Chapters View Online
How Black-light and I Fell Through a Portal, and Ended Up in Hell
Skype
4:57 P.M.
Trondason: *Poke*
Black-light9: Sup
Trondason: So, we first have to establish what we are going to change, with Alex being in equestria.
Black-light9: Well, we could have him leave the country, and I would make up a bunch of creatures without having anymore hate mail.
Trondason: Hate mail? And alright, that could lead to some interesting world development, him exploring the world. What kind of country Griffins are from, for example.
Black-light9: Well, in a journey, there is a counterpart nation for every nation on the pangea-like thing that Equis is on. It’s across the sea.
Trondason: Pangea was one continent, there wasn’t anything across the ocean. And that’s alot of countries, but I guess that’s believable, we have that many after all.
Black-light9: Alright, at least we agree on-
Black-light9: What the hell was that? There is a huge earthquake or something.
Black-light9: Probably terrorists.
Trondason: Doubt it, probably just a normal earthquake. Those things happen you know.
Black-light9: Nah, it’s easier to believe that terrorists got a hold of earthquake… Stuff.
Trondason: How eloquent.
Black-light9: No, there’s a weird and bright thing outside my window, and I don’t like it. Any second now, a terrorist will kill me and start talking about terror and cubans.
Black-light9: And Nazis.
Trondason: Nazis could have been fairly alright guys, if the genocide didn't happen.
Black-light9: I suppose they did contribute to science.
Black-light9: Not sure why they hated Africans and Jews, though.
Black-light9: The light outside is getting annoyingly bright. I’m going to check this out.
Trondason: Well, it’s not a nuke, you would be dead by now if it was.
Black-light9: I stepped outside, and nothing was there.
Black-light9: I am now in my living room, and the light appeared again. It seems to be swirling.
Black-light9: And pink.
Trondason: Poke it, I dare you.
Black-light9: I poked it with my small sword that I keep as decoration. The one I got when I went shopping.
Black-light9: Nah, it’s just a really good knife.
Trondason: Believe it or not, I have 10 knives on my desk right now. I like knives.
Black-light9: I do not.
Trondason: What, you don’t believe that I have knives?
Trondason: Wait, I am getting something. The swirly light was pink, right?
Black-light9: Yes. Both of those.
Trondason: What happened when you poked it?
Black-light9: Nothing. I’m sitting on my couch right now, just looking at the swirling mass. Wait, it touched me.
Black-light9: I’m scared.
Trondason: And you're wasting time typing? Get away from it!
Black-light9: I’m on my phone.
Black-light9: I’m always on my phone.
Trondason: Your still splitting your attention to type this up, put that phone down for a moment, and evacuate!
Black-light9: It only got my shoes. And not the good ones. I would just leave them and grab a different pair.
Black-light9: Why isn’t yours attacking you?
Trondason: I don’t know, but after hearing what yours did, I relocated myself to the living room, on the Laptop. I’m keeping my distance from that thing.
Black-light9: Oh.
Black-light9: I like the light portal swirl.
Trondason: My light thing just drifted to the living room. I’m trapped. It is surrounding the couch. If this thing hurts me, it’s your fault.
Black-light9: Poke it.
Trondason: No.
Black-light9: Okay.
Trondason: This thing is getting pretty violent. It tried to grab me, but I moved out of the way.
Black-light9: It’s made of gravy.
Trondason: What?!
Black-light9: It got my leg. It feels like gravy. It’s not even warm.
Trondason: Dude, stop texting, put up that phone, secure yourself, and THEN text me.
Black-light9: No.
Trondason: Well, it’s your loss. I warned you.
Black-light9: I’m stuck, save yourself. It’s pulling me in!
Trondason: I tried to bust the wall down, but it moved up the wall. It’s got me. I would try to get free, but I can’t move. Luckily, I can reach my couch, which still has my laptop.
Black-light9: Yeah, it got more of me too.
Black-light9: Hello?
Black-light9: Only my head and one hand is free, but the gravy is too strong.
Black-light9: I’m just going to assume it killed you.
---Line Break---
Trondason opened his eyes.
The first thing he noticed was that his entire body seemed to be on fire. It was a constant burning sensation mixed in with a brisk feeling of satisfaction. The world seemed brighter, and much greener than his house. In fact, he was pretty sure the world was naturally not this green. Unless he was in heaven, assuming pink portals mean the reaper has just decided to take his soul, he would just assume he was in a strange room about to be interrogated.
But heaven is always a better option.
The burning sensation was beginning to fade, but it was being quickly being replaced with his retinas being burned by the bright colors. Really, what green part of the earth was this bright? His immobilized body made him feel like he was trapped in his own body, so he just laid still.
He remained in the position for a bit, pondering what kind of situation he could possibly be in. Nothing about the apparent outside environment gave him any indication about what was happening, so he was more in the dark than an earthworm in the ground right now. Who was capable of breaking into his house? What would these people want? Why was the world so damn bright?
His memory sparked for a moment, and he remembered the night before. A big, pink swirling light appeared on his floor and surrounded his couch. It didn't catch him, unlike Black-light who poked the damn thing, until he decided to try and fireman charge his wall. Maybe this entire situation was brought up by the lack of sleep or other elements? A gas leak in his home could have made him pass out, or hallucinate the entire time. But what kinds of gasses have this effect?
Luckily, the burning sensation completely dissipated while he was thinking, and he was now able to move around. He first sat up and propped himself up against a nearby tree, trying to shake the dizziness from his head. Perhaps he was roofied?
As the dizziness faded, he waited a moment before he would attempt to stand. He rubbed his head with his hand, and felt something was off. His hands were no longer as smooth as they normally were. He felt as if his hand was cut off, and replaced with a blunt object of some kind. A confused expression appeared on his face, which slowly turned into horror the closer he moved his appendage to his eyes. Once he saw it, he knew what was happening.
His flipping hand was a freaking hoof.
How did he know this? Well, when you read a story about this exact same thing happening to something else, you pretty much know what is happening. That, and there were only a few things his hand could have turned into.
“A hoof. I have a hoof. What the hell?” Either he was dreaming some horrific nightmare, or pink swirling lights are portals.
He tried to stand on all fours, because what happened is fairly obvious, and it was easier than he thought it would be. Now, all that mattered now was to find civilization of some sort. Would Ponyville be close by? Does Ponyville even exist here?
Actually, a lake or mirror would do first.
After looking around for a bit, he released that he was not only alone in this clearing, but it was getting dark pretty fast. The only thing more dangerous than a peaceful, sunlit forest, was a dark one, probably filled to the brim with dangerous creatures. The only logical thing to do, was head in the direction with the most sunlight. The closer you get to the center of a forest, the darker it is.
‘Now which way would not get me killed ’
West seemed to be the best direction in his mind, so he headed to where the setting sun was.
View Online
How I Found Black-light, But He Tried To Kill Me
Trondason was getting bored, and running out of time. He thought he was making good distance, but then he walked through several more clearings. At this point, finding a town of sorts was out of the question, and just finding a secluded (and preferably empty) cave suited his best interests.
As he walked through yet another clearing, he smelled shampoo. The first rule of survival states that if you smell shampoo, there is a person wearing shampoo within smelling distance. Perhaps this person with shampoo knew where a town was? He looked around the sunset bathed clearing expecting to see a pony or griffin, hell, even a dragon! All he found was a rock in the center of the clearing.
He would’ve just assumed it was a rock, and kept searching for shelter, but then it started to twitch. Trondason was used to things twitching, as he has played Prototype, and pretty much everything twitches in that game. But this was the twitching of a lifeform in need of a hand to scratch it’s back. As an old saying goes; you scratch my back, I scratch yours. Instead of scratching whatever the twitching mass of grey was, he decided to get a closer look.
As he got closer, the blob of grey was becoming more distinguishable. It was an equine, like him, and spoke a similar language as him. “It’s too bright, if you don’t close the damn blinds, Stephanie…” It muttered. By the time Trondason was close enough, the equine’s eyes shot open and it rolled to the right, tried to stand up, and tripped back down.
It was on the ground for a bit, it probably hurt itself, and it then looked at both Trondason, and it’s own body. “Nonononononononononononononononononononononono.”
It (probably a male, judging by the voice) was looking at it’s surroundings in an erratic manner. Judging by how fast it was looking around, Trondason guessed it had ADHD or something close to that. “Ah, why the hell do these things keep happening to me!?”
Trondason decided he had enough of whatever freak-out the pony was having, and intervened. He pondered reaching his hoof out and grabbing it, but giving how fast the guy was looking at things, touching it would rip Trondason’s new hoof off. Verbal was the best choice for this one. “Dude, calm the fuck down.” The grey blur that is a pony stopped looking around, and remembered why he had dive rolled in the first place.
Trondason finally got a good look at the pony. It was a stallion, judging by the slightly blocky muzzle it had. It had a light rock grey coat with a black mane and red eyes. It had wings on it’s back, flared threateningly..
If a pony could be threatening, that is.
The rumors are correct, ponies do have large eyes and heads that don’t look like they could support those eyes. The eyes were either as thin as saucers, or the brain was incredibly small. “Done freaking out? I sorta need your help here.” The pegasus apparently didn’t hear him. It jumped onto him, and pulled out a rock. “ I don’t know what the balls is going on, but unicorn horns and being touched don't mix. How did I get here? Did you summon me?”
Trondason was confused at this point. He was a unicorn? He had a horn? How come he didn’t feel it when he had his hoof on his head?! Hooves aren’t small at all. The pegasus got off of him, and put the rock on top of it’s head. “Okay, one, calm the fuck down. Two, I don’t know anymore than you. Three, I have no idea. And four, why the heck would I do that?”
The pegasus didn’t even seem to react like somebody given a loaded question. In fact, it went straight to answer with no pondering time. “I see a unicorn in a forest, and I assume it sent me here. Believe it or not, I wasn’t a pony a few minutes ago- or if I was-, I wasn’t one before I was unconscious. Why are you in the woods? Hiking?”
Trondason wanted to know the same thing. The grey pegasus first called him a unicorn, and then claimed to not be a pegasus prior to being unconscious. He wanted to ask if he had been a human before, but it was impossible, right? The odds are against both he, and Black-light being in the same forest, both as ponies. It would still be best to ask, though-
“I was a human before.”
Well, he was a human before. A blunt, violent, and strange human, likely. “I will give no name, but the internet called me Blacklight. You probably don’t even have an internet, or a way to know what a human is. Whatever, answer my question, and I’ll help you.”
“Dude, shut the hell up. Do you want to go to a insane asylum? You don’t go telling random ponies that you're from another world. They are likely to think you're insane, and either ignore you, or alert some nearby authority. Which would not be good for you either way. Now, to double check, your a human who used the handle of Blacklight on the internet, and wrote fan-fics for MLP?”
“Unless you’re Trondason, you would have no way to know that. Yes, it’s me.” The pegasus, now identifiable as Black-light, produced a weird smirk. “You are Trondason, right? You didn’t summon me here on this fine evening?”
Trondason smirked, and replied “You are going to have to take my word for it, but yes. I am Trondason, and I didn’t summon you, I can’t even do some crummy Telekinesis…. I think, haven’t actually tried yet.”
“Well, at least you’re a unicorn. I am an earth pony.” He checked his head for a horn, then looked at his back. “No wait…” He touched the wings on his back and rubbed them. “ I’m a pegasus! I can fly!” He tried to use his wings, but they only twitched. “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!” He screamed into the heavens, and alerted whatever creatures that might be lurking in the shadows of their current location. If the duo was lucky, they would mistake the scream for a dragon’s roar, and keep their distance.
Trondason trotted over, and smacked Black-light. “Dude, shut it. We don’t want to alert a Manticore or whatever that ‘Hey, free food over here.’”
“Don’t worry, there is a cave up there.” Blacklight pointed above Trondason’s head, and revealed a small mountain. Fairly close to the ground was a dark cave. Trondason could barely see it, but Blacklight was a pegasus, and pegasi could probably see pretty far naturally. It must be a pretty small cave.
“Looks like you won’t be useless after all. To bad you can’t fly, then you could see which way is out of this damned forest.” Trondason commented.
“Nah, I’m pretty useless. Onward!” Good thing for Black-light, he didn’t scream nearly as loud. In fact, what he said could barely be called a shout.
The two bros, turned into ponies, headed towards the cave.
The Cliff Filled With Money... Wait, What?
The cliff was a little steep, but it was not much of a challenge. Black-light climbed with ease, for his pegasus body was light enough to stand on clouds. That didn’t exactly mean he was lighter than hydrogen, because of all the magic in his body, but it still meant he could climb like a boss. Trondason was having a slightly more difficult time. He was a unicorn, and while he wasn’t an earth pony, he had no way to counter gravity at the moment. If he were to fall…
Well, there were plenty of ledges for him to fall onto.
It didn’t take them very long to get to the top. When they got there, the small cave was waiting for them, calling to them like a siren’s song. While they weren’t awake for very long, the they still knew they had to sleep sometime during the night. “There’s that cave. I Can kinda see in the dark, but not much. Hey, pegasi eye magics are pretty cool!”
Trondason tried to light his horn, but only blue sparks came out. They were enough to light the darkness for a moment, but even doing that was pretty tiring. “Gosh darnit. Just that wears me out? I have a while to go, before telekinesis.”
“Hey, can you do that again?” Blacklight called out from somewhere in the cave. “I think my eyes can trap light or something.”
Trondason was slightly confused by that. If a creature could trap light in their eyes, their eyes could act like a flashlight or something similar. Probably go blind instead. “What are you talking about? Eye’s can’t trap light, and if they did, the eye would quickly become useless, old light overwhelming the new.”
“Look, man. I don’t know what’s going on, but I can see things for a few seconds after the light is absent. Can you just make a few more sparks? I think I saw something.”
“Fine, but what you're talking about sounds like you're remembering what you saw, and just picturing it. Like when you stare at a image for a while, then look at a white wall” Trondason reached further inside of himself, and summoned another spark. This time, the spark was replaced with a faint energy covering the entirety of his horn, instead of the tip.
“Holy crap, DIAMONDS!... Wait, no…” Trondason, still making his horn glow, was able to see the cave clearly. It was fairly empty, except what looked like several gemstones. “This is candy… Who the hell puts candy in a cave?!”
Trondason was unable to speak, but he did see Blacklight take one of the gems and lick it. Considering he didn’t just spit it out like a normal rock, Trondason held off any comments about insanity he previously had. Either those were candy, or Blacklight was a Kirin. “Wait, there’s water in this cave. Yeah, it’s a small stream coming out from those elevated cracks. Come drink this, it’s close to the entrance.”
Once Trondason cut the magic, he looked towards the entrance. True to his word, Black-light had indeed found a stream near the entrance. Where the water was coming from, was anyone’s guess. Maybe the top of the mountain was hollow and filled with water.
Instead of questioning how, Trondason went over and took a drink. The water was gushing out like a water fountain, so he just drank normally.
After he had his fill, Trondason was free to look at his reflection. His mane was a deep, dark blue, which seemed slightly out of place on his charcoal fur. His eyes were also the same color of his mane.. He wasn’t sure about Black-light, but this was definitely not how he looked as a human. Not even close.
There was a rock nearby that was elevated from the ground a bit. It was also surrounded by water, so he wouldn’t have to worry about most insects for the night. “So, we need to take turns sleeping. There has definitely been occupants in the not distant past, and we don’t know how friendly they will be with us here.”
“Yeah, that’s fine with me. I’m going to explore this cave. Maybe get myself off the ground.” Black-light’s voice said from a higher elevation. “The cave’s not that big, but the higher ups have boxes.” He added. “They are really old, though. Some of the wood is rotted.”
“Get back here. You don’t know *yawn* what’s over there. There might be some moss… or ….. something…..” He trailed off as he succumed to the sleep induced by magic exhaustion.
“Aw, even as he’s falling asleep, he will chastise me.” Black-light continued to look through the boxes. “Oh, look. Paper.”
How I woke Up To Change Shifts
“Wake up, I’m tired.”
Trondason slowly woke up from a surprising comfortable sleep, despite literally falling asleep on rocks. The moon was a bit more illuminated than earlier, so he could see slightly more of the cave. Black-light picked him up and gently placed him just outside of the water surrounding the rock bed. “I kinda found out how to move my wings, but it’s like figuring out how to use new arms. Kinda doable. Nite.” Black-light climbed onto the rock, shifted himself so he was on his side, and quickly fell asleep.
“ I woulda figured he would snore obnoxiously, too.” Trondason was feeling great, so he pondered what to do. On one hoof, he could wander around the cave, and see what Black-light found. On the other hoof, he could mess around with his magic. He has made more progress in an hour than anyone else in the same situation. First off, he would try to figure out the most basic unicorn spell. Levitation.
Unfortunately, he has no idea how to begin.
Black-light shifted on his rock. “Tron, I found a paper with barely legible english. It had only one non-faded spell on it. Guess what it is? Levitation. It’s over in the corner.” Black-light pointed his hoof near where a rock splits off from the wall of the cave. At it’s base was a few things organized, but still pretty messy. They were on the ground, after all.
Trondason lit his horn, which took less energy to do now, and trotted over to the stuff. He didn’t care about anything else at the moment, so he only picked up the faded paper.
Levitation: The simplest of spells a Unicorn has access to.
Convenient.
The board has been getting rid of ponies trying to make spell use easier to grasp. Why? I have no idea. That’s none of your concern, now, is is? You came to learn how to pick things up.
Traditional texts say to reach out with your magic and grip an object. That is wrong, for magic has a ‘slippery grip’ as they would say. The key is not to simply grab something, but to attract it to your horn. Think of a magnet.
A magnet can simply stick to metal, and won't let go unless enough force is used to pry it off. That is what makes levitation tricky, as well as simple. The first thing you would do is put more energy into levitation than normal. While it seems more tiring, it’s not.
The first thing a foal must do to even begin to lift things is light his or her horn. It is extremely tiring, but a good night’s sleep is the perfect remedy for that. You would notice that once your horn is lit after waking, you could keep it lit for a long time.It’s because your internal magic reservoir has grown to accommodate the spell.
As practice for l would want you to reach out with your mind (use a disposable item for practice), and pull your magical energy to a concentrated spot. This is also a good technique for building your internal magic reservoir. Enclosed in this box is a key that could be used to open a door in the upstairs room. In there is a notebook that...
The page ends right there. There was a large tear that ripped the whole damn thing in half. Whatever the rest of the paper was going to say probably had nothing to do with levitation (or whatever this new thing is classified as) anyway.
The first thing the paper said to do was to draw magical energy to a single point. How to do that exactly, was anyone’s guess. The simplest method to try is to imagine the magic flowing, and then will it to happen.
Trondason lit his horn, closed his eyes, and imagined energy being pulled onto a single spot two meters away from himself. Even with his eyes closed, he could kind of see the world around him in a monochrome color. He could feel something happening, but when he opened his eyes, the energy was gone before he could see it. “Well shit.”
He then tried to repeat what happened. He continued to draw power until he could feel the same thing from earlier. Once he had it, he kept his eyes closed in case he just didn’t have enough stored the first time. Trondason kept this up until his knees started to buckle. Once he felt a bit nauseous, he opened his eyes, hoping to see what was happening.
Nothing.
It was his watch, so Trondason couldn’t afford to continue much longer. Not until the sun came up, anyway. He trotted towards the entrance, to try and see how much time has passed. When he looked up, the moon was in the same place as it was earlier. The brisk wind felt slightly warmer than earlier, but that wasn’t a bad sign, right?
He took a place on the ledge of the small cliff, and looked out towards the woods. For miles, all he could see is the green of the forest, and he could hear the growls of large nocturnal predators even from this height. Trondason wondered if he would ever get back home.
He sighed, and looked at the moon once again. As he looked, it began to move slightly west, then it started moving towards the horizon more quickly. Normal moons aren’t supposed to do that.
As it got closer to the horizon, the sky behind it began to light up. He thought the morning sun was coming out, but then the moon stopped right next to the skyline. What the hell is going on? The moon began to twitch on the horizon, and then dipped into it. Eastward, the sun came out.
On the edge of the forest, Trondason could see a faint yellow color, right on the edge of his vision. Since most of the trees are green, he could only guess that was a settlement of some sort. Maybe he could ask Black-light to look over there with his pegasus vision when he wakes up.
Trondason could hear shuffling from within the cave, as faint as they are. Either somebody found their way into the cave, or Black-light woke up. “Goddammit, it wasn’t a weird dream! I’m still in hell…” Yep, Black-light woke up.
He lightly trotted outside the cave, and tapped Trondason on the head with a hoof. “How long was I asleep?”
“It’s hard to tell. The sun and moon are crazy here.” Black-light was about to ask what he meant by that, but he lost interest in his curiosity, and looked at the sky. “It looks like the sun just came out. I should probably go back to sleep. Nah.” Black-light said. “So, what ya doin out here?”
“I’m was looking at the forest, but then I saw some yellow in that direction.” Trondason pointed his hoof towards the yellow. “I was hoping you could make it out, using your special eyes .”
Black-light aligned his head with Trondason’s hoof, and looked at the yellow for a moment. “Yeah, I see something. Ponies, a lot of ponies. They’re just minding their own business, but I can’t see too much. Closer to our position, there is an old fashioned cottage. It has a pen and such. Carnivorous ponies?” Black-light shuddered a little bit. “I’m not sure if I want to be eaten right now. At least, not in that way.” He walked away from Trondason, to the other side of the cliff. “A dragon eating me would be better. At least they’re carnivores.”
“Just because they keep livestock, doesn’t mean they eat meat. There are other uses. For one, I recall the Apple family keeping pigs, who were fed their scrap, and were used as a source of fertilizer.” Trondason looked towards the town once again. “You said there was a cottage, right?”
Black-light nodded. “Good, that means we might know what the town is.” Trondason added “Assuming this forest is the Everfree. Then again, there are probably other towns bordering it.”
“I swear, if that’s Ponyville, I’m going to kill a duck with a truck...” Black-light grumbled, then walked back into the cave. “We have supplies in here, and we could sell the candy to a shop.” His voice echoed from inside the cave. “But if this is the Everfree, we would need some weapons.”
“If we’re lucky, we won’t. The Mane 6 have traveled through several times defenseless.” Trondason looked off the cliff, once again. The town seemed pretty far right now. That, and on the off chance it was Ponyville, he wasn’t sure how Black-light would handle being there. Trondason wasn’t sure what he had about Ponyville, since most of his stories are centered about the damn place, but right now getting there was all that mattered.
Sure, the only danger in the Everfree was a hydra or manticore(and the other creatures), but if six mares could walk through it multiple times while talking, two stallions could do it making no noise. That is, assuming Black-light could be trusted to not make any noise.
“Hey, I found two bags that were enchanted to hold extra stuff in it. A spatial displacement spell or something like that. We can’t hold much in these, but we wont have to have all our stuff out in the open like that.” Black-light paused for a moment. “Let me see how much stuff we can take from this cave. I’m also keeping the candy in your bag. That alright with you? I’m putting it in there either way.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“We should head out before the sun starts moving. I think the princesses are drunk or something. At least the moon is void of any mare shaped spots, so the Nightmare incident has passed, I don’t really want to be a part of that.” Trondason sighed. “Do you have what you need?” A bit of shuffling could be heard from inside the cave. Moments later, Black-light trotted out and tossed Trondason a small pouch.
“We don’t really need then things that I didn’t put in the bags. I found some golden coins, probably bits, and some other things. I’m not sure if they’re enough to buy a house, but hey-you never know.” A pause settled over the two, and they both heard growling from inside the cave. “I think there is something in the cave…” Black-light said.
“No shit.”
How Black-light And I Almost Died
Trondason was afraid when he heard the growls.
The slight, erratic growling that came from such a small creature was unnerving. The deepness of it’s voice seemed to come from a much larger predator, and that put him on edge. Trondason was prepared to run like hell, from the Quarry Eel that he was certain the growls came from.
Then he remembered that quarry eels hiss, not growl.
As he waited for the creature to come out, he realised that he had no way to protect both himself, and Black-light from the danger that might be within. The only thing left to do was…
To run like hell.
As he was about to utter the command, right then and there, from the entrance of the cave, a small dog came out. It was a small dog, smaller than Trondason. The dog had mid-level brown fur, a half cut ear, a red bandanna, and shaggy hair. Normal stray dogs don’t have belongings. This dog either had an owner that was looking for it somewhere, or it was abandoned.
The dog looked suspiciously like Winona, Applejack’s dog.
But if it was, what would it-she- be doing out here? The first thing to do would to check the bandanna, to make sure that was, in fact, Wilona. “Stay, girl.” Trondason commanded. The dog stayed where she was, but eyed Black-light and Trondason as warily as she would if they were predators. Trondason slowly walked over and stopped a few paces from the dog.
He stopped right in front of the dog, looking into it's eyes in a display of dominance. The dog cowered for a bit, but stopped when Trondason lessened his glare. It was then allowed to sniff Trondason’s hoof. Once the dog was familiarized with his scent, Trondason reached for it’s collar under it’s bandanna, and read the identification.
Winona
Age: 4
Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville
Female
Address:
Trondason stopped reading when the address came up. Winona’s tag pretty much proved that the world was more or less similar to what he thought. This also means that Winona could probably find her home. If he followed her, he would make it to her home.
“Winona, are you lost?” Trondason wasn’t sure if she understood him to the extent he wanted, but it was worth a thought. When she nodded, he figured that meant yes. “Can you lead us home, girl?” She nodded again. “Alright, lead the way.”
Black-light walked up behind Winona, and peered into the cave once again. After a while, he nodded to himself in a satisfied manner, and walked back to the cliff. “Hey, T, I bet she-”
“Winona.” Trondason corrected.
“Winona? As in Applejack’s dog?” Black-light asked.
“Apparently. Same location, town, and I didn’t really know her age.” Trondason shrugged. “Anyway, you were saying?”
Black-light paused for a moment, apparently lost in Trondason’s words. “Oh, yeah. I was wondering how she got up here. We climbed up a pretty steep cliff, and a dog’s paws won't be able to do that like we did. Then again, we do have hooves, so I’m not so sure. Maybe she came up from behind the cliff or something. I don’t really know, but it explains how she got up here. Ask her.”
“I’m not sure how smart she really is. She might have just been nodding. But it’s worth a try.” Trondason turned to Winona, whose tail was wagging. “So, Winona, how did you get up here?” Winona tilted her head in confusion, then stopped and walked over behind where the cave was. As she disappeared behind a corner, Black-light looked around. “I think she wants us to follow.” He said as he trotted over to where she was.
Trondason sighed, and followed. As he walked around the corner, he saw a slope when he looked around. Winona’s head popped up from behind it, barked a little, and disappeared once more. Quickening his pace, Trondason didn’t hear the low growl that came from back around the where the cave was.
Trondason caught up to Black-light, who was using the slope to practice in gliding. He would get up in the air, glide a bit, then pull back on his wings to slow himself so he lands by the time Trondason caught up. Winona made it into a small game, and chased him every time he went into the air, barking the entire time. Seeing Black-light, even as a pony, playing with Winona was cute for him. A chuckle escaped his lips as he thought about the situation one more time.
A pink, swirling vortex appeared in his house. He went to the couch, but it followed and eventually grabbed him. The vortex also grabbed Black-light. There are plenty of HiEs out there, so why was he changed into a pony? Did he die across the barrier? It’s a possibility, but then would introduce the idea of a life after death, and that they are more than just reproducing patterns of matter. There is another possibility, that the portal did it itself, but that would imply that the portal either was sentient, or guided by some other being, who brought them over for one reason or another, and decided it was better that they were ponies. Then, of course, there is the chance that it’s all just random crap, they are unfortunate enough to experience. One in a billion chances happen every day. At this point, he didn’t really have enough information to do anything more than random speculation, but it’s always to be aware of the possibilities.
Thud
Trondason was shaken from his thoughts by the sound. He looked at the ground way in front of him to reveal Black-light, laying on the ground with Winona sitting nearby, panting like… Well, a dog. “ You alright, dude?” He called out. Black-light got up, shook himself off, and called back, “Yeah, I just flapped my wings a bit and went higher than I wanted.” He responded.
“Heh, gotta be careful about that. If you hit your head too hard, you are in danger.” Trondason caught up with the two. They were now at the bottom of the slope, right on the edge of the wood. He wasn’t paying much attention earlier, but he now heard tons of life coming from the wayward forest. The croaks of frogs, small animals, creatures in the shrubbery, and other animalistic sounds came from the forest. There were plenty of plants that he had never seen before, probably indigenous only to this world, all over the place.
Of all the plants he saw, only one of them looked familiar. Not the type of familiar that meant ‘Oh hey, I see these at home all the time! ’, there were plenty of those, but by familiar, Trondason was thinking more on a scale of ‘Holy crap, we should avoid those .’ The plants he saw weren't particularly life threatening, but they have varying effects on an individual. What he saw was, the blue menace, poison joke!
From what he personally witnessed , they could cause any variety of annoying effects, but usually not lethal. But they are an inconvenience, that could lead to something deadly happening. Rainbow Dashs wings were turned upside down, effectively grounding her if she wasn’t so stubborn that she kept trying to fly (and crashing into everything). It turned Applejack into a itty bitty pony, which by itself isn’t deadly, but she could easily be crushed underhoof or something.
He saw Black-light eyeing the poison joke like a mouse would a cat. He knew what poison joke was capable, despite never actually seeing what it could do, but the internet has vast knowledge, even if it can be useful. “Is this poison joke?” he asked, circling around the patch of blue poison, cautiously. “Yep, and you should steer clear of it. While none of it’s observed effects are deadly, they’re inconveniencing enough to turn deadly in a place like the Everfree. While it would be interesting to see what it does to us, and worthwhile incase it’s ever used on us, that’s a experiment for another time.”
Winona barked in agreement, and led the trio around the poison joke, onto a path that she could only detect with her nose. The trio continued for hours, only stopping to find some safe plants, but only after one of the group spots some non-mythical creatures eating from the same plants. They all knew that even the plants that look familiar could be just a lookalike. They found various watering holes and such to drink from, plenty of places to hide from potential predators, and a few things they will probably need later.
Winona constantly stopped to sniff around and make sure this was the trail. A dog’s nose is easily trusted under circumstances, so the two ponies just let her do whatever. As long as she did what she needed to, there was no reason to interrupt.
Upon walking onto what looked to be a dirt road, Winona halted the group. She looked up, then began to pace in a circle. After doing it for a few minutes, she stood perfectly still. Black-light was about to speak to her, but was halted when she looked behind them and began barking. Black-light and Trondason both knew what it meant when a dog was barking, for they both had experience with their own companions from back home. Something dangerous was back there.
Winona wouldn’t stop barking once it became clear that both ponies knew what was going on. Trondason tries to shush her several times, but she only continued to bark. Large rustles could be heard from inside the bushes, indicating their pursuer to be large and ill-fitted to be in shrubbery. Trondason grabbed Winona, and hid behind some trees, hoping the predator would assume he kept going.
Black-light, however remained still. He clutched his head in pain can looked around in a confused manner, like a cornered animal. Trondason was about to call out to him, but then he felt something. He had no idea why, but he felt compelled to close his eyes and visualize his surroundings, like he did when learning how to properly levitate.
As he did so, the world was once again replaced with a blue color. He could see everything, from the plants, to Black-light and Winona, who were blue, to whatever was stalking him. It was undefined, but it’s presence was visible as a big blob of red. He could see himself, as if he were outside of his body. He was a white color.
He was unable to explore this sensation, as Black-light broke out of his stupor, the red creature pounced from the shrubbery and trees. Trondason lost his concentration, and had to peek from out of the tree to see what was happening. A manticore, a freaking manticore, had jumped out from the trees, and was staring daggers at Black-light. Having learned the most about how to use his unique talents, Black-light was able to get away from the manticore, and out of his sight assuming he doesn't lose balance or mess up. Unfortunately for him, the manticore is probably not new to it’s body, like he is, and has had to hunt its food, which probably didn’t want to be eaten, every day of it’s life. This lowers Black-lights odds greatly, because he has only been in his body for a day, and while he isn’t tripping over his own hooves, or falling on his face, he hasn’t had to react this quickly to any situation before, and can easily trip up.
The manticore pounced at Black-light, and he was barely able to get out of the way. The creature took a small bit of hair out of his mane, but there were more tragic places able to get hit. The thing appeared to be half blind, because while performing it’s next few swipes, they were too high, and Black-light was able to duck under them.
Winona ran down the dirt road, leaving the two to fend off against the creature. Trondason only hoped that she could get somebody, before the manticore eats Black-light. The manticore saw Winona, and was about to chase after her. As it prepared to take flight, Black-light flapped his wings, and jumped a little over it’s vision. It completely lost interest in the dog, and tried to get the pegasus out of the tree that he just fell into.
While he was distracted, Trondason closed his eyes and visualized his magic being gathered onto the creature’s, or where he assumed the creature’s, jugular vein would be. He could feel the magic gathering inside the manticore, and he could hear it’s frustration. Black-light saw the manticore step off, and he jumped onto it’s tail and stomped on it as hard as it could.
The yellow tinted blood of insects sprayed from the crushed scorpion tail, and the manticore roared in outrage. The manticore tried to jump away from Black-light, but he was stuck on the creature’s back. Trondason was struggling to keep concentrate, and the constant movement wasn’t helping.
The manticore reached back, grabbed black-light in one of it’s massive paws, and threw him against a nearby tree. As Trondason heard the crack of the bark, the manticore puunced over to Black-light, and ripped open his side. Blood sprayed around for a bit as Black-light screamed in pain.
Trondson was beyond pissed.
The magic gathering within the creature’s jugular suddenly increased. Trondason opened his eyes, and saw the manticore thrashing and coughing up blood. It was about to rip Black-light’s throat out, before it could take no more of the pain. Instead of simply leaving, it thrashed the limp body of Black-light a few more times, threw him on the ground, and tried to stomp on him.
Trondason would have none of that, and he pulled Black-light out of the way before he could be crushed. The manticore was royally pissed now. Trondason didn’t notice the blood-red colored eyes it had. That’s why it wasn’t dead, it went into a blood rage!
The thing was still pretty beat, and it wanted to kill Trondason, or at least Black-light. It limped over to Trondason, trying to use the last moments of it’s life to end his. Trondason could barely move, and his breathing was hard. It was almost as if somebody had thrown gravel down it’s throat.
Besides his own heavy breathing, Trondason could barely hear the strangled roars the massive hybrid monster was making. He vaguely noticed the thing getting slower, and the deep scratches in the ground getting shorter. The only time he registered was when the creature slumped over, and exhaled it’s last breath.
To say he was relieved would be an understatement.
His eyes got heavy, and he could see spots all over his visual area. He could barely concentrate, let alone sit in the same position. He knew that he was either going to die, or pass out. The last thing he saw before he met the comforting darkness was Winona rushing back with a familiar blonde pony. “Good girl…” he mumbled weakly.
How I woke Up, But Black-light Didn't
“So you found them near a dead manticore, correct?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Interesting. Well, one of them was severely injured by the creature, judging by the cuts and bruises. Several fractures, broken bones, the works. It’s a miracle he survived.”
“What about the other one?”
“Yes, the unicorn… He was not injured in the same way as the pegasus. He was suffering from fatigue, and massive magical exhaustion. He had little to no injuries, but that alone could have killed him, especially on this scale. If he had been injured at all, he would have died.”
“Well, that was a close one.”
“Yes… And…”
“What is it, miss?”
“I was wondering how exactly you came upon these two. You don’t seem to be the type that spends a lot of time in that forest. If memory serves correctly, you are terrified of timberwolves. Why were you in the forest, miss Applejack?”
“Mah dog found ‘em. We adopted her from those there woods, and she loves to just disappear in them from time to time. Sometimes for a day or two. They must’ve found her, and let her get help when the manticore showed up. She came to me, and led me there.”
“Well. Thank you, miss Applejack.”
“You’re welcome, but ah just have a few questions to ask them.”
“Well, they owe you their lives. I’ll tell them both when they wake up, but don’t pressure the answers out of them. Let them tell you. I will however, tell you when they get out. They will no doubt want to meet you.”
“Thank you, Doctor Redheart.”
“Your welcome.”
---Thisisaline---
Trondason woke up with one of the worst headaches he had ever had in his life.
Good thing for him, he was in a pretty damn comfortable bed. He was in a room, probably a hospital given the smell, and he had a pretty vague idea as to how he got here. A memory of a dog flashed before him, and memory of her beside him before he blanked out occurred moments after. “Winona… So you did come back.” He muttered before a small smile came across his face.
Trondason looked at the surroundings, and noticed the room looked pretty much the same as he had pictured it to be. It was a large, rectangular room with a curtain splitting it down the room. There weren't many things in the room, aside from the heartbeat monitor, the one dresser under the window, and the one flower-filled vase on top of that one dresser.
He didn’t really feel like moving to call a nurse or something, but he didn’t really have to. Like the best room-service ever, two nurses rushed in to check up on him. They didn't really seem to notice that he was awake, as they just checked up on the machinery and equipment around him, and replaced the empty bag sticking into his arm with another one filled with a clear fluid.
They were about to leave before Trondason uttered a noticeable “Ahem.” Both nurses paused between him and the door, and quickly turned around and faced him. One was a mare, and the other was a young stallion. They both had reverse colors, like the spa twins; Aloe and Lotus Blossom, and they both even had similar mane styles. The mare had yellow fur and a light blue mane, while the stallion was reversed. They both had blue eyes, and were both earth ponies. “Oh, I didn't realize you were awake, sir.” The stallion said, while the mare closed her eyes and nodded silently.
“It’s alright, but I would like to know, how long was I out?” Both nurses shuffled uncomfortably, and it was obvious that they didn’t know. Given the shuffling, it became apparent to Trondason that they didn’t like being useless. That also could’ve been the reason they became nurses.
“I take it that neither of you know?” Trondason asked, but it wasn't really a question. Both nurses nodded. “Oh… Do you know where my friend it- let me rephrase that…” Trondason took a small breath. “I’m thinking that around the time I arrived here, there was another man-er-stallion here as well. He’s a grey pegasus, and has had plenty of manticore slashes. Have you seen him?”
Both nurses looked to each other for a moment, nodded silently, and looked back up towards Trondason. The mare spoke “Um, yeah. I saw him, but he was in pretty bad shape.” She spoke almost as softly as Fluttershy did. “Wait… Are you the other one that came from the attack?” Trondason nodded silently, hoping that she would say something about Black-light. He could feel the questions that were coming next, though.
And the girly squeal that came with them.
“What? Tell me what happened! How did you survive a manticore attack?!” She went on for a minute, asking a variety of questions that both did, and did not have anything to do with the manticore attack. Trondason caught a sympathetic look from the mare’s counterpart.
“Sister, please, allow him some time to answer, won't ya?” The stallion muttered under his breath. The sister heard him, and stopped, allowing Trondason to answer.
“Well…” He paused, searching for the correct words to use. He definitely couldn’t say that he woke up in the woods as a unicorn, and the stallion in another room did the same. “Me and my… Brother were walking through the forest with Applejack’s dog,”
“Applejack? Like the element of honesty?” The mare asked. Trondason nodded, and continued his story. The brother gave him a skeptical look when he said that Black-light was his brother, but that look turned faded after he heard about Applejack’s dog.
“Yes, the one and the same. As I was saying, we were walking through the woods, Winona, the dog, was leading us back to town. We stopped next to a road, and she just started barking. We didn’t realize we were being hunted until I saw rustles in the bushes. I grabbed Winona and hid, but my brother was frozen, and he looked to be hurt. I was about to help him, but the manticore had already pounced on him…” Trondason trailed off, and he purposely left out that strange sight he used. It would be best not to talk about that.
“I’m sorry… If it’s too much for you-” The mare tried to sympathising with him. “If anything like that had happened to my brother, then I’m not sure if I would be able to talk about it either.”
“Yeah, I really don’t want to talk about it, but I will say this; we both put up a fight. We wouldn’t be an easy target for that big beast, not now or ever!” He sighed. “But could you please tell me anything about my brother’s condition? Anything at all would help.” Both the twins (at least Trondason guessed they were twins), looked at each other, seemingly to have a psychic argument. Trondason thought they were kind of cute, given the way they act.
“Well, all we do know something…” The mare fidgeted, and looked at the ground. “But we don’t know much. Um, he hasn’t woken up at all, but most of his wounds have been sewn up. The doctors think he could pull through, but they don’t exactly have the best supplies. These things don’t exactly happen much…” Yep, she’s a shy one. Her male counterpart also looked towards the ground, and it became evident to Trondason that the mare was lying, or at least not saying the complete truth.
Trondason hoped to whatever deity existed that he wasn’t dead.
“Well then,” Trondason said while lifting himself from the bed. His limbs were shaky, but he was asleep for a whole week, so he’s good. “I need to leave this hospital as soon as possible. Do you have any books? A nearby library, perhaps?” Trondason knew this town, or at least has a general idea as to the outline, but it was advisable to keep that information from everyone. “If my ‘brother’ was awake, and he saw me doing nothing, he would kill me.” Trondason chuckled. ‘Can I just pay and leave? I have stuff to do.”
Trondason didn’t want to stay in this place longer than he had to. He was feeling fine, and would gladly pay to just get out of here and be on his way. He wouldn’t skip town until Black-light was able bodied, though.All he needed was either his or Black-light’s bag so he can grab the bits.
The nurses didn’t really like that he had wanted to leave so soon after gaining consciousness. That much was obvious. They murmured and opened their mouths to say otherwise, but they stopped themselves. The nurses obviously knew what knocked him out, being nurses, but Trondason wasn’t sure what it was, but a fair guess would have been over using his magical energy.
“Um, yes… Sweet Heart, go get this stallion’s papers. I’ll get Dr. Redheart.” The mare, now identified as Sweet Heart, nodded and walked out the door. “Okay, sir. I’ll get the doctor, but if you need anything in the future, my name is Dust.” He reached his hoof out to Trondason, who touched it with his (he didn’t know where the stallion was going with this, so he just dove in and hoped this would be a handshake), and shook it.
“My name’s… Midnight Scroll.” Trondason said. He knew the name would be fitting on a pony, but he felt like Black-light would get confused by this, and call him Trondason anyway, but he’ll cross that bridge when he gets to that.
“Oh, your cutie mark likes a scroll made out of a night sky, so that makes sense.” Dust said. Trondason looked at it, and saw whet Dust was talking about. Right there, on his right flank, there was a scroll that looked to be made out of a night sky. He never looked at that, as becoming a pony was a new experience, and he wasn’t paying attention. He also didn’t know how he just came up with a name that perfectly matched his cutie-mark, but he was pleased about it.
“I thought you were going to get a doctor to check up on me or something.” Trondason remembered out loud. Dust noticeably shrugged the question off. “Nah, she was just going to give you a physical and tell you to go somewhere, and I can do both of those. Are you feeling ready for one?” Trondason nodded, slowly.
Dust got a few supplies out from a nearby drawer, and laced them down on the small table next to the bed. “First,” he picked up a popsickle stick. “-I check your throat, say ‘Ah’.” Trondason opened his mouth, and accepted the popsicle stick. After a few moments of checking inside Trondason’s mouth, he pulled out the stick and wrote something on a paper. After writing, he grabbed a stethoscope, placed the buds in his ear, and placed the cold, sensitive end onto Trondason’s back. He asked Trondason to breathe deep breaths for a moment, then listened to his pulse. After he was done, he returned to the paper. “Alright, now we just need to check your blood pressure.” He grabbed the blood pressure cuff off the desk, strapped the cuff to Trondason’s forehoof, squeezed the pump a few times, looked at the meter, then recorded the results. “Alright, you’re done.” He stopped, and looked at the list for a moment. “Yep, you’ll be fine if you keep your magic use to a minimum. Once Dr. Redheart gets here and tells you where to go, you can grab your belongings and leave.”
As if they spoke of the devil, Doctor Redheart waltzed right on in. She was a pale white earth pony mare with light pink hair and deep blue eyes. On her flanks, Trondason could see the medical cross surrounded by pink hearts. Other than the doctor’s coat she wore, she’s just like how he remembered her. “I’m so glad you woke up. I trust my nurse has informed you on your accomplice condition?” She cast a small glare at Dust, and he shrunk down and nodded. Trondason guessed she must have had a hard day. “Well then, I will just give you your physical, and-”
“I already gave him one.” Dust stated. She gave a relieved sigh, and continued what she was going to say. “Thank you, Dust. Well, let me just give you your-” Nurse Sweet Heart walked in through the doors and spoke. “I got your papers, mister!” She exclaimed cheerfully.
“I actually want to know how long I’ve been out, and I also would like to see my brother, if I may.”
Doctor Redheart froze up for a moment. She looked tense, like she had bad news to tell. Trondason hoped the situation wasn’t worse than he was told. “Oh, um… You were unconscious for almost a week, and your brother… Well… Follow me and I’ll show you.” Trondason quietly obeyed, and followed the doctor through the door. The hallway was fairly empty and white. Aside from the few ponies roaming about, the place seemed pretty empty. the temperature was low, but not terribly low.
She led him past several rooms, and some of them had people suffering from diseases to various wounds. This didn’t make the world seem like the happy-go-lucky thing Trondason was used to it being, but then this actually made more sense. It is the Hospital after all, ponies who are suffering come here to be cured, so as a result they would be concentrated here.
She led him through the long hallway, into a room with sheets covering the windows. “We didn’t want any foals that were wandering to come across this room, so we covered it up.” She opened the doors, and walked inside gesturing for Trondason to follow. “I hope you understand.”
In the room, was a bed. Not much of a bed, but it was more of a slab. There were tons of wires and machines connected to his body, and he was unconscious for the most part. All of his wounds were clean, and sewed back in. He had no blankets or coverings, and he probably had something done to him recently. “How bad is it?” Trondason asked. Doctor Redheart looked at the body, walked to a nearby table, and picked up a clipboard. “Do you want to know of the injuries?” She asked. “I was informed.” Trondason replied.
“Well, he woke up while we strapped him in, screaming in pain. We had to sedate him, and heavily, so we could operate. He was in pretty bad shape, and it was a miracle he survived, thank the stars.” She took a long look at Black-light’s body. “You know, you two don’t really look the same, but this wouldn’t be the first time I saw two siblings of different races, but still… You won’t happen to have identification on you, won’t you?”
Trondason stood still, staring at the doctor. “Hello?” She asked.
He knew it would look suspicious if he just stood there, staring at her, but it was all he could think of at the moment. On one hoof, he could tell the complete truth, and risk being kicked out and not allowed in the hospital until Black-light woke up, but that wouldn’t be the best thing right now. The other hoof, however was to tell the truth, but leave out specific things, and be as vague as possible.
Well that, or lie.
“No, I don’t.” Trondason said, simply. Although it was none of the options, it seemed like the best thing to do at the moment. Doctor Redheart looked at him for a moment, but then spoke. “Well, you can stay with your brother, or you could leave, and visit tomorrow. You would have to leave if somepony comes in here anyway, so it’s your choice.”
“As much as I feel I should be here, there is nothing I could do. I would just be wasting time twiddling my hooves. I will come back tomorrow though, and everyday till he’s better.” He answered. Redheart seemed pleased with his answer, and waved him to follow as she walked back through the doors. “Come with me.” She said, as she led him through the hallways of the hospital. He wasn’t surprised to not see elevators, but he was surprised when he saw that the stairs have no ramps of any kind.
After walking down several flights of stairs, the two exited double doors, into the main lobby. The room was as white as the rest of the hospital he had seen, but there were tons of windows letting in tons of light. In fact, one wall seemed to be made out of glass. He hoped it was thick glass.
The doctor led him to the large receptionist's desk where the receptionist, a white mare with a cream mane, handed him some paperwork. “Sweet Heart told me to give this to a dark grey unicorn stallion. Are you checking out?” Trondason, or Midnight now, nodded. “Well here ya go.” She handed him the paperwork, and he spent the next couple of minutes filling it out.
He came across a few typos, and even a few weird questions. He left those blank, and just blazed through the rest of the questions. He remembered hearing about how stupid his school district was from Black-light, and how terrible the tests are. Now, he could clearly see what he was talking about. Still, some of these only needed being reread twice, so he just let them slide.
The question that tripped him the most was when he came across the ‘family name’ portion. ‘What the hell do I name Black-light? ’
…
…
…
…
…
‘You know what, I’m just going to name him Storm Scroll’
Trondason wrote it down, handed the paper to the receptionist, and turned to leave the hospital. “God, I hope that was believable.” He mumbled as he turned to walk through the the hospital’s double doors. Before he was able to leave, the doctor intercepted him. “I almost forgot, the mare who saved your life, Applejack, lives on the farm on the edge of town. She wants to talk to you sometime if thats okay.” She said.
“Alright, I will make sure to pay her a visit.” Trondason replied. The doctor nodded, turned away, and disappeared inside a nearby door. As she disappeared, Trondason just continued on his way.
The first thing on his agenda was to find a library of some sort. Considering the town had only one library that he was aware of, the tree shaped building was what he was looking for. He didn’t really want to go in there, due to who lives there, but he wanted answers. He just knew that things might get pretty weird. Trondason could only hope that today wasn’t that day.
Unless things were completely incorrect, the library should be next to town hall, or at least somewhere near it. Actually, a giant tree shouldn’t be that hard to miss, anyway. All he had to do was look up. Then again, if its surrounded by other tall buildings (like the Town Hall, and Rarity’s Boutique), then it would be rather hard to see. Hopefully that isn’t the case. If he needed directions, Pinkie pie should be around here sometime.
Trondason looked from both sides, up, and even under his hooves. He knew that Pinkie could be anywhere, and everywhere is suspect to her presence. This time however, she didn’t seem to be popping out from anywhere, so he was alone for the time being. ‘Left or right?’
He looked to the left, and saw that the town seemed to end right there. ‘Right, it is. ’ He thought, as he turned that way and began his search.
---Dont mind me, boys and girls! I’m just a line break! ---
Trondason had found the library after he circled the same building seven times. In his defense, that building was trippy as hell, and the road around it made it seem like a straight line. He wasn’t really sure what was happening with his sense of direction right there, but nopony judged him. In fact, somebody (or pony… Bleh) came out of that house, and offered him directions. “Don’t worry, son.” the stranger had said. “Everypony that has ever passed this house has had the same problem. You must be new.” He chuckled to himself. “Beware the pink pony, son.” Although he knew what the old pony was saying, Trondason was less sure that he would like the inevitable confrontation with Pinkie Pie.
Trondason asked the old pony for directions to the library, and he pointed down the way while saying “Keep going that way, and after walking through the second intersection, take a left.”
The library felt off to him, like it was looking at him. He wasn’t sure what to think other than the slightly growing urge to turn away. Steeling his nerves, he walked up to the door and…
Paused before the door.
He wasn’t sure what to do at this point!
This library was also a house, and the librarian lived here! Should he knock, or should he just walk in? On one hand, its the library, and you don’t knock on public buildings. On the other, Twilight lives here, and this is her home, you don’t just walk in on people’s homes! So, to knock or not to knock, that is the question.
Knocking is the safer option. That way Trondason would just look foolish, instead of possibly intruding.
He raised his hoof, looked at the door, and knocked on it. He instantly regretting doing do, as he heard a crash somewhere from inside. Several muffled swears later, and the tumbler called out “I got it.” Trondason felt bad for whatever happened inside right then and there.
The door swung open, but nobody was even there. He thought Twilight used magic to open the door, and he called out into the library. “Hello?”
“Down here.” A not so amused voice called out.
Trondason would recognize that voice anywhere.
He looked down, and right there was the purple infantile dragon whose age was unknown. Spike; the little guy who is Twilight’s servant assistant. Wait… This whole situation made Trondason feel worse because he completely forgot about Spike. “Oh, uh, sorry man.” He said to the small dragon.
“It’s no big deal. Happens a lot around here, actually. You new in town? I’ve never seen you before.” Spike said.
“Yeah, you can say that.” Trondason answered.
“Oh.” Spike leaned in close, using his hand to hide his mouth. Trondason was kinda mad about this, Spike having thumbs and all. Then again, a horn is a better trade, although he can’t flex his thumbs anymore. Unless… “When you meet a mare named Pinkie Pie, and believe me you will , just don’t question it.” He whispered. After all that was done with, Spike leaned back to his original position, and asked; “So you looking for a book?”
“Trondason’s ears perked up, a display that frightened the hell out of him for a moment. He had nearly forgot why he was there in the first place. “Yes, I need a book about magic spells. You have any here?” Spike let a smile upon his face. Upon seeing this, Trondason thought about how Spike was Black-light’s favorite character. Then he thought about what Black-light would do upon meeting Spike in person.
“Oh, you’re in for it now.” Spike muttered.
“What was that?” Trondason asked.
“Nothing.” Spike replied.
Trondason knew it was something. Oh, he knew alright. He just didn’t know what exactly Spike was talking about. Little did he know, it would be coming his way very soon.
“Wait right here, and Ill get somepony who would help you with just that.” Spike said before dashing up some stairs. Trondason did as instructed, and waited here. To be precise, he waited on a nearby couch (the one with a ‘sit here’ sign on it), and picked up a book that was right next to it.
Starswirl The Bearded
A Pony So Great That Even the Word ‘The’ Is Capitalized In His Name
“Hmm. Interesting.” He said aloud. This book would definitely come in handy sometime. Yep, history is a perfectly good thing to get immersed in. “Ole Starswirl had a bit of an ego.”
“He’s down here, Twi.” Trondason faintly heard Spike’s voice say. “No, I don’t know his name.” He paused again. “Um… I don’t know.” He said again. “No, I’m not asking him that! Just go down there and ask him yourself, if you wanna be weird like that.” Trondason could faintly hear mumbles of some sort from upstairs. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Spike said.
Spike continued down the stairs, peeked his little scaly head down, looked at Trondason like a smug bastard, and called out “Hey, she’ll be down in a minute. Just wait for a minute or two.” The smug bastard just smirked and disappeared once again behind the stairs. Moments later, Trondason heard crashes and tumbling come up from up the stairs, and soon he saw who tumbled.
Twilight Sparkle.
Yep, the ol lavender unicorn with the purple mane and pink stripe. She has had a few mental breakdowns, and the conversation he supposed she had with Spike was incomplete and unable to comprehend. She could be going through a mental breakdown right now! Oh, He really hoped this wasn’t that day. The thought was capable of diagnosing Trondason with a serious case of shivers. “Ow.” She moaned.
Trondason rushed over and helped her up, as Spike called down “What happened to you? Are you okay?” to her. Of course, if she had been a normal horse, she would have a broken leg, and Trondason would have to put her down.
Because normal horses can’t heal broken legs, or at least keep still long enough to regenerate.
“You alright?” He said. Twilight groaned and rubbed her head with a hoof. He wasn’t sure how much help that would be, since hooves are hard and blocky, not soft. She could even be damaging herself even more. Though, probably not. She has had her body for her whole life, and probably knows better than to cudgel herself with her hooves.
She shook her head for a bit, not really helpful, but she did it anyway. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just fell down the stairs is all…” She said.
“What happened?” He said. She looked at him like he was a zombie (believe him, he knows that look), so he quickly added “I mean, what made you fall down the stairs? You trip?” He asked. She quickly let up that scrutinizing glare, and looked back to the steps. She was obviously looking for something, likely a splinter in the wood, but she found none.
“I don’t know, actually.” She said, bringing a hoof to her chin and scrunching her face a bit. Trondason wouldn’t have put it past Spike, and just assumed he pushed her. He was acting kinda devious when he first (officially) met him. Trondason wasn’t sure what differences this world would bring. First a weird Spike, then a cannibal Fluttershy and a sexually active Celestia!
Maybe.
“Interesting…” he trailed off. Twilight got up and walked over to a shelf. “Um.. You have any books on magic I could see? I am suddenly interested on the subject.” Trondason said. Twilight twitched ever so slightly. Her body went stiff, and she didn’t make a sound. Trondason could barely tell her head was moving until he could see half her face. He felt like running away as fast as he could, but when he blinked, she was already in front of him with the largest, creepiest, most unnatural smile he had ever seen.
He instantly regretted coming here.
Dreams of Oblivion (Black-light)
Black-light felt… Cold.
Not like the times where he was literally freezing his ass off, but still empty. Like all the life was sucked out of him like a depraved dementor had just let loose. He knew that his pet dementor would never hurt him under any circumstances, so he was left to think about the other possibilities.
What had happened?
He could barely remember anything after being at his computer, typing with Trondason. What happened between now and then? Maybe he fell asleep? Perhaps Timothy had something to do with this?
Yes, that seemed like the likeliest option.
Timothy, that terrible person, had always had it in for Black-light. He was always threatening, hurting, and most importantly, trolling Black-light. Yes, Timothy had been a royal pain, and thus deserved the righteous fury that Black-light had in store. All he had to do was escape this strange place.
But where was he?
Surely, he had succombed to a drug of some sort, as Timothy had always been fluent in making drugs, and he specialized in making hallucinatory drugs. Luckily, Black-light had grown a tolerance to his specialties, and countered his antics by making poisons.
Sure, these poisons weren’t specially made, and usually involved deadly plant juice as a main ingredient, but they were poisons nonetheless. All that needed doing was to make a concoction to render Timothy in a similar state than he. Fluothane could easily work as long as he stayed still. That wouldn’t really count as a poison, but Black-light didn’t care because he could not put Timothy in a weird room and say somebody did things to him, and he’ll believe it like last time.
Anyway, this entire mental discussion has made Black-light believe that he was, in fact, unconscious instead of dead.
He looked out into the emptiness that was probably his subconscious, and saw that it was the weirdest thing ever. He knew it was bad, but not this… bad.
Seriously, it was literally an empty slowly swirling background of dark purple… something, that was just so mesmerizing. Black-light found it surprisingly unpleasant, despite (probably) being his mindscape. Something was wrong here, but what.
---Dont mind me, boys and girls! I’m just a line break! ---
Black-light had been wandering around for what he had believed to be hours. Nothing made sense, and his body was not tiring. He recalled several dreams simply going away just because he had gotten too tired inside his dream, and forced himself out. This time, he was unable to get tired in the slightest, and thus was unable to wake up. Clenching his fist in anger, Black-light yelled as loud as he could in frustration. He had rarely had dreams, so this was new to him.
Black-light began walking in one direction, and he was unsure of what to do at that point. Wandering has been hell on his subconscious, but he didn’t care at this point. This erratic loneliness has been driving him insane, and his own voice was even annoying him. Things were getting weird. “WHY!?” He screamed, yet again, towards the heavens.
“Thou art in a predicament, arent thou?”
“Who?” Black-light was dumbfounded. Who would be in his mind now of all times! Well… At least he won’t have to be alone within his own mind. Maybe that womanly voice was a psychic conjuring of some sorts.
Then again, normal dreams don’t speak in old english.
“Who are you?” Black-light asked. The owner of the voice seemed to come from all directions, and he wouldn’t be pleased if God appeared in one of his dreams again. Last time got too weird. Too weird, and he was pretty sure that he didn’t want any more dream parties with God. “God, if that’s you again, I will be none too pleased.” Black-light projected.
“Ha!” the voice called out from the depths of Black-light’s mind. The strange background rippled and twisted, morphing into strange shapes, and proceeding to creep Black-light the FUCK out. “None are gods, all are mortal, and all will die eventually!” The feminine voice called out. The background began to glow, and the chaotic background became calm and tranquil. The purple swirls were replaced with a blue, cold, nighttime sky. Black-light would have preferred a nice outdoorsy, midnight, but this cold place would have to do.
A bright flash appeared behind Black-light, and he was engulfed in it, unable to even see his body. “What are you doing?” Black-light questioned. The voice was silent for a few moments, before it started… Panting? “You alright?” Black-light asked.
Seven extremely awkward moments later, the panting stopped, and the light condensed into a dark blue alicorn with black jewelry and an ethereal mane. “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..” Black-light muttered. He knew who this was. The damn Princess of the Night.
Looking at his body, he noted that he was, still, a pegasus. All the memories of the last two days suddenly and angrily pounded it’s way into his skull, forcing the terrain to flash red for a moment. “Do not fear our presence, young pegasus.” she cooed gently, trying to ease Black-light’s mind. “We mean thee no harm! Thou art safe in our presence, as we shant harm thee! Fret not, subject, for thou art in the presence of royalty.”
“Princess Luna, I take it?” Black-light knew her name, but had to play the part as well as possible. Who knows, if he played his cards right… No, thats for later. “Why are you here, exactly?” He asked, a question that the princess chuckled at.
“It is our job to protect the dreams of our subjects, so here we are. Art thou not pleased to see us here?” She tilted her head to the side, a slightly hurt expression on her face. Is she… sad? Why would she be sad?
“Princess, are you alright?” Black-light asked. Princess Luna looked directly into Black-light’s eyes and stared for a moment. He could feel like she was looking into his very soul with that piercing glare, so he looked away. “Please don’t do that, Princess. That was incredibly uncomfortable.”
The princess was confused, but had work to do, and thus had to drop the subject. “We apologise. We had no intention to make thee uncomfortable, as we only came to help you wake up from this dream. Do-” Black-light interrupted the princess, irritating her slightly. Did he care in the slightest? Hell no. He heard useful information, and wanted to get to it before he forgot to.
“What was that about helping me wake up?” Black-light asked, as another painful headache came upon him. He remembered being punched by a giant cat. The pain also came to him, and he screamed out in pain as the background morphed into the scene he saw.
Luna diverted her gaze between the howling pegasus and the painful memory. She saw Black-light on a road, screaming in pain, while a manticore pounced from the brush and violently attacked him. She watched with an unreadable expression as the creature came about and slashed Black-light while he was unable to do anything. As the scene progressed, she saw him take more punishment that would kill any normal pegasus.
She became worried as the stallion kept screaming, but knew that this was normal behavior for those in similar states, and there was nothing she could do for him. “Endure, young pegasus. Endure the pain to live.”
Magic Books and Apple Trees (Trondason)
Trondason had no real idea why Twilight Sparkle was the way she was.
First she started spinning her head like some monster straight out of SCP, then she just stared at him while giggling. He wouldn’t have even disgraced Pinkie by saying she was likely to do this. While Trondason was figuring what the hell was wrong with her, Spike was in another room, laughing his ass off and having a good time.
Twilight had abruptly stopped her freaky display, regained her composure, and made Trondason unsure that she had ever tried to grab him (or whatever the hell she was doing), and introduced herself. “Sorry about that.” She said to the bewildered Trondason. She tried to console him by offering him food and such, but he was too preoccupied trying to plan his swift escape.
Calling himself a pansy was all he really needed to convince himself otherwise, and by the time he decided to stay, Twilight had just finished introducing herself. “Nice to meet you, Twilight. My name’s Ni-” He stopped himself before he could make a mistake. “Midnight. Midnight Scroll.” he corrected himself.
Twilight looked at his flanks for a moment, observing his cutie mark, trying to see if his name matched his flanks. Although the majority of ponies have names similar to their cutie marks, there were some that didn’t. How parents were capable of naming their foals after a mark they have yet to get, the world might never know the full answer. Trondason suspected it was similar to the way he found his own fake name, and if he was correct, Black-light’s.
“Well, hello Midnight. It’s nice to meet you” Twilight said, extending her hoof. Trondason reluctantly took that hoof, and made a jerking motion, hoping that handshakes were relevant here. “Spike told me you wanted to know about magic.” She clearly lied. No creature could react in the same insane way she did after already knowing the information that provoked such a reaction. Either she was crazy, or she was not to be trusted.
But she was already known to be a little crazy.
“Well” she continued, “I do happen to know a fair bit of magic, and could help you if you need it.” She gave off a slight pleading glare, trying to get the point across that she really wanted to help in any way, as if Trondason hadn’t guessed this.
“Why, that would be lovely, thanks. Honestly, I don’t know much about magic, at all, so I would need to start with the basics, if you could direct me to the books, that would be most excellent.” He said, while smiling. Twilight returned the smile, and went to behind a desk in the corner of the room. She began searching through.
“Ah, here you go. Heres a book on spells, if that’s what you wanted.” She levitated the book over to Trondason, who tried to grab it in his own telekinetic grip. He observed Twilight’s grip, and saw that it was slightly unstable, and rickety. Perhaps she learned the other method of levitation, and became accustomed to it’s supposedly flawed effects. Trondason lit his horn, sent a small bit of energy to the book, and covered it in his energy. The book was then covered in a blue aura, although it was spherical instead of wavy, like Twilight’s. “Wow, that’s some grip you got there!” Twilight exclaimed. “How did you get it so… Concentrated? I’ve never seen it done in such a refined way like that before.”
“I dont know, just natural, I guess.” He explained to her. She didn’t seem very pleased about this, but had other things to do at this time. “Well” she began, “just call me if you need any help with something.” She said, turning towards the stairs. “My assistant would be right back down in a moment, and could help you with some of this, if you need it.” She said, as she began to walk up the stairs, probably towards her room.
Trondason heard a thud coming from the open kitchen, and turned his head over to look at it. Expecting a sack or something similar to come through the threshold, he walked over to the kitchen, and was greeted with Spike, who he wanted to hit. “Oh, hey.” Spike said.
“You tried to sell me out.” Trondason said to a now horrified Spike. Spike just stared into his eyes for a second, and then tried to change the subject.
“Um… You checking that book out?” Spike asked, pointing to the book floating next to Trondason. Trondason looked at the book, and realized that he wasn’t even concentrating on the levitation at all. It was as if he was doing nothing to affect it, and here it was. “That’s some telekinetic field you got there.” Spike began to inspect the properties of the field while circling the floating book. “Nice shape, healthy color. It looks roughly spherical in shape, while it's a little wavy around the edges. Who taught you how to levitate?” Spike questioned.
“I taught myself.” Trondason answered, more truthfully than the answer that Twilight was given. Spike was acting like he would have expected from Twilight and Trollestia mixed together. So observant.
Spike chuckled at this. “Well, you should write a book or something” he waved his claw in the air as he walked just past Trondason. “Are you checking that book out?” Spike asked again, which Trondason answered “Yes.” to.
“Um, thats from Twilight’s library so you can keep it longer than a normal book if you want to.” Spike walked to the desk in the corner and pulled out a list and a paper. He ripped two perfectly cut rectangles out from it, and scribbled on both papers. “Whats your name?”
“Midnight Scroll.” Trondason said. Spike was intrigued by this name, and was tempted to ask if Trondason was a scribe, like he was. He dropped the question, and simply did his job. When he was done writing, Spike handed trondason one of the sheets. “Heres your slip. Twilight doesn’t use that book at all, so you might as well keep it. Still, check up on us once in a while in the scenario that she thinks otherwise. See you later if our business is done.” With that, Spike got up and walked into the kitchen.
Trondason remembered Spike being upstairs, yet he climbed in through the kitchen. Did he climb through the window or something? Why?
Ignoring his thoughts, Trondason left the library to go to Applejack’s farm.
---Dont mind me, boys and girls! I’m just a line break! ---
Trondason didn’t get lost on his way to the farm, and he definitely didn’t find himself circling that house again. The farm was relatively easy to find, and considering it was the second largest area of distanced trees on the edge of town, he could spot it from a while away, without asking for directions.
He made it to the outermost gates, and looked at the farm. Acres and acres of red, green, and yellow apple trees looked extremely appetizing to him, but he had things to do, ponies to see. Instead of finding an opening in the fence, he simply jumped over like a normal person with things to do, and continued on his path undeterred.
There seemed to be a transparent pathway leading up to the barn next to the Apple family house, and after following it, it led him straight to Big Mac, Applejack’s brother. He was huge, much bigger than Trondason guessed him to be. He couldn’t tell much through a television visor, but now, in near direct contact with the red stallion, Trondason could see why people say he’s like he it.
The dude was muscular, enough said.
Big Mac knew Trondason was here, and just looked at him as he approached. “Can ah help ya?” Big mac asked. He had a serene expression, and he didn’t have his yoke around his neck, so he looked pretty relaxed, and nonchalant. “Yes, can you tell me where Applejack is?” Trondason asked. Big Mac didn’t seem too worried about that, and just pointed over to the old, red house.
“Can ah ask why?” Big Mac questioned, but still seemed very disinterested.
“She saved my life after I saved her dog.” Trondason answered, then started towards the house as Big Mac walked off.
Trondason walked up to the old fashioned, red house. It seemed to be well maintained, if not painted freshly. The paint was faded, and splinters could barely be seen, but that was all the negative stuff. The rest of the house was smooth and it wasn’t even creaky under his hooves. The porch seemed to be enchanted, as it was as cool as a nice shower. It was also more humid than the outside area.
Trondason knocked on the door and waited for a moment. “Ah’m comin.” He heard the muffled voice. A moment passed, and the door opened, showing a yellow mare with a blond mane. “Applejack.” Trondason muttered.
“Yea, that’s me.” She said, throwing some stray mane out of her face. “Can ah help you?” She asked.
“Um… Yeah, you asked to see me after I got out of the hospital.”
“Wait. Do you mean you’re…?”
View Online
Ze Princess of ze Dreams an ze Neight (Black-light)
“Endure” Luna said, “Endure the pain and live ”
Black-light had continued screaming for three minutes past the point when Luna said those words, but luckily dream time passes faster than normal time. This was also in the middle of the day, so Luna didn’t really have much to do, considering she would normally be asleep during the day. She was surprised to find a pony of Black-light’s age asleep at this time, and even more surprised to find him in the state that he was in.
The minds of the comatose are usually still and empty, with not a thought passing through their minds. There are always a few exceptions, but those dreams are usually such a twisted mire, that even she had a hard time understanding them.
Black-light’s mind was empty, not hollow, but void of the imaginative fantasies that she usually finds. Even those who don't dream have something within their subconscious, but this was different. Odd, and cold were the feelings and thoughts that lingered, as if every thing the individual had ever seen could only be intriguing, no emotion and no care.
Luna was looking for something to indicate what sort of pony she was going to be dealing with, but the thoughts were locked up pretty tight. She couldn’t even find a name in here. She would instead have to wait for his agony to end to find the answers she wished.
Two hours later
Two hours. Two mental hours (which could be translated to five minutes real time) was the time of agony. Luna knew that this one was lucky, since others could suffer for months (which also could translate to five minutes). She approached the still body for observation, but his mind struck against her, launching her away from Black-light. He passed out in his own mind.
Another hour
Luna had conjured up a game inside Black-light’s mind, and began to play with it. She summoned two Luna copies, and was currently playing chess with herself, while the other clone just looked upwards. Luna1 currently had the upper hand, and original Luna was sweating.She knew she had zero chance to win, and her clone knew this. Just two turns, and it would be over.
“Art thou prepared for defeat? Surely thee knows of the inevitability of thine defeat. Give it up, and thou shalt be spared the humiliation of defeat!” Luna proposed, an act that irked the original Luna.
“Methinks thou art mistaken,” Luna began, “thee hath overlooked one simple fact. A fact that shall become thine undoing.” She tried her best to unnerve her opponent, who was not reacting at all. In fact, she was quite smug about what was happening,and knew there was nothing her opponent was able to do.
“Thee jests! Thou hath no strategy to defeat us! Give it up.” The clone had Luna pinned in a figurative corner. Luna was about to go and flip the table as her clone reached out towards the chess piece. Luckily for her…
“Oh hey, you’re still here.” Black-light woke up!
“Our apologies, fair clone! It would appear that our attention is needed elsewhere!” Luna’s horn glowed, and the first clone disappeared, although it was unclear what she had been doing. “No! Wai-” The second clone was unable to even declare her checkmate, as she too disappeared. “Greetings, subject! We, as the princess of the night, are here to-”
“I saw what you did to those clones, and I must say, I’m unimpressed. You could have simply switched the board, or played a trick on them or something. *yawn* Well, whatever. Who are you?” Black-light was delirious, and didn’t recognize Luna at the moment. “Oh, hello Princess. You’re still here.” He deadpanned.
Luna was blushing furiously, not being too happy about being seen at the mercy of herself. That, and being the receiving end of the stare Black-light was using. It reminded her of the stare Starswirl the Bearded used to give her when she would flip the tables on him. “You behaved so predictably, you ‘sore loser’” he teased her. Black-light knew that most royalty would have him killed from teasing them, but he cared none. If Luna wanted him dead, then whatever.
“Thou hath seen nothing!” she stuttered, and tripped over herself. “Twas merely an illusion! Perhaps thee should check thine eyes.”
“Aren't we in my head?” That was both a response to her question and a question he wanted a definite answer to. The whole situation was unknown to him. One, if this was a dream, and Luna was really here, this would be fun. Two, if this was some twisted illusion spell, things will end badly. All he had to do was ask a question that only the real Luna would answer in a particular way that no illusion spell that would hope to hold him for long would ever think of answering. Luna was stunned, so this would work perfectly. “While you’re like that, would you like something to drink?”
Luna was very confused, helping Black-light understand this situation better. “What?” she asked, blinked a few times, and shook her head. “We are in thine dream, nothing thou offers us here would even sate out thirst.” She sighed and looked onward. “Thou art like a plague of our mind, we can’t think straight.” Her eyes shot open once she realized what she said. “We apologize! We don’t know what came over us.” She looked away, and Black-light giggled.
He knew what happened to her. Everyone that is in contact with him for too long will inevitably start to call him names and such, because of his ability to distract people. It is actually humorous. That is, until some people just try to hurt him because of it. “It’s okay, Princess. I have that effect on peo-ponies.”
“Nay, it was out of place for us to-!” Black-light interrupted her. He felt like he was treading on pretty thin ice with the princess, but he didn’t want to waste any of her time. He guessed it was the middle of day or something, since he had been in agony for so long. In fact, he didn’t know how long he was out to begin with! His turmoil was translated to the environment, like the last time, and it changed from the oh-so-familiar purple to the orangish red. The color didn’t seem to fit in with anything, and felt alien to his mind.
He didn’t like it.
“Um, yeah. Could you get to the point? I’m just gonna just keep distracting you if you don’t.” Black-light said, although his thoughts drifted around the landscape, which started pulsating.
Meeting Princess Luna was nice, and it was more than most people of the fandom would ever hope to see. He felt like he didn’t really deserve this, though. He didn’t really like ponies all that much, but it wasn’t a hatred. It was like his reaction to general people. There wasn’t a single person he would openly go over with to be around, but he wouldn’t distance himself from them. Considering ponies, both the show and the stories, are kinda weird, and he didn’t really want to be around them than need be. “We art here to-”
“Sorry about this, but could you talk normal?” Black-light clasped both hooves over his mouth, and the princess was slightly amused by this. “I’m really sorry about that. I don’t really know why I said that out loud.” He stammered, as the princess just looked at him. Black-light sweated a little, which made a waterfall appear behind him in the terrain.
“We understand what hath-have happened. Th-you. Cannot keep th-your. Thoughts in th-your own.” She was clearly having a hard time speaking normal, but she was making more progress in one minute than he had seen in three seasons. Bravo to her. “AH! Forget it!” She stamped her hoof. “We shant get our point across while speaking as such!” Theatrics.
“Oh, come on.” Black-light teased her. “You were making good progress.”
“Nay, you are such a distraction.” Luna looked at the mindscape, which is now calm. “What?” She asked herself.
“Simple.” Black-light answered. “I got calm.” He nonchalantly waved his hoof around. then inspected it as if it shouldn’t be there. While still looking at it, the grey pegasus continued. “That, and you made me so proud of you, learning thine modern dialect so quickly.” he teased her.
“What do you-” Luna paused for a moment, and listened to her voice. “What?” she mentally tripped and flipped. ‘When?”
“Oh, come on. This is your magic. Think about what the dream walking spell does.” Black-light poked her ear with a mental command. “Oh, I can do that, too? Cool.”
“The bleeding effect?”
“Your spell, I only thought of what it might be. I didn’t really know. I just have inexplicably acquired information on slightly nonspecific things that may or may not exist in this world.” He waved his hoof. “One of those things being me knowing why you migh t be here. Anyway, you could call me… Oh crap.”
“Oh… Crap?” the princess tilted her head to the side, in obvious confusion. “What?” Black-light racked his brain a few times, which made the mental terrain a little wobbly. If not for being so confused that she would act out of character, Luna might have noticed. Suddenly, Black-light had an amazing thought, that qualified him to be the next Einstein (and a few pictures of a laughing Pony Einstein appeared on the terrain), and he checked his flanks. He saw a scroll that looked like it was clipping masked with a thundercloud. “...Storm?”
“Storm, you have the strangest mind I have ever seen, and I have seen quite a few minds in my life.”
View Online
Applejack, Bloom, and sorta Mac. (Trondason)
“Yep.” Trondason said. Applejack looked around, seemingly distressed about something, although she could be making a face for no reason. Trondason felt urged to look over there, but he was met with only fields. And a floating pair of sunglasses.
He didn’t really know what or why they were floating, but being a unicorn meant floating things were nothing new to him. Applejack looked at the sunglasses, however, and seemed slightly appalled. She then looked to Trondason, and back to the glasses. “Unicorns usually ‘ave their horns glowin when they lift things, right?” Trondason nodded. “And the affected object is also usually glowing, right?” Again, Trondason nodded. “Is your magic color invisible?” Trondason shook his head. “You know any unicorns that do?”
“Nope.”
“I don't think those there levitatin spectacles are a normal pair of levitatin spectacles.” she said. “Since the normal levitatin spell involves glowing, this caint really be levitatin, righ?”
“Probably.”
“Well then, maybe there is just something wrong with those spectacles, since they’re so unusual and ominous looking.” she squinted and slowly walked over to the shades, which moved backwards quickly when she got too close. “Varmit…” she muttered. Applejack moved forwards a bit faster this time, but with the same end result. “What in…” Applejack looked at the futility of her situation, and just ignored it.
It seemed to work for a bit, until it violently swerved forwards, and smacked her in the back of the head with a clap. She turned around to face it, but then it hit her five times before going back to its previous position, swinging subtly. “Why you-”
“Applejack?”
She cartwheeled around, came eye contact to the now nervous Trondason. “Could you step back a bit.” She did so. “The thing is swinging. Unicorns hold things. That thing is clearly on a string.” He pointed, and showed that there was, indeed, a string. “See?” She did see the string, and her face formed a frown. She walked over to the shades, waited for them to pull back, and grabbed the specs when they swung back towards her.
A tug was all it took to pull the culprit from the sky. ‘She’s acting strange and… Irritable. ’ That wasn’t the only thing wrong with her, as she reacted to this situation as if it had never happened. Perhaps she was having a tiresome day or something akin to that. “Goshdarnit Rainbow, ah’ve been havin a hard day, an ah dont need this righ now.” Trondason looked up and noticed that there was only one cloud outside. He wondered why he didn’t see that earlier, or if it even was there earlier.
Applejack was laying into Rainbow slightly about her work being tiresome, her knowing about it, asking her to mess with somepony else for the day, and being mad about Rainbow still messing with her. Rainbow, however, seemed quite pleased with the confusion, as evidenced by her smirk... and the laughing that came next. Although it wasn’t the best prank ever, Trondason could appreciate the functionality, as it worked in the end. “Now git outta here, so I can talk to mah guest!” Trondason shared a glance with Rainbow, who still had that grin on her face. She seemed impish, and she had a devious look on her face. Trondason instantly knew that he was next for whatever she was planning.
And he would be ready for it.
“Now, now that thats gone,” she pointed her hoof towards him. “I’m Applejack. Nice to meet ya.” Trondason shook her hoof, his second hoof shake ever, and just thought about how weird this was. “My name’s Midnight Scroll.” he said, to which he received another plot stare. ‘Really? ’
“Come on in mah house, we got a lot teh talk about.” she said, as she lead him into her house. The inside was pretty nice and traditional. Apples adorned the walls. And carpets. And pretty much everything but the couch which lay in the center of the room. The room was actually a rectangular shape, like most rooms. He could see a kitchen over to his right, a stairway to the left, an unknown room directly ahead, and a trapdoor under the couch.
Applejack offered him a seat, pulled out a mug of cider, and began to talk with him. He admitted that sitting was kinda weird now. “So, ah gotta thank you fer finding Winona. She was gone for a long time, and we thought she wasn’t comin back.” she took a sip from her mug. ”Mah sis was kinda worried, ya see.”
“Winona helped us as much as we helped her. If she hadn’t ran off, I’m not entirely sure that Storm or I would have made it.” Trondason took a sip, using his hoof instead of his horn. Applejack chuckled as a yawn could be heard upstairs. Then the front door opened to reveal a yellow eart- Applebloom. “Hiya sis.” she said as she closed the door.
“‘Noon, AB. How was yer day?” Applejack asked, while Applebloom shrugged. “Fine.” She stopped and noticed Trondason. “Whos that, sis? Yer coltfriend?” Applejack got pretty mad. Not mad enough to say anything other than “He’s not mah coltfriend!”, but she was still mad nonetheless. Trondason got a little chuckle at this, but he also got a surprise present, a death glare from Applejack. “Run along, little sis. The adults are talking.” she said.
Except Applebloom didn’t listen, and sat on right next to Trondason on the couch. “Nah.”
Applejack turned to Trondason, ignoring Applebloom, and continued. “So whats yer story, huh?” she said. “Why were you two in the forest to begin with? It’s might dangerous, ya know.”
Trondason shrugged. “In short, we got lost. We were coming to ponyville, when Storm suggested taking a shortcut through the woods. I tried to stop him, but before I could get a word in edgewise, he already took off, leaving me to catch up. One thing lead to another, and we wound up sleeping in a cave for the night. The next morning we met your dog, and she led us to ponyville. Sadly, once we got close, we were attacked by the Manticore...” As he said this, Applejack and Applebloom hooked onto every word, in genuine interest. Applejack seemed to scan every word he said with her eyes somehow, but stopped once he was done.
“Well, ah can jest say thank you two for finding Winona. Ahm still sorry for what happened to you two, though.”
“Don’t be. Although Storm was an idiot, we wouldn’t have found Winona without deviating from the path, and sleeping in the cave. If we hadn’t done as he said… Well, ya know.”
“Well, thank you for coming over here. Winona is a part of our family, and we owe you for her life.” Trondason opened his mouth to say that he was the one who owes her, for both he and Black-light, but she stopped him. “Ah dont want yer money, and I don't want yer thanks, ah want to thank you. That part is non-negotiable.” She was pretty determined to not have Trondason repay her in any way, so he let it slide for now. He could help later or something.
“Sooo… Um.. What else do you want to hear?”
“And she said ‘Thats not a manticore, that’s my mother’.” Luna laughed.
“Ha!”
Black-light and Luna had just been sitting in the now empty mindscape for a few minutes, just thinking. Luna’s thoughts were unknown to Black-light, but his were being displayed around the background. They were just a bunch of fanart pictured he saw of her online.
The exact moment she opened her eyes, she chuckled at the fanart, not knowing what it was. “Doth thou hath a crush on us?” Black-light opened one eye, peered at her for a moment, closed it, and responded with a “No.”
“Art thou sure? We look around, and only see interpretations of us within thine mindscape.” She looked around, blushing slightly. “We hath seen many artists trying to capture our image, but none such as these.” she said, gesturing to the many images of her adjourning the walls. “Thou art a truly impressive visionary, no?”
“Some of these are mine, but others I saw at a separate place. A place beyond comprehension, Princess. A collection of public knowledge so vast, that all of it cannot be counted by one single ma-er-pony. Ponies literally make new numbers to count this knowledge.” Luna looked perplexed, and her mind was traveling along the lines of ‘what?’
“Where would this knowledge be?” she moved closer and asked.
“In a heavily fortified hammer-space that few ponies have access to, and most of them are dead.” Black-light said said. This confused Luna even more.
“Hammer… Space?” she asked. The background changed once more, into a pinkish red color. Neither occupant of the mindscape knew what this was.
“A pocket dimension, for lack of a better explanation. You wouldn’t happen to have one, would you?” Luna shook her head. Black-light found this truly interesting. “A spatial displacement spell, perhaps?”
“Yes, but such spells are nearly impossible to find. Nopony has ever found the correct spell, and all the adaptations… Spontaneously combust.” she said. Deciding it would best not to talk about the bag he has, Black-light changed topics.
“Well, thats all I had to say. But how exactly are you going to wake me up?” he asked.
“The way to usually wake a pony up, would be to remove their plaguing nightmares. Thats not the case with thee, as thou mind is empty. Unless thou art afraid of being alone?” she wondered. Black-light knew he wasn't afraid of anything but spiders, and there were none here.
“No, nothing scary here.”
“Then I don't know what’s wrong.” she put her hoof on her chin. “Perhaps thou requires natural healing?”
“Can you help me with that?”
“We could, but it would still take time. Even then, we don't know if thou art even hurt.”
“I’m definitely hurt. Could you heal me instantly?” Black-light asked. Surely Luna had some magical healing spell that could be used at this moment. She is an alicorn, and they were supposed to be gods and such. Maybe she has something of use in her skill set. Anything to keep him from just being in this boring, empty space.
“Likely.”
“How?”
“Magic.” Luna smiled.
“Okay.” Luna’s horn lit up, blinded Black-light, and then she was just gone. He wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but it appeared he just got trolled by an immortal spacicorn.
“Goddammit, Luna…”
Jobs and Nightmares (new format)
Trondason
Trondason got comfortable on the couch, waiting for the Apple mares to come up with a question to ask. They, on the other hand, already know mostly about what happened, and if they asked about life before the forest, Trondason could say pretty much anything, but he was unsure if Applejack was a living lie detector. She probably wasn’t, but better safe than sorry.
As they mumbled to themselves about something he couldn’t hear, he closed his eyes and focused on seeing outside of himself like that time before. Nothing was really working, and he couldn’t really see anything but the faint red that was light directly hitting his eyelids. Sighing in disappointment, he opened his eyes and looked for anything in the room that didn’t seem ordinary. Or at least, if it moved. He really wanted Winona right now. “We came up with the question.” an undeniable Applebloom spoke.
“Yeah?” Trondason asked.
“Where did ya come from?” she asked. Literally, that was the one question he didn’t want to be asked. Luckily, the brilliant mind that was his, came up with a response as he was thinking about how the situation sucked.
“My Mother” he replied smirking. “But if you want to know the name of the town, I guess we originally came from Manehatten, but we have traveled around a bit, so no one town is really our home.” he said, to which Applebloom giggled a little bit, while Applejack just smirked in her little couch corner. Trondason met her smirk with a smirk, and unbeknownst to him, Applebloom was making kissing gestures behind him.
Applejack saw the gestures, made a sweeping motion with her hoof, and asked another question. “I forget, why were you heading to Ponyville?” she asked. Trondason didn’t really answer, or was asked that question at any prior point in time.
“No particular reason. We just heard of it, and it sounded like a nice place to visit.” Trondason said.
“And yer… Brother?” Applejack asked, which Trondason nodded. “What kinda stallion is he like?”
Trondason had to think about this for a moment. “Impulsive, sometimes a idiot, doesn’t always think things through, and not very trusting. He is a nice guy though, when you get to know him.” He waved his hoof in a circle. “Thats pretty much it.”
Applejack raised her eyebrow. “Really?” she began. “And why is he like that?”
“Why is anyone the way they are? I don’t really understand what you’re asking. Some people are just impulsive and less likely to think out the consequences of their actions. I’m sure you know a person who’s that way.” Indeed she did. Rainbow dash is a excellent example, rash, daring, and a bit thick-headed. Pretty much the opposite temperament wise of Applejack, with the exception of competitiveness. And their friends despite that, rather close ones in fact.
“Ah know what ya mean.” Applejack said. “Ya know Rainbow...” she muttered, paused, then laughed. “Shes pretty much exactly how you described yer brother without the trusting bit!” she and Applebloom laughed again. “Heh, if those two ever met…” she chuckled some more.
“Is it that rainbow-haired pegasus from earlier? I got that vibe from her.” Trondason already knew who Rainbow Dash was, but selling it was key in every situation.
“Yeah, that was her.” Applejack said, then Applebloom chimed in. “Theres also a filly that tries to be exactly like Rainbow. So she’s kinda the same.”
Trondason let out a small sigh. “While you might not agree, I still feel indebted to you, which makes the second reason I’m here a bit awkward to ask. You see, I’m pretty much broke.Until Storm gets out of the hospital, I’m stuck here with just my few belongings in my saddlebags. So, I would like to ask if I could work for you till further notice. While I might not be too strong, I’m sure a extra hoof would be beneficial in someway.”
Applejack thought about this for a moment. “That could be arranged.” she said. “Perhaps having another set of hooves ‘round here could help some. Heres what Imma do.” she paused for a moment. “I could get you a schedule and such, but it would be best to come ‘round here in a couple of days and such, so we can fit you into the schedule. Not much to do ‘round here, since it’s not Applebuck Season.” she said.
“We actually have mostly everything under control, besides making the regular juice. Oh, and the Zap Apples have been bloomin’.” Applebloom said.
“Seems a might early for zap apples.” Applejack pondered. “That, and there were none of the signs.”
“No, AJ. I saw ‘em myself. You weren’t here, ‘cause you were gone fer a week.” Applebloom explained. “The zap apple fields are full of leaves and flowers and everything! How did ya not see that? Its beautiful!”
Applejack choked on an unknown substance. “Okay, Midnight.” she began. “Change of plans. If ya want this job, come back later, or when we send you a letter. Help us pick ‘em, and you will get paid.”
Black-light
Black-light, or rather Storm… Scroll -he would have to remember that one- was just playing around in his imagination. He didn’t really know why Luna left, but that wasn’t really the first thing on his mind. No, the first thing on his mind was the shit in front of him.
Some time after Luna left him, he began to play around in his mind, and he got the hang of things. Changing the reality, changing the background, and summoning imaginary people, or ponies, just seemed to come to him. The amount of mental control was surprising to him but he didn’t question it. Things started to look nice.
He summoned a nice, peaceful green prairie. The grass was long, the hill was silent aside from the sounds of wind flying through the grass and the distant forest, and the sun was bright and warm. In the distance, there were unknown creatures just wandering around in a blind stupor, but that wasn’t his problem. He was simply relaxing.
There were a few problems though.
For one, his wings didn’t work. Well, they did, but they worked the same as in reality. He was unable to get off the ground in ways he had wanted to, and that really hurt his pride. Luckily, summoning a magic carpet did the trick. In fact, he would go up high, glide some, and summon a soft landing point where he would fall. He knew no real progress was being made, as the wings in his head probably worked differently than real life. That, or they do work the same, and he didn’t figure out what to do.
After trying to glide far several times, Blac-Storm just sat still and played with his mental world. The prairie would shift into a large, glass room, a small dungeon, a flaming minecraft room, and several other things. He was really just playing with his mind and allowing the unknowns do what they wanted.
Eventually, he got bored of just watching, and decided to get better looks at these unknowns. Upon first look, they looked like blank ponies. Completely white creatures with no face, no mouth, and no cutie marks. After looking for a bit, Storm noticed they were alicorns. “Oh my god, they are the pony versions of the things from my nightmare!” he yelled, then sighed. “Well, at least they don’t have dicks flopping around.”
The fakicorns, as Storm called them, all looked towards him, then went about their normal whatever the hell they were doing. Needless to say, it scared him shitless.
Storm then looked around for a bit, thinking of ways to play god, and kill the monsters because why the hell not. As he thought more on this, the closer they came to him. “Um…” As he noticed them shamble over to him like zombies (which appeared as well), more thoughts came into his head, and even they were pony version. “I dont even like when the internet makes pony versions of half of this shit!” Instead of think on what was happening, he ran for his life.
He got pretty far, and by pretty far, he only moved twenty feet. He actually left his magic carpet over on the hill, which was overcome by this monstrous nightmare, and thought of how this situation sucked. He kept running for the sake of not going into limbo, because that would hurt as hell, or so he thought.
Running as fast as he could, he ducked, jumped, and juked the hell out of the demons chasing him. Some of the creatures gave out shrieks from a creature that he was pretty sure he had ever heard before. It sounded like Godzilla, actually. Unfortunately, Godzilla didn’t actually show up to help. One creature, a fakicorn with a giant claw, charged, not ran but charged at Storm, and swung and tried to decapitate him. For some reason, it missed entirely, and he was safe for now. Well, at least from that specific danger.
Then, at that moment, another creature showed up, and Storm screamed at the top of his lungs, as the dangerous prairie changed into a horrible room. “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!”
He was in a cell-like room. It was huge as balls, clearly as big as the prairie was, if not bigger. There were over nine thousand floors and counting of cells filled with zombies and fakicorns. There were the ever annoying flickering lights with the silent buzzing of electricity racking at Storm’s nerve. He was utterly alone in this room, except for a figure that inflicts horror into his mind.
Chris Walker.
The giant pony version of the main bad guy of one of the most successful horror games since Silent Hill stood before him. The giant, gross, buff, torn up stallion was clearly bigger than Big Mac. Clearly. He had no lips, so his ever lasting smile drew chills down Storm’s spine. The chains on his forelegs made him think of Deslin Rowe or Kratos, but they weren’t coming to his rescue, just as Godzilla.
Nope, he was pretty much alone. “Little pig, little pig
“U-um… Hey, wanna talk about this?” no response. “Um… If it helps, I was gonna play your game on PS4.” no response. “Cant we just be friends?” no response. “...Um…” Chris shambled faster. “Is something wrong with your legs? I’m a doctor.” Chris began to jog. Luckily there was plenty of room for Storm to backtrack. “If it helps, I’m sorry for making fun of your teddy bear.” Chris yelled, and ran forwards.
In the nick of time, one of those holes in the wall that were literally all over Outlast was in view, and Storm lunged for it. Once safely inside, he turned around and looked at the form of Chris Walker, who was turned around, and heading in the opposite way. “Biscuits and gravy, motherfucker!” he yelled in triumph. Once he thought he was safe, Storm started to crawl out of the hole, towards Chris. “You too fat.” he muttered, hoping the giant wouldn’t hear him.
Unfortunately he did.
Chris turned around, and charged towards the hole, forcing Storm to crawl back into the hole. “JUSTKIDDINGJUSTKIDDINGJUSTKIDDINGJUSTKIDDINGJUSTKIDDING!” he screamed as he slid back into the hole. Able to catch his breath, Storm hit himself in the head. “I’m so stupid!” he asked himself.
“Oh, I agree.” Storm looked up, and saw a form he didn’t recognize, but he still knew who it was. “Sup, bro.” the figure said.
“Fuck.”
:trollestia:
Storm Scroll (Black-light)
“Are you serious?” Storm asked the ponified figure standing, or rather sitting in this little cramped space with him. “Do you mean to tell me that you followed me all the way from Earth? How did Luna not vanquish your sorry ass?” he asked the pony.
A visually equivalent pony to Storm sat across from him. Another grey pegasus stallion with a black mane and tail with the same scroll shape clipping masked with a lightning sky on his flank smiled in the luminescent light in the tunnel. He would be an exact copy, but his eyes were a different color. Instead of the red color Storm had, this stallion had dark eyes. “I was in your mind the entire time, you idiot. Why wouldn’t I follow you? Nowhere else to go.”
“Please, you could have taken my human body or something.” Storm scoffed at his copy.
The copy just shook his head and laughed. “No. There is nobody left for you on that world. You melted into the portal. Do you not remember having your entire body inside of the portal, while you only had one hand sticking out, while you tried to Skype Nick?”
“I hoped that was a hallucination or something.” Storm said. The copy didn’t even blink, and looked over the mindscape, which had not reverted back to the peaceful plains or anything. “I really dont want to be a pony right now.”
“Thats surprising.” the copy nodded. “Most bronies would jump at the chance of being a pony.” he continued to stare at the environment, which was starting to fizzle out and fade to white, although slowly. “Well, you did only start watching the show to rid yourself of me.” he smiled some more, trying to unnerve Storm.
“No, I started watching My Little Pony because I am open minded, and I love my sister, and wanted to spend Saturday morning seven A.M. with her watching the television.” Storm closed his eyes, and the world went completely pitch black. “You just wanted to boost your ego with thinking I wanted to kill you. You actually knew the answer this whole time and lied to yourself about it.”
“Yeah whatever.” the copy said, forming a bit of illumination around himself. All it really did was make it so he was visible, as the terrain didn’t exist. He had nowhere near the mental strength it would take to control Storm’s mind completely, and even doing that was a lot. Storm opened his eyes, and the world turned back into the hill, and the blank fakicorns were replaced with random ponies.
“So, Violent Me, why exactly did you show yourself here?” Storm asked. It was a completely legitimate question, and the copy, apparently named Violent, didn’t really have an answer. He was actually surprised he was allowed to have a mental-physical form. Storm had no dreams on earth, and Violent didn’t have a body as an effect. Well, a body that was his own. The only thing making this body his was the change in eye color, and Storm could probably change that to that of a clown if he wanted. “Not going to answer?” Storm asked.
“You should know.” Violent said. “And could you change my name to Violence? Calling me violent sounds off.”
“No.”
“Fine then.” Violent said.
“So Violence,” Storm began/trolled, “I want to ask you if something is possible here.”
“I will not help you.” Violence said. “But I will thank you for giving me a name that sounds correct in context. It makes me feel better.” to show his point, Violence placed a hoof on his chest, where his heart would be. If he had a heart, that it. He was just a bunch of imagination dust right now.
“Since you’re useless, I will just ignore what you do.” Storm said, as he made a little mental cage for Violence to play an Xbone in. Whatever shut him up was for the best. Storm looked at his mental world, and make a castle appear with a thought. Because Storm was the individual he was, he made it be constructed by ponies moving at lego game build speed. The process looked like the process it took to renovate the first courtesan building in Assassins Creed: Brotherhood. The magic carpet lifted him up, and he flew into the building, Violence in tow. Storm wouldn’t really leave him out of the fun.
Storm looked at his mental castle, and marveled at how nice it looked. It looked pretty sinister looking, but it also had a regal air to it. It was silverish, and it looked more fortified than anything. Every single brick had runes from a language he sees whenever he plays a magic based anime game involving swords. The runes glowed slightly, and the castle looked rather nice from a distance (which he suddenly teleported to).
Fireworks were needed in it, but that was a question for another time. After moving back to one of the entrances to the castle, which had two guards, he walked into a marvelous courtyard with guards, resting builders, maidens, and whatever else you would find in a slightly open courtyard. Plants that looked like a Japanese gardener poured his life work into it adjourned every path and completely took up the areas not designed for walking. Violence looked up from his Titanfall, and gasped slightly. “Many amaze.”
Storm looked passively at the castle, and walked in through some doors. A large hallway, with plenty of rooms that looked like entrances to more hallways than anything else met his gave. Along the walls in between the various doors, moving pictures (or television screens) showed many moments from his childhood. Well, only the bits he remembered. They were, for some reason, ponified. He didn’t like that, so he changed the videos to some cinematic art and a few other things, like forests or abstract art. It was all pretty nice, actually.
He checked a random room, and saw a dungeon with a beat up looking stallion. “This kingdom was literally built five minutes ago. Why is he even in here?” Storm asked himself. He wasn’t expecting an answer. Storm slinked out of the room and left the stallion.
“That was messed up, bro.” Violence said. “You should have killed or released him.”
Storm ignored him, and looked through the halls for more stuff. “Onward, BITCH!”
Midnight Scroll (Trondason)
Midnight Scroll walked away from Sweet Apple Acres and faintly noted that it was nearing sunset, then he checked his pocket dimension pouch thing, and counted bits in there. About one hundred or so. He looked directly at the sun, wondering if it would do that weird thing it did on the first day. Not seeing it, he continued on his way. He got relative information that he could use in the near future, and that was good enough. He had no more reason to stay there.
Midnight looked over at a street, and saw there was a pony hiding there and watching him. He made sure to keep an eye on his back. Faking ignorance, Midnight walked around that block, and made sure to stay away from that entire second block. Aside from that creepy pony, everything was nice. Nearing the end of the day, there were plenty of foals running around, getting into god knows what. He was surprised he hadn't met Pinkie yet, as she is supposedly all over these sorts of situations.
He saw plenty of ponies that he recognized, including Lyra, Bon Bon, Carrot Top, Bulk Biceps, Derpy, Time Turner, Dinky and Roseluck. He knew he would have to be careful when taking with them. Almost all of them have multiple names and such; like how Bon Bon is Sweetie Drop, Bulk Biceps might be named Snowflake here, Derpy is named Ditzy, and not to mention Time Turner!
That last one might not be real, but if Midnight saw a ‘Police Public Call Box’, he was going to lose his shit. Thinking about it, that could be a nice way to get home if the pony tardis can travel around that much. Or it could be bound to a pony-verse version of Dr. Who. Again, assuming Time Turner is the doctor, and not a sand timer maker or something.
Midnight knew where he was going anyway. Well, the actual direction was unknown to him, but he had a pretty good guess. Besides, even if he did get lost, he would have some familiarity with where he was. He just hoped he didn’t end up walking around another confusing house. The destination was a motel or something. If it housed well, and was pretty cheap, it would do.
He wandered around for about half an hour, trying his best to look like a pony who knew where he was going, and eventually, after becoming accustomed with the town, he finally found a motel. It was a pretty nice thing, and it looked to be within his price range. Actually, it was within his price range, as evidenced by a window with the price in it, that he just noticed. He only hoped it wasn’t an old paper.
He walked inside the motel, which unsurprisingly had an interior the shape of a horseshoe, and looked to the rows of apartment things, all one story, and noticed how different it looked from the rest of the town. The only living quarters that looked like it was a part of Ponyville unsurprisingly stood apart from the rest, and there was even a little manager sign on the little glass window with the little slot on it that rested next to the housing quarters. Midnight walked over to that window, and looked around for indication of what he should do.
He saw a sign that said to ring a bell, an arrow pointing to a bell that was not easy to find at all without the arrow, and then he ringed said bell, which instead of ringing, let down a slip of paper which he read. ”Thank you for ringing the bell.” he read aloud. “Now, after reading this, put the paper back where it belongs, and ring the second bell that the arrow on this slip points to.” Midnight looked at the arrow, wondered what the hell was wrong with ponies, and rang the second bell.
“I’m coming!” a female voice called out. Hooves clopping on wood could be heard getting closer to Midnight, and eventually an earth pony mare with orange eyes, a light red mane and tail, blue fur, and a cutie mark that looked like vines forming an indescribable shape walked towards the glass, then pulled the glass to the side, and placed the upper half of her body through the newly formed opening. “Hello.” she said.
“Um… Hi.” Midnight said. “I’d like to rent a room if one is available.” her eyes shot figurative, and non violent or hate filled lasers at Midnight, and he knew that a room was in fact empty from that. It was indescribable in mere words, as even he didn’t know how he knew.
“I have a room.” she said, the lasers disappearing. At least this wasn’t as bad as Twilight’s rape face. she reached her hoof under the counter she was currently on, made a jingle sign, and pulled up a key, and placed it on the counter. “For one night, seven bits. For a week, forty nine bits. For a month, ninety bits.” she said. “It used to cost more, but I don't pay taxes.” she clearly joked. Midnight reached into the bag, pulled out exactly ninety bits, which surprised him some, and handed the bits to the mare. They swapped the currency for key, and she pointed him in the direction of his room. “It’s the one next to the entrance. The undecorated one with the number three on it.”
Midnight thanked her, walked over to the room, opened the door and thanked whatever god lives in this dimension for how comfortable this looked. The room was an appropriate color, tan, filled with some furniture that is a darker color. Midnight didn’t really know what was up with all the tan, but the room was so comfortable looking, that he couldn’t object. He hopped onto the huge bed, which split into two smaller beds once he jumped on the center of the two, and he now lie on the floor.
Midnight pulled himself up, regained his pride, and walked over to a mirror. Once there, he put pulled the saddle bag off his sides, set it on the little table-desk, and reached inside. After a moment of reaching around, his hoof tapped something, and he pulled on it with his little telekinetic grip thing. It was a bunch of bits, so he made to count them all. It would be nice to know how much he had to budget and such.
He counted ten bits.
He wasn’t sure what that could buy, but he knew it wasn’t enough. He would have to get the more money, and the fastest way right now would be to get the rest of the money from the other bag. Luckily, it was still somewhat sunny out, so a visit should not be interrupted. He was planning on going anyway. He slipped the bits back in his bags, pulled his magic book out, and started on his way.
Storm Scroll
Storm liked the throne room.
It was huge, clean, and laced with gold. A huge carpet took up all the place minus the stairs to the throne, and the isle leading to the throne was an ivory color. There were floating wraiths resembling DARKPHANTOM13’s avatar just floating in random places in the room, and invisible monsters lurking around wherever they wouldn’t raise suspicion. The caged version of Storm just looked around, thinking of what he could change.
“A little blood here.” a wall became bloodstained. “Some Alduin,” miniature versions of the horrific black dragon appeared throughout the room, probably around the whole castle. “Some knowledge,” a library appeared, and it blended into the wall it was attached to. Then blood came from it. “And some-”
“No.” Storm said as everything changed to normal. Well, the dragons and books stayed, but the blood was gone. “You have no power here.” As soon as he said that, he commanded the dragons to attack blank fakicorn creatures that appeared in the room. It was an epic battle. The fakicorns pulled out swords of various shapes, sizes, and materials. The dragons roasted some, but others figured out what to do, and dodged or killed their attackers before they could attack. One such fakicorn had already killed an Alduin on it’s own, and was currently taking on another.
Midnight summoned some tea, while Violence got served some… Red tea that he insisted was blood. It was really tea. He also tried to eat some meat, but threw it up. “We can't eat meat…”
“What?” Storm asked. He looked from the pile of puke on the floor to his tea, then a servant thing came over and cleaned it up. “At least I have tea.”
“Luna’s coming.” Violence said. Then he, the violence, and some random things disappeared, as the princess of the night materialized inside the throne room. She looked up towards Storm, who was sitting on the throne with a red and black crown on his head, then she cringed. “Hello.” he said.
“You look like a pony We haven’t thought about in some time.” she said. “We don’t really like to think of him.” she said, as Storm fought with every urge he had to not make Sombra appear along his mindscape. That was obviously who she was referring to. Or not, but how many stallions have thrones, crowns and this color scheme? That appeared on show, of course.
“Okay. You left me to like… A million nightmares just now. I kinda got them out of control, but there were blank demons being killed by alduin copies and such. And Chris Walker. So yeah, there was stuffs here.” he said monotonously, leaving out alter egos and penis statues.
“I am sorry.” she said, then joked a little bow. She joked, although she was seriously saddened by this. This was technically her domain, and she was more powerful here than she would let anypony know, and nightmares were her enemy.
“Dont worry about it. I handled it.” Storm said as he summoned a nice and big throne for Luna. “Take a seat so we can talk about stuff.” he said. She took a seat, and found that is was very comfortable. As she sat down, it changed from a big chair to a couch that looked made into a throne. It was red and black, like everything in the room, huge, and had her marks on it. “So, what do you want to talk about?” he asked. “I am in a coma, so I don’t really have anything new to talk about.”
Luna however had something of much interest to say, as evidenced by the twinkle in her eyes. “I actually have something.” she said. “I cannot help you with your healing over this distance, but I can still wake you up, as your wounds are healed enough for consciousness. Still, you will be unable to leave the hospital.” she said.
“Will I be able to walk and move around?” Storm asked. He didn’t care about flying and such at the moment. If he could walk, he would be fine. He didn’t exactly grow up with wings on his back after all, not like he would say that to Luna right now. He’s not an idiot.
“You can walk, but not much. You are to stay confined in bed until you heal completely, or I have enough time to come to you myself, although I doubt I will.” she said, as an image appeared on top of her head. A seal made of wax, shaped like a half sun, half crescent moon. “I have sent my sister’s scribe with this symbol and a letter saying you are to stay.” she was pretty stern about this. It was almost as if she knew he was going to leave at the moment he woke up, if he was feeling up to it. Was she able to…
“Just how long have you been looking around in my thoughts, Princess?” Storm asked. It didn’t have any emotion or venom in it. Just accusations in it. In truth, he should have seen this coming, but that still didn’t mean he wouldn't question it. It was his personal business after all.
“We didn’t read thine mind!” she countered. She might have just yelled ‘OBJECTION!’ right then and there, because that was what it felt like. “Well… Not on purpose, we meant.” she looked upwards, at the floating image still above her head, and waved it into nonexistence with her hoof. Storm raised an eyebrow. “Due to the time we hath spent here, we pick up signals of some thoughts and such.” she said. “Also, you are easy for us to read.” she mumbled.
“What was that last bit?”
“Tis nothing, ignore it.” she dismissed the argument. Unfortunately for her, she was in the mind of a guy who doesn't like being left out of loops. He was thinking about assaulting her ears with the words ‘Tell me!’, but something happened then and there. The world literally spoke .
“Sup, bro.”
Before he had the chance to scream, Luna silenced his mind with a look, and she continued what she had to say. She was probably wasting time here anyways. “You need to wake up. I only came here so I could tell you what awaits you upon waking. Luckily for you, your mind is healed enough. Just wait for your body, my little pony.”
“You keep switching between old and new… This language.” before Luna could say anything, both he and she were gone, and he woke up. Upon waking, he was greeted by a face. “Trondason!”
Midnight Scroll!
Midnight had made it to the hospital, got his slip with no commotion, and headed up to where Storm was. Well, his name was Jay, but Storm is what he would call himself now. In truth, Midnight was not aware that he would wake up, so he sat next to his bed (which he was moved into, he now has a cleaner room), and read the book about magic.
About a minute and a half into the book, he has only seen trivial history, and much of it didn’t make sense. It wasn’t as though it was giving different information than he would have expected, but this was a magic book, not a history text. Most of the spells had no significance to the history mentioned. Why was there a story on Windigos, but a spell on creating a disorientating flash of light? That spell has no mention in the history story. Actually, skimming through at only spells, he figured that all of the spells were just all common things. Handy, but common.
“Trondason!” the weak voice of Storm almost yelled. This caused Midnight to jump in his seat, clearly surprised, and the book flew through the air. He caught it with his magic, so no harm done to it. Midnight found it odd that Storm would persistently call him that. “You won't believe what happened to me.”
“Surprised to see you awake already. I wasn’t expecting you to wake up for another couple days at least.” he said, still a bit shocked, but not much. “You got mangled by a Manticore, I was sorta there for that.” Midnight quipped.
“No. Well yeah.” he visibly shuddered slightly. Only slightly. Then he twitched a bit. “But after that, in dream world, I met Luna and she sort of healed me and woke me up.” Storm said, then he looked at the book that was no longer suspended in the air. “That the magic book?”
“It’s A magic book. Got it from Twilight’s while you were out. But that’s less important. Please tell me you didn’t saw anything stupid to the princess. Don’t want you going to a asylum or anything.”
“Naw.” he rubbed his mane with his hoof, almost as if to check if it were really there. “I wouldn’t do that.” he paused. “Yet.” he muttered. Midnight didn’t hear that, and he cursed his unicorn ears.
“Your first reaction to me was accusing me of summoning you from another world. AFTER threatening me with a rock.” He stated flately. “Anyways, while you have been out, I have been busy building our cover story, since no-one would believe our real one. My name is Midnight Scroll, and your Storm Scroll. We’re brothers.”
“I miraculously came up with the name ‘Storm Scroll’ myself. I also started calling myself that mentally, and I have nearly successfully convinced myself that my previous life never happened. I didn’t completely forget, but the information is deep in there.” he said, then quickly added, “What is our story, though.”
“I purposefully left if vague, in case future incident requires us to change something. We were born in Manehatten, but have been traveling around for a fair bit.”
“Is that all, or do you have some Ideas to pitch?” Storm asked. In truth, Midnight has entertained some ideas for various pasts, from abusive parents, to just dead ones, and several other pasts. But like he said, he decided not to chose any particular past in favor of leaving it vague, so he has options in case he accidentally slipped some detail he shouldn’t have. “Like I said, I left things vague. I have several ideas for different back-stories, but we shouldn’t really pick one incase we accidently slip some info we shouldn’t, that doesn’t fit with our fabricated back-story.”
“Alright. So back story and why we left.” he muttered to himself, although it was audible. “Would me not knowing how to fly be a part of this?” he asked. “Because I’m not sure if that’s a thing.”
“It could be, but I would rather if we keep that little piece of information to ourselves if possible. Pegasi more likely than not love flying as a rule, and one who somehow grew up without ever learning would hint at some tragedy in their past preventing them from learning. While it might be handy for momentary getting them off our backs, we would get a lot of sympathy and worry from them, them wanting to find out more about what happened, and would just be generally an inconvenience.”
“We should still have something. Ponies not giving out that sort of information might be passed on for some time, but there are bound to be some that become too much of a burden.” he thought about that for a moment, and Midnight noticed the book was turned to a spell, but kept his attention on Storm. “So yeah, lets just have something, should the situation arise or some shit.”
“I never said that we wouldn’t give out info when asked, I said we would keep it vague. Answer the question, without really answering the question. We have the basis as is, we are from Manehatten, and we traveled a lot. As is, we can excuse us having information about places we have seen in the show, while also not having intimate knowledge of anywhere in particular. Yeah, we were born in Manehatten, but we left when we were young, exact age not stated, meaning we could have very well forgotten most of the stuff we might have ever learned there. We have this basis, and build as necessary. If for some reason the information that you can’t fly gets out, we will come up with why then. For example, non-pegasus parents meaning they could never teach you, and various other circumstances have kept you from learning from other individuals. But, it would be better if it didn’t come to that, for then we have extra information we will have to stick to in all future interactions.”
“Okay.” Storm said. “So what happened with you? You mentioned Twilight earlier.” he tilted his head to the side. Midnight didn’t really know why.
“Well, after I woke up and checked out of the hospital, I made my way over to Twilight’s Library for a magic book. Some creepy interactions there, then with book in my possession, I headed over to Sweet Apple Acres to thank Applejack for saving our lives. I spent some time there, drinking non-alcoholic cider, and talking, her being curious about our past. That’s when I made up most of the stuff I told you earlier. Anyways, with that done, I got us a motel room to stay in. Or mostly me I guess, you're staying here till you're better, then after that, I don’t know what we will do.”
“Excellent…” Storm said, still doing whatever he was doing with his head. “Did you get thrown a welcome party?” he asked. That was an interesting question, as Pinkie Pie was the one all over new ponies and the welcome parties and such.
“Believe it or not, I haven’t seen hide or tail of that pink mare today. Rather surprising in fact, but I guess she is just one mare, and can’t be everywhere.”
“Or she felt you when you came in town, but we were unconscious, and she still thinks we are.” that actually made some sense.
“That’s a possibility, I guess. Do you want something to eat or anything? I could see if I can get you some food, if you're allowed food that is.”
“No thank you, you should head home. It is getting dark out.” Midnight looked outside, and saw the moon rising up from the horizon. It was instantly night. “I stand corrected, it is night.”
“Huh, it’s harder to judge time of day by the sun here. With how it’s setting and rising are rather quick compared to the rest of it’s cycle. But yeah, I should go to my room and hit the hay.” he chuckled. Horse puns. “You get healthy now, I will come see you again tomorrow at some time.” he said, then he moved to leave. “See ya.” he said.
“Adieu Amigo.” Storm said his farewell as Midnight left and went home. As he left, aside from his ‘bro’, the only thoughts on his mind was ‘Mixing french and spanish.” Shaking his head, a smirk on his face, he left the hospital, and went to the motel.
Midnight Scroll
Midnight woke up in the large bed and checked the sheets to kook sure no fur has come off. Seeing none, he got out of the bed and prepared to shower. Upon seeing the bathroom, he guessed how most of this will work. Well, besides how the shower would even get heated. It would probably be cold unless the motel could afford a magic heating spell or something. They could have water heaters, through the use of gas and electricity.
He was about to get into the shower, but he paused. ‘Now how do I go about this? Magic. ’ He then turned on the shower, waited a moment, and when it surprisingly got heated, he stepped in and did his business.
-Line break because describing this for him will be awkward!-
Some time later, Midnight got out the shower, adequately dried himself off, and got his magic book from yesterday out, and started reading where he left off. He started on the next spell, called the illumination spell. It was just a beam of light that could be concentrated into a sphere of light that floats above your horn. After that, you would disconnect the light from your magic after filling it up with enough magic to last a while. It seemed pretty complicated, but he tried nonetheless.
“Step one: Make a spark of magic.” he read. “If you can make a spark of magic, this spell would go smoothly for you. Just ignite just the tip of your horn, and don’t keep it lit. Make each ignition be a split second.” Midnight tried to make just his tip ignite, and it was much easier than making his whole horn light up. Next, he concentrated and stopped for split seconds, and his horn did the same. Sometimes his horn would flicker, sometimes it would stay lit. Eventually, sparks snapped into existence. Once he had it, he recreated the feeling until sparks just kept popping up. Once that happened, he looked back towards the page.
“Step two: Light.” he read. “After getting the spark, you now have to use the same feelings you used to create the sparks, but with your entire horn. Remember to slowly ignite your horn to the base, or you will have more light than what you know what to do with.” Midnight did this, but stopped the flickering of his horn. Sparks continuously shot out, and it got brighter and larger the more of his horn he ignited. About halfway there, and he almost got it. Just a little more, and he-
“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie pie said having appeared next to Midnight, startling him so much that his entire horn instantly ignited, and the resulting flash literally left him with more light than he knew what to do with. Luckily and somehow, the light flew out of the open door, never to be seen again. Because it fizzled out somewhere above the town. Midnight was dizzy and disorientated, and Pinkie rolled across the floor and presumably hit her head. “Owie…” she muttered. “My names Pinkie and I have never seen you~...” she rubbed her head, got up, and took a deep breath. Midnight regained his senses, and glared at her. “Around the town before, I thought you were in the hospital but I found out that you weren't there, so I went all over town asking everypony if they knew you, and not many ponies saw you so I thought to myself ‘Hey, I haven’t seen Applejack around lately’ so I went to her farm and Big Mac-boy is he a hottie- was talking to Granny Smith about ‘the guy looking for his sis’ and they were laughing about something but I didn’t care about that until I heard him say he never seen him around town before and then I gasped really loudly and asked him what he meant and he said ‘there was a stallion here yesterday’ but he doesn't say more than a sentence a day so I asked his sister who confirmed it-shes more social than him- so I eventually went to the only three motels around and I found you through it.” Pinkie took the largest breath Midnight had ever seen or heard in his entire life. If she had lungs, they must be strong. “And I have to totally bring you to a party pronto like.” She grabbed Midnight by the hoof and they both appeared in the middle of the Apple Fields.
Midnight ignored the seemingly teleportation they just went through, and slapped off Pinkie’s hoof. “No. I don’t like parties. I don’t know you. You just abducted me AFTER you barged into my apartment and caused me to almost blind myself. So far, I’m don’t like you.”
“Aw, come on?” Pinkie said. “Please? The party isnt even that far away.” her eyes grew impossibly large and they moved slightly and sparkled. “Pweeze?”
“Maybe if you INVITED me instead of dragging me here. Now, I am going back to my room, and you are free to KNOCK on my door and INVITE me to this party if you want. THEN we will see.”
-A short time later-
Midnight was back in his apartment, and ready to perform step three. “Step three: Gather the light in your telekinesis, fill it with magic slowly, and make sure not to overfill it with magic.” Midnight did just that. He made the ball of sparks appear, grabbed it in his telekinesis, and condensed the magic slowly and steadily into the sphere. After a solid two minutes, he had a light. Then he threw it into the trash, placed something on top, and moved the trashcan to the center of the room. Because it was a tiny metal can with a multitude of holes in the side, the light shone through in straight beams that looked neat. “Nice.”
Knock Knock
“Ah.” Midnight said as he went to the door and opened it. After opening the door, he was met with Derpy/Ditzy. “Hello miss?”
“Ditzy.” the wall eyed blond pegasus mare said. “I have your mail from Pinkie Pie.” she handed him a letter. “Nice trashcan.” she said. “Can I come in?” she asked.
“Sure?” Midnight said/asked. Ditzy floated inside the room, and took a seat on the floor.
“I want to warn you.” she floated towards the ceiling, clung to it, and looked at him, while upside down. “Pinkie could get… very strange when ponies say they don't like her. You might have a hard time dealing with-” Ditzy began to slip from on the ceiling, so she flapped her wings once, and she clung back to the ceiling. Then she trotted across the ceiling. “-her if something like that happens. Believe me, I know. She tries to be nice, but she can't really see if shes going too far.”
“I will warn her when she starts pushing me. If she does go too far, I have no reason to stay here any longer than strictly necessary. While I would like to be her friend, there is some things I will not put up with.” Midnight said, and Ditzy shrugged slightly. She almost left herself until she got an understanding of Pinkie, so she knows where this was coming from.
“Alright. Just give her a chance, okay?” Ditzy asked.
“Will do, as I said, I would like to be her friend.” Midnight said. Ditzy nodded, flopped from the ceiling, flipped, and landed on her hooves. ‘She’s pretty coordinated. ’ he thought as she walked out the apartment. Midnight was left with the invitation. “Lets see what this is.” he read the note.
Storm Scroll
Storm sat in the bed, reading a book on magic and magical theories. A lot of them seemed flawed, and most of them were downright ridiculous. Seriously, Discord wasn’t always around, so he isn’t the source of magic. Some of these seemed doable though. There was something specific he was looking for, and it just wasn’t here. He wouldn’t want the twins to go all the way to the library to get him another book, so he kept reading what he had.
Storm closed his eyes and focused on getting a mental picture of something, but nothing happened. “Well that doesn't work anymore.” he sighed. He was about to continue reading, but then Doctor Redheart walked into the room. “Sup, doctor.” he greeted.
“Good morning, Storm.” she picked up a clip board. “You have a visitor right now. I know it’s pretty early. You can turn them away if you want to.” she said.
“Is it Pinkie Pie or a Princess?” he asked.
“Neither, it is a little dragon. The one who gave the note from the princess saying you are to stay here.” she said, and walked through the doors. “I’ll be back shortly.” she said. After a solid two minutes, Spike walked into the room holding a note. “Hey.” he said.
“You alright?” Storm asked, hearing the slight irritation in his voice. “If you didn’t want to come, you didn’t have to.” he stated in a matter-of-factly voice.
“No, it’s not that.” he said.
“Your boss running you to the ground?”
“No.”
“You got launched through the air and landed flat on your face, and passerbyes just laughed at it?”
“No.” Spike said. “Why would you think that?”
“Oh, no reason.” Storm said, thinking of the fourth seasoning sauce. He then shifted his back so he wasn’t laying directly on his wings. That hurt. “Girl troubles?”
“...” Spike fidgeted in place. ‘Bingo, it’s about Rarity. ’ he thought to himself. He also knew that Spike knew he didn’t know Rarity at all/ Or any of the other elements of harmony for that reason. Storm only feels safe saying what has already been said because Spike came in here a little bit of time after Midnight left. Now he had to plan his next words decisively.
“So, who's the lucky filly or dragoness, huh?” Storm said, slowly. Spike raised an eyebrow at the slowness of his speech, but luckily Storm subconsciously made pained breaths. He was still hurt slightly. “Sorry, but your answer?”
“I’m not sure…” he twisted his leg. Storm sighed lowly.
“Do you want me to guess?” he asked. In truth, he would just say Rarity in an off the bat sort of way, ask a few questions, and maybe say something about a cake filled with diamonds. Cakes and diamonds taste like a crunchy treat, after all. Spike gave him a challenging look, as if to say ‘You’ll never guess. ’ Storm accepted, his skills at knowing stuff far exceeding what the dragon would expect from him. “A mare, probably youthful. Kind hearted and possibly… Artistic. Reminds you of home in a way, but at the same time, doesn’t. A mare that was close to you, perhaps?” he scratched his chin. “No, she’s close to a person that is close to you. Am I correct?”
“How in the name of the moon and the stars could you have possibly known that?” Spike nearly fell over.
“Because I’m amazing.” Storm shrugged. “So, if you don't want to tell me exactly who you are after, I wont ask.” he rolled to the side, his wings getting under him again. A bird tapped the window, chirped, and flew away.
“I dont really… I’m kinda afraid to.” Spike pulled out a note.
“Okay, I’ll find out on my own after I heal correctly. I’m sure somebody knows.” Storm mentally cursed himself for letting that phrase slip. Ponies are the majority in these lands, and even Spike says is. He’s not even a pony! Storm hoped he didn’t catch that slip up.
“You said ‘everybody’.” Spike said with a confused expression. “Are you from a multispecies town?” he asked.
“Manehattan.” Storm said. In truth, he didn’t know is Manehattan was pony only like other towns, but he hoped that was the case. Hey, he could just be getting a huge lucky break with that. If he does, he could get away with things he doesn't want to lose.
“Oh, I know a griffin that lives there. He moved from Canterlot.” Spike said. “Do you know a griffin named Zephyr?” he asked. The answer to the question was obviously no, but Storm wanted to try his guessing luck.
“Is he a griffin?” He asked.
“Obviously.”
“Brown feathers mostly?”
“Yeah.”
“Golden crown feathers?”
“No.”
“Then no, never heard of him.”
Spike placed the poorly concealed letter on the table. “Anyways, here is the letter from Princess Luna.” he looked at the seal, a black wax stamp with a white crescent moon. “She said it was a Telepathic Connection spell, and before you ask how she knew, she can read minds. Her words, not mine.” Spike said. “It was pre cast, so you just have to say the words.”
“Is it in a weird foreign language?”
“No.” Spike said. “It’s just really easy to forget.” he burped up a letter, and Storm clapped his hooves. After reading it, Spike glanced out the window. “I gotta go. Stuff to do.” he left to Storm waving him off, then Storm looked at the desk that was just out of his reach. ‘Crap. ’ he thought. After literally twiddling his hooves, he had the genius idea to slam the book slightly and hope the gust of wind blows the paper in his direction.
Puff
The letter somehow did exactly what he thought it was going to do. “I wasn’t even going to use the spell yet, but whatever.” the grey pegasus opened his book.
Princess Celestia and Luna
Princess Celestia, the tall, regal looking (and sexy) alicorn with the tri colored mane that flowed in a constant, ethereal breeze sat upon a solid gold throne. It was new, since her other, more comfortable throne mysteriously disappeared. The new one was uncomfortable, as it lacked the support and cushions that most chairs had. Even though gold is a soft metal, that didn't mean it was soft. Also, she couldn't just melt her way through the chair, as, despite rumors of the contrary, she isn’t immune to flames and heat, and sitting in molten metal would ruin her plot.
Celestia ignited her very large horn in a golden light, and a cup of hot tea appeared in front of her. The item teleportation spell was a handy thing. You never really had to bother others with getting your things if you did. Taking a sip from the very bitter tea (she botched the spell), she felt tremors in the force. “Luna? Is that you?” she asked.
Princess Luna, the shorter blue alicorn, walked in. “Tis me, sister.” she coughed into her hoof. “Apologies, we seem to have caught a bug.” she coughed some more.
“Insects or a sickness, sister?” the elder alicorn chuckled, as she remembered a moment from Luna’s youth, when she was so excited about flying and she yelled about it. She caught a large, and gross insect in her mouth. Celestia chuckles about it every so often, and she even started that phrase to mess with her little sister. Her sister flew up to the golden throne. Celestia keeps forgetting to buy another throne for Luna, should she decide to wake up during the day. Then again, they aren't usually in the throne room at the same time.
“Sickness.” Luna said. “And I do not appreciate you spreading that around, as we know the phrase ‘caught a bug’ came from you.” she huffed. “Honestly, you think us a fool.” she muttered
Celestia laughed, this time louder. “No, I dont! I just hoped you wouldn’t catch that till later!”
“Treachery!” Luna cried, and a few guard rushed into the room. “Your services are not required, I merely jested.” the guards awkwardly shuffled out of the room.
Celestia got off the throne and began to dramatically walk towards one of the glass windows. The window showing the recent defeat of Discord, the twice defeated mad king, getting his hide handed to him by six mares and their magic rainbow. Luna looked to the glass window and smiled a bit. “What exactly freed him again, sister?”
“It was the fact that since we are no longer connected to the Elements, the spell has been broken.” Celestia ruffled her wings and a large blast of air flew through the room. Luna’s tiara fell from her head and her mane blew back some.The same with Celestia, but hers was wilder. She laughed. “That was me, I forgot about how strong my wings are sometimes.”
Luna blew some stray galaxies from her muzzle. “Liar.”
Celestia put a hoof to her chest and gasped like she was scandalized. “Who? Me?” she asked. “I thought you trusted me, Lulu.” she tilted her head and smiled.
“Dont call me Lulu…” Luna muttered, reaching telekinetically to where her tiara was and pulled it back onto her head, after dusting it. She didn't need to, as the room was almost never dirty.
Celestia took Luna’s crown and lifted it into the air. “It doesn’t matter how old you get, you’ll always be my Lulu.” she said sweetly, and moved her head closer as Luna tried to take her tiara back. “Or would you like to be called Woona? ” Luna blushed and kept her mouth shut. She knew that Celestia would skip around the castle singing her old cutie name that foals called her during the early days of their reign. Luna would never hear the end of it. Even if she ordered it so.
“S-stop that!” she cried out, Celestia wasn’t done with her, and she grabbed the smaller Alicorn with her hooves and tackled her to the ground. The tiara clattered to the ground, and Celestia assaulted Luna with a strong hug. Luna knew how to escape, and began to wiggle out, having seemingly forgotten to use her horn. “Let us go!” she could feel the guards ready to burst into the doors, and she knew that she would be seen by them. The thoughts made her push upon her sister even harder.
“Nope.” Celestia began to tickle, yes tickle Luna on the spot. Luna’s body thrashed about like she was having a mini seizure, and she couldn’t let down the torrent of giggles that escaped her mouth. Celestia laughed and moved to the sweet spots. Luna couldn’t fight back at that point, and her restraint on the laughs coming from her mouth. Eventually, Luna wiggled out Celestia took a moment to realize. “Aw, you’re no fun.” Celestia pouted that time.
Luna took a few deep gasps, trying to regain her breath. “Why*gasp*did thou do that?”
“I refuse to answer.” Celestia turned her head to the side, closing her eyes.
“You…” Luna grumbled.
“Aside from that,” Celestia began, getting up from her sitting position. “I noticed you are talking in a more… Modern dialect.” she summoned some water, and drank it. It wasn’t bitter this time.
“Oh?” Luna asked.
“You weren't taking any care to try and modernize your speech before this week, actually.” Celestit took another sip.
“I do things while you sleep, sister.” Luna said.
“I know that, but between your wrestling animals and the night court, you don’t do anything else but dream walk.” Celestia took another sip. “And you tend to avoid others, aside from the night court and guards.”
“I have other things, sister.” Luna said.
“No.” Celestia took another sip. “No, you don’t.”
“And how do you know that, sister?”
“Because when the speech of a creature that only sleeps reaches an accent of another time in a week, the creature was mind bleeding.” she took yet another sip. “And you know how dangerous that is. You know what happened last time.” she said, solemnly.
“How would you even know that?” Luna asked.
“Because I’m your sister.” Celestia drank all the water. “I know things.”
“I was not bleeding, sister.” Luna defended herself. “And you don’t have to look after me like a foal. I learn from my mistakes.” she began to walk away. “And the cake for the charity ball is nearly finished.”
“This isn’t the first time you said that.” Celestia muttered, and teleported to her office.
Midnight Scroll
The former human made it to the party, just around the time he supposed it was supposed to start. He wasn't throwing around preconceived conclusions, but he was pretty sure Pinkie could predict where and when somebody was going to appear someplace. That, or she is really good at guessing. Even if there was no address, she still had a chance of guessing where he would first appear and probably plan a party there.
He walked through the doors of Sugarcube Corner, and was greeted with the unexpected sight of a small party. Really? He didn’t think she was capable of inviting less than half the town. For parties including more than just her personal friends that is.
He saw a few familiar faces among the mix, including Ditzy and Time Turner. Generally, the ponies that he had seen earlier with a few others were around. It wasn't huge, like said earlier. Midnight estimated about... Maybe forty-ish ponies here. Give or take. "Hello!" the echoed, yet familiar high pitched voice of Pinkie Pie called from right in front of him.
"Greetings." Midnight said.
"Everypony, this is Midnight, the new pony in town!" she called out to the group, latching a hoof around his neck in a slightly supportive and... Friendly way. "Now I want you lot to give this fellow the old fashioned Ponyville welcome!" she disappeared in a poof of confetti.
Midnight coughed twice, not because there was a miniature explosion next to him, but out of reflex. A realistically new reflex. A few ponies trotted over to him and and introduced themselves. Bulk Biceps, Time Turner, Bon-Bon, Cloudchaser, a pony named Cliffhanger, and a few others met his acquaintance.
The party was nice and all, but Midnight was the kind of guy who would go back into a corner and read. This time, he found a few games that he was familiar with. Well, somewhat familiar. There was the game of life, eels and escalators, scramble, and a few brand name games that had been altered with pony puns. It was kind of cute, actually.
Midnight had no clue what to do now. He is hardly a social person, and has never been to a party before, largely because of a lack of interest.
A pony, the manager from earlier, noticed him awkwardly to the left, and walked over. She weaved through the small crowd of mingling ponies, and made it to his side. "You don't seem to be enjoying yourself. Come on, mingle with some ponies."
"I’m not too good at mingling. Or small talk and the like.” he said.
"I can help you, if you like to." she offered. "Oh, and we can get some food?"
"I like food.” the two walked over to one of the several tables within the building, that were cleared out for food and a multitude of delicious treats. The table they went to had a large salad looking thing, topped with tons of fruits and... Just fruits actually.
The two got bowls and walked over to a mingling group, the mare because she wanted to, and Midnight because he was following. Once there, he heard an interesting conversation about Pinkie Pie.
"Oh, I never got your name. Mine is Apple Crest." Apple Crest offered out her hoof in that weird hand shaking thing. Midnight accepted.
"Midnight Scroll." he said. "I’m guessing you’re part of the Apple family?”
"Yes, lived and raised on a farm." she took a note of her salad. "That wasn't the life I wanted, so I left."
"And now you own a motel?" he more stated than asked. "Not bad, actually. Especially considering how nice it is." In truth, he wasn't really expecting much more than a small room with an uncomfortable bed and no or cold running water. It actually looked... More like what've was used to rather than his mental image on it. Somewhat surprising.
"Yep. Get more than enough bits to get by. Plenty, actually. I wonder how long it would take to make it a chain..." she put a hoof on her chin and looked up, in thought.
"Depends on the cost." Midnight said. "And whether or not you can find reliable people to help run things when you aren’t there personally. For I would imagine it would be rather hard to keep stuff running in Canterlot while you are personally in Ponyville.”
"Maybe. I mean, I would have to hire a new boss for the new place, make sure he isn't going to swindle the customers, and make sure he doesn't trash the place. That's pretty much it." she said.
"One way to help ensure that is to tie his income to the amount of profit the place makes. Say it makes one thousand bits in a period of time, he gets a hundred of that. If he does good, and rake in more bits, he himself also gets to take home more bits, where as he does a crummy job, his paycheck automatically takes a hit. Then all you have to do is drop in every once in a while, and make sure the bookkeeping is in order, and he isn’t fibing about the amount of money coming in, but otherwise you’re good.”
"If it gets large enough, the chain I mean, I wouldn't be able to get to every place. Maybe I can hire a guy?"
"If it got that large, it would only make sense to hire an accountant to keep track of all that money, and making sure everyone is honest. That’s sorta what Accountants are for, after all.”
"True." Apple Crest nodded, and the two began to eat their respective plates of food. Across the way, he saw Thunderlane and Rumble laughing and joking across the way while a nearby Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to strangle Thunderlane. When she put him in a headlock, Rumble and Rainbow laughed.
The rest of the party was pretty much uneventful. A few ponies came over and introduced themselves, made small talk, and such, but that was mostly it. Pinkie tried to give him a hot sauce cupcake a few times, but she gave up when she found that he really, really wasn't interested. A few greetings here and there, the only pony that stood by him almost the entire time, was Apple Crest.
The two spoke of things, and Midnight gave a few stories from his human life, obviously subtlety changed into a version more fitting to the current circumstances, and they somehow gave her the reaction he had hoped for. He refused to go into his personal life, for obvious reasons.
By then, the party was over, and it was just the two sitting there, only everyone else left or were doing other things. Their talking continued for a while, then he realized that he was going to inquire on the status of his 'brother'.
"Well, this has been fun, but there was something I needed to do." he said, getting up.
"Oh?" she asked. "That's fine, I actually have to go to the market." she got up as well. "See you around." the two nodded silently and left.
Storm Scroll
Storm was walking around the hospital, finally cleared for exercise, the first step of recovery. He wasn't sure if of how well Luna cast her spell, but it was working. Sure, he felt as if his ribs were being punched, but it was safe for walking. Apparently, a large ass crack just disappeared, although it was probably the chemicals in his blood. The ones that pretty much melt your bones on the inside and mend them.
He ignored the pain, as he felt more before and braved it in the same way. Besides, unless he jumped out a window, his condition wouldn't get worse. He may even get out by tomorrow, or stay until he has full range of movement. He would just need to get some disinfectants and bandages. Or a week, if the internal bleeding doesn't clot up. Maybe he should just get back to his room...
It wasn't that far, so instead of listening to his wimpy ass thoughts, he went around one more time, because exercise.
After he made it back to his room soon and settled in by trying to sit in a chair, then finding it very painful, he got onto the bed and laid down. Not a minute later, Midnight walked in. Because punctuality.
"Suo." he said, trying to sound like his ribs didn't hurt. It worked.
"Hey, how have you been?”
"Meh." he shrugged. "I have been better. Want me to guess what you did today?"
"Sure.”
"Pinkie party." he said. That was probably what spike was talking about earlier. No reason for get to not have noticed him walking around by now.
"A surprisingly small one.” Midnight said, surprising Storm. A small party? Since when?
"Like what, the elements? How would she possibly know that you don’t like parties?"
"Not quite that small. Three to four dozen, at most. But I do recall seeing Rainbow there.” Midnight said.
"Did she break into your house? Also, I felt something weird. Did she break the fourth wall?"
"There is no fourth wall to break, we aren’t in a story after all. She did break into the apartment, but I asked her to not do that again, almost caused me to blind us both.”
Storm gasped slightly, and narrowed his eyes in confusion. "What?" he asked. "Why in gods name?"
"I was practicing some magic, specifically a light spell, when she appeared behind me and yelled ‘Hello’. Shocked me, and caused me to pump WAY too much magic into the spell.”
"Jesu Cristo." he muttered. "Damn. Hope I don't do crazy shit when she realizes that I am in town."
"Well, unless you are currently handling a cloud or something, I can’t imagine you doing anything too bad in your shock. Except maybe hit her, if you’re that kind of person that lashes out when surprised.”
"That was one time!" he yelled for dramatic effect. It wasn't that loud and he was pretty sure nobody else heard it. In fact, he knew, as the sounds didn't reach to the sounds of hooves or the barely audible breathing. Well, maybe it did. Distance and sounds coming from himself are hard to track. Even still, he winced in pain, contracting his lungs much further than what he wanted.
"You alright?” Midnight asked, a concerned tone in his voice.
"Yep." Storm said. "I inhaled too sharply after yelling."
"Be careful then. Don’t want to aggravate the injuries you already got. Anyways, anything interesting happen since yesterday?”
"A dragon snuck in here." Storm said, then looked over at where he left the book.
"Purple with green spines? What was he doing here?”
"He gave me a letter from Luna. We were just talking after. And yes, the whelp you speak of was Spike." Storm said, getting the book and turning to one of the bookmarked pages. Something cool he wanted to show Midnight.
"What did Luna send you?" Midnight asked, finally taking a seat, as he was standing this whole time.
"A spell I asked for. We are in pony world, and this the most dangerous of all the worlds. The spell allows for telekinetic communication." he pulled out the letter and read it. "Dear Storm, here is the spell you asked for. Luna. After that is the spell."
"First, this is hardly the most dangerous of worlds, off the top of my head, that honor would belong to Warhammer. Second, how did you get Luna to get you that spell? Seems like it would be rather complicated.”
"I actually reminded her that she was looking for it, and she gave me a copy when she found it."
"I hope it’s a prepared spell, otherwise it won’t do us much good for a good while.”
"We both read a half of the spell, and vuala." he clopped a hoof on his other hoof.
"What are the parameters of the spell? Like, does it only transmit our thoughts when we want it to? How long does it last? Is there a maximum distance?”
"Hold up, I'll explain." he said. "Alright, so the spell kinda has a set distance. We only have a mile or so, depending on how long we use it. Say we use it for a month or so. We have more range. The limit we can use it is a few miles before it stops stretching. Also, Luna said the spell is thought activated. This might mean we just think of who we want to talk to, and the receiving person gets a specific feeling. Not sure what, but I guess that is to keep the connection closed probably."
"Hmm, I will want to study that spell later on, see how it works. Anyways, it would make sense if it only worked between the two of us, or at least only with people who also have this spell on them. Sorta like Transceivers, we can send the signal all we want, but if the other person doesn’t have something to pick up with, we are just wasting our time.”
"Hell, using the spell could give us slight telekinesis. Or was that a different spell?" he tapped his chin. "Meh, we’ll cross that later."
"So, what are we waiting for? It seems like a rather handy spell to have.” Storm handed the paper over, and Midnight grabbed it with his hoof.
"Just read up to the line, and hand it to me."
"I do what I want.”
"Do you want to use the spell, or don't you?" Storm asked, smirking lightly at his friend. 'Ha.' he thought.
"Duh. I SAID I do what I want.” Not hearing a reply, he began to read the spell. "Let those with closed minds open them, and have those apart be joined as one. " he blinked.
"As one you stand, fight, and learn! As one, you rule, you live, you survive! Join together, and survive as an equal!" A flash went through the room. "Okay, that's it."
"That was a rather interesting activation phrase. I’d have gone for something simpler, but it was neat all the same.”
"It was written in a different time. Like thousands of years ago, yet compared to human civilization, still thousands but to a lesser extent." Storm yawned, yet covered his mouth. "You have a mare name."
"Meh, I like it.”
"Well, its unisex, anyway. So its cool. Kewl. Heh, Cartmen."
"Lets see if we can get this spell to work.” ‘Testing testing, one two.’ Midnight thought, concentrating on Storm. He didn't feel anything different, but hey.
'X wing standing by.' Came Storms reply. Star Wars. Best references ever. 'And cupcakes are yummy.' Came a similar sounding voice. Midnight didn't know how he knew, but he felt like the connection was stopped with those words.
"Alright. Well, I'm going to do shit around here. And by shit, I mean nothing. Because Luna wont let me leave."
"If I had any authority, I would do the same. It’s not good to leave before the doctors clear you, even if you think you’re good. Tons of nasty shit can be going on that you can’t even feel till they become a actual problem.” Captain Logic logiced.
"Meh."
"Well… What do you want to do now? Still got a few hours before it gets late.”
"Not sure. Never was good about deciding small things." He paused for a while. "I have a few interesting pages in this magical theories book that we could look at. May even help. With whatever."
"That sounds interesting. I got a book of easy spells from Twi, and have been studying those in my free time.”
"Excellent." Storm reached over and pulled out the book. "Alright, let me just find the page. You can move the chair closer, if you want." As he said that, Midnight decided to move his chair closer. As Storm found the pages, they began to discuss what seemed to work and what didn't seem to. For the remainder of the evening, it was just the two of them, making lists and such. Doctor Redheart stopped by at some point, about to tell Midnight that visiting hours were up. After seeing the two, she decided against it. Somewhere in the night, they both fell asleep.