Wrath of the Harbinger

I could have sworn that cookie jar was full. Chloe thought as she was straightening up the room. Oh wait, I forgot to give Noel the rest of any information that guy might’ve had. Now that I think about it... there wasn’t anything worthy of note. Just some troop positions, I can easily submit that in a written report to Noel anyway, if he wants me to. But seriously, I could’ve sworn there were cookies in that jar! I’m a demon, I shouldn’t be going crazy! Right?…

*Somewhere in Canterlot*

It’s quite unfortunate that, as a narrator, I can’t break the fourth wall to talk to the characters on my own. Oh sure, I can leave little messages and shit for the audience but I can’t really tell if they hear me, audience and characters alike. I say this because no matter what I do, I won’t be able to tell Noel and his hunters about what I’m about to narrate. Listen, I’m told to narrate and I do it, the last guy who questioned that... I’m not sure what happened. He’s just not here anymore. Either way, if anyone is receiving this, now you know my annoyance.

Maria sat on her throne in Canterlot. It was formerly Celestia’s but ever since she had so kindly given it up to Maria’s obviously superior leadership abilities Maria had run things so much more smoothly. Maria, in her great wisdom and benevolence, had made sure that Celestia and Luna still held power and that they still raised the sun and the moon. All great leaders need a break once and a while.

And so it was that Maria fumed as she sat on her throne. The arrival of so many hunters would put a large hindrance on her plans. She had planned for them, a plan to easily dispatch at least three, at most ten. But now there were too many, their collective presence stopping Maria’s strongest powers in their tracks. Maria looked down and saw that her two favorite princesses were sitting on their new thrones, looking longingly into Maria’s eyes. They had been very distraught when she had come into the throne room, bleeding and missing a wing. It had been only mere moments that she had learned the name of the insolent hunter that had wounded her. He went by the name of Noel. She could have sworn that she had heard that name somewhere before.

Maria stood up and walked down from the dais, both of the princesses jumped to their feet, intent on pleasing Maria. She was still missing most of her wing but it was slowly regenerating. “Oh great queen, is there any way we can please you?” They both said in unison.

Maria put her hoof beneath her favorite princesses’s chin, who also happened to be her wife. “Celestia, there is indeed something you can do for me. You and your sister both.”

“Yes, my love?” Celestia asked. Her eyes were filled with undying love for Maria and her beauty.

“There is a bad pony in Equestria. I would like for you and Luna to prepare the royal guard and mobilize Canterlot’s defenses. Can you do that for me?”

“It shall be done.” Luna said.

“Of course. But may I ask who this pony is?”

Maria pulled away and started pacing, not out of nervousness or anxiety, but as something to keep oneself absentmindedly occupied, like a second nature.... Or something. Whatever. “He’s not actually a pony, he’s a man. He goes by the name of Noel.”

Celestia and Luna’s eyes flashed for a brief moment with recognition, the mention of the name combined with the sister’s willpower almost breaking Maria’s hold on them. Maria noticed her hold slipping and immediately increased her influence on the diarch’s minds, an easy thing to do. “Noel....” Celestia said, like she was trying to remember something, yet at the same time knew exactly what she was talking about. “I... know... him.... He’s supposed to be a... friend....” Her voice trailed off.

Now this was something Maria was unaware of but she kept herself composed. But she did turn on Celestia rather suddenly. “If he’s supposed to be a friend he is a friend no longer. He is the one who did this to me.” Maria said, flaring her still healing wing for emphasis.

“I didn’t know. Forgive me. I just remember the last time he was here that he helped me.”

“Did he now?” Maria walked calmly towards Celestia and wrapped her wings around the princess of the sun. “There are plans that I am setting into motion, because, trust me, he will come. His hateful ways shouldn’t be allowed in Equestria.” Maria’s horn glowed for a brief moment. “However, in the meantime, you wouldn’t mind telling me everything you know about him, would you?”

*Back in Ponyville*

Noel, along with Todd, were sitting in his tent. Noel hated having had to set up camp all by himself. But a bets a bet and he lost, even if it was unfairly. He and Todd were in the process of looking over reports of the Mary Sue activity on this world, which, for now, was limited to Ponyville since they didn’t have any information on anywhere else. There were a few civilian casualties in the crossfire, Noel’s men were already in the process of resurrecting them. A few damaged buildings, etcetera, etcetera. Only one hunter down, due to Noel’s negligence, but other than that things were running smoothly.

Noel got a call on his communication crystal from a guard he had posted around the perimeter. “Sir, Kayla is here escorting six ponies. She says they are requesting an audience. Orders?”

“Let them through.”

“Yes sir.” And the call was disconnected.

Requesting an audience. No surprise there. But I didn’t expect the ponies to be so quick in requesting one, though. Noel thought as he leaned back in his chair, his arms behind his head as he tried to relax a little bit. He heard footsteps stop outside his tent as the tent flap was opened. Kayla politely stood outside, her arm was the only thing inside the tent. “Sir, the ponies have arrived.”

“Send them in, but stay near the entrance of this tent.”

“Yes sir.”

Noel and Todd faced the entryway, their arms clasped behind their backs. The first pony that walked, or rather, flew, through was a pegasus. The first word that came to Noel’s mind was prismatic. The one following her was a purple alicorn. Noel almost reached for his plasma pistol that he had decided to take after he had gotten camp set up until he realized that it couldn’t have been a Mary Sue since Kayla would’ve killed it on sight. The one right after her was a pony wearing a cowboy hat... no wait, since it was female that probably meant it was a cowgirl hat... whatever. She definitely had the look of a farmer, Noel decided he liked her already. After that was a timid-looking but adorable yellow pegasus mare. The next one was an extremely beautiful white unicorn. She had the personality of a fashionista about her. Noel couldn’t tell if they might have problems down the road but he would have to see either way. The last one through was a familiar pronking earth pony mare. “Hey, Pinkie Pie.” Noel calmly said.

“Hi, Noel!”

The alicorn did a double take. “You know him?”

“Yep! Discord and I helped bring him here!”

“….That just raises further questions for me.”

“Before we do any of that,” Noel said, “I think we should all introduce ourselves. Then we can all ask questions. That sound fair?” Plus it gives me a chance to find out some things about Equestria since I was last here. I wonder how Celestia’s doing.

“I suppose so. What do you think girls?” There was a chorus of yes’s, each of varying volume. “Well, my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Mah name’s Applejack.” She even has one of those southern American accents from Earth! That’s so awesome!

The timid mare tried to speak up but she was hiding behind her mane, adorably, but Noel was able to cast a spell to allow him to hear her words. “I’m... Fluttershy.” Ah yes, the puns that seem to oddly fit the pony and/or their personalities. Still adorable. Let me guess the next one’s going to be named-

“I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria!” Yep, there we go.

“I am Rarity.” The white unicorn said. She had an upper class accent.

“And I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie Pie said with her usual enthusiasm. She was floating at nose level with Noel.... Somehow.

“Well, I’m Noel,” he pointed at Todd, “and that’s Todd.”

Todd raised his hand. “Sup.”

“Well, that’s settled.” Twilight said. “So who gets to ask the first question?”

“Well, this is your world so you should get to ask first. But then again, you already asked a question so I guess you get to ask another one.”

“Really? When did I ask a question?”

“About ten seconds ago. By the way, that also counts as a question. Next.” Noel pointed at Rainbow Dash with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.

“But-” Twilight tried to say but she was cut off.

Rainbow Dash, snickering all the while at Twilight’s suffering, was immediately touching Noel, (holy shit the script just made that sound so wrong) lifting up his arms and pulling on his face. You know, like your grandmother does at least one point in your life. Come on, we’ve all had it happen to us or seen it happen, you know what I’m talking about. Noel had to describe the situation of Rainbow’s hooves like a suction. That had to come in handy considering that they didn’t have thumbs. Or hands. “You’re really weird-looking.” Gee, thanks. “What are you?”

“I can answer that.” Twilight said. “He’s a human. Well, mostly. He looks human but he seems off.”

“The hell you talking about? You know what, we’ll save that for later. Rainbow Dash, you get to ask another question since Twilight already knew the answer.”

“Hey!” Oh god she’s just such an easy target. I’m going to have so much fun teasing her.

“Relax Twilight, you’ll get your turn.” Rainbow Dash laid back while flying. Which shouldn’t have been possible but she managed it. “So where are you from then?”

“Oooh wrong question. I’m not going to tell you.”

“What? Why not?”

“Hey, you already got to ask your question. But I will say this, and I should have said it first off, depending on the question, I may or may not give you an answer. I would give you another chance, Rainbow, but I’ve already given you the chance to ask two questions. Don’t want to show favoritism. Next.” Noel pointed at Applejack. Rainbow simply shrugged. It was no big deal to her.

Applejack stepped forward. “So, how are you able to speak Equestrian?”

“You mean English. As for how... I’m just going to go with cosmic coincidence.”

Applejack shrugged. “Works fer me.”

“I like you. Next.” He almost pointed at Fluttershy but he noticed how timid she was. He decided to pick her last so he instead pointed at Rarity.

Rarity walked forward with grace and poise. At least she was confident but not to the point of giving off an air of superiority. “Darling, may I have a civilized conversation with you?”

“Why yes, yes you may.” Ha ha! She’s smart! I bet this’ll turn out well. Noel magicked a blanket onto the ground. Twilight seemed to be fuming a little bit. “Would you like to take a seat?”

“Ah, a gentlecolt. I would, thank you.” Rarity sat on the blanket with her legs folded beneath her. “So, tell me about the fashion where you’re from.” There were groans mixed with giggles and smirks from the other ponies. “What? It’s a valid request!”

Noel gave a little chuckle. “I’m assuming you want to take a look at our fashion and you’re the resident fashionista?” Rarity nodded, a smile on her face. “I highly doubt this but... see something you might like about our stuff and whatnot?”

“Oh heavens no. Whomever was in charge of designing your armor and clothes obviously had terrible fashion sense. I mean just look at it.” Rarity did a few cursory glances between Todd and Noel as she lifted Noel’s arms to inspect his armor. “Absolutely no style. I can see there are some intricacies in the armor but the color is so... blah.”

“Ha ha, well I think a few of us would agree with you there. But it’s made for practical use. If you want to help us out you can divert some of us to fashion stores or something and we can go shopping together, or something.”

“Shopping? No dear, you helped us! You deserve only the very best! Which is why I shall make some lovely new clothes for you!”

“I thought you were just a fashionista. Doesn’t that mean you only like fashion, or something?”

“Just a fashionista? Darling, I run the Carousel Boutique! When you have time, do please come over and we’ll see what we can do about... all this.”

“Wow, I had you pegged for a stereotypical... woman obsessed with fashion for the sake of it. But the fact that you’re obviously very business-savvy has just earned you a ton of brownie points with me. You know what? When I have time I’ll make sure to head over to the Carousel once I get directions and we’ll see about introducing the comforts of some fashion to the hunters. We don’t really get much in terms of such things.”

“Excellent!” Rarity clapped her hooves and got up and joined the others, thoroughly satisfied with herself. That just left Pinkie, Twilight, and Fluttershy.

“Next.” Noel said, pointing at Pinkie Pie. He almost regretted it.

“Can I throw you a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party?!” Her nose was pressed up against Noel’s.

“Um, probably not,” out of the corner of his eye he saw the other ponies frantically shaking their heads. “I mean, I’m not really staying in Ponyville. We might have some hunters stationed there but we won’t be living there for extended periods of time, so wouldn’t it be a party with the wrong type of theme, or something?”

“That’s okay! I can just throw you a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party instead!”

Wow, you are really fucking persistent. “Sure, why not. You’d have to make sure it’s in Ponyville though, obviously, since we can’t have it in.... Where are we, actually?”

“Your camp, silly!”

“No, I mean the forest, what’s the name of this forest?”

“Oh, it’s the Everfree Forest!”

Noel gave Pinkie a blank stare, she looked back at him with that wide smile of hers.... “Why is Ponyville so close to this place? Last time I was here there was no town located for miles near the Everfree Forest.”

“Fertile land. Princess Celestia told mah family that this here place was a good place to settle.” Applejack said.

“So your family is responsible for the establishment of this town? That’s pretty badass actually.” Applejack beamed proudly. “Next, uh.” Noel nearly pointed at Twilight but he could tell that she would attempt to ask him myriad of questions. Not worth it. Sorry Fluttershy, please don’t silently hate me for this. He pointed at Fluttershy.

The timid mare stepped forward, encouraging whispers from her friends edging her forward. When she was finally within arms-length she seemed to try to speak but she was obviously still a little intimidated. Noel crouched down and put on the best genuinely friendly smile he thought he was capable of. “It’s okay. You have nothing to fear from me. I would never physically hurt you of my own free will. You’re way too adorable for me to do that.” Fluttershy blushed a little bit and there was the tiniest hint of a smile. “Heh, you know what, just for being so adorable, you can ask me any question you want and I’ll answer.” There was a huff from Twilight.

“Oh... well. Where are you from?”

Again with that question. Probably should have expected that, honestly.... Oh boy oh boy how to interpret this question. I could tell her where I’m actually from... or.... Yeah, I’m going to go with something else instead. “Well, my hunters and I have a home in a different dimension. A world entirely separate from this one. I could get into the specifics and whether or not I’m actually using the term correctly but it hurts my head. My master would probably gladly be willing to talk to you about it. We don’t really have a name for it other than... home.” Should I have mentioned my master at all?

“Oh. I think I understand. Twilight would probably be more interested in that kind of thing.”

Would she now? “Thank you for your time, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy smiled and walked back to her group of friends, only this time she wasn’t nervously hiding behind her mane. Noel decided to sit down, knowing that there was probably going to be a long discussion ahead of him now. “Well, Twilight, looks like you’re up. Ask away.”

“Finally!” Twilight zoomed forward, a quill and paper held in her magical aura. Noel didn’t know how the quill wouldn’t stab through the paper but he was sure that Twilight was probably skilled in this sort of thing. She sat down and studied Noel intently as she prepared her question. “So, tell me about this dimension of yours!”

“What did I just get through talking to Fluttershy about?” Noel annoyingly asked back.

“That... your master would be more willing to talk about it?”

“Close. I said he would probably gladly be willing to talk to you about it.”

“But you have to be able to at least tell me something!”

“I already did, if you were paying attention. I told Fluttershy that my hunters and I aren’t from this world, we live in another dimension. I don’t see what’s so hard to grasp about that. Then again you don’t have hands.”

“Well, I did not too long ago....”

“I sense a story behind that and I bet it would have something to do with a question that I was going to ask you that went along the lines of ‘how the fuck do you know about humans’ but I’ll wait for later to ask about it. Anything else?”

“Why are you here?”

“Ah, the question so commonly asked.” Noel decided that it was time to stop messing with Twilight, given that he obviously knew what she really meant with the question. “Under orders from my master, I and the rest of the hunters who have come with me are here on the behalf of an organization that hunts down Mary Sues, the strange beings that have invaded your world. Would you like to know more about the MS’s?

“MS’s?”

“Short for Mary Sue.”

“Oh, ah yes. Why? Why are you hunting them? Have they done anything wrong to you?”

“Yes and no. Personally, I’ve lost a few friends and good soldiers to them in our fight over the years. But the organization’s job is to hunt them down and preferably kill them because they mess with worlds. Twisting them to their own selfish ends. We hunters, as I’ve mentioned countless times already, hunt them but it’s also our job to reverse any damage that they’ve done to a world. We’re doing the multiverse a favor when you think about it.”

The quill was working tirelessly, which was understandable considering that it couldn’t get tired since it was an inanimate object, but details, details. “So then how did your organization come into being? Someone or something had to have established it, and for what purpose?”

Noel thought for a moment. The first question was easy to answer. The other... not so much. “Well, my master established the Mary Sue Hunters. As for what purpose... I’m not sure. I never really asked him and he never exactly bothered to tell any of us. Sure, you can make all the theories you want as to why he did it but unless he actually says anything to you because you asked him about it it’s best not to get your hopes up for the reasons. They might have been noble reasons, they might have not.”

“So who is your master then? You keep referring to him as your master. Can you at least tell me his name?”

“I can tell you his name, but I won’t. He wouldn’t like it and all hunters are under strict orders to not reveal his name at any point in time. I don’t know why but he’s really fucking paranoid. As for who he is as a person....” Noel sighed. “You really wouldn’t want to meet him. No matter what this organization does in his name, whether or not we do good deeds, he is not a nice person in the sense that he’s simply not very sociable. He’d rather be studying or researching or something.”

“Sounds like he needs a good friend.” And he sounds a lot like how I was. Twilight thought.

“Perhaps. I’ve heard he has friends, I’ve even met them. But I’ve never seen him interact with them in person. Could be a coincidence, could be that he was lying to keep me on my toes.”

“What are toes?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Noel magicked off his armored boot, leaving his foot bare and he wiggled his toes in response. “Those are toes.”

“Oh. Neat.”

Noel magicked the boot back on. “It’s a saying anyways. He’s just trying to make sure I keep wary. Distrust has definitely saved me a few times. Whatever, do you have any more questions? I have a busy schedule and, no offense, but I’m kind of tired of answering these questions and I would like to get back to work.”

Twilight nodded. Knowing the exact same feeling of wanting to get back to work. “Understandable.” Twilight said. “So, how are you able to use magic without a horn? Or use it at all, for that matter. The humans I met on Earth couldn’t use magic so why can you?”

“There is something wrong yet right with your question. One, yes, humans from EARTH normally can’t use magic. I’m not from Earth. Secondly, you shouldn’t even be able to get to Earth as my master is barring all travel to and from there without his permission. Trust me, many have tried and he’s stopped them all.”

“That just raises so many more questions....”

“Well too bad, I’m tired and I really need to get back to work. I’m sorry that we have to cut this short, I really truly am, but we have a job to do and I’d rather get it done quickly. If we have time, maybe we can continue this.”

“I’d like that.” Twilight stood up. “Come on girls. We’ve bothered this nice man,” Noel smiled inwardly at that, “long enough.”

“Kayla,” Noel called out. She entered the tent. “Please escort these six nice ponies back to Ponyville.” Kayla saluted and did as she was bid.

“So, what’d y’all think of him?” Noel heard Applejack say.

“They all seem like cool guys.” Rainbow Dash replied.

Noel couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation that doubtlessly ensued as he tuned it out and went back to reading reports. It was time to get more information. First things first. Noel thought. We scout out as much as we can stealthily, locate Canterlot and hope that Celestia is there so we can free her if she’s under Mary Sue control. She’s strong but with the amount of Mary Sue’s on this world, even she couldn’t break their hold, even with the amount of hunters here passively disrupting their control. Noel grinned subconsciously. A genuine happy thought crossing his mind. Celestia, old friend, we have a lot of catching up to do.