Author's Note
Links found between paragraphs are music to be played during the scenes that follow them. These are unnecessary for reading the story, and are merely for showing what inspired the details of the scene while writing. Links found within paragraphs are image and information links for those who may not be entirely familiar with the character/object/ability.
This story was initially written before Battle of Gods and Revival of F were even announced, and therefore does not include them in its own canon. Was also written as Season 2 of MLP: FiM was ending, so anything beyond that is not referenced.
C1- Chasing Nightmares
West City lies in ruin. Every building has crumbled to the ground. Massive fissures rip through the earth, and intense fires burn everything on the ground to cinders and ash. The rest of the planet is slowly joining this desolate wasteland, as an aura of pure negative energy consumes the Earth.
Vegeta, the prince of all Saiyans, stands alone in the center of West City as the sole hero to survive a terrifying conflict. He is badly injured. His left arm is unusable; a large gash torn in the shoulder bleeds profusely. Deep cuts run along his chest, stomach, and back; making breathing an excruciatingly painful experience. A steady stream of blood runs down from his forehead, and trickles down each side of his face.
Standing before him is the one responsible for turning the planet into a sea of death and destruction... Omega Shenron. The ultimate shadow dragon chuckles lightly at the once mighty warrior. "Oh poor little Vegeta." He says with laughter in his voice. "All of your pitiful friends are dead and burning around us. Not even Goku could stand up to me as a Super Saiyan Four. What hope do you think there is for you?"
A bit of blood trickles into Vegeta's mouth. He purses his lips, and spits it to the ground in agitation. He clenches his only usable hand in front of him, and slings his arm to the side. "It doesn't matter whether there is hope or not!" He angrily shouts at the final shadow dragon. "I am the prince of all Saiyans! Until I no longer draw breath, I will not stop fighting! If I am to die here, I will die fighting!"
"Hahahaha!" Shenron laughs heartily. "Well, at least your speech provided me with some amusement. Because whatever 'fight' you have left in you will be woefully boring."
Vegeta grits his teeth in anger, and begins charging up his energy. "I'll show you boring!" He shouts as he is surrounded by a golden energy aura. He screams loudly enough to pierce the heavens as he transforms into a Super Saiyan, and then charges his opponent in a blind rage. He unleashes a vicious volley of kicks and punches, but Shenron merely stands still and takes the offense like it's nothing.
Omega Shenron yawns obnoxiously as a taunt to the Saiyan prince. "I told you, woefully boring. I'm honestly having a hard time staying awake. Hahaha. Is this really all you can muster as a final assault?" He asks in arrogance.
"RAAAH! HOW'S THIS FOR A FINAL ASSAULT!?" He screams. He charges all of his remaining energy into his right hand, and it begins to glow a brilliant green. He lunges his arm forward and releases what he knows will be his last attack. "FINAL SHINE!" He yells as a he blasts Omega Shenron with a powerful beam of emerald colored energy. He keeps the beam going as long as he possibly can. When he finally runs out of energy, his attack stops, and he falls face first to the ground.
Vegeta gasps for air. His body is completely spent. He has lost too much blood, and has used up all of his remaining energy. "How's that... for... a final... assault..." He barely wheezes out.
"I repeat myself again, woefully boring."
Vegeta can't even muster the strength to move his head to look forward. He can't even offer a response. He feels a hand grab him by his hair, and slowly lift him into the air. A full arms length away, stands Omega Shenron, completely unharmed. His final attack... the attack he put all he had left into... was pointless.
Shenron holds his free hand in front of Vegeta's face. "Good night, sweet prince." There is a bright flash from his hand, and everything goes black.
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Vegeta's eyes snap open, and he quickly sits up in a panic. He is covered in sweat, and his breathing is quick and shallow. He nervously scans his surroundings to find it's the middle of the night and he is in bed. Bulma sleeps peacefully next to him; blissfully unaware of anything that just transpired.
"That same nightmare, again." He thinks to himself as he rolls out of bed. He quietly leaves the room as not to disturb Bulma, and walks down the hall towards a nearby bathroom. "Six years... It's been six years since everything almost ended for good." He reminds himself as he opens the door and walks inside. "I've had this nightmare nearly every night for the past month. After six years of peace, why have these nightmares suddenly started?"
He turns on the bathroom faucet, allowing cold water to half fill the sink. "The Shadow Dragons can't come back. Shenron took the Dragon Balls and left." He dips his hands into the water, and splashes it across his face. "The Black Star balls still exist, but... They don't pose a threat to us... Do they? Of course not. We would never risk using them." He picks up a yellow towel, and begins drying his face.
After a few moments, he stops, his grip on the towel loosens, and it falls to the floor. His eyes are wide in shock and fear as he suddenly has a terrifying realization. "WE wouldn't have to... That blue imp that turned Kakarot into a child... and Baby... That was twice in just one year. We're not the only ones who can quickly gather them! It takes centuries before the Dragon Balls are safe to use again. And the dragon that comes from the Black Star balls is even more powerful than the other. Which means... if Shadow Dragons were to emerge from them..."
Vegeta clenches both fists, and looks at himself in the mirror; burning resolve written on his face. "The risk is far too great." He says aloud. "I know what I must do."
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It is the morning after Vegeta's most recent nightmare. After waking, he dresses himself in a red tank top, dark blue pants, and black shoes and finger-less gloves. Just as the morning sun begins its ascent into the sky, he leaves his home without saying a word to anyone. He leaves on a mission... a mission to destroy the Dragon Balls. They are stored in a secret location that only a tiny fraction of the world's populace is even aware exists, and even fewer know where it is, and even fewer can even access... Kami's Lookout.
Vegeta flies through the clouds. His destination is miles above the surface of the earth, far out of view of anyone on the ground. It isn't long until the half sphere shaped Lookout looms into view. As he lands on the top of the Lookout, he doesn't see Dende or Mister Popo. "Good, they're not up here.", he says to himself. "Hopefully I can get this done before they even realize I'm here... Not that it would stop me if they see me. The less annoyances I deal with, the better." With those words, he descends into the deeper parts of the Lookout to begin searching for the room containing the Black Star Dragon Balls.
After only a few minutes of checking rooms, and with a little luck, he manages to locate the balls without being discovered. Sitting on a small pedestal in the center of a large room were the Black Star Dragon Balls. He walks towards the balls, and they begin to flash brightly, as if the dragon contained within is aware someone is present. He stands over them, and flashbacks of the shadow dragons run through his mind. "The nightmares... all because of these..." He says to himself. "Well, no more." He extends his arm, opens his hand, and begins charging energy into his palm.
"Trying to haphazardly destroy the dragon balls, Vegeta? Are you sure that's wise?" A gruff voice says from behind him.
The Saiyan prince recognizes the voice, but does not turn to face it as he speaks. "It's more wise to destroy them than it was gather them and bring them back to Earth, Piccolo."
"I tried to see to that myself during Earth's destruction years ago." The Namekian warrior replies as he approaches Vegeta. He comes to a stop at the Saiyan prince's side and turns to face him."But Goku realized that I was planning to die with the planet to turn the Dragon Balls to stone, and he stopped me from sacrificing myself. He believes that now we know that these are here and what they're capable of, we can stop them from ever being used again." He explains.
"That clown probably believes sticking a note on them that says 'WARNING: DO NOT USE. MIGHT BLOW UP PLANET' would be sufficient enough to deter someone from using them." Vegeta jests. "But he should face the facts. This universe is filled with creatures that don't care about Earth's safety, and would gladly use them anyway."
"You're not wrong." Piccolo agrees. "And because of that, I stay here at the Lookout, watching over them to make sure they're never used again. I will watch over them until I die a natural death, and then they will turn to stone. These are powerful magical items, even more so than the other set of Dragon Balls that Shenron took when he left, and even stronger still than the original balls on Namek. We don't know what kind of consequences we could face by destroying them like this. Because of that..." He stops explaining, and steps in front of Vegeta. "... I can't allow you to go through with this."
Vegeta clenches his fist, and the energy he was gathering dissipates. "Are you really so sure it's going to be that easy? Do you really think you'll be able to stop anyone that shows up to use them? Every time we reach a new pinnacle of power, a new enemy appears that can challenge us. Just like clockwork. Someone appears that can beat you, or steal them right out from under you, and uses them again. Then the Earth is put at risk of destruction again, and we have to track the balls down once more."
Piccolo stands in silence, still refusing to move.
"And you know full well it doesn't stop there." Vegeta continues. "They've already been used twice in the span of one year. How long does it take for the negative energy built up after each use to dissipate? Centuries? Can you even fathom how powerful Shadow Dragons that come from these balls would be? Even while fused, do you think Kakkarot and I could face a Black Star Omega Shenron? Even if we still could, what if this happens after we're dead and gone, and you're in an old and feeble state? Are you really willing to risk the destruction of the entire universe because of fear of the unknown?" Vegeta opens his palm once more, and resumes charging his power into it. "I will not let history repeat itself!"
Piccolo continues to stand in silence for a moment, taking in everything said by the Saiyan prince. After thinking to himself for a moment, he briefly cracks an amused smile. His face quickly returns to its usual expression, and he moves out of Vegeta's way. "You've changed a great deal since you first came to Earth, Vegeta. Do as you will. I won't stop you." He says as be begins walking toward the door. "Just don't accidentally destroy the lookout. I'm sure Mister Popo wouldn't be too happy to have to rebuild the whole thing." he jokes.
"Of course not." Vegeta responds with a smirk. Electricity crackles around his hand as he finishes gathering energy. "It all ends here. No more nightmares. No more threats to the Earth we have no hope of stopping... NO MORE!" With one last shout, he releases a single blast of energy from his hand. As soon as his blast comes into contact with the balls, he and Piccolo are blinded by a flash of light so intense it's as if the sun itself were right in front of them. The sound of the balls exploding is deafeningly loud, and for a moment all either can hear is a loud ringing in their ears.
Vegeta quickly covers his face with his arms to shield his eyes from the bright light. "WH-WHAT'S HAPPENING!?" He shouts, unable to hear his own voice. The intensity of the light fades just enough to be able to see, and the ringing in their ears is replaced by the sound of roaring winds. Vegeta moves his arms away from his face, and in place of the Dragon Balls is a sphere of light that is several feet across in height and width... and he's being pulled towards it!
"Darnit, Vegeta! I should have gone with my gut feeling!" Piccolo shouts as he slides several feet forward. The suction behind this strange sphere is powerful enough to even pull beings of their power. He looks around in horror as large chunks of the room split, break apart, and get sucked into the vortex. He stands his ground, and exerts some of his energy in front of him to stop himself.
After sliding closer to the sphere, Vegeta follows suit to stop himself as well. "I never imagined this as an outcome! DARN IT ALL!" Vegeta screams in anger. The ceiling and floor in the immediate vicinity of the sphere have already been pulled through. At least a quarter of the room was gone, and the rest has suffered severe damage.
"We have to do something to stop it! The lookout really will be destroyed if we don't do something quick!" Piccolo yells.
"You don't have to tell me! I'm not eager to find out what's on the other side of that sphere!", Vegeta shouts back. "But what can we do!?" A thousand thoughts run through his mind as he watches this strange sphere consume more of the lookout, and slowly inches himself away to avoid getting taken with the floor beneath him.
"It's getting smaller!" Piccolo exclaims.
"What!?" Vegeta responds. He watches the sphere carefully, and sure enough, it was quickly shrinking in size. "Good! All we have to do is wait this out and it will all be over! Hahaha! I'll take this minor inconvenience over what could have happened!"
"What's going on!? Why is the lookout violently shaking!?" they both hear from outside the room.
Piccolo and Vegeta both turn their heads to see the Guardian of Earth, Dende, running into the doorway.
"NO! STAY AWAY, DENDE!" Piccolo screams. His pleas come far too late, as the much weaker Dende is swept off his feet by the raging vortex of wind the moment he steps close to the open doorway. He screams in terror and confusion, as he still has no idea what is happening. Piccolo lunges for him, but barely misses."VEGETA! CATCH HIM!"
"I GOT HIM!" Vegeta shouts back as he steps in the way of the small Namekian. But just before Dende reaches the Saiyan prince, the floor beneath him collapses, and he loses his footing! Dende collides with Vegeta, and they both rocket towards the sphere of light at the center of the devastating vortex of wind. With only a split second to react, Vegeta places an open palm on Dende's stomach. "This is gonna hurt kid, but you'll survive!" He quickly fires off a burst of energy from his hand to launch Dende away and through a wall just as he himself passes through the sphere of light!
Mere moments later, the sphere shrinks from existence, the raging winds die off... and Vegeta is no where to be found! Piccolo stares wide-eyed at the room around him. Almost the entire room had been consumed, and had stopped barely a foot from where he stood. "Un... Unreal. That was too close." He slowly stands up, his body still shaking from fighting for his life. His ears perk up and his attention shifts as he hears Dende groan in pain. He quickly rushes outside and into a different room to find Earth's guardian lying on the floor, his stomach burned from Vegeta's 'saving throw'. He drops down to one knee and puts a hand on Dende's shoulder. "How badly are you hurt?"
Dende manages a weak smile. "He... He was right. I'll live. Ha ha-" He winces from the pain, cutting his laugh short. "Ow... It hurts to laugh... What happened? Where... is Vegeta?" He asks between pained breaths.
"Vegeta destroyed the Dragon Balls. He believed they posed too great a threat to us to wait for me to die so they turn to stone. Truthfully, he was right. But when he destroyed them, the resulting explosion created some kind of spatial distortion that began sucking everything into it. As far as where he is..." Piccolo ceases his explanation, and turns his attention to the room where everything just transpired. "He's gone. And to where... I have no idea."
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CLOUDSDALE, EQUESTRIA
The sun shines beautifully over the pegasus city of Cloudsdale, located thousands of feet above the ground. A brilliant rainbow pours from the city, and down to the surface below. Groups of pegasi can be seen flying through various parts of the city. Loud cheering can be heard from the large stadium in the city as the Wonderbolts perform dangerous aerial maneuvers for the audience. A localized snow flurry can be seen at the weather factory as they prepare to ship off a massive order of snow flakes to a city in the northern region of Equestria.
On the outer edges of the eastern side of the city, fillies in various age groups are being instructed on the various things they must learn as a pegasus. Some of the youngest are taking their first steps in learning to fly. Another group is learning how to control a cloud. Farther away from the younger fillies is a group of teenagers learning how to properly deal with storm clouds.
"Remember, the power difference between pushing a cloud and dispersing it altogether is minute." A mare with a bubblegum pink coat and mint green mane instructs a group of young fillies. "For your first steps, take things slowly and don't rush. You'll make mistakes, but that's okay. You're all here to learn." She tells them with a warm smile.
"Miss Bubble Mint!" A young brown colt frantically waves a foreleg in the air to get his teacher's attention. "When do we get to learn how to do cool stuff, like mess around with storm clouds and make thunderstorms?" He eagerly asks.
"Oh you're still a few years away from that, Wingback." She answers understandingly. "Storm clouds can be quite dangerous if improperly handled. When you graduate from my class, you'll move on to learn from my friend Silver Wind. He's Cloudsdale's leading expert in weather manipulation. He's a good stallion at heart, though his teaching methods can be a little... harsh." She finishes her sentence with a little concern in her voice. Her ears perk up as she hears what sounds like a yelp of pain come from the direction of the teenage group. "Oh dear. Um, class, look back into your books and reread the chapter on pushing clouds. I should probably go check to see what just happened..."
A few moments earlier...
"This is so stupid!" A green coated teenage stallion shouts in aggravation. "This 'tiptoe carefully through the tulips' crap style of weather control you're trying to show us is mind-numbingly boring! Do you even know what the hay you're doing!? Is that why you're having us be so careful!?"
His teacher, Silver Wind, rolls his magenta eyes at his young student. Silver Wind has a cerulean colored coat. His mane and tail are cut short, and are a shimmering silver in color. "Of course I have no idea what I'm doing, Whirl Wind. That's why I always love having a new student like you here to show everyone how it's done. It's not like I got my cutie mark because I excel at weather control or anything crazy like that." He says with painfully obvious sarcasm as he brings attention to his cutie mark, a tornado surrounded by bolts of lightning. "Please, why don't you demonstrate to the rest of the class how to properly cause a lightning strike?"
"Ha! With pleasure!" Whirl Wind arrogantly states as he turns his nose up at his teacher. He struts his way to an unoccupied corner of storm cloud. "When I'm done here, they'll fire you and I'LL be the new head weather control instructor!" He loudly boasts. Whirl stands up high on his hind legs, and drives his forehooves into the clouds beneath him... But nothing happens. "Wha... What happened?" Silver covers his mouth with a hoof to stifle a laugh, and some of the other pegasi snicker. He slams his hooves down several more times, but the cloud seems intent on not giving any kind of reaction. "What they hay gives!?"
Silver Wind is fighting hard to not laugh. "Maybe you just need to hit it harder? Kekeke..." Despite his best efforts to not laugh at his student, a chuckle escapes his breath.
Whirl Wild raises his hooves up once more, and practically roars as he drives down one more time. This time, he gets a reaction... Just not the reaction he was expecting. Lightning backfires from the cloud, and shocks him for several seconds. He yelps loudly and hops off the cloud he was on. Parts of his fur are singed, and a little smoke is rising from his hooves. Seeing that nothing but his pride is hurt, most of the class begins to roar with laughter. "SH-SHUT UP! IT'S NOT FUNNY!" He glares angrily at Silver Wind. "I don't know how, but you did that! Somehow, someway, you made that happen!"
Silver Wind casually looks away, as if to feign ignorance. "I have no idea what you're talking about. It looks to me like the lightning backfired on you because you didn't know what you were doing. You don't appear to be hurt, but go get yourself checked out at the infirmary anyway to be sure." With those worlds, Whirl Wind turns his nose up and angrily trots away.
"You're terrible. You know that, right?" Bubble Mint says as she lands next to Silver Wind.
"I know. But sometimes I get a student that's very stubborn, and needs to learn things the hard way a few times before they listen." Silver lets out a sigh. "Okay, class! All of you have been working hard. All of you take ten minutes to get stretched out and take a break!"
Bubble Mint playfully shakes her head at her friend. "Do you think any of them will find out the truth?"
"Don't know. Depends on how often I have to do things like that." He responds with a sigh. "We're not supposed to have abilities like that, so most of my students never really think of the possibility. Not to say there haven't been some that figured out I ca-" Before he can finish his sentence, he is cut off by the sound of a loud explosion miles above, and a flash so bright it looks as though the sun itself fell into the atmosphere!
Many of the ponies below scream as they shield their eyes from the intense light above them. Just as quickly as it had appeared, the intense light fades, and leaves everypony below wondering what just happened. Silver Wind, as well many others, stare into the sky above in a state of shock. He narrows his eyes, and sees quite a few objects above them... and they're getting bigger! "Wait... they're not getting bigger! They're..." His eyes go wide in fear when he realizes what's really going on. He turns to everyone else and begins shouting. "BACK TO THE CITY! SOMETHING IS FALLING OUT OF THE SKY ON TOP OF US! FLY BACK TO THE CITY!"
He and everypony else take flight back into Cloudsdale with not a second to spare. Groups of fillies, teenagers, and teachers huddle together in fear. Silver Wind looks back to where they all were, and sees large chunks of white stone falling through the clouds! After almost an entire minute of waiting, the stones stop falling. Silver is the first one to step away from the group. He stares into the sky for a few seconds to ensure no more stones are raining from the sky, and then extends his wings in preparation to take flight.
"Silver! Wait, what are you doing!?" Bubble Mint questions Silver Wind, still terrified out of her mind.
He looks back to Bubble Mint, his face bearing a look of pure determination. "I'm going to go up and see what that was. Someone else should go down below and make sure no pony was hurt by the falling stone." Before she has another chance to object, he takes to the sky.
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Vegeta floats alone in an empty sky. He frantically checks his surroundings for any signs of life or his previous location. "What happened!? I don't see anything... I can't sense anyone... Where am I!?"
"Geez. I'm having to go way higher than I thought I would. The air is starting to get really thin." Silver Wind thinks to himself as he flies higher and higher into the sky. "If I go too much higher, it's going to start getting hard to breathe... Hey, what's that!?"
"Huh, what's that?" Vegeta feels a weak presence quickly approaching him from below. He looks down, and can barely make out a figure in the distance. "It's too weak to be anyone I've met from Earth that could get here without some sort of aircraft. Who in the world could that be?"
"What the hay is that all the way up here?" As Silver approaches the creature he's found miles above the Earth, he quickly realizes that it's not a pony of any kind. He closes the remaining elevation distance between he and his target, and hovers at eye level about ten feet away from the strange creature.
Vegeta and Silver Wind stare at each other with puzzled looks for several moments. Either refuse to say anything, but both have the exact same thought running through their minds...
What in the world are you?
