An Explosive Journey

Nova, Twilight's Library

Lyra and I both stood there as John was embracing Twilight and stroking her back. The sight of it was just so heartwarming, that I couldn't help but shed a tear for them; those two were so alike that it's uncanny. I turned to Lyra, who was standing beside me, and quietly made a suggestion to her.

"I think we should leave these two alone to talk, I'm sure that they have a lot to discuss."

"Yeah, same. Where do you wanna go?" The two of us quietly exited the library as Lyra asked the question.

"I honestly have no idea... why don't we just go on a walk around the town?"

Lyra smiled warmly, "Only if I get to take my lovely coltfriend."

"Oh, well then, where is he?" I jokingly asked; Lyra caught on and laughed.

"You, ya silly colt." Lyra socked me in the arm, though it didn't hurt that much. I threw my hands into the air and belted out something I knew would get Lyra all flustered.

"YAY, I'M LOVED!" There were some stares, a few snickers, and good laughter all around - mission accomplished. Lyra however, didn't think it was that funny; she was blushing a light shade of pink, making her really adorable...

"Nova..."

"Aw, you're so adorable with that shade of pink mixing in with your cute face." Lyra started blushing harder, making me snicker.

"N-N-N-Nova, stop it, you're embarassing me..."

'Dammit, so... cute...'

Deciding that I had given Lyra enough torture for the day, I pulled her into a hug and stroked her mane; she seemed to calm down, and those that were staring at us turned and went on about their business, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Hey, Nova, I think I know somewhere you'd like to go." I let go of Lyra and stared into her beautiful golden eyes, getting lost in the sea of love.

"Really, where?"

Before either of us could say anything more, a small white foal a neon green and black mane and tale ran right between us, and down the path towards Fluttershy's cottage. I turned and stared at the foal, whose figure shrank off in the distance, and then turned back to Lyra, who had the same 'what the heck just happened' look on her face.

"Well, that was random, even for this world..." Lyra didn't even reply, she just stared off into the distance.

I was about to turn and head off somewhere, but there was an audible 'DONG' off in the distance, the distinct sound of someone running right into a metal pole... I facepalmed, knowing exactly who it was that ran into it. With a quick heel-turn, I ran towards the direction that the little foal went; what I saw next, was a little surprising.

The foal was about the size of Applebloom; he had a pure white coat, neon green and black mane and tail, and his eyes were the same neon green color... that's not what surprised me though; the surprising and weird part about him, was the fact that his blood was that same color of green, and it seemed to be dissolving a small hole in the ground. Why was there blood, you may ask... well, he just knocked out two of his top front teeth when he rammed the pole. Looking back, he seemed to be running away from something, instead of running towards someone, just looking for a place to hide. Plus, it doesn't matter what planet or universe you're in, neon green acidic blood is not normal, by any standards. Lyra warily looked towards me while keeping a bit of distance from the foal, and I didn't blame her, he had acidic blood after all.

"Hey Lyra, I'm just gonna heal this guy up and then bring him over to Fluttershy." Lyra looked at me questioningly.

"Why Fluttershy, why not the hospital?"

"Take one look at him, and then ask yourself that question again. This foal has been experimented on, and you know it. It would be dangerous to just bring him to the hospital, because they would want answers as to why he is like that. Plus, any organization that has the capacity to pull off complete biological overhauls successfully isn't one to be messed with, cause more than likely, they have very deep pockets, and informants almost everywhere. The one logical place for an organization of that nature to have contacts would be the local hospital, and judging by the direction he was coming from, it resides just on the outskirts of town."

Lyra rolled her eyes as she mulled this all over, then with a sigh, she walked off in another direction.

"Where ya off to?"

Without looking back, Lyra replied, "To the only place that I can dump on without a care - the bar."

"It's not even five yet, and you're going to a bar?"

"Yep, I kind of need to get away from all the weird stuff that's going on right now, before I lose my sanity. No offense."

"None taken, just be careful Lyra, I don't want to hear about anything happening to you while you're intoxicated."

Lyra turned around and smiled, "You seriously believe that I would let anything happen to me? Anypony that tries to touch me has another thing coming." She then turned back to the way she was headed, and cantered off.

'Lyra, you just openly challenged the universe... now I'm extremely worried for you...'

Lyra, The Hopping Grain

I walked up to the door of the only bar in Ponyville, The Hopping Grain, and opened the door; all of the patrons looked my way, making the accompanying silence really uncomfortable. I warily looked around, until a dark purple unicorn waved me over to the counter; he seemed vaguely familiar, but it wasn't until I sat on one of the bar stools that I remembered exactly who he was - it was Shadow Streak the barkeep at Vinyl's stadium. I sighed, and Shadow trotted over to the tap and slid a drink towards me. Leaning onto the counter, I rested my muzzle on the counter. Many of the patrons simply disregarded me at this point and continued to what they were doing. With more bluntness than a sledgehammer, Shadow trotted back to me and decidedly bugged me to see what was wrong.

"So, what's got the famous Lyra Heartstrings so worked up that she has to show up here, and before 5pm?"

Not lifting my head off the counter, I gave a flat reply. "My coltfriend is somewhat of a pain; there have been a lot of weird things going on ever since we got together - his father is apparently from Equestria, he can travel through the multiverse as a separated conscience outside of his body while he sleeps, he has a plotload of magic capabililties, including chaos magic, and now he found out that there was an organization that does experimentation on ponies, just from seeing one of the test subjects run past, and slam his face into a pole. There's just too much weird stuff going on." I looked right at the glass that was sitting in front of me, it was a tall glass of gin mixed with apple juice. Foal's stuff, but it was a nice start; I picked up the stein glass and chugged the drink in no time, getting me stares from all who were present.

"Damn, you weren't kidding when you said you were stressed out. Lemme get you another drink, tonight's binge is on the house." He smiled at me, no, not that 'I like you and I want to get to know you better' smile, but a friendly smile that said 'I'm here if you need to get away from things for a while'. I appreciated it.

"Much appreciated, Shadow."

The drinks continued, the next couple of drinks were still gin and apple juice, though after that I moved up to some Bacardi rum and Colta Cola, and then eventually straight rum; about six hours later, I was completely smashed, which is never good. Have you ever seen a unicorn really wasted? Didn't think so. Our magic becomes highly inaccurate and unstable, the slightest miscalculation or slip of concentration could very well spell disaster for bystanders, or even the caster themselves. Fortunately, I was one of the few smart ponies who always remembered to not use their magic while drunk.

Shadow looked at me a little worriedly, "Hey, Lyra, you think you're gonna be ok getting home? I could walk you back, you know..."

Me, being as drunk and stupid as I was, refused. "Ahm aright Sado, Ah con git back home, it'sh fine."

"Lyra," Shadow's gaze burrowed into my eyes, staring past the sea of fiery gold that most stallions get lost in when they peer into them, and looked right into my soul. If I wasn't drunk, I would've shrunk and gave in to what he was silently implying, though that wasn't the case, so I just disregarded what he was doing, and walked out the door, and into Luna's beautiful night sky.

I walked around the empty streets of Ponyville, taking in the beauty of the night sky; the moon was full, and the stars looked even more stunning than usual. Walking through the market square, I spotted a lone bit coin on the ground... I stopped by it to pick it up, and just as I did so, I felt a ring being put on my horn, which shrunk, and I could feel my magic being blocked off... the next thing I knew, I was being surrounded and then tossed around within the circle of stallions - a couple of them were stark white with blue manes and tails... they were definitely royal guards, no doubt about it.

A couple of the stallions started throwing punches at me, which I tried to block using memories from Nova, to no avail. They kept punching and bucking me all over, then one of them got the bright idea of using dark magic along with their physical attacks, dealing damage to my soul. I could feel each punch and buck chip away a piece of my soul, taking away my will to go on with each blow. I silently wished Nova would hurry and find me...

Nova, Home

I was sitting on the couch going through e-mails on the laptop while waiting for Lyra to come home; she was supposed to be back after only a couple of hours, but I decided to just wait for her rather than to show up at the bar and embarrass her in front of a bunch of ponies that may or may not know her. I sighed in slight annoyance when I looked at the clock on the laptop, which read 10:12pm. I was about to close the laptop, when a sudden weird feeling washed over me - my gut was telling me that something was wrong, very wrong, though it took a second for it to sink in - Lyra was in trouble. I jumped up from the couch, flipping the table over in the process.

'Table be damned, I GOTTA GO SAVE LYRA!'

I ran towards the front door, smashing right through it, and ran down the street. I didn't know exactly where she was, so I ran towards the market square for starters. 'If she's gonna be taken from anywhere at this time of night, it'd be the market square, due to the many hiding places thanks to the alleys.'

While running to the market square, I ran right past Rarity's place, and she poked her head out the window.

"Where are you running off to so fast at this time of night, darling?" I stopped for a second to answer her.

"Long story short, Lyra and I had a fight, and then she stormed off to take a walk by herself... and I got a bad feeling a couple minutes ago, so I'm off to make sure that I was wrong about what I felt."

"Wait, you want to be wrong? What did you feel?"

"Like a part of me is on the edge of death." Rarity flinched.

"Oh..." Her ears splayed back, "well, I'm not going to keep a knight in shining armor away from his princess, now GO FIND HER!" Rarity uncharacteristically yelled out to me, and I took her advice, running with all my strength to the market square. It was another few minutes till I reached my destination; what I saw, was beyond what my mind could normally handle. To put it in perspective, think of the last few episodes of Clannad. Got all that emotional sadness? Good, now multiply that by about five thousand. That's how much this scene stabbed my heart.

There were five stallions, two of them off-duty royal guards, probably the ones that tried to start shit with us in the castle the other day... they were all tossing her around and using her as a punching bag; three of them were using dark magic enchantments on their hooves, no doubt damaging Lyra's soul. I silently walked up towards them, making sure to stick to the shadows; I was depressed, but I was also getting angry, and I started seeing pure magic crackling around me. A mystical wind started blowing around me, and then it happened - that very same aura that I used when I told off Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon burst out; there was no stopping me and what I was about to do to these pathetic stallions.

Now would be a good idea to listen to Monster by Skillet...

Silently and calmly, yet still pouring out rage and anger, I walked up to the stallions. I poked one of the royal guards on the back, and he turned around; the first couple of seconds, he glared at me, then he noticed the pure magic surrounding me with a dark blue and red aura swirling around, and he ran off. The others took notice that he ran and started laughing, thinking that he was worried about being caught by other guards... but they all had a fate much worse than that awaiting them... They eyed me, and then dropped Lyra on the ground unceremoniously. I could tell she was alive, but just barely, and she was fighting a losing battle with death; I didn't have much time, maybe about twenty minutes...

One of the stallions tried throwing a punch at me, but I stopped it... with my finger. I knelt down, and whispered in his ear.

"If I can block a full power punch from you with a finger, imagine what a punch from me would do to you..." The grey stallion's eyes went wide, and he started backing away in fear, while I started walking slowly towards him.

"Mess with my marefriend, I mess with you... attack my marefriend, and I tear you to shreds... I'll leave you lot so mangled, it'll make a manticore attack look like a kitten scratch." I punctuated this statement with a crack of my neck. The group of stallions tried to run away, but I encased them in a magic bubble; they couldn't escape. I took one of them out of the bubble, and held him telekinetically. Bringing him closer to me, he hung upside down, and I stared into his eyes.

"Now, what should I do with you? Drop you from Canterlot? Give you to the Gryphon nation after sending them a letter stating that you plan on assassinating their leader?" I thought for a moment, til a really, really cruel idea came into my mind... "Or... I could send you to live with the most horrifying being in the universe for a week - Elmyra." The stallion started to laugh.

"You think that sending me to live with a girl is a bad thing?" Awww, poor thing, he had no idea what he was in for...

"Yeah, I'm just gonna let Elmyra deal with all of you... have fun!" I teleported three of the four stallions that were there, and walked up to the remaining one. He shook in fear.

"What are you going to do to me? STAY BACK!" He backed up to the other side of the bubble, trying to keep distance between us.

"Tell you what, you help me find who ordered this attack, and I'll think about letting you go, so long as you promise to resign from the EPA."

"You know of the Equestrian Pony Alliance?"

"Yes, I know of them, and I know of their plans to get rid of anything that isn't a pony in the name of Celestia and her nation, but I feel that they aren't exactly working for 'Celestia's ideals'."

The stallion looked down for a moment in thought, then stared me straight in the face, "What if they are found by Celestia?"

"Well, they'll probably be jailed, or exiled, or jailed where they are exiled to... but, if you tell me who ordered this to happen, then I will make sure that you are not seen as part of the group when it comes time to dealing with their presence in Equestria. You will be a free stallion."

The stallion sighed, "The leader of the EPA is never truly seen, he always wears a cloak and uses something to distort his voice; he is the one that ordered this attack..." I was about to turn around and teleport, when he called out to me, "Wait, his name is Ribbon Deuce Poll... it's sort of an odd name, but that's the only one we know of."

"Um, that isn't his real name, that's an anagram... wait a second, this makes total and complete sense..." My aura vanished as I calmed down. "That anagram, it rearranges and solves to the name of the most xenophobic unicorn in Canterlot - Prince Blueblood!" The stallion's eyes went wide.

"Prince Blueblood!? What would happen if Celestia finds out?"

"I don't know, but I'm not going to go and find out right now, because I have to save Lyra, before she dies." I ran over to Lyra's side and held her in my arms, her head pressed against my chest. I checked her vitals, she was barely clinging to life... I started to cry, holding her dying body in my arms, tears streaming from my eyes.

Queue up Undying Love by Two Steps From Hell...

Minutes later, something happened; a tear dropped onto Lyra's horn, and just as it did so, a bright flash of light came from the point of contact, and a magic circle appeared under the two of us. A mystical wind began blowing around us, and I could feel magic energy surrounding us and getting stronger, as it started to lift us up in a swirling white bubble of pure magic. I could feel a piece of my soul break off, and float over to Lyra's chest. When it reached Lyra's chest and fused with her soul, there was a shockwave of energy that blasted outwards from the magic encasing us; the soul fragment that was given to Lyra started to heal hers and grow, healing her body as well.. when she opened her eyes, there was another blast of magic, this time it was enormous, the shockwave flew over all of Ponyville and Canterlot, maybe even over all of Equestria. During this whole process, I could feel my chaos magic being drained completely... The two of us gently floated down, and the swirling magic slowly dissipated; Lyra stood up and looked at me, tears in her eyes.

"Did, did you just..."

"I think I gave you a piece of my soul, which healed your own soul as well as your body. Don't ask how, because I don't know... but my chaos magic has been completely used up."

Lyra closed her eyes and yawned, it was honestly the cutest thing I will ever see in my life. Wait, oh, there goes my heart, it just stopped due to the overload of adorableness.

"Why am I so tired?" Lyra yawned again.

"Well, having your soul rebuilt by a piece of someone else, and then having your soul completely heal your body will definitely tire you out."

"Oh, well I guess we'd better get back home then."

"Wait, before that, I have to take care of something..." I ran back towards the bubble which held the stallion in, and saw that he was crying.

"Dude, what's up with you?"

"That blast of magic, it washed over me and flooded me with love, love that I haven't felt since my parents died and my sister moved away to Manehatten."

"You love your sister dearly, don't you?"

"Y-y-yes, I do."

"Then go to her, and give her the biggest hug you can. She must have cared about you the same way you cared about her, and no doubt she's missing you right about now as well."

I released the magic bubble, and he ran off in the direction of the train station. I turned to Lyra, who was standing right behind me, with a smile on her face.

"What?"

"Nova, that is the kindest thing anyone could do; you forgave someone who just beat down someone who was extremely close to you, and that takes a really big heart. I sometimes wonder how your heart even fits in that body of yours."

"I wonder sometimes too, Lyra. Now, let's go home and get some rest."

The two of us walked back to our house, not saying a word... neither of us even had a need to, because we knew exactly how we felt for each other, our love for each other doing the talking for us.

Celestia, Royal Bedroom

I was having a very peaceful dream; I sat in an endless meadow with my sister, the two of us basking in the beautiful moonlight, resting our heads on each others' necks... then the dream suddenly came to an end when I felt something that I hadn't in centuries - ordinary magic being mixed with chaos magic to perform a very powerful and dangerous spell. I literally flew out of bed, not even bothering to put on my royal regalia, and looked out from the balcony. Off in the distance, right in the middle of Ponyville, there was a bright ball of pure magic. I stood there and stared at it, waiting for whatever was going to happen.

A few seconds later, there was a small shockwave which didn't reach very far, but it didn't have to, as I could sense what was being done - someone was breaking off a piece of their soul and giving it to another being. Then there was another shockwave, this time it was very large, and it quickly washed over Canterlot, and continued all over Equestria. When the shockwave washed over the castle, I felt a sudden flood of love; I could feel all of the love that was put into this spell by Nova, and it reminded me of how much I cared about Luna, and all of my little subjects. A tear formed in my eye, but it wasn't out of sadness; instead, it was of happiness.

I was about to go over to my door and head to Luna's room, but she saved me the trouble by teleporting into my bedroom. She nuzzled my neck, "Celestia, I love you so much." She started crying out of the sheer power of the love that washed over the entire country.

"Nova has done something that even I would have trouble doing... he put his own life on the line to stare death right in the face, and steal his marefriend back before it could take her. When that shockwave washed over me, I felt all the love you gave me before I turned into Nightmare Moon, and how we used to be so close. I thought back to the days when we were fillies, and used to run and jump around in the beautiful meadows and roll down the grassy hills, while our parents stood on the tallest hill and watched over us with smiles on their faces."

"I remember those times too; and while I wish we could return to those times, let us not forget that we have a kingdom to take care of. Instead of just giving me your love, put all that love in the night sky when you arrange the stars and the moon, I'm sure that everyone will see and feel it, and thank you."

"I will, Tia."

Luna hugged me, and then returned to her room, while I crawled back into bed. I had even more pleasant dreams as I slept.

Twilight, Ponyville Library

I was sleeping soundly in my bed, when all of a sudden, I heard an explosion of magic. I got up and looked out from my balcony; what I saw was something that I hadn't expected at all. There was a ball of pure magic, and a shockwave washed over most of Ponyville, but it dissipated just before it reached the library. Just as I was about to turn around, there was a second, bigger shockwave, which sped all across Ponyville, Canterlot, and maybe even all of Equestria. When it washed over the library, I felt all the love from my brother Shining Armor, and my old foalsitter Cadance.

I thought back to the times that I had fun with Shining, running around the house, having "fights" with my stuffed toys, teleporting and flinging them around and at each other, and all the times that we hugged. I was also reminded of all the fun times I had with Cadance, playing at the park, having adventures as pirates, making forts, and singing songs. I turned back to go to bed, but I stopped by the chest that sat opposite to my bed, and took out my favorite doll, Smartypants.

I jumped back into my bed, and cuddled with Smartypants, thinking about Shining and Cadance, and all the fun we used to have when I was a kid. The dreams that followed were the best ones that I have ever had.

Chrysalis, Changeling Hive

I sat atop my throne, looking out at the sea of antsy and impatient subjects, who were no doubt here to lodge complaints against me, due to the fact that our food supplies were dwindling, and we had to rely on an old but somewhat reliable food source: love, though even that had been dwindling fast... the ponies just don't seem to have the same amount of love anymore as they used to. I was prepared for do whatever it takes to make sure that all of my subjects are fed and taken care of... I mused over what we could do to address the food issue, when all of a sudden there was a shockwave of energy, one that I had never imagined, even in my dreams - love, lots and lots of love, coming from a single focal point - the middle of The Equestrian Proper. I smiled coyly, and brought this new revelation to the generals; all of my subjects seemed happy at the prospect of having an entire new kingdom to feed on.

'If you two are still there Celestia and Luna, prepare yourselves, because soon, you will fall!'