Anything For His Childrenby Dolphy Blue DrakeChaptersChapter 1: FailureChapter 2: Starting overChapter 3: Getting readyChapter 4: An Early StartChapter 1: FailureAuthor's Note So, Chapter 1. Hope you enjoy it! Either way, please give me feedback in the comments! Constructive criticism is highly appreciated! Unnecessary hate isn't. Remember to point out both what I did well and what I did wrong. Improving isn't easy without knowing both sides. Anyway, as more characters become important, I'll be adding more character tags. For now, there aren't any characters from actual canon yet, but that will change with time. Chapter 1: Failure Patriarch Carson Stevens hesitated for just a moment when he saw the massive army the United Nations had assembled to attack him and his people—no. His children. Every single member of his race had gathered to protect Grand City, the capital of their country, Neoland. And every single member of his race was either directly one of his children, or one of his grandchildren. The world had rejected the neo humans, or novus homo sapiens, and after five years of trying to take the world for themselves so none could treat them like monsters or freaks, they’d been driven back onto their own soil, which they had raised from the ocean with their own powers. A look back at his children who were all dressed in various civilian outfits, themselves ranging in size from young children to young adults, and a hand on his shoulder from the one normal human woman who accepted him put an end to his hesitation, and he gave the command: “Our children! This is for our homes! For our large family! This is for the future of our race! Everyone! Attack!” With that, the unarmed masses charged the supposedly superiorly equipped army of tanks, foot soldiers, aircraft, etc., and Carson turned to face the woman standing beside him: his wife, Matriarch Alissa Stevens, a normal human, and the only one who didn’t reject him when his strange and frightening powers began to manifest themselves. “Our children, will they be okay?” he asked. “You’re the Prime Being of all neo humans,” Alissa assured him. “Every power you have, they have. We’ll turn this around and retake the offensive. As you said five years ago, there is no other option but to conquer the world to ensure fair treatment for your offspring.” “Thank you, my dear,” Carson said before kissing his wife deeply. “We’ll win this, and I shall aid in this fight, for as the original, I am the strongest.” That said, Carson utilized one of his myriad of superhuman abilities that all of his children shared with him to change the atomic structure of the air around him, quickly altering atomic nuclei to change the elements in the air into human flesh and bonding it to his back. The mass of flesh quickly was filled with his DNA and the bones in it bonded to his spine before taking the shape of massive batlike wings the color of human flesh. With his means of flight completed, Carson took to the air and flew towards the battle where his children were giving their all. Some of his children faced the footsoldiers armed with machine guns, who suddenly dropped their weapons, tried to pick them back up, but suddenly found that their guns seemed as heavy as tanks. Carson smiled at the display of their strength manipulation to sap their foes’ physical strength. They’d probably increase their own next and give the invaders a sound beating. Some others had managed to disarm their foes through melee attacks, and were currently overpowering the frantic soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. Combat-specialty came naturally to his race, so they were absolute masters at hand-to-hand fighting. Others were firing blasts of magic, another wonderful power Carson had developed, though it could only be used for attacks consisting of magic energy. Of course, they had another power to make up for that: dark elemental control. The elements a lot of video games mentioned, such as earth, air, fire, water, light, darkness, lightning and so on all had sinister sides to them. Control over such things was something that all neo humans had as well. Some summoned lightning from the sky to kill soldiers or fry the systems of vehicles, while others caused the water vapor in the air to condense into a wave of poisonous water, which swept over a group of soldiers. Carson cringed when he saw one of his children, a young girl, get shot in her pressure points by a spray of rubber bullets, rendering her unable to move. But Carson’s fear turned to pride when the little girl demonstrated the self-puppetry power they all possessed and got back to her feet with jerky yet controlled motions, got back into a fighting stance, and went to town on the soldier who shot her. Then, one of the self-proclaimed “superheroes” showed up to ruin Carson’s day: A man called Sonic Boom, who could both fly and use all sorts of powers involving sound. “Surrender, Carson Stewart!” Boom ordered. “Ah, you’ve never fought us before, have you, Mr. Boom?” Carson answered idly. “No, but no evil can stand up to my sonic powers!” Boom proclaimed. “Ah. Well, it’s too bad that we’re not actually evil,” Carson replied. “All this is for my children. The ends justify the means. You’ll all understand in the end.” “SHUT UP!” Boom shouted, sending shockwaves at Carson, who didn’t even flinch. “Huh?” Boom said in surprise. “How’d you—” “YOU CHILDISH FOOL,” Carson shouted back. “WE’RE IMMUNE TO SOUND-BASED ATTACKS, AND ANY POWER ANOTHER BEING USES AGAINST US THAT DOESN’T KILL US, WE COPY AND BECOME IMMUNE TO. THAT’S WHY MOST SUPERHUMANS STOPPED ATTACKING US AFTER THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF THE WAR. I DON’T COPY POWERS VERY OFTEN, BUT MY CHILDREN HAVE HAD THEIR SHARE OF COPIED POWERS.” Sonic Boom tumbled backwards through the air from the continuous sonic barrage. “Curse you, Carson Stewart!” Boom shouted as he started flying away. “You’ll get yours somehow!” With that nuisance taken care of, Carson touched down among his children in the middle of battle and turned his wings back into air and undid the change to his own physical makeup, as well. Many soldiers were either dead or dying, so Carson let the final power he shared with his children activate: death empowerment. Simply by being around the dead and dying, he and his children grew more powerful from absorbing the necrotic energy. However, this was cut short when the air suddenly started to spark with purple lightning. Looking around in panic, Carson saw four trucks with large satellite dishes on their backs, which were emitting the energy. “Children! Retreat!” Carson bellowed as a swirling vortex opened about ten feet above the ground. The vortex started to pull on them, making escape impossible. Children started crying, parents tried to console them, and Carson started to cry in defeat. “My children! I’ve failed you!” he screamed as the vortex pulled him in. Matriarch Alissa Stewart watched in horror as the people who were her adopted children were pulled into the vortex that could take them anywhere, possibly even into the void of space, where they’d all die. “Madam, come with me,” a voice said from her right, but she didn’t heed it and started to run towards the vortex. After hearing her husband’s cry of defeat, she redoubled her pace and ran as fast as her normal human legs could go. Soldiers tried to stop her, but she slapped them away. Carson was unable to turn her into a neo human, but he was still able to teach her about his infinite knowledge of hand-to-hand combat, and she’d learned quite a bit over the past five years. Twisting wrists and attacking pressure points, she was able to make it to the vortex, which was beginning to close as the last neo humans were pulled in. Leaping into the portal herself, Alissa found herself in some kind of warp tunnel. But before the tunnel could pull her along to join her family, something grabbed her ankle and started to pull her back out. “No!” She screamed. “My children! They need me! I can’t leave them without their mother!” “Ma’am,” a voice said from outside as she felt herself being dragged out. “That portal could lead anywhere. Besides, you’ve been declared mentally ill for claiming to love such a brutish creature as Carson Stewart. We only want to help you.” “If you want to help, then let me go!” Alissa screamed, kicking out with her free leg. She lucked out and kicked the man in the jaw, causing him to release her. “Carson needs me! If my family’s going to die, then I’ll die with them!” And with that, the portal closed, and Alissa was pulled along through the tunnel, unsure of whether or not she’d just thrown her life away. But either way, her family needed her. Even if that meant joining them in death. Further along in the tunnel, Carson continued to apologize to his children, who tried to console their father, but even four thousand caring voices couldn’t console a man who just wanted his people to be treated fairly. “It’s all my fault. All my fault.” Carson blubbered, not even noticing that his body had begun to glow gold like it did once a day. His children all fell into a hushed silence, watching as the one power their father had that they didn’t started to activate: the power of the Prime Being of the neo humans. Carson continued to cry as the aura left his body and hovered in front of him, finally bringing him back to reality. “So, one more child before I die,” Carson whispered. “One who never knew the conflict we had to endure. One pure and innocent, and they’ll quickly be snuffed out. How tragic.” The aura continued to shift in size and shape until it finally decided on a form: that of an adolescent girl. For modesty’s sake, the other children averted their eyes from their newest sibling as their father drew her into an embrace. “Welcome to our family, Emily,” Carson said as he stroked her blonde hair. “I’m sorry we don’t have any clothes for you, but you can wear this for now.” The other children gasped when their father removed his signature black and gray cloak that marked him as Patriarch and helped his new daughter put it on to maintain her modesty. “The Patriarch never removes that cloak!” One neo human whispered. “Does taking it off have any special meaning?” another wondered quietly. Whispers and theories were exchanged among the other neo humans about why their father would remove his cloak for their new sister. Surely he could’ve found another way to clothe her, right? Carson ignored all of it as he held Emily close. “I am Patriarch Carson Stewart, leader of the neo humans and your father. Many sub-families have formed in our young civilization, so you may join whichever one you want. I’m sure they’ll adopt you. Or, you can start your own new branch and come up with a last name all your own.” Emily looked like she was about to ask a question when the tunnel ended and spat the neo humans out into some kind of wasteland. There was nothing but dry, cracked earth as far as the eye could see. Not even a dried-up river to break the landscape. “We’re alive,” Carson whispered in disbelief. “I don’t know how, but we’re alive! My children! Here, we can begin anew! Whatever world we may be on now, let’s make it our own! Let’s take it for ourselves and ensure that we’ll never be mistreated!” The other neo humans cheered, and Carson began working on altering the atomic structure of a portion of the soil into that of fabric. He couldn’t make anything fancy, but Emily needed clothes. Soon, Carson had completed transmuting some of the soil into a polyester dress, which he gave to Emily. “Thank you, Father,” Emily said before changing into the dress under the cloak. Once she was finished, she returned the cloak to Carson, who put it on again. “Father, why is the portal still open?” a neo human boy asked. “All of us already came through. Shouldn’t it have closed?” “Hmm… I wonder,” Carson muttered to himself as he watched the portal, which suddenly ejected the woman he thought he’d never see again before finally closing. “Alissa!” he cried, wrapping her in an embrace. “Thank the heavens you’re alright!” “I couldn’t just leave you and our family,” the Matriarch said as she hugged Carson back. “And we all survived! This is perfect!” “Oh, Alissa?” Carson interrupted as he released her. “Our family now has one more member.” Turning to Emily, Carson made introductions. “Alissa, this is Emily. She hasn’t chosen a sub-family yet. Emily, this is Matriarch Alissa Stewart. My wife and your mother.” Unknown to the neo humans, they were being watched through an incredibly powerful telescope that had been enhanced by magic. A quadrupedal figure watched from a town miles away, ready to raise the alarm if the new creatures did anything that might appear dangerous. Chapter 2: Starting overChapter 2: Starting over As the neo humans got to work developing the land through atomic manipulation, Emily still lingered near the Patriarch and Matriarch, as if there was a question she needed to ask, but couldn’t bring herself to out of fear. After rubbing the pointed earlobes of his double-pointed ears that set his kind apart from regular humans, Carson turned to Emily with a smile. “You can speak, my dear child,” he told her. “What’s your question?” “Father, you said I could join any family branch I wished, correct?” the newest neo human asked timidly. “Of course,” Alissa assured her. “You can join any of them.” “Does that include yours?” Emily asked hopefully. The two leaders were shocked into silence. Alissa would have their first child in about eight months, so they had planned on starting their own personal branch, but to have someone ask to join that branch before they even had their first child was completely unexpected. Emily lowered her head sadly after a few seconds of silence. “I’m sorry,” she sniffled. “I shouldn’t have—” “Of course you can join, Emily!” Alissa cut her off as she embraced her. “You agree, right Carson?” Carson blinked, then nodded before joining the hug. “Welcome to the Stevens’ branch, Emily.” he whispered. “Be a good big sister to the child we have on the way, okay?” Emily looked shocked. “You were already going to have a personal family?” “That’s right, dear,” Alissa replied, stroking Emily’s hair gently. “I’ll be having a child in about eight months. So, please set a good example, not just for the people, but for your sibling.” “Prime Daughter Emily Stevens, welcome to our family,” Carson said as he released his personal daughter to hold her shoulders and look her in the eye. “May you be a shining example to the youth of our young race.” “I will… Dad,” Emily replied with tears in her eyes. “I’ll make both of you proud, I promise.” The touching moment was broken when a boy sporting a white t-shirt and blue denim shorts flew up to the trio with the aid of wings similar to the pair Carson had constructed back in the battle for Grand City. “Esteemed Patriarch and Matriarch,” the boy began, “we’ve completed transmuting a segment of the wasteland into a riverbed stretching to the nearest source of water: a freshwater lake about fifty miles to the north. Water from it should reach here in a few hours.” “Wonderful,” Carson said, clapping once. “Make sure it has an outlet at an ocean, no matter how far south you have to take it. Once we have a source of water, we’ll need to begin farming. And for that, we’ll need plants. Make sure a team is ready to search for vegetation, preferably ones we recognize, and preferably already growing. Only collect seeds if we have to.” “But Esteemed Patriarch Carson!” the boy spluttered. “Can’t we just transmute some rocks into plants?” Carson shook his head. “We could imitate plants, but they wouldn’t live. We can’t add the spark of life to things. And before you ask why those wings work, it’s because you fed your own genetic makeup into them when you fused them to yourself. You already possess the spark of life in yourself, so adding new limbs isn’t a problem.” “I understand, sir,” the boy replied. “I’ll relay your commands to the others. ‘Bye!” With a single beat of his generated wings, the boy took to the air again and flew in the direction of a large group of neo humans who were standing around a steadily advancing empty riverbed. After several hours, the water reached the vicinity of the neo humans and continued to flow south towards another freshwater lake about fifty miles south that already had an ocean as an outlet. As Carson and the majority of the neo humans got to work on their new settlement, which they chose to call “Neuanfänge”, which was German for “new beginnings”, another group set out to fulfill the command to find vegetation. Patrick Foreman, the leader of this group, grimaced as his stomach growled. “Dang it, we need food!” Maria Foreman, his adopted younger sister complained. “Pat, where are we going to find plants in this endless desert?” “I haven’t seen any cacti,” Louis Redmond, one of the youngest in the group remarked. “I haven’t seen any greenery since we got here.” “Hey, isn’t that a town?” Sofie Hammond, the true youngest of the group remarked, pointing towards what looked like a settlement in the distance. “You’re right, it is!” Pat gasped. “We don’t know how we’ll be received, so let’s lay low for now and just borrow whatever we can find that could help in getting us food fast.” “Well, they’ve got some fully grown trees, for one,” Louis remarked. “Let’s start with those. We’ll each take one. Is that okay, Pat?” “Not a problem at all,” Pat agreed as the group touched down and got rid of the huge wings that would make walking difficult. “Everyone, amp up your strength enough to uproot one of those trees, and we’ll fly them back to Neuanfänge. Grab some seeds from those barns, too. But remember: stealth is important here.” “Roger,” the other three members of the group replied before they used their powers of atomic manipulation to change the color of their skin, hair and clothing to match the shadows perfectly by transmuting all the pigments to have something akin to coal in the chemical makeup. The only parts that remained unchanged were their eyes. “Now, let’s get to work,” Pat whispered before the four of them split up to enact their small raid on this unsuspecting town. Properly Paranoid collapsed his telescope after the strange creatures entered Appaloosa. He had a feeling that anything from the wasteland couldn’t be trusted, and he was going to prove it. The four that had entered town looked like they were trying to be stealthy, and that wasn’t a good sign. The dark green coated and red maned unicorn stallion left his house and surveyed the town, not seeing any of the four creatures. A barn door opened, and he bolted towards it, but found nothing inside except for bags of seeds that were all open. Another barn door opened, but once again, he found no creature inside. Just more open bags. By the eighth time this occurred, Properly was getting very irritated, both eyes twitching in frustration. After a few seconds of his silent fuming, he heard a sound so surprising that he couldn’t believe his ears: the sound of trees being ripped out of the ground! “Emergency!” Properly yelled. “Something’s attacking the trees!” Ponies scrambled to the defense of the town’s apple trees to find four figures the color of shadow, each one holding up an uprooted tree with one limb. Even the smallest of the four seemed to be showing no strain at all from the effort. “Our cover’s been compromised!” the largest one, a male exclaimed. “Pat, what do we do?” “Everyone, we need wings, and now,” another male answered. “Hurry up and transmute the air! Use the trees as clubs if you have to, but we have to get out of here!” “Roger!” the other three shadows replied in unison before taking up fighting stances. The townsponies tried to attack the group of four, but all of them, even the smallest, seemed to be experts in close-quarters combat. Hoof punches would be intercepted, and with a twist of the ankle, an attacking pony would suddenly be in a single-limbed submission hold. Any attempt to buck one of the thieves in the face would be countered by a chop to the hind legs and followed up with a punch to the stomach. As the fight dragged on, the ponies kept dropping like flies from exhaustion, and the shapes of the four shadows started to change as enormous bat-like wings sprouted from their backs. Properly wasn’t about to let them get away, however. With a burst of red magic that matched his mane, the four figures were encased in his magic, holding them down. “So, you guys have magic too, huh?” the smallest, a young-sounding female said cheekily. “Well, we’ve got attack magic out the wazoo! Watch!” The four figures each raised their free forelimb and opened a paw in the same way a minotaur would with a hand. And that’s when he realized that these creatures also had hands, not paws. The free hands glowed white, and Properly suddenly found himself being assailed by streams of four different forms of pure magic attacks. Properly tried to dodge, but he wasn’t very athletic, so he soon found himself hiding behind a bubble shield as white wave-motion bursts, concussion blasts, scattershots and immense magic cannonballs pummeled it. The shield started to fracture, and Properly started to sweat profusely from trying to maintain both it and the spell keeping the four bipeds in place. When the shield finally shattered, one of the magic scattershot pellets struck him square in the horn, cancelling out his magic and freeing the four thieves from his grip. “No! We need those!” he cried out as the bipeds took flight. “You’ve got plenty more trees where these came from!” the final member, another female shouted back as they flew away. “Our people need food now, and we have nothing to eat! I’m sure you won’t starve from losing four trees, some seeds and a few crates of vegetables! We’ve got over four thousand people to feed!” It was then that Properly saw the aforementioned crates shoved into the branches of the stolen trees. Some creatures had tried to destroy the trees before, but they’d never had anything steal them right out of the ground before! Not only that, but they’d stolen some of the food stocks, as well! “You’ll pay for this, whatever you are!” he cried out in fury as the creatures flew even farther away, barely even specks in the sky. By the time the four scavengers had returned and reverted to their normal appearances, Neuanfänge already had a few buildings constructed out of transmuted matter. The sturdy glass and metal buildings varied in shape and size: some were skyscrapers that could dwarf the tallest buildings on Earth, others were stores, still others were factories, some farmland had already been set aside, and in the center of it all rose a building of white marble with stained glass windows depicting the struggles the race had gone through during their short existence. In this building, Carson sat down on his new bed, lost in thought about the state of his children. It was then that a knock came to his door and a servant poked his head in. “Esteemed Patriarch,” the man said with a bow, “the scavenging group has returned with vegetation and food.” “Excellent,” Carson replied, rising from his bed. “I’d like to oversee the beginnings of the reintroduction of agriculture to our society.” “Yes sir,” the man replied. “They’re actually at the gates to the palace as we speak. They were hoping to meet with you.” “Of course I’ll meet with them,” Carson chuckled as he allowed the servant to lead him to the gates. “I’ll congratulate them for such heroics. It’s the least I can do to say thank you, but there isn’t much more that I can do but offer my congratulations for now.” “Of course, sir,” the servant said with an understanding nod. “In such trying times as these, we have little more than words to offer each other.” Upon reaching the large gleaming doors that lead out of the palace, Carson motioned for the servant to go about his business, and the man walked away. Taking a deep breath, Carson readied himself for his first address to his people in this new world they found themselves in. Chapter 3: Getting readyChapter 3: Getting ready Dear Cousin Applejack, Things ain’t looking too good here in Appaloosa right now. Some weird shadow creatures snuck into town just today and raided our food storage. They took some crates of food and a lot of seeds. But that’s not even the worst part, Cousin. They even stole four fully-grown apple trees! When we tried to stop them, they beat the stuffing out of everypony in town and flew away, heading west. If you can, please get us some help. Those things might come back, and we can’t handle them. Your cousin, Braeburn Braeburn looked over his letter before giving it to the town mailmare and hoofing her some bits for the trouble of making a delivery when it was already past five in the evening. They needed help. If those things showed up again, Appaloosa would be defenseless on its own. Braeburn sighed and sat down on the ground. All he could do was hope for the best. That’s all any of them could do. When Carson stepped outside the palace, he found more than just the four scavengers there. The entire family had shown up, so he was going to be addressing more people than he had intended to. His wife walked up to him in her signature white and gray cloak and stood to his right, and his newly adopted daughter, Emily stood to his left. With them by his side, he felt more confident, and began by addressing the crowd, using the power he’d copied from Sonic Boom, even though it would only remained copied for a few more hours. They’d need to get microphones and speakers soon. “Our children,” he began, toning the power down to not generate shockwaves. Immune or not, his children still didn’t need to have that much force put into a speech. “These four brave youths have returned with a means for us to begin producing our own food once more.” He gestured to indicate the four members of the scavenging group standing before him, provoking applause from the crowd. “You four have performed a great service for us all. You have our thanks. I’d reward you if I could, but all I have to offer right now is words. You are heroes to our family, and shining examples to the youth of our society. Your names will be recorded and never forgotten. For you have saved us all.” The four young neo humans smiled and bowed to the Prime Family before taking their leave to walk through the cheering masses and away from the palace. Sighing, Carson didn’t wait for his children to disperse. Instead, he turned around and walked back into the palace to do some thinking. To ensure his own privacy, he didn’t use his bedroom, for Alissa shared it with him. Instead, he entered his new private study and pulled an old, weathered book from a pocket inside his cloak. The cover read: “JOURNAL” in large blocky letters. Opening the old book, Carson went over the story of his thirty-seven years of life. As soon as he started Kindergarten at the age of five, everyone picked on Carson Stewart and his stupid-looking ears. Carson endured the bullying for years, finding strength in the one classmate who didn’t treat him like a freak: Alissa Fletcher. The girl stood up for him, and she quickly became his guiding light and beacon of hope. One day in fourth grade, Carson was being bullied again, and like an angel, Alissa came to his rescue. “Who cares if his ears are different?” she snapped at the three thugs, who backed off because of the “boys can’t hit girls” rule. “He’s just another person, like you and me! He—” She was cut off by a slap to the face by one of the mean girls of the class. “Still sticking up for the freak. Huh, Alissa?” the girl shook her head. “You need to be taken down a few pegs! All the way to the bottom! The freak doesn’t deserve friends! He should just jump in a pit and die!” Alissa tried to get up, but the new bully kicked her, causing her to roll helplessly on the blacktop. Carson felt something welling up inside him as his guardian angel was getting beaten. It wasn’t rage. It was more like, a need to protect her. “Get away from her!” he screamed at the girl bully. He stood up, hands glowing white. “Stop hurting her, or I’ll… I’ll make you sorry!” “Boys can’t hit girls, remember?” the horrible excuse for a girl sneered, not even noticing the glowing hands. But the boy bullies did. Their eyes widened in fright and they exchanged nervous glances before running away. “I don’t have to hit you to help her!” Carson screamed, raising both his hands, somehow knowing exactly what to do. Balls of light the size of golfballs started firing from his hands, pelting the girl until she ran away crying. “Alissa, are you okay?” Carson asked after he ran to his protector’s side. “What you just did, that’s not normal,” Alissa breathed. Carson’s eyes welled up with tears. Now even Alissa thought he was a freak! He’d lost his only friend! “Say it,” Carson sobbed. “You think I’m a freak, too.” “No!” Alissa gasped, slapping him in the face. “You’re not a freak, Carson. You’re special. Unique. If they keep teasing you after that, that’ll only mean they’re jealous.” Carson dried his tears and sniffled. “Thanks, Alissa. I’ll try to not do that again.” Carson shut his journal and stuffed it back into his hidden pocket before getting up and leaving his study. It was starting to get dark, and he needed to check on the new farms before readying his people to fight again. It took about an hour by foot, but Carson enjoyed the cool evening air, so he felt no need to fly. After that hour, he found a group of his children hard at work exercising atomic manipulation on one of the newly-planted trees. “What are you doing?” Carson asked, getting the group’s attention. “Oh, hello, Esteemed Patriarch!” a man with a straw hat, glasses and overalls greeted. “We’re working on altering the chemical makeup of this tree and the seeds in its apples so that the tree will produce apples very rapidly, and so the seeds will mature into trees rapidly, as well. Of course, those trees will have the same rapid apple production as this tree. We’re almost done, actually! We may see a few apples before the sun finishes setting.” Carson watched in amazement as the tree suddenly started growing flowers all over the place in seconds. Next, the workers extracted some pollen from the flowers and distributed it among the flowers on the tree. After about a minute, the flowers turned into small apples, which quickly grew to full ripeness in a matter of about two minutes. “If they mature that quickly, how long will they stay ripe on the tree?” Carson asked. “About two hours,” the man replied. “We’ll get to harvesting them now, and though tomorrow morning may come with very sparse breakfasts for everyone, we’ll be sure to have enough apples by lunchtime to feed everyone! Not to mention that some of the other farms are temporarily being used to artificially manufacture food. I feel sorry for those guys. Turning dirt into meat, dairy, grains, etc. over and over again is a lot more taxing than altering one tree. They’ll probably need to recharge at a graveyard soon. If we can find one.” “Well, make sure everyone gets a good night’s sleep tonight,” Carson urged. “We’re going to begin our campaign for world domination soon, and we’ll need everyone to prepare and stock up.” “Understood,” the farmer said with a bow. “I’ll get the word out. Hopefully this world doesn’t have some ace up their sleeve like the UN did.” Carson shivered at the thought before bidding the farmers a good night and leaving to inspect the other farms. Many miles away, dinner at the Apple family's house was disturbed by a frantic banging on the front door. “Ah’ll get it,” Applejack said as she got up. As she trotted to the door, she grew increasingly irritated by the sound of hooves pummeling the door. by the time she’d reached the door, she flung it open and shouted, “whaddaya want? We're havin’ dinner, here!” “Um, urgent letter for Miss Applejack?” the blue pegasus from out of town answered weakly. “A Mr. Braeburn told me to get it to you tonight. Sorry for the interruption!” The exhausted mare took back to the air and flew into the night, leaving behind the aforementioned letter. Sighing, Applejack closed the door and opened the letter, which she read on the way back to the table. But before anypony could ask her about the letter, she gasped, “shoot! Appaloosa’s in trouble!” and bolted for the door, flung it open, and made a mad dash for Twilight’s library. At the library, Princess Twilight Sparkle was busy with sorting books when somepony started banging on the door. The pony was immediately identified when Applejack’s voice shouted, “Twi! Open up! We got trouble!” Twilight calmly answered the door to find a frantic Applejack panting for breath. “Twi, Ah just got this letter,” the farmpony said as she showed the letter to Twilight. “Braeburn says somethin’ attacked Appaloosa, and if it attacks ag’in, they’ll get clobbered! Please, Twi. We gotta get the gang together, inform Princess Celestia, an’ help Appaloosa!” It’s getting late, you know,” Twilight told Applejack as she let her inside and closed the door. “I can send a letter to Celestia, but I don’t think we’ll be able to help until tomorrow. After you calm your nerves, please go home and get a good night’s sleep. Okay, Applejack?” Applejack nodded, and Twilight smiled before calling for her Number One Assistant. “Spike? I need to send a letter to Celestia!” “Coming!” the young dragon called from upstairs. “I’ll be right there!” Running as fast as he could, Spike quickly arrived with a quill and parchment. “Okay, what should I write?” Twilight cleared her throat before reciting the letter she’d come up with: “Dear Princess Celestia, I’ve just received word from Applejack that Appaloosa has been attacked by unknown creatures that were capable of uprooting apple trees and flying away with them. These creatures overpowered the entire population of Appaloosa and fled west, into the wastelands. Please send instructions on what we should do, as well as send aid to the citizens of Appaloosa, Your faithful student and fellow Princess, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” “Did you get all that?” Twilight asked. “Yep!” Spike replied before burning the scroll, which turned into smoke that flew in the direction of Canterlot. “Okay, now I just need to wait for instructions—” Twilight began before a flash of green fire announced the arrival of a letter from the Princess. “Wow that was fast,” Twilight mused as Spike handed over the scroll. Twilight broke the seal on it and began to read: “Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle, Thank you for informing me of this situation. I will be needing you and your friends to participate in what I’m about to do, so please make sure that all of you get a good night’s sleep, for we’ll be going to Appaloosa in the morning. Please have everypony assemble at the library by nine AM. We will teleport directly to Appaloosa while a division of the Royal Guard marches there. If these creatures are as dangerous as you say, we’ll need to outthink them and capture at least one to study them so we can learn how to fight them. Your loving mentor and fellow Princess, Princess Celestia” Twilight looked up from the letter and exchanged glances with Applejack. This sounded bigger than either of them had expected. After saying goodbye to Twilight, Applejack left to tell the rest of their friends about Celestia’s orders. Twilight herself sat down in a chair to think about the Princess’ answer in detail. It seemed Celestia knew more than she was letting on. Needless to say, Twilight didn’t get nearly as much sleep as she would need for a “good night’s sleep”. Chapter 4: An Early StartSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter 1: FailureAuthor's Note So, Chapter 1. Hope you enjoy it! Either way, please give me feedback in the comments! Constructive criticism is highly appreciated! Unnecessary hate isn't. Remember to point out both what I did well and what I did wrong. Improving isn't easy without knowing both sides. Anyway, as more characters become important, I'll be adding more character tags. For now, there aren't any characters from actual canon yet, but that will change with time. Chapter 1: Failure Patriarch Carson Stevens hesitated for just a moment when he saw the massive army the United Nations had assembled to attack him and his people—no. His children. Every single member of his race had gathered to protect Grand City, the capital of their country, Neoland. And every single member of his race was either directly one of his children, or one of his grandchildren. The world had rejected the neo humans, or novus homo sapiens, and after five years of trying to take the world for themselves so none could treat them like monsters or freaks, they’d been driven back onto their own soil, which they had raised from the ocean with their own powers. A look back at his children who were all dressed in various civilian outfits, themselves ranging in size from young children to young adults, and a hand on his shoulder from the one normal human woman who accepted him put an end to his hesitation, and he gave the command: “Our children! This is for our homes! For our large family! This is for the future of our race! Everyone! Attack!” With that, the unarmed masses charged the supposedly superiorly equipped army of tanks, foot soldiers, aircraft, etc., and Carson turned to face the woman standing beside him: his wife, Matriarch Alissa Stevens, a normal human, and the only one who didn’t reject him when his strange and frightening powers began to manifest themselves. “Our children, will they be okay?” he asked. “You’re the Prime Being of all neo humans,” Alissa assured him. “Every power you have, they have. We’ll turn this around and retake the offensive. As you said five years ago, there is no other option but to conquer the world to ensure fair treatment for your offspring.” “Thank you, my dear,” Carson said before kissing his wife deeply. “We’ll win this, and I shall aid in this fight, for as the original, I am the strongest.” That said, Carson utilized one of his myriad of superhuman abilities that all of his children shared with him to change the atomic structure of the air around him, quickly altering atomic nuclei to change the elements in the air into human flesh and bonding it to his back. The mass of flesh quickly was filled with his DNA and the bones in it bonded to his spine before taking the shape of massive batlike wings the color of human flesh. With his means of flight completed, Carson took to the air and flew towards the battle where his children were giving their all. Some of his children faced the footsoldiers armed with machine guns, who suddenly dropped their weapons, tried to pick them back up, but suddenly found that their guns seemed as heavy as tanks. Carson smiled at the display of their strength manipulation to sap their foes’ physical strength. They’d probably increase their own next and give the invaders a sound beating. Some others had managed to disarm their foes through melee attacks, and were currently overpowering the frantic soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. Combat-specialty came naturally to his race, so they were absolute masters at hand-to-hand fighting. Others were firing blasts of magic, another wonderful power Carson had developed, though it could only be used for attacks consisting of magic energy. Of course, they had another power to make up for that: dark elemental control. The elements a lot of video games mentioned, such as earth, air, fire, water, light, darkness, lightning and so on all had sinister sides to them. Control over such things was something that all neo humans had as well. Some summoned lightning from the sky to kill soldiers or fry the systems of vehicles, while others caused the water vapor in the air to condense into a wave of poisonous water, which swept over a group of soldiers. Carson cringed when he saw one of his children, a young girl, get shot in her pressure points by a spray of rubber bullets, rendering her unable to move. But Carson’s fear turned to pride when the little girl demonstrated the self-puppetry power they all possessed and got back to her feet with jerky yet controlled motions, got back into a fighting stance, and went to town on the soldier who shot her. Then, one of the self-proclaimed “superheroes” showed up to ruin Carson’s day: A man called Sonic Boom, who could both fly and use all sorts of powers involving sound. “Surrender, Carson Stewart!” Boom ordered. “Ah, you’ve never fought us before, have you, Mr. Boom?” Carson answered idly. “No, but no evil can stand up to my sonic powers!” Boom proclaimed. “Ah. Well, it’s too bad that we’re not actually evil,” Carson replied. “All this is for my children. The ends justify the means. You’ll all understand in the end.” “SHUT UP!” Boom shouted, sending shockwaves at Carson, who didn’t even flinch. “Huh?” Boom said in surprise. “How’d you—” “YOU CHILDISH FOOL,” Carson shouted back. “WE’RE IMMUNE TO SOUND-BASED ATTACKS, AND ANY POWER ANOTHER BEING USES AGAINST US THAT DOESN’T KILL US, WE COPY AND BECOME IMMUNE TO. THAT’S WHY MOST SUPERHUMANS STOPPED ATTACKING US AFTER THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF THE WAR. I DON’T COPY POWERS VERY OFTEN, BUT MY CHILDREN HAVE HAD THEIR SHARE OF COPIED POWERS.” Sonic Boom tumbled backwards through the air from the continuous sonic barrage. “Curse you, Carson Stewart!” Boom shouted as he started flying away. “You’ll get yours somehow!” With that nuisance taken care of, Carson touched down among his children in the middle of battle and turned his wings back into air and undid the change to his own physical makeup, as well. Many soldiers were either dead or dying, so Carson let the final power he shared with his children activate: death empowerment. Simply by being around the dead and dying, he and his children grew more powerful from absorbing the necrotic energy. However, this was cut short when the air suddenly started to spark with purple lightning. Looking around in panic, Carson saw four trucks with large satellite dishes on their backs, which were emitting the energy. “Children! Retreat!” Carson bellowed as a swirling vortex opened about ten feet above the ground. The vortex started to pull on them, making escape impossible. Children started crying, parents tried to console them, and Carson started to cry in defeat. “My children! I’ve failed you!” he screamed as the vortex pulled him in. Matriarch Alissa Stewart watched in horror as the people who were her adopted children were pulled into the vortex that could take them anywhere, possibly even into the void of space, where they’d all die. “Madam, come with me,” a voice said from her right, but she didn’t heed it and started to run towards the vortex. After hearing her husband’s cry of defeat, she redoubled her pace and ran as fast as her normal human legs could go. Soldiers tried to stop her, but she slapped them away. Carson was unable to turn her into a neo human, but he was still able to teach her about his infinite knowledge of hand-to-hand combat, and she’d learned quite a bit over the past five years. Twisting wrists and attacking pressure points, she was able to make it to the vortex, which was beginning to close as the last neo humans were pulled in. Leaping into the portal herself, Alissa found herself in some kind of warp tunnel. But before the tunnel could pull her along to join her family, something grabbed her ankle and started to pull her back out. “No!” She screamed. “My children! They need me! I can’t leave them without their mother!” “Ma’am,” a voice said from outside as she felt herself being dragged out. “That portal could lead anywhere. Besides, you’ve been declared mentally ill for claiming to love such a brutish creature as Carson Stewart. We only want to help you.” “If you want to help, then let me go!” Alissa screamed, kicking out with her free leg. She lucked out and kicked the man in the jaw, causing him to release her. “Carson needs me! If my family’s going to die, then I’ll die with them!” And with that, the portal closed, and Alissa was pulled along through the tunnel, unsure of whether or not she’d just thrown her life away. But either way, her family needed her. Even if that meant joining them in death. Further along in the tunnel, Carson continued to apologize to his children, who tried to console their father, but even four thousand caring voices couldn’t console a man who just wanted his people to be treated fairly. “It’s all my fault. All my fault.” Carson blubbered, not even noticing that his body had begun to glow gold like it did once a day. His children all fell into a hushed silence, watching as the one power their father had that they didn’t started to activate: the power of the Prime Being of the neo humans. Carson continued to cry as the aura left his body and hovered in front of him, finally bringing him back to reality. “So, one more child before I die,” Carson whispered. “One who never knew the conflict we had to endure. One pure and innocent, and they’ll quickly be snuffed out. How tragic.” The aura continued to shift in size and shape until it finally decided on a form: that of an adolescent girl. For modesty’s sake, the other children averted their eyes from their newest sibling as their father drew her into an embrace. “Welcome to our family, Emily,” Carson said as he stroked her blonde hair. “I’m sorry we don’t have any clothes for you, but you can wear this for now.” The other children gasped when their father removed his signature black and gray cloak that marked him as Patriarch and helped his new daughter put it on to maintain her modesty. “The Patriarch never removes that cloak!” One neo human whispered. “Does taking it off have any special meaning?” another wondered quietly. Whispers and theories were exchanged among the other neo humans about why their father would remove his cloak for their new sister. Surely he could’ve found another way to clothe her, right? Carson ignored all of it as he held Emily close. “I am Patriarch Carson Stewart, leader of the neo humans and your father. Many sub-families have formed in our young civilization, so you may join whichever one you want. I’m sure they’ll adopt you. Or, you can start your own new branch and come up with a last name all your own.” Emily looked like she was about to ask a question when the tunnel ended and spat the neo humans out into some kind of wasteland. There was nothing but dry, cracked earth as far as the eye could see. Not even a dried-up river to break the landscape. “We’re alive,” Carson whispered in disbelief. “I don’t know how, but we’re alive! My children! Here, we can begin anew! Whatever world we may be on now, let’s make it our own! Let’s take it for ourselves and ensure that we’ll never be mistreated!” The other neo humans cheered, and Carson began working on altering the atomic structure of a portion of the soil into that of fabric. He couldn’t make anything fancy, but Emily needed clothes. Soon, Carson had completed transmuting some of the soil into a polyester dress, which he gave to Emily. “Thank you, Father,” Emily said before changing into the dress under the cloak. Once she was finished, she returned the cloak to Carson, who put it on again. “Father, why is the portal still open?” a neo human boy asked. “All of us already came through. Shouldn’t it have closed?” “Hmm… I wonder,” Carson muttered to himself as he watched the portal, which suddenly ejected the woman he thought he’d never see again before finally closing. “Alissa!” he cried, wrapping her in an embrace. “Thank the heavens you’re alright!” “I couldn’t just leave you and our family,” the Matriarch said as she hugged Carson back. “And we all survived! This is perfect!” “Oh, Alissa?” Carson interrupted as he released her. “Our family now has one more member.” Turning to Emily, Carson made introductions. “Alissa, this is Emily. She hasn’t chosen a sub-family yet. Emily, this is Matriarch Alissa Stewart. My wife and your mother.” Unknown to the neo humans, they were being watched through an incredibly powerful telescope that had been enhanced by magic. A quadrupedal figure watched from a town miles away, ready to raise the alarm if the new creatures did anything that might appear dangerous.
Chapter 2: Starting overChapter 2: Starting over As the neo humans got to work developing the land through atomic manipulation, Emily still lingered near the Patriarch and Matriarch, as if there was a question she needed to ask, but couldn’t bring herself to out of fear. After rubbing the pointed earlobes of his double-pointed ears that set his kind apart from regular humans, Carson turned to Emily with a smile. “You can speak, my dear child,” he told her. “What’s your question?” “Father, you said I could join any family branch I wished, correct?” the newest neo human asked timidly. “Of course,” Alissa assured her. “You can join any of them.” “Does that include yours?” Emily asked hopefully. The two leaders were shocked into silence. Alissa would have their first child in about eight months, so they had planned on starting their own personal branch, but to have someone ask to join that branch before they even had their first child was completely unexpected. Emily lowered her head sadly after a few seconds of silence. “I’m sorry,” she sniffled. “I shouldn’t have—” “Of course you can join, Emily!” Alissa cut her off as she embraced her. “You agree, right Carson?” Carson blinked, then nodded before joining the hug. “Welcome to the Stevens’ branch, Emily.” he whispered. “Be a good big sister to the child we have on the way, okay?” Emily looked shocked. “You were already going to have a personal family?” “That’s right, dear,” Alissa replied, stroking Emily’s hair gently. “I’ll be having a child in about eight months. So, please set a good example, not just for the people, but for your sibling.” “Prime Daughter Emily Stevens, welcome to our family,” Carson said as he released his personal daughter to hold her shoulders and look her in the eye. “May you be a shining example to the youth of our young race.” “I will… Dad,” Emily replied with tears in her eyes. “I’ll make both of you proud, I promise.” The touching moment was broken when a boy sporting a white t-shirt and blue denim shorts flew up to the trio with the aid of wings similar to the pair Carson had constructed back in the battle for Grand City. “Esteemed Patriarch and Matriarch,” the boy began, “we’ve completed transmuting a segment of the wasteland into a riverbed stretching to the nearest source of water: a freshwater lake about fifty miles to the north. Water from it should reach here in a few hours.” “Wonderful,” Carson said, clapping once. “Make sure it has an outlet at an ocean, no matter how far south you have to take it. Once we have a source of water, we’ll need to begin farming. And for that, we’ll need plants. Make sure a team is ready to search for vegetation, preferably ones we recognize, and preferably already growing. Only collect seeds if we have to.” “But Esteemed Patriarch Carson!” the boy spluttered. “Can’t we just transmute some rocks into plants?” Carson shook his head. “We could imitate plants, but they wouldn’t live. We can’t add the spark of life to things. And before you ask why those wings work, it’s because you fed your own genetic makeup into them when you fused them to yourself. You already possess the spark of life in yourself, so adding new limbs isn’t a problem.” “I understand, sir,” the boy replied. “I’ll relay your commands to the others. ‘Bye!” With a single beat of his generated wings, the boy took to the air again and flew in the direction of a large group of neo humans who were standing around a steadily advancing empty riverbed. After several hours, the water reached the vicinity of the neo humans and continued to flow south towards another freshwater lake about fifty miles south that already had an ocean as an outlet. As Carson and the majority of the neo humans got to work on their new settlement, which they chose to call “Neuanfänge”, which was German for “new beginnings”, another group set out to fulfill the command to find vegetation. Patrick Foreman, the leader of this group, grimaced as his stomach growled. “Dang it, we need food!” Maria Foreman, his adopted younger sister complained. “Pat, where are we going to find plants in this endless desert?” “I haven’t seen any cacti,” Louis Redmond, one of the youngest in the group remarked. “I haven’t seen any greenery since we got here.” “Hey, isn’t that a town?” Sofie Hammond, the true youngest of the group remarked, pointing towards what looked like a settlement in the distance. “You’re right, it is!” Pat gasped. “We don’t know how we’ll be received, so let’s lay low for now and just borrow whatever we can find that could help in getting us food fast.” “Well, they’ve got some fully grown trees, for one,” Louis remarked. “Let’s start with those. We’ll each take one. Is that okay, Pat?” “Not a problem at all,” Pat agreed as the group touched down and got rid of the huge wings that would make walking difficult. “Everyone, amp up your strength enough to uproot one of those trees, and we’ll fly them back to Neuanfänge. Grab some seeds from those barns, too. But remember: stealth is important here.” “Roger,” the other three members of the group replied before they used their powers of atomic manipulation to change the color of their skin, hair and clothing to match the shadows perfectly by transmuting all the pigments to have something akin to coal in the chemical makeup. The only parts that remained unchanged were their eyes. “Now, let’s get to work,” Pat whispered before the four of them split up to enact their small raid on this unsuspecting town. Properly Paranoid collapsed his telescope after the strange creatures entered Appaloosa. He had a feeling that anything from the wasteland couldn’t be trusted, and he was going to prove it. The four that had entered town looked like they were trying to be stealthy, and that wasn’t a good sign. The dark green coated and red maned unicorn stallion left his house and surveyed the town, not seeing any of the four creatures. A barn door opened, and he bolted towards it, but found nothing inside except for bags of seeds that were all open. Another barn door opened, but once again, he found no creature inside. Just more open bags. By the eighth time this occurred, Properly was getting very irritated, both eyes twitching in frustration. After a few seconds of his silent fuming, he heard a sound so surprising that he couldn’t believe his ears: the sound of trees being ripped out of the ground! “Emergency!” Properly yelled. “Something’s attacking the trees!” Ponies scrambled to the defense of the town’s apple trees to find four figures the color of shadow, each one holding up an uprooted tree with one limb. Even the smallest of the four seemed to be showing no strain at all from the effort. “Our cover’s been compromised!” the largest one, a male exclaimed. “Pat, what do we do?” “Everyone, we need wings, and now,” another male answered. “Hurry up and transmute the air! Use the trees as clubs if you have to, but we have to get out of here!” “Roger!” the other three shadows replied in unison before taking up fighting stances. The townsponies tried to attack the group of four, but all of them, even the smallest, seemed to be experts in close-quarters combat. Hoof punches would be intercepted, and with a twist of the ankle, an attacking pony would suddenly be in a single-limbed submission hold. Any attempt to buck one of the thieves in the face would be countered by a chop to the hind legs and followed up with a punch to the stomach. As the fight dragged on, the ponies kept dropping like flies from exhaustion, and the shapes of the four shadows started to change as enormous bat-like wings sprouted from their backs. Properly wasn’t about to let them get away, however. With a burst of red magic that matched his mane, the four figures were encased in his magic, holding them down. “So, you guys have magic too, huh?” the smallest, a young-sounding female said cheekily. “Well, we’ve got attack magic out the wazoo! Watch!” The four figures each raised their free forelimb and opened a paw in the same way a minotaur would with a hand. And that’s when he realized that these creatures also had hands, not paws. The free hands glowed white, and Properly suddenly found himself being assailed by streams of four different forms of pure magic attacks. Properly tried to dodge, but he wasn’t very athletic, so he soon found himself hiding behind a bubble shield as white wave-motion bursts, concussion blasts, scattershots and immense magic cannonballs pummeled it. The shield started to fracture, and Properly started to sweat profusely from trying to maintain both it and the spell keeping the four bipeds in place. When the shield finally shattered, one of the magic scattershot pellets struck him square in the horn, cancelling out his magic and freeing the four thieves from his grip. “No! We need those!” he cried out as the bipeds took flight. “You’ve got plenty more trees where these came from!” the final member, another female shouted back as they flew away. “Our people need food now, and we have nothing to eat! I’m sure you won’t starve from losing four trees, some seeds and a few crates of vegetables! We’ve got over four thousand people to feed!” It was then that Properly saw the aforementioned crates shoved into the branches of the stolen trees. Some creatures had tried to destroy the trees before, but they’d never had anything steal them right out of the ground before! Not only that, but they’d stolen some of the food stocks, as well! “You’ll pay for this, whatever you are!” he cried out in fury as the creatures flew even farther away, barely even specks in the sky. By the time the four scavengers had returned and reverted to their normal appearances, Neuanfänge already had a few buildings constructed out of transmuted matter. The sturdy glass and metal buildings varied in shape and size: some were skyscrapers that could dwarf the tallest buildings on Earth, others were stores, still others were factories, some farmland had already been set aside, and in the center of it all rose a building of white marble with stained glass windows depicting the struggles the race had gone through during their short existence. In this building, Carson sat down on his new bed, lost in thought about the state of his children. It was then that a knock came to his door and a servant poked his head in. “Esteemed Patriarch,” the man said with a bow, “the scavenging group has returned with vegetation and food.” “Excellent,” Carson replied, rising from his bed. “I’d like to oversee the beginnings of the reintroduction of agriculture to our society.” “Yes sir,” the man replied. “They’re actually at the gates to the palace as we speak. They were hoping to meet with you.” “Of course I’ll meet with them,” Carson chuckled as he allowed the servant to lead him to the gates. “I’ll congratulate them for such heroics. It’s the least I can do to say thank you, but there isn’t much more that I can do but offer my congratulations for now.” “Of course, sir,” the servant said with an understanding nod. “In such trying times as these, we have little more than words to offer each other.” Upon reaching the large gleaming doors that lead out of the palace, Carson motioned for the servant to go about his business, and the man walked away. Taking a deep breath, Carson readied himself for his first address to his people in this new world they found themselves in.
Chapter 3: Getting readyChapter 3: Getting ready Dear Cousin Applejack, Things ain’t looking too good here in Appaloosa right now. Some weird shadow creatures snuck into town just today and raided our food storage. They took some crates of food and a lot of seeds. But that’s not even the worst part, Cousin. They even stole four fully-grown apple trees! When we tried to stop them, they beat the stuffing out of everypony in town and flew away, heading west. If you can, please get us some help. Those things might come back, and we can’t handle them. Your cousin, Braeburn Braeburn looked over his letter before giving it to the town mailmare and hoofing her some bits for the trouble of making a delivery when it was already past five in the evening. They needed help. If those things showed up again, Appaloosa would be defenseless on its own. Braeburn sighed and sat down on the ground. All he could do was hope for the best. That’s all any of them could do. When Carson stepped outside the palace, he found more than just the four scavengers there. The entire family had shown up, so he was going to be addressing more people than he had intended to. His wife walked up to him in her signature white and gray cloak and stood to his right, and his newly adopted daughter, Emily stood to his left. With them by his side, he felt more confident, and began by addressing the crowd, using the power he’d copied from Sonic Boom, even though it would only remained copied for a few more hours. They’d need to get microphones and speakers soon. “Our children,” he began, toning the power down to not generate shockwaves. Immune or not, his children still didn’t need to have that much force put into a speech. “These four brave youths have returned with a means for us to begin producing our own food once more.” He gestured to indicate the four members of the scavenging group standing before him, provoking applause from the crowd. “You four have performed a great service for us all. You have our thanks. I’d reward you if I could, but all I have to offer right now is words. You are heroes to our family, and shining examples to the youth of our society. Your names will be recorded and never forgotten. For you have saved us all.” The four young neo humans smiled and bowed to the Prime Family before taking their leave to walk through the cheering masses and away from the palace. Sighing, Carson didn’t wait for his children to disperse. Instead, he turned around and walked back into the palace to do some thinking. To ensure his own privacy, he didn’t use his bedroom, for Alissa shared it with him. Instead, he entered his new private study and pulled an old, weathered book from a pocket inside his cloak. The cover read: “JOURNAL” in large blocky letters. Opening the old book, Carson went over the story of his thirty-seven years of life. As soon as he started Kindergarten at the age of five, everyone picked on Carson Stewart and his stupid-looking ears. Carson endured the bullying for years, finding strength in the one classmate who didn’t treat him like a freak: Alissa Fletcher. The girl stood up for him, and she quickly became his guiding light and beacon of hope. One day in fourth grade, Carson was being bullied again, and like an angel, Alissa came to his rescue. “Who cares if his ears are different?” she snapped at the three thugs, who backed off because of the “boys can’t hit girls” rule. “He’s just another person, like you and me! He—” She was cut off by a slap to the face by one of the mean girls of the class. “Still sticking up for the freak. Huh, Alissa?” the girl shook her head. “You need to be taken down a few pegs! All the way to the bottom! The freak doesn’t deserve friends! He should just jump in a pit and die!” Alissa tried to get up, but the new bully kicked her, causing her to roll helplessly on the blacktop. Carson felt something welling up inside him as his guardian angel was getting beaten. It wasn’t rage. It was more like, a need to protect her. “Get away from her!” he screamed at the girl bully. He stood up, hands glowing white. “Stop hurting her, or I’ll… I’ll make you sorry!” “Boys can’t hit girls, remember?” the horrible excuse for a girl sneered, not even noticing the glowing hands. But the boy bullies did. Their eyes widened in fright and they exchanged nervous glances before running away. “I don’t have to hit you to help her!” Carson screamed, raising both his hands, somehow knowing exactly what to do. Balls of light the size of golfballs started firing from his hands, pelting the girl until she ran away crying. “Alissa, are you okay?” Carson asked after he ran to his protector’s side. “What you just did, that’s not normal,” Alissa breathed. Carson’s eyes welled up with tears. Now even Alissa thought he was a freak! He’d lost his only friend! “Say it,” Carson sobbed. “You think I’m a freak, too.” “No!” Alissa gasped, slapping him in the face. “You’re not a freak, Carson. You’re special. Unique. If they keep teasing you after that, that’ll only mean they’re jealous.” Carson dried his tears and sniffled. “Thanks, Alissa. I’ll try to not do that again.” Carson shut his journal and stuffed it back into his hidden pocket before getting up and leaving his study. It was starting to get dark, and he needed to check on the new farms before readying his people to fight again. It took about an hour by foot, but Carson enjoyed the cool evening air, so he felt no need to fly. After that hour, he found a group of his children hard at work exercising atomic manipulation on one of the newly-planted trees. “What are you doing?” Carson asked, getting the group’s attention. “Oh, hello, Esteemed Patriarch!” a man with a straw hat, glasses and overalls greeted. “We’re working on altering the chemical makeup of this tree and the seeds in its apples so that the tree will produce apples very rapidly, and so the seeds will mature into trees rapidly, as well. Of course, those trees will have the same rapid apple production as this tree. We’re almost done, actually! We may see a few apples before the sun finishes setting.” Carson watched in amazement as the tree suddenly started growing flowers all over the place in seconds. Next, the workers extracted some pollen from the flowers and distributed it among the flowers on the tree. After about a minute, the flowers turned into small apples, which quickly grew to full ripeness in a matter of about two minutes. “If they mature that quickly, how long will they stay ripe on the tree?” Carson asked. “About two hours,” the man replied. “We’ll get to harvesting them now, and though tomorrow morning may come with very sparse breakfasts for everyone, we’ll be sure to have enough apples by lunchtime to feed everyone! Not to mention that some of the other farms are temporarily being used to artificially manufacture food. I feel sorry for those guys. Turning dirt into meat, dairy, grains, etc. over and over again is a lot more taxing than altering one tree. They’ll probably need to recharge at a graveyard soon. If we can find one.” “Well, make sure everyone gets a good night’s sleep tonight,” Carson urged. “We’re going to begin our campaign for world domination soon, and we’ll need everyone to prepare and stock up.” “Understood,” the farmer said with a bow. “I’ll get the word out. Hopefully this world doesn’t have some ace up their sleeve like the UN did.” Carson shivered at the thought before bidding the farmers a good night and leaving to inspect the other farms. Many miles away, dinner at the Apple family's house was disturbed by a frantic banging on the front door. “Ah’ll get it,” Applejack said as she got up. As she trotted to the door, she grew increasingly irritated by the sound of hooves pummeling the door. by the time she’d reached the door, she flung it open and shouted, “whaddaya want? We're havin’ dinner, here!” “Um, urgent letter for Miss Applejack?” the blue pegasus from out of town answered weakly. “A Mr. Braeburn told me to get it to you tonight. Sorry for the interruption!” The exhausted mare took back to the air and flew into the night, leaving behind the aforementioned letter. Sighing, Applejack closed the door and opened the letter, which she read on the way back to the table. But before anypony could ask her about the letter, she gasped, “shoot! Appaloosa’s in trouble!” and bolted for the door, flung it open, and made a mad dash for Twilight’s library. At the library, Princess Twilight Sparkle was busy with sorting books when somepony started banging on the door. The pony was immediately identified when Applejack’s voice shouted, “Twi! Open up! We got trouble!” Twilight calmly answered the door to find a frantic Applejack panting for breath. “Twi, Ah just got this letter,” the farmpony said as she showed the letter to Twilight. “Braeburn says somethin’ attacked Appaloosa, and if it attacks ag’in, they’ll get clobbered! Please, Twi. We gotta get the gang together, inform Princess Celestia, an’ help Appaloosa!” It’s getting late, you know,” Twilight told Applejack as she let her inside and closed the door. “I can send a letter to Celestia, but I don’t think we’ll be able to help until tomorrow. After you calm your nerves, please go home and get a good night’s sleep. Okay, Applejack?” Applejack nodded, and Twilight smiled before calling for her Number One Assistant. “Spike? I need to send a letter to Celestia!” “Coming!” the young dragon called from upstairs. “I’ll be right there!” Running as fast as he could, Spike quickly arrived with a quill and parchment. “Okay, what should I write?” Twilight cleared her throat before reciting the letter she’d come up with: “Dear Princess Celestia, I’ve just received word from Applejack that Appaloosa has been attacked by unknown creatures that were capable of uprooting apple trees and flying away with them. These creatures overpowered the entire population of Appaloosa and fled west, into the wastelands. Please send instructions on what we should do, as well as send aid to the citizens of Appaloosa, Your faithful student and fellow Princess, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” “Did you get all that?” Twilight asked. “Yep!” Spike replied before burning the scroll, which turned into smoke that flew in the direction of Canterlot. “Okay, now I just need to wait for instructions—” Twilight began before a flash of green fire announced the arrival of a letter from the Princess. “Wow that was fast,” Twilight mused as Spike handed over the scroll. Twilight broke the seal on it and began to read: “Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle, Thank you for informing me of this situation. I will be needing you and your friends to participate in what I’m about to do, so please make sure that all of you get a good night’s sleep, for we’ll be going to Appaloosa in the morning. Please have everypony assemble at the library by nine AM. We will teleport directly to Appaloosa while a division of the Royal Guard marches there. If these creatures are as dangerous as you say, we’ll need to outthink them and capture at least one to study them so we can learn how to fight them. Your loving mentor and fellow Princess, Princess Celestia” Twilight looked up from the letter and exchanged glances with Applejack. This sounded bigger than either of them had expected. After saying goodbye to Twilight, Applejack left to tell the rest of their friends about Celestia’s orders. Twilight herself sat down in a chair to think about the Princess’ answer in detail. It seemed Celestia knew more than she was letting on. Needless to say, Twilight didn’t get nearly as much sleep as she would need for a “good night’s sleep”.
Chapter 4: An Early StartSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
