Datasets:

synthbot

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fimfarchive

like 1

luckybastard

475

Comedy

random tinychat fanfic

incomplete

<p>came from a tinychat conversation.</p>

everyone

2011-08-10T22:28:12+00:00

http://tinychat.com/bronys Type /help for a list of commands [18:35] guest-13722 entered the room [18:35] theprincessluna: Did that face just move? [18:35] guest-13722 changed nickname to brony [18:35] theprincessluna: It's...moving [18:35] guest-13721 changed nickname to closo [18:35] closo: suuuuuuuuuuup niggah! [18:35] theprincessluna: Fuck it...i'm out [18:36] anonymist: bronychat is failing? [18:36] closo: hey! try share a white board! [18:36] kaboosen: Hurp. [18:36] closo: Furp [18:37] kaboosen: STILL CREEPY BRO [18:37] closo: sleep is for the weak [18:37] closo: her mouth is being slit open [18:37] closo: lol [18:38] closo: lol 2x [18:38] anonymist: Lemme tell you bronies a story [18:38] closo: we need advertisements! [18:38] anonymist: Once upon a time [18:38] anonymist: there lived a merry little filly [18:38] anonymist: with no regard for responsibility [18:38] anonymist: She lived a happy young life [18:38] closo: and she got fucked in the ass by niggers [18:38] anonymist: yes [18:38] closo: :D [18:38] anonymist: she got fucked in the ass by niggers [18:39] anonymist: THEN [18:39] anonymist: those niggers [18:39] anonymist: abandoned her in an alleyway [18:39] closo: and found dbowveng [18:39] anonymist: yes [18:39] anonymist: after lying weak for hours on end [18:39] anonymist: she found the holy dbowveng [18:39] closo: making morph pics [18:39] anonymist: faith was restored [18:40] anonymist: she rose to her hooves [18:40] anonymist: and gallopped merrily into the sunset [18:40] anonymist: DA ENDS [18:40] closo: question mark [18:40] anonymist: To be continued [18:40] anonymist: ... maybe [18:40] anonymist: but probably not. [18:40] closo: previously on the brony story.... [18:41] closo: dbowveng is found! what will she do? [18:41] anonymist: "I'm such a merry little pony... AHH, NIGGERS! PLEASE DON'T FUCK ME IN THE ASS [18:41] closo: so they fucked her in the pussy [18:41] anonymist: What's that, in the distance?... it can't be... DBOWVENG!?" [18:42] closo: yes! yes it is! [18:42] celestia: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hKCYGbomb_DDzRsAqGvHHIKKw1WYHdQW79_Rn2drmcY/edit?hl=en [18:42] closo: (this is win in so many levels) [18:42] anonymist: Meanwhile, in the merry sunset or some shit [18:42] anonymist: Wait, our filly doesn't have a name [18:43] closo: cum dumpster [18:43] anonymist: HER NAME [18:43] anonymist: WAS CUMDUMPSTER [18:43] closo: hooraaaay! [18:43] guest-13808 entered the room [18:43] guest-13808 changed nickname to firestormx [18:43] closo: (this shit right here is gonna be a fan fic) [18:44] anonymist: Our brave, young, careless filly Cumdumpster trotted along in the fields of Vargenwurrrrr [18:44] closo: then a fried chicken fell dangling on a tree branch [18:44] anonymist: When she came across [18:44] anonymist: *GASP* [18:44] anonymist: A PIECE OF FRIED CHICKEN!? :D [18:44] anonymist: It hung ominously from a tree branch [18:45] closo: then a large dick soared through the sky [18:45] guest-13827 entered the room [18:45] closo: and went towards her [18:45] anonymist: Little Cumdumpster, being as careless as she is, reached out for this piece of friend chic [18:45] guest-13827 changed nickname to tera [18:45] guest-13834 entered the room [18:45] anonymist: ken [18:45] tera: o.o [18:45] guest-13837 entered the room [18:45] anonymist: As she sunk her teeth into this luscious, tasty piece of fried chicken [18:45] anonymist: A HUGE [18:45] guest-13837 changed nickname to no [18:45] anonymist: BLACK [18:45] anonymist: COCK [18:46] closo: then dbowveng deflected the dick with his fist. [18:46] closo: but he failed [18:46] anonymist: FLEW ACROSS THE FIELD OF VARGENWURRRR [18:46] closo: and went inside cumdumpster [18:46] celestia: Its sad that i must take my leave now. have a good day. [18:46] anonymist: She thought for sure it was going to hit her square in the mouth [18:46] anonymist: WHEN HER HERO, DBOWVENG ROSE [18:46] anonymist: FROM NOWHERE [18:46] guest-13852 entered the room [18:46] anonymist: AND TYPED IN CAPSLOCK [18:46] anonymist: FOR A VERY LONG TIME [18:46] closo: FUCK YEA CAPSLOCK [18:46] guest-13852 changed nickname to dickballs [18:47] anonymist: THEN, HE WHIPPED IT HIS HOLY PENIS [18:47] anonymist: IN ATTEMPT TO DEFLECT THIS MIGHTY BLACK COCK [18:47] dickballs: lol nope [18:47] dickballs: anit go no mic [18:47] dickballs: then he fucked closo's ass [18:47] closo: im not really closo, you guys know that didn't you? [18:48] anonymist: Drowning in his own depression, dbowveng took comfort in closo's anus [18:48] closo: im luckybastard [18:48] closo: fuuuuuuuuuuu- [18:48] closo: it burns! closo said [18:48] anonymist: With his hard, throbbing cock wedged deep in his poohole [18:48] anonymist: He thrust [18:48] dickballs: HE CAME INTO HIS ASS SO DEEP THAT THERE WAS SEMEN IN HIS STOMACH [18:48] anonymist: and pounded [18:48] anonymist: AND GRUNTED [18:48] guest-13891 entered the room [18:48] anonymist: UNTIL HIS WOULDE-BE CHILDREN [18:48] guest-13891 changed nickname to trollestia [18:48] closo: while little cumdumpster is unconcious [18:48] anonymist: FELW FROM HIS PEEPEEPLACE [18:49] trollestia: AND THEN THEY ALL FUCKED THE END [18:49] anonymist: all over little Closo's tender buttcheeks [18:49] dickballs: lol [18:49] anonymist: Meanwhile, at OP's house... [18:49] anonymist: DICKSDICKSDICKSDICKSDICKSDICKSDICKS [18:49] trollestia: *facepalm* [18:49] closo: this is gonna be a fanfic [18:49] anonymist: NOW BACK TO THE STORY [18:49] closo: w8 [18:49] trollestia: you two are now going to the moon [18:50] dickballs: "GIVE ME ALL THAT DICK AGAIN" closo said [18:50] trollestia: do you two like mmmm bananas? [18:50] anonymist: Our hero, little Cumdumpster, fled for her life, struggling desperately to escape the big, [18:50] guest-13908 entered the room [18:50] guest-13908 changed nickname to icecoldbath [18:50] anonymist: black boner's perilous attempts to get to her [18:50] icecoldbath: i am cleaning [18:50] anonymist: but in the end she was caught [18:51] icecoldbath: the cookie jar [18:51] anonymist: the soaring manhod flew straight into her mouth and right out her anus [18:51] anonymist: She staggered, dazed by recent events [18:51] closo: http://www.fimfiction.com/story/475/1/random-tinychat-fanfic/the-adventures-of-dbowveng-an [18:51] closo: go there :D [18:52] anonymist: After a few moments, she fell, passed out in the fields of vargenwurrrrrr [18:52] anonymist: And that's the end of episode 2 [18:52] anonymist: :D [18:52] tera: >:C [18:52] anonymist: Episode 3, anyone? [18:52] tera: Nope. [18:53] anonymist: TERA HAS SPOKEN [18:53] anonymist: BUT FUCK TERA [18:53] tera: ._. [18:53] guest-13935 entered the room [18:53] tera: What. [18:53] anonymist: HERE COMES EPISODE 3! [18:53] tera: Ohgodwhat. [18:53] tera: NOPE. [18:53] guest-13935 changed nickname to princess [18:53] anonymist: *Previously on the adventures of Little Filly Cumdumpster...* [18:54] anonymist: "What's this? Fried chicken? HOW DELECTABLE. *nomnomnomn* AH, A BIG BLACK COCK OUT OF [18:54] anonymist: FUCKING [18:54] anonymist: NOWHERE." [18:54] closo: it burns! inside of me! [18:54] anonymist: "Don't worry, Little Cumdumpster; I'll save you!" [18:54] anonymist: "AH FUCK [18:54] anonymist: FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK" [18:54] anonymist: *fade* [18:55] closo: SHITSHITSHIT dbowveng said [18:55] anonymist: Indeed, he did [18:55] closo: and ANOTHER FUCK [18:56] closo: ING GIAN [18:56] closo: T COCK AROSE [18:56] tera: WEEEEELP. [18:56] tera: 'BOUT TIME I HEAD OUT. [18:56] tera: <3 [18:56] closo: k bye [18:56] closo: this is the end of the story THE END. deds to those whom helped. only two was identified. deds to "icecoldbath" and mostly "anonymist" and also  remsaman for teaching me :D (Thank you master!) MOST DEDS TO CLOSO FOR BEING AWESOME AND HANDSOME THAT HE DOESN'T EVEN CARE IF HE GETS INSULTED AND STILL LAUGHS AT THE FANFIC! AND BTW DID YOU KNOW HE IS AWESOME AND HANDSOME?

NTSTS

476

Pinkie Pie,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Shades of Pink

complete

<p>Pinkie confronts the fear of losing her friends as she tangles with the dark of her subconscious inside her own mind.</p>

everyone

2011-08-10T23:57:20+00:00

2011-08-10T23:57:20+00:00

Darkness. Silence. Emptiness. An impenetrable black fog that stretched out into infinity. This was all Pinkie Pie could see. She blinked in confusion, willing the world to come into focus, but was met only with the same quiet black void. No matter how hard she tried, telling herself to see something, anything, her eyes knew only shadows. This didn’t feel right. She was scared. Something should be out there; an object, a pony, some kind of sight or sound to assure her that she was still alive. She began to panic, twisting and turning her body about, scanning furiously for a flicker of light, anything that could pierce the veil of darkness that surrounded her. She called out to someone, anyone who might be listening, but failed to hear her own voice; still, only a pervasive silence blanketed her. This was like being trapped in nothingness, and it was terrifying. She didn’t know what else to do. Every muscle in her body ached, tensing repeatedly as hard as she could, trying to force the universe into existence by sheer effort. After a minute of screaming her hardest, her throat was sore, but she kept going. She needed to feel like she was doing something to fight this, to maybe bring some piece of the world back. After what seemed like a lifetime in the darkness, her ears perked – something was there, a sound, coming from a location she couldn’t place. Without sight, location would have been difficult to assess regardless, but the noise she heard seemed to come from everywhere – a low, constant static, quietly hissing in the background. As she strained to hang on to the sound flowing to her ears, the only thing assuring her that something else was there, the buzzing became louder. The static began to increase in volume, starting as a small drone, but building, heightening in intensity, becoming unbearably loud. Now Pinkie was placing her hooves on her ears, the sound too much to bear, a blanket of white noise becoming a torrent of headache inducing squeals and hisses that felt like they would shatter her ear drums. This was worse than silence, because, as the noise continued to grow in volume and intensity, Pinkie felt like it might become so loud that she could no longer stand it; like she might die from the intensity of the horrifying screeching. Her mouth mimed words underneath the torrent of static; Please, someone, help, it hurts, please... Even if she had been able to hear her own voice to begin with, it would have no doubt been swallowed by the screaming wail. It felt like every part of her was shuddering as the noise approached unimaginable levels. Please, make it stop, she screamed again. Please. Abruptly, the static ceased. The silence left by its absence was startling – it seemed absurd to think that the world could be this quiet. Pinkie Pie sighed in relief, and, after doing so, gasped in surprise; she could hear herself again. She opened her eyes, which she realized had been shut for some time, and the sight of her own pink hoof greeted her. She wanted to cry and jump with joy, finally able to see something in front of her, to know that she was not forever trapped in the unending blackness of whatever hellish world she had been in moments prior. She laughed resoundingly in relief, wrapping her forelegs around her body in a self embrace, closing her eyes as she did so, thrilled to feel and see something other than nothingness. After a moment to collect her thoughts, Pinkie opened her eyes again. She still had no idea what was going on – where she was, what was happening, whether or not this whole thing was a disturbing nightmare from which she still had not woken – but she felt real again, and that was assuredly a step in the right direction. She looked around herself, feeling more and more like she was ‘somewhere’, instead of floating perpetually in black space. A voice whispered at her from somewhere, a faint noise so soft she could barely make it out. The sound hissed quietly into her ears as she strained to make it out. Pinkie... Someone or something out there knew who she was. At the moment, this was only a comforting thought, and she called back to whomever or whatever had spoken her name. “Hello? Hello? Is somepony out there?” Her usual tone of unmitigated exuberance was tempered by the fear still shivering through her body, but even so her voice was somewhat cheerful; so far, the situation seemed to be getting better with each moment passing forward, and being miserable would surely only make things worse. Her inquiry, however, received no answer. She waited for a moment, considering calling out again, before she heard the voice once more; a still shrill whisper echoing through the nothingness that surrounded her. Pinkie... “Who’s there? Please come out, it’s just awful here in the dark, and I would really like to see who I am talking to!” Even in the nightmarish black void, Pinkie was matter-of-fact about everything. It took a moment for her to register, but in front of her eyes, a thin smoke was beginning to materialize. She stared at it, agape, as the fog collected; a pink haze very similar to the colour of her own coat. It was swirling, gathering together, solidifying into something, an object or creature about the size of a normal pony. As the colourful dust collected, it began to glow, straining against Pinkie’s eyes with its intensity. She struggled to keep them open, but the light was becoming too strong, and she closed them at its brightest point, before the darkness behind her eyelids told her it had vanished, and she opened them again. There, in front of her, was another pink pony. One who looked very familiar. It took a moment for Pinkie to register what she was seeing, and even then she wasn’t sure how to react. This pony was so recognizable, and yet she couldn’t quiet place where she had seen her before... “Pinkie.” The second pony spoke first, a dull dark tone weaving its way into Pinkie Pie’s ears, just like the whisper that had taunted her from the darkness moments ago; surely that speaker and this one must be one and the same. “Uh... hello! I feel like I know you from somewhere...” Pinkie’s speech was unusually hesitant. For some reason she found this other pony very unsettling. The similarity in appearance between the two was uncanny, with only subtle differences – while Pinkie’s hair was a constant mess of frizz and curls, the pony in front of her had the straightest of coiffures; and while Pinkie Pie’s colour scheme was the brightest shade of bubblegum pink, the newcomer’s coat was a dull, subdued imitation of the colour – all of it the same, but just slightly off. The stranger said nothing in response to the greeting, but simply stared back at her, a disturbing grin on her face. It was making Pinkie very uncomfortable. “So, uh, do you know where we are? This place is kind of scary, and I’m glad somepony else finally showed up! I’m-“ she paused in her introduction before realizing the other pony obviously already knew her name. Still, she continued regardless. “uh... I’m... Pinkie Pie.” “I know very well who you are.” The darker pink pony spoke curtly, still not having moved an inch since her appearance. Pinkie Pie scratched the back of her head with a hoof anxiously – while she was grateful to see someone, anyone else here with her, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew this pony from somewhere else – and the aura she brought with her was not a friendly one. “Oh, uh, you do? That’s great! I know pretty much everypony in Ponyville-“ Pinkie paused again, realizing her sentence had dug her into another inescapable awkward conclusion. “-uh, but... I don’t know who you are-“ Pinkie’s sentence was interrupted with a laugh from the other pony. “Really, you don’t? Just think about it for a second. You don’t recognize me? I thought we happened to be very close...” The dark pink pony walked closer with this sentence, a still sinister grin on her face. Pinkie’s mind was spiralling, trying to recall where she had seen her before, trying to place a name to the face in front of her... Oh. She nodded in understanding. Yes, the two were very familiar. “There you go. I know you can be a little slow sometimes, but I was certain you’d figure it out.” Pinkie stared at the ground nervously, now wanting more than ever to keep her eyes away. She was interrupted in this pursuit, however, by a hoof on her chin, guiding her face upwards. Eyes wide in surprise, she found herself meeting the hollow glare of the other pink pony. “Pinkie.” She felt so uncomfortable, staring into the dark, subdued eyes in front of her, she was barely able to stammer out a response. “I...what should I...should I call you...” The darker pony laughed, still holding a hoof under Pinkie’s face, keeping her gaze away from the ground. “Just call me by my name. Your name. Our given name, not this saccharine excuse for a moniker you go by now.” Pinkie Pie swallowed nervously. “...Pinkamena?” The other pony laughed derisively again, the chilling sound echoing into the nothingness. “Very good. Introductions are all done.” Pinkie Pie felt the hoof release her chin, and her head immediately fell downward, locking her eyes on the ground, or what she would have called the ground had it been more tangible than an empty blackness that she could only ascertain she was standing on. She felt the need to speak, but uncharacteristically, struggled to get the words out. “I...why am I here? Why are you here?” “To show you some things. I felt it was time we had a talk.” Pinkie raised her head, the discomfort overwhelming her turning into intensifying frustration by the minute. “Talk? What could we have to talk about? You’re not even-‘ Pinkie’s sentence was cut off by a hoof on her mouth, and she felt an icy chill run up her spine as the darker pony she had called Pinkamena stepped close to her, close enough to feel the intensity of her stare. “We have a great deal to talk about, Pinkie.” Pinkamena uttered her counterpart’s name with disgust, dragging the word across her tongue as if it made her sick to speak it. “This is for your benefit, really. I have some things I need to show you.” With startling speed, Pinkamena backed away, and Pinkie felt herself gasp in shock as the hoof on her mouth disappeared. She felt scared, now wondering if it had been a mistake to call out for someone. She felt like she would have sooner stayed in the hissing static, even if it had meant returning to the agony-inducing drone before her body shattered with pain. Pinkamena raised her hooves above her head, forelegs outstretched to their full length. Her body began to waver in front of Pinkie’s eyes, and after several seconds of her image flickering, she vanished, leaving Pinkie once again alone in the darkness. She turned her head around nervously, scanning her surroundings for some sign of the only other pony she had seen since this ordeal had begun. Her search was met only with darkness – until, out of the corner of her eye, she spied a soft pink glow. There was Pinkamena, floating in mid-air, fifty feet away. “Do you remember your birthday, Pinkie?” her tone was icy, and demanding. Pinkie, still in disbelief of what she was seeing, took a moment to answer. “Yes. It was great! There was punch, and ice cream, and dancing, and my friends threw me a surprise party!” Just saying the words made her feel better, reminding her that somewhere, outside this nightmarish room of nothing, were her friends, who loved and cared about her, and would be there waiting for her return. Pinkamena only shook her head at this response, however. “Not that, you imbecile. What about before the party, on the day of your birthday?” Pinkie tried to remember. The day before her birthday was Gummy’s, and the subsequent party... what had she done on her birthday before the surprise party? For some reason the memory was a struggle to recall. Slowly, the pieces of the day inched their way into her mind, as she began to remember. “I... was handing out party invitations?” Pinkie’s memory had never been an outstanding one, but for some reason the day in question felt harder than usual to recollect, as if there were some kind of wall blocking her thoughts from perusing that particular section of her mental archives. “That’s right. Do you remember what those invitations were for?” It couldn’t have been her birthday, she mused, because for one, though parties were her most favourite thing in the world, she would never throw one for herself. Besides which, her friends had arranged a surprise party for her that evening regardless. So what had she been handing out invitations for? “Gummy’s after-birthday party?” The idea sounded ludicrous said out loud in the empty black space, but some part of her recalled that it had seemed a wonderful plan at the time. ‘We should do this again soon,’ Twilight Sparkle had said, and she had thought, ‘Well, what’s sooner than tomorrow?’ “Very good. So what happened to Gummy’s after-birthday party? Did everyone show up?” Pinkie took a moment to respond, her words slow, agonizing over the details as she struggled to remember them. “No, of course not. Everypony was at my birthday party... Gummy’s after-birthday party didn’t... happen...” A memory pierced Pinkie’s thoughts abruptly, like a flash of lightning in the dark haze of a storm; she saw a vision of herself holding forward an invitation to Twilight Sparkle. ‘This afternoon, this afternoon?’ Her eyes widened as the scene played out inside her head. ‘Oh gosh. I wish I could make it, but I’ve gotten a bit behind in my studies... I really need to hit the books.’ Pinkamena smiled knowingly from her spot hovering above ground. “So now you remember. For some reason Twilight couldn’t make it to your party. What about your other friends?” The last word was drawled out slowly, scathingly. Pinkie Pie didn’t respond, but another memory began to play out in her mind’s eye. Applejack shifted her eyes nervously at an outstretched invitation in front of her. ‘Uh, well, ah, I don’t think I can make it ‘cause, uh... I have to... uh, pick apples! Yup, apples! ‘Cause that’s what we do, with the apples, we uh... pick ‘em!’ Pinkie’s mouth matched the words that came next. “Okey... dokey... lokey...” Pinkamena nodded. “And the rest?” ‘I’m afraid I have to... wash my hair!’ Rarity’s voice. Then two more, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. ‘Collect volleyballs!’ ‘Play seashells!’ Pinkie’s mouth hung agape as her friend’s words echoed in her mind. “...They couldn’t make it.” “Hmph. They lied to you.” She felt like a great pressure was welling up inside her head, threatening to burst outwards. “They didn’t... I mean, yes, they did lie.. but it was for a good reason! They were throwing my surprise party!” Pinkie felt relieved as she uttered the sentence, giving meaning to the memories she had unknowingly repressed. Yes, her friend’s had hidden the truth from her, but it had all been in service of an ultimately caring gesture. “Hmph. It was for a good reason, this time. What about all the other times your friends have lied to you?” Pinkie stared straight ahead blankly as the words entered her ears. “Other times?” She shook her head, clearing the thought out as best she could. “What do you mean, ‘other times’? My friends don’t lie to me.” Pinkamena let out a quick, jeering laugh, a simple ‘ha’ in response. “Oh really? What makes you so sure? Because you were sooooo certain that everything was just a misunderstanding that time...” “No, I knew -I figured out that they were excuses, but it was okay! You can’t throw a surprise party without telling a few fibs.” Pinkamena had drifted closer in the air, now floating only several feet above the intangible black surface that served as the floor. “So because you could tell they were lying this one time, you’ve noticed every single other time your ‘friends’ have been dishonest?” Pinkie blinked nervously. “Um... maybe...” Pinkamena exhaled loudly through her nose in contempt. “Right. So let’s see what your ‘friends’ have been saying about you behind your back. Unless you’re certain they’ve been honest with you...” The dulled-pink pony drifted away, vanishing into the perpetual darkness, leaving Pinkie alone again, shaking. Her eyes scanned around, hoping for some sign that she hadn’t been left by herself. This time, after a moment, she caught another glimpse of movement – but instead of the subdued magenta she was becoming used to, she saw a bright, lilac purple. “Twilight?” The face of the violet unicorn gave no response, but simply floated in the air, and began speaking to no one in particular. The voice was a comforting sound to Pinkie, before she began to understand the words it was uttering. “Pinkie Pie... I can’t believe how air-headed she is! Probably the simplest pony in all of Ponyville – I’m surprised she’s managed to read any of my books even by accident!” “...Twilight?” Pinkie’s eyes were wide as she heard the words coming out of her friend’s mouth. “And my goodness is she annoying! The very first time I met her I was sick of her, I really don’t know how anypony puts up with her for any time at all.” Pinkie was unable to speak in response, only to give a small whimper of shock. How could Twilight say those things about her, when they were such good friends? She had just about collected herself and was preparing to speak when Twilight’s face vanished suddenly in a swirl of purple smoke. The cloud it left behind circled around itself, whirling around before its shade began to shift, turning from lilac to a bright, sunny orange, collecting itself slowly into another familiar face. Applejack’s southern drawl was as recognizable as ever as she began to speak. “That one, I tell you, I don’t figure she’s worked a day in her life. Always loungin’ about, spendin’ her time eatin’ sweets, never helpin’ with anything that needs to get done. Heck, she was the only pony with a job to score the lake during winter, and she couldn’t even do that right!” Pinkie’s eyes had begun to well with tears as each sentence went by. This couldn’t really be what the others thought of her, could it? “Applejack, how could you say that? I thought...” Her sentence trailed off as the second of her friend’s faces slowly faded away into the darkness. Two of the ponies she held closest to her heart, saying those things about her... was this really how they felt? As she had anticipated, another familiar visage floated into existence in front of her, the well-trimmed purple mane that framed Rarity’s elegant white coat shimmering of its own accord, even in the surrounding blackness. “Pinkie Pie? My goodness, where to begin. So uncouth, so tiresome. I put up with her, for the sake of maintaining appearances, of course, but really, it can be quite a strain sometimes. I really do think it would be better for everyone if she took the hint, and found some other group of ponies to bother incessantly.” Pinkie was crying in earnest now, tears streaming down the side of her face, soaking the fur of her cheeks as she watched another pony she had called her friend disappear in front of her. She couldn’t bring herself to speak any longer; besides which, nopony seemed to notice her. They were too busy saying these things, sharing what they truly thought of their energetic pink acquaintance. A soft, graceful yellow face framed by soothing pink; Fluttershy. There was no way that she could be so cruel as the others; even in her moments of deepest frustration and discontent she could seldom muster more than an agitated mutter. “Oh, dear... um, Pinkie Pie? I wouldn’t... I mean, I couldn’t, really, she’s my friend...” Pinkie Pie sighed with relief, her tears stemming their flow. She knew she could count on Fluttershy to be kind; that pony didn’t have a cruel bone in her body. Yet, she continued to speak. “No, really, I can’t, it wouldn’t be right...” she argued to an invisible persuader. “Please, I really don’t want to...” the yellow pegasus’ face scrunched togething in protest, before softening in acquiescence. “Alright, if you must insist...” Fluttershy sighed before drawing in a long breath of air, continuing her next sentence rapidly and without pause. “She’s irresponsible, air-headed, never concerned with anything except silly games and parties; she doesn’t eat right, her cooking is second rate at best, she’s obnoxious, talks too much, annoys everypony else around her; every time she tries to help she only makes things worse, I can count on one hoof the number of times she’s been there for any of her friends when they needed her most, and everyone seems to agree that the town would be much better off without her.” Pinkie’s mouth opened in shock, and she felt the tears starting again. “But, uh, really, she’s not so bad...” Fluttershy’s face followed suit with the others and faded away into the darkness, leaving Pinkie alone, sobbing to herself in the shadows. All the others, and that meant that next was... “Pinkie Pie?” She looked up to meet the familiar voice, tomboyish and vibrant. There was Rainbow Dash; not floating intangibly in the air, her face separate from reality, but wholly there, standing only several feet away. The blue pegasus was wearing her usual cocky smirk, eyes half closed. “Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie asked incredulously, not believing what she saw in front of her. Could it be real, her friend standing in front of her, instead of her face hovering in the void, mocking her from afar? “Sup?” That was Rainbow Dash, certainly. Nopony else could exude such an air of confidence with only a single word. Pinkie threw restraint to the wind as she leaped up and ran towards the chromatic flyer standing near, before throwing her forelegs around in an embrace. “Oh Rainbow Dash, thank goodness you’re here! It’s been awful, and I was so scared, I’m so glad somepony is here to-“ Pinkie Pie’s speech ended mid sentence as she felt her hooves slip away from Dash’s shoulders. The blue pegasus pulled herself backwards with a look of disgust. “Pinkie, what the hay? No offense, but I’d rather you keep your hooves to yourself; you’re kind of repulsive, you know?” The pink pony let out a short squeak, momentarily unable to find any other words. She swallowed dryly, feeling the taste of tears still in the back of her throat as her eyes watered, before struggling to form another sentence. “But Dash-“ “Don’t start talking either, if you don’t mind. Your voice is really obnoxious; it kind of makes me sick to be around you for too long.” There was no way this could be the real Rainbow Dash – even in her usual brash and abrasive manner she would never say things like this about one of her friends, things so awful and cruel... but Pinkie had felt the warmth of another pony as she hugged her, her hoof had touched the blue feathers on the pegasus’ back.. “Dashie, you don’t really mean those things. We’re friends, aren’t we?” The words were a struggle to push past her body’s attempts to resume sobbing, but Pinkie knew she had to say something. “Right, friends -look Pinkie, I know you’re not the brightest pony in town, but I kind of figured you could take a hint. You don’t remember all those times I avoided you?” She remembered, almost instantly. At the time, Pinkie had shrugged it off her shoulders nonchalantly – everypony had somewhere to be at some point in time, and getting the brush off from someone in a hurry wasn’t a big deal. Even though... Rainbow Dash had been actively avoiding her, struggling to steer clear of a second of time in her proximity. She had convinced her though, and they had spent the day together laughing and playing pranks... “I know I said you weren’t as annoying as I thought, but you sorta changed my mind after a little while. I just didn’t want you to feel bad, so I put up with you for the day; kinda wishing I hadn’t now though.” “What? What do you mean? How can you say that?” Pinkie’s voice was strained, she was now struggling not to break out into full blown crying. “You don’t get it? I don’t like being around you, Pinkie Pie. You’re unbearable, and I really don’t see why we’re even friends.” She felt something inside her break with those words. All the things her friends had said about her – or the ponies she thought were her friends; they hated her. Loathed her. Wished they never had to see her again, most likely. She had heard the words straight from their mouths, and now with Rainbow Dash standing here in front of her, too repulsed to even stand nearby, she couldn’t take it anymore. Pinkie started weeping uncontrollably, sobs wracking her body as she curled up on the immaterial blackness that served as ground. Her eyes were closed as she placed her head in her hooves, not wanting to hear anything more. No more taunting, no more tirades from other ponies about how they reviled her, how much they wished she never spoke to them again. It was too much; so she continued to lay on the ground, crying, her last glimmer of cheerfulness and hope having finally been extinguished. She lay like that for some time, huddled on the floor quietly save for her muffled crying. There was no noise in the ever-stretching void but the sound of her misery, finally let loose in a torrent after her optimistic spirit could bear no more. After the brunt of her projected despair had diminished, and her sobbing reduced to quiet whimpers, another sound echoed through the empty dark room; hoof-steps, approaching from her side. Wiping some of the tears from her eyes, Pinkie raised her head meekly to meet whomever was approaching. It was her, of course. Pinkamena’s face was contorted in disgust, and she glared down at the shivering pink pony next to her. “Are you quite done?” Sniffling, Pinkie could form no real response. She didn’t know what to do anymore, trapped in this torture-chamber of unpleasant truths, with only the dark recesses of her mind personified for company. She had no friends left in the world now, every one of them sick of her beyond reasoning; no idea where she was, or how to return to reality. Whether that was even a good idea now, however, she wasn’t sure. What was the appeal in being thrust back into a world of ponies who loathed her, who hid their disgust behind faked smiles, but derided her in secret; probably only waiting until they could no longer stand her, and told her face-to-face exactly what they felt. Still snivelling, lost in thought, Pinkie noticed a darkened hoof reaching out to her, as if to lift her off the ground. Nervously, after a moment’s hesitation, she reached out her own hoof, and stood shakily with her doppelganger’s assistance. She didn’t know if she should be thankful, but right now the point was moot; she was too busy willing herself to stem her crying to muster any kind of a thank-you. “Do you understand now Pinkie, what your friends really think of you?” Pinkie’s voice was shaky as she began to stammer a reply. “I... I...I don’t know...” Pinkamena cut her sentence off curtly. “You don’t know how somepony you called your friend could say these things about you? It’s simple. They despise you; your personality, your attitude, essentially everything about you. “ Pinkie felt another bout of tears coming on. “I don’t see how you can blame them. Really, the way you act is sickening. It’s not just that they dislike you, Pinkie; they don’t respect you. You’re so busy gallivanting with your idiotic parties and taking every opportunity to demonstrate how dim-witted you are, that the only logical response is to revile you.” Pinkamena paused and gathered her breath before continuing. “There is a way, conceivably, to change all this, but I’m not sure it’s something you’re capable of.” The endless torrent of demeaning description caused Pinkie Pie to hang her head again, silent streams of tears pouring out the sides of her eyes and down her already dampened pink face. She felt the absence of a presence next to her as Pinkamena stepped backwards, reaching behind her back before bringing her hoof forward, holding something outstretched. Pinkie’s eyes caught the silvery gleam before she looked up to see what was held out. She saw the wooden handle first before she scanned upwards to the meeting point between the grip and the shimmering metal blade, both pieces together comprising a large, sharp knife. Pinkamena’s mouth was curved upward in a grim smile as she offered it. “What...” Pinkie’s mouth formed only one word in shock as she stared at the weapon her counterpart was presenting. “Take it.” Unsteady, her limbs shaking with nervousness, Pinkie reached out to grasp the wooden handle. She picked up the knife between her two hooves, and brought it closer anxiously, unsure of why it had been offered in the first place. “What am I supposed to do with this?” Pinkamena walked backwards, still grinning, and gestured with one leg towards the only other pony still present. To Pinkie’s surprise as she looked sideways, she saw Rainbow Dash, still standing there with a look of contempt on her face. The moment Pinkie turned to face her, the blue pegasus huffed in disgust. “Ugh. You’re done crying, right?” Pinkie understood the direction, but wasn’t sure if she believed it. “No!” she shouted, not in response to Rainbow Dash’s question, but to the still leering face of her darkened half watching from the shadows. “Hmm? Do you have a problem with my suggestion?” Pinkamena asked languidly, checking her hoof with disinterest, as though the course of events she was suggesting was a typical, everyday occurrence that should proceed without hesitation. “Of course I do! I could never hurt somepony just because they were mean to me, this is ridiculous!” Pinkamena’s eyes glazed with loathing, though she still refused to look up from her hoof, checking it over idly for scuffs as somepony might do after a manicure. “Hm, I see.” She paused, and placed her first hoof at her side before raising the other, now scanning it for blemishes. Pinkie Pie’s face was wide with shock as she clenched the knife in her grasp, still reeling at the severity of the task she had been placed with. No words were uttered for a moment, before Pinkamena’s voice broke the silence. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any different. Your friends treat you like garbage and you can’t muster up even a moment’s courage to show them you’re serious. Predictable.” “Being taken seriously doesn’t mean you have to hurt someone!” Pinkie yelled back, her legs shaking now with the blade still held tightly between her hooves. “It seemed to work quite well for your friends. They had no qualms about hurting you, did they?” Pinkie’s gaze drifted downward, remember the voices of the others as they had demeaned every facet of her being only moments ago. “That’s... different.” “Is it?” The voice was so loud, it startled her, and she felt her tail twitch, not in one of her predictive body-spasms, but in surprise. “Tell me, do you think your friends had any regard for how you felt when they said those things? How much their words might hurt you?” Pinkie could only mutter in response. “I... I...” “Do you think they had the slightest concern for how painful it might be to let you know what they really thought about you?” “I...” Pinkamena was shouting now, her voice echoing off into the distant darkness. “Of course they didn’t! They didn’t give a damn about how you felt while they were busy tearing you apart. They didn’t care because they don’t respect you.” Pinkie was shaking in earnest now, the metal blade of the knife vibrating as her hoof’s shivered along with the rest of her body. She shut her eyes tightly as she felt the warmth of another pony step close to her. Pinkamena’s voice whispered into her ear from only inches away. “You don’t have to do anything drastic... no one is asking you to be unnecessarily cruel; but surely there is no doubt in your mind that something must be done if they are to take you seriously.” Pinkie had begun crying again, the tears seeping out through her closed eyelids as she shuddered, feeling a hoof drape itself over her shoulder. “Rainbow Dash is tough, she’ll be fine. You just need to demonstrate that there are consequences for treating somepony in such a manner.” She opened her eyes again, and through the blur of tears she saw Rainbow Dash, now standing only a foot or two away, sneering contemptuously at her, as if she was taunting her forward. “You got a problem, Pinkie? Don’t just stand over there, come here and let’s hear it.” Still shaking, the she began to walk forward slowly, inching her way towards Dash. The pegasus’ eyes glanced over the sharpened blade the pink pony held close to her body as she approached. “Really? Come on Pinkie, you can’t be serious. Everyone knows you’re too much of a wuss to try something like that.” The jeering urged her forward subconsciously, and after only several seconds longer, Pinkie was standing right next to Dash, turning her head nervously to look away, not wanting to meet the eyes in front of her. “Everypony knows you couldn’t stand up for yourself if you wanted to. You’re too pathetic, too stupid.” Dash’s words stung as they made their way into her ears, and with each insult she twitched in agitation, as if she had been bitten by some intangible creature. “As a matter of fact, I bet you couldn’t if you wanted to. I dare you. Doesn’t worry me one bit, you’re too chicken to stand up for yourself.” Pinkie felt her hooves move slightly as if of their own accord, raising the knife ever so slowly away from her body. Her eyes were half closed as she watched her forelegs stretch out, lifting the blade up past her shoulders. She could only hear snippets of Rainbow Dash’s tomboyish voice as her limbs continued to move. “-ditzy...” Her hooves had stopped shaking now, and felt eerily calm as she raised the knife past her head. “-annoying...” The silvery metal blade was glowing now, from what light source she couldn’t tell, but it shimmered as she held it at its highest point. “-unreliable...” “-lazy...” “-stupid...” “-really, the worst pony I’ve ever met-” Time stood still for a second as she felt a shiver run through her body. There was no sound now besides the beating of her own heart as it pounded through her ears. Was this what it took, she thought, to be taken seriously? Silently, she watched the first twitch of her shoulders as her foreleg began to move. She thrust the blade downward. The metal let out a resounding ‘clang’, bouncing off the dark floor as Pinkie hurled it sideways, letting it land next to her noisily. The clattering of the settling object was followed by a small thump as Pinkie fell to the ground, bracing herself with her two front legs. She sat there for a moment, in silence, before she heard hoof steps behind her. “Pathetic.” The sound of the blade skittering across the room followed a soft kick from Pinkamena, sending the knife off into the farthest unreachable darkness that still surrounded everything. Pinkie refused to heighten her gaze, locking her stare on the black surface beneath her. She breathed heavily, panting, her heart still beating in her chest faster than seemed possible. Eventually, she looked up. Where Rainbow Dash had stood moments ago, mocking her, there was now only nothingness. “I should have expected you to give up at the last moment. Par for the course for you, failing at everything you ever attempt-“ “Stop.” Pinkie’s voice was firm for the first time since she had spoken since being conscious. “No more. No more of this.” Pinkamena scoffed in disbelief as Pinkie raised herself from the floor, turning to meet the other pony face to face. “’This’? Some thanks I get for trying to help you-“ This time it was her turn to pause abruptly from a hoof placed on her mouth. Pinkamena’s eyes widened in surprise, not expecting the display of assertiveness from somepony who had seemed completely broken only moments ago. Pinkie’s face was calm, but her eyes were hard and unyielding, like the steel of the knife she had cast away moments ago. “You were never trying to help me.” Pinkamena, less content than her counterpart to stand idly by with a hoof barring her speech, pulled her head back, and spit scornfully as she did so, glaring back with malice. Pinkie continued speaking over the pony’s display of contempt, feeling more in control of the situation by the moment. “None of those things you showed me; even if they were real...” She paused, seeing the flashes in her mind as she recalled all the words spoken to her by the faces of her friends. Each one of them so sure and justified in the terrible things they had said. Did she have any reason to believe they were fabrications, something conjured up by her dark other self? Yes. “I know my friends. We might not share everything, and sometimes we might keep some secrets... but we love each other.” The stare directed at Pinkie was ice cold now as the debunking of all the events that had occurred continued. “Everypony gets on somepony else’s nerves once in a while. It’s just a part of life... but even if all those things were true... I know that my friends would never abandon me.” Pinkamena spit again, her tone caustic as she spoke. “I think you’ll see that your friends would do just that given the opportunity. How, after everything you’ve seen, can you still call them that?” “Because... because. Because no matter what we’ve always been there for each other. We’ve shared so much... fun times, and sad times, and times when we all needed each other. Once you’re somepony’s friend... you don’t just turn your back on them like that. I know... I know I can be a little too energetic sometimes. And I’m not the brightest pony. And I’m not always the hardest worker either!” she paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before proceeding. “But no one is perfect, and part of being somepony’s friend is accepting them; all their good parts and bad parts together, no matter what!” “Hmph.” Pinkamena turned curtly, and began walking away rapidly into the surrounding night. Pinkie Pie made no attempt to stop her; regardless of what would come now, she was happy to see this pony, the darkest pieces of her subconscious, disappear for a while longer. That word. Subconscious. Pinkie’s eyes blinked shut as a rush of light enveloped her, pouring inwards from everywhere. It was as if the air had burst into flame; but instead of fire, only a calming radiance spilled forth, taking away all the darkness that had been only moments ago. Pinkie felt her body grow lighter as the glow continued to flood around her, as if she was floating on air. She felt her face dry, the last teardrops washed away, and the hazy background of static that had permeated her mind since she awoke faded away softly into peaceful quiet. Since she awoke? When had she- Pinkie Pie’s eyes snapped open, the morning light cascading into her room from the nearby window. The soft glow bathed her pink bed spread with its gentle rays, and the glass frame of the lamp above her bed sparkled as it caught pieces of the sunshine. On her bedside table, her alarm clock lay peacefully ticking, the hands drifting lazily from each number to the next. Gasping loudly to herself in surprise, Pinkie raised her hooves to her face as if to test the reality of her own existence. She felt the soft fur on her forehead that had been matted with sweat before quickly slamming her legs down on the bed. The warmth of her blanket met her touch, and she traced one hoof idly over the patterned quilt, now turning her gaze to the window. It was early, the sun only just making its way over the horizon, a perfect semi-circle bathing the town of Ponyville and its inhabitants in the light of a new day. A new day, she thought to herself. Pinkie turned to check her alarm clock, curious to know how early she had awoken. Normally her sleeping pattern was erratic, some days staying up till the break of dawn and sleeping until late afternoon, other days rising peacefully with the rest of the household for a quiet morning breakfast. Five to six. Well, not unreasonably early then. In fact, this was about the time Mrs. Cake usually began puttering around the bakery downstairs, starting the morning’s first rolls of bread. Pinkie wondered if her waking gasp had disturbed anyone else; but, before she could contemplate the matter, her attention was pulled to her bedroom door. A soft knocking rang out three times. “Pinkie, dear, are you alright?” Feeling more awake than she did most mornings, Pinkie answered promptly. “I’m fine Mrs. Cake.” Her voice felt normal again, returned to its usual exuberance. “May I come in, dear?” Though she tended overuse that particular pronoun, Pinkie always felt warm inside when it was used to refer to her. Today, it was the most welcome sound in the world. “Of course, come on in!” The door opened slowly, and Mrs. Cake peeked into the room, her turquoise blue coat a stark contrast to the pink wallpaper. She smiled softly as she spoke. “I’m sorry to bother you so early in the morning, sweetheart. I just heard an awful noise that sounded like it came from your room. Are you sure you’re alright?” Pinkie Pie nodded emphatically, shaking her head rapidly up and down. Actually Mrs. Cake, she thought of saying, I feel more alright than I have in a while. Instead, she opted for something simpler. “I’m fine Mrs. Cake; I just had a reeeeeaaaaallly weird dream!” Mrs. Cake giggled softly at Pinkie’s typically boisterous speaking manner. Some days it was par for the course, but seeing her more happy than usual always brought a smile to the baker-pony’s face. “Alright hun, I just thought I would check in. Shall I let you get back to sleep?” Pinkie’s head moved rapidly again, this time shaking back and forth in a vigorous ‘no’ before she spoke. “Actually, I think I’m ready to get started for the day. The sun looks so nice, I couldn’t bear to stay in bed another minute!” Mrs. Cake giggled again, always amused at the way Pinkie’s cheer was so often infectious. It didn’t matter how miserable you were if Pinkie was in a good mood; it would quickly rub off on you. Even though she had spent many a day with her apprentice, baking together or simply sharing dinner in the evening, the glow of cheerfulness that went with Pinkie everywhere was still something very special. “Alright dear, if you say so. I was just about to start breakfast; can we expect you down in a bit?” Pinkie nodded again cheerfully. “Uh-huh! Just gimme a minute to give the teeth the ol’ brushie-brushie and I’ll be on my way!” Still laughing, Mrs. Cake tipped her head in affirmation before closing the bedroom door, humming a cheerful tune to herself on the way downstairs. While moments ago her day had been another simple tread through morning routine, everything seemed a little more optimistic now. Pinkie Pie waited to make sure the motherly blue mare was downstairs before she moved again. Taking in as much air as she could muster, she buried her head in the blanket held up by her hooves, and rolled her head about in them vigorously. She let out a high-pitched squeak the whole way through, muffled by the soft fabric so as to not disturb anypony else in the house. Sighing, her breath completely exhausted, Pinkie collapsed backwards into her bed, letting her head bounce off the cushy pink pillows by her headboard. She stared up at her ceiling lamp for a moment, marvelling at the beams of sunlight dancing through the carefully designed glasswork. After allowing herself a moment of observation, she bounced upwards from the bed, throwing the sheets to the floor in a burst of energy. Smiling to herself now, Pinkie bounced to the sink and mirror in the nearby adjoining room. “I hope we’re having pancakes!” She said aloud to no one in particular as she grabbed her nearby toothbrush, pink and party-themed like everything else in her room. Humming a tune, she squeezed a larger than necessary gob of bubblegum flavoured toothpaste onto the brush, and raised it to her mouth. As her eyes met the mirror, however, the face she saw almost startled her into dropping the brush. Instead of her bright pink smile and poofy morning hair (or, really, poofy every-time hair), a cold, dull visage stared back at her, accompanying that same icy smirk. The grin in the mirror widened along with Pinkie’s eyes as she stared at the decidedly non-Pinkie Pie pony in her mirror. As her sight stayed locked on the reflective silvery surface, the familiar face that was not her own tilted slightly. Her head followed it, and as she did so, she noticed the back of the mirror was no longer a one to one reflection of the wall behind her. The mirror was quickly filling with an inky blankness, swallowing up the scenery of the room in its wake, surrounding everything it passed by behind the still glaring pink pony on the mirror’s other side. Pinkie felt a sense of dread welling up in her as the black void consumed the world behind the mirror in its wake, with Pinkamena’s dark, cold gaze still staring back at her, grin growing ever more menacing as the marching darkness continued. Within seconds it would overtake the entire room, and bits of outstretching black were already straining at the mirror’s edges, struggling to break free into something more tangible. Well, that simply wouldn’t do. With a matter-of-fact ‘Hmph’, Pinkie raised the tube of bubblegum flavoured toothpaste and smashed it with her hoof. The force of the impact sent pink goo spraying all over the mirror, flecks of it scattering on the counter and sink as well. Pinkie only saw a brief gasp in the mirror before the pink glob covered the majority of the shimmering glass. She giggled to herself, eyes closing as she did so, before opening them again to check the mirror. She saw a pink toothpaste splotch in the center, covering her smiling face against the background of the bathroom. Her grin went from amused to accomplished, and she grabbed her toothbrush from the counter and began to enthusiastically rub the fibrous bristles and pink toothpaste all through her mouth. Just about finished, she heard a shout from downstairs. “Pinkie Pie, breakfast is ready!” Mrs. Cakes familiar voice, gentle but insistent, letting her know the first meal of the day was waiting for her. “I’ll bphe pthere inna pthecond!” she yelled back, her mouth filled with puffy pink foam that looked like cotton candy. She laughed at her own ridiculous speech, spraying more toothpaste around the room, before spitting the majority of the bubbles into the sink. After rinsing her mouth out with a spray of fresh cool water, she hopped towards her bedroom entrance bouncing jovially in the way she usually did. As she shut the wooden door behind her, she sniffed quizzically at the delicious smell wafting up from the kitchen. “Mmm, smells like we are having pancakes!” FIN.

NTSTS

478

Main 6,Zecora,Comedy,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Everfree Entertainment

complete

<p>Pinkie Pie organizes a &quot;we're sorry&quot; party for Zecora in the Everfree Forest; things go great until an unexpected surprise shows up...</p>

everyone

2011-08-10T15:13:48+00:00

2011-08-10T15:13:48+00:00

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You’re throwing a party for who?” “For Zecora!” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down as she held her basket of invitations at her side. Atop her head several bright pink hearts attached by springs to her purple banded hat bounded up and down along with her jumping. The unicorn stared at her invitation levitating in front of her, covered in a purple glow from the emanating magic of her horn. Twilight preferred to practice her spellcraft whenever possible, and therefore used her hooves a great deal less than other ponies. “I figured we kinda owed her one… you know, after the whole…” Pinkie’s bouncing paused as she gave her explanation, and she looked at the ground sheepishly as her sentence ended. “You mean the ‘Evil Enchantress’ thing?” Pinkie Pie kicked her hoof at the ground bashfully, her pink spring-hearts still wobbling with every movement of her head. “Uh-huh…” Twilight laughed at her friend’s uncharacteristic timidity. At least she was willing to admit when she made a mistake… and though a party wasn’t the conventional way of owning up to your errors, it was certainly the Pinkie Pie way. Smiling in resolution, Twilight nodded. “Alright, I guess it makes sense. You can count on me to be there, Pinkie Pie. The pink pony immediately resumed her joyous bouncing. “Ohhhh, great! I can’t wait, it’ll be super!” She paused her momentum in mid-air as she raised a hoof to her mouth ponderously. “Do Zebras like cake? Or dancing?” Twilight giggled again as her friend, defying all logic and laws of physics, floated back down to earth as she mused on her question. “I’m sure Zecora will be happy with whatever you have planned, Pinkie Pie. You always throw the best parties, after all.” Pinkie’s eyes lit up, and her wobbly spring-hearts threatened to fly off her head in all directions as she bounced up and down again. “Aw gosh Twilight, thanks! I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got aaallll these invitations to hand out, and the rest of the party to plan! See you there?” “See you there, Pinkie.” The violet unicorn smiled to herself as her excited pink friend zoomed off across town in search of her next victim. Pinkie Pie’s laughter and exuberance were infectious sometimes – Twilight had been in a mood to spend the whole weekend alone in her study, but now, after only minutes with the cheerful party-pony, she was looking forward to the inevitably outlandish get-together. “I hope Pinkie doesn’t go too crazy with this party…” she mused to herself as she wandered back inside the library, hoping to get in at least several hours studying before the party. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “A party in the Everfree Forest?” Pinkie nodded repeatedly for her second similar reply of the day. The pony holding an invitation this time was Rarity, but Pinkie’s hoof was offering three more envelopes as well – though Twilight Sparkle enjoyed spending most of her time in solitude if possible, the remainder of Pinkie’s group of friends were more social creatures, and she had been fortunate to find the four of them all meeting for lunch at a café near town square. “Uh-huh! It’s for Zecora! I thought we could throw her a big super-duper-fun- spectacular mega-awesome party to show her that we’re sorry for mis-judging her. It’s going to be a ton of fun! All the usual; plus, I’m organizing an extra special surprise!” The town’s resident seamstress cocked an eyebrow as the other three ponies at her table stood and gathered behind her, each of them accepting an invitation as Pinkie offered them. “A surprise? Exactly what type of surprise were you intending, dear?” Rarity had learned to be cautious of Pinkie Pie in the most common of situations, and a party for a zebra in the Everfree Forest was already setting off alarms in her head. No shame in being cautious about this, she thought to herself. “Silly! I can’t tell you, or it wouldn’t be a surprise! Just trust me, I promise it’ll be a blast!” Rarity turned the invitation in her hooves nervously, as her three friends each looked theirs over as well. Fluttershy had taken hers and resumed huddling behind the rest of the group, staring at the ground; though she found it far easier to come out of her shell when she was around her friends, the yellow pegasus still found Pinkie Pie’s constant exuberance a tad off-putting. She resolved herself to hiding next to the other flyer at the gathering, one Rainbow Dash, who was glaring at her invitation in mild exasperation. “Uch… Do we have to do this tonight? I had another flying practice scheduled… and I don’t even like Zecora! She still creeps me out…” She was interrupted by a hoof-shove to her shoulder, and she lurched sideways before steadying herself. “Hey!” “Rainbow Dash, I ain’t impressed with you. Zecora might be different than most folk around Ponyville, but Pinkie’s right; we owe her one for treatin’ her so poorly.” Dash glared and crossed her arms at Applejack’s scolding, but quickly uncrossed her hooves and let them fall to her side. She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Fiiine, I guess you have a point. I’ll go...” Applejack nodded, glad to see her usually stubborn friend come around. “We’ll be there Pinkie, no worries.” The earth-pony cast a warm sideways glance at Fluttershy, who was still staring intently at the ground. She didn’t mean to speak for the shy butter-yellow pegasus, but sometimes it was that or have nothing said for her at all. “I’ll, um, be there too, Pinkie. Your parties are always the best…” Pinkie’s yell sent Fluttershy upwards in a startled jump as soon as it left her mouth. “Great! I can’t wait; I’ll see you guys there; I’ve still got TONS to do!” With that, Pinkie Pie was off in a blur, back to Sugar Cube corner to begin the night’s preparations. Again, Pinkie left a trail of smiles in her wake. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All of the friends (aside Pinkie Pie, who was presumably still busy with last minute preparations) had gathered at the ominous entrance to the Everfree Forest, the path to Zecora’s house looming ahead in front of them. Slowly, they began the trek to the zebra’s home. “I don’t know about y’all,” began Applejack, a tinge of shakiness in her southern drawl, “but this place still gives me the willies.” The other ponies nodded in confirmation, except for Fluttershy, who was shaking nervously while holding on to Rarity’s shoulders. The white unicorn seemed to take this in stride – it wasn’t the first time Fluttershy had clung to her for reassurance, and certainly wouldn’t be the last. Rarity even smiled a little as she guided her friend along with the rest of the group; knowing she was helping calm her anxious friend’s nerves was a good feeling. The group of five ponies had only made it about halfway to their destination when they noticed that the section of the forest they were walking through seemed far brighter than it should given the time of night. Rainbow Dash, who was at the head of the procession alongside Applejack, squinted into the distance as she noticed the increase in luminosity. Pink light… that definitely wasn’t something normal, Everfree Forest or otherwise. Dash cocked her head sideways in confusion, and looked back at her friends. “Does anypony know if that’s normal in this forest?” A chorus of shaking heads was her only answer. At the very least, the intangible pink spotlight brightened the otherwise gloomy atmosphere that pervaded the woods normally. Less fearful, but still cautiously, the gang proceeded ahead to their destination, the thought arising in their minds that, yes, this was a Pinkie Pie Party, where the only rule seemed to be: expect the unexpected. For Fluttershy, this was practically a sentence of impending discomfort; the timid pegasus didn’t deal well with surprises. Her shaking continued as she huddled in the back of the assembly. After what seemed like an eternity of participation as they walked, the five at last came to a break in the ever-present drooping leaves and winding trees that shrouded every corner previously. There in front of them was a small, naturalistic hut they only barely recognized; This time, that was partly because of the multicoloured floodlights that were bathing the entryway path in prismatic light. Apparently, the pink glow had only been the start of an entire arrangement of chromatic illumination. The spectacle was impressive, causing the ponies to ooh and ah at the work Pinkie had put into the party preparations. Even Fluttershy, normally too quiet to speak up even in a sea of assenting opinions, joined in the gasps of astonishment at the rainbow-path leading up to Zecora’s home. Pinkie must have quite a party planned, Twilight thought as the five friends made their way to the bamboo door. Even though the bookish unicorn had been back several times since her initial visit in the interest of developing a rapport with the formerly alienated zebra, the dwelling still wasn’t familiar to her – she hoped dearly that Pinkie hadn’t made too much of a mess of things in her party arrangements. Twilight was just about to lower her hoof to knock when the door swung open inwards, sending her sprawling awkwardly forward before landing clumsily on her face, her foreleg now jutting at an awkward angle as she landed on it in her confusion. “Hey guys, you made it! Come on in!” The voice was not the one Twilight had initially expected; instead of Zecora’s mystique laden rhyming cadence, the familiar brightness of Pinkie Pie’s always slightly too loud yelling greeted the group. Twilight groaned in mild annoyance as she paused, preparing to pick herself up off the ground. “Twilight, what are you doing down there? It is a nice floor, but the real party’s up here!” A deadpan glare was the only response as Pinkie helped the purple unicorn up to her feet. “Thanks, Pinkie…” she grumbled before dusting herself off. “No problemo, Twilight! You know me, always willing to help somepony in need! Come on in, we need to get this party started!” Playing her role as party-planner and gracious host (or assistant host to a homeowner, in this case), Pinkie ushered her guests inside, waving her hoof in an exaggerated usher impersonation, leading the ponies inside to their first real casual visit to the hut they had previously labeled as a den of the occult. This time, things certainly looked… different. The tribal masks adorning the walls still remained, but they had been covered in an assortment of ribbons and streamers that hung down, some threatening to touch the floor from their place on the odd lower hanging mask here and there. Totems still stood in strategic locations around the surprisingly spacious room, but now they wore party hats, and glowing lights blinked on and off on several of them in multicoloured hues. In the center of the den, a large disco ball hung from the roof, hovering over the padded floor previously home to a large ominous cauldron; now, in its place, was a tub of mixed candies and various party-favors. The whole house had been – Pinkie-fied. Still, it certainly made the ponies feel more at home. “This is quite a job you’ve done with the place, dear. I must say you have a knack for livening up a room.” Rarity smiled at the party decorations that protruded from nearly every corner of the area. True, some of the choices were a little… tacky, for her tastes… but ultimately Pinkie had succeeded in making Zecora’s little shack a hospitable place for a cheerful get-together. “Aw, thanks Rarity, I worked super hard on it! I just hope Zecora likes it…” Twilight’s voice perked up in shock as Pinkie finished her sentence. “Pinkie – what do you mean you ‘hope’ Zecora likes it? You mean you haven’t shown her yet?!” The pink party-planner shook her head emphatically. “Nopey dopey! I thought it would be more fun if it was a surprise, so I asked her to go get some herbs while I partied everything up! Do you think she’ll mind?” she placed a hoof to her mouth in contemplation as she pondered the issue for seemingly the first time. “Wait… so y’all did at least tell her there was gonna be a party, din’t cha’?” Applejack attempted to assess the situation lest Twilight’s head exploded from onset panic. Pinkie Pie giggled at the question. “Of course I did! I’m not that loopy, you guys; throwing a party in somepony – er, somezebra’s house you barely know! I just didn’t want her to see all the decorations before you guys got here!” Twilight sighed in relief. “Phew. You had me worried there for a second, I almost thought – Hey, wait a minute. You threw a party in my house the first day I moved to down, and we hadn’t even spoken yet!” Pinkie Pie’s eyes drifted off in thought again as she furrowed her brow in though. “Oh… yeah, I guess I did! Huh. Well, there’s an exception to every rule, I suppose!” Twilight felt a nervous twitch in her right eye at Pinkie’s ability to so easily discard an obvious contradiction of logic. Anticipating the possibility of one of her agitated rants, Rarity stepped forward to speak to Pinkie. “Well, as I said before, Pinkie, it’s quite lovely. I’m sure Zecora will love it.” Pinkie Pie clapped and giggled, always brazen in her displays of cheerfulness. “I hope so too. Once she gets back we can start – is everypony ready to get down?” She laughed and flipped in the air, displaying a mastery of dancing physics that seemed to arise spontaneously spinning on her head yelling exaggerated ‘Woo!’s before halting her momentum in a classic break-dance finish pose, leaning her head on her hoof. Laughter was the only logical response, and everyone present giggled at Pinkie’s display of spontaneity. “Pinkie Pie, you are so random!” Rainbow Dash chuckled as she patted her friend on the shoulder. Pinkie only smiled wide in response, already a beacon of excitement before the party had even started in honest. “Oh my goodness…” a new voice interrupted the ponies' giggles, a largely unfamiliar intonation gracing their ears. In silence, the six girls turned to the house’s back entrance, the door wide open behind Zecora as she stared the scene in front of her. Pinkie Pie’s yell broke the silence. “Surpriiiiiiise! Do you like it?” The zebra’s mouth hung wide open in astonishment as she struggled to form a sentence to articulate her reaction. Meanwhile, the five ponies, more situationally aware than their oblivious pink friend, huddled together, eyes wide, fearing the worst. “It… it…” Pinkie’s gaze ballooned in anticipation. Finally, Zecora seemed to collect her thoughts, and cleared her throat before speaking. Her expression did not belie any frustration with the situation. “If I seemed upset, I do apologize, these party decorations are quite a nice surprise!” A sigh of relief washed over the small group of anxious ponies, and Pinkie Pie shouted an emphatic “Yes!” before pumping her hoof into the air. Zecora smiled warmly at her guests, still taking in the changes to her normally nondescript dwelling; Pinkie certainly knew how to make things exciting… “Hey everypony- er, and zebra- we’re all here, so let’s get this party started!” As if purely on the cue of her suggestion, Pinkie Pie’s arrangement of wicked party jams began blaring, pumping the reverberating bass through the floor of the shack, shaking the streamer covered masks on the walls with each beat. Sprinkles of confetti rained from the roof as the dance music began to play, and the disco ball at the room’s center started to spin, showering everyone in its multicoloured shimmering rays of light. Quite a night so far, and the party had only just begun. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Several hours had passed since the beginning of the evening, and the party was still in full swing. Pinkie Pie’s exuberance seemed to never die down, and each time she detected one of her friends taking a breather from the dancing and festivities she would sidle up to them, bobbing back and forth, urging them to get back up and continue having fun. Pinkie seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be a pony without an off switch. Zecora had seemed a tad nervous at the night’s start, but after some enthusiastic cajoling from Pinkie she had joined the ponies in earnest, laughing over punch and cake, and joining in for dancing as well. Every pony had taken a moment aside to apologize again in earnest for their previous suspicions, and Zecora had assured them in her usual rhyming that, it was no trouble, really. Twilight seemed to be the only one who had anything on her mind as the night continued, and she kept giving nervous, sideways glances towards the door, as if she half expected a crazed Manticore or other forest creature to come barreling through it at any moment. Eventually, Rainbow Dash noticed her friend’s apparent anxiousness, and attempted to question her about it over the roar of the music. “Twilight, is there something on your mind? You seem a little… worried.” The unicorn had shrugged with an awkward smile, before looking around her conspiratorially, and leaning in to whisper level with Rainbow Dash. “It’s probably nothing… but Pinkie said earlier she was planning another big ‘surprise’ later in the night, and I still haven’t seen anything… I’m just a tiny bit scared it’s going to be something… disastrous.” Twilight’s tone flattened into a deadpan as she finished her explanation. “Oh come on Twi, you’re totally over thinking it. Pinkie Pie’s parties are always a little wild, but they’re not that bad-“ “I know, I know! I just can’t shake the feeling that something is going to happen…” Almost on cue, Pinkie Pie bounded over to her friends, bouncing excitedly. “Hey girls, whatcha chattin’ about over here? Are you having as good a time as I am?” Rainbow Dash and Twilight both nodded awkwardly, not sure how to explain the nature of their conversation. Rainbow Dash attempted to answer the second question, while ignoring the first. “Yeah, we’re having a great time, Pinkie. You always-“ “-throw the best parties! Aw, you guys always say that.” Pinkie giggled at her friend’s surprise as she finished the sentence for them. “Twilight… is there something on your mind? You don’t look like you’re having enough fun!” Twilight shuffled her hooves nervously as Pinkie changed the focus of her attention. “I’m fine, Pinkie Pie, I was just wondering… about that surprise you were planning…” “Yes?” “It… it’s not anything that’s going to be… dangerous, or anything like that, is it?” Instead of an immediate answer, Pinkie placed her hoof on her chin thoughtfully. “You know, I’m not sure.” Twilight’s mouth gaped open at this response. “What?!” “I dunno if it could be dangerous! I mean, I don’t think so… don’t see why it would be!” Rainbow Dash interjected, placing her hoof comfortingly on Twilight’s shoulder as she spoke. “Pinkie… what do you mean you don’t know? What is this surprise anyway?” “It’s a show! I saw a flier in my mailbox that was advertising some kind of entertainment, said it was great for parties, so I figured I’d give it a shot! Not that I’m not the BEST at throwing parties, but I thought this one called for something special.” Twilight shook her head to clear her thoughts before speaking again, her eyes still wide in shock. “You mean you just ordered some random entertainment to show up in the middle of the party and you don’t even know what it’s supposed to be?!” “Nope!” Pinkie shook her head and laughed. “Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure it’ll be great! Whatever it is, it’s supposed to be showing up soon, now that you mention it…” She had no sooner finished her sentence when a knock on the wooden door punctuated the ‘unce-unce’ of the party music. Whomever it was knocking made sure to do so very loudly. All of the party guests turned to look at the house’s entrance. Apparently only Twilight had remembered Pinkie’s planned ‘surprise’, so confusion was the common look on the faces of everyone present as they mentally took a tally of the rest of the guests; the six from Ponyville, and Zecora – nopony else had been expected, or, to their knowledge, invited. Their contemplation was interrupted by a shout from the door. “Royal Guard; Open up!” That hadn’t been what anypony was expecting. “What? Pinkie, this isn’t your surprise, is it?” Twilight asked with a worried look on her face. Pinkie only gazed back puzzled. “I don’t think so…” Again the knock came at the door, more insistent this time. “Royal Guard, open the door!” The party-goers looked around the room nervously. Had one of them done something befitting of a visit from Celestia’s task force? Zecora especially looked anxious – she was already unused to having visitors in the first place, but an unannounced check up from the Royal Guard… Twilight took the initiative, halting the blaring music with a quick spell, before walking to the door. She gulped nervously, and looked back at her friends as if to say ‘Be cool!’ before opening it. A stone-faced white pegasus in a blue and gold uniform stared back at her from outside. “Is there a problem, er, officer?” Twilight’s voice was thick with the nervousness that impeded all ponies when faced with a member of law-bearing authority; the worry that somehow, despite an otherwise perfectly law-abiding existence, you could at any moment be arrested for a minor infraction you had no knowledge of committing. The Guard didn’t hesitate before shoving past the lilac unicorn and entering the house. “We’ve had noise complaints from citizens in town, and I’ve been dispatched to ensure everything is in order.” While his explanation was simple, his tone was hostile and unpleasant, strictly businesslike without a glow of warmth present. Twilight was glancing around the party nervously. “Noise complaint? But surely…” Her awkward excuse was cut off by a raised hoof from the guard, indicating his desire for silence. Almost as if by magic, her mouth immediately shut. “Is the owner of this residence present?” He demanded curtly. Slowly, the group of ponies fanned out around the lone zebra present, leaving Zecora sitting awkwardly in the center of attention – she had taken a moment to rest on a wooden chair before the interruption, and now that she had been singled out by the guards focus, proximity seemed like a death sentence. Zecora’s words were shaky, but still remained steadfast in her normal cadence. “This humble abode is solely mine, how can I help you at this time?” The guard cocked an eyebrow at the rhyming zebra, but otherwise displayed no change in his expression. “On behalf of the authority of Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard, I’m afraid I’ll need to have a few words with you.” He began to approach the awkwardly sitting zebra, but paused halfway, giving a tilt of his head to Pinkie Pie. “Miss?” Pinkie Pie’s eyes were wide open just like the rest of her friends, and it took her a moment to register that she was being spoken to. After several seconds, however, her eyes shone with understanding, and smile broke out as she hopped over to the music-player. The other five ponies watched her, aghast, as she placed a CD in the spinner, and a new soundtrack began booming from the speakers – a funky bass line and intoxicating rhythm washed over the house and its guests. As the music began playing, the white pegasus smiled suggestively at the confused Zecora sitting in front of him. “So… I hear you’ve been a bad girl.” Zecora’s mouth hung open in shock as the Royal Guard turned slowly around her chair to the beat of the music, placing his hooves on her shoulders as he stood behind her. She felt a whisper of breath on her ear as he leaned in and whispered. “I guess you’ll have to be dealt with…” All the other ponies in the room were too stunned to react, having gone from thinking they were about to be arrested to witnessing a seductive dance routine right in front of them. The supposed Royal Guard pegasus was now in front of Zecora, and was shaking his hips suggestively to the beat of the music. As his flank continued to gyrate, he raised a hoof to the clasp of his breast-plate, and slowly began to unfasten it. The metal top-piece slid off his shoulder as he leaned forward and winked at the astonished zebra in front of him, before raising his hoof to the other buckle, and loosening it. The armor fell forward, and he held it on his chest for a moment, before slowly sliding it downward, revealing a coat of soft, white fur. Zecora had no idea how to respond – she could only mumble to herself incomprehensibly in a language nopony present recognized. “Looh ajabu, jinsi aibu ...” The ‘guard’ was still smiling as he discarded his now unstrapped breastplate to the floor, and slid his hooves sensually down the front of his body toward the clasp for his lower armor… “This is pretty good so far, don’t you think guys?” Pinkie’s inquiry was met only with blank stares from the rest of the ponies, most of them still fixated on the ‘entertainment’ before them. Only Rainbow Dash seemed uninterested, and was glaring sulkily at the wall as her friend’s gazed affixed to the stripping pegasus. Pinkie Pie evidently had not planned to wait for an answer. “Woo, take it off!” The ‘guard’ winked at her suggestively. “With pleasure, m’am.” he said, followed by the clicking of unfastened armor straps. Zecora and the ponies watched (Rainbow Dash aside) as he slowly removed his outfit’s lower plating... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sun broke peacefully over the trees of the Everfree forest, shining every erstwhile ray of light it could into the normally dark and dreary woodlands. Happy morning birds broke out in song, and creatures crawled sleepily from their burrows to greet the new day. At Zecora’s hut, a sluggish procession of ponies were beginning their track back to Ponyville. The last of the group to exit the hut, Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes and yawned before patting Zecora’s shoulder amicably. “Thanks for having us over Z, you really know how to host a shindig!” Zecora smiled back wearily, also tired from the night’s festivities. She managed a short reply. “Not at all, it was quite fun, thank you for coming everyone.” A chorus of nods and brief acknowledgements was the response from the group before they left, echoing Rainbow Dash’s thanks. Everypony had already thanked Zecora for the party, but it had indeed been quite a night, so perhaps a little extra wouldn’t hurt. Pinkie Pie was the only one who seemed to have any energy left over from the evening, and was still bouncing up and down as she joined her friends on the trot back home. “Thanks again Zecora, it was a blast! Can we do it again sometime soon, can we?” Zecora nodded wearily. “Last night truly was one of the best, perhaps again soon, after a little rest.” Pinkie giggled with glee as she hopped down the trail from the lone shack in the middle of the forest, seemingly undaunted by the journey back to town. Zecora smiled as her new friends departed, leaning on the doorway of her hut as she watched the ponies walk off in to the distance. She sighed in contentment before a voice perked up behind her. “Zecora, are you coming back to bed?” A smirking white face was peeking out from the entrance to Zecora’s bedroom, a lop-sided guard helmet still sitting atop his head. FIN

Daetrin

480

Fluttershy,Rainbow Dash,Adventure,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Off The Edge Of The Map

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy journey through unknown lands.

complete

<p>When Rainbow Dash's newest trick backfires spectacularly, she and Fluttershy find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. Together, they'll have to survive and find their way back to Equestria and Ponyville...no matter how far the journey.</p><p>Now with a Spanish translation by <a href="/user/352294/SPANIARD+KIWI" rel="nofollow">SPANIARD KIWI</a>: <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863" rel="nofollow"><a href="https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863" rel="nofollow">https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863</a></a></p><p>(Originally submitted to Equestria Daily)<br/>Art by <a href="http://katisconfused.deviantart.com/?rnrd=6727" rel="nofollow">katwalk.</a></p>

everyone

2012-01-19T13:03:07+00:00

2015-06-25T12:16:39+00:00

Off The Edge Of The Map Part 1: Mare Incognitum “A-are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Fluttershy’s voice was frayed by the wind as Rainbow Dash whipped back and forth over the clouds. “’Course I know! I know this is gonna be awesome.” She paused a moment in her work to give Fluttershy a broad grin. “So don’t go away. I’m almost done.” The blue pegasus darted off again, pushing black clouds ahead of her. “But isn’t it dangerous?” Rainbow Dash outdistanced the sound of Fluttershy’s voice before she’d gotten out the second syllable, and the yellow pegasus sat back on her haunches. “Oh dear,” she said to herself. A long tube of thunderclouds rumbled unhappily as Dash packed them into shape. There was enough room inside the tube for a pegasus to fly through – assuming one wanted to brave the lightning-licked interior. From Fluttershy’s vantage point on top of a nice, safe, fluffy white cloud gave her a view through the tube, to the small circle of blue sky on the other side. Rainbow’s head appeared there briefly as she pushed the last cloud into place, making sure it was properly secure. The yellow pegasus blanched as a particularly loud rumble of thunder came from the packed-together clouds. “Okay!” Rainbow Dash swooped around in front of Fluttershy. “This should work. The ‘Rainbow Lightning!’” “Um…” Fluttershy only got that much out as the blue pegasus began sweeping around her thunderstorm tunnel, flying tight spirals around it and starting it spinning. Lightning flickered ominously throughout as the clouds blurred, and Rainbow Dash sped to the other side, lining herself up for a pass through the tunnel. Fluttershy leaned forward anxiously. There was no way to do this anywhere near the ground, and Rainbow Dash wasn’t really supposed to have all those extra stormclouds anyway. That left her as the only real audience Rainbow Dash could summon. She was rarely comfortable with Dash’s continual daredevil antics, but the other pegasus was so passionate about it that Fluttershy couldn’t help but support her. Dash started her run. Her wings flapped furiously as she aimed herself through the tunnel, her wake pulling the clouds after her. The rotating, flickering storm bunched itself up behind her, growling as she compressed it even further. Then she was through, a rainbow streak darting out of the eye of the storm, and Fluttershy ducked as Dash’s wake whipped through her mane. Rainbow Dash slewed around in midair to see if the idea had worked. The storm, whipped into a frenzy, was a nearly solid sheet of lightning, and Dash’s wake had dragged water out of the storm in her passage. The result was a field of dancing multicolored shards, lighting-fueled rainbows sparkling in the air. “Yes!” Dash flew back to Fluttershy’s cloud and dropped herself down in front of the yellow pegasus. “See? I told you it was going to be awesome.” She flashed a broad grin at Fluttershy, but sobered when she saw the other’s expression. “Er...wasn’t it?” Fluttershy was looking less impressed and more shocked, her eyes huge. “Um…Dash?” Fluttershy raised a hoof and pointed back at the storm. Rainbow Dash twisted around and looked obediently. The storm was moving toward them, and quickly, from the momentum Dash had given it. It was grumbling and growling, but what was most threatening was the vortex of solid lightning that was rushing to engulf them. It gaped like a hungry maw full of electric teeth, scant seconds from devouring them whole. “Oops.” Rainbow Dash took wing again. “C’mon, Fluttershy, let’s get out of here!” But Fluttershy was frozen solid staring at the onrushing storm, and Rainbow Dash dropped back to grab onto Fluttershy. “Come…on!” But her wings were locked tight against her flank, and she could only give a tiny squeak. “Oh boy.” Rainbow glanced up. There was no time left. She flung herself on top of Fluttershy instead, shielding the other pegasus as the jaws closed around them. There was a resounding boom of thunder, a gust of wind that shredded their perch, and they were sent tumbling through the air. Rainbow locked her forelegs around Fluttershy and pulled her upward, or at least what she guessed was upward in the pitch black cloud around them. The yellow pegasus finally stirred, her wings starting to beat just as the blackness cleared. There was just enough time to see a mass of white before they plowed headlong into an enormous swath of cloud. There was a moment of silence, and then Rainbow Dash wriggled her way out of a mound of cloudstuff. “Fluttershy?” She glanced around, and a pink mane appeared out of a nearby drift. “I-I’m here.” Fluttershy carefully pulled herself out of the full-body hole she’d made on impact and looked up as Dash glided over to her. “Sorry about that, Fluttershy, I guess I got a little carried away…” The blue pegasus gave her a nervous chuckle and an uncertain smile. Fluttershy looked at her for a long few seconds, then dipped her head briefly and gave Dash a gentle smile. “Oh, it’s all right, Rainbow Dash. It turned out all right, didn’t it? Although it was scary…” Dash’s expression eased slightly. “Well, don’t worry, I’ll be a lot more careful next time. And, uh, we won’t have the audience so close.” She swiveled her head around, ears perked. “All right, I’ll just go put those clouds back and…um. Where’s Cloudsdale?” Fluttershy blinked and looked around too. They were surrounded by the big, pillowy mounds of a cumulus cloud, but the familiar features of the cloud city were missing from the horizon. “Um…maybe we’re too high up?” She stretched her wings and flew to the edge of the cloud, glancing down to try and get her bearings. Rainbow Dash drew up beside her, and they stared down at a vast, wind-ruffled expanse of blue. Water stretched from horizon to horizon, with only a few puffs of cloud scattered throughout the sky. Even this far up, the tang of salt scented the air, and the only noise was the sound of wind on water. “Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said in a very small voice. “Where are we?” *** Fluttershy watched as Dash flew in ever-widening spirals out from their cloud. Her darting about became more and more frantic until she finally came back and dropped down next to Fluttershy. “I don’t know!” The blue pegasus had an edge of panic in her voice. “I don’t see any land at all.” She began pacing back and forth in front of Fluttershy. “I mean, I guess the storm could have carried us some distance but not this far. I mean, it’s ocean forever and even I can’t fly fast enough that we’d be this far this fast. But it had to be the storm because that’s all that happened!” “It’s okay, Rainbow Dash.” The blue pegasus blinked and looked over at Fluttershy. “It is?” “Sure it is. No matter where we are, I’m sure you’ll get us back.” Fluttershy gave Rainbow Dash a hopeful look, and the blue pegasus couldn’t help but smile back. “Yeah…yeah, I’m sure it’ll be no problem.” “I’m just worried about Angel Bunny and my chickens and birds and all my animals. Who will take care of them if we don’t get back soon?” Fluttershy’s ears drooped and Dash trotted over to put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, we’ve got plenty of friends in Ponyville. You know they’ll take care of things while we’re away. Spike’s done it before, remember?” “I-I suppose you’re right.” Fluttershy looked up. “So, um…which way do we go?” She looked around them. There were no landmarks or signs of life in any direction, not even birds. Rainbow followed her look and shrugged. “Let’s just go with the wind. West.” The pegasus really didn’t have any idea which was the right one, but Fluttershy was not nearly as strong a flyer as she was. If they were constantly fighting against the wind, they wouldn’t get far. Fluttershy bobbed a nod to her and spread her wings. Rainbow Dash followed, itching to set a fast pace. But she had to consider the yellow pegasus. If she were by herself, she’d be a lot faster…but she was glad she wasn’t by herself. Even if she felt guilty for dragging Fluttershy into this – however it happened – at least she wasn’t alone. They flew in silence for a while, soaring from cloud to cloud. Fluttershy spent most of her time looking down at the expanse of ocean below, and finally Rainbow Dash had to break the quiet. “So…what are you looking at, Fluttershy? There’s really not much down there.” “Oh!” Fluttershy was surprised to be broken out of her reverie. She glanced over at Dash and blinked, her ears going back shyly. “I was just thinking about all the new animals that must be somewhere under all that water. I’ve never been to an actual ocean before.” “Well, as soon as we reach dry land we can take time out for that. I’d like to get somewhere we can find something to eat first.” On cue, Dash’s stomach gurgled and the blue pegasus gave Fluttershy an embarrassed grin. “Ah-heh. See?” “Oh. Yes.” Fluttershy nodded. “I’m getting a little hungry myself. But I suppose we must wait.” She sighed as they touched down on yet another cloud. The yellow pegasus trotted over to a projection of cloudstuff and took it between her teeth, tugging and straining out the water. Dash followed suit, even though there wasn’t that much in the white clouds. It was an old survival skill from the dusty history of flight camp. Dash’s history with flight camp was…troubled, and she had to admit to herself at least that she probably wouldn’t have thought of it. It was also clumsy and messy, and by the time they’d gotten their fill, both pegasi had their muzzles soaked and their manes plastered against their necks. Dash looked over at Fluttershy whose mane was flattened over half her face, and couldn’t help but snicker. She didn’t look much better herself, with what seemed to be a rainbow-colored helmet plastered over her ears, and the yellow pegasus smiled hesitantly back. They grinned at each other for a moment and both started laughing. Fluttershy’s quiet giggle was almost lost under Rainbow’s raucous cackling, but it was there. It was good to laugh. Fluttershy was still nervous and worried, and hunger gnawed at her belly, but it released some of the tension there. And it was good to see Rainbow Dash laugh. She knew that Dash was much stronger and tougher than she was, and as long as Dash thought they were okay, they probably were. Once the laughter had died down, Dash smiled at Fluttershy. “We should go on, try and cover as much air as we can before the sun sets.” Indeed, the sun had slid through the sky while they were flying and was well on its way to the horizon. “Whatever you say, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy’s voice was absolutely trusting, and Rainbow Dash hoped she deserved it. The blue pegasus took a deep breath and took off from the now-diminished cloud, navigating by the sun alone and hoping that they were making progress over the featureless sea. “So, um,” Fluttershy spoke up after a while. “I’ve never really been far from of Ponyville. Where do you think we are, Rainbow Dash? The Maneterranian Sea? Or maybe the Ponific Ocean?” “I don’t know,” Dash replied. Fear – and it was fear, deep in her heart – gave her voice an edge she hadn’t meant, and the yellow pegasus flinched back from her. Dash sighed and softened her voice. “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. We can’t be that far from land.” We can’t be far was a mantra that Fluttershy repeated to herself as they flew on, though her wings were beginning to ache. She was unused to flying so far for so long, and she envied Rainbow Dash’s effortless glide. Fluttershy looked over at the blue pegasus, who didn’t seem to be anywhere near tired, and bit her lower lip, looking back at her own wings and putting forth a renewed effort to keep up with Dash. The sun was nearing the horizon when Fluttershy spoke up. “I…I have to stop. I can’t fly anymore. I’m sorry.” Dash had noticed Fluttershy beginning to flag, but didn’t want to say anything. It wasn’t Fluttershy’s fault they were so out of their depth. “Hey, don’t worry about it. We needed to stop anyhow, with the wind picking up.” Dash pointed at a nearby puff of white. “Let’s just rest there.” The wind was indeed beginning to freshen, driving the clouds scudding before it. Fluttershy dropped gratefully onto the puffy surface, her wings drooping. She took a few steps toward the middle of the cloud, dropping down to lie on the fluffy surface, and Dash landed next to her. “How about I go take a look real quick? I’ll be back in a flash!” Fluttershy nodded and Dash took off again, speeding out ahead of the wind now, surveying the water below for even the slightest hint of solid ground. She went far enough out that the cloud with Fluttershy on it was a mere speck in the distance, but she dared not go any farther. If she lost the yellow pegasus in the endless blue, she would probably never be able to find her again. Rainbow Dash had to return defeated. The wind had picked up even more, turning it from merely brisk to actively chilly, and when she landed Fluttershy was huddled into herself in the middle of the cloud. She was also crying. The faint keening sounds were barely audible over the breeze, and Rainbow Dash trotted over to her. “Fluttershy! What’s wrong?” The yellow pegasus sniffed and looked up at her. “Oh, I’m sorry, Dash. I’m just cold and hungry and tired and worried that we’ll never see home again and that my animals won’t be taken care of…” She sniffed again. “I know. I’m just being silly.” Dash looked at Fluttershy, then settled down next to the other pegasus. “Hey, no. It’s not silly, Fluttershy. This sucks and it’s all my fault.” For emphasis, Dash’s own stomach growled unhappily, but she put a comforting wing over Fluttershy. “But I promise I’ll get us home safely. All right?” After a moment Fluttershy leaned in against her. “All right,” she said in a small voice, and in the falling dark Dash couldn’t quite make out her face. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. Let’s just get some sleep. By morning we might be over land, with this wind.” The yellow pegasus bobbed a nod and tucked herself close down against the cloud. Dash followed suit, the two of them huddling together. Despite the doubt, worry, and hunger gnawing at her guts, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and slept. *** A low, mournful whistling and groaning woke them. Dash clawed her way out of the cloudstuff and lurched sleepily to the edge of their perch, followed closely by Fluttershy. Below them was a pair of enormously long blue shapes cutting through the water. Dash was at a loss, but Fluttershy squeaked excitedly. “Whales!” “Creepy,” Dash muttered, as the basso rumble echoed choppily from the waves. Fluttershy threw Dash a look of disappointment and then launched herself off the cloud to spiral down toward the waves. After a chastised moment, Dash followed. The yellow pegasus dropped down to a few feet above the water’s surface, and Rainbow Dash circled warily, not trusting the creatures. “Um, excuse me,” Fluttershy said, trying vainly to be heard above the noise. “But we’re lost. I was wondering if you could help us find where the nearest land is?” Her stomach gurgled loudly and Fluttershy flushed. “Or, er, where we could find some plants to eat.” The whale rolled in the water, revealing one enormous eye. It fixated on Fluttershy, and she smiled nervously at it. After a long, long stare, it rolled back and an enormous fountain of salty spray jetted from its back, incidentally soaking Rainbow Dash. “What? Hey!” The blue pegasus spluttered and dived down toward the whale’s head. “What was that for? You can’t -” She was cut off as the other whale performed the same maneuver, though this time the plume wasn’t aimed directly at her. Dash glowered at them and Fluttershy tittered softly. Then with a flash of flukes, the whales dived under the surface. Dash switched the glower to Fluttershy. “Well that was a waste of time. And now I’m all salty wet! Ick.” She shook herself, and Fluttershy backwinged to keep from getting sprayed. “Well…maybe we scared them.” “Scared them?” Dash looked at Fluttershy with disbelief. “Did you see how big they were? I could swear they were bigger than the dragon, even.” “But whales are harmless!” Fluttershy said earnestly. “You weren’t scared, were you?” “What? No! Of course not!” Dash folded her hooves over her chest. “I just don’t trust anything that big.” “Well, that’s silly, Rainbow Dash. I’m sure that – eeep!” Fluttershy squeaked as one of the whales crested, splashing Dash yet again. The blue pegasus growled impotently as Fluttershy dipped down to talk again. “Well hello again, I thought you were gone.” The whale’s bone-jarring groans made Rainbow Dash grimace, but her expression changed as soon as a long strand of leafy plants floated to the surface along with the whales. Along with another, and another. “Food!” “See? Most creatures are willing to help if you ask nicely.” Fluttershy dropped lower toward the whale. “Thank you so much. We’re very grateful. But do you happen to know where nearby land might be?” Dash started gathering up some of the plants while the whales rumbled their way through a few words with Fluttershy. After several long minutes of ear-grating noise, they moved off again. Fluttershy drifted over to her. “Um, they said the closest land they know of is to the north. Really far north.” Dash glanced in that direction. Normally it would have been a beautiful day, with only a single cloud in the sky. But they needed clouds, for water and for rest, and it was obvious that like the Everfree Forest, these clouds operated without pegasus intervention. There wouldn’t be a ready depot of rainclouds to count on. “Well, I guess we have to go north, then.” Dash gathered up the last of the plant and lifted it up toward their personal cloud. The plant was bitter and salty, but at least it was food, and there was plenty of it. Dash stifled her complaints as she saw Fluttershy gamely chew her share of the leaves. It filled her complaining stomach with plenty left over, and Dash draped some of it around her neck for later. It also made her tremendously thirsty, and between the two of them they cut the cloud in half to sate their thirst. “All right, Fluttershy, it looks like it’s time to go.” Dash stood on the edge of the cloud and Fluttershy joined her. “It’s just so...big.” When they were just hopping from cloud to cloud, she could kid herself out of her normal agoraphobia, but standing on the edge of a vast swath of blueness she could feel her wings threatening to lock up. “You can do it, Fluttershy,” she told herself, following Dash’s example as the blue pegasus leapt off the cloud. Her wings were still a little sore from the previous day but there was nothing for it. She followed Dash, trying to focus on the pegasus rather than the rest of the surroundings, and her mind wandered to what she had planned for the week. Her sessions in the garden, the fledgling birds. Her appointment at the spa with Rarity that she never missed. She was so focused on not thinking about her current predicament that she missed it when Rainbow Dash asked her a question. She blinked at Dash. “Oh, I’m sorry, what did you say?” “I asked, are you okay? You’re kinda lagging behind there.” “Oh.” Fluttershy flushed and flapped her wings harder, pulling up alongside Dash. “I’m just not used to flying this much.” “Yeah, you spend more time on the ground than most earth ponies.” The blue pegasus snorted. “Not much good it does you here, does it?” “No…” Fluttershy dropped her head. It wasn’t exactly like she was planning to be stuck in the middle of the ocean. “But at least I could talk to the whales.” “True.” Reminded by that, Dash tore a leaf off the garland around her neck and chewed. “Sha shing ish,” she said indistinctly, then swallowed. “The thing is, you’re just not used to distance flying. You need to glide more. Here, watch how I do it.” Fluttershy obeyed, trying to match her wing movements to Dash’s. She didn’t really see the difference between what she was doing and what Dash was, but she was willing to try. As the hours wore on though, it was clear that no amount of impromptu instruction was going to help. The yellow pegasus slipped closer to the waves, and Dash’s exhortations became more panicked. And still there was no sight of land. “I…I’m sorry, Dash.” Fluttershy said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t go on. You’ll have to continue without me.” “No. No way. Rainbow Dash doesn’t leave anypony hanging.” The blue pegasus ducked down underneath Fluttershy, who squeaked as Dash lifted her up. “Hang on, Fluttershy,” she said grimly. Fluttershy obeyed, locking her forelegs around Dash’s neck as she sped forward over the featureless sea. Fluttershy watched the waves pass beneath them, her wings hanging by her side, aching and limp, and then buried her muzzle in Rainbow Dash’s mane. “I’m sorry for being so…so…” She couldn’t even finish the sentence, but Rainbow Dash stopped her anyway. “Hey, I got you into this, and I’m going to get you out.” She smiled back at her passenger. “Or my name isn’t Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy managed a small smile back, relaxing slightly against Dash’s back. For the first time since seeing the vast expanse of ocean, she felt safe. *** She woke to the wash of waves on shore, but she didn’t remember falling asleep. All she remembered was an endless blur of trying to fly, trying to fly, trying to fly. Fluttershy rolled to her feet, her wings sore and weak from overuse, and staggered in the deep sand of a beach. Rainbow Dash was sprawled out nearby, her salt-crusted coat silent testament to a struggle through the waves themselves. She half-waded over to the other mare, bending down to nose at her. “Rainbow Dash? Are you okay?” The blue pegasus groaned and stared muzzily upward at Fluttershy. “I told ya I’d get us here.” She gave Fluttershy a rictus grin and tried to get up, only to collapse back in the sand. “Gimme five more minutes…” Now it was Fluttershy’s turn to carry Rainbow Dash, hauling her up from the beach and onto a strand of grass. She finally took the time to look around, looking for water, trees, and especially any sign of civilization.A tall cone-shaped mountain rose to a snowcapped peak, fading to a the fuzzy green of dense foliage near the base. The land sloped down toward the beach they were on, which itself curved narrowly around in either direction. It seemed obvious to her even without the benefit of an overhead view that they were on an island. An island, but not a desert one. Where there were that many trees there was water. Fluttershy hefted up the blue pegasus and started into the trees. It was cooler there, and the sun-dappled plant life was almost reminiscent of the forest back in Ponyville. Almost. She stole snatches of bites from the grass before it was crowded out by plant life she didn’t know anything about. In the canopy of the forest the grass was replaced by flowering shrubs and bushes, but animal life seemed strangely absent. In fact, there were no birdcalls or insects buzzing, no sounds of small creatures flitting through the trees. The realization made her stop and look around. She felt like it was the Everfree Forest all over again. The plants were a brilliant green, contrasting sharply with vivid orange and red blossoms. Strange fruits and berries weighed down the trees and climbing vines, as brightly colored as the flowers. The air was a riot of strange scents, the verdancy only making the contrasting stillness stranger. “It’s okay, Fluttershy…maybe they’re just not used to ponies.” She muttered to herself, though she wanted to do nothing more than run back out. But Rainbow Dash had gotten them there, so it was her turn. The blue pegasus herself was still dazed or unconscious, and very heavy on Fluttershy’s back. She was nearly ready to take a rest, no matter how thirsty she felt, when she heard the sound of water coming through the trees. The sound gave her new energy and she ran – or at least trotted – toward the source. And stopped. Between the trees she could see the silhouette of roofs and buildings. For a moment it seemed like there could be people of some sort, too, but a second glance showed most of those silhouettes as broken and decaying, the ruins of some sort of village. Fluttershy crept closer, and still nothing stirred. A stream of clear water cut right past the ruins, and she edged up to its bank. The buildings loomed in silent vigil as she eased Rainbow Dash off her back and cautiously dipped her head down to taste the water. It was clear, pure, and nearly sweet. She gulped some down, only now conscious of how parched she really was, then detached a large leaf from a nearby plant to serve as an impromptu cup. Dash spluttered and coughed a bit as Fluttershy poured water into her muzzle, but she’d had plenty of practice with animals. The pegasus swallowed the water, but didn’t rouse otherwise. “You just rest, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy tenderly brushed Dash’s mane away from her muzzle and looked up at the ruins crouched nearby. “I think I’m going to need your help for this one.” She didn’t dare go far, not with the silent forest close in on every side, but she did nose around long enough to find a spiny seed pod to act as a comb. The salt that splashed her flanks was itchy enough, and Dash was worse off. It was certainly warm enough that the cold water in the stream was refreshing rather than chilling, and she used the water and comb to groom herself and then the unconscious Dash. It was a long two hours as the shadows crept across the ground before Dash stirred again. “Nng. I had the craziest dream.” Her eyes opened and she looked up at Fluttershy, then around the forest. “Oh man. It wasn’t a dream.” She tried to get to her hooves, her wings working shakily as she toppled over to her other side. “Ow.” Fluttershy dipped her head down and helped push the pegasus upright. “We’re both sore after all that. I think we’ll have to stick to the ground for now.” “I guess.” Dash looked downcast for a moment, and then brightened up. “But you know, I bet I set a record for endurance flying with that.” “I bet you did.” Fluttershy smiled at Dash. “You got both of us all the way here. Thank you.” Dash smiled back for a moment then looked around. “Wherever here is. Whew, now this is creepy.” Fluttershy gave a small nod. She’d been trying not to think about it, though the fact that absolutely nothing had happened was slight salve for her fears. The silent forest was clearly unnatural and she wanted nothing more than to leave it. But the ruined town might tell them where they were and, besides, the forest covered nearly the whole island. “Well, come on, let’s see if we can find anything useful.” Dash started off toward the decaying buildings, and Fluttershy followed close on her hooves. The silence seemed to grow even more oppressive as they walked down an abandoned street strewn with leaf litter, broken twigs and branches. The buildings themselves, on closer inspection, were fairly sound, if overrun with vines and creepers. But every single door had fallen out of its jamb, hinges rusted into smears on the wood. The buildings themselves were subtly wrong, the proportions off. Dash poked her head into a few doorways while Fluttershy watched worriedly, but there was nothing inside but disused tables and chairs. They seemed slightly too large and wide, the tables too low. The blue pegasus shook her head. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think this town was built by ponies.” “Th-then who did?” Fluttershy looked around nervously. Without urgency driving her, the earlier bravado had faded back to her more usual apprehension. “Maybe…monsters!” Dash grinned, attempting a weak joke to cut through the oppressive atmosphere. It did quite the opposite. Fluttershy squeaked and pressed herself against the ground, looking, if it were possible, more nervous that before. Rainbow Dash sighed. “Oh come on, Fluttershy. Monsters wouldn’t build a whole town, would they? It’s got to be somepony of some sort, even if everything does look weird.” “I…guess.” The yellow pegasus admitted, though her expression didn’t ease even a fraction. “I’m sure they just found a nicer place to live,” Dash declared. “Come on, Fluttershy, we need to finish looking around before it gets dark. Maybe we can find a place to stay.” Forgetting herself, the pegasus spread her wings and winced. “Especially since we’re grounded,” she added with a glower at the traitorous appendages. “Just as long as we don’t stay here,” Fluttershy murmured. “Well I’m not afraid!” Dash declared loudly. Her voice echoed back to her, weak and flat and stilted, as if the silence was actively consuming noise. “Ah-heh…” She looked at the nearest building, the façade stripped down to the wood and the windows and doors gone, leaving only the bleached bones of a house. “It’s probably unsafe though, so we should find somewhere else.” Fluttershy nodded and crept along behind Dash. They made their way through the disused main thoroughfare of the abandoned town, the hush complete except for their hoofsteps and the occasional sigh of wind. Plants grew between the cobbles, as evidence of the forest reclaiming the town, and that served to further muffle the sounds they made. They stopped once they reached the outskirts of the town. The overgrown road cut through the heart of the forest, a straight line directly toward the distant mountain. “A road’s got to go somewhere, right?” Rainbow Dash squinted along the overgrown cobbles. “I’d really just rather leave,” Fluttershy said, looking around nervously. “I feel like we’re being watched.” “What?” Rainbow Dash whipped around, staring suspiciously about them. “I don’t see anything.” “I don’t either, it just feels…” Fluttershy trailed off, looking at the ground. “Oh, don’t worry about it, Fluttershy. I’m sure just it’s just this woods being creepy.” Dash tapped her hoof against the ground impatiently. “And it’s not going to be daylight forever. I’d like to get somewhere we can camp sooner rather than later.” “Um…” Fluttershy spoke up again. “Shouldn’t we bring food and water with us?” “How? We don’t exactly have saddlebags and canteens, here.” The yellow pegasus lifted her head up, cheered by the opportunity to do something. “Oh, we can just make them, Rainbow Dash. Here.” Fluttershy stepped off the road a few paces to pull an enormous flat leaf from a nearby bush. Rainbow Dash followed, watching as the yellow pegasus fashioned small containers from creeper and tightly rolled leaves. “Where’d you learn to do that, Fluttershy?” Dash blinked at her. She never would have expected Fluttershy to have such extensive survival skills. “Oh, I make them for my animal patients sometimes.” Fluttershy lifted up a pair of containers and set them on Dash’s back, the vines making a crude harness, then fashioned a second set for herself. “There, now we just fill them.” Some minutes later they made their way back to the road, Dash hauling water and Fluttershy burdened with grass. She still didn’t trust any of the other plants to be edible. They walked along the arrow-straight road, the relentless quiet pressing in. It was enough to shake even Dash’s reserve, and she finally stopped and turned to Fluttershy. “I know I’m not usually one to suggest this, but…how about a song? All this quiet is really getting on my nerves.” “Oh. Um…” Fluttershy flushed and glanced down briefly. “All right.” They started off again as Fluttershy took a breath. Home no more home to me, whither must I wander Hunger my driver, I go where I must She started off quietly even for her, but gained in volume as she took comfort from the sound of her own voice. Dash relaxed too, as having something familiar seemed to drive back the formless menace of the surroundings. Cold blows the winter wind over hill and heather Thick drives the rain and my roof is in the dust. The soft voice of the pegasus floated through the woods, a small pool of serenity in the midst of a nameless dread. Dash was normally immune to the effects of song, no matter that both Pinkie and Fluttershy had a tendency to break into them, but in this place it was a palpable relief to hear. Fluttershy’s song carried them deeper into the forest, the road not swaying the slightest fraction, the only concession it made to the terrain being to slope slightly upward. Small bridges supported it over gullies, and it cut uncaringly through small hills. The day turned on toward night without the end of the road or, indeed, any other landmark coming into view. Rainbow Dash stopped them as they crossed yet another small bridge over a sharp defile. A tall tree with a bulbous trunk and broad, fernlike leaves shaded the road there. “All right,” she said. “Let’s just quit for the night. Maybe tomorrow we’ll be able to fly and actually make good speed through here.” She flapped her wings experimentally and grimaced.“We can hope.” “Whatever you say,” Fluttershy agreed as Dash took off her water harness and draped it over a low branch. Fluttershy followed suit, the two of them settling down in the sparse grass under the tree. Wind stirred the leaves above them and a few fat drops of rain spattered and spit against the forest canopy. “…Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy whispered into the oppressive quiet. The blue pegasus lifted her head up and looked at the silhouette of the other mare. “Yeah, Fluttershy?” “…I’m scared.” Rainbow Dash looked at the pegasus huddled against the ground and slid closer, putting a wing over Fluttershy. “Yeah, me too,” she admitted. “But as long as we stick together, we’ll be fine. You’ll see.” There was a glint of blue eyes as Fluttershy looked at her, and then nodded, relaxing against Rainbow Dash and putting her head on the ground. She was asleep within moments. Dash looked on enviously, faintly wishing that there was someone to reassure her. *** Morning brought no relief from the atmosphere of the forest, but their muscles had recovered enough that they could take wing. Not even Dash could fly far or fast yet, but it was better than hooves alone. The blue pegasus did a loop in the air, stretching her legs out comfortably. “Oh yeah, this is better.” Fluttershy followed more demurely, circling above the treetops as Dash rose higher to get a view of the island. A lazy plume of smoke drifted from the white-capped mountain, fading into the painfully blue sky. Here and there amidst the dense forest canopy, more blue sparkled from lakes and streams cutting their way toward the surrounding ocean. Below, the road could be glimpsed occasionally through breaks in trees, but it took no great imagination to extend the line toward the base of the mountain. Along that line, near the base of the mountain, was a circular lake with smudges surrounding it that might be buildings. “Looks like we’re headed there.” Dash pointed a hoof. “There’s gotta be something to tell us where are.” “I hope so.” Fluttershy looked at the distant gleam of water and dropped back down into the trees, shouldering her makeshift saddlebags. The plants were already starting to dry out, and they’d fall apart in another day or so, but there was no reason to leave them behind just yet. Rainbow Dash followed her, grumbling under her breath as she shouldered the burden of the half-depleted water supplies. They flew in short hops. Rainbow Dash’s wings were still sore enough that she had to, no matter how much she hated being grounded. Fluttershy wasn’t much better off, but it still meant they reached their destination in one tenth the time. They also spent much less time under the confines of the forest canopy, which was vastly relieving. Even though the air held that same stillness, it was not as all-enveloping under the clear blue vault of the sky. Their destination resolved itself into a circular lake surrounded by more ruined buildings, these ones even more decrepit than the town near the beach. In the center of the lake a half-submerged stone tower rose out of the water, listing drunkenly askew. The road ran right into the edge of the lake, stopping abruptly at the edge of the water. Rainbow Dash touched down at the lake’s edge, followed by Fluttershy. “What the heck happened here?” The blue pegasus scowled at the tower, then transferred her expression to the buildings. “If there’s nothing new here this is going to be such a waste of time.” “Um, Rainbow Dash…?” “I mean, all this way and it’s just more stupid ruins with nothing in them. And a stupid lake. We’ve got, like, a million lakes in Ponyville.” “Rainbow Dash!” “What?” Dash turned around, and Fluttershy pointed a shaky hoof back at the forest. The missing animal life had appeared. Hundreds of small rodents and reptiles that neither of them recognized formed a living carpet at the forest’s edge. The trees were packed with birds, a raucous display of brilliant plumage. Here and there the bulk of a larger animal stood out from the crowd, eyes flashing and angular muzzles pointed at the two pegasi. In fact, every single animal was watching them. The soft susurration of moving bodies made the lack of vocalization even more eerie. There were no chirps, no calls, no grunts from the assemblage of animals. They simply watched. “…oh.” Dash blanched at the unnatural mob. “Um…you talk to them, Fluttershy. That’s your sort of thing, isn’t it?” “That’s not normal!” Fluttershy quailed at the spectacle, then looked at Dash and took a deep breath. “All right, I’ll try…” The pegasus took a step forward. “Um…hello?” The wind blew. A noise like a sigh ran through the collected animals, mixing with the wind and coalescing suddenly into a roar of comprehensible words. Who. Are. You. Fluttershy squeaked and backed toward the lake, cringing away from the collective. Rainbow Dash bared her teeth and stepped in front of the yellow pegasus, glaring at the animals. “I’m Rainbow Dash! Who are you?” I am. The wind. The earth. The trees. The life. This place. I am. “Oh yeah? I just see a bunch of creepy animals!” Dash narrowed her eyes at them. “And I’m not afraid of some overblown talking wind!” Behind her, Fluttershy whimpered, covering her head with her hooves. Fear. Is. Irrelevant. Patches of the road began to glow softly – prints, Dash saw, of something that had a front set of paws and a rear set of talons. The prints walked toward them, and Dash couldn’t help but move aside as they walked past the two pegasi and across the surface of the lake. It stopped at the tower, and licked upward, limning a figure in a cool flickering glow. It had feline forelegs, while its rear talons were that of an eagle. A scaled head with two long horns wavered in the unsteady glow, and its tail trailed off into nothingness behind. The figure stood on the surface of the water, unconcerned by the small waves lapping along its surface. The voice came again, from the animals, from the wind, from all around. You. Are. Intruding. “Yeah, well, we didn’t really have much choice, did we?” Dash glared back and forth between the figure on the lake and the semicircle of island fauna. “If you hadn’t noticed this is kind of the only land nearby.” Intruders Must. Be. Dealt. With. “Now what is that supposed to mean? I – oh no you don’t!” The silent crowd swept forward as one, toward the two pegasi, and Dash planted herself between the nearly comatose Fluttershy and the animals. They came claw and tooth bared, the birds launching themselves from their branches. Rainbow Dash’s advantage was speed. She wheeled and kicked the first arrival, sending it wheeling away with a muffled thump. She darted back and forth, hooves flashing as she fended off the crowd, sweeping birds from the air and silently cursing her sore wings. But she was only one pegasus, and there were too many of them. Dash cried out as a claw scored on her hide, drawing a streak of red across her chest, and another along her flanks. She stumbled back, and the mob pressed on. Her thoughts were not of herself, but of how she had failed Fluttershy. The blue pegasus went down under the press of bodies as the creatures crested like a tidal wave. “Stop.” The word was not loud, but it rang in the air like drawn steel. The advanced faltered and stilled as Fluttershy stood up. “Stop.” She said again, and even Rainbow Dash was unable to move. “What gives you the right?” Fluttershy never raised her voice as she stalked through the mob toward Rainbow Dash. The crowd melted away before her. “What gives you the right to attack us? We are guests, lost and alone. We have done nothing to earn your hostility.” Her words flensed the control of the island spirit from the minds of animals around her. Released, they scatted back into the woods, vanishing from sight. “You claim to be the spirit this land, the creatures that live here, but you are using them. Using them to attack us.” Fluttershy reached Dash’s side, bending to help the blue pegasus to her feet. She was bleeding from a dozen cuts and scratches, but still intact. Fluttershy smiled at her and then turned to look at the figure in the lake. “You are not protecting the land, and you are not protecting them. Fluttershy was a gentle spirit. But her gentleness was not weakness. It flowed from an adamant core, a heart that would turn even the sharpest blade without a scratch, and could cut in equal measure. “With all this power, you are nothing more than a thug and a bully. Can you really have claim to have the land, the trees, the wind? Because from what I see, all you have is fear.” The last of the creatures had fled, leaving only the two pegasi and the fiery figure in the middle of the lake. Fluttershy stepped to the edge of the lake and glared at the figure. “So are you a petty ghost, afraid of the living? Or are you really a spirit of nature?” The pegasus stared into the flickering blue sockets of a spirit that embodied an entire island, the sum of all the life, the water, the air, and the earth thereon. A spirit that counted its age in centuries rather than years, and whose essence was in every blade of grass underhoof. In this place, it was like a god. And the god flinched. I. Apologize. The wind sighed, lonesome, through the trees. *** “I accept your apology,” Fluttershy said graciously. “But look at poor Rainbow Dash! You should really be apologizing to her.” “I..uh…” Rainbow Dash was nonplussed. The figure lowered its head and began to walk toward them, leaving illuminated footprints behind. Fluttershy watched calmly as the spirit walked up to them, but Dash was wide-eyed. It bent its neck until it was muzzle to muzzle with Dash, and breathed. In a matter of moments, plants grew from the ground, wrapping smooth leaves around Dash’s wounds, and then withering away to leave only the green bandages behind. Her skin tingled and the pain faded. “…thanks?” The figure stood to its full height again, towering over them. What. Do. You. Want. “We’re just looking for a way home,” Fluttershy said. “We’re completely lost and we found your island by accident. Well, Rainbow Dash did. Do you have any idea how to get to the mainland?” “And what’s with all the creepy ruins around here? Who used to live here?” Dash put in. “Did you run them off too?” Two. Halves. Of. A. Question. The wind keened through the trees in response to their questions. The spirit’s outline flickered as it turned to look at the tower in the center. Ghostly fire dripped from its figure, pooling on the water. It shifted and slid into a model of the island itself. Rainbow Dash limped up next to Fluttershy to watch. A group of sleek, dagger-shaped vessels slid through the lake-as-ocean, leaving a phosphorescent wake as they cuddled up to the shore. Small figures disembarked, spreading over the land. Two towns arose, one at the nadir of the island, one nestled at the base of the mountain. They briefly flourished, the light defining them growing crisper and cleaner. Then, one by one, the flames representing the inhabitants of the island flickered and went out. I. Hold. Their. Memories. Until. They. Return. “I don’t think they’re coming back,” Rainbow Dash muttered. Fluttershy shot her a disapproving look, and Dash rolled her eyes. “Well, it’s true!” The spirit’s head swung around to regard them, burning blue pupils flickering in expressionless sockets. I. Can. Wait. “Right.” Dash shook her head. “Anyway, what does this have to do with finding the mainland? I mean, there’s nobody around to tell us.” The fiery island dimmed and died as the spirit turned around to face the pegasi. The. Ships. Remember. Their way. To. The land. Of dragons. “Dragons?” The two said it in chorus and looked at each other. It was hardly what they were expecting. Fluttershy’s eyes were wide and uncertain as she stared at the blue pegasus, and then at the spirit. “Well,” Dash said after a moment, trying to reassure her. “Dragons do seem to know where Equestria is, so it’s the right direction at least.” “You’re right,” Fluttershy sighed. Then her expression lightened. “Maybe I’ll get to see more baby dragons like Spike!” “Uh, yeah.” The blue pegasus blinked at Fluttershy and then looked at the spirit looming above them. “So, if the ships know, whatever that means, how are we supposed to find out?” The glowing figure swept by them, heading for the forest. The wind whispered through the grass, swirling about them as it trailed after the spirit. Follow. The two pegasi obeyed, trotting on either side of the lingering prints left behind. They passed between two trees, and between one step and the next they were no longer near the heart of the island, but at a sheltered cove on the coast. A small waterfall fell into the ocean there, bouncing down a short cliff, the wind whipping the spray into an inconstant rainbow. “Whoah.” Rainbow Dash was impressed. It was not the magic, for Twilight was proficient enough at teleporting. It was the suddenness of the transition, the lack of flash or sparkle that was showy in its own right. Fluttershy’s attention, though, was captured by the half-dozen dagger shapes in the water below them. The silver ships were low to the water, with a delicate filigreed rail all around the flat deck. They had no mast or oars, no visible means of propulsion or even anchors. Unlike the towns on the island, the ships were pristine. The waves lapping against the sides of the vessels didn’t seem to even leave droplets of water. The spirit bent its head to the vessels in a gesture of respect. When. You. Are ready. One Will. Take you. The spirit’s form flickered and faded, cold fire streaming away on the wind until they were alone again. The forest was no longer silent and oppressive, but cheerful and bustling with life. Birds twittered and called to each other; the underbrush rustled with the comings and goings of small creatures. Dash stared at where the ghostly guardian had stood. “When we’re ready, huh?” Then she glanced down at herself, her blue coat striped with green bandages. “I suppose we should take a little bit to rest and heal up, ah-heh.” She glanced over at Fluttershy and was taken aback by the other mare’s wide-eyed, tearful expression. “Oh, Rainbow Dash, I’m so sorry.” The yellow pegasus took two steps toward Dash, but stopped short of actually hugging her for fear of further injuring the pony. “If I had done something earlier, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. It’s all my fault.” “Hey, no, Fluttershy.” Dash put one hoof on her shoulder and smiled at her. “You did great. I mean, you made the island not-creepy and got us transportation…well, I’m not sure how that works yet, but still. A few scrapes and bruises don't really mean much.” “I-if you say so.” The yellow pegasus still looked unhappy, and Dash pulled her into a quick embrace, regardless of her wounds. “I say so.” Fluttershy gave her a small smile in response. The moment was interrupted by Dash’s stomach gurgling loudly. The pegasi looked at each other for a brief instant and began to giggle. It grew into laughter, and they flopped back against the grass and let it come. It felt good after the unceasing oppressive atmosphere they’d endured, and it chased away the last lingering shadows of fear. *** “Aw, yeah, this is better.” Dash stretched her limbs as she drifted lazily just above the treetops. Her wings fanned the air, carrying her effortlessly through the clear bright sky. The plant bandages had fallen off, leaving only the smooth welts of healing skin. They hadn’t seen the nature spirit again, but in the span of a few hours a bower had grown by the side of the cliff, a tight intermeshing of leafy green vines that provided a cool, comfortable shelter. Fruit trees had sprouted around it, bearing a staggering variety of exotic food for the two pegasi. The perfection of the spot provided a harsh counterpoint to the knowledge that they were still utterly lost. Lost, but they did have direction. Dash drifted over to where Fluttershy was working with vines and leaves, slices of fruit spread out on a flat rock beside her. “Whatcha doing?” The blue pegasus hovered above Fluttershy, and she glanced up at Dash. “Oh, um, well, I don’t know how long this boat trip will be, and we’ll need food and water, so I’m making supplies. See I have dried fruit wrapped in leaves, and these hollow out gourds are for water.” Fluttershy gave Dash a broad smile. “It’s a lot better than dry grass and seaweed.” “Hah, yeah.” Dash watched Fluttershy labor alone for a moment, then dropped down beside her. “…so how can I help?” The yellow pegasus gave her a startled look, which transmuted after a moment to a grateful one. “Oh, I’ll show you.” She scooted over to make room for Dash, and the blue pegasus took to the task of learning how to make water gourds. Dash would admit she had a habit of shirking chores, but Fluttershy’s reaction hurt her. So she bent to following Fluttershy’s instructions, telling herself she’d do her own fair share of the work for their journey. In all, it took them several days to recover and put together their supplies. Simply being lost was stretching into a longer and longer journey, and Fluttershy couldn’t help but think about life back in Ponyville. The day they were ready to leave, she sighed, looking at the pile of food and jugs they’d made. “Rainbow Dash, what do you think everyone else is doing? Are they still looking for us? We know we’re okay, but they must be so worried.” Dash looked up from the stream, where she was filling one of their jugs. She put the jug aside and looked down at her reflection. “Yeah, I know. I was thinking about that too. I just wish there was some way we could tell them what was going on. Well, I really wish we were back in Ponyville, but a message would be nice too.” She turned around to look at Fluttershy. “But hey, I’m sure they know that wherever we are, we’re together. And that means they know we’ll be fine.” The yellow pegasus nodded, looking unconvinced. Dash trotted over to her and gave her a smile. “Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy. Just think of how happy they’ll be to see us when we get back.” “I suppose so,” Fluttershy said softly, but she did give the blue pegasus a small smile. Dash turned to look at the silver ships gleaming against the blue of the cove below. “Speaking of which, I guess we should get going. But how are we going to figure out which ship to take? Or…how to make it go?” No sooner had the words left her mouth than the blue-green fire of the island spirit kindled nearby. They turned to watch as the ghostly flames licked upward to outline the strange figure. The blue-lit sockets of its eyes surveyed them dispassionately then stepped to the cliff’s edge. The wind whispered over the edge, and the ships responded. One of the six slid closer to the cliffs, lifting further out of the water, the hull shifting slightly as windows opened in the sides. The rear half of the deck slid upward, a door appearing as the filigreed rail formed into place around the new upper deck. “Nice!” Rainbow Dash grinned at the spectacle and darted out over the cliff to circle around the vessel. The spirit turned to Fluttershy. You. Need. Only. Ask. “Thank you so much,” Fluttershy said, ducking her head to the island god. “We’re very grateful to you for all your help. Is there anything we can possibly do to repay you?” The spirit cocked its head at Fluttershy, and for a moment silence reigned. Dash flew back up, looking between Fluttershy and the fiery specter in front of her. Carry. My. Memory. With. You. With those final words, it disappeared for the last time, streaming away on the wind, the blue and green fire fraying and vanishing. Dash landed next to her, both of them watching until there was no more sign of the spirit. “I wonder if he’s lonely,” Fluttershy said at length. “He’s an island, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said. “I don’t think that islands can get lonely. Can they?” They looked at each other, and Dash shrugged. “…we should start loading.” The blue pegasus walked back over to the stream, picking up her water jug and flying over to the ship. The silver hull was cool underhoof, the interior well-lit even where there weren’t windows. The middle deck did have windows, though, and furniture. A pair of beds and couches, the linens a crisp silver-white, took up the most of the deck, with a table and chairs filling the space between. All of the furniture was familiar looking enough, but the proportions slightly off, just like the ruined towns. The lower deck had no windows, and was full of bins and racks for storage. Dash put her water-filled gourd on a shelf and looked back at Fluttershy, who was bearing a stack of dried fruit. “So, is this what the ship normally looks like or what? It seems awfully convenient.” “Well it is a magic ship,” Fluttershy said, dropping the food into a bin. “It’s probably trying to be nice. Thank you, ship.” The pegasus added, looking around at the hull. Dash rolled her eyes, following Fluttershy as she flew back up the ramp to the surface. But the blue pegasus paused for a moment before leaving, watching Fluttershy soar back up the cliff. “Um…thank you, ship,” she said awkwardly, before shaking her head and launching herself after the other mare. It took them several hours fill all the water jugs and load all the supplies, but eventually they were ready to go. The two of them stood on the main deck, looking over the rail. “So…I guess it’s time to leave.” Fluttershy nodded and looked down at the deck. “Um…ship, if you could take us to the land of the dragons, we’d be awfully grateful.” The ship shivered softly underhoof, and began to slide away from the island. Dash had to brace herself against the roll of the deck as the craft accelerated, wind whipping across the deck as the vessel sped through the waves. Fluttershy turned to watch the island recede into the distance. Dash stepped up next to her, the wind tossing her mane. “Are you okay, Fluttershy? You look kinda glum.” “I still think it must be lonely to be an island,” Fluttershy told her. “Even if it is full of creatures.” Dash didn’t really know what to say to that, so she stayed by Fluttershy’s side until the island slipped out of sight beneath the curve of the horizon. Eventually, though, Dash nudged the other pegasus. “Let’s go below. I’ll make dinner,” she added with a sudden grin. Fluttershy smiled back and followed the mare into the vessel. Dash spent most of the time her time in the cabin, bouncing around a makeshift ball formed of tightly-wrapped vines and leaves. She occasionally took wing, zipping into the air to look around, only to circle back to the ship as her exploration revealed only more water. Fluttershy was less adventurous, spending much of her time simply watching the waves slip past. One day turned into another, and the ocean breeze chilled as they sailed on. The first break in the endless water for the entire journey was a chunk of ice, bobbing incongruously among the waves. “Well that’s…weird.” Dash scowled at the ice. “I wonder where that came from?” “I bet Twilight would know.” Fluttershy said. “I wish she were here to tell us.” “Yeah…” The blue pegasus looked out over the water. “I didn’t realize I’d miss them so much,” she admitted after a long pause. There was a moment of silence, and then she was surprised by Fluttershy stepping up next to her to give her a hug. “Don’t worry Rainbow Dash,” she said. “I’m sure we’ll be back soon enough.” “Heh. That’s what I’ve been telling you.” Dash returned the embrace as they watched the strange sight drift away. “We’ll be okay.” As the light dimmed, the sky north of them flickered with color. The ponies stood on the upper deck, watching the horizon as green and orange flashed, and then swam through the sky. Slow rivers of light danced in the air and curtains of blue and green, orange and pink shimmered far above them. “Wow.” Rainbow Dash stared upward, her breath steaming in the cold air. The two of them were huddled under blankets brought from below, unable to resist the lure of the light show above them. “It’s so beautiful,” Fluttershy agreed, her eyes wide as she watched the heavens. “I really wish the rest of our friends were here to see it. But I’m glad that at least we’re here together.” Dash shot a glance at Fluttershy, but the yellow pegasus was still enraptured by the spectacle overhead. “…yeah, me too,” Dash agreed, huddling deeper under the blankets and returning her gaze to the sky. The sky shimmered and blazed in color as Luna’s night wore on, and it wasn’t until color shone on the eastern horizon that Dash realized she’d stayed up all night watching. “That was crazy. Now I’m really going to have to catch up on my naps.” Dash grinned, looking over at Fluttershy. The other pegasus was asleep. She looked over at Fluttershy for a moment, then stood up, nudging the other pony onto her back and carrying her down to the hold. Fluttershy stirred but didn’t wake as Dash put her in her bed and draped a blanket over her. Dash stood there for a moment, just watching, and then flicked her wings, flying back up to the deck. She watched the sky lighten, the ribbons of color above vanishing, and sighed. “This is cool and all,” she said to nobody in particular. “But I really wish we were getting there faster.” In response, the ship under her hooves shuddered. Dash frowned, and turned around as the silver vessel began to shift again. “…uh-oh.” Between one blink and another, a solid pane of glass slid over the deck, cutting off the wind abruptly. The front narrowed and the whole ship hunkered down closer to the water. The pegasus shook her head from a brief sensation of vertigo as the hull flowed like hot molasses, and then was tumbled from her hooves as they abruptly accelerated. Below deck, there was a thump, and Fluttershy appeared, disheveled. “What’s going on?” “I, um, think I made it go faster. Ah-heh” Dash clambered back to her feet, looking out through the transparent cover that had appeared. The water nearby was blurred, a plume of spray flying out behind them as they cut through the waves. “Oh. Well, I guess that’s okay.” Fluttershy blinked at the changed ship. “Um, thank you, ship.” The yellow pegasus looked at Dash, and she rubbed at her mane and grinned uncomfortably. “Ah, yeah, thank you ship.” Then she paced to the prow of the ship and peered ahead. “I still wonder where we’re going, though.” “The land of dragons, of course,” Fluttershy said as she stepped up next to Dash. “No, I mean...nevermind.” She shook her head briefly. “I haven’t seen anything but water and ice for days. How big is this ocean?” “Um, big?” Fluttershy supplied helpfully, then yawned, swaying slightly on her feet. “I’m still tired…I think I need to go lay down.” “Good -” Dash surprised herself with an answering yawn. “Good idea.” They were woken as the ship slowed and turned, nearly rolling Dash from her bed and pressing Fluttershy against the cabin wall. “What the…?” Dash peered out the cabin window, now sealed along with the deck, and saw high white cliffs rising from an ice-dotted ocean. And far, far above, a winged silhouette glided through the air, the sun glinting off its scales. “Awesome! We made it!” “Ooh.” Fluttershy crowded in next to her at the window, since hers was now facing open ocean. “But are we going to have to fly that whole way up?” “It’s no problem, should be a piece of cake,” Dash said, flexing her wings. “Just as soon as the ship lets us out.” “I wonder where – eep!” Fluttershy flinched back from the window as the ship abruptly dove under the water. As the froth cleared, they had time to see the immense floating bulks of the ice before the ship dived into a hole in the cliff under the water. The outside went pitch black. “Oh, I don’t like this,” Fluttershy backed away from the window, glancing around as if expecting water to come crashing in at any moment. “Relax, Fluttershy, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Dash’s voice was not entirely steady, but she turned to give Fluttershy a smile. The blue pegasus looked out the window, willing the light come back. She didn’t have to wait long; it was only a minute or two before pale blue illumination filtered through, and water sluiced away from the glass. The cabin shape shifted and altered, making her eyes hurt, and a whisper of cold, damp air came from the upper deck. “What’d I tell you?” Dash grinned at Fluttershy. “We’re here.” *** Continued in Part 2 - Hc Svnt Dracones

Daetrin

480

Fluttershy,Rainbow Dash,Adventure,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Off The Edge Of The Map

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy journey through unknown lands.

complete

<p>When Rainbow Dash's newest trick backfires spectacularly, she and Fluttershy find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. Together, they'll have to survive and find their way back to Equestria and Ponyville...no matter how far the journey.</p><p>Now with a Spanish translation by <a href="/user/352294/SPANIARD+KIWI" rel="nofollow">SPANIARD KIWI</a>: <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863" rel="nofollow"><a href="https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863" rel="nofollow">https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863</a></a></p><p>(Originally submitted to Equestria Daily)<br/>Art by <a href="http://katisconfused.deviantart.com/?rnrd=6727" rel="nofollow">katwalk.</a></p>

everyone

2011-08-10T16:10:59+00:00

2011-08-10T16:10:59+00:00

Off The Edge Of The Map Part 2: Hc Svnt Dracones The cavern’s illumination was provided by the sun filtered through an unimaginable distance of ice above, tiny cracks casting a soft glow. At one end the ice was slicked by a small river, tumbling through a hole in the smooth dome of the cave ceiling and foaming along the thoroughfares of the underground dock. And a dock it was. Ancient stone pillars rose from the water surface, and buildings half-swallowed by the encroaching ice defined a broad marina now rimed with frozen spray. The architecture was of the same style as the ruined buildings on the island, half decrepit and half preserved, crumbling where it wasn’t held under an icy shell. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stood on the deck of the ship, looking around at the blue-tinted rock, their breath curling from mouth and nostrils. The entire spectacle felt old, the press of ages writ deep into the bones of the rock and ice. The splash and burble of the river was the only thing that disturbed the quiet. “So where do we go from here?” Fluttershy said at length, her voice even quieter than usual, as if she would disturb the hush of the sleeping buildings. “I’m sure there’s some way out,” Dash said. “They wouldn’t just build a city in the middle of nowhere, right?” “I hope so. It’s cold here.” The yellow pegasus shivered. It was near freezing, and the water splashing over the ice made it look even colder. “Yeah, it’d be a lot nicer if it would just let us out by the cliff.” Dash glanced down at the deck expectantly, but nothing happened. After a moment, she looked back up at Fluttershy and sighed. “Okay, I guess we’re stuck finding our own way out.” Fluttershy looked around again and nodded glumly, trotting down to the hold to get the remainder of their food. Rainbow Dash looked after her thoughtfully, and then went into the cabin. When Fluttershy returned to the deck, burdened with a dozen leaf-wrapped packages, the blue pegasus was busy with blankets she’d taken from their beds. Fluttershy dropped the food in shock, sending dried fruit scattering across the silver hull. “Rainbow Dash! Those aren’t ours!” Dash looked up from where she was tearing strips off the silvery cloth and sighed. “I know, Fluttershy, but we’re going to freeze to death here if we don’t have something to keep us warm. Besides, I asked the ship and it didn’t say no.” Fluttershy hesitated, shivering and visibly torn between comfort and propriety. “We need to, Fluttershy,” Dash said in a softer tone, and Fluttershy finally sighed and nodded. “…all right. But let me help.” Fluttershy dropped her load on the deck and stepped over to where Dash was. She nudged the other pegasus aside and braced her hooves on the cloth, tearing another strip off with her teeth. In the absence of any real tools, the resultant outfits were crude and ragged, but far warmer than going without. While Fluttershy didn’t have any sewing equipment, Dash had to admit they turned out better than she would have managed herself. They wrapped the free strips of cloth around their legs, the remainder of the of the blankets draped sarong-style around their bodies with a rough hood completing the outfit. Fluttershy used the few scraps of cloth left to tie back her tail, so she wouldn’t have to worry about getting it wet and frozen. The two of them looked at each other, swathed in their improvised clothing, and Dash grinned. “Imagine what Rarity would say if she could see us in these things.” Fluttershy surprised herself with a giggle. “She’d drag us off to the boutique by our tails.” They stood there for a moment, smiling, but then the mood soured as they were reminded yet again just how far from their friends they were. At length Dash sighed and started gathering up the scattered food. Fluttershy followed suit as they packed up as much of their supply as they could carry. Dash took wing, skimming over the dock and inspecting the buildings that weren’t entombed by ice. Fluttershy took a moment to look down at the ship’s hull before she followed. “Thank you so much for bringing us here,” she told it. “And for giving us the blankets. Say hello to the spirit for us.” She dipped her head to the upper deck and flew after Dash. The blue pegasus was only intermittently visible as she flew over the half-flooded streets of the ruined port. Fluttershy flapped her wings hard, the wind tugging at the edges of her hood. “Wait for me, Rainbow Dash!” Her voice floated softly through the ancient stones structures, reflecting oddly off the ice. Dash’s voice returned from somewhere ahead, garbled and incomprehensible by the hundreds of echoes. Fluttershy glanced around nervously and paused in her flight as the silver ship floating in the middle of the harbor vanished back beneath the water, heading out again into the trackless ocean. She shivered and flew forward again, nearly colliding with Dash as she turned around the corner of a ragged-edged stone wall. “There you are, Fluttershy.” Dash’s voice had an edge of relief. “We don’t want to lose each other here. This place is a maze.” It was an overstatement, but not much of one. The ice splintered sound in all directions and threw off odd, distorted reflections. The ceiling was too low to fly above most of the buildings, forcing them to flit through ice- and rubble-choked streets and alleys. One look at the crumbling brickwork was enough to deter them from trying to actually enter any of the ruins. In fact, as Fluttershy briefly alit on a projecting platform, the rock gave way under her hooves. She gasped and shot back up into the air, a third of the balcony crumbling to gravel and bouncing down to splash in the flooded streets below. Dash glanced back at the low rumble, flying over beside Fluttershy and looking at broken stone. “Yeah, I think we’d better find a way out of here before the whole thing falls apart on us.” Dash waved a hoof at the far end of the cavern. “I think there’s an exit over there, come on!” She darted away again and Fluttershy labored to catch up. Even the remains of the port city were larger than Ponyville, and possibly even larger than Canterlot, even without knowing how much of it mouldered unseen, entombed forever behind the frozen wall of ice. It took longer than either of them would have liked to reach their destination, winging carefully between the city’s bones. Dash was right. There was an archway cut into solid rock, and an ancient ramp stretching up into darkness. While the base was slicked with rime, it became dry and solid stone before it vanished upward into the gloom. The blue pegasus darted inside to take a closer look, but Fluttershy hung back. “It – it’s so dark. Do you think it’s safe?” Dash’s voice floated out from the cave. “Well, it looks like our way out, so we have to take it. Come on, Fluttershy, the darkness can’t hurt you.” After a moment, she came back out of the passageway. “And besides, you’ll be with me. What’s the worst that can happen?” Fluttershy looked down at the ground for a moment and took a breath, visibly steeling herself. “Of course, Rainbow Dash. You just lead the way.” Dash gave her a grin and darted back into the passageway. They were forced to touch down before they’d gone very deeply, the light fading quickly the further they went up the tunnel. When they could see nothing more than the vague grey silhouettes of each other, Dash stopped. “We’re should tie ourselves together so we don’t get separated,” she said. “You can’t take chances when you’re spelunking.” “Y-you’ve done this before?” Fluttershy asked, watching Dash’s silhouette as the pony unwrapped part of her outfit. “Yeah!” The blue pegasus replied enthusiastically. “Last time we actually had lanterns, but you still need to do things right.” Dash took a strip from Fluttershy’s parka and bent to tie them together. “Well, it’s not rope, but it’ll do.” She took a step forward, then another, the tie pulling on Fluttershy midstep. She stumbled into Dash with a squeak. “Hey, don’t be nervous. Just walk with me.” “Okay…” Fluttershy was glad the other mare couldn’t see her flush in the darkness. She took a few quick steps forward, rubbing shoulders with Dash. Their hooves tapped out a syncopated rhythm as they climbed the ramp, the dim glow from behind fading to an utter black. Now that they were no longer flying, it seemed even colder, and Dash bent her head back to tug one of the folds over to cover her wings. “This is…really dark.” Fluttershy said after a while. In fact, she couldn’t tell the difference between her eyes being open or closed. “Yeah, it gets like that.” Dash’s voice came from beside her. “Some of the spelunker ponies I went with swear it’s a mystical experience, but I don’t get it. It just makes it hard to see. I wish I had a stick or something. You never know when you’re going to run into a blind outcrop or a pit or something…” Fluttershy stopped dead with a squeak. The improvised rope pulled taught and both of them stumbled, falling into each other. They took a moment to disentangle themselves, a task made surprisingly difficult by the darkness. “Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy,” Dash said again. “This part is obviously cut out, and I’m keeping the wall close by so we don’t get lost. As long as we keep going up we’ll be fine.” “I-if you say so, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy took a breath and stepped up to take her place next to Dash again. The other pegasus patted her on the shoulder. “As long as we stick together, there’s nothing to worry about.” Dash told her, and Fluttershy nodded. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that she remembered the other pegasus couldn’t see her, and she flushed in the darkness. “If you say so, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy repeated, pressing closer to the blue pegasus. They started off again, the ramp slowly rising. It was hard for her not to flinch with each step, which her imagination now supplied with jagged rocks and deep holes. But if Rainbow Dash could do it, so could she. The sounds of their hooves echoed far up ahead and behind, fading into the vast, unseen emptiness around them. It was impossible to tell how much time was passing, no way to tell one minute from the next or discern that they were making any sort of progress. In that place, it seemed easy to imagine being lost forever. To Fluttershy, the blackness seemed to expand with every step, the two of them isolated specks in the middle of nothingness. Dash wasn’t completely immune to the thought, but she pressed onward anyway. She didn’t call a halt until her legs were just starting to ache from the climb. “Wait. Do you feel that?” “What?” Fluttershy’s voice floated from just behind Dash’s left ear, low and tense, and the pegasus turned her head to reply. “There’s a breeze. A small one, but that means there’s an opening somewhere around here.” Rainbow Dash grinned into the black. “Maybe we’re near the end of this ramp.” “Oh, I hope so!” Fluttershy sounded relieved, and Dash started off again, kicking against the wall next to her every few paces to make sure they were still on track. It wasn’t until her hoof encountered nothing at all that she stopped again, the yellow pegasus trailing to a halt a moment later. Dash felt around until she found the wall, and a smooth corner. “Okay,” she told Fluttershy. “We’re at an intersection, I think.” She lifted her head, her ears flicking as she felt the breeze, still faint, but definitely there. “To the right, into the breeze.” It took some clumsy jostling, but they got turned in the correct direction and started into the breath of wind. Dash trotted forward, pulling their connection tight, and she strained to see any hint of light filtering down from above. Intent on that, she wasn’t ready for something under her hooves to slip the moment she put her weight on it, tipping her forward. The sarong jerked tight, pinning her wings and keeping her from recovering her balance. Her flailing legs encountered only a void as she toppled and something cracked her across the head. The blackness seemed to blur for a moment as she flailed wildly, her hooves encountering rock walls and scraping along them as she slid to a halt, braced between them. Far below came a series of hollow thumps as the water gourds spun down into the abyss, trailing off into silence without ever hitting bottom. “Rainbow Dash? Are you okay?” Fluttershy’s anxious voice sounded as if it were underwater, and Dash shook her head to try and clear it, her hooves scraping down a tiny fraction of an inch. Cold talons crawled up her spine. Rainbow Dash was far from afraid of heights, but this was different. “I…I think so. How far did I fall?” “N-not far. We’re still attached.” Dash felt something soft brush across her muzzle; Fluttershy’s mane. “All right.” Dash tried to work her wings free, wriggling as much as she dared without any support, straining against the sides to keep from slipping any further downward. After she managed to free her wings from under the wrap, she realized there wasn’t enough room for her to spread them. She carefully tried to work her forelegs up, and froze as she slipped down another tiny fraction. “…can you pull me out?” “I’ll try,” Fluttershy said doubtfully. The sarong pulled even tighter as the other pegasus backed away, bracing herself against the rock and flapping her wings. Abruptly the cloth gave way and Fluttershy tumbled back into the darkness. “Fluttershy?” Dash called. She was beginning to understand the panic the other pegasus felt at times, with no way to move and her legs already beginning to hurt from bracing sideways against the rock. The breeze she had felt came from below, tugging intermittently at the edges of her hood, the cool air smelling of water and cold stone. “Oh, I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash!” There was a slithering sound as Fluttershy crept back, feeling carefully up to the edge of the gap, her hoof finding Dash’s head and coming back wet. “Dash! You’re bleeding.” “I hit my head, I’m sure it’s just as scratch.” The blue pegasus took a deep breath and tried to think. The gap was far too narrow for Fluttershy to get any purchase to lift her out, assuming she could in the first place. “All right, Fluttershy, I need you to not panic.” Her own voice came out shaky, belying her instructions. “Can you do that for me?” “All right,” Fluttershy said in a very small tone. “Okay. This pit isn’t that wide. Can you stretch across it, right by my head?” “I’ll…try.” Fluttershy groped across the gap, shrinking back from the emptiness below twice before finally gritting her teeth and stretching as far as she could, her wings waving as she supported herself, her hooves finally reaching the other side. “All right, Rainbow Dash.” The blue pegasus rested her muzzle on Fluttershy’s forelegs, and used them to lever herself up a little bit, hooves scrabbling against the stone as she lifted herself up a fraction. “Okay, slide closer to me,” she encouraged the other pegasus. Fluttershy nodded softly and obeyed, mane whispering across the stone in the darkness, and Dash repeated the process, using Fluttershy as a living piton and inching herself upward, bit by tiny bit. The walls seemed to become slippery, even though she knew that was her imagination, and she nearly did fall as one of her forehooves encountered air instead of rock. “All right, Fluttershy. Nearly there. You can get back on your side now.” Dash waited until she heard Fluttershy’s hooves on the rock to her left, then braced herself on the lip of the rock and heaved herself upward. As soon as her wings cleared the enclosing stone, she beat them once, lifting herself out and colliding with Fluttershy, sending them both sprawling away from the unseen edge. *** Dash lay on the floor, her heart pounding, gasping as if she’d just flown ten races without rest. Beside her, the other pegasus spoke from floor level. “Are you okay, Dash?” Fluttershy’s hoof touched the side of her face and Dash found herself clinging to the other mare and trembling. After a long pause Fluttershy gave Dash a gentle nuzzle, heedless of the blood matting the rainbow mane. “It’s all right,” she said soothingly. “You’re okay now.” Slowly, Dash relaxed her grip, feeling tremendously embarrassed but by the same measure reassured. Eventually she wobbled to her feet and coughed uncomfortably. “…thanks, Fluttershy.” “You’ve done the same for me,” the mare returned warmly. “A-heh…still.” Rainbow Dash rubbed at her head with a hoof, which stung but seemed to be still intact, the blood drying into a tacky mess. “…I don’t think we’ll be going that way.” “Yes.” Fluttershy agreed, the one word as emphatic as her soft voice could get. “Er…if there is another way.” “I’m sure there is.” Dash turned to face Fluttershy’s voice and something crunched softly underhoof. A package of food, dropped at some point during their misfortune. “But, um, let’s take a lunch break first.” Dash first fixed the broken tie between them, not daring to get even the slightest bit separated in the endless black. They scavenged slowly and carefully, rounding up most of the scattered fruit, but the water gourds were lost forever. Dash ate ravenously, the sweet fruit washing the bitter tang of spent adrenaline away from her mouth. Fluttershy listened to her friend eat, nibbling at the crisp tang of some dried tropical delicacy. The taste was completely at odds with their surroundings, which was suited more to moss and twigs. The strangeness seemed appropriate though, after the past few minutes. She’d never heard that tone from Dash before, even during the Young Flier’s Competition. She’d comforted many, many panicked animals in her life, but never a panicked Dash. She hoped that the other pegasus was up to leading them, because she was utterly lost. After swallowing her last bite and wishing vainly after the lost water, she got to her feet, feeling the reassuring tug of the tie that kept her near Dash. “So…which way do we go?” “Let’s try the other direction,” Dash’s voice came from somewhere nearby. “If the breeze is coming from that…hole, it’s still got to be going somewhere. The tie pulled her off to the side, and she stumbled as she fell in beside Dash, the two of them following the wall back toward the intersection. They were both more hesitant about where they put their hooves now, but the ponies still gamely shuffled along until the ground began to rise again. “See? This has got to be the right way.” Rainbow Dash’s voice sounded normal now, but neither of them had covered their wings again. No matter how cold it was, it wasn’t worth taking the chances, and their feathers occasionally brushed as they climbed. She had no idea how long they ascended, but eventually her legs ached so much that she had to stop. “Rainbow Dash, I’m not sure how much longer I can go on.” “That’s all right, Fluttershy. We can stop here for the night.” Dash replied. “This passage can’t be that long, we’ll probably be out tomorrow.” “I hope so,” Fluttershy said quietly. “I’m beginning to think we’ll never find out way out.” “Don’t talk like that, Fluttershy. Of course we will!” Dash’s hoof found her side, and slid around to give her a hug. “You’ll feel better in the morning.” They bedded down together on one of their blanket-coats, putting a layer between them and the frigid stone, and the other one on top as they huddled together to conserve warmth. The slight, inconstant breeze didn’t help, as the chill air seemed to go right past their coats and into their bones. It was far from a comfortable cloud, or grass, or bed, but eventually they slept. When Fluttershy woke, there was something subtly different about the passageway. She looked around, blinking, and realized that uphill there was an ever so slight shade of grey rather than black. “Rainbow Dash!” Her voice, hoarse from her parched throat, cracked slightly as she prodded the snoring pegasus next to her. “There’s light!” “Huzza-wha?” Dash sputtered next to her, the blanket shifting as the other mare twisted around. “What’s that?” “Light!” Fluttershy repeated. “It’s lighter over there.” “It is!” Dash sounded as delighted as Fluttershy felt. “We’ll be out of here in no time.” The cloth slid away as Dash stood up, bringing a wash of cold air that made Fluttershy shiver. “Let’s get going,” Dash said, her voice muffled by a mouthful of blanket, and Fluttershy bent to pull the other one back over her. She couldn’t wrap it properly in the dark, but it was better than nothing. The still-tied blanket was almost pulled off her as Dash started forward, and Fluttershy hurried to follow. Step by step, the grey grew more pronounced. The tunnel walls became visible as darker shadows, then lighter ones, and eventually they could finally see each other. The two pegasi shared a broad grin, running forward toward the source of the light. They nearly ran off a cliff. The tunnel opened out onto a sheared-away section of rock, dropping down far below to more a slab of grey-speckled granite. The view above was bounded by another immense dome of ice above, and water flowed across the rock, trickling toward tunnels on the far side. They were even brighter, promising sunlight and a way out. Dash didn’t wait. She launched herself off the cliff and into the airy cavern, stretching her wings and flying high over the cavern floor. “Aww, yeah.” The twined blankets drifted down the cavern floor, and Fluttershy dived after them, recapturing them before they fell into the water. Then she joined Dash in stretching her wings, the two pegasi enjoying the light and freedom. Fluttershy wasn’t much for aerobatics, but being released from the unknown darkness was enough to make her want to fly. The two of them circled and wheeled around each other for a while, grinning madly, but eventually Fluttershy decended to a land on a dry outcrop of stone. She bent to drink from the glacier-melt, feeling even more thirsty once she’d started. Dash landed next to her and followed suit, plunging her muzzle thirstily into the pure water. “Now, let me see your head, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said, after they’d drunk enough to make their bellies slosh. “I need to make sure you’re all right.” “Oh, I’m fine, it’s just sore.” Dash waved a hoof dismissively, but on seeing Fluttershy’s expression dropped her head down. “…fine.” She grimaced as Fluttershy poked expertly at her head. The blue pegasus had a large, ugly-looking scab running along her right ear, the skin next to it already starting to discolor with bruising. “Does this hurt? How about this?” “No, no, it’s okay, Fluttershy, ouch!” Dash winced and Fluttershy nodded. “It looks like it’s just a cut.” The yellow pegasus sighed. “I don’t have any of my medical supplies here, but you should still wash it properly.” “I think that can wait for us to get out of here.” Dash looked around at the open cavern. “I don’t know about you but I want to see daylight.” Fluttershy flushed momentarily and nodded, bending to help Dash re-wrap the sarong. They were both shivering from the cold air and colder water, so in her haste to get the blanket properly situated, Fluttershy took one too many steps backward. She squeaked as one hoof splashed into the stream then shook it out and looked around nervously. “Um…is the water getting higher?” Dash frowned at the water thoughtfully. “I don’t know.” She flicked her wings, flying over to the face of the ice where the water was coming from, and peered at the stream’s source. It seemed to be flowing in sheets down the ice from above, and when she pressed her hoof against it to check, she went right through a thin crust of ice. The ice groaned, a deep shudder that went across the immense face. “Um…” Dash said, winging backward from the new hole and looking around nervously. Sharp pops came from above, and Dash abandoned all pretense of caution, flying directly at Fluttershy. The roof fell in. Dash’s hooves went around the other pegasus, pulling her off her feet as Dash sped for the far exit. There was a vast, booming roar as the entire cavern came apart. An unfathomable amount of water from the glacial lake that had fed their drink pushed along splinters larger than a building in an unstoppable tidal wave. Fluttershy clung to Dash, unable to utter a single sound as behind them the water foamed angrily, immense chunks of the ice being tossed about like leaves in a stream. The noise became only louder as Dash flew into the tunnel, the stone resounding with the thunder of the water’s fury. The blue pegasus held onto Fluttershy in return, her eyes narrowed as she flew as fast as she could, twisting and turning as the tunnel bent unexpectedly, ducking pony-sized icicles, the air behind her howling as the water pushed it ahead. The light grew brighter and brighter until they suddenly burst out into another immense cavern. Far below, chunks of ice bobbed on a deep blue lake, and the water fountained forth from the tunnels, tearing off pieces of rock as it spumed into the depths below. Visible through a large opening above them was a broad swath of blue with a few puffs of white. The sky. Dash hauled the near-comatose Fluttershy upward, crossing finally into open air and touching down, both of them panting softly. “Hey,” Dash puffed. “We made it. Told you we would.” Fluttershy summoned a smile for her, but it immediately vanished as a new voice spoke, in a low growl not so far from the glacier’s voice. “Well, what do we have here?” *** The two pegasi turned around to the source of the voice. Sprawled above the cave entrance was a dragon. They had encountered dragons before, of course, or at least a dragon. But this one was larger, its scales a mottled grey and white, and it was regarding them with one silver eye. Fluttershy was staring, petrified, at the beast. Dash took a breath and stepped forward and looked defiantly up at the dragon. “I’m Rainbow Dash, and this is Fluttershy. We’re pegasi.” “Indeed?” The eye blinked lazily. “And what would Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy pegasi be doing in the depths of my mountain caves?” “We’re…lost,” Dash admitted reluctantly. “Two ponies, emerging from the rotted galleries of a long-dead civilization in the frozen north, with no supplies, no food or water, and wearing tattered blankets for clothing; lost? I never would have guessed.” The dragon’s tone was desert-dry, and Dash bristled, half-spreading her wings and glaring. “Hey, we’ve gotten this far. I’m sure getting home won’t be any problem at all.” “Oh really?” The dragon finally stirred, turning around to face them directly, and Dash flinched back. Its other eye was boiled-white and blind, the hide around it ridged and twisted and scarred in a swath that ran from the tip of the muzzle across the left side of its face and trailing off down the long neck. “And what makes you so sure of that?” The dragon gave them a slight hint of a smile, exposing razor teeth. “Oh, you poor thing!” Fluttershy ran past Dash, who watched, disbelieving, as the yellow pegasus walked right up to the dragon’s muzzle. She put a gentle hoof on the scabrous hide. “What happened to you?” While Dash might have been taken aback by Fluttershy’s behavior, the dragon was unruffled. It rolled the blind eye in its socket, the smile widening. “Well,” it said. “If you must know, I had a slight disagreement with a friend of mine.” “Did you win?” Dash blurted it out before she could stop herself. It reared its head back and laughed, the noise booming and echoing around them, and sending Fluttershy back behind Dash with a squeak. The two pegasi watched the dragon bellow its amusement, nonplussed, sharing a glance of mutual incomprehension. Then, abruptly as it had started, the dragon stopped laughing, his silver eye narrowed as it looked down at them. “No.” It slipped off its perch with a lithe grace, stretching vast wings and then mantling them against its back. The dragon began to prowl slowly around them in a circle, keeping its good eye facing them. “So, I am confronted with an interesting enigma. Two ponies, who have no business being in Draconia, let alone in those ancient, decrepit, and otherwise unused tunnels beneath my lair. Pegasi who, unless I am very badly mistaken, belong in the air, and not underground. ” It arched one mocking eyeridge at them. “Exactly how did you manage to get this far from where you belong?” “Why should we tell you anything?” Dash narrowed her eyes at the dragon, keeping herself between it and Fluttershy as it stalked them. “Because, no doubt, you wish to implore my help. What chance have two ponies to traverse this dragon-haunted land alone and directionless? How well will you survive if you can’t find shelter ere night falls?” It waved a claw in the direction of the sun, which the pegasi realized was setting, not rising. The lightless caverns had destroyed any sense of time. “As, of course, I have nothing better to do than take in lost travelers who turn up at the roof of the world.” “…so you won’t help us?” Fluttershy asked quietly, peeking out from behind Dash’s wings. The dragon whipped around quickly, its muzzle stretched into a broad grin. “I didn’t say that, did I? Do you want help?” Fluttershy cringed back from the dragon, but managed to squeak out a word. “Yes!” Dash lowered her voice. “I don’t know, Fluttershy. How can we trust it?” “Because ‘it’ is not a ravening monster.” The dragon interjected. “Well, most of the time. I will help you, but there will be a price.” “What did you have in mind?” Dash said warily, watching the silver eye suspiciously. They both jumped back as the dragon thrust its muzzle toward them, good eye twinkling and blind eye watching them sightlessly. “I must know your story.” *** After the first dragon they’d met, neither of the pegasi were expecting architecture in a lair. Instead of a cave, though, their host’s abode was carved from the living rock. Pillars framed a door cast from iron, with a dragons-head sigil worked on the front in gold. Fluttershy pressed in against Dash as they entered the heart of the dragon’s territory. Dash wasn’t enthusiastic about it herself, but the massive shape in front of them seemed their best chance to make it across Draconia. There was no guarantee any other dragons they met would be anywhere near as friendly. As they stepped over the threshold, the first thing they noticed was it was warm. After the endless cold of the north, they found themselves shivering anew as their skin was reminded of what heat felt like. It was also bright. Skylight shafts cut in the rock and glowing crystals served to drive back the shadows, revealing thick rugs and towering bookcases, holding tomes as large as a pony. Even more striking was the glen visible through a far opening. The splash of green trees and grasses was shocking given the stark rock and bleak ice of the rest of the land. The dragon held the door as they walked through and let it swing back on silent hinges once they were inside. It was no pauper’s home. Dash glanced behind her as the thick metal door slid closed, sealing them off from the outside world, and then looked at their host. “So…who exactly are you?” “You really should have asked that before you requested my help,” the dragon chided them. “Not that my name would mean anything to you.” He rumbled a series of liquid syllables that no pony throat could hope to duplicate. “If you want, though, you can call me Scar.” He tapped the ruined side of his face with a claw. “I am many things, but you can think of me as a scholar for the moment.” “…right,” Dash said doubtfully, putting a wing over the trembling mare next to her. Fluttershy seemed to have gotten smaller somehow, her deep-seated fears growing now that she was confronted with the fact of dragons rather than the idea. Her earlier concern for the dragon no longer buoyed her, which left very little in the way of reassurance. Scar noticed. “Oh dear,” he said. “While a little fear is healthy, even flattering, surely I am not that terrifying.” It was impossible to tell whether he was being sincere. “I’ve only threatened you a little.” He held two claws close together, and Dash glared at him. “She’s afraid of dragons, for your information.” Dash turned her attention to Fluttershy. “It’s all right, Fluttershy,” she told the yellow pegasus. “He’s going to help us.” “I know,” she replied softly. “It’s just…dragons.” The yellow pegasus took a deep breath and stood up a little straighter. “I-I think I’ll be okay. As long as I’m not alone.” “Hey, with me here?” Dash grinned at her, and then looked back at Scar. “So how are you going to help us?” “Payment first. I absolutely must know how a dracophobe has ended up with an entire continent full of dragons between her and anything else worth mention.” “Ugh, fine.” Dash wasn’t feeling particularly charitable to this particular dragon, but it was at least being relatively reasonable. She would have flown to the grassy glade, but with Fluttershy still watching Scar with wide, nervous eyes, she had to settle for walking there. With a small waterfall babbling in from one side of the glade, the tall green trees, and the setting sun staining the leaves orange, it could almost have been something from Equestria. The carved arches framing it on each side, and the roof of rock and glass that cast straight-edged shadows on the grass ruined that illusion, though. The two pegasi dropped onto the grass, the warmth and the sun making them both a little more cheerful. Even Scar appeared less threatening as he brought a large book and a pot of ink to the edge of the glade, stretching out and tilting his head to look at them. “Well?” He invited. It took some time for Rainbow Dash to tell. In fact, the more Dash spoke, the further it seemed they had come. She hadn’t considered their journey in its entirety before, and now that she was talking it out she realized they had been gone for nearly two weeks with no real end in sight. Near the end, Fluttershy had relaxed enough to add in a few soft words. Scar wrote with a clawtip as they talked, dipping it in ink and scratching it across the thick vellum. The dragon didn’t interrupt them except for a very few questions, content to hear it as they told it, no matter that it was jumbled and not entirely coherent. Luna’s moon was riding high in the sky by the time they finished, silvering the grass around them. Dash rubbed a hoof against her throat as she trailed off, feeling hoarse from so much talking, and stepped over to the stream for a drink as Scar finished his writing. “You two are either more lucky or more skilled than you know. You should hope that remains the case,” the dragon said. “Tomorrow I’m taking you to our capital, Eyrie Dracones, the city of ice and fire.” Rainbow Dash spluttered into the stream. Fluttershy cringed down further against the ground. Both of them stared at Scar. “Why?” Dash asked, finally. “I certainly don’t control every tract of land between here and the sea. Unless you can get every one of, oh, two dozen dragons to agree to leave you unbothered, you’ll need a more general easement. I’m sure you can find some way to convince our ruler to grant you unfettered travel.” Dash walked back over to Fluttershy, the two of them exchanging a look of disbelief as Scar rose. “And with that, I have some work to do. Have a good night!” The dragon ghosted back out of the glen, leaving them alone. There was a long, long stretch of silence before Fluttershy spoke. “H-how are we supposed to convince dragons of anything?” “You could always use your stare on ‘em!” Dash said encouragingly, but the other pegasus shook her head. “You know I can’t control it, and with so many dragons I don’t think – I don’t…” Fluttershy trailed off miserably. “Hey, don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll think of something.” Dash put her foreleg over Fluttershy’s shoulders. “Long as we’re together, we’re fine, remember?” “Yeah…” Fluttershy gave her a small smile. It faded quickly though. “I really miss Ponyville.” “Me too.” Neither of them had been particularly homesick before; they’d been too busy staying alive and on track. But between the tree-filled glade and actually telling their own story, they were both thoroughly ready to be home. “I wonder if they’re still looking for us.” Fluttershy looked up at the moon, which somewhere else was shining down on their homes. “You know our friends wouldn’t give up on us, Fluttershy!” Dash gave the other pegasus a gentle tap with her hoof. But she wondered just as Fluttershy did how long it could be before everyone in Ponyville and Cloudsdale assumed the worst. “I suppose not.” The yellow pegasus didn’t sound convinced, and she leaned in against Dash. “I just hope we do get home.” “We will, Fluttershy,” Dash reassured her, following her gaze to the sky. “We will.” *** Their first real bath since they’d gotten lost came courtesy of a hot spring secreted away in one of the innumerable rooms of Scar’s home. “If you’re going to go to court, you need to look the part,” the dragon said as he ushered them into tall, marble-fronted room. “At the moment you have the distinct air of the vagabond.” It was true. Fluttershy’s mane was plastered against her neck, and Rainbow Dash’s was still clotted and matted with blood. Their tails weren’t in much better shape, and both of them were covered in dust and grime from their cave ascent. The blankets were tattered and torn from chance encounters on the rocks, giving the pegasi a thoroughly ragged air. They both could have used a day at the spa, but hot water would have to do. “Do you think you’re up for this?” Dash asked Fluttershy as dirtied water drifted away from where they were scrubbing themselves. “…no,” Fluttershy sighed. “I don’t like it at all, but I don’t think we have a choice. What if all the other dragons are worse than Scar?” “Yeah…” Rainbow Dash nodded and ducked under the water, rinsing out the last of her mane before climbing out onto the marble tile. “But once we’re done with this we’ll be almost home.” She shook herself, water spattering over the tile. “Just keep that in mind.” “You really think it’ll turn out okay?” “Hey, we’ve gotten through everything so far.” She gave Fluttershy a smile as the other pegasus climbed out of the hot spring and began the laborious business of drying herself off. “I don’t see why this is any different.” Fluttershy gave her a small smile back, but neither of them were particularly confident about the upcoming visit. They had to leave the blankets, the torn and stained fabric beyond easy repair, and trust that it wouldn’t be too chill a flight. Scar seemed immune to heat or cold, going from the comfortable interior of his lair to the icy day outside without a shiver. The sun was bright, even if it gave out little warmth, and the snow of Draconia sparkled a brilliant white. The smoking peaks of three volcanoes loomed in the distance, and green bloomed around steaming hot springs and glacier runoff. The landscape held a stark sort of beauty that would have been far more enjoyable if it weren’t for the scaled and winged figures dotted about the horizon. “Now, do keep close,” Scar told them. “We wouldn’t want any of my fellow dragons thinking you’re wandering about unaccompanied, do we?” Fluttershy shook her head silently, and Dash merely rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get going.” The yellow pegasus kept close to Dash as they trailed behind Scar. The dragon’s vast wings cast a large shadow on the ground as he swept down the valley that cut into the land below his lair. The air was just as cold as they might have feared, but exertion warmed them some as they flew toward the heart of Draconia. It soon became clear they were headed to one of the volcanoes, puffs of ash stretching lazily into the sky from the tip of its cone. Most of the mountain’s base was green, stands of evergreens stretching down to ribbon of blue sparkling in a narrow valley, and the winged silhouettes of dragons flocked about it. While no other dragons had come near on their journey, as they drew closer to their destination it became inevitable. Fluttershy squeaked and lost altitude as two other dragons fell into formation with Scar, bracketing the two of them in a narrow formation. Dash dived and helped Fluttershy back up, the yellow pegasus working her wings gamely despite her wide and frightened eyes. The two outriders spoke in the draconic language, a low rumbling and a bark of laughter. “You should know better,” Scar replied. “Our guests do not speak our language and you can certainly speak theirs. It is polite to all stay in the same tongue.” His voice shifted from pleasantly conversational to something with more of an edge. “Or you can continue being rude.” The pair glanced at each other past the pegasi. “Where did you find these two?” One asked. “Are ponies even allowed in Draconia?” “And does the king know you’re coming?” The other one added. “The first question is my story, bought and paid for. As for the other two – no, and no.” Scar turned his head to favor all of them with a wide grin. “Won’t this be fun?” The two dragons glanced at each other again and dived downward. Scar watched them go and chuckled; Dash was far less amused. “There’s not supposed to be ponies in Draconia? Are you trying to get us killed?” “Well, that would be telling.” Scar winked at them and Dash growled in disgust. “Look, let’s just get this over with, okay?” “Indeed.” Scar flicked his tail and headed downward. The city of Eyrie Dracones did not so much come into view as resolve itself slowly from the icy flanks of the volcano. It was cut from the living rock, a vertical city composed of a series of plateaus, each with a broad spread of buildings and an open square. A stripe of blue and a stripe of orange cut through each plateau, cascading downward from one level to the next; water and lava flowing through the heart of the city. The base of the city was bracketed on one side by the water, forming an ice-dotted lake, while magma simmered in an identical parenthesis on the other side. Snow dusted the roofs of the buildings, while sunlight glinted off gold and silver, copper and steel. Metal defined the doors and windows, streets and alleys, fountains and pools. It resembled Canterlot in many ways, though the scale was enormous and the looming bulk of the volcano kept it from looking too familiar. There were even more dragons here, as was to be expected, and Fluttershy made small noises under her breath as she tried to talk herself out of mindless panic. Dash put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder as they followed Scar down. “We’re almost there. Just one stop and then we can leave.” It wasn’t until they dropped down into the city proper that the scale became apparent. Everything was constructed for dragons; even the smallest window was large enough to fit Fluttershy’s cottage through it. They alit on a layer of the mostly-vertical city between two channels; one carried lava and the other water. Even across what was to the pegasi a vast courtyard, the heat of the molten rock was palpable. Fluttershy immediately collapsed to the ground, covering her head with her hooves and trying to pretend there weren’t a half-dozen scaled figures watching them curiously. Dash trotted over to her and bent down to nuzzle her reassuringly. “It’s okay, Fluttershy. They’re not going to hurt us, all we have to do is explain what’s going on. Now, where do we go from here, Scar?” There was no response. Dash turned around to see that their guide had vanished. She gawked for a moment, surveying their surroundings wildly, but she couldn’t see any sign of the grey-and white scales. The two pegasi were alone in a city full of dragons. “That…he…” Dash was speechless. “…okay Dash, finding a palace shouldn’t be too hard. Just look for the biggest building around.” She started pacing around, staring at the various buildings and trying to ignore the small crowd of scaled and winged figures stopping to watch. “Why are they all big?” “Dash, what are – “ Fluttershy squeaked, unable to finish the sentence as she saw the predicament they were in. She scuttled backward from the watching crowd, and it wasn’t until her rear hooves splashed into the aqueduct that she stopped. Dash followed after her with a few beats of her wings. “Yeah, it looks like Scar left us behind,” Dash said breezily, as if it weren’t an issue at all. “We can just head to the palace though, shouldn’t be too hard. A-heh.” “But…the dragons…” Fluttershy pointed behind Dash. “Oh they don’t seem to be…” Dash turned to look at the watchers, and was greeted by the sight of an armored and gimlet-eyed dragon pushing through the crowd. “…oh boy.” The dragon stopped, its steely blue against the dark grey and gold armor, and lowered its head to stare at them. It rumbled something in draconic, making Fluttershy cower back against the water’s edge, and Dash smiled nervously at it. “I don’t speak the language, pal. Maybe you speak mine?” The dragon looked back and forth between them, and then reached a paw out to pick up the cowering Fluttershy – only to jerk back as Rainbow Dash planted her hooves against the back of the paw at full speed. “Don’t you even dare!” Dash shouted at it. There was a pause as the two pegasi and the guard dragon took stock of what had just happened. Then the dragon made a swipe for Rainbow Dash. “Fluttershy! Run!” The pegasus called as she dodged the claw, rising higher into the air. “W-where?” Fluttershy stared around, panicked, and Dash followed her gaze. With the vast scale the city was built on, there weren’t many pony-appropriate hiding spots. On the other hand, what was merely a narrow crack for a dragon was more than large enough for a pony to pass through. “There!” Dash pointed at the aqueduct where it passed among buildings, flowing out of a pipe that ran somewhere deep into the city. It was only half-full of water, but that meant there was more than enough space to fly. Fluttershy needed no further urging; she darted into the pipe and vanished from sight. Before Dash could follow the guard lunged in front of pipe, glaring. It raised its head and bellowed, then growled at some of the watchers in its own language. There was an outburst of laughter, but one of them stepped forward to grab haphazardly at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus winged away easily, but saw three more of the guards flying toward her in a tight wing. “This isn’t good…” Dash shot upward toward the next city level, trusting that Fluttershy would stay hidden. The trio altered course to intercept her, the lead one opening its mouth and letting out a long blast of concentrated fire. Dash veered wildly, the flame following her as the dragon tracked her movement. The heat roiled the air, jostling her flight and leaving her flank feeling half-scorched. Then the dragons were nearly on top of her. Dash dodged upward, away from claws and teeth, and their flying wing split apart, the three dragons moving off away from each other to try and corral her. The pegasus hung for a moment, watching them, and allowed herself a small glimmer of hope. None of the dragons were as fast as her, or as agile. She wouldn’t have bet herself against Scar, but she was almost sure she could outfly these guards. Almost. Dash darted from between the larger, clumsier dragons and out into the open, rolling to the side to avoid another blast of flame and reversing course, slamming as hard as she could into the nearest wing. The dragon grunted, and she veered away from another swipe, her eyes narrowed as she passed between the other two. The three guards nearly collided, but recovered and turned after her again. She laughed and sped ahead of them, giddy from adrenaline. “Hah! Losers!” The pegasus grinned maniacally as she outdistanced her pursuers, but the grin slid away as she spotted two more sets of guards approaching from above. “Okay, this is getting a little crazy.” She paused for a moment, hovering and trying to figure out where to go. Far, far below was a speck of yellow and pink against dark blue. Dash squinted and saw it was Fluttershy, peering out of one of the pipe exits and staring up at her. And coming up from behind her was the original guard, prowling across the stone. “Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash dove. The wind whistled past her as she arrowed down toward the pair, leaving the nine hunting guards behind. The dragon didn’t see or hear her coming, and it was just reaching for Fluttershy as she cannoned into its head with all four hooves. The momentum smashed its head into the pavement with sickening thud, and the dragon shuddered and collapsed. Dash herself bounced off the dragon’s skull and skidded along the pavement before recovering. She stared at the felled dragon for a moment. “Whoah.” “Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy peered over the top of the pipe. “Did you…is it…” “I’m sure it’s fine,” Dash lied, flexing her wings and flying over to where Fluttershy hovered. “But we need to get going. Now,” she added, looking up at the incoming figures of additional guards and bystanders. Fluttershy bobbed a nod and they ducked into the pipe again, flying along the narrow gap between roof and water. Narrow grating let in pools of light, keeping it from becoming too dark, but only giving a view of building walls. “Now what do we do?” Dash sighed. “I guess we’ll have to try and go overland by ourselves after all.” “…yeah.” Fluttershy agreed. “But at least we don’t have to talk to the king of dragons now.” “Heh. True.” Dash looked around. “Do you know where we’re going?” There were dozens of intersections, and it seemed impossible to avoid getting lost. “Upstream,” Fluttershy told her. “There’s a pool and a waterfall that feeds this so if we just follow the water, we’ll get to it eventually.” Dash blinked. Sometimes Fluttershy surprised her with what she noticed and how much she could draw from it. “Heh, I guess it’s your turn to lead.” Fluttershy gave her a shy smile and they flew on, tracking the water to its source. By the time they reached the pool, the pipe’s ceiling had lowered enough that they couldn’t help but get their hooves wet, the water numbingly cold. So it was with great relief that they emerged into the light, far away from all the dragons. All the dragons but one. A grey-and-white scaled specimen stood watching them with a single silver eye. “You’re later than I’d thought,” Scar said mildly. “You must have taken some wrong turns in there.” Fluttershy stared, jaw gaping, and Dash stormed toward the dragon. “You! What are you thinking? You said you would help us but you almost got us killed back there! What is your problem?” “You are alive, are you not? And whole? No bruises or scrapes?” “Yeah, no thanks to you!” Dash’s ears lay flat, her eyes narrowed at their erstwhile helper. “I have done more than you know.” Scar cocked his head at the swarm of dragons flying around the city. “Well, it seems it is time. If you would follow me, there is a final act.” “Follow you?” Dash spat. “Yeah, right. I don’t think so, chump.” Scar leaned down, and the amused, indifferent façade slipped away. “I swear by my good eye,” he said seriously. “That if you come with me you will come to no harm. And you may get what you’re asking. If you leave now, you will surely be hunted every league of your journey.” Dash gritted her teeth to bite back an instant rejection, breathed, and turned to look at Fluttershy. “…what do you think?” “…I don’t know,” Fluttershy said miserably. “I…would we have to talk to any other dragons?” “No,” Scar said quietly. “I’ll do the talking.” “All right, but the first sign of anything funny, we’re out of here,” Dash warned him. “I would expect nothing less.” A smile flickered over Scar’s muzzle. “This way.” It was a short flight upward, and the pegasi expected to be stopped at any moment, but there was a strange lack of dragons as Scar let them in a door on the side of a gold-fronted building. They winged quietly through richly tapestried hallways as Scar padded ahead of them, and the sound of draconic voices washed over them as Scar opened another iron-bound doorway. The hall beyond had a dozen guard dragons in iron pectorals, and a dozen more dragons of various hues in gold and silver accouterment. Conversation stopped as Scar swept in, and the two pegasi paused on the threshold. The one-eyed dragon looked back at them and winked, gesturing them forward as he turned to face the individual who occupied the far end of the room. That dragon was as large as Scar was, perched on a silver dais with a heavy golden chain around his neck. His patterning was similar to Scar’s as well, though blue and green with steel grey eyes, and he growled something incomprehensible as the three of them entered the room. “Now, now, you should know better than to be rude to guests in your own court.” Scar said, sitting down insouciantly in the middle of the room. “But I suppose you haven’t worried about that for some time.” He gestured back at the two pegasi. “You should know who our guests are. They’re the two ponies half the city is looking for right now.” “…he is absolutely insane,” Dash whispered to Fluttershy. “What does he think he’s doing?” Fluttershy crouched behind the blue pegasus, watching the scene over Dash’s shoulder. “I don’t know!” She squeaked, trying to be as invisible as possible. “You’ve sent all your guards to find them – and yes, I say your guards. These that are left belong to me.” The tone in the room changed as the dragons in question stepped forward a pace, grim-faced. Scar stood again and paced forward, turning to look at the assembled dragons. “So, we have two ponies. Ponies,” he said again, with heavy emphasis. “Who have evaded capture even when everyone was looking for them. One of whom engaged four of our royal guard and not only escaped unscathed but defeated one of them.” He gestured at the pegasi again. Dash grinned nervously at all the pairs of eyes that fixated on the two of them. “A-heh…hi?” She waved a hoof. “And still came here on the strength of their will to go home, rather than simply turn and run.” Scar paused, looking around at his audience, and turned to the king. “Too long have you kept us isolated from the rest of the world. If two ponies can make us all look like fools, how much has the world changed? How much have we missed, keeping to ourselves?” “They are the strongest possible proof you have been wrong. You -” Scar was interrupted as the dragon king launched himself out of the dais directly at Scar. But the one-eyed dragon simply grabbed the other dragon’s muzzle and slammed him to the floor. “You haven’t learned,” Scar said, pinning the other dragon down and pulling the chain off his neck. “You may have beaten me once, long ago, but this is not long ago.” The king said something muffled from between his clamped-together jaws, and Scar smiled. “Oh, I’m sure some will object. But I have more support than you, these days.” He nodded to the guards and stood up, the other dragons bracketing the now deposed ruler as Scar ascended the dais. “Now,” he said to the pegasi, and all the watching eyes swung back to them. “I suddenly find myself in control of every tract of land between here and the sea. I believe I can help you.” *** “So this is pretty cool.” Dash tapped the pendant hanging from her neck, the metal ringing under her hoof. “I guess…” Fluttershy looked down at her own medallion as she walked. They each had one, a disc of steel suspended from a fine chain, with a dragon’s-head insignia worked in gold on the face. They were gifts from Scar and, if the dragon were to be believed, would keep anyone from bothering them on their journey south. Wearing it made it Fluttershy uncomfortable, to be associated with something so closely tied with dragons, and the strange warmth it radiated didn’t help. “I’ll just glad to be out of here.” The yellow pegasus shivered. “Too many dragons.” She had to admit, though, that the favor of the new dragon king was helpful. They had been provided with a map, supplies, and new coats to go with their pendants. Fluttershy wasn’t entirely certain what the coats were made out of; the fabric was thin, but like the pendant generated its own warmth. Wondrous though the suits might have been, the stark white outfits would never have met with Rarity’s approval. It gave Fluttershy an obscure sense of cheer to know that no matter how powerful and mysterious the draconic arts might have been, they couldn’t produce something to match the talents of her friend. That thought made accepting the dragon’s gifts somehow more palatable. What Scar didn’t offer was an escort to the edge of draconic territory. Fluttershy was relieved; her nerves were frayed enough from her time in the city. She didn’t know if she’d be able to handle the days of flight south with one right there. Fortunately Dash didn’t seem to be any more eager for an additional companion than Fluttershy. In fact, after a day and a half ensconced in a private and almost pony-sized room at the back of the castle, she was even more eager to leave than Fluttershy. Now, with the last-minute gift of the pendants, they were finally ready to depart. There was just one last encounter. Scar was waiting as they emerged from the interior of the palace. The thick gold chain around his neck bore a dented and scratched ouroboros in iron, faint remnants of delicately worked scales hinting at detail lost to time. He was flanked by a pair of guards, and Dash scowled at him, her ears laid back against her head. “C’mon, Fluttershy, let’s just go.” “Wait, Rainbow Dash.” She would have liked nothing more than to simply leave. But she summoned up her courage and took three steps toward Scar, bobbing her head to him nervously. “Um, thank you for your help, Mister Scar. We’re really grateful that you…” She trailed off as Scar shook his head. “I merely fulfilled a bargain, and used you to my own ends. Less than honorable perhaps, but I can’t say I’m sorry for it.” The dragon chuckled softly. “Do have a good journey. Our land might not hold much for ponies, but enjoy what you can.” Fluttershy gave a small nod and backed away, then extended her wings and rose into the air next to Dash. “One more thing before you leave,” Scar called from behind them, and Dash rolled her eyes. “Now what?” She muttered, refusing to turn around and give the dragon the courtesy of her attention. “Oh, Rainbow Dash, you could at least be polite,” Fluttershy whispered, before turning to look apprehensively at the dragon. “Do remember me to your friends when you get home.” His grin was full and toothy now, silver eye gleaming. “I think I shall be visiting soon. I’m looking forward to renewing an old acquaintance.” “Um…all right.” Fluttershy quailed back from the smile, but the dragon just winked and turned to go back inside. She watched him for a moment, before Dash tapped her on the shoulder. “We need to go, Fluttershy, it’s a long flight south.” The yellow pegasus nodded and followed after Dash. They flitted around the bulk of the volcano, making their way toward warmer and greener climes. According to the map, they’d ended up very near the top of Draconia, and much of it was even less hospitable than glaciers and snowy mountain peaks. The best route they had found cut across a small isthmus of active lava flow, avoiding sulfuric swamps on one side and storm-swept mountain peaks on the other. From there, a river supplied a small ribbon of green as it cut through toxic scrub and skirted the edge of a vast desert. At the southernmost tip there was a symbol for a bridge. Even if it were no longer intact, it would lead them at last into Equestria. The bitter wind smelled of ash as they made their way through the sky. In the distance, a tall mountain belched black clouds into the sky, and the occasional rumble, as of thunder, could be heard echoing through the air. Far below, steam and smoke rippled away from the front of a black-crusted spill of lava, the thermal buoying their flight. “I don’t see how the dragons can live in this,” Dash muttered. “I don’t either,” Fluttershy agreed. “But I’m glad they’re here and not in Equestria. I don’t think they would make good neighbors…” Rainbow Dash laughed. “You can say that again!” Then she chuckled, talking to herself. “Bad neighbors. Heh.” Fluttershy looked askance at the other pegasus, but Dash just seemed happy to be on the move again. That was something she certainly understood; without the dragons it was like a heavy weight was lifted from her back. So she smiled back as they made their way over the charred and blackened land. The small isthmus turned out to be a vast lake of churning rock, dotted here and there by a blackened spire rising from the maelstrom. It would have been almost impossible to find somewhere to land, so it was just as well the hot air rising from below made gliding effortless. But as day turned into night and they left the orange glow of blasted lands behind them, Dash began to flag, dipping lower toward marshy banks of the winding river unrolling beneath them. Fluttershy followed her down, concerned. “Rainbow Dash, are you all right?” “Yeah, I’m fine.” Dash waved her hoof dismissively. “Just kinda tired. Probably from kicking dragon butt!” She grinned and looked around. “So where are we crashing for tonight?” Fluttershy looked doubtfully at Dash, then gave a resigned toss of her head and looked around. The river bubbled down out of the foothills, falling in dozens of small waterfalls as it poured toward the sea. While there were no nearby trees, and the unstable weather made clouds an unlikely proposition, with the hilly terrain it didn’t take long to find a cave to shelter in for the night. “Hello, is anyone in here?” Fluttershy called into the cave, but it seemed to be vacant. The white coats kept them warm on the rock floor, and the draconic supplies consisted mostly of a strange, sweet-spicy berry that neither of them had ever seen before. Dash ate ravenously and stretched out to sleep, and Fluttershy followed suit, though with a vague worry lingering at the back of her mind over the way Dash was acting. That worry was given life when, in the glimmering predawn, Rainbow Dash staggered outside the cave and was noisily sick. Fluttershy sat up, blinking muzzily, and tried to focus on Dash in the faint light of the eastern sky. “Wha-what’s wrong?” “I dunno,” Dash mumbled, shivering as she ducked back into the cave. “Don’t feel good.” She was flushed and shivering, wobbling a bit as she stood. “Oh my goodness. Sit down, Dash” Fluttershy pointed a hoof at the cave floor and the blue pegasus obeyed. Fluttershy peered closely as Dash’s face, putting her hoof on the sick pony’s forehead. It was hot to the touch, and she winced as she pushed back Dash’s mane to reveal the scabbed-over cut on her head. The bruising was an ugly purple and green, and the skin around it was tight. The wound itself was streaked with angry red and splotched with white. “Oh my goodness. Fluttershy, you should have insisted on making sure it was clean.” “What?” Dash blinked at her and Fluttershy shook her head. “Dash, your cut is infected and I don’t have any medical supplies and oh my goodness.” Fluttershy’s wings quivered nervously. “You stay here.” “Wasn’t planning on leaving,” Dash said blearily. Fluttershy ducked a nod and stepped out of the cave. It was true she didn’t have any medicinal tools with her, and she didn’t know any if the local plants would help, but she could still improvise some things. By the time she returned, saddlebags full, Dash was asleep again, curled up and looking miserable. Fluttershy gave her a worried look and dumped out the contents of the bags just outside the cave, kicking stones into a rough circle around the leaf litter and twigs. She pulled off her amulet and sorted through the flint she’d acquired until she found a proper piece, biting her lip as she focused on getting a fire started. It wasn’t a practiced skill, so it took her some time, but eventually the tinder blazed to life. Fluttershy fed the fire with dried limbs from the bushes nearby, which burned with a green and smokeless flame. She used makeshift leafy bowls set around the periphery of the fire to boil water. While the leaves crisped down to the water level, as long as there was liquid in them they wouldn’t actually burn. A larger piece of flint had a sharp enough edge to serve as a knife, and she grimaced as she laboriously sawed a piece of fabric off the back of her coat. That went into one of the heating containers of water while she held the knife blade in the flame itself. Once she was certain everything was ready, she stepped into the cave and nudged Dash awake. “All right, Rainbow Dash, we need to get that cut cleaned out. Come on.” She escorted the blue pegasus out to the fire, the green light casting ruddy shadows in the early morning light. Dash’s fever-blurred eyes widened and she stumbled to a sudden halt as she saw the crude knife and leaf-jugs of water. “Wait wait, what are you going to do?” “We need to clean out your cut. You’ll have to trust me, Dash.” Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy for a moment, her eyes wide, then gave her a nod. The yellow pegasus pulled the other mare up next to the fire, bracing Dash’s head against her foreleg as she brushed back the rainbow-streaked mane. The infection looked even worse in the greenish light, and Fluttershy winced as she picked up the knife with her teeth and cut away the scab as cleanly as she could. Dash snorted softly, her teeth clenched, and Fluttershy stifled a cough as the smell of the discharge from the wound reached her nostrils. She set the knife aside and picked up one of the containers of sterilized water, pouring it over Dash’s head. The bloody water spattered over the ground, and Fluttershy picked up the knife again, letting the blade edge sizzle in the fire briefly before quenching it and using it to remove the last clinging bits of debris and dead skin. After a final rinse, she tied the strip of boiled cloth tight over the wound. It wasn’t as good as a real bandage, but it would have to do. “All right, Dash, I’m all finished.” “…ow.” The pegasus said after a moment. She was somewhat muffled by the cloth having to loop under her jaw. Dash reached up to touch the bandage and Fluttershy gently pushed her hoof away. “Just leave it alone for now, Dash,” Fluttershy said gently. “You should just go back to sleep, and try to get rid of the fever.” “Sleep…sounds good,” Dash agreed. She nearly fell over from the simple act of standing up, and Fluttershy rushed to help her back into their cave. The yellow pegasus made sure Dash was as comfortable as possible before going out to clean up. As the sun rose, so did Dash’s fever, and Fluttershy made several trips to the river for cold water to wash the sick pony’s forehead. The blue pegasus tossed and turned restlessly, but she didn’t wake until midday, hoarse and delirious. “Dragons, Fluttershy!” The yellow pegasus flinched back from the shout, crouching down beside Dash as the other mare raved on. “Gotta fly away…coming after you.” Dash’s wings flapped arrythmically as she tried to get up. “It’s all right, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy put a hoof on Dash’s brow. “You kept me safe.” Dash looked at Fluttershy, eyes wide and searching, and her expression eased somewhat. “…Oh. Gotta…gotta keep going.” “Dash.” Fluttershy said firmly. “Rest now. We’re safe.” “I…” The blue pegasus struggled to articulate something past the fevered haze on her mind. “If you’re sure…” “Trust me,” Fluttershy smiled at Rainbow Dash, and the blue pegasus finally nodded. Her rainbow mane flopped limply as she dropped her head down onto her forelegs, short panting breaths stirring the hairs of her coat. “Right…gotta…gotta trust Fluttershy. S’okay.” The pink-maned pegasus watched Dash worriedly, trotting out to get another container of water. “Here, drink this.” Fluttershy urged. She held the water up to Dash, who gulped it down unquestioningly. “Thanks…” Dash mumbled as her eyes slid closed again. Fluttershy stayed by her side, watching the sun arc through the narrow view afforded by the cave entrance and occasionally nudging Dash awake to give her more water. It was a long, interminable wait. Fluttershy didn’t get much sleep through the passing hours of day and night, making Dash eat and drink as much as possible and fretting over the mare’s condition. The supplies of berries and leaves provided by the dragons began to look sparse as they dropped behind their intended schedule by one day, and then two. On the morning of the third day, the fever broke. Dash woke, gasping and sweat-soaked, but coherent. “I feel like I’ve been pushing thunderheads for three weeks straight,” she groaned, looking up at Fluttershy. “What happened to me?” “Oh, Rainbow Dash, thank goodness.” Fluttershy said, giving the blue pegasus a tight hug regardless of her sweaty coat. “I was so worried. Your head got infected and I didn’t have anything to treat it and I just had to hope you’d be okay on your own.” “So that’s where this bandage came from.” Dash reached up to gingerly touch it and winced. “…I wasn’t really on my own. I don’t remember much, but I do remember you were here. Thanks, Fluttershy.” “I couldn’t leave you by yourself, Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy chided her. “You know that.” “Heh. Yeah, I guess.” Dash wobbled to her feet, flapping her wings experimentally. “We should probably get going, but…” The blue pegasus sighed. “I don’t know how far I can make it today.” “Oh, Dash,” Fluttershy said fondly. “I don’t expect us to go anywhere today. You can just - ” A yawn interrupted her and she shook her head. “Just relax right now, eat and try to get your strength back.” “Right.” Dash took an immediate interest in the nearest saddlebag, and Fluttershy stretched out to sleep for the first time in days. *** They ventured southward in short jaunts, occasionally seeing a winged shape in the far distance but remaining unbothered. With the delay, their gifted food supply ran out far before they reached the isthmus, and they had to resort to eating the too-shiny grass growing along the riverbanks. It was only barely palatable, leaving a copper tang in the back of their mouths. As Dash’s strength returned, their flights became longer, and the bare rock and ice faded into a more familiar scape of greenery. The river dropped below them to carve a deep canyon, winding slowly to the sea beneath steep walls of banded rock. They took one break on an outcropping poised above the spectacle, looking out at the multihued rock cliffs. “I’d still like to be home, but there is some really amazing scenery where we’ve been,” Fluttershy said. “You’d never see anything like this in Ponyville.” “Yeah, we’re going to have a totally awesome story to tell when we get back,” Dash agreed. “They’re going to be so jealous.” “They really shouldn’t be,” Fluttershy said softly. “You almost died. More than once.” “…still an awesome story.” The blue pegasus grinned broadly, and Fluttershy couldn’t help but smile back. The sun was just touching the horizon when the bluffs dropped away to the sea. The river fell downward in cascading rapids, creating a narrow patch of green where dwarf trees and moss clung to the rocky face. More commanding a sight than that though, was an ancient bridge stretching on massive pillars out from the bluffs. It was worn smooth with age, any trace of decoration or gilding eroded away, leaving only an uneven slab of rock reaching out into the sea. The water frothed around the base of the pillars as they stretched in a straight line away from the shore; those that were whole. The first three were intact, but the fourth and fifth had been toppled, leaving only jagged stumps peeking over the tops of the waves. The bridge appeared to have been smashed at some point in ancient history, an enormous break leaving the two halves dangling in the air. Past the break, on the far side, the stone continued to a distant smudge of land. Equestria. *** Concluded in Part 3 - Terra Firma Epic thanks to Mixup and Melionos for their critiquing/editing and idea-inspiring.

Daetrin

480

Fluttershy,Rainbow Dash,Adventure,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Off The Edge Of The Map

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy journey through unknown lands.

complete

<p>When Rainbow Dash's newest trick backfires spectacularly, she and Fluttershy find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. Together, they'll have to survive and find their way back to Equestria and Ponyville...no matter how far the journey.</p><p>Now with a Spanish translation by <a href="/user/352294/SPANIARD+KIWI" rel="nofollow">SPANIARD KIWI</a>: <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863" rel="nofollow"><a href="https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863" rel="nofollow">https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863</a></a></p><p>(Originally submitted to Equestria Daily)<br/>Art by <a href="http://katisconfused.deviantart.com/?rnrd=6727" rel="nofollow">katwalk.</a></p>

everyone

2011-08-10T16:15:12+00:00

2013-10-27T12:08:35+00:00

Off The Edge Of The Map Part 3: Terra Firma Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief as her hooves finally touched Equestrian soil. They had only the word of dragons that it was Equestria, of course, and there were no familiar landmarks in sight. Still, it felt safer here, with the land of Draconia only a dirty smudge on the horizon. “Finally.” “Yeah, we’re almost home!” Dash didn’t bother landing, peering out above the treeline at the northern forest that stretched away from the scrub of the coast. It was all but trackless, and although there were birds wheeling here and there above the trees, no sign of any real civilization. “Well, maybe.” Fluttershy extended her wings again, flying up to share the view with Dash, then dipping back down to the treeline. She cast about among the trees for a moment before finding a nesting hole. “Hello, is anyone in there?” She rapped on the tree with a hoof and smiled at the small brown rodent that popped its head out. “Hello there, little friend. I was wondering if you knew of any places around here where there might be ponies like us.” The animal cocked its head one way, then the other, skittering out of its burrow. It leapt the tree trunk to another, extending its arms and legs and gliding on a furry patagium to another tree some distance away. Fluttershy blinked and looked back at Dash. “See? We’re not lost anymore!” “Awesome. Let’s go.” The two ponies trailed behind the flying squirrel as it glided from tree to tree, leading them deeper into the forest. They passed between evergreens, hooves silent on fallen needles where they landed to fit under the canopy. Their guide scampered ahead, the grey squirrel pausing to look back at them, whiskers twitching as it waited for them to catch up. After a few bushels of minutes, the trees began to thin, and after clearing a final stand of pines the two ponies stumbled on a grassy rut cutting through an open field. An odd scent wafted from the far trees, sweet and faintly spicy, and Fluttershy pawed uncomfortably at the ground, looking around for their guide. “Dash, I don’t think this is-” “ - civilization!” Dash exclaimed. They stood on the edge of a clean-cut highway running through a prosperous town, the buildings proud and clean and crisply painted. “Thank you, little friend!” Fluttershy waved at the squirrel as it vanished back into the trees. The two ponies watched it go, then Dash flew over to an approaching earth pony hauling a cart full of persimmons. “Hey there!” Dash waved, grinning. “Can you tell us where we are?” “Well, hey there stranger!” The grey colt waved back. “Welcome to Cantrot. As pretty a town as you ever will see! Who might you be?” “I’m Rainbow Dash!” The pegasus held a hoof to her chest, then waved it at her companion. “And that’s Fluttershy.” Fluttershy drifted over as she was named, giving the persimmon-hauler a shy smile. “You see, we’re -” “-not in a town at all.” The yellow pegasus shook her head, dazed from the vision or hallucination - she wasn’t sure what it was. “Rainbow Dash, what’s going on?” “I...don’t know.” Dash looked over at where the buildings of Cantrot had seemed to stand just moments before. “But I think we need to get out of here.” “Y-yeah.” Fluttershy nodded, and the two of them turned to head back the way they’d come. She shivered as the breeze blew again, wafting the scent of fruit trees over them. “I -” “ - would love to show you around!” The pony shook their hooves vigorously. “I’m Simon, by the way. Come with me!” The town was almost exclusively earth ponies, they saw, and the affluence of the couples strolling about and the elegance of the storefronts bespoke significant wealth. Genteel colts and elegant fillies walked from store to store, and there were even a scattering having a picnic in a grassy sward near the middle of the town. Simon pulled into a side street next to a large restaurant, sliding out of the halter and rapping a hoof on a back door. Fluttershy dropped down to the ground, with Rainbow Dash hovering overhead as the door opened. “Delivery for you, Simms.” There was a grunt from inside and Simon waved. “I’ll be right around.” The colt turned to them and gestured at the restaurant. “Let’s go inside. The Watering Hole is the best juice bar in Cantrot.” “Oh yeah I could use a drink.” Dash was enthusiastic, but Fluttershy was less so. Something about the situation seemed subtly wrong to her. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came to mind and she ended up just following Simon and Dash into the bar. It was anything but a dive. Chandeliers hanging from the ceiling spread polished bronze arms like tree branches, illuminating the dark wood of counters and tables. The Watering Hole was less than half-full at that time of day, and Simon headed directly up to the counter. A dour colt with a silver coat and even paler mane nodded a greeting to the other earth pony. “A pair of mugs for my friends here!” Simon grinned. “And some of your famous tarts. Something tells me these two have never tried persimmons.” Simms was not impressed. He grunted again and vanished into the back, reappearing with the victuals. Dash plunged her muzzle into the mug, and Fluttershy shook her head at the other mare. “Manners, Dash!” The yellow pegasus bent to bite into one of the tarts herself. It tasted - - bitter. Fluttershy spat unripe fruit, backing away from a low mound in the earth hinted at the remains of a building. She looked around wildly, and Rainbow Dash met her gaze, standing stock-still in the same position she’d had in the false Cantrot. Dash reached a hoof up to scrub at her mouth, making a face. “I can still taste that drink,” she said, her voice shaking a little. “But...that wasn’t real. Was it?” Fluttershy just whimpered. This wasn’t like the dragons, where she could at least see them and run away from them. This was a threat she couldn’t locate or understand - or count on Rainbow Dash to deal with. In fact, Dash’s obvious fear was more disturbing to her than what had caused it. The blue pegasus shook herself, an all-over shiver, and tentatively stepped over to Fluttershy. The two of them looked around, afraid that they might disturb sleeping ghosts if they put a hoof wrong. “Let’s just...fly,” Dash whispered. Fluttershy nodded softly, spreading her wings and following Rainbow Dash into the air. They flew upward as quickly and quietly as they could, getting an aerial view of their location. Below them was the broad, clear area where maybe-Cantrot stood. It was covered now with grass and dotted with bushes, but ripples in the terrain hinted at the long-buried bones of a town. They were a good distance from the road they’d been guided to, the shore and stone bridge now long out of sight behind a screen of tall pines. In the distance green-carpeted hills smudged the sky, shadowed by a few puffs of cloud. It was warmer than the surroundings would suggest, to the point that their dragon-made vests were growing uncomfortable. To the south and west stood groves of persimmon trees, overgrown and wild but still marking neat rows. Even this far up, the scent of the fruits wafted through the air, and Fluttershy’s eyes widened as the smell reached her nostrils. “Dash,” she said urgently. “I think - “ “ - that you should stay the night.” Simon called up to them. “It’s a little wild out there.” “We don’t want to impose...” Fluttershy began, but Dash interrupted. “Sure we do, Fluttershy! It’d be our first real bed in almost a month!” The blue pegasus dove back down to the level of the town, perching insouciantly on The Watering Hole’s sign. “Where are we staying?” “Well...if it won’t be any trouble,” Fluttershy conceded after a moment, dropping down after Dash. “It would be nice to have a bath and mattress. And blankets.” “Just come with me.” Simon waved for them to follow, heading down the main avenue. The setting sun cast purpled shadows over the polished wooden façades of the storefronts and the grass of the town center, and bathed the roofs of Cantrot in a ruddy glow. The colt stepped through the glass-paned double doors of a tall building with H-O-T-E-L in enormous letters projecting from the outer wall above the front entrance. Fluttershy poked her head in, and Dash nudged her the rest of the way inside as she followed after. Like the bar, it was all polished wood, oil-rubbed and gleaming. A young, nervous-looking green colt in a badly clashing red bellhop’s uniform and hauling a two-wheeled cart sprang forward to assist them. “Take your bags, mares?” He squeaked, voice cracking. “Oh, no thank you...” Fluttershy began, but Dash snorted. “Come on, Fluttershy, it’s his job.” The blue pegasus pulled off her saddlebags and dropped them on rickshaw. Fluttershy, with some hesitation, followed suit. “Room Three-Eighteen, Figs.” Simon called back as he stepped up to the counter to talk with the concierge. “This is awesome! I love hospitality.” Dash grinned as Simon turned to toss them keys to their room. The blue pegasus snagged them out of the air and turned to trot after Figs. Fluttershy glanced after them, then turned to Simon. “We...don’t really have anything to pay you with.” Fluttershy said, her left forehoof scuffing nervously at the lacquered floor. “Don’t worry, this one’s on me!” The colt waved cheerfully. The yellow pegasus ducked her head in thanks and followed Rainbow Dash with a growing feeling of unease. The elevator clanked softly as it lifted them to the third floor, soft music playing tinnily from the speakers overhead, and Figs fidgeted in place until the doors slid open again. “This way,” the bellhop said, hooves silent on plush carpet. The hallway was full of gleaming brass and dark wood, and the paintings hanging from the walls depicted Cantrot through the years. It started out small, the building spreading outward and upward as the wealth of the town grew, and always in the background were the groves of persimmons. “Rainbow Dash,” said Fluttershy after looking at the paintings. The blue pegasus paused as Figs went ahead into a room with ‘318’ carved on the door. “Yeah, Fluttershy?” “Do you remember finishing dinner?” “...huh.” Dash frowned thoughtfully. “You know, now that you mention it, I -” “ - don’t know what’s going on.” Dash tumbled through the air. Startled, she stretched her wings, braking to a halt as she tried to get her bearings. Below her, Fluttershy thudded to the ground with a squeak. “Fluttershy! Are you all right?” “I...I think so.” The yellow pegasus struggled free of entangling ivy and got shakily to her feet. Luna’s moon above cast the forest and groves and the surrounding fields in a silver light that seemed all too ethereal. She looked up at Dash’s silhouette, watching as the other pegasus dropped down beside her. Fluttershy looked around nervously, huddling against Dash. “Our...our saddlebags are gone...” She shivered and shrank down against the wall. “I...I don’t know what’s real.” “Hey.” Rainbow Dash put a reasuring hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I am. And I promise I’ll stay right here. We can get through anything as long as we’re together, remember?” “Yeah...” Fluttershy summoned a faint smile. “But...how are we going to get out of this?” “It can’t be too hard, right? All we gotta do is remember -” “-to wake up.” Fluttershy prodded Dash. Sunlight streamed in through the window, reflecting off the wooden walls and bedposts, the thick carpets and coverlets, giving the whole room a burgundy glow. “You want to go home, don’t you?” “Nnh.” Dash squinted up at Fluttershy. “...right.” She slithered out from under the covers, hitting the carpet with a muffled thud before wobbling upright again. “Right.” She yawned hugely, her mane rumpled and frizzed. “Hey, we might even get to Ponyville today!” “That would be nice,” Fluttershy agreed. She donned her saddlebags again, the two pegasi making their way back out of the hotel. The day was bright and clear, with a hint of crispness to the air. Dash had just spread her wings when a voice called to them. “Hey there! Where are you off too in such a rush?” It was Simon, the blue-maned pony trotting enthusiastically in their direction. “We’re, um, headed home.” “Yeah,” Rainbow Dash added. “We’ve got so many cool stories to tell our friends, I can’t wait!” “What’s wrong with Cantrot?” Simon asked. “After all, everyone you remember is here.” “...what?” Rainbow Dash frowned at the colt, but her attention was jerked away as a voice called from the side. “Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash!” The sunlight framed four ponies standing in the middle of the main avenue. Their four friends, exactly as they remembered them; Twilight and Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack. Twilight was waving at them. The pegasi exchanged a started glance and rushed over to the other ponies. “Hey, when did you get here?” Rainbow Dash asked, grinning widely. “Silly Dashie!” Pinkie bounced in place. “We’ve always been here!” “Good to see ya’ll.” Applejack put in. “I -” “-miss them so much.” Fluttershy burst into tears. “Why did it have to show us that? We’re never going to see them again, are we?” “Shh. I’m sure we will.” Dash put her foreleg around the yellow pegasus, looking at the empty field where the phantoms of their friends had stood. “We just have to figure out how to deal with this. If we can remember what’s going on in the other place, we might be able to just walk away, right?” “I...guess?” Fluttershy was willing enough to let Rainbow Dash take the lead. Despite being on home soil, she felt more lost among the ghosts of the Cantrot ponies than among dragons or on the trackless ocean. The sun stood high in the sky, midday already slipping past them. With every transition they lost time, and Fluttershy could feel hunger and thirst fighting for attention past the taught anxiety filling her. “I hope you’re right, Rainbow Dash.” “Sure I’m right.” Dash helped Fluttershy to her feet, the blue pegasus stretching her wings The wind blew through the nearby grove, rattling the branches and tossing the leaves in a soft sussuration. “And if we start moving now, we might get - “ “ - you to hold still, dear.” Rarity’s horn glowed softly as the fabric slithered over Fluttershy’s shoulders. “Otherwise we’ll never get this fitting done.” “Oh, I’m sorry.” Fluttershy ducked her head in chagrin. The view out the window caught her eye, and she blinked slowly. Past the immaculate interior of the boutique, the framed glass looked out on the sun-soaked streets of Cantrot. There was something strangely wrong about it, and Fluttershy frowned, thinking. Outside the window, something kindled alight. Flames licked upward, hazing the view between the boutique and the rest of the buildings. Fluttershy squeaked and backed away from the sudden inferno. “Ra-Rarity! There’s something on fire!” The unicorn gave an exasperated sigh and the pins floating in the air returned to their cushion. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, Fluttershy. You’re making it difficult to work here.” “I...” Fluttershy shook her head, and the flames were gone as abruptly as they had appeared. “...where’s Rainbow Dash?” She felt suddenly and unaccountably alone, even though Rarity was right there. The fashionista gave her a blank look. “Out flying around somewhere, I’m sure. Why -” “I-I’m very sorry, Rarity,” Fluttershy said, backing toward the door. “But I, um, have to go.” The pegasus turned and fled, winging up into the sky above Cantrot. She looked around frantically, surveying the town for a flash of rainbow mane and tail. She spent several minutes casting about the buildings, attracting surprisingly few glances from the richly attired ponies walking below, but with no success. True panic was just starting to set in when the blue pegasus bolted out the window of a nearby store, nearly colliding with Fluttershy on her ascent. “Fluttershy!” “Rainbow Dash!” They spoke simultaneously, and Fluttershy flushed briefly, putting her hooves over her muzzle. After a brief pause the blue pegasus continued. “I think there’s something weird going on, Fluttershy.” “Did...did you see fire too?” Dash gave her a startled look. “Yeah, actually. Nopony else seemed the care though.” “What’s happening, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy looked around warily, as if expecting to see the air itself ignite. “I’m not sure. But I bet Twilight would know!” The two pegasi glanced around, and Fluttershy spoke again. “Um, shouldn’t there be a tree that she lives in? I remember-” “-that we’re doing better,” Dash said encouragingly. “We almost had it that time.” Fluttershy blinked at the clear sky, shaking the last remnants of Cantrot from her head. “...I don’t know, Rainbow Dash, that just seemed worse.” They were deep in the persimmon groves now, the tree canopy providing patches of shade across the grassy rut of the road. The orange fruits weighing down the branches would have normally looked delicious, but now the very sight turned Fluttershy’s stomach. Rainbow Dash helped her to her feet, and the yellow pegasus leaned against the other mare. “We’ve got to keep it together,” Dash said. “I’ll try.” “You’ll do more than try. I’m not leaving you behind.” Fluttershy smiled faintly at the strength in Dash’s words. It seemed the blue pegasus always had a boundless reserve of energy and optimism, even in the worst situations. And this certainly qualified as one of the worst. The rows of persimmon trees stretching out over the hills were like some strange mockery of Sweet Apple Acres, and Fluttershy could almost see a phantom Applejack trying to buck down the fruits. The involuntary thought made her wince, and she stared fixedly down at the ground instead. “You know,” Dash said after a moment. “It’s like every time we try to remember-” “-me to your friend.” Fluttershy blinked at Simon, something itching at the back of her mind. “What did you say?” “I asked if you were going to introduce me to your friend.” The colt grinned broadly, looking from her to Applejack, but Fluttershy shook her head. “No...it was...” “Remember me to your friends,” a deep voice rumbled, giving voice to her thoughts. Fluttershy stared in shock at the massive bulk of a scarred dragon, crouching among the fruit trees, barely noticing the flames flickering at the edges of her vision. “Wh-Scar!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, the blue pegasus startled into the air, wings fluttering as she hovered in place. “What did you get here?” “I have always been here.” The dragon blinked languidly, tail flicking and rustling among the trees. Fluttershy backed away from the apparation, only to stop with a squeal as flames licked at her flanks. She bolted back away from the sudden boil of fire, belatedly spreading her wings to rise above the trees. Cantrot burned. Thick smoke boiled away from the buildings, blackening the sky and fouling the air. Dash flew up next to her and they stared at the sight. The long streets of glossy wooden buildings withered and cracked under the heat, paint peeling and floating into the air as it turned to charcoal. The horrifying vision persisted until Applejack called up at them. “Hey, what are ya’ll looking at?” The flames winked out as if they had never been, Cantrot standing whole and undamaged against the first faint stars of twilight. “You didn’t see the fire?” Fluttershy asked incredulously. “Don’t know what you’re talking ‘bout there, Fluttershy,” the earth pony replied, tilting back her hat with a hoof as she looked upward. Their friend looked incongruous standing next to the scaled paw of an enormous dragon, and the yellow pegasus felt something was profoundly wrong. “Rainbow Dash,” she said quietly. “There’s something here that isn’t...isn’t right.” “You can say that again.” Rainbow Dash scowled at Scar, who arched an eyeridge at them inquiringly. “It’s all like a dream. Or a memory.” Fluttershy nodded miserably as Applejack gave them a confused tilt of her head. “I have no idea what ya’ll are on about. Have you spit your bit or somethin’?” “Nah, we just -” Dash was interrupted by Pinkie Pie bouncing into view, fairly bubbling with the cheery joy that she gushed forth like an endless fountain. “Applejack and Simon and Scar and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash! We’re going to have a party!” Fluttershy sank down to the ground as Pinkie capered over to them. “Are you going to come and have fuuuuuuun?” “...no, Pinkie.” Fluttershy sighed, and Dash dropped down to hover overhead. “Yeah, we’re real sorry, Pinkie, but...not this time.” “Aww, why not?” The pink pony stared at Fluttershy with big, blue, soulful eyes. “Because, Pinkie...” Fluttershy found tears streaming from her own eyes as she looked at her friend. “I don’t think you’re real.” Smoke streamed away in the breeze, staining the early morning sky. The ground wavered underhoof, the yellow pegasus faint from lack of food and water. She took a step, and felt Dash supporting her from the left. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash.” Her voice was hoarse, and Dash’s was equally ragged as she responded. “We’re getting out of this together.” Dash looked around at the endless groves around them. “Just keep walking.” “Where’s all the smoke coming from?” Fluttershy coughed, turning her head away from a particularly dense swirl threatening her already abused throat. There didn’t seem to be any fire, any evidence of heat on the grass and trees, the blades green and lush under their hooves. “It’s got to be coming from that fire in the...other place.” Dash followed Fluttershy’s example, snorting and spluttering at the smoke curling about her muzzle. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.” The two ponies stopped as orange tongues curled up ahead of them. The fire surrounded them, rising like a wall on every side. Steps came from behind the pegasi, and Simon approached them. “Please don’t go,” he begged. “You are the first ones to remember us in so long.” “What’s going on here?” Dash took a step forward, baring her teeth at the earth pony. “Why is everything on fire?” Simon sighed, dancing flames reflected in his eyes. “It took everything,” he said softly. “The fire consumed the forest, the groves, the entire town, colt, filly, and foal, down to the bare earth. All that was left was the memories of the earth and the trees.” “What does that have to do with us?” Dash demanded. “We’re not from Cantrot!” “No.” Simon took another step toward them, and the flames roiling in his eyes seemed hungrier somehow. “But you can carry -” “Carry my memory with you.” Fluttershy said softly. Another flame kindled, but this one was green and cool, and no smoke came from it as it grew to a towering figure, with a lion’s forepaws and an eagle’s claws, a scaled head and two long horns. Blue flickered in the empty sockets of the god as it surveyed the two pegasi, and turned to look at the phantom pony. Simon flinched back from the empty gaze, but to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy the presence of the spectre was a welcome relief. “Aww, yeah. We’ve got a god on our side now!” Dash grinned, and the enkindled spirit gave the blue pegasus a look of non-expression that was somehow quelling. It breathed in and out, and the fire died away, leaving the ghosts of Cantrot. They surrounded the small group, couples and children and foal carriages, and behind them the buildings stood in stark relief. Fluttershy could see Figs and Simms in the crowd, as well as some of the ponies they’d run into here and there. Every single one was watching with wide eyes. The earth pony standing in front of them finally found his voice with a question. “What will we do?” He asked, helplessly. All. Things. Must. End. In this place, the god’s voice was the roar of surf on sand, bringing with it hints of the tropical island that was its home. Simon shook his head. “We don’t have anywhere to go.” Fluttershy was not a complete stranger to death, not with all the sick animals she dealt with. She had no more knowledge of what came after than anyone else, but it was obvious to her that these ponies were stuck somewhere between. “...isn’t there anything you can do for them?” She pleaded with the god. Blue lights flared in empty eyesockets. The spectre surveyed the lost inhabitants of Cantrot, the lingering memory of a town long dead. You. Can. Wait. With. Me. “Wait...for what?” The expression on Simon’s face was mirrored by every single Cantrot pony in a moment of eerie synchronization, and the god’s two-word response made Fluttershy shiver. The. End. Simon looked at the fiery being for a moment, then around at the watching crowd. Finally, he bowed his head in a gesture of assent. Fire spread outward again, but this time it was the cool, soothing foxfire of the god’s own essence that engulfed the ghosts, and not the inferno of their own tragic past. “Wait,” Rainbow Dash said. “So...are you a memory too, or are you actually here?” The answer came as a sigh, rippling from somewhere far away. Yes. *** Reality slammed into them like a thunderbolt. Two days without food, water, or sleep drove Rainbow Dash to her knees and Fluttershy to the ground. The blue pegasus panted, dazed for a short while before helping the other mare to her feet. “Come on,” Dash croaked past her parched throat. “We should go.” No ghosts stopped them as they stumbled downhill toward a small rill that trickled through the grass. They more collapsed than stopped, slurping up the precious water in greedy chorus. Once they’d slaked their thirst, Rainbow Dash grinned and poked the yellow pegasus with a hoof. “Hey. Told you we’d get out of there.” “Heh.” Fluttershy gave her a tired smile. “Yeah. I’m going to have nightmares for years, though...” “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. We’re okay now.” Dash put a hoof around Fluttershy, and the mare leaned back against the blue pegasus. “I thought we were almost home,” Fluttershy murmured. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take, Dash.” She closed her eyes, drawing comfort from the presence of the other pegasus. “I’m not strong like you.” “You’re just as strong as I am, Fluttershy,” Dash told her. “And don’t let anypony tell you otherwise.” The yellow pegasus opened her eyes, looking over at Dash. The mare gave her a trademark grin, and Fluttershy smiled back. “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” Rainbow Dash almost flushed, but instead shook her head at her companion. “They haven’t been traveling with you. We are almost home, Fluttershy, and the last thing I’m worried about is you not being strong enough to make it.” More days slipped by as they recovered, eating grass and drinking water. It was a rest not just of body but also of soul; more than once did Fluttershy jerk awake in the middle of the night, and more than once did Rainbow Dash reach out and touch the other pegasus to make sure that, yes, she was really there. Neither of them were disposed much to linger, though, and it was not too long before they were off again. South was the only direction they had in mind; neither pegasus had even a vague knowledge of the shape of the continent this far from Ponyville. They didn’t stumble across any other overgrown roads or ruins, there was only a seemingly endless stretch of virgin forest and field. Whenever Fluttershy spotted an animal, squirrel or rabbit or bird, she inquired after the presence of ponies. It availed them not at all until they crossed a series of rock-littered hills, the deep grooves of a glacial moraine providing a network of tiny lakes. There, finally, a bluejay chirped and danced as it talked to the yellow pegasus, and she broke into a broad grin. “What’d it say?” Dash peered over Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Southeast,” Fluttershy replied. “I don’t know if it’s Ponyville, but there are some ponies there!” “Awright!” Dash whooped, looping around in the air in sheer exuberance. Fluttershy giggled and followed the other mare’s example, albeit with far less daring aerobatics. The airborne dance went on for some minutes, until Dash finally stopped and chuckled. “We should get going.” “I suppose so.” The yellow pegasus stopped and followed Rainbow Dash back up to cloud level. The two of them went from cloud to cloud, gliding more than flying in an energy-conserving, long-endurance technique that had become familiar to them over the journey. The shades of green in the panoply spread below them shifted slowly throughout the day, until the vegetation looked nearly familiar. “I think,” Fluttershy said at length. “That this is part of the Everfree Forest.” She looked around, but the haze hanging in the air obscured anything beyond the nearby trees. “I think you’re right.” Dash waved a hoof at a dark smudge to the east. “See that? I bet it’s one of the storms that the forest makes, and they’re not as well-behaved as ours.” “Oh.” Fluttershy peered at the dark smear nervously. “Is it coming this way?” “Can’t tell yet. But we’re headed toward it, so either way we’ll probably have to take shelter somewhere tonight.” The yellow pegasus nodded, then smiled briefly. “After all that we’ve been through, the Everfree Forest doesn’t seem quite so frightening anymore.” “You can say that again.” Dash squinted at the storm. “I think it is getting closer. Come on, let’s find somewhere to stay.” The two of them circled down into the trees as the wind began to pick up, hissing through the branches of trees and sending leaves tumbling through the air. The Everfree Forest was riddled with caves and burrows and it didn’t take them long to find an abandoned grotto scraped into the face of a nearby hill. Even so, thunder growled spitefully in the distance and the first few drops of rain spattered against the rock just as they entered the shallow cave. “Even the animals are hiding,” Fluttershy observed, peering out of their hiding place. “Yeah, the storms can get kind of lively.” A flash of lightning and a sharp crack of thunder punctuated Dash’s words, and Fluttershy took a few steps back from the cave entrance. There wasn’t much room; the shelter provided little more protection than an overhang. That was no doubt the reason it had been abandoned, but it was enough to block the wind starting to gust through the trees. “Um...how lively?” Fluttershy asked apprehensively as the gusts turned into a keening howl, the clouds turning the evening sky nearly black. The rain drummed on the ground, falling in sheets before the sudden gale. “We might get a little wet,” Dash said, waving a hoof dismissively. “We’ve been through worse.” Fluttershy giggled softly. “Yes, we have. I think we can survive that.” The blaze of nearby lightning and accompanying booming of thunder wiped the smile from Fluttershy’s face, but didn’t entirely erase her sangfroid. It wasn’t until the intermittant flashes illuminated a looming funnel shape that the yellow pegasus became restless. “Um...Dash? Is that what I think it is?” “...yeah.” The sound of the wind became a rumble, vibrating the ground underhoof. Dash took her own step back, bumping against the back wall of the cave. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come this way.” While the blue pegasus may not have paid much attention to flight school, she was an undisputed expert on weather. She’d seen enough storms, pony-made and otherwise, to realize that this was dangerous. Fluttershy huddled against her, the two of them staring out of the cave entrance at the storm’s fury. The rumble became a roar, and suddenly their hideaway became a pocket of harsh wind, the air raking its talons across them. Dash braced herself against the floor as the currents dragged her toward the opening, hooves scraping against the stone. “Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy called, her voice high and panicked, barely audible over the noise. She was slipping even faster than Dash was, drawn inexorably toward the screaming vortex just outside the cave. The blue pegasus freed a hoof long enough to lock her foreleg with Fluttershy’s, but they only slipped faster. Dash made a decision “Hold on, Fluttershy!” Her words were whipped away as soon as they left her mouth, but the yellow pegasus looked at her and gave a quick nod. Dash launched herself off the floor, grabbing onto Fluttershy in the process as she tumbled into the maelstrom. Rainbow Dash was the best flier to ever come out of Cloudsdale; if anyone could escape an Everfree tornado, she could. The sound was something beyond noise. It shook her bones and rattled her teeth, leaving Dash completely deaf as she struggled to get her bearings, wings working hard as she fought against the gale. She could feel Fluttershy’s legs tight about her as the other pegasus clung close, though she couldn’t actually see the mare except during brief flares of lightning. Small debris stung the blue pegasus, fast enough that there was only impact and numbness. Nevertheless, she forged outward though the walls of wind, the world swinging by in a vertiginous rush until they finally broke free. The two pegasi went tumbling through the air, and Dash shouted exultantly. “Hah!” And then the storm flung an entire tree at them, roots still clinging uselessly to rock and dirt no longer connected to the earth. Dash’s world came apart in an explosion of stars and pain. There was a moment of blurred uncertainty, and the blue pegasus found herself tangled in the canopy, soaked with rain and shivering. In the next stroke of lightning, she saw that she was alone. She opened her mouth to call for Fluttershy, and she realized that she couldn’t even hear herself. She struggled free of the branches, peering around wildly for the other pegasus. The angry funnel was still uncomfortably near, and the blue mare searched frantically for any sign of her companion. In the inconstant light of the storm, she saw a patch of pink amidst a litter of branches. “Fluttershy!” This time her voice was tinny and distant, but there was no response as she darted downward, pulling off the remnants of a tree’s crown. The yellow pegasus didn’t move. “Oh no. No no no.” A rumble underhoof and a fast-moving branch leaving a bloody welt across her flank forcibly drew Dash’s attention back to the tornado. It curved sinuously up to the dense clouds above, twisting around on itself as it changed direction. Toward them. “You have got to be kidding me.” Dash stared in disbelief, but not for long. There was no time to be careful, so she simply gathered Fluttershy up and spread her wings. It was as nightmarish a flight as she’d ever taken. She had to fly low, to stay out of the lightning-licked clouds, and the tops of trees reached up to clutch at them like claws. It was nearly black, illuminated only by the arrhythmic strobe of the storm, and the wind gusted unpredictably, as if trying to send them crashing to the forest floor below. Dash was soaked to the bone, and the sky couldn’t decide whether rain or hail was more appropriate, pelting her with both as she darted away from one, two, then three gluttonous funnels. The storm chased them. Black clouds pregnant with rain swirled and roiled, gaining a malevolent green cast as the wind whipped them. Blinding flashes of electrical discharge made the air smell bitter and tense, coming uncomfortably close to striking Dash in her headlong flight. Abruptly, Dash broke into an eerie calm. Moonlight streamed down over tumbled stone and shattered glass, and the blue pegasus knew where they were. The stormed piled up angrily at some unseen barrier, unwilling or unable to cross the gorge that surrounded the looming spires of the ancient Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. Dash dropped into the shattered courtyard, laying Fluttershy down on a patch of grass showing through the cracked flagstones. “C’mon, Fluttershy,” she urged, patting the mare’s cheek with her hoof. “Wake up.” The silver moonlight bleached the color from the world, giving Fluttershy a monochrome palette of white coat and black blood. After a long, long moment, Fluttershy stirred, and Dash let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “Fluttershy! How are -” She stopped herself. Neither of them were in good shape, bruised, battered, and bloody, and asking Fluttershy how she was struck her as supremely stupid. “Can you stand?” She asked instead, looking worriedly down as Fluttershy’s eyes flickered open, glazed and unfocused. “...hurts, Dash,” Fluttershy whispered, barely audible over the rumblings of the frustrated storm. “What -” Rainbow Dash looked over Fluttershy, gut twisting as she saw where her companion’s left wing was crumpled unnaturally against her body, bloody gouges along her flanks bearing testament to where the tree had impacted. “Oh, no...” Dash ducked her head down to Fluttershy’s muzzle. “Fluttershy,” she said urgently. “You’re hurt and I, I don’t know how to fix it.” Fluttershy visibly struggled to focus on the other pegasus. “B-be calm, Dash.” She shivered and winced. “M-maybe a fire, first.” “Fire. Right.” Dash swiveled her head, looking around for any likely prospects. “Don’t move,” she added unneccessarily before zipping off. There would have been no chance of igniting any timber from the forest, but within the palace grounds it was dry. Over the weeks of their journey, Dash had learned some things from Fluttershy, so it wasn’t long before a fire was burning to drive off the cold and damp. The firelight brought color back to the world and made both their injuries look even worse, but it also gave Dash time to start thinking properly again. She nudged Fluttershy back to full wakefulness. “I don’t know how to splint a wing, Fluttershy. You’ll have to tell me.” The yellow pegasus glanced back along her own body and shuddered. “A-all right, Dash. You need to f-find some wood. Flat wood.” “On it.” Dash was off again, casting worried glances at the pegasus huddled miserably by the fire. While Rainbow Dash had, on occasion, been tended to by Fluttershy after some mishap or another, there had never been any need to learn much first aid herself. Now, though, she wished she had. It seemed fundamentally wrong that Fluttershy should have to coach her own care. Dash hunted through the detritus of the tumbled palace, trapped by the hostile storm rumbling and roiling just outside the encircling gorge, restless with feelings of frustration and useless. It was exactly how she felt when she lost. She finally pried some wood veneer off the paneling of a half-destroyed staircase, the wood so thickly lacquered that even after a thousand years it remained untouched by damp or mold. The blue pegasus flitted back to the circle of brightness cast by their fire, dropping her findings next to Fluttershy. “How’s this?” “Perfect.” Fluttershy looked pale underneath the yellow fur, but Dash couldn’t tell whether it was due to the moonlight or her imagination or shock. “So what’s next?” Dash shivered slightly as the heat of the fire stole into her skin. “P-padding,” Fluttershy said faintly, but her next words came out louder. “You’ll have to pull my wing straight and I -” She swallowed. “I might not be conscious a-after that so I need to tell it all now.” Rainbow Dash winced. “Fluttershy, I’m sorry. I should have learned all this before instead of making you -” “It’s all right, Rainbow Dash.” The yellow pegasus put a hoof on Dash’s foreleg. “You can’t do everything yourself.” She smiled softly. “We’ll just work together. We’re getting pretty good at that.” “Heh. Yeah.” Dash tried to smile back, but it didn’t reach her eyes. After a long pause, Fluttershy continued. “You’ll need to put padding between the boards and the wing, and then tie it in place somehow. I’m not sure what we h-have...” “Don’t worry, Fluttershy, I got this.” Rainbow Dash eased the saddlebags off Fluttershy and then shed her own. The coats they’d gotten from the dragons, indelibly white even after all they’d worn them, went onto the boards as padding. The saddlebags themselves she cannibalized for their straps, laying them out next to the boards. “All right. Ready.” Fluttershy nodded and ducked her head down, closing her eyes. Dash slid the bottom board into position and then carefully took the wingtip in her mouth, pulling slowly. The yellow pegasus whimpered softly, then went limp, but Dash continued, blinking back tears. The sight of bones shifting into place was nauseating, and her stomach twisted as she brought the wing to full extension. Rainbow Dash had to pause a moment to fight back her bile before continuing the splint. She fastened the buckles around the top piece of wood, careful not to let it squeeze the injury. The splint slipped briefly as Dash laid the splinted wing back against Fluttershy’s body, and she bit her lip, glad the other pegasus was already unconscious. Dash tore apart the saddlebags themselves to provide straps to secure the wing to Fluttershy’s body. She wasn’t sure what the material was, but with the amount of effort it took to make it into strips, she didn’t think it would fail. It was the very last scrap of their supplies, too, so it would have to do; it only had to last long enough for them to get back to Ponyville. The blue pegasus began feeling shaky as the adrenaline high faded, but mindful of her own experience with untreated wounds, made the trek to a small rivulet she had noticed earlier. It was by now practiced habit to make a cup out of leaves, and she brought back several to tend the worst of Fluttershy’s cuts and scrapes. The storm rumbled and growled around the periphery of the palace, but the moon and stars were clear above. Dash lay by her unconscious companion, looking upward, and felt suddenly and unaccountably sad that she would never see the strange skies of the north again. “Don’t be silly,” she told herself. “You should be glad to be home.” Still, it was melancholy that kept her company while she waited through the long night for Fluttershy to wake up. She fed the fire twigs and branches, listening anxiously to the injured mare’s breathing and watching the dome of the sky wheel slowly overhead. As it lightened from black to purple, the stars vanishing in anticipation of a new day, the storm ebbed away, fleeing before the dawn. Fluttershy finally woke when the light stained the retreating clouds pink and orange, lifting her head up and blinking slowly. “Rainbow Dash?” “I’m here, Fluttershy.” Dash trotted back bearing another bundle of wood for the fire. “How’s your wing feeling?” “Well, it hurts less.” The yellow pegasus favored her companion with a weak smile. “You did a good job.” “Heh. Thanks.” Dash scuffed the ground briefly, then walked over to help Fluttershy up. “Come on, the storm’s gone so we should be able to make it to Ponyville today and get it seen to properly.” “What?” Fluttershy looked around, startled, only really seeing their surroundings for the first time. “Oh, we’re almost home! Actually almost home!” “Yeah!” Dash grinned. “So long as nothing else happens.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Dash slapped her hooves over her muzzle and looked around, but fate didn’t seem tempted enough to present them with another immediate obstacle. Fluttershy giggled, then rose shakily to her feet, wincing from innumerable aches and pains gained from her misfortune. Dash sported a similar array of bruises and scrapes, but they were both well enough to move. They made their way out of the ancient palace, and into the dawn-quiet Everfree Forest. It was extraordinarily quiet in the wake of the furious storm, as if the land itself were exhausted and sleeping. Fluttershy stepped carefully, trying to ease the jolting on her broken wing, and Dash alternated between flying low to the ground and walking beside the other pegasus, as all her limbs ached equally. Finally, she broke the silence. “What do you think they’ll say when we walk into Ponyville?” “Umm...welcome back? We missed you?” Fluttershy hazarded, and Dash snorted in reply. “We’ve been gone for like, over a month, Fluttershy. I hope they’ll be more excited than that!” Dash waved a hoof, and winced as muscles twinged. “On second thought, a quiet welcome might be a good idea.” Fluttershy nodded softly, glancing around the forest. “It’s strange to know where we are...” “Heh, first time in a while I’ve recognized a place.” Dashed tapped the dirt road underhoof that led out of the forest and into Ponyville. “I bet I could fly home in less than a minute!” “Why don’t you?” Fluttershy glanced over at Dash. “You don’t have to wait for me to walk there.” “No way,” Dash said emphatically. “I’m not leaving you behind, not for any reason.” Fluttershy ducked her head briefly and flushed. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “We started this together, we’re going to finish it together.” The blue pegasus dropped down next to Fluttershy with finality. *** They returned home, not triumphant, but bruised, battered, and a bit bewildered. Ponyville held the same streets, the same buildings as when they had left. The same ponies went about their same duties. The sun shone, birds chirped, bees buzzed. But it seemed somehow smaller and more fragile than they remembered, even though it hadn’t changed at all. The two pegasi attracted glances and murmurs immediately. Most of the ponies seemed to be too shocked to do more than look, but a purple earth pony with a flowery cutie mark stepped up to them right away. “Oh, you poor dears!” She didn’t seem to recognize them, but after a month, surely nopony expected them to simply walk into town, let alone in that condition. “You stay here, I’ll go get Nurse Redheart!” “Thanks, heh.” Dash gave the pony a nod before she galloped off, feeling strangely awkward simply standing in the middle of the road. “Come on, Fluttershy, let’s find somewhere to sit.” “All right,” Fluttershy agreed, but they didn’t make it two steps before a pink blur interrupted them. “Dashie! Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie fairly vibrated with the effort it took to not tackle her injured friends. “You’re back! You’re alive! Where have you been? What happened to you oh my gosh you look terrible are you okay oh Fluttershy what happened to your wing?” Tears streamed down her face even as she beamed at them. “Oh I was so worried!” “It’s...it’s good to see you too, Pinkie,” Fluttershy managed to get out past the emotion in her own throat, and spread her forelegs for a hug, heedless of the bruises. The earth pony let out a noise of glee as she enfolded Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in the same fierce embrace. Fluttershy closed her eyes, savoring the contact. “...I’m glad you’re real,” she whispered. “Of course I’m real, silly! Why wouldn’t I be?” Pinkie Pie giggled and released them. “Long story, Pinkie.” Dash sighed. “We’re just glad to be back.” “I’m glad you’re back too! We spend days and days looking for you and Twilight went to Canterlot to get help and do research and there were search parties and everything.” Pinkie bounced in place. “Where in Equestria did you vanish to?” “We’re...not sure actually.” Dash rubbed at her mane with a hoof. “Somewhere in the middle of the ocean and...” She trailed off as the purple mare from earlier returned with Redheart and, it seemed, half of Ponyville in tow. Two unicorns headed the froth of interested ponies, charging forward heedlessly. “Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash!” Twilight Sparkle looked terrible, her mane unkempt and eyes ringed with dark circles from lack of sleep. Spike clung to her back, the small dragon nearly asleep himself. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?” She demanded, in a voice that bordered on hysteria and tears wetting her cheeks. “And where did you get those, darlings?” Rarity added, pointing a hoof at the dragon-crest medallions still hanging about their necks, somehow unscathed from their travels. The white unicorn was elegant as ever, beauty untarnished in sharp contrast to the ragged-edged Twilight, but her mane was more tightly curled than usual in subtle evidence of her distress. “Now, now,” Redheart interrupted. “Questions later. I need to get these ponies to the clinic right away. You, you, and you.” She picked several colts out of the crowd. “If you’d be so kind as to carry them?” “I can walk!” Dash protested, but she had to secretly admit she was sore and tired enough to be grateful. Fluttershy, by contrast, just ducked her head in acquiescence. “Not while you’re under my care,” Redheart informed her bluntly, and the two pegasi suffered themselves to be picked up. Their bearers carried the injured ponies through the crowd, and the two unicorns trotted to keep up. Pinkie bounced along behind, humming something to herself. The clinic’s interior was a cool, soothing blue-green. They shed most of the watchers at the door, and while Redheart frowned at Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie, she allowed them to stay near Dash. The nurse crossed over to Fluttershy’s bed and began inspecting the splint while her companion, a blue pony, tended Dash’s scrapes and bruises. “So we know what happened when you disappeared,” Twilight began, “but - “ “Well, we don’t.” Dash interrupted. “We just appeared somewhere. How’d that happen?” “Oh.” Twilight blinked and then smiled, horn glowing as she slid a bundle of scrolls out of the grip of the now-asleep Spike. “Well,” she said, thrown into lecture mode. “After looking through hundreds of books, I found that you’d accidentally made half of a lightning gate. We haven’t used them for nearly a thousand years, mostly because they’re so dangerous.” She flipped through the scrolls until she found the one she wanted, stretching it out above head-height so both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash could see the sketches on it. “Pegasi would stabilize the lightning clouds, and once you had enough of them, close enough, a unicorn could use them to create a gate to somewhere else for a short period of time. Without the stability, and without a unicorn, you could end up anywhere...and not all in one piece.” The blue pegasus looked guiltily at Fluttershy, who smiled. “It’s all right, Rainbow Dash. You didn’t know.” She winced from Redheart’s prodding, the pink-maned nurse already bringing bandages over for Fluttershy’s cuts. “I just thought it’d be a good trick,” Dash muttered. “It’s a really good trick to vanish for a month!” Pinkie exclaimed. “You probably shouldn’t do it too often though. You’d miss all the other fun.” “Pinkie.” Rarity’s look bounced off the earth pony without a mark, and she turned to Dash. “Dear, I know your practice is important to you...but please don’t ever worry us like that again.” Rarity pleaded with her. “Please.” “Heh. Don’t intend to.” Dash grinned. “Next time I try something like that, I’ll clear it with Twi first.” “Like that would stop you,” Twilight shook her head in amused exasperation, sorting through her saddlebags and coming out with quill, ink, and empty parchment. She stopped and set them aside, then turned to the pegasi. “I’m...really, really glad you’re back. I was just so worried, especially when I found out what had happened.” Twilight opened her mouth but another pony swept in, breezing into the clinic room with the sweet scent of fresh apples. “Whew!” Applejack tilted her hat back with a hoof. “They said ya’ll were back but I had to see it with my own eyes. It’s good to see you safe, you two.” She looked from one injured pony to the other and shook her head. “Looks like ya’ll have been through quite a rodeo, though.” “You could say that,” Dash agreed. “You wouldn’t believe what we’ve been through.” Twilight unrolled the parchment, dipping quill into ink. “I want to hear all about it.” “As do I.” A new voice added, serene and mellifluous. “It’s not every day two subjects of mine disappear into nowhere and then return.” “Princess Celestia!” They chorused. Those ponies capable of it bent to their knees, and Celestia waved a hoof for them to rise. “Nurse Redheart,” she addressed the clinician. “I’ve brought Doctor Fillyston to attend to your patient.” The mare in question strode past, a grey unicorn with an asklepian for a cutie mark and a white mane framing pince-nez glasses. The nurse looked flustered. “It’s an honor, Doctor.” Fillyston gave Redheart an absent nod, her horn glowing as she unceremoniously unbuckled the splint and discarded the top half, peering at Fluttershy’s broken wing. “...passable.” She admitted grudgingly. “Nurse, prep her for surgery if you would.” “S-surgery?” Fluttershy squeaked. All the ponies stared the injured pegasus. “Nothing major,” the doctor said dismissively. “Removing bone fragments and fusing the ends.” “Doctor Fillyston,” Celestia said, drawing the attention back to her. “Is the Wonderbolts’ own wing surgeon. Fluttershy will be in good hooves.” After a pause Rarity trotted over to Fluttershy. “It’s all right, dear.” She told the pegasus. “We’ll be here waiting for you.” “A moment.” Celestia crossed over to Fluttershy as a pair of retainers brought in a cushion for the princess. The alicorn’s horn glowed as she lifted the dragon-crest amulet. “May I?” Fluttershy nodded meekly and Celestia slipped it off her neck, inspecting it closely. “Well.” She shifted her gaze to Fillyston. “Take good care of her.” The surgeon snorted, unimpressed, and waved for the Redheart to wheel Fluttershy into the next room. They all watched her go, the room silent until Celestia broke the pause. “Miss Rainbow Dash. I think we all would like to hear where you’ve been.” A smile played about the corners of Celestia’s mouth as she looked from Fluttershy’s medallion to the one Dash still wore. “And who you’ve been talking to.” Additional cushions and seats appeared for the rest of the ponies as Dash began her tale, brought by the remainder of Celestia’s entourage camped outside the clinic. “We went through the storm and just sort of plowed into a cloud bank.” This part the blue pegasus had already rehearsed when she’d told Scar, so it flowed easily enough. Pinkie had somehow procured a bag of popcorn from somewhere, and munched on it interestedly as Dash spoke. When she passed it to Celestia, the princess took it with perfect aplomb. Nopony stirred otherwise until Rainbow Dash described the first appearance of the island god. “Sirrush!” Twilight blurted out, eyes full of wonder. “What?” Dash blinked, startled. “The sirrush civilization was...very old. There aren’t very many books on them because they predate the dragons, even, let alone written records here in Equestria. I’m surprised there is anything left of them.” “That’s right, Twilight.” Celestia nodded to her student. “Even I did not know there was any remnant of their race worth mentioning, let alone a guardian of that magnitude. I haven’t seen a sirrush for a long, long time.” She looked thoughtful. “I wonder if it was anyone I knew.” “Well, I never got its name.” Dash shook her head. “It mostly talked to Fluttershy, anyway.” “Fluttershy?” Rarity lifted her eyebrows. “It sounds disturbing enough to me, I can’t imagine what it would have been like for her.” “She can be really impressive sometimes,” Dash grinned. “Wait ‘till you hear how she handled it.” “She handled it?” Applejack cocked her head at the blue pegasus. “It sounded like you were all saddled up to do the fighting.” “Um, yeah, that didn’t turn out so well.” Dash gave Applejack an embarassed smile, but continued with the story. The reaction as she described the way Fluttershy had faced down the island god was gratifying. Even Celestia looked impressed. The audience was appreciative, as she went on, of her description of the northern lights, though Twilight looked tremendously jealous. It was the introduction of Scar, however, that gave Dash a reaction she wasn’t expecting. Celestia threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, Scar,” she said in tones of amusement. “I thought it might have been him.” Dash stared. “You know him?” “Oh yes.” The princess smiled in fond reminiscence. “I knew him from before Draconia isolated itself. We’ve kept in some contact since, though. Spike’s egg had to come from somewhere, after all.” Twilight Sparkle prodded the sleeping baby dragon. “Spike, wake up! We’re talking about you.” “Huzza-what?” Spike blinked awake. “What about me?” “The dragon that Dash met is the one that sent your egg to Equestria!” “What, so he’s my dad?” The purple dragon squinted up at Twilight, who in turn looked at Celestia. “Simply a distant relative,” Celestia answered. “But now I understand how you got these.” She lifted Fluttershy’s medallion. “So what exactly are they?” Rarity asked, staring at the steel. “Other than rather heavy jewelry.” “They’re many things,” the princess replied thoughtfully. “And not to anticipate the story, but in this case I believe the important thing is it marks the bearers as the personal agents of the dragon king.” “He didn’t tell us that,” Dash frowned. “He just said it’d keep us safe from dragons.” “Which is true.” Celesta let the medal drop back to the cushion. “Please, continue.” “Um, right.” Dash picked the thread of storytelling back up. Spike blinked sleepily, trying to pay attention as the pegasus described his ultimate homeland, but the next to interrupt was actually Pinkie Pie. “What a meaniepants!” She exclaimed, tossing down her third empty popcorn bag. “He just left you behind like that?” “Yeah, he’s kind of a jerk,” Dash said. The corners of Celestia’s mouth curled in a small smile, but she didn’t object to the appellation. “I guess he did help us, but he’s still a jerk.” The remainder of their time in Draconia was quickly told, and Dash took a deep breath as she began the tell them about Cantrot. Even after so much time and distance, it gave her chills to think about the ghost town, let alone try to describe the shifting, uncertain reality that hung over that place. It had an effect on her audience, too. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie drew closer together, as if to ward off the attention of Cantrot. Twilight, though, frowned all through the tale, despite the way Spike clutched at her neck, wide-eyed, and finally shook her head as Dash finished. “But...there’s no such thing as ghosts!” “Twilight,” Princess Celestia said mildly. “Yes, Princess Celestia?” The unicorn asked, instantly contrite. “There are mysteries in Equestria not yet covered by your books,” the alicorn chided gently. “Even if it was not, precisely, ghosts, there was something very real there. I don’t know what it was either, but it seems you are owed something for laying Cantrot to rest.” “I’d love more time with the Wonderbolts.” Rainbow Dash grinned incorrigably. “...but you already brought someone to help Fluttershy, so I’m happy.” The blue pegasus cast a glance toward the closed door of the surgery room. “I hope she’s okay.” “As am I,” said Rarity. “Whatever happened to you two after you left Cantrot? You made it all that way without any serious injury.” “We ran into a really bad storm in the Everfree Forest,” Dash said. She didn’t really want to tell them that the storm had seemed to chase after them, as, examined in daylight, it seemed unreal, even compared to Cantrot. “We ended up taking shelter in the old palace, but...not before we got thrown around a bit.” Dash sighed. “And that’s it. We walked into Ponyville and here we are.” “That’s quite an adventure, Rainbow Dash.” Princess Celestia stood up. “And it tells me I need to get ready for visitors. I suspect that Scar will want his amulets back.” “Oh. Right.” The pegasus blinked and pulled hers off, watching as it sparkled with Celestia’s magic. The two pieces of jewelry floated through the air, disappearing with a brief flare of light. “Do give my regard to Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “I’ll leave a coach for Doctor Fillyston.” It wasn’t long after the Princess left that Redheart wheeled a groggy Fluttershy back into the room. Her wing was now dressed in a snow-white cast in a more natural position folded against her body. Bleached bandages swathed her flanks and side, mirroring the dressings Tenderheart had applied to Dash’s cuts and scrapes. “Fluttershy!” The ponies crowded around her bed. Dash stepped over, tentatively flexing her new bandages as she made her way to Fluttershy’s side. “How are you feeling?” The yellow pegasus blinked up at the ponies gathered around her bed. “M’better,” she said muzzily. “H’ws D’sh?” “I’m fine, Fluttershy.” Dash gave her a smile, but backed off a bit as Redheart moved forward and shooed them away. “She needs to rest and recover,” the nurse said, as Fillyston strode past with no concern for her prior patient. “You can come back later. And you’re fine,” Redheart added, waving at Dash. “Just take it easy for a few days.” “I suppose I could use some sleep...” Twilight said grudgingly. “And I just left my chores half done,” Applejack added. “But don’t worry Fluttershy, we’ll be back.” “Come on, everyone,” Rarity lifted her head. “We must give her time to rest.” The five ponies filed out, Rainbow Dash casting one last glance over her shoulder at Fluttershy before leaving the clinic. *** Hours later, Fluttershy roused at the sound of hoofsteps. “Rainbow Dash!” She smiled at the other pegasus. “You came back.” “Of course I did.” Dash stepped up next to the bed, looking down at her. “I’m glad.” Fluttershy ducked her head with a slight flush. “I missed you.” “...I missed you too,” Dash admitted, kicking at the clinic floor. They looked at each other, the unspoken knowledge that their relationship had changed over their journey hanging in the air between them. “...where do we go from here?” asked Fluttershy, at last. “I don’t know,” Dash admitted, then suddenly gave the yellow pegasus a wide grin. “But as long as we’re together, we’ll be fine.” *** Thank you for reading! As always, epic thanks to Melionos for critiquing, editing, and general ideamongering.

Jaca

481

Original Character,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Ponyville High

incomplete

<p>6 friends Begin their last year at P-high each with their own goals in mind, they set out to make this school year the best from start to finish</p>

everyone

2011-08-10T22:30:44+00:00

2011-08-10T22:30:44+00:00

“The dark, the warm warm dark.” Mumbled a sleepy medium sized light brown earth pony with a messed up auburn bed mane which seemed to stretch to the floor from his bed. Groggily opening his eyes staring right into the moon a smile creeping upon the colts face chuckling as he began to think of the new day coming, a chance for a new beginning for him and his friends. Yawning once more as sleep crept upon him snuggling back under his warm covers sleepily muttering “It’s going to be awesome…just…don’t…sleep…in…zzzz.” “HIGH NOTE, GIT YER DARN REAR OUTTA BED THIS INSTANT!” Screamed a rough stern female voice, the source coming from downstairs The colt that had been sleeping soundly in his bed Immediately jumped from the covers of his bed hearing his mother’s scream landing on his flank decorated with a single vinyl disc. As he climbed to his feet stepping on his mane which had drooped to the floor, he was too tired to register it was tangled around his hoof and as he pulled his head back to free his ridiculously long mane a rip and an agonized yell of pain which some pony would claim would be heard from Fillydelphia or Manehatten. The poor colts mane which used to be able rival the ponies who attended Hoovestock was now a short messy orange mane which only extended at best below his ear’s, High Note stared into his reflection’s blue eyes grimacing at losing his hair resting his head against the bathroom mirror speaking into it “C’mon Note, you have next year to get it back, as Crash say’s enjoy life!” He’ cheerfully yelled at himself before making his way downstairs. High Note made his way downstairs to the kitchen greeted by the sight of his mother running around like a headless chicken, His little sister Who seemed to have devoured a place of pancakes already deducing that the 2nd plate she was feasting upon was his which Note could only frown towards. His father had his face hidden behind a newspaper he was engrossed with, Note raised his eyebrow wondering when was the last time he actually saw his dads face. “Oh so that’s why ye were taking ages!” Exclaimed his mother as soon as she saw Note “It…was...a…accident.” Muttered Note “Still better ye had it cut now, dear me you look like granddad.” Note frowned at his mother stating loudly “Long hair has character!” Before stomping towards the front door “Don’t be late for school!” Called his mom in a cheery voice “If he keeps it up I’m going to start calling him my daughter.” Said Notes father who was still reading. 5…10……20….one sec…………1 hour before the preceding events. A dark blue pegasi with a bag on his head was flying around his room decorated with podters of different flying teams across Equestria some autographed and some looking as if they were ripped from billboards and walls. The colt began to massage the bag into his head before ripping it in two revealing a stylized spiked up mane one side red the other blue, he trotted into the bathroom adjoining his room admiring his new hairdo before chuckling “That was definitely worth 40 bits.” He returned to his room to spend the next hour looking for the door hidden away in the poster ridden room. An hour passed and the dark blue colt was starting to panic he paced his room “Damn it crash, you can’t die today! Note and Dex will kick my rear if I do!” He’d then raised a hoof as a light bulb appeared over his head “I know!” He’d ran over to a shelf decorated with assorted knick knacks gingerly picking up an 8-ball proceeding to shake it “Oh prophet of the pegasi what do I do!” He’d preach to the overpriced trinket ‘USE THE WINDOW’ Projected from the balls side onto the nearby wall Dropped the ball letting it crack and its liquidly insides ooze into the floorboards as he began to prepare for take-off running as fast as he could towards the window jumping through the window surprised he didn’t feel going through glass and began to plummet to the ground wondering what happened to his windows tapping his hoof on his chin. He plummeted for half a minute before remembering that his parents had remove his windows after the 17th time he charged through them, a small sacrifice to let him keep those stolen posters. Plummeting for speed he’d outstretch his wings and fly towards Ponyville High the only way he knew how to… upside down. The blue pegasi flew the best he could for the steps of the campus, getting closer…closer…closer, okay time to break he thought as his face came into contact with the pavement. “…Hey….hey…Crash you still alive?” a cool collected voice said out of nowhere “Yeah…Just…thought I’d begin the year in style” Crash chuckled prying his face off the floor giving himself a moment before his eyes refocused staring at his friend “Poindexter! Shoulda known you’d be here first!” Poindexter was a very light blue ish purple unicorn though wi9th a silver mane black framed glasses with circular lenses on his face acting as a guard against his blue eyes , if it wasn’t for his small build and youthful features he could easily be mistaken for a teacher. “So! Keeping the old man style mane?” Teased Crash jabbing a hoof in Dexs side Dex could only roll his eyes in response to his friends mockery of his hair do smirking at crash he retorted “I do not need fancy hair dye to stand out.” Crash shook his head letting out a disappointed sigh “Dex Dex Dex Dex.” “Wha-“ “Dex, your comebacks are horrible dude.” “Well some of us actually used the summer for our summer project, instead of let’s see.” Dex took in a deep breath “Getting banned from Fillydelphia, kicked out of Vynl Scratch’s fan club, spending 3 weeks’ worth of nights counting the stars in the sky and of course trying to make friends with a hydra!” Dex panted glaring at Crash Crash nervously waved back at Dex “You forgot being handsomely good looking” He stroked his styled mane before pacing around “Now if only Burn was here!” Dex levitated a book out of his saddlebag entitled ‘1001 ways to waste time with an idiot’ “Burn?” He asked sounding mildly confused. Crash rolled his eyes “Note! His nicknames burn because he burned down the auditorium before summer started; together we’re Crash and Burn!” He’d posed with a smile and whispered afterwards “Registered trademark” Dex let out a dry chuckle as he continued to read his book raising an eyebrow “Wait, if you two are crash and burn, what am I?” Asked Dex Crash hummed tapping his chin with his hoof before shrugging “Just Dex?” Dex Pouted at the response before sighing “Just Dex…Oh yeah Crash what did you do with your summer project?” Crash proudly smiled “I left a potato to grow in my locker” Time went on before Note arrived panting as he ran to meet his two friends out by the campus doors, no other filly’s or colts were around seeing as they arrived an hour before school was in session “So…Pant……We…..Pant….Ready?” Crash raised an eyebrow before flying at Note giving him a hug “Burn! You made it, your hair what happened to it, never mind looks better shorter, can’t let you have my dye now You’d look like me!” Exclaimed crasher Note pushed Crash off him before trotting over to Dex with a grin Crash trotting after Note. He turned to his best friends and grinned “Guy’s I have got a plan to put us on the top of the totem pole.” Dex raised an eyebrow looking unimpressed levitating his book back into the saddlebag “Is this better than last year’s plan where you suggested we wait it out and wiggle to the top like the worms we are? Crashed chuckled and began to wiggle on the ground putting on his best worm impression “That sounded fun to me; we’d get to freak out everypony.” Note Just sighed and stomped the ground annoyed “No, We will become the most popular colts at P High and then I’ll woo the magnificent Too- Uhh ahh I mean it’ll be awesome.” Dex rolled his eyes looking bored “Still fantasizing about Metal’s sis? Chances of him letting you woo her are close to none my friend.” Crash Just smiled chuckling to himself “Yeah but she isn’t bad on the eyes at all.” Dex smirked in response to Crash’s statement before nodding “That she is, but after the incident last year I think He has less of a chance than the moon proposing to the sun.” Note flat browed at his two friends with a sigh “Cmoon guys the fire wasn’t just my fault.” He hummed before shaking his head “We’re getting off track right now, We have the super plan to become the best of the best here!” “Oh?” Asked both Crash and Dex leaning towards Note, Crash gazing upon Note as if he were a God Dex just keeping his normal bored expression whilst he adjusted his glasses. Note stared at his two friends before nervously chuckling “I have no idea what we are going to do.” Both Crash and Dex hit the floor in disbelief before Crash dived on Note shaking his him madly. “YOU GOT ME UP ONE HOUR EARLY!” He screamed at his best friend his voice similar to what one would hear if their significant other had cheated on them. Dex levitated the two with sigh staring at them with a ‘Really?’ look “Guys so what if we’re early it means we can get a head start on studying. The friends ceased fighting and in response gave Dex the same ‘Really?’ look before being dropped by the unicorn’s magic. Crash Sighed as the three friends went to sit on the steps before the schools main door all looking immesnly bored. He offered a chuckle and shrugged “Anyone wanna play cards?” All 3 friends were sat in a circle around a pile of cards in front of them, various colts and fillies walked past them avoiding eye contact with the three possibly due to Crash wanting to say hi to everypony which just made the three look more awkward. Crash Threw his cards to the Pile as Dex pulled a small pile of bits towards himself, grabbing his head in anger Crash screamed “Dex why are you so good at this game!” Dex shook his head in response looking a bit dazed from the close proximity yell “I’m not that good Crash; you just don’t know how to play pony poker.” He replied with a smug grin Crash looked over to Note who’d fallen asleep and sigh looking back to Dex putting on pleading eyes “Ummm Can I borrow some bits for lunch?” Dex sighed and tossed two bits at Crash one landing on each of the pegasi’s eyes chuckling “Don’t spend it all in one place.” He sniggered before adding “Dude.” Two Zebras walking Side by side made their way towards the group. The one of the left bobbing his head to a beat in his headphones, Sunglasses hiding his eyes, his mane styled into dreadlocks tied in a Pony tail (Bad pun hee hee) it was clear that this guy was a white pony who had painted white stripes onto his back. To his right was a small daintier looking zebra looking earth pony, she had green eyes, her hair styled into thicker bouncier dreadlocks which reached down to her cheeks, her coat greyer than the other zebra wannabe black stripes also painted on her back, she offered a wave to the three sat on their rears’ gambling “How goes?” Note shot up and ran over to the two “Bob, Marely!” He exclaimed before focusing his attention to Marely seeing as Bob looked like he had no idea what was going on and just listening to his music. “Marely you know who’s dating who don’t ya, is umm Metal’s sis….Toot…dating anyone?” Marely’s eye’s shot open before laughing loudly “Oh man, your pining after that psychopaths sister, well you might fit in ya did set the auditorium on fire last year, it WAS AWESOME!” Note eye twitched yelling back at Marely “IYT WAS AN ACCIDENT YOU DUMB FILLY!” He was getting sick of people accusing him of purposeful arson. He took a deep breath ready to apolagize to Marely but was unable to find words as she stood still looking at him wide eyed he wasn’t sure if she was dead or about to break into tears. Bob adjusted his glasses and made his way over to Dex and Crash’s Side his cool expression changing to a simple frown regardless he continued to bob his head to whatever was playing in his head phones. Dex merely shrugged, Crash gulped looking over to bob “Is…uhh note going to be alright?” Bob Adjusted his glasses before shaking his head “Nah.” he then resumed his head bobbing It seemed to quiet by the entrance of the school, the birds stopped singing the wind seemed to die down before Marely erupted into a loud and angry rant aimed straight at High Note. “Who do you think you are yelling at me! It was am joke which you can’t see to take because of you delusions of grandeur! I see your hair got cut did mommy make you do it, oh I bet it was for the psychopaths sister wasn’t it or was it because you decided that long hair isn’t good enough for anyone, not good enough for you ya stuck up mule! I honestly don’t know why I try to help you lot out it nevers leads to any good because frankly note, YOU ARE THE BIGGEST PAIN IN MY REAR!” She gasped for air before tapping the ball of shaking fur that was the result of the onslaught of Note “There I think we’re even for the rest of the semester. Note gulped nodding at Marely nervously “Uhh Ummm yeah” From the three onlookers the only one who showed any sign of shock was crash who’s mouth was left gaping before looking back to Bob “I take it she ditched the anger management sessions this summer?” Bob replied with his head bobbing “Yah” The five friends made their way into the building, the corridors decorated with lockers and doors leading to classrooms, there were also some stairs there but none of them had ever taken classes that required them to be in the mysterious 2nd floor of the building. Note nervously trotted up to Marely who still looked miffed despite saying their cool “So ummm about Toots. I was th-.” He stopped though as he waked into Marelys flank seeing she stopped. Marely turned and forced a sweet smile at Note “Right, I suppose fair is fair.” She sighed before she continued walking stopped when they reached a locker a few stood out, one had large potato vines growing out of it which crash flew towards looking happy, “Riiight, Toot, She’s Metal Heads sister so that ruins what chance you had, heard she had an apprentice deal with the weather ponies so it’s her last year here, if you’re going to make some moves lover boy I suggest you up the game.” Marely then proceed to spin the lock on her locker opening it. Note sighed and made his way to his own locker just to make sure it hadn’t been trashed by robbers or Crash. His mind afloat thinking of the filly of his dreams he was abruptly brought back to reality thinking he’d bumped into a wall, he regained his composure only to stutter as he laid eyes on the large colt in front of him, black Mohican hair with red tips, dark stone grey coat, red eyes that shouted crazy, he gulped before moving his eyes to the colts face which had white face paint on giving the impression his skull was on the outside. This…this colt was Metal Head. Metal Head glared at Note yelling directly in his face “Watch where you’re going nosebleed or I’ll rip your hooves from your legs and shove them down your eyes!” Metal Head then trotted away his loud hoof stomps echoing through the hallway which was now full of fillies and colts who were staring at note before getting on with their lives. Note just stood frozen, everyone passing him by without a moment’s notice, he wasn’t sure how much time was passing by he just wanted to remain still forever and probably would of if a Sea blue pegasus pony with a spikey purple mane hadn’t walked into him. Oh celestia I’m so sorry I’m such a klutz, you know I’m walking without thinking and suddenly I bump into you!, sorry.” The pegasi filly sighed she looked upon the frozen with fear notes to find him on his side like a statue still frozen, she walked over to give him a tap on the head “….Dude, are you dead? ” Note broke from the frozen stance and began to look around before looking back to the purple maned filly “Oh sorry about that, it was my uhh fault…” He chuckled nervously The pegasi extended a hoof with a smile “Well nice to meet ya I guess I’m Rain, Rain Dancer.” Note coughed and awkwardly gave the filly a bro hoof “I’m Note, or burn if I’m with Crash.” The filly’s eyes lit up in amazement and trotted towards Note “You know that is soo cool, hey you’re the colt who blew up the auditorium, that’s hardcore man.” Note gulped and backed away looking over to Crash who looked like he was fighting a sentinant mutated potato vine before slamming his locker shut flying over towards Note. “Hey man who’s th-“ But before he could finish Notes hoof was wrapped around crashs neck and brought close to him “This filly’s crazy, plan 9 I’ll buy you lunch” He quickly whispered into Crashs ear before smiling at Rain Rain nervously smiled back looking at Crash then Note doing her best to keep a happy face “So..who’s this?” Note nervously chuckled in response “This is Crash my best friend, poor guy took so many hits to the head, I have to walk him to the lesson now anyway…Say hello Crash.” Crash extended a hoof sticking his tongue out giving his most dumbfounded look offering a hoof to Rain “Hewwo Cwash” Rain Closed her eyes thinking of happy thoughts gingerly giving Crash a bro hoof before seeing the two friends walk off “Oh Umm Catch you at Lunch I guess!” She called the two as they disappeared into the crowd of students. Both friends bro hoofed each other before reaching the door of the science lab hoping they scared off that crazy blue filly for good. About to enter they screeched to a halt seeing Dex even though they couldn’t see it, they could tell he was angry at them both. “Really Guys, if I was Celestia I’d send you both into the sun to burn for a thousand years.” He said as they made their way to the back row of the classroom, the room decorated with charts and a few tanks with frogs and insects, Dex let out a disappointed sigh seeing Crash deposit his living potato into one of the tanks and promised to say a silent prayer for it later. The three friends reached the back left corner of the room where Bob and Marely were already sitting at their desks, crash sighed as the one in corner was taken by Bob meaning that Crash wasn’t going to be able to hide from the teacher in this lesson, Marely had sat on the desk in front of bob Dex joining her at the desk next to hers because he was at in the corner didn’t mean he had to be at the back row. Crash claimed the desk Next to bob and used the opportunity to grab a pencil from his saddlebag and begin to draw his name on it, Note sat leaning on his desk moping, all he could think off was a plan to become the coolest Colt in P High. “Hi!” Came a famillar voice to Note Note’s thoughts immidiatly became ‘No No No NO NO NO!’ He sighed and looked to his right seeing Rain the pony he just tried to run away from. Rain smiled sweetly at Note repeating what she said before “Hi there.” Note nervously chuckled waving back “Hey there.” Dex Sat in front of Crash, setting up his desk glancing back to Note and Rain a smug grin crept along his face “Karma, bitch.” He chuckled and began to levitate a book and pens from his saddlebag. After what seemed an eternity of a double double lesson that lasted until lunch the 5 friends and the filly with the punk esque hairdo left the classroom all except Dex looking drained “Crash yawned flying hovering backwards upside down infront of Note with a grin on his face “Sooo, whos your new friend dude, I mean they gotta be important enough if you ignored me for the entire lesson, do you know what it’s like trying to talk to Bob! He just Bob’s his head!” Bob walking beside Note did just that “Yah.” Note chuckled “No Idea, she seem’s crazy, she thinks I burned down the auditorium, but it wasn’t me, I never go near fire, fire bad!” He kept rambling until Bob put a hoof on Notes shoulder “Chil Winston.” Note blinked before laughing allowed shaking his head “Damn it Bob, you know that’s starting to get annoying. A smirk crept along Bob’s face “Ya.” Behind the three Colts Dex and Mare were busy questioning Rain who decided to follow them. Dex kept his bored expression on following the three whilst Marely was busy interrogating the new filly. Marely Stared at Rain with inquisitive eyes “Aint seen you before, you new to ponyville?” Rain smiled nervously and shook her head “No…home schooled". Marely Sighed with a nod “That sucks, what you doing here then?” Rain gulped in response and her eyes sank to the floor looking ashamed “I set my tutor’s mane on fire.” Marely Stopped before laughing offering a hoof to Rain “Newbie, you’re crazy, you’ll fit in with us.” Rain’s face gave way to a grand smile she gave Marely a bro hoof “So…So I’m in, already, like that?” she exclaimed. Marely Laughed “Chill, isn’t like you’re in the wonder bolts, just means you got some equally crazy friends to hang with.” The 6 friends entered the caferteria and were greeted by a extraordinarily long line of colts and filly’s all wanting to get their food. Marely facehoofed looking to the group “Dex, Crash get us a table.” Cash frowned at Marely “Wait why do we have to get you guys a table.” Marely Smiled sweetly trotting over to Crash and began to stroke his styled mane “Crash Honey, you’ll do anything for me won’t you?” She fluttered her eyes which everyone would silently agree it looked unnatural. Crash tilted his head at Marely looking confused “Did you brush your teeth?” Marely eye twitched before going to shake Crash Madly “BECAUSE I SAID SO, NOW GO GET US A TABLE OR ILL FORCE FEED YOU YOUR OWN WINGs AND WATCH YOU SHIT FEATHERS YOU PEA BRAINED PILE OF SNOT!” She blinked afteryelling and headed for the line with a triumphant grin Rain, Bob and Note headed for the line of food as well deciding not to go against Marely’s plan.” Crash fell to his rear looking shocked before looking to Dex with a chuckle “She needs help.” Dex shrugged and made his way over to the table area nearly all of them was full to the brim “No you have that effect on every pony you meet.” Crash chukled and hovered in front of Dex upside down like always “How come your so calm then dude.” Dex let out a half chuckle looking smug “Because I don’t listen to you.” The two friends search for a table was coming up fruitless, there was a empty table closest to the line but everyone knew if they claimed it Metal head would break their skull, eventually Dex and Crash settled on half a table, the other half occupied by some pimply colts playing version 65.3.4.5.1 of ‘Demons and Dice’ Crash and Dex proceeded to claim the empty chairs, suddenly a shock came across Crash’s face as he counted the empty chairs. “One…two……four….no three….four!” he gulped and proceeded to yell at Dex “THERE’S ONLY FOUR CHAIRS DEX, two of us are gonna have to stand.” Dex stared at crash with his ‘Really?’ look, levitating his lunch bag from the saddle bag and proceeding to empty the contents off two sandwiches and a banana. Crash began to panic seeing his friends at the checkout line, he gulped leaning over the table at Dex “Cmooon man, I told them we’d find enough places, Wait I can stand then 5 of us can sit.” He’ smled proudly before leaning to nudge the sandwich Dex hadn’t touched yet. “Did your mom’s make these? They always do make the best daisy sandwiches” Slowly chewed and swallowed a bite of his sandwich before staring at Crash again “Trust me, no ones going to have to stand, and no you can’t have my sandwhich, Why cant you get your own?! Crash frowned back at his friend “It’s your fault, you swindled me out of my money!” Dex rolled his eyes before focusing on his own food “Not my fault you can’t play pony poker.” Crash gritted his teeth “I can too.” He’d think for a moment and badly sing “You put your right hoof in, you put your right hoof out!” “That’s the pony pokey.” Crash flat browed and flew off towards a group of ponies playing music returning with an accordion and began to play what could only be described as murder of the ears. “That’s the pony polka.” Crash sighed and threw the accordion back towards the group electing a loud Ow before he descended back into his chair smiling as his friends came Sat between Note and Dex, across the table sat Rain, Bob and Marely, He eyed there food hunger was making the pegasi slightly more brain-dead than usual “So, Anyone get me anything?” Everypony’s expression bar deadpanned bar Dex’s and Rains, bar Rain they knew what Crash was like when he felt left out and it wasn’t long before the Pegasi was crying his eyes out on the table, a river of his tears flowing down his eyes screaming loudly “You guys just use me, you never treat me as an equal I’m just trash to you!” Bob applied a hoof to his left ear headphones pushing up on the volume controls until the music could be heard just over the wailing, Marely just glared looking like she was about to kill Crash, Note looked around nervously at the pony’s starting to stare wondering why they had to stare looing panicked, Dex sihed and pulled Crash’s face off the table via mane staring at him unimpressed. “Open your cakehole.” Crash complied opening his mouth still sniffling before a full sandwich was stuffed down his mouth, he happily chewed and ate the sandwhich letting oput a satisfied ah “I love you guys.” He happily said. Rain looked over to Note who was still wrorried about what evrypony thought after seeing a blubbeing Pegasus, she coughed liudly to get Notes attention, no dice so she coughed louder getting his attention?” “You sick?” asked Note not really paying attention. Rain smiled “No I was just wondering.” She pointed a hoof over to Crash whos face was now being repeatedly slammed into the table by Marely “Does, he always do that?” Note chuckled inching away from the two “Yeah, he doesn’t think, perhaps hes on autopilot.” He then looked off in the distance thinking about his plans to become cool, muttering the words cool. Rain frowned putting two and two together before smirking “You know there is a way to become instantly cool.” Note’s face lit up leaning closely towards smiling widely “As long as it doesn’t involve arson Tell me!” Rain took a bite of the mess of food on her try still smirking at Note “We all know that posh dude’s host’s a new semester party.” Marely piped up hearing Rain “You mean Crème da la crème? The snooty unicorn who thinks he’s the best thing on four legs next to the princesses?” Rain nodded! Yeah we could uhh make a name for ourselves at his party tonight, he always throws one so it might be a good chance.” Before Marely could responded Note nodded “That’s an awesome Idea, we’ll become the coolest ponies this side of equestria, finally a year where I wont have to burn something down!” Marely Side giving Note a tap to the muzzle to bring him back to his senses “Yeah and how we gonna get into the party without an invite?” “I can get us one!” Interjected Crash with a wide smile who then flew off in his usual uspside down manner to look for Crème da la Crème” Rain just stared in disbelief “He’s gonna get hurt isn’t he.” Bob nodded his head to the loud beat in his headphones “Ya.”

Jaca

481

Original Character,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Ponyville High

incomplete

<p>6 friends Begin their last year at P-high each with their own goals in mind, they set out to make this school year the best from start to finish</p>

everyone

2011-08-13T15:47:39+00:00

2011-08-13T15:47:39+00:00

Crash was flying down the hallways around the school weaving in and out of colts and fillies exclaiming “Scuse me, sorry! Pardon me! WATCH IT!” he came to a stop finding Crème da la Crèmes locker, it was noticeable by the stallion that towered over the row of lockers guarding Crèmes locker, and he was large colt the largest in the school it was in fact hard to not notice him with his pale green coat accompanied by a shaggy neon green mane which extended over the colts eye’s what would a sane colt do? Avoid this gargantuan but not our hero. Crash walked to the behemoth of a colt with a wave “S’up Tiny, you guarding Crèmes locker fer lunch?” Tiny replied with a exhale through his nose blowing his hair up slightly Crash nodded with a fools grin and leaned on the locker next to Tiny “Sooo where’s Crème at now?” Tiny replied with the same answer accompanied by a shrug Crash sighed and eye shifted thinking of a way to get Tiny to tell him what he wants before grinning evilly “My Sis who’s at the University of Styling and beauty in Hoofdon thought you was cute before she moved there, and she is coming home next month.” Tiny’s expression changed and he lifted some hair out of his sights way revealing the softest and least threatening pair of green eyes which if not covered would give him the look of a gentle giant “R..Really…you’re…you’re not messing with me” He nervously whispered out making sure no one else was looking. As crash was about to reply a pretentious voice yelled making Crash and Tiny both stand at at ten-shun “Tiny! What is this? This? This loser doing by my locker!” The egg white unicorn colt with a suavely styled blonde mane was glaring at them both as if he was staring into their souls. He walked over with a stride towards Tiny gesturing him to come closer. Tiny complied and lowered his head to Crèmes level receving a swift hoof to the muzzle. “Listen to me you sack of snot! Piss me off and my Dad’ll sack yours! So deal with this clown before I have your crappy hovel of a home go without food or water, not like you use it anyway you filthy giant!” Crème screamed at Tiny who only stared back at him before swinging a hoof that was as large as Crash’s head into the blue pegasi’s chest pinning him against the lockers. Tiny mouthed ‘sorry’ to crash pushing the pegasi’s ribs inwards but not enough to break anything. Crash coughed smiling at the two “No prob, now Crème, Crèmmy Crème da la cool guy, can you get us on the; don’t kick out list for ye party tonight?” Crème scoffed Crash’s question, before a sadistic smile came across his face “You have 10 seconds to tell my why before I have Tiny pulverise those wings of yours. 10…9…8.” Crash panicked, he loved his wings, and flying backwards, the wind in his mane, bugs in his teeth and that one time he flew through a nest and had a bird up his nose. Coming back from his thoughts Crème was up to two and Crash gulped before yelling “I can get DJ Pon-3 at your party!” Crème stopped counting and asked “How.” Crash was sweating Bullets and began to lie through his teeth “Well she’s on a show in Hoofdon, she owes my sis a favour after saving her hairstyle, and she’ll play at your party for nothing!” Crème grinned went from sadistic to happy and nodded at Tiny to let him go “Okay Crash you and your friends are in, but if Pon-3 aint playing, your ass is mine!” He yelled before he and Tiny walked off. Crash blinked before laughing and began to fly for the nearby exit to enjoy what could have been the end of flying, after 2 minutes of pure flying he let out a sigh “Bored now.” He flew over to the clock above the main building and sighed “3 hours before schools out…this calls for an idea!” he then flew over to a bench lying on it watching the clouds on this sunny day linking their shape to what they could be. 3 hours later Crash was still watching clouds saying what he though they looked like “Bunny, Manticore, Dex’s face, that is a really lifelike” He blinked again realising it was Dex, soon accompanied by Marely’s Note’s and Rains faces, Crash offered a wave smiling “Yo, where’s Bob?” Marely Rolled her eyes pointing back towards a tree Bob sat under it enjoying life “Being Bob.” Crash sighed sitting up looking at his friends who were staring at him “What?” Dex sighed “Well you missed Math and Lit-“ Note quickly pushed Dex out the way grinning madly at Crash “Well we in?” Crash gulped and nodded “Yeah we’re in!” Marely and Rain bro hoofed, and Note danced stupidly, Dex was pulling himself off the grass and Bob was, still being bob “Umm guy’s he said…well…we have to Get DJ Pon-3 to play there.” All the ponies’ expression turned to shock which pierced crash to the core making him curl a little before a light bulb flickered appearing on his head, the pegasi frowned and bonked it until it shone “Don’t be mad I got an idea!” “And what is it!” Marely sputtered out looking on the edge of ponicide. Crash smiled “Meet at mine in half an hour, I’ll explain it!” he then flew off to his home. Marely tilted her head a tad confused “Why not now?” Note chuckled “Probably because he knew you were going to beat him to a pulp.” Dex chuckled “I’ll hold him down you go crazy.” He joked before the friends made their way back to town. Crash pointed to the blueprints of a building all his friends were surrounding the table “Okay Marely. You’re the muscle; you’ll take out the guards.” He shifted his hoof over to the other side of the plan looking at Rain. “You’re the other flyer we got you distract the crossbow guards with both sides distracted me and note will tunnel into the building using spoons.” He’d point to a crude crayon drawing of three ponies digging with spoons moving it to a crude drawing of a pony by a tree “Bob will be Bob that’s the most important part of the plan besides When we get to the Vault, Dex you Crack it open we grab what we can, meet back here and split the cash with the guys not dead or in jail, Any questions?” The five equines stared at Crash giving their best ‘Really?’ look. Marely spoke up sounding pretty confused “Are we preparing for a party or robbing the Equestrian Treasury?” Crash blinked before looking at his drawn Plans and begins to tear them up yelling frantically “You didn’t see anything!” Marely Sighed and Pushed Crash out of the way to trash his map in peace “Right, we need to get DJ PON-3 to the party, but she won’t come near us because of goofball’s restraining order.” She gestured a hoof at Crash who waved in response “Luckily I got a plan; we won’t need DJ PON-3 just someone who looks like her.” Note tapped his chin “We’re going to need a Unicorn.” He glanced to Dex with a grin. Marely smirked “One that isn’t that manly either.” She said also glancing over to Dex. Dex noticed the eyes trailing on him and backed away “Woah, Woah Woah, I can’t impersonate her, what would my mom’s say?” He gulped. Note trotted over to Dex “Pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaase, Do It and I’ll owe you, I know, we’ll uhh, start playing Demons and Dice with you.” Dex raised an eyebrow contemplating it “….I get to be Demon Master?” He asked coyly Marely Sighed trotting next to Note “Yeah we’ll play that dumb game with you again…must be sad if the geeks won’t let you play with them.” Dex shot a glare at Marely. “They are sore losers who can’t handle my hard core demon runs!” Marely Rolled her eyes “Whatever here’s the plan if we want to be cool let’s go to our homes, get ready and meet up at Crèmes we’ve all been to enough parties to know what we’re doing.” Rain gulped and coughed loudly to get the room’s attention “Umm, I’ve never been to a party like this before.” Marely put a hoof around Rain with a reassuring grin. “Don’t worry chicken I’ll make sure your prepared.” The Males in the room except Bob who was head bobbing and Dex who was starting to look bored stared at the two fillies with perverted grins. Marely walked over to Crash and Note, grabbing them by their manes and slamming the two heads together. “Not like that ya gutter minded idiots!” She yelled before Leading Rain off “Party start’s at nine don’t be late, oh and Crash your mess your job to make Dex look like the famous DJ.” Not chuckled walking out of the room. “I’m off Crash seeya there, good luck.” Bob Followed afterwards bobbing his head to a beat “Yah mon.” Dex was about to leave before being grabbed and thrown into a chair by Crasher, landing in the chair with an oomph “Hey! I was going to get some food first and my Parents are going to worry!” Crash Smiled back at Dex “Don’t worry I wrote a note.” Dex stared at Crash with the ‘Really?’ look “Did you remember to give it them? A look a panic struck Crash’s face he bolted out of the windowless holes in his room. Dex sighed looking around “These posters make it impossible to find the door.” ***Meanwhile at Dex’s house***** Two Mares were snuggling together on a couch; a brick with a piece of paper attached was thrown through the living room window landing in front of them it read. ‘Dear Dex’s hot moms Dex is staying at mine. Lots of love Crashy. One of the mares let out an exasperated Sigh. “For being a genius our son hangs out with a lot of idiots.” ***And now back to our regularly scheduled programme*** Crash flew back into the room finding a bored Dex reading some comics. He flew around the room to kick up some wind blowing the posters up revealing the door. Crash flew quickly over to it pulling it open, smiling at Dex. “Wait here!” He’d walk off and his loud voice would be heard. “Mom! Is Serenes Hairdressing stuff still here?” A louder female voice would be heard one would figure out it came from Crash’s mom “Yeah Dear, what do you need it for!” Crash Yelled back “I’m dressing my friend up to look like Vinyl scratch!” “Didn’t the judge say that was illegal!?” “Nah mom only if it’s against their will!” Time passed Dex eyeing the open door contemplating escaping before Crash returned Carrying Scissors, hair dyes, gels and a chainsaw. “Uhh Crash what are you doing.” Crash rolled his eyes “Duh giving you Vinyl’s hairstyle” Dex gulped “Can’t I use a disguise spell?” Crash frowned “No my Idea’s better ‘sides Crèmes a unicorn, he’d probably sense the spell!” ======== Marely’s place was a one bedroom apartment, nothing fancy but enough to live by, she was currently walking around Rain who seemed to be amazed at the Filly’s independence. “Wow, so you live by yourself?” Rain asked looking around at the adequate appliances in awe. Marely Chuckled as he began to brush her dreads out letting her mane fall messy before brushing it straight and neat “Came from Canterlot, course those biggots didn’t like their daughter playing zebra music, one fight later I’m disowned, don’t worry I don’t go without, Bob’s family helped me out, I just help them out, his dad sells records.” Rain nodded “Are you and bob?” she left the question ambiguous only to see Marely Laugh her head off. “Man that’s rich, no, he’s like my brother, he doesn’t say a lot but you don’t want to see him when he’s mad, he did time two years ago, breaking some pony’s muzzle!” Rain blinked “Oh, Anyone you got your eye on?” Marely Shook her head once more “Life’s too short to worry about love, take every day as it comes, that’s how the zebra singer Sosauti lived his life and damn it I will as well.” She noticed Rain looking down “Course, Since I aint looking for love doesn’t mean you can’t chick you got any Colts or Filly’s in mind?” Rain let out an eep looking to the ground blushing “Well err, that ummm.” Marely chuckled “I know your pining for Note.” She winked “C’mon let’s get you ready, make him practically follow you.” ========== Dex Opened his eyes staring at his new hairdo it looked exactly like Vinyl Scratches, granted he was missing part of his left ear now but luckily it hadn’t drawn blood just hurt a lot “Wow, Crash, How did you?” Crash shrugged “Sis practiced on me, besides I stalked scratch long enough to know how she had it done.” Dex Sighed “Buddy no offense but you should be locked up.” Crash chuckled with a smile “If they couldn’t keep me locked up before no way are they going to keep me locked up now.” Dex hummed staring at his new styled mane, some earphones being placed over his ears, as well as goggles placed over his eyes concealing their colour “Looks like we’re almost done.” Crash smiled “Almost” He’d grabbed a bucket of white powder from his closet and chucked it at Dex turning his light purple coat white as snow. Dex coughed like mad before looking at Crash “Why do you have body makeup?! Crash frowned at Dex “Shut up because!” Dex sighed “Whatever you crazy asshole what now.” Crash Smiled “Now, we got a party to get to.” Bob Stared at himself in the mirror tying his dreads into the pony tail, reaching up to his headphones switching his headphones volume from ‘Private’ to ‘Let’s do this He took off his headphones revealing a chewed left ear he continued his head bobbing the beat from his headphones now sounded like a stereo was blasting the beat. “I got a feelin, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good good night.” Note was fixing his hair in his room having added blonde dye to the tips of his hair busy clicking 2 earrings into his left ear bobbing his head to a beat “I gotta feelin, that tonights gonna be a good night, that tonights gonna be a good night, that tonights gonna be a good good night.” Bob had his rollerblades on gliding down the street the beat still playing loudly, the streets filled with colts and fillies around his age all heading to the same place, him singing at them as he glided past “Gotta feelin oooooohoooo, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good good night.” Rain a Marely emerged from Mare’s, Marely’s hair longer and straight making her look less threatening than usual, Rain main Kept her punk style but was longer and had streaks of pink, both fillies made their way down the streets with the rest of the teenage youth of ponyville heading for the same place Marely singing in tune with the beat she was hearing.Ooohooo, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good night” Rain began to join in with her “ That tonight’s gonna be a good good night.” Crash was flying at Extreme speeds through the night sky, he hadn’t done much to get ready, just decorate his body with green and red UV paint. The pattern straight lines making him look techo one side of him read ‘This space for rent’ Dex looking the spitting image of Vinyl scratch has his hoofs around crash’s neck hanging on for dear life, both grinning madly.“Tonight’s the night! Let’s Live it up! I got mah money! Let’s spend it up!” The Pegasi Sang. Below them Note was gliding his way to the party on a skateboard trying to catch up to bob, Jumping to grind over the benches through the park “Go out and smash it, Like oh my Goddess, Jump off that sofa, let’s get get off.” He finished kick flipping as he finished grinding through the park and now weaving past the fillies and colts on the way to the party. Rain and Marely were walking at a normal pace blended in with a crowd of other Colts and fill’s heading for Crèmes. Marely looked to a unsure Rain grinning “I know that we’ll have a ball, if we get down, go out, and just lose it all.” She sang to the beat shooting a glare at a colt that looked like he had a lot too pre drink, swerving around him as he came to hug her continuing to sing “I feel…stressed out, I wanna let it go. Let’s goo waaaay out spaaaced out an losing all control.” “Ch-ch-chi- Fill up my cup!” Sang Bob weaving through the crowds of people ont heir way to Crèmes party of other parties gliding towards fills dancing in the street “Mazal tov, look at her dancing.” He crashed into one sending her on his back him still gliding through the streets; looking back he winked at her through his shades “Let’s get it off!” The Filly responded by sending Bob into the floor with her back hoof before making her way back to her friends.” Crash flying overhead Dex Scratch still holding on, Crash had a bucket of UV paint he was pouring as he flew not caring who it hit “Let’s Paint the town, we’ll shut it down!” Note Skateboarding Caught up to Bob kick flipped over the downed earth pony “Let’s burn the roof!” Bob got up and glided after Note on his skates grinning “And then we’ll do it again!” he continued gliding past party goers still gesturing to them as he sang past them “Let’s do it let’s do it, let’s do it, let’s doo it, an do it, an do it!” “Let’s Live it up!” Sang Rain and Marely as the Singing Bob glided past them. “An do it, an do it, an do it, do it, do it, let’s do it, let’s do it, let’s do it! Coz I gotta feeling, ooohooo, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good good night” He neared Crèmes place which was a 4 story mansion on the edge of ponyville gates gardens all that stuff, looked like the party already started, disco and rave lights seen from the windows, colts and fillies rocking out outside as well as in, chugging cider and other fruit related cocktails, no doubt this place would be trashed by morning but tonight, it was a night to go wild. Crash flying faster still singing with the beat “ooohooo that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good good night!” Dex holding on for dear life Crash flying both of them through one of the windows disappearing into the rave inside. Note reached the gates skating past the pony’s already partying in the large garden “Tonight’s the night! Let’s live it up!” Catching up with Marely and Rain he jumped off his board letting it continue riding past them, Marelyy continuing the song with note as the made their way to the large building. “Let’s live it up!” “I got my money! Let’s spend it up!” “Let’s spend it up!” Added Bob who who finally caught up to the group hopping out ghis rollerblades as he rolled letting them run away with Note’s skateboard.. “Go out and smash it!” “Smash” Sang exclaimed Marely. “Like Oh my Goddess.” “Like oh my Goddess!” Note repeat Sang “Jump off that sofa! Let’s get get off!” They all sang the last word, Making their way into one of the many room’s the atmosphere was crazy at least to Rain, Ponies making out with each other, dancing to the rave music, well if you’d call it dancing it was just jumping up and down, She stuck closer to the group looking around keeping her guard up. The group began to rave in the room they were in with the other ponies giving a clauhstraphobic feel a paper cup full of cider was frown bob jumped up grabbing it “Fill up mah cup!” holding it with his teeth he raised his head glugging the beverage down. “Drink” Sang yell Marely “Mazal tov” “L’chaim” “Look at her dance!” Gestured bob to one of the ravin fillies “Move it Move it” Bob made his way to said filly winking from behind his sunglasses “Let’s get it off.” What happened next Bob didn’t expect, the fill grabbed his by his pony tail and two disappeared somewhere, the others besides Rain weren’t paying much attention. Note took the lead now jumping with the ponies to the beat now looking vandalized by blue green and red UV paint “Let’s paint the town!” “Paint the town!” Followed Marely “We’ll shut it down!” “Shuut it down!” Added Marely who now had blue UV stripes on her back covering her usual zebra painted stripes “Let’s burn the roof!” Shout sang Note “And we’ll do it again, let’s do it, Let’s do it, let’s do it lets doo it, an do it, an do it,” jumping around hair now splattered with UV Green UV paint. "Let’s Live it up!” Added Marley who’d pulled Rain into the rave, she figured it was better than watching the rave from a corner and besides she didn’t want their new friend to get dragged off and get party phobia forever, speaking of dragged off they had no idea where Crash and Dex were but for now didn’t care. “An do it, an do it, an do it, do it, do it, let’s do it, let’s do it, let’s do it do it do I do it.” The beat picked up every pony in the room jumping more in frenzy everyone joining in with the lyrics of course no one would know who started it off. “Here we come; here we go we gotta roock, Eaasy come easy go, now we on top! Feel the shot body rock! Rock it don’t stop Round and round! Up and down! Around the clock!” Marely took the lead from note still jumping with the frenzied raver ponies who were singing with the beat “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Friday, Saturaday , Saturday and Sunday! We keep keep keep keep on going we know what we say, party every par par party every day!” Crash was following Dex Scratch in the upper regions of the house; his unicorn friend was being escorted by as Crème put it ‘Father’s men’ to make sure the DJ wasn’t assaulted, Crash wasn’t worried bobbing his head to the party beat sure things would be okay “Gotta feeling, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, tonight’s gonna be a good good night.” He was escorted to a dancehall where it was rather devoid of dance more some ponies waiting for something the loud music from downstairs dying down “Ooohooo that tonight’s gonna be a good night, tonight’s gonna be a good night, tonight’s gonna be a good good night, oohoooo” As the ahem groups musical number finished the centre of the dance floor roared with fireworks exploding into ultraviolet paint a DJ’s booth extended from the centre gaining everyone attention, bright lights spelt DJ Pon-3. Crash seeing this smiled “Wow Dj Pon-3s here.” He smiled waiting for everything to sink in before grimacing “Oh crap.” [[Author Notes, Well here’s chapter two, I had no idea how long it would take to write the 2nd half of that but I think it was a nice make up for the lack of funny in this chapter, don’t worry chapter 3 shall be out when I come back from a work holiday ¬_¬ translation, working abroad Song’s Black eyed Pea’s I gotta feeling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSD4vsh1zDA&ob=av3e Hope you enjoy I found this chapter fun to write, Catch y’all later!]]

Corporal Fluttershy

483

Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Starry Night

incomplete

<p>The Goddesses are reunited, yet Luna has still to take her throne. A thousand years of controlling the Night and the Day have seemingly taken their toll on Celestia and as the Sun and the Moon rebel, only the concentrated efforts of the Elements of Harmony and that pony which was once Nightmare Moon can prevent disaster raining down on Equestria.</p>

everyone

2011-08-12T05:43:21+00:00

2011-08-12T05:43:21+00:00

Starry Night By Corporal Fluttershy Chapter I : A house doesn’t make a home. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Celestia allowed her tired eyes to close as she stepped out from the doorway, embracing alone the feeling of the late afternoon breeze as it brushed past, tugging at her flowing mane and gently lifting the hair as if it could carry on its journey with the wind. Taking in a great lungful of air and exhaling slowly, the Princess reluctantly returned her gaze to the world outside - directing her attention to the immense circular stone table that dominated the courtyard she stood within. With the rhythmic clop of hooves against stone, Celestia slowly began to walk about the circle, occasionally casting her eyes over the walls of the high courtyard to look down on the bulk of the Royal Palace, a few levels below. Dropping her gaze as she leaned over the wall, the Princess followed the massive structure of the Palace’s southern wing as it stretched towards the distance, shaped almost as if some great pony made from the hardest stone had pushed its muzzle into the ground. Continuing her gentle pace, Celestia took in the expansive gardens that ran between the southern wing and the eastern; bright slices of orange, blue, red and a myriad other colours on a bed of green making for a pleasing contrast to the Royal Palace’s painted white and grey walls. Stretching her muzzle out further – a little more precariously – the Princess could just about see the very lowest floors of the Palace complex as they spread outwards, like the tiers of a wedding cake from the top down. It had been Celestia’s home for well over one thousand years and yet, every early morning and late afternoon she would take the same walk about the perimeter of the Solar Courtyard and it would all seem so bright, so alive ... So new. Turning her attention to the immense circular slab that dominated the courtyard, the Princess’ alabaster wings unfurled regally and, with virtually no effort, lifted her from the stone beneath her hooves and up into the air. From a vantage point of a few metres high, Celestia could more easily make out the thin line of shadow that, courtesy of the spire of glass climbing from the very middle of the stone circle, told her precisely where her Sun now stood in the sky. It was time. Still, Celestia hesitated. As the seconds ticked by and – undoubtedly – somepony in the Department of the Day would be growing ever more hysterical at a late (by a matter of moments) sunset, she waited. After a few moments more, her gaze climbed upwards to the only part of the Royal Palace that stood higher than the Solar Courtyard ... The Tower of the Moon climbed high into the Equestrian sky; coloured a dark blue where the majority of the rest of the complex was pale white. A shimmering band of white wrapped itself lazily about the tower’s form, beginning at the widest foundations and spiralling upwards to end at the tallest spire. All but invisible in the brightness of the day, the band shone with the light of the stars reflected when the Moon stood watch. Numerous windows were cut into its wide height, but none - save one at the very highest point – were lit. The entire tower seemed to stand aside from the greater Palace; connected to the rest of the complex other than via its base by a single walkway barely five ponies wide and almost a hundred long. It was a part of the Royal Palace and Canterlot, of course ... And yet it was not. Conscious of the fact her ministers would soon be galloping through the doorway opposite to inquire about the terrible events that had held the Sun in the sky for three minutes longer then scheduled, Celestia gave one final glance up to the very top of the Tower of the Moon; willing her sister to choose this day to resume their partnership, to choose this day over the four hundred and ninety seven previous ... Nothing. Allowing a sigh to escape her lips, the Goddess of the Sun held her beautiful creation from its rest no longer, and with the effort and magic only an Alicorn could bring to bear sent the Sun below the horizon and brought the four hundred and ninety seventh day since the return of Luna to a close. A murky blackness, neither day nor night, settled over Canterlot and all the lands of ponykind as Celestia lowered herself back to the ground and folded her wings comfortably by her sides. Planting her hooves firmly against the stone beneath, the Princess focused; the glow of her horn intensifying as she brought her full powers to the difficult task at hoof. The Moon was not hers; she had not crafted it from magic and the dust out beyond the stars, and she had not brought it to life with a kiss from her snout but nonetheless, she could command it. While it could not protest in the same way anypony could to treatment it did not like, The Moon rose only sluggishly, reluctantly – providing no help to Celestia who began to feel as if she were pulling the silver orb into the sky by a rope held between her teeth. Grunting with the effort, the Princess finally succeeded and fixed the Sun’s polar opposite in place with a single thought. A few solitary points of light, a literal hoof-full of stars accompanied the thin crescent which hung low in the murky sky ... A poor reward for Celestia’s efforts. Tapping her forelegs against the stone beneath in irritation, the light from the Goddess of the Sun’s horn faded until it returned to the same alabaster white as her flawless coat. Tipping her muzzle upwards towards the night, Celestia offered a heartfelt apology to the poor display; she could, if necessary, raise the Moon and bring on the night ... But it was no work of art. The stars were not hers, and the comets and brush swirls of galaxies belonged to her sister alone. They obeyed her as an Alicorn, as a Princess of Equestria ... But they belonged to another like the Sun belonged to her. She regarded the thin slice of the Moon, a shallow crescent barely visible, with particular sadness. Four hundred and ninety seven days since Luna’s return and in almost five hundred days, the Moon shown no more of its face than a wisp, or a slice. Equestria had not known a full moon in over a thousand years ... Even Celestia could barely remember the sight. And yet there had been no beautiful return, despite the return of the Goddess of the Night and the Moon, the sky remained as it had remained for ten centuries. The thought alone made her hooves ache, and swinging her mane from side-to-side, the Princess felt the unpleasant sensation of dizziness overtake her. Squeezing her eyes shut, Celestia sank down to her hindlegs. Even with her eyes shut, she could still feel the Solar Courtyard spinning, as if something had taken a hold of her tail and span her about until she felt sick. Grimacing and pressing her snout to the cold stone, the Princess waited out the dizziness and, eventually, it passed. Blinking away the confusion and climbing back to her hooves, Celestia decided on sleep being the best course of action. Sending the Sun to bed and raising the Moon had been harder than she expected and thoughts of her sister only made it all harder ... Pausing as she passed through the doorway and back into the Royal Palace, the Goddess of the Sun sent a final glance up at the Tower of the Moon and the Alicorn it undoubtedly held at its top, along with a final thought carried on the breeze ... I love you Luna. ~*~*~*~*~*~ “So explain this to me one more time ...” Spike muttered, his back bent as he struggled to pull the artist’s easel across the floor and simultaneously balance the tubes of paint held in the crook of his scaly arm. From the table nearby - a table almost entirely hidden by the books stacked around it and on top of it – a purple unicorn paid only half her total attention to the complaining diminutive Dragon. With flash of her horn, Twilight Sparkle turned the page at hoof and eagerly continued reading. “ ... Statistical tests have long established that creativity affects many other areas in ponylife,” She began to read aloud. “Creativity is heavily linked with magical ability, with ponies displaying the former more likely not only to have greater magical capability, but also superior control and use of that magic.” Spike frowned, dropping the easel down to the floor and cupping the small of his back. “That supposed to be my answer, huh?” Twilight glanced up, confusion written across her features. “What?” “Nevermind,” Spike groaned. “I still don’t see why you gotta do this when you should be fast asleep! What’s wrong with putting your head down when the Sun goes down?!” Closing the book at her hooves with a flash of light courtesy of her horn, Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes and offered Spike a slightly condescending smile. Checking over the brushes and rags stuffed into her saddlebags and levitating it all onto her back without an effort, Twilight ambled towards the door. “I could never do this during the day, Spike!” She explained matter-of-factly. “I can’t take a moment out of my scheduled studies; what would Princess Celestia say if she knew?” Narrowing his eyes as he balanced the easel over his back, the baby dragon struggled to keep up with the pony ahead. “Not much I bet, she’s probably sleepin’ ... Like I should be!” Coming to a halt with a humph, Twilight swung around and with a little effort and her horn, levitated a book from her saddlebag. Setting it down carefully on the ground, she flicked through the pages rapidly until coming across a copy of a painting spread across the spine. Nodding in satisfaction, she beckoned the Dragon over with a hoof. “Come take a look, Spike!” Setting the easel down and padding over, Spike peered at the book, his eyes widening as he took in the painting. He could make out a village in it, with a steeple rising up but they were all underneath the most amazing sky he’d ever seen! The night was a mix of blues, different hues all working together but it looked like the water down by the river; it was swirling, twisting like something right out of a dream. There were a couple of stars but they were ripples of light, like he sometimes saw when he skipped a pebble across a nearby pond. The yellows mixed with the blue, flowing in and out ... And the Moon! The Moon was incredible, lit so brightly it was like the Sun ... “It sure is pretty,” Spike whispered, looking up at the knowing nod from the pony above. “Who painted it?” “A pony by the name of Vincent Van Trot,” Twilight answered with a nod. “He painted it a very, very long time ago. Long before either of us was born—“ “He must have had some imagination!” Spike interrupted, glancing up into the night sky above and frowning. “It’s never looked like that to me, ‘cept when I accidentally drank Pinke Pie’s “Zoot-Alut Surprise” and saw all kind of funny stuff; had all kinds of funny dreams too, I had this one dream ‘bout Rarity—“ “Spike!” Twilight groaned, interrupting the dragon herself. Having the good grace to look apologetic, Twilight returned her attention to the book. “It was painted over a thousand years ago; I think the night looked different back then ... Or so I’ve read.” Whistling, Spike settled back on his haunches and gave the night above him a gesture. “Thousand years, huh? Bet only the Princesses remember that ... Well a Princess, Well, Celestia.” “Yeah ...” Twilight mused, closing the book and returning it to her saddlebag with a flicker of magic and light from her horn. “We’d best continue on, Spike – before it gets too late ...” Nodding and wrestling with the easel once more, the dragon-to-be settled in behind his boss to the best of his ability, just about able to keep pace and avoid tipping over like the stacks of books around the library did ... All the time. “Hey, Twilight!” Craning her had back as she ambled, the purple unicorn raised an eyebrow in silent question. “What was that pretty painting called, anyway?” “Starry Night,” Twilight called back, her own eyes wandering up into the plain, mostly featureless sky and hoping she wouldn’t have to wait another thousand years to see something as beautiful and wondrous as the apparent inspiration behind the painting. ~*~*~*~*~*~ A gentle tap against the door – so quiet it was almost impossible to hear – roused Luna’s attention from the mattress where she had lay, looking up at nothing more interesting than the frilled canopy draped above the four corners of her bed. Rolling over towards the enormous doors that separated her Royal Chambers from the rest of the Tower, Luna spoke for the first time that day (and now night). “Who is it?” She called out. One of the double-set doors, fully six times the height of a pony, creaked open to admit the thinnest slither of somepony’s mane. The voice that replied was impeccably polite, well-practiced and utterly neutral. “Will there be anything further tonight, Your Highness?” Luna craned her neck to get a better view of whichever pony from the Household Staff stood at the door, but she could barely tell the door was open, let alone who stood behind it. “No ...” She replied eventually, before remembering her manners. “ ... Thank you.” “Very good, Princess,” The voice clipped before promptly pulling the door closed with a reverberating thud. The sound of hoof against polished marble beyond echoed for a few moments further, before total silence was restored again. Rolling onto her stomach, Luna pressed her snout down against the duvet and sighed. You didn’t raise the Moon tonight. “I am not ready yet,” Luna replied to no-one, matter-of-factly. “Sister is more than capable of doing it.” That she is, the voice replied with obvious irritation, without ever being heard by the wider room. Putting the question of Celestia aside, the Moon and the stars are yours to do with as you please, Little One. Why do you ignore them? Luna shrugged her shoulders, resting her head on her forelegs. “I told you, I do not feel ready. Maybe tomorrow ...” You have told me that every night since you came home. You used to say it with so much more conviction; I think you have stopped believing it. Rolling over, Luna fixed her gaze on the visage of Nightmare Moon, spread out on the carpeted floor below. The elder mirror of herself returned the stare, cocking its head to the side and offering the slightest smile in return. I can almost understand the need you feel to lie to others, Little One ... But why lie to a fragment of yourself? I know why it is you refuse to return to your canvas, and why you decline all offers to paint your sky. “The fact you are here to discuss this at all proves my concerns are founded,” Luna retorted with a frown. Nightmare Moon shook her head, climbing up from the carpet and stretching out her hindlegs. I am here only because you wish for the company. I am a ghost, a remnant; I exist only because you desire it and I have not had any will of my own since we were defeated over a year ago. Luna swallowed, squeezing her eyes shut and taking a shuddering breath. “ ... I know.” You are lonely, my Little One. You cannot spend your days and your beautiful nights up here, talking away the weeks and the months with a ghost who has not existed for a very long time. We were once the same pony, my Princess, but I am not real ... Only a shard from a broken mirror. “You feel real to me,” Luna whispered as a single tear spilled free from the prison of her eye and rolled down to splash against the cobalt-coloured bedsheet. Crossing to the bed, Nightmare Moon looked down on herself-of-a-sort, and bent downwards to nuzzle the Princess who now began to sob uncontrollably. You will carry me in a way, forever, Little One but our journey together ended long ago. Your path does not lie with me ... It lies with the Principality outside, sleeping underneath your Moon. Celestia forgives, she offers your Night to you once again. Why will you not put what has happened before out to pasture? From underneath a swaying mane, the Goddess of the Moon seemed to give a thousand tears for one thousand years. She struggled to draw breath, the enormity of it all – the responsibility of it all – simply too much and in her weary mind, too soon. “I am not ready ...” She breathed, barely audible. Nightmare Moon climbed onto the bed and extended a wing, resting it over her smaller self and spreading the feathers to cover the shivering Alicorn. I know ... The Remnant sighed. Maybe tomorrow ... ~*~*~*~*~*~ “ So you see Your Highness!” The pony summarised, brushing at an imaginary grain of dirt on his sleeve with an impeccably filed hoof and gesturing to the map pinned to the board behind his mane. “We propose a total of thirty new homes, as well as a school, a concert hall and several other community services!” “ … Your Highness?” It took the Princess several moments to blink away whatever half-thoughts had distracted her from the business of the Court, recall the presentation she’d been receiving, and conjure a question that would smooth over her inattentiveness. If she’d had a few more seconds to spare, the alicorn would have dedicated them to scolding herself for such wandering attention. “I do not question your vision or your planning,” Celestia said eventually, having lived long enough to remember when established towns like Ponyville and Manehatten were mere gleams in the eyes of their developers. Surreptitiously meeting the gaze of the aged, wrinkled Pony stood to the left of her throne, the Princess continued; “ ... I question the location.” “A short gallop from Everfree Forest?” The old pony at the base of the throne grumbled aloud, ambling over to the map to inspect it closely through half-inch thick lenses perched precariously on the end of his snout. “Parasprites and Ursas make for interesting neighbours, I would think.” For the first time in the already hour-long audience, the constant smile of the impeccably-dressed stallion representing Equestrian House & Homes faded. “The low cost of the land makes for a highly attractive incentive ...” He began, awkwardly. “Moving the planned construction north-east, far enough away to avoid the objections of the farmers tending Sweet Apple Acres, would increase costs by over forty percent!” The old pony glanced over his shoulder towards the Princess, shaking his mane in what might have been shock or masterful sarcasm. “Heavens!” He grunted. “Forty percent you say!” “The safety of my subjects will always be of the very greatest importance,” Celestia began with all the diplomacy of one thousand years experience, and all the soothing of a voice that could only belong to a pony capable of raising the sun in the sky. “I applaud you for your vision, Mister Salesbury; after all your success is Equestria’s success ... However in light of the unknown associated with the Everfree Forest, I would like a little more time to consider your proposal.” While a bowing Salesbury couldn’t see it, behind his flank the aged pony’s lips curled upwards in a smile as he recognised the supreme method for dismissing an idea with the minimum of offence. Firstly, build-up before breaking down; throw in a compliment or two ... Then make any issue one of your own and, finally, dangle the carrot of possibly changing your mind in your own time. Superb. That’s why she’s a princess, He thought with a grin. Even if she seemed a most distracted one. With the help of a member of the Royal Guard, who easily folded the half-dozen scrolls, maps and the stand they rested on underneath his wing, Salesbury offered the Sun Goddess another bow, roll of his hoof and a dip of his snout before spinning on the spot and trotting out of the Throne Room. “ ... Need I ask your opinion on the Everfree Development, Church Hill?” Regarding his Princess with a shake of his mane, the Secretary of State for the Department of the Day offered his opinion nonetheless. “Damned foolish idea, My Lady; anything so close to that forest is begging for trouble to rain down upon them. If I’d been an older pony – and only a little older, mind you! – I’d have objected to Ponyville based on that same idea!” While Celestia nodded, she’d heard the words on some subconscious level, her attention had drifted away to the throne sitting vacant by her side. Tilting her muzzle upwards, eyes passing over the carved crescent of the Moon that matched the same of the Sun above her own mane, the Princess absurdly felt like laughing. Was this scene, with the Lunar Throne sitting empty while she tended to the affairs of the Principality alone, any different from the last thousand years? For all the terrible events she had borne witness to; from the banishment of her sister to her return to do battle against the Elements of Harmony, and the difficult and bumpy track her hooves had walked since then ... At this moment, here and now, it felt as if all that had been in vain. Shaking her head as if she could shake such thoughts from her mind, Celestia chastised herself. To even think that nothing had changed was to insult not only the brave ponies who had come together to aid her against Nightmare Moon, but her sister and of course, herself. ... And yet it was so difficult to keep such thoughts away. “ ... So I think we should grant immediate permission to begin to the Everfree Development. After that, I thought you might grant me the title of King of Equestria—“ Snapping her head back towards the old Pony and suddenly remembering where she was, Celestia had the good grace to bow her muzzle in apology. If he felt any true offence, Church Hill hid it well and instead replied with a simple shrug of his shoulders. “Oh, don’t mind the dreams of some old warpony, Your Highness ... Just thinking out loud.” His features becoming more serious, Church Hill ascended the steps of the Solar Throne and settled on his hindlegs by his Princess’ side. He glanced over his shoulder towards the Lunar Throne, and while had his suspicions like any canny pony of his advanced years might, a glance up at the sorrow in the eyes of Celestia provided all the confirmation he needed. “If you’ll forgive what I am about to say, Your Highness ... And if you can’t, may you chalk it up to my senility ... It has only been a year and one half since her return. Princess Luna has spent more time upon the Moon than she has spent time either in Equestria, or even alive. It’s a different world up there from the one down here. “Clichés are only truths repeated once too often for a pony to stand, and while I’m certain you grow tired of hearing it I offer you a truth with one caveat; Time heals all wounds, Princess ... And you have all the time there is to have. I regret only that I, and the ponies around me, will know this as a time without both the rightful rulers of Equestria on their Thrones . And yet there were countless generations of ponies, Your Highness, before the unfortunate events of one thousand years ago that knew only the Sun and the Moon in perfect harmony.” Bowing respectfully, Church Hill turned about and ambled down the steps to the floor of the Throne Room. “That time will come again, and I regret only that I won’t ever see it.” Feeling the hotness behind her eyes become almost too much to bear, Celestia managed to find her voice as the old pony made it almost beyond the doors. “Thank you, Church Hill ...” She virtually whispered. Showing a stunning range of hearing for one so advancing in years, the old warpony dipped his mane in acknowledgment as he continued out. “At your service, Your Highness.” Taking a long and shuddering breath, Celestia pushed herself up to her hooves and stepped down from the dais. No sooner had she done so than the strength in her legs failed the alicorn, sending the Princess down to the marble floor with a thud. Grimacing as she rolled onto her side, wings unfurling reflexively, Celestia felt her vision swirl and the Royal Palace around her twist in new, strange shapes. Dimly aware of the clatter of hooves and raised voices surrounding, she tried to fight through the disorientation. Horn flashing in once, twice, sending out coruscating pulses of light that forced the attending Royal Guard to shield their eyes, the Goddess of the Sun unsteadily climbed back to standing. Shaking her multi-coloured mane, Celestia felt her world stabilise and her vision clear. “Princess?” The Captain of the Guard broached, concern clear behind his otherwise stoic and well-drilled persona. Taking a few deep breaths, and hesitantly planting a hoof forward as if testing her weight on it, Celestia raised her head and exhaled, slowly. “I am fine, Captain ... Perhaps a little tired.” She replied, adding a little more force to her words. “ ...Thank you.” Opening his mouth as if to challenge this, but thinking better of it, the Captain simply stepped back and nodded, turning his attention to the pegasi gathered about him. “Stand down!” He barked. Turning away from the Royal Guard, confusion written across her alabaster muzzle, Celestia wandered away from the thrones, unable to process what had just happened. Her thoughts disordered, haphazard, the Goddess of the Sun got no further than replaying her dizzy spell inside her mind when the business of raising the Moon burst forth from her memory and demanded her total attention. Making her way towards the Solar Courtyard, the Princess could feel every sinew of her body’s weariness. It had been a long day ... ... It had been a long thousand years, she mused. ~*~*~*~*~*~ A foal was everything to its dam; a physical form to the love and caring required to bring a new life into the wider world. A foal was equally capable, of astounding acts of insensitivity towards its parent; such were the troubles of youth and, often, a simple refusal to do as it was told. Gritting her teeth together, Celestia imagined this was as close as she would get to that same irritation any mare would experience when her foal so brazenly ignored her will. Bending her hooves to the task, horn blazing with the power only an alicorn could boast, the Princess literally dragged her sun across the sky, tugging on the incandescent ball of light as it began to dip only grudgingly below the horizon. With a final grunt of effort the sun did as it was told and disappeared from view. Blinking away the beads of sweat that rolled into her eyes and stung, Celestia tapped a hoof against the stone floor of the Solar Courtyard, flushed and annoyed. She had raised her sun and put it to bed countless times, and yet she could not remember it ever taking so much effort. Glancing up at the strange sky – neither day or night – the Princess forced herself to focus on the task of raising the Moon and completing her duties. But it would not come. The sky darkened, a little more recognisable as night perhaps but still not as it should be. Not a single star offered its light to Equestria below and the Moon, or at least the slither of a crescent it had become these last ten centuries, folded its imagined hooves across its chest and refused to come out. Knees quaking with the effort of it all, her own eyes forced shut by the brightness of her horn, the Princess demanded the Moon’s compliance. The Moon, wherever it hid, however, ignored Her Royal Highness. “I order you to come out!” Celestia shouted, exasperated by it all. “As a Princess of this land you are bound by my magic! Do as I say!” After a few moments of silence, the light from the Sun Goddess’ horn faded and her multi-coloured, flowing mane flew upwards in anger as she pointed her muzzle to the sky and directed her irritation to wherever the infernal Moon hid and defied her. A few moments more and it became obvious she would not win this fight, at least not tonight. Turning on the spot, Princess Celestia marched through the doorway and back into the Royal Palace – the loud clapping of golden horseshoes against the marble floor acting as a powerful indicator of her mood. ~*~*~*~*~*~ “Thank you,” Luna nodded as the levitating service tray settled down in front of her. The unicorn responsible simply bowed, the glow of his horn fading with his work done. Stepping back against the stone walls of the dining room he might well have been another of the hundreds of busts, sculptures, statues and supporters scattered throughout the Palace Complex. His eyes fixed ahead at some imagined point on the wall opposite, he would play no further part in Luna’s evening unless she made a request of him. Resisting an urge to sigh, the Princess focused on enjoying the early evening with Celestia, before her sister turned in for the night. The shared dinner – like the breakfast at the beginning of each day – had once served as an unofficial handover, as one Princess would take watch over Equestria whilst the other slept. They had served no other purpose now except to socialise for well over one thousand years. Leaning back on her hindlegs, Luna frowned as her attention wandered to the far end of the table, towards the distinctly empty chair that should have been filled quite some time ago with another alicorn. Puffing her cheeks outwards the Princess hopped down from her chair and crossed the expansive dining room, stepping out onto the small balcony that overlooked the east wing of the Royal Palace. Luna knew something felt wrong before she could look up and see it for herself ... Where was the Moon? She rarely looked at her night – the night, for it hadn’t been her own for a very long time – but she could not remember a time when it looked more alien. Barely qualifying as night at all, not a single star shone and it seemed only a little darker than the dawn before the rising of Celestia’s sun ... Luna glanced over her shoulder, back into the dining room. Where was her sister? Turning away from the sorry display of the sky, the Princess ambled back inside, suppressing the twinge of guilt she felt for doing nothing to make the night any greater. The clink of armour-against-hide interrupted her thoughts, and Luna glanced up to see a member of the Royal Guard breeze into the dining room and offer a stiff bow. “Princess Celestia sends her regrets,” The Pegasus announced detachedly. “She is previously engaged and unable to meet with Your Royal Highness this evening.” Luna opened her mouth to ask why, but the Guardspony clearly had more pressing duties for the speed of his hooves carried him almost to the door before she had time to think. Glancing over at the unicorn who had remained totally immobile since delivering her meal, the Goddess of the Moon finally released the sigh on her lips. “I’m not hungry ...” She said simply, to which the Royal Steward only nodded; spiriting the undisturbed service tray up and away from the long table with a shimmer of his horn. Making her way towards the doorway. Passing the armoured Pegasi flanking either side of the exit Luna paused, trying to meet their eyes. Both stiffened in textbook reaction, but they went no further than this basic requirement of royal etiquette and military response. Giving up and returning her focus on the corridor, Luna could make out the flowing black flanks and violet hues of Nightmare Moon ahead, where before there had been nothing. The older mirror of herself looked back, offering Luna an encouraging smile as she trotted forwards to catch up. Rubbing her own mane against the black coat opposite, the Princess felt some of her loneliness abate. “I missed you ...” Luna whispered, unwilling to talk to loudly for fear of being heard by the Pegasi still guarding the doorway behind. Nightmare Moon returned the contact, nuzzling the smaller alicorn briefly before breaking the contact and shaking her mane. You know I am here always. Still, it would be better for you to spend time with your sister, other ponies ... Anypony. Luna scowled, stepping away and shaking her own horn in defiance. “Some ponies have invisible friends!” Some do, Nightmare Moon replied after a moment’s consideration. But none of them are over a thousands of years old like you, Little One ... And secondly, none of their invisible friends— “I don’t care!” Luna shouted, interrupting herself. The taller mare bowed in apology, and the two walked on through the winding corridors until they reached the narrow walkway linking the rest of the Royal Palace to the Tower of the Moon. Looking up to the sky, Nightmare Moon frowned at the glum somewhat-blackness that stared back, starless and boring. You did not raise the Moon again. Luna shook her head, trotting onwards and making it clear the conversation was not open for discussion. Perhaps tomorrow, Nightmare Moon sighed. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Pushing the last book into place on the shelf, Spike brushed the dust from his claws and nodded. “All done, Twilight!” He called out expectantly. After a few moments’ silence, the tiny dragon peered around the corner of the bookcase at the purple-tinged unicorn sat at the reading table and paying him absolutely no heed whatsoever. Clearing his lungs, his voice echoed around the library. “Twilight!” He bellowed, “I said I’m all done with the books!” Nothing. Huffing, Spike scratched at a scale on his behind and frowned; surely she couldn’t still be upset about what happened yesterday? Besides, she didn’t seem like the type of pony to hold a grudge ... “You’re not still mad about last night, are you?” He broached. His reply was nothing more than a swish of mane and an upturned snout. It seemed Twilight was the kind of pony to hold a grudge, and she was grudging him like there was no tomorrow ... ... Which, when Spike thought about it, was an infinitely better option were there to indeed be no tomorrow. Definitely better than something scarier ... Like Zombie Ponies ... Shuddering, he forced himself to concentrate on the task at hand. Clearly he would have to use all his dragonic cunning, all his guile, to get Twilight to give up the pony and talk to him. “So I was thinking about breakfast,” He began, perched at the edge of the bookcase and watching Twilight carefully for any outward signs of any possible attention being paid. Nothing. “Got some pancakes ... Even found a little Sweet Apple Acres ‘sweet apple sauce in the kitchen ...” Zip. She was one tough unicorn, but of course there was always ... No. Unleashing that would be too terrible a thing to contemplate, it’d be like opening a box of parasprites! Still, the alternative seemed to be living in absolute silence for the rest of his life. Puffing out his chest and taking the plunge, Spike wandered over and pressing his back against a leg of Twilight’s reading table, pretended to inspect his claws for dirt. “Hey! I spoke to Rarity today!” The chair Twilight sat on screeched ever so slightly the merest inch across the wooden floor. “I thought maybe it was just a phase, you know? But the more I see her, the more I know she’s the pony for me, Twilight! She’s just so graceful, so proper, so ... Did I mention graceful? And her horn, what a horn! It’s like a sculpture, so pointy! I wish I could eat her all up ...” Screech. Screech. No going back now ... “So, uh, I invited her over later today; hope you don’t mind or anything ... ‘Cause I sort of pretended you wanted to see her. Just because I get embarrassed and I didn’t want her to say no. Told her you needed help redesigning your whole wardrobe and you only trusted her to go through it all—“ “Spike!” Twilight barked, slamming the book on the desk closed with a flash of magic almost as bright as the flash of red across the unicorn’s cheeks. “I’ve listened to you whittle on for hours! I feel like Princess Celestia – know how? Because listening to you go on and on and on and on makes me feel like I’ve been around for a thousand years!” An awkward silence fell between the two, stretching into minutes before being punctuated by a wide grin splitting Spike’s lips. “Glad we made it up, Twilight; I knew you couldn’t stay mad at me!” “Oh I’m mad!” The purple pony groaned, rubbing a hoof against her forehead. “You just won’t let me be mad in peace!” Spike shrugged, “I said I was sorry ...” “You ruined the whole night’s work!” Twilight glared, gesturing towards the canvas perched against the table leg opposite that might once have held a masterpiece, were it not covered almost entirely in bright orange paint. The dragon’s smile didn’t falter, “The tube was stuck! I thought you might need it so ...” “I was painting a nightscape! When have you ever seen orange in a nightscape!” Spike had the good grace to look sheepish, his claws linking together behind his back as he scratched at the floor with a sharp toe. “If it makes you feel any better, I was just kidding about Rarity ...” “Well, that’s something!” Twilight muttered, flicking her mane from her eyes and giving her assistant a long, hard look. “Were you lying about the pancakes and the Sweet Apple Acres sweet apple sauce?” “Nope!” Spike beamed. “I’ll get to it right away!” Nodding as she levitated the ruined painting up onto the desktop with a wave of her horn, Twilight rolled her eyes and offered the library a shrug. “Oh well ...” She sighed. “Maybe I’ll paint it again tonight ...” A loud knocking from the front door gave the unicorn a welcome distraction from the orange disaster at her hooves. “I’ll get it!” Twilight barely had time to unlatch the door with a flash of her horn and pull it open, before the whole thing suddenly flew back with the force of a runaway applecart. Stumbling backwards and falling onto her rump, Twilight looked up into the wide eyes of another of the Elements of Harmony. “Sugarcube!” Applejack pounced, “You taken’ a walk outside lately?” “Not this morning,” Twilight grumbled, climbing back to her hooves and shaking the dust from her mane. “What’s wrong, AJ?” Applejack span on the spot, motioning with her foreleg before galloping out into the street. “Might be just a lil’ quicker if ah’ show you what I’m talkin’ about!” Shrugging her shoulders, Twilight trotted outside after the excitable orange pony. She didn’t need to catch up Applejack to see what it was she seemed so alarmed about ... Or rather, what wasn’t there to seem so alarmed about. Narrowing her eyes, the purple unicorn searched the pale, pale sky; more like a hue of winter white than the pastel blue of a full-blown summer season. Hanging high in the sky the sun barely deserved its name - a weak circle of sickly yellow that succeeded in defining its own outline, and little more. Twilight shivered, aware of the chill in the air that replaced the warmth everypony expected, and the cloud of breath that billowed from her nose ... What in the name of Celestia had happened to the Sun? ~*~*~*~*~*~ TO BE CONTINUED ...

Corporal Fluttershy

483

Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Starry Night

incomplete

<p>The Goddesses are reunited, yet Luna has still to take her throne. A thousand years of controlling the Night and the Day have seemingly taken their toll on Celestia and as the Sun and the Moon rebel, only the concentrated efforts of the Elements of Harmony and that pony which was once Nightmare Moon can prevent disaster raining down on Equestria.</p>

everyone

2011-12-13T01:13:12+00:00

2011-12-13T01:13:12+00:00

Starry Night By Corporal Fluttershy Chapter II :Pale yellow disc in the sky. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Arcing between the endless grey clouds that seemed to hang impossibly low in the sky, occasionally tearing itself free of the air to strike down against the treetops swaying in the driving winds and rain below, the lightning served as nothing more than a backdrop to the greater powers on display. The fury it displayed; shearing apart bark and burning green canopies to ash paled in comparison to the rage directed not at the land, or the sky, but a solitary alabaster blur and the rainbow trailing behind it through the downpour. Both the land and the sky, however, felt the wrath of that attention. Coruscating beams of light tracked across the low sky, honing in on the ghostly-white target. Where the twisting ribbons missed their mark, they simply obliterated whatever it was that stood in place. Great walls of stone, belonging to a structure that had stood for longer than the two warring spirits surrounding it had lived, exploded into debris no greater than powder. Perfectly square blocks, painstakingly carved by magic and hoof and weighing ten times that of the largest ponies, were spirited up as if made from nothing and hurled at that same, elusive target. Delicate tapestries of the Sun and the Moon hanging inside caught ablaze, spreading to consume room upon room and with them countless rarities, antiques and memories each contained. The flickering light of the flames licked about window frames, blackening the bright white of the exterior walls after melting through stained glass murals and tales of legend. Spirited out by the howling winds that whipped about the great, gaping holes blown in the stone, burning debris rained down to set the courtyards on fire. The Castle of the Two Sisters burned. Stone, memories, flowers and all. “Face me!” A voice bellowed, easily climbing above the din of collapsing structure and terrible weather. Midnight blue-on-black it took to the air with enormous, pointed wings and features set harder than any rock or stone it had yet blasted apart. The raw power the creature commanded bathed and swirled about it, hiding the details of its hooves and mane in twisting bands of purple and cobalt. Only the bright, silver slither of a crescent moon shining from its flank stood out to accompany the rage it wore so plainly. At one point, she had been known by a simple name, but names were labels for the finite, the mortal ... Not for Goddesses; not for creatures who could command the sky and everything inside it. “Celestia!” She roared, climbing higher until she flew level with the very highest spire of the Castle she had set about cleaving and tearing asunder. “Celestia! Face me or I shall burn it all! I shall burn everything!” Little One ... Bolting upright from the mattress before her eyes had finished opening, Luna took a deep, shuddering breath as her conscious mind caught up with her body and finally recalled the minor details of where exactly she was. Roughly shoving her damp mane up and away from her features, hindlegs dangling over the edge of the bed, the Princess rubbed at the sweat stinging her eyes with a weary hoof. Aware of a comforting presence behind, Luna leaned back and into the warmth of the embrace, heavy eyelids threatening to close as she felt strong, pointed wings extend around her. You have not dreamed of such things in a very long time. Luna frowned, sinking further down into the mattress and away from the gentle voice at her ear. “Too early ...” She mumbled, sighing contentedly. Withdrawing her snout and wings to fold smartly against her black coat and eliciting a grumble of discontent from the young Princess for her trouble Nightmare Moon – or at least a fragment of such – gently extracted herself from the embrace. Dropping down to the carpeted floor she ambled around the bed, over towards the heavy drapes that separated the bedchamber from the balcony outside. Look outside, the remnant urged. Rubbing at her eyes and muttering incoherently, Luna pushed her hindlegs over the bed’s edge and made hard work of setting one hoof in front of the other. Absent-mindedly parting the curtains with a flash of magic the Princess took barely a single step outside, regarding the day with half an open eye. Her senses all competed to be the first to show Luna what was so very wrong with the scene. Eyes fixed on the pale disc hanging so high she might block it out entirely with a single raised hoof, her snout flared with the chill of the cold air. Chilly enough that it numbed the alicorn’s throat and pricked her coat. Stumbling backwards and hastily commanding the drapes back together with a panicked thought, Luna struggled to find her voice. Not quite the eternal night I had hoped for. “That is not funny!” The Princess scolded, earning an apologetic dip of the head from the larger pony. Wheeling away Nightmare Moon padded across to the bed, leaping up to nestle in the tussled blankets as she looked over towards the drapes. “ ... It is as if winter comes,” Luna muttered, shaking her mane in confusion and angling her head back over her shoulder. “What has happened?” The remnant of what had once been the sum of the Princess’ jealousy and rage pursed her lips as if considering the question. Eventually she shrugged her slender shoulders, It is like no winter we have ever seen. As for what causes it, I do not control the Sun, Little One; as much as I might like to. Luna’s snout wrinkled in an even deeper frown. “Sometimes I do not believe we were ever one and the same ... I would never find that funny.” I agree, Nightmare Moon offered with a small smile. You were never particularly amusing on your own. Rolling her eyes, the Princess turned her attention back to the heavy curtains still drawn over the serious problem outside. Bidding them open once again and doing her best to ignore the icy chill of the cold air as it rushed inside, Luna closed her eyes and focused her attention up into the sky. Horn shimmering with effort she reached out, seeking to touch the Sun as anypony might touch a hoof to a door. Nothing. Eyes blinking open, Luna grit her teeth and used the surge of anger she felt to bolster her powers. She leaned forwards, the shimmer of her magic brightening until it cast rolling shadows about her chambers. The Princess pushed out further, higher, stronger. There! The slightest resistance, the smallest counter to her pressure; Luna could feel the fantastic power that could only belong to something as enormous and mighty as the Sun, or the Moon. The Alicorn was straining with the effort of it all however, and quickly what little response she felt from so far away faded. Luna tried once more, coat prickling with sweat as she forced her magic to even greater distance but she could not feel the sun again. Puffing her cheeks out and falling back on her haunches, Luna frowned. Whilst she had never dealt with anything other than her night and the objects therein – and she had not raised even them in over a thousand years – the Princess found it difficult to believe the day could be so challenging. Maybe she just didn’t have it in her to— Your magic is not what it once was, Nightmare Moon interrupted from her side as if sharing the thought. which Luna supposed she did. The Sun should still respond to you, in some fashion, as the Moon responds to Celestia. There is something more at work; perhaps you should seek out your sister. Nodding at the suggestion, the Princess stood and trotted towards the doorway joining her chambers to the rest of the Tower of the Moon. She got no further than commanding the tall doors to swing open, when a gold-capped hoof stepped out from the corridor to block her path. Taking a moment to adjust to Luna’s unexpected presence before glancing down with a warm smile, Celestia dipped her snout downwards to nuzzle her younger sister. Tensing for a few moments as her mind and body overcame the sudden surprise, Luna returned the gesture; enjoying the contact and the closeness it brought. She missed these simple pleasures the most. “Good Morning,” Celestia whispered aside her sister’s ear, withdrawing her muzzle reluctantly to focus on Luna. “You're up so early ...” Virtually everypony the length and breadth of Equestria held Celestia up as the living embodiment of their land. They looked to her to keep their homes and families safe, and prayed for her intervention and blessings during difficult harvests or troublesome times. None questioned her integrity, her wisdom or her power and as such, she projected serenity and peace. As far as the entire Principality and its myriad subjects were concerned, there was nothing she could not accomplish. Luna was not everypony, however. Millennia spent with her sister meant she could see the tightening around Celestia’s eyes, the stiff posture, and the slightest hint of something stirring beneath the ceramic cool of her royal disposition. The smile the taller alicorn gave was genuine, undoubtedly, but there was something else; something more than an unusual (but welcome) early-morning nuzzle. “Sometimes I like to see your sunrise.” Luna sighed inwardly, knowing that same innate knowledge of her sister’s true feeling was equally Celestia’s own when it came to anything the Goddess of the Night tried to keep buried. She could see her sister’s eyes narrow, as if Celestia were weighing up whether to let the lie slide, or turn it over to expose the truth. Being unwilling to discuss the dream which had forced her to wake so unpleasantly – for equal parts embarrassment at mentioning it and fear of having had it – Luna hoped for the former. Glancing away from her younger sister and up to the open curtains and the weak daylight streaming into the chambers, Celestia chose to grant Luna that small mercy. “Something's wrong with me ...” “The Sun?” Luna mumbled, already knowing the answer before Celestia’s rainbow mane dipped. “It took everything I could find to even feel it in the sky ...” Celestia’s eyes widened, and Luna instinctively knew the problem had become all the more worse. “I'd hoped it was something confined to my magic ...” The taller princess sighed, allowing her frustration to bubble upwards. “If we're both affected—“ “My magic is not what it once was,” Luna offered, as if her own inability might make the situation better. Celestia shook her snout, kindness in her eyes as she gave her younger sister a small smile. “You'd be as powerful today as ten centuries ago if you practiced ...” Celestia’s eyes returning to the daylight visible over the balcony ahead. Following her gaze, Luna turned to face the curtains billowing at the cold wind whipping inside, worry etched across her features. Instinctively stepping across to press herself against her sister’s brilliant white coat, the smaller Princess felt some of her fear subside as a great wing settled over her back and pulled against her tightly. “How will you correct it?” Glancing down at her younger sister, letting all the aloofness and tranquillity of her royal duties fall by the wayside, Celestia gave up any pretence of being the all-knowing Goddess of the Sun her ponies far and wide believed her to be. “I don’t know Luna ...” She whispered. ~*~*~*~*~*~ With a final buck and powerful kick, the stone column teetered over and fell into the long grass with a soft thud. Scrutinising the work of his broad hooves with a satisfied nod an enormous pony – almost as tall as the eldest of the Royal Sisters and far wider – trotted over towards a far more diminutive, dumpy unicorn busily gorging himself. “All done?” He slurred, words hurried by his tongue as it chased chunks of apple. The towering earth pony opposite nodded his snout, though his eyes were focused on the trees that surrounded the enormous clearing they occupied. “Can we go now?” “Boxer ...” The chubby unicorn sighed, biting down on the last chunk of apple levitating in front of his lips with a loud crunch. “What am I good at?” The powerful pony above dug a massive hoof into the damp grass, churning the soil beneath as he thought hard. “ … Ideas?” “That's right – ideas! Plans! Plots and permutations!” The Unicorn nodded, as Boxer mirrored the nod with one of his own and looked pleased with himself for answering correctly. “Now why do you think I bring you along? What are you so very good at?” The ground took another thorough hoof-pounding. “Hard work?” “Well, I'm not sure if I'd call it that ...” The chunky pony grumbled as he climbed to his hooves and ambled over to inspect the tipped stone nearby. “I provide the theory, you provide the practice, the physical. I build the plough, you pull it … That's how our partnership works!” Boxer cast his long snout over his shoulder, as if the rustling trees hid something else he couldn't quite see. “We shouldn't be here, Napoleon ...” The portly pony scoffed, rolling his eyes. “The Everfree Forest is just that, Boxer – it's a forest! Trees and grass and a parapsrite or fifty, and that's it!” “But--” “You like apples, don't you?” Napoleon interrupted, glancing about his hooves for one before realising they'd all been consigned to the pit of his stomach. “Especially those Sweet Apple Acres' crop?” Boxer nodded, “Sure do.” “Well unfortunately my honest and simple friend, the Apple Family don't just give their famous crop away. Equestria turns on bits, whether it's apples or houses or coatshine and it's up to me to make sure you're taken care of. That means we need to make bits, and that means we take on jobs.” “But--” “If filling your stomach isn't enough justification, think of all the ponies you'll be helping! Building homes is a long and complex process, Boxer – and it's expensive. All this stone, all this stone that's just lain around here for as long as anypony can remember … Doing nothing, except giving home to moss! Mister Salesbury can use it to build new houses, and the bits he'll save instead of having to go to those rip-off ponies up at Muddytop Quarry, well … That'll reward us faithfully for all this effort we're putting in, won't it?” Still looking less-than-convince, Boxer pursed his lips and shook his mane lightly. “Ponies shouldn't be in here--” “There's no statutory law on Equestria's books that forbids entry into the Everfree Forest!” Napolean insisted, pointing a hoof accusingly at the far taller pony. “I would never dream of involving us in anything illegal; I hope you're not insinuating this job is anything other than strictly proper!” “Nothing to do with laws,” Boxer whispered, almost to himself. “Ponies say the Forest doesn't sleep, that strange things live between the trees ...” Napolean guffawed. “Old Mares' tales! The very idea of this being anything more than a forest is ridiculous! Come now, what would other ponies think if they heard you saying such things … What would AppleJack say?” Boxer turned away, mumbling something incoherent. “That's what I thought! Now that's quite enough of that; we've got work to be getting on with.” With a flash of his horn, Napolean worked to levitate the stone slab still lying on the grass up into the air and, eventually, the short distance over to the waiting cart. Letting the stone drop onto the bed of the cart with a thump, the pudgy pony made a great show of wiping his mane with a hoof, and generally making sure the difficulty of the feat wasn't lost on his larger friend. “Phew!” Napolean groaned, Dropping down to his haunches and sucking in a deep breath. “On you go, Boxer! Knock over the next one!” Trundling around to present his flank to the next enormous stone cropping, Boxer frowned and looked up at the bulk of the enormous … Whatever it had once been, climbing up to ten times the height of the surrounding trees. “Do you know what this is?” “Hmm?” Napolean murmured, his eyelids drooping closed as he nestled into the long grass. “The ruins? Oh, supposedly it was once a Royal Castle of some sort … Allegedly. Though I don't believe it myself; it doesn't look a patch on Canterlot. I can't see the Princesses living here.” “Doesn't make sense to me ...” Sighing, Napoleon sat up and blew his mane out from his eyes with a puff of breath. “What doesn't?” “Stones been lying here a long time,” Boxer explained, gesturing with a rear leg to the slab standing behind his flank. “Mister Salesbury is clever, but there's been plenty clever ponies before. None of them ever thought the same thing, tried to take the stone away?” Settling back, Napoleon dismissed the notion with a wave of his hoof. “Maybe it has been tried before, but they didn't have muscle like you, Boxer, did they? Don't worry about it, and focus on knocking the stone down. That'll take your mind off all this nonsense.” The enormous earth pony looked as if he might argue on, but instead held his tongue and turned his attention back to the task at hand. Taking a long, steadying breath he threw his hind legs backwards – driving sturdy hooves into the stone with a resounding thud that sent chunks of grass and dirt flying up into the air. The enormous block teetered for a moment and unable to resist the pull of gravity in addition to the bucking it had received, collapsed onto the soft ground with a muffled squelch. Turning expectantly towards the cart, Boxer caught sight of the snoring, chubby unicorn nestled in the long grass as he swung his powerful frame away from the fallen stone. “Napoleon!” Grumbling something unintelligible, Boxer's “partner” rolled over and buried his face into the soft greenery he'd fashioned into a pillow. Ambling over to the makeshift bed, the tall earth pony carefully stopped his head down and pressed his muzzle into the smaller unicorn's side, repeatedly. “Napoleon!” “ … I can assure you, Miss Cheerilee … I have no idea how our new roof could have leaked so quickly … Of course, I understand … Might I suggest a bucket? Of course … You tried? All over Applebloom? No, that simply won't do … Closing the school would be unfortunate— ” “Napoleon!” Boxer shouted, sending the unicorn bolting upright in a flail of hooves and mane. Spluttering and coughing and looking most indignant, Napoleon frowned and smoothed the ruffled hair hanging over his eyes back behind his ears. The earth pony took a heavy step backwards as his partner shifted on his grassy cushion. “Is there something wrong with the new school roof we built?” “Hmm? Roof? Oh, the roof!” Napoleon stammered, his eyes refusing to meet Boxer's as he tried to think. “Minor hiccups! Trifling corrections! I'm taking care of it, not to worry.” The powerful pony opposite seemed less than convinced. “I don't want ponies to talk about us badly, thinking I don't work hard enough. I always do the best I can.” Napoleon waved a hoof dismissively, and shook his snout. “Not to worry, my friend! It remains a minor snag I have well under control … Now what exactly did you wake me for? As I've explained before, it might look as if I'm sleeping but really I'm resting my eyes while I think about all the very great multitude of many things I have to think about.” “Stone's ready for lifting,” Boxer gruffly replied, not entirely sure what “multitude” even meant. Lifting himself up with a long, drawn-out sigh, Napoleon trotted around his partner's large frame and frowned. “Perhaps you're the one sleeping ...” He chuckled, much to Boxer's confusion as the earth pony turned to see the very same stone he'd brought crashing to the ground a few minutes earlier once again firmly standing, as if it had never received as much as glance let alone a bucking. Boxer shook his muzzle in confusion. “I bucked it over … I know I did. Heard it fall and saw it flat on its back with my own ears and eyes.” “Far be it from me to question your ears and eyes,” The unicorn replied with a wide yawn. “It appears to stand, anyway. Quickly now; let's have it down so we can take these two slabs back to Ponyville in time for a late breakfast.” The empty stomach and the thought of food filling it after a hard morning's work pushed questions of what Boxer had – or hadn't – seen to the back of his mind. Manoeuvring around to present his flank to the slab, the powerful pony took a steadying breath and crashed his hind hooves backwards and down against the rock. Settling back onto all fours, Boxer cast his head over his shoulders, glancing behind himself at the slab that remained firmly standing and showing no worse the wear for the tremendous impact it had just endured. Not bothering to wait for an invitation, he kicked out again. And again. Each impact a little more powerful than before, driven by the earth pony's increasing frustration at the slab's incredible staying power. “What a stubborn rock ...” Napoleon mused from afar, chewing absent-mindedly on an apple core. On the fifth attempt the stone surrendered and toppled backwards. Boxer, however, did not have time to take pride in his success and Napoleon had none in which to congratulate his colleague. The attention of both ponies was instead stolen by a twisting ribbon of light, erupting from the sunken ground where the slab had stood a moment before toppling. A coruscating collection of all the colours one could imagine, bending and flexing and running together into something that defined explanation. It continued upwards at impossible speeds, tracking high into the sky, shimmering. And then it exploded. The two ponies squeezed their eyes shut, turning away from the blinding light that burst forth and covered everything in white. Both remained still, frozen with hooves clamped over their features as the surrounding forest returned to the solitude it had known before. Eventually, hesitantly, Boxer chanced a glance about himself. He frowned. “Has it gone?” Napoleon squeaked, still refusing to open his eyes. Boxer nodded, “Think so.” It was the unicorn who first saw that it was not the only thing to vanish. The troublesome slab that had earlier taken five buckings to dislodge once against stood upright, plugging the spot from which the incredible multi-coloured something had burst forth from. The stone already loaded into the cart had disappeared, and a quick glance around saw it standing where Boxer had knocked it from earlier in the morning … As if he had never even bothered to try. “Never should have come here ...” Boxer ventured, shaking his mane mournfully. Napoleon coughed nervously, fidgeting with his mane as he surveyed … Whatever it was this was. “Perhaps, in the interests of prudent sensibility, and of course, our own well-being in matters of uncertainty such as this, it would serve us well to expedite our return to Ponyville ...” “Let's go home,” The earth pony translated gratefully. The unicorn nodded, and both ponies broke into a faster-than-gentle gallop away from the clearing, leaving the cart and some very old, very odd stones far behind. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Applejack didn't know of the precise mechanics behind how the sun worked; she knew only what she needed to – that it rose in the morning and set in the evening and between those two points, it shone brightly. If any of those three simple things went amiss, then that was enough to let the plain-speaking pony know something was wrong. Fortunately, there were others who knew more about the exact science behind it, like the good friend standing right next to her. “C'mon Twilight,” Applejack prompted, trying to hide the worry in her voice. “This is your kinda’ thing – Please put 'mah mind at ease here and tell me you know what's happenin' with the sky.” Dimly aware her friend was saying something, Twilight couldn't help but feel entranced by the sight above, unable to tear her eyes aware from a sight equal parts astounding and worrying. A chill wind whipping past her snout brought her back to the present, and Twilight shook her head slowly. “I've … Never seen anything like it!” Swallowing nervously, Applejack glanced around and down the empty streets of Ponyville. At such an early hour, only farmers like her and night owls – like Twilight – would be found up and about. With the new day now well under way however, that would quickly change and soon two confused ponies would be multiplied a hundred-fold. They would need answers. She needed answers! Allowing the initial shock to sink in, Twilight quickly felt her analytical nature reassert itself and demand she calm down, focus and get to grips with the problem at hoof. Parties were for Pinkie Pie, dresses for Rarity and small animals, Fluttershy. Problem-solving was Twilight Sparkle's forte. “We need to contact the Princess,” She announced firmly. Applejack smiled in relief. She was all over a good plan. “Sure are good pancakes, Twi,” Spike half-mumbled between mouthfuls of said pancakes as he meandered through the open door to join the other ponies. Shivering at the sudden change in temperature Spike's eyes grew wide as he saw the same thing that had so shocked his friends a few minutes before. “Spike! No time for pancakes! Take a letter for the Princess!” Nodding dumbly and jogging back into the Library to fetch the quill and parchment, Applejack scratched at the soft ground with her hoof as she glanced back up at the pale day. “Ah sure hope this ain't nothing too serious, Twi' … Harvest's only a few weeks away. Can't afford no upsets like this. Sure is a fragile time for apples ...” “The Princess will know what to do,” Twilight nodded confidently. The Princess always knew what to do. Out of breath from both running and eating, Spike skidded to a halt, bent over with claws on his knees. “Okay ...” He wheezed, wiping a bead of sweat from his scales. “Ready … To … Just a minute … Go!” Nodding, Twilight swished her tail aside and began dictating. “Dear Princess Celestia—” A groan, gurgle, burp and flash of green flame interrupted the purple unicorn as Spike stumbled backwards, clutched his stomach and belched out a wrapped parchment. Instantly levitating it up to her eyes with a flicker of magic and untying its binding ribbon, Twilight scanned the words. Applejack nudged over, trying to see the scroll over the unicorn's shoulders. “What's it say, Twi?” Folding it away before she could get beyond “My faithful student ...”, Twilight galloped through the open front door and back into the library with Spike and Applejack in hot pursuit. Skidding to a halt they watched their friend frantically toss open chests and drawers with a flurry of magical power; clothing, quills, books – lots of books – and all manner of sundries flying through the air in shimmering auras and being crammed forth into saddlebags. “Twilight!” Applejack shouted, finally gaining the unicorn's attention even if objects continued to zip across the library at speed. “What in tarnation did yer' letter say!?” “We're going to Canterlot!” Applejack blinked, mouth agape while she struggled for words. “Now wait an apple-pickin' minute! Who's goin'? When? Jus' slow down and give me a lil' more information, sugarcube—” The tapping of Spike's claw on her hind legs forced her to turn away from Twilight and towards the open door, mouth dropping open once more as she took in the sight before her. Dressed in shining plates of brilliant gold and towering as high as Big Mac himself, a half-dozen pegasi of the Royal Guard of Equestria filed in through the library doorway without fanfare. Barely visible behind the powerful stallions, a royal chariot stood shining as well. And waiting. “I guess we're leaving now,” Spike shrugged, finally being the one to answer Applejack's question when it least mattered. ~*~*~*~*~*~ TO BE CONTINUED ...

Corporal Fluttershy

483

Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Starry Night

incomplete

<p>The Goddesses are reunited, yet Luna has still to take her throne. A thousand years of controlling the Night and the Day have seemingly taken their toll on Celestia and as the Sun and the Moon rebel, only the concentrated efforts of the Elements of Harmony and that pony which was once Nightmare Moon can prevent disaster raining down on Equestria.</p>

everyone

2012-12-30T22:43:56+00:00

2012-12-30T22:50:00+00:00

Starry Night By Corporal Fluttershy Chapter III :Wisdom without knowledge. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Government was a curious, multi-headed beast which possessed extraordinary powers of expansion. If not actively reigned in or at least monitored, it quickly gave rise to a self-sustaining bureaucracy; generating almost as much work in simply existing as it was supposed to lift from the shoulders of everyday ponies. An enormous, convoluted pyramid in which information passed upwards; from the many to the few and actions from those same few, downwards. As a result with each step up the hierarchy, the raw incoming data swelled and the decisions made based on that data became increasingly important – with wide-ranging ramifications for every pony making up that pyramid. Fortunately for Equestria, the ponies at the summit of said pyramid were immortal goddesses, with dominion over the Sun, Moon and Stars and wielding magic far in excess of even the great Star Swirl. There was no limit to the information they could handle, no decision too enormous or challenging for them to make. Unfortunately for Equestria, said goddesses were obliged to spend much of their time communing with their little ponies; hearing questions, concerns, grievances and where necessary, redressing them. When it came to the day-to-day running of the Principality a chocolate-brown, greying stallion by the name of Church Hill was their stand-in; their designated executor. Doubly unfortunately for Equestria, he was anything but a god and at times like these – with the surface of his desk rapidly disappearing under reams of panicked interdepartmental memos – he doubted he even had dominion over his own office. Most of the vast machinery of government was hidden from the average pony. It watched and waited; trained, able and ready to react to any incident. Clear lines of authority and seniority meant any incident, no matter how lowly or shattering, would escalate smoothly and speedily to the eye of whichever pony had the ability to solve it. That was the theory. In practice,there were two major drawbacks. Firstly, the system was creaking under the weight of its own bloated size. Secondly … A loud knocking at the door shook Church Hill from his thoughts, a deep frown crumpling his features as he refocused his attentions on the sea of paper threatening to drown him. A second thumping of hoof-against-wood was more than his stretched patience could stand. “I couldn't fit any more reports in here if I started taping them to my flank!” He bellowed. “Find somepony else's wastepaper bucket to fill!” Undeterred, the door nonetheless swung open to admit a tall, pale stallion garbed in the ceremonial gold of the Royal Guard. “ … I'm hoping somewhere in that pile you can tell me something I don't already know.” “I'd love to chat, Captain, but the entire government is quite busy sending me the same report, appended with different cutie marks and varying wordage, telling me precisely the same thing and asking exactly the same question—“ Church Hill abruptly stopped mid-rant, clutching a piece of paper in his mouth and slapping it onto the top of a half-dozen others. “Under-Department for Solar Movements and Timings?! Am I to assume I'll shortly be contacted by the Office of Ice Cream and Party Hats? When did government get so … Unwieldy?” For his part, Shining Armour could manage only a smile. “I believe not long after the military stopped being the primary method for solving the government's problems.” Church Hill Snorted, “A military dictatorship would surely generate much less paperwork!” The Captain of the Royal Guard nodded, the smile disappearing from his features as he moved to the pressing business at hoof. “What do we know?” “Well I don't know what you know,” Church Hill sighed, finally glancing up from his desk. “But I'll hazard a guess that it's somewhere between “Very little” and “Almost nothing”. In all seriousness, we know precisely as much as anypony who sticks their head outside and looks up at the sky. For some reason – some unknown reason – the Sun is shining as brightly as it might on a short afternoon of the longest and darkest winter … In the middle of summer!” Shining Armour nodded. “... And the Princesses?” The old Stallion shook his mane ruefully. “Celestia made it clear, via a particularly terse message relayed by one of your particularly terse guardsponies, that she was not to be interrupted under any circumstances.” “Surely this qualifies as exceptional?” Shining Armour replied with a scowl, earning nothing more than a shrug and the same answer he'd received before from the greying Prime Pony. “Not to be interrupted ...” Church Hill repeated slowly, punctuating each word harshly, “Under. Any. Circumstances.” The Captain of he Royal Guard nodded, settling back on his haunches. “I've recalled all guardsponies to active duty, and have doubled patrols around the castle and Canterlot as a whole.” “Oh, excellent!” Church Hill sarcastically enthused, rolling his eyes behind the iron-framed glasses he wore. “We'll be well placed should the order come to prepare to invade the Sun and show it the error of its ways!” Shining Armour chose not to take the bait. “Princess Luna?” “What of her?” Church Hill muttered bitterly, “I imagine at this time of day – though it barely qualifies as such – she'll be fast asleep. Even were she wide awake and standing right in front of us, I imagine she'd be of limited use given her reluctance to get involved in … Well, anything much. At all. Haven't you anything more important to be getting on with, Captain? Didn't they give you a desk? Why isn't it overflowing like mine?” Shining Armour shrugged his shoulders, a ghost of a smile playing across his muzzle. “Other than reading an incident report from a patrol near the Everfree Forest, it's surprisingly empty. I have a junior officer take care of most of the paperwork.” “Hmph!” Church Hill grunted, “Chance would be a fine thing! Most of this stuff is too important, apparently, to be dealt with by anyone other than me. An incident at the Everfree Forest, eh? What transpired?” “I didn't have time to read the whole thing before … Well, whatever it is that's happened to the Sun happened, but I caught the gist. Two ponies broke the Royal Edict banning entry into Everfree without permission, apparently to help themselves to the stone making up some of the ruins deep inside the forest. Working for a Salesbury, one of those property magnates from Manehatten or so they said.” “Oh, I know of him,” Church Hill sneered. “Desecration of restricted stoneworks? As good a reason as any to throw out his dangerous, greedy development and put it to bed once and for all! How'd you come across them, anyway? I wasn't aware patrols venture very far into Everfree.” Shining Armour shook his mane. “They don't – the pair came galloping out, almost crashed into a half-dozen guardsponies on hoof; gibbering about magical explosions and stone righting itself back into the ground after they'd bucked them clean over. Didn't make a whole lot of sense. We're holding them while they calm down and we can get a straight answer out of the pair ...” An awkward silence descended between the two stallions, one looking thoughtful as the older one continued to frown and pour over the papers on his desk. “Where is Princess Celestia, exactly?” “What?” Church Hill grumbled, glancing up at the Captain of the Guard as if only just noticing his entry into the room. “Oh, the Royal Archives, I believe. First Circle Collection, no less. Whatever it is she's looking for, we can be sure nopony since Star Swirl has seen it either—“ Another knocking at the door interrupted Church Hill, who sucked in a lungful of air to blast a volley of choice words at the newest interruption. The lashing died on his lips however as he spied the yellow band tied around a scroll, levitating in the air as it was delivered through the door by a unicorn of the Royal Guard. Equestria's Prime Pony snatched the scroll from the messenger, who paused only long enough to salute his commanding officer, Shining Armour, before about facing and trotting from the office; taking care to close the door with another bout of unicorn magic. “It's from Celestia ...” Church Hill announced as soon as his eyes caught up with his mind, dropping the open parchment to the desktop and reclining on the cushion he sat upon. “Prepare to receive visitors to the castle, Captain ...” “ … Your sister and the Elements of Harmony are paying the capital a visit.” ~*~*~*~*~*~ Twilight Sparkle didn't love books; it was an annoying generalisation that seemed to follow her around as surely as the eight-pointed star on her flank. What she craved, desired – loved even – was knowledge. Some ponies got their thrills from swooping and soaring on the breeze … Like a certain rainbow-haired mare she knew. Some took joy from a good (and honest) hard day's work … Like a certain farmer she knew. Still others found it in a smile, or helping pull a thorn from a bunny's paw, or designing yet another marvellous dress. Information was Twilight's guilty pleasure. It just so happened that the biggest, most accessible sum of pony knowledge could be found in the form of books. Quite coincidentally, the largest repository of books just happened to be a library, which she happened to live in and thus, unavoidably, spent most of her free time in. Twilight Sparkle didn't love books. They were just convenient. She could stop reading them any time she wanted to. As if an inanimate object, just paper and words, could hold any kind of power over her. The very idea was preposterous! Slamming the book below closed with a touch of magic before levitating it to join the dozen or so dusty tomes piled high beside her, Twilight wrinkled her nose in a frown. If her interest in books was only because of the information they contained, then the lack of knowledge they were providing her right now meant she positively hated them. Maybe this was all just a waste of time. Still, she had to be sure and that meant more reading. Shrugging her shoulders, Twilight guided down the next thick volume from the rapidly emptying shelving above her horn. It always paid to be thorough, after all … And hate was such a strong word. Ears pressing against the side of her head, Twilight gave up the pretence. She wasn't fooling anyone – especially herself. She loved books like she loved making checklists. Glancing up from her books and her monologue, Twilight came face-to-chest with a very familiar, alabaster-coated pony. A very important, very familiar pony. Eyes widening, she struggled up to her hooves, overturning the heavy book and sending it crashing to the floor from the desk. “Princess!” Offering a small smile, Celestia dipped her head – doing her best to ignore the heavy mane that now draped over her shoulders, robbed of the ethereal wind that usually carried it so invisibly and so easily. “My Faithful Student … Have you made any progress?” Glancing at the pile of books by the desk, Twilight hung her head, a sigh escaping her lips. “I'm sorry Princess; I've only been able to get through twelve of the forty-eight volumes on the Combined Illustrated History of Equestria, Preceding States and Neighbours.” “Twelve?” Celestia chuckled, her eyes widening slightly as she surveyed the empty space on the shelving above the desk. “My dear Twilight … You've read twelve volumes already?” “Twice!” She admitted, levitating the fallen thirteenth book back onto the desktop. “In case I missed something on my first read-through.” “Then I dare say your efforts have surpassed mine,” The Princess of the Sun soothed. “What did you discover?” Pushing the nervousness that gnawed on the pit of her stomach even further down, Twilight fell back on her tried-and-tested talent for the organisational, the logistical. Whenever her mind struggled with the endless intricacies of socialising, it could always be relied upon when it came to facts. Sweet, cold, black-and-white facts. No interpretation, no exposition. Just read and repeat. She sucked in a lungful of air and launched into her answer. “At first I focused on the study of Solar – that is, I mean – your magic; ponies have been trying to understand its subtitles for almost as long as they've been writing books. I hit my first dead end there, I mean, how is anypony supposed to learn anything really specific about how you do what you do with the Sun? There were hundreds, thousands of articles but none of them went into any real depth.” Twilight pursed her lips, scanning her eyes around the books scattered around the main pile she'd accumulated. “Then I got to thinking that instead of going through the entire ponywork on Solar Magic, I should just find the greatest unicorn expert on it and go from there.” Finding the book in question, she quickly levitated it up into the air and span through its many pages. “Unsurprisingly, Star Swirl the Bearded was that unicorn. He wrote a book … Actually four and a fifth as an appendix, Called “A Treatise of the Magic of the Alicorn of the Sun”. It was really quite a fascinating read, I mean, did you know he theorised that you share a symbiotic relationship with the Sun itself? Well, I suppose you did know – do know. Anyway, what's important is he was sure the health of Equestria was irresistibly linked to the Sun and the Moon.” Taking a heaving breath in-between, Twilight leapt on. “Beyond that, Star Swirl never mentioned anything specifically regarding failure or weakness of that magic. That was my second dead-end, and I realised that I should be looking for possible historical accounts of issues with the Sun. Obviously there was the incident with Discord's release of a few months ago during which the cycle of day and night was disrupted. I believe that was due to the Elements of Harmony no longer being under the control of yourself and Princess Luna, rather than a failing of your magic in itself.” “Historical accounts of Equestria are fragmented,” She grumbled. “Virtually nothing factual survives from before the first defeat of Discord and the beginning of the Second Equestrian Renaissance, except Old Mare's Tales and–” “Like the Mare in the Moon?” Celestia interrupted, her expression unreadable even if the tone was warm enough to assure Twilight she hadn't overstepped the mark. “I suppose there's always some truth rooted in mythology ...” The Goddess of the Sun's small smile returned. “Ponies told stories long before they committed them to pages, my faithful student.” “I'm sorry Princess,” Twilight sighed, her horn igniting in a flash of magic as she began to pull books from the shelving. “I must have missed something, somewhere … I couldn't find any mention of anything like this happening before. I've only double-checked around a tenth of the Royal Archive! If I work through the night I might find something useful, something you can use–” Celestia's own horn shimmered in reply, freezing the books where they hovered and sending them neatly back into their places. “Twilight!” She began firmly, commanding the small unicorn's total attention. “You have already proven yourself to me and the whole of Equestria countless times. Even in a simple task like reading, you've gone beyond what I thought possible. I had hoped, of course, for a surprise but I think I always knew the answer to this wouldn't be found in the Archive. Besides, I believe the Sun is locked high in the sky. There won't be a night, tonight, to work through.” Turning away from the seemingly endless rows of bookshelves, the Princess called out over her shoulder. “Come – it's time your friends and the other Elements of Harmony learned of what we know and what we don't.” ~*~*~*~*~*~ “The Princess is currently indisposed,” The gold-clad Pegasus flanking the doorway repeated. Again. “Her Highness will arrive with Miss Sparkle shortly.” If the Guardspony was cool and aloof, the reply he received did its very best to test his temperament; stricken as it was and pleading, complete with a hoof-against-horn sigh for dramatic effect. “So you repeatedly enthuse! Whilst I would never be so presumptuous as to question the business of Royalty, I simply must return to my boutique at the Princess' earliest convenience! Whom else can carry the heavy burden of spearheading Fancy Pants' summer wardrobe?” “Um … Rarity?” “Of course I'm not insinuating that special treatment should be directed my way! Oh my, of course not! It's just I'm a very busy pony—” “Excuse me, Rarity … I just …” “— And I simply cannot spare a moment, let alone a day, away from my work and Sweetie Bell. Oh my, Sweetie Bell! It's not that I don't trust her; she's my sister after all, it's just that she often gets these fanciful ideas about helping me—” “What Fluttershy here is tryin' to say, a might too nicely,” A drawling voice interrupted, “Is that you ought to sit yer' preenin', fussin' flank down before you spin yerself silly worryin' 'bout nuthin at all!” The Pegasus guarding the doorway cleared his throat, in the closest his duty would allow him to a nod. Rarity gasped, spinning around on her hooves with a look of hurt etched upon her features. “Applejack!” “You were worrying … A little bit,” Fluttershy sort-of-but-not-really agreed “… Hardly any, I mean.” Face almost entirely hidden by the weather-worn hat pulled down over her eyes, Applejack chuckled. “You'd surely think a pony as fancy as Rarity would be thrilled, being whisked to Canterlot and such, even if she were terribly busy. The rest of us simple ponyfolk, what with our easy lives buckin' a field or six of apple trees from sun up to sunset … Well, we're just plain-up lovin' this unexpected downtime.” “Well ...” Rarity grumbled, upturning her chin and doing her best to look put out. “You were snoring rather loudly earlier, dear. I simply don't believe you could have been any more relaxed.” Applejack shrugged, and tipped the brim of her hat even further downwards. “Like I said, sugarcube; Sun up to sunset. The Princess and Twilight will be right on through just as soon as they're ready to see us. In the meantime, why don't you just sit yourself down and see how long you can bare the notion that the business of Equestria don't revolve 'round you.” “Discretion is the better part of valour I suppose ...” Rarity conceded, moving the discussion onwards. “Where is Rainbow Dash? I assume her presence was likewise requested and required? Applejack?” Glancing over her shoulder, the Dressmaker rolled her eyes at the sight of the sleeping mare in the straw hat. “How rude!” Fluttershy offered a weak smile. “Uh, I think I saw her flying around the castle … At least, well … I think it was Rainbow Dash; it was mostly a blue blur but I'm sure I recognised her mane.” “Oh, marvellous!” Rarity snapped irritably. “At least she's getting on with something! And Pinkie? Where in Equestria has she gotten off to?” “Surprise!” The very mare in question yelled, leaping out from behind the same gold-clad pegasus that had been the source of Rarity's earlier repetitive conversation. Letting out a most unladylike yelp Rarity scattered across the room; galloping through a cloud of coloured confetti that slowly drifted downwards, landing on top of the table Fluttershy had sought refuge under. Coming to her senses at the same time she realised her mane was thoroughly ruined by the unimaginable twin acts of running and confetti, Rarity wheeled around on her hooves. “Pinkamena Pie! What have we discussed regarding unannounced entrances!” Sticking her tongue out, eyes rolling up towards the ceiling, Pinkie hummed and hmm'd and otherwise strove to ponder. After a few minutes spent recalling, the party pony cracked her forehoof against the stone floor; sending Fluttershy back under the table she was just emerging from. “They're reserved for Princesses and Monsters!” Pinkie smiled proudly. “ … Quite,” Rarity sighed. “Well, where in the name of Celestia have you been?” Pinkie settled on her haunches. “I heard a rumour about a special department of the government. Really secretive, really important and you know how much I love mysteries!” “Secret department? Sounds dangerous ...” A muffled voice squeaked from underneath the table. Blowing her drooping, candy-floss mane up and out of her eyes, Pinkie's grin grew even wider. “Nothing to worry about, Fluttershy! Using my super-duper powers of sleuthing and detecting, I discovered it doesn't really exist!” Rarity frowned. “What doesn't?” “The Office of Ice Cream and Party Hats. Hey! You don't think that's why the Princess called us here, do you? To solve this mystery?” Fluttershy and Rarity exchanged mutual glances of total confusion, before the Dressmaker simply nodded. “Whilst I don't doubt the importance of your discovery, dear, I'm sure the Princess wouldn't have felt the need to request our collective presence for something so … Well, unique to your skill set.” “Just because it doesn't exist, doesn't mean we can't have one!” Pinkie cheered, donning a party hat with means and from places unknown. Now all we need is Ice Cream!” Peeking her head out from underneath the table, Fluttershy looked on expectantly. Even Rarity, in her best efforts to look detached, couldn't help but subconsciously lick her lips. Ice Cream would be simply wonderful in alleviating the frustration of their long wait, after all. “Ah could sure use some,” Applejack yawned from across the room. “Silly Ponies!” Pinkie giggled. “I don't just carry Ice Cream! Duh; how would I stop it from melting?” Rarity flicked a hoof through her mane. “But of course,” She chuckled. “That would be simply impossible, quite unlike divining the future with tweaks and twirls of your tail, or befriending the grumpiest donkey in all of Equestria. All of those things are quite reasonable!” “Surely are!” Pinkie squealed, bounding up and down as her afore-mentioned tail suddenly climbed up and stood erect as if made from glass. “Oh! Here comes something!” Fluttershy withdrew back under the table she had fortified against all comers, while Applejack climbed to all fours and eyed the room around her suspiciously. Rarity, meanwhile, pretended not to take notice whilst at the same time backing away until her flank brushed against a wall and she span around in fright. All of them had long ago learned the foolishness in dismissing the powers of Pinkie to foretell the future. “Nothing to worry about, girls!” Pinkie reassured. “It's Rainbow Dash!” Several seconds elapsed, until Rarity broke the silence. “Are you sure, dear?” Pinkie nodded, hopping on the spot. “Surely sure!” The seconds became minutes, and cautiously, Rarity ambled forwards. Assuming the brash pegasus wasn't planning on making a grandiose entrance by coming straight through solid stone, she made her way towards the only window in the chamber. Cautiously glancing out, the unicorn could see only blue sky above and Canterlot below. The words forming on Rarity's lips were abruptly replaced by a strangled cry, as the sky above and Canterlot below began to interchange rapidly, along with the occasional glimpse of rainbow and what might have been the ceiling. Tumbling backwards, it took an instinctual flash of her magic to bring the impromptu conflagration of ponies to a safe halt. Jumping to her hooves, wings flaring outwards Rainbow Dash shook her mane from her eyes and bowed, as though the entire room had bust into rapturous hoof-stomping. “That. Was. Awesome!” ~*~*~*~*~*~ The air itself stank, and the trees died. Great palls of sickly-grey smoke coiled lazily upwards, forming hundreds of pyres that together turned the light of the sun a mockery of orange. Soot and ash blew on the winds, as wood was blackened to charcoal and leaves burnt to nothingness. Enormous chunks of twisted, cracked stone lay buried in the ground where they had fallen from a great height; containing the broken shards of ornate, stained windows that more resembled toothy, leering maws. The sweeping citadel that had once stood in the centre of the forest; once marked with jutting spires, arcing buttresses and numerous sweeping towers was naught but a ragged ring of burnt stone and burning tapestries. With every passing moment the terrific fire within fed on incalculably valuable works of art and science, consuming miracles of ponykind as easily as the air surrounding. Dropping from the sky as grotesque parodies of shooting stars, molten balls of precious metals and stone long since exploded free of the citadel rained down. Eventually the flames grew too hot, the smoke to acrid and thick, and a blanket of choking black blocked out the best effort of the Sun. Each tree in a forest of thousands had stood for over a century and each tree, in turn, smouldered, burned and died or was simply smashed asunder by flying stone and mortar. Some were uprooted in a single, titanic action – others sheared in half and left mimicking the once great citadel they had surrounded. Nothing could live here now and see. Some were present but they could neither live, nor see. They were left where they had fallen; muzzles buried into the ash and soot, hoofs still protectively thrown over their manes. Nothing could live here now and see. But one single creature did still live and see. Sporting a coat of black marred only with a splash of purple and with a single, great horn and a pair of wings it stalked through the ash. It walked the perimeter of the burning stone, and it paused before each of its little ponies where they lay. Moon Beam. Sky Light. Sun Chaser. Criss-Cross. Bright Star. Neutron Blue. Star Swirl. … Princess Luna. The City of Ever Free was lost. “Little One ...” Drawing a deep breath into her lungs, Luna composed herself and opened her eyes. The familiar sight of Nightmare Moon stood opposite, green orbs narrowed in concern. “It is more traditional to have your dreams while you sleep.” The Princess looked away. “Sometimes, I am not even sure I am awake.”

MoronSonOfBoron

484

Original Character,Trixie,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

The Sweet and Sorrowful

complete

<p>After her latest defeat, Trixie returns to her hometown to catch up with her father. Together, they must come to terms with their past.</p><p>Originally written as a friendoff entry, inspired by <a href="http://fav.me/d39amti" rel="nofollow">jakneurotic's artwork.</a></p>

everyone

2011-08-12T01:07:59+00:00

2011-08-12T01:07:59+00:00

"The Great and Powerful Trixie!" The older stallion trailed off, what would usually be a dramatic effect taking on a sarcastic and uninterested drawl, plain and dry as the brown of his mane. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" "My cart has met an untimely end. I am here to requisition the new one," Trixie huffed as she lowered her horn and pushed into the workshop, turning to face the older pony with a vorpal smirk. "...Daddy." He didn't even snort in response, unaffected as usual save for a violent slam of the door. Stiffly and without a word he stomped through a larger door in the back of the shop. "You know the drill. Go on and take one." Trixie followed him, stepping into a much larger barn; not a place for horses or other creatures, but a hangar lined with wheeled carts and carriages of varying specifications. It seemed grand in scale compared to her tiny frame, but she just rolled her eyes at the untouched conveyances and trotted into the tiny kitchen adjoining. Her breath halted and her stomach growled as she reacquainted herself with emptiness: an empty breadbox, an empty pantry, an empty home. A bin was kicked over in frustration, spilling forth its lone inhabitant, a golden pear. Trixie grinned and laughed for no one to hear before picking it up in her teeth and walking back out to the barn. She scoffed at the familiar sound of her Daddy’s typewriter, sitting behind him and taking particularly loud crunchy bites out of her snack. "Writing for commissions again? Wagon sales as nonexistent as usual?" "How many bits have you made off of your magic show?" He whinnied in frustration when another loud chewing noise interrupted his concentration and he messed up a line. He tore the sheet out of the typewriter with his mouth and went about the troublesome process of starting a new one; unable to deal with all the finer mechanisms, typing with hooves was an exercise in masochism. "Allow me." Trixie leaned up on the desk, faint light issuing forth from her horn to envelop the paper sheets and carriage. Soon it was all back in place and her father resumed typing. She idly looked over the page that had just been disposed of. "More fanfiction?" "Hey, a lot of good writers start out with fanfic." "Please, while you are whiling away the years writing about the imagined adventures of someone else's imaginary life, I have been out to see the world and live some adventures of my own! The very same one that reduced my trailer to firewood." Trixie did a turn about the office and triumphantly bit off a large chunk of pear. "Why don't you write about that?" "If it's so great, why don't you tell me about it?" He turned to settle on his haunches, secretly glad to take a break from the typewriter. Trixie took pleasure in being the center of attention once again, unable to resist the urge to pull some desktop items together on a table. “So where are we?” “This is the rural burg of Ponyville, nestled in the Canterlot countryside. Don’t let its proximity to Princess Celestia’s seat of power deceive you, it’s as much a hick town as any other. The ponies living there, going about their dull lives and leading empty existences longing for some excitement. The same poor, deprived, and uncultured souls that the Great and Powerful Trixie deigns to grace with her awe-inspiring presence and magical wonders!” Trixie’s horn glowed as she rearranged some loose scraps and broken tools into a facsimile of the town square, or at least how she remembered it: she took particular pains in altering the appearance of one structure to become a tree. “Is that the Ponyville library?” “Er, yes, dare you doubt the authenticity and prowess of the Great and Powerful Trixie?” “It’s just that your mother—never mind, go on.” “Oh. So she’s been there, too.” She stared at the library for a moment before reorienting herself, her little stringless puppets dancing into view with the help of a little magic. “Yes, the Great and Powerful Trixie was precisely what these simple-minded ponies needed to brighten up there lives. Her wagon pulled into the town square, and she wasted no time in making her presence known! All eyes were upon her magnificent cart as it unfolded to reveal the pyrotechnical prowess and magnificent magical marvel that was the Great and Powerful Trixie!” “Could you skip the whole Great and Powerful bit? Save a little time.” “Ugh. Daddy, you have no appreciation for the craft.” She dropped her puppets. Exchanging a stern look with him, she resumed her little play. “...Just like some of the neighsayers in the crowd, even! No sooner had Trixie gained a horde of loyal followers did she receive challengers to her glory. Now, there was never any doubt as to who was the superior performer, but I let them have their time in the spotlight, a little bit of fun and excitement for these plebeian ponies whose existences could finally experience a fraction of glory. Such is the generous nature of the Great and Powerful Trixie. First up was an earth pony, none too smart and quite plain as her kind are wont to be—” “No offense taken.” “—and since she had not the horn for magic nor wings for flight, she elected for some silly rodeo rope trick. You may recall that the Great and Powerful Trixie’s wondrous abilities first manifested as rope-manipulating cantrips when she was but a foal, so she was at a natural advantage. They danced, they slithered, they looped and weaved, and soon that silly filly was tripping all over herself just trying to keep up!” “Is that really how it went down?” “Listen, who’s telling the story, you or me?” “Well, that rope trick got you into all kinds of trouble when you were a foal. I don’t think you made any friends in your class after the accident...” He withered his words down to a whisper, then just nodded for her to continue. Trixie paused for a longer time before readying herself for the next bit. “The Great and Powerful Trixie had enough of these games and called for a unicorn to challenge her, for that was the nature of her travels: to find worthy opponents and prove that she is the most amazing and talented unicorn in all of Equestria! Not that she expected to find any who could rival her glorious repertoire of arcana, but seeing hope and ambition light up the eyes of her challenger made victory all the sweeter. This was a prissy one who fancied herself an aesthete and a walking guidebook on grace and elegance; her challenge was to use magic to craft a truly stunning outfit! Of course, when the Great and Powerful Trixie revealed her own ensemble, the sheer awesomeness of her beautiful visage dissolved the lesser unicorn’s artificial dress, so overbearing was the magic that nothing else was to impede or distract from her sublime image. The defeated challenger bowed and recognized that the Great and Powerful Trixie was not simply a wizard of the highest order, but an artist of the greatest caliber, a messenger and embodiment of beauty and—” “Could you skip to the part where this explains how your wagon—my wagon—was destroyed? Again?” “Well, if you must know, it was in the midst of defending Ponyville from the rampage of an Ursa Minor!" Trixie cackled for effect as she brought the gargantuan creature into the scene, crushing the library with a bit of undue fervor. "The Great and Powerful Trixie was undaunted as always, but the small town of Ponyville would have suffered incredible damage if she loosed the full force of her magic, and so elected to simply lure the beast away from town. Her plan worked, but not before it crushed her wagon. Much as the Great and Powerful Trixie wished to return and greet her adoring fans, she would need a proper stage from which to greet them.” "Hold it, something doesn't add up." He hoofed his chin for a moment as he thought. "You told me that in Hoofington, a much larger town, you single-handedly fended off an Ursa Major. Why couldn't you have simply subdued the Ursa Minor right there instead of losing your wagon and running away?" "I was not running away, it was a tactical withdrawal! If my plans hadn't been ruined by that stupid Twilight Sparkle—" Trixie caught herself and decided to finish off her pear in dignified silence. "Twilight Sparkle, huh? I recognize that name from the newspaper... She was the one who ended the Endless Night." "Just because she's famous doesn't make her anything special." "Uh, defeating one of the Princesses is kind of a big deal. They are in charge of the day and night, after all." "But I am the Great and Powerful Trixie!" "And I've yet to see your name show up in even the back pages. Look, Trixie, it's a nice story, but I'm guessing you were just outclassed and run off by an honest magician... again. This is why I don't write about you, you're just a sack of lies." "And your stupid little fiction isn't?" "Mine have at least some ring of truth to them." "You just read the papers and sit in your workshop and write stupid stories about talking bald monkeys that don't even exist. I actually live real adventures in real places, getting chased around by gigantic real bears made of real stars!" "Well, I'm better than somepony running about the real countryside with real hick ponies in real backwater towns making a real foal of herself, just like her mother!" "You leave Mommy out of this!" Trixie screeched, her single horn giving off fireworks. They were harmless, insofar as not setting fire to anything, but they were tainted with angry color and furious light, the merciless heat of a summer sun packed into the tiny office. Both ponies quietly glared at each other until the Trixie's magic died down. "I'm leaving." "You always do." He turned back to the typewriter. "Forever!" She kicked out the door and packed some saddlebags for herself, then harnessed herself to the biggest wagon she could find. "And I'm never coming back!" "Fine! I have enough trouble running this business without you coming back to replace every cart you destroy." Trixie unharnessed herself roughly and walked right back up to the stallion. She shook out her mane, releasing a bundle of bit coins she kept magicked away. "There, that's the last of what I have." "Not enough for even one wagon, but I'll consider the debt paid." "And with that the Great and Powerful Trixie shall never deign to show her horn here again." She took up the wagon once more and left without another word. The stallion tried returning to his work, and stared angrily at the small diorama she had set up. A gruesome urge welled up inside of him and he put his hooves through the table without thinking. "Plainmane, what's gotten into you?" She folded her wings down, backing away so far she bumped into a counter. "They rejected the manuscript. And the mural proposal. Just because I don't have a mark on my flank—" Plainmane snorted as he looked at the smashed table and the ripped up letters. "I'm sorry about the furniture, Whinny Whirl." "Don't worry, I'll have it replaced with the bonus from my last trip." Whinny cautiously swept the loose bits of wood together. "Speaking of which, they're sending me up to Cloudsdale this month." "Of course." He joined in the cleanup, few words being exchanged between them. She paused every now and then to examine his expression, disappointed to see the same disinterested glare as always. "Honey, you can't be so angry all the time. Trixie needs you to look after her, I'll be gone for a while and you won't be able to visit this time." "It's just... Look, I'd love to have a mark of any sort, even a boring one, it doesn't have to be an interesting one like your little pink whirlwind. And even though I burn with all this passion, it's somehow not my path, not my destiny. But I can't help it, it's like a force of nature." Plainmane brought a bag over to stuff the mess into, apologetically running his nose along the crest Whinny's neck. "Like my love..." "...A whirlwind across the plains." She rolled her eyes, unable to hide her smile. "I don't deny that you enjoy your metaphors." "Well, unlike a whirlwind, I never seem to go anywhere in life." "Do you have to? I mean, you're here with Trixie. What else could be more important than being with your daughter?" Whinny bleated it out without thinking, earning a vile glare from her husband. "No, not this again." "Then stop bringing it up. You know very well how I feel about that subject." "How can you be so selfish?" "Selfish? You of all ponies have no right to call me that!" He raised his voice slightly, but decided to walk it off through the back door. "I... I'm not proud of what happened, but that was so long ago. Trixie's just started going to school. Can't you put your pride aside for one moment and focus on what's important?" She followed him into the barn behind the shop, carefully dodging the deep grooves in the ground he was making with his furiously heavy steps. Plainmane slammed the door of his office shut, leaving Whinny to lean against it helplessly. "How many times do I have to tell you I'm sorry?" The mountainside was an old friend to the Great and Powerful Trixie, offering a full view of her hometown and the surrounding plains, aglow with surprising clarity under the watchful orb of the pure white moon. Trixie looked up into the sky, missing the dark silhouette of the Mare in the Moon, her one companion in the nighttime, a would-have-been witness to the ritual that would take place on this precipice overlooking the black, icy river leagues below. Downstream, Trixie could see the flood formed around the makeshift dam, a mass graveyard of broken and shattered wagons that had seen an untimely end over the edge of the cliff. It's not that this road was particularly treacherous or prone to accidents; tragedies, maybe, but not accidents. She sighed and let her horn glow, taking up a bit of rope and tying it about herself, securing the other end to the wagon. Eyes closed, she pressed against the wagon, urging it toward the cliffside. It lurched and tipped over, and Trixie sucked in breath as she felt herself being pulled down by gravity. There was a baleful snap as she hit the mountain dirt, and then nothing. Trixie looked up from the road and cursed at the snapped wagon wheel impeding her plans. "That stupid wagonwright can't afford the proper wood to make a wagon. No wonder no one buys them!" She shook off the rope and kicked the overturned wagon again in frustration. In a fit, she lowered her horn at it and tried to will it over the edge with a spell, even setting off a small blast of light and color, but to no avail. She huffed and she puffed and sat down on the cold dirt, glaring at the blasted thing and undoing the rope in frustration. It was only then she saw the unfinished paint job on this particular wagon, it was of a color most familiar to her even in the dim moonlight. The design on the side was a dark pink whirlwind. Stupefied, she leaned up against the wagon and started to cry. Even in the bright midday sun everything seemed so unclear to her. One day, she had been having a fight with her husband, and in a fit of anger she spread her wings... Her first thought was that she had busted a hole in the roof and brought the rafters down on herself. Everyone else was still whispering about how she and Plainmane had always been fighting, and some accused him of attacking her. She said that he had no reason to be angry with her; then they said she was lying to cover up for him, then she stopped saying anything at all. One thing that was for certain was that her wings were injured and she couldn't fly for a while. The doctor had said it might do her some good to keep her feet on the ground for once. She didn't think that was very funny. "The stupidest things..." she muttered as she idly scuffed her hoof against the dirt, looking into the black, icy river below. Even on the warmest days, nopony dared swim in that river; it was too cold, too swift, and filled with jagged rocks. She pondered what a fall from this height would do. "Mommy?" The shy, little voice sent a shiver down her spine, but she turned with a warm smile anyways. "Oh, Trixie dear. How did you get all the way up here?" "I was playing with the other foals but I saw you taking a little walk up the mountain so I thought I'd follow you up here and say hi, also I wanted to show you my new magic trick!" Little Trixie pulled a loop of rope from her saddlebag. A single spark from her horn, and the rope began to dance, even forming a primitive lasso and spinning about. "I'm a regular rodeo rustler!" The mare walked over and gave Trixie an approving nuzzle. "That's so wonderful. You just earned your cutie mark and you're already so talented." "And one day my magic will be so good I can even make whirlwinds with my magic like you do with your wings!" "Oh yes, that would be fun. But mommy's wings have to heal first, okay? You should go back down to play with the other foals." "Uh... can I stay up here with you?" Trixie let the rope fall lifeless, ears dropping. "What's wrong? Don't you want to play with your friends?" "They make fun of me. They don't think I know, but I do! They say I'm weird." "Oh, Trixie, you're so much more mature than other ponies your age. You shouldn't listen to whatever they say, because they don't know any better." "And the grown-ups are worse! They say mean things about you, and Daddy. They say it's not natural, and they called you all kinds of bad words that I shouldn't say even if I'm telling you because you'll put soap in my mouth again, but they said that if Daddy's an earth pony and you're a pegasus then why am I a unicorn? And then I ask them why it should matter at all and they just look at me weird and tell me to go away and that I'm not wanted and that you're a bad word." The mare winced at this news; it wasn't new, but it always hurt. "Now, listen to me, Trixie... what grown-ups talk about, sometimes they hear things that aren't always true. Or completely true. And the parts that are true aren't what you think they are. I mean... ugh, what's the word?" "Lying?" "I wouldn't say that." "But if it's not true, then it's a lie, right? They're lying. I am wanted. You are my Mommy, and Daddy's my Daddy, and there's nothing wrong with that." "...If you put it like that, I guess, but—" The mare felt her back twitch, nervous instinct flexing her broken wings and bringing out unbearable shocks of pain. "Don't worry, Trixie. Everything's going to be all right. Mommy just needs some alone time for now, okay? Her wings are really hurting." "Okay." Trixie gathered up her rope and gave her mommy a quick nuzzle before heading back down the mountain path. The mare looked back out over the precipice and began pondering again. "Plainmane, I'm cutting you off." "What? It's not even evening! A little apple cider never hurt anyone, anyways." "It's for your own good. You're running up a mighty big tab here, and between your little filly and Whinny Whirl being out of a job til she heals up..." "Dam it, I get enough opinions about my personal life from the rest of town!" He slammed his hoof against the counter, leaving a few bit coins. "Make it double." "You're mad, bronco. I understand. But this isn't the way to go about it." The barrister leaned in gently. "You need to find help. Ain't right to buck another pony in anger, especially if she's your mare." "I didn't buck her! I haven't laid a hoof on her for years now." Plainmane sank when he realized how that sounded. "I mean... you know how she travels a lot for her job and we barely get to see her. There's hardly time to—busy with the shop—Trixie's started school—I've been good. I've done everything that's asked of me. Why is everypony coming down so hard on me? I'm not the bad guy." "Nopony's saying you're the bad guy, but it's plain as day that there's something bad going on, and you have to fix it." "This isn't my fault! None of it is my fault. None of it..." Plainmane sauntered off and in his anger bumped over a table, splitting it in two. "...That is." He set it right and picked up the mess. "Will fixing this shrink my tab any?" "Eh, not really. It's not like you do the best woodwork anyways: that was one of the tables you made for me to begin with." "See, that's the problem with all of you ponies, none of you appreciate craft. Whinny's the only one who admires my imagination, always telling me stories about the places she's been to, wants me to write about them, and she doesn't look down on me just because I don't have my mark even though I'm a full grown stallion! Whinny Whirl loves me, and that's all I need to know. I don't need you or anyone else to tell me—" "Excuse me, is there a Plainmane in this establishment?" A stallion with a badge and vest broke through the doorway. Plainmane stopped stamping his hooves and looked nervous. "Officer, I didn't—I told you, I'd never buck—" "Mister Plainmane, there's been an incident at the river." "Weren't you Whinny Whirl's husband?" "Yes. She put up the capital for the Whirlwind Wood Shop, that's her mark on the sign." "Yes, well... We've found an unusual number of wrecked carts damming up the river, causing severe flooding. Upon investigation, we found they each bore your mark... well, your workshop's mark, anyway." The unicorn adjusted her glasses effortlessly, a clipboard and pen levitating before her. "Did you happen to sell any carts in the past months?" "Not really. Mostly been doing side jobs to pay the bills." "Would you happen to know how your carts got out there?" "No, not really." "Mister Plainmane, let me make this... plain, for you. You have made insurance claims about lost or stolen inventory, when said inventory is simply being disposed of recklessly in the river. If you've been pushing them into the river, you're not only commmitting fraud, but also causing thousands if not millions of bits in property and environmental damage." "Why is everypony always judging me like this? I'm no crook. I've never stepped out of line. I never bucked anyone that didn't deserve it, not even—" He stopped himself, eyes narrowing angrily as he finally put the pieces together. "...Trixie!" "Trixie, you're awake! I'm so glad—" "Daddy, where's Mommy?" Trixie mumbled. "Mommy had a bad fall in the river. Your rope was tied around you and her, so you fell in with her. Just an accident, that's all. Just an accident." He repeated that line over and over. "Yeah, I used my rope magic." Trixie tried to crane her neck and look for her Mommy. "Did I save her? Where is she? Mommy?" She tried raising her voice to call for her but only coughed when her waterlogged lungs burned in protest. He was tired, so he just listened, but while Trixie wasn't saying anything, he could only hear the murmurs throughout the clinic. Take Trixie with her... His fault... anger management... Pegasi and earthies don't... Cheating... "Daddy... is what they're saying true? That I'm not your daughter?" "...I don't even know any more." "What?" "Nothing, Trixie. Just a sack of lies." "Just a sack of lies, aren't you?" Plainmane yelled at the small unicorn leaning against the ruined cart. "Your carts aren't getting stepped on by Ursa Minors, you're just dumping them in the river!" "So what?" Trixie regained her composure, igniting her horn with a bright light to illuminate the unfolding drama. "Do you know how much damage you've caused with all the flooding? Do you know how much money I owe the town now? Do you ever think of anyone but yourself, Trixie?" "I made up those stories so I could get a new wagon from you! It was just an excuse to see you again, and I wanted to tell you stories like Mommy used to." A loud bang punctuated her words, horn glowing brighter than ever. "But nothing I do is ever going to be good enough for you, is it? If you want selfish, you should look in a mirror!" "It's not about what you do at all, it... I mean, I just can't—It's not your fault things turned out the way they did." "Stop patronizing me, I know exactly what happened! I tied the rope around Mommy and tried to pull her out of the river, but I wasn't strong enough. And that same day I told her about the awful rumors going about town about us, and that's what made her sad and want to kill herself. My magic is useless, I'm useless, who would want a useless pony like me? Why can't you forgive me for what I've done?" "Because it wasn't you who... Look, the rumors are true. She had a fling with some rich unicorn in another town, and when you were born, she had to tell me. She couldn't keep that kind of guilt inside, but I was angry anyways, and I never forgave her. This has nothing to do with you." Plainmane calmly walked through Trixie's harmless sparks, silently wishing they would set him on fire, but he could only lay down under that harsh light and look forlorn. "I lied to myself, thinking I did her no harm. But the truth is, I killed Whinny Whirl long before she died." "This doesn't have anything to do with me, you said." Trixie's magic faltered, the lights flickering in and out of existence as she became unsure of herself. "But it all happened because I was born. Answer me this, what am I to you, then? A mistake?" "Trixie, I..." Plainmane stood up again, head hanging low. "I'm sorry. You really should just leave town and never come back." "The Great and Powerful Trixie planned to do just exactly that." And with that, Trixie moved out to the cliffside and looked down at the river. "Trixie, no!" Seeing her about to jump, he panicked and snatched up her tail in his teeth, pulling her back to the road. "Geld dam it, will you learn to let go!" Trixie's horn burst into pyrotechnics again, and though this magic was ineffective she was able to buck like any other pony. His pulling didn't hurt, in fact he was surprisingly gentle for all the mean-spirited yelling he could put out, but Trixie's struggling made it difficult for him to hold on. He closed his eyes and finally found it in himself to fling her back towards the road and away from danger. As she hit the ground, a final spark went off from her horn and disturbed the broken wagon. Plainmane huffed and walked up to her, shaking his head. "Trixie, I—" The axle on the wagon sprang loose and came down on him, pushing him over the cliffside. "Daddy!" Trixie sprang to her feet and followed after him, horn lighting up as it carried the rope from before with her. She started having second thoughts, but realizing that the drop was long enough for that, she moved on to figuring out how they were going to get out of this alive. Her horn shone brightly, every ounce of her willpower pouring through. The rope became a white line in the dark canvas of the night, securing one end around a branch jutting out of the cliff, the other shooting downwards past Trixie to catch Plainmane. She grinned as she telekinetically secured the knot around his body... and started screaming when she realized she had no rope for herself. "I've got you!" His legs wrapped around her, and she opened her eyes to see that he had caught her as just as she fell past. Trixie looked down to see the cruel barbed rocks only so many hands away. It wouldn't be a fatal drop at this distance, but the dark, rushing waters churned just beneath, lapping hungrily at the cold air and eagerly waiting to reclaim the pony that got away. For her, it was staring into the pure essence of her nightmares. The warm, firm embrace of her Daddy shook her out of this reverie. "Trixie, listen to me. You're not a mistake. Whenever I see you, I have to remember her. All the bad memories, sure, but... all the good ones, too. I was lying to myself, thinking I could make it all right. And it's because of that I shouldn't put you through this. You should be off having happy memories of your own instead of fixing the ones I broke. You deserve better than that, because no matter what anyone says, you're my daughter." He choked out these words, shivering just at the sight of the foreboding current below. Trixie managed to look back up at him and smile just before the rope snapped and they tumbled together into the darkness. Crazy... Her too... Anger management... Dysfunctional... No hope... "Daddy, what are they saying?" "Nothing, Trixie. Just a sack of lies." A few days later, when they were cleared to leave the clinic (particularly after some grueling psychiatric evaluations and family counseling), they were free of their patients' robes and were all too glad to walk out together. "So you really never forgave her?" "I did, but by that time it was too late. All she really wanted was for us to take care of you, for you to be happy." Plainmane squinted in the sun. "So are you going to keep traveling?" "The Great and Powerful Trixie still has a name to make for herself. Though... I guess I don't have to impress you with my stories?" "As long as you tell the truth. That's the one thing your mother did for me." "True enough... I wonder if—" Trixie stopped in her tracks as she watched Plainmane go forward. "Daddy... your cutie mark!" "Yeah, I know, never had one. And for big manly stallions like me, it's just called a mark." "No, that's the thing, it's there! You finally have a mark." Sure enough, there was a bright mark on his formerly unremarkable flank, even glinting in the daylight: the silhouette of a stallion and his little pony, heads held high with pride, trotting together.

gapaot

485

Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Comedy,Random,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Take It!

complete

<p>Nightmare Moon wishes to rule. But be careful what you wish for...</p>

everyone

2011-08-11T04:23:28+00:00

2011-08-11T04:23:28+00:00

"Freedom! Freedom at last!" Nightmare Moon took a deep breath of cool night air and looked up at the dark sky with a handful of tiny glimmering stars. She stomped her hoof indignantly. "Amateur! Who does she think she is? I will tolerate this no more." Two royal guard pegasi lazily laid on the steps of the castle main entrance. Their spears put aside, the guards were telling jokes instead of standing on duty. Why bother? The job is good, the wage is reliable, and emergencies are unheard-of. "No shame whatsoever," Nightmare remarked ironically, making intentionally loud clatter with her silver hoofpieces against the white marble. Upon hearing the "abnormal" sound the pegasi stood up with great reluctance. "Who goes… by Celestia's name!" Amused, Nightmare Moon watched the ponies fill with awe and fear. Then she glanced over the castle. "That's one big house sis built for herself. When did she have the time to… oh right, silly me." "Is Celly home?" the night goddess asked nonchalantly. The question received no answer, as the royal guards now looked very much like furniture. "I'll take that as a "yes" then? I'll help myself, if you don't mind." Not waiting for permission, Nightmare walked kingly through the open gate. "Interior designer loses their horn… and tail. And maybe something a bit lower," Nightmare Moon said quietly to herself. "It's good enough for a labyrinth, but if it's a work office, it should be navigable without a compass and an astrolabe." The alicorn stopped at an almost-closed door. A thin line of dim light escaped the room behind it. After all these years, all these plans and agonizing wait the time has finally come. "Time to have a talk, sis," she thought. The Goddess of the Sun, the ruler of Equestria, the immortal princess Celestia sat there, bent over the table buried under a stack of scrolls. "Alright, the budget plan's done," she spoke in a low voice. "What the hay do griffons want again? I should send an ambassador their way. Now, the survey results… damn it! And this celebration tomorrow… I can't stand any more of this rut." The milk-white alicorn took another sip of tea and tiredly rubbed her eyes. Candles around her flickered for a moment. Nightmare Moon entered the room, seemingly unnoticed by her sister, despite the loud clanking she made. "Oh, you decided to pay a visit," Celestia finally greeted her, still not raising her head from the papers. "Please suit yourself. Bathroom is this way, kitchen's that way," the princess pointed vaguely. "Tea, coffee, punch?" Nightmare Moon was taken aback. She had prepared to face surprise, anger, hatred, immediate attack – but not such a drowsily indifferent welcome. Well, if Celestia thought it would make Nightmare forget why she came, she was mistaken. "You know full well why I'm here," the coal-black goddess hissed. Celestia put the cup on the table, sighed wearily and raised her tired eyes to Nightmare. "No I don't. A thousand years ago you wanted night eternal. On the other hoof, it's always night on the moon," Celestia yawned before she could cover her mouth, "perhaps you've changed your mind?" The look that Nightmare Moon gave her could kill, literally – while the goddess was not harmed, the paint on the wall behind her blistered and smoldered. "So you haven't," Celestia responded inertly. "Alright, what do you want?" "The same I wanted back then, sister. I want our subjects to value my night as much as they value your day. They love you, while I'm always left behind, ignored, forgotten! But that will change tonight. I will make everypony admire me and my creation!" Celestia sat motionlessly, watching Nightmare Moon lower into a battle stance, then repeated very slowly: "Love?.." Suddenly the cup next to her trembled as tea boiled inside. Candles around her wept, quickly reducing to heaps of wax under the pressure of Celestia's indignation. The sun goddess stood straight up, an invisible force hurling outwards various objects that were piled on the table. Nightmare dodged the cup flung at her and heard it break into pieces as it hit the wall behind. "They love me, you say?!" Another cup flew at Nightmare Moon. "I've had this love up to here!" Celestia stopped with the tableware and crossed her throat with a hoof. "I'm fed up to the back teeth with this love of ponykind!" the alicorn rounded the table, stomping angrily and leaving melted marks in the stone floor with her every step. "I fire one worthless dolt from the castle, and I'm a tyrant. I put one criminal behind bars, and I'm a tyrant. Have you heard of "millions executed personally by Celestia"? I play one harmless prank to relieve a bit of stress, and the next thing I know I'm Trollestia too!" The princess went up to a window. With a low sound the stained glass started to vibrate and shattered moments later, showering Celestia with multicolored bits. Her coat remained unblemished though, as all shards evaporated mid-air. Nightmare Moon looked at her sister in bewilderment. "But they didn't stop there, no-o! Some loudmouth spread gossip that I have a thing for young ponies! "Oh no, it's Molestia, hide your fillies!" the princess mimicked an annoying high-pitched voice. "Disgusting. As if I have time to molest fillies! I sleep four damn hours a day!" "C-Celestia, you got it wrong! I was saying that…" "Oh no," an unnaturally wide smirk grew on the white alicorn's face, "you got it wrong, you… what do I call you… Luna? Nightmare? Same difference. Look, I can't even have a cup of tea without a crowd of morons cosying up to me, shoving aside anypony that might actually have something meaningful to say! And I can't bellow them away either – tyrant, remember? All I can do is sit there and smile like an idiot," Celestia stopped walking around the room and turned to Nightmare. "Do you want this love? Take it all!" "But you banished me…" muttered Nightmare Moon, confidence leaving her voice, "I spent a thousand years on the moon, all alone…" "Oh, you were lonely, sure. Do you think I was idling away here, enjoying myself?" Celestia scoffed. "When everypony saw me send my little sister to the moon, do you think they went up to me and said "oh, we're so sorry you had to do this, we feel for you"? They celebrated! I wanted to lock myself up here and cry, but they made a holiday out of it! Which I had to sit through, receiving all this damn praise! And then I had to do your work too, bringing night as well as day. Do you have any idea what not getting enough sleep for a millennium feels like?" "Alright, to parasprites with all this regal tinsel. Have you by any chance noticed that these hooves," the alicorn came up to her sister, who was frozen in place, and shook her hooves in front of her, "have kept a semblance of order in Equestria for ten centuries?!" "Your… words will not stop me," Nightmare Moon took her will in both hooves. "I came here to claim the power that is rightfully…" And the sun princess snapped. "FINE!" Celestia shouted, throwing her diadem at her sister. "Attend all these stupid meetings and gatherings with a smart look on your face! Drag the moon and the sun across the sky! Sleep for four hours a day! Listen to the incessant blathering of the royalty at the Grand Gala! Make the right decisions only to hear complaints from every side!" The white alicorn took off her breastcollar and shook off the hoofpieces, tossing them away. "You wanted night eternal? Congratulations, I'm not rising the sun anymore. If anyone asks, tell them you banished me to somewhere. Battle my own sister for the sake of throne and power? Find somepony else for that!" And with this Celestia vanished from the throne room in a blinding flash of light, leaving Nightmare Moon with her jaw dropped. This was not how the night goddess imagined their confrontation. Still not believing what just happened, the dark alicorn looked around the ruined chamber. The words of the recent conversation echoed in her head. A sad smile appeared on her face as she picked up the golden diadem. "Indeed, there is no punishment worse than a dream come true." * * * Nightmare Moon glanced over the ponies that gathered below the balcony. There was a time she dreamt of standing here, the victor of a fierce duel with Celestia. She dreamt of seeing reverence in everypony's eyes as they stood amazed before the true ruler of Equestria. But reality left nothing of these dreams. Nightmare Moon felt she might've known why Celestia gave up the throne so eagerly. "What in the world do I say now?" "Greetings, my beloved subjects," at least the beginning was easy enough to make up on the spot. "Does anypony of you know who I am?" "Ooh, ooh, more guessing games!" a lively pink pony exclaimed. "Um, Pokey Smokes? How about... Queen Meanie? No, Black Snooty! Black Snooty! Pfmf!.." an earth pony next to her stuffed an apple in the pink pony's mouth. Nightmare Moon expected anger to rise within her, but suddenly realized that this pony only amused her. A purple-coated unicorn stepped forward, anxiety and steel resolve mixed in her eyes. "You're Nightmare Moon, former princess Luna and Princess Celestia's sister," she spoke, clearly expecting something bad to happen to her. "That is true. I am your princess, and I'm back… from rest." "What am I saying?" a thought darted in her head. "I rested well, for a thousand years of night reinvigorated me. But now," the alicorn tried to add a sinister stroke to her voice, but it didn't quite work, "it is my sister's time to rest." "Do you even believe in that yourself?" her inner voice asked. "This is why I, Nightmare Moon, will rule you instead of Celestia from now on." A tense silence filled the hall. "I-I beg your pardon, princess," the Ponyville mayor finally uttered, "this is… great news. We're all endlessly happy… for you," with each word her voice grew more and more nervous. "But you see, today is the Summer Sun Celebration day and, well, we were hoping that princess Celestia would raise the sun…" the pony stopped abruptly and closed her eyes tight, scared by her own insolence. "She will not", Nightmare flatly stated. The ponies gasped. "The night will last…" "…forever?" the purple unicorn asked with horror. A couple of overly sensitive ponies fainted. The night princess sighed. "No, as long as it takes me to figure out how to raise the sun." Murmur raised in the crowd. "What?" "This is impossible!" "The horror!" "Will the night really last forever?" "Party all night long!" the voices came from everywhere. Nightmare Moon coughed gently. "I've… never raised it before. Anyhow, you'll have to wait about a week. Two weeks, maybe. That is all," Nightmare Moon said moments before she vanished in a blue mist, leaving the stupefied ponies. "And what do we do now?" the mayor pony's question remained unanswered. * * * "More pina colada, Miss Sunny Skies?" Celestia raised her sunglasses leisurely, glancing over a tall muscular stallion who was levitating several glasses in front of him. "Thank you. Would you bring a bottle of champagne to my room tonight?" she winked. "I can't stand drinking alone… What was your name again?" "As you wish, Miss Skies. I'm Milly," the unicorn smiled. "Oh, please, call me Sunny," Celestia replied in a cooing voice and turned to lie on her belly. "Would you be so kind as to rub my back with a suntan lotion? I'd be most grateful." As a pair of strong hooves moved gently along her shoulders and her back, the princess let out a happy sigh. Beach, bright sun, soft sand, handsome stallions, drinks and total freedom – how can a life of a ruler, filled with problems and exhausting work, rival this? "I hope you're happy, Luna," Celestia thought, moaning ever so quietly from pleasure – the massage felt terrific – "because I sure am."

HiddenBrony

486

Romance,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Missing

incomplete

<p>An amalgam of three stories originally produced as their own progressions, the <i>Missing</i> series includes stories from HiddenBrony's <i>Hop, Skip, and a Jump!</i> universe that follows the story left after <i>Eggheads</i> and <i>First Date</i>.</p>

everyone

2011-08-18T07:53:34+00:00

2011-08-18T07:53:34+00:00

Two pastel ponies trotted along the path to the library, chatting amiably as the life of Ponyville came into focus. The blue sky was tinted slightly in the late afternoon sun, and the wafting sugar-sweet smell of Sugar Cube Corner filled the air as the two mares, Applejack and Fluttershy, enjoyed themselves with talk of work, life, and the various antics of little fillies. "An' the bigger ones tha' act like 'em!" Applejack laughed slightly, watching the sky for a certain rainbow pegasus. "Ah swear, paintin' apples is one thing, but tryin' ta mess with mah pappy's hat..." Fluttershy giggled slightly, turning her head as she got a better look at the accompanying mare. "But I'm sure even he dreamed of flying sometimes," she defended the other pegasus, causing the Earth Pony to cast an indifferent gaze. Pressing, the yellow coated pony nuzzled her love gently. "And now he got to, if only for a short time." Applejack turned to Fluttershy, giving a small contemplative look toward her partner. "But if she crossed a line, I'm sure she'll apologize, um. Sometime," Fluttershy added meekly. In truth, when Rainbow had nabbed the hat right off the farm worker, it was Fluttershy who quickly pursued the pony. Having found Dash whooping it up on some cloud, she explained to the other pegasus why taking the hat was wrong. The hat had belonged to Applejack's father, which caused the cyan mare to cease her laughing immediately. Stammering excuses, Rainbow Dash gave the hat back, apologizing profusely while sending cautious glances down toward the ground. However, she begged Fluttershy not to tell Applejack before she could. "So um, don't be too hard on her, she didn't know what she was doing..." Applejack softened her expression, putting a hoof to her hat. "Don't you worry about it none, Fluttershy. Not many ponies know how special it is ta me. Rainbow especially." Applejack calmed down a bit, letting go of the last vestiges of indignation she felt for the cyan pony. Fluttershy gave a pained smile, not wanting to betray Dash's wishes. "So what do ya suppose Twi has us comin' to the Library fer, anyway?" Shaking her mane, Fluttershy simply didn't know. She wasn't a pony to venture a guess on baseless assumptions. The discussion trailing off, she started to take in the late afternoon activities of other ponies. She could even see Pinkie Pie putting away the outside stand for Sugar-Cube Corner, dancing about and quite possibly singing a little ditty she made on the spot. Snips and Snails were talking about Celestia knows what to little Dinky, but she seemed to be responding well to it. A gentle breeze flowed through town, brushing Fluttershy's mane aside. It was a wonderfully warm wind that offset the slight cool air that had been descending around them. Breathing it in deeply, the pink maned pegasus looked to Applejack, leaning slightly upon her. "Whatever it is, I think," she gave a long pause. If it was bad, the unicorn would have been a bit more rushed to tell the girls. "I think it'll be good. She didn't sound too urgent in her letter." Applejack smiled, nodding. The two ponies continued their way, listening to the sounds of Ponyville. As the library came into sight, Applejack paused, feeling a second weight on her other side. Closing her eyes, she sighed, shuddering her flank a bit to remove it. "Pinkie Pie. Leanin' privileges extend only to members of tha' Apple Family." Turning her head, the hyperactive pink pony smiled hugely as she removed her head from Applejack's broadside. Fluttershy did the same, looking over Applejack's mane to see the bouncing hair of Pinkie move energetically in place. "Hi girls! I saw you walking by and then I remembered that I got a letter from Twilight, except I really didn't forget but I was going to wait a little bit longer to finish working, but then there you two were and I was like HAAAAAAAAUUUUUHHHH!" The sudden intake in breath spooked the pegasus, but she kept herself firm and on the ground. Pinkie's almost permanent smile shifted from the two ponies before pointing toward the Library. "So I finished up super-quick! Super-duper quick! And then I caught up and I was all 'Awwwww' when I saw you two and I wanted to lean against you too because it was so cute. But then you said it was Apple Family only and since I'm not part of it, at least I don't think I am. Oh, could you imagine if I was?!" "Ah fear it everyday." Fluttershy laughed despite herself, before covering her mouth for a bit. Pinkie laughed more explosively at Applejack's deadpan delivery, causing the only sane Earth Pony to take small pride in her humor. "So Pinkie Pie, you got a letter from Twi, too, huh?" Looking toward the sky, Applejack's eyes scanned the skies for Rainbow Dash, expecting that all of Twilight's friends had been called by this point. "Yep! Rarity too! She was with me when Derpy delivered our letters," Pinkie mentioned, putting a hoof to her chin. Somehow, she continued her forward momentum despite the loss of one of her hooves to thought, something which the other ponies had ceased to question. Applejack stopped and reached a hoof out, rapping at the door as she looked to the other two ponies. "So why does Fluttershy get to lean on you? She's not Apple family." Applejack sighed, shaking her mane. "Well she's close enough!" Exasperated, she didn't notice the smile that had appeared on the yellow mare's face. Fluttershy turned slightly to look at Pinkie, who was ready to meet her gaze with a crafty smile, her tongue hanging out of her mouth playfully. Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle at Pinkie's performance, bringing the attention of the orange Earth pony to look about her. "What? What're you two fillies sayin' behind mah back?" In all her mock threatening, Applejack missed the door opening, revealing a white unicorn standing inside the Library. Seeing the front pony of the three having turned around, Rarity's eyes fell into half moons as she addressed the trio. "Applejack, really. If you are going to knock at somepony's door, please have the decency to face the door. I, unlike someponies, take no pleasure in being greeted with your flank!" Rarity chided, a mischievous smile on her face. Not known as a joker, the unicorn's quip caught Applejack completely off-guard, and Fluttershy had to hang unto Pinkie Pie to keep her face from exploding into laughter and embarrassment. The pink pony simply looked proud, as if surveying a new protege. "H-Hey now! I-I-It wasn't mah fault!" The hardworking mare had trouble composing herself in front of the others. Taking in the moment, Rarity breathed deep, stepping aside to let the others in. "Applejack, it was a joke. You simply mustn't be so easy to haze so even I can..." Rarity turned her head over to Pinkie Pie, who was currently looking around, a puzzled expression hanging on her face. "....'Pull a fast one' on you. Pinkie Pie, this isn't a party, darling. There aren't any drinks or candy." Trotting over to her friend, she placed a hoof on the now downtrodden Earth pony and shook her mane playfully. "Ahem. However, I'm sure if we ask Twilight nicely, she can cook something up last minute, even if it might be a bit... small. I mean, we are all together. That doesn't happen as much as it really should." Looking about, Fluttershy took note of a couple missing factors. Specifically the absence of the lavender unicorn. "Um. Where is Twilight? And..." Looking straight up, she scanned the ceiling space for the weather pony, but to no avail. "I don't see Rainbow Dash anywhere." "Hardly everypony, then," Applejack huffed, bringing her attention back to Rarity. "Well, you let us in. Where is Twilight anyhow?" "Oh, I'm sure she's in her bedroom, talking to Whoof and creating MASSIVE experiments! Like, maybe they're making Spike into a GIANT DRAGON, or maybe even purple!" Pinkie hopped about, thinking heavily on just what the two intellectual ponies could possibly be doing alone in the bedroom. "Darlin', Spike already is purple." Applejack stuck a hoof out as Pinkie collided with it across her chest. "An' Ah don't think they're into experimentin' on livin' things," putting a finality on her opinion, she added, "'Least of all Spike." "Somebody call?" Opening the upstairs door, the purple dragon appeared, followed closely behind by a brown Earth pony, an hourglass adorning his flank. Looking down below, Spike saw the one pony, the one brilliant, beautiful, perfect unicorn Rarity - and then he saw other three. "Oh, uh. Hey guys. Twi's gonna be with you all in a sec'. Me 'n Whoof here are gonna go get a bite to eat." "Well howdy there Spike." Applejack greeted, before processing the rest of the dragon's remark. Raising an eyebrow at the two, the orange pony raised a hoof. "Oh, and what an' where to?" "If – you don't mind us asking." Rarity cut in, tittering at the orange mare. What she got in return was a low bleat and an eyeroll, landing on Fluttershy who simply smiled at her companion. "Quite alright, really," the Doctor mentioned, trotting contentedly down the stairs. "I believe I owe Spike a dinner for an ill-placed bet." "Yeah, Doc here didn't even consider the idea of distortions in time and space being able to be manipulated by magic and technology!" Spike sneered, as if he knew the words that were coming out of his own mouth. Laughing, the Doctor turned to look at the group. "It's an interesting concept, really. Right now I'm referring to such an object capable of that ability as a DTS – that is, Dimensions in Time and Space. However, I believe that's a bit off, as there are still many variables to be found." "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space!" Pinkie's mouth ran, her nose literally crammed in a nearby book. The Doctor looked blankly on as the mare giggled a bit. His eyes clouded over a moment as Pinkie continued. "Then you'd have a T-R-D-S. 'Terds'!" She yelped suddenly, feeling a hoof against her flank, deftly delivered by the other Earth Pony. "Owie, why'd you do that, Applejack?" "'Cause you're letting yer mouth run without you on board." The orange mare chuckled regardless, keeping her head facing Doctor Whoof and Spike. In the interim, the latter had clambered onto the former's back. "Well, Ah ain't gonna act like Ah know what y'all are sayin', but Ah know we're holdin' you up. An' Spike gets grouchy when he's hungry." "I do not!" Spike shouted, raising a fist at Applejack's comment. The jolt brought the stallion he sat upon back to reality, causing him to distressingly look about, as if fearing an impending fight. The mare simply laughed it off, pushing Spike's claw back with her front hoof. "That's ridiculous! I'm perfectly fine - I don't get grouchy." "That you don't, Spike," the Doctor chimed in, ending their tirade. Clearing his throat, he counted the ponies. "Well, anyway, Twilight will be out soon, although I don't think she'd mind..." Trailing, the stallion looked about the room. "Say, isn't there supposed to be one more of you? Let's see... Fluttershy... Rarity... Applejack, of course, Pinkie Pie... Ah! Ponyville's famous weather pony, where is our Rainbow Dash?" Looking about, all he was met with were shrugs and shaking heads. "That so? Well, our new Wonderbolt is obviously quite busy, so of course she'd be excused for being a little late-" "A Wonderbolt is known for it's speed, poindexter!" Shooting into the house in a burst of wind, the cyan mare trotted about on the upper floor, having flown in from the balcony. Goggles adorned on her visage, the rainbow-maned pegasus smirked at the ponies below, the pink one of which was clapping her hooves together happily. "I'm never late!" "Whoo! Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie cheered her friend, as if she was in attendance of a celebrity. Turning her head away from the others to hide a threatening red blush on her cheeks, the pegasus acted as if she could find Twilight by looking about where she came in. "So egghead two, where's egghead one?" Rainbow called from the upper floor, still hiding her face from her friends below. Applejack took it upon herself to trot up the stairs, whereas Fluttershy and Rarity decided to catch up in the downtime. "Apt..." Whoof trailed, before shaking his mane. "Well, now that you girls are all together, I believe it's best Spike and I are off. Twilight's in her room cleaning up a bit, she'll be out momentarily. She asked that we vacate the premises before hand." "Heh, yeah. Don't wanna be here when all the huggin' and girly stuff happens," Spike pointed at his tongue in disgust, obviously not pleased with whatever sort of reaction the news Twilight was going to break to the group would bring. However, a quick buck from Whoof quieted the dragon. "Oh, right, the saps don't know yet. Eh, whatever." Shrugging, the dragon kicked his feet softly against the Doctor's flank, egging him on to leave. The other girls which had caught on by this point started to move in. "Right, right, we're off then!" Sweating bullets, the good doctor made for the door, barely making it past Rarity as she slammed the door behind him by accident. The sound of a gallop could be heard as Spike's laughter coincided with it perfectly as they rode out toward the sunset. Rarity frowned and shook her mane, decidedly livid that she had reacted too slow to stop the gossipers from spilling everything. "What do you think he meant by that? Do you think Twilight's news is... bad?" Fluttershy breathed, tapping the ground uneasily. Applejack's attuned senses wheeled her about at the sound of the soft spoken pegasus, having missed Spike's faux pas. "What's wrong, sugarcube?" Raising her voice slightly to clear it over the others. Fluttershy turned to see her companion, and shook her mane slowly. "Oh, um, it's nothing, really," she murmured, but neither Applejack nor Rarity nearby bought the deflection. Rarity clicked her tongue as she looked over toward the orange pony. "Nothing is far from it. Whoof and Spike just retreated before they could tell us what we're all drawn here for." "Um. Yes. Spike said that we'd all be supportive of Twilight and... that was it," Fluttershy had paraphrased for Applejack, a small smile on her face. "I was worried we it might be bad news after all." Dash raised an eyebrow, shaking her head. "Well if it is, then we'll take care of it together!" She shouted, stamping a hoof down on the hardwood floor. Applejack bleated low and shook her head. "Sometimes we can't stop bad news from happenin', Rainbow. You can't buck every problem away," she corrected, earning a huff from the pegasus. Applejack chuckled, recalling how she had learned that lesson the hard way. The activity of the girls in the library brought caused the door to Twilight's room to be opened behind Applejack, revealing a very tired looking unicorn. Looking back, Applejack looked her friend over a moment before smirking. "Well Ah'll be, Ah 'spect that professor's gone and worked you to the bone there, Twilight." The purple unicorn gestured something between a wave and a dismissal as she strode into the room. She took quick stock of her guests and smiled. "Hello everypony. Nice to see you all again-" She got cut off by a yawn as she rubbed her eyes with a free hoof. "Oooof, sorry. Nice to see you all." The other girls started to make their way to her, Pinkie Pie having somehow already accomplished such when nopony was looking. "Oh, Twilight, you look dreadful!" The white unicorn looked her friend over, tittering over her. "You must get some rest soon. That stallion must be working you so to the last!" Rarity dismissed the topic of the brown colt quickly as she set to work moving the other unicorn against her will toward her couch. "Please, darling, at least take a seat!" Less a please than an instruction, the purple mare was too tired to refuse the request, and lacked the ability to stop her friend. "Aww, I think Twilight's too tired to have a party!" Giggling, Pinkie accepted this as a good enough reason to postpone any sort of party she may have been gearing up in her head. Twilight's face froze at the mere prospect of a party tonight, but Pinkie Pie seemed to drop the idea quickly, the pink mare sipping absentmindedly on some nearby drink. Applejack, on the other hoof, was trying to contemplate just where Pinkie came across the drink. "So, um, we got letters from you, Twilight..." Fluttershy began, causing the unicorn to lift her head towards her. "I was hoping it wasn't, um... Bad." The pegasus' wings folded in tight along her side, prompting Applejack to move over to her and rest her head against the pony, calming her nerves. Smiling at the two, Twilight shook her head. "No, it's not bad at all, really." Intention confirmed, the ponies in attendance breathed a collective sigh of relief. The purple mare shook her mane incredulously. "Really, girls, if it was bad news do you think I would have sent a letter through the mail?" Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Well, sometimes you can't catch me, being up in the air and all, so you could have sent Derpy after me with a letter." Defending the prospect seemed important, but Twilight gave it little thought. "Dash, you may go a mile a minute, but I know you'll always come back," she smiled. Turning her head, she missed the ferocious blush which crawled over the cyan mare's visage as she suddenly found the window being of the utmost fascination. "Sorry for making you girls wait, though. We were on a roll and we just had a bit of a breakthrough-" "Oh, think nothing of it, Twilight. We know how important your studies are." Rarity put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, smiling and patting her friend's back. "What's a minute or two of waiting when we've got each other to talk to in the meantime," she mentioned, gesturing to the other girls, who nodded in agreement. The group mingled for a little while, letting each other in on their days, and praising Rainbow's admission into the Wonderbolts which had happened only a month prior. "And let me say, darling, I'm always happy to give your mane and coat a quick brush up if you need to be spic and span for a show." Rainbow hesitated before finally nodding, trying not to mind that her tough-guy attitude was being threatened again in front of the others. "Really guys, it happened a month ago, and uh – Hey, weren't we here to listen to Twilight anyway?" Deflecting questions was a bit of a specialty she was developing, but Rarity let it drop as she was quite interested in having to hear what the other unicorn had called them for. "Hm...? Oh, right! My letters!" Twilight pushed a hoof into the couch, bringing herself up a full head above the others. Looking about, it took a moment for the tired mare to realize she didn't actually have to reach for anything, and she laid back on her haunches again. "I just wanted to let you all know... I'm dating somepony again.," she murmured, her purple cheeks turning pink. The reaction was instant and explosive. Pinkie and Rarity tied for loudest shriek, both of them fawning over the unicorn – for different reasons, of course. Pinkie's party-throwing senses were tingling, and Rarity was prodding on just who the lucky pony was – taking great care not to assign a gender role, 'lest she end up with hoof in mouth disease. Applejack chuckled deeply as she patted the unicorn on the back, Dash having muttered some semblance of congratulations toward the lavender pony. Fluttershy made the first coherent messages clear. "Oh that's wonderful, Twilight," she graced, brushing her hair to the side. Her azure eyes pierced through the crowd of ponies, locking eyes with the unicorn and catching her undivided attention. "Is it the Doctor?" It was a simple question, but blunt. Enough so that the rest of the assembled ponies, sans Pinkie Pie, soon paid full attention to Twilight's answer. "Yes. Yes it is." Closing her eyes, she allowed her friends time to digest the new information. It wasn't surprising to them, really. "He and I just sort of... click, I guess," she mused, her hooves crossing together as she continued. "It's nice to have somepony who I can talk to so candidly." She spoke of their shared intelligence, and of their similar upbringing in Canterlot and attending the university there. Twilight sighed, nodding her head. "Plus I can tell he really needed someone. So I extended my friendship, and got back more than I bargained for," she smiled, staring off as if in a dream. "Aww, that's super-duper sweet!" Pinkie bounced from one end of the couch to the other in one solid motion, peering out a window to see if she could see the escaping Earth pony. She couldn't have course, but she still made as if she could. Winking slightly, she leaned close at her own reflection. "Plus he totally has a nice flank." "PINKIE!" Twilight shouted, in unison with Applejack and Rarity. There was a long pause, before Pinkie looked back with a huge smile on her face. "Well he does." The gathered ponies couldn't help but laugh, Pinkie Pie spreading her element around gleefully. Even Fluttershy was giggling uncontrollably, causing a few hiccups to cut in the laughter. The high pitched squeaks were harmlessly embarrassing, and the group couldn't help but laugh harder, until streams of tears were pouring out almost all ponies present. ----- "So you're Twi's boyfriend now. Huh." Spike mentioned idly, playing with a emerald as he passed it around in his claws. Whoof broke the news at the table among a couple of other colts who they had run into at the restaurant. Spike knew already, of course, but he had barely given the concept thought. "Guess I'll be seeing you around the ol' library a lot more." Leaning back in his chair, the dragon found that the high chair, while demoralizing, was quite comfortable with the additions of arm rests at the sides - perfect for sitting up a foal, or housing a baby dragon. Caramel laughed a bit. "More? Whoof here can barely seem to pry himself from there as is ever since that librarian invited him in! Spike, if you see any more of him there he might as well live there!" He chuckled, taking a bite of his orange and apple salad. The multitude of colors in the dish made it look like a bowl of shining gemstones in the low-light atmosphere, and Spike had twice found himself snacking on an apple on accident. Not that he minded, he was an omnivore, after all. "Well enough with the joking, please. I'm sure I'll be there just as much as I normally am. Just under newer pretenses," Whoof strangled out, trying to hide the red that had been glued on his features since he told everyone. "It's quite a trip, being with another pony, I have to say." Spike snorted, as if holding in an explosive laugh. "I'll say! Hey, do you ponies know how this guy asked Twilight out?" He slammed the table to get the party riled up, and the dragon scanned their faces. Caramel seemed quite interested, and Whoof looked as if Death himself was on Spike's features. Butterscotch, Caramel's twin sister, seemed passingly interested, and was more keen on watching the bar for potential fun. Filling out the ranks of their table was one blue stallion with an adapt name – Blues. Blues was leaning back, fiddling with an unwieldy instrument. The silence reigned just long enough for Blue to look up and greet Spike's stare with a look of mild amusement as Spike delivered his fatal blow. "He tripped," the dragon finished, a victorious grin on his face as he fell back hard into his seat, the wooden contraption threatening to fall over as he did. "You tripped?" Butterscotch echoed, looking back toward the men at the table. "Like, stumbling hooves and everything?" Doctor Whoof shrunk in his seat, trying desperately to disappear completely from the conversation. Butterscotch laughed aloud, Blues wincing slightly at the mare's high pitched laugh, shooting a dark glare toward Caramel when he joined in with his sister in an equal and unmanly laugh. Spike had joined in the hazing, leaning over the small table in front of him and slamming his fist into the surface repeatedly. "Right into her. BANG!" Chuckling like a fool, Spike turned to see the Doctor giving him a pleading look. Relenting, Spike fell back into his chair, as if the story suddenly bored him. "Kissed her right then and there," he continued, his hands moving about with the story as he gestured to the white-as-snow expression on the normally brown stallion's features. "Should have seen the look on his face when she kissed back! A lot like the one he has now. Apparently she'd been reading about how to kiss." The tease quickly became a double-edged sword as the memory of the event flashed vividly in his mind, reddening the baby dragon's face. Spike shook his head violently, trying to erase the image from his mind. Ending her laughter, the butterscotch colored earth pony captured the attention of the group as she leaned into the table. "She could have been practicing with that rainbow pony – what's her face-" Butterscotch drummed on the table with her hooves, her tongue sticking out and up. "Rainbow Dash? I dunno, they only went out on one date, I hear," Blues mentioned, shrugging. "Word was they hadn't even kissed." Caramel laughed aloud, nudging the pony next to him. "There you go, Doc, you're already one step ahead of the Ex!" Whoof chuckled nervously, shrugging slightly at his friends. Blues peered over with a simple expression, and nodded in approval toward his friend. "Hey 'Scotch. What about Dash, she's available!" "Oh-ha-ha, bro." Butterscotch clocked her brother's side with an open hoof, turning over to Blues and Spike. "So how're you two's love lives treaten' you? You get that unicorn yet, Spike?" The mare knew full well that Spike hadn't a chance in the world, but by the amount of blood that had left the good Doctor's face and entered just his cheeks, a subject change was all that could save the brown stallion from fainting. Huffing, Spike crossed his arms at the question. "Pheh! No," he spat, a burning shot of dragon saliva lightly hissing on the table. "I tried a suit and a mustache and a beard and Luna knows what else! I can't seem to get my mind around it. What am I missing." Leaning forward, he drummed his claws on the surface, leaning his head on his free hand. Butterscotch stifled a giggle before turning to the blue colt. Catching Butterscotch's stare, Blues sighed. "Bah, can't get 'er to look'it me," Blues mentioned, rolling a hoof through the air dismissively. "Figure she thinks I'm too artsy for her tastes. Can't blame 'er for that." Bringing the instrument up to his lips, Blues belted out a few chords as Butterscotch hummed in harmony with the tune, laughing slightly as Caramel ordered another round for the table – taking pains to make sure the dragon didn't get any. "I already told you, man, Dragon's aren't affected by alcohol," Spike defended, watching the pony behind the counter get to work on the order, a couple of coconuts being unearthed from underneath the table. The others always got drinks, and here he was with... well, gemstones. Taking a turquoise, he quickly found himself no longer minding his culinary choice. "Oh, I know little dragon. But I also know alcohol is highly flammable, and it's highly gaseous. Right Doc?" Caramel mustered, prodding the Doctor. Whoof looked up sharply a bit, looking left and right quickly. Spike tapped his shoulder, getting his attention, before flicking the colt's snout quickly. "Yowch, what was... Oh hello Spike," he murmured, before taking stock. "Right. What was that, again?" "Nothing, Doc. Caramel just doesn't want me burping flames!" Spike informed bitterly, his mind having wandered on the effects of alcohol fueled flames and he had taken quite a shine to the idea. "Speaking of which – ever seen a dragon sneeze?" "Yes. That's how Celestia got her hooves on some of my more important research. Never expected to see those again." The Doctor rolled his eyes, looking about the table as the conversation was dying down. "Hey, it put in a good word for you at Canterlot U, didn't it?" Spike cheered, rubbing his claws against his chest. "If anything, a good word from the Princess has to be the best kind of words." The brown Earth pony chuckled, turning to his friends. The lot over at Canterlot University were a bit tougher crowd than that, to be won over by simple words from the Princess. Taking in the musty odor of the bar, he hadn't noticed Blues had left the table until he had made it up on stage and was playing with the band. One extremely garish cowpony tuned his guitar slightly before grabbing the mic. Whoof leaned back, content with the direction his life had been taking in recent months. The dragon to his right drummed his palm on the table, intent on listening to the song. It was going to be an interesting future, as well, it seemed. Blues took a quick bow from the stage and returned to the ponies down below after a few songs. Joining the others at the table, a waitress pony arrived with a number of drinks lined in coconut shells, the blue pony drinking straight from the husk, Caramel joining in directly after. Butterscotch chuckled a bit, before grabbing a bit of lime nearby, squirting some of the citrus contents into the drink before offering it to the Doctor, who accepted the idea graciously. "Alright, let's get this train wreck a'rollin'," the singer started, his voice low and gravelly. "We're gonna start with a song a little pink pony taught me, about Friendship. Hit it!" The lead pony on stage hit his guitar limply at first, causing the rest of the band to start up, filling the room with the fresh sounds of the band. The jazzy tunes hit them with a modified western song that Spike swore he had heard somewhere before. ----- The night air was warm and muggy, but only enough to lightly graze the skin. The lights in the library told tales of ponies having fun, the unicorn and her friends all enjoying eachother's company. However, it didn't take long before one unicorn noticed only five ponies dancing and chatting at the makeshift party. Catching sight of an open door to the balcony above, the white pony trotted up the stairs silently and pushed the glass frame open, stepping out. There was a stock silence, only chirping insects and far off shouts and calls of parents calling their foals in for the night. However, the purple maned pony could already tell her quarry was nearby still. "I noticed you didn't stick around very long," Rarity called, stepping out into the open on the wooden deck. Above, on a branch, lay what looked to be a very dejected pegasus. "Come on down here, Rainbow Dash. Why are you even up there?" "No reason. Too much girly stuff in there. Cramps my style," she muttered, picking herself up and stretching. "So Twi's dating the Doc, huh? Fits. Egghead for an egghead." Hopping down, the rainbow-maned mare landed on the balcony's railing, her face a mask of unamusement. "What's it to you, anyway? You normally love this kind of stuff!" She shot, her eyes hard as she quickly averted her gaze toward the window looking inside. Rarity sighed briefly, bringing a hoof to her head as she shook it softly. "Rainbow Dash, I put up with your little quirks as well as anypony, but I will not be accused of leaving a friend out in the cold while they're so obviously hurting," she took a step toward the mare, who's wings shot out, threatening to leave the premises quickly. "Stop right there, Rainbow. Please!" Rarity added, halting her forward motion. The pegasus stayed where she was, prompting Rarity to fall back on her haunches. Rainbow paused for a moment. Running was cowardly. She wasn't a coward – she wasn't! "I'm not... hurting. Or anything like that. I mean, why would I be? I'm a Wonderbolt! Do you know what that means? I'm the best, Rarity! The best don't get hurt!" She stomped at the ground angrily, but didn't take into account the small surface area of the railing and clipped the edge. Losing her footing at the energy leading down, the pegasus toppled over, her wings outstretched in an attempt to take off before she fell – and completely failed it. Hitting the balcony with a loud thump, Rarity rushed forward to her aid, but was rebuked almost immediately. "Get off, Rarity, it was only a tumble." Rainbow gnashed her teeth as she moved her hoof, wincing slightly at the action. "Hmph, so this is how 'the best' acts," the unicorn sighed, shaking her head sadly. She moved forward to help the cyan mare again, but again the pegasus backed off, flaring her wings defiantly. "Flap off, I don't need this right now!" Dash challenged, picking herself off the ground and into the air. Yet, Rarity would have absolutely none of that. Her horn glowing, she focused hard on grabbing the pegasus' foot in a locking spell, something she had seen Twilight pull off before. Resisting, the pegasus flapped hard against the spell, which was slowly working her down to the ground. "I. Respectfully. Disagree! Now. Sit. Down. You. Silly. Little. Filly." Each word was drawn out with baited breath as she struggled against the pegasus, but she finally brought her friend down, finishing off with a small binding charm that kept Rainbow grounded. Exhaling long and hard, she opened her eyes and saw a now very disgruntled mare in front of her. "I think this is exactly what you need, darling. Now please, Rainbow Dash, talk to me." Struggling against the binding that held her hoof down to the balcony, the cyan pony ignored her for a time. However, it soon became clear that Rarity wasn't going anywhere as she slipped herself down to the ground and laid herself comfortably in a ladylike fashion. Relenting in a bid for freedom, Dash sighed, laying down herself. "Look, there's... nothing to talk about, okay?" "I should say not. Nothing wouldn't have struggled against me and had to have been bound to the deck!" Rarity rebutted, rolling her eyes. A cool wind blew from behind Dash, chilling her slightly. The unicorn chuckled a bit, feeling that the wind coincided with her friend's demeanor quite well. "Rainbow, it doesn't take a PhD in Friendship to know why you're out here." Rarity guessed it had something to do with ponies getting together, and the pegasi's continued bachelorette status. "Oh yeah?" The challenge was nearly gone from her voice, but she withstood giving in. "And why is that, oh Element of Generosity? This isn't even your area of expertise!" "And you think Element of Loyalty would be loyal to herself." Rarity's remark hit Rainbow across the face like a ton of bricks, and the blue mare looked away. Hot, angry tears threatened to come out, but she soon felt a soft hoof raise her chin up to meet with caring, gentle eyes. "Rainbow Dash... we're friends. More than that, really. Despite all odds, me being a dressmaker with a penchant for styles..." Walking alongside the pegasus, the unicorn spun around a couple times before laying next to her friend, sharing her warmth against the sudden cold winds. "And you, a rough and tough Wonderbolt!" Rarity drummed her hooves along the ground, giving Rainbow reason to move a bit. Pushing a hoof against her friend's shoulder, she smiled. "You know I'm not out to hurt you, darling. Nopony is. I want to help, in any way I can." Rainbow was defeated the moment Rarity laid next to her and helped her stand the slight cold that had been creeping up. "I-I know. But... I'm not hurting. Really. I'm just..." She trailed. She didn't have the words, but suddenly she laughed. "I guess I am now, a little. It's good though, I think," she hastily added, wiping away the threatening tears. "I don't know. It's more of a... missing, feeling." "Missing?" Rarity parroted, much to her own displeasure. "Yeah, missing. Missing a chance. Missing the signs. Some of you didn't look at all surprised, and I know the squeal you made was more for Twilight's sake than your own, Rare," the pegasus sighed, cushioning her head on her hooves. "You and Applejack... you two knew for sure, I could see it right there. But..." Dash's eyes closed, shaking her head in disgust for herself. "It was a surprise to me, Rarity." Looking away from her friend, she sniffed uncharacteristically. Rarity nodded her head slowly. "I'm so sorry, Rainbow Dash... up until you stormed out here I didn't even realize you still held feelings for our dear Twilight." "SSSSHHHH! Not so loud..." The pegasus warned, looking wildly about. Some part of her expected something like a buffalo herd of all things to have rushed up to her the moment Rarity suggested that out loud. Dropping her hooves back down to the ground, Dash sighed long and hard. "Look, I kinda maybe still have a... thing for... her. But that's my damage." Standing up, Rainbow noticed Rarity's enchantment had been gone for awhile, and she happily kicked her hoof at the ground a couple times to make sure. "So I missed my chance while being an awkward little pony. It's not like I'm going to stay away from her now that she has somepony else." Rarity picked herself up gracefully, feeling the cold wind herself batting around with her posh mane. "That's very brave of you, Rainbow," she gave a soft smile as she trotted forward, placing a hoof on her friend. "It might hurt awhile, but eventually it will heal," she smiled, playfully pushing against the pegasus' chest. There was a small crash from inside the library as she did, drawing the attentions of the two mares. "Well, I do believe our visitations are up, or Pinkie has fallen down." "Or both," Rainbow chuckled, stretching her wings out. Blowing an insect from her, the cyan pony moved toward the door back inside. "Oh hey, Rarity... how do you know?" "Know what, dear?" Rarity asked, halting slightly, believing whatever Rainbow might ask might be fairly personal and not fit for the ponies inside. "You said whatever hurt... whatever hurt I may have will go away with time. How do you know that?" Rarity paused, giving a faraway look. Giving it some thought, she took a step forward and shook her mane. "I... think I may have read it in a book once, I'm not sure," the normally posh pony gave a lopsided grin. Messing with her hair a moment, she moved inside once no curl was out of place. "But it's sound advice, I assure you. If not, a lifetime of free makeovers from mwah." Gesturing toward herself, Rarity fluttered her lashes, giving a small showcase of her style. It didn't much effect the pegasus. "Well, sounds more like a gift to yourself than one to me," Dash added wryly. Swishing her tail about, Rarity opened the balcony door and let the mare in first. "Well, I didn't say I couldn't be generous to myself, now did I?" Giggling, she let the door shut itself on her way in, content with bringing Rainbow back into the fold. She looked on as the rainbow-maned pegasus started talking with the others, and finally discussing the topic of the hour - Whoof with Twilight. Dash was keeping a straight face and doing exactly what could be asked of a friend, giving Rarity a soft smile and as her attention soon turned toward Pinkie Pie, the hyperactive mare trying to make a song out of cleaning up some mess she had made.

HiddenBrony

486

Romance,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Missing

incomplete

<p>An amalgam of three stories originally produced as their own progressions, the <i>Missing</i> series includes stories from HiddenBrony's <i>Hop, Skip, and a Jump!</i> universe that follows the story left after <i>Eggheads</i> and <i>First Date</i>.</p>

everyone

2011-09-11T04:36:18+00:00

2011-09-11T04:36:18+00:00

Author's foreword: I did not want to place this in the Missing series, I really didn't. But honestly, this series of fics are important in that they follow each other in tandem, each following the last fairly well, especially the chapter after this. Oh, and do note that this chapter hints at later chapters, as well as the last bit of First Date chapter two! Anyway, thus follows a very important chapter in Hop, Skip, and a Jump series. Also, if it's the Mare of Honor, does it make the other ponies bridlesmaids? Bridesmares? --------------------------------------------- "Oh my, oh dear, What to do, what to do..." Fluttershy paced from one side of her little area to the other. The depressed grass under her hooves told tale of her disposition - it was flat as the ground it grew out of. The pegasus had been walking like this for what felt like a half an hour. Nearby, a white unicorn walked parallel with her every step of the way, attempting to calm the delirious yellow pony, her hooves aching as the desperation fueled pegasus continued her relentless assault on the blades of green below. A cyan mare stood nearby alongside a very energetic pink pony. Exchanging glances, Rainbow Dash could tell even though she was bursting with happiness, Pinkie Pie was doing everything she could to keep it under control for their nervous friend. As she held her silence, Rarity's cultured voice droned on and on about how the world would be a brighter place after today, and how Fluttershy should simply look forward to what would be happening in just over two hours. "At least think of Applejack, darling. Ah, speaking off..." Turning her head, Rarity focused her gaze toward the pink and blue pair of ponies, Fluttershy mimicking the action a second later as she become suddenly curious in what could have silenced Rarity, if only for a moment. "Shouldn't you two run along and be with her?" the unicorn chastised. Rainbow could only shrug. "Hey, Granny kicked us out, saying it was some "Apple family tradition" or something, so we came here to see how Fluttershy was doing." Rainbow pointed out with appropriate air hooves. Putting a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder for comradery, the pegasus raised an eyebrow, having actually only just arrived on the scene moments ago. "So what's the big meltdown for?" "Rainbow Dash!" Rarity chided, tittering her tongue as she put her manicured hoof upon Fluttershy. "Unlike your brash need to take everything head on..." she trailed, catching a look from Fluttershy that caused her to stop. "I'm sorry, girls. I really shouldn't be worrying so much," she squeaked, looking back toward Rainbow Dash through her long, pink mane. "Yeah, you see? Not here two minutes and I've solved all your problems." Rainbow pounded her chest in victory. However, it didn't impress Rarity in the slightest. "Perfect Bridlesmaid, that's me," Dash boasted once more, but everypony was soon looking at her in mild annoyance - except Pinkie Pie, whose uncharacteristic silence was giving away to an awkward silence. Receiving a cynical glare from the unicorn, the pegasus cleared her throat. "Say, where's Twilight, anyway! She's part of the wedding party, after all." Rarity shook her mane a bit. She was about to answer when a brown Earth pony poked his head in a moment, followed by a second, more draconian head on top of him. "Excuse me, don't mean to barge in or anything but I was wondering if any of you ladies have seen a lavender mare named Twilight walking about?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, "She may have her muzzle buried in a book of some sort. Likely something about Mare's in Tuxedos." This earned him a quick tap on the head from the purple dragon perched on his back. Shooting Spike a look, Doctor Whoof realized the room he had happened upon and gave an apologetic smile. "Oh, hello Rarity! Fluttershy! You all look fabulous, even if I can't see your faces, mane in the way and all." As the Doctor pointed to various bits of his face to signify the areas in which he couldn't see Fluttershy's face, Rarity groaned. She never even considered the irony as she facehoof'd in response to his shenanigans. "Well, I'm fairly certain that if she isn't with you, Whoof, then she very well may be-" A pink rush cut her off as it bounced next to Spike and the Doctor, eager to move along to something more exiting. "Ooo! I know, the Library! She lives there, y'know!" she shot out, looking over toward the unicorn and pegasus pair on the other side of the white tent. "Oh, um." Halting her bounces, she smiled sheepishly, recalling the very reason she wasn't invading whatever personal space she possibly could before the wedding. Rarity giving her a disappointed gaze, Pinkie Pie responded with a dejected, "I know, I'll mess up my tuxedo..." Struggling against the constricting clothing, Pinkie had to admit she'd take one of Rarity's dresses over the less flowing tuxes anyday. As Pinkie looked over her clothes, Dash furrowed her brow as she looked at her own dress, before realizing she completely lacked her bridlesmaid dress. "Well, thank you for that, Pinkie." Whoof muttered a moment, bringing everypony back to the missing mare. Turning to the other girls, he bowed his head as he started to slink off out of the bride's tent. "Then it falls on me to go get her. Alright then, Spike, we're off!" "Hey hold it, Doc, I wanted Rarity to fix my bow tie," Spike heeded, giving Whoof exaggerated pause. Leaping off his back, Spike landed hard on the ground, but ignored it, his curtails of his suit lightly brushing to top layer of grass. "H-hey, um, Rarity! I was wondering, you know, if you have the time-" Rarity sighed as her horn glowed with the power of magic. "Please, Spike, you know a quick fix like this is well within my limits of time for friends, darling," she smirked, glad for the reprieve she was getting. She loved her friends to death - but sometimes keeping up with all of them was a momentous task all by itself. Spike's bow lifted off his shoulder, the red ribbon draping slightly over him as Rarity smoothed it out and began working on trying it around the dragon's neck. Fluttershy looked over the dragon a moment before turning to Whoof, her eyes shrouded in uncertainty. "Doctor, if you um, don't mind. Could you and get Twilight for me? I really would like her to be here," she asled, causing Rainbow Dash to snap her attention toward the other pegasus, her mind buzzing as her wings started to unfold. "So, uh, Spike, I'll just leave you here while I go and get Twilight, then?" Whoof wondered aloud. A wind blew past him as a mighty push of feathery wings came between him and the exit, the pegasus giving a smirk. "Don't worry about it, Whooves!" Dash smirked, padding at the ground as she looked back at the group of ponies. "I'll go get Twilight, you guys stay here. Be back quick as a flash." Rarity looked over at the cyan mare as she streaked off, huffing as she put the finishing touches on the gemstone bow tie Spike found himself quite proud of. "Well, at least she realized she forgot her dress without having to be reminded, silly girl," Rarity smiled, giving a passing glance to the Doctor, whom had suddenly found himself without a task to preform and a naming convention he didn't appreciate. "Ahem, Doctor..." "Whoof, Whoof. Not Whooves- I'm sorry what?" Doctor Whoof shot to attention a bit late, but found himself under the collective stares of everypony - and dragon - in the room. "Can I help you with something?" he smiled, glad to be doing something. His mind was venturing a guess, perhaps they needed him to be- "Out!" Rarity pointed a hoof toward the flap of the tent, trying to keep her composure while the male pony stared at her incredulously. "Really, Whoof, I know you like to be around us mares a bit more than the next stallion, and believe me when I say we like you too, but this is a wedding and more importantly the bride's quarters, so you really have no reason to be in here right now." Talking a mile a minute in a way that would make Pinkie proud, the designer was now forcefully pushing the colt right out of the tent, the Doctor trying to put in a word in edgewise the entire way out. With the Doctor out, Rarity exhaled long and hard. "Huh, yeah, like he had any reason being here, am I right, Rarity?" Spike said, leaning on her flank with a cool elbow. The glare she gave him would have frozen Nightmare Moon in mid catch-phrase. Giving a nervous chuckle, the dragon nodded his head slowly. "R-R-right, I'll go see what Whoof is up to. That guy, always up to something you know? Ah haaa.... S-See you girls later!" he stammered, rushing out the flap behind the brown stallion. Fluttershy giggled softly as the tent lost three of its occupants, turning over to Pinkie Pie as she did. "Um, Pinkie, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to Rarity alone for a little while. Would you mind checking on Applejack again? I'm sure whatever they're doing is finished now..." As she asked for the favor, she made sure to hide the fact she knew she was giving Pinkie just as much a favor in return. The poor mare looked ready to explode. "Okie-dokey-Loki!" Pinkie took great care to step slowly and deliberately toward the flap, ushering it open softly and letting it slide off her gently, giving the Bride and her Mare of Honor some privacy. Looking back, the pony smiled. "I know two ponies who are in Loooooove~," she giggled and bounced away toward the other pony whose love was shared with Fluttershy. "I hope Rainbow Dash comes back with Twilight quickly," she mused, lifting her jump higher as she soared over Spike and Whoof, who gaped slightly until they realized who it was. "That Pinkie Pie - always a wonder...." Whoof trailed, chuckling as he turned to his companion. "Now, Spike, what do you suppose we do for the next... Spike?" Whoof raised an eyebrow as the dragon frantically checked his pockets multiple times, looking for Celestia knows what. "What are you doing?" Spike started to kick his feet as he felt the movement would jostle whatever it was into existence. "The- The Rings! I'm the ring bearer, and I don't have the rings!" He cried, turning his pockets inside out for effect. Leaping off the Doctor's back, Spike put his face near the ground as the crowds moved around them. "The rings, Spike?" Whoof echoed. "You know, the wedding bands! They go around the left forehoof." Spike raised his left arm and pointed at the dragon equivalent. "And I'm the ring bearer! And I don't have the rings!" Looking about, the dragon gazed over the gathering crowds of ponies. "They could be anywhere!" Whoof gave Spike a long, hard look, his eyes trailing all over his features, moving unto the crowd and along the path they came from. He didn't see any hoof sized rings, and if they had left it in the tent, then surely Rarity would have seen them immediately. Ponies crossed his vision, moving all about as they met with friends and family as they came out to the wedding. Letting his mind wander, Whoof realized the amount of ponies present was larger than expected. Someponies with not-so-nice tendencies could have seen golden bands sitting on the ground somewhere and just scooped them up. This was a problem. A big problem. ----- Pinkie Pie slowed her bounce as she approached the white tent on the other side of the orchard hill. Both tents were not far from each other - in fact, they laid on either side of the long stretch that made up the center aisle, towards the gazebo. Pinkie slowed slightly, taking in the empty expanse, decorated with white arches and various flowers. Apple blossoms rained down in a swift breeze, covering the area in pink and white natural confetti. The pink mare squealed a little in happiness, turning her head around to see the various balloons and decorations that made up the reception area just outside of the main event space. Her tail twitched rapidly, but she ignored the reaction as her mane became full of the falling petals. Catching a moment for deviance, Pinkie snapped a petal out of the air, enjoying the light taste that was reminiscent of the apples that filled the orchard. Sighing contentedly, the mare allowed herself a moment of calm, taking herself down to a simple stride, the tux releasing itself from the various folds that occurred during her nigh relentless bouncing. The petal rain got stuck in her inflated mane, but the pony found nothing wrong with that - and being away from Rarity for a time meant that it was likely to stick there for awhile. Sticking her head into the white tent opposite Fluttershy's, the pink mare found herself face to face with a rather dashing Big MacIntosh, his large form looming over her, his mane brushed smooth and, to Pinkie's joy, a light smile on his face. "Heya Big Mac!" The pony beamed up at the stallion as she tried to look around him. "Are the Apples all done in here?" "Eeyup!" Big Mac nodded, stepping aside to let the pink pony in as she looked about for Applejack. "You'll find AJ beyon' those flaps," he added, gesturing to a second pair of tent flaps that sectioned off the tent, much unlike Fluttershy's open room. Walking gently past the giant stallion, Pinkie smirked as a little white bunny hopped right on by. Angel looked fairly simple, a neat black bow around his neck, no little animal tux adorning his features. Although Pinkie had to smile at the inspired choice of two golden ear loops that adorned either ear on his little head. Patting him gently, Pinkie giggled slightly as Angel sighed with customary annoyance, letting the pink mare get her fill. She let him go before too long, the bunny giving a small salute to Big MacIntosh on his way out. The mare thanked the Big Mac quickly, before heading into the next 'room' of the tent. "Nahw how am I supposed ta' be a flower girl when it's already rainin' 'em!" A little voice complained, shaking her red mane as little specs of white and pink fell to the ground. "It 'taint fair, 'sis! Ain't nopony's gonna notice my flowers now!" AppleBloom sighed, kicking at the dirt below as yet another small layer of fabric separated Pinkie and AppleBloom from the mare on the other side. "Ya mean t'say all our flowers are white 'n red?" Applejack's voice could be heard. Pinkie giggled to herself as she entered the room, listening to the sisters talk. AppleBloom turned her amber eyes towards the pink mare's direction, her eyes trailing over the multitude of apple blossoms that adorned Pinkie's mane and tail. "Ah reckon Pinkie Pie could just shake herself down the aisle and flowers would go everywhere!" she claimed, walking over to the older pony. The pastel yellow pony's brilliant red mane was unmistakable, her normal red bow had been replaced with one that was a shining white. Literally shining, as the bow had been custom made with a silvery gleam by none other than Rarity. In fact, all of the clothes on display during the wedding were made by Ponyville's own fashionista. Applebloom pushed against Pinkie a bit, the pink mare curious in what she was doing, only to see the slightest movement had jostled a few of the petals off of her. Again, she snapped up the petals as they fell from her mane. The young filly giggled as she pushed against Pinkie again, this time jumping up and chomping at the blossoms as they came near her - taking pains to grab them as they fell instead of snatching the ones that fell on the ground. Pinkie giggled louder, this time grabbing the attention of the other full-grown mare in the room. Sticking her head out of small flaps, Applejack caught sight of Pinkie Pie and her little sis, her expression one of exasperation, but melted as she saw the two playing. "Well hey there Pinkie Pie," she greeted, a smile on her face. Looking beyond the pink mare, she didn't see hide nor hair of their purple friend. "No news on Twi, Ah 'spose?" Pinkie Pie shook her head. "Nope, but Dash took off after her to make sure she gets here in time!" Pinkie explained, putting a hoof to her chin. "Not that Dash went after her, more that she's going to her. And home, 'cause Rarity said that Dash forgot her dress which totally sounds like something she would do because she's always forgetting her uniform for practices-" Applejack sighed slightly as Pinkie ranted, before finding her head jolted back behind the curtain as her mane was pulled backward. "Now Applejack, don't you go out there before you're finished with your mane. This is a special day and I want the pictures to last me a good while." A voice called from the small side room that Applejack inhabited. Pinkie giggled as she recognized the voice belonging to Granny Smith, and looked toward AppleBloom. "So you need flowers that'll POP, right?" Pinkie mentioned idly, putting a hoof to her chin in what looked to be deep thought. AppleBloom nodded her head excitedly, expecting a very explosive idea. "Oo! I know! The blue flowers in the Everfree are sure to POP!" AppleBloom's excitement quickly dissipated as she considered the consequences of using that particular flower. "I don't think that'll work right, Pinkie Pie. Mah sister's pretty antsy already, and getting the whole weddin' caught up in Poison Joke seems like a bad idea," she muttered, her voice not into denying the plan, enjoying the prospect of another Appleteeny episode. Pinkie Pie quickly nodded and put her hoof down, her mind mulling over the happenstance. "Then we'd need to put Fluttershy in the Tuxedo or nothing would make sense!" Pinkie Pie talking about making sense was just about enough to break a poor filly's mind, but conditioning with Applejack had taught her not to ponder Pinkie's words too much. The pink pony turned about as she realized there was nothing she could do for Applejack in her current situation - probably being fancied up by Granny Smith. She knew the Oranges were present for the wedding, so it was probably a good idea to have Applejack be somewhat more presentable than just her hat and whatever tuxedo she had on. Spinning about, she took stock of her own clothes, guessing that Applejack's own tux would look similar to hers. As she continued to spin in place, AppleBloom 'ahem'ed and caught her attention. "Oh, um," Pinkie's face contorted to one of serious comprehension as she was reminded of the flower situation, the pony looking hard at the petals scattered upon the ground. "I dunno!" Shrugging her shoulders at the filly, AppleBloom groaned at the anti-climax of the pony's extensive thought process. "Oooh, this'll never work! I'm going to be a terrible flower pony!" AppleBloom cried, catching a look at her blank flank. "Looks like I'm not gonna get a flower filly cutie mark either!" Kicking at some dirt, she found herself moving slowly toward the door. "Wait!" Pinkie shot up. Going airborne, the mare ended up hitting the top of the tent lightly, disrupting her mane and causing a shower of petals to swirl down below over the little filly below. "I got it! We don't need blue flowers, we need blue petals!" she exclaimed. AppleBloom stared at the mare, simply nodding to appease her. AppleBloom knew there was a bit of a disconnect in Pinkie Pie's plan. "An' how're we gonna do that?" Pinkie stamped a hoof on the ground, looking proud of herself. "Twilight Sparkle!" "I'm here, I'm here!" a rushed voice called, entering the back room of the tent. A purple mare with a straight mane that was accented with a single violet strip of hair trotted in, parting the white tent flaps with the glow from her horn. "Really, Pinkie, I didn't make a noise, how'd you even know I was... nevermind." Letting the subject drop and filing it under 'it's Pinkie Pie', Twilight let her attention be drawn by the other pony in the room. "Hello, AppleBloom!" "Twilight!" AppleBloom cheered, but quickly composed herself. The idea that involved the unicorn belonged to Pinkie, and unfortunately the filly was unaware of the intricacies involved. "I-I'm glad you're here!" she forced out, which seemed to placate the purple mare's curiosity for the displaced excitement. "Good to see you too, AppleBloom. You must be excited to be a flower filly for your sister's wedding, huh?" AppleBloom nodded enthusiastically as the unicorn loosed the curtain and dropped her white saddlebags nearby, unlatching them and revealing her tailored tuxedo. Smirking, she could see the intricate details Rarity had put into it - a mare's tuxedo, what a strange order, she mused. "I can't imagine getting into this without magic." Twilight smirked, looking about at Pinkie Pie. "Did Rarity help with yours?" "Nope!" Pinkie offered no further explanation as she poked her head out of the tent, seeing Big MacIntosh continued guard over the front room. The curtain protecting them from the onslaught of the floating petals was open slightly, and she could see Spike outside, his face right next to the ground as he looked to be searching everywhere for something. Poking her head back in, she found Twilight was almost completely dressed, fiddling with the bow tie. Apparently, even magic had it's limits. "How. Does. Rarity. Tie. These. Ugh." Her horn ceased it's glow, the bow falling gently upon the saddlebag below. "I give up, I'll have Rarity tie it later. Applejack?" Twilight's call caused the pony in the small sectioned off part to stick her head out, a look of reprieve on her features. "Twilight, yer a sight fer sore eyes, Ah tell ya." She felt a tug on her, but she held firm, turning her head slightly. "Please Gran, Twi's here now an' Ah'd like to talk ta her fer a lil' while." "Ooooooh.... fine." A sigh was issued before Granny Smith came through the curtain, a simple dress on her features. An interesting note was she was without her walker, and stepping cleanly upon the grass. "Ah, Twilight, good to see you, good to see you." She greeted, the unicorn flashing a small smile toward the grandmotherly mare. "Don't take too long with my Applejack, now." She smirked before passing the other girls, where they could hear her lightly chewing out Big Mac for leaving his fetlocks unshorn. "Ah, that's Gran for ya." Applejack muttered, stepping out from the small enclosure. Twilight gave a light gasp at the sight. Decked out in a pure white tuxedo made from a similar material to Applebloom's bow, it had a tinge of blue to compliment her natural orange coat. But what was far more breathtaking was how light her mane seemed. It flowed around her head gently, curving slightly, no longer tied back in a ponytail. The long, flowing blonde mane swayed free from any earthly restriction. Applejack looked between the three ponies whom now stared at her, raising an eyebrow. "What? Y'all look like ya seen an Ursa," she joked, giving a quick look toward her freed mane. "Guess Ah let mah hair grow a bit too much, but Granny said it looks fine." "Applejack, you look..." Twilight trailed, hey eyes flowing with the hair, before blinking hard and shaking her mane. Handsome? Beautiful? "Fantabulous!" Squeaked Pinkie, hopping up and down on the spot. AppleBloom trotted over to her sister and nuzzled against her in support. "You look great, sis. Real proper like!" Applejack grinned down at her sister, before putting her attention back on her friends. "Amazing." Twilight finished, choosing a good gender-neutral adjective. "Truly amazing." "That's right nice of y'all ta say. Calms the nerves," Giving a lopsided smile, her eyes trained downward, unexpectedly locking eyes with the large amber orbs below her. She opened her mouth, but was interrupted from a voice in the front room. "Hi. Terribly sorry and all that, but I was wondering if you've seen Twilight around? We have a bit of an emergency and-" The Doctor was talking to Big MacIntosh, the three mares in the room sighed slightly. "Emergency," Applejack stated flatly. Looking over to the purple mare, she gestured with her head for her friend to check it out. "He's your boyfriend, Twi, you go an' sort it out. An' bring Granny Smith back o'er here 'fore long, would you?" She asked. Twilight nodded, a sheepish smile on her features. "Will do Applejack. And... you really do look stunning. I don't think you have anything to be nervous about. I'll go and check on Fluttershy before long." It earned her a soft smile in return, and Twilight trotted out the door, intent on seeing this emergency dealt with. Applebloom galloped along behind her, curious about the emergency the Doctor spoke of. Exhaling long and hard, the elder Earth ponies were left alone in the tent. "Well, S'far as she knows," she trailed, catching Pinkie's attention. Applejack looked up at her friend, forcing a smile that Pinkie didn't buy for a second. "What's wrong, AJ?" The pink mare stressed, taking it slow as she walked over to her friend. "Weddings are happy days. Plus they have big parties afterwards and your whole life with Fluttershy after is like a party! Think of how happy it's going to be and your nerves will melt away!" She beamed at her friend, but the orange Earth pony just solemnly nodded her head. Resting her flank next to Applejack, the pink party pony nudged Applejack softly. "Applejack?" "'Taint nothin', Pinkie. Jus' some... family matters," she muttered, shaking her mane. The blonde strands fell limply across Applejack's face, hiding her eyes. Pinkie's face contorted into thought, stepping toward Applejack and leaning down, peering under the farmer's bangs with bright blue eyes. Applejack caught her look and chuckled despite herself. "Let's just say there're ponies in mah family that... don't take too kindly to this kinda marriage," she swallowed, averting her eyes. She knew the words she said would dim those blue orbs of Pinkie's, and she didn't want to see that in her friend. "'Taint proper, they said. Said I'm shamin' tha family name." Sighing, she didn't expect to feel a hoof fall on her shoulder - in fact, two of them did. Looking up, she saw Big MacIntosh had silently entered the room, and had pulled her in for a hug. In her moment of vulnerability she hadn't expected the large stallion to have appeared, but she didn't fight it. Applejack leaned into the embrace, the side of her head nuzzled against her brother's chest. "Love ain't nothin' to be ashamed of, AJ, no matter what anypony tells you," he comforted, not letting go of his little sister. "Not even family," he added, and tightened the hug. Applejack simply returned it, burying her face in her brother's chest, her cheeks tightened in a forced smile as she fought back tears. Pinkie decided it was high time for her to check on the others, leaving the Apple siblings to their moment. "They had more'n a year to say somethin', Big Mac! Why do they have to bring it up on mah weddin' day?" Applejack muttered, her voice cracking slightly. "It's mah day," she whimpered. The big red pony released his sister and raised her chin up with his now free hoof. His face was hard, but his eyes held love. "Now you lissen here, AJ. This is your day. It is also that beautiful pegasus' day. And I ain't gonna let nopony say otherwise, ya hear? So you stop frettin' your little head about the Oranges and let yer big brother take care'a everythin'," he said, giving his sister a lighter hug. "Enjoy t'day, Applejack. Ain't no one prouder'a you than me." Standing tall, he coughed slightly, unused to saying so much so quickly. The orange mare sniffed and smiled, nodding as she did. As Mac started to depart, Granny Smith entered as he did, withholding him briefly. Placing a hoof on his side, she gave a silent thank you. "Gran," He reciprocated as he left the tent proper, looking about. ----- "So Spike is looking for the rings," Twilight muttered, rubbing a hoof on her temple. "Saying he's lost them, no less!" she added, earning two nods from her boyfriend. "Whoof, we have to find him." Whoof looked about a moment, across the seas of ponies and over the tables and chairs set for the reception. He let himself take idle notice of the brilliant color of the ocean of bodies before him, each one seemingly next to the color that best complimented it. Still, he was brought back down by Twilight, who prodded his flank, snatching his attention. "Hm?! Right, sorry." Giving an ahem, the scientist pushed up his non-existent glasses and stared the unicorn down. "So why are we looking for our little dragon friend when we could be searching for the rings?" Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes. "Because the rings aren't lost. Spike's the ring bearer but we never gave him the rings. At least I don't think we did," she said simply. AppleBloom giggled a bit nearby, finding it a bit cute. Doctor Whoof hesitated, averting his eyes as they spun left to right as he considered this. "How do you know that - you just got here," he replied, before a soft glow emanated from the unicorn's horn. She raised an eyebrow expectantly as a knowing smile crossed her features, her hooves padding along the ground as she trotted along. A slow look of dawning spread across the Earth pony's face as he galloped after the lavender unicorn. "The locater spell! Brilliant!" Applauding the use of Rarity's signature spell, there was a thundering of hooves on the ground as he took off. "So, Twilight, where are they?" The pony turned to her date and smirked. "Angel has them - we gave him the rings last night for safe keeping. If there's one thing we can be assured of, it's that he's never far from Fluttershy, and since he's so small he'd notice a weight like the rings falling from his body..." AppleBloom nodded slowly, but the motion through her equilibrium off as she struggled to keep pace with the adult ponies. "Ah saw him earlier with the rings in his ears! They looked a bit like big 'ol earrings!" she recalled, thinking back when she was in the tent. It had been just before Pinkie Pie had arrived. "Ah knew he didn't look like he enjoyed them bein' there!" "He couldn't really lose them without somepony taking them clean off him, and then he'd come hopping. Fantastic." Whoof agreed, noticing they had found themselves at Fluttershy's tent. Giving the white flap a look of dire concern, the brown stallion kept himself from approaching any further. "Ah, well... I don't think I'm really allowed in here. Bride's tent and all, got to be, what was it? Prudent?" "Prudent?" Twilight echoed, giving the stallion an entertained glance. "Not of your usual vocabulary." "I say any word within the Equestrian language is well within my usual category. Same with antiquing, pharmaceuticals, and prudent!" Whoof defended, earning himself a sad shake of the head from his companion. Clearning his throat and attempting to banish a perpetually reddening of his cheeks, Doctor Whoof quickly diverted the subject back to the task at hand. "You're certain Angel's in here?" He asked, looking about for the not-so-amicable rabbit. "I wasn't looking for Angel or the rings, Whoofsey," she teased, taking great delight in the embarrassed reaction Whoof displayed, his brown coloration giving way to a maddening red on his face whenever she uttered her pet name for the Doctor. AppleBloom giggled at his expense as well, which earned her an angry but ultimately futile glare. It was sickeningly sweet, and Twilight knew it, but it was too entertaining to let slide sometimes. Nuzzling the brown Earth pony in minor apology, Twilight parted to the curtain with her magic. "Wait here, I'm sure one of your targets will show up soon. AppleBloom, you go out and see if you can track our dragon friend." "Cutie Mark Crusader Dragon Patrol! You got it, Twilight!" Applebloom shouted, taking off into the crowd, her small stature aiding her as she swung under the legs of the adults and scurried under tables looking for the wandering dragon. Resting his flank, the Doctor seemed a bit beside himself. "When did I become the type to 'wait around'?" Sighing, the Doctor kept an eye out for the purple dragon or a white rabbit with golden hoops in his ears. Bleating, he drummed his hooves in a bored fashion. Looking about, he began to contemplate the best way to eavesdrop against a white tent that wasn't glaringly obvious. Color tended to blend into the outsides of them, so he couldn't keep too close without risk of the very light of the sun itself betraying his presence. There were enough folds in the flaps at the entrance to hide himself, making light refraction a non issue, except it would be obvious to anypony outside. Not to mention anypony inside would likely run into him on their way out. No, it was probably best just to... sit there. Quietly. And take orders. "How... domestic," he muttered, defeated. ----- "So Spike is running about out there looking for the rings? Oh, but he'll get so dirty!" Rarity sighed, shaking her mane, letting it bounce to and fro as she did. "Perhaps I rushed him out a bit too quickly; he's so excitable sometimes." Placing a hoof near her chin, she dared not actually touch it, as the floor below was just, well, dirt and grass, much too many things to even contemplate getting close to her pristine white coat. "Still, I suppose it does keep him out of our manes for a little while." A silver lining in everything. Twilight smirked and rolled her eyes, but Fluttershy seemed a bit downtrodden by such a remark. "Oh, poor little dragon. Rarity, you mustn't let him keep worrying over it." She asked, hey eyes threatening tears. "Darling, please, I'm sure our little scamp is more than capable of handling news about such a small thing," Rarity attempted, but she relented quickly enough and sighed, catching a pouting look from Fluttershy. "Oh, fine, if I must! Rainbow Dash-" she started, the mare in question being nowhere to be seen. "Now where did that filly get off to, I thought she was right here." Twilight shrugged, pointing toward the tent flap. "Might as well check out there. Probably laying in some tree. But, oh! Before you go find Spike, can you help me with my bow tie? I've never read up on proper tying techniques and I kinda frustrated myself earlier." Sheepishly, she presented the length of fabric, in which Rarity soundlessly and almost without looking looped the entire thing around Twilight's neck and had it sitting pristine on her chest in mere moments. "Well, if there is one thing in magic I can hold over you, dear Twilight, is that I am a bit more dexterous about it. Perhaps you should start taking a few lessons from me," she added coyly, a bit of laughter in her voice as Twilight matched it with a contented grin. Heading out the door, Twilight found herself alone with Fluttershy, a development she didn't exactly see coming today. She could hear the Doctor conversing quickly with Rarity, and two took off to find the dragon together, figuring if he came back to the tent the others would hold him there. "Well, today's the big day, huh?" Twilight asked, trying to get some discussion going. She didn't know much in pre-wedding situations, to be certain, but she had some idea. "Oh yes, I'm so excited. And. Nervous. Like my cutie mark is going crazy in my stomach." Shrinking down, she gave Twilight a smile. It was a lot more settling than Applejack's earlier display, and the purple mare smiled. However, the realization the Fluttershy was taking the nervousness better than Applejack nearly short-circuited her brain. Looking about, Twilight noted quickly that there was someone missing from the tent that she hadn't seen yet. "Hey Fluttershy, if you don't mind me asking... Where's your mom?" Twilight had read more than enough books on the subject, including a number of romance novels(and a few borrowed from Rarity's secret collection that seemingly detailed interactions between Bridlesmaids and Groomscolts than the actual wedded couple), and in almost every one a mother would be with her daughter before the ceremony. Sometimes both parents. The pegasus smiled softly, shaking her mane. "Oh, she's on her way. She's very busy and, um, she's important in Cloudsdale," she nodded, before looking over at Twilight. "Oh, but don't worry, she'll be here in time." There was a short silence as Fluttershy's eyes seemed to gloss over, the pegasus bowing her head. "Papa, too," she finally added, a soft smile on her features. Relief flooded over the unicorn as she had realized she never actually asked about the parents of her friends - Rarity's lived in Manehatten, and Applejack's... well, the Apples always said they were far off. Probably for AppleBloom's sake. "Um, Twilight?" Snapped out of her revelry, the unicorn looked up at the pegasus before her. "Yes?" "Um, I wanted you to know, that, um. Well, there's somepony who's part of the wedding party, she's someone we've met before but, she, um, looks different," she said. "What's her name?" "Sunny," she murmured, averting her gaze from the unicorn. Twilight's eyes bulged a moment, the mare taking a step back before regaining her composure. Clearing her throat, Twilight smiled weakly at first, but it slowly grew more confident as she spoke. "Sunny? As in... well okay then." The pegasus looked back toward Twilight, relief in her eyes. The purple pony chuckled slightly, commenting, "I didn't think you'd be so bold." Fluttershy smiled, actually giggling a little bit alongside Twilight. "Well, she's been so friendly to us before, and I needed one more bridlesmaid to even them out since Big MacIntosh is the Best Stallion and Applejack wanted you and Pinkie on her side." "I'm surprised AJ didn't want Dash, honestly," Twilight mentioned idly, a small smile on her lips as she tapped her chin. At this, Fluttershy smiled sheepishly. "Oh, well, she did, but um, I wanted her on mine first." Twilight paused, but nodded in retrospect. The two pegasi did know each other for a long time, all the way back in Cloudsdale, even. In fact, the nature of how they came to Ponyville was something Twilight never thought to ask, but it did interest her. Fluttershy quietly cleared her throat, which sounded more like a squeak, catching the unicorn's attention again. "So, um, if you could find Sunny for me, I'd feel a lot better." Twilight nodded, a large smile on her face. "It's no problem at all, Fluttershy. I'm on it on the double." Lifting a hoof up, Twilight paused and hesitated, leaning back in reconsideration. "As soon as somepony else comes. I don't feel right leave the bride-to-be alone in her tent," she smirked, jostling her body around a bit in the tuxedo. The two mares conversed for a little while, Rarity returning with a rather unkempt Spike after not too long. Between the two unicorns, they cleaned and pressed the dragon with a little magical prodding, and he was good as new. As soon as they had, Whoof had entered with Angel and Dash in tow, Rainbow Dash carrying the bunny in her hooves as she placed the rebellious rabbit down. Catching a frighting look from the white unicorn, Whoof doubled back out the door, Twilight trotting off after him shortly thereafter. Twilight stopped her beau quickly enough to recruit him for yet another mission, searching for the enigmatic Sunny to complete the wedding party, despite the Doctor having no prior experience on who this supposed pegasus was, nor what she looked like. Before long, the final preparations were completed, and Mayor Mare entered the tent. Having already visited with Applejack shortly after Twilight had left the other tent, she wanted to make sure everypony was ready before the wedding ceremony. She, as Mayor of Ponyville, would be presiding over the ceremony. As she spoke with Fluttershy, Rarity, and Dash, Twilight entered the tent alongside Whoof and a light pink pegasus pony. Introducing the mare as 'Sunny', Mayor Mare asked all those not in the wedding party to leave. This happened to just be Whoof, who looked quite flustered as he spun about on his hooves and stepped out of the tent, obviously tired of being sent in every direction. Twilight smiled sheepishly as her date disappeared, but her attention was brought toward the others as they rehearsed the order or the wedding. As they discussed, however, it became apparent that they had overlooked a part in the wedding, and Whoof was quickly brought in as an usher for the matrons of both parties. Upon being informed of his duties as an usher, which basically amounted to walking the mother's of the two sides down the aisle before the wedding party, Whoof suddenly felt as though his jealously for being outside of the wedding party was unfounded. Still, he admitted, he'd at least have a great seat. ----- The initial ceremonies went off without a hitch. Twilight had paired with Dash down the aisle, walking after Rarity and Big MacIntosh, the sight of which caused quite a few murmurs in the crowd. Pinkie Pie has ended up walking down with a light pink pegasus, who owned a matching pink mane to boot. There was some discussion if this pony was a sister to Pinkie, being of similar coloration, but those who knew the Pie's knew better. No, this was apparently a friend of Fluttershy's from Cloudsdale, the rest imagined, taking note of the pony's wings that adorned her sides and her place as a bridlesmaid. Still, many ponies didn't pay her as much mind as an unknown pony might have normally gathered, for in attendance towards the back of the long aisle was a newly familiar regal pony. Dark blue in color and with hair that shone with the paleness of the moon, Princess Luna had come down from Canterlot to view the wedding herself. What most ponies couldn't take account for was her amused smile as the wedding party was assembled at the alter. The music of the ceremony changed slightly as Spike walked along, holding the forelimb of a mature mare. Her coat was of a deep yellow, her hair a streaming magenta that flowed much like her daughter's mane. Leading the mother of the bride to her seat, Spike quickly and unceremoniously jogged back toward the waiting wedding party, passing Whoof along the way. It didn't surprise many to see the Doctor help out at the last minute to lead Granny Smith to her seat on the 'groom's side'. As Granny Smith took her seat alongside the familial pew, the good Doctor found himself in the awkward position of standing in front of everypony with nowhere to sit himself. However, Granny motioned for him to sit next to her, which he gleefully accepted if only to make it look intentional. As he made himself comfortable, Spike walked down the aisle near AppleBloom, holding a pillow where the two golden loops rested, freed from a bunny's ears. Angel hopped between the two, looking decidedly sour as he cradled his ears in his paws. The flower filly beside him was swaying her head, letting small blue and red rose petals tumble out of the basket she held around her neck. Spike helped grab a few and loosened them from the sides of the basket, allowing all of the petals to be spread evenly along the ground. He smirked as his dragon senses felt a small magical resistance to them, noting that their colors had been changed via a spell. He gathered that Twilight and Rarity had worked on them moments before the ceremony began. The dragon looked toward his companion, noting that AppleBloom couldn't look any happier as she did right then, making a mark at the wedding herself, although sadly not earning one on her flank. Spike had to admit a Flower Filly cutie mark would be horridly limiting. Vinyl Scratch, talented musician and DJ for the reception, gestured to her friend Octavia, motioning her to start playing with her group of more classical talents. Thus, the wedding march started, and all eyes turned to the back of the aisle. In most circumstances the pony involved under so much attention would have cowered, ran, or fidgeted all the way down the aisle, but right now Fluttershy held such beauty and grace, not even the slightest movement betrayed her. She stood in her long, flowing wedding dress. Traditionally white, it was adorned with flashes of color, an obvious Rarity original, it made Fluttershy be seen by anyone in the crowd. Her flowing pink mane had been shortened by the white unicorn, clearing her face to the eyes of the crowd, but mostly to Applejack who stood proudly at the other end. Her tail was stylized, a bit more wave to it than normal. Her bangs, too, had been shortened, barely the length of Rainbow's hair, parted neatly to one side. Her brilliant sapphire eyes shown as she came into view, catching sight of the Earth pony who awaited her on the other side. Alongside her was a large stallion that in his heyday would have given Big MacIntosh a run for his money. His pale blue hair screamed of an age gone by, but his gaunt face and powerful frame let everypony know he was still in it for awhile. His white coat couldn't be seen much under his black tuxedo, and he stood in front of everypony as he stoically gave his daughter away as Mayor Mare asked, a gleeful tear running down the face of his daughter as she turned and nuzzled her father, his tough face breaking as he smiled warmly, brushing her mane from her eyes. "Let Daddy see those sparklin' eyes one more time," he said, before gesturing her to go to the pony who awaited her at the alter. "Go on, 'Shy. Be with... her." Breathing deeply, the mare broke from her father one last time, and headed up next to Applejack. The large stallion moved toward his wife and sat next to her in the grass, his smile holding back the tears that threatened to fall. The mare next to him leaned against him, putting a loose hoof on his chest, breathing rhythmically as she watched her daughter in the dancing petals of Sweet Apple Acres. ----- "If there is anypony who feels the union between these two loving ponies should be quelled, speak now, or forever hold your peace," Mayor Mare mentioned. It was all part of the routine for her. There was a shuffling among the crowd of ponies, and Applejack felt her heart shoot up into her throat. She waited for it, those prim and proper city ponies that she called her kin. Any second now they would speak up, cause a scene, and ruin her day. Her day. Fluttershy's day. She scanned the crowd, looking for them, her anger bubbling as she looked for those ponies. But something else caught her eye instead. A light pink strand of hair in the corner of her vision. Looking over, deep aqua blue eyes stared deep into her emerald orbs. Her features softened, her anger subsided. Nuzzling her love gently, Applejack felt her nerves calm, and the anxiety melt away as she found herself no longer caring about the neigh-sayers. The only thing important to her, right now and right there, was the pegasus in front of her. "Ah love you, Fluttershy," she spoke softly. Silence reigned over the crowd, Big Mac holding an uncharacteristic smirk on his features as his eyes locked onto the Manehatten ponies who spoke so little of Applejack's love. He had had words with them, and it was interesting on how such proper and so called powerful city ponies could be quelled so easily with a few words. The order of the ceremony continued without hiccup, no one speaking out against Applejack and Fluttershy's love. A couple of ponies in the audience were a bit noisy in favor of them, a pastel green one with her mate, a dual-colored mane and tan-coated mare. They were playfully shushed by some other ponies, who couldn't help but smile at the two's antics. ----- "It's simply dreadful," Mister Orange muttered darkly. "Our Applejack, sweet little Applejack... A filly fooler! This simpleton town mustn't have had the stock to produce a man enough for her," he harrumphed clearly, taking no mind of the ponies around him. "Yes, simple to gather why she would go for a mare, seeing that all the men here are... rubes to the rubes," Misses Orange seethed out, turning to an ensemble of their friends that they had brought along - without invitation or prior notice, of course. They chuckled and laughed 'politely' at her joke, taking great pride in her words. "Ahem," a voice called from behind. The group of proper ponies turned to find Big MacIntosh standing behind them, and a smaller yet formidable looking caramel colored pony alongside him. "Now, Ah won't say anything against you city dwellers, 'cause I'm not that kinda pony." "MacIntosh, really," Ms. Orange drawled, earning a few chuckles from her entourage. However, a quick stare from the muscular red stallion ended their pips and squeaks quickly. Yet the Oranges themselves weren't through speaking. "We already had our discussion earlier, and as I recall you didn't say anything there, so why come to us now? Because you don't have the entire Apple Family there to stare you down, you big lummox?" Caramel stepped forward, but Mac shook his head gently, holding a peaceful hoof across his chest. "Ah didn't find it proper form to speak down a family member in front of kin like that," he said simply. Ms. Orange didn't look too pleased, but he continued. "Now, as Ah saw it, you were just runnin' some hot air 'cause you gone and missed your chance in raisin' AJ ah long time ago. And the way it seems t' me, is Ah don't see any foals running around you now, either," he added. Caramel chuckled slightly, which the red colt appreciated. "Ugh, foals are so loud, MacIntosh, hardly worth the time and energy dealing with them at such a young age. Applejack was just past our point of contention, not that I think you know what that word means, simple Mac." Mr. Orange muttered, earning a chortle from some of the men in the group. "I don't think you even know what that means, Mr. Orange." Caramel rolled his eyes, unimpressed with the pomp and 'proper' ponies. Big Mac chuckled, shaking his large frame. "Well, without foals of yer own raisin', Ah don't think you were ready to claim such responsibilities as to carin' for mah little sister." Caramel nodded at Big Mac's words, the smaller stallion stepping forward. Caramel gestured toward the general direction of Applejack's tent, shaking his deep brown mane as he did. "It's pretty clear once she ran away from alayoo back to Ponyville with no attempt to keep her, you sacrificed any right to have a say in her life." Big MacIntosh nodded solemnly toward his friend, peering back at his family. "See, Ah'm not here to cause any trouble with you. You're still kin, and Ah have to respect that. Same with yer guests, uninvited as they may be," Big Mac paused, leaning close toward his aunt and uncle. "But what you did at the Apple Family meetin'; well, that wasn't respectful ah'tall." His eyes squinted slightly, causing a visible shudder to go down Mister Oranges spine. "Ah woulda simply let it go, bein' the simple pony that Ah am." His eyes darted between his aunt and uncle, each one feeling smaller than ants as the big farmer towered over the entire group. "But then, Ah found out yer words hurt AJ," he snorted, steam emanating from his nostrils. "And no one hurts mah little sister, understand?" Leaning up, his colossal figure seemed infinitely taller than before, and various ponies in the Orange entourage started to falter and move away, no longer wishing to be associated with the two posh ponies. "B-b-but she's-" Mr. Orange stammered. Big Mac's eyes became hard as he stared down his uncle. "Ah said, 'You understand'?" The Oranges nodded their heads obediently, fear shaking their bones for them. "Good. Now, you're gonna attend that weddin'. The weddin' of yer niece." His eyes turned sharply toward Ms. Orange. "Your sister's daughter." He seethed the last bit out. "And yer gonna be on your best behavior. And you know what, you're gonna give them a right good weddin' gift, too. I know that they don't have the money for much of a honeymoon - and you're such a rich aunt and uncle. I'm sure you can think of somethin'. Somethin' real respectful." ----- Big Mac sniffed slightly, listening to the vows from both mares. His sister's words were short, but powerful, and Fluttershy's were full of feeling, straight from her heart. In front of a crowd so large, many of them total strangers hailing from the furthest reaches of the Apple family, he knew whatever the pegasus felt for his sister was purer than a newfoal's laugh. And that was all the type a pony he could ever want for his sister. As a breeze picked up, it sent a shower of petals from the apple trees over the congregation and the alter, where Pinkie and Dash simultaneously snapped up a couple petals as they flew by, much to the delight of all those who caught the act, their friends included. Even AppleBloom tried to catch a few, but failed, stamping her hoof lightly in reaction to her lack of skill in catching flying snacks. It was picturesque, the light smell of sweet apples covering the orchards, the high afternoon sun sparkling overhead, giving it's blessing as the moon's ambassador stood in the back, giving hers. As the ceremony reached it's end, the presiding pony continued her last passages. "I now pronounce you...um. Oh dear. Umm." Mayor Mare stumbled. In all her preparation, she had forgotten to word the end a bit better in this new scenario for Ponyville. Both ponies in the middle of their pronouncement found some humor in it, but to be held up on such a triviality was a little annoying for all involved. "Mare and wife, Ma'am." The light pink pegasus offered, giving the Mayor a knowing look as she nodded. Nodding quickly, she smiled and continued, "I pronounce you 'Mare and Wife'. You may now kiss the, uh, kiss, each other." With the Mayor stumbling over her words again, Applejack chuckled as she turned to her mate. Her wife. Her... everything, now. Fluttershy returned the look in kind, nuzzling her companion a moment before breathing in deeply. They leaned close, touching gently. The pegasus closed her eyes, letting the Earth pony guide her in. Their lips touched gracefully, locking together in a loving embrace, much to the 'aws' and 'D'aws' of the crowd, and the very energetic clapping of one similarly energetic pink pony. Twilight was clapping her hooves together as well, standing on two hind legs a spell before landing on her feet again for balance. Rarity was bawling, tears absolutely ruining her mascara as she cried in what everypony wasn't quite sure was joy, but it was rather entertaining. Rainbow whooped and cheered, her fore hoof pumping the sky as she cheered her friends on. Parting, both ponies blushed profusely as the crowd of ponies that had gathered cheered and applauded, the thundering of their hooves causing the the remaining petals on the trees to loosen and trickle into the air, covering the entire area in beautiful leaves and streaks of pink and white. In response to Dash and Pinkie, plenty of ponies snatched up the blossoms as they floated by, taking the taste of light apples with them as the two mares bowed slightly. "I now pronounce you, Misses and...oh dear not again, ah, Misses and- Misses Applejack." Mayor Mare finished, having decided that since Applejack was in the tux, she'd be the name delivered to the crowd. Sighing from the load off her mind, Ponyville's first same-sex wedding came to a close, both ponies practically galloping past the thundering crowds which blessed them with cheers and calls. Tears of happiness streamed from both of them, Fluttershy's wings outstretched and giving a light flap at every gallop, carrying her alongside her wife. Looking on, Twilight smiled warmly as the two disappeared into the crowd of ponies, finding herself uncaring that the normal organization that went with weddings was being generally forgotten. The friends in the wedding party chatted as the crowds in the aisle, flanked by two tents, filtered out. Mischievous fillies and colts walked around the sides and out the front near the alter, finding it a much faster way out of the large amounts of ponies. Approaching the pink pegasus, Twilight smiled coyly, "Well, I'm glad you could make it out here." The light pink pony smiled and nodded. "It's not often a pony actually asks me to be in her wedding, Twilight. And your friends are very dear to me and my sister," Looking about, she giggled slightly as she locked eyes with the midnight mare in the crowd. "Not to mention it's nice to be in front of everypony and not be the center of attention." Twilight nodded as well, sighing contentedly. "Well, Sunny, would you like to join Whoof and I in some cake and discussion before you and Luna have to go?" She asked, offering the mare some additional time away from her duties. "It'd be my honor, Twilight," Sunny smiled, the group of friends moving out and around the tents, avoiding the crowds - much like the mischievous foals that ran between their feet, AppleBloom reuniting with the Crusaders as she regaled her friends in the adventures of being the Flower Filly. The rest of the ponies laughed and joked as they found their table, meeting up with Luna along the way. Applejack and Fluttershy soon joined them, the party continuing a short time before the two wedded ponies decided they had some things to do before they were off for their honeymoon. "It's tha strangest thing. One moment mah Aunt 'n Uncle are against us, and the next they're offerin' us their home fer the week in Manehatten." Applejack laughed, a tear holding firm behind her eye. "We really didn't have anything planned for afterwards, this all happened so quickly." Fluttershy added. "It's really kind of them to offer something so selflessly." The big red pony who had accompanied them thus far chuckled in response. Applejack raised an eyebrow, as if asking him what was so funny. "Well, the Oranges are rather rich ponies, they probably thought it was a good idea to go on some cruise or somethin'. A real good idea," Big Mac finished, winking slightly toward his sister. She gave him a knowing smile, pushing against his shoulder playfully. AppleBloom spoke with 'Sunny' for quite some time after that, as Spike, Luna, and Doctor Whoof discussed things over a bottle of strawberry cordial. Twilight and Rarity stuck with the wedded couple for as long as possible before they took off, leaving them to head to the table with the other three. Pinkie Pie had been all over the reception, as something seemed to set her off into some mission, the Wonderbolt of the group honestly having to try to keep up with the filly. Between giggles and laughter, Twilight noticed the light pink pony appear at her side with a small smile on her features. "So what has you so happy?" Sunny gave a light smile, gesturing dismissively, but her eyes held a more mischievous intent. "Left the little Apple child a moment to speak with her sister...s," she hesitated before adding the second 's', putting in the fact that Fluttershy was now legally AppleBloom's sister. "Just a quick parting gift for the wedded couple, when they're ready." Twilight raised an eyebrow, looking toward the disappearing figures of the Earth pony and pegasus as they made their way to an apple carriage. "A gift from the Princess? And what would that be?" she asked, legitimately curious. The playful smile never left the ponies lips, causing a mirthful giggle to erupt from the studious unicorn. "Oh, I'm sure you all will find out someday, my faithful student," Celestia hinted, taking a sip of the cordial that Spike had poured for her. "Someday soon, maybe." The high afternoon sun radiated off the light pink pony, as she returned to conversation with the rest of the wedding table, enjoying cake, laughter, and friends. Twilight made a quick mental note that today, she needn't write a letter to the princess, instead she would share a laugh in honor of her happy friends, those who would go on and reach the highest magics of friendship.

Sagebrush

487

Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

In Her Majesty's Royal Service

A look behind the armor, behind the stoicism, but not too far behind, because that'd be a behind.

complete

<p>Storm Stunner is a pegasus with aspirations to join the Royal Guard: the noble ponies responsible for maintaining the peace and prosperity of Equestria. At least, that's what it says on the cover.</p><p>Follow his journey as he joins their gilded ranks, and learns just what life is really like as one of Equestria's finest.</p>

everyone

2012-09-21T20:02:54+00:00

2012-12-27T04:03:12+00:00

At midday, an open air market of Canterlot bustled with activity as ponies meandered between vendor carts laden with silks and jewelry, and loitered in front of irritated shopkeepers’ entranceways. Actually, to say ‘activity’ in such a context inspires an image of the exchange of goods and services, a changing between hooves of bits, and a healthy economy in full swing. There wasn't any of that. Rather than the dynamics of free trade, there was inertia as the throngs in the shopping district filled the streets without emptying their pockets, perusing rather than purchasing, despite the protests and pitches of the irritated merchants. The fact of the matter was that at midday, particularly on a weekday, the ponies that had the bits to spend on luxury goods would be hard at work, just like the shopkeepers. So the streets of Canterlot were really just a glut of their bratty kids who either had nothing more productive to do on a lazy day of summer break, or, more likely, had many productive things that they had chosen to avoid doing. That is, save for a single pegasus rambling aimlessly down the main avenue. He had a coat that looked like it had been rolled in ochre, a mane that ran down his neck like chocolate, and a red-and-white checkered bindle supported by a roughly hewn stick clamped securely in his mouth. Thoroughly lost for the better part of the day and just now deciding to admit it, it was with a sigh that Storm Stunner resigned himself to the fact that he needed directions. Eyes leveled just above the spectrum of manes mixing about the street, he scanned the colored signposts and banners in search of an ideal location to ask. Above a humble storefront he spotted a wooden sign with an icon of a book carved into its enameled surface, and he figured that would be a good place to start. After all, the employees at a bookstore could probably navigate the city as well as they did the shelves, and if that weren't the case, they should at the least be able to point out where the maps were. He struggled to squeeze past a trio of young ponies choking the entrance to the store who were engaged in mutual, halfhearted protests: they were appalled at the discourtesy the pony at the last store front had shown, rudely chasing off what he couldn’t immediately disprove as potential customers. They continued to loiter, discussing where that day they would not shop next, unaware of the obstacle they were creating. Storm managed a muffled ahem around the bindle, but the ponies either did not notice, or more likely did not care. Carefully attempting to step between them, he managed to catch one of them in the nose with the end of his stick. That caught their attention quicker than words ever could. “Ow! Jeez dude, watch it with that thing! Haven’t you ever heard of saddlebags?” complained the smarted colt as he rubbed his snout. He added pegasus hobos to his mental list of complaints for the group. Storm mumbled around the bindle stick what was presumably an apology and made his way inside. Stepping into the store, he realized that the small facade visible from the main thoroughfare belied an interior that ran much deeper than he would have expected. Although the establishment may have been narrow, the length of it was impressive. Rows of oak bookshelves extended into the depths of the shop, crowded with books and periodicals of a number of different genres. Storm noticed sections marked horror, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, fiction—he could never understand why so many book stores included that last one. In the dim light of an assortment of firefly lanterns arranged around the store, a number of ponies sat in front of the shelves, casually skimming through novels before replacing them, not always in their original locations. Just to the left of the entranceway, a very disinterested looking white unicorn sat behind an oak counter, absentmindedly watching the pages of a hardcover turn in the glow of her horn. Through half-lidded eyes and with no shortage of disdain, she glanced up at the latest invader to her sanctuary. Storm took notice of her glare and smiled around his bindle. She groaned in response. Great, another perv, she thought to herself. Still, she figured that she was obligated by business etiquette to give some sort of acknowledgment to this newest intruder. “Restroom’s at the back and to the right; do me a favor and don’t drag any of the romance novels in with you.” Storm dropped the bindle stick with a noisy clatter as his mouth went agape. Recomposing himself he bumbled, “Er, I don’t need to go at the moment, but, uh, thank you nevertheless. I’ll just have a look around a bit if that’s okay?” He gambled on the grin again, this time without the stick in his mouth. It withered as the unicorn rolled her eyes, before returning to her book. Frowning, he gathered his bindle and what was left of his pride, before retreating into the shop. To his surprise, after a cursory search of the store Storm could find nothing in the way of maps. He did manage to find a brightly colored miniature globe nestled somewhere in the back, though he decided it was a bit too general in its treatment of landmarks and locales, confident that there was more to the city than the large red star labelled 'Canterlot' implied. Still, he figured the shopkeeper might be willing to assist him if he patronized her establishment. Setting his bindle near the counter, he trotted to a nearby rack at the right of the entrance, where a magazine cover caught his eye. Titled Equestria Weekly in bright turquoise letters, it advertised an exclusive interview with one of Princess Celestia’s royal guards, just beneath a smiling picture of the princess herself. He took the magazine between his lips and returned to the checkout counter to make his purchase, flopping it in front of the unicorn who looked more than a little surprised to be actually making a sale. “How much do I owe you for this?” Storm asked as he undid his checkered bindle, nosing aside a few personal effects and fishing out a hemp coin purse. “Um, five bits will cover it,” the unicorn said, nonplussed. It was a rare occasion that her store was used as other than a more au courant library, and she had been caught off guard. Storm Stunner emptied enough for the purchase from his purse, tightened its drawstrings, and gingerly placed it along with the magazine into his bindle. Turning back towards the unicorn, he tried another smile. This time around he was met with some semblance of success: the unicorn actually gave a hint of a smile as well. Third time’s the charm, he thought, either that, or a little bit of patronage. “Say, I’m pretty unfamiliar with this area. Would it be alright if I troubled you for some directions?” he ventured, his voice cloying with as much charm as he could muster. “I’ve been trying since the earlier part of this morning to find the Canterlot Royal Guard recruitment center and have had no luck whatsoever. I heard it was in the area?” At the question, the unicorn’s smile evened into a straight line, as her countenance leveled into a blank stare. He stared back. At some point in time she blinked. Maybe this was some kind of code? “Whoa,” she eventually answered. Alright, actual words; that was a step up. She continued, “When you say ‘it’s in the area,’ are you referring to Canterlot, or Equestria in general?” The pegasus grimaced. “I take it I might’ve made a detour somewhere along the line...?” “You must have,” the unicorn sighed. “The only recruitment center I can think of is about an hour’s trot away.” Storm bit his lip at that unexpected bit of news. Admittedly, his interpretations of directions could at times be considered creative by those too kind to call them terrible, but he didn’t think he was that far off-track this time around. His head sank, and he let out a low groan. Seeing the pegasus (and more importantly customer) suddenly look so downtrodden, the shopkeeper couldn’t help but empathize. “Tell you what: how about I walk you over there? You’ll probably find it a lot quicker than stopping for directions every other block,” she said, a commiserative smile forming at the corners of her mouth. Storm looked towards the back of the store, where ponies continued hoofing through various bodies of text. “Are you sure about that? I mean, it’s very kind of you, but what if one of those ponies wants to make a purchase?” he asked. “They won’t,” the unicorn answered flatly. To her left, a pony sneezed into a paperback novel, before replacing it and moving on to another shelf. “But what if somepony tries to rob this place while you’re gone?!” Storm continued, unable to believe that somepony he had just met was willing to abandon her shop to help some random stranger. “Magical security system,” she replied as she tapped a hoof against her horn. “Only I can open the register, and not a single novella is leaving this place without getting rung up.” “Huh, no kidding?" Storm said, surprised. "Unicorn magic is something, isn’t it? But I’ll admit, I’m a little surprised you’d go so far to assist somepony you don’t know.” From the back of the shop, the sound of a number of books toppling from one of the shelves could be heard, followed by a raucous snort of laughter. “Anything for my best customer,” the unicorn replied dryly. --- Storm found himself being led by the unicorn he came to know as Nomde Plume through narrow alleyways, where bright swaths of fabric hung from clotheslines overhead, and down serpentine, cobblestone paths lined with vibrant flower beds. He had attempted making a mental map of the area while being led to the Royal Guard recruitment office, but that proved no easy task on hoof when one was used to the bird’s eye view. All hopes of making sense of the area were summarily dashed by the countless turns and bends he and his guide had taken. Furthermore, most of the architecture was a repetition of residential styles, confusing the pegasus even more. Giving up on any ambitions of cartography, Storm instead attempted conversation. “Sho aye ‘oo you ‘ork ah a ook shore?” “Excuse me?” Nomde paused and turned back towards Storm, quirking an eyebrow. As Storm spat out the bindle stick, he winced. “Ow! I think I got a splinter…” While his cheek deformed as he tried to remove the offending sliver with his tongue, Nomde’s eyebrow descended, as the other rose in turn and dutifully maintained her puzzled expression. After a few seconds, Storm spat out a small shaving of wood. “I asked, ‘Why do you work at a book store?’ If it’s not too personal, of course.” Storm continued, decidedly ignoring the look that Nomde was giving him. Her face softened into a simple smirk and she answered, “Inspiration. As a writer,” she nodded towards her flank, where a quill and ink well contrasted against the white of her coat, “it is invaluable to have at hoof an abundance of classic and contemporary literature, historical and geographical references, etcetera.” Storm thought the unicorn’s shop could stand to have more of the geographical references, but he kept his mouth shut and considered her reasoning for a moment. It wasn’t a bad idea, but it seemed like a big hassle when there might be easier solutions available. Cocking his head to the side, he asked, “Wouldn’t it be easier just to go to the library?” “Perhaps, but this way I don’t have to worry about finding that a book I want is out of stock, unavailable, or that the pages have been ripped out,” Nomde answered with the practice of one who had been asked that very same question many times before. She then added with a conspiratorial wink, “Plus this way, I can guarantee anything that I write doesn’t end up hidden away in the corner of some bottom shelf.” “Hm. Very pragmatic.” “And how about you, what business do you have at the recruitment offices?” “What else but to join Her Majesty’s Royal Guard?” Storm preened, puffing out his chest in what he hoped was a masculine display. “Huh. Wouldn’t have pegged you as the military type.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Storm’s masculinity deflated. “Well... On so many ponies you see cutie marks of bows and arrows, of swords and shields, of any number of martial instruments. Ponies like that I could see joining the Guard—” Nomde craned her head to the side, bringing Storm's flank and the object of her scrutiny into view, “—But a pair of shoes?” Sure enough, prominently on Storm’s side were two shoes—baby-blue sneakers in fact—their laces undone and hanging sloppily to their sides. To the pegasus’s longtime ire, they were simply adorable. “Shoes can mean tough! Like I’m ready to stomp trouble where it starts!” Storm said, the flush on his cheeks just barely visible beneath his dark pelt. “They’ve got twinkling stars and moons on the side.” Nomde gestured nonchalantly with a hoof. As she had said, astral scenes played across each of the shoes. On the left shoe, two particularly bright stars and a tilted crescent moon formed what looked like a smiling face. “W-well what’s in a cutie mark, anyways?!” Storm was feeling flustered, a slight quaver building in his voice. “It’s all a matter of interpretation!” “I suppose you have a point,” the unicorn relented. It seemed that the poor guy was taking her ribbing a little harder than she had intended, and decided to shift the tone. “How did you get them, anyways?” Storm bit his lip. “Actually, I don’t remember.” “You don’t remember one of the most important moments in a pony’s life?” Nomde said, incredulous. “All I know is that whatever I did to get them ended with a blow to my head. I just remember waking up in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around my brow, and these bad boys on my flank.” Did he really just call them bad boys? Nomde bit her tongue to stifle a laugh that so desperately wanted to escape her lips. It managed to sneak out diplomatically enough in the form of a cough. “And nopony witnessed the event?” “Not that I’m aware of,” Storm sighed. “Well, I suppose it could mean a number of things. I’ve met ponies with the most abstract of cutie marks to represent their special talents,” Nomde said with a slight shrug. “It seems that half the unicorns in Canterlot have stars on their flanks, and Celestia knows they’re not all astronomers.” “See, that’s what I like to think!” Storm leapt at Nomde’s concession. “Maybe the stars on mine mean that I should reach for the heavens, like joining the Royal Guard in service of the princesses!” “Or maybe they mean you have bad taste in fashion,” Nomde teased as she pointed a hoof towards the checkered bindle stick lying next to the pegasus. At this, Storm harumphed and once more clenched his bindle stick between his teeth, effectively ending the conversation. Nomde openly laughed at that; although it might’ve been a bit cruel, she couldn’t resist shooting off the quip. Besides, she could tell by the look in the pegasus’s eyes that he probably found it at least a little bit funny. Eventually the two ponies reached their destination. Out of place in a line of spire-tipped ivory towers and gold-domed minarets, stood a small square building of grey, painted brick which had the emblems of the royal sisters painted above its entranceway. Close to the road and away from any potential offending shadows, an orange, marble sundial with copper corona flourishes displayed the time. A small brass placard to the right of the door confirmed it as the recruitment center for the Royal Guard. To most ponies, the ascetic facade might have seemed unmemorable and unimpressive, but to Storm it looked efficient. Of course, that may have been due to a bit of bias on his part. Remembering to set down the bindle stick this time around, Storm turned to face Nomde. “Thank you very much for your assistance, Nomde. There is no way I would’ve found this place on my own.” “As I said, anything for my best customer. Good luck with the Guard, and maybe I’ll see you around once you get your uniform.” She gave Storm a friendly pat on his shoulder, “Although I might not recognize you in gold and white.” “Will you be alright making the return trip to your store?” Storm asked. It had been a long walk coming and would be a long walk going. Although he didn’t relish the idea of reaching the finish line only to head back to the starting gates, the idea of making Nomde travel that distance alone didn’t sit well with him. Maybe he could pay for her taxi fare at the least. In response, Nomde simply tapped her horn with a hoof, smiled a final time, and blinked out of sight in a flash of white. Rubbing his eyes to rid them of the spots from the sudden, blinding display, he couldn't help but chuckle. Unicorn magic was something else.

Sagebrush

487

Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

In Her Majesty's Royal Service

A look behind the armor, behind the stoicism, but not too far behind, because that'd be a behind.

complete

<p>Storm Stunner is a pegasus with aspirations to join the Royal Guard: the noble ponies responsible for maintaining the peace and prosperity of Equestria. At least, that's what it says on the cover.</p><p>Follow his journey as he joins their gilded ranks, and learns just what life is really like as one of Equestria's finest.</p>

everyone

2012-11-11T17:29:44+00:00

2013-10-26T14:15:13+00:00

The interior of the recruitment center was just as spartan as its exterior, if not more so. At least the outside of the center had the surrounding towers spearing into the sky to draw the eye away from its austerity. Whoever had designed the place had apparently taken inspiration from the inside of a cinder block. They had not bothered to install tile or carpeting, instead opting for a polished concrete that felt cool beneath Storm’s hooves. The walls were made of the same finished concrete, though they did have some manner of color. On the left wall the cutie mark of Princess Celestia was stenciled in blocks of orange and yellow; on the right Princess Luna’s waxing moon stood out from the wash of navy in which it was centered. There were no windows, so the only source of light was a single fluorescent lamp the length of the ceiling which cast everything in the room in pale chartreuse. In the center of the room stood a plain, wooden table with metal legs that was being used as a makeshift desk, three neat stacks of papers on one corner of it, and a plastic cup of pencils, many of which were covered in tooth marks, on another. All of these details went unnoticed by Storm, however, as he found himself being harangued by the burly, white pegasus clad in golden armor standing behind the desk. “ALRIGHT MAGGOT! WHAT MAKES A WORM LIKE YOU THINK YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO SERVE IN HER MAJESTY’S ROYAL GUARD?!” The recruiter had been calling Storm a number of different insects and pests since he had stepped into the door. He thought that recruiters were supposed to sweet talk you into joining, and that the verbal assault would come during basic training. If this was how the armored pony treated visitors, Storm felt pity for whoever had to deliver the mail. “To serve Equestria, and to see to it that its citizens are protected from any and all threats,” Storm answered sincerely, although listening to himself say it, it sounded a little canned. However, the beast of a pegasus across from him didn’t seem to think so, or at the least showed no indication otherwise. No, his face showed the same jaw-clenching intensity it had for the entire interview so far. “GOOD ANSWER,” the pony barked, before biting sheets of paper from each of the stacks on the desk and sliding them towards Storm, “HOWEVER, WE DON’T JUST TAKE ANY GERM OFF THE STREET. WE PERFORM A SERIES OF THOROUGH EVALUATIONS TO ASSESS YOUR PSYCHOLOGICAL STABILITY AND MENTAL PROWESS. YOU’VE GOT THIRTY MINUTES TO FILL OUT THESE SHEETS, AND NOT A SECOND MORE. HOP TO IT, FLEA!” Storm wondered to himself if the recruiter was capable of speaking at a volume below blaring, but he opted not to ask and to stay on his good side, or at least what he assumed was his good side. As easy as his voice was to hear, it was impossible to read. Taking one of the newer pencils from the cup on the desk, he nervously turned to the three papers sitting innocuously in front of him. He had done well in school and tended to get good marks on tests; however, his answers to the questions on the evaluation before him would determine the course of his career. They would decide whether his life would follow the path he had dreamed so often about, or if it would veer off into the banks. He looked at the top sheet, the psychological assessment, to see what moral quandary the first question would present. Question 1: What is your name? Storm balked. Did they really dedicate the first question to asking for his name? He, of course, wrote down his name. He then double checked the spelling, because one could never be too careful. Question 2: Do you think bullying is wrong? Not at all Not really Maybe A little Yes Storm circled yes. The questions continued in this vein, no more thought provoking than the first two. To Storm’s surprise, there was even an extra credit section that asked what he thought about the princesses. He never would have imagined there’d be a chance for bonus points on a psych evaluation, but he made sure to write the princesses a sparkling review. Completing the first assessment, he pondered over whether or not it was some elaborate trick devised to probe its recipient through its simple queries. A profession that could use an ink stain to measure your body issues by whether you saw a tortoise or a turtle held too many mysteries for him. Setting the psychological test to the side, he looked at the two pages of the next evaluation. Seeing numbers and arithmetic symbols, he assumed that he might be given more of a challenge, or at least a challenge he could recognize, through some mathematical exercises: something to differentiate himself from other potential recruits. He looked at the first question. Question 1: How many letters are in your name? --- Even after double checking his answers and finding that yes, he did put twelve for the answer to Question 1 on the second sheet, Storm Stunner turned his test over to the armor-clad pegasus with more than twenty minutes to spare. “HMM, THAT WAS AWFUL QUICK,” the soldier bellowed as he eyed Storm, “LET’S SEE IF YOU’RE CLEVER AS WELL, YOU MOTH.” Moth? Now he’s just reaching, Storm mulled, a small scowl momentarily betraying his thoughts. Yet even though the tests were disturbingly simple, watching the large pegasus scrutinize his work made him feel that inkling of self-doubt known to anypony who’d just turned in a life-changing examination. That nagging fear that insisted that despite the test taker acing every single answer, somehow they had written the response down incorrectly, or misinterpreted a question, or that they had unwittingly written that the proctor should have come with a knob to dial down his volume. ‘Storm Stunner’ did have twelve letters in it right? A quick mental calculation confirmed that it did. Storm’s thoughts were broken by a clearing of the recruiter’s throat, which was not dissimilar to a tunnel being blasted. “NOT BAD, NOT BAD AT ALL,” he commended with a curt nod of his head. Storm beamed at the approbation. “HOWEVER—” and with a single word Storm dimmed, “—QUESTION 4, PAGE 3. IT ASKS ‘WHAT IS 48 DIVIDED BY 2 TIMES 9 PLUS 3?’ YOU PUT 219 WHEN THE ANSWER IS CLEARLY 2.” Storm considered the debate the problem could instigate regarding the order of operations, and opted to remain silent. “STILL, COMMENDABLE WORK. TOOK ME A WHILE TO COME UP WITH THOSE QUESTIONS, AND YOU NAILED ALL BUT ONE. I THINK YOU’D BE A FINE CANDIDATE FOR THE GUARD.” As the recruiter extended a giant foreleg over the desk to shake Storm’s hoof, Storm couldn’t keep back the wide smile as it crept onto his face, even if the other pegasus might’ve squeezed a bit harder in his hoofshake than was necessary. “Thank you very much, sir! I promise you I won’t let you down!” “GOOD TO HEAR IT. INDUCTION FOR RECRUITS WILL BE TWO DAYS FROM NOW. MEET HERE AT OH SIX HUNDRED HOURS AND YOU’LL BE LED TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY FOR YOUR INITIATION. UNTIL THEN, ROACH, DISMISSED!” --- Exiting the small grey building, Storm was struck by how quiet the outside world was in comparison to the bellow of the Guard recruiter. Well, quiet save for an omnipresent ringing in his ears. Nevertheless, the recruitment process was a lot easier than he had imagined it would be. Perhaps it was a little too easy. Truth be told, Storm still felt uncertain about the whole process. It wasn’t as if members of the Royal Guard were terribly common, yet the qualifying examinations were shockingly simple. There had to be some catch that he had yet to encounter, maybe a surprise elimination round at the induction. With a flap of his wings, Storm took to the air with his bindle stick firmly clamped within his jaw. A flight around the area would help him clear his thoughts, as well as help him to find some kind of lodging for the next two days. Ascending beyond the reach of the nearby towers into the rich azure above, Storm relished the coolness of the air at the greater altitude. As the entirety of the city below collapsed into his view, the farrago of alleyways, buildings, and gardens seemed to fall into order as the minute details were lost and they merged into distinct sections divided by large thoroughfares. Although the gilded towers below shone like beacons in the light of the sun, the recruitment center was just a grey speck that could only be spotted if one knew where to look, and even then its cool slate hid it in the shadows of its taller neighbors. Still, the towers themselves would serve well enough as landmarks for the pegasus drifting lazily overhead. As he flew over the sprawling metropolis, Storm spotted a lone cloud slowly floating by just below him and descended towards it. A full day of walking on stone roads could really take a toll on the hooves of a pony accustomed to traveling in the skies, and the cottony texture of a cumulus cloud was at that moment very appealing. Touching down on the soft surface, Storm let his body relax completely. His mind clear of all thoughts, he lay down and gently placed his bindle stick before him, where it gently sank through the condensed vapor. He gently let slip an expletive before diving over the side of the cloud after it. Maybe the pony he had whacked earlier had a good point about the saddlebags. The bindle stick may have had a head start as it spun wildly in its freefall, but pegasi are notoriously excellent divers. Within a matter of seconds, Storm came within biting grasp and snatched the center of it within his teeth, resisting the urge to drop it as he felt another splinter jab him in the lip. However, when it comes to a free fall a few seconds can cover a lot of distance; the paved surface beneath the pegasus was rocketing towards him, and he only had moments to react before leaving a particularly nasty imprint on it. Flaring his wings in an attempt to deflect his downward momentum, Storm managed to pull out of his descent just feet above the ground into an erratic flight parallel to the road below him. Still, an erratic flight trumped a dead stop any day. Fanning his wings to break the rush of air against him, he regained enough control to finally touch down on the hard pavement in an easy trot. As he breathed a sigh of relief, a sudden percussion caught his ears. Turning towards the source, he saw a family of unicorns: a mare and stallion stomped the pavement in applause while their filly took a number of snapshots with a pastel-colored camera. Apparently they thought his brush with death was some sort of aerial performance. With reddening cheeks, Storm took an uneasy bow as the snaps from the filly’s camera continued. Surveying his surroundings, Storm noticed a number of carts and kiosks selling all manner of novelties; a nearby stand featured a number of gaudy saddles with phrases like ‘I ♥ Canterlot’ and ‘I saw Celestia raise the sun and all I got was this nasty burn.’ It seemed the pegasus had plummeted auspiciously right into a tourist district, and that meant there had to be inns nearby. Indeed, a quick scan of the awnings and signs above the street revealed a number of potential lodgings. Storm decided to take his chances at the Maretel 6, recognizing it as one of the cheaper chains in Equestria. Trotting through the doorway of the motel, Storm was abruptly reminded of the bindle stick in his mouth as each end of it caught the sides of the door’s frame, causing the his head to jerk back violently and send him sprawling onto his haunches. The staccato shutter snapping of the young unicorn’s camera behind him caused his cheeks to flush even brighter than before. He was really starting to regret bringing the troublesome piece of paraphernalia: it was cheap to make, but costed him too much of his pride. --- Renting a room for a couple of nights was thankfully an uneventful affair. For twenty bits Storm was able to get an economy-sized room, along with what the pegasus proprietor advertised as a ‘complimentary shower.’ Furthermore, should he find himself hungry, Storm was directed towards the in-house dining area, which he found to be a row of ancient vending machines with a few snack food items he could’ve sworn had been discontinued years ago. With his mouth occupied with the bindle stick, the innkeeper proposed following Storm to his room and unlocking it, and with a nod Storm accepted the offer. Following the hall from the reception area, the room was located two doors down on the left; the innkeeper inserted the key into the door handle and let Storm inside. Aware that many hotel rooms placed the closet area conveniently by the entrance, Storm pondered if the Maretel 6 followed the same design, and if, perhaps, he had just stepped into it. A glance to his left revealed a bed crammed into the corner near the door, and a small shower with a floral patterned curtain catty-corner to it. The floor of the tiny room was paved entirely in bathroom tiles. Perhaps going cheap wasn’t the best option. A cough from behind him prompted Storm to turn towards the innkeeper, who was holding out a hoof expectantly. With a small frown, Storm fetched a couple of bits from his bindle and dropped them into the other pegasus’s outstretched hoof, hoping it’d be enough to placate him and make him go away. Satisfied, the hotelier gave his thanks and returned to the lobby. With a resounding thud that no normal mattress should ever produce, Storm collapsed face-first onto his bed, learning painfully that it was almost as soft as the tile it stood on; the pegasus rubbed his bruised chin and hoped that it wouldn’t swell. Rolling down onto the floor for comfort, Storm fetched the magazine he’d purchased from the writer, Nomde, earlier in the day. Hopefully it’d provide a telling glance into the life of a member of the Royal Guard and give him an idea of what to expect. Skimming past the articles speculating about long lost nephews of the royal sisters, and the waist-slimming suggestions placed right before the cake recipes, Storm found the tell-all piece. Snappy Scoop: So, what can you tell our readers about life in the Royal Guard? Guard: Pardon me, sir, but this area of the castle is off limits. I must politely ask you to return to the guided tour. Snappy Scoop: Like, why are all of the pegasus guards white? Is discrimination rampant in the Guard? Guard: Again, I request that you rejoin the tour group. I do not wish to have to eject you from the premises. Snappy Scoop: ...You got any juicy gossip on the princesses? Guard: Very well, sir, you leave me no choice but to forcibly remove you from this area. Snappy Scoop: Whoa, hey! Don’t get fresh with me! Police brutality! Guard: Grr, stop struggling you little— After a minute of staring at the page, Storm folded the magazine and set it beside him on the floor. He hadn’t learned anything from the interview and was left with only more questions. Like why the interviewer had decided to include those embarrassing last few lines, in particular. Chalk it up to journalistic integrity, he supposed. However, the interviewer’s second question had been one that he himself had often wondered about. It did seem like each of the princess’ unicorn guards were charcoal and their pegasus knights alabaster, just like the loud mouth recruiter from earlier in the afternoon. Storm had heard that their armor was enchanted and he was inclined to believe it; there was just no way that the kindhearted rulers of Equestria would allow for bigotry in their hearts. Or for there to exist that many pegasi with blue manes, blue eyes, and white coats. --- The two days preceding the induction passed without incident. Storm purchased a set of cloth saddlebags decaled with the phrase ‘Canterlot: Land of the Rising Sun,’ and after transferring his possessions to them, unceremoniously chucked the bindle stick into a pond. This earned him a ticket for littering from a policemare who happened to witness the act, one last bit of spite from the blasted thing. Early in the morning of the Guard initiation, he checked out of the motel with his bags slung over his back, passing on a complimentary breakfast that nopony who tasted it would ever think to compliment. After taking a moment to admire the sun as it crept over the eastern horizon, its light painting the ashen cobblestones in gold, he beat his wings and joined it in its ascent. Spotting the glint of light reflected off of the sharp tower spires that marked the location of the recruitment center, Storm began an easy glide through the crisp morning air towards his destination. Although he did not have a timepiece, the position of the summer sun was enough to assure him that he was making good time. Within minutes he alighted near the sun-shaped dial near the recruitment center. Checking the line of the shadow from its gnomon confirmed his assumption; it was approximately twenty minutes before six. That left him with some time to kill, but he didn’t mind. It was better to arrive early and make a good impression after all. While admiring the odd designs of the nearby towers, Storm was distracted by a fluttering of wings to his side. Glancing towards the noise, he found that rather than a military escort, at his side was a cream-colored pegasus with an orange shock of a mane. On his flank he noticed a pair of red, concentric circles. The newcomer lifted a hoof in greeting. “Sup, buddy! You joinin’ up with the Guard too?” the yellow pegasus had a guileless grin and eyes that bled friendliness. Storm found himself warming to the stranger instantly. “Well, that’s the plan, anyways,” Storm returned the smile. “Ha, right on. Name’s Crack Shot by the way,” Crack Shot extended a hoof towards Storm. As Storm attempted to meet Crack Shot's hoof with his own for a shake, the other pegasus bumped it instead, “What do you go by?” “I’m Storm Stunner, it’s nice to meet you.” “Storm Stunner, huh? Wicked name, I take it you did weather work before?” Crack Shot asked, scratching his chin. “What pegasus hasn’t?” Storm chuckled. “True that.” “Still, I was just mediocre at it at best,” he admitted; he was surprised to see Crack Shot's eyebrows arch in response. “Really? I woulda figured you’d rock it, kickin’ down hurricanes like nopony’s business!” Crack Shot mused, nodding towards the shoes on Storm’s flank. That was one thing that had always bugged Storm. Most ponies had names that accurately described some talent or other characteristic about them, along with cutie marks to match. It was as if they were destined from the moment they received their given name to fulfill some specific role. Yet here he was stuck with a pair of shoes on his rear and no idea what they meant. It made him feel like a blank flank all over again. “What about you? Are those targets on your sides? Can you hit a fly's eye at twenty yards?” Storm asked with a smidgeon of sarcasm. “You know it buddy! Hold on a sec and check this out.” Storm knew he shouldn’t have been so nonplussed by this enthusiastic affirmation, yet sure enough he was. Crack Shot scanned the street and, spotting what he was searching for, flew next to two small, loose cobblestones. Taking one between his teeth and the other in his right hoof, he aimed his head towards the sky. In one fluid motion he spat the first stone from his mouth far into the air in front of him, tossed the second a short distance above his head, spun around and reared onto his forelegs, and with a sharp kick sent it streaking into the first with a loud clack. “Pretty sweet, huh?” Crack Shot said with a self-satisfied grin plastered across his face. Storm reply came as a low guttural noise, his slacken jaw rendering him incapable of intelligible speech. “Haha! I’ll take that as a ‘Heck Yeah’!” Crack Shot clapped the dazed pegasus on the shoulder, then looking just beyond him said, “Oh sup, dude?” “Oh, hello,” came a meek reply. Storm recovered from his stupor with a small shake of his head, and followed Crack Shot’s gaze. A few yards away stood a pastel pink unicorn colt with a neat, powder blue mane; he smiled nervously at the two of them. How the heck do these ponies keep sneaking up on me? Storm pondered. Crack Shot trotted towards the newcomer and Storm followed. “No need to look so freaked, we ain’t gonna bite ya.” Crack Shot gave a warm smile, and the unicorn relaxed a little. “I apologize, I’ll admit to being a bit reticent around strangers,” the unicorn said, “I did not mean any offense.” “Hehe, none taken. I’m Crack Shot, dude over there is Storm Stunner; we were just talking talents. What’s your name?” Crack Shot extended a hoof and to Storm’s surprise the unicorn bumped it. Storm offered his own and received a firm shake. “My name is Check Mate. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances.” Check Mate smiled once more, a bit more easily. “Check Mate, eh? Well, welcome to the conversation; I take it your talent is chess?” Crack Shot guessed, stealing a glance at the unicorn's side: on Check Mate’s flank was a light blue pegasus knight piece. “Although it would be immodest, I won’t deny an aptitude for the game.” The unicorn chuckled. “However, I would consider that only one application of my ability.” The two pegasi tilted their heads, curious as to his meaning. “Perhaps an example would be in order, if you’d be interested. Crack Shot right? That stunt you performed earlier, could you do it once more?” Crack Shot shrugged and trotted off in search of two more pebbles. Check Mate turned to face Storm. “And if you would, follow my sight and watch the ground carefully.” Intrigued, Storm did as asked, not sure about what to be looking for. Through the corner of his eye, Check Mate watched Crack Shot carefully as he balanced a pebble in one hoof, another hidden between his teeth. As soon as the pegasus began his trick, Check Mate's eyes narrowed, and he willed a narrow beam of light from his horn, creating a small, glimmering spot on the cobblestones some distance away. With a snap of his back legs Crack Shot once more struck the stone from the air with a precision shot, sending it arcing errantly into the sky. The rock wobbled and turned in its descent, before colliding with the road, and, after a few bounces, finally coming to rest directly in the middle of the spot of light. “I suppose you could say that my special talent is an affinity for probability,” Check Mate concluded. Storm was getting tired of being rendered speechless. Crack Shot just howled with laughter. “That was amazing, dude! I bet you could make a KILLIN’ at roulette!” Crack Shot cheered as he ruffled the unicorn's mane. “That is probably true—” Check Mate's smile softened. “—but it wouldn’t be very scrupulous.” “Aw, I’m just messin’ with ya. Still, that is a wicked trick for sure,” Crack Shot’s head suddenly swiveled towards Storm’s, causing him to start back in surprise. “That reminds me pal, I never did find out what your talent is, ‘cept that it ain’t cloud kickin’." Oh boy, here it comes. “I... actually have no idea. I lost all memory of the day I got my cutie mark,” Storm muttered, as his lips pursed in embarrassment. The eyes of both Crack Shot and Check Mate went wide in disbelief, the unicorn apparently not seeing that one coming. Storm wished ponies would stop giving him that look. Crack Shot was the first to break the silence. “Huh, that ain’t that big a deal, I guess. Hey, I got it! Why don’t we get Check here to use his freaky-deaky psychic powers to figure out how you got it?” Crack Shot gave the unicorn a hearty slap on the back, causing him to gasp as the air was knocked out of him. “I’m afraid my talent doesn’t quite function like that," Check Mate said after catching his breath. "It’s most reliable over a narrow window of time within a limited field of space. Furthermore, although I may be able to accurately determine outcomes, I’m unable to divine the antecedents to events that have already occurred.” “So you’re saying you can’t read the past?” Storm translated. “Precisely.” “Well ain’t that a boot to the flank. Sorry ‘bout that Storm, guess those kicks on your rear are gonna stay a riddle for now.” “Eh, it’s alright.” Storm shrugged. Then he recalled what brought him there in the first place. “Say, what time is it, now? Are you here for the Guard induction as well, Check Mate?” “Indeed I am,” the Check Mate answered, as he trotted towards the sundial. He frowned as he read the shadow lining its surface. “And apparently it’s a little past 6:15. It would seem as if our chaperone is truant.” As if on cue, a white pegasus in golden armor crashed into the ground between the trio. Concerned looks on their faces, the three surrounded the pegasus, who was sprawled with limbs going at awkward angles, some acute, some obtuse, though none of them looked right. With a groan, the pegasus stood uneasily and gave a full body shake, seemingly recovered. Recognizing the pony that was likely their guide to the initiation ceremony, Check Mate stepped back and gave a clumsy salute; the other two pegasi quickly joined him in a misaligned file. Looking over the three, the armored pegasus gave a casual wave. “Heh, that’ll wake you up.” The pegasus cracked his neck as he addressed the ponies before him, who were now giving him doubting looks. “I’ve got no idea why they have to do these things so damn early in the morning.” The eyes of the three ponies darted between each other, unsure of how to react and unwilling to break their salute. “Huh? Oh! Uh, at ease or whatever.” The trio relaxed a bit, but tried to maintain some formality in their posture. The guardspony snorted at this. "So you guys stoked to see Princess Celly? She’ll probably be addressing you if she isn’t conked out from texting her BFF in Ponyville through dragon fire all night. Come on, follow me!” The gilded pegasus began trotting north down the cobblestone street, and after a second’s pause the three ponies quickly fell in behind him. “He’s rather casual, isn’t he?” Storm whispered to the other two with a look of concern. “Yeah, he seems pretty chill,” Crack Shot mused, as content as ever. “He is a rather disparate personality compared to the recruiter I met with earlier this week.” Check Mate shuddered at the recollection. Speaking up to catch the attention of their guide, he asked, “If I may inquire, sir, I had thought that the gentlecolt in charge of the recruitment center would be leading us to the ceremony.” “You mean old Sergeant Cacopony? Yeah, he’ll be there. He just wanted to make sure everything was in perfect order; he’s kinda prissy like that. “Speaking of which, we better get moving if we wanna make it on time.” As the guardspony quickened his pace, so too did the trio of new friends on their way towards the royal academy for their inception into the Guard and the start of a new life, each of them feeling less and less certain about what to expect. --- The auditorium of the royal academy buzzed with the voices of the modest group of recruits awaiting the start of the ceremony. Storm had never been in such an extravagant hall (although he couldn't recall ever actually having been in any kind of hall), and could barely take it all in. The great maple doors entering into the auditorium extended several yards toward a vaulted ceiling, and were covered in carvings of intricate filigrees. Within the hall, along the length of the walls on either side of the doors, colorful panes of stained glass depicted images of Equestria’s history, the eastern face shining brilliantly as the morning light filtered through. At the opposite end of the corridor stood a grand stage, its heavy crimson curtains drawn to reveal a detailed painting of the sun and the moon on the back wall, which depicted both the perfections and the peccadilloes of the celestial bodies. The floor could've done for a sweeping. A familiar, burly white pegasus entered on to the stage from the right. Even without the aid of a microphone, his voice sounded clearly throughout the hall. “FALL IN, VERMIN!” he rumbled, causing the stained glass to tremble. The din of the auditorium ceased as groups of ponies quickly formed lines in front of the stage at Sergeant Cacopony’s command. “EACH OF YOU GNATS SHOULD BE FEELING DAMN PROUD RIGHT NOW. THROUGH CAREFUL EVALUATION, YOU’VE ALL BEEN SHOWN THE EXHIBIT POTENTIAL TO SERVE AMONG EQUESTRIA’S FINEST.” Storm wasn’t sure if he bought that line, and wondered if the ponies that had tested at the other recruitment centers across Equestria had undergone the laughable assessment that he had. “BUT POTENTIAL ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH. YOU MUST PROVE YOURSELF WORTHY OF THE ARMOR YOU WEAR, REALIZE THAT IT REPRESENTS NOT ONLY YOU, BUT THE GUARD AS A WHOLE, SUCH THAT YOU MAY WEAR IT WITH PRIDE!” The auditorium erupted in applause as the assembled ponies stamped the ground. “NOW, IT IS MY GREAT HONOR TO INTRODUCE OUR GLORIOUS PRINCESS CELESTIA!” Sergeant Cacopony and the pony recruits fell into low bows as the Princess of the Sun stepped gracefully onto the stage. Although all heads were to the ground, there was not a pair of eyes that did not strain to catch a glimpse of the regal alicorn. Even in the cool shade of the stage, she radiated the gentle warmth of spring’s sunlight. Billowing in an ethereal wind unfelt by the attending ponies, her tail and mane danced around her, and several hushed gasps could be heard among the recruits. However, Storm noticed what looked to be dark circles beneath her coral eyes, and her ears seemed to flit about in irritation. “Thank you Sergeant Cacopony, for that truly... passionate introduction,” Celestia spoke in a melodic voice. “And to you, my honorable ponies, I would ask that you rise.” Everypony stood proudly to face the princess. “As I am sure you all realize, as members of the Royal Guard, your duties will not extend solely to the protection of my sister and I, nor that of the citizens of our beautiful land. The aegis you provide must secure not only the physical well-being of your charges, but their moral and emotional eudemonia as well.” “Psst, what’s eudemonia mean?” Crack Shot whispered to his companions, who silenced him with a sharp shush. Celestia’s eyes briefly twinkled towards the trio as she continued her address. “As members of the Royal Guard, realize that you will be paragons, and realize the responsibility that fact carries. You must be exemplars of not only strength and courage, but of kindness and compassion. I ask that you not view yourselves as the sword arm of my sister and I, for in wildly trying to trim the rot you will inadvertently cleave the good as well, and our rule is not one of despotism. “Although any pony may err, any pony may also redeem themselves, and all it may take is a bit of empathy.” The princess paused for the briefest of moments. “So as you begin your noble service, I have a simple request: that you remember where you came from, that you will remember who you serve.” As Celestia concluded her speech, the sounds of fervent stomping and cheers resounded through the auditorium for minutes. Despite their brevity, or perhaps due to it, the princess’s words had resonated deeply in the hearts of all those present. Bowing humbly to her loyal Guard, Celestia retreated into the recesses behind the stage. Probably to catch up on the sleep she had missed the night before and didn’t have a chance to make up after raising the sun. These events really did take place too early in the morning. The ponies once more broke into groups to discuss and cheer their induction into the Royal Guard. Although the rigors of basic training and many other trials awaited them in the days to come, they had this moment to celebrate. --- The following day, Storm was even more excited than when he had the chance to see the princess speak. This was the day he would be fitted with the signature golden armor of the pegasus troops and truly become a member of the Royal Guard. He had barely gotten a wink of sleep due to his excitement the night before, but still he was invigorated. Arriving at the royal academy hours early, and entrusting his belongings to two of the guards stationed outside of the entrance, he ensured that he would be the first to be clad in the magical plate. After some time, a line of other recruits had formed behind Storm as the fated hour approached, Check Mate and Crack Shot beside him. The fated hour came. The fated hour went. “So, is this, like, a thing with the Royal Guard, or what?” Crack Shot asked. Check Mate shrugged in response. Finally, with a rush of air, a familiar armor-clad pegasus landed roughly between Storm and the entranceway. Storm pondered over the fact that despite the same white coat, blue mane, and gold armor these ponies could be so immediately recognizable. “Ha, sorry about that guys! Rooster forgot to crow. Name’s Kickstart. Or Corporal Kickstart if you want to get all formal,” the guide from the day before halfheartedly apologized. Recognizing the three ponies he had escorted, the pegasus shot them a lopsided grin, “Oh, sup again; glad you survived Cacopony's speech! Come on, I’ll get y’all suited up.” The line of ponies filtering in behind him, Kickstart led Storm and the others through a series of hallways and down a winding staircase towards the armory. Firefly lanterns cast soft light in the dim basement corridors, painting quadruped shadows on the walls as the ponies passed by. Kickstart came to a stop before a sturdy, cast iron door secured with a large, dead bolt lock. The pegasus had a moment of panic, followed by one of relieved realization as he reached into the hair of his tail and produced a wrought iron key. Upon turning in the keyhole, it produced a heavy clang, and the door slowly opened as its hinges creaked in protest. “Come on in pal, let’s get you decked out.” Kickstart beckoned Storm into the armory after him. Storm was amazed by the sight before him. Endless rows of pristine, gilded armor shimmered in the firefly light, more than his eyes could take in. He never would’ve imagined so much gold existed buried beneath all of the mountains of Equestria, let alone within a vault underneath the city of Canterlot. Kickstart trotted towards a rack and pulled off a set of plate mail, along with a small case and jar balanced precariously on his back. As Kickstart fit the armor onto Storm, the brown pegasus was surprised by how comfortable it was. It seemed to have some sort of pliable backing that molded against his haunches. Despite its size, the helmet he wore did nothing to hamper his vision. However, looking himself over Storm was surprised to see that he was still a brown pegasus. It wasn’t that he minded the color of his pelt (in fact, he had come to grow quite fond of it), but he was curious to see how the magic of his armor functioned. Did it need an additional incantation? He called over to the gilded pegasus who was fidgeting with the jar. “Hey, I had heard that our armor was supposed to be enchanted to make each of us look similar; why hasn’t my coat changed color?” “Oh yeah, just gimme a sec!” Kickstart trotted next to Storm and without warning gave him a series of firm whacks across the armor. As his armor was struck, Storm felt its backing rupture and he was suddenly covered in an unpleasant, wet coolness. Trying to shake off the offending fluid, Storm only succeeded in saturating the rest of his coat and feathers with it. Then the smell hit him: an acrid odor that he vaguely recognized from the infrequent times he had gotten his mane trimmed. “Wait a minute—the secret behind our enchanted armor is BLEACH?!” the now not-so-brown pegasus exclaimed. “Yep,” Kickstart tossed Storm the small case. Snapping it open, Storm found a pair of blue contact lenses. “Careful not to jab your eye while putting those in,” the Corporal warned as he dipped a brush into the jar he was fiddling with earlier. “Now hold still, I’ve gotta get your tail.”

Sagebrush

487

Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

In Her Majesty's Royal Service

A look behind the armor, behind the stoicism, but not too far behind, because that'd be a behind.

complete

<p>Storm Stunner is a pegasus with aspirations to join the Royal Guard: the noble ponies responsible for maintaining the peace and prosperity of Equestria. At least, that's what it says on the cover.</p><p>Follow his journey as he joins their gilded ranks, and learns just what life is really like as one of Equestria's finest.</p>

everyone

2012-11-11T19:18:26+00:00

2012-11-11T19:18:26+00:00

After receiving their peytrals, champrons, and an unexpected high pressure shampooing, Storm Stunner, Crack Shot, Check Mate and the rest of the Royal Guard recruits were led by Corporal Kickstart back through the dank, subterranean passageways beneath the academy, leaving a soggy trail in their wake. Returning up the large spiral staircase, the group proceeded towards the main auditorium to recover the belongings they had stored prior to receiving their armor. Although most of the accoutrements had been strewn in a clutter by the guards that had taken them, finding his saddlebags proved to be a hassle-free affair for Storm; much like Check Mate and Crack Shot, few ponies had actually brought any items with them, and those that did had carried them in simple hemp and cloth bags with little to no adornment. By comparison, Storm’s kitschy tourist sacks with their brightly-colored print looked like something poisonous. With a sigh the pegasus hefted the bags onto his haunches; though he got more than a few raised eyebrows, thankfully the rest of the recruits were keeping their mouths shut. “So are you here for the Guard, or the guided tour?” “Shut up Crack Shot.” --- As Kickstart and the Royal Guard recruits made their way through the royal academy’s training grounds, Storm wordlessly took in the numerous obstacles and training instruments scattered about the fields. For the pegasi, a turquoise line of pillars marked an aerial slalom; for the unicorns, a series of erratically-placed, azure platforms allowed for teleportation practice; for strength training, a fleet of navy plows were arranged on blue tracks of torn earth. Storm had the sneaking suspicion that he might have put his contacts in incorrectly. In short order, the ponies had crossed the exercise fields and approached a row of lime-colored, single-story barracks, which Storm assumed correctly were in actuality yellow. Kickstart came to a stop in front of the line of buildings and circled to address the recruits. The cohort fell into a line; after a quick glance to his sides, Crack Shot hurriedly shuffled backwards into it. “Alright guys, welcome to your new home away from home. As you can see, we’ve got a ton of barracks with a ton of beds, so grab the one that looks comfiest and don’t fight over who gets top bunk. I’ll be back in thirty to take you to the mess hall. Later!” Before the ponies had a chance to utter a ‘Yes, sir!’, or more likely a ‘Beg pardon?’, Kickstart had propelled himself into the air with a mighty flap of his wings, streaking back towards the main halls of the royal academy. The recruits scanned each other’s faces for any trace of understanding of what had just happened. Finding nothing, there followed a general shrugging of shoulders and rolling of eyes as the group started to make its way to their new lodgings, save for Check Mate who remained in formation. Without warning, Kickstart landed heavily in front of the recruits, startling them backwards into a sloppy file alongside the unicorn. “Ha, sorry guys, I keep totally forgetting to say this: Dismissed!” And once more the Corporal took to the air, leaving a number of hearts hammering a staccato percussion behind. “He- Wha-? Argh!” Storm covered his face in a hoof, dragging it down with an aggravated groan before continuing his complaint with actual words. “How in Equestria has a pony like THAT made it in the military?!” Crack Shot tilted his head in thought. “Maybe he married into it?” Storm stared blankly at the other pegasus. Thinking that something behind him must’ve caught Storm’s attention, Crack Shot turned his head to try to see just what it was. Check Mate attempted an explanation. “It may be that though the Corporal eschews-“ “Gesundheit.” “Errm, thank you Crack Shot. Yes, it may be that though the Corporal disregards what we assume to be traditional, military decorum, he nevertheless possesses a particular acumen necessary in excelling at a particular Guard function.” “I guess that may be the case.” Storm sighed. “Still, I’ve got to admit I was expecting the Guard to be a bit more... disciplined.” “Aw, I wouldn’t worry about.” Crack Shot dismissed Storm’s complaint with a wave of his hoof. “’Sides, don’t tell me you’d prefer somepony like Cacopony always calling us centipedes or termites or whatever. More than a day of him, and I don’t think I’d be able to hear the morning reveille!” Storm’s ears twitched involuntarily at the memory of the loudmouthed Royal Guard recruiter. “Ok, that would be a bit much. But think about it: if we are going to be groomed to be the best Equestria has to offer, it might be nice to have an instructor that can show up to training on time.” “Ehh, Check’s got a good point though, you know. Kickstart might just surprise us,” Crack Shot mused as he followed the rest of the recruits into one of the barracks. Before turning to follow Crack Shot, Check Mate turned towards Storm. “At the heart of it, yes, it is speculation, but I have a feeling that there’s a side to the Corporal that we have yet to see.” What more could Storm say to that? Pushing his doubts and concerns to the back of his mind, he followed his friends inside. --- Kickstart had not exaggerated when he said there was no shortage of beds. The cadet cohort was no more than thirty ponies, and each of the dormitories easily matched that number in bunks, with personal trunks placed at their ends. Wary from his experiences earlier that week, Storm poked a hoof against one of the mattresses. He was pleased to feel the cushion flex in response; heck, he was pleased that it actually was a cushion. It would be a pleasant change from the Maretel 6; if the place wasn’t such a dive, the pegasus would have sworn the beds had diamond stuffings. Crack Shot had chosen one of the bunks closest to the entrance and thrown himself unceremoniously onto the top mattress. As a pegasus, Storm, of course, grabbed the upper bunk on the bed next to him, to be closer to the sky, he would probably say if asked. As a pony not wanting to be the odd one out, Check Mate, of course, grabbed the upper bunk to Storm’s side, to not be underneath one of his friend’s snoring forms. In fact, there were enough beds for each of the recruits to take the top bunk, and of course that was exactly what they all did; it is a natural law that if one is given the choice, they will without fail select the elevated bed, despite the only difference being an extra two meters to fall should they turn too much in their sleep. Storm turned his saddlebags over his neck and onto his mattress, dumping out what little contents they contained. Besides his bit pouch and the copy of Equestria Weekly with the Royal Guard non-interview, there were only the contact case he had received from Kickstart and a couple of photographs. One of the them showed an older pegasi couple: a sky blue mare with a demure smile, and an indigo stallion with a wide grin. With a frustrated grunt, a curse, and a bit of a struggle, Storm managed to remove the contacts from his eyes and replace them in their case. He looked once more at the photos. One of the them showed an older pegasi couple: a snowy mare with a demure smile, and a ruddy stallion with a wide grin. Much better. Turning the photo of the two ponies over in his hoof, Storm read the ink smudged across its glossy backing. My little pegasus, I guess you’re not so little anymore, but you’ll always be my baby boy. I’m so proud of the stallion you’ve become. I don’t have the slightest doubt that you will succeed in whatever you attempt, as long as you put your heart into it. With my eternal love, Mom P.S. Always have confidence in yourself when things get hard. And written just below it: That’s what she said! Give ‘em hell, son! The corners of Storm’s lips curved into a smile as he read his parents’ encouragements. He delicately placed the photo to his side and picked up the second. It was an image of a small, brown colt bouncing around a pegasus in golden armor. The colt had a bizarre expression on his face: his tongue was hanging from a large scowl, and his were eyes crossed in a strabismus that every mother warns will be permanent if the kid keeps it up. Storm thought back to that day. He had done everything he could to get a rise out of the soldier, but the guardspony had remained impassive. His father had managed to snap the photograph before his mother discovered what they were doing and dragged the two off in embarrassment. Storm chuckled at the memory as he stared at the picture. The gilded pony’s mouth was fixed in a straight, inscrutable line; the only thing that betrayed his stoicism was the softness of his eyes. After awkwardly putting his contacts back in, Storm gathered his remaining items into his saddlebags, hopped off of his bed, and placed them into the metal chest at the foot of it. “How much longer do we have until dinner?” he asked his two friends. “Beats me, I ain’t got a watch,” Crack Shot answered from over his bed. Though the pony was out of view, Storm could hear the shrug in his voice. “Hey Check, can’t you use your crazy space/time voodoo and conjure up a clock or somethin’?” Check Mate’s sigh rose over the top of his bed, “As convenient an application of my special talent as that would be, I regret saying that such a feat is beyond my capabilities. However,” the unicorn leapt from his perch and trotted alongside Storm, “it would probably be a good idea for us to wait for the Corporal outside.” Crack Shot rolled over the side of his bed, landing easily on his hooves, “Sounds good to me.” The three ponies proceeded out of the barracks into the fading sunlight outdoors. There was no sign of Corporal Kickstart, but the three did not mind; the summer air had cooled with the approaching twilight, and they were content enough to enjoy the pleasant weather. Hoping to fill the void of silence, Storm decided to ask his newfound friends a question that he himself had been asked a number of times before, but never had an answer to. “So how did you guys get your cutie marks?” Check Mate bit his bottom lip in apprehension. “I doubt that mine is a story worth telling...,” he said, averting his eyes from those of the two pegasi. “Aw come on; you don’t have to be so shy around us!” Crack Shot said as he forced his grinning face into the unicorn’s view. “Tell you what, I’ll go first! Prepare your bodies for a tragic tale...” With a theatrical clearing of his throat, Crack Shot commenced the telling of his cutie mark origin story. “It was a dark and stormy night... “Ok, not really, it was more of a hot and humid summer, but that doesn’t sound nearly as cool. Anyways, my bro was darting around the sky like crazy, doing backflips, barrel rolls, every trick in the book. He’s always been super serious about that kinda stuff, hopin’ to get into the Wonderbolts someday. Typical pegasus, right?” The other two ponies shrugged. “So yeah, right as he’s zigzagging back and forth, POW! I nailed him right in the face with a water balloon! It was a sick shot. Next thing I know my flank starts glowing, and bam I’ve got my cutie mark.” As he finished his story, Crack Shot held his head high. With his eyes closed in a proud expression, he was blissfully unaware of the blank stares he was receiving from the two other ponies. “So... that’s it, huh?” Storm ventured. “Yep!” Check Mate pursed his lips. “If I may inquire... what in particular about that tale makes it tragic?” “Oh!” Crack Shot’s eyes widened as his mouth formed, well, an ‘O’. “After I hit him with that balloon, my brother beat the CRAP outta me!” Though not quite what the other two ponies expected, the nature of Crack Shot’s explanation wasn’t entirely unexpected, and so they shrugged it off. “So how about you Check? I bet you’ve got some epic tale about those chess pieces,” Crack Shot asked as he ruffled the panache sticking from the unicorn’s helm. An uneasy look once more crossed Check Mate’s face. “It’s.. well, it’s-,“ the unicorn stammered, trying to avoid broaching the topic. He was rescued by the sudden rough landing of Corporal Kickstart beside him. “Whoa, sorry I’m-,” Kickstart paused in his apology as he looked at the three recruits: none of them were wearing hoofwatches. Furthermore, all of the others were still inside. Maybe... “Wait. Do you guys know long it’s been since I left?” The three ponies looked between each other before shaking their heads. “Haha, well then! Sorry I’m right on time! Come on, let’s get the others and go grab some grub.” --- The mess hall was enormous. It had obviously been designed to accommodate the number of ponies it would’ve taken to fill the barracks, and it was conspicuously barren with only the small recruit cohort to fill it. Long tables were methodically arranged over the entirety of the cafeteria with benches bolted to each side. There were windows spaced along most of the walls, but little light filtered in as the sun began to settle beneath the western horizon. Just to the left of the entrance, there was a serving area where tables were cluttered with trays and dishes. “Dig in guys and take as much as you want, you’re going to need the energy tomorrow!” Kickstart warned as he approached the food and snatched an apple slice from one of the platters. The rest of the cadets followed suit, taking plates and loading them up with what the Royal Guard cafeteria had to offer, which was a lot more than any of them had expected. There were trays of hay fries toasted to golden perfection; in large crystalline bowls, wedges of fresh fruit gave off enticing aromas; arranged on tiered silver platters were lady finger sandwiches overloaded with daisy and clover; in a burnt steel pot was a thick, viscous sludge of boiled oats, the grey quagmire congealing as it cooled to room temperature. Not every dish could be a winner. As Storm Stunner took his seat with the others, he thought about Check Mate’s odd reaction earlier. There was obviously some reason for his reticence that went beyond simple modesty. As he looked across the table towards the unicorn, he was met with a resigned gaze, as if Check Mate knew what the pegasus was going to say next. “Listen Check Mate. I’m sorry if Crack Shot and I made you uncomfortable with our questioning. It’s cool if you don’t want to talk about the past,” he said quietly. “Yeah dude, everypony’s got their secrets right?” Crack Shot offered as he bumped Check's shoulder with a hoof. Check Mate looked down towards his dinner and exhaled heavily. It was an unpleasant chain of memories, but perhaps talking about them would be cathartic. His friends (Yes, they were his friends weren’t they? Even if he hadn’t known them that long.) had sincere concern in their voices. The unicorn lifted his head and found the same concern in their eyes. He made his decision. “Very well then. Let me tell you the story of how I got my cutie mark. “As you discovered upon our first meeting, the process of befriending new ponies has often been a crucible of sorts for me. I’ve always been somewhat timid in that regard, and events in my past have not been instrumental in remedying that aspect of my personality.” Check Mate paused to gauge the reaction of the two pegasi. Though curious, they remained silent, waiting for the unicorn to continue. “Early in my youth, my colors were often a source of great derision. Bright pink and pastel blue, I was a prime target for those seeking to bolster their own sense of self-worth via attacks on others.” Check Mate lifted a gold shod hoof and observed the charcoal color of his recently dyed pelt. No trace of the original pink color remained. “Whenever my peers would gather into teams to play sports during our free period, my perceived dearth of masculinity would effectively exclude me from the games. If there was an even number of ponies, I would be the last picked; if there were an odd number, I would be outright excluded. Even if I were to somehow find my place on the sports field, my allies would treat me as an inconvenience and attempt to work around my presence, effectively excluding me once more. “Unable to play, I was thus unable to grow in ability like the others, and soon my reality matched their schemata; I was the weakling they all decided I was meant to be.” Crack Shot and Storm Stunner leaned forward intently as Check Mate carried on. “Then, at the start of a new term, when one of my instructors informed the class of the clubs available during the semester, one of them caught my ear. The chess club was open to all interested parties, regardless of previous experience or ability. Although I had never played the game, I was desperate to be a part of something, and I attended the very first meeting of the semester. “The senior members of the club were patient in their explanation of the various pieces and their roles, and the concept was not difficult to grasp. However, one can learn a game in minutes and take years to master it. I was paired with another newcomer in order to hone my skills and it was then that I played my very first game, and earned my very first victory.” Check Mate’s eyes twinkled at the memory, and a faint smile appeared on his lips. “I challenged another newcomer, and again I won. I challenged an experienced player, and again I won. So early in the game, I could not have named the Fillydor or Petrot’s Defense, but I could read them instinctively. No matter what strategies my opponents employed, I was able to see ten moves ahead. At the end of the first meeting I was undefeated, and had bested every other player in attendance. I was ecstatic! I had found a niche after having been ostracized so long! You can only imagine my elation upon discovering those two bright, blue pieces contrasting against the pink of my coat. Yet, despite my newfound power of foresight, I could not predict what would happen in the days to come. “Although my opponents had been gracious at the moments of their defeat, they were cold in my later interactions with them, refusing to play chess and avoiding conversation altogether. Although their scorn for me was not as overt as that of those who forbade my participation in athletics, it stung much, much more. That which made me special also made impossible any chance of friendship in my youth. Either too good, or not good enough,my experience was that of an outlier and an aberrancy.” Check Mate finished his reminiscence with a distant look in his eyes. Although the pivotal moments of discovering his special talent and earning his cutie mark had taken place years ago, remembering them made the wounds feel just as fresh. He was surprised by a gentle pat on his back. Turning towards the source he saw that Crack Shot’s cheerful smile had been replaced by a more commiserative one. “Yeah, kids can be a bunch of jerks.” “Heh... indeed they can,” Check Mate returned the smile. “Anyways, don’t worry about us ditchin’ ya,” the pegasus said, his smile becoming more mischevious, “Who knows when I’ll need a buddy at the poker table.” The rest of the dinner was spent in idle conversation. The topics of discussion were meaningless, but Check Mate was happy for them all the same. --- The following morning, the recruits were stirred from their slumber by the sound of trumpet fanfare. With a deep yawn, Storm stretched his hooves and rolled out of bed. Any ponies that weren’t awoken by the soft reveille outside were jostled into consciousness by a dull thud from near the dormitory entrance. The ponies quickly equipped their armor, put in their contacts, and rushed out of the barracks to begin the exercises for the day. Waiting outside for the recruits were Corporal Kickstart, who had somehow managed to pass out while standing up, and an gray unicorn mare that was busy attaching a trumpet to the back of her armor. Spotting the exiting recruits, she gave Kickstart a rough shove, shaking him from his sleep. The unicorn waited for the ponies to fall into rank before addressing them. “Good morning, soldiers, and welcome to Day One of Basic Training! You will address me as Staff Sergeant!” she boomed in a voice that echoed through the yards. The recruits straightened up immediately; whoever this unicorn was, she was a lot more serious than the pegasus who was currently fighting to keep his eyes open beside her. “Yes, Staff Sergeant!” they replied in unison. “We will begin this morning the same way that we will begin every morning: with a run around the perimeter of the Royal Academy! An hour will be allotted for the completion of the run and breakfast to follow. I fully expect all of you to finish in an acceptable time, but if you lag behind, know that you risk forfeiting your first meal of the day! “Pegasi, there will be no use of wings allowed for this exercise; unicorns, I don’t need to tell you that teleportation is strictly prohibited. Any recruit that violates these conditions will meet the business end of my trumpet. Alright recruits, move out!” The Staff Sergeant took off in a swift gallop with the recruits keeping step behind her. Realizing that they were starting, Kickstart stifled a yawn before racing to catch up with the unicorn. “Glad you decided to join us on this jog, Corporal!” the unicorn chided. “Eh, the exercise oughta do me some good.” “Well, if you want to strengthen your lungs, why don’t you lead us on cadence?” “Heh, alright, I’ve got a good one,” Kickstart looked back towards the recruits, catching their attention, “Alright guys, you know how this goes! I don’t know what I’ve been told!” “I don’t know what I’ve been told!” the ponies sang back. “But Princess Celestia’s mighty old!” The recruits wisely elected not to echo that last line, cringing as the Staff Sergeant bucked Kickstart nearly off of the trail in response. --- Although some of the ponies like Check Mate found themselves struggling for breath towards the end, they all finished the run with more than twenty minutes to spare. They organized within the mess hall in celebration of a successful start to Basic Training. Many of the dishes from last night's dinner made a reappearance, and once more the boiled oats went untouched. “Good job out there guys!” Storm congratulated. “It’s nice to actually get into it, isn’t it?” “I’ll inform you once my hooves register a sensation beyond inflammation,” Check Mate replied as he nursed the blisters on his fore hooves. “Though yes, I do believe I will appreciate this new level of discipline, once the rest of me acclimates to it.” “How about the Staff Sergeant, huh?” Crack Shot asked, shifting the conversation. “You think that’s her actual name?” Storm shook his head, “I doubt it, she probably uses her title to command respect. She seemed like the polar opposite of Corporal Kickstart.” “Heh, like black and white... Or grey and white, I guess. I like it. You think she’s single?” “I think,” Check Mate interjected between a bite of an orange slice, “that is a very dangerous question to ask.” --- After breakfast, the ponies reconvened in the training grounds outside of the Royal Academy, forming rows in front of Corporal Kickstart; the Staff Sergeant was conspicuously absent. Once everypony was in place, Kickstart began his address. “Okay, listen up. This next skill we’re going to teach you is one of the most important in a Guard pony’s arsenal. Heck, you might consider it the hallmark of the Royal Guard!” The recruits bristled with excitement at the prospect of learning an exotic new trick, before the pegasus continued. “Today, you’re gonna learn how to pull off a poker face!” Kickstart snorted with laughter as the cadets balked. “HA! Once you get this down, you won’t do that anymore when I say things like that! Let me show you how this works.” As the words left his mouth, his countenance immediately became sterner. “Alright, try to make me laugh.” The recruits didn’t react at first, uncertain if the pegasus was serious or not. Crack Shot was the first to approach, blowing raspberries and waving his tail sultrily in the face of the Corporal. There were a few stifled chuckles from the others, but Kickstart remained unfazed. Other ponies followed, dancing and strutting and doing whatever they could to get a rise out of the pegasus, but they too had no luck in getting Kickstart to react. Only after the last pony had attempted and failed did he relax. “Alright, it’s important to know how to keep a serious expression, because it looks rad and everypony goes nuts for it.” Storm thought that Kickstart could have come up with a better reason than that, but he chalked it off to the eccentricities of the Corporal. Kickstart continued. “Anyways, as they say, practice makes better, soooo... Go for it!” Not knowing what else to do, the recruits adopted their most serious expressions. Storm thought back to the photo he had carried with him: the image of him harassing a pegasus guard. Despite the annoyance of a hyperactive colt clambering around him, the pony had held himself with a reserved pride, and Storm found inspiration in that fact. That inspiration allowed him to approach the exercise earnestly, and his eyes flared with the dignity of that Royal Guard from so many years ago. However, the same couldn’t be said of all of the cadets, and a number of faces were contorted into tightly pursed lips with wild eyes. Crack Shot, who might have never had anything but a smile on his face for the whole of his life, had somehow managed to seal off his nostrils as well, having taken the word ‘serious’ a bit too seriously. If not for its recent blanching, his face would have been losing color. Kickstart shrugged it off; they still had weeks of basic training, and a few of them seemed to be getting it down. Crack Shot went belly up from a lack of oxygen. Then again, maybe ‘weeks’ wouldn’t be a long enough measure of time. After about half an hour and a few more crashes by Crack Shot, the Staff Sergeant finally rejoined the group. Kickstart stepped aside to allow her to take over. “Alright soldiers, at ease!” she barked. The cadets relished the chance to finally relax and stretch out their jaws, with Crack Shot taking a few desperate gulps of air. “For the remainder of the day you shall be instructed in your respective duties as pegasus and unicorn guards. Unicorns will be working with me; pegasi will be working with Corporal Kickstart.” The Staff Sergeant turned in the direction of the royal academy, “Alright soldiers, hop to it!” As Kickstart and the Staff Sergeant led the ponies back towards the royal academy, Storm hazarded a glance towards Check Mate. The unicorn’s face was unreadable, his eyes gazing forward neutrally. At first, Storm felt concerned for his friend who would be going off alone; however, that concern dissipated as he considered that Check Mate had gone through the majority of the recruitment process alone. In spite of an unpleasant colthood and pronounced introversion, the pony definitely had a lot of inner strength. Storm just hoped he could keep up physically as well. Upon nearing the royal academy the two groups split up; the Staff Sergeant led her entourage of unicorns inside, while Kickstart took his group around the perimeter of the building. On the side opposite to the main entrance, they found a large steel structure with a rounded roof and a wide, tin shutter, the cutie marks of the royal sisters emblazoned across the corrugated metal. The Corporal disappeared through a door cut into the building’s side, and with a series of echoing grunts the shutter lifted to reveal a fleet of gilded ivory chariots. Kickstart stepped from the gaping portal and gestured towards the carts with a wing. “As Royal Guards, you’re gonna be pulling these things around a lot, so it’s best to get used to ‘em now. Everypony buddy up and grab a cart,” Kickstart directed as he vanished into a small supply closet within the hangar, “I’m gonna grab somethin’ real quick.” Storm Stunner and Crack Shot paired up and selected an empty chariot, as the rest of the pegasus recruits did the same. “I wonder what Check Mate and the others are doing right now?” Storm inquired as he shifted the yoke of their chariot into a more comfortable position. “Probably some sick combat spells, or anything cooler than this,” Crack Shot suggested as he finagled the yoke out of the awkward position Storm had just put it in. --- In the main auditorium, Check Mate found himself with a brass instrument in his right hoof, repeating the words being bellowed by the Staff Sergeant to the unicorn cadets. “THIS IS MY TRUMPET. THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT, BUT THIS ONE IS MINE!” --- Kickstart returned from the supply closet with stacks of cardboard cutouts balanced precariously on top of his outstretched wings, and began placing them in the back of the chariots. When the pegasus reached Storm Stunner and Crack Shot, they found that the cutouts were images of Princess Celestia herself. Something about them seemed off, but Storm wasn’t sure if he should blame it on his contacts or not. Kickstart answered the unspoken question for him. “Don’t mind the funky pink color, problem with the printers I guess.”

Sagebrush

487

Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

In Her Majesty's Royal Service

A look behind the armor, behind the stoicism, but not too far behind, because that'd be a behind.

complete

<p>Storm Stunner is a pegasus with aspirations to join the Royal Guard: the noble ponies responsible for maintaining the peace and prosperity of Equestria. At least, that's what it says on the cover.</p><p>Follow his journey as he joins their gilded ranks, and learns just what life is really like as one of Equestria's finest.</p>

everyone

2012-11-11T19:25:12+00:00

2012-11-11T19:25:12+00:00

The rest of the first week of basic training flew by for most of the Royal Guard cadets. For others like Check Mate, it limped by on blistered hooves. Nevertheless, in the short span of time the ponies had shown a marked increase in ability thanks to their rigorous training: Crack Shot was staying conscious while maintaining a neutral expression, and Check Mate had learned a number of basic songs on his trumpet. Somehow they had also managed to squeeze some time in for more traditional physical training, between all of the important exercises. Though their bodies were exhausted, the recruits were still fresh of mind and in high spirits, ready for their first day off. After receiving a modest, but by no means insubstantial payment for their time, the trainees had been addressed by Corporal Kickstart before being allowed to enjoy their holiday. The pegasus had shown a sober look at that moment, one out of place on the face of the typically lackadaisical pony, and one that had set the recruits on edge. With a grim grit in his eyes, he had warned them about the repercussions they would face should any of them go AWOL. “If you forget to show up on Monday, they will dock your pay.” The words had been spoken with the solemn voice of experience. The cadets broke off into smaller groups, each making plans that they would probably regret early the following morning. Storm Stunner, Crack Shot, and Check Mate gathered as well to discuss what kind of trouble they could get into together. “You guys go on ahead, I’ve got some stuff I want to do,” Storm contradicted the author. “Aww, what?!“ Crack Shot exclaimed, “What could you possibly have going on already?” “It’s nothing really,” Storm answered, the slightest hint of a blush catching Crack Shot’s eye. “When I first arrived in Canterlot, somepony lent me a hoof in getting around the city. I just want to try to find them and give my thanks.” “So let’s find ‘em and take them with us! The more the merrier, right?” “Perhaps we should leave Storm be,” Check Mate interjected. “It wouldn’t be polite to nose into his personal affairs.” Upon hearing Check Mate’s argument, Crack Shot paused in thought. Storm was reticent in talking about his plans, giving only the vaguest details. Crack Shot pondered on Check’s words, Storm’s reaction, and both of their implications. After thoughtful consideration of the details, he knew just what to say in response. “Oh, snap! It’s a girl, isn’t it?!” The pink on Storm’s cheeks flared into a bright rouge as Crack Shot doubled over onto the floor in peals of laughter. A few of the other cadets in the barrack glanced over in curiosity, before turning back to discuss the details of their upcoming day of debauchery. “Are you finished yet?!” Storm seethed through clenched teeth. Crack Shot took a few deep breaths to steady himself before answering. He glanced up from his prostrate position, and his eyes shot open upon seeing how red Storm’s face had become. The pegasus shook his head vigorously in answer to Storm’s question, and again burst into paroxysms of laughter. Check Mate decided to try to cheer up the furiously blushing Storm, while Crack Shot unsuccessfully tried to calm down between his rolling and snorting. “Do not worry about him, and do not worry about us,” Check Mate said. “If you wish for privacy while courting your inamorata, what kind of friends would we be to impede you?” “My what?!” Storm frowned at the way the conversation was going, “I’m not in amor with anypony, and I have no idea where you two are getting this from!” “Hehe, chill dude—” Crack Shot stood up shakily and grinned. “We’re just giving you a hard time.” He glanced towards Check Mate, who had a look on his face that implied anything but. “Ok, I’m just giving you a hard time,” he corrected. “Still, do what you’ve got to do and don’t do anything to break the poor girl’s heart, alright? Me and Check can figure out something to kill the time with.” “I appreciate the, uh, the kind words,” Storm replied, a confused frown bending the corner of his lips, “Maybe I’ll catch you guys later on, alright?” Storm began digging through the metal chest at the foot of his bunk, fetching his saddlebags from beneath his armor. As proud as he was to wear the gilded plate, it would be nice to fly around without the additional weight. While he secured the bags on his haunches and made his way for the door, Crack Shot and Check Mate discussed their itinerary for the day. “So I imagine Canterlot is a pretty happenin’ place on the weekend, what is there to do?” Crack Shot asked as he and Check followed Storm into the morning air. Check Mate pondered on the question, thinking of a number of potentially stimulating activities. “Well, let us see... There’s the Metroponitan Museum of Art; as I understand it, they’ve recently acquired a collection of porcelain urns from Neighpon... There’s also the Canterlot Philharmonic, they have got a cellist—or was she a contrabassist—who is an absolute master of her craft! Oh!—“ Check Mate paused in his raving when he noticed Crack Shot gnawing his bottom lip with a widened stare. The unicorn studied the pegasus’s expression, and after thoughtful consideration he decided he had no idea exactly which emotion it was meant to convey. Still, he was certain that it wasn’t enthusiasm. He tried another direction. “...Or, if it’s more in line with your interests, we could check out the Del Mare Racetrack...?” The pegasus’s eyes lit up with a much more recognizable vivacity. “Now that sounds like a plan!” --- As Storm flew over the expanse of Canterlot, he allowed himself a moment to truly appreciate the sight. Although he had been vaguely familiar with the look of the city from his training exercises, at those times had had been predominantly focused on lugging around a shoddy likeness of Celestia in an awkwardly constructed chariot. Now though, he could fully take it all in. It was a view that never got old. Below him stretched a kaleidoscopic panorama of efflorescent gardens and diverse architecture, segmented by a spider web of labyrinthine cobblestone roads. The product of centuries’ worth of development, the city was a living thing that continually grew and expanded; even with all of the time in the world, Storm doubted that he could ever truly take it all in. At the periphery of the city, the royal castle erupted out of the mountainside, bleeding crystalline cascades that scintillated in the morning light. At the end of their training, it would be the responsibility of every cadet to protect and preserve all of it. Storm hoped that he would be prepared for that duty. The market where he had met the unicorn Nomde Plume soon came into view, and Storm began a gentle glide towards its streets. The scene before him was decidedly different from the one he had first encountered a number of days back. All of the vendor carts remained in their original spots, and they featured the same goods as they had before; the main difference was that the goods were actually being purchased. With the day off, and bits burning holes in their pouches, ponies were merrily blowing their paychecks on whatever impractical luxury happened to catch their eye. He noticed a unicorn and earth pony couple nearby being taken in by a fevered pitch for a contraption that could dice any fruit or vegetable with a slap of the hoof. He had always wondered what kind of ponies went in for that sort of junk. Storm began to notice a number of salesponies eyeing him greedily, and he realized that his saddlebags, with their gaudy tourist text, must have made him look to them like a gemstone looked to a dragon. He picked up the pace in his trot, as he scanned overhead for the enameled wooden sign that marked Nomde Plume’s book store. “Hey there, friend! How would you like to extend the span of your wings by one to three inches?” “Not interested!” Storm shouted as he hastened forward. A few blocks and many more sales pitches later, Storm finally spotted the familiar carved sign identifying Nomde’s shop. Giving a quick scan of the nearby carts lining the crowded street, Storm spotted a stand selling freshly cut flowers. In charge of the stand was an enormous earth pony stallion with deep, verdant fur. To the pegasus, he looked like he should have been out felling trees, rather than pruning petals. Storm approached the florist, who gave him an impassive stare. “Say, how much for one of those roses?” Storm asked. “Ten bits,” the stallion replied tersely. “Ten bits?!” Storm couldn't believe the exorbitant price the vendor had placed on a single flower. He attempted to haggle, “I’ll give you nine.” The earth pony thought on it, “Nine and a half bits.” “Bits don't come in halves!” Storm exclaimed. “Hmm... you’re right. Let’s round it up to ten bits.” Storm grumbled and fished his bit pouch out of his saddle bags, grudgingly dumping ten coins before the merchant and snatching his flower, praying that the payment he had received from the Royal Guard would last into the afternoon. He made his way through the crowds of ponies roaming the street towards the book store and stepped inside. Looking to his left, he saw a pegasus with a couple of books on the oak checkout counter, talking to an increasingly frustrated Nomde. “How long can I check out a book for, and what are the late fees?” “THIS IS BOOKSTORE, NOT A LIBRARY!” The pegasus started back and retreated to the rear of the store with his books, opting to finish his reading out of sight of the maddened unicorn. Storm had hoped to catch Nomde in a better mood, but as luck would have it, that would not be the case. Storm could never grasp the concept of Lady Luck; sure he had the basic gist of it, but with the way she treated him, he would never think to call her a lady. He tentatively approached the counter where Nomde had begun reading a small book with a slight scowl on her face. “Um, hi Nomde,” Storm stammered, hoping she'd recognize the smile from when he had first time he met her; she looked up with a puzzled expression on her face. “Hi. Do I, uh, know you?” Nomde questioned, uncertain of the identity of the white pegasus with the blue mane in front of her, but a little creeped out by his sudden, awkward grinning. “Ah right, the dyes and all... I’m Storm Stunner,” he said, “the pony that you led to the Royal Guard recruitment center the other day?” “Oh. Oh! The one with the adorable cutie mark.” Nomde’s recollection caused Storm to wince; why couldn't it have been the smile? “What happened to the bindle stick?” “It’s a long story,” Storm said, brushing the topic aside. “Anyways, I just, uh, wanted to thank you for your help. I probably would’ve spent a week trying to find the place if it weren’t for you.” The pegasus dipped his nose into his saddlebags and retrieved the rose, setting it on the counter before Nomde. “Err, if it’s not too forward.” “Oh wow,” Nomde levitated the rose beneath her nose and breathed in its sweet scent. She then took a delicate bite out of one of its petals, “Thank you! It’s delicious.” Storm was glad to see Nomde’s mood brighten and to know that he was the cause, though he felt that with the price he had paid for the flower, he should have also gotten the salad to go along with it. “Say, do you want to grab something to drink?” Nomde asked. “I wouldn’t mind learning about life in the Royal Guard, if you’ve got the time.” Remembering his first encounter with the Nomde, Storm didn't bother questioning her willingness to leave her store unattended, and voiced his approval of the idea. “And the first thing I’d like to know,” Nomde said as they walked out of the store, “is if those saddlebags are standard issue.” “No, I just needed something to replace the bindle,” Storm admitted. “Wow, I was right about your cutie mark,” Nomde smirked, “You really need to get somepony to help you shop.” --- While the Royal Castle of Canterlot may have been the premiere piece of architecture in the city, the Del Mare Racetrack came in a close second, and that was only because it didn’t have two alicorns who could manipulate the heavens calling it home. The multi-tiered stadium was surrounded by a score of flags from each of the different cities in Equestria; for every one that Crack Shot recognized, there were nine that were completely new to him. Of course, that meant he only recognized two of the flags, that of Canterlot itself and of his native Manehattan, but nopony would claim that he was the best at geography. Near the main entrance was a great torch that burned with centuries-old dragon flame: a tribute to all of the athletes who had bled and sweat in the name of competition. Near the dragon flame was the most successful postcard kiosk in Equestria’s history. Its customers could toss the colorful missives into the smoldering green fires and save on the postage of more traditional means of delivery. Throngs of rabid fans clambered over each other for a chance to catch the athletes as they entered the stadium, blocking the way as the two Royal Guard cadets tried to fight their way through to the ticket stand. They purchased the cheapest tickets available, and after climbing more flights of stairs than Check Mate’s hooves could ever feel necessary, the two took their seats. Through a layer of stratocumulus, a group of multicolored dots could be seen filtering onto the field. “Maybe we oughta upgrade to a closer section,” Crack Shot suggested. A downstairs trek and fifty bits later, Crack Shot and Check Mate were afforded a position that wouldn’t cause the latter altitude sickness. Behind the starting gates of the track were eight ponies: six earth ponies, a pegasus, and a black unicorn. Each of them was wearing a body suit plastered with advertisements for popular sarsaparilla brands and mane care products. “So, who do you think’s gonna win this one?” Crack Shot asked. Check Mate’s eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the athletes. Not an avid sports fan, the unicorn didn’t have much to go on, but the pre-race fidgeting of the ponies was all that he needed. The blue earth pony third from the gate seemed to lean heavily to one side, possibly due to an injury on the other; the pegasus had a lean build, but the frays in his feathers would cause him to lag from air resistance. However, the inky unicorn was staring straight ahead with a sharp focus. Check Mate’s instinct told him that the black pony would be the dark horse, so to speak. “If I were to speculate...,” Check Mate said thoughtfully, “I would say the unicorn at the end there will be the victor.” “The unicorn, huh? Never woulda guessed.” Crack Shot shrugged. “I’ll take your word for it though.” Suddenly the voice of the announcer boomed through the stadium, “Welcome fillies and gentlecolts, to the Del Mare Racetrack! Get ready for some fleet-footed, hasty-hooved racing that will make your eyes spin! You may’ve paid for the full seat, but you’re only going to need the EDGE! "We’ve got a few fan favorites this race, along with a couple of newcomers! Starting from the number one position, we’ve got Tail On Fire! Next, it’s Luna's Little Helper, followed by Ninety-Nine Problems But A Mare Ain’t One...” The audience stomped in the stands in varying degrees of applause each time another name was listed. Finally, the announcer came to the final pony, the black unicorn that Check Mate had predicted to win the race. “...And last but not least, we have another newcomer to the racing circuit, Sea Cracker!” As the unicorn was named, the audience’s applause was notably more subdued. Check Mate noticed an increased tension in the racer’s face. The starting horn blared, the gates flung open, and the ponies sprung onto the track in a full gallop. A few steps into the race, the blue earth pony that Check Mate had noticed lost his footing and tumbled to the ground, wincing as he nursed a wounded foreleg. A pair of unicorns in scrubs rushed onto the track and levitated the injured pony onto a stretcher. “Looks like one of those ninety-nine problems was a sprain, HEYO!” the announcer’s voice echoed, the crowd responding with boos and jeers. The seven remaining racers charged ahead, rapidly approaching the finish line. Sea Cracker was ahead of most of the pack, but remained just behind the lead pony, an earth pony called Mind The Manticore. As the final 100 yards approached, all of the ponies lowered their heads and broke out into a sprint. Mind The Manticore was fast, but Sea Cracker steadily gained on him as they sped towards the finish line. The two were neck and neck as they tore through the ribbon at the end of the track. “And just by a horn, Sea Cracker wins the first race!” The stands thundered with hoof falls for the black unicorn, whose face was a mixture of pride, relief, and sweat. “Ha, as if there was any surprise!” Crack Shot raised his foreleg to Check Mate for a hoof bump. “Not when you can call em like that!” Check Mate gently tapped the pegasus’s hoof, mindful of the blisters on his own. “It’s all a matter of observation.” The two friends watched more of the races, Check Mate naming the winner each time. However, neither of them was aware that the unicorn had garnered quite a bit of attention from others in the audience. “I don’t know about you Check, but all of this sitting works up an appetite.” Crack Shot stood with a stretch. “I’m gonna stop by the concession stand, you want me to grab you somethin’?” “Don’t worry about me; I think I will be alright, though I do appreciate the offer.” “Heh. I’ll get you something anyways, catch you in a bit.” The pegasus took flight towards the exit of the stands. Check Mate chuckled as Crack Shot disappeared into the crowds. The fact that his friend was willing to pay stadium prices to get him a snack was impressive. However, he didn’t feel like waiting in the crowded stands for the pegasus’s return. The din of the spectators was proving to be a bit much for the introverted unicorn, so despite the protest of his hooves, he made his way from the stands in search of a quieter area to relax. Moving from the main thoroughfares between the spectator area and the concession stands, Check Mate managed to find a quiet corridor that terminated in a dead end. He took a seat on the cool concrete floor, closed his eyes, and let his mind wander. His thoughts frequently returned to the grueling prior week of training. The exercises had worked muscles that he was only aware of in the academic sense, and he had developed a profound appreciation for ice packs. Still, as early as it was into basic training, he knew that he was getting stronger, and he was glad for the chance to actually get stronger. All of the cadets encouraged and cheered each other on, even the stragglers. The sound of hoof falls broke Check Mate from his musings. Looking up, he saw a pony approaching him, and even without his unique knack for deduction he could tell that he was bad news. The pony, a pegasus with golden eyes and a coat the color of blood, had a cruel smirk and eyed the unicorn like a predator. Check Mate stood and watched the pegasus warily, his worn body tensing up slightly. “So, how do you do it?” the pegasus broke the silence. Check Mate, nonplussed by the greeting, responded shakily, “P-Pardon?” “I overheard you those last few races. You called the winner, every - single - time. So, how do you do it? Is there a fix in? Are any of the ponies doping?” The pegasus stepped towards Check Mate. Check Mate, irked by the implications of his assailant, lost all timidity and held his ground, “I will have you know that I would have no part in such iniquitous activities, and I would thank you to refrain from insinuating otherwise. My naming of those winners stemmed from nothing more than a talent for observation.” The golden eyes of the pegasus widened. “You’re telling me that you could tell which pony would win, just by looking at them?” “In so many words, yes.” The pegasus’s smirk widened into an unsettling grin. “That’s even better. How would you like to go into business?” Check Mate could see where the pegasus was going with this, and he didn’t want any part of it. “If you are thinking of involving me in some manner of illicit gambling, then I must disappoint you. I have no desire of abusing my talents for unscrupulous gains.” “Well, that’s a shame, isn’t it?” The red pegasus whistled sharply, and an enormous clay-colored earth pony stepped into the corridor. Check Mate saw that the beast of a pony was armed to the teeth. That is to say he had an empty sarsaparilla bottle clenched tightly in his jaw, but it was nevertheless a menacing sight. “Knockout, see if you can convince this unicorn to look at things our way,” the pegasus commanded. The earth pony grunted an affirmative and lumbered towards Check Mate. In a tight spot with no obvious exit from the corridor except straight past the two ponies cornering him, Check's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, processing and identifying the best methods for surviving the encounter, as he determined the different sequences of actions his opponents would make. Knockout closed the distance. Check Mate lowered into a defensive stance, anticipating the earth pony’s next move. In a practiced movement, the earth pony whipped his head around, swinging the bottle in a deadly arc towards the unicorn’s head. However, Check Mate saw the attack coming a mile away, perhaps even sooner than Knockout himself did. His horn began to glow as he readied his counter, and as he ducked the blow it erupted in a coruscation of blinding white. Knockout staggered backwards, shielding his eyes and dropping his bottle with a shatter. His vision distorted from the unexpected flash, he braced himself for the unicorn’s reprisal. To his surprise, no strikes belted into him. Tentatively opening an eye, he discovered that his foe was nowhere in sight. “Where’d he go boss?” he asked of the golden eyed pegasus, who only shook his head angrily in response. With a burst of light, Check Mate reappeared at his seat in the stands. Even if they didn’t have his analytical ability, he was surprised his attackers hadn’t seen that one coming. “Hey buddy, I got you a veggie dog! And they friggin’ charged extra for the bun, if you can believe that.” Crack Shot alighted next to Check with a plastic bag hung from one hoof, “Anything exciting happen when I was gone?” Check Mate levitated the dog from the bag and took an appreciative bite; adding the taxing act of teleportation on top of the week had taken it out of him. “Two ponies attempted to shanghai me, and force me into the service of their gambling ring,” he responded, surprised by his own nonchalance about the whole episode. “Really?” Crack Shot scratched his chin in thought, “...How much did they offer you?” “Not enough to cover the pain of the head trauma, or the expense of a hospital stay. Perhaps we should abscond to some other location before those ruffians return?” “Sure thing. It was getting kinda boring knowing who was gonna win each race anyways,” Crack Shot said, before pausing in thought. After a moment, he said, “In case they do show up again though, I think I’ve got an idea for how we can handle it.” --- As a pegasus who never made it a point to drink coffee, Storm Stunner felt out of place in the Starbuckers bistro. He kept staring at the menu in the coffee shop, waiting for it to make sense. It vehemently refused to do so. He tried to listen to how the other customers ordered their drinks. That just made things worse. Everypony in the establishment seemed to be wearing thick rimmed glasses, many of which didn’t have lenses, and with his bags he just looked like a tourist, which he supposed wasn’t too far off. There were cappuccinos and frappuccinos, lattes and cafes au lait; each drink came tall, grande, or venti, but to Storm those all meant ‘big.’ He was at a total loss as to how to order. Soon Nomde and he were next in line, and he realized an easy solution to his dilemma. “What can I get you, ma’am?” the barista asked. “I’ll have an iced six shot soy venti cappuccino, dry please.” “And for you, sir?” “Same for me, thanks.” Storm didn’t catch it, but Nomde’s eyebrow arched in surprise. She didn’t think any other pony took their coffee that strong. After paying for their beverages, Nomde and Storm trotted to the pickup counter to wait for them to be brewed. “Sooo, um... read anything interesting lately?” Storm didn’t think it was much of a conversation starter, but it would do. By the way Nomde’s eyes lit up at the question, apparently it did better than he expected. “Actually, yes,” she smiled. “I’ve really gotten into the Twilight series as of late.” “Twilight series?” It didn’t ring any bells for the pegasus. “What’s that about?” “It’s a collection of journal articles written by one of Princess Celestia’s students, who’s currently residing outside of Canterlot,” Nomde explained. “They cover the benefits of interpersonal relationships, as well as a number of scientific topics including astronomy and the use of involuntary muscle spasms in some ponies as a means of prospicience. They’ve got quite the wide scope.” “Wow, she sounds like quite the scholar,” Storm added lamely, hoping he’d be able to keep up with the conversation. “She absolutely is.” Nomde smirked surreptitiously. “You know, I’d be willing to play librarian just once if you wanted to borrow them.” “I’d like that. It’d be nice to have something to read besides that copy of Equestria Weekly.” Truth be told, Storm wasn’t certain he’d grasp the material given Nomde’s explanation of it. Still he’d probably learn something from it. More than he’d learn by rereading articles about Sapphire Shores’ latest scandals at the least; he wasn’t sure how a pony could even have a wardrobe malfunction. The barista arrived with their beverages, and Storm took an experimental taste of the cool drink. It struck him as remarkably bitter, but he supposed that was to be expected with coffee. How it could be so popular when there were so many more palatable alternatives available was beyond his reasoning; he figured it must have been somepony’s idea of a joke. The two ponies carried their drinks to an unoccupied table by a window. Nomde took an appreciative sip of her cappuccino. “So, is life in the Royal Guard everything you expected?” “Not in the least,” Storm sighed. Nomde quirked an eyebrow at the pegasus’s answer. “Really? How so?” Storm carefully weighed his response before answering; he didn’t want to turn the conversation into a one-sided rant. “Well... it’s not as disciplined as I thought it was going to be, and our training exercises are not at all what I expected,” Storm replied before taking another sip of his strange brew. It tasted like it was meant to strip paint, but it was starting to grow on him. “Care to elaborate?” “It’s a bit of a long story,” Storm warned. “Go ahead, I’m listening,” Nomde pressed. Storm had tried. Cue the rant. “Alright, let’s start with one of our instructors: Corporal Kickstart. The pony will never. Show up. On time. I think the reason he’s called Kickstart is because a swift kick to the flank is the only way you could get him to do anything! Some ponies might say ‘better late than never,’ well then his motto must be ‘better late than early!’ You could tell him to arrive at his own leisure and he’d still find a way to end up late! “And late for what you might ask? To taxi around a crudely cut cardboard misprint of Princess Celestia in an overly gilded aerial rickshaw!” At the end of his outburst, Storm realized the spectacle he must have made. His cheeks reddened, and he turned away in embarrassment. He hadn’t meant to go off like that, but he was feeling more keyed up than usual for some reason. He took a large gulp of the cappuccino to wet his throat and cool his nerves, before glancing back towards Nomde. To his relief, the unicorn didn’t look put off at all; however, she had a hoof pressed to her lips, and she seemed to be going into some sort of shaking fit. Nomde coughed once and seemed to recover her composure. “S-So have you done anything else besides give guided tours of Canterlot to cardboard cutouts of the royal sisters?” Nomde’s lips quavered. “Well, there’s also this.” The pegasus stood from his seat, and in a fluid motion quickly unfurled his wings. A sharp sound rang out, like that of metal being quickly dragged across metal. “We spent all Friday afternoon working on that one,” he answered flatly. “Very intimidating!’ Nomde applauded. “Though I imagine drawing an actual blade would be even more so.” “The unicorns get trumpets if that counts for anything.” The two ponies continued their banter, the ice in their beverages melting long before they had the chance to finish them. Nevertheless, their cups eventually emptied, much to the disappointment of Storm; he was enjoying the conversation, and the taste of cappuccino really wasn’t all that bad once he had gotten used to it. “Well, I suppose I should be returning to my store.” Nomde stood from her seat. “If ponies want to read the product without paying for it, I should at least get to enjoy the chance to harass them about it.” Storm stood as well, his hooves jittering a bit before he placed them down. “Heh, I suppose you’ll be zapping back in the blink of an eye?” He chuckled. “Probably.” Nomde smiled. "Unless you care to walk me back.” --- Crack Shot and Check Mate found the outside of the Del Mare Racetrack much quieter than when they had arrived in the morning, the crowds from earlier now seated inside of the stadium to watch the rest of the races. Besides the proprietor of the postcard kiosk, there were only the two Royal Guard recruits, followed at a distance by a red pegasus and his earth pony companion. Crack Shot managed a subtle glance back towards the two stalking ponies. “Hehe, ready to teach these guys a lesson?” he whispered, barely reining in his excitement. “In this case, yes, a physical lesson may accomplish what words cannot. Do you feel prepared for the coming skirmish?” “You just leave it to me,” Crack Shot answered with a nod to his sides, his wings folded tightly against his body. The two cadets walked into a narrow alley, effectively baiting the trap. The quickening of hoof falls behind them let them know that it was sprung. “You really embarrassed us back there, you realize?” spoke a threatening voice. Crack Shot and Check Mate turned to face their antagonists. Check's gaze was once more drawn to the amber-eyed pegasus's cruel grin, and he noted that Knockout had found another bottle to brandish. Crack Shot took a step forward. “So you’re the jerks who’ve been buggin’ my friend here.” He fixed the two assailants with a glare that surprised Check in its fierceness. “Back off.” “Oh, bold aren’t you?” The crimson pegasus’s eyes narrowed. “And what, pray tell, do you think you can do to stop us?” Crack Shot grinned. “Turn those gold eyes of yours black and blue, of course!” The red pegasus cackled derisively before his face contorted into a sneer. “Knockout, make them bleed.” As the towering earth pony stomped towards the cadets, Check Mate’s horn began to glow softly. “Planning to teleport again, you coward?!” the pegasus screamed. “We’ll just give your beating to your friend over there, twofold!” “I wouldn’t think of it...,” Check whispered as circles of light began to flicker above the pegasus and to the earth pony’s right, just out of their view. “Crack Shot, if you’d care to do the honors?” “With pleasure!” Crack Shot’s wings unfurled, casting two empty sarsaparilla bottles into the air. In a lightning-quick motion he swung his wings against them, sending them speeding towards the two other ponies. For their part, Knockout and the red pegasus reacted very quickly to try to get out of the way. Unfortunately for them, their escape paths only served to seal their fates, and they were both struck square in their foreheads as they leapt right into the bottles’ trajectories. With a pair of loud thuds, both ponies slumped to the ground unconscious. “Wooo, that was sick!” Crack Shot bumped his hoof against Check Mate’s shoulder. “So what do we do with these two losers? Lock ‘em in jail and throw away the key? Though I suppose we oughta read ‘em their rights first, as soon as they wake up.” “I think that perhaps we should alert the proper authorities.” Check said. “Wait—” Crack Shot froze. “I thought that was us.” “We’ve yet to graduate,” Check Mate reasoned, “I’m not sure if performing an arrest is within our jurisdiction.” “What do you mean you’re not sure?!” Crack Shot was legitimately confused. “You know everything!” “Well, I don’t know this! I’m not a copy of Wikiponia!” As the two ponies argued, a loud gasp came from a window above them. Looking up, they saw the head of a pony quickly retreat inside. It was then that they realized just how the scene must have looked to the casual onlooker: two clearly conscious ponies looming over two clearly unconscious ponies that were lying in a pile of broken glass. It would suffice it to say that it didn’t portray them in the best light. At that moment, the two cadets quickly realized if not the best action to take, then definitely the most obvious one, and they hastily bolted from the scene of the crime. --- As Storm lay in bed, his mind drifted randomly between a number of different thoughts. He had thoroughly enjoyed his time conversing with Nomde again, and he was glad to be certain of another friend in Canterlot. The story that Crack Shot and Check Mate had told him had left the pegasus impressed by their teamwork, if not by its aftermath. He briefly wondered if ponies did actual normal shopping in the city, or if everything was as overpriced as the open air market. However, the question that really plagued his thoughts was, ‘Why in Celestia’s name did I consume that damnable cappuccino?’ The sun was creeping over the eastern horizon, and he hadn’t managed to get a wink of sleep. Monday’s training was going to be brutal.

Sagebrush

487

Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

In Her Majesty's Royal Service

A look behind the armor, behind the stoicism, but not too far behind, because that'd be a behind.

complete

<p>Storm Stunner is a pegasus with aspirations to join the Royal Guard: the noble ponies responsible for maintaining the peace and prosperity of Equestria. At least, that's what it says on the cover.</p><p>Follow his journey as he joins their gilded ranks, and learns just what life is really like as one of Equestria's finest.</p>

everyone

2012-11-11T19:55:58+00:00

2012-11-11T19:55:58+00:00

A pleasant coolness pervaded the afternoons in the transitory period between summer and autumn. In addition to a drop in temperature, the shorter days brought a number of seasonal changes: an explosion of fiery colors in the gardens littering Canterlot, an availability of fresh apples and roasted chestnuts in the marketplaces, and a few extra minutes to sleep in for the Princess of the Sun. Yet, although Princess Celestia might have relished the extra beauty rest, the Royal Guard cadets still arose bright and early for the last days of basic training, even if it wasn’t so bright outside. Despite their rigors, the weeks of basic training had quickly settled into a comfortable rhythm for Storm Stunner, Check Mate, and Crack Shot. The training exercises remained consistent with those of the first week, albeit with a steady ramp up in difficulty. The only noteworthy addition to the routine was a touching up of the dyes in their coats and manes. Storm figured there must’ve been some truth to the claims of magical workings behind the Royal Guard coloring: that after repeated dying his fur wasn’t reduced to a chemically burned mass of frizz was a sign of it if ever there was one. In his periods of free time after a day’s training, Storm had occupied himself with the writings of Twilight Sparkle that Nomde had lent him. He found that the scholar’s observations were much more approachable than he had feared, and he was happy to be able to discuss them in some depth with Nomde during his days off. However, he still found a dictionary invaluable in comprehending the wordy journals, and she was more than happy to provide one: a copy of the Mareiam Websteed with an added thesaurus. She had even been so kind as to have given him a discount. Also aiding in Storm’s understanding of the academic topics was Check Mate, who eagerly dived into the scientific writings, although the pegasus felt that the dictionary garnered more usage in interpreting what his fellow recruit called his ‘sesquipedalian idiom’, than the pages he attempted to explain. As for Check Mate, the constant training had produced a profound effect on the bookish unicorn. He had long since stopped suffering from bruised hooves and cramped legs, and he now finished each morning’s run easily. He no longer found himself completely short of breath before breakfast, though if asked, he would attribute the efficiency of his lungs to each afternoon’s marathon trumpet sessions, rather than the jogs themselves. One would have to be impressed with the Staff Sergeant and her ability to turn musical rehearsal into a high intensity cardiovascular workout. Although he wasn’t at quite the same level physically as Storm and Crack Shot, he was certainly above the norm. Coupled with his intelligence, that made for quite the pony. Even Crack Shot was demonstrating an increased level of discipline, though for the most part this was in spite of, rather than in thanks to the unique instruction of Corporal Kickstart. At last, the final day of basic training arrived, and although the cadets didn’t know what to expect, that didn’t stop rumors from buzzing around the barracks. The Staff Sergeant and Kickstart had hinted that a gauntlet of some sort had to be surmounted in order to graduate, and it was the subject of a large amount of speculation among their group. The cadets hadn’t performed their usual run that morning and found themselves milling about in anticipation of the day’s events. Crack Shot approached Storm and Check Mate with his own ideas on the matter. “So do you guys think it’ll be free response or multiple choice?” “Huh?” Storm cocked an eyebrow. “Wait, you think our big, mysterious, final challenge is just going to be a written test?” Crack Shot shrugged. “Eh, we had to take one to get in, right? I wouldn’t put it past ‘em.” Storm’s eyes drifted upwards in thought. Thus far his experiences had been rather unpredictable; he couldn’t rule out the possibility that Crack Shot was on to something. “Although that’s a possibility,” Check Mate chimed in, “it seems more conceivable that we’ll be requested to demonstrate proficiency in the skills we’ve been cultivating over our tenure as cadets.” Storm grinned. “Well whatever it is, I’m sure we’re ready for it.” --- Storm wasn’t ready for it. High in the cloudless skies above the Royal Academy, he and the rest of the pegasi recruits found themselves pulling gilded chariots piled in by their unicorn peers, who themselves were performing a brass rendition of Richoof Wagneigher’s Ride of the Hrosskyries. It might have been an impressive sight, if not for Corporal Kickstart who, while leading the cadets in a circuitous trek over the academy grounds, had decided to belt out an off-key rendition of the piece in accompaniment to the unicorns in his warbling tenor. At least there wasn’t anypony to witness the spectacle outside of the participants themselves; thank Celestia for small favors. As the piece’s final dramatic crescendo was punctuated by a flourish from the unicorn cadets and an off-key crowing by Kickstart, the Corporal led the pegasi back towards the hangar at the rear of the royal academy. The unicorns disembarked from the chariots and waited as the pegasi positioned the carts inside of the airdock; once they returned, the cohort formed in front of Kickstart, awaiting his direction. “Ahem! Alright guys!” the Corporal said, his voice cracking slightly from his earlier crooning. “Unicorns, good job on the performance. Pegasi, good job on not dropping the unicorns. I’d call the first half of the test a success!” Storm’s ears perked at the words ‘first half.’ He wondered what embarrassment the instructors had in mind that could possibly top the earlier fly-by opera. Kickstart continued. “In about an hour and half, the Staff Sergeant will meet ya outside of the barracks for round two. Go ahead and refuel at the mess hall, but I, uh, wouldn’t recommend eating anything too heavy.” The Corporal began walking in the direction of the dining area with the cadets following close behind, though after one more trial they’d no longer be cadets. That was assuming, of course, that they succeeded. That was a big assumption to make. Unlike Corporal Kickstart, the Staff Sergeant was no-nonsense; whatever challenge she had in store was not to be taken lightly. The ponies soon arrived at the mess hall and filtered into the large cafeteria. Although the usual spread of flavorful fruits and savory sandwiches awaited them, most of the ponies found little room in their stomachs for all of the butterflies. --- The sun hung directly above the cadets as they awaited the appearance of the Staff Sergeant, erasing any trace of shade. Earlier in the year it would have created an oppressive heat, but, accompanied by a cool fall breeze, it made for a comfortable ambiance. It was nice to know that despite whatever the Staff Sergeant threw at them, at least the weather would be on their side. Eventually, the recruits spotted her trotting across the training fields towards the barracks like an executioner to the gallows. They quickly fell into formation as she approached. “At ease, ponies,” the Staff Sergeant commanded. The cadets settled into a what would pass for a relaxed stance, though they didn't dare yet let down their guard. “As I am certain you are all aware, we did not perform our traditional morning run! I am sure this fact has been weighing heavily on you for the better part of the day!” The unicorn fixed the cadets with a faint smirk that set them on edge. It was the sort of smirk a cat might give to a cornered mouse. “Well, worry not!” The cadets, of course, began to worry. “As your final assessment, I plan to make up this morning’s jog, right now.” The cadets eased up just a bit; they had run hundreds of miles over the course of their training and they could certainly handle a few more. Imperceptibly, the Staff Sergeant’s smirk widened and her eyes narrowed at the relief now showing on their faces. She was by no means a sadistic pony, but she loved having the chance to knock their overconfidence down a peg. “Before we begin, I want all of you to take note of the sun’s current position in the sky.” Each of the ponies glanced upwards, squinting against the glare. “We are not going to stop running until that big, burning ball is out of sight, and the moon has taken its place.” The cadets’ pupils dilated and their jaws dropped. It was beautiful. “Alright recruits, move out!” --- The Royal Guard cadets had no way of knowing what was going through the Staff Sergeant’s mind as they neared the end of their hellish marathon, their breath steaming from their nostrils in the brisk fall night. Of course, after a dozen hours of running, they could scarcely tell what was going through their own. She had been silent for the latter portion of the run, conserving her breath for the arduous trek, and only spared the briefest of glances backwards to make sure nopony had fallen behind. The sun had long since set, and the only sources of illumination available to the recruits to see the Staff Sergeant were the dull glow of the harvest moon off of her barding, and the faint flicker of her horn as she led them; it was not nearly enough light to discern her expression through the hazy vision of sweat stung eyes. So the cadets might have been surprised at the satisfied look playing across her features. The Staff Sergeant knew that the recruits would balk at the idea of a twelve hour run. She knew that they would immediately and silently resent her for demanding they perform such an onerous ordeal. She knew that they would be worn past the point of exhaustion as they pushed their bodies at an hour when they’d normally be fast asleep. She also knew that they could do it. Although there was no way she could differentiate between the cadets in the dimness of the night beyond unicorn and pegasus, she could certainly count heads well enough to find everypony present and accounted for, keeping pace behind her. In fact, one of the pegasi had been galloping just ahead of the pony peloton the entire night; even now he still showed vigor with steady and controlled hoof falls, his breath leaving him in slow, thin plumes of vapor. A look skyward for the Staff Sergeant confirmed the moon’s place in the center of a sea of stars, and she turned abruptly in the direction of the barracks, the cadets tracing the light of her horn. The ponies had completed their final test. Settling into an easy trot, the ponies allowed the slow movement to relax their muscles and clear the burning in their limbs; a number of them had gone into hacking fits, but it was nothing they wouldn’t recover from after a half hour or so. Once they reached their dormitories, they found large coolers of iced juice and water to refresh themselves with, though they opted to hold off on availing themselves to them in the presence of their commanding officer. The Staff Sergeant turned to inspect her cadets. No, ‘cadets’ wasn’t the right word anymore. The ponies before her had proven themselves worthy of the title of Royal Guard. Although the file they formed was made sloppy by their fatigue, and their normally stolid silence was broken by intermittent coughs, she was willing to turn a blind eye. It was impressive enough that they were still actually standing. “Well done, soldiers!” the Staff Sergeant said to the weary ponies. “I would love to give a long-winded speech commending your performance today, but I don’t think many of you would remain conscious for its duration, and I don’t think I have the wind to do so anyways. “Corporal Kickstart and I will gather you at 0900 hours to lead you to Canterlot Castle where you will be familiarized with the duties you are to perform from here on out, so gather any items you’ll be taking in the morning. Congratulations soldiers, you’ve earned your armor.” As the Staff Sergeant turned to leave her soldiers, she overheard their cheers, boasts, and congratulations. A little bit of celebration was to be expected. What wasn’t to be expected was the sudden explosion of surprised exclamations and expletives, punctuated by a loud, dull clang. Looking back towards the others, she eyed them curiously: the chaffron of one of the pegasi was sitting in a fresh depression of earth, and the other ponies had given him a few yards of space. “Crack Shot, what the hay was that?!” “What, we just graduated right? We’re supposed to throw our hats in the air!” “You mean mortarboards. Ponies throw mortarboards. Which are made of cloth, cardboard, and other soft things. Not solid chunks of metal!” “Tch, what’s the big deal? We’re all wearing armor right? ‘Sides you know me, I wouldn’t nail anypony unless I meant to.” The Staff Sergeant rolled her eyes and continued on her way. It was no worse than when she and Kickstart had finished basic training, and the pegasus had somehow managed to turn one of the coolers of chilled juice over their drill instructor. “Not too shabby by the way, leadin’ the pack out there,” Crack Shot said to Storm as he flipped his helm back onto his head, earning himself a maneful of dirt. “Looks like you could’ve given the Staff Sergeant a run for her bits!” Check Mate hacked in agreement. Storm flushed and gave an embarrassed rub against the back of his helm, the pink of his cheeks undetectable in the dim light. “Heh, I guess the run wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be.” “Nah, it was a flank kicker; I thought I was gonna cough up a lung. Speaking of which, you alright there buddy?” Crack Shot slapped Check Mate on the back, causing the unicorn to double over in another paroxysm of coughs. “Huh. I’ll take that as a probably. Hey, wait a minute—” Crack Shot whipped around to face Storm once more, causing the other pegasus to start back. “Maybe that’s it!” “Maybe what’s it?” Storm asked, trying not to capsize from the sudden meander in Crack Shot’s stream of consciousness. “Your special talent!” “...Coughing?” “Nah, running! I mean, ya got the spacey kicks on your flank, maybe you’re like a natural born track pony! Wouldn’t that be—“ Crack Shot paused as he made another realization, “Kinda underwhelming actually. I mean, what with being a pegasus and all.” He flapped into the air to punctuate the point. Storm frowned, “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Come on, let’s grab some water, clean up, and hit the sack; Check looks like he could use it. Heck, we all could.” --- The following morning, Storm and the others awoke for the last time to the Staff Sergeant’s reveille. It was a pleasant sound, certainly more pleasant to arise to than an alarm clock, and he hoped that it wouldn’t be the last time he got to listen to it. Hopping down from his bunk, he rounded it to the metal chest at its foot to retrieve his belongings. Books, barding, bits, bags, and... Storm hooved through his dictionary’s thesaurus for a synonym of photo that started with a ‘b’. He figured ‘blueprints’ might eke by if he considered another incorrect insertion of his contacts. Content with his wordplay, he donned his accoutrements and was met by Check Mate’s salutation. “Good morning, Storm.” The unicorn waved. “I trust you slept well?” Storm waved back. “Morning, Check; like a foal. It’s nice to see you breathing normally again.” The unicorn smiled sheepishly, “I suppose there are few greater remedies than a good night’s repose. It seems that Crack Shot would concur.” The pegasus groaned from his perch on the top of his bunk at the sound of his name, and tumbled gracelessly to the floor. Blinking the drowsiness from his eyes, he gave a half nod in greeting to the others. “Ugh jeez, they gave us an extra three hours to sleep, maybe I could convince ‘em to give us an extra five minutes?” “I doubt the Staff Sergeant would go for that,” Storm said. “Maybe Kickstart. Anyways, we probably shouldn’t hold them up.” The Staff Sergeant and Corporal Kickstart stood outside, waiting for the others to exit the barracks. Once everypony was accounted for, the two began walking towards the Royal Academy hangar, the former ordering the guardsponies to follow. As they did so, the unicorn spoke up in her commanding timbre. “Okay soldiers, here’s the plan. We will be proceeding to Canterlot Castle by means of chariot. This means a bit of extra work for the pegasi, but it’s nothing that you can’t handle. You will be following the Corporal, but should some of you somehow fall behind, aim for the gigantic castle sticking out of a cliff. You can’t miss it.” --- It was an uneventful flight to Canterlot Castle, and one that was relatively quiet, save for the flapping of wings and the creaking of chariot yokes. Kickstart had attempted to start up a round of ‘One Hundred Shakers of Salt on the Wall’, but was promptly silenced by a light jolt of magic from the Staff Sergeant, who had taken a seat in one of the chariots near the front of the fleet. He questioned why she didn’t just teleport back to the castle to save them both a bit of grief, earning another jolt. He kept his mouth shut afterwards. Storm had thought the royal palace an amazing sight from a distance, but as he touched down before its rear gates, the only word he could find to describe it was ineffable (he’d picked that one up from Check Mate a few weeks back). Structures of impeccably cut marble grew in impossible angles from the precipice in which the castle was erected. Wide, rounded spires of star-painted gold topped many of the towers, accented with sidereal ornamentation that reflected the sunlight in a blinding display. A refreshing mist carried from the cascades thundering nearby, limning ribbons of rainbow in its wake. However, what struck him the most was how pristine everything was up close. No doubt the castle had seen the traffic of countless ponies, yet even the posterior cobblestones showed no chips, cracks, or other signs of the countless hoof falls they had borne. Either powerful magic was at play, or the palace had a very dedicated maintenance staff. “I’m going ahead to let staffing know we’ve arrived. Go ahead and show them around, Corporal,” the Staff Sergeant ordered, before vanishing in a bright flash. “You know, ya coulda done that in the first place!” Kickstart shouted at the empty spot where she had stood. Two guardsponies appeared in the windows of the towers on either side of the ironwood drawbridge leading into the rear of the castle. Seeing the entourage awaiting entrance, they snapped a sharp salute. “Hail, brothers-in-arms, under Her Majesty Princess Celestia’s sovereignty!” called the guard at the left window. “Hail, brothers-in-arms, under Her Majesty Princess Luna’s ascendancy!” called the guard at the right window. “Hey guys,” called Kickstart. “Mind lettin’ us in so we can park the chariots?” The two guardsponies frowned before disappearing from sight. Moments later the drawbridge lowered with a wooden creaking and rattling of heavy chains. Kickstart led the way through the gates, where the two slightly miffed ponies were waiting. “Dammit Kickstart, could you at least try to impress the newbies?” one of them whispered. Kickstart laughed it off. “I wouldn’t worry about that, there’s plenty here that’ll do the job for ya.” --- After they had deposited the chariots in a hangar similar to the one at the Royal Academy, Kickstart led the others through a corridor towards the castle’s antechamber to begin a brief tour of the interior of the castle. The antechamber itself did a remarkable job of setting the tone for the rest of the building. Tall banners, rich in crimsons and blues, ran the lengths of ttowering, lavender walls. The black and white checkered floor was polished to a mirror sheen. A patterned, red velvet carpet branched towards the different halls leading out of the chamber, up a grand staircase railed with gilded banisters, and towards the main entrance where ponies in various states of dress crossed another drawbridge to enter. Everything was clean enough to eat off of, though the ponies that kept it so would probably kill you if you tried. “Hey, funny story,” Kickstart spoke, just quiet enough to go unheard by the civilians. “Y’all have heard of the Grand Galloping Gala, right?” The majority of the cohort nodded. “Well get this: At the last one, right outside that gate, this group of mares just broke out into song. Like, with choreography and everything! Just outta nowhere! Even weirder, a bunch of other ponies showed up and joined in, dancing and singing like they’d been practicing for weeks! I thought it was like a flash mob or something at first, but apparently they were all strangers. None of them talked for the rest of the night!” Storm and the others gave shared confused glances. “So, long story short, those mares totally trashed the grand ballroom. Princess Celestia was laughing it up for a week, at least. The janitors, not so much.” Kickstart chuckled at the memory. “Anyways, enough about that! Let’s check out the rest of the castle.” The Corporal took the group up the stairs and through the left hall, giving explanations as they walked. He pointed out the guest rooms, the Royal Guard housing where they took a moment to deposit their possessions, dining areas, and the Hall of Theology. Now, the study of the Gods and Goddesses takes on a different bent when the deities in question are tangible, friendly enough to chat about non-topics like the weather, and located just a few doors down. The tasks of the Royal Theologians mainly entailed keeping tabs on things like shoe sizes, food preferences, and favorite colors. As the entourage passed by the Hall, one of its occupants stepped out. Sister Marery Sue, an unfortunately named unicorn in a bright yellow habit, and Keeper of Her Royal Divinity’s Day Planner, eyed the string of guardsponies passing by. She had heard that some new members of the Royal Guard were arriving, and she correctly assumed by the amount of gawking that this was them. Still, she was pressed for time, needed a couple of pegasi, and beggars couldn’t be choosers. She moved to the front of the group to address its leader. “Pardon my intrusion, sir,” she spoke in a voice no louder than a whisper, “but Her Highness Princess Celestia will be requiring transit into the city today. May I humbly request your service in this matter?” “Hm? Oh yeah, no sweat!” the pegasus replied, causing Sister Marery Sue to wince. Although the Royal Guardsponies were unsettlingly similar in appearance, there were more than enough ways to distinguish them. The lopsided grin and unapologetic impropriety identified this one as Corporal Kickstart. Still, she was pressed for time. She silently cursed herself for losing herself in the Dead Sea Scrolls: a personal account of one of Princess Celestia’s surfing trips to the beach, where not a single wave had appeared thanks to some lunar mischief on the part of her younger sister. “Err, thank you for your assistance in this matter, Corporal, and I must ask that you be hasty. She should be finishing this morning’s audience soon, and will be ready to depart any moment now,” she stressed the word ‘now’ so hard it might’ve snapped in two. She then added, “And please try to remember yourself in Her presence.” “Heh, how could I forget? I’ll take one of these guys over and head on out.” Kickstart gave a quick salute. Sister Marery uneasily nodded her thanks retreated back into her study. Turning towards his group, Kickstart asked, “So, any volunteers?” The pegasi in the group looked among each other to see who would step up, each convinced it would be somepony else. Kickstart opted to make the decision for them, pointing towards the pegasus closest to him. “How about you? Up for giving another chariot ride?” Storm gulped. He couldn’t exactly say no, and responded the only way he could: “Yes, sir.” “Sweet! As for the rest of you,” Kickstart looked to the others, “sorry for cutting the tour short, but feel free to check out the rest of the castle on your own.” One of the unicorns spoke up. “Um, is it really alright for us to just wander around?” “Yeah, it’s cool, just act like you know what you’re doing. If any important looking pony asks what you’re up to, just say, ‘I’m acting on royal orders!’ or ‘It’s my first day!’” The Corporal looked thoughtful for a moment. “Actually, those last four words oughta serve you well for the rest of your career. Alright, come on dude.” Kickstart led Storm towards Princess Celestia’s audience chambers, the younger pegasus glancing back towards the others with a look of panic in his eyes. As he watched his terrified friend being dragged off, Crack Shot gave Check Mate a sidelong glance and asked, “So you wanna check out the rest of this place?” “We might as well,” Check replied. --- Multiple ponies were scattered about the audience chambers, some engaged in idle chatter, some waiting for a chance to speak with Princess Celestia. Many of them were nobles, Storm noted. At least, he assumed they were nobles. He couldn’t imagine anypony else wearing powdered wigs, and the neck ruffs on some of the hoop skirts were of such a size that they made the mares that wore them look like they had just left a veterinarian’s office. The aristocratic ponies seemed to try for all the world to look important, but only managed to look uncomfortable. Storm wondered why they didn’t just mimic the princesses and dress down a bit. Perhaps the lack of the prominent ivory horn, grand and finely feathered wings, and prismatic mane billowing on an ethereal, solar wind was the reason. It was a bit much to compete with. The Princess of the Sun currently had a look of tranquility on her face, a measure of patience more than a thousand years in the making, as two unicorns mares bickered in front of her. “I’m telling you, she lies! The foal is mine!” “Balderdash!” screamed the other unicorn, “I am the filly’s true mother, and I will not have her claim otherwise!” Celestia raised a perfect eyebrow. Two ponies with unknown intentions were claiming to be the mother of an absent filly, and they had sought her as an arbiter. It was a timeless dilemma, though not one that her ancient wisdom could not solve. She opened her lips to impart some of it. “You of course realize, my dear subjects, that many hospitals and clinics provide maternity tests? Speak with one of my retainers; the castle will cover the cost.” Both mares’ lips sealed, and they quickly and silently left the chambers, one looking smugger than the other. Celestia didn’t know what other solution they expected her to suggest. That they cut the foal in half? She softly shook the grisly notion from her head as the last of the morning’s petitioners approached her, a slate grey pegasus who timidly knelt before her. She nodded for him to speak. “Pardon my forthrightness, Your Majesty, but I had wondered,” he began, “Since her return, it seems that your sister Princess Luna has been conspicuously absent from the public light. If I may ask, is there a reason for this?” The Princess smiled serenely at his concern. “My sister has been working diligently to adapt to what is a new era for her,” she answered. “However, I believe that she should be making more social appearances with the coming of this fall season.” This satisfied the pegasus, and he gave his thanks before taking his leave. Kickstart approached the princess, with Storm following hesitantly behind. Princess Celestia beamed at the two, tilting her head to one side to give Storm a cheerful glance. He reminded himself to breathe. Kickstart knelt and Storm quickly mimicked the action. “Ah, Corporal Kickstart, what a pleasant surprise! I had thought that you were busy guiding the newest Guard members around the castle grounds?” Celestia asked conversationally. “Yeah, but one of the Sisters cut it short,” Kickstart explained. “Still, they’re good ponies; I don’t think they’ll get into too much trouble.” Celestia laughed. It was a soothing sound, like the chiming of glass bells in a spring breeze. “I’m certain they won’t.” She turned to Storm, who managed to keep his heart from leaping out of his throat. “And you must be one of the newcomers! May I ask your name?” Storm thought for a second. He was sure he knew the answer to this. Suddenly a light bulb flickered to life above his head. “Storm Stunner!” he exclaimed with a greater sense of accomplishment than would ever be necessary in giving one’s name. “Er, Your Highness,” he added awkwardly. There was that melodic laugh again, and Storm felt a a bit more at ease. “Well Storm Stunner, it is lovely to make your acquaintance. I have some business in the city, so I imagine that you and Kickstart will be accompanying me. I hope you don’t mind flying around with a bit of extra weight,” she said with a playful wink. “Well, shall we be off gentlecolts?” Celestia stepped down from her throne and gracefully made her way to the exit of the chambers, with the two pegasi falling in at her sides. As the three walked towards the hangars, the princess made conversation, asking Storm about such things as his family and his reasons for joining the Royal Guard. He told her about his mother and father, sparing some of the more colorful details about the latter, and about his first encounter with the stoic pegasus soldier so many years ago. As they talked, he found himself surprised by the approachability of the princess; he by no means expected her to be haughty or aloof, but he never expected her to be so inquisitive about the lives of her retinue. Outside of the hangar they found a chariot set out; a jet black unicorn in aviator sunglasses and an orange vest was waiting for them. “Mare Force One is prepped and ready for flight, Your Majesty!” she announced. The princess thanked her and settled into the seat of the chariot, and Kickstart and Storm secured themselves in its yoke. Once the two pegasi were prepared, the unicorn’s horn illuminated, and she began to form a complex chain of signals with a pair of flickering balls of light. Storm’s stomach dropped, and he gave Kickstart a nervous glance. “Err... I don’t think you covered air marshalling in Basic, sir,” he whispered. “What do those signals mean?” Kickstart smirked back and replied, “Probably: ‘Fly’,” before starting a gallop with a furious flapping of wings, Storm hastily trying to catch up. --- Check Mate and Crack Shot had taken a very informative self-tour of Canterlot Castle, by virtue of Crack Shot trying every single door he had come across. “Come on!” the pegasus groaned. “There’s gotta be a horseshoe court around here somewhere!” Although he hadn’t found his horseshoe court, Crack Shot had found plenty of cleaning supply closets, pantries, and surprised ponies. In the case of the latter, he simply proclaimed that he was acting in an official capacity and went on his way, as per Kickstart’s advice; if his inflection wasn’t convincing enough, his barding certainly did the job. “For the multifarious facilities available, I would say that is a likely assumption. Though perhaps it’s more likely such a physical activity would be practiced in a more alfresco location?” Check Mate suggested. “I’m not sure what pasta has to do with horseshoes, buddy. Let’s keep checking around!” Check Mate sighed and was about to continue the mad search with Crack Shot, when he was arrested by a regal sounding order of, “Halt! You there!” Turning to face the source of the sudden commotion, Crack Shot saw Check Mate standing dutifully in place, and a tall, white, unicorn stallion approaching him. The stallion had a well-styled amber mane, and a pair of blue eyes that were as cool as a polar cap. He reminded the pegasus of the covers of all of those novels his mom would read when she thought nopony was paying attention. The stallion stopped just to the side of the petrified Check Mate, and peered intently in the direction of his flank. Huh. I figured one of the perks of joining the Royal Guard would be a bit of extra attention, but wow, I had no idea, Crack Shot mused to himself. “Beautiful...,” the stallion breathed. Check Mate’s cheeks reddened considerably. “Although, just a bit off...” the stallion brushed a hoof through the fringes of his mane. Satisfied with his reflection in the soldier’s armor, he continued down the hallway, paying the two Royal Guardsponies no other attention. Crack Shot approached his friend. “Heya, Check, a little red in the face there.” The unicorn blinked in response. “Oh my, I don’t recall seeing that in the job description.” The two shared a laugh and continued their trek through the castle. Although the location of the elusive horseshoe courts remained an enigma to Crack Shot, he found a set of doors that particularly caught his interest. The doors extended high towards the ceiling, and were painted a deep indigo which in a lesser lighting would have passed for black. They were flanked on either side by two very bored looking unicorn guardsponies. Seeing their fellow soldiers approach, they gave an affable wave as relief washed over their faces. The one closest spoke up. “Hey guys! Time for the changing of the guard already, is it.” He had deliberately bit of the squiggly part of the question mark, making it a declaration.. “Um—” said Crack Shot. “Actually—” said Check Mate. “Great!” said the other guard. “Come on Wedge, let’s go grab lunch!” The two left their posts with the sort of urgency that one might flee a house fire. “Now hold on a moment!” Check Mate attempted to protest, but the two unicorns were just far enough away to pretend to be out of earshot. “Huh, guess we’re on guard duty,” Crack Shot concluded as he eyed the entryway. On each door was a large engraving of a crescent moon, each respectively waxing and waning and surrounded by intricate carvings of constellations, “What do you think is in there?” “Something of enough import as to warrant an extra measure of security, as remiss as it may be...,” Check Mate grumbled as he watched the two other guards round a corner at the end of the hall, “Something—“ his eyes widened as he turned to find Crack Shot trying the door handle, “—that we should leave well enough alone! Crack Shot!” Too late. The pegasus swung the door open, causing it collide noisily with the wall on the other side, and startling the room’s sole occupant from her slumber. A dark navy mare leapt from her bed. She was wearing a star-patterned pair of blue pajamas, and a light cerulean tail stuck out from the button flap in the back. From beneath a matching night cap, a long horn began to pulse with what would best be called an absence of light. A pair of wings flared menacingly at her sides. Crack Shot noted that she looked like a very important pony. “Fie!” Princess Luna exclaimed. “Sirrah, wherefore dost thou find thyself in mine bower?! Hie, speak anon!” “WHOA, SOR- Wait, what?” In the conflict of emotions raging in Crack Shot’s mind, confusion just barely managed to muscle out terror. “Err, yes, new parlance...” The alicorn cleared her throat and rubbed her tired eyes in annoyance. “What are you doing in my room?” She eyed the pegasus guard suspiciously, momentarily ignoring the unicorn guard that had gone into vapor lock beside him. Crack Shot recalled the Corporal’s advice that had served him so well earlier in the day. Clearing his throat, it was with authority that he responded, “I’m acting on royal orders!” Hold on, that wasn’t the right phrase. “Really? Does my sister send for me?” Luna’s eyes glinted like sapphires as they softened. Any fatigue from her sudden awakening faded in an instant. “Erm, sorry, Your Honor, I’ve been using that one all day and it’s kinda stuck on my tongue. What I meant to say was, ‘It’s my first day!’” Crack Shot remembered his unwitting partner-in-crime. “Well, ‘ours’ actually.” Crack Shot’s trademark smile flashed across his face, although it flitted a bit at the corners. Remembering the frozen unicorn beside him, he quickly stretched one across his friend’s face with a hoof. It was the Luna’s turn to be confused, and she tilted her head to the side to indicate just that. Nevertheless, the two ponies before her didn’t radiate any ill intent. She relaxed her wings, and her horn lost its umbra. “Very well then, I’ll take your word for it. May I ask your names?” “Yes’m! I’m Crack Shot, at your service!” Silence followed. Crack Shot jabbed Check Mate in the side. “Oh- OH! Pardon my indiscretion, Your Majesty!” Check Mate quickly knelt and averted his gaze from the princess. “My name is Check Mate,” he answered. “’Check Mate,’ you say?” Luna’s eyes lit up like two newborn stars. “Would you happen to be a chess player then?” she asked. The unicorn hazarded a glance up to meet the Princess’s. “It has been some time since I’ve played a match, but I dabble.” “Well, how would you like a chance to make up for your intrusion?” the Princess of the Moon laughed airily, a sound like a lullaby. --- Storm Stunner and Kickstart stood guard outside of ‘Canterlot Novelties: A Novelty Shop’. Storm thought the subtitle could do without the extra ‘-ty’. Princess Celestia was currently inside, picking up an order, though she had taken a moment to strike up a conversation with the earth pony proprietor. His face fixed in a stoic expression, Storm surveyed the various ponies passing by. Many tried to nonchalantly sneak glances through the store windows as they walked past, while others blatantly gawked inside. Some took interest in the guardsponies themselves, and that was where things really got interesting. Storm found himself the subject of more photographs than he ever had before in his life, with giddy mares and stallions alike flashing wide grins next to him. Fillies and colts attempted to get a rise out of him and Kickstart, making amusing faces and adorable noises, and he had to struggle not to crack a smile. It was a strange experience, to essentially become a living statue. Storm was surprised that the normally vivacious Kickstart did it so well. For the duration of time that the two had stood outside of the novelty store, the other pegasus had shown a fixed countenance. Storm was thoroughly convinced the pony hadn’t even blinked. No witty commentary, no customary verbal faux pas; Storm wondered if this was the same Corporal Kickstart he had trained under for so many weeks. Still, he was amazed: apparently there was more to the Corporal than he had thought. A bell chimed as the door behind the pair opened, and Princess Celestia stepped out, levitating a small, wrapped box in front of her. “Alright boys, shall we be off?” she asked. Kickstart didn’t respond, still staring forward fixedly with a stern look on his face. “Time to wake up, sleepy head,” Princess Celestia crooned as she lightly tapped him against the back of the helmet, causing him to blink several times and shake his head. Storm told himself not to be impressed, that he shouldn’t be impressed, but a part of him couldn’t help it. He wondered if one had to practice sleeping with their eyes open. --- Crack Shot had been watching for the better part of an hour as Princess Luna and Check Mate continued their match. He watched each attack and defense, each exchange, each gambit as the two players tried to ensnare each other. As the two plied their wits against each other, avoiding traps set up multiple moves in advance, the pegasus stared on in amazement. He couldn’t understand how anypony couldn’t be bored to tears. He occupied the rest of his time by trying to touch the tip of his snout with his tongue. For his part, Check Mate was enthralled. For the first time in his life, he had met his match. Although he may’ve had a natural affinity for strategy, the princess had lifetimes of experience, and only a few pieces remained on the board. On Check Mate’s side in frosted crystal stood a parasprite pawn near one corner, a pegasus knight in another, and two earth pony rooks guarding an alicorn king. On Princess Luna’s side in black hematite stood three pawns which presented no threat, and her alicorn king and queen. The black queen and white king danced in step, but no other move could be made. The match was a stalemate. “Very impressive, Check Mate! I haven’t enjoyed a match like that in, well, ages!” Luna applauded, causing the unicorn to look away bashfully. “It was honestly a pleasure, Your Highness,” the unicorn managed. “Thank you for the wonderful match.” “Well, we will have to play another round sometime. I—“ she was interrupted by a knocking against her bedroom door. “Yes, come in!” The door opened to reveal two pegasi guards, one of them carrying a wrapped package by its strings in his teeth. Crack Shot put his tongue back in his mouth and waved to Storm and Kickstart. “Thpethial Delifery!” the Corporal said through clenched teeth. Luna relieved the pegasus of the package. “Oh? What could this be?” she mused as she inspected the parcel. With a flourish of magic, she began to undue its paper wrappings. What lay inside left her speechless: floating before her was an ornately carved jewelry box, wrought in pure silver, the different phases of the lunar cycle marching across its sides in expertly cut white diamonds. On the lid of the box was set an obsidian carving of an alicorn, with sapphires shaping her tail and mane. Princess Luna gasped. Storm silently wondered just what kind of novelty store Princess Celestia had stopped at. Then Luna carefully undid the clasp of the jewelry box, and everything went to hell. As the lid of the box suddenly sprung open, there was a blur of dark brown, an exclamation of ‘Fie!’, and in an instant the face of the Princess of the Moon was obscured by a flaky splatter of graham cracker, chocolate, and creme, two bright, sapphire eyes blinking out of the sugary mess. Kickstart and Crack Shot burst out laughing, Storm and Check bit their lips. A small piece of paper drifted to the floor. Luna shook the confectionery from her mane, and floated the missive before her eyes, reading it out loud. “To my Dearest Sister, Your favorite flavor: Moon Pie. Love, Celly” To Storm's and Check's relief, she only laughed. Placing the note down, she said, “Well, I suppose now I need to get her back...” She faced the four guards, bits of marshmallow dropping to the floor, and asked, “Any suggestions?” Kickstart stepped forward. “Actually, I might have a pretty good idea...” --- Later that night, Corporal Kickstart rounded up the Royal Guard newcomers to celebrate the completion of their first day on the job. He had decided to take them to a well-known donut shop located close to the castle. “Joe?” one of the recruits had asked in regards to its proprietor, “Kind of an exotic name, isn’t it?” Kickstart shrugged. “From what I heard, his folks were really into fantasy and tabletop RPGs.” The guards gathered around the tables, knocking back donuts with no thoughts about the inevitable sugar crash to follow. It was a party, and the Royal Guard partied hard. Storm stepped away from Check Mate and Crack Shot to join Corporal Kickstart at the counter; he had a few questions he wanted to ask of him. “Um, hello, sir,” he began, catching Kickstart’s attention. “Oh heya, buddy! What’s up?” the Corporal flashed a smile and gestured for Storm to sit beside him. “I was just wondering... What the hay happened today?” “Hmm, care to specify?” “Primarily Her Highness, Princess Luna of the Moon, getting a face full of some cheap dessert,” Storm deadpanned. Kickstart guffawed. “Ha! Yeeaah, that was classic. What about it?” “I guess it just caught me by surprise. And Princess Luna too, of course. I suppose I just wouldn’t have expected that from Princess Celestia.” The Corporal leaned back and pursed his lips in thought. “There’s something you oughta know about the two royal sisters,” Kickstart began, causing Storm’s ears to perk. “As I’m sure you know, the two of ‘em have been around for a long time; heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if their yearbook photos were carved into a cave wall somewhere. Anyways, they’ve been around long enough to have seen a lot of Equestria’s history play out, and to have a hoof in the bulk of it." Storm silently waited for the Corporal to continue. “So, here you have two immortal sisters who have been manipulating the cosmos, and ruling a kingdom together for as long as anypony can remember, save for a millennium when one of them suffered a nasty case of possession. They perform a ton of feats that your average pony could never dream of, and they do it on a day-to-day basis. “But when it comes right down to it, when you look past the immortality, the power, and the titles; they’re still sisters. They’re gonna have a bit of fun at each other’s expense from time to time.” “Heh, is that how you’re able to get away with so much around them?” Storm figured he might’ve been out of line in addressing a superior officer in such a way, but he also figured Corporal Kickstart wouldn’t care. He didn’t. “Haha, probably!” Kickstart took a sip of coffee. “If you think about it, it’s gotta be a kinda lonely life in some ways, having everypony kowtowing to you all the time. Sure, everypony loves ‘em, but you gotta admit there’s a bit of fear in there too.” Kickstart gave Storm a knowing smile. Storm sat in silence as he weighed the Corporal’s words. At first, the idea of actually performing for Princess Celestia earlier that day had terrified him. Not because he had feared her to be a tyrant, but because he didn’t want to inadvertently offend her somehow, or to disappoint her. He imagined how it must have felt to have just about everypony else acting the same way. It had to be just that: lonely. “I suppose you’re right...” Storm decided to shift the conversation. “So, is there any more to the Royal Guard then standing around like gargoyles and playing pranks?” “Well, in the case of an emergency we’re the first line of defense.” Kickstart chuckled in remembrance of something, “Heh, except in that incident with Nightmare Moon, those guys got their flanks kicked. Still, how often does anything like that happen? There aren’t any wars—not that that’s a bad thing of course. Most ponies get along with each other just fine.” Storm thought back to the first week of basic training so long ago. He recalled the story his friends had told him about their encounter with the amber-eyed pegasus and his lumbering companion. The pegasus wondered how many others there were like that in the world. The sliding of plate in front of him broke him from his rumination. Looking down he saw a bright pink donut covered in sprinkles. “Give it a taste!” Kickstart encouraged. “Just don’t blame me for your headache in the morning.” --- From her marble dais, Princess Celestia prepared herself for her daily task, manipulating the ancient magic that suffused her body. She didn’t have to reach out for the sun, for the connection was always there. Rather she flexed the connection, stretching it and contracting it and allowing it to flow with ichor. She engaged it, stimulating it like a numb appendage, for in many ways that was what it was. She felt a tingle, like blood rushing to one’s hooves, or the flaring of a corona. Satisfied, Princess Celestia began to raise the sun. As she felt the sun ascend above the eastern horizon, something struck her as odd. It felt like there was some impedance between her and the star, like a tourniquet had been tightened around the link between the two of them. Even odder was the color of the sky. It should’ve been painted in oranges and bluish grays, yet it was still the same dark violet as when she had begun. An investigative glance behind her explained the phenomenon. Drifting lazily in front of the sun was the moon, mirroring its path and creating a solar eclipse. Princess Celestia had to laugh: Lulu had gotten her back good. Of course, now Celestia would have to come up with something even better. A surreptitious grin crossed her face as she imagined all of the possibilities.

Sagebrush

487

Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

In Her Majesty's Royal Service

A look behind the armor, behind the stoicism, but not too far behind, because that'd be a behind.

complete

<p>Storm Stunner is a pegasus with aspirations to join the Royal Guard: the noble ponies responsible for maintaining the peace and prosperity of Equestria. At least, that's what it says on the cover.</p><p>Follow his journey as he joins their gilded ranks, and learns just what life is really like as one of Equestria's finest.</p>

everyone

2012-11-11T20:36:44+00:00

2012-11-11T20:36:44+00:00

In a typical grocery in the heart of Canterlot’s market district, a young unicorn stallion was growing increasingly frustrated trying to make a series of atypical purchases. Trade Secret, a presently puzzled pegasus peddler, looked up from the shopping list unfolded on the counter in front of her, to the cherry red unicorn that had placed it there. He had a well-practiced look of apology on his face, the product of earlier shopping trips, hidden behind an unruly mop of brown bangs. She looked at the list again in the subtle hopes that its contents had been kind enough to make sense of themselves on the second reading. “So um, the ‘sound of a cat’s footstep’... Is that, like, a new album or something?” she ventured in regards to the first item on the list. The colt let out a heavy sigh. “I really don’t know, my mentor just gave me the list. Says he needs this stuff to make an unbreakable dog leash or something. Read about it in a book of ancient Scandineighvian mythology.” The unicorn eyed an item on the yellowed paper incredulously. “Like, who the heck has ever heard of ‘the root of a mountain’, anyways?” “I’ve got some potatoes that were grown in the hills nearby,” the merchant offered, smoothly attempting to wrangle a sale out of the odd encounter. The colt shrugged, “Eh, sure. I don’t suppose you’d happen to have any fish breath or bird spit as well, would ya?” “You might want to try a pet store for those.” “Hm, good idea. How much do I owe you for the potatoes?” “Four bits should cover it,” the pegasus answered with a professional smile. The unicorn retrieved the bits from his saddlebags and placed them on the counter. After a moment’s thought, he put an additional four down. “Mind throwing in a cup of noodles as well? Shiokarasugi if you’ve got it.” “Sure thing, I’m just going to need to see some I.D.” The unicorn removed a laminated card from his saddlebags. After checking the date and photo, Trade Secret unlocked a glass cabinet behind her, producing a small, polystyrene cup. “Neighpon’s finest, with 1800 milligrams of sodium per serving.” The merchant grinned. “Are you sure you can handle it?” “Don’t worry,” the unicorn answered, “It’s not for me.” --- In a dimly lit chamber beneath the surface of the earth, strange and potent magics suffused the air. From within haphazardly arranged, unmarked vessels, muted flickers of octarine could be observed filtering through their tinted glass, their contents a mystery only discernible by their eccentric owner. In one darkened corner lay an ancient pile of discarded noodle containers, the heady scent of vegetable broth wafting from its heart. As he lurked in the lair’s center, Gray Mane, the wizened unicorn that had fashioned it, allowed himself a moment of pride at the ambiance he had fostered. It had taken a considerable amount of effort to convert the humble basement apartment into a proper workshop of the arcane. He knew from the onset that the deposit on the place would be forfeit. A knocking on the entranceway echoed through the room, before a young, cherry red unicorn stepped through with a pair of loaded saddlebags over his withers. “Ye made me wait, lad!” the old unicorn croaked in a raspy voice. “Did ye find the reagents?!” ‘Eh, I found something.” The young stallion unloaded the contents of one of his bags on the stained floor in front of his mentor. Out poured a few russet potatoes, a vial of a frothy clear liquid, and a plastic bag containing a bright orange guppy that stared intently at nothing at all. “Pah! What rubbish is this?! I see no beard o’ mare,” the relic fumed, “and ye would call yerself an assistant, Febre!” “Not a lot of barbershops are too keen on strangers hoofing through their clippings,” Febre responded flatly. “Hmph, I don’t see any bear sinew in here either...” Febre rolled his eyes, before retrieving the cup of noodles from his other bag and tossing it over. “Here. I got ya something better.” The wrinkled eyes of the grumbling unicorn narrowed as he scrutinized the styrofoam package. Then they brightened in approval. “Ach, not a bad brand!” he complimented. “Looks like ye’ve at least got some eye fer quality!” “It’s not too hard when it’s the only thing you eat,” Febre sighed. “Still, bloody shame about those spell components...” The old pony’s dusty face bunched up in thought as he rubbed his chin. It gave his countenance the appearance of a prune that had fallen asleep in the bath. It was an appearance he was actually rather fond of. He had gone from Black, to Salt-and-Pepper, to Gray Mane with an uncommon alacrity for the process of aging. To the crazed curmudgeon, youth was just that inconvenient transitory period between birth and EARP discounts. He rasped, “Ah, what the hell! What say we try to cast the spell with what we got anyways?” “Mmm, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea...” Febre warned. “I mean, you’ve seen all those reports about magic gone wrong. All those botched group teleportations that keep showing up in the news? What if we get sent to some other dimension? Or turned into mares?” “Haw! Then we pick up a pair of dresses! Quit yer worryin’!” Gray Mane’s nonchalance did nothing to allay Febre’s concerns. The old coot, although eccentric as anything and ornery as hell, had an amicable side buried somewhere beneath the strata; it was one of the reasons that the younger unicorn stuck around. However, when it came to magical experimentation, it was as if somepony had taken his moral compass and firmly stuck a magnet to it. For Gray Mane, the end justified the means, regardless of what the end or the means happened to be. If he turned a mare into a frog, it just meant a chance for her to brush up on her breast stroke before meeting her Prince Charming. Febre knew his mentor would not be deterred by any argument, and resigned himself to simply going along for the ride. If he was lucky, nothing too eventful would happen and they’d get to eat the potatoes afterwards. Gray Mane skulked towards a warped, cherry wood bookcase, and plucked out a heavy tome with a flicker of magic. With the text suspended in front of him, he fanned through the pages before finally settling on a passage. “Lessee here... the focus of this spell is to create a binding. To borrow of the essence of the ingredients in order to manipulate the material planes, and form an anchor in the aether...” he spoke. “Ah,” Febre added with a nod, in the tone of one who had no idea what was going on, but wasn’t about to admit it. What color that was left in Gray Mane’s ancient eyes faded into white as he began to form the spell, his horn radiating an ashen light which cast sharp shadows in the aphotic chamber. Before him, the items brought by Febre began to tremble, before lifting a hair’s breadth above the ground, the guppy frantically swimming to and fro within its plastic prison. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the light faded and the items dropped unceremoniously to the floor. “Gaha! Well that was a bust!” Gray Mane guffawed. “Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained, eh?!” “If you say so,” Febre said as he moved to gather the components up, and to hopefully find a sanitary vessel for the poor guppy to call home. However, he stopped midtrot as once more the items began to stir. Many times in history, the only thing preventing a momentous discovery has been serendipity. Two good examples would be the discovery of penicillin in a dirtied petri dish, or the discovery of dipping hay fries in a chocolate shake in a dirtied roadside diner. Another prime example would be Tabun. Whether by the guiding hoof of fate, the intervention of some otherworldly consciousness, or simple coincidence, Gray Mane’s exploratory attempt caused something to happen. Something which, given the commonality of the items used, had no right to happen. A spell was born. However, it was nothing like the spell that Gray Mane had intended to cast. No, it was something different, something original, something not to be found referenced in a leather bound compendium or weather damaged vade mecum. And it was a doozy. Miasmic tendrils of colorless wisp bled from the objects, which had begun to pulse with a cold, gray glow, their forms lost in the haze. The coils of vapor whipped around blindly until contacting their neighbors, whereupon they seized together, forming an amorphous mass. As the reagents came together, the extensions of wisp receded and left a brilliant, melon-sized singularity floating in the center of the room, flaring like a lump of magnesium. The coruscation hovered uncertainly for a moment, as if deciding its next course of action, then shot straight up, phasing harmlessly through the ceiling, and leaving the two unicorns rubbing their eyes in the sudden darkness. Febre eyed the spot where the light had disappeared despondently. Well, I guess we won’t be having hash browns for lunch. --- Storm Stunner entered into the castle atrium to find Crack Shot trying to coax a flame-colored bird out of a tree. “Aww, come down, already! Do you want a treat or something? I could get ya a treat!” he entreated the bird. “Polly want a, uh... lump of charcoal? Or some lighter fluid?” The bird cawed disapprovingly before flying to a higher bough. “Huh. Woulda thought those’d be hits among phoenixes...” Crack Shot muttered to himself. “I imagine bird seed might be more popular,” Storm quipped as he stepped alongside his friend. “Oh, heya, dude!” Crack Shot flashed a grin. “Get that dragon back to Ponyville in one piece?” “Yeah, he seemed pretty eager to get back too. Apparently every time he gets sent to Canterlot, the pony he’s living with goes off on some crazy adventure without him. I guess he’s tired of missing out whenever something exciting happens.” “Huh, is that the same pony that wrote those books you were readin’ to impress that mare back in Basic?” Storm flushed; the phoenix to tilted her head as she watched him. “I’ll have you know I learned a lot from those books! About buffalo traditions, parasprite lifecycles, um... slumber parties...” he finished lamely. “So where’s Check Mate?” he added in an attempt to steer the conversation from its precipitous path downhill. “Last I saw he was messin’ around with this old-school calculator that Princess Luna showed him,” Crack Shot answered. “Ever heard of something called a difference engine?” “Um, can’t say that I have.” “Yeah, neither had I.” The two pegasi were interrupted by a surprised squawk from the phoenix. Following the bird’s startled gaze, what they saw made their jaws drop. One couldn’t blame them: anypony that saw what they did would have reacted the same way, and in fact anypony that saw it did. In the skies above Canterlot, the azure was slowly being scored by a swath of night. It bled what might have been starlight from tinsel points gathered into unknown constellations; the inky nothingness in between peered chillily at the world below. It was as if some overzealous tailor had taken a seam ripper to the fabric of reality. After a moment’s silence, Crack Shot casually asked, “So uh... Twilight’s books say anything about something like that?” Storm Stunner could only shake his head in response. --- The average pony has a predisposition to panic at the sight of the abnormal or unfamiliar (and even the normal and familiar if it sneaks up at just the right angle). Indeed, in response to the odd fissure splitting the sky overhead, the streets of Canterlot had been evacuated, and the curtains in its houses and apartments had been drawn, save for the imperceptible gap in the fabric from which the occupants could watch the scene unfolding. The sidereal slash continued its slow expansion, looming ominously like a blackened eye. The citizens of Canterlot weren’t sure what to make of it. Some speculated that it heralded the return of Nightmare Moon. Then that big, black eye began to weep. It wept tiny pinpricks of light which spread themselves like motes of pollen across Canterlot, across the surrounding lands, and then even farther than that. Ponyanna, a perpetually chipper earth pony and inveterate optimist, was being walked by her corgi, Newton, when the whole business in the sky had begun. While other ponies had hastily fled the streets, she had remained, content in the belief that whatever was happening was probably supposed to be happening, and if not, then it’d be sorted out quickly enough by whichever department was in charge of such things. Hers was an enviable sort of blissful stupidity. As she waited for Newton to finish hydrating a lamp post, one of the falling lights came streaking down in front of her, revealing itself to be much larger, and much brighter than she would have anticipated. In defense of his charge, Newton tried to startle the effulgence away by yapping excitedly. When that failed, he rolled over twice in the most intimidating manner he could muster, inadvertently tangling himself in his leash. The light remained in place; the corgi had to grudgingly admit to himself that he had been bested. The flaring figure slowly dimmed, leaving only a dark blotch in the center of the mare’s vision, and a pony standing behind it. At least it seemed to be a pony. Ponyanna had to rub her eyes to make sure. The mare (was it a mare?) standing before her had all the right parts. There were four legs, attached to four hooves, each pointing the right way. There were violet eyes and cyan ears, a rainbow mane, a rainbow tail, and a rainbow cutie mark to match, all in generally the right spots. Just none of it looked right. For one thing, her almond shaped eyes were unsettlingly small and set too far apart, and her muzzle was abnormally large. Ponyanna got the feeling that she wasn’t from around the area. “Hello there! Interesting weather we’re having here, aren’t we?” she greeted with the understatement of the year. The other pony furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Ponyanna took that to mean that she didn’t understand her, and proceeded with the logical course of action when dealing with somepony who might not have been fluent in the language. She, of course, spoke louder. “I SAID, ‘HELLOOOO THEEEERE! IN-TER-EST-ING-“ The rainbow mare cut her off. “Yes, yes, I understood you the first time, darling. You wouldn’t be able to tell me where ‘here’ is, exactly?” “Colton Avenue,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Err, thank you,” the mare tried to stifle a frown, “Perhaps though you could tell me what city Colton Avenue is located in? That would be simply dashing.” “Why Canterlot, of course! Capital of Equestria? You’re really not from around here, are you?” A disapproving look found its way onto the mare’s face. She replied, “No darling, I fear that I’m really not...” --- Princess Celestia knew something was wrong before her eyes confirmed it. It was an electric sensation, one that sent a shock through her entirety, both the corporeal and the incorporeal. It was the feeling one felt before the coming of a storm. There was a break in the world, like a small, insidious fracture in a dam, threatening to rupture at any moment from the pressure. First, she quickly penned a letter, and sent it off in a gout of magic. Then she left her chambers to go stir her sister, who she found to already be wide awake, bright eyed and bushy tailed. She hadn’t bothered to brush it. --- Ponyanna and Newton continued their walk down what the earth pony was increasingly less certain to be Colton Avenue. From the looks of things, a number of new buildings and structures had sprung up since her last walk down the street two days ago. Newton whined a high-pitched curse for wasting himself on the lamp post: here were all these brand new pieces of property, and he had no way to add them to his kingdom. And it seemed that they were still springing up. In the center of the cobblestone road a few yards ahead of her, a gazebo suddenly erupted in a flash of light. It was a blindingly pink construct, with a roof thatched in dark purple slats. Stylized red hearts ran up its supports. Ponyanna shrugged and took a seat beneath the gaudy shelter, watching as a garishly-colored city rose up around her, like painted forest of bamboo. --- At Princess Celestia’s request, all of the members of the Royal Guard had begun to convene in the courtyard to await her orders. The more senior members lined up somberly towards the front of the group, leaving the younger soldiers to whisper their theories in the back. It was then that Storm noticed, really noticed, just how few of them there were. He recalled Basic Training, and all of the empty beds and empty tables. He had thought theirs a small graduating class, but it seemed the ponies he had joined with made up just under a third of the group waiting in the courtyard. Corporal Kickstart had told him that there weren’t any more real crises; that might’ve affected enlistment. Now that there actually was one, Storm hoped that he and his cohorts would be able to handle it. After a pregnant moment, Celestia finally stepped into the court, joined by her sister. The guardsponies knelt into an appreciative bow for their rulers-cum-commanders. One felt a certain sense of relief from knowing that millennia of experience and the power to move the heavens were on one’s side. It was like having a pair of professional players on your team in a game of hoofball. “Please stand, everypony,” Celestia requested. The Royal Guard rose anxiously. “I shall be as succinct as possible. As each of you are aware, a magical disturbance has appeared over Canterlot. My sister and I have consulted with each other on this matter, and we are resigned to the fact that neither of us is entirely certain of its cause. This is the first time we’ve seen anything like this.” That wasn’t what the Royal Guardsponies were expecting to hear. It was hard to imagine there were many things that could take a pair of goddesses by surprise. She continued. “However, we do have our thoughts on the matter. Whether it has been created deliberately or accidentally, we believe that an errant form of dimensional thaumaturgy is responsible.” Princess Celestia took a deep breath. “As strange as it may sound, it appears that another world is beginning to merge with our own.” Many of the guardsponies gasped in shock. Crack Shot gasped because everypony else was doing so. He thought the whole thing sounded kind of cool. “My sister and I intend to dedicate ourselves to researching a solution to this matter, and I have requested the assistance of the brightest ponies in Equestria. However, this leaves us unable to personally perform a duty of the utmost importance: ensuring the safety of the citizenry. "That is why we leave it to you, the brave ponies of the Royal Guard, to make sure no harm befalls anypony under your aegis. I have no doubt that you will succeed in this task.” At that, the two princesses turned and departed from the courtyard. Out of view and out of earshot of the guardsponies, Princess Luna looked sidelong at her sister, the corner of her mouth bent into the slightest of scowls. “Was my presence absolutely necessary, Tia?” she asked, as they continued their hastened walk down the castle corridors, “I probably could have pored over a book or two while you performed your address.” “Oh, come now,” Celestia pouted. “I thought I kept my speech short.” “It was. I’m just a quick reader,” Luna stuck out her tongue. “Still, thank you for being there,” Celestia said quietly. “You may not realize it, but your presence has just as much of an effect as mine.” They walked in silence for a period, their hooves clicking on marble, sending echoes down the halls of the lower castle. “You’re wrong, you know,” Luna spoke, drawing a concerned look from her sister. She quickly added, “About requesting the brightest ponies I mean. One of the unicorns in the Guard, Check Mate? He has a keen wit about him; he's a natural strategist.” “That’s reassuring; we will need clever ponies not only in the libraries, but on the streets as well.” Celestia smiled as the two rounded a corner towards the royal archives. “And it’s nice to hear that you’ve made another friend.” Luna huffed. “Please, you make it sound as if I were some dour old harridan.” “Of course not, Lulu,” Celestia embraced her sister with a wing. “Though I believe with speech patterns like that, ponies will forget which of us is the oldest. Now, let’s get to work, shall we?” The two alicorns stepped through ancient mahogany doors into the castle stacks, to hunt for answers they weren’t entirely sure were there. --- “WELL I SAY WE OUGHTA GET DOWN THERE AND KICK SOME FLANK! OO-RAH!” “For Celestia’s sake, Cacopony! Can you turn it down?!” The Staff Sergeant grimaced and flicked her ears back. “And kick whose flank? What exactly is going on down there?” “FROM THE LOOKS OF THINGS,” Sergeant Cacopony bellowed in a voice devoid of humor, “WE GOT ON OUR HOOVES AN ALIEN INVASION.” “Heh, you mean like little green ponies?” Corporal Kickstart chimed inn. “Nothing against green ponies of course, little or otherwise.” The Staff Sergeant shot him a dangerous look. “Not now, Corporal,” She turned to Cacopony. “Sergeant, can you clarify?” “YES MA’AM. ALL ACROSS THE CITY THERE ARE SOME WEIRD LOOKING BUILDINGS POPPING UP. PINK AND PURPLE AND COVERED IN PICTURES OF RAINBOWS AND ICE CREAM. DURING MY FLIGHT TO THE CASTLE, I SAW THESE ODDBALL PEGASI WITH THESE FUBAR BUTTERFLY WINGS IN CANTERLOT AIRSPACE. WHEN I FLEW TOWARDS THEM TO ASK WHAT IN THE SAM HILL THEY WERE UP TO, THEY STARTED FLAPPING THOSE WINGS LIKE MAD, AND DAMN NEAR BLEW ME OUT OF THE AIR!” “I don’t know if I blame them,” a pegasus whispered near the periphery of the group, out of earshot of the senior officers, and in fact out of earshot of the ponies right next to him, thanks to Sergeant Cacopony’s bluster. The Staff Sergeant weighed Cacopony’s words carefully. “So we can’t rule out potential hostility. Alright, we need to plan our next course of action, and swiftly.” The Royal Guard ponies fell into a hasty discussion, deciding who of them should go into the city, how best to disperse their scant number over such a wide area, and which ponies should stay behind to secure the castle. The Staff Sergeant’s words had sent a sickly chill down Storm’s spine, and he quickly volunteered to help secure the market district. If there was an imminent danger threatening the city, he wouldn’t forgive himself if a certain unicorn came to harm. --- Nomde Plume dragged a hoof down the center of her face. When the sky had split, many of the shoppers walking the market had come to the conclusion that her bookstore would be the perfect sanctuary from whatever was going on outside. Now her store was packed to the brim with terror-stricken ponies, huddled and trembling against the shelves, and knocking books to the floor. They were desperately trying to keep out of the sight of two oddly shaped earth ponies who had just appeared in the entranceway. Nomde said, “Hello,” because there was really little else she could have said at the moment. “Hi!” responded the pastel pink one with white spots on her flank. “What are you?” Nomde’s felt her train of thought skip on the tracks. She supposed the question was fair enough. “I’m a pony,” she answered. The two creatures stared at her blankly. She wasn’t certain if they wanted more detail, but opted to provide it nevertheless, “More specifically, a unicorn.” She then added, “And a writer, if that matters.” “Really? But your nose is so small!” commented the blue one with bright yellow ribbons tied to her tail and mane. “I think you look more like a pig!” Nomde groaned. She found herself in sudden need of a strong coffee. She asked, “You wouldn’t happen to know what’s going on outside, would you? Or why you’re here... in my shop...” The pink earth pony spoke up again. “Well, me and Bow Tie were chasing waterfalls in Dream Valley, when all of a sudden there was this big, bright light!” “It was really bright!” Bow Tie punctuated. “And then?” Nomde prodded. “And then we were here!” the two earth ponies answered in unison. “Well, I suppose that’s as good an answer as I’m going to get,” the unicorn grumbled. Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden flash outside, and a sonorous outcry which rattled the storefront windows. The two ponies turned towards the outburst, and then began to back into the shop in fear of what they had seen, causing the other ponies to retreat inside even further. “What is it now?!” Nomde had long since had enough. Just outside of her shop towered a slate gray quadrupedal creature with a blood red face, and blood red arms. “I-it’s Tirek!” Bow Tie cried, “What do we do?!” “Who?” The creature looked into the shop at the sound of the pony’s whimper, and a cruel grin split his face. “Ahh, yes. I recognize you two,” he drawled, as he stared past Nomde at the two earth ponies. “Because of your friends, I was robbed of my Rainbow of Darkness, and imprisoned by that cursed Rainbow of Light! But now it would seem I have a whole new world to conquer.” The beast advanced into the bookstore, splitting the floorboards with his heavy hoof falls, and cracking the door frame with his bulk. Nomde made a decision then and there. She had no idea who this newest intruder was, why, of all places, he had appeared outside of her bookstore, or why he was currently wrecking it. She had no idea what those capital ‘R’ Rainbows were, Light, Dark, or otherwise. However, she reasoned that they were probably weapons, and she figured she could do them one better. Whenever Nomde had faced a problem or puzzle in her life, she had always been able to find an answer in literature. She pushed through the shivering ponies towards the heart of her store, where she hoped to find a solution in just the right book. Preferably one that was thick and heavy and with very sharp corners. --- Check Mate and Crack Shot had insisted on accompanying Storm Stunner, and the three of them sped through the air towards the open air market of Canterlot. A surreal scene spread out beneath them: colorful buildings choked the roads, as if an impossibly large circus had decided to set up in all of the empty spaces. Vendor carts lay overturned and abandoned, and the entranceways of many structures were inadvertently blocked off, sealing their occupants inside. Strange ponies, no doubt Cacopony’s aliens, milled about pell-mell on the streets and in the air, no doubt feeling just as out of place as they looked. Storm had no idea how he or the others could hope to fix such a mess; everywhere he looked was bedlam. The only thing he knew was they had to do something, to start somewhere, to try to mend what was broken, even without a clear end in sight. It was their duty. Storm began to beat his wings furiously, and Crack Shot fought to keep up. A strange sight caught Storm’s eye as a familiar bookstore came into view. A white unicorn, a unicorn he had come to know very well, was looming over of a huddled figure just outside of her shop. She seemed to be pummeling it with a blunt, rectangular object, while two other ponies cheered her on. As the trio neared, they began to make out her words. “I - do - NOT - make - enough - for - you - to - come - in - and – start - trashing – my - STORE!” Each of Nomde’s words was punctuated by another blow from a hardcover encyclopedia. Curled into a ball beneath her, a gray and red centaur had tears streaming from the corners of his black and blue eyes. “Wow, miss unicorn pig, that was amazing!” “Yeah! Oh, Megan would absolutely love to meet you! Ooh, it just makes me want to sing!” “Back inside!” Nomde screamed, startling the two ponies back into her store. “Nomde!” Storm yanked himself from the chariot yoke, and galloped towards the unicorn. “Whoa, Storm’s done well for himself!” Crack Shot whispered to Check Mate after catching his breath. “Storm?” Nomde dropped her book and ran to meet the pegasus, pulling him into an embrace. “What in Equestria is going on?” “I have no idea,” Storm admitted. “Apparently some rip in the space/time whatever. We’re here to try to help out, though—“ Storm watched as the centaur hastily limped away, his tail tucked firmly between his legs, and all thoughts of conquest pouring in rivulets down his cheeks. “—You seem to be doing a pretty good job on your own.” A rare flush appeared on Nomde’s cheeks. “Well, you should have seen what the brute did to my poor little shop,” she said. “Well, whatever happened, I’m glad that you’re safe.” Check Mate and Crack Shot stood a few yards away, allowing the two their moment. When Storm took notice of them, he waved them over. “Nomde, this is Crack Shot and Check Mate.” He pointed at his friends in turn. “Guys, this is Nomde Plume.” Check Mate bowed his head in greeting. “It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Nomde, though I wish I could have done so under more auspicious circumstances. The journals that you provided Storm with were a delightfully epistemic diversion during our time in Basic Training.” “Charmed,” Nomde smiled. “Nice to meet ya!” Crack Shot waved a hoof. “Glad to finally get a chance to meet one of Storm’s closest friends!” The pegasus winked in a way that didn’t even try to be conspiratorial. Nomde cocked her head to the side and arched an eyebrow. Storm began to say something to shift the topic of conversation, but that was quickly taken care of by a cherry red unicorn with messy bangs racing towards the group. He was slowly trailed in the distance by what appeared to be a mummy. “Oh Luna be praised, the Guard!” he exclaimed, “You’ve got to come help! Quickly!” The three guardsponies scrutinized the suspicious figure plodding after the youth. Crack Shot scanned the street for any stones or other aerodynamic pieces of debris, just in case it came to that. “What is that thing?” Storm asked, looking over the unicorn's shoulder. Following the pegasus’s glance, the unicorn responded, “My boss.” As the decrepit unicorn neared, it became obvious that he wasn’t actually a mummy, though the only distinction to be made might have been the presence of a pulse and slightly drier skin. When he spotted the golden barding of Storm and the others, the creases in his face deepened into a scowl. “Pah! I don’t see why we need to be getting the law involved in all this!” he spat. “Do you really think we have the time to find anypony else?!” the younger unicorn snapped back. The scowl on his mentor’s face lessened just a bit. After a moment he spoke. “Blast it all, I can’t say I like it, but I suppose yer right...” the dusty pony sighed in resignation. It was a sound like sandpaper on wood. “We’d be happy to help ya out,” Crack Shot offered. “What seems to be the problem?” “Is it just clouds inside that tin can on yer head, colt?! Look up: that’s the problem right there!” The old unicorn gestured violently towards the starry strip in the sky, with a fire burning in his ancient eyes. “Whoa, you don’t gotta bite my head off!” Crack Shot took a step back, then a surreptitious grin crept onto his face. “Or should I say: ‘gum it off?’” “Impudent whelp!” the unicorn’s horn began to glow, before his younger companion intervened. “Gray Mane, I think we may have more pressing matters at hoof than you getting yourself thrown in jail. Perhaps you should explain things to them?” “Explain what, exactly?” Storm felt the sinking suspicion that there was more to the pair than appearances let on. “Just who are you?” “Ach...” the unicorn called Gray Mane gave in. “The one that needs a haircut is Febre. “As for me, I’m the one responsible for this mess.” The other ponies stared at him in disbelief; even Check Mate seemed taken aback, and he voiced his doubts. “Pardon me, sir, and by no means do I wish to label what you’ve said as a prevarication of any sort, but given the sheer scope of this calamity, it seems that an individual of your, er, senescence wouldn’t possess the magical reserves to sustain it.” The old unicorn smiled a crooked smile. “That’s the thing, lad; magic is one of the most mysterious forces in the universe, and this spell seems to have a life of its own. Sometimes ye’d be best off not tryin’ to explain it.” Check Mate looked unconvinced. “Anyways, I’m goin’ to be needin’ to borrow one of yer winged friends. We just may be able to put a stop to this before it spreads any further.” --- After a short walk from Nomde’s bookstore, the guardsponies found themselves in what might have been called an apartment at a happier point in its existence. A single firefly fluttered languidly in its lamp, its listless glow doing little as a source of lighting. The stained carpet seemed to fidget in protest when they stepped on it, and the air smelled like rancid soup. Storm tried not to breathe in. Gray Mane and Febre led them into a room which, judging by the color and lack of sentience of the flooring, saw much less traffic than the rest of the apartment. On one wall hung a painting; it was the type of colorful, unmemorable wall art that one might find in a hotel lobby, and the kind that any burglar with a shred of experience would instantly know to look behind. Gray Mane levitated the pastoral scene to reveal a wall safe painted in runic wards. They appeared to be burnt out. Before opening the safe, the unicorn turned towards the guardsponies and considered them with narrow eyes. “Alright, before I open this safe, know that yer only goin’ to get see its contents as a matter of necessity. I don’t want to hear any complaints about trifling matters like legality, understand?!” Storm, Check Mate, and Crack Shot exchanged glances then nodded in agreement. Satisfied, Gray Mane spun the dial of the safe, and it fell open noiselessly. Immediately the unicorns in the room flinched, and the contents of many of the bottles lost their color. “What- What manner of contraband do you have stored?” Check Mate asked with a shiver. Gray Mane retrieved a pair of tongs from a nearby shelf, and deftly plucked the safe’s contents, an innocuous jar of dark metals, and set it down. “It’s my own personal recipe,” the old unicorn preened. “A mixture of primium and nanominium gloss, with just an accent of negatively polarized octiron.” The well-oiled gears in Check Mate’s mind instantly clicked into place. “So an amalgam of magic neutralizing agents, and rather illicit ones at that,” he deduced. “How did you come to procure them?” “Fell out of the back of a trailer,” Gray Mane answered tonelessly. Check Mate decided not to press. “But that’s gettin’ away from the point,” Gray Mane continued. “They’re useful for when a spell goes south on ye. Assumin’ of course that ye can get close enough to use ‘em.” Crack Shot eyed the jar skeptically. “Wait a tic... You’re tellin’ me a hoof full of metal is gonna fix up whatever the heck is going on out there? You might wanna call up that trailer of yours and get an extra shipment.” Gray Mane let out a laugh, which quickly turned into a cough, “Ah, that’s the thing, lad! Yer problem is that ye think that what’s goin’ on out there is akin to a forest fire: each flame thoughtless, ubiquitous, and uniformly hot, not carin’ if its neighbor gets put it out, and quick to take its place. Think of the spell as like a beast: a beast with a beatin’ heart, one that can be stilled.” “Are you certain of that?” Storm asked, Gray Mane’s gravelly voice sparking a bit of hope. “Err, well I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case...” And the spark was snuffed; the guardsponies collectively groaned. “But ye can’t be givin’ up now! Yer young, yer spirits should be filled with spit and vinegar! If ye got a chance, ye oughta take it!” “I guess you’ve got a point, and I suppose we haven't a choice,” Storm conceded. “You said that you needed a pegasus, right? What exactly do you want us to do?” “Well, it’s a bit of a tall order. One of ye is gonna have to fly into the eye of the storm with those metals. I can’t tell ye what to expect up there, but it's gonna be a fine mess whatever it is, and ye might not make it back. I’ll let the two of ye figure out who’ll go.” Storm was the first to speak. “I’ll go.” Before Crack Shot could argue, Storm looked him in the eyes and continued, “You and Check Mate work well together if that story about your fight with those two ponies is any indication. I think you guys would be a better defense if any other characters like that weird centaur show up and start causing trouble.” “Heh, are you sure you just don’t want to be the hero, hotshot?” Crack Shot grinned, causing Storm to fluster. He nudged Check Mate in the shoulder. “Alright, Check, let’s let him have his moment. You and me can handle things down here.” “Then it’s settled!” Gray Mane said. “However, this is nasty stuff yer gonna be carryin’, and even as a pegasus yer not gonna want it in close contact. Let’s see if I can’t throw somethin’ together...” Gray Mane hobbled out of the room, and then returned a moment later carrying an old and abused mop handle and a square of worn linen. Laying the two together, he carefully used his tongs to dump the metals into the cloth, and then tie the fabric to the end of the mop handle. “Oh no...” Storm uttered, looking at the makeshift bindle and getting swept up by a surge of unpleasant memories. “NO!” --- Storm muttered poorly vocalized curses around the mop handle as he took to the air. The wood had an unpleasant chemical taste, and he could already feel a couple of splinters poking into his lips. He bit down and pumped his wings as hard as he could, eager to get the ordeal over with as quickly as possible. “There he goes...” Crack Shot observed. “You think he’ll be alright up there?” “Mmm, I believe so,” Check Mate answered. “Oh yeah?" The pegasus turned to the unicorn. “Is that your talent talkin’?” The unicorn was silent for a moment. “No... not in this case,” Check Mate admitted. “Heh, good enough for me,” Crack Shot smiled, “What say we go patrol the streets?” Check Mate nodded and the two ponies took off in a gallop from the apartment, ready to face whatever challenges awaited them, and hoping for their friend’s safe return. --- As he raced towards his task, the gravity of it weighed on Storm Stunner’s withers. Below him, society was in disarray. Ponies, both native and alien, were displaced, confused, and terrified. Menacing creatures from strange worlds were stalking the streets. That kind of chaos was the focus of many midday fantasies of his when he was a colt, the kind where when things were at their worst, he’d leap in and singlehoofedly save the day. He realized then just what a silly, selfish dream it was. To rise up against a threat meant that first others had to be threatened. To fix things, something first had to be broken. If this was the cost of being a hero, the price of glory, Storm would be just as content to pull chariots, guard doors, and keep out of the limelight. However, if he wished to bring back the halcyon doldrums that had thus far defined his experience in the Royal Guard, he had a job to do. He silently prayed that he would succeed. Climbing higher and higher towards the dark, yawning maw, Storm learned just how far away and enormous it was. He felt his ascent slow, his wings fighting for purchase as the air grew thinner and colder. Flecks of frost formed on his lips and in the corners of his eyes, forcing him to constantly blink to maintain his sight. Each frigid draw of air tickled his throat. The world below him disappeared in a verdigris haze, and in some dim corner of his mind he noted that he had long ago soared above the point where lungs start to oversaturate with blood, where brains start to swell, where ponies start to die. He continued his climb, feeling a strange sense of familiarity. Then, he was swallowed. --- Storm was acutely aware that something felt different. It wasn’t necessarily an unpleasant feeling; it was just an odd sensation of something missing. He was floating inexplicably, gravity conspicuously absent, though that wasn’t what troubled him. On all sides he was beset by what looked to be stars; however, they didn’t behave like stars. They darted, danced, disappeared; they did things that stars don’t do. He suspected that they were related to the lights he had seen pouring into Canterlot, if not one in the same. In the corners of his eyes he could catch fuzzy glimpses color: ghosts of greens, blues, and puffy whites, but they forever remained on the periphery of his vision. Storm realized what was missing. He hadn’t taken a breath since he found himself in the strange, astral milieu, and he found that he had no need to. He briefly considered whether or not he was dead. Then a splinter jabbed his upper lip. “Son of a—!” Storm surprised himself when the words came out clearly and echoed about him with no obvious means to do so. He then noticed an odd taste in his mouth beyond that of the mop handle. Although one is not always aware of it, air has a texture, and it has a taste. It might be soupy and thick with humidity, or dry and chafing. It could be hot, cold, warm, cool, any temperature in between. It might be sweet with pollen, or rancid from smoke and dust. What Storm felt was something heavily charged, though it ran through him and over him, albeit without any of the unpleasant charring and loss of muscle control that would typically accompany a voltaic shock. It had a citric aftertaste, something like pineapple. Storm correctly assumed it not to be air, but rather a medium much more familiar to unicorns. Storm attempted to maneuver through the aether in an awkward combination of flying, swimming, and trotting. The scenery around him shifted in turn, and he wasn’t certain if it was he that was moving, or everything else. He couldn’t make heads or tails of up or down, and his internal compass was reading north by southeast. “Huh,” he said, and heard it repeated. “Echo!” he added to the chorus of his voice. He suddenly felt very alone. He didn’t know what he had expected to find. The pragmatist in him knew that it was ridiculous to expect bright, flashing signs pointing out his target, but he would have appreciated some kind of hint as to what he was looking for. Well, it’s kinda hard to identify a big, glowing target when so many of them are zipping around you on all sides, Storm thought to himself. If everything is conspicuous, what the heck are you supposed to— He held on to that last thought. He wasn’t sure if he was on the right track, or if there even was a track, but he swiveled his head around regardless, scanning for something out of place, something— Aha! Perfectly stationary in the distance sat a single, faint, grey glimmer; it would've been impossible to notice if you weren't looking for something like it. Storm began to tread towards it. It was an innocuous little thing, no bigger than a pumpkin. Storm could hardly believe that such an innocent flicker of light could be responsible for so much trouble, but he was willing to take the gamble. He cocked his head back, grit his teeth, and thrust the bindle like a spear into its center, scattering its contents. The metals hissed violently, letting off high pitched peals as they greedily absorbed the magic of the rapidly dimming mass of... Potatoes? Storm blinked. Before him floated a hoof full of potatoes, accompanied by a vial of what looked like spit, and one very agitated fish. He started to say something, and then realized he had no words to do justice to his confusion. He wished somepony else was there to witness it, so he wouldn’t sound like a nutcase when he raved about it later. That was assuming that ‘later’ came. Nothing happened for an uncomfortably long moment, and Storm worried that he might’ve botched it. Then those worries were replaced by many of another sort as the void began to softly tremble, an intensely palpable act that seemed impossible for all of the empty space. The tremble evolved into a rumble, and then into long, jarring quakes as cracks of bright blue began to vein across arbitrary planes in the aether. As Storm struggled to stabilize himself in a world with nothing to hold on to, he was staggered by a violent eruption of color and a deafening rush of air as the cracks united and everything around him ruptured inward like a duck’s eggshell. When he recovered he was immediately made aware of the return of his sense of equilibrium, and, as gravity pulled him, he was made particularly aware of the downward direction. Down was where the ground was, and it was coming up to meet him alarmingly fast. Storm quickly twisted his body, turning his erratic plummet into a dive towards what he gratefully identified as Canterlot. At the edge of his vision, he noticed a small, glossy shape to his side as it rippled and warped in its descent, and he aimed his flight to coincide with its path. As the city’s towers stabbed towards them like spear tips, he deftly plucked it from the sky and fanned his wings, pulling out of his dive seconds before colliding with a balcony, only to face another set of challenges as the speed of his free fall was shifted in another direction. In the sudden, perilous obstacle course of edifices, he whipped about like mad between buildings and spires, fighting to reign in his speed. He felt an overwhelming relief as the air drag slowed him, and he finally regained full control of his flight. Storm nearly collapsed as he landed into an unsteady trot, then he figured why settle for 'nearly' and promptly fell over. The small plastic bag dropped from his lips beside him, as a bead of nervous sweat ran down his brow. The little guppy blinked up at him with big, expressionless eyes. --- Princess Luna abruptly dropped the book she was reading, a copy of Pony Wheeler’s Lonely Multiverse, with a dull thud, startling her sister. “Is something wrong, Lulu?” Celestia asked, looking up from her own text. “Do you feel that?” Celestia set down her book, “What do you mean? I don’t feel anyth— Oh!” “Exactly!” Luna’s eyes lit up. Somehow, and without Celestia noticing it, the omnipresent buzz of the rift had tapered away, like the quieting of a thunderstorm. “But that seems strange; we haven’t done anything yet...” Celestia mused. “Well, perhaps we didn’t need to.” The thought hadn’t occurred to Princess Celestia that the incident could have resolved itself without their intervention, but she couldn’t deny the possibility. “Hm, you may very well be correct... How about we go take a look for ourselves?” The two alicorns hastily made their way through the halls leading from the archives and stepped out into the daylight. Gazing into the sky, they were greeted by a vast expanse blue, mottled intermittently with knots of cotton, with not a thing out of place. --- “Shoop bee doo, shoop shoop bee doo...” Ponyanna sang tunelessly. The melody had been stuck in her head since an odd meeting with a bizarre pony she had found swimming in the wishing fountain on the way back to her home. Although she had been disappointed to see the limbless pony leave so suddenly, she was rather impressed with the way she did so. Apparently sea ponies, as they called themselves, didn’t swim away, but instead vanished in a burst of sparks. Ponyanna probed her memory for any recollection of a horn, but didn’t recall seeing one. She shrugged; she had long ago learned that her memory was best taken with a grain of salt (though no more than that if she wanted to remember anything at all in the morning). Although Newton was dejected by the loss of a potential expansion of his empire, the earth pony was pleased to see each of the poorly colored structures disappearing from the streets. She was not looking forward to figuring out a whole new set of landmarks, and apparently some other ponies must have agreed. She was surprised that they were able to get such an expeditious response. They had probably written an angry letter. Ponyanna merrily stepped through her apartment door (she always left it unlocked), content that everything in the world was just as it should be, just like it had always been. “Shoop bee doo, shoop shoop bee doo...” --- Storm knew that he should report in on his actions back at the castle, but he had a few stops he wanted to make beforehand. First, he dropped off the guppy in a nice, algae-rich pond; he figured it deserved at least that much after its ordeal. Then, landing outside of the book shop, he was surprised to find not only Nomde Plume, but Crack Shot and Check Mate waiting for him. They gathered around him in an instant. “Hey, took ya long enough!” Crack Shot clapped him on the shoulder. “Nice job, buddy!” “Storm!” Nomde stepped forward and brushed his cheek with her own, causing his to pinken. “Your friends told me all about your exploit; I’m so glad you made it back in one piece...” “Oh, ah, hehe,” Storm stammered, bowing his head. “It really wasn’t that big of a deal...” “You’re too modest,” Nomde whispered as she softly kissed Storm between his eyes. His already pink cheeks flared bright red at the gesture. He smiled at Nomde, and she smiled back. “Dude. What’s up with your face?” Crack Shot inquired, adroitly spoiling the mood. “Oh snap, are you blushing?! Hah, oh jeez! Haven’t you two been dating for, like, months now?” “Damn it, Crack Shot! Could you just— gah!” Storm sputtered; Nomde herself had turned a hint of rouge at that point. “Check Mate, help!” “Err, ah, yes. Um, Crack Shot, maybe there is some byway that we’ve yet to thoroughly safeguard?” Check Mate suggested. ”Perhaps another patrol would be in order?” “Yeah, yeah, I gotcha.” Crack Shot snickered. “We’ll be around when you finish up here, Romeo.” Nomde and Storm watched the two other guardsponies trot off and round a corner. After a moment, Nomde spoke. “Subtlety is a word lost on your friend, isn’t it?” “Yep...” Storm agreed. “But that’s what makes him a pleasure to hang around... Most of the time.” “What about that older unicorn?” Nomde quirked an eyebrow. “Was he really responsible for everything that happened?” Storm sighed. “Apparently he was. He definitely had a big hoof in fixing all of it, but... I guess when it comes right down to it, he was the cause in the first place.” The pegasus took a step forward and looked uncertainly at Nomde. “I suppose I’d better catch up with the others so we can figure out just what we need to do about that. Will you be alright here?” Nomde smirked. “You saw what I did to that centaur; I’ll be fine. Go on ahead; I know you’ll do the right thing.” “Thank you, Nomde,” said Storm. Then, feeling just a bit daring, he gave her a peck on the cheek, “I hope you’re right.” Storm galloped in the direction that Crack Shot and Check Mate had travelled, and found them waiting right by the corner at which they had turned. “Don’t tell me you were watching the whole time,” he moaned. “I, myself, would never conspire to partake in such an ungracious—“ “Yes.” “Whatever. What do you guys think we should do about Gray Mane?” “That old geezer?” Crack Shot shrugged. “What about ‘em?” “I believe Storm is referring to his role in everything that has transpired today,” Check Mate explained. “Primarily his culpability. Inadvertent as they may have been, his actions placed the city in peril. And there is the matter of his possession of those materials.” “But in the end, if he hadn’t helped, none of us would've been able to fix this mess, right?” Crack Shot looked at the others with uncertain eyes. He didn’t like where the conversation was going. “Be that as it may, it was by a stroke of luck that he found us,” Storm said, as much for friend as for himself. “Who’s to say something like this won’t happen again?” Crack Shot was outnumbered two-to-one, but he felt he needed to come to the defense of the cantankerous old buzzard. Everypony made mistakes at some point in their lives (the pegasus knew he had made more than his fair share), it was just that some of them were bigger than others. “That’s just a what-if though, isn’t it?” Crack Shot argued. “Why do we need to go and bug that old fossil now that everything’s said and done?” Storm let out a long, solemn breath. “Because it’s our job.” Crack Shot slumped in resignation. Check Mate didn’t say a word; he simply patted his friend on the back softly. The trio retrieved their chariot from the front of Nomde’s bookstore and began the short walk to Gray Mane’s flat. A walk which, despite their slow hoof falls, went much quicker than any of them would have liked. “You think the princesses will go easy on ‘em?” Crack Shot asked as they stood outside of the door to the apartment. “I believe they will be just and fair,” Check Mate answered. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Crack Shot said as Storm rapped on the door. “Hopefully he’ll get to keep on shootin’ for his eudemonia at the end of it all.” The door opened to reveal the young, cherry red unicorn, Febre. “Oh, it’s you guys again! ... I think? You all kinda look the same.” The unicorn furrowed his brow in thought. “Yeah... it’s us again,” Storm replied. “Would Gray Mane still happen to be around?” “Yeah, he’s inside,” Febre noticed the forlorn looks on the guardsponies’ faces, “Why, is something wrong? It looks like you guys got everything cleared up.” “Could we speak to him?” Storm asked, trying to avoid the young unicorn’s gaze. Febre stepped into the doorway in an attempt to block it with his small frame. “Now hold on a second! Quit dodging my questions; what’s wrong?” “It’s alright, lad, I know why they’re here,” came a gritty voice from within the flat; its wrinkled owner soon followed. “Step aside.” “Damn it, why won’t anypony tell me what’s going on?!” Febre shouted. “Heh, I would'na expect my assistant to be so daft.” Gray Mane laughed in his raspy way. “They’re here to take me away.” “What?!” Febre’s eyes went wide, “They can’t! I mean, if not for you they wouldn’t have been able to do a thing!” “And if not fer me, they would'na had to. Ye may not be able to tell by lookin’ at me, but I’m old enough to recognize and own up to my mistakes. Now step aside before I have to introduce ye to the business end of my horn, lad.” Febre stepped out of the way miserably, allowing Gray Mane to exit and meet the Royal Guard. “We’ll be sure to let the princesses know everything you did to avert this crisis,” Storm spoke as the aged unicorn stepped outside. “Hah, I’m certain that ye will, and I appreciate it,” Gray Mane brayed as he stepped into the chariot, “Alright, ye gilded lilies; shall we be off?” --- Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stared in curiosity at the hoary unicorn kneeling before them. The guardsponies that had brought him in had said little about the unicorn, only that he had a hoof in ending the earlier chaos that had threatened Equestria. They explained that they wished to allow him the honor of detailing the rest of his story. The three of them stood near the entrance to the audience chamber, watching the unicorn’s actions anxiously. After a long moment in which the unicorn did not stir, Princess Celestia finally spoke. “Please feel free to rise. Would you be so kind as to tell us who you are?” “It would be my honor, Yer Majesties, and thank ye for taking the time from yer duties, both celestial and political, to hear my words. I am Gray Mane, a practitioner of the arcane arts, and I consider it to be a privilege to be under yer auspices.” The ancient unicorn kneeled once more. “Oh my! So formal!” said Princess Luna. “I was taught at a young age to always respect my elders,” said Gray Mane. “Well,” Princess Celestia continued with a radiant smile, “would you please tell us what circumstances bring you here? We understand that it was in thanks to you that a crisis was averted today.” “Most of the avertin’ was done by one of yer tin soldiers over there, Yer Majesty. I was just tryin’ to fix what I broke.” The two alicorn sisters exchanged glances for just moment, before turning back towards Gray Mane. “What you broke?” Luna repeated as she scrutinized the unicorn with narrowed eyes, “Do you mean to say that you, yourself, were the cause of a rip in reality?” “Guilty, Yer Majesty- though I reckon I may regret that choice of wordin’... It was more of a slip up in an experiment of mine—” “Fascinating.” Princess Luna stood and eyed the unicorn curiously. “To think that a single unicorn could conceive such an original spell—My sister and I couldn’t find a single related incantation in our library! You say you did this by accident; what components did you use? What were you originally trying to do?” “Heh, well believe it or not, Yer Majesty, I was actually tryin’ to work out a new type of dog leash...” --- Storm Stunner sat in a restaurant whose name he couldn’t quite pronounce. It had waiters dressed better than he was, and more than once they had pointed out the fact. The cost of each item on the menu was either printed crisply in two to three digits, or simply listed forebodingly as ‘Market Price.’ The pegasus had tried to mentally list the function of each utensil sitting in front of him, and had given up somewhere near the middle. He wouldn’t have chosen to be anywhere else in the world. “So instead of imprisoning him, or banishing him, or any combination of the two, they gave him a job?” asked Nomde Plume from across the table. A soft flicker of orange candlelight from its center played over the green of her eyes. “Not only him, but that apprentice of his as well,” Storm answered as he took a sip of his coffee: a decaf. “My guess is that they figured if he wanted to do his crazy experiments, he might as well do it close by where they can keep a handle on it. You should’ve seen what they did to the laboratory they were given; there’s styrofoam everywhere.” “Hmm...” Nomde smiled, and her half lidded eyes twinkled as a light gust blew over the table, causing the candle’s flame to shudder. “I suppose I can’t fault the princesses’ logic.” Their waiter approached with dishes supported in a cloud of his magic. The serving ware alighted in front of the two ponies, and the covers rose to reveal a salad of imported orchids for Nomde, and a plate of black truffles for Storm. Uncertain of which fork to use, Storm reached for the one farthest to the left. Then he realized he had no way of using it, and simply leaned forward and took a careful nibble of the mushroom. He didn’t think it was worth its price tag. “So, I have to ask,” Nomde began, after tasting her orchid salad and concluding that it’d be improved by decidedly less orchid, “with all of the strange and multifarious activities you’ve participated in with the Guard, did you ever find your special talent among them?” Storm thought about that day filled with odd occurrences, and his part in ending them. He answered, “Yeah, I think I’ve figured it out. And I think it doesn’t really matter much. As special as a talent and a cutie mark may be, they’re only a small part of what makes a pony unique.” “Well said,” Nomde noted as she picked a crouton out of her salad. “You know, if it were alright with you, I’d love to write about your experiences. What you’ve seen, what you’ve done... Everything about your life in the Guard so far.” Storm began to laugh, causing Nomde to frown slightly. “Heh, sorry about that, I appreciate the thought, really,” Storm apologized. “It’s just, a story about some grunt in the Royal Guard...” “And just what’s so funny about that?” Nomde asked, plucking one of the truffles from his plate. “I was just wondering: who would want to read it?” THE END

MoronSonOfBoron

489

Original Character,Silver Spoon,Romance,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Sex

The Loving Spoonful

complete

<p>A sensual second-person story where the reader-protagonist is a servant working in an unusually intimate function to Silver Spoon, a young pony of privilege.</p><p>Originally written as a friendoff entry, inspired by <a href="http://fav.me/d3h1a10" rel="nofollow">johnjoseco's artwork.<br/></a><br/>Warning: sexually suggestive material, transgressive subject matter</p>

mature

2011-08-12T00:58:10+00:00

2011-08-12T00:58:10+00:00

The pointed click of her tiny hooves over the marble tile cuts through your attention. You have been standing stone-stiff here for the better part of an hour, a sentinel in an apron watching over the breakfast table. Her hoof comes up from under her robe to adjust her thick-rimmed spectacles, balancing them over her swelling grey muzzle as she snubs the porcelain bowl. "Oatmeal. Are you crazy?" You know better than to respond; worse to look into her disapproving lavender eyes. Regardless, it's difficult not to let your gaze follow the young pony's pacing; the brushed steel and dark platinum of her coat and mane give her a natural sheen of light even in the unglamorous hours of the morning. She is like a walking light among the shadows of mediocrity, and it pains you to realize that this young filly who barely reaches your shoulder is weightlessly jabbing your chest in accusation. "I demand comforting. Bring me comfort food." Whatever your lady wants, your lady gets; even if it is against her parents' wishes, you can only hope that any potential improvements in her mood will soften the blow on your paycheck. You are quick to break open the pantry and fetch a red box of her favorite Pony Charms cereal. Months of practice let you intuit the setup without any further instruction: a rose-painted earthenware bowl inlaid with slivers of crystal; a jeweled silver spoon not unlike the cutie mark on her young flank; the pattern of layering sugar-frosted marshmallow with milk and mixing it so as not to let the bottom become unpleasantly soggy. Through these precious seconds of preparation, you steal glances at her, checking on her disposition. Small as she is, she is still possessed of a youthful roundness that comes out when she sits on her pillow, curling her silky tail around her bottom to hide the curve of indulgence. It is an indulgence you gladly feed as you quickly clear off her table and replace the oatmeal with the cool milk and sweet cereal, a corner of the napkin tucked under the bowl within a smidgemeter of her preferences. You return to your post, letting her drink up the new setting. She says nothing, save for a telling smile and a tilt of her snout to indicate that she awaits your services. Eating with a spoon is a fairly complex affair for anypony, given the manipulation of such objects escapes the poor grasp hooves provide. Your lady is an earth pony, possessed of no magical horn to channel telekinetic energy to guide the silver utensil herself; even if she did have such privilege, you would most likely still be here, as such a menial and manual task would be beneath a lady of her standing. You don't hold the spoon in your own mouth so much as gently angle it between your teeth, a slight cantilever requiring minimal contact with your lips as you scoop up the breakfast confection. She opens her mouth as if to swallow you, wide and expectant. You can smell her breath, cleaned and rinsed with floral mints and powders, leaving pristine pearls that have rarely so much as smirked at you. Your own lungs lock up, taking in her scent as you approach with the spoonful, careful not to exhale your excited vulgarity so close to her face. The hair around your nose bristles, imagining the velvety touch of her skin. Her lips suddenly lock down about your extended proffering, the sudden jilt in the utensil pulling you forward. You can see into the watery depths of her eyes, rich violet periwinkle gleaming under the skylight. Slight pressure tickles your insides as you feel her tongue work over every edge of it, her attention consumed by the sweet gift you pour into her mouth. One second lasts forever before she pulls away. You watch helplessly as she struggles to swallow the sugary payload; she slowly tilts backward and downs it with a slight measure of difficulty. When she looks back to you with a wrinkle of displeasure, a bead of milk trails back from her scowling lips. "Too deep." You nod your head gently and set the spoon aside, exchanging it for the napkin. She cranes again as you press the terrycloth to her face, sweeping up stray bits of milk and sugar. As you explore the groove of her chin, down to her throat latch, you close your eyes as you imagine the proxy sin of the napkin's cherubim kisses. The procedure repeats itself in a gentle rhythm: spoon, napkin, spoon, napkin. You enter her over and over, pausing to allow yourself to breath and wick away the mess of your engagement. It is a slow, exquisite torture, your neck and jaw burning with endurance as you are careful not to mar her perfection in the midst of this prandial ecstasy. The hollow click of the spoon against the bottom of the bowl is a mournful toll, at which she will turn to leave after one last press of the napkin. You let it linger there, sure to soak up anything left of the ordeal. The butler calls for her, "Miss Silver Spoon, you'll be late for school!" And then she is gone. These are the contents of your mornings: the young lady invites you to this wordless dance, relying on you and you alone to press into a most private place of herself, leaving sugary droplets and marshmallow ministrations across her teeth and neck. Your relationship is a simple one: she comes, she eats, she leaves, and you are forever separated by that silver mile across which you can feel the coolness of her breath, smell the clean texture of her coat, and taste the virgin contours of her body. When it is all over you are left with soggy white lumps at the bottom of a bowl, and one spin cycle later all evidence of your encounter has been washed clean away, waiting to renew the memory the next sunrise. You wonder if she will have soup tonight.

Terse

490

Bon-Bon,DJ P0N-3,Lyra,Comedy,Romance,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Octavia's Power Hour

complete

<p>For what is ostensibly the most terrifying time in her entire life, Octavia forgets how to play her beloved cello. Shenanigans ensue, and Lyra reluctantly helps to pick up the pieces, with the help of our favourite DJ, Vinyl Scratch!</p>

everyone

2011-08-13T00:11:22+00:00

2011-08-13T00:11:22+00:00

Octavia’s Power Hour “I can’t believe how well your friend plays the cello, Lyra,” Bon-Bon sighed as she stepped over the threshold of the door to their hotel room. “I’m almost envious. Everyone I know has such skill with instruments, such passion for their careers, and here I am, idly making sweets as I struggle to compete with two old doormats and their doggedly incompetent au pair.” Behind her, Lyra shrugged, violently pulling the door shut. The chill breeze outside, combined with the cloudy, restless sky that churned warningly overhead, suggested there’d be a storm later on; they’d only been in Canterlot for three days so far, but each night had been cold and draughty. The door kept refusing to close properly, and she simply could not survive yet another night spent shivering beneath too-thin blankets, desperately clinging to Bon-Bon for her warmth. It would be just enough to push her over the edge of sanity, well into madness. Proof positive, she felt, that living frugally wasn’t worth the effort, not when a few extra bits per night would guarantee her an exponentially more comfortable experience. “You know, it looks like bad weather’s comin’,” the mint-green unicorn shouted, struggling to undo the clip that kept her formal saddle (or ‘personal prison’, as she’d jokingly deemed it earlier) wrapped around her wiry frame. From somewhere down the hallway, she heard a muffled shout in response, but she couldn’t make the words out over the sudden hissing of steam; that meant tea, and tea was always appreciated. Bon-Bon did make the best tea. After a few more moments of bitter combat with the doohickeys and thingamajigs that were beginning to choke the life out of her, Lyra finally escaped the clutches of the dastardly saddle, bucking it as hard as she could, as far away as she could. It sailed down the hallway, arcing through the air in a magnificent crescent that, Lyra had to admit, was almost athletic in its grace, even as it collided with Bon-Bon’s head in mid-air. She’d peeked out the door, carrying a tray filled with assorted treats, two cups of tea, a shiny steel teapot and a tall glass of milk, only to be beaned in the face by the saddle; now she sat dazed on the floor, food and drink spilled carelessly around her, saddle still hanging limply from the side of her head. It made Lyra chuckle, though she could feel her face reddening out of embarrassment. “Sorry, sweets,” she cooed, bounding over to help clean up. The scent of tea wafting into her nostrils was more than a little enticing, and she hoped Bon-Bon would make more. Their day had been tough (as always, Octavia had been more than a little neurotic about everything), and she could have used a nice, hot drink to cool off. “Next time, I’ll be more careful.” “Hopefully,” the earth pony spat back, wiping away the last streaks of tea in her mane as she stomped her way towards the bathroom. “Though I place little stock in hope.” Lyra just sighed in response, sweeping the debris away with a hoof. After a few more hours on the clock, Lyra began to feel her energy slowly seeping away. It had been a routine evening for their stay in Canterlot - after dealing with the disastrous mess they’d made in the hotel room (followed by a decidedly un-romantic quickie, by way of apology), they’d returned to the town. A quick stop at a local café came first, where they’d snacked on some absolutely divine sunflower sandwiches, followed by a much longer sojourn to the outlying hills, and a spectacular evening spent resting amidst the bosom of nature, stargazing in relative silence, content to simply enjoy the beautiful night-time sky. Lyra had been more than a little shocked by the sudden change in the weather patterns, but she assumed the pegasi had chosen to move whatever storms they’d been planning back, at least for the day; the shadowy shapes swimming through the inky darkness of the night sky attested to that, performing a wide array of stunts and tricks that kept their attentions riveted. By the time the shapes had disappeared (one in particular had very nearly divebombed the two ponies, in its haphazard styling), the last specks of light from the towns out in the countryside had darkened, save a single point of light in the direction of Ponyville that Lyra was sure belonged to the library. Idly she had wondered what Miss Sparkle was up to so late at night, but Bon-Bon had chalked it up to a night-time study session, and Lyra had been content to agree. When they’d finally made their way back into Canterlot, choosing to take the scenic route through the rural shanties on the outskirts of the city, despite their notorious reputation for crime, Bon-Bon had been desperate to get some sleep, and Lyra had reluctantly agreed. Not everyone was a night-owl like her, after all, though her thoughts couldn’t help but harken back to the day’s she’d spent in the Academy of Creative Artistry in the heart of Canterlot, when she’d slept through the days and relished in the nights, and the nocturnal life that came with it. “Lyra,” Bon-Bon whispered, snapping her from her reverie, “we’re here. Do pay attention, darling.” “Sorry,” she chuckled meekly, scratching the base of her neck with her hoof. “A little distracted. Can’t keep my eyes off the prize.” “Prize?” Bon-Bon gave her a quizzical look, head slightly cocked. “Are we playing a game now?” “It depends,” came the response, smooth and sultry. Lyra leaned into her lover, overbalancing her ever so slightly as she wrapped a foreleg around her neck. “Games have to have more than one player, right? Are you going to join me, in my quest for...points?” With little warning, something clicked in Bon-Bon’s head, eyes narrowing as she smirked back into Lyra’s eyes. “Now there’s a question,” the earth pony growled, amused expression playing across her lips. Bon-Bon, for all her ability to be icy and stoic, had never been very good at keeping her emotions to herself; Lyra knew how to play her like an open book, or, well, a game. Part of her, a tiny corner of the back of her mind, suddenly became a whole lot more interested in the exchange. “Sweets, I’m not hearing anything I’d question...” she trailed off, sensuously running her hooves down her partner’s neck, across her back, down her flanks. She’d practically draped herself over the other pony now. “Neither am I, dear,” Bon-Bon crooned, mane falling over her eyes in a way that drove Lyra mad. She couldn’t contain herself, any more. She’d use magic to drag the other pony to bed if need be. “It all sounds very well and good, to me.” “Then why don’t we get to playing? I’ll go first.” “Of course, dear,” Bon-Bon laughed, raising a hoof to the door and pushing it open. Lyra assumed she’d been working the chain during all her amorous advances. Her sweetie had always been clever. This was it. Her time to strike. She pushed forward, ready to grab the other pony and toss her to the ground- “But right now I’m ever so tired,” she yawned, shutting the door, and Lyra, out behind her. The unicorn’s jaw fell open. Where before she’d been quiet, content with her eyes on her mare’s flank and her thoughts elsewhere entirely, now she was livid, stomach very nearly about to burst. “Yeah, well,” she screamed, slamming her hooves on the door, “see who’s sleeping on the couch for the next two weeks!” When no response floated to her ears from the other side of the door, in that delightfully eerie way of Bon-Bon’s that made her shiver with anticipation, she knew the couch-sleeper would be her. Bon-Bon always did get her way. Eventually, Lyra remembered that she had her own key for the door in her saddlebags, and managed to jimmy it open, with some effort. She’d never been one for working small keys, or anything that required excessive amounts of finesse, and now her out-of-touch levitation abilities were necessary, she found it quite difficult to actually get the damn thing in the lock the way she wanted. The cool night air was beginning to give her goosebumps, most certainly not in a good way, and she could swear her shouting must have been enough to rouse Nightmare Moon from slumber. The neighbours would not be happy the next morning. By the time she was inside, softly levering the door closed behind her, she’d decided getting revenge on her partner wouldn’t be worth the effort. Bon-Bon had a weasel’s tendency towards good luck, slippery enough to evade any punishment one might direct upon her; Lyra knew from experience with her family, all ten of her twin sisters, all with the same Cutie Mark, that there was no such thing as a comeuppance for her. She had, to put it frankly, enough luck to make the Princesses look cursed, and she drained it from everyone around her. Bad things happened to ponies who knew Bon-Bon, that was the assumption. Tiptoeing down the corridor, Lyra looked into her room. The pony in question was tucked up tight in her bed, covered in enough blankets to keep her toasty in a blizzard, head lying comfortably on a two-pillow ensemble. Two pillows! The nerve of that pony, stealing her bed, her sheets, her things. If she wasn’t so adorable, Lyra would have thrown her out. As it was, she stood awkwardly on her hind legs in the doorway, eyes glued on the rise and fall of the other pony’s chest, and the tiny bubble of drool that formed, expanded, and popped with every breath she took. Lyra could have jumped on top of her, smothered her, and thrown her out of the bed. She could have set fires around the bed, stolen one of the pillows, removed a blanket, hidden a pea under the mattress; Celestia knew the little princess would have been awoken by even the slightest thing. She could have simply slipped in next to her and gone to sleep. Instead, she turned and trotted away, towards the kitchen, intent on getting herself something to drink while she pondered her predicament. That was how Lyra came to be sitting at the table in the kitchen at two in the morning, during the darkest part of Luna’s night, dressed in her legendary ‘Bath Robe’, a rare holdover from a mythical civilisation of intelligent, bipedal, furless animals that she had come to love, sipping on a magically-levitated cup of bitter, black, piping hot java. A series of events that culminated in a frigid night in all possible senses of the word, but she could deal with it. She’d very quickly gotten used to getting the cold shoulder from her precious Bon-Bon. And so it was that she was set up in a very, very awkward position for what happened next. When the knock on the door came, in the dead of night, Lyra shot up from her seat into the air, dropping the china mug on the floor. It clattered onto the ground, shattered, and its husk rolled across the floor, spilling coffee all over the tiles, but Lyra wasn’t interested in any of that; she was still hyperventilating, clutching a hoof to her heart as she steadied herself with a hoof on the furniture. The second knock didn’t catch her quite so much off-guard, but it still served as a surprise, and she very nearly fell to the ground herself as she moved towards the doorway to the main hall, slipping and losing her footing on a trail of liquid that stretched across the floor. “Coming,” she muttered angrily, regaining her balance and continuing her trek. The knocking quickly became louder and more insistent, and Lyra forced herself to keep calm as she crossed the distance between it and her own space. She should have been asleep, she mused. Safe and snug as a bug in a rug in her own bed back in Ponyville, or at least in her bed in the next room over, frolicking in a happy dreamscape, dreaming happy dreams. Not sleepless in Canterlot in the middle of the night, answering a mysterious, persistent knocking that vehemently refused to go away. The knocking died down as she reached the door, thankfully, and for a moment Lyra considered just not bothering. Maybe the pony on the other side had given up? It probably wasn’t important anyway. If Bon-Bon, light sleeper that she was, hadn’t been woken up by it, remained largely unaffected as she snored comfortably away in her (their!) room, why should she? Why should it bother her? Her mind told her that it wanted to satisfy its curiosity, and she accepted that, albeit with some reluctance, as she pulled the door open. “Thank Luna’s divine haunches!” cried the voice on the other side, a nasal, whining voice, and Lyra found herself with a faceful of earth pony, grey coat, black mane, pink bow-tie and all. It took a moment for Lyra’s mind to put everything together. Even when it did, she still found herself confused. Octavia was sobbing in her grasp, pretty much a shaky, useless wreck on all counts, and just behind her, Vinyl Scratch, possibly Lyra’s oldest friend outside of the pony she was holding now, leaned against the railings on the outdoor balcony, casting glances back and forth between Lyra and the stairwell. She looked just as uncomfortable as the unicorn felt, red eyes bloodshot, unfocused and ringed with dark bags, and her posture wasn’t the sort of slouching, devil-may-care bravado she usually carried herself with. Instead she seemed tired, swaying occasionally as she tried to hold herself up with energy she didn’t have. Octavia herself was even more of a wreck. Her eyes were sunken, blackened pits, stained red from crying, violet irises barely showing through, and she looked like she was about to faint dead away, frazzled mane and coat showing none of the usual ‘care and dignity’ Octavia was renowned for. Both of them were wrecks, though Octavia easily the worse, still crying as she held on to Lyra for dear life. “Rough night, huh?” Scratch and Lyra grumbled in unison, and that coaxed a laugh out of Octavia. That was enough for Lyra, who stepped outside and shut the door behind her, still wearing her ‘Bath Robe’. It was going to be a long night. The three old friends found themselves in a dingy backwater bar in the Canterlot slums, one they’d regularly visited in their childhoods and had made a point of avoiding ever since. It was the sort of place a youngster could be served without worrying about the consequences, and that spoke volumes of its clientele, though not its quality, surprisingly enough. It was run-down, cheap, near-dilapidated, and a host of seedy characters were dotted about the inside of the tavern, but the staff were friendly, and the drinks were always some of the best in the city. Despite its distance, it was the first place in their collective heads. The old bartender, upon seeing their little crowd, somehow immediately recognised them, in spite of the sheer number of years it had been since they’d last been served there; he sat them down at their old regular table, brought them some of their old regular drinks, and left them to their old, regular haunts. “Good ol’ Vanish,” Scratch groaned, voice scratchy as she mixed her salt up with some more hard alcohol. Lyra gave her a sideways glance that said all that needed to be said - sobriety was the key word tonight. “Never questions a thing. Been years since I’ve been to this ugly little shack, makes the little filly inside me happy to know it’s still here.” “Yep,” Octavia mumbled back, downing a shot. “And buck sobriety.” “I’ll drink to that,” the white unicorn laughed, kicking back a mixer the likes of which Lyra had never been able to handle like it was a glass of water. “Vanish Mixer, bartender extraordinaire. Wonder if he’ll regale us with some of his ol’ stories tonight.” “You’re slurring your words again,” Octavia sighed, resting her head on the table, one hoof in the air. “I thought I told you...not to...slur...” With a heavy snore, the grey earth pony fell right out of consciousness. Scratch just sneered, reaching over and snatching her glass straight out of her hooves, downing it in one. The sight made Lyra retch a little. She’d never been one for mixing her alcohol with salt; not since an unfortunate experience earlier in her life that generally left her feeling dirty and sickened whenever it crossed her mind. “So what made you come to my hotel room and drag me out in the middle of the night?” She asked, glaring at the unconscious earth pony. Scratch chose to field the question, with a question of her own. “Nah, man,” she laughed, pulling her goggles off of her face. “You came on your own. I figure you weren’t in the middle of anything important...or, more importantly, anything saucy!” The white unicorn paused, hiccoughing, before she leaned over conspiratorially and asked, “were you?” under her breath. Lyra just sighed and shook her head in response. Scratch’s smile was wider than she’d seen it the whole day. “That mare of yours holding out on you tonight, eh?” Her guffaw was loud enough to jar Lyra out of her reverie, the sound of her distinctive laugh ringing in her ears, and she fumed, raising her glass to her lips and chugging it with a distinct air of haughtiness. At least, she hoped she was being haughty. She didn’t know whether there was more to it than just turning your nose up at someone, and she hadn’t bothered to learn from Bon-Bon- When Lyra choked on her drink, hooves scrabbling for purchase on her throat, Scratch just sat still, shaking with laughter. Octavia, on the other hoof, shot back up, one hoof in the air, a determined expression on her face as she gave Lyra a soul-searching stare that pierced right through to her core, or so Octavia thought. The mint-green unicorn was still too busy trying to clear her airways to care. “I don’t see why you’re still with that snotty little harlot,” the cellist scoffed, bristling with new, barely-contained rage. “She is a horrid excuse for a mare and you deserve better, Lyra!” After a few more moments of coping with her latest near-death experience (asphyxiation, she’d have to add that one to the list), Lyra trained her eyes on Octavia. “Don’t say things like that about her,” she snarled. “You two are my oldest friends. You know how much I care about her.” “Don’t seem like she cares too much about you, dude,” Scratch retorted, focusing on a couple across the room that seemed to be totally engaged in being fleeced by an eerily-familiar blue unicorn with a wand for a Cutie Mark. She was used to seeing ponies get bilked out of their money, but this caught her eye. “Anyway, we know how you feel, it’s just that we think you can do better.” “Of course you can do better!” Octavia shouted, jumping to her feet. “Why, if you’d only-” “Don’t go there, girl,” Scratch said, intervening with a hoof to the grey earth pony’s shoulder. Lyra had seen this conversation play out one too many times for her liking, so she chose to nip it in the bud as soon as possible. “Why are we out here, anyway? It’s late, we’re all tired, and pretty much frustrated out of our minds. Couldn’t we have had the whole ice cream social tomorrow?” “Refills, Mixer!” Scratch cried over the din. Octavia, for what felt like a single second, looked completely flabbergasted, before she broke down into tears. Lyra already regretted asking. Meanwhile, Scratch comforted the distraught cellist, massaging her back as best she could. “I can’t...” “You can’t what?” Now Lyra was perplexed. “I can’t!” “Lyra, don’t push it, honey,” Scratch said, as Vanish wordlessly passed her another shaker of salt and a jug of Luna-knows-what, followed by four shiny, spotless tankards, before skulking away. “Tav’s got a bit of a problem, tonight, see?” “So she came to you with this problem and you decided to come get me?” “Sort of,” Scratch sighed, giving her a look that made her stomach drop. “We were celebrating, I guess? A great show, a Canterlot reservation for the Triple G, a rec from Sapphire Shores herself, this was, like, the best night ever for Tav!” At that, the ambient sobbing exploded into a chorus of violent wails, but Scratch carried on determinedly, still rubbing Octavia’s back. Lyra couldn’t help but lean forward, very much interested. “So?” “My life is ruined!” The earth pony in question yelled, burying her face in her hooves. “Hey, chill out, babe,” Scratch murmured into her ear, in a low, loving tone that comforted Lyra just by hearing it. She wondered if Scratch had ever moved past her infatuation with the cellist, then struck that thought from her mind in favour of more important things. “Anyway, ignore her, she’s just a bit worked up.” “A bit worked up?” Lyra snickered, pulling a face. “The way she’s turned on the waterworks, she could power Canterlot for a month!” When they both turned their glares on her, she withdrew into her seat a little, grimacing. It had seemed like an appropriate way to lighten the mood at the time, but then she remembered that despite those two being her oldest friends, they were still city ponies, and snark never went over too well in the high-society of the city. “Sorry.” “It’s not fair!” Octavia roared again, drawing out the emphasis on the fair for longer than Lyra could even hold a breath. She found it impressive, how much air she could pack into her lungs, not being a singer. “Anyway,” the DJ continued, tone forceful (probably to avoid more interjections, Lyra assumed), “we ended up getting a bit...frisky. Head to haunches, you know the drill.” “Oh, joy,” Lyra sighed. “That always ends so well for us.” “Don’t I know it,” Scratch sighed in reply. “Point is, two lonely mares like us, when things get really good it’s hard not to do things you both enjoy. We trust each other, so what’s the problem? Besides, well, our terrible luck.” Lyra didn’t see much of a problem with it, so she nodded, electing to remain silent. “So, I woke up a couple of hours later, and I was still sort of tired,” the white unicorn lifted a hoof to her brow, wiping away some of the sweat that had gathered there. Lyra did the same. The bar had always been quick to heat up in the evenings. “Tav here wakes up too, and she’s freaking out as usual, when she tells me she’s lost her cello somewhere.” “Lost your cello?” Lyra frowned. That cello had been Octavia’s treasure, a last memento from her deceased mother, and she could understand why they’d come to her for help. They’d need help finding it. Hopefully it hadn’t been stolen. “Well, sort of.” Scratch’s sudden lapse into speechless silence made Lyra hesitate. The mare generally never ran out of words - it was why she could handle radio so well - and the absence of her voice, in the quiet atmosphere of the bar, was almost deafening. Lyra wanted to find the oxymoron funny, but she just couldn’t. In light of what she’d heard, and how she’d feel if she lost her lyre, she understood entirely what Octavia was going through. “See, the cello is still there, and it’s fine.” “Really?” Lyra blurted out. That came as a shock to her. “So what’s the problem?” “I forgot how to play!” Octavia screamed, clutching at her head with her hooves, and Lyra blanched, very nearly falling from her seat. Three rounds down the line, at nearly half past three, Lyra still couldn’t get her head around it. “So you’re saying,” she groaned, rubbing her temples with her hooves as she grimaced, “that you can’t remember how to play the cello? At all?” “No!” was the response, quick, curt, and depressing. Lyra couldn’t help but groan again. Across from her, Octavia had a straw in one hoof, and she was leaning on the other foreleg, swirling the drink with the straw. Scratch had left to use the restroom. “It’s not possible, I know! It can’t have happened to me!” “Damn right it can’t,” Lyra muttered, taking another shot. “You don’t just forget how to play an instrument. That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard.” “Exactly!” Octavia slammed a hoof on the table, shaking it and drawing eyes from around the bar. The regulars didn’t seem too fussed, but the couple sitting with the silver-maned performer looked over, before turning their eyes back on their new companion. “It’s not right, it’s not right, it’s not right!” “How did you forget to play your cello?” Lyra had trouble making sense of the entire situation. “It’s your cello. You’ve been obsessing over that thing since we first met. You’re serious about this? You just can’t remember?” “Not a single bit of my training remains,” Octavia murmured, head held low in shame. “It eludes me.” “Great,” Lyra sighed. She seemed to be having reason to sigh a whole lot more, tonight. “Well, colour me stupefied. I don’t have a clue what to tell you.” “I wouldn’t expect someone like you to be able to advise someone like me over an issue so pressing, dear!” The surge of laughter that erupted from Octavia’s mouth, high-pitched, frenzied cackles, caught Lyra completely unawares, and she started from her seat, upturning her glass. Reluctantly she refilled it and took another great swig. She was starting to feel a little tipsy. “Why, it’s not as though your whole life rests upon your ability to play your instrument!” “That’s pretty arrogant, and pretty wrong,” the unicorn snarled, “I have to play to live. It’s my job. You know? Those things us normal ponies have?” “My darling friend, you’re little more than a hobbyist compared to me!” Octavia’s reply cut through to her bone, but she couldn’t deny the truth of it. She hadn’t played a show on the scale Octavia regularly enjoyed since her illustrious youth. “Why, the axis of the debutante world rests on the axle of my cello! I am a pillar of modern musical culture! I am the mountain upon which Celestia’s divine vibrations choose to reverberate!” “Now you’re really pushing it,” Scratch chuckled, sidling past Lyra into her seat between the two as she hefted another tankard to her lips. How she managed to work her hooves so deftly, Lyra never could figure out, but she admired the skill, just like she admired everything about Vinyl. “So you’re making a name for yourself, big deal. We all know Lyra’s the better player.” “The nerve!” Octavia cried. Lyra just grinned. “If she is, it is only because I can no longer play! And whose fault is that? Who distracted me from my lofty goals with her lusty mannerisms?” “You’re so nasal,” Scratch laughed, settling into her seat. “Anyway, don’t pin the blame on me for this one, babe. Everypony here knows you’re your own worst enemy.” “Yeah,” Lyra cut in, smiling, “remember back when she hit Professor Plectrum over the head with her bass guitar because he wouldn’t let her retune it? Man, she never lived that one down!” Octavia began to sink into her seat, slowly, her whole body turning crimson. “Or that time when she was caught red-hoofed in the janitor’s closet with Blues because she refused to admit that he kissed better than she did?” Both Lyra and Scratch couldn’t help but start giggling madly. Octavia sank further under the table with every word. “Or when she tried pranking the Headmaster and ended up tarred and feathered on the school flagpole?” “Oh, oh, what about when she put on a solo performance for Princess Celestia-” “And she took out half the audience!” Neither could control their hooting laughter. “You promised we’d never speak of that again!” Octavia squeaked from beneath the table, but now she was laughing, not the reserved, dainty laugh that she so often used around others but the hearty, if quiet, laugh that only came out for them. “Yeah,” Lyra said, wiping a tear from her eye, “and when was the last time we kept that promise?” “You’re both terrible,” Octavia replied, though each of them could tell she felt at least a little better. “Still, this doesn’t explain why this had to happen to me, of all ponies! Surely I am the least deserving of losing my livelihood?” “You’re kind of crazy, honey,” Scratch crooned, reaching out to play with her mane. It was something they’d often done in their younger years to soothe Octavia; her love for her beautiful mane was well-documented, and having other ponies indulge it always relaxed the grey earth pony. “No one deserves to lose everything, but you’ve just got to give yourself some time.” “Vinyl’s right,” Lyra added, taking another drink. “You’re just worked up now because you’ve got so many prospects ahead of you, and you had a long day. Lemme tell you, even Bon-Bon was impressed by your show on the stage! Trust me, it’ll all work out.” “But it’s not fair!” Octavia couldn’t help but whine. “I didn’t do anything to deserve this! I’m just a talented mare who’s worked hard to get where she is! I bet that Princess Luna is responsible for this, taking away my music so she can use it to rule Equestria!” Lyra held a hoof to her forehead in defeat. Next to her, Scratch mirrored the response. They were used to the grey pony being difficult, but this was more than just obstinacy, it bordered on lunacy! “Hey, I know!” Octavia jumped into the air. The other two sighed in chorus. “Why don’t you two teach me?” “Contractions, doll,” Scratch said, cradling her head in her hooves as she leaned forward. “You’re beginning to sound like us down-in-the-dirt common folks, y’know? I know how you hate that.” “Ah, my apologies,” Octavia replied, voice rising several octaves in pitch. Once again she was the stuffed-saddle noblepony they both knew and...well, loved would be stretching it (if anything, Lyra preferred Octavia when she was chilled out). “Nonetheless, I must insist! I would be happy to do anything for you two if you can just do me this service.” “I don’t even know how to play the cello!” Lyra groused, taking another deep swig from her glass. This time she’d chosen to mix it up with some salt, by Mixer’s recommendation; it burned going down, but it kept her awake, aware and feeling alive, something alcohol usually didn’t do, so she was grateful to the bartender for that. “What, do you want me to beat you over the head with it until you learn?” “I can do that,” Scratch crowed, flexing her forelegs. Lyra made note of her muscle tone, reminding herself to ask what her workout routine was later. “An hour a day, babe. All sorts. I’ll clue you in on the specifics later.” “Huh?” “You asked.” “Oh!” Lyra blushed, embarrassed. “I didn’t realise I was thinking out loud. Sorry.” “Beat me over the head, splice the cello into my genes with your unicorn magic, turn me into a cello, whichever,” Octavia snorted, waving a hoof in the air dismissively. Lyra couldn’t help but snicker. “I have the withers for it. Surely you can do me this much?” “You’re serious?” Scratch sounded aghast. “That’s some pretty hard bargaining there, Tav. Sure you can’t just learn it yourself?” “It would take me years to learn the cello all by my lonesome, the same way I did as a filly!” “Oh.” Scratch was nonplussed. “Well, uh, I don’t think unicorn magic, or a beating, can do that. Right, Lyra?” “Won’t know until we try!” Lyra hoped the bright grin on her face said enough. “Come on, we can go get it now! And we can beat her until she learns! Sounds good to me!” “I think you’ve had too much to drink, girl,” Scratch nickered, snatching the glass out of Lyra’s reach. “What is this stuff, anyway?” Lyra couldn’t quite tell what the blurry white smudge she assumed was Scratch had said, all of a sudden, so she leaned over and whispered what was, ostensibly, gibberish, into empty space. Then she laughed, loudly enough to scare some of the other patrons, as she fell out of her seat. “That was uncanny,” Octavia said, eyes wide open as she stared, unamused, at the ground-bound Lyra. “She seemed fine moments ago.” “Salt takes a while to kick in,” Scratch casually answered, shrugging. “She’ll be up in a bit once the high dies down, doll.” “OK!” The abruptness of Lyra’s battle cry jolted both of them back into full consciousness. By that point the three should have been well and truly roaring drunk, but their tolerances for alcohol had been weathered by time and experience. There were no lightweights among this crowd. “I know what to do!” “Oh, what does it matter?” As quickly as she had become incensed, Octavia’s fiery passion died down again, leaving her a mopey, disinterested shell as she idly shoved an empty glass around the table. It rolled around on its side for a few moments before stilling, and Octavia quickly became apathetic to it. “I’m done. I’m over. I’m washed up! I’m you, Lyra. Why bother?” “That, dude,” Scratch giggled, “is harsh. You’re harshing all up on Lyra’s whimsy, man.” “What in buck’s name is a whimsy?” Lyra giggled back, pointing at Scratch as she struggled not to slur her words. “It’s, like, I dunno, something whimsical, I guess,” Scratch replied, confused. “Why bother?” Octavia’s tears had returned in full force. “What’s the point? There’s no point! I’m over! I’m done! I’m washed up! I’m Lyra!” “I’ll drink to that!” Lyra cried, now tearing up herself as she raised her glass in the air, to nobody in particular. “I was washed up before I even made it to the beach!” “That makes no sense, man!” Scratch shouted back, and together the three of them drank their sorrows away. A little ways past an hour afterwards, down the long trail that is pony drunkenness and pony disorder, the bar had been turned into a tip, and three mares were dancing on a table, surrounded by a crowd of cheering onlookers as they sang, toneless and off-key. Behind the bar, Vanish Mixer kept his eye on the festivities, but otherwise, no one minded; even the swindling pony had joined them up on the makeshift stage, a regular quarter putting on a real show, or what felt like one, anyway. When the noise died down, around five o’clock in the morning, they found themselves seated at their table from before, this time with a new member of the group. “So, I said to them, I said,” the blue unicorn shouted, barely managing to get garbled words out without mangling them, “‘The Great And Powerful Trixie!’ And then I left those no-good, podunk, hill-billy, boondock nobodies in the dust!” “Serves ‘em right!” Scratch cried, tinkling her empty glass. “Hear, hear! To Trixie!” “To Trixie!” the four of them yelled, clinking their glasses together. “So, Octavia,” Lyra said, the beginnings of what was sure to be a major headache cutting through the haze in her head, “What are you going to do about all this cello business?” “Oh, I don’t care anymore!” The earth pony yelled, slamming her glass on the table. She stood, wobbling on her hind legs, raising her right foreleg in a bizarre mockery of a salute to Trixie. The unicorn cheered in response, gulping down another helping of salt, like it was nobody’s business. For a moment, Lyra wondered who was footing the bill for all this revelry. “Trixie’s bravery, her courage, her daring, her valour! They have inspired me!” “They’re all the same thing, you goof!” Scratch piped up from her spot between two drunken stallions, stretched out across the seating, head in one’s lap, hind hooves in the other. “I don’t care!” Octavia screamed back, to a wave of catcalls and hollering. “Trixie has shown me...the light!” With a flourish she climbed on to the table, standing on her own hind legs as she waved at the other patrons of the bar, all similarly drunk, eyeing the beautiful mare. “The cello was never my true calling! I am a performer! I will move on! I will learn...magic!” “Don’t be daft!” Lyra bellowed above the cacophony of cheering, the buzz in her head slowly bringing everything back into what could generously be called clarity. “You’re not a unicorn!” “Unicorn, shmunicorn!” Trixie shouted. “You don’t need to be a unicorn to do magic! You just need to be magical, my beloved!” “Oh, Trixie!” Octavia cried, swooning. In fact, she swooned so heavily, she fell from the table, into Trixie’s waiting hooves, where they shared what Lyra was sure was the most passionate kiss she’d ever seen Octavia share with anybody. Scratch jeered. “Oh, Octavia!” Trixie mumbled around Octavia’s locked lips. “Oh, boy,” Lyra groaned, a guttural growl escaping her stomach. She cursed when Octavia and Trixie moaned again, in sync. “I’m so tired,” Scratch yawned, sitting up. As the kiss between Trixie and Octavia became even more heated, the white unicorn stared at the peeling plaster on the wall opposite their booth, face burning scarlet. Lyra grinned. An unexpected scream captured their attentions as Octavia grabbed Trixie’s face with her hooves. “Oh, darling, I remember!” She cheered, newly invigorated. Lyra and Scratch sat there, equally shocked; Trixie, on the other hoof, looked downright disheartened. “I remember how to play the cello! My dreams, they are saved!” “Congratulations!” The two eventually sang, leaping up to embrace their friend in a hug. None of them noticed the blue unicorn dejectedly slipping away, at least not until Octavia bounced out after her, cornering her at the entrance (or, exit, as it now became). Scratch followed them good humour restored. Despite the late hour, Lyra felt the same way. “A-hem,” hemmed a voice from behind her, clearing its throat. Lyra froze. “Can I make a clean getaway?” She whickered, hoping the voice behind her would answer in the affirmative. In her recovering hangovers, she barely knew what to say or do normally. Under stress, she became a nervous wreck. She thanked the Princesses that she’d been able to avoid falling unconscious tonight, for a change, and waking up to a destroyed bar afterwards. That had too often been a recurring element of her childhood. “‘Fraid not,” Vanish Mixer drawled, and Lyra slowly turned. “That’ll be four hundred bits, Lyra.” “For the drinks?!” She couldn’t believe her ears. “Fifty for the drinks and the salt,” he replied, and her heart sank as her ears drooped, knowing what was coming next. “Three hundred and fifty for the damages.” Reluctantly, Lyra pulled out her wallet. It had been a long night. “You’re going to have to repay me, you know,” Lyra sighed as she joined Scratch outside. It was nearing six o’clock in the morning, and in the summer, the first embers of dawn were beginning to light the horizon, a mixture of flaming pinks and rich, exuberant purples that set her heart alight with joy. Soon the sun would come up, dancing and spinning in the evening sky, and all, save her wallet, would be well and merry. “Yeah, yeah,” Scratch replied. Both of them knew words weren’t really necessary, and as they walked back through the cool, calm morning, birds beginning to wake up and sing, others taking to the streets for the new day, the refreshing atmosphere made Lyra feel a lot better. They’d had fun. She hadn’t expected it, but it had happened, and it had cheered her up. Wasn’t that what good friends are for? “You know,” Scratch sighed, “I’ve been in a bit of a rough spot lately.” “Uh huh?” Lyra mumbled, curiously shooting her a glance out of the corner of her eye. “Yeah,” and for a few more moments, there was silence between them. “I’ve sort of been having a really tough time. With Tav doing so well for herself, and you with that girl of yours and your reviving career, I felt like I was the only one who wasn’t moving on, y’know?” Lyra did know. She’d felt the same way, a long time ago, when Scratch had just started her radio station, and Octavia’s career had begun to skyrocket, while she’d been forced to give up her career as a professional musician to afford to survive. She’d lost the opportunity to chase her dreams, while her friends were out accomplishing theirs, and it made her hurt; now, Scratch was feeling the same way she had. It was almost ironic. “But tonight, when I saw Tav still being the obsessive-compulsive, maddeningly wonderful crybaby she’s always been, and you, still...well, you,” and Lyra caught the distinct note of a blush on her friend’s face, “something in me clicked, y’know? Man, it’s sort of, like, it felt right. I knew we’d be all right.” “Friends forever, through thick and thin,” Lyra recited from what she remembered of their old team motto. It had been a while. “Hey.” “What?” “You still remember the dance?” “Oh, jeez,” Lyra coughed, holding back a swelling tide of laughter, “don’t remind me. That was the worst thing ever.” Scratch quickly jumped into what consisted of the most terrible routine ever devised by any choreographer, ever, in any possible world. By the end of it, Lyra was rolling around on the floor, tearing up from the sheer hilarity of it, while Scratch waited above her, laughing herself. Neither cared about any other prying eyes (and thankfully, none of the eyes cared about them - Canterlot was the city of freaks, that was the credo), and when they were done, they shared a hug, the likes of which they hadn’t in a while. By that point, they had arrived at the hotel in which Lyra was staying - the first rays of the morning sun creeping over the horizon, glittering beams of light cutting swathes through the darkness. It was beautiful, almost as beautiful as Scratch. “Take care of yourself,” they each said in unison, sharing a final hug. “Make sure Octavia gets home alright, and give her my love, OK?” “Will do, Minty. And give the old mare the best from me, alright?” “Of course. Goodbye, Vinyl Scratch!” And with that, a last wave, and a final nuzzle, Lyra closed the door, creeping into her apartment. On all counts, it had been a great night. Now, in its aftermath, nothing stirred, and a strange, oppressive atmosphere of darkness and silence that laid over the room, capturing everything in its sepia-toned glow. In her own room, Bon-Bon still slept. Gorgeous, insufferable, incorrigible, adorable Bon-Bon. Lyra leant over to peck her on the cheek, before climbing into bed beside her. Casting a final, cursory glance over to her lyre before she fell asleep, she sighed, smiling, thankful that it would always be there, and she’d always be able to turn to it for comfort. Using her magic, she plunked at a few of the strings. They produced no discernible melody, but in her tiredness, Lyra couldn’t tell. Dimly, with alarming urgency as she fought sleep, she continued to pluck away at the strings with her magic. Next to her, Bon-Bon stirred, but Lyra carried on, desperate to figure out why she couldn’t pull a melody from her instrument the way she’d grown so accustomed to. Was she too tired? She felt lethargy eating at her, eyelids drooping as she sank deeper into the mattress, but she refused to stop, stabbing at the strings again, and again, and again, with as much telekinetic force and finesse as she could muster. Eventually, once she’d finally coaxed something resembling a tune from the exquisitely-crafted golden instrument, she gave up, resigned to the simplest conclusion. She’d forgotten how to play the lyre.

bearcat

494

Applejack,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Twilight Sparkle,Alternate Universe,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

War of Another World's Conquest

complete

<p>An army of wolf-like creatures has invaded Equestria, leaving death and destruction in its path. Two days ago this army reached Ponyville and now Sweetie Belle is ... possessed. What is the solution, and what will this mean for the war effort as a whole?</p><p>&quot;Teen&quot; for gore, but I avoid generally, naming of body fluids or anything that descriptive. And only the enemies have died. So far.</p>

teen

2011-08-16T00:31:39+00:00

2011-08-16T00:31:39+00:00

Princess Celestia's flowing mane cast pastel shadows on the young filly. It was impressive just standing before the regent of the sun as she was twice any pony's height, but Rarity had brought her sister first to Twilight, friend and expert in magic. During that conversation the princess herself sent word to bring young Sweetie Belle as soon as possible to this meeting place. She tried to be as succinct as she could with the royal presence towering over her now. "She started screaming, your majesty." Rarity watched Princess Celestia eagerly examine Rarity's sister from a respectful distance but could not tell what the regent was looking for, only that since the destruction of Applejack's farm two days ago the young filly had gotten no sleep. "She was talking all funny which I just, you know, put to some bizarre form of post traumatic stress disorder. She was so calm though. Then she had no sooner fallen asleep than she jumped up and started screaming about monsters and seeing Applejack's granny ... Well, you know your majesty about the incursion from that army. We're all glad my sister is alive but why. I mean." Sweat was making Rarity feel very warm. Twilight, also present but politely waiting for Sweetie Belle who was strangely silent after all the fuss earlier in the evening now felt the need to step up to explain to her teacher. "She sounded for a time like the old Sweetie Belle. Scared beyond her wits' end but Sweetie Belle." The young lavender colored filly betrayed no emotion though fatigue blurred her eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't know what they're talking about and I just woke up. I remember laying down in this lady's bed" At this Rarity pinned her ears in frustration. The disorder had left her sister with amnesia and replaced it with pony that talked ... like she was from another planet altogether. "and then I was walking here." Sweetie Belle, dear sweet young filly she was, tried to shake the shadows out of her eyes. Rarity had met the princess a number of times through her association with Twilight but her baby sister had, she believed, never seen the princess this close. Rarity watched as Sweetie Belle looked again, straining her eyes in the pale moonlight to see Celestia. Now the filly was twisting her ears in consternation, gears obviously grinding in her little head. "You're one of the god-kings, aren't you?" Just like that. Blurted out as much accusation as question. God king? How could a mare, millenia old or not, be a king? Goddess maybe, Rarity thought but she felt warm again, worried her sister had offended the still silent princess who-was-not-a-king. With the kindness of millenia of practice, the regent of the sun (not so out of her element this night, only a few short years since she gratefully relinquished dual regency of the moon) spoke to rarity's sister. "I'm sorry. The person you're speaking to is no longer available." Rarity scrunched her brows; her own ears now dancing as she searched for meaning in Celestia's words. Her sister started to respond as though that was a perfectly normal greeting from royalty in the middle of the night during a war. "Oh! Then who is ..." Then stopped. Her baby sister was obviously going into some trauma thing again. She had completely left this plane emotionally, and was staring blankly at about the Princess' knees. Presently the strange Sweetie Belle was back. "What? Why did you say that?" The enunciation, Rarity noted, was subtly shifted. Her accent had changed; lack of memory of her friends was also a change she had seen recently. The other two CMCs thankfully had been spared all sight or smells of the bloodshed between giant two legged monsters and the royal guard. But Sweetie Belle... For her own part, Rarity felt much confusion for being forgotten, which was not aided when Celestia said "I was quoting you. You confronted an officer among the enemy, and he ... she, you explained, hailed you as a comrade and you said the one she was talking to wasn't there." "A dead general" Sweetie Belle intoned. After a pause she nodded and continued. "That sergal was able to use magic but his body was eventually destroyed. I was about to be banished for lack of a body to sit in but." Rarity saw her baby sister stare at her small hooves but did not see Twilight step up beside her. Aiming her words at Rarity's sister she explained "I think this happened before. When Stack" Twilight paused, gulped, then started again. "A sergal who was friendly to us stayed in the palace. He fell asleep then started screaming in their foreign language." The princess added "And did horrible things to my guards. Lost two good ones to that alter ego. Do you know anything about that, small pony?" Feeling left out and helpless Rarity could only stare up at her majesty's questions. What would her sister know of the invaders or of the palace and its guests? But Sweetie Belle was nodding as if this was all perfectly normal. "Yes that was because he wasn't really dead. When I fell asleep he woke up and no one got any sleep. Except your guards who won't wake up but I thought he was dead and I'm sorry." Quickly, Twilight who obviously knew where this was going, spoke again. "We all thought Sweetie Belle was dead, too." And as Sweetie Belle, fatigue making her eyes look so old, turned her head to to purple unicorn, the white alicorn finished the thought. "That's what the screaming was about. Sweetie Belle woke up." Realization slowly dawned on Rarity. Could it be this was actually not her sister at all? Sweetie Belle nodded at what to her should be a giant, intimidating alicorn and boldly asked "Well then do you have any dead bodies I could use instead? Long dead but mostly uninjured sergal perhaps?" Whatever else this thing was, it still had the frail, weak body of her sister. She wiped her weary eyes again and sighed. "I can tell you're a god-king but I don't remember hardly squat about me. I don't know if I can cause the magic....thing." Another sigh "To move. And no insult to this one's sister but I don't think a very small unicorn has the power to do this with local magic. I'll have to recover." Rarity wanted to hug her sister tight and promise to find whatever thing would help her get better, but was also repulsed by the thought that something had eaten her sister like some sort of talking intestinal worm. While she was frozen in inaction the princess turned her full attention, ears erect, at her prized student. "Twilight I hate to impose on you during such hard times, but he was an incredible fighter and I felt his heart was in the right place even if Fluttershy would never forgive him for raising rabbits to eat. I need to get back soon but can you make arrangements somehow? I'll send a guard with money and supplies in the morning." Rarity wondered why she had even come, having not contributed squat to this meeting and surely experiencing aural hallucinations as evidenced by her baby sister blurting out to the ruler of Equestria, "Whiskey, perhaps a gallon, if you please. Other components this town will have but as small as it is I hate to impose on those few wanting to escape in that way. But I think I can use a more nearly dead-for-good body if I convert the oxygen out of such a catalyst as whiskey." But apparently she wasn't really hallucinating, as her sister now wore the biggest grin as she continued with a promise not to let any pony drink the alchemical reagents thus brought. "One last thing, dear God King. Do you know my name? I still don't." The princess sighed deeply, closing her eyes and drooping her head ever so slightly. A stray breeze shifted her unearthly mane to Celestia's left side as she spoke to the small mauve filly. "You warned me that the mouth you were using, was mangling it horribly. I tried to learn your name but the look in your eyes said I wasn't getting it right. I don't know if that is my mistake or yours, Nadsippley." Rarity saw the princess' ears shift forward. Slowly, inexorably. Quickly Rarity shifted her eyes to what should have been Sweetie Belle. Nothing. No smile, no frown, no tipped head. All her baby sister said was "I'm sorry, that isn't it. But thank you for your help." The princess nodded, bid them all good night. Then turned and launched herself into the air, giant wings unfurled and glowing as she slowly flapped them. Her speed so disproportionate to her effort compared to the pegasi she was used to watching. Twilight, now her purple coat barely identifiable without the princess' ambient glow to add to the moonlight, invited everyone back to her library. "We'll try again to get some sleep. Rarity will you please bring Sweetie Belle who might wake up, to bed with you? She'll be very confused I think but Stack is right. If the symbiont and host don't either of them sleep, then the pair is horribly sleep deprived and nonfunctional." Twilight yawned. "I feel awfully nonfunctional already." After a touching scene in which Sweetie Belle, the real one, woke up and clung tightly to her sister's neck, Twilight heard Rarity try to explain why she couldn't remember what happened, and eventually Sweetie Belle calmed down enough to fall asleep wrapped up in Rarity's hooves. She stayed asleep this time, and eventually Rarity's deep breathing could be heard. Twilight had a harder time getting to sleep and eventually whispered to Owlicious to bring her some mint tea. Something had tried to eat her junior assistant but he could still fly albeit noisily for an owl. The flapping, three trips in all to bring tea leaves, a cup, and boiling water in a very small bucket seemed not to wake Rarity or Stack. Nad. Whatever the thing in Sweetie Belle was named. The tea was good; it let her organize her thoughts. But it didn't help her sleep. Fatigue won out anyway and she awoke after the sun was well up to the sound of pegasus wings. Twilight leapt out of bed and ran to the window, hoping to see the still missing Rainbow Dash. She saw instead, down on the path and well away from the library, a bright yellow pegasus, and two gleaming white, armored pegasi. Fluttershy looked up at the squeaking window and called a greeting that could barely be heard at this distance. A quick glance showed the fashion pair still asleep, so Twilight opted not to call in return though she knew she could muster the volume to be heard. She waved instead and pulled the window closed in a measured fashion so as not to squeak again, and then cantered as quietly as she could to the front door. Spike had already let them in at the first knock from the royal guard. "Ordinarily I'm the careful type but Twilight says the monsters don't bother knocking. So if I could keep you out I don't need to try." Dragon logic aside Twilight offered a quick hug to her yellow friend. In these dark times you never knew if your parting with a friend was your last, until you saw them again. Her voice barely above a whisper fluttershy gave Twilight a report on Rainbow Dash. Namely, there was nothing to report. "I've covered ground as quick as I could but I'm not like Dash. Anyway Big Mac has made arrangements for Granny Smith's funeral and asked if I thought it was too soon to call Applejack gone but it is, isn't it? She's still in hiding or fighting her way back or... Oh Twilight do you think they're OK?" Twilight momentarily ignored her honored guests who seemed to accept they were second fiddle to close friendships. "I don't know but I want to warn you of something you won't like. There's a problem with Sweetie Belle, but it's not as big as you might think. That's why these gentlecolts are here in fact." Fluttershy blushed suddenly, glancing askance at the guards to either side of her, then stopped her hover-flight and dropped her head to look up at Twilight silently. The guard on Twilight's left, who had a jingle in his saddlebags, took this opportunity to speak up. "Is Sweetie Belle the name of the filly we're to assist, then? We received rather cryptic instructions but there's. Well. Whiskey, and a hundred and fifty bits, and sidewalk chalk." Twilight tried to smile. Friendliness started with the mare in the mirror, she reminded herself. "Yes but they're both asleep, as is Rarity who's had sort of a hard two days. I'm sure they'll be down soon but have you three had breakfast yet I can start some oatmeal cooking. Spike? Water for oatmeal please." As the baby dragon ran off to the kitchen Fluttershy, having not yet raised her head, looked pleadingly to Twilight. One big breath, but no words. Another try, and she spoke. "Who? Who is with Rarity, Twilight?" That made Twilight drop her head as low as Fluttershy's. "You remember that ... uh, friendly monster thing? That used claws instead of a horn to cast spells?" Fluttershy squinted her eyes tightly shut as she responded. "Jack something. The one that ate rabbits and said he couldn't eat anything else." Now her eyes were open, and she raised her head and shook the pink forelock away from her eyes. Steel lined her face as she spoke, now. "I used to feel mad about the rabbits. Really mad but I heard that the other monsters, sergal Jack called them, were eating ponies. Not even killing them just eating ponies and I thought maybe Jack was doing us a kindness. A small kindness to be sure but he would never eat any of us and I don't even think he would eat a pony he never met but I'm not as sure of that." Twilight saw her friend's normal, worried face come back. "Is Jack up there then? With Sweetie Belle?" But Twilight couldn't explain because neurons had fired in order and it all made sense now. Not Stack, not Nad, but "Jack! Jack Something! Yes he's" and now her volume came back down as she realized the rest of the story made no sense. "Jack died, fighting on Apple Acres. Only instead of dying he grabbed on to Sweetie Belle who Celestia only knows why she was there. So Sweetie Belle is Jack and that means she won't need rabbits, just oatmeal today." At that, there was a clop-clopping of hooves, small and large as Sweetie Belle and Rarity came down. Rarity called a greeting to the guards first, and Twilight saw the distress on her face as they said their good mornings to each other. Sweetie Belle said, before she had finished descending the stairs, "Jack. Chipple. Thank you very, very much Twilight for another important memory. I'm Jack Chipple." Sweetie Belle approached the guards then, though she stole several quick glances at the yellow pony, no look of recognition but more perhaps of frustration. The guard she approached had the whiskey in his packs, and hesitantly asked if the little miss needed it now. "No, thank you. We need a body first. To which I should add." Here she turned smartly to Twilight and spoke with that accent that unnerved the three mares, Fluttershy most of all because she had never heard this before. Jack's voice had been a bed of gravel shaken by rock tumbler; never easy to understand. But Sweetie Belle would surely grow up to be a singer, or some destiny that would be made better by that clear voice. "Twilight, if we find nothing and you grow impatient of a form, I should say there is a way out. I can take you. You're a strong unicorn, and I could move on far more easily than if I, say, took one of these guards." Here she, Jack, whatever it was, finally noticed the guards' wings and stared briefly before returning to Twilight. "Just as Sweetie Belle will awake, you would fall into a coma and wake when I had a proper body. Keep this in mind and now." She turned to Fluttershy. "What are you?" No malice, no accusation. Just the confusion of an amnesiac foreigner. Twilight watched the yellow ears go round and around as Fluttershy searched for a response. "Don't you remember me? I was the one that called you a monster over the rabbits. I'm Fluttershy." And now it was Sweetie Belle whose ears rotated. "I'm sorry I don't remember and that name doesn't help. But what is right on the tip of my brain's tongue is what you are. Do they call you a pony, miss Fluttershy?" She muttered an affirmative but it was Rarity now, who spoke up. "Little ... well, maybe Jack isn't little anything but you know the word unicorn -- you just used it. Unicorns are ponies; and pegasi, a pegasus being what each of these three ponies are, are flying ponies." Twilight pointed a question at the back of the still-staring filly's head. "Is it Jack that has amnesia, or Sweetie Belle?" At that the filly turned her head, frustration momentarily forgotten. "I don't know, Twilight Sparkle. If I remembered it all I might know, but I've forgotten, so I don't." but the little filly turned resolutely, the steps measured like rolling of a wagon wheel being pulled by a working pony. Facing the guards now, she spoke to both of them, with a gentle if unlilting voice. "I needs must eat, and I suspect you're invited though it's not my house to say. Then we can be off; I have a notion of an idea but no more. Where I battled last, there should be dead of the enemy, and perhaps not all of them were consumed by hungry living enemies. There is the body most easily found that will need the use of your ingredients." Turning to trudge into the kitchen she spoke over her shoulder with hardly a turn to her head. "A small body will need many small meals, and that is how I would like to use the money directed to my use." Sweetie Belle disappeared behind the swinging double doors, having pushed them with her nose and not even trying to levitate them. Twilight tried to be as gracious as possible, offering breakfast to the guards, who instead dropped their packs and begged for pardon to shop for lunches, in case the trip to Sweet Apple acres was only the start of the trek, and not their true destination. "Wouldn't want the little miss to grow overtired. When she's just herself again she'll need the strength I'd wager." |||||| Author's note. Yes, those appear to be sergals. I got nothin'. Nothing but Sergals on the brain. So it's a crossover fanfic, eh? Still plan on writing this with a minimum of body parts. Bits of blood, though. Short scenes, those. 'K. Moving on.

bearcat

494

Applejack,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Twilight Sparkle,Alternate Universe,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

War of Another World's Conquest

complete

<p>An army of wolf-like creatures has invaded Equestria, leaving death and destruction in its path. Two days ago this army reached Ponyville and now Sweetie Belle is ... possessed. What is the solution, and what will this mean for the war effort as a whole?</p><p>&quot;Teen&quot; for gore, but I avoid generally, naming of body fluids or anything that descriptive. And only the enemies have died. So far.</p>

teen

2011-08-15T07:57:34+00:00

2011-08-15T07:57:34+00:00

As the younger of the two guardsponies, Spark Impulse had always tried valiantly to put up with how his youth garnered him unwanted attention. Like being called sparky, which he hated, and being given dumb assignments because, really how could a small, young pegasus handle anything real? Spark wasn't sure how real this assignment was either. Escort a very young filly who by all accounts was possessed by an aged spellcaster of unknown power to a dead body. His cutie mark of a shield, representing his loyalty to duty and the kingdom, was surrounded by seven stars. He was no unicorn but he knew magic. Could almost taste it in the air; knew what spells had just been unleashed, although he could never sense them ahead of time like the unicorns could. But there was no magic here. Not that he could tell, and he didn't know what spells would call for chalk and whiskey anyway. The invaders didn't use magic either so far as ever he had heard. Sprintpoint bought various edibles from the massive collection of cold hard cash the treasurer had thrown at them. They were supposed to be on sabbatical from the war but apparently the little filly wanted to find a dead body. Of an invader. Who could cast magic. They returned, and the a party started toward the farm of the unicorn's missing friend. Just the purple mare and the mauve filly, in fact although the offwhite unicorn seemed upset to stay, even for a little while. His partner this tour, Sprintpoint, looked at the small light on the small unicorn as he too walked alongside them. Then he looked up at the clouds. "Fighting must have moved close, eh Sparky?" After this proclamation he leapt into the air and from a height of perhaps forty feet, performed a very small reconnaissance mission. Very small. Once his hooves were on the ground again Spark Impluse spoke a response. "Looks clear tho, Pointy?" which at least earned a very harsh stare, his partner nearly giving himself whiplash from turning so quick to glare. The cute one, a deeper purple and a mare worth asking out for coffee, seemed oblivious to the repartee. "I'd heard from the unicorn division that the small band of scouts had been driven back. So magically lacking or not Sweetie ... Jack" She stopped mid-sentence, and Spark looked away from the brush to see why. The filly, whose name was Jack for some unfathomable crisis of parentage, had deep red sclera. The eyes were still green but it looked like some Christmas ornament had been shoved into her head. The filly started with her voice. She obviously came from a horribly dysfunctional family to talk like that. It gave him the creeps honestly, and the sudden eye change didn't help him keep his skin from crawling out from under his saddlebags any. "I will watch the undergrowth. I can see body heat now." They were all trotting, but Spark wanted to stash his suddenly cold hide under some bush until this thing went away. Duty called however, and he just kept pace. At least that motherly type of yellow pony had stayed back with the dragon. She would probably be retching with fear about now, or so he thought to himself. Sprintpoint didn't seem fazed in the slightest. "Sparky did you catch that spell with that nose of yours?" his blue eyes never left the creepy mauve filly. The mare hadn't exactly straightened her neck either. "No Pointy. No spell. None." But he tested the air again. There was a small levitation spell, and illumination spell, well ahead of them. Somewhere in the orchard. Probably farm workers he guessed. Nothing from the grown or ungrown fillies between them. Spark Impulse could think of no reason for the eye-change. Fortunately the filly didn't say anything about her vision showing her anything in the bushes. Didn't say anything at all which was fine with him. They arrived at the barn, and found no bodies. Blood, torn wood, and other signs of recent struggle. The mare's horn glowed. It was a form of searching spell but didn't taste right for looking for inanimate things. Twilight Sparkle explained to the group "I can't find any bidepals by magic and I think I can reach 80 meters with that spell." She looked around for the filly. The little one was making a quick once around, like she was the scout. "I see them but they are at least a quarter mile off. Four, I think. That means they've eaten their own unless something changed their mind." She nosed in a direction. Then blinked. Her white sclera back, she excused herself and went into the barn. Spark could smell small location spells, and a few levitation spells. He obediently took up guard position to one side of the door. "Creepy as hay." Logic notwithstanding of that concept Sprintpoint took up the other side of the door. He didn't want to go in either though he didn't look as rattled as Spark felt. "I'm sure there's a logical explanation. Too bad though all the whiskey is for her spell. You know?" Normally any reference to liquor would catch his attention. But in about the direction the creepy filly had pointed to, he smelled a small teleport spell. Bringing a sphere of ponies to a MUCH closer distance. "Miss Twilight? You should hide. I think it's just farmworkers but if it's not you better not be in mêlée range." The purple mare put a shield spell on herself as Sprint, having not heard this before since it just happened, quickly drew a shortsword from his saddle bag. Spark drew his own, and smelled another spell from in front of them. Then they exited the orchard. Seemingly coming from thin air there were no fewer than nine of the monstrous things. Like some unwanted mixup between an angry griffin and an ugly diamond dog. Pointy faces and tall ears erect they strode slowly, but not any air of hesitation in their movements. The lead started growling at them. Most, he'd learned, couldn't speak anything anypony knew. But he could spell. A rock floated up to his waiting claws. Spark could feel cold sweat dripping down his neck already. This would be his last battle. Twilight was hiding in the barn hopefully with that filly. Poor little girl would hopefully never know why she died. From within the barn came a loud barking. Light, airy like a summer breeze but the tones themselves were harsh like razorwire through a colt's throat. The lead griffondog stopped, its tail swishing quickly, then stilled. Three behind him drew their crude stone axes. At least they didn't have enough double-swords to equip their whole army. Most of the pegasi losses had been to double swords thrown like oversized boomerangs as these monsters were crazy-strong and simply too stupid to feel pain. The leader barked back, and it was Sprintpoint who figured it out first. "That thing inside the filly can speak their language!" And this time when an answer came, he could tell that was indeed what he'd heard. The creepy filly was giving them orders or something. She was coming out now, standing in the doorway. No magic yet but her horn was glowing, a spell readied. Spark wouldn't know until it was cast but had a few hopes. Mostly he hoped she would go back inside and wait. No luck. Standing as tall as her small form allowed she called in English. "Who will stand up to me? I take your form, your tongue, and your weapons." She reared up, and dropped. Nothing fancy and no magic he could smell. The horn was still readied but the axes fell apart. Not that they were that unmenacing with bare claws and teeth. But how? The weaponless bipeds mumbled, and their leader tipped his head, just enough to acknowledge but not enough to lose two-eyed distance vision of his next snack. More words in their tongue, and now the filly reared high, staring at the sky. When her hooves clashed with the soil beneath, a lightning bolt came of of those thin, forgotten clouds above them all. A big bolt, and by all rights it should have knocked them all flying. But the invaders just dropped, held their ground. The one standing was solid black, and smoking. As dead as if he'd been turned to stone. As the invaders tensed to run at them, she cast a levitation spell. Nothing more, just some sandy parts of the soil. Spark could smell that each grain of sand was held in a separate spell. One by one the spells were forgotten, and at that instant one of the attackers lost his head. The whole head. Blown off faster and farther than if they'd been kicked by the heaviest bucking soldier who had a running start and solid-plate shoes. This was not magic of the pony kind. But they were too ... something, to slow down. Three left, and the filly called "Twilight Sparkle pick the lead one up! He can cast I want him!" The shield spell dropped, he could tell. Now a big levitation spell as the leader was helplessly held in the air. He screamed and thrashed while the filly charged. All Spark Impulse could shout in consternation was "What the HAY?!?" but she was past, running to her slow death at their claws. The guards ran after her, but it turned out they weren't needed after all. Now three left, and as the creepy filly stared at each one, their nose oozed blood, and they dropped, never to move again. Whatever non-pony magic the filly wielded, it had winded her something fierce. She looked now like she was going to pass out, and the casting creature ... was throwing small fireballs now, and while the mare was shaking him to keep his aim off this wouldn't last for long. Sword in mouth he charged but the first slash hit almost hurtlessly across it's elbow. Something knocked him off his hooves completely. The filly was screaming "No! You fool!" but Spark couldn't hear as he impacted the barn, knocking the wind out of him. He had just enough presence of mind to deploy his wings so he didn't land on his own blade, which was somewhere below him. He didn't have presence of mind to adapt to the extra weight in his packs which he'd never had a chance to drop, however. He landed practically on his head, and knew no more for some time to come. - - - - - - - - - Twilight Sparkle was getting worried. She had enough magical energy in her to hold this thing aloft for another ten minutes if there was need but this was in effect an evil unicorn, and shaking it to keep it off balance was not going to last forever. Already he'd thought of lobbing a few offensive spells to fortunately little effect though AJ would be terrified of a forest fire right here. Sweetie Belle violently protected her prize, hopefully not injuring the brash young guard but Spark Impulse wasn't getting up, either. About the time the impetuous guard pony landed with a thump, there was a blast of the most powerful magic ... it seemed to stop the spell caster's magic, a nullification spell, but did not cause her own levitation to falter. Cautiously she hazarded a glance, and found a formation of four unicorns. White, and in guard armor, but every one had orange eyes. Blood orange. Fidikken; known as death-ponies. Still panting, no longer standing, she heard Sweetie Belle try to greet them. "It's safe, your majesty as that one above me is the last that will walk." Majesty? Twilight looked again but saw only the four guardsponies who looked ready to dish out the death of their namesake. But no others. The other guard, who had figured out what was going on, sheathed his blade and announced to apparently no one in particular, "I concur your highness there is only one opponent left in the air, just there. The fidikken all looked very briefly at each other, the one in the front right nodded with just an ear tip, and all four cast a spell. There had been an invisibility spell and no one less than the princess herself was in the center! Twilight tried desperately to bow but decided concentrating on holding the prisoner aloft was more pressing at the moment. Thus it was not until Spike came running to her she realized that Spike and Rarity were inside the invisibility spell too. Rarity ran to her little sister, who huffed and puffed a warning of sorts. "It's not done, dear Rarity. I'm not your sister." And standing, she re-cast her holding spell on the prisoner but it wasn't to keep him from flailing. A little confused Twilight watched as suddenly the thing's tail began to flail like a swarm of bees, his arms struggling aimlessly for any purchase, his whole manner losing any kind of focus. Also, he stopped shouting obscenities in his foreign language. Presently Jack/Sweetie Belle asked Twilight how much longer she could hold this one. But it was Rarity that, having swept up her sister's body in a tight embrace regardless of the occupant, demanded the right to help. "It'll get a bit ugly. You just need to hold him so he can't grab anything. And that's it." Little Jack was concentrating, burning through the small filly's magical supply with whatever was holding the sergal silent. Almost cooing at the show of violence, Princess Celestia asked "And, you're going to just strangle this one to death? That's. Cruel, don't you think?" Jack had to mumble, losing physical as well as magical energy as this progressed. "Need him very dead, need the body very good. Rarity? Into the barn with him but if you can hold him afloat you needn't look. Probably shouldn't." Looking very uncomfortable, she nevertheless positioned herself beside the still unconscious pegasus, and levitated the sergal behind her, into the barn somewhere. Sweetie Belle followed quietly, still hanging on to the skin, preventing any air flow to happen. The spell transferred, Twilight's emotions caught up with her and she ran to her teacher heedless of the deathponies that might misconstrue her actions and burn her in an instant. Too much violence, too close to home, just too much. The fidikken must have known this mare had permission to approach the royal presence, even on an unsecured battle scene. Teacher and student embraced, and Celestia apologized for putting Twilight through such experiences. "It doesn't even help that they started it, does it? Young ponies like you aren't supposed to know about death. But Nadsipply can be a great power to stem the tide and I guess you just get to go along." Twilight just cried, and talked about her missing friends, and never noticed the fidikken started to look ever so slightly nervous. There was a loud thump inside the barn, and Twilight looked up to see Rarity listening to the barn, then calling out to ask who had the chalk, and could they bring it to her baby sister? Twilight followed her teacher, who was following the now recovered guard pegasus and everyone else, inside the barn where Sweetie Belle was levitating a piece of chalk, drawing a perfect circle around the unmoving sergal. When she set the chalk down, her horn was still glowing. She, Jack, must have been maintaining the airlock spell, just to be extra careful. "Your highness Princess Celestia, I have regained the greater majority of my memories. I am named Jack Chipple, and I can soon cast the needed magic to transfer myself into this about to become deceased Sergal caster." Sweetie Belle didn't bow, but at least she seemed appropriately reverent in tone. "And Rarity did you bring the other things on my list?" The well groomed unicorn nodded grimly, and without ever letting her eyes fall on the body in the center of that circle pulled from her bag various herbs, vegetables, and spices, placing them all just inside the circle. Twilight heard disgust color the fashion designer's voice. "Are you planning on cooking a stew for the enemy? Honestly I just don't get this." But there was a tear in her eye when she looked at what was supposed to be her baby sister. Royal presence apparently forgotten, Sweetie Belle just started walking carefully around her chalk circle. After one full pass she started chanting. Or at least Twilight thought that's what she was hearing but it sounded more like if Fluttershy's poison-joke deep voice was occupied in tuneless humming. On the third pass, she began to raise her head, high up then drop it down, always maintaining the same pace. Up for two strides, down for either two or three strides, then back up, and down. Then the ingredients all seemed to turn to steam, or more nearly they grew an unearthly mane like the regents had -- flowing, opaque, almost living as they grew and swirled, converging on the dead sergal. A fourth pass, and now Sweetie Belle stopped. She faced the sergal, and rising high on her hind legs she shouted her deep, tuneless humming. The barn thrummed with the power of her voice and the sergal began to levitate although Twilight couldn't see any glow of pony magic. She dropped down, and seemed to be injured by the impact of hooves on dirt. She walked stiffly now, uncoordinated. At the center she touched her horn, now glowing brightly, to the belly of the intended host. Several things happened at once, and it would be some time later before Twilight could piece them all together. The wisps of living ingredients leapt into the host, the former soldier. Sweetie Belle collapsed, and the sergal fell on top of her. Also, it went dark. As if this spell sucked down not just the mane of the carrots and parsley, but the light itself. There was a scream, and the light came back to reveal a sergal, struggling to rise, and a small, terrified young filly striving for all her worth to free herself from the considerable bulk holding her down. The princess whispered something Twilight didn't catch to a nearby body guard, who lept forward to levitate the sergal. Sweetie Belle cried out for Rarity, who replied with an "Over here!" and Twilight didn't follow that any farther. The sergal was dropped, and the fidikken crowded to the circle's edge, horns glowing as their spells were readied. The Princes called out to him, "If you can say your name, I'll be happy to accept that as my answer." The Sergal rose up, elbows straight now but legs tangled and ignored. Drawing in a ragged breath he tried to bring his head up, looking the Princess in the eye before letting his head drop again. One more ragged breath and he spoke, although aimed at the floor in that gravel voice that could barely eununciate, that Twilight had heard some time before. "Princess Celestia, I." And here he brought his right hand to touch claw to eyebrow in a mock salute. Several short breaths later and he continuned "Am out of breath, milady." And promptly collapsed into a heap, flat and breathing loudly. The lead fidikken, now middle-right, said over his shoulder "It was at least English, your highness." The princess sighed, and replied "Best to wait a time. We need to be correct at this delicate junction." When the sergal's claws glowed with pony magic Twilight almost blasted him but she would have needed to move, to get around the fidikken. Who were unmoving, their same spells still readied. She decided to let them take the first blow. The unearthly mane grew again from the two bottles of liquor which, oddly, did not seem to be going down in volume but they seemed more watered down, less amber in color now. The mane again sucked quickly into the sergal, but no further effect was seen. And the sergal blinked repeatedly, and breathed carefully, fully. And just as deliberately he sat up, tried to sit cross legged but seemed angry at his tail's interference. Turning now to the alicorn he asked "I'm sorry milady. What was your question?" She graciously repeated herself and the fatigued sergal tried to bow with just his head. "I am known as Jack Chipple, milady." And his smile revealed sharp, blood stained teeth. Maybe that's what he said. It could have been Nadsipply or maybe he was just clearing his throat. A part of Twilight could never really be convinced she wasn't hallucinating the words. It still sounded like Stack Pimple to her, personally. But the fidikken stood down, and the princess explained the reason for her personal travel into such dangerous territory. "There's a permanent door nearby. Like a teleportation spell but lets anypony walk through. Do you understand? I can make these but they're not so solid feeling, and I can't for the life of me see where the other end of the door is. I want you to help me close it." Jack nodded. "I will help." He stood up, and looked like he was going to fall again. "But I may wish to wait a time. My pardon for incongruity, but these sergal can only digest fresh meat. May I steal one of the fallen?" Sweetie Belle, bless her two-toned mane, speaking now with her customary speech patterns, blurted out "You're going to cannibalize your own people?" The grin widened as he turned to his former body and carrier, who wrapped up in her big sisters hooves. "You would have me eat fallen ponies to avoid that conundrum? I am too weak to hunt for simple animals." Celestia asked for tactical advice of her body guards with the word "Well?" The fidikken looked briefly to the pegasi, who both shrugged. The fidikken passed that shrug up the line until Celestia had her answer. "Yes, but please consider your audience. Namely, that you should have the distance not to have one." Now Jack's mouth hung open in a loll, the biggest grin he could hold as his tongue, dog-like, rolled and lolled in silent laughter. He let himself out, stumbling as he went, and Twilight shifted her focus to the other unicorns to make sure they were as OK as they could be.

bearcat

494

Applejack,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Twilight Sparkle,Alternate Universe,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

War of Another World's Conquest

complete

<p>An army of wolf-like creatures has invaded Equestria, leaving death and destruction in its path. Two days ago this army reached Ponyville and now Sweetie Belle is ... possessed. What is the solution, and what will this mean for the war effort as a whole?</p><p>&quot;Teen&quot; for gore, but I avoid generally, naming of body fluids or anything that descriptive. And only the enemies have died. So far.</p>

teen

2011-08-17T05:36:21+00:00

2011-08-17T05:36:21+00:00

He ran. Swift as a wolf, grasses and low tree limbs brushed his feathered haunches, his tail helping him make sharp turns as he dodged animal dens, his thick hair brushing relaying the air currents as his nose told him of their portent. The door was perhaps a way for the small armies to travel back home for supplies, or maybe the sergal would only pass through to other, more meat filled lands. There were ponies, and the ponies put up a fight but between the taboo breaking pegasi and the general lack of population density, it was not, he didn't believe, ideal hunting grounds for them. But they hunted here, and now he hunted them under thickening clouds and thicker forest canopies. Despite the brush of air, the whoosh of underbrush, he could hear their camp. Forty strong; they might not have scouts this far out. Or those unfortunate nine might have been the brash cadre of scouts for this half of their encampment. That would likely put them at forty one precisely and there was a bigger army farther along. He ran swiftly to the outskirts, and walked through the cages. Rainbow Dash's hooves were cracked from striking at the cage. The wires were stronger than steel as near as she could tell since as thin as they were, she should have at least been able to bend them when she stood on one edge and bucked her other end, putting all her weight on one tiny wire. Instead she had bruised her hooves, and she'd seen a desperate pony try to run through the wire and lost his front leg entirely. The smell of blood seemed to trigger a feeding frenzy in her captors as if they were land sharks of some form. And not a one of them spoke English! She kicked again with a back hoof out of pure frustration but immediately regretted it. She'd been trying this for at least two days though her memory of it was starting to get hazy. From across the aisle came a tired out voice. "Sugar stop yer strugglin' it ain't worked in all this time and I want to sleep a spell. Before they's eat me, I mean." An orange mare limped out of her makeshift bedroll, her bedraggled tail missing it's scrunchie. She walked to her watering troff and sipped on the slime the captors put there. "I'm not gonna BE eaten Applejack. The next time they open my cage to feed me. Well I assume if they're keeping us for amusement they'll feed us and then I'll" Her voice trailed off, as she instinctively flapped her wings, and remembered for the thousandth time she was no longer the fastest flier in Equestria. Or any flier at all, no offense towards her friend the Earth pony. Applejack sighed and wished her friend the best of luck with that course of action, then winced as she tried to turn around to tuck back into the forgotten pile of fabrics that had been dumped in her cage. There was enough to cover most of the mare but it looked to Dash like a crime-scene blanket to cover the body before the coroner could OK it's removal. But no time for vain imaginings now as she needed a real plan. There was a guard coming her way now. Gray hairs from the waist up, every last one faded from black roots to white tips, leaving it unclear whether to call it dark, or light gray. The feathers were a pale blue aquamarine and she couldn't see how much any of it darkened on his back. Or her, they didn't seem to look much different to Rainbow Dash. His white face was agitatedly casting about for something to look at. Something distant, not in this aisle of diversionaries. But he had come from the center of the camp and if he kept going at his brisk pace he'd just be out of camp, nothing to look at or kill or anything for a long ways. Even the wild animals of the forest shunned this crowd, and no wonder considering what they did here. Dash tried to gauge her muscle readiness. How hard could she kick, how high? She'd have to buck something fierce to reach his 'nads but there couldn't be any other way. He was alone, no worries about a repeat of last night's party. Her legs were still sore from the forced dancing but she hadn't lost a hoof like Applejack. Not yet. The monster stopped, to tower over her. Excellent! Now to guess if he wanted fear or bravado. Subtlety was not her strong suit so she just blurted out "Make a painting out of your own blood and excrement you malformed griffin." but said it with as much reverence as she could muster. They didn't have a clue what she said anyway so what did it matter? It's facial expression was unchanged, but it replied with that scratchy voice they all had. "You are blue." Smooth move, ex-lax she thought to herself. "Thank you captain obvious. Or is it lieutenant? You don't wear any insignia so I can't tell. Were you going to feed your exotic dancers or am I supposed to eat my own hooves here?" Too late she thought of Applejack, and realized how wrong a suggestion that was. "You should know that is not un-asked for, of prisoners. To extend their life by consuming their own body for the crowd." He lifted those flat, angular ears up off his skull and pointed his nose to one side, not quite to the center of camp. "Tonight they are with the diamond dogs, poor things." Looking back at her battered form he started to say "You should be a pegasus" Then saw her back. The stumps where here beautiful wings no longer sat. He frowned. She had never seen pity or compassion or anything like it but this one frowned before speaking again. "That is what I saw. That is why you still live, Rainbow Dash. You amuse their leader." There was a rapid wrinkling of fabrics across the aisle as Applejack leapt up as well as she was able. "How in the HAY do you know her name? Who are you mister fancy pants?" A grin. Slightly malicious Dash thought; this was the monster she was expected. Maybe he just thought pants were funny. But his words were not filled with malice. "Jack Chipple. I was at your farm two days ago. I wore a shorter form, with pale orange feathers and deep blue fur." Here the thing ... she couldn't make out the name, exactly. Stack? Stack Simple looked back at her injured back with pity. It made planning to kill him a lot harder. "Applejack you know this creep?" She about dropped to her belly before replying. "I know the creep he described. Never met this one before. Nad, I think that one's name is. Good hearted fellow if a little strange." She tried to make eye contact but he was still looking at Dash. Purple eyes looked deep into yellow eyes as the orange mare asked "Can you spring us outta here? Cain't offer ya much but I guess we got learned how to do a strip tease, whetever'n hay that is." Having not yet looked away, Stack spoke. "Your wings are yet on the fetish wall of the chief, or general or whatever she is. I have now the magic to reattach them but I need a few things, time and your wings primarily." He straightened now, turning to Applejack, his tail swishing slowly as he spoke again. "I will take you, but you must needs wait. At sundown, or if I am truly lucky, earlier." His claws glowed a pale white, not unlike the purple of Twilight's magic usage. Dash had never heard of one of these things casting, let alone with claws instead of a horn. Their water dishes overflowed, fresh water pushing most of the slime out, getting everything ... well, slimy. But there was water now. Again he looked at Rainbow Dash, and said "Wait and live. If your captors come, be what they want, and live. Rainbow Dash, I want to return your wings. But it will not be as soon as you wish. Wait and trust that I mean well. Do nothing until I return." I want to return your wings The words reverberated in her tiny pony skull like the sunlight when Celestia was freed from Nightmare Moon's curse. She could be the fastest flier in Equestria again. There was a flash of blue and gray, and too late to call out she realized he was running the wrong way. Out of camp, not back the way he came. She tried to call out but realized she was too weak. Applejack had just finished slurping down the drinkable water when she called to her friend. "Ah said he's good folk. Might strange in the head but you can see what his brothers is like. Reckon I'd be a right mess if I had them for my cousins at picnic time." She pointed to the center of camp with her head. Feeling defeated she sipped carefully at the less-slimy trough, then curled up for a nap. Naps, she could do. I want to return your wings She slept in fits & starts, though. And they never did feed her. It was a long time of napping. She could hear the squeals of diamond dogs, the raucous laughter of the captors. She tried not to think of what it meant. About sundown a pack of blue furred wolves with sky blue feathers wandered down their aisle, staggering like they were drunk. They pointed, and they shook each other, but they didn't take the prisoners out of their cages. Dash nearly succumbed to dry heaves when she realized their normally pale off-white faces were red, turning brown from a messy meal recently eaten. Unbidden, images came to her of the three other ponies already on this aisle when AJ and herself were brought here. There had been what for those ponies was a last party of debauchery and inappropriateness. It had devolved into eating the ponies out, and not in a sexual way. Wait, and live. I want to return your wings Steeling herself, she said silently that if Nightmare Moon could bide her time a thousand years, Rainbow Dash would be no weaker. She would bide a thousand seconds. Of course, Nightmare Moon was sort of destroyed to make way for Luna, but that didn't seem very relevant right now. Either the three were due back, or just got bored, but they wandered outside the camp ... about twenty feet further, and took a leak right in the middle of the pathway. Definitely drunk, as they were comparing streams and distances as near as she could make out. Applejack grunted, and looked away. "Buncha low life cretins with too much cider in 'em. Don't even look 'em in the eye sugar they don't want nothing but to cause trouble." Dash thought to herself that pretty much described the whole camp but once these three finished they meandered back in to camp without seeing the ponies any further. About two minutes passed, and just as she was thinking the moon was started to seem a mite late, another of the sergals strode confidently down the aisle. He was carrying a flat, blue bundle and now had a belt, with what for them was a shortsword, flopping loose from his left hip. He held his hand up, and the claws glowed with a sickly light. The two cages fell open, and he laid the bundle on the ground where Dash could examine it. Tied together were her wings, looking a little the worse for wear. In fact they were already missing enough feathers she expected that had they been attached at that very second she would not fly again for two or three weeks, perhaps more. Tears in her eyes she suddenly thought maybe it was another of their cruel jokes. She looked into those yellow eyes as hard as she could, and asked "You know I can't just grab one in each hoof and flap them, right? You're going to attach them to the stupid stumps these idiots made of the fastest" She couldn't finish. Tears overwhelmed her, and Applejack jumped and hobbled to bury her face in Dash's mane, and they cried together. "Rainbow Dash, I have the magic to reattach them. You will recover and fly, but it will not be here, and I will not tell you it will be tonight. I will not joke about your wings, Rainbow Dash." It was kind of hard to understand him through the combined sobbing of two abused mares but she was pretty sure he said he wasn't joking about the wings part. Applejack leaned up enough to whisper hoarsely through Dash's bright mane "Did y'all find a spare hoof lyin' around? Don't rightly have to be orange tho that'd make it mine. Sorta missing one these past days." The tall misborn griffin leaned over, and examined Applejack's left hind, and where it ended a few inches too early. Sitting back to a squatting position he sighed. "I can repair this in time. But you for sure will not walk normally for a month, or perhaps a year." Now his head snapped towards the center of town. The light was failing but she could swear his eyes turned black, just for a few blinks. He held up his right paw, hand, whatever, and as the claws glowed, he grabbed at the air towards camp. There was a distant thump, just out of sight from where he had pointed. Turning again to the ponies he said "Rainbow Dash, I must ask an uncomfortable thing. Will you do this for me?" It's possible he was going to specify in a timely manner what the request was but having no one else to unload on, she lost it. Trying to keep her voice down she screamed in a whisper, "Uncomfortable is watching a pony be eaten alive. Uncomfortable is having your defining bodily feature ripped off and made into a macabre bedroom accessory. I've had it up to my ears in uncomfortable and I'd lose my lunch over the un-comfort I've had if only some lame misborn would give me a freaking lunch to lose. What in the hay are you going to ask NOW that qualifies for uncomfortable after watching them stick a lit cigarette into applejack's mouth and making her extinguish it on her own, still wet hoof like it was a fancy ashtray?" Unperturbed at her outburst, his claws again glowed, and she felt Applejack give a start as the spell grabbed hold of her. Not a full levitation spell but he hefted the orange mare over his narrow shoulders, and seemed in control of his baggage. "I would ask you, Rainbow Dash, to carry your wings to Ponyville, where I may seek the spells to reattach them. Can canter at full speed for an hour? That we may camp out of smell this night." Oh. Sheepishly, she picked up the flat, blue parcel in her mouth. Not uncomfortable so much as awkward to carry. And embarrassing as all get out but bearable after a fashion. His words still echoed like an avalanche, cascading through her thoughts. I want to return your wings "Thay the wud." she said around her parcel. Standing now, he spared a little extra magic to light the ground in front of him. Only a little ways, but she should be able to avoid tripping on what she saw appear in that light. "Then, Rainbow Dash. Run."

bearcat

494

Applejack,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Twilight Sparkle,Alternate Universe,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

War of Another World's Conquest

complete

<p>An army of wolf-like creatures has invaded Equestria, leaving death and destruction in its path. Two days ago this army reached Ponyville and now Sweetie Belle is ... possessed. What is the solution, and what will this mean for the war effort as a whole?</p><p>&quot;Teen&quot; for gore, but I avoid generally, naming of body fluids or anything that descriptive. And only the enemies have died. So far.</p>

teen

2012-02-06T05:58:38+00:00

2012-02-06T05:58:38+00:00

Twilight levitated the tea out to her esteemed guests. The CMCs had been reunited at the library since Fluttershy's place was still too close to the last known site of the largest invasion force, and Applejack's house needed to be rebuilt from scratch before it would be livable. Princess Luna, having taken her position as regent of the moon was once again nearly as tall as Celestia but had normal pupils, and her color was a comforting blue of a well light night sky. But her mane seemed made of stars, and her eyes ... were almost crying. Celestia had gone back to direct the war effort and taken her fidikken with her. Luna had placed spells at the barn to alert her if someone stepped into it, and they'd also left some pony-class hay, and a note. Jack would just have to go back out and hunt. Meanwhile, Twilight felt powerless to comfort the princess, who wanted all this violence to end. Luna breathed deeply, let it out slowly as she looked down at the dainty cup of black tea placed before her, and the sugar cubes, and their utensils for a long moment before levitating a single cube into her tea, and she thanked Twilight for it. "You know, a small part of me wants to scream. To call down thunder and set fire to the whole forest to expose them." She lifted the steaming cup to her lips, sipped daintily. "Even poor Fluttershy shooing her small friends inland to reduce their risk. This has all been just horrible and I don't know how Celly does it. Court by day and war council by night." Twilight had always sort of wondered if alicorns needed sleep, or only chose it for the pleasure, or perhaps to reduce concerns among the masses that they weren't equine. So perhaps she revealed some of her curiosity in the intensity of her gaze, ears perked and pointed at the sudden reference to her teacher. Luna turned those midnight blue eyes to the smaller unicorn and explained "Not the never-sleeping we can, well you know because we're alicorns but I guess not much is said about that. But just to keep going as if this was business as usual. I want to tear things apart, to sleep until winter wrap up ... several years hence. I want to." She sighed again, closing her eyes. Twilight levitated her own cup of tea, wishing she'd had a longer nap, being no alicorn at all. She looked out the window, where Luna had been watching the edge of the Everfree forest and spoke comfortingly "We all feel like that your highness. I'm sorry you haven't had much chance before this to meet my friends, even as much as Celestia has known them. Wonderful bunch of mares and I hope we get through this." The forgotten clouds drifted from the Everfree into the edge of Ponyville, not to be addressed by a weather patrol until at a much safer distance from the front. So the stars winked in but mostly out as the two concerned mares waited for word of their friends. Luna put her tea down, stood upright and shook her whole body, hair and feathers drifting off her. She sat back down and still looking without hardly even blinking out that window, explained "When I was ... on the moon, I could spend time worrying, or planning. Some other things. But I got to where I shut out the memories of Celly and me, and how much I liked hearing the crickets, and the wind through the trees. Hurt so much to lose all that. I started trying to convince myself Equestria was the moon and I had always been alone on a dust covered wasteland called Equestria. Twilight saw another tear form, and mentally searched what she knew of Fluttershy's somewhat crowded abode for where a tissue or hanky could be found. But Luna used her prehensile mane to wipe her eyes, and sniffled. "I hope I'm not being too sappy or overbearing dearest Twilight but I know you and Celly are close and I need a friend too. If that can't be you and Celly knows you're just a talented unicorn, just ignore me, ok?" Now Luna looked away from the window for a moment of eye contact, and Twilight was going to say something encouraging for friend. A window to their left squeaked, slid open, and a neon pink blob rapidly oozed through the window. Pinkie Pie apparently had been ease-dropping and wanted to quickly add her thoughts. But Twilight's first thought was that window was awfully high for an Earth pony to just crawl though. "Hey there's a thing they teach fillies about stuff being there when you can't see it. When you play peekabo you teach it. Haven't picked out the music yet but here's a poem about that concept I've been working on all week: "So long since I’ve known: Seen, touched, smelled; all cold. what of these memories I own? Are you a lie, to myself I’ve sold Forgotten only or vain delusion? I'd extinguish every star! to forget the pain from that illusion" She still held her head in that neutral stance, implying she was reciting but she was silent now. Luna pointed her ears at the brightly colored party pony, and still no response came. Twilight thought she knew the answer since the rhyme wasn't finished, but started to ask anyway. "Is that al" Pinkie whipped her head towards the front door "Oh, hi! There you are!" And slid back out, closing and locking the window as she did so. Luna chuckled and it was about that time they both looked out the window and saw forms rapidly approaching. A single sergal, carrying a very large load on his shoulders and a pony, running for all she was worth carrying an awkward looking sheaf of something in her mouth. Luna whipped the door open before Twilight could make any further questions. And Spark Impulse and Sprintpoint, on either side of the door, jerked awake. "Eh?" was all Spark could say. Rainbow Dash was panting and sweating like she'd single hoofedly dropped every leaf in the autumn race. The sergal's claws suddenly became dim, revealing that wasn't moonlight a moment ago but a magical aura. He dropped to his knees, and panting tried to speak. "Would. One. Unicorn. Heft. This. I can't. Now." Twilight, technically the only unicorn present, realized mid breathless tirade that was Applejack. Her head was up -- she was alive! And before the more powerful pony could offer, Twilight levitated her friend of Jack's shoulders, and set her down as carefully as she could. Applejack hobbled around to face her friend with an exhausted smile. "Thanks a heap Twi I caint begin to tell you. And I hate to add to the burden but ain't nopony eaten in forever. Ah'm so hungry I could eat a sergal! But Ah don't know what to suggest fer Stack here but maybe he cain eat somethin' besides rabbits?" "Dirt, apparently." Luna expressed, noting the know unconscious sergal had faceplanted once his burden was removed. Mouth slightly open, he was even snoring, sort of. Princess Luna carefully levitated him over onto his back and the snoring stopped. Next outburst was from Sprintpoint. "Dear sweet Celestia why are you carrying those?" Both guards stared open mouthed at Rainbow Dash, who was just now setting down the sheaf of blue ... feathers. Twilight did a double take, and then triple took just to be sure the first two times weren't total misreads of the situation. Twilight's heart was pounding and she could scarcely imagine the emotional pain the guards, pegasi both, must be going through. "Dash, I... I don't. I mean. I wouldn't know how at all." Turning around to Princess Luna she pled her friends case. "Luna, your majesty, can you ... You're stronger and better learned than me can you? Have any chance, I mean?" Princess Luna had exited Fluttershy's cottage with pity in her face for the fallen, but the longer she looked at the two wings, tied together sitting on the ground in front of Rainbow Dash, the closer to blind rage her facial expression drifted. Finally she looked away, up to examine her moon. Hidden behind some clouds and currently only three quarters full it could still be found. Could still, Twilight thought, remind the princess not to lose control. The princess looked back to Rainbow Dash, and spoke to Twilight. "Not well enough that she could fly. They would bend, and flap but I dare not say they'd be strong enough to fly." Extending her head to emphasize her sincerity, she spoke now to Dash. "I apologize on behalf of the alicorn race, that I am neither skilled nor strong enough to give you your wings back." Still panting, still dripping with sweat, Rainbow Dash had held a neutral expression, reminding Twilight of a filly biding her time 'til the parents finished their little rant before letting her stay with a friend for the night. Or perhaps like a mare waiting for a simple filly to finish expressing how many colors she could count in her rainbow'd mane. "S'okay, I think. He said he could do it. Said I should carry them because he'd reattach them." she pointed her muzzle at the furry bundle now starting to pant again as he woke. "And if he screws up to where I can't fly, well ... at least it's nothing on the alicorn race even if it's not any better. So let him glue the suckers on." And with that, Dash bowed briefly before meandering past the princess into Fluttershy's home, wings still on the ground, mute testimony to the level of cruelty common to the invading army. Fluttershy stopped back in long enough the next morning to eat breakfast, and thank Luna for fighting this horrible fight. Jack was asleep but had been up in the night and about cleared out her stash sunflowers but hadn't found anything else bipedal body could safely consume. Fluttershy said to pass along her thanks for not hunting on her property, and where some other nut types were in case he could eat those too. Twilight had Owlicious carry a note to Spike explaining new developments, but left out the specifics of her friends injuries, in case they really were healed by the time her friends could all meet at once. Twilight tiptoed past Dash's wings that had been brought in, then past the sleeping guards who were arranged so as to make a sudden assault assured of losing surprise as they tripped over the sleeping forms. Jack was nearly three times as tall as Fluttershy's back, and would have to crawl in places to clear the things hanging from the ceiling. But he had done so without waking any one in his search for water. Absently she noted that his mug was actually a large pitcher, but it seemed sized well for him. She tried to feel even a moment's pity as she watched him slurp from his mug. His face was so ill suited to civilized life that he spilled nearly a third of his drink onto his chest. "Is your Luna still present? I wish to ask a question of your god-kings." Again Twilight took a long moment to rethink what she just heard. God-king? "My what? The princess isn't in the house no." She tipped her head to the side, pointing her ears at the friendly monster. "What do you need? I have some simple answers since I'm Celestia's protege and study directly under her." He rotated his bulk around to face her with his pale gray triangle of a face, yellow eyes finally moving to indicate the front door, to which he pointed with his 'mug' of water, still dripping. He was nearly whispering "When I examined the spells on the barn, I found where their caster lay, but I also felt how that magic, well. It tried to intrude on my tracking spell. My own magic is not like yours but I can use yours too. But it was hampered by the moonlight. Not so much in this case but I will need freer flow to fulfill my promises. "This morning I have stepped outside, and tried again to examine random things, and what spells that might be on it, and found the sunshine interfered with me again." He waved his mug to indicate Fluttershy's cottage. "I will need more height than that to heal your friends, but for strong spells, exposure to the realm of a god-king" he hefted his mug skyward. "may prevent me from finishing. So I need to perform this away from both sun, and moon. A cave, or perhaps a barn again, or perhaps there is scheduled a lull when they might not either of them look upon my work." This made Twilight wonder about the other casters that still intended harm. She asked "Would shade be enough? We're not far from the forest they're hiding in." And as she spoke she felt a breeze, smelled the free range fungus and wild unkempt growth blow through the air from that forest. She knew it could get very dark under the Everfree canopy. Pitcher now empty, and a small puddle at his feet he handed the mug to Twilight, who levitated it behind her, and watched as the griffin-dog excused himself, then ran off to find the nearest shady patch to perform experiments. She went in to wake her friends, Applejack first. The orange mare tried to stretch before getting up, but a cramp in her injured leg made her cry out. "Tweren't a nightmare then. Kinda hoping, you know. How're you holding up sugarcube?" But she was too busy moaning from attempts to stand to hear any answer. Rainbow dash was still out cold. Twilight walked around to the other side of the bed they were sharing, and shook her shoulder gently. "Dash? Jack wants to fulfill his promise this morning. So come get some breakfast." Her brilliant violet eyes opened, focused, and found Twilight's eyes. One deep sigh, and the injured mare made some motions to get up. A call to attention, 'ten-hup!' came from downstairs from one of the guards. In case the other didn't notice presumably. Thinking Luna was back Twilight ran down the stairs heedless of scurrying mice that had opted to stay, and found the guards at attention for none other than Celestia, who was carefully squeezing through the small doorway. "Princess! Good morning but who's holding court I thought you couldn't get away!" Practically throwing herself at her mentor's legs she suddenly saw the horrible state of housekeeping and gasped for the faux pas. It was one thing when Luna stayed at a friend's house who explained there simply was no place to put things but when the ruler of Equestria and her own teacher arrived ... quickly she tried to levitate things into piles so it would look less crowded. A chuckle came from above her. "Overzealous as always, Twilight. This house is a bit of a tight fit for one my height anyway so why don't I lower your stress level and invite you outside?" Twilight agreed, and told Celestia about Jack needing to not be in open ground when he reattached Rainbow Dash's wings. A look of surprise crossed the royal visage, closely followed by a hint of terror. Finally settling on serenity and love she replied to Twilight with "Well that certainly makes my worst fears all come together, doesn't it?" Leaning down to hug her pupil tight and added "Don't worry about it but thank you very much for telling me. I'm going to fling coherent light at that encampment so you'll likely have a grand battle tonight. Tell Jack to be as ready as he can. To rest once he's offered his help." And with that she excused herself, and flew off with her small entourage. Four pegasi pulling her chariot, and four one-pony chariots around her each with blood-orange eyed guard-unicorns, those who had chosen service even if it meant they died: the fedaykin, or death commandos. This whole entourage, veritable army in itself, floated away. "Well, if that don't beat all. Solar flare orbital bombardment, hay?" Applejack had meandered out, and was now watching the princess leave. Behind her, Rainbow Dash was carrying her wings, looking around presumably for their sergal rescuer. "Where is that wingless excuse for a gryphon anyway?" But Twilight could see the movement. Running towards them was a single sergal, gray of many shades, pale blue feathers catching in the sunlight. "I think your ride is here girls. Let's see what he can offer you." And with that, the three of them walked toward the approaching figure.

bearcat

494

Applejack,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Twilight Sparkle,Alternate Universe,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

War of Another World's Conquest

complete

<p>An army of wolf-like creatures has invaded Equestria, leaving death and destruction in its path. Two days ago this army reached Ponyville and now Sweetie Belle is ... possessed. What is the solution, and what will this mean for the war effort as a whole?</p><p>&quot;Teen&quot; for gore, but I avoid generally, naming of body fluids or anything that descriptive. And only the enemies have died. So far.</p>

teen

2012-02-06T05:48:03+00:00

2012-02-06T05:48:03+00:00

She was ready for this. However it turned out, she would buck and kick these invaders to a flat mushy pulp whether she could fly or not. And if this Stack Simple couldn't return her wings, he could be the first to taste her hooves. Rainbow Dash thought maybe she should get Big Mac to do some farrier work for her first, if it turned out she wouldn't need to save the weight that shoes represented. She also promised to take baths more often; the dust she was eating while carrying her wings was really starting to annoy her. More than having to carry her wings, that is. The blue and gray sergal waved the ponies forward, and explained "I have found cover not but a few minutes into the forest. Chalk will not write on the ground, so I will make a ring with pebbles. Please, come help me find and lay pebbles." Weird guy, this Stack. Rainbow hadn't seen the chalk used before but heard Twilight say his magic needed 'components.' More time wasted but Dash was determined. She had napped in Hell, she would collect pretty pebbles for the wingless gryphon. She noted the guards were not hovering. They were carrying almost nothing in their slim saddlebags so they must be trying not to show off their lack of injury in front of her. If she wasn't busy carrying a load in her mouth she would have told them it was no insult. She felt bad but that was no reason for them to walk. She didn't know why it needed to be in the forest any more than why he needed pebbles. But a giant circle was made on ground that had been magically cleared of vegetation. The forest canopy made shadows disappear; everything was in shadow already. "Please, Rainbow Dash, set your wings down, and lay yourself inside the circle where those two branches will point to you." Stack indicated the cut limbs, at noon and three if it were a clock. She would be the thing connecting them, he explained. As she complied, he whipped his head around and up, at the sun. Or where the sun should have been. He must be able to tell Celestia was starting the laser therapy. "Gotta hurry, huh? Survivors will want revenge on us soon. S'okay I want some of that myself." She said as she laid her belly to the ground to wait. He focused on her, those yellow eyes boring a hole into her back, then softening as he began to walk around the circle, on foot on either side of the pebble line. She heard a noise that could have been distant chanting, or his belly growl at the nuts he ate, or maybe he was humming a tune. Dash didn't know, didn't care. I want to return your wings This was it, then. The monster would prove his faithfulness. He held his left -- paw? out, towards her back, and the right paw glowed with magic as he levitated her wings and carefully untied them. They floated over her back now, and her weather-patrol trained senses could feel the static charge. Find yourself in the wrong place now, and lightning would course through a pony's tiny body, in search of Earth. "Rainbow Dash. How do your wings belong?" huh? She glanced up at her limbs. "Well, not like that. See those feathers? The ones sticking out above my ears? They need to be above my tail." The wings rotated but in the wrong axis. Clearly something was taking all his concentration because it wasn't that hard to see. "No the part that attached to ME goes down. Twist to your left. Or right I don't care just don't attach them backwards." She looked more closely. "Which they are, now. See the one over my left shoulder? That's my right wing." They obediantly changed position. Straight down, and she'd be a pegasus again. "Rainbow Dash, I need you to do a thing. Straighten your wings. They must be attached straight on." The hay? Her wings were being levitated she couldn't ... oh. Slightly annoyed at how often he called her by her full name when hay you wouldv'e been fine, she commanded her shoulder muscles to lift, and told her wings, as if she had any, to point to the sky. "OK Stack Simple I'm telling my feathers to point straight up. Those are the ones that are actually over my tail right now." The wings didn't actually straighten as they came down, but her stubs were tingling something awful from the static charge as it got closer. Phantom pains began to shoot through her; every nerve in her nonexistant wings screamed in agony and she had to grit her teeth to command them to stay straight. Suddenly the lightning hit, and without her wings she couldn't dodge. Out of pure instinct she flapped her wings furiously -- and they smacked together in front of her! ouch she thought. Regaining control of her faculties she again straightened her wings, and they obeyed this time. Now pain, true pain of her own wings, flooded her with weariness. so cold... She didn't see when the bipedal thing lowered his arms, but she heard him call out to the guard ponies, although she thought she was losing concsiousness. "She is in shock, but it is done. Help her and keep her warm she will need time to recover." Turning back to her, he again used her full name. Dash gritted her teeth. "Rainbow Dash, you may fold your wings; they are yours to fold now." She stumbled out of the circle, and since nopony knew to bring a blanket the two guards threw their wings over her back. Panting now, she watched Applejack limp hopefully to the edge of the circle. Stack was just stretching, as if nothing was going on but that he had gotten out of bed too early. Finally he noticed her, and waved her into the circle. "Yes, now is a good time. There will be battle soon." Almost through a haze she saw the sergal suddenly pounce on Applejack's good leg, lifting her onto her front feet without warning. "Excuse me." was his only explanation, his yellow eyes now burning a hole into Applejack's remaining rear hoof. "Ya do know that's the good leg, right? Yer gonna make me a copy right leg for mah left?" There was no response, but that he set her down gently, and pointed to the center of the circle. Stack repeated the process, walking & humming, and the orange mare's missing hoof began to regrow, then stopped. When his arms lowered, Applejack brought her still-injured leg up to examine. "Shucks. Ah've seen this before. Farm accident pert near took a cousin's hoof off. Was a year I reckon before he had a right hoof again." She tried to rotate the leg, so she could see around the edges of the tiny, wet-looking hoof at the end of her bad leg. "Well, it's all there alright. Should grow back in full in a years time." She hobbled around to face her rescuer, and thanked him. For his part, Dash thought he looked winded. Her mental faculties were returning but now she was shivering. She heard Applejack apologize to Twilight for having to sit out the coming finale. Rainbow couldn't hack it anymore. "That's all cute and stuff but can we get back to Celestia's sweet Sunshine? I'm freezing." The edge of the forest had positive surprises, however. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Big Mac wandering up to them. "Sis!" Big Mac came at a gallop, runing a quick circle around Applejack before almost knocking her over with a hug as he came up beside her. They stopped for a moment while he examined the newly formed hoof. "That looks just like when..." Dash giggled at AJ's higher pitched "eyup." Rarity and Fluttershy ran to see under the guards' wings, still trying to offer warmth to the shivering blue pony. "Hey gimme a minute they need to see this." The guards folded their wings, and Dash painfully unfurled her own. Unlike poor Applejack she would be fully recovered in a week or two. Mostly. And she could probably fly now so long as she didn't need to do it well. Fluttershy was gushing about something but she couldn't bring herself to concentrate, though she did return the yellow pony's bear hug that could've crushed an ursa minor. Rarity excused herself and ran over to examine Applejack. "Don't put any weight on that dear. I've got some extra cloth we can jury rig a bandage until you get something sturdier." And out of the sky came night. Rainbow corrected herself, it was just a darkly colored alicorn diving straight for them. Everypony bowed, and she deliberately flared her wings in some attempt at psuedo finery that was just to impress the princess. "You've done very well, Jack. I'll add my thanks to whatever she's said." The deep silken tones of the regent of the moon flowed over everyone. About the time Rarity had made an end of something that Applejack might put weight on, the possesed sergal, who apparently was Jack instead of Stack, unless the princess had it wrong -- his voice was horrible to listen to -- pointed to the sky. "She's discharged another flare, yes." Luna looked at the sky, not quite as high as the sun. Looking back at the sergal she asked "You will be joining us? You nearly stopped them last time. He nodded, the earthquake voice rolling his reply. "It was a raiding party not truly an invasion force. To stop this camp's forty some I will need much more magic. But with the two god-kings I may stem the tide. We all will fight. Rainbow hoped the travel would warm her again. She was still cold. So they all traveled as fast as they could except fluttershy who predicted she'd be a poor fighter, and Big Mac who couldn't be budged from his sister's side. They stayed to help Applejack hobble someplace safer. The rest headed to the site of the last battle, Sweet Apple Acres' largest barn. Rainbow Dash could see tiny lightning bolts coming from the smaller chariots, and sometimes the trees would erupt in fire though she couldn't see the coherent light. "Duh." Twilight would have said. "That's what makes it coherent -- none of it is escaping the beam!" Now that Luna had arrived she was blanketing the treetops with darkness. The strikes through it would be blind but right now that eased the benefit of cover to the pony's side. Rarity was putting on a cape. Dash had never seen her wear unadorned clothing nor denim. This was unadorned denim that attached at the neck, chest and belly, and draped to the ground. "What's that, your armor? It's gonna get bloodstained, girl!" Rarity didn't even look over her shoulder to reply. "Oh don't remind me I can't stand the thought of throwing this away after a single use." She drew a sizable knife from a pack that was now under her cape. Dash suddenly felt naked with no knife, cape, or even enough feathers to take to the air like her escort was doing now. Spark Impulse was shouting to the charioteers "You may know this but there's two casters under there. So far I can only smell shield spells but keep your eyes open." Jack levitated a tiny rock, and with his left hand waved with a flourish to the trees. The rock disappeared but Dash didn't see anything else happen. Another rock levitated and now she realized she could see eyes glistening in the light, just inside Luna's darkness that was now protecting the enemy too. When Jack's second rock disappeared Rainbow Dash saw a pair of eyes roll up and away, until they weren't pointing at the light, or them, anymore. And suddenly they were upon them. Dash couldn't remember which side charged first but the forays and findings had run out and everybody was running, screaming. Twilight would levitate one high enough that their guards could kick it in the head until it stopped moving. Rarity levitated her knife about five feet from herself but when one got closer a lightning bolt escaped her horn. Dash had heard zapping an attacker like that hurt the caster nearly as much as the castee. But the sergal would scream and jerk, outside Rarity's personal safety zone again to get cut by a disembodied knife. For her own part she kicked one low, then as acrobatically as she could manage she turned, jumped, and flapped to land behind it. She kicked again at the back of the knees. Wouldn't really take one down but Jack bit him in the back of the neck, then with claws glowing slapped his on the back. As the glow died there was a sickening crunch and the assailant stopped moving. Lotta good I'm doing, here. Yay, revenge. Twilight seemed to be holding her own with 'push' spells that didn't really damage anyone but it made them land on their rump. One even had a broken tail he was pushed so fast. So she eased towards Rarity to see if she could be useful there. This one coming at them now was big. His claws were glowing with darkness -- the same deep brown as his eyes actually. Suddenly Rarity's knife shot past Dash, and Dash made a lunge for the dropped weapon. There was a clash of light as the casters' magic impacted but Rarity was no fighter either. Dash had the knife in her mouth and was charging, hoping to slice open a leg but this was an experienced fighter. The leg closest to Dash came up, toeclaws digging into her muzzle then reaching for her throat. The knife went flying one way, and dash flew back another way. Enegries still clashing the foot came around, aiming for Rarity's head next. Then suddenly there was a pair of high pitched screams. One from the bushes to the pony's right, another from the attacking sergal, whose claws suddenly dropped their flow of magic as his hand went to his face. Rarity's spell burned the sergal's face and hand, just as Scootaloo dropped out of a low branch, wings buzzing as she turned mid-air to land as solid a kick as the little pip squeak could, also to the injured side of his face. Dash watched as Scootaloo wisely retreated back to her bushes, where Sweetie Belle could be seen wielding a slingshot. Rarity said a bad word. Several, in fact. "What are you [...]* doing out here missy?!? I won't lose you to these things consarnit* Just run your hide back home before I seperate you from your hide for them and run you home in two seperate apple* carts!" *Dash politely overlooked and translated her words to something slightly more ladylike, but distressed Sweetie Belle didn't feel quite such a need just then. "Just saving your pretty* horn Sis you're welcome I'm not letting them eat your Celestia Blessed* face just go back to zapping these dogs* in the head!!" Mentally Rainbow Dash filed some notes. Don't expect Rarity's family to maintain their genteel facade under death threats, and also to scold Scootaloo for exposing herself to this much danger. But for now, "Thanks you little cloud-rat now stay outta our way!" Scootaloo spat a raspberry at Dash just in keeping the current feeling around the cozy family campfire. Speaking of fire, the next one running at them had a sword, and it was on fire. Enchanted...? Dash had never heard of enchanting swords with fire, and apparently neither had the sergal whose hand was now catching fire, and he, busily trying to drop it. As his right arm came off, fire sealing the wound a giant white alicorn swooped low enough to ask "How's it going, girls?" before hastily swooping back towards the center of the region Luna was keeping as dark as starless night. Not so well, as it turned out. The dismembered sergal was injured but furious and still running, mouth agape and looked wide enough to swallow one of them whole. Even a tiny rock from Sweetie Belle's slingshot didn't slow the beast. The boulder did. A quick look revealed that Jack was floating. Kind of like when the elements were channeled through her except she could float anyway. And there weren't any elements. He was just floating, looking extremely pissed off. Wherever he pointed, a boulder five feet across would leap from the ground and fly towards his target. There was no screaming; the mountain called Jack had spoken. Splat, then nothing. Both the princesses came to land behind him about twenty feet, and the remaining sergal were just inside the trees, now twenty or so feet in front of him, and he was floating higher, glowing ... not just his claws but all of him bathed in a pony-magic aura. There was a small earthquake. It kept going however so Rainbow decided to screw this earth-pony stuff, missing feathers be cursed. Floating two feet above the ground she didn't feel the earthquake but saw her friends drop, trying to stay stabilized. There was a caster sergal, who threw a lightning bolt at Jack. No effect. He didn't even blink. He did start screaming, however. "I am Prince Jack, King-Under-the-Mountain, regent of the Rocks! I deny you passage, and decree the rocks shall henceforth no longer stay beneath your feet, but COVER YOUR GRAVE" Rainbow saw the earthquake become more focused, concentrating on the dozen remaining sergal. Two trees, all the sergals, and various shrubs and small woodland creatures not smart enough to run screaming at the first smell of blood, dropped. Like a rock, in fact. An amalgam of soil and boulders were all that was left of the army now. Dash looked to the princesses, and saw something she had never seen before. Celestia, facehoofing. Luna just seemed to have smelled something rotten, or maybe somebody made a fart joke. By farting. Not floating now, Jack was panting, but turned around to express an apology. "I'm sorry your highness. That was not planned. Nor expected. I did not intend it to be so." Celestia, face still in hoof, accepted his apology with the one eye she could have still seen him with. "Yes prince, I believe you. Nothing to be done for it now, really. Welcome to the family I guess." Rainbow stopped hovering, as her wings were starting to hurt already. And she'd lost two feathers just with that workout. She looked again at Jack Chipple. Gray upper half, with lighter gray more visible in front and dark prominent in back but still everything everywhere. Blue feathers, skinny little tail, giant claws. No pony. No prince, thought Rainbow, although Blueblood was nearly a monster so who was she to say. "Uhm, what just happened? He looks like a sergal to me." Twilight, ever the investigator, Dash thought to herself. Meanwhile she scanned the treeline for more movement, but didn't see anything. Luna, eyes never leaving Jack, explained "The greater portions of pony magic are only available to royalty. It's been done that one alicorn would steal regency from another, not unlike what I" She faltered, bit her lip. Dash looked back to see her continue. "What Nightmare Moon did. Steal regency of the sun so Cellestia here couldn't do anything about it." Jack added, somewhat sheepishly, "When I reached for a greater flow of pony-magic, forcing it to come to me with my own imported magic, I somehow created a new position of royalty. As Prince Jack, I am the regent of the rocks. Fortunately, rocks aren't asked to do much." He stood as tall as his could, and stared into the forest. "Duties or no, I am king under the mountain. I can feel their footsteps upon my ground. There are" he paused dramatically, held his breath and lowered his chin to his chest, then spoke again. "three hundred more. They are almost to the ocean. Moving this way, so they must have come primarily across the ocean." Dash didn't see the sudden change of expression, as the fearsome toothy maw gained an impish grin. She only half heard as he said "I have new spells granted my new status!" She did however hear when Celestia started to say "Oh good g" and turned, blocking both her eyes with her hoof. Luna had summoned a darkness about her. All Dash did, was close her eyes. She was blinded. When the pain of standing next to the sun itself (or so it seemed to her) had passed she looked again. Now Luna was facehoofing, as Jack was missing, of a sort. There stood before the assembled crowd, an alicorn. Tall as the princesses he was a slate gray, with obsidian hooves and sandy colored mane & tail but his wings were the white of polished marble. His cutie mark was probably a mountain, tho it looked from here like a few pebbles, and surrounded by a golden ring. His voice no longer the washboard gravelly sound but clear as a yodeller's and resonant with a joy of life, Jack spoke. "We pony now." "Yes, prince. I can see that."

bearcat

494

Applejack,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Twilight Sparkle,Alternate Universe,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

War of Another World's Conquest

complete

<p>An army of wolf-like creatures has invaded Equestria, leaving death and destruction in its path. Two days ago this army reached Ponyville and now Sweetie Belle is ... possessed. What is the solution, and what will this mean for the war effort as a whole?</p><p>&quot;Teen&quot; for gore, but I avoid generally, naming of body fluids or anything that descriptive. And only the enemies have died. So far.</p>

teen

2012-03-15T23:01:47+00:00

2012-03-15T23:01:47+00:00

Luna tried to be as discreet and unobtrusive with her shifting from hoof to hoof as she could. But there were three of them, now. The "greater pony magic" that was only available to royalty -- it wasn't crowded at the top per se but the sisters could feel each other. Like being in a narrow, short corridor. Any fast movement shifted the air so much the other could feel it. It had made that fateful fight rather more stale a mate than would have been so if they were just unicorns, just over a thousand years ago. Now that narrow corridor had accepted an uncultured and inexperienced oaf to shove in with them. It already felt crowded at the top of the magical chain. Jack flapped his brilliant white wings. They left her with the impression of translucence, but as Luna watched she realized it was just on odd form of off-white, perhaps multiple colors of white as his wolf-hairs had been multiple colors of gray. She was snapped out of annoyed reverie when the pegasus Rainbow Dash blurted out "So, what, you think you can fly now? Just because you have your own set of wings?" She flapped her own wings, and Luna was impressed anew with Jack's non-pony magic, whatever its source, but the wings had been without blood for nearly three days. As a flier herself she felt pity for Dash's inability to leave the ground yet. "It's not fair, you big griffon dog pony ... thing!" A little orange pegasus came out of the bushes. Luna was thankful the Filly had not tried to participate in the fighting but obviously she and Rainbow Dash knew each other. "What, Dash? What'd they do to you after they stole you from me? I mean us!" Rainbow Dash just flapped her wings slowly, mournfully, while glaring white-hot disdain at the little filly. Jack turned to the orange and purple filly to explain. "No you two, there is no unfairness, because I was not born with wings. I can feel them, I know how to bend and shape them as any part of my body but I know nothing of flight." Dash turned her glare on Jack "I'm not teaching you how to fly. I sorta promised Scoot here and just one student is cramping my style." Jack had a broad, easy grin on his muzzle, and as the guards landed from their patrol he answered her. "Very well, Rainbow Dash. I shall seek instruction elsewhere. Twilight Sparkle, can a unicorn levitate himself?" Startled, her sister's pupil shook her multihued purple mane as she shook her sudden look of confusion off her face. "You have to push against something, just like if you lifted it with your hooves. You can't lift yourself with magic anymore than with hooves." Luna felt the magic move, knew where he was going with it. Celly could probably be more forgiving of his oafish grasping but it was already pushing her buttons. Jack hadn't physically moved, but he answered Twilight's explanation. "But you push against the ground when you lift yourself to stand. If your legs are suddenly longer, you are suddenly taller, is it not so?" Luna snuck a glance at Celly who was smirking. No trolling gag here other than to keep her mouth shut. So be it, Luna thought. I'll go along but he needs to know it's impolite to jostle in this corridor of magic. Twilight said "Well, but since your horn is the focus of your magic, that's where you push from. To levitate yourself you'd have to ... well, do a horn-stand." Jack dove his dust colored horn into the ground and bucked high, magic aura already bright as he floated up. "Just so, Twilight. Thank you for your instruction." Straight up, tail first and legs all akimbo he rotated to he could sort of see the crowd. Princess Celestia, no longer hiding her impish grin, turned to Luna and said "I think we've just been ... shown up." "Put a sock in it, sister." \_- | || || || || | -_/ As the ocean was some distance away, all the ponies were instructed to wait. To eat, make camp, to restore their strength. While Spike was not present to receive a letter apparently one of the fiddiken could accept magical fire sendings. Celestia promised to keep her body guards well informed if they were needed. They didn't like waiting when their charge was charging off unarmed but none of them were pegasi, and the guards that were, were tired enough they couldn't make a speed run to the ocean only to begin a massive battle there. So the sisters flew up alone. High up, a quarter mile by levitation magic alone, they found Prince Jack, drifting very slowly as he balanced on his horn and pushed the earth behind him, effecting floating forward. They hovered, massive wings beating slowly. Celly started with "Since we know how to fly, prince, we can get there in an hour of hard flight. Do you have any suggestions that don't involve us towing you, as we need to hurry." It was a little hard to read the newborn alicorn's expression, as he was upside down and drifting away from the pair, who had to drift with him as they tread on air. But Luna thought his face was screwed up in deep thought, more than magic expenditures. "I think I can cast a propulsion spell. Magically extend my spine with the release of force, not unlike how I'm pushing down now. Hafta make my back hooves push too. Then just lock my wings and try not to steer myself into a mess." His eyes focused on the ground, and he was silent for a moment. "No sense you two waiting I guess. If you're not going to tow me I need to get there myself." He adjusted his rotation a little and held a forehoof straight out. "At the ocean in that direction. They're carrying a tarpaulin over their main encampment so you won't see them, I think but I can still feel them grinding rocks together beneath their feet." As the moon was not in a phase to be above the horizon during daylight hours, she couldn't look to confirm through her moon's line of sight, but the fact that Celly didn't comment suggested they did indeed know to hide from the glare of the celestial bodies. They really would need his help, but it still rankled that an untrained commoner had been elevated -- no, elevated himself out of ignorance -- into this confined space. She gathered her power to herself, and beat her wings more forcefully. Celly, bless her, shot a concerned look at Luna, feeling the sudden power draw that was totally unnecessary. Jack would too, of course; that was the point. "We will speak about your magic, after we have won the war. I'm not angry but we must speak soon. So win soon, king under the mountain." She released her energy to pull and push the wind, to drive herself forward, and to keep the airflow across her delicate eyes to a minimum. No goggles needed when you were the regent of the moon. As she powered off so quickly, she missed Celestia's kinder words to Jack. "She's self conscious about what she fears is a net loss of power. We'll work it out without heated words, prince Jack. See you at the beach!" As Celly wisely conserved her power, and flew with only her wings, the 1500 hoof lead that Luna had created stayed the same now that she was likewise just flapping hard. A tiny bit of power to see where Celly's sun had heated the air -- thermals would speed her, and she wouldn't just have to draw as much power to replenish her strength later. She looked behind her, and saw Jack fold his wings, rotate so he could be right-side up once he was flying. Luna felt the draw of power -- far more than that spell would need. His wings locked straight out she felt the flow of all Equestria's magic divert itself into Jack's backside. He made a few tests of his wings to see how to steer, already going faster than either sister but easily a third of a mile behind them now. Suddenly he shot upward, a 30 degree climb and still accelerating. Suddenly Luna felt the spell double. that fool. He's going to cross the sound barrier right as She didn't get to finish the thought as Jack created a rainboom whose expanding rings of light and turbulence passed not 10 feet in front of her nose. She drew power again, forcing air under her wings, forcing the her body to stay upright. /_- || || || || -_\ Dash saw the rainboom, eventually heard's its crack of distressed air. Straight up and down, that foal had somehow powered across the invisible barrier while traveling in a straight, flat line. can't fly, my tailbones. Out loud, she shouted "Colt crudder!" It was not really a word, she knew. But couldn't come up with anything better. It rolled off her tongue though, as if she had said it before. Perhaps in another life she had dealt with so annoying a ... a ... Colt crudder. That's what.. \_- | || || || || | -_/ By dint of sheer practice, intimate knowledge, and long millenia of experience, the sisters could draw power, could shift in that small corridor, so as to speak to one another. It was far from precise but they could call for each other, and give an idea of their intentions. Luna caught her breath for a moment. The last time she had received a magical sending this way from Celly had been a polite -- no, pleading -- request to back down. To stop the fight before, well before what had happened had needed to. But this time was not that. The image sent could be summed up in the word unexpected. By response she drew power as if to call up vast amounts of water as she set fire to the ground around the well, all while calling an avalanche up the site of failed conflagration. sloppy Luna had lost some ground to dealing with the worst of the rainboom. Celly now was close enough that her peal of laughter, open and free as the sky, could reach Luna's ears. the oaf doesn't bother her, it seems. While Luna wanted to be upset for almost dumping her into the forest below, that laughter reached too deep into her soul. She chuckled. Perhaps she could teach him about magic, and normal pegasus-style flying without the magic. Raise the once-dead sergal into a proper member of royalty. But now there was a battle before them. As the sisters approached the edge of the forest, where a short stretch of grasslands separated it from the ocean, they found prince Jack, 'regent of the rocks beneath your feet' floating horn-down again. His back was turned to them and his wings were folded tight, and he was using just enough magic to fold the light around him; to be almost invisible to those on the ground. Upon realizing that he thought there was aught to hide from, the sisters quickly copied his spell. They could see each other with their magesight, and of course the rainboom's rainbow, ended a mile distant now, had pointed straight at Jack. So he was not trying to hide from Luna, but on the ground was naught to hide from either. Treading air again, it was Celestia who spoke first. "Why are you up here hiding? I don't see, physically or magically, anything down there." Luna looked again, and saw Celly doing the same. Prince Jack pointed to a place halfway between tree and seashore, and said "I feel them there. Two hundred, still. Easily fifty who can cast but I have felt spells from only eleven." Luna concentrated her sense of power at the place indicated, and gasped. What looked like open grasslands had two places where a thing, probably a dinner plate, being levitated. And just there, was a candle lit. "That tarp of theirs is magically augmented!" Jack turned his dusty, dusky head towards her, still keeping his horn, not unlike his mane, pointed down. "More devious still. They have received word that spells can be seen. Perhaps by their casters calling out what spell the other used. So they have devised a false image whose power is craftily diverted in many places. All eleven who know they have magic have agreed to take a corner and they actively, in their own way and place and speed, keep a part of the spell up." Luna saw out the corner of her eye, Celly nodding. "Many small spells are harder to see at a distance, compared to one big spell. But it's strong -- even knowing that's what's there I can't pierce it." Jack looked out over the ocean now, adding gravely, "There is more bad news. This magic pressure, that you feel when each of us moves in higher realms. Do you not feel it? The flow is diverted again." He pointed to a distant spot of the vast surface of water. "They have a god-king." Luna was still too upset to tell where precisely the pressure was pulling, but she thought she could feel a strong magical presence out to sea. Given the apparent distance, it would have to be another regent like themselves, but whoever it was didn't seem to be doing much of anything. Still, "That's going to complicate things alright. Orbital bombardment again Celly?" Her sister shook her head. "Too broad a target. Solar flares are good for cutting a pony in half but a whole town?" "Does it not take nearly nine minutes of preparation to enact a solar flare into light upon Equestria?" That, from the newly ponified. Part of Luna wanted to be shocked, but her analytical side was racing. With another corner of her mind she heard Celly try to explain pony magic. "No, prince. The sun is right there" She helpfully pointed a hoof in its direction. "And while it has to be kept out of the atmosphere so it won't burn everything up, it's only outside by about a hundred feet. And as regent, as you know it follows my commands pretty closely." Luna needed more clues. "Why nine minutes, prince Jack?" This should tell her something about his non-pony magic, perhaps. Or something unfathomable. "That is. Are you serious princess Celestia? That is how far the sun is. Where I am from, the sun is eight and a half light-minutes distant." Below a single sergal could be seen dragging a pair of diamond dogs out of the forest towards the invisible encampment. "What's a light minute, prince?" But as Celestia spoke Luna had already guessed, and it fascinated her. "Light travels at a speed. If it were to be convinced to travel in a curve, then by the time you said, one thousand and one, the beam would have traveled all around the whole world five times. That is one second, there are sixty seconds in a minute, the sun, a billion times the size of the land, is eight and a half minutes distant. Is it truly not so here?" This suggested to Luna that where Jack was from, they may not even need Regents to control such unfathomably massive celestial bodies. And his math was off a bit too. "This land is not that big, Jack. I think I know how fast light travels and it would travel closer to seven times around. And the sun, here at least, is smaller than my moon. About half the size as most of what you see is just a continuous fire's flames. The moon is held inside the air by a quarter mile or so." She spoke truth, but Jack seemed dumbfounded and even bordering on mistrusting. Celly responded by extending a lot more trust that Luna would have thought to offer given the circumstances. "Prince, I trust you know not to move it, but ... reach for the sun. Find it, I won't stop you." Luna felt the draw of power, and inwardly cringed. It was the same spell she ... Nightmare Moon she reminded herself ... had used to usurp control of the day/night cycle. But once his hooves were upon the sun, the spell held, and asked no more of pony's magic. Luna saw his yellow eyes turn to saucers, and suddenly he was falling, all magic forgotten. Clearly this pulled a big rug out from under him. At least he had a quarter mile to find a rug again, she thought with a touch of cynicism. eight and a half light minutes He did recover, although seeing his rump as he floated back up towards them felt awkward to Luna. Celly too was pointedly looking out to the ocean until he was back to his original height. "My apologies." said the prince, sounding to Luna like he was pleading for a deep offense. She wasn't really sure if he meant his rump showing or thinking the sun was a billion times the size of the earth. Luna decided it didn't matter. "Lightning bolts? What, then?" Again with an uneducated blurting from the newcomer. "Can you create a second, smaller sun, right in their camp? Destroy a few unsplittable pieces of matter and unleash a fire that will consume them faster than they could blink?" split the unsplittable. Luna shuddered. Celestia quickly quelled the notion, trying to sound encouraging, Luna thought, probably to make sure Jack didn't try it on his own. "That would poison more ponies than anyone here wants. The forest might not recover for a century or two. Better to chase them down and cut them individually and miss a few than to doom ponies hundreds of miles downwind to a mysterious and painful death." Luna watched Jack. No surprise, so he seemed to know the consequences of what he'd suggested. Just didn't think it was that far out of the risk/reward scale. Best weigh in, then. "We're a peaceful lot. I don't know where you came from, but it's very deep in our psyche not to injure by accident. Not by intent either but sometimes ... So we will have to do this by hoof and mouth." Just to illustrate, she summoned a sword of pure force, and folded her wings. Calling up a shield spell she would simply have to cut each attacker down, one by one. They didn't like flying things as much for their own psyche as the tactical reasons. So she would agree to wade in hock deep into their blood. split the unsplittable And hopefully not drop her force-sword in fear and shock, although she already knew what kinds of things she would see under that tarp. She steeled herself as she dove. Her ponies would be preserved, whether they forever feared the night or not. They deserved that freedom. \_- | || || || || | -_/ Celestia watched her younger, slightly impetuous sister dive into the unknown. Of course the regent of the moon, and of nighttime, would feel more comfort with what she couldn't see. This was her realm. Until she saw the horrors under the tarp, and no pony should be forced to own that realm. "I think we've been shown up, prince. Earthquakes could be useful here you know." She winked, and folded her wings to follow her sister, force sword already in her mouth. She heard the unfurling of the prince's wings but couldn't see if he tried to summon a sword. It didn't matter, so long as he kept it a melee thing.

bearcat

494

Applejack,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Twilight Sparkle,Alternate Universe,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

War of Another World's Conquest

complete

<p>An army of wolf-like creatures has invaded Equestria, leaving death and destruction in its path. Two days ago this army reached Ponyville and now Sweetie Belle is ... possessed. What is the solution, and what will this mean for the war effort as a whole?</p><p>&quot;Teen&quot; for gore, but I avoid generally, naming of body fluids or anything that descriptive. And only the enemies have died. So far.</p>

teen

2011-09-12T21:47:59+00:00

2011-09-12T21:47:59+00:00

Melee, Luna reflected, is a relative thing. Ball lightning formed around her and bounded away, burning holes through the augmented tarp. She called up an aura of fear, hoping these things, these sergals, could feel fear. As she dove blindly through the tarp, startling the tall, brown specimen who hadn't known she was coming, she began to wonder if they could. The brown sergal was two halves now, and she saw the ground was the bright brown of forgotten blood. There had been infighting of the most serious nature, as just to her right there was a disemboweled pale brown sergal, blank eyes staring upward, accompanied by bare, gnawed-on ribs also pointing up. Cannibals! Two sergals pointed and tried to zap her. Having no experience with magic they just slammed away with raw power; tiring and ineffective. The lesser casters' bolts fizzled on her shield as she kicked one way and slashed another. Feeling an oafish draw of the regent's power, she flared her wings and hovered as Jack created a localized earthquake, knocking about half the crowd off their feet. The quake continued to rumble as Celestia's shield, made as much of heat energy as force burned through the simple cloth that carried their spell. Where she landed there was only burlap bags, so she had to leap forward to find someone to slash. The nearest caster gave himself away by trying to levitate Luna's force sword to the ground. He made a guess about a shield spell, but it was too little too late as her sword impaled him. She threw another ball of lightning and then changed directions to help Celly. A thrown double sword clattered as it was diverted by her shield. She heard the twang of bowstring, and while she had never heard such before she poured energy into the physical protections of her shield, which was suddenly under strain from forty tiny wooden spears impacting all at once. Clever cannibals. The quake finally settled and was replaced by a shockwave a hundred feet in front of them. Jack had substituted magic for experience, casting an incredibly broad 'push' spell, slowing his heedless drop from space and crushing the skulls of several attackers. For a moment Luna feared Jack had gone against their pleas, as there was a brilliant flare of fire and heat, but then she realized what happened. It was the awakening of magic within one of the latent casters. His anger had taken physical form but had started deep within himself, killing him and catching several more on fire. Jack summoned for the cold of space to descend. The fire was instantly quelled as was the breath of four attackers. Also a broken and dismembered diamond dog. Probably just as well but just the same she looked around for more captives. None within fifteen feet of her at least, and as hectic as this battle was she diverted no more attention than that. Celly had been casting small fireball spells, using her sword for any that ran past their dying friends to get a stab at her. By the pile of bodies, it was a popular technique. Luna's somewhat scattered thoughts were stopped by sudden shouting. It was Jack, augmenting his voice using magic, but he was speaking in their tongue. With his voice as clear now as it was, she could almost pick out individual words. He was interspersing it with English "I am the prince of this land! I demand you stand down!" followed a time later by "This land only has a place for nonviolent sergals!" The crowd was still running at him, as they were at the princesses. He seemed to be using a push spell to ... rather messily remove their organs by breaking their ribs and shoving their organs out the holes. She hoped becoming a prince of Equestria wasn't already going to his head. Prince of this land is he, now? A shorter specimen, nearly red in color, had leapt high and fallen slowly through her shield. Having not screamed its intent to attack she had missed it until the thing's teeth bit hard into her right wing. She summoned lightning to arc across her wing, but that didn't dislodge the determined beast. Smoke began to erupt from its lower back, quickly turning into a fire a foot across that was already burning through to the ground. Celly had called down an orbital strike. But still it would not let go, even paralyzed and dying the thing managed to break her wing before a precision 'push' spell tore its head apart. Trying to ignore the gore that covered her rump she quickly made thankful eye contact with the two who had finished this attacker, then went back to throwing ball lightning to bounce among the longbowmen. Luna had to guess that some of those arrows had stone tips, as perhaps a third of the second volley redirected themselves, seemingly of their own accord, landing in one of the bowsergals. Those with steel tips needn't heed the call of the regent of the rocks; instead they were slowed by Celly's and her own shield spell. Luna felt the new regent try his hoof at sending. He was making as if to illuminate four places, all under this tent whose magic was quickly fading. Jack shouted "There are four noncombatants. I think they'll surrender." With that he turned to the thickest of the remaining army and Luna saw the arrows leap out of the fallen bowsergal and spread, faster than she could see, to impale many attackers who seemed not a one of them to honor her fear aura spell. As it was getting late into the afternoon Celly's solar flares were a little weaker, and the next one she tried to burn was a caster who knew he was now a target of magic. Jumping didn't save him, as Luna watched in awe as Jack grabbed the potential for a small lightning bolt out of a sergal beneath him, and violently threw it into the leaping caster. A double bolt, first by Jack's spell then a reverse bolt as the energized mage ground out into normalcy. More fire, more lighting, two more surrenders, and more gore than Luna had seen during the war leading to her -- Nightmare Moon she reminded herself -- that mare's banishment. Jack looked unscathed but Luna had three claw marks across her left shoulder, and Celly's right hock was bleeding where some suicidal foal had latched on with a deathbite, not unlike how her own right wing had been broken. Facing Celly but making sure Jack would hear, she asked "where do we put the new one? It's proper for you to draw power to heal first but would you have me wait for the prince of the land, my Princess Celestia?" Hopefully her needless formality wouldn't completely escape the dusty alicorn prince. With only a hint of a smirk, and only because Luna knew her sister so well as to see it, Celestia responded. "No Princess Luna you have been my sister and a co-ruler of Equestria far too long to wait on such a formality, needful as it may be. Only a moment sister." And with that, she drew power. Her wounds weren't great, and indeed it was only a few seconds until her body was whole although she was still covered in sweat and blood, and not a few gibbets of sergal flesh. Luna politely bowed, and not even glancing to watch the prince, drew power. It took longer, as the broken wing was already surrounded by inflammation, and an infection had started at the deepest points of the attacker's tooth marks. Now she turned, to find the prince had used his 'imported magic' to heal a few scratches, and minor unicorn level levitation to remove the gore from his coat. "Hopefully no one will be mortally wounded, as that process looked complicated." With that he pointed his wingtips to the six still living sergal, and shouted something as he pointed towards the ocean. "Many have fled, princesses. We must find a way to close the door they hold open." It was the time of the half moon, and she was supposed to raise the moon in the next half hour. A filly's moon, so the young ones could see it, sort of. She actually felt a little bad about the half-moons, like they were half a job. But the fillies across Equestria knew nothing of war, nor should they. Walking through the deepening sand, seeing the fleeing attackers climb aboard the flimsiest raft Luna could envision, she made some guesses about where she would be when it was precisely time. "I want to raise the moon a little early, Celly. Rather than a little late." Looking back at the horrors of the collapsing tent behind them, she added "Or never." Celestia sighed, then nodded. "It will make some think that this war is going badly indeed, but others will rejoice in your handiwork. For the fillies, then, Lunadeer. Catch up when you can." Luna smiled at Celly's contraction of Luna Dear. She had changed in the millenia they'd missed together, but the sisters' love still showed through, and it warmed Luna's heart that in the midst of an invasion Celly could still feel compassion. A half hour earlier than the schedules of any pony astronomer said should happen, Luna stood, and felt for the extension of herself. That which she was regent of, the moon. Hundreds of miles across, at the very edge of the atmosphere, was a ball of dirt and rock. Far over the ocean, where no one could see it, the moon had slid from one end of the endless waters to the other. Sometimes she wondered if there was a non-pony regent of the moon. Perhaps there was a continent on the far side of the planet. It would explain why the moon followed a circuit so straight and timely with so few exceptions over the millienia. But she had flown out and looked, and found nothing. Luna flared her wings out straight, reared up onto hind-legs, and pulled with all her might, setting the great moon on its path through the night sky. The rearing wasn't really necessary but it helped her concentrate. With her eyes closed she never knew if her horn glowed or not, though she assumed it did as hot as it got when she did this. Momentum imparted, the moon would rise above the horizon within minutes. Luna allowed herself a moment to rest. She couldn't see the six sergal anymore, and those fleeing on rafts were only specks now. She gave herself a good shimmy-shake to loosen her muscles, and launched into the air. Celestia was circling high overhead. Perhaps hoping they would flee without further ado, there was no solar flares cast upon them. She could see small columns of steam, and realized that Celly was deliberately missing, so they felt pursued without ever being in true danger. Expending a little magic to catch up, she circled now with her sister. She watched the specks below as the rafts fled quickly, without oar or sail she noted, deeper into the endless water. "They're in a pretty big hurry to go nowhere Celly. What do you think is going on?" "I see, but I also see a larger raft a little farther out. Something else occurs to me but I don't know what precisely it will mean. A pony can't simply proclaim himself regent. I think a pony could steal regency but not create a now position of power. I'm going to assume these sergals, using pony magic as some of them do, can't either." Her large wings beat slowly, finding and grabbing currents of still warm air rising from the ocean as the air around and above her cooled in the late afternoon. "What, Celly? I don't see yet. Jack created ... Oh." Celly nodded, watching the rafts float themselves to the larger raft. "Whatever Jack is, that sergal is too. Luna I'm going to stay up here as backup. Please consider the diplomatic angle if we can't close whatever door their using but mostly, mostly dear sister I want you to observe closely how the two regents fight." "In case we need to kill Jack, you mean." He was a violent oaf, but by calling for surrender, even getting a few to stand down, he'd shown he was no lover of needless violence. Luna didn't want to know how to kill him. It might translate too easily translate into a way to kill her sister, if she ever fell prey to the darkness within her again. "Knowledge is power." Celly said flatly. "Lunadeer I won't ever ask you to cast a spell like that. I won't even ask how the spell could be formed. I'll trust your judgment, even if it means I run a small risk that Nightmare Moon" Luna squeezed her eyes shut, turning sharply away from her elder sister. "Don't say that name." Luna gave a shuddering gasp before finishing her interruption. "As much because she isn't dead, as because she is dead to me." Luna didn't see the tear fall from Celestia's face. "I'm willing to risk my life to protect the rest of Equestria. And there'll be a little less jealousy if you have a spell like that, that I don't even know if you have. So please, Lunadeer." Luna steeled herself, and looked back into Celly's pleading face. It had only been one millenia they were separated, and many more they had known each other. Jack was ... an unknown. He meant well today, but as Luna could attest, that could change one day. "For my Equestria. For the foal's moon. For that feathered oaf below. Watch them and learn, Lunadeer." Luna nodded, and folded her wings to drop. It wasn't until her head had cleared, now a third of the way down, flaring her wings to slow and circle into a more controlled drop, that Luna realized the tone Celly had used. She'd said "feathered oaf" but ... her voice had said "your boyfriend". sisters! Sometimes ... Luna sent a quiet message that could be heard as the negation of physical love "Not my boyfriend, you goof." Celly sent back the word happiness. Laugh at me, will she? Luna sighed, and slowed further. Seeing that half the escapees had dove headfirst into a whirlpool just off one end of the giant raft, she landed on an abandoned smaller raft, which immediately began rocking far in excess of what her weight should have done. When the raft began to crumble under her hooves she realized there was magic involved. The larger raft, more than sixty feet on a side was just a small jump to reach. While the sergal, a deep orange across her back fading to blood orange feathers, turned sharply and glared at her, nothing happened to the giant raft. Jack landed, having been herding the fleeing sergal. One saw her and diverted, leaping from fifteen feet away. She brought her shields up but Jack had already done the lighting throwing thing, grabbing energy from one corner of water, arcing it across the raft, through the sergal, into the water not fifteen feet from herself, and back. Repeatedly, fast enough that the lightning arc sounded like a couple of words in the sergal tongue. probably "keep moving" Luna hadn't planned on actually fighting, so she could concentrate on watching how these two equals, but the last of the non fried sergal had left, and the sergal regent was coming straight for ... either her, or the smoking remains of her compatriot. She kept her shield spell engaged and felt for movement of the higher orders of pony magic. Almost nothing. Jack was now between Luna and the sergal, who had a pair of designs just above either hip. Three blue wavy lines, and a pale brown line above them. Luna almost choked at the ridiculous image. Jack laughed when he realized what he was seeing. "You're the regent of small rafts? Truly?" He repeated himself in Sergal, whatever their tongue might be called, but it wasn't necessary. She responded with her deep, gravelly voice in English. "And of all things that float upon the water. My chieftess asked that I be specific in reaching for this place's magic. On high tide it drowns our land and she feared I would damage it worse by becoming a lord of this land." Her eyes, a deeper yellow than Jack's, narrowed. "Prince of this land." Jack chuckled, but stopped. "I can see now. You're not a sergal, are you? Why bother having a chieftess. A sergal chieftess of all things. You're here to run from your past, aren't you? You weren't born a sergal." "Nor was I born hayooman, hayooman." Was that what Jack was, underneath all the body switching? The sergal witch talking again. "You can not kill me. I may not be the greatest mage in all Vilious but I am happy to stay." She tilted her head slightly, looking at Jack with only her right eye. Luna, shields still up, tried to reason with her. Can monsters be reasoned with? I should know... "You're the one holding the underwater door open! Let go of your will to expand your field of control and your homeland will stop being flooded at all!" The sergal whipped her head to the other side now, glaring death with her left eye. "You mean nothing to me horse. When you are killed you will die. I will kill you if you speak again." Jack had a minimal shield up, Luna saw. The sergal had blasted with untrained power, much as the two casters in the tent fight had done. But this was a regent, however small her regency, and she felt her own shield pressed down by the great psychic blast. As seemed normal, Jack looked unperturbed by the violence. He was casually sauntering over to her. To whisper, right eye turned just enough that he could watch the foreign "god-king" and fortunately for Luna's state of might, she could see her too. The sergal stood on tiptoe, tail twitching but she stood her ground. Jack began whispering. "My lady? I can take her, but it worries me. For purely private reasons, you understand. May I ask, have I found favor with the Princesses of Equestria?" Startled, she lost direct eye contact with the sergal witch as she looked at the dust and stone colored alicorn pony before her. mustn't answer too hasty ... that was a formal question after all. She thought of his ability to stop six sergal albeit out of two hundred plus, to choose life. He had not killed, when it would have been simpler to keep killing. He had reattached Rainbow Dash's wings, and regrown Applejack's hoof at noticeable discomfort and fatigue to himself. All that, after returning from an entirely unrelated trip to the woods, finding ponies he had met briefly, in another body so they wouldn't have thought he owed them aught. He was, for an Equestrian, very hard, and very cold, but not without compassion. "Yes, my prince. My sister has said as much as I dropped down to assist you directly. May I ask, my prince, why this concerns you now?" A quick look showed the sergal had stepped to the side, trying to see them both better but not gotten any closer. Yet. She looked about ready to pounce, though Luna knew truthfully very little of their actual body language. "She may not be hayooman, but she is not here. That is why we both might hop bodies. If I separate her, and I can, I reveal how I could be dislodged, perhaps never to find Equestria again. And I would miss this land, the more so once war is gone from it." He turned back to the sergal, and drew power. Horn glowing, and she expected the rhythmic wing beats were designed to draw his imported magic. He walked towards the regent of that which floats upon the oceans, and she screamed and leapt, her meager control of power flailing at Prince Jack, regent of the rocks beneath your feet, king under the mountain and immortal god king of the ponies. Prince of this land, are you then? Luna cast her own magic, holding the sergal still, midair. She used as little magic as it seemed to take to hold this uncharacteristically weak princess in place. The rest of her concentration was on his spell, though she knew she could see almost nothing of his imported magic. It was part levitation, part wormhole, in large part a finding spell ... Luna thought he was building to find a wormhole and levitate it here. that won't help at all, dear prince. Sparks were flying, setting the wooden raft on fire and lighting up the afternoon like summer afternoon. Still Jack had only minimal shields, the sparks visibly singing his feathers, causing his ritualistic wing motions to leave open flames as markers of their passage. And still the sergal screamed wordlessly in rage and frustration. Luna was forced to walk closer to the center as the edges were beginning to loosen and separate, their master's concentration focused wholly on staying here, where she could commit further violence. The spell's finale. As it was cast, Jack's wingtips pointed straight at the princess' chest, Luna could see it was aimed at the hinges of a wormhole. Not the one under the sea, as her moon was holding the water level nearly two feet above it's opening. His imported magic seemed to be redirecting the force of his spell ... straight into the sergal's soul. Can't see a wormhole there so hard to unhook the latch holding it open. Still, this is the knowledge Celly wanted me to have. The bipedal princess must have known what the spell was doing as now her untrained blast was completely focused, a veritable sun igniting as the two regents battled for enough power to finish. Looks way too familiar, actually. Will this one return from banishment in a thousand years? Luna's breath caught in her throat, as the sergal's spells dissipated. she's lost. The flare, the draw of power, it was done. Quiet now, Jack had closed the wormhole by disconnecting the princess, wherever she was, and the sergal host, who now fell lifelessly to the rapidly disintegrating raft. The whirlpool stopped whirling too. Luna had been right; this hole was held open by the princess' eager desire to be master of two worlds. Now she was master of none. Jack was trying to levitate himself but with the boards and assorted flotsam breaking up, water by itself was hard to levitate -- making his self levitation against water difficult. "Oh for starry night sky would you just ..." Luna grabbed onto his back legs, as they were the highest point right now, and magically augmented the flow of air under her wings. "First flying lesson as soon as I get you above dropping distance." As she raised him, she tried to explain how to move his wings so he would be able to keep himself aloft. It wouldn't really do, this one lesson, but combined with her dropping him from, say, half a mile up ... Celly had the biggest grin on her face, as she came around to watch. "Put a sock in it, sister. Jack? We're gonna talk more once we're on the land again. For now I'm gonna drop you. Fly well, prince!" And with that, she let go.

bearcat

494

Applejack,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Twilight Sparkle,Alternate Universe,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

War of Another World's Conquest

complete

<p>An army of wolf-like creatures has invaded Equestria, leaving death and destruction in its path. Two days ago this army reached Ponyville and now Sweetie Belle is ... possessed. What is the solution, and what will this mean for the war effort as a whole?</p><p>&quot;Teen&quot; for gore, but I avoid generally, naming of body fluids or anything that descriptive. And only the enemies have died. So far.</p>

teen

2012-07-08T16:31:04+00:00

2012-07-08T16:31:04+00:00

Spark Impulse carefully brought the wagon to the ground just before the sand turned to scorched feed bags and rotting bodies. Three demigods against zealous terrorists, and it had been a slaughter like he had never imagined. The feydaykin with a cutie mark of a burning quill climbed off the flight wagon and quickly scanned the devastation before them. Milky red-orange eyes, slightly darker than his orange tinted offwhite coat panned across the devastation again. Spark watched his ears twist. He smelled a detection spell fade a moment after the orange pony's horn glowed a faintly. "She's not here." he accused. "Why'd you stop if you didn't see her majesty here?" The slightly insane caster's eyes never left the broad swath of carnage just to impugn Impulse's honor. "I'm tired, and we're clearly pretty close. Also, if there are survivors, you know they get freaky about fliers. I don't want to get shot down and pardon me for not trusting your shield spells, seeing as I'm not the love of your life." "It's not like that." Still in that demanding and accusatory tone; still not looking away from where her majesty had been sometime in the last hour. Spark Impulse couldn't smell any spells coming from what used to be a veritable enemy city, but he'd also figured their caster rate was way lower than a third, as a random sampling of ponies might be. Uncertainty called for grounded travel. Spark Impulse set about dragging the wagon back to the edge of the forest. "Still not getting shot down for you. Said that when you talked me into this. Summon us some rations and we'll look by foot." Of course he didn't really expect whatshisname to create wholly from thought a bag of oats, but was pleasantly surprised when he felt a rapid fire series of teleportation spells dissipate. It meant he'd won the argument. Spark turned back from securing the wagon to find a goodly pile of dried, forgotten sand-dune grass next to the feydaykin..As a soldier he was accustomed to such hardships as mediocre rations. This was wartime, after all. He expressed his gratitude to the insistent caster and tried to tactfully imply he'd forgotten his fellow soldier's name. "You're useless" the unicorn said around a mouthful of 'hay' "Shadow Orange. Family all orange growers except momma messed around with a unicorn. Disowned me youngish but I'm an Orange." He never looked far away from the smoking ruin. Obviously hadn't looked up, as Spark had already found a speck that was almost assuredly one of their majesties. Spark wanted to needle this zealot just a little longer, to see how long it took to find his liege floating up there in space. "I remember you saying you tested seventh strongest in your first year at the academy." The name Shadow floated back now. Unfortunate as it implied wickedness, but was meant to imply dilution. A mere shadow of his purer parents. Many soldiers in her royal guard had stories about rejection, Spark mused. Maybe Celestia had a soft spot, made when she rejected her sister all those years ago. The faintest whiff of strong, strange magic came to him. While Shadow was reciting his honors rolls classes from before he was knighted as a royal deathpony of Celestia's elite, the feydaykin, Spark watched as the specks that were clearly full sized alicorns accumulate in one spot, off in the distance. The darkest, that would be Luna, dropped a gray mass that could be assumed to be the new guy with the un-pony name. The gray mass flared his wings and tried to fly. His wings appeared to be on fire. Smoke trailed him, and now Spark could see tiny embers spread across his wingspan. Spark almost buckled at the sight. A pegasus' wings were incredibly sensitive; to fly with coals tied to them ... As the coals ignited into open flames, Shadow finally looked up. Utter confusion contorted his never very comely features. Spark, for his part, lifted his muzzle and sniffed carefully for magic. There was flight magic wafting by but it was old now; probably Luna dragging the unlearned demigod into the air for his first lesson. "I think that sight means they've won." He said hopefully. Flight lessons would have been put off, until there were no combatants, he reasoned. Shadow had only eyes for the alicorn he'd already died for. "She's coming in too! Oh Celestia why have you not written of being set on fire?!?" Spark watched the single mindedness of his companion and wondered if it would be unsafe to travel the intervening devastation with his companion, but worried more what would happen if he tried to stop Shadow. "It's because her wings aren't on fire. Just the new colt-god-thing." Taking a last mouthful of grass, he added. "Either teleport or we walk to water's edge." Shadow Orange leapt out at a very brisk trot into the enemy camp-city. Spark Impulse inwardly groaned, having hoped they could avoid this. He could not abandon his fellow soldier. Not here. No matter how insane the orange pony might be. |----| |----| |----| Celestia angled down, and immediately saw the problem. Some of Prince Jack's feathers had been set on fire by the pyrotechnic display from a moment ago, and the glowing embers were flaring into new candescence by the bellows-like action of his wings. She assumed he could feel it but his flight, unsteady as a new flier was wont on his first trip under his own power, was still straight and true. She felt Luna send to them both an apology, and Jack sent back a spell that would flatten the ground and then plow it up a little. Land soon Celestia interpreted. Indeed his flight path would barely reach the sand before intersecting bodily with the horizon. The young stallion alicorn didn't make it. Celestia saw him flatten his wings when he was still forty feet in the air and easily sixty feet from the shore. He plummeted and splashed into the sea with no more grace than a newborn foal. She and her sister glided gently to the shore and waited. Trying to appease the sense of guilt she saw on Luna's face, she spoke. "At least the water will put the fire out. He'll be able to reach the ground after only swimming ten or twenty feet anyway." Not looking away from her flight-student, the deep blue alicorn replied "I should have checked his wings as I had seen the fires started during that fight, Celly." Luna squinted, her lips pursed tighter. "And he's not using any magic at all, right now. He could raise the sand, or levitate himself, or even teleport this far." Luna struck a forehoof against the beach, the strain evident in her voice. "He's never seen a teleport spell, Lunadeer. Probably doesn't know what they look like." But just as she said that, she felt a teleport end as a pony appeared behind her not fifteen feet away. Both sisters whirled at the intrusion, still on high alert despite the fact the war appeared to be won, and over. Behind them now, Prince Jack, Regent of the Rocks Beneath Your Feet, called out wearily, fatigue nearly driving his voice to sergal-levels of scratchy depths. "Feydaykin! They live, and there is now no fight. You may stand down." His splashing footfalls had the rhythm of the end of a 10-day forced march; still plodding but very short, and very slow. "Shadow! I didn't send for you. Yes as Prince Jack says my sister and I are untouched. How did you get here? Is another guard..." She looked up, and saw her magic sensitive pegasus guard watching the six conquered sergals who were drawing in the sand, presumably trying to indicate they were not at war with the Celestial Guard any longer. "Just the two of you here?" Looking at the lone pegasus surrounded by pony eating monsters, Luna blurted out "Your over-zealous-ness could get you both killed, you know." Shadow Orange snorted his disbelief and proudly declared his loyalty. "I go where I am needed and useful. That is ever at my Princess' side. It is so, and your lack of faith shall not sway me, your highness." Celestia was about to interject something to lighten the tension between her sworn bodyguard and her sister, when Prince Jack, who had finally arrived at the shore's edge, did it for her. "Then feydaykin, with you standing guard now, I may sleep." And with that, he collapsed to the sand, very gingerly folding his charred and cindered wings. He tried to fold his head too but failed; his nose just smacked into the sand. He didn't draw power to heal himself as he surely had seen the princesses do, he did not use his imported magic either, he simply slept. Again, as when the sergal Jack had accidentally elevated himself to Regent, Luna had a face that put Tia in mind of how she'd expect her to look if someone came to a formal party, drinking longface island iced tea, out of an undecorated beer stein, and was starting to get tipsy for it. "I'm sure he's got a reason. Maybe he has actual limits or something. Wouldn't be the first time an alicorn ran out of steam." Actually it would, and Luna's sidelong look askance at Tia said as much. Remembering what the Prince said at the farm, she added "He pony, now." Luna raised one eyebrow. Shadow carefully interjected "If he's not moved he'll drown, your Highnesses." And indeed the stronger waves were still covering his nostrils for seconds at a time, and the tide had only just turned. Tia knew Shadow Orange was strong but wasn't sure if a unicorn could actually levitate an alicorn, even unconscious. Especially one connected to the rocks, and thus the ground. Tia guessed Luna still felt guilty as it was her that began trying to levitate the sleeping prince. As soon as his body was free of the ground however he snapped to wakefulness. His struggling broke the admittedly very underpowered spell, and Jack splashed back into the rising waters. "Luna" the prince said, then stood carefully, shaking the sand out of his mane. "You have a fan club of some renown." Shadow Orange interjected "My liege Celestia is not without loyal subjects. Of what concern is this, now?" Tia felt Shadow tighten just a little bit, stiffen his stance in her peripheral vision, as Jack looked only to Luna and explained. "I have felt, and where they passed stone cliffs, heard echoes. They march on Canterlot now, these ponies of the New Lunar Republic. They say that the early rise of your moon is the sign they long sought; that the stars have aided your escape and now come to aid your ascent." Tia quickly looked at Luna for her reaction. Thankfully all Tia could see was confusion and disbelief. Stone cliffs, hmm? She felt out for her sun, and followed its gaze to Canterlot. The foothills blocked the lower reaches of the path ponies would ascend. "Lunadeer can your moon see the start of that road? I can't see it this late in the day." Tia felt the deeper reaches of Equestria, the magic that was as vast as the ocean and slow to shift its path as cold molasses, reach out and touch the moon. She felt the ebb and flow of waves of magic as Luna asked the magic around her, and it bumped into the massive ball of dirt that was her namesake, and the wave of magic roll back faster than a single piece of anything physical could reach it. The propagation of these waves would reveal to the one who controlled the moon ... "No Celly. Much too soon all the mountains are in my way." Shadow was too quick to fight, having fought so hard these past few days. "Then we must to Canterlot, to stop this rebellion now. I shall not allow the royal sisters to be separated again so long as I walk Equestria's soil" All of which was politely interrupted by Jack. "They are your subjects, Luna. If you have not intended to incite a war for the New Lunar Republic, than you have but to tell them, I would assume." Then Jack looked at her, and his ears flicked and twisted as he considered the strategic ramifications. Tia politely awaited his opinions before choosing her actions. Which would she was already sure of, mostly. To fly home by as circuitous a route as need be so these poor ponies who seemed to hate her rule would not be incited to further emotional distress. Let them plan their silly war; Lunadeer would just tell them to wait longer. She hoped. Heaving a deep sigh, Prince Jack continued finally, the ocean waves beginning to get her own gold plated shoes wet as they lapped past his hooves. "If you two are indeed no longer at odds with each other, I would truly believe the best and longest way to quell this uprising is to go together. Luna" He turned his head towards Tia's sister, who still held an air of skepticism about the whole affair. "you must do most of the talking as they're your followers. But if you" He turned to Tia now, ears erect and yellow eyes piercing her with his determination. "if you are supportive of your sister, these ponies will see there is no tension to exploit. I hear, occasionally, that they believe." he closed his eyes, looking like he was going to collapse again. Speaking with his eyes still closed, his head drifting to a neutral position, "that you two still fight, still hate each other." He opened his eyes, and looked up at the darkening sky. "Can you duplicate my jet flight spell? My native magic trickles in like a tiny leak in a thin pipe. And without that I don't seem to be able to direct even the unicorn magic that some sergals wield. I must sleep to heal now, and wait to cast any magic." Celestia regretted the place in her mind she filed this tidbit, but it was one more weakness in case he needed to be defeated one day. Either princess alone, or both together for sure, could simply outlast him. She tried to look concerned while gauging whether, right now, she could successfully kill him with a single strike, whether magical or physical. Shadow, bless his hard and bitter heart, was way ahead of her. "He is still immortal, is he not my liege?" Meaning, Tia heard, 'I could take him myself, but he'd just be banished and no more' Briefly Tia tried to imagine where a unicorn would banish to, especially to banish a regent. To your bedroom ... for 1000 seconds! Lunadeer seemed to know ... her look of self righteous disbelief told Tia as much. "Are you as helpless as a foal then, Prince Jack?" In answer, the regent walked slowly past them all; silent, head down, eyes closed, and did not stop until he was at the other gathering some distance off. Whereupon he collapsed again, and laying flat on the sand, slept as his new-found subjects protected him. Tia tried to mentally recreate the unending power she'd seen as they flew here hours ago. "Lunadeer why did he need to use three spells? The prince had said he would need to extend his hooves" "Balance, Celly. He started by attaching a continuous push-spell to his spine. But that is well above a pony's center of gravity thus he needed two smaller spells, down very low, to have the resultant force push as against the ribcage height." On the subject of magic, Shadow Orange was very quick to make suggestions about how to ephemerally attach a push spell to a whole pony's body. Spell modified, the princesses prepared to leave. "See everyone to Canterlot, Shadow. I hope there will be no fighting but I dare not make more assumptions." Tia also suggested he leave Jack, with some basic instructions. No telling how long he'd need to sleep. "In fact, once Spark has taken you back to camp tell him to walk in with Jack. He'll be too worn out carrying you all day to be in fighting form anyway." Shadow looked properly abashed. She hadn't said anything about it but she could have given instructions directly if he'd stayed at camp. Shadow was the only guard with her today that could fire-write. His impetuousness should be addressed Tia thought to herself. "Shadow if the situation changes I'll write you a letter via fire teleportation. You're the only one here who can do that; do you understand?" Her sycophant nodded. Hopefully that would do it. Her zealous vassal turned to run back as the regents discussed whose idea had more merit; go together, or leave Luna to do this solo? - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - Twilight was whining. She knew that, actually, but she couldn't stop herself. "Celestia's going to confront a bunch of ponies that hate her. As strange as that statement sounds it's true and I need to be there for her." "You said that, milady." Sprintpoint's wide, musclebound form was pulling the chariot as fast as he could, treetops of the Everfree forest whipping by far below. Indeed what sparked Twilight's comment was the observation that her chariot was ahead of all the rest ... by too small an amount to satisfy her anxiety. A part of her brain knew she was not only being unreasonable, but annoying and foalish. "I know she's the princess but I'm worried about a fight amongst ponies I mean what will she do? I need to help defend her honor, Sprintpoint. Please." "You're only worried because you didn't see the swath of death and devastation she and her sister just left." Twilight drew breath but by now Sprintpoint knew her pattern, and had adapted to counter. "And they'll be there together again." Twilight paced once around in the tight quarters, barely able to turn in the small, light craft. Drawing breath again, she was interrupted again. "Probably no bloodshed at all, milady. But I tell you a thing, you're magical, right? A student at the academy?" "Directly under Celestia herself, in fact. Which is why I'm so" "So why don't you find a way to speed me up? Here's some basics about flying. The air is slowing me down, right? What I need is for there to be a lot of dense, cold air immediately beneath my wings, and essentially no air, and especially no wind, everywhere else." Taking a deep breath, Twilight forced herself to notice that her charioteer was not slowed by the explanation; had taken no hiatus in good flying to ask for this help. But still anxiety clouded her critical thinking. "You want me to put you in a vacuum?" Sprintpoint laughed, not even turning his head to explain her mistake. "And wind up suffocated like that magic-throwing sergal at the apple farm? No thank you, my lady." Still his wings beat a fast staccato rhythm. "So you need air to fly, but you need to air to not be in your way. That seems sort of an awkward engineering problem, doesn't it?" Still, she started thinking about how to maneuver air. There must be something she could focus on to stop her incessant whining. And pacing. Sprintpoint nodded. "Regular conundrum, flight is. So, not a vacuum, but how about still air, that merges smoothly with the moving air? Grab the air way out and split it up. Everything that's turbulent squash down, so I can flap my wing over it, and everything that's hitting me should sort of sit there." When Twilight was a filly she had almost drowned herself making a bubble like she thought Sprintpoint was describing. She'd tried to descend a deep lake, and swam by moving the bubble. But the bubble of air had slowly shifted its oxygen for carbon dioxide, courtesy her lungs. "You're thinking of the air as if it was a giant ocean? As if we were fish inside water made of air?" But that couldn't be right. Oceans of air made her rather strained head hurt, just now. Sprintpoint seemed enthusiastic, however. "Yes, just so, Twilight! An ocean of air and I'm trying to swim in it. Can you do something like that?" Still his wings beat their rhythm. Twilight wasn't sure if he was talking just to quiet her or if he actually saw himself as a airbreathing fish. I'm not a pegasus. Maybe flight does that to you. She crafted and cast her spell, careful this time to allow continuous flow of the air inside her 'bubble' with outside air. As with her diving experiment she visualized a teardrop ... a bubble rising only here it was traveling parallel to the ground. But as soon as it was cast, she could feel the cart speed up. It almost knocked her out of the chariot at first. "Attagirl! My goodness that's quite a spell." Sprintpoint was only beating his wings half as fast now, but sweating and breathing every bit as hard ... and they were pulling away from the feydaykin, who apparently never thought to discuss flight mechanics with his winged brothers-in-legs. Thus it was that she landed just behind the angry herd, signs hanging from their backs like "for the new lunar republic!" and "the stars will aid her escape" She saw the princess in question, unless these ponies meant Nightmare Moon, along with her older sister, overshoot the herd at incredible speeds. As she was jumping out and profusely, if quickly, thanking her flight escort, she saw them drop and turn, now approaching the herd at speeds rarely seen outside of a wonderbolts show. Wings flared, wind blowing dust everywhere, the two princesses just barely stopped in front of the crowd, and landed. Luna was immediately in front of the slowing crowd, and Celestia was well to her right. Thinking suddenly of how alone she was, Twilight realized nopony had seen her land; they were too busy watching the princesses. "Sprint!" Twilight hissed. "Stow the cart. Stow yourself somewhere I think I can blend in and play devil's advocate. Get them to hear the princesses out." It was a known fact that mob psychology broke down quickly if dissenting opinions were freely voiced. Even if they were also unbelievable, the mere fact that the mob sanctity was broken allowed other dissenters to say their piece. Pieces like "oatmeal are you crazy" granted, but that kind of argument would be better than what she saw in nearly one pony if four. They wanted a fight, even against alicorn regents. Twilight shuddered, even without knowing what precisely had happened at the ocean. Sprintpoint harrumphed, but started looking at the edges of the rocky path for a place to put the cart which thank Celestia did not have squeaky wheels. Trying as deliberately as possible to not make eye contact with her beloved teacher, she trotted to her far right, to catch up with some straggling ponies there. "Get a load of this." Said the deep blue stallion, as she caught up to him. "How're we supposed to believe she's doing this of her own free will, hmm?" Twilight racked her brain for the best reply, but intrigue had never been a strong suit. She had retreated to her books ... and not very many of them history books, at that, when some of her classmates were gossiping ... practicing the very heart of intrigue. Still ... "Actually Tia there is taking a big risk. Banishing is a time consuming process. All Princess Luna has to say is she doesn't want to be here, and we'll all know before the big cheese can stop her." She hoped she had balanced her emphasis and respect correctly. Call the disliked pony by an overly familiar name, and maintain utmost respect for the preferred underdog. Simple, right? Twilight reminded herself to breathe, almost hoping she'd started a fire already. The blue pony harrumphed, and did not respond further. Ahead of them, Luna looked briefly to her sister, who nodded, and gently waved her on. Celestia then stepped farther to Twilight's left, and was no longer facing the crowd. Her body language clearly meant to imply she was not trying to influence Luna's words but the apparent weakness a moment before may have ruined it. Be strong, Princess Luna! Celestia must have guessed Twilight's intent, for the sisters could hardly have failed to see the cart land in front of them. But while her teacher had yet to look her way, Luna made only the briefest eye contact with Twilight, then scanned the crowd making it look like she was just making it all more personal. Twilight crowded forward, between a wine colored unicorn mare with bricks as her cutie mark, and she didn't make out the deep gray pegasus' cutie mark, to her right. "She doesn't seem the slightest bit afraid to have big ol' Tia thirty feet behind her." Twilight tried to sound surprised, to help imply the danger Luna would be in if she were being coerced. Which she was, Twilight suddenly realized. Luna hated large crowds. Nightmare Moon had made some public addresses a few times but relied on a psychic shield of pure contempt to avoid the unreasoning fear Luna, inside her, had felt.. Twilight hoped Luna, being in her right mind, would have better luck, as she started whatever spiel she had planned. "Good evening ladies and gentlecolts." Or hadn't planned. Twilight groaned inwardly, and moved forward to her left slightly. "I see that a mutual friend of my sister and myself was correct, that you're all my loyal subjects. And hello, but I think there's something of a misunderstanding." Luna swept her eyes across the herd again, and pointed to a sandwich board sitting over a pony. It was one of the stars-will-aid signs. "That sign, and the predictions it's quoting, referred to an evil alicorn named Nightmare Moon." Several ponies shouted to the effect that she was Nightmare Moon. Twilight's heart stopped for a moment. Luna was incredibly sensitive about her relation to her inner darkness. It was actually true, in a sense. The two alicorns were the same pony. Twilight didn't want to identify herself but risked it anyway by shouting "Who was at that Summer Sun in Ponyville? This alicorn doesn't look like Nightmare Moon" Oops. Wrong allusion, she realized. Four ponies that Twilight didn't specifically remember, as if in that dense crowd that meant anything at all, spoke up in agreement. This was not Nightmare Moon. She would have a deeper blue coat, and black wings. The crowd began to murmur, to mumble ... this alicorn was a stand in, a stooge for the tyrant. Perhaps even an illusion made from whole cloth. Luna flared her wings wide; the crowd hushed almost instantly. Twilight feared the worst. That a line had been crossed and they all were going to die, right here. Twilight would never even get to say goodbye. She desperately looked for her mentor's eyes, tried to will Celestia so she could mouth an 'I love you' or something else appropriate for your last words ... Princess Celestia was grinning her trollish grin. Still not looking at the crowd, Twilight saw her pretend she was examining her hoof but knew, somewhere inside her, that the motion was directed discreetly at her. "stay put" the hoof motion said. And with that she could breathe. Luna was practically shouting to fill the lull, before somepony filled it with their own words. "I am Princess Luna, Regent of the Moon and immortal co-ruler of Equestria with my sister Celestia, whom you see to my right." At this she sort of lost focus, her face screwed up in confusion. She turned to Celestia and asked so quietly Twilight had to strain to hear Luna quickly whisper "Are we actually immortal, Celly?" Princess Celestia's eyes glowed with an ear to ear grin, but the lips were tightly pursed into almost normalcy. Almost. Celestia shrugged, and Luna looked back to her loyal subjects. "Anyway I don't answer to Nightmare Moon and you should all be thankful. If you want a tyrant to rule with selfish lack of concern look for her on the throne. But I will not be among those who will call for her return." Twilight, sidling forward another row, mumbled to the ponies in front of her "Maybe she learned something useful during her exile." The urine-stain yellow mare to her right, while Twilight was trying desperately to think of some other name for that unfortunate coat color chose instead focus on her brilliant blue-striped red mane, took Twilight's comment another direction entirely. Shouting at the tall pony addressing them, "So was it even you who that all-white flying freak banished? Who spent the time on the moon? But you're another pony, you just said." Twilight could almost see the strain on Luna's face, not to look Twilight in the eye. She hoped the herd would see it as determination to address the seriousness of the question. "It was I. I remember those thousand years as clearly as the years before, when I still was Luna. And if any of thee be descended from those ponies I wronged by jealously and rage, than I apologize to thee in proxy of thy many-times-great grand dams and grand sires. Most of whom I am ashamed to say I wronged, by murdering them. So I doubt many of thee are related at all." Some stallion far to the right of the herd shouted "What of the moonrise? The stars have aided your ascent! Now is the time for battle my lady!" Luna winced at the mention of more battle. Hoping to forestall another murmuring session Twilight tried to give Luna the main stage again. "Why! Why did you raise the moon early?" Twilight shifted forward within the herd, making sure everypony could hear her. Luna saw who had asked, and blinked. She was either at a loss either for words or was as bad as Twilight at intrigue and subterfuge. Several other ponies took up the cry of "why?" and a stallion near the front even shouted "Have you not called for us? There are hundreds more my liege!" Twilight rolled her eyes, feeling pretty certain this was probably way more than half of the Nightmaremoon party's whole roster right here. For all of Equestria if not farther. "I was in a battle." Almost a whisper, but the crowd quieted to hear their herd-proclaimed leader speak. "I was about to fight the most horrible monsters I've yet seen set hoof on Equestria's soil, and I was afraid I was going to die." After a false start on her next sentence, she instead flared her wings again. This time Twilight saw Luna's horn glow, and felt certain she was calling down lightning to kill some pony. So everyone would know what it was like to see death. To be dead. Twilight scurried away from that terrible gaze. And as Luna folded her wings the magic student suddenly understood that a fear aura had brought this unreasoning fear of death. Luna was explaining again, "And when you're afraid you don't always make the best decisions. I wanted to raise the moon one last time. I wanted make sure I didn't have to stop fighting just to cast such an un-battlelike spell. And as my sister had not yet set the sun to bed, so too would some young filly somewhere not yet be in bed and perhaps" Luna took a shuddering breath as a single tear began its descent down her face, that old fear of being forgotten and ignored still gripping the regent. "Perhaps that filly would see the foal's moon and know happiness, instead of the misery that war brings." Luna hung her head, and someone in the front row, now just a few ponies to her right and one row up, shouted angrily "So, what? We just go home, your majesty?" Twilight tried to head this one off too. "There was a mistake; her majesty just said the moon thing was nothing about you all all." The stallion whipped his head around, and this time she thought she recognized him from the Ponyville Summer Sun Celebration crowd. The periwinkle eyed, dark-green coated stallion certainly recognized Twilight. "You! You're the mistake! You're the tyrant's personal stooge aren't you! Miss too-good-to-buy-commoner-goods! What do you mean by this ruse!" Now whipping his head to bear down on her teacher, he continued his senseless tirade. "Tyrant Tia! What do you mean by planting this spy among us?" From behind the herd a galloping orange pony shouted "She don't mean nothin' by it! Tarnation is your head made o' brick? She buys mah apples lots o' times!" Twilight nearly leapt for joy like a little filly! She wasn't alone anymore! Well except for the two princesses but it was hard to feel they related to you. Anyway looking downhill over the crowd Twilight saw Rainbow Dash leap up to awkwardly fly to the front of the crowd. She noticed as Dash did that, that two thirds of the herd was watching the princesses for their response ... but all the pegasi were watching the tell-tale errors in flight. Not to mention the three feathers that drifted into the herd. Feeling confidence return, Twilight responded to her attacker. "I am indeed the personal protégé of Princess Celestia, and an honors roll student at the Canterlot academy of magic. And I will tell you all without hesitation that I also support fully Princess Luna because she also is a friend of mine. Of course that was a slight exaggeration as she'd only spoken with Luna a few times but Twilight sensed a kindred spirit, a lover of deep study appreciative of long nights spent in the library. As Applejack made it around the herd's edge, Twilight saw the damaged hoof had a large boot around it. As her friends gathered around her Twilight told them "C'mon girls I think we need to support Luna just now." and waved them on with her nose. Surrounded by the element wielders now, Luna sat carefully and regarded her followers silently. Celestia stood, and finally turned and addressed the assemblage. "I recognize many faces in this crowd, and for some I know you have traveled hard and fast on such short notice to be here tonight. My apologies for the misunderstanding but your services are clearly not needed so I would offer instead, one night free at the Inn, and you can return to your normal lives tomorrow. For some, I know you have chosen the nocturnal lifestyle, perhaps to honor my sister and I'm sure she thanks you, but that means your workday has just begun." Here she looked straight at the front row pony that had accused Twilight of being the tyrant's personal spy. "Brave Runner, is your food wagon nearby? I'm sure you could sell bean burritos and cabbage sandwiches all night. Canterlot's a big town, lots of ponies awake at this hour. Who knows you might even meet friendly faces in the crowd." Brave Runner shook his deep blue mane and sputtered for an answer. Princess Celestia didn't give him any time to recover, calling for her guard Sprintpoint who was hiding in the rocks behind the herd. "Yes your majesty?" "Help Brave Runner get his mobile meal cart set up out in front of the Inn, and you can call it a day." Walking over to the earth pony, she summoned a bag that Twilight guessed to be filled with money. "Everyone gets one of something. And you can keep the change if there is any, alright?" The bag dropped in front of the stallion, bits clinking together. Brave Runner stared blankly at his money, looking empty and defeated. The herd filed carefully past the alicorns, except for the nocturnal neighsayer and the guard, both of whom had run downhill to retrieve Brave Runner's source of income. All the tension of speaking in front of a crowd suddenly dissipated out of Luna as Twilight heard her sigh deeply, and drop from a sitting to a laying position, curled up in the middle of the rocky dirt road. Looking to her sister, she commented "Have I said how much I don't like doing these public address things?" and now back at her ring of personal supporters "I thank all of thee. That wouldn't have gone so well without thy help. Especially thy poor flight, Rainbow Dash thou wert the epitome of war wounded. Err. I" suddenly blushing Luna looked off at the rocks and stuttered a little, trying to find a way to word that more valiantly. Pinkie Pie giggled until Rainbow Dash cracked a smile. "That was pretty pitiful wasn't it? You know as successful as today has been and all, I'd really like not to have another like it. You know?" | | |-| | |/\/\| | |-| | | Prince Jack walked slowly through the woods, grunting to his tall bipedal companions, finally repeating himself in English. "And that's how Equestria was made!" Spark Impulse walked close behind the still overtired alicorn, hoping not to get collapsed on again but not willing to rescind his duty either. He watched the feathered rumps twitch as their owners laughed and pointed, their claws waving madly in what moonlight filtered through the canopy. He decided he was just as glad not to know what their handsigns meant.

Aqua Bolt

495

Prince Blueblood,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

The Prince Among Paupers

Blueblood is living in Ponyville. Hilarity ensues.

cancelled

<p>After deeming him a danger to the royal treasury, Princess Celestia sends Prince Blueblood to Ponyville for a crash course in humility and fiscal responsibility. </p><p>Quite unfortunately, I find myself having to cancel this fic. If I ever try to write a long fic again I'll have to plan much, much better. Many apologies.</p>

everyone

2011-12-29T06:36:41+00:00

2011-12-29T06:36:41+00:00

It was another magnificent summer day in Canterlot. The brilliant sun hung over the marble spires of the royal castle, bathing the city in light. Soon, its rays would strike the majestic waterfalls that tumbled down the mountain slopes, reflecting off of them in a dazzling light show. Though Celestia knew she could never hope to be the artist her sister was, she was quite proud of the display and looking upon it always gave her a feeling of calm contentment. Today, however, she was confined to the dankest depths of the castle, haunch-deep in expense reports and without so much as a window to give her the comfort she so desperately needed. It had been three hours since she had summoned Prince Blueblood to the castle’s accounting office and he still showed no signs of coming. Originally, she had hoped to convince him that perhaps he did not truly need five pedicures a day or his highly overpaid “sustenance consultant,” a pony whose sole duty was to operate Blueblood’s silverware. But even Celestia’s nigh-infinite patience has its limits, and she allowed herself a small smile as she thought of a far better and long overdue plan for the tardy prince. By the time Blueblood decided to grace Celestia with his presence it was almost time for Luna to raise the moon. He strutted into the room as two servants accomplished the difficult task of opening the heavy double doors while bowing. Celestia couldn’t help letting her face show her profound disappointment with his behavior before quickly reapplying the polite mask she always wore for matters of state. Blueblood, noticing her slip up, looked aghast. Surprised at the show of self-consciousness, Celestia dared to think that perhaps there was some hope yet for the brash young prince. Then, glaring at his two servant ponies, he spoke. “Can’t you see that her majesty, Princess Celestia, is offended by your presence? Out with you, proletarian swine, before I call the guards!” So much for that, Celestia thought, sighing gently. “Prince Blueblood, have you ever looked at one of these expense reports? Do you know how much money the castle spends every day?” Blueblood blinked. “Money? But…we’re royalty! We don’t have to pay for things! The very idea of it – ludicrous! Ponies should be honored to give us what we desire, for them to ask us, their betters, for money, why, I’ve never heard of anything quite so insolent.” “I always thought I have made it clear to you that is not how I run my kingdom. The truth of the matter is that we do indeed pay for everything and everypony in this castle. Which brings me to the reason I called you in today. Your own expenses have been running quite high of late. Frankly, I do not see why anypony would need more than one diamond-studded hairbrush, let alone,” Celestia paused as she double-checked the sheet of paper in front of her, “fifty-two of them.” “I am not sure that I catch your meaning, Princess,” said Blueblood, frowning. “My meaning is that the tax payers of Equestria are no longer able nor willing to support your life style.” Blueblood opened his mouth to speak but was silenced by a gesture from Celestia. “Within one week you are to leave the castle. Indefinitely. You will live as a normal pony. You will pay for your own meals and your own possessions. We shall provide nothing to you except a place to stay.” “But this castle is my home! Living here is my destiny! You know that as well as I do! You can’t do this to me!” Celestia continued, unperturbed, “You will be living in Ponyville, with one of the friends of my trusted student, Twilight Sparkle. I assure you, you will be in good hooves.” Blueblood’s eyes bulged as he tried and failed to come to terms with the reality of the situation. His mind soon gave up the Herculean task and he hit the stone floor with a loud thump as he fainted. After Blueblood’s unconscious body had been removed from the room, Celestia yawned and stretched. It was late, nearly time for her to retire for the night. Before she got her much-needed rest, however, she had one last piece of business to attend to with her sister. “Prancer?” she called to her closest servant. “Yes, your majesty?” “Please bring Luna to me. She and I need to have a discussion on just how a pony goes about spending five million bits on socks.” --- Exactly one week from his conversation with Celestia the day of Blueblood’s departure had arrived. His day had started off better than he expected when he saw that all of his personal servants were so sad to see him depart they had tears in their eyes. He supposed that the party being set up was an attempt by Celestia to cheer them up. The suicide rate among Blueblood’s staff was abnormally high, and after a traumatic event like the departure of their beloved master she must have known they would need something to keep their spirits up. Soon though, it was time for him to board the carriage to Ponyville, and with each passing hour his mood grew fouler. Commoners, he ranted to himself, she expects me to mingle with commoners! Over the past week she’s done nothing but prattle on about ridiculous things we tell foals, like the magic of friendship and the importance of humility. What bunk! It’s almost as if she thinks being poor can make one a better pony. Patently ridiculous. Everypony knows society rewards only the deserving with riches. We have nothing to learn from a bunch of lazy, ungrateful urchins. Blueblood stewed in these thoughts from departure to arrival. As he stepped from the carriage he was struck by the sudden urge to vomit. “What in Equestria is that smell?” The four pegasus ponies who had been assigned to Blueblood’s carriage sniffed the air. They hesitated for a moment before one of them nervously ventured a guess. “Nature?” Blueblood’s response was less than encouraging. “Hmph. It doesn’t agree with my royal nostrils. Get rid of it.” The pegasi could only stare. Their squad leader decided it was his responsibility to answer the insane request as best he could. He was delicately choosing his words when he remembered the specifics of his orders. After being dropped off in Ponyville, Prince Blueblood is to be treated not as royalty, but as an ordinary citizen of Equestria until such time as I see fit to return him to Canterlot. Grinning, he gave Blueblood an exceedingly rude hoof-gesture before giving his team the order to fly back to Canterlot. Blueblood could only sputter at the inexcusable lack of respect. Mustering what dignity he could, he began walking towards the small country town, plotting his vengeance. He was of the opinion that the gallows were the only appropriate punishment for such an insubordinate lout, but he knew Celestia would never agree to such a measure. Damn her love for the peasantry. She spends all her time bending over backwards for them, ignoring the needs of the ponies in her own court! Between holding the bile down his throat and devising ever more devious plans for punishing the pegasus squad leader, Prince Blueblood was far too preoccupied to notice when he finally entered the town proper. “Ohmygosh, he’s here! Hooray!” The high-pitched squealing was enough to break Blueblood from his reverie. He looked up to see a group of five mares standing in the town square, obviously waiting for him. One, a vivid pink earth pony, was bouncing up and down and had a wide grin plastered upon her face. The other four, two pegasi, an orange earth pony, and a purple unicorn, seemed visibly more subdued. He chalked their less enthusiastic reactions up to the awe of being in his presence. It wasn’t often that the unwashed masses were granted such an up close look at such a magnificent specimen as himself. Twilight Sparkle was indeed less than exuberant, but not for the reasons Blueblood had supposed. She had been uneasy about the meeting ever since she had learned of it in her latest letter from Princess Celestia. If even half the things that Rarity and Applejack had told her about Blueblood were true, then the coming weeks would put her ability to see the good in ponies to the ultimate test. For days she had agonized over the impossible problem of where he would be staying. The princess had insisted that he stay with Twilight or one of her friends, but Rarity and Applejack had been less than agreeable to the idea of letting Blueblood within fifty hooves of them, let alone inside their houses. Without even asking, Twilight had a feeling Rainbow Dash would not be willing to let him stay in her cloud house, even if it were physically possible for him to do so. She knew Blueblood’s treatment of Rarity would earn him no love from Spike and doubted the haughty prince would want to live in a tree anyway. And Fluttershy was far too delicate and timid for Twilight to even consider asking her to put up with Blueblood. Which left only… “Pinkie Pie! Settle down!” hissed a voice from Twilight’s side. “But Dashie, I’m just so super duper mega excited that we have a whole new pony here in Ponyville!” Pinkie gasped. “I should throw him a party! I just hope he’s not a stuffy wuffy Mc-“ Pinkie’s stream of words was cut short by a purple hoof that was unceremoniously forced into her mouth. Twilight put on what she hoped was a convincing smile and began. “Hello, Prince Blueblood. I’m Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Today we’re going to…” Noticing the scowl on Blueblood’s face, Twilight trailed off and bit her lip. “Is…is something the matter?” “Why, pray tell, are none of you bowing?” “Princess Celestia told us specifically to treat you like a normal pony, not like royalty.” “Like Ah needed a reason to treat this jerk like he deserves,” said Applejack in a barely concealed whisper. Twilight’s fake smile grew wider as she continued, “As I was saying, today we’re going to take you on a tour of Ponyville and get you set up where you’ll be staying. Let’s get going.” Blueblood said nothing as he followed the five mares; he was far too busy with his own thoughts. Of course, she would have sent word ahead to these five. He looked around and was horrified to see that not a single pony in the town square was so much as looking at him with the proper respect. Does everypony here know about this farce Celestia has set up? The group stopped short in front of a large tree planted in the center of town for reasons Blueblood could not begin to fathom. Is this town truly so backwater it doesn’t have a city planner? The purple unicorn that had identified herself as Twilight, Princess Celestia’s personal student, began to speak. “This is the Ponyville library. It’s where I live along with my assistant Spike.” “You live here? In this tree?” “Yes. The Princess herself provides it for me,” she said with a hint of smugness. Unbelievable, simply unbelievable. She allows this plebian to live in state-funded housing but kicks me out of the castle? I am the Prince of Equestria! This is untenable! After all these years…why… His thoughts were interrupted by the yellow pegasus. “Um, Prince Blueblood? Are…are you all right? You can talk about what’s bothering you…um…that is…if you like.” Blueblood nearly jumped out of his coat as he came back to himself, discovering that a thin film of tears was forming on his eyes. Luckily, none of the other ponies had noticed his frankly disgusting display of weakness. “Whatever may or may not be bothering me is no concern of ponies so far below my social class.” He sniffed. “Were it not for the princesses’ commands, such an impudent offer would be punished quite severely.” His response left the gentle yellow pegasus on the verge of tears herself. While the two earth ponies did their best to comfort her, the light blue pegasus stalked menacingly towards the prince. “Why you cocky, worthless sack of horsefe-“ “Okay! We’d better get a move on!” Twilight’s voice rang out desperately as her smile strained against the boundaries of her face. As Twilight had expected, the rest of the tour was just as much of a disaster as the beginning. By the time it was over she had sent Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash home for the safety of everypony involved. Finally, the three remaining ponies arrived outside Sugarcube Corner. “And finally, this is Sugarcube Corner. It’s where you’ll be staying while in Ponyville.” “With ME!” interjected Pinkie. Twilight noted thankfully that Blueblood was frowning with slightly less severity than he had during the rest of the tour. “I suppose this is less blatantly offensive to my refined sensibilities than the other hovels you’ve shown me today. Even if it was designed by an architect who was no doubt recovering from a traumatic head injury. Or perhaps by that orange bumpkin friend of yours, who I suspect has the same problem.” Figuring that was the best response she could have hoped for, Twilight began her closing lines with more than a little relief, “So that’s Ponyville. Tomorrow you’ll start working like a normal pony. You’ll be working for all of us in a rotation until we find out what you’re best at. Please show up at Sweet Apple Acres one hour after dawn.” Twilight noticed Blueblood’s eyes roll ever so slightly, “I’m sure Princess Celestia will want daily reports on your progress. She’ll be delighted to learn that you’re working hard, won’t she?” Blueblood could only glare. This little wench thinks she can threaten me? Still…it would be best not to upset Celestia. He gave a curt nod as he turned and walked towards Sugarcube Corner, eager to rid himself of the lavender pest. Twilight found herself smiling genuinely for the first time that day as Blueblood let himself inside the bakery. “Good. Oh, and Pinkie? I think you should hold off on any parties for-” “SURPRISE!” Twilight’s voice was interrupted by the deafening sound of what could only be at least half of Ponyville beginning one of Pinkie Pie’s patented surprise parties. Then, nearly as loud, came Blueblood’s outraged voice. “Wha-I-GET OUT! Do you rabble have even the slightest grasp on the idea of private property?” Pinkie tried and failed to suppress a giggle. “Sorry, Twilight. No more big parties.” Twilight could only facehoof as she teleported to the library for a well-earned rest. She wondered just how long Rarity would manage to go before she ran into Blueblood in Ponyville. Rarity couldn’t keep herself locked up in the Carousel Boutique forever, though Twilight was certain it wouldn’t be from want of trying. She sighed and decided to leave Rarity to her isolation, figuring that she at least had Sweetie Belle and Opal for company. Blueblood grew ever more frustrated as it became more and more apparent that his five minutes of blustering about the divine right of property was accomplishing nothing more than bringing raucous laughter from the assembled ponies. As he began to run out of words the pink pony stepped in and explained that there had been a mistake and the party was called off. Mildly disappointed ponies streamed out of Sugarcube Corner in an orderly fashion. Two older ponies, one blue and one yellow, retreated upstairs into a room with well insulated walls and what seemed to Blueblood to be a curiously thick door. “Hmph. Thank you for getting rid of that insufferable riffraff.” “Hey, it’s no problem BeeBee! Oh, you don’t mind if I call you BeeBee, do you?” Blueblood minded very much, but before he had a chance to voice his displeasure the pink earth pony had launched herself on a tangent that Blueblood did not have the slightest hope of understanding even if he wanted to. He spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out how to get the pony to stop her blabbering so he could get his beauty sleep when, entirely unexpectedly, she finished and fell silent. “…And that’s how Equestria was made!” Blueblood forced a smile. “Wonderful. Now, I need to rest. Point me to my bedchambers immediately.” “Oh c’mon, silly, you can’t sleep yet! This night’s just getting started!” From deep within her voluminous mane she produced a tall bottle of dark brown liquid. “Even with just the two of us we can still have a super fun time!” Blueblood’s eyes widened as he detected the all too familiar scent of alcohol. “No! No, no, no, no. I simply cannot abide such a foul substance within my body.” The pink pony just shrugged. “Okie dokie lokie! More for me!” She then proceeded to drain the entire bottle with a speed Blueblood found simultaneously fascinating, disgusting, and faintly alarming. Upon finishing she launched into a rendition of Equestria Girls that made the reasoning behind the other two ponies’ peculiar door all too clear. The drunken singing continued on for four hours until the pink pony passed out unceremoniously in mid-verse. Blueblood made a noise somewhere between a sigh of relief and a sob of despair and promptly drifted off to sleep. Thus ended the first of many such nights at Sugarcube Corner.

Aqua Bolt

495

Prince Blueblood,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

The Prince Among Paupers

Blueblood is living in Ponyville. Hilarity ensues.

cancelled

<p>After deeming him a danger to the royal treasury, Princess Celestia sends Prince Blueblood to Ponyville for a crash course in humility and fiscal responsibility. </p><p>Quite unfortunately, I find myself having to cancel this fic. If I ever try to write a long fic again I'll have to plan much, much better. Many apologies.</p>

everyone

2011-09-21T00:06:22+00:00

2011-09-21T00:06:22+00:00

Author's note: Only one chapter down and I've already been struggling with writer's block on this story for a couple weeks now, which, coupled with work, school, my social life, and everything else, means that chapter two of The Prince Among Paupers is, unfortunately, still a ways down the road. So instead have this. I wrote it after the MLP WTG week 8 theme gave me some fresh ideas, hoping it'd snap me out of my writing funk. Hopefully anypony who enjoyed chapter one enjoys this semi-canon addition to the story, set a few weeks after chapter one, too. A new day was dawning in Ponyville. The sun inched its way over the towering pines of the Everfree Forest and into a cloudless sky. Countless dewdrops shimmered, almost dancing, as the early morning light shone through them. All around, the world came to life once more. Birds sang with joy for the sun's return, waking sleepy critters and drawing them from their dens and into the brisk morning air. Most ponies would agree the tableau was nothing short of magical. Prince Blueblood, accustomed to the solitude and quiet of Canterlot Castle, was not most ponies. "Must those accursed birds commence their intolerable chirping so early in the morning?" he muttered to himself after being woken yet again by their songs. "Honestly, with such little sleep it's a small miracle that I can stay so magnificently beautiful." He dragged himself to the bathroom to begin his daily grooming, supposing that he should be thankful that for once the inexhaustible pink nuisance he shared a room with was still asleep. Without his small army of servants to aid him, the entire process took roughly two hours. Blueblood never once questioned the importance of the ritual; he was prince of Equestria, after all, and he had to look the part. Appearances are everything, he had thought to himself many times. What else separates a civilized pony from a worthless vagabond but a well-manicured hoof? As he finished his grooming, he cursed the Ponyville spa for its exorbitant prices, vowing to buy it out and tear it to the ground as soon as he had access to the Royal Treasury again. He spent a while considering what he would put in its place before finally settling on a giant statue of himself made of platinum and gold. His thoughts of revenge were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Astonishingly, his roommate remained asleep. Blueblood walked downstairs and opened the door to find nopony waiting outside. Curious and confused, he stepped through the doorway and looked around. Still seeing nopony, he was about to make his way back inside when several gallons of water crashed onto him, completely ruining his carefully styled mane and coat. From above came the all too familiar sound of high pitched giggling. "Wow, BeeBee, I sure got you good! That was totally one of my hardest pranks ever, I had to stay still for two whole hours; I've never done anything like that before! I've always been afraid of staying still, I feel like I'll get lockjaw, but all over my whole body, but then it wouldn't be lockjaw, I guess you'd call that lockbody, huh? Usually I just laugh when I'm afraid of something, but I couldn't even do that this time because then you would've known I wasn't asleep and that would have totally given the game away and that wouldn't have been fun at all, so I had to spend a super, duper, wooper long time just pretending to be asleep and I think-" "How is this even possible? You'd have to be in two places at once to ring the doorbell and dump the water from the window." "And?" Blueblood found himself silenced by a combination of rage and incomprehension. Deciding that murder was unbecoming of a prince, he trotted off without any particular direction in mind, wanting only to get as far away as possible from the manic pink pony. His aimless walk through Ponyville soon brought him face to face with Celestia's purple pet unicorn in the town square. Loath as he was to admit it, this pony was actually important. He frowned as she began to speak, struggling to remember her name. "Oh, hello Prince Blueblood. I was just on my way to Sugarcube Corner." "Yes, yes, giving me my work assignment, are you? Which of your friends am I to work for today? The orange simpleton? Or perhaps the rainbow-maned windbag?" Her name was two words...I think one of them started with "T." "Well, actually, no. Celestia had an idea, so she shared it with me and I agreed we should try it. Today you'll be spending time with other ponies around Ponyville, to learn what they have to teach about life. It's self directed recreational learning, Celestia told me she was very interested in hearing about your findings." Blueblood's frown deepened at the mention of Celestia. There would be no ducking out of this most recent disgrace. "Let me get this straight. Today I'll submit myself to some commoner and do whatever he or she says in order to learn a life lesson?" ...P, Q, R, S...S! The second word starts with "S!" "I suppose you could put it that way, yes." "So it's basically the same as what I've been doing since I came here, except I won't be getting paid." Adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, blast it, what were they? "Well, um...yes. But you do get to choose who you spend the day with." Blueblood's eyes scanned the center of town, looking over the crowd of dirty, unrefined ponies that had already begun to gather for some early morning shopping. He was not pleased by what he saw. "I'm overwhelmed by the possibilities; I'm afraid I just can't make a decision right now. A nap will certainly focus my mind enough for me to make up my mind." Ah, yes, that's right, the first word was a noun and the second was a verb. The purple mare was either oblivious to the prince's meaning or very determined to appear so. "Oh, that won't be necessary, I know exactly who you should start your day with." Blueblood strained with the effort of putting on a smile. "Very well then, let us be off." Hmph. Were you any other pony your constant intrusions would not be treated lightly. You're lucky you're Celestia's personal favorite, Tricycle Sprinkle. --- Ever since the pair had entered the Everfree Forest, Blueblood grew more displeased with every step. He was wondering for the tenth time what sort of pony would voluntarily live in such an unpleasant place when they finally came upon a clearing with obvious signs of habitation. The sorry state of the hut before his eyes confirmed many of his worst suspicions. A single sniff of the air confirmed the rest of them. He glanced sideways at his mercifully silent companion, hoping desperately for some clue that this was all a joke, but she continued to press on towards the shanty. She knocked on the door and slowly it swung open. Blueblood was surprised to find a large black and white striped creature standing in the doorway. It took a moment for him to recognize her as a zebra, one of many species whose diplomatic envoys made frequent stops at Canterlot Castle. "Why hello there, what a nice surprise, please, you two must come inside." "Thank you, Zecora, but I'm only stopping by to drop off Prince Blueblood here. I was hoping you'd be able to teach him about all the work you do with your potions." "Happily I will teach my art; very shortly we shall start." "Okay, sounds great. I'll see you two later." Obviously pleased with herself, the lavender magician teleported away, leaving Blueblood alone with the zebra. Oh, good, I won't have to put up with Twine Spatter all day long. Though I can't say this zebra promises much better company. He looked around at the interior of the hut disapprovingly. "Where in Equestria did you get such tacky décor?" The zebra looked stricken. "Not tacky at all, but very grand, full of memories of my homeland." Blueblood shrugged. "Well I suppose you can decorate however you want, it's not as if this shack could get any uglier anyway. What is it that she said you do? Make potions?" "Cease your insults to my abode, or I shall send you on the road. Potions are what I do craft, now will you learn or keep acting daft?" "And what do your potions do, exactly? Act as aphrodisiacs, cure headaches, and the like?" "They are not trivial wares to be sold by peddler mares. In exchange for modest wealth, they nurse anypony back to health." "So in addition to these miracle cures of yours do you also read fortunes? Perhaps you have a crystal ball you can teach me to use?" asked Blueblood, rolling his eyes. The zebra trembled as she spoke her next words. "You who would make a mockery of my work are naught but a close-minded jerk. Though I do not like to shout, I simply must insist – GET OUT!" Ugh, finally, thought Blueblood as he all too gladly stepped out of the hut and the door slammed behind him. So much for learning how to make potions. Though I still have to learn something to report to Celestia. He sighed. At least I won't have to deal with that incessant rhyming all day. --- By the time Blueblood reached the Ponyville city limits his round trip through the Everfree Forest had left him more than a little stressed. He removed most of the dirt and leaves that clung to his coat with a quick burst of magic and stormed off along the path to the village proper, cursing the zebra, Celestia, her sycophantic purple student, and everypony and everything in the universe that wasn't he. Soon, however, from somewhere far out across the fields, came the faint sound of music. Classy music, the kind that he hadn't heard since leaving Canterlot. Hesitating only for a moment, he strayed off the beaten path towards the sound, eager for even the slightest hint of high society. As the music grew steadily louder a small house came into view. Blueblood wondered briefly why it was so far from the rest of Ponyville, but his thoughts were interrupted by the sight of what he could only assume was its owner – a mint-green unicorn absently plucking a lyre with a pair of oddly discolored hooves. Her eyes widened and her mouth grew into a broad smile as she noticed his approach. "It's not often that I get visitors here. Was it the music that brought you?" "Yes. I must say I never expected to hear such sophisticated music in a such a fetid cesspool of a town." The musician nodded her head slowly. "I can see why. The other ponies around here, they just don't get it. It's why I moved so far from the center of town." "Well I don't blame you in the slightest. Very nearly everypony here is entirely insufferable, although you seem to be a rare exception, Miss…?" "Lyra. And I could say the same of you," she paused for a moment before smiling again. "Say, would you like to learn how to play the lyre?" Blueblood had always liked music, and the thought of learning such a pleasant skill to report to Celestia was extremely tempting. "But of course, that sounds lovely." He began testing the strings with his magic and was about to pull one when his teacher suddenly stopped him. "No! You can't play the lyre using magic, the music has to flow directly from your physical body." Blueblood thought this at least a little silly, but he decided it was not wise to argue the finer points of lyre playing with a pony with a lyre cutie mark. Holding his tongue, he began to play under the careful instruction of the green pony. The prince showed remarkable aptitude for the instrument, and within short hours he was improvising a simple yet delicate melody brimming with a complex blend of both sadness and triumph. The other unicorn was utterly delighted at his progress. She clapped her hooves together excitedly. "I can't believe I'm saying this already, but I think you're ready to graduate." Blueblood cocked an eyebrow. "Graduate? Whatever do you mean?" "Hold on just one second, I'll show you." She dashed into her house for a few moments before reappearing strapped with a pair of visibly loaded saddlebags. Shaking with enthusiasm, she approached Blueblood before pulling out a pair of strange metallic objects from one of her bags. Blueblood took control of them with his magic before examining them with careful curiosity. The two objects were nearly identical, each roughly the size of a hoof and with five unnaturally thin protrusions. It was clear they were some form of machinery, though Blueblood had never seen their like before. They were hollow, evidently one was supposed to put one's hooves into them to operate them. "What are they?" The musical mare's voice dripped with giddiness as she answered, "I call them hands. They let you manipulate objects with a finesse that hooves simply don't allow for. They're my own personal design. Do you like them?" Blueblood didn't answer; he was too busy attempting to work the devices. He slipped his hooves into them, only for them to fall off as soon as he shifted them. "Bah, I can't get these blasted things to function!" "Well of course, silly, they haven't been attached yet." "Attached?" The other pony didn't answer; she was too busy reaching into her second saddlebag, from which she pulled a hammer and several rusty nails. For the first time he noticed the discoloration of his host's hooves was the result of countless half-healed scars. He blinked several times and felt his mouth go dry as an uncomfortable warm feeling made its way down his leg. Curses, that hasn't happened during waking hours in three years. Deciding that he would rather die of embarrassment than of gangrene, Blueblood made a mad dash back to the road, berating himself for being too proud to ask Typhoid Speak how she teleported. From behind he heard the thumping of frantic hoofbeats growing steadily louder. "Wait, come back! They only hurt the first few dozen times you put them on!" Blueblood kept running, but it soon became clear that he could not outrun his pursuer. The crazed musician was only a few body lengths behind him when Blueblood heard an unfamiliar voice cry out from above in wordless warning. He looked up just in time to see a heavy-looking crate falling from the sky on a collision course with his face. His mind had barely finished processing this new information when a burst of magic knocked him to the side, away from the deadly projectile. He heard two distinct thuds and rose to his shaking hooves. What in Equestria just happened? Where did that magic come from? After about a minute of staring at the ground in disbelief, making certain he was in fact still alive, Blueblood looked around and took stock. The crate, which Blueblood could now see was labeled "Feet," was lying on the ground, the green mare lying unconscious beside it. Standing over her was a gray pegasus with blonde hair and loaded saddlebags. The newcomer checked to make sure the green unicorn was still breathing before shrugging and turning to face Blueblood. She had the most peculiar eyes Blueblood had ever seen; they pointed in entirely different directions. "Okay, let's go back to Ponyville." What was left of Blueblood's composure shattered. "Now hold on, I demand an explanation for this! Where did you come from? Where in the hay did that crate come from? Why are you here? Who are you?" His mouth began to froth and his eyes darted back and forth. The pegasus seemed not to notice his distress. "Oh, how silly of me. I'm Ditzy Doo, Ponyville's mailmare. I was delivering that crate to Lyra over there, but I kind of lost control of it. Oh well, looks like it all worked out for the best. You're okay and I delivered the package right to the customer!" She furrowed her brow for several moments as if in deep thought, then rummaged around in her saddlebags. "Muffin?" she asked brightly, pulling one out of her bag and offering it to him. Blueblood gave the baked treat a cautious sniff, then retched when the scent of apples filled his nostrils. "No. I'm not hungry." "Suit yourself. Okay, c'mon, let's go." A protest was forming on Blueblood's lips when he realized that there was nowhere to go but back to Ponyville and he had no choice for the time being but to walk with the presumptuous commoner. With a huff he started off towards the town in a stony silence that the gray mare insisted on breaking with cheerful hummed tunes. Eventually she stopped her humming. Blueblood was in the process of silently thanking Celestia when she spoke, ruining his mood again. "So what do you do?" Ugh, I know these hick ponies are all rather dense, but this tops it all, Blueblood thought. "Do? I'm the prince of Equestria! I handle the trifling matters Celestia and Luna don't feel like dealing with. My name is Prince Blueblood, how could you possibly not know that?" "No, no, no. I mean, what do you do besides that? Take me: I'm a mailmare but what I really love to do is blow bubbles! What's your favorite thing to do?" Nopony had ever asked him that before. Caught off guard by the novelty of the question, he considered it carefully. Gazing downwards, he began to speak, slowly, hesitantly. "I like watching the sunset from the highest point of Canterlot Castle, then letting the night settle in around me until I drift off to sleep. When I was a foal I used to spend every night dreaming of a peaceful, quiet place I could call my own. When I started spending my evenings in the top of that tower, my whole life just…clicked. I went to that spot every single night for years, never missing a night until a few weeks ago." "But you can't do that here in Ponyville." "I am well aware of that," Blueblood snapped, more harshly than he had intended. They continued walking in silence until once more the pegasus spoke. "Hey, what time is it?" Blueblood glanced at the sun. "About three o'clock I would guess." "What?! Oh, horseapples, this is bad." She stiffened and turned to Blueblood. "Your cutie mark is a compass; you're good at navigation, right?" "Well, yes-" Her voice carried more than a hint of desperation as she cut him off. "Great! Look, I've really got to get my deliveries done soon; I have to pick up my daughter from school at five. I'm not so good at the navigation aspect of my job; can you help me find the houses I'm supposed to deliver to? Together we can get all my letters delivered in half the time. Ooh, I know, in return I'll teach you how to blow bubbles!" "No. I have far more important things to-" "Please! My daughter, she-" "Just have her father pick her up." The mare's ears drooped. "She…she doesn't have a father. Not anymore." Blueblood stopped in his tracks. Thoughts of his own father raced though his head and suddenly a wave of guilt washed over him. He cast his eyes downward and struggled to speak. "I'm sorry," he finally managed, "Yes, I'll help you." Immediately, the mailmare perked up again. "Oh, wonderful! Here," she said reaching into one of her bags and pulling out a rolled up piece of paper, "take this map of Ponyville and use it to help me find where I have to deliver to." Blueblood unrolled the paper to find a crude sketch of what might have been Ponyville drawn in what he suspected was crayon. Everything on the map was an indistinct blob except for Sugarcube Corner, which was circled several times and had the word "Muffins!" printed next to it in bold letters. Blueblood sighed. She was lucky he had been in Ponyville long enough to memorize most of the town's layout. For father, he thought as he set aside the map and read the first envelope's address. --- Hours later the unlikely pair sat on a hilltop just outside of town, watching the sun descend across the sky. The gray pegasus was beginning her lesson on proper bubble blowing technique. "Okay, so first you need to take the wand," she gestured to a small stick attached to a ridiculous piece of headgear in such a way that it dangled right in front of her face, "and dip it in the solution, like this." She dropped her head down, putting the stick into a bucket of soapy water, allowing a thin film to spread over a circular portion of the stick. "Visualize the bubble you want to create. Become one with the wand. Double take three times – one, two, three. Then, slowly, gently, blow into the wand and bring your bubble to life. Think of it like a living thing." She blew, and out of the wand blossomed an extraordinarily large bubble that hung before them for a moment before floating off through the evening air. Blueblood felt quite foalish following the eccentric mailmare's instructions, but with nopony around to see him he supposed there was no harm in humoring her. He had insisted, however, on using magic to hold his stick rather than her headgear. Despite his best efforts, however, the titanic bubble he had attempted popped before it could be fully formed. "That's okay, we'll just have to start smaller. There's nothing wrong with blowing small bubbles until you get the hang of it." The two ponies practiced until the sky around them was a veritable sea of bubbles. Finally out of the soapy solution, they turned back to the sun, which had just begun to dip below the horizon. The light rays streaming out of it caught on each and every bubble, reflecting off of them and filling the air with countless beautiful golden orbs. "Wow," whispered Ditzy. Blueblood nodded. "This isn't Canterlot, but it's…it's nice." For what seemed like an eternity, not another word was spoken as the sun disappeared and the moon slowly and gracefully rose to take its place. --- Princess Celestia was napping lightly in her study when the unmistakable aura of dragon magic woke her from her sleep. She picked the scroll up off the floor, smiling in anticipation as she broke the seal on Twilight Sparkle's latest letter. Dear Princess Celestia, I am very pleased to report that your intuition was correct – letting Blueblood make his own way through Ponyville was exactly what he needed to begin forging connections with other ponies. Like you asked, I followed him throughout the day and, though it didn't always go smoothly, I am confident that Blueblood has formed the beginnings of a true friendship with Ponyville's mailmare. Your most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle P.S. – Do you know of a spell that cures incontinence? I'm sure Blueblood would be very grateful for any help you could give on the matter. The princess sighed with content, happy in the knowledge that after eighteen years of guardianship she had finally taught Blueblood something worthwhile. She reread the letter and decided a brief visit with her sister was in order. Celestia trotted off down the hallway until she reached the entrance to Luna's room. "Luna?" she called out softly after knocking on the door. "Yes, Celly?" "What was the spell you used to cure your little problem twelve hundred years ago?"

Aqua Bolt

495

Prince Blueblood,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

The Prince Among Paupers

Blueblood is living in Ponyville. Hilarity ensues.

cancelled

<p>After deeming him a danger to the royal treasury, Princess Celestia sends Prince Blueblood to Ponyville for a crash course in humility and fiscal responsibility. </p><p>Quite unfortunately, I find myself having to cancel this fic. If I ever try to write a long fic again I'll have to plan much, much better. Many apologies.</p>

everyone

2011-09-21T00:43:08+00:00

2011-09-21T00:43:08+00:00

Blueblood awoke the next morning at dawn, approximately three hours after his uncouth roommate’s loss of consciousness had given him the peace and quiet he needed to sleep. That was without a doubt the very worst night I’ve had to endure in eighteen years. Of all the intolerable-He sniffed. Feelings of fond nostalgia instantly replaced his grumpiness as he caught the unmistakable scent of blueberry muffins wafting through the air. His curiosity piqued, Blueblood followed the smell downstairs to the bakery’s kitchen where, to his shock, he discovered the pink earth pony already awake and hard at work. She did not appear to have any of the trademark symptoms of a hangover or, indeed, any other sign that only seven hours ago she had drank enough liquor to bring down a buffalo. As soon as he entered the room her tail made two quick whipping motions and she whirled to face him. “Oh, hiya BeeBee! Wow, that sure was fun last night, wasn’t it? We should totally do it again sometime! Let’s see, I’m available tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, the day after that, the day after that…” she gasped, “Ohmygosh! We should have an awesome, totally exclusive Pinkie-and-BeeBee party every. Single. Night!” Blueblood’s eye twitched, but before he could say anything the pink bundle of complexes had him wrapped in a windpipe-crushing hug. He attempted to demand that she unhoof him, but the only sound that escaped his lips was a gurgle whose only effect was spurring the pink pony into squeezing him even harder. When he was finally released from the death grip Blueblood found it prudent to change the subject. “These muffins smell quite…adequate. How long will it take until they’re ready for consumption?” “These muffins will be ready in about a half an hour. They’re made with a super-special secret recipe I only bake when I have super-special guests! They take four whole hours to make!” Blueblood did not need to work out the math to realize that by all the known laws of the universe what the baker pony was saying was entirely impossible. He frowned deeply. As his sleep-deprived mind turned the problem over and over his eyes shifted gradually out of focus. The baker giggled. “Hey, maybe you could get a job with the post office!” Shaken by her voice’s sudden intrusion, Blueblood’s mind and eyes snapped back to normal. “What?” “Oh, nothing. You just reminded me of our mailmare for a second there.” “How I reminded you of anypony in this rustic chamber pot you ponies call a village is quite beyond my comprehension. Please don’t make the mistake of believing I want anything to do with this above ground sewer or anypony in it.” Blueblood noticed the pink pony’s face, mane, and shoulders sag ever so slightly at his remark, and her coat lost some of its usual luster. The remainder of the time spent waiting for the muffins to finish baking and cooling was spent in the one thing nopony would ever expect to come across in Sugarcube Corner – an awkward silence. This is intolerable. How much longer must she continue to stare at me like that? I haven’t seen a pony look so depressed since Father. Blueblood furrowed his brow. But she’s a mere commoner! How could I even entertain the notion that this crude pony is capable of the same depths of feeling as – DING! Blueblood’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a kitchen timer. Overcome with, and puzzled by, a feeling of relief, he levitated several muffins into a saddlebag that he then proceeded to buckle on. His stomach grumbled, and so he decided to take one more and eat it then and there. As he bit into it his earlier feelings of nostalgia returned tenfold, enveloping him in a warm blanket of serene delight. He turned to leave, and was halfway out the door when he hesitated. “Thank you…and…” he coughed. “I’m sorry,” he finally managed to choke out after three earlier attempts failed to produce any sound recognizable as speech, and with that he left. Pinkie Pie perked up immediately, her pink coloring returning to its usual vividness. “I knew Rarity was wrong! Nopony is all bad. I bet he just needs a purely, positively awesome party to make his bad attitude go topsy turvy. I’ll just have to tell Dashie to go easy on the pranks this time.” She frowned and tapped a hoof on the ground. “But Twilight said no parties for BeeBee…I know! I’ll just have to throw Twilight a “Let Me Throw a Party” party! It can’t fail!” --- Blueblood seethed at the indignity as he galloped to the horrendously ugly farm where the unpleasant orange rube that had received him in the town square the day before worked. It was not normally in Blueblood’s nature to make haste but he was acutely aware of how far being late on his first day would put him from Celestia’s good graces. He arrived at the gate at nearly the exact same time as the farmer pony. As Blueblood sat down, panting heavily, the mare looked him over and spoke. “Huh. Ah can’t say Ah expected you to be here on time. Maybe you ain’t quite so worthless as Ah figured.” She raised a filthy hoof and looked at Blueblood expectantly. Blueblood blinked as he stared at the mud-encrusted hoof in disgust. “What?” “Ah’m offerin’ to shake hooves. It’s the polite way for two ponies to greet each other.” “Indeed. Assuming, of course, that the two ponies are equal. In a case such as this, however, it is proper for a lesser pony – that would be you – to kneel down and kiss the hooves of his or her better. Make no mistake, I am your better, no matter what game Celestia is playing.” She squinted and frowned, lowering her hoof. “Yeah, that ain’t happenin’ sugarcube. C’mon, you’ve got a lot of work to do.” Blueblood grimaced as he walked through the gate. “Very well, let us get this over with.” He quickly scanned the horizon and was perplexed to find that the only building in sight was the peasant’s ramshackle barn. “Where are the lord’s accommodations?” “Excuse me?” “Was the word accommodations too confusing? I shall try to keep this monosyllabic for you, you inbred clodhopper: where does the lord live?” “What the hay are you talkin’ about?” “The pony that owns this land. Where is he?” The orange mare was growing visibly frustrated. “Ain’t no pony owns this land but me and my family. Who else would?” Blueblood gaped. Such a subversion of the natural order – is this even possible? He sighed and decided to charitably offer an explanation to the ignorant pony. “A lord is a pony of high birth that owns large estates on which laborer ponies work. That way he can organize things like the planting and selling of crops that require thinking too complex for ponies of inferior mental capacities such as yourself. For this, he receives his fair share of compensation – all the bits earned by the farm. Meanwhile, the worker ponies are generously allowed to live on the lord’s lands and given a small portion of the crop yield. Now do you understand, or do you require another explanation, perhaps one with colorful pictures and simpler words?” The other pony remained silent for a long time. “Ah think Ah got it.” Blueblood looked around once more. “Do you truly grow nothing here but apples?” “There some sorta problem with that?” “I hate apples.” There was a pause, then both ponies sighed in unison. It was promising to be a long day. --- Several hours later, Blueblood’s legs ached as he bucked apple trees like a pony possessed. Pain lanced through his body with every kick, yet still he kept working. Must...not...let...farm filly...beat me. He repeated this mantra over and over until the words had nearly lost their meaning. Fortunately, his hard work was paying off; his buckets were considerably more full than the orange mare’s, though, troublingly, she seemed far less exhausted. Eventually, satisfied that he had built up enough of a lead to allow himself a short break, Blueblood collapsed in the shade of an apple tree and removed his saddlebags. He quickly checked to make certain nopony was watching before burying his face in them, devouring his muffins with rather less grace than was usual. As he scraped the bottom of the bag he began to feel a peculiar wet sensation on the tip of his muzzle. Slowly, he pulled his mouth out and found himself staring into a pair of pitiless purple eyes. Blueblood’s own eyes stayed open just long enough to register the creature attached to his nose as reptilian before they clamped shut tighter than the door of a debtor’s prison. Frantically, he flailed his head from side to side as he galloped, shrieking, in a tight circle around the tree that he had been resting under mere moments ago. Growing quickly frustrated by his lack of success, he grunted as he heaved his head with all the power he could muster. Immediately, the unwelcome presence that had attached itself to Blueblood’s face flew off into the air. Slightly less than immediately, Blueblood heard a thunk as his horn buried itself in the thick trunk of the tree. He planted his forehooves on the tree and pushed with all his might to absolutely no effect. From behind him came the sound of a throat clearing and a poorly disguised chuckle. It was only then that he realized that the farmer had been watching the entire time. “Well, now what?” he grunted through gritted teeth. She said nothing, but Blueblood could see her out of the corner of his eye. He did not like the look of her smile nor the implications of the lasso she was readying. With a casual flick, she looped it around his hind legs and fastened it tightly. Blueblood gulped. Suddenly, without warning, the rope jerked taught, and for one terrifying instant he felt he was about to be torn in half. Then, just as abruptly, Blueblood’s horn was freed from the tree and the rope went slack once more as his body went sailing through the air, crashing down flankfirst in a particularly muddy part of the orchard. Blueblood choked back a sob as he inspected the condition of his coat. The muck was far too deeply ingrained for his magic to be of any use in cleaning it off. This would take hours for my servants to fix. Alone it will take...oh, Celestia, why? The rustic mare was no longer even attempting to hide her laughter. “Well, shoot, that’s the funniest thing Ah’ve seen all week.” Blueblood stared at her for a long while before swallowing a set of words he thought unwise. Turning slowly away, he made his way to an isolated patch of the farm where he could suffer through the rest of the day in peace. --- After what seemed like an eternity of mindless drudgery, Blueblood judged by the angle of the sun that it was five o’clock, the time that he had been informed signified the end of a workday. He picked up the filled apple buckets and trudged back to the entry gate of Sweet Apple Acres. There waiting for him with an almost imperceptible smile upon her face was the orange earth pony. “Ah’ve been thinkin’ about what you said.” “What I said?” “Y’know, about lords ownin’ the land an’ all that stuff. Ah think you’re right.” “Indeed? Well, it seems your education is not such a lost cause aft-” “Ah’m payin’ you with a portion of the harvest, just like you wanted!” she gestured to a small bucket filled with apples. Slowly, her composure was slipping and her grin was becoming more and more obvious. Blueblood blinked. “But...But that’s not how the system works! You can’t just-” The mare was not listening to his impassioned explanation; she was already walking back towards the barn, humming a tune with greatly exaggerated volume. Comprehension rolled over him. “And I suppose you think this is all some big joke?” he shouted after her. She turned to face him, stunned into near silence. “Um...well...uh, yeah, kinda, Ah-” “Oh no, that’s quite alright. You don’t have to explain yourself. Laugh! Laugh at the disgraced prince, kicked out of his own castle! Laugh at his misery, laugh at his shame! Giggle as he bends to your every command! Snicker as he tries to cope with leaving behind everything he knows!” “Ah was just kiddin’, don’t get your saddle in a bunch. Ah got some bits ready for you in the barn.” Blueblood, however, was far too furious to listen to anything she had to say. “No, no, this will be fine,” he said, indicating the bucket of apples. “I’m certain the Element of Honesty has given me what she believes to be a fair wage for a full day’s work. Playing a prank on a pony for a cheap laugh at his expense - why, she’d never do such a thing.” He noted a growing redness in the mare’s cheeks with satisfaction. “I don’t need your wretched charity.” Mustering all the dignity he could manage, Blueblood picked up the apples and strode off back to town with his head held high. --- Bean Counter was enjoying another pleasantly uneventful day at the Bank of Equestria when a disheveled, filthy unicorn stallion burst through the double doors into the lobby, magically dragging a bucket of apples behind him. He looked like he belonged more in a homeless shelter than a bank, but she put on an agreeable smile all the same. “Can I help you,” she struggled with the last word, “sir?” “I need you to cash this,” he said, pulling a small slip of paper from his saddlebags. “Quickly now, I don’t have all day.” She frowned as she inspected the check he had hoofed her. “I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t accept this.” “What? Why?” “Due to many instances of fraudulent payments and pranks involving this bank account, it is against the policy of the Ponyville branch of the Bank of Equestria to accept checks signed by this pony,” she said in a carefully controlled monotone. “Are you saying-” “I am saying that you cannot cash a check from Princess Celestia.” Her flat tone had cracked and her voice rose with every syllable; by the last word she was nearly shouting. She paused, then spoke calmly once again. “Besides, this check says it’s for Prince Blueblood’s sixth birthday. Why in Equestria would you have it? Did you really think we’d fall for this forgery?” “I am Prince Blueblood! I’ve kept that check with me for seventeen years as a reminder of...well, that’s not important. My funds have run perilously low, and I require, nay, I demand that you give me my money immediately!” Bean Counter looked again at the stallion in front of her. His coat was so dirty she could only guess its original color, and, half-hidden under an unkempt mess of a mane, his eyes had a wild, almost crazed look in them. She sighed and barked out a single word. “Security!” --- For the second time in one day, Blueblood found himself hurled to the ground. He was not fond of the sensation. Shortly after him came the bucket of apples, which shattered upon impact. He was relieved to see that the check had been tucked away with the apples and gingerly returned it to his bag. He had been reluctant to use it in the first place, and if it couldn't get him the bits he needed he was glad he could at least keep it with him. Leaving the apples where they lay, he walked off glumly. I should have just taken the money when that bumpkin offered it. Hmph. I suppose I really have forgotten the value of a bit. Blueblood looked up to find that his wandering had taken him to the Ponyville Spa. He glanced into the window and was shocked by the shabbiness of his reflection. Slowly, he lowered his gaze. For ten minutes he sat there just staring at the ground until the sound of two pairs of hoofbeats caught his attention. Away in the distance, two earth pony fillies were rapidly approaching. What caught Blueblood’s attention, however, was their cutie marks: an expensive-looking tiara and a finely crafted spoon. Ah, the local aristocracy! Not the equals of Canterlot ponies of course, but surely even here there is class to be found amongst the nobility. More importantly, gentleponies in an insignificant little burgh like this will be desperate for more influence at court. With a lightening heart he addressed them as they passed. “Well hello, girls. I am Prince Blueblood. And you are?” The pink one spoke first. “Prince Blueblood lives in Canterlot and is, like, totally handsome. He definitely does not look like you.” The gray filly at her side poked her gently with her hoof. “What, Silver Spoon?” “Remember what your parents said? Princess Celestia sent Prince Blueblood here and it’s our job to be on our best behavior if we meet him,” she said in a hushed voice. “Okay, fine, but he still doesn’t look like Blueblood,” the pink one hissed back. “Ahem,” Blueblood cleared his throat and both fillies jumped slightly. “Due to regrettable circumstances beyond my control, I have become unspeakably dirty today. Rest assured that under all this disgusting grime I am indeed Prince Blueblood.” Once again, the pink filly spoke first. “Well he definitely talks like the prince would.” The two young ponies exchanged a look, then bowed down deeply. “I’m Diamond Tiara and this is Silver Spoon. We’re members of, like, the only respectable families in this whole town.” “But if you’re so dirty why don’t you just go in the spa and get cleaned off?” asked the one named Silver Spoon “It’s, like, right there in front of you.” Blueblood grimaced. “Unfortunately, the princess has cut off my access to the Royal Treasury and I am unable to afford a spa treatment at the moment.” “Oh no, that’s just, like, sooo unfair,” said Diamond Tiara. “I know! We’ll pay for it!” “Yeah,” chimed in Silver Spoon, “Our families have, like, tons of money and we’d be honored to help you.” “Oh, how wonderful! I won’t forget this generosity.” What marvelously polite little fillies, Blueblood mused as he entered the establishment, eager to finally wash off the mud that had been caked onto his coat for hours. --- Some time later, once again looking as fabulous as ever, Blueblood stepped out of the spa and into the cool evening air. He felt like a new stallion, ready to take on all of Equestria by himself. All his rediscovered confidence had made him giddy and he practically pranced through the streets of Ponyville as he made his way back to Sugarcube Corner. He was in such a good mood that he was even willing to tolerate his pink roommate’s antics for a night. It was a good thing, too, for as soon as he sprang through the door she was on him, peppering him with a multitude of questions without giving him time to answer any of them. “Wowzers, you’re back, you’re back, you’re back! That took such a long time, I was starting to get worried you’d never come back, but then I thought, ‘stop being such a silly willy worry-wart, Pinkie, of course BeeBee is coming back,’ and you totally did! How was working on AJ’s farm? Ooh, ooh, did you meet her little sister Apple Bloom? Or her brother Big Macintosh? How many apples did you buck, huh, huh? I bet you bucked a whole bunch, you’re big and strong, almost as big as Big Macintosh, and that’s saying something, I mean, the guy has big in his name, so obviously he’s...” Blueblood let it all wash over him, losing himself in the stream of words when, abruptly, the pink mare stiffened. “Oh, wow, I’ve forgotten to introduce you to Gummy, haven’t I?” “I suppose you have, yes.” “Well, he’s kinda shy but he just loves meeting new ponies!” She gave her mane a shake. “Come on out, Gummy! It’s time for you to meet a new friend!” A small green alligator popped out of her mane and blinked, whereupon Blueblood’s eyes rolled to the back of his skull as he fainted. Pinkie sighed softly as she looked at Blueblood’s unconscious body. “I guess BeeBee needs to get used to the idea of having an alligator in the house. I know! I’ll put Gummy in his bed tonight so when he wakes up safe and sound he’ll know there’s nothing to be afraid of!” Satisfied with her foolproof plan, she left Sugarcube Corner and hopped off to ask Twilight where to send Blueblood the next morning. ---------- I’d like to thank everybody that took the time to read this with a special shout out to Autumn Wind, who preread for me and helped iron out a few kinks. Questions? Comments? Criticism? Hate mail? Don't hesitate to let me know, I really appreciate your input.

Aqua Bolt

495

Prince Blueblood,Comedy,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

The Prince Among Paupers

Blueblood is living in Ponyville. Hilarity ensues.

cancelled

<p>After deeming him a danger to the royal treasury, Princess Celestia sends Prince Blueblood to Ponyville for a crash course in humility and fiscal responsibility. </p><p>Quite unfortunately, I find myself having to cancel this fic. If I ever try to write a long fic again I'll have to plan much, much better. Many apologies.</p>

everyone

2011-12-31T03:28:55+00:00

2011-12-31T03:28:55+00:00

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain that rained from the heavens fell on my face and obscurified the single tear that fell from my eye. My reason to be - gone in an instant. I was so sad. I cried another single tear. Then, suddenly, from behind me came a familiar voice - a voice I couldn’t believe was there but actually was! “Reader Projection! I’m here for you!” it called. It wasn’t. It couldn’t be. I couldn’t believe it. I turned around. It was! It could be! “Oh, Unrealistic Fantasy! You’re alive!” I called back ecstatically and joyfully. We rushed together into a passionate embrace, horns touching as we cried our thanks to dearest Celestia. A single moonbeam broke through the clouds, illuminating- Blueblood snorted as he closed yet another book. The selection at Ponyville’s only library was nothing short of atrocious. After the purple unicorn had left him alone earlier that morning, Blueblood had busied himself by sorting its catalogue into three categories. A small stack of books beside him represented works he was interested in reading, and a larger stack beside that was made up of books he had already read in one of Canterlot’s many royal libraries. Apart from both of them, in the center of the one-room library, Blueblood had built a large and remarkably accurate scale model of Canterlot Castle out of the books he had skimmed briefly and judged to be complete garbage. He rubbed his muzzle with one of his forehooves absentmindedly. It’s not so bad, I suppose, he thought. Even the worst of these sad excuses for literature is better than manual labor. The librarian hadn’t asked him to do much; she hadn’t asked him to do anything at all, really, only to help anypony who came looking for books. Blueblood was not surprised in the least when this turned out to be almost nopony at all. He cast a critical eye over the bookshelves before resting his gaze on the small collection of worthwhile books he had set aside. Shrugging to himself, Blueblood levitated the topmost book, an encyclopedia of rare flora, over to his desk, opened it to a random page, and began to read. Poison joke is a small blue flower that causes a unique biological reaction when applied externally to a pony’s coat. Unlike most poisonous plants, poison joke does not cause rashes, sores, or other typical injuries. Instead, it plays what biologists are tentatively referring to as “pranks” on anypony that comes into contact with its toxins. These pranks vary wildly and appear to manifest in ways determined by the afflicted pony’s personality. CAUTION: Though external exposure to poison joke is ultimately harmless, the plant acts as a powerful hallucinogen when ingested. Hallucinations caused by poison joke are extremely powerful, seem to be based on the afflicted pony’s innermost thoughts, and are always unpleasant. He was so focused on his reading that he didn’t notice when someone opened the door on the other side of the room and entered the library. “Hey, Twilight,” called a distinctly male voice from behind the replica of Canterlot Castle. “I know you said to go have fun today and not to come back until at least six, but I need you to give me another moustache; the doughnut shop doesn’t card when-Oh, for crying out loud, Twilight, I thought we were done with this. Look, I know you get a little overexcited when you start researching architecture, but this is ridiculous. Do you have any idea how long it takes me to clean these things up? I swear, one more time and I’m telling everypony in Ponyville what you say about Isaac Neighton when you’re asleep, just you-” Blueblood coughed. “That-That wasn’t...You, uh, you’re not Twilight, are you?” “Correct.” Blueblood heard a groan from across the room. “Just promise you won’t-” the voice was cut short as a small purple dragon walked into Blueblood’s line of sight, then stopped abruptly. “What are you doing here?” Blueblood was not sure whether he was more surprised by the dragon itself or by the intense look in its eyes. He raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, have we met? I’m fairly certain I would remember meeting a baby terra wyrm.” The look of anger upon the dragon’s face disappeared, replaced by confusion. “Yeah, well, I-um...a what?” “A land dragon,” said Blueblood enthusiastically. “Your species is quite rare, you know. And fascinating, I might add. You developed magical fire, such a complex mechanism with so many functions, with no clear environmental impetus; it’s nothing short of remarkable.” “Well, yeah, I am pretty awesome, huh? Seri-” his eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute, flattery’s not gonna get you off the hook for what you did.” “What I did?” Blueblood thought for a moment and sighed. “I suppose you’ll have to remind me; I’m quite at a loss.” “You took advantage of the most beautiful pony in Equestria! You made her miserable on what should have been the best night of her life!” Blueblood buried his face in his hoof. “Oh no, not this again. I had nothing to do with that, and don’t let anypony tell you otherwise. It’s vile slander and nothing more.” “What? Of course you did, the only pony with her was-” “Look, I’ll let you in on a secret. Security at the castle is bad. Not just bad, abysmal. We have guardsponies that sleep with their eyes open on duty. The fact of the matter is it would not have been difficult for some blackguard of a paparazzi to sneak into my room, set up some well-hidden recording equipment, and come back for it the next day.” “I know all about the castle’s security, what does this have to do with-” “I don’t know why the Grand Duchess of Trottingham thinks it was me, anyway. I certainly didn’t want anypony to see that video, my performance was...um...less than perfect.” “That’s not what I’m talking about!” shouted the dragon. Blueblood coughed. “Um, ah, yes, of course. What...um, what were you talking about?” “The Grand Galloping Gala! You made it the worst night of Rarity’s life!” “Rarity...” Blueblood trailed off, lost in thought, then shrugged. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to refresh my memory, which one was she? Every gala I have to deal with so many gold-digging trollops, they all sort of blend together, you understand.” Veins began to pop out under the dragon’s purple scales. “Rarity’s not a tr...um, a troll...whatever you said! She doesn’t need your money, she’s got plenty, and even if she didn’t, she’s way too classy to be a gold digger. She’s the Element of Generosity, one of the best ponies I’ve ever met. She helped defeat Nightmare Moon and Discord! What have you ever done besides sit in a castle on your over-privileged flank, huh?” He emphasized this by jabbing a claw in Blueblood’s direction. Blueblood scowled. “Oh, spare me. I know those stories. She cut off her tail and dug a boulder out of a rock wall. How heroic. Now, you ask, what have I done?” He could feel his jaw quivering as he spoke. “I wasn’t born in Canterlot, you impudent little brat. I’ve earned my place in the castle, don’t you dare question that.” “Whatever, I’m done with this.” The dragon stomped upstairs, muttering to himself, some nonsense about how Blueblood would ‘get his.’ Blueblood, seething, turned back to his books. He attempted to go back to reading as he had been minutes ago but gave up after trying and failing to concentrate on the text for the fifth time. Once again, he surveyed the library, wondering how many bits had been wasted on terrible books. Suddenly, he had a magnificent, brilliant idea that was certain to improve the selection. ----- “No.” “But-” “No.” “Whyever not?” The librarian sighed. “The whole point of a library is that the books are free. You can’t charge ponies for,” she took a moment to reread the sign Blueblood had posted over the checkout counter, “bad taste and disrespect of culture.” Blueblood attempted once again to explain his logic. “I really don’t see the problem. I don’t care if you slack-jawed hicks want to read tripe like,” he pulled a random book off the shelves, then rolled his eyes as he read the title, “The Lusty Argonian Mare, but there should be some consequences for having such a blatant disregard for what makes good literature. And with the increased funds you can purchase things actually worth reading. With any luck the improved selection in this athenaeum could make the barely-literate hoi polloi in this village slightly less ignorant in, oh, say, seventy years.” The mare blinked, then caught sight of the open thesaurus on Blueblood’s desk. She shot him a disbelieving stare. Blueblood sniffed. “There are only so many ways to say, ‘filthy peasant,’ you know. One must keep up with his education.” “Look. Prince Blueblood. I appreciate what you’re trying to do. Really. But this just isn’t how things work in Ponyville...or anywhere.” She paused. “I know you don’t like common ponies, but if you keep an open mind-” Blueblood gave a derisive chuckle. “Please. Just yesterday I was humiliated by one of your friends, and I think the pink one wants to kill me. Even if not, keeping that beast as a pet is grossly irresponsible, to say the very least. The moral fortitude of you common ponies is clearly lacking.” She pressed on regardless. “Okay, so we all got off to a bad start. But give them another chance. I talked with both of them today; Applejack’s really sorry and Pinkie...well, she doesn’t want to kill anypony, I know that at least.” “My every interaction with you rabble has been marked by unpleasantness. Why should I subject myself to you further?” “For one thing, it’s what the princess wants.” “The princess. Indeed.” Blueblood stared down at the floor. Why is learning to cope with all this so blasted important to her? There’s no reason for it, unless...no. No. She wouldn’t. She can’t. Even the princess can’t undo a cutie mark. The purple mare cleared her throat, and Blueblood lifted his head up to look at her. “And also because half the problem is your attitude. We’re not out to get you, you know. All you have to do is kill your negativity. Maybe you could try thinking of cute little bunnies or something; that always makes me feel better.” Blueblood grunted in reply. “Are you even listening to me?” Blueblood’s head, which had again drifted towards the floor, jerked upright. “Of...of course. Kill bunnies; think negative thoughts, I’ve got it.” “Do you want to stay here forever?” “You know the answer to that. You, and that ill-mannered dragon slave of yours, and the rest of this wretched town.” “Well then you could help yourself by-wait, Dragon? You met Spike?” The librarian groaned and stamped a hoof. “Six o’clock. I told him six o’clock. How hard is it to come home at six o’clock? I should deal with this, just take your pay and leave early today. Tomorrow you’ll be helping Fluttershy. Ask Pinkie where to find her. And for the love of Celestia, be careful; she’s sensitive.” Before Blueblood could reply, she had hoofed him a small bag of bits and pushed him out the door. He shrugged. Some luck at last. Now I don’t have to hurry to my dinner engagement with the Spoons and the Tiaras. ----- A few hours later, Blueblood sat in what he had been assured was the finest Mexicoltan restaurant in Ponyville. Something about the atmosphere of El Caballo con Hambre, however, made him feel uncomfortable and more than a little out of place. He was unable to put his hoof on what exactly it was until their waiter approached the table, dressed in a giant taco suit. “Bienvenuto al Caballo con Hombre,” said the adolescent colt, his voice cracking. “Can I start you folks off with some drinks?” Emerald Tiara spoke first. “I’ll have a dandelion maregarita.” “That sounds lovely. Bring one for me too,” said Golden Spoon. The waiter gave a quick nod. “And for you gentleponies?” “I’d like a mug of Dos Equines,” said Onyx Tiara. “And I as well,” said Platinum Spoon. Blueblood frowned. “Just water.” “And for the girls?” asked the waiter. “We both want iced tea,” said Diamond Tiara. Silver Spoon nodded her assent. “Great. If there’s nothing else, I’ll go back to the kitchen and get those drinks started.” Onyx and Emerald nudged their daughter. “Actually,” said Diamond Tiara, “it’s our birthday.” The waiter smiled. “Oh, well congratulations to you and your friend. I’ll make sure to tell the chefs.” “Oh, not just us two. It’s all of our birthdays.” Onyx, Emerald, Platinum, and Golden all beamed at the little filly. “...All of your birthdays?” asked the waiter, his face falling. Blueblood cleared his throat. “Ah, no. It’s not my birthday.” “Right, then. Six birthdays. I’ll get your drinks and tell the cooks about your free desserts.” said the waiter in a flat tone. After he left, Emerald Tiara turned to Blueblood. “You should have just gone along with it. I mean, we can afford to pay, but free is free, am I right?” “The Prince of Equestria shall not impugn his honor by telling untruths, not for anything, and especially not for something so insignificant as a free dessert.” The others looked at him strangely. “That’s admirable, I suppose,” said Onyx after a long silence. “Tell us, did you learn that honesty from the princess? It must be incredible living right at the seat of royal power.” Everypony’s eyes lit up at the mention of Celestia. “Oh, yes,” interjected Platinum. “You simply must tell us all about the princess.” “No. My father taught me that.” Blueblood paused. “He was...a truly great stallion, perhaps the best I’ve ever-” “Mmm, yes, fascinating. But what of the princess?” insisted Emerald. The waiter returned before Blueblood could answer. “So, have you decided what you want to eat tonight?” he asked as he hoofed out everypony’s drinks. The others ordered one by one until it was Blueblood’s turn. “Quiero dos de sus enchiladas especiales y una ensalada de verduras frescas. Y sin queso, no puedo comerlo.” “Sir, this isn’t that kind of restaurant. We don’t speak Spanish,” said the waiter from behind a facehoof. “Ugh. Very well,” said Blueblood, grimacing as he read off the menu. “I would like ‘The Enchiladas de las Two Amigos’ and ‘Super Saúl’s Superb Salad.’ And make sure there’s no cheese on any of it; I’m lactose intolerant.” After the waiter returned to the kitchen the others continued probing Blueblood. “You’re lactose intolerant?” asked Platinum. “Well, I suppose dairy-free meals would be no problem at all in the castle. The princess must be able to get her hooves on any food she wants.” A greedy look came into his eyes. “I wonder what her favorite foods are...ah, but you must know, right?” “No. Not really. We almost always eat our meals separately,” said Blueblood curtly. “I imagine she’s quite busy, hmm?” said Golden Spoon. “Yes. Always busy. Always.” “Oh, indeed?” said Onyx. “So is there room at the castle for capable advisors, ponies who could help lighten her load? You know, I’ve always said how much I’d like to be in a position to do more for Equestria. If only somepony were to connect me with the right ponies, I could do so much for our princesses and for the realm.” “You do always say that, dear,” said Emerald. “If only there was some way for your dream to come true.” Diamond Tiara furrowed her brow. “But you said you were going to make a good impres-” She caught the look her parents were giving her. “Oh! Um, I mean, yes. If only.” Blueblood put on the urbane smile he always wore when other ponies thought they were manipulating him. He had been expecting this, of course. Interactions with the petty nobility that did not involve ponies trying to use him to gain influence with the royal family were rare. What did surprise him, however, was the Tiaras’ sheer lack of subtlety. “A noble goal,” he said solemnly. “If only more ponies in Canterlot shared it.” There must be something in the water supply, he decided. How else could an entire town be so appallingly uncouth? He pondered the feasibility of importing water bottles from Canterlot until the weight, or lack thereof, of his coin purse reminded him of his limited resources. The rest of the night went much the same, interrupted only by occasional visits from the waiter. Towards the end of the evening, he brought out six plates of desserts. He was about to leave when Silver Spoon stopped him. “Wait! We want to hear the El Caballo Birthday Song!” Glowering and with some reluctance, he sang a vapid little tune while hopping around in the taco suit. The Tiaras and the Spoons then made him sing it five more times, once for each of them. If Blueblood had to use one word to describe the performance, he would have chosen “unenthused.” When everypony had finished eating and the bill had been paid, Blueblood’s hosts said a few polite goodbyes and left the restaurant. Blueblood himself, however, stayed behind. The waiter, who had come to bus the table, muttering something about the lack of a tip, groaned when he saw him. “What do you w-er, that is, what do you need, sir?” “Tell me, how much would those six desserts have cost if they weren’t free?” “Eighteen bits.” He hesitated, then added, “But better to lose eighteen bits than to get on the bad side of the two most influential families in Ponyville.” Blueblood hadn’t been listening; he was busy with the money he had made earlier that day. Without a word, he counted out eighteen bits, set them on the table, and walked out the door. ----- Blueblood’s stomach protested violently against the greasy meal he had just eaten for the entirety of the long walk to Sugarcube Corner. By the time he made it there, the only thing he wanted was to sleep it off in peace. There was, of course, another pony at the bakery who would do everything in her power to keep that from happening. “Hiiiiiiiya, BeeBee!” He cringed as he felt her syrupy-sweet voice hit him like a buck to the gut. “That...creature...is locked up, correct?” “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that to poor Gummy. He’s waaay too sensitive to be locked up in an itty bitty cage all by his ittle-wittle lonesome self. I gave him to Fluttershy; I know she’ll take the best care of him until you get used to him.” “So long as it’s gone. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off to bed.” “Wait! You can’t go to sleep yet, you haven’t had the most important meal of the day! How can you sleep without dessert in your tummy?” “It’s simple. You lie in a bed, then you close your eyes. And for Celestia’s sake, you be quiet!” “Aw, that’s no fun! Look! I made some yummy, delicious, taste-acular sorbet!” she said, pulling several bowls out of a freezer. Blueblood felt his mouth watering despite himself. “It has been a number of days since I’ve eaten anything appetizing and befitting my stature...I suppose I could stay awake for another fifteen minutes or so. How much?” “Oh, there’s tons of it! There’s cherry and orange and lime and-” “No, no, I meant how much money do you want for it?” She cocked her head to the side. “Money? Don’t be silly, I didn’t make this for you to pay me for it.” “Well, what do you want for it? A position at the court, an autograph from the princess, what? Spit it out.” “I just did you a favor; why would I want anything for it? What kind of friend would I be then?” “F-Friend? What?” “Well, duh! What else do you call a pony who sleeps in your house and parties with you all night?” Blueblood opened and closed his mouth several times before he found his voice again. “I’m afraid there’s been a terrible, terrible mistake; the institution of friendship is-” She giggled that infuriating, already all too familiar giggle. “Oh, BeeBee, you really don’t get out much, do you?” Blueblood refused to dignify the question with a response. “Aw, that’s okay, Pinkie Pie’s gonna show you how to loosen up, I promise! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick-” I don’t need help from anypony,” interrupted Blueblood, bristling. “Most especially not from a commoner pony with an uncountable number of loose screws.” She giggled. Again. “Psshh, don't being silly; ponies don’t have screws! Now, Sugarcube Corner has screws and I think some of them might be loose, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything. Oh! And nails, too, Sugarcube Corner definitely has a few loose nails. Just yesterday I stubbed my hoof on one and got a-” “Do you listen to yourself speak?” “Well duh, I have ears, don’t I? Of course I hear everything I say,” she gasped. “Unless I talk in my sleep! Beebee, do I talk in my sleep?” The prince did not hesitate to seize the opportunity that had just presented itself. “I don’t know; I always fall asleep before you. Perhaps we could test it tonight, but only if you went to bed early...say, a half hour from now?” “Why wait that long?” she asked, at which point she tipped several bowls of sorbet into her mouth and swallowed them in one gulp. Without skipping a beat she then bounced up the stairs and down the hall. By the time Blueblood had followed her to their room, she was already fast asleep and blessedly silent. He allowed himself a small smile. She doesn’t sleep-talk...I have an entire night of peace and quiet! His smile grew wider. Perhaps more; one night is hardly sufficient sample size for a proper experiment. And tomorrow...Shudderfly, was it? The yellow one. Something about animals. That should be easy. It wasn’t. -------------- About the Spanish: El Caballo com Hambre = The Hungry Horse Bienvenuto al Caballo con Hombre = Welcome (the real word is bienvenido) to the Horse with Man Don't hesitate to comment about what did or didn't work for you, I really appreciate your input As of now I am looking for a small group of people to help edit future chapters; if you have some experience writing and/or editing and would be interested in helping, please contact me. Thank you, and thanks for reading.

UberUrsa

496

Adventure,Comedy,Dark

Hard Boiled Frienship

hiatus

<p>When (self-described) hard-boiled detective Keen Eye is approached by a purple maned femme fatal to find some old friends for a large pile of bits, he figures that he&#39;ll earn some easy money. Because really, how hard could it be to find a few mares?</p>

teen

2011-08-12T12:57:36+00:00

Levitating the tobacco pouch, I spilled a neat line on top of my paper. It was basically a day off for me, even though I was still in the office for it. My apartment wasn't terribly well furnished anyway.  I pulled the strings on the pouch to shut it with my magic and licked the paper in a single well practiced motion. The pouch was placed back in its place in my hat and a lighter was pulled out as I inserted the paper tube into my mouth. I clicked the device open revealing a small flame produced by a undying spell. I didn't muse on it. I do not muse on things. I swung my rear hooves up onto the desk and leaned back in my chair, replacing the well used gift in my brim and letting the hat it was secured to fall over my eyes. The smoke from the end curled up and around the brim, finally escaping somewhere around my ears. I gently blew the first puff out, sending the smoke down. I was relaxed. I was calm. Nothing could penetrate my silent revere. Maybe I would start on one of the many books that had begin to line my walls. I hadn't read any of the ones on the shelves, and the two on my desk had been read ten times  by now, even if it wasn't necessarily cover to cover. “Mr. Eye, there is a Ms. Rarity here to see you.” My teeth clamped together dangerously close to my cigarette. Naturally, the moment that I got calm there was a disturbance. Fine, my day off was shot. I swung my hooves off of my desk and pushed my hat up, quickly creating my myself into the picture of professional apathy. Reaching down with a hoof, I pulled open a drawer and grabbed a fresh notebook out, ruffling through the pages to ensure they were blank. The cross contamination of cases was mortal sin. Ensured that I was well prepared to meet my latest femme fatale, I put my hoof to the closed circuit intercom that I had installed a few weeks back. When I pressed the button that was not my secretary’s voice I heard but an unfamiliar one, muffled by distance but there all the same, “-oh I know what you mean darling, they never seem to appreciate the work that goes into this kind of thing,” oh Luna help me she said 'darling.' This was going to be a long meeting. I cleared my throat into the intercom as a not-so-polite way of informing the two of them that I was ready to see the next potential client. “Ah, it seems Mr. Eye is ready to see you Miss Rarity.” My secretary, Green Clover, was bar none the nicest mare I had ever met, and she had no qualms about telling me that bit of information revealed far more about me than it did her. I released the button on the intercom as the door swung open to revealed what I considered a military grade weapon. A unicorn with a pure white coat and a finely cared for purple mane that fell almost to the floor. Of course this was just the base, on her body she wore what she probably considered businessware, but in my circles would be seen as little more than a shiny way to identify yourself as a large pile of money. “I really do think that you could you an interior decorator in here,” Oh this was going to be fun, not five seconds had passed and she was already criticizing my taste in room layout. Not that I could blame her, it was just a bunch of books lying around, most of them still left in the mail packages that they came in...why was  I thinking about this? I did not care about this. I was a hard-boiled detective who did hard-boiled things like smoke cigarettes that I rolled myself and ignore ponies when they thanked me for not smoking and put ash trays in front of me. I did not think about interior decorations. “But where are my manners? I am Miss Rarity, and you are Mr. Eye was it?” She took a seat in the chair across from me. I leaned on the desk willing myself to not treat it as a barricade between myself and Miss Rarity. “Of course, you want to talk business,” her voice slipped slightly as her introduction bounced off of me with the same effectiveness as a muffin hitting a brick wall. After a moment of silence I shifted myself to look more interested as a signal for her to continue. “I need you to find five ponies and a dragon. They were friends of mine, and I would like to be able to have a little get together before we all slip away permanently.” She smiled at me. I tried to bore my eyes into the smile. It was like staring at a concrete wall, not one muscle was out of place. By Luna, she had a good poker face. “I did a bit of digging, not literally of course,” Oh really? I couldn't tell. As if sensing my utter lack of humor, she had said it with a slight laugh causing my ear to reflexively twitch in annoyance under my hat “and know your normal fee for such a job. I am willing to pay you seven times that amount.” I almost swallowed the cigarette in my mouth. I was not a cheap colt. The fact that I always got the job done, discreetly, had given me a good reputation both above and underground. That gave me leverage, which I promptly turned into bits. “Seven?” The first word out of my mouth and I sounded like a yearling. Wonderful impression Keen Eye, wonderful impression. “Yes Mr. Eye, seven times your usual fee.” Leaning across the desk, she put her hoof gently under my chin and closed my mouth, “you should really take more care with that, darling, the expression on your face was not very becoming.” I didn't even realize that my jaw had dropped open. Pulling myself together, I summoned what little dignity I had left and projected it so hard into my next statement that it almost made up for my prior performance by sheer force, “That's a lot of money to put together for a simple meet 'n greet.” I took a moment to look thoughtful and attempted put my mind in gear, doing the best I could to shove the voice gawking at the money involved to the back of my mind. The process was giving me some trouble. Scrambling, I went to a stock question that didn't mean much to buy some time, “what's the catch?” “I'm not quite sure what you mean Mr. Eye,” she sent a slight smile my way that did not bounce off of me like a cupcake on a brick wall. My resolve was weakening. And what was worse, she knew it. “Very few people are willing to throw around that kind of money for tracing down six individuals.” My mind had at this point managed to put itself back into working condition. She was slowly turning me into putty, and unless I gained control of the conversation there would be little that she could not get me to do. “Well I can't give you much more than their names, darling.” She apologized, fluttering her eyes mercilessly. My ear twitched, and it was not in annoyance. “Let's start there, ” the blank notepad flipped open to a page and my pencil levitated up to it. Years of practice kicked in and it started writing on its own accord without my conscious intervention. Yes, notes, information, I knew these things. For the first time in the conversation I felt my hooves hit solid ground. She began to rattle them off, the pencil scribbling furiously as she listed the names, “Pinky pie, Fluttershy, Applejack Apple, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Spike,” she paused for a moment on the last name, disguising it by taking in a breath before continuing, “All of them are mares, with the exception of Spike, he is a dragon.” Yes, you said that earlier. I could feel myself getting back in control. “Oh don't worry, Twilight will know where he is.” She smiled coyly as she said this, taking back the reins. I returned a friendly smile, cold and apathetic as I could muster. The effort showed. “Speaking of Twilight, I know she was a prized pupil of Celestia herself for many years, and Applejack I suspect will be running her family farm, so that might be a fine place to start.” I continued to stare at her as my pencil scribbled down information at an alarming speed. “As for the others I can't imagine where they might be, although Rainbow Dash did always want to join the Wonderbolts.” Well those were fine little scraps of info to go on. I couldn't find my way to a soup shop let alone these six on this. But bits were bits and Rari-MISS Rarity has broken me down at that point. A moment of oppressive silence followed the finishing of the notes. For a time, we each sat, willing the other to flinch. My ear twitched. “Well if that is everything, I shall take my leave darling, I do hope you'll be in touch.” She slid gracefully out of the chair she had been sitting in. A true mare through and through she was. I watched as she walked out of the office, the fine jewels covering her body moving back and forth hypnotically. She paused for a moment, a look on her face that I could not identify, “I expect that this will be done discreetly, if nothing else. I want the party to be a surprise.” The look vanished, being replaced by the smile That I knew only too well at this point. She continued her stroll out door and it clicked shut behind her. A breath was released, and it took a moment for me to realize that it was  my own. I checked the notebook, satisfied that everything important was there. My cigarette had burned down to a nub, practically burning my lips. I snuffed it out in the well populated ash tray on my desk, the fact that I only got one drag off it sticking out conspicuously in my mind. By Celestia, I had even forgotten to smoke while talking to her. Coming to terms with the fact that I wasn't immune to her charms and pocketbook, I assessed what I had, or more accurately what I did not, a disturbingly large collection of things that included a down payment. I swore furiously in the silence. Sitting back in the chair, I lifted my front legs into the air again, placing them on the desk in front of me, reviewing what had just happened. I had just accepted a job from a mare named Rarity, who could mold me like putty in her hooves, for a ludicrous amount of money to find five ponies and a dragon who I had the names of, and some tidbits of information on half of them. My horn glowed as I pressed the butting to call my secretary without moving. “Yes, Mr. Eye?” “Do I have any appointments, sweet?” I had called her sweet for years, primary because I routinely forgot her name despite having her on staff for just under a century. “No, Mr. Eye.” Not even a pause. Best secretary ever. “Good, keep it that way, would you?” “Yes, Mr. Eye.” “You're a doll, sweet.” I hang up the phone and slumped backwards into the chair which had resumed its two legged stance. I had a nasty feeling that I was venturing into deep waters and didn't know how to swim. I went to put a hoof to my face, a bad idea that resulted in the chair toppling over backwards, sending me sprawling against the wall in an undignified matter. The intercom crackled to life, “Is everything alright Mr. Eye?” Ah Clover, you really do care, don't you? I used my magic to press the button for the second time in the last minute, “I'm fine sweet,” I responded in the most hard-boiled manner I could muster from an upside down position and a half crushed windpipe. It wasn't very hard-boiled. “Of course you are, Mr. Eye.”

UberUrsa

496

Adventure,Comedy,Dark

Hard Boiled Frienship

hiatus

<p>When (self-described) hard-boiled detective Keen Eye is approached by a purple maned femme fatal to find some old friends for a large pile of bits, he figures that he&#39;ll earn some easy money. Because really, how hard could it be to find a few mares?</p>

teen

2011-08-12T12:58:35+00:00

The rain drummed gently on my hat as I walked down the street, the waterproof spell on it keeping everything dry while my overcoat did the same for the rest of my body. I needed knowledge, and I knew just where to get it. Copper Button was the dirtiest cop in the city. The catch was that he had dirt on everyone else. Information flowed in and out of him like muck in the sewers. Working with him was like walking around a brightly lit room where everyone had a gun. The high strung arrangement did more to prevent crime in the city than an army of legal ponies. I could see the shop at the next bend, surrounded by yellow tape. Five ponies were carefully documenting the scene, picking up all the pieces and filing them away on the off chance they became useful. I spotted the colt I was looking for. As usual, he was doing some long range supervising, carefully monitoring a good looking pegasus mare who was taking pictures of the corpse from every conceivable angle. No doubt watching her carefully to ensure a lack of mistakes, and absolutely nothing else. “Copper, I need a word with you,” my voice sounded over the gentle hum of the rain on the concrete. He glanced over his shoulder at me, a wicked smile breaking out across his face, “Ah, Keen Eye, haven't seen you in a while, eh?” he said through a mouthful of cheap cigar, not lit mind you, he just chewed them down to cold nubs. I was immediately thankful for the rain that dampened the stench of his breath. I stopped at the yellow line, which he promptly drew up for me to pass under, “I can't have an old friend like you stand out in the rain, can I?” He chuckled hoarsely. I simply stared at him while I stepped under the tape and into the shop, my nose assaulted by the smell of blood and cigar infused breath. Copper shifted the cigar around in his mouth, “What brings you out here today, eh? Office too cramped for ya?” “I need information, Copper,” I pronounced the capital letter. He didn't like being called copper, and I needed him in a good mood. He tucked his hoof up under his chin thoughtfully, “I dunno Keen, that might imply that I just hand it out to everyone,” He wanted to trade. That's how he knew everything, he traded in words and information while the police department sent him a check every other week. I raised an eyebrow at him while my ear twitched. He didn't notice, either because he was thick or because he was looking past me at the mare photographer that had finished and was heading out of the scene. In retrospect, these were basically the same thing. The other three ponies in the room headed out, the last one mumbled something about how the site was clear. Point was that they were done here and were leaving for the warm, dry forensics lab. “Care to explain what ya want to know, or am I gonna have'ta guess at this?” the cigar shifted around wildly as he said this, revealing his excitement. “I'm looking for somepony,” I had decided to only reveal one of the names to him, the less info he got from me the better I would feel. “Business or pleasure?” I could practically hear his mind taking notes as I spoke. “Business.” “What's the name?” His eyes gleamed in anticipation, hanging on every word that passed my lips, the cigar in his moth twitching rapidly with each gnaw on the end. “Pinky Pie.” Random name, one I didn't have information on, which I'll admit was a double edged sword. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. His eyes lit up with recognition the moment the name passed my lips. So he knew who she was, which meant she was in the city, or at least had been for some period of time. “Ohohohoho,” his manic guffaw made my ear twitch again, “You're lookin' for Pie?” In the city, definitely in the city, and by the looks of his face, dangerous. “Well don't stop, keep goin'!” he almost yelled he was so enthralled by what I had to say. I started to suppress a smirk, this is what Rarity must fell like all the time. Fortunately that thought suppressed the smirk for me, I did not need or want to think about her right now. “Your turn, Copper.” He frowned, his furious chewing, which had become audible, slowed to a more reasonable pace and he huffed out a breath of rancid air, “Well, she's in the the city, that's for sure, but, uh,” he leaned in close to me the smell of cigar emanating from his pores and into my unfortunate nostrils. My first reaction was to recoil, but I ignored it, maintaining my impassive expression. After a moment he spoke again, “She's the kind that finds you, not the other way around, if you catch my drift.” “Dangerous?” I asked. His eyes glinted evilly as he drew back from me. “That's one way to put it, for sure.” His chewing began to speed up again, “so who're ya doin' this for?” “Business,” he knew I wouldn't answer the question. I did not answer that question even if I was finding the beast bread price for a client. It was not a question one in my profession answered, at least, not truthfully. His chewing had entered into its prior audible crescendo, “Of course, of course...” His mind began to twist into a new shape, he would want something else this time and I was running out of bartering chips. However, I had his curiosity, and that was quite a bit of leverage on my end. He wanted to know more about what I was up to, and he needed a question I would answer, “how much?” His chewing maintained itself at a high speed. I stared at him, my eyes boring into him, not that there was much of a point at this juncture. I knew him inside and out and he knew it. Unfortunately, he knew me better that I would have liked, but that was the the price to pay with Copper. “A large sum.” I held my voice steady, and his chewing gently slowed to a more favorable pace. “Very, very dangerous, little goes on that she doesn't know about.” He said as his eyes stopped glowing with curiosity. He gave me a solemn stare that was a new look on his face to me. “That just means she knows you.” I pointed out. Everypony in the city who mattered knew him, and as such everypony could know what was going on because he knew everything that went on because everyone told him what was going on so he would tell them what was going on. It wasn't complicated so long as you didn't think too hard about it. “Yeah, but I don't know 'er.” Oh. There was a moment of silence in the room, the only sounds were that of his rhythmic chewing and the rain drumming against the window. My nostrils kicked in again, sensing that they were important once more and informed me that the place still smelled horrible. I left the room, leaving the bile educing smell of blood and cigar behind. I ducked under the tape and started back to my apartment, Clover would have locked up at this point, so there was no reason to go there, and besides, I had my notebook with me. Fifteen minutes had passed since I left the murder scene and Copper Buttons behind, and I stepped under the outcropping of cloth that adorned the entrance to the apartment building. I opened the door and started up the stairs without so much as a nod to the colt at the front desk. I quickly climbed to the fifth floor, unlocking the door to my apartment. The apartment had four rooms, a largely unused kitchenette, a bathroom, a sitting room, bare except for a few largely empty bookshelves that were built into the wall, and a bedroom with a bed in it. It was the place I slept, not the place I lived. I tore off the soaking overcoat that had kept me dry on my rounds in the city and levitated it onto a hook in the wall to dry and sat down at the desk, pulling out my notebook, replaying the exchange with Copper in my mind. After a minute or two, I had some information. Pinky Pie was in the city. She was powerful. Within two days, tops, she would know I was looking for her, and if Copper was right, she would want to find me. I could work my way back to her from there. I leaned back in my chair, feeling pleased with myself. After all, somepony else would soon be looking for me and once they found me I would know where they were. From them I could learn where Pinky was, and then I would get the credit for it. Placing my notebook and hat on the table, I took off my harness and flung myself into the bed, letting the night pass as it will. ******* I flipped through a recently bought copy of Magical Equestrian that floated in front of my face on my way into the office, scanning the pages for familiar names. Twilight Sparkle was the prized student of princess Celestia, and as such would be involved in some magical projects, no pony with those kinds of connections could avoid it. I kept flipping through the pages and my momentum took me past a face I hadn't seen in years. I flipped back to it and read the article. This reporter was given an exclusive interview with Smoke N' Mirrors one of the major players in the recent 'communications stone' project: Rep:”Many of us have heard about the project, but very few press reports have been forthcoming, is there any particular reason for this?” SM: “Ah yes, I must apologize for that slight mishap, I can assure you that … we had no intention whatsoever of … attempting to misinform the public as to the goings on of the project, however until recently the … pony in charge of public communications was … inept at their task. I have no intention of ... repeating these mistakes.” So that was ow you spelled his name. No doubt this was the shortened version of the interview, if my memories and the sheer number of jumps were any indication. If there was any doubt left in my mind it had died at the end of the first answer. No pony could string together that kind of statement in an interview without a week of preparation. I skimmed the rest of the article, mostly for personal pleasure. The project was in Canterlot, the pony had done well for himself. I suppose some explanation is necessary, Smoke n' Mirrors picked me up after I got out of the clicker, and put me on the straight and narrow. Or at least a wide, curvy path that included the straight and narrow at some point. The reason was simple, he was a traveling entertainer who needed some muscle, and at that point in my life I looked like I could eat a pony twice my size. We had traveled together, benefiting from, and at times, enjoying each other's company. About twelve years back, I had mellowed out and decided to set up shop here in Fillydelphia. He had decided to continue traveling, and had apparently ended up at Canterlot on some advance magical project. Impressive for a pony who went to school for about three weeks in his entire life. In the process of looking over the article, I came across another name that was familiar, but for an entirely different reason. Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's personal student, is the head of the project. Unfortunately she was unable to be interviewed. If nothing else, this shows the seriousness with which this project is taken by the royalty... So Twilight Sparkle was in Canterlot, and by the looks of it, I knew her through one layer. I made a mental note to set up some travel time. Fortunately, while I was paying no attention to where I was going, my hooves had taken matters onto themselves and carried me to my office door, which I now realized was sitting in front of me. I opened the unlocked door. Clover always arrived before me and left after I did, I wasn't even sure I had a key to my own office anymore. I folded up the magazine as I walked into my office, or rather Clover's office, which separated my office from the hallway. I grunted a greeting to my secretary in accordance with years of precedent. “Good morning Mr. Eye,” She smiled at me with a sickening sweetness that made me narrow my eyes at her immediately. “What did you do?” My accusation hurled through the air without the slightest moment of hesitation. She put on a look of mock hurt, “Me? Your one trusted and loyal secretary? How could you suggest such a thing?” My eyes stayed narrowed. My only regret is that I can't raise an eyebrow and squint at the same time. “Ms. Rarity called this morning. The moment I sat down even, she is very punctual.” She smile at me again in an attempt to be disarming. Oh Luna no... “She wanted to apologize for yesterday, she had forgotten something.” Lucky Clover still had her Cheshire smile glued to her face as she spoke. Please, Celestia help me... “She says that she seems to have forgotten to give you her down payment, and would be more than glad to give it to you, and” she kept barreling onward to stave off my inevitable outburst, “she would like you to come over for dinner since you were so polite during the meeting so as to not ask about it.” My teeth clenched together in an unfathomable rage. I stomped into my office, grating my teeth together furiously. That scheming witch. As if it wasn't bad enough that she had bent me over backwards when we had first met and manged to befriend my secretary in a matter of two conversations, she had the gall, the unprecedented malice, the utter and complete nerve to call me and offer me my money! And, as if to put a cherry on the whole deal, offered me dinner! Dinner! I bet she called it supper too. I stopped my endless pacing and looked at my office door. I didn't know where, or for that matter when, she wanted to meet me, but there was no way I was going back out there. An idea formed. A simply awful, disgusting, slimy idea formed in my mind and drew my lips back into a wicked smile. I gently walked over to my intercom and pressed the button, “could you return a call to Ms. Rarity, sweet?” I released the button, and for a moment there was silence. I could practically feel my secretary staring at me through the wall, the gears in her head turning furiously. My voice had been coated in an unfamiliar honey, like I was tempting flies with my tongue. The answer was hesitant at first, “What do you want me to tell her, Mr. Eye?” I had thrown her off.  Moment ago I was ready to tear somepony's head of, now it sounded like I would feed them poisoned cupcakes. “Please tell her that I would love to come over tonight, but as I am slightly indisposed this evening, I will be unable to make it.” I paused to take a breath and let my mouth catch up with my mind, “However I would like to set up for tomorrow night, oh” I paused for effect, “and please remember to take down the time and location, I don't want to miss this for a lack of knowledge.” I released the intercom button and listened to the silence of my office. After basking in the glory my own cunning, I lit a celebratory cigarette and got back to work. ***** I flipped furiously through my floating notebook by a light emanating from my horn as I walked down the street. I had made progress in leaps and bounds this morning and the elation I had felt from outwitting Rarity had long since died down. A whole page in my notebook had been filled with what information that I had gotten on Twilight Sparkle from the magazine. I had gotten nothing since then, plans for my departure from Fillydelphia were already in place, I would be leaving a few days for Canterlot. As a precaution I had shoved a letter into the slowly churning machine that was the Equestrian mail system. Hopefully it would arrive before I did. A few hours ago I had abandoned my office to Clover for locking up and had aimlessly been wandering the streets of the city for some time now, a very bad habit that I had yet to break. The night kept distractions to a minimum and I only thought properly when I was walking, it kept the rest of me busy while I did my work. After an unspecified amount of time, I flipped my notebook shut and tucked it underneath my harness, stopping to take an assessment of where I was. I snorted as I realized my apartment was a good mile and a half away from where I was. As I walked, I noted that city held its perpetual buzz of life, muted only slightly by the night, something that never ceased to amaze me. Don't these ponies ever need to sleep? My ears swiveled as I heard the sound of hoofbeats behind me. Somepony was following me. I wasn't paranoid, I just knew the sound of hoofbeats following you. My mind began to shuffle through way to shake my new tail, and I started to lead them in a completely different direction form my apartment or office. I couldn't let them ave that little bit of information, at least not this easily. Much sooner than I would have liked, a second pair of hoofbeats began to follow me. Now their were two ponies following me. I scratched a confrontation off my list of options. I could take one at this distance, after all the pistol on my side was not for show and sadly I knew how to use it. Soon, I found myself heading towards the cemetery, a very bad or a very good place to try and lose somepony. Depends on the ponies involved, and fortunately for me I was in the latter category. The unlit field offered excellent cover to those who knew it well enough, and it was too easy to lose track of somepony in the darkness. Not to mention that some ponies feared the dead for some reason, in my experience it's the living you have to watch. I would be there in five minutes, as long as the two ponies behind me were willing to wait that long, I would be fine. Unfortunately, patience was not the primary virtue of the ponies following me. I heard the hoofbeats quicken and I shot off like a bullet. Over the sound of my own breathing, I could heat the rapid hoofbeats of the ponies behind me, slowly gaining ground on me. I couldn't outrun them in a straight shot, I need some obstacles. I dove into the first ally I saw, using my magic to overturn trashcans behind me. I exploded out of the ally and made a slight right, crossing the deserted street. What I wouldn't do for some carriages right now. The impromptu log fences that I had left behind me had done little to slow down my pursuers. I would have sworn if I could do anything but gasp for air at that point. The exertion of running and magic were taking their toll, I need to lose these two now. I dove into a narrow ally, almost crashing headfirst into the meatl gate tha sat just a few yards in. Wonderful. A gated community, and I didn't have the key. My mind caught up to me and I spun around, my pistol already halfway out of its holster by the time I had finished my 180. as soon as my eyes kicked back in after the turn, I saw one of my pursuers barreling down on me in the confined space. Time slowed to a crawl and I struggled to get my pistol out of its holster. I got the gun out just as the other pony collided with me, making me fire the gun harmlessly into the ground, and slamming me into the gate, knocking what little wind was left in me out. The combination of the noise and collision had stunned the pursuing earth pony and he stood there in a daze for a moment. Before I eve was able to breath again, I managed to drag myself past him and move as fast as I could toward the place I had just come in. As I got out, I manged to get a single breath into my lungs and started to run again. Unfortunately, the other pursuer had been waiting to ambush me and hit me with the second hardest buck I had ever been on the receiving end of, the hardest had put me through a wall. It's hard to compete with that. The buck ripped what little air I had managed to suck into my lungs right back out before I even had the chance to appreciate it. It also sent me sprawling an unspecified number of feet away from the pony who had kicked me. I could feel darkness closing in around my mind. My last attempt to fight it didn't even slow it down, and I blacked out with a squeak. ***** There was a loud splash, and for a moment nothing. Then the cold hit me. Somepony had dumped a bucket of the coldest water I had ever felt directly on my head. My eyes shot open and I jumped, or rather attempted to. I was instantly restrained by the ropes that bound my hooves behind the chair I was sitting in, which made a little lurch. As I gulped down air, I looked in front of me and saw a mass of swirling colors and blurry shapes. Before I could see much else, a second wave of pain and aches hit my body, along with mild shock, causing me to slump back into my chair with a groan. My eyes slid shut once more. “Good morning Mister!” A cheerful voice sounded from the other side of my eyelids. The already loud voice was amplified in my ears, causing a pulse of pain in my head, “Would you like a drink of water?” The same cheerful voice asked. At this a second bucket of ice cold water was dumped on my head, causing my eyes to shoot open again. After a second round of pain and shock that was very quickly moving up in ranks, I determined to keep my eyes open, if only to keep the buckets of water away. After a moment of waiting, the swirling colors realigned into a coherent picture. What I saw next was the stuff of nightmares. In front of me there was a table, metal, lit by a single lamp hanging from the ceiling. The bulb was, of course, bare. The scene was so utterly cliche that if I wasn't tied to a chair and gulping down air like a fish, I might have laughed. Of course all of this was before I saw who sat opposite me. There was a pink pony sitting across from me. Her mane seemed to have a life of its own as it sat hopelessly tangled and knotted on top of her head. The mare's coat was of a lighter pink, contrasting her bright blue eyes. And the smile, oh by the stars and moon, the smile. I will never forget that smile. That bright, cheerful, manic smile that presented such a stark contrast to the rest of the room. She seemed unreal. And not in a good way. Unknown to me, a part of my mind whose attention was not glued to the pink pony opposite me presented a diagnostic report of my position. My hat was gone. My harness was gone, and as a result so were my notebook and gun. I was beaten. There were no memories of how I got here. One eye was swollen shut, doubtlessly black, and the rest of my body ached. And I was wet. Cold wet. I slumped back into the uncomfortable chair I was tied to and continued to breath heavily. After a long moment, I took an assessment of the room, noting that my harness and hat were on the table in front of me and my notebook was laying open in front of the pink pony. The small spark of outrage that I felt at this was enough to get my mind started again. But I didn't speak. Oh Celestia, the though of speaking never crossed my mind. She was still terrifying. “You are looking for me.” She stated it. She did not ask, in the sudo cryptic way of many other powerful ponies I had met, something that she already knew. She said it. Part of me liked her for that, but it was far outvoted by the parts that were terrified, so I stayed silent. She coked her head in the most innocent way imaginable, her mane bounced crazily at the slight movement. My eyes were still glued to her face looking for something, anything that revealed her intentions. “Who sent you, Mr. Eye?” My eyes, which had slowly been drawn to the mane, which had continued to bounce around with every slight movement on the pink pony's part, shot back to her face. She knew my name. I don't know why that scared me. It shouldn't have. I should have expected it at this point, after all she had tracked me down and looked through my notebook, so she must know who I was, where I slept, where I worked... The implications of the last though hit me like a train. I almost panicked, almost. After all I am a hard-boiled detective, I've been in and out of jail, and let me tell you that pony jail is in no way shape or form as gentle as the world outside it. I had fought and shot my out of more nasty situations than I could count. I didn't panic. I swear I did not panic. My eyes tried to shrink into the back of my head at the mare's happy stare. “It's funny really,” she said flipping through the notebook, “you have something on almost all of us...” My eyes, desperate for something to look at that was not her face trailed up to her mane. If at any point I thought I could not be more scared, when I saw her mane slowly start to deflate and straighten fear gripped my chest. As I said before, up to this point I had not panicked. I did not lie. I did not panic until I saw that. I did not know what it could mean, but I knew it was not good. In less time than it took to blink, the pink pony was in front of me and standing on the table, her mane had straightened out completely and she almost seemed...darker, like somepony had turned off some of the color in her coat. Naturally this was ridicules, at least the coat part. It must have been a trick of the light. “Why are you looking for my friends?” She hissed into my face. My jaw trembled as I looked into her blue eyes. Her deep, terrifying blue eyes. All that escaped my throat was a strangled cross between a sob and a groan. I could feel the blood rushing from my head in an attempt to get as far away from the pony as possible. Her eyes narrowed at me as the incoherent sound escaped my throat. She leaned back from me and sat on the table, eyes boring into me. It was mostly an intimidation tactic, I knew, and it worked. A lot works on a pony when they are tied to a chair. “I was hired to.” My mouth spoke almost of its own accord. Apparently the part of my brain that refused to divulge information was still functional. A miracle considering that my ability to speak had only recently returned. She rolled her eyes at m, “I could figure that out,” she jabbed a hoof into me chest causing me to flinch in pain. Some of my ribs were probably broken, “but I want to know who hired you,” she pushed a cupcake towards me. I don't know where it came form, it just seemed to materialized out of the air, “there's a cupcake in it for you if you do.” Under literally any other circumstances I would have laughed. Under the current circumstances, I looked at the cupcake, then looked at her, then repeated the process two more times because I was slow, and the responded. “What?” “The cupcake, you can have it if you tell me who hired you.” I continued to stare at her, I could not believe what I was hearing. She bared her teeth at me, “I made it myself.” Oh no. Celestia help me. She had made it personal. My eyes were drawn to it in a desperate attempt to escape the blue eyed gaze that was bearing down on me like an ursa major. After a moment of terrifying silence, she picked up the cupcake and took a thoughtful bite out of it. Some of the color returned to her after the first bite, and it seemed that she was fighting down her prior crazed smile. The final effect was odd to say the least, but not nearly as creepy as the extremes. “Although I do have another question, she said pulling up my notebook and looking through it again, “you seem to be missing somepony.” the last phase was said through a mouthful of cupcake that somehow she did not propel from her mouth, “why is that?” “Because I wasn't hied to look for her.” Apparently my moth had decided to take matters into its own hooves and was moving on its own. I took note of its betrayal, and of the fact that it revealed as little as possible. I still had it. She cocked her head to the side as she continued to eat the cupcake, “Why not?” Her color had fully returned, but her mane was still straight as an arrow. “Because my client already knew where she was.” I scolded myself. That was a statement, not a question. I knew why, and now she knew that I knew why, it was only a matter of time before she figured out what was going on. At this point, it occurred to me that I had refereed to Rarity as 'her,' then later as my client. I had said too much. Her eyebrow raised dangerously high as she finished off the cupcake. I could hear the gears turning in her head, before her hair made a sound like a balloon popping in reverse and returned to its prior state of insanity. “Ohhhhhhhhhh....” Her manic grin returned as she hopped up and down on the table next to where I sat, “I get it now, Rarity wants to throw a party!” at this revelation she stood on her hind legs and spread her arms wide, becoming imbalanced in the process. She fell backwards onto the table, all the while laughing gleefully, “and here I through you were trying to hurt us!” She was on her hooves in a blur, her face pressing into mine as she talked at an ever increasing rate, I wasn't able to catch much after that.  Although she still kept her head pressed up against mine. After what felt like hours of being on the receiving end of her torrent of words, my head was pounding in pain. I could no longer think at all. Then there was silence where my mind started up again. She looked at me intently, “I've got to get you all patched up Mr. Eye!” there was a slight pause as she thought for a moment, then gasped, afterwords smiling gleefully “and I know just the pony to do it!” After her gasp, she pressed up against me a little harder, causing the chair to fall over backwards. For the second time in two days I had the same stomach churning feeling as I fell over backwards, landing on my front legs, which were still stuck behind the chair. I yelled in pain as the metal collided with my sore and numb limbs. She giggle at me from on top of the table, “Oopsie,” she looked up into a part of the room I could not see, “Hey boys, we're taking Mr. Eye for another ride!” “Where too boss?” the gruff voice of what I could only assume to be one of the pair that had ambushed me was a stark contrast to the bubbly voice of the pink pony. “We're going to Fluttershy's!” She hopped down from the table as a big earth pony stood up the chair I was tied to and shoved a bag over my eyes. I felt another cloth covered in a sweet smelling oil shoved over the end of my shout. My mind began to enter ton a warm haze, much nicer than unconsciousness, which I was in no condition to fight. “Oh by the way,” the voice of the pony spoke into me ear as I fell asleep, “I'm Pinky Pie!”

UberUrsa

496

Adventure,Comedy,Dark

Hard Boiled Frienship

hiatus

<p>When (self-described) hard-boiled detective Keen Eye is approached by a purple maned femme fatal to find some old friends for a large pile of bits, he figures that he&#39;ll earn some easy money. Because really, how hard could it be to find a few mares?</p>

teen

2011-08-12T13:00:01+00:00

My brain began to put itself back together. I could slowly feel myself waking up from whatever drug-induced coma I had been in. As the feeling returned to my body, I realized my hooves were no longer tied together.  Unfortunately, they also hurt.  Badly.  I then became aware that the feeling of nonspecific pain had spread throughout my entire body.  I groaned. I opened my eyes and found that my left was still dark. My heart jumped into my throat. Was it gone? I knew it felt bad, but I had just assumed it was swollen. I moved my newly mobile hoof to the spot to see if I could feel anything. About an inch before I should have hit my own face, the hoof collided with something cold. An icepack was over my eye. It was still there. My muscles relaxed and my hoof fell back onto my chest.  It felt strange, and I realized that while I could feel its weight, I couldn’t feel the texture. I was bandaged. Thoroughly. Professionally, too; whoever put me back together knew what they were doing. I looked at what I hoped to be a ceiling through my good eye. It seemed lighting was a low priority here, and it took a moment for my sight to adjust. It was, in fact, a ceiling. I had never really paid much attention to ceilings before; I had looked up quite a bit, but that was mostly searching for traps and other hidden things. The ceiling itself didn’t get a second thought. This one seemed to be clean, although I wasn’t entirely certain how I would know if it wasn’t. Moving on from the ceiling I endeavored to see what I could without moving. I didn't quite feel up to that challenge just yet. There was a window somewhere above me, and the light from a passing carriage or tram occasionally spilled into the room, providing temporary illumination.     I realized that I was on a couch. What tipped me off was the piece of wood I could feel under my head through the padding. It dug uncomfortably into the back of my neck, adding another ache to the ever-growing list. Sitting up became a slightly higher priority, but I still wanted to get a look at my surroundings first before I tried anything dramatic. I turned my head away from the wall and towards the rest of the room. There was a second couch perpendicular to my own, up against the back wall. My head was pointed towards the corner where they met. Opposite me was a counter top that clearly thought of itself as a 'welcome desk.' There was probably a table with old magazines somewhere in here too. I shifted back to my original position. Since the room itself didn’t have anything else to offer me, I made an attempt to sit up. I pushed up with my elbows, immediately triggering a new round of aches and pains, mostly in my right shoulder. I tried to fight it, willing myself to sit the rest of the way up, but it was no use. The pain won. Collapsing back onto the couch, my head slammed into the wooden arm. I swore loudly. I heard the clatter of various things falling to the floor in another room. Turning toward the sound, I spotted a door next to the counter. I could just barely make out a quiet murmuring from the other side. I tried to bore a hole through the door with my good eye, without much luck. A few seconds later, the door slowly opened a crack. A pony's head leaned out from behind it. At first all I saw was pink. My eye widened and my ears fells back. My heart was halfway to my stomach by the time I saw the yellow coat and the eyes. They were blueish eyes, but not the same shade as before. “Oh, you're awake.” Her voice was quiet; I could barely hear her, even in the silence of the room. She smiled sheepishly at me and I swear I heard the squeak of a chew toy. “I was wondering if you were going to wake up tonight.”    Hopefully ‘tonight’ meant that I hadn’t lost a day. “How long have I been out?” I asked, rolling with the first question that came to mind. I barely recognized my own voice; it sounded like I was speaking through swamp muck. The analogy wouldn't be too far off from the reality.  I wanted to clear my throat, but I knew it wouldn’t be worth the pain. The yellow mare had come out from behind the door. As it turned out, she was a pegasus. Her pink mane covered up one of her eyes, which were an odd blue-green sort of color.  I didn’t know what to call it, although I was sure Clover would. “Its only been a few hours since Pinkie dropped you off.” The pegasus shook her head. “She really needs to learn some subtlety.” I was glad that we could agree on something, and I expressed this sentiment with a grunt. When she got close enough, she began checking over my bandages. I hoped she would say something more, but she stayed quiet. The silence was slowly driving me insane. Up to this point, I had thought I liked silence. It was then that I discovered that I like to be alone in silence. Having other ponies around made the whole experience uncomfortable. “So you're Fluttershy?” I could hear my own voice starting to break through the muck. Apparently satisfied with the bandages, she took a step back and looked me in the eye, “Did Pinkie Pie tell you where she was taking you? That's a bit odd for her.” A roundabout answer, but at least it was an answer. Her voice sounded like it was made of honey, and the quiet way she spoke made it even harder not to savor it. The stark contrast between her soft tone and my current grumble was all too apparent. She was dressed like a doctor, but she did not walk like a doctor. She walked like a model, making it look natural. Rarity's beauty had been harnessed and restructured to suit her needs. It was weaponized. Fluttershy was simply graceful by nature. I couldn't help but think that there was some jealousy there; everything that Rarity forced on herself was here on its own. Still, there’s a certain power to control; Fluttershy would never be able to control her beauty the way Rarity had. But it wasn't her beauty that did me in. It was the look in her eye. It wasn't forceful, although it could be. It drilled into me, gently prying cooperation from me. The fact that its color didn't fall within the spectrum of nine colors that I used only enhanced the effect. Nopony could lie if they were looking into those eyes. That was a dangerous thing to be set in a single pony's skull. Of course, I didn't think that until I had a chance to look at something that was not her eyes. “Not exactly.”  I shifted my position slightly in a desperate bid to get more comfortable. It failed. “It’s more like she happened to mention it right before putting me under.” My voice had returned once more, and with it came my usual cynical inflection, undaunted by those eyes. “Well, it is nice to know that she is making a few more friends. For a while, I thought she had forgotten what it was like...” Her voice trailed off, as if remembering an especially pleasant memory. More importantly, her eyes glazed over, breaking the spell. The last few moments came crashing back to me. And then I realized what she had said. “Friend!?” For a moment I forgot that I was lying on a couch in a place I did not know with severe injuries, and in that moment I managed to yell and sit straight up. But then I remembered, and my head collapsed into the thinly padded wood arm of the couch a second time. Every inch of my body screamed in pain, and I broke out into a coughing fit, suppressing the next round of swears that rose dutifully to the occasion. Fluttershy pressed me down almost instantly, gently saying something while I struggled to see straight out of my one good eye. After a few agonizing seconds, I managed to regain my breath. My vision was dragging its hooves and had still not returned properly. “You should not have sat up so fast.” Her voice had changed. The softness was gone. She had not raised her voice at all. It did not matter. It was an unstoppable force, plowing its way through the air and into my ear. My sight began to function properly once more, just in time to see her face. The look wasn’t angry. It was something else, something even more terrifying. The word 'anger' couldn’t even begin to do it justice. I went rigid, as if a cockatrice had just turned me to stone. Her eyes bore down on me. I could not disobey. I simply stared back in abject terror. “You need to rest, or else you will not get better.” The stare was gone as quickly as it came. Color had fled the world in its presence, but I didn’t even notice until it returned as if nothing had happened at all. Fortunately, I knew from years of experience that color was a liar. “Yes, ma’am,” Did I really just say that? I had never said that in my life. Ever. Or 'yes sir' for that matter. Usually, I found a healthy disrespect for authority to be a valuable asset in my line of work. My ear twitched at me in annoyance, demanding retribution for my sudden burst of cooperation. Carried by the momentum of my own indignation, I formulated another question. “Where am I?” I practically demanded the information, as if I somehow had a right to it. She smiled gently at me once more, punching through my layers of defensive cynicism in a direct attack on any and all negative emotions I may have felt. “You are in the waiting room of the free vet service that the Equestrian zoo runs.” She continued on sweetly, as if she was giving a tour of the place. “As you know, I am Fluttershy, and I’m as close to being in charge of the zoo as anypony.” “So you live here?” I had meant to say something a little more cutting, or at least the slightest bit clever, but my wits seemed to have fled me. It was as if she projected some field that caused all malice to stop in its tracks and slink home, muttering something about biscuits. “Well, I am visiting here for the night. I suppose Pinkie knew I was here and decided to drop you off.” There was that name again. I suppressed a shutter. Which reminded me. “Is this how she treats all of her friends?” I attempted to keep my sarcastic edge by directing the comment at the ceiling, to no avail. I couldn't even keep the quotation marks around 'friends'. She giggled, causing my ear to twitch again for a completely different reason. “No she doesn't.” Turning my eye back from the ceiling, I fished out another question. “What makes you so sure that I'm her friend?” I noted with some pride that this would almost be a suitably hard-boiled thing to say if I could have mustered the right tone of voice.  Unfortunately, the yellow pegasus had completely disarmed my ability to snark.  At this point, it wasn’t even worth trying. “Well first of all, she left you with me.” Fluttershy had retreated to the other couch, producing a pillow and blanket from some corner of the room I could not see from my position. “Second, she left you a card.” I snorted. “So now I have another business card to lose.” At least I could contact her if I wanted.  I wasn’t sure what situation could possibly arise where I would want to, short of going insane or developing a death wish, but the option was there. “Not exactly.” Fluttershy produced a card from the same place she had gotten the pillow and blanket.  “She gives one of these to all of her friends, and, well,” she hesitated sheepishly, “I found one when I was looking at your hat...I hope you don't mind.” She was genuinely apologetic for looking through the things of a pony that was literally dumped on her doorstep? By Luna. Clover had just lost the title of nicest mare I had ever met. Realizing that she was actually looking for a response, I waved my good hoof dismissively. That was the least of my problems tonight. For the time being, I was willing to forgive such a minor transgression. “Oh, that's good.” She pulled another pillow out from the edge of my vision. “Could you sit up?” I raised my eyebrow and stared at her. It occurred to me that it was far less impressive with only one eye, but I was already in and there was no turning back now. Fluttershy rolled her eyes and pushed my head up with a hoof, sliding the pillow into place. “You act as if you have never slept with a pillow, honestly.” She almost sounded annoyed, if she even knew how to have that emotion. That said, this pillow was far more substantial than the thing I had back at the apartment. I could feel my head sinking into it and, more importantly, I could no longer feel the wooden armrest digging into my skull. She yawned. It was so adorable it hurt. I mentally scolded myself; at this rate, the years I spent caking on layers of cynicism were going to be undone in a single conversation. “I'm going to sleep.  See you in the morning, Mr. Eye.” After a moment, the only sound in the room was her gentle breathing. I blinked. She knew my name. I shuffled through the things that were on me when I was captured by Pinkie's goons. None of them had my name on it. Presumably, Pinkie had told her my name when she had dropped off to be put back together, but it was still unnerving. As if that stare of hers really had burrowed into my mind and dragged out some secrets. The thought sent a chill down my spine. The more I found out about who I was really looking for, the less I liked it. The events of the night caught up with me. Apparently Pinkie drove fast because in my experience, information doesn't move that slowly. I realized how tired I was and let myself relax into the couch. *** Light, muted by the shades, came in through the window. For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was, but it didn’t take long for the last night to come crashing back to me. Opening my good eye, I looked around the room once more and found that little had changed. The only real difference was my hat my harness sitting on the welcome counter, a small note folded neatly on top of them. I sat up, groaning from the effort. Rolling off the couch, I noticed that Fluttershy was gone from the other couch, as if she had never been there. I also noticed the blanket that had been placed over me at some point. Leaving the pillow and blanket where they lie, I levitated my harness over and gingerly stepped in. The movements slowly squeezed the soreness out of my body. My horn continued glowing as I levitated the pistol up to my view, expertly piecing it apart to make sure everything was in order. It wasn't a revolver. I had seen a lot of ponies in my profession who liked revolvers too much, treating them as if they were somehow more effective. A bullet was a bullet. The caliber didn't matter so long as it hit something soft. Once the harness was on over top of the bandages, I levitated the rest of my things over. I placed the hat on my head and unfolded the letter. Dear Mr. Eye,     Pinkie Pie didn't have much of a chance to talk me as she dropped you off. However, as for as she is concerned, you are worthy of trust, and I find that she is a far better judge of character than I am. At the end of this letter is a list of cities in the order that I intend to visit them. As you can probably guess, I will be staying at the central offices of each city's Zoo. Honestly, I wish that we could just decide on a central location for all of these things so that we could actually have a decent meeting for once, but until then, I am stuck city hopping and couch surfing. But you probably don't want to listen to me complain about the bureaucracy, or rather the lack of bureaucracy, in the Zoo system. Wish you well, Fluttershy P.S. I left enough for a ride on the city's trolely system on the counter.  You are not allowed to walk unnecessarily for the rest of the day, and I would postpone any hikes you have planned soon as well. Feel free to remove the bandages tonight before you go to sleep, but replace any that have an open wound beneath them. Your eye is fine; the swelling should have gone down by now. There may be some minor fractures in your ribs, but nothing that won't heal on its own so long as you keep off of it. Beneath the text, there was a list of five cities. It seemed Fluttershy was a busy pony. The paper itself was embroidered with butterflies and hearts. I tore off the list of cities and levitated my lighter down to burn the rest. Pinkie's paranoia had become my own. I took off my hat to hide the letter way inside of it and saw a playing card, sitting menacingly in the inner rim. Tucking the list into place, I pulled out the card and looked over it. It was an ace. An ace of cupcakes.  I took a moment to study it. The picture on the card matched the cupcake the earth pony had attempted to bribe me with to a T. Or in this case, sprinkle. I simply stared at the card for a long time, taking a drag of the cigarette I had rolled without even thinking. Pinkie Pie (I shuddered at the mere thought of her name) had left it as a sign of her trust. If nothing else, that meant she wasn’t out to get me. Probably. For now. I flicked the lid of my lighter open and shut, a slight chill still running down my spine. If I kept the card, I would be branded as an ally of Pinkie Pie. This had...effects on how I conducted myself, but I could hide it. The trick was to know when to take it out. I slid the lighter back into place and hid the card back in the brim of my hat. I had a feeling that it was going to be useful sooner rather than later. I scooped up the bits on the counter with my hoof, or at least attempted to. In reality I just stumbled into the counter. I had no balance and my depth perception was shot. Wonderful. While I was leaning against the counter brooding, I remembered that my eye was supposed to be better by now. Taking hold of the bandage with my magic, I carefully uncoiled it, a spent ice pack falling out about halfway through the process. I blinked rapidly while my eye readjusted to seeing again. For a few seconds I had an odd sensation as my eyes saw desynchronized images, then the recently cleared eye finished adjusting and I was able to see properly once more. Oh sweet depth perception, how I missed you. Taking profound joy in the effort, or rather the lack thereof, I scooped the bits up with my hooves and walked toward the door. I had no intention of taking public transportation, but the short walk from the counter and out the door had already begun to drain my stamina. I stepped out the door, a wisp of smoke trailing out behind me, and looked up and down the street. It was mid-afternoon, after lunch, and only a handful of ponies were out. I spotted a nearby trolley stop. No. Instead, I hailed down a taxi, which pulled up next to the curb. “Good evening, sir.” The pony pulling the cart looked at me, then said “…and thank you for not smoking.” His cheerful voice grated on my nerves. I took a casual drag of my cigarette. “34th and Hoofington.” I spotted an ash tray filled with sand next to me. “Yes sir, of course sir.” I heard his voice crack as the conflicting instincts of customer service and company policy collided in his mind. “Once again, thank you for not smoking.” He began to trot off to our destination at a brisk pace, trying very hard to not look at me. To his credit, he was resoundingly successful in that regard. Under most circumstances, I did not look at another pony's cutie mark. In my line of work, they were less useful than most assumed, and usually only served as a distraction. More often than not, the things were either so vague as to be meaningless or simple red herrings. Besides, they could be hidden either by clothes or by magic. I took another drag of my cigarette, carefully ignoring the ash tray next to me. The driver was an earth pony with a yellow coat and a pure black mane that was cropped to a respectably short length. Curiosity drove me to look at his cutie mark, which was, of course, a yellow and black taxi wagon. Absolutely wonderful. Sometimes I thought the things were a joke from our creator. Eventually, we came to my office.  After supplementing the bits that Fluttershy had given me with some of my own, I stepped out of the cab and handed the stack to the driver pony. “Keep the change.” I had gone out of my way to keep the cigarette burning until I stepped out. The driver pony's eyes swiveled from the pile to me to my cigarette. “Thank you, sir. I hope you choose us in the future.” The cracks had spread from his voice to his smile and his eye twitched as he turned away from me and hurried off. I snickered and snuffed out my stub on the way into the office building. The attendant didn't care what we did in our offices, but he could stop being polite if necessary in the lobby. “Good afternoon, sir.” The attendant pony greeted me without a second glance. Ah yes, the sound of professional apathy. I was back home. Giving him my usual greeting, which is to say none at all, I headed for the elevator and pressed the button. Then I waited. To think I had forgotten why I never took the elevator. After thirty agonizing seconds of standing around like a foal, the doors slid open and I quickly stepped in. I pressed the button for the fourth floor, and when doors slid shut the music started. I am not a pony of the arts. I deal in facts, in formation, and knowledge. Art was often described to me as truth. Truth was not something I dealt in. All that said, these sounds were horrible. Not horrible in the screeching, cacophonic sense; if they were, somepony could identify the problem. They were simply dull and plodding and listless, as if the music was written just to suck the life out of you. Just as quickly as they began, the sounds stopped and the doors opened with a painfully cheerful ding. I stepped out and made my way down the hall to my office, opening the door with my magic. “You're later than usual, Mr. Eye.” Clover's voice was like honey mixed with venom. She was goading me on, not that I could blame her. My impeccable ability to walk in exactly fifteen minutes after she did, regardless of when she arrived, was like a splinter that dug into her at every opportunity. I paused for a moment in front of the open doorway. This would be fun. Her smile was burning through the wall, her obvious glee at my tardiness apparent. At least now I knew what to get her for her birthday. Walking into her office, I caught a glimpse of her trademark Cheshire smile before she saw my condition and it fell into a horrified gape. If it wasn't for the fact that she was an earth pony, I would have sworn she teleported over to me. Her previous look of shock had replaced itself with a concerned frown. She stood near me and my legs finally began to give out, causing me to lean into her. “What in Celestia's name did you do to yourself, Keen?” It was one of the few times I had heard her refer to me by my first name. The last time I heard it was when I had forgotten to sign her paycheck. At that time, it was not filled with concern. On an unrelated note, I had never missed another signing. Of anything. “Well, for one thing, I found two of them,” I grinned, egging her on. She gave me a look. I knew any and all attempts to pull her strings would fall flat, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me from trying. “Where were they? A vegetable grinder?” She had pulled out a bottle of brandy and glass and was holding them in her mouth, which somehow failed to debilitate her speech at all. How earth ponies do it I'll never know. Her smile returned as she lead me into my office, “Or maybe a fight ring, I would love to see you try that.” Her grin became wicked. For somepony apparently concerned for my well-being, she seemed very happy about seeing me get hurt. She sat me down in my chair with firm and unyielding force. “Well, at least whoever put you back together knew what they were doing,” she said as she looked me over, sounding impressed. She had poured a tall glass of the brandy and was now forcing it down my throat. I could feel it burning as it fell into my stomach. She capped the bottle and turned a questioning eye towards me. “So who’d you find, exactly?” “Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.” I could feel the brandy beginning to affect me at an alarming rate. There was a time that I could hold my liquor, but that time was long past. I had stopped haphazardly pumping alcohol into my liver while it could still perform basic duties on its own. Instead, I opted to pass the time by slowly filling my lungs with tar. I was planning on going for my arteries next, platelets seemed to be the next big thing. Clover pulled my notebook out if its place on my harness and flipped it open to the first page, “Oh, one of the two you were looking for.” Clover was allowed to touch my notebooks, provided she did so prudently and wrote nothing in them. At least, that was how I saw it; I don't know how she defined those boundaries and I never asked. She closed the notebook and placed it on my desk, “Anyway, a Mr. Smoke N' Mirrors called.” She pronounced every capital letter. Impressive. Not even I could manage that. “He said you knew who he was and that he was looking forward to your visit to Canterlot, among other things.” She rolled her eyes to the ceiling at the last part. I dimly looked up to see what she was looking at. She sighed. “And now you're gone. You probably haven't eaten anything today, so I’ll go grab some food for you.” She may have said something after that, but I missed it. The brandy had taken hold of me and I fell into a drug-induced sleep for the second time in the last twelve hours. *** When I woke up, the first thing I saw was a bottle of water and two aspirin. I took the aspirin and drank the bottle. Clover was of the firm belief that any ailment could be solved by sufficient quantities of aspirin, water, and food. I did not question her methods, as they had a nasty habit of being highly effective. Once I had downed everything, I raised myself back up off of the desk. The next thing I saw was a peanut butter and tomato sandwich, generous on the tomato. I recognized it as the handiwork of the shopkeeper next door. Suddenly acutely aware that I was starving, I began to eat the sandwich using my hooves. After I had inhaled the first half, I slowed down and ate the second at a far more reasonable pace, taking a moment to look around the room. It was still my office, thankfully; I was finally getting back in the habit of waking up where I fell asleep. Using my magic, I pulled out a pencil and flipped open my notebook. Getting a clean page for Fluttershy, I jotted what I knew of her down and at the bottom wrote the first letter of each of the cities that she was visiting in the order that she had written them. Next up was a page for Pinkie Pie, who got a similar treatment, in addition to a note reminding me to figure out just what organization used a cupcake as their insignia. Hopefully that would give me more information on the crazed mare. Finally, I flipped to a clean page and created one for Rarity. I needed more information on my employer if I was going to keep working on this case. If nothing else, the last night had shown me that blindly stumbling about looking for her friends would be little more than suicide. I slipped the notebook back into its place as I finished the last of my sandwich. I went to levitate the necessary materials for a cigarette from my hat, but the magic failed to grab anything. I brought a hoof up to my head and found it bare. My hat was gone. I narrowed my eyes. Getting off my chair, I noticed that the bandages had been replaced. They were not quite as well done as Fluttershy's, but were still far better than what I could do on my own. I slowly opened the door to my office, sending a searing look at Clover. The worst part was, she knew she could get away with these kinds of things at this point. The green mare was leaning back in her chair with my hat on her head and her hooves propped up on the desk. The pose matched my own to a T, minus one cigarette. She did not allow smoking in her office. “Oh, Mr. Eye, you're up.” She smiled at me from under the brim. “How was your nap?” The saccharine malice in her voice floated through the air like a particularly bitter brand of incense. I just glared at her. There was more than one reason they called me 'Keen Eye;' when the situation called for it, I could glare with the best of them. Pony names are funny like that. Clover felt the brunt of my stare. To her credit, she held up fairly well, gracefully putting the hat on her desk and returning to a sitting position in a single fluid motion. Her smile was slightly wilted as I returned my gaze to normal and retrieved my hat from the desk. “What time is it?” I asked, placing the hat back on my head where it belonged. “You’ve got about forty five minutes until you’re supposed to meet Rarity.” The opportunity to see me squirm returned her smile to its former glory. Her anticipation was not unrewarded. I froze where I was, my body going stiff, “Where?” “A penthouse at...” her voice trailed off as she wrote the address on a piece of paper and slid it across the desk to me. For all her talents, she could not talk and write at the same time. As I took it she leaned across the desk. My eyes shot upwards to find hers mere inches away from me. “Keen...” She sounded concerned. Genuinely, as if she had a reason to be. I looked down at the desk and saw that she held Pinkie Pie’s card beneath her hoof. “Please be careful.” I looked her in the eyes again. I won't say I understood initially. All I knew was that finding this card in my hat scared her. “More than usual?” In times of stress, I went to what I knew, and right now what I knew was what I did not know. She slumped back into her chair. “You don't know what this is...” It was hard to tell who she was talking to as she left the card on the desk. She looked tired, more tired than I had been, and that was saying something. I continued to look at her quizzically. “And you do?” I levitated the card up to eye level, taking another good look at it. She just laughed, a hollow laugh I had heard far too many times, “You aren't the only pony to pull themselves out of the slums, Keen.” She turned her eyes back on me. “It's been a long time since I’ve seen that card…” *** I was riding the elevator up to Rarity's penthouse. What Clover had told me was still bouncing around my head. Apparently, the Ace of Cupcakes was the insignia of a ring of gambling houses that ran across all of Equestria. The organization had their hooves in virtually all gambling that took place in the kingdom. The card branded a pony as one of their operatives, and mine specifically designated me as the personal eyes and ears of a boss. In other words, I was Pinkie Pie’s personal spy, and if I was not mistaken, so was Fluttershy. This was a fact that had migrated into my notebook. I didn't ask how she knew that. Asking too many questions wasn't how I got her as my secretary. It hardly made sense. Fluttershy didn't seem the spy type, although if they were a good spy that is exactly the sort of aura a pony would emit. I wasn't a spy for Pinkie; at least if I was, I didn't know about it. That concerned me. The elevator dinged, signaling that I had arrived at the top of the building and breaking me out of my revere. Why these sorts of ponies insisted on living on top of giant buildings was beyond me. I was willing to bet bits that she would be stroking a cat when I walked in, too. Maybe she’d even have a lava flow somewhere. At this point I wouldn't have put it past her. The room the elevator emptied into was adorned with what was probably the greatest display of restraint that the white unicorn had ever shown. There were only four jewels, one at the top of each corner, and the whitewashed walls were decorated with a selection of portraits of posh ponies. Their gazes held a universal sternness that various artists had captured with varying levels of success. Directly across from me was a large oak door. Old oak. I couldn't help but wonder just how many handles that the wood had outlasted. A polite cough came from a desk made from the same oak as the door. I didn't even need to look at the mare. She was a secretary, straight backed, and probably wore glasses. If nothing else, she would probably wear them simply for the effect. I took another look at the door. The wood radiated silence; no pony that I knew of could hear a sound through that kind of door. Whatever pony made this door knew exactly what they were doing. I looked for a way to open it, but there didn’t seem to be a bolt control on this side. “Can I help you?” The secretary’s voice came from the desk. For a moment, I considered looking at her, but decided against it. She would have to earn whatever exorbitant salary she got. “No.” I continued to occupy myself by looking the door up and down. The hinges were on this side, meaning that it swung outwards. They looked like gold, and it wasn't paint, but I was willing to bet that they were much tougher than they let on. Still, it was strange; this door was clearly designed to keep things on one side of it, and you don't put hinges on the side you want things not to go through. Hinges can be disassembled relatively easily if the lock proves too much of a challenge. “If you have no business here, I will call security and they will take you elsewhere.” The secretary was proving to be a rather antagonistic mare, but I had to admire the way she kept any and all emotion out of her voice. I thought for a moment. I could practically feel the sneer forming on her face. She probably knew who I was and why I was here, but the fact of the matter was that she found me distasteful. If called upon to describe me she would use words like 'obstinate,' 'disheveled,' and 'unkempt.' On one hoof, if I did nothing, she would call security and have me thrown out. On the other, I really didn't want to respond to her just yet, nor did I want her to have a reason to believe that I was supposed to be here besides my own certainty of that fact. “I don't think that will not be necessary.” Perfect. I returned to my examination of the door. Even though I couldn’t see her, I knew the sneer had been replaced by a scowl, at least on the inside; it wouldn't surprise me to see that her face hadn’t moved a muscle since I walked in. “I cannot assist you if you do not tell me your business- assuming, of course, you have any business here at all.” Her voice had stressed slightly. I found that rather disappointing; Clover would have tangled me up for at least half an hour before letting me through. I carefully constructed the next statement without the use of contractions or acknowledgment of her existence. “As I said, I am in no need assistance.” I examined the lock. It was a fine lock. However, it was not a great lock. It would take a skilled pony about thirty seconds to get through. I could not personally pick locks; my levitation simply wasn’t precise enough for that sort of work. However, I knew a good locksmith who could talk endlessly about his craft (and often did). The bolts were probably on the inside and could hold the doors by themselves. “Then how do you plan on opening the door?” I had broken her. She needed more contact with ponies like me; she could hardly stand up to a stone sitting in her office. Her mind probably worked too fast. I backed away from the door, taking it another good look at it. As much as I hated to admit defeat, I did not have a way past it. Most doors I came into contact with were unlocked or kicked down (and sometimes both), but that didn’t seem to apply here. The answer came to me in a flash. I raised one hoof and firmly knocked on the door. Standing back, I calmly waited for an answer. I was far from calm, of course, but I looked the part and that was what mattered. A few moments of stillness came and went. The silence in the room was quickly becoming oppressive. The mare at the oak desk was starting to become skeptical of my methods. However, the fact that I could feel her stare meant that she was still looking at me. That was good. I wanted that. The silence thickened and I could feel each second slipping by at an agonizing pace until the door swung open, revealing my employer. She had incredible sense of timing. “Keen Eye! So glad you could join us.” Her voice was filled with exuberance, but at this point I knew any emotion that came from the unicorn was carefully chosen. Rarity glided over to me where I stood, still a few feet back from the door. “Please, please, come in, make yourself comfortable.” She looked me up and down, her eyes brushing over the bandages that still covered a good chunk of my body as if nothing were there. “I just want to check on the cooks and see how the meal is coming. I have an old friend over, I hope you don't mind, it's just that you rescheduled so quickly and I didn't have time to redo my calendar, especially since I heard you’re going to Canterlot soon.” Her words were endless, reminding me only too well of another mare I had met with a similar condition. My ear twitched. Clover had told her about my upcoming trip. I knew that Rarity had won over my secretary, but the degree of the infection was far worse than I had imagined. Using her rapid-fire speech as cover, she ushered me into her penthouse. As we went through the door, it was covered in a purple glow and shut behind us. I heard the bolt thunk into place with an ominous finality. The room she brought me to was well-furnished, but it shared the waiting room’s whitewashed walls. Gemstones were placed at regular intervals along them. I became aware that Rarity was still talking and returned my attention to her, just in case she said something useful. “Now, I know that you will want to discuss business before the night is out, but I would ask you to refrain from that particular line of questioning until after my friend has left.” She smiled at me reassuringly, but I didn’t fall for it.  My defenses had grown back since my meeting with Fluttershy. I noticed that she wasn't wearing a dress this time around, which struck me as odd; she didn’t seem to be much for casualty. “But enough about that. I want you to introduce you to my old friend.” Her voice quivered with anticipation, and for the first time I suspected that she was not as in control of her emotions as I had first suspected. She lead me from the labyrinth of hallways to a sitting room, where I found myself face-to-face with the stuff of nightmares once again. “Keen Eye, I want you to meet Pinkie Pie.” The pink mare waved her hoof crazily at me, “KEEN!” There was a flash of pink. She was in front of me, uncomfortably close, her eyes boring into mine again. “Omigosh, you're Rarity's other guest, I mean, I figured out you were working for her when I talked to you last time, but I didn't think that you would be coming over for dinner especially since last night-“ for a brief moment, she paused to suck in a huge breath of air- “are you alright after that, I'm sorry that I tied you up and everything, but I heard that you were looking for my friends, and I got worried, because I'm not gonna let anypony hurt my friends, and I dropped you off with Fluttershy, but I didn't have a chance to talk to her because we were being chased at the time, I hope she was able to help you get better, but it’s pretty obvious you are better since you're here, but you do look pretty beaten up, have you found out anything else about the girls? The only one of my friends I could keep track of since Twi went on that big project was Fluttershy, and I know you found me and Fluttershy, well I really more of found you and Fluttershy had you dumped on her hoofstep, and she wouldn't send a hurt pony away, she's too nice for that-” “Give him a chance to breathe, darling!” Rarity laughed. I couldn’t tell if she was laughing at Pinkie Pie or at me, but it was clear that she was back in control. “Well, since you two are already acquainted, I'll go see how supper is coming.” She slid out of the room, leaving me alone with the pink mare. After my mind had a chance to process the wall of noise that had just been spat out at me, I noticed that Pinkie Pie had moved even closer to me. I tried to move back and put some distance between us, but I was already up against the wall. I looked straight into her ice blue eyes. “What in Celestia's name are you?” It was as much honest question as it was an attempt to regain ground. The pink pony stared at me for a moment with a confused look on her face before narrowing her eyes at me suspiciously. She stared me down for a moment until her eyes suddenly shot wide open. “Is this a guessing game?” “Yes.” It was for me, anyway. She jumped back, her hooves clapping together happily (I hoped). “I love guessing games!” Before I had a chance to react, she had grabbed me and forced me into one of the sitting room chairs. I cringed in pain, the injuries under my bandages protesting the rough treatment. Pinkie Pie had already taken a seat in the chair opposite me. As the pain subsided, I began to notice the perfectly stuffed chair that was supporting me. It was comfortable, at least; I would have expected some sort of overstuffed decoration to be used as a chair, but it was apparent that this one was meant to be sat on and then later gotten out of. Not for the first time, I was impressed with my employer. For all her style, she had not forgotten that things were meant to be used. “So am I a mare?” The pink pony looked at me expectantly, a grin drawn out across her face. Not the manic thing that haunted my mind, but an actual smile. Somehow, that didn’t make it less creepy. For a moment, my mind spun its wheels fruitlessly trying to make sense of the situation. She was actually playing a guessing game. And I was the judge. What dignity I had left rejected this idea and demanded that I change the topic of conversation immediately. Without responding to her question, I pulled out the card that had appeared in my hat. “Why do I have this?” Pushing the memories of the interrogation to the back of my mind, I locked her in my own gaze. “Because I gave it to you, silly.” She leaned back in her chair, the massive cloud of pink hair snapping to attention and coiling behind her like some kind of cotton candy snake. “Why else would you have it?” Her tone of voice had lost its crazed edge; now, it was more reminiscent of Rarity's. It occurred to me that I no longer needed to push Rarity to the back of my mind while talking to another pony, meaning that she had far less control over me. Before I could continue that line of thought, though, I noticed that an alligator had curled up in Pinkie's lap.  Its vacant, purple eyes seemed to be staring at me, or maybe just off into space somewhere. I couldn’t tell. The alligator startled me, and it took a few moments for my mind to catch up with the conversation. I didn’t like her response, so I dug deeper, hoping to find some sort of hint as to what she was planning. “Why did you give it to me?” “It's not nice to answer a question with another question.” It seemed she had dropped the guessing game for another one, and this time it was a game I liked. “Well, I learned from the best.” I allowed a small smirk to creep across my face. Pinkie's expression didn’t change, but she began to gently stroke the alligator like a cat. She was getting into character. “How do you know what it is?” The question was no surprise. I had seen it coming a mile away. “Why did you give it to me?” I asked again, still smirking. Sometimes a broken record can win a fight. If she wanted information from me, she was going to have to work for it. The playing field was different now that I knew what she was capable of. The pink mare didn’t move a muscle, and yet somehow the smile on her face darkened all on its own. I had seen this before, but I was no more ready for it now than I was the first time. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that her hair was straight and her toothy grin had morphed into a small, dangerous smile. “That is my little secret, Mr. Eye,” She effortlessly picked up the fully grown alligator on her lap and talked to it as if it were a filly. Actually, I take that back. Fillies get treated with more dignity. “He'll figure it out, won't he, Gummy? Yes he will! Mr. Eye is a clever pony.” Her attention was devoted entirely to the alligator in her hooves. If I was going to make any sort of progress, I needed to say something that would get her attention. “I know what the card means, Pinkie.” My lips didn’t want to let the name pass through them, but I forced it out anyway. If I started now, I might be able to say it easily in a year or so. She stopped snuggling her alligator enough to look at me once more. “Oh, you do, do you?” I would never have thought that sentence could be so terrifying. Before I could dwell further on it, I noted that the alligator had begun to gnaw aimlessly on Pinkie's mane. “What makes you think I’m going to spy for you?” I glared at the pink mare in an effort to drive home just how much I knew. I hoped to the high sisters that I wasn't supposed to know this yet. Pinkie's smile faltered and was soon replaced by a look of curiosity. I was in. She cocked her head at me, dragging her pet's head up a few inches in the process. “How do you know that, I wonder?” Rarity burst through the door with a show of splendor. She managed to make the white walls of the room look dull with how brilliantly her coat shown. I suppressed the urge to scoff. I knew an illusion when I saw one. Pinkie's hair inflated immediately with the same strange squeaking sound that I had heard the night before. “Oh, Rarity, you look absolutely radiant!” All traces of our conversation disappeared; it was as if we had spent the last few minutes talking about hoofball. I had instinctively slipped the card back into the inside of my hat the moment the door opened. “How nice of you to say, Pinkie!” Rarity glowed under the praise of her friend. “I wasn't too sure when I heard about the use of magic to enhance one's appearance, but I’ve found that just a touch here and there can be just the thing to brighten up a pony’s looks.” She turned to me, probably to ask what I thought of it, but her gaze was instead drawn to the floor. “Oh, Gummy seems to have taken a liking to you.” I was about to ask what she meant when I realized the alligator's mouth was already halfway to my head. I barely managed to let out a strangled scream before the creature’s massive jaws shut over my muzzle.

ScyStorm

501

Main 6,Princess Luna,Comedy,Random,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Happy Luna Has Chill Day

Princess Luna makes a surprise visit to Ponyville to spend some time with the girls who freed her.

complete

<p>Princess Luna makes a surprise visit to Ponyville to spend some time with the girls who freed her. The royal pony's incredibly cheerful demeanor quickly leads to much confusion and amusement among all parties involved.</p><p>Part of Equestria Daily's Happy Luna contest.</p><p><span style="font-weight:bold;color:#008000">This story is Complete!</span></p>

everyone

2011-10-17T00:18:29+00:00

2011-10-17T00:18:29+00:00

HAPPY LUNA HAS CHILL DAY MLP:FiM Fan Fiction By: Scy Storm ssbs.furrynet.com AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is an entry into Equestria Daily's "Happy Luna" contest. The aim was to write some kind of story where Luna is like totally super happy, which I suppose is sort of a rarity, outside of one or two fics I've seen. I have my own views of Luna's personality, but it was really fun writing her all happy and silly like I did here! Also, I drew some inspiration for this fic (including the deliberately silly title) from a great YouTube video called "Cool Guy has Chill Day," so go look at up if you want a quick giggle. "You can wake up. It's morning." Fluttershy stares up at a straw nest sitting on the tree's largest branch, which begins to shake with life, the birds inside responding to her words. They poke their small heads out and begin chirping happily. The yellow pegasus smiles, then walking around the tree, sticking her nose into a small hole near the base. "You can wake up now, little ones," she speaks into it, lifting her nose out right after. After a brief moment, the heads of two squirrels pop out of the hole, looking at the yellow pony before them and appearing to smile, before scurrying out of the tree to forage. The pegasus flicks her tail happily and begins to trot back toward her cottage, but stops suddenly when something tugs on her tail. She looks back to see her little bunny Angel, tugging incessantly. "Angel? What's wrong?" The bunny lets go of her tail as she turns around to face him, flapping his little arms around briefly before gesturing one direction. Fluttershy flashes a sweet smile at him. "Aw, are you hungry again already? Do you remember what I said about eating too fast?" Angel blinks and then stomps his feet in annoyance, once again gesturing with his arms. Fluttershy ponders briefly, and gets the idea that he's trying to point, glancing in that direction. All she sees is the road, leading in the direction away from Ponyville and toward the forested areas. She looks back down at Angel with a look of confusion. The bunny points in that direction, then drops to all fours, running in place with an angry look on his face. Fluttershy continues to stare at him, now even more confused. "I don't know what you're trying to tell me, Angel," she states. Suddenly, there comes a voice from nearby. "Hey! Is something wrong?" Fluttershy shakes her head briefly, still staring at the desperate bunny, who continues to try and get his point across. "I guess so, but I don't know what yet," Fluttershy answers. "Well maybe I can help with the maybe-problem!" the voice speaks again. It then dawns on Fluttershy that she doesn't immediately recognize the voice. She turns to glance at her visitor. "I suppose it... wouldn't.... hurt....." Her voice drops in volume with each of her words as she sees who is standing next to her. The pegasus' shocked eyes glance over the blue pony in disbelief, seeing the bright moon marks adorning her necklace & her flank, then looking upward at her face, showing the brightest of smiles. Bright teal eyes meet the yellow pony's gaze, the bright smile turning into a wide grin. "Hi Fluttershy!" she says, excitedly. Fluttershy's mouth hangs open, her entire form beginning to tremble. "Pr-Pr-Princess Luna! Ooohh..." Her eyelids flutter briefly as she flops right to the ground, fainted. Luna and Angel stare, glancing at each other briefly, before back at the fallen pegasus. "Huh. Maybe I should have expected that," Luna remarks. A glow comes from the alicorn's horn then, a quick spell washing over Fluttershy's fallen form. The pegasus snaps her eyes open, standing up again as the spell's glow fades. She's greeted by Angel's rather annoyed face. "W-What happened?" she asks. "You fainted. Maybe I should have brought a pillow!" Luna says, following with a giggle at her own joke. Fluttershy turns her way again and gasps, beginning to tremble all over once more. Luna thinks she's about to faint again, but thankfully the pegasus manages to keep it together, bowing before her visitor somewhat awkwardly. "Pr-Princess Luna... What are you doing here?" Fluttershy asks. Luna's face continues to beam with a bright smile as the pegasus stands back up straight. "I had nothing to do today, so I wanted to visit Ponyville and see all those girls who saved me all that time ago. You're the first one I saw!" she explains. Fluttershy's muzzle dips downward as a blush covers her cheeks. "Oh... W-Well... You're welcome," she stammers out. As the two ponies talk, Angel leaps up and down, stomping his feet and trying to get their attention. "So I guess you're tending to all the animals right now, right?" Luna asks. "Oh... Yes. I do it every morning." "How cool! Can I help?" Luna asks with an eager clop of her front hooves. Fluttershy stares at her for a moment, a little confused by how cheerful the princess is. Then she realizes she should probably answer the question, and blushes softly once more. "Oh, um... Not everypony can handle animals like me. I don't think you'd..." Fluttershy explains, her sentence trailing off into mumbles. "Oh, it can't be too hard, can it? The animals in Canterlot seem to love me," Luna says. Fluttershy gasps a little. Those animals? The ones that drove her crazy? She wants to feel jealous, but instead she's curious. "Really? I could never get them to like me," she notes. Luna headtilts. "Huh? But you're so likable! I'm sure they'll come around," she says, following with a bright smile. The pegasus rubs her blushing face a little. "That would be so cool, but I don't think they want to see me again after..." she says, her voice again trailing off into mumbling. Luna giggles, and is about to say something, before she notices Angel the bunny desperately tugging on Fluttershy's tail, which goes completely unnoticed by the pegasus. "What's up with that little one?" Luna asks, gesturing. Fluttershy blinks once, before looking behind her to see the rather troubled bunny. "Angel, what is... it?" She pauses in her speech as loud noise starts to become evident. The two ponies perk their ears, Fluttershy looking back in the direction Angel was gesturing toward earlier. After a moment of thought, she suddenly lets out a gasp. "Oh no! Bunny stampede!" she yells. Luna blinks in confusion, seeing Angel panic and run up a tree nearby. Fluttershy turns and watches the road, as a large group of the fluffy critters approaches at great speed. The yellow pegasus stands in the middle of the road, shaking and attempting to stare down the coming horde. Luna steps off the road, watching with curiosity. Fluttershy clenches her teeth, her body starting to shake as the bunnies get closer, closer... Finally she leaps in the air and flaps her wings, the bunnies stampeding right underneath her. "Ohhh, why does my stare fail me now? What am I gonna do?!" Luna watches the bunny horde pass by her, pondering silently for a moment, before a light goes off in her head. She focuses, her horn beginning to glow brightly. Within a few seconds, a rain of carrots pops into existence. The two ponies gasp as several carrots clatter around them, Fluttershy raising her hooves up to protect her head. She opens her eyes after a moment and looks on in surprise as the bunnies stop and pick up the many carrots, turning right back around and happily scampering back in the direction they were just stampeding from. The two ponies watch them go, a giggle from the princess breaking the silence. "That actually worked! Yay!" she exclaims happily. Fluttershy lands back on the ground and looks to Luna with surprise. "Th-Thank you!" she says, smiling afterward. "No problem! Maybe they were just hungry. I guess you hadn't got to them yet, right?" Luna surmises. "Actually, I did..." Fluttershy says, starting to look like she's figured something out. Luna headtilts a little, then shrugs. "Then I haven't a clue! I'm glad to have helped a little, though. I'll just let you get back to work, how's that? Great seeing you, Fluttershy!" The alicorn turns around and starts trotting her way toward Ponyville. Fluttershy is slightly taken aback by the princess' abrupt exit, but she waves with one of her hooves regardless. "G-Great seeing you too, Princess!" she calls back. The pegasus watches the royal pony trot away, and then turns an angry glare down at a certain bunny nearby, now back down off of the tree, an innocent grin plastering his face. "Don't give me that look," Fluttershy states. Angel sweats a little, still grinning, before reaching down and plucking up one of the stray carrots and immediately zipping away at great speed. Fluttershy watches him go, and sighs in annoyance. The hustle and bustle of early day Ponyville is in full swing, many ponies trotting out into the streets to go about their daily activities, the rays of Celestia's sun shining down upon all. A turquoise unicorn trots down a street, calling out greetings to passersby, all the while scanning her eyes around the traveling ponies, as if looking for someone. Soon enough, she hears a voice from behind her. "Lyra!" She stops and turns, seeing a cream-colored pony trotting up to her. "Bon-Bon! I've been looking for you." Bon-Bon reaches her friend's side. "Sorry! I got held up." Lyra smiles cheerily. "No worries! What's on the schedule for today?" she asks. The cream pony grins a little. "How about the bath house?" she responds. "Oooh! It's been SO long since we went there," Lyra remarks. "I know! So we should definitely- eep!" Bon-Bon says, cutting herself off. The two ponies gasp in surprise as a sudden blast of magical energy strikes them, leaving pretty wreaths of blue, violet, and white flowers around their necks. They stare at each other in confusion, then looking around the immediate area & spotting a certain blue alicorn strutting down the street, her horn softly glowing with energy. Bon-Bon's jaw drops. "I-Isn't that..." Lyra mumbles. Princess Luna trots her way through the middle of the road, onlooker ponies noting an odd device magically hanging in the air by her head & neck. It appears to be a small blue & starry mechanical device, a cord extending from the top and splitting into two objects fitted into her ears. Luna has her eyes closed, humming along to a musical tune playing into her ears from the device, her trot down the street half-resembling a dance in its pacing. She opens her eyes briefly, looking in one direction and shooting another blast of magic energy, leaving a few more stunned ponies with a pretty neck adornment. Luna giggles to herself and continues her trot, more and more ponies starting to take notice of her. "No way, what's she doing in Ponyville?" asks one onlooker, unheard by the alicorn. Luna's hips begin to pump back and forth in her trot, matching the beat of her song. She glances to the right, seeing a pony merchant setting up some tables. The pony soon gasps in shock as a few vases of blue flowers appear on the tables, rubbing her head in confusion afterward. Luna grins and continues her dancing strut, oblivious to a growing gathering of ponies that are following her in fascination. They watch as she occasionally stops to send another string of magical energy at another unsuspecting pony, various giggles and cheers beginning to sound out of the crowd with each spell, mixing with the shocked chatter. The modest parade of ponies eventually makes its way into the town square, Luna's dancing beginning to get a bit more intense. The princess of night stops near the Ponyville statue, her eyes closed and her voice singing out the musical notes of her song. Her hips sway side to side, her head whipping as well, causing her long hair to fan through the air. Soon enough she stomps her hooves down, opening her eyes to see the statue in front of her, one last magical blast hitting it and leaving a wreath of flowers around its neck. Luna exhales sharply, her musical device disappearing. Her now-clear ears are greeted by the loud cheers of a small crowd of adoring ponies, brought to her attention for the first time. The alicorn grins widely. "Hi everypony!" she calls out. The crowd of giddy ponies all bow briefly in respect, before crowding up closer to the surprise visitor. "I can't believe you're here!" "You're so cool!" "Omigosh, where did you learn to dance?!" "Princess, can I have your autograph?" Luna giggles happily and soaks in all the attention, her horn glowing again and creating a shower of her multicolored flowers to flutter down over the crowd at large, evoking more happy cheers. "Whoa! Princess Luna!" suddenly calls out a recognizable voice. Luna blinks once and looks skyward, seeing a bright blue pegasus zip over the crowd, steering herself on a white cloud. She stops just near the front of the crowd, tossing back her rainbow colored mane. "I was wondering what the crowd was all about," she says, giving a bow to the princess. The alicorn's eyes light up. "Rainbow Dash! Yay!" Luna extends her wings and flutters into the air, landing on Dash's cloud, the crowd of ponies glancing upward at the two fliers. "Long time no see! What are you doing in Ponyville?" Dash asks. "I'm visiting all my sister's special girls, of course. You're just who I wanted to see!" Luna explains. Dash can feel her cheeks redden up, the pegasus attempting to save face with a chuckle and a pose with head held high. "Of course I am! Who doesn't want to see the best young flier in all Equestria?" Luna grins, her eyes suddenly shifting to a competitive glare. "Exactly. Wanna race?" she asks. Dash's eyes go wide in shock, before narrowing down into their own competitive glare, her head lowering again as she returns the princess' grin. "Did you say... Race?" Several gasps are heard from the crowd below as the two fliers stare down, a gray pegasus then popping up out of the crowd and fluttering into the air. "Ooh! Can I be the finish line?!" she yells. The two glance over, Dash eyeraising. "Ditzy, don't you have mail to deliver?" Ditzy glances down at her mailbag, before back up at the two with an awkward grin. "Well yeah, but you two are super fast, so it won't take long, right?" she asks. "Sounds about right," Luna answers, glaring at Dash again. Rainbow Dash turns her glance back to Luna, shifting right back into competitive mode. "Alright, Princess, how we doin' this?" "How about one big loop around Ponyville, ending in the southwest?" Luna suggests. Dash nods and turns her body to stand side-by-side with the princess. "Sounds good to me. No using magic, though!" The two line up side-by-side on the cloud, noses pointing forward, perpendicular to one another. "Wouldn't dream of it," Luna responds. Ditzy watches them excitedly, before realizing she needs to go prepare the finish line, immediately zipping off toward the southwest. The crowd watches in excitement as the two racers take a breath and focus. One of the ponies in the crowd decides to start them off. "Are you girls ready? On your mark... Get set... GO!" Several ponies nearly get knocked off their feet as the two fliers take off, leaving a blast of sonic force through the immediate area, wiping out the cloud they stood on. Two streaks of cyan & dark blue zip through the skies of Ponyville, eventually reaching the edge of the town and making a sudden turn, beginning the loop. Dash grins widely, unable to hide her excitement at getting to race one of the princesses, of all ponies. Her excited look turns to surprise when she notices Luna is right alongside of her, keeping up easily. The alicorn giggles and flashes the pegasus a glare. "I've been practicing!" she yells out, before her speed increases sharply, going well ahead. Dash watches her go with shock, before clenching her teeth. "Oh it. Is. ON!" Her body curls briefly before her own speed kicks up several notches, no longer holding her pace back. Luna keeps a sharp eye on the edge of Ponyville as she flies right above it, soon feeling a gust of wind created by the blue pegasus zipping right by her. Luna grins widely, not having expected an easy fight. Her speed continues to raise, getting back alongside Dash. The pegasus glances over, seeing Luna give her a raspberry taunt with her tongue. Dash appears utterly confused by the princess' behavior, but quickly shakes it off, eyes going forward again and focusing on the goal. The two begin to see something come into view ahead. Ditzy Doo has tied the end of a long ribbon onto the edge of a tall building. The gray pegasus gasps as she sees the two coming, biting onto the other end of the ribbon and flying away from the building, stretching it out to serve as the finish line. The two racers kick up as fast as they can go, their cheeks extending backward from the force of the air around them. Within seconds, two streaks blast right by Ditzy, yanking the ribbon from her teeth and leaving her spinning around in midair. She stops spinning after a moment, her eyes rolling around in her head, before losing her flying concentration and plummeting into a tree below. Dash and Luna slow to a stop in the air, the two panting fliers landing softly onto a nearby cloud once their momentum stops. Dash glances at Luna, and then down at herself, seeing Ditzy's ribbon wrapped all around her body. A huge grin stretches across her face. "Awesome! I did it! I WON! YEEESS!" she yells, hopping up and down on the cloud. Luna watches her bounce, and then grins widely, starting to bounce as well. "You did it, you did it! Yay!" she yells in happiness for her opponent. The princess hops over to Dash, and suddenly squeezes her forelegs around her in a hug, the blue pegasus coughing and shooting her eyes wide open. "You're awesome, Rainbow Dash! 'Best Young Flier' is right!" Luna says, excited. "Can't... breathe..." Dash gasps out, squirming a little. Luna blinks, and then lets go, Dash exhaling sharply. "Oh... Sorry!" Luna says with an embarrassed smile. Dash chuckles and grins, while looking at the princess with surprise in her eyes. "You brought it all out of me. I had no idea you were so fast!" she says. "Well, not fast enough," Luna remarks, batting one of her hooves at the ribbon that's wrapped around the pegasus. Dash laughs a little and poses briefly. "I haven't had to race that hard in a long time. I'm a little beat now, heheh..." she says, rubbing a hoof over the back of her head. Luna bounces on the cloud once. "Darn! I still have a lot of energy," she remarks. The alicorn looks around briefly, before noticing a certain place not too far away. "Well, I think I know where my next stop is now!" she says excitedly. Dash continues to watch the ever-bubbly princess with a look of confusion. "Uh, what now?" Luna smiles cheerily at the blue pegasus and extends her wings. "See you later, Dashie!" she says, before leaping off the cloud and flying away. Dash just waves awkwardly, watching her go, before suddenly remembering something. "Ditzy!" she says, leaping off the cloud. She lands down on the ground below, near the fallen Ditzy, who is just getting up after her fall through the tree. "Hey, are you alright?" Dash asks. Ditzy groans a little, one of her front hooves apparently stuck to her face. "I'm fine, but now I'm all covered in tree sap!" she whines, trying to tug her hoof off her cheek. Rainbow Dash blinks a few times, before erupting into raucous laughter, falling down onto her back and wiggling about. Ditzy finally gets her hoof off her face, glancing down at the laughing blue pegasus with her crossed eyes, soon breaking out into her own silly laughter. "Gosh darn that Macintosh." Applejack slowly clops her way into her field of apple trees, her momentum pulling a large, empty flatbed, its old rusty wheels creaking with every full turn. She brings it to a stop near one gathering of trees, all covered in ripe, fresh apples, several gathering buckets already laid at the base of the trees from the previous day. Applejack steps away from her cart's harness and surveys the area, still grumbling a little in annoyance. "What in Equestria is that colt doin' that's gonna make 'im run late?" she complains aloud. The earthpony trots her way up to the nearest tree, glancing up at the hoard of apples sitting on the branches, all ready & waiting for a little force to bring them down. She grins, turning herself around. "Let's see just how much I can get done without 'im." Just as she raises her back legs for a good buck, a loud voice rings out nearby. "Hi Applejack!" Applejack cries out in shock, losing her balance on her front hooves and falling onto her face, hind legs hanging in the air. Her lower body drops to the ground after a few seconds, the earthpony planting her hooves down and raising her head. "What the hay?!" She looks to her side, and jawdrops, seeing none other than Princess Luna standing there, regarding the fallen earthpony with a bright smile, followed by a giggle. "Whoops! Did I startle you?" she asks, knowing full well what the answer is. Applejack practically squeaks, quickly scrambling back to standing position to regard the princess with a bow. "W-Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, Princess! What brings you 'round these parts?" Luna continues her cheerful smile, her tail flicking a little bit. "I'm in Ponyville visiting all the awesome girls who saved me! You're one of them!" Applejack stands up straight again, regarding the princess before her with confusion. Is this really the poor, scared girl they helped out all that time ago? "Fer real, sugarcube?" she asks, baffled. Luna headtilts a little, and then laughs. "You talk funny!" she notes. Applejack can feel the anger boil up nearly to her ears, but she quickly forces it down. She was out of action for a millennium, just let it slide. "W-Well, 'fraid there's not much fun to be had here. I'm about to do my mornin' harvestin', is all," she says, turning her glance toward the nearby flatbed and gathering buckets. "Ooh! Can I see? Can I help?" Luna asks, grinning afterward, her eyes practically sparkling. The earthpony can't help but chuckle and grin incredulously, not really considering how inappropriate it might be considered. "Y'all sure? It's real hard work, ya know, and I don't like seein' magic used 'round here," she states, matter-of-factly. Luna has no adverse reaction to AJ's grin, and instead takes on a serious look, her smile never going away despite the look. "I can handle myself! I almost beat Rainbow Dash at a race without magic!" Applejack blinks a few times, and then chuckles again, obviously not buying it. "If you say so! Here, I'll show ya how I do things," she says, strolling back toward her starting tree. Luna clops her front hooves excitedly and watches, Applejack turning her hinds toward the tree, and giving it a good hard buck. Before she can even put her hooves back down, a rain of apples falls from the tree, landing into perfect piles in the buckets placed at the base. She drops her hooves back down and takes a glance at Luna, who is practically bouncing with excitement. The earthpony is still rather confused by the princess' behavior, but nonetheless trots her way to the next tree in line, giving it a good buck to the same result. An audible squeal of delight comes from the alicorn. "Ooh, me next, me next!" she shouts. The alicorn trots right over to the next tree in line beside Applejack, the earthpony staring at her. "Ya sure, sugarcube? What about them shiny horseshoes 'a yers?" she notes. Luna glances down at her hooves once, regarding her sparkly shoes, before shaking her head and turning around, hinds facing the tree. "Don't worry, they're tough stuff, just like me! Or you!" she says. Applejack just shrugs then and waits, watching what transpires with a private smirk. Luna's front side lowers to the ground, her hips wiggling back and forth in preparation, before her hinds lift. "Hii-YA!" she yells, bucking her hooves against the tree. There's a shaking of leaves, followed by silence. Luna glances over at the buckets, and then up toward the tree. Not a single apple fell. Her smile fades for the first time in Applejack's presence, her face instead curling into a look of mild anger. She drops her hooves back to the ground, and prepares again. "I said... Hii-YA!!" she yells louder, giving the tree another buck. A somewhat louder shaking of leaves is heard, before a single apple falls off the tree, hitting Luna right on the head and bouncing onto the grass below. Luna flinches, then stares at the fallen apple. An audible snicker is heard from Applejack, who quickly silences herself with a hoof as Luna glances her direction. The alicorn clenches her teeth then, looking back at the apple tree. "Oh it. Is. ON!" The princess disappears in a blue streak of speed, Applejack blinking and looking around, before noticing her standing a few yards away from the tree. Two streaks of black paint adorn her cheeks, a dark green army helmet on her head, with a convenient hole for her horn to stick through. Luna glares menacingly at the tree, lowering her head and huffing a breath out of her nostrils, scraping a front hoof on the ground. Applejack wants to say something, but she's far too dumbfounded to speak. With a shrill battle cry, Luna gallops full speed toward the tree. Once she gets close, she does a short hop, turning her hinds toward the tree, her front hooves sliding across the ground and slowing her speed. "HIII-YAA!!!" she screams, giving the tree the hardest buck she can muster. Immediately, a rain of apples comes falling from the tree, landing into the buckets placed around the base. Luna gasps and opens her mouth wide in happiness, before yelping as a whole heap of apples falls right on top of her, burying her within a pile of various shades of red. Applejack winces, and trots over to the pile. "Luna, you alright?" she calls out. Luna's head suddenly pops up out of the pile, startling the earthpony. The alicorn blinks a few times, and then squeals in delight. "I did it, YAY!" she exclaims, leaping out of the pile of apples. Applejack just grins and laughs awkwardly. "Yeah, ya' sure did, with a little effort." Luna plucks the helmet off her head, tossing it behind her, the headgear immediately disappearing in a puff of magic smoke. "That was tougher than I thought. You're so tough, Applejack!" she says. The earthpony can feel redness staining her orange cheeks. Before she can answer the compliment, the sound of rusty cart wheels is heard nearby, Applejack turning to see her brother approaching with his own flatbed cart. "Sorry I'm late, sis," he says. Applejack wants to be mad at him, but she shakes it off. "Ain't no trouble, Mac. I got a bit a' help from the princess here," she replies, gesturing at Luna. Luna finishes wiping the paint streaks off her face, looking up to see the new visitor, who regards the royal with a brief bow as he steps away from his cart. "Ooh, who's that, Applejack? He's cute!" she remarks. The colt's eyes go wide, his head turning to the side to glance at nothing in particular, heat radiating from his cheeks. Applejack grins, unseen to him. "This here's my brother, Big Macintosh, finally joining me for the mornin' harvestin'. We can handle it jus' fine from here, miss Luna," she explains. Luna nods several times. "Great! Thanks for the apple-buckin' lesson, Applejack! I'll practice some time and get as good as you, I promise!" she says, her wings extending as she takes flight. Applejack can only chuckle in response, raising her hoof to wave at the departing princess. "Bye now! Y'all come back now, ya' hear?" Luna waves back before zipping through the skies back toward Ponyville, the two siblings watching her go. Applejack reaches up and adjusts her hat, glancing down at the pile of apples Luna left in her wake. "She's a might strange one, if I do say," she comments. "Eeyup." "Twilight, I'm boooorred." The baby dragon whines as he looks up at the unicorn, who is diligently looking over one of her books, the magic from her horn turning a page. "You know I'm trying to make today a study day, Spike. I have nothing for you to do, and you don't need to stay here," Twilight explains. "I know, but I have nothing else to do. Rarity doesn't need me for gem collecting or anything." "Well, what about the Crusaders? Maybe they could use you for another one of their silly little cutie mark schemes." Spike groans loudly. "Ugh, not after their last one. It took two days to wash that color out of my scales," he says with a shudder. Just then, a bell is heard ringing downstairs, signifying someone entering through the front door. Twilight chuckles. "There's something for you to do, Spike. Perhaps somepony would like to check out a book, hm?" Spike stands up at attention and salutes. "I'm on it!" he says, before zipping downstairs. Twilight softly chuckles to herself, eyes continuing to scan over the pages of her book. "Hi Spike! Why do you look so scared?" comes a voice from downstairs. Twilight gasps and lifts her head, her magic nearly pulling her book clear off her desk. "Th-That voice!" The unicorn zips downstairs as well, skidding to a stop near a stunned spike, the two staring at the royal, grinning pony before them. "Hi Twilight!" Luna says. Twilight bows quickly to the princess of night, looking utterly shocked. "P-Princess Luna! What are you doing here? I didn't get a letter from Celestia about this! Oh no, did I miss a letter? Spike, did I get a letter from Celestia?" Twilight rambles. Luna lets out a loud giggle. "She didn't send anything. She doesn't even know I'm here. I'm surprising all of you girls today. So... Surprise!" she explains, rearing up briefly and wiggling her front hooves. Twilight and Spike just stare in shock, glancing at each other briefly, before back to Luna, the alicorn beginning to look around at the nearby shelves full of books. "Ooh, you have so much here. Celestia's is bigger, but this is close, I bet!" Luna remarks. Twilight trots over to Luna's side, swallowing her nervousness and forcing a grin. "Thanks! I get a lot of my books from her, of course. Do you... want to read some?" she asks, one of her books flowing off the shelves. Luna takes a glance at the book and shakes her head. "I've already read that one," she notes. Twilight nods, and then floats it back to the self, bringing another one from nearby and floating it between them. "Well then... How about this one?" "Nope, read that one too!" Luna trots over closer to the shelves, looking across the spines of all the books, seeing all the titles and browsing for one she's never read. "I've read that one, and that one, and that one..." Twilight watches in astonishment. Not even Twilight has read all of these books yet. Luna floats one off the shelf with her magic in order to see the cover, and then shakes her head, magically tossing the book over her shoulder, right into Spike's waiting arms. Spike glances at the book, and then yelps as another lands right on top of it, followed by more and more, all tossed by the princess in her search for something new. "Ooh, I've read this one twice!" The alicorn uses her wings to hover in front of the higher shelves, starting to browse them faster with her string of "and that one"s. Twilight is simply speechless and too stunned to move. Soon enough, Luna gently lands back onto the floor, her face still smiling brightly. "Well, that does it then. I've read all of them. Definitely a fantastic collection!" she compliments. "I... Well... Th-Thank you, Princess Luna!" Twilight replies, the only response she can think of. Luna giggles, and then hears grunting, glancing over and seeing Spike holding up a rather large stack of books, the whole stack shifting about as the dragon is ready to fall over. Luna eeps, her magic stabilizing the stack and lifting several books off of it. "Sorry Spike! I guess I got a little carried away." The alicorn floats the books back toward the shelves, glancing at their names briefly to put them back in their designated spots. "H-Here, let me help," Twilight says, using her own magic to float a book off of Spike's stack. Spike sighs in relief, but still looks a fair bit annoyed, as bit by bit the many books are magically floated away from his arms and back to the shelves. Twilight soon puts the final book in its place, and sighs herself. "There, all done." "Oh, here's one I haven't read before!" Luna suddenly says. Twilight looks over, seeing Luna magically lifting a certain book from a small table near a reading chair, the unicorn's eyes immediately going wide. "'Twilight's Diary'? Yep, definitely a new one," Luna remarks. The hooves of the unicorn mage suddenly yank the book right out of Luna's lifting spell, Twilight clinging the book to her chest obsessively, her face practically solid red. "Th-That's not supposed to be down here! My mistake!" Luna stares at her in confusion, before gasping in sudden realization. "Ohhh... 'Twilight's Diary'! I get it! Twilight, you have a diiiiiary?" she says, her face curling into a mischievous grin. If Twilight could get any redder, she probably would be. She laughs nervously, squeezing her book tighter. "It's just a silly little thing I write in sometimes, it's not important!" she explains. Luna's grin doesn't fade, the princess slowly inching closer to the unicorn. "What do you have written in there, Twilight? Is there a pooooony you like?" the nosey princess asks. Twilight practically squeaks. "Th-That's private, Luna..." Luna lets out a rather girly giggle. "There totally is! You gotta spill the beans, girl!" The unicorn stares at the princess in amazement. She's acting so... girly. Twilight begins to have pleasant flashbacks of her first slumber party, when this sort of attitude came out of her for the first time. She glances around the room, as if looking for prying eyes, even though the only one there besides the two girls is Spike, going through a few of the books on one of the low shelves. She then leans closer to Luna. "Don't tell anypony, okay?" she says, practically whispering. Spike overhears it and perks up, starting to listen in. Luna practically shivers with glee. "I swear I won't!" "Do you Pinkie Pie swear?" Luna opens her mouth to confirm, but instead blinks in confusion. "What's that?" "Oh! N-Nevermind..." Twilight responds, before leaning closer to the princess. Luna's ear perks up as Twilight whispers something into it. Spike tries to listen, but he's too far away to hear the whispering. After a moment, Luna practically squeals. "Oh wow, that's so CUTE!" she says, before breaking out into giggles. Twilight begins to laugh as well, her shyness seeming to fade completely away. "I can't believe I just told somepony that! It feels so... liberating!" she exclaims. Luna quiets herself down and leans toward the unicorn. "Well listen to this! There's this pony at the castle..." she says, before her voice lowers into a whisper into Twilight's ear. Spike once again tries to eavesdrop, but clenches his fists in annoyance when he still can't hear. Twilight's eyes go wide after a moment, her maw dropping when the princess leans back again. "No way!!" she yells, before both girls break out into another gigglefit. Spike shudders greatly, before groaning loudly. "Oh for crying out loud! I'm going somewhere less... girly," he remarks, yanking a book off the shelf and making his way for the stairs. Neither of the girls seem to notice or hear him, the two going back to quiet conversation as Spike climbs up to the second floor. He closes the door at the top of the stairs, just in time for another blast of giggles coming from the two giddy mares. Spike sighs and rubs a paw on his forehead, looking over at Twilight's owl pet Owlowiscious, who appears to have been awoken by the cacophony downstairs. "Hoo!" the owl speaks, emotionless as always. Spike simply shrugs. "You and me both, birdy." "Oh this just won't do! Where did I put my tape measure? My hair clips?!" Rarity scrambles around her boutique, various items floating in the air magically as she looks for various missing items. Princess Luna stands quietly, watching the scrambling unicorn with amusement. Finally she finds what she's looking for, all of the floating items zipping through the air and landing perfectly in their designated spots on her work bench. Rarity then spins around, panting. "W-Welcome to Carousel Boutique!" she states with a bow. Luna laughs softly. "You already said that," she notes. Rarity practically squeaks, her cheeks flush with embarrassment. "Oh dear now I'm repeating myself! This is going so awful!" Luna walks forward a few steps, and softly taps her hoof on Rarity's nose, flashing the shocked unicorn a sweet smile. "Just calm down, Rarity. You're not going to upset me or anything. Really!" Rarity finally stops trembling, taking in a sharp breath, then exhaling heavily. "Alright. Okay. I'm okay." "See, isn't that better?" Rarity forces a smile. "I... apologize nonetheless, Princess. I had today set as a designing day, and I was not expecting many visitors. Let alone visitors of such... high esteem," she explains. The princess waves off her last comment. "Esteem nothing. I'm just a normal pony today." The unicorn eyeraises briefly. "Well... Alright. So then, to what do I owe the honor of your visit today? Are you here to shop? I have many lovely dresses to select from." Luna taps her chin with a hoof, pondering. "Well, not really. I just wanted to visit you, I didn't even think of what I was going to do when I got here," she explains, smiling cheerfully. Rarity stares at the princess in amazement and confusion. "Visit me? W-Well, I don't think I'll be very interesting company today, darling. Work, work, work, you know." "Maybe there's something I can do to help?" Luna asks, clopping her front hooves together excitedly. "Help? Do you share my interest in clothing design, Princess?" Luna ponders some more. "Well, no, but I do wear them sometimes! Can I do that?" Rarity gasps, her eyes seeming to sparkle as a grin stretches across her face. "You want to model for me!?" Luna grins widely and nods several times. "Yeah, let's do that! ...Wait, what does that mean?" The princess then yelps as she's quite literally yanked to a staging area by the incredibly eager unicorn. She finds herself standing on Rarity's personal stage, the unicorn zipping around her form with her measuring tape, seemingly taking measurements of every last part of the alicorn's form. Luna tries to follow the unicorn's movements with her head, eventually letting out a giggle, amused by the frantic activity. Rarity eventually stops and floats her tape away. "Great. You're just the right size! If you were as tall as your sister, then this wouldn't work at all," she surmises, trotting over to her dress area. "Yeah she's so big and regal and awesome! I wish I was as neat as her. She says I will be eventually!" Luna says, her thoughts wandering. She almost doesn't notice several dresses hover above her magically, the alicorn glancing upward just in time for the entire pile to fall on her. Rarity trots back toward the stage then. "These should do just fine!" Luna pops her head out of the top of the pile, and giggles. Rarity looks up and then eeps. "Oh, I'm so sorry, that was terribly rude of me!" Luna's horn then glows as the dresses lift back up into the air, the alicorn giggling. "No worries! Now... What do I do?" Rarity gestures toward the back of her personal stage, where a curtain lies. "Go back there and put on one of the dresses, then trot back out here and show me how it looks. I shall be taking notes," the unicorn explains. Luna looks toward the curtain briefly, then gets a thought. "Ooh, do these dresses come with socks?" she asks. Rarity glances at the royal pony with a look of utter confusion. "Socks? Why would they have socks of all things?" "Because socks are the best!" Luna answers, rearing up once in apparent excitement. The unicorn can't help but stare at the princess, dumbfounded, before shaking her head. "Sorry darling, I hate socks. They are quite... out of style, especially with dresses of all things," she explains. "Aw, that's no fun. I love socks! They keep my hoofsies warm!" "Your... hoofsies? Oof, nevermind all that, darling, let's just focus on the dresses. ... I-If you don't mind, that is, Princess." Luna simply nods happily at the unicorn, the many dresses floating back behind the curtain as the she skips her way behind them. Rarity's face stretches to a gleeful grin, a pad & pencil magically floating in front of her face. "Ooh I can't believe Princess Luna is modeling my dresses for me!" she says to herself, practically squealing in excitement. After a few moments, the curtains fly open magically, the princess trotting her way forward, wearing a white & purple multilayer dress, dotted with blue gemstones along the hems. Rarity's pencil writes something on her pad, the unicorn glancing back and forth between Luna and her notes, before abruptly stopping once she fully realizes what Luna is wearing. It's a dress that's modeled after herself! "You wore that one first?" the unicorn asks. Luna raises her chin up in a pose. "I thought it was fitting!" The two girls share a laugh, Rarity making a few more notes before nodding, Luna trotting back behind the curtain. One by one, Luna tries on several of the dresses Rarity chose, strutting them before the designer unicorn: a bright yellow summer dress; a black evening wear ensemble; a red ballroom gown; a gem-encrusted multicolor ensemble; and a sky blue streamer dress. With each dress, Luna's strutting gets more pronounced & dance-like, fully embracing the showoff aspect of walking the catwalk. Rarity continues to furiously take notes after each dress, though she stops when she notices Luna's current dress. "Oh! That one isn't finished yet," she notes. Luna headtilts. "Oh? Is that why my wings are actually out?" she asks, flexing her wings out briefly. "Oh, no, that dress is just inspired by pegasus ponies. It's not finished though, the streamers are too loose." "What do you mean the- eep!" Luna gets cut off when she steps on one of the fabric streams hanging from the dress and nearly trips. Rarity gasps loudly, but Luna manages to keep her balance. "Ick! Dumb fabric!" the alicorn remarks. Rarity suppresses her laughter, believing it would be quite inappropriate. "You may want to change out of that one," she says. Luna uses her magic to raise the loose strips of fabric, and giggles softly. "Agreed," she says, trotting back behind the curtain. Rarity goes through her notes after a few more dresses, and then hears Luna squeal in glee from behind the curtain. The unicorn eyeraises, and waits a moment, before seeing Luna parade out in a beautiful white ballroom gown, adorned with multicolored gems and images of the sun. "A Celestia dress? It's so beautiful, Rarity!" Luna says. Rarity can feel her cheeks redden, the unicorn letting out a nervous laugh. "Oh, well, I am simply flattered, your highness. It's just an experiment." "I bet my sister would love it. I'm gonna tell her all about it! ... Oh! You should totally make a Luna dress too! I'd love it!" Rarity's face positively glows. "Oh... I think I feel faint..." Luna laughs a little and trots back behind the curtain again, Rarity sighing in delight and looking over her notes. "Well it looks like you got through them all, Princess. I must say you're a fantastic model!" "All of them? There's one more back here," Luna says from behind the curtain. Rarity blinks a few times. She's sure Luna wore every dress she picked out. She hears the curtain move again as Luna comes out in a somewhat gaudy, poofy green dress that Rarity had forgotten was back in that area of the boutique. The unicorn winces. "Oh dear, I think Fluttershy wore that during the whole Photo Finish nightmare..." Luna struts and wiggles her hips, smiling at the unicorn. "What?" Rarity waves off her comment with her hoof. "Oh, nothing at all darling, don't worry about it." Luna just shrugs and bounces on the stage a little. "Gonna take any notes? How does it look?" Rarity awkwardly chuckles. "I don't think green is your color..." Luna stares in awe at the many colorful treats that adorn the display cases in Sugarcube Corner. "This is the most colorful place ever! I wish the castle looked like this," she remarks aloud. The utterly stunned Mr. & Mrs. Cake stand nearby, still bowed down in the presence of their royal visitor. "We do our best, yes we do! Only the best!" Mrs. Cake remarks. Luna can't help but giggle. "Oh stand up, you silly fillies. You don't need to be so formal!" "Filly?" Mr. Cake comments in confusion as the two stand straight. "Nevermind it, Carrot! S-So what brings you here, your highness? Do you bring business? Some kind of royal message? Yes?" Mrs. Cake asks, sweating in sheer nervousness. "No, nothing like that. I'm just here to see Pinkie!" Luna explains. As if Luna had cast a spell, a blazing streak of pink comes flying through the kitchen doors, stopping right next to the princess. "Did somepony say my name?!" Pinkie asks excitedly, facing the Cakes. She stares at the two rather nervous-looking caretakers of the restaurant for a second, before looking to her side, seeing the grinning princess. "Hi Pinkie!" Luna says. Pinkie makes a rather loud gasp, seeming to float in midair during it, before landing back on the ground in a bow to the royal visitor. "Omigosh, omigosh! Princess Luna! It is sooooo cool that you're here! I haven't seen you since that one day in the forest! You were a lot more evil-looking, though. Until we hit you with a biiiig rainbow, and then Celestia appeared, and then I think cried waterfalls out of my eyes. I don't even know how I did that!" Luna listens to the excited pony ramble, responding with a laugh. "It's certainly been a while, hasn't it? I've already seen all your friends today." "Ooh, my friends? How cool! What a surprise, I like surprises! I bet they were all freaked out and all shaking in their horseshoes like Mr. and Mrs. Cake." Luna glances over at the two caretakers once they're mentioned, noticing now just how much the two of them are indeed shaking. Pinkie continues to speak. "I'm used to surprises, though. I do them all the time. I'm the Queen of surprises! Or... is that Princess? Yeah, I think that sounds better." The alicorn laughs again, this time somewhat awkwardly. "What were you up to, Pinkie? I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I've had a bad habit of that today!" "Interrupting? A princess never interrupts! I'm just here making some cupcakes, and-" Pinkie suddenly cuts herself off with a huge gasp, "Cupcakes! You can help me make cupcakes! Royal ones, YAY!" Luna then yelps as she's quite literally yanked into the kitchen by another super speedy pink streak, the doors rattling as they fly right through them. The Cakes stare in stunned silence at the proceedings. "I think we better stay out of this one..." Mr. Cake eventually comments. "T-Tell us if you need anything, dears!" Mrs. Cake calls out to the kitchen, just in case. Now in the kitchen, Luna glances around at all the dishware and ingredients that are already out, Pinkie soon dropping a big floppy chef's hat on top of the princess' head. "There. Now you're Luna, Princess of Chefs! Or just Chef Luna for short. Now you're ready to make the best royal cupcakes of all time!" Luna flashes the excitable pony an awkward grin. "I guess so, but I've never done this before, Pinkie," Luna notes. Pinkie's jaw drops almost straight to the floor. "You've never baked before? Ever? Ever ever?" Pinkie asks, leaning closer to the princess with every question. Luna leans backward slightly. "Well we have our own chefs to do all the cooking at the palace, you know," she explains. "Well yoooou're in luck! Mrs. Cake is the best cupcake maker in all of Equestria, and I'm her faithful student!" Pinkie says, posing proudly. "So you'll teach me how to make cupcakes then?" Luna asks with an eager grin. "You betcha! I got just the song that'll do it!" Pinkie says, starting to bob herself back and forth. Just as she opens her mouth to sing, something whizzes by her ear, which turns out to be a magically floating book. "You also have a recipe book! This should be perfect," Luna notes. Pinkie blinks a few times, and then laughs. "Aw, but that thing isn't nearly as catchy!" she says. Luna ignores that comment, magically flipping through the pages and finding the cupcake spot. "Two and one-quarter cups flour, one and one-third cups sugar... Wait, flowers? Cupcakes have flowers?" she asks, confused. Pinkie lets out the most squealish of giggles. "No, you silly filly! This stuff!" she says, suddenly brandishing a bag of flour. Luna notes the spelling on the bag, and laughs. "Ohh, I get it! ... I think." The alicorn watches Pinkie zip around the kitchen briefly, piling up several culinary ingredients all over the work table, along with two bowls, one of which is already filled with a couple of the ingredients. "Here's what I had going before you got here. Just follow the recipe and get cups & teaspoons of each ingredient, and it'll look like mine!" Pinkie explains. "Okay! I'll try my best! Let's see... Cups and spoons. Those are right here!" she says, floating some utensils over to her. Pinkie works on her own cupcakes to the side, taking glances at the princess' progress while humming her cupcake song. Luna manipulates the cups and spoons through the various ingredients, dumping them into her bowl. She fails to notice two important things: her measuring cups are 2-cups tall, and her spoons are tablespoons, not teaspoons. After a few moments, she believes she has all the ingredients, but the earthpony nearby pipes up. "Don't forget the salt! But juuust a pinch!" Luna headtilts at the comment, but then notices the recipe calls for half a teaspoon. She nods to herself and floats some salt over, carefully watching one of her tablespoons as she pours it in. She pays too much attention to the spoon to notice she didn't grab the salt at all. Once everything is in order, Pinkie slides a mixing machine over to her, already set to medium. The two mix their bowls together at once, Luna giggling from the sound of the dual mechanical mixers, Pinkie joining her in the joyous cacophony. Once the mixing is done, Pinkie zips around briefly, twirling two cupcake pans on her hooves and dropping them onto the tables. With Pinkie's assistance with measurement, Luna magically pours her mixture into the cupcake pan's openings. "Alright! Then it's off to the ovens! I already have them preheated!" Pinkie says. The earthpony zips over and opens the ovens, Luna grinning as she magically floats both cupcake pans into the ovens, Pinkie giving the oven doors a soft buck to close them. "Now we just wait!" Luna giggles and clops her front hooves together. "This is so fun! What's next?" The princess follows the pink pony over to one of the cupboards, featuring all sorts of colorful confections. "Well now we gotta decide what frosting is going to be on them! This is always the hardest part, I tell ya!" Pinkie says, giggling afterward. The two start discussing colors and designs, Luna leaning toward the various shades of blue that she finds. Pinkie, to no surprise of the alicorn, loves pink. After several minutes of discussion, Luna suddenly quiets, her ears perking up. Pinkie realizes the princess isn't speaking, and also quiets down, hearing an odd noise. The two turn to see one of the ovens is shaking around; the oven Luna's pan went into. "Uh-oh... That's not supposed to happen!" Pinkie says. "What is it? What's wrong?" Luna asks. "Something with the ingredients. What did you do, Princess?" The two trot back to the ingredient table, Luna magically lifting her utensils. "I used cups and teaspoons, just like the recipe said!" Pinkie gasps loudly. "Luna! Those cups are double-sized! And those aren't teaspoons, those are tablespoons!" Luna blinks a few times, and then grins nervously. "There's a difference...?" Pinkie looks around Luna's work area, and then lets out another loud gasp, lifting an open ingredient packet off of it. "You didn't use THIS, did you?" she asks, a frightened look in her eyes. "You mean the salt...?" "This isn't salt! This is yeast!!" Just as she says that, the door of the oven opens loudly, cupcake batter beginning to swell right out of it, causing the two girls to scream, Luna's chef hat flying off her head. Over at the entrance doors, the Cakes poke their heads in, and then shoot their eyes wide open, retreating back to the safety of the rest of the shop. Pinkie scrambles backward and watches the swelling batter of death get bigger and bigger. "Gyaah what do I do, what do I do?!" she says, panicky. Luna stares at the monstrosity, and then gets an idea. "I... I can still fix it!" she says, her horn glowing. Pinkie can only watch as Luna fires a spell at the giant batter, which glows brightly for a few moments, before there's an explosion of magic and foodstuffs. Once everything quiets down, Mr. and Mrs. Cake peek back into the room, seeing a giant pile of unfrosted cupcakes all over the floor. After a moment, Luna and Pinkie's heads come popping out of the pile, surveying the damage. They then look at each other for a few seconds, before laughing hysterically. "Wow, that really did fix it, Luna!" Pinkie says, chomping down on a few cupcakes. "I have a real knack for getting buried in things today," Luna remarks. "Mmmff... They don't taste too bad either!" Pinkie says, after a big swallow. Luna floats one over to her mouth, and takes a bite, chewing for a few moments before smiling brightly. "They ARE tasty!" she says excitedly. "You're so awesome, Luna! Omigosh, I can't believe I got to eat ROYAL cupcakes! Right here in my o-" Pinkie cuts herself off with a loud gasp, "I know what this calls for!!" "A PARTY!" Pinkie yells, inviting the guests in. Luna's not really sure how much time had passed. She was occupied with all those muffins she exploded all over the Sugarcube kitchen, and before she knew it, an entire party was organized for her in the shop's main area, with decorations and all, various guests flowing into the area. "Wow, Pinkie. How long did this take you?" she asks. Pinkie is silent in thought for a moment, before grinning widely. "I don't know, I didn't keep track!" she says. Luna glances around at the ponies in attendance, and notices something very special: they're all wearing wreaths of blue, violet, & white flowers around their necks. Luna's eyes sparkle. "My flowers!" "Flowers? Oh yeah! Well I had to throw a 'Princess Luna in Ponyville' party, but I can't fit aaaall of Ponyville in here, so I went around looking for guests and I saw all these ponies wearing pretty flowers that reminded me of you! So I was like, 'Do you want to come to the Princess Luna in Ponyville party?' and they were like 'Yesyesyesyesyesyes'!" Pinkie explains, starting to bounce around the princess. Luna just grins widely, watching the pink pony bounce around her. "It's perfect!" "It's not perfect until we show up," a voice suddenly says. Luna glances over to the front doors to see a grinning Rainbow Dash, trotting her way inside, soon followed by Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. "Dashie! And everypony else! You all came, yay!" Luna says, bouncing up and down like Pinkie was. "Well of course we did! It was inevitable that Pinkie would throw a Princess Luna party," Twilight explains. "After all the fun we had today with your surprise visits, it would be simply dreadful if we didn't show up for it," Rarity adds. Luna stops bouncing and seems to shake in happiness. "You're all the very best!" Her comment gets a line of shy smiles from the four ponies. "Don't forget this, Luna!" Pinkie suddenly says. Luna turns to see a multilayer table full of cupcakes, specifically the ones Luna had made, all done up with dark blue frosting & white sprinkles to resemble a starry night. Luna's smile couldn't get any bigger. "My cupcakes! ... Wait, you set them all up right behind me?" "Yep!" Pinkie says, not explaining further. The princess considers inquiring further, but decides some things are best left unknown, and instead observes the crowd of party guests huddling around the cupcakes. "Did you make all of those, Luna?" Fluttershy asks. "Are they good?" Applejack asks, somewhat skeptical, considering who made the treats. Luna giggles, her horn glowing as four cupcakes float over to ponies. "They're great, I promise!" The ponies grasp onto their cupcakes and take a nice big bite, all four immediately perking up with delighted eyes. "They ARE good!" Twilight exclaims. Pinkie suddenly zips in between the her friends & the princess, her maw smeared with blue frosting. "Now the gang's all here! It's time to PARTY!" she says, loud and eagerly. "Of course, Pinkie, but we're missing something that every good party should have!" Luna says, trotting her way over to the store's front counter. The girls watch the princess curiously, as she uses her magic once more, a small mechanical device blinking into existence above the counter. "Uh... What's that?" Dash asks. "It's my music player!" Luna answers. A small cacophony of 'What?'s and 'Huh?'s sound out from the ponies and the invited guests. "That little thing plays music?" Applejack asks. Luna looks at her device, noticing the small headphones she was using earlier are still attached. "Whoops! My mistake." With another flash of magic, the headphones suddenly warp into decently-sized speakers, sitting down onto the counter gently. The crowd of pony onlookers continue to stare in amazement. Luna giggles, definitely enjoying how mesmerized they are, turning herself in their direction with a wide grin. "Any of you ever heard of DJ Pon3?" she says, before a quick blink of magic activates the music player. The speakers immediately fill the room with intense party music, further shocking the surprised ponies in attendance. Their shock & awe soon turns into jubilation, as the invited guests begin to dance among themselves. Luna slides past the Element girls to the middle of the dance floor, planting her hooves down and shaking her hips. "Come now, girls, it's party time!" she yells out. Pinkie Pie immediately squeals and leaps to the dancing princess' side, joining her with her own wacky moves. Twilight glances at her friends, before shrugging and happily trotting into the fray as well, Applejack & Rarity close behind. Dash has to pull the shy yellow pegasus into the group, but after a few moments pass, even Fluttershy finds herself breaking out of her shell and dancing. The entire group of partying ponies willingly falls under Luna's happiness 'spell,' cries of jubilation sounding out to the room's air as the hours go by. The last of the invited guests begin to file out of Sugarcube Corner, most of their flower wreaths having worn down from all the action. "I think we're going to need another bath house treatment tomorrow, Lyra," Bon-Bon states. "You said it," Lyra replies, as the two slowly trot away. Luna and her friends take a step out into fresh air as well, fatigue evident on all of them, even Luna herself. "Oh Celestia... I've never danced that much in my life!" Twilight remarks. "I reckon I won't dance that much ever again," Applejack says. "How long was it exactly?" Rarity asks. Luna looks to the sky above. "Long enough." The girls look at her, and then glance upward as well, seeing a dark shade of orange pervade the entire sky. Twilight and her friends gasp. "We danced the entire party, all the way to night time?" Dash says, stunned. "It's not quite night time... but we're just in time for it to start," Luna remarks, looking toward the girls with a grin. They all know what that means. Luna takes a few steps forward, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes, her wings extending and her horn glowing in a way the girls haven't seen before; a bright, ghostly white color. They all glance upward, the orange color of the sky whisking away, fading gradually into the midnight blue color of night time. The princess begins to hover into the sky, her entire body seeming to glow with her special magic, as something begins to peek over the horizon. None other than the gorgeous light of the full moon makes itself known, the ever-so-bright celestial body rising into the sky by Luna's will, taking its place perfectly above Ponyville and leaving stars appearing in its wake. Once it stops in Luna's desired position, a literal explosion of stars fans out from it, spreading across the entire night sky, dotting Ponyville and all of Equestria in more bits of light. The girls glance all over the sky at what stars they can see, mesmerized, before turning their gazes back to the princess as she slowly lowers back to the ground. Her hooves touch down, and her magic fades, the princess exhaling sharply and opening her eyes again to see the amazed ponies, now facing them. They stare for a few moments with shining eyes. "That... was beautiful..." Fluttershy softly says, breaking the silence. "Th-Thank you for showing us that, Princess." Twilight says. "No, thank all of you. I know it was so intrusive of me just showing up uninvited to all of your homes, but you were all so kind, and so fun to be around! Now I know why Celestia speaks so highly of her Elements," Luna says, with a wink. The girls can't help but glance at each other, smiling brightly from the compliments, before turning back to face Luna once more as she speaks some more. "It was so... liberating, just letting go and being myself around all of you. This was the best day ever!" she exclaims. "I know I've heard that before!" Dash remarks. Luna's grin couldn't be wider. "And if this has been the best day ever, then that makes this... the best night ever!" "Yep, that's another one we've heard before," Twilight states. Luna practically squeals with delight, trotting forward and surprising Twilight with a firm kiss on her cheek. As soon as it ends, the purple unicorn is left with a bright red face and a wreath of flowers having magically appeared on her neck. Before the others can react, they too receive the smooch treatment from the gleeful princess, leaving behind a whole group of six red faces and six flower necklaces. "You're the best friends a princess could ever have!" The alicorn trots a few steps away from the group. "Thank you again, and may you all have a beautiful night," she says, her wings extending out once more. The group of girls snap out of their momentary stupor, all raising their hooves and verbally saying their goodbyes as Luna takes off flying into the night sky. After a moment, they go silent, Applejack rubbing her face with her hoof. "Did we all just get kissed by a princess?" she utters, still somewhat in disbelief. "Princess Luna is an... interesting girl," Fluttershy remarks. "You mean she's totally weird, right?" Dash asks. "I didn't say that..." Fluttershy answers, although it's obvious that's what she was thinking. "No girls, don't you see? She's just so happy!" Pinkie chimes in. Rarity stops admiring her pretty flower necklace to eyeraise at Pinkie. "Happy?" "Yes, Rarity. She's happy to have a life again, back out in the world, as the bringer of night. She's accepted by her sister and all of us ponies here in Equestria, who give our blessings and friendship to her every night. I know I assumed like all of you that one thousand years trapped in the moon would have done terrible things to her psyche, but... it looks like we were very wrong," Twilight explains. The other girls look at each other, eventually smiling warmly as they come to understand the truth in Twilight's words. "Well I don't know about y'all, but I could pass out on a bale a' hay right about now," Applejack remarks. Dash giggles. "I think we all could, AJ." "Then let's call it a beautiful night, girls! Party over!" Pinkie says. The girls say their goodnights to each other and begin to drift apart. Rarity glances over at Twilight. "So how big do you think this letter to Celestia is going to be?" she asks. "I don't think I will be writing one this time, Rarity," Twilight answers. "Oh? Well why not?" Twilight glances up at the bright moon, seeing the last hint of Luna's presence disappear in the distance. "I think Celestia's going to get enough of an earful tomorrow." THE END MLP:FiM and all Characters/Locations Copyright © Hasbro & Lauren Faust Characters/Locations used without permission ~ Scy

RayneTheSkunk

502

Apple Bloom,Gilda,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Need For Speed: Friendship Pursuit

RD and Applejack move to Dockview. Raindbow Dash to be a street racer. Applejack to be a cop.

cancelled

<p>Rainbow Dash a racer from the small rural town of Ponyville moves to Dockview for the racing challenge of her life time. She's going to be the very best racer the world has ever seen and become the most wanted.<br/>On the other hoof<br/>Applejack and her family just moved to Dockview after their crop burned down do to some racer stunt. Angry the whole family join the DVSPD (Dockview Speeder Police Department) to stop all the racers who ruin other people's lives.</p><p>(image by pedro992)</p>

everyone

2011-09-15T10:20:25+00:00

2011-09-15T10:20:25+00:00

Need for Speed Friendship Pursuit Racer Story DAY 1 Excitement Welcome to Dockview, a playground for street racers. From the long winding roads and scenery of the county to the traffic and back alleys of the city, racers have turned the whole area into their personal colosseum. Racing the fastest and most powerful cars on the market. With heavy crime comes heavy police enforcement. The DVSPD, Dockview Speeder Police Department, was made just to confront these bad boys. Cops armed with top of the line cars and equipment. Nothing will stop them from busting their targets. The worlds best racers versus the worlds best cops. Bad ponies and good ponies fight to conquer the dangerous roads of Dockview! Rainbow Dash flicked off her T.V. “I hate cop shows.” Rainbow lived in a small apartment on the east side of Dockview. Funnily enough it was those cop shows that brought her here. The pegasus Rainbow Dash used to live in a rural middle of nowhere town called Ponyville. There was no pleasure for her back on those roads. Every street there was to plain to feel the true fun of speeding . She needed the best to prove she was the best. She saw Dockview chases on T.V. and knew she had to be one of those racers. Rainbow got all money she had and hopped a plane to Dockview. Got a new apartment, a new car, and a new career. It was the start of the best action filled chapter of her life. The pegasus showered, ate breakfast, and all that other morning stuff. She stepped outside her apartment and took in the city air, smog and fast-food. For her that was a thousand times better then dumb old clean air. Parked in the lot of her new apartment was her first new car. A Porsche Boxster Spyder . It was the same shade of blue as her coat. Rainbow had a tendency to be lucky. There happened to be a race being held specifically to test that car and she managed to get one for free just so she could race it. This city was definitely on her side. Pony cars weren’t the same as the ones for the bipedal. The pedals were rounded and the steering wheel had two large grooves for hooves to be inserted. Rainbow Dash’s first race was in about two hours, down at Dockview county’s coast. That wouldn’t be a problem in this roadster. She felt confident driving down the street in a car that would make any stallion green with envy. Her hoof was just dieing to push that peddle all the way down just to see how fast she could go. She knew better though as much as she wanted to speed it had to wait till it was time to race. Getting busted now would just ruin everything. The traffic didn't help her. In Ponyville there was never traffic. Then she learned her first lesson about the city, traffic sucks. Thanks to the stupid traffic it really did take rainbow about two hours to get there. Once she was into the county though things were much better for her. The long open roads were perfect for her to speed on with out any problems. There was the occasional car, but they were all easy to just move around. The coast of Dockview was a beautiful sight. Sandy cliffs and trees overlooking the vast clean ocean. The bright sun shined down on the already bright scenery. The racers didn’t just come here for speed they came here for beauty She saw four of the other racers waiting at the start. Dash parked on the right side of the road. Dash stepped out the car and glanced over the other ponies. She turned her head forward to find a frighteningly pink earth pony right in front of her. “Are you naked?” the pink pony examined Rainbow’s body. Dash looked down her self. “You must not be around here because I know everypony and I mean everypony in the loop.” The pony was all smiles and bubbles. She also lacked the concept of personal space. Rainbow dash looked at the pony in front of her then the rest. They were all wearing clothes. Shirts, jackets, pants, and skirts. In Ponyville clothes were only a burden. The pink pony was dressed in a green and black checkered shirt. It added a retro look to the young mare. “Is there a problem with me being naked? I mean it’s not like ponies need them!” Dash responded “No it's just strange,” she continued to glance over Rainbow's structure, “Light,” she remarked “That should help you out a lot!” This mare was loud, very obnoxiously loud. It took Dash a moment to realize the pony had been checking her out for the last minute, “Hey!”Dash pushed the mare onto her back, “I’m not here to be anypony’s eye candy.” The mare giggled and got right back up. “Silly filly. I’m not looking at you like that," Pinkie bounced back onto her hooves, "You have to know the ponies your up against. How their car is built and how they are built you understand. My name’s Pinkie Pie! What’s yours?” “Dash. Rainbow Dash! I moved here from Ponyville a week ago.” Pinkie Pie’s ears perked. “Ponyville?! That’s really far away from here do you have farms,” Dash gave a some what scared nod “,OMG I knew it! Hey have you heard the theory that music makes you better at everything,” Dash shook her head, “Oh than listen to this while you drive. These cars don’t have radios.” Pinkie gave dash a rainbow colored MP3 player. It had about 20 songs in it with space for a lot more. “Isn’t this yours? I can get my own.” Dash tried to give it back. Pinkie refused. “I have plenty more where that came from,” Pinkie showed dash a bag with about twenty different MP3 players in it, “Just trust me music makes you better at everything.” Dash put the ear bud’s into her ears. They fit pretty well. Suddenly everyone was getting back in their cars. Dash turned to see that the last racer was pulling in. She hopped back into her roadster and strapped up. It was time to start this. These things always started one of two ways. All the drivers meet on the road while driving or they met at a designated starting point. The drivers all revved their engines ready to race. No flag girl, no gun, no countdown they just knew when it was time to go. Dash took the few seconds she had before they started to turn on her new music player. ♪Edge of the Earth♪ Time was up. The race was officially on. They let go of their breaks and they were off. Rainbow dash started in 5th she always liked starting in the back It was more of a challenge. In about ten seconds flat she was at 100mph., but this car could go much faster. She made sure drive on the wrong side of the road. All the cars where equipped with an arcane magic system that charged if you drove dangerously. Slip streaming, wrong lanes, nearly crashing, drifting, taking short cuts, but the best charge was taking down a cop. Rainbow easily weaved between the racers in front of her. Now she just had to deal with the pony in first. Dash tagged behind the driver as they drove through the sandy cliff side road. Through her rear view mirror Dash could see the late racer pulling in behind her. The third place car was black and the tinted windows kept her from seeing the driver. Of course it didn't matter much who the opponents as long as they lost. Dash tried to block off the racer behind her as they sped on a straight patch of the road. The cars where nearing top speed and dash still wasn't close enough to passing into first. The lead racer jerked her car into the right lane. The racer was replaced with a commuter heading her way. Dash panicked swerving her car into the road railing. Her car slowed as it grid against the rails. Dash growled as the other racer passed her. Dash yanked the car back onto the rode immediately punching down on the nitrous. The wind raged against her face as she accelerated up the incline. The Boxster hit top speed at 166mph. The road changed into a downhill path as she passed the peak of the hill. Dash drafted behind the white racer who was now in second place. Looking to her left dash noticed a short bridge. Next to the bridge was a small path that lead under and around the bridge. Using the draft and momentum Dash closed the gap between her and second place. The cliff made a heavy curve ahead of them. Dash stuck to the left side of the road as she forced the car into a hard drift. Dash held her hoof above the nitrous ready to boost out of the turn. As soon as the turn finished her short cut was ready. Dash hit the nitrous and crashed through the wooden barrier. The dirt path went right under the bridge. The moment of racing alone didn't last long. Dash exited the shortcut popping on the right lane of the other side of the bridge. The short cut didn't do much, but she passed the white racer. Her opponent didn't give up. She stayed close behind Dash. The road turned back into an incline. They made a clean right turn that revealed a tunnel before them. Dash stuck to the left lane as she entered the tunnel. The cars lights turned on in darkness. A heavy large truck was heading her way. Dash grew a devilish grin. She kept speeding towards the truck till she was as close as possible. Once the car and the truck was grill to grill she whipped the car into the right lane. Dash cringed as she herd the horrified painful scream of the other racer. Dash tried to ignore that she probably just killed a pony. She turned up the music. “Stand out on the edge of the earth! Dive into the Center of fame!” Dash came speeding out the tunnel. The was a four way interception outside the tunnel. She pulled hard on the emergency break making a left turn. She slid perfectly through the merge into the next street. As she exited the turn she used the half a tank of nitrous the road turned back into a downhill slope. She could see the racer ahead her in a black Boxster.Dash chased her down the curving hill determined to pass her. Dash was ready to pass her and leave her in her dust. Just a tiny bit closer and first place was hers. Dash hit top speed at 166mph, but she dared to push it harder. Dash cranked it up to eleven using the nitrous to push the car into 174. Rainbow was about to whip her way into first the racer disappeared into a dirt road to the beach! Before dash could realize the racer just took a short cut it was too late for her to follow. Out of nitrous the Boxster slowed back down to the 166mph range. Dash heard another racer coming up. Dash positioned herself in front of the racer to block. Dash looked at her rear view mirror. It was Pinkie Pie! The mare still had the big shining smile from earlier. “Hey Dash! Real shame about that short cut huh? I can’t believe I missed it I know this place so well.” The two were grill to bumper on a curving bridge above the beach. Pinkie dangerously hung her head over the edge “Hey you can see him down there. He’s down there driving in the sand.” “What the hell do you think your doing !” The two went into a hard right turn “We can’t talk in the middle of a race!” Dash panicked losing her grip on the wheel. Dash lost her perfect drift and slammed against the walls of the road. Pinkie passed her up laughing. “I guess we’ll talk later then!” Even though Pinkie hardly seemed to pay much attention to the road she had no problem driving. She made her drifts and turns with ease even while she was just staring at the clouds. Dash watched her from behind as she tried her best to get ahead on the bridge. The sight of a pony taking a the sport so lightly was almost aggravating. For a pony to drive so well with out even seeming to care. It was as if Pinkie was mocking her for trying so hard. The two of them where just a tiny bit away from getting off the bridge. Dash heard something to her right. It was the black Boxster coming up on a hill to the right of the bridge. The path led up the hill into some sort of light construction site. There was a small room of opportunity for dash to slide her way into the new route. Luckily Pinkie was already on it. Dash copied Pinkie’s movements as the two of them made their way through the narrow opening. Dash looked at her increasing nitrous meter. It was rising near the top. It was boostin’ time! She slammed the nitrous button and moved in. There was little room for maneuvering in this small short cut but there was a turn. As Pinkie drifted into the turn Dash did the same with the nitro fired up. She slammed into her pink rival pushing her out of the way. The attack slowed dash down a bit, but there was still nitrous left as she got back onto the road. Pinkie behind her the black racer in front of her. All the others where just cars in the back. There was one mile left to the finish line. Dash drove in the left lane as she watched her nitrous fill. There wasn’t much time left. She hit what was left of her boost juice. She was dashing right behind her target. She could see the head of the driver. That’s when Rainbow dash noticed something weird. “Feathers?” She said to herself. Whoever was driving that car wasn’t a pony. She shook the thought out of her head. Dash tried to move past. As Dash tried to maneuver around the non-pony, she saw Pinkie closing in from the rear view mirror. She just realized Pinkie saved all of her nitrous from drifting for just now. Then she realized the another thing. She never saw this, whatever it is, use it’s nitrous either. Just as dash realized the car in front of her boosted forward out of her reach. At this point she could see the finish line. The creature was too far to catch of too and pinkie was already right next to her. Rainbow took a deep breath and did the last thing she could resort to. She grabbed the wheeled and swung the car into pinkie. Pinkie simply giggled. “You wanna play rough?” Pinkie slammed back. Rainbow dash was forced into the parking lot of the store near the finish line. Pinkie waved and hit the bit of nitrous she had left. The creature came in first, Pinkie was second. Rainbow hurried up finishing third. Everyone else didn’t matter. The racer in the black car drove off immediately after winning. Pinkie stuck around couple yards from the finish line. Dash parked next to her. “Hey, um when do I get my money? I still get a prize for third, right?” Rainbow Dash leaned over the car door. “Oh don’t worry it gets sent to you over night. The mystery pony who runs the Loop some how watches every race that ever happens. You know for your first Dockview race you did awesome.” Rainbow Dash's act went into smug mode. “Well I was the best in Ponyville.” Dash cringed as crash played in her eardrums. She realized the ear buds from Pinkie’s MP3 player were still in her ears. “Oh and your music theory may have helped a bit too.” Pinkie smiled. “You’re a seriously crazy pony to try talking during a race though.” “Well I like to get to know everypony. Some ponies call me Pinkie the Party. I just call myself Pinkie and I’ll call you Dashie.” Rainbow snorted at the nick name. “Hey,I have a lot of connections and I know the city like the back of my hoof! I can show you around.” Dash smiled “Sure that sounds great!” The two drove around the county and the city for the rest of the day. They had small mini-races between each other. Pinkie being the victor of most of them. Pinkie proved she can run her mouth as good as she could run a car. Her nonstop talking was more than a bit annoying, but it was also pretty entertaining. The two parked at a gas station to refuel. “Hey Pinkie how do you drive so well with out paying attention?” Dash had no idea why she waited so long to ask that question. “Well” Pinkie thought about it for a second “Well, I guess it’s my style.” She laughed “I know my track and I know my racers or at least most of them. I just don’t worry and let loose. Party! Keeping it fun and all.” Dash laughed. It sounded ridiculous, but at the same time it made a tiny bit of sense some where."Hey umm. Have you ever killed a pony before in a race?" Pinkie stared at the night sky her smile turning into a more thoughtful expression. "I don't like to think I killed anyone, but I probably have. Racers can be so stubborn sometimes when they want to win." She turned back to a grin "Plus plenty of ponies die in these whether I participate or not anyway right? No need for me to worry about it! I'm just lucky to be one of the ones alive." Dash thought about the pony she made crash. She had no idea whether they died or not. She decided it was better to change the subject and pretend the pony lived “So did you notice that person that won wasn’t a pony?” Pinkie nodded “Hmmm I wonder, maybe she was a weasle!” “She had feathers.” Dash replied before laughing at the colorful assumption. “I think she was something called a griffon, half lion half eagle.” Pinkie Pie jumped “Uh, Pinkie?” “ Speaking of really weird things there is someone I have got to show you in the city!” Pinkie slid across the hood of the car and flipped into her seat. “Follow me!” Not to be out done by an earth pony Dash back flipped into her seat and drove after Pinkie. Pinkie led her to a huge night club. The unst unst unst could be heard from three blocks down. The club was covered in neon lights and sparklers. In front was a long rectangular fountain the that shot several jets of water. The bright light’s made it seem as though the water was glowing. “Come on this is the best place party. It’s also the best place to get cars and stuff” Pinkie took her shirt off revealing a smaller one made mostly of straps and strings. It would have been revealing if ponies actually had something to reveal. “It’s party clothes.” . The concept of fashion was lost on Rainbow, but she understood party and cars. Inside the club was even brighter. Bright multicolored lights flashed everywhere. The music was hyper, repetitive and base heavy. Ponies wore illuminated cloths and swung glow sticks. The brightest part was the stage were the neon maned DJ played. Even with all the colors everywhere everything else was black and dark. The walls, the floors, the tables. It was the strangest contrast of the darkest abyss and the brightest rainbows Dash has ever seen. Dash has just stepped up to city parties. “Dashie Over here!” Pinkie waved to her from the crowd. Rainbow did her best to find Pinkie amongst the mob of partiers. “Good you found me. Now this tall black beauty next to me is Luna.” Luna was definitely taller than most ponies, but that wasn't what made her special. She was an alicorn. She had the powerful wings of a pegaus and the elegant horn of a unicorn. “Hi. You must be the new racer that has Pinkie so impressed.” Luna had a charming beautiful smile. Dash blushed under her fur. “Uhhh, hi. I’m Rainbow Dash.” She couldn’t help, but stare at such a strange pony. Such strong lustrous wings and a powerful horn to go with them. It was something other ponies wished to be. Luna wore darker cloths than the others. She wore a dark purple dress that draped over her body and sparkled whenever the light hit it. “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to stare.” “ It’s okay for a filly to stare at a pony as hot as me.” Luna turned around in place showing each delicate trained curve in her body.Pinkie jabbed a hoof into her. “Luny don’t tease her! Dashie, she’s just full of herself.” Dash tried looking Luna in the eyes, but her eyes kept wandering back to Luna’s wings. “Dash she’s not here to be eye candy.” Pinkie snorted a laugh “Luna’s my car supplier. I convinced her to put you on the list.” “ Mhm I got all the best cars in Dockview. Of course I can’t offer them all to you. I’ll give you a few starters though since Pinkie likes you.” Luna pulled a cell phone out of her dress. She levitated to her mouth tapping the button with her tongue "D.J. Get down to the garage we have a brand new filly from out of town. She needs a proper introduction.” The music died down as attention was drew to the stage “Okay party ponies. DJ P0N-3 has business. Put your hooves up for DJ Twisty Beats!” The DJ disappeared into a trap door under her stage. She was replaced with a pretty young mare with curly red hair. She tossed candy cane shaped glow sticks to the crowd. “Let’s get twisted!” She shouts and the crowd roars with love. Being a DJ must had been sweet. She replaced P0N-3's music with something even faster and more distorted. “Follow us Dashie.” Pinkie and Luna led Rainbow through the crowd to the back of the club. On the way there Luna made sure all ponies noticed her including Dash who was mostly jealous of her wings. They arrived at a monitor on the wall. “This will take us to the garage. Arn‘t you exited.” Dash nodded she was more preoccupied with the strange monitor. Luna turned her flank to the screen. A laser grid scanned her posterior. “Did that thing just check your… oh it scans your cutie mark, right?” Dash asked hoping she figured it out. “Nope it just scans your ass. The DJ that runs this place is a perv.” Luna replied. An elevator door opened up from the wall next to the monitor. The three of them got in. Pinkie whispered to Dash “Don’t let her fool you. The scanner was her idea. Oh and your going to have to get registered for it too.” Dash just rolled her eyes. The elevator opened and Pinkie pushed Rainbow out into the garage. Then she saw it. The biggest collection of some of the sports cars she’s always wanted; the RX-8, TTRS, 370Z, and much more. “Don’t loose control of yourself yet. This is just the Sports series cars. You can use hmm one.” said Luna. Dash turned back to her “What!” “Let me explain it newbie.” The white neon maned unicorn presented herself from behind a Mazda. She had a brown earth pony with her as well. Both had musical cutie marks. The unicorn wore a white t-shirt with glowing tron lines. The earth pony wore a simple black jacket. “Your reputation and skill is registered in wanted levels which is made from adding up your bounty. When you win and drive like a badass doing it you don’t just get cash you get bounty. That adds up to your wanted level. Your currently at the bottom. The best B.A.M.F.s get to level 20 Most Wanted! All you qualify for is that little RX-8 over there.” “Don’t I have to pay?” Dash asked. She felt she deserved cars just for being good, but never thought it would work that way. “Oh you’ll definitely you pay us fees. It’ll just be taken out of your winnings.” The brown mare said. “My name is Octavia and I run the morning part of this establishment with my refined classical performances” She then pointed to the white unicorn “The loud and profane one runs the night shift to keep you crazy partying. Its part of how we keep money.” “Oh Octy you never lighten up. I’m Vinyl Scratch best DJ to bless the ears of the world. Octy is just my personal slave. Aren’t you babe?” Vinyle gave Octavia a short kiss. “I’m not a slave she mumbled” She looked back at the others “Oh we’re making a scene. I’ll uh just go back to number crunching.” She ran off before the others could say a word. “She’s a stuck up little thing, but I love her. The lasts thing you need to know is I run Need For Speed Radio. Where I report on all the heated races and chases through a pirate broadcast. Oh and sense your registering take this.” Vinyl tossed Dash a phone. “Scan your ass then it works as your personal connection to the Loop and it's a pretty sweet smart phone.” Dash reluctantly scanned herself. The phone now recognized her and showed her wanted rank. Rainbow Dash level 1 Speedster: No priority. Dash growled. She looked deeper into the phone's menus. Pinkie, Luna, Vinyl, and even Octavia where already in her contacts. “So I take my car now?” Dash asked. Vinyl shrugged “If you want to Rainbow mane .” she walked passed them into the elivator "Just don't trash or you pay extra." “Drive off with which ever color you want I have a few other members. I know we'll me again soon.” Luna left Dash alone with pinkie as she went up the elivater with Vinyl. Dash decided to take the white RX. She hopped in and sat there taking in the new car smell. She relaxed in the soft seats of her new vehicle. Then she was woken from her trance as she heard that shrill voice she got so used to today. “Drive us home Dashie!” Pinkie shouted. "Don’t worry about the Porsche they’ll be safe here.” “Wha- What! I don’t know where you live.” The annoyed Dash replied “Then take me to your house.” Pinkie suggested. “There is no way in hell your spending the night at my apartment!” Rainbow Dash yelled. Pinkie didn’t mind the noise one bit. She just smiled an said “Who helped you get a new car and got you into the Loop?” Dash groaned “Fine you get to come with me tonight.” She turned the keys in the ignition listening to the beautiful hum of the engine. “Yay! Sleep over!” Pinkie clopped her hooves together. . . .

RayneTheSkunk

502

Apple Bloom,Gilda,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Need For Speed: Friendship Pursuit

RD and Applejack move to Dockview. Raindbow Dash to be a street racer. Applejack to be a cop.

cancelled

<p>Rainbow Dash a racer from the small rural town of Ponyville moves to Dockview for the racing challenge of her life time. She's going to be the very best racer the world has ever seen and become the most wanted.<br/>On the other hoof<br/>Applejack and her family just moved to Dockview after their crop burned down do to some racer stunt. Angry the whole family join the DVSPD (Dockview Speeder Police Department) to stop all the racers who ruin other people's lives.</p><p>(image by pedro992)</p>

everyone

2011-09-24T00:19:56+00:00

2011-09-24T00:19:56+00:00

Day 1 First Day on the Job Welcome to Dockview, a playground for street racers. From the long winding roads and scenery of the county to the traffic of the back alleys of the city, racers have turned the whole area into their personal colosseum; racing the fastest and most powerful cars on the market. With heavy crime comes heavy police enforcement. The DVSPD, Dockview Speeder Police Department, was made just to confront these bad boys. Cops armed with top of the line cars and equipment. Nothing will stop them from busting their targets. The world's best racers versus the worlds best cops. Bad ponies and good ponies fight to conquer the dangerous roads of Dockview! The T.V. was shut off by a purple unicorn in a police uniform. “I guess you came here because you saw the show.” She said to an orange earth pony by the name of Applejack. “Well it’s not as easy or as cool as the show makes it look. We have to risk our lives to keep this city orderly and safe! Are you ready for that?” Applejack sat straight and looked the unicorn in the eyes. “Yes ma’am. My apple orchard was burned down by them dang racers back home. Me and the family moved here a a week ago when our relatives offered us a place to stay. This is real personal for Big Macintosh and I.” “Big Macintosh? He’s the one Lyra approved earlier. If you're both here together, I guess I’ll just approve you too. Honestly, we don’t have room to be too picky, what with the increasing number of racers. I’m Twilight Sparkle. I’m your superior and you will answer to me.”, the unicorn said pointing to her badge. “You do know how to drive these sorts of cars right?” “Yep! Back home in Ponyville, I was the pony who took down some of them rascals.” Applejack boasted. “It’s why the darn punks gone went and burned down the place.” “Great, you can start immediately. We have a spare uniform waiting in the-” Twilight was interrupted by the buzzing of her radio. She used magic to muffle it so Applejack couldn't hear the pony on the other end “Yes! Uh huh, got it.” She clipped the radio back onto her side. “Hey, actually, you can get to work right now. We’ve got a drunk in the desert that should be easy enough for a new recruit.” “The desert? Ain’t this town on the coast line?” Applejack turned her head to the map on the wall. Twilight got up from her chair to point at locations on the map. “Nopony knows why, but Dockview County has extreme changes in terrain for a location of it’s size.” She pointed to the lower right corner of the map. “This is the Songbird Desert. “ She raised her hoof north, “These are the Auron mountains. The roads there wind around the sides and the snow comes on pretty quick.” She dragged her hoof along the coast to the west “This whole area is the Dock View coast; just a normal coast it’s mostly cliff. The rest varies from hills, to farmland, to forests. “ She placed pointed the the most eastern part of the map. “This huge area is the city. There's hundreds of alleys and short cuts. That’s the difficult area because we're risking innocent people’s lives.” Twilight nudged Applejack out of the chair. “Now there’s a Ford out in front. Here’s the keys. The GPS will tell you exactly where to go. Now hurry, you’ll get your badge and everything when you get back.” Twilight pushed Applejack out the door and tossed her a radio. Once in the parking lot, Applejack used the keys to find her car. She turned on her radio " 'Scuse me Twilight, but I thought we were supposed be driving souped up mega cars.” “You’ll get them later, now go. You won’t need anything better for this.” Applejack accepted the answer of her superior officer and hopped into her car. It was a Ford Crown Victoria, the most standard police car there ever was. Durable, classic, and rear-wheel drive. The police station was already right near edge of the desert. The drive wouldn't be too long. She followed the on board GPS to the target. The red blip on the Screen represented the driver she was after. Applejack’s surroundings seemed to shift out of nowhere. One minute she was driving along a coast line the next it was a sandy mountainous desert and eventually just a flat desert. Twilight’s voice came in from the radio “Okay you should see the target soon. The car your driving is only equipped with nitrous nothing else. The nitrous works on an arcane engine that charges from driving fast and drifting. It fills up much quicker than the system the racers use. Your boost is to be used as a weapon against the target. You just have to use your car against there until it doesn't wo-." Twilight’s voice was interrupted by a young male's. “Basically just beat the crap out of their car by the ramming into them a lot.” “Spike get off of this line!” Twilight yelled. “So yeah just bash them to bits. They usually come out okay. Good luck.", Applejack took a deep breath and went in. She could see the car she was after. It was a red car so beat up she couldn’t figure out what kind of car it was. It didn’t matter she wasn’t there to analyze. Do the job as fast as possible and get out. Applejack was familiar enough with nitrous engines to use one properly. She observed her gauges. The nitrous had already filled to the top. She tried her best to line up a shot with the swerving car. Once she had her target set she slammed the nitrous button. The nitrous on the Ford wasn’t much, but it did it’s job. Applejack smashed into the car's already dented rear. Twilight was back on the radio “Applejack you're forgetting to turn on your siren. Once the siren is turned on your windshield’s scanners will activate and show you what condition the car is in. Just hold the horn down”, Applejack did as told pressing her hoof against the horn till the siren turned on. A light pulsed across the windshield. A large holographic meter appeared above the driver's car . Spike’s came out of the radio. “Now that your siren is on. You should be seeing a health bar. Just ram into them until the bar is down all the way.” He clicked back off before twilight could yell at him. Applejack examined the driver's health bar. It was down to one last red piece. A turn in the road was coming up. The beaten car swung around the curve. Instead of following the target Applejack cut through the desert sands. She returned to the road next to the drunk. The drunken driver swung her car into Applejack's though it was too weak to do any real damage to the police vehicle. Applejack made confident smirk before taking the wheel and thrashing the Ford back into the pathetic excuse for a car. The health bar disappeared as the car rolled off the road destroyed. “Well dang I wasn’t expectin’ her to go that far.” Applejack parked next to the wreckage. “Suspect taken down.” She said into the radio her smugness beaming through her tone. “Alright just cuff her up, give her the speech, then put her in the back of car. To be honest you did that a lot faster than I thought you would. Lyra will run over how things work here when you get back.” Twilight responded. Applejack forced open the door. The pony inside was a bit bruised, but pretty much okay. She dragged the magenta colored earth pony out from the wreckage. Applejack had already memorized the Miranda rights before applying for the job “Alrighty now. You’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You get the right to speak to an attorney. If you can’t afford an attorney one will be appointed to you. Do you understand the rights that have been read to you?” Applejack recited the Miranda rights as she cuffed the pony. Pony cuffs were basically shackles between the two front legs and their hind legs. “Yeah yeah I understand. You’re not the first to arrest me.” the pony snorted at Applejack. The bruised pony had grapes and a strawberry as her cutie mark. Applejack led the mare into the back of her car and started the drive back to the station “My name is Berry Punch. You’ll be seeing me a lot.” “I thought I said you had the right to remain silent. I reckon you should.” Applejack adjusted her rear view mirror so she could get a view of Berry’s smug little expression. “I think this is my hundredth bust for D.U.I.. My fans get me out every time. No one would ever want the irresistible Berry in jail. You know what they call me down town? I’m the Alcoholic Queen beeyatch!” Berry boasted. “To be honest ma’am that’s nothing to boast about and I’d rather not hear about it. Please just sit tight for the ride.” Applejack was already getting aggravated with her drunken passenger. “ I can't be locked up! That puny little station is just a little place I like to visit now.” Applejack groaned as Berry went on. It was a long ride of listening to a drunken pony go on about herself. Applejack was grinding her teeth by the time they got back to the station. She brought Berry in through the front . Even with the cuffs ponies could still walk, but that was all they could do. A teal unicorn officer with a lyre cutie mark was sitting in a chair waiting. “Hey Berry!” said the unicorn. “Hi Lyra. No time to chat right now. I'll be going to my place.” Berry walked off on her own. Nopony stopped her. The just watched her as she stumbled a bit along her path. “Is that really how y’all run things around here? Isn’t that the slightest bit unprofessional?” Applejack asked part confused and part frustrated. “Well that’s how we deal with the regulars round these parts pardner.” Lyra said imitating Applejack's accent. “Just kidding. We only treat her like that. Her perverted little fans always pay her bail for her. I wonder why we even bother taking her In all the time. No matter how many times she drives drunk as ever she never manages to hit anyone.” Lyra chuckled to herself. “Well anyway I’m officer Lyra. Twilight told me to explain the works here to you. Just follow me to locker room so you can put on your uniform.” Applejack followed the unicorn back to the locker room where a badge and a uniform waited for her. Applejack slid the uniform on and pinned the badge to her chest. “Okay. Now what ya got to teach me?” “Just a few things. You already know how to bust racers so I can skip that. First I’ll explain our rankings. Then I’ll explain weapons. Then I’ll … wait no that’s all there is. So our ranking system I has 20 levels. Starting from cadet to Ultimate Enforcer.” Applejack raised her hoof. “Yes?” “Ultimate Enforcer? Doesn’t that sound like somethin’ from a kids cartoon?” Applejack said trying to hold back a laugh. Lyra chuckled “Maybe, we like to keep the station light hearted. Keeps stress down ya know. Kay now listen you rank up through getting merit points. You get merit points from busting as many racers as possible as fast as possible or whatever your objective happens to be. You also get them from showing some serious skills on the road. Now with each rank up and milestone on the ranking grid you get permission for a new car. Later on you’ll even get clearance for upgraded versions of weapons.” Lyra pulled out chart with diagrams displaying various bits of tech. “Which brings us to our next part.” “Whoa, hold up for a second. I’ll never be able to understand any of that fancy mathamatic stuff.” “Don’t worry we’re not gonna muddy the issue with any fancy mathamatics. I’m just need to tell you how they work. Now the most basic is the spike strip. We used to have some one lay a spike strip on the on coming road and hope the racer would drive over it. They got used to it over time and started dodging every single one. That’s when The Doctor developed our spike strip deployer. You press the button here.” Lyra pointed to a set of buttons not to far from the gauges. “ Then the spike strip is dropped from the back of the car. The strip immediately extends and produces spikes. I don’t understand the science stuff myself I just know it works.” Applejack nodded showing she understood. “Okay just remember the spike strip isn’t perfect anymore. They’ve developed tires the regenerate themselves somehow. We use them too. The spike strip will definitely slow them down though and cause a bit of damage.” “Okay next is the EMP. Electro Magnetic Pulse! Now this isn’t a full blown EMP. It’s more of a mini EMP missile. It fires a a pulse into their car’s systems causing a good deal of damage, but they won’t stop the car completely unless it’s already near broken. The EMP automatically locks on to racers all you have to do is keep them in range long enough for it to fire. Once it hits they’re going to slow down a lot but their cars regain control fast so ram 'em quick” Applejack pretended to take notes. “Good the other two are simple. Hell they aren’t even actually weapons.” Lyra brought out two more pictures. One of a Helicopter and one of a roadblock “We can call two kinds of assistance. Road Blocks and Helicopter support. Officer Ditzy Derpy is in charge of making roadblocks. She calls all the other officers in the area and they’ll make a road black as fast as possible. She makes these unbelievable fast but there's all ways a small gap in them for racers to drive through.” “Why the heck do we leave a gap that big? Just plain sounds ridiculous.” Lyra shrugged “Well no one can make these blocks faster than Ditzy can. Speed is just more important for these things. Now Spike is the helicopter driver for our squad. Your being paired with me, spike, and Twilight. You're real lucky because we are the best.” Lyra boasted beating her hoof against her chest. “Really now. What rank are you two?” Applejack crossed her forelegs. “Wellll we’re umm… rank 5 and 6” Lyra mumbled. Applejack had a short laugh. “Shut up your new! I still have seniority over you.” Lyra startled chuckling herself. “Okay whatever just stop interrupting me okay. Now Spike will watch over were each racer is going in case we lose sight. We can also request him to drop a spike strip or start bombing the road. I know it’s sounds ridiculous, but we only do it when we’re sure the road is clear. Spike will drop some explosive barrels on the road in front of the racers. It hasn’t killed anyone yet. The only problem is that we have to dodge them too. So any questions.” “Just one. When do I get the fast super cars?” Applejack asked a bit frustrated. “Later. Right now you only have access to Traffic control cars. Those things hit forty-eight at best. We’re gonna be going slow for a while.” Lyra seemed to be just as annoyed as Applejack. Spike came in through their radios “ Twilight! Lyra! New girl! I found a race going down on the beaches. Come on!” “We’re on it spike. Okay sense I’m such a nice mare I’ll let you use my Impereza that one hits sixty-five. Follow me to the garage!” Lyra immediately snapped into sprint for the garage with Applejack running behind her. When they got to the garage Lyra pointed out the car for Applejack. Lyra passed her the keys and they both hopped into their seats. Lyra’s car was a Charger SRT8. Their computers displayed three red blips on the southern coast. The two of them fallowed their computers eventually catching up with Twilight. “Hey Twilight do we have a plan for this one?” Lyra asked. “Not really Spike said these were a couple of low level racers. Just remember we don‘t have any weapons or roadblocks on us.” Twilight responded. She drove ahead of the others taking lead position. “Alright Sparks!” Lyra said taking position to Twilight’s right. Applejack improvised and pulled over to Twilight’s left. It took about ten minutes of drving before spike told them they were getting close to the racers. Twilight gave the order to turn on the sirens. The road they drove on was covered in sand from the beach with a mountain towering to their right. Their targets came into view. The three racers drove convertible roadsters. The lead was yellow the other two were blue and black. “Lyra I’ve got the yellow one. You get the blue one!” Twilight ordered before she used her nitrous to catch up with her target. “On it Sparks!” Lyra saluted before pulling off to catch the her prey. That left Applejack with the Black racer in the middle. Applejack drove around Lyra and the blue racer. Applejack drafted her target getting closer with each second. She eyed the car’s health bar trying to figure out how much damage she would do with a ram from this range. After a few seconds she punched the nitrous thrusting her car into the racer’s rear bumper. The health bar that was previously displayed in 5 peaces went down by only one peace. Lyra came in through the radio “Rear attacks don’t work that well kay. Slam him from the side just watch me!”. Applejack looked in her side mirrors just in time to see Lyra smash the side of her car into the blue racer pushing against the road railing. “See that one took him down to three points! Your car is built heavy one good slam should take him out. Then you can help Sparks.” Lyra was cut off a bit when the driver slammed back into her. “Don’t worry about the driver there’s always a group of arresters behind us to capture everyone.” “Okay I got it.” Applejack used her remaining nitrous to catch back up with her target. She pulled over on the racer’s left. Applejack swung the car to the right. She grunted as she found herself crashing into the road railing after scraping the car’s backside. She gritted her teeth as she got back onto the road. A she saw the racer drifting on the left turn in front of her. Applejack drifted the right lane afraid to crash into any oncoming traffic. “Applejack I busted the lead! I’m going to go back and slow this guy down for you.” Twilight said from the radio. “Nice I took mine down too. I’m coming on to help too” Lyra said catching up to Applejack. “Thanks just make sure I’m the one who gets to take him in.” Applejack replied. She used the nitrous she gained from the drift to catch up behind the racer. She could see Lyra coming up behind her from her rear view mirror. The racer slowed down as Twilight blocked him from ahead. Applejack took the opportunity to move over to the racer’s right. Lyra blocked him off from behind. There was absolutely know way the pony could escape. Applejack smiled as she hammered the Impereza into the smaller sports car. The force thew the racer over the road rail were he crashed on the beach. “Mission Accomplished and work is over for the day woo!” Lyra cheered. “Let’s go get a smoothie or something!” “Umm are we sure he’s okay. He crash over the dang railing.” Applejack looked over concerned “I mean he resisted arrest and everything, but I really think we should check on the guy.” “Applejack don’t worry about it. That’s how the job works. These guys always come out fine some how anyway. We just need to call in, tell them the job is done, and our clocks are over for today. Oh Lyra did you come up with a nickname for our new partner yet?” “I think I’ll call her Jackie. Now make the call Sparks!” Lyra said reclining in her seat. “Twilight reporting. We took down the racers at the beach. I do believe our shift is over.” She said proudly. “Good work my faithful officer Twilight Sparkle. Your squad is off for the rest of the day. Your working night shifts tomorrow.” “Thank you Chief Celestia. Okay girls I’m going to go home and change. See you all at the bar tonight around eight.” Twilight said before driving off. Lyra quickly drove away as well. Spike came in through the radio “Oh Applejack the bar their talking about is in the city at Mirage street. I gotta go land this baby back at the station.” With nothing else to do Applejack went strait home to her aunt and Uncle orange’s home. The two lived in a mansion in the center of the city. Applejack open the large doors into the enormous living room. “I’m home Everypony. Big Mac will be back later.” Applejack yelled. Apple Bloom, Applejack’s younger teenage sister, greeted her from the second floor railing to her right. Applebloom had an incredibly long mane like her sister that needed to be tied up all the time with a bow. She had cutie mark of two hammers crossing each other that took her a very long time to get. She was wearing a blue t-shirt with denim pants. “Hey Applejack cousin Orange Blossom took me shoppin’ for cloths. This fashion stuff is pretty cool sis. We even got you some cloths you might like. They’re in your bed.” Applebloom said enthusiastically. In Ponyville none of them wore cloths, but their relative’s warned them that they’ll need cloths to fit in with Dockview. “Thanks sis I’ll go take a look at ‘em and take a nap. I have some where to go tonight.” Applejack said climbing up the stares. Her sister went back to her room to hang out more with her cousin. Applejack went to her room and stared at the cloths on her bed. A red shirt, a red neck scarf with an apple insignia, some plain denim jeans, and a burgundy checkered jacket. Applejack smiled her sister and cousin did a pretty good job of picking cloths she liked. It wasn’t Applejack’s first time in the city so she was pretty familiar with clothing and how to put it on. Applejack plopped onto the bed. It only took her a bit of time before falling a sleep. She woke up later around seven thirty. Applejack stretched her legs out with a yawn. She put on her hat then the rest of her new cloths. The rest of the family were all talking in the living room. “Hi Everypony. I’m goin’ on out. My partners want to spend some time with me.” Applejack walked passed everyone and was already on her way out the door. Her brother Big Macintosh got out his seat to leave with her too. “Why you comin’ with me Big Macintosh?” “I real don’t like uncle Orange. Just take me with you sis.” Big Mac whispered to her. Applejack shrugged it off an nodded. “Well we’re leavin’ yall. We’ll be back later.” Applejack said on her way out. They got into one of their relative’s cars. Applejack took a second to look over Big Mac’s cloths before they left. A black hat similar to his sister’s along with a black shirt. “They bought you cloths too?” Applejack asked as she started the car. “Eeyup” Big Mac replied. “It itches a bit.” Applejack snorted a laugh. She fallowed the car’s GPS to the bar Spike told her to go to. They place was deep downtown but the bar looked simple compared to all the typical city buildings around it. The bar was called Appaloosa. The two walked in to find the bar was designed a bit like their old barn. Applejack could see Lyra waving for her. The others where all sitting at table in the corner. Applejack and Big Mac sat in the the free chairs left. “Good you made it!” Said the purple reptile that sat next to Twilight. “Whoa. What are you? I don’t want to be rude, but I ain’t never seen anything like you before.” Applejack stared at the strange little thing. Her brother didn’t react much . The reptile grimaced “I’m spike. The helicopter pilot who keeps you all out of trouble.” “He’s a young dragon. Spike get’s a bit offended sometimes when ponies ask. He’s going to be out designated driver tonight.” Twilight teased dangling a bottle of beer above Spike’s head. “It’s nice to see you brought your brother with you.” “Yeah Little Mac is pretty good with a car. Better than Jackie is.” Lyra said before taking a bottle and downing the whole thing at once. “Give me another one Pretty boy!” A yellow pony a caramel mane brought another tray of beers. “Heres your drinks Lyra.” As he pit the tray down his attention went immediately to Applejack and her brother. “Cousin Applejack! Cousin Macintosh!” “Braeburn I haven’t seen you in forever what are you doin’ in the city.” Applejack got up and gave her cousin a quick hug. “I’d ask yall too the same thing. My family been running this bar sense we ran out of money for the farm.” Braebern said “Oh ours was burned down by racers. Me and the family moved in Aunt and Uncle Orange.” Applejack looked down for a second “Nothing for anypony to get depressed about though. Come on talk with us for the night” Breabunrn looked back to his dad at the counter. He got a nod back. “Sure that sounds fine applejack.” Brabern sat next to the his cousin. The six of them spent the night drinking and chatting up a storm. Exept for their designated driver. Spike looked at the table while the others got drunk. “Whatever. I don’t like drinking anyway” … …. ….

RayneTheSkunk

502

Apple Bloom,Gilda,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Need For Speed: Friendship Pursuit

RD and Applejack move to Dockview. Raindbow Dash to be a street racer. Applejack to be a cop.

cancelled

<p>Rainbow Dash a racer from the small rural town of Ponyville moves to Dockview for the racing challenge of her life time. She's going to be the very best racer the world has ever seen and become the most wanted.<br/>On the other hoof<br/>Applejack and her family just moved to Dockview after their crop burned down do to some racer stunt. Angry the whole family join the DVSPD (Dockview Speeder Police Department) to stop all the racers who ruin other people's lives.</p><p>(image by pedro992)</p>

everyone

2011-10-26T21:00:07+00:00

2011-10-26T21:00:07+00:00

DAY 2 Rainbow Dash walked slowly down a darkened road. Heavy fog settled above the asphalt.The moon’s light was blocked by sheet of clouds. Dash could just barely see her own snout in front of her. Zero sound, zero visibility, zero company. “Hello?” Dash called into the fog. Her own words were echoed back at her. Her echo scared her. It wasn’t the same. The voice was strained and distorted. It was like some sort of tortured soul taunting her. Another sound pushed its way through the fog. Whatever that sound was, Dash ran towards it. Two lights pierced through the dense fog forest. Rainbow’s muscles became paralyzed. SHHPLAT! Dash’s eyes snapped open. She stared at her ceiling for a couple of seconds. She heard another pony breathing next to her. Dash turned onto her side to see Pinkie Pie laying next to her, smiling, “Oh god, tell me we didn’t...” She cringed as the thought went through her head. “We didn’t,” the cheery earth pony replied, “you were having a nightmare. Luna told me about a nightmare she had once where she turned evil and tried to make it night time forever.” “Why didn’t you wake me up?” the frustrated pegasus complained. “Well, I thought it was better for you to face whatever it was. Oh, I’ll make waffles! That’ll make you feel better.” Pinkie hopped out of the bed, and went straight for the kitchen. Rainbow’s apartment was only a few steps away from a hotel room. She had a living room that doubled as her bedroom. There was also a bathroom, and a small kitchen. Dash turned on some old cartoons to get the nightmare out of her head. A couple episodes passed before Dash heard a ding from the kitchen. “Food’s done!” Pinkie shouted. She jumped back into the bed with two plates full of fluffy, syrup-doused waffles. She gave Dash her plate and got straight to eating, “Dashie, I got some good news,” she mumbled through her stuffed mouth, “While I was cooking, I made some calls and got us a race in the city tonight,” She swallowed the waffle, “Don’t worry about running anyone over. Everypony knows to get inside when a race starts. Well we do still have the traffic to worry about.” Dash took a bite out of her breakfast. “Thanks. Just, why are you so nice to me? You signed me up for another race, you showed me around, you got me set into the loop, and you even made me breakfast.” “Oh, it’s no problem. I’ve been racing here for a loooong time. I just like being helpful.” Pinkie gasped. “I got a great idea! I can be your manager!” Dash laughed, “Why would I need a manager? I can manage everything my …. actually you know what? Go for it.” Pinkie swallowed another waffle, “Just two teensy weensy things you need to do for me.” “Fine, what is it?” Dash groaned. “One! You have to let me stay at your apartment whenever I want. Plus I get to raid your fridge.” Pinkie said pointing to the kitchen. Dash rolled her eyes, “Fine. What’s the other thing?” Pinkie leaned in close and whispered, “You have to help me find out who the mystery pony behind the loop is. If he’s even a pony. Think he could be a dog?” Dash gagged on her food, “What! Why the hell would you want to do that?” Pinkie shrugged, “Well, it’s a mystery. Somewhere there’s the big dog behind all this, but nopony knows who it is. I want to find him so I can throw him a huge party!” Dash snickered, “A party? That’s it?” “Well Maybe a few other things too,” she chuckled, “but it doesn’t matter. You in?” Pinkie raised her hoof high. “Oh, why the hell not? I’m in!” Dash sealed the deal with a high hoof. Pinkie convinced Rainbow Dash to go to the store with her to get some new clothes. They went to a store in the plaza district called The Red Ribbon. The store was filled with clothing styles of all kinds. “So Dashie, what sort of clothes are you interested in?” Pinkie asked while shuffling through a rack of dresses. “I don’t know. I’ll probably run into something I like.” Dash roamed the store looking for a section that at least interested her. Her eyes connected with something at the back of the store. She got closer to look at it. A red hooded jacket just screamed out to her. “Hey Pinkie, I found something.” The pink pony bounced over. “I want this one.” “Great, because I found you a shirt that will go really well with that,” Pinkie pulled out a yellow shirt with a fire ball emblazoned on the front. “You like it?” “Yeah, yeah I do. You’re paying for this right?” Dash asked, realizing she was still pretty broke. Pinkie nodded. The two made their purchase at the counter where a pair of goggles caught Dash’s attention. “Nice, let’s get this too.” After getting dressed, it was already about time for their race. They hopped into Rainbow’s new RX and rushed through the streets. It was night; the streets were illuminated by huge TV screens and glowing signs as they drove into the neon district. They made it just in time behind the other five racers. Dash wiped the sweat from her forehead. “I thought we were going to be late … wait a second! We’re in the same car, how the hell are you going to race?” Pinkie giggled “I forgot I didn’t have my car. We’ll just be racing together. Woo!” Dash slammed her face into the wheel with a groan. Pinkie stuck her head out the window to look at the other racers. “Ooooh, we’re racing against Rarity!” Dash picked her head up from the wheel. “Who’s Rarity?” The other racers’ engines growled in unison. “Never mind, just tell me later.” Dash revved up the engine. The racers burned their wheels on the pavement for three seconds as they always do and once those seconds were up they all burst into the race. Rainbow Dash found herself starting in the back just like before. She tried to curve her way around the the racer in ahead of her but he blocked her off every time. She turned left he turned left; she turned right he turned right. While Dash swerved back and forth trying her best to out wit the annoying driver in front of her, pinkie was setting the race’s track on her cellphone’s GPS. “Dashie make a right, now!” Pinkie shouted. Shocked by the sudden out burst Dash whipped the car to right with out thinking sending her straight into an alley that cut diagonally to the next street. Dash went from sixth to third almost instantly as she popped out of the ally and slid into the left lane. "Did you know that alley was there the whole time?" Dash said as she weaved between heavy traffic, charging her nitrous to full in a mattter of seconds. "No, I just got the whole city on my phone." Pinkie said. "We all use these as maps to help us. You really should get one. Oh an see a left turns coming up in about three more seconds." The intersection was packed with crossing drivers. With no time left for thinking Dash shifted into the right lane before sliding into her drift. The civilians slammed on their brakes as racers drifted through the intersection. Dash ground her metal against two or three of civilian obstetrical. Pinkie Pie hit the nitrous as they came out of the hazardous turn. “Hey only I get to use th- ahhgh!” Dash was cut off when another racer rushed into her side. “God damnit. You wanna play rough, buddy! We’ll play rough!” Dash grinned and hammered her car back into the other racer. “Oh, things are gonna get fun now!” Pinkie shouted. “Yeah they are! This guy is going down!” Dash said as she rammed him again, forcing the other racer into oncoming traffic. “Good luck dodging!” “Oh, not that Dashie! The cops are on us!” Pinkie pointed at a small group of police in the rear view mirror. Two of them were already handling the other racer behind her, “Remember Dash, race first, cops second!” Dash started to break out into a nervous sweat. She’d forgotten about the police part of racing since they were never a problem back home. She desperately pounded the nitrous button and blitzed through the road, making a hard right on the next intersection. One cop stayed on her while a second, driving a much less muscular car, went for the racer in second. “Dashie, if the coppers ever get to close you gotta give them a good Pinkie Ram! That's how you take out a cop and get the ultimate zoom juice.” Pinkie tapped Dash’s shoulder trying to be reassuring. Dash tried her best to focus on the race and drafted the other cop ahead of her. The other interceptor stayed close behind Dash. The interceptor was driving a police-modified Impereza. Dash haphazardly swerved through the traffic. Her pursuer stuck to her as if they were tethered. The cop pulled up to her left. “Dashie slam her!” Almost instinctively Dash swung into in the copper. The interceptor was pushed right into an oncoming car. They could here the crunching collision, “Lucky shot! He’ll be back though, those cop cars are tough” “Well at least that one is out of my hair for now,” Dash said. Once again she was able to put her full focus back to the race. The second place Racer was still too distracted by the interceptor hounding him. Dash drove around the two combating drivers. The first place racer was still nowhere in sight. “Where the heck is she?” Dash shouted. “According to my phone she’s in an alley up ahead.” Pinkie said rather plainly. “You mean this whole time you knew where everyone was!” Dash yelled as she drifted a right turn. “You never asked. Also that alley is coming up on your left.” Pinkie pointed to the gap between two almost glowing buildings. Like before, Dash slid her way into the alley. She used the bit of nitrous she still had to blast through to the next street. On the other end she could finally see the first place racer and the finish line flares not too far ahead. “That’s her; there’s Rarity!” Pinkie shouted. Dash smirked, but only for a second. A siren blared behind her. A short glance into the window revealed that the cop from before was back on her. Dash drafted Rarity in attempt to out run her chaser. The officer mimicked her, moving right into their line. The distance between the three grew shorter. Dash was ready to pass Rarity before the officer busted in between them. Rarity or Rainbow? Who was going to get hit now that the enforcer had to choose? Before that decision could be made Dash was shaken by the cop being forced into her. She could see Rarity blast on through the road. Dash grit her teeth as Rarity passed straight through the finish flares. That made two losses in a row and to make it worse she still had to handle this stupid cop. Pinkie Pie was busy screwing around with her phone,”"Hey Dashie, I didn’t want to use this earlier since I thought it would be cheating, but I guess it really isn't cheating at all since we just lost anyway. So let's blast this baby!" “Blast! What in the world are you talking about?” Dash shouted. “I’ve got an EMP app of course! It lets my phone blast an electric pulse thing at other cars.Just drive ahead of him Dashie. Leave the shooting to Pinkie,” she said the EMP went online , “We’ve got 5 Seconds!” “Uhh,” “Five seconds!” Pinkie yelled as she leaned out the window to aim. Dash used the small bit of nitrous she had left to get ahead of the target. She positioned themselves right in front of the interceptor, “Almost, almost. Got her!” The cop’s car was covered in a sheet of static as it skid to a halt. Dash and Pinkie sped through the finishing flares. Rainbow slammed her hoof against the wheel. “C’mon that’s the second race I lost. I hate losing.” She grumbled. “Oh don’t be too mad about Dashie. I have to buy another three-hundred-ninety dollar EMP app now, but I’m still happy,” Pinkie made a ridiculously huge grin, “You’ll start winning. I know you will,” an irritating ring tone blared from Pinkie’s seat, “Oh it’s Rarity. Gimme a sec Dashie. Hi Rarity! You did awesome. My new friend isn’t too exited about it though. … You want us to meet you at the Roundtown Brew? Sure we’ll be right there! Bye.” Dash sighed, “Just show me where it is and we’ll go. I want to see the pony that beat me this time.” The two came to a small, peaceful coffee shop near the county mountain ranges. The inside was painted warm colors reminiscent of chocolate. The relaxing aroma of boiling coffee beans made the place feel cozy like a loving home. Dash followed Pinkie to the brightest corner of the room. A white coated unicorn with an expertly curled purple mane sat at the table. Dash and Pinkie Pie sat next to the unicorn, “Hi!” Pinkie said as she rushed the unicorn with a hug, Dash folded her hooves, “So you’re Rarity?” “Why yes, I am the one and only Rarity, and hello Pinkie” the unicorn greeted as she flipped her hair, “so, who are you darling?” “I am Rainbow Dash, speedster of Ponyville!” She mimicked Rarity’s hair flip, “ I just want to you to know I would have won if the stupid cops didn’t get in the way.” “Oh, really now? Then how about the three of us have race tomorrow if your so sure your better than me.” “Wow two of my best friends racing! That sounds amazing! Can I bring balloons?” Pinkie pulled a bouquet of balloons from underneath the table. “Uuuh … sure Pinkie. You can bring balloons.” Rarity said as she looked under the table. “I’ll take that challenge. I’m just having a bad start. Tomorrow you’ll both see what I’m made of!” Dash boasted “I’d hope you’re made of something good then. Pinkie and I don’t get a good challenge very often. Now Rainbow, what can you tell me about yourself?” Rarity leaned forward, “It’s not often I see a pony with such a colorful mane.” Rainbow took a second of thought before answering, “Well, when I was a kid I was always into flying races. When I got a bit older I got interested in my dad’s cars. So I started looking up stuff about cars all the time. One day it came to me. Combine cars and racing! That’s how I learned about NASCAR, but that was way too boring. So I figured I’d find some of the other kids that were into cars as much as me, and we’d race through the roads. We did that for a good five years until I was old enough to move out. Yep, I pretty much created racing in Ponyville.” Rarity took a sip of coffee, “So you do have experience. I’ve never been to Ponyville before. I’ve heard it’s rather bucolic in terms of fashion, such a pity. I’d go there just to give them all some proper clothes, but my father won’t let me make any trips like that.” “We don’t need your clothes. We get along just fine naked,” Dash grumbled “Oh, did I strike a nerve? I don’t mean to belittle anypony, but honestly the lack of style is just sad. Style and flair is actually how I got into this sport. I received an absolutely magnificent car for my sixteenth birthday. It just wasn’t magnificent enough, so I got the grand idea to give it my own personal paint job. I made that car as fabulous and radiant as any vehicle could ever be.Then the problem was showing it off. Normal driving wasn’t enough to present the quality of my art, but when I raced through the beautiful county roads it was graceful. In short, I race for art. Also it annoys my mother. Don’t ask about her,” Rarity said as she took another sip of coffee. Pinkie started slamming her hooves on the table. “Oooh ooh me next! Let’s see. When I was in high school everyone thought I was super duper awesome. The other kids said the awesomest thing I could do was steal the Principal's car and race with it. Then they’d all throw a huge party after I won. So I did it and I’ve been racing ever since.” “That simple huh? You really are crazy. Gimme a sec, I’m going to order something,” Dash waved to the nearest waitress. “Hey! Can you get me a hot chocolate? Thanks.” “Right away,” the pony replied with a feather-soft voice. After a few minutes she was back with the drink, “Here’s your hot chocolate. Please leave a tip … you don’t have to, but we really appreciate it.” The waitress was a yellow pegasus. Her mane was Pinkie with streaks of black died into it. Dash took a quick sip, “Thanks. Hey just asking. Whats up with the black?” “Honestly it’s just dreadful. It doesn’t go with the rest of your colors at all. Besides, gothic is a horribly depressing style,” Rarity added. The pegasus hid her face behind her hair, “Well it usually stops people from talking to me. I guess it’s not working anymore. Pardon me, but I have to get to the other customers.” Pinkie pulled the waitress into a seat. “Nope, you’re sitting with us. I know the manager; he’ll be fine. Now, what’s your name? The pegasus tilted her head up just enough for the others to look her in the eyes. “Flu-Fluttershy. Can I please go back to work?” “Oh come on. Do you really feel like working that much? Just relax. Meeting new people is nice. I just moved her and I already got one friend and there’s this unicorn girl.” Dash pointed at Rarity. “Remind me to call you that pegasus from now on,” the unicorn girl replied. Fluttershy waved a bit of hair away from her face,“Okay. If I really have to. My shift ends in half an hour anyway.” Rainbow and the others spent their time trying their best to coax Fluttershy into conversation. She talked a bit, but never as much as they hoped. Once Fluttershy’s shift ended she left from the table, insisting that she needed to catch her bus. A bit later the others decided it was time to go home as well. “Farewell pegasus. I’ll take Pinkie home tonight. I could only imagine how unbearable dealing with her all day must be,” Rarity said as she pushed Pinkie Pie into the back seat. “I’m not a bear!” Pinkie shouted through the window. “Au revior pegasus.” Rarity said before driving off into the night. “Sayonara unicorn.” Dash mumbled. On her way driving back home, Dash noticed a lone pegasus at a bustop. “Fluttershy,” she said to herself. She pulled over, “Fluttershy, what in the world are you doing out here alone? It’s cold.” “I well … missed my bus. I’m waiting for the next one.” Fluttershy was wearing a black jacket; she used the hood to cover most of her face. “Please don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I have a jacket, see.” Dash popped open the passenger door. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride home. I’m not taking no for an answer you know.” “But you just met me. You don’t have to do anything for me. Just go on, I’ll be okay.” Fluttershy said, taking small steps back from the car. “Do I need a reason to help someone? Now get in already, I can see your legs shivering.” Dash gestured for her to get in. “That’s me being nervous,” Fluttershy mumbled, “Fine, if you insist, but you can’t take me to my dorm. If the other girls see someone dropping me of, they’ll start nasty rumors again.” She reluctantly got inside next to Dash. “Sure, I had a bunch of problems with stupid rumors back in high school. So, do you want to stay at my house or something? I can’t think of anywhere else to take you.” Dash said as she pulled of the curb. Fluttershy stared into the darkness outside the window, “Oh no. I couldn’t do that I just met you. I really have no idea what sort of person you are … no offense.” “None taken. Should I take you to a motel or something instead. I don’t have any money on me to pay for it.” Dash said, “Hmm now that I think of it I don’t have any gas money. Meh I should be fine.” She mumbled. Flutter shy checked her pockets, “Neither do I, sorry.” “Then we have two options Fluttershy. One: I take you to your dorm and some stupid rumors might start. Two you try your luck at my house. Come on what’s the worst I could do?”, thoughts rushed through Dash’s head, “Don’t answer that.” Fluttershy looked over to dash, “Well I guess I can risk spending the night with you. I could never handle what the girls might say.” or two Dash chuckled, “Don’t worry about them or me. It’s fine.s fine. Won’t be the first time I had a mare I just met over. It’ll be like a sleep over”. __________________________________________

luckybastard

503

Comedy

the dream

incomplete

<p>deds to those whom helped!</p>

everyone

2011-08-13T10:39:07+00:00

http://tinychat.com/bronys Type /help for a list of commands [18:04] guest-21145 changed nickname to luckybastard [18:08] guest-21187 entered the room [18:08] luckybastard: sup [18:08] guest-21188 entered the room [18:08] guest-21187 changed nickname to moriarty [18:09] luckybastard: welcome to a barren no man's land :D [18:09] moriarty: i noticed [18:09] luckybastard: wanna go back to pony thread? :D [18:09] luckybastard: or make a fanfic [18:10] luckybastard: ok, you start [18:10] moriarty: a fanfic? oh jeeze [18:10] moriarty: ok lets see [18:10] luckybastard: I'll put this in Fimfiction.com [18:10] luckybastard: ok, start :D [18:10] moriarty: iv been there.....once [18:11] luckybastard: said luna staring at the sky [18:11] moriarty: because i cant find anything deceent to read [18:11] moriarty: and i dont like to read [18:11] moriarty: im an anti-teight [18:11] luckybastard: she said to her pet cat [18:12] moriarty: because i can spell well [18:12] moriarty: arrrg! im ill *sob [18:12] luckybastard: (pssst... moriarty) [18:12] moriarty: yes? [18:12] luckybastard: (we are now in the story) [18:12] luckybastard: (narrating the story) [18:13] moriarty: really?...the story looks alot like my house [18:13] luckybastard: Fuuuuu- ok, lets start over. [18:13] moriarty: ok [18:13] luckybastard: one night luna looked at the moon [18:13] moriarty: and saw the moon [18:13] luckybastard: she said "ive been there once" [18:14] moriarty: after that she went back inside because she got cold [18:15] luckybastard: and saw celestia standing by the fireplace with a slight smile [18:15] moriarty: "I see you have been staring at the moon again" She whistperd to her sister [18:16] luckybastard: yes sister, I'm so sorry about the nightmare moon thing. luna said [18:17] moriarty: "well we can be all perfect like me. Because the sun is flawless. And hot [18:17] luckybastard: luna giggles. "well that may be correct" she said with a grin. [18:19] luckybastard: "well thank you" said celestia. "I see you're lack of happiness disturbing." [18:20] luckybastard: "Why won't you let me find suitors for you?" said celestia [18:20] moriarty: 'Is it cold in here? im cold? and blue. Luna replyed [18:21] moriarty: More purple. she said looking at her fur [18:22] luckybastard: ok luna, if you don't want suitors, fine, but you know you need a colt to comfort you. [18:22] luckybastard: said celestia. [18:24] moriarty: "Oh sure, you know how it goes. Ill find a colt and hell die, because i cant! [18:24] moriarty: She said in a huff [18:24] moriarty: At least i dont think i can.... [18:25] moriarty: *strokes chin [18:26] luckybastard: "hehe, thats cute, ok, bye luna." celestia trotted away from luna's room [18:26] guest-21438 entered the room [18:26] guest-21438 changed nickname to carlsire [18:26] carlsire: JESUS [18:26] carlsire: WHAT [18:26] guest-21440 entered the room [18:27] guest-21440 changed nickname to rarshalan [18:27] moriarty: "DONT YOU RUN FROM ME I KNOW WERE YOU LIVE!!" [18:27] rarshalan: hi [18:27] rarshalan: what's up? [18:27] moriarty: the moon [18:27] guest-21441 entered the room [18:27] guest-21441 changed nickname to missingthemoon [18:27] rarshalan: luckybastard you needed help with something? [18:27] missingthemoon: So lets do this in a orderly fashion [18:27] guest-21444 entered the room [18:28] guest-21444 changed nickname to joe [18:28] joe: derp [18:28] rarshalan: herp [18:28] guest-21446 entered the room [18:28] luckybastard: "where are those voices coming from?" luna muttered [18:28] guest-21446 changed nickname to samus [18:28] guest-21451 entered the room [18:28] guest-21451 changed nickname to xoyv [18:28] xoyv: mates [18:28] rarshalan: their coming from that house- said twilight [18:29] samus: *cue lightning bolts* [18:29] rarshalan: creepy- spike [18:29] luckybastard: "who's there?" luna was alerted. [18:29] joe: Luna heard footsteps and bellowing like that of a whale song. [18:29] rarshalan: it's me! the great and powerful trixie! [18:29] joe: derp [18:30] luckybastard: "oh, its just you, I thought for a second it wa-- [18:30] moriarty: And then suddenly everything went completly wrong [18:30] rarshalan: eeyup [18:30] samus: *cue guile's theme* [18:30] joe: *cue Mike Bison's theme* [18:30] moriarty: *cue monster from amnesia [18:31] xoyv: then, out of nowhere, the horseless headless horsemann apeared [18:31] rarshalan: holy hay! -rainbow dash [18:31] luckybastard: "i hate those enchanted boxes,or radios, they keep playing." luna said under her breath [18:31] rarshalan: and then the enchanted box turned into a dragon [18:32] rarshalan: "everyone screaming" [18:32] moriarty: ponies dying [18:32] rarshalan: no one died that day [18:32] moriarty: And the noises on the basement are getting louder [18:33] samus: Not if Doctor Whooves has anything to say about it [18:33] guest-21514 entered the room [18:33] moriarty: you bloody read it right [18:33] xoyv: then, a leigon of world eater chaos marines appeared outside [18:33] samus: Blood Ravens, assemble! [18:33] guest-21514 changed nickname to jimbojimmy [18:33] xoyv: armd with chain swords, chain axes, and powerfists [18:33] luckybastard: in all the chaos, celestia still managed to sleep like a log in her room [18:33] rarshalan: and then, your mom came to the room and said - STOP DAYDREAMING YOU FAGGOT! [18:34] samus: FINE! God. [18:34] luckybastard: THE END! [18:34] jimbojimmy: Then you had to do your chores. [18:34] luckybastard: cast: [18:34] luckybastard: jimbojimmy [18:34] luckybastard: moriarty [18:34] luckybastard: rarshalan [18:34] luckybastard: samus [18:34] luckybastard: xoyv [18:35] moriarty: THIS IS GOING TO MAKE FUCKING HISTROY MAN!! [18:35] luckybastard: KTHBAI [18:35] rarshalan: hell yeah! [18:35] jimbojimmy: Mhhmm [18:35] jimbojimmy: :D [18:35] xoyv: wait, so who is writing the fanfic? ---------------------------------- THe eND

Harmony Spirit

504

Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

On Mended Wings

complete

<p>This is a little tragic, but over all, it should be heart warming.</p><p>One of my awesome friends, has an equally awesome little Filly Ponisona, and she has a bit of a sad story. I wanted to write her a story telling how the only surviving sister of Rainbow Dash, had to deal with not being able to fly again. With help from her big sister.</p><p>Cloud Chaser is (c) to Maki that Green Fur Ball</p>

everyone

2011-08-13T13:18:13+00:00

2011-08-13T13:18:13+00:00

A small filly sat under a tree, up high on one of the hilly areas of Ponyville. She was an off white, like a cloud picking up some colour from the blue sky. Her short mane and tail had an array of colours, and she looked much like another well known Pegasus. On her wings, she had them bound in gauze and splints. They had been broken many times, and after so many harsh words from other fillies and colts, and so many failed attempts, she believed she would never fly again. So she sat here, as high as she thought she would ever get again on her own, crying to herself. A sound of something cutting through the air, rocketed toward her, but she paid little mind too it. After a short moment, a thud of four hooves planting down on solid Equestria, and a snort of disapproval, made the little broken filly turn her ear to the direction. "What are you doing?" Came the voice she knew very well, one of a pony who did not like to waste time, and words. "Why are you still wearing those?" She did not look, she did not need too, she knew the blue Pegasus, with a mane like her own, but so much brighter, with the six radiant colours of the rainbow. "Be...cause..." The mare moved to her quickly. "Don't be stupid Cloud Chaser, you've been in those for way too long, the doc said you'd be fine like a week ago" "Whys it matter? I can't fly again..." Her voice was crackling with pain of the thought, something she was born for, was taken from her. The other had little patients for this. "Stop being such a cry filly!" She put a hoof on her back, and pinned her, as she used her mouth to start taking off the bandages. All the time, the littler Pegasus crying out for her to stop. "Dash no!" After a moment, the mare was done, and stepped back a little bit, as the filly sat up again, wings limp at her sides. She looked now with a mixture of annoyance, to her sorrow. "Common, fly!" "I can't" She snapped, anger getting better of her. Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof. "Yes you can! No sister of mine, can't fly, now work those wings!" Halfheartedly, she lifted her wings, and made slow flapping moments. With much less harshness, Dash asked. "You feel any pain?" "A little stiff..." She said flatly. "Then keep at it till they ain't!" Rainbow Dash was a harsh teacher, she was always for the quickest way to get things done, even if it was not always right. But after a few moments, the Cloud Chaser did feel it was easier to move them. "Ok? Time to fly, get in the air" "But?" "Gonna buck yours, common!" She tried, she did give it her best, but she was so down by the whole thing, she could not get herself to flap hard enough to even hover. She tried a few times more, but after reality that all the flapping was for show, she started to get teary eyed again, and laid to the grass again. "I...can't do it..." "For Celestia sake..." Dash muttered. She moved in, and grabbed her by the back of her neck, with her mouth. "Ow, Dash that hurts!" She was a bit muffled, with the filly in her way. "Then, you bedder fwap, cause we are gedding you in da air" Panicked, Cloud Chase flapped harder than she could ever recall having done. Soon Dash was into the air, with her little sister in her mouth, flapping for dear life. "Once you ged some air, you'll be fine. Now," She began her instruction. "I'm nod going do do anyfang more, dhan follow your lead. You fly around, and I'll guide you" The little Pegasus took it in, and nodded, best she could with her neck a bit bunched. She did her best, and started to flap around, flying like she was doing it, for the briefest moment, she forgot she was not. All the fears, and pains were rushing a way like the wing through her mane. "Can we go higher?" she was starting to enjoy herself now. "Up to you kiddo, said you are doing this, not me" Dash said, and she nodded, and started to fly higher. "There, you are doing it!" She noticed something. Her neck did not hurt, and she also noticed her sister's voice was not muffled. With a cautious glance, she looked to see the other around her, when she saw she was not, she panicked, and started to fall. "Dash, you let go of me!" She cried out, feeling betrayed. "You foal, you were flying! Now doing it, you don't need me!" She tried, but she was feeling so confused, and scared by the sudden rushing of air as she plummeted to the ground, she could not bring herself to alight and fly. "Dash?!" "DO IT!" The other stayed away, waiting for her to fix her own problem, but as she neared hard Equestria, she grow a bit more worried, hidden by frustration. "Darn it..." She could not see past her tears, but the blurry image of the ground was getting bigger, and she nearly felt she was done for. A sound like the sky shattering, echoed through out the land, and in a bright flash of colours, and a sudden rush in a new direction, Cloud Chaser was no longer falling, but on the back of a pony rocketing through the sky leaving a wave of rainbow colours behind her. After the quick save, Dash landed back by that tree, and Cloud got off, and stood there shaking and crying. "R...Ray Ray, I'm sorry..." "What ever..." She took a few trots, and laid down by the tree, looking very mad. It was getting late, and she did not seem like she wanted to return home. "Are... we not going back to the cloud?" the filly came around too get her in sight, but the older mare looked away. "No, can't fly, you roll out of bed, might fall" she said harshly, and grumpy. Cloud Chase lowered her ears, and looked a way, moving a bit a way and laid down. She could tell her sister was disappointed, and now she feared she lost her flight, and her sister. *** The night came, and Dash was asleep, but Cloud could not. She laid there for so long, worrying about her future. "What is there, for a Pegasus who can't fly?" She sniffled, and lifted her head up, taking a glance at the blue mare. "What would such an awesome flyer, want with a grounded pony?" She could feel her tears building, but something pushed them down, and with a determined blink, she stood up. "No!" She shouted in her head. "I'm not gonna loose everything, I was flying, for a bit" She looked around, they were as high as they could get, but the trees offered some more height. So she quickly climbed one, and started to jump from the lower branches. After a couple falls, she started to manage to glide down. It was a start. She heard Dash mumble something in her sleep, but she could not make it out. She went on, getting higher in the tree, and trying and trying, glide down from higher and higher, trying to find the height she could use to get enough air to fly. She was up on a massive tree, it was a bit away from where Dash was sleeping, but she did not care, she needed all the air should could get to try and fly. She did not bother with working her way up, she went right to the top, and after a brief moment of courage gathering, she leaped from the tree. She flapped hard, trying to get her now sore wings, to get the air just right, using those feathers and well designed limbs, to do what they were meant for. She was quickly reaching the point where she would have to abandon the flapping, for a glide, or she would find a very bad fall awaiting her, she pushed as hard as she could, and with a fluid motion, she lifted up. She was so excited, she nearly forgot to keep it up, but she did it again, and again, till she was fully flying. Her voice echoed, as she laughed, and cried out in happiness of being able to fly again. She shot through the air, not like Dash could, but not bad for a filly who never thought she would be able too again. Cloud had a legacy of show offs, and stunt ponies in her, and so she went right into some of her tricks, doing some rolls, and moves she has seen Dash do. After a while of playing, she was tired, but did not want to leave the sky, she was again a cloud in it's home. The bright moon shined on her, and she just hovered there, looking out at Ponyville, and the endless sky she was now able to claim as hers. "Having fun?" The voice caused her to loose all her focus, and she started to fall, till she was suddenly stopped. "Don't have a relapse" Dash said, with a laugh in her voice. Cloud rode on her sisters back, as they flew toward home. She was very tired now, and even though she wanted to, she could not get the energy to fly. First her mind, now her body. At least it was no longer permanent. "I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, that I couldn't do it before... I know you were disappointed in me..." "What?" Dash stuck her tongue out, making a rude noise. "Disappointed in you? No, I was just... upset" Dash's voice trailed a bit. "Upset?" "Yeah, I knew you could, your my sister after all! I was upset that you were so hurt by everything, you had no confidence. I was disappointed in myself, for not doing a better job at protecting you" She paused a moment, her next few words sound like they came from somepony else. For none had ever heard the quick moving, uncaring Pegasus, bare her heart. “After the horrible fire, I lost so much... I thought you were one of those. By the time I found you, with bound up wings, and no spirit... I thought maybe I did loose you” Her voice was filled with pain, and truth. She turned her head a bit, too look at her. "I Love you kid, and I can do anything, but bare the sight of you so badly hurt... sorry I was so rough, I'm not very good at using a gentle hoof. I just figured you needed a harsh push, to beat what every happened to you" Cloud Chaser's eyes were warm with tears, at this point, she was surprised she had any left, surprised more when she saw them in her sister's eyes too. She held tight to her. "I love you too big sister! I needed it. The fear of having you upset with me, was what pushed aside the other pains" “I am sorry I had to do it..." Rainbow Dash smiled after a couple moments, when she knew Cloud was not mad or upset at her. She looked forward. "Hey, let's not tell any pony about how hard I was on you... you know who will buck my flank if she found out" She laughed nervously. Cloud laughed, and nodded. The two sisters went to the cloud made home, and after a long day, the two sisters were closer than ever. -The End-

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-06-25T01:24:27+00:00

2012-06-25T01:24:27+00:00

Chapter one James burst into the room. "That's not a bad costume, Ed." "I thought I told Em to stop you at the door." I replied stiffly while holding pins in my mouth, not looking away from my costume. James glanced around the room, taking in the scenery he had seen a million times before. He walked behind me, looking at my work. "Like Em could stop me from doing anything. I bribed her with lychee soda." he said as he slammed down onto one of the many bean bags tossed around the cluttered room. "That isn't fair. You know how she never has the chance to buy any herself. Be careful with that bean bag, okay? It's made of leather, cost me a nice chunk of change." I said, glancing at him while still pinning on the costume. He thought about this for a second. "Who cares, it's a bean bag. So, you done yet?" James replied flippantly. "If it was done would it look like this? It looks like this dude had a bad day at the acupuncturist." I retorted, gesturing to the pins. James, reaching into his ever present backpack for something, replied seriously "You better get it done soon, or we are leaving without you." "It isn't like you are driving all by yourself, is it? Besides, I'm almost... there!" I spoke, as I finished sewing a small patch of fabric on the costume. I felt a slight sense of accomplishment as the costume was completed. I sat down in the bag next to him and admired my handiwork. James pulled two warm cans of soda out of his bag, and handed one to me. "You did pretty good." James admitted. I laughed. "I did really good." I corrected. James laughed, popping the top of his can. I sat there, relishing in the sense of achievement. Warm soda was as good a reward as any. "Guys! We have to leave now!" said a small voice in the hallway. I sighed, swishing the can. James groaned loudly. "How could you have possibly gotten Em?" said James, trying to roll out of the beanbag. "I have honestly no idea. I think that she actually flipped a coin." I replied sarcastically. James has a hardcore pudge, smokes overly much, and has the tendency to snort when laughing "Yeah, I'll bet." James said. He rolled out of his bean bag right onto his face. I couldn't help but chuckle. "Now go get Em and then change. She hasn't seen this yet." James said nothing, but just grumbled under his breath. That left me time to prepare. I jumped lithely to the desk, fumbled with the drawers for a minute, and pulled out a small blue box. The smooth velvet felt odd under my dry hands. “Such a small thing...” I whispered to myself. With haste I shoved the blue box into the pocket of my costume, already knowing the plan. “Come in” I said distractedly, hearing the rap at the door. Although it has been years since I have seen a human, I remember her with vivid detail. The short hair, dyed the most electrifying shade of blue, her eyes the color of dried leaves. “Wow” She ogled at my costume. I laughed. “Keep it in your pants, Em. Anyways, there is this seam in the pocket that I just cant seem to reach, can you pull it out for me?” I asked. She looked up at me, and I said “Right pocket” She dug, and I still relish in her face of surprise as her skinny fingers brushed velvet. “Pull it out” I replied. She did, and I walked up to her, held the box in her hands and said “Emily Lauren Banks. We have known each other for a while.” “Oh god, Ed, are you serious?” “Yes. I want you, so much that will devote the rest of my life to you. Marry me, em.” “Ed...” she said, tears in her eyes, looking at me. I raised my eyebrows at her, and she giggled. “Of course I will, Ed." She whispered. I held her tight. She snuggled into my chest, and hummed. It was a good thin when Em hummed, but she did it rarely. When Em was happy, She hummed, like how a cat purrs or a dog wags its tail. “Love it when you do that” I mumbled into her hair. She hummed a confirmation. “We should change into our costumes.” I reasoned. It was getting late. She hummed an off note. “We kinda have to, Em.” I retorted. She let go, untying her arms from me, with her skinny fingers trailing. She looked up at me innocently. I chuckled. “Go on now. Put the ring on, if you want." I said, still smiling. “I thought you would never s-” “HEY GUYS!” Em and I jumped. “DROP YOUR LINEN AND HIDE YOUR WOMEN! WE GOTTA GO!” screamed James from outside the door. “It’s official. Go get changed.” I told her. We were all out in the car, decked out in our respective costumes. James was Dante from dmc, Em decided to go traditional and be Leia, and I was Ichigo from bleach. We were all going to comic con Florida, which was about 50 miles from us. Em was the one with the best endurance, so she was the natural choice to drive. James and I slowly fell asleep. We were slowly awakened to Em swearing. Goddammit, this car sucks. Hey, guys? We need to go get some gas. Guys? Hello? Hello? HEY! WAKE UP! Is that a train?! We woke up to Em screaming at us and a blinding light. The train was so close. So close... Then time slowed. I could see the train, which was interesting only because it was loud and big. Because it would kill me. I could see Em crying, her freckled face running with tears for a life not lived, the children she would never see, the man she would never marry. I felt the impact. Everything was in vivid detail, and I saw glass flying from the window. One shard was getting close to me. Getting closer. Closer. CLOSER. I looked at Em. She was covered in glass. The train flew into her teary face, drying her tears, and smashed her into a pulp. I saw James scream in words that would fall upon ears that cannot hear. He was crying too. He tired to open the door before he died. It was locked the whole time, but he didn't know that. I saw the train fly into him, making his mutilated form fly into me so slowly. The shard that I was busy not looking at punctured my neck. I felt every centimeter of its ragged length as it flew into me. I might have bled to death if the train was not there. But, sadly, it was.Then the train flew into me. It was finally my turn to die. I embraced it. My body felt like it was being ripped apart, mauled, by hands I couldn't see. It hurt. I felt my arms rip and tear and pop out of their sockets, and they were slowly torn into chunks of flesh and ligaments and bone. It hurt. The same with my legs. My torso. My head. Then I didn't have a body to feel. And it didn't hurt any more.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:04:10+00:00

2012-02-02T02:04:10+00:00

Chapter two I woke up. An odd thing to do when you don’t exist. The light was blinding. I tried to remember how to use hands, which was a struggle. I try to flop, and some grey things flop around me. I try to flop an arm, and a grey blob flops next to me. I used my new found power of movement and motor control to move a blob up in front of my face. By the look of it things in front of my face were less blurred. Looks like my blob doesn't really have fingers, but beats being dead. Time passes, and it becomes darker. My senses are coming back to me. I can feel. The hard rock under my... body? My hands must be numb, because I cant feel much with those. I can hear. much better than when I was alive. I can hear things in the bushes. small things, mostly. Things that chirp, things that hum. Then I cry. It’s best not to listen, I've found out. I can taste. Crisp, clean air. Like there never was when I was alive. I taste dust every now and then. Time passes, and it is lighter now. I heard the oddest noise, which was accompanied by another odd sound. It was almost like... language. I can see, quite well, enough to discern that I am in a.... forest. The trees, I can smell them. The bitter whiff of evergreen, the sweet scent of rotting leaves. I think about Em, James, the train. I think I am strong enough to stand. My eyes open from sleep. There are things above me. Very vibrant colors, Blues and oranges and yellows and browns. These colors become detailed, form lines, and finally conform into blurry faces and bodies. “What are you?” I rasp. “We could ask you the same!” an orange one gruffly spat. “Easy, easy now. he doesn't look in the best of shape.” replied another face, a blue one. “Well don't just stand there gawkin’ at ‘im! We gotta do something!” a brown one exclaimed. With that, the faces quarrelled amongst themselves never seen anypony that pale. -the Librarian? we could- no, Zecora would be closer. What? take ‘im to ‘er? cutie mark, never seen one like- Why not? she could fix him. eh? “Please... Water!” I spoke in a gravelly tone. They all looked at me, seemingly surprised by the fact I had the strength to make such a statement. “Enough of your squabbling, We take him to Zecora!” yelled the orange one. They lifted me up, grunting beneath my weight. My ribs began to hurt, excruciating, as the world turned black. I woke up to a harsh smell, like rotting vegetables and ammonia. “Ah, he is awake. I knew that this poultice would take.” a deep voice declaimed. “Is he going to die?” said the gruff orange. “I do not think so. Although last time i saw something like this, it was years ago.” replied the deep voice. A bubbling sound emenated from a far corner. The faces shuffled around, as the deep voice, i assumed, clanked and bustled around. A door opened and closed. “Why cant I see?” I blurted out “Cause you’re wearing a blindfold, innit?” I recognized the voice from earlier, remembering that the face was brown. “Can you take it off?” i asked “I mean, we could give you a good viddy at us, but that would be downright horrid, wouldn't it?” “What do you mean? I don't understand!” I replied, exasperated. You think we should, Mark? No, but ‘ee should rather see it where we can contain ‘im if he goes bonkers. Agreed. “Do you have a name?” said the brown one, mark. “Edwin. my friends call me ed.” “Edwin. i am going to take off your blindfold. do you object to that? “No. Why would i? What is going on here?” I felt something prodding my face, and the cloth slipped off. Everything was so detailed. There were masks all over the walls, and vibrant gourds hanging from the ceiling, bubbling cauldrons in every spot of floor. I looked around, and finally saw the faces. I found the strength to sit up. “What the HELL are you?!” I spat angrily at the brown one “Now son, i can see wh-” cautioned Mark “TELL ME NOW!” I shouted at the blue one, who was deathly afraid. I tried to grab him by his shoulders, but my fingers wouldn't work. He ended up just falling over backwards. I looked at my hands. “Oh god... oh god...” I moaned to myself sickeningly. I turned and vomited into the nearest cauldron. “I don't know what you are getting all worked up about, son.” said the orange one. “We all look like this.” “But what ARE you?” I all but cried. “Are you daft son? We’re ponies.” He said simply. It all made sense. the noses, the hair, the... hooves. They all vaguely reminded me of something that I knew about when I was alive. “How did this happen?” “Well... When a colt finds a mare, and they love ea-” haltingly started the orange one “No, I mean where did my fingers go?” I interjected. “What are fingers, son?” Inquired Mark. I had to think about this. As the cauldrons bubbled, Zecora came back from outside with hooves full of mushrooms. “Are there computers or a library around here?” I asked impatiently. The blue pony shifted, and we all looked at him, Zecora included. “Go on, Alec, spit it out den.” said Mark “Er- i’m not too sure about what a ‘computers’ is, but I know where a library is. It’s in Ponyville, which is also where the nearest inn is.” “Then we go to Ponyville at first light.” declaimed the orange... pony. The rest of them settled around a cauldron, visibly relaxing. Zecora brought out some seed rolls and water, which i devoured with a vengeance. “It tastes so good!” I said through a mouth-full of seed roll. “Calm down Edwin. there is enough for everypony.” said Alec. I stiffened at the odd word. “You don't know what I've been through. It’s been a hell of a day.” I mumbled. The crowd grew visibly restless at this and said nothing “I'm going to go outside if you don't mind.” I said curtly as i stood up. Alec tried to get up and follow me but orange stared him down. I walked out the door and immediately felt the air. What cool, what flavor, it was unlike anything when I was alive. I stood there and thought to myself, looking out at the lush forest unfolding around my circumstances. they did not look good. losing a human body in exchange for this... this thing. I decided to investigate my new found form, which was the brightest shade of white. The hands resembled the feet, both stubby and hard at the end. My hair was jet black. The most puzzling thing, however, was that there was an odd symbol on my... thigh? “Good evening young colt. I hope you did not plan to bolt.” said Zecora, walking up from behind me “Zecora...” I started, hesitant. “Speak up, son. Have something to say or let it be done” “I’m not used to this new form. I don't even know what happened to me, one minute I was dead and the next I... Was. I just was. I had a body, with these little wiggly bits where feet should be-" I said, wiggling one of the wiggly bits in question. Zecora stopped me from going on. "They are called hooves. They help you to move." She rhymed in her heavily accented voice. "How do you think this happened?" I asked. She said nothing, but stood stoically looking forward. “I once met a filly like you. But I could not help her, I simply could not do.” She replied, looking away from me, seemingly in sadness. A tear streaked down her face. We paused and stared at the beauty of the Forest. “Zecora, could you tell me what this is?” I said after a long pause, gesturing to my thigh “Ah, my boy, that is a cutie mark, you see. It is what shows what we are inside, tells us what we are to be.” said Zecora in a deep accent. “So mine means I'm good at math or something?” I asked jokingly. Zecora looked at my cutie mark, and her face grew gaunt. “What’s wrong? Does it mean something bad?” I worried openly. Zecora looked at me, and said; “You will come with me, to find out what the Librarian can see.” Zecora ushered me under cover of darkness through the forest, which was a lot less beautiful when you were stuck up to your... hooves in mud. “So why did you kidnap me?” “I told you, daft child! To find out whether this is important or mild!” She said in a rough tone. I thought about that as we ran- no, galloped, through the forest. galloping was so much better than running, the speed was incredible. The wind whipped past my face as we were reaching the edge of the forest, where it grew a little bit brighter under cover of moonlight, but not much. The sky was amazing, all the stars could be seen, but... none of them were constellations. This worried me enough to wonder where I actually was. Worrying took up a good portion of the time, and before too long a modest skyline appeared. “What is that, Zecora?” I asked “Ah, the most charming place, Ponyville, has a slower pace.” I did not reply, because before too long the buildings were rushing up to meet me. Zecora was weaving through the buildings at breakneck speeds, but slowed down when we got to the opposite side of Ponyville. “Zecora, what are we looking for?” I asked, growing impatient with walking around. “The purple tree! That is where the librarian will be.” She replied with energy. “Like that one?” I inquired while pointing my hoof. Zecora looked from under her traveling cloak and squinted. “Ah, a keen eye this pony has.” she mumbled to herself. Zecora looked around and knocked twice on the door. She cocked an ear, and waited a second, and knocked once more. The door opened immediately, but there was no one in the doorway. Zecora and I walked inside of the tree and looked around. It was the most magnificent collection of anything I had yet to see, with books jammed on shelves carved out of the living tree. I gasped. "Hello, Zecora. who do we have with us today?” said somepony who I could not see. “A very good question, one of mine is the same. tell us, pony, what is your name?” said Zecora with a suspicious tone. “M-my name is Edwin. My friends call me Ed.” I said, immediately wary of the unseen voice. A pony appeared from behind a bookshelf and walked up to me. She was purple. Her coat was a light purple, and her mane was composed of all different shades. She looked at me puzzlingly, like I was a peculiar bug or an interesting trinket, and said: “Nice to meet you Ed. My name is Twilight.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:04:22+00:00

2012-02-02T02:04:22+00:00

Chapter 3 “Twilight?” I said jokingly. “What an odd name.” “Zecora, thank you so much for bringing him here. I wouldn't really have trusted the musketeers to bring him back unharmed.” said Twilight, completely ignoring me as she nudged a clinking sack on her desk “It is the least that I can do for a pony such as you.” said Zecora, putting the small sack in her saddlebags. Zecora continued on as she hurried out of the door. “Flight, I must take, for the musketeers will soon awake.” I watched Zecora bustle out of the door as Twilight began to look through her books. I turned away as the door closed and looked at Twilight, and nearly shat myself as I saw a book floating in front of her face. “W-what are you doing?” I stammered. She glanced at me without taking her focus off of the book. “Reading.” “B-but why is it floating?!” I shouted. She stood erect at this statement, taking her focus off of the book. She turned away from me to follow the book as it floated to it’s shelf. When it was placed on the shelf and I worked up a good fear sweat, Twilight brought her gaze to bear and studied me as if i was one of her books. I fidgeted under the force of her eyes. “It has been centuries.” said Twilight ominously. “Centuries since what?” I asked “Since there has been a Ghost amongst us.” She whispered somberly. She spun around and mumbled “And even longer since a Numbered.” This was confusing. Sure, I was dead, but i can touch things. I am pretty pale in this world, and I DO have a cutie mark that is a number. an ornate five. “Twilight, this kinda makes sense.” I decided, and she looked at me as if I just suggested that we should burn her library. “What?” her horn glowed and numerous books shot from their shelves, already open. I shuddered as her expression grew more confused. “ But none of the others ever really understood.” she reasoned to herself, her eyes shooting from book to book. “And the only documentation of Numbered.... folklore... old mare tales... “Hello?” I said. Twilight studiously did not divert her attention away from her books. I began to realise that this might be a flaw in her character, and I sought to heal her of that. I trotted up to her desk, jumped up and slammed my front hooves on the nearest book. Her horn stopped glowing and all of the books fell as she looked up at me. “Twilight! You tell me what is going on right now! I don't care what you aren't sure about! Because what I know about ME doesn't even hold a candle to what YOU know about me!” I shouted at her, leaning on one of her open compendiums with my hooves. She cringed away from me in fear. She looked like she was sobbing. “I'm... I'm sorry Twilight.” I said, trotting over to her side of the desk. “It’s just so confusing, waking up when I thought I was dead, in a world I do not know and with a body that isn't human...” I was getting closer to her. She looked deathly afraid of me. “Don't be afraid of me Twilight. I couldn't hurt anybody.” I tried to console her. Twilight seemed to muster the courage to say “Anypony. Besides, you could destroy our entire town if you wanted to.” Her horn glowed, and a book floated over to me. Mysteriouse legends and monstrosities. The ghoste is a fearsome creature, who arrives in Equestria by unbeknownste means. Under the guise of a pone, they stalk the countryside waiting fore disasters. Ghosts are creatures of great power, able to connect to the very force of nature, not unlike pegasus ponies or the Princess on high. Ghosts manipulate the very threads of power to create what they see in their mind... “You see now, Ed. We can learn so much about you, being in these modern times. There hasn't been a ghost in centuries, and...” Twilight flourished her hooves at me “Here you are.” “But what about that Numbered stuff? What is that even mean?” I asked confusedly. “Well...” said Twilight doubtfully. I watched as Twilight made more books hover and spin, her face growing doubtful with each passing page. “Well, Twilight?” I asked sarcastically She looked at me and said: “There really isn't any hard proof that they actually ever existed other than legends.” said Twilight. she continued: “And those are abound in our region of Equestria as well as others.” in a matter of fact tone, her face still streaked with tears. “I'm... sorry I stood on your books, Twilight.” I said shamefully. She looked at me and smiled, then looked at the trodden-upon volume. “It’s fine, just don't do it again, okay?” Twilight said jokingly. Twilight looked back to her books. My stomach growled. Twilight looked at me grinned, and said “There is a fridge downstairs. I'm pretty sure that there is something in there for you.” I looked around and found a staircase hidden behind one of the books. walking down stairs with this body was very hard, but apparently you just go backwards. After stumbling down the stairs, I found the fridge. I thought of my human life, and how this artifact was so commonplace there. Such a frivolous place, I realized when I died. so few have so much, when so many have so little. it is no use worrying about such things, I've noticed. staring at the fridge, contemplating mortality. Screw it, I want food. There was a large assortment of vegetables, and I leaned down to pick up a carrot with my mouth. Chewing was a bit difficult to get a hold on, but I figured it out. I only dropped the carrot three times. I heard Twilight call my name from the main room of the tree. I tried to climb up the stairs, and was rewarded to find that it was much easier to climb up than down. I had trouble not banging my hooves together, but I finally emerged in the large central room of the tree. Twilight was looking at me. “Ed? I think you should sleep. you looked tired.” She said. There was definitely truth in that statement, I thought to myself. But I didn't know where I was going to sleep. Twilight seemed to pluck the thought out of my head when she said: “I have a spare bed upstairs that you would be welcome to. I am afraid that I can’t go to sleep right now, I notified Princess Celestia about you and she bid me to go to the palace. I told Fluttershy to come meet you here in the morning.” Not even wanting to know who this Princess Celestia was, I decided to not look a gift... horse in the mouth. I grimaced at the bad pun as it formed in my mind. “I-” I stammered. Twilight raised her eyebrows at me, quizzical in her bearing “I h-hope i get to see you again, Twilight.” I said red-faced. she smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. she looked away from me as she said “I hope I see you again too, Ed.” She said without emotion. I paused, thinking. Finding the stairs on the edge of the tree, I climbed up to find two beds facing each other. Taking the one that wasn't purple, I crawled in and curled into a ball. I dreamed. The dream was of twilight in a car as it crashed into a train. I watched the glass fly into her face, blinding her for the rest of her very, very short life... I awoke screaming to sunlight outside my window. my lungs heaved as they prepared to exert themselves against a threat that wasn't there. I looked around, and found a small yellow pony in the corner, shuddering. “I-I'm sorry... A-are you Fluttershy?” I asked, ashamed. the pony perked up at the name, and stood up. “Yes, i am. you must be Ed, I think.” she said in a quiet tone. I smiled. This pony was so composed and shy, I couldn't help myself but laugh. “What are you laughing about, Ed?” said the embarrassed pony softly. I grinned at her, she was such a soft spoken pony. “Nothing. is it too early to show me around your town?” “Do you want some breakfast first, Ed?” she said. My weakness. I haven't had food since Zecora’s seed rolls, and I don’t even know what counts as pony cuisine. That, and when she mentioned food, my stomach began to growl. “Would you mind if I take you to breakfast before we see the town? If that’s alright with you and all...” replied Fluttershy to my stomach. It growled even louder at the proposition. “Well, let’s go, then.” I said. Fluttershy didn't go into the middle of the town like i thought she would, but instead followed a path around the back of the library, which led into a little alcove in the trees. We walked for about five or six minutes, then I saw the most beautiful little cottage with a chicken coop next to it. It was one of those things that they just didn't have when i was alive. “I take it that this is your house?” I inquired playfully, looking at Fluttershy. She nodded, saying “Oh, yes. I decided to eat breakfast up here, because I am not much of a fan of the food they sell in the town. N-not that it is bad or anything... My front door is broken so we have to go through the basement...” “No, it’s fine. I would swear it has been eons since I have had good food.” I said bluntly. She smiled as she opened the door to her basement, and gestured me inside. I walked in cautiously, wiping my hooves on the doormat. inside of the house there was a wondrous assortment of burlap bags, cages, and tiny beds. I carefully edged my way over to a couch that was out of the way of all the things. “Oh, my... I'm very sorry, this isn't very organized, I usually just fly over it, but I can clean it up...” she said, trying to cover for herself. “It’s, perfectly fine, I'll figure a way out of here...” I said, jammed between a feed bag and a stack of beds. “Are... are you sure?” she asked, skeptical of my reasoning. “Um... yeah, just go do whatever, I'll be out in a second.” I awkwardly replied, finding myself inverted over an ornate cage. “Well... okay then...” She said unbelieving, and flew into a different room of the cottage. I thought about how to get out of here, and closed my eyes. It would be a lot easier if there was just a straight path to the other room through all the clutter... Sighing, I finally opened my eyes and couldn't believe what they told me. Apparently there WAS a path through the clutter, just not in the direction I was looking. Swearing at my own stupidity, I climbed over some more cages and beds and landed in a perfectly clear but small path through the clutter. “I survived.” I said to Fluttershy as I climbed the stairs into the house. She looked at me, surprised, making what seemed to be vegetables of some kind. “I thought it would have taken longer to get out of that, the way you were stuck.” said the yellow pony with a grin on her face. “Not for the amazing Ed!” I declared, grabbing a spatula off of the counter, holding it like a sword. “Ed the experienced! Ed the extractor!” I swung my spatula, make believing that i was slicing through clutter. Fluttershy was staring, ogling me, really. which was confusing. “How are you holding that?” she asked innocently. I stared at her, simply trying to figure out how she could ask a question like that. “What?” I asked incredulously. “Oh, I just meant how are you holding that spatula?” she asked in the same innocent tone. I looked in my hoof to see the spatula i was holding. come to think of it, i had never seen a pony hold something with one hoof before. “I don't really know...” I said, setting down the spatula on the counter. “Well, it doesn't really matter... it could have been magic...” she said, pondering the vegetables on the cutting board while holding the knife with two hooves. “Wait! Try it again!” She said hurriedly, gesturing toward the knife. I was skeptical that i could do it when i intended to, but i would still try. “But don’t you have to have a horn to use magic?” I asked questioningly, reaching for the knife. I touched it, and could feel the knife. Not just the part of the knife that was touching my hoof, but it was like the knife was a part of my hoof. Like how a leg or an arm was a part of me. I knew immediately that it would do whatever I wanted it to. I looked at Fluttershy as i picked up the knife, raising it slowly into the air. And started cutting vegetables.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:04:39+00:00

2012-02-02T02:04:39+00:00

Fluttershy looked at me in amazement as chopped vegetables with one hoof. I looked at her looking with an air of incredulity. “Is this really that amazing?” I asked her. she looked at the vegetables, and back to me. “I've never met anypony that can do this as good as you can, Ed. at least not without magic.” She replied quietly. I ran my other hoof through my mane as I chopped, pretty sure I was looking like a total badass. “Really?” I replied, still amazed that this little pony has never seen anyone pick up something with one hoof. “Really.” She said, assured of the truth. I put down the knife before I could get ahead of myself with mutilating the vegetables. “Is this all there is for breakfast?” i asked. “Um... yes, it is.” she said while looking at her hooves. I shrugged “That’s fine by me...” I said After breakfast I convinced fluttershy to take me into town to see the sights. Not knowing if I could stay in Equestria really made me want to see all of it. Although, it required some persuasion on the part of Fluttershy. “C’mon Fluttershy! it isn't every day that you get to see Ponyville!” I said, practically begging. "Well, for me..." "Pleeeeaase?!" I pleaded. “Oh, I don't think I can do that, Twilight told me-” “Fluttershy! I really would LOVE to go see the shops and stuff.” I said. “Oh, but I couldn't possibly do that, Twilight said-” “Look, I'll back you up if Twilight gets mad, okay?” “Well... okay, I guess I can do that... We were walking through the town, admiring all of the buildings. There was a quill and sofa shop, along with several shops selling various sweets and treats of all kinds. There were various stands for candy, books, and one for apples, and another for- “Well if it aint Fluttershy! I haven't seen you in days!” Said a voice with a deep south accent. Fluttershy squeaked. I looked at her with a grin on my face and started laughing. “Well what in tarnation is going on here?” Said the voice incredulously as I started wheezing from laughing so much. I was laughing so hard now that I was literally on the ground, barely able to breathe. “Um. Ed... this is A-Applejack.” Fluttershy said between my gaspings. “N-nice to meet you HAHAHAHAAA!” i screamed out, trying to contain myself. Applejack bit my hair and moved me. She pulled me behind her apple cart and stood in front of it. i was there for a few minutes, laughing my ass off... When the world stood still. The breath stuck in my throat. I could tell because Applejack stopped fidgeting. She had just one hoof floating in the air. I knew what to do, somehow. I snuck out from under the cart, edging around applejack, and stood up on all four hooves. I looked round, and everything was frozen. Leaves were floating in the air, and everypony was still. There was even one who was frozen in mid-jump. But, there were two things wrong. There was a pony who looked confused, a light brown one with a slightly darker mane, and it was moving. There was a small white orb floating next to Fluttershy. “Hey, hello?” I said to the brown pony. He immediately looked up at me, his expression turned from confusion to absolute delight. “Well, would you look at this! Not every day that you see a Ghost!” It said with a delighted tone. “Who... who are you?” I asked, in awe. this pony just seemed so carefree, so lax, in such a surprising scenario. “Never get tired of that question, never do...” He replied mystically, looking at a nearby leaf floating. I waited for a response. “You see, Edwin, this is not the first time that i have met you. but, it is the first time you have met me. Edwin... I'm the Doctor.” I was confused to no end by this statement. “What do you even mean? You're a doctor? And why are you the only one that can move?” I said, exasperated by the lack of sense he made. “I'm not A doctor, I’m THEE Doctor, you see. I didn't stop moving because I didn't want to. that, and I’m supposed to tell you to touch that thing.” he said, gesturing at the white orb “And other than what I just said, I am to tell you nothing.” He qualified. I raised my eyebrows at him, which is a hard thing to do without eyebrows. “Go on.” he said “Touch it.” Walking over to the orb, I reached my hoof out to it, and tried to touch it. My hoof slid right through, like it was just air. “Oh, wait...” said the doctor absentmindedly, as he trotted away from me. “They said to grab it.” Looking at the doctor with a not-amused look on my face, I reached for the orb again and grabbed it. the whole of creation tore itself asunder. the feeling was pure torment, my body was pure pain. My hoof was glued to the orb, and through it waves of pain flowed. The only thing that was like this was getting hit by the train, and not even that comparable. This was like being set on fire. I writhed for what felt like hours in a sea of pain, and would have done anything to escape it. The orb seemed like it plucked the thought out of my head, and the orb no longer affected me. For a few seconds there was sweet bliss. Then the pain flowed through me, still making my scream and writhe, but it flowed out and to the other ponies. Time resumed, and i never heard or saw anything more horrendous in my life. AH! AH! AAH! It burns, mommy! It burns! Jim, run! save yourself! -wont leave- you- -take the foals- WHAT’S HAPPENING! AAAAARGH! “NO! NO! DON’T BRING THEM INTO THIS!” I screamed at the orb, which I had unleashed upon the innocent masses. “You fool.” Spoke the orb into my mind. I stared at the orb, and never felt hatred so harsh and swift. I looked around, trying to see something that I could kill the orb with. I had to bear the faces of the crying, screaming ponies littered around me like forgotten toys. Their screams and lamentations fell upon my suffering, yet helpless, ears. I looked at Fluttershy, at her fragile body wracked in the throes of pain unearthly. She somehow manages to look at me through the searing fire and tear-streaked eyes and whispers: “Save us... Ed...” These words were enough to make my hatred for the orb all the more deadly. “I KNOW NOT WHAT YOU ARE! BUT I WILL DO ANYTHING TO KILL YOU!” I spat to the orb. “Ha!” The orb spoke into my mind, “A mere pony? Defeat the likes of me?” It projected, forcibly inserting its thoughts into my mind. I screamed in a deafening voice that was not my own, the chords of my neck bursting, my body flowing with strength i never had. Rage, swift and unmerciful, flowed through me into the orb, dragging the pain through with it, and the orb grew darker. “What foul power is this?” Projected the orb. I cared not to satisfy it with an answer, but focused the pain and rage in my head. I stared at the orb, and I sensed fear. I opened my mouth and screamed at it. The world turned white with unleashed power as the orb quietly collapsed on itself. I fell to the ground, my lungs heaving with exertion. My body seemed empty of the power it showed when grappling with the orb. the corners of the world grew dark. Right before i blacked out, I saw a pony lean over me, then reach down to grab me. There was a flash of blue, and then the world grew dark. My body felt warm, like lying in the sun on a spring day. I lazily flickered my eyes open, seeing what there was to see. There was only white. I do believe he is waking up, Othello. give it time, Evangeline. He has been through the tribulation. You were not so well yourself, were you? I say we wake him up now, Othello. remember your place, Gespard. he is still recovering. Othello, please! We shant be too hard on the boy, but we can’t let him lie there forever! “The orb... t-” My words were cut short by a pain in my chest. “Marcus, go help the boy” said the voice belonging to Othello. “Easy now, son.” said what I assumed to be Marcus, as he hoisted me up. I felt like I was floating, and landed on something very soft. “Please wake him up, will you?” Said the deepest voice. I felt a constricting around my hooves, which were splayed about me. They were irritating, which caused me to shuffle around on the softness. I opened my eyes, trying to see what was pestering me. I was looking at four of the oddest ponies I’ve ever seen. they were all different colors, all of them bright, vivid hues. The tallest was red, the second tallest was purest blue, the third was a woman pony, and she had a bright yellow coat, and the smallest was a brilliant green. I tried to get up, but the finesse of muscular control escaped me. There was no way to move at all.I slumped, my head burying itself in the soft thing. “Who... who are you?” I said with my mouth full of soft. All of the bright, tall ponies smiled, seemingly in unison. The tallest, the red, stepped foreward on gigantic crimson hooves. “Edwin, we are the league of Numbered.” He declaimed in a loud voice.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:05:07+00:00

2012-02-02T02:05:07+00:00

Chapter 5 I looked at these ponies with a face filled with awe. “We brought you here because you were too weak after the battle with the angelic to survive in normal Equestria for much longer.” said the tall red, Othello. “That, and we were much too late in informing you of your powers.” said the yellow mare, Evangeline. She continued: “In the past, we managed to take a numbered whenever they appeared in Equestria, but all of us were here in the Nether when you attained existence in this dimension. By the time we mobilized you were gallivanting all across the whole of Equestria, with a ragtag bunch of bounty hunters and sorcerers! why, if it was back in my d-” Evangeline was waved off by Othello, her small head dwarfed by his massive crimson hoof. “We have been awaiting the arrival of the Fifth for centuries.” declared Othello, his thunderous voice booming inside of the confines of this room. He continued when he saw my look of confusion “Every time a numbered is summoned into this world, it heralds a grave disaster. We Numbereds carry a great blessing, and bear a grave curse. We are called to face the grey horseman, death, long before our allotted times. We are selected because we are needed to save the lives of many, which justifies the deaths of we few.” said Othello sadly, as if he still mourned his own death. Othello got down on his knees and looked me straight in the eyes. “I will not be flippant about your death, Edwin. It is a tragedy when one must die, necessary or otherwise. But i must stress to you what the responsibilities of a Numbered are, and encourage you to lose all ties to your past life.” he said gravely. “But Othello, isn't there a way...” He was already shaking his head before i finished the sentence “But would you want to? Edwin, when you fought the Angelic, what did you see?” He retorted. I thought back to the screams, the children... Fluttershy, her frame convulsing... “Terrible things. things that I would not wish on anypony.” I said, disgusted by the horror of the memory. “And that is why you must fight! For every last pony in Equestria! What that Angelic did, what it wanted to do, was absolutely nothing! Mere foals’ play! There are thousands more with far eviler goals in mind than just torture!” said Othello, with fire in his voice. It was almost scary to see him speak with such emotion, as if his passion could break bones. Looking at his huge body, it probably could. “I only have one question.” I said. Evangeline looked at me and said “and what could that possibly be?” “You guys have any food?” I was grumpy. Apparently the Nether got in an argument with food once and said “fuck you, i don’t need you, food!” or something to the cosmic effect of that, and then food was not required to sustain life in the Nether. I talked to Marcus, head of transportation here in the nether, and told me that if they time it right, they can send me back to long before the orb appeared, and in Princess Celestia’s chamber. Marcus was explaining the finer points to me in the transporting and demolecularization of myself when I heard light hoof beats behind me, too light to be a Numbered. “Well! Lucky me!” said a familiar voice. “Not every day you get to see the same ghost twice.” I smiled, because I knew that I was really going to like what I was about to do. As soon as the colt was close enough to me I spun around on my back hooves and punched him in the face. The feeling of my hoof making contact with his face was satisfying in a primal way. I watched him as he fell to the ground. “OI! what did you do that for?” said the Doctor, as he held a hoof up to his face “You knew exactly what the Angelic would do! Why didn't you tell me?!” I shouted at him. He gazed back at me with his bloodied face, eyes glazed with centuries upon centuries of sadness. There were no words for what this pony has seen. I can see that i have done nothing to him other than make him want something that he could never have. Death. I fell to my knees and wept, like a child, blubbering all over my hooves. I couldn't help myself, he just bared my soul and told me how much of a petulant child i was. But, under that... there was something else. “I didn’t tell you because there was no way that you would have believed me, Ed. I know you better than you know yourself.” He got onto all four of his hooves, and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I've seen suns explode, empires demolished, whole planets vaporized killing millions upon millions of innocents. I've seen people I love electrocuted, burned, incinerated, compressed, exploded, imploded, dessicated, gutted, transmuted, eviscerated, and hung. “You think that a handful of ponies getting singed for a few minutes would faze me?” He calmly whispered. I managed to stop weeping for a second to say something. “You sick bastard, you think that that is any excuse? Just because you’ve seen worse, makes torturing innocent creatures acceptable?” I managed to look him straight in the nose, which was as close as i could get to his eyes without crying. The Doctor was taken aback by this, and his eyes softened. “It is always the young ones who prove me wrong, in the end. Marcus?” he said, as if nothing had happened. “Yes sir?” Marcus said cautiously, unsure if the doctor would direct his wrath at him next. “Marcus, tell Othello that you need not send him back so soon. You can keep Mr. Edwin Shell here as long as you please. I will take him back to Equestria when Othello requests it of me.” the doctor said in a voice full of authority. And please don’t call me sir.” “Yes sir.” replied Marcus as the Doctor trotted away, leaving me weeping as a confused Marcus carried me through the hallways. We walk through a random doorway to find a deep blue pony contemplating what seemed to be a fish tank with everything but the fish. He glances back at us. “Marcus, if you would leave him there for me, I’ll take him to Othello.” said Gespard, flourishing a hoof at a nearby sofa. Marcus let me down gently on the the said sofa and trotted out of the entryway. I looked at Gespard, his cobalt mane flowing majestically down his neck. He was standing on his two back legs as he ran his hooves though the tank of water on the table in front of him. “I would understand if you are very confused right now Ed.” Gespard said in a soft voice as he turned around to face me “The changes we all went through as we earned our mantle as Numbered are not easy ones. If we were to go about this the conventional way, you would spend a few months in the Nether being trained in the proper way to use your given ability. There are a few problems with going about it in this fashion. The first problem is that you are a ghost. Your coat is a pure white color, which gives us no idea what your power would be. In the case of all of the Numbereds except for you, our coats indicate the powers we have.” he flourished a hoof over to the tank of water, where to my surprise a large glob of water floated out and followed the path of the hoof back to his lap, where he prodded and poked it. Gespard continued as if nothing special happened. “The second problem we have is time. You should be lucky that the Doctor has offered to help us in this endeavor. The Lonely god is beholden to none, and goes where he pleases upon his sea of time.” He flicked his hoof and the ball of water flew back into the tank. “I was the previous Numbered to enter this world, the fourth. Sadly, my talent was not very useful in the cataclysm that I was selected to prevent, but I was still powerful enough to defeat the danger that threatened Equestria.” He said rather smugly, but with a hint of regret in his eyes. He laid on the raised mat, saying nothing for a while. The blue colt lay on his mat, contemplating ages past. I thought about what he just told me, when a question sprang to mind. “Gespard... how... how did you die?” I asked him cautiously. He seemed taken aback by this question, as if it was one he was never prepared to answer. Tears welled in his eyes as he contemplated. “I-I was... a soldier, in the war of 1812. My ship was a powder mule on the battle of lake Eire. The ship was boarded and set aflame. I watched my crew mates burn before the fire spread to the galley. The ship exploded, and that is that.” there was a lone tear running down his face. “You... didn’t have to say... I didn’t know...” I stumbled awkwardly. “It’s fine. and, it does give me warrant to tell you that Numbereds that are selected from their timeline do not transpose themselves directly into Equestria, but are transported to the time that they are most needed, which also leads to the next subject I must tell you.” “The power of the Numbereds are not based on their actual number, meaning that the lowest number isn’t the most powerful, or the least. I myself, the fourth, am actually the least powerful of the Holding four.” he said in an explanatory tone. “Othello, whose power is the wielding of fire, is actually the second most powerful, but the strongest in terms of physical prowess. The strongest in terms of gift would have to be Evangeline.” I was surprised to hear this answer, because I expected her to be the least powerful. she seemed so feminine, yet... had an air of ability about her. “Why? what can she... wield?” I asked, doubtful. “You’ll find out soon.” said a smug voice in the doorway. We both looked up to see Evangeline in the doorway. She looked at Gespard and spoke “Othello requires the Ghost in the arena, he has sent me to fetch him.” She said as she gestured at me to get up. Gespard looked at Evangeline disbelievingly. Evangeline, looking at him with a coy smile on her face, said “You are always welcome to join us, Gespard. Othello would not even dream that he could keep you confined.” said Evangeline in an amused tone. Marcus seemed to return to his senses at that statement. “Of course i will, it would be quite enjoyable to see that.” said Gespard enthusiastically, getting up from his mat. Gespard and I followed Evangeline to the largest room i have ever seen. it was gigantic, absolutely enormous, because it was a large swath of wilderness. Trees, a river, and even sunlight streaked through the patch of land. “Gespard, Othello asked you to join him in the bleachers.” said Evangeline. Gespard looked grumpily at Evangeline and jumped lithely up a sheer crag, bounding from rock to rock, and finally disappearing over the top. Evangeline tuned to look down at me, being a full head taller. “In a few moments, you will be fighting for your life.” said Evangeline without inflection. “You should expect to give no quarter, for no quarter shall be given to you. You will face me, and do your very best to kill me. I will also be trying to kill you. Understand well, foal, that the contest will not be over until one of us dies, or Othello calls an end to our contest. Edwin, do you understand to the best of your ability what I have just told you?” I looked her straight in the eyes. “I do.” I spat out, and flung a hoof up to her face. she lithely sprung out of the way, sprinting across the face of the crag. she stopped halfway across it and stepped onto the open air. “Come, now, Edwin! you think that a childish little thing like that could even effect a Numbered who has held her mantle for millennia?” she laughed at me as she spoke. I growled as I galloped towards her. Using a small rock as a springboard, I jumped up to her, nearly flying, and cocked a hoof at her. I screamed as I flung it towards her, loosening all of my bodily strength. She stepped to the side of me as I looked at her in awe. She moved so fast, I could hardly see it. The ground rushed up to meet me as I contemplated her speed. The landing jarred my body, with one of my forelegs bearing the brunt of the fall. I looked up at Evangeline, who seemed to be glowing somewhat. She reared up on her hind legs as she floated in the air, spreading wide her forelegs as if she was about to hug somepony. She stood in this pose for a few minutes as I tried to look for something to fight her with. The trees would do nothing against her, and I really couldn’t pick one out of the ground. The world grew dark. I looked up to Evangeline, whose entire body was glowing a bright gold. I paused in my movement, I had never seen anything as stunning in my entire life. She opened her eyes, and i could see that they were a bright white. She turned those eyes at me, and immediately they turned red. Time froze, and she fired a beam of pure red at me. I tried to move out of the way fast enough, but it didn’t help. My right foreleg, where the beam hit, was completely gone, leaving a crisped stub of flesh in it’s place. I tried to not cry out in pain, but it was too strong. I sobbed quietly and limped through the forest, trying to find the crag where Gespard climbed. It was nearly impossible to do with one foreleg, but I managed to find the cliff. I looked up at the cliff, not knowing if I had enough time before she fired whatever that was at me again. I looked up the crag, and closed my eyes, imagining me up in the air, standing like Evangeline was. I stood there, smelling the burnt flesh of my leg as a profound amount of nothing happened. I fell to the ground. I laid there for a second, hopeless, as my body waited to be singed to a crisp. I sat there for a second or two before i realised that the ground was rather flat where I fell. I opened my eyes tentatively to see that I was floating above the ground, high above the crag where I intended to be. I looked down at Evangeline, who was again bright golden and staring at me. Her eyes turned red and flashed, the red beam slicing off my left foreleg. I collapsed on my air pillow, screaming, my hind leg on fire. Through tears I looked at her, the edges of the world growing dark. In one last ditch effort, I pointed my only foreleg at her, and concentrated. I heard a large detonation, and felt my strength renew. I could feel the lightning before I could see it. It moved at a lazy pace, streaking down to the golden mare. But it was so much faster than Evangeline, who doesn’t look up. Not wanting to kill her, I make it streak by her face, leaving a few tendrils of electricity to completely paralyze her. Her body slowly floated down to the forest floor. I concentrated on my remaining hoof, watching the energy visibly grow and arc. I stared down at Evangeline’s broken form and smiled, and flew down at her unmoving body. My remaining forehoof bristled with deadly intent. Unpausing time so I could watch her die, I landed next to her and flung my electrically charged hoof down towards her pretty golden face. There was a single bead of sweat on her large muzzle. “STOP” boomed Othello. The sheer will of his statement made me stop dead in my tracks, my hoof inches from the golden snout I wanted to crush. Strands of electricity were arcing off of her shaking face. Othello appeared beside me, put a hoof on my shoulder, and said “She does not deserve what you will give her Edwin. Put it out!” he said, gesturing at my lightning-filled hoof. I severed the flow of energy to that hoof, and closed my eyes. the pain was so intense. I concentrated on my legs and arms, wishing them into existence. When I opened my eyes, I severed the flow of magic that kept me upright, and fell onto all fours. The joy I felt when i was able to use my legs was amazing. Othello looked down at me, His eyes livid. “Walk with me.” He said without emotion, and strode out of the arena.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:05:19+00:00

2013-01-05T07:05:05+00:00

Chapter 6 Othello strode off into the Nether, his long, powerful legs leaving me galloping to catch up. Once I caught up to him, He was silent for what seemed like hours, striding with his powerful crimson legs through the alabaster halls that would not permit food nor sleep. I marvelled at his sheer size, towering well over me, which earned him the title of stallion. The muscles under his blood-red coat could betray no weakness, and contracted and flexed with each stride. The only thing that betrayed his age was the ink-black one inscribed on his flank. “Edwin, there are some things that I must tell you.” Othello spoke softly, his voice echoing down the halls. I looked up at his face, straining my neck. “We Numbereds are rare in this world, for there are only five of us to date. We have all the powers of the magical realm. We Numbereds have no wings, yet can soar to the highest peaks. We Numbereds have no horns, yet can weave the most complex spell. But, this is not even our most formidable gift, being able to cast any spell and fly to any height.” Othello stopped walking. He craned his massive head down to my eye level. “We Numbered also have the power over a specific ability, one that is not our choice. I was given fire. Marcus, plants. Evangeline, light. Gespard, water. You, Edwin Shell, have been granted control of God’s might, Lightning. This is a magic unusually rare in alicorns, and rarer still in unicorns. I myself have only seen an alicorn summon lightning once, and that was in the middle of a rainstorm. You summoned a gigantic bolt of lightning in broad daylight, and made it do as you please.” I could see the look of amazement in Othello’s eyes. “In addition to this, which in and of itself is a miraculous achievement, you unleashed lightning inside of your own body. This is deadly, not only in the fact that it is a formidable offensive ability, but also could easily go awry. In theory, if you direct lightning in a path that crosses your heart, you could die.” Othello said gravely. “Edwin, I have asked the Doctor to join us in the Observatory, where we Numbereds oversee the whole of Equestria. It is there we will decide where your powers are most needed.” said Othello, starting to walk off again in giant strides. Deciding that there was no use in arguing, I followed the enormous stallion through the white halls. “Oh! good seeing you lot, then.” said the Doctor as Othello and I entered the Observatory. The Observatory was not really much of a room, no windows or fixtures except for a pillar in the middle of the floor next to a large, blue box. Walking past the pillar, I marvelled at the box. “What an odd place for such a thing...” I wondered out loud, admiring the blue thing. The Doctor laughed at my comment. “It wont be there for much longer. Othello, you know what to do.” said the pale brown pony as he walked into the box. Othello walked over to the pillar, looking at the blue box in awe. “No matter how many times i see the box...” said the crimson stallion, his eyes wide. He turned to look at me. “Can you not feel its power?” said Othello, staring at me with the eyes of a younger colt. I shook my head, unsure of what he was talking about “It is to be understood. You have never been a passenger” said Othello offhandedly. Othello touched the pillar with a massive red hoof, inhaling deeply. I stood there awkwardly, waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, Othello exhaled and took his hoof away from the pillar. When he looked at me, the fire in his eyes was never brighter. “You must tell the Doctor this: Celestia’s chambers, three days ago. Go, Edwin, face your destiny.” the stallion declaimed, his voice strong in the confines of the room. when I was slow to move, he gestured at the box. “Go inside.” He said with authority. I looked at the box doubtfully, and nudged open a blue door with my hoof. It was so big... My human/pony brain with its geometric concepts of area and space simply refused to comprehend. Othello was right, there was a power to it, something that made your hair stand on end, made you want to look over your shoulder. While my brain took its sweet time in deciphering this spatial anomaly, the Doctor was fiddling around with a console in the middle of the large room. Every now and then he pointed what seemed to be a pen in the air that made a high pitched buzzing sound. By the time he finally noticed me, I was curled into a ball in the entryway. “And to think that you are the only hope for Equestria.” the Doctor remarked as he walked up to drag me by the hair, drag me deeper into his machine. “Roo free, Fedwuun,” the doctor tried to explain through a mouthful of hair “Deh turrdus esh bigguh un deh enshud.” The Doctor continued as he dragged me over some cabling. “Eht es bugguh un deh enshud bechuh whun eht whus grod” he tripped over a loose panel, pulling some of my hair. The pain seemed to bring me back to consciousness and reality, because I tried to stand up. The Doctor noticed this and let me go. I struggled to get to my hooves as i tried to evacuate myself from a large pile of electrical wire. “What is this place, Doctor?” I asked haltingly, trying to fight an extension cord and losing. “This is the TARDIS.” replied the doctor eagerly, his eyes alight with joy. “The what?” I asked, still wrapped up in an cord. “Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, ergo, TARDIS.” He rattled off, his eyes showing youthful vigor. I stopped struggling with the cables and looked at the pale brown pony. “What does it do?” I asked in an innocent tone. The Doctor just looked at me as if I just asked him why the sky was blue, or grass was green. The doctor slammed down onto a threadbare yellow sofa, sighing deeply. “I guess you could say that it moves.” said the Doctor in a puzzled tone. I thought about this some, and said “So it’s like a car or wagon or something like that?” “Good God, Ed! This is much, much, MUCH more than just a car!” said the Doctor, His eyes brimming with passion. He jumped up and started pulling levers and pushing buttons, his body filled with energy. He paused his hand over one lever, looking at me “What did Othello tell you after he touched the pillar?” The Doctor asked in a sly tone. “Um... Celestia’s chambers, three days ago.” I said while wrapped around a particularly strong cable “Then Edwin, let me be the first to welcome you into the Royal Estate.” the doctor said in a playful tone as he slammed down a lever. There was a deafening, beautiful noise as the tardis shook violently, throwing me all over the cabin. The noise and the shaking continued for minutes, when finally, it stopped. The Doctor pranced over to the door, jumping over my struggling form, still entwined in the cables. I was getting tired of the cables. I simply thought that I was tired of the cables and they fell off of me. Perturbed by this, I followed the Doctor to the door, where he was waiting for me. When i was close enough, He pushed the door open. The scene was amazing. There we were in the most sumptuous hallway imaginable, with velvet draped from the windows and gold adorning nearly every surface. “We...” I gulped “Are no longer in the Nether, yes. And actually, we should probably be moving, Royal guards are not the biggest fans of trespassers.” I looked back to the tardis “Is it going to be alright if we leave it here?” I asked with a concerned inflection, looking back at the tardis. “It’s old enough to take care of itself, Edwin, now let’s get a move on.” the doctor replied with a bored tone, trotting down the halls. I followed him, admiring tapestries and golden objects, which seemed fitting in a place such as this. “Doctor....” “Yes, Edwin? What is it?” He asked impatiently, his pace growing quicker through the ornate halls “Sometimes, like back when I fought in the Nether... I envisioned something in my mind and it became reality.” I said tentatively. “Yes, and?” “Well... I really have no idea how that happened.” I said embarrassed. “Edwin, you see-” “INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS IN THE CASTLE!” a distant voice shouted. The doctor looked at me, and said “Run.” He said bluntly We galloped through the hallways, running for a while “Doctor, why are we running away? I could easily kill those guards.” I said proudly. The Doctor contemplated this for a moment, and then said “Princess Celestia wouldn't take too kindly to that, would she? And it’s a bit rude to electrocute the living hell out of somepony when they are just trying to do their job.” The Doctor’s logic was irrefutable, even if it was odd. We rounded a corner at full speed as we ran into a group of armored unicorns. “GO ED!” The Doctor shouted at me as he leaped over the group. I felt the power swelling within me as lightning shot out of my mouth, striking the nearest guard. The electricity bounded from guard to guard, making them fall unconscious or paralyzed at our feet. The Doctor and I leaped over the guards, and sprinted towards a door at the end of the hallway. “Is that it?” I asked the Doctor. “The throne room? Yes, yes it is.” replied the Doctor. His coat was glistening with sweat, his lungs panting with exertion. “Then let’s go in.” I said, pushing open the door with a hoof. The Throne room was even more decadent than the hallways were. There were tapestries and ornaments as far as the eye could see, which was quite far. The room had no ceiling, but the walls stretched up as if they could grab the stars. I really had very little time to enjoy this before the horns of several pale, angry unicorns were pointed at me. “Princess Celestia! how good to see you!” exclaimed the Doctor, talking to somepony who was out of view. “Would you mind calling them off?” The Doctor asked politely, gesturing at the guards. “Doctor! I must say that I am glad to see you again, but under the circumstances I think the guard is quite necessary. Why in Equestria would you want to barge into my castle and attack my guards?” Said a soft, feminine voice. “Well, long story, that. I’d be a lot easier If I just showed you.” The ancient brown pony replied. During their whole exchange I was curled in a ball, with about 5 Unicorns pointing their horns at me. “Ed, get up, you.” the Doctor said nudging me with a hoof. I looked at him untrustingly, but the look in his eyes compelled me to get up. The unicorn nearest me grunted and poked me with his horn as I got up. I looked it in the eyes and growled. “Princess Celestia, I would like to introduce you to the Fifth.” the Doctor proclaimed as I stood. I could see the pony that was talking to the doctor, She was an alicorn with long, flowing hair. She was adorned with a crown of gold and matching collar. Both were inset with a large purple gem. She had longer legs than most Ponies, she was tall enough that she could nearly look Othello in the eyes. Her legs were skinny and fragile. She had a very long horn, and eyes so piercing that i felt like i was being gored by her intent. “Doctor, you indeed bring good tidings.” she said, pronouncing each syllable perfectly. “But, your good tiding follows is following swiftly on the heels of bad news. My spellcasters and myself have detected evil magics brewing in-” “Ah, i believe that would be this little bugger right here.” the Doctor cut off Celestia, pointing his hoof at me as he spoke. “I have brought him back through time before he actually appears in Equestria. He has already visited the Nether, where he has discovered his ghost and Numbered powers sufficiently.” the Doctor seemed assured in his speech. Celestia relaxed on her throne, visibly assured with what the doctor said. “Then, what ever will you do with him in the next few days?” said Celestia, wonderingly. “Ah, my dearest princess, it is what YOU will do with him the next few days. I have made up my mind to leave as soon as I can to rendezvous with him in the future, where I will take him back to where i originally displaced him on the timeline, when he first encountered the angelic.” at this, the Doctor began to stride back to the hallway where I stunned all of the guards. The guards closest to the Doctor began to shuffle and growl, pointing their horns at him whenever he moved. “Oh, give it a rest! I own furniture older than the continent you live on!” the Doctor remarked at a unicorn who came too close. The unicorns backed off at that, more in confusion than in actual fear. Each one of us watched the Doctor walk out of the door, His mane rippling in the wind of an open window. I heard the buzzing from the pen the doctor used in the tardis as the door closed slowly shut behind him. The guards shuffled as they wondered what to do next, and then remembered why they were there. All of them pointed their horns back at me. “State your intent!” shouted one of them at me. “Um... It actually just walked out of the door.” I explained shamefacedly. “State your intent!” shouted the same unicorn. One of the unicorns behind me poked me with his horn that singed my flank. I looked back to stare at him, incredulous. He stared at me with dark brown eyes, filled with rage. My body filled with anger, flowing through me. I heard the boom of thunder in the distance. I heard the faint crackle under my hooves, with the knowledge that it would do as i willed it. The crackling grew louder, with small tendrils of electricity arcing off of me onto anything nearby. I felt satisfaction as I saw the brown eyes of the pony water in fear. “EDWIN! CONTROL YOURSELF!” Princess Celestia shouted, her hair waving faster than before. I was shocked that someone so fragile could even make such a sound, it faintly reminded me of Othello. In my surprise, the anger died inside of me. “I will simply not permit such insolence in my castle!” declared Celestia. “The Doctor may behave in a foolish manner around royalty, but you are beholden to me, as long as you claim Equestria as your sole residence.” she said. “I, for one, have no use for a Numbered at the current time, so I will see if Luna would require your assistance.” She turned away from me as she finished her sentence. As she said this, two of the guards gestured for me to follow them, looking apologetic. As the guards and I walked out of the door, I tilted my head to glance at Celestia. “It was good to meet you, m’lady.” I spoke softly. She smiled a crooked smile, one that didnt quite reach her eyes. “I wish could say the same, Edwin. May we meet again, under happier circumstances.” She replied, her voice layered with unintelligible emotion. This made me sad, but left me no time to contemplate. The guards whisked me out of the room, and the door shut behind me with a grim finality. The guards stopped me in front of an elaborate door, not unlike the one outside of the Throne room. One of the guards looked at me, and said “Well, this is it.” I looked at him, realizing that he was the same unicorn that singed me. I shrugged it off, not knowing or caring to inquire of his name. I knocked on the door, and heard a sweet voice say “Come in...”The voice said smoothly. I nudged open the door with my muzzle, peering my eyes inside, when I saw a dark blue mare lying on a pale blue rug in the middle of the floor. I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:05:48+00:00

2012-02-02T02:05:48+00:00

Chapter 7 I ogled the small blue mare lying on the rug. Her eyes were probing me. “And you might be?” she said, her brow arching above her bright blue eyes. “I-... uh.... Edwin.” I spoke, dumbfounded. She grinned at this, but there was shock in her eyes. She got up off of her rug and slowly walked over to me. “Your last name... wouldn’t happen to be Shell, would it?” The blue mare said inquisitively. Her eyes seemed to plead with me as I stumbled over my answer “H-How did you kn-know?” I stuttered, unable to look away from this mysterious pony, who seemed utterly overjoyed at my confirmation. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she tried to blink them away. I took this chance to look away, and focused my attentions at a small, dark blue vase in the corner, in which was a white rose. I could feel Luna approaching, She leaned up, placing her snout right next to my ear “Thank you Ed. I-” her voice broke off in a sob, tears streaming down her face. She buried her head in my shoulder and began to weep. I took my attention away from the vase as i looked down at her. Her blue body shook with emotion, my shoulder quickly growing damp with tears. “it’s okay, Luna” I said awkwardly, trying to put my hoof up to pat her shoulders. I almost fell over the first time I tried, so i used my Numbered magic to keep myself off of the ground. She seemed to calm herself under the touch of my pale hoof. She stopped crying and dissolved into a low whimper, her body shaking much less. Every now and then I mumbled “It’s okay” to her, and she calmed visibly when I said that. I have absolutely no idea who I am to her that makes me something worth crying about. Maybe it isn't even me that she is crying about. After about an hour of having Luna glued to my shoulder, she begins to grow limp. I look down at her, wondering what was happening, then saw the glint of sunlight over the horizon. She must sleep during the day, I thought to myself. I magicked her over to her small rug, and set her down gently. Closing my eyes, I envisioned a blanket the same color as Luna. I opened my eyes and placed the newly created blanket over her. When I was done, I shuffled over to a corner of the floor and curled into a ball. I created a blanket for me, pale white with a five on it, and basked in the simple warmth of it. I dreamt. “luna, what are you doing? we cant park here.” said I “what do you mean we cant? I dont see why not.” said Luna “HOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO” said the train. “is that a train?” the doctor looked at us we looked at him. glass flew. I awoke screaming to knocking at the door “Edwin Shell!” A guard shouted from behind the door. I fumbled around my blanket, drenched in sweat from my dream. As I stumbled to the door, I looked out the window to find that it was already nighttime outside. I looked to where I left Luna, only to Find that she was gone. Finding this odd, I opened the door. A pale grey guard was standing there in shiny gold armour, looking up at me “Yes?” I asked in my best impression of the Doctor. “Princess Luna requests your presence in the Dining hall.” Said the guard without inflection. “And where might that be, uh... what is your name?” I asked. The guard looked taken aback by this comment, and said “My-My name is Antony.” He said haltingly. “Good to meet you, Antony! If you would be a Dear and direct me to the Dining hall, I would be much obliged!” I said to the pony, bursting past him into the hall. “I- I am needed in-” The Antony blurbed out “Nonsense! Just walk with me to the Dining hall. I would be glad to excuse you from whatever duties you have to attend to.” “Oh, well, if you say s-” Antony was unable to finish his sentence as I pushed him down the hallway. “Antony, tell me about yourself.” I asked, as we walked down the halls. “What do you want to know about me?” the guard asked, surprised. “Anything.” I said. “Well, I joined the Guards corps during the War of the Factions, about twelve years ago. The war was a brutal, cruel thing. Horrible magics were let loose on the battlefields, some of which still remain.” Antony’s tone grew somber “It must be a terrible thing, war.” I agreed. “Oh, I was never a part of the war.” said Antony. “What?” I said incredulously, my eyes wide. “I tried to join the Army, but I was instead sent to apply for the Royal Guard, because of my ability." “And what would that be?” I asked, intrigued. “I can summon.” “What? Lots of unicorns can summon.” I remarked. “Ah, Edwin, it’s not that I can summon, it’s what I summon. Do you mind if I show you?” Antony asked. “Go for it.” I said eagerly, truly interested In this little pony. His horn glowed, and he squinted his eyes a little. “Well, there it is.” He said, his horn glowing still. “What are you talking about? I don’t see anything.” I remarked. “Look behind you.” Antony said with a grin on his face. I turned around, and came to face with a large gleaming sword directed right between my eyes. “T-That’s a nice talent, Antony.” I spoke hesitantly, unsure if i should kill him or not. He magicked the sword away from my face over to him, admiring his reflection in the curved blade “Yes, it is. I am getting better at it, look at how ornate the crossguard is.” He said as I directed my attention to the crossguard. A small pattern of two alicorns chasing one another was engraved in a small circle. He squinted his eyes again, and dissolved the sword with magic. “To summon swords... Such a formidable ability, Antony... I must learn it.” I said, my eyes filled with awe. “It must wait for another time, Numbered, for here is the hall.” The grey colt said, gesturing to a door. “I can say that my life has been all the more better for meeting you Antony. May we meet again.” I said, with an air of appreciation. “Likewise, Edwin.” Antony said, and trotted into the labyrinth of hallways. I nudged open the door with my hoof, and walked in. The second largest room I’d ever seen in Equestria, the largest being the Arena in the Nether. I immediately saw Luna in the far corner of the hall. I trotted over, knowing that it would be a few minutes until i reached her. I thought of what I would say to her, wondered if she even remembered what happened last night. This took up a good amount of the time to get to Luna’s table. “Edwin.” she spoke softly into her plate of daffodils. “I’m... sorry about last night.” “It’s alright... Want to talk about it?” I asked in a gentle tone, sitting on my haunches next to her. “I... I can’t. I’ve made a promise. One I am loathe to keep.” She said, her voice filled with disgust. I looked at her beautiful face wrenched into such an emotion, feeling sad that I had no way to stop it. I thought about what she could possibly have promised, and realized i knew next to nothing about her. I watched her eat a flower off of her plate, slowly chewing it. “Why did you ask for me, at this hour?” I asked legitimately, wondering what use Luna could put me to so late at night. She looked up at me, her eyes lightened. “Edwin, how can i make it up to you? For last night? “You don’t need-” I began, and then I remembered Fluttershy showing me around Ponyville, and how much fun we had. “Show me Equestria, Luna!” I shouted, my voice full of passion “What?!” She exclaimed, her eyes full of surprise. “Yes! Take me to see the outside world, Luna! I crave adventure!” I yelled, my eyes pleading with her. “Well... There is a garden in the courtyard we can go see..." “Lead the way!” I said with passion in my voice. "What is this one called?” I asked, holding a deathly pale flower up to her nose. She snuffled it away. "It is called Alicorn’s tears.” She replied in a soft tone, her nose twitching. “What about this one?” I asked again, holding a hardy red weed up to her face. She blew it away from her, saying: “Witches bane. Edwin, why are you asking me about all of these things?” I scooted up close to her and held out my hoof, gesturing at a nearby peach tree. “Out there, out into the wild lands of Equestria, is an entirely new world that my mere pony eyes have yet to see. Thousands, perhaps even millions of other trees like this exist in every region of Equestria.” I bounded away from Luna up to the tree, my face ending up close to a lone peach. “Under the cover of your night lies an entire continent, ripe for the picking. And you know what, Princess?” I said, looking into her eyes. “What?” she said, looking back at me with large blue eyes, filled with awe. “I intend to reach out and grab it!” I said, snatching the peach off of the tree. I admired the round, firm fruit and bit into it, moaning of the sheer flavor of it. “The flavor... It is of things unexplored!” I shouted into the night, rearing up on my hooves, laughing with joy into the night. I looked down at Luna, looking at me with rapt attention “Edwin...” she said with a longing in her voice. “It has been years, nigh on centuries since I have seen someone with your passion for anything, let alone the whole of Equestria. I would really like to-” Time paused. I looked at Luna, her mouth half open, wondering about the words she was about to say. “Well, if it isn’t the Numbered. Edwin, I presume?” said a voice behind me. I turned around, expecting to see the Doctor, but saw something i could not put a name to. It was in a pony guise, with a coal black coat and ashen grey mane. His horn matched his coat. It’s eyes... It’s eyes were definitely not belonging to that of a normal pony, for they were red as fresh blood. I shuddered at the metaphor. “What kind of creature are you?” I asked to the pony, approaching it slyly. “Why, Edwin, how can you not know? Has Othello been lax in his teachings?” The red-eyed creature said, his voice smoother than velvet. “Just tell me, beast.” I spat, trying to move the pony away from Luna. “I will not harm the Night, for she is needed. I only come for you.” The pony said as it seemed to pluck the thought out of my head. The pony looked me in the eyes. “I do not have to kill you, Edwin. But I will if i have to.” The pony spoke in the velvet voice, free of inflection. I locked down my muscles, feeling the electricity flow from my core. I pointed at the creature I knew to be an Angelic and flung the lightning from my hoof, the thunder knocking the wind out of me. I watched the bolt fly and strike him. It was strong enough to cook a regular pony. I cut the flow of energy to my hoof. I looked to see how damaged the angelic was, and was surprised to see him standing, his mane smoldering. “What a magnificent talent, Edwin.” Said the pony as he looked me right in the eyes, his pupils wide. I fell to the ground as I felt the familiar, crippling pain, burning like fire. I stared at him as I summoned another bolt, this one from the sky. It struck him and he laughed. “Step aside, foal. This fight is for those stronger than you.” he spoke with quiet authority. He pushed me aside with magic as he unpaused time, striding towards Luna. I summoned a ball of lightning, screaming with the effort it took to contain it. I hurled it at him and watched it streak twords his face. He laughed it off like it was a beach ball, flicking it out over the horizon with a flick of his hoof. “Silly child, why fight that which must be?” the angelic spoke in his smooth voice, as if he just finished walking through a park rather than electrocuted. He strode toward Luna, his eyes filled with intent. The princess stared at him with wide eyes, suprised to suddenly see me battling an angelic when seconds before i was exclaiming the beauty of peaches. “Luna, It would be best if you came with me, I do not wish to cause bloodshed.” The foul beast spoke in a voice belonging to the rustling of fall leaves. The Princess looked at him as her horn began to glow. The angelic stopped dead in his tracks, fearing what magic the princess may cast on him. When nothing happened, he advanced on Luna with knowing eyes. I imagined his black hooves reaching for her. This filled me with disgust, imagining him near Luna, whom I was bidden to protect. My feelings of rage and defenselessness melded into an odd strength. I lashed out with my mind at the angelic, feeling energy lash out at him I heard the most horrific scream. I opened my eyes to see the Angelic standing over me, blood streaming down his angry face. He was bleeding profusely from a stump where his leg was as well. “You have injured me, Numbered. But, when I am back, pray that I am lenient.” The Angelic snarled as it faded into thin air, his eyes matching the blood rushing down his face. I panted, Rolling onto my side. “Luna...” I panted, exhausted from the battle. “Edwin!” she screamed, rushing over to me. “Get a doctor...” I whispered as the world turned black.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:06:05+00:00

2012-02-02T02:06:05+00:00

Chapter 8 “But what do you mean he was attacked?” Said a deep voice “We know nothing until regains consciousness.” said a smaller voice, filled with concern. “Were there any witnesses?” the deep voice demanded. silence. “One...” said the voice,trembling with emotion. I rolled onto my side. “Ah. He is waking up, you should attend to him.” the deep voice spoke. I heard heavy hoofbeats walking away. “Where are you going?” asked the concerned voice. “I must speak with Celestia, if things are really this bad.” answered the deep voice. A door closed. “Hello? Are... are you okay?” said a small voice. I opened my eyes to see a small yellow pony with pink hair “Fluh... Fluttershy?” I asked, my mouth dry. I seemed to be lying on a bed. “Y-Yes, but... I have never met you before. How do you know my name?” asked the small pony, her eyes alight. This left me with cause for thought, because I was sure that I met her before. “Ah, Edwin! let me explain this conundrum to you.” said an enthusiastic voice “Doctor?” I mumbled, squinting my eyes at a pale brown blob. “Yes. You see, Fluttershy knew your name back in the Library because she has met you before, in literal terms, right now. In your own personal timeline, you met her two days ago, while she hasn’t met you in the unaltered timeline. So, Edwin, it would be best to introduce yourself.” I stared at the doctor, trying to comprehend what he just said. “I’m the Doctor, Edwin. Nopony ever gets me their first go.” The doctor replied to my look of disbelief. I turned to look at Fluttershy. “Hello Fluttershy, I’m Edwin. You can call me Ed.” I said to the yellow pony. “H-Hello Ed... I’m Fluttershy...” replied the pony meekly. I hoped she wouldn’t squeal again, because I might hurt myself laughing. “You guys done?” said another voice from behind me. I rolled over on my back and saw Antony in the corner, curled up on a table. He looked at us, picking his teeth with a summoned pocket knife. He looked at me, then back to Fluttershy. “You done with him, Doc? Celestia needs him, and frankly, I have a promise to keep.” said Antony, dissolving the pocket knife. I grinned at him, remembering. “Well, um... I don’t know if he is okay to be moved... Is it alright with you, Ed?” Fluttershy said quietly, turning away from Antony to look at me. I moved around, and nothing seemed to hurt. “I feel great. I’ll be sure to ring you up next time I need a doctor... a MEDICAL doctor, that is.” I added, seeing the Doctor smile. “Well, we are to be expected in the throne room at about eleven... So that leaves you and Antony some time for... What are you two up to, anyways?” the Doctor asked. “He is teaching me magic.” I said stiffly, stretching out of bed. Antony shuddered on his table and fell off. I rolled out of bed, making a good thump. Fluttershy jumped, surprised. The Doctor just laughed. “Oi! You lot done yet? We’ve got places to be!” the Doctor said, galloping out of the door. Antony looked after him and groaned, still stretching on the ground. I lied there on the ground, looking over at Fluttershy’s hooves. “Why are you yellow, Fluttershy?” I asked, my face smooshed to the floor “I... I think that you had too much of the poultice...” Fluttershy stammered as i crawled over to her forehooves. “They are so soft...” I mumbled dreamily to a pastel yellow hoof, rubbing it with my forehooves. I started laughing, which surprised Fluttershy. “Hey... Antony...” I said groggily, giggling. “You’re stoned, Ed.” Antony replied, getting up off of the floor. “D’you... D’you think that I’ll get th- three wishes if I rub it?” I said, laughing into the floor. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, I’ll fix this.” He stumbled over to me, magicking me away from Fluttershy. “Oh, it’s okay... It really doesn't-” Fluttershy was cut off as I laughed harder than ever, realizing that I was floating. “LOOK AT ME, ANTON-EEE!” I shouted, having fun in the air. “Ed! Shut up!” Antony shouted, staring at me. This remark made me stop laughing, long enough for Antony to fling me out of the room. I crashed into an old suit of pony armor. The noise was deafening. Antony cringed, screwing up his face. He clomped over to me, staring at me with a mad look in his eyes. “Edwin! No matter what is wrong with you right now, that is no excuse for how you have acted around a mare! When we are done training for today, you are going to apologize to Fluttershy for the way you have acted!” He spat at me in a hushed tone. I realized the import of my actions and how atrocious my first impression was on Fluttershy. I sobered. “Of course, Antony... I will.” I said, ashamed of myself. “Then let us be off to Celestia’s chambers, for we have an important meeting to attend.” Antony spoke as he galloped off into the maze of hallways. We were silent for a long while, when I asked him “Antony, what is the meeting about?” Antony seemed to contemplate this for a moment. “As the heads of the guard companies, you and I are to be in attendance to a gathering on why and how the creature tried to abduct Princess Luna last night.” Antony spoke without inflection, focusing on galloping. I thought about this for a minute. “I am the captain of a guard company?” I asked, surprised. Antony looked at me, then grunted. “Yes, you are the captain of the forward guard. The last captain died, and we were looking for someone to replace him when you showed up with that Doctor and his blue box. You arent really about to die anytime soon, so we chose you.” Antony said, the breeze of running flowing through his grey mane. “How did he die?” I asked. Antony coughed. “He was impaled, if you must know.” He replied. We flew down a windowed walkway, and I was amazed by the beauty of the countryside. Rolling hills dotted with trees. I only had a moment to savor the hillside as we swept into the halls again. “Right here, Edwin.” Antony murmured, pointing to the right of the throne room. I saw nothing there, except for an ornate statue. Antony walked up to it, knocked on the wall once. there was three knocks in response, to which Antony knocked four times. A portion of the wall swung in as an armor clad pony waved us in. “Quickly!” he grumbled in a rough voice, and ushered us in. The room was well lit, and i could see about 20 ponies assembled around a short square table. There most of them were browns and greys, but there was one pony that had a bright blue coat and rainbow mane. I looked at her again to see if my eyes could have possibly deceived me, but they were right. Antony led me around to the far side of the table. “I call this meeting of the Royal guard to order” He boomed, his voice carrying across the table. All of the ponies turned to stare at him. “As some of you may be aware, there was an unwelcome creature that appeared in the courtyard evening of last with intent to capture Princess Luna.” Antony spoke. The ponies murmured, but became still when he spoke again. “The Numbered here wounded the creature, where upon it made leave of the Royal estate. It left no bodies, no alarms set off. This must mean that it entered the courtyard by magic.” The ponies murmured, but again fell silent when Antony spoke. “We have nothing to go on. We do not even know why the beast wished to kidnap the princess, but we do know that-” Antony was cut off by a sharp rap at the door. The gruff pony that escorted us in walked over to the door, and knocked three times. The response was four knocks. The gruff pony pulled the door in, and let what seemed to be a young colt, almost a foal, into the room. “Captain Antony! Permission to speak sir!” squeaked the young colt, his voice cracking. “As you will, Mordecai.” spoke Antony. “The lower outpost has detected enemy troops on the cliff face, Sir! They are climbing quickly!” The assembled ponies burst into cacophony at this statement, arguing amongst themselves. “Edwin, I will handle this. Go over to the blue mare and tell her to mobilize the third forward airborne. Go with her.” Antony spoke with calm intent, looking up at me. I walked over to the mare and said what Antony told me to. She began to walk out of the door before I finished. “Can you fly?” The rainbow mare asked, her eyes looking at my lack of wings. She was dressed in a black bodysuit, covering everything except for her face, mane and wings. “You would be surprised at the things I can do. What’s with the clothes?” I asked, gesturing. “Windburn hurts.” She replied as she walked up to a window, and opened it. She whistled an odd tune, and waited. Black shapes flew past the window, screaming. “That’s our cue.” She said as she jumped from the window. I rushed up to the window to watch her fall. I remembered what Antony said about following her, and flung myself from the castle. I fell freely for a few seconds because the feeling was exhilarating. The wind flung my mane back, as gravity was so keen on killing me. I oriented myself with magic in position to the cliff, and fell down. I saw the flying black shapes swing down to touch the cliff, and fly back out again. I tried this, and found myself face to face with an Angelic. I grabbed his pale grey mane, pulling him off of the cliff. He shouted at me as he made the pain course through my body, but I was used to it now. I called upon the lightning, making It flow through my appendages. The lightning flowed through my forehooves, making the Angelic convulse. I released the lightning through my hind legs, expediting our arrival to the ground. I felt the speed push my face back against my skull, and watched the ground rush up as I held the Angelic. I shot lightning from my hooves, pushing him away from me so I could pull out of my dive. The Angelic screamed as its’ body drove itself into the ground, literally digging his own grave. I pulled out of my fall, hovering a good hundred feet away from the cliff. Looking up, I could see the problem. There were literally thousands of Angelics scaling the cliff, trying to enter the Palace. I stared at them in amazement, wondering how they could amass such a force. I saw the rainbow mare fly by, and shouted. “OI! YOU!” I boomed, trying my best to get her attention. She arced around to fly back to me, and hovered. She said nothing “What is your name?” I asked, impatient “First Lieutenant Dash of the forward third.” she spoke hurriedly, glancing back to the battle. “Lieutenant Dash, tell your ponies to get away from the cliff. I don’t want anypony to get hurt.” I replied quickly, noticing her anxiety. She flew away, rustling my mane as she flew past. I closed my eyes as the flash of color named Lieutenant Dash streaked towards the cliff, focusing inward. The part of myself that was Ghost was different than the Numbered part, and I’d only used my Ghost powers to summon blankets and limbs. What I was about to do was something completely different from what anything that anypony had ever tried to do. I thought back to the first night, in Twilight’s study. The book she showed me. Ghosts are creatures of great power, able to connect to the very force of nature... I concentrated on the cliff, just on it. I seemed to feel it was there, the castle, the trees on the top, and the Angelics crawling up the side. I envisioned the cliff face falling off, taking the Angelics with it. Nothing happened. I envisioned rocks crushing ashen manes and boodred eyes. Nothing happened, but i grew fatigued. The air froze in my throat, and I opened my eyes. I was in a forest. A humid one. The air made my lungs work harder. I could hear a fire, crackling. I looked behind me, and saw a snow white pony with bandages wrapped around his face. He was poking at a fire, on which was a small reptile of some kind. I gulped. “H-Hello?” I asked tentatively, and the bandaged pony looked at me. “Ah, you must be the neophyte. Come, sit by my fire.” The white pony spoke in a wizened, sharp voice. Heeding his command, I walked over to the fire and sat. “Let us cut to the chase, boy. You tried to cause a disaster. That isn’t necessarily frowned upon, but we try not to do it that often. Pray tell, son, why would you do that when you are untrained?” The pony looked at me with his good eye, quizzical. “To save Equestria.” I said, my voice grave. The old Ghost looked at me, and laughed. “HA! You are an interesting one, foal! I guess I could...” The pale pony trailed off. “Could what?!” I asked, grasping onto his leading statement, eager to return to the battle. “Allow you to cause a disaster... It is a power given to experienced ghosts, but... I guess that isn’t your cutie mark for nothing, now is it?” The Ghost said, gesturing to my flank. I stared into the fire, wondering about what happened to Lieutenant Dash. She seemed too... Fragile, to be a guard. The withered Ghost looked at me, and I noticed that his unharmed eye had no iris. Unsettled, i fidgeted and looked at the reptile. It had three sets of legs when it was alive, and was a bright red at the tip of the nose, and a brilliant glossy black at the tail. the underside of it was burnt to a crisp. The White pony coughed, and I looked up at him. “I have decided to allow you to create disasters in Equestria. Only you will know when to use it, and only you can decide how. I cannot advise another Ghost on how he uses his gift.” The white colt spoke, his voice carrying a tone that can only be attained by age. It was a tone I often heard the Doctor use. “I will send you back to where you were when I took you.” the porcelain colt continued. He closed his eyes. “Wait! What is your name?” I asked, truly curious. The alabaster colt opened his large black eye, and looked at me like I was something that he lost, forgot about, and then found. “I have no name... Goodbye, Edwin.” he replied, closing his eye with a heavy lid. I found myself seconds later exactly where i was before the Ghost took me. The dust was sharp in my throat, the air hot. I could see Lieutenant Dash racing toward the cliff, where the other ponies in the Airborne third were flinging Angelics off of the rocks. I closed my eyes, opening my powers to the world. I could feel... Everything. I could feel the bugs, the trees, the Angelics, everything. I could feel the cliff, and knew exactly what to do to make it break. I unleashed my power upon the cliff, and opened my eyes. It was amazing. The entire south face of the cliff sheared off from the rest, rocks clattering and smashing and twisting in a terrible cacophony of noise. I could hear the Angelics screaming. The guards were flying out of the way of the falling monolith. I could see one guard who was grappling with an Angelic, unable to get away. I flew at him, accelerating quickly. I could feel something pulling me back, but it only drove me to fly faster. I could feel the flesh in my face being pulled back. I was so close to the shelf of rock, to the trapped guard, when the world seemed to tear at the seams. I felt a huge detonation as the thing that was pulling me back seemed to let go. I flew so much faster, grabbing the trapped pony as I curved down away from the monolith. I saw everything rush by so quickly, it took all of my concentration and strength not to fly into a rock. I weaved between falling boulders and Angelics, loosening the occasional bolt. The pony I saved was screaming on my back, which made me want to laugh. I twisted and turned, flying over and in between rocks. We finally got to the other side of the falling cliff, reaching the back of it. I curved around it, flying straight for the castle. I let go of the pony on a balcony, where he fell on his back, still shouting from surprise. I kept going up, managing to slow down as I tried to find the window I jumped from. After searching for a few minutes, I realized that it would be impossible to find it without help. I looked to the ground and saw the huge boulder, which broke into multiple pieces. I could still see the ponies trying to fight the remaining Angelics, but ponies just aren’t that good at fighting. I rocketed down to the battle as I saw it.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:06:23+00:00

2013-03-13T20:33:20+00:00

Chapter 9 It... It was enormous. Huge, utterly so. It was gigantic. It could easily have turned me into a stain underfoot. I stared down at it, and raised a hoof. I could feel the lightning bend to my will, and streak down to the beast. The burning electricity seared the air, making my mouth dry. The bolt flew down to the coal black abomination and struck. The detonation of the thunder made me deaf for a few seconds. I was blinded by the flash. I waited for my eyes to return to normal so I could see the corpse. I watched the white, as it slowly faded to the real world. It was staring at me. It looked me right in the eyes, with a dumb animal rage. It roared, shaking the air around me. Flapping its enormous wings, driving fierce wind underneath it’s body as it tried to meet me in the air. It opened its deadly jaws, lined with pointed fangs. He flapped his wings again, pushing himself into the air. He roared again, loosening a stream of flames at the startled Pegasi. The foul beast flung himself into the sky, accelerating with frightening speed. I stayed still, frozen in shock. The Beast, moving too fast for me to move out of the way, opened his mouth and snapped, taking half of my left hindleg with it. I screamed, shooting lightning with my hooves as i flew away from it. the beast shook it off, much like how the Angelic in the courtyard did. I concentrated, focusing the crackling electricity. I opened my mouth, inhaling. The beast looked at me, curious, yet still eager to kill me. I shouted at the creature, unleashing the charge. My body expended itself, the lightning emptying itself, pouring all its might out into the scream. The creature screamed, a scream of feral pain. I opened my eyes and saw what I had wrought. The beast had his skin ripped off of his face, exposing the bare muscle and sinew. The now hideous beast was angry, and looked at me to vent. I was at a loss. I had no more charged lightning, and bolts did not effect him. I closed my eyes as the beast lunged at me, and concentrated. I immersed myself into the flow of Ghost magic. I thought of a coat of purest gold. A pony of elegance, yet of strong power and retribution as painful as it is swift. I thought of the only living being that could kill an Angelic dragon. I thought of Evangeline. My eyes shot open. My muscles were taut, bursting out of my white coat. I could feel the extremes of energy flowing through me, attempting to summon a Numbered. The dragon was frozen in front of me, struggling to even think around such a manifestation of ability. My teeth clenched, I fought with the invisible force that kept me from summoning. I growled, my body funneling an unseen force. My muscles unclenched, and I roared. “What in Equestria is this? Who are-” the golden pony said, immaculate in her bearing. She looked at me, bleeding and torn, and was aghast. I screamed at her, cutting off her own exclamation “KILL THE DRAGON! KILL THE DRAGON!” I screamed hoarsely, my body broken. Evangeline took one look at the creature, and held up her arms. She grew to a glowing, vibrant gold in a second. She opened her mouth, and the world flashed bright red. There was no sound. One moment, there was a bright flash. The next moment, the dragon fell to the ground, with a large hole bored through the middle. Evangeline turned to me in astonishment. I looked up at her as I lay in the open air, quivering and bleeding. Evangeline walked over and placed a hoof on my shoulder. I felt my strength return as the magic flowed through me. She took her hoof away when my body was whole. I wiggled my left hoof, feeling the satisfaction of a limb restored. I shuffled to my hooves, standing on a mile of thin air. Evangeline scowled at me, unsatisfied. “Whoever you are, please explain to me how you possibly summoned a me from the Nether.” she said, her tone curt and offended. “I used my-” I tried to explain, and she shook her head. “It matters not how you did this. However you did this, I must show you to Othello. Come with me, Ghost.” she spoke in an inflectionless tone, flying up to the castle. I shouted down to Lieutenant Dash, who wasn’t that far away. “Dash! Take care of the rest of them!” I said, following after the golden mare. I looked down at the dragon, his form broken and mutilated on the rocks below. The remaining Angelics were fleeing, realizing that they had no hope of victory. comforting myself with the fact that the ponies would be safe, I flew up to meet Evangeline. “Othello will decide whether we will keep you alive, Ghost. Most of your kind are too dangerous to be kept alive. No doubt it was your presence that summoned the avalanche.” she spoke, flying to an open window. She landed softly on the padded floor of the hall, making no noise at all. I tried my best to emulate her, and was proud of my near-immaculate landing. Evangeline looked at me, her bearing showing no emotion. “What brings you so close to the Royal Estate, Ghost?” She asked, as she walked down the hall. “To make a long story short, It was the Doctor.” I said, trotting after her down the halls. She looked at me like I was crazy. “The Doctor does his best to remain anonymous in this world. The fact that you know of him is... Interesting, to say the least. We must make haste, creature.” Evangeline broke into a trot, making me go even faster to keep up. I spied Antony down a branching hall. “Antony! Get over here!” I hissed. He looked up, his eyes growing wide at the golden mare. He began to trot over, looking at me like I suggested that we should wear hats made of cotton candy. He came up alongside of me, and said “Edwin! What in blue blazes do you think you are doing?” Antony exclaimed, hissing at me under his breath. “Apparently she is going to find out if I am to be executed or not.” I replied nonchalantly. Antony stared at me in disbelief. “What?! Who is this...” Antony couldn’t find a proper word to describe her. I looked at him, amused. “If you two are done squabbling, I would like for you to enter.” We were in front of the throne room, and I figured out that the branching hallway was the war room. I looked up at Evangeline. She was the picture of passive, staring at us like we were something she had seen a thousand times before. When we continued to murmur about her, she pierced us with vibrant, golden eyes. I stared back at her defiantly, while Antony faltered and looked away. She made an amused sigh. “Go, Ghost. Enter the Throne room. And pray to whatever it is that you worship that Othello will be lenient.” She spoke emptily as she gestured to the door. I looked at her once more, and then pushed open the door with my hoof. I entered, with Antony and Evangeline close behind. Celestia was sitting on her throne, with Othello speaking to her, a hoof raised in embellishment. Luna was off to the side, pawing through a bushel of apples. Gespard was leaning against the Tardis, his blue coat matching the box perfectly. I couldn’t see Marcus anywhere, which was odd. The ponies that were assembled turned to look at me with varying emotions. Gespard didn’t look at me. He was falling asleep. Celestia looked at me with amused indifference. Luna turned to look at me with an apple in her mouth, grinning. Othello looked at me with deadly rage. Othello was the first one to move. He charged at me, his hooves closing the long distance. He leaped, lighting his whole body aflame. I could see every inch of his trajectory, watching searing red tongues lick his muscled frame. He landed with a gigantic whoomph, snorting. I growled at him, my body crackling with murderous intent. He stared at me with red eyes, the only part of him not on fire. Celestia moved second, in reaction to Othello. She leaped from her throne, demanding to know what was happening. “What are you doing, Othello?!” She all but screamed. The guards at her side galloped up to Othello with their horns trained on him. He looked at them and grunted, tendrils of flame licking up his sides. The guards were steadfast in their resolve. They moved not an inch when the Numbered turned to face them, his body radiating blistering heat. Luna gasped, dropping her apple. It made a muffled thump as it hit the carpet. It rolled over to Gespard, nudging him. He shuffled, oblivious to the disaster that was occuring. Luna simply looked at me, in shock. I felt a hoof land on my shoulder. I turned to see Evangeline, brilliant gold with shining white eyes. She was fully charged, waiting to kill me with the slightest provocation. She grinned, seeming truly filled with emotion for the first time I’ve ever seen. “Try anything, Ghost. Your seconds are numbered.” She spoke with a voice that was horrifyingly honest. Nothing happened for a crushing few seconds. Othello stared down the guards, Luna looked stupefied, Gespard snored, Celestia looked outraged, and Evaneline was perfectly still. There was a creak in Luna’s corner of the throne room, and everything snapped. Evangeline looked up away from me and released her charge, making the room bright red. The charge struck the tardis, making a large black scorch on the blue paint. Luna dropped to the ground and squealed, holding her hooves over her head. Othello roared and spewed flames all over the room. The guards stood stock still with their horns glowing to repel the blistering flames. Celestia did much the same as Luna, dropping to the ground when the charge struck. Gespard awoke, screaming. He rolled around on the ground for a little bit until he could find his hooves. I took the opportunity and charged a hoof, tackling Evangeline. I held the hoof to her muzzle, much like I did in the Arena. She tried to charge again, glowing golden. I looked her straight in the eyes and released electricity. Miniature bolts bound from my chest, hitting her right in the neck. She involuntarily locked her chest muscles, her head pointing away from me. The room was deadly still again. The Doctor poked his head out of the tardis, looking surprised. He walked out, everyone pausing again at the sheer calm he was under. He looked at us all, amazed at the state of things. Gespard stopped rolling around. The Doctor eyed him. Gespard froze, breaking into a sweat. The Doctor moved away from Gespard, walking to Celestia. He nodded his head, “Princess.” he murmured under his breath. He walked out into the middle of the room, next to one of the small carpet fires. He stepped on it. “I leave you lot alone for I swear, not TEN measly seconds, and look at what you do!” The Doctor exclaimed, looking at each of us. The Doctor turned to Othello, staring at him with accusing eyes. “Look at his cutie mark, Othello.” The Doctor said. Othello did as advised, turning to look at me through a flaming mask. His emotions were unreadable through the fire. He looked at me for a good while. He extinguished himself as he turned to the Doctor. “But he has not yet been summoned! How is this-” Othello was cut off “Please, Othello! Have we not been through this a million times before?! TIME and relative dimensions in space. You have been a passenger before, have you not?” the Doctor said in an accusatory tone. Othello turned away, looking at me. “Do you have a name, Numbered?” he asked, his tone sincerely ashamed. “E-Edwin Shell.” I replied, still holding Evangeline at leg’s length. “You can let her go, Edwin. She was only doing as she was told. She has no grudge with you.” Othello said in a sad, deep voice. He looked about as meek as I had ever seen him. I jumped off of Evangeline, releasing the flow of power to my limbs. She gasped and heaved her lungs, struggling to get air. “Edwin, I am very sorry about what I did. I must talk to you later, however, on how you managed to extract Evangeline from the Nether. But, for now, unless Celestia will object, You may leave if you so wish.” Othello said. Celestia nodded to me from under her hooves. I could see Luna scooting over to me, still on the ground. “Luna, you can get up now.” I said, almost laughing except for the fact that we all almost died. Luna shuffled to her hooves, and bounded over to me. “Sister, I do not think that I will be needed here anymore. I will go now.” She spoke with an air of authority. She strode off from the chambers, leaving a group of severely confused ponies in her wake. I gestured to Antony to follow me, and walked out of the room. “Edwin! I’ll meet up with you in a minute!” the Doctor shouted at me as the door closed. “Celestia’s Shoes, Edwin!” Antony exclaimed as we were out of hearing of the throne room. “Yeah, quite a spectacle there.” I replied, still shaking from the altercation. Antony looked at me and rolled his eyes. “‘Quite a spectacle’ indeed! Not every day it is that you see a fight in the Throne room! And In the presence of Celestia Herself! I’m surprised that they didn’t kill you right there!” Antony nearly shouted, prancing down the halls. Feeling quite giddy, he stopped next to a suit of armor. He imitated the pose, and asked me as I walked past him “Where in Equestria are we going, Edwin?” He asked, following me as I trotted past the armor. “We’re going to Luna’s quarters. She won’t mind me there, and besides, she is probably out in the courtyard. She really likes it there, and is barely ever awake in the daytime.” I replied, trying to find the right door. Luna told me much about herself when she showed me the courtyard my first night in the castle. “No... No... Not this one...” I murmured to myself. “Edwin you are frighteningly terrible at this. It’s right here.” The pale grey colt jumped and bucked over to a door on the opposite side of the hall. He waited for me to reach the door, and pushed it open with a foreleg. I could see the rug with Luna’s blanket, with the one I summoned for myself in the opposite corner. I thought of how warm and soft my blanket would be, and sighed. There would be time for sleep and blankets later. Now was the time for something else. “Edwin, why are we here?” Antony asked, his tone interested. I paused before I answered, thinking. “You must teach me to summon blades.” I said.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:06:39+00:00

2012-02-02T02:06:39+00:00

Chapter 10 Antony sighed. He sat down and gestured for me to do the same. I settled down across from him. Sunlight streamed through the window, showing dust motes swirling in the air. I looked at Antony, who had his eyes closed. I looked at him, I really looked. He had a pale grey mane, and a darker grey coat. He had a scar slashing down over one eye, leaving a hairless streak. His cutie mark was the impression of two crossed swords. I realized how much this power meant to him, and that him sharing it with me was no easy thing. I pawed at the floor under my hoof, suddenly feeling awkward. Antony’s horn glowed, and he summoned a brilliantly ornate sword, thin and curving. When the sword fully materialized itself, Antony’s horn stopped glowing. I expected the instrument to fall to the ground, but instead it stayed put in the air. Antony opened his eyes and gazed at what he had created. He smiled, like how a mother may smile at a newborn child. “Edwin, there is a special term for what I am. They call me a Bladesinger. This is because when the swords I summon move, they hum.” Antony explained. The sword in front of him wiggled, and hummed a wavering note. I looked at the sword, my spine tingling at the raw capability of it. Antony looked at me while the sword stayed stock still in front of him. His eyes seemed serious. “Edwin, what is this?” He asked, gesturing to the sword. I looked at him with eyes full of confusion. “It’s a sword, isn’t it?” I said, feeling stupid for stating the obvious. Antony made an amused humph. The sword moved up to his face, making a soft, high pitched hum. Antony admired and inspected it as he replied. “That is where you are wrong, Edwin. Certainly, it looks like a sword. Of course, it can bite like one. But, Edwin... This is no sword.” Antony stated, his voice even. The sword set itself back between the middle of us. The sword hummed a flat note. I was more confused than ever. “Then... What is it?” I asked, honestly wondering what it could possibly be. “This is the part of me that emerges when I fight. This sword is everything that I fight for. It is me. It is everything I love, everything I care for. A physical manifestation of what it takes to defend what we love. It is, in essence, love.” Antony spoke, passion burning in his voice. I was surprised by the raw emotion he showed. He probed me with his eyes. “What is it that you fight for, Edwin?” Antony asked. My mind flipped through a million different responses. My mind flashed to a picture of Luna, but I pushed it out. I was at a loss. “I... I do not know.” I said, ashamed. Antony sighed, getting up. “Then I am afraid I cannot teach you, Edwin. You must know what you fight for, before I can tell you how to Manifest. If you find out, come tell me. I have a feeling that you could find me even if I do not wish to be found.” Antony dissolved his sword as he stood. He walked over to the door. “Edwin... Get some sleep. From what I understand, you almost died today. That, and you’re looking at that damn blanket like a blind pony seeing the sun for the first time.” Antony smiled at his little joke, and walked out of the room. The door latched behind him. I sighed, getting up off of the floor. The window was sickeningly bright as I walked past it. I looked out, and saw Luna. She was sniffing a sunflower. I smiled. Thinking that she would be safe for a few hours, I decided that it would be best to go see my blanket. I spied the little bugger in the opposite corner from where I was. I walked over to it, passing the window for the second time. I looked out again, and saw Luna. she wasn’t sniffing at a sunflower anymore, but had her nose smooshed up against the glass. “Fred! cohm awt ahn luk aht dah flowars!” She shouted, her flattened nose distorting her words. I looked at her face, filled with joy. I smiled. “I’ll be out in a minute.” I replied, trying not to laugh. Luna was waiting for me under a lattice arch covered in ivy. She looked at me, and smiled. “Come here Edwin! Come look!” She replied, bounding off into the courtyard. I followed her as best as I could. She looked back at me as she rounded a large hedge. I followed her around the edge, when suddenly there was a sharp, aching pain in my back. I looked behind me to see an Angelic, holding a dagger that was buried between my ribs. I flinched as he twisted the knife. I fell over, completely unaware of what was happening. I could see Luna dissolving, turning into the unicorn Angelic that tried to kidnap Luna. “No...” I said, hot blood spurting out of my mouth. I coughed. The pain was incredible. I spewed blood everywhere, coughing even harder. I could see the real Luna in a fold of the hedge, whimpering and bound with ropes. I felt a pain deeper than the dagger pierce me. I failed her. I watched a lone tear, pale against her deep blue coat, flow down her face. The edges of the world grew dark. I woke up screaming, my face buried in my blanket. It was worse than all of my other dreams... It was so vivid. I scrambled to my hooves, afraid. I looked behind me to see if there was a knife sticking out. There wasn’t. This dream was the most horrifying thing I ever had to face in Equestria. But it was also my greatest blessing. I looked out of the window, to see the time. It was dusk. I thought for a moment, wondering what to do next. I smiled to myself, contemplating. I closed my eyes, and concentrated. I felt a slight breeze. I opened my eyes to see myself on top of the cliff that held the Palace. I looked around, trying to find her. I managed to see a small blue blur, streaking across the sky at amazing speed. “Quite a sight, innit?” said a very small voice behind me. I turned to look, and saw a small orange filly with purplish hair. I looked at her, amused. “She is.” I assented. I trotted over to where the small filly was sitting. I sat down next to her. She looked at me, amazed. “You’re pretty big for a pony. You get in a lot of trouble, dontcha?!” She said, enthusiastically. I looked down to see the orange pony. She was a puzzling creature. “Maybe too much.” I said somberly, thinking of dragons and Angelics. She looked at me again, this time at my flank. “That’s a pretty funny cutie mark. How didja get it? Huh? What does it mean?” the filly asked, prodding me with her hooves. I looked at her, a huge grin spreading across my face. This little filly was so outgoing that I couldn't help myself. “I’ve always had it. And it means that I have a big job to do.” I tried to be as vague as possible without lying. She stared at me, disgruntled. “Whaddya mean, you’ve always had it?! Nopony is born with their cutie mark!” She objected loudly. “Well, I’ve had mine as long as I've been a pony.” I said, telling the truth. “What’s your name?” I asked, trying to stay away from what I was. She didn’t need to hear that. Her smile brightened, and she puffed up. “I’m Scootaloo! And I’m going to grow up and be just like her!” she shouted, pointing up to the sky. I looked and saw the pale blue mare fly in to land. “How did you show up like that, anyhow? One moment there was nothing and then POOF! You were there!” The orange filly asked, curiosity lighting her eyes. “Um...” I tried to find a way to dance around that one. Lieutenant Dash finally walked up, saving me from an awkward reply. “Scoot, you messin with this guy?” the rainbow mare asked playfully. Scootaloo stuck her tongue out at her. Dash laughed, the noise of it bounding off into the open air. “Dash? Do you mind if I talk to you for a minute?” I said tentatively, glancing at Scootaloo. Dash turned to look at the foal. “Scoot? You remember those exercises I taught you?” Dash asked of the foal. “Yep!” “Well go do ‘em. I’ll be back in a minute.” Dash said to the orange filly. Scootaloo shot off to a pile of rocks over too the side. Dash sat down, sighing. I looked at her, curious. “Is she yours?” I wondered aloud. “No, but she might as well be.” The mare said, looking over to Scootaloo with affectionate eyes. I remembered the way Antony looked at his sword. “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked curious. I sat down beside her. She shuffled on her haunches. She looked sad as she responded. “Scootaloo’s parents died when she was very young. She was sent to live with her aunt and uncle, my parents. I was off at Flyer's school for the semester, and when I came back, she never left me alone. One day, she just came with me to Ponyville. She lives with Twilight when I am gone for my guard stuff, but I bring her with me sometimes after my shift. Like today.” “I’m sorry.” I said. “It’s fine. It’s worth being a guard, in my eyes. I feel that by me doing this, I can make a world where she can grow up safe.” Dash sniffed. I looked over at her. She was looking at the sunset. “Sorry. It’s just that... I’ve never really killed anything before today.” She managed to say. Her eyes were brimming with tears. I looked at Dash, feeling ashamed. This was something private to her, I felt. “It is not something to be proud of, Dash. But, this is what we do. To defend what we love.” I tried to reason with her. She looked over at Scootaloo. “Yeah. It’s just that... They’re ponies.” Dash said, her voice breaking. “They aren’t. They just look like it.” I reasoned. She broke into sobs. I noticed that she was absolutely inconsolable at this point. It never did occur to me that pones were peaceful beings. The whole of my life in Equestria, I was bidden to fight. It never did effect me, and I thought nothing of the mindless violence of which I was a grisly instrument. I decided to leave. “I’ll see you again sometime, Dash.” I said, closing my eyes. “Thanks for coming to see me, Edwin. I’m... sorry.” The mare said through her tears. She struck a chord of sadness inside of me as I closed my eyes. I thought of Antony. I felt the cool breeze, and I heard a quiet squeak. It reminded me of Fluttershy as I opened my eyes. I was embarrassed to find Antony and a plum-colored mare laying on a rug. Her face was bright red. Antony had his mouth closed on her ear, completely still and staring at me with wide eyes. I tried not to smile. “Am I interrupting something?” I asked, red-faced. Antony, with his teeth still on her ear, nodded. The plum pony nodded as well. “Do you want me to come back later?” I asked. Antony carefully shook his head, his lips firmly latched to the mare's ear “Tomorrow, if you please, Mister Shell.” The plum pony replied to me, still red-faced. I turned around and almost ran out of the door. When it closed behind me, I fell to the ground and laughed. I rolled around, trying my hardest not to make any noise as I shook with laughter. My eyes were teary as I got myself off of the ground. I tried to brush the dust off of my coat. I looked around, not exactly knowing where I was. I seemed to be in the yard of a small cottage. The cottage had a small flower garden in the front of it. There was a narrow dirt path leading away from the door. I looked in the opposite direction from where I was facing and I saw the tardis. I walked up to it to see if the Doctor would let me in. I looked at the doors of the great blue box, which had no handles. I pushed on one trying to see if it would open. My hoof met a firm resistance. I stepped back to look at the box. It was tall and imposing. I could feel something, too. Othello referenced it the first time I saw him in the Nether. There was a... Feeling, an emotion radiating from it. It was indiscernible, but it was there. I tried to figure out how to get in the tardis. I thought about the doctor for a while. The pale brown colt with an hourglass cutie mark. A piece of dust got in my eye and my eyes smarted. I managed to get it out, but when I opened my eyes again, I was in the Tardis, looking at the Doctor. The doctor was facing away from me, his front end buried in an open panel in the floor. I could hear the familiar whining of his pen. I looked at him for a while. He did nothing. “Hello, Doctor.” I said. The humming stopped. His back hooves scrambled to try to get out of the hole in the floor. He struggled for a few minutes, trying to extricate himself. I watched on, amused. He finally manages to get out of the hole holding the pen in his mouth. He looks at me like I’m a seagull that just spoke swahili. “What in the bloody hell are you doing in here?!” The Doctor exclaimed, spitting out his pen onto a pile of springs. He looked at me incredulously, demanding an awnser. “It WAS an accident, if that consoles you.” I replied. The Doctor looked at me like I just got that much more crazy. “Edwin, nobody ever enters the tardis on purpose when I dont want them here, let alone on accident. Tell me how. And tell me now.” The Doctor said, not even smiling at his rhyme. He reminded me of the Doctor that I punched in the Nether. I gulped. “I was thinking about you and dust got in my eyes” I replied, knowing that this was a terrible excuse. The Doctor looked at me, and shrugged. He turned back to look at the hole in the tardis “Wishful thinking can get you farther than most, Edwin. But you musn’t keep yourself immersed in the Flow. You have to get out and do things yourself every now and then.” The Doctor said as he leaned down to pick up his pen. I watched him, relieved that I got off with a reprimand. I did as I was advised and closed my connection to the Ghost powers. The Doctor leaped up, holding his pen in his mouth. “Well, Mister Shell! The Doctor is in!” he shouted, leaping up to a chair, holding a hoof aloft. “The whole of pony creation lay before you, and what is it that you will do?!” The Doctor asked, his playful eyes demanding a response. I thought about this. My smile widened as I figured out what I wanted to do. “You know how Luna was banished to the moon for a thousand years?” I asked. “Of course I do. Why? What could you possibly be planning?” The Doctor said as he kept his hoof up. “Let’s go. about... Ten? Ten years after.” I said in a knowing tone. The Doctor burst out laughing. He leaped off of his chair, rushing to the controlls. He was about to pull a lever, when his hoof paused in midair. He slowly turned to me. “There is an old saying from a place quite dear to me. Words of great power and wisdom, a consolation to the soul in times of need.” The Doctor spoke, his tone grave. “What would that be?” I asked. “ALLONS-Y!” The Doctor shouted as he threw himself on the lever.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:07:44+00:00

2012-02-02T02:07:44+00:00

Chapter 11 The Doctor got up, rubbing his jaw. I shook my head, trying to get the pain out of it. I forgot how rough it was, riding in the tardis. I looked around to see pipes and tubes and wrenches everywhere. There was a whole couch wedged in one of the odd Y shaped pillars surrounding the console. I got to my hooves. The Doctor did the same, looking about. He picked up his pen, which was wedged in a small cup holder in the console. The Doctor snatched it from it’s pocket, and bounded over to the door. He looked back at me his mouth full of pen. “Edwin, outside of this door is a Princess, cursed by fate. She is dignified and sophisticated, and frankly, emotionally scarred by loneliness. I’m the only other pony she has seen for the past ten years.” The Doctor said cautiously. I made a move to the door. “Edwin... Keep in your mind that she is a formidable magician. She could kill you in a million different gruesome ways without even batting an eyelash.” The Doctor warned additionally. I looked at him undeterred. “Are you sure you still want to see her?” The Doctor inquired, his hoof reaching to the door. “Yes, I am.” I said determinedly. The Doctor sighed. “Okay, Edwin. I won’t say that I didn’t warn you.” The Doctor pushed open the door as he spoke. The Landscape was barren. Insanely so. There was so much... Grey. Small peaks and craters dotted the landscape. The tardis was on the edge of a gigantic crater. On the inside, there was a small blue speck. “Is that her?” I asked. “Yes. Let me go ahead, Edwin. She is a delicate creature.” The Doctor said, bounding out of the tardis. He seemed to fly out of the blue box, landing well inside the crater. He walked for a few minutes over to Luna. I was extremely nervous. This would be the first time I met Luna in her timeline. I had absolutely no idea what I was about to do, but the Luna that I met would know exactly what. I walked back into the tardis, thinking it would be a while. I walked around the gigantic machine. It not only was bigger on the inside, but completely airtight as well. I wasn’t suffocating right now, something I was grateful for. I looked at the couch in the Y beam. It was small and Victorian, not to mention pink. It was extremely worn. I looked away, trying to find what else made the tardis so amazing. I looked to the Console. There was a magnificent assortment of buttons and knobs and levers and switches. One thing that stuck out was a small picture frame, duct taped to one of the screens. It was distinctive because the picture was not that of a pony. A blonde woman, a human. She was smiling. I looked, not knowing how the Doctor could have a picture of a human. It was a puzzling conundrum indeed. I was interrupted by a harsh, painful buzzing. I looked around, trying to acertain the cause. There was nothing. I heard the Doctor’s voice echo inside of the tardis “You can come out now, Ed. She wants to see you...” His voice faded near the end. I never heard him speak in such a caring tone. I trotted out of the tardis. There was a grace, an art to walking on the moon. It was definitely not a rigidly defined science. I stumbled and fumbled and fell up more times than I could count. I quickly grew aggravated. Moon dust wasn’t like regular dust, either. It was pointy. You could seriously mess yourself up falling on moon dust. I fell on my face. Extremely mad, I decided that flying would be a better choice. I hovered over to the center of the crater, where Luna and the Doctor were facing away from me, looking at something on the ground. I hovered to a halt, touching down on the regolith. “Luna, If I may introduce you to Edwin Shell.” The Doctor said. Luna glanced over her shoulder. "Hi.” she said, and looked back to her front. I was intrigued by what elicited this response. I hovered closer, looking over her shoulder. I saw a small plastic tank. It had a small rock in it, upon which sat a small, green frog. I looked at the thing, so small, so fragile. It made me smile to see such a thing surviving so far from it's home. The Doctor reached a hoof down into the tank. He held out his light brown hoof to the frog. It looked at him, cocking it’s head. It wiggled its legs and jumped onto the Doctor. The Doctor smiled, looking at the small creature. He held out his hoof to Luna. Luna squealed softly, holding up a single deep blue hoof. The frog looked at it, and jumped again. Luna looked so extremely happy. She was crying with happiness as the frog wiggled. She looked up to the Doctor, her face streaked with tears. "Thank you, Doctor. They always were my favorite.” Luna whispered as she placed the frog back in its tank. I stood behind them, trying to hold back tears of my own as Luna turned to me. “Hello Edwin, My name is Luna.” The blue mare said. I smiled. “Yes, I know you very well, Luna.” I said, drawing an odd look from the goddess. I took this chance to ask her what I came to ask. “Do you miss Equestria, Luna?” I asked, knowing the awnser. She looked down, pawing the regolith. There was true sorrow in her voice as she replied. “More than anything else in the whole of Creation. I would do anything to go back...” she trailed off. I looked at the Doctor. “What if, Luna... What if I could take you back?” I asked the pony. She laughed at me mockingly. “It has been ten long, cold years on this rock. Every time that I see the Doctor here, I beg and plead with him to take me back. He has sworn an oath never to interfere with the native populace, except in time of great duress. I only wish that he would make an exception...” Luna trailed off again, sadly contemplating her wrongs. I grinned, and looked her straight in the eyes. “The Doctor may do things his own way, Luna. But, he has never told me, not a single time, that taking souvenirs is not allowed. And I have happened to have found myself the prettiest little moon rock.” I said knowingly. Luna looked up at me, her eyes wide. “Would you... Could you... Really?!” Luna said, flabbergasted. I looked at her, smiling. “Yes. Come with me, Luna. Come home.” I whispered. She looked up at me, her eyes alight. She was begging with me. Pleading with her eyes. I looked to the Doctor, with the threat of death in my eyes. He cringed slightly under my gaze. “Um... Well, I don’t know if I...” I looked at the Doctor again with powerful loathing. He looked awkwardly at a rock. He rolled his eyes as he looked back up at me. “Oh, bloody hell, Edwin! Why must you always do this to me?!” The Doctor exclaimed. I grinned wildly at Luna, and she looked at me with happy eyes. She squealed. “I have no bloody idea what you wretched ponies did to make me do this.” The Doctor said sullenly. Luna was staring at the couch stuck in the Y beam, fascinated. I turned to the Doctor, grinning like a madpony. “Cheer up, Doctor! You did a good deed, helping a poor, elderly mare!” I reasoned sarcastically. “Wank off, Edwin! She may be horrifyingly ancient, but she is not elderly!” The Doctor exclaimed, truly frustrated. He hopped up to a chair next to the console, and curled into a ball. “Where and when are we taking her, anyways?” The Doctor asked, hiding his face with a hoof. “Wait... The Summer Sun Celebration, right? The thousandth one.” I wondered aloud, looking at the Doctor for confirmation. The Doctor raised the hoof covering his face, looking at me with a wide smile. “What a sly devil you are, Ed!” The Doctor leaped from his chair, and flew to the controls. HE was flipping all of the levers and knobs when I turned to look at Luna. She was sitting on the couch, levitating popcorn into her mouth. “How did you even get up there?!” I asked, not even wanting to go near the popcorn. She flared out one of her wings in explanation. I looked at her. I flew up to her couch, and landed. I eyed her popcorn, which was in a red stripey box. “Can I have one?” I asked, pretty hungry. Luna answered by floating a chunk of popcorn my way. I bit into it. “Muh... Butter...” I moaned. Luna giggled at me. The Doctor was busy with his levers and switches as Luna and I enjoyed popcorn in a small victorian sofa wedged in a tardis. A simple pleasure, that. The Doctor swore as he bumped into a small table. Luna looked at me, a coy smile on her face. “I... I can never repay you for what you have done, Edwin.” Luna said quietly. “Good, because you won’t need to. I actually wanted to do this, Luna. Because I know you from the future. And-” I was cut off by a loud thump. I looked down to the Doctor. He had a large mallet in his mouth and was hitting the console with it. He hit it once more and seemed satisfied. I turned to Luna, who was looking at me with wide blue eyes. I felt a surge of emotion. “Luna, I-” I began. The words halted in my throat. Luna looked at me, puzzled. “What is it, Ed?” "ALLONS-Y!” shouted the Doctor as Luna and I were flung from our couch. I got up from the corner of the tardis I was flung to, brushing off dust and nicknacks and wrenches. The couch was sitting on the far edge of the tardis, near the rim. I looked around groggily. I could see the Doctor, who had rolled onto his back in transit. I turned around, looking for Luna. “Doctor!” I heard her shout in a strained voice. I couldn’t see her at all, but the Doctor must have. He was holding his hooves together in front of him. A look of sad shock hit his face. “Oh no, Luna...” He said in a soft voice. I looked at him, trying to figure out what he saw. I got to my hooves and walked over to him. I saw it. “Oh God, Doctor.” I exclaimed. The Doctor looked to Luna, and then to me. His eyes showed his agelessness. “There isn’t anything we can do.” The Doctor said saidly. I couldn’t look away, it was too gruesome. She had half of her face sheared away, and blood was streaming down in runny rivulets. She was missing one of her hooves, and a bloody stump was all that was left of one leg. Blood spurted from the broken Princess. She moaned in pain, trying to move. I couldn’t bear the sight of it. I looked away, feeling nauseous. The Doctor met me horrified gaze. “What even happened?!” I asked, completely mortified. The Doctor didn’t break his stare. “She Spliced.” The Doctor remarked offhandedly, like he was commenting on the weather. “What?!” I screamed. The Doctor lied there, reclining on a pile of tubing “She Spliced. Sometimes, the tardis can’t move everything through time. When that happens, the tardis Splices out what it can’t hold. One of the reasons why I do not often take passengers.” The Doctor explained. I felt unbidden rage well inside of me. “What are you going to do about it?” I asked him, shaking with anger. “Nothing. She can only heal herself, but... It is a dangerous, risky thing. You have to convince her she has something worth living for, or she won’t. She has grown suicidal tendencies on her trip to the moon. She may not want to come back.” The Doctor spoke softly as his eyes welled with tears. His emotion did nothing to quell my fury. “Go to her, Edwin. Give her a reason.” The Doctor said, slowly rolling onto his hooves. I looked over at Luna, the puddle of blood she was lying in growing quicker by the second. I rushed over to her, getting low to the ground. Her skinless face looked up to me. I nearly choked. “I can’t take my pretty moon rock home all smashed up.” I tried to say, my voice breaking mid-sentence. Luna coughed, blood spurting out of her mouth. The muscles articulating on the skinless side of her face was horrifying. “Fix yourself, Luna. Please.” I begged. “Why should I?” The blue mare asked, blood leaking out of her mouth. I looked down at her, crying. “Because I love you, Luna. I love you, and I would do anything for you. Please, Luna. Do It for me, for you, for anyone. Because if you die here, I’ll never be the same again. Please, Luna... I-” My voice broke off in a sob as I looked at her broken, mangled body. Luna looked at me with her one remaining eye. It’s deep blue iris seemed to probe my very soul. I could see the eyelid slowly reach down across the eye. I watched her die. The breath left her in a gust. “No...” I whispered. I saw the broken form of the pony beneath me, so strong in life. Yet so fragile in death. I looked upon the blue mare. She was nothing now but memories. I felt nothing but emptiness. The Doctor slowly walked over to me, his hooves clopping on the metal floor. “Edwin... Come away... It isn’t doing any good.” The Doctor replied. I was lying on the ground by now with my forelegs covered in blood. I sat up. I looked at my hooves, painted crimson with Luna. The Doctor nudged me with a hoof. “Come along, Edwin. We-” The Doctor was cut off by me leaping to my hooves. “I don’t know what the hell you have ever loved, Doctor, But what I love is right there.” I said, jabbing a hoof at the pile of blue flesh. The Doctor tried to say something, but I cut him off again. “And frankly, Doctor, I don’t give a damn about you. Or your tardis! Or your human! Because everything I ever cared about just died right in front of me. Don’t try to say that you know what it is like, either. Because you are just a lonely pony with nothing. Absolutely nothing but a fancy ride.” I spat, seething. “Now, Edwin, I don-” The Doctor was cut off again. “LOOK AT IT! LOOK AT IT!” I screamed, pointing to Luna. The Doctor cringed at my anger. This made me even madder. The air began to crackle. “Edwin, let’s not be too-” The Doctor was cut off again as I shouted at him with a primal rage. I felt the power course though me. I pointed a hoof at the Doctor. “EDWIN NO!” The Doctor tried to shout over me. I laughed grimly as I hurled a bolt at him. The thunder ripped apart everything inside the tardis, with tubing and papers and shoes and wrenches flying absolutely everywhere. The Doctor was nowhere to be seen in the maelstrom, but I was not surprised by this because the bolt would have vaporized any normal pony. I waited a few seconds for the storm of debris to subside. The Doctor was standing in front of me, with a gigantic hole through the middle of him. The blood spurted and gurgled through arteries, splashing on the cold metal floor. I looked at him, surprised. For a creature so ancient and long-lived, he was so strong. He didn’t fall to the ground. He stood. I lowered my hoof, confused. He gasped. His body clenched as he flew up to his hind legs. He spread his forelegs wide, like he was trying to hug somepony. I looked at him, truly frightened. “Edwin Shell.” The Doctor spoke, his voice layered. He burst into flame. He screamed, his body convulsing as it was engulfed by a hideous fire. I averted my gaze. I looked at Luna’s lifeless form, drenched in blood. The scene saddened me, drove me to madness. Luna, dead. Doctor, dying. I crawled away from the conflagration and hid. Hid from everything. From Luna’s corpse, from the Doctor, and from the picture of the smiling human. I shut myself off from the world And I cried myself to sleep.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:12:02+00:00

2013-03-17T18:14:35+00:00

Chapter 12 I awoke feeling sore and hungry. Something was tapping. On what, I had no idea. I had no urge to open my eyes and see. I heard a muffled voice from far away. “Edwin. Wake up.” Said the voice. I wanted to tell it that there was no reason to wake. There was nothing to live for anymore. I curled into a tighter ball. There was nothing left for me. The tapping continued. I ignored it “Get up, Edwin. We have places to be.” The voice said, clearer than before. I didn’t open my eyes. I felt a whoosh of fresh, cold air. I gasped. “Get up. You aren’t fooling anypony.” The voice said, almost as crisp as the air. I opened my eyes. I could see the blurry outline of a pale brown pony. I rubbed my eyes with my hooves, trying to rub away the sleep. “D-Doctor?” I asked, unbelieving. The pony threw back his head and laughed. “Yes, Edwin. Now get out of there, it must be frightfully uncomfortable.” The Doctor said. I looked at him in awe. I crawled out of the small, cramped space I was in. I looked around me, finding myself in the tardis. I blinked, my vision still blurry. The Doctor was wearing clothes, which was odd. A threadbare brown suit. He was holding his pen out of the corner of his mouth. I looked at him, unable to believe what I am seeing. The Doctor walked over to the console. “Am I dead?” I asked innocently. The Doctor spat his pen into a cupholder, and turned to look at me. “If you are, you’re doing pretty well for yourself” He noted. He turned to the console and pushed a few buttons, making a map appeared on a nearby monitor. I stared at him, still unbelieving. “But... I killed you.” I said simply. The Doctor laughed as he looked at the map. He glanced back at me as I spoke. “Stronger and more powerful creatures than you have tried, Edwin. And I happen to be quite healthy.” He looked back to his map as he finished his statement. I was so confused. I walked to a nearby ottoman, which was exactly the right size for a pony. I jumped on it, coiling myself. I thought. “Edwin... I have lived the last ten years of my life away from Equestria. I have travelled to planets and times far and wide. I have lived in hate, in anger. I have seen peoples distant, landscapes foreign. Yet, there was something missing in my life. Something that kept me awake nights, something that filled with regret. It was Equestria, Edwin. This land has charm to it that no other dimension or planet does. There is a magic in the air, a scent in the breeze. Equestria is my home. Today, just a few minutes ago, I let you out of the stasis chamber that you crawled into all those years ago. I have forgiven you, Edwin.” The Doctor said. I looked at him, touched. I thought about it for a good, long while. The Doctor walked around his console, pressing levers and buttons and poking things with his nose. “What did you do with Luna?” I asked him, the memory sharp in my mind. The Doctor stopped what he was doing, the sounds of the tardis paused. He hopped off of his console, and looked at the floor. “I buried her.” He said, walking off to the side. “Where?” I asked, demanding. He did not move his gaze away from the floor. “Someplace that she loved to be when she was alive.” The Doctor said softly. “Take me there. Right after you buried her.” I said in a firm, unwavering tone. The Doctor looked up at me. “I can do that, Edwin.” The Doctor said in his soft tone. He reached down with his head into a small chest and pulled out a rubber mallet. He walked slowly to his console. “I’m... Sorry, Edwin.” He said through a mouthful of hammer. I looked up at him, perplexed. “No one had ever Spliced in a tardis before, pony or otherwise. It was a purely theoretical scenario. There was nothing I could do.” The Doctor explained sadly. I looked up at him and I said nothing. He placed his mallet on the console and pushed a lever. There was a whirling, swirly noise. It kept up for a second or two. It stopped, and the tardis jostled. “We’re here.” The Doctor said. I got up off of the ottoman, and walked to the door. “Where is she, Doctor?” I asked as I placed a hoof on the door. “I’ll show you.” The Doctor said. I pushed open the door. The tardis was in a sunlit clearing in the middle of the forest. The grass was long and swaying among the fragrant trees. Sunlight streamed through the overhanging branches, making the light a mottled green color. I heard the sound of rushing water that heralded a nearby creek. I looked around, seeing why Luna would love this place. “It’s beautiful, Doctor.” I whispered. I stepped out into the glade. I was warmed by the sunlight as my hoof crunched down onto bristly grasses. I closed my eyes, savoring the warmth and the pleasant aroma. The Doctor walked up beside me, his hooves crunching along. “She’s over here, Edwin.” He said. I opened my eyes to see the Doctor walking off into the grass. I followed him as best as I could. He stopped a few paces ahead of me. I walked up alongside him. There was a small space where grass was not, the smell of freshly tilled earth emanating from the ground. I could see a small blue gem at the head of the mound. It was in the shape of a crescent. Sadness welled inside of me as I thought of Luna. The way she snuffled flowers away from her face when I showed them to her. Tears welled inside of me. “Thank you, Doctor.” I choked out. “She would have l-” I broke off in a sob. My eyes shut against the flow of tears. I choked on my own tongue as I tried to keep my composure. “It’s okay, Edwin.” The Doctor said softly. I leaned on him, weeping through my teeth. I glanced back at the grave, my wounds fresh. I wept. “I love her, Doctor.” I said, my voice shaking. The Doctor reached up with a hoof and patted my shoulder. I bit down on my lip. The smell of wet dirt was strong in my nose. I tried to pull myself together. I tried to control my tears over Luna. I looked at the grave again, seeing the small jewel at the top. “Rarity helped me find that.” The Doctor said. “Who?” I asked hoarsely, tears still dripping down my muzzle. “You’ll meet her someday.” He said blankly. I looked up at him through blurry eyes. I thought about him, remembering better times. Oh, they said to grab it. not every day you see the same ghost twice! ALLONS-Y! Wishful thinking can get you farther than most... Well, Mister Shell! The Doctor is in! I had an idea. A crazy, stupid idea. The kind of idea that doesn’t even make sense in a dream. But an idea nonetheless. I stood, getting up from the ground. I looked upon the grave. The reeds flowing around it, like they were made of water. Sunlight sparkled from the perfect blue gem, curved in a crescent. I stared at the grave. The gem moved up to my face. I looked for a second, and it flew away off to the side. I looked at the earthen mound. The dirt was pushed out and away from the middle, looking like a gigantic anthill forming. The dirt spilled off of the sides. I saw a patch of dark blue poke out from the pile. The mare floated out of her grave. Dirt shed off of her body as her corpse moved up to eye level. Her face was pristine on one side, but terrifyingly horrid on the other. Dirt stuck to her exposed muscles, intermingling with dried blood. I felt pain deep in my heart, making my breath hitch. I closed my eyes. I thought of Luna prancing through the glade. I thought of Luna snuffling a flower. I thought of Luna. I could feel the power flowing through me, but it was going nowhere. I was just funneling energy into a chunk of meat. I looked at the dark blue mare, my eyes welling. The breath stuck in my hitching throat. I blinked. The air was very humid. I could see the alabaster pony sitting by his cooked lizard. The fire was merely embers by now. The bandages on his head were a little bit dirtier than the last time I saw him. “Edwin, My boy. Come, sit by me.” He spoke in a wheezy, wizened voice. I walked over to him and sat next to a log and a small clay pot. He looked at the flickering embers for a second, patting the dirt with one of his forehooves. He turned to me. “You see, Edwin, We Ghosts can manipulate bodies minutely. Simple commands. Like how I just did with you.” He reasoned in a calm tone “But-” I objected “But indeed, Edwin Shell! Trying to raise the dead! What a foolhardy goal. You would have better luck trying to make a chicken bark without magic.” He exploded. I looked at him. “Why can’t I raise the dead?” I asked angrily. “Because only the strongest amongst our ancient order may summon lost souls. You have not yet been granted this ability, for you know not the consequences of such an action.” He said bluntly. I seethed at this. I looked at the old pony, absolutely infuriated. I stood up abruptly, knocking back a small pot that was behind me. He stared at me, his one remaining eye wide with surprise. There was a smell of ozone in the air as I struck the pony straight in the nose. I could feel it crunch under the force of my blow. The lightning in my fist flew out into him, knocking him clear across the clearing. I bounded over, landing on top of him as he hit the ground. “You will allow me to summon the dead, Colt.” I growled at him. He looked at me for a second. I watched the blood leak from his nostrils. He cackled suddenly, throwing his head back on the dirt. “And why should I do that, Foal?” The porcelain pony replied, still laughing. He closed his eyes. Pillars of stone shot out of the earth. They wrapped around me, pulling me closer to the ground. The Colt jumped, landing lithely on his hooves. He walked slowly around me, admiring his handiwork. He circled to face me. “You lecture those much stronger and more powerful than you, Edwin. You are impudent, foolish, and young. You have no idea of what you ask for, other than the fact that it serves your own selfish motives. You may be powerful in the realm you exist in, but here? Ha! Here, you are merely a foal tripping over it’s own hooves.” The nameless pony said. He proved his point by tightening the pillars of rock around me. I grunted under their crushing strength. The Colt turned his head to me, his greasy hair hanging limp over his bandaged eye. He leaned down to look at me as I was crushed by the summoned stones. I could see the individual strands of his ink-black hair sway as he spoke to me. “Edwin, the summoning of the dead is an art, dangerous in the extreme. It is only given to a select few, and all of them Ghosts. The energy needed to retrieve a soul from the clutches of death is extreme. Only Ghosts can connect and draw upon the reserves necessary, namely the Flow. The Flow is where our power comes from. It may come out of our bodies when we weave, but our bodies is not where it originates.” He said grimly. The tubes of stone constricted. I gasped, feeling my ribs bend slightly under them. He smiled as he continued. “When you summon the dead, Edwin, you forge a link between the two bodies, the two souls. What happens to the summoned soul happens to the summoner. If flesh is rent and torn in the summoned, thus happens to the summoner. Our order has only called from the grave very, very few ponies, and nearly all of them are Ghosts.” He said. I looked up at him, my teeth bared against the pain of the rocks . He sighed and flicked a hoof at me. I flinched as I waited for the stones to crush me. To my surprise, they sunk back into the ground. I heaved my lungs, trying to reclaim lost air. The nameless pony looked at me in disgust. “With this warning, Edwin Shell, I return you to Equestria. May you make the right decision.” He said as he closed his eyes. I felt cool wind. I blinked and found myself back in the clearing. Luna’s corpse was floating in front of me. Her hair was covered in dirt. I felt a pang in my stomach as I saw her lifeless body. I looked back at the Doctor. He was staring at me, his eyes wide. “What are you going to do, Edwin?” He asked, frightened. He looked the youngest I had ever seen him, because his eyes were filled with so much fear. The corner of my mouth reached up in amusement. The Doctors eyes grew wider. “I am going to give her Life.” I replied, immersing myself in the flow. I turned back to the blue corpse. I stared at her mangled body. Missing limbs, half of her face gone. I closed my eyes to her. I thought of a happy Luna. Luna bounding through the glade, Luna breathing. Luna snuffling away flowers. Luna raising the moon, a spectacular sight in and of itself. I thought of all this, bending the Flow to my will. I felt it, like I would have felt a limb. The power built and expanded inside of my body. I opened my eyes. My muscles spasmed and clenched, holding me completely still as the energy ripped through me. I screamed, the pain of it overwhelming. I could see Luna’s flesh weaving itself together under my gaze. Her muscles were re-forming, the individual tendrils reaching across her face. The crippling pain washed through me anew, making the muscles and skin and bone weave faster. Skin latticed across her face, covering the bare flesh and bone. She was mended before my very eyes. Her body was in pristine shape, perfect in every regard. The Flow released me, It’s job done. Luna still hung in the air. I knew exactly what to do. I stepped up to her floating body. I looked at her, contemplating what I was about to do. I gulped. I craned my neck to touch my nose to hers. I opened my mouth and exhaled. I could feel my strength flowing from my legs, my body. I fatigued quickly as my legs shuddered. I nearly lost consciousness. Luna was doing absolutely nothing, my energy flowing into her dead, perfect form. I kept this up for a few more minutes, persevering through extreme exhaustion. I could bear no more, and fell over. Luna’s body fell to the loose earth of her grave with a muffled thump. I looked at her, tears flowing anew. “No, Luna...” I whispered. My body was completely drained of energy. I looked at her perfect dark blue mane, Her cutie mark a pale, pale white sliver against her flank. A twisted part of my mind wondered who would raise the moon now. I crushed that thought before it could become something that would haunt me. I looked at Luna, feeling an overwhelming depression over me. The edges of the world grew dark as I lost consciousness. “Edwin, get up! Edwin!” The Doctor shouted at me, prodding me with a hoof. I looked up at him, aggravated. “What do you want, Doctor?” I asked, my voice filled with venom. He looked at me with excitement, practically bursting. “It worked, Edwin.” he said. It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. I looked at him for a minute more, trying to figure out why he would tell me this. “Come look at her, Edwin.” he said. I got up from the reeds, up from my bed of sorrow and dispair. I looked around the clearing for her, looking everywhere. I saw her. I saw her. She was sitting. She was sitting next to a tree on the opposite end of the clearing. “I did it, Doctor.” I whispered. He looked at me. “Yes, You did.” He said, surprised. I looked back to him, grinning “I did it!” I exclaimed, exuberant. I threw my head back and laughed at the sky. I could feel the cool breeze, could smell the fragrant flowers. The world with Luna was a world worth living in. I walked over to Luna as quietly as I possibly could. I finally reached her, sitting next to a tree. I looked over her shoulder. She was holding a small green frog in an upturned hoof. “Hello Luna.” I said. Luna made a small squeal. The frog jumped off of her hoof, surprised. She turned around quickly. Her blue eyes were wide as she looked at me, her face perfect and pristine. I smiled out of the corner of my mouth. She reached her hooves around my neck. “Thank you, Edwin... I cannot thank you enough for what you did.” She said, nearly crying. I tried my best to be nonchalant about it. “I couldn’t take my pretty moon rock home all smashed up, now could I?” I said, looking at her teary face. She laughed once under her breath, looking down. “It was still very gallant of you, Edwin. First, you come with the Doctor, of all ponies, To come and save me from my prison. Even my death didn’t stop you from your goal. You pulled me from the very clutches of death, only to bring me back to Equestria. Not many would do that, Edwin.” She said, her eyes probing me. I looked down at her in amusement. “I guess you could say that I am rather talented.” I said, trying my best to brag. She giggled a little. I looked down at her pale blue irises. She looked back into my eyes, and for a moment, time had no say. The wind rushing past the reeds, the babbling of a nearby creek, and the creaking of old trees was the entire universe, with Luna at it’s center. She leaned closer to me, tightening her grip around my neck. Her lips were parted ever so slightly as I leaned in to meet her. “OI!” The Doctor shouted, making Luna and I jump. “We’ve got a summer sun celebration we have to go to! Let’s get a move on!” The Doctor shouted. I looked back to stare at him in supreme annoyance. He was standing in the doorway of the tardis. “Celestia almighty, Doctor! It’s a time machine, isn’t it!?” I exclaimed. The Doctor looked thoughtful for a second. “Yes... But, I do like to at least feel punctual. Let’s get a move on, shall we?” He asked, disappearing into the mysterious blue box. I looked back at Luna, her cheeks purple. I looked at her for a minute before I realized she was blushing. I’ll make it up to you, Luna.” I said. She perked up at that statement. I waved a hoof, gesturing for her to hurry. She pranced up to my side. “Come on, best not to keep the Doctor waiting.” I said to the midnight blue mare as we walked to the tardis.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:15:19+00:00

2012-02-02T02:15:19+00:00

Chapter 13 The tardis was a welcome sight, made even better with Luna by my side. I practically pranced up to the door, skipping ahead of her. I pushed it open with a hoof. “After you, Princess.” I in a snobbish tone. Luna pushed me with one of her forehooves. “Not all of us are complete prats, Edwin. You of all ponies should know this by now.” She said jokingly. She walked in, her tail swishing behind her. I could smell her as she walked by. She smelled like oranges. I tried to shake the smell out of my head so i could do things like talk and stand and breathe. I walked in the tardis, seeing the Doctor hopping all around his console. I walked up beside Luna, who was watching him with rapt amusement. He was holding a mallet in his mouth, slamming it on a particularly tricky lever. Luna and I stared at him as he slammed the mallet into the console. He slammed it a few more times for good measure, and threw the mallet off to the side. It made a good thump as it landed on a tube. He looked up at his machine, laughing. He looked back at us. “About time you lot came back inside.” He said. I looked at him, still annoyed. “We were enjoying the scenery.” I replied, disgruntled. Luna shuffled her hooves beside me... The Doctor smirked. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?” He asked sarcastically. Luna made a soft noise in her throat. I looked at her, feeling warm. I thought about all the times we had together, in the courtyard, meeting her for the first time. I glanced back to the Doctor, who was fiddling with his console. He swore softly under his breath and continued smashing his hooves on the panels. I looked at Luna, who was looking at me. She averted her gaze, her cheeks purple again. “So, Luna... What was it like?” I asked, truly interested. Her eyes flew up to me, surprised. “What was what like, Ed?” She asked. “Dying.” I said bluntly. I knew what it was like to die, but I didn’t know what happened afterwards. Luna looked sad for a moment, remembering her death. “It was... Cold, Ed. One moment I was in the tardis, covered in blood. You were standing over me, begging...” She choked on her words, looking away. “You don’t have to talk about it, Luna. I meant what came after.” I said. She looked back at me, seemingly grateful. “There wasn’t much, Ed. Just... Black. No sensation, no light, nothing. Just your thoughts to console you. It was... Unpleasant, to say the least.” She said somberly. There was a large clash on the opposite side of the tardis, startling both of us. I looked over to see the Doctor’s legs sticking out under a pile of tubes and wrenches. Luna giggled a little, and her long horn glowed a iridescent blue. The pile of junk glowed the same color and floated off of him. She blinked her eyes, and the pipes winked out of existence. Her horn stopped glowing. The Doctor looked at her with a bored look on his face. “I’m going to need those back, you know.” He said matter-of-factly. I laughed once. Luna and the Doctor looked at me. “It’s not like they’re your only ones, right? Besides, can we even use them, being ponies and all?” I replied, gesturing to a nearby pile of wrenches. The Doctor sarcastically laughed at me as he rolled over to his hooves. “Ha Ha, Edwin. Some of us happen to like our wrenches.” The Doctor replied, walking to the console. I smirked as he pushed a lever with his hoof. The tardis make a whooshy, watery noise for a few seconds, then stopped. The Doctor looked at me. “Okay, Edwin. You’ve brought us this far. What in the name of Celestia’s horn fungus are we going to do now?” The Doctor asked, his tone incredulous. I looked at Luna, who was looking at me with wide eyes. “Well, Where are we?” I asked. “We’re at the one thousandth Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville. “We need to figure out how to make you,” I said, gesturing at Luna “Look like Nightmare Moon.” Luna thought about this for a second, closing her eyes in concentration. She was like this for about a minute or two. The Doctor and I shuffled impatiently as we waited for Luna to do something. Time was of the essence now that we were at our destination. Luna’s horn glowed with a mystical, erethral blue. Her outline shuddered once, blurring her form. She opened her eyes. Her irises were a sharp teal, and her pupils were slits. I was shocked by this, but had no time to recover from it. Her outline shuddered again, and her mane and tail turned into a wispy cloud of sparkling blue. It was the exact same color as the glow around her horn. She was still for a second, her outline still slightly blurred. She looked down at her hoof, still a deep, midnight blue, and rolled her eyes. Her horn glowed blue again, and her outline blurred. She turned completely black. She opened her eyes. “Wow.” The Doctor said. “Yeah.” I agreed. Luna was exactly the spitting image of Nightmare Moon. It was almost frightening how much she looked like the dark creature. I thought the illusion was nearly perfect, but the Doctor had other ideas. “Um, Luna?” He said questioningly. Luna turned her horrible teal eyes to look at him “Yes?” She replied. Her voice was exactly the same as the regular Luna, which placated me. “You’re a little bit short for Midnight, aren’t you?” He said awkwardly. Luna looked down at her hooves. “You’re right.” She said. Her horn glowed once more. Her legs and neck grew, seemingly stretching. She towered over me when she was done. I admired the dangerous beauty of her. “You clean up alright, kid.” The Doctor said sarcastically. Luna giggled once under her breath. I grinned at her. She looked down at me. “I can never thank you enough, Edwin.” She said, looking down at me with wide teal eyes. “You never need to, Luna.” I replied. She leaned down to my face. The faintest smell of oranges wafted down to me as I could feel my chest tighten. “I think that I do, Edwin. You have more than earned it.” She whispered in my ear. I gulped as her flowing blue hair tickled my cheek. She slowly drew her head away, her black coat glistening in the low light of the tardis. She locked eyes with me, her slitted pupils half hidden under lazy lids. Her head inched toward me ever so slightly. I closed my eyes as she met my lips. She tasted slightly sweet, like a fresh fruit. Her lips were soft and tender. Even though this was amazing, I could only think how far I had come. Only a week ago I was making a costume for comic con, And now I was kissing royalty in the tardis. She pulled away. The Doctor looked at us and sighed. “Okay, time to get you out of here. We have a schedule to keep, you know.” The Doctor said as he pushed Luna out of the door. I caught a sad glance from Luna as she was forced out of the tardis. “This isn’t goodbye, Luna. I promise. I love you.” I said seriously as the doctor butted his head against Luna’s knee. Luna visibly relaxed and allowed herself to be pushed out of the tardis. The door closed with a loud thump. The Doctor fell over, his lungs heaving. “I’m never... Taking you... With me... AGAIN!” the Doctor shouted through strained lungs. I laughed. He looked up at me with angry eyes. “Please, Doctor! It wasn’t that bad looking back, now was it?” I said, joking with him. “Luna died and you murdered me.” He said bluntly. The laughter died in my throat. “But... It all ended well, didn’t it?” I asked, disappointed. The Doctor looked at me and laughed once, his voice harsh. “It may have been a romp through the park for you, Edwin, But for me? It was the longest ten years of my life. I’ve had enough adventure to fill a stocking.” the Doctor complained. “A stocking?!” I said, taken completely unaware. The laughter bubbled back up in my throat. The Doctor rolled around on the ground, trying to right himself. This made me laugh even harder, craning my neck down because I was gasping for breath. I was wheezing by the time the Doctor got to his hooves. “You alright, Ed?” The Doctor asked in an unsure tone. I wiggled one of my forehooves at him and fell over, still wheezing. I rolled around on the ground, unable to contain my mirth. The Doctor paid me no attention as he pushed and pulled on his levers and buttons. I gasped for breath on the floor. The Doctor looked at me incredulously. “You done?” He asked. I was done. I wiggled a hoof at him again for him to continue. He snorted once. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I heard the swishy, slooshy noise of the tardis moving. I rolled over onto my hooves. The Doctor was looking at me from the opposite side of his console. “We are outside of Antony’s cottage, about two hours after I displaced you to go see Luna on the moon. He would be happy to teach you about summoning blades now, I think.” The Doctor said, glancing at me with passive eyes. I looked at him long and hard. “Why are you mad at me, Doctor?” I asked. He turned to me with anger in his eyes. It was frightening, truly. His gaze bared my very soul out for all to see. I was defenseless against it. “She knew me since she was a filly. She grew up with me by her side. Even when her own sister left her for naught on the moon, I was still there for her. It broke my heart that i could not save her from her torment in her grey prison, but I have sworn to not interfere for fear of altering the timeline. But, you, Edwin. You.” The Doctor exclaimed with fire in his eyes. I shrank from his gaze, the space between us offering me no protection. He rounded the edge of his console, slowly advancing to me. I was curled up on the ground shivering, unable to break eye contact. “You show up and expect everything to go all hunky-dory, ‘Let’s save Luna’, be back home in time for tea! Do you really think that I haven’t thought about doing that a million times already?! I didn’t do it because it was dangerous! What could have happened DID happen! And you think that it was hard to watch her die? I watched her die, then I died, and then I had to bury her!” He shouted at me, advancing towards me hoof by hoof. I shuddered, remembering her blood gushing from her broken body. I whimpered as the Doctor approached even closer to me. “You know nothing of life, Edwin. Yet you are given such gifts. Gifts of power, gifts of grace. You were barely alive in your original existence, and have barely lived in this one. I feel sorry for you, Edwin. Forced into a life where you must fight, fight for a cause in which you barely know, let alone believe in.” He whispered at me, craning his neck down. I stared back at him, covered in a cold sweat. The Doctor looked at me again, his upper lip curling slightly at one corner. It wasn’t like he was smiling, but like he was sneering. “Get out of my tardis.” He whispered, turning his back to me. He walked back to his console, and pushed a few buttons. “But- “Get out, Edwin Shell! Get out of my tardis!” The Doctor spun around and spat at me. I flinched at the venom in his voice. I flinched. He turned back to his console. “Doctor-” I started. The Doctor gestured for me to stop without looking away from the console. “I may come to forgive you in time. The one thing I have so much of.” The Doctor said. He folded his forelegs and leaned over a control panel. He sighed softly. “Do you know how infuriating it is to watch someone die?” He asked roughly, turning his head to the side. He was still leaning over the console. “What?” I asked, finding his question nonsensical. “I am Immortal, Edwin. I cannot die. Disease, physical trauma, the ravages of time... I am immune to all. I have lived for over three thousand years, Edwin. Celestia and Luna are much older, but they have purpose. A reason to live, Edwin. They are in charge of an entire empire. The lives of millions depend on them doing their job. It’s what keeps them going.” He said, his voice growing somber. I looked at him quizzically, my hoof reaching for the door. “I have nothing but a blue box. A blue box and all of eternity. It was interesting for the first three centuries... Then the Daleks started a time war.” He said, his voice hitching. “Both sides were annihilated, driven to extinction. I was the only surviving Time Lord left in the whole of creation. I had nowhere to go, no home to return to. I was... Alone.” He whispered. Tears were dripping on the console. “I spent the next six centuries trying to console myself to fate. I explored planets unknown, sights unseen. It did nothing. I started taking people, normal creatures, with me to see sights. I lived vicariously through them, seeing the sights through their eyes. It... Helped.” He gulped. My hoof was hovering, inches from the door. “They were worse off for it. I watched them die in front of me. Murdered, mostly. They were my only weakness. I may be immortal, but my heart died long ago. The human in that picture... Rose was her name. Rose Tyler. She was my favorite. She made me look at things so differently. I traveled with her for years. We finally came to a point when I couldn’t bear the suspense. She could die at any moment, and there was nothing that I could do to prevent it. I sent her home.” He said, his face soaked with tears of ages past. He broke down, slamming his head down on the console. He wept. He slammed a hoof down hard on the console, snapping off a button. it rolled across the floor, bouncing. It rolled all the way over to my feet. I looked at it. It was big and red. It had an worn and faded yellow exclamation point on it. I was surprised by it, and picked it up with magic. The Doctor was too busy grieving all over the console to notice me slip out of the tardis door. I closed the door silently behind me, and found myself back in front of Antony’s cottage. I sighed deeply, falling on the ground. Unconsciousness doesn’t count as sleep, I decided. The ground was soft, and I was tired. Sleep came quickly, and was a dreamless blessing. “You’re in my garden, Edwin.” Said a voice. I felt something hard poke my face. “Merrr...” I said, rolling away from the poking. “Edwin, you’re on my carrots now. Get up.” Said the voice, gruffer this time. I neighed and rolled over again. I heard a peircing sound, like music, but it was too harsh, “You’re scaring Berry, Edwin. I suggest you get up.” I opened my eyes, squinting. What I saw made me open my eyes wider. Antony was staring at me, his teeth bared. His eyes were squinting at me, his large lavender pupils carrying the deadliest of intent. The scar slashing down across his left eye made it all the more threatening. But what caught my attention was not his stare, but the large dagger he had pointing at my face. It’s pommel was adorned with a plum colored gem that sparkled in the sunlight. “I suggest you get up Edwin. I will not ask again.” Antony promised. I stared at him, my jaw agape. The dagger floated forward and touched my nose. I scrambled to try and get to my hooves. Antony watched me fumble around, still pointing the dagger at me. I stared at him, scared for my life. “What in Equestria would make you wake me up like that?!” I shouted at him. He shrugged. “You were scaring Berry.” He said simply. He looked at his dagger, which floated up to his face. It made a warbling hum. Antony opened his mouth slightly as he looked at it. “Huh.” He said. “What?” I asked, still mad from my rude awakening. Antony was looking at his dagger, lost in thought. “That gem... Was never there before...” He trailed off. He stared at it for a few minutes more. I coughed. He turned away from it to look at me. “I take it the Doctor left you here, eh?” He asked. “Yeah, he did. How did you know?" “He was just inside for breakfast, wasn’t he?” Antony said sarcastically. “Come on, let’s get you some food.” He said, walking back towards his cottage. I could see what I assumed to be Berry looking at me in the one small window in the cottage. She blushed when She saw me look. “That sounds great.” I replied, following Antony into the cottage.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:18:03+00:00

2012-02-02T02:18:03+00:00

Chapter 14 “This is amazing, Berry.” I said through a mouthful of salad. The Plum mare blushed lightly and looked away. “Thank you, Edwin.” She replied quietly. Antony smiled at her with crinkled eyes. She giggled, looking back at him. I ate some salad inconspicuously. They shared their moment. I coughed. Antony looked at me. “So, Edwin.” Antony asked, placing a forehoof on the table. His horn glowed a pale purple as he summoned a small pocketknife. He began to pick at his hoof with it. “Not at the table, Antony.” Berry said. Antony’s eyes grew wide, surprised. He looked back at berry, then at me. “Sorry, force of habit.” He said as the pocketknife dissolved into thin air. He held a hoof up to his mouth. He cleared his throat, and put the stone grey hoof back on the ground. “Tell me, Edwin. What brings you to my home?” He asked, looking at me. Berry looked on as well. “You promised me that you would teach me to summon swords, Antony.” I said. Antony smiled out of the corner of his mouth. He brushed a hoof through his mane and chuckled. “You most certainly a persistent pony, Edwin. If you will help me with my chores for today, I will teach you to summon blades.” Antony said. I could hear the smile in his voice. I thought about his condition, finding it deceptively simple. “Are you sure that’s it?” I asked, perplexed. Antony lifted up a steaming cup with magic and sipped it. “Yes. I hope you aren’t averse to it. Having another magician help me would make it go so much faster.” He reasoned as he wafted the cup under his nose. He closed his eyes and hummed, relishing in the scent. “Tea from our peach tree. Would you like some, Edwin?” Antony asked. “Yes, please.” I said. I really was not a big fan of peaches when I was a human, but for some reason my pony senses just loved them. The taste, the soft feel, the smell. They were all so much better in this body. Antony set down his cup, but his horn continued to glow. I could hear soft noises in the kitchen. I was curious about what it was, and I got up to go look. Antony waved for me to sit. He chuckled again. “I’m making your tea, Edwin.” The stone grey pony said. I sat down, feeling rather stupid. Antony pawed the ground under the short table. Berry blew some of her puffy plum hair out of her eyes. I looked around the small dining room of the cottage. It was warmly lit by a small window on the opposite wall from me. A painting hung on the wall to the left of me. It was of a small blue foal laying next to a wrinkled old colt. They were in a large fall clearing, with a book open on the ground beside them. The old colt’s cutie mark was of a curved scimitar. “That blue foal is my father, Edwin. My grandfather was teaching him how to summon in this painting. Nature itself is a considerable part of magic, and thus summoning swords. We will go into this later, but now, your tea is ready.” Antony said, A small clay cup was floating toward me, it’s contents steaming. I could smell the tea, with the faint smell of peaches wafting toward me. The cup set itself down in front of me. It had a large handle on the side of it, apparently for putting your hoof through it. I picked it up with magic, floating it over to my mouth. I tilted the cup, and the warm tea flowed into my mouth. It tasted amazing. I sat there and chugged the hot tea, scalding my throat. When I was done I floated the cup back to the table. I gasped, trying to get air into my mouth. Berry and Antony were staring at me, eyes wide. I chuckled once, embarrassed. “It was very good. Thank you, Antony.” I said in my defense. Antony shrugged. “It’s Berry you should thank, it’s her tree.” Antony said. I looked over to Berry, who had a large lettuce leaf in her mouth. “Thank you, Berry.” I said. She stopped chewing on her leaf. She looked mortified. “Yoor Whelcum, Edwuun.” She said, her mouth still clamped on her leaf. Antony looked at her, and smiled. She smiled back, chewing on her leaf. Antony looked back to me. “I think it’s time we go, Edwin. We have to do much, and have very little time.” Antony spoke. He sighed, getting to his hooves. He craned his neck forward, stretching. His muscular frame shuddered. He opened his mouth wide and yawned. He shuddered again, and drew back to standing normally. He walked away from me to the door. He stopped next to berry. “We’ll be back in a few hours, Berry.” He said. He leaned down his head and kissed her on the cheek. She blushed a deeper shade of pink than she was already. Antony straightened himself and walked out of the door. “Thank you so much for breakfast, Berry.” I said, following Antony out of the door. Berry poked me as I walked past her. I looked back at her. “About last night, Edwin-” She started nervously, her expression filled with worry. I smiled. “I didn’t see a thing.” I replied. She visibly relaxed, knowing her secret was safe with me. I walked out of the door, out into the morning sun. “Why are you doing that, Edwin?” Antony asked, trotting down a dirt path. I looked down at him, floating through the air. “It’s very enjoyable.” I replied, wafting on a breeze. I leaned back, placing my hooves behind my head. Antony chuckled. “Why don’t you join me, Antony?” I asked, looking down at the grey colt. The wind gently blew through his mane. He looked up at me, confusion spread across his face. “What?” He questioned. “Why do you spend all of your time on the ground when you could fly? You are a magician, aren’t you?” I replied. Antony threw back his head and laughed. I stopped my wafting and looked at him. “What’s so funny?” I asked, my tone serious. Antony walked under me, still laughing. I floated fast enough to keep pace behind him. “I asked my father that once when I was young. There was a spell going around amongst foals, like fads often do, that could make you fly. He told me: ‘Why would I want to get where I am going faster if I enjoy the journey it takes to get there?’ I never flew again, taking his words to heart.” He said. I felt touched by his short story. “That does make sense...” I said, floating gently to the ground. I cut my magic about a foot from the ground, dropping the rest of the way. My hooves made a small cloud of dust as I landed. It reminded me of the moon. Luna. “Antony... I must do something, I am afraid I cannot help you today.” I said as I immersed myself in the flow. Antony looked back at me, his expression dissapointed. “Well... If you must, Edwin. We can do this another day.” He said, continuing down the path. I closed my eyes on the scene of a bird flitting past him as he walked down the dirt path. I thought of Luna. The cool night wind blowing through her mane, her powerful wings spread wide. I felt a cool breeze. I opened my eyes to see Luna sleeping on her blue rug, my blanket wrapped around her. I inhaled, feeling satisfied. The smell of oranges assaulted my nostrils. I smiled. Luna always found a way to make me smile. I looked at her laying on her rug, her chest moving up and down lightly. “Moon...” She mumbled, rolling over on her side. She dragged the blanket around with her, exposing a wing. Strong blue feathers were layered all over it. I smiled as I leaned down to whisper in her ear. The scent of oranges was strong in my nose. “Sweet dreams, Princess.” I whispered. She hummed a soft note. I smiled, walking back to the door. I pushed it open with a hoof and walked out into the hallway. I could feel all of the animals and ponies around me. There was a meal going on in the dining hall, the ponies down there milling about. Celestia was in the throne room, talking to an entity I was unfamiliar with. But what caught my attention was the pony hiding behind the curtain in front of me. “Hello Doctor.” I said. He swore loudly, coming out from behind a curtain. “How could you possibly know I was here?” He said, shaking dust out of his mane. I thought about this for a second. “I guess I’m still in the Flow.” I said, cutting myself from the power. Immediately, all of the creatures around me faded from my senses. The Doctor looked up at me, disgruntled. “Hmph. I suppose so. But I’m here because Celestia and Marcus want you in the throne room.” He said, dragging his hooves to try and get the dust off of them. He left light grey tracks in the deep purple carpet. “How did they know I was here?” I asked. “I am not the only one who notices what goes on between you and Luna.” He said, smirking at me. I stomped my hoof, making a surge of electricity flow under the carpet to him. It shocked him, making him practically jump out of his skin. He fell and made a solid thud as he hit the ground. I walked up to him as he shuddered on the ground. I craned my neck down to him, nearly touching his nose with mine. He looked up at me, completely shocked. “I do expect you to keep quiet about our little trip to the moon, Doctor. I have a feeling that Celestia would not be too happy if she was to learn about me tampering with her sentence for Luna. As an accomplice, she would not be too happy with you either, I think. Best we keep it between ourselves.” I threatened him in a calm voice. He looked up at me, his wide eyes full of shock. “I think you are right, Edwin. Now help me up.” He said. I craned my neck back up. I picked him up with magic. He wiggled around in the air, not used to being airborne. I set him down. He landed on his hooves awkwardly, but managed to stand. I looked at him. He looked at me. He coughed into a hoof. He walked down the hallway. “Let’s go, Edwin.” He said as he broke into a gallop. “Ah, Doctor. It’s good to see you again.” Said Celestia as we walked into the throne room. Her hair waved as if there was a gentle breeze in the room. “Likewise, Princess. I brought along Edwin, I heard you wanted to see him.” The Doctor spoke in an off-handed way. I could see Marcus standing to the side of Celestia, his deep green coat glowing in the morning sunlight. He had a strong jawline, accented by his corded neck and stocky build. He reminded me of a smaller Othello. He looked at me and smiled. Celestia cleared her throat. We all looked up to her. She looked at me, her light purple eyes spearing me to the carpet. I gulped. She smiled out of the corner of her mouth, and began. “Edwin, I have been meaning to talk to you. I have seen that my sister, Luna, has taken quite a shine to you. Far be it from I to interfere with her whims, but I am not above interfering with you. She may be a grown mare, but she has responsibilities. She cannot comport herself with the likes of you. Be you immortal? Yes. Be you strong enough to defend her? Yes. But you are far from what Luna needs, Edwin. The two of us have safeguarded Equestria from the moment of it’s very inception! Yet you, a pony merely days old, think that he can claim one of the Princesses on high for his own? Madness! Pure insanity! You must shed yourself of such childish notions. She is old enough to be your grandparent a hundred times over! You cannot continue this way with her. Please, be done with her Edwin.” She slaughtered me with her perfect elocution. My hopes of being with Luna were smashed, decimated. I had left Angelics in better condition than Celestia just left me. I gasped, the breath held during her speech finally leaving me. I could feel something brewing inside of me. I felt cold. Yet... “Now, Edwin, I have brought Marcus here toda-” Celestia began. “No.” I whispered firmly. She perked her ears, looking at me. Her hair stopped waving for a second. “What was that?” She asked, her voice spiked with venom. “No.” I said, stronger this time. Her face broke into an expression of disgust “I do beg your pardon, Edwin?” She said with a tone to match her face. “No, Celestia. I will do nothing of the sort. I would kill myself before I parted with her willingly. You would have to pry my cold, dead hooves away from her.” I said, my voice growing stronger. “I hope you know full well wha-” She started. “I do! I do know what I am doing, Princess Celestia! I would do anything for Luna! Anything at all! I would climb the highest peaks, dive to deepest depths! I would slay one hundred dragons! A thousand! No, I would kill all the dragons in Equestria, just to see Luna smile! Anything that I could for her to make her the slightest bit happier, consider it done!” I shouted. My lungs were heaving from the passion of my words. Celestia looked shocked upon her marble throne. She stared at me for a second or two. She then grinned, getting up from her haunches. I could feel the room grow hotter. “Silly foal.” She said, placing one long, gilded leg in front of the other. I would have sworn that it made a small hissing noise as it touched down. The room grew hotter still, and I began to sweat. She stepped again, setting her long legs down in tandem. She continued to walk towards me. “You know not the import of your actions.” She declaimed, her perfect voice spiked with hate. The room grew hotter still. I was still panting, but now with the effort it took to draw the hot air into my lungs. I was dripping with sweat. Celestia placed another hoof down, this time making a noticible hiss. The carpet flared with a small tongue of fire. I could feel Celestia walking closer to me, the searing heat radiating off of her in waves. I gulped, but there was nothing to swallow. My mouth was completely dry. “You should not interfere with your betters, Edwin.” She said softly, walking with a slow laziness that drove me mad. The air grew even hotter, and I could barely breathe anymore. my ears drooped, dripping with sweat. I looked up at her with no expression at all. She placed a hoof down, making a flame shoot from the carpet. The flame spread, slowly licking it’s way across the carpet. Celestia’s horn glowed, and everything went black. “You are lucky, Edwin.” She said, floating in front of me. I inhaled, drawing nothing. I gagged, trying to inhale. I gasped and sputtered and choked, unable too draw any air. The heat was gone, but Celestia drew ever closer to me, her hooves not even moving. I wheezed, struggling to get air. “I have killed ponies in more gruesomer fashions for far less than what you have done.” She said, her horn glowing. She spun me around, turning me. I knew why I couldn’t breathe. I was in space. I was looking straight at the Sun, My eyes burning. It was all but the grace of Celestia that kept me from shooting into it. “Goodbye, Edwin. I hope that Othello will forgive me.” She said. She pushed me. Gravity took hold, hurtling me to the sun. I spun as I fell, turning back to look at Celestia. She had a smug grin on her face. I opened myself to the flow. I could feel the flaring of her presence. I could feel magic bubbling within her, about to take her back to Equestria. I looked at her with wide eyes. I closed my eyes. I imagined Luna. Luna, frolicking through the clearing where the Doctor buried her. Her dead body, levitating in front of me. I thought of Antony, kissing berry on the cheek. His dagger with the plum gemstone. His humming swords. No... I thought. I looked at Celestia. Her head was thrown back in laughter. NO! I broke the hold of gravity, shooting back to Celestia. She looked at me flying to her with a look of surprise on her face. I could sense the magic flowing from her before I could see her horn glow. I closed my eyes as I could feel the world rip. I thought of Luna, and Antony’s swords. I wrapped my hooves around Celestia's long neck as she left the Sun. “NO!” I screamed. I lashed out at Celestia with my mind. I heard a sharp sound, and Celestia screaming. I opened my eyes. Celestia was looking down at me, a shallow slash across her face. It was bleeding. “I would bathe Equestria in an ocean of it’s own blood before I would give Luna up!” I shouted. Celestia looked down at me in surprise. I was staring up at her with wide eyes, panting. My teeth were bared at her. “You really are lucky that Luna and I are so close, otherwise you would have killed me.” She said in her perfect tone, gesturing to something off to the side. I looked in the direction she pointed. It was a sword. I looked at it in awe. The blade was the exact same color as Luna’s coat, the crossguard was in the shape of two crescent moons placed end to end. Even looking at it, I could tell it was hideously sharp. There was a brilliant teal gem mounted in blued steel on the hilt. I was taken aback by my burst of magic. “Get out of my throne room, Edwin. Take your sword with you.” She said, turning her back to me. I followed my heart and ran headlong out of the room.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:18:18+00:00

2012-02-02T02:18:18+00:00

Chapter 15 I stood on the cliff looking down at the Palace below me. The sun was reaching the horizon, casting an orange glow across the sky. Wind flew past, whipping my black mane across my face. I looked at my sword to my side. It was beautiful. The blade was wide, about a hoof wide, compared to Antony’s skinny saber. The crossguard was on level with the blade. It was in the shape of two crescent moons, overlapping on the closed side. The edges of the moons were sharpened. The hilt was blue string layered on black metal, forming a waffle pattern. A large teal gem was mounted in the hilt. The blade itself was curved slightly near the tip. I looked at it the way a mother looked at a child. It felt as if Luna was standing right next to me. I moved the sword. It made a low hum as it floated past my face. I looked at my reflection in the blade as it floated past me. It hummed low. I flicked it with my mind. It screamed a hum as it flung itself into the ground beside me, slicing through the rock like butter. It was sticking straight up in the grey stone. I looked back at the horizon. There was natural lightning off in the distance, accompanied by grey clouds. The view was simply stunning. “Hello, Edwin.” Said a voice. I flung my sword out of the ground and pointed it at the noise. I turned my head to see Marcus standing on his tips of his hooves, the sword firmly touching him under his chin. He gulped. “Please don’t stab the messenger, Edwin.” He said, his voice full of fear. His large frame was struggling under his own unbalanced weight. I sighed, pulling the sword away from him. I placed it halfway between he and I. Marcus gulped. It was surprising how much I depended on the sword now, even though I had only had it for the past few hours. “The Princess asks for your presence in the throne room, Edwin. She says that she is sorry.” He said, trying to convey as much sincerity as he could. “Celestia says a great many things, Marcus.” I replied coldly. A warm breeze wafted by. Marcus looked at me, disappointed. He turned back to fly down to the palace. I closed my eyes. “Oh, and Luna says hello.” He added. I grinned. I immersed myself in the Flow, feeling all the creatures around me. I could feel Marcus floated down the cliff. I thought of Luna. I felt the cool breeze and I opened my eyes. Celestia was on her throne, talking to Othello on her right. She bore no scars or other sign of injury from our altercation earlier in the day. The tardis was in another corner of the room. I could see Luna standing in front of a bushel of apples. I floated up beside her. “Well, if it isn’t my pretty little moon rock, safe home at last.” I whispered in her ear. She gasped, dropping the apple she was holding with magic. She slowly turned to me. I saw her blue hair slide away to reveal her wide eyes. “It’s... You.” She whispered. I smiled, knowing exactly what she meant. I was not the Edwin that showed up at her door. I was the Edwin that saved her. The Edwin that fought against all odds to bring his moon rock home. “I missed you, Luna.” I said. She laughed once under her breath. “I missed you so much more.” She replied. I shrugged, floating back to the ground. I landed with a soft thump. Luna smiled, her eyes welling with tears. She whimpered. “My white knight.” She said. “What?” I asked, completely oblivious. “Whenever I thought about you, before I met you again, I always thought of you as a... Protector, of sorts. A white knight. You saved me, Edwin.” She said. I smiled. “I love you, Luna.” I said, leaning down to her face. She lifted her chin. She parted her lips ever so slightly. Her were closed as she reached up to meet me. “If you two would kindly join us, we have business to attend to.” Said a perfectly regal voice. I growled, looking over my shoulder. Celestia averted her eyes from me, looking down at a golden shod hoof. “I think that you at least owe me this one, Celestia.” I mumbled angrily. She looked back up at me. “I truly am sorry, Edwin. I had no idea that she meant that much to you. The Doctor told me what you did. I myself am grateful to you, Luna means more to me than anything else. It was no easy thing, what you did. Bringing the dead back to we who are living is not only a hefty spell, but also a dangerous decision. Yours made sure that you would be tied to her forever. This, and the form of your summoned blade makes me feel that you are fully committed to her, and that this is no mere passing fancy.” She said. I looked back at her. Luna was looking at me in confusion. “Just this morning you tried to hurl me into the sun. An odd pony it is that can change their mind so quickly.” I remarked, drawing a gasp from Luna. “Tried?!” Luna exclaimed under her breath. I turned to her. Her mouth was agape. “Yes. I did what I thought the situation justified. I have been known to lose my temper, Edwin.” She added when she saw my look of outright disbelief. Luna looked at me, aghast. “Edwin, she just doesn’t try to throw something into the sun! She throws things into the sun! What did you do?!” She asked me in a hushed tone. Othello was looking at all three of us, confused by our exchange. He raised a hoof awkwardly, as if to emphasize a statement, and then set it down. “I fought back.” I said simply. Luna’s mouth dropped open “You did WHAT?!” she shouted. I looked at her, in shock. I had never heard her raise her voice before. “I fought. I fought for you.” I said. She looked at me, her face frozen in a look of surprise. “What do you mean, ‘fought’” Luna asked. I held a hoof up to my mouth and coughed. “Your sister didn’t want me to be with you, and I argued with her about it. Push comes to shove, and she tries to hurl me into the sun.” I remarked bluntly. Luna’s face went from surprised to enraged. She turned to Celestia. “What, I am not allowed to be with a Numbered?! What a hypocrite you have become in my absence, sister.” She said with venom in her voice. Celestia looked awkwardly at Othello, and then back to Luna. “It is a hard life, Luna. They are the only ones capable of giving us companionship, being one of the few immortal creatures in our world, but they have serious responsibility. I was a different pony then, Luna. I still have feelings, just... Subdued. Edwin especially will be consumed with responsibility, for the upcoming Event is his own to avert. The fate of Equestria depends on them, not us. They are what keep our kingdom from destroying itself. They are the great arbiters of our race, saving us from the Angelic threat. A Numbered is one of the very, very few that keep darkness from inheriting our land. Thus being said, they are always busy.” She said in a solemn tone. Luna’s expression grew softer, but was still angry. “I am not some filly! I am a Princess! You think that if he were to go off on an adventure of some kind, that I may not follow him?” She exclaimed. I looked at Luna, feeling shocked myself. I had never heard her speak with such authority. Celestia looked at her, her eyes caring and soft. “I suppose you are not, Luna. I will meddle no more between you and Edwin. But, ironic though it may be, the Doctor has something to say. Doctor?” She asked, craning her neck to see behind us. I turned around to see where she was looking. The tardis was sitting there, not doing much. A door swung open. The Doctor strolled out, holding his pen in his mouth again. He nodded his head at Luna, then Celestia “Princesses.” He said through a mouthful of pen. The formality made me smile. He walked up to the first step on the throne, spat his pen on the ground, and turned to me. “Edwin, when you entered the Nether after your first battle with the Angelic orb, I took you into the past. Remember?” The Doctor said. Othello looked at him, surprised, but Luna and Celestia betrayedno emotion. “Yes.” I said. The Doctor continued: “Well, you are actually arriving in Equestria originally in about... oh, an hour? Yes, I think that’s right. Well, you stayed at Twilight’s tree for one day, and was in Zecora’s for about half, which means that you will have two days until I have to replace the old Edwin on the timeline with You. Which means that you will be continuing on in Ponyville as if nothing had happened. Ergo, You will have to leave the palace until we need you again.” The Doctor finished. I looked at him, extremely confused by his explanation. The Doctor sighed. “Nopony ever does understand me.” He said in a tired voice. He leaned down to pick up his pen. We all watched him walk back into the tardis, and heard the door slam shut. We all looked at each other. “Well that was odd.” said Othello, breaking the awkward silence. Celestia turned to him, nodding. “Yes, the Doctor is an strange creature indeed.” Celestia agreed. She turned back to Luna and I. “Edwin, he meant to say that you have two more days before you have to go to Ponyville. I have no use for you because Othello has decided to stay in Equestria for a while, so you may spend the next two days as you please. I just request of you that you be in easy reach to contact if we actually do need you. With this, I bid you adieu.” She said. I looked to Luna, who looked back at me. She began to grin. “What on earth are you thinking, Luna?” I asked. She just grinned wider, backing away from me. “Luna...” I said playfully, advancing towards her. She giggled, still backing away. I smiled. I got into a crouch and snuck over to her. She backed away from me. “Hey Ed.” She spoke in a happy voice. “What, Luna?” I asked. “Betcha can’t catch me.” She turned and shot off to the doors. I laughed loudly, breaking into a sprint. We cleared the doors to the throne room, entering a lush purple hall. “I’m gonna get you, Luna!” I shouted, watching the blue mare pull away. She squealed, still laughing. We were reaching the turn where the hall to the Throne room branched off into a perpendicular hall. I didn’t see Luna turn, which worried me slightly. She was still laughing when she jumped out of an open window. I was shocked, but it was too late to turn. She fitted perfectly through the small square, flinging herself into the evening. I leaped. Everything was in slow motion. I could see Luna’s pale blue tail flowing in the warm evening breeze, and saw her dark wings unfold slowly. I jumped, squeezing myself so that I could fit. My left foreleg brushed against the window frame, jarring me. I could see Luna flap her large wings, the feathers straining against her weight. Time sped back up, and I was falling through the warm night. The air was a tangible thing around me, whipping my jet black mane up. The sensation of falling was one of the best things about flight. I watched the Place fall past me, relishing in the sensation of weightlessness. I fell for a few more seconds before I pulled out of my dive. I shot back up to Luna flying lazily away from the Palace. I could feel the wind rush past my face, my mane flung back against my neck. I could see Luna silhouetted against the purple sky. I rocketed up to her, laughing. She looked down at me with a surprised expression. I slowed down and pulled up next to her. I poked her with a snow white hoof. “Got you.” I said smugly. Luna stuck her tongue out at me. I looked around, taking in the fresh night. “So what are we doing out here, Luna?” I asked. She kept her eyes ahead, staring at the setting sun. A mere sliver of orange was visible. “When I first met you, Edwin, you said you wanted to see Equestria. I take it for granted, because I traverse the whole of it daily. So, Edwin, we are going to see the night life.” She said. I looked at her, confused. “What?” “We are going to see Equestria.” She said simply. I looked at her, stupefied. She glanced to me, then did a double take. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?” She said worriedly. I looked at her with a spreading smile. I floated gently over and bumped her. She looked at me with wide eyes, slapping my opposite side with her long wing. “It was, Luna. Thank you for taking the time.” I replied. She looked off to the horizon. “I don’t think of it as being kind than being greedy. I don’t see half as much of you as I would like. Think of this as... Take your Numbered to work day.” She said. I laughed at her unexpected comment. She began to giggle. I was roaring with laughter, literally doubled over in the air. She watched me, giggling. I somehow managed to control myself after a few minutes of laughing. I wiped the tears from my eyes with a hoof. I chuckled for a minute or two more, then managed to calm down. Luna was hovering beside me, her large wings flapping lazily. “Are you okay?” She asked, her eyebrow cocked. I smiled. “Yep. Where are we going, Luna?” I asked her. her face lit up at this question. “I don’t know.” She said, her face filled with vigor. I eyed her questioningly. She flapped away from me, picking up speed. “It wouldn’t be an adventure if we knew where we were going, now would it?” She shouted, flying away from me. I shot off after her. “Oh! How about that one?” I asked, pointing to a campfire. She eyed the small speck of light in a considering manner. Her horn glowed for a minute or two. “No. Pegasi.” She explained. I looked at her beligerantly. “Come on, Luna! Do they have to be earth ponies?” I asked in a whiny tone. She stuck her tongue out at me. “Yes, they do. I barely ever get to see earth ponies. Remarkable creatures, they are. Always filled with determination, never willing to give up.” She reasoned. I considered this statement as the evening wind cooled my face. Luna had a practice of dropping in to see earth ponies that were camping. I considered it to be biased, but the few earth ponies I did see had a certain air about them. I squinted, trying to eye a fire in the distance. “What about that one?” I asked, pointing with a forehoof. Luna looked to where I was pointing. Her horn glowed for a second. She grinned as her horn stopped glowing. “Yes, we can go see them.” She said. I didn’t say anything, my lack of sleep was beginning to take a toll. My eyes fluttered as I dropped a little in the sky. This scared me awake enough to fly straight. Luna looked at me worriedly. “We can walk if you like, Edwin.” She said in a soft tone. “I’m fine...” I trailed off, struggling to keep my eyes open. I dropped again, unable to keep control of my magic. “Walk, Edwin.” She said firmly. I looked at her lazily. “But... Flying.” I tried to reason. Luna would have none of it. “I’m not taking you home in more than one peice, Ed. Get on the ground.” She commanded. I looked at her blankly. She huffed and flew above me. I didn’t look at her. I stared blankly at the distant glow in the forest that signified warmth. I smiled stupidly, imagining the crackling flames. I imagined the smell, smoky and warm. I felt hooves wrap around my torso. “Come on, Edwin.” Luna said above me. I looked up at her. I saw her head outlined against the bright white moon. I knew what she meant, and released my hold on the magic that kept me flying. Luna kept flapping her wings. I could feel the cold wind driven under me. I struggled to keep my eyes open while I opened myself to the Flow. I closed my eyes finally, I no longer needed them. I could feel Luna above me, her strong wings straining against our combined weight. She was panting lightly with the effort. I moved my attention to the campfire. There were three ponies there, one of which was very small. I suspected it to be a foal. I could begin to sense the small insects below me, which heralded our approach to the ground. It was amazing how much life there was in the most barren of landscapes. The forest, lush as it was, was absolutely teeming with the minutiae of all forms of life. The ground grew ever closer as I pondered the life in the forest. Luna’s wings brushed my sides as they flapped harder, in preparation for landing. The ground was a few feet below us. “Okay, Edwin?” Luna asked. I opened my weary eyes and looked down. I could not only see, but I could feel everything around me. Luna, the plants, the insects, and the ponies in the distant campfire. I bolstered my flagging strength with energy from the Flow I could feel my legs grow stronger with the limitless energy from the Flow, then I severed my connection when I had enough. “Okay, Luna.” I said. She let go of me with her hooves, and I dropped the few feet to the ground. I made a solid thud, landing on my hooves. I looked up at Luna, still flapping. “Will you join this most humble pony on the ground, O highest Princess?” I asked, trying my best to sound sophisticated. She smirked at me. “Shut up, Edwin. I’ll be down in a second.” She said jokingly. I chuckled once, watching her large wings driving the air under her. Her flaps grew shorter as she approached the ground. Her blue-shod hooves grazed the long grasses under her. She raised her wings and dropped a foot or so. She folded her wingtips as she flapped down again, just keeping altitude. She raised her wings up again, this time landing lightly on the ground. The grasses around her were shoulder-high, enough to see past her neck. She was absolutely beautiful. Her dark blue tiara glistened in the full moon. She was in her element. I ogled her, dumbfounded. She shook the dirt from her wings, then looked at me. She cocked her brow at me. “What are you staring at, Edwin?” She asked. I smiled out of the corner of my mouth. “My midnight princess. I do love you, Luna.” I said. Her large teal eyes grew soft around the corners. She looked down at her forehooves. “I love you too, Edwin. But for reasons other than those obvious.” I turned my head slightly to the side, showing confusion. She looked up at me, her pale blue mane bouncing. “You saved me, Edwin. More than once, I might add. Where other ponies would stop and declare the cause for naught, you laughed at Death itself, bringing me back from it’s cold clutches. I could not thank you enough for this, Edwin. You have earned my devotion a million times over. Why you have chosen me, of all ponies, I have no idea.” She finished in a somber tone, looking back at her hooves. I looked at her, feeling touched. I walked over to where she was standing, wading through the tall golden grasses. She didn’t look up at my approach. “Luna.” I said. She said nothing, but continued looking at her hooves. I reached up with one of my pale forehooves and placed it under her dark blue muzzle. She raised her head to look up at me. “I love you, Luna. You. I did all of those things because I love you. Saving you from the moon, bringing you back to life, arguing with your sister, I did it all for you. Even if it was up to me, I would choose no other mare. You are perfect in every way, Luna.” I said. Her eyes were crinkled with happiness, and her nose was twitching above my snow-white hoof. “I love you, Ed.” She whispered. I said nothing, but leaned in. Luna did nothing, but just stood there. I touched her nose with mine. I could feel her warm breath shuddering. “You know I do, Luna.” I whispered. I could feel her soft nose against mine. She closed her eyes and just stood there. I enjoyed the moment, feeling her shallow breaths against the soft flesh of my nose. We stood like this for a while. The grass swayed gently against us, the golden fronds trying to get our attention. Sadly, their cries for attention had to go unheeded. The wind gusted and blew, but it could not separate us. I opened my eyes. Luna was looking at me. Her bright teal eyes were smoldering under their half-closed lids. “Do you still want to go see those ponies?” I mumbled quietly. “They can wait.” She mumbled back. I hummed in assent. “I hoped you would say that.” I said, nuzzling her with my nose. She giggled softly under her breath. “Oh dear, I do hope that I am not interrupting anything.” Said a velvet voice. I stiffened, recognizing it at once.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:20:25+00:00

2012-02-02T02:20:25+00:00

Chapter 16 I plunged into the Flow, drawing forth the energy necessary. I could see the golden stalks of grass waving slowly. I watched the sword materialize itself from the cool night air around it. I could feel my hooves sink slightly into the wet ground as I spun to face it. The sword seemed to glow just as Luna did in the moonlight, the teal gemstone in the hilt sparkling like it never did in the sun. I could feel the sword brush over the grass, clipping off the occasional golden tip. I could see it arc beautifully through the air. It was beautiful. Not only because it was ornate, but because it worked. It was intent incarnate. I could feel it as a pony could feel a hoof or an ear. I saw it glide blissfully over the grass, and felt it fly out to the unseen threat. The blade whistled a sharp note as it flew to the velvet voice. I had no eyes for anything other than the sword. It flew up and shot away from me, like a spear. I blinked, watching my slow lids droop over my eyes. The world was black for what seemed like eternity. I heard and felt the blade lodge itself in flesh, slicing through muscles. I could feel it as it slid through skin. The blade cut through ligaments and bone as through warm butter. I felt hot blood spurt over the cold blade. My eyes dragged open slowly. The blade exited the creature, flinging it’s blood everywhere. I heard the blade sing a deeper note as it flew from the body. My eyesopened just enough to see a font of crimson erupting from a swath of dark grey hair. I locked down my body, feeling a rush of shock. Antony was the first thing that came to mind. Could I have made a mistake? But Antony would have defended himself, I thought hurriedly. Surely he knew how to defend himself from a fellow bladesinger. The sword-induced perception of time began to wear off. The grass begin to look like it was waving through water instead of syrup. I could hear the thud of the head hitting the ground, and then the body followed soon after. I leaped over the long waving grass to the body. I landed lithely next to it. Luna was still holding her neck out to an Edwin that was not there. “Luna.” I said. “Ed? how did you get over there?” She asked confusedly. I started to realize that the creature was killed in a mere fraction of a second, far faster than normal perception. I watched it as if it were suspended in gelatin. This worried me. Not only was I such a deadly pony, but I was so quick to kill. I could have blindly murdered an innocent traveller. I could have killed an innocent pony. I looked down at the corpse. But I didn’t “Edwin? What are you doing?” Luna asked. Her voice was wary. I stared down at the body. Blood leaked from the body, forming a sticky patch of dirt. I could feel the heat rising from the corpse in waves. “Are you okay, Luna?” I asked, looking for the head. She had no idea what had happened right in front of her. “Yes I am, Ed. What happened?” She asked, her tone going from wary to annoyed. I smiled somewhat perversely at the answer that formed in my mind. “Something wonderful, most likely.” I said off-handedly. I spied the head. The pale mane wrapped around the black, black head. I could see the horn sticking out of the top. I stepped over the corpse to get to the head. My hooves made small indentations as the cold dirt gave way beneath me. The head was so close to my nose. I could smell the blood dripping from the neck. I magicked the head up to look at it. Cold, dead red eyes looked back at me. The eyes were still twitching. I shuddered as I imagined what it would feel like to be this head. It’s mouth lolled gently open and closed. Even though it was contorting itself in terrible emotions, I felt relieved. This was the Unicorn that tried to abduct Luna in the courtyard. I could see it’s now short hair wave in the gentle breeze. It rolled it’s eyes to stare at me. It speared me to the ground with it’s dead stare. The eyes may have been unseeing, but it was still horrifying to watch. It was hard to look away, but I finally managed to. I released my hold of magic on the head and it fell. I turned away from the body to an anxious Luna. She eyed me curiously. “Ed?” She asked. I was still slightly crouched from looking at the head. “Yes, Luna?” I replied. She eyed me with an air of suspicion. I was sure that the grass was too tall to see the body. I glanced back at it just to be sure. I found myself unable to look away. I did not want to worry Luna with the sickening truth about what happened. I barely could stand it myself. I would not want to expose Luna to this if she didn’t have to know. She seemed... Innocent, in my eyes. “Ed, what is this?” Luna said. This question piqued my interest. I looked away from the body to see Luna staring at my sword. It was laying parallel to the ground above the waving grass. Luna craned her head to look at it from above. “Ed... come look at this.” She said, enraptured. I walked over to her side. Her tail brushed against my shoulder as I pulled up alongside her. I admired Luna looking at it. She stared at it for a while, then looked back to me. “It looks like me.” She said simply. She seemed confused to no end by this fact. I smiled at her as she tried to wrap her head around it. I also felt relieved that she was distracted from the body. “Yes. It does.” I replied warmly. She did a double take back to the sword. “Why is it here, Edwin?” She asked. I pawed the ground, trying to figure out how to explain it. “I summoned it.” I said. Luna looked back at me, completely befuddled. “But the only pony that I’ve ever seen summon swords is a-” “Guard, yes. He was the one who taught me the skill.” I finished for her. She looked up at me. “I feel flattered.” Luna said, rubbing her shoulder against mine. I looked at her like she was crazy. “What?” I exclaimed. She didn’t take her eyes off of the sword. “I’ve spoken with the guard. He’s told me about the basic mechanics of... Bladesinging, I think it was. He described much. From what I gleaned from him, the summoned implement gains the characteristics of what means the most to you. This means a lot to me, Ed.” Luna said. She leaned her head against mine and we both looked at the sword. It was glinting beautifully in the moonlight, the grass swaying under it. “Why do you think it glows like that, Ed?” Luna asked, still leaning on me. The sword seemed to emanate more light than was actually there. The gemstone was almost blinding, reflecting the full moon. This was a puzzling conundrum. “I have to think about that one. Do you still want to go see those ponies?” I asked her. Luna hummed an iffy note. “Not sure. Besides, we have to go meet Celestia soon.” She said. I turned to her and almost poked my eye out on her horn. Luna was just the slightest bit shorter than I was. “Ow. Why?” I asked, reaching a hoof up to my injured eye. Luna looked up and giggled at me. “Oops. Sorry. We have to... well, ‘pass the torch’, if you will.” She said. I rubbed my eye, looking up at the moon. The full white orb was approaching the tree line. “I guess so. How far out are we, anyways?” I asked. “Thirty, forty minutes?. If we left now we would have the palace to ourselves for an hour. We could get some breakfast.” She teased. I looked at her, contemplating. I turned back to the direction of the campfire. I could barely glean the glow of the fire through the trees. “I don’t know, Luna. Other ponies.” I reasoned unsteadily. Luna looked back up at me. “Oh, Ed. I’d bet that they would have a whole bushel of peaches in the kitchen.” Luna said. I groaned as I turned to look at her. She was cheating and she knew it “That’s not fair, Luna! You know how much I love peaches.” I whined. Luna smiled and spread her wings. “Come on, Ed. Let’s go.” She said, stepping back from me. She flapped her wings, making my mane blow past my face. Her hooves lifted off of the ground as her powerful wings pulled her into the air. The long grasses danced under her as she flapped again. She ascended faster, climbing the cold night air on large blue wings. I was struck speechless by the beauty of it. She swept her wings again and shot off into the air. I watched her from the ground shoot through the sky, flying with incredible speed. She cast a shadow over the whole clearing as she swept in front of the moon. She swept through a smooth arc back to me, gliding through the chilly air. She flared her wings in front of me, bringing herself to a halt. She flung her wings forward to keep airborne. A single blue feather brushed my nose, filling it with the faint scent of oranges. I began to salivate as she turned her wings to face me. “Come on, Ed. Peaches!” She said. All I could manage to do was stare at her dumbly. The fact slowly registered to my clouded mind that she was a goddess. I was merely a pony with a job to do. Who was I to claim her for my own? These sleepless thoughts had a point. Who was I to claim her? I had no idea. I had to find out. Luna was hovering right in front of me, her beautiful blue body glistening in the moonlight. Her teal eyes shone with the magic she exuded to keep the moon aloft in the sky. It grew harder for me to breathe. “Who picked who, Luna?” I asked. She was about to shoot into the air again, but she turned back to look at me. She had a look of confusion in her glittering teal eyes. “What?” She asked “Who picked who? Did you pick me or did I pick you?” I asked. I had no idea why, but I needed an answer. She looked at me confusedly, trying to decipher my question. I could see when she understood. She looked at a hoof. “I don’t know, Edwin. You met me on my timeline before I met you on yours. It is a tangled web we weave when we associate ourselves with the Doctor. He is a confusing pony, to say the least. Although, he leaves more good than ill whenever he interacts with us. It would be best to ask him, but in my opinion, It doesn’t really matter if we love each other, Ed.” She said. I looked up at her curiously glistening eyes. The magic emanating from her eyes made her lone tear shine. I realized that She was also thinking the same when I asked her. We did not choose ourselves. The Doctor chose us. He may not have done it with his full knowledge, but he did it. I thought about this as my hooves lifted from the ground. The magic that was lifting me into the air was not my own. I looked up to Luna. Her horn was glowing with a deep blue aura. I had no control over my body as she lifted me to her. “I digress, Edwin. It was your choice to save me from the moon. You didn’t have to, and cast yourself out of the Doctor’s favor by doing so. I thank you for this. You truly are my white knight, Edwin. No matter what anyone says, you did save me.” She said. She looked over to me, I was still imprisoned in her magic. She released me and my own magic took hold to keep me aloft. I looked over to Luna. “I’m sorry, Luna.” I said. She held her head aloft, looking at her moon. The lone tear was still in her eye, sparkling with the magic held in her body. She looked over to me, Hovering closer. I could feel her wingtips brush my side. “Edwin.” She said. It was just the one word, yet it held such emotion. I could feel her passion burning with each syllable she uttered, her lips moving around each letter. I felt as if she would never say anything in that tone again. I felt proud that she chose to say my name in that tone. I loved her all the more for it. She kept her eyes trained on the moon. “Edwin, stay with me. Never leave me, not ever. I don’t care what the Numbereds say. We will never be apart. Even if the Doctor and my sister and all of the dragons of Equestria were between you and I, I would brave all to see you.” She said, turning to me when she finished. Her sparkling eyes speared me. The breath caught in my throat. She craned her neck so her head was much closer to mine. Her wings brushed against my shoulder, tickling slightly. I gentlecoltly kept looking up at the moon. I could feel her warm breath on my cheek, slightly heavy from flapping her wings. “Edwin.” She breathed in my ear. I shuddered. I tried my hardest not to look at her, feeling embarrassed for some reason. She panted lightly in my ear. “Look at me, Edwin.” She breathed. I turned my head reluctantly. She was right in my face, her eyes half shut. She lunged at me, catching my mouth with her own. She kissed me softly, her lips moving in harmony against mine. Her scent of oranges was strong in my nose. She moaned softly in the back of her throat. I could barely handle it. Ponies were much more sensitive than people. It felt amazing. She pulled her neck away slightly, kissing me once more. I could feel her pull away. I opened my eyes to a purple cheeked Luna. She looked up at me with happy eyes. “Ed...” She said. She nudged my nose with hers. It was so soft. I nuzzled her back and she giggled softly. “Love you, Luna.” I mumbled. She smiled. “I love you too, Ed.” She replied. I was about to say something else when an angry roar interrupted me. I spun around in the air to see a strange creature. Luna gasped behind me. “A manticore...” She whispered in awe. I looked back to her, in confusion. “Are they dangerous?” I asked. Her cheeks were still purple. “Incredibly so. But they are also incredibly rare. Try not to kill it, Ed.” She worried. I looked back to the beast, trying to figure out if it was that necessary to kill it. The beast stared at me stupidly, huffing. It had the body of a lion, yet it had the wings of a dragon. If that was not enough to make it deadly, It had a large scorpion’s tail. I looked it straight in the eyes. It stared back at me defiantly, flapping it’s large wings. It roared at me again. I felt the electricity build in my body as I heard the roll of distant thunder. The creature leaped into the air and flapped it’s wings, soaring towards Luna and I. I looked back to Luna. “Go to the Palace. I’ll try to catch up with you.” I said hurriedly. Luna’s eyes grew wide as she flapped her wings harder, pulling away from me. I turned away from her to see the manticore behind me. It was soaring up faster than I could avert it. I summoned the sword quickly to avoid being mauled. The bright claws of the beast struck the flat of the blade, making the sword screech a discordant note. The claws scraped off of the blade, eliciting a sickening squeal. The creature seemed to get even angrier at this. It pulled back it’s arm again to swing at me a second time. I raised a hoof, but it already was swinging it’s arm down again. I moved the sword up to block the deadly claws, already glistening with the blood of it’s last victim. The creature flung it’s hand on the edge of the blade. It passes straight through, the blade slicing the hand clean off. I felt the hot spurt of blood on my face as the hand left it’s arm. The creature roared even louder. It ducked it’s head to expose it’s tail. I got a look of the club-shaped bulb shooting towards my face. The creature was so fast that I barely had time to react. I felt a blow to the face and I fell out of the air. The magic of flight left my body, and the manticore hovered in the air. I crashed into the ground with a jarring thud. I could hear my foreleg snap underneath me before I could feel it. I screamed in pain. I saw a black hoof in front of my face through streaming tears of pain. I followed it up with my eyes to see a blurry smug expression set between crimson eyes. “Well. I suppose I must have been interrupting, if that was the welcome I receive.” Said a smooth, velvet voice.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:21:37+00:00

2012-02-02T02:21:37+00:00

17 I stared up at the Angelic with eyes full of tears. He looked down at me with an expression full of satisfaction. “Edwin, for shame. To think that you could assault someone in such a manner! How rude! And then to think that you could kill me with such weak magic.” He tutted. He looked over to the sword, which was floating over the grass. I followed his gaze. The sword was losing it’s color, turning grey. I could see the tip of it fading from existence, turning into dust. The Angelic eyed it carefully. “Looks like the venom is taking effect.” He muttered. I tried to move. I grunted in pain, feeling the broken bones in my leg gouging the flesh. The Angelic blew lightly on the sword. The entirety of it dissolved into dust, flowing away with the breeze. He turned back to me. “You see, Edwin... The most dangerous thing about manticores is not their speed, nor their physical strength, nor sharp claws. The most dangerous aspect of a manticore is it’s venom.” He articulated in a voice sounding like water flowing over smooth pebbles. It was so luxurious and smooth, which was in stark contrast to the pain of my broken leg. I looked up at him, with loathing fresh in my eyes . His ashen mane flowed around his black head. “A most curious thing, manticore venom. Not only does it kill, but it also annuls magic. Theoretically speaking, if a unicorn were to be stung by a manticore, they would lose the gift of magic until the venom completed it’s cycle through their body. This leaves the pony unable to cure itself with magic, rendering it effectively dead. Then the manticore may peruse it’s kill as it pleases, often elongating it’s suffering for hours on end.” He explained. I could feel a harsh feeling in my veins, as if someone had rubbed alcohol on an open wound. I moaned with the pain. The Angelic chuckled lightly. “Tis but a hint of what you have in store for you, my most troublesome Numbered. To tell you the truth, I actually hatched this manticore myself, when I was reconstituted after the Fourth had destroyed me. His name is Boe, if you were wondering. You probably weren’t.” He added, noticing me grunting in pain. He continued, deriving a small smile from my suffering. “The venom will course through your body for the next few hours. It will literally dissolve your own muscles, turning you into a mushy lump of protein fragments. It will slowly detach your cerebellum from your spinal cord. Your movements become jerky and rough within the first few minutes of being stung. Within the next hour, you will be unable to move your own muscles, however little of them there may be left. You will be able to breathe, but not blink or move. A few hours after that, breathing will become laboured. You will find that your own body does not listen to what it is told. Your eyes will most likely dry to beyond being able to see at about the same time. You will gasp for breath, listening to your own heartbeat grow fainter, fainter, fainter still. Then... It will stop. You will live for about twenty minutes after that, then your brain will die of oxygen starvation. Your sentience will slowly degenerate over that twenty minutes, leaving you so stupid as to wonder why you are dying. It is the worst twenty minutes that any creature would ever have to endure.” Said the Angelic. I growled at him through bared teeth, clenched against the burn of the venom. He leaned down to meet my angry gaze. He was smiling as if he had just seen a laughing child, or held a baby animal. “And frankly, Edwin... To me, it will be a most enjoyable twenty minutes of any of my lives. That is, if Boe decides not to eat you first. Pray to whatever you worship that he does, Numbered, for it would be a much kinder death than if he were to not.” He whispered. I yelped at him, feeling something paw my back legs. I tried to make it stop, but I could not. My magic had left me entirely. All I could do was wiggle my hindlegs invitingly. The Angelic stood upright, rubbing one of his blood-stained hooves on the grass. “I, for one, have business to attend to; I cannot simply stand and watch ponies die, Edwin. I have princesses to steal.” He said happily. I sputtered at him through my teeth, unable to find a rebuke sinister enough. He winked at me with one of his large crimson eyes. His horn glowed with a blood red aura, and then stopped. He turned to dust before me, blowing on the wind to far away places. I grunted and moaned, trying to move. The venom was already affecting my movement, making what would normally be smooth and controlled actions into spasms and jerks. I could feel my mouth foaming from dryness. The manticore was pawing me and licking me every now and then, making me burn even more whenever it touched me. Nothing happened for a good long while. I heard myself wheeze. This worried me to no end, remembering what the Angelic had said. It took me longer to breathe than it had before. I couldn’t move any of my legs or my neck. I could hear the distant thunder. I could barely feel anything anymore, other than the licks and pawing of the manticore and the fire of the venom pulsing through my veins. I could hear the rolling thunder, much louder now. I felt a drop of rain land on my ear, giving me a moment of blissful cool through the fiery pain of the venom. Another drop landed on my body, making me feel even more grateful. The manticore made a high piercing keen. I would have winced, but I could no longer move the muscles in my face, if they were even still there. The rain began to fall much heavier, and I could hear the thunder even clearer. I thought about the time when I was the cause of such a noise, and it made me sad. A raindrop landed on my dried eye, which felt amazing. I could not feel happy about the rain, because I would not be able to enjoy it much longer. I heard my breathing growing more raspy by the second. And for a long while, nothing could be heard or seen except the swaying grass or the patter of rain. The manticore had long fell silent, which I assumed meant that it was sleeping. I tried to console myself to fate. I would never see Luna again. Her light blue hair, the way her cheeks turned purple when she was embarrassed. I would never again hear her squeal with delight. I could never hear her voice again. Her soft, delicate feathers were something that I would never feel again. The scent of oranges was something that I would never again smell. I would have cried, but I didn’t have the muscles to cry anymore. I would never again see the Doctor. His odd mannerisms were a thing of the past. I would never again ride in the mystical blue box, taking me to places and times unknown. The vast cosmos splayed before me, with the only thing limiting me being my ability to choose. I would never again see Antony. I would never be able to show him my sword. I would never see him again. He was a true friend, sticking with me even when it looked like I was to be killed by my own kind. My life in Equestria was everything I could ask for, and then even more than I could ever have dreamed of. I lived. I loved. I fought. I cried. It was much, much more than anything had when I was a human. Who was I to complain? I had already cheated death once, and I supposed that this was just a way of it catching up to me. I had only been alive for a few days, yet I did more than most could do with an entire lifetime. A dark corner of myself felt greedy to be begging for more. I cried silently where nopony could see. The slight drizzle became a storm. My eyes became blissfully damp under the torrent of water. I could see the flash of lightning on the grass. The manticore’s outline showed for a brief moment in the storm. I could hear the thunder, even louder than before. Then, suddenly, everything was white. The world seemed to be on fire. The grass, the trees, everything. I could feel my body, every single inch of it, burning. This was worse than the venom, because it was real fire. I did not know if it was some heinous adaptation of the manticore. But. With the fire came an odd sensation. It was pain, yes. But I could move. It was as if my body was rebuilding itself after the fire swept across my broken form. I felt my foreleg twist and wrench itself into position. I screamed through my teeth as it fused itself back together. I could scream. The flames rushed over me, making me shudder with it’s odd magic. It healed me. The burn of venom was slowly replaced by the tongues of flame. tried to move my hooves. They wiggled on the grass. I felt overjoyed at this. I wiggled them more, relishing in the sensation. I rolled around, trying to put out the fires on me. The burns were nothing compared to the joy of movement. I rolled onto my hooves, then stood. I could see the manticore in the trees, growling. It lunged from the treeline to attack me. It seemed to be frozen in midair as it flew. I thought of how dangerous a creature it was, of how it was so deadly. I felt an immediate hatred for it, and had a strong desire to see it dead. No sooner than the thought entered my mind that a gloriously bright bolt of lightning shot down and speared it to the ground. In my perception of time, it seemed as if the manticore was suspended in a pillar of purest white marble. I smiled at this as I shot into the sky. I felt so happy. My first thought was to see Luna. Luna, smiling and happy. I closed my eyes as rain hammered into my face. I thought of her when I told her I was going to take her back to Equestria. I opened my eyes. I was shooting through dry night air, my mane flung back against my head. I blinked, and the world exploded around me. Unconsciousness is much akin to sleep. It gives the body rest, and is a way for the body to recover from trauma, but the similarities end there. “Damn, Doctor.” Said a voice. “I know.” Replied a smooth tone. “He’s pretty bad.” The first voice remarked “I know.” Confirmed the second voice. There was the creak of a door opening, and then the sound of hooves on stone. “Do either of you two know what happened?” Said a regal, feminine voice. There was no reply. “I will be sure to tell you in a minute or two. I want to be here when he wakes up.” Said the regal voice. I groaned, stretching my self supine across whatever it was that I was lying on. Everything in my body popped. I hummed in satisfaction. “Edwin?” The first voice asked. I rolled over to the direction I assumed it to be in. “Yes?” I replied. I opened my eyes. There were three blurry shapes in front of me. I rubbed my eyes with my hooves, and the scene focused in front of me. The three ponies were sitting with their backs facing a stone wall. Celestia was sitting to the left of the Doctor, who was in turn sitting to the left of Gespard. The Princess’ hair was waving to the right, blowing in the Doctor’s face. He was nearly buried in her waving, multicolor mane. It managed to conquer the Doctor to reach over and tickle Gespard on the cheek. He was stoically avoiding paying the offending lock of hair any attention. I looked at the ponies assembled. “I draw quite the crowd, don’t I?” I said jokingly. The Doctor scoffed at me “‘Quite the crowd’ indeed, Edwin. Not to mention that you blew a hole in the Palace last night! Not to mention that we had to scrape you off of the side of a cliff! Not to mention that we couldn’t even heal you because your unconscious mind happened to erect a shield around your body, not even allowing us to contact you! Both of the Princesses’ talents combined were not enough to surpass the wall you erected to separate yourself from the rest of the world! This would be no cause for such a crowd, only that you accomplished such a feat unconsciously!” The Doctor huffed. He was rather mad, by the look of his askew hair and his aggressive bearing. My eyes widened at his exclamation. Both Celestia and Gespard turned to stare at him. The Doctor did nothing, but continued to stare at me. Celestia raised a hoof to her mouth and cleared her throat. “Well, Edwin, now that you are awake I can finally tell the events of what transpired evening of last. At about two in the morning, there was a loud detonation on the western side of the palace. Guards in that section reported all of the glass gone from the windows, and there were even reports of an entire room forcibly removed from the Palace, floors, walls, and all. Nopony was in the room at the time, but still. Further investigation found all of the metal surfaces to be imbued with a strong electric charge. Further investigation still found a large crater to be in the edge of the cliff. The Airborne Third was dispatched to find what they could. Leiutenant Dash came to my chambers at three this morning to tell me what she found. A white pony was found in the bottom, or should I say top, of the crater. It took myself and three of my most talented unicorns to extricate you from the cliff. You exhibited powerful magics indeed, Edwin. When we tried to heal you, your mind lashed out against the healing magician.” She said slolemly. “Is that pony alright?” I asked, worried. Celestia looked at me angrily. “We’ll tell you when we can find all the pieces.” She said with a shaking voice. I felt regret wash through me. Celestia continued. “We could touch you physically, but contacting you with magic was impossible. We were able to bandage you, and that is what we did. Luna tried to fix you with magic, and I had to forcibly remove-” Celestia was cut off. I had no desire to hear her finish the rest of her story. When she said Luna, the midnight blue princess was all I had eyes for. I immediately closed my eyes and thought of Luna. I felt the cool breeze and opened my eyes. Luna was curled up on a blanket in the middle of the room. She wasn’t wearing her crown or her shoes. I walked up to her, and nudged her with my nose. She mumbled softly. “Luna, it’s Ed.” I mumbled. She rolled over to face me, still half asleep. She brushed her nose with mine. My nose filled with the sweet scent of oranges. A scent I thought I would never smell again. I felt my eyes well with tears. “Medwun?” She mumbled, squinting her eyes at me. I smiled. “Yes.” I said. She smiled, her sleepy eyes still not opening. “Cahm to behd, Medwun...” She muttered. I struggled to keep a sob from breaking out of my chest. After reconciling myself to death, this was all too much. I’m not sure who I made happy to deserve a life like this, but it was the best decision I ever made. “Okay, Luna.” I whispered, my voice hitching with the sheer joy of the moment. I lied down behind her, curling up in the warmth of the blanket. I snuggled against her neck. She hummed a happy note. “I love you, Luna.” I whispered, trying not to cry. “Ah love you too, Ed.” She mumbled. A lone tear streamed down my face. I reached a hoof around Luna to hold her closer. He hugged it with her forelegs. The struggle against sobbing was a losing one. I gently wept. Tears freely ran down my face. Luna turned her head to try and look at me. “What’s wrong, Ed?” She asked, suddenly worried. I looked up at her with teary eyes and said “I’m so happy, Luna.” I managed to say. She smiled. “Good.” She replied. I reached up to kiss her on the cheek. She giggled softly, laying her head back down. “I’ll see you in the evening, Ed.” She mumbled, going back to sleep. I hugged her tighter to me. Her soft wings were pressing against my chest. “Good morning, Luna.” I replied. She hummed low. I slowly lost my grip on the daytime and sunk into sleep My dreams smelled like oranges.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:21:50+00:00

2012-02-02T02:21:50+00:00

Chapter 18 I opened my eyes to the warm sunlight. I pulled a hoof up to rub my eyes. I yawned, still tired. I rolled away from Luna with the scent of oranges seemingly stuck in my nose. “It’s rude to interrupt, Edwin.” Said a perfectly composed voice. I groaned loudly, recognizing it at once. I rolled onto my back and splayed my hooves across the floor. “Please, Celestia. Give a pony a break.” I muttered. I felt myself lifted by my hind leg roughly, which made me bang my head on the stone floor. I was floated over to face a disgruntled Celestia. “What are you d-” I stuttered “Haven’t I given you enough ‘breaks’, Edwin? If you were any less necessary, I would set you on fire right now! I would fling you into space! I would... I would... I would kill you, Edwin. You are so extremely lucky that you are not in the dungeons under armed guard! You killed my best unicorn! And you didn’t even know that you were doing it! And here you are, happy as could be, wrapped around my own sister as if she were some common mare!” She huffed. I was sweating and afraid. I was extremely frightened by what Celestia would decide to do. The temperature in the room was suddenly extremely high, most likely brought on by her outburst. The hold on my ankle tightened. A tear streaked down Celestia’s face. “Her name was Moonstone.” She whispered, her large purple eyes full of sorrow. “What?” I replied, completely discombobulated. “The unicorn that you killed. Her name was Moonstone.” She whispered again, her voice hitching on the word her. She was looking at something behind me. “I’m... I’m sorry.” I replied. Celestia chuckled once, but there was no humor there. “Tell that to a husband. Tell that to two foals without a mother.” She whispered again. Another tear joined the last, falling down her cheek and making a small hiss as it evaporated on the stone floor. I felt the import of my actions bear down upon me. “What will happen to them?” I thought, truly worried. The pale princess sighed. “They will fall under my patronage. They may choose to stay in Canterlot, or to move to another city. Maybe the memories of their life in Canterlot with their mother and wife may be too much to bear. They might go to Manehatten, or Salt lick City, or maybe even Cloudsdale, they are all pegasi. Whatever they choose, My influence will make sure that they want for nothing. They will have warm accommodations, plentiful food, and a good job. It will never be enough to replace what they had. But it is indeed better than nothing.” She said, her voice growing back to her normal tone. It still carried a hint of sadness. The air in the room became slightly less stifling as her voice grew softer. “I would like to see them some day, Princess.” I said, using her title for the first time. She looked to me, surprised. “They would not be happy to see you, knowing what you did.” She reasoned with me, a hint of sadness still in her voice. “It doesn’t matter. I need to talk with them. I need to make amends.” I said, a sense of urgency sweeping over me. Celestia smiled lightly. “You truly are coming unto yourself, Edwin. These aren’t the words of a murderer, but those of a wise pony.” She said, looking at me with a slight tenderness. She let me down gently, lowering me to the floor. I stayed on the hot stone floor for a second, staring at a golden shod hoof. I was amazed by how compassionate this strange deity could be at times. I got up to my hooves. Celestia looked down at me. “I will allow you to see them one day. But it will have to be when this calamity is over. For now, needs must be met, and things must be done. My purpose in coming here was to tell you that you are needed by the Doctor. Apparently, you are late.” She enunciated perfectly. I took a moment to think about what she said. I finally understood that today was the day that I was attacked by the Orb. I immersed myself in the flow, thinking about the Doctor. A thought came to my mind and I opened my eyes again. “Princess...” I ventured. She grinned lightly, the smile crinkling her eyes. “Yes, Edwin?” She replied. “How was I hurt last night?” I asked. “When you entered the space around the Palace, you teleported into a patch of hot air. You were going so fast already that you Rainboomed.” She explained. “What’s a rainboom?” I questioned, unfamiliar with the term. “I do not know the full mechanics of it, but I am fairly sure that a Rainboom is when you are moving so fast while in flight, that the air in front of you cannot move out of the way fast enough. You push on the air, and the pressure builds and builds until it finally just... pops. The air just isn’t in front of you anymore, allowing you to go so much faster.” She reasoned. I considered this. “Why does that happen?” I asked, unsure of why that would happen. Celestia cocked her head slightly, as if she was trying to hear something. “I’m not sure, Edwin. If you want to know more about it, you should probably ask Lieutenant Dash. She is much more familiar with the concept than I am. You should probably go now, Edwin. The Doctor is quite impatient, at times.” She said. I smiled at the observation, and closed my eyes. The familiar cool breeze was there, and then was not. I opened my eyes to see Evangeline laying down next to the Tardis in a plain stone room, snoring lightly. I walked up to her and nudged her shoulder. The bright yellow appendage lolled under me. “Wake up, Evangeline.” I said. She muttered something softly. I stopped nudging her and watched. When she inhaled, her body seemed to glow a light golden. When she exhaled, she seemed to grow much darker. I looked at this in awe for a few seconds, admiring the brilliant gold mare. Suddenly, the door of the tardis opened and nudged her. Her eyes flew open, and they were bright white. Her body seemed to glow the brightest I had ever seen it. Her eyes turned red for a second, and then the room erupted with the red light. I lunged out of the way, trying to avoid the path of the charge. It exploded against the stone ceiling, showering the two of us with sparks. An acrid smoke spread through the room, smelling like burnt hooves. I doubled over coughing with the stench. Evangeline started coughing as well, overpowered by the strong smell. I looked up through the acrid stench to see a brown hoof push open the tardis door. I ran in, jumping over Evangeline. The fresh air of the tardis was a welcome repreve from the acrid odor outside of the tardis. I glanced around for the Doctor, but he was nowhere to be found. “Edwin! Help me get her inside!” The Doctor shouted from behind me. I turned around to see him with a mouthful of flaxen mane in his mouth, tugging urgently. I rushed over and picked her up with magic, hovering her into the tardis. The Doctor pulled the doors closed behind me. I let down the gagging Evangeline onto the steel grates of the tardis floor. I could hear the Doctor walking up behind me. I turned to look at him “What was that?” I asked. The Doctor looked at Evangeline, who was slowly returning to herself. “I parked the tardis far below the cliff on which lies the palace, where the catacombs are. Many ponies from ages long past lie here, slumbering on beds they will not awake from. Untold riches lie right outside those doors, held in the clutches of the dead. Many of those buried here were paranoid and placed extremely dangerous hexes and traps to protect their undead greed. Evangeline-” The Doctor leveled a glare at her, which she barely noticed due to her coughing. “Happened to fall asleep fully charged, which Othello and I have told her time and time again to never do, and activated one of these traps.” The Doctor finished. I looked back to Evangeline, who was wheezing heavily on the ground. “What was the smoke?” I asked. The Doctor shrugged, thinking. “Powdered glass, most likely. Could be something a little more sinister, but I highly doubt it.” Evangeline heaved her lungs as if to cast doubt on the Doctor’s words. I eyed her carefully. “Is she going to be alright, Doctor?” I asked, slightly worried. The Doctor scoffed. “Please, Edwin. She averted the most dangerous catastrophe that Equestria ever had to face, and did it alone, no less. I’m sure a little bit of smoke won’t hurt her.” He said flippantly. He strode over to his console, stepping over a gagging Evangeline. I walked up to her and knelt down to her. She eyed my lazily with a large golden iris as she wheezed. I placed a hoof on her and let magic flow out of me. She immediately breathed more steadily than before. I removed my hoof and then looked at the Doctor. He glanced back at me. “You two done yet?” He asked uncaring, as if the answer really didn’t matter. I got up slowly from Evangeline’s side. I slowly advanced to the platform that held the console. The Doctor did not notice my approach, but continued to push on his buttons and pull on his levers. I raised one hoof and looked at it, like I was seeing it for the first time. It cracked and zapped slightly, with electricity arcing off of itself. I placed it down gently on the metal grate. The Doctor immediately seized up against the console, all of his muscles straining against the invisible force. The veins all across his skin seemed to be bursting out of his skin. I walked up to him, releasing the electricity to all of my hooves. Whenever I picked one up, the electricity connected me to the metal grate. The air was full of the scent of ozone. I finally managed to come up to the side of the Doctor. I looked down at his console. It was full of blinking lights and knobs and sliding switches. It was a curious thing. So many buttons for the choosing. I imagined that each one correlated to an exact time and place. I reached up with a hoof to fondle a small blue switch. I looked back to the Doctor. He had his teeth bared and clenched, and a big vein in his forehead was popped against his forehead. I smiled slightly and flipped the switch. I could hear the slight swirly, swooshing noise that meant that the tardis was moving. I looked up to the big pillar in the middle of the console. The lights inside of it were flying up and down, making pistons move and gears fly. “What a device, Doctor. I wonder where we are now...” I thought. I looked back to Evangeline. “Eve?” I said in a pleasant tone. She looked back to me, her gaze conveying a slight worry. Her brow arched over her eyes. “Could you be a dear and open the door for me?” I asked. She said nothing but got to her hooves and walked to the door. I turned back to the Doctor. He was staring at me, his eyes slightly watering. I grinned at him, and turned back to the console. There was a small black circle where a button should be, but wasn’t. I looked back to the Doctor. “What goes here?” I said to myself. There was no way that the Doctor would be capable of answering, being electrocuted as he was. I thought about this for a second, remembering all of the times that I had seen the Doctor in the tardis. Nothing much came to mind. “Edwin... Come look at this...” Said Evangeline near the door. What she said was not unusual, but the way she said it was. It was as if she were rendered speechless. I turned to look out of the door. We seemed to be on a completely different planet. The dirt was red, and yellow air hung thickly. I looked up at the sky to see two large stars, one red and one blue, chasing one another. They were both flung into teardrops by the gravity of their partner. It was a beautiful sight. “What a gorgeous landscape for a pony so twisted and dark.” I remarked coldly. Evangeline turned to look at me, completely shocked. I turned back to the Doctor, who was also shocked in all senses of the word. “You are a cold, dark creature. You have been given anything and everything a pony could ask for, yet you are depressed and malicious. You can go anywhere, be anything, and yet you torment us ponies. You shrug off our most serious injuries. You scoff at our pain. You can even find some kind of perverted sport out of tormenting those who are unable to protect themselves.” I said, remembering Fluttershy writhing in pain at the hooves of the Angelic orb. I looked back to the console and pushed a random button. The swishing sound could be heard again. I looked back out of the door. I assumed we were back in Equestria, because I could see a cottage that looked very similar to Antony’s. This made me think. I looked to the dark spot on the console, remembering. “I know what goes there, Doctor.” I said crisply. I closed my eyes and thought of a round red button with a faded yellow exclamation point on it. I opened my eyes to see the very same button in place where the dark spot once was. I moved my hoof from the random button I pushed to the large red circle. “I wonder whose cottage that is... A mare? A consort of yours? Does she know what you truly are? Does she know the Doctor full of glam and sparkles and adventure? Or does she know the true Doctor?” I asked in a rhetorical fashion. The Doctor said nothing, but a lone tear rolled down his face. He was sweating profusely under the electricity. “Edwin, stop!” Evangeline shouted. I turned to her. She was staring at me, her eyes filled with concern. “You will kill him if you keep this up! When you were stung by the manticore, you were struck by natural lightning soon after! Numbered power increases exponentially after we contact the natural form of what we wield! The power you posses is not the one you know!” She screamed at me. I looked at her, understanding. I looked back at the Doctor. He was trying to keep me from touching the button. He was grunting and whimpering through his bared teeth. I wanted to hear what he had to say. I placed a hoof on his shoulder and forced the electricity to exit his body there. His head was immediately free to do things like breathe and talk. I placed a hoof gently on the button. The Doctor gasped, trying to get air into his lungs. “Why, Doctor, should I not push this button?” I questioned in a quizzical manner. He looked at me, his eyes filled with fear. “Please don’t Edwin. I love her.” He pleaded with me. I smiled out of the corner of my my mouth. “But this button will simply whisk us away to a far away time.” I reasoned back. The Doctor gasped for air again, shaking his head. “It’s the panic button, Edwin. It doesn’t take us anywhere. Please don’t push it, for the love of Celestia!” He begged, his voice straining on the words. “I don’t love Celestia, Doctor. Tell me what it does, before I get curious.” I threatened. “I can’t Edwin. Please don’t do it.” He said, practically sobbing the words out. I wanted to see him suffer. I depressed the button. It made a loud click as it was pushed. The Doctor screamed, straining against the invisible chains that bound him “NO! NO! EDWIN, NO!” He screamed. I looked at him, feeling a perverse satisfaction. All of the lights in the tardis suddenly turned a violent red. A loud siren wailed a deep klaxon throughout the tardis. I was so surprised by the earsplitting noise that the electricity stopped flowing from me. The Doctor slumped over the controls, his hooves flying. He was pushing buttons left and right, trying to stop whatever was happening. He slammed his hoof down on a green panel, and the noise of the tardis moving could be faintly heard over the klaxon. I looked out of the door to see the small cottage fading from view, replaced by the red planet with the yellow air. The alarm grew even shriller. The Doctor turned to me. “Now you will see what the panic button does, Edwin.” He said sadly, the tracks of tears still running down his face. I looked at him, completely taken unaware by his cool nature. I expected him to be enraged. I stared at him, waiting for him to exact revenge. He stared out of the door sadly. “I’m not mad at you, Edwin. You have made me see light. I have been a cruel and heartless pony of late. I have indeed played on the sympathies and manipulated your kind for my own gain. But... This is a recent development of myself. There is a me that existed for thousands of years before you met the Doctor and his blue box that was kind and caring and compassionate.” The Doctor’s words were interrupted by the blaring siren within the tardis. “Evangeline, would you close the door?” He asked softly. She looked at the doors and they swung shut. The Doctor turned to look at me. The red lights in the tardis reflected in his eyes. “The next time that door opens, you will see the consequences of a vengeful heart. Let it show you that revenge is a dish best served not at all.” He said, the experience of ages past layering his voice. The siren sounded once more in the Tardis, and sounded no more. The red lights all winked out, only leaving the pale blue light from the console to see by. For a moment, the only thing that could be heard was breathing. Then, a bright pillar of white light shot up from the middle of the console. A roaring, screaming noise accompanied it. “Don’t look directly at it, Edwin!” The Doctor shouted. He was staring straight ahead at the door. I looked straight ahead as well, looking at Evangeline’s faintly glowing form. The only thing that didn’t glow on her whole body was the pitch black three on her flank. The screaming noise from the middle of the tardis was starting to grow shrill. I squinted my eyes, trying to keep the noise from becoming too painful. The noise grew even louder still, then ended. I looked over to the Doctor, who was mouthing something. I could not hear the words he was saying. He was gesturing for me to go to the door. I followed his direction and walked toward the door. I looked at the white doors. There was something on the other side of that door. I had no idea what. I placed a hoof on the door and found it to be extremely warm, almost to the point of pain. I pushed against it lightly, and it swung open smoothly. I never forgot what I saw. I had nightmares about it sometimes. What was a dark red planet with yellow air was now completely barren. There was no air. There was no red dirt. There was only blackened soot and an unobstructed view of the cosmos. Every now and then there was a shiny patch in the soot. I walked over to one and inspected it. It was hot glass. I sensed footsteps behind me. “This is the product of rage, Edwin.” Said the Doctor clearly. I looked behind me. I could see him standing behind me, in the doorway of the tardis. He stepped out onto the soot. He walked to me. “You wished this on an innocent young mare and filly. Their only crime was knowing me. Rage so distorts our reasoning and thought that you would have glassed the ponies that you were bidden to protect.” He said. “What could possibly do this?” I asked, looking around at the devastation. “The panic button, when pushed, takes all of the stored energy in the tardis and directs it outward. This could be in the form of fire, electricity, or even weather. But, my own tardis releases pure energy. Searing fire know nothing compared to it. The harshest of storms pales in comparison.” said the Doctor. I looked back to him. “I will try to be the caring and loving Doctor of my youth, Edwin. I promise. Now come back to the tardis. I’m sure that you are very tired, so I will put the tardis directly inside of Luna’s quarters. You may spend your last day with her there.” He said, turning from me to his home. I got up from the small patch of glass and followed him inside. I closed the large blue door behind me. It faded slowly from existence, along with the rest of the tardis. I looked behind me, expecting to see Luna sleeping on her rug. Instead I saw her sitting at a small desk, with an open book in front of her. Her horn glowed as a page turned under her. “Hello, Luna.” I said. She looked up from her book with a tired smile on her face. “Good morning, Ed.” She replied, the fuzziness of sleep still in her voice. I walked up to her desk, looking down at her book. It seemed to be a compendium of spells. The words were written quite small. “Looks like a page turner.” I remarked. Luna laughed. “It was a few thousand years ago when I wrote it.” She replied. I smiled out of the corner of my mouth. She looked back down to her book. I reached up with a hoof and placed it gently on one of the pages of the book. I leaned over the desk. She looked up to meet my nose nearly touching hers. I reached out and kissed her on the nose. “Why would you be awake at such an ungodly hour?” I replied, knowing her nocturnal habits. “I was thinking.” Luna muttered. “About what?” I asked. She looked off to the side. “Nothing... Let’s go down to the dining hall. I’m rather famished, and I think that they are serving lunch now.” She said. My stomach growled as if to add validity to her words. She laughed lightly as she walked out from behind her desk. I still had my hoof on the open tome. “Come now, Ed. If you play your cards right, I might convince one ofthe cooks to give you a whole bushel of peaches.” My stomach growled again as I looked back to her. “Oh, Princess... That just wasn’t fair.” I said in a mock tone of chastisement. “All’s fair in love and war, Ed. Now come on.” She said, walking out of the door.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:23:28+00:00

2012-02-02T02:23:28+00:00

Chapter 19 “A Grand whating what?” I asked, perplexed. Luna rolled her eyes and laughed lightly. “The Grand Galloping Gala. And you're going.” She remarked. I stomped all of my hooves at once, staying planted on the deep purple carpet “But I don’t like parties.” I argued. It was true. From the memories that I still had from being a human, all of them loathed parties. She continued to walk, her light blue tail whisking slightly as she walked. “I need to spend more time with you. And besides, you would meet a great many ponies.” She retorted as she crossed a corner. I stood there for a second, then followed her around the corner. She was already halfway down the hall, in front of two gigantic wooden doors. “Peaches...” She teased. I made a show of groaning and pranced over to her. She smiled at me sleepily the whole time. I bounded up to her. She looked up at me. “This will be our first official appearance... Together.” She said. I smiled out of the corner of my mouth at this. “Are you afraid, Princess?” I teased. She pushed me lightly with one of her hooves, but her expression was serious. “Slightly. I am somewhat of a new addition to the Palace for these ponies, and they put up with me because courtesy demands it. Of course, some guards such as Antony have warmed on me, and that is very nice. But...” She trailed off, looking away from me to a large tapestry on the wall. “But?” I prompted. Luna looked back up to me. “I’m worried about what they will think, Edwin. They are my subjects, and I do not want to show favoritism amongst the guards. You are a Captain, last time I checked, and with quite a following after the Battle of the Dragon.” She reasoned. “They’ve already named it?” I asked enthusiastically. Luna looked at me unamused. “Stay focused, Ed. We need to comport ourselves with the utmost dignity, and do it in a somewhat regal manner.” She said. I scoffed. “It isn’t that bad, is it?” I asked. She started nodding before I could finish. “Yes.” She said. “Really?” “Yes.” She confirmed. “It can’t really.” I doubted. “Edwin, think for the long term. We are both immortal, and given that we are not stabbed or poisoned or something to that effect, we will live forever. We must think of how generations to come will interpret our entering of this hall.” She said. I considered her words for a moment while my stomach growled. “Well, I’m not too sure about you, dearest Princess, but I plan on being remembered for ages to come, but not for being the only pony ever to die of hunger outside of a cafeteria. Let's go eat.” I said bluntly. She laughed. “Okay, Ed. Lead the way.” She said jokingly. I smiled and turned to the open doors. There were hundreds of ponies assembled of all different colors and hues. Some of them were wearing gilded helmets or scarves of different colors. I could see red, green and white scarves among some of the ponies. The red scarves were the most plentiful, followed by a smattering of green. I could only see two or three white scarves. I looked back to Luna, who was walking up to my side. I looked back to the Dining hall, and walked forward. I could see long windows on the walls, reaching up to the ceiling. There were small clouds floating, with ponies flying from one to the other. I walked on, in awe of the size of the room. When I had sensed the hall before when I was immersed, I thought that it was simply a few floors. But it was all one room. I looked back down to where I was walking. A smallish pale yellow pony wearing a red scarf looked behind his shoulder with a mouth full of leaves. His eyes landed on me, and his mouth fell open. Without looking away, he nudged a large maroon colt to his left wearing a green scarf. The maroon pony looked behind his own shoulder, then did a double take. His large green eyes widened. I looked away from the two ponies, only to find the same thing happening at other tables. Ponies all around were doing much the same as the other two were. I self conciously kept my eyes foreward. I leaned over to Luna “Do they always do this?” I muttered. “No.” She replied quietly. I leaned back to keep my head level. I spied what seemed to be a small blue filly asleep on her plate, smooshing a sandwich under her head. Her cutie mark was a rose. I smiled at the innocence of the small filly, knowing that she was exactly what I fought to defend. I stopped walking forward to look at her. She snored lightly on her sandwich. I walked up to her quietly, as all of the chatter around her had died down. I reached out with a hoof and gently nudged her side. She sputtered, and her eyes opened. They were exactly the same shade as her coat. She looked at me, the haze of sleep still in her eyes. I could see her begin to recognize me. Her eyes became wide. I smiled as I lowered my lids. I thought of a small red rose, and I could feel the energy of the Flow pour out to make my will into reality. I opened my eyes, and I saw something unexpected. It was not a red rose, but a pure white one with a single black petal on the fringe. Her eyes grew even wider. I reached out with magic and grabbed it. It floated over to her and she reached up with a hoof to hold it. It floated lightly onto her hoof, and she marveled at it. I looked away from her to see a large purple colt wearing a white scarf. His eyes were full of tears, and he was smiling at the small blue filly. She turned around to show him the rose and he broke into sobs. He smiled through the tears at the small blue girl. He looked up to me through his teary eyes. “Thank you, Captain.” He sobbed out. “You are ever welcome.” I said with a smile, and turned back to walk down the path to the food. All of the ponies in the hall were deadly silent. “He saved Ensign Breckan!” A pony shouts from far on the other side of the hall. This drew a cheer from the ponies near him. I continued walking down the corridor formed by the long tables. A pony next to me stood up abruptly. It was a small orange colt. His cutie mark was of a scroll tied with red ribbon, and he was not wearing a scarf. “He fended off the invasion!” The colt shouted. The nearby ponies raised their hooves and cheered. Yet another pony stood from the opposite table, He was pale green with a green scarf, and his cutie mark was of a spear. “HE KILLED THE DRAGON!” The green colt screamed at the top of his lungs, and that drew the loudest cheer of all. The ponies nearest me shot up from their seats and ran up to me. one pony picked me up and carried me across the crowd. I was laughing the whole time, filled with the joy of the outburst. All of the colts and mares and foals assembled were cheering. Pegasi swooped down over me, laughing. The crowd bore me over to the table where the food was being served. A tan unicorn was staring at the assembled crowd with his mouth agape. The crowd set me down across the large food-laden table from him. The tan pony stared at me for a second, forgetting how to talk. He seemed to return to himself after a moment. “And what will it be for you, Captain?” He asked quietly. I thought, remembering Luna’s promise from the clearing. I gestured with a hoof for the tan colt to lean forward. I did the same. “I’ll have a whole bushel of peaches.” I said through a grin. The guards around me laughed. “Aye! Give the hero his peaches!” one of the guards shouted from behind the crowd. I laughed. The tan pony paled slightly. “Iff’n you’ll give me a minute, Captain. I’ll have those right out for you.” He said. He turned away from the table, opening a door behind him with magic. He disappeared for a moment. All of the ponies turned to me. “Tell us the story!” One of them shouted. An approving cheer resounded from behind me. I laughed “Such tales are meant to be told on a full stomach!” I answered back. The throng of ponies laughed at the joke. I turned to see the tan cook levitating a small basket of peaches. I grinned. He handed the bushel off to me, and I hefted it with magic. I glanced around, trying to find Luna. “Where is the Princess?” I asked. I looked about, trying to see around all of the ponies. I put the peaches down and shot up into the air. This drew startled gasps and shouts from the ponies below. I could see Luna milling about the now empty tables. I grinned, noting her avoidance of the crowd. I flew through the air, spinning in a tight corkscrew. I was laughing as I caught the inattentive Princess with my forelegs. I could hear a sharp whoomph as the air flew out of her lungs. I pulled up and shot towards a cloud. I flew past it by a good ten feet, and cut off the magic of flight. Luna and I reached the tip of the parabola, and the glorious sensation of falling began to take hold. I held Luna tightly, basking in her orange scent. We began to fall towards the cloud. It was a thrilling few seconds as we plummeted like a stone. The cloud seemed to reach up and catch us, it’s wispy tendrils wrapping around me. It fell with me, trying to expend my momentum. It slowly stopped moving and began to float upwards again. I looked up at Luna over me. Her hair was mussed and she was completely startled. It took her a minute to recover. “You are nothing if not unorthodox, Ed. Were I a lesser Goddess I would have damned you or some such.” She said. I laughed at her strange comment. “Oh, Luna.” I said, nuzzling into her neck. The sweet oranges infiltrated my nose. She hummed. “I think that you would stop that, Ed.” She said. I looked up at her, shocked. “Why?” I asked. “Because I believe that one of your subordinates is coming to see you.” She said. Luna rolled off of me, trying to brush her hair into order with her hooves. I jumped up, trying to see who she was talking about. My gaze finally touched on Lieutenant Dash, wearing a white scarf. Following her were two other ponies wearing green scarves. One of them was a light orange with a dark orange mane, and the other was an extremely pale blue with a much darker mane. They slowly winged their way over to my cloud. All three of the ponies bowed their heads when they came nearby. I was confused slightly by this, but then I remembered that Luna was royalty. Lieutenant Dash looked at me. “Captain Shell. Would you mind if we were to join you?” She asked strongly. I smiled at her show of authority. “Certainly, Lieutenant. Pull up a cloud.” I said. She gestured to the pale pony, and he shot off for a cloud. He arrived not seconds later with his neck sticking out of a cloud. He stopped moving and the cloud continued to move. It joined our cloud, forming an even larger one. Lieutenant Dash and the two unnamed ponies landed lightly on their half of the cloud. Dash looked back to me, her rainbow mane flowing gently down her shoulders. “Captain Shell, these are Second Lieutenants Spitfire and Soarin, respectively.” She said, gesturing to the orange pony first, then to the pale one. I nodded to both of them. Dash looked over her back to Soarin. She seemed to mutter something. Soarin muttered something back, and then flew away. “Captain, we would usually have one of the acting captains or one of the Princesses give this to you, but Captain Bladesinger has asked me to give this to you myself.” She said, holding out a hoof to her side. Soarin appeared behind her with a tuft of fabric in his mouth. He spat it into Dash’s mouth. It was a small lump of golden fabric. “And what does that do, exactly?” I asked, slightly wary of the lump of damp cloth. Spitfire stifled a laugh. “It hangs around your neck, Captain.” Said Dash. I felt stupid as I reached out for the golden scarf with magic. It floated over to me and fastened itself around my neck loosely. “Congratulations, Captain Shell. You are now officially a Captain of the Royal guards.” She said in a mock tone of importance. I laughed once. Spitfire stepped forward and spoke in a calm, smooth voice. “Captain, when you repelled the enemy forces from the cliff, you lopped off a pretty big chunk of it. Right now, we have the Forward fifth and fifteenth divisions working on how to reattach it. It’s division from the cliff has made the Palace somewhat unstable on it’s foundations. If you could follow me, Captain?” She asked. I nodded, and she jumped from her cloud. She reappeared a second later on the opposite side. I looked at Luna. She was snoring softly on the cloud. I felt that I could leave her alone for a second. I floated up from the cloud and followed the Second Lieutenant to one of the tall windows. She arrived there before I did, and stared out at the window. I floated up beside her into the late afternoon sunlight pouring from the window. I looked down to see the large sheet of rock, now fractured into multiple pieces. One large boulder was held up above the rest of the slab, with many ponies milling around under it. “Spitfire is safe, but I’m not too sure if that statement will contain truth for much longer.” Said a cool, regal voice. I looked back to it in shock. Spitfire was there, but her eyes were blood red. I gulped. The voice continued. “You now know why we are so dangerous, Edwin. We Angelics can go anywhere, do anything, and be anypony.” He said, his voice flowing over the words like water would flow over pebbles. “You vile beast! I’ll electrocute you right here!” I threatened in a hushed tone, wary of all the nearby ponies. “Oh, Captain! Why would you do that to me, a poor defenseless pony! And your subordinate, no less!” The Angelic said, switching back to Spitfire’s voice. I grimaced at the flawless transition. The Angelic laughed in it’s own voice. “You have no idea to what extent we have infiltrated the Palace, Edwin. Every single pony in here could be an Angelic in disguise. Why, even your own Princess Luna could be one of us. Even most of our own number here in the Palace do not know of each other’s existence.” The Angelic threatened. I felt a cold shiver down my spine as I reached into the Flow. “If all of these ponies are artifice, then they would not react badly to this.” I said, reaching out with magic. I closed around the Angelic’s throat, squeezing the life from it. It sputtered and gagged, gasping for air. The red irises were slowly replaced by the orange. This brought to mind a worry that I had. Was the Angelic merely casting an illusory Spitfire around himself? Or was he actually inhabiting his host? If it was the latter, I could kill Spitfire and leave the Angelic unharmed. I grappled internally about this while I throttled the impostor. I finally threw my magic from her, unable to kill an innocent pony. The Angelic reached an orange hoof to a matching throat. “You are lucky, Numbered. I woul-” The Angelic seemed to freeze in midsentence. I looked at it for a second more, trying to find out if it was playing a trick on me. After a long time staring at it, I decided that it was not. I then spent the next few minutes trying to come up with a reason not to kill it. I was about to reach out and crush it’s neck when I heard a small cough behind me. I turned around to see a deathly pale white colt with black hair, and bandages completely covering one side of his face. He was standing on a respectably sized boulder floating on the air. It took me a second to recognize him “Do you tire of the forest, Colt?” I asked lightly. He sighed. “I do like the scenery of the Controlled world every now and then. But that is besides the point.” He said. I thought about the curious creature. “Have I done something wrong?” I asked. The Colt chuckled, shaking his head. “Not this time. But I am here to make sure that you do not get killed.” He said. The leading statement confused me to no end. “What do you mean? I have survived much more than small Angelics.” I reasoned. The pony coughed. “Indeed you have. But I am here to warn you about something more hideous than a manticore, more dangerous than a dragon, and smarter than an Angelic.” He said. This made me all the more intrigued about what I was about to encounter. “And what could such a creature possibly be?” I probed. The porcelain colt knocked his hoof twice on the rock he was standing on, and it began to fade from existence. “I advise you strongly to remove yourself from the Flow, Edwin.” The Colt said. I turned away from him to see Spitfire move slowly. “-d have made you suffer.” She began to say. I smiled lightly. I removed myself from the Flow, feeling all of the life disappear from that sense. “Well, Angelic, you do have me at a loss. I have no idea of what I could possibly do.” I said, feeling truly defeated. If the beast was telling the truth, there was no way that I could continue to fight them, if they could truly disguise themselves as such. It smiled, showing a row of sharp, pointed teeth. “You killed Boe. I was quite fond of him. How did you even survive?” He said in a hungry tone. A long tongue slipped out from between the teeth, tasting the air. “I was struck by lightning.” I said. The Angelic laughed, the orange coat of Spitfire contorting over articulating musculature and bone. “How quaint.” Said the Angelic in a heated tone. It opened it’s mouth wide and lunged at me. I summoned my sword, feeling it slide into existence. I lunged back, preparing to spear the creature. Suddenly, time went much slower. I felt a cold seep over my body quickly. I saw a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I glanced and saw a very, very dark shadow on the stone wall. I didn’t have time to do anything before a white body shot out of the shadow. It flew right in front of me, grabbing the Angelic Spitfre. I could see it suspended in the air for a brief moment. It was perfectly white, with a pitch black mane and tail. It had electric green eyes. It was wearing nothing except a pitch black scarf, not unlike the one that Dash gave me. It grabbed her around the neck and shot off to the other side of the hall. It disappeared with the Angelic Spitfire neatly into another dark shadow on the opposite wall. I gulped, feeling time speed up once they were both gone. I was shudering with the nervous energy that my body was prepared to expend to survive. I gulped again, trying to calm my nervous body. I floated down to the bottom of the window, which had a stone ledge. I stood on the ledge, my legs shaking. I fell over, landing hard on the stone sill. My head swum, and I could dreamily see Lieutenant Dash flying over. She landed on the sill, looking down at me with a deeply worried expression. “Captain Shell?! What happened?” She asked. I looked at her. Her vibrant mane was shining in the afternoon sunlight. The cold of the creature never did leave, and the sunlight did nothing to dispel it. “It... was a Ghost.” I muttered, and quickly lost my grip on consciousness.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:24:41+00:00

2012-02-02T02:24:41+00:00

Chapter 20 I arose from unconsciousness suddenly. I tried to inhale but only drew water into my lungs. I struggled against arms that I could not see, trying to get above water. I could feel myself rising out of the water, and I gasped loudly as my head emerged. The cold air shocked me, making me shiver. I sputtered, completely soaked. I couldn’t see anything through my wet mane hanging over my face. “Again, Gespard.” Said a deep voice. I was again plunged into cold, cold water. The water got into my eyes and burned. I coughed and retched when I was taken back out. “Over here.” The deep voice said. I was moved through the cold air and placed on a hard surface. I tried to get my mane out of my face as I heard a pony trotting over to me. I parted my sopping mane from my eyes to see Othello staring at me intently, not inches from my face. “Tell me what you saw, Edwin.” Othello said in a desperate tone. “What?” I asked, the fog of unconsciousness still polluting my mind. “Tell me what you saw! Before you lost consciousness! TELL ME WHAT YOU SAW!” Othello boomed at me, his mane waving with wind that was not there. I cringed away from his violent anger. I knew immediately exactly what he meant. “It was a white pony! It was wearing a black scarf!” I pleaded with Othello. His eyes grew wide. He straightened himself, rising to his full height. “Are you sure that it was wearing a black scarf?” Othello asked. I nodded. “Are you sure that its hair was black? Did its tail match?” He probed deeper. I nodded again. His expression grew stony. I looked up at the towering Numbered, afraid. He could do anything and I could do nothing to prevent it. I gulped, knowing that he could kill me. He looked back to Gespard. I looked back as well, seeing the blue pony nod. I could see that we were in a cold stone room, not unlike the catacombs where the Doctor parked his tardis. I coughed, inhaling dusty air. “I am going to talk to Princess Celestia for a moment, Edwin. Being a ranking officer in the Royal guards, I would ask you to accompany me to keep the peace. Our discussions tend to get the slightest bit... Heated, if you will.” Said Othello. I looked up to him, my mane completely plastered to my face. Othello noticed. “Sorry, let me get that for you.” He said. He closed his eyes and the room grew much hotter. I could feel the heat radiating off of him, nearly burning my face. My hair was drying out quickly. I got to my hooves and shook the water out. When I was done, I looked to Othello. He looked over my shoulder. We were in a small stone room, but it had a small stone pool in the middle of it. I turned to see what Othello was looking at. There was a single small window, through which I could see the deep orange of dusk. Othello sighed, and I turned to look at him. “This is a very important matter, so we will be teleporting into the entryway of the throne room. I would usually like to walk there, but this is of such import that we do not have the luxury of time. I would like for you to go first and announce my arrival, if you would, Edwin.” He said much more calmly than his earlier words. I nodded. I closed my eyes and thought of the grand doors of the throne room. The cool breeze felt slightly chilly against my wet body. I opened my eyes to see the large, ornate doors of my imaginings. I walked up to one, and knocked on it. The loud sound reverberated through the hall that I was in. The door creaked open to reveal a medium sized grey pony wearing a golden scarf. He didn’t open the door all of the way, but stuck his head through the opening. “Antony! It’s been a while.” I said, feeling happy to finally see him. Antony smiled as well. “It certainly does seem so. What brings you here?” He asked quietly. “I’m here to ask the Princess for an audience on behalf of Othello.” I said. Antony’s eyes seemed to betray a wariness. “I don’t know if she would be too happy to see him, but I will announce you anyways.” The grey colt said, retracting himself from the door. It swung slowly shut behind him. I looked behind me to see Othello. “What did he say?” He murmured, his voice carrying through the halls. “He said that Celestia would not be to happy about it, but he would see if she would let us in.” I replied. Othello sighed. “I do miss the peacetimes, Edwin. So much less complicated, so much less busy. I could sit down and read without anyone coming to tell me something or other went wrong. It was a simpler time...” He trailed off, remembering the times between cataclysms. I looked down at the thick purple carpet, wondering about whether I would live to see it. He seemed to pluck the thought out of my head. “Don’t be so glum, Edwin. One day this will all be over and peace will again reign in Equestria. It is a much different place when it is not in danger.” he said, fondly reminiscing over times long past. I looked up to him, truly seeing what the pony was. He was an arbiter. A keeper of peace in all senses of the word. Fighting may come easily to him, but he does not go easily to it. The crimson stallion was a pacifist, drawn to defend the sacred trust of his order only in times of gravest danger. The idea of a pacifist Numbered made me smile, thinking about how much more happy I would be if I were not required to fight all of the time. I was thinking of this when I heard a quiet creak behind me. I turned around to see Antony sticking his head out of the door. “The Princess will see you now.” He said. I walked forward, but Othello coughed. I looked back to him. “I would like to talk to her, Edwin, so if you would stay by the door by Antony.” He said. I nodded, finding this slightly odd but not wanting to object. I walked in to find Celesita talking to a small green pony to her side. The green pony had an large assortment of fabrics draped across her back. “Yes, the blue one I think, Luna would like that.” She murmured quietly. My Numbered ears picked it out of the air as clearly as if she had said it right beside me. The green pony nodded once and disappeared behind her throne. She turned to Othello and I. I stopped at the door, waiting next to Antony while Othello continued on to the middle of the room. Celestia smiled as she saw us. “Othello and Edwin! What a pleasant surprise. What brings you two here today?” She said cheerfully. Othello said nothing, but continued on to her throne. He bounded up the steps leading up to her and stood over her imposingly. He reached behind his shoulder with the opposite hoof. He slammed it back down and struck the Princess across the face. Her face followed his hoof down, leaving her looking at the ground to her right. There was a small trickle of blood coming out of the corner of her mouth. Antony growled behind me, and I could feel him release his magic. I turned back to him to see his horn stop glowing. I heard Othello grunt as I turned back to him. He looked like a grim pincushion. I could see three hilts with glowing plum gems in the pommel sticking out of him, with the tips sticking out of his belly, dripping blood. There were two daggers sticking out of his long, crimson neck. Celestia turned one large, surprised purple eye to the two of us, then up to the dying red stallion. Her mouth hung agape as she stared up at him. “You know how dangerous they are, Celestia! Yet you aided it and let it into the palace! It could have killed something! It probably did!” Othello managed to say. The Princess just looked at him, completely stunned. “He made me an offer I could not refuse, Othello! I had to!” She said with the same intensity. “You are a Goddess! You could have said no at any time! To be held hostage by a small white pony? It is unbecoming of you, Princess!” Othello retorted, his voice growing weaker as the pool of blood under him grew larger. “He said that he could find all of the spies in my Palace! I could not turn it down!” Celestia said, looking up at the dying colt. Celestia turned back to Antony and I with a scared look of shock on her face. “Get rid of them, Captain Antony!” She shouted. His horn glowed and the swords disappeared. The blood flowed even faster from Othello, like a faucet being opened. He fell over, landing with a loud thump. I leaped over to him, bounding across the room up to the throne. I placed my hooves on Othello and poured my energy into him I could see the wounds slowly closing on his sides. He looked up to Celestia with a tired eye. “We killed them for a reason, Princess. They were too dangerous to be left to their own devices. One would get bored after millennia of dormancy, kill an entire city, and then run for years. It took us centuries to find all of the wild Ghosts and kill them. And you are keeping one like a pet.” He said, wheezing on his words. A trickle of blood ran out of his mouth. Celestia looked up to me, completely scared. “Save him, Edwin.” She said, her voice full of urgency. “I’m trying.” I replied angrily. My magic was barely working to heal him. Othello coughed, and we both looked down at his bleeding body. “The only reason we kept Edwin was because he could have killed us all if we tried to kill him first. That’s how it was to begin with, but with time he became... Trustworthy. He was not inclined to the mindless violence of his brethren. He was-” His voice hitched and He coughed up blood. “Princess... Look after Edwin. He is- He is all we have left. Our only hope against the Angelic horde, and the only one who can start the ceremony to summon the next Numbered. You must trust him implicitly, and do everything that you can to help him...” He trailed off. I could feel him growing colder under me. I pushed harder with my hooves, trying to force the magic to flow into him faster. It was a small trickle of magic into him, making his wounds heal at an incredibly slow rate. It was almost as if he was resisting my efforts. “No, Othello. Don’t die...” I said, trying to force my magic into him. The wounds began to heal somewhat faster, but that was not the problem. He was losing copious amounts of blood. Celestia and I were both standing in a puddle of crimson. “Edwin... No... Don’t. This is my time. I’ve lived a long, full life. Two of them. I’ve fought, I’ve laughed... I’ve loved.” He said, looking at Celestia. She laughed once through the sobs now shaking her shoulders. “Don’t go, Othello. I wouldn’t know what to do without you. I’ve known you since I was a little filly. You were always there to help. Please don’t go. There is so much more. So much is yet to happen. So much more to see.” She whispered. He smiled in a knowing fashion. “And I’m about to see it. Goodbye, my Princess... May we meet again on warmer shores...” He whispered. He closed his eyes. He drew one more ragged breath, and then it left him. He grew limp. His whole body drooped. The blood stopped flowing from his wounds. Celestia sobbed louder, leaning down to look at him. She wept over him, getting lower to the ground. She lied down on the ground next to him in the puddle of his blood, looking down at his dead body. “Princess...” I said tentatively. “Leave.” She said. She was not looking at me, but had her neck draped over Othello. Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “What?” I asked. “Leave!” She shouted, turning to me. Her horn glowed for a second, and I felt a strong blow to my chest. It sent me flying through the air and slammed me into the large wooden doors. The blow made all of the air go out of my lungs, and I landed hard on the throne room floor. I looked over to Antony. His face was contorted into a look of confusion and pain. I got slowly to my hooves and looked at him. He looked back to me. “Edwin... What have I done?” He said, looking down at the floor. I paused for a second, truly wondering the import of his actions. I choked with the finality of Othello’s death. “Your job.” I said, walking out of the door.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:26:08+00:00

2012-02-02T02:26:08+00:00

Chapter 21 I walked down the purple halls, wondering what I could possibly do. Othello was dead, Celestia grieving, and I had no idea what Luna would be up to. The Ghost was the one thing that kept reverberating through my mind. I thought that I was the only one, next to the old colt. The bright green eyes and heavily muscled body seemed to be in every one of my thoughts. I kept myself open to the flow as to not be surprised by any approaching ponies. I could hear the faint whispers of life around me, and I could see their glowing vitality when I closed my eyes. I could feel Antony walking a good ways behind me. I closed my eyes as I thought of him, and the cool breeze made me shiver. I opened them to see Antony walking ahead of me. I could only think of how he coldly murdered Othello. “Antony?” I said. The grey pony nearly jumped out of his skin, and his horn started to glow. I stomped my hooves on the ground and hands of stone jumped from the walls. Antony yelped as they rushed to grab him. Their fingers enveloped him and squeezed him tightly. He gasped, feeling the crushing hands around him. The arms retracted so that his back was touching the wall. His horn continued to glow, and I could hear the sword before I saw it. I reached out with my mind to grab the erethral blade, and gasped. I could hear all of Antony’s thoughts through it, fractured though they may be. I could feel everything he could feel. His emotions rushed through me as if they were my own. My head swam with his thoughts and emotions. He was afraid for his life. ...sweet Celestia what is he... ...Berry will be... ...what is he... ...I can hear his... His thoughts grew silent and his emotions subsided. His eyes closed, and he wrinkled his forehead in concentration. I could glean nothing from his thoughts. I turned to look at his summoned blade. It was pointing down at me, only inches from my face. I could see the air shimmering colorlessly around it, like how air shimmers above hot pavement. It was only my colorless magic that kept it from flying down and killing me. I looked back to Antony. He was still in my stone clutches, and his look of stern concentration was still etched onto his face. I looked closer, taking a step in his direction. “Antony... Put the sword away. I have no quarrel with you.” I said firmly, looking at the pony. He flicked his tail. ...can’t let him... “Please, Antony, don’t do anything that you will regret. I’ll let you down if you remove the sword. Othello’s death is a tragedy, but you can’t let that shape your life. You are not a violent creature. You are a pony. Now please, please remove the sword.” I said cautiously. His shoulders wiggled. ...promise... “Okay.” I agreed. I could hear the odd brrong as the sword dematerialized. I looked up and it was not there. I opened the fingers holding Antony, and he fell to the ground. The arms retracted back into the wall. Antony was gasping on the ground. The stone arms did not hurt him, but they were not to gentle either. I walked up to him and knelt on my front legs. “Are you okay, Antony?” I said. He started to speak, but then ended up coughing. “Scared and winded, is all. Help a pony up, would you?” He asked. I held out a hoof to him and he raised up his own. He pushed off of mine and awkwardly stood on his shaky hooves. “Are you going to be okay?” I asked, seeing how wobbly he was. He picked up a hoof and placed it tentatively down on the ground. It held firm, and he took another step. It shook slightly, but it held his weight. I looked to him, and he smiled. “I’ll live. Where are we going?” He asked. I started to walk down the hall, and he followed me not too far behind. I could still hear the whispers of life around me. The flow made strength pulse through me at regular intervals, like blood pulsed with a heartbeat. I blinked and saw the glow of everything around me. I kept my eyes closed to see. There were a large group of ponies gathered in what I assumed to be the Dining hall, in the center of the palace. I opened my eyes and the whispers returned. “Is there a meal going on right now?” I asked. Antony looked contemplative for a moment. “No, Dinner should have ended about two hours ago. Why?” He inquired. I closed my eyes again, and saw the large group of ponies. They were all just a large glob of energy from what I could see, but they were individual creatures. I opened my eyes to see Antony. He was staring at me, with one ear cocked behind him. I could hear it too, but not with my ears. The whispers of the Flow alerted me to a pony approaching. It was coming from the left side of the intersecting hall that led to the main hall of the throne room. I crept up to the corner of the hall to see a small pony galloping towards the intersection. It took a few seconds for me to step out into the main hall slowly as to not alarm it, and see the pony properly. It was a dark, dark green, almost black. It’s horn stuck out of a messy mane of a slightly lighter color.. It was wearing a red scarf. Antony walked up to my side.- “Who is that?” He asked. I turned back to him. Honest surprise was written all over his face. “It isn’t yours?” I asked. Antony shook his head. “No, I don’t think. We will find out in a minute.” He said. The pony galloped for another second and then pulled up to us. “Captain Shell!” She said, her voice unusually high. I smiled at the formality “Yes... Um...” I trailed off, not knowing her name. “Ensign Glimmer of the Foreward eighteenth.” She said. I looked back to Antony. He was still wobbling slightly. “Well, Ensign, what brings you here today?” I asked. The mare gulped. “It’s the Dining hall, Captain. There was a pony caught torturing a guard in the upper dormitories. They’ve taken the culprit to the Dining hall, and they want permission to kill her.” She said hurriedly. I was completely taken aback. I looked back to Antony, whose mouth was hanging open in disbelief. I looked back to the Ensign. “Are you sure?” I asked in complete disbelief. She nodded. I rolled my neck and it popped. I was about to teleport to the Hall when Ensign glimmer interrupted me. “You have to stop them, Captain. It’s only a filly.” She pleaded with me. I looked at her sternly. “What is only a filly?” I questioned. “The pony that they want to kill. Please help her, Captain.” She said, a tear bubbling up to her eye. I looked back to Antony. His mouth was hanging open and he was staring at me. “What are we going to do?” asked Antony. “Grab onto my mane.” I said. He reached out and got a mouthful, and I closed my eyes. I could feel more of a gust than a breeze, but then I opened my eyes. Not only was Antony still behind me with a mouthful of my mane, but Ensign Glimmer, a table with an antique vase on the top, and a complete suit of pony armor were all in the middle of the hall. I could feel Antony’s hot breath on my hair, then he let me go. He walked toward the large doors to the hall, wherein muffled arguing could be heard. “Come on, Edwin.” He said, striding up to the doors. I folowed him, looking over at Ensign Glimmer. She was staring ahead with her mouth hung open. I paused, looking at the dark green unicorn. I picked up a hoof and waved it in front of her face. She stared through it unblinkingly. I paused my hoof, and poked her on the nose. Nothing. “She’s petrified, Edwin. You scared her half to death. Let’s go.” Said Antony. I turned from the Ensign to Antony. “Will she be alright out here?” I asked, looking back to the young mare. Her pale blue eyes were focused on something that she could not see. “Yes. Now let’s go, we have to stop this.” Said Antony. I turned from Ensign Glimmer to see Antony’s grey tail disappearing through the tall, ornate doors. I ran up to the closing door, dodging the table with the vase. I squeezed through the door just as it closed. I bumped into Antony as I entered the hall. He was stopped right in the entryway, looking at the assembled ponies. I looked, and I could see why. There was an ear shattering din, with all of the ponies arguing about what they should do with the accused. I tried to worm my way through the crowd, but the enraged ponies made an impenetrable living wall. I kept trying to get to the middle of the room, but I was constantly repelled by the flowing barrier. I finally got fed up with this and flew above the ponies. They were all squabbling loudly amongst themselves, but there was no real center to their bickering. The racket was growing piercing, leaving me unable to think. I reached into my mind and unleashed my Numbered magic. A flash, and then a deafening thunderclap could be heard, shattering all of the windows on the far side of the hall. All of the ponies were gathered at the front of the hall, but they all still jumped out of their skin. Some of them screamed. They all stopped arguing. I floated down into the middle of the crowd. All of them were staring at me. I touched down on the hard stone floor, trying to find a pony that matched Ensign Glimmers’ description. Not a single filly or even a young mare could be found. I looked around at all of the assembled ponies, taking in the colors. “Where is the filly?” I asked in a stern, even tone. The nearest pony, a blue unicorn with baby blue hair gulped audibly. My eyes shot to her, and she shrunk back slightly. “Do you know where she is?” I asked calmly, my voice betraying no emotion. The blue mare said nothing, but started to shiver. I leaned down with my neck to look her in the eyes. “I won’t hurt you” I whispered to her. “Just tell me where the filly is.” I finished. “C-Corporal Trixie knows not where the filly is... But...” She trailed off, looking off to the side. “Yes?” I prompted. She looked back to me, and then immediately looked away. “Corporal Trixie saw the filly over there a few minutes ago. She may have moved.” She said quietly, staring at the ground and pointing to her right with a wobbling hoof. I looked to where her hoof was pointing. I started to walk in that direction, and the ponies parted around me like water would part over a rock. All of the ponies were just staring at me in shock. I looked around to try to see the filly. I ended up in front of a wooden column. The column had ropes around the lower part of it. I closed my eyes, trying to listen to the whispers of life. I could sense a small entity on the other side of it. There was broken glass everywhere on the floor, and I crunched on it as I cautiously turned to look at the filly. I could see the filly’s white neck hanging limp over the ropes that bound the rest of her body to the pillar. Her oily black mane hung down over her face, obscuring her eyes. I leaned down to look her in the eyes. “Show me your face.” I said softly. She slowly turned her head and the hair parted to show bright, neon green eyes. I gasped slightly as I recognized Celestia’s private spy. She looked up at me dumbly for a second, and then urgency flushed her expression. “Save me, brother!” She whispered urgently. I said nothing, but continued to stare into her bright green eyes. I had no idea how the powerful, muscled colt that kidnapped Spitfire could now be this small, delicate filly. “We ghosts have more to us than just summoning and the flow, Edwin. Now save me! Hurry up!” She whispered, pulling the thought from my head as if I had spoken aloud. She pulled and struggled against her bonds. This filly was a most intriguing creature. I thought about why she could not just teleport away. “They rubbed manticore venom on me. Stop staring and untie these!” She whispered in an aggravated tone. “I thought that manticore venom was incredibly deadly.” I said, remembering my brush with death in the grassy clearing. The filly’s eyes grew much wider than they already were. “Applied topically, it is harmless and only annuls magic. How did you survive?” She asked, her eyes alight with curiosity. “I was struck by lightning. And get out of my head!” I growled. She grinned mischeviously. “It’s something that you pick up along the centuries. Saved my coat more times than I could count. Now help me get out!” She started struggling again, twisting under the tight ropes. “You may be too dangerous to be set free.” I reasoned. She stopped struggling and looked up with surprised green eyes. “You could be an Angelic, for all I know.” I continued. The small white filly turned her head and spat on the ground. She turned back to me, enraged. “Do you really think that I would conduct myself with that filth?!” said the filly in a tinkling voice. I would have laughed if the moment was not so serious. “Why were you torturing the mare?” I inquired. “I was trying to drive the Angelic from her. If you hurt them enough, they leave their host. Then you can kill them.” She said, her brilliant green eyes burning with passion. “You monster.” I replied, feeling sick to my stomach. The filly smiled out of the corner of her mouth. “It’s not like the host could feel anything. And it would have worked too, except that the orange mare has a great pair of lungs. Her screaming woke up half of the Palace. Push comes to shove, and I end up tied to a pole.” She finished, sighing. I thought about what she said. “You aren’t really a filly, are you?” I asked. She nodded. “I am, it’s just that I usually make myself bigger with magic. And a colt. It’s slightly more intimidating than a little angry white filly screaming at you.” She said. My brow arched over one of my eyes, finding this too odd to be true. “Do you have a name?” I asked. The only other ghost that I knew had no name. “Sebastian.” She said. I stared at her incredulously. “It makes more sense being a gigantic colt with the name Sebastian than with a name like Twinkle or Moonshine or something silly like that! Celestia's fleas, they sure do name foals oddly these days.” She retorted to my gaze. I shrugged and righted myself, rising back to my full height. I walked away from the small filly. I could hear her grunting and struggling against her ropes. “Save me!” She shouted, drawing the glances of the ponies that were brave enough to approach when I was talking to Sebastian. I chuckled as I walked away from her. “No. I might take you to the Colt later, though. He wouldn’t be too happy with you drawing attention to our kind. It would be interesting to watch what he would do.” I said. This made her settle down for a moment. I walked on, the only sound being my hooves crunching on glass. The filly started to scream. “GET ME OUT OF HERE EDWIN! YOU OWE ME! THAT ANGELIC WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. All of the ponies that gathered around her in my absence skittered away, crunching the glass underhoof. I only laughed. “I’ll think about it. That manticore venom will wear off soon... About another three hours or so?” I said jokingly, walking away from her. She screamed incoherently as I strode up to Antony. “Do you know where they are keeping Second Lieutenant Spitfire?” I asked seriously. “Yes, in the upper dormitories.” He replied. “I need you to take five of your best unicorns there and make sure that nothing leaves her room or enters it. If Spitfire herself tries to leave, do everything that you can to stop her. Don’t try to injure her physically, but if she tries to leave, you will stop her. Do you understand me, Antony?” I asked, making sure that he would understand. "Edwin... I am a captain too, and I will not be ordered by my-” “Do you understand!? She is a danger to herself and others and she may attempt to hurt somepony or something. She is an extremely violent pony and will take any means necessary to exit that room.” I said with the utmost seriousness. “Edwin, please! She is only a pegasus.” Antony retorted. “And I am an earth pony, Antony. And look at what I can do.” I argued back. “What do you think that she might do?” Antony asked, slightly worried. “Any number of things. She may go through a killing spree through the whole Palace, She could make the Palace explode, She could set us all on fire. The possibilities are endless. She may even try to make a run on the throne room or even...” I trailed off, finally reaching the logical conclusion. Every time I saw the Angelic, He only wanted one thing. He did not try to kill me the first time, only because he wanted something else. He tried to kill me the second time, only because I was in the way. He tried to eat me the third time, only because I was an obstacle. He only wanted one thing. He only needed one thing. And I knew exactly what it was. “Edwin? Edwin! Are you okay? What will she do? What will she do?!” He was shouting, completely oblivious to the disaster that was happening as he spoke. I looked back to him, filling my mind with energy from the flow, knowing that I would need every bit of it that I could get. I could feel everything around me more intensely as my brain was flooded with the power. I could even slightly feel the emotions of the ponies around me. They were mostly curious, but with an undercurrent of fear. “Try to steal Luna.” I said bluntly.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:26:19+00:00

2012-02-02T02:26:19+00:00

Chapter 22 Antony stared at me dumbly, trying to understand what I said. I could see his eyes alight with fear as he understood me. “What will we do, Edwin?” He said breathlessly. I looked around at the assembled ponies, tasting the emotions around me. They all mixed into a strong sense of confusion. Sebastian stood out as the only angry pony, still screaming in frustrated rage. I returned my attention to Antony. “I suggest that you round up the nearest company of unicorns and go to the throne room.” I said. Antony nodded, starting to walk away from me. “If Spitfire is as dangerous as you say, I should do exactly that.” He said, turning from me and galloping out of the hall. I closed my eyes and thought of Sebastian. I could hear her screaming before I opened my eyes. “IF YOU DON’T GET ME OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW EDWIN, I’LL-” Sebastian screamed at me, her neck held high with her eyes closed. I interrupted her by poking her with my hoof. “You aren’t in much of a position to make threats, Sebastian. I suggest that you keep quiet.” I said sternly. Sebastian looked at me with her large green eyes. “Or what?” She said, her voice filled with inpetulance. “Or I’ll kill you right now.” I said. She scoffed. “No you wouldn’t.” She declared. “Yes I would. All of these ponies were about to kill you anyways. I would be doing them a favor. It would be simple, too. Your neck isn't as well muscled as a grown pony... It would be easy to snap, like a dry twig.” I threatened. Sebastian gulped loudly. “Please don’t. I’m only a filly.” She whispered. I sneered and stomped my hooves, making the shards of glass crunch under me. Sebastian flinched. I could feel my legs thrum with energy as I summoned my sword. It hummed lightly, the music of it too high to hear, except for the occasional warble. Sebastian’s wide green eyes were almost big enough to see the sword in. It inched closer to her face, and it appeared in my field of view. It’s long, slender blue length reached out to touch Sebastian under her shaking chin. I could see my own reflection as I looked down at the blade. I looked terrible, with sunken eyes and a frizzy mane. A distracted part of myself thought that I should be getting more sleep. “You liar. You may be small, but you’re probably older than all of the ponies here combined.” I said through my bared teeth. Sebastian seemed to be shaking as I said this. I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my shoulder. “You’re bleeding, Edwin.” She whimpered. I looked down, and saw the wound on my shoulder. A small bead of blood was growing in stark contrast to the snow white coat. I looked back up to Sebastian. The sword pushed against her throat. She shrunk away from it, but it only pressed harder. “What did you do to me?!” I shouted. Sebastian cringed. “Edwin, stop that at once.” Said a deep voice from behind me. I turned to see the old Colt. The bandages on his head were a pale, pale grey. His hair was shiny and hung limply over his face, as if it had just been washed. All of the ponies behind him were frozen in their respective poses. The old Colt walked up to the two of us. I was still kneeling in front of Sebastian, with the tip of my sword pressed against her throat. The Colt cut an imposing figure, looking down at us with entirely black eyes. I looked him in those black eyes. I immediately regretted it. I had never made direct eye contact with him before, there was just something about him that just drew away from the eyes. I knew that they were black, but this... This was horrific. His eyes were completely black. Not just the iris, but the entire eye. Even the whites, or should I say blacks, were the same color. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine, followed by a nervous sweat. This was the creature that the Numbereds had hunted for centuries. This was the creature that killed mercilessly and without reason. This was the creature that went bump in the night. This was the creature that gave us nightmares. This creature was the Ghost that haunted my waking dreams. This creature was fear incarnate. The pale, pale pony looked down at me. A mischievous grin sprouted from the side of his mouth. I was shivering by the time that he decided to speak “Please stop, Edwin. Enough Ghost blood has been spilled by the Numbereds. I would hate for you to become a hypocrite.” He said in a smooth, smooth voice. It was a voice years, years younger than the pony I met beside the fire. His voice shocked me back to reality. Nothing that caring should belong to a countenance so vile. My teeth began to clatter as the ancient creature continued, turning to Sebastian. “Sebastian, Edwin. We ghosts are a old, cold husk of our former selves. Once, we were as plentiful in this land as dragons, or even griffons. Now? Ha! Now we are only a footnote in fairy tales, if we are even that lucky. The Angelic horde, which you, Edwin, have been bidden to quell, grows stronger with each passing day. Their coal black masses seek to destroy everything. We Ghosts are protectors of the Controlled dimension, albeit in a roundabout manner. And as protectors, we should protect. They seek to destroy our very construct, our very way of life. This is a certainty if we Ghosts, few though we may be, do nothing to avert this. As I speak, one of the Princesses is being killed by an Angelic. We must combine our resources and recall this dimension to before it was sullied by the Angelic filth. I, for one, w-” “What did you say?” I asked, rising from the shock of his stare. I slowly rose from my kneeling position to look at the colt. I was a few inches taller than he was, which made me slightly confident in the crazy part of my brain. He looked up to me with a surprised expression on his face. “A great many things, Edwin. Now, if we depart for the Overworld now, we can-” He was cut off again, but this time by the tip of my sword pressing up into his throat. “You said something of a Princess.” I remarked coldly. He swallowed once, but said nothing. I growled and pushed the sword slightly higher. “My patience will only go so far, Colt, before I get curious as to the color of your blood. Speak!” I shouted. The colt swallowed, and then cleared his voice. To his credit, he was remarkably composed for being so close to death. “The Princesses, both of them, were set upon by Angelics. The recent death of the First has brought them all out of hiding and their hosts, throughout the castle and most of the surrounding countryside ponies are returning to themselves. Two fairly large groups of them have attacked the Princesses. Celestia, a master of the offensive art, disposed of them quite easily, or is doing so as we speak... Princess Luna, on the other hoof...” The colt trailed off, his large black eyes crinkling as he lit up with a grin. I felt somewhat sick to my stomach, and my injured shoulder throbbed, as if it was getting much worse. I grimaced in pain. The Colt turned to me, somewhat surprised. “Ah. I seemed to have forgotten... You resurrected her.” He said softly. “He did what?!” Sebastian squealed. I was busy grimacing in pain to respond, but the Colt turned to look down at Sebastian. “I believe, if memory serves me correctly, that Edwin summoned Princess Luna’s soul from the Void after she died in some sort of accident or another... And if what is happening to Edwin is any sign, the Princess is fighting a losing battle. We must return to the Overworld if you would like to breathe for very much longer.” He said. I fought against the pain, which came slowly because of the frozen state of time. “No... I must go to her!” I said through clenched teeth, blood running down my right foreleg. I tried to walk forward, only to stumble drunkenly. I flopped on for a few seconds, drunkenly swaying. I fell down on a fairly glass-free patch of ground. My thigh landed on some small shards of glass, enough to make me gasp with the pain. I heard the Colt walk up behind me “The last time we reset was back when we had Cleo, and I don’t think that she is about to show up anytime soon. Is Edwin strong enough?” Sebastian asked in a tinkling voice. The colt tapped his hoof twice on the stone floor, and I felt the floor buckle under me “Maybe. We probably can’t wait for him to get stronger, if he isn’t. If one of us dies, we all do. Each of us are intertwined by the strands of magic most dark. Get up from there, Sebastian. You look completely silly.” The colt remarked. “Manticore venom, you idiot. I have a good three hours before I can use magic again.” Sebastian retorted. I opened my eyes to see myself on a raised stone table. I looked up with one of my eyes to see the Colt standing over me. “Edwin, we must return to the Overworld. You will die if you stay here much longer, and we need you desperately. We need a minimum of three Ghosts to return Equestria to the beginning. Now, If we would g-” The Colt was cut off by the strangest noise. It struck a familiar chord in my memory, and the discordant music of it rang through my mind. I looked ahead, trying to see what was making the noise. A large blue box faded slowly into existence. “Doctor...” I whispered, finding myself suddenly weak. “Damn that Doctor! Sebastian, we need to go!” The Colt shouted to Sebastian. I could hear her struggling against her ropes. I looked forward to the blue box, fully solidified and tangible. One of the doors creaked slowly open, revealing a small brown pony with dark chestnut hair. “Edwin, come on, we need to...” The Doctor said, but then stopped talking as he saw the ponies that were just outside of his door. His mouth hung open slightly, and he was silent for a while. Each Ghost, Sebastian, the Colt, and I were staring at him. For a torturous few minutes, nothing happened. “Doctor? What’s happening?” Said a strong, feminine voice from inside the tardis. “Glass him.” The Doctor whispered so quietly that I was sure that I was the only pony that heard him. “What?” The feminine voice said again. The Doctor turned back into the tardis “GLASS HIM, EVE!” The Doctor screamed. He ran back into the tardis, leaving the door open. There was a odd noise, like paper shuffling over a grate. A second later, Evangeline sprung out of the door. She landed right in front of the colt, nearly hoof to hoof. She was glowing brilliantly, practically blinding me with her stored sunlight. Evangeline was so tall, nearly as tall as Celestia, so she towered over the Colt. She stared down at the pony with brilliantly glowing white eyes. He stared back up at her with his horrifyingly black ones. “Columnus, you soulless bastard. How many times have I killed you?” Evangeline spat down at the pony. He growled. Something budged under his bandage. “Twice. What brings you to disgrace this palace?” “I could ask you the same question, Columnus. The Princesses actually welcome my kind into their campus. As a good guest, I should see you out.” Evangeline seethed. “Ah, My sunny Evangeline. I would like to see you try. The sweet Equestrian air beckons, always calling me back from my well-earned grave.” The Colt said with a slightly warmer tone, but still drenched in contempt for the towering mare. “I’ll make sure that you won’t be ruining that perfectly good air for much longer.” Evangeline said. The Colt laughed mockingly. “Good luck. We Ghosts are a hardy species.” The Colt said. Evangeline smiled out of the side of her mouth “Well, you do know what they say, Columnus.” Eve retorted, her voice growing more amused. “What?” The colt Columnus asked. “Third time’s a charm.” She said, and her eyes changed to bright red. The world flashed silently to a brilliantly blinding pale red. I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I could see all of the ponies start to move again. Evangeline was no longer glowing, but a dull, glinting gold. Her lower neck was splattered with crimson. The only thing that I could bring my focus to was the jet black three on her flank. Evangeline turned to me. “Come on, Edwin. We have to go.” She said, and did not wait for me to move. I felt myself hoisted with magic, and hurled into the tardis. The brilliant colors of the Equestrian populace flew past me blurred. I crashed into something soft that made my neck pop, then dropped onto something equally soft. My eyes closed while the bustling and worries of consciousness ran amok about me. “What do you mean, it was Columnus? I thought we had dealt with him already.” Said a angry male voice. “Gespard, the very fact that I’ve had to kill him twice means that he is more than just an average Ghost.” replied what I assume to be Evangeline. There was silence in the tardis. “What do we do, Eve?” asked a calm male voice, different from the last. “We must save the Princesses. Without them, Equestria will fall into most certain ruin.” “What should we do?” The second voice asked again, still slightly impatient. Nothing spoke for a few minutes. The only thing that could be heard was the tardis, making it’s regular noises. One of the ponies coughed. “Well, while you three decide, I need to get the tardis out of the Palace. Princess Celestia would not be too fond of me allowing you to kill a Ghost in her estate.” He said. My eyes were closed, but I could hear him jump up onto his console to push his buttons and pull his switches. “Where are we going?” Evangeline asked. The clacking and clicking continued as the Doctor spoke. “A favorite thinking place of mine. There is an unoccupied planet in the adjacent star system from Equestria, and I am going about 800 years into the past. I usually go into the future, but I’m not now in case the Princess actually...” His voice trailed off awkwardly. “Yes.” Gespard replied awkwardly. “Well, this will gives you two the chance to heal Edwin, and figure out wether you want to take him back to the timeline he occupied. Literally speaking, you have all of the time in the world. If you lot don’t mind, I’ll think that I’ll step out for a moment.” He said, hopping down from the console. His hooves made a clacking noise on the metal grate as he walked off of the platform that held the console. The door creaked open, then closed shut with a solid bang. Evangeline huffed. “Marcus?” She asked tentatively. I heard a slight shuffling on the opposite end of the tardis. “Yes, Eve?” He replied. I had not heard him talk much before, and I was shocked by how much he sounded like Othello. His voice lacked a certain inflection, a certain timbre that differed him from the crimson stallion just enough to be recognized as a different voice. “Please heal Edwin. I am tired from killing Columnus, and you are much better at the art of healing magics than Gespard or I are.” She said, sounding exhausted. I heard a pony getting to his hooves, and walking closer to me. “Is there any dirt outside?” Marcus asked, his strong voice making me shiver. “No, I checked. It’s completely barren out there. Not even any natural air, the Doctor just expanded the sheild.” replied Gespard. Marcus tutted. “A pity. This would have gone so much faster.” Marcus said sadly. “Edwin? Can you hear me?” He added, his clarion voice ringing through the tardis. I moaned. “Good. Can you speak at all, Edwin?” Marcus inquired in the same clear voice. I lifted my head and put it back down on the soft surface. I was far too tired and weak to do anything other than groan, and Marcus understood my halfhearted no. “Edwin, I will be speaking aloud my observations so to make sure that you understand your injuries. You seem to be bleeding rather profusely from the shoulder, with a small amount of bone protruding from the wound.” Marcus finished and placed a warm hoof right above my shoulder, right where my neck and shoulder met. I felt warmness spreading from his hoof, not unlike the feeling of a numb appendage submerged in warm water. “It looks like you have some glass in your lower back...” Marcus said, trailing off. He places another hoof lower, near my kidneys. The same odd, warm sensation spread through me. Marcus did this for the next hour or so, trying to fix me. His voice, later joined by Evangeline’s soft snoring, was the only thing that could be heard in the tardis. I was soon walking around. I occupied myself by floating aimlessly in the tardis while Marcus and Gespard were trying to figure out what to do next. I heard a knock at the tardis door. I looked to the front of the wonderous machine to see the Doctor standing in the doorway. I paused in my floating while he tried to muster something to say. “Could... Could you join me out here, Ed?” The light brown pony asked. I said nothing but floated right out of the gigantic interior of the blue box out into the unknown planet. I sailed out into the air, passing the Doctor in the doorway, only to come to a screeching halt in midair. The two suns in the sky, or should I say lack of, Were spinning each other into teardrops, feeding on themselves. They were two huge, brilliant points of crimson and cobalt in the vast, vast cosmos. I looked down to the ground. A blanket of dark, black ash coated the ground, interspersed occasionally by a shiny, glinting patch. I hovered down to one, and tapped my hoof against it. It made a solid sounding clank. “The product of a vengeful heart...” I whispered to myself. I landed on the barren planet, throwing up a miniature black cloud. I looked around me, and my gaze finally fell upon the tardis. Such an odd think to the ignorant eye, but to a pony that knew, it was a beacon of hope shining in the bleakest circumstances. The Doctor leaned against his only possession, his eyes closed. I did not walk towards him, leaving the considerable gap between us like an entire pony. “Is he really dead.” The Doctor asked, his voice carrying no inflection or hint of a question. “Yes.” I replied, feeling the sadness wash over me. The Doctor raised a hoof up to rub his eye. “I knew him ever since I dropped into Equestria, before I was a pony. He was not the first pony that I met, but he was the first one to call me human. We talked, and I discovered the oddest interdimensional adaptation ever. Not only did Equestria summon bodies to defend herself, but she summoned their souls from an entirely different dimension.” He said, looking down at a small patch of glass. He shook his head in amazement, swimming through his memories. “You were a human? In Equestria?” I said in dull surprise. The Doctor chuckled humorlessly, and then looked up to the stars. “Yes, for a little while. Othello and I thought it to be fun to annoy a dragon. Needless to say that both of us almost died. I was about to regenerate by the time that Othello got me to the tardis. When I woke up, I was a pony. That was that.” He said, telling the story like one would tell the weather. A glistening, sparkling tear bubbled up to his eye. “You knew him very well.” I commented. The Doctor, with his head still held aloft, nodded. “For his entire life, ever since he was a young foal of ninety. He aged, which was something that none of the other Numbereds did. He was the first, and he was summoned to Equestria as a child, a small one. I even asked the Princesses, and he has been around as long as they were, if not longer.” He said, still staring at the suns. I turned to look over my shoulder to look at them. The teardrop stars spun slowly, trying their hardest to consume the other, but their own attempts were what kept them from reaching their goals. This hefty thought branched off into an inquiry to myself. I could find no answer, so I asked the Doctor. “Do you think that the Angelics will ever be gone for good?” I asked. The Doctor shrugged. “Not sure. Never did think to look and find out. Speaking of which, Edwin...” The Doctor remarked, piquing my attention. “Where do you want to go? Being as this is ‘your show’, so to speak, I think that it is only polite to ask you. Gespard, Eve, and Marcus may decide on what they want to do, but only you can decide what you want to do. She is yours, you know.” The Doctor spoke bluntly. “Take me to where she was attacked, Doctor. We need to save her, and I’ll literally die if she does. We need to save her.” I said. The Doctor nodded. “Well, Edwin, let’s go. Unless you care to enjoy the scenery of Sigmus Five for much longer.” The Doctor added, gesturing to a nearby patch of glass. I thought about this for a moment, before I replied with a smile. “Equestria is my home, Doctor. Take me there.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T02:27:42+00:00

2012-02-02T02:27:42+00:00

Chapter 23 The Doctor walked to the door, and pushed it open with a sooty hoof. He walked in, but he seemed to remember something and turned around. “Oh, we need to visit Celestia first, so unless you can come up with a clever plan to not get injured again when we visit her, I’m going to shove you in the stasis chamber.” He remarked bluntly, then disappeared through the open blue door. I started to raise a hoof to object, but he was already out of view. I took flight and shot through the open door. The Doctor was already pushing buttons and reading displays on his console. I floated over him, waving my hooves and trying to get his attention. He studiously kept to his console. “Doctor! I don’t want to go into the stasis chamber!” I said emphatically. “Too bad. I don’t want you to die of blood loss, gross trauma, asphyxiation, or whatever else is happening to Luna right now. Temporarily removing you from the time stream is the only option I can see as viable.” The Doctor replied bluntly. I gasped in shock. “The last time I went in there, you didn’t let me out for ten years!” I exclaimed. The Doctor said nothing, but continued to preside over his console, mashing and smashing his hooves onto the different control surfaces. “Doctor! Please, I can stay inside the tardis, and-” I was interrupted by the Doctor. He turned around, jumping to his hind legs, and grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “I will not have another Numbered die today!” He screamed at me, his eyes wild. He frightened me, and I tried to fly away from his grip. He stayed firmly planted on the ground, and his grip around my neck did not lessen. “Othello was like you, Edwin. Brash, bold, and willing to do anything for those he loved. He was passionate, like you, and he was powerful, like you. But look at this! Afraid to enter a stasis chamber to save your own life!” He spat at me. He was staring at me with his large brown eyes, filled with anger and grief. I felt the skin under my coat grow clammy as he stared at me with those eyes. The Doctor’s eyes could convey a sense of abandonment, a sense of loneliness that no voice nor expression belonging to a mortal creature could convey. The Doctor stared at me, switching from one of my blue eyes to another, as if he was trying to find something. He did this for a minute or two, when his expression glasses over with sad indifference. His pale brown legs slid over my neck and landed on the ground with a solid clank. He turned away from me to face his console. “You are going into that stasis chamber, Edwin. I don’t want anypony else to die today.” He commanded in a soft, sad voice. I heard something clear its throat to the right of me. I turned to see Gespard and Marcus staring at me, and Marcus was holding a hoof over his chest. “Doctor?” Marcus asked, his deep voice seemingly reverberating through my mind. “What is it, Marcus?” The Doctor replied in a monotone. “I might be able to solve this quandary. Do you have any dirt?” He asked. The Doctor stopped poking buttons and pulling levers for a moment. He slowly turned to look at Marcus. “What?” The Doctor asked, extremely confused. “Dirt? Do you have any?” He asked again. The Doctor paused for a second, and then he nodded. “Yes, I do, give me a second...” He replied, turning from the console. He walked around the console and walked around to the opposite side from where I was floating. He ducked down beneath the console, and ducked under it. I could see his tail flicking in the air, followed by a loud bump and swearing. “Do you want any help, Doctor?” Marcus asked. There was a muffled grunt. Marcus blinked, and another loud bump was followed by swearing. A large lidless glass jar surrounded with a bright green aura floated out from under the console, placing itself gently down in front of Marcus. Marcus reached into the jar and scooped out a hoof-full as best as he could. He held it up to his nose and inhaled. “Ah... Nutty and dry, but with faintly sweet undertones. Western Equestria subsoil, Doctor?” Marcus inquired. “Very impressive, Marcus.” The Doctor said, reading displays on the opposite side of the round console. Marcus looked to both sides of him, as if he was trying to find something. He twisted around to look behind his shoulder at Gespard. “Gespard, I need it damp.” Marcus said. Gespard knocked on the metal grate of the tardis floor twice with a loud bang, and the dirt in the jar grew noticeably darker. Marcus turned back to look at the dirt with a stony face. He settled back on his hind legs, and raised his hooves up to touch the glass on either side of the jar. He closed his eyes, with his brow furrowed in concentration. His hooves began to glow with the same green aura as before. I stopped hovering and landed on the ground, amazed. I could smell the magic in the air, the scent of ozone filling my nostrils. I walked up to Marcus, and looked down in the jar. There was a small tendril of green poking out of the dirt. Marcus lowered his hooves from the sides of the jar, and looked up at me. “I advise that everypony move away from the jar. Slowly.” He said, backing away from the jar. Gespard did the same, and the Doctor paid us no mind. “What?” I asked, watching the wary ponies back away from the small plant. Gespard shushed me, and Marcus nodded. “Don’t startle it, Edwin. Back away very, very slowly.” Marcus said in a hushed tone. I scoffed. “What in Equestria could a tiny little plant do to m-” I tried to ask, but was interrupted by a loud explosion. There was a flash of green, followed by a suffocating pressure. I tried to escape it, sending a charge through my body. The pressure then increased, and seemed to writhe. The closest thing that my mind could find that was comparable was being buried in live snakes. I could still breathe, but the air that I inhaled was moist, hot, and smelled of rotting leaves. I screamed and writhed, but the the limbs only squeezed tighter. “Don’t struggle, Edwin! It will not hurt you if you do not hurt it!” Shouted Marcus, walking around the jar hurriedly. All I could do is strain against the snakes. “Sweet Goddesses, Marcus! What is it?!” The Doctor shouted. I could hear Marcus’ muffled walking around me, and him prodding the snakes. “I don’t know.” He replied calmly. “You don’t know?!” The Doctor exclaimed. “Well, It doesn’t have a name. I’m fairly sure that it has not been discovered by mortal ponies yet. But, it is definitely a carnivorous tentacular, most likely of the Canatidae family...” Marcus trailed off, leaving me extremely worried. “Carnivorous?!” Gespard exclaimed. If Marcus answered, I could not hear him. I pushed an even stronger charge of electricity out of my limbs, feeling it crackle and zap through my bones, making the tentacles constrict around me even tighter. I could feel the breath rush out of me, my ribs bending under the ministrations of the plant. Marcus began to move faster around the plant, his hooves clacking under him. “Edwin! Do not hurt it! Keep calm!” He shouted. I struggled with the plant for a few more seconds, during which Marcus’ words assembled into sense. I stopped the charge that was flowing through my body, and almost immediately the strong vines of the plant relaxed around me. It flowed away from me, no longer constricting me, but forming somewhat of a small room. I looked around at my surroundings as the vines began to form into a small cube, just tall enough for a pony my size to be comfortable in. “What is this, Marcus?” I asked as soon as I was able to find my voice. “One of Equestria’s most useful organisms, in my opinion.” Replied Marcus, his booming voice muffled by the walls that enclosed me. “What does it do?” I inquired again. Marcus chuckled. “To tell you that, I must explain to you a small bit of pony biology. Ponies, like humans, breathe and metabolize an eighty-twenty nitrogen-oxygen blend. But, while somewhat lethal to humans, ponies can breathe a gas called ethyl bromoacetate, with somewhat spectacular results.” Marcus stated. The joy in his voice was plain, even through the walls that surrounded me. “What is so spectacular about it?” I wondered aloud. “When a pony inhales ethyl bromoacetate, it works absolute miracles for their body. Breathing rate increases and becomes much more efficient, conducing almost complete oxygen metabolism. Dietary metabolism rises, making the calories burned to calories wasted ratio become almost one to zero. Eyesight becomes hawk-like, making you see from five hundred feet what an average pony can see from twenty. Conscious stimuli responses, like catching falling objects and reacting to visual ques, become nearly immediate. But, all of those are not even the best effect of ethyl bromoacetate.” Marcus finished. This little speech made me all the more curious as to what the mysterious substance did that was so great. I drew a long breath, savoring the feel of the air. It tasted alive, like how air tasted next to running water. I pondered his impromptu lecture for a moment. “I give up, Marcus. Tell me what it does.” I said, sitting down on the vines under me. They had a pleasant give to them, like sitting on a firm cushion. I smiled and bounced slightly, testing the vines with my hooves. “It heals wounds instantaneously, just as good and sometimes even better than magic would.” He said. I laughed. “Sounds amazing. Sounds illegal, to be honest. Know where I can get any?” I inquired yet again. Marcus laughed. “Right where you are.” Marcus said. I chuckled. “Really?” I asked. “Really. This organism is like other plants, in the fact that it inhales carbon dioxide. But, while other plants would exhale oxygen, this plant exhales ethyl bromoacetate, which makes it rather useful in situations like this. Doctor, I think that we can go now.” Marcus finished. “Right you are, Marcus! Just a hop, skip, and a jump and we’ll be right in the throne room. We might even get fed! The Doctor said cheerily. I could hear him walking around the console. “So, Marcus, when you said that the plant was carnivorous, what exactly-” I was interrupted. “Too late for that, Edwin, ALLONS-Y!” The Doctor shouted. I heard a loud slam, and could hear the tardis making its’ wonderful noises. Halfway through, I felt one of the oddest sensations that I could have possibly experienced. A long gash opened up my shoulder, exposing flesh, sinew, and bone to the open air. I gasped with the suddenness of the injury, and could feel warm blood spurt out of it. I shuddered. Before I could do anything, I felt the two sides of the gaping wound close, and the underlying musculature knit back together. I reached a hoof up to touch my shoulder, noticing that it was the very same one that I thought that Sebastian had injured. While I was massaging the newly healed shoulder, a long, thin line of blood inched it’s way up my foreleg. I was surprised by the injury, but I had no time to think of it before it closed of its own volition. I removed the leg in question from my shoulder and examined it. The snowy leg articulated under my will, making the muscle flex and bulge under the skin. For an odd moment, I remembered what it was like to have hands. I could still remember how they moved, but I no longer had the ability to move them. I smiled lightly, remembering with fondness the body that I would never again inhabit. I could see every single individual hair on my leg, each one doing its part to cover alabaster skin. I set myself down on the vines of the plant, feeling them sway with motion. I rolled over to my side and splayed my hooves, soaking in the wonderful feeling that the plant was giving me. My eyelids slowly drooped, and I fought to keep them open. “Edwin?” Said a slightly reedy voice. With my tired mind, it took me a little bit to place it with a name. “Gespard?” I asked sleepily. I heard something moving in front of me. I opened my eyes to see a blue head poking into my little plant house. “Marcus says that you have been in the plant long enough to inhale a significant dosage for it to be safe for you to exit the plant. We are in the throne room right now, and if you would like, Marcus says that you are able to join the rest of us outside of the tardis. He does warn that it will be a... Confusing experience.” He said, looking at me with alert cobalt eyes. I was shocked to the extent of what I noticed about him under the influence of the strange chemical. He seemed so full of detail that it was almost surreal. His mouth and facial muscles slipped and flexed around each syllable. I gulped. “Okay.” I mumbled, clumsily trying to stand. I stood still for a moment, trying to discern whether or not I could walk for any sort of distance. I placed a hoof in front of me, put pressure on it, and stepped forward. I kept doing this until I reached the opening in the plant that Gespard was sticking his head out of. He was no longer there, and also nowhere else, but I could feel the strength returning to my limbs. I poked my head out of the tardis and inhaled the seemingly stale air of the tardis. It had a certain energy of its own, but it was nothing like being inside of the plant. I jumped from the plant, which was towering three or four feet above the tardis. I gasped, standing perfectly still as I looked around me. It was the interior of the tardis that I saw, but it was the way that I saw it that made me exclaim. I could see every scratch, every swirling mote of dust, every button, every blinking light, every wrench, every single thing in the tardis. My mind was working so incredibly fast to organize the plethora of information that was flowing into my eyes. I stood in front of the plant, simply blinking in awe. I took a few cautious steps forward, as if the illusion of detail would disappear with the slightest movement, “Edwin?” Said a tired voice behind me. I turned to see Evangeline. She was brushing up against the side of the plant. I said nothing, but stared at her in awe. I’ve heard humans talk about a ‘morning glow’, but for Evangeline, it was a literal concept. She shined lightly, casting a faint golden glow against the plant she was leaning on. It reached out slowly with its limbs to touch her, rubbing itself against her in the hopes of absorbing her light. “It likes you.” I said simply. She raised her neck to nuzzle the plant, her eyes closed with a smile on her face. Small vines unfolded from the main cube to caress her face. She giggled lightly. “Marcus’s summonings always do. I personally think that he is somewhat infatuated with me, and that his plants are an extension of his personality. Or, it could just be that I have an overinflated ego and the plants are rather undernourished. Either way, they always make me feel happy.” She said. My supercharged body was busy cataloging every single detail about her, from the number of tiny hairs in her face to all the different shades of gold in her eyes. She smiled, noticing me staring at her. “I remember my first time on ethyl. So much detail... It’s rather discombobulating, isn’t it?” She asked. I nodded. She walked up to me, straying to my right. She bounded over to the grate that led down to the open door, articulating her limbs gracefully. She landed lithely, making a soft clank on the grate that seemed disproportionate to her size. Her long tail swayed as she walked over to the open door and the throne room beyond. I noticed that she was just a little bit shorter than Princess Celestia. “I never could get used to it, but sometimes it is a necessity. If you want to, you can come on out to see the Princess. She would be happy to see you.” She said, her flaxen tail swishing as she disappeared from view. I gulped, trying to come to terms with the encounter. I understood every detail intimately, from the swirling air around Evangeline to the slowly writhing vines of the plant behind her. The plant looked much like a light bulb, with the swirling mass of the plant held up by a thin bundle of vines that reached down into the large glass jar of dirt. I turned from it to look out of the tardis door. The golden and purple carpet that distinguished the outside of the tardis to be that of the Palace beckoned me to step on its luxuriously soft self. I walked down the ramp to the opening of the tardis, but stopped halfway down. I could see a dark brown blemish on the usually immaculate carpet, and my nose picked the faint scent of burnt hair out of the air. I slowly walked forward, and saw a blackened hoof poke into view. It was the underside of a hoof, and it was burnt lightly. I gasped in shock, and ran out of the tardis. What I saw was the stuff of nightmares. I stood looking at my surroundings, simply in shock. It was terrible, even if it was necessary. Princess Celestia sat on her throne, levitating an apple in a cloud of bright yellow magic. Marcus, Gespard, Evangeline, and the Doctor stood around her, in the various stages of eating apples. None of them seemed to notice me. But this was not the shocking thing. The bodies of about twenty ponies were littered around them. Their black coats and ashen manes distinguished them as Angelics. They were all clearly very dead. Each and every single one of them seemed to be in different stages of being cooked, from slightly crisped to resembling large charcoal briquettes. There was even a smoking skeleton in the corner. The only Angelic that was not burnt was split cleanly down the middle, like a gory cross section, with each half on opposite sides of the room. I stood there, simply taking in the sheer violence around me. Princess Celestia was levitating a small wedge of apple in front of her mouth when she noticed me. “Ah, Edwin! Come sit and have an apple.” She said cheerfully. I gulped, not even trying to see the overwhelming detail of the baroque room. “You do know...” I started, but was unable to finish. The corpses littered about me like forgotten toys made me stop talking, their dead crimson eyes taking in scenery that they could not see. Celestia nodded. “I do. I will explain in a moment, but come have an apple for now.” She said.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T03:12:46+00:00

2012-02-02T03:12:46+00:00

Chapter 24 I walked up between Gespard and Evangeline, relishing the softness of the carpet under my strong, ivory hooves. Marcus was on Eve’s left, and the Doctor was on Gespard’s right. All of us formed a haphazard semicircle around a bushel of apples. I looked at the bushel, with its splintered wooden sides bound with rusted metal. There was just the slightest dusting of reddish orange on the carpet under it, but I was sure that I was the only one able to see it. I looked at the apples in the container. This captivated my attention, because each of the apples seemed to be a world of its own. The skin of the apples had little tiny bumps and pores and hairs on them, not to mention the extremely vivid colors. I stared at them for a few minutes until I noticed that the Princess was trying to get my attention. “Edwin?” She asked patiently, but my supercharged senses could pick the annoyance out of her voice as easily I could have picked an apple out of the bushel. I looked up at her, and was struck dumb by the detail present in her. Her hair was waving brilliantly as always, but now I could see it was not individual strands like a normal mane, but a flowing sheath of energy. Her hair waved and pulsed according to the movements of the surging power it contained. I stood dumbly and stared at her hair as she smiled lightly. I heard a shuffling noise to the left of me, and my head immediately snapped to it. It was Marcus, and he was rubbing a hoof over the carpet in an embarrassed manner. “I might have left him in the plant for too long, Princess.” He said. I heard a slight rustling, and my head snapped back to the Celestia nodding. She turned to look at me with one of her large purple eyes. “Yes, I can tell.” She responded to Marcus, with her eye still trained on me. She locked onto me for a moment as her head turned. Her eye... The plain purple gradient of her eye appeared to me as what it really was, a vivid shade of purple that my mind leaped to label Tyrian. They were large blooming canyons and valleys and caves suspended in the glassy substance of her eye. I was forced to direct my attention away from her vivid eye as she turned to look at the Doctor, on my right side. “Doctor, do tell me why you are here. You already came here once. Why again?” She said, her steady voice carrying a regal inflection. I did not turn to look at the Doctor, I was too busy looking at Celestia’s hair. “To make sure you didn’t die. Quite a few Angelics would not mind adding killing a Princess to their list of accomplishments. But, I can see, that my side trip was unnecessary. You seemed to have made very short work of them, as we can well see.” The Doctor said, and his ending statement was followed by a small brushing noise. My head snapped to the noise to see the Doctor gesturing to a nearby angelic corpse. The lower half of its body was not cloaked in flesh; It was only a smoldering skeleton. It did not even have hooves anymore, but blackened ends of bone where I assumed that legs would have been at some point. I heard the rustling that indicated Celestia opening her mouth to speak. I tried not to turn to the noise, but my head again turned to face it faster than thought, which, for me, was quite fast. “Where were you planning on going originally?” She asked. I heard the Doctor make an odd noise, as if he were trying to avoid trying to tell a filly about how foals were made. “Oh, I’m sure that it won’t matter to you, you have much greater things to attend to... “ The Doctor said, gesturing to all of us at the same time. Evangeline, Gespard, Marcus and I slowly backed away toward the tardis, understanding his vague gesture in synchrony. I heard a faint rustle, like gift paper sliding over gift paper, which was followed nearly immediately by the yellow glow of Celestia’s horn. A startled yelp soon followed, and I saw the Doctor floating toward Celestia, enveloped in a golden cloud of magic. Her hair was waving much faster than before, and the energy under it was spinning at an incredible rate. She faced him angrily. “You are hiding something from me, Doctor. I know you well enough to be able to tell.” She threatened. “We were going to the future, there was an event that I wanted to show-” The Doctor hurriedly explained, but he was cut off with another yelp. He squirmed in the cloud of yellow magic, seemingly in pain. Celestia looked on angrily. “Where were you going, Doctor?! Tell me!” She shouted. The Doctor started writhing, screaming in pain. We were doing all that we could to help the Doctor. Nothing. None of us dared to interfere with Celestia for fear of retribution, or to be added to the suffering. All we could do was stare at the Doctor, suspended in the throes of pain unearthly. This kept up for an agonizing, dragging few minutes. The Doctor finally grew limp in the undulating cloud of magic, moaning. “Tell me where you were going. And don’t you dare lie to me, Doctor.” She said, her voice growing a passionate edge. Her eyes twinkled lightly, and I could see the nearly full moon in the reflection. “Luna...” He gasped. “Angelics...” He added in an equally tired tone. Celestia said nothing, but threw the Doctor away from her. I immediately reached out with my mind and grabbed him, keeping him from flying into a wall. Celestia’s eyes twinkled, the same way that Luna’s did when she raised the moon. Her hair, the sheath, folded in on itself, and the energy underneath combusted into a conflagration of light and blistering heat. The flaming Princess floated lightly, taking the weight off of her hooves and letting the extreme heat of the air carry her upward. I had to squint; the burning aura surrounding her was nearly blinding, and I was only able to look directly at her because of my heightened vision. She spread her wings, allowing them to catch the billowing air around her, with each pristine white feather carrying her weight. She immediately shot straight up into the air, leaving a white glow where she was. My eyes followed her accent, which ended with Celestia disappearing out of a small hole in the ceiling, most likely expressly built for this purpose in mind. The world around me grew extremely dark in absence of the brilliant flames. I blinked a few times, and my surroundings became easily visible. I looked around. Each of the Numbereds were blinking, and Gespard was lying on the ground. Marcus was busy jumping on his hind legs, trying to reach the Doctor floating above him. I released the Doctor, and he immediately was caught in a glowing cloud of brilliantly green magic. Marcus lowered him to the floor, placing a hoof on him. Marcus looked back at me. “Edwin! Evangeline! Follow her!” He shouted, not getting up from the Doctor’s side. Evangeline looked at him, then back to me. Her glowing golden eyes conveying a deep sense of fear. I watched this for a nearly infinite fraction of a second, and then Eve shot up into the air, disappearing out of the same hole that Celestia did. I stood there for a second, just in awe of what had just happened in front of me. I plunged myself into magic, and soared into the sky. I could feel the air try to keep me back, but I would have none of it. I persisted onward, with the air snapping my mane against my neck. I strained myself against gravity as I shot through the hole in the extremely high ceiling of the throne room. I could see Evangeline as a yellow blur streaking off toward what appeared to be a comet, both of which were flying away from me at incredible speed. I landed on the ledge of the roof, and then jumped off of it. I saw the ground approaching smoothly, the force of gravity making it so eager to kill me. I watched it approach me for a second or two, then flew straight down to meet it. The acceleration of gravity and my own magic was hurtling me downward at blistering speed. I watched the precipices and jutting towers fling themselves past my face, making a deafening noise. I saw the ground get dangerously close, then pulled myself away from the castle. The air exploded around me. I felt my body being compressed and squeezed, like toothpaste out of a tube. I could feel something... strange. Something did not feel right. What I thought to be air flowing around me was actually my physical surroundings.The rapidly disappearing scenery was being warped and contorted in front of me, like folding a piece of paper with a drawing on it. I tried not to look at it, and tried even harder not to crash into anything. I weaved and flung myself off of cliffs and ledges, sending my body hurling through moving pillars of stone, tumbling through the empty air around flying boulders, where there should have only been rolling, grassy hills. I tried to think my way out of the twisted, fractured, and fluid world around me. Stone would flow much like water, water stayed immobile and hard as rock, and there was no sky. It was like the world had folded around me into a tube that wanted me dead. Fists of stone would sometimes leap out of the wall of the tube and break against the opposite wall. The landscape around me seemed to defy the concepts of rational space, and shapes often would often not allow themselves to be seen just for the sheer impossibility of their form. I plummeted and flew through the stone tunnel for what seemed to be hours. I caught a break. There was a globe of dark blue, like the far horizon of the sky at sunset. It weaved and raced and even flew through the stone around it, sometimes even floated through the walls of the tunnel. I knew, somehow, that it was the only way out of this stony hell. “Edwin.” Said a voice, free of inflection. As soon as I heard it, I immediately couldn’t remember how it sounded. The dark globe of the sky had a streak of white in it for a moment. I was flying as fast as I could to reach it, and my efforts were rewarded. I touched the globe with a hoof, and I was sucked out of the tunnel, into the regular geometry of Equestria. I skidded through the grassy field, getting a mouthful of everything. I must have been travelling at speed in the tube, because I skidded over the damp grass for about forty yards. I only stopped moving because I collided with a very hard surface. I nearly upended myself, because the back half of me clearly wanted to keep going forward. I was content with just staying there on the wet grass for a moment or two. It had been a very trying day. Othello and Columnus had died, Second Lieutenant Spitfire was kidnapped, and Luna was in danger. I just wanted to sleep for once. A full night, or preferably a full day of sleeping uninterrupted by nightmares of my death or guards wanting to talk to me would be very, very nice... There was the creaking of a door, followed by an odd clacking noise. I would have said that it was the clack of hooves on concrete, but I would have been wrong. There were far too many of them too close together, and the sound was off. “He’s right here.” A voice said. I could not place where I had heard that voice before. I definitely had, because it had a faint familiarity to it. It was a female voice, like the one that would tell you the floor that you were on in some elevators. “Really? How convenient of him. Well, go on then! Let him in. We have places to be.” Another voice said, also hauntingly familiar, but I was able to place where I had heard it before. I felt myself lifted up by magic, feeling the warm, trickling force flowing around me like a spider web. I felt myself lowered down onto a firm thing, like a couch. I lied there for a minute. “So, Cleo. It has certainly been a very long time.” Said the voice, definitely male. There was a faint clicking and scraping accompanying this. “Yes. It’s hard for me to associate with the outside world, these days, for fear of encountering him.” The other voice said in a slightly sad tone. “Well, Evangeline killed him earlier today. Or, at least I think was today. Or, it will be today... Will have been? What day is it?” The male voice asked. There was a click, followed by a low sound, almost too low to be heard. “Tuesday?” the female voice, Cleo, ventured. “Must be. Never could get the hang of Tuesdays. So, what brought you out of hiding?” The male voice asked. There were a few more clicks, and I suddenly knew who the pony was. “Events in Equestria move apace, Doctor. I would be a fool to miss history being made right outside my door. No Colt, however oppressive, would stop me from seeing this.” She said firmly. “Right you are, Cleo, right you are... Edwin! Get up!” The Doctor said. I opened one eye to look at him. I was lying supine on a pink Victorian couch, and the Doctor was talking to a... I was not too sure what it was. It had the body and front legs of an eagle, but the back end of a lion. It’s wings were enormous, and I was sure that one of the feathers would have dwarfed me if it were standing on its end. It was an enormous creature, but it was also completely white. The only exception were the brilliant orange eyes and yellow beak. The Doctor coughed. I looked to him, much slower than I would have. I was pretty sure that the effects of the plant were wearing off. “Edwin, I would like to introduce you to Cleo, one of the few Ghosts in Equestria not under the authority of Columnus. Say hello, Edwin.” The Doctor said. I looked back to Cleo, then back to the Doctor. “What happened to her?” I hissed. The Doctor looked confused, then made a gesture for me to elaborate. “I’ve never seen a pony like that before. What’s wrong with her!?” I hissed again. The Doctor just laughed. “Ah, Edwin...” The Doctor said, raising a hoof to wipe a tear from his eye. “That’s because she isn’t a pony.” He added. “What is she?” I hissed again. “I am a Griffon.” She said. I looked back to her, extremely confused. She saw my look, then began to explain. “You see, Edwin, the vast majority of Ghosts have been ponies. Although, it was not uncommon to have a Griffon, Zebra, or even a Dragon Ghost. It just did not happen as often. Also, Ghosts that were not ponies were accepted into their communities more than their pony counterparts because of their ability to weave magic. My species does not have any natural-born “unicorns”, so Ghosts were accepted as the only spellcasters of my race. Sadly, the Numbereds hunted and killed every Ghost not under Columnus’ influence, and a grand amount that were. I saw reason and joined Columnus against the Numbereds. I was young, and I was passionate. I had not the ability to see what would happen if I joined his forces. He had a stranglehold on our lives, dictating when we would do everything. Not a single pebble was moved with magic without Columnus knowing. We were killed by the Numbereds, all except for a filly, Columnus, and myself. I was lucky enough to escape from his iron grip, and have been hiding ever since.” She said. I gulped. “So you can live in Equestria now? You can go back to the Griffons?” I asked, my heart heavy with her sad story. “No. Columnus... Columnus never dies.” She said seriously. “I’m pretty sure that he is quite dead.” I said, remembering Eve splattered with crimson. “No, Edwin, you don’t understand. All of the Ghosts wanted him dead. We would plan for months, sometimes years. Then we would act. We’ve set him on fire. Boiled him, cooked him, starved him, dried him, drowned him, stretched him, flayed him, quartered him, impaled him, we even tore the muscle from his bones. We’ve crushed him and clubbed him and stabbed him and poisoned him more times than I could ever count. . Oh, his body would die, and he would not breathe anymore. We would celebrate a tyrant’s death. But a month or so later... He would be walking amongst us as if nothing had ever happened. He doesn’t live, Edwin. He endures.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:08:38+00:00

2012-02-02T04:08:38+00:00

Chapter 25 “What do you mean, he doesn’t die?” I asked. Dying was a part of life. It shaped everything, including me. Especially me. Cleo shook her head, the soft feathers on her head swaying slightly. “We never found out how he did it. One day, he would just come back and not say anything. But, those who conspired against him just... Disappeared. We would never see them again.” “What?” I asked, completely confused. Cleo shifted slightly, and sighed. “Looks like you need some back-story.” She said to herself. She continued; “When it became evident that the Numbereds were hunting Ghosts, it was not unheard of for five or six Ghosts to band together for a common defense. We deluded ourselves as a species; we thought that the Numbereds were not a significant threat to us. We were right, for a time. Almost three thousand years ago, there were only two Numbereds in Equestria. A Ghost being killed by a Numbered was a very, very rare occurrence. For about five hundred years, there was a tense peace between the two races.” Cleo said. I struggled with my now-foggy mind to see the correlation between this and Columnus. “Why only five hundred years?” I asked. Cleo opened her beak, but it was the Doctor who responded. “Do you know how old Evangeline is, Edwin?” He asked. I shook my head, responding; “I’ve never had cause to find out.” I replied. The Doctor smiled, reaching up with a hoof to adjust a monitor. It resisted, and he hit it with one of his hooves. “She will be celebrating her two-thousand, five hundred and seventh birthday as of this May.” He replied. I sat dumbly, looking from the Doctor to Cleo, them back to the Doctor, and again to Cleo. I was staring at a feather on Cleo’s head when the gears of my mind slowly meshed together and formed an answer. “Evangeline killed you.” I whispered. Cleo chucked. “No, Edwin. I was lucky. But sadly, not every Ghost was as lucky as I. Not a single creature, maybe save for Evangeline herself, knows why she decided to kill every last Ghost she could find. Maybe she saw a rouge Ghost kill a pony. Maybe she just did not like the way our species looked. Maybe, maybe, maybe. All we can do is speculate as to the cause, but the result? It is more than evident. I am one of only four Ghosts that exist in Equestria as of today.” She said, her voice growing low and somber as she finished. The Doctor coughed. I looked to him, and saw him standing with his hooves resting on the lip of the console. His neck was hunched down, as if he were holding some incredible weight on his shoulders. He turned his neck to look at me, still hunched, and began to speak. “Evangeline... She is a wonderful creature, one of the most powerful immortal beings in Equestria, if not the most powerful. She is caring, kind, and generous. But no facet of her character, no kind smiles or caring acts can atone for what she did. She systematically hunted and killed every single Ghost she could find. She led them to death like cows would be led to slaughter. Each and every Ghost she saw was just as good as dead. In her early years, however, she was too busy doing exactly the same thing to Angelics to kill Ghosts. Sadly, her rage and anger would not dissipate after she dispersed the Angelic horde. She directed her blinding xenophobia to the next best thing. “Ghosts.” I whispered. The Doctor smiled grimly. “Yes. It was genocide, plain and simple. She hunted them like you would hunt a wild animal. Surely, in her eyes, they were no better than any dangerous animal. She saw them all equally in her eyes. Scum. No matter the past deeds of a certain Ghost, however beneficiary they were to their community, she would kill them like they were beasts. Needless to say that there were Ghosts that deserved death, violent sociopaths that blindly murdered anything that they saw. But this was only a tiny fraction of the populace that was adeptly handled within their own ranks. The genocide of the Ghosts is one of the major crimes that the immortal populace of Equestria must one day atone for. If we were in your original dimension, Ed, I would not hesitate to abduct Evangeline and make her stand trial at the Shadow Proclamation.” The Doctor finished bleakly. I felt emotionally and intellectually drained. I slumped against a nearby Y-pillar, using its strength to hold me up. I shuddered. “Columnus was one of the more successful leaders, in terms of keeping Ghosts alive. He thwarted Evangeline for this entire time, almost twenty-five hundred years so far. He did... No, he still does by restricting almost all individual action, controlling the lives of the Ghosts under him with an iron grip. Nothing was done in his collective that he did not know about.” The Doctor said, dropping off in the middle of his exposition, seemingly lost in thought. “We need to go.” Cleo said. The Doctor nodded turning back to his console and raising his head. “You’re right. Let’s go.” He said, reaching up with a hoof to push a yellow square. The wooshing noise sounded through the tardis, filling me with calm. The noise was a constant. No matter what happened in the outside world, this noise would remain. The noise assuaged my troubled mind. “What’s this?” The Doctor said. There was a faint beeping on top of the noise of the moving tardis, seemingly in response to his query. “That cannot possibly be right.” He said again, but the beeping continued. The tardis was still moving, which was odd. It was usually done by now. The beeping persisted as the Doctor bounded around the console. “What is it?” Cleo asked. The Doctor shushed her angrily, and continued to poke and prod and occasionally strike the console with his hooves. The beeping did not cease, but the wooshing noise did. I was starting to grow worried. “What does it mean, Doctor?” I asked, my worry evident in my voice. “Be quiet!” The Doctor whispered angrily. The beeping continued, then stopped. He visibly relaxed, and all of the anger flowed out of his face. “You see? It worked perfectl-” The Doctor was interrupted by a shoe. A brown, shiny leather penny loafer, cleverly shaped like a pony’s hoof, rolled down the grate, passing Cleo and I. It made a dull thunk as it stopped on the other side of the Tardis. “Oh no.” The Doctor said quietly. I looked to him. The beeping started again. “No, no no no no no no NO!” He shouted, running around to the other side of the console, pushing buttons and pulling levers. He paused on the side closest to us. He leaped up with his forelegs to the lip of the console, and reached out to hover, trembling, above a red button. A red button. A red button with a yellow exclamation point. My mind slowly put the pieces together. “Don’t do it! Please, for the love of Celestia, don’t do it!” I screamed. The Doctor did not answer me, but hovered above the button as if he were grappling with some internal struggle. He looked back to me, then turned to Cleo. “I’m so sorry.” He whispered. He turned back to face the console, and pressed the button. It made an audible click as it was depressed. I was crushed, obliterated. The Doctor doomed the whole of Equestria to face certain obliteration in less than two minutes. I sat there, leaning against one of the pillars ringing the console, slack-jawed. “Why did you do it?” I whispered, feeling an overwhelming depression seep over me. The Doctor opened his mouth, but was interrupted by the all-too familiar wailing of the klaxon. The shrill alarm drove me from my stupor, and I flew from the pillar. I shot off to the Doctor, and leaning over him, grabbed him with my forelegs and shook him. “Why would you do that to me?! I had a future out there! That was my home!” I shouted, shaking the Doctor. His head connected with the console while I was doing this, and his eyes rolled back into his head. I shook him harder. “Edwin...” Cleo said, but I was too far lost in my misery and anger to stop shaking the Doctor. I felt something cold wrap its way around my waist. I was going to turn back to see it, but the cold thing squeezed around me and yanked me away from the Doctor. I flew backwards through the air, and crashed into the opposite wall with a loud bang. I hit the back of my head on the tardis wall, stunning me for a moment. I lost awareness of my loud, angry, and complicated surroundings. I my vision faded and blurred as my mind tried to keep a slippery grip on consciousness. The ringing in my ears was then overshadowed by the wailing of the siren. I opened my eyes. I was in what seemed to be a long, glass vial, covered in metal on the outside. The tube was not exactly spacious, but it was not stifling either. It had a long space on the front of it where it was not covered in metal that allowed me to see outside of the tube and into the console room. There was really nothing much different, except for the complete absence of the Doctor and Cleo. On closer examination of the outside of my tube, I found about twenty coppery metal cylinders affixed to the wall of the tardis, with a long window down the front of them. My aching head took a moment to identify them as duplicates of my tube. On further examination, I saw the Doctor and Cleo occupying their own separate cylinders. I looked at them, but I could not draw either of their attentions. I raised a hoof to bang on the window. The Doctor’s eyes immediately shot to me. “Do not attempt to exit the inertia chamber.” a cool, female voice said. “Doctor?! What’s happening?! Get me out of here!” I shouted. For a moment or two, there was no reply. “This is not a drill.” the female voice said, and continued; “You are perfectly safe. Do not attempt to exit the inertia chamber. You have been placed here for your own safety. This is not a drill.” “Doctor! Help!” I shouted, getting scared. I tried to bang on the glass again, but the Voice interrupted me. “This is not a drill. Do not attempt to exit the inertia chamber. For best probability of survival, stay as still as possible for the duration of the attack. This is not a drill.” the Voice said, tormenting me with its blissfully calm voice. I felt my hooves pulled against the wall of the tube, and I began to hear a slight hissing noise. “Prepare for compression. Aching joints, headaches, and bleeding ears are not uncommon occurrences and should not be cause for worry. Do not attempt to exit the inertia chamber. This is not a drill.” the Voice said. the hissing grew into a gigantic torrent of air, blowing my mane over my eyes. From what I could see outside of the tube, the exact same thing was happening in the other tubes. My ears popped as the pressure increased, and my head began to throb. “Ow.” “Estimated pressure for survival today is 2.34 bars per cubic half-meter. Do not attempt to exit the inertia chamber. This is not a drill.” The Voice said, and then was silent. There was no hissing. There was no noise. The Doctor and Cleo were not doing much in their chambers, just looking exactly as worried as I was. Then, it happened. Everything, every single thing in the tardis not bolted down floated into the air. I gazed in wonder out of my tube, and suddenly everything floating crashed down to the ground. I had little time to contemplate this when everything that was floating suddenly started flying into the air randomly. Shoes flew this way, wrenches flew that way, and papers floated around everywhere. “Oh, wow.” I whispered to myself. From my point of view, it looked like the inside of a snowglobe. It was beautiful in a strange, random way. I gazed in awe at my surroundings when a wrench suddenly collided with my tube. It cracked the glass, spreading a glistening spider web across the glass. “Do not attempt to exit the inertia chamber.” the Voice said, and I suddenly understood what was happening. The last traces of the ethyl bromoacetate must have expended themselves suddenly, because I saw everything in frightening clarity. The “snow” was actually meant to kill everything inside the tardis. The inertia chamber was keeping me from being killed. Flying wrenches did not take too kindly to things being in their way, and they liked to express their distaste through violence. I shrank to the back of my tube, suddenly afraid. “Depressurization detected in chamber five, bay three.” the Voice said, aware of something that I was not. Through the flying shrapnel, I saw the Doctor banging his hooves on the glass, staring at me. He was mouthing something, but I could not tell what. I could hear the slight hiss in the chamber again, but it did not turn into a torrent of air. “Pressure in chamber five dropping rapidly. Increasing pressure to 4.45 bars per cubic half-meter. Do not attempt to exit the inertia chamber.” the Voice said, and the hiss of air again turned into a gale-force wind. I looked at the Doctor’s tube again, and I could finally see what he was saying. “Get out of there!” The Doctor was saying, blinking forcefully. “Get out! It’s not safe!” I was extremely worried. I looked at the Doctor blinking, but my eyes drew me to the growing spider web of broken glass. It cracked, and then grew to a frightening size. It covered about a fourth of the window now. I looked back to the Doctor, who was still blinking. I understood. I immersed myself in the Flow, feeling the life around me. I could not feel anything outside of the tardis, but both Cleo and the Doctor were extremely strong presences. I closed my eyes and thought of Luna. I felt a chilly breeze over the gusting of the chamber, and suddenly both were gone. I opened my eyes. I was in some heavily wooded forest. I could hear wood snapping and trees falling falling over distantly, but I could not concentrate on that. Luna was bound and gagged with glowing red ropes around her hooves and midsection. She was struggling and her own horn was glowing, but apparently it was futile. There was a smallish Angelic stirring next to her, sitting on his haunches. It’s horn was glowing. I stood there for a moment, trying to comprehend the scene in front of me. Luna opened her eyes and saw me. She started wiggling with renewed vigor, making all sorts of noises. “Mmph! Mmph! Mmm!” Luna said, struggling against her magical bonds. This drew the attention of the Angelic next to her. He opened his eyes. I had no time to summon my sword before he noticed me, but I reached out with my mind and grabbed his horn. I could hear his thoughts. His thoughts. He must have been severely intelligent, because I could hear no less than nine separate trains of thought going on. I was overwhelmed by the speed, clarity, and quantity of his thoughts. The Angelic noticed me by now, and then I snapped his horn off. The thoughts immediately stopped, and the red ropes surrounding Luna slowly faded from existence. The Angelic screamed. It was loud and bloodcurdling, and it made me shiver. It wasn’t because of the intensity of the shout, but of the raw emotion behind it. He was sad. He screamed for his lost talent, a life that he would never live again. For a confusing moment, I felt sympathy for the creature. But the bout of empathy quickly passed.I tossed the horn aside, and I walked over to Luna. The Angelic stopped screaming, and he squinted at me. I paused, expecting something to happen. Nothing did, and the Angelic began to sob. I walked up to Luna, and knelt down. She spat out the gag. “Edwin, quick, we need to leave!” She whispered intently. "What do you mean? We’re all alone here.” I said normally, but the sobbing Angelic wailed and proved me wrong. She shusshed me angrily. “Don’t say anything! They have ears everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was already here!” She whisprered again. “Who?” I asked. I heard a faint rustling of leaves behind me, and Luna raised a shaking hoof to point. Her eyes widened in fear. “Him.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:16:02+00:00

2012-02-02T04:16:02+00:00

Chapter 26 I spun around to face... something. I’m not quite sure what it would be called. It was quite similar to a pegasus, in the general anatomical features. Four hooves, two eyes, one mouth, nostrils, tail, mane, wings, cutie mark. It had a light orange coat with darker orange mane and tail, and the cutie mark was a flaming lightning-bolt. But the similarities ended there. It’s teeth were arrayed into sharp triangular daggers, and they opened to reveal a long, pointed red tongue. It flicked out of it’s moist home every now and again, tasting the air around it. Strange things poked under the skin of the face, like a cat would try to poke out of a bag. It was like the muscle and bone would not quite fit under the skin. It’s eyes were the most startling shade of red that I had ever seen. It was wearing worn, brown leather saddlebags. I watched it sway slightly, almost as if it were a grim clockwork created by a depressed sadist. “You bastard.” I whispered. The Creature laughed, displaying the disgusting musculature in it’s face. “Are you surprised, Edwin? We Angelics are hunted for a reason. This,” The Creature said in a smooth voice, gesturing with a forehoof at the body that he occupied. “is one of them. Spitfire? Yes, the host’s name is Spitfire. Very good flier.” I could do nothing but shake angrily in response. My hooves wobbled under me with my rage. I delved into the depths of my mind, trying to pull out the magic held within. I struggled with my mind while the Angelic smiled with his serrated teeth. A flap on the saddlebags flipped over, and a corked glass vial floated out of it, surrounded by a glowing red aura of magic. I looked at it float up to the Angelic’s face. “We knew you would come for the Night.” He said, hissing slightly. The vial floated over to me, so I could get a better look at it. There was yellowed and faded parchment affixed to it, but the print was unreadable. It looked as if the vial were filled with heavily diluted milk. I could see things on the opposite side of it, but not very well. The Angelic began to speak as I gazed at the mysterious container. “I believe that you are intimately familiar with Manticore venom. It is very easy to make traps out of, as it is rather viscous and does not evaporate. You could spread some over the ground, or pour over branches, or even make magical triggers for it. Theoretically speaking, if one were to, say, place an zonal transposition spell on a vial of manticore venom that responded to a certain pony, it could easily be triggered by that very same pony entering a certain area. If you could lift your right forehoof, Mister Shell?” The orange Angelic inquired. I growled at it, not moving from my spot. I yelped as my entire right leg was lifted in front of me by a glowing red cloud. “Let’s not be rude, Mister Shell. Ah, there it is! I’m still proficient after all this time.” The Angelic said, and I distractedly wondered how his disturbing mouth could possibly make such smooth and controlled noises. I looked down, under my hoof, and saw broken glass. I looked closer, and saw a faded yellow piece of parchment. I gasped, looking back to the Angelic. He had a quizzical look on his face, which quickly turned into a look of desparate hunger. The tongue lolled out of his mouth as he stared at me. “Try to cast a spell. I dare you.” He whispered hungrily. I closed my eyes and searched within myself for my magic. I was extremely worried to find that it was not there at all. I looked back to the Angelic, suddenly frightened. He chuckled lightly, advancing toward me slowly. He placed an immaculately clean orange hoof in front of him, making the dry twigs and needles snap and creak under the hooves that did not belong to him. “For three hours from this exact moment, you are subject to my will. Magic, both of pegasus and unicorn, will escape you for the duration of the venom’s cycle. I can do anything that I want to. Do you know what an Compound fracture of the Large Metacarpal feels like?” He asked. I shook my head, and he smiled. I felt a pressure on my leg that was held up by the Angelic, which immediately grew to be unbearable. I grit my teeth against the strange pressure, and suddenly I heard a snap. I watched in horror as a bloody shard of bone burst out of my leg and into the open air. I screamed in extreme pain, biting my tongue. I felt hot tears running down my face as the pain in my leg immediately became excruciating. I averted my gaze from the injured limb as I felt the hot blood run down my hoof. I screamed again through my teeth. The Angelic laughed. “Compound fracture of the Large Metacarpal, severing the Deep Digital flexor nerve, rupturing a slew of vascular sub-structures, and puncturing the Soleus and Peronius Longus muscles. How are you feeling, Numbered?” He asked kindly, as if he were asking about how a child was doing in school. I spat at him. He tutted once, and the pain in my leg grew even more painful. I screamed again, shouting my torment out into the chill night air. “Stop it! Stop it, please!” Luna shouted from behind me. I was so lost in pain that I nearly forgot that she was there. The Angelic leaned to the side to look behind me, and smiled. “I’ll save you for later, Princess.” He said, low and knowing. I struggled against my bonds to try and strike the Angelic, but he flicked his eyes to me and twisted my suspended hoof lightly. I screamed again, and did not try to resist after that. The magic imprisoning my leg suddenly released me and I fell, weeping, to the ground. I felt something set itself down by my face. “I think that I am done here, for now. I would just love to torture you further, Edwin. I really would. But the affairs of Angelics do require attention. I will be back.” He said. There was a gust of wind, and suddenly the thing by my face was gone. I felt the pointy needles of the trees, the cool night air, but above all, I felt the excruciating puncture in my leg. I moaned on the cool ground while my leg throbbed. “Edwin? Edwin?” Luna asked worriedly. It was hard to concentrate on anything other than the pain, but I managed to open my eyes and look up at her standing over me. She was beautiful, even in a tragic setting as this. Brilliant pale blue mane, clean dark-blue coat, soft wings. The only thing that was amiss was the extreme worry on her face. I managed to smile through the pain. “Hey.” I said roughly, wincing as I did. She nervously smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. “Ed, I’m so sorry.” She whispered. I shook my head. “Don’t be. It’s my fault. I should have been prepared. I should have known that he would anticipate my actions. I-” I spoke, rasping slightly. Luna interrupted me. “He told me that he had you, Ed. He told me that if I came with him, that he would let you go. I believed him.” She said, a single glistening tear running down her face. It saddened me that I was the cause of this. “Luna...” I whispered. She looked up from the ground, to my eyes. “I won’t let him hurt you, Luna.” I said. She smiled. “I think that it will be me that won’t let him hurt you.” She said. I found this slightly odd, and my mind, clouded by pain, struggled to find a reason why. After a few minutes of silence, I finally touched upon what was troubling me. “They didn’t give you Manticore venom.” I stated. She nodded. “Why?” I asked. “I am needed. They can’t keep me from using magic because I carry the nocturnal cycle on my shoulders. If I were to suddenly stop using or become unable to use magic, the oceans would cease their tides, general disaster, and bad things like that. For some reason, they want Equestria intact.” She said. I grimaced as the pain in my leg was getting horrifyingly sharp. I tried to keep my body as immobile as possible while the fit subsided. Luna kept watch over me as I recovered from the attack of pain “How bad is it?” She asked, gesturing to the leg. “Please fix it.” I asked, pleading. Luna seemed to choke up as I finished my plea. “I can’t. There is something to Angelic magic that makes it extremely hard to change. The ability to heal Angelic-inflicted wounds escapes me. I’m so sorry, Ed.” She said, sobbing. My pain in making her sad was more than the pain of my shattered limb. It made me hurt even more that I could not do anything to assuage her. “Stay with me, Luna.” I asked. She looked down at me, her shining, glistening eyes staring at me with fervor. “I would never leave you.” She said. She lay down next to me, in front of my legs, and simply sat. We would occasionally speak to each other, but we were not trying to keep up a conversation. We enjoyed each other’s presence in only the way that two lovers faced by permanent separation truly could. An amount of time passed. It was both fleeting and infinite at the same time. I looked down at the bloody grass. It was my love for Luna, made manifest. I would gladly shed my blood, the fire of my very veins, if it meant that she could be safe. I would chop of my own limbs for her protection. I would protect her from every single thing that would ever wish her harm. I slowly dawned on the realization. It was not for Equestria that we Numbereds fought. Surely it was the original banner of our cause. But, each Numbered assumed their own pennant that made their own conflict with Angelics a personal one. Othello, with his love for Celestia, fought to ensure her a safe kingdom. He even died trying to protect her, even if it was from herself. Marcus fought for the promise of new life. Evangeline, whether she knew it or not, fought everything that she thought could harm Marcus. Gespard... Gespard fought to preserve the sanctity of nature, with which he was intimately linked though his gift. I fought for something more precious than all of those things combined. I fought for love. My adoration fell upon a blue alicorn, with soft wings and tender eyes. She was my world. She was everything. She was a Temple where my worship found credence. A world without her was indeed a world not worth living in. I looked up at her smooth, feminine form while I pondered both of my lives. “Luna.” I croaked. She turned away from my subtly muscled body to look at my eyes. She was so, so sad. I hated what I was about to do, but it was a necessary thing. “Luna. We did good.” I said. She started shaking her head. “Don’t say that, Ed. We still are.” She whispered, her mane bouncing slightly. “It doesn’t look good for us.” I re-iterated. She continued to single-mindedly shake her head. “No, it’s going to get better, it’s going to...” She trailed off as her eye caught something that was behind me. “Tia!” She shouted. I thought for a moment, but a gilded white hoof stepped into my field of view, killing my train of thought. “What happened?” Celestia asked. “An Angelic broke his leg, he can’t use magic, please help him!” She shouted, rising to her hind legs to grab her sister’s shoulders. I looked up at the flowing, multi-color mane. The large pony craned her neck down to look at me, and Luna let go of her shoulders to look at me as well. “Where is the Doctor?” She whispered. I struggled to remember, my mind was trying to think through blinding hope and pain. “I don’t know... He pushed the button! He trapped me inside of an Inertia chamber!” I said. The pale princess stiffened at this comment. “Then we must go help him.” She said. Her horn began to glow with a yellow aura, and my leg slowly began to twist itself into shape. I gasped as the flesh weaved itself together. I moved the hoof in question as it was done being healed. It was blissfully free of pain. I looked up at the Goddess. “Thank you.” I said. She said nothing, but walked away. I got to my hooves and followed her behind Luna. The trees bent away from us gently as we walked through the forest. “Angelics would not dare attack you two while in my presence. However, we should not tarry in the forest. We will find the Doctor, then leave immediately. If the button was pushed, we cannot trust the Tardis as a viable transport any longer.” She said, radiating purpose as she strided through the forest. The creaking of trees and the snap of broken wood became louder. “Tia, what is that noise?” Luna asked. The towering Princess paused. “I do not know, but it is even more important that we must hurry.” She said, and then began to gallop through the forest. Luna and I followed her, galloping behind,. “Tia! Slow down!” Luna begged. I wanted to agree, but my lungs would not let me. Princess Celestia was not only a Deity, but a very tall one. Her stride matched two of mine, and she soon left Luna and I in her dust. Luna could have flown to keep up with her, but she did not want to leave me alone in the forest. I could not blame her, for I was completely helpless for the next three hours. We had been running for what seemed to be the last hour. “Can’t.” She replied, elongating her strides. I sighed, or at least tried to, and continued on. I closed my eyes for a moment, allowing my running to become mechanical. I immediately ran headlong into something hard, warm, unyielding, and ticklish. I fell to the ground. I opened my eyes and looked up at Celestia’s rear end, which was explanation enough. The splintering of trees and creaking protest of wood became nearly deafening, but the harsh snap of wood was less frequent than it was before. “Oh no.” Luna said. I rubbed my eyes, and managed to stand up. I looked to where Luna and Celestia were staring, and I finally saw what elicited the response. “Oh no.” I parroted. It was the only thing that could say. Complete devastation was splayed before me. Splintered trees, wider than some of the towers in the Palace, were laying like splintered toothpicks all over the ground of a newly-created clearing. There was a good hundred foot radius of complete devastation, with splintered boughs and trunks and whole uprooted trees across the entire space. The cause of the devastation, however, was much more than apparent. There was a smallish, shiny metal box in the middle of the clearing. It was mounted into the ground with what seemed to be gigantic metal claws. It was not the cause of the destruction, but it kept the cause from flying into the air. There was a long, snaking metal tube that ran from the box. It had shiny metal cuffs spaced about every ten feet. The cuffs and rope led to a large metal claw. The claw itself looked very dangerous and sharp. But it was what it held that captivated my interest. The tardis, lying on its side, was being held lengthwise by the claw. The Tardis seemed to be doing a profound amount of nothing, but it suddenly shimmered, as if it were moving. The tubing leading to the claw immediately stiffened, and it flung the still-confined tardis to the opposite side of the clearing, making a profound crash as it did so. It was like listening to a rock slide. The tardis, now on the opposite side of the clearing, began to shimmer again. The tubing stiffened again and flung the tardis closer to us. “Move!” Celestia shouted, and threw us away from her with magic. The tardis, in the grip of the deadly claw, was flying down at her with blistering speed. I collided roughly with a tree trunk and was momentarily stunned. “Tia, No!” Luna screamed, worried for her sister’s life. There was a constricting silence for a fraction of a second. Then, there was a loud tinkling noise, almost like breaking glass. I opened my eyes and the scenery slowly focused to reveal Princess Celestia behind what seemed to be a glowing yellow semi-sphere of cracked glass. On the other side of the glass was the claw and the tardis, held at bay with her powerful magic. She turned to Luna and I, grimacing with the strain of keeping the tardis from crushing her. “Destroy the box!” She shouted, and then turned back to the tardis. The claw raised again, and then slammed back down onto the shield. The loud tinkling could be heard again, and a few shards of the magical defense fell onto the grass. I felt something prod my shoulder. It was Luna, gesturing for me to follow her. I got up and she immediately ran into the clearing. She bounded lithely over the splintered boughs and reaching branches, unfurling her wings slightly to add length to her leaps. I did my best to keep up with her, tripping over the occasional decapitated trunk. Luna beat me to the cube, but I caught up after a while. I fell onto the ground as we reached the cube, my lungs protesting my exertion “Being an earth pony sucks!” I gasped as loud as I possibly could. I raised a wobbling hoof to try to right myself, and it was successful. I walked over to where Luna was. She was leaning over the cube, looking inside of a glowing window. “What is it, Luna?” I whispered hurriedly. She said nothing, so I decided to find out myself. I leaned over the cube, which was slightly shorter than me, and through a small viewport into the inside of the machine. I gasped. "It can’t be.” I whispered in shock, looking back to Luna. A tear was bubbling on the eye facing me. “It’s terrible.” She said softly. I knew what was in there. I met it multiple times. One of the first ponies that I met in Equestria. She shared her home and her refrigerator with me when I had nowhere else to go. She helped me in my time of helplessness. Now it was my time to help her in hers. Twilight Sparkle was inside the machine.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:18:42+00:00

2012-02-02T04:18:42+00:00

Chapter 27 My skin began to grow clammy. I looked down through the small window through which the small violet unicorn could be seen. She was connected to the box by bundles of tubes and wires. The top of her head could not be seen, because she seemed to be wearing a large, heavy metal helmet. The helmet was connected to the entire box via luminescent purple wires and hoses. She seemed to be wearing a respirator of some kind. Her body had numerous electrodes attached to it, and I could barely see the wires leading away to a tiny little screen that looked like an ECG machine. She was not lying down, but was somehow keeping herself afloat in the air. The entire interior of the machine was glowing with a brilliant reddish-purple. I looked back to her head. It was almost completely covered in metal, wires, and tubes. I understood what the respirator was for. “They’re keeping her alive.” I whispered, in complete horror. I turned to Luna, who was looking at me with the same expression. “We need to save her.” She said. I nodded, and placed my hooves against the metal box. I closed my eyes and concentrated. “What are you doing, Edwin? We need to help her!” She said, taking into consideration my extreme lack of magic. “It’s something that Marcus taught me when I was originally in the Nether. We’re rather strong when we need to be. Numbereds don’t need to use magic to manipulate things, most of the time. The world around us speaks, tells us what it wants, what it needs, what it sees. Sometimes, all you need to do is listen.” I said, and I began to feel the dull pulse of the monstrous machine. It was trying to keep Twilight alive, but I had no idea why she was even in it to begin with. I ran my hooves all over the side of the cube. I paused over a certain space, feeling the swirls and eddies in the metal that formed while it was being forged. I placed my hoof over one of the whorls, and I opened my eyes. My hoof was in the upper left corner of the cube, next to one of the claws that kept it mounted in the ground. I looked back at Luna. She was staring at me with a slight longing in her eyes that I could not figure the cause of. I turned back to the vile machine, and pressed into it with my hoof. The metal was immediately caved into a bowl with a resounding thump, as if it was just hit with a baseball bat. I removed my hoof, and looked at it. Nothing bleeding, nothing hurt. I looked back to the dent in the cube and saw the impression of my hoof inside of a shallow crater. I smiled, and punched the metal with my other hoof. I was pleased to hear and feel the thick metal squeal and break, creating a puncture in the armor. I hooked my hoof through the hole, and closed my eyes again. I flicked my ears about and around, trying to hear what there was to hear. I opened my eyes in a flash. Heaving my entire body to the right, I pulled on the puncture. the metal squealed and shrieked in protest, but peeled back. I looked at it surprisedly, and then heaved my body again. The metal protested again for a second, and then let itself be pulled back the rest of the way. I unhooked my hoof from the thick sheet and stomped. My limbs felt all funny, like I was laying on them for a long time. I shook myself to get rid of the strange sensation. I looked back into the container. “Wow.” Luna said, astonished. I turned my head to look at her. “What?” I asked. “Are you sure you can’t use magic?” She asked, completely in awe of what I just did. Her expression was in complete contrast to what I felt like. I was extremely tired and afraid for my life. “What’s the big deal?” I asked, and she pointed with a hoof past me. “You just ripped a hole through two inches of steel with your bare hooves. Not many ponies can do that.” She said. I turned back to the wavy ribbon of rent metal, understanding what I just did. I turned back to Luna and tried to explain. “It’s like you... I mean, it’s... Well, Numbereds don’t have strength like normal ponies. We can be physically strong, but... Strange things happen around us. Some ponies would call it ‘good luck’ or something like that. Things usually go our way.” I tried to reason while remembering Marcus’ lecture in the Nether. Luna made a face of disbelief. “Good luck? You just tore open a solid steel container like it was cardboard box.” She said, doubting my explanation. I shrugged. “I don’t fully understand it myself, it’s just that-” I was cut off in the middle of my exposition by a pained moan. I turned to look at the imprisoned unicorn. Her hooves were twitching, and she seemed to glow brighter than before. The tether of the claw stiffened, and the tardis was thrown. She continued to moan, almost crying, like something would moan after it got punched in the stomach. I immediately rushed up to the mare. I reached up a hoof to tear off the cords and wires attached to her, but the glowing purple aura around the devices would not allow me to touch them. It wasn’t that they were causing me pain if I touched them, but they would simply not allow themselves to be touched. My hoof stopped a fraction of an inch away from the glowing purple wires. I lowered my hooves, confused. “Here, I can do it.” Luna said, navigating carefully around the sharp edges of the box. She looked down at the imprisoned unicorn, and her horn began to glow. Twilight immediately relaxed, and she slumped over the wires and cords that were her jail. The purple glow immediately left the cords, the unicorn, and the entire cramped space. Gravity took hold of her and she fell, snapping the few tubes and things that were under her. Luna turned to me after this transpired, and said; “You have three minutes until she can use magic again.” She said, and backed away from the pony. I rushed up to the periwinkle mare, ripping the machinery off of her. The electrodes fell away, followed by the dual clangs as the respirator and helmet fell off. I gasped as I could see her without her coverings. Her face was deathly pale, and one of the purple streaks in her hair seemed to have turned a solid grey. She wheezed as she inhaled. Her eyes were closed, as if she were sleeping. I paused for a moment, simply unable to comprehend what this mare went through. My bout subsided and I lifted her off of the ground and onto my back. I turned to Luna. She said nothing, but ran to the tardis. I followed as best as I could. “‘Bout time you two showed up!” The Doctor said, crawling out of the blue box. Luna and I looked at the box questioningly. “Will it still work?” I asked. Twilight wiggled lightly and muttered something on my back. The Doctor got out of the toppled tardis, brushed the dust from his shoulders, and turned back to look at it. “Not within the next hour. I need time to right it. The internal dimension is not calibrated for being on its side, and the console itself is extremely difficult to access. You would be better just teaching it to tap dance.” The Doctor said. I was about to say something, but Luna interrupted me. “Where is Cleo?” She asked. I looked to her incredulously. The Doctor did not turn away from the tardis. “She’s busy trying to get out of her chamber. It had a slight problem with the door, just a teensie bit jammed. I figured that she would be well enough on her-” He was interrupted by a voice behind Luna and I. “You’re very meddlesome, Mister Shell.” Said a flowing, masculine voice. I stiffened at once, about to turn and face him, when the Doctor said something startling to the orange Angelic that I knew to be there. “Under the authority of Equestrian Immortal Affairs Council, I invoke clause fifty-three of the Ta’eik protocol.” He said with a voice of overpowering authority. I shivered slightly as I turned my head to look at the Angelic. I could see Twilight on my back, and the Angelic doing something very odd. He was hovering in mid-air, hoof outstretched, and wings unfurled. The wings were not flapping, which placed the Angelic in the ‘odd things’ category. He seemed to be completely frozen in mid-air. I was about to turn to the Doctor to ask the obvious question when Luna beat me to it. “Why is he floating like that?” She asked, obviously afraid. “I invoked clause fifty-three of the-” “Yes, but what does that mean?” I stopped him before he could get ahead of himself. “Well, pretty much, the Ta’eik protocol is like a general assortment of restrictions and rights imposed on the immortal populace of Equestria. About twenty years ago, a strange, strange group of powerful unicorns wove a spell that when a certain sequence of words were spoken, an immortal would be either prevented from doing or become able to do something. The day after the spell was wrought, a rulebook was sent to every single immortal being in Equestria. It’s rather nice, bound in red leather, gilt trim-” “Focus.” Luna said. The Doctor looked at her for a moment, but then seemed to find his lost train of thought. “Ah. Yes, well, clause 53 specifically prohibits immortals from killing other immortals. The exact wording escapes me currently, but that is the general gist.” The Doctor said, again turning to his upended machine. He sighed heavily. “This is going to be trouble.” He muttered quietly. I turned away from the Doctor and the claw to stare at the Angelic. The body he occupied was fit, most certainly. It’s shoulder and back muscles were extremely toned, making its legs look slightly disproportionate, but barely. The orange wings were splayed outward, the flight feathers extended. I leaned in and sniffed. I was surprised by what I found, so I sniffed again. I was correct, she smelled like a campfire. I was about to turn away from it when I saw a flutter of movement out of the corner of my eye. It was another Angelic, holding Twilight’s throat in an outstretched hoof. She appeared to be conscious now, as she was grabbing at his hoof, trying to get him to let her go. The Angelic itself seemed to be very different than other Angelic I had seen before. He was tall, rather lanky. He was wearing a black leather stetson, but there was something odd about him that I could not place a hoof on. He grinned at me with perfectly white, square teeth. “Boss ain’t gonna like you runnin’ off with this here engine.” He said with a light southern drawl, giving Twilight a little shake. She coughed lightly “Tain’t yours, is it?” he added. I sneered at him. “She isn’t yours, either. Let her go!” I shouted as menacingly as I could. The Angelic shook his head, still smiling. I noticed what was different about this Angelic. He wasn’t a unicorn. “Don’t think that I will. We done burned through five engines before we found disun. Besides,” He paused, snaking a long pointed tongue out of his mouth to lick Twilight’s cheek “I kinda like how disun tastes.” He said when the tongue returned to his mouth. “Listen, Angelic, I- “Slim.” He retorted. “What?” I said, letting the rebuttal seep through my threat. “M’ name’s Slim.” “You don’t need names. You’re all the same.” Said a strong feminine voice behind me. I turned to stare at Evangeline, glowing a bright golden with luminescent white eyes. I turned back to the Angelic, Slim, who looked significantly more afraid than before. He gulped, and Twilight struggled with renewed effort. “This ain’t any a yer business, Three. This between me and ‘im. That, ‘n I got his lady right here!” He said, giving Twilight a shake. Evangeline sighed. “You must be the most ignorant and stupid Angelic that I have ever met.” Evageline said, her voice dripping impatience and hatred. She rolled her eyes, but it lost effect because her pupils were not visible. The Angelic looked at her confusedly, and Evangeline pointed to Luna in explanation. The Angelic’s expression visibly sagged. “Oh.” He said. “Yeah” Evangeline said. There was a crushing moment of silence, while everypony sized up their opponents. I dissected the scenario in my mind, flipping through multiple scenarios where Twilight would be separated from the Angelic. I decided on a course of action when Evangeline’s eyes turned red and she fired at the Angelic. The searing red beam of energy blinded me for a moment, but not for a very long time. I saw the red beam flying, and then something odd happened. It was a familiar sensation, one that I had felt before, when I almost died chasing Celestia. Reality itself seemed to warp and bend, like a wet piece of paper. I watched the beam of brilliant red shoot straight for Slim, and still following a straight line, arced away from him and flew up into the sky. I stared at this blatant disregard for the laws of physics as long as I thought that I could get away with it. Slim whistled in admiration, and wiggled his black stetson above his curvy grey mane. “It’s been quite a while, Eva. Ahm a lil’ rusty, and Ah really don’t think that I can be up fer another one a dem, least not tonight.” He said, panting lightly. As he finished, the Tardis materialized with the familiar wooshy noise. I looked back behind me, at the Claw, and I still saw the blue box in the grasp of the deadly metal phalanges. I looked between the two tardii, extremely confused. Slim sighed, and dropped Twilight into a gasping heap onto the forest floor, strewn with the broken tree limbs. “Aw, shucks. Ah suppose yew can have ‘er. That Claw is really just a one-shot deal, and I suppose it dun been fired. Besides...” He trailed off, licking his lips with his long, pointed tongue. “The best things in life are worth waitin’ fer.” He said knowingly. Twilight shuddered, and was lifted by an aura of blue magic and levitated over to Luna, Evangeline, and I. The Doctor, as if by cue, stuck his head out of the upright tardis. “I should really say, at this point, to get in the tardis, no time to explain, but that just isn’t true right now. I’m just in a hurry. Get in.” He said, and disappeared inside of the Tardis. Our small group looked at each other in confusion, and then walked over to the awaiting box. I looked over to the Angelic, Slim. “I’ll kill you next time, Slim. It’s a promise.” I said. Slim laughed and set himself down on the ground, curling up into a ball. He tilted the coal black stetson so it covered his eyes. “Ya jus might, Five. Ya jus might.” He said, and began to snore lightly. I thought about killing him for a moment, but set myself against it. No more fighting, not today. I walked into the awaiting tardis. “Good, Edwin, Let’s get a move-on. Put Miss Sparkle right in there, if you don’t mind, Luna.” The Doctor said, pointing from his console to a green inertia chamber. Twilight, surrounded by a wavering blue aura, floated inside of the machine. There was a hiss and a panel slid shut, concealing her from the rest of us. I suddenly found my surroundings too much to cope with, and my mind retreated into unconsciousness. “Ed?” Asked a voice lightly. I opened my heavy lids to see blue. I smiled and closed my eyes again, smelling oranges. “Luna...” I muttered. “What time is it?” I asked groggily. She understood the underlying meaning of my question. “You are confronting Sebastian right now, I think. The Doctor said that he would come in a few hours to come and answer some questions. You can sleep if you want to.” She recommended. I shook my head, trying to rise from the rug. I found myself to be intertwined in Luna’s wing. I smiled, knowing that she covered me with it while I was unconscious. I smiled, lying back down on the rug that was our bed. I looked at the bookshelf, and one title jumped out at me. I pulled the red tome from its happy home, and read the golden lettering on the spine as it floated over to me. “Ta’eik Protocol.” I said aloud. Luna shuffled, presumably looking at the book. “Yes, I can’t believe that I still have it. You can read it later if you want.” She said. I hummed an assent, but found something wrong. “Later? Why not now?” I asked. Luna chucked lightly, snaking a warm hoof over my side to lay across my chest. “Because I’m not intending on sharing you with anypony for the next day, book or otherwise.” She whispered into my ear. I grinned and rolled over to face Luna. She was smiling, her eyes reflecting the early morning sunlight outside of the window. “I think I like that.” “You better.” She said, and silenced me with a kiss.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:19:39+00:00

2012-02-02T04:19:39+00:00

Chapter 28 “What?” I asked incredulously. Luna looked up from her bowl of rice and her crossword puzzle. Her brow arched over her tiny half-moon glasses, and the hovering pencil next to her set itself down on one of the desks in her study. “Which clause?” She asked. I gestured to the silly red book on the low desk that I was using. “Forty-five! Seriously, how can they possibly think that that is an action that should be prevented!?” I shouted, exasperated by the sheer stupidity of the regulation. Luna got up from her desk and walked over to me. She sat down by my side, leaning over the desk to peer at the paragraph in question “‘Clause forty-five; Immortals are barred from participating in, being an accessory to, or coordinating events that involve... Tap dancing?!’ That cannot possibly be right.” Luna remarked, looking at the old red book with doubt. “It says it right there.” I reasoned. Luna harrumphed. “Well, then. I don’t know about that one...” She trailed off, losing coherency in favor of her thoughts. “Have you ever tried it? Tap dancing, that is?” I asked. Luna seemed stuck in her thoughts for a second, but finally snapped out of them to answer me. “Tap dancing?” She inquired. I nodded. “I’ve never really wanted to, I’ve been too busy. Besides, I never did like wearing shoes.” She said. I smirked at her comment. “What?” She said, noting my expression. I pointed to her set of glittery blue shoes in the corner, with her necklace and tiara on top of them. “That doesn’t count. They’re for work.” She said. I laughed once, and then turned back to the book. Luna was about to go back to her rice and copy of the Canterlot Herald when I hooked her around the waist and pulled her back to me. She protested for a moment, then snuggled up to my side. She shivered lightly. “It’s a little too cold for this time of year. I need to talk to Tia about that. How do you stay so warm?” She said, nuzzling up to my shoulder. It had been a little bit too cold for the past couple of days. I smiled, thinking of my reply. “A little blue Alicorn tends to the fire in my heart.” I muttered loud enough for Luna to hear. She giggled and leaned against me a little more. “Where you come up with those one-liners, I’ll never know. Turn the page.” She said, and I turned the yellowed sheaf over. The next clause on the list, number forty-six, was a little bit more interesting. “Immortals are barred from... Conceiving?” I asked, slightly confused. The word must have fallen out of my lexicon when I died, because the meaning of the word escaped me. I had a faint whisper of definition attached to the word, so I associated it with that. “Conceiving of what?” I asked again. Luna sighed. “Foals.” She said, almost longingly. I looked down at her. She looked up at me to meet my gaze. “We’re infertile, Edwin. We’re not sure which gender is to blame. It could be both, for all we know. But it was impossible for Immortals to beget offspring, even before the Ta’eik protocol. I’m not too sure why they put that in there...” She trailed off, looking away from me as she did so. I looked down at the book again, trying to move away from this sad subject. But, however I tried, however many more ridiculous or practical clauses that I read, I could never get anything more than a half-hearted reply from Luna. I finally had to broach the subject. “Do you want a foal?” I asked. Luna was quiet for a long while. I thought that she didn’t hear me, and I read through three more pages of the yellowed book. She replied while I was in the middle of turning a page with magic. “I do.” She whispered. I immediately stopped turning the page and looked straight ahead. I was staring at a photograph of a young Luna and Celestia. The Elder Princess had bubblegum pink hair. I found this interesting, but now was not the time to pursue the subject. “We could adopt.” I suggested. Luna curled up slightly against my side, and lifted a wing to hold me closer. I felt the strong feathers pull me closer to Luna. “I have. We have. Celestia and I both.” She said. I said nothing, but raised a hoof to place it on Luna’s shoulder opposite from me. “It’s so hard, Edwin. Their lives are so short. Fleeting. I can’t bear to watch another foal reach adulthood, have their own foals, then wither and die while I remain unchanging day after day. It’s... Heartbreaking, Edwin.” She said. She started to sob, and I turned away from the book so I could hold her. She trembled in my arms as I tried to help her calm down. I heard a knocking at the door. “Go away!” I said as loudly as I could. The knocking stopped for a moment, but then continued again. I was extremely irritated, and stayed by Luna’s side. I sat with Luna for a long while until her sobs dissolved into soft whimpers. I was still loathe to let her go, but I was afraid that the pony would knock down the door. I got up and stepped over the desk to get to the door. I summoned my sword silently, not allowing it to hum. I was extremely angry at this pony on the other side of the door. I pushed the door open and pointed my sword in the face of the pony that was there. There was a sharp clatter as the tray that she was carrying with magic dropped. She was a unicorn, with a dark grey coat and electric blue eyes. She was wearing a silver helm, decorated with black stenciling. She wore a black scarf. She was obviously scared, she was shaking with my sword in front of her face. “What do you want?” I asked as menacing as I possibly could. The mare gulped. “C-Captain A-Antony wishes to see you.” She stuttered. “No.” I replied calmly, removing my sword from the mare’s face. She relaxed visibly. “B-But-” “Tell him I’m busy. I have more important things to attend to.” I said, and turned away from the pony. “What shall I tell him you are busy doing?” She asked. I stopped walking back to Luna for a second, and thought. I half-turned to look at the mare. “Whatever you think he will believe. I’m too busy right now to tend to my Captain duties.” I said while closing the door with magic, cutting off the protests of the mare. I turned to Luna, and saw that she was staring intently at the Ta’eik protocol. I walked up to her from the opposite side of the desk and leaned over to read one of the clauses. “Fifty-nine is interesting.” Luna said. I looked at the clause. “I’m sorry, Luna. I didn’t know that it was such a sensitive topic.” I apologized. Luna said nothing, so I left the subject for dead and read clause fifty-nine. Clause 59 of the Ta’eik protocol. -Immortals, through inaction, neglect, intentional or unintentional action, cannot allow a member of a mortal race (earth, pegasus, unicorn, inclusive) to come to harm; or allow another Immortal not under the authority of the Protocol to injure or otherwise harm a member of an aforementioned mortal race. I finished reading the clause. It was rather short, comparatively. Some of the other clauses took up an entire page or more. This seemed linguistically spartan. “Othello made up a name for that one when we got the rulebook.” Luna said. I raised my brows, and she looked up to me. “He thought that it was so familiar to what he said to new Numbereds that he called it ‘The Numbered clause.’. It never really stuck, but I thought that it was funny.” Luna said. I could see the tracks of her earlier tears glistening on her now indifferent face. I felt a pang of sympathy, then an overwhelming difference of age between the two of us. But, maybe unsurprisingly, love did find a way. “I love you, Luna.” I said. Luna smiled, and her eyes softened. “I love you too, Ed.” She said, and then her stomach growled loudly. “Do you want to go get some breakfast?” She asked. I thought about this for a moment, but my stomach growled in agreement. “Okay, but then I need to sleep. I haven’t slept in days.” I qualified. Luna smiled. “You’re adorable when you sleep.” She said with a seductive air about her. I felt my ear-tips grow warm as Luna got up to walk out of the door. Her tail swished as she walked, suffusing the air with the faint scent of oranges. I began to salivate slightly. “That’s not fair, Luna.” I commented. “I know.” She replied, and walked out of the door. “I really don’t want to go in there. Can you just grab me some peaches and-” I said, trying to get away from the gigantic wooden doors of the dining hall. Luna lifting me with magic and carrying me in made that task even harder to achieve. I tried to swim through the magic away from the door, but I might have well have been trying to tap dance for all the good it would do me. “No. If you want peaches, you are going to have to go get them yourself.” she interrupted me before I could gain any logical leeway. I sighed and slumped in my magical prison of bluish magic. Luna carried me inside of the hall, and she was met by a wave of bowing. She paid them no mind, but continued to walk to the front of the hall. Practically all of the ponies did not pay me one single bit of attention, as if I was not there. I felt grateful. I would have died of embarrassment if somepony noticed me getting colthandled like this. Luna continued up the aisle with me in tow without incident, and she approached the table laden with food. A tan pony that I recognized from my last time in the Dining hall approached Luna. When he was within reasonable distance, he bowed. “Princess! It is always an honor.” He said, getting up from his kneeling position. “Likewise, Candide. What is the special for today?” She asked. Candide, as I now knew to be the tan colt, smiled. “Ah, dandelion sandwiches with just a slight hint of mustard. I was out picking some of them in the fields myself earlier this morning, and I can assure you that they are delectable.” He said, his voice overflowing with enthusiasm. Luna seemed to appreciate what he said. “My favorite. One each for Edwin and myself, please.” She leaned in, and gestured for the colt to do the same. “Three peaches, in addition. I would appreciate if you could send somepony to deliver them to my quarters. I have a guest that needs attending to.” She said. Candide nodded, and turned to walk off to one of the doors behind the table. Luna turned and walked down the hall. We were silent for a moment. “I was unaware that we had a guest.” I said. Luna chuckled once. “He isn’t one for appointments, to be sure. I only just now sensed him in our room.” She said, and I smiled. “Our room” I stated. Luna looked up at me, floating in the cloud of her magic. “Yes, I like the sound of it, too. I thought that the Doctor would appreciate a peach, which is why I asked for three. He’s allergic to dandelions, however.” She said. “Huh. Why is he in... Our room?” I said, still mulling over the unfamiliar usage of the word. I really did like it. “He and I spoke after you lost consciousness. We agreed that he should come over and answer any questions that you may have after you recovered.” She said. I wiggled. “Can you let me down?” I asked. “No.” “Why?” “Because I rather like it. Being in control of such a powerful stallion...” She trailed off, listing to the left. I let her daydream, and watched her collide with a large maroon pony with a mouthful of sandwich. I laughed silently as they exchanged embarrassed apologies. Luna continued on to the end of the hall, stepping through the ornate entryway. She dropped me with her magic, and I walked a little bit shakily. “I’m not all that I’m cracked up to be, you know.” I said, trying to figure out which hoof went where. I was not succeeding. “I think that you are. Have you ever noticed how ponies react when they see you?” “No.” “To turn a phrase, you make waves. Your presence does not go unnoticed. Ponies stop and stare when you enter a room, if even for just a moment.” Luna explained. “What?” “The air around you smells like ozone.” She said. I sniffed, unable to smell anything. Luna made an amused harrumph. “Trust me.” She said. I did not reply, but contented myself with siding up beside of her and walking back to our room. I pushed open the door to our room, and was not the least bit surprised to see the Doctor sitting in front of his majestic blue box. He had an shiny silver pocketwatch open on the floor in front of him. He looked up at us when we entered. “It’s good to see you lot.” He said, motioning for us to sit down. I could not help but feel that this gesture had somewhat of a formal connotation to it. Luna and I did as instructed and walked up to the Doctor. When we finished, he reached out with a hoof to push the watch away from himself. It clattered as it crashed into the wall. “The Angelics are becoming even more powerful, even more diverse. They have mastered forms of magic that should not even exist, let alone be used. I can understand if you would have any questions, and I am here to answer them. An informed decision is almost always the best one.” He said. Luna and I were silent for a moment, but then a question immediately sprang to mind. “The claw.” I said. The Doctor nodded. “I was extremely surprised to see one intact in this dimension. They were Dalek machines from the Time War. I have absolutely no idea how the Angelics managed to get their grubby little hooves on one.” He said. I was slightly confused still. “Why did you teleport into it, if you knew it was so dangerous?” Luna asked. The Doctor smiled. “Therein lies the reason why the claw is so dangerous. It can actually intercept the course of a Tardis and compel it to land within reach of the claw. Edwin, the shoe moving was actually the herald to the Claw picking the tardis up.” The Doctor said. “Why did you push the Panic button?” I asked. “The Panic button’s purpose is exactly what the name implies: You only press it when you panic. The Tardis’ internal computer banks constantly monitor my actions and goes through logged past actions to determine the course of action that it would take, given the chance, in order to preserve the safety of the occupants and the safety of the vehicle itself. A very tricky piece of machinery. When the button is pushed, the tardis overrides the manual control surfaces and gives the main computing banks full reign of the Tardis. It is a rather risky thing to do, because the Tardis could do something that it deemed to be safe, but was in fact extremely risky and dangerous. I pushed the button because I was afraid.” The Doctor gulped, then continued to speak. “I... I was scared for my life, Edwin. I didn’t want to die.” He whispered, his head hung low. I did not ask him another question, because I could see that he was distressed. Luna did the same, and the two of us waited for him to recover. When he did, Luna decided to ask the next question. “The Angelic that was with me when Edwin found me... He was extremely skilled, mentally.” She stated. “Yes.” The Doctor confirmed. “Then why was he assigned to look after me? And how did the other Angelic find Edwin and I so quickly?” She inquired. The Doctor sighed, and raised a hoof to rub the space between his eyes. “The Angelics have a very intriguing evolutionary mechanism which is a very recent development in the species, about three thousand years in the making. Evangeline saw a very primitive iteration of the trait. Angelics have the very strange inclination to be creatures of a ‘hive’, so to speak. They can share each other’s thoughts to a limited degree, and the Angelic watching you, Luna, was a sort of ‘hub’ for the local hivemind system. Due to his extremely sharp and clear mind, he was able to boost the range of the hivemind to a radius of nearly ten miles. When Edwin snapped his horn off, every Angelic within ten miles knew that something was happening. You two are lucky that it was only the one Angelic.” He explained. I could hear a knocking at the door. “Ah, that will be the waiter, I do think.” The Doctor said, getting up. Luna turned to get the door, but the Doctor got up to leave. He was halfway to the door of the tardis when I stopped him. “Where are you going?” I asked, halting the Doctor as he placed his hoof on the door. He paused for a moment. “I don’t know.” “What?” I asked. “That’s the thing about adventures, Edwin. You never know where they end up.” He reasoned, walking into the tardis.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:21:36+00:00

2012-02-02T04:21:36+00:00

Chapter 29 I sat and watched the Doctor enter his tardis. I sighed. Would I ever understand him? Would I even live long enough to be able to? These questions of mortality assailed my immortal mind. Meanwhile, Luna was taking to the mare that delivered our food. They exchanged formalities, and then the mare went off to go do something else. Luna softly closed the door, and I turned to face her. She was levitating the tray with magic, and I could see the two sandwiches and three peaches sitting on the tray. She looked somewhat surprised. “Where did the Doctor go?” She asked. I shrugged. “He didn’t tell you?” She asked, placing the tray off to the side. “He didn’t tell me because he apparently did not know.” I explained. Luna smiled, walking closer to me. “He often does that. The Guard companies are having a meeting later and it is mandatory for you to be in attendance, so you should probably go find your scarf.” She said, arriving in front of me. “What scarf?” I asked. I did not remember ever owning a scarf in Equestria. Luna seemed somewhat shocked. “Lieutenant Dash never gave you your Captain’s scarf?” She inquired. The memory dawned on me of the shiny golden scarf that the Lieutenant gave me. I struggled to remember where I left it. I opened myself to the Flow and conjured an image of the scarf. I could feel something soft brush against my neck, and then tighten. I opened my eyes and looked down at my neck. There it was, the golden scarf, tied loosely around my neck. “Cool.” I said. Luna giggled. I was about to walk over to get the peaches on the tray when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. I gasped and nearly fell, but Luna ran up to catch me. My shoulder was throbbing, and I could barely set any weight on it. “What happened?” she asked, startled. I clenched my teeth. “It’s the one that got hurt.” I said, gasping. “Is it getting worse?” She inquired worriedly. “No, just set me down, it’ll go away.” I said, feeling the hoof on the injured leg shake slightly. Luna picked me up with magic and opened a door to the bedroom. She set me down on the big ovoid depression in the floor that was filled with pillows. I layed down on the soft surface and waited for the fit to subside. Luna stared at me intently the entire time. It took a good ten minutes for it to go away. “Ow.” I said. “How long has this been happening?” Luna asked. “That was the first time it ever happened.” I said. I got up shakily, testing the injured leg before I sat up. Luna scooted up next to me on my injured side and looked at my injured shoulder. “Want me to take a look at it?” She asked. I looked at her with a surprised expression. “Are you a doctor?” I responded. She laughed and shook her head. “No. In my younger years I was rather bored with being a Goddess, so I decided to go to a college. I picked the massage therapy major at Canterlot University, and two years later I became a registered masseuse.” She said. “Huh.” “Yes, It was a strange choice, but I was young. I tried my hoof at owning my own... Masseusery? I’m almost quite certain that that is the wrong word for it, but every pony that came in felt that it would be wrong to get a massage from their Deity. So, I turned away from that and became a Goddess once again. It was an interesting sabbatical, to say the least.” She said. “Huh.” I said. Luna rubbed her hooves together and started to rub my shoulder. It immediately became better, and my tension seemed to be pushed away under her skilled hooves. “You’re very talented, Luna.” I remarked. It felt amazing, and Luna smiled. “You’re very biased, Edwin, but thank you.” She said. She leaned into my shoulder, and a particularly stubborn knot was massaged into oblivion. I nearly fell over, but then there was a knocking at the door. Luna removed her hooves from my shoulder, and I got up to open the door. I put a hoof on the door, but I hesitated. I turned back to Luna, and then she smiled. “Go on, then.” She said, and I pushed the door open to see Antony with a hoof half-raised. “Oh.” I said, feeling somewhat guilty. He nodded. “Do you know who I just got finished speaking to?” He asked accusingly. I shook my head. “Lieutenant Drizzle of the rear fifteenth. She told me that Captain Shell could not come and speak to me because, I quote, ‘He is fighting a pan-dimensional Hyperboar that spontaneously appeared in his quarters.’” “She’s a terrible liar.” I commented. Antony nodded “I felt the need to come and help you excise the ‘pan-dimensional Hyperboar’ from your quarters if that was indeed true, and found you alone with a Princess in her bedquarters. Now, if you are too busy... Personally... To come and talk to me, just say so. But do not lie to me, Edwin.” “Oh, we weren’t- I mean- We were just-” I rambled as I felt my ear tips grow warm. “You blush like a stoplight, Edwin. Just come with me, we need to get you in order for the meeting.” He said. He leaned over my shoulder. “Is it alright with you if I borrow Edwin for the next few hours, Princess?” He asked respectfully. “Yes, It’s perfectly fine.” She said in an embarrassed fashion. Antony nodded his head and turned from me. I had no choice but to follow him through the study. I stopped him before we could get into the hallway. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t come earlier, Antony, but I was-” “I don’t really care what you were doing, Edwin. I’m just glad that you aren’t impaled on the tusk of a ‘pan-dimensional Hyperboar’” He said somewhat sarcastically. “Look, I’m really sorry that-” “It doesn’t matter now, Edwin. We need to get you your armor and get you to the formal meeting room.” He said as he walked out of the door. I could see Lieutenant Drizzle with her silver helm and blue eyes, and Second Lieutenant Soarin’. “Captain Shell.” Soarin’ said, nodding. “Soarin’.” I replied. Our entourage preceded down the hall. without any more fanfare. I noted the absence of Lieutenant Dash, which struck me as odd. “Where is Lieutenant Dash?” I asked of Soarin’. “She asked for today off nearly three years in advance. A birthday of one of her friends down in Ponyville.” He explained. I nodded. We walked down the halls for much longer, then we reached a junction on the hallway. Soarin’ bumped into me as we turned, and I looked at him to apologize. He was staring at me intently. “What happened to Spitfire?” He whispered hurriedly. I was too shocked to answer immediately. “What?” “We all know she’s gone. I want to know why.” He continued in a hushed tone. I gulped, not prepared for this. Soarin’ blinked, then looked at the floor. “She would tell us. If she was going to leave. She isn’t like that, just up and fly away. She would tell us.” he repeated. He looked up, making eye contact with me “She would tell me.” He corrected. I blinked, suddenly understanding. He needed to know because it was personal. “She didn’t leave because she wanted to. Something made her.” I whispered back. Soarin’ shook his head. “She would have told me if it was like that.” He retorted. I thought about this for a second, not sure how much he was allowed to know. “I could tell you, but then you would be in danger.” I said, extremely hurriedly. Soarin’s expression melted into extreme confusion. “What?” He asked. “Every single pony that I have ever talked to is in danger. Did you hear any rumors about Princess Luna last night?” I asked. “Yes, but they were all completely made up. None of them could possibly be-” “She was kidnapped.” I replied, and Soarin’s mouth fell open. “I thought-” “I will tell you eventually. But, Soarin’...” I trailed off. “What?” “Trust nopony. I can’t tell you anything else, so don’t ask.” I said. He did as I advised and did not ask me anything else. I could see Antony talking to Lieutenant Drizzle, but they were doing so in hushed tones. I looked at Drizzle a little bit closer than before. She was a Unicorn, with a grey coat, just a little bit darker than Antony. She had a bouncy mane and tail, and both of them had pale grey highlights. I couldn’t see her cutie mark very well, but I could safely assume from what I saw of it that it looked like a cloud. I found this to be interesting, because most of the cloud cutie marks that I have seen were on pegasi. I thought about this as we continued to walk. “Edwin?” Antony asked, turning his head to look at me. I looked at him, expecting a response. “Would you say that you are... averse to bearing heavy loads? How much weight can you lift?” He asked. I pondered this. “I think that I could if I needed to, but I would rather not. I don’t know pony units of weight, so I can’t really answer very well.” I said. Antony glanced to lieutenant Drizzle, and she shrugged. Antony rolled his eyes in a here-we-go kind of way. “The smaller set will do.” He mumbled to himself. He rounded a corner and we were in front of two large doors. They were quite like the doors to the dining hall, but they were made out of metal. “Where are we, Antony?” I asked. “The Armory.” He said. There was a small round hole in the door at about shoulder level. Antony raised a hoof and put it inside of the hole. The doors made a gigantic, resounding boom, and then creaked open. Antony gestured me inside, leaving Drizzle and Soarin’ outside. Antony pushed the doors closed with another loud bang. “Wow.” I said. “Yeah.” Antony agreed, looking around at the scenery. The Armory was not as big as the dining hall, but it was certainly as tall. Gleaming helms and plates of armor filled the tall shelves to the ceiling. There was the occasional spear, the rare sword, but the majority of equipment was armor. Antony began to walk down the hall, and I hurried to keep up. I spied a small shelf full of many dirty, small glass bottles. They were all corked and had paper labels affixed to them. I stopped following Antony and examined one of the larger bottles. It was filled with a bright orange substance, and I raised a hoof to poke it. It stuck to the opposite side of the container, like cold honey would. I tried to read the label on the bottle. It was in a flowing script, and had a few too many e’s, but I managed to read it “Dragon’s blood...” I said out loud. I immediately heard a sharp clatter behind me, like metal hitting the floor. I turned to see Antony rushing up to me. He grabbed me with his hooves and pulled me away from the bottles. “Don’t do that! You do not want to touch those.” He cautioned. I looked at the unassuming bottles of liquids and smirked. “But they’re just-” “Incredibly dangerous. Let’s get away from them as fast as we can.” He retorted hurriedly, pulling me away from the unassuming shelf as quickly as possible. I got the gist after a few feet and walked of my own volition. Walking through the confined hallway, I soon forgot about the strange bottles in exchange for all of the other mysteries of the Armory. I noticed one thing to be missing from the grand hall of shiny things. “There aren’t many weapons.” “Mmhm.” He said. “Why” I delved further. He sighed. “Ponies aren’t a very aggressive race, on the whole. That, and most ponies that can use weapons usually have offensive magics of their own.” He said, as if that was summary enough. It was not, but I held my tongue. We continued to walk through the shiny halls. “How much longer, Antony?” I whined. He gestured to a shiny golden door to my left that was hiding behind an adventurous shelf of helms. “There.” Antony replied. I walked up to the door and pushed it open. It slid open on well-oiled hinges and revealed two pony mannequins on stands. They themselves were rather plain and dusty, but they were wearing... something. It made them look dignified, nearly frightening. One of them was wearing golden plates, silver mail, and was gilded from head to toe. The other one was a little bit less gaudy. It was made entirely of blued steel, with light silver trim. The silver trim, almost stenciling, was thin and woven together into curves and gentle loops. There was a large shoulder plate with nothing but a silver crescent moon on it. “You want me to wear all of this?!” I asked. The amount of metal on this little manniquin made me wonder why the little beam under it didn’t snap under the weight. “No, only the left shoulder and the helm.” He replied. I shrugged and unlaced the left shoulder of the suit and set it down on the floor. I donned the helm, and felt the weight of the protection. “Why do I have to wear these?” I inquired as I figured out how to put on the shoulder. “The monthly meeting of the Royal Guard is a formal affair. We don’t have much in the way of cloth uniforms, so we make due with armor instead.” He explained. I was belting on the last brown leather strap of the plating as Antony finished. I looked up to him, and was nearly blinded by the reflections of the perfect surfaces. “Wow.” I exclaimed. “I could say the same. It suits you.” He remarked. “Really?” “Yep. Take a look.” He said. I turned around and looked at one of the heavily dusted mirrors in the room. I looked pretty good. The helm was completely different than the other ones that I have seen, it was kind of pointy. It had two pointed bars ending just before the end of my jaw, and there was no plume. It did not have as much stenciling as the other peices of the suit did, but it had its fair share. I turned to Antony and he smiled lazily. “Time to go.” Antony said, and started to clang out of the room. “I don’t want to walk back, grab my mane.” I said. He blushed. “Edwin, You aren’t really my-” “Shut up and grab my mane.” I replied. He walked over to me, and reached out to grab a mouthful of my mane. As soon as I was satisfied that he had a good hold, I thought of Second Lieutenant Soarin’. The cool breeze was joined by the windchime-like tinkling of Antony’s chainmail. I opened my eyes to see a shocked Soarin’ and Drizzle sitting in front of a square of parchment. Lieutenant Drizzle’s horn began to glow green and the parchment immediately disappeared in a puff of red smoke. She began to cough heavily. Soarin’ patted her on the back and she got better. “Let’s go. It would be horrible to be late to our own party.” Antony said, and galloped down the hall. We all followed him down the lush purple halls. “Here.” He said, stopping in front of a statue. It was of a rearing pony wearing armor not unlike Antony’s. Antony hopped up on the dais that the statue’s plinth was sitting on. He walked behind it an was about to raise a hoof t knock on the wall when he turned to us. “You three might want to get up here.” He blurbed. The three of us hesitated, but then ascended the platform. Antony grinned, then he knocked on the door once. The response was three knocks, and he replied in kind with four knocks. The entire floor shifted under me and began to turn. I wobbled and saw that the entire wall was turning as well. I watched as an entire room became visible, filled with ponies in various types of armor. Antony walked around the stature and off the dais into the dark room. It looked much like the other meeting room that I had seen, except that it was much bigger, and there was seating past the first row of chairs. Antony gestured to the front of a large table nearest us, and I walked with him to meet it. Soarin’ and Drizzle broke apart to sit on opposite sides of the table. Antony sat down, and gestured for me to do the same. There was a large, flat, rectangular stone on top of the table, which was littered with various maps. Antony lifted a small marble cube that was by his feet with magic, and slammed it down onto the flat stone on the table, making an extremely loud bang. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but managed to control myself. Antony started to declare in a loud, authoritative voice; “I call this meeting of the Equestrian Royal Guard Corps to order.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:23:58+00:00

2012-02-02T04:23:58+00:00

Chapter 30 Antony’s horn began to glow as soon as he set the small marble cube next to his feet. Two stacks of paper to the right of the small stone slab were surrounded bu a light lavender aura and floated off of the short table. One stack floated over to me, while the other stack floated over to Antony. The stack that was in front of me separated into nine different smaller stacks and were showed to me. They just sat there, hovering in front of me, so I decided to read the middle sheaf. Joint report by fifth and fifteenth companies, respectively. The cliff on which Canterlot and the palace are situated has become unstable after the battle of the Dragon. Many of the citizens of Canterlot have been evacuated to nearby cities or have been lodged with relatives until the portion of rock removed from the face can be returned to its original position. The estimated time for this project is three weeks, barring interruptions and other unforeseen circumstances. The public brief cites political extremists wishing a change of government in the palace. We would suggest- I could not read the rest of the report because another piece of paper was placed in front of it. It was a hastily written note. Edwin- I am holding these reports for you because Princess Celestia and I have decided that it is to our advantage if as few ponies as possible know that you are more than you appear. Try not to do anything that an earth pony would not do, eg., flying, picking things up with magic, lightning. Try to look as serious as possible. There are some ponies with every long memories and it would be a bad choice to offend them by looking bored. P.S. You don’t really need to read any of these reports, it’s only your first meeting. I reached up to push the note away, and it fluttered away from me. I tried to read the other reports because I was actually interested in most of them. They talked about everything that could possibly be going on in the palace, from vegetable shipments to possible spies. My eye caught one that was entirely about sugar prices per pound in Canterlot markets compared to other cities. It made me laugh a little. Suddenly, the papers all turned so that they were facing the ceiling instead of me, and floated back into one pile. It was joined by Antony’s stack of papers and they both floated back onto the table in front of us. Antony raised a hoof to clear his throat. “Reports of the Rear guard companies in sequential order.” He declaimed. A small brown pony at about the middle of the table wearing silvery armor stood. He raised a hoof to touch a lone piece of paper in front of him. He peered down at it questioningly. “Report of Lieutenant Flick on behalf of First rear. The Princesses are travelling to Salt Lick City later this week to attend a funeral of a prominent scholar, and they have requested the forward third airborne and Captain Shell to accompany them. They plan on travelling ahead of time by wing but intend on leaving a false trail that they will travel by train. When they arrive-” Lieutenant Flick rambled on for a while about the ins and outs of the Princesses arrive and all the places they plan on going to, all of everything that could possibly happen, contingency plans, etc. It was extremely boring. I tried my best to keep up appearances and appear interested, and was pleased to find out that I would be making a trip to another city. I hadn’t seen new ponies in a while, and I was happy to know that I would be seeing more. Sometimes I forgot that I was a pony, and during those times I found the shapes and colors of these alien beings fascinating, even if it was only for a moment. I sighed happily. The report from the second company passed quickly, followed by the third, fourth, and fifth. The sixth company report was the one about the sugar prices. I smiled when I heard the big maroon colt talk in the most serious air about rising sugar and confectionery prices. Then followed the report by the next few companies, and then it was time for the fifteenth company to finally give their report. Lieutenant Drizzle stood up. She did not have any papers or reference materials that she was preparing or shuffling into order, which was odd. Every other Lieutenant had some kind of notes. Drizzle coughed, and then began to speak “On behalf of the Fifteenth rear I opt out of presenting my report in public due to the sensitive information it contains. I will deliver it in private, Captain Bladesinger.” She said, and then sat down. The Lieutenants all started talking to each other at her statement, gesturing to embellish their comments. Antony lifted the marble cube and slammed it into the flat stone rectangle. All of the ponies immediately stopped talking and stared at Antony. He stood up and placed his hooves on the edge of the table. “I will have order. Another outburst and I will adjourn this meeting immediately.” He said, his voice filled with overpowering authority. He paused and allowed this statement to settle amongst the ponies. After a moment or so, Antony got down from the edge of the table. “I give Captain Shell the floor.” Antony said, and passed me a small piece of paper. I looked at it, and I could see that they were instructions. “Reports of the... Forward guard companies in sequential order.” I said. A large green pony stood up. I had to look at him a second time because I could not believe how big he was. “Lieutenant Ryo of the Forward first.” The green pony grumbled, his voice like gravel. I was slightly worried for the small mare sitting next to him. His gravelly voice was so intimidating that I could barely pay attention to what he was saying. When he was done, a small purplish-pink mare next to him stood. She was a unicorn, and I couldn’t see her cutie mark very well. I looked closer and I could see that she was the only pony in the room wearing a jet black scarf “Lieutenant Pix of the Forward second.” She said in a high, lilting voice. She then went on to describe information that various guards have collected stationed all around Equestria. The realization dawned on me that the forward Second was the company that was in charge of espionage. I mulled this over in my head and listened intently to what she had to say. According to her information, if it was anything to go on, the ponies in Cloudsdale were the most affected by Angelics. She of course did not refer to it outright, but skirted around that conclusion, as if she did not know what Angelics were. I thought about it, and decided that that could be a very real possibility. She said that many ponies were not following regular routines, many ponies had quit their jobs recently, many ponies were acting strangely, many ponies had lapses in memory. She attributed these symptoms to a mysterious illness. I interrupted her. “Have any of the guards stationed in Cloudsdale suffered similar... Symptoms?” I inquired. She paused for a second. “To my knowledge there is only one.” She said. “I would like to see the pegasus in question. Come see me after the meeting.” I said. She nodded, and then hesitated to begin her report again. I waved a hoof for her to continue. The rest of the report was a quick summary of events in the other large Equestrian cities. She was done, and then she sat back down. Soarin was next in line, but he paused a moment while he got his papers into order. It was a sizable pile of documents, but I had the feeling that he was not going to use them much. He stood. “Second lieutenant Soarin of the Forward third. Lieutenant Dash has requested a personal day.” He started, placing a hoof down on his notes. “Our company was an active combatant along with the forward ninth during the battle of the Dragon. I cannot speak for Ninth company, but the Third suffered no casualties. Only one pony was wounded. Ensign Breckan was scraped up and had a very sore throat from screaming too loudly.” He concluded, much to the amusement of the other guards. He tilted his head and screwed up his face, like he was thinking of something. It almost seemed as if something pained him, and he was reluctant to speak it. “We have also suffered the loss of Second Lieutenant Spitfire, who has not appeared to her station or her shift today. Furthermore, as of last night, she was under armed guard to remain in her quarters by order of Captain Bladesinger. My sources inform me that she was to be kept there until released by a ranking officer. Captain Bladesinger, to my knowledge, never did find Spitfire in her quarters, but four of his most talented unicorns unconscious lying next to the splintered remains of the door. Those of you that know Second Lieutenant Spitfire personally know that she does not have the physical strength to do something like this.” Soarin reasoned aloud, looking around at the ponies. His statement was met my soft murmurs and nods. “I have nothing left to say, so I will surrender the floor to the next report.” Soarin said, and then sat. His report was the shortest, but he said the most with his words. He sewed seeds of doubt in the room, which was his revenge for me not answering his question properly. The next Lieutenant stood, gave his report, and sat down. This happened twelve more times with absolutely no fanfare. The remaining ponies talked about the battle of thee Dragon, mostly. The fifth and fifteenth companies did their report together, talking about their reconstruction efforts in regard to the cliff. They had an entire team of ponies trying to find a spell that could attach rock to rock, and they had another team of unicorns whose job it was just to pick up heavy rocks. I found it to be rather interesting. Once the ponies were all seated and their reports were done, Antony stood to speak. “I will not be flip and say that the past few weeks have been calm. The past few weeks have in fact been the most dangerous, at least for me. We have had a group of unknown purpose and motive target the Royal sisters, and we have done our best to thwart them. Captain Shell,” Antony gestured to me “Has in fact earned his mantle by protecting the Princesses with his nearly dying breath. I have made my own sacrifices in the past weeks, as have all of you. But I hope that all of you will continue to do such in future, as you have done countless times when our palace is under threat of attack. I now open the floor to questions and concerns. Stand to be recognized.” Antony said, and then sat down. There was a moment’s hesitation, and then one of the rear Lieutenants stood. He was the Lieutenant of the Sixth, the gigantic maroon colt. “Captain Shell, I wish to make an inquiry of you.” He said. I nodded. “How long have you been a Guard?” He inquired. I sniffled. “A few days.” I answered. The Guards around him seemed to find this outrageous, and displayed their emotions openly. “And you have been a Captain for... How much of this time?” He asked. “All of it.” I said. The ponies around the colt again found this outrageous, and whispered comments to each other. The Lieutenant smiled just a smidge. “Those are all the questions I have, Captain.” He said. He sat, and many of the ponies around him pestered him to answer their questions. He waved them off with a large maroon hoof, and they immediately fell silent. I could see how the ponies around the nameless Lieutenant respected him. I smiled, and then Lieutenant Ryo stood. “Captain Shell, I also have a question for you, if you would like to answer it.” The Lieutenant said in his gravelly voice. “We won’t know unless you ask it.” I replied. Ryo made an amused sigh. “Captain Shell, The question I am about to ask is in the minds of many officers in this room, as well as in my own. You seem to be an... Earth pony, am I correct?” “Yes, I am.” “And you have only been a guard for the past few days, am I correct?” Ryo queried. “Two for two.” “Then, the question becomes apparent. What exactly are your qualifications for being a Guard of such a high rank?” He asked. I sniffled again, smelling something odd. “Are Earth ponies barred from holding such an office?” I asked. “No, but to my knowledge, not a single Earth pony has ever held that office in the entire illustrious history of the Royal Guard.” Ryo explained with a certain diminutive bearing in his voice. “What are you saying, Ryo?” I asked, leaning forward from my seat. “I am saying that you have no business sitting where you do, wearing that helm. I call that you be removed from your station and stripped of your title, rank, and all accompanying privilges.” Ryo said, and all of the ponies around him started talking amongst themselves, decrying how shocking it was that such a pony could hold such an office without question for so long, and how one pony had finally questioned it. Antony nudged the marble cube over to me, but I pushed it back to him, content with waiting for the babble to subside. It didn’t. The whispers and hushed comments soon escalated into a full blown altrication, with insults and accusations hurled like stones to either side of the room. It was my opinion that the only thing keeping them from strangling each other was the table that kept them physically separated. One pony was actually about to throw a heavy scroll of parchment at particularly impassioned pony on the other side of the room when I found that the argument had to stop. I stood and calmly walked up to the flat stone on it, and waited for a moment. I suddenly felt angry, and raised a hoof. I slammed it onto the stone, shattering it with a loud report. The creaking and squealing of the breaking stone snapped everypony out of their rage. They all turned to stare at me. I was almost snarling by the time I could say what I had to say without screaming at everything “I will have order!” I shouted. The ponies seemed to make a collective gulp. “Lieutenant Ryo, if what’s who you actually are, are you done casting your aspersions?” I snarled. Ryo made an amused harrumph. “I think that you have sufficiently proved you ‘claim to fame’, Captain. I have no quarrel with you.” He said, gesturing to the shattered rock under my hoof. “But I have one with you.” I replied, calming myself. Ryo raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. I walked up to the table, and jumped onto it. Apparently this was something that nopony was expecting, because it drew many shocked gasps. “Lieutenant Ryo, I accuse you of treason and impersonating an officer of the Royal Guard. What is your plea?” I asked. Lieutenant Ryo scoffed. “Such a preposterous claim! I’ve been an officer in the Guard for nearly ten years! What evidence could you possibly have for such a claim?!” He nearly shouted. “I can smell you.” I said. He immediately grew pale. “What?” He said, his strong gravelly voice warbling. “You smell familiar.” I said, walking closer to Lieutenant Ryo. Lieutenant Pix and Soarin looked slightly afraid. I felt the cool armor move with me, like a seamless extension of myself. I liked it. I rounded on Lieutenant Ryo, getting up to his face. I took a big whiff of him. “I know you.” I whispered. Lieutenant Ryo shivered, and he broke into a sweat. I crouched so I could make eye contact with me. He avoided my gaze. “Tell us who you are, Ryo.” I said aloud, making Ryo jump. “L-Lieutenant Ryo of the-” I stopped his lie by grabbing his throat. I pulled him up from his seat, but not so high that he would choke. “Tell us who you are!” I said. “I-” “Why don’t you show us what that pretty little make looks like, Lieutenant Ryo?” I sneered. Ryo gulped. “Unhand him, Captain Shell! You simply cannot treat subordinates like this because they say something you do not like!” Antony shouted from the front of the room. I turned to look at him. “Don’t interfere.” I growled, and he sat down meekly.I turned back to Ryo, who immediately looked away from me. I leaned in to place my mouth next to his ear “Show us your mane, Ryo.” I whispered. He shuddered, and I could feel the magic pour out of Ryo. All of the ponies in the room made a collective gasp, and I felt immensely satisfied. I pulled away from Ryo to see the flowing jet black tresses flowing down his body, where only seconds earlier there was a short militaristic buzz. “Never impersonate one of my officers again.” I whispered. Ryo shivered, and I took a step back and threw him against the wall. I could see every single inch of his trajectory, every single mote of dust flowing around him. He collided with the wall, exploding with a cloud of green dust. I coughed, along with all of the other ponies in the room, waving away the green dust with my hooves. The dust cleared, and I was treated to a white mare with long flowing black hair lying on the ground. I walked up to her and crouched down to talk to her. I waited until she looked at me with her large, electrifying green eyes. “Never impersonate one of my guards again, Sebastian. Where did you hide Ryo?” I growled through my teeth. Sebastian gulped, and closed her eyes. She immediately disappeared with a small pop. I frowned, and then sighed. “Captain Shell?” Antony asked, and then coughed. “Yes, Captain Bladesinger?” I replied. “If you could come up and explain what the bloody hell just happened, I think that everypony would appreciate it.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:24:27+00:00

2012-02-02T04:24:27+00:00

Chapter 31 I walked back to the front of the room, feeling all of the ponies staring at me. There was not a single thing in this room that wasn’t staring at me. I placed immaculate ivory hoof in front of immaculate ivory hoof, feeling the sinuous grace of my movements. “Lieutenant Pix.” I stated. “Yes, Captain.” She replied immediately, in an extremely crisp tone. I smiled as I walked back to my seat, knowing where her loyalties lay. “Find Lieutenant Ryo. I have a feeling that he will be somewhere in the Castle.” I replied in a clean tone. “Yes Sir.” She replied, and stood to walk out of the door at the rear of the room. I heard the clip-clop of her hooves on the stone floor, and then the creak of the door opening and closing. The blued steel plating on my left shoulder seemed to move with me, like it was water instead of metal. I could feel the beauty of my actions seep into the air around me. I took my time walking to the end of the table. When I reached it, I bounded off it it and onto the ground. I turned to face the ponies staring at me as I took my seat, and was pleased to find many of them with mouths agape. “Well.” I said. This snapped many ponies out of their trance, and prompted me to continue. “I’m quite sure that many of you would like an explanation of what happened just now.” I said. Many of the ponies murmured uncontentedly. “I’m also quite sure that the walls have ears. We are not safe from interruption. We no longer have the luxury of privacy within these walls, as you have just seen.” I said. I slowly turned my head to look at all of the ponies in the room. Only a few were able to maintain eye contact with me. “I will not tell you what just happened. Nor will I explain the reason for my secrecy. Those who need to know already do, and understand the reasons behind the caution.” I said. The ponies started mumbling and talking amongst themselves when I was finished. The arguing soon escalated again, but not so severe as before. The only thing that kept it from getting so loud was a single knock on the door behind me. I turned to face the dais, statue, and curved wall that was my entrance into this room. The wall slowly turned, grinding on the stone around it. I stared at the rotating wall, watching it simply move. I wondered who had summoned it. There was soon just a curved stone wall protruding into the meeting room. There was a deathly silent pause for a moment, where a profound amount of nothing happened. The wall started to creak. The stone wall moved, revealing a blinding light. I was forced to avert my gaze from the light, turning away from the growing source. The curved entrance wall finally curved away to reveal pure white. It was blinding, and I could barely see anything. I squinted into my shoulder while I waited for the white to subside. It slowly did, and I turned to look at the source. The dimming flare revealed a slender, elongated pony. My adrenaline-clouded mind took me a minute to recognize her as Celestia. My vision returned to me slowly, revealing her in all of her brilliant detail. Her eyes, her form, her waving hair all seemed to be more clear, more defined. I had the strange urge to bow, and I thought that I might as well be polite and do so. I kneeled down on my front legs as Celestia walked down from the dais. She took her time, placing her hooves down with almost cautous movements. She stopped when she was standing between the two of us, with her rear left hoof right next to my face. I stood up slowly, and then I noticed her guest. Twilight was with the Princess, and I had no idea why. She still looked somewhat sickly, and I could see her foreleg grasping a thin metal pole that had a little glass bottle hanging from the top. There was a little tube running down from the bottle, but it’s destination was hidden from me. She was staring at me. She was staring at me, completely shocked. “Ed?” She mouthed silently. Her manner made me grin a little, as did the circumstances. Two tiny ponies talking under the knees of a God. I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to look serious. “There are many ponies in this room.” Celestia began, with an air of gravity and importance that only she could attach to language. She continued. “Royal Guards, each and every one. You have all eared your titles and the seats you sit in due to my trust, and due to your actions. You all place your faith in me every single day. I keep you alive. I keep you from freezing. You all place your trust in me, but I place my trust in him.” Celestia said, gesturing to me with a slow laziness of her left forehoof. I was a little bit surprised, but I tried my best not to show it. “Captain Shell has earned what he has. Though the work of his own hooves. Through the astuteness of his own decisions. Through the courage of his own actions.” She said. She was looking at all of the ponies, then turned to look at Antony. “Captain Bladesinger, I fear you must complete this meeting on your own. I have a need of Captain Shell at the moment.” She said. I could only imagine Antony’s response before Celestia turned to ascend the platform. Twilight followed as best as she could, rolling her little metal pole along. She had a little bit of trouble getting it up the steps, so I grabbed it for her and helped her up. She smiled weakly and climbed the steps to the platform. I waited for her to get up before I did, walking awkwardly with three hooves. I set down the pole, and nearly fell over as the floor began to turn “I cannot thank you enough, Captain Shell.” Celestia said, walking down one of the posh corridors of the Palace. I was levitating Twilight, her pole floating not too far away, because she had fallen asleep while she was walking. I was just worried now about scaring her if she woke up to being held in the air with magic by an earth pony. “You don’t need to call me Captain right now, Princess. There’s nopony here.” I commented in an embarrassed fashion. Celestia scoffed. “I never bandy titles about for the benefit of others. I only use them in regard to ponies that have earned them. And you, Edwin, have earned yours.” She said, eyeing me with her large purple iris. I met her look, and then turned to look at the gently snoring figure of Twilight. I was aware that she was a mare, but I only saw her a little child. It made my chest feel sore to see the lone grey streak in her mane that was the only sign of her imprisonment. It was my duty to protect ponies like Twilight from creatures like Slim. It was the only thing worth doing in this world, protecting ponies. It made me glad to know that Twilight was safe, but it puzzled me to see her in a setting such as this. “What is she to you?” I inquired of Celestia. She hesitated, which was so unlike her. I turned to look at the Princess. “She... She is my student.” She said in a stalting voice. I paused for a nearly imperceptible moment. My supercharged Numbered mind flipped switches and made connections in a fraction of a second to supply me with a reason why. “You adopted her, didn’t you?” I asked. The Princess immediately stopped walking and looked at me. I also stopped, thinking it would be rude to continue. “Yes.” She whispered. Her eyes began to water, and I immediately regretted asking. “I’m sorry, I-” “No, you should know. You may need to face the same problem I did, one day.” “What?” I asked. The Goddess continued walking again, staring at Twilight as she did so with a caring eye. “I’m going to tell you a story, Edwin.” “Okay.” I said, continuing to walk down the completely empty corridor. “Luna and I, a very long time ago, began to grow lonely. We wanted foals. Sadly, Immortals cannot reproduce, as you well know. So, we took the option that became apparent. We would pick foals and take them under our patronage. They grew and flourished, developing their talents and skills, taking hobbies and the like. We were so happy for them, we were proud. I remember one... Thousands of years ago. She loved to play piano. She could play the birds out of the trees, she could play love into your heart. She would tap her little white and black keys, and she tapped her way right into my heart. She was a little blue mare, and she was brilliant. I can still close my eyes and see her bright pink eyes, filled with some childlike dream of hers. She composed sonatas and orchestral pieces and accompaniments and everything else you could possibly imagine. I would often go to her room here in the palace in the middle of the night and see her scribbling pages and pages of sheet music, tapping little tuning forks as she did so. She was magnificent, adorable, everything a mother could ask for...” Celestia trailed off, wondering. She seemed to choke on something. “She aged. She grew older while I stayed the same. Her body whithered, but her mind stayed as sharp as ever. She continued to write beautiful pieces, and played them often for me. She was rather famous in her old age, but not so in her youth, when she could sit in front of the piano for days at a time. A pity.” “One day, she fell. She was old and decrepit. She broke her left foreleg. The doctors told her it would never work the same again. She... She would never be able to play piano. Not like she used to.” She said in a halting voice. She was sobbing silently as she remembered the mare. “She lived in a small house when she was not in the palace. It was a beautiful view, with little trees and valleys dotting the landscape. She lived near a canyon, one of the lesser known in Equestria. She found it quiet, and it helped her to write music. One day she just went out to her house. She walked out to look at the canyon. And jumped.” She finished, choking on each word she said. I was aghast. The concept of suicide in this world was mind-shattering. It was nearly impossible to imagine such a thing existing in a place with so much happiness. But, as I of all ponies knew, Life was a two-sided coin. “Her son played at her funeral. He was just as good as his mother. But I refused to take him as an apprentice, a son, anything. I had my fill of attachment. During the funeral, everypony saw the pieces that my little pianist left of my heart.” I had to think about this for along while before I could come up with an answer “She couldn’t live in a world without music. Could you blame her?” I asked. Celestia blinked. “No.” She whispered. We continued to walk after that, not filling the empty air with conversation. Twilight muttered something incomprehensible as she slept. “But... What does that have to do with Twilight?” I finally asked. Celestia paused. “She brought me out of hiding. She drew me out of my shell that I crawled into all of those years ago, and I love her for it.” Celestia said, drawing back up to her full height. While she was telling her story, she slumped over, almost as if under the weight of memory. “Oh.” I said. I couldn’t possibly think that I would ever need something like that, but I didn’t think of pressing the point. “Why did you take me away from the meeting?” I wondered aloud. “I don’t think that you are quite ready for the burdens of Royal Politics. You are too... Incorrupt. You don’t need to be around those kind of things.” She said. I was extremely confused by her lack of logic. “What do you mean? I’m one of the most dangerous things in Equestria at the moment.” I responded. “You would not say that if you knew what Equestrian politics is like. It’s a rather subtle sport, but it is only played by the most influential and most powerful. It can be dangerous if you make the wrong enemies.” She reasoned right back. I found this interesting. “Where are we going?” I asked. “We’re taking Twilight to her room, and then I’m going to show you something very interesting.” She said. I became very curious as to what it could be, and I whiled away the time thinking about what the interesting thing could possibly be. We soon arrived at Twilight’s room, which could also be called a laboratory with a bed. “She sleeps in here?” I blurted, setting her down on the bed with her silver pole nearby. “She doesn’t usually, but she has been working on one of her projects recently. She’s trying to develop a chemical that increases respiratory metabolism for ponies that scuba dive.” Celestia replied. I looked at her with a smirk “Scuba diving?” I mocked. “Is a very popular and rewarding activity, yes. Pressurized gas is not a very easy thing to attain, because it requires a skilled unicorn to create and the spell is a rather challenging one. I will teach it to you one day, if you want me to.” She offered. I shook my head, saying “I don’t know... Is there a quill around here somewhere?” I asked. Celestia was about to answer when I spied a stopped ink well and a quill lying next to a stack of parchment. I immediately unstopped the bottle and dipped the quill, picking a sheet off of the stack. I started writing with the unassuming brown quill, rasping the nub across the paper as I did so. I could feel the Princess look over my shoulder as I did so. “What are you doing?” She asked. “Giving Twilight an early Christmas.” I explained, straining to remember human chemistry. I hoped that it had much in common with its Equestrian kin. “What’s Christmas?” The Goddess asked innocently. I ignored her question and continued to write my note. “Done!” I proclaimed triumphantly, corking the ink and setting down the quill next to a glass beaker filled with what appeared to be blue water. The note read- Miss Sparkle- CH2BrCO2C2H5 -Edwin “What is that?” Celestia asked. “It’s something she may find valuable. Let’s go.” I said, walking out of the door. “What is it?” I asked, walking drunkenly into the room with my eyes closed. “Don’t open your eyes yet. Follow my voice.” Celestia said, walking away from me. I tried to follow her to the best of my ability, turning my ears every which way to find her. I bumped into a few tables and chairs as I did so, trying to navigate the maze of stubbed knees and stoved hooves. “Ow.” “Persistence will be rewarded.” Celestia qualified, almost sensing my unwillingness to continue. I gruffed and floated up into the air, cursing myself for not thinking of it sooner. My equilibrium was flawless, and I found the Princess almost immediately. “Okay, open your eyes.” She said. I did. “Oh wow.” I whispered. Celestia smiled with sad eyes. “I still have it. After all these years, I still do.” She said, her voice growing faint. “Who made it?” I asked, trying to look at the instrument at as many angles as I could. “Othello, of course.” Celestia said. I stared at the mystical white sword. It did not much resemble mine, but it shared a faint semblance. It was much skinnier, with a pink waffle string handle where mine was blue. It had a sun etched into the middle of the blade on both sides, right below a blood groove. The hilt was a little pink rectangle, with a sun stamped onto it. “You really meant that much to him...” I mumbled to myself. “How did he make it?” I asked aloud. “He invented bladesinging.” She said, and I immediately knew that this piece was the first sword ever created with magic. “It must be ancient.” I remarked in awe. “It is a few hundred years younger than I.” She said, admiring the deadly tool as much as I was. I continued to stare at the magical blade, not wanting to take my eyes off it even for a moment. I had to, though, to ask a question. “Why are you showing it to me?” “A good question. It is the most valuable work of art in my private collection, and I do not proffer a visit to my museum lightly. Twilight has only been here twice. I also rarely show this piece, and you are the only pony in living mortal memory to have seen it. I showed you because I want to tell you that we are not too different. It also comes with a favor...” She said, losing coherency. “What favor could you want of me?” I asked. “I want you to find Othello.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-03-23T16:30:50+00:00

2012-03-23T16:30:50+00:00

Chapter 31 I backed away from the Goddess, completely shocked. “What?!” I exclaimed. I saw Othello die, right in front of me. There was nothing of him that I could find in Equestria other than his corpse. Celestia’s eyes lit up with some unidentifiable emotion. “But the sword is still here! I did not know if it was until I saw it with my own eyes just now. It means that he is alive, Edwin! It means that he is still using the magic keeping this sword in existence, somewhere in Equestria. He lingers, Edwin!” She said, the passion filling the words she spoke. I shook my head. “There’s no way. I saw him die! You saw him die!” I said, citing reason while she cited her needs. “He has to be alive, Edwin. This sword still exists, and that means that he must still be using magic.” She said, growing impassioned as she continued to press her indefensible point. I started to back away from her. “He can’t be alive. We were both there. Nopony could survive that, not even him.” I reasoned, hoping that Celestia would understand. I collided with a chair as I was backing away from him. “No, Edwin. He is still alive! He must be! He couldn’t leave me! I need him!” She said, her expression growing dangerous. I began to realize the danger that I was in by not agreeing with her, and I turned and ran. I fled through the maze of priceless collectibles, running as fast as my hooves would carry me. I ran this way, dodged around vases and swerved in front of tapestries, and hoped and prayed that she would not catch me. I noticed the hypocrisy in my words, and I only hoped that she would not catch me. I ran and ran and ran as fast as I possibly could. I ran till it felt as if my lungs would burst out of my chest, and then I ran some more. It took me a long time to calm down enough to think my way out of this labyrinth of art. I plunged into the Flow, feeling all of the life around me, and allowing the limitless energy to flow into my limbs. I could feel the pulsing strength ready to do whatever I wished of it. I was pleased to find the Princess not a long way away from me, but separated by several walls. I thought about the only pony that could possibly save me from this baroque hell. I closed my eyes and felt the familiar cool breeze. I opened my eyes. “Doctor?” I asked, looking around the Tardis. It seemed rather vibrant, but it was cold and empty. There was the occasional click and whirr of some machine, but there was no overseer to speak to. I walked over to the door of the Tardis and pushed open one of them tentatively. The scene in front of me looked much like a moodily lit room, in shades of orange and red and yellow, accented by swaths of loose-hanging fabric on the walls. There was a piano on top of a small stage, and an innocuous dark blue pony tapping out a soft jazz tune. I stepped out of the tardis and looked around. There were a few ponies sitting at tables, and a few ponies milling about the bar. I walked up to the bar and sat, trying to figure out what was going on. I couldn’t see the Doctor, but I was fairly sure that he would be near his machine. A golden-yellow pony with a darker mane walked up to me from behind the bar, polishing a wine glass with magic. “Welcome to the Blue Alicorn. What can I do for you?” He asked. I gulped. “Cranberry juice?” I replied tentatively. The unicorn scoffed. “You don’t look like one for cranberry juice. You don’t look like one for money, either. Do you even know what bits look like?” The unicorn inquired with a knowing tone. “Bits?” I responded stuipidly. The Unicorn smiled, and leaned his hooves on the bar, then crossed them together. “You’re an interesting one. Coming into a bar without any bits, and don’t even know what bits are. I’ll keep an eye on you, even if it’s just for amusement.” He responded. I took the opportunity to ask a question. “Have you seen somepony?” I inquired. The golden unicorn smiled. “I’ve seen a lot of someponies. Can you be specific?” He asked in a warm tone. “Brown.” “Yeah, that narrows it down quite a bit.” He said sarcastically. “He has an accent, a tiny little pen that buzzes, and he came out of that big blue box over there.” “Not ringing any bells.” “He goes by Doctor?” I continued, exasperated. The unicorn’s eyes lit up. “Oh, the Doc! He’s right in the back, let me take you to him.” He said, walking our from behind the bar. He gestured for me to follow him, and I did. “We don’t often see ponies in costume here.” He stated. “What?” I exclaimed. The bartender looked over his shoulder lazily. “Let me guess. You don’t know what armor is, either?” He asked, his voice dripping sarcasm. I suddenly remembered that I was still wearing my armor for the meeting. “It’s for work.” “Oh, even better! A royal guard thousands of miles away from Canterlot, trying to buy drinks without any money!” The unicorn continued, becoming obviously overjoyed. I didn’t want to satisfy him with a response, and thankfully he did not continue his tirade. He walked down a long hallway, passing several doorways covered in the warm fabric that was draped outside. He stopped outside of one, hesitating. “Your name is?” “Edwin Shell.” I answered. The bartender ducked a head into the room. “Doc, I’ve got an ‘Edwin Shell’ here to see you. You want ‘im?” The unicorn asked in a hushed tone, thinking that I would not hear him over the soft piano and the heavy fabric. Something inside made a coughing noise “Oh Goddesses, Yes! Send him in now!” The voice said in between coughs. The unicorn backed out and looked at me awkwardly. “If you need anything, ask for Sam.” The bartender said, and then walked away without any prompting. I hesitated before I entered the room, then took a big breath and ducked inside. I was immediately treated to the Doctor curled up on a thick rug, with a mare not too far away from him. I could immediately tell that the mare was Sebastian, with her somewhat curvy figure and her extremely long black mane and tail, but also her lack of a cutie mark. I stiffened immediately, but the Doctor waved a hoof at me. “Calm down, Edwin. We’re all too long-lived to hold grudges. Take off your helm, stay a while.” He said, gesturing to a large plush mat not too far away from either of them. I took a seat and levitated my helm off of my head. I set it next to me as I sat down on the red mat. The Doctor was playing with a bit of Sebastian’s tail that was pooling around him. He looked up to me. “You must be excellent at hide and find.” He said. I laughed. “I got you good, Doctor. I have a few questions.” I said. “I’m sure you do, but here comes lunch!” the Doctor said, and a tray laden with all kinds of baked goods floated in on a cloud of silvery magic. It set itself down between the Doctor and I, and I did not hesitate to grab a pastry and shove it in my mouth. I could not believe how insatiably hungry I was until there was food in front of me. “Goddesses, Edwin!” The Doctor exclaimed. I looked up at him with a mouthful of danish and two hooves filled with apple tarts. “Whut?” I asked, and crumbs flew everywhere. “I should really feed you more often. I can’t have you acting like this everywhere I take you.” The Doctor said. “Bhut Ah Furnd Yeh.” I said, reaching for another danish “And I’m sure that that ‘Furnd’ was ‘Bhuted’ quite well, but that is no excuse for bad manners. But I suppose that starvation may be an exception...” The Doctor trailed off, talking to himself more than to me. I took another opportunity to cram another pastry into my mouth. “Celestia asked you to find Othello, didn’t she?” The Doctor asked. I looked to Sebastian before I answered, and I could see that she was sleeping. I turned back to the Doctor and swallowed my food. “He can’t be alive, can he?” I asked. “No. I delivered him to his funeral personally. But that does leave the question of why his sword still exists.” The Doctor tried to reason. “It shouldn’t matter, should it?” “It does. If a bladesinger dies, any blades that he has summoned that still exist usually just flicker into oblivion. Othello’s blade should not be held to that rule, but it certainly cannot be ignored as some kind of...” The Doctor trailed, waving a hoof in the air. “Aberration?” I supplied. The Doctor smiled and nodded. “Yes, as some kind of aberration. There is a source of magic somewhere that is keeping the blade in existence, but I don’t know what it could possibly be.” The Doctor said, swirling around Sebastian’s flowing hair with a lazy hoof. “Do you think that Celestia could be doing it to delude herself into thinking that he is still alive?” I wondered aloud. The Doctor shook his head immediately. “No. She loved him in life, and idolized him in death. She couldn’t possibly violate the sanctity of her most precious gift from him.” The Doctor explained. I thought about this and inhaled another pastry. Sebastian mumbled something and stirred lightly. “Try to be quieter, Edwin. She’s been though a lot in the past day.” The Doctor said softly, rising from his mat. Sebastian seemed to mutter louder, and her stirring became a little more active. The Doctor placed a hoof on her shoulder as he closed his eyes. Sebastian immediately stopped muttering, and her shaking became far less pronounced. The Doctor, on the other hand, became much tenser, with the tendons in his neck flexing, and his eyes were moving under his closed lids. I was about to approach him and see what was going on when he stopped me. “Don’t do anything, it will be over in a minute.” He said, and he continued his fit. I watched worriedly as his breathing became stressed, and his shaking became worse. I wanted desperately to help, but all I could do was watch as the Doctor shook. He finally opened his eyes in a flash, taking a big gasp as he did so. He panted heavily for a few moments, nearly collapsing on the mat. I rushed up to him. “What happened? Did she-” The Doctor stopped me by placing a hoof on my shoulder. “We... We all have... Our demons, Edwin...” The Doctor said, panting between words. “Sebastian... Just has more... Than her fair share.” He concluded, wheezing as he did so. “Do you need anything, can I go get-” “Give me time, Edwin... The one thing I have... so much of. I will become better shortly.” The Doctor said, lying down. He curled into a loose ball, and his forehooves began to shake. “She was there, Edwin. I never knew she was there.” He said after a while. I looked up from an interestingly-frosted doughnut. The Doctor was lying there, with wide eyes and his limbs tucked into his chest. “She was where?” I responded. “The Genocide. She was there when Evangeline slaughtered the Conclave.” He whispered. I looked at the Doctor a little harder than before. He seemed... afraid. He was never afraid. He mistook my look to be one of confusion, and started to explain in a soft whisper. “The ghost met once every hundred years to discuss problems. Some of which they caused, but not all. They had worries about food, land, and other things. The last Conclave ever held was the Five hundred and eighty-fourth. Evangeline found out where it was being held and snuck in. There was only one survivor.” He said, his whispery voice growing even more unsteady as he spoke. I felt disgusted. “I can never look at Eve the same way again.” I muttered to myself. The Doctor seemed to recover slightly, and rose to a sitting position. “Do you want to see it?” The Doctor asked. “See what?” “Her dream.” He said. I laughed. “Like that’s possible. I might as well walk on clouds, or breathe underwater.” I said mockingly. The Doctor grinned. “But you can walk on clouds, Edwin. Come here.” He said, drawing me to him with his hooves. I walked forward tentatively, and the Doctor grabbed my head with his hooves. He bumped his forehead up to mine, and began to speak, “Close your eyes and empty your mind.” He said. I closed my eyes and tried my best to lose my connection to thinking. A bright spark of something popped up in my mind, and it soon flared into an overwhelming torrent of information, flooding my senses. I could smell the crisp air, I could feel the cold in my hooves. I could see. I could see the little ponies around me that looked just like I did, with the manes and tails matching. There was a dragon. I liked the dragon. He was big. Bigger than me. We played on him, climbing over him and under him and in his ears and under his scales. He laughed, a big rumbling noise that made my teeth clatter and my bones shake. The trees shivered when he laughed. We were all playing, with the grown-ups talking away from us. We laughed and played in the cool winter sun. I remembered the warm white scales under me as I snoozed. I was his favorite. I knew I was. It made me happy. I fell asleep under a translucent white wing as I thought about it. Something was wrong. I woke with a start, noticing that the scales underneath me were moving. I tried to get up but the wing over me would not let me out. I remember asking a question I can’t let you out. a rumbling deep voice said. I complained. It was too hot. My hooves were stiff. I can’t let you out. We have to leave. The voice said again. I remember crying. I wanted to see mommy. Why couldn’t I see mommy? The voice was very sad when it answered. I... Mommy went away for a while. She will come back soon. The voice said mournfully. I managed to crawl up through the wing to look at him. His long, angular head had suffering etched onto it. Where are we going? Away. Somewhere safe. Where she can’t find us. The voice answered. I looked up to him, his head blocking the sun. I could hear noises, loud ones. I wanted to know what they were Never you mind what they are. We have to go. He repeated. I could tell he was lying. I could always tell. I could hear his lies before he told them. Where are we going? I want mommy. Where are you taking me? I... the voice stammered. I stared up at his bright red eye. It had a single tear in the corner of it. I listened for what I could hear. I saw a picture of her, in his mind. Her long legs, her strong body. Her golden hair. Her. Now you know. We can’t go back. He said. What about mommy? Mommy... She... Had to leave. Why would mommy leave without telling me? I want to talk to mommy! Where is she! I was shouting. The Dragon shushed me, hunching down his shoulders and grabbing me with one of his hands. He held me up to his face. We have to be quiet. She cannot find us. We are all that is left. We- “Trying to run, Alucard?” A strong voice asked. I could feel the pearly white scales tense a little bit as his face grew a scary snarl. Evangeline. Mercy upon the innocent. “You speak in paradoxes, Alucard. There are no innocents where your species is concerned.” The strong voice said. The Dragon growled. She is just a hatchling. She knows nothing of your hate. “When I have my way, she won’t know anything at all.” The strong voice spoke smoothly. The Dragon looked at me, he whispered. I need to go now, Sebastian. he sobbed softly. No. Don’t go. I need you. Such is life, Sebastian. Things change. It is best that you learn that now by choice, rather than later by necessity. I must leave you now. He whispered as best as any dragon could. I could feel his magic, throwing me away from him, pushing me into the flow completely. I existed more in the flow than in the real world. I was the Flow. The Flow was me. There was no discerning between the two. I could feel the Dragon call upon me, and he took my energy to try and fight the Mare. He was winning. He was winning. I felt exuberant that the evil creature would finally die. She tricked him. She blinded him, kept light from his eyes. He swiped with his strong claws, trying to hit her. But she was so fast. I couldn’t watch. I turned away from it. I couldn’t watch. But I felt it. I felt him die. I cried where nothing could see. I was the Flow. I rode the flow. I searched and searched for others like me. I traversed the Threads themselves to try and find them. Years. I looked for years. I found one. He used the flow. Masterfully, skillfully. I found him and held him. Who are you? I said. Who are you that uses me like this, with such skill? I asked. C-Columnus. He stammered. I smiled. I poured myself out onto his dimension, like how cold honey would pour onto a cookie sheet. I attained form. I was. I simply was, after so long of not being. I cried in happiness, feeling the sun on my face. I collapsed onto the grass- I tore myself from the dream, gasping. I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t bear to live another second in the hazy dream-world. I collapsed, sprawling backwards onto the mat in the room with the Doctor and the pastries and the sleeping mare. I let myself lie there, trying to reject the dream that was forced upon me. The Doctor tutted, and picked up a pastry. He sniffed it, then put it back down. “Now you know.” He said calmly. I wanted to scream at him, to shout until my throat bled. “Ignorance... Is bliss...” I managed to gasp out. The Doctor smiled patronizingly. “Not for ponies like you. Ignorance is a luxury that you cannot afford.” He said. I grumbled, but I wanted to scream and writhe and tear my skin out “Cruel... Doctor...” I said. “Maybe. But I would rather be cruel than caring if it meant that you would be safe.” He said. He said nothing else, and all that could be heard were my gasps and Sebastian’s innocent snores.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:28:32+00:00

2012-02-02T04:28:32+00:00

Chapter 33 I was content with lying there for the rest of my life. After Sebastian’s nightmare, I felt as if all my willingness to move and do things was gone, with a dull sense of existence replacing it. I went over who and what I was while I tried to remember why I had to stand. The dream was so deeply ingrained into her psyche that some of her memories rubbed off on me. I was thinking of myself from Sebastian’s point of view, as if I was her. I could remember things that I have never seen before. A bright red flower with blue stripes down the petals, surrounded by buzzing insects and colorful dragonflies. A single dandelion sticking out of a snowy hill. The feel of icy water on burned flesh. I started to try and say everything I knew to be true, which helped me recover from the horrific nightmare and my lost sense of self. My name is Edwin Shell. I was human once. I am a pony now. I was engaged to Emily Lauren Banks for three hours and forty-two minutes. We were involved in a fatal train crash, along with our mutual friend James Willcox. I died, and then woke up as a pony. I met three ponies who I know to go as the ‘musketeers’, a botanist named Zecora, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, and a pegasus named Fluttershy. I then met the Doctor, who in turn handed me off to the ‘League of Numbered’, whose task it is to protect Equestria from Angelics. I met Colu- “Get up, Edwin. It’s time to go.” whispered a voice urgently next to my ear. I flicked the voice away with the ear being whispered to, but the source of the voice blew in my ear. I jumped up with a start, skittering away from the unpleasant interruption. I was up against the opposite wall, staring at the Doctor with what I imagined to be an extremely unpleasant look on my face. “Do you know how unpleasant it is to have somepony blow in your ear?!” I nearly shouted. The Doctor shushed me angrily. “No, I do not, but we need to leave now, and do it quietly.” He said. Sebastian was still sleeping behind him, her curvaceous form rising and falling with her breaths. I was captivated slightly, and just stared at her for a moment. I could feel my cheeks flush and my ears tingle. Almost before I could enjoy the sensation, the Doctor shoved a string of black licorice in my mouth. He got up close to me and stared at my eyes. “Chew.” He whispered, and looked behind him like he was doing something wrong. I did as I was told, and immediately felt the blush fall out of my face. The bitter taste of the licorice was overwhelmed by my confusion. The Doctor was about to walk out the door when he did a funny little pivot on his hind leg and turned to face me. “Sebastian has more than a few tricks up her... Sleeve? Anyways, it would be best to stay near black licorice if you don’t want to get involved in a rather... Complicated scenario.” The Doctor said, parting the curtain sneakily and walking out of the doorway. I was just left there with a sleeping mare that was unconsciously trying to seduce me, a platter full of pastry, and a small bundle of black licorice. I slumped down to sit and decided to grab one of those foxy apple strudels that has been eyeing me since I got in the bar. I licked my lips and watched it float towards my face with magic. I was about to bite into it’s warm and delicious appley center, oozing with the promise of sweet cinnamon and delicate pastry when a white hoof batted it aside, making it crumble against the wall on the opposite side of the room. I stared after my lost delicacy, feeling the sorrow of a strudel gone before it’s time. I turned to look at the murderer, and saw myself face-to-face with a fully awake Sebastian, with her straight black mane waving slightly as it hung down to the floor. Her brilliant green eyes held a strange curiosity in them, and I could feel my ears begin to tingle. Not a second had passed with my tingly ears when Sebastian shoved a piece of black licorice in my mouth. I chewed it, not wanting to understand why ponies were trying to feed me dreadful candy. “I didn’t wake up today thinking how wonderful it would be to shack up with a Numbered. Carry that.” She said, pointing with a hoof to the nondescript brown paper bag with a few black licorice ropes sticking out. I picked it up with magic and balanced it precariously on my back. I turned back to Sebastian, but all I saw was the swaying curtain of the doorway. I was left slack-jawed for an awkward moment. I stared back at the danish on the opposite side of the wall, almost longingly, when I heard a rustle by the door. I turned to see the Doctor leaning in, with only his neck and head visible. He had a highly impatient look on his face. “You may be excellent at hide and find, but you move like a rock.” He said, staring at me. I just looked at him, and he nearly jumped. “Let’s bloody go, Edwin!” He whispered loudly, and pulled his head out of the doorway. I did not hesitate to chase him out of the door. I was immediately treated to a disturbing sight. “Doctor, what happened?” I asked, trying to step over an unconscious and bloodied pony. “Slim happened.” He said tonelessly. I knelt down to the pony that I just stepped over, and I placed a hoof on his neck. I released raw magic into him, purposeless and idle for his own body to decide what he needed it for. He was a unicorn, so I left him confident that he would not have an averse reaction to the raw magic. I trotted down the now-sullied hallway, strewn with ponies in varying degrees of injury. I stopped and helped the ones that were the most injured, much to the discontent of the Doctor, who insisted that they were all alright and needed no help, that they were going to be fine, and damn it, Edwin, we have to leave. I ignored him and continued down the hall slowly. Once we reached the end of the hall, we found the bar and lounge in shambles. The bar itself was actually cracked in half, with the two separate pieces forming a shallow V with the bartender in the juncture. Many of the tables were overturned and broken, and the piano on the stage was on fire. There was not a single pony in the room other than The Doctor, the bartender, and I. The tardis itself was standing stoically in the middle of the room, like a marble column standing amongst ancient rubble. The Doctor gestured silently for me to approach the tardis as he himself did so. We took a few steps forward, and an angelic appeared from behind the machine. I tensed, and the Angelic smiled grimly. I pointed to him with a hoof, and felt a stream of magic flow out of that limb. The Angelic immediately shuddered, then seemed to lock up. His shoulders and legs were shuddering and shaking, and his mouth began to foam. He fell over, shaking and harmless, seizing against the tardis. The Doctor looked at me questioningly, and we continued to walk towards the machine. I could see another black hoof step around the tardis, and I raised a hoof to incapacitate it. I immediately felt and saw something fly at me, black and writhing, looping itself around my leg. I tried to shake it off, rubbing it all over the ground. I saw the rest of the Angelic that was behind the tardis walk around the edge of the blue box. I looked up his strangely long leg, past his thinly muscled yet robust chest, up his equally disproportionate neck, and came to rest on a black leather stetson. He looked down at me with his happy red eyes, and his mouth in a goofy grin. “Hiya Five!” He nearly shouted. I had stopped rolling around on the ground, trying to get the writhing black things off of me. Slim chuckled, noting my predicament. “Ah reckined that you might like those.” Slim said, gesturing to the twisting jumble of things. I stopped struggling for a moment to look at them. They looked like burning logs, with a cracked and blackened exterior showing red lines under the surface. They were moving in halting motions, looping and spreading up my leg. Slim leaned down to look at me. “Ah noticed somethin’ differnt bout you, Five.” He said, looking me right in the eyes. I turned away form him, but he pressed a hoof down on my throat. “Look at me, Five.” He said seriously. I didn’t, and he leaned on my neck, making me cough. “Ah said look at me.” He ordered through his teeth. I had no choice but to turn back up at him. His horrifyingly red irises looked perversely satisfied. “Ah noticed somethin’ bout you. You use your hooves quaht a bit. When it comes ta magic, that is. So I had me one a them ideas. What if Ah could keep you from movin’ them little hoovies a yers? I’d have me a Number that cain’t use magic. Least, not for a little bit. And ya know what, Five?” He asked, leaning closer to me. His breath smelled like choking, dry death. “A little bit is all Ah need.” He said. I could feel the wriggling ropes wind around me, binding my hooves together. It was an odd sensation, not being able to use hooves. I struggled to use my magic without physical interference of my legs, but it was of no use. I had become dependent of them. The best I could do was wiggle and make the ground near my hooves shimmer and glow with my magic. I struggled stiupidly with my regular magic, when suddenly the idea to use the Flow appeared to me. I closed my eyes, intending to enter the Flow. I struggled mentally, trying to enter the mystical river of magical energy. I felt the hoof on my neck thrust down on me, making me gag. I opened my eyes in shock to see Slim standing above me, with his articulate tongue holding what seemed to be a tiny little metal bauble. He leaned closer to me. “A Puxley-F Engine, if Ah am not wrong.” Slim explained, injecting his thoughts into my mind because of his occupied tongue. It was excruciating to be in such an intimate contact with this vile creature. I could see into his mind, and the twisting, contorted facets of his disturbed thought made me want to vomit just by only being able to know that they exist, let alone having it talk to me and rub against it with my own mind. I writhed and twisted under the hoof of the Angelic, desperately trying to get away from the fractured landscape of his thoughts. “Alan Puxley was an interestin’ type a folk. He was one a them inventors, a real smart-hooves. He done had a b-e-a-utiful foal one of those days way back when, and he loved ‘er to death. But, as bad luck would have it, she was a Ghost. She lived a hard life, makin’ magic where none should be, floatin’ off into the air when she lost her concentraitin. Dem little fillies at the school done teased her for it, just because she was differnt, and that sure as sugar made her sad. She didn’t like bein’ a Ghost, not a single bit. All she wanted outta life was to be a normal Earth pony jes like her friends. So, her daddy took it on to himself to help his little girly out in the world, so he tried to invent somethin. Years ‘n years he sat and tinkered, only tryin’ to help his lil ‘un. A selfless pony there not ever was, if not ‘im. After nearly a decade of workin’ and workin’, he finally climbed up out a his basement with one a these in his hooves,” Slim injected, brandishing the little bauble with his strong, articulate tongue. “A Puxley Engine.” “One of these things is worth more’n all the bits in Equestria, if you sell it to the right pony, that is. But, Mr. Puxley was a humble little unicorn, he warn’t interested none for money. All he wanted out of life was to make his daughter happy. And what would you know, he did just that! A course the first one warn’t exactly the best ‘un, but it done worked. He gave it to her, and she wore it like a necklace. Sure, it warn’t the prettiest thing, but to her, it was plum gorgeous. He would make her new ones, ‘n pass ‘em off as birthday presents ‘n the like, and she loved it. He made a bunch of ‘em, and this one was the last one he made before he died. His latest ‘n greatest, as the sayin’ goes.” He injected his thoughts again, reaching down with his tongue to place the tiny little metal oval on my side. My skin immediately began to ripple and flow, moving out of the way of the little machine. My coat actually opened up around it, revealing the muscle and throbbing veins underneath as I watched on in horror. The little drop of metal with its tiny little glowing lights and whizzing gears dropped down through the muscle like it was nothing more than air, and the skin sealed shut like nothing happened. I felt a sudden fatigue rush over me, and I could barely keep my head upright to stare at the perfect patch of skin. I set my head down on the bristly carpeting and panted. I couldn’t think about the Doctor, Luna, Sebastian, Antony, or anything. All I could do was just lie there and pant. Slim took the opportunity to place his tongue back into his mouth, working his jaw as he did so. “Y’see, Five, Mr. Puxley never did give his daughter the Puxley-F Engine for her own personal use. He discovered somethin’ dangerus, somethin’ not quite right about it. Y’see, It would take away all the energy that ya ever took out of the Stream, or the Creek, or whatever it is yew pale little monsters call it, and put it right back where it came from. He thought that it might be dangerous, so he hid it away in a tiny lil box. So, right about now, I reckin, yer jes’ an Earth pony that has gone the past four or five days with roughly twelve hours of sleep and a few hoof-fulls of confectshinrey.” He said. I could not even talk, couldn’t even move, so I just lied there like a sack of potatoes, waiting for whatever slim would do next. I could faintly feel the blackened vines writhing around my legs, and I could faintly remember that they were a bad thing. I wiggled my hooves a little bit, and Slim laughed. “That there is jes’ plain adorable, Five. Y’make me laugh.” Slim chuckled as he spoke, leaning down to grab me. The vines around my legs reached up to his hoof, and they enveloped the limb eagerly. He pulled on the entangled leg, hoisting me up into the air as if I were no more than a pile of feathers. He held me above his head, cocked his leg, and hurled me against the opposite wall. I slammed into the wooden walls, nearly breaking through the wall to the opposite side if it weren’t for the stud that I collided with, bruising my shoulder. I fell down to the ground unceremoniously with a loud gasp. My legs were balanced precariously above me, still trapped in the magical vines. I could not think about this for even a second before Slim grabbed me again and hurled me across the once-sophisticated barroom. I collided with the flaming piano on the small stage in a terrible, deafening cacophony of strings. I could feel something that was like a strong blow on my shoulder, and the watery clang of a bell. I clenched my teeth with the pain, trying not to moan. My legs were now pointing towards Slim, and I could see him and his crooked stetson walking towards me. I was afraid. I didn’t want to die. I still had things to do. I couldn’t die. I needed to live. Slim ascended the stage, and placed a hoof on the vines that were keeping me imprisoned. He pulled me closer to him so he could whisper in my ear “Ah’m gunna enjoy this, Five. You’ve bin a thorn ‘n our side long enough.” He spoke softly, snalking his tongue out to touch the tip of my ear. I shrunk away from his touch, shivering. He snarled and hurled me away from him. I closed my eyes, awating the impact that would elongate my suffering, that would compound upon my tortures, and drag me ever closer to death’s door. I opened my eyes. I could see reality bending around me, straight stone lines curving as if they were only drawn on paper, tables and chairs folding in on themselves as if they were only the imaginings of an abstractionist. I saw linear space bend and curve, noting a haunting familiarity to something I once experienced, but something my exhausted mind could not account for. Space moved itself so that I was once more facing Slim. I was about to collide with him when he reached a hoof back and threw it into my chest. I could feel all of my breath run out of me immediately, and I tried to gulp, but nothing happened. I was immediately flying backwards, looking at Slim smiling after me. I felt sad that I would die here. It was not as if I deserved life as a pony. This world was far too good for people like me. I didn’t really need to live through another life. So many only lived through one. I got two. Lucky me. I could see Slim suddenly get angry, as if something was not going his way. I heard a familiar noise, and I could see Slim reach out with a hoof for me. I fell through the air, away from him, unable to do anything at all. I suddenly landed on something hard. Looked back at Slim, and I could see him flying through the air trying to get me. I could vaguely see two pale white doors close, shutting him out of my sight. I could hear a strong bang against the doors, and I felt slightly relieved. I looked above me to see the round things on the wall of the Tardis. “Safe...” I whispered. I closed my eyes and smiled. I enjoyed my happiness for a moment when I felt something clambering over me. I opened my eyes to see the Doctor above me, wearing some kind of shiny metal backpack, with what seemed to be a metal floor buffer attached to it. “Doctor?” I asked. He did not respond, but produced a shiny syringe. He pulled the cap of it off with his teeth, then jammed the needle straight into my chest. He depressed the plunger, and I immediately felt more alert than before. The Doctor leaned down to my face. “Adrenaline. I need you awake, Edwin. Can you hear me?!” He nearly shouted. I nodded, suddenly filled with nervous energy. I could feel my hooves shaking a little bit. The Doctor nodded happily, but with a cautious look on his face. “Good. Can you tell me what Slim did?” He asked slowly, as if I were deaf or elderly. I struggled to think through my sudden burst of energy “He said... Puxley.” I muttered, still feeling a little bit numb. My head lolled off to the side, looking at an interesting toolbox. The Doctor reached out and slapped my face lightly a few times. “Edwin, concentrate!” The Doctor said. He looked up at something away from me. “Marcus! I need you!” The Doctor shouted. I could hear Marcus approaching before I saw him, due to his bulk. Marcus entered my field of vision, looking worried. The Doctor gestured to the vines covering my shaky legs. “Get rid of these.” The Doctor said, and Marcus’ hooves were immediately surrounded by a green aura. He placed the forehooves on the now docile vines, trying to get rid of them with magic. The Doctor shuffled awkwardly, and I turned to look at him. My right side was facing him, with Marcus working on my hooves. He hoisted the big floor buffer with the opposite hoof. He had a very hesitant look on his face. “Edwin... This is going to hurt.” He warned, and pressed the floor buffer to my exposed side. It immediately began to whirr and click, and two grasping appendages extended and grasped me with their cold metal lengths. I was extremely worried, and unable to do absolutely anything. My mind was making frightened conclusions. The big machine that the Doctor was using began to beep loudly, in increasing intervals. A shiny metal plunger popped out of the top of it, extending more than it should have. The Doctor hesitated, and pushed down the plunger with his free hoof. I felt an immediate, twising pain in my side, like something grabbed my coat was trying to dry it out like a towel. I clenched my teeth and whimpered, trying not to scream. I could feel the cold, cold metal snake around my lungs and bones and veins, looking for something. It took an excruciating few minutes to find it, and each second of it was torture. I couldn’t stand another minute of the pain. My muscles began to shake from tensing so much in agony. Just when I thought that it would not end, just when I thought that my suffering would be eternal, the freezing invader snaked it’s way out of my body. I cold feel it twist and turn around my insides, making my body shiver. It finally exited my body, and I turned to look at the machine that was my tormentor. There was a small, windowed cylinder on the top of the large plate that grasped me, and suddenly a spurt of blood was splattered over the inside of the windows. I felt horrified, but some morbidly curious part of me made me watch. A faint glowing light appeared, and then a small, bloodspeckled ovoid shape floated out of it. The Doctor pressed a few buttons on the side of the machine, and the arms that were holding me slid and retracted back inside of the machine. He shrugged off his backpack, and he clamped his hooves on the small cylinder. He rotated the capsule with his hooves, and it immediately clicked, and he pulled it off of the main body of the machine. I felt slightly energized when he did this. I couldn’t stand, but I wasn’t shaking anymore. I sniffed, and I could smell something wonderful. I craned my neck to look around the Tardis, and my head was immediately grabbed by two dark blue hooves. I had no time to say anything before my face and muzzle was peppered with kisses. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again!” Luna said between attacks, and I smiled. “Luna.” I stated hoarsely, trying to ward away the adoration with my nose, but it only encouraged more. I started to cough a little, and Luna settled down next to me and cradled my head with her forehooves. I could smell the faint scent of oranges getting slightly stronger. I could feel one of my hooves become free, and I reached up with it to touch Luna’s face. She looked down at me with a sad smile on her face. She looked as if she was about to say something, but I placed a hoof over her lips. “Shh...” I said softly, and she leaned down to my head. She buried her face in my mane and whimpered. “I’m never leaving you alone again, Ed.” She whispered. I hummed happily. “Let’s hope so.” I said. She began to shake, and I could hear her whimpers become a little louder. I snaked my hoof around her neck and began to rub her. “Shh, Luna... It’s okay...” I said. She started to hyperventilate. “I almost lost you, Ed.” She said. I continued stroking down her neck, started with her pale blue hair, and going down to between her shoulders. “I’m fine, Luna...” I said, trying to calm her down. “I can’t stand it, Ed. I can’t just let you run off and be in danger all of the time. You could die. I... I would never be the same.” She said. I could feel her shake, and I felt terribly that I was the cause. “I’ll do better, Luna.” I said. She sniffled, and pulled herself out of my hair, and she shifted her body so we were looking each other in the eyes. “You will.” She said, and then looked up. “Doctor.” She commanded haltingly. “Princess?” He responded. “Take us to Him.” She said, placing special emphasis on the word ‘Him’. I could hear the Doctor huff and stomp his hooves. “But Princess! I was saving him for later! I was going to bring Edwin to him on Ed’s birthday! I thought it would be a nice sur-” “Doctor. This is not a debate.” She said sternly, with a trace of her earlier tears audible in her words. “Bloody hell, Ed. It was going to be the best first birthday ever. But not now! No, now we’ll probably have to go to a fancy dinner on one of those stuffy canterlot resturaunts. I do detest them, detest them with a passion. They often serve pears with their hors d’ordurves. I loathe pears, they're just so-” The Doctor continued to hurl his distastes down from his pulpit, denoting how many different ways that pears were disgusting, even going so far as to say that some strange and perverse Deity collected all of the most undesirable traits of a fruit and jammed it all into one jumbled and oftentimes green package. I let him continue in silence, listening to the welcoming watery noise of the Tardis, watching Luna’s pale blue hair bounce slightly. The noise of the Tardis finally came to a halt, and I sighed. “Once more unto the breach, Mister Shell.” The Doctor said. I immediately grimaced. “If there is anything on the other side of that door other than a bushel of peaches, a stack of warm towels, and a large bed, I’m going to garrote you, Doctor.” I said. The Doctor laughed, stepping over me to push the door open. He paused slightly. “I am confident that I will not die when I open this door because of two things. One, that you cannot garrote something very well without hands. Two, that you will enjoy and treasure what I am about to give so much that you will forget all of your Equuicidal thoughts towards me and simply be in awe.” He said, and leaned over to push the door. It slid out with a nearly silent motion, revealing the most amazing thing that I have ever seen in any of my lives.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-03-27T19:53:01+00:00

2012-03-27T19:53:01+00:00

Chapter 34 I leaned up to an awkward sitting position, looking at the amazing view outside of the tardis. Luna did not let me go, but continued to hold me. I could feel her hooves tighten slightly. “He’s so big.” I gasped, trying to stand. Luna held me back. “Patience, Ed. Let the Doctor talk to him. He’s dangerous when he wants to be.” Luna reasoned, whispering in my ear. The Doctor smiled, noticing my eagerness to see the creature and the appropriateness of Luna’s comment. “Be back in a few.” The Doctor said, leaping out of the Tardis. I finally noticed where we were. The black landscape, interspersed with glinting white patches, told me where in Equestria I was. Or, as the truth would have it, where in Equestria I wasn’t. “The binary system of Sigmus.” Marcus said behind me. I turned to see him sitting in a strange chair that I had not noticed before, upholstered with worn beige leather with buttons and switches on the arm rests. I was surprised, and let it show on my face. “The twin stars of Septimus and Culaan, orbited in turn by twelve nameless planets, only one of which holds life. Or, at least, it held life.” Marcus said, inspecting one of his hooves. “Which one was inhabited?” I asked. Marcus tilted his hoof so he was looking down the front of his leg instead of the back. “This one, Sigmus Five, if you could even call it habitation. A few colonies of insects, a few clumps of lichen. It was nothing special, but in few million years it might have evolved into the equuanoid live that you and I are so familiar with.” Marcus explained. I let that little blip of information stew in my head. I was about to open my mouth, but Luna asked the next question. “What... What happpened to it?” She asked in a strong voice, but it still had hints of her earlier sadness. “About...” Marcus paused, and tapped a few buttons on the arm rest of his chair. A screen that was usually stationary on the console moved out on a slender metal arm to face Marcus. He leaned forward and squinted as he looked at it. “Two-thousand years ago, there was some kind of planet-wide disaster that destroyed just about everything here. The atmosphere, the soil, and the life. The Doctor has done a few studies himself, and is suspect that there may be a few underground settlements of multi-cellular organisms may remain, but he is doubtful. The Tardis’ own computing banks have little information to offer on the cause of the disaster. That makes me think that it is not extra-planetary in nature, but also due to the hyper-orbital tracking simulations that say that there has been no major collisions with other planets or planetoids, which are the only things that have enough mass to be the cause of such a cataclysm.” Marcus concluded, reaching up with a hoof and gently pushing the screen away from him. It glided gently back to the central console. Marcus turned to me. “I, for one, am of the opinion that it was-” “Marcus, that is more than enough.” A heartily offended voice said behind me. I turned and saw the Doctor with an angry look on his face. I twisted my body to look back at Marcus, and saw him looking very sheepish. “What do you say?” The Doctor asked, in the tone of one scolding their child. “I’m... I’m very sorry for bypassing the isomorphic nature of your controls and compromising the secrecy of your private studies.” Marcus recited very somberly, but with an air of tediousness, as if this was something that had happened before. The Doctor looked satisfied. “Good. Let’s hope that this never happens again and that I won’t have to lock my console whenever I leave you alone in it. ” He said sternly. I smiled lightly, but then the Doctor turned down to look at me. “It’s time for you to see him.” The Doctor said. I gulped, and turned to Luna. She looked encouraging, but I was still rather frightened. “C-Can Luna come too?” I asked. The Doctor chuckled lightly “What kind of pony would I be if I said no?” The Doctor said, and gestured to the outside of the Tardis. I got up shakily with Luna’s help, and I looked at her to bolster my confidence. “What if he doesn’t like me?” I whispered. Luna smiled. “You’ll do fine, Ed. One step at a time.” She said with a motherly inflection, and we started to walk out of the Tardis. It was mechanical, the way that I walked. Luna by my side was the only thing that kept me from turning tail and running for my life. Luna and I kept walking towards him, and I could feel the warmth radiating off of him in waves like an extremely hot summer day. I looked up in the sky, and I could see the two stars of crimson and cobalt spinning each other into teardrops. They were so far away, nothing like the Equestrian sun. “Things are different here.” Luna said. I looked away from the sky to look at her. “What do you mean?” “There’s a moon here, orbiting the planet. I can’t control it. It’s independent.” She said with a hushed tone of disbelief. “Is that a bad thing?” I inquired in the same tone, turning my face but not my eyes toward Luna. She unfurled a wing and hugged me with it, pulling me closer. “I don’t know. It makes me feel strange.” She said, shivering. I moved closer to her so that our sides were touching, and walked towards the mysterious being. “You can stop there.” He said in a gigantic rumbling voice, sounding like a rockslide. I shivered, the weight of the voice pressing down on me. Needless to say that Luna and I stopped in our tracks immediately. “Wh- Who are you?” I asked tentatively. The gigantic creature stirred, lifting his head to look at us. “I have many names.” He said simply, hiding his head behind his enormous body. I waited for him to elaborate, but he did nothing. “What should I call you?” I asked, trying to back away from the creature. The beast made a grumble that sounded like laughter. "Teacher.” He said, not showing his head again. I looked at Luna, and she just shrugged. “Why would I call you that?” I asked. The thing just chuckled with his rumbling voice. “The last time I was in Equestria it was respectful to call your teacher by their title. Have things changed so much in the past two days?” He rumbled with a faint sarcastic tone. I was still trying to get away from the creature as fast as my hooves would let me, but Luna would have none of it. “But- You haven’t taught- Me anything!” I said, trying to make Luna let me go. She was shooting daggers at me, with her hoof wrapped around mine so I could not move away. I suddenly stopped struggling and watched in terror as the creature unfurled itself. I shivered as it’s long, slender neck reached for me. It looked at me with it’s bright red eyes with a slight expression of surprise. “You... You are like me.” He said, reaching out with a slender white hand to touch me. I stiffened, and Luna squeezed my arm. A long, thin talon came to rest right under my chin. It suddenly turned my head to the left, then to the right, then up, then down. I was deathly afraid of him, and could barely stand to be in such contact with him. He turned his hand so that the palm was facing up. “May I, Princess?” He asked, trying to sound as polite as possible. “I don’t own Ed.” She said, The creature smiled, showing row after row of dangerously sharp teeth. “He might disagree with you about that.” He retorted, turning to me with his brow raised, obviously expecting some kind of answer. “I’m hers.” I whispered. He immediately curled his neck back, making scary shouting noises into the sky. I tried to run away again, but Luna tightened her grip around my left foreleg. “He’s only laughing. You don’t have to be so afraid.” She whispered into my ear. “I can’t help it.” I whispered back, and the creature leveled his head back down to look at me. “You are afraid of me. Why.” He said. I gulped. “You are a Dragon, Teacher.” I whispered, my voice shaking. I could feel him lean closer, and I could feel his hot breath on my hair. “Many things are more dangerous than I, but you do not fear them. Why me?” He inquired further. I gulped again. “I-” “Look at me when you answer. I will not tolerate cowardice.” He said sternly, and I slowly looked up at him. His head was only a few feet away from my head. “I do not like dragons.” I said unsteadily, staring at his chin. The scales pointed down away from the body there, like some strange equivalent of facial hair. “I am sorry to hear. Let me try to console you by saying that I do not intend on making you a meal.” He said with sincerity. I looked at his outstretched hand, by far much larger than I, and I sheepishly stepped up to it. I tensed my legs on the scaly floor as it was raised into the air, with the head of the dragon following my ascent. “You are very lucky.” He said. I looked at him in surprise. “Why?” I asked, not even stopping to be afraid. “Any normal pony would not stop to agree with me.” “I’ve never been a normal pony.” I remarked, my speech vitrified. The nameless dragon smiled again. “She is beautiful, if you happen to be a member of the species.” He explained, with the cool observance of a scientist in regards to an experiment. I blushed and looked down at my hoof. It was a big mistake, because I could feel vertigo set in as I saw the tiny outline of Luna on the ground. I gulped and looked back up at the smiling dragon. “You two make, dare I say it, a cute couple.” “Thanks.” “When is the wedding?” He asked. I started to sputter, not expecting such a question, “Oh, we- That is to say- I mean-” The dragon stopped my stammering by waving one of his hands at me dismissively. “I assumed. It was ignorant of me, and I should have made sure of the validity of my belief before asking such a forward question. I am sorry.” He explained. I was starting to feel dizzy. “Please don’t drop me.” I whispered. “Do not worry. I will do no such thing.” He said formally. “Do you know why you are here?” He inquired. “No.” I asked. The smile on the deadly face immediately turned into a frown. “You are here because your instruction on the Flow, its manipulation, and the subtleties of those who use it have been lax. Actually, your instruction has been close to none at all, which is a problem indeed.” He explained. “And you intend on teaching me?” I asked. He nodded, his great head moving many feet up and down. “Yes. In Equestria, it was my duty to instruct the neophytes about the Flow, and to make sure that they did not injure themselves. Clearly, in the latter part of my duties, I have been negligent, but in the former part, I hope that I will be successful.” He rumbled eloquently, his voice making my bones shiver. “What is your name, Teacher?” I asked, already having a sneaking suspicion of what the name may be. “My name is Alucard. And yours?” He asked. I gulped. I could feel my legs shake lightly. “I will not eat you, if that is what you are so worried about.” He responded quickly, most likely noticing my legs. “No.” I said. Alucard made a big whumph, exhaling in almost a snort. “I have a title. I expect to be addressed thus.” He reprimanded sternly. “No, Teacher.” I said, staring at the odd collection of scales on his chin. He smiled and made a happy vibrating noise that made my teeth feel odd. “Good. Please, tell me your name.” He said. “Edwin.” I said, suddenly remembering that he was a dragon. Every clack of his teeth, every snick of his inner eyelid closing, every humid exhalation made me want to run away screaming. My pony instincts were urging, pleading with me to get away from this dangerous predator. My mind knew that he would not kill me, but that did not change the fact that I was struck with a cold sweat, my legs were shaking almost uncontrollably, and my mouth was unusually dry. I gulped, and Alucard sighed. Or, at least the dragon equivalent of a sigh, which was a long rumbling exhale. “Would you feel any better if I were to place you back on the ground? He asked. I nodded, unable to speak calmly. I felt the artificial air of the Tardis’ air shield fly past me immediately, with the wonderful sensation of a controlled fall accompanying me. A few exhilarating seconds later, I opened my eyes to see the scorched landscape. I jumped off of Alucard’s hand and trotted as fast as I politely could to Luna, who was making a little sculpture out of the blackened sediment of the planet. It was a little hill, and I walked up slowly to see her innocently continue. She did as such for a few minutes, not noticing me. I cleared my throat after a while to get her attention, and her head shot up to look at me. I had the pleasure of watching her face go from blank surprise to caring joy, and my heart leapt in my chest. I walked over to her side wordlessly, edging my way around the tiny hill, and sat down by her side. She was staring at the dragon, so I took my chance to kiss her cheek. She immediately blushed and looked down at her hooves. I edged my hoof over to hers, placing mine around the blue limb. I heard the most unusual sound that sounded like grinding gears, and looked back up at Alucard. He was watching the two of us with a strange fascination. He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again. He tried again to say something, and was a slight bit more successful the second time. “Tell me about how the two of you met. I find social relationships to facilitate felicity in myself, and would like to know more about how the two of you came to be if I can truly understand why Edwin wants to learn how to defend his loved ones.” He said, elongating his body so that he was lying supine, with his gigantic head a safe distance away from the two of us. I looked at Luna, and she gestured for me to go first. “Well, I met Luna,” I said, jostling her playfully, eliciting a small giggle, “My first night in the Royal Estate. She asked me who I was and spent the entire night crying on my shoulder.” I said. Luna raised a hoof to smack me playfully on the chest. “It wasn’t anywhere near all night! Moonrise was almost four hours before that.” She said smugly. I laughed, turning back to Alucard. “Well, she comes to me the next day apologizing, and I guilt her into taking me out on a date. She later came to call it-” “Take your Numbered to work day.” We said in synchrony. I said it with a humorous air, while she said it tiredly, with a happy sigh at the end. I smiled. looking at her. She looked back at me with a lazily happy gaze. We stared at each other for a while, and were interrupted by a low rumbling growl. I turned to look at Alucard, with closed eyes, a smile on his face, and wisps of smoke curling out of his nostrils. He sat like that for a little bit, but then he opened his large red eyes at looked at Luna. “And what of you, Princess?” He inquired with his throaty rumble. Luna seemed rather shocked that he would ask that question. “What of me?” She questioned. He made a wheezy exhalation that could be passed as a laugh. “Tell me how you met Edwin. I am quite sure that your account will differ slightly from his.” Alucard reasoned, and there was a slightly strange logic to his words. Luna smiled. “My first time meeting Edwin was extremely different from his first time meeting me.” Luna said, her tone hinting of a story withheld. “Oh?” Alucard asked, his eyes perking slightly. I smiled, already knowing the story. “Yes. You see, I met Edwin during my period of banishment on the moon. I-” “Princess, how could that possibly be?” Alucard asked shyly. Luna made an amused humph. “The Doctor is a strange pony, even to you.” Luna reasoned, and Alucard’s sharp smile seemed to grow even wider, an I gluped. “Quite right, quite right. Please, continue.” He said, and Luna did exactly that. “I must impress upon you how extremely lonely and hard life was on the moon. No air other than what I could make with magic made it a struggle to survive, and sleep was almost always a luxury. I was watching odd weather forming in northern Equestria when the Doctor showed up for one of his regular visits...” Luna trailed off, her gaze listing to the side. There was an incomprehensible emotion behind those eyes that made me frown. It was like the sadness upon discovery that you could not solve a puzzle that you put a considerable amount of time into. She swallowed, and then plunged back into her exposition. “How I treasured those visits, Alucard. They were the only thing keeping me sane in an entire world of grey and dust. That wondrous Doctor with his amazing Tardis. He would tell me stories, amazing stories that would make the coat shiver right off of your back... It was a joy when he came to me. I loved his visits. It reminded me of my childhood, when Tia and I would awake to find the blue box out in the fields... But this visit, this visit was very different. You see, he brought a pony with him. A colt. He was a tall pony, with amazing white fur and jet black mane. He was strong. He had power, I could smell it in him. He was very different. He flew with no wings, he made magic where there was none. He looked me in the eyes and told me that he was taking me home.” She said, her voice growing excited. I was so enraptured by her narration that I had stopped watching Alucard’s reaction and was staring at Luna. She was so happy. “He colthandled the Doctor into letting me into the big blue box. It was my first time inside of the box, and I was so excited. They even had a couch! I missed couches so much on the moon. They are so comfortable! We shared popcorn and laughed while I was waiting to go home. I couldn’t wait to go back home and tell Tia how sorry I was. All I wanted was for her to hold me and tell me that everything was going to be alright. But...” She said, her enraptured joy suddenly marred by a strange fear. I was confused for a moment, but the bottom dropped out of my stomach when I remembered. “The last thing that I could remember happening was the Doctor shouting something. Then it was just all pain. I hurt so much. Everything was so cold. I could see him, the amazing white colt, standing over me and screaming for me to live. He was so sad and I was so tired. I finally closed my eyes.” She said, hunched over and covering herself with her wing. I got up and walked over to her side and snaked my strong white legs around her. She immediately relaxed, and shuffled her wing so that I was protected by it too. “I remember waking up. He was lying next to me, barely breathing. It was a grassy glade that I remember from being alive the first time. I thought that it was the afterlife for a while, but then I saw the Doctor. He told me everything that happened, everything that that strong colt did, everything. I saw him like he was. He would do and did everything that was in his power to protect me from anything that wished me harm. He even snagged me from the cold clutches of Death to save me.” She said, rising again to her full height. “From that point on, I knew that he was the one for me.” She concluded.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:29:20+00:00

2012-02-02T04:29:20+00:00

Chapter 35 I said nothing when Luna finished her story. I only squeezed her tighter, treasuring her for what she was to me. Everything. Life without Luna was a life not worth living, as I have experienced before. I could feel her warm body around my forelegs, gently rising and falling with her breaths. Her familiar orange scent assuaged my mind, washing away my troubles. I could feel Luna’s wing tighten around me, the extremely strong spines of her feathers grasping me like long fingers, and her down tickled me softly. It was wonderful, and for a moment, I felt completely enraptured for an amazing moment. The wings, the smell, and the feel of Luna was absolutely amazing, and she was truly a world unto herself. I could be with Luna for the next century and not know everything that I could about her, and that was the only way that I wanted it to be. I could finally let go of her after a moment of just holding her close. I pulled my hooves from around her, but one of them snagged on her collar-thing that she always wore when she had to do anything official, like walk or breathe. I fumbled, trying to keep from falling over because of my tangled hoof. “I’m sorry Luna, I-” I said hurriedly, but she turned her face and kissed me. She pressed me closer to her with her wing as she kissed me. It was a long, drawn out, passionate thing. She was the aggressor, but I soon reciprocated in kind. We went on like that, with my hoof still snagged and her wing around me, when I heard a strange cough. I tried to extricate myself from the embrace, but Luna stretched her neck so that I had to pull away, gasping for breath. I could see Alucard in front of us, looking rather embarassed. I turned from him, to Luna with her now-purple cheeks, and then back to Luna. “I love it when you blush.” Luna said, looking at me with a knowing stare. I could feel my ears tingle as she spoke. I reached up with my hoof to rub the blush out of my face. I could feel it work, but Luna started laughing. “Ed,” She said between bouts of laughter “Look at your hooves!” She finished. I looked down at my hooves. “Oh no.” I said. my hooves were pitch black from the strange sediment on the planet, and I just rubbed it all over my face. I looked over to Alucard, who looked very pitying. “I will summon the Doctor. You can go home for now, and I will send for you tomorrow.” Alucard said, closing his eyes. He rose to his full height, and held one of his enormous hands open with the palm facing upward. His brow wrinkled, and I could see some strange sparks over his upturned hand, sputtering and fizzing. I suddenly felt a debilitating, huge burst of magic. I felt my knees shake and wobble as I could see a shadowy form begin to take shape. It wavered and shook like a tuning fork would, the vibrating lines slowly converging and intersecting, their erethral planes and underlying geometry unifying into the same space. I watched in awe as Luna dried a tear from her eye, still laughing slightly. The lines and angles shivered once more before before suddenly snapping into linear time and geometric space. Alucard’s hand hid what he summoned at first, but it gently lowered to reveal the Tardis. I watched the blue box as Alucard gently picked it up with three fingers from his other hand and set it down on the ground. “How did you do that, Teacher?” I wondered aloud, completely in awe. “The Flow, or Aethr as it was taught ages ago, can connect Ghosts together across the most extreme distances. It is a simple matter to connect two places instead of two Ghosts, and bring something through the space.” Alucard backed away from us after that, turning to the panorama of the sky and the setting Soulanis and Culaan. “You have twelve hours to do as you please. Your first lesson will begin shortly after, and I expect you to be rested, uninjured, and prepared.” he said, and spread his wings. The crinkly white skin spread across the frame of his bones, catching the air with the billowing membrane. He flapped once, and the air exploded, forcing wind under him with a deafening roar. He flapped once more, and he launched himself into the sky. I was staring at him, flying off into the distance, wondering where he could possibly go. “Maybe he has a house.” I muttered to myself. Luna perked up from her after-laugh laziness and looked at me. “What?” She asked, either not noticing or ignoring the tardis. “I was thinking about Alucard.” I explained. Luna nodded, getting up from the ground. “He probably has something out here. But I can’t imagine what, or even why he would need it. It’s not as if it would rain on him here.” She said, shivering a little bit. I walked closer to her, and she met me the rest of the way. I noticed the entire bottom half of her was covered in the black ash. “You need a bath.” I said. She looked back at me with a smirk. “I think that we need a bath, Ed.” She said playfully, and my ears started to tingle again. “Um...” “Oh, be quiet Edwin. It isn’t unheard of for couples in Equestria to take baths together.” She reasoned. I felt extremely embarrassed. “Uh-” I said, but Luna started to walk up to the Tardis. “Come on, Ed. We’ll go get something to eat, then you’re getting a bath.” “I’m not too sure a-” I started to say, but her retort was the was the opening and closing of the tardis door. I sighed and walked up to the door, pushing it open with a sooty hoof. I was immediately treated to a wailing alarm and the Doctor holding a fire extinguisher with his mouth. There was a small fire on one of the console wedges, and he was waving the fire extinguisher around while it spewed white foam everywhere. I immediately rushed up to the Doctor, who looked like an epileptic rodent. I took the fire extinguisher from him with magic and aimed it expertly at the fire, squeezing the handle. It immediately sputtered and a whole lot of nothing came out of the end. I threw it aside, looking for another fire extinguisher. I turned to the Doctor, and he just looked around frantically. I stared at him incredulously as he searched. “I only have the one!” He finally shouted from the inside of a pile of rubber flanges. “What?! You have more wrenches than there are hooves in Equestria, but you only have one fire extinguisher?!” I shouted. The Doctor flung his back hooves around, trying to extricate himself from the pile “Toggle the blue button on the furthest console wedge from the door!” The Doctor shouted, still trying to escape from his rubbery confines. I ran over to the side of the console that the Doctor indicated, and there were no less than nine blue buttons, all arranged haphazardly across the back-lit console. “Which one?!” I screamed to the ceiling. The fire raged on, and the Doctor yelled wordlessly. “I forget! Try them all!” He shouted after recovering from his frustration. I growled angrily and hopped up onto the ledge that bordered the console. I mashed my hooves into all the blue buttons, and they all did a very large amount of nothing at all. I finally came to one button, a small blue triangle, that would not press. I mashed my hooves harder, and it stubbornly would not cooperate. I turned away from it, trying to find something to force the button. I found Luna levitating a sledgehammer with a smile. I kissed her for being so brilliant, took the hammer away from her with magic, and swung it at the button. It made a satisfying click. I saw a small nozzle pop out of one of the round things on the walls, and it began to shoot out a yellow foam. It landed on the flaming console in question and expanded, consuming the flame. Needless to say, much of the foam landed on things that were not on fire, such as wrenches, the floor, and innocent bystanders. I turned to Luna as we were being covered in the sticky yellow foam, smiling at her. “Hey Luna.” I asked. “Yes, Ed?” She said “I’ll take you up on that bath now.” The Doctor dropped us off near the baths in the Palace, with much grumbling about all of the cleaning that he would have to do. The bad thing was that the foam started out sticky, but then it expanded and hardened, looking very silly. The Doctor laughed at us and called us ‘Slitheen’, which I could not get him to explain for the life of me. He stopped me as we were exiting the Tardis. Luna continued to the baths, not wanting to stop for anything. “Edwin, here.” He said, proffering a small, dark purple bottle. I looked at it questioningly through my foam mask that I managed to poke eye holes through before it hardened completely. “What is it?” I asked, picking it up with magic. “Solvent. It should help to get rid of the foam.” He said uncertainly, and pushed me out of the Tardis. I turned back to look at him, but the door was already closed. I did not want to be noticed either, so I hurried as fast as I could to the door that Luna went through. Sadly, I did not reach my goal before I was caught. “Captain Shell!” A voice shouted behind me. A small, ironic part of my brain wanted to congratulate the pony for recognizing me through my foam guise. I turned slowly to face the pony, cracking some of the foam around my neck. It was Lieutenant Pix, with her white and purple mane waving from underneath her silver helm. I smiled awkwardly, trying to figure out why she was approacing me. “Captain, I would like to inform you that we have found Lieutenant Ryo.” She said. “You are very good at finding things. Where was he?” “Sleeping in his bed. It seems that the impostor gave him some sedative the night before. He could remember nothing.” Pix said. I thought of Sebastian, and I was all too sure that she was fully able to convince a colt to do something that she wanted him to. I felt slightly sorry for Ryo for being seduced against his will, but I didn’t want to linger on it for much longer. “Ah. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go now.” I said, turning away from the dark pink pony. “Captain?” She asked, and I turned back to her somewhat annoyed. “Lieutenant?” “Why are you going into the Mare’s baths?” She asked. I grimaced. It was a particularly hard question to answer truthfully without revealing the relationship between Luna and I, which I was almost certain was not public knowledge “There is somepony waiting for me in there, and I do not wish to keep them waiting for very much longer.” I said, and turned away from Pix once again. “Sir, forgive me for saying, but that is extremely improper!” She nearly shouted. I turned back to her again. “What?” “If you are indeed doing what I think you are about to do, It is something done on the confines of ones’ private quarters, and certainly not something done with a subordinate!” She said. I smiled and watched her face turn even pinker. “What makes you think that she is a subordinate?” I asked. “You are in charge of everypony. There is no way that she cannot be.” “I assure you that I am only going in there for a bath, and that the mare in question is not a subordinate.” I reasoned, extremely tired. Pix seemed to grow even more indignant. “Bringing a private citizen into the Palace for anything other than official business is most certainly not allowed! Forgive me, Captain, but I must send word to one of the Princesses at once!” She said. I smiled, proud of her blind adherence to the rules but also because of the humor of my next statement. I pushed open the door to the bath, smiling. “Would you like to tell one of them yourself?” I asked playfully. I saw the angry blush fall out of the Lieutenant’s face. “Who is it, Ed?” Luna asked loudly from inside of the room. “Nothing, I’ll be back in a minute.” I said, closing the door. Lieutenant Pix seemed completely flabbergasted. “You- Her- What-” She managed to say before I got over to her with my foam encrusted body to explain quietly. “You of all ponies, Lieutenant, know the value of being able to keep a secret. I am quite sure you would not like to have your personal life hung up for all to see like so much laundry. I am the same way, and I would appreciate it if you could keep this between you and I.” I pleaded in a low voice. Pix just sputtered a little bit, trying to find something to say. I smiled as best as I could with my foamface while I waited for her to find her tongue “Does Princess Celestia know?” She asked. “Yes.” I replied. Pix seemed to relax, and she did not look as stressed as she did a moment before. She reached up with a hoof to her mouth and coughed. “Well, Captain. I must go now. The forward Second requires my attentions.” Pix said, turning and trotting down the hall. I sighed. It had been a long day, and all I could think about now was sleep, Luna, and peaches. I opened the door and walked into the room, knowing that at least one of the three was within reach. I looked around the room. It wasn’t very large, but it would have been under the category of small swimming pool when I was a human. There were stained glass windows high up on the ceilings, depicting scenes from what I assumed to be Equestrian history, letting in a colored light. I looked at the pool. The water was steaming, but there was nothing in it. I turned my head to see Luna to the left of me. She took of her tiara, necklace, and shoes earlier, and they were in a little neat pile next to her. “Why aren’t you in the pool?” I asked. She gestured to one of the foam blobs. “They make you float.” She said grumpily. I smiled and floated the bottle of solvent that the Doctor gave me over to her. She picked it up with magic herself, looking at it questioningly. “Rub it on the foam, it’s supposed to make it go away.” I said. Luna opened the bottle and drizzled some on the foam. It immediately started to fizzle and dissolve. She repeated this again on the other globs of foam, and soon she was completely foam-free. She gave the bottle to me and lowered herself carefully into the bath, moving from the shallow end to the deep end, with only her head above the water. I hurried to get rid of all the foam so that I could join her, then I tore off the armor that I had been wearing this whole time. I cursed myself for forgetting the helm back in the Blue Alicorn. I joined her in the water. The pool was steamy, and it was also extremely warm. I grinned, eyes closed, as I slid into the hot water. I could feel all of my clenched muscles relax, with all of my stress seemingly flowing away. I sunk down lower and leaned back so that only my nose and eyes were above the water. “This feels great.” I mumbled, paddling with my hooves to keep above the water. It worked surprisingly well, so I just contented myself with doing that for a while. I felt more relaxed than at any time ever during my life in Equestria. I sighed happily, deciding to set my hooves down in the shallows. I hunkered down, opened my eyes, and looked for Luna. It was a quick search, because I found her sitting on the edge of the pool preening a wing with her mouth. “Hi Luna.” I said. Luna took a particularly bent feather out of her mouth to look at me. Her eyes were happy, which made me happy too. “You look adorable when you’re wet.” She said, her voice seductive. I could see her cheeks turn purple. “I look adorable doing everything, don’t I?” I asked. Luna giggled a little bit. “Sometimes more than others.” She said, and I stood up, rising from the water. I cracked my neck, and was satisfied to feel several cracks and pops. I saw Luna cringe as this happened. “Edwin, that’s terrible for your neck.” She admonished. I blushed a little bit, looking down at my hoof. The water made it wavy and distorted. “Come help me preen my wing and I’ll help you with your back. It must be killing you right now.” She said, and I looked up to her. She was holding her right wing out. I smiled and climbed out of the pool, walking up to the wing in question. I looked at it for a moment. “What exactly do you want me to do?” I asked. “Take the bent feathers and straighten them out with your mouth.” She said. “Why don’t you just use magic?” I asked, taking one of the long flight feathers into my mouth. It tasted weird, like an old blanket, but it smelled great. Luna’s smell did not diminish when she was soaked. “Because it is safer. I might do something wrong and rip out the feather instead of straighten it, which is rather painful.” She said, and returned to the feather in front of her. We worked together to straighten out the feathers, and I soon found out that Luna had ticklish wings. The feather I was preening along the spine of the wings was pulled out of my mouth as I grabbed it near the wing shoulder. I was slapped several times with it as Luna was laughing. I watched her fit, waiting for her to finish with a somewhat disgruntled look on my face. She finally stopped a minute or two later, and turned to me, still smiling. She sobered up a little when she saw the pale feather-shaped patterns on my face. “Sorry.” She said, shrugging and smiling apologetically. “Can I have that wing back?” I asked. Luna had finished the other one long before, and I cited my lack of practice preening wings. I reached for the wing, Luna squealed happily and pulled the limb away from me. “No, Ed! You’ll tickle me!” She said, and bounded away around the pool. I laughed and chased her. She soon started flapping her wings, those extremely soft wings, and seemingly floated into the air. I knew that she was flapping them, but they seemed to glide on the air. I floated up into the air a moment later. We chased each other around the pool a few times, laughing and squealing the whole while. “I’m going to finish preening that wing and you’re going to love it!” I shouted playfully, and Luna squealed and flapped faster. I grinned and sped up, trying to catch her. I was so close to catching her when the door opened to the baths. I froze in midair, staring at the pony door. Luna, still laughing, completed her circuit around the pool and few right into me, knocking us both into the pool. She grabbed me, trying to kiss me, and I was just staring at the pony in the doorway. Luna noticed me, and stared at me, slightly shocked for a moment. “What is it, Ed?” She whispered. I said nothing, but kept looking at the door. Luna hesitated, and then turned to face the pony in the door. The pony was not saying anything, but she was crying silently. “Oh, Tia...” Luna said, getting out of the water. I just stayed there in the water, unsure about what I could do. Luna clumsily got out of the water, and Celestia ran out of the room, sobbing openly. “Tia, No!” Luna shouted, trying to get to her sister. Her horn glowed for a moment, and she became immediately dry. She ran over to her shoes, trying to get them on. “Luna, should I-” I started to say, but Luna started shaking her head immediately. “This is between her and I. You can’t help.” She said. She kicked her shoes off to the side, angry that she could not get them on fast enough, and ran out of the room, shouting for her sister. I just floated there in the water, trying to understand what happened. Celestia was never too happy about Luna and I, but she was never really sad about it. I was actually very surprised at the elder Princess for this reaction. I kept floating for a moment, wanting to understand what was going on between the two of them. If only there was some way for me to know... The realization dawned on me. I was a Ghost. I could do anything that I wanted to do, and all I had to do was close my eyes. I immersed myself in the Flow. It’s thrumming power filled me, threatened to burst, but it obeyed my every command. I could feel reality bend slightly to my will, willing to do anything and everything that I ever wished of it. I smiled. I had never been this deep in the Flow before. It frightened me, but there was a perverse sort of excitement about being so close to something so dangerous. I delved deeper, feeling myself becoming one with the energy, until the barrier between Pony and Flow was blurred. I dived, pushing deeper. I suddenly opened my eyes with a gasp. I am the Flow. The Flow is me. I know all. Lieutenant Ryo was drinking green tea to get rid of a particularly bad hangover. Ensign Breckan of the forward Third was eating a pear. He didn’t like the flavor of it much, but he was hungry. Berry was with her family in Salt Lick City. Her mother was happy to see her. Twilight Sparkle was mixing chemicals in her laboratory. Antony was taking off his armor in the Armory. There was a sunflower in the third-tier courtyard that was being eaten by a particularly bored pony by the name of Mo. He was a green pony and he liked sunflowers. I floated across the scenery. I passed so many ponies, noticing so many things that they themselves would likely never know. One pony had a weak left ventricle. One pony had brittle bones. Yet another pony was pregnant. I smiled. I had never seen a newborn pony, and I would have liked to see one one of these days. I moved on, sliding up the Threads to the upper levels of the Palace, where I knew the Princesses to be. I could not hear them, I had to be close for that. I soon settled in the upper Observatory, in one of the towers. The Princesses were not too far below. “Tia...” Luna said in a caring voice. I knew that she was stroking her neck, and that Celestia was lying on her favorite pillow because it smelled like Othello. She missed him dearly. “I can’t help it, Lu-u-u-na!” She said, sobbing over the vowel in Luna’s name. “I know you miss him, Tia. I do too. He was a gentlecolt, a very nice pony.” “He was everything...” She said, sobbing. I felt intrigued. I sensed all of Equestria, every lake, stream, ocean, rock, turtle, bug, hose, house, and everything else that I could possibly think of. My Flow-augmented consciousness could find Othello absolutely nowhere. “Tia. You remember when You met Othello for the first time?” Luna asked. Celestia nodded. “I was jealous. He liked you better than me. I was sad for the longest time, but not because I wanted him. I wanted what you had, Tia. I wanted somepony to hold me when the nights got cold. I wanted somepony to hug me when I was sad, love me when I was lonely, and take care of me when I was sick. A pony that I could stay with for the rest of my life. A pony that wouldn’t be afraid of my responsibilities, a pony that could stand his own on the field of Equestrian royalty. A pony strong, attractive, kind, and good at kissing.” Luna said. Celestia laughed a little at the last comment. “And?” She asked a little bit sniffly after Luna did not respond for a while. “I found him. Don’t be sad for what you don’t have. Be happy for those that have things. Just because I have Edwin doesn’t make you alone. I’m always here for you whenever you need me, Tia.” Luna said kindly. Celestia sniffled. “Really?” She said, turning her neck to look at Luna. She squeezed her pillow just a little bit tighter. “Really.” “I love you, Luna. “Love you too, Tia.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-02T04:29:33+00:00

2012-02-02T04:29:33+00:00

Chapter 36 I exited the conversation, allowing my consciousness to climb high. A hefty heart was what I gained by eavesdropping, as well as a sense of my youth. Luna and Celestia have been together for their entire lives, and I fell right out of the sky into Luna’s lap barely a week ago. I could understand that I was taking up time that would have been originally allocated for Celestia, hence her sadness. Truth be told, Luna was old enough to be my grandmother a thousand times over. But I would live just as long as her if something did not kill me first. I pondered this as I seemingly fell up, allowing my range of hearing to ascend. Being omniscient, it was impossible for me to know more about a certain situation by being physically present. I could comprehend everything, and actually using a physical form was useless. Physical bodies were only vessels of consciousness, and now I was free of my physical body. I suddenly grew a little bit frightened. If I knew everything, if I could be everywhere, if I could do everything, what kept me from never entering my physical body again? It frightened me, and I suddenly sensed my body. It was standing, eyes closed, in the shallow end of the of the Mare’s baths. A mare was actually walking to the baths with a folded towel draped over her back, and I felt amused as I imagined what she would see when she entered the room. A seemingly dead pony, standing in shoulder-deep water, with Princess Luna’s attire lying nearby. I wondered about Twilight when the mare in question screamed and ran for help. I had just enough time to get back to my body and get out of the baths before she came back with help. I quickly checked on Twilight. I was shocked. Oh no. I opened my eyes, flinging my head back, flipping my head, gasping for air. I had to get to Twilight. Now. I struggled to get out of the water, trying to lug my dripping tail behind me. I finally got out, scooping my shoulder plate up by the leather straps. I would put it on as I was going up. I rushed out of the door, trying to get my head through the leather straps. I ran through the halls, tracking wet hoofprints all over the lush purple carpet. “Twilight!” I shouted, banging my hooves on the door to her room. She did not answer. I would have given her the benefit of the doubt and left, but I knew exactly what was going on. “Twilight! This is Edwin! Open up!” I shouted again, trying to get her to open the door willingly. She didn’t, so I had to kick it open. I turned around and kicked it open with my hind legs. I walked into the room, suddenly getting a big whiff of something hauntingly familiar. My pupils dilated. My breathing rate rose sharply. I sniffed again. My heart thudded in my chest. My eyes. I could see everything. The air moving in currents. Tiny little droplets of water vapor. The eddies in the air that hinted at an aerosol. I felt slightly happy for Twilight, but I had to make sure that she didn’t hurt herself or anypony else while she was under the influence of ethyl bromoacetate. I looked around the room, trying my best to find her. I shifted my eyes to the left, and I finally found the pony right in my face, with her crazily dilated pupils and her slightly askew mane. “Edwin!” She said unusually fast. Surprise blossomed on her face, and then faded away just as quickly to be replaced by suspicion. “What are you doing here?! You’re letting all of the aerosol out of my testing room!” She said, slightly angry. A normal pegasus or earth pony was dangerous under the influence of ethyl bromoacetate because they could see any attempts to control them before you yourself did, but a Unicorn? I had no experience about how a normal unicorn would react to it. I had to take every precaution possible to make sure that she would not leave the room, interact with other ponies, or hurt herself. She was staring me down, backing me into a corner. I was still dangerously deep in the Flow, so I blinked and removed all of the excess ethyl from the room. My minutes were numbered, then. Twilight had time to inhale and then later metabolize a much larger dose than I had, with nearly five minutes of exposure compared to my few seconds. I would only be able to contain her unaided for a minute or two, but I theorized that it would take about thirty for her to come off of her symptoms. I could easily keep up with her using the Flow, but I did not want to use it for fear of harming her. The ideal situation was to have a team of four unicorns to create a chamber that could safely detain her for the duration of the dosage. Twilight’s head suddenly burred, and she shot off to the left of me to watch the book fall off of a shelf in seemingly slow motion. It was fascinating, with its pages slowly fluttering open as it fell, revealing the inky black text on the white paper. I was extremely interested by the book, but I had to concentrate. Nothing in this room would kill me. Twilight was physically capable of killing me, but I’m not sure that she couldn't do that on purpose. I tracked back through my thoughts. “Twilight, where are your notes? For making the gas?” I asked, shutting and locking the door that I entered in with magic. “Book.” She said in a slurred voice because she was speaking so fast, pawing the now-open book on the floor. I left her alone and decided to look for them myself. I turned away from the living area of the lab to the actual lab. Tables covered in beakers, glass instruments, tubing, those metal containers that held compressed gas. I could see a small stack of yellowed papers next to that little brown quill and inkwell that I used to write her the note that started this whole incident. I sighed, trying to find it. I finally found the notes, written in a strangely flowing script. I blinked. The notes suddenly popped out of existence, leaving a lone note fluttering down to the table. It must have been in between some of the other papers that did not exist now. I read it. Miss Sparkle- CH2BrCO2C2H5 -Edwin I blinked again, and it too popped into that strange realm of not being. I turned back to Twilight. She scared me, because she was literally right in my face. I could feel my small dose of Ethyl leaving me. I didn’t notice her approach “I can hear you see, Ed. What is this stuff?” She said quickly, with an air of extreme interest. “It’s dangerous. You can’t use it again.” I said. “Then why did you give it to me?” She asked aloofly. I grimaced a little bit, not sure about what to say about that. “The Princess told me that you were working on a chemical to increase respiratory capacity. This chemical does that very very well, but I didn’t take into account the side effects, and- Twilight, don’t do that!” I shouted at the very end, because Twilight had hid herself somewhere in the room with her lightning speed. I felt a wave of the Flow rush through me, strengthening my limbs and bolstering my mind. I thought about it for a moment. Twilight could be anywhere in the room right now. There was a tiny little window in the room with wispy curtains, and I could see that it was open. I cursed myself and ran over to the window, looking out of it. I could see nothing except for one of the many gardens jutting out of the Palace. I climbed back inside of the window, shutting it. I walked back to the interior of the room, and plopped myself down. I heard a faint whisper from the Flow, alerting me to Twilight’s presence. She was hiding herself with magic, rendering herself invisible. I suspected that she was keeping her sample of ethyl safe from me. “I’m not going to destroy it, Twilight. It’s your discovery.” I said, and I felt a flutter of magic as she became visible once more. She looked rather sheepish, holding a graduated flask filled with a translucent pale yellow liquid between her forehooves. “You promise?” She asked sheepishly. “Yeah, but only if you do exactly what I tell you to do.” I said. Twilight hesitated a little bit, but then reluctantly agreed. “Okay.” “Good. I need to go find one of the Princesses, so you need to do a few things. You need to stay here until a guard named Antony or Princess Celestia comes to see you. You cannot open this door for anypony other than Captain Antony or Princess Celestia. Don’t open that flask Okay?” I asked to clarify. She nodded. I smiled. “It’s good to see you again, Twilight.” I said, and then turned to walk out of the door. I nearly fell to the floor, extremely relieved to be away from that situation. I decided to try and see if I could find any food. The one place that was always filled with food was the Dining hall, so I decided to go there. I also decided to walk rather than just blink my way over there, I really needed the interaction with the other ponies in the Palace. I actually passed a few. One pony was just murmuring to himself, with an assemblage of scrolls and quills following behind him like a parade. They were writing something, but I had no idea what. I passed a few other ponies who asked me about Equestrian events, and I was embarrassed to find that my knowledge was very limited. I said what I could, and I inserted opinions that I thought would belong, and it worked out rather well. The ponies that I talked to just smiled politely when they asked my opinions on something. I had a feeling that they didn't quite agree with them. Oh well. Things were like that for me back when I was human, too. I was never registered with any political party, never voted, because I could never find another person who I completely agreed with doctrinally. Back in the real world, the ponies I talked to would excuse themselves, claiming duties in other parts of the Palace. I replied with a pleasantry, and we went along on our separate paths. I finally found myself in front of the colossal wooden doors of the Dining hall. I felt slightly dreamy as I pushed one of them open with my pale hoof. I could immediately tell that something was wrong. There was nopony in the room. Not a single one. The long benches, the clouds, everything. It was completely barren. I walked up to the table, which still seemed to be filled with food, and stopped in my tracks. Spitfire was sitting on my right, on the opposite side of the lead table. There was some odd shape in front of her. She was staring at me intently with her bright red irises. “How kind of you to join me, Mister Shell. Would you care for some fruit?” The Angelic asked, gesturing with an orange hoof to a nearby bowl of peaches. My mouth began to water, but I could not accept. “No.” I said stiffly. The Angelic tutted in a warm, masculine voice. “That’s no way to show appreciation to a Host. Well, I do suppose that it isn’t that necessary for you to indulge. I need you focused.” She said in that strance voice that didn’t match her features, with that horrifyingly articulate mouth with the pointed fangs. “See, Edwin? I even brought some food so that I would not be tempted to eat you. I consider that to be very accommodating of me, so you should appreciate what I have to say.” The angelic retorted, gesturing downwards with his lips. My stomach heaved as I figured out what it was. “You... You...” I whispered, trying to find a word sinister enough. “Monster?” The Angelic supplied, “Abomination? Offence against Nature? Everything must eat to survive, Edwin. Don’t condemn me for having tastes that differ.” He said, leaning down with his head to take a big bite. He grabbed the lower part of the leg with his hoof, stabilizing it as he ripped a big chunk out with his fangs. I could see the cutie mark of a musical note getting torn between the flesh in the mouth and the flesh still on the leg. My stomach lunged into my throat as I watched what was once a pony being eaten before my very eyes. “What was their name?” I asked quietly. Spitfire looked up at me, her red irises betraying a strange confusion. “Do you ask a tree from which you take your peach its name?” “That is no answer.” I whispered calmly, trying to rein in my emotions. The Angelic in Spitfire arched his neck back and gulped, his head bobbing several times as he tried to swallow the meat. He coughed a little when he finished. “When I killed him, somepony nearby shouted ‘Blues’, but there is no way of knowing for sure, at least not now.” He said offhandedly, pushing the mutilated blue limb away from him. “Edwin. It is your job to annihilate our species. Genocide is the reason that Numbereds exist.” “For good reason.” I said, shuddering with anger. “A debatable issue. But, as the leader of my race, I implore you to consider something.” He said. I said nothing in reply, so he continued. “One of your species, The First, is cold and dead. His body no longer carries the passion that shattered our first attempt at a life of our own making. His scorching, genocidal fire is something that Equestrian eyes shall never see again.” He stated bluntly, “Your kind is at a disadvantage. My race is countless, legion. Your race has only four specimens. You can obviously see your fight to be a losing one. Drop your cause. My kind has agreed to be less aggressive, to limit their consumption. All you need to do is walk away.” He said calmly, reaching down with his head to rip another chunk off of the leg. I had to look away while the sounds of ripping meat and crunching bone resounded through the empty hall. I shuddered every time I heard bone snap. He finally finished, and I turned to him. He had a little bit of gristle stuck in his mouth, and I shuddered slightly as I noticed. “Think about it like this, Edwin. Either you stop killing Angelics, or Angelics start killing a whole lot more mortal ponies. It’s quite a simple choice, really. If you truly care for the mortal populace of Equestria, as the Numbereds often proclaim, it is a simple choice. You must stop attacking Angelics. You must.” He reasoned. I was loathe to go with him on this. “What if I don’t agree?” I inquired suspiciously. The Angelic scoffed. “The rivers of Equestria will run red with the blood of mortals.” He said, and then stood from his sitting position. He kept Spitfire’s body in good order, it looked very clean. There were bags under her eyes. He leaned down with his head to grab the limb. “You have until the night of the Grand Galloping Gala to decide. We will come for you.” He said, and grabbed the cold limb, biting down. I flinched as the bone crunched. Spitfire spread her wings and flapped, rising into the air. She flapped again, and her body with the dead blue leg in its mouth soared out of an open window. I felt suddenly cold. I had to do something. I had to tell somepony. Luna? No. What would she be able to do? Celestia? No. She would do something drastic. The Doctor? Maybe. Alucard? “Alucard.” I whispered. I had to tell Alucard. He would know exactly what to do. But I had to find the Doctor first. My mind was so jumbled. I had to get out of there. I turned and ran. “Luna!” I shouted, banging on the door. She opened up immediately, but with a rather annoyed look on her face. “Ed, I’m a little bit busy with Tia, I-” “When is the Grand Galloping Gala?” I asked her hurriedly. She looked like I just said something rather shocking. “It’s in about two weeks, but I thought that you didn’t want to-” She said, but I turned away from her before she could finish. “Ed!” She shouted. I turned back to face her, saying nothing. “What’s wrong, Ed? You... You’re never like this with me...” She said very softly, and I immediately felt extremely sorry that I treated her like this. I walked back up to her, getting very close. She looked up at me and I raised a hoof up to her face. I just rested it there, and she leaned into it. Her eyes closed slowly. “Ed...” She whispered, her eyes still closed. “Luna.” I whispered back, “I wish I could tell you what was wrong. I really do. But you don’t need to worry about things like that. You and Celestia have a kingdom to run. I have a species to protect. I’m so sorry. I’ll try and tell you tonight. We’ll go flying together.” I said. Luna smiled. “Really?” She asked, opening her eyes just a little bit. I leaned down and kissed her. There wasn’t the heat or rushed feeling of out other kisses. This was slow, controlled, and gentle. We finally split. I stood there, resting my muzzle on hers. “Really.” I said. We stood there together, and for a few blissful moments, Equestria and all of its worries did not exist “I have to go, Luna.” I said, pulling out of our embrace. Luna shuffled a little bit awkwardly. “Promise we’ll fly together tonight?” She asked. I giggled a little bit. “Promise.” I said, and turned. I trotted away, and after a moment, I broke into a gallop. I would save Equestria. The Angelics do not deserve to live in my world. And I’m going to prove it.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-20T02:29:14+00:00

2012-02-20T02:29:14+00:00

Chapter 37 I ran through the halls. I didn’t know what I was supposed to be looking for. I passed door after door, trying to find out what to do. I really just wanted to have a normal week. Luna and I would go see a play. Luna and I would go to a restaurant. Luna and I would watch clouds in a park. Nothing spontaneous would happen. Nothing would pop out from behind a corner and try to kill me. Just an average week. Damn. It would probably never happen. I kept running. I had to do something. I saw an open window. I turned to it, skidding all across the carpet. As soon as I came to a stop, I ran towards the window. As soon as I was close enough, I jumped out. The air. The wind. It was all so amazing, almost lucid. The hot afternoon air flew past me, quickly turning into cold wind. I fell for what seemed to be an infinite moment. It was amazing. I opened my eyes and started to fly. I had to move. I couldn’t be still. I had to move. I was going so fast. I thought a silly thought as I flew. Maybe if I flew fast enough, all my worries and cares and troubles and obligations would just float away, like autumn leaves would float away if you brush them with a broom. I closed my eyes and let the searing wind fly past me. I thought about who I was. Edwin Shell My mind was happy with that. I was content for a moment. But Edwin Shell is what I was called, but not who I was. I thought harder. Pony My mind was a little bit happier. It wasn’t right, though. I let the flying wind fling my mane back, the ends of my hair snapping painfully against my neck. I clenched my teeth, held my eyes shut, and went even faster. Numbered A teensie bit better. I was indeed a part of a group that was extremely exclusive. I was a strong organism, with body crafted from the Threads of Power, mind summoned from my broken and weak human form. But, If I were to die, the highest Numbered could simply summon another Five. It made me frown against the raging wind. The thought of being replaceable was disconcerting. My mind was still not satisfied, like some ravenous beast. I used my supercharged mind to think harder. Ghost My mind was befuddled. My eyes nearly opened, but I kept them closed. I am a Ghost, yes. My species, Ghostkind, would see my death as a detriment. I would be sorely missed if I were to suddenly disappear. It was a good argument, but my mind was still not happy. Five I am called Five. In some senses, I am five. The name implies both originality and adherence to a group. I am the only one that could be called Five. But, there must have been others before me to make the name of Five necessary. I smiled a tiny bit, but I still was not happy. Fighter I do fight. The title of Fighter does not imply righteousness, though. In the human world, people could fight for themselves, or fight for something else. Weak people fought to defend themselves. Strong people fought to protect themselves and others. Stronger people still fought only for others. I was stronger. I could fly straight to the Doctor, kill him, take his Tardis and live the rest of my life in the lap of luxury without even having to hear mention of an Angelic ever again. But I could not. Equestria needed me. Without the conflict of Angelics, my strong body and my sharp mind were useless. I could only be at peace, truly, when the Angelics were dead. Lover I do Love, but I am not a Lover. I have never ‘been with’ a mare in the conventional sense of the term, but I might be considered to be a Lover by some. Luna and I could very easily be mistaken for having a consummated relationship, but that was not the case. Loved I am loved. But it isn’t right, it doesn’t feel right, for that to be what I am. I need something more concrete, more solid. Something that, if taken away from me, would make the rest of my life terribly hollow. I thought and thought, until a majestic title seemingly floated right towards me Luna’s Perfect. My mind rested, at ease. I was truly Luna’s. That part of me was irremovable. I would be Luna’s until my dying day. I flew on to the horizon, just letting myself soar. I was almost sleeping by the time that I heard it. Sounds of other ponies. I slowed down substantially, flicking my ears around. It sounded like a town, or even a city. I stopped, slowing down to a moving hover. It was so strange, the sounds. Like a gigantic metropolis, suspended in the sky. It was strange, so I moved along. I didn't want to interact much with other ponies right now. I just wanted to escape my troubles. I flew on, going even faster. A few hours passed. I was thinking about my promise to Luna, and how I should probably get back to her. I was about to turn when I heard it again. The ponies. It annoyed me, so I opened my eyes for the first time in hours. “Oh my God.” I said bluntly. There it was, defying logic, just floating there. I had no idea how something so huge could just be floating like that. I gaped, slowing down with my floating. Pegasi were flying all around it. I felt a strange excitement watching those ponies. It suddenly dawned on me that I was something that did not belong in the air. I had no wings, and I was fairly sure that Numbereds were not very well known in Equestria, so it would be hard to explain my lack. I just contented myself with just floating under the monolith, staring up at it with awe. I was doing this when a small blue blur flew straight into me. It drove the air out of my lungs, and I almost fell.The little blue thing soon revealed itself to be a tiny little pegasus. “Oh hi!” It shouted. I flinched. “Um...” I started to say, but it suddenly gawked at me. “You don’t have any wings! How are you flyin’ like that? Huh? Huh?” He asked in a demanding tone. “Well, I-” “I have an uncle that doesn’t have any wings. He can’t fly like you, though. I go and see him every summer! But I don’t like walking on the big green cloud because it doesn’t move around like it’s supposed to. Do you have a friend? I have a friend. His name is Sparks. We build cloudcastles and have races and eat candy and go to school!” “Oh, that’s-” “Wait!”, The pegasus shouted, “I have to show you t’ him!” He zoomed off in a big flapping ball of feathers away from me. He stopped about twenty meters away. “Come on!” He shouted, and flew off again. I sighed. Luna would have to wait for a little bit, because I was being kidnapped by a foal. I sighed miserably, wanting to go back home, and floated over to the foal. “What’s your name?!” The little pony asked. “Edwin.” I said. The pony gawked at me again. “That’s a weird name! My name is Blue Bolt! I’m the third tallest colt in my class!” He said exuberantly. I smiled a little bit. “Where are we going?” I asked. “To Spark’s house!” He shouted again, extremely happy. I suddenly thought of myself as a little bird or something. He was treating me like a talking pet. I litstened to him babble on as we reached the rim of the city. “What is this place?” I asked Blue. He snorted a laugh. “What kind of pony never heard of Cloudsdale?” He said petulantly. I was slightly confused for a moment. I mouthed the word. “Cloudsdale.” I whispered as I set myself down on the ground. It was a wobbly, shifting thing; The city was literally built on clouds. It shifted; it moved and convulsed. Cloudsdale was the best metaphor for change that I had ever seen. Even the ground, which was actually made of clouds, was completely liquid. I could even see the buildings shifting slightly, slowly inching their way across the surface. I smiled, and took a step.My hoof landed on a roiling cloud. That hoof immediately slipped out from under me, carried by the current of the cloud. I fumbled and scrambled, trying to regain my footing. I tried to walk unsuccessfully. I fell down a final time, and just spayed myself across the rolling ground of Cloudsdale. I looked up at the blue foal, who was laughing at me from the slope of a roof. “You’re funny. It’s like you’ve never walked before!” Blue bolt said. I growled. He laughed at that as I rolled across the clouds, trying to get up. I got stuck on my back, and Blue laughed even harder. “Are you going to help me?” I asked angrily. “Nope!” He said, spreading his wings. He shuffled a little bit on the cloud he was standing on, then jumped. He fell like a rock, screaming and laughing. I was mad. I rolled around on the ground, trying to rise to a standing position. I rolled and struggled for a few minutes before I managed to get on my hooves. I did so. “Huh.” I said, slightly surprised. For being such a large city, Cloudsdale was rather... empty. The roads made of clouds spiraled around, weaving in and out, spiraling around waterfalls seemingly made out of rainbows. It was a fairly ornate and beautiful city. It was so sickeningly beautiful that it made me think of pamphlets that I would see in a travel office. I walked around Cloudsdale for a luxurious hour. It might have been inhabited by Pegasi, but the best way to get around Cloudsdale was to walk. It was breathtaking, the feel of clouds under my feet. ‘Walking on air’ came to mind, but I ejected that thought forcibly out of my mind because it was a terrible cliche. I smiled smugly, walking around the city. I walked for so long. It was extremely relaxing. Therapeutic, almost. I looked at one of the many strange buildings of the city. The lights were on inside. I smiled. I really wanted to see other ponies, now that I had gotten over my fear of confrontation. I walked up to the door, and knocked on it. My first knock resounded, and the door slid open with a creak. I poked my head in. I immediately regretted it. Three different Pegasi were sitting hunched over a dead green pony. The dead pegasus was mutilated in the extreme; their rib cage was ripped open and all of the internal organs were missing. Not only that, but it looked as if the other pegasi had suffered what seemed to be mortal wounds. One of them had a long gash down their left spine, revealing ribs and a confusing, underlying blackness. I gulped. All three of the Pegasi turned to me. Their faces were clearly not normal. They had the fangs of an Angelic, but their eyes were different. Spitfire, Slim, and all of the other Angelics that I had met only had red irises, but these ponies... These ponies had no whites in their eyes. These ponies had blacks rimmed with red. It was as if their eyes were just one big pupil rimmed with the slightest bit of bloody iris. One of them, a white one with pale blue hair, clacked her teeth together once and growled. The other ponies, a pink one with blue hair and a plain green pony, growled as well. I began to shake. These weren’t Angelics. These were animals. I backed away from the door, afraid for my life. I shut the door with magic with a slam and sighed, slumping against the door. My legs shuddered with useless adrenaline as I remembered Lieutenant Pix. She once commented about how the Pegasi in Cloudsdale were suffering strange symptoms. If the massacre on the other side of this door held any weight, Cloudsdale was the Equestrian city suffering the most from Angelics. I shivered, cold and nervous, while my mind thought about what to do. The Angelics in Cloudsdale must be eradicated. I shook as I leaned against the door. A bloodstained white hoof smashed through the door, splintering wood and gouging flesh. It swung wildly, trying to get at something. I jumped up, skittering away from the door as fast as I could. I watched in horror as the white pony with the powder blue mane ripped open the wooden door. I was paralyzed for a deadly moment while the white Pegasus dismantled the door violently. I gulped. She stuck her head through the door and made eye contact with me. She growled at me again, but then she sniffed the air. Her face spread into puzzlement, and then she sniffed again. Her mouth spread into a wide grin, displaying the blood-mottled ivory. “Five.” She said triumphantly in a deep male voice. It made me shudder, the way she spoke. It was actually that voice that saved my life, because it shocked my out of my fear and made me run. I ran and ran, my hoofbeats silent on the cloudy streets. I ran through houses, down alleyways, all the while the nearly silent flapping and grunting behind me alerted me to the deadly chase. I ran until my lungs heaved. Then I ran some more. I galloped around almost all of Cloudsdale, until I found myself in some kind of clearing. It was like a town square, but circular; There were storefronts centered around a fountain that was shooting up liquid rainbows instead of water. I stopped in the clearing, due to the fact that I had not heard the flapping or growls that accompanied the chase for a few hundred feet. I hunkered my head down low, gasping for breath, thinking. Cloudsdale needed to be purged. I felt sorry for the dead, but I felt even sorrier for the survivors, who would never again be able to sleep peacefully their entire lives. The past few days in Cloudsdale must have been a struggle to survive. Each day going by, trying to not get noticed. Consoling foals who wondered where siblings and parents have gone. I bent over and retched into a nearby trashcan. Angelics were disgusting, perverse, and an affront to nature. Unnatural beings, not fit to live in Equestria. I hacked again, trying to get vomit out of my mouth. I finally recovered, and I walked up to the fountain. I laid my head down against the railing, looking down an unobstructed alleyway to the horizon. Dusk. A beautiful orange smear across the horizon, A stroke from some mystical and godly brush, fading into darkest blue.and purple. A distracted and worried part of my brain was disappointed that I would not be able to keep my promise to Luna. I looked down at the fountain, and the pool of rainbows. I waved my hoof through it, smearing all of the colors. It was strange; the colors did not mix together, but stayed rigidly separated in their separate hues. I lifted my hoof out, and stared at the dripping color on my hoof. How strange. Something so vibrant, so colorful, existing in such a depraved and sickening world. What contrast this beautiful substance exists in. Something so vibrant, existing in a world so dark. Something symbolic of hope, only to be brushed aside to reveal the twisted confines of reality. Morbid. I flicked my hoof, getting the excess rainbows off of it. I sighed, and turned from the fountain. I stiffened as I saw the white and blue Angelic, her fangs clenched. The two other Angelics that accompanied her rose out of the cloud ground, with equally grotesque expressions. I froze, unsure of what to do. The white pony rose a hoof, turned upwards, as if offering something “Sit.” She said in a very commanding tone. “I’m not going to-” I started to say. “Sit.” The Angelic said again, turning her hoof so that it was facing down. I immediately fell to my belly, as if something was pushing me down. The Angelic I faced grimaced, baring his teeth. “You will be delicious.” The pink angelic with the blue hair said, “I’ve heard that Numbered flesh is as sweet as candy.” She said hungrily in a horrifyingly female voice. The white Angelic with the blue hair snarled at her and she flattened her ears, hissing. “And how would you know, Ka’aal? Rumors. Hearsay. None of us were permitted to consume the First. Do not speak if your words will be so dense.” He said, snarling his words out. The pink pony, Ka’aal, whimpered. “Forgive me, Elkai.” She whispered. Elkai, the white Angelic with the blue hair, grumbled. “Careless.” He muttered, turning to me. I suddenly felt myself become very afraid. Elkai cleared his throat, and started to gag. He choked on something in his throat, something that I could not see. He leaned down and retched, and a pointed bone fell out of his mouth. I felt my stomach roil. The Angelic wiped his maw with one of his bloody hooves, leaving a smear of gore on his face. “Your kind is not welcome in Clouldsdale.” The Angelic said. I did nothing but shake. I was afraid of this deadly creature. An Angelic who could use magic against me was nothing to be trifled with. I waited for him to say something else, knowing that his words could change my life. “I do not have the authority to order your death. I can. I would. But I want to spend the rest of my life eating, not being eaten. My death would be drawn out and painful if I were to so much as touch you with my fangs.” The Angelic said, dropping down to a whisper and leaning down to my face. “Let me give you a warning. Mortals are not permitted in Cloudsdale unaccompanied by their host. Any mortal not accompanied will be eaten on sight. Spread the word. Cloudsdale is not a safe haven for Ponies.” He threatened. Elkai drew up to his full height, and started to walk away. “I won’t let you get away with this!” I shouted, slumped against the rail of the fountain, trying to get up to a standing position. Elkai laughed. “If it was possible for you to use offensive magic in Cloudsdale, you would have destroyed this city by now. And even if you could? Cloudsdale is a venerable fortress, and impregnable when properly defended. You could not take this City from Angelics even if it was given to you on a silver platter.” He said, walking away from me. He passed between the other two Angelics, who were openly lolling their tounges and salivating during the exchange. They fell in and followed him away from me. “Cloudsdale will fall! Even if I must tear it down from the sky, using my own bare hooves! CLOUDSDALE WILL FALL!” I screamed in rage, hurling my threat like a stone. Elkai and the other Angelics laughed. Elkai turned to face me over his shoulder. “What’s stopping you?” He asked amusedly. “Nothing!” I shouted, screaming at the dusky sky. “Then come and get it while it’s still hot.” Elkai concluded, and trotted off into the city.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-04-26T19:29:18+00:00

2012-04-26T19:29:18+00:00

Chapter 38 Elkai and his ensemble trotted down the alley while I leaned on the edge of the fountain. I was gasping, trying to get up to my hooves. My foreleg was draped over the edge of the fountain, the tip of the hoof submerged in the pooling rainbows. I was suddenly struck by an idea, and I raised my unoccupied hoof to point at the ghastly trio, walking down the cloudy street. I felt my rage, my anger, my unadulterated hatred for the Angelics, and I flung it from my hoof. I expected the force of the bolt to fry the Angelics into little pony-shaped charcoal briquettes. That didn’t happen. Instead, the lightning crackled down my bones, out of my hoof, and right at the trio of Angelics. I felt satisfied as the streak of energy was pointed right at Elkai. At the last moment, the Pink angelic with the blue mane jumped in front of it, waving her hooves in circles. I felt slightly annoyed as the smear of white rocketed towards her, but I had no complaints. An Angelic was an Angelic, either way. They all deserved to die. Only a few feet away from the lightning, the pink Angelic planted both forehooves down on the ground and flung one of her hooves up, as if she was backhanding the bolt. There was an overwhelming surge of magic from her, and the lightning flew up and away from the trio. My eyes grew wide and my mouth hung open. Angelics shouldn’t be able to do that. Angelics shouldn’t need to be able to do that. The pink Angelic was panting heavily, and her foreleg that deflected the lightning was bleeding profusely. Elkai paused his walking and turned to face me. He smiled grimly as he walked up to her, his pale blue tail swishing. He raised a hoof to her foreleg that was still raised in the air, dripping blood. He touched it, and the pink Angelic lowered it tentatively. “Calm, Ka’aal.” He cooed. Ka’aal, the pink Angelic with the blue mane, visibly calmed. Her dark black eyes cringed as she sat down and cradled her injured limb in agony. I scrunched up my face in disgust at the show of affection. Angelics are sub-equine. They have no need for emotion. It serves them no purpose. Ka’aal started to flap her wings and then rose into the air. Elkai stared back at me with visible hatred. “If it were up to me, Five, I would gut you like a mortal right where you stand. Leave Cloudsdale immediately before I begin to wonder how you taste.” Elkai said, and then spread his wings. The wordless green pegasus accompanying them did so as well, and all three of them rocketed into the sky. I shook. Fear, anger, hopelessness. All of them found sanctuary in my mind. I shook as I crawled through a street in Cloudsdale. My legs were weak. My frame trembled. I finally couldn’t stand being in Cloudsdale anymore, and I plunged my hooves into the cloudy ground. I pried open the clouds, and I could see the green grass, shadowed by night. The day was longer in Cloudsdale, being so high up. I thought nothing, but leaned forward though the hole in the clouds. Tumbling. Head over heels Ass over teakettle I fell down to the ground, rolling and falling though the blistering wind. I tumbled through the crisp air, laden with the dregs of daytime heat. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to fall. Blissful. A dark part of my mind didn’t want to fly out of my fall. It wanted to tumble down to the ground. It wanted to lie on the soft plains, broken and bleeding, while my unconscious mind floated away. It wanted to leave Equestria in more capable hooves. But not mine. I was still human. My mind was not Numbered. My body was. It was strong, nigh invincible. It could do so much. It could do things that my old body could only dream of. It could control anything I wished it to, with only the blink of an eye. If only they gave me a mind to match. I was just weak, skinny, pale Edwin Shell, stuck in a body that could destroy continents. I couldn’t handle it. It was strange. I know this body, and it is mine. The glorious Numbered form, crafted out of raw energy from the Threads of power. It could climb mountains. It could turn mountains into billions of tiny pebbles. It could even make mountains, if I really wanted to. But I didn’t. I wanted a nice little house by a river in the middle of the forest. I wanted a peach tree. I wanted a nice wool rug in the middle of my living room. I wanted to curl up with Luna in front of the fireplace during cold winter nights. I opened my eyes. The ground was so close, and getting closer every passing second. I could easily just plummet to my death, leaving another Five to replace me when they summoned a new Numbered. But I couldn’t. I reached for my magic and pulled out of my dive in a smooth curve. I flew past trees, and aimed myself towards the distant Royal Palace. I felt the sharp boom as my flight became infinitely faster. Luna was lying on her rug as I walked in. She had her official attire on. Shoes, tiara, and all. She had her hooves eagerly placed flat on the rug, staring at the door intently. She brightened up as she saw me, a gleeful smile on her face. “Ed! You’re back!” She said happily. I didn’t smile back, but rushed into the room and layed down next to her. “Luna.” I whispered, nuzzling against her neck. She seemed somewhat startled, and started to push me away with her hooves. She held me at leg’s length, staring like she was trying to divine something from me. “What’s gotten into you, Ed?” She asked playfully. The smile faded from her face when she saw the look on mine. “What’s wrong?” She asked, raising a hoof to my face. She held it there. The cold metal was far from soothing, but I appreciated the gesture. There was so much going on im my mind right now, but I couldn’t worry Luna overly much by telling her before I needed to. “I promise I’ll tell you. We need to go talk to Tia. Is she still awake?” I asked calmly. “Probably not.” “Then we’ll wake her. This is extremely important, Luna.” I said. She frowned, clearly not pleased with my explanation. “Trust me.” I added. Her brow visibly softened. “Let’s go, then.” She said softly, and rose. “Tia?” Luna ventured quietly, pushing open the door with a tiny protest. She walked in, and then I followed her. I had to duck immediately due to the ornate vase flying at my head. It smashed into tiny porcelain splinters against the wall behind me. One of them slashed across my cheek. I gasped and held a hoof up to the now bleeding wound. I pulsed out a bit of magic, and the wound sealed up immediately. Luna glanced at me aplogetically. “She’s an angry sleeper.” She whispered. I scowled. “She’s about to be an angry waker” I mumbled, and I ran up to her bed. It was a strange thing, but not out of place. A gigantic four-poster bed with a canopy of gossamer fabrics. The colors were not strange; Goldens and reds that I would come to expect from someone of her stature. It was more like that the bed was too immaculate to be slept in, like it shouldn’t have a pony in it. But, the one pony that could pull it off was actually in the bed right now, snoozing softly. I walked up to her bed stiffly, and jumped up. “Ed!” Luna whispered angrily, but I didn’t pay attention. I stared at the carefree, sleeping mare beneath me. Her hair was much less active when she slept. I smiled somewhat ironically as I prepared to wake her. “Hey!” I shouted at her, making her flinch in her sleep. I stood over and watched her eyes flick under her pale white lids, and she finally opened them, revealing her purple irises. She looked around her in sleepy shock, and then finally looked up at me. For a breif, fleeting moment, she looked deathly afraid. But that passed immediately and was replaced with slight worry and surprise. I felt my scowl become more pronounced as I contemplated what I was going to say to her. “Edwin? What are you-” The Princess began to ask, but “Quiet.” I said, slightly irritated. I continued; “Have you been to Cloudsdale recently, Princess?” I inquired with a slight hint of anger. The Princess, looking slightly disheveled, only blinked at me. I leaned down to glare at her intensely. “If you had, you would have burned it from the sky. A haven for violent Angelics, and in my opinion, home to some of the most dangerous specimens that the species has to offer. One of them constrained me with magic and another deflected a raw bolt of lightning with her bare hooves.” I explained. The Princess gulped with wide eyes, but said nothing. “I am going to tell you what I am going to do, and you are going to stay quiet. I am going to poll all of the Lieutenants in the guard companies to see which Pegasi wish to volunteer for a siege on Cloudsdale. I will also poll for a team of skilled Unicorns. They will stay on the ground near Cloudsdale with Gespard and Marcus. These Unicorns will maintain protective enchantments on the Pegasi. These pegasi shall accompany Evangeline and myself in an attack on Cloudsdale in the middle of the day. The Doctor shall provide communication devices for all of the ponies involved, and shall park his tardis directly under Cloudsdale for the duration of the attack.” I explained, taking time to pronounce my words perfectly so no unintended meaning could be derived from them. The Princess looked extremely shocked. “W-Why are you telling me?” She wondered quietly. “Because you will be monitoring out mission. If at any time it goes awry, or if it even looks like the Angelics are going to win, you are going to destroy the city from the air. The lives of the ponies that will be there is a price that I am willing to pay to save the rest of Equestria.” I reasoned. Celestia blanched, averting her gaze from me. “Just have Evangeline do it.” She whispered morosely. I was shaking my head before she even finished. “No. She would be more than capable of it, but she may already be dead by the time that I need Cloudsdale destroyed. You are also infinitely more powerful than she is.” I retorted. Celestia shook her head this time. “I may have been a few thousand years ago, but not now. The light flows from her, Edwin.” The now stricken Princess remarked. “Even if it were true, I couldn’t have a Princess in the fray. Too dangerous. Celestia.” I said, trying to look her in the eyes. I stared at her until she looked back at me “I... I need you. You could tell me no. It isn’t as if this would be of any benefit to you. Surely the thought of killing your own subjects is repulsive. But, sometimes, the sacrifices of the few are necessary for the safety of the many.” “Why don’t you just have me fry the city without the pegasi in it?” The Princess asked. I had my answer ready immedately. “Because there are still mortal ponies inside of Cloudsdale. If I could get them out and kill as many Angelics as is possible, we may be able to keep the city. That is the least likely scenario. Before two days have passed, Cloudsdale will be nothing more than a scorch on Equestria. I’ll leave you to think.” I concluded. Celestia turned away from me, looking pensive. I hopped off of her bed, and walked out of the door, starting to feel myself fall apart. I walked past Luna, with a lone tear down her eye and mouth agape. Out of the door. I fell onto the floor, a weeping mess. I cried. I missed home. I wanted to sleep in a normal bed again. I wanted to curl my toes. I wanted to walk on my feet. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. I just ordered the possible deaths of thousands of ponies. I didn’t even bat an eyelash. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I worked my way over to a window. It was raining. Horribly. It was that kind of rain that made you take off work that day. I screamed at the window. Lightning streaked across the sky, painting the landscape with my anger and sadness. I screamed again, and this time the entire wall was ripped out of the palace, leaving the interior bare to the elements outside. The lightning screamed, the thunder roared. I wept. I fell to the ground, and the last thing I could remember was the faint smell of oranges, the feel of a warm hoof, and the screeching of the cold wind I awoke to the smell of peaches. “wussit” I mumbled, getting up from my sleep. I reached up to rub my fuzzy eyes. I could feel the warm limb around my neck tighten. “Don’t get up” Luna said, pulling me back to her. I smiled through my grogginess. “Luna.” I sighed. “You lazy wank! 'Bout time you're up.” Something reprimanded. I opened my eyes, and was extremely shocked to see nothing but empty air around me. I gasped, turning around to grab Luna. She smiled as I grasped her with my hooves. there was an entire hallway behind me. I noticed that it was the exact same hallway that I lost consciousness in. Luna must have stayed with me through the rain. “I love you even more, Luna.” I whispered into her ear. “It stopped raining after you fell asleep.” She whispered back, understanding my meaning. The noise that reprimanded before apparently manifested itself as the Doctor. “I heard that you made plans without me.” He remarked bluntly, setting down a silver tea set. I sniffed, and my ears perked up. “Is that peach tea?” I asked, getting up slightly from Luna’s side. “It will be if you make me happy. Why would you make plans without me?” He asked. “You have a vested interest in this war.” I retorted. The Doctor chuckled. “Noble, if not correct. You’re wrong. I can leave this dimension at any time I please. If Equestria becomes boring, I can just push a button and whiz away to some far away dimension filled with supermodels. Or ice cream. Or ice cream-filled supermodels. Or even supermodel-filled ice cream. You get the idea. I’m only here because I like it here.” He said, rather bluntly. “Edwin, how many lumps?” The Doctor asked, with a spoonful of sugar balanced in his mouth. It was perched above a steaming hot cup of tea. “None.” I said, and the Doctor dumped the sugar into my cup. He picked the tray up awkwardly with one of his hooves, and he hobbled over to Luna and I. Luna hovered the two cups of tea off of the tray and offered me one. “Learn to love change.” The Doctor suggested as I sniffed the sweet tea with distaste. I gulped some of it, and I nearly coughed it back up. “Sweet Jesus, Doctor! What did you put in this, salt?” I exclaimed. “Synthetic poly-saccharides, among other things, manufactured by the Tardis. Tastes terrible, I know. But I don’t exactly need to eat. Not only does it give me a few weeks allowance of salt in the guise of sweetener, but also throws in a dash of protein just for fun.” The Doctor said cheerily, but with a completely unhappy visage. “It’s like eating salted spam.” “I think that the Tardis is trying to kill me.” He speculated openly “It might be working.” I said, tossing my tea out of the gaping hole in the hallway. “Well, you have a lesson with Alucard today. Sugar, Luna?” The Doctor said, gesturing to the small bowl of brownish salt. “No thank you, Doctor. I’d rather have my blood stay in its liquid form.” She remarked politely. “Suit yourself. Edwin, we’re going to go get some breakfast and then you’re going to Alucard. Okay?” The Doctor asked. “Can Luna come?” I qualified. “If she isn’t busy. Which she is. She has a meeting with her bed that I think that she is rather late for.” The Doctor said. Luna smiled. “Thank you, Doctor. I’ll see you tonight, Ed. You owe me one.” She said, kissing me on the cheek. She bounded off, skipping down the hallways. I watched her swishing tail flounce its way down the hall, almost longingly, following her firm, blue- “Edwin?” The Doctor said, waving his brown hoof in front of my face. I was shocked out of my staring. The Doctor paused, and then laughed. He soon finished, and wiped a tear away from his eye. “Ah, to be young again. And also a Numbered.” The Doctor said, walking back to his Tardis. He opened one of the doors. “You know what they say, Edwin. Allons-y.” He concluded, and walked into the Tardis.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-02-29T21:10:10+00:00

2012-02-29T21:10:10+00:00

Chapter 39 “Wooshing, slooshing. Flippy flop, wham wham. Kerplunk, zing, skug. The Tardis speaks to everyone, but only those who understand what she says can speak back.” The Doctor explained. A rather strange thought crossed my mind, and I voiced it. “How do you know it’s a she?” I ventured. “Because I met her once. Now Edwin, I’m going to try and teach you how to speak to the Tardis.” The Doctor retorted rather cryptically. I decided to drop the subject, and take up a new one. “Why?” “Because one of these days, I might be unable to pilot it. You would need to immerse yourself in the telepathic interfaces, and pilot the Tardis with your mind.” The Doctor reasoned. “That’s cool.” “Yep.” “Can you let me out?” I pleaded. “Nope.” “Why not?” “Because to pilot the Tardis, it helps to have seen the time streams and wormholes that the Tardis uses to traverse time and space.” He rationalized. “But why am I in an Inertia chamber?” I asked, extremely vested in leaving this small, cramped tube. “Because I can’t open the doors while the Tardis is travelling and just let you see the time stream unshielded. But, I can throw things out into the stream of time. Like inertia chambers. Or ponies that ask a lot of questions.” “I’m not liking this idea. I’m not liking this idea at all.” “Tough.” The Doctor said, and pushed a bright green panel on the Tardis. There was a slight hissing noise. “Welcome to TARDIS TT type forty, mark Three; pirated active defense system inertia chamber. You currently occupy chamber four in bay number three. This is not a drill. Ejection from a TARDIS is not reccomended or approved of in Gallifreyan society, and should not be used for recreation. Ejection is estimated in ninety-five seconds, through slice Alpha in the tunnel Praxis, number nine hundred and seventy-” The cool female voice announcing my travel plans was interrupted by the Doctor. “Don’t listen to any of that prattle. We’ve got a job to do. You are going to be ejected into a jetstream of time that will deposit you at exactly the right time and place for your lesson with Alucard.” The Doctor said, with some interference from the speaker “Doctor, I’m scared.” I whispered. The Doctor laughed, which sounded very grating through the speakers. “Good. I would be worried if you weren’t.” He said. “Ejection in sixty seconds.” The female voice said, as calm as ever. “Any last words, Edwin? These might be your last minute alive.” He said somewhat jokingly. “This isn’t funny, Doctor!” I shouted. The Doctor’s face immediately dissolved into a scowl. “I’m not trying to be funny.” He said. I gulped. “Tell Luna I love her.” I blurted out. The Doctor smiled a little bit, and his eyes softened up. “How bland. Care to add to that?” The Doctor inquired. I took a little bit wondering. “I was going to ask her to m-” I was interrupted by a big gust of wind, pressurizing the Inertia chamber. A little red notice popped up in front of me, which consisted of little red numbers on a red little display, counting down from a little red ten. A large opaque shield slid up between the outside of my inertia chamber and the rest of the Tardis. A small little hole opened up in the floor of the chamber. There was little blue and orange wisps, some red, with brilliantly terrifying blackness underneath. All I could do was look down at my hind legs, which were silhouetted by the strange background underneath me. There was a sudden silence; the wind had stopped. I immediately looked up. The little red numbers all read zero. I gulped. Nothing Nothing Nothing Woosh I fell straight through the bottom of the tardis, screaming the whole way. I beat on the glass with my hooves, trying my best to get out of it. I looked down through the bottom of the chamber, and then all around me. I stopped screaming. It... It was everything. A sudden influx of knowledge. I knew everything that is. Everything that was. Everything that will be. The streams of time opened themselves to me, and let me take from them what I wished. Anything that I wanted to know, I knew. Nothing was hidden from me. I was there for hours, days, years, just learning. I knew that the stars Septimus and Culaan of the binary system of Sigmus became ensnared through a galaxial collision, and the binary stars caught each other’s gravity as the two galaxies passed through each other. I knew that the system of Equus, home to Equestria, was the only geocentric planet in existence. I knew, I knew, I knew. Suddenly, I knew everything. There was nothing else that the streams of Time had to give me that I did not have. I knew what I had to do. “Tardis.” I commanded. “Yes.” the cool voice responded from above me. I looked up. The ‘cork’ in the vial that I occupied was actually a complex life support and navigation system. “Show me Slice Alpha, Tunnel Praxis nine-seven-three.” I ordered. The computing system highlighted a small yellow line fluctuating in a big blue tunnel to the slight left of me, along with various numbers that displayed important information. I was rather near the opening. “Plot a course and give me intercept times. Execute when compiled. Disable artgrav, maintain inertial integrity at three.” I said sternly. The Tardis needed a firm hoof. Immediately, a set of numbers appeared before me and I floated up slightly to the exact center of the cramped vial. I scrolled through the blue lists of intercept times with my mind, and I selected one that was a little over an hour. I leaned back in my chamber as I thought to myself. “Captain Shell?” The Tardis computers ventured. “Yes?” I asked, not opening my eyes. “I have a small selection of music for you to choose from, if you wish.” “How big is the library?” “two exabytes.” She said. I whistled in awe. “Play some earth music, if you have it. Classical, twenty-five decibels, with a gradient to ten decibels over the space of twenty minutes. Wake me when we reach Slice Alpha.” I said, and closed my eyes. Soft, sweet Beethoven played above me, and I relaxed. I slept the most refreshing sleep I had ever slept. I was not a android, but I dreamt of electric sheep. A light brrong awakened me. I opened my eyes groggily. “Tardis. How far are we from Slice Alpha?” “Point nine parsecs, an estimated three minute’s distance at our current velocity.” The computer spoke. I went through the entry sequence of the inertia chambers for the correct model of Tardis while I thought of the orders to give it. “At point three parsecs raise radiation shields in addition to blinders. Inertial dampeners up to twelve. Keep me updated.” I said. The Tardis wordlessly complied and prompted the times for the shields. They quickly ticked to zero, and a black smudge appeared on the bottom of the chamber. It quickly spread up the sides, protecting me from radiation and the blinding light of re-entry. A small red notice lit up on the wall of the Vial. It was another counter, with the innocuous heading of ‘Landing’. It was a two minute timer. “Tardis, when landing sequence is completed, raise external air shields along with radiation blocker and blinders. Activate artgrav upon completion. Wait for my confirmation to open the doors.” I said. There was no rumbling, no shaking, nothing. The inertia chamber performed exactly as designed. I felt nothing, and the landing counter slowly ticked down to zero. There was a slight hiss, and the black all around me quickly receded. It showed the crisp, airless scenery of Sigmus Five. There were tiny patches of glass all around me. The inertia chamber was buried a few feet in the ground, revealing the black soot. I looked back up at the outside. There was a slight shimmering as the air filled the boundaries of the air shield. “Captain Shell, orders complete and awaiting intent to exit.” “Not yet. Wait.” I said. The computer tagged random particles stirred up by the air, labeling them with mass, size, distance, and composition. Suddenly, there was a priority tag on something a few miles away. I squinted at the hologram imposed on the object. It was pretty big, whatever it was. “Tardis, justify priority tag.” “Priority tag is specified as a danger or something of import in relation to the occupant. Tag has a significant mass and speed, with rather erratic vectors. Considered a weapon, recommend defense system activation.” “Disregard recommendations. It might be a meteor.” “Not possible. Vectors too irregular to be orbital in origin.” “Get me a visual.” I said, and a square section of the Vial suddenly zoomed in on the tag. It was a wobbly white shape, still a few miles out. I squinted at it some more. “Alucard.” I whispered. Pressed my hooves against the glass slightly. I remembered that the computer was awaiting my cue to open the doors. “Priority tag nonthreatening. Open chamber doors.” I said. The plug in the top of vial hissed a little bit with escaping air, and then popped out audibly. I looked back up, and crawled out of the vial. It was at a slight angle, so I could climb out easily. I reached the ledge, and I saw the cork of the vial whizzing and whirring. I jumped out of it, and floated down on the low gravity of Sigmus. I looked up at the sky. Alucard was flying down to where I was. I grinned, wanting to see him. He finally reached me with a gigantic swoop of his wings. He landed in front of me, barely disturbing the dust in front of me. He smiled benevolently, his wide red eyes creasing at the corners. He said nothing for a long while, only staring at me contemplatively. He said nothing for a long time. “Teacher?” I asked, but Alucard said nothing. He turned from me, and began to stare up at the two stars, which were moving together slowly. “Tell me how this system came to be binary.” Alucard said slowly, his rumbling voice making me shiver. I thought for a moment. “Septimus, the slightly larger red star, was the original inhabitant of the Sigmus system. A few million years ago, about five point three, there was another galaxy that intersected the orbit of this one. The Sigmus system went straight through another star system, and caught the younger star Culaan. It’s been classified as a binary system about one million years after that, when the orbits of the two became far less erratic and able to maintain constant temperatures for carbon, methane, and fluorine based life in the first three planets.” I exhorted. Alucard smiled. “This dirt. What is it made of?” Alucard inquired again, furrowing the ash under his feet. “It was silica with iron substrates, which was what gave the dirt its red color. Now it’s only the layer of soil under the silica completely carbonized. The energy from the Tardis burned off everything organic, with a few patches of glass where the silica remained.” “Where did the silica go?” Alucard asked of me. “Space. It’s currently forming a loose system of rings around this planet. Barely visible, and likely to stay that way.” I explained. “Who was the fifth elector of the Gegmi Tau republic?” “Taos the Invoker.” “What are the prime numbered moons of Beta Centaruk? “Hydrax, Syphix, and Noose.” “Why is it called noose?” Alucard wondered. I laughed. “Because it’s shaped like a doughnut.” I said. Alucard rumbled, laughing. It was a joyous noise. “Good. The Doctor complied with my request.” He said, coming down from his standing position. He curled up in a circle, with his head facing me. He sighed, with smoke pouring out of his nostrils. He closed his eyes for a moment, relaxing slightly. He sighed, and spoke to me with his closed eyes. “Do you know what happened to you when you viewed the streams of time, Edwin?” Alucard grumbled of me. I thought for a moment. “I attained knowledge.” I said simply. “Yes. More specifically, the knowledge made itself manifest in you. You know everything that you would ever need to know. Tell me how many digits twenty four to the ninetieth power has.” The large dragon rumbled. My mind did not hesitate to provide me with an answer. “One hundred and twenty five.” I said quickly. Alucard smiled and made a strange gruffing noise. “Good, good.” Alucard was about to say something else, and then he hesitated. “You are no longer afraid of me, Edwin.” He said somewhat surprised. I paused as well in silent shock. “I suppose that I am not.” I whispered. “Even better. Then I must breach the subject of today’s lesson to you, which is why I live on this planet, away from mortal life.” the white giant said somewhat grumpily. “What is it that I am to learn, Teacher?” I asked. Alucard raised his head to look at the stars. He seemed somewhat distracted. “You must learn to use the Aethr ruthlessly. Without hesitation, you must be able to kill things with the flow. There are simple ways to do this, and there are showy ways to do this, but all are useful. You must-” Alucard rumbled on tonelessly. I thought about what he was saying. I must learn how to become an animal, he was saying. I must learn to kill without thought. I must become violent and thoughtless, he explained to me calmly. The old me would have abhorred the concept. It would have argued vehemently. It would have sat down and done nothing. But that was not me. I am not Edwin Shell anymore. I am Luna’s. I would have done anything to keep her safe. And this was one of the things that I must do. Alucard finished, obviously concerned by my silence throughout. “Let’s get started.” I coldly stated.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-03-08T19:02:33+00:00

2012-03-08T19:02:33+00:00

Chapter 40 The first part of my training with Alucard consisted mostly of sitting. We sat for what seemed to be ages, just sitting on the ground. I questioned it very early on. “How is this supposed to teach me how to kill Angelics, Teacher?” I asked quietly. He grumbled impatiently. “If you can ask that question, you are not ready for my answer.” He responded rather curtly. I sensed the world around me. I used my ears to hear things, which was not much. Alucard sighing next to me, making my teeth clatter. I felt things with my hooves. The slowly shifting sediment of Sigmus Five It didn’t reveal much even to my Numbered senses, which I prided on being somewhat in touch with nature. I expanded my awareness out. I felt the other side of Alucard, the barren land, and then the nothingness of the space outside of the air shield. I shivered. Space was a cold, cruel thing. There is no sound in space. There is no sensation, or if there is, it doesn’t survive for very long. There was only a very finicky piece of machinery between me and a very quick death. I shivered slightly, and retracted my consciousness to inside of the air shield. There was a long pause where nothing happened, and I continued to watch the world inside of the air shield. Other than Alucard and I, there was nothing else living. “Nature abhors a vacuum, Edwin.” Alucard said quietly as a fully grown dragon could. I drew myself out of the Flow and looked up at him. He had an extremely pensive expression on his face. He kept that for a moment, and then looked back down at me. “Even now, even though we are perfectly safe, our minds recoil from the sensation of nothingness. We know that we are safe, but our minds flee from the lack of feeling.” Alucard concluded, and fell silent. I contemplated what he said. More hours passed with the sensation of everything around me. Alucard cleared his throat, and I nearly went deaf with the noise. I was rubbing the ear facing him when he started to speak again. “One of the many ways to kill something is to make it think it is dying.” the enormous dragon said. “I do not understand, Teacher.” I said quietly. “Consciousness resides within the mind, hatchling. Everything that you experience is translated inside of your head into tiny electrical signals that look like the real world. It is a simple matter to control those signals to make a creature think that they are dying. To them, however, it is far too real.” “It must be horrifying.” I concluded. Alucard nodded. “I’ve made things die using that method. Creatures have actually broken their own bones trying to escape whatever it is that they think is killing them. It is a gruesome and lonely death. But it is effective and you should not hesitate to use it.” Alucard qualified. He sniffed. I felt slightly taken aback. There was another long pause, which the two of us were loathe to fill with empty conversation. “I miss my family.” I whispered. Alucard made a surprised snort. “I was unaware that Numbereds have family. They aren’t produced biologically, I understand.” He said. I chuckled dryly. “You’re right in one regard. Numbered bodies are created by the Threads and our pony bodies have no relatives other than the ones we make for ourselves. Our minds, however, are a completely different story.” I said rather cryptically, not wishing to explain. Alucard had a completely different idea. “What do you mean?” “I would rather not say, Teacher.” I said coldly. Alucard harrumphed, which was quite a frightening noise from a dragon. “It would help me to understand you better than I do now. It would also help to teach me about how to help you learn.” He said. I sighed, and stole myself against the memories. “Teacher, if you insist, you must understand how truly alien my original world was. The closest organism to my original form in this world is the griffon, but then even that is a pale comparison. My species walked on their hind legs, and hand hands on our forelegs to grab things. There was no magic to speak of. We were mostly all the same color, but with many different shades.” “How strange. How many people existed in your dimension?” Alucard asked. “When I became a Numbered?” I qualified. Alucard nodded. “About seven billion.” Alucard’s eyes went wide. “So many...” He made the equivalent of a whisper. I laughed. “It is really hauntingly similar the two dimensions are. Many things are the same, and sometimes I forget what I am. But then I see something that reminds me. An article of clothing made for a pony. A tapestry depicting Equestrian history.” I said, and stopped quickly. I didn’t want to continue to remember my old life. It hurt to linger. Alucard gave me an out. “Tell me, hatchling. How was it that you arrived in this dimension?” He asked innocently with his enormous rumbling voice. I sighed, and my head dipped down a little. “I died.” “I’m sorry?” “I died a violent death. My human body was completely destroyed, mashed into a mushy pulp. By my death, the ceremony that summoned a new Numbered body was completed and my consciousness was transferred to this dimension. The body I currently inhabit was designed so that my consciousness would be the sole inhabitant, so I immediately found this body and possessed it. The rest is history.” I said quickly, trying to be as blunt and vague as possible. “I am deeply sorry, Edwin.” Alucard said after a long pause, sounding very guilty. “Don’t be. You didn’t know. You didn’t kill me.” I said quietly. I looked up at the stars. Septimus and Culaan tried their hardest to consume each other, but to no success. I watched for a few minutes, enough to see one revolution of the twin stars. “Have you ever thought about how frivolous it is, Alucard? How... needless it is?” I wondered aloud. “Explain.” “We could simply transport all of the ponies that live in Equestria to a place in this universe so very far from the Equus system, where the Angelics simply cannot get to them. We could just keep them from being reached by the masses that would eat them. The Doctor could transport them all off of Equestria at the exact same time and transport them to the new planet.” I reasoned, feeling proud of myself for divining my little plan. Alucard smiled a little bit. “How will you prevent Angelics from entering the various Tardii picking up mortal ponies all around Equestria? How will you keep the various Doctors from interacting with one another? It is too dangerous and large of a plan to be completed successfully.” Alucard said, dashing my hopes. I sighed, but an idea struck me and I brightened up considerably. I dashed twenty yards or so to Alucard’s nearest limb, and I got down on my belly to plead with him. Before I could even open my mouth, he had an answer ready. “No, I will not.” He said softly. “How can you read my mind? I thought it was only Sebastian that could do that.” I argued. “And who do you think she learned it from?” He explained with a small smile. I was still grumpy. “Pleeeeease!?” I whined. Alucard shook his head. “No.” “Why not?” “Because Angelics are none of my business. I am a Ghost. I do as I please and nothing more. The affairs of the mortal populace are none of my concern. I only educate you because you are the only hope for the survival of my species.” He rumbled coldly. I felt suddenly alone. “If the Angelics win, we all lose.” I volleyed back at Alucard. He frowned. “You are correct, but not for the right reasons. I could destroy all of the Angelics in Equestria just by batting my eyelash at that little dot, right over there.” He said, pointing at a little wobbly yellow dot in the sky with one of his enormous talons. He lowered the limb as he continued. “But I won’t. This is your fight, Edwin. You need to save Equestria. You have earned that privilege. You need to finish what you started.” “I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS!” I shouted at the great white dragon. He recoiled from my words. “Edwin, you don’t have to- “I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS! I HAD A GOOD LIFE! I WAS GOING TO GET MARRIED! MARRIED, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!” I screamed at Alucard, making him shrink back a little. It was slightly funny, I remarked. I was the size of a bug compared to him, but I was making him afraid. “Edwin, calm down.” He managed to squeeze in. I would have none of it. I started to sob. I couldn’t bear to have it all bottled up anymore. “I’m just a kid. I was twenty! I’m not ready for any of this!” I screamed at him again, but not as loud as the last time. He started to come back to me. He leaned forward, and he touched me with one of his talons. “Shh, Edwin...” He said, exhaling on me. It was warm. “I want to go home.” I managed to choke out through the tears. I looked up at Alucard through bleary eyes to see him nodding his gigantic head. “Okay.” He said softly. I sniffed. “Okay?” I slurred. “Okay.” He confirmed. He picked me up with his enormous hands. I never really appreciated their size until now. You could easily play a basketball game on one. I have no idea how Evangeline killed him. He picked me up into the air, and formed a pointed cage with hos other hand. He muttered something incomprehensible and low while streaks of color and light streaked through the prison that his fingers had made. Suddenly, there was a a black silhouette that appeared in the middle of the cage, and the lights immediately began to shoot through it. It was a big rectangle, with obvious fixtures that identified it as the Tardis. Suddenly, one of the colors flew through the tardis and exploded. It was as if a drop of watercolor paint landed in a glass of water, suffusing it with color. This happened many more times, adding substance to the Tardis until it finally was a whole piece. I smiled weakly. Alucard grasped the Tardis with his claws and lowered it gently down to his scaly palm. I got up shakily and wobbled over to it, with my only intent being sleep. Alucard stopped me as I had my hoof on the door. “Edwin.” He ventured, trying to get my attention. I looked up to him, but I said nothing. He hesitates slightly, his large red eyes exuding wariness. “I’m very sorry that I brought up your death. It was a tragedy, I know. I shouldn’t have trivialized it and brushed it aside so easily.” He said, his voice heavy with guilt. I swallowed. “It wasn’t your fault.” I said, and pushed open the door. A strong smell of liquor and vomit met my nostrils. I gagged and entered the Tardis. I looked around for the Doctor. A very very short search found him slumped over the arm of a couch in front of the Console, with two mares draped over him. He was wearing two cone shaped party hats over his eyes, and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. He was snoring loudly. The two mares seemed to be sisters, and had nearly the same color coat. One of them had a powder blue mane with a pink coat, while the other one had a pink mane with a powder blue coat. I smiled. A light noise sounded, and I perked my ears. “Welcome back, Captain Shell.” The Tardis said in her light voice. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I bit back a colorful invective and calmly spoke back. “Take me to the Equus system. I’ll navigate the rest of the way.” I said sternly as I walked back to the Console. The Tardis complied wordlessly, displaying the path that the Tardis would take, placing us smack in the middle of nothing in Equuan space. I pressed several buttons on the console, and the display showed me the plains in front of Canterlot. I pressed several more buttons, and a set of joysticks popped out of the Console, cleverly shaped for ponies. They were really more like short rubber cups than joysticks. I placed my hooves in them and slowly moved them around for the coordinates I needed. I smiled as they locked in on the Dining hall in the palace. I couldn’t go the whole hog and just pop right into Luna’s room. That takes practice. I fiddled with a dial that set the time to just after I left the Palace. About an hour. I fell backwards, popping a hoof out to click a lever. The wooshy noise started as I fell back onto the couch that the Doctor and his two mares occupied. “Wubbfub” The Doctor mumbled, rather articulately for how drunk I thought he was. He made a big sniff, and he got up to look at me. “Morning, Doctor.” “I can’t see.” He said rather worriedly. I frowned and reached over to rip the party hats off of him. I pulled them off somewhat roughly, and he blinked rapidly. “Much better.” The Doctor said, nodding off. I smiled and turned away from him to watch the piston in the middle of the tardis go up and down. The Doctor started to snore again. I felt extremely tired myself, and wanted to stay awake until I got to Luna’s room. “Tardis.” “Yes, Captain?” “Coffee, if you have it. Two sugars.” I said, and there was not a reply. I heard a strange gargling noise, and quite shortly after, a steaming blue mug of coffee appeared on the arm of the sofa that did not contain a sleeping Doctor. I smiled and crawled over to it, thinking of the bitter sweetness that awaited me. I picked it up with magic when I was close enough to the arm of the couch, and I sipped some. The coffee spewed out of my mouth faster than I could drink it, and I hurled the steaming mug across the Tardis. I stuck out my tongue and rubbed it with my hooves, trying to get the taste out. “Oh god!” I shouted, my tongue still out of my mouth. I finally got it back into my mouth, and I prepared my question for the Tardis. “Tardis, what would you call that?” “Coffee.” “I call it liquid salt. How much did you put in there, anyways?” “Two tablespoons.” The Tardis said, and I planted my hoof on my face in embarassment. I forgot that the Tardis synthesised its own sugar. I grumbled and got up from my seat. I looked up at one of the screens. It showed that we were a minute or two from my destination. The Doctor started to grumble. “Happy that you decided to join us, Doctor.” I said blandly, without looking back. There was a small ripple in the Slice that we were navigating that I had to navigate through. “Edwin... What are you doing?” “Taking me home. What about you?” I asked. The Doctor fell silent. I looked back at him, expecting a response. He had his head hung low, with his hats hanging from his neck. I pushed a few buttons to set the tardis to navigate itself and turned to face him fully. “What’s wrong, Doctor?” I asked quietly. “I miss my home.” He said morosely. “Me too. But at least you can go back, if you really wanted to.” I reasoned, about to turn back to the console. The Doctor sniffed, looking up to me. His eyes were filled with tears. “No. I can’t. It’s not even there anymore.” He said, his voice on the verge of crying. I walked up to him, and sat right in front of him. “Tell me about home, Doctor.” I asked. He sniffled again. “It was beautiful. They called it ‘The Shining World of the Seventh System’. For good reason. One of the suns would rise in the south, setting the silverleaf trees ablaze with color. Oh, Edwin... It was breathtaking. There was the brilliant mountains, with the red red grass and the perfectly white snow... The rocks were all the colors you could ever imagine, and then some more. When I was a child, I used to look out over the plains from my parents’ house in the mountains. I would see the Panopticon, and then there was the Citadel behind it. The Citadel... It was our greatest feat of engineering. If Time Lord society could be jewelry, the Citadel would be the crown jewel. It was amazing, Edwin. You should have seen it.” He remarked, his hoof resting on his chin in awe of the memories. “Why don’t we? Let’s go and see it.” I said, turning back to the Console. The Doctor stopped me by placing his hoof on my shoulder. “We can’t.” “Why not? It’s not to hard, I’ll get the coordinates in the Tardis and we’ll- “Stop, please, Edwin. It’s not as it once was. There are no more trees, no more binary sunrises. Lakes of lava, craters, and cities in ruin. Not to mention the Time Lords themselves. They want to destroy time itself to kill the Daleks. They’re old, desperate, and violent. I actually placed them in Time Lock to keep them at bay.” He finished, silencing me. I felt sobered. “Check the feasibility matrix, she’s looking a bit wobbly in the probability spectrum.” He commented tonelessly, curling back up into a ball between the two mares. I did as he asked, turning to look at the Console. I made the proper adjustments and watched the Tardis on the monitors fall from the timestreams and land squarely in the Dining hall. I sighed, and stood back up. I walked around the couch and out of the doors. “Edwin!” Antony shouted, looking up from his soup. He stood up, galloping over to me. He pulled up by my side and started to speak. “Where have you been?! We really needed you and-” I cut Antony off with a statement of my own. “There is going to have a meeting of the Guard companies in an hour. Spread the word.” I said coldly. Antony seemed extremely puzzled. His helm wobbled slightly. “Why? What’s going on, Edwin? Why in an hour?” “I need to take a bath. I’ll tell you what we’re doing at the meeting.” I said, and I walked past Antony. “Edwin!” He shouted at me. I turned to him wordlessly. “As your peer, I demand to know what you are planning on doing!” He said loudly. All of the guards in the room were staring at the two of us. I scowled, and walked up to Antony. I got my mouth right next to his ear. “I have been through way too much today to have you order me around. Be in the meeting room in one hour.” I said, and I stormed away to get some food.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-03-21T18:44:05+00:00

2012-03-21T18:44:05+00:00

Chapter 41 The peaches bobbed in the tub along with me. I magicked peaches into my mouth whenever one drew near. It was blissful, and the pile of pits on the floor grew large. “Come in.” I said quietly, expecting one of my Lieutenants or maybe even Luna, if I was lucky. There was a creak on the door as it was pushed open. The light hoofbeats narrowed down the pony to a mare, and a rather light one. I opened one of my eyes to look at her. I opened them wider when I couldn’t see one. I looked all around for her, and I had to grab onto the sides of the tub and hoist myself out. I looked around the room. One of the many rooms in the Palace that had a bathtub, filled with stained wood paneling and warmly lit, but sadly not one of the rooms with a lock. I looked around me. There wasn’t much. I heard another strange noise. I looked down. “Aw!” I said unconsciously. There was a tiny little pony baby, with bright green eyes and a pale white coat. I knew it was Sebastian, but her tiny little eyes seemed to hypnotize me into not saying anything about it. She managed to get one of her hind hooves into mouth and gummed on it. I almost died of a brain hemorrhage, it was so cute. I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from telling the little tiny foal how insanely adorable it was. “You’re pitiful, Ed.” A light female voice said from the door. I hated to drag my eyes away from the foal to see who it was. Sebastian walked in through the door, her adult female form entering the room like she owned it. I gulped. I looked down at little Sebastian, who was still nibbling on her hoof. Back to big Sebastian, who had sat down and was watching me with devious amusement. Back to little Sebastian, who had her forelegs open wide to ask me to pick her up. Back to big Sebastian, who had a hoof over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. My jaw hung open. “Which one of you is real?” I finally said. The big Sebastian laughed. “Which one do you want to be real?” big Sebastian asked jokingly. I looked back down at baby Sebastian. “Probably that one.” I said, nodding at the little Sebastian. “She’s a whole lot more adorable and won’t try and kill me as much.” I said. Little Sebastian made some blubbery noises to emphasize my point. Big Sebastian clapped her hooves together once, as if to emphasise something. “But then you would have to take care of a magically adept foal. She could actually kill you on accident.” She reasoned. “It wouldn’t be intentional, and at least I can pass her off as my little sister.” I joked. Big Sebastian made an offended noise and threw a stray peach at me from across the room. “I could be your little sister!” She said with an audible pout. I chuckled and leaned back into my tub. “I think that there might be some law against patricide in Equestria. Might!” I added, raising my forelegs to ward off another peach. She let the peach in question drop to the ground. I sloshed back into the tub, sighing. I raised one of my hooves to rub my forehead. “So which one of you is the real one?” I groaned to myself. Big Sebastian chuckled. “Why does one of us have to be fake?” She asked. I lurched lower into my bath, lurking. Sebastian sighed. “I want in that meeting.” She said seriously. I laughed once. “No.” “Yes.” “Nope.” “Yes!” “Look, Sebastian. The last time that you came to one of my meetings, you were one of my Lieutenants that you seduced and then drugged the night before. Even if you weren’t disguised as somepony, It would be extremely hard to explain why you would be in the meeting. Besides, it’s not something I want you to know about.” I explained, floating a peach into my mouth. Sebastian scowled. “Well then. I’ll just go and take myself with me.” She said, starting to walk over to little Sebastian. I sloshed out of the water. “Don’t take her!” I complained. Sebastian looked at me incredulously. “Have you ever been a foal, let alone taken care of one?” She asked of me accusingly. My ears drooped. “No.” I mumbled morosely. Big Sebastian smiled. “That’s what I thought.” She said, and picked up her smaller self with magic. The little Sebastian giggled as she was picked up. I looked after the adorable little thing longingly. She was at the door when she spoke again. “I’m going to be in that meeting.” She said. I scowled. “Do I get to know who you’re going to be?” I grumbled. Sebastian smiled. “No. It’ll be obvious, though.” She said, and disappeared out of the door. I released a held breath and lurched back into the bath. The water sloshed. I raised a hoof up and splashed the water. I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “I’ll never understand her.” I said to myself. “I’ll be back in an hour, Luna.” I said, strapping on the shoulder of my armor. “Promise?” She asked, eagerly standing behind me as I faced the door. I looked back at her and kissed her on the cheek. “Promise.” I confirmed, and walked out of the door. I walked down to the meeting room. I passed several other ponies along the way that seemed much too busy to interact with me. There was even a pale golden unicorn that had three books, scrolls, and several quills that he was using to take notes with. I chuckled to myself as he passed. I soon turned a corner to the meeting room, and I saw several ponies quietly arguing with each other in front of the dais that was the entrance to the meeting room. One of them looked up at me, and the pony that she was talking to turned to look at me. By the look of his armor, I surmised that it was Antony before he actually turned. He turned back to Lieutenant Drizzle, and gestured that he would come back. He stomped over to me. “Edwin! Do you want to tell me what is going on?” He asked rather angrily. I frowned. “No.” I replied bluntly. Antony sputtered. “What do you mean, no?!” He almost shouted. For some reason, I found that statement to be somewhat funny. “You’re really mad, aren’t you?” I said aloud. By the look on Antony’s face, he looked like he wanted to kill me. “Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?!” He said just as loud as before. Most of the Lieutenants behind him were staring. I frowned. If Antony didn’t stop soon, he would have found out how to force me to tell him. I summoned a dagger and pressed it to Antony’s throat. His eyes went wide, but my expression did not change. “You will understand why I did not tell you when you find out, Antony. It is something extremely important and it cannot be said outside of closed doors. If you do not want to be unable to attend this meeting, I suggest you stop kicking up such a storm.” I spoke calmly, ending with pressure on the dagger. Antony gulped. “Very well then.” He whispered. I pulled the dagger away from his neck and looked at it. Antony was gasping. The dagger was rather simple. It would have been a bar of blue metal, but it had the same waffle string handle that my larger sword did. The blade itself was straight to a point on one end, but the other end had a nice curve about an eighth of the way down the blade that met the other side of the blade. The sharpened edge had a zigzag border that separated the unsharpened blade from the sharpened portion. I puzzled over it for another second, but then blinked it away. I looked back up at the Lieutenants that Antony was talking to earlier. Lieutenants Dash and Drizzle, along with Second Lieutenant Soarin and another pony that I did not know the name of. She looked like she was Drizzle’s second. I walked up to the ponies, and they seemed to be very serious. I was rather uncomfortable for a moment, but we all started to walk up the dais. It struck me that I had never seen Drizzle’s Second Lieutenant before. A bright pony, most certainly. Her pewter-colored helm was at odds with her lime green coat and red mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a strange looking thing, kind of a silver circle with a hole near the edge. There was writing on the circle, but due to social graces I couldn’t stare long enough to find out. We all got up on the dais. Antony looked at me, then I looked at Dash. She smiled and knocked one of her hooves on the floor twice. After a nearly imperceptible pause, the dais began to rotate. I closed my eyes and sighed. I was extremely tired. I was awake in the inertia chamber for a few hours, and the nap I got there was very unsatisfactory, looking back on the experience. My eyes drooped slightly as the meeting room was revealed. We all clambered off of the entrance and to our respective seats, with not a single word exchanged. All of the ponies assembled were looking at me shamelessly. For some reason, my earlier uncomforableness was not there, and I looked all of the ponies that were looking at me. A few of them looked away from my gaze. The ones that didn’t were very scary looking ponies, one of them the large maroon hulk that I had seen multiple times throughout the palace. I need to get to know that pony, I thought to myself. Dash and Soarin flapped over to their place near the back of the room, while Drizzle and her nameless Second walked over to their seats. Drizzle had her seat near the front of the chamber, on Antony’s side. Antony and I took our seats wordlessly, while I mentally prepared myself for the things that I was about to say. Antony nudged the little marble block that was the gavel. His deference gave me the authority in this situation. I lifted the block with magic and slammed it back down on the ground. The deafening clash resounded though the chamber. “I call this meeting of the Royal Equestrian Guard Corps to order. Hold your questions.” I said, raising a hoof to a reddish pony from the rear guard. He sat back down awkwardly. “Many of you are wondering why I have called this meeting with so little notice ahead of time. Some of you may have noticed that we have received little word from Cloudsdale as of late. I know why. And I intend to fix that.” I said, which made the ponies murmur amongst themselves. I picked up the marble cube and slammed it down again. The ponies were all quiet. “I know the cause, and I also know the cure. It will certainly not be easy. It will not be an emotionally bearable journey, for most of us. But it is necessary. I will need to tell you what is happening right now. But first, I need a squad of unicorns, extremely proficient in protective and long distance offensive spells. I also need a squad of combat pegasi. Preferably two of each. Everypony else, I’m sorry that I’ve led you away from your daily duties. If you do not wish to volunteer squads, you must leave immediately.” I said. There was hesitation amongst many of the lieutenants. I slammed down the marble cube, and everypony started rushing out of the conference room very quickly. I waited for them all to file out. I looked down at my hoof while they got out of the room. It was a good twenty minutes before they all left, because most had to take the statue. Some unicorns just popped out of the room using teleportation spells, leaving behind a disgruntled second lieutenant. It was a while before I couldn’t hear the grating of the statue, then I looked up to see three lieutenants left. Pix, the large maroon colt, and then Dash. I was surprised at all three of them. I had expected something completely different, but who was I to judge? I locked myself down to try and tell them what was happening. “There are strange... Things, strange creatures, in Cloudsdale. They are extremely dangerous. My kind calls them Angelics, which is what I am going to refer to them today.” I said. The maroon colt kind of raised a hoof, flapping his wings a little bit. “When you say ‘my kind’, what exactly-” “You don’t often see numbers as a cutie mark, do you?” I asked, explaining. The colt, whose name I did not know, shook his head. “Well, I’d say that only four exist in Equestria right now. We’re all the same species. Anyways, These ‘Angelics’ are extremely dangerous. They have the ability to inhabit bodies of ponies. I am unaware if the pony remains alive during the process, but I have heard anecdotes that corroborate a pony staying alive after an Angelic is forcibly removed. Angelics are equipped with very formidable magic, along with superior strength and pointed teeth. They are very much Equuanoid in their original form. All of them have grey manes and black coats, along with red irises. The vast majority of them are unicorns. Also, the majority of ponies that I have seen inhabited by Angelics have been pegasi. There is a certain variation on the species that lives in Cloudsdale that are even more dangerous than the ones that inhabit the rest of Equestria. For some reason, their magic is even stronger than a regular Angelic, and they have been known to eat ponies. Now, I need you three here bec- “I’m sorry.” Dash began, “did you say eat ponies!?” She exclaimed. I nodded. The maroon colt and Pix looked surprised. “You understand why it is so important to destroy them. Now, I am planning on having a team of Unicorns stationed on a cloud a fair distance from Cloudsdale, using offensive magic to try and kill Angelics from there. At the same time, the team of Pegasi will be storming the city and trying to find any survivors of the city. Also, at the same time, three ponies of my species, including myself, will enter Cloudsdale and kill whatever Angelics we can find. I am at liberty to say that Clouldsdale will be destroyed by the end of the battle.” I concluded. Pix said nothing, but the maroon pony and Dash were outraged. “What do you mean, destroyed?!” Dash yelled “We cannot possibly participate! This place is our home!” The maroon colt said. I walked up to him. I looked him right in the eyes. “When you see what Cloudsdale has become, you would want to destroy it yourself. It’s just a hunting ground. I have seen an Angelic eat a part of a pony right in front of me. They aren’t natural.” I said softly to the maroon colt. He paled as I spoke. I walked back away from him. “I need to know what is going to happen before I commit guards to this endeavor.” Pix said. I glanced at her, walking up to the statue. “I don’t know what is going to happen. That’s why I need all of you. I’ll expect you all to give me your reports tomorrow.” I said. I could see them all as the statue turned to lead me out. The lime green second lieutenant with the reddish hair was waiting for me on the other side. She was looking at me with an utmost seriousness. “Hello Sebastian.” I said. She punched the ground with one of her forehooves and swore. “How did you know?!” She shouted. I chuckled a little to myself. “Your mannerisms. That, and I’ve never seen that,” I emphasized by gesturing to her. “Before. You were better off with someone I’ve seen before.” I expained. Sebastian grinned. “Now that you mention it, I did like that Ryo...” She said, trailing off. “You can’t have him. I kinda have a use for him, and I need him not hungover and seduced.” “You’re no fun.” “It happens when you grow up.” “I’m older than you.” She complained. “You don’t act like it.” I retorted. I started walking down the hall, and Sebastian followed behind me. I reached down with my teeth to undo the belt on my shoulder plate. Sebastian took the opportunity to complain. “And I wasted a perfectly good disguise to get into that meeting, and my Lieutenant didn’t even want to volunteer! I feel downright cheated.” “Lieutenant Pix is in charge of deep cover espionage. She had nothing to volunteer.” “Still, though. It’s just wrong. Can you tell me!? What happened!?” “I can’t tell you.” I said coldly, getting my tongue under a tricky little buckle. “Why not?!” She whined. “Eh neh tu guet thus beckul eff.” I tried to say, trying to get this buckle off. Sebastian giggled a little bit. “What?” She asked, her voice amused. I finally got my teeth around the little metal piece in the buckle and ripped it off. The shoulder armor clattered down to my feet. “I need to get this buckle off. And I can’t tell you because it is a state secret.” I explained, picking up the armor with magic and draping it across my back. Sebastian oohed. “Sounds fancy. Can I bug you until you tell me?” She asked hopefully. “No. Because now, I’m going to go see my mare and tickle her until she lets me preen her wings.” “Kinky.” “Not really.” “You’re hopeless, Ed.” “You’re just jealous.” “Of her, or of you?” Sebastian asked. I laughed a little. “Whichever one you want. But now I have to go get my ticklin’ hooves ready.” I said, trying to remember which floor of the palace Luna’s room was on. “Good luck.” She said teasingly as I started to gallop.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-03-30T15:40:22+00:00

2012-03-30T15:40:22+00:00

Chapter 42 Tickling Luna did not go as well as I thought it would for three reasons. The platoon of Guards in front of her room with express orders to keep me out was the first major obstacle. Evangeline was the second. The third was Princess Celestia. Needless to say that she looked rather mad. I looked around at the forty guards in the now cramped hallway. The helm of Lieutenant Flick, a small brown unicorn, bobbed near the Princess. His second was nearby, a rather slender Pegasus mare with a dark green coat. Princess Celestia walked up to me, almost seething. “Captain Shell,” She said rather stiffly, “It has come to my attention that you have held a meeting without telling me about it.” “You could have asked me without the help of Lieutenant Flick. And what the hell, Evangeline?” I asked, somewhat outraged, leaning to look past the Princess at the stoic Numbered. She was holding one of her hooves at about shoulder level, admiring it. “I’m bored.” She said coldly. I frowned, and turned back to the Princess. “Walk with me, Captain. We need to talk.” She said, and walked off into the halls. I sighed and walked with her. We were a fair distance away from the platoon. I sighed, and entered the Flow. Apparently Flick wasn’t a total idiot. He had sent several unicorns under extremely powerful concealment spells to trail Celestia and I as we walked down the halls. “Perhaps we should move our conversation to another venue, Princess. The walls have ears.” I whispered. She nodded, and I pushed open a door to a branching room of the hallway. I could feel the frustration of Flick’s spies as the door slid shut quietly. I smiled and turned to the room. “Wow.” I said. Celestia nodded in agreement. I edged past her to look at it. “Is it really what I think it is?” The pale princess asked. “I think so...” I said, and I leaned forward to sniff it. It certainly smelled like it. It certainly looked like it. But it didn’t, at the same time. “Why is it red?!” I asked to myself. I reached up to poke it. It certainly felt like one. Hard and unforgiving, with a slight boom of wood. I frowned. It was a complete mystery. There was a loud noise from the inside, like a gong. I tilted my head. I looked back at the Princess and a sound of drilling came from inside. “What were you going to say?” I whispered “I don’t think it matters much.” She whispered back. There was another noise, like the click click of a striker. Then there was a large whoosh noise. I cleared my throat and listened harder. I had my ear up against the door and was listening intently when the door opened. I skittered away as fast as I could, and I stood up in a rather flustered way. There was a pony standing at the door of the red tardis, wearing an untied leather apron over his neck, a pony rig for a lit acetylene torch bolted to one hoof, and a metal welding mask. The pony was breathing rather loudly. He reached up with the torch arm and pushed his mask up. “Edwin!” He said cheerfully. I was taken aback. “D-Doctor?” I said haltingly. “Quick! Get in the Tardis! No time to explain!” He said, rushing out to push me in. “Doctor, what’s going on, I don’t-” “I will set your tail on fire if you don’t hurry.” He said, gesturing with his torch hoof. I noticed that he had some rubber tubes that were snaking up to some tanks on his back. “Go on! Go!” He said, pointing the fire at me. I am of the opinion that nopony appreciates a singed ass, so I hurried on inside. The Tardis looked very different. There was some large metal container somewhat peeled apart near the top, standing near the Console. There was an extreme number of cables and cords hooked up to it, leading to a console wedge. The bottom of it was somewhat sloping, with fair sized hemispheres dotting the panels there in regular intervals. I looked up at it. It was a little bit taller than I was. “Get away from my exosuit!” A halting, almost robotic voice said. I looked all around to see what it was. I looked down at my hooves. “No way.” I said in disbelief. There was a little octopus looking thing in a little jar next to the metal container. I was surprised that it had the ability to speak. I leaned down to look it in its fat eyes. “You’re really ugly, you know that?” I asked. The ugly thing blinked. “We are made to be efficient!” the thing said, his gigantic brain throbbing with rage. I laughed. “He’s pretty mad, you know. He doesn’t like me in his Archives. And I can’t figure out how to get the bugger out of his voice circuitry!” The Doctor said angrily, entering the Tardis. He seemed to sprint, nearly leaping onto his console. He was pushing buttons two wedges over. I looked on at the Doctor. “So what is this thing?” I asked. The Doctor snorted. “It’s a Dalek.” “A who?” “It’s not a who, it’s a what. Daleks aren’t people. They don’t even have emotions. That little thing in that jar, it’s a Dalek. That big metal thing, it’s a polycarbonate exosuit that the Dalek is dependent on for violent survival.” The Doctor said, detached. I turned back to the Dalek. “Does it have a name?” I asked. The Doctor scoffed. “It hasn’t told me anything yet. But there aren’t any more where he came from. He probably just got the wrong end of a temporal shift.” The Doctor said. I kept looking at the little blob. “I could kill a dozen of them.” “You couldn’t.” “What do you mean? He looks like an octopus. They might even taste good.” I said, looking at the thing. He throbbed and squeaked a little bit. “Have you ever eaten one?” I asked. “No. Besides, I don’t think that you can eat one. We are ponies, after all.” “We should cook him.” I said, tapping the glass of the jar. The Dalek thrashed his tentacles a little bit, moving to the opposite side of the jar. “Where do you get all of these big jars, anyways?” I asked. “There’s a shop in Salt Lick City that sells them.” “How many do you have?” “Around three thousand in my stores.” “They must love you.” “I have a card. Two free jars when I buy twelve.” “You’ll run them out of business.” “With as much money that I give them, they better be around for the next million years.” He said seriously. There was a long, drawn out pause. “So what are you doing with this Dalek thing, anyways?” I asked. The Doctor grinned. “I’m using the trace elements in his exosuit to try and rebuild my Chameleon circuit.” The Doctor said enthusiastically. I was at a loss. “What?” I said flatly. The Doctor sighed, and pulled a lever. The wooshy noise of the Tardis moving was interrupted by his explanation. “You know how the Tardis looks like a big phone booth, right?” He said simply. “Yeah.” “Well, It looks like that because the Chameleon circuit is broken. You see, when a fully operational Tardis arrives in a certain place and time, a technician would activate the Chameleon circuit to disguise the Tardis according to its surroundings. Well, the circuit in my Tardis was jammed long before I owned it. It was actually in a museum because of it, people thought it was funny.” “A heartwarming tale.” I said sarcastically. “Oh, it is! Because if I can fix the circuit, even for a single transposition, I can use it to enter Cloudsdale entirely undetected! We could enter the city without raising the alarm!” He said. I suddenly understood. “That would be an immense help, Doctor.” I said. The Doctor nodded. “By the way, why did you get me out of there in such a hurry?” “You were going to be assassinated.” The Doctor said offhandedly. I looked back up from the Dalek. “Excuse me?” “A crack team of about, oh, seven? Yes, seven Angelics were going to assassinate you as you were walking off with Princess Celestia. Rather bloody death, wanted to send a message. Open the door.” The Doctor said in his detached manner, walking back over to the Dalek exosuit. He flipped down his welding mask and went to work at it. There was a crackling noise and the Dalek started squeaking like a mouse. “Finally!” The Doctor said, his mask muffling his exclamation. I opened the door. “No way.” I said, breathless. We were in the Sigmus system, but not on a single planet. We were in space. The brilliant stars of Septimus and Culaan burned brilliantly in front of me, turning around each other slowly. I was nearly blinded. “Doctor.” “Yes, I know. Help me with this jar.” The Doctor said, his tone strained. I turned to see him trying to lift the jar with the Dalek in it. I grabbed the jar with magic without moving from my spot in front of the door. “What do you want me to do with it?” I asked. The Doctor coughed. “Just set it over there with you.” He said. I levitated the disgusting creature over to me and set it down on the doormat. It squeaked a little bit. The Doctor rushed up to me. He had something that looked like a clear ashtray in his mouth. It took me a moment to realize that it was the lid for the jar. The Doctor placed it on the top of the jar. It sealed with a slight hiss. The Doctor’s visage grew serious. “Nameless Dalek.” The Doctor said coldly. The Dalek started to squeak. “Your existence in this dimension is in violation of the laws enacted by the Shadow Proclamation against intraspecies genocide. What do you have to say to these charges?” He said slowly, making sure the Dalek understood. I had the feeling that he did, because the Dalek started to squeak and writhe even more. “Your testimony is touching, if not true. I consign you to the void of space so that the rest of the universe may live in peace.” The Doctor said again, pushing the jar with one of his forehooves out of the Tardis door. It toppled silently, end over end, out into space. “Is that jar airtight?” I asked. The Doctor looked out emotionlessly at the jar as it tumbled. “No.” The Doctor said. His simple statement was punctuated by the Dalek inside of the jar exploding rather forcefully about twenty yards away from the Tardis. The Doctor reached out to close the door. “I’ve always hated them.” He said, and he walked back to his console. He flopped onto a loveseat with various controls on the arms. He sighed heavily. “Edwin, please do me a very big favor.” The Doctor said, slumped on his couch with his leather apron and gas tanks still on. “You aren’t really my type, Doctor.” I said jokingly. The Doctor ignored me. “Man the console and activate preset plural three.” He droned. I nodded and turned to the console. “Hello Tardis.” “Hello, Captain Shell.” The Tardis said in a light voice. “Activate destination preset plural three, then give me a readout.” I said in an authoritative voice. “Monitor preference?” The Tardis inquired innocently. “Closest.” I said. Almost immediately a monitor popped out on a metal arm, reaching over so I could get a good look at it, to show me where I was going. It seemed to be a place in Equestria, and I tried to interpret the esoteric nature of the Tardis’ display to find out more. “Where exactly is this, Doctor?” “Push the lever and find out.” He said through his face in the couch cushions. I frowned. I read the coordinates of the destination. “For the latitude and longitude of this destination, this coordinate is underground.” “Trust me, Edwin. I’m a Doctor.” He said, not getting up from the sofa. I felt slightly annoyed. I knew that the Tardis wouldn’t let me transpose into solid rock, so I trusted it and pushed the lever. I looked up at the pillar above the console as it shone. I smiled slightly. I could go anywhere I wanted to. Literally, the entire universe was mine. When I stand in front of that console, I own everything that exists. I smiled as the Tardis transposed itself. I cleared my throat, and then I walked over to the door. “Are you coming with me, Doctor?” I asked as I passed his couch. He grunted and waved a hoof at me. “No. I’m checking in to a spa.” He said in an extremely tired manner. I chuckled and opened the door of the Tardis. “Wow.” I said. Ponies were milling about, doing all kinds of things. Most of it looked like clerical work. The only pony who wasn’t doing something office-like was a big maroon pony in the middle of the room, sitting and looking at the Tardis. He had a very strange contraption on his right foreleg that looked like a big metal sleeve. It ended near his leg-wrist, and I scolded myself for not knowing the proper terms for pony anatomy. I squinted. This was the Pegasus that had volunteered his guards for the assault on Cloudsdale. I walked out of the Tardis and walked up to the pony. “Lieutenant?” I inquired warily. “Captain. Come with me.” He said, turning from me and walking through an entryway. I followed him in a rather shy manner, trying not to be noticed. Much to my luck, I was not noticed. Many of the ponies were just way too busy to notice a deathly pale earth pony that just walked out of a big blue box that just appeared a few seconds earlier. The Lieutenant I was following gestured to another guard near the corner of the room to take up his position in the middle. I followed the maroon hulk through a small stone hallway, which was lit rather well due to a few oil lamps. “So, Lieutenant...” I trailed off, not knowing his name. “Lieutenant Flint, sir.” “Flint?” I asked. He nodded. “My parents weren’t the most creative ponies when it came to names.” He said, rather abashed. I had a turtle named Flint once. He liked to eat lettuce.” I said. “I like to eat lettuce too.” He joked. I smiled. “So, where are you taking me, Lieutenant Flint?” I inquired. Flint coughed. “The Princesses wish to see you about your upcoming battle for Cloudsdale.” He said cautiously. “To wish me good luck, I suppose?” I said sarcastically. “Probably not.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-04-17T19:19:49+00:00

2012-04-17T19:19:49+00:00

Chapter 43 “What?” I asked, slightly taken off guard. We continued to walk down the cold, rather claustrophobic stone hallway. “Yeah, she seemed pretty mad.” He said. I calmed down immediately. “Just the one? Good. I can handle Celestia.” I sighed in relief. Flint looked rather surprised. “That’s what caught me off guard, too. It’s actually Princess Luna that has rather... well, vocal objections to the upcoming battle. It caught me by surprise. I always thought that you two got along so well.” He said innocently. I frowned. “You have no idea.” I said, actually rather mad myself. There was no way that the Princess could have any objections to my plan. Dash and Pix surely have told Luna and Celestia every detail of what I had told them in the meeting. I steamed silently while Flint and I walked to see the Princess. He tried to start up a conversation, but I stayed silent. He soon gestured me to a stone door. I frowned and pushed it open. It was a very strange sight inside of the door. It seemed to be very close to a college classroom, the ones with the rows of seats like stairs leading up from a tiny desk at the bottom. The strangest part was an Angelic, right where the desk would be, literally mounted to the floor in heavy metal chains. I was surprised that it could stand, but then again, this was a pure Angelic. He was staring at me angrily, with his face contorted into an unearthly grimace of rage. I turned away from him. Marcus was sitting nearby, looking at the Angelic very seriously. Evangeline and Gespard were sitting on either side of Luna, who herself was above me in the room, sitting on one of the higher tiers. I looked around me. The Angelic started to sputter angrily. I looked him right in the eyes. “My kind will kill you. All of you!” He shouted, turning his shoulder to scream at the room.I looked down at him with extreme contempt. He turned back up to me, smiling. “I would have killed you myself. We drew lots for who would eat you. I earned that right. You would have been so good...” He said, his long tongue running over his teeth. I could see the hunger in his eyes and it disgusted me. He was about to start up again before I walked over to him quickly and put my hoof under his chin and pulled his face up to look at me forcefully. “I’m going to draw straws to kill you.” I said to him. He looked happy. An insane kind of happy. The kind of happy that you can get locked in a little padded room for. “We never die, Numbered. I’ve been killed by Othello nine different times. Evangeline, twelve. The blue one has killed me four times. Drowning is a terrible way for the body to die.” He said almost sadly. I growled at him, yanking his chin. “Nothing is too terrible for your kind. You deserve to die.” I said. The Angelic started to cackle. I stood on my hind legs and was about to hit it when Evangeline interceded. “Enough of your games, Angelic.” Eve said calmly, gesturing with a hoof at the Angelic. He started to shake, and he soon was unable to stand. I released him and he lowered himself gently to the floor, his body trembling violently. The rattle of chains was all I could hear behind me as it shook itself to sleep. I waited for the rattling to stop to speak. “Why are we keeping him alive?” I asked flatly. “We need to torture it.” Marcus said, looking at levitating vial of a viscous orange liquid. His green magic moved the bottle around so that he could see it better. “What are you doing with that?” Gespard asked, his voice afraid. Marcus grinned, walking up to the Angelic with his bottle in tow. I could see Luna watching on with grim indifference. “Torturing, of course. What else would you do with a sample this big?” He asked rhetorically. “I’d sell it, maybe.” Evangeline said, her voice very, very bored. “Where did you get that much, anyways?” She asked, turning to Marcus. “Alucard.” He explained simply. Luna, Gespard, and Evangeline all made noises of assent. Marcus was walking toward the Angelic very menacingly. He uncorked the bottle, and I could smell a faint whiff of sulphur. By now, Marcus was right next to the Angelic and I. “Marcus, what is that?” I asked. Marcus looked at me innocently. “You’ve never seen dragon’s blood before?” He inquired. I remembered something. The Armory. The bottle that Antony tried to get away from me. “What does it-” I started, but Marcus cut me off. “You’ll find out soon.” He said, and tipped the small vial over. A bright orange tendril of the blood seeped out, smoking slightly. It dropped down onto the Angelic’s face. I’ve never heard anything scream like that in all of my lives. He thrashed, he shouted, he begged for mercy. He asked us to kill him so many times. He burst blood vessels in his eyes, he was screaming so hard. He made eye contact with me twice when he was being tortured. Once was near the beginning. His violent red eyes shone with boundless rage. My heart caught in my throat when I saw that look. It was the look of a cornered animal. It was the look of something that would kill you at the nearest opportunity. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t afraid for my life when he looked at me like that. The second time was even worse. He was afraid. So far from the insanely happy Angelic that I had met only a few minutes before. It was crying. I stared down at it coldly. It didn’t deserve sympathy. It didn’t even deserve what we gave it. It only deserved to die. “Marcus, stop.” I said, holding out a hoof. He looked at me. I was still staring down at the Angelic. He was whimpering. He was sniveling and whispering to himself. I placed my hooves on either side of his face. He just layed there. I felt the electricity crackle down my bones. It filled me with strange emotion. I finally looked down at the Angelic. He slowly turned to look at me with one of his big red eyes. “Die. So that the rest of us may live in peace.” I whispered, and released the electricity through my legs. It jumped through the air, between my hooves, looking for something conductive. Angelics, like most creatures, are largely composed of water. Water is a very good conductor of electricity. Push comes to shove, and the electricity shoots straight into the Angelic’s brain. It locks up everything. He couldn’t see, probably. There was too much interference from the electricity for something as minute as sight to be processed. His heart clenched, unable to accommodate the strange, powerful signal from the brain. It couldn’t push blood where it needed to go. If a doctor were to look at the corpse, he might have said that it was a severe electrocution. But really, all deaths are just oxygen starvation. The brain can’t send the signal to the heart to push the blood, or the blood is too busy being all over the floor to carry oxygen, or the blood doesn’t have the right chemicals to carry oxygen. In the Angelic’s case, he died of a heart attack. A rather long one, truth be told. I removed my hooves from the lifeless body and sighed deeply. The death of an Angelic had never affected me so severely. Maybe because this one was not trying to kill me. Maybe because I actually spoke to this one. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I didn’t have time to think about it. I needed a hug. I picked myself off of my hooves with my Numbered magic and floated up to Luna. I passed Evangeline, who was sitting on a lower step, and Gespard, who was doing the same as Evangeline. I floated up to Luna’s side and sat very close to her. I was facing the wall that she was facing away from. I leaned over her neck so my head was on the opposite side of her than my body and looked back down at the scene. The Angelic mounted to the floor. Marcus, coldly capping his sample of dragon’s blood. Evangeline, looking at a bug near her feet. Gespard, staring at the Angelic. I couldn’t handle it any more. “Leave.” I said softly. Marcus was the first to look up at me. “What?” He asked incredulously. I felt sourceless anger rise into me. “LEAVE!” I shouted, making all three of the Numbereds flinch. They immediately popped out of the room, leaving me with the disconcerting moment of being completely alone with Luna. I leaned on her, tilting my head down until my head was touching her shoulder. “Ed, what’s wrong?” She asked softly, showing no sign of noticing my earlier outburst. She craned her neck to look back at me with one of her eyes. It was big, blue, and beautiful. I sighed. “I’m tired of killing, Luna. I’m just so tired of it.” I said. She sighed, pulling her head back up so that she was looking forward. “I know you are, Edwin. I see you almost every night, and with each passing day your eyes are older. Your ears droop. I hate seeing you like this, Edwin. Which is why I’ve given you a weekend off.” She said. I perked up a little, looking at the back of Luna’s head. “What was that?” “I’m giving you a weekend off. I’ve asked for Evangeline, Gespard, and Marcus to cover whatever it is that you do when you run off with the Doctor and leave you with me.” She said rather excitedly. I smiled and got off of Luna. I beamed at her. “Really?!” I asked. She nodded. “But there are conditions, of course.” She qualified in a slightly reprimanding tone. I drooped a little. “Like?” “We have to go to a spa.” She ventured. I groaned. “Why?” I whined. Luna frowned. “If you had stood in front of a mirror this past week, you would know why.” “Do I get to eat the cucumbers?” I asked. “You get to eat yours. I want mine. Also, you need a suit.” She said. I grimaced. “I never did understand clothing. Why do I need to dress up?” I complained aloud. “Be quiet, that’s why. Also, the Gala is this monday. So there.” “Cheater.” I mumbled. Luna continued “I’ve also asked Tia to cover for me with my nighttime duties so that we can have this weekend entirely to ourselves.” She added, turning to look at me. “I took the liberty of renting us a bed and breakfast in Ponyville.” She said. I almost snorted. “Why Ponyville?” I asked. “Because it’s a rather small city where the arrival of a Princess and her Guard will not be heavily publicized or be considered scandalous. Also, it has a boutique and a spa within reasonable walking distance.” “Boutique?” “We’re picking up your suit.” She explained, and started walking down the stairs to the door. I followed meekly. “I never liked suits.” I complained quietly. “Would you rather show up to the most important social event of the year in Canterlot naked?” She asked. I chuckled. “I go everywhere else naked.” I joked. “That’s not the point.” She chastised me. I smiled to myself. We edged our way past the Angelic, draped in chains. I couldn’t look at it, but Luna stared as we walked past. She actually stopped and stared at it. I sided up next to her and stared at it too. “I don’t understand.” She whispered. “Don’t understand what?” I asked her delicately. “How can ponies like that be so dangerous ?” She said to herself, in disbelief. I frowned. “They aren’t ponies.” I said sternly. She turned to look at me. “How can’t they be, Edwin!? Look at it!” She stressed a whisper. I looked. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth, purple, and his eyes were rolled back into his head. “They aren’t. I’ve seen what they can do. There’s no way that they can be natural creatures.” I said, slightly offended. Luna looked at me, her eyes hopeful for a moment, and then looked back to the dead Angelic. “Even if they aren’t ponies, why are they so dangerous?” “They eat us.” “What!?” “They eat ponies. I’ve seen them literally consume them, actually biting into a pony. It is a harrowing sight. Let’s go.” I said, walking past Luna as I finished. She clipclopped behind me for a few meters. “Where are we going, Ed?” She asked innocently. I thought about it for a moment. “Not sure. Other than the gross galactic coordinates, I’m not even sure where we are right now.” I admitted. “Then let me enlighten you.” a masculine voice said from around the corner. I paused, hesitant to walk any further. I watched as a strange pony walked from around the corner. For a pony, he looked unusually gaunt and worn. His dull grey coat was at odds with his slightly curly dark blue mane that parted around his horn, but his eyes were a shockingly vibrant violet. He was unusually thin, with a black scarf tied loosely around his neck. I stiffened as I reminded myself that black scarves were reserved for Celestia’s chosen spies.I found him to be strangely familiar, and I could not place where I had met him before. “Do I know you?” I interjected rather abruptly. He chuckled, his voice wheezing slightly. “You may know my brother.” He said. His voice was rather raspy. “And he is?” I asked. The pony reached up a hoof to clear his throat. He hacked for a little bit, but then flourished his hoof and bowed. I almost laughed. “Asperx Bladesinger, at your service.” He said at the bottom of his bow. My mouth hung open. “Are you really his-” “Yes, I really am. He looks more like mom, in my opinion. But I haven’t come here to talk to you about my family. The Princess needs to talk to you.” He said, with his violent purple eyes carrying extreme eagerness. “Look, I’m not wanting to be rude or anything, but I just met you and all, and I don’t really-” I started, but Asperx’s horn started to glow a dull, glinting blue. A small square of parchment popped into existence, facing me. It looked fancy. Aged yellow parchment, wispy handwriting, and a few metallic stamps near the bottom. I didn’t have time to read it before Asperx started speaking. “If you will not comply willingly, I have the authority under the Equestrian Secrets act to use whatever means that I find necessary to take you into custody.” He said, his voice carrying no semblance of a show of authority. It was like he was commenting on a certain dish in a buffet instead of placing me under arrest. “Are you threatening me, Asperx?” I asked in a slightly demeaning manner. “Only if you do not come willingly.” He said. I grinned, crouching down slightly. I started to circle Asperx. He did the same. “I’ll meet up with you later, Luna." I said, not breaking my gaze from those purple eyes. “Edwin, this is incredibly infantile and I will not just stand by and-” Luna started, but Asperx interrupted her. “Princess, I must say that the good Captain is right. This is no place for a Princess. I’m quite sure that neither of us will come to harm,” He spoke as he circled, “But I would feel much safer if you were not nearby.” He finished. Luna humphed indignantly and stalked away. Asperx and I continued to circle. “A very foolish thing to do, Captain.” the grey spy commented. “I could tell you the same thing.” I said. Asperx said nothing. We circled. Like a lioness hunting her prey, like vultures over a wounded animal, we circled. We were sizing each other up. A tap to his foreleg, he favors it. A slice on the cheek, blind him with pain. Parry, thrust, jab. Block, attack, block again. The time finally came, after what seemed to be hours of silent planning and stalking our prey, we started. My sword was summoned quickly as I lashed out at Asperx. Our blades met with a note that only swords could sing.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-04-27T16:15:30+00:00

2012-04-27T16:15:30+00:00

Chapter 44 Asperx was a very, very strange pony. It’s almost impossible to describe how unusual he was among his species. “Slacking in your form, Captain!?” Asperx spat at me as our swords clanged together. I gritted my teeth, feeling his unusual brand of bladesinging. The fight had been going for a few hours now, and I was unusually exhausted. His sword was more like a garden instrument than a sword. It started off straight near the hilt, but then started to get weird. Certain parts of the blade were very different from others, different shapes and sizes and angles and colors. It made the whole thing look like a piece of rainbow rock candy. It was almost a club, except that every facet was sharpened to perfection. It was very easy to swing, judging by the way that Asperx clobbered me with it. It made strange colored sparks every time that it came into contact with my blade. He was slightly shorter than I was, but he made up for it by just beating me around with that club of his. He pushed me around like he owned me. Looking back, I could have just entered the Flow and crushed him like a fly with my superior strength. I could have just electrocuted him until he let off. But I didn’t even think about it at the time. While I was thinking about what I could do, Asperx hoisted his club-sword high and shouted triumphantly. I took the opportunity to strike. My sword clipped his right foreleg just when he smacked it away before it could do any more damage. I looked at his wound. It was bleeding, I thought, but everything that was coming out was a bright, cobalt blue. I looked up at Asperx in disbelief. He chuckled. “Spies aren’t just known for their ability to eavesdrop.” He remarked and swung his club at me again like a baseball bat. I lunged out of the way and right into Asperx’s face. I rose the sword up to his neck and pressed on it slightly. A drop of bright blue blood formed. Asperx panted with a wide grin on his face. “A rare pony it is that can beat me with a sword.” He gasped out. “You call that a sword? It’s more like a club!” I remarked in disbelief. Asperx chuckled, out of breath. “I know, I know. Now please, let me go.” He said, extremely winded. I scowled for a moment, and he made a pleading look. I finally removed my sword and flicked the blood off of it. It sizzled on the ground, and I looked at it. I turned back to Asperx. He shrugged. “I’ll promise that I’ll tell you later. We need to go now. An impatient Princess is nothing to trifle with.” He said, gesturing for me to follow him. I did so reluctantly. We walked together like we weren’t trying to kill each other a few minutes before. Some of the guards that we passed said hello to me, but they avoided Asperx like the plague. I noted that in my head and continued on without a comment. I finally had to ask him. “You aren’t really a pony, are you?” I asked him after we passed one of the Royal scholars, surrounded in his normal attire of a cloud of books and papers. Asperx sighed, and his head slumped. “I’m not now.” He remarked, sounding ashamed. “But you were once?” I grilled. Asperx sighed heavily again. “Yes, I was once. Let me tell you my story, it will help explain.” He ventured, and I nodded. “Equestria during my childhood was not a very dangerous place at all. War of the Factions was about it, and that only lasted a few months when I was thirty.” He remarked, very blase. “I thought it was a very dangerous and deadly war.” I questioned. Asperx snorted. “Brother told you that, didn’t he?” Asperx inquired amusedly. “How did you-” “He always makes a big deal out of it. He got booted out of the army and right into the arms of the Royal Guards as soon as they found out he was a Bladesinger, but he always likes to make ponies think that it was a very very big deal and that he was a very very big part of it. He was in the army for about three minutes. Anyways, my childhood. I was a chipper young unicorn, looking up spells and whatnot in my spare time. You know what it was like as a foal.” “I never was a foal.” I said, and Asperx looked at me with a quirky glance. “Strange.” He said after a pause, and then continued. “Well, I was such an amazing student that my parents enrolled me into some magic school or another while I was still a very young foal. I can’t remember exactly which school it was, and I’m not too sure I would know it if I were to ever see it.” “Why wouldn’t you remember the school? It must have been a big part of your life as a foal.” I said. Asperx stopped walking and stared at me openly. “Do you know how impossible it is to try and tell a story around you?” He remarked indignantly. I felt slightly ashamed. “Sorry.” I mumbled. The seemingly frail grey pony seemed to smile. His teeth were amazingly bright white squares. We started walking again, weaving our way around a whole gaggle of shouting foals and their weary teacher. We both laughed at the spectacle. It took a moment after that for his story to continue. “I’ll get to why I can’t remember it later, as long as you won’t interrupt any more.” He chided. I pantomimed zipping my lips and he continued. “I was an exemplary student. I turned in all of my work, corrected my professors, and even met a princess. Some tiny little pink thing, I can’t remember her name right now. Anyways, I grew up. Mares became the subject of conversation instead of lunch or Mr. Kelp’s essay due tomorrow. There was one, I can’t remember what she looked like, but I knew what her favorite flavor of ice cream was. It’s sad. I can’t remember who she was or what she looked like or what her mane smelled like or what she liked to do in her spare time or even what color she was, but I know that she loved butter pecan ice cream more than Celestia herself. I’m good at rambling. But now we come to the important part. I was in my late twenties, working on an experiment with my chemistry professor, Dr. Scroll. The last thing that I can remember from that is that I titrated a solution. I remember specifically the dripping of the dropper, drop by drop by drop. There was a white flash. Everything went silent. What I’m going to say from this point forward is what I was told after the fact. The titration solvent was actually mislabeled. It was a solution griffon tears, which are extremely volatile when a correct incantation is said over them. The incantation was said beforehand in preparation for another experiment. The other experiment got a eighty-percent citric acid solution instead of a sixty-three percent activated griffon tear solution. It took a few minutes for the tears to heat up enough for them to react. I was told that they had to pick pieces of me out of the carpet from the floor below. That mare that I told you about, she found my liver, pancreas, and one of my eyes in her favorite garden on campus, a few buildings away. My brain and what little of my original body remained in the room were rushed to the medical research lab. Luckily, it was in the same building as my failed experiment. Dr. Scroll handed my remains off to Dr. Cap, who was a visiting professor at the time and, luckily for me, one of the brightest medical minds of his time. From what he told me, I wasn’t even recognizable as a pony. The metaphor he used was “Dragon vomit”. He worked on me for five days straight, trying to make me work again. He wouldn’t tell me how he fixed me, but I surmised one thing. The college, Canterlot university, has one of the largest research wings on Equine brain function in all of Equestria. Dr. Cap stole some brain matter from fresh cadavers, mixed it up into little pieces and then put them in my head so that I would have a complete brain. That’s why I can’t remember her name or what she looked like, or even my first magic school. But I can remember some things that I have never experienced. A shiny hearthwarming eve ornament, The smoky smell of hickory in a stallion’s mane, the bitter taste of black licorice, and the sound of a mare’s voice saying “It’s time for dinner”. You see, I’m not entirely myself. I’m little bits of different ponies, with the dominant part being my original personality. That’s why my sword looks so strange. All of those different facets, all of those colors, they all represent what means the most to one of the ponies in my brain. It’s strange. One of the pieces loves pecan pie. I used to hate pecan pie. The scent of a fresh one made me want to gag. Now, whenever I see one, It takes all of my willpower to not scarf it up right there.” He told me, and I felt harrowed. We were silent for a very long time after that. “What about the blood?” I scrounged up the courage to ask. Asperx chuckled humorlessly. “I never found out what it was. What I do know about it is that it has a high viscosity, a low boiling point, and has a pH of about eleven. It keeps me from freezing to death in climates that would make other ponies into fun shapes of icicle. The viscosity keeps me from bleeding to death whenever I have what could be a mortal wound. I don’t know what the high pH does, other than make me feel odd.” “Odd?” “My legs tingle whenever it rains.” “That is odd.” I agreed. Asperx continued his story like I never asked a question, with his violet eyes conveying deep sorrow. I just then noticed that one of his eyes was a single shade of purple darker than the other one. “I woke up the week before my funeral service. I got to see my gravestone, they already had it picked out. The epitaph read “A loving son, brother, and friend.” A few lines lower, there was another line. “He died doing what he loved”. I thought that was kind of funny, actually. I was a scientist, but If I died doing what I loved, they would have found my body with that mare. Anyways, I really had nothing to do with my life after that point. I had forgot nearly everything about being a chemist, and I could barely remember what my family looked like. I traveled. I went everywhere. As a foal, I could remember looking at all of the little dots on the map and wondering what they meant. I found out what they meant. I went everywhere. I saw Salt Lick City, Cloudsdale from balloon, Appaloosa back in its heyday. I went everywhere except for Canterlot. I tried to stay away from there. I was a published scientist in my other life, and ponies that I can’t even remember meeting before greeted me like we were foalhood friends. It was a sad place for me. Anyways, Princess Celestia went to Trottingham one year for the Summer Sun Celebration. I was abroad that year and decided to hop on the train and go see it. I couldn’t remember a full celebration from my previous life, so I really wanted to see one. Apparently, she was with a full complement of guards that year. Guess who was the commanding officer?” “No idea.” “Dear old brother, that’s who. He cried when he saw me. Rushed up to me and wouldn’t let me go. I’m about ten years older than he was, so he was still very young when my accident happened. My parents and I agreed to not tell him that I was still alive. It would be too strange for him, mom said. I agreed, because I wasn’t planning on staying at the family estate in Canterlot anyways. So imagine- Your big brother that you loved to death, come back to life and backpacking abroad. It pretty much destroyed him when he figured out that mom and dad were lying the whole time. I couldn’t blame him. But he pleaded me to come back with him. I didn’t want to, but I had to. He had already been hurt so much because of what I agreed to, and I couldn’t bear to hurt him anymore. I talked to the Princess on the way back to Canterlot. She nearly died of excitement when she found out I was a bladesinger. The Princess was also shocked by my story, but was intrigued enough to offer me a job. Second lieutenant of the forward second. Looks great on a resume and pays even better. So I bought a house in one of the Canterlot suburbs and commuted to work every day. It was good. I could go practically wherever I wanted, which meant a whole lot of time away from Canterlot. I was truly happy for once in my second life.” He finished. I was aghast. His story sounded frighteningly similar to mine. “You remind me of me.” I said. Asperx looked at me like I was asking him if I could lick his eyeballs. “Really?” He asked incredulously. I nodded. “Yeah. I died once, too.” “Really?!” He asked again, not even believing me any more. “You see, I came to Equestria from an entirely different dimension. You know what a dimension is, right?” I asked. Asperx just shrugged. “Well, all you need to know about it is that it’s like here, but in a completely different place. Anyways, I was a human.” “A human?” Asperx asked, completely in the dark. I had to think about how to explain what a human was. “Imagine a Dragon. A really short dragon, but a foot or so taller than one of us.” “Okay.” “Now imagine this dragon without any scales. “Um...” “And this dragon has a very flat face. No real beak to speak of or anything. Very long legs, they kind of resemble the arms. And the hands of the dragon are very stubby and don’t really have claws. That’s what I was.” “You might be weirder than me.” Asperx muttered, and I laughed. “Maybe. But anyways, I died like you did, and I woke up exactly like this.” I concluded, gesturing to my perfect Numbered body. Asperx grinned. “That’s very interesting. I have the feeling that I might get to know you very well. “Cool.” I said. Asperx reached up to the left side of the hall and pulled down on a candle holder. A square opened up in the wall and he pushed me in. He was laughing as he closed the stone door behind me. He entered with me. "That was strange." I said. "That was the door." He corrected, and we continued down another hall. We finally reached a large stone room in at the outlet of the hall. There was a large stepped podium up to a chair on the floor. Celestia was sitting there, looking very disgruntled. "I have a bone to pick with you, Captain." She said very angrily.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-05-04T05:35:44+00:00

2012-05-04T05:35:44+00:00

Chapter 45 Celestia sat on her throne, staring at Asperx and I. Mostly me. She glared with an inhuman rage, something that made me shiver a little. She got up. Her slender legs underneath her, she descended from her throne to make her difference in height between normal ponies a little bit more useful. She strode up to me and looked down at me. Asperx did nothing at all. “Second Lieutenant Bladesinger.” She said forcefully. Asperx snapped to attention with an audible clack. “Yes, Your highness!” He barked. I smirked at his complete change in attitude. “Do you know why I asked you to bring Captain Shell to me today?” She inquired with a slightly condescending tone. “I- It is not my place to know why, Your Highness. I only do as told.” Asperx said, grasping for clues about why he was being questioned. Celestia made a long “Oh!” as she turned back to me. “Do you see the differences between the two of you? He only does as he is told, Edwin! He never talks down to his superiors, he never goes over their heads, and he certainly never wakes them up in the dead of night and accosts them!” Celestia shouted at me, her perfect white face shaking with anger. I could feel the temperature rise in the room a little bit, and I know that I had to diffuse this situation before it got out of hand. “Princess, listen, I-” “Don’t Princess me. I have lived for far too long to be lectured by a pony not even a month old, even one of your caliber. I’ll roast you alive right where you stand, and Second Lieutenant Bladesinger won’t even bat an eyelash.” Celestia spat, her angry lavender eyes stabbing at me. I met her gaze, but not angrily. “Prin-” “Just let me speak. You have scheduled an attack on Cloudsdale without my aproval, using my guards under my authority to destroy a city that is under my dominion. Not only that, but I’m fairly sure that your little ‘vacation’ with my sister this weekend is completely stupid and not advisable in the least. I have half a mind to chain you to my throne for the entire weekend and have you show up to the Gala naked.” Celestia nearly shouted. I laughed a little. “That’s what I told Luna. The naked bit, that is.” I joked. Celestia didn’t lighten up, and the heat in the room increased a little bit. I was starting to sweat. I looked over at Asperx. He looked like he was about to faint. Sweat was dripping down his face, and he was panting heavily. His curly blue mane was plastered to his neck. “Princess!” I shouted. Celestia was shocked out of her anger and looked at Asperx. “Oh no.” She said, remembering his low tolerance for heat. She picked him up with magic and rushed out of the room. Her hooves click-clacked quickly as she ran out. “And don’t you dare leave!” She shouted after me as she left the throne room. She closed the door behind her with a loud bang. I slumped down to the floor, the energy in my legs leaving me. I had forgotten the last time that I was asleep, which was happening way too often during my life as a pony. I lied there on the steps of Celestia’s makeshift throne. I sighed. “When will it end?” I whispered to myself. Sometimes I wished that I had just died in that train crash. Sometimes I wished that I had been killed by an Angelic. Sometimes I wished that I could just kill myself. But I couldn’t. I didn’t stay dead because I’m a Numbered. I can’t be killed by an Angelic because I’m a Numbered. I can’t kill myself because I’m a Numbered. My life is no longer my own. I owe my life to the millions upon millions of creatures that inhabit Equestria. I sighed for my lost life of leisure. I closed my eyes slowly and surrendered my mind to the carefree land of dreams. I walked through the lattice archway, with the scent of honeysuckle strong in my nostrils. I didn’t know where I was, but I knew the child. He was playing with a train set underneath a large peach tree. I walked up behind him and knelt down to look over his shoulder. He was making noises with his mouth as the train moved. He picked up a tiny toy car and threw it on the ground, with a loud “Boom!”. I tapped the boy on the shoulder. He turned to me, startled. But not as startled as I was. This boy was clearly a human. Hair on top of his head, ears on the side of his face, and freckles on his cheeks. His eyes were a bright shade of blue. “What’s your name, Mister?” The boy asked, sounding congested. He sniffled. “I’m Edwin. What’s your name?” I asked back. The little boy smiled. “You don’t get to know.” He said with a smirk, and turned back to his train. I smiled, watching the boy play with his train. “What am I going to call you if I don’t know your name?” I asked. The boy turned back to me, his bright red eyes hungry. He lunged at me and bit my throat. I felt his sharp teeth puncture my neck. He tore off a chunk of- “Edwin? Edwin!? Edwin wake up!” a faraway voice said, jostling me with his words. I opened my eyes and skittered away from the sound. I was panting when I could finally look. The Doctor was reaching for me, his hoof reached out to me. I looked past him to see it. “Oh my god, Doctor...” I moaned, slinking back down onto the steps. I could feel the tears welling up inside of me. It walked up behind the Doctor, looking very concerned. I sobbed, trying to escape the thing. “Why is it here, Doctor?” I cried, flinging my hoof at the creature. “‘It’ has a name, you know.” He said in his blase way. The creature edged around the Doctor, his bright red eyes showing sympathy. I sputtered and flung my hooves up to point at it. “D-Don’t come any closer, or I swear to god I’ll kill you!” I shouted at the creature, my voice uneven. The creature paused, his expression hurt. I used my back hooves to edge away from it. “Edwin, get up. You’re a bloody mess.” The Doctor said. I was sobbing too much to make a coherent argument. The Doctor and the thing both started to walk toward me. I pointed one of my hooves at the Doctor. “I’ve killed you once, Doctor. I’ll d-do it again.” I said, scooting backwards still. I sniffled. The Doctor took another step towards me. I grit my teeth and shot out at him. The lightning struck him square in the chest, picking him up and throwing him across the room. He made a sharp crack as he hit the wall. He slid down the wall and onto the floor, collapsing into a limp pile. I stared at him for a moment, completely shocked, until I saw the creature move out of the corner of my eye. I rounded both of my hooves on him, the electricity flowing freely through my bones. There was the occasional crackle, the visible zap of the arcing lightning. The creature seemed pitying. “D-Don’t come any closer.” I managed to say, my voice nearly unintelligible. The creature smiled in gentle way and walked closer. My forelegs started to shake, and I finally scooted up against the wall. I was cornered. My eyes were wide as I watched the gigantic hulk come closer to me. Closer. Closer still. I stared up into its gigantic red eyes. “Don’t touch me. I’ll k-k-kill you.” I stuttered. The red monstrosity laughed. “No, you won’t.” He said in a deep, deep voice. I was shocked out of my fear. I finally recognized it- Him, for what he really was. “You can’t be. There’s no way. It’s not possible.” I whispered, aghast. He smiled again. “You are no stranger to magic. It isn’t impossible.” He said. I shook my head. “No... You can’t be. You’re dead.” I whispered again, looking down at his hooves. “Yet, here I am. Get up and give me a hug, Edwin.” He said again, and I looked up at him. The tears started to flow freely now, but for a reason completely different than fear. I struggled to get up to my hooves, and I stared up at the enormous pony. He smiled his big, awkward grin, and I jumped up to hug him. I cried. “I missed you.” I whispered between sobs. He patted my back with one of his hooves. “I missed you too, Edwin.” He assured. There was a loud creak and a slam of a door. I turned. There was Celestia by herself in the entryway to the throne room, standing in front of the Doctor’s corpse. She was staring at it. She finally managed to drag her eyes away from it and locked on the two of us. Her mouth dropped open. She was trying to make some kind of word, but her speech failed her. He pried my hooves from around his neck and walked over to Celestia. I crumpled up in a heap on the floor. He finally reached her. Celestia stared up at him, utterly speechless. The big pony wrapped his hooves around her neck and started to cry. “I missed you so much.” He sobbed out. Celestia was completely flabbergasted. She was still slackjawed by the time I got to my hooves. She managed to get her hooves between her and the pony and she pushed him away from her. She held him and leg length and looked at him. Tears welled in her eyes when she finally understood. “Othello.” She whispered. “Bloody hell, Edwin. When you kill somepony, you do a really good job of it.” The Doctor said, rolling his neck. I grinned a little bit as we walked down the drab concrete hallway. “Yeah, well...” I said, feeling a little bit guilty. The Doctor chuckled and punched my shoulder playfully. “It’s not that big of a deal. Besides, I got these puppies out of the deal.” The Doctor bragged, flapping his brand new wings. I rolled my eyes. He was going way overboard with the wings. He would even hide things just so he could ‘find’ them for us on a higher shelf. “Somepony really needs to deflate your ego.” I said. The Doctor and I edged around one of the many scholars in this part of the... of the... “What is this place, anyways?” I asked him. The Doctor shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but I can guess.” He said. I gestured for him to do so. “It’s probably a bunker of some kind. You know, like a panic room. After the failed attempt on your life, practically the entire palace must have moved into this place.” The Doctor said, emphasizing his theory with a little flap of his wings. “So what did I miss?” He asked. “Not much. I had to drag you out of there before Celestia stuck her tongue down his throat. You’ve been in bed for a few hours. I’ll bet that they’re still glued together.” I said, slightly disgusted. “Now now, Edwin. Imagine it from her point of view. The only pony that she ever loved, the only pony that can reciprocate her affection, come back from the almost certain grave? What would you do?” The Doctor childed. “I certainly wouldn’t try to lick his tonsils.” I commented snidely. The Doctor laughed. “You’re not really his type, I think.” The Doctor joked. I laughed. The Doctor stopped laughing and halted. I walked on a few feet before I noticed his absence. I looked back to him, slightly concerned. “You okay?” I asked. The Doctor blinked. “I can’t remember where I parked my Tardis.” He said with the utmost seriousness. I laughed once. “You can’t be serious.” I said. The Doctor squinted his eyes. I burst out laughing again. “Sweet Celestia, Doctor, it’s not like you lost it in the parking lot!” I blurted. The Doctor floated up into the air and pressed his hooves to his temples. I howled down below him, rolling on the floor. “Shut up! I’m trying to think!” The Doctor said, and I tried to stay as quiet as I could. I looked up at him with my hooves covering up my ears. A Royal Scholar edged his way past us, not even giving us a passing glance. The Doctor hovered for quite a bit, thinking in the air. “Aha!” The Doctor shouted, rocketing off down the hall. I groaned and followed him, leaping up into the air. The Doctor pushed open the door to the Throne room. “You know that we could have just teleported there.” I reasoned with a whisper. The Doctor shushed me. “I don’t like the taste of your mane.” The Doctor retorted. I reached up with a hoof and pushed some of my mane next to my nose. The smell made me cringe. “Luna deserves a medal.” I said to myself. I looked around the cavernous room. I smiled to myself when I looked at the ceiling. The room was actually a cavern, with stalagtites and stalagmites and everything. It was a huge room, and it was perfectly gaudy enough for a throne room. My eyes finally came to rest on the big blue Tardis, wonderfully out of place on the left side of the room. I rushed up to it, and pushed the door open. The big writhing ball of red and white in the middle of the Tardis was not something that I wanted to interrupt, so I closed the door just a little bit more quietly than I opened it. I looked up at the Doctor. I blinked once. He tilted his head and looked at me like I was tapdancing. “Why didn’t you go in?” He asked, pointing a limp hoof to the Tardis door. “We might want to wait a few hours. Before going in there.” I qualified. The Doctor seemed slightly suspicious. “Are they...” “Yep.” “In my Tardis!?” “Last time I checked.” “And you’re just going to-” “Let it happen.” I finished the Doctor’s sentence for him. He huffed, crossing his forelegs, and promptly forgot to flap his wings and fell right on his ass. “Bollocks. What in Equestria are we going to do for the next few hours?” The Doctor wondered openly. I had a suggestion ready. “Tell me what the hell happened.” I said. The Doctor shook his head. “Not possible. I can’t tell you about your future.” He said bluntly. “Aw, come on!” I whined. The Doctor remained impassive. “Nope.” “You suck, Doctor.” I complained. The Doctor laughed. “Edwin, my boy, you have absolutely no idea.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-05-13T03:22:21+00:00

2013-01-05T07:19:18+00:00

Chapter 46 The Doctor and I decided to have a late lunch and talk things over before I had to leave for Ponyville with Luna. There was a small kitchen quite out of the way of just about everything in the Royal bunker that fit the need perfectly. The Doctor ordered hay fries for me, something that he swore was God’s gift to ponies. Soon after, two steaming plates of what looked like extremely long french fries were levitated over from the kitchen. “So Doctor.” I asked before he could smear his face with hay fry grease. The looked up at me, annoyed. “You gotta explain some things to me.” I said. The Doctor gulped and set his front hooves flat on the table. “As long as the answer doesn’t require me to tell you about your future.” The Doctor said, and picked up a hay fry with his mouth. He chewed it with what seemed to be exaggerated expressions of pleasure. I thought for a bit and looked at my cooling fries. There were so very many things that I wanted to know about that I couldn’t figure out for the life of me. “Tell me about Othello.” I said. The Doctor gulped up his dangling fry and looked at me for a moment. “He’s a big red pony, big one on his flank.” “Funny.” “I’m serious.” The Doctor reiterated. I plopped my forelegs down on the table. “But really. Where did you get him?” I asked. He was silent for a moment. “About four days in the future, I found him roaming around Southern Equestria. Beat up a little bit, needed a bath. He wouldn’t tell me where he came from or why he was in the middle of nowhere. He didn’t even know where he was. That worried me.” He said, his visage becoming stressed. “That’s a bad thing?” I inquired. “In all of the two or three thousand years that I’ve known Othello, I’ve never known him to ever be lost. But I’ve never known him to die, either. Maybe it’s a trend...” The Doctor trailed off, trying to flag down a passing cook. A dark blue pony noticed him and walked over. “Pot of coffee, please.” He said gently. I nearly gagged on a mouthful of hay fries. “Of all the places I’ve been, of all the things I’ve seen, you have to be one of the more interesting things.” The Doctor said. I blinked slowly and stuck out my tongue to catch some hay fries. The cook finally showed up with a levitating pot of coffee. I sniffed the air. There it was. The cornerstone of my life. I started to salivate. “I want some.” “I know you do. But I need you to tell me some things first.” The Doctor said, pouring out a cup from a spontaneously appearing mug. My mouth hung open. “Tell me what you know about Cloudsdale, Edwin.” He said, taking a sip of the coffee. He smiled a wide smile and smacked his lips. “Angelics.” I said, staring at the steaming cup of mystical brown liquid. The Doctor made a pointed stare at me. “What about them? What kinds?” He asked. “Weird ones. Almost entirely black eyes, and the hosts that they occupy are almost always injured in some serious manner. They seem more aggressive and powerful than other types of Angelics. I’m worried about the siege. I don’t know if I can allow mortal guards to enter Cloudsdale to fight. They might just get eaten alive.” “So you’re worried about casualties?” The Doctor asked, taking another sip of the coffee. “I would be incompetent if I were not.” I said. The Doctor frowned, holding his coffee under his nose. Another waiter was walking by, and the Doctor caught his attention again. He mumbled something unintelligible and the waiter nodded. The Doctor turned back to me. “What are you going to do? I need to know where I am going to put the Tardis. I need to know just about everything that you plan on doing. And I need to know soon.” The Doctor said. I thought for a moment, my eyes squinting. “Well, there was this... Wait. Wait just one second, Doctor.” I said snidely. The Doctor made a face at me. “What do you mean?” He asked, slightly incredulous. I eyed the Doctor with a newfound criticism. “You took Othello from about four days in the future and brought him here, right?” I asked. The Doctor nodded. “That means that you are from the future in my personal timeline. I was planning on having the battle for Cloudsdale this weekend until Luna sprung a vacation on me. It’s fine, though, because I think that most of the mortals in Cloudsdale are already dead, and those that are still alive are talented enough to last three more days. Luna didn’t know that. Celestia didn’t know that. Hell, my Lieutenants didn’t even know that. And you didn’t even know that. Not even the mighty Doctor. For all of the times that I’ve killed you, you’re mighty trusting of me. But I’m wary of you now. I don’t know why, but I do know something. I was planning right now to hold the battle about four days in the future, if not sooner. Maybe even earlier the same day as the Gala, on Monday. But I know that it should be over by four days from now, I know this. The Doctor from my timeline is very strange, but he isn’t stupid. He would never bring someone from the future back into the past. Maybe from the past into the future, but never the other way around. He favors his right hoof to his left when it comes to pushing things around on a table and picking things up. He also has a slight tick when he is eating, he usually touches his left hoof with his right when he is done chewing. That’s why I’m not too sure about you. You’re favoring your left hoof. But there’s something else, too. Something that I can’t put my hoof on. Something that puts me on edge.” I expunged, trying to make sense of my observations vocally. The Doctor sipped his coffee again, looking very interested. He set down the coffee on the table clumsily with his right hoof. “Some very serious accusations, Edwin. Very serious.” The Doctor warned. I grinned. “I know. But I can’t trust you now that you’ve regenerated.” “Oh? And why is that?” The Doctor inquired, trying to scoop up some hay fries with his right hoof. “I’ve never met an Angelic that has used an earth pony as a disguise. Only a pegasus.” I said. The Doctor instantly fell silent, looking up at me. He stopped pushing his hay fries around on his plate. We locked eyes. His bright blue eyes, showing absolutely no emotion. I became afraid. My claims were completely groundless, and I never suspected the Doctor to be an Angelic. But there were some things. The Doctor never forgets where his Tardis is. I gulped, not breaking the stare. Then, there was something out of the corner of my eye. A small white plate levitated itself right in front of the Doctor and set itself down with a nearly silent clank. I looked down at it and smiled. I looked back up at the Doctor again, venom fresh in my eyes. He looked afraid. I had very little time to act. I rose to my hooves about as fast as my Numbered body could from a cold start. I pushed off with my back hooves and lunged over the table, reaching for the Doctor. I saw him blink in slow motion. He wasn’t even processing what he was seeing yet. I took hold of the air around me with magic and flew forward, grasping the Doctor under his forelegs and flying him into the opposite wall. He coughed as we impacted, spewing a glob of blood. I felt it on my foreleg. I raised the leg covered in blood and I hit the Doctor in the face. He spat blood again. He looked back at me with honest surprise on his face. “You dumb wank! What in Equestria are you doing!?” The Doctor spat at me. I growled at him and he backed down. “You can’t honestly think you can keep up the charade, you Angelic filth!” I shouted right back, making the Doctor bare his teeth at me. I was on my hind legs and holding the Doctor against the wall so that his rear hooves couldn’t touch the ground. I stared at the Doctor, extremely enraged. “Edwin, just let me- hhrnk!” The Doctor was cut off because I pressed on his throat with my foreleg. I had my other hoof charged and pointed at his face. The Doctor scowled at me and blinked. His bright red eyes were a startling sight. Several of the ponies in the kitchen that were not already surprised were losing their minds. I couldn’t hear myself think over their whispering, but I couldn’t do anything to change it. The Doctor spread his mouth in a gory smile, revealing a full set of glistening white fangs. I scowled. “How long have you been in him?” I asked the Angelic in a halting voice. When he didn’t answer, I pressed on his neck and got closer to him. “HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN HIM?!” I shouted. The Angelic chuckled. “Not more than three hours. I took this body while it was sleeping. It has so much... knowledge...” The Angelic whispered the last part with his eyes half-closed. “What gave me away?” He asked. I had the urge to punch it in the face again. I did. “The pears on that plate. The Doctor loathes pears with a passion.” I explained while the Angelic spat out a few fangs. He chuckled again. “Very observant, Five. I now know why we fear you.” The Angelic commented. I spat in its face. He sneered at me, crinkling his nose so that I could see his fangs. “You picked the wrong body to steal, beast.” I whispered to the Angelic. He smiled his stupid grin that was starting to get annoying. The pale brown coat of the Doctor was starting to ripple a slight bit, like something was trying to get out. “I think that I picked one of the best. A device that can take me wherever I want to go, close ties to the Royalty and the Numbereds. And a pegasus, no less. Trifecta.” The Angelic wheezed. “I need that body back.” “I’m too busy using it for espionage.” The Angelic said, sounding slightly offended. I chuckled at how entitled he sounded. “I don’t think it’s your choice.” I said, trying to remember. The memory leaped to my mind almost instantaneously. The filly bound with rope and the floor covered in broken glass became the forefront of my mind. "If you hurt them enough, they leave their host. Then you can kill them.” She said, her brilliant green eyes burning with passion. I looked at the Angelic again, trying to remember Earth science. Volts, watts, amps, ohms... I finally figured out the proper equation and my brain translated it into reality. An extremely high voltage with low amps should do the job. I released the modified current into the Angelic. There was a startling moment when the Angelic locked up in surprise. He opened his mouth in shock, and then started to scream. It was a pained, ragged exclamation. Rising, falling, weeping. It kept on for a few minutes. There was some slight magic coming out of the Angelic a few minutes in. The Doctor’s coat started to shimmer a little bit, growing shiny and iridescent. I pressed on. Other than the Angelic ruining his voice, that was the first sign that my torture was working. I pressed on, triumphant. Almost instantly the Angelic’s figure became superimposed over the Doctor’s body, flickering slightly like an old tv set. The Angelic stopped screaming for a moment and then groaned. His head slumped out of the Doctor, and the Doctor fell away from the Angelic. I was now standing in a room filled with at least six mortified ponies, a ragged Angelic, and an incapacitated time lord. Fun. I grabbed the Angelic by the shoulders and teleported to the outside. The warm afternoon sun made me squint my eyes, blowing sand around in the cool wind. I looked around at my surroundings. It seemed to be some kind of desert, with cacti and nearly dead foliage all around me. I looked at the Angelic that I was dragging around. He was unconscious. That wasn’t going to work. I hoisted him up above me with one hoof and punched him in the face with another. He slowly rose to consciousness and blinked, his red eyes looking unusually groggy. I smiled and started my ascent. “Morning, sleepyhead.” I mocked. The Angelic remembered where he was and looked down at me. “What do you think that you’re doing? Unhoof me!” The Angelic shouted, indignant. I smile and twisted in the air so that the Angelic had a good look at the ground, rapidly shrinking under the two of us. “Choose your words carefully, beast. I just might comply.” I said to the Angelic. He paled, if that was at all possible with his coal black coat. He gulped, and I rose higher. “Air’s getting thin. Might get hard to breathe in a few more hundred feet. Better start talking before you can’t.” I warned the Angelic. He started to panic. “Please, don’t kill me, I’ll-” The Angelic pleaded, but I fumbled him to shut him up. “I have no pity for your kind. There is nothing that you can give me that will make me spare you your unearned life. Now talk!” I shouted, holding the Angelic closer to the ground. It was slightly silly when I thought about the scale of the threat, but it seemed to work. “They wanted me to figure out if there would be an assault on Cloudsdale. They wanted to know if it was possible to use the blue box to our advantage. They wanted to know how many of us could fit in the box. They wanted to know, they wanted to know, just please don’t kill me!” The Angelic said, his eyes pleading with me. I looked down at it in disgust. Of all the Angelics that I’ve met, this one has to be the biggest coward of them all. “You make me sick.” I said to the creature. He whimpered and tried to make himself smaller. The thin air started to take hold. I muttered a spell that would keep me breathing, but would leave the Angelic open to the elements. “Do you happen to know how long a pony can survive this many miles up?” I asked. The Angelic whimpered. “About three minutes. Do you know how long it would take for you to hit the ground from this height?” I asked the Angelic again. “About seven minutes. And now, you affront to nature, I give you a choice. Either you can stay up here and suffocate or freeze to death, assured of a slow and painful death...” I said, gesturing all around me with my other hoof. “Or you can take the painless death and fall for seven minutes in crippling fear to your grave. You don’t have very long to decide before I decide for you.” I said to the Angelic. He sighed, his breath freezing in the air. I watched him with a strange curiosity. I had never met an Angelic like this one before. He struggled with his decision. I wondered openly at his strange display of emotion. “Please don’t let me fall.” The Angelic begged. I cast a spell over the Angelic so he wouldn’t die of oxygen deprivation and other fun things. He gasped, inhaling the fresh air made by the magic. “How old are you, Angelic?” I asked. The Angelic shivered. “Three.” He said dryly. I had the urge to drop him right then and there. “How many ponies have you eaten?” “More than a thousand.” He commented blandly, like he was asked how he wanted his eggs. I almost vomited. I looked the Angelic in his bright red eyes. they looked slightly bored. I had to do it. I dropped him. He fell like a stone through the thin air, and I flew down with him to make sure he didn’t do anything funny, like a teleportation spell. He screamed the whole way down. He cursed me for lying to him. He raged at the universe. He shouted about everything he ever hated. It was unusual- Most of the Angelics that I have met alluded to some kind of reincarnation. This one was acting like he would only live once. I warched him fall, screaming at the world that let him die. I felt a slight pity- only a slight one. If I were to nail it down to any one thing, I would have to call it empathy. I have died before. It was only logical to have a slight stirring for something that feared death. I watched the Angelic from a distance as he entered his last few seconds of falling. He flailed like mad, trying to fly with wings he no longer had. He stopped screaming for a moment. I rushed up to see him, to see if he already died. I got a good look at his face from when he finally fell. “I WILL KILL YOU, FIVE!” The angelic shouted at the top of his lungs, and then dug his own grave with his corpse. I felt my heart drop through my chest. It took a twisted and depraved type of soul to use their dying breath to promise vengeance. But then again, this was an Angelic. There was no telling what he was capable of. I flew my way back to the Royal bunker with a heavy heart. “Bout time you came back.” The Doctor said, sitting in front of a plate of two green pears. I smiled as I walked through the door. My hey fries were there, congealed into a glob. I sat down in front of it and looked at the Doctor. His ageless blue eyes, his chestnut mane, his cafe coat. He perplexed me, yet at the same time gave me an analogue. He had no true match in this world, and he never really meshed with anypony else. He had strange taste in clothes (none at all), he was allergic to aspirin, and he knew how to pilot a TT type 40, mark 3 TARDIS, and had a peculiar taste in tea. Really, we were two of a kind. Peas in a pod, if you will. I looked at him, truly into his soul, and recognized him as what he was. He was necessary. The dimension that he was in could not function without him in it. There was no point in having a repairman for a machine that never broke. Lucky for the Doctor, the Universe was a machine that was almost always in crippling disrepair. The toolbox he used was a bright blue that made the universe bend over backward in its extreme improbability. The Doctor wasn’t an arbiter- That was completely different than what he was. You wouldn’t call a broken gear a war for the third cog to the left. The Doctor only intervened to fix pieces. When he was done fixing the piece that I was involved with, he would leave. He would go fix another piece in the machine that was the endless and complete universe. I couldn’t comprehend what the Doctor was- My amazing Numbered mind, designed to solve puzzles that a normal creature would take unsolved to the grave, couldn’t even touch what Doctor meant to every single sentient creature that ever existed. I was dumbfouded. If there was ever a god, the closest thing that living creature could experience of it had a chestnut mane and hated pears. “Edwin?” The Doctor asked, waving a hoof. I was shocked out of my stupor and looked at the Doctor with actual focus now. “What?” I asked, completely innocent. “You’ve been staring at me for the past nine minutes.” He said. I felt insanely retarded. “Sorry.” I admitted, blushing. The Doctor chuckled. “It’s fine. I don’t really have much to say anyways. I need to go wipe the Princesses’ memory and return Othello back to his original timeline. That, and I need a massage in the worst way.” The Doctor explained, getting up from his seat. I felt slightly shocked. “You can’t.” “What?” “You can’t wipe her memory. She needs to know that Othello is alive. She needs him.” I said, making emphasis where it was due. The Doctor sighed. “You are the worst pony ever.” The Doctor grumbled, and started to walk out of the kitchen. I stared after him. “So you aren’t going to wipe her memory?” I asked, concerned. “Yes.” “Come on, Doctor.” I complained. “You’ll thank me someday.” He said, and flapped his way out of the room. I sighed, got up, and followed suit.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-05-24T05:18:33+00:00

2013-01-05T07:30:15+00:00

Chapter 47 “The thing that I don’t understand is why we have to take a chariot down to Ponyville. It’s not like we can’t fly or anything.” I complained. Luna nodded. “I know. But you don’t have wings. It would scare the townsfolk.” Luna reasoned. I sighed, annoyed. We were walking up to the surface level of the bunker, which was where the three exits were from the underground fortress. I had to agree with her logic as we neared a staircase. She gestured for me to go first, and I did. I tried to mull over an argument in my head as to why I should be able to fly where I wanted to. “But couldn’t I just fly over there at night?” I wondered. Luna made an amused humph. “What do you think we’re doing?” She asked playfully. I pouted, and was silent for a while. We reached a landing in the staircase which led to another set of stairs going up. Luna rushed ahead of me before I could climb those stairs. I stopped in front of her. “I’m worried about you, Ed. What’s going on with you?” She said, reaching up with one of her hooves to touch my shoulder. I inhaled, savoring the sweet orange scent of Luna. I instantly softened under her masseuses’ hooves. I immediately slumped. “I’m tired of this, Luna. I’m so tired of all this deception, of all this killing. It isn’t me.” I explained with a tired expression. Luna smiled sweetly and looked at me with almost motherly love. She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “I love you, Ed.” She whispered in my ear. I shivered slightly when she said that, it was mostly the proximity between her and I. What with all of the killing and planning and subverting rightful authority that I’ve been doing lately, Luna and I haven’t really had time to ourselves. I finally understood that the weekend that Luna was taking me on was actually an attempt to pry back into my free time and keep me from forgetting what I had waiting for me at home. I smiled and closed my eyes. “I love you back.” I whispered. Luna hummed happily,. “You aren’t like the others, Ed. You don’t like to kill anything. The others, I never liked them. All they cared about was killing things. You’re the only one that doesn’t go on and on about it every day. You’re different.” She explained. I felt a little bit special when she said that. I reached up with my hooves and gave her a hug. “Thanks, Luna. What are we going to do this weekend?” I asked quietly, with my hooves still around her neck. She giggled a little bit. “That would spoil the surprise a little bit, wouldn’t it?” She teased. I chortled and leaned into the hug. Luna’s pale blue mane tickled me a little bit. I pawed some of her mane with one of my hooves while a question came to mind. “Hey Luna?” I ventured. “Yes?” “Why do you have hair?” I inquired bluntly. Luna laughed. “What?!” She exclaimed, pulling me out of the hug so she could get a look at my face. She was extremely puzzled. I grinned awkwardly and tried to explain. “You know how Celestia has the whole wavy energy thing going for her, right?” “Uh huh.” “And you two are sisters, right?” “Yes.” “Then why do you have plain old hair and Celestia has the wavy energy thing?” I finished. Luna smiled and kissed my nose. “A good question if there ever was one.” “Are you going to answer it?” “No.” She said coyly. I felt cheated. “Why not!?” I objected. Luna grinned, turned around and pranced up the stairs. She got to the next landing and looked back at me. “If you play your cards right, you’ll find out when this weekend is over. But we have to go now if we actually want to get to Ponyville on time.” She said with a swish of her tail. I felt slightly dizzy for a moment, then skipped up after her. I followed her lead to one of the doors to the outside. Luna magicked it open and walked through into the brisk evening air. My teeth started to clatter as my eyes started to adjust to the dead of night. I could see four perfectly identical snow-white pegasi milling around a dimly glinting golden chariot. It took me a moment to recognize that they were guards, just with very sparse armor. I was perplexed by the sight of them being almost identical and in such complete ease around Luna and I. I had never seen a guard that was completely relaxed around me, except from before I was a captain. It confused me, but then Luna nudged me. I looked at her, and she leaned in to whisper. “Go talk to them while they get ready for the flight. I’ll be waiting on the chariot.” Luna whispered, going over to take her seat on the chariot. I rubbed my foreleg for a second and then walked over to the group of pegasi. They didn’t get up or even notice me that much when I approached. When I got close enough, one of them with a pale grey mane looked up at me. He smiled. “Hi, I’m- “Captain Shell of the Forward guard. Your reputation precedes you, sir. Well, that, and your smell.” The guard admitted. I was perplexed. “I can’t smell that bad, can I?” I asked, reaching up to sniff my hoof. The guard that spoke to me laughed, extremely carefree. “No, no, it’s not that. Hasn’t anypony ever told you?” He asked, completely blunt and informal. I scratched my ear with my hoof. “No...” I said. All of the guards looked at each other and started mumbling. The one that was talking to me made a gesture for them all to hush. They did, and then he leaned in to explain. “You smell like... Like a thunderstorm in the middle of a glade.” “Sorry?” “Have you ever been outside before a heavy storm, when the clouds are all orange? You can look the storm off in the distance, see the lightning but not quite hear it. Take a big whiff of the air, and it’s a dead ringer for our dear old Captain.” He explained, rising to his hooves. The others followed and looked like they were getting ready to leave. “Are you guys ready to go?” I asked. The pony that I was talking to nodded, but did not speak. Another pony to the left of me explained by pointing out at the sky. “See that cloud? I’ve been looking at it and I think that it’s caught in a patch of thin air. There’s a bunch of other clouds next to it that look exactly the same, so we’re leaving now to avoid running into that.” The guard explained in a husky, dry voice. I nodded, turning to meet Luna in the chariot. I stopped mid-stride and turned back to the pegasi, contemplative. I walked up to one of the guards “Do you mind if I ask you a question?” I asked. “You just did.” The guard joked. I smiled, and he nodded yes. “You’re all identical.” “We sure are.” “Why?” “Oh. We’re the show guards.” He explained like it was extremely obvious. I was just even more confused. The guard noticed my confusion and tried to explain. “You see, there are two different kinds of scenario when guards become necessary. One is where the Princesses are in an extremely dangerous place where an attempt on their lives may occur. That’s where guards like yours come in. Blend into the crowd, make an attempt look so much easier than it actually is. Then, there’s when the Princesses are in lower risk places, where they have a lot of exposure to the public. That’s where guards like me come in. The Equestrian populace sees Royal Guards as being just like me. Uniform, disciplined, identical. We’re dangerous, we’re efficient, and we’re identical. That’s what makes us feared. We complement each other, though. Normal guards and Show guards, that is. Normal guards are used in logically opposite situations than they should be because they make an assailant lax. A situation that would be impossible to accomplish with guards like me protecting the Princesses becomes oh so easy with guards like yours around. At least, that’s what they think. Which is why we’re used.” The guard finished. I was surprised. “Huh. I never even knew that there was a such thing.” “There is. I’d be happy to tell you mo-” He started, but the pony that talked to me originally interrupted. “Get over here! We’ve got a flight to make!” He shouted over a gust of wind. The pony looked at me apologetically and ran up to his position in line. I smiled and walked back to then end of the chariot that held Luna in it. I got in it and stood rather comfortably. I looked over at Luna, who was looking back at me. I was shocked. It was one of those perfect moments. The one where you’re tired, it’s been a long day, and you just want to sleep, but then she looks at you. It’s not intended to be sensual, it’s not intended to be provocative. But it reminds you of what she means to you. It reminds you about the first time you saw her and knew that this was it. I grabbed Luna’s face with my forehooves and pulled it to me so I could kiss it. It was long, tender, and not exactly careful. Luna was wide-eyed at first, but then she relaxed into it. It was a timeless, ever-stretching moment of Luna, me, and the chilly wind that made us scoot closer together. It was absolutely perfect. Her sweet orange smell seemingly stuck in my nose, her soft noises that she made, her shivering wings. It was all amazing. It streched on forever, and I could faintly remember the shudder of landing. I pulled away from Luna gently and opened my eyes. She was standing right there, so close to me. I watched her open those perfect teal eyes of hers, and felt extremely warm. There was so much to her, so much. There was too much for one lifetime. Which was perfect, because I had a few to spare. Luna exhaled, shuddering slightly. “Oh my.” She whispered, breaking into a breathless laugh. I smiled and nuzzled her cheek. I held her for a moment, trying to warm her up a little. “You okay?” “Pleasantly surprised.” She said, and I bumped her gently with my nose. “I like to keep ‘em guessing.” I said. Luna sighed. “You have me guessing all the time, Ed.” She joked. I smiled and squeezed her. I glanced up at the pegasi, who were studiously avoiding looking at us. I turned back to Luna. She was shivering a little bit. “Let’s head inside, Luna. You’re cold.” “I’m n-n-not c-cold.” “You’re a terrible liar. Come on.” I said, pulling her out of the chariot. I looked around the main square. It was so hauntingly familiar, it barely changed. I could even see the apple cart, completely unchanged from my first disastrous day in Ponyville. I shuddered as I remembered the burning innocents. I looked around the square for a moment to try and get my bearings. I realized that I had absolutely no idea where I was supposed to go. I looked down at Luna. “It’s round.” She mumbled, trying not to clatter her teeth. I looked around, and I could simply not see it. I saw one building that looked like it was made entirely of gingerbread, but that was about it. I walked out of the square holding Luna and tried to find something that resembled her vague description. There wasn’t much, but I found something that might fit. “It looks like a big carousel.” I said to myself. Luna nodded. “Th-That’s it.” She said, shivering violently. I rushed her up to the door and knocked. “Who is it?” A voice answered very quickly. “Um... Princess Luna and-” I started, but I was unable to finish because a door interrupted. I was almost knocked over. I was stumbling by the time that I noticed that I wasn’t holding Luna anymore. I recovered my bearings and looked at the door. It was ajar slightly, so I opened it and walked in. “Wo-ow.” I exclaimed, stretching the word into two syllables. The room I was in was insane. There were little pony mannequins all over, with various stages of clothing assembled on them. It was all shades of blue, and I managed to trip over an entire chair on my way in. I immediately became buried in fabric. I managed to poke my head out of the pile and look at my surroundings. Luna was sitting close to the fire, swaddled in an enormous quilt and levitating a cup of tea. There was a white pony with startlingly blue hair sitting across from her. Both of them were looking at me with varying looks of amusement. I blew a lock of hair out of my eyes and smiled. The white pony laughed. “At least he’s funny, dear.” She said in a lilting accent. Luna grinned. “That’s just one thing.” “Oh, I’m quite sure of that. Now let’s get those off of you, shall we?” The white pony said, and the big pile of fabric was lifted off of me in a pale blue cloud of magic. I got up and sat next to the pair. The white pony looked at me strangely. “I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure. My name is Rarity.” She said. I smiled politely. “I’m Edwin. Nice to meet you.” I said back. Rarity smiled. She turned back to Luna. “Is he the one?” Rarity asked Luna. Luna nodded wordlessly. Rarity looked back at me, scrutinizing my body. I felt slightly offended. “Oh yes, He’ll do quite nicely.” Rarity commented, getting up to go look at a pile of fabric. She pulled out a swath, trotted back over to me, and held up a few patches to my shoulder. “When you sent me the letter, I instantly thought a nice grey suit would work nicely, make his eyes just pop out. I am personally stuck between tweed,” She said holding up a scratchy piece of a pale grey fabric, “and a nice silk blend.” She continued, holding up a flimsy piece of a shinier grey material, “I do loathe tweed, but I simply cannot deny how good it makes these pale stallions look. Which do you think, Princess?” She asked. Luna looked indecisive for a moment, taking a sip of tea. “The tweed does look good.” Luna admitted. “Very good.” Rarity agreed. “But it definitely doesn’t feel the best. I’m planning on holding on to him as much as I can. “Oh, but of course.” “But the silk makes him look so gaudy.” “Tweed is certainly the more masculine of the two.” Rarity digressed. Luna bit her lower lip for a moment, looking unusually torn. “Let’s go with the grey tweed. It makes him look amazing.” Luna decided. Rarity actually squealed a little bit. “Oh, goody! I had absolutely no idea what I would have done if you picked the silk. It would have made him look like a hearthwarming eve ornament, to be honest. But it is perfect that you picked the tweed.” “I actually like the silk.” I said. Rarity turned to me “Oh, hush, dear. Now, I am going to need your measurements as soon as possible tomorrow morning so I can get started on it as soon as I can. Now, you two get on up to bed now. We have a big big day ahead of us tomorrow, and I need both of you to be awake!” She finished, shooing us away from the fireplace as quickly as she could do politely. I followed Luna down a hallway leading away from the room. The quilt that she was wrapped in was so big that it was actually dragging on the ground behind her for a few feet. I followed her to a door on the hall. She pushed it open to reveal a smallish room with a dresser and a bed. I nearly lost consciousness when I saw the bed. Luna walked up to the bed and jumped on. I blinked. She struck an improbable yet attractive pose on the bed. “There is a bed in this room, Luna.” “I’ve noticed.” She said in a low voice. “I may not be able to stay up with you, Luna.” I said, walking over to the bed like a zombie. I was looking at the edge of the bed, trying to figure out how it worked. “Edwin?” “Luna?” “I’m trying to seduce you, in case you haven’t noticed.” “I’m too tired, Luna. Maybe tomorrow night.” I said, climbing onto the bed. Luna whined. “Oh, come on! We have the whole weekend to ourselves! “I’ve got a big day tomorrow with the seamstress.” I said, stealing some of the quilt from Luna. She pouted. “You owe me, Ed.” She said, grabbing me with her hooves. She pulled me closer to her. “Yes I do.” I said, feeling her cold legs. I slowly drifted off to pictures of blue tweed and oranges.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-06-15T21:50:58+00:00

2012-06-15T21:50:58+00:00

Chapter 48 Morning came a little bit more quickly than I had hoped. The sun peeking out of the window, shining right on my face like it had a right to be there, made me wish that ponies had invented curtains that could actually block light properly. I groaned and rolled over and right onto the floor. My loud thump that I created made Luna stir a little bit, but I wasn’t concerned at the time. I got up drunkenly and made my way to the boudoir to look at myself in the mirror. “Oh my God.” I muttered. I reached up with a hoof to pull down my lower eyelid to look at my eye. It was completely bloodshot. It was only the one eye, though, which made me look dangerously lopsided. I rubbed my mane with one of my hooves and lumbered out of the tiny little bedroom and into the rest of the Carousel. It was a strange place, but I had definitely seen stranger in my time as a pony. It was mostly blue, but there were piles of fabric almost everywhere there was a surface to put them on. I groggily admired the place as I tried to find the room where the food was. There were also a lot of places to get lost in the boutique, which was discovered very quickly. I was hopelessly and utterly out of my element when Rarity found me neck deep in a pile of velour. “Clothing usually works best when assembled, dear.” She said. I perked up my ears and tried to get out of the pile. I managed to extracate myself with only a few rather clingy strips of fabric hanging from my ears. Rarity smiled a little bit and sighed. “I wish that I could be young like you.” She said, longing. I felt shocked. “You look young.” “Yes, but that’s not the point, darling. I’ll explain one day. But you need to come with me now. Chop chop!” She said sternly, walking away to some other part of the boutique. I sighed and followed her, figuring that I wouldn’t be able to find her again if I just let her go. She led me through a maze of clothing piles and strategically placed dressers to a largish room filled with little pony mannequins. There was a big pink platform in front of a semicircle made of mirrors. Rarity went over to a dresser near the wall and pulled out some measuring tapes and other things that would befit her profession. I grudgingly and groggily took my place up on the platform and waited for her to do whatever it is that she does. She finally rushed over to me with a whole bunch of measuring tapes in a cloud of pale blue magic. She wrapped them around me all kinds of different ways, taking measurements that she would need to turn me into something that would look good in a suit. She was measuring my neck when a thought occurred to me. “What if I don’t look good in clothes?” I worried aloud. Rarity scoffed, moving down to my shoulders. “In one of my suits? You would have a better chance getting struck by lightning.” She said lightly. I laughed once at the hidden joke. She looked at me for a moment like I was crazy. “Oh, it’s nothing.” I said. Rarity sighed and kept measuring. I wandered for a moment in my mind. There was so much pressure. I had to save Equestria, almost entirely by myself. I could barely take care of a cat when I was alive, but now I have an entire dimension to take care of. It was a terrible, terrible blessing. I sighed just as Rarity made some noise over by her bureau. I opened my eyes to look at her putting away her measuring tapes and whatnot. I hopped off of the platform and moved over to where she was. “Done?” “For now. I’ll need to sew up a template while you go away somewhere. I will need my space while I work, if you don’t mind.” “Oh, no, it’s no problem.” I said, rubbing one of my ears with a hoof. Rarity shuffled around in one of her drawers and pulled out a strip of pale pink paper. It looked like an old-fashioned movie ticket, with one end that would rip off. She handed it to me, and I almost grabbed it with magic, but I remembered that Rarity was a normal pony, despite her name. She would run away screaming if I used magic around her. So I reached out and grabbed it with my mouth. “A free pass to the spa, down near Sugarcube corner. It looks like you might need it.” She added, looking at my mane. “Mrrh mr meh mahd?” I tried to say, but the ticket got in the way. “You look like an absolute train wreck, dear! I’m surprised that nopony has said something to you yet.” She said, turning away from me to her things. She started to write on a little scrap of parchment. I decided that my presence was no longer needed in the boutique and tried to get out. Rarity was so preoccupied that I just decided to teleport out when I turned a corner. It wasn’t long till the familiar cool breeze and the muggy smell of a fresh rain greeted me. I opened my eyes to see a small dirt road stretching off around a hill. I rolled my neck and started to walk down the road. There wasn’t much to see. The occasional tree, a few bushes every now and then, but then I crossed the bridge. Suddenly, there it was- Ponyville, in all of its quaint splendor. There was a few short seconds, and then the morning bustle was there. Ponies almost everywhere were buying things, or selling them in booths, or just milling about talking to each other. I wormed my way through town, avoiding ponies trying to sell me pots and flowers and candy. I edged my way around the gingerbread house. That would be Sugarcube corner if nothing else was, I reasoned to myself. I looked around for a spa, and managed to find a perfectly normal brown house with a sign in the window that said “Spa” I smiled and walked over. “Bleh.” I said, placing my ticket down on the counter. The pale blue pony cringed a little bit and picked up the ticket by the corner. “One please.” I added. She nodded once, placing the ticket in a nearby trash can and walking out from behind the counter. She gestured for me to follow her. I did. She led me to a room with a few massage tables in it. There was a curtain over half of the room, splitting it down the middle. I couldn’t see over to the other side, but I assumed that there were other tables there. The pony had me lay down on one of the tables. “I’ll be back in a minute. Try to relax.” She said, and wandered off to another part of the spa. I sighed and settled in to the table. It was very cushy. I groaned a little bit as I tried to relax. I was way too tense. I looked around the spa. It was mostly blue. There were some windows behind me, and I had absolutely no idea where they fit them on the small brown house. I wiggled a little bit and finally settled in to my table. The spa pony came back in with a tube of something balanced on her nose. She squirted a whole bunch of it on my back. “oooooh” I moaned, slumping into the table. She rubbed the goop in and my back started to tingle. She rubbed away all of my knots, my sores, my troubles. It was complete and utter bliss. “You’re reeeeeaaally good at this.” I groaned out. She smiled and pressed on. I closed my eyes and settled into a blissful smile. I heard some rustling in front of me, followed by some grunting. I opened one of my eyes in annoyance. “Oh no.” I said. The pony across from me smiled. He had another pony that was working on his back too, but his was a bright pink. I closed my eyes and frowned. “Do you come here often?” The pony asked. “No.” “I come here almost every day.” “I’m on vacation, you know.” “Yes, I know. I know just about everything about you.” He said. I scowled again. “I don’t have time for you. I never have time for you.” “That’s very mean, and you should feel bad about it. I just love our little get togethers.” The pony said. I grunted and looked away, which was hard while getting a massage. “I don’t feel bad about much these days.” I said. The pony blinked his red, red eyes. “I’m sorry to hear that, Captain. You really do need to come here often, these twins work absolute wonders.” The Angelic said, the words flowing out of his mouth like music. I felt my mane rise up. I scowled at the pony. “Let me guess. Manticore venom in the goop?” I asked. The Angelic smiled. “No. As you said, you are on vacation. No need to take your work home with you.” He said. “Then why?” “Why what?” “Why here? Why now!? I want to know why you’re just showing up and expecting me not to kill you!” I almost screamed. The two mares didn’t seem to notice. “I wanted to give you a little reminder.” “What on earth would you want to remind me of?” “Our deal. You leave Angelics alone, and we... Well, let’s just say we won’t be as much of a problem as before.” He said, his strange jawline contorting under the host’s skin. I shuddered. “I won’t accept. There is no place for Angelics in Equestria.” “Don’t be so hasty. But, if you won’t change your mind today, you do have a short window of opportunity before the ship sails. Also...” The Angelic paused. He waved his hoof and the pink mare stopped her massage and walked out of the room. The Angelic hopped off of his massage table and walked over. He leaned down and whispered in my ear. “You must remember that the world does not stop turning just because the Almighty Captain Shell decides to tromp off to Ponyville for a weekend. Just because you’re out getting massages and fucking your mare. Angelics still exist, and we are a real and very, very close threat. I plan on eating out tonight, at the local Ponyville diner. You have been warned.” The Angelic finished. He walked out, flicking me on the nose with his dark orange tail. I snorted and rose to my hooves, my body crackling with electricity. The mare squealed and dove out of the way. “Give me one reason, Angelic scum!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. He looked back at me over his shoulder. Like he didn’t even care. “I’ve given Slim orders to enter Ponyville and kill anything that moves if I don’t get back within the next thirty minutes. Last time that I checked, you didn’t fare too well last you saw of him.” He stated. I was shocked for a moment. The Angelic must have seen that, because he grinned smugly. “I’ll just leave it at that, Captain. You have masseuses to attend to.” He finished and walked out of the room. I stood there for a moment, steaming. Angelics, running free through Ponyville. Ponyville wasn’t exactly a special case, but it might turn out to be the last bastion for pure equine life in Equestria. I finally managed to get back down on the table. The mare was still huddled underneath another table, whimpering. I was too enraged to talk to her right then. There was another voice, however, that did. “Hey. Come on out, it’s safe now.” A quiet, male voice said. I looked. The Doctor was leaning down on his front hooves to look at the mare. He didn’t have any wings. I stared at the Doctor. He helped the mare out from under her table. “You go on outside. Captain and I have a bit to talk about.” He said gently, and the mare stumbled her way out of the room. The door slammed shut behind her. The Doctor groaned, rubbing his forehead with his hoof. “You scared her so much.” The Doctor said. I looked away from him. “I wasn’t thinking about her.” I said, slightly angry. The Doctor slammed his front hooves down on the ground. I jumped. “That’s the bloody problem, Edwin! She is the thing that you are bidden to protect, and you weren't thinking about her!” He shouted. I cringed away from the Doctor, surprised by his rage. He didn’t stop when he saw my aversion, but pushed on. “You need to know! You’ve been such a hypocrite of late. Slaying Angelics left and right, amid a score of dead or dying ponies! Angelics aren’t the priority! She is!” The Doctor emphasized, pointing a shaking hoof at the door. “You need to get you head out of your arse and realize this! That Angelic threatening you, it could have already killed the receptionist and gone on to eat the rest of Ponyville. If it were Othello, or- or Evangeline, or Marcus, hell, even Gespard, they wouldn’t have hesitated to kill it right then and there!” The Doctor screamed at me, his eyes wild. I was leaning away from him. He was only an earth pony, but the Doctor was a dangerous creature. The Doctor calmed down slightly, enough for me to get a word in edgewise. “Doctor, I’m sorry, I-” I started, but the Doctor started shaking his head. He turned away from me to reach for something behind the massage table he was standing next to. “You don’t need to apologize. Guilt should be enough.” The Doctor said, rummaging through something. He finally emerged, holding a sliver of blue something in his mouth. He gestured for me to pick it up. I grasped it with magic, and pulled it over to me. It was Luna’s headstone, a perfect crescent sapphire. It was naturally beautiful, the essence of nature itself. It made me want to throw up. “I don’t want it.” “Give it to Rarity, then. She’s the one that found it for me in the first place.” The Doctor explained, and I nodded. I hopped off of the table and balanced the gem on my back. I was about to walk out of the door when I looked back at the Doctor. “Doctor, when you brought O-” I started, but the Doctor motioned for me to stop. “You can’t tell me about my future.” The Doctor said bluntly. I frowned, thinking for a moment. “Do you know where I can get a letter to Canterlot fast?” “Twilight has a dragon in the Library that can send letters to Celestia in an instant. You might want to go there.” The Doctor said, getting a set of saddlebags on. I didn’t say anything back and ran out of the spa as quickly as I could. The treehouse was easier to find the second time around. I ran up to the hollow tree and was stopped in my steps. The nostalgia was almost overwhelming. The smells, the sights, they all unusually vivid and striking. The onslaught of sensory input was almost overwhelming. I took a deep breath and pushed open the tiny purple door to the tree. It was dark on the inside of the tree, with two or three windows letting in little light. The bookshelves were reflecting a faint red glow from somewhere. I looked around to try and find the source, but I couldn’t. Also, I thought that the tree was a little bit too small to hold a dragon, so I didn’t think that Twilight could have one in there. I was about to walk out of the door again when I heard a whistle from above. I looked up, and I jumped out of my skin. “Holy shit!” I exclaimed, looking at the scene above me. There was a transparent red orb hanging from the ceiling. The ball was covered in changing symbols and runes, which made it magical in origin. That wasn’t all, not by a long shot. There was also a big black glossy spider. Not a usual spider. He had eight legs, but was completely hairless and the size of a pony. It also had a pony body and pony head, but he had four bright red eyes and fangs. I rose a hoof to it, shaking in a cold sweat. “Don’t do it!” The creature in the orb shouted. I looked at him a little bit more carefully and recognized him to be a really really small dragon. I squinted at him and then turned back to the spider thing. It cackled its fangs and purred. The tiny little dragon cringed. “It- It says that Ponyville isn’t yours anymore. I-It belongs to them now. It wants you to leave.” The dragon said, tears shining on his face. I grimaced and looked back at the spider. It looked at me with the three eyes that were facing me. They didn’t have any pupils, but were just a straight red all the way through, like an opaque marble. It snarled at me, clicking his incisors and baring his fangs. His crinkled snout was actually oozing a strange green liquid from his pores. I growled at the disgusting thing and thought for a moment. The big spider snarled at me while I did almost nothing. “Get out of here!” The dragon shouted. I blinked, and then put my plan into action. I leaped from my hind legs and tackled the spider, crashing into the ceiling. The spider screamed, making a long, screechy gargly noise. We fell from the ceiling and onto the floor, wrapped up together in a ball. The spider had the advantage of four different forelegs and insanely strong hind legs. He actually lifted me into the air and threw me out of a window. The glass shattered in a deafening burst of noise, cutting into my skin in a million different places before dumping me unceremoniously onto the ground. I coughed up some blood, and had a moment to get up to a half-crouch before the spider leaped out of the window, screeching its head off. Ponies were screaming, trying to get away from the monster that just landed in their lap. I tried to limp away from the scene, but the spider jumped on my back before I could cover any real ground. He flipped me over and punched me in the chest with four of his legs. I could feel something snap in my chest, making my breathing extremely labored. The spider opened his mouth, stretching it so wide that I could see down his throat. It was lined with hundreds of inward facing barbs, which only made the spider so much more menacing. He lowered his head down slowly, trying to eat me. I pressed both of my hooves into his neck and tried to keep him away. The spider sputtered and growled and kept going down towards my face. I turned away from it and grimaced. Suddenly, there was a warm splat and my face was covered in blood. I opened the eye that was facing the spider and saw a red spike sticking out of the spider’s face. I cringed and watched the spike slowly retract from his face, leaving a neatly bored circle that was squirting blood from all sides. I could see through the hole. The sight ran chills through me. Something pushed the now-dead spider off of me, and that something grabbed me by the chest and hoisted me up. I looked at it. It looked at me. It smiled. “Y’jes don’t know when to roll over n’die, do ya?” Something said, tilting his stetson with one of his free hooves.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-06-24T19:10:06+00:00

2012-06-24T19:10:06+00:00

Chapter 49 “You don’t want to do this, Slim.” I struggled to say, trying to get my hooves on the ground for leverage. Slim cocked his head and looked unusually puzzled. “Now, if Ah warn’t wantin’ to do this, why would Ah be doin’ it?” Slim asked. I frowned at his logic. He moved across ponyville, spreading disorder where he went. He crossed over to one of the fountains, going over to sit down. He slumped himself and leaned against the lip of the fountain. He let me go and sighed. “Sit a minute, five.” Slim said, patting the ground next to him. I tried to run away, but Slim grabbed me again and planted me to the fountain. I looked over my shoulder to see writhing vines tethering me to the fountain. I sighed. “What do you want, Slim?” I groaned. Slim tilted his head for a moment and pouted. “Ah want a lot a things, five. A whole buncha things. But, there’s jes one thing that you’n Ah might want.” Slim said. I opened my mouth to say something, but Slim just shusshed me. “You want th’Gelics to leave, dontcha?” “Let me go before I kill you.” “Ah’ll be takin’ that as a ‘firmative. Now, Ah’m feelin’ a tinge gen-rous, So Ah’ll make yeh a deal.” Slim said. Ponies were still dashing across the square, trying to get away. Slim looked around for a moment, eyeing the scene with extreme indifference. “I don’t think I’ll make a deal with you.” I said. Slim closed his eyes and sighed. He raised a hoof to his forehead and rubbed it “Ah hate talkin’ to y’all mortals when Ah’m hungry.” He grumbled. I cringed a little when he said that. Slim noticed me and hit me with one of his hooves. The blow landed on my shoulder, cracking something there. I gasped in pain, feeling the snapped bone and the digging of the ragged end into my flesh. I reached up with my hoof to cradle the injured appendage. “Shut up.” Slim said sternly. “We all gots t’eat somethin’. Y’jes don’t like what we eat. I’ve been lookin’ at that mare over there.” Slim bragged, pointing to a wheeled vendor cart near the fountain. There was a set of beige hooves hiding under the cart that had various flowers and plants hanging from it. I turned back to look at Slim. He was licking his lips, staring single-mindedly at the cart. “Don’t you dare.” I warned, mustering the electricity I might need. Slim sneered. “Or what? What’re you going to do ‘bout it? Nothin’. Y’ Cain’t do nothin’ t’me, Five. Not even if y’ tried.” “Don’t test me, Slim. I’ll summon Evangeline if I have to.” I said. Slim smiled. “She ain’t no match for me neither. Y’saw us in the forest. Ah kin mess with her all day long, if Ah needs ta. Besides, y’don wan’t ponyville to turn inta some kinda battleground. Y’don want another Cloudsdale.” Slim flawlessly reasoned, and then turned back to the cart. “Spitfire said that you wouldn’t show up.” I said. Slim burst out laughing. “Big ol’ bossman likes t’ think that he’s in charge a me. He ain’t. Nopony is. ‘Specially not him. He couldn’t possess his way outta a paper bag. He jes’ got good with politics is all. Ain’t nothin’ special.” “He has to be powerful or else he wouldn’t be in charge.” “Didn’t I jes’ tell ya he warn’t in charge? He jes’ likes to think that he is. We like t’play along. Now, are ya gonna be wantin’ t’hear what I has t’say?” “I don’t make deals with the likes of you.” I said coldly. Slim prodded my broken shoulder, making me scream. I clenched my teeth, trying to keep from screaming too much. Slim grabbed me under my chin and forced me to look up at him. He was snarling, his teeth bared and his snout crinkled. “Ah am goin t’eat that pony under that cart. Y’caint stop me. Y’know that, Ah know that. Now this is how it’s goin’ t’happen. Y’re goin t’ look that pony right in th’ eyes as Ah eat her. Your guilty face is goin’ t’be th’ last thing she’s gonna see.” “I won’t let you do that.” I threatened thorugh my tears. Slim smiled again. “We been over this, Five. Ain’t nothin you kin do. Ah’m goin t’eat her, you git a good look, you do nothin’, n’ Ah’ll take all th’Gelics Ah kin muster and leave. We’ll roll on out a Equestria. But you got to watch me eat that mare over yonder. Else we ain’t got no deal.” “You said that Angelics don’t have centralized leadership. You can’t take them all.” I spat out through my pain. Slim frowned. “Yer right. Ah cain’t take em’ all. But Ah can take the majority. Th’rest will just be a disorganized mess. They’ll be easy to mop up.” Slim said. His logic, however twisted and depraved it may be, was sound. The death of one pony to save hundreds, if not thousands. I hated how the deal played to my sympathies, but cost the life of the single mare. I couldn’t do it. Not because it was a bad deal. Not because it wasn’t helpful. But it was the mare. She would never benefit from the peace that the deal would help usher in. It was a great deal, but she would never had agreed to it. I couldn’t just let her die. I might win the war against Angelics, but I would never win the war against my own self if I let her die. Her face would be all that I would see when I closed my eyes. The great martyr to the cause she knew nothing about. “I can’t do this, Slim.” I whispered, my tears hot on my cheeks. Slim smiled, releasing my chin and letting me sprawl out on the ground. He reached up with one of his hooves to adjust his jet black stetson. “Sorry ‘bout that, Five. Terrible shame. Coulda saved a lotta ponies. Too bad.” He remarked. He turned away from me and walked over to the cart with the flowers. “Slim!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. He looked back at me without moving his body away from the cart. “You said you wouldn’t eat her!” I screamed. Slim spread his square teeth in a ghastly grimace. I shuddered. “Ah never said that. Besides, Five,” Slim said as he turned back to the cart. “Ah’m hungry.” Slim said. My heart sank. The mare was going to die anyways. There was nothing that I could do to prevent it. Slim was offering me an out, making me think that I had a choice. “NO! YOU CAN’T DO IT! WE HAD A DEAL!” I screamed, straining against the vines that tethered me to the fountain. Slim tilted his head back and laughed. I strained against the fountain even harder. “NO! YOU CAN’T DO IT! I WON’T LET YOU!” I screamed even louder, a tingle of magical energy suffusing my voice. I got an idea and flooded my body with raw energy from the Flow. My body crackled and zapped with the full feeling of near limitless power. I dug my hooves into the ground and pulled forward as hard as I could. I could hear the crack of masonry behind me, which only made me pull harder. I was pulling up the paving stones in front of me, so I lifted up my hooves and dug in again. I snarled in rage as Slim turned back to look at me. He looked surprised. He turned his body back to me. I screamed again, and he clutched his ears with his forehooves. There was blood running down his forelegs as they clutched his ears. I smiled grimly and pulled away from the vines. They kept hold of me. I pulled even harder. Slim grinned again, his teeth brilliant white triangles against the red of his mouth. He opened his mouth wide. His tongue stuck out of his mouth a little bit, pointed and red. I gritted my teeth and pulled against the fountain even harder. There was a moment when Slim blurred, like a car would blur in a picture. “Uh.” I moaned out, feeling sharp, cold pain. I stopped digging. I stopped pulling. I looked down. There was a long, fleshy red tube sticking out of my chest. I followed it away from me. The perfectly straight tube led right to Slim’s mouth. There was a quiet snick as the cold ran away from my chest. Slim’s tube ran back into his mouth, and he licked his chops with it, leaving his muzzle smeared with my blood. I reached up with shaking hooves to my chest. I looked down at them. They were absolutely smothered in blood. I fell down, my face falling right on the broken cobblestones under me. I could hear the faint splash as my blood poured out onto the street, pooling. I could see the edge of the pool as it spread slowly, my vitality running through the streets like water would run through a sieve. I slowly watched the world around me grow much darker. I grew cold again. So, so cold. So deathly cold. I closed my eyes, not even thinking the obvious thought. I’m dying.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-06-27T00:40:10+00:00

2012-06-27T00:40:10+00:00

“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” -Sir Rabindranath Tagore, Indian polymath Chapter 50 Luna had one thing right. There was so much darkness. For an insanely large amount of time, that’s all there was. A complete absence of any external stimuli at all. I almost went completely crazy trying to figure out what happened or even where I was. There was only my disembodied thoughts, an empty abyss, and a sluggish sense of time. I waited, waited and waited some more. Suddenly, light. A little pinprick, like a barely visible star on a perfectly dark night. I watched it do nothing for a nearly infinite amount of time. There was a sudden movement, and the light grew in size from a faint star to a glowing marble. It rushed up to me, growing even larger, until everything was extremely bright. It would have been blinding if there was anything else to see. The light congealed, gathering in some places and running away from others. It slowly resolved into surroundings. There was a lot of dark blue, and a big bright light in front of me. I squinted my eyes, because now it hurt. I had eyes now. I groaned. “What was that, Nurse?” “I didn’t say anything.” “Check his heart rate. We don’t want anything funny to happen.” The first person said. There was a faint shuffling. A long silence settled, interspersed by mechanical beeps. I became aware, suddenly, of a blinding pain. I groaned again. “Oh shit.” “Nurse?” “Doctor, he’s waking up.” The nurse said. There was a bustling around me. Suddenly, there was bright, bright light on one side of me, and then another. I tried to wave away the light, but my arms were completely limp. I groaned again and opened my eyes. There was someone above me, wearing a blue mask and cap. His coat was a dull peach color, and I could see some of his chestnut hair through his cap. He backed away from me when I opened my eyes. He looked away from me. “Two hundred and ninety cc’s propofol! Now!” The doctor shouted. I tried to breathe, but nothing would go in. I gagged silently, my eyes boggling. The Doctor ran away somewhere, but the nurse came up and grabbed my head. “You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.” The nurse repeated herself, growing slightly hysterical. I groaned again, trying to move my arms. One of them responded, moving towards my chest. Something grabbed it and pulled it away. I looked to the side. The doctor had his back to me. He turned around, holding a syringe. He injected it into a tube that led into an ‘x’ made with tape on my foreleg. I became dizzy almost immediately, but nothing else happened. I groaned again, moving my other arm this time. I reached over my chest. My hoof fell into something hot and wet. I pulled it out sluggishly and looked at it. It was covered in a bright red sheen. I tried to inhale again but couldn’t. My newly created world turned black at the corners, and a familiar cold seeped over me. Then there was something akin to sleep. The light congealed once more. I blinked for a moment, turning to my left. There was a little tiny whiteboard with a little marker stuck to it. I squinted. There was writing on the board, but I couldn’t read any of it. I looked back to the front of the room. “-your fucking fault.” A faintly familiar voice said. I could barely hear it, but I turned towards the noise. It was next to some door or other. I looked around some more. There was a window, but the speaking kept on. “I don’t think that you weighed him correctly. I had just the right dosage for a person of his weight.” “Look,” The other voice said. “You’re the fucking anesthesiologist. You’re supposed to keep this guy from waking up in the middle of my OR. I had his goddamn beating heart in my hands when this guy started moaning and floppin’ around like a trout. I’m the one that had to inject him with enough propofol to kill a clydesdale.” “I don’t even know how he survived that. You’re lucky you don’t have your license revoked.” “Enough about my license. He would have died of shock if I didn't do something. That, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I didn’t sleep that night. He could be a fucking vegetable right now for all we know.” “At least he’s alive.” “Yeah. Let’s go in.” The first voice said. There was a clack and some noise, and then two people walked into the room I was in. I opened my eyes even wider. These were humans. One of them was very very pale with wire glasses on, and the other one was a tanned man wearing green scrubs. Both of them looked happy to see me. The man wearing the green scrubs pulled up a chair and sat in it so the back of it was touching his chest. He smiled. “You doing alright, Mister King?” He said loudly, like I would have had trouble hearing him if I wasn’t. I gulped. “I’m not Mister King.” I said. I was extremely surprised to hear that my voice was now a deep timbre that would put Othello to shame. I put my hand over my mouth in shock. The man with the green scrubs pulled a clipboard off of the front of the bed I was in. “Jamal King, Twenty-Nine, lives at 3531 oakley place?” He asked. I just shook my head. The man frowned, looking to the pale man wearing blue scrubs. The man pushed up his glasses and spread his hands flat on his pants. “Sometimes after anesthesia you can’t remember things properly, like your address or your shoe size or little things like that. Is there anything that you can tell me about yourself, Mister King?” The pale man said in a light, airy voice. I opened my mouth for a moment, looking down. My arms were a dark, dark brown, like dark chocolate. I lifted them up and looked “Wow.” I said, smiling. There were hands on the ends of my arms, with long, nimble fingers. I snapped one of them and started laughing. “Oh wow.” I said again between laughs. The green scrubbed man and the Anesthesiologist both smiled at me. “Fine motor control. That’s really good,” The Anesthesiologist commented, looking at my hands. “But I want to see if you can do some other things.” He continued, handing me a pen. I took it from him and held it in my hands. It was a really cheap plastic pen. “Take that apart for me, if you don’t mind.” I unscrewed the top of the pen and dumped out all of the plastic bits. The Anesthesiologist nodded with a serious look on his face. “This is cool. So where’s Luna?” I asked. The man with the green scrubs flipped through my chart. “Is she your girlfriend?” The man said without looking away from the clipboard. “Yeah.” I answered. The man frowned and looked at an individual page. “Nobody else was in the ambulance with you when you arrived. We were honestly surprised that you lived long enough to get you into the OR.” The green scrubbed man said. I looked away from my hands and looked at him. “What happened?” I asked, shocked. “You had a massive heart attack. I’m not kidding- It was a complete mess. People that were there said that you just grabbed your chest and fell over. I’m surprised that your heart didn’t just explode. We thought we lost you in the middle of surgery, but you bounced back.” Green-scrubs said. I finally realized that he was the surgeon. “What?” I asked, confused. The surgeon looked back at the anesthesiologist, and the man shrugged. The surgeon sighed and turned back to me. “You flatlined about three times. The first two times, you just skipped only a few beats, but the third time was almost a minute. We were about to declare the time of death when you came back. Then we had to do a cardiac transplantation. Pretty much we just took your heart out and sewed a new donor heart up to the different arteries. Fairly regular procedure. The, uh, the donor died in the riots, if you wanted to know. “The riots?” I wondered aloud, completely confused. The surgeon chuckled. “You must really be out of it. You didn’t see the King case?” “The case?” I asked, still confused. “The Rodney King trial? You didn’t see it?” The surgeon re-iterated. I shook my head. The surgeon smiled and tousled his hair with one of his hands. He held his hands open, leaning his elbows on his knees. “Do you remember anything? Do you know where you are?” The surgeon asked. I shook my head. His eyes went wide and he leaned back in his chair. He grabbed onto the back of the chair and looked back at the anesthesiologist. The man opened his mouth like he was about to say something, and then started to chuckle. He scratched his arm and looked at me. His eyes were a bright green through his oval wire glasses. “This is a very rare case of total amnesia. As far as I know, there isn’t really much documented precedence of what happened to you. It could be anything. It could have been the loss of oxygen due to the heart attack, the massive dose of sedative we gave you to keep you unconscious after you regained consciousness, anything. It was just a big mess. It could be anything.” The anesthesiologist said. I frowned, looking down at my arms. There was a stark contrast to the brown of my arms and the pale white of the blankets. I hung my mouth open. “What happened to me?” “Well, you had a heart at-” “No, I mean, what happened? Last thing I remember, Slim was going to go eat that mare... Is she alright? Is that mare alright?” I asked, suddenly very worried. The surgeon looked very confused. He looked back to the Anesthesiologist, who shook his head and shrugged. “We don’t know anything about that.” The pale man said. I frowned. “Is this a joke or something? Did the Doctor put you up to this?” I asked. The surgeon shook his head. “Which Doctor?” “The Doctor. Or- or was it Marcus? Evangeline? Wh-Where’s Celestia? Was it Antony?” I asked, growing slightly hysterical. The surgeon put up his hands. “Calm down, Mister King. Nobody is playing a joke on you. Now please, just calm down.” He said, I started shaking my head. “It’s not possible. They have to be somewhere. Are they humans too now? What’s happening? I don’t understand.” I said, still confused. The Anesthesiologist walked around the surgeon and up to my bedside. There was a bunch of machines and monitors there, on my right side. He fiddled with my IV bag. “Y-You don’t know anything?” I asked, afraid slightly. The Anesthesiologist shook his head, turning away from me. The surgeon sighed. “I was really worried about you. You scared the hell out of us when you woke up. In all my years in surgery, something like that has never happened to me. We had your ribs ratcheted open and your heart was literally in my hands when you just started groaning. I almost fainted. You’re very, very lucky to be alive, Mister King.” He said. I turned back to the Anesthesiologist, who was injecting something into my IV. “I don’t feel lucky at all.” I whispered hoarsely. A dull calm washed over me and the Anesthesiologist walked away from my tubes. He patted the surgeon on the shoulder and he got up with a sigh from his chair. He stood arms akimbo as he looked down at me. “You’re healthy now, at least. That’s something to be thankful for." The surgeon leaned down and patted my leg. I turned away from him and looked out of the window. There were buildings and telephone poles, rooftops. I could even see an airliner flying across the sky cloudy, dark sky. I opened my mouth in shock. There were no airplanes in Equestria. This place was something else. Something different. I didn’t like it. I turned away from the window. The whiteboard was there. I could read it now that my eyes were used to the light. Jamal King Tuesday, May 5th, 1992 Los Angeles, California Rainy I turned away from the whiteboard. I was now looking forward. There was a little TV mounted to the ceiling. I looked straight ahead. There was a little alcove in the wall that held a sink and a little mirror. The man in the mirror looking back at me was intimidating. Dark brown skin, rigid brow, and a face set up in a scowl. His eyes were dark. I closed my eyes and sighed. A deep sadness settled over me and I thought of Luna. Sleep found me slowly. I woke up with a start. It was nighttime, and moonlight streamed through the slats of the blinds. There was someone standing over me. It took a little bit for my eyes to adjust. The man was a doctor, wearing a white coat. I couldn’t see his face very well. “Who are you?” I asked. I was surprised by my voice again. I reached up and touched my throat. “I know who you are.” The doctor said. I blinked. “What?” “The two other doctors told me about you. You’re a famous case in here. Not many people survive what you did.” The doctor explained. I frowned. “I don’t want to be famous.” I said. The doctor sighed. “I know you don’t. But there’s probably something I should tell you. “What?” I asked. The Doctor sat down in a chair next to my bed, a lightly padded armchair. He slumped down with a groan. “I can’t remember the majority of my childhood. The first thing I can remember is waking up on the edge of a public pool with a lifeguard pounding on my chest. I was nine. They said that I drowned there in that pool, but I couldn’t remember anything at all. My own name, my address, my mother’s face. Nothing at all. But there were things I could remember. I tried to forget, to live my life like a normal child. But I couldn’t. I always had an unhealthy fascination with fire. I was always different. But you and I are more similar than you think, Mister King.” He said. I turned to him. His face was doughy and he wore tiny round glasses. “Who are you?” I demanded. The doctor smiled. “I’m Dr. Othello Williams. It’s an honor to finally see you again, Mister Shell.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-07-07T04:28:19+00:00

2012-07-07T04:28:19+00:00

Chapter 51 I nearly jumped out of the bed when the doctor called me by my real name. I didn’t get far because a horrible pain opened up in my chest when I did. The doctor actually jumped up out of his chair and put his hands on my shoulders, pushing me back onto the bed gently. “You shouldn’t get startled like that, you could tear out your staples. Good luck surviving that.” He said, making sure I was properly lying down. I stared up at him with wide eyes. He leaned over me and tugged on a string that turned on the light above me. I squinted my eyes as I adjusted to the light. I blinked for a little bit and looked back at the doctor. He had unusually small round glasses. His eyes were a dull brown, but his hair was almost completely black. I looked a little bit harder. He didn’t have any scars, no blemishes or anything like that. Other than a little stubble, he was perfect. “I don’t believe you.” I said, setting my jaw. The doctor shrugged. “I don’t blame you. I could be just some crazy doctor. But let me tell you, Edwin, I’m not.” He used my real name again, making my doubts come to the surface. I stared up at him. “I don’t know that.” “Yes, you do!” He almost shouted. His eyes were bright for a moment, but then he backed away from my bed and exhaled heavily. “Look. I know how I can prove it to you, but I can’t bring the things I need to the hospital. You need to stay here for a few more weeks, but after that, I can take you to my house. I promise I’m not wasting your time.” He said. I frowned. “Let’s say you’re not wasting my time. Let’s say you really are Othello.” “I really am Othello,” He said, pulling out his wallet. He took out a card and handed it to me. It was a drivers license with the man’s face on it, and the name read “Williams, Othello Dean.” I looked up at him. “Yeah, but you might not be my Othello. Look, you know my name, that’s something. But I don’t really know if all of your years of being human have turned you into something that won’t recognize everypony back home. You could just be some... some...” “Abomination? Bastardization?” Othello said, his visage growing grim. I gulped. “I didn’t mean it that way, I was just-” “I’ve had the same thoughts going through my head for the last forty years. I was trapped in a child’s body when I came back to life. I had to see therapists of all kinds because my parents thought I was crazy. I knew I wasn’t crazy. I knew that I was really something else. But, eventually, I managed to see ‘sense’. I repressed my past life as hallucinations and imaginative daydreams. But then you came along. All of it came streaming back. Equestria, ponies, everything. I am Othello. More than I ever was. I can actually face life again, knowing that I’m not crazy, that my love for Celestia isn’t just a chemical imbalance in my brain but actual love.” Othello said, laughing freely while rubbing his head with his other hand. “I feel so alive! I can do anything now!” He said, giddy as a medical professional could be. I smiled. “So were you just lucky to be named Othello, or what?” I asked. He smiled. “No, I changed my name when I was old enough to do it legally. I didn’t like my original name anyways, but Othello just kind of caught me as a good name.” “What was your name to begin with?” “Winston. I wanted to be a doctor, not a butler.” He quipped. I smiled and the conversation lulled. We just sat there, relishing the moment that we weren’t alone in the world. I looked out of the window. The bright moonlight made the outside of the hospital eerily visible. “So what now?” I finally asked. Othello sighed. He got up out of his chair and stretched. I watched him do this, but then he pointed a finger at me. “You need to sleep. There’s a whole lot of nothing that we have to do tomorrow. I’ll try and see if I can bring something by that you might like.” He groaned out. He snatched his license off of my lap and walked jauntily out of the door. I heard it shut quietly, and then closed my eyes to dreams of death. Morning came early. Hellaciously early. I squinted my eyes as the sun peeked over the horizon and into my room. I turned my head away from the bright light and to the whiteboard. Someone had the good manners to change it while I was sleeping. Jamal King Wednesday, May 6th, 1992 Los Angeles, California Muggy Well, there was that at least. The day changed. The city stayed the same. I’m still Jamal King. Life goes on. I sighed and looked at the dark TV mounted to the ceiling. I didn’t want to turn it on. There was so much to human life that I really didn’t want back. I turned away from the TV and back to the window. The big ball of fire that just recently graced my morning with his incendiary presence was creeping up my window slowly, like it was using the blinds as a ladder. Being in the hospital was boring. I watched the sun come up slowly and waited for something to interrupt. “Good morning Mr. King.” A tired voice declared. I looked away from the sun to see a nurse coming up to my bedside. I watched her come up to my machines, writing things down on a little clipboard. She was a tiny person, with dirty blonde hair and pale skin. She wore a long-sleeved grey undershirt under plain maroon scrubs. She had a gaunt look on her face, like she had stayed up all night. She also wore a tiny crucifix hanging from a delicate chain over her scrubs. She looked at one of my monitors and wrote something on her clipboard. “Are you a religious woman?” I said. My voice was insanely hoarse for some reason, so I sounded like batman gargling marbles. She looked away from the monitors. Her mouth was hanging open a little bit. “Y-yes, I am.” She stuttered, like she was afraid of me. I smiled softly. “I’m not going to hurt you. I can’t do much of anything with this.” I rasped, gesturing to my chest. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind one of her ears. “Someone is going to be over in a few to switch out those bandages, by the way.” She added. I smiled some more. She turned back to my monitors, writing some more. There was a long pause, and the sun climbed a few more blinds into the sky. “I died.” I blurted out. She turned to me “Excuse me?” “I died on that operating table.” I explained. The nurse swallowed for a second, turning back to one of the machines. “This says you’re doing pretty well.” She laughed, tapping one of the monitors with a pen. I closed my eyes and breathed for a while. “They say I had a heart attack in the street.” “A pretty big one, too. I’m surprised they didn’t just wheel you into the morgue.” “But I don’t remember having a heart attack. I don’t remember coming to the hospital. For Celestia’s sake, they had to tell me my own name! I died. And I woke up in this.” I exhorted, flopping my arms at my black body. The nurse opened her mouth like she was about to say something, but then gulped and walked out of my room. She opened the door and then squeaked. “Oh, Dr. Williams, I was just about to come get you, Mr. King, he was-” She was saying very hushed, but then Dr. Williams interrupted. “Angie, I know.” Othello said. I was shocked a little to recognize his voice. “Y-you do?” She asked, sounding extremely relieved. “Yes. I can tell about it later, but I have to check on Mister King right now.” He explained, sounding a little preoccupied. “O-Okay.” She sighed. I could hear the clacking of Dr. Williams’ shoes as he was walking in. He had a big, thin leather briefcase about four feet tall that was tucked under his armpit. It was even wider than it was tall. He set it down next to his favorite chair and fell down into the chair. He groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. I did a double take between him and the briefcase. “God, Edwin. What did you say to her?” “I told her the truth.” I nearly whispered. Othello stopped rubbing his eyes suddenly. He hesitated before he looked up at me. “What?” He asked. I shifted in my gurney so I could see him better. “What if we did die? What if Winston actually drowned on the side of that pool? What if Jamal actually died in surgery? We could be inhabiting their bodies because the humans didn’t need them anymore.” “So what happened to the humans?” Othello asked, suddenly engaged. “Every single religion on earth wants to tell you.” “You don’t think they went to Equestria?” “No.” I whispered, shaking my head. “Well, Mister Shell, I just have one question for you before I show you my little surprise.” He added, patting his thin black briefcase next to him. “What’s that?” “A surprise.” “No, the question.” I qualified. Othello looked out the window for a moment before turning back to me. “So if the humans didn’t go to Equestria when they died, What makes us different?” “What?” “What makes us different? You, me, Evangeline. Any of them. Why do we go to Equestria while the rest of them get to die or go to heaven or get broiled alive in hell or whatever it is that happens to them.” “Maybe I’ve done something perversely horrifying in my past life. Or my past, past life.” I remarked. Othello grinned. “You think that you’ve performed some kind of offense against god or nature or whatever it is.” “Yes.” “Well, maybe you ate babies in your past past life, but I lead an honest life. Or, at least I tried to. “What were you in your first life, anyways?” “An Italian general, to be honest.” “Really? That’s cool. Oh, say something Italian!” “Penso che sia tempo di prendere la pressione sanguigna.” He nearly laughed out, getting up from his chair. He walked over to some of my machines and pulled a blood pressure cuff off of the wall. He started to squeeze it when it was on my arm. He sighed. “Quel bastardo Iago.” He muttered as he squeezed the cuff. I looked up at him as he was squeezing. He looked sad. “Are you okay?” I asked tentatively. He nodded. “Memories, is all. è né qui né lì, as they say.” He said, ripping the cuff off of my arm. He glanced at his watch. “One ten over ninety. At least you aren’t going to explode like before.” He joked, placing the cuff back in its little bucket. He walked around my bed to his suitcase. “So what’s in the thing?” I ventured. He looked over his shoulder at me. “You mean my portfolio?” He asked, unzipping the thing. I clambered up on my elbows to get a better look. He pulled out a canvas that was slightly smaller than the briefcase, but would still be an enormous painting. He kept it facing away from me while he sat down in his regular chair. He had it set down in front of his knees, resting on his shoes. “Sorry about the philosophy. I lost a patient today.” “I’m so sorry.” I whispered again, not because I was saddened but because I was hoarse. “She was very, very young. Especially compared to you and I. Especially compared to me. She was only nineteen. She was absolutely gorgeous, too. She could have been a model or a celebrity or something like that. She was a looker. And she died, bloodied in my arms. She shouldn’t have died.” “What happened to her?” “She broke a rib. Nothing serious, really. Her boyfriend said that she fell out of a chair. I believe him, too. She didn’t have any bruises that would make me think that he was abusive. Well, we patched her up pretty well and she was about to get her purse and go when she stumbled. She, uh...” Othello paused for a moment, making my wandering eyes turn back to him. His face was red and his mouth was trembling. I could see tears in his eyes. He pushed his glasses out of his eyes and wiped away the tears with his big hands. He set the hands down on his lap, balled into fists. “I was going to help her, I had a hand on her arm to steady her. She stood up, but she was wheezing now. Her eyes were glazed over a bit. She opened her mouth to speak and just coughed blood into my face. I-I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried to re-set the rib but it wouldn’t work. I had to just stand there, trying to breathe life into this girl. I couldn’t do anything. She struggled, too. She knew what was happening. I could see the crippling fear in her eyes, knowing that it was the end. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except... The last words out of her mouth were ‘I hope I have enough for the copay.’ That really got me. It was just so sudden.” “How did she die?” I was almost afraid to ask. Othello nearly burst into tears. “Sh-She had a rib that I didn’t know was broken. It punctured one of her lungs, and she aspirated blood. She drowned, plain and simple.” He stuttered out. I looked down at my feet. “Where do you think she went?” “I hope she went someplace as beautiful as she was.” He whispered. He covered his face with one of his hands. “I’m sorry.” He rasped out. He stayed like that for a moment. I looked away to give him some privacy. He coughed a while later and I turned back to him. He was holding his canvas upright, with the back of it facing towards me. “Take a look.” He said, flipping the painting around. I gasped. “Oh my God.” I admired. Othello smiled. “Every time I see this, I have hope. I might get to see her again, against all odds.” “It’s amazing.” I said. The painting was meticulously beautiful. It was as if countless days and hours were poured into this painting. Every single stroke was a labor of love, making Michelangelo look like a purple elephant on the fridge. “She’s beautiful.” I said. The painting was an acrylic of Princess Celestia, eyes closed with a flower stem sticking out of her mouth. She was sitting in the middle of a field of dandelions while the evening sun was frozen in the sky, barely touching the horizon. I knew at that moment that Dr. Williams was the First Numbered.

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-08-01T17:17:44+00:00

2012-08-01T17:17:44+00:00

Chapter 52 The next two weeks in the hospital were excruciatingly slow and tiresome. There was the constant worrying about Equestria, Luna, and everypony else. But, on the other side, there was a steady supply of things that made me fall asleep. Soap operas, pain pills, hospital food. They all induced sleep. I think that I spent more time asleep in the hospital than not. My dreams were all too real. A recurring one was that I was back in Equestria. It was all so happy, but it turned to crippling sorrow as soon as I woke. The routine continued for a long time. Wake up, change bandages, watch the soaps, sleep. One day, I opened my eyes and saw breakfast in front of me. Orange juice, milk, raisin bran, toast. I rubbed my eyes with my hands and looked again. there was a tiny glass vase about as tall as my index finger, with a budding red rose in it. I looked straight ahead of myself at the mirror. Same face on his license. I studied his face for a few seconds more before I turned to the whiteboard. Jamal King Los Angeles, California March 13th, 1992 cloudy I turned to the TV, which was playing one of the most hallowed of hospital pastimes, the soap opera. Ricardo was supposed to tell Fabiola that he was cheating on her with Jessica in this episode, if the TV Guide has anything to say about it. I really didn’t know what they were saying because it was all in spanish. It was really just the exaggerated facial expressions and the flamboyant commercials that made me come back to Telemundo. I watched Fabiola unleash her latina fuego on Ricardo while drinking my orange juice when Othello came back in. He often joined me in my room these days, whether it was to eat lunch or going on his rounds or checking my monitors. He would talk about his human life and I would try not to talk to him about what he missed in Equestria. He didn’t need to know about the mess he had no choice but to leave behind. I chewed thoughtfully on my toast while Othello sipped on a juicebox. “What do you think she’s doing, right now?” He said while an upbeat spanish man tried to sell me used cars. I finished chewing my bite and then set my toast down gently. “Which one?” “Either. I just miss them all.” He said thoughtfully. I looked away from his pudgy face to my lap. “I don’t know. It could be anything. It depends on what time it is over there.” I replied, my deep voice rumbling in my chest. Othello sipped his juice once more. “You don’t think that it’s the same time here as it is there?” “No.” “Why not?” “Your death in Equestria and my death were separated by a few days over there. We came back to life here nearly forty years apart. There has to be something different.” I reasoned, picking up my orange juice. Othello pulled his glasses off and started to polish the lenses with his shirt. “I like to think that the times are exactly the same.” He said, putting his glasses back on. “What makes you say that?” “Sometimes I look up at the moon. A thought strikes me. Somehow, somewhere, Tia’s looking at the exact same moon. And like that, we’re just... Together. Like she’s right next to me.” He trailed off near the end, staring at the television. I looked out of the window. The sun was right there, trying its damnedest to blind me. “It’s a nice thought.” “It’s kept me from killing myself a few times. But that’s not why I’m here to talk to you today!” He said happily, slamming down his juicebox on a table next to him. I jumped at the loud noise. “You want to talk about lunch?” “I want to talk about getting you discharged.” He explained as he got up dusting off the lap of his lab coat with his hands. He placed his hands back to his sides and looked at me with a big smile. “I don’t think I like that look.” “Oh, don’t be like that! Come on, get up.” He said, gesturing for me to do so. When I showed hesitation he started snapping his fingers. I got up shakily out of the bed. My hospital gown fluttered around me as my feet thumped onto the ground. My IV pole shook against the opposite side of my bed. Othello ran around and grabbed it for me, pulling it around to my side. I grabbed it and watched Othello walk around to my side. It was really ironic, how tall I was compared to him. Apparently being in a body that’s 6’7” has its benefits. He walked around to my other side and held his arm up. I waved it away and walked out of the door. The hospital was bright and airy, with lots of windows and lights. The hallways were long and not too narrow. Pretty much just a regular hospital. I smiled at few nurses passing by, who I’m sure didn’t notice me. Othello walked around wherever he pleased, dragging me along with him. We eventually ended up in the maternity ward, in front of one of those big windows where you could see other people’s children. Othello and I ended up glued there, sitting at one of the nearby benches. “Do you think they’ll ever guess?” I asked solemnly. Othello switched from leaning on one knee to leaning on the other. He let out a big sigh. “Would you have ever guessed?” He said. I stared at one of the babies. It wasn’t doing much of anything. I bit my bottom lip “Not in a million years. What about you?” “I didn’t live in a culture that accepted alternate dimensions or anything like that. You died, you went to the afterlife, and that’s it. None of this reincarnation or anything like that. It was a different time.” He said. I didn’t have anything to say back to him, so we just sat there in silence for a while. A nagging thought occurred to me and wouldn’t go away, so I decided to voice it. “What do I have waiting for me when I leave the hospital?” “You have a great car.” “Do I live in it or do I have a house?” I asked sarcastically. Othello laughed. “You have a house, but it’s in Frisco. You were here on business, apparently.” He explained while looking down at his shoes. “Business?” “You own a charter plane company. Nothing big, just enough to keep you in silk pajamas. Apparently you were going to meet with a client.” Othello said. I smiled. “At least Jamal had the common courtesy to be successful before he died.” I joked. Othello laughed and stood up. “Come on, Mister King, let’s get you out of this hospital.” He said, getting up and walking away from me. I got up, swaying slightly on my feet and turning away from me. I was about to follow him when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. The maternity ward had two sides, both with glass to look at the babies. My mouth fell open for a minute as I looked. I turned fully to face the window. I literally threw my IV pole to the ground and placed my palms flat on the cool glass. I watched with open eyes as one of the maternity nurses picked a tiny little baby out of one of the glass trays they were put in. He was wrapped in a little blue blanket and was wearing a tiny white cap which I knew was for his baptism. The nurse held him at a slight angle facing the window opposite me to a young father. The breath stuck in my throat. The man was ragged, with mussed hair and heavy bags under his eyes from waiting for his child to be born. His jet hair hung over his ears and swayed across his icy blue eyes. His mouth dropped open when he saw his child and he started to cry. He held his arms open and turned to a mousy old woman who grasped him around the waist and held him tight. He held one hand on the back of her hair and the other one across her back. He was shaking, staring his baby boy. He looked like he was laughing, but I could plainly see the tracks of his shed tears running down his face. I balled my hands into fists as I saw the young father and started to cry. I couldn’t contain myself as I slowly fell to the ground and wailed. I grasped my knees with my hands and held them close to me, wishing that the hospital gown covered more of me. I sobbed my lamentations, not caring about who would hear. I watched through blurry eyes as Othello rushed up to me. “Edwin, Edwin what’s wrong?!” He worried, holding his hands over me like he was afraid to touch me. I wasn’t able to say anything. Othello picked me up and slung my arm over his shoulder. He leaned down to pick up my IV pole and walked me out of the room. “What was that back there, Edwin?” Othello asked as he bandaged up my hand. I just shook my head. Othello pouted but didn’t press the point. He wiped my hand with an alcohol wipe and I hissed. Othello didn’t pay me any attention and pulled a white thing off of a shelf. He ripped it down the middle, revealing some gauze which he wrapped around my hand. “It was a really stupid idea to throw down the pole.” “Yeah." I said quietly. Othello suddenly stopped wrapping my hand and placed his hands on his hips. “What the hell, Edwin? What’s wrong?” He demanded. I gulped, trying not to cry again. “M-my dad.” I managed to whisper. Othello only looked confused. “M-my dad. H-he was at the maternity ward.” I explained. Othello’s face went from bunt confusion to pained understanding. “Edwin, I’m so sorry.” He said, pulling me into a hug. I grasped him and held him close to me. “M-M-M-” I stuttered, but couldn’t finish the word. Othello let me go and took my hand again, wrapping it. “M-my mom died yesterday.” I rasped out, tears gathering at the corners of my eyes. Othello stopped moving his hands looked up at me, eyes wide and mouth open. “Oh god... Your mother, she wasn’t-” He started, looking horrified. “Angela Shell.” I finished for him. Othello grew a few shades paler. He mouthed words, trying to say something, but he couldn’t. He gulped once and tried to speak again. “I was there. I didn’t deliver you, but I was in the room. We-we did all we could.” “My dad never said what happened to her.” I said coldly, trying not to cry any more. Othello gulped again. “She hemmoraged. We tried to find out where she was bleeding, but we couldn’t. It took a few minutes for her to go into hypovolemic shock. She probably thought she was going to sleep. Listen, Edwin, I-” “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want out of this damn hospital.” I said, feeling anger wash over me. Othello didn’t say anything but just finished wrapping my hand. I stormed out of the room into the hallway and leaned against the wall next to the door, scowling. Othello came out and placed a hand on my shoulder. He didn’t speak. There was nothing to say. “You still don’t think the life we lead is a punishment?” I spat. Othello dropped his hand from my shoulder and stood akimbo. “No.” “Saying that is like looking at the sky and still saying it’s green.” I reasoned coldly. Othello sighed. “You’ve never led my life, so you don't know why I say what I do.” “Are you saying you’ve led a harder life than me?” I looked down at Othello as I spoke, my face carrying intent that few murderers knew. Othello stayed calm. “I was engaged to the woman I loved for about three hours till a fucking train decided it didn’t want me alive anymore. I woke up in a completely different body, in a place I never knew of, thrust into a conflict that wasn’t even a part of. The second time I found love, I was killed yet again, forced back into a world I thought I would never see again, that I would never love again. You can’t possibly know what I’ve been through.” I ranted, getting right in Othello’s face as I did so. He went from remarkably calm to horrifyingly enraged while I spoke. When I was done he grabbed me by my arm and tugged me into an empty room. He threw me into the room first, then walked in himself. I was still stumbling from being thrown in when Othello punched me in the face. It was a powerful left hook, hurling me into a closed closet. I placed my palms flat on the door, trying to stand upright. Othello grabbed my back and pushed me into a padded armchair that was identical to the one that he used in my room. I landed in it, reeling, and tried to get back up. He planted a hand on my chest and pushed me back down. “Sit the fuck down, you goddamn child.” He spat, his face red. His burst of invective made me hesitate long enough for him speak. “I went through the exact same trials you did. I had to fight tooth and nail for survival in the streets of Florence as a child. I was lucky to be alive long enough to die. I killed my own wife because I was convinced she cheated on me. I commited suicide when I found out that it was all deception, but not without taking some of that strisciante ratto with me. I woke up in a body, but I was only a foal. I wasn’t even a half-hour old when I killed my first Angelic. He tried to eat me so I set his eyes on fire. When I was done I had to convince the two princesses I found I wouldn’t kill them either. I wasn’t a week old when I had to chew the living heart out of Gygax the Immortal at the foot of the cliffs of Canterlot. I grew to be strong, mighty, and feared. The blood of all the Angelics I killed during my first month of life can fill an Olympic swimming pool over ninety times. Do you know how many Angelics that is? That’s over 19 million of them. My favorite way to kill was to set their lymph nodes on fire. They writhed around on the ground for nearly three minutes before the fire consumed them. If it was an especially troublesome Angelic, I would stand over them as they burned and laugh. I loved to see the fear in their eyes. It satisfied me. When I was three years old, I killed the last one. He was a clever one, a real bastardo complicato. He was so afraid of me when I finally killed him that he wouldn’t allow any light in the castle where he holed up. He wouldn’t even allow any candles, that’s how afraid of me he was. I turned the whole castle into an enormous conflagration. He jumped out of his bedroom window when the fire started. I caught him. He nearly shouted himself to death. But I was there to make sure he didn’t. I ripped open his ribcage with my bare hooves and made him watch as his organs were consumed. He screamed until it wasn’t physically possible. He cursed me to the deepest pit of hell in every single language he knew, and there was a plethora. I just stood there and watched him. When he finally died I held his corpse aloft, standing on my hind legs, and shouted ‘Equestria is free!’ at the top of my lungs. I had never felt so carefree and happy as I did on that day, with only one exception. I travelled back to the throne of the Kingdom to profess my love to the Princess that held the sun aloft. The sun that shone on every single corpse I left in my wake, of every single exclamation of pain I caused. She granted me an audience for not even a minute. I remember her words exactly. ‘What do you want’ She said, staring at me like I just relieved myself on her carpet. ‘I love you.’ I said, pouring all of my passion into my words. She blinked. ‘Get out of my sight, you bloodthirsty monster.’ she spat at me, turning away. I couldn’t do anything. I almost set fire to her entire kingdom out of spite. But I didn’t. I worked hard to forge a new image of myself. I created the Nether from nothing. I labored for the greater good, building houses and planting trees that my flames had demolished. I worked and worked with no concern for myself for the next ten years. Ponies eventually cheered when I walked through their towns. When that happened for the first time, I knew it was time. I walked back to the Throne. I didn’t fly, I didn’t use magic. I remember the audience I had with her. ‘Equestria is at peace.’ I started. ‘I cleansed the Angelic scourge from your glor-’ I couldn’t finish because she ran up and kissed me. That was my happiest moment. When she accepted my love. How old are you?” He finished. “T-Twenty one.” I whispered, amazed by his story. He snorted. “I’ve done more in half of your lifetime than you may ever do. By the time I was your age I sang the first blade. It’s none of this ‘imagine a sword in your head’ stronzate like they have today. You had to declaim what meant the most to you in the most beautiful voice you could muster. I stood there for nearly three hours, Celestia by my side, singing everything I loved about her. I made the spell so that the fiery passion of the spoken words would actually forge the sword out of nothingness. So don’t you fucking tell me you've had worse. I’ll get your discharge papers.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-08-13T05:16:59+00:00

2013-02-07T20:35:04+00:00

Chapter 53 I watched Othello storm out of the room, his white lab coat fluttering behind him. The door slammed shut as soon as he was gone. I sat there in the chair, simply stunned. Pondering my situation, I had to realize that Othello had the worst of it. He was alive as a pony for nearly eight thousand years, so being upset into a new body would be far more traumatic for him than it was for me. I was selfish. I reached up with a hand to rub my jaw, which was now starting to throb. I looked around the room. It was pretty much identical to mine. They even had a whiteboard. Johnathan Cooper Los Angeles, California March 13th, 1992 cloudy “Someone forgot to wipe the board...” I muttered to myself, working my jaw. I looked around the room again to find that it wasn’t actually empty at all. There was a spry looking patient tucked into the bed in the room. He had a pleased smile on his face, with spiky hair perched above bright eyes. He was looking at me intently, smiling. I lurched out of the chair, startled. I pointed a finger at him. “You- You don’t know what we were talking about.” I said. He suddenly looked offended. “I might!” He said indignantly, with a slight accent. I smiled but stopped pointing at him, putting the hand to my jaw. I looked at him again, trying to figure him out. “Who are you?” I asked. He snorted. “You read my board, didn’t you?” He stated. I frowned, staying silent. He decided to speak again. “What did you do?” He asked. “I didn’t do anything.” I said, having no idea what he was talking about. I pulled the armchair up so it was facing the bed. I plopped myself down, looking at the man. He snorted. “I don’t often get punched in the face by my doctor.” The man said. I turned back to his board to remember his name. “Can I call you John?” I asked. He nodded. “Have you ever been in a really bad place in your life? So bad that you’re not sure how to go on anymore?” I asked. He looked down at his lap. “Yes, I have.” He said dryly. I nodded, leaning forward on my chair. “I had everything. A home, a great job, a mare that loved me. I had it made.” “What happened?” “I died.” I admitted. John sucked air through his teeth. “Bummer. Get out, I need to sleep.” He said, rolling on his bed away from me and tucking his blanket over his head. “But we were-” I started, but John started snoring loudly. I frowned and got up out of my chair, walking out of the room. I slammed the door behind me and walked out into the hall. I put my hands on my hips and looked around, completely unsure of what I should do. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do when I got out of the hospital, and I didn’t even know how much money I had or even where my house was. I didn’t know anything about this place. I just walked down the hall and back to my room. Othello slammed the papers down on my lunch. “That’s my sandwich.” I objected while chewing on the offended party. “Now it’s your discharge papers. Sign it and get out of my hair.” He coldly said, plopping down in his armchair. I started calling it his when the one in my room started to smell like him. I looked down at the papers, or actually the paper, as there was only one. It looked like a thoroughly legal and confusing document. I skimmed it as I chewed on my pastrami and rye. I felt a sudden pain down the middle of my chest as I swallowed, no doubt from my freshly mended sternum. I reached up with a hand to touch my scar. It was still bandaged, so all I felt was the cottony gauze and tape. I looked around myself for a moment. “Do you have a pen?” I asked, holding out a hand. Othello reached up to his lab coat breast pocket and pulled out a cheap red clicky-top. It was a red one, with two halves that are exactly the same length, separated by a tiny silver ring. I read the little advertisement on the side, which was ironically for life insurance. I smiled and was about to go down to sign my name when I paused for a moment. “Does my signature count if I’m not actually Jamal King?” I asked Othello. He smiled a little bit. “Muscle memory.” He explained, gesturing for me to sign it. I skeptically placed my pen down and started, rushing into a nearly automatic signature. When I was done I held my hand out for a moment, somewhat shocked. I turned to Othello. He wasn’t smiling. Feeling a little bit dampened, I placed the pen down and handed the paper back to Othello. He took it and put it back in his pocket. I picked up the remnants of my sandwich and leaned back in my bed. “I’ve never been to San Francisco.” I said, gesturing with my sandwich to the ceiling. Othello looked over his shoulder. “Send me a card.” He sniped, walking out of the door. It closed quietly with a dull sense of finality. I met a lawyer at the airport, where one of my charter planes was waiting. It was a nice plane, bright eggshell with light blue trim. There was a three-pronged crown on the rudder. The lawyer was certainly crisp. His coffee skin was accented by the crisp white of his dress shirt. Apparently he knew Jamal before he died. “Good afternoon, Mister King. I’m glad you didn’t die.” He said with the caring and bluntness that only lawyers can deliver properly. “I don’t know you.” “I’ve heard that you have retrograde amnesia, a rather severe case. I’m here to inform you about your affairs and your estate and to make sure that you can-” He was about to start, but I stopped him. “We’ve got an entire flight to talk about this. Let’s hold off.” I said, walking past him and getting on the steps to the plane. I walked in and felt the rush of cool air. The sensation left me shocked, standing in the entryway. I couldn’t stand the sensation. I nearly fainted. It left me with so much loss, so much sorrow. I was so close to being used to human life. So, so close. I turned around and barreled down the ladder, knocking over the lawyer in my mad dash to get out. I sprinted to my car, hopping through the open window like they did in Dukes of Hazzard. I started my car as the tears started to fall. I closed my eyes and shook, the crippling sorrow rushing through me. I wiped my eyes and got off of the tarmac at breakneck speeds. I pulled onto the freeway and just drove. I wanted to go so fast my memories would just fall away. I don’t know how long I drove. I don’t know how many times I got pulled over. I didn’t know. All I did was drive. “Welcome to Nevada” The sign said cheerfully. I felt horrible. I didn’t feel welcome anywhere. I drove. “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” The sign shouted at me. I didn’t want to stop there, with all of the bright lights and the bustling people. I drove. “Welcome to Carson City” A nice small sign said. By far it was the nicest sign I had ever seen. I stopped to sleep there. There was a nice hotel that accepted me and Jamal’s credit card. I slept a restless sleep, completely devoid of dreams. I woke up. I blinked, trying to remember what happened the night before. I tore the blanket off of me and got up. I looked down at myself, seeing my flannel shirt and slacks from the day before. Even my shoes were still on. I rubbed my eyes and walked over to the bathroom. The shower had one of those rods that curved so that the inside of the shower looked bigger than it actually was. I turned from that to the sink, and washed my face off. I felt a little bit better. I walked out of the bathroom and out of the hotel, meandering around the courtyard. I ended up on a bench in front of the parking lot. I watched the cars drive by. Nothing much happened, until It did. It was so very very startling that I couldn’t believe my eyes. It just appeared, standing there like it had for centuries. I gasped in awe. There it was. There was still hope for me yet. I was about to stand up when the door opened and out walked a tallish man. I recognized him as John from the hospital, but he was dressed strangely. He had on a brown striped suit and red converse all-stars. He stuffed something in his jacket and looked around as he left It like he was up to something. I watched him slink away somewhere else before I got up and looked at It. I walked over and placed a hand flat on Its surface. It was exhilarating. I walked around to the door and looked at it for a moment. I smiled and pushed open the door. I stepped through the doorway and it slammed shut behind me. Looking around, startled, I recognized my surroundings. A great, blissful smile spread across my face. “I’m coming home, Luna.” I whispered. I let myself stand around for a little bit before rushing up to the big round console. I was about to place my hands on the controls when a shrill alarm interrupted me. “Identify.” A cold female voice said. I gulped, hesitating. “Identify.” The voice said again, slightly sterner this time. I wrung my hands, slightly nervous. “C-Captain Shell of the Royal Equestrian Guard Corps.” I said. The lights in the Tardis flashed red for a short moment, accompanied by a buzzer sounding. “Incorrect. Submit to memory scan.” The Tardis said. I gulped, looking around. There was a faint mechanical whirr when suddenly something clamped itself onto my head. A cold goop spread down my face. I started to scream, trying to pull the thing off of my head. It didn’t even respond. The goop seeped down my face, covering up my nose and mouth. For some reason the goop stopped at my neck. I couldn’t see anything, but I grabbed at the device planted on my head, trying to get it off so I could breathe. I started to remember things. My first night in Equestria, my first time in the Tardis, the taste of a peach, everything. It took a few minutes, but I finally remembered everything. The goop quickly released me. I dropped to the floor and gasped for breath, trying to inhale as much as I could. I rolled over onto my back and coughed. I squinted my eyes and saw something over me. “You’re that bloke from the hospital!” It shouted, pointing down at me. I coughed back at him. “Welcome back, Captain Shell.” The Tardis greeted me. The Doctor’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He did a double take between me and the console. He knelt down and got in my face. “I don’t know who the bloody ‘ell you are. But you have so much explaining to do it’s not even funny.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-08-28T01:10:36+00:00

2012-08-28T01:10:36+00:00

Chapter 54 I looked up at the Doctor. There he was. We were separated by so much. Entire parsecs of space. Complete dimensions. The rise and fall of a million empires, seeing the death of a thousand stars. Yet, so very very little. The flip of a switch. A few steps down the ramp and out the door. A short moment of crippling fear and then the cool, cool kiss of death. There he was. “Oi, git, up off my floor.” He ordered. I got up to my feet and brushed off my pants. There he was, the famous Doctor. I was so giddy I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face. The Doctor covered his face with a hand and gestured for me to sit down. I looked around and took one of the worn white leather chairs. The Doctor stood and watched me, staying silent for what seemed to be ages. Finally he started to speak. “Just one thing first. How did you get in?” He said. I smiled even wider than before. I placed my hands down on the control surfaces of the chair. “Tardis, disable isomorphic controls.” I enunciated clearly. There was a confirmation bleep from the console. The smooth glass panels near the front of the arm rest lit up. My hands flew at the controls as the Tardis bent to my will. The entire console room shrunk down to the size of a marble, expanded to the size of a football stadium and twisted like a corkscrew before finally settling into a shape that I needed. Column and console tucked away in an unseen dimension, leaving a wide empty space in the middle. I clicked a few more buttons on the arm rests, making a bright picture of my pony self appear in thin air. I looked over to the Doctor with his jaw hanging open and blinking. I hopped off of my chair and walked near the middle of the room. “Doctor… Have you ever been to a dimension called… Well, I’m not sure it has a name, but there is a place there called Equestria. You would recognize this creature if you have. Have you ever been? Doctor?” I asked, turning away from the picture of me to the Doctor, who was sputtering and pointing at me. “I- I- You- Y- You-“ He stammered, shaking a finger at me. He looked rather wobbly. I flourished my hand and made a chair appear behind him, just in time for it to catch him in its plush recesses. He looked so shocked it was almost funny. I turned back from him and looked at the picture of me. It was from my bath with Luna, or soon after. My mane was plastered to my neck, with the front of it hanging over my eyes. There was a blistering grin on my face. I sighed and turned back to the Doctor. “This dimension is where I am from. It’s the most beautiful and crazy place that you could ever possibly imagine in a thousand years. That’s actually me,” I pointed back to the floating hologram “In that picture. I’m in here because I need to get back. I’ll do anything to get back home. And you’re going to help me.” I finished, jabbing the Doctor’s chest with my finger. He gulped. “I-I-“ The Doctor kept on not making words properly. I sighed, going back to the command chair. I set the room back to normal size and shape with a swipe and turned back to the middle of the room. I placed my hands flat on the console that was there now, relishing in the unadulterated power that was at my command. I could feel it thrum in my bones, like the beat of music or the vibrations of a running car. It put my teeth on edge and made me shiver. I opened my eyes and looked down at the controls. I pulled on a few levers and switches, running around the pillar to find the next sequence I needed. When I was done, the nostalgic woosh of the time drive greeted me as I was arriving when my destination was. I stared up at the glowing pillar for a moment before turning back to the Doctor. His skin was deathly pale and he was shaking in his chair. “Are you afraid of me, Doctor?” I inquired. He nodded, which drew a smile. I looked up at the pillar as it stopped moving. “We’re here.” “You-You didn’t take me to Equ-Equ- “No. You look a little too tense for dimension hopping. We’re on a favorite planet of mine. I’ve always wanted to come here for the past few weeks. “Wh-Wh- “Midnight.” The Doctor was an eccentric drunk. I nearly had to take him away from the resort when he told the bartender about banana daiquiris and got offended when she didn’t believe him. We were now sitting in a hot tub, looking up at the deadly light refracting off a diamond waterfall. The Doctor was wearing Hawaiian trunks and a frilly yellow lei to match his banana daiquiri. He was looking up at the sky. “They never make them right.” The Doctor slurred. I smiled, taking my eyes off the diamondfall to watch a group of tourists walk by. I turned back to the Doctor and smiled. “The sandwich dilemma.” I explained. The Doctor took his eyes off of the barren Midnight sky to look at me quizzically. “Once you make a really good sandwich, nobody can ever make one for you again. It’s a curse.” I reasoned. The Doctor harrumphed, raising his frilly drink to his mouth. “What I don’t get,” He paused, sucking some banana slush out of his glass “Is why you need to get back. From what I understand, you have a pretty good life back on Earth. You’re set. Loads of money, go wherever you want, great house. Why would you want to go back to a complete… load of bollocks?” “Excuse me?” “From what you said, it was a complete bloodbath. You’re lucky to have gotten out when you did. In a way, you cut your losses and saved yourself a whole lot of heartache. It could have been much, much worse.” The Doctor explained. My face set into a scowl as the Doctor spoke. I didn’t even try to speak when he was done, because I knew I would shout at him. I calmed down before trying to talk. “How dare you. You’ve never died before. You’ve never felt the cold grip of undeniable certainty. You’ve never felt the numbness of fatal blood loss. You’ve never really disappointed someone. Not completely. So don’t tell me I cut my losses. I left behind my only chance at happiness when I died. You were a good guy when I knew you as a pony. I guess that happens in time.” I thrashed the Doctor with my words. He was slightly too drunk to care, which made me even more mad. I got up out of the hot tub about as dignified as anyone could, storming off into the resort. I ended up at the bar, sipping a drink that I didn’t know the name of. It probably wasn’t even from the same planet that I was. Whatever it was, it worked. The drink itself was so completely strange that I couldn’t fathom it. It looked like it wasn’t liquid as much as it was ethereal. Suspended in the ether were little blue wisps, twisting and turning around like vapor. It produced a deep chill in the glass, but when I drank it it was like eating soup. When I was done, the bartender would smile and hold out his hand. I would place a little plastic stick in his hand, he would fiddle with it, and he would hand it back to me with another drink. From the smile on his face the drink they must have been expensive.I dissolved into a stupor that made me forget where I was, let alone my troubles in other dimensions. I muddled my mind for a while. There was a slight commotion on the other side of the bar. My foggy senses managed to notice it. I looked to my left and saw some funny shape yelling at another funny shape. I blinked a few times and the scene resolved itself. There was a man arguing with a pony. I blinked again, shaking my head while wondering what I was drinking There was a man arguing with a pony. There was a man arguing with a pony. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My eyes opened so wide they nearly popped out. The pony didn’t dissolve into nothingness or do anything to make me think it was a dream. It just argued with another bar patron. All I could do was stare. The pony was a light lilac, almost white. He had a magnifying glass for a cutie mark. It had bright green eyes and a grey mane. “What do you mean, I stole it?” The pony demanded of the other guy. The other guy sniffed and wiped his nose with his hand. “You stole me crisps.” He slurred. I couldn’t really say whether he was too drunk or not because it wasn’t hard to look completely sober next to me right then. The pony made a show of scoffing at the man “You’re off your rocker, mate, if you think I stole those crisps! You’re so bleedin’ drunk you can’t even see them on the floor where you dropped them!” He shouted at the man. The man snorted and picked his potato chips up off of the floor, leaving the pony alone. The bar was pretty empty at the time, so there wasn’t many people to notice the pony, and those that did see it probably thought it was an alien. I knew what it was, which was why I stared at it. He turned back to his tumbler filled with greenish liquid. He picked it up with magic and took a sip, grimacing when he set down the glass. The purple pony looked around for a little bit, like he was waiting for something to happen. I made eye contact with him. I gasped, shocked. His sharp green eyes seemingly probed me, making me feel naked. What made it worse was his eyes widened in surprise. A smile spread across his face and he hopped off of his stool and walked over to me. I stiffened and looked away from him, trying to read all of the labels on the bottles behind the bar. He wasn’t fooled and nudged me with his hoof. “You’re the Composer.” He said in awe. His strange comment shook me out of trying not to be noticed. I moved my arm so I could get a good look at him. “Excuse me? “You’re the Composer. You sent me.” “Excuse me?” I said incredulously. The pony shook his head. “Of course you wouldn’t know,” He muttered. Turning back to me, he said “But we need to talk. Can you come with me?” He spoke to me, suddenly very intense. I felt wary. “No.” I simply stated, turning back to my drink. I was about to pick up the ethereal beverage by the stem when the pony nudged me again. I took a moment before turning to him, slightly annoyed. I didn’t say anything to him, so he spoke first. “Look behind you.” He grinned. When I did, I nearly had to scoop my jaw up off of the floor. “That’s- That’s-“ I stammered. The pony laughed. “That’s the Composer.” He bragged, like it was a personal achievement to know the guy. I turned back to the bartender. “What the hell did you put in my drink?” I demanded, but the portly fellow just laughed. “Nothin, I see ‘im too. They’re my best customers, Eqquans. Good, honest folk. Ain’t never start fights, never argue the tab. Good, good folk.” The man trailed off, polishing a stein made out of a whole, seamless diamond. I turned back behind me. “He’s- He’s- “Of course he is. Who else would he be? “He’s me.” I whispered to myself, completely in awe. The Composer was exactly that. Me. He was standing outside of the door to the bar, about thirty feet away. He was leaning on a gigantic translucent column and staring straight at me. Other than a tiny silver cross he was wearing on a thin chain around his neck, he wasn’t wearing anything. His white coat was nearly glowing in the filtered X-tonic sunlight, which contrasted with his glossy black mane. He was lean, with the wiry muscles of a rock climber. Nobody walking pass seemed to pay any attention to him, but I couldn’t look at anything else. He smiled, remembering his past in me. I struggled to turn back to the pony next to me. “How?” I whispered. “I’m not allowed to tell you about your future” He said, repeating a variation of a rule I’d heard countless times before. I sighed. “Why doesn’t he come over here and talk to me? “He’s not allowed to touch you, or even speak to you. You aren’t allowed to talk to him either. He was very strict about that.” He explained. I nodded. “What now?” “I’m taking you to his suite. We need to talk alone. Can you wait here for a moment?” He ventured. I nodded, and the pony walked away from me to walk to me. He met the Composer by the big crystalline pillar to talk to him. I couldn’t hear anything, but that didn’t keep me from looking. The Composer said something, and the lilac pony laughed. The purple one nodded, walking away from my pony self. It walked up to the doorway of the bar, motioning for me to get up. I followed him out of the bar to the lobby of the resort. I watched the Composer knock on the crystal floor of the lobby twice with his hoof. The pillar behind him glowed slightly, revealing a seamless door built into the surface. It let out a bright, blinding light as it opened. I had to squint as I watched the silhouette climb through the door, which closed behind him. It sealed shut completely, leaving it looking exactly like it did before. There was a moment of complete silence, and then it happened. The disembodied woosh of a moving tardis reverberated through the lobby. I looked all around to see where it was, but then it dawned on me. I turned back to the crystal column just in time to see it fade into complete nothingness. I stopped right there in the middle of the floor and stared at the spot where the column was. The pony had to tug me out of the lobby to get me moving again. “This is it? I thought it would be the deluxe penthouse suite or something like that.” I wondered aloud as we walked to the room. It was in a hallway made out of a vein of cloudy emerald, deep in the crust of Midnight. The lilac pony laughed. “You actually have to pay more for rooms deeper down. The cheapest rooms have the best views of the outside, but you wake up every morning with sunburn.” “Do you have a name?” I asked the pony. “Finder.” “Do you have a last name?” “Back when I lived there wasn’t much importance placed in last names.” He said, but I wasn’t paying attention. There was a food cart next to one of the doors further down the hall. The Composer was right next to it, smiling. I looked away from him because he wasn’t going to change anytime soon. The room was luxurious, with nearly every available fixture carved meticulously out of the surrounding emerald. I sat down on a couch, one of the only non-emerald pieces in the room and stared at Finder. He wasn’t as well built as the Composer was, but he wasn’t gangly, either. He sat down on the floor in front of me, with a serious look on his face. “You’re different. You’re not quite human, not quite Eqquan. You’re in between. The Composer sees something in you that he likes, and he’s willing to help you out. The thing is, Edwin,” The pony shifted on his haunches. “He’s willing to do just about anything to get you there, short of sending you himself. Mister Shell, we’re desperate. I’ve seen the Angelic scourge. It’s never pretty. Some of my own relatives have died at the hooves of Angelics. The Composer thinks that you’re Equestria’s last hope. The Composer thinks that you can stop them. And he’s never wrong.” “And you want me to do… What, exactly?” I asked. Finder burst into a grin “What are your opinions on Grand Theft Tempus?”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-09-03T14:37:41+00:00

2012-09-03T14:37:41+00:00

Chapter 55 I couldn’t believe it was happening. I was walking back to the Doctor, still lounging in the tub, wearing a heavy jacket. They said that it was the only way to get back. They said that it couldn’t possibly go wrong, and they were there to help me if it did. Finder did pretty much all of the talking, but the Composer was there to add validity through his argument. I shook my head, trying to bring myself back to reality. The straps were chafing me a little bit, which kept me rubbing my shoulders with every step. I could feel the cool metal near my wrist, which was a constant reminder of my promise. There’s no backing out from this point on, Finder said. It’s now or never. If you botch this, you’re stuck on this world. We can help you if you need it, but we can only do so much. He warned, showing me the equipment I would need. I gulped, walking even closer to the Doctor. He was aimlessly looking up at the glistening gems, steeping in the hot tub with his daiquiri still in hand. I gulped as I took the final few steps up to him. He looked up at me with a slightly repentant frown. “Edwin, I’m sorry about earlier. I said some things that I certainly regret, and I hope we can pu-“ The Doctor never finished. I ripped off my jacket leaving parts of my rich brown skin to the open air. I grasped the tool with my right hand and braced it with my left, keeping it stable and pointed at the Doctor. I could feel the pack I was wearing tighten and mold to my body, making me feel itchy. It booted up and began to elicit a sharp metallic whirr. Cool air circulated through the shoulder straps, keeping the machine from burning me where it touched my body. There was a cold pinch on the side of my neck, and suddenly information appeared over my regular vision, showing temperatures and statistics throughout the system in my field of view. “This is a hijacking. Give me every tardis key you have on your person and your screwdriver.” I tried to say as evenly as I could. The Doctor’s previous expression was replaced by a blank mask of shock as he paled a few shades. He shifted his weight forward and stood up in the middle of the tub. He dropped his drink into the water. “Do you know what you’re pointing at me?” “B-x4 adaptive assault system, manufactured by the Walters Corporation on Kobaal Five. It costs five million Federation Credits to fire it one time. I’ll only need to fire it once. They say Hector of Arturus used one to irradiate an entire planet.” I rattled off. “Did he?” “No. It was only a continent.” “If you shoot that, you’ll kill every single person in here.” He explained softly. I adjusted the gun. “I’m a desperate man, Doctor.” “You can’t have the Tardis.” “You won’t survive.” I stated. The Doctor smiled. “Don’t make the mistake of doubting me. Thousands far more motivated than you and much better equipped have tried to take it away from me.” “They might have had better weapons than me, but you bet your ass they weren’t more motivated than I am. I am going to walk out of this lobby with a key and a screwdriver even if it kills me.” I promised. I could feel the suit start to rev faster, expending extra energy so it didn’t combust or create unshielded nuclear fusion on my back. I rolled my shoulders. “You won’t get far. You might not get anywhere.” The Doctor told me. “I know all of the emergency programs and how to circumvent them. I know where to go where future versions of you cannot find me. I’ve entered the streams. I’ve felt the Threads themselves. You can’t stop me. Nothing can now.” “I was going to help you get to Equestria!” He shouted at me, flinging his hands up in anger. I took a step towards the Doctor. He flinched a little bit when I brandished the weapon. “You were?! Doctor, unless you hand me your keys and your screwdriver right now, you’re going to be scooping molecules of yourself up off of a moon three systems away!” I shouted back, baring my teeth at the end. The Doctor looked past me with a triumphant smile. “That’s him! He’s the man!” The Doctor shouted. I looked behind me to see a small squad of armored Judoon. One of them near the head of the group pointed at me and started running. It was hard to understand how fast a bipedal rhino could run until you’ve seen one do it. I swore under my breath and spun to face them. I felt the gun whirr and click, pulling information into my vision which told me that the Judoon approaching were very heavy and wanted to hurt me. I pulled back on the trigger with a solid click. There was a moment of panic when nothing happened. When I thought I was going to get stomped to death. When I would never see Luna again. That moment made her flawless image appear in my mind, with her shining blue hair and her brilliant teal eyes. It flooded me with determination and courage that told me I would not die on this soulless rock. The Pack must have anticipated me and collapsed the enormous cannon into itself and slid two metal plates down the ends of my arms. These plates folded towards me when they reached the end of my arms, molding to my fists. The first Judoon was rapidly approaching. I didn’t hesitate to take the steps to meet it. I wheeled an arm back and swung it forward quickly, catching the alien under the ribs, knocking him off of his feet and launching him a few meters backwards. The other five Judoon didn’t stop running or even hesitate. I leaped into the air and cracked a helmet open with my fists. The next few fell in short order, with what would be fatal wounds if they were humans. But with the Judoon, I just wasn’t sure. I ended up standing in the middle of a bunch of moaning bodies, smeared and splattered with bright yellow blood. I looked up at the Doctor, who was staring at me with his mouth open. I walked back to him, hearing the mechanical whirrs and hisses of the system that helped me walk with the heavy pack on. By this time, it was actually adding metal plates to my body as armor. The Doctor leaped out of the pool and made a dash for a hallway. I tensed my muscles and ran after him, the suit elongating my strides. I was leaping more than running when I collided with a sapphire wall, crumbling off gems bigger than my hands. I tumbled down to the ground, sprawling myself out of the cool blue floor. I watched the Doctor take the final few steps to the Tardis. He paused before he pushed the doors open. “You have made a powerful enemy today, Edwin. You will never be safe. Wherever you hide, whenever you go, you can never be safe from me. I promise you will never again know a moment of peace. On my honor as a Time Lord, I declare you a mortal enemy of my race.” He vowed. He pushed open the doors and walked in. They shut behind him with a sharp clack, and my heart plunged in my chest. I opened my mouth in complete shock. This was it. It was over. I would have to spend the rest of my life on a huge gemstone. I reached for the Tardis as if it would do anything. The plating and the mechanical pieces on the right side of my body clacked and whirred and moved around. I felt a cool wormy thing snake up my arm. A metal hand sprouted on the end of my arm, flexing its fingers. It launched itself out at the Tardis, leaving a thick metal cable behind it. The metal fingers clamped down on a corner of the box. I didn’t have time to think before the cable took up slack and pulled me to the Tardis. I was flung through the air and collided with a clang. I looked around and found myself hugging the Tardis. I looked up at the blue ceiling. It slowly faded from view, showing a chaotic red tunnel. It faded back to blue, then back to red. Blue, red, blue, red. The Tardis, with absolutely no warning at all, lurched forward at an alarming speed. The cables holding me to the door let me out a few feet, separating me from the machine. I could see where I was. The Tardis was moving through time and space, and this was the inside of a Slice. I tried to breathe, but nothing came out. I could feel the spit boiling on my tongue and my vision fading at the edges. Before I could ask the suit to seal me up, a mask slapped down on my face and I could hear the hiss of fresh, cool air. It was technically a synthetic blend that didn’t originate anywhere near a gravity well, but my lungs couldn’t tell the difference. The chaos only a few inches away from me was vicerally palpable. I could almost taste the disorder in the hard vacuum as countless events and times flashed past. I couldn’t bear to look. My time in the Slice lasted forever, yet the moment was fleeting. We finally ended up in a small glade, my body crashing into the Tardis and then onto the ground. My eyes focused and my surroundings resolved into objects. A sun was shining brightly in the sky, but I couldn’t feel the warmth through the suit. The mask I was wearing targeted the star I was looking at. Class G2 y. Dwarf 152m.km. Sol My mind connected the dots. Earth, the peak of summer. I looked to my right. There was a small wood, littered with dandelions and clover. I got to my feet, feeling the springy grass beneath my soles, which were left bare. Apparently they didn’t need protection in a vacuum, at least didn’t for how long I was in one. The mask wasn’t coming off yet because the pack was still deciding if the air was safe to breathe. Various animals were tagged by the mask, telling me how dangerous they were. A few squirrels darted out of the trees to look at me, but that was about it. Nothing really happened. I heard a creak behind me. I turned to the noise immediately, flushing with success when I saw the Doctor peeking his head out of the twin doors. The pleasure I felt when he opened his mouth in horror was so amazingly satisfying. I pointed at him, but didn’t even recognize the outstretched arm because it was so heavily armored. “Your keys and your screwdriver. Now.” I commanded. The Doctor, about as quick as could be, ducked back into the Tardis and tried to close the doors. I called up another metal hand and shot it at him. It didn’t reach him, but it managed to get through the doors. A camera mounted somewhere on the hand popped up in the corner of my vision, showing me a grainy view of the Tardis interior. The Doctor was running around the console, trying to get away from me. I wiggled a few fingers and the mechanical hand leaped to the Console. I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to focus my efforts on what I was about to do. Revoking the Deadlock in the Tardis was complicated. The hand danced across the wedge, trying to remove the lock. The Doctor was definitely trying to stop it, but he wasn’t doing much against the appendage. I couldn’t tell whether it was done on the Console, but the big doors swung open. I grinned and launched myself into the Tardis. The Doctor, still wearing his trunks and lei, went absolutely crazy. He ran to the opposite side of the console and mashed buttons like mad. He actually managed to transport using only the one side. He slammed a palm down on the console and I heard a horrifyingly familiar click. The Doctor panicked. The lights all turned red and the familiar Klaxon sounded. He grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. He flew backwards towards the wall and landed squarely in an inertia chamber. It sealed shut over him as he waved at me. I jumped again, leaping off of the ceiling and flying to his pod. I thumped down on his chamber and started pounding it with my fists. The glass was resilient and didn’t crack. The Doctor mouthed something and flew down out of his tube. I grimaced and pounded on the glass, trying to get at him. It took me a few minutes to realize that I didn’t need to anymore. He was gone, and I had the Tardis. It took me even longer to calm down enough to act on that fact. I was facing the vast emptiness of space. The pack was still on my back, happily revving to keep from exploding. The pastrami and rye in my hand was slightly dry but still delicious. I watched the twinkling universe and bit down on the sandwich. The Tardis was sad, and I knew it. It wasn’t responding to my vocal cues so I had to use the console directly. Thoughts flew through my head. Does violence define me as a person? Am I ever going to be a pony again? Does my sandwich need more or less spicy mustard? These pressing issues bombarded my mind as I waited. The first sandwich disappeared, followed by the second, and then the third. I saw a heart-shaped asteroid float past, millions of miles away from just about anything. I picked up a remote controller that was strategically placed between the pastrami and the mayo. It looked like a flat rectangle completely loaded with wires and switches and knobs. I flicked a series of toggles and buttons, activating a tractor field around the Tardis. The asteroid floated towards me slowly. It bumped up to one side and settled where I couldn’t see it. I pulled my mask down and pushed myself out into space. I clung to the surface of the Tardis and pulled myself along till I got to the rock. It wasn’t so big, but it was still bigger than the Tardis. I pushed myself around the surface of the rock until I found a tiny little crater. I knocked just to the left of the crater twice. A circle appeared on the surface of the asteroid, which swung open. Finder’s bright face appeared, covered by a spacesuit visor. He floated out of the Asteroid and out into space with me. The hatch closed and sealed shut, leaving no trace of its presence. Finder gestured to my Tardis, and I nodded. I got a hold of a handle on his back and pulled him to my door. I tossed him in first, following soon after. Finder was twisting off his helmet when I got my mask off. His grey mane poured out of his suit when he got it off. I frowned and checked on the Console. “You know what to do now.” Finder said, unlocking the cuffs on his boots. I nodded silently, starting the sequence to prepare the Tardis for dimension hopping. I trailed off in my tapping and turned slowly to Finder. He was magicking his spacesuit into a nice folded square. He sighed happily and turned to me. “There’s going to be a pit stop.” I told Finder. He frowned. “What do you mean?” “We’re not going straight to Equestria. I need to pick something up.” I explained. Finder shook his head. “No. We’re going to do this by the book. No detours, no stops. Straight to Equestria.” He spouted. I looked him right in the eyes. “I’m not asking you, Finder. I’m telling you what is going to happen.” “That’s not how things work, Edwin. This is going to happen the way the Composer wants it to happen or it won’t happen at all.” Finder argued. I turned back to the Console and put in the proper coordinates. Finder saw them and sighed. “This isn’t going to work.” He muttered to himself and hopped up on the Console. He was reaching for a monitor when I pointed a revolver at him. “Step away, Finder.” I commanded coldly. Finder stared at me with wide-open eyes. “That’s a gun.” “Do they have guns in Equerstria when you’re from?” “No.” “You know what they do?” “I’ve heard about them.” “Then you’ll kindly walk away from my Console before I show you first hand. I’ve made a promise that I’m going to keep.” I threatened coolly. Finder gulped, but he didn’t move at all. I pulled the hammer back, letting out a sharp clack. “Make your peace with Celestia or get off my Console.” I ordered. Finder hopped off of the Console and backed away, shaking slightly as he did so. I turned back to the controls and put in the last few equations. A lever swung forward and the Tardis started to move. I stared up at the pillar and sighed. I nearly fell asleep to the thrum when a great lurch brought me back from drowsiness. I got up and stretched, thinking about what I would say. I walked past Finder without a word, scooping up a stray sonic screwdriver from a pile of linens. I pulled the doors open and looked. I was in front of a big white condo, with a nice black BMW in the driveway and a nice rosebush in the garden. I was waiting not even a minute when a man walked out of the front door. He was holding a leather briefcase and a wad of white fabric in another. He locked the door behind him and he turned around. He dropped his briefcase and his wad down right then. He didn’t move, and he didn’t speak. I smiled. “Come on, Othello. We’re going home.”

jroddie

505

Doctor Whooves,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Crossover,Human,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore

One Way

Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

incomplete

<p>Edwin Shell is a human come to Equestria after his violent, early demise. He wakes up in a strange land in an even stranger body, finding colorful creatures that call themselves &quot;ponies&quot;. He soon finds himself in a centuries standing power struggle between the Numbereds, the ancient race that has guarded Equestria since time immemorial, and the Angelics, who are countless and seek total annihilation of civilized life. Can Edwin find a way into this strange world, or will he be killed before he has a chance?</p>

teen

2012-09-12T02:23:25+00:00

2012-09-12T02:23:25+00:00

Chapter 56 I’ve never seen Othello run so fast, even as a pony. He sprinted to me as fast as he could, leaving his things at the door. I was laughing as he closed the last few feet and leaped into my arms. I gathered him up in my arms and squeezed him, roaring with laughter. I was so happy to see him again, and he was so happy to see me. We were finally going back to where we belong. He sobbed into my chest and I smiled. “We’re going home, Othello.” I said. He nodded and pulled away from me. “It feels like a dream.” He mumbled, wiping a tear from his eye. I smiled even wider. “You know it isn’t. Do you need to go get anything?” I asked, but he shook his head. “Anyone you want to say goodbye to?” “No. Everyone that’s ever loved me knew me as Winston. Let’s go.” He said. I nodded, stepping aside so he could push the doors open. I waited a moment before going in to look at the sky. Plump clouds floated by, with the vapor trails of airplanes crossing the sky. It would probably be the last time I see it. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, smelling rich hickory smoke from a barbecue a few houses down. The smell overwhelmed me for a moment, making me slump against the tardis. That whiff made me seriously consider what I was doing. I was leaving Earth behind and leaving to another dimension. A completely separate dimension where hickory smoke probably didn’t exist and Jamal King didn’t have a single cent to his name. I could leave it all behind. I could live out the rest of my natural life and die, programming the Tardis to go back to the Doctor and telling Othello to go it alone. But… If I didn’t have another heart attack, odds were that I could probably see myself again. My first time around, in my original body. That would be so weird. What would I tell myself? Hey Edwin, don’t go buy that ring, she’s going get cold feet and die. Hey Edwin, don’t go to comic con. Hey Edwin, don’t move to Florida. Hey Edwin, let’s go have lunch, I need to tell you something. Hey Edwin, have a few million dollars. Funny enough, I did have a guy offer me a million bucks once, but he was drunk. And white. I was still arguing with myself when Othello found Finder. “Holy shit!” I heard him shout at the top of his lungs. I smiled and ducked into the Taridis. Othello was looking at Finder from the opposite end of the Tardis. Finder was squinting at him, most likely wondering why I would stop for this guy. Othello gulped. “It’s good to finally see one.” He whispered. I jogged up to the Console and read a few monitors. “You’re about to see a whole lot more. But, uh…” “What? What’s the problem this time?” Finder demanded. Othello backed away as if he was afraid of the pony. “I’m hungry.” Much to Finder’s annoyance, we decided to stop a second time at a backwater system with some of the best crab Rangoon in the Galactic Supercluster. After I convinced Finder that no crabs died in the making of the little fried delights, he agreed to have one. Big mistake. “Jesus, Finder. It’s not like they’re gonna run out.” Othello admonished. Finder didn’t even hesitate, shamelessly levitating three more into his mouth. He closed his mouth and chewed them with a blissful smile on his face. Othello and I were actually hiding some of them in our pockets so we could actually eat them without Finder stealing them. Due to the insanely large amount of money I had on me thanks to the Tardis reserves, we could afford to buy the actual restaurant several times over in cash. I was in a gambling mood. I leaned over the table while Finder scarfed up some more Rangoon. “What’s the over-under on how many more plates he can eat?” I whispered. Othello screwed up his face in thought. “Six?” “How about five?” “I’ll take the over.” “Damn. How much?” I asked, running through how many bits I could actually get for Othello on short notice. “Three million?” “You’re going to be the end of me, old man.” I joked. Othello grinned, pushing his round glasses down his nose. “You’re good for the cash.” Othello assured me with a chuckle. “Can you wait till we’re back in Equestria?” I ventured. Othello grimaced. “I dunno…” He threatened. “Come on, I have no idea where to get bits in this dimension. Gimme a break.” I pleaded. Othello mulled it over a little bit. “Deal.” Othello grinned, sticking out his hand. I shook it, feeling sick. I suddenly watched Finder with intensity, not caring that I had mushy Rangoon in my pockets. Othello smiled a bright smile, turning to Finder. Finder paused and looked at him, his mouth wide open and levitating a Rangoon in front of his maw. “Next ten plates are on me, Finder.” He said warmly. Finder smiled. “Raarlra?” He asked, his eyes watering with joyous anticipation. “Really.” Othello promised. He turned around to one of the waitresses, a bright green humanoid. “Three more plates, please?” He asked, and the waitress nodded. Finder finished eating what was in his mouth and looked at Othello like he just said that Santa was a lie. “But I thought you said ten!” He pointed out indignantly. Othello put his hands up. “Easy, Tiger. Don’t want you to explode, do we?” He reasoned. Finder looked confused. “What’s a Tiger?” Finder asked innocently. Othello and I glanced at each other. Never gamble with an Italian. He mouthed silently. I cursed my bad decision making and watched the next three plates of steaming Rangoon fly down on lithe green arms into Finder’s mouth. I watched with dread as plate after plate disappeared, only to be replaced by even more. To be honest, I was less worried about losing the bet than having Finder literally explode inside of the restaurant. This pony literally garnered a crowd of about twenty people, encouraging him to finish the next plate. My head was buried inside of two steins of something potent when Finder started his seventh plate. Othello was grinning like mad and the crowd around him was going crazy. Finder’s stomach made a funny noise and he squinted, his cheeks bloating. I sat up and watched finder with a newfound energy. Othello was looking grim. “Hey Finder, you alright?” I asked. He shook his head and heaved a little bit, keeping his mouth closed. He wavered for a moment, his eyes unfocused. Suddenly he leaped off of his stool and sprinted to the bathroom. I couldn’t stop the smile on my face. I jumped up, still tipsy, cackling. I banged on the table and enjoyed my victory. Othello just sat stony-faced, waiting for me to finish. The crowd thinned out and the revelry subsided to a dull happiness. Finder stayed in the bathroom for a long time, and Othello and I ordered a few plates for ourselves. We ended up talking about everything. “Do you remember your first super Nintendo?” I asked Othello. He chuckled. “Edwin, I was 48 when Super Nintendo came out.” “The question stands.” I insisted. He smiled. “Fine. I actually own a huge share of Nintendo, so they sent me one gratis when they released in Japan. There was a kid a few years back in the child ward that had cancer, pretty far along. He was a referral from St. Jude’s, they couldn’t treat him so they sent him back to a hospital near home,” Othello choked up, tears forming in his eyes. He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. I softened up a little bit. “To die.” He finished, barely understandable. “I wasn’t his doctor in the hospital, but everyone knew his story. All he wanted for Christmas was a Super Nintendo. He wasn’t going to live that long. Not even close. His parents barely had enough money to keep their house afloat, let alone buy him a game. I knew that I had the power to make the rest of this kid’s life happy. So I came into work one day dressed as Santa, super Nintendo fresh in the box. The-“ Othello sobbed once, interrupting his story. “The look on his face, Edwin. It was like he was the luckiest kid alive. I set it up for him and handed him a Super Mario cartridge. I swear to god, Edwin, I never did anything more selfless in my entire life. Any of them. I- I saw him the next day, acted all surprised. I visited him every day with a new cartridge. PilotWings, SimCity, anything I could find. I blew hundreds on this kid. He… He died a few weeks after he got it. His parents said that he wanted me at his funeral. I really wanted to go, to pay my respects. I just couldn’t. I couldn’t bear to go see him in that casket. I didn’t need to remember him dead. I just-“ He never finished his story because Finder came out of the bathroom. He looked terrible, sunken eyes perched above a sniffling nose. A loud cheer rose up from the bar and all the patrons rushed up to him, holding him above their shoulders. I smiled, feeling the bitter dregs of the story mix with Finder’s newfound fame. I watched them parade the lilac pony around the restaurant, showering him with praise and condolences. I grunted and stood, brushing the dirt from my worn khakis. Othello watched me get up. “Come on, he’ll never know we’re gone.” I said. “I- I can’t do it, Edwin.” He whispered, shaking his head as I handed him the package. I closed his hands around it and nodded. “Yes you can. You need to do this.” I emphasized. Othello shook his head. “I don’t know if I can.” He said, his voice warbling. “Please, Othello, for him. If not for anything else, do it for him.” I pleaded. Othello gulped, trying to calm himself. “Okay.” “Okay?” “Okay.” He affirmed, turning to walk out the Tardis door. I followed him to the doorway and watched him step out onto the cool grass. He took a few more shaky steps out into the open, finally coming to what we were here for. A simple marker, made of white stone, marked his destination. He took a knee and placed the package at the base of the marker. Othello placed a hand on top of the marker, his shoulders shaking. I couldn’t hear him crying, but I knew he was. I turned back, leaving Othello to himself while I checked the Console. My eyes widened. I ran down the ramp and saw Othello screaming up at the sky, consumed by sorrow. He couldn’t see the helicopters coming in over the tree line. I sprinted out of the door and up to Othello, getting a hold of him and pulling him back to the Tardis. He was struggling, trying to claw his way back to the marker. “Come on, Othello, time to go.” I said through my teeth, trying to keep Othello from getting away. “No! No! You can’t make me!” He screamed, trying his damndest not to leave the marker. I looked over to the trees, seeing the slightest hint of helicopter coming over. I pulled on Othello harder, triying to make him get the hint. He didn’t, still struggling as much as he could to get away from me. The helicopters were now clearing the trees and making a straight line for us. I put all my weight in heaving Othello to the Tardis. I couldn’t. Pretty soon, these three helicopters were hovering right over us. The wind gusted around us as I waited for something to happen. One of the helicopters banked to the side a little bit, sliding open a door. I looked up at it. I couldn’t see who appeared at the door, but he held up a megaphone and told me. “Did you think that you could just get away with it, Edwin?!” The Doctor shouted. I grimaced as soon as I recognized the voice. I pulled on Othello even harder, but he still struggled. The Doctor continued. “Did you honestly think that nobody would do anything?! You are so lucky that I found you first! So many would do so much to get their hands on a Tardis. Imagine defending it by yourself! You don’t even know how to camouflage it properly! You can’t just go everywhere all willy nilly! “I needed it more than you!” I screamed back, still holding on to Othello. By now we were rolling around in the grass. The Doctor laughed. “Oh, that’s rich! Did you ever stop to think that you don’t belong in Equestria?! It’s not your home anymore! Look at yourself!” He argued at me. “Shut up! We’ll find a way!” I snapped back, but the Doctor laughed. “You don’t have any idea! What happens when you go back to Equestria? Huh? What are you going to do then?” The Doctor asked. He blew all of my arguments out of the water. I couldn’t respond to it at all. The Doctor laughed. “Exactly! You don’t know what you’ll do! You aren’t even ponies!” “Shut up, Doctor! You don’t have any idea what it’s like! It was the best thing that ever happened to us! You’d do the exact same thing if you were in our shoes!” I screamed back. The Doctor snarled and pointed at me. “You have stolen a Temporal displacement device capable of traveling more than one thousand years in any direction, an explicitly illegal act as decreed by Section nine, Article twelve of the Shadow Proclamation! I have no choice but to commandeer your craft and kill you both!” The Doctor enunciated. I looked up at him in shock, letting go of Othello and standing up straight “Imagine the irony! The Mighty Doctor, Hero of the Time War, Savior of the Universe, stooping so low as to observe primitive mortal law! I remember a Doctor that would do anything to protect innocent beings, even if it meant breaking the rules! Look at you now! Trying to kill perfectly innocent people!” I shouted. The Doctor laughed. “Edwin… You are so very far from innocent.” He said so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. The Doctor probably didn’t understand what he said, only thinking of it in the context of grand theft tempus. He didn’t know of the countless nights I spent tossing, dreaming convoluted dreams of torturing Angelics to death. He didn’t know how I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, shaking with adrenaline. He didn’t know that I had dreams about ponies. Spitfire, her skin bulging around a frame that wasn’t hers. Twilight, shaking and blinded inside of a machine. Anger surged through me, making me shake. I had the strong urge to hit something. So that’s what I did. I stepped through the flaming rubble, over broken headstones and moaning, armored humans. Thick black smoke erupted from a destroyed helicopter, blotting out the sun and giving everything a yellowish tint. The suit flipped over to a thermal overlay, showing me a glowing Doctor scrabbling on the ground. I leaped up into the air, watching the ground shrink below me, then come back up suddenly with the Doctor right under me. My feet crunched down on either side of him. I grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up to me. He had changed out of his Lei and his trunks, donning body armor and combat boots. I held him up above me. “Look at what you’re trying to stop. Once you’ve felt the power, there’s no going back. When I have my hands on that console, time stands still. It goes forward, backward, side to side, all around. It’s intoxicating unlike anything else in existence. You know that. I know that. But that’s not what I want.” I tried to explain. The Doctor grimaced and grunted at me, trying to struggle out of my mechanical grasp. “Then give it back!” He shouted. “This isn’t theft. I’m just borrowing. This isn’t about me wanting the Tardis. You can have it back. I just want you to understand why I need it. Equestria is my home. There’s trouble there, and I need to fix it. One day, curiosity will get the better of you and you’ll go there. You’ll understand then. Not a second before. Don’t hate me, just wait until you understand.” I finished. I dropped him and walked away, navigating through the rubble and the wreckage. The Tardis stood amidst the conflagration like a diamond in a pile of coal. I walked towards it, grabbing Othello by the collar of his shirt on the way. I looked back at the marker where Othello sat studiously the whole time I was beating the living shit out of everything. Michael Dean Williams 1986-1991 Daddy loves you I understood why Equestria was so important to him. I turned away from the gravestone and started the walk the Tardis. “Edwin?” He asked softly as I dragged him. “Yes?” “Thank you.” “You’re welcome.” I reciprocated. I pushed open the Tardis doors and heaved Othello up on his own feet. I walked up to the console and sighed. There was so much to do. What I wouldn’t give to have this all be over, curling up with Luna in my old body, smelling the sweet peach trees in the backyard. We would sit and watch the sunset. I would paint beautiful pictures. We would… We would… “Edwin? Edwin, wake up.” Something said. I blinked, my vision blurry. I looked up at the console, watching the pillar slow down and stop. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and turned from the console. Othello was standing there with Finder. “Are you ready, Edwin?” Finder asked. “Ready for what?” I probed. Finder and Othello looked at each other. Othello gulped and started to explain. “Edwin, when you left, the Numbereds had no real defense against the Angelics. All they had was Evangeline. Marcus tried to fight, and so did Gespard, and I’m surprised that the two of them are still alive. They’re strong, but not strong enough.” He finished. I shrugged, lifting my hands up and slapping them back down. Finder pouted, but Othello continued. “It’s not like it was, Edwin. It’s-“ Othello started, but shook his head. He walked down to the Tardis doors and placed a palm flat on one. “Just see for yourself.” He said, pulling the door open. My jaw dropped. “Oh my God.”