Equestria: City of Guilds
Prologue
Galloping quickly through the streets of Ravnica, surrounded by the remains of Izzet creations and constructions, a pink mare, scantily clad in black and red, with scorch marks and scars from lacerations spread across her body and a long needle through her left ear, talks excitedly, yet nervously, to any who wish to hear her.
“Oh, I’m so nervoucited!” Pinkie squeals, quickly approaching a dot of blue that looks familiar to her, “We finally get to go back to Ponyville! I mean, Ravnica isn’t bad, except for those meanie mean meanie-pants Azorius, and those sneaky sneak sneaky-pants Dimir, but it’s not their fault they’re that way, that blame lies with their Paruns, but I really ought to get back home, and show everyone the new ways of partying I’ve seen while I was here, and-” Pinkie’s ramblings continued, until a purple hoof found its way into her mouth.
“Honestly Pinkie,” Twilight started with a tired sigh, but not before getting Pinkie to stop talking for a few moments and retracting her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth, “I know you’re excited, but surely you could tone it down a bit, right?”
Nodding furiously, Pinkie noticed her mane standing more on end than usual, the occasional arc of blue mana passing from the strands of her mane to her needle and back again. Halting the vigorous displacement of her head, Pinkie traced the arcs back to Twilight, who had a hoof placed upon her face and was shaking her head ever so slightly. The arcs disappeared into a pair of canisters strapped to Twilight’s barrel, cables extending from each of them to her fore hooves and horn, though they were mostly covered by blue and red armour-like robes, which were a fairly poorly done attempt at reconfiguring the robes most Izzet wore for equines, magical or otherwise.
“Look out below!” a raspy voice cried, before crashing into the ground right where Twilight was standing.
“When are you going to stop crash-landing, Rainbow?” Twilight asked from beside Pinkie, having teleported there during Rainbow’s warning, trying to hold back a chuckle.
“I didn’t crash, I just miscalculated.” Rainbow groaned, standing up and hovering out of her crater, her armour creaking as she stood.
“Then you could at least try not to miscalculate so badly that you make a crater every time you get back on the ground.” Twilight tried to say, but it came out more like some nonsensical mumblings.
Pinkie then looked from Twilight to Rainbow, making numerous excited and partially sarcastic sounding nonsensical mumblings that would’ve sounded like “Wow Dashie! I didn’t know you could make Twilight stop talking! Did they teach you that in the Legion?” if they weren’t nonsensical, though it appeared she was trying to sound silly and wasn’t enchanted by the same spell as Twilight.
“I didn’t make her stop,” Rainbow replied, rolling her eyes and guessing at what Pinkie said by the way that her lips moved, a technique that, used on anypony or anybody other than Pinkie, would seem more appropriate for House Dimir, rather than the Boros Legion, “Scoot did.”
A small orange head topped with a purple mane appeared from thin air beside Rainbow Dash, followed by the rest of Scootaloo’s body. Her cutie mark, the silhouette of a pegasus with a keyhole in its centre, is as glaringly obvious and subtly discreet as it was the day she got it. She is also adorned with the usual apparel of one of the ‘faces’ of the Tenth Guild: blue eye shadow and lipstick, a black headband with small and insignificant charms hanging from it, black wristbands and a cloak that looked like the sky on a cloudless night, something that was less frequently seen by the small group of mares since their arrival to the plane they had called ‘home’ for so many years.
“So where’s Shiny?” Twilight asked, after shooting a glare at Scootaloo, who nervously rubbed a hoof against the back of her head.
“Eh,” Rainbow wing-shrugged, much to a passer-by’s chagrin, “I think he said he was going to escort Rarity and Trixie here.”
Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but was overwhelmed by the smell of rotting flesh and closed it. Looking around for a nearby sewer hatch, she levitated it off the ground and dropped it a short distance from the hole.
“Thanks fer tha’ Twi,” Applejack said from within the sewer, climbing out further before continuing, “Ah don’t think Mac or Ah woulda been able to break through it, and those darn Azorius keep on makin’ ‘em proper tough with their fancy-schmancy blue mana, no offence t’ you, o’ course.”
“Eeyup.” Big Macintosh affirmed, backpedalling momentarily to reattach a leg that fell off on his way over to the group of mares.
Hearing an arrow fly over their heads and bury itself into a nearby wall, followed by a whoop of joy, the group of ponies look up to see Apple Bloom zip lining quickly towards them, only prevented from falling to the ground by her bow and the rope attached to one of the skyscrapers a short gallop away. Releasing her grip on the bow with one of her hooves, Apple Bloom does a small corkscrew before leaping off the rope and landing right between Applejack and Big Macintosh, briefly hugging each of them then running over to and hugging Scootaloo.
“Well, Fluttershy, it appears we are the last to arrive.” Another voice says from a short distance away in a rather hammy manner, “No matter. So long as we are all here, I have no qualms associating with any of you.”
True to her word, an occurrence that very rarely happens with the show mare turned debt collector, Trixie and Fluttershy join the sizable group of ponies standing around an unusually uninteresting wall, followed by Rarity, Shining Armor and Sweetie Belle.
“Remind me again vhy I am going viz all of you zrough zis gate to get back to Eqvestria?” Sweetie Belle asks, still almost catching her tongue on her fangs, despite having had years to adjust to them.
“Because,” Twilight starts, while one of Rarity’s eyes twitches at the sight of Sweetie’s fangs, “Because… I got nothing. Anybody else got anything?”
The other assembled ponies shake their heads after various amounts of thinking, Big Mac accentuating his with a deeply considered “Nnope.” Provided with no reason to stay any longer, Sweetie then declares that she ‘vould go on ahead’, before disappearing once again, leaving only a faint image of her cutie mark scorched onto the ground. The mark, like some mixture between the foot of a human and the talon of a griffon, fades away soon after, leaving no trace of Sweetie having ever stood there, let alone ‘walked away.
“Am I the only one creeped out by her fangs?” Trixie asks bluntly, earning herself glares from some of the other mares, “What? I’m sorry, but fangs on a pony are really creepy.”
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Rarity begins with a sigh, her white and blue robes billowing in the wind, “I agree with Trixie. A pony with fangs is creepy and unnatural. A fact that isn’t helped by it being my sister with the fangs, as well as that garish Etherium graft on her face and prosthetic.”
“Ah don’t know if’n you’ve noticed,” Big Mac continues, removing and reattaching one of his legs to bolster his argument, “But we’ve all become unnatural on account o’ our time here, t’ some degree.”
“Macintosh is right,” Shining rebuffs, tapping his horn against the wall in a distinct pattern, “Though for some of us it is more obvious than for the rest. Him and Sweetie being prime examples of my point.”
Before any of the ponies could voice their agreement or disagreement, the wall they were standing next to reconstructed itself. The shuddering of the bricks as they moved to form columns was a curious sight, though not something that would have caught any of the ponies off guard. As the bricks fell silent once again, a door that was hidden just beyond the wall opened, revealing a human wearing the same kind of robes as Twilight, though his had a battered look to it. It was also charred near the edges of where his left arm used to be, which had been replaced by one from a weird.
“About time you got here, little ponies,” He said jokingly as the ponies filed in, “Some of us at the League want this up and running as soon as possible, including Niv-Mizzet, so get a move on.”
“Alright already, Zelivivix. We’re here now, so quit complaining and turn this thing on.” Twilight responded impatiently.
With a shrug, Zelivivix pulled a lever on the wall beside him, causing the gate to whir ominously. As the whirring grew louder, five small orbs that surround the gate slowly fill from the centre outwards, each with a different kind of mana. As the orbs fill, some of the contained mana arcs between them, doing so with an increasing consistency. When the orbs reach their peak, they all arc towards each of the others, creating a static star-shape in the middle of a marble archway.
“All right, everypony through the centre. You should appear just outside the Everfree Forest, somewhere near Fluttershy’s cottage or the Apple family farm. Good luck.” Zelivivix stated in a manner that reminded Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor of their superiors in the Legion, mock saluting the group.
Each of the ponies climbed through the gate one by one, though Apple Bloom was left with the unfortunate task of carrying one of Big Macs legs through with her, until Twilight was the only pony left on Ravnica. Or, at least the last pony that hadn’t died to get the rest home. As Twilight placed a hoof through the gate, Zelivivix cleared his throat to gain her attention.
“Just thought I’d let you know that a lot of us back at Nivix are going to miss you and your pony friends, Guildmage.” He said, poking his tongue out slightly when he said her title.
“Tell everyone that I’ll miss them too, Zelivivix.” Twilight replied before stepping the rest of the way through the gate.
Glancing around in search of something familiar, Twilight first notices the rest of the ‘formerly-stranded’ group milling about, then sees Spike running over to her, about twice the size he was when she disappeared and tears streaming from his eyes. Meeting him halfway with tears forming in the corners of her eyes, Twilight jumps up and wraps her arms around Spike’s scaly neck.
“I’ve missed you so much, Twilight.” Spike cried, his head leaning on Twilight’s shoulders and his claws wrapped around her barrel.
“I’ve missed you too, Spike.” Twilight said, stroking Spike’s scales soothingly before letting him go. “I’m so sorry I left you here on your own.”
“It’s not your fault.” Spike sniffed, wiping a claw under each of his eyes. “I’m just happy that you’re back, along with as everypony else. Granny Smith’s gonna be so relieved that her grandfoals are all back safe and sound as well.”
With a barely a moments goodbye, the three Apples galloped towards their Granny’s farm, unsure how they would explain Big Mac’s ‘condition’. The remainder of the group journeyed together into town, chatting about something different from the oddly frequent debacles that happened on Ravnica, while small groups of them split off as they passed each pony’s once former and again current home.
Back at the Apple farm, Applejack had begun to explain to Granny Smith what had happened in the several years that she and her siblings were ‘on ‘nother world’, when a piano started to play from the void between planes, instigating another of the long forgotten moments of spontaneously bursting into a musical number:
“We've struggled hard,
Through sun an’ rain.”
Approaching the Crusader clubhouse with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, Apple Bloom felt the urge to belt out more of what she hadn’t heard before:
“We foun’ our way home,
From an alternate plane.”
In the town square, Shining Armor looks around at the flaming remains of many homes and businesses, a melancholy tone overlaying his words:
“But this land lies,
In disarray.”
Rearranging fabrics in her boutique, Rarity pondered how much her life had changed in the time she had spent on Ravnica, assessing her former self as she would assess parties on trial before her:
“Still, we won't lie down and wallow in grief,
We'll save the day!”
All across the torn and flaming remains of Ponyville, the voices of the mares and stallions who had returned from a place none had ever heard of called out in unison:
“And we mean to go on, on, on, on!”
Galloping around Ponyville to gather her friends and brother for Princess Cadence, Twilight Sparkle relays what she had learned in the moments before setting off to those who could keep up with her:
“We are the last hope, my friends,
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end.”
Piling into carriages outside Twilight’s library, the guild ponies complete yet another stanza of their unfortunate epic:
“We are the last hope.
We are the best hope.
No time for sorrow,
'Cause we are the last hope”
On her own again, Twilight finishes relaying Cadence's message to her friends:
“Of the world.”
Remembering what she swore to Chrysalis, Fluttershy speaks up after a few moments of silence:
“I've taken my vows.”
Reminiscing over the many raids she went on, Rainbow Dash continues after her timid friend:
“Said my battle cries.”
Thinking back on the bonds she formed, Trixie rather suddenly grabs Pinkie and Scootaloo in a bone-crushing hug:
“You've brought me love and kindness and everything that goes with it.
I thank you guys.”
Embracing Trixie in a heartfelt moment of sadistic joy, Pinkie considers how difficult their journey has been:
“But it's been no tray of cupcakes,”
Looking out one of the windows at the burning and crumbling remains of much that he knew before he first died, Big Macintosh carries the verse closer to an end:
“No scenic trail.”
Deeply angered by the sight of the crumbling remains of Canterlot Castle, Sweetie Belle silently curses the only creature evil enough to do this, before expressing her thoughts on the situation aloud:
“I consider zis a challenge before ze whole eqvine race,”
Spurred on by what her friends said before her, Scootaloo stands up and proclaims proudly:
“And we'll surely prevail!”
With a renewed vigour the ponies look to each other, the carriages in a line for the first time since take off allowing this, and belt out more of what would later be known as the ‘call to arms’ for those in the Twilight Guard:
“And we mean to go on, on, on, on!”
Watching Canterlot pass underneath them, Twilight attempts to gather her thoughts, continuing her encouraging stave:
“We are the last hope, my friends,
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end.”
Continuing together again, the ponies begin their descent into the Crystal Empire and figuratively prepare to end the ballad:
“We are the last hope.
We are the best hope.
Now time for sorrow,
'Cause we are the last hope”
Accidentally sending a lick of fire into the air as she waved to her sister-in-law, Twilight sustains her last solo:
“Of the world.
We are the last hope, my friends,
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end.”
Touching down in the Crystal Empire, the ponies that had only hours earlier returned to Equestria culminate their aria with a final heartfelt rebuttal:
“We are the last hope.
We are the best hope.
Now time for sorrow,
'Cause we are the last hope.”
Rushing through alleyways, a Rakdos cultist leapt over various pots and barrels, knocking them over in an attempt to halt the small squad of Boros soldiers hunting him down. Leaping up and climbing into a window, he hid himself from view long enough to pull out the pair of knives embedded in his chest, stifling a small moan of pleasure as they dug into his fingers.
“By Rakdos’ scythe, how was I supposed to know that one gal that volunteered was one of their ‘best and brightest’?” He thought, snickering slightly by the end.
Noticing how unnaturally quiet the room he had barged into had become, he turned to see a tall woman standing over him, wings spread in an intimidating manner and sword pointed at his throat. He remembered her, most recently, from a number of the raids on Rakdos distraction clubs that he had gotten himself caught up in, and smiled at the memories.
“Just give up now, demon spawn.” She stated icily, while he merely stood up and placed a foot on the window frame.
“Is that how you treat your childhood friend, Thalia?” He provoked, leaning back slightly and smiling, “Because to be brutally honest, I’m rather hurt.”
“You aren’t my friend, Atzo.” Thalia said, a sliver of sadness escaping into her tone, “You’re just some rampaging murderer who shares the same name as my friend.”
“I’m sorry, Thalia.” Atzo started, a genuine tear of sorrow rolling down his cheek and his devilish smile never leaving his face, “I really am. But those two people have always been just one.”
Leaping backwards out the window and impaling an elite that had tried to sneak up on him in the head with a knife, Atzo bounded from wall to wall in a rather vain attempt to lose the angel that had been chasing after him for many weeks. Noticing the lack of shouting that should have been coming from behind him, Atzo stopped on an outcropping and turned around. There weren’t any Boros in sight, except for the one that he had dragged along on his knife, and he was far too busy being dead to shout at anything.
Turning back to continue on, Atzo quickly came face to face with an Izzet who obviously hadn’t been there moments earlier. The Izzet could be easiest described as having been caught in several dozen explosions, about half of which had been intentional. His hair, or what was left of it, was a mess of a lighter shade of brown and blonde, with the occasional charred patch. The metal canisters that seemed to always be attached to his sides were spewing fire from the bottom, most likely how he was staying in the air without standing on something. His left arm was probably what stood out the most, having come from one of those elemental things that the Izzet always seemed to let loose in the city, or at least the revues that Atzo had been to. The most annoying thing though, was his smile. He had a perpetually smug grin, as if he always knew what you were and weren’t planning and had something figured out so that you would never get your way.
“Why are you here, Father?” Atzo started with a sigh, hiding his knives in his back.
“So you don’t know, hmm.” The Izzet stated, scratching his chin idly, “Ah well, it matters not. I wanted to show you and your mother something I made.”
Before he could protest how most of his father’s experiments exploded when he went to show them to anyone, he and Atzo were both teleported in a spectacularly flashy manner to the foot of Vitu-Ghazi, where Atzo’s mother, Ficlawa, stood waiting.
“There you are!” Ficlawa called, rushing over to Atzo and his father, “It’s been far too long since I last saw you.”
While Ficlawa was picked up and spun lightly by Atzo’s father, Atzo himself turned away and mimed gagging, putting public displays of affection on the level that most other people would put torture. Far in the distance, but still close enough to see it, a pair of Rakdos laugh at Atzo’s reaction. Seeing this in the corner of her eye, Ficlawa extracts herself from Atzo’s father’s loving embrace and wraps her arms around her son, a gesture he is rather reluctant to return.
“Uh, it’s good to see you again, mama!” Atzo begins rather timidly, yelping as she yanks out one of the knives in his back.
“Just once,” Ficlawa started, her disappointed tone causing a small flock of birds nearby to roost on her shoulders and bury their heads under their wings, “I wish that you’d come to visit me without getting yourself in trouble with the Boros first.”
“Yes, mama.” Atzo said glumly, his head hung low.
“Atta boy, now let’s go.” Atzo’s father said, ushering Ficlawa and Atzo towards Nivix, frightening away the birds.
“Hold on, Zeliv.” Ficlawa began, stopping while Zeliv merely looked over his shoulder towards her, “You still haven’t told us you want us to see.”
“A weird like no other.” Zeliv said simply, blinking the three of them into his lab.
“Is this going to be like that last weird you made?” Atzo asked cautiously.
“No, though I did learn a substantial amount about how black mana and green mana interact. This time, I used not just blue mana and red mana, like in the standard weird, but white mana, black mana and green mana as well.” Zeliv rambled, smiling like the madman he is and unveiling his latest creation.
“It’s an abomination.” Atzo deadpanned, while Ficlawa pondered whether she should let it live or put it down as an act of mercy.
“More like fan-”
BOOM
All was well in the quiet town of Ponyville, an occurrence that its residents knew bode ill intentions. Many were staying inside, hoping that whatever it was that would wreak havoc upon their town would hurry up and get it over with. There were still a few ponies wandering around town, and businesses were still open, but they were all prepared to run for it at the first sign of trouble. All except for one. Bouncing through town, a pink po-
“That’s Pinkie Pie, narrator.”
Uh, right. Where was I? Ah, here. Bouncing through town, Pinkie Pie hummed a merry tune to herself, blissfully oblivious to the cause of everypony else’s anxiety.
“Oh, no no no.” Pinkie started, waiting patiently for a moment before continuing, “I know what’s got everyone so down. But they just don’t know how great it’ll be!”
Whatever just stop interrupting me will you?
“Okie dokie lokie.” And with that, Pinkie continued bouncing to her destination; the stretch of the Everfree Forest that sits between Fluttershy’s cottage and the Apple farm, which coincidentally was the same place where she entered years earlier to defeat Nightmare Moon with Twilight and the rest of her closest friends. Sitting just outside the forest, Pinkie starts counting down from one hundred fairly quickly.
“Five four three two one!” She finished, before an unnaturally large grin, even for her, grew on her face and she started shaking uncontrollably, “Oh, here they come!”
BOOM
“Called it!” Pinkie hollered as she was sent flying, though that may have just been her, by the explosion, stopping mid-air moments before bowling over her friends, slowly descending towards the ground.
“What was that, Pinkie?” Twilight asked, worry in her tone and overlooking the blatant disregard for the laws of physics that was just demonstrated.
“The biggest doozie I ever felt, that’s for sure.” Pinkie replied, her eyes shifting from side to side above Twilight’s head, as if there were something there that only she could see. “Oh, yeah!” Pinkie continued. “I saw a few ponies just after the explosion, and I don’t recognize any of them.” Liar. “We should probably go and see if they’re all right.”
Ignoring the fact that Pinkie seemed to be glaring at the lock of her mane that hangs in front of her face, Twilight and the rest of her friends follow Pinkie, who is also running backwards like a cheater, to where she apparently saw the new ponies.
Stopping by the large burnt patch of dirt, which rather oddly ceased to be before reach the Everfree Forest, the six mares find a few ponies lying in various horribly uncomfortable positions, the youngest of which is bleeding lightly.
“Oh my goodness,” Fluttershy says quickly, rushing over to the ash grey colt and pressing her hooves against him to stop the flow of blood, “Applejack, this little colt is pretty badly cut up. I need some bandages, pronto.” Noticing her directness, Applejack stares at Fluttershy incredulously for a moment before shaking it off and galloping away to retrieve medical supplies, all of which happens faster than Fluttershy can say, “If you don’t mind, that is.”
Stirring slightly, Atzo rolls away from Fluttershy, revealing the remaining knife in his back. He yelps loudly as she pulls it out quickly and forcefully. Tossing it away, Fluttershy can hear the colt murmuring something, though by the time she can figure out what it is, Atzo is already speaking loud enough for everypony to hear.
“I’m sorry, mama.” Atzo starts, still rolling away from Fluttershy, “I didn’t mean to get into trouble with those guards. I just wanted to have some fun.”
The pearl white unicorn mare groaned slightly and pushed herself up onto her hooves, blinking her eyes open as if she had only gotten them five minutes earlier, which is impossible highly improbable.
“It’s okay, sweetie.” Ficlawa begins, slowly becoming more aware of her surroundings, “I forgi-”
Her eyes full of disbelief, Ficlawa’s mouth hangs open as she looks around at the small group of ponies, which she obviously knows, stopping on Fluttershy, who is still trying to deal with Atzo’s wounds. Don’t ask me how she knows the ash grey colt is Atzo, she just does.
“Take your hooves off my son.” Ficlawa says icily, her eyes glowing a faint green colour and her normally, at a guess, docile forest-green-coloured mane and tail clumping into vine-like structures and extending towards Fluttershy, who is standing her ground with a whimper.
“You should probably do what she says. It won’t be pretty for you if you don’t.” Zeliv starts, floating upside-down next to Fluttershy, who screams, jumps and lands on her back. “Huh. Pegasi are like mountain goats. Curious.”
“We aren’t on Ravnica anymore, are we mama?” Atzo asks, staring wide-eyed at his own hooves.
“No, sweetie.” Ficlawa says, watching Zeliv float around with the metal canisters strapped to his chest barrel. “No we’re not.”
