Chapters Thursday-Friday: Dissapearance
In Sun’s Light
The Castle was dark, and the moon new. Although the Princess of the Night didn’t like it, the moon had to be invisible at least once a month to show the world’s cycles. It was a perfect night for Will O. Wisp’s plans. He snuck quietly past guards, having to put a few under sleep spells, as he slowly, quietly made his way to the Princess’s chamber. One guard he gave a swift blow to the head. The guard’s partner saw him and tried to sound an alarm, but was quickly put to sleep. None died. When his plan worked, he would need all the royal guards he could get. And no guards were catching him. Everything was going perfect.
So imagine his surprise when he was caught by a green maned yellow cook on the way back from the kitchens. He had researched most of the staff in the castle, but this one was one he hadn’t seen before. Three fritters adorned her flank.
At first she glanced at him with surprise, then with fear as he moved closer. Will needed to knock her out quickly, or she would alert the door guard. That would not be good, he needed all his strength. He managed to knock her out right as a little squeak came out from her lips. Then, she fell to the ground, her warm cider splashing out of the cup she had been carrying.
This caught the door guard’s attention. His head snapped the direction of the sound, and he moved to the mare as Will snuck past through the shadows.
“Hey, Apple Fritter?” he said as he shook her awake.
“Oh… Oh my! Hello there, Graphite! How’d I get here?”
“I think you blacked out for a second. You spilled your drink.”
“Shucks, I sure as sugar did. Sorry about that…”
“I’ll clean it for you. Get some sleep.”
Graphite watched as Apple Fritter rounded the hall corner, not even aware of the door to the Princess of Day’s chamber latching closed behind him.
Celestia, as always this time of night, was fast asleep. Will put a magical barrier on the doors and windows to block sound and light, then moved closer, sure it was smooth sailing from this point on until he tripped on a fold in a rug on the floor. The thump he made when he hit the ground awakened the princess with a start. She looked to the source of the noise and was greeted by the sight of a cloaked figure.
“Who goes there?” she said, a slight quiver of adrenaline in her voice, “How did you get past the guards?”
Will whipped off his cloak, revealing his white coat, and started using magic, the same color and shape as the metallic blue ball of fire decorating his flank. Celestia stared with shock at him.
“Will!” she whispered, before countering his magic with her own. 'Something is wrong,' she thought. 'I should have been able to subdue him on a moment’s notice!'
Noticing the look of shock and confusion on her face, he pointed to a trinket around his neck.
“I stole it from an old zebra in the Everfree forest and changed the color of its magic so that no one would be suspicious of me. They don’t call it the Alicorn Amulet for nothing. Really, Celestia, don’t look so shocked, I was a rather easy threat to spot, I think”
“Guards!”
“Oh, that won’t do you any good. I’ve sealed all of the entrances. Nopony can hear you, or see the mess of light we are making. And once you’ve tragically disappeared, Equestria will need a ruler. A pony who is strong. A born leader. One who isn’t a sap for pranks and lessons about friendship. ME, Celestia.”
“How did you know of Twilight’s letters?”
“I’ve been watching, preparing for this for a while. And obviously you didn’t know about me. Too bad, too late.” He started his spell, opening a portal. “I have just the place to put you, you’ll love it. But, just in case you know a spell to get back to Equestria, let’s do this.” Celestia was aware of herself becoming smaller, until she had the size and proportions of the fresh bunch of fillies and colts going into her school for gifted unicorns. She screamed, the process was so painful, and was aware of her voice being a higher pitch as well. She was a filly. Before she knew it, her memories started slipping away, ripped down to the amount she originally had at the age she was becoming. She watched with horror as her cutie mark faded, then realized she had never got her cutie mark!
“Let’s see how long it takes for the coyotes to get you.” Why was Will doing this?! He had always seemed so… Wait, who was Will? Why was this guy hurting her? Fresh fear washed over the filly as she realized she didn’t remember her name. Her scream of terror was cut off as the portal closed.
Will chuckled and then walked out as the last of the magic faded. Luna was in for a surprise tomorrow morning. As he walked out, quietly knocking out the door guard, he didn’t notice the last of the magical energy turn into blue dust on the floor.
Friday
Canterlot; The next morning
The whole city was in panic and word was spreading quickly to the other cities and towns. Equestria was entering a state of widespread panic and Celestia was nowhere to be found. Luna had finally caught on that something was wrong when the sun didn’t follow the moon through the sky. She had accidentally coated the world in eerie twilight before realizing that Celestia was missing. That was when she had called Shining Armor to investigate. And boy was he livid. Luna was standing awkwardly as he exploded at his guards.
“What I want to know right now is how you guards let ANYPONY get through! How did he even get to the door? Why am I standing here, having to ask you these questions today?”
“If you’re going to get angry at anypony, get angry at me, sir.” a surly looking guard at the edge of the line said. “It was my mistake, I was watching the door. This pony got past me too.” Shining looked and was shocked to find the sky blue coat and blue/white mane of Graphite Sketch. He was a great artist. He had signed up with the royal guard to prove his trustworthiness, and boy had he.
“Graphite! But you’re one of my best guards!”
“Not this time, sir. I’ve screwed up.”
Shining was shocked. Graphite was a great guard, not much could slip by him because he was a pretty good sneak himself. Takes one to spot one, he always said.
“Show me what happened.”
Graphite took him to the spot he was guarding and ran him by the events of the night.
“You’re sure it wasn’t the cook?”
“I would have noticed an earth pony. This one was disguising him or herself with magic… But they also might have…” Graphite cut himself off, realizing what had happened. “Man, I went and helped the cook back up. Must’ve been why she fell, she was knocked out. This pony used her to distract me…”
Okay, credit where it’s due, Shining thought, that is pretty smart. Just then a purple alicorn burst into the hallway, quite freaked out by the news.
“I came as fast as I could! Is there any sign of her?!”
“Calm down, Twilie. We’re still looking.” Twilight looked over at the sound of her brother’s voice, and a little smile came over her face. At least her big brother was on the job.
“Shining! Boy, am I glad to see you. Has anything developed?”
“Nothing besides the fact that this guy was really smart.”
“He would have had to be smart to sneak in. Have you checked her chambers?”
“We were just getting to that.” He opened the door and held it, going in after Luna, Graphite and Twilight, who bent to examine some blue dust on the floor.
“This is magical residue.” She said. “Someone must have got rid of her with a teleportation.”
“Is there any way to trace it?” Graphite asked.
“Not anymore. This is probably long powerless.” She started to lift some up, but a shock of energy zapped her horn, making her drop it. “Wow! I was wrong! This is powerful! The teleportation trail has long disappeared, but the dust still holds an insane amount of magic!” A thought occurred to her. “It’s too powerful. Whoever this is, they’re not a unicorn. This kind of magical power only houses itself in immortal alicorns!” All eyes immediately went to Luna.
“Where were you last night?” Twilight asked, suspicion creeping from her mind to her voice. “What were you doing?”
“Are you assuming that I offed my own sister?!”
“You’re the only one powerful enough to do it! It had to be you!”
In a fit of rage, Luna’s mane swirled around Twilight, lifting her bodily off of the ground and pulling her close enough for the young alicorn to see the fury in her eyes.
“My days of razing this land with my jealousy are over, Twilight Sparkle. I would never hurt my sister, and you would be a fool to think otherwise.” With that said, she put Twilight down and walked off in a huff.
“Well,” Graphite said, “It’s not all bad. If she was teleported, then she might still be alive.”
“You’re right!” Twilight said, refreshed by this little bit of hope. “We need to find out where this portal led, and fast!”
* * *
In a completely different world, amongst a few bushes, a small filly with a white coat and a long pink mane awoke. It had been a short night after she arrived. She had fainted after showing up… She still didn’t remember her name! As she came to her senses, all she remembered was forgetting. She couldn’t remember what she knew she needed to, and it was all because of that horrible stallion… The stallion! He wasn’t here, was he? She looked around in a panic, and realized she didn’t know where she was. She needed to get out of this forest, then maybe she could get her bearings.
As she walked, she heard howls and yelps. Something was nearby. Maybe the stallion hadn’t been kidding about coyotes. She decided to hurry. The yelps were getting closer. The filly kept walking, and looking over her shoulder. She heard a sound in front of her, turned, and froze as she looked a coyote right in the face. She had been going the wrong way! He seemed surprised to see her. It was a standoff until she quickly turned and ran away. She could hear the coyote behind her, and more following it. She was running as fast as her little legs would carry her, trying not to get caught, but they were gaining on her.
“Can’t we talk about this? Come on, why can’t we talk about this? Leave me alone!” she begged as they got closer, and suddenly she was running across a strange strip of black rock with yellow lines in the middle. The transition caused her to trip and fall across the yellow lines. She flipped over and watched in terror as a coyote jumped in front of her, on the other side of the line, and bared its fangs. She knew she wouldn’t be able to get up in time, and was desperately crawling back when the coyote lunged. But right as it did, something huge hit it with a roar and went on, not even stopping. The coyote got caught under it with a yelp. Whatever that thing was, it made a huge mess of the canine. A stray drop of blood landed on the filly’s cheek.
She got up in horror and turned to get off the rock, and another monster roared by, just missing her, going the opposite direction of the first. She screamed, and ran across after it passed. She found a nice sized hole to hide in and cried as more monsters roared by.
In a nearby town
'Halfway through the day,' Gavin thought. It was almost time for school to end, and then he would go to soccer practice, and then home. As it was right now, he was waiting for the lunch line to wear down so he could see whether or not there were any slices of pizza left. He checked, and sure enough, the line was down. Another cool thing was that last in line was Eric. They weren’t exactly best friends, but Gavin was one of the few people in school who accepted Eric.
Eric was a little different, as most people went. He didn’t follow the stereotype of boys liking boy things. He was bullied in school for watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
“Hey Gavin. What’s up?”
“I’m just hanging out. You hungry?”
“As a horse!” Eric said, before chuckling at his reference.
“Same here. I have this, then U.S. History, and then I can get through soccer practice and be done with the day. Maybe relax, watch some Doctor Who.”
“How are you doing on MLP?”
“This again. Eric, I respect that you’re willing to be different. So am I. But I don’t want to watch it.”
“If you say so.” The rest of their time in the line went slowly and quietly. They got their lunches, and then went and sat down. Both of them were into a wide range of interests, so there were plenty of references and jokes in the conversation. Everything from the Cleveland Browns to The Wrath of Khan.
After the bell rang for class, it was time for U.S. History class, which flew by despite the pop quiz. After that was soccer practice. There was a game coming up, they had one week, and at this point they were just keeping everything tuned and ready to go. All their moves were perfected; everyone knew right where to be in any situation. They were a well oiled machine.
And that was why practice ended early. Gavin spent the rest of his time opting to walk home. It was a long walk, for sure, but it wasn’t a bad one.
When he finally got home, and did all of his homework, there was nothing else to do. Gavin was a kid living alone with his mom, and even at sixteen, she trusted him to be alone while she went on business trips. It was a well built and long running trust between the two of them. Gavin was responsible.
And tonight he was bored and restless.
* * *
The filly was so hungry, her stomach was hurting. She knew that she needed some plants, but she didn’t know what was safe and what wasn’t. She was getting desperate, venturing farther from the hole she was hiding in every time she went out. And there was a rather large reddish hawk watching her every time she went out. It was scary, she knew it wanted to grab her and eat her.
But she had to find food. She was hungry. She needed something to eat, or she wouldn’t last very long. There had to be something edible to-
What was that sound?!
She turned and saw a tall, two legged creature, coming her way. Everything was so scary. Her first impulse was to hide, but she had gone too far from her hole. She was trapped. She did the first thing she could and hid in the nearest bush, making quite a bit of noise while she was at it.
* * *
Gavin got a little freaked out by the rustling he was hearing. It stopped before he could find out where it was coming from, so he sat down on a log, picking up a thick stick just in case.
“Man, am I tired.” He said to himself. “What a hike.”
* * *
The two legged thing spoke! The filly hadn’t been expecting that. She had tried talking to other animals, and had never got anything. But this creature she could understand perfectly. She tried edging forward a little and found that she was stuck. Her mane was tangled in the branches. It hurt, she couldn’t help but squeak.
* * *
Now Gavin was really freaked out. Something had just whimpered, and it sounded very human. That was the last straw, he was out of here. He gathered his stuff, got up, and walked away before things got weirder. Eventually, he got back home, right as the last of the sunlight had disappeared behind the horizon. He sat down with the remote, and sighed. Tomorrow was Saturday. No school! He should have been planning, texting friends, arranging things, but something was stuck in his head. What were those sounds?
With no explanation, he fell asleep while halfheartedly watching Doctor Who.
* * *
The filly was stuck in a bush, starving with no way to get out, and what was possibly her only chance of survival had just walked away before she could say anything! This was horrible, and she hated it. She didn’t want to die, not like this! 'Not without a cutie mark!' she thought. As the last of her energy left her, all she could do was cry. That night, she dreamed she was alone on the moon.
Saturday
Canterlot
Prince William Orville Wisp awoke to a rather shaky sun. Nopony was around yet, so he took a moment to chuckle at his handiwork. Then, he got up and put on his standard black bow tie. As he walked out, he was greeted by maids passing by. Polite as ever, he wished them good morning as he walked by. He was walking down the halls when Prince Blueblood met him.
“Will, we’re having a royal meeting. They sent me to find you. It’s nice to see you awake before noon this morning.” Blueblood and Will had a long standing sort of rivalry.
“Mind the discolored tiles, cake face.” This visibly struck a chord in Blueblood’s ego. His chin went up, and his voice and expression were indignant as he walked into the throne room.
“It wasn’t my fault a psychotic chintzy fasionista liked me.”
“Mind what you say.” Twilight said on one end of the room. “She’s my friend. Psychotic, maybe. Fasionista, definitely. But really, Rarity isn’t chintzy at all. She’s very generous.”
Luna halted the argument before it could get any worse. “I have called you all here because Equestria needs a figurehead. I can control the sun and moon, but that will make me tired, and to keep morale up, we will need a leader that the ponies like. Any volunteers?” Everypony looked at Cadence.
“What?” she asked, getting defensive.
“Well, honey, everypony knows us from our wedding.” Shining Armor pointed out. “But, everypony will expect us to rule together, and we still have the Crystal Empire to worry about. Plus, I’m leading an investigation to find out what became of Celestia.”
“Who are you taking with you?” Luna asked.
“Graphite Sketch.” This earned him skeptical looks. “What? He’s an avid dimension traveler. And also, he wants to find out who snuck past him so he can put his head through some drywall.” Will kept a straight face, and made a mental note not to let that happen. He also made a mental note not to let Shining Armor find Celestia alive.
“Very well.” Luna said. “Be careful.”
This was Will’s chance. “I’ll volunteer for leader.” He said, and was shocked to hear another voice say the exact same thing. He looked in the right direction and locked eyes with Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh, Princess Sparkle, you don’t want to do that.”
“Yes I do. This is the ultimate chance to bring what I have learned about being a princess to the test. I think we should have a country-wide election.”
“That is-“
“A wonderful idea!” Luna exclaimed. “That’ll distract this nation from the loss of its ruler! An election it is!”
“Oh… Alright...” Will said, slightly disappointed. But he would win. And if he didn’t win, it would be easy to get rid of Princess Sparkle as well.
Earth
Gavin had been awake a while. It was now nearly noon. And the only thing he could think of was the sounds from the previous night. What had those been? He was curious, if not a little creeped out. He wanted to know what had scared him out of the woods, because he felt stupid for being scared of something he couldn’t even identify. And it was a Saturday. It was time for him to find out what was going on.
So he packed a bag with a notebook and some pencils for taking notes and sketches, a first aid kit, and a nature valley granola bar. Then, he pocketed a knife, just in case, and set out. It was hard to find the exact spot. He remembered it was fifteen or twenty feet from a gopher hole. He found that, and used it as the central point for a thirty foot search radius. More or less. He was just estimating. Finally, after a while of searching and not finding anything, he sat down and opened his granola bar.
* * *
Something was making a lot of noise. The filly could hear it walk past a few times, and she couldn’t even run away! Things were looking so hopeless. She was so hungry it was taking all of her energy to keep her awake. And now things were walking around looking for her. She couldn’t even tell what they were! All of a sudden, she heard a rustle and smelled a mixture of honey and oats. It smelled so good! But it also surprised her into making a noise.
“Huh?” That caused the sound of something big moving, possibly falling.
“Ow!” a familiar voice said. “Who’s there?” She stayed quiet, scared, but her stomach made a loud growl in response to the smell. Oh no…
Then something was parting the branches above her, which pulled her into a patch of thorns. This was too much, she started crying again as she looked up at the same two legged creature from yesterday.
* * *
Gavin parted the branches to find a small white creature with pink hair looking up at him, teary eyed. He had to admit, it was pretty cute. Its stomach growled again as it eyed his nature valley bar.
“Hungry?” to his surprise, the creature nodded. Oh, who was he kidding? This wasn’t some inexplicable aberration. The ice cream colors, the horn and wings, the cartoonish look. There was no denying the iconic appearance of a G4 pony. This was weird. He handed over his granola bar and then pulled out his knife.
“Please don’t hurt me!” the pony suddenly squeaked, cringing at the sight of the knife. That was when it hit Gavin. Maybe she (He could tell by the voice) wasn’t human, but she was still just a scared, lost little kid. He put on the most comforting voice he could.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just cutting you out of the branches. Hold still.” She obediently held still, letting him free her. By the time he cut her out, her mane was tangled with branches. He looked her over. She was covered in dirt and was scratched up pretty bad. She also looked like she was starving. This was not just a living thing, but something that was self aware, sentient; something that knew it needed his help. He couldn’t leave her here like this.
“Let’s take you to my house and get you cleaned up.” At first, she seemed scared by this, but managed a sheepish nod.
* * *
The water was hot, but it felt good. The filly hadn’t been warm like this for days. She was completely relaxed as the two legged creature detangled her mane and scrubbed the dirt off of her. Eventually, the water was starting to get cold, but at this point the creature seemed to be letting her enjoy herself.
“Thank you.” She said as she climbed out. She was instantly covered in towel, being dried off.
“No problem. So do you have a home? Are you lost?”
“Yeah… I’m lost…”
“Umm… Chances are it’ll be hard to bring you back, unless you know some magic or something.”
“I don’t.”
“What’s your name?”
“I- I can’t remember.” She was starting to tear up again. This whole memory loss thing was really stressful.
“Hey, don’t cry. We’ll figure this out. And my name is Gavin.” He picked her up and wrapped her in a blanket before setting her on a pillow on the couch. She was warm and comfortable for the first time she could remember. She dozed, and finally went to sleep.
Gavin flipped open his laptop, plugged in his headphones, and booted up Netflix. It was time to do research.
Sunday- Monday: The search begins
Sunday
Canterlot
“I wish I had a clue where to start. Not much to work with here. Rift residue doesn’t tell where things went, just that they did.”
“Graphite, can you at least tell me who cast the spell?”
“I could, if it wasn’t corrupted. They used an artifact.”
“That’s bad, isn’t it?”
“Sir, that broadens our spectrum to unicorns as well. Any unicorn with an artifact, as long as it was charged enough, could have defeated her. And magical artifacts aren’t rare.”
Shining Armor was shocked. “You’re telling me that anypony with a simple artifact could defeat her? She’s that weak?”
“I could move the sun with mine, the Sapphire Alicorn, remember it? Just a big sapphire sculpture, but it houses enough magic to where I could become an immortal alicorn for five minutes at least, once every day, and it’s weak by artifact standards.”
“Could someone have taken it?”
“I have it under lock and key in my art studio, sir. It’s under magical protection too. No one is getting in there. But there could easily be another, more powerful artifact out there.”
“Well how do we tell? Where do we start? If this is that common, then it’s possible we would have to comb the country for the right one. We don’t have that kind of window, Graphite.”
“I know, sir. I would suggest we start with stolen or missing items. That might give us a clue what helped this pony.”
“Alright.” Shining Armor was feeling pretty good about all of this. They had a starting point, and a plan to track down the culprit or possibly the culprit’s artifact. There was one more thing he needed to do.
* * *
After three weeks of community service, Sunset Shimmer was pretty tired. Principal Celestia had let her off pretty easy after her change of heart. She was grateful for that. Still, it was nice to get to sit down at this point, even if it was a disguised, magical, long distance interrogation from the captain of the Royal Guard.
“Shining Armor, I would guess. How can I help you?”
“If you were to teleport an immortal alicorn away from Equestria, where would you send her?”
The question was surprisingly abrupt. Straight to the point, no screwing around. She liked that. “Well, I would send her somewhere where the magic was very low level.”
“Can you explain that?”
“Magic works on a certain energy field that builds up on and below the surface of the world you are on. This energy field works for magic the same way a conductor works for electricity. The more of the conductor there is, the more electricity can run through it, with less energy used. The same works for magic.”
“That seems pretty straightforward. Know any worlds we could start on?”
“I originally took the element of magic to Earth with that concept in mind. I figured it would be possible only I would be able to tap into its energy and use it effectively.”
Alright. Shining thought. We have a good start, at least.
“Thank you, Sunset Shimmer.”
“No problem.”
Monday
Earth
“Two bronies walk into a bar,” Eric said. “Who are they cosplayed as?”
“Berry Punch, for sure. And possibly Rainbow Dash.” Eric was surprised. Rainbow Dash was a main character. Gavin could have easily looked her up to impress him. But how did he know about Berry Punch?
“Well, she is constantly portrayed by the fans as alcoholic.” Gavin said, picking up on Eric’s confusion. “If I had to cosplay as a pony into a bar, I would pick Berry Punch too.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Have you been looking around the fanbase?” Eric’s grin was growing by the second.
“I decided to give it a try. I’ve been watching it all weekend.”
“Why the change?”
“Well… Something has come up.”
“Seriously? You suddenly come back today a new convert, saying ‘Something has come up.’ That’s all you’re going to give me?”
“Yes, that is, for now at least. I’m not sure how to respond to all of this. But, you know more than me. Wings plus horn equals alicorn, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So… Twilight was a unicorn, and Cadence was a Pegasus. What does it mean if a young pony is an alicorn?”
“How old?”
“Same age as the… The… Crusaders?”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders?”
“That’s them.”
“Well… An alicorn that young would presumably grow up to be a very powerful pony. An important one.”
* * *
The filly was getting hungry again. She had been eating nonstop since she woke up, and also reading. She had learned that the two legged things called themselves humans, and they had a lot of gadgets that had buttons too small for hooves, so she had nothing to do. She couldn’t watch the moving pictures on the magic box, she couldn’t make pictures move with the strange remotes with joysticks, and so she was reading. She had been drawn to a book titled The Sun, Moon, and other Celestial Wonders. She was reading all about the sun. It was, first off, much larger than the planet earth. (This, according to what she had read, was where she was.) It was also a huge ball of burning gas, and the moon’s light reflected that of the sun. She liked the moon.
The moon… Just thinking about it made her choke up. Either the moon or the sun had appeared in her dreams every night. She couldn’t place it, but every time she looked at the moon, it seemed like there was something she was missing. She felt like there was something on the moon she loved so much, and it tortured her to not know what that something was. She knew it was her memory loss. She still didn’t even know her own name.
But she wouldn’t let it bother her now, in the middle of the day. Luckily, the mean stallion hadn’t made her forget her numbers. The clock on the wall said 3:55. She figured it must be getting pretty late. Where was Gavin?
She hadn’t thought of that before. When would he come back? What if he didn’t? Had he just trapped her in a house too big for her with nothing to do? How long before her food started to rot? Now she was worrying. She got up and started to pace as she waited. He hadn’t told her when he would be back, or for that matter where he was. What if he had left her?!
Just then, the door squeaked as it opened. Gavin stepped in, saying “I’m home!” and scaring her half to death, making her scream at the top of her lungs and bolt right into a table just the right height to smack her across the forehead. Then she stumbled and fell, and started to cry, rubbing her head.
“Oh!” Gavin shouted, running to her and picking her up. “Are you alright?” He commenced to calm her down before attempting to talk to her again.” Does it still hurt?” She shook her head.
“I’m glad you’re back.” She said, still in a somber mood. “I was beginning to think you had left me.”
“No, I wouldn’t do that! You’re still recovering, you were scared and alone, and I won’t do that to you again. I was at school, and then at soccer practice.”
“Oh!” That made sense. “Will you be gone this long every day?”
“Well… I don’t know how we’ll do this, actually. I have a game on Friday. It’ll be dark when I get back home.”
“Can I just come with you?”
“Maybe. I’ll have to think about it.”
“Oh… Alright.”
The rest of the day was spent in silence as they both read and Gavin did his homework. It was nearing sunset when Gavin finally spoke again.
“Do you want to see something amazing?” He asked.
“Sure.” The filly said, after looking at him quizzically and nodding.
He picked her up and put her in his backpack, then hiked up into the wilderness, stopping on top of a large hill overlooking the countryside, then set the bag down and took the filly out, cradling her in his arms.
“This is my favorite view.” The filly looked out at the sunset painting the green countryside golden. There were houses in the distance, and a river made its way through the meadows. At spots, trees lined the bank. A highway out of town was bustling with cars at the edge of the hills. The scene, with the sun setting behind the distant mountains, was beautiful. There was something more to it. It seemed like something about this sunset made her feel welcome, happy. She instinctively reacted to the sun by getting a warm feeling in her chest; like this was something she was supposed to see. It made her feel loved. The filly smiled and curled up in Gavin’s arms, watching the scene for a while before drifting off to sleep.
Gavin reflected on that day. He didn’t know why, but the filly had suddenly opened up to him. He hadn’t received any words from her all weekend. He could only guess it was because of school. She had probably been scared of being alone again. He had to think of something to do for game day, he couldn’t leave her here for hours while he left town. But something told him he shouldn’t let her be seen either. He was in for a crazy week.
* * *
“Alright, Graphite.” Shining armor cast the spell to turn the both of them human. “Are you sure this… Thing of yours works?”
Graphite pulled out a silver plated device with a reflective black screen that was flashing obscure runes in blue and yellow as he set it.
“Yes, it will work. And it is not a thing. It’s called a jumper. I can set coordinates on dimensional planes and transport there with a press of the button.”
“I still don’t get why we don’t use the mirror.”
“The mirror leads to a dimensional parallel, an alternate form of this world. Residue like we found on the ground in Celestia’s chamber means she was not sent to a parallel world. So we can’t go to a parallel either. Now grab one end of this thing.” Shining Armor did so, and Graphite pressed the button.
The sensation was like jumping upside down off of a cliff in the middle of the rain while being attacked by butterflies. All the tingling sensations, all the back flips his stomach did and the cold feeling made him feel terrible once his feet were back on solid ground. It made him dizzy and he fell over, making Graphite chuckle.
“What was that sound for, guard?”
“Most people don’t fall over, sir.”
“Quit with the attitude.”
“Look at it this way.” Graphite said as he helped Shining up. “You may be the commanding officer, but I know my stuff more than you do. These people, this culture... Hmm... Looks like an American setting. McDonalds down the street... Yep! There’s the flag. So, for now, I’m Greg, and you’re Spencer. If we get in a conversation, follow my lead.”
Tuesday
Earth
This new guy, Greg, was weird. If nothing else, his fasion sense was. He was rocking a grey and black hoodie that he kept parted enough to show off his sky blue shirt with an insignia of a pencil drawing a sideways letter S. He was in carpenter’s jeans, and all his pockets were literally filled with pens and pencils, and he was wearing hiking boots. He had a gold LCD watch on his right wrist that looked old and completely beaten up. Most striking was his hair. He was wearing a black short brimmed fedora, but underneath was a head of blue hair with a lightning streak of white edging a portion of his bangs. It was wild and pretty long. He looked, in short, like something out of an anime.
The overall effect was astounding. He pushed up his black wireframes as he gave the class a hearty hello and sat down, hanging his bag on the back of his seat and pulling out about a dozen pens to put on his desk, along with a sketchpad that had the same insignia as his shirt. Other students took notes, but Greg drew them. And they were really good drawings. Even Mr. Howard, their hard to please English teacher, was impressed by his comic rendition of the class reading of Beowulf.
Gavin thought the dude was gutsy. He wasn’t shy at all. It was like he had been through all of this before. Handshakes to the teachers, hellos and high fives to the students, and he seemed to especially like the “Fus Ro Yay” Fluttershy on Eric’s shirt.
“Fluttershy. Nice. She’s pretty cool.” Most of the students were stunned by such a display of confidence. But when nobody else was looking, it seemed like he was looking for something. Gavin wanted to know what was up with this guy. After all, who drew three pictures in consecutive order of volunteer models? He did ask fifty cents for each drawing, but they were worth it. He didn’t seem to do color though. He drew everything in black and white.
“Hey, draw me a picture of Spitfire!” Eric shouted.
“You got it. One Spitfire fresh out of Cloudsdale.” He worked as the bell rang and finished, handing over a dang impressive Spitfire and collecting his fee before shouldering his bag and running off to his next class.
* * *
“So what are your positive skills, Spencer?”
Shining armor straightened his tie. “Well, I know how to cook to some degree. I can focus easily on the task at hand, and I spent a lot of time in security.”
“Alright. Have you ever operated a cash register?”
“A what?” Shining asked, and felt very stupid afterwards. Duh, a cash register. He was really nervous. “I mean, no. I have not.”
“Oh. Well, this has been a nice interview. We’ll call you if we decide to hire you.”
Shining walked out feeling pretty dumb. That was the second place he had tried, and he still didn’t know whether or not he was looking in the right place. Anyways, he was hungry, and that reserve fund Graphite had given him was telling him to spend. Walking back in, he said “Also, what’s the best salad you have?”
* * *
At Gavin’s request, here was Greg.
“Do you guys always sit inside like this? It’s a nice day.”
“Well… Yeah, we’re always inside like this.”
“Shame. All that natural light. Normally I would enjoy it, but you wanted to talk?”
“I did.” Gavin said. “I want to know a bit about you. Where did you come from?”
“Philadelphia.” Greg said with ease.
“Alright… How old are you?”
“Sixteen. This feels like an interrogation, you know.”
Gavin was struck by this remark. It felt like an accusation. Greg didn’t look like he was messing around either. His gold eyes were piercing… wait, gold?
“Why are your eyes gold?”
“Contact lenses, thank you very much what is your name?”
Gavin was struck again by the suddenness of the question. It startled him to have the tables so quickly turned. “G- Gavin.”
“Hello, Gavin, and nice to meet you. If you must know, I am an aspiring artist who has just moved here with my big brother, Spencer. At the moment, we’re still settling in.”
Eric interjected to lighten the mood. “Why do you wear that hat, Greg?”
He laughed. “I had a friend before I moved who would probably attack me on sight with combs if she saw the mess under this hat.”
“Sounds a bit like Rarity.”
“You have no idea.”
Gavin decided he couldn’t hold the question in any more. “What are you looking for here at the school, Greg?”
Now Greg was shocked. His facial expression went from shocked to flustered to something like suppressed anger. “Gavin, meet me at five behind the school.” With that, he walked off. Gavin and Eric stared with shock at each other. Eric opened his mouth, and Gavin hoped he would give him some wise piece of brony philosophy to deal with the threat that had just presented itself.
“Crap!” he said instead.
Canterlot
Will O. Wisp stepped up to the podium to announce his candidacy to Equestria.
“Hello, everypony. I stand before you today in the shadow of one of the worst emergencies in Equestrian history. Our princess is missing. Her younger sister grows weary with the weight of the sun and the moon on her shoulders. And there is no sign of Celestia’s return.
“I stand before you in a hopeless situation. Your beloved ruler is missing. But all is not lost, Equestria. Before coming here, I was known very well in Manehattan. While Celestia is gone, I can rule. I am announcing my candidacy for Equestria’s… Prime minister, of a sort. I promise, if you vote for me, I will rule as justly and fairly as I can. Thank you.”
He stepped down to moderate applause and moved over. Top that, Twilight Sparkle.
She stepped up. “Equestria, you know me well as your newest princess. I’m still learning, and I have a way to go as a leader. I honestly don’t bring much to the table, besides my brains and my magic. But there is one really important factor I have. That’s my friendships.
"I am not only a princess, but the bearer of Harmony’s element of magic. If you vote me, as Will said, for prime minister, I would not rule alone. I have my friends, the elements of harmony, to help me. The elements would once again be able to keep peace in Equestria, and keep it safe. And you, the citizens of this land, could rest assured that you were not ruled by my decisions alone, but by the decisions of five other ponies of various backgrounds, personalities, and views. That is the main thing I bring to the party. Thank you.” She stepped down and received a huge amount of applause. Will was stunned. Even he thought it had been a good speech! Twilight had good ideas.
But Twilight wasn’t going to win. There was a whole world of hurt waiting for her if she did.
Earth
Gavin Wasn’t about to just back down. It wasn’t his style to run away from a challenge. One of his friends from the football team had heard the threat and offered to help, but Gavin had said no. That wouldn’t be fair to Greg. He realized he had made a grave mistake when he found Greg standing next to a much taller guy, with black hair. He looked like he had spent time as a bouncer.
“At least you were gutsy enough to come alone.” Greg said. “I had worried it sounded too much like I wanted to fight. This is my big brother, Spencer.”
“Gavin.” Gavin said as he held out his hand. Spencer shook it.
“Nice to meet you. You want answers, I’m guessing?”
“Why are you here?”
“Gavin…” Spencer got a thoughtful look as he worked through something in his head. “Ok. Look. We’re here because of something of big importance to us. Something that went missing.” Greg facepalmed behind him like he was saying too much. “We need to learn what happened to it before we leave.”
“That’s it? That’s all you’ll tell me? What is this something? I could help you look.”
“It’s more like a someone. Someone very important and powerful. We can’t tell you who, it would blow our cover.” Gavin put on a disappointed face, but gears were turning in his head. An alicorn that young would presumably grow up to be a very powerful pony. An important one. Eric had said. Were these two looking for the pony he had found? And if so, why? Gavin had an idea.
“I hope you find her.” He said.
“I hope we find her too.” Spencer replied, not picking up on this treachery. Greg looked at Gavin for a moment, like he was figuring something out, but suddenly a yell caught his attention.
“You’re not hurting Gavin if I can help it!” It was Luke, one of Gavin’s friends, the one he had told to stay behind. He charged Greg, who steeled himself, ready for the attack. Luke tried to punch him, but Greg grabbed his fist and pulled him around, using leverage to send Luke flying straight into a wall. The reaction was split second. Greg was fast. He pinned Luke to the wall.
“Stop, man! We weren’t fighting! We were talking!” Luke seemed to calm down considerably after realizing he had been beat. Gavin left as they straightened things out. It was official. This filly wasn’t just a random one. She was important, and two really shifty guys were looking for her. Two guys he didn’t trust.
He had to keep her safe.
* * *
Gavin was late again. The filly knew he would be this time, but he was even later than before. She didn’t like being alone in this too big, creaky house. She didn’t want to be, but she was frustrated.
Then the door opened.
“You need a name.” Gavin said when he entered. “We need to give you a name, at least until you remember your real one.”
The filly was stunned by the abruptness of the statement. She had planned to confront him, ask why he was gone so long. He was right though, so she let go of her question to focus on this new task.
“I don’t know where to start.” She said. She started thinking through her qualities, seeing if she could come up with something based on what she was like… What was she like? She had been too busy surviving and learning about this new world to really realize. “Hmm…”
Gavin was more concerned with her looks, because he didn’t know what she was like either.
“Let’s see… Your eyes are bright… But I think I remember Bright Eyes. I don’t know. Your mane is pink, but we definitely can’t call you Pinkie… Let’s just drop it for now and see if something comes to mind later, alright?”
“Okay.” So they sat, enjoying the day in silence, until dinner time. The filly was brought a bowl full of salad, and Gavin sat down with a pink thing nestled in a bun. The smell made the filly freeze.
“Is that meat?” she said, an edge of panic creeping into her voice.
“Yeah.” Gavin realized too late where her thought process was taking the conversation, and knew he needed to save himself. “I mean, I’m a human. I eat meat because I have to. Humans are technically supposed to eat both meats and veggies to stay healthy.” He opted to leave out vegans, at least for now. She was already visibly calming. He chuckled, thinking of something. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t eat you. You don’t look like you would taste very good.” He poked her, and she chuckled. It was the closest thing to a laugh he had heard from her. He wanted to hear more.
The filly had to beg for him to stop between laughs after he spent a good ten minutes finding all her ticklish spots. By the end of her ordeal, she was lightheaded and had hiccups, but at least she was happy.
“You’re a ray of sunshine, you know that?” Gavin asked. Then he realized what he had just said, and decided to go off of it. “What do you think of that?”
“What?”
“Sunshine. That could be your name.”
The filly thought about it. Something about the name Sunshine seemed oddly fitting. She liked it, and she desperately wanted a name.
“I like it.” She decided.
That night was especially cold, and her covers did nothing to keep her warm, so she moved over to Gavin’s bed. She huddled against him, almost desperate for warmth, and Gavin wrapped his arms around her in his sleep.
Sunshine was warm, full, and happy. And more importantly, she had a name. With that thought in mind, she smiled and drifted off to sleep.
Wednesday: Madness begins
Wednesday
Sunshine was woken up by the sudden lack of arms around her. She half consciously sat up as Gavin got ready for school.
“Gavin?”
“Yes, Sunshine?”
“Why can’t I come with you to school?”
“Well,” Gavin began. “Some humans are nice, and some are bad. A lot of humans do bad things with good intentions. Earth runs on science, not magic. And talking ponies don’t exist in science. You’re a very rare, different thing, and some humans might hurt you trying to figure out what you are.”
“Oh… You won’t hurt me, right Gavin?”
“No. I won’t. I promise.”
With this said, he left for school. Once again, Sunshine was alone. But today she had a plan. Her magic hadn’t worked when she first arrived. She could feel it, but couldn’t harness it, like there wasn’t enough of something. Today, she was going to relearn how to harness her magic.
Three broken cups and a soaked book later, she could levitate things.
One broken Game Boy Color later, she could use buttons.
One carton of spilled milk later, she could pour drinks.
One bowl of salad and a carrot on a bun later, she could make her own food.
And three dozen paper towels later, everything was spick and span again.
Pleased with her progress, Sunshine sat down on the couch and turned on the magic box, and started to change the channel. The news hit her hard. Earth was going through terrible times. She was sad. She had to change the channel before she screamed. Eventually, she found a documentary. This would work. She could learn without getting sad.
* * *
It was an off day for Will. No campaign ideas today. He had something special he would do with his free time. It was time to pay Celestia a visit. He went to a secluded area where nopony would find teleportation residue, and made the jump. She wasn’t in sight, but that was alright. She couldn’t have got far. He started to look, combing the woods, and found nothing. Something was up. Suddenly there was a crack behind him. He whirled, casting his magic into a javelin that went straight through the coyote, burning a hole in its forehead all the way through to the back of it’s neck. It screamed as it died.
* * *
Sunshine heard a coyote scream out in the woods. It sounded close. She looked outside and saw nothing but the dark trees.
* * *
Curse the filly, she was gone. Coyotes weren’t doing the trick. Will needed to put something more tenacious in these woods. As it was, there were no good predators. He had just the thing. He started a spell, and smiled as just the creature he was looking for came out of this rift with a large predatory chitter.
“Perfect.” He said, before teleporting out of the creature’s warpath. Celestia was in for a surprise.
* * *
Shining Armor was startled as Graphite ran in, panting. He looked excited.
“Sir, we’ve got something! Something just made a jump. One of my long distance sensors picked it up.”
“Let’s go!”
Shining Armor had brought along some weapons for them to use. He handed Graphite a dagger, but Graphite refused it and pulled out a sword. They were both armed pretty well, it seemed. It was time to see what had come in.
* * *
Gavin had to walk through the forest. He was going to make up for being late today. As he was walking, he heard a wet crunch. It was a familiar sound, a bone breaking. He looked in its direction to see a large insectoid creature eating a dead coyote. He couldn’t help but gasp at its size.
That caught the thing’s attention. It turned, saw him, and stood up on two legs, flexing its mantis-like arms and roaring, unfolding two large scythe shaped pincers to uncover its grotesque mouth. All in all, the creature stood around eighteen feet in height. The ground shook as it walked menacingly towards him, chittering like predator. He started to run, and so did it. It brought down one of its blade arms in attempt to grab him, and just barely missed. It knocked him over as it tried to grab him again.
“Ah crap.” A familiar voice said. “Arthrax! We’ve got an arthrax!” Greg and Spencer suddenly ran in, intercepting the creature. Strangely enough, they had full blown swords. It roared and swiped at Spencer, who blocked with a sword, somehow not losing an arm, as Greg went around the back and slashed at the creature. His sword did minimal damage. What was this thing?
It spun, missing Greg but knocking over an evergreen tree as it attacked. Spencer then shot fire out of his free hand.
“What?!” Gavin yelled. “Since when can you do magic?!”
Spencer simply gave him a look before attacking again. The creature was too big for any real attacks.
“Guys!” Gavin yelled. “Bring a tree down on it!” Both of them looked at him like he was some sort of genius before taking positions. Spencer started using his sword to hack away at the nearest large tree while Greg attacked the creature and dodged it’s attacks.
* * *
Graphite needed to hurry. He couldn’t be in the way when the tree fell, which was soon regarding the way Shining was hitting that tree. But keeping this arthrax in the same place was hard. So he was glad when the tree fell, landing on the creature, making the earth shake. The arthrax started to struggle. That tree wouldn’t hold it long.
“Spencer! It’s head!”
“Right!” Shining Armor ran forward and quickly stabbed the creature in it’s eye. It kept moving, so he stabbed it again, and again, and again until all that remained was a little twitch. Finally, the titan was still.
“Who the heck are you guys?!” Gavin, who Graphite had forgotten about, yelled. Graphite turned toward him.
“Go home. You saw nothing.”
The last thing Gavin wanted was to mess with these guys. He did what he was told and got out of the area.
“Okay.” Shining said. “Search the area. Something else is here. Something has to be.” After a while of looking, they found blue teleportation residue and dead half eaten coyote.
“The arthrax didn’t kill this. Look at the head. This was a magic bolt.”
“It was. Graphite, whatever pony killed this coyote is the pony who got rid of Celestia.”
* * *
Gavin came in, hyperventilating, and quickly slammed the door behind him. He heard Sunshine scream.
“Gavin, what’s with all the noise?!” He shakily walked up to find her soaked by orange juice.
“What happened?”
“You scared me. What’s wrong?”
“There… There was a monster. I only barely got away…” He sat down and was surprised by a wet mass smelling of orange cuddling him.
“Hey, it’s okay. You lived. That’s what matters.” She was right, but where was this sudden maturity coming from? “I’m going to go dry up, be right back.” With that said, she got up and walked out, leaving Gavin confused. What had suddenly happened? Soon, the little filly came back, dry and wild maned.
“What happened? You’re suddenly all mature.”
“And you’re suddenly all scared. You comforted me when I was scared. I might as well return the favor.” She had a point. As he calmed down, she rubbed her head against him. Wasn’t that called a nuzzle? He couldn’t help but smile at the cute little display of affection, but he also couldn’t help but notice the pink mess atop her head.
“We need to brush your mane.” He picked her up, and took her to the bathroom. “How do you like your mane anyways?” Sunshine thought for a moment, then gestured to have her bangs brushed into the rest of the mane. Half an hour was spent detangling it and then styling it. It all leaned to one side, and didn’t look quite right, so he took a curl from her mane and put it back on the other side of her head. Satisfied, she nodded.
“Like that.” She started to admire herself, and Gavin left her alone in the bathroom to do so. It was then that it struck him. What would happen when his mom got back? Suddenly, a lump formed in his stomach as he realized that Sunshine would eventually be found out. He had to have a plan for when that happened. So, when Sunshine walked back out, he talked to her about it.
“Well. I was looking at a story book, and in it this little boy had a fake rabbit. It was a soft toy and made of something called velveteen. Why don’t I just act like a soft toy?”
This filly just got smarter every day! Gavin liked the idea. “Stay as still as possible.” She did, but she wasn’t very still. “We’ll need to work on getting you to stay more still.”
“Ok.” They had a plan, at least.
Thursday-Friday: The game
Thursday
Canterlot
Twilight Sparkle was having a good time. Sure, she was doing political planning, but Pinkie Pie made everything fun.
“Ooh! Ooh! OOH! Let’s throw the biggest party ever! Everypony likes a party, Twilight! We could definitely win Equestria’s favor with a nationwide party!”
“But Pinkie, we don’t have the funds for that.” Twilight said, chuckling.
Fluttershy spoke up from the corner, just barely heard. “And a political campaign should have more substance. Oh! Not that I don’t like your idea, Pinkie, I really do, just…” She trailed off back into silence. Her plan shot down, Pinkie deflated for a moment before perking back up.
“Okey dokey lokey!” She said.
“Twilight.” Rarity said. “A campaign should be elegant but strong. It should catch a pony’s attention, but gently pull them towards your ideas and alert them that there's something in it for them. Be stylish.”
“Also, be as honest as you can.” Applejack added. “Ah know, politics and all, but ponies value a good bit of honesty.”
Quietly, Fluttershy spoke up again. “Don’t be brutally honest though. Be nice too.”
“Make it fun!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“And awesome!” Rainbow Dash added, then thought of something else. “And be for the ponies.”
All of Twilight’s friends had such good ideas. They were sure to win if they worked together.
* * *
"So you're going to be gone all night?" Sunshine asked, rather soleful.
"I'm taking you with me. And it's tomorrow, not tonight. I'll be home after school." Sunshine was happy to hear that, but it was bittersweet because Gavin was leaving right at that moment. She watched as he left, and then she sat down with a book. The day passed on in silence as she read, absorbing more knowledge. Finally, the familiar sound of the door opening.
"I'm home." Gavin said. He sounded slightly shaken.
"What's wrong?"
"There's a news team checking out that monster. They're examining it. Nobody knows what it is... I don't think it's from around here though..."
"Well where else would it be from? I mean, there's just Earth, right? It's the only planet that can sustain life."
"True... But there are no talking ponies on earth either."
"Except me... but I think I came through a portal to get here. A mean stallion sent me here. I think he wanted to kill me..."
This statement scared Gavin. "Who would want to kill you?"
Sunshine looked at the floor, managing a small "I don't know." before going into the bedroom and lying down. That night she slept until she was woken up by gentle moonlight falling on her face. The moon... Fresh tears came to her. Why did she feel so hollow looking at this moon?
Friday
It was game day, and it would be no easy feat getting Sunshine to school unnoticed. He emptied his bag of all nonessential things, and got his duffle bag ready as well. Sunshine would stay with him as much as possible. He wasn't letting her out of his sight. So he packed her in a spare pocket in his bag. He packed enough food in there to last her a day before heading out, taking his duffle bag along.
* * *
Sunshine was still in a melancholy from last night. She hated not knowing what she missed so dearly on the moon. She stayed still, listening as Gavin went through school, listening to conversations and occasionally lessons by the teacher. History struck her the most. Earth was a world of suffering, so many horrible wars... All sorts of innocent people dead, and more wars still raging. Why was this world like this?
She decided she would ask Gavin later as the final bell rang.
"Almost done." He whispered to her. She could feel him walking for a while before he stopped, and took her out before putting her in his duffle bag.
"Alright. We're almost there. You've been very patient." Sunshine smiled. The next two hours were a bumpy bus ride to who knows where. She sat, nibbling on the food Gavin had brought, when the bus finally stopped.
* * *
Gavin's adrenaline was pumping before he ever got on the field. He was ready for the game. They would win, of course, but he was also slightly worried about Sunshine. Too bad, it was time to play. Gavin played offense, and he was good at what he did. He swerved, dodged, and generally just kept everyone on the opposite team away from the ball. Along with his buddies who were on the attack with him, they made short work of thier opponents without ever having to worry about it.
Even when one of the members of the team's defense got a hard accidental kick to the knee, benching him, there was still no problem. The other team was schooled. They hadn't even scored one goal.
The game was over as if it hadn't even begun. But, he said good game nonetheless, high fiving all the opposite players. The sun was starting to set. Gavin went to get his bag, and Sunshine.
What he didn't know was that a guy named Mark had brought the same kind of duffel bag, but he was on the other team. Sunshine was riding happily in the duffel bag, thinking she was going home, and she couldn't be farther from the truth.
* * *
It was near nine when Mark got home. He was tired after a hard day of being swamped by the enemy team, took his bag down to his room, and haphazardly threw it onto his bed before sitting down there himself. That was when his cell phone rang.
* * *
Gavin had frantically pulled out his cell and made a call as soon as he realized he had grabbed the wrong bag. He was lucky this guy had had the foresight to put his name and number in his bag.
"Hello?"
Gavin was trying not to sound desperate. "Hi. Is this Mark?"
"Yeah. Who is this?"
"My name is Gavin. I was at the soccer game earlier today. I was on the offensive."
"The dude with the brown hair?"
"That's me."
"Yeah, I remember you. What's up?... Wait... How did you even get my number in the first place?"
"That's why I called. I took your bag by mistake."
"Crap, my home jersey was in there!"
"I'm going to come by so we can switch them out."
"That's a four hour drive dude. Can't this wait?"
Gavin was trying his best not to sound frantic at this point. "Nah, it's a Friday. I might as well come pick up my bag and not worry about it later, you know?"
"If you say so. You're a crazy dude." After that was said, Mark hung up. Gavin called another person, because he had a license but his mom was out of town with thier car.
"Hey Eric. Could I ask a favor of you?"
Eric took a while to respond. It made sense, they had never really talked outside of class before. "Sure, Gavin, what is it?"
"I need a ride somewhere."
There was another pause. Eric seemed to be thinking it through. There was talking in the background. Then he came back. "Sure."
"Also, would you like to spend the night at my house? We can binge watch ponies and stuff." There was more talking in the background.
"The parents say that would not be a problem. I'll be over shortly." It was an hour later before he arrived. "So where is this ride to?" Eric had a slight freak out when he realized how far away the destination was. "That's four hours away! I can't do that tonight!"
Gavin knew Eric would say something like this, and he had a desperate card to play. "Okay, Eric. I asked you to give me the ride because I owe you explanations. I plan to explain everything, why I'm a brony, what's come up, but only after you get me where I need to go. Deal?"
It seemed to do the trick. "Deal."
Four hours of brony songs were played in the course of the whole time. Gavin didn't think he heard one song replay, although he heard remixes. Eric kept things lively by talking with Gavin while he drove.
"This must be good if we're driving across the state for a bag. This feels so adventurous!"
Gavin laughed nervously. "Yeah." What would happen if Mark opened his bag? What if he had found Sunshine? He was nervous. Then the GPS in Eric's car chimed "Destination reached." It was two in the morning. Gavin climbed out of the car and went to knock on the door.
Sunday
Gavin awoke to the sound of the door opening. Sunshine must have heard it too, she woke up with a tired "Huh?" Gavin walked over to the door, holding Sunshine, expecting to see Eric leaving, until he saw Eric behind him in the reflection of his door. Gavin's mom walked in.
"Gavin, I'm- Oh! You were just waiting here for me, huh?" Sunshine, who had not had time to fully wake up, was less motionless than she should have been. "What is that?" Sunshine realized her mistake too late, and froze.
"Umm... Don't freak out, mom, but-"
"You bought a pony? And what have you done to the poor little thing? Dyed it's mane pink and taped horns and wings to it? Is this some kind of joke?"
"Mom-"
"Don't 'Mom' me. We're taking this filly to the nearest shelter and then we're having a talk about animal abuse."
She scooped the filly out of Gavin's arms, and she started to struggle. Finally, she couldn't take it. "No! I'm staying with Gavin." Surprised, Gavin's mom loosened her grip enough for Sunshine to indignantly jump back into Gavin's arms and curl up.
"She just... She..."
"Yeah. Mom, meet Sunshine. Sunshine, this is my mom, Meredith."
"Nice to meet you, Meredith."
"She speaks. A pony that speaks. You speak! Hi Sunshine!"
Meredith took to Sunshine fast. Before long the two were laughing and sharing jokes like they had been friends for years. Gavin was glad, because it meant Sunshine was warming up to people and that his mom wasn't freaked out by an otherworldly talking pony living in his bedroom. She was generally one to jump to conclusions easily, so it was good that she liked Sunshine.
His chain of thought was broken by a shadow passing quickly over the window. Sunshine saw it too. They both went to the window and looked out, seeing nothing.
* * *
Graphite would have called the creature a cave crawler. It was about the size of a German shepherd, with three pairs of independently moving eyes. It's prehensile tail and long front arms were great for climbing. It yawned, it's long interlocking teeth bared as it threw back it's head. When it looked around again, it caught sight of a white and pink pony. It was enchanted to kill this target, as were the other twelve members of it's pack.
They would wait until dark, when thier vision was best. Then, this filly was thiers.
* * *
A large bump awakened Gavin from sleep. It sounded like something had hit his window, but he couldn't see a thing when he looked. Just shapes moving in the forest. Probably coyotes. He thought, before settling down again. He was nearing sleep when he heard something else. It sounded far more sinister. He looked out, and once again saw nothing. There was a deep scratch in his window.
"Gavin?... You're getting up a lot. What is it?"
"Nothing, Sunshine. Just heard something." He turned to face her. Her tired look turned to a tired smile, and then into a stare of horror. "What is it?" He turned back into the window just as six glowing white orbs, bioluminescent pupilless eyes, blinked out of existence. Something was terribly wrong. He grabbed Sunshine and went to the only place he knew with any kind of weapon. The kitchen.
* * *
The crawler ever so slowly, quietly, dug it's claw into the window seal before denting the metal, allowing it to pull the window out without too much noise. It did so, quietly setting it down in the grass with almost gentle grace before crawling into the house with a quiet hiss. Others followed. Thier eyes were well adjusted to the darkness of this structure, and the walls and cieling were easy for thier Gecko-like appendages to cling to. Thier claws slightly scratched the drywall as they moved.
* * *
Gavin heard a scratch. Something was coming. He couldn't see in the dark, so he grabbed a knife and flicked the light on, and was greeted by a dog sized creature blinking it's six eyes, interlocking fangs showing as it opened and closed it's mouth. The light had stunned it. It looked like a lizard straight out of hell. Considering the last few days, he wouldn't be surprised if it was. More were behind it, a lot more, and they too were adjusting to the light. Gavin commanded his limbs to move, but he was frozen by the sight of these creatures.
So he wasn't surprised when one lunged. Not at him, but at the white pony in his arms who was desperately making herself as small as possible against his body. He just barely dodged the attack, and knew he wouldn't be so lucky next time, and watched the creature slam into the fridge. Not fazed, it got up and lunged again, fiercely slashing at Sunshine. Gavin blocked it, and it started to attack him instead. It was lighter than he expected. He pushed it off, got up, and rammed it into the wall behind it. It coughed, but kept attacking, forcing him back to the ground with greater strength than he realized it posessed.
With a quiet hiss, it leapt on him again, and this time he used the only thing he could think of. He drove the knife home, into the creature's chest.
It shreiked in pain. The sound was earsplitting to Gavin. He heard Sunshine scream. She must have been more sensitive to high pitched noises. He tried to cover her ears as the thing died, but he had to use his free hand when suddenly he was being attacked by numerous monsters. They were all clawing, biting, and hissing, and it was getting harder and harder to evade thier attacks. One raked his chest, and it was his turn to scream in pain as the claws ran across his rib cage, doing no permanent damage but hurting. The creatures wrenched his arm wide and took Sunshine.
"No! No!" He yelled, struggling and watching in horror as the things started to play with her, gently batting her around, careful not to hurt her. Gavin's vision was flashing red as he crawled towards them, still holding his knife. Finally, one pinned her down with one clawed hand and started to cut into her chest with the other. It was going to start by eating her heart. Gavin's breath was on fire. He watched helplessly as it cut with one clawed finger, with surgical precision, into Sunshine's skin. She whimpered in pain, tears forming in her eyes as she feebly struggled, and it's mouth opened in a hiss of pleasure at her expense.
Right as its brain got blown out of its head by a 9 millimeter round. The others looked in the direction of the shot, as did Gavin, and saw Meredith, holding a pistol in one hand and a mystery novel in the other, reading glasses still on. One hissed, and she quickly shot it too, and then two more as they ran out, one in the leg and one twice in the chest. The one with the wounded leg limped out later than the others, and its pack mates instinctively eliminated it's weakness by tearing it apart.
"Gavin! Are you alright?!"
"Mom!..."
"Yes, I know." She switched the safety on and put the gun on the table before looking at Gavin's wound. "It'll be okay. It's not too bad." She helped him up and they cleaned the wound, put gauze over it and bandaged it. "Those were some thin claws."
"Sunshine."
"Right." She ran over and picked the filly up. The wound was the same basic form as Gavin's, but much more precise, so she could only think to do the same thing to Sunshine that she did to Gavin. "How am I going to explain this one?" She looked out the window that the creatures had come in through, and they were staring from the yard. She grabbed her gun and pointed it. "Go on! Get out of here!"
And they did. She counted eight. They were smart if they could recognize the gun. She pocketed it and took the dead creatures to the woods, one by one. The living ones watched her the whole time, silent, not coming close. They had the creepy ability to make thier eyes glow, flickering like fireflies. They could just turn it on and off whenever. Finally, she was done. She fixed the window as best as she could, and went inside. Gavin was asleep, holding Sunshine. So she went back to sleep too.
Meredith called Gavin in sick, first thing. He needed rest. Luckily, something about the wound made it close up fast. Still, it looked bad. Or, at least, it did at first. As the day progressed, it got better and better. Perplexed, she finally spoke up.
"Son, did you get healing powers or something?" Gavin laughed, mostly because this used to be something that would have passed for a joke. But talking ponies and monsters were suddenly a big deal in his life. It was funny because healing powers suddenly weren't out of the question.
"I don't think so, mom."
"I've been giving him magic, Ms. Meredith," Sunshine said, "It helps him heal."
"Oh? And what about you?"
"I'm all better. Didn't you notice when I took my bandages off?"
In truth, Meredith hadn't. Maybe she healed unnaturally fast.
"Mom, I'm going to school tomorrow." Gavin said. She simply nodded, which relieved Gavin. He wasn't about to tell her he planned to recruit the area's local monster hunters. He was glad she didn't ask.
* * *
Graphite had pointed out a growing infestation of monsters, and so now Shining had gone out to take them out, while looking for the princess. And now he was surrounded. There were eight of the six eyed creatures in all, and they were circling him like wild dogs. One lunged, and he quickly decapitated it. Seven. Three attacked at once, forcing him to the ground. At this close of range, he could not use his sword effectively, so instead he drove them off with a magical pulse.
He then lunged to the offensive, managing to kill one and harm another, which the creatures tore apart in a mad frenzy. There we go! he thought. I can use this to get the upper hand. He lunged, killing three on the spot while they frenzied the wounded monster. Two remained. One snarled, leaping at him, and it knocked him to the ground. Then, it grabbed his leg and ran up a tree. It was physically larger than the others.
The smaller one followed and watched as Shining was dragged a few hundred yards before wrestling himself free. It attacked, and Shining managed to throw it off. Something cut it, catching the big one's attention. Shining Armor took the opportunity and swiped it's head off. The smaller monster, now alone, ran into the woods before Shining could catch it.
He saw a glint of metal, and bent down, picking up a torn and clawed chestplate with a gem in the middle. The golden color of the metal and purple gem were unmistakable. He found four hoof guards, each one vaguely shaped like a Fleur de Lis. No. No no no... No! He dropped the object in shock. Each item was massively damaged, and smeared with whatever grime, dirt, and gore it had accumulated in the past few days.
Celestia was-
No, no, he couldn't bring himself to accept that. Still, the proof was undeniable.
How would he report this to Twilight?
* * *
Sunshine was asleep. She was getting to her dream for the night. She expected the moon or sun again, but she was surprised when something entirely different flashed into view.
"Did you really think I would sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?" a tall pony with a dark coat and starry mane asked.
"Sister, let me help you! It doesn't have to be this way! We can still work together!" a voice said. Sunshine recognized both. The second voice was her own. She stared at this other pony with a feeling of unimaginable sorrow, even impending loss. Something bad would happen to this mare.
She walked up to the podium between them. "There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess will be ME!" she yelled as she reared up and brought her hooves down on the podium, smashing it. The whole floor cracked, along with the wall, until the stained glass window above the mare shattered, revealing a solar eclipse brought on by the pony, who was envelloped in shadows, forming a black orb.
When it dissipated, the pony was gone, replaced by a tall armored mare with a black coat and turquoise eyes, her starry mane flowing almost like the robes on a wraith. Her pupils, round at first, became slits. As she started to laugh, her teeth turned into fangs. She merely laughed as Sunshine stared on in shock and horror. Finally, she trailed off, and Sunshine spoke.
"Luna! I will not fight you! You must lower the moon! It is your duty!”
"Luna.” The nightmare spat harshly. “I am Nightmare Moon. I have but one duty now! To destroy you!” With this said, the nightmare charged a magical laser and fired, waking Sunshine up with a start.
The first thing she saw was the moon.
* * *
Will was woken up by something. It was a shift in one of his more important spells. This one in particular was important. It was the spell blocking Celestia's memories. He could feel the change even from another dimension. It seemed to be weakening. At first he thought he was in trouble. Then he thought of something. He could use this. If he was back in the dimension, slowly but surely he would be able to close in on the source of his dying spell. That source, of course, was Celestia. But first, he had business to attend to in Equestria tomorrow.
Tuesday, Part 1: Will's Tale
"What do you plan to do about the dissapearance of Celestia?"
Celestia this, Celestia that, do you ponies care about anything else? Will thought.
"I'll do everything in my power to find her, even go and look myself." It wasn't really a lie. In fact, he meant it. They hadn't asked what he would do when he found her.
"And you, princess Sparkle?"
"Celestia was my mentor long before I was much of anypony. If it means saving her..." she thought for a moment. "I suppose I might even give my life. She's like my second mother." Murmurs erupted in the crowd at this remark. Twilight straightened her crown.
"Princess, how do you plan to adress the brass embargo brought on by the griffons to the north?"
"I plan to diplomatically meet with the leader of the eyrie to talk about this recent turn of events and come to a compromise."
"You, Will?"
"I want to go and talk to him as well, but I plan to get as most out of the situation as I can for this country. Brass is a key material in magical engineering. It's a great conductor of magic. We need it, and I plan to let the griffons know."
"Alright. Closing statements please?"
"Equestria," Will said, "We have hard times ahead of us, to be sure. Together, we can get through it. Even with all of our problems, together we can perservere, like we always have."
* * *
Sunshine was sipping tea that Meredith had made for her when she heard a voice.
Sweet dreams last night?
She jumped. It was in her head!
Who is this?
That doesn't matter. You'll know soon enough. Now... What have your dreams been about? Sunshine didn't see a reason not to explain, but she couldn't find the words to explain it all. Somehow the voice picked it up. Ahh. As I thought. Your memories are returning to you. Good. Do you know where you came from?
No.
How old you are?
No...
Want me to give you a little history lesson? Not even your ears have heard this. It's beyond your memory. Something I learned in a very secret spot. It'll shed some light on your past.
First, who are you?
Didn't we already agree that didn't matter?
Not really.
Fine. the voice said with slight annoyance. I'm Will. Quite honestly, I'm the stallion that sent you here. Sunshine froze up. Ah, you remember that. Want to hear what I discovered? Alright. Here goes nothing. A long time ago, before even the settlement of the country we both come from, there lived a race of wonderful, intelligent and beautiful ponies. A civilization of immortals. Radiant in appearance and in personality. They called themselves alicorns. Quite a few images flashed through Sunshine's head, ponies of different colors. All had wings and a horn, like her.
They were quite the ponies. Able to magically disable and subdue even dragons. Quite impressive. Lesser beings stared in awe at their feats. And some envied them. Ponies of various types grew to have a lust for power. And when the alicorns wouldn't let them in on the secret, well. Images flashed through her mind. Unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies alike were fighting one alicorn. The alicorn was strong, and fast, but there were too many ponies. The image cut off right as a sword came up to strike the final blow.
The ponies decided to take the power. They thought killing the alicorns would allow them to take their power. These dark deeds only ravaged their souls. Still they lusted for power. It became genocide. Alicorns simply weren't as numerous as the others. It was a horrible time. Alicorns were all but wiped out. Those that lived went into hiding, and for some, hatred built towards the ponies. This changed them. You have seen the effects firsthoof, numerous times.
Both in early- Images of the starry maned nightmare flashed into her head at lightning speeds, making the images more nightmarish, for in each one the look moved slightly, like this pony was moving as lights flickered on and off. -and advanced forms. A massive black creature, its twisted horn radiating with magic, showed its fanged mouth and green slit pupilled eyes before there was a green blast, followed by a shock to her horn that left her spine in agony, like a spike had been forced into each vertebra. She screamed.
Some manipulated the ponies, tried to backstab them all in their own attempted genocides. The attempts failed. The rest, your family included, went into hiding. Then you showed up with your sister. You all made friends. You became the rulers of the ponies. You were royalty. Such was not so in your bloodline. You're no princess, you're a fake. You do not deserve the throne you hold. I do not wish to destroy your race. Such beauty. But you in particular cannot be allowed to return. I will take that throne. Where are you?
She didn't answer.
Speak up, dear.
She wasn't saying anything to this guy. Nobody would be safe if she did. Not Eric, or Meredith, or Gavin. What would she do without them?
Gavin, hmm?
Sunshine started to panic. Get out of my head.
Oh, I've struck a cord, have I?-
Get out.
Know what I'll do if I find him?
Get out!
I'll beat him, yes. Then burn him. I'll make you listen to all of his screams. Every last one. You'll watch him die,-
Get out!
And then I'll give you the same fate.
Get out of my head! Now!
But you can save him.
Get out!
Come to me. In the forest. Meet your fate, and you will save him from his.
"Get out of my HEAD!" She screamed aloud and in her mind. Her magic fought hard to wrench the consciousness out of her head, and a sudden burst of magic welled up from inside her. She screamed because it felt like she was burning.
Meredith, who had been trying to snap her out of her trance since she fell off of the couch, dropped her and watched as magic flared around her horn in three layers, the exertion showing itself on her face. Her mane changed from one toned pink to four toned mint-green, pink, light-blue and grassy-green before Meredith had to close her eyes tight to protect them from a bright flash of golden light.
She finally managed to open her eyes and noticed the shadows shifting extremely fast. She looked outside as Sunshine finished accidentally moving the sun.
I'll give you three days. Then, either way, I'll find you and this "Gavin."
Tuesday, Part 2: More and More like the Sun
Shining Armor and Graphite Sketch had just finished packing up to go home. All they had found of Celestia was her hoof guards, her chest plate, and her crown after looking a little bit. It was strange, to be honest. Celestia wasn't thought to sleep in her royal attire. Maybe she had donned it to face a threat she knew was coming. In any case, it was all that was left of her.
Graphite was done first, and was staring at the ground and waiting for Shining to finish when his shadow moved beneath him. He hurried to look up and caught a glimpse of the sun moving, only for a moment. Everything seemed hotter. It was her! Celestia had moved the sun! He ran inside.
"She's alive, Shining! We're not done yet!"
"What are you talking about?"
"The sun just moved! She moved it!"
"She did?"
* * *
"Well move it back!"
"I don't know how I moved it in the first place!"
Meredith had checked Gavin out of school after Sunshine had moved the sun. Astronomers were freaking out. It was already on the news.
"Come on, do something, this is bad! The sun shouldn't move, the earth does!"
"I know! Give me a second!" Sunshine thought for a moment. "Maybe I can just grab it." She attempted to do so, and it took a lot of effort. Something in the back of her mind told her it wasn't always this hard. After grabbing it, which was the hard part, moving it was a cinch, like rolling a ball across a hardwood floor. She tested the hold, moving it back and forth. Gavin was sure some astronomer in Houston was having a heart attack right now.
Sunshine seemed to know right where to put the sun, and didn't waste too much time putting it back. Luckily, she hadn't affected any planetary orbits, but she had diverted some meteors to the sun's surface.
"I got it!" she said.
* * *
Shining Armor watched the sun wave like a flag, back and forth through the sky, almost as though she was beckoning them. His princess was alive, he just knew it. He would find her, and bring her back, safe and sound.
"Graphite, I know we can find her."
"Yeah."
"Come on, let's go unpack our gear."
They did just that, and eventually had their makeshift house all done up again.
* * *
Gavin had noticed just how distant Sunshine suddenly was. He turned to look at her, and she was looking at him. As soon as their eyes met, she looked away in a hurry. Her mane was worrying him. It shouldn't have been. He knew why it was though. It was all the same colors as Celestia's. It was getting hard to deny now. Her personality was coming out. She was acting more and more like the princess of the sun with every moment. She could move the sun now too. At first it had been difficult, but now it came easily to her. She compared it to using her hooves to roll Gavin's soccer ball across the kitchen floor. It was harder to get it started, but once it was moving it was easy to control.
Gavin was slowly realizing that his pony, his little Sunshine, would have to learn the truth. In the form of her dreams, from what she described to him, she might already be learning it. But eventually she would have to know. Gavin should have told her already, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He loved her. He had to admit it. He couldn't let go. Sunshine was important to him. Still, she was even more important to others.
Man up, Gavin. He told himself. He knew, sooner or later, she had to get to Equestria. He just had to help her realize who she was first. He would do that as slow as possible. After all, unless a small dark blue filly was out in the woods somewhere, which he doubted, Equestria still had Luna to watch after it. He wasn't going to rush something like regaining memory anyways. For all he knew, it could damage mature Celestia's mind to force it all back out at once anyways. He didn't want to hurt her. No, he would keep her for now.
He had a moment of surprise when he felt something brush up against him.
* * *
Three days. Sunshine was terrified. No one else seemed to have heard anything, so no one else knew about the voice. The stallion. She looked up at Gavin, and their eyes met. She instantly looked away, because she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye.
She knew she couldn't tell Gavin. He would insist upon helping her, trying to save her. She couldn't let him know what was going on. What if he got hurt, or worse? Or what if someone else got hurt defending them both when the three days were up? She knew what the stallion was waiting for. He was going to kill her. He had already tried. She wanted so desperately to just sob and shake with fear, but she couldn't. She had to be strong.
No, she couldn't let anyone know what she would do. It would have to be in secret that she went. She would leave a note, detailing what had happened and where she had gone. She would sacrifice herself in order to save everyone. She felt like she should. She was the reason for everything that had happened here. Monsters like these weren't on Earth. The stallion had brought them. She felt responsible for all that had happened. She would sacrifice everyone to save this new family of hers. But not yet. She wasn't ready to go yet. She was going to enjoy them as much as possible, and be comforted by them before she left.
Standing up on legs that felt shakier and number than they actually were, she walked slowly over to Gavin, ignoring the strange taste in her mouth, and rubbed against him. There was a warm feeling in her chest as he picked her up and hugged her. She managed a small smile.
Tuesday, Part 3: Blueblood
Will went back to Equestria, content that he had scared the princess enough for one day. He really would wait, and he really would kill Gavin, along with the others that had flashed through her mind, if they got in the way of his plans, and if they kept him from her. And he would certainly kill Celestia.
When he walked through the portal and back into Equestria, he was careful to collect the dust he had made. He had been sloppy, that first night. No matter. Nopony suspected him. Now, onto more pressing matters.
There were five mares that were making his campaign against Twilight a real bother. They never left each other alone. All except for one. The mare named Rarity. As such, she was a primary target. He had been following and studying her for days, preparing to strike. From everything he had learned through letters stolen from Princess Celestia's personal collection, (after she had dissapeared, of course.) he had learned that she was quite capable of holding her own in a fight. She was a match for him in physical strength, probably, but he could beat her with magic.
He was watching her, to see if he could make a move. He saw an opening and was about to take it when he realized that he was not alone in stalking Rarity.
Curse it all, there was Blueblood. He was watching Rarity too. Why though? Will took a moment to indulge in his own curiosity. It was no secret how he had treated the poor mare at the Grand Galloping Gala. For all his talk of being nobility, Prince Blueblood had no concept of being a gentlecolt. He never held doors, pulled out chairs, or even so much as said bless you when a pony sneezed. His table manners only showed when there was a guest he was trying to impress. He could have really learned from Will.
After determining that Blueblood would be staying a while, Will snuck off, annoyed by this inconvenience. Looks like there would have to be another royal disappearance before long.
* * *
Blueblood watched Rarity with regret as she went about the castle, admiring the tapestries and remarking to the castle's beauty. He seemed to always take these things for granted, and here she was enjoying them. They were so different from each other.
She was an enchanting mare, truly beautiful. He felt so shameful over how he had treated her at the Gala. That wasn't all though. He was a selfish pony, he had to admit, and he wanted her. She truly was beautiful, and charming, and considerate. But she wouldn't consider him after all he had done to her, he was sure of it. He had made quite a fool of himself, that was for sure. As he watched, a small, but very clear voice rang out behind his.
"What'cha doing, Prince Blueblood?" Blueblood jumped before putting on a deadpan face and walking across the hall. Just in time too! Rarity, also startled by the voice, had looked over. He gave her a quick, curt nod, not feigning any interest, as she looked at him. She waved in response. After getting out of sight, Blueblood whirled to face the filly following him, and the one who had caused the disturbance. Her name was Gold. She was attending the school of gifted unicorns, right there in Canterlot. The entrance exam was an advanced spell, in which one pony had to be turned into a plant and back successfully and without negative consequences.
The idea had been thought up after hatching dragons magically was deemed unethical and a teacher had reflected on Twilight Sparkle's performance. Fauna to flora transfiguration spells were complicated, so the school board had accepted the idea as a replacement. It was said Gold had passed this exam with flying colors, attracting the attention of Princess Luna, who wanted to emulate Celestia in having a personal protegé, in the process.
Gold was not an aptly named filly, as only her eyes were relatively close to the color gold. They were a shiny, rich yellow color. Maybe she had been named for her eyes. She was a light teal color with a two toned mane, light blue and a dark sea green. She wore red wire framed oval shaped glasses that managed both style and effectiveness. (She was nearsighted.)
"Prince, were you just stalking her?"
"N- No! Of course not!" the prince replied indignantly. Gold just giggled. They had been friends for only a few weeks, and their friendship was an unlikely, surprising one. Blueblood found Gold to be a charming young filly, and she made for good conversation due to her stunning intellect and mature understanding of life. Gold herself just needed companionship. The other fillies and colts in her grade found her intellect and skill with magic unsettling, and tended to avoid her, much to her own distress. She had a few friends, including Luna, and she even had a colt-friend, a young guitarist, but she was a pony who couldn't stand someone being afraid of her. Blueblood had been mean at first, but the two had slowly started to get along as understanding blossomed between them.
"I would not stoop to stalking a mare."
"Isn't that the one you were a jerk to at the Gala? No wonder you're stalking her. She's pretty." Blueblood blushed.
"What are you doing anyways? Shouldn't you be in class?"
"Class ended an hour ago." Sure enough, it was 4:05. She had got out an hour ago.
"W-Well, I-"
"Come on, lover boy, let's go get you a soda or something."
Gold walked away, and Blueblood followed her, having some small delight in the idea of a soda, not even aware that he had just prolonged Rarity's life by instead focusing a pony on his own.
Wednesday: Betrayal and Imprisonment
Day one. Sunshine thought. She was trying to suppress the deep seated fear that she was experiencing, and no doubt it was the kind of fear one must feel when their life was in peril. There was no way out of this. She tried to stop visualizing Gavin, her first friend that she remembered, knelt over her own broken body. She didn't know if she would actually have her body broken. How did Will kill people? She had no idea.
Gavin was at school right now, and Meredith was out running errands, so she had the place all to herself. She turned on the television. She had seen a movie since coming here, and in it was one scene where everything the main character said, did, saw or listened to reminded him of his impending doom. But when she turned on the tv, everything was normal. She ended up watching a documentary about giant squid. They were elusive animals. She found odd species of animals, things like squids or giraffes or other things with outrageous features, to be quite entertaining. This documentary settled her down. It was strangely comforting.
The moment she thought of being comforted by a squid, she wondered what it would feel like if one decided to hug her. Not grab her in a death grip, like squid did with their prey, but actually wrap her in a loving embrace. As a picture of a dead squid came up, she decided not to try to visualize that any more. Bored with the movie already, and her mind wandering, she turned, sat on a couch, and looked absent-mindedly out the window.
* * *
Shining Armor was coming back from scouting out the forest, looking for any more clues. He had been unsuccessful. Now, as he came out of the forest, he was just thinking to himself. How did the world even work here? Maybe the sun had moved on it's own. Could suns even do that? Was the planet just rotating around the sun itself? He snickered for a moment and shook his head, shooing the thought away. That was pure nonsense. At any rate, how could he be sure that Celestia had moved the sun? In fact, he wasn't sure. He had no way to be. Maybe she was really gone...
It was quick. He looked up at a window for a building, and saw just a fraction of a white face and horn, with blue eyes and a springy four toned mane. She had looked like a filly, but it was her! Celestia! She was just up in that window! Just as soon as he had seen the apparition, it was suddenly gone. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if they had tricked him, but... No. Just no. Even if they had, he refused to believe it. But she had ducked under the windowsill. He already knew her magic wasn't blue, but he still did a quick check of his memories to make sure. It suddenly wasn't making sense. She had hid from him. Had she sent herself away from Equestria? If so, why? Why would she do that to her subjects?
"And just what are we doing here, Captain Armor?" said a voice behind him. He whirled, facing a cloaked figure.
"It's you, isn't it?"
"Why, who? Yes, I got rid of Celestia."
"Where is she?" Shining growled, preparing himself for battle.
"That's just it. I don't know where she is either. Otherwise she would be dead." He hadn't just seen her in the window. Good. If that even was her. "I suppose we have the same goal, don't we? I bet I'll find her first. You won't even be able to follow me." He created a portal, and started to go through, so, not knowing what else to do, Shining Armor tackled him into it.
He felt that strange interdimensional tingle, and then landed in sand. The man was still struggling underneath him, and they were both atop a gigantic sand dune. He got up, giving himself space as he thought he saw the shine of a dagger, and sure enough, the man threw it at him, but missed. Shining felt his magic suddenly grow strong again, and put up a forcefield right as the man fired a blue bolt of energy at him. It was strong, shattering a small portion of the force field with a sound similar to shattering crystal. He fired again, and Shining redirected it, causing it to hit the ground and throw up a plume of sand. The cloak billowed in the wind, and Shining Armor saw a glimpse of what he was wearing.
The alicorn amulet. Crap.
How was his magic still blue? He must have tampered with it. Shining Armor reformed his shield right as the man fired again, this time with a bolt powerful enough to shatter his shields and send him flying down the dune.
"You shouldn't have followed me, Captain Armor!" the man gloated. "Now you have no idea where you are or how to get back!" he laughed. "Now all that is left is to capture or kill your earth pony. Maybe I can bribe him into sacrifice using someone dear to him!" it suddenly got bright. "This world's second sun is coming up. Ta ta. Have fun burning to a crisp." he vanished.
Second sun? Shining Armor got up and looked to find a sliver of blinding blue light coming up on the horizon. Was it really going to burn him? He had only ever seen a yellow sun before. As he fumbled, thinking of what to do to save himself, he felt something rectangular in his pocket. He hurriedly felt inside of his pocket.
The jumper! He had the jumper! He pulled it out, and started to type in the runes Graphite had shown him. Right as blue light started to burn his hair, he pressed the button, and was suddenly plunged into the night, instantly feeling the sickening sensation of falling. He was miles above the ground! Curse this thing! He tried to remember the coordinates as he fell, then remembered. The jumper saved previous coordinates! He managed to access the memory, and pressed the one right under what he had just typed in.
For a split second, he registered trees and daytime. Then, with a thump, he landed hard on his back in the forest, and managed a pained groan before passing out.
* * *
Will quietly teleported back into the royal garden. Then, he turned himself back into a pony, and quickly masked the dust of his spell. He was getting better at not producing it. There was less each time. One problem of an artifact this powerful was the excess magic. With him, it just so happened to come off in the form of inconvenient blue dust.
He was nearly finished sweeping it up when he heard a small crack. He instantly looked in the direction of the sound, and froze at the sight of Prince Blueblood.
"Blueblood! What are you doing here?"
"I- I was going for a stroll in the garden, remembering the few good times I had with my auntie. What are you doing?"
There was a long silence.
"I suppose it would do me no good to tell you I was also taking a stroll?"
Blueblood started to run.
Will instantly grabbed him. Blueblood struggled ineffectively against the blue fire now swirling around him, and tried to counter it with his own magic. Never mind how strong Will seemed to be, Blueblood never practiced with his magic anyways. It was very weak.
"William! It was you, wasn't it? You got rid of Celestia! You are the reason for-" his breath was sucked out as Will suddenly teleported the both of them. As Blueblood gasped and started catching his breath, he noticed the crystals around him. He had one in his room! This was the old Equestrian crystal mine!
"Don't look so shocked! I got the idea from my plan of last resort, thanks in part to Twilight Sparkle, but mostly due to her own memories! I'm sure you remember who kept Cadance here!"
"What?"
"And now it is your turn. Try getting out without wings, I dare you! After all, I couldn't just stick you in the same place as Shining Armor."
Blueblood was dumbstruck by all of this. He had offed Celestia! Captured Shining Armor! And did he really have her? "You've captured Shining Armor?"
"By now he has burned and will not bother me any more! Prince Blueblood, I plan to take that throne! Unfortunately, you have seen too much. Shame. I could have let you have that unicorn mare you liked. Real shame you had to walk in on me like that."
"Rarity?"
"She's next."
"You monster!" Blueblood yelled, as he charged Will, who simply laughed and released a pulse of blue fire that blew Blueblood back and brought several crystals down around him.
"I really didn't want to do this, cousin." Will mused. "I had hoped I could keep you, of all ponies, painfully oblivious. Now though... Well, I can't do anything but let you rot... I'm sorry for that." With that, he left. Blueblood was alive, but he was pinned under a crystal. He could feel his lungs burn with pain. A few ribs throbbed where they had been snapped apart by the impact. There was nothing he could do.
He started to cry.
Curse it, why? Why would he do this? Will had always been so charismatic, so nice. How had Blueblood never seen his cousin for what he really was?
But then, how could he never have seen how much there was in just one mare? He could have had freedom, and the mare he longed to fix things with. Now, he had neither. His consciousness suddenly slipped away with that last image of Rarity.
* * *
Will walked into a secret chamber, hidden and soundproof, and ran his hoof down the mane of the one occupant, able to walk around the room but chained to the floor by a collar around her tall neck. She was laying down at the moment, quivering. Her eyes, glowing blue, occasionally flashed green as she tried to resist Will, to no avail. The only sounds she uttered were pained moans, and the occasional giddy laughter of someone under an advanced mind control spell. He fed her his remorse and regret for trapping his cousin, and sighed at the feeling of nothing.
"Eat up, dear." he said, as he ran a hoof up her twisted, gnarled horn. "I may have to use you yet."
Saturday: Eric's involvement/Octavia's plan
Saturday
Sunshine was cowering in the bag, hoping it wouldn't open. The guy that took her wasn't Gavin. She couldn't sleep, she was so scared. Suddenly, she heard a faint knock and felt the bag get picked up. Oh no. She thought. What was going to happen?! She heard the door open, felt herself going to the edge of panic, and then heard a voice that might as well be of God!
"Thank you so much for keeping it for me." Gavin said. "I have stuff in here I can't lose." Sunshine felt relief hit her like a tidal wave at Gavin's voice, and she relaxed immediately.
"Likewise, man. Thanks for bringing mine back." She felt the bag being carried, heard a door open, and then her bag swung and she heard the door shut again. Then it unzipped.
"Look inside." She heard Gavin say. She realized what was happening as soon as hands grabbed her, and froze.
"No way!" A strange person said as he held her to his face. "A plushie!" The person started to look her over, flipping her around, and he kept poking ticklish spots. She wouldn't be able to hold it much longer. "A brushable plushie! Wow! Is this a custom order? This is-" He was cut off as Sunshine started to laugh. She couldn't help it any more. He nearly dropped her, he was so startled.
"I'm sorry Gavin." she said between giggles. "I couldn't help myself. He kept tickling me... HA HA HAHAHAHAHA!" the human carefully put her down and looked at Gavin.
"I found her in the woods. She doesn't remember who she is. I can't find out. I couldn't just leave her alone at my house all night."
"Come outside for a moment." They both got out of the car.
Eric was quiet. "Do you know who that IS?!"
"I already said no..."
"That's princess Celestia! How is she here and why didn't I know before now? This is big. Had it been Vinyl Scratch or Derpy or even fricking Twilight Sparkle that would be one thing, but this is Princess Celestia!!" Gavin flinched slightly, one because he had never heard Eric use such words before and two because of who he was saying this pony was. Princess Celestia? "Where did she come from, and no crap, where did you find her?"
"Like I said, the forest. She doesn't know who she is."
"Well tell her!"
"No, wait! We don't know what that will do to her. We don't know how she'll take it. Listen. Someone is after this filly. Somebody out there wants to hurt her, and I think Greg and Spencer are connected."
"What-"
"I need you to stay quiet about this until I can figure things out, alright?"
"Gavin-"
"Please?"
Eric thought for a minute. "Fine. But when this is all over and we get her back, you owe me a trip to Equestria."
* * *
The arthrax was long dead. Will scowled at it's prone form. This was going to be tougher than he thought with Shining Armor and his insolent earth pony sidekick around. He had to step up his game. Luckily, a certain something was buried in just the right conditions. He raised the fossil bones out of the ground, guiding the dirt and rocks to form just right around them, and gave life to a magic crystal protected by its monsterous ribcage. The resulting creature roared, storming off towards the nearest source of light. Right into town. Will also opened a rift. Might as well start an infestation.
* * *
It was six in the morning, and Gavin, Eric and Sunshine were just getting back into town. It was still dark out. The town was just waking up. Sunshine was watching all the lights and colors when she saw a car flip.
"What was that?!"
Both the boys looked over just in time to see a freight train sized dinosaur made of dirt and rock barreling towards them. From the eye sockets to the base of the skull, it was Triceratops, but the rest of it was Tyrannosaur, including the jaws fused into the trike skull. Before any of the other two could react, Eric slammed on the gas and used his breaks and gear shifts to do a doughnut, effectively dodging the creature.
'This is the second monster this week!' Gavin thought. Where were they all coming from? Even more importantly, where was the dinosaur?! His though process was smashed apart as the car lurched to the side again. Sunshine was thrown up by the breaks, and Gavin caught her and held on tight.
"This'll be bumpy." Eric said. "This guy is dead set on catching my car. I don't have the insurance for that." He took off down the street, right into oncoming traffic. Sunshine and Gavin both screamed, but Eric didn't break a sweat, dodging the cars as the dinosaur creature chased them. "We're not escaping this guy unless we get to straightaway. Hold on, this is going to get sketchy." He swerved through the traffic, finally using a trailer on a semi as a ramp, and jumped to another lane.
"Where did you pick up these driving skills?"
"I street race, Gavin. And do stunts. All the time." This earned shocked looks from both of his passengers. "What? I don't just watch ponies. I have a life." With that, he chuckled and kept driving, quickly getting away from the creature, which then dove under the ground. Gavin managed a whoa before the car suddenly spun and he heard a crunch outside. He turned to see the last of the creature clear its hole and land in front of them, its growl sounding like a volcano grinding rocks together. He saw it drool black liquid, watched a metal bit in its mouth go up.
"Eric, back up!" He did, just as the metal sliver in its mouth hit a rock, igniting the oil it spit. The attack just barely missed the car. Eric swerved around it, drifted past the creature, and started to drive again. The creature chased again, and Gavin noticed a turn up ahead. He knew this road. There was a cliff at that turn!
"Hold on to something!" Eric yelled.
"You're not serious!"
"I'm very serious, hold on to something!"
Eric drove top speed straight at the curve, the dinosaur in full persuit, and did a wide doughnut right at the last second, the back tires sending pebbles over the edge. The monster was not as maneuverable, and ran straight off the edge, spinning as it fell. It's hollow, eyeless sockets seemed to lock right onto Sunshine right before it crashed into the rocks below. Gavin thought he saw a crystal shatter. The dirt pile was still.
"Well..." Eric said, "We clocked the T-rex at thirty five miles per hour." Jurassic Park reference said, he turned around and drove them all to Gavin's house.
Two hours later
None of them was tired. They had all been up all night, but they were too pumped to sleep because of what happened.
"That was awesome!" Sunshine said. "You're an amazing driver!"
"What was that thing?" Eric asked. Gavin had no answer, but he knew where to find one.
* * *
Meat. How could anyone eat meat? Shining Armor was slightly disgusted as he sliced the meat for the Arby's sandwiches. He was a pony. He wasn't possibly going to eat this.
"Spencer, you're off now. Make sure you clock out."
"Thanks, Dave." He finished his latest slice of meat before turning the slicer off for safety's sake, and then he clocked out. He was expecting Graphite to be waiting for him, but instead he was greeted by a less familiar face. It was Gavin, along with another kid he didn't know.
"Hey Spencer. I thought we could talk when you had the time."
"Sure. What do you need?"
"Follow me." Shining was slightly suspicious of this whole thing already. What could Gavin possibly want? "So, we've had another run in with a monster."
"What?"
"We don't know what it was. Some resurrected dinosaur made of dirt and rocks."
Shining couldn't believe he was bringing this up in public, and around another person! He motioned for them to follow him, and took them to the spot where he and Graphite had been staying. It was a small building, more of a trailer than anything else. It was abandoned when they had found it. He had cleaned it with his magic and Graphite had plugged in a portable generator. Shining had asked what had run it, but had yet to get a straight answer. Graphite hadn't made it though. He was horrible with electronics.
"Nice setup."
"It is, huh?"
"So what can you tell us about what's going on? We need to know why a dirt dinosaur was chasing our car down."
"I'm not the one who knows about dinosaurs or monsters. That's Greg."
"Is that so?"
Gavin was pushing it. This had to stop. "I don't think he'd want to talk about it either."
"Where is he?" Gavin had asked a very good question. Where was Graphite?
"I don't actually know... Wait here."
* * *
Graphite Sketch was quiet as he watched the fast reptilian go by. His sword glinted in the light, it's blue blade out of place in the forest. He was watching a person muttering to himself as he opened various rifts, letting out all sorts of nasties that he wasn't very knowledgable about. Many creatures were dead on the ground around him from where they had broke out in disputes about territory.
The spellcaster also had a sword ready in case one of the creatures attacked him, but he apparently hadn't caught on yet to Graphite, who started to sneak forward at this moment of unawareness. He lunged, and the reaction was split second. The spellcaster caught him in midair with magic.
"You're not terribly light on your feet, earth pony. Oh, it is simply splendid that you should come back for more. What a shabby guard." Graphite quickly neutralized the energy field. He could see the confusion on this guy's face. "You are an earth pony, correct?"
Graphite nodded. "A very rare one. I can manipulate energy fields to a certain extent."
"Magic?"
"Aura."
"Very nice. Unfortunately, I must be going-"
Graphite lunged, knocking the spellcaster's sword out from in front of him. "What have you done with our princess?" The spellcaster started to exchange blows with Graphite as they talked.
"Hopefully, I've killed her, and she is long dead."
"What are your motives?"
"My motives are my motives. Now, be gone, I do not wish to talk to you." He lifted Graphite up, and Graphite had the sensation of burning and drowning all at the same time. He struggled, but it was no use. Suddenly another stab of magic from a different source interrupted the attack. It was Shining Armor.
"Let go of him. Now." He forced the other pony off of Graphite, who fell, then stood shakily as they battled. By the time he was fit for another attack, a portal was already open, and Shining was sent through a tree.
"Best not interfere again, earth pony, or I'll have words with your cellist." This snapped Graphite out of his daze immediately.
"You'll have nothing to do with her!" He said before charging. The spellcaster blocked his attack before swiping with his own sword. Graphite feinted and managed a good hit with the flat of the blade, but then the spellcaster ducked through the portal and it closed. "We have to go after him!"
"We can't." Shining said, already up from his hit. "We have to find out where Celestia is."
"Sir, shouldn't we at least catch this guy? He was in our hooves! Let's get him while the getting is good!"
"That's not what it's actually about, is it, Graphite?" Graphite looked down. Shining had called his bluff. It was no secret what mare Graphite had been seeing. He wasn't about to let this mystery guy hurt Octavia.
"If it had been me attacking, he would have threatened Cadence, Graphite. He was bluffing. We need to find Celestia. I promise, your mare is safe."
"Fine, sir." he replied after a moment. "But if we get news that something has happened to Octavia, all bets are off."
Canterlot
That was close. Will thought. The election had almost been at risk. He wiped off the dust, got rid of any marks, and walked out of his room, nearly tripping on a young unicorn filly with a turquoise coat, two toned green mane, and a pair of strikingly beautiful gold eyes hidden underneath her red rimmed glasses. She glared at him for a moment before walking off. She had always seemed cautious and suspicious of him. He wanted to banish her to another realm as well.
'In due time, Will.' He said to himself. As he trotted down the hall, he caught many conversations.
"I think she was kidnapped by griffons-"
"Word has it Sapphire Shores was just seen with Vinyl Scratch-"
One caught his attention. "You're tellin' me, you don't plan to go against his campaign?"
"No, Applejack. If we're going to do this, we're going to play it nice and respectful."
"Ya know he won't return the favor."
"I know." Will walked off with a smirk, so he didn't stick around to hear the rest of Twilight's plan. "I'm going to kill him with kindness. He can be brutal all he wants, but if I be the bigger pony and show I can keep my cool without being mean or degrading, I can show everypony that I'm the nicer, less brutal, better thinker of a candidate."
"Oh. That is rather smart of ya, Twi."
"Yeah it is. Now, let's go tell the others the plan."
* * *
The earth pony walked in, carrying a case bigger than her on her back. Curious stares quickly averted thier gaze as she met thier eyes. She must have looked scarier than she meant to. She walked along, minding her own business and waving and saying hello to those who greeted her. She saw a few familiar faces from Manehattan, and a few from Ponyville. Speaking of, her sensitive ears could pick up the voice of Twilight Sparkle. Here was the room.
The six mares fell silent as she walked in, set down her cello, took a seat, and politely bowed her head in greeting. Pinkie couldn't help herself, she started humming the pony poky.
"Umm... Hello, Octavia." Twilight said. "What brings you to a private meeting like this?"
She cleared her throat. For a mare as quiet as her, she had a voice that demanded to be heard. It carried very well, sounded almost regal. "Twilight, it's come to my attention that you are running for candidacy to rule Equestria in Celestia's absence. I wanted to tell you that I will back you up one hundred percent."
"Thank-"
"But, if you are going to have any sort of radio or television propaganda, you need music. Now, I feel as though maybe you are not sure if you want my style of music. Here is how I see it. If I have learned anything about you at all, I know you will be modest and polite to Will, even if he does not return the favor. Now, I also know a bit about Will and he will not return the favor. To complete that modest feel, you need modest music, and it needs to be good. And simply put, I'm the best." Twilight had tried to affirm Octavia's thoughts several times, but she couldn't get a word in.
"That sounds like a plan."
Some ponies would have been so prepared to back themselves up that thier response would have been defending thier idea when it was unneccesary, but Octavia was a good listener.
"Alright." She said with a nod. "Now, I've been composing a bit, putting notes together. Here's what I've come up with."
* * *
Greg had explained droguns to them. It was a heck of a day. They had slept before going to see Spencer. Now, finally at home, it was nearly nine, so the only thing to do was sleep some more.
