私の小さな子馬：魔物の千年紀戦
My Little Pony: The Millennium Battle of the Demons
Prologue
Joshou
じょしょう
序章

Preread by reflective vagrant and Commissar-Rarity. Go give them a virtual high-five!

“Baou, wake up already! You’re sleeping in again!” a lone Pegasus mare yelled to the large, white Alicorn as she opened a the door.

Baou sighed at this, rising from his bedside. A yawn escaped his mouth as he looked over to her.

“It’s my day to sleep in, though!” he fakely whined. “Who burnt down a tower this time?” he joked out, his moderate tenor voice resonating all throughout the room. The mare gave a forced laugh, putting a smile on the Alicorn’s worn-out face.

“Nopony burnt down a tower, you ditz,” she responded, rolling her eyes at the prince’s terrible attempts at making jokes. “We need you to look at a new law that’s being pushed by the citizens of Manehattan.”

“Alright. What do they want, Lightning Dust?” he questioned, walking towards her. As he passed by the door, he pressed a small kiss on the mare’s snout, making her smile brightly.

“They want you to work harder on fixing the damage from the great battle,” she answered, causing him to sigh, this time out of disappointment. He always liked to see what kinds of things that his citizens were thinking of in terms of ordinances and requests, but this one particular request always made him shake his head.

“How many times do I have to tell them that we’re working as hard as we can to repair the rest of the damage from the battle?” he complained, walking past Lightning Dust. She followed him down a long set of stairs. “We’ve been working nonstop for the past three months to replace all of the dirt, fix all the bridges, rebuild the buildings, etc. They just need to calm themselves and wait their turn like the rest of Equestria.”

“Well, they want to pass another bill.”

The two finally trotted to the bottom of the thin stairwell, turning left into a hallway that lead to the main foyer of the castle. Baou used his special ability—the “Answer-Speaker”—to obtain the answer to any question he wanted.

“Will the Manehattanites ever stop asking for extra assistance?” he asked. His eyes glowed frost-blue, and he stopped trotting, if just for a single moment.

“Not until the damage is fixed,” was the answer he received. He figured as such.

He continued his trek to the foyer and rolled his eyes, thinking to how utterly snobby the ponies from Manehattan were. It put the ponies to Britmane to shame. Most were, anyways, as he thought about his precious Lightning Dust. She was one of the few exceptions.

The two arrived at the large room, Luna and Celestia both nodding at their arrival.

“Good morning, Prince Baou and Princess Lightning Dust. I assume that you slept well?” Luna greeted, eliciting nods from the two. “We have another issue from Manehattan—they would like more assistance.”

“So I have heard. Please, give me the document,” he requested.

Celestia levitated the scroll over to him, and he did a quick read-over of it. Much to his expectance, it was just another plea for more workers. He didn’t even have to think about writing dejections on the document before giving it back to Celestia. He shook his head.

“We’ve been doing all that we can to help them, but they just don’t understand,” Baou said. “Ever since the battle ended, they’ve been trying to receive more help than we are able to give.” He sounded like he had rehearsed this speech a hundred times.

“I agree. They realize not the sheer scale of the damage caused. We are still rebuilding Ponyville!” Luna exclaimed.

“Where is Hitan? I have a question for him.”

Simply at the mention of that name, Celestia and Luna both cringed and shook, looks of discomfort crawling on their faces. He could see an inkling of fear in their eyes, but they did excellent jobs at hiding it.

“He’s downstairs. The Manehattan ponies will be outraged at this repeated denial,” Celestia informed, sounding quick to change the subject.

“Thank you, Princess Celestia. I shall return within the hour,” he said, receiving a nod from the solar princess. He turned towards Lightning Dust, planting another kiss on her muzzle. “And I will see you later tonight, sweetheart. May the day treat you well,” he said with a smile. She pressed her head into his chest for a second, to which she received a loving nuzzle, before flying out the front doors of the castle.

As he walked down the stony hill leading down into the caverns below the main castle, Baou suddenly had an intense migraine—a nasty side effect of using the Answer-Speaker. He had a vision back to the great battle, and every single time it was as vivid a memory as the tail feathers of a peacock.

Out on a huge, grassy meadow, the Mane Six had gathered under the sun, partaking in a delicious picnic feast, of which Applejack prepared from her own kitchen. Smoked apple jelly and daffodil sandwiches, juices of various types, fritters, cakes—any kind of sweet food you could think of, it was probably there.

“Applejack, I simply do not know how you make such marvelous cuisine! It is absolutely wonderful!” Rarity praised, a smile flashing on her face as she chewed on a slice of old-fashioned apple pie.

“Aw, shucks, Rarity, ye’r too kind t’ me,” Applejack humbly said, lowering her trademark hat down slightly.

“Yah… Mmm… It’s sho good, though,” Rainbow Dash approved, stuffing her mouth with a sandwich. Rarity looked at her with disgust, setting her slice of pie on a saucer.

“Ugh, Rainbow Dash! How unmarely of you—talking with your mouth full!” Rarity scoffed as Rainbow Dash flew up into the air and crossed her forehooves.

“Really, who cares? I’m too awesome for-“ she started, but was stopped when a bolt of lightning struck her on the head, causing her to convulse slightly. “What the heck?“

A flurry of lightning bolts crashed upon the field, but strangely enough, there were no clouds to be seen. The sky was still shining bluely, as usual. As Rainbow Dash was in the air, she was struck multiple times. She lost control of her wings, causing her to drop down, face first, into the ground.

“What’s happening!?” Twilight Sparkle yelled as everypony ducked and covered.

Before anypony could react, one giant bolt of lightning shot down from the sky, causing the entirety of the ground beneath it to explode in a massive, electrified blast, sending all six of the mares out far away. Minutes passed before all six of the mares regained consciousness.

Rainbow Dash was the first to regain enough strength to make her way back to the massive crater that had been left in the ground. Burn marks streaked across dead grass that spread out from the hole in the soil.

Within the depression, yellow and blue sparks of electricity surged as red flames surrounded and covered a small, burnt, tattered body that laid bloodied and torn. Rainbow Dash tried to dive in to see what it was that lay there, but the static kept her from going further.

Soon enough, all five of her friends regained consciousness and came back over to her their now destroyed picnicking spot.

“What in tarnation is that!?” Applejack exclaimed, staring down into the pit. The figure shimmered, an eerie light surrounding it.

“I don’t know in the slightest! It’s shining like a diamond!” Rarity said.

“Girls…” Fluttershy mumbled, noticing that it appeared to have the shape of some sort of monkey-like creature.

“Is-it-a-zombie-who-will-completely-eat-our-brains-and-douse-Equestria-in-chocolate-fudge!?”

“Girls,” Fluttershy repeated, becoming slightly annoyed.

“I don’t know what it could be, but I highly doubt that it’s a zombie, Pinkie. It’s probably some sort of-“

“Girls!” she shouted. All of the other Mane Six stopped talking and looked at Fluttershy, who was hovering flutteringly over the divot.

“There’s something down in there!” she yelled, pointing down to the shape, of which slowly began to show itself. When the body was finally visible, her eyes widened as she saw how terribly the figure looked. It was really a horrific sight, unlike anything that she had ever seen—and being an animal caretaker who had healed thousands of bruised, broken rodents, cats, bears and all sorts of other animals, that was saying something.

Eventually, the static and fire cleared out, showing the mangled body in full. Fluttershy’s eyes became as wide as the sun, before gasping from her gaping mouth, “Oh, my goodness!”

She flew down as quickly as possible, picking the little body up as gently as possible, flying back out of the hole. The creature’s clothes were burnt away and left in tatters. While there were wounds all over his body, there was one huge scar running down its face. Blood dripped everywhere from the small being, like water from a recently turned off shower head.

She pressed her ear against its upper chest, hearing a faint thumping within. She was relieved to know that it was alive, and in the same moment, one of the knots in her stomach untied itself. Saying the first thing on her mind, she blurted out, “It has a heartbeat! Twilight, we need to get it to the hospital right now!”

Quick to act, Twilight lit her horn up, shooting a wave of purple energy over the beaten child. “That should tide it over until we get it to the hospital!” she exclaimed, some of the lesser wounds starting to heal. “Rainbow Dash, you can get it to the hospital quickly, right?”

“I’m on it!” the speedy Pegasus accepted. Fluttershy placed the child on Rainbow’s back and secured him. In an instant, she blasted off towards Ponyville, the draft she made blowing the grass. Twilight took another brief look down in the crater and saw a red book laying in there, lightly buried under the dirt.

‘What’s that?’ she thought, using her magic to levitate the book up. It was glowing mystically, lighting up a line of foreign characters on the top and a strange hourglass marking in the middle that adorned it. It was otherworldly, but she could’ve sworn that she’d seen a book like this somewhere else.

“What’s that, darling?” Rarity asked, cocking her head.

“It’s a book of some sort,” Twilight responded, flipping through the pages. Page after page, there was nothing but characters in a foreign language. She eventually flipped to the last page and found that it was glowing. She couldn’t read the crimson-shaded characters, but she once again knew that she had seen them before. “This isn’t what’s important right now, though. We all need to get to get to the hospital!”

“Twilight’s right, y’all. We need t’ get going!” Applejack agreed. The five mares all shared a brief nod before galloping off to in the direction of the hospital.

Twilight Sparkle figured that because the child had five mares in escort to get him to the hospital, it would be able to get there safely and stably, so she went straight to the library. She slammed open the door, shaking the books in the shelves.

“Spike!”

Hearing her yell, Spike looked down from the top of the stairs and saw her, with a duster in claw and wearing a black butler’s apron. “Hey, Twilight. That was a fast picnic!”

“Yes, it was, because something… rather strange happened. I need you to take a letter to Princess Celestia immediately!”

“Really? Okay,” he responded, walking down the stairs, grabbing a scroll and quill out of a drawer. “Ready!”

“Dear Princess Celestia,

Just a few minutes ago, as my friends and I were having a picnic, a flurry of lightning bolts caused by an unknown weather anomaly struck the meadows outside of Ponyville. One of the bolts of lightning revealed some sort of small primate-like creature, as well as a red book of sorts that he was carrying. None of us have seen any creature, nor a book, like this before. Based off its size, I am assuming that it is adolescent.

The child is heavily wounded, with scars, wounds and bruises all over its body, but has a heartbeat. It is being transported to the hospital currently. As we do not know what this creature is, we would like you to come to the Ponyville Hospital in case it becomes hostile upon waking up.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle”

Spike’s face was contorted in horror as he finished writing the message. He had never heard of anything like this either. Any mention of blood made him feel squeamish, and the “gruesome description” that Twilight provided caused his stomach to churn, even causing him to scribble some lines.

“Are you okay, Spike?” she asked as he put a claw over his mouth.

“…Yeah, I’ve got it.”

“Alright. Send it off.”

Spike blew his emerald flame over the manifest, making it disappear in a puff of smoke that went out through a window. “Is that everything?”

“That is for now. Climb on my back—we’re going to the hospital!” Twilight said. Spike jumped up onto her back, and instantly they blasted through the door again.

About two minutes later, Twilight arrived at the hospital. All five of her friends sat there in the waiting room, awaiting news of the child’s fate.

“We’re here,” she huffed, walking into the lobby. Spike looked over her head to see her friends.

“Finally,” Rainbow Dash impatiently muttered, her forelegs crossed. A nurse trotted into the room with a faint smile.

“Well, I have good news. The child is in stable condition for now.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Fluttershy sighed. Everypony in the room smiled at this wonderful news.

“However, we do not know the scale of the injuries. We will have to get a doctor who has been trained to find internal injuries to see if he has any more major damage.”

“Oh…” Fluttershy mouthed inaudibly. Nopony had anything else to say to this, and the room remained silent for a few moments until Twilight spoke up.

“I believe that Princess Celestia may be coming to analyze this situation, so if you can’t get a doctor soon enough, she may be able to help.”

“Oh? Well, I’ll still call for a more highly trained doctor in case the princess doesn’t come.”

“That would probably be for the best.”

‘I hope that he makes it out okay,’ Fluttershy thought very hopefully.

Baou shook his head as his headache began to dwindle slightly. He didn’t have a clue as to why this child reoccurred in his visions—they always seemed to revolve around or have something to do with the adolescent. He had a feeling that Hitan would hold the answer, though.

Hopefully.

The Answer-Speaker was no stranger to Hitan, nor was Hitan a stranger to the Answer-Speaker, after all.

Author's Note

Alright! Finally have this up and running. Tell me what you think of the idea!

I have acquired a prereader! Make sure to thank user 'reflective vagrant' for helping me to fix some of the issues with this!

I have included Japanese in the heading of this chapter because I wanted to pay homage to the story of Konjiki no Gash Bell, the story that influenced this one.
]私の小さな子馬：魔物の千年紀戦: Literally "My Little Pony: The Demon's Millennium Battle
"Jomaku" means "prologue.

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