Chapters I couldn't believe what I was doing. Less than five minutes ago I injected my best friend with mind control serum and now was riding her through the air.
I guess I should explain myself, but first I will tell you who I am. I am a unicorn stallion who goes by the name of Cosmic Star. My coat is bright blue and my mane and tail is such a dark shade of blue you could almost mistake it for black. My cutie mark is a five point star being orbited by an eight point star. I am good at almost all kinds of magic but I have a weird connection to the stars and moon. By weird I mean I can communicate with them (I got my cutie mark when I finished my first conversation with the stars) but I haven't heard from the moon in over three years.
Also I'll tell you where I live. Now where most ponies have a house or just live where they work (at least they did from the stories I've been told) me and my best friend Tempest Tornado (a purple coated pegasus with cloud grey mane and a cutie mark of an electrically charged tornado) live outside the borders of Equestria.
At first it doesn't seem all bad; there's lots of trees and plenty of spaces to sit down and have a chat. But changelings are the problem. In Equestria changelings normally keep to themselves, disguised as ponies that went missing and feasting on love. But outside the border they stack up in hordes and attack unsuspecting ponies, eating them and then changing into their form and pretend nothing ever happened. Whenever groups meet each other hostilities are inevitable because no pony can trust another. This keeps pony kind fairly small outside the border.
The question you are probably asking is 'Why don't you just go back to Equestria?'
The main issue is we physically can't. Ever since Discord took over, all the ponies who stood up to him were banished outside the borders and there is a magical barrier that no-one with relative blood can pass through.
Okay I think that's all the background you need to know for right now. I'll go back to about 8 minutes ago to explain why I am riding my friend through the sky.
"So Cosmic... stars talk about anything interesting recently?" Tempest casually asked.
"Not particularly. Why do you want to know?" I replied.
"No reason, I just wanted to create conversa..." Tempest stopped mid sentence.
"Tempest, you okay?"
"Shhh!"
"But you were ju..."
"Be quiet!" interrupted Tempest in the quietest way possible.
I heard it too now. The bushes were rustling.
"Tempest, get behind me!" I ordered, charging my horn to be prepared for the worst.
It only took me a second to react as I blasted the pony with my magic.
"COSMIC!" Tempest angrily screamed "How could you fire upon any pony like that without even confirming that they were a changeling!"
"Because I knew that mare."
"But then if you knew her why..."
I cut her off "Because I recognized her as the pony that was dead and bleeding in that ditch the other day."
"Cosmic, I..." Tempest trailed off.
I looked at her she was sitting down and shivering. I looked around me. Changelings had surrounded us, not bothering to disguise themselves after seeing how easily I saw through their comrade's disguise. Ponyfeathers!
"Tempest?"
She did not answer; she was too scared.
"Tempest, answer my questions with just a nod or a shake. Can you do that for me?"
When she nodded I gave a short sigh of relief. (Last time she did this she didn't respond for a week.)
"Okay, are you able to carry my weight even when flying?"
She nodded, shivering more intensely now. The Changelings were getting closer.
"Can you fly me out of here?"
She shook her head.
"Tempest please? It might be our only chance."
She shook again.
"We don't have time for this." I mumbled to myself "Tempest, sorry for this but you give me no other choice..."
I pulled a syringe out of my saddle bags. It contained a blue and green liquid. Then I quickly injected her with the liquid and her eyes went the tiniest bit wider. I climbed onto Tempest's back. "Tempest, fly us out of here now." She reacted immediately (which was unsurprising as I had just injected her with a mind control potion of my own creation, using a mixture of changeling venom and mild tranquilizers). Unfortunately the mind numbing effect didn't last longer than five minutes.
And that I believe brings us to the opening of the story.
Tempest woke up mid flight. Her ear-splitting scream of surprise almost made me fall off.
"Cosmic.. why can't I control myself and why are we hundreds of metres into the air?"
"Umm... well, you know that serum I've been working on lately?"
"I am going to kill you for this...!"
"Well its better than both of us being dead and imitated by changelings. Now land us down in that clearing over there."
This time it took a little longer to react since once the mind becomes focused again it resists control from an outside source.
We landed fairly quickly after that.
As I got off Tempest tried to buck me.
Seeing the motion I cried out without thinking "DON'T BUCK!"
She froze mid buck and fell over after losing her balance.
"Ow."
"Sorry, I forgot about that."
"When does this wear off?"
"Any second..." I get knocked over from a buck to the face "...now" I finished through a swollen jaw
Chapter One: A Breach in the Barrier
I quickly use a simple healing spell to fix the damage from my friend's assault. "For crying out loud, Tempest, did you have to buck me?!"
"Don't act all innocent Cosmic. You injected me with mind control serum!"
"What else could I do? You weren't moving!"
"I don't know, maybe a teleport spell?!"
"Tempest, you should know by now that even though I can use a teleport spell, I can't use it on more than one pony per hour unless the moon is full." My magic was like that. I can cast all kinds of spells as I mentioned earlier, but most of those spells are limited, strengthening only in certain circumstances. The most common of these circumstances is a full moon and even then that only slightly increases my power.
"Huh?" I heard a strange sound.
"Cosmic? What is it?" Tempest looked worried about me.
"You can't tell me you didn't hear that."
"Hear what?"
"Break the Barrier" I would have recognized those voices anywhere, anytime.
"Cosmic, are the stars talking to you again?"
"Not all of them, just the ones that merged with the moon that day."
"You mean the day when the moon stopped talking to you?"
"Yes..."
"Break the Barrier"
"Break what barrier?" I said very confused. I started to walk forward "I don't see a wall any... ow." I had walked face first into the magical forcefield that blocked us off from Equestria. "Oh THAT Barrier."
Tempest was giggling at my expense.
"That still doesn't explain HOW I'm meant to do this, stars. My magic isn't THAT good."
"Uh Cosmic... you might want toooooooooo..." I looked over to her to see that she was staring up at the sky. I was expecting her to keep talking but she was petrified again. When I looked up I couldn't blame her; there were four stars falling from the sky... and they were all falling towards us.
"Tempest, get away."
"But Cosmic, what about..."
"Get away!"
With that she flew out of the danger area, but she was still close enough to watch me.
"Alright, I don't know what you are doing, stars, but I trust what you are doing." I charged up the strongest blast of magic I could and at that moment when I had reached my limit the stars collided with me and I could feel my magic surging within me. I unleashed the bolt of magic right at the force field. The effect was almost instantaneous. A hole about the size of a house opened up in the barrier.
"Tempest! Come down here, I think I did it." She swiftly came down to me and hugged me. "Caaaaaan't.....breeeeeathe."
"Oh Cosmic, thank goodness you're all right..."
"OUCH!" She had kicked me.
"But NEVER scare me like that again."
"Okay, okay but still, haven't you ever wanted to be where you belong?"
"..."
I walked through the hole. Then Tempest tackled me and we both went tumbling into the land of Equestria.
"What was that for?"
Tempest was giggling and started to blush. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me. It's just we haven't actually had fun since we were foals."
I started laughing too. "Yea we haven't played together since..." I stopped mid-sentence and Tempest had stopped her giggle. That particular topic was a sore point for both of us.
"...since our parents died." Tempest finished the sentence for me.
We walked in silence for about half an hour after that. It was then that Tempest collapsed.
"Oh, gosh! Tempest, are you okay?" I picked her up with my hooves but the response I got sent me laughing. She was snoring.
"Yeah I guess we have been awake for a while." It was a cold night and there wasn't any loose wood for a fire.
"Tempest might kill me if she wakes up before I do, but...." Purely for the sake of warmth I cuddled up with Tempest and went to sleep myself.
I woke up with a kick to the face. Is this ever going to stop?
"You-You!" Tempest was blushing fiercely. "I don't even... How could you..." She was at a loss for words.
"Tempest. Please. It was cold and I didn't know what else to do."
"You could have slept through it like I did."
"But with you being a pegasus you're more resistant to the cold than I am."
"That's no excuse. What you did was, was..."
"It was stupid, Tempest. I know that now but I wasn't thinking straight. It was late and I didn't know what else to do."
What happened next came as quite a shock to both of us. There was a loud repeating sound getting closer to us. Clackidy-Clackidy-Clackidy. As the sound passed us there was a large gust of wind. Before I knew it Tempest had picked me up and we were following the thing that was making the noise. When I saw it I was completely confused. I didn't know what it was; I'd never seen or heard of anything like it. It was a metal carriage with smoke coming out of a pole sticking out the top with large boxes on wheels trailing it.
"Think this is one of Discord's contraptions?" I asked Tempest calmly.
"Don't think so it's not chaotic enough. Why don't we follow it and see if we can find out what it is?"
It only took an hour before the thing stopped. To our immense surprise a lot of ponies got out of the large boxes and we realised it was something to ride in. We had stopped in what appeared to be a small town. It looked ordinary enough. The only thing that seemed out of place was a large crystal castle on the outskirts of the village. So of course we decided to go there first.
Along the way we bumped into a pink mare with poofy mane and three balloons as a cutie mark.
"Oh sorry, miss. Would you mind telling us where we are?"
She looked at us, gasped loudly and then ran off somewhere.
"Well, that was random." Tempest commented.
Aside from that encounter we got to the castle without any trouble after about a fifteen minute walk. I knocked on the door and after a few minutes a baby purple and green dragon opened the door.
"Ah, we've been expecting you." the dragon said calmly. I wondered how anyone could have expected us - we didn't even know we were coming here and no-one could recognize us because this was our first time in Equestria. Tempest and I walked in the door and it was dark. There was a flash of light.
"SURPRISE!" There were balloons and confetti everywhere, tables had been laid out with various kinds of food on them and about fifty ponies were in the main room. We had just stepped into a surprise party and it was a surprise alright! The pink mare we bumped into earlier came out of the main group.
"This is your surprise Welcome to Ponyville party. Were you surprised?"
"Yes, very surprised." I said not quite believing my eyes. "Can you direct us to the pony that lives here?"
"Okie Dokie Loki." The mare replied "But first LET'S PARTY!"
It was about two hours later when the party finished. Everypony left except me, Tempest, the dragon that showed us in (who was named Spike) and the pink mare who organized the party whose name was Pinkie Pie. Pinkie was leading us to the mare who lived here and Spike was following us. Then I heard someone call out.
"Pinkie, is your welcome party finished already?"
"Yes indeedily, Twilight. Also, the two ponies I threw the party for wanted to meet you."
"Okay, I'll be out in a minute."
"So this 'Twilight' is the mare who lives here?" I asked
It was the dragon who replied. "Yup. That's her, Princess Twilight Sparkle."
"Wait, I thought the only princesses in Equestria were Celestia and Luna?"
It was at that moment that the bedroom doors opened to reveal a pale purple coated alicorn with dark purple mane with one streak of magenta in it and a 6-point magenta star surrounded by five 5-point stars for a cutie mark.
"Sorry I didn't meet you earlier, I meant to come out but I kind of got distracted by this really great book I'm reading... you wanted to see me?" said the purple mare.
This is going to be a long day
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Chapter Two: Questions Asked, Trouble Arrives
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At the border
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"Hmmmmmmm." The captain of the changeling squad had been examining the situation for about three hours and one of the other changelings couldn't take it any longer.
"Sir? Why have you been staring at that spot for so long?" The changeling that spoke found itself being picked up in the captain's magic. About five seconds later that same changeling was being hurled through the air right at the hole in the barrier. It landed on the other side safely.
"You were lucky." The captain snarled. "The rest of you go and report this to the queen. She'll be pleased to know that changelings can now return to Equestria." The four other changelings flew off.
"Now for you." There was a flash of green and the changeling that had been thrown into Equestria was now a pile of ash.
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Meanwhile at Twilight's Castle
======================
"So you're the two new ponies in town?" Twilight asked.
"You could say that." I replied not really knowing what else to say.
"So what did you want to see me for?"
"Well at first it was to get help, but now I just want answers." I was doing all the talking as Tempest was sitting in a corner half in her petrified state, she hadn't moved since Twilight let us in but she wasn't shivering like she normally does.
"First I have a question for you. Wh..." Pinkie cut off Twilight's question.
"Wait Twilight, I want to ask a question first. What town did you come here from?" Twilight face-hoofed.
"Well that's the strange thing. You see... we're not from Equestria."
"Wait, what? Then where?" Twilight was staring at me looking very confused.
"We came here from just outside Equestria's borders." At the end of the sentence I got pinned against the wall by a magenta magic aura. I could see the same thing had happened to Tempest.
"You mean where the changelings are from?" Twilight wasn't friendly with us any longer. Pinkie had taken Spike out of the room and closed the doors behind her.
"Can't... breathe..." Twilight dropped her magic only from our heads and both me and Tempest could breathe again.
"How do I know you aren't a changeling?" Twilight was still asking us questions but now it was more like interrogating.
"Check my saddlebags. There's a device in there that tests for changeling blood."
"How will we know you aren't tricking us with this device."
"There's also a sample of changeling blood in my saddlebags. Short of testing the device on yourself which I'm sure you won't do that's the only way to show that the device works."
Twilight removed my saddlebags and emptied their contents out onto the floor. She found a jar labeled 'CHANGELING BLOOD' as well as the device I spoke of. She stuck the needle of the device into the blood in the jar and it beeped. She then cleaned it off and took a sample of my blood using the device and there was no sound. She tested Tempest too with no result either. After that she let us both down.
"Not many ponies in Equestria know of changelings." I said, still catching my breath.
"We had a large-scale encounter with them about a year ago." Twilight replied.
Tempest decided to speak now. "Hey Cosmic, wasn't it around then that the changeling population spiked?"
"Yes it was. Maybe it had something to do with Twilight's encounter."
"Well yes, after my brother and Princess Cadence defeated them all, the changelings in Equestria were banished and a magical barrier around our borders stopped them from coming back. We had no idea ponies lived out there, it's so hostile.
"Well, ponies have been living there for over a millennia. Speaking of that topic, what happened to Discord? The place seems so harmonious."
"Discord? Why do you ask?"
"It's just that when Discord was in charge, six ponies who happened to be our ancestors stood up to his antics. He wouldn't have it and he banished them from Equestria and at the same time created a barrier that no-one of the same bloodline can pass through."
"Then how did you two get through it?"
Tempest spoke up once more. "Well... Cosmic sorta blasted a hole in it with the help of some stars."
"Wait, only someone with incredible magic power can undo Discord's magic. I wonder..." Twilight ran out the door and locked us in.
"Just great."
Tempest spoke again. "Well it's not so bad. At least we're together." She was blushing. I started blushing too because I've always seen her as more than just a friend. I have had a crush on her since I got my cutie mark. I didn't know it then but she felt the same way.
"Maybe once this is all over... we could..." She was having trouble finding the words. "we could go somewhere and just have fun for a change."
Did she just ask me out? "Okay sure. It would be cool to hang out." Both our faces were turning red from the embarrassment. The door opened up and not a second too soon.
"Okay I'm back!" Twilight looked happy about something. "Hold on. Are you blushing?"
Oh Celestia. I can't let her get the wrong idea. "H-How about you tell us why you just left."
I guess she noticed I was uncomfortable with this and dropped the subject. "I went to do a bit of history research."
"Research?"
"Yes, I went to research the chaos war, the time Discord took over."
Twilight then started rambling about everything to do with that age. I'll shorten it to the important parts. Back in Discord's reign six ponies went missing with no bodies found. Those six ponies were 'Blazo Glory' and 'Morning Bloom' who were pegasi, 'Starry Skies' and 'Ruby Sketch' who were unicorns and finally the earth ponies 'Juiced Apple' and 'Party Prize'. She also said one more thing.
"Hold it there, Twilight." She glared at me since I interrupted her. "You said you found that you were related to Starry Skies?"
"Yes, why?" She was quite disappointed I stopped her for this question.
"Well, as it turns out I'm related to two of those ponies, but you should have guessed that."
"Okay, where are you going with this?"
"The two ponies that I'm related to are Blazo Glory and Starry Skies."
"How? They were both mares."
"Yes, well they both were in the early stages of pregnancy when they were banished. Blazo had a filly and Starry had a colt."
"So that means..."
"Yes. We're related."
We talked a bit more after that but nothing important. Twilight said we were welcome to stay the night in her castle as she had plenty of guest rooms. After that we all went to Pinkie's, a place called 'Sugarcube Corner' and had a bite to eat. It was the best day I've ever had and it was about to get better.
After dinner Twilight, Tempest and I all went back to the castle. Twilight went upstairs to get two of the guest rooms ready, leaving Tempest and me alone together. She was staring out the window.
"Cosmic, aren't the stars beautiful tonight?"
I walked over to her.
"Well, Tempest, the stars are always beautiful but sometimes they hide it."
"You would know, you have a better connection to the stars than anypony else."
"You want to know something, Tempest?"
"What is it Cosmic?"
"To me, you are the most beautiful star." I realized after I could have said that better. It didn't matter to Tempest.
"You really think so?"
"I know so." I lifted my hoof to rub her back. There was a particular spot between her wings I was aiming for.
"Oh-hoh-hoh." As she fell to lean on me I knew I had found it. "Cosmic, I think I lo..."
"Okay, the rooms are ready." Twilight just ruined what was about to be the perfect moment.
"Oh. Okay I-I'd better get to my room; it is late after all." Tempest blurted out awkwardly. "Goodnight!"She flew up the stairs.
"Yeah... goodnight." I said as my ears drooped. Walking up the stairs I started talking to nopony in particular. "Oh, Ponyfeathers! Why, Twilight? Why couldn't you have taken two minutes longer? Tempest was just about to say it. I could've said it back and then that would be it. We would be a couple."
I kicked the door open. I wasn't expecting anything else to happen that night.
"Hello, Cosmic Star, long time no talk."
"P-Princess Luna!?!"
Tempest's Chapter One: A Mare's Night Out
I close the guest room's doors behind me. After the stargazing with Cosmic I had left myself quite flustered once Twilight intervened.
"Ponyfeathers! How could I have let that opportunity pass up?" I found myself walking over to the large bookcase in the room.
"Why would anypony need so many books? Oh! This one looks interesting." I flew up and took out the book I had noticed. "Daring Do and the Griffon's Goblet, hmm..."
"I wouldn't start with that one." The voice startled me and I dropped the book. A sky blue coated pegasus with rainbow mane flew through the window, caught the book I dropped and put the book back on the shelf... all in the space of five seconds.
"I've never seen a pegasus fly so fast before."
"You haven't even seen me at my fastest. Name's Rainbow Dash. Any-who if you're gonna read Daring Do you should start with Sapphire Stone." She pulled the book off the shelf. "It's the first in the series."
"Thanks. Why are you here anyway?"
"I've been coming in at this time every night for the past week. I've been trying to get Twilight's version of the latest Daring Do novel ever since she's gotten it. I don't think she's finished it yet. What's your name?"
"Oh. My name is Tempest Tornado. I'm new here."
"I know you're new here; I was at Pinkie's party earlier today."
"That was actually my first party ever."
"Really? Huh, I would've thought a pony like you would have been to more parties."
"Well, it's only my second night in Equestria."
"Wow! Hey, I've got an idea."
"Oh, what is it?"
"You should come to my place. We could tell stories about our adventures and I could fill you in on anything you want to know."
"That sounds like a great idea."
"Okay! Follow me!"
It wasn't a long flight to Rainbow's but I did find it hard to keep up with her at times. When we got there she gave me a tour of everything there was in her house. When we got to her 'basement' for lack of a better word, she found some barrels of something called apple cider that she had forgotten about. We took a barrel upstairs and started drinking.
"WOW! This tastes soooooooo good."
"Don't drink too much of it or you'll regret it in the morning."
"I don't care about the morning. I want to drink as much as I can right now!"
"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."
A long conversation and eight drinks later (of which Rainbow had two) I was drunk. Rainbow sent me back to Twilight's because she didn't want me passing out on the floor. It took me five tries to get back in the window. Once I got in I started to climb onto the bed and passed out with my back legs still sagging on the floor. When I woke up I realized Rainbow was right and I was regretting it. I had a very strong headache as well as I was nauseous. I felt like I needed to vomit. Then Cosmic opened the door.
"Hey Tempest, you all right in there? You were called for breakfast an hour ago."
"Neeeeed buuuuuucket."
Those were the only words I said for another two hours. Cosmic brought me back the bucket and none too soon. As soon as I had it within my head's reach I was vomiting as if hell in my stomach was breaking loose.