Twisted Paths

Historical Record # 557 (The Lunar Uprising)

Time period: Circa 560 years Prior to Equestria's establishment.

“It is my hope that this truly tragic event will not instill fear, but instead that it might be a glimmer of hope for the times to come. This great nation will live on in time, enduring any and every obstacle that may surface. This day is a symbol of our power as a species. Let it be known that the unicorns bow to no one! No matter what we will prevail. No matter how drastic the measures, or how high the sacrifices.”

Queen Celestia’s Address to the unicorn kingdom directly after “Princess Luna’s” public execution.

The lunar Uprising was started by Princess Luna when she tried to denounce her sister’s rightful hold on the throne. Over the previous years Luna became increasingly concerned that Celestia was experimenting heavily with mind-control spells. Her suspicions grew until she finally decided her sister had crossed the line. Joining forces with a parasitic creature called [Data Expunged] who shared her cause, Luna was able to increase her power exponentially. Accusing Celestia publicly as a traitor, Luna led a fully-fledged army against her sister in attempt to overthrow her.

Her effort was eventually crushed and her folly ended with her execution. The creature known as [Data Expunged] was sealed in a magical container for good. Therefore bringing an end to the Lunar Uprising. This was a dark time for all three pony races. The war of the Lunar uprising brought much devastation to both sides. Many historical landmarks in the unicorn kingdom as well as major factories and weapon facilities had been destroyed. The rebuilding period was so arborous and expensive a process that it eventually bloomed into what is known today as the first Industrial revolution in Equestrian history. This would eventually lead to the most critical technological advancements of the era. Many new inventions came about because of it including projectile weapons and “Magic tools”. The latter being a hybrid between modern Technology and magically charged objects. In the past, simple inventions could be made to work using a magic binding spell on a certain object. For example a propeller that was powered and controlled completely by a magically charged component of the device. With this new concept, considerably more advanced pieces of technology could be powered by this process, such as cannons or energy tools. Several computers even operate with this basic principle in the Castle’s archives. This would be the only good to come of this historical event, however.

Soon after Luna’s death new, dark, and mysterious creatures began to attack unicorn caravans in the forests that outlined the border of Celestia’s territory. At first they were classified as a new kind of Death Note. The creature’s dark, liquid appearance gave it a strong resemblance to the Death Note’s non-corporeal form. However, after close examining of the creature’s behavioral tendencies and abilities, the entity was de-classified as a Death Note and re-classified as a completely new being. They were named Horror Sprouts. Differences included a corporeal and near-solid form, ability to disguise itself as any given plant living or dead, inability to drain souls, ability to physically attack a living creature, willingness to attack only unicorns, or those in service to unicorns, and finally a tendency to only exist at night (strictly after sundown and before sunrise).

How these creatures know who is in league with the unicorn kingdom is still largely a mystery, but no speculations have been made, or allowed, on the subject. As far as has been tested, the creatures can still be destroyed by conventional means. I.E. fire, weapons of any kind, or environmental hazards. They are, however, still extremely dangerous, and can easily overpower a single individual, or group, if not properly equipped.

The final significant event in this era was the Queen’s orders mandating the extinction of all Earth Ponies. This command was never successfully carried out, as the leader of the Equines got wind of the warrant and managed to evacuate the whole of the Earth Pony collective before the sentence could be carried out. It is rumored, but not historically noted, that one of the unicorns aided in their escape. All those suspected of this crime were publicly executed, but no evidence was found that suggests the culprit (if he ever existed) was caught. -End of Log

Twisted paths

Chapter 2 “Dark Connections”

Dusk’s first reaction was that of fear. Any unicorn that evolves to the point of becoming an Alicorn is sentenced to death. Or, in some cases their wings are sawed off in an excruciatingly painful and drawn out process. Dusk had almost made up her mind to complete this process herself to avoid the coming punishment. But then she had a stunning realization; she was no longer loyal to the Queen. She no longer had to dwell under the tyrannical rule and oppressive laws that Celestia had put in place. This revelation brought a new feeling of joy to the new-found Alicorn's heart. One that she had not felt in a long time.

She cared not for where she would go anymore. She was free. She decided she would fly on as far as these new wings would carry her. Maybe even to the ends of Equestria. But suddenly everything changed. She felt sleepy, and began to get the impression that something was not quite right; sort of like when you’re in a dream that is ending. As if the whole earth had suddenly decided to stop spinning. But then everything started to spin. And not just the earth; the sky and hills and ground all started to spin together. Faster and faster until the world welled up into one big blur.

Such a swirl of colors it made! Every color that she could think of was all in front of her swimming and swirling. But then even the colors themselves changed. Suddenly they bundled up into 6 distinct colors that she knew only so well. They were the colors of the rainbow strung in long ribbons of light. Somehow Dusk felt as if this was wrong. As if she needed to stop the “rainbows” somehow. Of course this would make no sense to anyone who was not there with her, but it did make sense to her. Whenever Dusk looked back on the memory, she admitted to herself that the idea seemed insane.

Out of nowhere, something even stranger happened, she began to feel as if she was wet; drenched in fact. As if water was flowing round and over her with an ice cold sensation. Then all the colors stopped, all at once. And Dusk was back in the pond face deep in a calm, gentle stream of water. However, it was not late in the afternoon as she had remembered it, instead it was in the middle of the night. And she could hardly see. Her first instinct of course was to get up.

Her mussel was fully submerged in water just as it had been before the memories started flowing. But even more irregular was the fact that as she got up from the pond, she realized she was not out of breath. Not even slightly winded as one might have been if the dunked their head under water for a few seconds. Dusk glanced back at her flank and backside to see if the strange mark and the wings were still there. But at this her heart sank; the wings were gone. However the mark somehow remained, giving her some hope that what just happened wasn’t a sign of her going insane. She took a moment to look at it. It was very curious in itself, not a gash or a burn mark; for there was no evidence of scarred tissue. Also, even more curious, it was on both sides!

With a second glance, Dusk confirmed that both marks were identical. It appeared to be a six-spiked star of bright purple, only slightly brighter than her coat. In between each spike there was one white one, giving it a sort of shimmering effect. Surrounding this larger star there were five white stars, also with six spikes; but without the inner spikes their larger counterpart had. And all in an instant, Dusk realized what had just happened. She remembered everything now. Not just the buried memories but memories of historical events. And she knew what this mark was.

She then came to realize that the whole time she was in service to the Queen, she must have been in the influence of some powerful memory spell. One not only capable of suppressing key memories, but also able to alter her personality and actions. Although this realization startled her, her first feeling was that of relief.

“For the first time I can remember, I am finally myself.” The thought was both exhilarating and terrifying.

“So this is what a destiny mark looks like.” Indeed that was what it was called. As she could recall, the queen ordered the magical suppression of destiny marks for all of her subjects several years ago. This decision had a twofold purpose. The first was to stop any uprisings, due to somepony realizing it was their destiny to stop the Queen. This began two years ago when two individuals tried to sabotage the castle form the inside. All because their destiny marks implied it was their purpose. The second reason was slightly more interesting.

Even thought it was diabolical that the Queen should take the destiny of her subjects away; Dusk realized this last reason was actually quite brilliant. At the time of the marks arrival, a large magical surge occurs around the individual’s body. By harnessing this energy, not only would the princess be able to increase her own power significantly, she would also be able to create a somewhat solid defense against death notes. Death notes are Magical, non-corporeal creatures that, on contact, will drain any victim’s soul instantaneously from its body. The process is extremely painful, and one hundred percent lethal. But if the Queen could harness that energy in this form, theoretically she could destroy death notes.

Not only that but she could also completely control the mind of any creature who she did this to.  Having this kind of power could very well make her the most feared ruler in Equestria.  Also, many years ago the Queen gave an order for the Pegasus ruler to find any means of destroying the death notes. This was the most practical course of action, because to date, no death note has been reported able to fly. Having the Pegasi construct this weapon would enable them to do so with no danger to themselves. The result was project Dreadnaught. This memory made Dusk shiver. She decided to stop thinking about it. She had no wish to conjure up any more painful memories; at least, not at the moment.

Her attention retuned to more practical matters. It did not matter how it got late so suddenly, she now needed to get to shelter, and fast. Thinking quickly, Dusk realized the safest thing to do would be to continue on to the unicorn renegade camp. At least in that direction there was a chance of some safety. She decided in that moment that she would no longer call herself “Dusk”. Such a name was given to her by the Queen, and represented all that she stood for while in her service. Instead she decided to go be her Birth name, Twilight Sparkle. But all in an instant, before she could embark on her journey everything changed. Twilight began to get the horrible feeling that she was being watched.

She spun around only to find that there was nothing there but an old oak tree. And some bushes. Her eyes were now adapting to the dim light and she could see more clearly now. But even with nothing behind her she still felt a weird sensation as if she was haunted by some dark presence that refused to show himself to her. After much consideration, Twilight decided to risk continuing on to the camp. So, she set out. At first the journey was not so bad; there were few trees and not much underbrush to get in her way. The warm breeze felt good against her still damp coat. But then that sickening feeling returned. Twilight decided to ignore it, and to continue onward. Besides, after what she just went through, the feeling could be anything. But then the underbrush began to get thicker, and the bushes themselves began to produce thorns.

It was a long and arborous process to get through this. The prickly plants seemed to give no sign of ending. Whatever her bright red cloak might have looked like after thoroughly soaking it, it was now all torn and mangled. There were large pieces of fabric missing from the framework. The seemingly infinite spikes were tearing at it. It got so bad the Twilight suddenly found herself without the cloak at all. The thorns had completely consumed it. But then the merciless underbrush ended, quite suddenly in fact, and not only the brush, but the trees too. Looking in Twilight saw a slow and gentle steepness of a hill, and there was nothing but grass for miles. It felt as if it was the end of the world.

Continuing onward, newly refreshed Twilight realized she had just left the thorn forest and was now entering the grassy plains which separated the Unicorn territory from the wilderness. Twilight then estimated if she continued at her current pace that she would reach the camp at sunrise. If the legends were true. But even if they were, there was no way to tell for sure where it was exactly. As soon as she reached the top of the small hill Twilight was hit with another wave of anxiety. She once again felt as if someone, or something, was watching her. She could bear it no longer. Quickly glancing over her right shoulder she gazed back to the start of the thorn forest. At that moment the worried expression on her face changed completely, and was replaced by a single expression of terror. For at the bottom of the hill, just after the trees stopped and the grass started, stood a lone figure. It was completely black. Its figure was not ether equine or biped. Nor did it look like any creature Twilight had ever seen before. She recognized it immediately. It was a death Note.

“No… That’s… impossible!” The desperate statement didn’t make her feel any better. A sudden thought made Twilight realize that very few ponies of any race had been reportedly hunted by one of these entities. But this comfort was immediately shot down when Twilight realized that the thing wasn’t nearly as close to the trees as it was a few seconds ago. In fact it was now at the bottom of the hill that she had just now reached the top of. It was following her! Panicking, Twilight made a dash for it. Running from hilltop to valley to hilltop. Faster and faster she ran, until she ran so hard that she thought her legs would fall off. And each time she looked back the black creature was just a little closer to her. It was a horrible race. In all her experience Twilight had never been taught what to do in a situation like this.

She had no idea what to do. All she could do was run, and even that was turning out to be exhausting. The race continued on, and on until twilight’s sides began to ache terribly, and her breath came out in short rasps. When she finally could run no longer, not even to save her own life, Twilight collapsed onto the turf. Her momentum carried her down one of the hills in a wet slide until she reached the bottom. Glancing back, she saw the Death Note had slowed too. Just about to a walking speed. The creature was descending on her from the top of the hill like a large animal that was about to kill its wounded prey. But just as she gave up her life for lost, Twilight had an idea. There was another way to dispel death notes, but only the highest level unicorns and Alicorns could do it. It was a long shot, but Twilight decided to try it.

Putting her whole mind into a state of pure willpower, she began to cast the spell. She could no longer do this as easily as before. Without hatred or pride, much of the potential energy was gone from her mind. But she decided to continue. For the sake of her newfound destiny, and for the sake of her parents. Twilight put every ounce of willpower into completing this spell. But even as she began to cast it she could feel it was working. She opened one of her eyes only to see the death note was right on top of her. Just inches away. Closing her eyes even tighter she mustered all her remaining strength, and forced herself to get up. The spell was almost complete now, but the death note was also right in front of her face. Casting the spell in her mind she opened her eyes to face the demonic like stature that stood in front of her. Even from up close she could not tell exactly what it looked like, only that it was completely black, and several feet taller than her. A huge wave of energy shot out from Twilight’s horn Right at the creature. The size of the beam surprised her but she had no time to think about that. With everything she had Twilight raced right at the creature with a loud cry. There was a bluish flash of light.

Blaze hated checking on the cloud city. Even though the spell she cast allowed her to walk on the clouds, she still felt like an outsider with all the pegasi flying around her busy with their chores. Not only that, but she found that the pegasi in general were disgusting to her. Unable to cast magical spells on their own, they were no better than parasites. That’s how she always saw them. But she had an assignment from the queen and she knew it must be done. This visit felt even worse that her previous ones however. She felt even more alienated and lonely than usual. After a while she realized it was because Dusk had always accompanied her before. Somehow that made her feel more secure, even if she never let Dusk see it that way.

Up ahead the columns of cloud became thicker and more grandiose. This was a sign that she was approaching her destination. That, and she could feel the large magical tool at the heart of the city getting closer with every step. It was a sickening feeling. Blaze resolved to get in and out as fast as possible with, or without the report. It mattered not if the pegasi were cooperative to her. From her perspective they could all use a lesson or two in the Queen’s Torture chambers. The thought of that comforted her. She even smiled at the thought of the leader of the facility, the one known as “Sound Wave” going through the same physical torment she had only a few weeks ago endured. She had never met this pony on her previous visits to the facility, because she was usually given a report and turned away. But this time the queen wanted her to enter the building to see how the production was doing. She also thought it would be educational for Blaze to see how the machine worked.

Personally, Blaze didn’t care how it worked, only that it did. Nor did she want to find out how it worked. But that hardly mattered, her say meant nothing in the matter. After a long hike thought heavily populated cloud buildings and shops, she finally approached the gate to the facility. The walls were made of a strange black metal surrounded by black clouds. And the colossal door in the center was covered in large scrapes and cuts, although they did not seem to make it any weaker. The door itself was made of the same metal as the walls and had large bolts lining the sides and top and bottom. There was no handle, and the material itself prevented Blaze from using a spell on the door to make it open. This angered her even more. Anything she didn’t understand or couldn’t control made her uneasy. Upon knocking she realized that the pegasi that had been so prevalent in the rest of the city were all gone from this area. Maybe they feared the building? “Cowards” thought Blaze “Incompetent little cowards!”

At first there was no response. It seemed as if the very walls denied her existence with their refusal to open. Just as Blaze turned to leave however, the doors began to open, slowly at first, not with magic, but with machinery. The creaking of the hinges and the clicking of gears deafened Blaze’s ears as the doors started opening faster. Until finally with a huge slam the doors stopped. The journey inside was not much better than the view outside. The whole facility was lined with this strange metal that denied her using magic on them. There was no indication as to what made the doors open save one large steel beam that protruded from each door and extended into the wall. She did not like it at all.

She never actually had to enter the facility before. Even worse, the doors closed behind her. And even though she was a great deal farther away from them, the sound was still incredibly painful, because it meant there was no way out. The hall she now found herself in was long and narrow. The lights on the walls were few and far between. It made for a dark, unholy look. At the end of the hall was a room with several doors leading into different directions, all of them closed and bolted from the other side. A loud scream resounded from the halls and echoed across the building. It was a horrible sound. It sounded as if the victim’s very heart was being ripped out of his chest. There was no way to tell where the sound was coming from. The echoes did not help in the slightest. Already knowing what to do, Blaze took the door on the far right. It was locked, but she knocked twice. This door was made of wood, not the steel that made up the rest of the building. More screams emitted from nowhere and everywhere, making Blaze’s skin crawl. She now saw that she would have no choice but to continue with her assignment right up until the end, at least until the pegasi said she could go; and opened the gate for her.

“What do you want?” Came the harsh reply. Whoever spoke, it sounded more like a command that a question.

“You owe the Queen of Equestria a status report. I am Blaze, her right hand unicorn. Open the door immediately.” Blaze shouted into the door. At least she could pretend like she was not afraid.

“Owe her a report huh? I see… well come in you’ll get what I owe ya.” The harsh voice chuckled. The door shifted as if the deadlock was mechanically released. Blaze pushed open the door and walked in. The office was very handsomely decorated with plants and several bookshelves. Two steams of rainbow-colored liquid flowed on the wall enclosing an oak desk with several switches, dials and other things that Blaze could not identify. But at the center of it all was the Pegasus sitting behind the desk. She had a light blue coat of hair that was a mix of cyan and some other blue. She had rose red eyes that seemed as if they would kill you if you looked too long into them, and a grin that would kill you faster. But most interesting was her flowing slightly un-kempt mane and tail. It was all the colors of the rainbow.

“Well?” The rainbow pony asked “Sup?”

“I require a status report of your progress with the beam weapons we paid you to build.” She demanded.

“Right, right. I have those sent up to you on your way out.” Way out. For Blaze this was good news that they were at least somewhat loyal to the Queen. Not to mention that she might actually leave alive. She could not help but feel intimidated by this pony’s presence.

“Sound Wave I presume.”

“The one and only.”

“I can see why a Mare like you got a position like this. It suits you.”

“Hmph! What was your first clue? Rainbow haired pony running the “Rainbow Factory?”

“That’s not what the facility is called and you know it. At least be correct when you address your line of work.”

“HA!” Sound wave flew up out of her chair and landed next to Blaze, provoking her to step back in disgust. “As if that wasn’t what I make for you and your namby-pamby Queen.” She said with a smirk.

“Silence! Do not refer to her in that way again or I will…”

“Relax, relax. I was only going to say that the weapons effect when fired at a target makes a beam that closely resembles a rainbow. Of course, you make the weapon itself. All I do it supply you with the fuel for which to fire it.”

“I wasn’t asking for an explanation on how the weapon works, peon. I only want to know if you have made your quota.” It didn’t matter who this Pegasus was. Blaze wasn’t going to hesitate to incinerate her the next time she spoke about the queen like that.

“How bout I show ya?” The Rainbow pony asked with a wide smirk, ignoring the insult.

“JUST, give me the report.”

“But surely you want a demonstration of the machine. After all, we are working especially hard on this project. And it would be a shame if you went back not knowing whether or not it was up to par.”

“You enjoy your work too much.”

“It’s a living.” Sound Wave replied nonchalantly. “Whataya say?”

“Fine. You have ten minutes to show me your little ‘machine’. Make it fast.” Blaze said with a sigh. She had to admit, she was curious on how the Pegasi made weapons grade anti-soul. Such things are not commonly explained, even if you do work for the Queen. On the other hand, who knows what this pony would do if she refused to see it? She didn’t want to find out.

“Lucky you! We got a new shipment of equines and one biped today. You can see the process first hand!” She said as she pushed a button on the wall next to her. Suddenly the floor under Blaze moved. It began to move downward like a wall-less and roof-less elevator. Immediately below the floor of the office the room opened up to a huge room spanning acres of room. In the center there was a large machine with “Rainbow Machine” sprawled in red on the side. Blaze decided not to speculate on what the red stuff was. The machine itself took up the whole floor of the room, and was a mass of steel tubes, conduits, and moving platforms with ponies on them. In the very center, there was a large funnel-like structure with whirring blades and saws inside. The walls of the room were streaked with observation windows with ponies moving around on the other side. They appeared to be observers and mechanics.

“So this is project Dreadnaught.” Said Blaze in amazement.

“I knew you’d like it” The Rainbow haired Pegasus was now hovering beside the moving platform Blaze was standing on. With an evil smile she gestured at one of the moving platforms headed towards the funnel. “Observe.” Blaze noticed that there were three earth ponies and two pegasi aboard the platform. As it neared the funnel several mechanical arms arose from somewhere behind one of the steel tubes and approached the platform. The “Equines” were in chains and could do nothing to save themselves. As one of the arms approached, one of the pegasi grabbed one of the Earth ponies and held him to the ground. The arm approached until it was right on top of him.

“What will happen to him?” Blaze inquired, still in awe of the colossus that stood before her.

“Just watch.” Came the reply. So she did. The large arm produced a series of needle like things that started pulsating with some dark energy she couldn’t identify. Suddenly a beam shot out from the needles and hit the pony at point blank range. A bluish flash cut unto the normal light spectrum, making the whole room look dark. Then came the screams. From this distance Blaze could not tell whether or not it was male or female, but the screams did not help her confirm it. So this was the source of the screams she had heard earlier. After it had all past, the light returned to normal.

“Fun fact, those screams you’re hearing aren’t actually from the victims, it’s a decohesion-continuum response to the cryogenic generators we use to store the soul wavelength.”

“Er…”

“Do I gotta explain everything?!” The cyan pony, now landing on the platform next to her seemed genuinely annoyed. With a sigh she added: “It means that it’s a fracture in time and space. Every time the process occurs the whole fabric of time and space seems to (well, at the risk of sounding over-dramatic) scream in agony.”

“Er…” in all honesty, Blaze didn’t care.

“Some eggheads…” Sound Wave sighed.

Some rainbow-like energy was pulsating in the arm. After a few seconds the same process was forced on the remaining two Ponies. The energy in the arms was then pumped into the many valves and pipes that made up the “Rainbow Machine”. Blaze noticed that the three ponies were already dead. Completely colorless and lifeless. Also the two pegasi now flew off towards another platform This one had a creature that looked a lot like a human, but it was lying down ad appeared to be unconscious.

“What happens to the bodies after you drain them?” Asked Blaze.

“After the soul extraction is complete there is no reason to keep the bodies around. So…”

The platform then began moving towards the funnel.

“Plus, the decomposition of the bodies provides additional energy.” Sound wave said cheerfully. But Blaze wasn’t about to stick around so see what happened next.

“I’ve seen enough.” She said hastily.

“Fine, fine, I’ll take ya to the entrance. Some papers will be given to you there, your dorky ‘reports’”.

“Thank you for your cooperation. You can expect a response from the Queen within the week, Along with additional funding.”

“Sounds great!” The rainbow haired Pegasus pushed some buttons on the platform and it began moving again. This time away from the Machine.