idea what kind of mess that'd be? Shoot, Twi, mah special talent is running mah family's farm, not... global agriculture."
Twilight frowned. "You do have a point, which is, again, why I'm glad it's not my job anymore. Rarity actually enjoys making sure everyone ends up happy with a deal and Luna enjoys tearing down the ones that don't cooperate; I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Fair enough, Ah suppose," Applejack said. "Though before recently, Ah would've assumed you'd be right up there with Rarity."
"I've been thinking about that," Twilight said, kicking a piece of gravel off the cobblestone road. "And the more and more I listen to Luna talk about what she's doing, the more I realize that I never really listened to the lessons that Celestia was actually trying to teach me when I was her student. I like... systems, I guess, is a way to put it? I like things to make sense and be logical, even if that logic is strange and twisted at times. You'd think that I could put my skills to writing laws and investigating corruption, but it just frustrates me to no end to have ponies actively working against what I'm trying to accomplish, especially when those ponies are ostensibly supposed to be on my side to begin with."
"Well, Ah suppose it's for the best, then, that the Elements of Harmony walked off, became an alicorn, sacrificed themselves and then became a different draconic alicorn, 'cause--" Applejack seemed to just then realize what she was saying. "Err, sorry, that came out way worse than I meant it to. Just, you know, yer not exactly sounding very element-of-friendship-y and all. Sorry."
"Thanks, Applejack," Twilight retorted with no small amount of sarcasm. "Really touching. Look, I'm just... not a people pony, and I think that's okay so long as I don't build a tower and shut myself inside of it forever--more the latter, since I am planning on building a tower, obviously.
"Even if I were still the bearer of the element of magic-slash-friendship-slash-whatever, I don't think it'd be unreasonable to not pursue a career that puts me in conflict with ponies. If there's anything I have learned about friendship is that you can't force it; it's great if we can resolve a conflict with friendship and we should always try to, but it'd be naïve to expect that to be your whole job and mold everything around it."
Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Ain't that basically what ambassadors do?"
"You'd think so," Twilight grumbled sourly, not wanting to get into her experiences that said otherwise. "Thankfully, I'm the alicorn of the stars, not some nebulous concept like friendship."
Applejack's expression didn't change one bit. "Aren't nebulae your thing?"
Twilight whapped Applejack upside the head with her wing rather than dignify that with a response.
"Ow--hey! Careful of mah hat!" Applejack complained, fumbling around with her mane and iconic headwear. "Ah reckon Ah deserved that."
"Yes, you did," Twilight agreed with a hint of indignant petulance.
-- ✶ --
"Come to think of it, how much'a that mess with the princesses is actually public, anyway?" Applejack asked as they neared their destination. "Ah wouldn't want to let something slip if you'd rather it not get out."
Twilight shook her head as she led Applejack around the temporary fencing around the collapsed palace. "You don't have to worry about that; it's pretty much all out in the open now. They were going to keep it hushed up for a bit like you'd expect, at least until things calmed down, but like when I took over the stars from Luna and her ethereal mane began to resemble the moon like it always should have, neither Celestia looks entirely like Celestia any more. It was only a day or two before any hope of subterfuge was rendered moot.
"Maybe if the rainbow-maned one had been out in public that day instead of the one that looks like her head's on fire, then they could have played it off, but they probably wouldn't have regardless since it would mean that only one of them would be able to go out. They're being pretty tetchy about keeping things between them fair."
"Fair's good," Applejack mused, not too fussed about the situation. "Not sure obsessing over it's a great idea, but Ah ain't never had a twin or a little sister who tried to--ah, actually, forget that second part. Anyway, Ah'm sure they'll work it all out sooner or later; they are Celestia, after all."
As they entered the blockaded area, Applejack's eyes were drawn to the ruined palace hanging at an angle, wrapped in the winding trunk of a giant tree stretching high above the city. Most of the fallen rubble around the site had been removed, but there was still a lot of work to do. "Hooey, ain't that a mess."
"Less of one than there would have been if it had fallen across the city," Twilight reminded her with melancholy appreciation. "It's a miracle everypony managed to get out relatively intact. You saved a lot of lives. From me."
"Yeah, Ah did," Applejack said, prompting a hurt look from Twilight. "Which is why you don't need to keep thinking about it. Nopony got hurt--not permanently, anyway--except for, well..."
"Harmony," Twilight filled in.
Applejack nodded. "Right, but that weren't your fault either. She made her choice, and the way I hear it, it was one she was looking for a chance to make in the first place. Point is, there's no use dwelling on it. Fix what you can, and move on."
"Yes, well..." Twilight shook her head and gestured at the ruined tower. "Case in point."
Applejack nodded and turned her attention back to the tower. "So, what is it y'all actually want me to do? It's not like Ah can just un-grow the darned thing. Doesn't look too healthy, so it might be I could get what branches there are to come down with a good buck, but Ah imagine you could do it just as well and with more precision to boot."
"Probably," Twilight confirmed rather diplomatically. The truth was, since the project had been changed to simple demolition, Twilight could have erased the whole thing overnight the way she had the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, but both Luna and Rarity had objected. Their reasons were... reasonable... but Twilight expected that at least part of it had been to force her to talk to Applejack. "...But," she continued. "The real danger is the tower itself falling apart. Crystal is hard, sure, and the type Luna used has plenty of compressive strength, but it's not ductile. I'm going to be having words about that with certain ponies, even if she did yell at them already; Ponyville might not be prone to earthquakes, but it is prone to alicorns and demigods, which are arguably worse."
Applejack tapped her hoof to her chin as she gave it a thought. "Well, growing the tree out to support it is something I can do. Hay, Ah can make the tree completely swallow it up if y'all don't mind having to cut through it."
"That sounds good to me," Twilight said. "I'm sure we can find a use for all the excess wood, even if we just burn it next winter. Normally, we'd have to consider the effect that would have on the market, but there wasn't a palace to heat last winter, so it should be fine. In fact, we might have issues with the sudden increase in population as it is, so it might turn out that we have to have you make even more. I'll have to have Rarity look at the numbers and get back to you on that; if we're going to need a bunch of firewood in six months, we'll need to start drying it out... now, actually."
Applejack looked like she wanted to object, but couldn't come up with a proper reason to. "Well, Ah guess if y'all need wood and nopony else has it, Ah can fill the order so long as that's all it is. Ah'm saying this now and you can tell Rarity, ridiculous 'demigoddesshood' or not, Ah ain't about to let anypony claim mah work as a public service and tell me what to do--period."
"Establishing a price is probably the best thing you can do to head that off, actually," Twilight suggested. "Rarity would know."
"Yeah, probably," Applejack agreed and then turned back to the project at hoof. "So, that's the wood, but what're you doing with all the crystal rubble?"
"Well, conveniently enough, we've had a recent influx in customers interested in exotic crystals who find it incredibly amusing to get the chance to eat a pony palace..."
-- ✒ --
Spike had barely shut the door when a feral turquoise blur snatched the grocery bags out of his waiting claws.
"Did you get it? Did you get it? Did you get it?" Ember chanted as she searched the bags, tossing aside vegetables, pastries and even some choice emeralds in search of her prize, which she eventually found, causing her slit eyes to light up in glee. "You got it!"
'It' was a bag of rubble that had once been part of either Twilight or Luna's thrones, and she was already shoveling fistfulls of it into her mouth, making all sorts of indecent sounds as Spike distractedly cleaned up the mess she'd made in her mad pursuit of her request.
Spike tried not to stare, but soon enough he was just standing there holding a mango and watching her go at it like a starving manticore. "Has anyone ever told you you're kinda w--"
The fact that she actually stopped to glare at him stopped Spike's sentence in its tacks better than any words could have.
"...Nevermind." |
Sharing the Nation | Chapter 3 | -- ⭗ ✹ --
"Ignia?"
"No. Fluoresca?"
"No. Candesca?"
The Celestia with the fiery mane stopped flipping through the book in front of her to consider that one. "Perhaps," she hedged. "It's not a bad name, nor does it lack the necessary regal touch, but I would have to put up with being called Candy by Lulu."
"She would get over it eventually," the other Celestia suggested. "And it would still be better than when she used to tease us by calling out 'Celly Celly Celery Stalk.'"
The Celestia who might be taking the name Candesca took in a sharp breath as she recalled memories of her childhood. "I had forgotten that," she mused. "Did we really take up drinking tea in order to convince her to call us 'Tia' instead?"
The Celestia with the brilliant rainbow mane looked down at the teacup floating in her shimmering magic and frowned. "I... think so? It's been so long, I can hardly remember."
They sat in silence, just reminiscing until the prospective Candesca broke it with a suggestion. "I shall call myself Candesca if you go back to Corona so we can be done with all of this. Corona and Candesca do match fairly well, after all."
The Celestia who didn't want to be called Corona grimaced. "But it's beer," she almost whined. Only almost, though, because Celestia's do not whine. "It's not even good beer, from what I've heard."
"It can't be that bad if it's so popular; we're both well aware that Fluted Glass is a bit of a snob when it comes to alcohol," she countered. Their own opinions, of course, were skewed by how rare it was for them to partake. "Besides, it seems that 'Corona' is also a foreign chocolate company, a cut of cigar and a type of snail, I've discovered. They are words; we are just going to have to accept that people have used them for things before."
The Celestia who was evidently going to be Corona after all eventually caved. "Very well, Candesca, although... perhaps there is a way to differentiate them."
"Please do not suggest we spend another week looking for second names to add to them," the potential Candesca begged, weary of going through books looking for names. "I would rather petition Twilight Sparkle to drop hers so that we all match; she hardly uses it in any case."
"I actually had one in mind for the both of us," maybe-Corona said, attempting to mollify her twin. "I think it would go over well, actually. Very traditional."
Almost-certainly-Candesca's eyes widened in recognition. "Corona Celestia and Candesca Celestia? True, that could indeed work."
"Or Celestia Corona and Celestia Candesca," inevitably-Corona suggested, turning them around. "I think that sounds better."
"Yes, quite," the now so-named Celestia Candesca agreed. Giving a nod of acceptance, she shut her book with a snap and put it away. "So..."
"So?" Corona prompted, glancing out the window to see that it was still several hours until dusk, and for a while, they sat quietly considering their next course of action.
Candesca pursed her lips in consternation. "Was one of us not supposed to be attending the environmental committee meeting this afternoon?"
Corona shook her head. "No, they politely requested that we not attend in the future," she informed her counterpart, frowning. "Though now that you mention it, I do believe there is a dinner with the director of agriculture later tonight."
That, Candesca had to shoot down. "Not any longer; he moved to Ponyville last week."
"Candesca?"
"Yes, Corona?"
"Do we actually have any duties left?"
"I... don't know."
-- ✒ --
"☑ Schedule the quarriers to begin excavating the tower tomorrow morning?"
"Check."
"☑ Schedule the stonemasons to collect the excavated stone in the afternoon and take it to the staging area for the new roads?"
"Check."
"Alright, so next we need to: ☐ Arrange a meeting with Pinkie Pie to see if she can grow crystals on the needed scale since she grew up on a rock farm and they can technically be considered party favors for dragons."
Just when Applejack had been about to encase the ruins of the Ponyville Palace in wood, Twilight had had the brilliant idea to ask her to use crystal instead. The concept, as envisioned, had been for the farm demigoddess to produce useful material that could be utilized in the new tower; marble would have been okay, but what she was really hoping for was an entire crystal blank that could simply be sculpted into a new palace.
That... wasn't quite how it had turned out, as evidenced by the massive, misshapen gray-brown slab which Applejack had actually produced. It would still be useful, but it was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't all bad, though. Honestly, the rock would be heavier to cart off, but easier to actually excavate than a solid mass of green wood would have been; they just had to keep dragons from trying to make caves in the conspicuously prominent obelisk in the center of the city, though that wasn't an entirely new problem.
There had been an awkward moment when one of the dragons that Twilight had been giving a talking to had brought up Spike, who was clearly allowed on the demolition site, and neither he nor Twilight had been sure if he should defend himself or if it was okay for Twilight to do it. Ironically enough, it was the few days he'd had living with Ember that had convinced him that he didn't have to stand up for himself; her continuous insults and barbs had ensured that he had a tougher hide and no longer cared one bit about the opinions of other dragons.
He was just glad to get out of the house.
Living with a hot dragon princess wasn't really all it was cracked up to be. It was incredibly trying, but actually also kind of vindicating. He felt no small amount of pride in discovering that his feelings weren't so shallow or fickle that he would chase the first scaly tail of his own species that passed in front of him, and he would have been satisfied to come out of the situation all the wiser for it... except he wasn't out of the situation at all. She was still monopolizing his couch and being a generally disagreeable lump, and, well, he didn't actually like her much.
At all, really.
There. He said it. He said it to himself, in his own head, granted, but he'd acknowledged it, which was the important part. It was a bit of a relief, because it meant that he could maybe, sorta... try and get her to leave--somehow--and not feel like he was the stupid protagonist of a story who kept denying any attraction for the pushy love interest until the last chapter.
He had Rarity anyway.
Well, he didn't have her have her, and things were hardly going well with her either, actually, but it was just... Rarity. Rarity, who he'd previously given up on but was now immortal, the price for which had been becoming an ever-shifting dress with a vestigial pony body sewn out of plush fabric, silk and other accoutrements. It was a very good plush body virtually indistinguishable from her old one in any practical manner, but still...
He'd been avoiding thinking too much about Rarity.
"...Spike? Spike! Are you even listening?"
Spike shook his head to clear it and looked down at the list he had been transcribing without thinking. He scratched out a few things that hadn't been intended for dictation, but everything else looked right. "Uh, yeah, sorry. I was just wondering..." He scrambled in his mind for something to distract her with and came up with something rather quickly. "Where are you and Luna going to sleep tonight?"
Twilight blinked, looked up at the giant finger of stone towering above the city and facehooved. "Right. We lived there."
-- ✶ --
"I take it that your talk with the stubborn one did not go well?" Luna asked as she swooped down out of the night to land next to Twilight, who had by now created several small dioramas out of the rock on top of the small mountain that had grown to encase the palace. It had been nice to have a chance to do some small detail work with her unicorn magic after levitating giant rocks all day.
"What?" Twilight's head snapped up, then relaxed when she saw who it was. "Oh, no, it went fine. Well, fine-ish anyway, aside from us agreeing to disagree on her mild suicidal tendencies and a very disturbing promise to kill her one day. No, our palace is a rock because of an idea that didn't pan out. I was hoping for crystal or at least marble, but this is the best she could do. With any luck, Pinkie Pie will be a bit more open minded, though she's been hard to actually track down. With the amount of power I've given them, they should both have the leeway to do almost anything an earth pony can, I think."
"By that logic, should you not be able to do it?" Luna asked, walking over to sit and examine one of Twilight's dioramas--a possible design for the new palace. "You do, after all, possess the gifts of all three tribes--or rather, the gifts all come from you in the first place, do they not?"
Twilight... hadn't thought of that, so didn't have a response. "...You have a point. I've really gotten distracted from my magical studies; I've still never even stretched my metaphorical wings to see what my unicorn magic can do with the amount of power I have now--aside from levitating rocks all day--let alone the amount I had when I was manifesting incorrectly and bringing my stars down to the surface."
Luna looked up from her examination of the diorama and saw Twilight fiddling with her sparkling peytral. "Do you miss it?"
Twilight balked, jerking back as if struck. "Stars, no. It's new, being manifest just from starlight, but even like this, it's not like I'm ever actually separated from them like you and Celestia. Actually..." Twilight chewed her lip with some concern. "That reminds me of something that Applejack brought up."
Luna's horn lit as she made a few embellishments to Twilight's diorama. "Oh? She had some insight into the matter?"
"Actually, yes," Twilight admitted. "When I first explained the situation to her, she was concerned that the Celestias might have Discord's powers as well as his draconic heritage."
"Ah, when in truth that would be you?" she extrapolated, thoughtful of the possible ramifications.
"And wasn't that a revelation," Twilight agreed. "In spite of knowing what he was, we still don't actually know how dreaming works--or his unique brand of magic, for that matter. We don't know if he was just somepony with a lot of power and imagination who made up his own understanding of magic from scratch, or if his magic actually had a mind of its own running on the dreams of all the creatures of the world... or something entirely different."
"Don't tell me you miss him," Luna said with a teasing smirk.
Twilight made a face. "Ugh, please. Same answer as for the stars. It's just that he represented so much knowledge that's now lost--not that we could have ever have trusted a single word if it were him speaking it. I just wish there was some way he could have passed on what he knew without resorting to his games--just the unvarnished truth, preferably in book form with an index and an extensive appendix."
"Is there not?" Luna asked, appropriately playing Discord's advocate. "He did have a star as any other pony, yes? A great number of them, if I understand it correctly."
Twilight pressed her lips into a tight-lipped frown. "That's just the thing. I'm not actually sure if he did have a star or stars like any other pony. He was born without one, certainly, but I don't know if he took one into himself in order to gain magic or if he gained control of it remotely some other way, since whichever it was, he was able to create--and probably make use of every star in--the desert of dreams." Twilight's train of thought suddenly ground to a halt. "Note to self: check to make sure everypony and otherwise are all actually still dreaming since I took that over. That's not a mistake I want to repeat."
Luna winced at the reminder of how the age of the previous alicorns had come to an end. "Quite."
"Anyway, even if there are stars that remember his life, first I'd have to find them, which is no small matter... though I do have some ideas about that." Twilight gestured over to the diorama directly in front of herself.
Luna raised an eyebrow and got up to come settle down beside Twilight. "A large crystal tree?"
"It's based off one of Rarity's discarded ideas for our palace, though hers had a gaudy castle in the boughs like a treehouse," Twilight explained, remembering just how awful the original had looked. "I'm not thrilled with it, but it would work better for this."
"And 'this' is...?" Luna asked, leaning in to peer inside, which surprisingly had actually been furnished with tiny models of... books. "...A third library? You are already going to have one in the palace and another one for the public, let alone the countless others I gifted you with that you still haven't been able to get rid of. Far be it for me to deny you as many libraries as you wish to have, Twilight, but I do wonder how many more you could possibly have a use for?"
"I'll have you know they're very countable," Twilight insisted. "But you're right, this isn't a library for books. It's a library for stars."
Luna stilled. "You wish to... archive the dead?" she asked, sounding a little wary.
Twilight hesitated, only now considering what Luna would think. "Well... yes," she said, looking away from Luna for fear of seeing something she didn't want to in her expression. "Not publically available, necessarily, but for family and historic figures...? I'd at least like some ponies to help me organize them... and maybe they could transcribe the relevant parts? We could have an objective view of history for the first time ever."
Luna nudged Twilight in the side, but she resisted the urge to look up, as she did with the following two nudges until she felt herself being lifted up and placed in front of Luna. A moment later, she was suddenly bowled over without warning, ending up on her back with Luna on top of her looking down into her eyes. "Okay."
"...Okay?" Twilight squeaked, occupied by the open look of acceptance in those eyes.
Luna bent down to bury her face in Twilight neck and nuzzle her. "Yes, Twilight. Okay," she reassured her, holding her tight for a moment until she sighed and lifted herself up to look into Twilight's eyes again. "Anything you want to do, we can find a solution for. Please don't ever be afraid to talk to me; I will always take your side, because that is where I belong."
Twilight felt herself blush and tried to hide it by pulling Luna down and seeking refuge against her chest. "Okay."
They continued to hold each other until the wind began to pick up, bringing a noticeable chill with it. The two of them had slept in worse conditions, but those conditions had not been a dull and dreary rocky plateau, so Luna slowly lifted herself up and helped Twilight up with her as she looked around. "Perhaps we should retire. I should like to see what manner of accommodations have been made of this chilly rock. No doubt, even an hours work should have produced something greater than that which the squabbling dragons would make of it."
Twilight's, flush, rosy cheeks suddenly drained of all color. "I... I was going to do that when I got caught up with ..." She gestured to the dioramas that littered the plateau. She was mortified, but Luna took it in stride.
"Perhaps this is for the best; you have been known to overdo things when left unsupervised," Luna teased.
That did it. Twilight immediate puffed up her cheeks in a pout and gave Luna a solid whap with her wing. "Fine; I'll go round up some clouds while you make us a cave for the ages."
-- ✦ --
Somewhere in Ponyville, a peculiar wish was granted in a flash of light. Now, most ponies would judge the act to be peculiar for the simple fact that a wish being granted at all was not at all the usual thing. Stars, as a whole, were not known to be the wish-granting type regardless of what legends had been passed down through the ages; such things were the purview of myths and fairy tales.
Those ponies could not be more wrong. Stars were actually very much in the practice of granting wishes; they did it every single day, as a matter of fact, in clear, broad daylight, through none recognized it for what it was. For most, it was a cause for celebration; a defining day in the life of a pony.
That was, of course, the day a pony gets their cutie mark.
And every day after.
Clearly, these wishes existed and just as clearly, they were not all-powerful--but neither did they need to be. In fact, it was best that they were not, else they engender chaos rather than harmony. So too it was with this wish; though the wish was for the granter of wishes herself, it was neither all-powerful, nor did it need to be. In fact, all it needed was to be a book, which came very easily to the wish, as the granter of wishes loved books.
Unfortunately, though she had plans for three of them, the granter of wishes did not actually have a place to keep books at the time when she made her wish, and so, it went instead to the closest thing there was, and--perhaps--also precisely where it was needed.
-- ✒ --
Spike was not having the best of mornings, most of which could be traced back to his having not had the best of nights. Several hours of laying in bed had not brought him any closer to figuring out how to get the freeloading dragon princess out of his spines, and from there his mind had gone off on a tangent, asking what he was actually supposed to be doing in general. It was great and all that he had his own space and a job, but going from the mayor's office drudgery back to being Twilight's assistant had reminded him what it was like to be around someone who actually had plans and things she wanted to do, and he... kinda didn't.
Right now, though, he just wanted a nice cup of coffee with cream and two jaspers. Ember, of course, didn't eat 'pony food,' which was a shame since she didn't know what she was missing. He was just pouring her a bowl of hammerscale he'd gotten from one of the blacksmiths that had come into town with the construction boom when he realized that she wasn't hovering over his shoulder and demanding he hurry up.
Spike stopped what he was doing and listened to see if he could tell where she was, but heard nothing. Huh. She was hardly stealthy, so he could probably take that at face value. Filing it in his head as nothing more than a lucky circumstance, he picked up his coffee and the bowl of bitter brown flakes--which were almost as bad as plain bran flakes if you asked him--and went looking for her in her usual spots; the couch, the other couch and the pile of rubble she'd made in the basement that had used to be a perfectly good wall.
Tartarus, she really was annoying. She was rude, overbearing, didn't listen to logic and... reading a book?
Spike wasn't so discombobulated as to drop the food he was carrying, but he did stand there for a while staring at her, take a sip of his coffee and wonder if she'd been replaced by an evil twin, and if so, how he could get her to stay. Evil, he could deal with, if it reads books and behaves like a reasonably well-adjusted member of society.
"Well?" she snarled, glaring over the top of the book at him. "Are you just gonna stand there and make me come get it?"
Ah, damn. Well, it was a nice fantasy anyway, he thought to himself as he walked over to where she was curled up in her second-favorite couch--built into one of the library's bay windows--and dropped the bowl of hammerscale on the table next to her.
"So, I didn't know you..." He gestured vaguely at the book, not quite trusting himself not to finish the sentence with 'could read,' or something that she could interpret that way. "Actually," he added with a frown, looking around at the scores upon scores of empty shelves. "I didn't know there were any proper books left in this place other than my stash upstairs, and that's mostly comics. You didn't find that in a hidden compartment behind the shelves or something, did you?"
Ember clutched the book to herself and scowled. "No, of course not. Obviously you don't recognize it because it's mine."
Spike scratched his neck and shrugged. "Makes sense," he said and gave it a closer look. It reminded Spike of the types of books that Twilight always drooled over when she could get her hooves on them--thick, brass-clad with heavy cork-leather binding and a jewel-encrusted dragon's head on the cover. It also seemed awfully flammable for a dragon book, but he supposed she couldn't very well be carrying around stone tablets.
Okay, so maybe he'd been a little unkind to her in his head. Now he felt kind of bad.
What piqued his interest, though, was just how new the book actually looked. Twilight took care of her books, but even they would gather a patina of shine, grit and the occasional scuff mark just from normal everyday handling, and books as serious as this one looked had rarely come to her new in the first place.
So, yeah, he was curious. He considered asking Ember more about it, but that would involve voluntarily interacting with her. As it was, she hadn't gone back to reading, but was still holding the book to her chest and silently glaring at him. That was probably a sign that she was waiting for him to leave.
Well, what the hay? He'd learned by now how to ignore those signs--mostly learned it from her, actually--so instead he hoisted himself up into the bay window seat and sat sideways so he could look at her. "So, what's it about?"
Ember clutched the book tighter and grit her teeth, no doubt about to say something nasty and require some cajoling to actually share anything, but that... didn't happen. Instead, she backed off, looked down at the book with some uncertainty and then back at Spike as if searching for any sign of duplicity.
Spike, meanwhile, tried very hard to look innocent and friendly, which was only made more difficult by the fact that that was actually his entire motivation. He was just trying to be nice.
Eventually, Ember seemed to come to the same conclusion because she relaxed just a hint and finally let the book fall away from her chest and into her lap. "It's... about the dragon empire," she admitted, a little wistful; a little bitter. "From when there actually was a dragon empire."
"There was a dragon empire?" he asked, immediately feeling stupid for it. "A--actually," he stammered, wracking his brain for something to add. There was something on the tip of his tongue. "I think I've heard of that. There was something... What was--oh, right! The princesses actually have an artifact from some old dragon emperor that can change a dragon's age."
"The Primordial Ring of Ashmund?" Ember exclaimed, completely forgetting herself and gawping. Quickly, she flipped through the book to a specific page and turned it around to show him an etching of what Luna had called the Dragon Emperor's Toe Ring. "The ponies have it?!"
"Yeah, they were gonna have me use it to send Astri's moon to Tartarus, but that stopped being necessary when Luna blasted it into stardust," he explained. "Actually, Princess Celestia left without arranging to return it to Canterlot, so it's still sitting in a crate somewhere. They're talking about the new palace actually having a proper vault, unlike the last one, so it might end up there instead."
"What do you mean, 'it's sitting in a crate somewhere?'" Ember seethed, gripping the book in her claws. "Don't they know what it is?!"
"Hey, hey!" Spike made a calming gesture with his hands. "Settle down. I just said it's somewhere because I don't know where it is. I'm sure it's being taken care of properly; probably locked away in one of the unfinished towers. Rarity's was the most complete before the palace almost came down, which is why they're using it for all the official stuff. Last I heard, all the others are kinda on hold, so it's probably in one of those, and trust me... nopony is going to risk pissing off any of them after Celestia made a crater out of the Everfree and Luna did the thing with the ex-moon."
Once again, Ember looked like she was going to snap at Spike when she hesitated, looked down at the book, took a deep breath and calmed down. "...Fine," she grumped. "It's fine, really. It's just that apparently there's this powerful, ancient artifact, the use of which was a founding facet of all dragon civilization that prevented all the dumb brutes the size of mountains from throwing around their weight," she yelled, raising in pitch and volume with every word. "And the ponies have it sitting in a crate in some pony's unfinished house!"
"If it helps, it's a demigoddess' house," he offered. "More of a small palace wing if they go with the bridges that are supposed to connect them all; I kinda liked that one."
Ember continued glaring at Spike for a moment before taking another deep, long breath and turning away. "It does, a little," she ceded, producing a frankly adorable pout. "I keep forgetting that even ignoring the burning rocks in the sky you still have all these ponies my size that can raise mountains, race sunlight and throw parties--and they're apparently somehow all your friends? You're... you! Even if you used Ashmund's ring, I can't see you dragging a moon all the way down to Tartarus."
Spike cocked his head and shrugged. "I mean, it was a pretty small moon, so I probably could if I were the size of a mountain, but when I said the plan was to send it to Tartarus, I meant with my fire."
"With your fire," she repeated flatly.
"Yeah? You know; green flames, breaks stuff up into magic so you can do things with it?" Spike waggled his fingers to indicate things dissolving. "In theory, I could send things to anybody, but I mostly use it to send mail to alicorns since that's basically like throwing a message in a bottle down a really big river."
"Right," she said in that same deadpan voice. "Your magic fire, which you use to send mail." She pressed her lips into a line and then just... collapsed, slumping limply back into her seat. "I give up. Nothing here works like it's supposed to, but it all seems to somehow turn out better, and..." With a sigh, Ember shut the book and ran one claw down the face of the dragon on the cover. "I guess I see why." The next words out of her mouth took her a great effort, and it visibly pained her to say them. "Spike," she said, saying his name for the first time that he could remember. "Would you... teach me magic?"
"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess?"
"And maybe help me conquer dragonkind a little?"
"Err, wait--"
"We've clearly been doing it wrong, and someone needs to do something about that."
"Um--"
"We might have to steal the Primordial Ring of Ashmund, if it comes down to it."
"I didn't say--"
"T--thank you, Spike. It means a lot to me." |
Sharing the Nation | Chapter 4 | -- ✶ --
Twilight was lost in thought as she swooped down to the ex-library to pick Spike up, though she was mindful enough to wait patiently at the door, both because this was his place now and she should respect that and so he could maintain the fiction that he was still living alone. He hadn't introduced his girlfriend yet, so she wasn't going to say anything.
It felt a little disingenuous not to tell him that whoever the turquoise dragoness was, she wasn't nearly as good at sneaking a peek as she thought she was, but neither did she want to drag out all of his secrets and confront him with them. Frankly, she had lived here with Spike for long enough that it would have been embarrassing if she couldn't identify the sound of claws on wood upstairs when she'd been talking to him, and sometimes that sort of arrangement necessitated a little bit of willful ignorance.
And sometimes it was a lot of willful ignorance. Twilight was very glad to be an only child; it had been bad enough growing up with ponies like her parents--mostly her mom, really--that she didn't even want to think what it might have been like growing up with an older brother or something.
Still, her unwillingness to pry didn't mean that she wasn't intensely curious how Spike had acquired his own dragon immigrant on the same night she and Luna had been welcoming the others to the city, and she wished he'd open up to her.
Speaking of which, he seemed to be taking his time opening up to her in a more literal sense, too. She tapped her hoof, considered that it had been quite a while since she had knocked, and knocked again--with a little more 'oomph' this time, rattling the upstairs windows.
It wasn't like him not to answer the door promptly. She wasn't concerned quite yet, but if it had been nighttime, she might have considered taking a peek inside with her starlight. She'd avoided doing that so far since he had a right to his privacy, but it would have been better than actually barging in, which, if he didn't answer, she might have to resort to just in case something had actually happened. It wasn't likely, since there wasn't much in a pony household that could actually injure a young dragon, but she'd be remiss if she didn't at least make sure he was okay.
After a few minutes there still wasn't any response, so she guessed there was nothing for it. She unlocked the door with her magic and stepped inside, assuaging any guilt she might have felt by telling herself that with the racket she'd made at the door, she wasn't about to surprise anyone no matter what they were doing. There remained a niggling thought in the back of her head of what she might find at the end of her search for Spike and his girlfriend, but she dismissed the very idea as patently ridiculous. Admittedly, her perspective was skewed from multiple angles and she didn't know very much about dragon maturation rates, but neither of Spike or his girlfriend were very much bigger than the egg that he had hatched from, so she was pretty sure she was safe on that front.
All the same, she took her time and made a lot of noise.
Without Spike to distract her, the old library felt... not quite eerie, but definitely empty. It was also, predictably, a little dusty, so she fetched a hoofbroom and dustpan from the closet with her magic and absently went about doing a little cleaning up as she meandered through the ground floor.
Not much had been done to disguise the fact that the tree had once been a library; empty bookshelves were built into the walls, and there were several round reading tables that were similarly a single piece with the structure, which had once been used to display several busts and artefacts relevant to the small rural town that Ponyville had used to be.
Actually, not much had been done--period. All of Twilight's things--and a lot that she'd honestly had no claim to--had been removed from the ex-library, and very little had been put in its place. The kitchen, at least, seemed decently equipped and stocked, though she couldn't say if any of the pots and pans were the same ones that had been there before, especially dirty and covered in spots of foreign metals as they were.
The messiness that went beyond simple neglect felt a little out of place, at first, but after a little consideration, she thought she understood. Spike had always been fastidiously clean, but he's also never really had any choice not to be. It had been part of his job as her assistant, so of course there would be some pushback as he figured out what he actually wanted.
What she didn't understand was the rest of it; the blandness, the emptiness, the impression that she'd just moved out only days ago instead of weeks ago. Rarity, at the very least, would have been all over this place picking out curtains and finding things to go on the shelves if she'd been given half the chance, no matter how busy she otherwise was.
Maybe that was the point, though. Rarity could have done it, and she could have done it to his design, but there was also some value in him figuring things out for himself, piecing together things that he discovered on his own, just one or two at a time.
Well, that was enough snooping--err, checking to make sure Spike was... alright, fine it was snooping, but only mild snooping; she wasn't going to go looking in his room if she could help it. Unfortunately, just about the only thing she could say about that was that he probably didn't sleep in the living room, kitchen or the bathroom, so she did what she admittedly should have done the moment she walked inside.
"Spike!" she shouted. "Spike, are you here?"
No answer.
For just a second, she thought she heard something from the basement, but she couldn't be sure, and as the silence stretched on, she suspected she'd been imagining it. She was just about to check anyway, when the door to said basement indeed slammed open to reveal Spike, bent over with his hands on his knees, huffing and wheezing, out of breath and clutching a letter.
"Hey," huff, "Twilight," he said, greeting her in between breaths. "Sorry--I--took--so--long. I was running--up the stairs--from the basement--when I got a letter--that sent me--all the way back down into a pile of junk."
"Oh, sorry about that," Twilight apologized, though she was distracted by the letter. "Is that from the Celestias? I can read it if you're--oh, I suppose I shouldn't assume it's for me any more, should I? I think Luna mentioned you sending a few letters back and forth with Celestia."
Spike wordlessly shook his head, still recovering, and handed it to Twilight as it was indeed addressed to her. Well, technically it was actually addressed to her and Luna, which was both new and kind of nice, now that she was faced with it. They hadn't actually done anything official about their relationship or even go on a proper official date yet, exactly, but, well, they also hadn't been subtle about it either--the lack of Twilight making dramatic speeches at court every other day being one particularly obvious sign that they'd gotten over what Rarity had charitable referred to as their 'little snit.'
In any case, she figured it would be fine to open her co-addressed envelope without the co-addressee, if only so she knew if it would be worth interrupting her schedule to go tell Luna about it. In theory, she should also worry about interrupting Luna's schedule, of course, but Luna tended to actively encourage it in most cases.
The letter, as it turned out, was simultaneously interesting and disappointing. Disappointing because it wasn't an actual letter at all, and interesting because it was an invitation. "Huh, the Celestias are apparently having a coronation and 'naming' ceremony. Was this the only letter?" she asked, checking the back of the invitation and inside the envelope out of habit learned from a couple of years' experience with Pinkie Pie. "It'd be odd not to invite--"
BELCH!
"I should have expected that," Twilight deadpanned, singed and covered in letters.
-- ✶ --
Twilight and Spike made sure to check in briefly at the demolition site to make sure that everything was going as planned and would continue to do so without them for the rest of the morning. The quarriers and demolition workers seemed to be doing okay, with the biggest problem the massive racket they were making each time they chipped away sections of the stone to expose the wood and crystal underneath. After a short talk with the men doing the work, they had her sign an exemption or two that essentially allowed them to forward any complaints to the mayor's office.
The same mayor's office that they were excavating.
The form did not include a forwarding address to the temporary offices that had been set up in Rarity's tower. An oversight, Twilight was sure.
Twilight double and even triple checked, but they insisted that the exemption was all they needed. They clearly knew what they were doing, having all the necessary equipment and even barriers to prevent the debris from exiting the immediate demolition area, but Twilight still had a hard time not stepping in. She was pretty sure she had a spell that could dampen sound in an area, but they shooed her off, insisting that they needed to be able to hear anything that was going wrong anyway.
It was hard not to do the whole thing herself like Applejack had suggested; her desire to experiment and cut loose had only gotten stronger after Luna had brought up her potential to do anything an earth pony could do--or anything Discord could do, for that matter. It made her want to just get in there, let her magic go and find out what she was actually capable of.
That, of course, would defeat the point. Not only was she supposed to be building camaraderie with the common pony, but like with the possibilities that Applejack represented, it wouldn't endear her to anyone if she just swished her horn and did a job that would otherwise have fed the families of a dozen or two laborers. Frankly, she thought that there were long enough waiting lists for any construction being done in the city that they didn't need to be spending resources cleaning up her mistakes the hard way, but this was how Luna and Rarity had agreed to do it, and she'd specifically recused herself from the decision-making process.
There were always her other projects, though. The new library was a project for the city that would no doubt go much the way of the palace, if not more so, but she could do whatever she wanted with the... 'third library' she'd talked to Luna about. It didn't even need to be in the city, though close by would be a good idea if she was going to hire ponies like she'd said. Maybe the Everfree crater? It wouldn't hurt to have one less reminder of an alicorn's ability to reshape the face of Equus with raw power... though given that she'd be reshaping the face of Equus in order to erase it, maybe that'd be just a tiny bit hypocritical.
Not that it wouldn't work.
After leaving the demolition site to the demolition ponies, Twilight chose to make her and Spike's first stop Rarity's unfinished tower.
Rarity's tower was one of the three that had been started before everything had come to a head and the collapse of the palace had pushed the construction of all of them back, the other two being Applejack's and Rainbow Dash's. Rarity's, of course, had been the first--started early on as sort of a proof of concept and because she'd needed a proper place to work her dealings, and as a result even in its unfinished state, it was large enough that you could have fit the old town hall inside with room to spare--though not quite as literally as they had been trying to do since they'd lost the palace, and certainly not without constantly stepping on Rarity's hooves.
Applejack's and Rainbow Dash's towers, on the other hoof, had come next because they alone didn't require any particular consent from the ponies in question--Applejack's tower being on the location that had used to be Barnyard Bargains and Rainbow Dash's was just somewhere vaguely in the general area below that which her cloud house frequented.
Lastly, Fluttershy's and Pinkie Pie's towers were still up in the air. Rarity had just assumed that they'd replace their current residents, but both had special considerations to take into account, unless Pinkie Pie wanted Sugarcube Corner on the bottom floor of her tower. ...
Okay, so Pinkie Pie probably did want Sugarcube Corner on the bottom floor of her tower. Why was this an issue, again? Fluttershy, too, could absolutely come up with something that would serve her needs--it would just take a little more effort to integrate than the others, but that was fine. Twilight would have to mention it to Rarity when she got a chance to see what the problem was--assuming that it hadn't all already been taken care of.
She did miss being the center of everything that happened, sometimes, but she'd get over it.
Maybe it was a good thing she was playing mailpony this morning; it'd been a while since she'd checked in on all of her friends... assuming she could find them. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie in particular might have to wait until nightfall in case they were in Baltimare or low Equus orbit and she needed the starlight to locate them--not that even that was any guarantee.
Twilight, of course, took all of this into consideration and reached the only logical conclusion, which was to visit Luna first. Oh, and Rarity would be in the building too; she was being efficient.
That was the only reason.
-- ✶ --
"Hello, Twilight," Luna greeted her, amusement coloring her tone as she took in the sudden purple limpet attached to her side--and the limpet attached to the limpet. "Oh, and Spike, too, I see."
Unlike Twilight, who had become quite inured to the dangers of flying after Luna had chucked her off their palace, Spike had not yet gotten used to the inclusion of Twilight's wings in their daily schedule, so while his grip was quite different than the one that Twilight had on Luna, the emotions behind it were no less powerful and it took him a moment to realize they were on the ground. At Luna's greeting, however, he cracked one eye open, then the other and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, uh, hey, Princess Luna," he mumbled quietly in response, silently urging everypony to look at anyone but him.
The ponies that Luna had been talking to seemed to have been put in a quandary that they couldn't quite reason their way out of. On the one hoof, they had been quite abruptly interrupted by somepony who had suddenly appeared and latched onto the alicorn princess that they'd been discussing trade agreements with, while on the other, the pony who had progressed to almost indecently nuzzling said personage was herself an alicorn princess and one that most agreed it was unwise to cross.
...Or so Twilight assumed. Really, they just stood there gaping like fish, so she had to extrapolate a little. They seemed to moderately relax when Twilight loosened her grip on their diarch, though, so there was that, and said diarch was entirely unconcerned with the interruption as well. "So, what brings you here so early?" Luna asked, completely ignoring her previous guests. "It has been less than an hour since we parted this morning."
That, Twilight answered by procuring the set of six invitations she'd received earlier and fanning them out. Spike had actually gotten one of his own, but there'd been no reason for him to bring it along. "We're apparently being invited to a coronation and naming ceremony, but I'm guessing it'll be the other way around. I'd like to see them try to get through an entire coronation without letting anypony use either of their names the entire time, though."
"I imagine they will combine them and announce the names as they are crowned, Twilight," Luna reasoned with a casual smile. "No matter how much the ponies of Canterlot may love their pomp and circumstance, the naming would likely fall a little flat in comparison if the two were--"
Luna was interrupted and everyone present caught off guard by a flurry of motion that resembled a tablecloth blown free in the wind. Twilight herself stumbled back as the invitations were ripped from her magic and she scrambled to catch them all, coming up one short. It was the keening "Eeeeeee!" that instantly identified the cause of the disturbance.
Out of all of Twilight's friends, Rarity was the one who had most embraced her new inequine nature... in a manner of speaking. She went to great lengths to look like a flesh and blood pony with only a nip and tuck here and there for vanity, but what she held back in designing what was essentially a lifelike doll was completely unrestrained when it came to her attire. Rarity may have no longer filled the entire room as she had when she had first ascended, but she was no less extravagant and her presence hadn't been hemmed as single inch. This morning she was a loose-fitting cream and powder blue dress with sweeping, rippled sashes and a healthy adornment of champagne pearls and cornflower-blue sapphires and just a tiny bit of lace here and there to draw the eye.
"Hi Rarity," Twilight said, announcing herself to the demigoddess who wasn't paying her a single iota of attention.
Rarity had already ripped open her invitation and was reading it as she responded distractedly. "Yes, yes, hello Twilight; Luna; Spike," she greeted, only looking up from her invitation after she had read it what had to be three or four times. "Oh, I am sorry, dears, but I simply must get back to my workshop. This is such short notice and no doubt I'll have to organize things on our end, too." She didn't so much run off as much as she coursed out of the room in a riot of formless fabric. "Cinders! Fluttershy! Come! We have coture to create!"
Wait, what? Twilight looked around for the ponies in question, but was only partially successful.
Cinders, she discovered, was apparently the tall, pink teenaged dragon who had just entered the room breathing heavily, grumbled something, and immediately turned around, walking out without a word.
Fluttershy, though, she didn't see any sign of.
...Or at least, she hadn't until a tiny yellow and pink hummingbird darted up to Twilight, stopped, nodded, plucked the letter out of Twilight's magic and zipped off in a dash, following after Rarity and her assistant.
Right. Fluttershy was in the animals like Twilight was in the stars.
She was just gonna keep not thinking about that.
-- ✶ --
Rather predictably, none Twilight's suggested changes had been made to Sweet Apple mountain, nor any other solution to lessen the issues of having the Apple family all living so far out. Well, if that was how Applejack wanted it to be, Twilight supposed that it was none of her business. Flying high over the orchards, though, she spotted Big Mac and felt a little bad for him.
Unlike Applejack, who could probably now run the whole farm all alone without breaking a sweat, and Applebloom, who had the benefit of taking a pegasus carriage into school each day, Big Mac had to do everything the hard way if he wanted to get anything done or go into town--and that included hauling a cart of apples into town to sell, which she imagined was the most useful thing he had left to do. Even the finances, which had traditionally been his hidden talent was probably being handed off to Rarity now that she'd gotten her entirely metaphorical and benevolent hooks into Applejack's business.
So, yeah, she felt bad for him, though he seemed to be taking it with his usual stoic aplomb, so maybe he was just doing what he was able and not worrying about it. It was a valid perspective, and Twilight endeavored to do the same.
Spike, on the other hoof, had precisely zero aplomb and was into the negatives for stoicism. "I know she needs help, but just picking up some random dragon off the street?" he whined, starting to gesture with his hands and quickly discovering that they were required safety equipment for Twilight's flying.
Twilight rolled her eyes as she banked over to another row of trees, searching for Applejack. This was actually the first thing that Spike had said out loud, but his moodiness had been clear. "I can't believe you're jealous that Rarity hired a dragon assistant," she said, teasing him lightly. "You did catch that it was a girl dragon, right? I thought you said you'd given up on her anyway?"
"I did--I mean--it's complicated, alright?" he said, crossing his arms in a pout for half a moment before regaining his grip on Twilight.
"Are you alright back there?" Twilight asked, craning her neck to look at him and frowning. "Do you need a saddle? Because I'm not going around town wearing a saddle, sorry. I'll have to look up a sticking spell..." She cringed when she remembered the fate of her books. "Maybe I'll stop at the royal archives when we go to Canterlot for the coronation. It's a good thing I never had the archives brought to Ponyville, though if I'd been setting it up, you can be sure as Celestia I'd have had every protective spell I knew on that library; tower collapse or not, the books would have been safe."
"'Mfine," Spike grumbled, continuing to clutch onto Twilight for dear life. "If you can do that, why not just cast the spells on the whole palace?"
"Don't be silly, Spike," Twilight chided. "These spells draw their energy from the erudite appeal of books, and can only be used to protect bookshelves."
"Really?" Spike asked, bewildered and--good for him--more than a little suspicious.
Twilight let out an annoyed huff. "No, of course not! Yes, they should have been cast on the entire palace; do you think Canterlot just sits there on the side of a mountain thanks to the mystical powers of budget cuts and good intentions? I don't blame Luna since she isn't up on the latest protective spells and it wasn't her job anyway, but somepony in the mayor's office cut corners, and we don't even know who to fire because half the records have been destroyed and the other half are a mess."
Twilight made an effort to calm herself after her short fit of pique as she flew in silence and they'd covered another two orchards by the time Spike spoke up again. "It doesn't have to be about..." Spike remembered not to gesture with his claws this time. "...That. The thing with Rarity, I mean."
"Well..." Twilight hmmed, considering her words. "No, it doesn't have to be about that, but it still is, isn't it? I'm sure Rarity has needed help as much as Luna or me--or the mayor, for that matter. That help could have easily been you if you'd wanted it, but..."
"It's complicated," Spike concluded, seeing where she was going.
"If it helps, Spike," Twilight added as she made another turn and finally spotted Applejack. "I'm sure Cinders is her second choice. I don't know if you've noticed, but all these new dragons..."
"Need some help? Yeah, believe me, I've noticed."
-- ✶ --
"So, this is just an invitation, right?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow at Twilight after having read the card inside the envelope. "Ah don't actually have to go?"
The sentiment didn't exactly surprise Twilight, but she was a bit flummoxed and offended all the same. "It's an invitation from the Celestias, yes, you have to go!" she hissed out, though she quickly felt guilty and backpedaled. "...Well, okay, no, you don't have to go." She looked down and kicked the duff and detritus of the orchard floor with her hoof. "But you should. At the very least, it'll give us all a chance to get together. I was going to take this opportunity to check in on everypony, but Rarity ran off before we could even talk, and a hummingbird took Fluttershy's invitation. After you, that just leaves Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, and..."
"And they ain't really the conversation type?" Applejack extrapolated.
"Well, yes," Twilight said, glancing at the sky as if one or both of them could be up there listening. "But I'm also still kind of peeved at Rainbow Dash."
"Yeah?" Applejack asked, ears perking up in curiosity. "What'd she do this time?"
"She was... insinuating things about my parentage involving Discord when I was not in the mood," Twilight admitted unhappily. "It really wasn't the best time for joking around; in fact, it... might, kind of be what made me snap, in the end, so long as we're bringing it up."
"Aw jeez," Applejack said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey," Twilight objected, a little indignant. "In my defense, I've read the kinds of things ponies write about Celestia and Luna--and me, for that matter, before I ever became an alicorn in the first place. Ponies might actually take something like that seriously!"
Applejack gave Twilight a deadpan look. "You do realize that 'that sorta thing' is actually what happened with the Celestias to make them half-dragon or whatever it is they count as, right?"
Twilight failed to respond to that, jaw hanging open for longer than she'd like to admit before snapping it shut in a scowl. "Applejack--I'm going to say this in the nicest way I can: Can you please, please stop coming up with these revelatory common sense insights about alicorns? It's distressing."
-- ✶ --
The stop to deliver Applejack's letter ended up taking less time than actually finding her had. Once Twilight's piece had been said, Applejack had expressed her desire to get back to work, so she and Spike had left and made their way back to Ponyville, where Rainbow Dash proved no easier to engage in conversation, though in the pegasus demigoddess' case it was her apparent absence that was doing the talking.
They first made their way to Rainbow Dash's cloud house, then the weather station and even her favorite napping cloud, coming up empty-hooved each time. Twilight considered heading back to the cloud house and just leaving the letter there, but she wanted to talk to her friends, damn it! ...
Okay, so 'wanting' to talk to Rainbow Dash was a bit of an exaggeration, but that wasn't the point. She wanted things to go as she'd planned and she didn't want to not talk to Rainbow Dash because of what had happened, which was basically the same thing.
Twilight flew around awhile, thinking of places she could check and hoping to just run into her if all else failed, but even that failed and eventually it was clear that she was just wasting her time.
Fortunately, Pinkie Pie, would be much simpler to find, as she actually had a job with hours. She might not be at that job at right this moment--Twilight pretty much expected she wouldn't be, given her track record--but the Cakes would know when she would be. The bell on the entrance of Sugarcube Corner tinkled merrily as Twilight walked in, followed soon after by Spike, who was stretching out stiff muscles after a morning of clinging tightly to Twilight's back.
"Welcome to Sugarcu--OH!" Mrs. Cake gave a start as she saw who had entered her shop. "P--Princess Sparkle!"
Oh. Twilight's heart sank as she wracked her brain, trying to remember if she'd seen the Cakes since she'd become an alicorn, but came up blank. She'd been to Sugarcube Corner at least a couple of times--most notably the very first day she'd been out in public after Rainbow Dash had thrown her out of the library without a disguise--but it had always been Pinkie Pie running the register when she'd stopped in.
Resigned, Twilight levitated Spike back up onto her back to present a more familiar picture, though it was probably a lost cause with her sparkling, ethereal mane and glimmering regalia. She missed the days when all she had were wings to hide. Well, day. She'd had six hours of it, anyway. Situations like this would be a whole lot easier if her divinity wasn't staring ponies in the face.
"Hey, Mrs. Cake," she greeted, lifting her front legs up onto the counter and propping herself up to see what was available, presenting herself as a customer instead of the celestial being who had recently had a part of herself split off and try to kill her. She really hated having to actively try to look harmless, as it felt like manipulation to her, but it was better than blatant.
...Not that she and Luna hadn't made a habit--or even an art--of being blatant anyway, but they'd long since given up on trying to please everypony, and it was fun.
"I'll have..." Twilight scanned the display and saw one thing that jumped out at her, not because of what it was, but for what Pinkie Pie had once suggested she use them for. "Huh. I'll have some bear claws, actually. Give me an even dozen."
Maybe visiting Rainbow Dash would be fun after all.
"O--of course, dearie! Right away!" Mrs. Cake squeaked in a tone that would have been more appropriate for Pinkie Pie than the plump mare who quickly turned and began filling a large, flat pastry box.
"So, Mrs. Cake," Twilight began, causing the mare in question to drop and discard one of the pastries. "Any idea when you're going to see Pinkie Pie again? I have an invitation for her that the Celestias sent through Spike, and I guess I could leave it here for you to give her, but I've got something else I want to talk to her about as well, and it's also just been a while since I've talked to her."
Mrs. Cake stopped boxing pastries and turned her head to look at Twilight with something nearing trepidation. "Did you say you have an invitation for her? As in... for a party? And she hasn't picked it up?"
Twilight thought about that for a moment, then went to fish the invitation out of her saddlebags, suspecting she might find it missing, but no, it was there and she pulled it out to show Mrs. Cake.
"Oh dear," Mrs. Cake muttered in worried tones. "Oh dear, oh dear; I hope nothing's gone wrong."
Twilight raised an eyebrow at Mrs. Cakes's reaction and put the invitation away. "Did she go somewhere where that's a possibility? Last I heard, she was still visiting random towns and giving them the Las Pegasus treatment--without the crater, usually."
Mrs. Cake quickly finished packing up Twilight's pastries and brought them over to the counter. "I wouldn't think so," she said, glancing outside with concern. "Not too long ago, she took a cake and a box of party decorations and said she was going to meet her friend to celebrate once they made her a Wonderbolt. Oh, when I say 'her friend,' that'd be Rainbow Da--"
"Yeah, I got that," Twilight interrupted, feeling a headache coming on.
There were not enough facehoofs in the world for what she was feeling right now. |
Sharing the Nation | Chapter 5 | -- ✶ --
Twilight left Spike with Luna for the rest of the day before taking off in the direction of Cloudsdale. He wasn't happy with the decision, but that morning in particular had made it clear that the arrangement they had for him to ride while she flew--which was to say, none--wasn't satisfactory. In hindsight, she probably should have let him choose, but all the same, she really doubted that he actually wanted the sore muscles and close calls that a ride all the way to Cloudsdale would involve.
At least, that was all assuming that Cloudsdale was still there after the Wonderbolts inevitably rejected the grandstanding demigoddess for being exactly that--not that Rainbow Dash wasn't a team player, but neither did she exactly fit in... and Twilight doubted that the massive stormcloud on the horizon had been scheduled, so there was that.
Hopefully there was something left of the city; otherwise, Rainbow Dash was going to have to figure out how to handle weather across all of Equestria real fast, and Twilight did not want Rainbow Dash as a weather goddess. If that happened, Twilight would have to let her be on the goddess council, for starters, and that just wasn't going to happen.
Okay, okay, calm down. Rainbow Dash would not destroy all of Cloudsdale, even if her heroes had crushed all of her hopes and dreams... just most of it, and almost probably not on purpose.
It took Twilight a while to actually reach the storm clouds, let alone Cloudsdale itself. She wasn't much of a flier, and without being able to disperse into a swirl of stars like she'd been able to do as a result of her improper manifestation, she was limited to the speed and lift her physical wings could give her, augmented by the occasional--and occasionally not-so occasional--short-range teleport. Teleporting, however, was itself limited by her ability to push her magic ahead of her, especially against the sunlight... or... no, she wasn't going to get caught up in what it was called now that there was no sun.
...Ringlight?
Anyway, it took everything she had to fly through the storm clouds, teleporting each time she was nearly blown into the dark thunderheads... which is to say they were barely moving and not dangerous at all, but she had precisely zero experience flying through weather and it seemed dramatic at the time.
She might be making a bigger deal of this than it actually deserved.
Sure enough, even though she had a moment of panic when she continued to fail to find any sign of the city in the clouds, this was an error on her part as she eventually found it below the cloud layer she'd been fighting--down where everything was relatively calm, and fine if you ignored the great swirling mass of clouds overhead.
She was never going to tell anyone about this.
Not even Luna.
...Probably not Luna, anyway.
Well, she'd try, but Luna knew where she was ticklish.
Of course, Cloudsdale being fine didn't necessarily make her job any easier. Well, it made her job a lot easier because she wasn't going to have to figure out what to do about billions of bits in damages, but what she meant was that Rainbow Dash probably wasn't in Cloudsdale, so she was going to have to go back up into the stormy mess anyway. There was always a chance that the storm was just responding to Rainbow Dash down in the city, but Twilight doubted it. Most likely, she was up in the center of it all.
Then again... whatever was going to happen had probably happened, and nothing was being struck by lightning just at the moment. Twilight hesitated, made a decision and headed down into the city first after all. More specifically, she headed to the Wonderbolts compound and looked for a certain iconic fiery mane that, ironically, now would have looked a little plain and lifeless next to the Celestia with actual fire for a mane.
Spitfire had made herself easy enough to find by standing out by the compound's main runway wearing her dress uniform plus sunglasses and frowning pensively up at the swirling storm clouds, though she was hardly alone in doing so. Twilight circled around to where Spitfire would see her on approach and glided down in front of her.
"Princess," Spitfire greeted, crisply saluting with no visible sign of disrespect, though Twilight doubted she was happy to see her... or that she was actually in the military mare's chain of command, for that matter. The military was a side of the government that she'd never had any experience with, and anything she did think she knew had equal chances of having come from her mother, whose books had creative ideas about what happened in locker rooms and captains' quarters, so she resolved to keep this short.
"Captain," she respectfully returned, followed by a glance up at the sky. "So, tell me, how badly did it go?"
Spitfire raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "You mean when your hot-shot friend came barging into my office and started telling me how she was going to 'revolutionize' the Wonderbolts and pitched a hissy fit when I told her to get in line and sign up for the academy? I don't care if she can do a dozen sonic rainbooms or whip up one hay of a storm; if she thinks she can just fly in here and instantly be hailed as Celestia's gift to the 'bolts, she's got another thing coming."
"That's ridiculous," Twilight told her with some snark. "Obviously she'd be my gift to the Wonderbolts--though I'd have wrapped her better if she'd talked to me first." The humor quickly passed, and another glance up at the storm clouds got a sigh out of Twilight. "Well, it's not as bad as I'd feared, but since I was picturing Cloudsdale scattered to the winds..." She rocked her hoof in a so-so motion. "That's not saying much."
Spitfire lowered her sunglasses with her hoof to look at Twilight. "Uh, come again?"
"I don't suppose she claimed, in no particular order, to be immortal, the bearer of the constellation Draco, literally made of lightning and rainbows, the greatest pegasus who ever lived, on the goddess council, etc.?"
"Some of that?" Spitfire admitted uneasily. "I wasn't really listening that closely to be honest. Ma'am."
"Yes, well, she is absolutely not on the council," Twilight said with some bite to her tone.
Spitfire stood there, expecting something more that never came. "And...?"
"Did I stutter?" Twilight bit back. Scowling, she looked Spitfire dead in the eyes. "Let me make this clear, captain; about a week ago, I created five immortal demigoddesses invested with the power of a thousand mortal mares. Good idea or not, there's nothing I can do about it now... and you might just have broken one's heart today. I can't say you did anything wrong, but maybe the next time you have to let down an eager fan, a little tact wouldn't hurt?"
-- ✶ --
Teleportation, Twilight mused, was an excellent way to make a dramatic exit before things get awkward.
She didn't feel much better for having expressed her displeasure with Spitfire. It hadn't been her place to do so, nor did she want it to be, though she doubted the military mare had been terribly ruffled by what had likely been a mild rebuke by her standards. Regardless, Twilight had other priorities, so she put the matter aside and focused on making her way to the center of the swirling storm clouds where she expected to find Rainbow Dash and what exactly she was going to say when she found her.
'Sorry, Rainbow; I knew that giving you power would go badly, but I was feeling spiteful and wanted to make a point? On the bright side, Rarity as a demigoddess is working out way better than I ever expected on that front; why can't you be more like her?'
Yeah, that would go over well. Unfortunately, finding Rainbow Dash turned out to be far too easy and she hadn't come up with anything before she spotted her... and Pinkie Pie... and Fluttershy, in a manner of speaking, presuming storm systems weren't the natural habitat of small yellow flying squirrels.
Twilight hadn't even known that flying squirrels could walk on clouds.
Pinkie Pie's presence, she wasn't even going to question.
The two ponies and the yellow squirrel were down at the center of what resembled an amphitheatre of clouds swirling around Rainbow Dash and hadn't yet noticed her. Twilight took a deep breath to prepare herself. Well, this was it. Her friends were out there dealing with a problem she'd caused and she was going to help... or at least apologize.
Screwing up her courage, she shifted herself forward and--got a facefull of large, yellow seagull. Twilight balked and sputtered, taking a moment to understand that the seagull was holding a wing over her mouth and shushing her.
Backing off, Twilight yanked herself free from the seagull and spat the taste of feathers out of her mouth. While she was doing so, the seagull-Fluttershy landed on one of the clouds between Twilight and Rainbow Dash and made nervous little shooing motions with its wings.
Twilight's shoulders drooped. "You... don't want me to help?"
Seagull-Fluttershy flapped its wings to bring itself closer to Twilight again and... patted her on the head? The apparent consolation was then followed by another quick shooing motion as it glanced back towards the group of Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and squirrel Fluttershy.
She wasn't going to lie; being rejected by a seagull was not going to be the highlight of her day. "...Fine," she said, sulking. Listlessly, she pulled the letters for Rainbow and Pinkie out of her saddlebags and offered them to the seagull. "Do you want to just take them...?"
The seagull shook its head and made a triangle with its wings, which Twilight took to mean she should leave them at Rainbow's and Pinkie's houses. Dejected, she stuffed the invitations back in her saddlebag and turned to leave. "At least let her know I'm sorry?"
Seagull Fluttershy nodded its head and then, in a blink, all the yellow drained out of it. The plain white seagull acted as if nothing unusual had happened, turned its head with a quick jerk to look at something and flew off.
Was there even any point to coming out here?
Twilight's flight back to Ponyville took a while.
-- ✒ --
Spike was still feeling a little sour about being left behind by Twilight when lunch came around and she still hadn't come back. No, he probably wouldn't have enjoyed flying on her back all the way to Cloudsdale to head off Rainbow Dash being Rainbow Dash, but she could have at least made that his choice. He wasn't a baby anymore!
Or so he told himself.
To be honest, his indignation fell a little flat no matter which direction he looked at it from. From what he'd been able to get out of Ember, dragons were never really supervised, but they were generally expected not to wander off from their parents until they had their wings--and even Ember didn't have hers yet.
Even more damning, though, was what the matter looked like if you considered him a proper adult. This was, after all, his real, honest-to-Celestia job, here. It was actually entirely reasonable for Twilight to leave him someplace where he could be useful while she ran off to deal with a personal emergency, and complaining about it would be childish. It's not like it was even any actual imposition, as no matter what Luna came up with for him to help with, it was still in an entirely different class than the comfortable but dull nine-to-five grind he'd been doing for the mayor.
Really, the only actual valid complaint he could come close to was that Luna hadn't yet realized that it was lunch time, and the only reason he hadn't said anything yet was because he didn't want to be rude and interrupt her.
"Curious," Luna said, glancing out the large window of the office she'd been borrowing from Rarity as she signed the cover of a report and put down her fountain pen. "I would have expected Twilight to have returned by now. Are you hungry?"
Spike was in the middle of praising Celestia, recognizing the obvious conflict and properly praising Luna when his stomach got tired of waiting for him to respond and did so for him with an audible "Grrblgrr."
-- ✶ --
The crater that Celestia had made of the Everfree had filled into a lake, but not enough to disguise what it was. The rim of the crater was a rounded slope that quickly became a sheer, hundred-hoof drop of smooth, black, technically-not-volcanic rock down to crystal clear water.
Outward from the crater, the black rock continued, turning fissured and craggy until it became burnt dirt and vegetation, dead vegetation, merely wilted vegetation and so on. The transition from one to the other was remarkably quick for the sheer size of the devastation--for Celestia's sunfire, anyway. If it had been Twilight or Luna, they wouldn't have singed a single tree beyond what had been completely vaporized, but that was just the nature of their respective existences.
In spite of it being the site of the most incredible destruction that Equestria had likely seen since its founding, it was actually quite peaceful. Twilight had been meaning to come out here and test some things with her magic, but it was a nice place to sit down and rest for a moment, too.
She tried not to concern herself too much with what had happened. It wasn't that she wanted to be callous, but overthinking things had always been her biggest fault and she never wanted to feel so lost as she had when she was in the downward spiral.
Rainbow Dash would bounce back, Twilight was pretty sure. Rainbow was resilient; she was the type of pony who would freak out about the future rather than agonize over the past. She wouldn't let being 'too awesome for the Wonderbolts' get her down for long.
It still didn't make Twilight feel any better. Out of all the questionable decisions she'd made that she could second and third guess, this was one she didn't really need to. She'd been actively spiteful when she'd made the choice to turn her friends into demigoddesses; she'd known perfectly well that it was likely to turn sour for at least half of them and she'd wanted that to happen so she could throw it in Luna's face. She... did believe what she'd said to Applejack--that putting them on something of the same level as her would help them all relate to each other--but... well, like Luna had said just last night; they could make anything happen if they just gave it some forethought.
Identify the problems and correct for them beforehoof.
Or, in other words, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Funny how parables, proverbs and pithy sayings only seemed obvious in hindsight.
Twilight knew she shouldn't dwell on what could have been, but she had to ask herself--what would she have done to prevent this situation with Rainbow Dash, other than just get her to go through the wonderbolt academy?
Honestly, getting her to just do the academy properly was a pretty good answer, and she tried to leave it at that--really, she did--but she had a hard time convincing herself that it would last.
One option, she supposed, would have been to leave Rainbow Dash immortal, but take Draco back so she'd be on more even grounding with the Wonderbolts, but Twilight couldn't see her accepting that without going through a wake up call like she'd received today, and Twilight was trying to think of ways that could have been avoided.
The other option, she supposed, would have been for Twilight to do for the Wonderbolts what she had done for her friends.
She was pretty sure that was as terrible of an idea as it sounded.
Actually, Twilight wondered how Rainbow Dash would have reacted to the suggestion of empowering the Wonderbolts. The Wonderbolts meant something to her, after all. They were something she'd strived to emulate. Would she want them given power any more than they wanted a pony who had been given it?
Neither depowering Rainbow Dash, empowering the Wonderbolts or just letting them try to work together as they were was that great of a solution, she admitted. It was tough, but she supposed that sometimes the answer was to just talk to a pony and manage their expectations before it leads to problems... or at least not default to handing out power like it was cotton candy.
Actually, what would the Celestias have done? Probably pin a medal on Rainbow Dash and give her a title and a position that wouldn't actually make her part of the Wonderbolts, but more of a special reservist that could still fly with them from time to time.
Huh, that actually wouldn't have been a terrible idea. In fact, it was so not-terrible that it might still work if they handled it right. Oh, it would reek of nepotism, sure, but that ship had sailed--loudly and publically--and they'd get the Celestias to put the proper spin on it... and even then, it wouldn't be any time soon. The Wonderbolts would need some time to cool off and Rainbow Dash would have to make a name for herself as a public figure in the meantime--but it was a way forward, if Rainbow Dash wanted it.
She'd just... maybe wait a little while before actually proposing it to Rainbow Dash, if the way Fluttershy had turned her away was any indication. It hadn't felt good being told in seagull semaphore that her presence would only make things worse. She couldn't have known that Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy would be there, so it wasn't like she could have made any other choice at the time, but it still seemed like freaking out and flying to Cloudsdale had been not just a waste, but backsliding into the same mentality of freaking out that had caused so many problems before.
To be fair to herself, though--she had created demigoddesses. A little freaking out when they run into trouble wasn't entirely unreasonable.
Well, the day was shot, the palace demolition would go on without her and Spike was with Luna. She figured she might as well distract herself from the events of the day and try to get something productive done. She'd wanted to talk to Pinkie Pie about rocks before actually doing anything with earth pony magic, but she was beginning to wonder if she'd ever be able to pin that mare down, so why not? She was already out here; what harm could there be in a little trial and error?
-- ✒ --
"Woah, did you feel that?" Spike asked, frowning at the small hitch in what he'd been copying down.
Luna looked up from what she was reading. "Feel what, young Spike?"
Spike took the opportunity to sit up and stretch his back. "The tower shook a little; I think it was a small earthquake."
Luna thought about it and shook her head. "Neigh, I cannot say one way or the other if I felt such an event, but the seat that the fair Rarity has procured for me is quite the marvel, so my lack of ability to corroborate is not surprising," she said, rolling herself over so that Spike could see the plush office chair upholstered in walnut and indigo crushed velvet. "It even has wheels!"
Spike stared at the two-thousand-year-old goddess playing around with her office chair. He was attempting to formulate a response when his thoughts were interrupted by the revelation that it could spin, too.
"Whee!"
He wanted one.
-- ✶ -- Ow.
Splash.
Gasp.
Splish-splash. Splash. Ow.
The last time that Twilight had found herself taking an unplanned swim in a still, glassy lake like this, it had turned out to be her initial chance connection to her celestial body of stars. It had been, all joking aside, a truly magical experience. This was not that. Technically, any response to pushing magic through her hooves could be called a success, but in this case, success was wet.
Wet and painful.
Funny thing; it turns out that if an alicorn channels magic through her hooves with no particular direction or intent, magic comes out of their hooves with no particular direction or intent.
This, she decided just now--and she would never allow anypony to tell her otherwise--was why the bottoms of a pony's legs were called the cannons.
Twilight slowly pony-paddled back to shore only to realize, as she was faced with a sheer wall of glassy black rock, that there was no shore. With a pained groan, she flopped backwards into the water and just floated there for a moment as she worked up the will to fly back up to the edge of the crater. When she was halfway ready and half resigned to just float around the lake on her back until nightfall, she suddenly remembered she could teleport.
Two seconds later, she also remembered that her legs were hurt--specifically, she remembered this when she attempted to use them for their intended purpose and they immediately buckled under her.
She really, really missed all the benefits of manifesting directly from the stars, like being able to remanifest during the day and refresh her body to a pristine condition. It wasn't that she lacked power when manifest properly, it just wasn't available to her in the same way. Technically, she did have less, yes, but it was comparing a river to a lake--or a library to a publisher--it was hardly the same thing at all.
Properly manifest, all Twilight was, was starlight; she didn't actually produce any magic. Instead, her body and regalia--that is, her shoes, the peytral around her neck and the crown on her head--were all solid manifestations of the light she produced, with enough magic inherent in them for most situations. The regalia in particular was expressly for that purpose, being, as it was, not a natural part of the manifestation, but something that Luna and Celelstia had come up with and refined to the current configuration that had stood the test of time.
It was still all just a limited pool of starlight, though. If she demanifested... Well, starlight was starlight, and being light, it tended to escape--and do so very quickly. Even if she could catch and bend some of it around, she'd end up with less than she started with, if any. In order to remanifest herself in any useful manner, she would need an actual source of starlight to do it with, which wasn't an option right now.
Taking a deep breath and holding it, Twilight gingerly attempted to stand, using her wings to ease herself up, but she was no natural-born pegasus with an entire life of muscle memory and hardly had the precise control she would have needed to do it properly. The sharp pain that shot up her legs the moment she dropped just a little too much, putting weight on them, quickly put paid to that idea.
Twilight winced in pain as she rolled over onto her side and got her legs out from underneath her. It was a relief, but they still ached and burned. Her hooves, she noted, were perfectly fine, protected by the shoes of her regalia, but her cannons were burnt and, more importantly, she had almost certainly sprained and cracked more joints and bones in her legs than she cared to count.
It wasn't something she'd ever have associated with alicorns, but Twilight had gotten somewhat used to pain since becoming one. Even when she'd been able to remanifest, it still hurt to be injured or blasted apart, and yet it seemed to happen fairly regularly.
Admittedly, that was mostly because of other alicorns.
Fortunately for Twilight's ongoing relationship with the mare who had been the leading cause of her demanifestations, there was a certain... distance to the pain that kept it bearable. That distance being about a hundred kilometers, give or take, plus whatever spatial shennanigans it took to reach the umbra during the day.
Still, while it was late in the day, dusk was hours off, and she would rather not lay here in pain for the entire time. She chewed at her bottom lip, considering her options.
No one would notice if she brought out just a few little stars, right? There'd be no harm in it; maybe she could even make it a regular thing...
Yeah, she didn't actually believe that for a second.
You know what? The ground was kind of comfortable after all.
Wait--hold on--back up.
Twilight had been staring at the design of her shoe when it hit her--she couldn't demanifest and put herself back together, but her regalia was ostensibly separate from her, wasn't it? Admittedly, it was more a part of her than any normal armor or jewelry and the crown in particular seemed to simply remain on her head as a matter of course, but they weren't actually attached or anything; she did take them off for bed, after all. Would it be possible to sacrifice one piece of her regalia and capture some of the starlight into her body? She didn't see why not. Even if she lost ninety-nine percent of it, the recaptured one percent should be enough to fill in the damaged parts of her legs.
She wasn't, of course, going to be stupid enough to use her shoes for it right after they'd saved her from even more pain than what she'd managed to inflict on herself. Instead, she took off her crown, which she took to be the least useful piece of her regalia. If this worked, she might consider adding more individual pieces to her ensemble, it would just be too useful not to.
Enough dithering, though. It was time to try it out. ...
It was curious that her regalia had manifested as a black metal when she was fairly certain that, unlike Luna and Astri whose moons had a dark side that nonetheless produced magic, it was only her stars that did so, not the black of night between them.
Okay, okay, none of that, Twilight scolded herself. She just needed to unravel--but it was then she realized that Astri's moon had been a moon... as in--a moon like Luna's with patches of dark and light, not a massive burning star, so how did that work? She tried to come up with an explanation, but nothing jumped out at her, and now she had a headache, too.
Come to think of it, she hadn't actually eaten today. It was amazing what somepony could get used to in only a month or so of goddesshood. Not being able to refresh her body really sucked... and--no! Enough! She forced herself to get on with demanifesting her crown and think about the curiosity of Astri's moon later.
She didn't know why she was even stalling for this. It wasn't as if it could actually go too wrong. She wasn't going to bring her stars out in the day, so if she failed, she'd just let her body demanifest until dusk, then come back and grab her saddlebags, with the invitations for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.
Her very wet saddlebags. Oops. Why--why hadn't she taken them off in the several hours she'd been sitting around on the craterside? She did her very best not to ascribe this, too, to her not manifesting directly out of stars, but the fact of the matter was, that Luna had taught her how to carry objects and ponies in the darkness of her demanifest form, so if the shoe fits... and her shoes fit very, very well, both literally and figuratively.
Once again, though, that was a problem for later.
Gently, carefully, Twilight finally managed to get herself to focus on her crown and the feeling of demanifestation. She wanted it to be as slow as possible so she could capture as much of the starlight as possible and refresh the damaged parts of her legs.
That didn't happen.
Not only did the demanifestation spread exponentially, ripples of light consuming her crown in seconds, but the demanifestation spread--exponentially--and very quickly all that was left on the craterside was a pair of wet saddlebags.
The stars swore.
-- ✒ --
Spike left Rarity's tower with a pinch on the cheek from its owner and a nod of thanks from Luna, who was deep in her preparations for her dusk court. Twilight hadn't shown up for the entire rest of the day, and while he wanted to say that it wasn't like her... eh, it kind of was, especially nowadays.
He did suppose that she had a good reason this time, but then again, she usually did anyway. Hopefully the situation with Rainbow Dash had gone well. He knew what it was like for something he'd wanted for a long time to turn out to just... not make sense anymore.
Rarity was like that, for him. He liked her. He liked her a lot--flaws and all--and maybe that meant that he even loved her. It was weird that she was basically a dress waving around a pony-shaped doll now, but... he'd seen weirder. He'd even managed to spend some time with her today after she'd come back to deal with the official side of the Celestias' coronation. She'd left 'Cinders' back at the boutique, so he'd been able to help her with the paperwork for a while, which was nice, and when all was said and done and she'd gone back to work on suits and dresses, he'd come to the conclusion that nothing had changed.
That was a bad thing, in case that wasn't clear.
He'd already come to the conclusion a while back that Rarity saw him as what he technically was; a 'baby' dragon. It didn't matter to her that he was mature, educated and self-sufficient for his age--all entirely Twilight's fault, both positive and negative--Rarity just couldn't see him that way, so he'd given up on her, knowing that she never would during her lifespan. When she'd become immortal, he'd thought that it would fix things--and he had to remind himself that it still might--but the concept of waiting it out wasn't something he could wrap his head around yet.
Hopefully Rainbow Dash would have an easier time figuring out where she was going to go from here.
Spike stopped by the palace demolition site on the way home and picked up some more rubble--err--dinner. He wasn't the only dragon doing so, but they were saving the rest of the thrones for him, and thus, for Ember.
He didn't get it, but Ember insisted she could taste the narcissism. Spike preferred actual gemstones, but the black geodes were pretty good too even if nopony he'd talked to actually knew what they were. The clear crystals were some kind of quartz, mostly good as filler like hay or rice; it was impressive that somepony had managed to get it so optically clear, but it was nothing special aside from the sheer quantity that had been brought in. He picked some up anyway.
Naturally, heading home with a bag of rocks, his thoughts turned to Ember, her apparent change of heart and the book she'd had. He wasn't stupid; he doubted she'd had that book when she'd invited herself into his life, but he also doubted it'd been in the library, and they weren't likely to both be true unless she'd mail ordered it, and... yeah, no. Spike supposed he could believe that she'd had it, but only recently gotten bored enough to actually read it since the only thing he was sure of was that she hadn't so much as cracked the spine until that morning--or sometime last night, more likely, considering how little sleep she seemed to have gotten.
Now that she had started to read it, her perspective seemed to have taken a heavy blow, and she hadn't even tried to hide it. Well, she might disagree, but no matter her other flaws, the fact was that she didn't have a dishonest bone in her body. He guessed that must come from growing up easily overlooked and dismissed by parents that were thousands of times your size.
The point was, he really wanted to know what could possibly be in that book that it could change a stubborn dragon like her so quickly. From what she'd been telling him, it seemed to cover a bunch of things, all centered around some old dragon empire that included ponies, zebras, griffons, hippogriffs, hippocampi and every other intelligent species he could name--and some he'd never heard of. He wondered if it could really be called a dragon empire if it had all of that, but supposed that when you're a species of colossal fire-breathing lizards, things just tend to revolve around you.
Was it any wonder that Ember had such a problem with what she liked to call 'giant, overbearing rockheads'? He had to admit, she probably knew what it was like to have everyone in her life constantly babying her just as much as he did, if not more.
Wait--no. Back up and unthink that right now, he scolded himself. He did not just empathize with her, damn it!
Except he kind of had.
-- ✒ --
To Spike's pleased surprise, Ember did not ambush him at the door to claim his bounty of slain chair to feast upon. This surprise quickly evaporated when he realized, of course, that it was because she would be reading The Book. Come to think of it, it didn't have a title on the cover--just that jeweled dragon head--and she hadn't ever referred to it by name, either. It wasn't unheard of for old, one-of-a-kind books to not actually have a title if they weren't intended for publication, he knew, so maybe it was one of those. He considered suggesting that they call it the draconomicon, but she wouldn't get it, so what would be the point?
He found her in the basement right where he'd left her that morning, bringing with him dinner prepared in an actual bowl for once. He'd even left some in the pantry this time so she could be introduced to the magic of snacking outside of mealtimes. He was both absolutely certain that she would become enamored with the idea and highly doubtful that it would convince her to actually ration her food.
He suddenly wasn't sure if it was a good idea after all.
It turned out, however, that Spike's assumption had been wrong. Ember was not reading. She was asleep, curled up and clutching The Book protectively to her chest.
It was kind of adorable, mostly on account of her not being awake to ruin it.
He set the bowl down next to her on the literal bed of rubble that was spilling out into the room not too far from the bottom of the stairs. She'd made this little nest by burrowing through one of the walls and into the stone beyond, dragon-raised dragons evidently not used to wooden construction which--to be fair--had a tendency to catch on fire pretty easily.
That was actually why they'd come down here earlier that morning. Ember had demanded that he show her how to do dragon magic, but all they'd succeeded in doing was adding a few scorch marks in the area and warming up her bed. Evidently, after he'd left, she'd gone back to reading and her lack of sleep the night before had caught up to her.
He stood there and considered the whole situation: her, The Book and her declarations that the dragons she knew were 'clearly doing it wrong,' and that 'someone should do something about that.' Eventually, he started to feel weird just standing there watching her, so he... sat down and continued to watch her sleep instead. He wasn't worried that she would wake up and see him since she had no sense of pony propriety or any idea why it would normally be considered creepy. In fact, he was able to see his expectations play out as she eventually woke up, spotted him, spotted the bowl and had eyes only for the latter, instantly brightening as she grabbed it and started shoving handfuls into her face.
"You--are--the--besht," she told him in between mouthfuls of crystal.
Spike spent a moment just enjoying being appreciated, then sighed. He'd been thinking and thinking and thinking. He wasn't normally the kind of dragon who spent a whole lot of time deliberating, but this was serious and he'd finally come to a decision. It wasn't the decision he thought he'd make, either. In fact, he'd been adamantly against it from the start and only just recently started to see the possibilities. Even now, it wasn't the most palatable of options, but he thought that Luna, at least, would understand. She knew more than most how he felt about his chances with Rarity.
Twilight... might or might not understand. She'd gotten much more casual about certain things since becoming an alicorn, but she still might object on principle if she found out on her own. Spike might be able to bring her around if he explained it and Luna would almost certainly be able to, but in the end it didn't really matter anyway, since Ember didn't want anyone to know about her presence--full stop, no exceptions.
"Ember," he said, getting her attention; she stopped chewing and gave a curious look, cheeks full of crystal. There was no point in beating around the bush, so he decided to just say it.
"I'm sick and tired of being seen as a baby; let's steal the Ring of Ashmund." |
Sharing the Nation | Chapter 6 | -- ✶ --
Twilight returned to the craterside at dusk, renewed and refreshed, to retrieve her saddlebags, but ran into one small issue.
Her inability to actually find them.
It shouldn't have been difficult. Locating the small patch of craterside where she'd spent the more pleasant majority of her afternoon was embarrassingly easy, actually, seeing as she'd rather permanently marked it by adding a new crater to the craterside. Next, she thought that maybe she'd just been thrown a ways when she'd fallen into the crater. This was a reasonable conclusion, as she hadn't noticed the damage on her return to the craterside, so she had to have been some distance away.
That said, reasonable though the conclusion might have been, it wasn't actually helpful in divining the location of her saddlebags. Fortunately for her sanity, night had come as a prerequisite to her return, so she could actually divine the location of her saddlebags, in a manner of speaking. Referring to herself as divine was a little odd, though, so it was simpler to just say that she searched the craterside through her starlight, still coming up empty-hooved.
It was a little vexing, but there was at least a small silver lining; with her ability to search the entire craterside as quickly as she could focus and on and process what she was seeing, she could at least be reasonably sure that her saddlebags were, in fact, no longer wherever she'd dropped them, so she didn't have to spend hours looking for something that wasn't there. Briefly, she considered asking Fluttershy if she'd seen what had happened to them. Heck, it was even possible that Fluttershy had recovered them for her. In theory, Fluttershy could see anything that any animal could see, but if it was anything like Twilight's ability to see through the starlight, focusing on multiple things was another matter entirely.
You know what? No. She'd already spent too much time on this. There wasn't anything special about the invitations; she'd just have Spike send a letter to the Celestias asking them for a couple of new ones.
With little more than a thought, Twilight remanifested herself over at the ex-library and was about to knock when she reconsidered. She was still doing her best to let him have his privacy and didn't really want to barge in on whatever he was doing. It was just an invitation; why bother him? And why bother the Celestias, for that matter? She could have actually gone to them directly just as easily as she'd come here, but she hadn't even considered it.
Forget it. It was a piece of paper and she was a princess; she'd just write Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash her own damn invitations... and maybe slip in a small note of apology to Rainbow while she was at it. That sounded perfect, actually.
She was just shimmering out of existence to go do that when she heard the latch on the front door of the ex-library click, and the door began to open. Out of reflex, she rushed to hurried the process, hoping she hadn't been seen... though in hindsight, that was probably a lost cause, else there wouldn't have been a reason for Spike or his girlfriend to open the door in the first place.
Oops.
Twilight had been hoping that Spike would introduce his girlfriend to her sometime soon, but maybe it could wait a little while until they forgot about this little embarrassment. Twilight didn't want to be seen as the creepy, hovering pseudo-sister-mother who stands around outside the house without knocking. Is that a thing? That's not even a thing; that's just being weird.
Thankful that her stars lacked the ability to blush, she pointedly did not check back where she'd just left to see what they were saying about her prompt departure, instead heading straight on to her destination.
Luna's court was already well underway when Twilight manifested next to her and interrupted proceedings with her obligatory nuzzle. Rarity was absent, which didn't surprise her but was inconvenient, as she was Twilight's first instinct as far as ponies who might have the parchment she needed went. Twilight had had her own stock with different varieties for everything from notebooks and checklists to the specific type of scrolls she liked to use for writing Celestia, but they had all been packed away somewhere when she'd been moved into the palace, and now who knew what had happened to them? They were having were enough trouble recovering all the boxes of actually important paperwork to bother with stationery.
Luna noticed Twilight's wandering eyes and hugged her close with one wing. "Were you looking for somepony?"
"I was hoping to beg some invitation parchment and envelopes off of Rarity," she admitted, managing to sound only slightly sheepish. "I had an... incident down at the Everfree crater and there's slightly more crater there now than there was before."
Luna's eyes rose. "You were demanifested?" she asked, surprised. "We--that is, Spike and I--had wondered why you had not come back for him. In any case, you can no doubt find Rarity in her workshop preparing garments for my sisters' coronation--or you can let her be and go raid the desk in my office. I do believe the second drawer from the bottom has some gilt and textured cardstock that shall do nicely."
Twilight gave Luna one last nuzzle, hesitated, then added a peck on the cheek. "Thanks; I'll do that," she said, backing away from the throne and hopping down the small raised dais that was absolutely not a collection of apple crates with a velvet curtain draped over it. She was still getting used to the idea of actually being in a relationship, let alone engaging in public displays of affection, but she was making an effort.
Just as she was walking past, at the very instant she left his field of view, the pony at the head of Luna's current crop of appellants spoke up. "Ahem. Now that the matter of the archlibrarian's... arts and crafts project is settled, perhaps now we can get back to the matter of the spurious, anachronistic zoning ordinances?"
Twilight winced at the remark, but Luna bristled. Anticipating an application of the Royal Canterlot Voice and the rejection of whatever the pony in question was here for, Twilight turned with an audible clack of her sparkling shoes on the marble floor and took a closer look at the pony who apparently couldn't resist getting in a jab at her.
The pony in question was a thin, older stallion whose defining features were sunken cheeks and a white mane tied back in a ponytail. Any mention of his demeanor would be superfluous, as he simply radiated--or perhaps oozed--self importance. Twilight didn't have to guess whether or not this was a Ponyville native as he made even Filthy Rich look meek and modest.
"Anachronistic zoning ordinances, did you say?" she asked, feigning the perky interest she'd been known for as a bibliophile. "What a coincidence! I'm rather the expert on those, maybe I should stick around and lend an ear?" Actually, she wasn't lying; Ponyville's zoning had come up on several occasions, not the least of which was Winter Wrap Up, which she'd been preparing for before discovering her alicornhood.
The face of the older pony whose name she hadn't even gotten made it very clear that he'd rather do almost anything else.
"No?" Twilight said, mock pouting before returning to a more dry, acerbic tone. "You know, it's the strangest thing; ever since I stopped holding court, ponies seem to have gotten the impression that I've been... I don't know, pacified? Defanged? Put to pasture?" Twilight made a show of thinking of it then gave a shrug. "Personally, I think it's great if ponies see me as more approachable. I try to actually be approachable, as a matter of fact, and to treat everyone as an equal if they'll let me. That's why I stopped holding court; it was only making it harder for me to be the kind of pony--or alicorn, or goddess, if you prefer--that I want to be.
"That's what makes it strange. I'm still all of those things, and if you think about it, I haven't, as it so happens, given up any of my many powers--judicial, legislative or otherwise--either. I'm still a princess--still one of Ponyville's official resident alicorns. I'm even still the archlibrarian of Libraropolis in spite of my attempts to rectify that. In fact, literally the only thing I've actually done is decide that ponies like you aren't worth my time."
She let that statement hang in the air for a moment before continuing.
"So no, I won't be sitting in as you describe whatever longstanding fixture of Ponyville you're trying to appeal the mere existence of using wordy legalise, as funny as that would be. I trust that Luna has it handled anyway. She actually enjoys crushing the dreams of upstart nobility who think they can twist her words so long as they just fill out the right forms in triplicate, and has the equanimity and perspective to do it without getting carried away. That might be you, it might not be; as I haven't read your proposal, I can't say one way or the other, nor do I care to find out. Frankly, sir, I have better things to do that are far more deserving of my time. They involve crayons."
The slender stallion seethed--and as Twilight turned to leave, she felt... nothing, curiously enough. Previously in her alicornhood, ponies--having stars of their own as they do--were able to trigger a kind of atavistic fear not unlike that which the starbeasts had, or when she'd been certain that Equestria had wanted to eat her. She'd eventually mastered her reaction to the feeling through sheer exposure, but that sense of predatorial threat from ponies she came into conflict with had never actually gone away.
Except, well, obviously it had--either because there were none of her stars in her manifest body down here on Equus to actually be threatened, or because she was now invested into all of her stars at once, including the one inside of this cantankerous pony. It was the best news she'd had all day and she decided to celebrate it by doing... absolutely nothing as she walked away.
"As do we," the pony muttered sourly, having to get the last word in. She let him have it in spite of having a great riposte involving an offer of crayons, preferring the heady freedom of being able to just walk away from the confrontation. She would have been gone in just a few moments more had he not gone for one final jab. "Power or not, your lack of attendance is most appreciated. We trust that the lunar princess will be quite fair, are thankful to be rid of you and your... kangaroo court," he announced with a sniff of disdain, turning back to Luna assured of his verbal victory.
Twilight saw red, but she burned white, instantly remanifesting back to the center of the room to... poke him aggressively in the chest with her hoof. "You take that back," she snarled at him. "The kangaroos had one bad ruler--one! They don't deserve that reputation! King Hopsalot the Eighth was a single mediocre monarch in a long and distinguished line of kangaroyalty."
"Ah!" he cried, stiffening and looking down at her hoof burning with starfire. "I--I--I'm sorry, what?" he asked, unable to take his eyes off the threatening appendage.
"Not only is it blatant, racist stereotyping, but it's blatant, racist stereotyping that doesn't even have any basis in fact!" she lectured, driving him further back and back with each poke. "The kangaroos loved Hopsalot the Eighth. For a peacetime ruler, he was perfectly fine, and it was because of his unique approach to ruling that his sons were able to bring real prosperity to the enchanted lands when they took over."
"I--I have no idea what you're talking about!" he screeched, abandoning his dignity in favor of terror and utter bewilderment as he fell over backwards, scrambling away from Twilight's hoof. "I had no idea that the kangaroos even had royalty! Or that there were kangaroos! I thought they were just anima--I'm not racist!"
Twilight sneered as she looked down on him. "Apologize," she commanded.
"I'm sorry?" he asked, confused, then panicked when his lack of response only made the starfire flare up. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll donate tw--fi--ten percent of my income to social programs benefiting orphaned joeys in the enchanted lands, wherever that is! J--just let me keep my magic, please!"
The starfire went out as if it had never been there. "Oh, that won't be necessary," she told him, smiling as she wandered off to find the parchment she needed. "The kangaroos were wiped out during the discordian era."
"...What."
-- ✒ --
"Ember!" Spike shouted, running down the street after the cloaked dragoness. "Ember, wait! You don't even know where you're going!"
Wonder of wonders, that actually worked. The figure came to an abrupt stop, then turned and darted over to him, clapping her hands over his mouth. "What interpretation of don't let anyone know who I am and stealing an ancient artifact of my people from the pony gods makes it okay to run around shouting my name at the top of your lungs, you dolt?"
Spike rolled his eyes and pulled her hand away from his mouth. "Yeah, because running after you yelling, 'Mysterious cloaked figure! Hey, mysterious cloaked figure! Wait up!' would have been so much better."
"There's no one else on the street!" she hissed, trying to yell at him and still keep quiet.
Spike threw his arms up in the air. "Fine! Whatever! Coming up with something else to call you is just one of the things we need to do instead of running off half-cast the instant I suggest something."
"It's not complicated!" she argued. "We go there, we find the ring, I put it on and turn into a dragon twice the size of my dad, go kick his tail, become the dragon lord and show everyone how to dragon."
Spike gave her a dead flat look, said, "no," turned and walked straight back in the direction of the library.
Ember stomped after him, silently fuming until they got back inside. "What the tartarus are you playing at? You said you wanted to do this!"
Spike stood his ground, crossing his arms. "You said you wanted to be like the dragons of the empire--to show dragons that there's a better way than what they've been doing."
"I do!" she insisted, indignant. "That's why we need Ashmund's ring!"
"So you can go stomp your dad," he said.
Ember bristled, flexing her claws. "Yes!"
"And force everyone to do what you say," he reiterated.
"For fury's sake, yes!" she yelled. "It's not a difficult concept!"
Spike had to bury his face in his palms. "How do you not see the problem here?"
"What--problem?!" Ember demanded, stomping her foot and raking curls of wood up off the floor.
Spike grimaced, not sure if he wanted to bang his head on the floor... or maybe bang Ember's head on the floor. Instead of doing either, he sucked in a breath through his clenched teeth and slowly let it out. "Ember," he said, speaking slowly for emphasis. "Would a civilized dragon of the empire... do any of that? No, they wouldn't! If you actually want to be a better dragon, you have to actually do it. You can lead a dragon to civility, but you can't just beat him over the head until he learns respect."
"Sure I can, if I want him to actually listen!" she said with a sneer. "They've been doing it this way since my grandfather was a hatchling, Spike. Overwhelming strength coming from someone bigger, meaner and tougher is the only thing they understand!"
"If they don't understand respect, honor and civility, then make them understand!" Spike pleaded, trying to get his point across.
"Exactly!" she declared with a grin, missing the point entirely.
"No, make them understand by using those things and showing them how they're better!" he clarified, beginning to wonder if she was being obtuse on purpose. "If you beat them with strength, all they'll learn is that you're stronger than them. If you beat them through honor and... and... devoir, then they'll see that those things have value."
"I can't beat someone into submission with devoir," she said, putting all the contempt she could into the word. "I don't even know what that is!"
"You don't want them broken on the floor, Ember; there's no point in that. You want them to change, so beating them in this means getting them to change. You beat them..." He struggled to put it into words. "...By being successful and building a life that you can be proud of--one they'll crave and envy so much that their own greed and desire will change them for the better just for the chance to achieve something similar and surpass it. Pride--envy--greed--desire--you know what those are, at least. If you can't even get those out of a dragon, then how can you say your way is really any better?"
"It's not that simple!" Ember slammed the book down on the ground and pointed at it. "It was a way of life! The empire worked because it had the empire to back it up! All I have is me, and nobody is going to envy one small, little girl on the run from her daddy."
"You have the book, don't you?" Spike said, pointing at it in exactly the same manner she had. "You have what sparked that envy in you, and all it did was sit there and let you read it."
Ember scowled unhappily. "Yeah, but--"
"And what am I?" Spike interrupted. "Chopped ginger? You have me--tartarus, you have an entire society here that's not as noble and gallant as what you're looking for, but it's still an organized community that runs on leadership and cooperation ruled over by two ponies that were just reborn part dragon. And..."
"...And?" she prompted, merely simmering in her distaste and inability to refute his logic.
Spike hesitated, but had to begrudgingly finish his thought. "And for the rest, we're going to steal the Ring of Ashmund--"
"But you said--"
"We're going to steal the Ring of Ashmund," he said, talking right back over her. "But for Celestia's sake, Ember, we're going to do so and use it intelligently and responsibly," he emphasised. "You're right that no one will listen to you at your age, but that doesn't mean that bigger is better. They're more likely to listen to you if you're not too different from them."
"Dragons listen to dragons that are bigger than them," Ember argued.
"I don't care what someone is--they'll empathize with those who are like them," he said, stressing the correction and moving on. "That's what empathy is, and empathy is how you build a... rapport... I think it's called? Look, I'm not exactly an expert on any of this. I don't know all the steps to getting a bunch of lazy, disagreeable dragons to get up and build a society together, but I know the answer isn't Godzilla arm wrestling children, and you have no idea how hard it is to put that feeling into words. Can you just... trust me on that? Please?"
Ember looked begrudgingly thoughtful, but slowly seemned to warm to the idea. "Godzilla. I like that. That can be my undercover name."
Dragons were not known for their precognitive abilities, but all the same, Spike felt the inevitability of the future looming over him and whimpered.
"It's perfect for you."
-- ✶ --
Twilight spent a good half an hour making up the new invitations for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. This was in spite of them looking more like she'd spent five minutes on them and the other twenty-five spinning around in Luna's chair. Fortunately for Twilight, her ethereal mane was proof against becoming disheveled, so there was nopony in the world who could have said otherwise.
The knowing smile on Luna's face as Twilight stopped by the throne room on her way out begged to differ.
Twilight flushed in slight embarrassment at having been caught despite the fact that she wouldn't have acted any different had Luna actually been there in person. Neither of them said anything about it out loud, though, and before long Twilight was gliding out over the city bearing her missives to their destinations.
It was only when she was faced with the darkened storefront of Sugarcube Corner that she realized her error.
Rather than knock and risk Mrs. Cake's ire for waking the newborn twins, Twilight sighed and made do with dropping Pinkie's invitation through the mail slot, all the while wondering how exactly they all managed to live in the same building without driving each other crazy.
Or crazier, in Pinkie's case.
However they had been handling it, she doubted that it would have been sustainable for long, so it was probably a good thing that Rarity was going to be having a tower built for the immortal party planner before Pinkie Pie could come up with a solution of her own. Twilight could just imagine her excitable friend setting up a party planning lair up in a belltower or down in some cave like in one of Spike's comic books.
With Pinkie Pie's invitation now some manner of delivered--truthfully, Twilight suspected she could have put it under a rock and Pinkie Pie still would have received it somehow--she now had to address the matter of what to do with Rainbow Dash's. After being rebuffed by Fluttershy, Twilight had planned to just leave the invitation at Rainbow's home before she had a chance to get back, but she'd then gone on to make two small missteps in her execution of that plan.
One--Rainbow Dash was Rainbow Dash, and she could have beat Twilight to her home just by casually thinking about it, and two--Twilight had stopped outside of town at the Everfree crater and, in general, done not a single thing towards actually engaging in making any part of that plan happen. Now, Rainbow would almost certainly be at home unless she were staying over with Fluttershy. Twilight probably shouldn't use her starlight to check, but...
...Well, uhh, that was a very large pile of yellow bunnies, wasn't it? The, uhh, the kicker was, she couldn't actually tell if Rainbow Dash was in there or if it was just Fluttershy seeking a little self-comfort. She could have checked Rainbow Dash's house next just to make sure she wasn't there, but Twilight wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.
Ponies deserved their privacy.
-- ✶ --
Twilight had ended up casting several enchantments on the letter before tossing it through one of Rainbow Dash's windows and fleeing with all the inconsiderable strength she could beat her wings with. It wasn't the most dignified solution, but Rainbow Dash was the kind of demigoddess that only checked her mailbox once in a while unless she was expecting something and her monthly issue of FlyFast wasn't due for another two weeks.
Whatever. Delivered was delivered, and being accosted in the morning by a floating, blinking letter in her living room was the sort of thing that Rainbow would probably get a kick out of... eventually. It'd be funny in hindsight once Rainbow had her coffee, anyway, which was all that mattered because Twilight wouldn't be there.
Her two-hour duty finally dispatched in just over twelve hours, Twilight spent a while just flying over the city enjoying the wind in her face and and under her wings. It was hard to believe that her mere presence had caused the city to swell and change so much in so little time.
The changes didn't seem like much when you only looked at a small area; the roads were paved, the buildings a hodge-podge collection of old and newly remodeled, the city limits pushed out just twenty percent or so by what had originally been a ramshackle collection of structures but had now become not just an actual part of the city proper, but the cleanest part with the best infrastructure. Warehouses and other buildings devoted to producing and storing the massive amounts of construction materials the city was using had been pushed further out, as had farms, uprooting ponies from land that they'd tended their entire lives.
Early on, not much planning had been done to keep the whole thing under control, which was why a wall had gone up on the side of the city bordering Sweet Apple Mountain. The ponyville natives had rallied, put their hooves down and said, "Here, and no further" to the encroaching urbanization, else they end up pushed further and further out with each crop that was harvested and replaced with roads and buildings. It was early, but the compromise looked like it was going to work out, with all the other farms moving to that side of the divide as they were able.
Twilight was considering whether or not there was some method of transit they could use to bring the farmers into the city when a deep blue blur came down on her from above. They tumbled through the air with an entirely-dignified squeal and peals of laughter before impacting a slightly too conveniently-placed cloud with a fwumph.
Twilight found herself breathless and heart beating from the sudden rush, looking up at Luna against the night sky and wasted no time pulling her down into a kiss.
"Hey," she greeted her marefriend once they had separated.
Luna was less winded and smiled brightly before asking, "Kangaroos? Really?"
Twilight broke into laughter again while Luna shook her head and rolled off to lay beside her.
"It's--not--funny," Twilight insisted between breaths, entirely ignoring the fact that it was her that was laughing. "I'll have you know that I adored stories about kangaroos as a filly. I was legitimately angry, or there wouldn't have been starfire."
"Starfire?" Luna asked. "Is that new?"
Twilight shrugged. "A little of column A, a little of column B. I've been known to catch on fire on occasion for longer than I've been a proper alicorn, but this wasn't quite the same thing. I'm not concerned, if that's what you're asking."
Luna rolled up onto her side so she could look at Twilight. "Do you think that he at any point realized that by defending the kangaroos, you were thereby demeaning your own court?"
"I'm not sure if that would be much of a revelation?" she suggested. "I acknowledged pretty clearly at my final session of court that the whole thing had become a farce."
"Sometimes the louder one speaks, the less they are heard," Luna intoned with faux-wisdom.
Twilight leveled a dry look at her. "This, from the mare who routinely put her guards, seneschal and sometimes even petitioners into the hospital with nothing but her voice? Honestly; some day they'll ask me just how I became so overbearing in court when I'd been such a sweet, innocent little student of Celestia before then and I'll have to tell them that it was you. I learned it from you."
"Ah, but have you not heard? I am reformed!" Luna playfully asserted. "The ponies flock to me now; it is quite disconcerting, actually."
"Please," Twilight scoffed, exaggeratingly rolling her eyes. "You've just gotten more subtle. I know full well that you've been tearing them down at every opportunity, considering you then come and tell me about it afterwards."
Luna sniffed in seeming affront. "It's not my fault that they need tearing down. You would not believe some of the loopholes I've come across that have remained under my sister's rule because there simply wasn't a better option. Would that I could audit their souls as easily as I can their bank accounts."
Twilight gave a single chuckle, then frowned and eventually grimaced.
Luna cocked her head at the rapid change in Twilight's demeanor, then it clicked. "Ah, I suppose you could do that, couldn't you? You needn't concern yourself, t'was only--"
Twilight shook her head. "I can't do it anyway," Twilight interrupted somewhat uncomfortably. "Not like you mean, at least. Just being able to see the quality of a pony by looking at them... I wouldn't mind being able to do that--but all I can do is go back into their lives and see what their star remembers. It's not comprehensive, and it's not fast. Maybe in a hundred years when ponies have gotten used to my library we can use them for criminal trials, but only in the worst cases--no, only at their own request. I'm really not comfortable with anything else."
Luna let out a huff. "I told you not to worry about it. We shall cross that bridge when we come to it. Now," she said with a devious grin. "Tell me how you managed to disincorporate yourself this afternoon."
Twilight felt a resurgence of her earlier frustration and embarrassment with the change in subject, but it managed to turn back the rising tide of melancholy and for that, she was grateful.
"Well, Applejack wasn't helpful and getting ahold of Pinkie Pie is like trying to read a greased book with hooves--don't ask me how I know--so I figured I'd..."
-- ✒ --
Ember looked like her patience was being tried, but she was clearly trying, so Spike considered it a win. "Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'Never raid a phoenix nest twice when once will do?'"
Spike glared disapprovingly at Ember. "No, and I'll thank you not to talk like that about phoenixes. I helped raise one until he could go back to his parents."
"No need to thank me; I probably won't do it," she said from where she sat on the floor, dismissively picking wood shavings out of her claws. "So tell me again why you want to steal the Ring of Ashmund twice? Sounds like failure talk to me."
Spike wiped his palm down his face in exasperation and groaned. "Okay, look. We want to steal the Primordial Ring of Ashmund, which is an ancient draconic artifact capable of changing the age, size and physical maturity of any dragon, including the wearer. Now, I shouldn't need to say this, but stealing is against the law and means we don't want to get caught."
Ember grunted unhappily and Spike thought that she'd leave it there when she spoke up. "What happened to not winning by betraying the tenets of the cause you're trying to advance?"
Spike gave her a long, weary look. There were several ways he could justify it since he'd gone through all of them himself, but what he actually said was, "You know the word 'tenets'?"
Ember snapped her hands back like she'd been caught with her hands in the cookie jar. "Of--of course I do!" she insisted, looking away. "Shut up! It was in the book!"
"Anyway," Spike said, skipping over the issue of theft. He still wasn't happy with it, but also strongly suspected that the reaction if they got caught would be along the lines of 'Why didn't you just ask?' He'd considered actually sending a letter to Luna about it regardless, but whatever else he felt about Ember, he wasn't going to betray her like that when she'd been so explicit about it--in more ways than one.
-- ⭗ ✹ --
Corona was going through the various correspondence for the upcoming coronation when something began niggling at her mind. Eventually, it came to her. "Come to think of it, it's been a while since young Spike sent us any letters, hasn't it? I take it that you haven't received any?"
Candesca looked up from the book of tablecloth samples and shook her head. "No, I would have mentioned if I had, of course. Do you suppose he has forgotten us?"
"I more expect he'll have sought support closer to home," Corona suggested diplomatically. "Perhaps with things having settled down for Twilight, she might be making herself a part of his life again?"
Candesca frowned. "That would be for the best," she admitted, remembering when they'd made a much similar decision about Luna. "I suppose it hasn't helped that we've been fairly out of touch since our regenesis. I don't imagine he would know which one of us to send a letter to if he did. We'll have to touch base with all of them after the coronation."
"Because we've been so very busy recently?" Corona queried sarcastically. "You know as well as I do why we haven't been down to Ponyville."
"Are they still calling it that?" Candesca asked. "It's not much of a village anymore and it's more and more looking like it's not going to be all ponies at the next census either."
"Stop changing the subject," Corona said, frowning at her twin. "If I can admit that acting like Celestia did feels stilted and awkward but I have no idea how else to behave, you can, too."
Candesca let out a huff. "You can't even explain it without sounding stiff and formal. I hardly think it is something we should just come out and say. Besides, you are the one changing the subject. We could just write to Spike, you know."
Corona hesitated. "I'm sure he's fine. From the sounds of the letters he was sending before, it sounded like he was heading towards a simple, quiet life, and I doubt much about that has changed."
-- ✒ --
"Anyway?" Ember needled, calling attention to the way he'd drifted off in thought.
Spike shook himself out of the rabbit hole he'd been digging into. He supposed that he could just leave Ember out of things when talking about the subject, but the possibility of actually talking to Luna about it revealed significantly less trust in her reaction being positive than he'd thought he had.
"Anyway," he said, doing his best not to think about his previous train of thought. "If we steal an age altering artifact and then I suddenly show up for work the next day looking years older, they're going to notice. Twilight's not stupid--she is, in fact, the absolute opposite of stupid. She'd be under 'stupid' in the thesaurus as an antonym... and I would never have been able to make it halfway through that sentence if she was watching, so I think we're safe."
Ember gave him that 'I have no idea what you're talking about, so hurry up and make this relevant,' look that was her default expression.
"But if we sneak into wherever it's being held and use it to make ourselves just old enough to be listened to, we can just say it was part of the... what did you call it?"
"The molt?" Ember said, clearly uninterested, but beginning to see the point.
"Right," Spike agreed. "Tell them it's part of the molt, and then, days or weeks later when the ring actually disappears, nopony will actually give us a second thought."
Ember scrunched up her face in a scowl before finally giving up. "Fine! We'll do it your way!"
Spike let out an incredible sigh of relief that she wasn't going to fight it. "Thank Celestia," he muttered to himself. "Trust me, it's better this way. We're going to need the extra time to figure out the second problem with actually stealing the ring anyway."
"What's that?"
"The fact that it's the size of a wagon." |
Sharing the Nation | Chapter 7 | -- ✶ --
Twilight suddenly lifted her head off Luna's side, having settled there in a two-pony pile on a cloud as Luna told Twilight about her day. "Hey, wait a second," she said, staring out into the distance, thinking for a moment.
Luna used her wing to pull Twilight down beside her so they could see each other and cocked her head curiously. "Unraveling the secrets of the universe?"
Twilight made no reaction to being marehandled, instead taking advantage of her new position to thrust her hoof up under Luna's nose accusingly. "Just because earth pony magic comes from me doesn't mean I'm the only alicorn capable of it! Why am I stumbling through this when you could tell me how it's done?"
Luna's eyes turned downwards a hint and she shook her head. "Do you recall that first night on top of the palace tower when I told you the fillytale of Nightmare Moon and then discovered that you had been remiss in practicing your pegasus magic?" she asked.
Twilight sent her a flat look and responded dryly, "You mean after you chucked me off the palace tower?"
Luna smiled in fond recollection. "Yes, that would be the one. I believe that earth pony magic also came up," she reminded Twilight, who frowned in thought.
"All you said was that it was boring," Twilight countered, but Luna didn't disagree. In fact, she seemed to think that was all there was to say on the subject. It took Twilight a moment to understand what Luna wasn't saying, and when it clicked she let her head drop back onto the cloud with a light whuff. "Seriously?" she asked with a groan. "Two thousand years and you couldn't be bothered to even try?"
"Oh, no, not at all," Luna assured her quite avidly. "I did try. We both did."
"But?" Twilight prompted.
Luna shrugged, unrepentant. "But it's boring."
"I literally blew myself out of a crater into another crater," Twilight reminded her with a huff. "How is that boring? It's not like it should be slow to show results with the power we have."
Luna favored Twilight with an affectionate look. "You do have the uncanny ability to fail in the most interesting of ways," she said, shaking her head with a wry smile.
"Hey!" Twilight objected, slapping Luna's shoulder lightly with her hoof.
Luna shook her head and asked, "Do you really wish for me to explain?" with a little more seriousness. "It might or might not be conducive to what you are trying to do."
Twilight hesitated, but only for a moment. "Yeah--you're not my teacher, remember?"
"True enough, though that's not precisely the right sentiment, since you are asking for a lesson on earth pony magic, is it?" she teased, though followed it up with something of a sigh. "Though there remains not much to say. Doing something with earth pony magic is easy; doing something useful with it is more difficult, and doing something specific with it is all but impossible."
"So I've been wasting my time?" Twilight asked, growing annoyed. "I wish you'd told me before I injured myself trying."
Luna bent closer, looked Twilight in the eyes... and booped her on the nose. "I am not in the business of telling anypony, least of all you, what is impossible. Not only am I often proven wrong, but it makes me look a fool for having done so. My intent is to explain why it is a feat that my sister and I abandoned, regardless of its potential--and it does have potential; you only need look to the things your friends have already done for proof of that.
"The feat that you asked of your friend Applejack, of encasing the palace in crystal or creating a blank to sculpt from? Though neither Tia nor I ever progressed past the ability to form small gemstones--the larger ones always fractured for some reason--such acts are, in fact, entirely possible, and if that is your goal, then I assure you, it is achievable.
"What it is not, is a whole solution. If you wished to grow a palace fully-formed, or that crystal tree that came from dame Rarity's discarded designs... That is where you would run into problems. Earth pony magic is at its most efficient when it is merely supplementing a craft or skill, which is why that is what you see in most earth ponies. To use it more overtly not only requires a great amount of power, but requires that you let it free, reducing the control you have of the end result. Even were you to master the art to such an extent that you could grow a palace of crystal from a single carat of quartz, you would not be choosing the floorplan, and even so you would expect to have to practice, because--"
"It's boring," Twilight repeated, slumping deeper into the cloud. "Yeah, I got that."
Luna tsked, looking out over the city. "I truly do not wish to dissuade you, Twilight. You should know better than to trust the word of a novice practitioner of an art, and need only look at the pink one to know that earth pony magic is not truly hamstrung or limited in any way. It simply has... not precisely a mind of its own, but a connection to the natural way of things that only grows more powerful with the more power you use. For my sister and I, who neither desired to learn every craft nor devote many hours to corralling our magic into useful action, earth pony magic has simply long since fallen out of mind."
Twilight shot Luna a queer look.
"Did you seriously just suggest that what Pinkie Pie does is in any way natural?"
-- ✒ --
"I don't like this plan," Spike protested as Ember dragged him back out of the ex-library. "This is a terrible plan."
Ember shot him a glare without stopping. "You came up with this plan," she reminded him, throwing her only free hand up in frustration and yanking Spike further on with a jolt.
"So I should know, right?" he insisted. He was trying to wiggle free of Ember's grip, but as slim as she might be, she was still a head taller than him and in much better shape. "Em--" He had barely started to get her name out when she snapped back and clapped her hand over his mouth. She glared fire and sulfur at him and he stubbornly glared back. She pulled her lips back into a snarl and he rolled his eyes and sighed.
Slowly--warily--she began to pull her hand away.
"E--" he began again, but stopped before she could do anything. He fought with himself over it, but eventually gave in. "I can't believe I'm going along with this," he grumbled. "Look--Godzilla--you still don't know where you're even going. Just let--" He grunted, trying to pull his hand free of hers. "Me" Grunt. "Go." Grunt. "And I'll show you the way."
She eyed him, probably judging if he was going to run off or try and use her name again. Eventually, though, she relented and released her grip. Spike spent a moment just rubbing and flexing his hand, but an impatient look from Ember got him moving, heading down the street in the direction of the site of the old Barnyard Bargains that had become the beginnings of Applejack's tower.
"I don't see why you're so against this," Ember said, pulling her hood down as much as she could to ensure her anonymity. "It's like you don't trust me to steal the Ring of Ashmund without you."
Well, that was easy to explain. "I don't."
"See, Spike? You sounded like a normal dragon just then," Ember told him, entirely serious as far as Spike could tell. "That's completely unlike you, and it worries me!"
Spike resisted the urge to roll his eyes since she wouldn't see it anyway. "It only worries you because you don't like being told 'no,'" he asserted, and she didn't deny it.
The problem with having Ember living with him--as if there could ever be just one--was that he'd gotten much freer about what he dared to say since no jab or insult seemed to phase her at all. It'd probably have been fine if it had just been the insults--though sooner or later he was going to say something to Twilight that would get him in trouble--but he'd also taken to grumbling his thought process out loud on occasion, too, which was what had gotten him into this new mess.
He'd remarked that, ideally, they'd steal the ring on the night of the coronation when most eyes would be elsewhere. It hadn't been a serious suggestion, let alone something that could be called an actual plan. In fact, he didn't even know what the coronation schedule would be, since the invitation hadn't gone into any great detail; it was entirely possible that the whole thing would be over and done with by noon, which would probably make this whole thing pointless... though admittedly, it was at least unlikely to be any worse than any other day if it came to that.
So yes, if they had to do it, that night would be the best choice.
Except for--you know--the fact that Spike would be attending the coronation.
There were just so many reasons that this was a terrible idea, chief among them that, yes, it would involve actually trusting Ember alone with the Ring of Ashmund, but also the fact that--again--she just was not as sneaky as she thought she was. Combine the two and Spike feared the worst. Ember probably wasn't out of touch with reality enough to try and hide behind a mailbox after using the ring to make herself the size of a bear... but he could picture it, so he wasn't going to consider it entirely out of the question either.
The bigger problem would be if she went completely off the script and decided to actually take the ring. He thought that he had impressed on her the importance of doing it in two stages, but he could never be entirely sure with her. The fact that she was still calling it 'stealing the Ring of Ashmund' and not 'surreptitiously using the Ring of Ashmund in secret' was kind of a bad sign.
She even had him doing it, but in his defense, the latter was a mouthful.
He supposed, if there was a bright side, it was that this way he wouldn't actually be involved in doing anything illegal; he'd just show Ember to the two unfinished towers that the ring might be stored in and that would be that. It would mean that he himself wouldn't actually get to use the ring, but... well, no, there was no 'but'; it was actually a significant flaw in the plan that kind of made the whole thing pointless, since using the ring on him was the whole point of not stealing it the first time to begin with.
Again, this hadn't been a plan; Ember had just latched onto the first thing he'd said.
"Is this it?" Ember asked, looking up at one of the old-style Ponyville houses that had yet to see any remodeling. "It smells like a distillery."
Spike blinked, realizing he'd stopped in front of Berry Punch's house. He shook his head and shushed Ember. "No, just... hold on a second, Em--Godzilla," he told her, then continued walking a little more sedately anyway since there was no reason not to continue on while he tried to think of a way to solve this.
The simplest and most expedient solution would be to just use the ring tonight, coronation be damned. He doubted Ember would actually complain about accelerating their plans; in fact, her eagerness to wait another few days and go without him was more than a little suspect. That said, he'd have liked to have at least another day to prepare, but it wasn't as if there was anything to actually prepare except himself.
Alternatively, he could let things keep going the way they were and Ember would probably just steal the ring while he was at the coronation--as in actually steal it. If she did that, then Spike would have an alibi, at least, and it wasn't as if anypony knew that Ember was staying with him--or that she existed at all, for that matter.
Not for the first time, he wondered if stealing the ring was actually a good idea at all. He'd talked himself into it out of a desire to no longer be seen as a baby and the faintest sense of empathy for Ember over the same, but was this really how he wanted to solve that? Surely when Ember of all dragons had pointed out that he was being a hypocrite, he should have taken that as a sign.
If it were up to him, he'd at least leave out the whole theft aspect entirely, which had been the point of relegating it off to 'sometime later' in his original plans. For Ember, though... The 'Primordial Ring of Ashmund' was a fixture of the old dragon empire, so she needed it for the new one and that was that. He thought she should probably focus on basics like putting together an actual list of things she wanted to change before she went about performing covert operations against neighboring countries.
Really, though, there had to be some way simpler and more legal to do this if he could just think of it. Whatever it was, he'd change his plans in a heartbeat--even if it involved introducing Ember to Twilight as 'Godzilla'.
Spike hesitated. Well, maybe not that. Ember's horrifyingly accurate nickname really shouldn't be a justification for committing crimes, but he was pretty sure he'd actually be less embarrassed if they just caught him trying to steal the damn ring.
Well, he'd better decide what he was going to do soon, because there'd be no going back if he actually led Ember to one of the unfinished towers. She wasn't stu--well, she wasn't... hrm. Okay, fine, she really wasn't stupid, just... some combination of ignorant, naïve, prone to anger and--okay, none of that was actually the point. The point was, if he showed her one of the unfinished towers, she'd probably be able to spot the other one since they were pretty much identical and picking out matching pairs of objects was something even the Cake twins could do.
"You didn't say this place was going to look so delicious."
Spike blinked, realizing that he'd stopped walking again and expecting to find himself in front of Sugarcube Corner this time. To his significant dismay, however, nothing Ember would have called delicious would have appealed to a pony's tastes.
It was too late; they were already there.
It was also under guard, no doubt on account of its deliciousness. He didn't know what he had actually expected--that they could just walk in and use and/or steal the thing?
...Yeah, pretty much, actually. This was Equestria, after all and having grown up in Canterlot Castle, it hadn't really occurred to him just how many royal guards there now were in Ponyville. He'd been so preoccupied with whether or not they should steal the Ring of Ashmund that he hadn't stopped to think if they could steal the Ring of Ashmund.
Maybe this wasn't so great of an idea after all. He'd managed to mostly skip over his second and third thoughts about stealing the ring, but his fourth thoughts on the matter were finally gaining some traction. He suddenly felt very exposed hanging around in plain sight of a place that they were intending to break into in the near future.
Oh, and Ember was drooling, which didn't help.
Mirroring their earlier situation, Spike grabbed Ember by the hand and yanked her along. "Hey, come on, Godzilla. Don't stop; you're making the guards nervous," he told her in his best mundane scolding tone, trying not to look guilty. He'd had a lot of practice in not looking guilty. Was he good at it? Not in the slightest--but he had practice, which should really count for something.
Ember, to his great relief, allowed herself to be led off, though she didn't make it easy for him and it wasn't long before they were out of sight of the guards. Once they were in the clear, Ember yanked her arm free and--self-conscious and unsure what to do with it--clutched it to her side as she followed him.
Okay, so, with the addition of guards that were specifically looking out for dragons to keep them from munching on the architecture, they weren't going to be doing anything tonight, that was for sure. That... he wasn't sure if that complicated things or if it simplified them. Well, obviously things were more complicated now because they were going to have to deal with the guards somehow, but unless he could convince Ember that the ring was too well guarded, it also didn't leave him with a whole lot of choices. Now that she knew where one tower was and what the other would look like, he didn't doubt that she'd try to steal the ring eventually with or without him.
He wasn't sure which would be worse; if she got caught trying to steal the ring, or if she got caught succeeding at stealing the ring.
He had no desire for the name of Godzilla to prove prophetic.
Not seeing any point in keeping it from her at this point, Spike led Ember on and showed her the unfinished tower intended for Rainbow Dash before the two of them made their way back home, Spike keeping an eye on Ember the entire way to make sure she didn't run off and do something he would regret.
Unfortunately, his preoccupation with her didn't leave him much time to figure out what they were actually going to do.
-- ✶ --
As unhelpful as Luna had been on the subject of earth pony magic, Twilight was still grateful for her support, even if it had been a little late in coming. Content, she snuggled deeper into the comfort of Luna's warmth behind and around her as she waited for sleep to come.
It would be easy to just give up, she mused. She was no stranger to hard work, but she would be the first to admit that she heavily favored sciences over arts. Learning a subject by rote before she ever put magic to the task just appealed more to her than disciplines whose execution came primarily down to practice. Unicorn magic was a little of both, true, but it was definitely more science than art. Still, science or art, she wouldn't let herself be dissuaded, because when it came right down to it... Err...
Raising mountains was just really impressive?
She was embarrassed to admit, that was kind of the long and short of it. Just a few hours after Twilight had made Applejack a demigoddess, her stubborn friend had turned around and used that power to change the entire countryside--just to give herself some privacy. Even more impressive in Twilight's eyes was that she'd done so without damaging anything on the property. Sure, she might be able to create a mountain with unicorn magic in several ways if she really tried, but they would all be messy and few of them permanent.
Creating a palace out of transmuted crystal? Not a great idea. There was a reason that Unicorns had traditionally left building and growing things to the earth ponies and it wasn't just the muscle.
Unfortunately for Twilight, neither of her earth pony demigoddess friends seemed actually inclined to use their demigoddesshood to their full potentials. Pinkie Pie, she couldn't really blame since the party planner was at least doing what made her happy, but getting Applejack to do anything interesting or inventive was like pulling teeth even when there were things she was responsible for that were desperate for improvement. Sure, she hadn't wanted demigoddesshood in the first place--nor had Twilight wanted to give it to her--but what was done was done, and to just ignore it was just... such a waste.
...Not that the others were doing so great either. Just about the only one of them who actually seemed interested in pushing her boundaries was Rainbow Dash, and they'd already seen how that had panned out. Rarity was more interested in the self-expression afforded by her immortal form than actually using any magic, and Fluttershy...
Twilight really needed to go actually talk to Fluttershy and see how she was doing. She doubted it was any coincidence that her immortality had manifested in a way that allowed her to be around ponies without the pressure of actually being capable of speech. There was no way that was healthy.
Maybe she should go ascend some ponies that would actually make use of her gifts, she thought not at all seriously. Wouldn't that go over well? Would her friends get jealous...? ...
Idly, Twilight wondered what The Great and Powerful Trixie would do with demigoddesshood; it would balance out the number of demigoddesses she had of each tribe, at least.
Twilight wished she hadn't thought of that; now she was going to have nightmares about it.
Trixie as a demigoddess, that is; not having an uneven representation of demigoddesses--though come to think of it... Hrm. It was a pity that Sunset Shimmer was fictional. Twilight really didn't have any unicorn friends that would actually put demigoddesshood to use properly.
"Are you still awake?" came Luna's quiet voice, her whisper from behind tickling Twilight's ear and causing it to twitch as a shiver ran down her spine.
"Mmhm," she murmured. "Just thinking."
Luna squeezed Twilight tighter. "About?"
"Making Trixie a demigoddess," Twilight told her, half asleep.
"Is she not the one who precipitated the matter with the ursa minor...?"
"Mmhm."
"Twilight?"
"Yes?"
"I know that I said I would support you in anything, but... no."
"No?"
"No."
-- ✶ --
Twilight dreamt.
She dreamt of a blue mare--not the midnight blue of her fellow alicorn of the night, but the blue of a clear sky, with a pale cerulean mane. She saw this mare wandering the countryside, rejected and dejected. Her possessions destroyed and her reputation in tatters, she had nothing.
That's how She found her; destitute and desperate, ready to be remade in Her image. She had everything the mare had ever desired--power; prestige; immortality--and a drop of each the mare was granted, Her only command to use it and use it well.
Five minutes later, there was an ursa minor pulling an ornate golden litter with a cackling mare on top. ...
"This is stupid," Twilight remarked and walked straight out of the dream.
It was only when she found herself back in the Desert of Dreams that she'd realized where she was, what had been going on and what she'd actually done, and for just a moment, ice ran down her spine as she feared that she might have cut herself off from the rest of her stars in her sleep. To her eternal relief, however, she found the rest of them right where they should be.
The Desert of Dreams was exactly like she'd remembered it; a shining desert of luminescent, sparkling stars canopied by an open, blank, black sky. It felt much less ominous now that it was an actual part of her, but even so it retained a certain eerie quality that was difficult to pin down. Part of it was seeing her stars acting under the weight of gravity when they were otherwise entirely immune to it, she supposed. Even when she'd been bringing them down to Equus to manifest from, they had drifted off in the wind and returned to the sky afterwards. Now that she knew what to look for, though, there was also a sense of... unreality to it that was not unlike the dreams that were transpiring beneath its surface.
It was also--strictly speaking--not a real place, which was why she hadn't previously known how to access it. Much like the place where Twilight had had her final confrontation with Astri, it was more a representation or perhaps recontextualization of the parts of her that went beyond the physical. It would be simpler to claim that it was her inner mind or some such, but she was in the unique position that there was far more to her metaphysical self than just her mind.
Actually, that was an interesting distinction. Twilight had first recontextualized her stars as a library after coming here to the Desert of Dreams and losing herself in the stars below. At first glance, it seemed peculiar that the two had remained separate even then, but it actually made perfect sense, as that had been precisely the problem with her incorrect manifestation to begin with--that she had remained separate, even from stars that she had ostensibly 'claimed.'
What was far more interesting than how they were separate was how the two might actually have been connected. Rather, she wondered if coming here to the Desert of Dreams had been the catalyst that had shown her on some subconscious level how to do the recontextualization that had saved her from losing herself to the memories contained therein? She would probably never know, but it was fascinating to consider.
...For about five minutes, then she got bored.
The sudden hissing of shifting sands made Twilight jump and turn when the stars behind her suddenly sank to fill in the void left by a pony-sized shape of one of the dreamers. Likely, it had been whoever's dream she'd arrived from... though she wasn't sure if that quite fit. Given the direction her thoughts had been going in before she'd fallen asleep, the dream couldn't have been anything but her own, could it? Twilight shook her head, dismissing the correlation. It was more likely that the two were unrelated; the arrival and departure of dreamers was a constant thing that kept the stars shifting, so having one disappear from nearly right under her hardly meant anything.
Alternatively, though... it might have been both; she might have been dreaming for that pony as Somni and Fati had once dreamed for all ponykind. Curious, she approached one of the other shapes in the sand and looked closer. She was pretty sure this one was another pony. Like most of the shapes, it didn't actually break the surface of the desert, remaining instead a suggestion of a form just beneath the surface. Carefully, she brushed some of the stars aside with her hoof to get a better look.
She had been right, it was a pony--a pale green earth pony with a rich orange mane. Twilight didn't recognize her, of course, as the chances of her knowing a random dreaming pony selected from across all of Equus was slim to none. That was unfortunate, as she would have liked to compare the mare's dreaming self to her physical body. As it was, her coat luminesced in a similar manner to the stars that covered her and Twilight suspected that her actual form and features were likely abstracted or idealized in some manner.
Never one to let the unknown stay unknown, Twilight decided to engage in the most basic of scientific discipline.
She poked it.
-- ✶ --
Twilight was entirely unsurprised to find herself pulled into another dream as that had been her intent. The feeling was reminiscent of when she'd touched Astri's star and found herself viewing the events as they happened in the real world, though the result in this case was quite different from the stark reality of armored alicorns fighting and dying in the sky over Ponyville.
It started, as many dreams do, of flying. Twilight had often argued with Spike before becoming an alicorn that dreams of flight were a natural part of pony psychology regardless of whether the pony in question was unicorn, earth pony or pegasus and she still maintained this even after her own experience had to be stricken from the record on account of her sudden onset of acute alicornification. The fact that that her first dreamwalk had the earth pony dreamer shooting through the air under her own power made her smile with vindication.
Her smile faltered. On second thought, how did she tell if she was dreaming this or if the other pony was? Was there a difference? Actually, would it invalidate her point or prove it if she was technically the one who was dreaming for everypony through their stars? ...
Wait--this mare was falling, not flying, so never mind all that.
The mare was also terrified, which was a strange thing for Twilight to feel through somepony else. She had called what she was doing dreamwalking after a popular idea in fiction, but that wasn't accurate. She hadn't entered this dream, exactly; she wasn't walking around inside it looking around and talking to the dreamer. She just... was. She was sure now; she was the dream--or she was dreaming the dream, anyway. Looking at it that way, she was the dreamer and the green mare was the dreamee.
She was going to have to start writing down all these things in a book or she was going to start forgetting them.
Lost in trying to remember any other words or abnormal conjugations she'd come up with to explain how her alicornhood worked, Twilight was once again startled out of her reverie--this time by a piercing scream and an urban cityscape rushing up to meet the dreamee. In a blind panic with no idea what else to do, Twilight reached out to catch the mare, forgetting that she hadn't manifested a body in the dream, if she even could.
The cobblestone road bent and gave to catch the dreamee. It was soft as a baby's blanket and curled up around her making cooing noises. Oh.
Oh no.
It was a coddlestone road now.
That was terrible.
Twilight yanked herself back out of the dream in horror.
-- ✶ --
Twilight regretted everything, cursing her curious nature back in the Desert of Dreams. Out of all the mysteries that had remained unanswered, she'd had to stumble across the one that she hadn't even acknowledged that she'd been avoiding--the hows and whys of Discord's magic. Some might consider her to be jumping to conclusions, but turning a cobblestone road into a coddlestone road was just so... perennially Discord that she had little doubt--or hope--that it could be a sign of anything else.
Worse, she'd done it without even thinking.
She didn't think that she was being unreasonable in not wanting to be connected in any way, shape or form with the so-called 'spirit of disharmony.' She hadn't liked him as an ambassador in Somni and Fati's memories of the days approaching the end of the world, she hadn't liked him as an all-powerful megalomaniacal villain and she still hadn't liked him as a feeble, impotent noodle whose last act in life had been to cause more problems for everypony involved--and even then, at least nopony knew the connection between Discord and the Celestias' draconic features.
Alright, that was enough. Twilight took a deep breath of nonexistent air and attempted to calm down. Just because her control over the dreams she dreamt for other ponies resembled Discord's magic didn't mean she was even capable of doing it in the real world. If it was that easy, she would have run into it already. All she had to do was leave the Desert of Dreams and never come back. Everything looked like it was running fine without her input, so there should be no problem if she just ignored this aspect of her alicornhood and let it take care of itself.
Amazingly enough, as she held her breath and readied herself for anything, no great disaster sprouted into existence to prove her wrong.
Crisis averted, she was going to count that as a win.
...And yet, she still found herself standing there scratching at her jaw, not actually leaving the Desert of Dreams like she'd said she would.
It wasn't that she was curious. Maybe there was a small part of her that itched to experiment, but that wasn't what kept her here. Instead, it was the fact that she didn't trust ignorance any more than she trusted Discord. There were so many things about her alicornhood that came down to feelings and interpretations that it would be foolish not to get a handle on this one when the opportunity arose, if only so she could ensure that it never reared its head at an inopportune moment.
She was going to have to learn how to do it anyway, wasn't she?
Wonderful.
It didn't escape her notice that there were additional layers to the irony of the situation, too, because for all she'd been having difficulty finding the time and place to practice with the aspects of herself that she was actually interested in mastering, like her earth pony and unicorn magics, she had all the time in the world for this one since she could do it literally in her sleep.
Sometimes there was no justice in the world.
-- ✒ --
Sometimes there was no justice in the world, Spike thought to himself over a bowl of cinnabar and sulfur oatmeal. He'd hardly slept, his harried thoughts having kept him up as he tried to think of a way to either get his plans for the Ring of Ashmund back on track or somehow convince Ember to hold off on doing anything until he could do so.
Yeah, as if that was going to happen.
Ember, of course, hadn't slept at all, having previously ruined her sleep schedule thoroughly reading The Book, but unlike him, she didn't have to go to work in an hour.
It was times like this that Spike really felt like a... a sidekick. He had common sense and good handwriting and that was about it; he didn't actually have any real capacity to do anything or even solve problems. He hadn't often felt too badly about it with Twilight and her friends since they were all national heroes and now a goddess and demigoddesses, but it was more than a little depressing falling into the same routine with Ember, who he didn't even like, let alone respect.
...Well, maybe he could respect her vision and drive just a little--the new Ember, anyway. It was really still too early to put any faith in her or her new outlook, but she was headed in a vaguely decent direction so far.
Still, improving or not, it wasn't as if she was going to come up with a solution on her own, so he took another bite of his oatmeal and went back to trying to figure out what he could do to keep Ember from ending up in front of Luna's court clad in chains by this time next week. He was so lost in thought that he fumbled his spoon when Ember shouted up from the basement.
"Hey, Spike! Come help me with all this magic fire tripe--I think I got it to work!" |
Sharing the Nation | Chapter 8 | -- ✶ --
Twilight wanted to give herself a good slap to get her mind back on track. She kept getting distracted, all nervous and jittery after spending the previous night practicing her... dream magic? Dream magic was a good, neutral name for it with no connection to Discord. The point had been for her to get used to it so that it wouldn't cause her any problems; now, though, in the light of day, she still couldn't shed the feeling that she was going to just reflexively do something with it out of the blue and then everypony would know.
A look around the virtually empty, unfinished tower gave her the impression that the world was rolling its eyes at her, as Spike was the only other person present.
Okay, well, Spike would know.
Spike was what actually made her want to slap some sense into herself; he was just as jumpy as she was, clearly having picked up on her mood. They hadn't even flown here since she still hadn't had a chance to look up a sticking spell, so it wasn't as if there was another reason that he'd be nervous; all they were doing was planning out where in Applejack's unfinished extension to store some of the furniture and equipment recovered from the ruined palace and marking down some of the smaller things to be moved to Rainbow's since hers was harder to get to with the large objects.
She had to get ahold of herself. There had already been several instances where Spike had had to repeat himself several times to get her attention, and she'd had to do the same to get his attention while he was no doubt lost in thought wondering what she could possibly be worried about in some circular... nervousness feedback loop.
Unfortunately, there was only one real way that Twilight could think of to calm her nerves and it was the same logic that had gotten her into this mess in the first place. It wasn't helping anything not knowing if she was a hair's breadth from causing an incident; she had to know.
If she was being honest with herself--which she wasn't--the things she could do in dreams weren't even inherently as awful as she'd first assumed. Yes, puns were somehow one of the avenues of power that could be exploited, but it was more about... connections. Puns worked because they formed an abstract connection between two concepts, but they were hardly the be-all-end-all of dream logic. Animating things to do what they were intended to do, transposing traits from one thing onto another and simply conjuring things from thin air were all child's play in dreams, so long as you had the right mindset.
Cultivating that mindset, on the other hoof... well, it was no wonder that Discord was the way he was if that sort of thinking was how he'd managed to suffer through the trauma, loss and loneliness of the end of the world. Twilight had had none of that to deal with and she still felt a little wobbly on her hooves, like the world today wasn't quite the same as it had been yesterday.
Twilight stopped what she was doing and frowned at that thought.
She was going to have to tell Luna about this just in case it started to get the better of her, wasn't she? Not that she had intended to keep it a secret, she just... hadn't intended to actually say anything about it just yet. She knew that Luna would be accepting and even interested, but it was also a little weird, if not also questionable to be romping around in other ponies' dreams.
Well, technically, they were her dreams, but she was dreaming them about other ponies, so, like with the stars inside each pony that were technically hers, part of what they had become very much wasn't. That was why the issue of her potential archive was such a touchy one and it was why she'd tried to do most of her fooling around in nightmares doing what she could to 'fix' them, but nightmares were no less personal and she felt distinctly uncomfortable injecting humor into serious situations.
It went beyond simple matters of privacy, too; she also hadn't actually found any particular way to identify nightmares other than their forms shifting fitfully in the Desert of Dreams, which had led to some very awkward situations when the tossing and turning turned out to be a sign of an entirely different kind of heightened emotions. The only reason she hadn't completely sworn off the entire practice was the fact that it was practice, which she desperately needed, and the fact that the whole thing was almost entirely anonymous. In fact, if she stayed away from the dreams of ponies and dragons, there was virtually no chance that she could even run into anypony she knew, and visiting the dreams of all the other races could actually be quite fascinating if she could get over her various hangups.
"--ight? Twilight!"
Twilight blinked, balking away from the claw being waved in her face and flushed at being caught out again. "Sorry, Spike, what were you saying?"
"I said--I, uh--" Spike swallowed, his eyes flitting about nervously like he was looking for a way out of saying what he'd already committed to. "I could actually really use one of those desks and I was wondering if...?"
Twilight glanced over at the desks in question. They were heavy oak office desks and had been really nice, once, before a palace had fallen on them. The fact that they were still salvageable at all was a testament to how well they were built, but... "Are you sure, Spike? They're pretty banged up and we'll probably just auction off the lot or even have them broken down for firewood like the rest. I can just have them allocate one for you when the replacements come in instead?"
Spike shook his head rapidly. "No--no! One of these is fine--I mean, I want one of these. The damage, uhh, adds character, and you know it's just going to get scratched up by my claws eventually anyway."
Twilight tsked and shook her head. "Why am I not surprised you've gone back to scratching up the furniture without me there?" she asked, rolling her eyes at his destructive habits. "Alright then, mark down whichever set of moderately abused fine oak scratching posts you want."
Spike glanced back at her as if to make sure, then jogged off to check them all out. His search quickly took him into the next room over, which gave her an idea.
"You know, Spike... I wasn't going to say anything, but your place really does look pretty empty. If you see anything else that you'd like, just mark it all down and I'll have the salvage workers take it over there at the end of the day. Nobody's going to miss any of it."
Twilight cringed at the clatter of several chairs falling over in the next room where Spike had wandered off to. She felt bad for intentionally distracting him, but he really did need some things and she needed a minute or two alone just to prove to herself that her dream magic wasn't going to run amok on her.
-- ✒ --
Spike looked up at the large, wooden crate that dominated the room. He looked down at his clipboard. He looked at the crate, its only identifying mark being a ten-digit lot number. He looked at his clipboard, full of nearly identical ten digit lot numbers. He glanced back at the door to the room Twilight was in. She seemed to be staying put.
Did he dare?
It might have seemed like a no-brainer--a gift from Celestia to solve all his problems--but aside from it actually being a gift from Twilight, it wasn't as simple as it seemed. There'd be a record, for one, and while it might actually put him legally in the clear... the betrayal of trust might actually be worse.
Did he dare?
There was just no time to consider all the ways that it could go wrong. Spike didn't think he was the type to agonize over problems, but these last few days had ratcheted up his uncertainty and paranoia. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it was now or never.
Did he dare?
No, he didn't dare...
...but he did it anyway.
-- ✶ --
Twilight quietly ducked out of the room, putting some extra space between her and Spike just in case she was actually able to do anything. She hoped it wouldn't be needed, but she didn't have time to worry about that.
She tried to calm herself as quickly as possible--a paradoxical attempt if ever there was one--and widened her stance, preparing herself to do... something. Set a broom to sweep up the place, maybe? That would be relatively simple, but it was something she could do with unicorn magic and a classic one for apprentices to let get out of hoof. Instead... Instead, she decided to go in the direction of her other recent interests and try to reshape the crystal.
She pictured the walls gaining a relief of a nature scene in her mind and... nothing happened.
Well, obviously not. She hadn't used any magic, had she? She was tempted to leave it at that and rest secure in the knowledge that she hadn't opened some pandora's box by practicing dream magic... but her confidence came out wilted from the start. It hadn't been a proper attempt, had it? In dreams, things just happened with the slightest flex of her will; normally she'd write it it all off as a purely mental exercise since it was ostensibly happening inside her head, but this wasn't happening inside her head and she knew that Discord had clearly bridged that gap. There had to be more to it.
The answer was magic, obviously--and not just because magic was a basic requirement for doing magic.
That had sounded less tautological in her head.
In any case, she hadn't thought about it at the time, but the entire Desert of Dreams had been saturated with her magic and she supposed that the dreams themselves must have been, too. Could it be that simple?
If Discord could figure it out while living in a cave after the end of the world knowing nothing more about magic than scraps and hearsay, it probably was that simple.
Derision for her completely unrelated predecessor in dream magic aside, she probably only had time for one more try before Spike came looking for her, so she'd have to hurry. Utilizing magic after it had been cast into the world wasn't an entirely alien concept; it was at the heart of how teleportation worked, after all, so she should be able to make this quick. Taking one quick glance in the next room to make sure Spike wasn't--
"Twilight, are you--"
"Yaaaiiieee!" Twilight yelped, jumping twice her height into the air, her heart lodged firmly in her throat.
Spike just stood there holding the clipboard and blinking at her. "...You okay?"
"Yes," she insisted, alternatively gasping and huffing in turn. "Tartarus... Spike... don't... do... that... to... me..."
"Uhh, sorry?" he apologized, sort of. "You disappeared on me. Anyway, I made a list, do you want to sign it now, or...?"
Twilight was still bent over, recovering from the scare that Spike had given her and shook her head mutely. "Just sign it for me like you always do, Spike," she said, waving him off with a hoof. Tartarus; she guessed she'd have to be happy with what little she'd had a chance to do, for now. To that end, she did her best to focus on Spike.
Spike glanced down at the clipboard with some concern. "Are you sure?" he asked uncertainly. "It'd look kinda bad if somepony noticed."
Twilight let a snort of laughter escape as she stood back up. "I'm pretty sure that the only way anypony would notice something amiss is if I actually signed it for once," she said ruffling the spines on the top of his head and heading back out into the main room of the first floor.
Spike squirmed under Twilight's ruffling and then had to run to catch up to her while straightening out his spines. "There's no way that's actually true. You have to have signed for something recently. You have a bank account here in Ponyville, don't you? I didn't set that up for you."
Twilight stopped in place and turned away from Spike, abashed. "I... might have used a spell to copy my signature off of a Quills & Sofas order form for that," she admitted.
Spike shot her a queer, disbelieving look. "Forget about me--are you sure you should be living on your own?"
-- ✶ --
It wasn't long after Spike had interrupted Twilight's dream magic experimentation that the salvage workers arrived with the load of crates the two of them had been planning out the space for. The two of them stayed a short while to see things started, but once it was clear that everything was in hoof, it was off to the next item on the checklist--something about water permits that didn't seem too urgent.
Twilight looked at the checklist and frowned. After a moment of consideration, she had Spike move checking in on Fluttershy up to the top of the list. Some things would just never get done if she didn't make them a priority and she had a bad feeling about how Fluttershy was handling things.
Speaking of priorities, Twilight thought as she made her way out to the edge of town on hoof, Spike's interruption had arguably been a better test of any hair-trigger powers she might have than any intentional use would have been, but she still wanted to run her tests sooner rather than later.
Twilight chewed at her bottom lip as she gave some thought to just trying something subtle out in the open. It went against every instinct she had, but even if it actually worked and somepony saw it, there shouldn't be any sign that it had been her.
No, they'd just think it was Discord, which would be awkward since he hadn't left a body; just a suspiciously large pile of ash that could have come from the sudden and unexpected disintegration of any old chaos god off the street.
Yeah, that would go over well.
Okay, so maybe her anxiousness was getting the better of her. She would just have to resist experimenting until she had another moment to herself.
If it was connected to how teleportation worked, though... that would make an alarming amount of sense for something that made so little.
Teleportation was in an odd situation as far as spells went. It was a spell like any other, and one that any unicorn could learn if they were dedicated enough, but it didn't involve any manipulation of space no matter how fascinating that would be. It was movement through magic, and that quality brought with it a few small quirks. First and foremost was the fact that, for your magic to take you somewhere, your magic had to go--or already be--there.
For most users of the spell, this was an academic curiosity and nothing more. Simply through the act of casting the spell, the caster's magic would reach out to the destination to carry them there. There was no magical shot or bolt to signal this part of the spell because it wasn't actually part of the spell. Instead, it was just an amorphous wave caused by brute-forcing the spell and generally went unnoticed and undetected. If you wanted to calculate the relative range and effort of the spell, however, characterizing this surge of magic was of the utmost importance.
For some reason, Spike always seemed to disagree about that whenever the subject came up, as did anypony else lucky enough to get a chance to hear her lecture on the subject.
The point was that the requirement for the caster's magic to be at the destination of a teleport was a loose one that could be fulfilled in a number of ways, most of them easier than the brute force reaction that happened as part of the teleportation spell. While it wasn't possible to regain control of magic after letting go of it, the casting of spells, deliberate overflow and even breathing did spread magic out into the environment that, while otherwise useless, made teleporting around said environment vastly easier.
So, to sum it up, most unicorns who could teleport knew that it took less out of them to do so around familiar areas; very few of them actually understood why and even fewer cared when she tried to tell them about it.
You know what? Twilight hoped that teleportation was the secret to manipulating reality like it was taffy. Everypony who always rolled her eyes at her lectures would deserve it.
Wait, no, that didn't make any sense because she didn't want to manipulate reality like taffy; she just wanted to make sure she wouldn't do it by accident.
That was her story and she was sticking to it.
If only she could get a chance to actually prove her theory.
-- ✶ --
In what could be called a modern-day miracle, Fluttershy was out tending to her small vegetable garden when Twilight and Spike arrived. There was no emergency going on, no drama and not even a huge orchard to search. They just walked up to the pleasantly smiling mare, greeted her and were greeted in return.
It was nice.
Twilight had previously commented to herself that Applejack had seemed to be the least outwardly-affected pony of her demigoddesses and Rarity the one who had best acclimated, but just standing here looking at Fluttershy going about her business with the help of her animals as always, she could easily believe that Fluttershy had them both beat.
A small part of her objected on the grounds that Fluttershy spreading herself out over her animals was her physical change--and a pretty significant one, too--except that she didn't even seem to be controlling them... much. Every once in a while, they'd turn yellow as she directed their eyes to something or showed them how the work was done, but it was only a guiding hoof here and there and none of them seemed to mind in the slightest.
"So, how did it go with Rainbow Dash, yesterday?" Twilight asked once obligatory hellos had been exchanged, hopefully adding, "I don't suppose she's bounced back yet?"
"Oh, well..." Fluttershy seemed to be trying to decide what to tell Twilight or how to explain something unpleasant, but her actual response was fairly bland. "Pinkie Pie took her to Las Pegasus to party it off. It went alright, I guess?"
Twilight let out a breath that she'd been holding and decided to go for broke. "She's not too angry at me, I hope?"
Again with the hesitation, then it all came out at once. "You came up, but I don't think she's angry at you. Not really. That's why I didn't want her to see you. I'm--um--sorry for shooing you off, by the way. I was worried she might say something mean that she didn't mean. For what it's worth, I think that what you said to Spitfire was exactly the right amount to say, and--"
"Woah, woah, slow down, Fluttershy," Twilight interrupted, taking a step back from the uncharacteristic chatter. "Conversations involve two people."
Fluttershy flushed and hid behind her mane. "Oh... sorry... I just see..." She involuntarily grimaced. "...So much through the animals and haven't had a chance to actually talk to anypony."
Twilight winced in sympathy and concern. She... really wasn't the right pony to talk to someone about getting out more, but the worrying part was what had been implied in that grimace. "I can see anything my starlight touches, but I can focus on anything from an area down to a single pony. Can't you... not see so much?"
"Oh. Um." Fluttershy pawed at the ground with her hoof, but her response had no such hesitance or uncertainty. "No."
Twilight's heart sank, her horror muted only by the foreshadowing from Fluttershy's earlier grimace. "You see... everything? Everywhere?"
"Oh." Fluttershy's eyes widened and she shook her head. "No. It's not quite that bad. I can focus on one area, just not one or two animals."
"Oh, good," Twilight said, letting out a sigh of relief. "I was worried there for a second. Still, it must be hard, experiencing all that, even if it's just animals in your immediate vicinity."
Fluttershy cocked her head in a somewhat birdlike manner. "My immediate vicinity?" she questioned, bemused, before the misunderstanding became clear. "Oh, no. It's... hrm... About the distance from here, through Whitetail Woods to the far side of the Everfree crater... twice over?"
Twilight had no words.
Spike wasn't nearly so limited, but he only used one. "Damn."
"Spike!" Twilight scolded, resisting the urge to rap him on the head like she would Rainbow Dash. "Don't be insensitive!"
Spike spread his arms in a melodramatic shrug. "I'm just saying--"
"Well, don't!" she scolded him with a little too much sharpness.
Fluttershy set her hoof on Twilight's shoulder, getting her attention. "It's fine, Twilight. I've... gotten used to it."
"Gotten used to it?" Twilight asked incredulously, a horrible feeling rising up inside of her that she couldn't stop. "You shouldn't have had to--"
"Really, it's... fine," Fluttershy tried to reassure her, but failing completely.
Spike saw what was coming and stepped back just as Twilight teared up and latched onto her friend. "I'm--I'm so sorry!"
"Not again..."
-- ✶ --
Twilight managed to maintain at least a little of her dignity by not actually breaking out in ugly crying like she had with Spike, but it had been a near thing and she still wasn't letting go.
Fluttershy gave Twilight a pained, but wistful smile as she just stood there letting Twilight squeeze her to death. In an entirely unrelated coincidence, one of the nearby racoons turned yellow and continued working on the garden. "It's really not that bad," Fluttershy insisted, then frowned and had to correct herself. "At least, it wasn't until the dragons showed up, anyway."
Twilight had to loosen her grip on Fluttershy in order to look at her. "What do the dragons have to do with it?"
"Well, it's... um... easier when one of my animals is responsible for preying on another," she explained, taking a hesitant step back away from Twilight. "When it's a griffon or dragon, it's... worse. It can be a shock, actually, when there's no warning."
"Preying on..." It took Twilight a moment for the implications to click in her head and when they did, all the color drained out of her face and Fluttershy's attempts to back away proved futile. "They... They...!"
They were eating her. Hunting her--catching her--killing her and eating her! Twilight couldn't put her renewed horror into words. She hadn't just burdened Fluttershy with the poisoned chalice of omniscience, she'd made her suffer. She'd doomed her to constant, unending torture.
What had she done?
Fluttershy let out a squeak as Twilight redoubled her effort to crush all the air out of Fluttershy's lungs, only to pull in a long gasp of air as Twilight realized what she was doing and yanked herself away from the friend she was hurting. What could she do about this? How could she--"The dragons! I'll--"
"Do what?" Spike asked, rolling his eyes. "Make them vegetarians?"
"They're dragons! They can live on rocks!" Twilight shouted back before she realized what she was saying and who she was saying it to. "I mean--I--I didn't mean--if you ever wanted meat all you had to do was say something and--"
Thankfully, before she could dig herself any deeper or fit any more hooves in her mouth, Fluttershy regained her composure from the attempted strangulation and interrupted, her hoof finding its way back to Twilight's shoulder. "Um, please don't blame them, Twilight. It's just something that happens in nature."
Twilight seemed to deflate. She'd come here to see how Fluttershy was doing and help her if she could, but now she seemed to be the pony who needed consoling. Breathe in--breathe out--think productively. Miraculously, something came to her. "Fluttershy, you're still flesh and blood in spite of being immortal, right?"
Fluttershy looked perplexed, but agreed. "Um, Yes?"
"As in, a flesh and blood pony, not three beavers standing on each others' shoulders under a trenchcoat?" Twilight clarified, this being a vital and important distinction for the idea that had struck her like a wagon in the night.
That seemed to stump Fluttershy for a moment. "...Why would I be beavers?" she asked. "Beavers are fine, but I'm really much more of a squirrel, um, if you have to say something like that, I mean."
Twilight was getting impatient and a little exasperated. "Are you forty-six squirrels?"
"No?" Fluttershy answered tentatively. "At least, I don't think so? ...And do three beavers really equal forty-six squirrels?"
That seemed good enough for Twilight and she took a breath to prepare herself. "Fluttershy, I... I think... I think if I take back your stars--all of them--just temporarily--I think you'll go back to normal. Do... you want me to?"
"Oh." Fluttershy calmly shook her head. "That's really not necessary, Twilight."
"What? Why?" Twilight asked, as distraught as if she was the one it was happening to. "You're the only one I think I could do it safely to and you're having a horrible time of it!"
Fluttershy was notably not distraught, and she said so. "I'm really not..."
"Dragons are eating you!" Twilight vehemently insisted. "Right now! It's like when Equestria wanted to eat me--"
"You thought Equestria wanted to eat you," Spike interrupted to correct.
"--like when I thought Equestria wanted to eat me," Twilight allowed, continuing to work herself up without acknowledging the correction. "But worse because it's actually happening! You're being eaten! By dragons!"
"And I've gotten over it," Fluttershy reminded her.
"You're terrified of dragons!" Twilight argued, raising her voice to a screeching that scared several flocks of birds away.
Fluttershy's ears flattened at Twilight's shouting. "They're less scary from the inside," she said, rolling her eyes.
She.
Rolled.
Her.
Eyes.
Twilight stared at Fluttershy as if she'd never seen her before. "You're messing with me."
Fluttershy flushed and nervously measured a small space in front of her between her hooves. "Um... just a little bit, but, um, they are warm and cuddly on the inside in a way, so actually... no?"
Twilight could hardly believe it. "Who are you and what have you done with Fluttershy?" she asked, only mostly joking.
Fluttershy shrank at being caught out. "You, um, have to admit that you were asking for it just a teensy bit, Twilight. I did answer you the first two times."
Twilight considered the last few things she'd said and suddenly found new interest in the ground at her hooves. "I just can't believe... Fluttershy... why? Why would you want to stay like this when it means you have to experience all the... the pain and death of every animal in the greater Ponyville area?"
Fluttershy's response had Twilight thunderstruck. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Twilight all but whimpered. "I feel like that should be obvious. It's pain! And death! I don't get up in the morning and shamble to the pain and death machine for my rejuvenating infusion of pain and death to wake me up!"
"That's what life is, Twilight," Fluttershy told her, sounding almost motherly as she did so. "Animals live and they die. When I take care of an adorable little mousie... I know that they'll only be around for a year at most... and sometimes it's much less. Most of the time, they'll just be gone one day and I won't even know if they went off to start a family or to feed one. Now I know--and I can be there for them when it happens. Why wouldn't I want that?"
Twilight was flummoxed. "Wait, you don't save them, even from each other?" she asked, though soon felt foolish for it, her shoulders slumping. "I guess you can't, or they'd starve..."
"Actually, I could," Fluttershy said, lamentably dropping her head. "I could take control of every single animal in my range and they would never need to eat, sleep, age or do anything at all. I could keep them in their burrows where they're safe and bring them out for tea parties... but I hope that if I did that then somepony would stop me, because that isn't living... It's not even life."
That sounded horrible, but Twilight didn't exactly like the alternative, either.
This time, it was Fluttershy that hugged Twilight. "Twilight... I think you did the right thing, making us all immortal."
"What?" Twilight blurted, wishing she could back off and look at Fluttershy for some clue about what she meant but not actually daring to force the issue. "What does that even have to do with this?"
"I don't mind, of course," Fluttershy continued past Twilight's confusion. "I was always going to live longer than most of my animals, and I don't expect Mr. Tortoise to spend his entire life with me either."
Twilight inwardly squirmed, but Fluttershy wasn't letting go and she eventually gave up at just let the soft-spoken demigoddess hug her. "Okay? Great?"
"That's why I wonder." Fluttershy paused, her body tensing just slightly. "Has anypony ever told you that you're... maybe just a tiny bit condescending?"
"What?"' That wasn't something Twilight had been expecting to hear from Fluttershy and this time she found herself being let go so the two of them could look at each other. "What do you mean?"
"Growing up with Princess Celestia and Spike, you've always wanted to be immortal," she said. "It gives you a unique perspective, and I understand that. Really, I do."
Spike looked uncomfortable at being mentioned, but Twilight was still just trying to figure out where Fluttershy was going with this.
"But... Everypony has stars," Fluttershy reminded her. "If you had to share their experiences all the time like I do in exchange for that immortality... you'd still do it, wouldn't you? Wouldn't it be worth it--for love--for friendship--for being able to live without fear of what might happen?"
"I--"
"I... like what I am, Twilight," Fluttershy finally asserted. "I appreciate what you've given me. It may not be easy, but it's worth it, and it makes me sad that you don't think that I can handle the same things you can and make the same sacrifices you would if you were in my situation."
"Fluttershy, I--I'm not--" Twilight stammered, trying to get the words together to explain that there was a significant misunderstanding going on. "I--that would be... Fluttershy, I don't know if I could do that," she admitted. "It would be a nightmare. I don't think I could. Not even for immortality."
Fluttershy blinked at her. "...Oh."
-- ✶ --
Fluttershy allowed herself to be dragged out of her tar pit of awkwardness and off to lunch, though the sentiment was a little lacking with now two yellow racoons directing the other animals and planting seeds in the garden that they were leaving behind. As far as Twilight was concerned, though, that was fine. She apparently couldn't expect to have Fluttershy's undivided attention any more and the real point was to get Fluttershy's pony body out in public where she could actually talk to ponies.
...And maybe forget that that entire conversation had ever happened.
It went both better and worse than Twilight could ever have expected. As convenient as it would otherwise have been, Ponyville had not, as it so happened, changed entirely in the space of Twilight's stop over at Fluttershy's house, and thus, there were still dragons all over the place.
Twilight kept an eye on Fluttershy, but she didn't even seem to notice. In fact, her almost unnatural serenity reminded Twilight of none other than Celestia, it was that complete. Twilight would almost call it a breakthrough for the traditionally timorous mare if it hadn't come at the cost of what Twilight was still sure had been a horrifyingly traumatic experience.
Oh, and the fact that her seeming confidence crumpled completely when faced with the prospect of actually talking to somepony or somedragon new, so it was only half of a miraculous breakthrough at best. Squeezing past two adult dragons having it out on the street? Not a peep from her. Ordering lunch from an awkward teenager at the hay burger shack? Spike had had to do it for her. The teenager hadn't even been a dragon; just a colt with particularly bad acne... though, admittedly, the two were more similar than it would have been polite to mention.
Yeesh.
"Have you considered wind manipulation?" Twilight asked out of the blue as she went about squirting a big dollop of ketchup beside her hay fries.
Fluttershy meeped and began to cough, heaving nearly inhaled a hay fry in surprise. Some distress and a glass of water later, her actual response was no more enlightened. "For--" Cough. "For what?"
"Well, you don't want to go back to how you were and I can't physically drag you into town every day," Twilight explained, pausing to dip, chew and swallow a few fries. "So I was trying to figure out ways that you could communicate when you're, uh, borrowing the animals?
"My first thought was that we could all learn Equestrian Sign Language, but that would only be us and not very practical. Next, I considered cloud writing, but if you have access to your pegasus magic, I think the power and control you have now should be good enough to create speech with direct wind manipulation. The fact that you sing so well should help, since it means you have practice with your voice--or it might even be your magic helping you in the first place, which is even better!"
Fluttershy shrank down in her seat. "I--I don't know, Twilight. That sounds awfully complicated... and awkward. I can't even imagine my voice coming from a big old moose or a tiny little squirrel and I've listened to Rainbow Dash enough to know that visualization is important in that sort of thing."
"Oh, well..." Twilight's mood sank so fast, she managed to give herself a face full of ketchup and greasy paper as her head dropped down onto the table. She stayed that way for a moment, then busied herself cleaning herself up with napkins and magic. "Figures she'd be another one," she grumbled under her breath, but Fluttershy was more than used to interpreting the tiniest of noises.
"Another what?" Fluttershy asked innocently, not even realizing that Twilight's grumbling hadn't been meant for her ears.
Twilight's first instinct was to clam up, but why? Fluttershy was her friend and it wasn't like this was any big secret, so instead she let out a sigh and explained. "It's just... I know you girls didn't ask for this and you're all making the best of it. Some of you are even thriving, I guess... but I just feel like you could be doing so much more with it--broaden your horizons--come up with something new--do something you wouldn't have ever thought you could do...
"You're probably... not the pony I should be saying this to," she admitted. "You've actually embraced it--um, in your own way--but even so, you're still just... doing what you do--and I know that's not a fair complaint, but it's how I feel. I don't have enough time to explore all the options I have right now, so seeing you all just dealing with things as they come is a little frustrating."
Fluttershy frowned. "Twilight... I don't like repeating myself, especially over this, but... we aren't you. Your cutie mark is magic, so of course you want to do everything there is to do with it, but that's not who we are. We all have our own strengths, and just because they're different doesn't mean they're any less."
Twilight looked askance at the mare across the table from her. "Fluttershy, my cutie mark--my talent--isn't magic."
"Um, yes it is?" Fluttershy said, hiding behind a prodigiously large cup of soda that might have been ordered for just that purpose.
Twilight shook her head. "I grew up thinking it was, but it's just the stars--just like Luna's is the moon and Celestia's is--the Celestia's are--umm--well..." She gestured vaguely skyward. "You get the point."
"That... still proves my point, doesn't it?" Fluttershy asked, gaining a little more confidence in what she was saying. "If you've done all that without even a cutie mark in it, that's still just who you are."
"Well... maybe..." Twilight said, faltering. "I did say it wasn't a fair complaint, but you might be giving me too much credit. I don't have a cutie mark in magic, but I do have something that's just as good."
"What's that?"
"Power," Twilight said, clapping her hooves on the table and leaning forward. Belatedly, she was glad Rainbow Dash wasn't there, because she probably would have gotten jumped for resembling a Daring Do villain just then. "There's a saying--quality over quantity, but quantity has a quality all of its own--and it's true with magic, too.
"The more power you have, the more flexible you are--the more you can do with it. You girls are still ponies, so you're still limited to unicorn, pegasus or earth pony magic, respectively, but other than that sort of out-of-context problem, you can all do almost anything I can. Sure, I grew up with power and misconceptions about that power and that definitely colored my outlook, but you're orders of magnitude more powerful than I was growing up and... It's just frustrating, especially when you have problems that you could solve if you just tried."
Fluttershy... Twilight wished she could say that Fluttershy looked convinced, but she just looked cowed instead, which wasn't what she'd wanted.
"Look, I'm sorry. Just... think about it, okay?"
Fluttershy's meek "Okay" felt like a buck to the gut and the conversation never really recovered.
-- ✒ --
Spike had been let off early so he could go prepare things for the 'furniture' that was due to arrive at the end of the day. He made it all the way home before it really came back to hit him what he'd done and he began to shake, leaning back on the front door of the ex-library.
He was pretty sure that Twilight hadn't noticed anything. She'd just been so trusting that it twisted him up inside what he'd done; how he'd abused that trust, and for what? To take a few decades off of his life and enable the haphazard fantasies of a naive runaway princess barely a few days into her conviction to change the world?
She was going to be so disappointed in him.
He chuckled.
He sounded like her, didn't he? Except she'd never done anything that would actually have caused Princess Celestia the slightest amount of concern. Well, except that one time...
Suddenly, he remembered. Back when he was barely more than a hatchling, before he was officially her assistant, he'd still followed her around and helped her--but he'd had a different job, then.
Quick, Spike! Burn it! Burn all the evidence and never speak of this again! It never happened!
Right. He could salvage this. He'd left the most obvious of paper trail there was--an official one--but he could fix that.
With fire. |
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