The Sun and Moon were at war.
That's putting it mildly. The magic of the Evergreen forest has been whipped into a tempest that may never calm, the sun is struggling to take it's place while the moon remains locked in the center of the sky, and two stars race high above the castle of the royal pony sisters. Two stars, one bright and shining, the other so dark and piercing. Two stars locked in battle, and the darkness is winning.
Incredible magics rend the air, powerful impacts shake the earth, destruction is rampant, and yet anypony that can see the battle between the Moon and Sun stand transfixed. This is the end of the world. It has to be, or a sample of what The End will surely be like at least.
The dark star rises. The bright star falls. The world seems to hold it's breath. The dark star concentrates into impossible levels of blackness that seems to suck in what little light the sun shines. One final charge, straight into the castle.
And then the Rainbow. In a night of impossibilities, one more rips across the sky, from the castle to the moon, a rainbow of light seems to carve a silhouette into the lunar surface, and then it's gone.
It's over. The war is finally over.
I couldn't move if I wanted to. My actions kept replaying in my head over and over as I stared up at Luna's moon. Her moon with her profile carved across it. What have I done?! I just wanted to use the Elements to maybe calm her so I could reason with her, but my fear of her overwhelmed me and in that moment I sent as far away as I could. My sister, my only sister, and I drove her into her own moon!
No! No. This is a nightmare, some prank luna's playing on me for ignoring her lately. Yes that's it, what it would be like to be without her. A prank that has gone to far but still, just a joke. A horribly real, lonely and terrifying joke..... I know this is no prank. This IS real. So very real
I can't stop the tears.
The Elements lay on the ground around me, their warm light gone, their power spent. And I know I will never use them again. The greatest power in all Equestria, lies dead at my hooves. Why? Why did they do that? Why send her away? Anything else, but they do this? Was I not worthy enough to help my sister? Not strong enough?! What!!? How is this harmony?! TELL ME!!!.... please tell me. I... I need to know...
Where did she get that power? All of that hate? Jealousy and resentment don't give way to instant insanity. And insanity in and of itself does not give power. Even unleashed Luna's might was nothing like what I saw tonight. And her spells... something gave them more power than is possible. Something Deep and Dark.
Something else was there.
And absurdly, this gives me some solace. Nightmare Moon was not Luna, at least not completely. My sister still exists. To bad she exists on the moon. Forever.
I opened my eyes, I didn't even remember closing them, and saw the wall. I saw the Impossible writing on the wall.
Carved right in front of me, in black letters somehow, by a presence I never felt, were the words.
Longest day, Thousandth year, She will return. This is the best I can do. I'm Sorry.
I stare at the words, they burn themselves into my mind, I blink, and then they're gone. The wall is just a wall. The phantom words never were. But they were, and more importantly, they were true.
"Well... not one of my better nights, or days or whatever." He muttered to himself.
A tall figure walked away from the castle deep into the woods, having left his message for the broken princess. There was one more thing to do.
Wandering into the forest, he kept reviewing what had happened. If only he had been a little faster, a little smarter, hell, wiser was what he needed.
The Moon huh? That.. was a new one to him, of course magic never made much sense to him. Unfortunately, the moon was a bit out of his range. Even if he did purge the shade from that princess from here, he'd probably blow up half the moon. No. The work he put into loosening the binding was the best he could do. Thousand years? That was the magics idea. God he hated magic, never making sense, always a mind of it's own, etc etc.
He stopped in front of a rock. Nice rock, perfect for dramatic purposes. He couldn't stick around for a thousand years, and he wasn't positive he'd be able to return in time, reality jumping was like that, so that meant leaving a backup plan or two.
He focused on the rock. He poured his Will into the rock. A thin black obelisk came into being jammed into the rock. Nah, rock was all wrong, from now on this was a stone. A stone holding His sword. You wish you were this sword Excalibur. Wait could a pony even use a sword?... One quick tweak... and now it would.
One Super Badass Sword done, now to find a few ponies to teach Will to. He could feel the effects of the shades that followed him, already they were affecting their 'cousins' here in this reality. Painting them a Deeper shade of Black.
He was just a visitor, just some guy passing through, but he would be DAMNED if he just let this continue. He couldn't stay though, too much to see, to much to do... to much to fix. And a home, long lost, to find. He wished he could stay, wished he could take all their problems and fix them, and finally he wished them luck because he knew that was all he could really hope for.
"Hope to see you in happier times." He spoke to the Moon and Sun.
Author's Note
OK! prologue done! who is this guy? doesn't matter he's just some guy. not going to come up again for this story. at least i dont plan on it. maybe a cameo thing.
anyway, comment, vote, let me know what you think. what needs work, whats good, all that.
maybe someday i'll finish one of these some other time than the middle of the night. got to get a pace here.
I hope you enjoy what i plan on writing. Its a good idea I think, but the difficulty is in the telling right?
Call me Perry or I'll mash your muzzle in mud. Sorry but I felt we should get that out of the way, my name is... a complicated subject with me. Don't worry, I'll tell you the whole deal.
Anyway, Perry Fleet, that's me. Not to be confused with Parry Riposte. I'm an earth pony, brown fur, black mane with a light blue stripe... okay a periwinkle stripe if you want to get into details. I'm a bit on the short side with a slim build I guess, not really sure how to describe myself, well I guess I would say I have a more Pegasus build than a Big Mac build. Oh right, my eyes are blue.
I love my family. Most ponies take that as a given, I don't. My Dad is Faithful Service, he's the town guard and a goof. He used to be in the Royal Guard in Canterlot, but then he met my mom Verdant Hills. Mom was on a, what do ya call it, a study tour or whatever, researching different parts of Equestria's ecology, she was there to study the local flora and fauna, but also did some sightseeing. To hear mom tell it they met at a minor celebration of cultural melding. Dad says it was happy hour at his favorite bar. In the end they actually fell in love, married and then I was born.
Such a riveting and original story, I know. But hay that's life, loves the classics. We lived in Canterlot for my foalhood, and it was nice, nothing to special, grew up a bit, went to school, tried to figure out my cutie mark, all that. Then mom got pregnant. There was talking and planning and saving money and then the big surprise came: twins. Suddenly things were a lot more difficult. The Royal Guard paid well, but my mom's temp job as a housekeeper, that wasn't very temp, didn't, also she was a bit miserable not ecologying it up.
My dad could have done a lot of things, being in the Royal Guard was his dream, it was in his family, it was his destiny. but he put his wife, son, and foals to be, first. I love my dad. I just wish it hadn't have made me so miserable. We moved to a place where my mom could do what she loved, where everypony knew your name, where foals could grow up the small town way. Ponyville. I hate ponyville. I didn't use to, but I didn't have the best experiences right from the beginning. Sorry, got a little ahead of myself, anyway we moved and my sisters were born: Honey Sweet, and Pretty Strong.
Pony parents have this... ability, I guess. They can be down right prophetic when naming children. My parents aren't, or at least the universe likes a bit of irony. What happened was my parents decided to split the naming between the two, each would name one baby. My dad named Pretty in the style of his family, a guard family. Mom being the nature lover she is, went a bit more earthy with Honey. Honey is not sweet, she hates sweet, also honey, she is sarcastic, rough, snarky and just a plain pain in my flank. She's nothing but fun honestly. Pretty is pretty, but not strong, not even close, she's shy, not very physical, and in no way interested in continuing the family traditions she was named for. A pony as gentle and caring as her, I can't see doing such a thing. My sisters are among the most precious things I hold in my heart. Now we come to what I believe to be one of the largest factors in my life, my name. My parents didn't work together on it, they split it. My mom went with Periwinkle because of my mane, it also being one of her favorite flowers. Dad decided I should be 'fast and fleet of hoof', so I got Fleet, cause it sounded cooler than fast or hoof.
My name is very precious to me. It was the first thing anypony ever gave me, my first gift. You know... besides life. I'm also a bit of a momma's colt... Okay alot, or at least I was. So yeah, my name is very, very important to me, it's from my mom, and I love my mom. If you mock my name, you mock my mom. And I don't let that stand. She is The Best pony.
... So we moved to Ponyville. I was really smart, read lots, my dad, having been a royal guard got me enlisted in a tutor program. I was from Canterlot, a cultural beacon of Equestria. And I was shy, both in general and from just moving to a strange new place. Add children to the equation and do the math. I was cast as the superior, condescending, smug elite from Canterlot forced to live in the sticks. If you can't figure it out, I became the favorite target for a pack of bullies. Rough Shod was the leaders name, though there was also Mulberry, but he wasn't that big a deal until later.
They'd come to tease me and try to goad me into fighting, but i'd just run away. Then they found the bait I'd always rise to, my name. In retrospect, it's odd that they felt my name was good material, so many ponies have such odd names, odder than mine, some rather derogatory if you try. But that's what they did, they made fun of my mane, they taunted me about being a blank flank, and then they mocked my name, so I fought them in a rage. I got my flank kicked, Hard.
I'll be honest here, this was just about the worst day of my life. When I got home my mom comforted me, tried to make everything all better, but this time she couldn't. I failed, in my mind I failed in every way, and it crushed me. Then my dad got home, and my life took it's new course. He taught me how to fight, how to defend myself and others. Since then, dad trained me in Stone Hoof, his favorite fighting style he learned in the Guard, and helped condition my body. He also hammered into my head The Rules: Don't be a jerk and don't be a bully... I'm paraphrasing here. Also no revenge, I couldn't just go and beat those that had hurt me.
In the meantime, I had avoided Rough Shod and his gang since that day. It became a part of my training that I made for myself, practicing avoidance, stealth, patience, and vigilance... That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So they started calling me 'Periwinkle The Fleet Hoofed Coward', But eventually they stopped, I lost their interest.
Two weeks after my bad day, I took their interest back.
To occupy their time, Rough Shod's gang started picking on some other ponies in our class. In all honesty, I seriously considered leaving them be. I thought over all the rules my dad taught me, I thought about how much that beating hurt, and then I thought about the victims. In a moment of clarity I saw them as they were, defenceless, miserable, and scared. And I had the power to protect them.
I took my ground between them. Behind me, three victims crying for their moms or just angry at their own weakness, like I had. In front of me, My Enemy. Rough Shod and four of his lackeys. All of them bigger then me, or maybe it just felt that way at the time. I laid down the law:'leave them alone, mess with them you mess with me' that whole thing, they were less than impressed. To my credit, I didn't lose it when they made fun of my name, I stood strong when they called me a coward. I took some punches and kicks, but I took it all stoically.
Then Rough Shod insulted MY Mother, and then MY Father. What exactly was said I will not repeat.
The next thing I knew I was standing over five beaten, bloody bullies. Four stared at me in a mix of shock, awe and fear, but Rough Shod... I Broke him. It took weeks, even with magic, for his bones to heal properly. When he came back... like I said, I broke him, he was never the same again. I feel bad about it... sometimes.
I came to find out later on that day that I got my Cutie Mark when I stood up to the bullies, A banded five-sided shield, all in black and white. I think I'm describing it badly. Okay imagine Super Stallions symbol only with longer sides and a big X. It was great!... Then I found out I got something else that day, a name.
Perry the Beast.
No one felt safe using my name anymore. After all, I beat a colt lame for using it wrong, or at least that's how the rumor went. Periwinkle was a shy, sweet, happy colt, sure he got bullied but still, he had what some day could have been friends. Perry was a hard, intimidating colt who never smiled and hunted bullies. A few days later I accepted it, I didn't feel like periwinkle anymore.
Now only my mom calls me periwinkle. And it tears me up.
... Sorry, that became a bit of a downer didn't? But I being a bit dramatic. Sure nopony in ponyville feels safe when I'm around, I'm a violent and dangerous delinquent ya know, but around my family, I'm still happy. I still smile. I laugh and joke and play around with my sisters, I help my mom in her garden, and I spar with my dad.
So here I am, an outcast in ponyville. Even that apprentice baker Pinkie pie avoids me. My special talent is Protecting ponies, but all they want is protection from me. Some of the bullies bigger siblings came at me to make me pay. I beat them into the dust too. Now only that crazy Mulberry comes at me, but he doesn't make fun of me anymore, just wants to fight... Stupid.
I'm in my last year of 'High' classes. Once I finish, I'll be old enough to enlist in the Equestrian Guard, somewhere far from ponyville. That's my plan.
Or it was, until this happened.
Author's Note
figured i'd let perry tell this part. when new characters show up i think i'll let them introduce themselves too. In the future I might write perry's story instead of just his account, but for now the important parts have bean set out.
I think.
Anyway, comments, questions, etc always welcome.
Also I edit as I go so if I miss anything please point it out.
