It was a peaceful day in Canterlot. There was no parties or celebrations, just a peaceful street. Most of the citiziens took their time when trotting around the capital city. All except one.
Party Note, a green half-pegasus from the royal guard, was speeding through the streets of Canterlot. His incridebly short brown mane, that didn't even reach his neck, and his long and wild tail were both flailing in the air.
While he ran, the guard captain made sure to put on his uniform except the shoes, since putting them on would require him to stop, and he didn't have time for that. Despite being a pegasus, Party Note's wings could never really carry him around that fast, due to the unicorn blood that ran in his veins. He didn't really mind much, since his unicorn blood could detect magic, if he concentrated enough, but he still wished he could go a bit faster at times.
As he arrived to Canterlot castle, his brain was going 100 miles an hour, trying to figure out why her highness had called him there.
The halfblood pegasus' job usually consisted of a ton of paperwork, and the last time he'd been called to the castle, he wasn't even a captain yet. Instead of standing around and wasting time, he decided that it would be better to just find out when he reached the throne room.
On his way up the stairs, he noticed that there were a severe lack of guards in the castle. There were plenty of servants, but most of the guards seemed to be missing. Before he could think about anything else, he arrived at the throne room. Outside the throne room, there were 2 guards, in full uniform, who greeted Party Note.
Before doing anything else, he put on his foot-wear.
Once fully dressed in his uniform, the pegasus signaled to the guards, that they should open the door.
Upon Party Note entered the room, the guard captain noticed something. Waiting in the throne room was, not just Celestia, but Luna and another guardspony. This guard was different however.
He was wearing a night-guard uniform, despite not being a bat-pony, and his coat was a deep blue color. His mane was done in spikes that pointed backwards, and his tail was very short. His hair color was black with yellow stribes, and he was clearly an earth-pony.
Party Note had met this stallion before. His name was Wright, and he was a lieutenant from Luna's royal guard. Him and Party Note had met eachother before, doing meetings about larger problems, and a couple of times doing training.
Calling his relationship with Luna 'profesional', would be far off the truth. Luna and Wright talked to eachother about the same way, that Twilight used to talk to Celestia.
Snapping out of his thoughts, the green half-blood started walking towards Celestia, while trying to look as 'official' as possible.
Once the pegasus had reached a good distance, standing next to Wright, the doors shut behind him, and Celestia started talking.
”It's good you're here, Partine.” the ruler of the sun said. Party Note cringed slightly. He never liked being called 'Partine'.
Paying no mind to the guard captain's reaction, the princess continued: ”The task at hand is... delicate.”.
That caught Party Note's attention. Delicate? he thought. Then this isn't a crisis, which is good, but what is it then?
His questions were soon to be answered, as the voice of the sun spoke again.
”A recent burst of magic from the Everfree Forest in Ponyville, seem to have cracked the earth. According to the guards investigating the crack, it has revealed a ruin.”
Celestia paused, as if she wanted to give the guardsponies in front of her some time to process what she had just said. Then she continiued. ”It seems as if the magical outburst came from within that ruin. That's where you come in Partine.”.
Party Note raised a brow, before realising that Celestia was refering to his ability to detect magic. Party Note nodded in understanding, as Celestia gestured him to leave.
Just when Party Note was about to leave however, Wright broke the silence and began to speak.
”Why did I get called here? I mean it's not lik-...”. Before Wright could say anything else, Luna broke in.
”We realise that it may not be obvious, but despite his position, Captain Kaknota have not been doing well in combat training.”.
Party Note crinched before responding.
”I just prefer not using shields. A sword can both block and attack, so why would I use anything else?”.
Luna raised a brow at that statement before continueing to explain.
”The magical outburst may have caused some dangers of the area to become a more dangerous. We believe that it would do good to have somepony who passed the training accompany him.”
Party Note gave the night princess a slightly annoyed glare, before turning his attention towards Princess Celestia.
With a slightly irritated voice, he spoke again. ”Is that all, your highness?”
Celestia nodded. ”You are dismissed.” The ruler of the sun said.
As Party Note and Wright left, a guard came up to them. He was a pegasus guard from Celestia's royal guard. He saluted his supiriors before talking. ”Greetings, Sir Kaknota and Sir Wright. A carriage is standing prepared for you both outside of the castle.”
Those were the last words spoken before they flew of in the chariot.
Somewhere in time and space
The doctor could feel the TARDIS shaking, as it flew through the time-vortex. It wasn't built for flying this fast, but time was of the essence.
The doctor took a glance at Derpy. She was very hurt after an encounter with a manticore, and the doctor was on his way to a hospital.
Derpy's mane was messy and so was her tail. Her face was beaten up and her body was red and blue all over. She was lying curled up on a pillow close to the doctor.
The doctor, feeling bad for having dragged her through that, sat down next to her and started petting her mane.
S
he looked so peaceful, despite being in pain, and seeing that helped his mood slightly. "Relax, Derpy. I won't let anything happen to you." He stood up again and looked at the control panel, getting lost in thought.
He suddenly broke from his thoughts, though, due to the TARDIS making a familiar sound. "Wrroom... Wrroom..."
It was the sound the TARDIS made when it entered or exited the vortex.
The doctor sighed in relieve, as he knew that this sound meant that the tour was over.
When he opened the door, however, he wasn't in a hospital but in a garden.
The TARDIS was parked between some tall bushes and trees.
The brown stallion peeked through the bushes and saw a beatiful garden.
There were flowers, neatly arranged between pathways, and statues that represented Equestria's history.
As much as he would like to explore the garden he was in, he decided that he should get back to Derpy.
As he left the garden, one thought crossed his mind: Why did the TARDIS land here?
Party Note opened his eyes slowly and looked around. He looked around. The green pony was surprised to see himself in a dark room. The walls were black, and there were nothing in the room, except two doors. One door was green and the other was red. There were voices coming from both doors, but the voices echoes mixed into eachother which made it impossible to tell what they were saying.
Suddenly he heard a familiar voice. "Wake up, already." Wright's voice seemed to pierce the other sounds in the room.
Ponyville 5 hours past sunrise
Party Note's eyes shot open. He must have fallen afsleep doing the tour to Ponyville. The green half-blood rubbed his eyes, only to find himself in Ponyville, with Wright giving him an awkward stare. When he became aware of where he was, the pegasus jumped out of the carriage.
What was that dream about? he thought to himself, before saluting the guards that pulled the chariot to Ponyville and turning towards the Everfree Forest. Party Note started walking, and Wright was walking right behind him.
When they arrived at the opening in the forest that was being investigated, Party Note couldn't help but notice that there hadn't been any wild-life to be seen on the way, which was especially strange in a forest known for it's dangerous wild-life. Could the magical outburst have scared the beasts away?
Party Note closed his eyes to concentrate, and suddenly felt a huge wave of magical energy coming from nearby. It was the most incridible energy he had ever felt. I-is this even possible? I haven't felt such an energy since Discord's awakening. A drop of sweat ran down the pegasus' face. Feeling an energy like this frightened him. He looked back at Wright, who was completely oblivious to what was going on, not being able to detect magic and all.
The two officers reached a gaping hole in the ground. There's no doubt about it. This is where it came from. The green guard thought before getting surprised by another guard from behind. The guard was a brown earth-pony wearing silver-armor.
"There ye have it, sire. That hole... That's the were it's from, ami right?" Party Note made wide, confused eyes as a result of this mare's accent. It was... different.
Party Note snapped back into reality, nodded and turned around to face the hole.
"Can't really say I envy ye. Down there, even a rat could be a threat. I guess thadda be the effect that a magical wavy-thing has, huh?"
Party Note, still being surprised by the accent, just nodded.
Keep it cool, captain. Just keep. it cool. You've dealt with wierder accents. The green pegasus thought At least she's not Bubble Wing.
Becoming a bit impatient, the half-blood decided to spread his wings, and fly down into the hole, gesturing the guardspony goodbye as he flew. The second Party Note landed, he heard a crash.
As it apeared, Wright had decided to take a rather... 'direct' rute into the hole.
As the two guardsponies started looking around, it became rather obvious that this was way older than anything that they had seen before. Maybe even older Celestia herself. They were in a hallway containing statues of hairless, faceless ponies that seemed to be on fire. The fire was calm and dark though, which was odd, considering that fire is usually bright and wild. There was a giant door at the end of the hallway, and the other was blocked of by rocks.
After orienting himself, using the energy source as a compass, Party Note started moving towards the door.
Once he started aproaching the door, however, he heard something... and felt something.
What he heard, was a loud CRACK, and what he felt was the floor collapsing under him.
Then everything turned black.
He was back in the room from earlier. This time, however, the voices from the red door were much more clear. They seemed to talk in some kind of loud whispering voice. "Free... me. Help... me." That was what the voices said.
Suddenly, another voice could be heard. "Party Note!"
Party Note once again woke up at the sound of Wright calling his name. This time it was different though. There was something with Wright's voice. Concern? Wright was concerned? Party Note's eyes snapped open, and scanned his surroundings.
He was lying on his right side, in what seemed to be a dirt cave under the ruin. His helmet was broken from the impact with the ground, and so was his right wing. There was a what looked like a tombstone or something, but nothing else.
Feeling a great amount of pain as he got up, the guards captain managed to get on his hooves. His head hurt, but other then that, and the broken wing, he was fine.
Once he was standing, he heard the voice of Wright again. "Party Note! I'm going to find a pegasus to get you up. Just wait there, okay?"
Just wait there? Party Note thought, as he heard the screeching of a bat in the distance. No way. I gotta get out of this place.
Having nowhere else to go, he decided to go to towards the tombstone looking thing. As he aproached it, he could feel that this stone was the source of the energy. A tombstone? Is this magic coming from the undead or something? This is getting really creepy.
With one more step towards the stone, his eyes were suddenly blinded by a sudden flash of white light. When Party Note could see again, he was greeted by an unusual sight. Before him stood a perfect copy of the guard-captain, only with a lighter shade of brown in the mane, and dark red coat and cutie mark. Party Note was both confused, frightened and excited at the same time.
The creature before seemed just as confused as he was. "Who might thou be?" The creature's voice pierced the air.
It sounded alot like a stallion using the royal canterlot voice, only a bit less... loud. When Party Note found himself being unable to speak, the creature decided to ask again. "What ist thy name?" The creature asked again, sounding a bit more irritated this time.
Deciding not to test the creatures patience, Party Note responded. "I-I am Pa-Partine." was all he could get out of his mouth.
Oh great. Now he/she/IT is gonna think that I'm just a blabbering moron.
Party Note's heart started picking up pace, as the creature spoke again. "Well then, greetings Partine. Thou may call me Demon."
A chill went down the pegasus' spine. A DEMON?! A FREAKING DEMON?! Is *that** what he is?* Party Note thought.
He could have sworn that his heart skipped a beat. This was really scaring him, but also exciting him in a wierd way.
So was this *thing** the source of the magical outburst? Or was it a victim of it?* Party Note's heart raced at this point.
Either way, I don't wanner wait to find out.
Just as the half-blood turned around to leave, he saw an army of bats coming his way. Normally this wouldn't scare him, but with the princess' words burned into his thoughts, he got scared. He wanted to fly out of this place, but remembered that his wing was broken.
"I can aid thou..." Demon's voice said from behind Party Note. "Grab my hoof, and we shall share thy body. My strength will be thine, and thy strength will be mine." Being in panic, Party Note couldn't think of any other way out of this.
I can't die here. I can't die now. Not with *her** being all alone*
"Demon! I accept thy offer!" Party Note said as clearly as he could while trying to speak old equestrian.
The two ponies grabbed eachother's left front-hoof. The second they had gotten a good grib of eachother, Demon started glowing.
A blinding flash of light apeared.
And then... silence. Complete and utter silence.
When Party Note slowly regained his vision, he found himself in a dark room. This one was different though.
Instead of being pitch-black, the was surrounded by what looked like a dark-purple void.
"Welcome, Partine." A voice said. The voice was no doubt Demon's, but it was different somehow.
He wasn't using the canterlot voice.
"Demon?" Party Note said confused. "Where am I?"
"Welcome to the mind-realm, Partine." Demon said as he apeared in front of Party Note. "This is the place where our souls meet."
Demon took on a serious face. "Our knowledge also meet here, and from what I could gather, the place thy body is in is over a thousand years old, is that correct?" Not knowing how to respond, Party Note just nodded. "Then I suppose that I am just as old." Demon seemed to be holding back a tear.
"If there art certain things that I do not understand, then please explain them to me." Party Note opened his mouth, prepared to teach Demon how to speak modern equestrian, but was cut of by Demon's voice, only... Demon didn't move his mouth this time.
No need to speak, Partine. Our minds can communicate telepaticly.
Party Note decided to test this. So... yo-uhm-thou can hear me now? "Correct" Demon responded.
Good, know I just gotta teach him to speak proberly.
Unknown ruin 20 minutes later
Screech Party Note's eyes shot open from the sudden screech.
He quickly got on his hoofs, and scanned the area.
An army of angry fruitbats reminded him of why he had accepted the offer presented by Demon Note, which was the name the two ponies had agreed on.
Party Note's coat turned slightly red as he began to fight the bats.
I've never seen fruitbats act like this before. The energy must have done something to them.
Once a couple of fruitbats were down, the rest quickly retreated, leaving Party Note alone.
Party Note wasn't in the best of conditions himself. As impressive as the strength Demon Note had given him was, it hurt him hard to use it.
The green pegasus began to sway from side to side before collapsing on the ground. He managed to hear one sound before blacking out.
"Party Note! Are you oka-....." Wright's voice yelled from above.
Then silence... Nothing but silence and blackness.
Ponyville hospital 3 days later
Party Note found himself on a bed. At least, it felt like one. His eyes were closed, so it was hard to determine.
His eyes slowly opened, revealing a blury image of to blue figures.
Though he couldn't see much, he did notice a rainbow colored mane on one of the figures. The other figure's mane was purple-ish blue and set in a very rock'n'roll-ish way, with tiny spikes pointing backwards through the entire mane.
Party Note rubbed his eyes to make the blur go away, only to realise that he was in the Ponyville hospital.
The two figures, that he saw, were two of his best friends: Speedy Hooves and Thunder Strike.
Speedy had always been Party Note's best friend. She was loyal and caring. Just like him, she was a pegasus, only she was a full-blood.
They had first met as fillies doing one of Party Note's trips to Ponyville, and, despite not spending much time together, they quickly became friends. Speedy was quite the fangirl, though, and had even gone as far as to dye her mane so that she would look more like her idol: Rainbow Dash.
Of course, the stallion next to her were familiar with Party Note as well.
His name was Thunder Strike, and he was likely as strange as they get. He didn't really know his parents, because he was left in the Everfree Forest as a baby. Like Speedy Hooves, Thunder was a full-blood pegasus, not that he cared about that sort of thing. He was found by timberwoolves that, for whatever reason, took him in as one of their own instead of eating him. When he first met Party Note, it took him more then a year to learn how Equestria worked outside of the Everfree Forest.
Seeing his two friends with worried looks on their faces, on Speedy's face at least, Party Note decided to sit up on bed.
"My head... Son of a gun, it hurts." The green pegasus said, now sitting on the bed.
It didn't take long before Thunder opened his mouth. "See? I told he'd be alright." A slightly smug grin made it's way onto the dark blue pegasus' mouth. "You worry waaaayyy too much, Slowy."
"It's Speedy!" Speedy Hooves corrected the Everfree pegasus. "And no I don't! The nurse said that condition was bad, so of course I get worried, unlike you and your ego, which is big enough to count as a pony on it's own!"
Party Note chuckled a bit at that last statement before interrupting. "True, but maybe you should talk about it when you're not in a hospital, next to somepony with a head-ache."
Speedy chuckled. "Yeah, sorry about that. You gonna be alright?"
Party Note returned Speedy's chuckle with a smile. "I think so. Not really sure what hurt me in the first place, though."
"Maybe you just fell on your flank." Tunder broke out laughing, only to have his smile turned into a frown, when Speedy slapped him.
Speedy sighed. "How would that even work? How do you collapse completely from falling on your flank?"
"Maybe he have a super sensitive fla-?" Thunder was suddenly cut of by Party Note. "Are you two really discussing whether or not I can pass out from getting hit on the flank?"
There was a brief moment of silence.
"So... I guess I should go back to Canterlot, now that I'm awake." Party Note said in a quiet tone. "Summer is probably worried about me."
The green pegasus got off the bed, that he was sitting on, and started walking towards the exit.
"Wait, Party Note." Speedy exclaimed. "We forgot to tell you: There's a couple of guards who've been waiting, in Ponyville, for you to recover. They should have a chariot ready to take you back home."
Party Note stopped and turned his head towards his two friends.
"Thanks for telling me." The stallion said. "Tell the others that I said hello."
Without further notice, the guard captain had left the hospital.