Chapters Without Notice – Chapter 1
Rain.
There was lots of rain today. Heck, it’ll be quite surprising if the fruits and vegetables somehow survived too.
Guess the Pegasi didn’t expertly calculate the supposed amount of rain clouds that was to hover around Ponyville…
No matter.
Just another exciting day in Ponyville after all, isn’t it always?
The last time something “happened”, Nightmare Moon was defeated by a group of six mares. Though, nopony actually knew how they did it. Nopony just never questioned it.
*Ring!*
A very slight, but noticeable movement moved the blanket.
*Ring! Ring! Rin-*
“Alright! Alright! ALRIGHT!....I’ll….get up.”
The Pegasus pony slammed down the alarm clock, causing it to become silent once more.
Ditzy Doo, or as the other ponies have known the cross-eyed, blond haired and tailed mare as Derpy Hooves, got up from her warm bed, she woozily trotted to the bathroom, which was literally next door, where she proceed to do her normal “rituals”.
*Sigh*
“So much to do today….in this horrible rain even….I wonder when it was scheduled to stop even….”
She looked out her bathroom window before heading towards her kitchen.
Her house is located near the Everfree Forest.
When asked by another pony as to her decision to live there, she simply replied with a “Why not?” If Fluttershy could, why couldn't she as well? Besides, it’s usually silent for the most part.
Her house consisted of two floors.
Her first floor, obviously beginning with the entrance of her house, had a living room which led into the kitchen and towards the back of the house. The stairs stuck up from the left side of her living room, adjacent to the entrance.
Her second floor had a single bathroom which was conveniently placed in between two bedrooms, across from where the stairs would be. One of the bedrooms was her's which contained the queen sized bed. Directly opposite of her personal bedroom was a small study room, somewhat filled with books and scrolls.
“Done!”
She quietly took her breakfast to her small dining table and began eating it.
Contract to popular belief, she doesn’t always eat or overwhelmingly love muffins. Rather, at times, she likes to eat other food as well. The bread with butter and eggs combination that she is currently enjoying is but a few of many food choices she tends to enjoy.
She quickly cleaned up, pulled out her “mask” and left the house in a jiffy, locking the door and switching the lights off of course.
Even though it still rained, she had a duty to uphold, the duty of being a mailmare and apparently, being the town’s “laughingstock” as some ponies have put it. Reason being so was because she was terrible at flight, had cross eyes, had a speech problem and was believed to be easily bribed if a muffin was involved. It did hurt her mentally and sometimes physically, but she had developed a “solution” to overcome it. She developed a façade, which is her “mask”.
With the usage of her “mask”, not only was she able to act freely as she could, she was able to “positively” correspond to the ponies’ insults with much lesser pain when she delivered the mail.
She was glad that today was one of those days that no pony had decided to exit their homes. She thought it was a rather good exchange in fact, being wet instead of being mocked for the one millionth time.
As she continued to slowly trot, rather than fly there in order to keep up with the facade, she decided to look at the time off of the giant clock that was recently built at the Town Square.
She panicked.
It read 7:30 AM.
She had about thirty minutes to get to the Post Office which was located at the other end of town.
She started to gallop.
The rain consistently blurred her vision, but she still galloped at the direction she was headed towards to, hoping to not crash into anything.
Thunder was heard in the grey, rainy sky.
She came to a stop and paused.
Rain continued to pour all around her, but she didn’t care. Instead, she gasped at the direction she was trying to look towards to. There was only an open field filled with numerous crops. The Post Office was not there, obviously indicating that she went the wrong direction.
*Sigh*
“So this is the first time I’ll be late to the Post Office? Hope I don’t get fired….”
She started to gallop towards the correct direction that the Post Office was located.
The thunder decided to openly roar throughout the grey sky. She simply did not pay much attention to it, her job having more priority then her own safety.
At long last, the Post Office was in view due to its rather bright blue coating.
She ran up to the entrance and tried to open the door. Except, the door was locked, a small "Closed" sign lay stuck on the bottom left side of the door’s window.
“….And I thought it’ll be opened today”
She started to head back home, head lowered.
The previous day, she had received news that the Post Office would be operational, stating that the weather wouldn’t be too much of a burden for the mail ponies. Guess that kind of back fired or she was simply tricked by her coworkers.
She continued to trot down the road, seemingly devoid of life.
The buildings, the homes, and stands continued to lay drenched without a care in the world. When she looked towards one side that was stacked with numerous houses next to one another, most of them had their curtains pulled down. Some had families near the fireplace, enjoying quality family time playing games and looking happy.
“Looking happy?”
How long she had wished to have a family of her own. But because of her “conditions”, she seemed to have a great difficulty of finding a suitable stallion that would love her the way she was. Heck, she even considered adoption, but Foal Protection Services denied her a foal to take care of.
“How I wish. Oh, how I wish to have a family of my own….”
She continued to think about it more intensively, but gave up when reality was such a buck to the tree to her. The cursed shall forever be cursed forever as they would put it…
The sound of thunder was heard once more.
The rain did not relent in its righteous mission of soaking anything that it touched.
She wondered what she’ll do once she got home. Maybe, she’ll have a cup of hot coco before heading off to take a bubble bath to clean herself off?
Without realizing it, the thunder struck. This time, it didn’t just act as a simple "light display". This time, it had struck her due to her being too bothered with her own thoughts to even notice the incoming thunder strike.
What she had felt was unimaginable loads of pain. Steam was radiating off of her now black coated body before “calmingly” falling over onto one side…without much of a single sound.
Her eyes were still wide, filled with shock. She didn’t know, but it was a better thing that she didn’t due to the fact that the thunder had struck a gaping hole in her stomach which in turn, affected one of her wings as well. However, she wasn’t able to feel anything; rather, she felt so much pain coursing through her body that it seemed that she was accustomed to this type of lifestyle long ago.
It reminded her too much of the time when several ponies that strongly disliked her, decided to badly injure her in an alleyway when she was assigned to deliver in Manehattan. She remembered that they called themselves The Anti-Derpy Coalition .
She doesn’t exactly remember what caused them to strike at her in the first place, but it was probably because of her eyes and the suggested “stupidity” associated with them. Though untrue, she resorted against fighting back so that she didn’t risk getting fired from the only job that accepted her. Instead, she proposed on transferring to another branch which happened to be located in Ponyville. That "little event" happened six years ago...
She laughed.
Remembering past memories now is rather awkward indeed.
Still, no ponies were to be found. No pony even bothered to look towards her general direction, too busy with their own “chores”.
As the rain continued to shower the once gray mare into oblivion, she cursed at her life, wishing it to be much better. She didn't quite do much this life, but she still wished that her next life would be a lot better than this one had ever been.
She had a bit of a trouble staying conscious, but she didn't even bother to fight to stay conscious.
She had enough of what this life had provided and was more then ready to move on to the next one....if there was a next one....
For the very last time, her eyes closed.
Surrounding her body was a large pool of red liquid which consistently “dissolved” as the rain continued to bombard into it.
And without notice, Ditzy or Derpy as everypony had called her, slipped into the light, welcoming the blissful sensation that it had provided.
And no pony would know until the next fateful morning, when the rain clouds are scheduled to be removed by then.
Without notice, Ditzy Doo had left this world and no pony would even care to even remember her...
_____________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 2 : The Awakening :
Chapter 2 : The Awakening :
Without Notice – Chapter 2 : The Awakening :
Wake up.
Your time is far from ending.
Your purpose…No, your value is far too great to lose. I shall not loose you to the retched light in your name!
I command you be revived anew! You shall be much more different, yet still be the same.
And thus, you will rise out of the ashes and bring forth change the world has never seen before.
So wake up…and smell the hay…
Ditzy Doo quickly sprang up, heavily sweating as she tried to catch her breath.
Wait.
Didn’t she get struck by thunder and ended up laying on the road in her own pool of blood?
It wasn’t possible that she was still alive.
No matter how hard she thought, there were no legit explanations as to explain it except the fact that this place that she was in is all but a dream.
But, the place looked very realistic. It didn’t seem like her mind would produce such an advanced image so she discarded that thought.
She noticed that she was laying on a king sized bed, something that she had always wanted, but couldn’t afford one. Instead, she purchased a queen sized bed that she had tenderly loved ever since.
How she had missed home already….
Rather then continuing to dwell on it, she decided to look around her surroundings.
It appears that she was in a….mansion bedroom? Everything in the room looked like it had cost an extreme amount of bits to afford. Heck, the tiles themselves looked like they could easily purchase several acres of land from the Apple Family. The owner must have been that successful that it was quite frightening.
However, it still didn’t answer the purpose of her being here. She was only a common mailmare after all.
“Hmm. That smells lovely” she quietly said without much thought.
Apparently, there were also flowers in the room. Or was that perfume?
*Knock. Knock*
“Madam, are you awake?” said a muffed voice.
She slightly jumped in surprise.
Once she got a hold of herself, she responded that she was, quite in fact, awake to the voice.
She heard the door unlocking from the other side and than, abruptly shut. A few trots later, the pony who addressed her was standing in front of her king sized bed.
The stallion in question had on what seemed to be a suit, suggesting that he was a butler. His cutie mark consisted of a metal tray with white gloves that laid on top of it. He was also a white coated unicorn with light brown mane and tail.
“Madam?” he questioned while staring at her with a puzzled look.
“Um. Er. Hi!” she waved at him while smirking like a filly.
“Madam. As your butler, there is no need to feel frightened. If there is anything that is bothering you, feel free to contact me and I will execute the necessarily arrangements. But please, I only wish you the best, especially since this is your first day living here with our master.”
Wait. What?
She has only had been living here for a day ? She doesn’t even know where here is to begin with.
Getting up from the bed, she trotted to her butler.
“Can you tell me where this place is?” she asked.
“Why, of course Madam. This is a mansion located on Ponyville soil.” He replied, still staring at her.
When did Ponyville become the next Canterlot?
“Albert! Where the hay are you?” yelled an unfamiliar voice.
“I’m in Madam Derpy’s bedroom my dear master!” shouted the now named butler, Albert.
Several sounds of trotting were heard approaching her bedroom. It seemed as if past the door to her bedroom was an enormous cave. But then again, this was supposedly a mansion. And mansions, from her experience, had many rooms and windows.
Now that she thought about it, where was her window in this bedroom? The only source of light generating in the bedroom was six ceiling lights and two wall lamps that stuck beside her king sized bed.
“Ah! I’m glad to see you are awake my dearest Derpy!” said the unfamiliar stallion.
The stallion was grey like she was, but had a black mane and tail instead. His cutie mark consisted of three bits surrounding what appears to be a dollar sign. Like Albert, he was also wearing a suit, but it looked more elegant and was echoing power all over it. He was also a unicorn pony.
Well, at least she positively knew that her mind was not making things up….
“Albert. Please assist Derpy with her dressing.”
Albert complied, immediately using his unicorn magic to open the closets and drawers, instantly lifting numerous objects into the air.
“Madam. May you stand behind this wooden divider that I have set up so that I can properly assist in dressing you?”
She complied without much of a word. Next thing she knew, she was already dressed in a violent colored dress, with sky blue seemingly cutting the violent color in half. She was also wearing silver shoes. Her hair was neatly combed in a way that she was to magnificently present herself in the Grand Galloping Gala.
“Now I know we have recently moved into this fabulous mansion that our subjects have given us….” He continued, “….so I feel that you should explore the content that lies within its walls. But be careful, even I can get lost in its maze-like floors. Albert and I will have a private chat if you may.”
She slowly nodded and started to head for the door. Once she got outside of her bedroom and closed her door, instead of touring the mansion like she was told to do, she pressed her ear onto the wooden door’s frame and listened.
“….She’s supposed to be in a coma for a least six more years Albert. What might have gone wrong?”
“That, I do not know your Highness. It was truly unexpected when I came in to check on Derpy Hooves” replied Albert.
“She is now a much bigger threat it seems. I should have finished her like what I have done with Celestia and Luna long ago….”
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are….gone?
Wait. Then, who was ruling Equestria or what became of it?
Who was bringing up the sun and moon everyday?
Then again, she never saw the exterior of this mansion. She had yet to find a window in this huge mansion.
She trotted away from the door and started exploring, attempting to avoid suspicion from the ponies that currently reside in “her” bedroom.
What seemed like an eternality, she finally reached the first door ever since exiting her bedroom. In fact, after that “first” door, there were multiple doors after it.
There were unicorn guards, similar in looks to Princess Celestia’s unicorn royal guards. The only difference was that these guards had dark black armor with no crests and were unarmed.
There was a huge quantity of guards whom guarded the doors that they were assigned to protect. She noticed that there were at least two guards that stood in front of each door.
When she asked if she could enter, the guards simply denied her access and suggested that she try another door.
When she asked what was behind the door when the guards refused her entry, the guards simply denied her any information regarding said door, “forcing” herself to move on to the proceeding door.
By door number twenty five, she was finally authorized entry into a room.
She almost fainted upon entering the room itself.
There.
Standing in front of her.....
Was a large mirror....and a reflection….of herself ....
The door silently closed without any notice and with a “click”, the door had locked itself.
Without notice, you have been teleported into this dominion.
But fear not, for it is only the beginning of your ascension.
For you shall become great as the heavens themselves have decreed upon you.
Thus, now, the stage is set for your glorious appearance upon the masses.
It can finally begin…
Your Highness…
Chapter 3 : Revelation :
Without Notice – Chapter 3 : Revelation :
Ditzy Doo widened her eyes.
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing reflecting off of that mirror.
Last time she checked, she was a blond mane, grey coat cross-eyed Ponyville mailmare, but looking at the mirror right now, that description didn’t seem quite believable anymore.
She still had her grey coat and blond mane intact.
Well, okay, her wing looked oddly “undamaged” even though she was supposedly struck by thunder she admitted.
But the most important change was that she now had a long grey horn sticking out of her head.
Really, a horn!
What in Equestria’s name is going on?
Or, specifically, why was her mind making this up?
She was never an Alicorn to begin with and knew she hasn’t gone crazy yet.
She stared hard at the mirror, trying to see if it would swift its image of her. It never did.
The next thing she tried was rubbing her eyes with her hooves. Still, the image of an Alicorn still reflected off of the mirror.
“Ok. How about if I tried doing this?”
*Bang….bang….*
The mare had decided that in order to change the mirror’s “perspective” of her, she had to “fix” her head in order to make it stop its nonsensical fantasies that it had been producing. So, she simply went up to one side of the room and began to thrust her head onto the wall.
Sadly, it didn’t quite work as well as she had wanted it to work.
She looked back at the mirror which was positioned at the far side of the room, faced towards the door that she had entered the room from.
There…
On the mirror…
Stood an Alicorn…whose head had a tad bit of a bruise mark.
“Oh for buck’s sakes…I guess my mind isn’t playing tricks on me…”
She sighed…
*Whisper…*
She quickly looked around the room. No pony, but herself was in it.
What was that? Was this room haunted? Was that why the guards let her into this room and yet, not into the other ones?
*Whisper…*
She was a bit frightened.
Luckily for her, the whispers eventually grew more and more into an audible level for her to hear.
Your purpose…No, your value is far too great to lose. I shall not loose you to the retched light in your name!
It truly felt awesome that somepony needed her for the first time, but she was never “great” to begin with. Labeling the word “great” on her may be a bit insane even. Besides, how was she great to begin with?
She can remember all of her horrible, miserable days like it were yesterday.
Whenever she tried to help, other ponies would simply brush her off without any hesitation.
When she did get the chance to help however, other ponies would purposefully make it seem that she was a klutz.
The “mask” that she wore did help lessen the pain, but sometimes, the pain would be too great for it to contain. At those times of mental or physical suffering, she would usually head straight to bed, not bothering to have dinner and silently cry herself to sleep.
Sometimes, she would question the very existence of her life.
And sometimes, she would even consider taking her own life, but she never did. She believed that every pony would take that as a sign that she gave in to their harassments if she did.
She shook those thoughts away. There was no time to think about memories of a past life.
Speaking of time, she wondered if it was still in the morning, afternoon or night…
Surprisingly enough, there weren’t any clocks in this room, or anywhere that she has visited in this mansion thus far…
*Shrug…*
She looked at the mirror again.
Was that what the whisper meant when her value was far too great to lose? But…she still doesn’t quite understand why it had to be her or how did Princess Celestria and Princess Luna got defeated so easily…
She had many questions, but simply, not enough time. She shook her head and sighed. She figured that she might as well leave this room now because from just staring at herself, it gave her the creeps.
She trotted to the door…open to find it locked.
Dang.
It must have been the work of that stallion, but why did he want to exterminate her in the first place? Sure, she had a horn now, but she was clearly inexperienced with one. Heck, she didn’t even understand how to even “start it up”.
She trotted back to the mirror and thrust her head onto it in frustration.
What she didn’t know was that the mirror surprisingly gave away, revealing a secret entrance with stairs leading underground.
What kind of pony would keep their secret “domain” behind a mirror?
Heck, even she was wise enough to not keep something extremely secret behind something as fragile as this.
Out of curiosity and “boredom”, she decided to journey down the stairs rather than wait for outside assistance with unlocking the door. Besides, she wanted to know what was going on…
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she witnessed unimagined horrors.
In this room…no, dungeon, there were many ponies strapped onto what appears to be medical tables.
Were they even ponies?
The things had half of their bodies covered with a sea greenish black coating and had their manes changed to a dark arctic bluish gray color. The non-Pegasus “ponies” were growing sky blue wings while the Pegasus’ wings themselves were slowly changing into the said wings. The Unicorns’ horns were slowly molded to be more curved and non-Unicorn “ponies” were growing a curved horn. All of them were stripped of their genders and cutie marks.
They all appeared to be unconscious for the most part.
For fear, she didn’t trot anywhere close to them and decided to stick to trotting near the dungeon’s walls, towards the other end where the path continued.
She felt sorry for them and at most, they reminded her of them, forcibly changed, but not to the extent they were placed through. Unlike them, she went through what became the existence of her “mask” due to the abuse she had received.
She shook those thoughts away. She had more pressing matters to attend, one of them being able to get out of this horrible dungeon.
Once she got to the other side, she quietly closed the large wooden doors behind her before trotting ahead. She couldn’t stand looking back or risk being assaulted by those…things.
A brief trot later, she found herself staring at multiple tubes mounted on the walls and on the ceiling. These clear screened tubes had what looked like ponies of all types “swimming” in them.
It was more like their bodies were being rapidly transported to an unknown location that she dared not even imagine.
She continued on, witnessing some ponies were “nicely” stacked in small piles. They were still physically unchanged for the most part, but when she went to observe them up close, they bared moderate artic blue eyes and had fangs sticking out of their mouths.
For whatever reason, she decided to poke them. They felt cold, like they were…not alive at all.
She quickly jumped back at the realization.
Exactly what was this place and its sole purpose?
Guess that stallion has a lot of questioning to do when she got back to him…that is, if she can after she’s done with this “tour”.
She continued to trot along the pathway, head lowered due to the horrors she had seen.
After coming across some more tubes, she was met with two large wooden doors. She can finally get out of this horrid place.
Not exactly…
She entered to what looked like an equipment room.
Towards her left were glaives and shields on weapon racks. Towards her right was a large map of Equestria nailed to its wall. There were numerous red “X” marks on selective cities and towns, one of them being on Ponyville, stating that said town or city has already been conquered.
It didn’t seem like anywhere was free…say, Manehattan. Judging from the reports that lay in front of the map, Manehattan was putting up quite the resistance for their forces to occupy…stating that the ponies of Manehattan employed guerilla warfare that constantly depleted their forces whenever they attempted to suppress them.
Apparently, the stallion in control was called “Tyrant” and had her as his second in command.
Wait.
She was his second in command?
Why would she commit these unimagined horrors? She couldn’t even possibly hurt a fly! But for whatever reason, she shed a tear and with resolve, she wanted to make things right again, even if she wasn’t directly responsible since technically, she didn’t “arrive here” since a few “minutes” ago.
Well, she assumed it was only a few “minutes” ago since she did have a lot of trouble contacting a clock after all…
“…So you see Albert…”
Oh horse apples.
She can’t just get found out now, but why was she frightened? According to these folders, she was indeed his second in command, but she still felt insecure around his presence. She quickly placed back the folders she had opened to its previous state.
As fast as she could, she attempted to search for a hiding spot.
“My second in command may be awake now, but I think she has changed greatly after that incident. I don’t think we should trust her as easily as we did in the past…”
The overhead air ducts! It did look large enough for her to fit into…
She was still the same size as she was before she “first perished”; why not try her hooves at that? Besides, she got the chance to test out the “full extent” of her recently acquired magic. She flew up to one of the air duct openings and started to squint.
“…When she looked at me, she didn’t quite seem like she was her past self anymore…”
Her horn glowed yellow. Success is at hoof!
“…She looked more like a frightened filly who disobeyed her parent or something.”
She easily removed the four nails and the air duct opening, levitating them in her yellow glow. She physically got into the air ducts while trying hard not to make as much sound.
“She didn’t even realize that I was in my shape shifter form!”
Tyrant and Albert had just entered the "equipment room" when she finally got into the air ducts. With "skill" and patience, she silently closed the opening with her magic without them knowing. Silently, she examined the occupants below, only to witness Tyrant change his form.
He, no, she looked like one of those…things that she had seen in the tubes and on the medical tables.
“Albert, please do me a favor and look for Derpy Hooves before she goes somewhere she isn’t supposed to go to…”
“At your command, Queen Chrysalis…” Albert replied.
