The fight for Equestria

He didn’t know why, but snuggling up to Twilight at that moment, even though it was only her foreleg, just felt natural. It left him comforted, and feeling safe. For that very moment, he felt like he somehow, was actually home, someplace he actually belonged. Feeling her soft fur brush against his cheek as his eyes closed, Colt quickly drifted in the the embrace of sleep, while it overtook him faster than he would ever have imagined before in his life. So much so, he was completely unaware of Twilight removing her leg, or even standing there watching over him before leaving.

With Spike and Twilight leaving, the room was dark, the silhouettes of the bookshelf set against the far wall like a large single block of shadow against the darkness of the room. The only light came from the slowly rising moon outside the window, the night sky, already stretching on, filled with all the stars and constellations Luna had once made so long ago.

As the moon rose, a single sliver of bright light seemed to stretch forth over the crystal floor of Colt’s room, leaving almost a strange haunting glow, before the sliver of silver moonlight touched upon his bed. Before it moved up higher over his blankets, another light began to emit within the room. This one coming from Colt, himself.

As the glow grew brighter, it seemed to lift from his body, like a morning mist rising from a grassy meadow with the break of dawn. There it hung heavily above him as it seemed to begin to roll and move about. It was not long before the glow began to coalesce into a form of a figure floating above his bed.

The figure held the light, and smooth presence of a woman, surrounded by a flowing gown of white light, her eyes seeming to hold a sadness within them, as she looked over the pony foal below her. A soft hand of light came forth, gently passing over his muzzle, failing to disturb the sense of something pressing over his fur as she did this motion.

“Such sorrow, and pain lingers deep within. I will do what I can to help you.”

Corporeal lips came forward, lightly touching at the tip of his horn, the hair around her head seeming to shift in a slow fashion, as if in a lazy way it decided to allow gravity to affect it in just the slightest bit. As her lips lingered upon his horn, the foal below her scrunched his eyes, and let out a soft moan, as if being disturbed in his sleep, but did not wake. Deep within his mind, beyond his consciousness, as deep as memories remain within, there came a shadow crossing over much of the inner mind, a wall being constructed, pressing against everything, pushing it all back and blocking it from affecting the conscious mind, leaving an almost fresh emptiness in its place for new memories and thoughts to be made and formed.

The figure pulled away slowly, a smile touching upon the lips. It glided through the darkness of the room, avoiding the light of the moon. A bit of red lingered about her mouth, a hand lifting to cover it, breathing it in, the eyes closing a momentary look of listless desire passed across the face, before the light began to flicker and becoming more substantial.

There, within the darkness now stood a figure, seeming of opposition to what had been there only in the briefest flicker of time, a being standing tall, curves at the chest and rear dictating it female by some forms. Her dress of flowing light falling to a listless wrinkled form of black clothing, as if she had briefly stolen some of the shadows around where she stood and threw them about her body. She stood there, her face the only thing light about her features now.

The figure that stood there now, clothed in darkness held a straight vertical form, completely different from the ponies of this world. Two legs with feet holding her up and straight, covered in tight and stretched fabric with high heeled boots, a loose garment of a shirt tucked in covering her torso, but large enough to remain hanging loosely over the top of her pants, to give one the sense of wonder as to where her hips ended and her stomach began, as well hiding the actual form of fitness of her body. Her chest lifted, momentarily swelling her breasts slightly more than they already were, as her lungs took in the fresh, though alien air. He shoulders rolled, from their attachment to the sides of her chest, her long arms lifting into the air over head in a stretch, a light popping sound emitting from her frame. A head full of blue and black hair fell around a rounded face, and eyes, as they slowly opened held a strange almost lifeless look about them. She brought her hands down, letting them flow about her hair, her fingers raking through them, enjoying the fresh tingling feeling of finally being alive, of existing.

Before long she allowed her hands and fingers move down about her face, relishing the feel of the simultaneous stimulation of touch through both her face and her hands. As her hands fall to move about the rest of her body to acknowledge the change of the rest of her body, her lips spread wider into an almost pleasurable grin, before drawing back into the sadistic smile as her lifeless eyes fell upon the sleeping form before her.

“Colt,” she whispers out into the deathly silent room, a part of her mind seeming to scream out with satisfaction at the sultry sound of her voice once more, “I simply must thank you for freeing me from the confines of my prison. If you hadn’t come along, I would still be left there.” Her lips momentarily pulled into a frown as her thoughts briefly turned back to that pit of nothingness. Her face would have contorted to rage, until she remembered where she was, and once again the sadistic smile was back. “This world we are in now, granted not as devious of sins as the one you come from, should still prove to be fun. I want to explore and see what it is like. I am so glad we ended up here, but I may have to try and do something, or else you could come to be a threat. Yet, I don’t want that thing to take away all of the fun either, I can’t have you broken too soon.” She all but spat out as she remembered the invasion of that blackness.

No doubt it was having as much trouble as Colt was, but she had a feeling if she worked things just right, she could enjoy an endless amount of fun, and also bring a challenge to Colt. She wanted him stronger, and yet still right on the verge, so all she had to was just tap against his fragility and he would easily crumble before her. She just needed to give it what she just took, it wasn’t too much, but it should prove to be enough.

Once more she closed her eyes as she concentrated, trying to pull up the memory she had of feeling that things presence. It took her longer than she wanted, but her patience wore off as everything around seemed to change, from a sparse crystal room with a sleeping foal to a dark overgrown forest. There she found it, in its new body sleeping.

‘Oh, how I could easily end you right now for what you did.’ She thought as she towered above the thing, her eyes allowing her to see the aura of its true form. Indeed it was a very old and ancient darkness. She could almost see into its past. It had once brought cold, darkness, and suffering to the now controlling race f creatures. This had once been a truly suffering and miserable world.

‘If you can bring that back, then you would perhaps prove more useful to what I want.’ She thought as she leaned forward to its forehead. There, she breathed out a red mist and allowed it to flow around the head of the now black stallion. It took only seconds of the red mist to swirl about before it snaked its way into the stallions nostrils and mouth. It grunted in pain as the change began to make itself known. There upon its brow the flesh seemed to form a bump, before the bone of its skull pressed out a horn. It grew out further, the bone continuing it protrusion with a strange hollow grinding sound as it forced its way through skin. There was very little blood, which almost disappointed the woman as she watched with a nearly sickening enjoyment of the scene unfolding before her.

As the night progressed, the moon made its way across the sky, settling down by the horizon. Far away from the slumbering town of Ponyville, the Luna, the sister of the Moon and night made her way to the balcony, shortly to be joined by her elder sister, Celestia, sister of the Sun and day. As the moon meet the horizon, drawing the cold night to a close, the sun began to make its way to greet the morning. The yellow of the edge of the sky growing further, its light reaching, chasing away the blanket of the night, the stars slowly starting to fade in the light. With little effort, Luna was finally able to bring the moon down over the horizon, she stood there beside her sister, waiting, politely, for her sister to finish.

Within seconds, the whole of the sun rose up above the distance, presenting, and calling the attention to the new day. All over Equestria, roosters rose to the light, and called out, awakening farm animals and ponies alike.

Colt, in bed, remained fast asleep, an occasional groan, and twitch of his body as if in pain. His body was growing hot, a pain forming in his head. Deep within his mind, the wall that had just been placed, was already beginning to crack under the pressure it was made to hold. No account had been made in an effort to understand his mind when this was placed, already it was fighting back, trying to return to what it was before it is left to alter to adapt to its change.

Twilight made her way into the dining room.

“Morning, Twilight. Is Colt up yet?”

“What? I thought he was awake with you?”

The two looked to one another before Twilight heaved a small sigh. “I’ll go wake him up. I’m a little concerned, but I suppose since he didn’t wake up screaming, he is fine.”

“Well, sometimes no news is good news, uh, right?” Spike asked, as he scratched the back of his head, a bowl of liquified eggs in the other arm.

It did not take long for Twilight to make her way to Colt’s room where she found him still sleeping. She walked over and leaned her head down and gently nuzzled him to wake him up. At first he didn’t react beyond rolling over with a groan.

“Colt, it’s time to wake up.” Twilight spoke,a little above a whisper, as she nudged his back with her muzzle.

“Unh...” Colt, rolled over to face Twilight, a strange look on his face.

“Colt, are you alright?” Twilight asked a bit concerned. She lifted a hoof to try and check his forehead.

Colt turned away from her outstretched limb, “I, I’m fine, I just feel really tired, and my head hurts a little is all.”

Colt turned and moved to the edge of the bed and eased himself off. When he finished he turned and began to make his bed, slowly. Twilight waited patiently, watching him carefully until he finished.

“Hey, Spike is making breakfast, I think it’s omelettes today. Are you hungry?”

A soft gurgling sound emitted from Colt’s stomach, making him blush, and nod, his head hanging low.

“Omelettes it is then.” Twilight said with a smile. Together, they walked through the hall and down to the dining where Spike was finishing setting up their plates. The omelettes held a fantastic golden brown, topped with shredded cheese, and a side of well cooked haytots.

The three enjoyed their breakfast, Colt giving Spike compliments on how delicious the food was.

“So, I was thinking, since its Saturday, we could all go out to the park with the girls.” Twilight offered as Spike was clearing the table.

“Oh, that sounds awesome, hey, would you mind if I brought Peewee, with us? He’s been bugging me to get together with everypony for so long.” Twilight offered a nod in response. “Sweet, thanks Twilight.”

With the last warm day for the season, the girls, their pets, and Colt gathered together in the park, all ready to play, that is, all but one pony.

“Hey, where’s Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie asked.

“Oh, uh, well...” Fluttershy began hesitantly, her voice quiet, and almost impossible to hear over Winona’s barking.

“Well, who knows, prolly just off takin' a nap on a cloud.”

“Well, she could, but...”

“Or, maybe she’s laying in a tree and re-reading one of her Daring Do books.” Twilight offered.

“No, she’s...”

“Mom.” Colt said, trying to get Twilight’s attention.

“Yes?”

“Mom, I think Fluttershy is trying to say something.” Colt said, after seeing her behind everypony seeming to mutter something he could not hear.

The other four girls turned their attention to Fluttershy, which only made her scream out and try to curl up and hide behind her long flowing pink mane.

“Fluttershy, don’t worry, you know you’re with your friends. Go ahead and tell us what you were trying to say.” Twilight encouraged.

“Oh, well, I was just saying that Rainbow Dash got an emergency letter from Celestia about needing her with the Wonderbolts immediately. I only know because she came by earlier to drop off Tank with me.” She explained, almost in a rush.

“Huh, well, then I guess she finally got her chance to join the Wonderbolts.” Twilight said.

“But, I thought the Wonderbolts were supposed to be performing in Manehatten.” Rarity thought aloud.

“Maybe one of their team mates got hurt and since Rainbow is in as a back up, they needed her.” Applejack suggested.

The girls talked for a little bit longer. Colt huffed as they continued before walking over to the nearby tree and digging through Twilight's bag and pulling out his book. He settled down, opening the book to where the little bookmark was. He smiled as his mind whirled, bringing back the story in his mind as he read over the words.

The day moved on, as finally the mares turned their attention from their topic and speculations and began to once again enjoy their time at the park. It took some time, but eventually they were able to draw Colt away from the comfort of his book.

By the end of the day, all the girls were wore out. They all made their way home for the night, and agreed to meet up the next day. It was a momentous occasion as Cloudsdale was now passing Canterlot a little ahead of schedule, and the running of the leaves had been pushed forward about a week.

Twilight walked over to where she had left Colt to rest and found the little foal fast asleep, having worn himself out after being drawn away from the book. She smiled sweetly down at him as she used her magic to lift him up onto her back and headed to the castle. He awoke just as she was walking up to the doors, she eased him onto the ground and they made their way in and set up for dinner. Spike, at the last minute, had been requested to the Apple Farm to help with some last minute chores as Bic Mac had hurt one of his legs.

The rest of their night passes without incident, both going to the library where Twilight and Colt sit together on a comfortable oversized bean bag, each with a book near them, surrounded by a few bright lanterns.

Twilight had enjoyed herself, but Colt had made a suggestion of making a small reading fort in the library for the two of them. Twilight had agreed and piled up some stands and a large sheet over the top, it had a very homely campy feeling the two enjoyed. Before long, both Twilight and Colt fell fast asleep.

Sunday came and Twilight and colt made their way to the race. As they left the castle they found a light dusting of snow on the ground and noticed that Cloudsdale was almost right overhead, some of the weather pegasus already working to let some of the pressure off. Rarity was already there, waiting with a bag full of soft new scarves and some ear muffs. She passed them out, as ponies approached, glad to help any who were not prepared for the weather.

The race went of without a hitch, now and again, snow fell, and the racers continued. The pathway, for the running of the leaves, after the group of racers passed was well cleared of snow, from the heat of their pounding hoofs, grounding the snow more and more until it was nothing more than water seeping into the stone. As the leaves fell, the reds, yellows, oranges, and early brown all began to change to a single color, as pure white snow covered them completely.

As the day wore on, the snow began to become heavier and heavier, forcing many ponies to decide to retreat to the warmth of their homes. Twilight and Colt met up with the rest of their friends at Sugarcube corner for a round of delicious hot cocoa, or hot cider, provided by the Apple family.

Sunday came and went, the snow falling more and more over Ponyville. Twilight, Colt, and Spike when he was finally able to return from helping the Apple’s, settled down for dinner, then after, Twilight and Colt introduced Spike to the small indoor tent they had set up. With a good round of laughs, the three worked together to expand the tent some more, using a few more sheets as well as other things, chairs, and such to use as poles to help keep the tent up. They all laughed and shared more hot cider, sharing a few stories for Colt, before the three settled down for the night.

Morning came, with what seemed a dreary and cold day, Twilight helped Colt put on his boots, scarf, a nice blue one fore Colt, as well as a hat, freshly gifted from Rarity the day before, and led him out of the castle.

They moved through the already cumulated hoof deep snow on the ground, the win d picking up on occasion and swirling the snow about their eyes. It got so bad at one point, Twilight used a spell to shield their way through the cold snow and wind. With this, it took less time to fight against the weather to get Colt to the single red building set aside.

They entered the building, Twilight moving the shield to keep the cold from entering through the door as they entered. Ms. Cheerilee greeted them with a large smile. She helped Colt with his stuff setting it to the side. Twilight spotted all of the other students already there and settled into their seats.

“Oh no, we weren’t late were we?” She asked with serious concern.

“Heavens no, Twilight. Just in time actually-” As she said this, her voice was drowned out by the school bell ringing, its sound beyond the storm sounding muffled.

Twilight smiled and heaved a small sigh, she would have to try and get the two out to the school sooner. Colt said his goodbyes, and turned to Ms. Cheerilee who beckoned him to stand beside her desk.

“Well, children, we have a new student joining us today. Everypony, this is Colt, I would like to ask for your help welcoming him to school. He recently moved here and is living with Twilight.”

As one, the class said hello to Colt, who smiled awkwardly, a small blush coming to his face as he hesitantly returned the greeting with a mumble.

“Well, yes, I know it can be a little scary with a new place and school, but you have nothing to worry about with us. Now, I do not want to delay class any further, would you mind having a seat in the back? I set up an empty seat for you.” Ms. Cheerilee explained before pointing to the back. Colt gulped and slowly made his way, mostly staring at the floor, only glancing up at the other foals as he passed them. They held a various array of looks upon their faces as he passed, some gentle smiles, some curiosity, one or two even flat out ignored him, while a third, a pegasus foal, rolled his eyes as he passed.

Colt spotted the desk near the middle of the class in the far back, set between two other foals, one of whom quickly caught his attention. The colt on the right side of the desk was an earth pony whose fur was an earthy orange with a strange light blue mane and tail with a single green jagged streak running through it. On the Left side of the desk was the filly who certainly had caught his attention, for she looked like living crystal shaped like a pony. Or, a pony made entirely of crystal, he was not sure. Her body was a lovely teal blue, her mane and tail seeming a unique gold and silver, set in a braid, each braid showing off each color at the sides, as if framing the blend of the colors in the center braid. When the filly caught Colt staring, almost wide mouth she blushed and turned her eyes back to the workbook in front of her.

Colt shook his head at the clearing of a throat, he could only assume was Ms. Cheerilee and placed himself into the empty seat.

Ms. Cheerilee smiled at Colt, hoping to ease his fears before starting with her prepared work for the day. It moved on, with Colt trying his best to write with his hoof, since his training in magic had yet to begin yet. The fillie and colt to either side merely glanced at each other and shrugged, both noticing his horn, but the lack of its use before returning to their own work.

Inwardly, Colt grimaced at the horrible hoof writing he had done, yet he had sworn he knew how to write perfectly well with his right hoof, he just could not understand why he felt that way, or why, even if it were true, he ended up with quit a bit of mess.

Ms. Cheerilee caught everypony’s attention and explained, that with the current state of weather, she did not want them to go out for recess after lunch, and so were permitting them to find an area in groups or friends to sit together and enjoy some extra time. Which included five minutes of screeching desks being moved around with chatter of the foals, forcing Ms. Cheerilee to splay her ears to the back of her head in annoyance and already working on how to not only rephrase this type of situation for the future, but to try something different.

Colt was content to sit at his desk, where it was. He had spotted a few books in the back of the class a few feet behind him and had looked across the titles and decided to choose one that he thought might interest him. As he sat, regretting his decision, he realized there was somepony nearby. Looking up, he was startled to see the filly and colt that had been sitting next to him, both with smiles.

“Hi.” They said in unison.

“Oh, uh, um, hello.” Colt glanced down at the book, and quickly closed it and tried to move it to the side, though with the desks being so small, it still took up most of the surface.

“So, your name is Colt, and you’re a colt. Wow, that’s a little weird, huh?”

“Oh, that’s just being mean, Tasky.” Colt blushed heavily, making almost his entire face glow, as he hung his head, not realizing the name his mother and friends had chosen for him was really that bad. It was still better than some of the names they had come up with and was simple, he had liked how simple it was.

“Oh, sorry.” The colt quickly apologized after the crystal filly chastised him. The two tried to smile at Colt again, but saw his expression.

“Um, you really don’t have that weird of a name, his name is Fast Task.” The filly explained quickly, pointing a hoof at the colt beside her.

This caught Colt’s attention, as he looked up and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, thanks for selling me out.” The colt grumbled.

“Sorry, my name is Crystal Tone.”

“That’s pretty.” Colt muttered, making the filly blush.

“I know, right?” Fast Task said, agreeing, making Crystal Tone blush even harder. She stood there staring wide eyed at the floor, moving her hoof lightly in circles.

“I don’t want to sound mean, but, why do you look different than the other ponies?” Colt asked, directing the question to Crystal Tone.

She looked up, giving a look like he’d been living under a rock.

“I’m a crystal pony, from the Crystal Empire.” Colt stared, “Up in the North?” Colt continued to stare blankly.

Task and Tone shared a look, “Uh, well we might cover it later this week. Ms. Cheerilee mentioned it last week. But, uh, There is an empire of ponies in the North, we all look like this, and all the buildings and castle are all made out of crystal.”

“Hence why you’re called a crystal pony?” Colt ventured uncertainly.

“Uh, yea pretty much.”

“What does hence mean?” Task asked.

“Uh, erm... Hang on, I know, I know what the definition is, or at least understand its meaning. Like, uh, henceforth, what is to come, or no, that isn’t right. Uh... Perhaps I should rephrase, instead of hence, I should have used, ‘Which is’ why you’re called a crystal pony.” Colt finally mumbled out.

“But, what does hence mean?” Task asked again.

“Its the same as ‘which is’, its a type of word that can be used intermittently. Its to infer a meaning, or consequence, or something? Ugh, man my head hurts now. I know the word, I just can’t seem to remember it correctly.” Colt laid his head down on his desk with a sigh. His cheek pressing against the books edge, working a small crease onto his face.

“You sure know a lot of big words.” Task said.

“Yea, well, his mom is Princess Twilight Sparkle. She reads a lot, and is super duper smart.” Tone responded.

“So, do you read a lot, Colt?” Task ventured.

“Oh, yeah I do.” Colt said immediately, his excitement evident in his voice as he was ready to gush about his favorite thing to do.

The two foals laughed a little, which made Colt to realize his mistake. He once more lowered his head, his spirits dropping once again.

“Oh, no. Don’t be sad, we just saw how excited you were about reading. We can’t blame you for that.” Tone quickly tried to explain, “Just ask Task about numbers, someday. He is crazy good.”

Colt frowned, as Tasks eyes lit up exactly the same way that Colts had just moments before, and before either of them asked he began to spew forth multiple different mathematical problems and their answers faster than the other two could keep up with it.

“Okay, okay, we get it, Task.” Tone quickly interjected, shoving her hoof at his mouth to quiet him.

“Wow, that was kind of awesome. I don’t like math all that much, but still that was awesome.” Colt said, before turning to Tone, “What about you?”

At that, Crystal tone blushed fiercely, “No shrubberies here.” She suddenly blurted out.

“What?” Both colts asked simultaneously, at the sudden randomness.

“Nothing.” She said, her eyes darting back and forth, when suddenly the bulb in Task head clicked on.

“Oh, she is really shy, but she has a really awesome voice when it comes to signing.”

“Nooo!” She screamed out.

“Is there a problem, children?” Ms. Cheerilee asked from across the room.

“No, Ms. Cheerilee.” The three said in unison, sounding as if they were almost guilty of something, before stopping and looking at each other. Seconds passed before all three foals laughed uproariously.

“Jinx!” The three screamed out at once, then tried to top each other by screaming jinx first, over the others.

“If you say so.” Ms. Cheerilee mumbled, smiling as she watched the three foals. She was glad to see that the two had taken the initiative to try and get to know Colt, they already seemed to be getting along.

The rest of the day, Ms. Cheerilee continued her teachings after the students had their long break. Towards the last hour the foals seemed a little unsettled, and very jittery. She knew it was from not being able to go outside and play and burn off extra energy, so she worked with them the last hour with a fun activity. She had them lift the light desks and move them against the walls of the school before playing a game of duck, duck, goose.

The sounding of the bell caught them all by surprise, as they had started to actually have fun and lost track of time.

“Oh, dear, time to go everypony. I must say I am very proud of you all. I also hope you have a wonderful day, and I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning.” She said before allowing the ponies to collect their winter gear and head out the door to their awaiting guardians.

Colt, Crystal Tone, and Fast Task, hung back from the rest of the class to speak a little more. They expressed their gratitude to each other about having fun and hoping to see each other again and do more together.

Twilight was surprised to see Colt already smiling and waving goodbye to two other foals as he made his way out at the end of the line.

“A good day of school, I take it?”

“Oh, well, you know. School is school.” Colt said, before stopping and briefly wondering why he had answered in such a way.

“Ookay then. I’ll just chalk that up to excitement. I hope you’re not planning on causing any trouble.”

“No, ma’am. I’m sorry. What I meant to say was, yes, I had a lot of fun. I met two ponies, and one is made of crystal, from a place called the Crystal Empire.”

“Really? Wow, I had not realized they had been able to get ponies from the crystal empire out to the rest of Equestria. I’ll have to write a letter to my brother and sister about that.”

“You have a brother and sister in the Crystal Empire? Are they Crystal ponies to?”

“Oh, uh, no actually. Cadence, and Shining are not crystal ponies. But, well, it’s a story for another time, but they help rule over the crystal ponies.”

“Wow.” Was all Colt was able to say.