Chapters The Riddle
By:Twilight is best pony
A/N: Please understand that this is my very first FanFic (or more specifically my first story ever). So if you like it Brohoof to you, If you don't...YOU STILL GET A BROHOOF. please enjoy.Also there is a reference to a certain Fiction Called Ascended Read it if you haven't it's good >)
'What could this mean ' were the thoughts going through a certain herbalist's mind while she paced back and forth in her some what large hut located not very deep within the Everfree. Finally she said aloud with a slight sigh,
"Iv'e never heard of this riddle before, but now I must find out more".
5 hours earlier ...
Zecora has been meditating for a good 5 to 10 minutes now, for it was a peaceful day in the Everfree forest....to peaceful.
All of a sudden, there came a knock on the door. Now losing balance quickly Zecora fell to the floor off of her wooden staff with a loud CRASH !
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD!?" shouted Zecora as she rubbed her head with her forehoof while mumbling to herself, after she got up she went to the door and opened it slowly due to it being chain locked, only to have it torn off it's hinges by some unknown force! The door shattered into multiple splinters as Zecora was hurled against the wall of her hut by the force witch caused her moderate back pain. The hellish wind lasted for a good 10 seconds before actually subsiding, however when it did, a bright, sudden flash of excruciatingly bright light appeared before Zecora, blinding her momentarily, when she opened her eye's again she saw right in front of were her door used to be, a strange portal that seemed to be oddly distorted, flowing with the colors of red and..was that black? Zecora could feel herself being pulled by a force unknown to her and...BAM , she was through the spiraling vortex!
Zecora fell to the cold, semi transparent ground the force of the impact just knocking the wind out of her body seemingly just by the sheer shock of the events that happened almost simultaneously. She had no idea where she was after walking around and calling out to see if anypony/zebra was there one thing was for certain, she wasn't in Equestria anymore. Around her was empty space, stretching for what seemed like an eternity. After shortly taking in her surroundings she spoke softly (as if to herself) to avoid the erie silence that surrounded her, "Why am I here for it is Equestria I am no where near" Zecora spoke with a slight quiver in her voice obviously shaken by the sudden turn of events. Mere seconds after she spoke the rhyme she started to hear what sounded like a distant voice,she tried calling out again and still no answer, but soon realized it was coming from inside of her...mind.
She tried covering her ears but that didn't help at all. The voice kept repeating something zecora couldn't make sense of at all. To Zecora the voice sounded like Luna's 'traditional' royal canterlot voice...only it didn't, the difference between the two however could not be identified. When the crazed voice was finally loud enough to understand, Zecora could make out the following: "I stand but I don't move, I exist but cant interact...I love chaos but I don't create it" , The riddle sounded strange in a way that Zecora couldn't quite grasp. The voice was starting to get louder and started to speak faster and faster until the riddle it spoke was almost incoherent. In a flash of blinding light, Zecora was back inside her comfortable cabin within the Everfree forest, majorly shaken by what just happened. Then a thought popped inside Zecora's mind,
"What better place to look, than inside a good book." An with that she quickly unlocked her door, stepped outside, shut the door and made her way to visit a good friend of hers living in the nearby town of Ponyville.
PresentDay, (PonyVille) ...
Zecora was heading to the library which if she could remember correctly, also served as TwilightSparkle's house & the local ponyville library. 'At least no one apart from a bee is hiding from me' zecora thought to herself still remembering the first time she visited town where everypony just galloped inside their house's in fear of her being an evil enchantress. Without realizing she arrived at her destination she bumped into the wooden door with a soft THUMP .
"Doors open!" Twilight shouted from inside as she lay in the middle of her house reading a book as usual. Zecora turned invisible and walked through the door, when she was through she turned back to normal. Twilight looked from her book and turned to face the zebra just as she
turned visible again, just then and there Twilight's expression went from her usually calm look to one with surprise with a slight hint of confusion.
"Why the confused look, did you forget that I could do that based off my look?" Twilight just shook her head in response and said "I don't think you even told me you could go invisible like that, anyway do you need something?"
The herbalist just looked around the room with a look of anxiety and desperation on her face as she rushed over to a stack of what seemed like endless books... Twilight knew the look all to well.
Twilight just giggled and said "C'mon Zecora, just tell me what you need and i'll get it for you." said the unicorn in a plain tone but with a look of concern pasted on her face. As she spoke the question Zecora seemed to come across a certain book that seemed to catch her eye that was titled 'Survival in the EverfreeForest By:NightShade'. Giving Zecora an idea she hasn't even considered.
Authors notes
Yes yes I know this is very short intro to the story, but don't you worry, they wont (hopefully) always be this short. Tips, feedback and comments are always appreciated! *BROHOOF*
NOW FOR SOME HILARITY!
Pinkie:"Hey Luna, have you ever wondered where your name came from?"
Luna:"Sometimes...but pray-tell, why ask such a thing?"
Pinkie:"Oh no reason, im just being a LUNA tic!" she said extremely excited while laughing at her own joke.
Luna:".....Tis a lie! now...TO THE MOON WITH YOU!!"
And with that PinkiePie was never heard from again for 1000 years...
Celestia:"HEY IM SUPPOSED TO DO TH-" unable to finish her sentence due to being interrupted by her now enraged sister.
Luna:"I CAME FROM THE MOON, ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DISPAAAIIR!!"
MORAL: Don't think PrincessLuna's name is funny in anyway possible.
The Riddle
By: Twilight is best pony
A Familiar Friend
NightShade is from the Fan fiction's: Monster and Ascended by BlackWing, I have permission from him to use NightShade momentarily in the story (I think this is the only chapter he'll be in). Please Read on. /)
Somewhere in the middle of Ponyville, NightShade was just taking one of his morning fly around's that have become somewhat of a habit of his since he has never really has had much to do on a bright saturday morning in Ponyville.
'It's still weird being an immortal, im gonna have watch everypony I love pass away and i'll still be here, which is heart wrenching' thought NightShade as his black hair was just trailing behind him and his beating, beautiful jet black wings that, if he was on his side with one wing extended, it would nearly cover Princess Celestia leaving just her whole horn just peering out. He had just turned around to make his fifteenth lap around Ponyville, when something he saw something that made him wonder,
'Why '. What he saw was his old friend Zecora walking out of Twilights library with (from what he could see) a look of desperation across her face with a slight hint of sadness mixed in. So he decided to touch down and see what was bothering her, witch, as soon as he did the zebra's expression lightened up instantly.
"Ah, just the man I wanted to see, Mr.NightShade indeed", said Zecora in her normal tone of voice.
"Hey Zecora, is there something wrong"? asked Nightshade to one of his friends knowing it's kinda rare for the herbalist to leave the EverFree forest unless it's a special occasion.
"Don't worry it's nothing profane, but is kinda hard to explain". NightShade thought momentarily at what she meant by 'profane' but quickly dismissed it as one of her weird rhymes.
"Interesting, please go on". NightShade said jokingly acting like one of the therapists back on earth, witch he's been with little to none of them, but enough to understand how they talk. Zecora proceeded to tell him about the experience she had back in the strange void of nothingness, the whole shebang leading from the portal to the ever confusing riddle.
"So...all the voice said is 'I stand but I don't move, I exist but cant interact...I love chaos but I don't create it "? Zecora just nodded in conformation.
"Zecora, sorry but that sounds like complete ludicrous, I mean, Equestria doesn't have portals does it"? At that moment
he saw Zecora's expresion drop, shattering all hope she had of getting to the bottom of this mystery.
"However, I still find it very hard to believe that you have heard a riddle that you cannot solve, which I find strange, are you sure you've checked every book you have"?
"One must not overlook, and judge the cover of a book NightShade". This conformed any suspicions that he had, if Zecora didn't have the answer to a riddle, an answer existed, it would just be a pain the flank to find. By now they had been talking and walking for a good half an hour and Zecora's hooves were starting to hurt a little considering that the both of them have been walking for what seemed forever. But just as NightShade was about to tell his friend that he would love to help, he found out that Princess Celestia was in his mind like she has done so just about 15 times through his time in Ponyville, and he had no choice but to talk to the royal alicorn ruler of this land.
Inside NightShade's mind
"Just how long have you been here princess"? said NightShade, a little annoyed that she popped in un-anounced.
"Long enough to almost hear every word you two have said, and I think I may know what your zebra friend is talking about". said the the goddess of the sun & day giving him a 'Meet me at the palace ASAP' look.
"I'll be their as soon as I can which will be in exactly 0.5 seconds after I say goodbye to Zecora okay"? And with that, Celestia nodded and vanished from his head.
Back in Reality
"Listen, Zecora, it's been really nice talking to you but Celestia just contacted me telepathically and she want's me to see her at the palace as soon as possible, so I have to go for now. But don't worry, i'd love to help".
"Thank you SirShade, for your always sharp as a spade". said a now calm Zecora, forgetting the fact that NightShade dislike's being called 'Sir', in fact, he hates being called by any formalities he might have.
"Please Zecora, no formalities, ok? I'll see you soon". Zecora just watched as NightShade unfolded his jet black wings and lifted off into the sky, giving one final wave goodbye...and he went full speed towards the royal Castle of Canterlot.
(A/N): Well this has been the second chapter of 'The Riddle', I thank and give credit to BlackWing for letting me have the wonderful permission of using NightShade. /)
(You asked for it Shadow SilverThePegasus351) MORE HILARITY!!!
Spike: "Hey Twilight, how do you always remember how to spell you'r name correctly?
Twilight:*Put's down book on how Troll* "Simple...Im the T to the W-I-L-I-G-H-T, and ain't no other ponies trollin' down like me, im twililisious".
Spike: "WOAH!...dude thats creepy".
TheRiddle
By:Twilight is best pony
Chapter:TheCat
(A/N):I do not own this 'cat'. Rights to said 'cat' goes to American-Mcgee...DAMN IT I JUST GAVE IT AWAY! I also don't own NightShade, he's from the fiction Ascended by BlackWing.
CRASH!
The sound of shattering glass reverberated throughout the royal throne room of the two alicorn sisters which, NightShade had expected to also house a few of the, as Shade called them,'expressionless' , royal guards but much to his surprise there were none since there is always at least two or three.
"NightShade, I would very much appreciate it if you stopped using the staind-glass window as easy entrance to the castle." Came the soft but clearly annoyed tone of Princess Celestia.
Grunting from being in pain of having crashed through a colorful stained-glass window at just about the speed of light, and from small glass shards jutting out of his back along with most of the pain coming from crash-landing on laminated tile...other than that he was fine. Standing up and wiping the shards of glass from his back he said,
"Not my fault that flying at half the speed of sound is difficult, besides that you wanted to see me?" said the human protecter of Equestria with a sign of slight pain in his voice.
"Ah yes, the riddle your friend spoke of is one that has been thought lost for almost three decades. Now im afraid that it has returned in the form of a voice similar to that of my sisters back when she was, ummm... shall we say 'possessed'."
"So are you saying this riddle Zecora heard in her head is evil? And if so, how do we stop it?" said NightShade in a confused tone, his train of thought was cut off by a voice he recognized as...
"Luna, have you found anything in that book of rhymes you found in the library yet? We don't have that much time left until he cant be summoned anymore."
"Indeed I have dear sister, It says," the midnight blue alicorn began to read the passage, "The only way to defeat this riddle and rhyme is to burn the books of ancient time...how odd. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go to my chambers so I can summon an old friend of mine." and with that final remark she closed the book and teleported out of the throne room, leaving only Shade and Celestia left in silence. NightShade knew how fragile silence is so, he decided to break it.
"Until who can be summoned, Dracula?" the human said in a very sarcastic tone of voice and he began to chuckle a bit at the joke then after a few seconds, the sun-goddess joined in the laughter.
"Oh no, not all. Though I guess you could consider him," she gulped heavily as if nervous "...'mildly deceased '." Said the royal alicorn with a slight quiver in her voice. 'Lets hope The Cheshire Cat is in a good mood unlike last time...'
Inside Luna's royal bed chambers
"Alright, lets hope this still works considering the fact that we haven't used this spell in half a millennium." Luna started to relax then her horn started glowing a midnight blue, it eventually began glowing so bright that it started illuminating the entire room. The spell she was trying to cast was one able to summon one creature from an entirely different universe, this ranged from: Imps to Centaurs, Humans to...cats. This specific cat she was summoning was immortal, of course it could be killed but it would only re-appear after being re-materilized in what was known to him as the "Rabbit Hole".
"Just about there, just a little longer...GOT IT!" exclaimed Luna as the spell was completed, and not a moment to soon...for just as the clock chimed 12'oclock, a familiar pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared a foot in front of luna, then slowly like mist, a head of a cat started to appear sporting a wicked grin that screams madness.
"You call? You know its not nice to wake me up durrrring my cat nap." the cat said in a deep and disturbing voice, yawning in the process. As the rest of it's decomposing body appeared, the final thing to appear on the cat was the ears, one of them pierced.
"Heh, it's nice to see your face again, Cheshire." said luna with a friendly smile on her muzzle.
"Yes, and as always you look quite purrrrfect, grown up a bit I see. Just like alice." Cheshire said still sporting the grin that seemed pasted on his face his non-peirced ear twitching every so often.
"At least im not a knife wielding card murderer like thou has described her as before, how is she by the way? But if you don't feel comfortable answering that then I have someone I would like you to meet."
"Listen i'd very much like you to get to your point, but if you must know she is doing quite well..if you call pushing Dr.Whatshisname in front of a passing train doing w-...is that the person that wanted me to meet?" Luna turned her head to the right, and standing right there in the mouth of the doorway with his mouth gapping in total surprise and confusion, was Nightshade.
EVEN MORE HILARITY!!!!!!!
----------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AppleJack: Hey brother, what in the hay are we supposed to do in here
Medic: I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!
AppleJack: Who are you and what have you done to BigMac!?
Medic: I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!
AppleJack: Can you say anythin' else?
Medic: I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!
AppleJack: *FaceHoof*
TheRiddle
By:Twilight is best pony
Ch5: Confrontation
(A/N): I would like to thank BlackWing for allowing me to use the awesome character known as NightShade, And i want to give credit to AmericanMc-gee for the Cheshire Cat. ENJOY!
(CanterlotCastle, Throne room)
The Cheshire Cat started to materialize after disappearing before the disaster, the scene before him made the cat go wide-eyed, a good portion of the throne room was in absolute ruins, bricks from the wall lay scattered everywhere, glass shards were spread across the floor from the now non-existent giant windows, even some of the tile floor was ripped from their respective places, the place was a total disaster but thats not what was so terrifying. In the middle of all this mess was a portal of unknown origin as well as an unintended destination, and NightShade was standing right in-front of it.
"So, this is it, im gonna end this terror, now. Celestia, theres something i have to tell you."
The goddess looked up from brushing the bit off dirt that was on her herself, "What is it NightShade?", pure concern in her voice.
"Before I go, I want you to give a message to everypony in Ponyville, tell them that I might not come back after this and one more thing...tell FlutterShy that I love her." And with his final words, he turned around for possibly the final goodbye.
"Farewell, it's been nice knowing you princess". The human spread his black wings along with his hands, shut his eye's, and fell backwards, into oblivion. Shortly after 'Shade fell into the portal Celestia started to hear what sounded a whirring coming from in-front of the portal. Slowly but surely, a strange blue box started to take shape. The alicorn princess knew what this was and who would be inside of the contraption. But she didn't have time to greet the stallion inside, she hastily threw open the doors and started making her way to the StarSwirl the Bearded wing in hopes of finding a way to get a hold of NightShade incase she needed to.
She knew that her telepathy with Shade would work in Equestria, but it was a simple telepathy spell, it couldn't reach across dimensions.
The cat took note of Celestia's leave and started narrowing his eyes on the now fully materialized phone box and made a small joke to himself,
"Whats the matter 'Doctor', looking for something mystifying ?" And with a blink of his eye's, the portal started to crumble, as if caving in on it's self. Only moments later, the gateway to another world had become nothing more than ash and air. Cheshire vanished, and waited, waited for the time to reveal himself.
Location: TARDIS
Time: Mid-day
"Smaller on the outside, bigger on the inside thats the life of a time lord isn't that right derpy?"
"Ditzy."
"Right sorry,now any questions?"
"Were are we going again? Ba- Ba- Bar- Barce...what was it called?"
"Barcelona Ditzy, wonderful planet; huge beaches, sight-seeing, nice restaurants.."
"Do the restaurants have muffins!?"
"Yes Ditzy, they have muffins, every restaurant in the entire universe has muffins." Ditzy Doo (more formally known as DerpyHooves) excitedly opened the door of the TARDIS waiting to see the beaches of Barcelona, only to be disappointed by the sight of the interior of Canterlot Castle a look of confusion now apparent on her face.
"Do they happen to have castles in Barcelona?" The mares sarcasm in her voice dripping from her mouth. The Doctor however, calmly walks past her and states matter-of-factley,
"Rule one of TheDoctor Miss Doo: 'The Doctor always lies', well not always but well..my word, what happened here?" The sight before him made his blood run cold: A great portion of the throne room was annihilated; Half of the backwall was ripped apart, floor tiles were scattered and Stained glass windows that once stood proud were now shattered into pieces barley noticeable by the pony eye. 'Only one thing could've done this much damage, and I know what'..."Ditzy I want you to stay in the TARDIS, do not come out unless I tell you it's safe to do so."
Ditzy was confused by this, he almost never told her to stay put. But even so, something didn't feel right. "Doctor, is everything alright out there?"
"Just stay inside the TARDIS Ditzy, I don't like the look of this at all." The Doctor started scanning the area, the sonic screwdriver clenched in-between his teeth. Broken glass crackled under his hooves as they carried the Doctor where ever he wanted to go, finally he stepped in something soft, it almost felt like...ash, but he couldn't smell the stench left by something recently burnt. Something was most definitely not right.
"Hello..Doctor ." The Doctors head turned to the left, nothing, then to the right, still nothing, then finally he faced forward and what he saw almost made one of his two hearts stop beating entirely.
A/N: *Im sorry im so sorry for this being late as all hell...but be happy I included TheDoctor(I tried to put a bit of the 10th and 11th in his character)good bye all! *BROHOOF* *
Sorry no Hilarity for now, maybe in a later chapter
Every Journey Begins with a Single Step
The Riddle
By:Twilightisbestpony
Every Journey Begins with a Single Step
(A/N): NightShade is not owned by me, he is the property of BlackWing and is from:Monster ...Enjoy
'=thoughts
"=Speaking. And if you see an extended "u" the means Cheshire makes a puuuuuring sound.
Disbelief, Confusion, interest and a great many other thoughts flooded NightShade's mind at the same time:'Who is this?', 'Why is he here?', 'Why the hell can I see his fricken ribcage!' NightShade could only stare in disbelief as what he guessed was a demented cat with a golden ear piercing and the most twisted smile the human has ever seen, started walking towards him with this...things eye's pulsing every few seconds as it approached closer and closer finally, it spoke.
"Ahh, you must be the one Luna was saying she wanted me to meet, interesting." said the cat that was keeping the same malicious grin on his face, parting only when in the process of speaking.
"Um..uhhh, Luna? Who in the hell is this, if you don't mind me asking." said a stunned NightShade. Strange thing is, he recognized this cat but he can't remember from whe-.
"No time for introductions 'Shade, for I need to speak to you both in the throne room...NOW . the regal sun-goddess, now standing in the archway of the door, had said that last word with a firm and serious tone. NightShade knew the royal sisters well enough to were if they have a tone like that, either they have something planned, their upset or one of them is about to give someone a very important task..such as this one. However, when Luna observed her sister and the others leave she could overhear a certain human asking a certain Cheshire Cat an odd question:
"If you don't mind me asking, Who are you, and Are you mad?" that last question hung in Luna's mind for a few moments before receiving an answer no later than she had heard it be asked:
The cat turned to face the human before answering, "Well, were im from everyone's quite mad , as for my name" at that moment, the ominous cat fade's off before re-appearing next to a stained glass window next to a pillar in-front of the throne room, "it doesn't matter ". Cheshire then continued on with the others, and with a flick of Celestia's magic the twin doors were opened.
The trio walked into the large throne room with moon light flooding every inch of the laminated tile along with the entire land of Equestria, then the doors were shut by two guards but not before the demented and half dead cat shot NightShade a glare that read 'Now where have I seen you before'?
Cheshire's eye's widened a little when he heard a male voice in his head talk, or more precisely, answer his question with another question; 'Funny, I could ask you the same thing, cat.'
Location: Library, PonyVille Time:11:48 PM
It was nearing the middle of the night, but a certain lavender unicorn couldn't bring herself to get even a wink of sleep, she looked at the alarm clock on her nightstand, it has been more than two hours since the weird conversation with Zecora and more than fifty-three minutes since she began delving into the subject of, 'Weird winds bringing portals into Equestria that spit you into a weird endless void with a voice that say's weird riddles', or to put it in Twilights words: Dimensional Sling-Shots, the current book she was reading gave her the definition of this term as follows: "A certain way of getting from one dimension to another in means of connecting the very strands of one dimension to another in means of transport, for example: A portal".
Speaking quietly as to not wake spike from his slumber, Twilight started to speak, "I can understand Equestria's dictionary being over a few hundred thousand pages, but did it really have to take me just under twenty minutes to get to 'D'." By this time the clock currently said 12:35, but nevertheless, Twilight was still looking into this strange topic. But a random thought started to make it's way into the unicorns mind: 'Wheres NightShade'? Twi didn't know it at the time, but there was about to be another occurrence that was similar to Zecora's situation.
Location: ThroneRoom, CanterlotCastle
"So, thats how we plan on doing this? You just teleport us into an ancient tomb that is under the castle that, you think, contains these 'Books of Ancient Time', we destroy them which in hope gets rid of this horrible curse that has found someway into Equestria? Or am I missing something". NightShade was trying to summarize everything that the three of them had just been talking about. Oddly enough, Shade had a horrible feeling that something was about to go very wrong.
"This isn't a curse NightShade, it's hardly even fake. This is something way different, this is something far more sinister..other than it not being a curse then thats a pretty accurate summarization". Celestia kept talking as she started walking towards NightShade, horn glowing with a golden hue that radiated with the warmth of the sun despite it being two in the morning.
"...Something like this doesn't happen on a daily basis at this point and time. Now, hold still while the sp-"
NightShade wasn't listening anymore, instead he was focused on something that caught his eye, 'Is the glass shaking, * Loading.. Loading.. done*, oh fuck. '. "EVERYONE, GET DOWN"!! Jumping from his position and tackling the princess to the ground, they soon heard a massive amount of glass shatter as one of the glass windows shattered into tiny pieces as big as apple seeds. But it didn't end there, forceful winds quickly followed the raining shards of glass, which kept jutting into NightShade's wings which were being used as extra cover up for the alicorn that was underneath the human. A few moments had passed since the wind had started blowing, it has died down, but the horror wasn't over yet...did NightShade dare take a peek out at the place that might be so horribly wrecked, he lifted his head cautiously and was very stupefied at what he saw before him.
All he saw was glass shards everywhere, furniture was all over the place and some of the wall of the castle had been blown off during the wind storm but, what really caught his eye was a large ominous portal thing glowing with an odd blackish-red hue which marked that it was in fact, evil.
"Oh my god". The human could only manage to stare at the destruction before him, and the portal. Getting up off of the ground allowing Celestia to get on her hooves again, NightShade started walking towards the portal with all intention on trying to disable it once and for all.
(AN): This chapter was a bit tedious to write. but enjoyable nonetheless.
------------------------------------------------Hilarity may ensure
SilverShadow: "Yay, Twilightisbestpony finally put me in his story, HUZZAH!!'
Chow: "Who?"
SilverShadow: "Umm, Pinkie made me break the fourth-wall
Chow: "Oh wait, nevermind, I found him." *Proceeds to levitate book in-front of Silver*
Silver: 0.0..."CHOW YOU BASTAR-"! *Cut to scene of a nuclear mushroom cloud destroying Equestria*
Somewhere in RavenHolme
GordonFreeman's H.E.V suit: "Warning, massive radiation levels detected"
Freeman: "......"