Aged Eternal

Chapter 2:

Smokey was exhausted, and it showed on her face as she readied herself for school. She'd spent most of the night scouring the sky for the missing constellation, to no avail. Constellations didn't just disappear; If there was going to be a change to her sky, the office of the Diarch Nocturnus would issue an announcement so that the nation's astronomer and constellation-seekers would not be unduly panicked... kind of like how she was right now.

Sighing, she made her way through the school gates and towards her first class. No matter how much she wanted to avoid it, she was going to be late turning in her assignment. She hated being late about as much as she hated coffee, and now she was about to have the condition of the first, and was drinking plenty of the second. She almost ran over a yellow stallion as she stuffed her bag into her locker and dashed to Brite Night's class.

Skidding into the classroom, she looked around frantically before noticing something strange: Brite Night was nowhere to be found. The board simply said "Free Period" and most of the class was talking, reading, or playing around. She was curious as to why Professor Brite was missing, but took the opportunity to rest and finish the rest of her assignments. After all, no need to look a gift-horse in the mouth (though, that saying never really made sense to her).

Outside the classroom, the yellow stallion finished stuffing a paper into Smokey's locker, and snorted to himself in amusement. The game, after all, was afoot.

Defiant Bolt was furious. Someone had stuffed a note into her locker threatening to reveal her 'big secret' to everyone at school unless she met the coward at the City Limits tonight. She couldn't understand just how someone had discovered her hidden activity, but she'd show the pony that dared to threaten her a what-for, on her pride as the School Champion!

Across the school, similar occasions of outrage broke as 4 other mares discovered similar notes in their lockers, and each one vowed to bring trouble to the snooping, insidious pony that made light of pony's weakness. On the school roof, however, that same yellow stallion from earlier in the day kept a silent vigil towards the sky. Dark times ahead were coming, and though he regretted his actions he knew they were necessary.

It was 8 in the evening, and already the sun was creeping towards the horizon as the nation prepared for the daily shift. The streets of Ponyton were quiet as Moonlit Shy made her way towards the City Limits sign. She was terrified that whoever the mysterious pony was that stole Typhoon would hurt or tear him somehow. She'd always wanted a dragon plushy, and now just when she'd finally had one it got stolen. It just wasn't fair.

She drew closer to the City Limits sign, posted right on the edge of the Everfree Forest. The ancient stone wall that had once helped to protect Ponyton from the wild beasts of the Everfree was crumbling in the distance. Nowadays, a complex spell matrix would alert the Guard to any attempts of the beasts inside to escape, or encroachment of the zone towards the city. She still couldn't understand why an ancient edict prevented the taming of the forest, after all it would be so much easier to discover new flora in a place that embodied wild nature itself.

Regardless, she softly trotted into the last street of the city, the sign looming above her. In its shadows she saw a shadowy figure, and drew back into herself. This was for Typhoon however, and she kicked herself into a gallop towards the figure. "Give him baaaaack!"

She nearly slammed headfirst into the figure, who swiftly took to the skies to avoid her assault. A voice rang out from above her, and she stood in shock as she recognized the sound. "Moonlit?! What the HAY!" Defiant Bolt swept down and landed in front of her, a look of disbelief on her face. This was the least likely pony she'd ever suspected to have written the note.

As they stared at each other in confusion, several more mares trotted up. Smokey, Terra, and Charm all emerged from the shadows around the sign, each looking about as confused as everyone else. "Umm... did any of you receive a note asking you to show up here... or else?" Smokey didn't know most of the mares around her, but each of them seemed to have been expecting someone to arrive, and none looked like a pony that would sleaze around or sling mud in a pony's face.

Slowly, each one nodded their heads, and Smokey let out a sigh of relief. If this was just some harmless prank to make folks visit the edge of the city, then there was no way anyone knew of her secret pastime. "Well, it appears that this has just been some sort of giant prank. I say we all call it quits and head home, what do you think girls? After all, there's nopony else here to-"

"Not quite, Miss Moonlight. I'm afraid this is no joke, nor prank. I have gathered you all here for one reason." At the sound of the voice, Smokey spun around and discovered that a single spotlight on the sign was now illuminating... a Dragon Plushy? As she stared in disbelief, Moonlit cried out in alarm.

"Typhoon! Get down from there right now Mister! You are in so much trouble, I don't believe this!" Her loud outburst had Defiant and Terra staring in awe. They hadn't even known she could speak louder than a calm whisper, at least not until now. Moonlit began to turn red as she realized just how loudly she'd yelled. She couldn't help herself sometimes, which was why she so often made the attempt to be quiet. It was rude to yell at ponies, after all.

A chuckle emanated from the toy as smoke began to billow around it. "You have yet to begin your disbelief, whisperer! For it is not some simple toy that has gathered you together, but me, the Dark Shift!" At that final exclamation the smoke burst outwards and cleared, revealing a hooded pony standing behind the doll. It gently grabbed the toy in its mouth and leaped from the sign, landing a few feet away from the group. It turned back and bowed, before tossing the toy onto Moonlit's back.

The figure drew back its hood to reveal an Earth Stallion, bright yellow with a pink mane that clashed horribly with his coat. Upon his fetlock was a bracelet of colored beads, and as the girls stared at him he swiftly pawed through them until he hit one he seemed to be looking for. "But my friend call me Circus. Lets see... the quiet, the artist, the accent, the booky, and the sportster. Yup, with the clown that makes six. And I'm the clown!" He turned and seemed to realize that they were staring at him. "Oh, right!"

He reached into his mane and shook out a rolled up parchment, which he then unfurled to show to the girls. "Have any of you seen this? I seem to have lost mine." Smokey stepped forward, taking a moment to look at the picture and gasped in surprise.

"That's the Crystal Gem constellation! It went missing from the sky just the other night. What... did you do that?" Smokey was beginning to become angry at the thought of someone altering the beautiful night sky, and Circus was quick to correct her. "Nothing of the sort, madam. In fact, I'm impressed you noticed! I only was looking because the Pie asked me to. It's probably not important, but since it came from the Pie..."

Charm and Terra tilted their heads together as Circus began to ramble. "Do you think he realizes that he has apparently been taking advice from a, pastry, I guess?" Charm was trying not to snort at the thought, and Terra softly shook her head.

"Ah figure he'll catch the feel of it eventually, but gosh if it ain't a real killah. He seems as loony as a snow-struck owl in the dead of a northern winter, that one." Terra snorted and nodded at Moonlit. "Didn' we meet that one yesterday? If I'm not mistaken." Charm looked and nodded, thinking hard. "Indeed, that's the same pony. Curious."

The ongoing conversations were abruptly halted as a high-pitched whistling filled the air. Everypony perked their ears, and as one they looked to the sky. High above, a shimmering point seemed to slowly be growing larger, and within moments was reaching the glow of the city's light. Slowly the object drew closer and closer, and with a resounding BANG seemed to smash into, and then through, a shimmering barrier that appeared at the impact. Within moments, every streetlamp in the city grew ten times brighter, and a keening wail began to fill the air. One after another house lights began to flick on, and soaring pegasi filled the air.

"What in... does anypony have any idea what the buck is going on?" Smokey was practically shouting as the group covered their ears to avoid the loud siren on the sign above. Most of the group shook their heads while Circus was muttering and moving beads on his bracelet. After a few moments, Charm screamed and pointed above them. Several more object were hurtling towards Ponyton, and each left a gaping hole in the protective magic above.

"We should really get somewhere safe. I don't want some space rock slamming into my head." Defiant said, and gave Moonlit a shove to get her to her feet. "Come on, there's a train station just a few blocks away we can hole up in." The rest of the group shrugged, not having any better ideas, and began to follow bolt. They'd made it several blocks without incident, until they came upon a street that had a massive crater in the middle.

Nearby a member of the local Guard noticed the group of young mares, and trotted over. "You ladies best be getting inside. Not sure what's going on, but some crazy black rocks are causin craters all over the city. Get along now, get!" He turned back and went to the edge of the crater peering in and rubbing his mane in disbelief. As the group turned to continue on their way, they heard a cry of alarm from the guard.

Turning around, they watched in horror as a black crystal shot out of the crater and hit the guard's flank. He groaned in pain, and then terror as the crystal began to spread over his body. Eyes wide, Charm gave a shriek of horror and softly fainted onto Terra, who grunted and hefted the collapsed mare onto her back. "I don't I know jes what's goin on der, but I think we'd best find him some help real quick-like, eh guys?"

Within moments the guard was completely covered in black, and froze in place. With an eerie creaking noise, the figure turned back towards the group, and opened its maw wide. Circus' eyes shot open, and he slammed into Moonlit, sending them both tumbling to the side. "Hey, what's the big idea bub!" Defiant growled, before stopping short as a stream of black crystals spewed from the creatures mouth and impaled the spot where they'd just been standing. "Oh, buck."

"Run!" Circus shouted, helping Moonlit up and on her way. The group dashed down a side alley, and took several sharp turns. As they passed openings, they saw numerous ponies also fleeing in terror from a growing army of black crystal figures. Each time a pony was hit, they too became one of the figures and joined in the fight. Most of the group was terrified, and within a few minutes had made their way to the Train Station.

Bursting through the doors, they saw a make-shift barricade and several Guardsmen and civilians hiding behind it. "Quick, get over here!" a Guard yelled, waving them into the station's platform area. "Are any of you hit?" he asked, looking them over. They shivered and shook their heads. "We're ok, I think" Smokey said, looking around. A nearby train was building up steam, and the guards were helping several civilians aboard.

"We're sending children and mares first, so hop on quickly please. Once you get to the City, find the Guards barracks and tell them what's going on here. I'm sure they'll send the Royal Guard. Don't worry, we'll all be ok." The guard tried to smile, but froze as the front doors began to bang and bulge inwards, under assault from the outside. "Quick, get on!"

With not even a moment to lose, the group jumped onto the train and entered a compartment, even as it began to pull out of the station and pick up speed. As it rolled over several of the figures and out past the city limits, Smokey looked back and saw an image that would burn itself into her mind: Her home town, alight with alarms and spotlights that one after another blinked out as the valiant defenders fell. She shivered, and drew closer to the unlikely group that had by sheer coincidence been close enough to the edge of the city to escape.

As thoughts of her parents entered her head, she began to softly weep. This was not how she'd expected the day to go at all, and suddenly she was feeling very foolish for even considering wanting adventure and action. Not if this was how it really was.

It had been half an hour already as the train made its way as quickly as possible to the capital city. Most of the ponies aboard were softly weeping or trying not to think of the ones left behind, but a small group had cornered a certain yellow-and-pink stallion in one of the compartments. "Alright Circus, what's going on. Why did you gather us together? I think we deserve an explanation." Smokey had just about enough of the strange behavior of the stallion, and wanted to get to the bottom of what exactly was going on.

Circus, who had revealed his full name to be Circucious del Shift, gulped and gathered his thoughts. "Ok, so first off I want you all to know I had no idea what was going to happen tonight. Pie didn't mention anything about a shower of space-rocks, or evil pony-crystal-creatures." He gulped and took another deep breath. "Look, I gathered us all together because my great-great-great- many more times great- grandmare left a series of instructions to our family." He raised his fetlock and shook it, causing the bracelet of beads to rattle. "I'm supposed to gather five other ponies who best represent some ancient group of superheros or something, and I had just finished figuring out who was the perfect match when Pie started to speak to me."

He got a series of head-tilts and exasperated looks, and rushed to explain. "Pie is a voice that certain ponies in my family can hear, at times. Supposedly she's some great ancestor who was the sister of one of the superheroines, and helps communicate her wishes from beyond. What I can tell you is that she sounds as exciting as gravel, and doesn't say much to anyone." He snorted at that, and sighed "Believe me, I've tried to get her to laugh. It's impossible I tell you. Anyways, she started to blabber on about some missing stars or something, and described the picture I showed to you. That's as much as I know! I just wanted to be a superhero, okay? It sounded like something exciting and new, and I didn't think any of, of THIS would happen."

He lowered his eyes and scuffed the floor with a hoof. The others looked between themselves, as if asking if they really believed his story. Surprisingly, Defiant stepped forward and set a hoof on his back. "I believe ya, bud. It sounds crazy, but I believe ya." She snorted, and looked back at the others, before sticking out her hoof. "So, who want's to be a superheroine? Cause if it means we get to kick some flank and save our city, I'm all for it."

One after another, the group nodded and stuck their hooves into the middle. Circus shifted and gave a look of relief, before a smile broke out on his face and he slammed his hoof down onto the pile. "Aww yeah! We need a super-cool group name now. How about, the Serious Six? The WonderPonies? Maybe... Circus's Supers?" He manged to get a smile out of all of them, though they made sure to shoot down every terrible suggestion he made. As the sun finally set to west, a bright full moon rose above the eastern hills, and the train drew ever closer to its destination.

In the far distance, a bright sparkle was in the air as several more meteors silently drew closer to their next target: Cantropolis, Capital City of Equestria.