Chapters Canterlot, the shining capitol of Equestria, home to two of the four alicorn Princess’, crown jewel of the known world… was shrouded in the darkness of a rainy evening. A lone cloaked figure stood high on one of the many buildings that stood around the castle. The horn under the hooded cloak glowed.
“Come to me Sebashteean… Let us overthrow the tyrants of this land…” the figure whispered. A shadowy feline hopped out of the vast distance in between worlds and stood next to the cloaked unicorn. “It is time…” the unicorn said to the felid. The feline demon nodded and jumped off the roof. The terrified scream of a mare broke the fragile silence below. The unicorn smiled.
Before I begin my tale, there is one thing you need to know, I simply do not belong. One could describe me as a pariah, an outcast. I don't even fit in with some of my closest friends, online or real life. Those around me seem to think of me as insane, granted, I may be a tad bit crazy, but who isn't? I do spend a lot of time thinking/online, and that's where my story starts. My mother, who thought I was having sleep problems, possibly due to me staying up very late, wanted me to start going on daily walks, she claimed it was "to burn off some energy". So, that was how I started taking walks outside my home. Now the area I live in is in the middle of nowhere. Woods all around on a dead end road. Some people do live nearby, but depending on the weather I can hardly see them. So on my fourth walk it did come as a surprise when I heard shouts in the trees.
"Hello?" I yelled. The shouts continued, although it didn't appear they were yelling at me. Curious I stepped off the gravel road and jumped over the ditch into the treeline. Not the smartest thing I know, getting involved in a mysterious event, but hey, I was feeling adventurous. The trees around were the same slender tall trees that grow in the area, spaced at about three to five meters apart. I saw something brush past a tree off to my right… I looked towards it, realizing too late what it was.
“Go away you stupid cat!” I whispered at my sisters cat. Who looked at me as only cats do and padded away on silent paws. I continued walking forwards, following the sounds of yelling. I could now make out partially what they were saying.
"Stop!" "Hooves on the tree!" Hooves? What the frack are they yelling about? Even more curious than before, I quickened my pace. It was then, to my surprise, that the trees around me suddenly became short and twisted, and the ground went from firm to spongy. Odd, I didn't know the area around my house had such spots. I could now see lights emanating from behind the now stunted trees, as if someone was shining a flashlight around. Slowing ever so slightly, so that I now went forwards as silent as a wraith, I can be extremely sneaky when I want to. Thankfully I wore my dark green hoodie so that at least my torso blended in with the leaves. Up ahead was a clearing, the flashlights seemed to be in the clearing and pointed towards my direction. The shouting now clearly came from the clearing, so what ever was happening was in the clearing. Sneaking off to the side, I tried getting a good view in between the trees. I was met with a very interesting, if not a little disturbing, sight. There were four figures in the clearing, and none of them appeared to be humanoid. Three were on one side, and a cloaked figure stood opposite them, on the side that I approached from. What dazed me for a second was the fact that one of the three figures seemed to be floating. On second glance, after taking a brief time to clean glasses, I realized it was flying, on birds wings. A... what? The conclusion I came to was a mythological creature, a white pegasus with a black mane, that also appeared to be wearing a set of golden armor. My mind was briefly jumbled, and I confirmed what I saw, yes a pegasus. Fuck me. I looked at the two figures on the ground under the pegisous, they looked very similar to the pegious but the feathered wings were missing, what they had differently however, were horns sprouting from the middle of the forehead, or what appeared to be the forehead. Quickly realizing that they were unicorns, the thought came easily. If pegasi exist then why not unicorns? I already believed they existed anyway, our ancestors weren't idiots, so what could they have seen? The two unicorns also wore golden sets of armor, one was also white with a gray mane and the other was blue with a brown mane, and what I presumed to be flashlights were actually lights that shone out of their horns. Mentally taking note of everything, the next thing that begged for my attention was the final figure. It was also a unicorn, confirmed by the horn sprouting out of its head, was wearing a dark grey cloak, and had dark purple fur. It took me several moments to get over the fact that at least three unicorns and a pegasi existed, when I finally realized they were speaking, in english. That astounded me.
"Its over Void!" the pegasus shouted in a masculine voice. "Give up now!"
"Never! I would rather die than be a slave to the alicorn tyrants!" shouted the dark blue unicorn, also in a masculine voice. Alicorn? Tyrants? What? I searched my memories for an "alicorn", finding nothing.
"The princesses were never tyrants!" shouted the white unicorn. That voice sounded feminine, so I started looking for biological differences between the two unicorns that had spoken, the third remained silent. Realizing that, what I will now refer as "she", had a slightly shorter snout than the others, and had a smaller build. Putting those facts together, I realized the unicorn who hadn't spoken was a male. All of my scientific thoughts were suddenly dropped as I realized that I was leaning forwards, too far forwards. My thoughts blinked faster than any eye ever could. To try and stop myself from falling would likely cause my discovery, to continue falling, and accepting fate, would absolutely mean my discovery. What my mind didn't acknowledge until after the events, was that the unicorn that I had labeled "Spark" was saying something along the lines of,
"The alicorns were always tyrants! Enough talk! I beckon to thee, Sebastian, come to my side and aid me!" runes started glowing around "Void" annnnnnnd, nothing happened, the only thing that did happen was me falling out of the trees and into the clearing.
"W..what?" stammered "Void", looking at me with a look of disbelief and horror "Where's Sebastian?" I searched my jumbled mind, the only Sebastion I knew was my sister's cat... And now I could faintly recall that I last saw him not a few minutes ago...
"You can't surly mean a grey striped cat?" I asked, still reeling from the fall and not thinking clearly. At this the unicorn looked angry,
"What have you done to my hellcat?" he yelled, taking a few angry steps towards me. That was when I stood up, now for the unaware, I am a little over six feet tall, I'm not what most people call "short". And now that I am up close, the size of the unicorns ranges at about four feet tall. Surprised at my full height the dark purple unicorn started to back away slowly.
"YOUR, HELLcat?" I asked, "Kay, first of all, that dumb cat isn't yours, second that cat is as harmless as a dead fly…”The other three mythical creatures, didn't even blink at me falling through the brush.
"Call it off!" yelled the pegasus as he took a more aggressive stance. I realized he was calling me an "it".
"Go back to whence you came denizen of another dimension!.......I...It won’t work!" yelled the dark purple unicorn.
"It?!?!" I turned on the pegasus. Most of the time I'm calm and collected, until someone starts calling me names and/or threatens things I care about, then I tend to act rashly, something I'm not proud to admit. I barely had time to duck when a beam of power rushed near my head.
"Shit!" I yelled as I jumped over the very surprised dark purple unicorn, and ran back into the trees.
"Get them!" I heard behind me. Now as one who isn't entirely comfortable in the woods, but has spent more time in some than the average person, I had some idea of what to do, not a lot, but in a situation like that, better than nothing. I heard a "whoosh" of air behind me and ducked. I looked up in time to see the pegasus rush overhead into the trees beyond. I had a brief second of thinking only the pegasus was after me, when I felt the skin on my right cheek go numb. Instinctively dodging to the left, I managed to avoid a blast of blue energy.
After that most of my memories are a blur of dodging bolts of crackling energy and ducking to avoid the pegasus, Until I thought I finally managed to juke my pursuers. Ducking behind a fallen log I found myself face to face with the dark purple unicorn.
"Aagh!" he yelled in surprise. I quickly clamped my hand over his mouth. His eyes were wide in fear. I quietly put my finger over my lips to indicate that he remain silent. He nodded under my hand, I slowly withdrew it. He, thankfully, remained silent.
"What are you?" he whispered. Thinking back to a period of three months spent in quiet contemplation of possible extraterrestrial encounters and other thought provoking scenarios, I answered as I had in most of those situations.
"I am of a species that everything should learn to fear." Now, I know you are wondering, why would I answer that? So, I will also answer this bluntly, humans are destructive creatures. We destroy everything we touch, our environment, our culture, even our own families. Name a time when humans weren't at war, didn't brutally slaughter animals, and/or cut down important and rare trees. As I said, three months of thinking and still no answer to that question. The unicorn seemed to pale.
"Oh poop, oh poop" He mumbled. Now it was my turn to ask a question.
"Now you seem to know what's going on, where am I?" I asked looking at him.
"What? You don't know where we are?" he asked looking slightly shocked. I looked at him raising an eyebrow.
"Okay! Okay... We are currently in the Everfree Forest in the land of Equestria." he answered raising his front hooves in surrender. Everfree... Equestria... Neither of those names matched a location on Earth. I wasn't too familiar with names of forests, but I'm sure I would've remembered a country such as "Equestria" I was about to ask another question when a beam of light passed overhead. This was so obvious, that I realized that it was getting dark. Mom would be getting worried, but the light passing by overhead again, pushed those thoughts out of my mind. I strained my ears. I could hear the crunching of twigs as two sources stepped on them. Made sense, the pegasus would be flying.
"Dang we lost them!" yelled a masculine voice.
"Try over by that log!" yelled the female unicorn. I heard a slight flapping that got closer. I then saw a fairly large stick next to my right hand. I silently grabbed it and waited. The flapping sound got closer. I got ready to spring. Closer, closer... A muted gold helmet slithered into view. I stood up suddenly and brought the stick around to meet the pegasus' head. I was rewarded with the clanging thunk of the pegasus getting struck senseless. Who, by the way, was not at all expecting a club wielding human behind the log. I pounced over the log and darted in between the confused unicorns, who had just turned towards the clang of the helmet. When they saw a dark shadow rushing in between them they brought their glowing horns around with them and blinded the other, making my escape all the more easy. Hearing the mess that I had caused behind me intensify as the dark purple unicorn had attempted to follow me, but had run into one of the unicorns. Smiling, I dashed into the dusk. Thinking that I am leaving one heck of a trail for them to follow, once I was far away, I decided to run in a jumbled circle, occasionally running backwards or running away from my mess only to loop back around. Once I was done I started running backwards out of the circle, keeping one eye on the setting sun and the other behind me, or forwards depending how you look at it. I finally stopped running and started looking for a place to hide. Those three would take all night to disentangle the loops I made. I finally decided on climbing a tree and hiding there until morning. I stayed awake as long as I could turning my head towards any sound I heard, until sleep finally claimed me.
+++With the three Royal Guard +++
"Argh! We lost it!" complained the pegasus named Wind Rush.
"Calm down," said the female unicorn named Silver Star "We haven't lost it, its tracks are right here, plain as day!"
"Why can't I just speed along and find it? Oh wait, I have this to lug around." Wind Rush complained again, this time yanking on a rope that was tied around the neck of the dark purple unicorn.
"What are you complaining about?" the unicorn sarcastically asked.
"Quiet you!" yelled the furious Wind Rush as he yanked on the rope again, "It's because of you we're in this mess!" The leading unicorn, who hadn't spoken since the log incident, stopped suddenly, his light pointing out into the dark.
"Uh..Nimbus? asked Silver Star, who wondered what he was looking at. It wasn't until she saw what his light lay on did she understand.
"Oh. Buck." she stated. Ahead of the group lay a jumble of the elongated foot steps that they had already been following for hours. The tracks went to and fro, it looked like it had a party, running in circles, some tracks went away from the jumble and some came back.
"Now what." Silver Star asked, looking at the unicorn known as Nimbus Light. Nimbus, the leader of the hunting party sent to find Void Spark, the dark purple unicorn, took a few moments to think.
"Wind, you take the prisoner back to the Princess, Silver and I will stay here and begin untangling this mess. Morning isn't far off and I'm sure the Princess will like him to be back in custody when she awakes."
"Sir yes Sir!" saluted the happy pegasus, happy because he didn't want to sort out the mess, nor find the thing that had given him a good headache. At that the tied up prisoner began running towards Canterlot, dragging the still flying pegasus with him.
"I don't want to be anywhere near that thing!" he yelled, surprisingly willing accept his fate at the hooves of the princess. When they were gone Silver Star looked back at the ground in front of her.
"If that thing scared Void Spark like that, I'm not sure I want to find it." she said. Nimbus nodded and replied,
"I don't want to find it either, but he brought it here, and knowing the trouble he caused in the past, we have to find it before it wrecks havoc." Silver Star looked back at the ground, sighed and said solemnly,
"Well then we better start finding it." with that she cast her light brighter and started to slowly retrace the tracks.
+++The next morning, with yours truly+++
I awoke to a dazzling sun, It hung in the sky as in it were mid morning. Odd, I thought, I could've swore it was just dark... Oh well, sleep does funny things to the mind. I surveyed the surrounding area, mostly the twisted trees of this "Everfree" forest. It was however a stunning view. In the distance I thought I saw a shine of something metallic, that could be bad or good. Bad because my pursuers were already onto me, good because it was movement, and movement meant civilization, or a way to civilization, and my odds of survival greatly improved in a city or town. So I made a mental note of the direction, and climbed down. I did however keep my ears pricked for any strange sounds. I took a few steps and suddenly realized that sleeping in a tree wasn't my brightest idea ever. Ow. Stiff limbs, yay. But survival took priority over comfort and I started my way towards what I hoped was a road or something similar.
Along the way I, thankfully, loosened up my muscles, and my body felt comfortable again. On the way I saw many strange plants, I, wisely, kept off them, as I had no idea if they were toxic or not. About an hour later, I found a path of sorts. While someone/something had been there recently, it wasn't used that much as it was fading in places. The tracks that I had used to determine that there was someone/something there recently were horseshoe shaped, so I presumed a rider on a horse or one of the unicorns. They seemed to go both ways, some one going and returning, or two people going opposite ways. I didn't hear any one clop by, so they were going slow, or the shine was one person, possibly both. If it was one person, they were coming back, so I looked for the slightly older set of tracks and followed them, taking care to keep my own tracks to a minimum. I soon spotted what appeared to be an outskirts of a town.
Fearing wary eyes, as I didn't recognize the buildings, I lept into cover and began to survey the area. I didn't see any thing yet, but buildings mean shelter, and shelter means something lives there. My suspicions prove to be correct as more unicorns, pegisi, and horse like beings began to emerge from the buildings. They were a multitude of colors, colors I've never seen on a horse, pony, or donkey. The name Equestria popped back into my head. Where the hell was that? The horses, or ponies, whatever they could be called, seemed to begin socializing as humans would. I unknowingly began to slip deep into thought as I thought about these new discoveries, a dangerous state of mind for me as I don't pay attention to the material world around me. I was soon brought out of my stupor as someone very close to me began shouting.
"Apples! Apples! Git yer apples here!" Curious, and slightly startled, I began looking for the shouts source. A orange pony had set up a stall almost directly in front of the bush I was hiding in. She, I noticed her shortened snout, had baskets of apples just sitting there behind the wooden cart she used as a stall. Suddenly realizing I hadn't had a bite to eat for over 12 hours, I quickly, but stealthily grabbed one. Stealing is bad I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and I don't think she would've reacted kindly to a six foot alien wanting apples, if the earlier unicorns and pegasi were anything to judge by. Unfortunately, I now was stuck in a bush behind her, if she turned around and examined the bush, she would've seen me. So, I slowly brought my dark green hoodie over my jeans and brought the hood up. It was indeed a little warm, but the bush was thankfully in the shade of a tree. And taking the opportunity to study these strange creatures, I began eavesdropping on the orange pony. I soon found out that they indeed called themselves ponies, I'll refer to them as thus from now on, and that the owner of the stall, named Applejack, lived and worked on a apple orchard, a possible source of food, and that she was referred as an "earth pony" that is presumably her species as she has no wings or horn. But the real information came when an an interesting customer came by. She, again shortened snout, was a purple unicorn, or so I thought. When I saw her from a sideways view I was somewhat startled to see she also had wings! I searched my extensive knowledge of mythological creatures and found no winged unicorn. Perhaps this was what the dark purple unicorn from yesterday meant when he said "alicorn"? If that was the case then, she could be a ruling member of their culture... But the relationship between this Applejack and "alicorn" seemed to be one of long time friends, not one of a ruler and subject.
Before I knew it, Applejack was reaching for her last basket of apples, the basket I had unknowingly been munching out of and was now half empty. Fuck me. I must really pay attention to these kinds of things, second time in under 12 hours I committed the same mistake, I mustn't let myself slip like this. Applejack, stood and stared at the basket for a moment or two, then looked at the bush. I prepared to leap into action. Fortunately I didn't have to, as she turned around as said,
"Gee, looks like Applebloom forgot ta fill this basket up all the way, Ah'm sorry Twi, Ah'll stop by later and drop off a basket." she apologized to the "alicorn"
"That's okay AJ, I'll see you later then!" she smiled and walked away. Applejack however looked back at the bush that concealed me, seemed to shrug and started packing up her stall. Finally, my legs are starting to cramp, and I would like to know where this orchard is. But that look showed a little suspicion, so I would have to be careful when following her.
When everything was packed Applejack pulled the cart away, I marveled at the strength needed, as I saw the ruts that the cart left. I slowly snuck around the trunk of the tree and stood up. Euphoria flooded my legs. After stretching them out I darted across the path to another bush in order to follow Applejack. Wow she was fast with that heavy cart, she made twice as far as I predicted before I caught up. And soon a large red barn entered view, along with an extreme amount of apple trees. Food located, I marked it down on a mental map. Now I need shelter. I could use the Everfree, but I don't know what kind of plants grow there, or animals, if there are talking unicorns and pegasi, then who knows what they hold. The barn? No, too frequented. In the town has the same problem tenfold. In the orchard could be possible, but I don't know them like the owners, so hiding in there is not possible. That was when I noticed three small ponies running along down the road towards the barn, I briefly over heard them as they ran by.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders! To the club house!" they all chanted. With no leads, this club house sounded possible. So, I trailed them. They ran through the orchard like they've done it a hundred times, they probably had. They eventually made it to a back corner of the orchard. Their clubhouse, was a tree house that was built in a huge oak tree. But I saw the trail they'd worn through the area, and it was obvious that they came here often. So the tree house was a no. But the general area, it was remote and desolate. I couldn't see the barn anymore, trees surrounded the area, and any apple trees I saw had little fruit on them. so their harvesting days were few to long gone. I would have to avoid the tree house though, those three came often. So I started scouting for a decent area to hide in. It wasn't until the late evening when I finally found a place. A decent sized old shack, probably an old tool shed, that had long stopped housing tools. It was covered in ivy, and one practically has to walk into it to know its there, yes I am speaking from experience. The owners probably did know it was there, so I couldn't do anything major to it, but it seemed dry, and out of the elements. I then finally sat down after an entire day of walking and hiding and slept.
+++That morning, in Canterlot+++
Princess Celestia was sitting on her throne. She had just brought the sun up for the new day, after relieving her sister Luna of her nightly duty. When suddenly the doors to the throne room burst open and the criminal she had ordered to be captured rushed into the room with a disgruntled pegasi in tow.
"Ah, Wind Rush, I see you found Void Spark and captured him." she mused.
"Anything other than what I summoned!" shouted the hysterical unicorn.
"Um... What is he talking about?" asked a confused Celestia. WInd Rush finally managed to stop Void Spark with a angry tug on the rope.
"When he was captured, he summoned something." he stated.
"That is what he is known for." she replied.
"He had tried to summon his hellcat, but something else came instead, and it wouldn't listen to him." Wind Rush explained. Celestia nodded, Void Spark and his most trusted familiar were a feared duo. The fact that it didn't come when Void called unsettled Celestia.
"Have you found it yet?" she asked.
"When I left, Nimbus and Silver were about to untangle a mess of tracks it left." Wind Rush responded
"What do you mean by mess of tracks?" The princess wondered out loud.
"At first it ran in a straight line, but then for whatever reason, it decided to, um... double back, multiple times, in the same area, in different directions."
"Hmm..." she pondered by what he meant. "This thing, whatever it is, obviously is intelligent, not the animal instincts of the fiends Void usually summons. Whatever it is, it could be dangerous."
"Um.. yea dangerous..." Wind Rush rubbed his head where the stick had stuck him.
"It hit you didn't it?" Celestia asked in a don't-bother-hiding-it tone. "Go see the royal doctor, we need to know what it is capable of." she instructed him.
"Um... your majesty?" he said as he held up the rope that kept the unicorn, Void Spark in check.
"Go, I'll see to him personally." The unicorn swallowed a nervous gulp as the Princess said this. Wind Rush made a hasty exit. Celestia then used her magic to take the rope and dragged the criminal towards the throne.
"What in Equestria's name did you bring here?!" She asked furiously.
"I don't know!" he squealed, at that the benign princess' eyes started to glow white.
"I don't know!" he repeated, Celestia's eyes grew brighter.
"All I know is that it was tall, walked on its hind limbs, had weird fleshy talon things instead of hooves! And said that everything should fear it!" At the unicorn's statement Celestia's eyes went back to normal. She had no idea what he was describing was either. Void seemed to relax, until Celestia's voice spoke up again.
"Guards, please drag this imbecile to Tartarus." she stated in a commanding tone. Royal Guards immediately rushed the throne room and dragged the screaming unicorn out.
"Send a squad to assist the efforts of Sergeant Nimbus and his tracking party. I want guards patrolling the area around the Everfree forest. I want this bucking thing found." she growled at the guards who stood by to receive orders.
"Yes, your majesty." they replied simultaneously. They quickly bustled away to relay orders and begin organizing patrols. She sat there for a moment, alone in the throne room. After a moment of reflection, she picked up a quill and parchment and began to write.
"My faithful student, Twilight, Void Spark has been captured and imprisoned, but one of his minions still roams free, I request that you come to Canterlot immediately and help my Royal Guard organize for patrolling around the Everfree Forest. I know there is none greater suited for the task. Your ever surprised teacher and friend, Princess Celestia."
She signed the letter and sent it on its way. Twilight Sparkle could easily find the creature that was loose, but Celestia hoped that it would test her abilities to command and take charge of ponies such as the Royal Guard. But what truly worried her were the unknown abilities of the thing Void had mistakenly summoned.
+++That afternoon, In the middle of the Everfree Forest+++
"Ah-ha!" exclaimed an ecstatic Silver Star. "That bugger has ran in circles, ran backwards, looped around, and smeared tracks, but now I've found it!" It had taken over eight hours of guessing, untangling, and following the same trails over and over again, until they found the one trail that didn't loop back into the fray. Silver Star's eyes were wild with restlessness, and generally being slowly driven mad by the puzzle. Nimbus had collapsed two hours ago from exhaustion, but after a quick check and relocation, he was snoozing soundly. He awoke at Silver's celebration.
"You found it?" he mumbled, getting up in a excited but tired way.
"Yes, it ran backwards out of the circle here." Silver Star said as she pointed at the misleading tracks.
"Good, I'll follow them, you however need to get some rest." he said sounding worried.
"With all due respect sir, I'm now committed to finding this thing." she took a few steps, and then also collapsed from mental exhaustion. Nimbus quickly trotted over to her, and saw that she was already asleep. Chuckling, he picked her up and laid her gently in the shade of a tree.
"Get some rest, that's an order." he whispered to the sleeping mare. With that, he began retracing the steps that Silver had pointed at.
Silver Star awoke two hours later, to somepony shaking her.
"Aagh!" exclaimed in surprise, as she sat up straight. It was just Nimbus.
"Come on, I need your help." he said. Silver got up and stretched.
"What did you find?" she asked.
"I found where he may have spent the night, and a path." he said hurrying in the direction of the path.
"Path?" Silver asked sounding confused.
"Path as in road, that ponies travel on." he stated, sounding amused but clearly worried.
"Oh..." she stated, understanding what he meant. They walked at a quickened pace for about half an hour, then they found the road Nimbus was talking about.
"Okay, the things tracks lead up to the road...here." Nimbus said as he found the aliens tracks. Silver thought for a moment.
"If I recall correctly, Ponyville is that way," she said as she pointed in one direction, "And that way leads deeper into the forest." she indicated the opposite direction.
"I don't see any tracks or signs of disturbance on the other side of the road." said Nimbus as he searched the brush on the opposite side.
"So, it followed the road." Silver finished the thought for him.
"The question is, which way did it take?" continued Nimbus.
"I think I have an answer to that." replied Silver. NImbus looked over at what she was looking at. Faintly in the gravel there was a almost indistinguishable track, but its owner was obvious. The elongated track was obviously pointed towards Ponyville.
"Oh, buck..." said Nimbus.
+++The next morning, with the freakishly tall alien+++
I awoke to something very startling. Something, had just crashed right outside the shack, it had landed with a meaty thud and was followed by some moaning. Curious, but still being wary, I looked outside the shack. Sure enough, something had crashed right outside. It was a lightish blue, and I had no idea what it was. So I cautiously stepped outside and approached. I was about a meter away when it tried to stand up, but fell back down again. This scared me, I admit, but if something that just crashed is trying to move, then wow. As I now was very close, I realized it was a light blue pegasus, with a rainbow mane and tail. She, as I had also noticed, was still conscious, but just barely. Her wing was also bent at an awkward angle, so that meant her wing was probably broken. She tried stirring again, and failed. I looked around, if I left her here, then I could be discovered, so I would have to move her. But I couldn't move her if her wing was broken, at least not without a splint. And a splint was like holding up a sign that said "Hey I'm here, come shoot me!" Cursing, I debated this dilemma. The pegasus moaned. Curse whatever diety watched over this land, I couldn't do nothing, I decided to splint her wing. I found a decently sized strong stick, and gathered some long grass. Not very sanitary I know, but sacrificing some of my clothing risked my own survival, and camouflage. I soon had her wing in a decent splint, not the best but all it needed to do was survive until a hospital, if there was such a facility in this place.Unfortunately however, she briefly awoke from her blackout.
"Wha...?" she stammered. My cover was blown. Fuck. But then I suddenly realized that my head was in between her eyes and the sun, so all she saw was a silhouette. Thank goodness. And ungracefully, the mare passed out again. Careful not to jostle the broken wing, I picked her up. She was surprisingly light, I guess she needed to be in order to fly. Remembering the direction of the barn, I started walking carrying the blacked out pegasus over my shoulders. I finally saw the barn through the trees. Deciding that I had come far enough, I gently laid the sleeping mare down, taking care not to further injure her wing. I then dashed back into the shadows, in case no one came, I would standby, just in case. Fortunately I wasn't needed any more as three ponies soon almost tripped over the sleeping mare.
"Ooh! Ooh! I found her!" yelled a bouncing pink mare.
"Pinkie we know!" said a disgruntled Applejack, it took me a moment to recognize her. The purple "alicorn" was also with them.
"Oh my gosh! Rainbow Dash! Are you oka..." she stopped when she saw the splint. The mare, "Rainbow Dash", started to stir.
"Wha happon?" she mumbled, clearly disoriented. "Who was that?"
"What?" asked the confused "alicorn"
"I dunno, one minute I'm high in the sky, the next flat on my back with someone looming over me." this "Rainbow Dash" replied while checking herself over.
"What did they look like?" asked the alicorn.
"I don't know! the sun was behind their head so I couldn't see him, her, it, something!" the wounded mare shouted. Realizing she wouldn't get any answers from Rainbow Dash, the alicorn started looking at my handy work.
"Do you suppose they did this?" she asked, indicating the splint.
"Well obviously! I sure didn't do it! Ow!" Rainbow Dash had touched her wing "I think it's broken."
"Then we better get you ta the hospital." Said Applejack. Good to know there are hospitals. The three ponies then picked up the maimed Rainbow Dash and began slowly walking back towards the village. I waited for a few minutes. During that time I realized how thirsty I was. Curses. Water should take priority over food. While the apples juices may have helped some, it was not a replacement. So I wandered the orchard, searching for a stream or other source of fresh water. Thankfully my suspicions were correct, an orchard had to have a source of water, and I happened across a stream. I tasted it, good it was fresh and didn't have any unsanitary taste. While it was good for the moment, I would have to boil future water so I didn't get sick. And that meant a fire, and a pot. Fire meant exposure, and I didn't have a pot.
Unfortunately I didn't have a choice, so I had to steal a pot and risk exposure. I decided I would sneak into the town that night. Odds are someone had to have a pot there, and I could search for other materials that I don't realize I need just yet. With my decision made, I grabbed a few apples off a nearby tree and started back towards the shack, if I was going to sneak around at night, I would need my wits about me, and that meant more rest. But as I got there, I realized that the crashed pegasi had left a crater. I quickly did some math, if a four foot tall pony, that weighed maybe about 90 pounds, left a crater like that? It looked like the crash site of a UFO or something, gouge marks, dirt piled up at the sides and everything... Just how fast was she going? Thinking that if found, this would be an obvious place to start looking for yours truly. So I packed the dirt back into place, and made it look as natural as possible. It wasn't perfect, it now looked like a bare patch of dirt, but it was the best I could do. It was about mid morning by then, but speaking from experience for late nights, it was time to start resting.
+++At the Ponyville Hospital, a half an hour later+++
"Okay Miss Dash, as you know, we'll have to keep you here for the next few days." said the local pony doctor.
"Yea, okay...I've been meaning to reread Daring Do lately anyway..." said the laying form of Rainbow Dash. She had a stack of Daring Do books on the nightstand, and was already opening the first one. The makeshift stick and long grass were gone, now replaced with a plaster cast. Surrounding Rainbow Dash were her five closest friends, Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight. The latter nudged the doctor, silently gesturing for a talk away from everypony else. He obliged, and walked out of the room with her.
"I know what you’re going to ask." he began. "No. I do not know about the contraption Rainbow had on her wing."
"So, you thought it was odd as well?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, it was odd. But whoever did it knew, or at least had a notion, of what they were doing." said the doctor. "If you wish to examine it, I haven't thrown it out yet." he added.
"No, I don't think that would be ness..."
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" Twilight was interrupted by a very angry shout. "I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU FOR THE PAST 24 HOURS!" Twilight turned to find a very angry baby dragon storming up a flight of stairs, in his claws was clutched a now very wrinkled scroll.
"Oh, I'm sorry Spike, I was at PInkie's helping her make a new special kind of cake." Twilight apoligized.
"You could have at least told me you were at Pinkies!" Spike yelled.
"I thought I left a note..." began Twilight.
"I don't care what you may or may not have left, this came YESTERDAY morning!" the little dragon then threw the scroll on the ground and stormed back down the stairs.
"Yesterday?" stumbled Twilight. She opened the wrinkled scroll and quickly read it. The confused doctor was about to turn back into the room when suddenly Twilight gasped. She dropped the open scroll on the ground and half ran half flew down the stairs.
"SPIKE! START PACKING MY BOOKS!" she yelled frantically. Four confused mares poked their heads out of the room.
"What's goin on?" asked Applejack. The doctor shrugged and said,
"She read that and just ran after that dragon." They looked at the discarded scroll.
"Should we read it?" asked Rarity.
"Ah'm not sure if we should, but it could be important." replied Applejack.
"If it scared Twilight, then I don't want to read it." Fluttershy said timidly.
"I LOVE guessing games! I bet it's about a sinister monster that may or may not try to kill everypony! And now Celestia wants Twilight to help find it!" Pinkie happily yelled.
"Oh, pleeease Pinkie... It surely can't be that..." said Rarity. Reaching a unspoken agreement, they picked up the scroll and read it together.
"Pinkie... Ah swear to Celestia... How the buck do you do that?" asked a mildly depressed Applejack.
"I dunno! It just hits me... CAKE!" Pinkie looked as if she remembered something and ran down the stairs. The three remaining mares looked at each other, until Fluttershy spoke up.
"I...I...I have to...um...look...animals...monster...BYE!" She left in a hurry not associated with Fluttershy.
"Now whut?" Applejack asked after a moment.
"I'm not exactly sure... Celestia only wanted Twilight, so maybe she can handle the monster on her own? Maybe we should stay in Ponyville and see if we can find anything out of the ordinary?" asked Rarity.
"Ah think yer right..." said Applejack, "Maybe whatever it is might show it's face while she's gone..."
"Yes, indeed..." sighed Rarity. She then poked her head into the hospital room and said, "Rainbow! We'll be back tomorrow!" Rarity went unnoticed as Rainbow Dash was nose deep in the very real world of Daring Do. Smiling slightly at the ex-hypocrite, the two went to their respective homes.
+++ At the same moment, outside of Ponyville +++
Silver Star and Nimbus Light had finally stumbled into sight of Ponyville. After going over and over the now deciphered mess had left them both exhausted. They had made their way slowly up the winding road, not finding one trace of the creature leaving it. Meaning, it had found the small town, not a doubt remained. Unfortunately, any further tracks to be found were now trampled by ponies going about their daily lives. So tracking the alien the same way was no longer an option. The two unicorns could no longer do anything until the creature showed itself, or until they thought of some new ideas for finding it. Until then, they had to rest, and regroup. The two exhausted unicorns made their way to a local inn.
"One room please..." asked a worn Silver Star. The mare behind the counter smirked and said.
"Rest and relaxation is right..." the mare winked. Silver glared at her, making it obvious that the two Royal Guardsmen were in no mood to play games.
"One room..." the mare echoed, having gotten the message. They paid with a Royal Business check. We don't have the budget for two rooms... thought Silver Star has the two unicorns helped each other up the stairs.
"In the morning send a report to the Princess..." Nimbus said at the rooms door. Inside, the two beds waiting for them were too tempting for them to take off their armor. They just plopped into the separate beds and began to snore.
+++That evening, in Canterlot.+++
A slightly ruffled Twilight Sparkle burst into Celestia's throne room, dragging an unconscious Spike on the floor behind her.
"I'm here princess!" she wheezed. "I didn't get your message until a few hours ago..."
"Twilight!" yelled a surprised Princess Celestia. She then saw the blacked out baby dragon. "What's wrong with Spike?" she inquired.
"I had to knock him out because he didn't want to come." said Twilight. "And I will need my assistant for your task." she continued
"Oh..." said a somewhat surprised and disturbed Princess Celestia. "You might want to get him to the infirmary just in case... But you on the other hoof need to get to the Royal Guard Headquarters so you can maximize their results."
"Yes of course Princess!" said an excited Twilight, with that she promptly left the throne room, dragging the still sleeping Spike with her. Celestia sat in her throne for a moment.
"Why are you making Twilight search for this mysterious being?" came a question from the shadows. Celestia looked up to see her dark blue sister leaning on a pillar.
"Ah, Luna, I was not expecting you here."
"Most ponies get up one to two hours early before they are required, yes?" Luna stated.
"Y..." began Celestia, but was interrupted by Luna.
"I could find this monster easily, using my abilities to see dreams, so I'll ask again. Why is Twilight Sparkle looking for this unknown monster?"
"Very well. While I don't doubt your abilities Luna, far from it, I hope to test Twilight's ability to command troops, she is a princess now, and it could be an important skill to know." Celestia answered calmly. Luna looked like she was about to interrupt again, but Celestia held up a hoof. "I also hope that she can identify and learn from the monster. It has proven to be quite intelligent, learning from, or harnessing its abilities could be useful." continued Celestia.
"Harness? Dear sister, are you planning on capturing a alien that Void summoned? He has proven to be, puzzling, in the past, mayhaps this is one of his schemes?" asked Luna, looking a little worried.
"Perhaps... But when I, quote, TALKED ,unquote, to him he seemed, extremely afraid of it. In fact he seemed to be willing to be captured by us than face it again. And need I remind you, sister, no sane mind would try to break out of Tartarus. And before it slips my mind, "mayhaps" isn't used any more." corrected Celestia.
"Blast, I will never get used to this millennia... But Tartarus isn't impossible to escape, Lord Tirek proved that. And with as much tenacity, I'm certain that the monster could help Void Spark escape as well." continued Luna.
"While you do raise valid concerns, I am certain Twilight will succeed long before that happens." said Celestia. "But, if you feel the need to investigate yourself, I will not stop you. But I ask you only intervene if things go wrong." she continued.
"Yes sister..." Luna conceded. "I will think of what you said before I must raise the moon." At that, she left the throne room, leaving her sister sitting on the throne. Celestia smiled. While it is good that Luna is worried, if she goes too far it may hinder the overall search, she thought. Celestia looked at the time piece cleverly concealed on the ceiling, about one more hour until Luna would return to guard the night.
+++ One and a half hour later+++
Luna had thought about what her sister said, Yes, educating the young princess was important. But why commanding troops? There was so much else for Twilight to learn, was Celestia expecting a war soon? Surely her sister would warn Luna if she did suspect such a thing... Regardless, Luna was now soaring high above Ponyville, searching for the sleeping mind of the creature. She could see all of the ponies dreams down below.
Several ponies were still awake of course, with important jobs to do, or just too hyper to sleep. But one awake mind did catch her gaze... It looked like a normal ponies mind, until you looked at it's erratic thoughts. Another strange thing was were it was located, right in the middle of a Ponyville street. She couldn't see exactly what the thoughts were about, but it was the movement of the thoughts that was odd. They jumped, shuffled, and jerked around like a magicians set of cards... Most ponies she saw had smooth, elegant thoughts. It wasn't right, it just wasn't natural in the world of Equestria... She used her powers of the night to hide herself. Celestia had given her consent, and now Luna would investigate at her leisure... She swooped down as fast and silent as a shadow, nothing could see her, for she was, guardian of the night. Luna landed in a dark ally way. She could see a figure huddling behind a box. The only resemblance to a pony were four limbs and a head. Other than that the alien was very different. Most of it was covered in a cloak of some kind, with a strange fabric covering it's hind legs. It's skin was a deathly pale tone of peach, so pale it hardly resembled the original color at all. It's snout, was so small as to be nonexistent. It's mane, or at least where a mane would be, was a dark brown, and was ruffled. Before Luna could make any more details the creature ran across the street. By her sister, she was right there and didn't hear a whisper of sound,... She silently followed.
The tall figure crouched in front of the bakery, and pulled something out of a hidden pocket. She leaned in closer to see what it was. Two small metal rods? She was even more confused when it put the rods in the keyhole. What was this idiot of a monster doing? Her thoughts were instantly and abruptly silenced when the lock clicked open. It slide into the door, quiet as she, only a murmur of air. It slipped into the kitchen, she followed suit. It started rummaging through some cabinets and drawers. It bumped a pot and it said some words she could only presume were curse words. It then seemed to find what it was looking for. Luna wondered what it was looking for, food? Treasure? Some alien technology that it had lost? A... pot? It had pulled out a pot. The same pot it had bumped against. It seemed satisfied with it and exited. What, in her sisters name, was it thinking? There was money laying out on the counter, there was food to steal, but it had choose, a pot. She suddenly realized it was near the door, and if it closed it then she would be trapped, a door opening itself would be VERY obvious.
Her tail slipped out just before the door clicked shut. It started making it's way down the street, clearly still trying to be careful. It suddenly stopped,mid stride in front of a store as if it had seen something. It then doubled back a short step and looked at the stores sign. Could it, read...Equestrian? Luna also read the sign. "Bags and Ink" it read. What ever interested the creature in the sign, Luna could only guess. It crouched down in front of the door again and opened the lock in the same manner. And it slipped in again, as silent as a ghost. Luna remained outside this time, in fear of getting her tail caught, and being discovered. The creature appeared soon with a bag that had a single strap, it had also lost the pot it had stolen. It rushed past her, as it passed she could've sworn it murmured something along the lines of
"Only stock two kinds of items and one of them is out..." Ink, the creature wanted ink, and the creature came out with a bag, Twilight had to have bought out all of the towns ink... Again. She almost giggled, but then realized where she was and what she was doing, that stopped her urge to giggle instantly. The creature suddenly stopped, and turned around, looking exactly where she was. Could it have heard her trying to suppress laughing? It stood there for a moment or two, then presumably deciding something, it started sneaking towards the edge of town again. When it finally reached the edge of town, it was near the Everfree Forest. The figure dashed into the treeline and left the town behind. Luna could not follow, brushing against leaves would give her away, and the trees made it too thick to follow from the air. Deciding, that it might be best to leave the creature alone for the rest of the night, Luna started flying towards Canterlot, to document her discoveries.
+++ 45 minutes earlier +++
I had already been awake for three hours, preparing myself for my endeavor into the potentially hostile town. Night had just fallen as I started from the tool shed. The moon wasn't full, but it was bright, I could see most details clearly. So as I passed the barn, something caught my eye. Something glittered in the moonlight on a bench. Wary of any one still in the barn, I took a closer look. Two unusually thin nails that had their heads broken off. I thought for a moment. Any doors could be locked, while I had never picked a lock before, it couldn't be that hard right? So I took both nails. One never knew when something could be handy, especially when you think ahead... I then traveled through the darkness to the edge of the town. It was completely deserted, some lights were on, but so few as to be nothing to worry about. I crouched behind a shipping box. Then I felt as if someone were watching me, I looked around, no one. That was very strange, usually that feeling is ALWAYS right, unless in a paranormaly active area but that's another story. I choose to ignore it. I dashed across the abandoned street to hide behind another box. I still had the feeling. What. The. Hell.
I continued like this until I found a bakery. There had to be a pot in there. I checked if it was locked. Sure enough. Time to test those two nails I found. I had some idea of what I was doing, but I was far from adequate. I wiggled the two pieces of metal in the lock randomly. Click. Well fuck me. It worked. I opened the door slowly, and rushed in, quiet as a specter. I went behind the counter, presuming the door to the kitchens was there. I guessed correctly. I rummaged in the drawers and pantries. In one I accidentally caused a pan to hit a pot. I cursed under my breath, someone could have heard that. As I thought this, I realized that feeling still hadn't gone away. I grabbed the pot and closed the door I was searching in. Everything in the kitchen seemed to be as it was, minus the pot that was now in my hand. I quickly made my way out, closing the door behind me. I now had what I needed, time to get the hell out of town. So, I started my way back towards the way I came.
Half way down the street something caught my eye that made me stop in my tracks however. I looked back at what had my attention. A sign that said "Bags and Ink." Ink, I thought. Ink came in black, black was a stealthy color, it would help cover my glowing white shoes and blue jeans, although I would despise ruining them. But wasting pants and a pair of shoes would beat me dying, so I knelt in front of the door and began to pick the lock. Click. Twice in a row? What sick, sadistic, dice god did I please this time? I went inside. Looking for ink. Annnd... they were out. Every color, every bottle, yes gone. I looked around, the only products in the store were bags that hung on a rack. A bag would be nice, if I gathered enough supplies to need to fill one, and my hoodies front pocket would be awkward to walk around with stuff inside. I sorted through the bags until I found one of decent size and could be carried by a human, with some minor adjustments. I stuffed the pot in the bag and started on my way out when I realized something. I didn't have that someone-is-watching-me feeling anymore. Something was up. Someone had to have been watching me before. Maybe waiting outside for me. I peered outside. No one. Ooookay... My mind was playing tricks on itself. I went outside and closed the door carefully behind me. I walked a little ways.
"Only stock two kinds of items and one of them is out..." I complained to myself. Suddenly I was certain, someone was watching me. I, feeling like going straight to the shack would've been foolish, decided to head back towards the Everfree forest and loop around to the orchard. Suddenly I heard something behind me. The beginnings of a giggle that was suddenly muted. I turned around. No one. But now I knew I wasn't crazy, about being watched that is, someone was there with me. My eyes were lying, but my more sensitive ears told the blatant truth. I rushed down the street, careful to keep acting as if I didn't know someone was there, still hiding here and there. With the final stretch between the woods and the treeline, I made a mad dash into the brush.
+++The next morning, in Ponyville+++
Silver Star awoke with a start. Creature, Inn, morning, bed, armor. She thought. Silver got up and stretched. On the opposite bed Nimbus was still fast asleep. She gently took off her armor.
"Ow." she whispered. Taking it off after wearing it so long had made it hurt. She stretched again, thankful for now lacking the hindrance. She trotted into the bathroom and drew a hot bath. After it was done, she slide in.
"Ahhhh... By Celestia that feels good." she smiled. After enjoying the warmth for a while, she rubbed down with soap and got out. Now, back to business. She thought. Silver got a quill, and some ink and paper out of her bag and began to write.
"Princess Celestia, I am pleased to report that our search for the unknown creature has proven fruitful in that the commander and I, have tracked the creature to the town of Ponyville. We have however, by no means our own, lost the trail of the creature to the daily activities of local ponies. We will however, keep our eyes and senses open to any strange activity in the area. We request your advice and command on the matter. A Faithful Soldier, Silver Star"
She signed the report with a flourish. She slipped out of the room to mail the letter to Canterlot. Outside, just as she was pushing the report into the inns mailbox, she heard cries of rage down the street. Curious, she finished sliding the report into the slot, and trotted down the street. There was a crowd outside the bakery. Not normally a cause for concern, but they seemed angry about something. She pushed her way through the crowd. Standing in front of the door was a ruffled yellow stallion, wearing what was probably the bakeries uniform, who seemed to be trying to keep the crowd at bay.
"Keep calm! I...I'm sure they'll have the new cupcakes done soon!" he shouted, only to be greeted with outrage. "Honey? have you found it yet?" he yelled into the bakery. A muffled but flustered voice came back.
"I can't find it! I know I put it here!"
"Keep looking!" he replied. The crowd seemed to be be getting angier. All this for a new cupcake? Silver thought. That was most certainly odd, but not the odd she had now promised to look for... But as a Royal Guard it was her job to restore order where possible, so...
"ROYAL GUARD! EVERY PONY QUIET NOW!" she yelled over the commotion, now standing in front of the crowd with the yellow stallion. The crowd silenced for a moment. Then somepony asked,
"Where's the armor?" The crowd once again began to get loud and angry. Silver was about to reply when a familiar voice boomed behind the crowd.
"ROYAL GUARD! EVERY PONY SHUT UP NOW!" yelled Nimbus, thankfully still in his armor. He walked through a split in the crowd. "Silver." he acknowledged
"Sargeant." she replied. Nimbus then joined her in facing the crowd.
"Go about your business!" he yelled. The crowd, now realizing the two unicorns were the real deal, grumbled as they dispersed. Finally the it was clear in front of the bakery. "What was going on?" Nimbus asked the yellow stallion. Clearly relieved that he no longer had to deal with an angry mob, the yellow stallion replied.
"W...well, today was supposed to be the debut of a new special kind of recipe for cakes and cupcakes. B..but, Mrs. Cake can't find the mixing pot that was used when we first discovered the recipe." with that he yelled back into the bakery. "Find it yet?"
"No!" came the reply from the presumed Mrs. Cakes.
"Well, keep searching, and I would suggest putting the "closed" sign up for today." recommended Silver.
"Yes, will do..." he said. With that he dashed back inside and flipped the open sign so that it read closed. The two guards starting walking away away.
"When I woke up I saw you were gone and I heard the shouting." began Nimbus. "I figured you had to be at the center of whatever was happening. Some things never change, just like that party during basic."
"For the record, I didn't cause this, and that wasn't a party." replied Silver, remembering the incident during her basic training.
"Either way, I was right, and you were neck deep in trouble." he grinned.
"Yea..." she agreed with a smirk.
"Did you send the report to the Princess?" asked NImbus.
"Yes, it was why I was outside when I saw the bakery crowd." Silver answered. They were silent for the rest of the walk back to the inn. Now all the two unicorns had to do was wait for orders.
+++ In the Apple family orchard, the same morning +++
The small fire I made now had the pot over it. Water fresh from the stream was beginning to boil. I had picked a few apples from nearby trees and was preparing a decent breakfast. The water soon began to roil in the pot, so I took the pot off and let it cool nearby. Ten minutes later it seemed to be cool enough to drink, so I sat on the ground and began to eat a breakfast, first half decent meal in four days... Gosh, had it been that long already?
When I was done my stomach still wanted something. Crap. Apples can't keep me going forever. I thought. I would need some protein soon, and that meant either some nuts, or hunting an animal or something. I didn't see any nut trees that I knew of, so I would have to kill something. I wasn't about to kill a pony, no, they were sentient beings just as I was, so some wild animal would have to do. At that moment I saw a pair of rabbits dart past at the edge of my temporary camp site. So rabbits did exist here? A cage wouldn't be too difficult to construct. I started gathering fallen sticks in the area. Wait, it would be almost impossible to build a square cage. Fuck. The dry sticks wouldn't bend like I needed them to, so I started gathering green sticks from the surrounding trees. They bent wonderfully. I gathered some tough long grass and made a circle using the bending sticks. I then used the grass to tie them into a sort of bundle, using the tension of the sticks to help keep it together. I now had a ring of sticks. I gathered more material from the area. More sticks and grass. I started by bending the sticks so that the ends pushed against the inside of the ring bundle, then I secured them by tying the ends to the ring. And to make sure it all stayed in place, I tied the place where the sticks met in the center. It wasn't the sturdiest thing ever, but it would be easy to repair or replace. I then found a long stick nearby that would prop the cage up. I tested it to make sure I knew where to best hold it up, and that it fell at the slightest jiggle. Perfect, almost. Now I needed bait, a carrot would have do the trick. I thought I saw a garden near the barn, I would have to wait for the residing ponies to leave or look away before I stole anything... No time like the present, I hide my trap in some nearby bushes, memorizing where it was in accordance to the shack. I kicked out the fire and disguised it. Not very easy, but I had to try. I then packed the pot and a couple spare sticks in the bag and started sneaking my way to the barn.
The area outside the barn seemed deserted. But I knew that farmers usually came and went randomly while tending everything. So, I waited. My earlier guess was correct, there was a garden nearby, and I could see some carrot plants sticking out of the ground in a neat row. I was perched behind the tree closest to them. But it was a good five meters between the tree and edge of the garden. A little far in broad daylight. I saw some thing exit the barn. It was the female named "Applejack". She was pulling the stall cart out, probably to go sell apples in town again. Good, one less pony to worry about for a while. She soon left. I waited a few moments. I planned every move I would make in detail. Run over, grab a carrot, yank it out of the ground, run back. I was about to execute the maneuver when a huge red stallion came out of the trees with a cart full of apples in tow. Shit, that had been close. He took off the harness and left the cart next to the barn, and then pulled another empty cart out of the barn. He quickly strapped on the harness and began pulling it away. Suddenly realizing if he forgot anything he would come back in about 30 seconds, so I jerked up, rushed over, yanked a carrot out of the ground and was back behind the tree in less than three seconds. I looked at the carrot, a tad small, but I wasn't going to eat it. Good enough. I brushed the dirt off and began my way back to my hiding spot.
Everything was where I left it. I quickly found the trap and started making my way to the wild trees outside the orchard. Finding a secluded spot, I set the carrot down. I leaned the cage on the stick and put the stick on the carrot. Perfect. All I had to do now was wait, and hopefully a rabbit or something else that was edible would trip the trap. It was now in the afternoon, realizing I was thirsty again, I went to the shack to start boiling more water.
+++ Later that afternoon, Canterlot +++
Twilight Sparkle had set up an efficient command center in a Canterlot Castle room and was busily ordering her assigned Royal Guards to the tiniest detail. She now stood in the middle of the room with a map that she had drawn patrol routes and timetables on. One could hardly see the locations due to the amount of writing on it. She was giving orders to a fresh pair of Guards when a messenger ran to the table.
"Your Highness! Princess Celestia wanted me to give you this!" he handed her a report. It was the same report that Silver Star had written. She read it quickly.
"STOP EVERYTHING!" she suddenly yelled. Everypony stopped their tasks and looked at her with confusion. "Forget everything up until now! Pack everything! We're moving this operation to Ponyville!"
"Ponyville?" whispered everypony in the room.
"The creature has escaped the Everfree Forest and the team tracking it have reported it in Ponyville!" she yelled. At this everypony began packing everything in a hurry. Runners were sent out to give the units already on the hunt their new orders, Celestia was notified and everything was being packed into a last minute ride on the Pony Express, much to the dismay of civilian travelers, but they were compensated for their wait. Within two hours the command structure of the operation was packed, and on its way to Ponyville.
+++ The next morning, the Apple family orchard +++
I got up early, not because I was well rested, in fact I was still tired. But because I had been worrying about the trap, did it fail? Had it fallen over? My stomach growled each time the answer rose above "maybe". I needed something to be in that cage, my long term survival depended on it. Desperate for some protein, I made my way to the trap. It had triggered, yes... I looked inside. There was a frightened rabbit huddled on the far side away from me. I couldn't help but feel sorry for it. I had killed wild animals before, but each time it was out of necessity, and each time I felt kind of sad for the victim in the end. Fortunately I was always able to end an animal's suffering quickly. I laid on the ground, using my body to prevent the rabbit from escaping, and grabbed the luckless creature. It struggled in my grasp, unfortunately for it I have spent much of my life grasping a video game controller.
"I'm sorry, truly I am. But my survival comes before a rabbit." I whispered. "I'll try to make it quick." I quickly grabbed its neck and snapped it. The rabbit struggled briefly and went limp, the pulse underneath my fingers stopped. I tried not to think about the potentially hostile reactions of anything that saw the deed as I skinned and gutted the rabbit with my pocket knife. I had essentially done the same thing on deer, and it wasn't that much different. I soon had a four limbed chunk of meat that could be roasted. I left the skin, head, and organs in a pile, hidden behind a bush, any predators in the area would clean them up. I wiped the blade of the knife on the grass, folded it, and put it back into my pocket. I had to eat it soon before it spoiled, so I built a fire nearby, and soon had a roasted rabbit ready to eat. Without seasoning, it was bland and somewhat tasteless, but I didn't complain, my stomach now had the nutrients it needed and was content. I made sure to waste as little meat as possible as I ate off the bone. I didn't want the poor rabbit think it was being wasted on a whim.
Finally all I had were a pile of bones that had been picked clean, I tossed those with the other left overs behind the bush as well. It was about late mid morning now, and I couldn't think of anything more I had to do, so I went back to the shack, taking the stick cage with me. When I got there, I sat inside and started to think about what to do next.
+++ That same morning, Fluttershy's cottage +++
Since the reading of Princess Celestia's letter, Fluttershy and started fortifying her cottage, and making sure all of the animals she cared for were present and accounted for. There was no way in Tartarus that she would have even one of them get eaten by a monster. Some of them however and spread out far and wide, and had still yet to come back to the general safety of her yard. Fluttershy poked her head over the makeshift wall around her yard that she and her animals had built in the last two days. On her head was one of the helmets that Twilight had given her friends so they could watch the dragon migration with her. She never went of course, because, well, dragons... But she kept the helmet for reasons she couldn't quite fathom. Animals were still coming to her yard every few minutes, but it wasn't until a frantic rabbit had come pounding on her leg until she realized something was wrong.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked the excited creature. The rabbit started making wild gestures that could've meant anything.
"Slow down... You'll get sick if you move too much..." said the shy pegasus. After taking a few deep breathes, the rabbit began it's tale again, slower.
"You and a friend were coming here..." Fluttershy translated out loud. "But then your friend saw a carrot laying on the ground... And when he moved it, a..... A cage trapped your friend?!? He needs help?! Well why didn't you say so..." asked a now even more worried Fluttershy. "Show me where your friend is!" she told the rabbit. The rabbit did a kind of salute and dashed off, Fluttershy zoomed after it, flying at a speed only the emergency Fluttershy was capable of.
The rabbit lead Fluttershy to a remote area outside of the Apple families orchard. It suddenly stopped, still wanting to go forward, but unable to do so.
"Is this the place?" asked Fluttershy. The rabbit shook its head no, then pointed ahead towards a group of trees. "Is that where your friend is?" asked Fluttershy, the rabbit nodded. "Go on then..." encouraged the pegasus, she gently pushed the rabbit forward, the rabbit shook its head wildly and darted behind some invisible line. "What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked the scared rabbit. The rabbit then pointed at its nose, and took a huge breath through it. "Smell?" asked a confused Fluttershy. The rabbits head nodded up and down. "Okay..." said the timid pony. She sniffed. She had never smelt anything like that before, but every fiber of her being told her to run away... What was near those trees? She thought to herself. She started to fly forwards a little, then backed away when the smell got too strong. "Come on Fluttershy! You've out stared a cockatrice, intimidated a dragon, and helped save Equestria who knows how many times!" she cried. "You can't be scared of some trees? Right?" she looked back at the nearby trees that told her to run far away. "Yes I am..." she whimpered. She took a large breath, through her mouth, and pulled together what little courage she had. "You can do this... You can do this..." she repeated to herself as she strode forwards. The urge to run away got stronger and stronger, but she fought it off, reminding herself that a helpless rabbit was stuck in this horror. She finally pulled back a bush when she saw the pile of bones and organs. Her little courage broke and she ran screaming past the confused rabbit. "Twilight, gotta tell Twilight, gotta tell Twilight..." she whispered to herself as she ran back to Ponyville.
+++ At the train station in Ponyville, a few minutes later +++
Twilight was over seeing the unpacking of the Royal Guards equipment off the train when she heard a cry from behind her.
"Twilight! Twilight!" it was Fluttershy, she must've already heard that Twilight had come back to Ponyville. Then Twilight saw that Fluttershy wasn't happy, she was scared... Not unusual for Fluttershy but something told Twilight that something was seriously wrong.
"Fluttershy what's wrong?" asked Twilight. Fluttershy took a huge breath and began to babble incoherently. "Whoa whoa, slow down Fluttershy, I can't understand what you’re saying!" Twilight said. Fluttershy took a few deep breathes, by this time several Guards had taken an interest in the conversation and were listening in.
"I...I...I was l...looking f...for a t...trapped ra...rabbit," Fluttershy started breathing deeply again. "A...and... OH just follow me!" she grabbed Twilight and began to drag her towards the Apple family farm. Several Guards came along, just in case Twilight needed to send orders or something, Fluttershy ignored them.
Fluttershy dragged Twilight to the remote area outside the Apple orchard, when she suddenly stopped.
"There's nothing here Fluttershy!" exclaimed a little irritated Twilight, until she noticed Fluttershy pointing towards a copse of trees.
"Fluttershy... What's in the trees?" asked Twilight. All Fluttershy did was shake her head, looking like she was trying not to vomit. "Fluttershy..." began Twilight, but was interrupted by a whispering Fluttershy,
"S...smell..." was all she said. The guards and Twilight simultaneously sniffed the air. None of them had smelt something like that before... And their reaction to it was the same as Fluttershys, the overwhelming urge to run away. None of them did. Cautiously, Twilight slowly walked to the bunch of trees that Fluttershy had pointed at. It didn't take her long to find what had scared Fluttershy and come back.
"Somepony go get a box, preferably an airtight one..." she gagged. One of the guards saluted and rushed to fulfill the order. "Fluttershy, go home, we'll talk about this later..." Fluttershy nodded and zipped off, not wanting to spend another moment nearby.
"Your highness? What is it?" asked one of the guards.
"We'll soon find out..." answered Twilight. They all waited behind the invisible barrier as the guard returned with an airtight wooden box.
"Perfect." said Twilight after inspecting it, not complaining that it was a little large. "Somepony bring that and hold the lid open." ordered Twilight. Two guards picked up the box and followed Twilight back into the trees. They held the box and lid for Twilight as she lifted the remains with her magic. Both of them gagged visibly, but remained standing where they were. Twilight gently laid the remains in the box and the guards eagerly closed and nailed the lid shut. With the source of the smell gone, the overwhelming feeling of dread was replaced with only an urge to avoid the place, which all three of them willingly obliged. Thankfully the box kept the smell inside.
"Take that to the castle and lock it in a dungeon." Twilight ordered, knowing that not many ponies, if any, go there. Was this, desecration, the work of the alien they were hunting? Twilight feared that it was. And if it was... What could it do to a pony?
+++ That evening, Canterlot. +++
Luna sat in her study. The report from Twilight this afternoon was very disturbing. Not the fact that the creature was in Ponyville, Luna didn't tell Twilight any of her discoveries as she thought it counted as intervening, but the fact that it had killed and desecrated an animal. Twilight didn't start to examine the body yet however. She had claimed that she needed something to cover her nose and mouth to begin. Celestia had commissioned a device almost on the spot. But Luna had other concerns. Was the creature hostile? After that night when she had followed it, she had almost completely forgotten the creature. But the report today had raised more questions... She needed to look into the dreams of the alien. Its intentions needed to be known. And it's mind was the only place where those answers lay. It was now almost time to relieve her sister. She already knew what she was going to do that night, all she needed now was to wait for the time to bring the moon over the horizon. When it was finally time to relieve her sister she got up and mad her her way to the watch tower.
The sun was beginning to fall as Celestia's strength waned again for the day.
"I know what you’re going to do Luna." said Celestia with a yawn when Luna entered the room. "But keep in mind that it is not at all like a pony, and its dreams may have strange effects."
"I already am aware of this sister... But it is our duty to protect Equestria, no matter the personal cost." replied Luna, "And every minute we are unaware of its purpose, is another minute that could bring us closer to the end of our land."
"I see there is no changing your mind. Just be careful." Celestia hugged her younger sister and went to her chambers. The sun had just set. With the unwavering strength of the night, Luna raised the moon. It's glow illuminated Equestria in its deathly pale light. Luna always enjoyed the moons light shining on the land. But she had other duties tonight and couldn't afford to stare at the beautiful moon. She rose from the balcony on silent wings, and veered towards Ponyville.
Ponyville, Twilights' castle was a multitude of window lights as the guards assigned to her rushed to perform their new duties to find the monster. Luna cast her mind out, searching for the strange thought patterns of the creature. There it was, somewhere in the apple orchard. It was sleeping, so it wasn't completely nocturnal after all. With a dive, she descended into it's dreams.
She landed on hard white marble. It was impossibly smooth, so smooth it looked soft. The area around her was shrouded in darkness, the only light seemed to appear from the air around her. All she could see were two parallel edges on either side of where she was standing. Luna looked over one, and saw nothing but a straight drop into a crushing abyss. She looked towards where the marble seemed to lead into the darkness.
"Hello?" she called. All that answered her was her own echo. Swallowing, she started to walk forwards. The light seemed to follow her as she walked. That was alright, it would be easy to fall off in the darkness. Luna thought, forgetting she had wings. She was walking for several minutes when the darkness vanished and she could see the room she was in. Well, not a room, more like a cavernous hallway.
The platform she was standing on appeared to be a bridge over a vast expanse, that lead a very long way to a pair of titanic double doors. The walls that she couldn't see before, were made of geometric shapes that repeated in patterns, light shone out of spots like search lights and illuminated the entire hall. The ceiling, was high and arched like an old cathedral. Everything seemed to be made of the same white marble that the bridge was made of. Luna was blown away at the sheer size of it. The entirety of Canterlot could've fit comfortably between the two walls... Luna continued walking for what seemed like half an hour, until she reached the titanic door. On it were carvings that she couldn't read or make out. She knocked on a door. It wouldn't be nice if she just barged through, if she even could open the miracle of engineering... Nothing answered. After a few minutes she got frustrated and pulled on one of the double doors. It moved easier than moving a piece of parchment. The entire stone door, taller and wider than Canterlot, moved at her slightest touch. She cautiously walked through and closed the amazingly quiet door behind her. What she saw next, even to this day, astounded her. The bridge continued to a circular platform, also surrounded by an even wider sea of the abyss. The huge room was supported by massive marble columns that made the walls, with geometric shapes in between, the ceiling was arched and domed, like the hallway. In what she assumed were the other three cardinal directions, were more doors exactly like the one just behind her. What was over the center platform however was what grabbed her attention. There was a massive glowing sphere that floated, rotated, shrunk, and grew in size. She walked on, absorbing all of the intricate details, until she reached the platform. The sphere was directly over head, and she now realized they were made of pictures and emotions. Memories... Luna thought. She almost missed the the figure sitting in a dark chair underneath the sphere of complex thoughts.
"Hello?" she called. The chair somehow turned towards her, she gasped. There it was, the creature whose dreams she was intruding on. It looked small compared to the vast architecture around it.
"Hello." it replied in a male voice. "This is the first time someone has come here." it said as the chair turned back to what it was looking at.
"First time?" she called, confused that it cared little for her alicorn appearance.
"Yes, this is the first time someone has thought to view my thoughts." it replied.
"Others of your kind can see dreams as well?" Luna called.
"No, only a few of my kind cares for the inner workings of a persons mind, and none of them can see dreams as you do." it replied. She thought about this for a moment.
"What are you?" she asked. The being in the chair sighed, and answered,
"Good question."
"Wh..." began Luna.
"That is a good question as I am unlike the majority of my species, who care little beyond their greedy lives. While they sit and roll in their own personal filth that is their daily lives, I sit by and contemplate the various futures of myself, and species. I am unlike them, and they are unlike me, so I don't know what I am." Several memories enlarged themselves in front of the sitting figure and began to play. A larger alien pushing a smaller specimen, whispers of gossiping voices, dreams crushed by a hammer blow from a greedy economy . "Granted, I know I am not alone when I see these things... But society out numbers the few who do think this way, several hundred thousand to one." The creature seemed very calm as it stated these views. Luna thought about what it said.
"How can you remain so calm? It is obvious that you despise the culture that raised you, but how do you not feel anger towards it?" Luna asked, thinking of her own experiences before her banishment to the moon.
"A mystery that we both have no answer to." said the creature. "Forgive me, but I am tired and I... I just need to think..." Luna was surprised at this statement, as the creature hadn't, until now, shown any emotion.
"Very well... I'll let you... get some rest..." she said.
"Yes... thank you..." the creature said. Luna began walking towards the door she entered from, but she looked back. The creature had made no attempt to begin resting, instead it watched the same memories over and over again... She opened the door and exited the dream.
+++ The next morning, the Apple family orchard +++
I woke from a strange dream. I had told what I believed to be an "alicorn" about some of my personal demons, I have no idea what event in the past few days caused this dream to occur, but I will search any memory I can to locate the source, and possibly the dreams meaning. I still had no idea what to do next in terms of my physical survival however. So, I boiled some water and picked a few apples and bunkered down in the shack.
+++ Twilights Castle, the next few days. +++
Silver Star and Nimbus Light were reunited with Wind Rush when the search was moved to Ponyville. The three of them, since they were the only ones who had made confirmed contact with the alien, had instructed the newly added members to their mission, about what they had learned about it in the brief time they had encountered it. Twilight, had then assigned them to the team that she would help in the field. Twilight had also, early on in the search, outlined the surrounding area with a spell that would alert her if the monster exited the area, she apparently wanted to capture it for scientific studies, and didn't want it harmed. Patrols were out covering nearly every inch of Ponyville and surrounding areas at almost all hours of day and night, with patrols switching every few hours. To help keep morale up, she had spent some of her personal savings on a home theater for one of her many studies, and had ordered tons of food from a local restaurant to help feed the mass of Guards. The combination had kept everypony in the Royal Guard happy, the same could not be said for the workers of said restaurant, but Twilight had paid so that was that. Twilight, unlike the guards, almost never stopped in her efforts to find the alien, she had to be dragged to bed by her grumpy dragon assistant Spike.
Twilight had finally managed to find something to cover her nose and mouth so she could examine the rabbits remains. She, to everyones relieve, soon had recorded everything about them and ordered the remains to be destroyed.
The search remained fruitless until one of Twilights friends came to the castle and demanded an audience with her.
"Twilight!" exclaimed Applejack.
"AJ!" greeted Twilight.
"Ah... um... Ah've found something yall might want to see..." said Applejack.
"What'd you find?" asked an excited Twilight, she was very eager to find the alien.
"Well... Ah was walking through the orchard today, and I smelled something funny..." began Applejack
"Oh no! Not another one!" exclaimed distraught Twilight.
"Let me finish! Ah heard about what Fluttershy found, and this ain't it."
"Go on..."
"Kay... So I looked through some bushes and I found a pile of apple cores."
"Apple cores?" asked Twilight.
"Yea... And I asked Big Mac, Applebloom, and Granny Smith if they've been eatin’ apples out in the orchard and throwing 'em in a pile. And each one of them said that they haven't been eatin’ apples, at least not out in the orchard!"
"Curious..." said Twilight.
"Twi, do you think that maybe your monster is in mah orchard?" asked Applejack.
"Wait...How do you know about the monster?" asked Twilight.
"Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, and mahself may have read the letter Celestia sent you..." admitted Applejack. Twilight face hoofed and sighed. "And talk around the town ain't keepin' yer secret..." continued Applejack.
"I supposed it was inevitable..." sighed Twilight. "Alright then, yes, the alien MAY be eating your apples Applejack."
"So what are we gonna do?" asked Applejack.
"The same thing we did last time we thought something was in your orchard..."
"Steakout." they said together.
"But no spells that turn Fluttershy into a vampire..." warned Applejack.
"Now AJ, you know I can't make that promise." Twilight joked. They both laughed. "No, I think Fluttershy has had enough of the creature, I won't pressure her, or any of the others to help." said Twilight.
"So, when are we gonna do it?" asked Applejack.
"What time is it?"
"Uh... Almost noon..."
"In three hours."
"That soon?! Twi, maybe we shouldn't rush into this..." Applejack veered off.
"I agree, we shouldn't rush this, but necessity sometimes has other ideas. It must be captured before it kills a pony! And who knows what it'll do next!" exclaimed Twilight.
"Ah see yer point... But why three hours?"
"So far, it has been active at all times of the day, possibly stealing a pot during the night, gathering food during morning hours, and, if I'm right, maybe returning to its nest or shelter in the late afternoon or evening." answered Twilight. "Go home and get your family prepared, I don't think them getting in the way would be helpful. I'll start assembling a team to capture it."
"Okay Twilight... You sound like you know what yer doin..." answered Applejack as she left the foyer.
When she was gone Twilight started writing a letter to Princess Celestia, outlining her plan. Then she gathered the team she had chosen for her own scientific patrols. Ten Royal Guard unicorns and pegasi, each one brought a unique skill or experience that would help capture the alien. The original tracking team, NImbus, Silver, and Wind Rush were included.
"I've gotten a tip that our quarry is hiding in the local apple orchard," Twilight said to the assembled soldiers. "I've devised a plan that should enable us to capture it, should we come across it. But I'm warning you now, there is a high chance we will see it. So if any of you don't want to come, I'll accept that. As you all know, the monster is very dangerous, and will require a willing attitude to capture. If any of you wish to stay behind, or have any questions, say something now." After a moment a stallion unicorn stepped forwards. "Yes?" asked Twilight.
"When is this mission going to take place?" he asked.
"Three hours."
"I'm in." he replied. All of them stepped forwards to also join in, but Silver took two steps forward.
"Your Majesty, I think I also speak for Sergeant Nimbus and Wind when I say, LET'S GET THIS MOTHER CLOPPER!" she yelled. Nimbus and Wind responded with a,
"HOOF YEA!" At this Twilight smiled, it was obvious the trio had been together a long time, and had a friendship that could rival the friendships she had with her friends.
"We'll be leaving the castle in two and a half hours, tracking and capture gear will be necessary. And as Silver Star so kindly put it, LET'S GET THIS MOTHER CLOPPER!" yelled Twilight. The ten responded with a yelling cheer, and went to their assigned bunks to get equipment.
Twilight also went to her chambers, and started packing parchment, quills, and ink. She also strapped on some of the golden Royal Guard armor, minus the helmet as it might get in the way of serious spell casting. While stretching out her wings, Spike, who had started to get over his annoyance with Twilight, walked into the room and saw her in the armor. For some reason he started laughing hysterically.
"What's so funny?" asked Twilight. The baby dragon didn't hear, he was too busy trying to breathe. Twilight walked over and kicked him, trying to get his attention. He still didn't stop laughing. "What's so funny?!" she yelled.
"I...I...I never thought I'd see you in armor!" he said in between maniacal laughter. What ever the joke was, Twilight didn't get it.
"Oh shut up and help me get my bag on." she said, now irritated with Spike. He started to settle down a little as he helped get Twilights saddle bag on, but he still chuckled. Suddenly a light bulb went on in Twilight's head.
"Hey Spike, how good are a dragons sense of smell?" she asked looking at the baby dragon with a devilish glint in her eyes. Spike stopped giggling when he saw that she had an idea.
"Pretty excellent compared to most things... Why?" he asked hesitantly.
"Good, your coming." she replied with a grin.
"Coming? Where?" the dragon asked.
"Applejacks orchard." she replied
"I've been to the orchard before, why..." suddenly his purple scales seemed to get a little paler. "Oh no... No... Nononono... I'm not coming to help track the monster." he stated.
"Think of it as a learning experience... And punishment for laughing at me." Twilight said as she dragged the helpless dragon behind her.
"Nooooooooo!" he yelled behind her.
+++ At the Apple Family Orchard, three hours later. +++
A very disgruntled Spike sat on Twilights back as she, and the ten other ponies trotted up to the Apple Family barn. Next to the barn stood the Apple family.
"Hey Twi! And company." said Applejack.
"Hey Applejack. Um... We'll only need you to lead us around the orchard and and show us where you found the cores... Why is your family with you?" Twilight asked bluntly.
"Ah know that! But they!" she said while gesturing to Big Mac, Applebloom, and Granny Smith, "Wanted to know what's goin’ on!" Twilight sighed, and then began to explain everything.
"We'll be looking around in the orchard looking for a possibly dangerous monster, but I would like YOU to be out of harms way in case things go wrong. And the only way you guys can do that is stay in your house, or go into Ponyville for possibly the night. I'm sorry for being rude but time is of the essence!"
"Whee know that!" said Granny Smith, "Whee just wanna see the Royal Gerds before whee tuck in fer the night!"
"Ah think Ah should warn ya, Granny here likes to get up in the middle of the night and wander the orchard." said Big Mac.
"Can you keep her inside? Just for the night? asked Twilight.
"Eeyup, but no guarantees." replied the large stallion. Applebloom remained silent, instead she stared at the Royal Guards with dilated pupils. "Come on you two..." said Big Mac, gently pushing Applebloom and Granny Smith towards their house.
"But Ah need ta inspect that pegasus right there! Up close and make sure he iz tha real deal!" yelled Granny Smith while pointing at Wind Rush. Eventually Big Mac got Granny Smith and Applebloom into the house, much to the relief of everypony outside.
"I feel like she's still watching me..." said a scared Wind Rush.
"Good, that'll make you want to stay in the orchard." said a chuckling Silver Star.
"Which way Applejack?" asked Twilight.
"That way." AJ replied while pointing in a direction.
"Okay! Let's go!" exclaimed Twilight.
+++ The Apple Family Orchard, Dusk, with the Xeno +++
I had spent the last few hours collecting useful materials around the orchard. I didn't know what I needed them for just yet... But it was something to do. I was making my way back to the shack when I heard voices. I quickly hid behind a tree, rustling a bush would've been a dead give away. I saw a multitude of light beams through the trees. I couldn't count how many there were, but if I had to guess I would say at least four or five. Shit, looks like I settled in one place for too long… But I didn't have time for coulda-shoulda-woulda thoughts so I pushed them away. I mentally mapped out where I thought the sources of light were coming from, kind of like a submarines sonar. Those lights could also hide their numbers, so I started to expect more than four or five unicorns. One of their lights must of glinted off my glasses as suddenly one of them yelled
"Over there!" Shit, time to scatter. I ducked as a bolt of magic burned over my head. That hadn't come from the lights, that meant my revised original estimate was wrong, and that I was possibly surrounded. I lay prone and started to crawl under the brush.
"Where'd it go?!" a pony yelled. Good, off the radar for a small amount of time. I crawled about ten meters before I stood up behind a tree again, certain from the sounds of crunching and yelling that all my pursuers had only flanked me on one side. But I still might have to worry about pegasi, I kept a sharp eye on the sky. Ten meters wasn't a very long distance, that meant my hunters were still on top of me, albeit not aware of my shift. I pulled a rock out of my bag and threw it off to my left.
"Over there!" one of them yelled, falling for the bait. I then crouched and snuck the opposite way. Unfortunately my ruse hadn't fooled them all, as the whoosh directly over my head told me otherwise. I landed face first into the dirt. Ow. I was right, pegasi were in the area. I quickly got up and sprinted away, forgetting stealth for the moment. A fast moving target through the trees would be hard to hit for both unicorn and pegasus, potentially dangerous for the latter as they could hit a tree. All I had to do was concentrate on the surrounding trees, and not hit them myself. Blasts of energy whizzed nearby, I was saved by a tree on more than one occasion. Several bursts of air near my head told me that the pegasi were homing in, so I did an unexpected thing and turned into a group of tightly packed trees. I thought I heard two of them collide in mid air behind me. But my mind was instantly submerged back into the situation as renewed blasts of magic started burning the air around me. It was dark by this time, and the energy cast zipping over head shed an eerie light over the surrounding trees.
That was when I unexpectedly ran into one of them. The unicorn, I could tell by the horn that almost stabbed me, most likely was going to surprise me by blasting me from straight ahead. Very clever, I was busy dodging side blasts, so a straight on attack would've got me. But the unicorn underestimated the speed that I was moving at and jumped out too late to shoot. We went down tangled together. I gathered my surprise up first, was untangled, and was once again jumping through the orchard before the unicorn was up. It charged me, I couldn't outrun an equine in a straight run... It was impossible for a human to do so. What I could do, however, was use my two feet to turn faster than a pony. So I began to juke left and right, to throw off the direction I would turn in. Somehow the energy blasts stopped, from not wanting to hit one of their own, or lost us in the trees I didn't know. The whooshing overhead also stopped, so maybe I had lost most of them, besides the one right on my tail... I dived suddenly to the right. The unicorn didn't expect that at all, it tried to turn with me, but momentum kept it going forwards and it somersaulted. All I heard however was a bone shattering crack and a scream of pain. I got off the ground. The unicorn, she, had landed face first in her somersault and her front right leg had broken when her hoof it the ground. It was bad, I could see the bone sticking out of the skin. The moon was high and bright enough for me to.
Dammit, it was the downed pegasus all over again. Her pals were nearby... Supposedly... I couldn't hear them any more... Fuck me. And her leg was now bleeding profusely. I had no choice. I knelt by her side.
"Don't move, this will hurt a lot..." I said. She looked ready to reply, but I had grabbed her hoof and straightened her broken leg. She screamed in pain. Next, I had to stop the bleeding, I put my body weight on the tear, trying to force it to scab over and close, I didn't have any bandages...
"Fuck..." I whispered, I took off my sweater, my favorite, lucky sweater, and put it over the wound. The unicorn moaned. I looked around, something to bind and splint the leg would be nice.The only things I could see and/or think of were in the bag I had just thrown off. Dammit. I kept the pressure on the wound, still looking around. Anything would've helped a little... But she had chosen the most inconvenient spot to break her leg. That was when I was suddenly blinded by a bright beam of light in my eyes.
"Get off her!" some one yelled. I was instantly grabbed from behind and yanked away from the wounded mare.
"AAAH!" I shouted in surprise. "I'm trying to save her!" I yelled. I heard voices murmuring behind me.
"Let it try." said a familiar voice that I couldn't place. I was let go and I immediately started putting pressure on the leg, making sure that the leg was laying flat so I didn't knock the bone out of alignment.
"In my bag, get a sturdy stick and gather some long grass from nearby." I ordered. I was too busy to realize that they were murmuring behind me.
"Do it." said the same commanding voice. Someone handed me a stick, I used it to brace the unicorns leg. Grass started to appear before me and I wrapped it around the stick and my sweater and started tying it, making extra sure it was as tight as possible.
"Someone get the paramedics!" I cried. The ponies behind me sounded confused. "The ones who respond to emergency situations such as this!" I elaborated. I kept my hands pressing on the supported wound. I heard a flutter of wings that vanished into the night. I kept the pressure on the wound for who knows how long. Then this world's equivalent of paramedics suddenly arrived and took the unicorn away to the hospital. I laid on the ground, exhausted. It wasn't until later that I realized I blacked out.
+++ At the same time +++
The monster was crouched over Silver Star, the Royal Guards rushed in and grabbed it from behind. It struggled, yelling,
"I'm trying to save her!" it yelled. The surrounding Royal Guards starting muttering, trying to decide if they should let it continue, or keep it restrained. Finally Twilight spoke up.
"Let it try." The guards let the creature go and it lunged back onto Silvers leg. Twilight watched with interest, not yet realizing she had seen several of these creatures before.
"In my bag, get a sturdy stick and gather some long grass from nearby." it muttered, concentrating on its task.
"Do it." ordered Twilight, eager to see what the creature did. The surrounding guards then rummaged through the bag thrown aside by the creature and produced a hefty stick. Some of the others went of to find the longest grass nearby. The creature took the stick and put it under Silvers leg, keeping the broken limb straight has it pressed on it. Probably to stop the bleeding... thought Twilight. Some the guards came back with some grass, and the creature took them without a word, quickly using the grass as string to tie a piece of material and the stick to the leg.
"Someone get the paramedics!" shouted the alien. Then realizing that the ponies had no idea what the alien was talking about, "The ones who respond to emergency situations such as this!" it elaborated. A pegasus took to the air to get the ponymedics from the hospital. The pegasus soon came back with the ponymedics trailing behind. They quickly helped the alien stabilize Silver and took her to the hospital. When they were gone, the alien fell on its back in exhaustion, and started to sleep. Twilight looked down at the alien, now recognizing what he was for the first time. How did he get here? Twilight thought to herself.
"Your majesty? What should we do with it?" asked one of the Guards.
"Him." corrected Twilight.
"Y...your majesty?" asked the confused Guard.
"I know what he is, and we don't need to fear him." she continued. "But to answer your question, bring him to the castle and give him a room, but I want the room locked and guards posted outside."
"Yes your majesty." replied multiple Guards. They picked up the sleeping human and carried him to Twilights castle. Two guards however remained behind. They were Nimbus and Wind Rush.
"Any thing wrong?" asked Twilight.
"Silver..." muttered Wind Rush. The two close friends of Silver Star were in shock.
"She'll be alright..." reassured Twilight. "Come on, I'll take you two to the hospital." Twilight trotted away, the two stunned soldiers followed.
+++Also at the same time.+++
Luna had watched the whole thing. The chase, the clever maneuvers of the alien that Twilight had identified as a human, and the breaking of the leg of that poor unicorn. She had not interfered, as Celestia had instructed. The human was now unconscious, laying on the backs of several Royal Guards as they brought him to Twilights castle. They soon reached the castle and had found the human a deserted room, locking the door behind them as Twilight had instructed and leaving some guards outside to prevent escape. Luna landed on the balcony. The human did not stir. She was still curious about the humans dreams, and was soon walking in the same marble hallways of his dreams.
The hallway was the same as before, but it was fully lit when her hooves touched down on the marble bridge. She walked towards the mammoth doors, now a little familiar with the dream. What was behind the door however wasn't what she was suspecting. The glowing sphere of memory was gone. Instead four mechanical arms were moving around the center platform and were shooting beings of metal, stone, and memory that were climbing out of the abyss. The human now sat a huge organ like instrument and was playing furiously , the sound from it however didn't come from any pipes like a normal organ, it just emanated out of the surrounding air, and oddly in a room this size, the music didn't echo ether. The arms were moving in sync with the music.
"Hello." said the human, he didn't even turn around.
"Hello." replied Luna. "What, pray tell, are you doing?" she asked. The human continued to play the ominous music and sighed.
"Music helps me concentrate. And I'm using it to drive memories away." he replied.
"Memories? Why would you want to drive memories away?" Luna asked with a little confusion. A memory monster had just climbed over the edge, only to be sent flying back by one of the machine arms.
"Some, are memories too painful, too tragic, too embarrassing, too anger inducing to let me reminisce about." he continued, still playing the strange song on the organ.
"Anger inducing?" asked Luna. Before the human could reply the platform shook.
"Curses of the most foulest kind." said the human. "It's back." The mechanical arms suddenly went limp as a huge claw then grabbed the edge of the platform. It was bigger than the instrument that the human was playing, and its talons nearly as long as Luna.
"Hehehehehehe... " rumbled the huge head that slithered over the edge as the monstrous dragon dragged it's chest onto the platform, leaving its hind legs underneath. The dragon was unlike any other that Luna had ever seen, it looked more chaotic and feral than most dragons, its wings were also its front limbs, so there were titanic wings attached behind the claws that had dragged the monster over the edge. Its tail whipped behind Luna, who was facing the dragon head, if it was all the way back there, who knew how long the dragon was.
"Have thou missed me little one ?" the dragon mockingly asked.
"Go away." said the human foalishly.
"GO AWAY?! HAHAHAHA! Is that how you greet your only real source of power ?" rumbled the angry red dragon.
"Anger has done nothing good for me, and you know that." stated the human who now seemed to be struggling to play the instrument.
"Oh, but I have pulled us out more situations than you like like to admit... " whispered the dragon into the humans ear.
"Leave him alone!" yelled Luna. The dragon then turned its evil head towards the princess.
"And what do we have here? " it rumbled. "A little horse defending the great steward of these mighty halls? " the dragon whipped his head around, gesturing the architecture around them. "I have smote far greater foes than you, little equine... You wouldn't dare attempt to challenge me... "
"Why are you here?" asked Luna.
"Is that not obvious ?" asked the dragon. "I am here to take the seat of power from the useless hominid, and escape from the predicament that he has put us in! " Seat of power? Luna had no idea what the dragon was talking about.
"What has he done?" shouted Luna.
"You should already know that, little equine... After all, it is your kind that imprisons us as we speak. " the dragon rumbled angrily.
"No..." whispered the human as he stopped playing completely. The memories finally climbed over the edge and were approaching.
"No? Then pray tell insect, what are we doing in this lavish jail cell? " the dragon mocked the increasingly weakening human.
"I am not in a prison, you however need to return to your cell..." stated the human.
"HAHAHA! You seriously believe that you can force me into your exile!? " laughed the demon dragon. The memories were now close enough for Luna to hear them whispering...
It's a cold winter day... outside on a playground...
The fall leaves make the bus ride dusty...
A Summer rain drives you into your favorite store...
They edged closer and closer to the comatose human, whispering in his ears. Weakly, the human picked his front limbs up, and began to play the organ again, a vastly different song this time.
"What?!? " cried the dragon. Luna had no idea what was going on. "No! No! " continued the rage monster. The marble underneath pulsed with a bright blue power, emanating from the human and his machine, the arms overhead began to twitch with life. The music grew in strength, focusing the humans mind and bringing life back to it. The surrounding memories were blown away like leaves in a storm, the dragon suddenly was yanked backwards into the abyss by invisible chain, but it still hung on to the platform with its massive claws. The gun arms moved and began to whine with power, they pointed at the precariously perched dragon.
"No! You need me puny one! " roared the dragon.
"Get the hell out of my head." whispered the human as he played. With that, lightning arced from the arms and planted themselves into various parts of the dragon, who screamed in rage and pain as he tumbled into the crushing abyss. The platform was quiet except for the hauntingly triumphant melody that the human played.
"Please... Let me rest..." whispered the human to Luna. She wanted to do nothing else as she walked to the massive door she came in.
+++ Ponyville hospital, two days later +++
Silver Star awoke with a start. The last thing she remembered was leaving Twilight’s castle for the Apple Families orchard... Everything else that night was blurred out.
"What happened?" she asked, hoping somepony was nearby to answer.
"Beats me, you were just carried in here a couple of days ago and was out for most of the time..." said a strange pony. Silver looked towards the speaker, a light blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane, she had a cast on her wing.
"Where are we?" asked Silver.
"Wow, did you knock your head or something? We're at the hospital!" exclaimed the pegasus.
"Hospital?" Silver looked over her chest at her body, no bandages... Then why... She saw the cast on her right hoof. She suddenly realized it hurt, alot.
"Ow!" she yelled. A doctor ran into the room as soon as she cried out.
"Is there anything wrong Ms. Star?" he asked.
"My hoof hurts... A lot..." said Silver.
"After a break like that, I'm not surprised!" said the doctor.
"Break?"
" 'Ey doc! I don't think she remembers anything!" shouted the pegasus. The doctor sighed, clearly wanting the blue pegasus out of his ward.
"You, had a major bone break in your right hoof, I'm told it had even pierced the skin!" said the doctor as he gave Silver some pain killers.
"How..." started Silver, but then Twilight burst into the room.
"Oh good! She's awake!" she exclaimed. Twilight and the doctor must've had a prearranged agreement as the doctor quickly backed out of the room.
"What... How..." stumbled Silver.
"Okay, before you ask any questions. Yes, we caught him, yes you were injured in the conflict, yes he is in a secure location, and you've been asleep for two days." stated Twilight.
"Him?" asked Silver, confused about not calling the alien "it".
"I've identified his species, and he's harmless... For the most part." said Twilight. Silver thought for a moment.
"How'd I break my leg?" she asked.
"You're sure you want to hear?" asked Twilight.
"Yes!"
"Fine," Twilight took a deep breath. "The alien, who we now know is a human, was running through the orchard. You, must've thought it would've been a good idea to tackle him while he was dodging magic blasts from the rest of the unicorns. I guess it worked as we lost sight of both of you as you two fell down. Then, we guess that you chased him through the woods, and somehow you tripped and broke your leg, really bad."
"Define really bad." dead-panned Silver.
"I could see bone poking through your skin."
"Then how..." asked Silver looking at her normally shaped hoof.
"Well..." Twilight took a deep calming breath. "It wasn't any pony who saved you."
"What?!" asked Silver, in disbelief.
"The human was the one who stopped the bleeding and set your bone straight." Twilight admitted. Silver could not believe it, the thing she had chased, almost killed in the Everfree Forest with magic blasts... Had saved her?
"Can I speak to...him..." Silver stumbled over the gender pronoun as she was used to calling the human "it".
"I'm afraid even I haven't talked to him yet..." said Twilight sadly. "He fell asleep after he helped you and hasn't woken up yet..." Silver was a little disappointed. "I've had Princess Luna enter his dreams, but she won't say anything about them..." continued Twilight. "Anyhow, I don't think I would let you talk to him yet anyway, you've got to get that leg fixed before I'll let you near him. Good seeing you Rainbow..." Said Twilight as she started walking out of the room. She then left Silver alone with the also wounded pegasus.
"Good seeing you too!" called the pegasus, then she saw the look on Silvers face. "Ah, don't worry... The food's not that bad..." stated the pegasus, now nose deep in a book. That wasn't what Silver was worrying about at all, she had some pretty disgusting food in the wild and never complained... No, this... human, whatever that was, had saved her, AFTER, she had tried to kill or capture it, him, her, it, whatever it was. And why was it still sleeping? Wasn't she the one who got seriously injured?
+++ Extract from the personal journal of Princess Luna. +++
After the dream dive the night the human was captured, Twilight wanted me to visit its dreams, still unaware that I had already visited them twice. But I obliged the newly crowned Princess, and went into the humans dreams again. He didn't speak to me, all he did was play on that strange organ that doesn't sound like an organ... But each time I visited, he appeared weaker and weaker than before. I could see the lights in his eyes dimming... While I knew it couldn't be any injury sustained during his capture, Twilight had examined him and found him with barely a scratch, I suspect that it is some sort of mental trauma that is causing him to fade. The sustained act of keeping a beast locked up perhaps?
+++ Unknown location, Unknown time +++
My mind flared into life. All around me was darkness. Where am I? I asked myself. I tried to move my arms, no reaction. I've been like this before... Directly after a surgery that happened nearly a year ago... My thoughts were sluggish. Crap, was I under medication? What would have happened to me that required surgery? Or to be knocked out? I came up with nothing, the last thing I remembered was falling down after saving the unicorns life... Suddenly something flicked the switch that controlled my ears, and I started hearing a slight breeze... Slowly my senses started to return. My limbs took all my will to move slightly. After a minute or two I finally had the strength to open my eyes.
+++Twilights castle, Noon +++
The room around me wasn't the prison cell I had been expecting... Instead it was a moderately furnished room that had led to a balcony... Did they not expect me to throw myself off? I wouldn't of course but hypothetically... I tried sitting up, and failed. My limbs were slowly regaining feeling, nothing hurt so far. Suddenly, to my extreme surprise, a purple pony burst into the room! I tried to weakly get up, only to be gently pushed back down.
"Don't get up. You've been asleep for nearly three days!" she calmly said. I now recognized her as the "alicorn" that I had seen several times before.
"Nngh..." I moaned, still trying to get up.
"No." she said sternly as she pushed me back down again. I stopped struggling.
"...What... happened... to... unicorn..." I asked, still trying to find my voice, why I asked that I have no idea, I suppose because it was the one of the last things I remembered. The alicorn looked as surprised as I felt.
"Well, the doctors think she will pull through..." the purple alicorn said. "But, she wouldn't have if you didn't do what ever you did..." I saved the unicorns life? A comforting thought, that my efforts weren't wasted, albeit in a strange manner. "What did you do by the way?" asked the pony. I thought for a moment.
"In order to stop the bleeding, I had to straighten the broken bone. But to straighten it, I needed to have something brace the bone and hold it in place. Sticks would work wonderfully, except that they can't attach to the leg. Lacking anything else, using long grass that is twisted like rope would provide enough strength to bind the stick to the leg. I was then able to put pressure on the bleeding wound, if one puts pressure on a wound, it helps keep the blood away from leaking, and it allows blood already at the wound to seal up." I explained, feeling strong enough to talk coherently. The alicorn nodded like she understood.
"Did you do the same for a light blue pegasus? she asked.
"I knew that would get me found out... Minus the bleeding part, yes I did, is she alright as well?" I chuckled.
"Yes! In fact she'll be out of the hospital tomorrow!" she exclaimed. I sighed, at least I didn't cause the deaths of those two ponies. We sat in silence for a few minutes, I could tell she was gathering the courage to ask something else.
"You want to ask something else." I said, feeling much more awake.
"How did..."
"Intuition." I interrupted her. The lavender "alicorn" sighed.
"Where you the one who butchered that rabbit?" she asked, slightly scared. It was my turn to sigh.
"Keep in mind, that humans are omnivores, we can eat both plants and animals. But, lacking any plants in the area that supply the nutrients that a rabbit does, I had to trap and kill one for my own survival." Twilight looked a little sick. "But, if it helps, I didn't want to kill it, and I killed it quickly and relatively painlessly." I continued.
"What about the pile of guts and skin?" she asked, not eager to follow this conversation.
"I did that after I killed it." I answered. "All it felt was a quick twist of the head." The purple pony sat in a stunned silence.
"Will you have to do it again?" she asked, clearly not wanting a yes.
"It wouldn't be necessary if I had peanuts or some other source of protein..." I answered. She looked relieved, peanuts apparently were available to the ponies. We sat in silence for a few minutes longer.
"Are you what they call an alicorn?" I asked, no longer patient enough to wait for the question to answer itself.
"Yes I am. I was however born a unicorn!" she answered excitedly.
"Interesting..." I murmured. "Are alicorns considered the rulers of this land?"
"I...in a sense, yes..." she said in a thoughtful tone.
"So, I've attracted the attention of a ruling member of your society?" I asked.
"Actually, you've got the attention of three out of four princesses." she stated with a smirk.
"Gee, what'd I do this time?" I jokingly asked. The alicorn laughed. "I don't believe I caught your name?" I asked.
"Oh! My name is Twilight Sparkle, and what's your name?" Twilight asked.
"You may call me Cheez, I go by many names but I think that one is the one that best states who I am." I answered after a moment of thought.
"Cheese? That's an odd name for a human..." Twilight said.
"It would be, but I choose it as a screen name. And, you know about humans?" I asked.
"Oh yes! I once visited the humans land while searching for a stolen crown!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"I'm sorry." I said.
"Sorry? What for?" Twilight asked, confused.
"There weren't many humans who accepted a talking pony were there?"
"I was technically a human during that time..." Twilight murmured.
"Then the humans you encountered treated you differently then one of their own?"
"That's not fair! I was unfamiliar with human customs!" she exclaimed.
"Even when you learned the customs... They didn't exactly accept you as one of their own?"
"I should hope so... Seeing as I practically told them I was a pony!" Twilight exclaimed. I was silent for a moment.
"And they didn't ostracize you? I'm not buying it." I deadpanned.
"What?!" the lavender pony yelled.
"Come on... We can't even stand different skin colors! Hell, glasses are apparently bothersome enough! Speaking of which..." I said as I realized my glasses were missing. I looked towards the nearby night stand and groped for them. Suddenly my eye sight cleared as my glasses put themselves on my head. "Did you..."
"Yes."
"Oh... Thank you then."
"What does hell mean?" the now distinct Alicorn interrupted.
"Hell? Um... It's a very unpleasant place where evil spirits are imprisoned." I answered
"Like Tartarus!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"You know about Greek mythology? Curious..."
"What mythology!?" her face suddenly became inches away from mine.
"Um..." I stammered.
"Never mind, I'll pick your brain later..." she went back onto the floor. We sat in silence for several minutes. "Wait... Humans can't stand different fur colors?"
"Skin color, and yes... Well, some of us do... But they're becoming the minority really fast."
"Huh..."
"Your kind aren't like that?" I asked.
"We used to... But that was over a thousand years ago. And just call us ponies." Twilight shrugged.
"Okay... How did ponies get over racism?" I asked, perhaps I could use the knowledge somehow.
"Wasn't too difficult if the other option is freezing." she answered. Annnd... There goes that idea.
"Darn." I said outloud.
"Why darn?" the alicorn inquired.
"Other than being incapable of doing so...I'm pretty certain threatening to freeze everyone if they didn't get along would cause the police to come down on my head rather quickly." I stated. Twilight gave me a confused look. "Never mind." She continued to give me the confused look. That is until she seemed to decide something.
"I better leave you alone, Cheese... Let you rest and recover." My name sounded odd on her tongue for some reason. "Oh, while it's still fresh my mind... I personally don't think humans are that bad..." She said as she continued out the door. I rolled over in the bed.
"How little you know."
+++ The next day, on the way to Canterlot +++
A lot happened yesterday, after Twilight and I had our conversation, I was introduced to the team of Royal Guards, a newly learned term, that had captured me, the only one missing was the unicorn I had saved. I said no hard feelings, and they agreed. After that I was dragged around Twilights castle on a tour, Twilight didn't give it herself as she was "busy", I suspected it was because she didn't want to talk to me. Before I knew it, it was dinnertime and I was telling stories of Earth's technolgy to a crowd of eagerly listening Royal Guards. I did however see Twilight in the back listening in. I am unable to properly write words in the English language that describe how... smug? Confident? I don't know. The feeling that I-was-telling-stories-and-someone-who-didn't-believe-them-was-listening-in-and-still-loving-them kind of feeling. Anyway, I stayed up long into the night, telling stories about "planes", the ponies thought it nearly impossible to fly without wings... Needless to say I went to bed exhausted.
Only to be be woken up three hours later and sent off to "Canterlot", I assumed it was the capitol as any pony who said it said it with reverence. I, apparently was to meet their equivalent of queen, which was strangely named princess. I had attracted the gaze of some powerful people... fuck, ponies, I guess I still had to get used to calling them ponies.
So, I was sitting on a very early train, tired as hell and surrounded by chatting Royal Guards. Nothing worth noting happened on the train, Twilight had bought all the tickets and used them to ferry Guards back to their homes in Canterlot, so not a pony thought it was overly odd that an alien was riding with them, I still caught some staring at me however. We finally stopped at the Canterlot train station, it was about... seven? I didn't know if Equestria ran on the same time as Earth, so my watch was useless until proven otherwise. That was when the staring truly began. Some ponies got up at this dreadful hour and were already socializing. I normally would be sleeping still for about three more hours, so what they did with the extra hours I still have no idea. But anyway, a six foot alien is apparently a very rare event in Equestria and ponies stopped whatever they were doing and stared. I even saw a waiter overfill a customers coffee because he was staring so much. I have to admit, some of the staring faces amused me a little bit, and it was hard to keep a straight face.
Soon I found myself standing in front of a beautifully built castle, not very strong from a military point of view, but its aesthetics, amazing. We, my apparent escort and myself, were soon joined by more stern faced Royal Guardsmen, guardsponies, I would have to ask about that later, and were ushered into the throne room. Sitting on the throne was a stunningly white alicorn with a floating mane that was wearing a crown. I immediately presumed this to be the princess, and bowed in respect. Just because I never believed in royalty didn't mean I had to be rude.
"Good morning!" she called.
"I'm not that big of a morning person... But yes, good morning to you as well your highness." I yawned, trying to blend politeness with humor.
The Princess chuckled. So she wasn't an uptight royal, that would make this visit a little easier.
"Indeed, but I would like to get to the subject of your visit today." she stated. To the point and not uptight, I was starting to like Equestrian royalty.
"Yes, please enlighten me as to why I am here, your majesty." I answered, I had not been told anything as to why I was in Canterlot.
"Well, to be frank, I would like to know how you came to be in Equestria." the Princess said. I sighed.
"Okay your highness, I will tell my tale..."I retold my tale from my walk up until the present. When I finished my story, the throne room was as quiet as a tomb. "I am dearly sorry for any crimes I have committed, but I can not feel guilty for any of them as my own survival was at stake." I apologized.
"No, I will not hold you accountable for the stealing and the... Incident with the rabbit... I can not punish you for crimes that you only did in the name of survival." the Princess conceded. "But in the future, I hope you use bits to buy anything you require."
"Bits? Your highness?" I asked, I assumed she meant Equestrian currency, but one never knew...
"Bits are the units of money we use in Equestria." the Princess confirmed.
"I had to be sure, your highness."
"Indeed," she said. "There is however another reason other than your tale that I would like to discuss." Celestia continued. I had no idea what she might say. "I'll be honest with you, we have no current way to return you to your home world, the only way we do have to return you, won't open for another 23 moons. So, I'm afraid you are stranded here in Equestria for the time being."
"That had not occurred to me..." I said slowly, I honestly had been too busy studying these strange ponies to even think about getting home. "I commend you, your highness, for thinking about it before I even considered it. But I must've been too busy trying to survive to consider a way back." Crap, I was stuck in a alien environment that I may not be physically able to survive in for an extended period of time, such as 23 months. "I suppose then, that I may ask for permission to stay in your beautiful land?" I asked. I didn't realized it before, as I was busy surviving, but yes, Equestria was a gorgeous land, comparable with the greenest foliage I've seen on the East Coast, and that stuff makes the pale grass of home brown in comparison. Celestia chuckled.
"I guess I have no choice, but either way... Yes, you may stay in Equestria until the portal opens. As you already know the area around Ponyville, I suppose it would be best for you to stay there." she answered. Her logic didn't have any obvious flaws, but even if their was any, I wasn't going to deny the Princesses generosity.
"I graciously accept and thank you for your offer." I said as I bowed a little. "If there is anything I can do to repay, don't hesitate to ask your majesty."
"Well, there is one thing I think you can handle..." mused Celestia. "Twilight had inquired if you could teach her more about Earth."
"You want me to teach about Earth?" I asked, slightly surprised.
"Yes."
"I'm not the best teacher, but yes I will do it." I stated.
"I wouldn't worry about that, Twilight is a wonderful student." smirked Celestia. "That also reminds me..." she suddenly said. "I would like to ask if it is okay if I were to assign a teacher to you for your stay in Equestria." continued Celestia. In short, she wanted to assign a minder to me... Hell with it, I knew as much about their world as they knew about mine.
"I think that would be extremely helpful, I thank you once again." I thanked the princess.
"Oh good! I'll have your teacher waiting for you in Ponyville!" she beamed. "I think that is all I had to say to you for today..." Celestia thought for a moment. "While you're here however, I hope you'll take a tour of the castle and learn about Equestrias history!" History? Hell yes, I'm a history nerd and information should never be turned down.
"I would very much love to have a tour of the castle!" I exclaimed, nearly forgetting that I was in the presence of the ruler of Equestria. Celestia smiled.
"Twilight!" Celestia called. The purple alicorn walked into the throne room. She must've been waiting for an audience or this was planned. "I would like you to take, Cheese, on a tour of Canterlot Castle! Take your time and show as much as you can." Celestia said to the eager Twilight. Why was she eager? ... What had I suddenly and unknowingly gotten myself into?
"Yes Princess!" Twilight answered. She then quite literally dragged me out of the throne room to begin the tour.
+++ Right after the Throne door closed +++
That went well. Thought Celestia. The human, Cheese as he called himself according to Twilight, seemed peaceful enough to live among ponies. And as long as he was provided with peanuts, he shouldn't have to kill any wild animals. And the knowledge he had could be invaluable to Equestria and its ponies. Making him a friend was an overall good decision. Her thoughts were interrupted by a cough from behind one of the pillars.
"Luna, you know it's rude to hide while there are guests." Celestia called out. Her younger sister stepped out from behind the pillar.
"How did thou know it was me?" she asked.
"That is your favorite pillar to hide behind, nopony else would dare to cough in the throne room, and thou isn't used anymore." Celestia listed off. Luna ignored the correction.
"What did thou think of the human?" she asked. Celestia sighed.
"I think it was a good idea to capture him, or befriend him as we did." she replied.
"Perhaps... But I know what his dreams are... I told you when he was captured, something is in there that wants out. He is dangerous, and shouldn't be handled like an ambassador from another country." Luna reminded her sister.
"I know what you said about him, but I think that he is mentally stable for now. So we will handle him with the utmost care, until he proves otherwise." Celestia stated.
"What about the guide you're assigning to him?" Luna asked. "Won't that pony be in extreme danger?"
"I've already decided who is going on the assignment." Celestia said. "And, when she recovers, I think she will prove more than a match for Cheese."
"When she recovers? Who are you talking about?" asked a sincerely confused Luna.
"Let my next appointment in!" called Celestia.
"Sister? Who are you giving the task to?" Luna asked in a warning tone. A limping on a crutch Silver Star then walked into the throne room, she had arrived on the same train as Cheese, but they had not known they had been on the same train.
"Luna, have you met Silver Star yet?" whispered Celestia to her sister.
"I read about her in the mission reports dear sister, why her?" asked Luna in the same whispered tone. Celestia ignored her and greeted Silver.
"Hello Silver! How are you feeling?" asked Celestia. Luna stood in an agitated silence.
"My leg still hurts, but not nearly as much, the doctor says I should be back in action in no time! Your majesty." replied an ecstatic Silver.
"That's good! But I'm afraid you're going to be, back in action, much sooner than you think." said Celestia in a I'm-sorry-for-dumping-this-on-you tone.
"Sorry?" asked a confused Silver Star.
"Don't worry! It's not anything like any of your previous assignments, and it's a special task that only you can handle!" reassured Celestia.
"Only me? What's going on your majesty?" asked Silver. Celestia sighed.
"I would like you to act as a guide for the human, Cheese." she said hesitantly. Silvers jaw dropped. "You can say no Silver, but keep in mind you are the best qualified and it would only be temporary." added Celestia.
"Best qualified?" asked Silver, looking like she didn't hear Celestia correctly.
"You've dealt with Cheese the longest, were part of the team that captured him, and made the closest contact with him."
"You mean when I tackled him, he broke my leg, and then stuck a stick to said leg?" Silver asked. Celestia thought for a moment, going over the question.
"Yes, that about sums it up." she nodded.
"For how long?" continued Silver.
"As soon as he feels comfortable with Equestria, and ponies with him." stated Celestia. Silver sighed.
"When do I start?" she conceded.
"As soon as the train gets back in Ponyville." stated Celestia.
"Buck me..." whispered Silver to herself.
"What was that?" asked Celestia
"Nothing!" Silver shouted, louder than she meant to. Celestia smirked.
"I know it's a lot to ask, especially from a mare with a broken leg, but please accept..." begged Celestia. It was now Silvers turn to sigh.
"Fine, I'll do it." she said. "But! I would like a week paid vacation when this is over!"
"Done." smiled Celestia. "Go pack your personal items, and spend the day in Canterlot! The train leaves for Ponyville at five tonight." continued Celestia.
"Yes, your majesty." Silver awkwardly bowed, and exited the throne room. Celestia sighed again and turned to her sister that had been silent the entire time.
"In addition to the reasons I gave Silver, IF Cheese's mind is as fragile as you say, then I hope the fact that he already saved Silver from death, will prevent him from wanting to kill her." Celestia said to Luna.
"So, you choose Silver because of the likelihood of his mind breaking is high enough to consider that, Cheese, may go berserk and go on a rampage, and you hope that because Cheese saved her in the past, means he will not want to waste his past actions? And you want somepony close to him if he does fold, one that would survive a fight?" summed up Luna.
"Exactly."
"An interesting reason to consider sister..." replied Luna. "But, what about her leg?"
"Judging by your estimates... I believe that her leg will be long healed before Cheese snaps." stated Celestia.
"I don't know sister... The last time I visited his dreams, he was a mere shadow of the human that I first saw..."
"All we can do now is hope, and let the Bearers of Harmony know what is going on in Ponyville..." suggested Celestia.
"Do you really think it'll come to that?" asked Luna.
"I don't want to imagine what it will take for that to be necessary..."
+++ That evening. Canterlot Train station +++
HOLY BALLS can Twilight lecture... The tour started out in the foyer... where Twilight had started to ramble about the architecture and the history of the castle. Then, she took me around the ENTIRE castle, every inch, behind every pillar, every nook and cranny. I managed to keep up with her talking, asking a few questions here and there... But in the last .001 of the tour, suddenly Twilight had broke the dam. It was, the Vault of Harmony, I think... Twilight had known so much about that one room... It wasn't complete insane to think that she had personal experience with the relics were contained within. But what she said about the relics is what confused me... Supposedly she said they were weapons to defend Equestria, but how relics named "The Elements of Harmony" can possibly be weapons, I had no idea... But, I tried to keep up with the hyperactive babbling of the excited alicorn, she was talking very fast, I had to make her repeat several things... Several times. But I think I crammed it all in the end. On the way back to the train station, I let it slip that Celestia had given me permission to teach Twilight more about Earth. She seemed excited... Even though I thought she was the one who planted the idea in the first place... Canterlot ponies still stared at me, but I was too busy talking to Twilight to notice. When we got to the platform, we climbed aboard the train bound for Ponyville, talking like old friends.
+++ At the same time, Canterlot Train station +++
Silver Star had spent most of the morning packing her few personal items that she kept. It all fit in one bag, ponies who knew her wouldn't call her "overly sentimental". When that was done, she had spent the rest of the day with Nimbus and Wind Rush, two of the three who did know Silver. They had some off time and so the three of them wandered Canterlot for the entire day, joking, and generally goofing off like the friends they were. Then the time came for Silver to return to Ponyville, she had already retrieved her bag from her small apartment.
"Good luck with it, him, something like that..." trailed off Nimbus. Silver had told them all about the assignment that Celestia had given her.
"If he gets too big for his saddlebags, make sure you give him a good one!" exclaimed Wind Rush while making a punching movement through the air with his hoof.
"Thanks you guys..." smiled Silver sadly. This would be the first mission that they would not be on together. "And I most certainly will Wind Rush." she laughed. Silver suddenly froze.
"What's wrong?" asked the two stallions at once.
"It's the alien!" she whispered in a loud tone. "He's here!" The two looked over to where she was staring. Sure enough, their former quarry was walking along side Princess Twilight and getting on the same train as Silver would be.
"Well... That explains why your assignment starts as soon as you reach Ponyville..." said Nimbus, looking at the human. Wind Rush seemed unaffected.
"Oh come on! He's not that scary!" he exclaimed.
"Yet I still hear you telling him to stay away at night..." giggled Nimbus.
"Shut up you." stated Wind Rush in an irritated murmur. Silver and Nimbus laughed, Wind however was not amused. After a few moments Nimbus became serious again.
"Wind’s frightful dreams of a scary alien aside... Good luck Silver. I get the feeling you'll need it." frowned Nimbus.
"Fine! I'll admit it!" yelled Wind Rush. "The thing is scary! But! As I said, give him a good one if he starts getting like Nimbus here." smirked Wind Rush.
"Hey!"
"But... Good luck with that until your leg heals up." continued Wind Rush. Silver laughed and hugged them both, awkwardly with her broken leg.
"I'll miss you guys..." she said sadly. With that she picked up her bag and got on the train. The remaining unicorn and pegasus waved at the train as it left the station.
"Do you think she'll be okay?" asked Wind Rush once it had left. NImbus sighed and replied.
"I know she'll be okay... The only thing bothering me is, will she be the same pony who just left?"
+++ Ponyville Train station, one hour later. +++
Even though I had been essentially resting for the past hour, I was tired. Twilight and I had discussed my teaching plans and class times. I had not yet figured those things out myself, but I tried to give Twilight my best estimate. While still on board, about five minutes from Ponyville, Twilight suddenly looked like she remembered something and started rummaging through one of her saddle bags. Why they called it that, I don't know why, as none of them ever wore a saddle, but not my culture so I can't criticize. Finally Twilights head came up from under the table.
"Found it!" she exclaimed, sliding a piece of parchment towards me.
"What's this?" I asked, looking at it.
"The deed to your new home!" she exclaimed, clapping her hooves together.
"Deed? New home?" I stammered. Sometimes I can really be a genius with words that are said outloud.
"Yep! Celestia wanted you to live among ponies, and being cooped up in my castle won't get that done!" she exclaimed excitedly. When she got the chance to talk to Celestia again, I still don't know to this day. However, what she said did make sense... The princesses wanted me to learn about them as well as teach them, so living "in the crowd" was a gesture of "Hey! this is what we do!" Twilight also pulled out a decently sized bag.
"And this!" she said as she lifted it onto the table with a little difficulty, it landed with a "chink!" "This is something of an allowance to get you started!" I looked inside. Coins, a lot of coins, I'm not very good at figuring a bags square footage, so how many coins there were, I could only guess at, a good 150-200 though...
"Started?" I asked, was this some sort of RPG that I had gotten myself into? If so, then what the hell.
"Well, Celestia isn't going to pay you all the time!" she stated. "Besides, think of it as another way to try and fit in!"Twilight continued. Yay, ether Twilights, or Celestias way of saying, "Get a job you bum." Suddenly wishing I still had the bag that I stole, Twilight had it confiscated when I was unconscious, I stuffed the deed into my pants pocket, and lugged the coin purse over my shoulder. There were a few ponies on the platform in Ponyville, the few who were there still stared silently however. That was probably the reason the cry from behind grabbed my attention.
"Wait!" it yelled. I turned around, and the blood rushed from my face. Limping towards Twilight and myself, was the unicorn mare that I had saved. How she was walking already, I'll never know, but she limped towards us with a kind of crutch supporting her injured leg nonetheless.
"Silver!" greeted Twilight. "Cheese, I would like you to officially meet Silver Star, she was the unicorn that you saved, and she'll be your guide while in Equestria" Twilight said to me. My mouth made some movements but no sound came out. "And Silver, I would like you to meet Cheese, your current assignment!" Finally the words strung themselves together, guide, current assignment? Did that mean? ... Oh Celestia you tricky mother f... My thoughts were suddenly scattered by the speaking unicorn.
"Nice to meet you Cheese!" she smiled.
"Nice to meet you too..." I hesitantly said. I honestly didn't know what to do. Here was one of the three that had hunted me, nearly killed me, and the only one that I had seriously injured, and she was supposed to be a "guide".
"Now that you two have met! Let me show you the house that Celestia commissioned!" said an excited Twilight, oblivious to my hesitant behavior. Silent, we, the poor duo that Celestia deemed amusing somehow, followed the eager alicorn.
The "house" that Celestia had commissioned for us was more of an abandoned shack than house. True, it did have multiple floors, and there was evidence of something living there, not recently, but still there. Everything was however, damaged or extremely worn down. I guess Celestia either didn't know about the condition, or didn't care. Thankfully however, the electrical lighting still worked, but how far gone it was, only the previous owner knew. I guess I would have to fix it up somehow despite my lack of proper electrical training.
Twilight soon left us so she could attend her royal activities. So, we began to explore the house. It had three floors, including a basement, the kitchen and living room was on the first floor, while there were three bedrooms on the second. Fortunately, furniture was somewhat included. Unfortunately, as I said earlier, everything was extremely damaged or worn down in some way. The mental list of things we needed to replace grew so large, I eventually decided to fuck it, and just put "yes" on said list. That included the beds. So that night, in the bedroom that I claimed as my own, I just slept on the floor.
+++ Extract from Silver Stars' journal during her missions duration +++
August 29
In order to "observe" and "guide" the human known as "Cheese", as well to preserve my own sanity, I have chosen to start this journal in order to record the days events, and note any strange behavior. The house, as Princess Twilight seemed to call it, was in desperate need of repair. Undoubtedly, Cheese was thinking the same thing, but I haven't asked him yet, so if I'm right or not remains unanswered. Cheese is a curious creature... While exploring the house, he seemed to be taking note of everything, and exploring cautiously, poking his head in before entering a room, peering around corners, and generally expecting something to jump out of something. I can't say I blame him... Given the houses condition, anything could've lived in there. But an odd way of thinking showed itself when we were choosing rooms. He had explored each very thoroughly, made a list of good and bad and weighed them against each other. I did the same thing, only my choice was what appeared to be in best condition. He chose the worst of the three rooms. I have no idea why, but he seemed content with it anyway.
August 30
That bed was horrible. It was wet, with what only Celestia knows, had some kind of bug colony that loved it, and was very lumpy. I awoke very early, an hour earlier than when I normally do, six o'clock. When I went to see how Cheese was doing, I saw why he didn't seem to care about the condition of the room. He was bucking sleeping on the floor. The bed was untouched. Clever, I'll admit that. I hadn't thought of it, and he seemed to be sleeping soundly. And he did sleep soundly for another four hours. I was starting to worry that he died in his sleep when he finally rolled over and "tried" to wake up. I say "tried" as he seemed to roll and crawl before his eyes seemed to open. I sort of felt sorry for him. It was kind of pathetic how he jerked and moaned like a machine wanting to start up. Finally after nearly half an hour, he stumbled down to the kitchen table where I was sitting. He said a mumbled "Mornin' " and then tried to rummage in the pantry. After realizing that there was no food in there, he sat down at the table. With his head in what I understand to be "hands". Dear Celestia, he looked even more tired than I felt. And by Equestria, I was up nearly all night! After waking up enough, we decided that getting rid of the current furniture, rebuilding most of the house, and getting better furniture was a high priority. So, we walked around Ponyville to get something to eat and look at wood costs. We soon had a list of necessary materials and costs. I must say, even though he can't get up easily, he could even give Princess Twilight a run for her bits in organization. After grabbing some food from a local restaurant, I noticed that he avoided any hay in the meal, we went back to the house. There, he started counting bits and came to the conclusion that we could easily afford to rebuild and replace everything, with room to buy food and such. There were nearly a thousand bits in that bag that he had. Cheese said Twilight gave it to him. I also noticed that he had the bits counted in under an hour. I find myself wondering, just what is this human capable of? Tonight I think I'll try Cheeses method of sleep.
August 31
Today, we spent most of the day disposing all of the old furniture. Cheese didn't seem very strong or enduring, but I guess he lacked earth pony strength and he obviously didn't have a horn to help like I did. But what he did use to great effect, were his front hooves, I mean hands... They manipulated and moved things with far more precision than my magic could ever do. There was a moment when I thought that they had minds of their own, there is no way anypony could pay attention to one thing, and suddenly, without looking, grab something else. When I saw that I was in a kind of trance, I couldn't believe what I had just saw! I still don't believe it! His front leg, an "arm" as he calls it, just whipped around and grabbed several things in his "hands" with terrifying efficiency. His head didn't even turn. I note this as he may have some sort of sixth sense that we ponies are unaware of. The rest of the day passed without event though, and now we had an empty house.
September 1
OH MY CELESTIA. Today, we started to replace the worn out parts of the house, there were less than we first thought, mostly roof parts though. We had a pile of building materials and were working for about an hour when we realized that we wouldn't finish before the week was out. And that would've been bad, as we still need sleep and somewhere to take shelter, and the pegasi have a heavy storm scheduled soon... So while we were working, I was attempting to do the same thing as Cheese, to learn about how humans built things. But he soon noticed how I could lift almost anything with magic and very quickly replace it. He soon thought of an idea. Instead of going over one thing at a time, he wanted me to use magic to go over everything at once, and hold things in place while he hammered nails in. We soon had a efficient system going. I held everything in place, and loosened nails out, while he tore out old wood and nailed the bits I was holding in place. When we were done, we were both tired, him from running around and hammering things in place, me from holding the house up. But we had a decent house in front of us, and no more infestation of bugs and rats. He then promised me a day at a local spa. "Holding up a house is a lot of work" he claimed. I'm not much of a spa pony... But hey, free day at a spa, and I was too tired to say no.
September 2
I'm beginning to notice that Cheese is not a morning pony... He gets up very late, and appears to be a creature of habit. Getting up, going to the bathroom, and then looking for something to eat. I assume his old home always had food in the pantry as he constantly looks into them as if something is there, only to realize there isn't, and then sit down somewhere. Today, was no different. We then went to the furniture store and bought two beds, two nightstands, (Cheese insisted on these even though I don't use them) a couch, a table, a set of chairs, and (Cheese also claimed he required this) a desk. We soon were helping the ponies who worked at the store move them into location. They were a little afraid of Cheese, but I calmed them down, claiming it was one of Celestia's ideas. That shut them up, and they eagerly trotted to work. I know your reading this Princess, was I wrong? We soon had beds and nightstands in the bedrooms, a table in the kitchen, the couch in the living room, and Cheese decided to put the desk in the spare bedroom. I have no idea what he's planning, but even after a few days of living with him, I know he's planning something... I think it's the lessons for Twilight, but he does have a way of being full of surprises. Oh, and while I'm thinking of Cheese, he doesn't seem... Right. Ever since I started to live in this house, he seems to be getting more tired by the hour... Granted we have been very busy, but I just can't shake the feeling that if he was in this condition when we first met in the Everfree... I wouldn't be foal-sitting in Ponyville. Instead of maybe guarding a cell in Canterlot...
+++ The aliens house, the next morning. +++
My eyes slowly opened. I was in bed, not my bed, not my room... Suddenly my memories rushed back to me. Oh yeah. I sat up straight, light poured in through the window.
"I don't wanna get up..." I murmured to myself. Despite the hay, and being the largest pony bed I could find, not very big compared to my own back on Earth, it wasn't bad. I soon went down the stairs and saw Silver, sitting where she usually sat as she waited for me to wake up. I guess she wakes up early... I thought to myself. I opened the pantry, and then suddenly remembered there was no food in there. Bullocks. I must really remember these things. The house around looked pretty nice, compared to the wreck we first arrived to.
"Morning." said a wide awake Silver Star.
"Mornin' " I replied in kind.
"Food." we said together, thinking the same thing. She's either very much like me, I'm very much like her, or one of us is a huge influence on the other.
"How many bits do we have left?" asked the unicorn. I'd already written the math down on the piece of parchment that I had recorded the cost of rebuilding on.
"Um... 538 bits left..." I replied while consulting the paper.
"That should be plenty to fill those several times over." She said while pointing at the pantries.
"Ha ha." I stated. I knew she was making fun of my constantly-checking-the-pantry-for-food routine. She smirked, clearly pleased with herself. "Should we go and fill them then?" I asked.
"Yes, lets." she stated. We both got up and started walking towards the market. Some ponies still stared at me, but I had been out and about enough the past few days that most of them ignored me. We stopped at the restaurant that we had frequented the past few days for food. We sat there eating the meals, just like the past few days. But then Silver asked a question.
"Why don't you eat the hay?" she asked. I looked down, I had pulled out all the hay and was eating around it.
"Humans don't eat grass like ponies do. It's too tough for our digestive system to handle. The stomach acid doesn't dissolve it properly and we don't get as much nutrients from it, so even if I did eat grass, I would most likely to be even hungrier than before I ate it." I answered. She looked confused. "It's too tough for our stomachs to handle." I summed up. Silver understood that and we went on our way when we were done eating. We soon had armfuls of bagged food, or for her case as much as her magic grabbed. And the pantry at the house was soon stuffed. Thank whatever deity is listening. I then decided to take a walk to Twilight's castle. I had heard it was once, and still is a library, I had no idea what that meant , but I needed a book to read. Silver, probably to make sure I didn't do anything stupid or to act like her hopefully temporary job as guide, wanted to come along. I couldn't stop her even if I even wanted to.
I knocked on the massive door in front of the oddly tree shaped castle. Silver stood there impassively. Finally a familiar head stuck itself out.
"Who?" began Twilight, she then saw the six foot figure that is myself and smiled.
"I was wondering when you would come along!" she exclaimed.
"How di..." I began, about to ask how she knew I wanted a book.
"I've gotten everything all set!" she exclaimed, pulling me inside the castle. I gave a surprised yelp. Suddenly I remembered, I was supposed to teach her about Earth. I had forgotten it completely. Then I realized there was laughing coming from behind me. I twisted out of Twilights magical hold, which was surprisingly like a human hand...
"Whoa... I'm not here for your lessons today Twilight..." I said calmly. "I had come for a bit of light reading..." I continued.
"What about your lessons?" asked a disappointed Twilight.
"Day after tomorrow, I promise." I swore.
"Okay then..." she murmured. I shot a glance behind me at Silver... Only to see that she was laughing, she hadn't expected me to be pulled in ether, and must've found it hilarious. "Wait, you said you came for some light reading?" asked Twilight.
"Yes."
"I can help with that!" the excitement entered her voice again. "What would you like?" she asked, gesturing to the still laughing unicorn and myself to follow.
"I don't know, science fiction, historical non-fiction..." I thought out loud. To be honest, I would've read any book she handed me. Twilight didn't bat an eye at the genre names.
"Okay!" she exclaimed, and quickened her pace, much to the visible dismay of the still limping Silver Star, who had finally stopped giggling. I attempted to be halfway in between Silver and Twilight, but Twilight was extremely giddy and I was soon forced to quicken my pace in order to keep the alicorn in sight, losing sight of a distraught Silver in the process. Twilight finally stopped in front of a large door and opened it. Inside were shelves that nearly touched the nine foot high ceiling, packed so tight, that I doubt any normal pony could've navigated it, but Twilight had the benefit of magic and wings, so she hovered and just magicked things around. I fortunately, didn't have four clumsy hooves to stand on, and only had the two feet to shuffle around on. Silver, who had just caught up, saw the closely packed shelves, and wisely stayed in the doorway. Twilight began zooming around on her wings, and soon had a large stack of books sitting on a table close to the doorway.
"I recommend these!" Twilight said as she finally touched down. "They're books that go into more detail of Equestria's history!" she smiled.
"Thank you Twilight, I'll return them as soon as I'm done." I picked up the stack.
"You’re taking all of them?!" Twilight exclaimed. "I thought you said light reading!"
"You've obviously never seen me read." I stated. "They'll be back in a week." Twilight sighed and started leading us back towards the exit.
After Silver and I started walking back towards the newly refurbished house. Silver started speaking.
"Are you serious about returning those in a week?" she asked.
"Yup."
"All of those... One week..." she continued.
"Yup."
"Don't you also have lessons to plan for Twilight?"
"Yup."
"So... When will you have time to read all of those?"
"Sometime in between now and next week I'm sure." I replied with a smile. Silver looked a little perturbed. However, most of the books in the pile were very thin in comparison of the books I normally read... And I've been known to finish those in a day... Or less.
When we got home, I immediately went up to the room where I put the desk, and started scribbling down quick lesson plans. Instead of planning a boring long speech, I started making lists of points that I naturally would put into the lecture. Speeches aren't my thing, so I usually wing it. I soon had most of the Earth's history listed on the parchment. Thinking that I was good for lessons for a while, I picked up the first book.
+++ At the same time, Downstairs +++
Silver Star was confused. How could Cheese plan lessons for Twilight, AND read that stack of books within a week?! It didn't seem equinly possible! But then again, he wasn't a pony... And tales of Twilights' reading ability had been going around for years... So maybe it was possible... But Silver couldn't comprehend that amount of information in her head at once... It have her a headache just thinking about it. I wonder how he'll handle it? She wondered to herself. She decided to sneak up the stairs and have a look. She soon found herself peering through the door in the third bedroom. Cheese was furiously scribbling on a piece of parchment. How he was able to read it, Silver couldn't understand. But he already had a sizable part of the parchment filled with words. He suddenly stopped and read over the entire thing. He seemed satisfied enough to put it down and pick up the first book on the pile. And he began to read.
+++ The next morning. +++
Silver got up at her usual time. But she noticed something strange today. The light from the third bedroom was on. Curious, she slipped her head through the door. Sitting there still, was Cheese, already half way done with the pile of books, with multiple pages of filled out parchment. He looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, his eyes were red and bloodshot, the skin on his face looked like it was ill fitting somehow... But now Silver understood how he claimed he could finish them all before next week. And possibly why he wakes up so late... She thought to herself. Silver decided she didn't want the human to die of sleep deprivation and abandoned all stealth.
"HEY!" she yelled into the room, giving the entranced human a start.
"AAGH!" he shouted, genuinely startled. "Five more minutes!" he exclaimed.
"Do you know what time it is?" she asked coolly.
"Yes! It's ten..." He looked at the watch on his wrist and paled. "I'm going to bed now..." he mumbled as he got up and started towards his bedroom. Silver chuckled as the door gently closed behind him. She walked over to the desk, curious on what he had written down. The spidery writing made no sense to her. It looked Equestrian, but she couldn't read what it said. Some words were legible, but they didn't have anything to do with any sort of history she knew of... Star, moons, dust, gases... Microbes, cells, oxygen... What was he writing about? She shuffled through some more, careful not to mix up the order. The understandable words changed drastically from page to page. She finally stopped trying to understand what was written on the pieces of parchment and went back downstairs for breakfast.
Silver was sipping some tea when she suddenly remembered something. She had to go to the hospital to check up on her leg! She downed the tea in a gulp and burst out of the door as fast as her limp would let her. Thankfully Cheese had stayed up the entire night, so he was going to be asleep for most of the day... Silver thought to herself as she half trotted half limped towards the hospital. She soon had checked in and was waiting for her appointment.
+++ The Doctor's Office +++
"Hmm..." The doctor studied the cast closely. An x-ray image on the wall showed Silvers front right hoof. "Well Miss Star, I think we'll have you out of a cast in about a week." he stated. "I guess Princess Twilight's healing magic did help a little after all..." Silver shrugged, she was told after the event that Twilight had used some of her magic to speed along the healing of her broken leg. "I can however remove this cast and give you one that you can walk on." The doctor continued. "But! No unnecessary running, trotting, or any straining movement of any kind!"
"Deal." Smiled Silver. If anything needed done that desperately, she supposed she could use magic to help, and anything to stop that annoying limp. She offered the doctor the broken leg. He took it and with some difficulty removed the cast. It hurt a little as the strained leg took some of its own weight. The doctor gently held the leg up, to make sure the bone wasn't stressed during the switch, and started strapping on a black replacement that looked like it could be walked on.
"There..." he said finally. "Stand up and try it out." said the doctor. Silver nodded and stood up. The doctor bent down and made some adjustments. "Go ahead." Silver took a step forwards. The doctor nodded, satisfied. Then he seemed to remember something. "Before I forget, I heard that you were making sure the human kept his nose out of trouble." He stated.
"Yea..." Silver nodded.
"Princess Twilight ordered me to give back this..." The doctor pulled out the blood soaked clothing that had once wrapped around her leg. Silver shifted on the new cast.
"Why does Twilight think I need this?" She asked.
"I don't know... I guess she thought the human would want it back..." guessed the doctor. Silver took the dry blood soaked article of clothing, still wondering why it wasn't thrown away.
"Why wasn't it thrown away?" she asked, hoping for an answer.
"I was going to, but then Twilight noticed that the fabric was strange." answered the doctor. Silver looked at the cloth closely.
"Strange? How?" she couldn't see anything overly weird about it. Then she saw it. Well more felt it. On the inside of the cloth, it was softer than many pony fabrics that she had felt, even with her dried blood on it.
"I guess it just felt alien to her..." said the doctor. Silver could understand, it did feel otherworldly.
"And you never know... He may want it back..." continued the doctor. He opened the door to the outside hallway. "Come back next week, we'll see about your cast then." he stated.
"Thank you doctor." she said to him as she walked out, slightly tingling in pain as she got used to the improved cast. When outside she examined the bloody piece of clothing. There was nothing overly strange about it, but being weird shouldn't have stopped the doctor from burning it. It was after all , still covered in blood... She sniffed it. It smelled unnervingly like a timberwolf kill... and another world... Silver hung it over her back. She now wanted to know about it, and there was only one place in Ponyville where she could get her answer.
+++ Carousel Boutique a few minutes later +++
When Silver opened the door to the garishly decorated shop, the owner, a unicorn by the name of Rarity, was sweeping the floor in the foyer. She looked up in surprise, she mustn't have expected a customer today.
"Hello!" Called Rarity, putting down her broom. "My, my... I don't believe that I've had the pleasure of meeting you before..." she said. "What would we like today? A nice dress for an equally nice stallion? Perhaps a new set of casual wear?" Rarity continued, an obvious expert sales pony when it came to clothes.
"No, I actually came for you to look at this..." said Silver Star, she pulled the bloody garment off her back. Rarity picked it up with her magic, a little disgusted by the dried blood.
"My goodness dear! What ever did you do to this?" she asked.
"Well, technically it's not mine, I didn't do it, and I was wondering if you could examine the fabric for me." Silver avoided the question that was asked.
"You want me to examine this dirty piece of garbage?" asked a skeptical Rarity.
"Let's just say it's not from around here." answered Silver. Rarity looked confused and held the garment out so she could see what Silver was talking about. Rarity's already white complexion paled further.
"Um... This isn't a ponies piece of clothing is it?" she asked, already knowing the answer. Silver shook her head quietly. "I see..." Rarity had obviously heard about Cheese. "I'll see what I can find out. But I wouldn't hope for much..." Stated Rarity.
"Thank you." Silver bowed her head in appreciation, and left the shop.
+++Carousel Boutique, a few seconds later.+++
Rarity had never seen a pattern like this strange piece. What she could tell from her first serious glance was that what ever wore this wasn't from Equestria. The front legs were too thin for a pony, the neck was too small for a pony neck, and the general layout of the piece just wouldn't fit a pony. There were also several features that seemed odd to her. One was a piece of fabric sewn on the outside, where the belly on a pony would be, the stitches were on the top and bottom, creating a kind of tunnel. What this was, Rarity had no idea. But the other thing was a floppy attachment near the neck. She looked it over, it was extremely concave, creating a sort of a bowl of material. There's no way I'm going to learn anything about this thing if I don't wash it first. Rarity thought to herself. Thankfully, the white unicorn wasn't the first customer to need a blood stain removed. Several Royal Guards on vacation sometimes needed blood stains removed from their cloth uniforms. But not this much... Rarity thought to herself as she took the thing to her cleaning tub. She ran hot water into the bathtub sized sink, and poured several cleansers that had proven effective in the past. She pulled on rubber gloves that covered the entirety of her front legs and put a sort of mask on to protect her head and chest from splashing water. Blood stains were a pain to remove from her fur, as she learned after the first time. Rarity soon began scrubbing furiously on the durable fabric.
After nearly an hour and a half of scrubbing, refreshing the water, and pouring more cleaners into the water, (and making sure that none of the red mess got on her), Rarity finally pulled a dark green garment from the suds.
"Without the dirtiness, it is quite charming in its own way..." she murmured to herself. Rarity then emptied the sink, and then hung it on a drying rack. She stood back and looked at it on the rack. For the umpteenth time her eyes wandered to the tube on the belly, wondering what it was for... Maybe a sort of pouch? She asked herself, she then shrugged and examined the material it was made of. Without the blood, its closely packed stitches were clearly visible, Rarity doubted if she ever could get fabric stitches that close. She also had noticed, while handling it in the tub, that the fabric was durable, she had scrubbed and scrubbed far more than what she would've done with a pony fabric, and it had not torn or frayed. Rarity decided that it would be best to leave it dry for the time being...
+++ High in the sky above Ponyville. Three hours ago +++
The dracaniquis known as Discord floated above Ponyville. Ever since the supposed capture of the human, he was curious about the creature that was now living in Ponyville under Celestia's orders. It was a fine day, to pony standards, to him it was a little boring. Can't do anything about that... Thought Discord. Celestia would have his head for sure. But, he could get away with a little mischief. Moving a ponies keys, or hiding all the left horseshoes... Things like that, but they never were exciting for him. But that was besides the point. The being in Ponyville required his attention, even if it didn't know he was there. He floated down towards Ponyville like a gentle breeze, laying on his back like any pony would on such a nice summer day. He finally landed on a newly refurbished house on the outskirts of town. He mockingly stretched. No pony could see him, he didn't want it known by every pony that he was there, in fact he was supposed to be handling something much farther North today... Some odd errand of Celestia's that he couldn't remember right now. Oh well... He thought to himself. Time to see what he could do to this new alien! He whispered through the natural cracks in the house, and soon found himself standing over a sleeping form.
"Well that's disappointing..." Discord whispered to himself. "Now I can't see what I can do to him..." Suddenly an idea struck him. The human was sleeping, sleeping was known to be infested with nightmares, and the guardian of dreams, Luna, would most certainly be asleep at this time of day... Discord giggled to himself. "Time to see what chaos I can do..." he eagerly floated above the bed and peered into the mind of the sleeping creature. It was like looking down into a bowl of water for Discord, he saw the dreams happen like watching a screen, not the full body experience of Luna. What he saw confused him. Staring upwards were two eyes, burning like two miniature suns in a void of blackness. Discord could hear laughter in his head. That's not supposed to happen... He thought to himself. Suddenly a fiery claw burst from the dream and grabbed him by the neck. Not good...Not good... He thought to himself. Then a bestial face of the same fiery substance materialized around the burning eyes, like it was coming from some deep abyss into the light... It's sharp teeth gleamed in the fiery glow of itself. Its voice suddenly boomed out, somehow echoing at the same time. What it said, Discord, nor any other living being had ever heard the language, but it's meaning was still as clear as transparent glass...
MY ASCENSION IS AT HAND!
Terror seized Discord. He didn't know what to do, he tried breaking away, but the claw had an iron grip on him. The bestial face gave a gruesome smile.
EVERYONE SHALL BURN!
The voice boomed. The laughter in Discords head increased. The mocking laughter of mares and stallions, fillies and colts, Oh Celestia, there were so many... Discord had no choice. He forcibly broke the spell that allowed him to view this monstrosity. Breaking a spell like that was never advised. It went against all the rules of magic to break a spell. But thankfully, the face burned bright, and suddenly Discord was staring down at the form of the sleeping human. He tried recovering from the effects of the break, without success. It could take months if not years to recover from it. Discord suddenly remembered that he had something important to do for Celestia, and decided not to play any more tricks on the sleeping human. He floated weakly out of the the house, and vowed to never look at a humans dreams again as he was pushed North by a gentle breeze.
+++ At the hopefully temporary home of Silver Star +++
Silver had been gone for nearly four hours. She walked up the stairs to check on Cheese. Much to her dismay, his door was open, and light was coming from the third bedroom.
"Celestia damn that human..." she whispered to herself. She looked into the room and saw Cheese sitting at the desk, reading as if she had never found him that morning. She coughed. Cheese whipped around. "Bed." ordered Silver as she pointed down the hall towards the humans bedroom.
"You got a new cast." He observed.
"Thank you for noticing... Bed." She replied. Cheese sighed and put down the book.
"Fine..." he moaned. He got up, stumbled into his room and closed the door behind him. Silver stood in the hallway for a few moments, making sure Cheese wouldn't sneak back out immediately. Silver sighed. I wonder if all humans act this way... She thought to herself.
+++ The next morning, Twilights' castle +++
The room was stuffy. It was fairly large over all, but somehow it was still seemed tight and close. Twilight was seated in the middle of the room, with scrolls of parchment and bundle of quills at the ready. I stood by a chalkboard. I extremely disliked chalkboards, mostly because of a former teacher who loved to scratch one... But that's one of my pet-peeves. It would have to make do... I'll try not to scratch it. Silver was sitting on a chair near the door.
"Cheese!" Twilight shouted. I realized I had dozed off for a few moments "Are you okay?" I shook my head to clear my mind, which WAS being more prone to clutter recently...
"I'm fine Twilight, I just spaced out for a minute..." I said nonchalantly.
"You were standing there for nearly ten minutes..." Silver said bluntly.
"Was I? Weird... Any way... After the emergence of microbes in Earth's early oceans..." I said, trying to move the lessons along.
"Cheese... I was calling to you for nine of those ten minutes..." Twilight stated. Huh... It felt like a few seconds of silence to me... Me zoning out is normal... But for me not to respond when I'm not listening to music or something? Or still standing? Not normal at all...
"I'm sure it's nothing... Merely staying up a bit late probably..." I said, trying to keep calm.
"He does stay up very late..." Silver murmured.
"Cheese, I stay up late all the time... And blacking out is not normal..." Twilight said. Curses, she was right... But I couldn't let on that it was abnormal. Who knew what sort of psychological hooey... I mean non-sense... like shock therapy, they had. Also... I would prefer to stay out of psychological hospital run by miniature horses, even if they were sentient aliens.
"It happens to me from time to time..." I lied. "Usually when I get deep into thought..." The best lies have a grain of truth in them.
"Oh." Twilight whispered. Silver on the other hand didn't look like she bought it.
"I've lived with you for a week now... And I've seen what you do when you have a 'deep thought'... And that isn't it." She said accusingly. Fuck, she saw through it...
"Trust me... No you haven't." I said, half telling the truth and half trying to convince them otherwise. I haven't had a clear deep thought since I arrived in Equestria... I should probally fi... Rectify that... Is my vocabulary slipping? Fuck, I didn't have time to think about it now... "Any way after the emergence of microbes in Earth's early oceans..."
+++ That night, the ramshackle house +++
Silver sat straight up in bed. Something had awoken her, but what was it? Suddenly the crack of thunder made her realize what was happening. The scheduled storm had arrived, and Silver was deathly afraid of lightning and thunder. She quickly ducked her head under the blanket.
"Nonononono..." she whispered into the darkness. "Come on Silver! You’re a fully grown mare! You shouldn't be afraid of a little light and noise!" she tried to encourage herself. Her words didn't hold water as lightning cracked overhead. "Eep!" she cried. She tried to hold her ground, but the next boom tore through her fragile courage against lightning. She suddenly sprang up and dashed to the nearest living thing, the human Cheese. As Silver burst through his door, she saw that he was sitting up in bed, leaning against the wall. She did not care however. She clung to him like a scared cartoon cat.
"A little afraid of lightning are we?" he asked after a moment.
"Shut up!" she shivered
"Make that a lot scared." he corrected himself. Another flash and boom. Silvers grip tightened. "Ow." said Cheese. He sighed. "Oh come on, it's not that scary..." he said. Silver was about to tell him to go buck himself, but a wave of thunder silenced her. Then she realized something.
"Wait... Are you listening for thunder??" asked Silver, unable to comprehend it.
"You could say that..." he replied.
"What the hay is wrong..." Silver began, only to be interrupted by another sonic boom.
"What's wrong with me? You'll have to narrow that down some." smiled Cheese. "When I was young, I was scared of lightning as much as everyone else. But then I realized, it's quite... enticing in its own way..." He continued. Silver still clung to him like a scared cat. Cheese started patting her on the head, trying to calm her down. "It's not going to hurt you..." he whispered consolingly. He suddenly started hearing a wave of thunder approaching. "Here, listen to it get closer..." he said. Silvers ears perked up. The wave rolled smoothly over the house, and retreated into the distance. Her grip tightened slightly, but not as much. "That wasn't so bad was it?"
"Buck you." she stated.
"I suppose that is technically an answer..." he thought out loud. More thunder rolled overhead. Cheese sighed peacefully. Silvers grip however tightened. "You know, eventually you'll be unable to grip any harder." he stated.
"I don't care!" she yelled. Cheese aparantly saw no point in trying to reason with her.
"If you want I suppose you can stay the night in here... But no funny business!" Cheese said as he laid back down. Silver had no choice, if she were to keep her grip on him, and followed suit. Cheese was soon sleeping. Silver remained awake, keeping her limbs around him. She tried to see what Cheese had meant by "enticing" whenever thunder rolled overhead, but she couldn't do it. Eventually however, her limbs slackened, and she fell asleep.
+++ The Alien +++
After I fell "asleep" Silver eventually gave up and fell asleep as well. It was... Honestly weird sleeping with another living thing, even more so with a talking pony. While it was obvious that she was afraid of lightning/thunder... Her timing couldn't have been worse. She had assumed that I was staying up listening to the thunder. While not a lie, it wasn't exactly the truth ether... What had happened earlier today was... Fuck I can't remember the word! Unsettling! That's it! ... And it's getting worse... Anyway, it was unsettling. Recently, all of my thoughts have just seemed, muddy... I can't really explain it, they just aren't as they should be... And it's unnerving. I've always relied on thoughts and guessing what everyone else was going to do. If I could guess, I could react earlier, and just save a whole bunch of pai... Hassle... God dammit. If I couldn't think straight, I was... Fucking hell... GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER! ... I was, bluntly put, royally screwed. Ugh... I needed to get this cleaned up as fast as possible... If I didn't... Well... History has always, without fail, repeated itself...
+++ The next morning +++
Silver woke up slowly. Her head was laying on something that wasn't a pillow. She sniffed, it smelled like... The humans clothing... Her eyes opened suddenly. She was in Cheeses room, laying in his bed, right next to the human himself. Her head was resting on the humans shoulder, who was turned away from her. The events of that night rushed back. Good, no "funny business" like Cheese had said. She pulled her head off the sleeping human suddenly. Good thing he was a deep sleeper. She thought to herself. Silver then got off the mammoth bed and exited the room. She then went downstairs to get breakfast. While eating she thought long and hard about what had happened. A staunch soldier of the Royal Guard had sought refuge in the company of an alien. While she was normally able to control her fear of lightning in the field, with varying degrees of success, but she hadn't even thought about running to Cheese like a frightened filly. OH CELESTIA what was wrong with her?! Her mind raced at the table.
+++ Far to the north, past even the Crystal Empire +++
Discord flew in ragged circles. His encounter with the human had only striped him of his ability to see dreams for a while. Thank goodness that was all... He thought to himself, but he still didn't feel quite as, whole, as he did a few days ago.
"Mind on the task!" Discord reminded himself, trying not to a have repeat of his mistake. The land below was covered in snow and permanently frozen. Deep crevices broke the ice every few yards. Why Celestia wanted him to check on a magical disturbance this far North was a mystery to Discord. This was well out of Equestria, out of her domain. But it must've been important, and perhaps a chance to redeem himself after that Tirek incident. Celestia damn him. He chuckled at that choice of curse. Somehow he had slipped into the slang of a common pony. Discord zoomed on, eager to get out of this frozen Tartarus hole...
Discords magical senses finally had found the spot. It was located in one of the deeper crevices. It practically sang with energy. He landed softly in the snow. Gosh was it colder down here? Even out of the howling wind? He searched the area. Finally he found a magical shimmer in the air in a sort of room that had somehow eroded out of the ice. This was it. Discord probed it with a finger of chaos energy. The probe sensed only a vast void. Odd, it should've shown the little room this place was hidden in. He pushed the finger deeper, still nothing. He should've hit the wall by now... After a few minutes of pushing deeper,
"Buck it." he finally said. With that, the finger of power turned into a kraken of probes and pushed farther than it was to even Canterlot. Still nothing. This was beyond odd. The shimmer of energy was like a vast opening, impossibly so. Discord withdrew his probes. He was about to leave when something disturbed the energy behind him. Discord suddenly turned to see something climb out of the shimmer. What it was.. Only Celestia knew, and I doubt she would ether... Discord thought to himself. The thing charged him with a,
SKREEE!
So much for a peaceful in and out... Discord snapped his fingers, expecting the thing to trip comically. The thing charged on.
"WHAT?!?" cried Discord. The chittering mass was suddenly on him. In a brief second of panic Discord loosed a blast of pure chaos from his mouth, kind of like a dragon breathing fire. The thing was knocked back, did a kind of back flip and landed on its contorted legs, otherwise it seemed perfectly healthy. It charged again. This time Discord backed out of the room, and brought the ice at the entrance down, trapping the creature inside. He was still panicking. What was that thing?! He ascended into the gray sky above.
"That could've gone better..." He murmured to himself as he whipped over the racing ice below.
+++ Tartarus, cell number 48379, at the same time +++
Void Spark sat in a huddle in the corner of his cell. The darkness seemed to crush in on him. He couldn't make any light, as his magic was heavily suppressed in the dismal cell. Faces seemed to loom out of the darkness. Several times he thought he heard infernal giggling.
"Who's there?!?" he called. A few moments passed. Void was starting to expect no answer when a voice whispered to him.
Who do you think...
He nearly emptied his bowls then and there. But he had recognized the voice.
"What do you want?! I've done all I can!" he cried, terrified of the owner of the whisper.
Ah... But you have not done what we agreed...
"It wasn't my fault! In my escape something else came out of the portal!" cried Void Spark.
Yes... We know what happened, we were there was well...
"Then you know why I couldn't do what was asked!"
Oh please... Any competent magical creature would have saw that thing was harmless...
"Harmless?! It knocked out one of the guards and escaped!" excused Void.
The same guard who brought you to Canterlot... And besides... I brought it here...
"You WHAT?!? Why didn't you tell me?!" asked a somewhat enraged Void Spark.
You needed to be as surprised as the hunting party... I WANT it here... It is still however your fault that your task remains uncompleted...
"I tried to follow the creature! But..."
BUT YOU WERE TOO INCOMPETENT AND CLUMSY YOU IMBECILE... YOUR TASK HAS YET TO BE COMPLETED AND HERE YOU SIT IN THE DARK...
"Tartarus is inescapable! There is no way out! Find another pony to do the task!" Cried Void.
So you are saying that you no longer want what was bargained... ha... haha... HAHAHAHAHAHA... YOU THINK YOU HAVE A CHOICE... How... amusing... You already know that you are the only capable one in this plane of existence of performing such a feat... And I have done my part of the bargain... It is now... as they say... time to pay...
Void Spark was suddenly engulfed by a light that shone brighter than the sun, and yet darker than a new moon.
+++ That afternoon, Canterlot +++
Celestia was reading letters from many of her loyal subjects when the news arrived.
"Your majesty!" cried a Royal Guardspony as he galloped into the throne room. He quickly bowed at the foot of the throne. "Void Spark has escaped Tartarus..."
+++ Canterlot +++
"WHAT?!" cried a anguished Celestia. Her eyes started to burn hotter than the sun she manifested, the guard at the foot of the throne backed away from the sudden flare of heat emanating from the normally benign princess. Her mane took on a more fiery hue.
"Your majesty... There is no possible way for him to have snuck past the spectral guards..." he stammered, clearly not wanting to be in front of the full might of the sun princess. Celestia suddenly seemed to power down, and return to normal. She took a few calming breaths
"Thank you, you may go now..." she sighed with exhaustion. She sat alone in the throne for several silent minutes. That is until Discord decided to interrupt her thoughts.
"Celestia!" he panted. "Ice! Cave! Magic! Thing! Black! Cake!" he started in a rushed shout.
"Slow down DIscord..." calmed Celestia. Discord pulled a bellow from nowhere, put it in his mouth and pumped furiously. Celestia waited. Finally DIscord seemed to calm down.
"You were right Celestia... It was there..." he stammered. Celestia seemed to recoil in her throne.
"Do you remember where it exactly was?" she asked in desperation.
"I have no idea where it exactly was... But it is opening... Of that I am extremely certain."
"Then we have no time. Discord, may I ask you to search for Void Spark in that area? He is the only one who can open it fully." Celestia said in a commanding tone. DIscord nodded and vanished in a comical pop. "Guards!" shouted Celestia. Several dozen Royal Guards rushed the room, expecting trouble. "Mobilize the army. Call up all reserve units." ordered Celestia. Several guards bowed and rushed to relay these new orders. "Gather the Bearers as well." she added. Another Guard left.
"Your majesty? What about the special case?" asked the commanding Royal Guard. Celestia had forgotten all about her in the past few days.
"Warn Silver Star, but do not muster her yet."
+++ That night +++
Ponies were marching into Canterlot by the hundreds. Wearing newly issued armor plating and carrying brand new spears. They were Equestrian Reserve Units, the ERU. Celestia wouldn't have called for them to arms if she had not felt the need. Luna sat on the balcony where she would watch the night.
"This is not good at all..." she murmured to herself.
"Indeed." said a voice behind her. Luna jumped, not expecting anyone to answer.
"Sister!" she cried when she saw who was in the room with her. Celestia was rummaging through a bookshelf. "What are you doing up so late?!"
"My armor needs new enchantments on it. I thought the book was here... Ah! here it is!" Celestia exclaimed as she pulled an ancient but well preserved book off the shelf.
"You're going to lead from the front?" asked Luna.
"Yes. It is the only way to ensure victory." stated Celestia. This was very bad indeed. Celestia wouldn't get involved unless given no choice.
"What are you afraid of?" asked Luna, Celestia had not told her lunar twin. Celestia sighed.
"Very well... A few months ago, when Void Spark began his reign of terror in Canterlot... A unanimously sent message was sent to me. It had claimed that the writer was a close associate of Void Spark. And it detailed his plan to overthrow "The Alicorn Tyrants" were the letters words. I was skeptical at first. But then he struck exactly how the letter described. To the letter. Why somepony did this, I don't have any clue. But we managed to corner him a few days ago. And that lead to the discovery of the human. You know the rest of that tale... But the final claim is that Void would open a portal far to the North of the Crystal Empire, and it would open to a plane of existence unknown to us. And an army of horror would sweep through Equestria like a farmer's scythe." Celestia stated. "I had Discord find the portal. And he confirmed that it is opening..." veered off Celestia. "War is upon us sister. And we need everything we can get our hooves on." Luna didn't know what to say. Celestia left the room to finish her preparations without a word.
"Everything?" Luna asked herself. She contemplated what that meant for a moment. Everything. Surely Celestia didn't mean THAT has well? That was a weapon that was TECHNICALLY created by Nightmare Moon... And not even Celestia could wield its power... Everything. Wait, Luna had seen only one pony with the kind of focus required to wield it. Except, he wasn't a pony.
+++ The next morning, Ponyville, Twilights Castle +++
Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy stood in front of Twilight in shock. Twilight had gone pale from reading the letter from Celestia. None of them could believe it, the letter had explained everything.
"Is she serious?!" asked Applejack.
"There's no possible way Celestia can be serious about that..." murmured Rarity. The rest were silent... Except Pinkie Pie.
"But I haven't gotten a chance to throw a 'Welcome strangealienmonkeything to Equestria' party yet!" she complained. The other five ignored her.
"Go get ready girls… Warm clothing included..." Twilight stated with grim certainty. There was nothing else to say, even Pinkie had nothing further to say. There was a threat to Equestria, and the Elements of Harmony were Equestria’s shield and sword.
+++ The same morning, Canterlot +++
Celestia had just taken over guarding the day. Luna trotted through the empty lower halls. Everything. That was what Celestia had said. Everything. Luna descended countless stairs. Down and down they went. Eventually Luna arrived to a floor all but abandoned. Most of these crypts were to hide the citizens of Canterlot if necessary. But Celestia had found a better purpose all those years ago. Nopony liked these abyssal depths, Guards tasked with keeping the torches burning often neglected these levels. It was the perfect location to hide something, and find it again in an emergency. Luna's hoof steps echoed off the walls as she quickly trotted through abandoned hall after abandoned hall. The torches down here were probably last lit when Nightmare Moon was banished. Luna didn't like to think of herself as Nightmare Moon, a different age, a different pony... Nevertheless, being stuck in the head of an ancient evil did occasionally have its perks, albeit far and few between.
Luna could see perfectly well in the lightless halls. She was after all, Princess of the Night. At last, after nearly an hour of trotting, she found the room. The ornately carved stone door stood before her impassively. It had the dueling sisters of millennia ago carved into its arches, the power of the sun, against the majesty of the moon. The Elements of harmony, versus a strange staff. Luna remembered it well. It was one of the things that helped her evil twin to gain power. Luna sighed at the memories, of times long gone. She hesitantly put her horn to the door. It suddenly lit up in archaic runes, with the pale blue that was Luna's magic. The circularly arrayed runes started to spin. The door abruptly opened. She walked in. The secret vault was circular, with eight carved stone pillars placed evenly in the walls. In the exact middle, was a stone pedestal. Standing, perfectly vertical, on the pedestal, was a plain oak staff. Luna hesitantly took it off the pedestal. As soon as her magic touched its wood, she felt the power that the simple staff held. Luna however would not use it. Not again.
"It's been a long time old friend..." she whispered to the staff. She pulled a piece of cloth from out of thin air, and wrapped it around the staff where she would hold it. The ocean of power suddenly vanished. Luna sighed. She had forgotten its allure. She turned back, and exited with the oak stick in tow... Hopefully the human, who had held another dark beast at bay for so long, could handle one more for only a few hours...
Everything.
+++ The same morning, Ponyville +++
The letter in Silver Stars' magical hold was brief and to the point. She could waste little time. The only reason she was notified was because there was a very good chance she would be called on. Silver looked up the stairs. Cheese wouldn't be getting up for at least another hour. She had something very important to quickly do.
A few minutes, and against the doctor's orders, a quick trot later, Silver reached Carousel Boutique. Rarity was rushing about in a mad dash.
"Oh my goodness! Where did I put it? Oh that's where that was!" exclaimed Rarity when Silver entered the shop. Rarity ignored Silver as she run around.
"Ahem." coughed Silver. Suddenly Rarity realized she had a visitor.
"I'm sorry I'm clos..." she began, then she saw it was Silver. "Oh! It's you!" she exclaimed. "I don't have much time, so I'll get straight to the point. It's made of a strange fabric that I doubt I could replicate in a few years, much less than the few days I've had..." she continued trotting around, searching for something. "I did however take the liberty of replicating the piece with pony equivalents, to understand how it was made of course... It took some time, without a model to work on... But late yesterday night I did it." She pulled a dark gray garment out of a dresser and held it up. "I'm not pleased with the color, but it was the closest fabric I had. Do you want them both?" she asked.
"No thank you, I just want the original." said Silver, inspecting the new garment. "I'll let you keep the new one for you to study." she continued after seeing the confused look on Rarity's face.
"If you want me to study it, then why don't you take the new one?" asked Rarity.
"For what I'll need it for, only the original will work." stated Silver.
"Why..." began Rarity, until she saw the look on Silvers face that said I'm-not-going-to-tell-you-that. "Very well..." She went into the back and brought forth the familiar dark green sweater. Silver took it with delicate care.
"Thank you." she trotted outside, her leg clearly feeling better. This left Rarity alone in the boutique again.
"Oh yes! That's right!" she exclaimed to herself and rebegan dashing about the shop in a frenzy.
Silver smelled the alien cloth. It still smelled like blood and another world, but now had a mixture of cleaning agents thrown in. For some reason, she found it soothing. Silver stuffed the garment into her saddlebag. He doesn't need to know I have it. She thought to herself. She continued walking down the street towards the house.
When Silver arrived, Cheese was still asleep. That human could always be counted on to sleep. She thought. She went to her room, and began packing the few belongings she had. Celestia wouldn't have bothered to warn her if it wasn't important. Silver left the travel bag on the bed, and began getting her equipment ready for the inevitable call to arms.
+++ An hour later, Canterlot +++
"No, they're not enough..." sighed Celestia as she looked out her chambers window into the crowd of soldiers below. Her armor was still on its mannequin. She had gone over it countless times, recharging protection spells, fixing old enchantments, and making sure they all worked in harmony. The book she used was open to a section on magical shields and general protection. Celestia crossed the room to the desk where her quill and parchment sat, and began to write. I'm sorry, but everything is everything. She thought to herself as she scribbled furiously.
+++ Noon, Ponyville +++
Silver knew it. The letter, personally from Celestia, had reordered her to rejoin her squad in Canterlot. She went back upstairs. She then strapped her armor on, and flung the saddlebag over her shoulder. She started to walk out of the room when she suddenly stopped. Something yelled her that she forgot something in her travel case, which she was going to leave here. She dug around in it. And pulled out the dark green alien fabric.
"Why am I coming back for this?" she asked herself out loud. Regardless, she obeyed the yelling something and put it in her saddlebag. "What is wrong with me?" she asked herself on the way down the stairs. She wrote a quick note to Cheese, and left both letters nearby. Silver then sighed, and walked out the door.