Chapters Alicorn song
Prologue
Cuffs trotted through the dark corridor that led towards his workplace for what felt like the thousands time by now. It was boring work, but the Earthpony stallion did not complain. After all, the job at least paid good. Nowhere else could a Pony with almost no qualifications make more than a banker for simply sitting on their rump most of the time.
Turning a corner, he began to reflected on that fact. It was truly a mystery. His entire job composed of sitting in his small office and watching a giant, steel door. He had never been told who, or what, lay behind it. His only clue to what hid behind those doors was that, three times a day, other Ponies would come by, pushing lunch carts. These were the only times when it was acceptable to open this door. And the one he was guarding was, by far, not the only one of its kind.
Other guards had told him as much during break, when they would all gather in the small cafeteria the company had provided them with. The food there was by no means good, in Cuffs opinion, but it was at least free.
Sighing, he turned the last corner, expecting to see the giant door to be closed as usual around this time. He stopped at what he actually saw...
His co-worker, whom he had come to relief, lay in a pool of his own blood, or at least his head did. Its broken eyes stared up at Cuffs, and the former warden suddenly got the distinct feeling that it was a good idea to run away.
“Screw the fucking alarm!” he thought, as he saw the rest of Donuts body slumped against the far wall of the corridor. Right beside... that door. It was open, and in the semi darkness that lay beyond, Cuffs could make out the shape of a mare.
For a moment, he just stood there, looking into her face as if he was hypnotized. There was something strange about her, that was for sure. Had she been his charge from the very beginning? Was this place, in fact, one giant prison? But if so, then what was this mares crime, and why had she been kept behind such solid doors? Surely, no Unicorn was powerful enough to break such doors down...
“But then again, no Unicorn should have been powerful enough to rip a stallions head clean off...” and that thought brought him back to the situation at hoof. He was in danger. This strange Unicorn mare had killed Donuts, and was now staring at him. Should he run? Raise the alarm? He didn't know. Nopony had ever thought to tell him what to do in a situation like this. Hay, there wasn't even a protocol for an attempted outbreak that he knew of!
All this soon slipped his mind, as the unusually long horn on the mares head began to glow faintly, and she spread her wings. Driven by pure instinct, Cuffs drew his firearm from its holster on his left foreleg and opened fire on the thing. This was no normal Unicorn, and neither was it a Pegasus. This was a monster of sorts.
Shot after shot rang out through the otherwise silent corridor until the red stallion had expended his only magazine. In the semi darkness, he could see the six bullets float in the air in front of the mare. The magical glow illuminated her face for the first time, and Cuffs saw that she was wearing some kind of metal mask that covered her head and most of her horn.
The mare was a dark purple in color and...
Before Cuffs could observe any more, the bullets he had just fired were thrown back at him. They were so fast that each one broke the sound barrier, before turning his head into so much strawberry jam against the wall.
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The mare trotted forward calmly, her hooves stepping through the blood of the two Ponies she had just killed. She felt no remorse for doing so. In fact, she didn't feel anything as she walked past her last victim. No sorrow, no hate. Just nothing. They had been obstacles who stood in her way.
She had been brought to this facility when she was barely a filly, getting separated from the only Pony she had ever cared for. For years these Ponies had used the contraption they had put on her to suppress her powers and put her to sleep before somepony brought in her meals.
For years after she had been brought here, she had raged inside her prison, begged them to let her go, and even apologized for being the way she was. She would have done much more, just to see that one Pony again. To be allowed to bath in the warm light of the sun, or the cool rays of the Moon...
But then, the experiments had started, driving her almost insane. They had poisoned her several times, shot her and even deprived her of sleep and food, just to see how her body could handle it. She had survived all of it, much to her tormentors surprise. After about ten years of that, they had made a mistake. During one of the experiments, Luna, as the mare called herself, had just feinted to be asleep. As a result, the scientists who were experimenting on her had let their guard down around her.
They had gotten what they had deserved. Every single one of them had been torn to pieces by her magic. It wasn't as strong as it could have been, due to the helmet they had put on her, but still strong enough. It had taken twenty Unicorns to put her to sleep again, and even then she had only been dozing.
After all, there was something these Ponies did not know. Something she herself had not known until recently. An Alicorns power increased with each year of their life, and they had never thought about giving her a stronger suppressive helmet...
Then, finally, tonight the guard who had been keeping the door to her prison closed had not been able to resist her calls and his curiosity. The stallion had usually slept on the job, and Luna had used her strengthening magic to manipulate his dreams. After a few months of this, the Pegasus stallion had wanted nothing more than to see what he was guarding each night.
Of course, he had been no different from all the others. As soon as he had lain eyes on her, panic had grabbed a hold of him, and he had tried to shoot her. Grabbing his head before he could actually bite down on his weapons handle had been easy. Without the slumber spell in place, she could concentrate quite easily after all.
The stallions head had come off with almost disappointing ease. Her real challenge after that had been to float his obese body over to the hoofreader next to the door. Killing the guard and getting out of her bonds were, after all, to different kinds of horse shoes.
Once the magical chains that held her had been released, she literally blew them apart with one swift blast of her magic. It had felt good to be able to move freely for the first time in years. After killing those scientists, these Ponies had just locked her up and not brought her out anymore.
It was a shame, really. Had they just treated her better, she might just have cooperated. Even in the experiments.
“T'is funny...” she thought to herself as she stepped into the elevator to the upper floors of her prison, “... what one will do to be loved...”
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The alarms were blaring all around Sandy Dune, as she tried to figure out what the hay was going on. She was just a simple secretary, responsible for boring paperwork. In the twenty years that she had been working here, there had never been an alarm like that.
Due to this, the simple minded mare was slightly confused as she strolled towards the main guard station near the entrance to the facility. Ever guard on here, and even some soldiers who had been hired some years back, were rushing there as well. None of them was paying her any attention as they checked their weapons on the run, clearly expecting to use them pretty soon.
Sandy looked after them as they rushed past her, and couldn't help to think that she wouldn't mind getting into close “combat” with or two of them. She had always had a soft spot for those big muscles. Literally...
Shaking her head vigorously, Sandy continued on her way. There was shouting up ahead. A voice she knew only too well. Her boss, an Unicorn buck by the name of Textbook, was shouting at the guards to take position.
“Is this some kind of drill? But for what?” she wondered as she stepped into the entrance lobby. There were more Ponies there than she had seen in a very long while, and it made her slightly uncomfortable. It gave her the feeling as if something bad was about to happen, and she was the only last one to know about it.
“Excuse me...” she muttered, as she squeezed in between two soldiers to get through to her boss. Surely he would know what was going on, and could tell her what she had to do.
“What do you mean she broke through the spell shields on sub-level 2? This is insane! A hundred Unicorns created those shields. Are they sleeping on the job again?” her boss shouted. There was the faint crackle of a radio, followed by a stunned silence all around her. Sandy had been unable to hear what the mare on the other end had said, but her tone had sounded... panicked?
The ping of an elevator sounded through the lobby as Sandy finally broke through. The shock of suddenly not having to push through a mass of bodies made her stumble forwards slightly, and her glasses slipped out of her shirts pocket. Everypony, including her boss, was looking at her as she stood in front of the elevator doors. She had actually gone into the wrong direction!
Turning around and bending down to pick up her glasses, the Pegasus mare saw the horrified look on her boss's face. A moment later, she could hear the door of the elevator slide open behind her. Just what was the matter? Why was everypony raising their weapons towards her?
Sandy Dune felt very uncomfortable, and tried to process the fact that about a hundred pistols and rifles were pointing right at her, as she felt a gentle tug on the pocket of her shirt. Looking down, she saw that one of her pencils was surrounded by a silvery glow of magic and moving on its own. So somepony wanted to burrow a pencil? But that was no reason to hold her at gun point, now, was it? The Gray mare just wanted to open her mouth to protest this, as the pencil spun around in her pocket, and shot towards her eyeball...
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“What are you waiting for! FIRE!” Textbook shouted, horrified by the dead body of his secretary. As soon as the first shot was fired, Sandy Dunes body was enveloped in a faint magical glow that lifted it off the floor, and in front of the mare that was trying to escape.
This subject, Textbook remembered, had always been a troublemaker. It was one of the reasons he had ordered his Ponies to keep her isolated at all times. Only one guard was assigned to guard her cell, and nopony should have been stupid enough to open that door. But then again, his company operated on a need to know basis. Maybe one of the guards had simply been curious what he was guarding? If so, Textbook decided, he would have to rethink his business model pretty soon...
The bullets did absolutely nothing to subject number ninety-five, since she was using Sandys body as a shield to protect herself. Not one of them penetrated, and soon the guards and soldiers had to reload the weapons.
In this brief moment, the body of his secretary was thrown to the side and a true massacre ensued. Every Pony that tried to stop the mare was crushed by her magic in an instant. One of the soldiers, who had rushed forward to try and stop her in close quarters, had been thrown back by a blast of magic from her horn. The impact of the wall had killed him instantly, yet she had not stopped pressing down on his corpse. Instead, she looked directly at him as her magic flung his guards around like ragdolls.
“Cease fire! Let her pass! Don't attack!” he shouted, and his subordinates were happy to comply. No other Pony died from then on, as the mare stepped towards the entrance to the facility slowly. As she passed him, the Unicorn stallion thought that he heard her whisper something, but he was not quite sure that he hadn't imagined it. No matter the which one was the case, it still made him shudder. The sheer sincerity in her voice was something he had not expected from such a monster.
“I'm sorry. She wouldn't have had to die.” was what he thought she had said before passing him. She only stopped once after that. The armored gate to the facility was closed, as was usual. The mare looked back over her shoulder at him, tilting her head as if asking a question. Then, her horn began to glow ever so faintly again.
“O...Open the door!” he ordered, understanding what she wanted almost instinctively. Once the armored gate had rolled aside, the subject stepped out into the night. Textbook grit his teeth as he thought about the disaster just one of these things could unleash upon the world. He could not allow her to leave the island. There just had to be a way to stop her!
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Luna stood on the edge of a cliff, watching the moon rise for the first time in years. She didn't see it with her eyes so much as with her magical senses though. That mask they had put on her prevented her from opening her real eyes. It was something she would have to try to take care of sooner or later.
For now, she just enjoyed the feeling of the moons gentle rays on her coat. While doing so, she thought about what she wanted to do next. Surely that other Pony was still alive somewhere. Maybe in a similar facility to this one? If so, she would have to travel. Not impossible, but her wings and horn would make her draw unwanted attention to herself...
A quick illusion spell later, and her wings were no longer visible to anypony but herself. Luna had decided that it would be much easier to hide her wings, than her magic. She wasn't used to pick things up with her hooves or teeth after all.
Then, something struck her in the head. It was such a strong impact, that the hinges on her helmet shattered into a million pieces, before her large body fell into the ocean below...
Alicorn Song
Chapter 1
A new home
Candy Cane was exhausted beyond belief. He had returned to the town he had been born in today, to take ownership of his parents home, but never had he imagined how much work it was to move one Ponys posessions. Since he didn't have a lot of money, he had organized most of the move back here by himself. His horn ached from carrying all the furniture into the house....
He thought that he deserved a little respite, taking a little walk at the beach. Celest, his cousin on his mothers side, had shown up to help, but by the time the white Unicorn mare had shown up he was almost done. While he took his walk she was preparing a meal back at the house, so he would have some "decent" food, as she had put it.
The young Unicorn stallion sighed heavily in the moonlight. He hadn't seen Celest in several years, but he didn't remember her to be this... fussy. Literally the first thing she had done, after seeing that there was only one box left in the cart, had been to the kitchen and start preparing dinner. Even this little walk had been her idea.
"It's almost as if my mothers spirit is possessing her somehow...” he thought as his hooves splashed through the late night waves. Suddenly, something knocked him off his hooves and he fell face first into the cool seawater.
For a moment, the young lavender stallion thought some piece of drift wood had been washed ashore, and collided with him. Then, in the semi darkness at the shore, he saw the outline of a mare in the water. The waves that washed against her body made her limbs move slightly but otherwise, there was no sign of life from her.
Candy scrambled to his hooves, getting closer to her in a heartbeat.
“At least she's breathing.” he mumbled as he put an ear to her muzzle. Only the slightest trickle of air came out of her lungs, and he could only assume that, in addition to the bleeding wound under her horn, she had been close to drowning before being washed up here.
Something, however, seemed quite off to him. For one, she was almost twice his size. Where had she come from? Saddle Arabia? It seemed quite likely. He had heard of Saddle Arabian Unicorns, who were mixed breeds. According to what he knew however, they rarely ever inherited the ability to use magic at all.
Candy Cane drew his cellphone from his jacket, only to see that his brand new apple phone 5 was now nothing more than a dead brick. He sighed as he realized that, even though his horn felt ready to fall off, he'd have to do some more heavy duty lifting.
Acorn island had no hospital, and there was only one doctor he knew of and that mare was currently on vacation. The only option he had left was to take the mare to his house and treat her as best he could. Maybe Celest had an idea on how to continue after that...
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Celest was humming to herself as a knife was cutting some fresh vegetables she had bought on the market today. She was excited, to say the least. It had been almost ten years since she had seen her cousin who, by this time, was her only family member left alive. If he would allow it, she'd gladly move into this big house with him, even if it was just so neither of them had to be alone all the time.
Just as she wanted to dump the small mountain or carrots, paprika, chillies and garlic into a pot, Celest heard the door to the house slam open and somepony calling her name. Immediately she dropped everything and ran out into the hallway. The mare almost hit the wall as she skidded around the corner to the entrance hall.
She had been expecting anything, but not what she actually saw. Celest wouldn't have been too surprised if her cousin would have been mugged or something, but seeing him floating a giant Unicorn mare next to him was certainly something unexpected. It was due to that, that she just stood there for a moment, trying to process what she was seeing.
The mares short blue mane was definitely dripping wet, and the rest of her body didn't seem to be dry either. But there was something else... a red liquid mixing with the water that was slowly forming a puddle in the entrance hall.
Celest was in full motherly care mode in an instant as she spotted the rather large gash on the mares forehead, taking her out of her cousins faltering magic.
“Get me the first aid kit!” she instructed, as she carried the unconscious mare into one of the empty bedrooms and put her down on the dusty bed. A small cloud of dust rose into the air as the mares big body hit the sheets, but Celest didn't care at that moment. Her magic went to work almost instantly, drying the mares coat and dumping the water out of a nearby window.
She was definitely beautiful, but as Celest reached her flank, she paused for a second. It was quite unusual for a Pony to trot around without clothes nowadays, even though some still did it. This wasn't what caught her attention though. There was no Cutiemark on the mares flank!
Loking up into the mares face, Celest estimated that she was about thirty or something, so she should have had her mark by now. Hay, she herself had gotten hers when she was still just a foal, and couldn't even remember how it had happened, or what her special talent was.
The white Unicorn mare shook her head vigorously as Candy Cane came rushing into the room, carrying a first aid kit in his magic. She took it from him, narrowing her eyes as she followed his gaze. It was, as expected, on the mares flanks. There was a reason most Ponies wore clothes nowadays after all...
“Out!” she demanded, using her magic to shove her cousin out of the room and shutting the door in his face.
“Stallions... really...” she thought as she got to work on the mares injury. It didn't seem to be quite as serious as it looked. It would leave a scar though...
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Two hours later, Celest was finally finished dressing the mares wound up and taking care of her other various cuts and bruises. While examining the mares body, she had discovered old scars that looked like they had healed a long time ago. Some where on her belly, while there was a whole landscape of scars on her right foreleg. It looked almost as if... She shook her head again. Surely, something like torture was impossible nowadays...
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Candy Cane had taken care of dinner while his cousin was taking care of their unexpected guest. Sure, he wasn't a great cook by any means of the word, but he could at least produce something edible.
So it came that, when Celest came out of the now occupied bedroom, she was greeted with a decked table. Her smile, and subtle shake of her head made it apparent that he had most likely messed up some things, but he didn't care. At least they would have something to eat now.
“So... How is she?” he asked, as he floated a small bowl of rice over to his cousin, who was just helping herself to some slightly overcooked vegetables and mint soup.
“Her injury isn't that bad, but... Candy... Where in Tartarus did you find her? She looks almost as if she's been tortured.” Celest said, not meeting his eyes. The young stallions ears drooped as he heard this.
“I found her on the beach. I think she washed up there, and I literally stumbled over her in the darkness.”
“Well... Wherever she comes from, I don't think it would be a good idea for her to go back there. Once Plunger is back from her vacation, I suggest you go and let her examine her. After that, we should call the police about this. Whoever did this to her has to be held responsible.” Celest said firmly, now finally meeting his eyes. There was a fury in them he had never seen in anypony before. It was almost as if her eyes burned with the fury of a thousand suns.
He sighed heavily.
“Ok, well... I guess then she's staying here for the time being. What about you? Shouldn't you get going? It's getting late.”
Celest looked away once more at that without answering. She had hoped to ask him about staying here while moving his belongings into the house, or while they ate together, but the arrival of their guest had complicated everything.
“Well... you see... You inherited this big house and... didn't you live in a one room apartment in Canterlot? Do you even know how to take care of such a huge place?” she blurted out in response before she could stop herself.
Candy Canes eyes narrowed slightly as he understood where his cousin was going with this.
“You... want to move in here, don't you?” he asked in a matter of fact tone, to which the other Unicorn could only nod dumbly. He threw his hooves up in resignation.
“Seriously, what's wrong with this island? In Canterlot, no mare wanted to get closer than ten feet of me, and now two mares drop into my life in the course of one evening? Well alright, you can stay as well. There should be a room with a separate bathroom on the third floor, if I remember correctly. It was my mothers atelier. It's nothing fancy but...” he began, chuckling, as Celest jumped over the table and hugged him.
“Thank you! You won't regret it!” she said, giggling like a little filly.
As the two relatives were embracing each other, giggling, the door to the living room opened ever so slightly. Neither of them noticed the cold, teal, eye that was watching them from the dark hallway, or the soft shimmer of silver magic as the door was pulled shut once more. It didn't make the slightest sound.
The mare listened to them some more from the dark hallway, feeling weak and confused. For some reason, it was hard for her to concentrate. Images were running through her head that she couldn't place. How had she gotten here? What was that feeling inside her head?
Why had she wanted to tear those two kind Ponies, who had taken her in, to pieces the moment she had seen them? It didn't make any sense to her. Just... who was she?
Alicorn Song
Chapter 2
Lu...Lu?
Celest slowly awoke, keeping her eyes closed as she stretched herself. The light of the morning sun was warming her coat through the window her bed stood under, and she could hear the sound of birds greeting a new day. She reminded herself, as her brain began to work properly, that she would have a lot to do today.
First of was her apartment. The owner was quite upset with her for being late with her rent last month, and he surely wouldn't be happy to hear that she was moving out for good. The young mare didn't care though. It hadn't been a great place to live to begin with, and she had only moved in there because it was the only place she could afford after her parents had kicked her out.
Working as a biology teacher at the local high-school didn't pay as much as she would have wanted, but she enjoyed her job. Of course, having earned the title of professor of biology, she could have worked at a university on the mainland, but she didn't want to. Acorn island was her home, and she was dead set to make a living here.
Rolling over to the left side of the bed to get up, Celest finally opened her eyes. The sight that greeted her made her scream so loudly, that she was sure that it could be heard on the mainland. There, only a few inches away from her face, were two teal eyes, looking into hers.
The dark purple mare these eyes belonged to gave out a yelp of surprise herself, as she jumped back and actually attempted to hide under the table like a scared foal. A moment later, Candy Cane came rushing into the room, a baseball bat floating next to his head as his eyes scanned the room frantically.
When he spotted their guest, he relaxed visibly while Celest herself had almost jumped out of the window in surprise.
“Everything alright?” he asked, amused. It took a moment before his cousin could get her breathing under control enough to answer him.
“Y...Yes... She just startled me.” she replied, pointing a hoof at the mare who was still trying to hide.
“Well, she woke up this morning and seemed to be looking for you. No idea why, but I showed her the way here.”
Celest looked at the mare who, despite her considerable size, looked more like a lost foal to her at the moment. She had been looking for her? But why? Had she woken up while she had treated her wounds yesterday and wanted to thank her? But why was she staying silent then?
Candy seemed to read his cousins mind as he leaned the bat against the wall and began to scratch his head with a hoof.
“You see... She isn't really talking. I only assumed she was looking for you because she kept pointing at the bandage around her head. Other than that, she's been quite oblivious to what's happening around her. Do you think she could have suffered some brain damage from whatever inflicted that wound?”
Celest got out of bed and cautiously trotted closer to the mare. It was quite obvious that she would have to change the dressings soon, since the ones she had put on yesterday were bleeding through.
The big purple mare shrank back as the white Unicorn reached out with a hoof to touch her. That got her thinking. It wasn't too unlikely that the impact of whatever had inflicted that wound had caused some temporary amnesia. That would also have explained the mares reaction, and her wish to be close to her. If she had really woken up while Celest had treated her last night, then she was somepony familiar.
“Shhh.... It's alright. Come on out. I'm not mad at you.” Celest cooed and, to Candy Canes surprise, she actually emerged from under the table. Celest carefully examined her, while the mare sat perfectly still in front of her. Only occasionally she flicked her tail or twitched one of her ears. All the while, Celest was talking to her in comforting tones, reassuring her that everything was alright.
Candy Cane could only stare in amazement. When he had shown the mare the way up here, she hadn't dared to get closer to him than two Pony lengths, but she seemed to trust his cousin. No matter how the young white mare prodded the much larger Unicorn, the mare just sat still and endured everything.
“OK, I think that should be all. I guess it's as you said Candy. Whatever hit her, messed up her brain. Only time will tell if she'll ever be alright again.” Celest finally concluded, sitting down in front of the mare once more. The feeling of her own nightgown made her aware of the other mares lack of clothing though, and she looked over to her cousin once more, asking him to bring one of his mothers old dresses.
“I don't really think that any of them will fit her. I mean... just look at the size of her...” he said, eying the mare from horn to hoof.
“Then get one of her pregnancy dresses. I know for a fact that they should still be up in the attic.”
The young stallion trotted off after that, grumbling about mares, while Celest looked into the frightened eyes of the mare in front of her.
“So... Do you have a name?” she asked, not really expecting her to answer. That she actually did, surprised her.
“Lu... Lu...” the mare said in a surprisingly soft voice for such a big Pony, looking as if she was straining to remember something.
“Lulu? That's your name? Mhmmm... Certainly strange, but not the worst I've ever heard. Celest said, putting a hoof her chin. She was quite aware of the fact that Lulu was most likely not this mares real name. She guessed, however, that it was at least a part of it...
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Textbook had assembled each and every soldier, mercenary and guard he could in such a short amount of time. The wall behind him showed a projection of subject number ninety fives file. The parliament was already on his case for what had happened last night, and he could only assume that an investigation would take place in the near future. He just had to take care of this before then. It was the only way he could possibly do some damage control.
“OK Gentlecolts, listen up! This is your target.” he said, tapping the photograph of Luna that was displayed on the wall behind him.
“Subject number ninety five, name Luna. She was one of the first we caught. She's about eighty years old, very powerful and more than just dangerous. It would be good if you could capture her alive, but it's very unlikely that she would just come quietly. Our main objective is to take her out. Any questions?” he declared, while Lunas data was scrolling down on the wall. It was hardly necessary though. Every Pony in the room had received a copy of her file.
“Yes sir. What the hell is she, and how did she manage to escape in the first place? I mean, according to this, she was kept in a mark 9 vault. These things can withstand an atomic blast.” a middle aged Earthpony asked from the middle of the room. Before Textbook could answer him, a one eyed mercenary, who stood at the back of the room, chuckled mirthlessly.
“It doesn't matter what she is. I'm getting paid to put a bullet through her noggin, that's all I need to know.” the black mare said, taking a drag of the cigarette in her muzzle. Smoking was, of course, prohibited here but Textbook seriously didn't want to mess with some of these Ponies. That mare, Firestorm, was one of them. From what he knew about her, she was a veteran of the last Changeling war, and had survived behind enemy lines for two weeks with a broken wing before she had been extracted. Rumor had it that she had actually eaten the remains of her fallen comrades to survive.
Still... He felt as if at least some explanation was in order. Every bit of intelligence he gave these Ponies would raise their chances.
“She is a mutant of sorts. We call them Alicorns. They combine the magic of all three tribes in them, and are very hard to kill. If you want to “put a bullet through her noggin”, as you put it so eloquently Ms. Firestorm, you should better bring armor piercing bullets and be a superb sniper. Small caliber rounds have proven pretty ineffective against an Alicorns bone-structure. The most you will achieve is to make her angry, unless you hit the eye. Her magic is a further problem in that regard. Anything slower than supersonic bullets has no chance of getting through her magical protection. Please check page 11 for more information about her magical strength.” he explained, and the sounds of rustling paper filled the room for a moment. Then a collective gasp filled the air, as the gathered Ponies read the information.
“This has to be a mistake! Over two million bells magical power? Even a thousand Unicorns can't muster that amount of strength!” one of the Unicorn soldiers called out, much to the agreement of everypony else in the room. Everypony... except Firestorm. She hadn't even opened the file he had provided, and just smirked at him out of the semi darkness of the room. Her cigarette rolled from one corner of her mouth to the other, and Textbook could not shake the feeling that she was actually looking forward to fight this subject...
“No matter how you look at it, this is a suicide mission! Just look at the pictures on page 12! She's deflecting a fucking tank shell!” another one of the soldiers pointed out, and almost everypony in the room turned a page to look at an image of Luna, a tank shell suspended in a silvery magical glow in front of her.
“So what?” Firestorm spoke up, excitement gleaming in her one golden eye.
“So she can deflect tank shells and has more magical power than a fucking nuclear reactor, so what? Even one of those monsters has to sleep, I presume. Not to mention that she has only a certain field of vision. Shoot at her from her blind angle and she'll drop just like any other Pony. So we have to bring armor piercing rounds? No big. I never fire anything else.” she declared, turning slightly to reveal her battle saddle. One of the rifles mounted on it was actually a mobile howitzer!
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Candy Cane stared at the mare, who called herself Lulu, as Celest did her best to put his mothers dress on her. Sure, it was a little short on her legs, but otherwise it fit. He had chosen the biggest one he could find, which had ended up being a white dress with pink flowers on it, that went with an equally pink belt.
Sure, it all smelled a little dusty due to the long time it had been in storage, but Lulu seemed to actually like it. Once Celest had finished putting the dress on her, the mare didn't seem able to stop smiling.
A few moments later, a loud rumbling sound could be heard, and Lulu dropped to her haunches almost immediately. Of course Candy knew what she wanted, even before she opened her muzzle and pointed at it with one of her hooves. It was almost noon, and there was no telling how long it had been since Lulu had eaten anything. Good thing he had already prepared a meal downstairs. Nothing fancy, of course. Just a few toasts with jam and honey, together with coffee and herbal tea.
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An hour later Candy Cane was staring at an utterly empty fridge, his jaw hanging loosely open. He had filled the damn thing yesterday after arriving at the place, and there even had been several bowls of leftovers from last evenings dinner. Now, it was all gone and Lulu lay curled up like a cat on the back porch, taking a nap in the sun.
“What... the... fuck?” he mumbled, while Celest was doing the dishes behind him. She sighed softly as she looked over at him.
“Well... it looks like she's been famished. No wonder, really. I mean, she's so thin I can actually count her ribs!” the white mare said, while floating a freshly cleaned pot out of the soapy water and placing on the sink to dry after washing off the bubbles.
“If this goes on, I'll be broke by the end of next week...” Candy declared, closing the fridge and getting ready to go shopping once more. It was then, when he passed the living room and the door to the back porch, that he saw Lulu sitting upright and staring right at the sun. Tears were running down her face uncontrollably as she cried silently. Rushing to her side, Candy put a hoof on the mares shoulder.
“Hey... Lulu... What's up? Why are you crying?” he asked in a concerned tone, unable to make sense of it all. But the mare just shook her head.
“Don't... know...” was all she said...
Alicorn Song
Chapter 3
The hunt begins
The motor of the boat hummed softly while Firestorm went over the maps of Acorn island and the surrounding sea once more. There was no doubt. This was the place her target must have been washed up on the shore. But why had there been no destruction yet? According to the folder that lay next to the maps, this mare was extremely violent and did not care for the lives of anypony but her own.
Her fellow mercenaries and soldiers had laughed at her for suggesting that the mare had been washed up here, but all evidence pointed towards that possibility. The currents around the island on which the containment center was located led directly to Acorn island. All the maps said so. Yet, due to her lack of actual proof, they had only given her a small compliment of soldiers. The rest of the idiots were heading south, towards a similar facility. For some reason they seemed to believe that their target was heading there...
Firestorm stomped her hoof onto the table in frustration, causing the folder that held her targets information to fall to the ground. They had actually dared to laugh at her. HER! Hadn't it been her who had flown through Tartarus and back for her country? Hadn't she proven, more than once, that her instincts rarely ever failed her?
The jet black mare stroke a few of her gray hairs out of her face, as she took several deep breaths to calm herself. She would show them. She would show them all that nopony laughed at her and lived to tell the tale. For the meantime, she had to work with these idiots. After this job was over however, she decided, she would make sure to make each and every one of them pay for the humiliation they had caused her. A bullet to the brain should do the trick. Free of charge for a change though...
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Candy Cane trotted next to Lulu who, without any effort whatsoever, floated almost everything Celest had in her apartment over her head. The big purple mare was even humming a cheery tune as she did so, occasionally breaking out into soft giggles.
The young stallion could only hang his head and smile awkwardly at anypony they met. All of them, without fail, threw them a glance of utter shock. It was no surprise in his eyes. Lulu was, after all, floating a fridge, a bed, a table, six chairs and several boxes which held all the little things his cousin had kept at her place. The fridge alone would have been too much for his own horn.
The sound of stuff falling to the ground, and a cardboard box filled with underwear landing on his head, pulled him out of his thoughts. Lulu had, for no apparent reason, dropped everything she was holding and had darted off into another direction entirely.
“Oh great... What is it this time? Cake again? Muffins? A cat?” he asked himself, as he did his best to catch up with the mare. That he had to remove one of his cousins panties from his face to do so, did not brighten his mood in the slightest. If he was judging Celest correctly, the white mare would not be too happy about all the dents and scratches her stuff was suffering during this move.
After Candy had finally caught up with his impromptu house guest, he was speechless for a moment. How did Lulu even see this place from where they had been a few minutes ago? Of course, he remembered the old research center at the edge of town. Something had happened here when he was still a kid, and nopony had ever bothered to rebuild it. Now, the gray concrete building was almost completely grown over by thick vines and other greenery. From some distance away, he could hear the voice of Celest, cursing quite colorfully.
“Lulu? What's the matter? Come on, we gotta get back before...” he began, but almost wet himself when Lulu turned her head to look at him. It lasted only the fraction of a second, but that had been enough. All the playfulness and good nature had been gone from the mares eyes, leaving only utter contempt and hatred for everything alive.
As the Unicorn stallion turned around, he suddenly was muzzle to muzzle with a very pissed off looking white Unicorn mare. Her green eyes were blazing with the fury of a thousand suns, while her usually blond mane and tail looked as if they had transformed into flames.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” she shouted, making a stallion who was passing them look at the pair in alarm. One quick glance in his general direction, and the quite strong looking Earthpony stallion was running for his life.
Candys fear of Lulu had, for the moment dissipated, and been replaced by fear of his cousins wrath. So he did judge her correctly after all. Saying so in this situation however, was not going to do him any good, so he decided to play dumb.
“Ehm... I don't know what you mean?”
“You... You don't know? Then what do you think is this?” Celest shouted at him once more, now thrusting a small piece of fabric into his face. It was the pair of panties he had removed from his face earlier and thrown aside without a second glance. On closer inspection though... it certainly was rather sexy underwear. The red silk and black ribbon at the front...
Candy noticed that he was getting carried away a moment too late. As he looked back up at his cousin again, tears of rage were running down her face.
“IDIOT!” was the last thing he heard before everything went white.
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“I'm sorry...” Celest muttered, while wrapping another bandage around her cousins left foreleg. It had been years since she had had a magic surge, and had been quite sure that she had it under control... Until she had seen all of her underwear scattered around the street. Something had snapped inside of her then and there, and she had pursued her cousin to give him a piece of her mind.
What she had actually done, more resembled blowing him up then giving him a stern talking to though...
“It's alright... My fault for being careless... Just... watch that horn of yours in the future, OK?” Candy mumbled through the bandages on his face. Everything hurt as he lay on a bedroll on the back porch. The sun felt nice, despite his many cuts and bruises. He started, not for the first time, to doubt that it had been a good idea to take Lulu and Celest in. If this went on, he would either spent all of his money on magical healing bandages, or on food. Maybe even both...
Lulu, on her part, had not even suffered a scratch from Celests earlier outburst. As soon as the, in comparison to her, tiny mare had unleashed her magic, a silvery shield spell had sprung into life around the big Unicorn. Hay, how much power did that mare actually have to deflect a full power blow from another Unicorn with a magic surge? She hadn't even broken a sweat doing it!
Right now, the purple mare was laying curled up next to him, sleeping soundly. Candy felt something brush against his back, but as he turned his head to look, there was nothing there...
“She's a strange one, isn't she?” Celest said, obviously trying to change the topic. Candy nodded softly.
“Yeah. I mean... usually we would have needed to get a cart to move all of your stuff, but she just carried it all herself. Then there is that shield spell... Just how strong is she?” the young stallion mumbled. The look Lulu had given him earlier had completely slipped his mind by this point, which might have had something to do with the fact that he had hid her shield with his head.
“So... What should we do with her? Plunger won't be back for another two weeks, and I can't see any change in her condition yet. It's been four days since you found her after all. There should have been at least some kind of improvement.” Celest asked worriedly, as she closed up the first aid kit.
“We could always take the ferry to the mainland and bring her to the hospital. But... I don't really think that will be necessary. At least she's talking now, isn't she? Doesn't that count for anything?”
Celest had to think about that for a moment, tapping her chin with one of her hooves. Sure, Lulu had begun to speak quite normally over the last few days. It was almost as if she had learned how to speak altogether though. There were times in which the big mare used words even Celest didn't know. Some of those, she actually had to look up to make sure they weren't just gibberish. Other times, she tried to explain what she wanted like a baby with a minimal vocabulary.
“I guess your right, but whats up with all that archaic Equus shes been using? I can't understand half of what she says when she does that.” Celest frowned.
“Well... maybe she's some foreign royalty or something? I've heard of kingdoms abroad.” Candy replied, also sinking into deep thought. Just what was Lulus secret? Did she even have one? It was all pretty confusing for the young comic book artist.
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The waves were breaking against the shoreline of Acorn island, as the three trotted along the dark beach. Sunset had been an hour ago, but Celest had been positive that it might be a good idea to bring Lulu back to the place where Candy had found her. Maybe it triggered some kind of memory, which would help them to determine who this strange mare actually was...
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Firestorm was looking at her target through the electronically enhanced scope of her rifle. There was no doubt that this was the mare she had been hired to kill. With her naked eye, the mares wings were invisible, but magic could not fool technology.
After all, an illusion spell was nothing else than a mind trick. A machine had no mind that could be manipulated, therefor illusion magic was quite ineffective against a scope like hers.
“Ma'am. We're in position. Ready to attack on your mark.” one of her subordinates whispered into his microphone. Firestorm tapped the send button on her radio twice to let the stallion know that she had received his message.
Still... there was something off here. This mare did not have the cold expression on her face. Instead, she looked around curiously, taking in the sight of the beach at night. Almost like a foal, the Pegasus decided.
“Wait until the two civilians are out of danger. After that, it's fire at will.” Firestorm ordered, not loosing track of her target for even a second as she did so. Several bursts of static filled her ears, informing her that her troops were acknowledging her order.
“Good. At least something is going according to plan.” she thought to herself as the cross on in her scopes viewfinder stayed on the mares neck. One pull on the trigger, and it'd all be over...
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Lulu looked around curiously. The light of the moon was soft and gentle on her coat, and she enjoyed every second she got to bath in it. She didn't remember anything before waking up in Candy Canes house a few days ago and finding him in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. At first, she had been quite afraid of him for some reason. Just looking at him had filled her with a sense of dread that she couldn't quite explain to herself.
Celest, however, had the opposite effect on her confused mind. Just thinking about the gentle green eyes of the mare had made her insides glow pleasantly.
Since then though, Lulu had remembered at least some basic things. Others, she learned. Speech, for example, had been a great challenge for her at first. She could understand everything Celest and Candy were saying to her, but knew instinctively that they would not understand her.
Slowly, but surely, the knowledge had come to her. Each time she woke up in the morning, she could express herself a little more. It was quite useful, the playful mare decided. Now that she knew the proper words for things, she could tell these two what she wanted or needed after all.
Like that necklace she was wearing now. It was nothing special, or so Candy had said, but for her it was priceless. It was made of fake pearls, with a seashell in the form of a crescent moon at the center.
Candy had bought it from her from a stallion selling his souvenirs to the passing tourists earlier. Lulu did not understand how money worked yet, but she understood that she couldn't just take it, no matter how much she wanted it. Instead, she had pointed at the fake piece of jewelry and asked her two guardians if she could have it. Lulu was a good filly after all, and good fillies got Muffins from time to time...
Then, from one moment to another, Lulus vision went dark as a sense of dread overpowered her very being...
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Firestorm began shaking as the mare she had tracked with her scope for almost twenty minutes now, looked directly at her. The expression on the mares face had changed completely, making her resemble the cold killing machine she had been told about. Even when she had gone a round against the Changeling queen, she had not felt this kind of fear. The sheer presence of this mare promised a horrible death to anypony foolish enough to take a swing at her...
Alicorn Song
Chapter 4
Slaughterhouse
Luna was confused, but she distinctly felt the presence of several Ponies that meant her harm. How had she gotten to this beach, and who were these two Ponies with her? They didn't seem to be hostile towards her at all. Quite the contrary in fact. Affection was radiating from both of them, which confused the Alicorn mare even more.
There was no time to think about it though. There was no way these Ponies knew who or what she was. Her illusion spell should have ensured that. Yet... She couldn't bring herself to start a fight while those two were still present, even though she was looking directly at a mare who tried to hide herself between some bushes. The other mares rifle was aiming for her head. If a fight ensued, Luna knew, she would be able to protect the mare and stallion who stood on both sides of her. But... would they understand?
Luna didn't know who they were or how she had come to be with them, but there was something in the back of her mind that just didn't want these two to see her fight. In fact, she felt the strange urge to act like an innocent little foal around them... When she tried to figure out why, the only thing she could think of were Muffins for some reason...
“Is everything alright Lulu? You suddenly look pale.” the white Unicorn mare... Celest... asked her. How in Tartarus did she know her name? And why was this mare calling her Lulu? It didn't matter at this moment. She had to get them away from here and get rid of the Ponies hiding in the shadows of the night. If she had her way, she would just scare them off, but she already knew that this was most likely not an option. Doing her best to act casual, Luna turned her head towards the worried looking mare.
“T'is nothing. Say, fair maiden, could you do us a favor?” Luna inquired, hoping that she was not sounding too formal. Judging from the mares reaction however, she had.
“Ehm, sure... What can I do for you Lulu?”
“We require to be alone for a little while, so we would ask of you to go home without us. If we have not returned within the hour, do not worry for I will certainly come back.” Luna smiled for what felt for the first time in a million years. It was certainly strange, but she caught herself actually wanting to keep that promise. The stallion spoke up, shaking his head.
“Lulu, seriously, are you sure you can find the way from here? It's not like you got some amazing sense of direction after all...” he protested.. Luna found that, to her surprise, she knew his name as well.
“Do not worry, Candy Cane, we will be alright. We just need some time to ourselves.”
“Well... If you say so... But if you're not back by midnight, I'll come looking for you. And if you remember anything, you'll tell us, deal?” the stallion suggested and Luna nodded in agreement. It relieved her to know that they would be away from the fight that was sure to begin soon. What these two Ponies did not know, was that she was able to track both of them by their inherent Unicorn magic. It wouldn't be hard at all for her to find their place of residence once she had finished her business here.
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Firestorm breathed a sigh of relief as the two civilians made their way back towards the town, leaving her target alone on the beach. This was supposed to be a stealth mission, and she wouldn't have wanted to hurt these two even if it wasn't. There was a limit on how far she was willing to go to accomplish a mission after all.
What came next, the experienced soldier had not expected. As soon as the two Unicorns were out of earshot of the beach, a brilliant flash illuminated the night and her target was suddenly gone. The giant mare was nowhere to be seen, until she head the rattling of automatic weapons fire further down the beach.
“Teleportation? What the fuck? Where did she learn that?” Firestorm cursed, taking to the air and flying towards the sounds of fighting.
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It was so typical. Luna had exited her teleportation vortex right next to one of the hiding Ponies, but she had not attacked. She hadn't even raised a shield spell to defend herself. Instead she had just looked down at the Earthpony stallion who, at first, hadn't even noticed her. Only when she had cleared her throat and spoken up, did he finally turn his head to look at her.
“Ahem... If you want to live, leave now.” she had said in a low and dangerous whisper. Instead of answering her, the buck had raised his weapon towards her, resulting in an annoyed sigh from her. There really was nopony willing to listen to reason in this world... Nopony except that one maybe...
Luna created a small shield spell inside the barrel of the stallions automatic rifle and, when he fired, the weapon exploded in his face. The shards of the weapon ripped deep gashes onto his flesh, making him scream in utter agony. She could make out a brown coat and terrified lavender eyes as the mares combat armor was ripped to shreds by the miniscule explosion. Her own body was protected by a shield bubble.
As cruel as these Ponies thought she was, Luna did not want this Pony to suffer any more then was necessary. His injuries were quite serious, and the main aorta on his throat had been severed by a few pieces of flying metal. She did not feel bad about seizing his convulsing body in her magic. Neither did she feel any remorse for reducing his size to about a fifth by crushing him to death. She, the supposed monster, had given him the chance to live, and he had forfeited it. It was as easy as that.
More shots rang through the night, and Luna was quite surprised to feel a sharp pain in her flank, as one of the bullets grazed her. They had actually penetrated her shield! That had never happened before! Rage welled up inside the Alicorn. Rage like she hadn't felt in a long time.
“They really all want to die? Then I will grant their wish!” she thought, teleporting left and right to avoid the bullets coming her way. Then the graceful Alicorn, who had been tortured and experimented on almost all of her life, spread her wings and took to the air. For a moment the fire stopped, as she flew directly in front of the moon. All the anger she had felt when she had killed her first Pony intentionally came flooding back into her very being. These soldiers were trying to take her back there or kill her. Either way, they were denying her what she wanted the most. Freedom.
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“Do you really think it was a good idea to leave Lulu at the beach like that? What if she gets lost on her way back?” Celest asked worriedly as the pair of them reached their house. Candy Cane sighed heavily in response.
“She seemed dead set on it. Look, I meant what I said. If she's not back at midnight I'll go out and look for her. How hard can it be to find a giant Unicorn wearing a white dress with pink flowers?” he said, only half jokingly. Celest gave him a deadpan look.
“You mean with her coat color and the fact that it's night? What if something happens to her? Depending on which way she takes back, she'd even have to pass the local pub and since it's spring break, there are bound to be some drunk wannabes there...” the white mare said in a worried tone of voice. It was quite obvious to Candy, by the way his cousin was chewing on her lower lip, that she was really worried about their guest. He would never have admitted it to her, but he was too. She was just so innocent. What if some scumbag talked her into going home with him on her way back? Damn, what monkey had ridden him to actually leave her there alone? He checked his watch. 10:30 PM... He had promised her until midnight... But...
“Argh... To Tartarus with this!” Candy said, motioning with his hoof for Celest to get in the house. The white mare brightened up considerably as she understood what he was about to do.
“If I'm not back in an hour, call the police.” he said before galloping off towards the beach once more. Celest watched him disappear into the darkness and couldn't help but smile a little.
Her cousin had always been the one to help the weak. Even when they were still in kindergarten together, he had always stood up to the bullies. He had received his fair share of beatings for it, but it was the thought that counted after all. It was due to his courage that she had decided to become a teacher. The kids these days needed somepony to show them what was right and what was wrong after all...
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Luna stood over the shaking form of a Pegasus stallion whose weapon she had just ripped out of his mouth. Several of his teeth had broken off in the process, and were now laying in the already red sand. All around her, torn Pony bodies littered the ground. Their lifeblood was being swallowed up greedily by the dry sand, as some of their guts looked like black seaweed in the darkness of the night.
“Please... Don't....” the stallion begged, soiling himself. Luna could actually smell his feces as the smell mixed with that of cooling blood. She didn't like either smell. Without another word, her magic reached into the stallions chest cavity and gripped his heart. He gasped as he felt the magic on the organ, but it was already to late. The Alicorn mare yanked the still beating organ out of his chest, examining it for a brief moment. Blood was splattered all over her body and dress by this point, but she didn't care. She could always shed the dress and take a quick bath in the sea. As the stallion breathed his last breath, Luna was about to place his heart on his chest, when a bullet narrowly missed her head and grazed her cheek.
The next bullet hit the sand as Luna teleported to the side and behind the cover of an overturned boat. Her magical senses reached out and found her attacker almost instantly. It was the Pegasus mare from before. She herself was hiding behind a small wall that was separating the beach from the road. The mare had already located her, and Luna teleported once more to avoid the bullet coming her way. This one would not be killed so easily...
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Firestorm was cowering behind the small wall, reloading her sniper rifle. The damn thing had jammed after her last shot, so she had to eject the chambered bullet and slam home a new magazine. Her target had, of course, spotted her by now and she doubted that the other mare would just let her go. Not after the bloodbath she had caused on the beach. Fifty Ponies... All dead in less then ten minutes... Utterly unbelievable...
They had been warned that this mare was extremely dangerous, but Firestorm had shrugged it off as fear mongering on her employers side. Many high class Ponies were that way, and always described the target they wanted to see dead as highly dangerous, so she had thought nothing of it. The only thing she had taken to heart, was the advice to use supersonic armor piercing bullets. The sheer strength of this mares shield was beyond anything she had ever seen.
But that didn't matter now. She was sure that, with her next shot and the grenade in her hoof, she would be able to end this once and for all. The slow hoof steps of her target could be heard in the sand as she came ever closer. That teleportation spell was another problem, but the grenade was designed to disrupt that kind of magic.
Another step...
“Come on closer. Just a little more.” the Pegasus thought to herself. Finally, she deemed that the other mare was close enough and jumped out of her cover, holding the grenade with one hoof, and the trigger bit of her rifle in her muzzle. The sight that greeted her was something she had not expected. Instead of an unarmed mare waiting to finish her off with her magic, that monster was holding the gun of one of her fallen soldiers in her muzzle.
“That's just not fair...” Firestorm muttered, as a stream of bullets cut through her own combat armor, leaving several new holes in her hide. Her target stepped over her, a cold expression on her face. The Pegasus mare got the distinct feeling that her life didn't matter to this monster at all, and that it might have been better to deny this job altogether...
In one last effort to kill the mare, Firestorms left foreleg shot upwards and the combat knife attached to it raced towards her targets throat. A second later, her leg was floating in the air, and the experienced mercenary lay screaming in the sand.
“My leg! You ripped my fucking leg off you cunt!” she screamed, thrashing wildly as the other mare just looked at her without saying a word.
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Luna had won, and she knew it. All that was left, was to end this mares life. The Alicorn was just about to charge up her horn to crush the other mare, as one of her thrashing wings hit something on Lunas neck. She could feel something swinging gently there.
“What the...?” She though, grabbing onto the small necklace around her neck with her magic and lifting it up to eye level. The mare shouting insults at her from below was completely forgotten as she spotted the crescent moon in the middle of the necklace.
“My... Cutiemark? But... how...?”
An image of Candy Cane appeared in her mind. A memory maybe? She saw him putting this necklace around her neck, huffing about how it was a waste of Bits, but smiling all the same. A teleportation spell formed on her horn that was not her own doing. Even before the vortex of the spell swallowed her whole, Lunas vision faded to black...
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Lulu did not know where she was or how she had gotten there, but her body hurt. Especially one spot on her flanks was pulsating with every heartbeat, sending jolts of pain throughout her body. The innocent mare dropped onto her haunches, bawling loudly.
Just as she closed her eyes and threw her head back, Candy Cane came galloping around the corner...
Alicorn Song
Chapter 5
Damage Control
Textbook slumped into the chair in his office after having dealt with a lot of stupid Ponies for most of the night. Did they not understand that this had to be kept quiet? Did they not understand that knowledge of what had really happened could, potentially, cause a public panic?
The middle aged gray stallion had pulled a lot of strings and asked for a lot of favors to cover up the massacre on the beach of Acorn island. Sighing, he took a look at his computer. Of course some other departments of the company were complaining about his way of running things once more, but he didn't care. He would remember the ones that were complaining when the day came on which their contracts ran out...
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“Last night, Acorn island was the scene of an event that has never happened before in written history. Several Pegasus recruits on leave, were on their way to visit their families on Acorn island, when they spotted a dragon flying parallel to their own course. Since the dragon kingdoms borders are about twenty miles to the northwest from where the island is located, the recruits decided to investigate the matter. One of them flew towards the flying reptile, intending to ask what it's business in the area was.” the news reporter said darkly, looking into the camera with a grim expression.
“We are sorry to inform you that the young mare, Private Dandelion, was killed before she got a chance to try and resolve the situation peacefully...” the mare on the screen continued. The picture of a smiling Pegasus mare with a blond mane and bright blue eyes filled the screen for a moment. According to the reporter, her beige coat had been charred beyond recognition.
Candy Cane and Celest watched the report, not saying a word, while Lulu slept in the room next door. The two of them had to actually sedate her with a free sleeping aid, before the big purple mare had stopped screaming.
“Afterward, the rest of Dandelions friends engaged the dragon, believing that it was on its way to the island to feed off its population. They were unable to stop the creature from reaching the island, but they managed to force it out of the sky on the southern shore. The fight that ensued was violent, and resulted in the death of all nineteen surviving recruits.” the mare on the screen continued, and the pictures of nineteen young and smiling Pegasi rolled past.
“Military units from the nearby base saw the fight and intervened, killing the dragon in the end, but not before it had claimed thirty more lives. For this reason, the south shore of Acorn island will be closed for the time being. Dignitaries have been sent to the dragon kingdom, but the dragon king is denying any knowledge of one of his subjects venturing into Equestria. In fact, the dragons claim that the one slain on Acorn island was part of a group of three who went missing forty years ago, while they were on vacation near the Equestrian border. Tensions with the dragons have been rising for quite a while and there was, indeed, a case of three who went missing near our border forty years ago. The case was, however, closed two years later as it was determined that those three must have been the victims of a tragic accident.”
The image on the screen changed, now showing an old stallion standing on a podium in front of a whole bunch of reporters. Candy could see that he was very uncomfortable in his hide, and he got the distinct feeling that something was not quite right about the whole situation.
“We have heard what the dragon king had to say, yet we can only assume that it is some kind of ruse with which they are trying to cover up their own short comings. It is quite obvious, according to our own intelligence reports, that the dragon kingdom is in disarray, and that there are parties within their government that want to attack Equestria and turn it into a feeding ground. Of course, their government declines this referencing the peace treaty that was signed over a hundred years ago. The parliament has decided to station additional troops on the border, to ensure the safety of our citizens. We want to assure you, at this point, that there is no danger whatsoever, and that we are doing our best to resolve this matter peacefully...” the old stallion explained, but Celest didn't want to listen to his explanation anymore, so she shut off the TV.
Silence filled the room for a long while, as the siblings just stared at each other.
“You think it's true? That there was a dragon I mean. Could that be why Lulu was covered in blood?” Celest asked hesitantly after a while. Her tone was hopeful, not really wanting to believe what she had seen with her own eyes. There had been bullet holes in Lulus dress, and at least two wounds on her body were caused by projectiles rather than a dragons claws. For all she knew, their guest was strong enough to deflect a blow from a dragon with her shield, so something definitely felt off about all of this. Candy Cane shook his head in response.
“You said it yourself. She's been shot. I was down at the beach this morning, and there surely is a dragon corpse, but that does not explain her wounds. If anything, she could only have gotten them if she got hit by a stray bullet or ended up in their crossfire. Then again, I don't think our soldiers would open fire if there was a civilian around... Nope... Something doesn't quite add up here, and I'm pretty sure that those shots were intensionally aimed at Lulu.” the lavender stallion put a hoof to his chin, tapping it thoughtfully.
Just as his cousin wanted to say something though, they both heard a scream from Lulus room. The mare had obviously woken up once more. Neither of them said a word as they rushed to their guests bedside...
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“Bloody hell...” Firestorm cursed, as two medics were working on her. She had been lucky that each and every one of her unit had been carrying an implant that transmitted their life signs and position. Only five minutes after her target had disappeared without finishing her off, a helicopter with reinforcements had arrived, getting her treated and off the scene as fast as they could.
Now she was stuck in a hospital that was run by the company, instead of being out there and getting some payback for her lost leg. In fact, the doctors had told her that she had been lucky. None of the bullets that monster had shot at her had hit anything vital. Mostly they had only penetrated muscle tissue, but none of her organs. Judging from the rate of fire of the rifles her team had used, the mare was either one legendary shot, or Firestorm was just really lucky.
Funny... the Pegasus didn't feel particularly lucky. In fact, she felt like she was the most unlucky Pony in all of Equestria at that moment. Her leg could not be saved, and so the doctors had fitted a prosthetic to the stump where her leg had once been. It was one of those newer models, that she could actually move, but it didn't transmit any feelings. Nor was she able to pick things up with it, since the artificial appendage was unable to channel her inherent Pegasus magic.
“Pff... This sucks.” she spat, as one of the medics changed the dressings on her chest and wings. It didn't hurt at all, but that only made the whole thing worse for the combative mare. They had put some kind of spell on her, that robbed her of any pain until she was better. The side effect was, that she couldn't move at all. For a mare like her, that was a quite embarrassing state of being.
Even if she wanted to relief herself, she had to call for another Pony to help her out if she didn't want to soil herself...
“This really sucks...”
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Lulu rested her head on Candy Canes lap while tears were running down her face. The scarred mare kept her eyes closed, as pain radiated from the wound on her flank. The one on her face had been healed nicely by the magical healing bandages her two friends had put on her, but the one on her flank was much deeper.
Whatever had hurt her had, or so Celest had said earlier, chipped off a tiny bit of her hip. Lulu knew instinctively that this injury would hurt for quite a while, so it felt even better to have these two Ponies around her. She trusted both of them. They kept the nightmares and the pain at bay, and did everything in their power to help her. The purple mare appreciated this greatly, even if she lacked the vocabulary to express her gratitude.
Even the muffins Candy had brought her earlier didn't taste as good, due to the pain. She knew it would go away eventually, but that did not stop her from sobbing each time a new spike of pain shot through her body.
“Shh.... Everything is going to be alright.” Candy Cane cooed, stroking her blue mane softly. It felt nice to be stroked... to be … loved... Lulu decided. She did not understand what had happened to her. She didn't remember anything after they had trotted around the beach for a while, until she had suddenly appeared in the middle of the street, and Candy had come around the corner.
The lavender Unicorn stallion had wasted no time hugging her close. It had taken Lulu quite some time to calm down enough to attempt walking back with him. In the end the pain in her flank had been too much for her, and Candy had ended up carrying her once more.
She would have liked to spare him the effort, but each step she took with her right hind leg had sent spiked of pain through her body.
Finally the pills Celest had given her earlier were starting to work, and Lulu could feel the pain lessen considerably. It wasn't long after that, that her breathing slowed and she fell asleep once more.
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“So how is her injury?” Candy whispered, not wanting to wake up Lulu. For the moment they had not bothered to give her a new set of clothes. It would only have interfered with the treatment of the wound on her right flank. Celest grimaced slightly.
“The healing bandages aren't doing anything to the wound, which is odd. At least the flesh should start to heal by now. As for her bones... I can't really tell. It doesn't seem too bad though, since I can move her joint passively. If there was any major damage, that wouldn't be possible. If she doesn't get better though, we have to bring her to the mainland. There's only so much I can do, and Plunger doesn't have much more resources then me. She's only a village doctor after all. For now, I've poured a healing potion into the wound to concentrate its healing magic, and wrapped her flank with two more layers of bandages. It's moments like this that I really hate this island. They could, at least, have regular ferry schedules, instead of only once a week...” the white mare muttered, while wiping a bit of sweat off her brow with a hoof. Candy nodded.
“Alright... So I guess we've got no other choice. The ferry comes tomorrow morning. You go and pack a few things for her, while I'll go down to the harbor and get the tickets.” Candy said, and Celest nodded in agreement. Both of them looked down at their injured guest, concern obvious in their gazes.
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Textbook looked at the monitor of his vid-phone, chewing his lower lip. A member of the government was on the other end of the line. He had really hoped to get this sorted out before they interfered, but now his time was up. Whatever happened next, his hooves were bound. The higher ups had just iced him... Well... not really, but they had limited his power considerably...
“You understand what we are expecting of you?” the hooded figure on the screen asked. Textbook asked himself, not for the first time, what the point was in having a vid-phone if you were hiding under a cloak.
“Sir... With all due respect... I... I don't think that would be a good idea. They are...” the grey stallion began, but the figure on the screen interrupted him.
“You will use them. Try number fifty first. We will ship numbers ninety-four and ninety-nine to you from complex B and C.”
Subject ninety-nine...
Cold sweat broke out on Textbooks forehead as he heard that number. That subject had been caught a few days after number ninety-five, and brought to a facility in the frozen north. That facility had been build especially to hold it, due to her magical capabilities.
He remembered the mare only too well, since he had inspected the facility a few years ago. The inside of the complex felt like a furnace most of the time, even though the mare was covered, horn to hoof, in a suppression suit.
Magical chains that were put on her melted and evaporated in mere seconds, and not a single experiment had ever been conducted on her. Most of the time she was docile, just laying in a corner of her prison and not reacting to any outward stimuli. He, however, had witnessed one of her tantrums.
Facility C... It was much more then just a designation...
When Textbook was finally regaining his composure, he noticed that his vid-phones screen was blank. Apparently the stallion on the other end had ended the call while he had been lost in his thoughts. Sighing, he brought up the file of subject ninety-nine on his computer screen.
“Celestia...” he muttered, as he read through the information once more.
Alicorn Song
Chapter 6
The other me
Lulu awoke in her room, alone. Celest and Candy Cane had gone out earlier to get something. She didn't really know what, but she knew that it was supposed to help her...
It was then that the mare noticed that the pain in her flank was all gone. There wasn't even an itch left. Lifting the blankets with her magic, Lulu stared at her scarred flank. Sure enough, there was a nasty scar running down the length of her flank, but it looked like it had healed quite some time ago. There were even some tufts of hair growing on it.
The big mare didn't understand, at first, until she saw the folded piece of paper that lay next to her right hind leg. She unfolded it, and a little bit of fear began to rise up inside of her. The coppery smell of the paper made it quite obvious that this message had been written in blood. Her blood.
“I have no idea who you are, or how you came to be. All I know is that we seem to share one body for the moment. While you were asleep, I was awake briefly and took the liberty to heal our wounds. Since I couldn't find any writing utensils, I had to use the only liquid that was available to me at the time. For that, I apologize. Now that I am aware of you, and the way you are, I promise to do my best so you do not have to suffer needlessly. You must know, however, that it could very well happen that you will one day go to sleep and never wake up again. There are Ponies out there that are hunting us for what we are. Sad and shortsighted as this may seem to you, it is the truth. I have only one Pony, except you, that I want to find. Once we do, we will have to leave Celest and Candy Cane. We can't live with them. They will never understand. I am very sorry about this, since I am quite aware of your childlike nature. Therefor I promise you, that I will do what I can to keep them safe for as long as we remain here. I also suggest that you enjoy your time with them for as long as you can.
Your other self
Luna”
Lulu was still staring at the piece of paper, when it suddenly burst into flames. She jumped back in surprise a bit and watched in amazement as the message burned up completely. Not even ashes remained as the flames disappeared.
The unusually huge mare began to cry uncontrollably as she thought about what she had just read. It wasn't fair. She didn't want to leave! Sure, she didn't remember anything before waking up in this bed a few days ago, but did that really mean she had no say in this? And who were those Ponies who had hurt her? She was a good filly, so why had they hurt her?
All Lulu wanted was a nice home, where she didn't have to worry about Ponies wanting to hurt her. She wanted to take naps in the sun, while Candy Cane was stroking her mane. She treasured every little moment she got to spend with those Ponies. The purple mare was happy here, so why should she leave? It just wasn't fair...
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Celest and Candy stood a little ways away from the ticket booth for the ferry to the mainland. Quite a lot of Ponies had gathered here, but none of them were going to leave Acorn island today. The booth was closed and the ferry hadn't come at all. Several soldiers in camouflage uniforms blocked of the pier, where several smaller private boats were tied.
“This is an outrage! Why the fuck should we stay on this island?” a brown buck shouted at one of the soldiers. Due to the big suitcase standing next to him, Celest assumed that he was one of the many tourists that came here. That, and his obvious Manehatten accent were a dead giveaway.
The mare he was shouting at didn't flinch, nor did she show any emotional reaction at first. Suddenly, the black mare lashed out. Her gray mane and tail whirled around her like a tornado for a second, obscuring everyponys sight of what was actually happening. A moment later, her one golden eye looked down at the stallion. He was lying in his own blood by now, looking as if his head had been bashed into the ground several times in a row.
“Now listen up Ponies! I have no idea who you think we are, but we are no ordinary soldiers! File a complaint against me, or my men, and I will come and kick your rumps! While we are here, we will keep you safe. For the meantime, however, you will NOT leave this island. Sea travel is way too dangerous right now, and this island does not have an air field. If you're a Pegasus, you're free to leave as long as you are comfortable with becoming dragon food! So, anypony else want to make a scene, or can we finally get to work?” she shouted at everypony in attendance.
Nopony acted up afterward. They just looked, shocked, at the stallion who was now being hoof cuffed and dragged away by two other uniformed Ponies. It didn't take long for the crows to disperse after that. Celest could hear some of them grumbling, but none of them dared to approach the soldiers directly.
Candy Cane and his cousin decided that it was for the best to leave as soon as they could as well. There was nothing to be gained by arguing with these Ponies, and the sole local police officer was an old stallion who stood no chance against them. None of them noticed a widening golden eye following them as they started to trot back towards their home.
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A clanging sound could be heard from behind the thick door Textbook was looking at. He knew who was making that sound of course. Number fifty-one, who had been brought here before her parents ever got the chance to name her. He himself had come to call her Frosty quite some time ago, due to her uncanny talent to freeze almost anything in a radius of about twenty feet.
The gray stallion also knew that the clanging sound was not caused by her trying to escape. Instead, it was the result of an experiment that was run almost constantly. It was a cruel one, but it served a purpose.
The clanging stopped as the door slowly creaked open. Textbook made a mental note to get one of the maintenance Ponies to take a look at that once he was done here. He didn't really expect Frosty to be able to catch Luna, but it was an order from his superiors. All she might be able to accomplish was weaken the other mare enough to be recaptured by his soldiers. Ninety-four and Ninety-nine though... They might be able to do the job.
Shaking his head, Textbook cleared his mind of thoughts of stalling. He could have stalled until the other two arrived, but that would have meant that he was risking more than he was already. The stallion did not want to admit it to himself, but he kind of liked this one. She was very cooperative, and had never once tried to escape. She wasn't even particularly violent... Well, not towards him at least...
“Papa!” she called out, hanging from chains on the wall. Her beige coat was red in places where her skin had split, while her blue eyes betrayed her obvious bad physical state. Those deep blue eyes looked at him with such affection that he almost felt bad for putting her through all this. Of course he was not really her father. She just had started to call him that one day.
All the ice covering the floor melted instantly, and the temperature began to rise to a pleasant level. Textbook looked at the canon balls that littered the floor of the chamber. Only very few of them had managed to actually reach Frosty. Most had been frozen in mid air, or pulverized by her magic. It was quite interesting how solid the bones of an Alicorn were. Even at so young an age, this mare didn't suffer any terminal injuries when hit with a canon.
The only projectiles that were able to actually shatter their bones, were armor piercing super sonic rounds. These experiments had also proven that at least some of these creatures could actually catch projectiles that were slower than the speed of sound. Frosty was not one of them. Her biggest strength, however, was her range. There was only two other Alicorns he knew of who had a similar or greater range then her. Those were number ninety-four and ninety-nine. That was her only chance, if she actually found number ninety-five...
“Frosty? Do you think you can help me with something?” he asked, trying to put some warmness into his words that he wasn't feeling at all as he unlocked the chains holding the mare. It didn't take long, and she was jumping towards him. Textbook didn't flinch, but he stiffened a little as the little one hugged him close. She was only fifteen years old, and already bigger than him...
“Mhhmmm! I'll help Papa! Of course I will!” she shouted, giggling slightly. It wasn't often that she got to move around freely, and she enjoyed every second of it.
“You remember Luna?” he asked quietly. Frostys giggling stopped instantly, and she stepped back a few steps, shivering in fear. The gray stallion had expected as much.
One of the experiments that had been conducted on Luna and Frosty alike, had been a comparison of their powers. For that he had put both of them into a chamber with a movable wall in the middle. Both had been told that they'd get a reward if they managed to push it all the way back to the other side of the room, not knowing that there was another Alicorn on the other side.
On that day, Frosty had almost died. She had been three years old at that point, and they never expected her to be able to stand up against the much older mare. Yet they hadn't expected Luna to not push against the wall gradually, but release one massive burst of magic against it. Frosty had been crushed against the far wall, knocking her out and actually breaking a few of her bones.
Neither had they expected Luna to carefully blow a hole into the movable wall to look beyond. Textbook still remembered her horrified shriek and finding out that she had nearly killed a child. It was her healing magic that saved the young mares life, repairing the damage she had done before being knocked out by a hundred slumber spells herself. She hadn't healed her unintended victim completely, but enough for her to wake up and remember the mare who had done this to her.
Now, Frosty nodded silently. Her blue irises had shrunken to mere pinpricks of fear.
“I need you to find her. If you can, bring her back. If you can't, kill her. Do you think you can do that?” Textbook said, making it sound like a question. As a matter of fact, this mare didn't have any other choice. If she didn't agree to it, she'd get a control helmet stuck on her head and somepony else would look Luna, using her body like a doll. Differently from Luna or most of the others, number fifty-one wasn't strong enough resist the magical influence after all.
“If... If you want me to do it... then... then... I'll go...” the young mare stammered, looking down, then added quickly, “But... can I get a reward if I do it, please?”
That took Textbook by surprise for a moment, and before he knew it he had asked her what she wanted. Her answer actually brought a smile to his face, and he agreed. There was no harm in this, was there?
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Celest stared at Lulus flank. Where there should have been a big nasty wound, there was just a scar. Not just any scar at that either. It looked as if it had healed ages ago, and tufts of the mares purple coat were already growing there again.
“Impossible...” she muttered, while Lulu refused to meet her eyes. The mare had decided not to tell her two guardians about the letter that had been left for her by... well presumably herself... or how her flank had been healed. Besides, even if she had wanted to do so, she didn't know how. There seemed to be some kind of pressure in the back of her head that prevented her to even think of the incident.
“I don't know either, but maybe the healing bandages finally worked. Took them long enough.” Candy Cane said dismissively, taking a look into the dust bin where several bloody bandages lay.
Lulu was glad for that comment, and began to nod vigorously in agreement. It looked very suspicious to both Candy Cane and Celest, but neither of them said anything. Deep down, both of them were simply glad that the lock down that was forced upon their home would not endanger Lulu...
Alicorn Song
Chapter 7
Memories
Luna was floating through the void that was her mind, looking for anything that was amiss. She had already noticed that there were parts missing that would usually belong to her personality. Namely, the innocent part of her was almost completely gone. In the mares opinion, there was only one explanation for this.
When she had watched the moon rise through her magical senses, her emotions had been stirred up and she had remembered the days in which she could enjoy the company of her sister. The days, in other words, where fighting and killing was as far from her mind as it could have possibly been.
The dark purple mare sighed as she came by a memory of these days that had manifested itself in the form of a bubble. It was of one of her last days in freedom, before everything had gone terribly wrong. Looking into it, Luna could see herself and her older sister stroll over a carnival, enjoying themselves. Both of them wore wide dresses to hide their wings since, even back then, they had been aware that they were different.
A tear rolled down Lunas spectral cheek as she remembered that day. Celestia and herself had spent almost all of their pocket money, and had to rely on their ability to fly to get home in the end. They had done so countless times before, but this time somepony had seen them...
One stomp of her hoof later, and the memory bubble disappeared into the back of her head once more. Had they just been more careful, they could have taken the bus back home. What stung her even more, was that she had been the one to talk Celestia into flying. The older sister had wanted to call their parents to pick them up, but Luna had still been young and naïve. In the end, her sister had given in and that had led to...
Luna clenched her teeth and began to scream while tears ran down her face uncontrollably. Her wings were spread wide, while the mare screamed her agony at the void around her...
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“Huh? Lulu? Is everything alright? Why are you crying?” Candy Cane asked as he saw that tears had begun to flow down Lulus face. The mare beside him raised a hoof to her face, looking quite shocked as she herself noticed the tears that were dampening her coat.
“I... don't know.” she sniffed in response, feeling a terrible sadness that was hers and, at the same time, not hers...
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It took Luna what felt like an eternity to finally get her emotions under control again, but she managed it eventually. There was no use in freaking out about these things now. They were things of the past that nopony could change anymore.
The void of her mind was missing a lot of things, she noticed. Some integral parts of her were missing, and she suspected that these missing parts were forming the mare known as “Lulu”. Luna huffed as she thought about it. It bordered on an insult that someone, except her older sister, would call her that. On the other hoof, she was quite sure that this condition would not last for long. A week, or maybe a month but surely no longer than that. She was already able to walk her own mind again after all, and she was aware of her alter ego. Both were signs that she was healing from the injury that had been inflicted on her.
The physical part had not even been the problem. A quick spell on her part had taken care of most of that in just a few seconds. No. The real problem was the neurological damage. She couldn't fix that with magic. Instead, she would have to trust on her brains ability to heal itself. Once it had done so, and the chemical balance in her brain was restored, her personality would most likely reabsorb her alter ego. At this point, it was simply a theory, but one she could work with.
Then she came across another bubble. Curiously she concentrated on the floating sphere... and froze in her tracks. This one showed the night she had been captured. The night... in which she had...
Luna hung her head as she remembered, her heart sinking. The Ponies of the organization had come to their home to take her and Celestia away. She remembered that night as clear as day. Her sister and herself had already been in bed, when somepony had broken down the door to their apartment. Raised voices from the living room had finally woken them, and their mother had come storming into the room.
The beige mare had stood protectively in front of her foals, spreading her wings to shield them from the eyes of the intruders, while their father was trying to fend them off. A gunshot had silenced the Unicorn stallions struggle, making tears well up in her mothers eyes. Celestia seemed to have grasped the severity of the situation, and had tried to grab Luna and make a run for it, but the younger mare had refused.
Luna remembered that she had wanted to run off to see if her father was alright, even though her mother was screaming at her to run away with her sister. Then, he had entered the room. A black Earthpony stallion with a red mane and tail, wearing sunglasses even though it was almost completely dark in the room.
Faust, their mother, had not waited for him to start speaking. It might have saved her life if she had done so, but all she had been able to think of was her dead husband, and the safety of her two foals. Another bullet had ended her life, and the sisters had been forced to watch as their mothers life blood crept ever closer to their hooves as her eyes broke.
“Come with me quietly.” the stallion had said in a casual tone of voice, as if he was talking about the weather. Luna, her eyes brimming with tears herself, had lost control of her emotions for the first and last time in her life that night.
Seeing the dead body of their mother, she had lashed out with her magic. Celestia, seeing what her younger sibling was about to do, had tried to stop her by extending one of her wings over Lunas eyes but... it was too late... Instead of stopping the attack, the older filly lost her left wing forever.
Driven by the wish to keep her sister safe, so she could apologize later, Lunas magic had formed a teleportation entry vortex, in which Celestia disappeared. Her sisters face had been a grimace of pain, and that was the last time Luna had seen her.
Shortly after she had teleported Celestia to safety, several Unicorns had sedated her with slumber spells. The magic had been so strong, that it had taken her a month to actually wake up again. The first thing they had shown her, was a video tape of Celestia being cornered in a forest. The older filly hadn't even fought back as they put shackles on her...
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“Ehm... Excuse me? I think you lost this.” a young Unicorn mare called out after Celest, holding up her wallet. Checking quickly, Celest noticed that it had indeed disappeared from her saddlebags.
“Thank you very much. It would have been quite embarrassing to go grocery shopping without it.” she said, as she trotted back towards the beige mare with the blue mane. She wore a simply blue dress with a tie in her hair that was tied like a bow.
“No problem at all miss. But... Would you mind if I asked you a question? Have you seen this mare?” the younger mare asked, pulling out a photograph from one of her dress pockets. Celests eyes widened as she checked the picture and recognized Lulu. Sure, it was not a very good picture, and the mare had a cold expression on her face instead of the cheery one she knew, but the resemblance was definitely there.
“You know Lulu?”
The other mare cocked her head slightly, as if she wasn't understanding what Celest had said, then smiled broadly.
“Yes... We are old friends.”
Alicorn Song
Chapter 8
We meet again...
Frosty sat at the table, a cup of tea and a half eaten Cupcake in front of her. She was quite amazed at the taste, since all she had ever gotten back home was almost tasteless nutrient gel. Only when she had performed very well in some experiment, did she get a treat. Nothing like this though. The scientists were usually quite wary of her, even though she knew how to behave. Frosty had never hurt any of them, yet they always stayed at least eleven feet away from her. Just out of reach of her magic, in other words.
The few times she had gotten a treat, they had ordered her to go to the far wall of her room while they placed it on the floor near the door. Usually, her treats had bite marks on it or tasted slightly stale, but Frosty never minded much. She knew that, to give her something tasty, somepony else had to go without it. The young mare didn't want to inconvenience others if she could help it. She was a good filly after all.
“I'm really sorry. I've got no idea where the two of them have run off to this time.” Celest called out to her from the kitchen where she was preparing lunch. Frosty had offered to help her with it, but the other mare had denied politely.
“It's alright. I don't mind to wait until they come back.” she called back after taking another sip of her tea. The cup was so fragile that she had to be careful not to crush it in her magic. She didn't want to damage something this beautiful. The white porcelain was decorated with red and orange patterns, which ended in flowers of different colors. Even though it was the first time she was something like this, she knew that this just had to be something very precious. At home, she had never seen something like this.
“So, where do you know Lulu from again?”
Frosty froze for a moment. She hadn't thought that far. After seeing the tape of the first attempt to retrieve Luna, she had formed the plan to look for the two civilians that had accompanied the mare, but she had not thought of a valid reason for looking for her. Sweat started to form on her brow as the gears in her head started turning faster and faster. Then, suddenly, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind...
“She's my mother.”
The sounds of vegetables being cut stopped abruptly, and something fell to the floor. By the sound of it, it broke to a thousand pieces.
“You... You're her daughter?!?” Celest asked skeptically, sticking her head out of the kitchen to make eye contact with her. There was no going back now. She had to go stick with this story now, even though she was kicking herself mentally. Nodding vigorously, Frosty did her best to look natural. The other mare didn't quite seem to buy her story, narrowing her eyes at her. They stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, before Celest finally went back to cooking.
“Well, I just hope she recognizes you once they get home. She's gotten injured, and I think she lost a few of her memories because of it.” the other mare explained, while the cutting sounds from the kitchen continued.
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“If you keep eating like that, you'll get fat.” Candy Cane teased as he put thirty bits on the counter of the local bakery. Ever since the island had been put on lock down, the prices had gone through the roof, but there was nothing he could do about that. Muffins were about the only thing that could cheer Lulu up when she got depressed, so he had taken her out to get some. That he would pay almost four times the usual price per pastry had limited how many he could get her, but Lulu was grateful for each one.
She had already devoured one of the three Muffins he had bought, storing the other two in the saddlebags he had bought her this morning. She had to be able to carry some stuff around after all, and the pockets of his late mothers dresses were not suited for a loaded bag of bits or, in this case, a bunch of Muffins.
Lulu ignored his teasing, and instead nuzzled him gratefully. The gesture felt nice, but also but chocolate and crumbs all over his face. Very carefully he pushed her away with a hoof, blushing slightly.
“Cut it out. You'll get me all dirty again. I just took a shower this morning.” he huffed in mock anger, but the mare didn't listen to him. Instead she cocked her head slightly for a moment, as if she wasn't understanding what he was saying as she did so often, then continued to nuzzle him. The baker didn't raise a hoof to help him escape his predicament, laughing his head off as the much bigger mare continued to act like a child.
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“We're home!” Celest heard Candy Canes voice from the entrance hall. Immediately she put down the knife and vegetables she had been working with and went into the hall. The young mare who had picked up her wallet earlier was sticking her head out of the living room door, glaring down the hallway. It sent a chill down Celests spine. There was a kind of determination in those eyes that she had not expected from the other mare. As soon as she noticed Celest, however, the mares expression changed to one of childlike innocence...
“Is my mother back?” she asked politely, but with a slight edge in her voice. Celest didn't fail to notice it.
“I think so. Just let me go and check, OK? You can finish your Cupcake in the meanwhile.”
The younger mare, Frosty, did not object. Instead she seemed quite eager to finish the simple pastry. As soon as the living room door was closed once again, Celest made her way to the entrance hall as fast as she could. There was something wrong with that mare, and she began to regret bringing her to their home.
“Hey Celest. Wow, that smells nice. Cabbage stew?” Candy said while sniffing the air. Lulu stood beside him, munching on the remains of a Muffin as she mimicked the motion of sniffing the air. Celest silenced both of them by putting her hoof over her own muzzle. It took only a minute or two to explain the situation to them, but as soon as she had finished, Candy looked more than serious.
“You think she has something to do with the Ponies that hurt Lulu before I found her?” he asked in a low voice so only his cousin could hear him. Lulu, on the other hoof, was distracted by a painting that hand in the entrance hall. She seemed to like it very much, seeing as she spent a few minutes staring at it each time they entered the house. Neither Celest, nor Candy understood her fixation with it, since it only showed some colorful swirls.
“I don't know. She could be telling the truth. Lulu is certainly old enough to be her mother, but I didn't check of course. Her genitals weren't really high on my list when I examined her wounds the other day.”
Candy thought for a moment. If this mare was really considerably younger than Lulu, then she was, most likely, not a threat for her. He himself had witnessed how strong she was. What could a single Unicorn filly do against that kind of power?
“I say we give her the benefit of the doubt. Let them talk. If things go south, we can always intervene.” he said, motioning to Lulu with his horn. Celest agreed after a moment. After all, Lulu had proven that she could cast a very strong shield spell if she had to.
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Frosty had done it. A feeling of elation filled her as she trotted next to the other Alicorn mare, who was looking at her curiously all the while. Celest and her cousin had suggested that the two of them took a walk together, so they could talk undisturbed. What they did not know, was that Frosty had been a bad filly. She had influenced their decision with her magic. This was usually a big no no, but her Daddy had allowed her to go all out on this.
After a while, the two mares reached a hilltop where there was nothing but an old cemetery. Frosty looked around, deciding that they had gone far enough. Here, nopony would disturb the two of them...
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Lulu was confused. That other mare, Frosty, looked familiar for some reason but she couldn't place her. Candy and Celest had told her to take a walk with her, but the purple mare was not quite sure why. There was certainly something strange about the slightly smaller mare.
Suddenly Lulu noticed that Frosty was not next to her anymore, and she looked back to see where the other mare had gone. Sure enough she stood a few feet further down the path, glaring at Lulu. It made Lulu recoil a bit, and she took a step back out of instinct. Then she thought better of it. Had she done something wrong maybe? If so, she should go and apologize. That's what good fillies did after all...
Lulu tried to apologize, but the other mare did not react in any way. She just continued to stare at her as if she hated her from the bottom of her heart. But there was something else in that gaze as well. At first, the purple Alicorn did not know what it was but then she recognized the emotion. It was fear. This mare was scared to death of her.
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Frosty tried to decide on a plan on how to take on the other Alicorn. She knew very well that she had no chance against the other mares magical strength. If it came to a fight, it had to be quick and decisive.
Suddenly Lunas horn ignited, taking Frosty by surprise.
“So that's it then...” she thought as she scrambled to get some kind of defense up. What actually happened caught her even more off guard. The other mare was producing a Muffin from her saddlebags and floated it in front of her with a shy little smile on her face.
The beige mare stared at the Muffin for a moment, before finally regaining her composure. Her foreleg shot up, knocking the muffin out of the other mares magical grip and into a puddle beside the road. Luna looked confused and sad at that, but Frosty had decided on what to do. She wanted that reward from her Daddy, and she was not about to get fooled by this mare who had hurt her in the past.
While the other mare was still looking at the soiled Muffin, Frosty charged up her horn and released a full power blast of magic right into her face. A cry of pained surprise echoed across the hill, as the purple Alicorn mare was thrown into a few of the withered tombstones. They broke under the impact of her body, throwing up a cloud of dust that momentarily obscured Frostys vision.
Not having fought another Alicorn before, the young mare was unsure on what to do next. All she knew was, that she had to end it quickly. Therefor she picked up the pieces of broken stone she could see and propelled them towards her opponent. A hum of magic suddenly drowned out her own and several pings could be heard as her projectiles were reflected off a hard surface.
A magical wind rose, clearing the dust cloud away and revealing a shielded purple Alicorn mare standing in the rubble of several broken tombstones. She was bleeding from a wound above her left eye, forcing her to keep it shut, and her dress was only a torn rag on her big frame now. Frosty took a step back as she saw the cold rage in the other mares eyes.
She knew, from Lunas files, that she didn't have the same range as her, so her best bet was to use that to win this fight...
“You shouldn't have done that.” Luna said coldly. To Frostys surprise, the other mare didn't move an inch or prepare an attack right away. Instead, she just looked at her as if she wanted to will her to run away...
Alicorn Song
Chapter 9
Decisions
Frosty watched as Luna slowly trotted over to the muffin she had knocked away just a few moments earlier, looking at it sadly. Nonetheless, the other Alicorn kept her shield up and one of her eyes on her. There was no doubt in the young mares mind that the older one was evaluating her.
“You really shouldn't have done that. It was her last Muffin, and she wanted to give it to you to cheer you up a bit...” Luna said barely above a whisper shaking her head.
“You can't fool me! Number ninety-five, you will come back with me! Daddy will get in trouble if you don't!” Frosty shouted shakily, trying to keep the fear out of her voice while she backed away a bit. Luna just looked at her sadly for a moment, before dropping her shield. This took the beige mare by surprise.
“I remember you. Number fifty-one. How is that wing of yours? I didn't get a chance to heal it properly the last time we met.”
“My... my wing? Heal? You were the one who shattered it in the first place! You're a mean, deceiving mare, and your only goal is to cause trouble for my Daddy.” Frosty pressed out between grit teeth. Her initial attack hadn't worked as she had hoped, so her mind was now racing to come up with a new course of action.
“Cause trouble? Your Daddy? Oh this is priceless...” the dark purple Alicorn mare laughed mirthlessly.
Frosty had heard enough. She had to finish this quickly to get her reward from her Daddy. If she failed, he would be mad with her and she wouldn't get what she had wanted for so long. A telekinetic blast of force shot forth from the young mares horn, aimed directly at Lunas face.
“Rude!” the other mare spat, intercepting the blue blast with a pinpointed shield spell of her own. She had stopped laughing now, her face a mask of sadness and rage.
“I do not want to fight you. Turn around and trot away now, and I will not harm you. That I promise you on my life. However, should you lash out at me again I will not hold back. This time, I will really turn you into paste.” Luna warned, igniting her horn.
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Luna looked at the young mare before her with mixed feelings. On one hoof, she was glad that the young one was alive, while on the other she was contemplating ways to kill her. It was... a strange sensation. Not only that, but merely looking at the now crushed Muffin almost made her want to cry. Just what was wrong with her?
She found herself hoping that the mere threat of death would persuade number fifty-one to flee, since she did not relish the thought to kill one of her own kind, alas it was not meant to be. A small shimmer of magic came towards her from her right, too fast to evade it completely. Lunas face was scratched by the jagged piece of broken gravestone that flew past her and hissed in pain as it drew blood.
“I hope you can live with your choice... even though it will not be very long.” Luna said sadly, hating that she had to do this.
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“Ouch!” Candy Cane called out as his head began to feel as if somepony had tried to split it with and ax. Celest cried out almost at the same time, collapsing to the floor as she fainted. The lavender stallion could barely think straight, but there was the definite feeling of very strong magic in the air.
Even through the haze of his splitting headache, he knew that somepony had bewitched them... It was a capital offense, but that was the least of his worries at that moment. Lulu had gone with that strange mare, and Celest had actually fainted from the magic.
Crawling over to his cousin, he pulled her away from the oven with his hooves. For some reason his own magic just didn't seem to work at the moment, and his legs felt as if they were made of jelly. What worried him the most, however, was the small trickle of blood he noticed coming out of his cousins nostrils...
“No....” he breathed as he did his best to pull her to a sofa in the living room by her mane.
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Frosty screamed as her head impacted a tree. Only her strong bones prevented her skull from cracking as the wood of the tree splintered under the force of the impact. She had seriously underestimated Luna. She hadn't known that the other mare could teleport, which completely erased her advantage of range. Just where had she learned all these spells? Frosty herself didn't even know how to summon up a stable shield spell.
The young mare jumped aside as Luna appeared behind her once more, her horn already charged to the brim with magic. Releasing a bolt of force of her own, Frosty galloped away as fast as she could. Her attack struck Luna in the jaw, but the other mare barely blinked as she released her own magic. The blast did not hit the beige mare, but the shockwave of it was enough to knock her clean off her hooves.
Tumbling, Frosty tried to regain control of her body again but Luna was much faster then she had anticipated. A kick to her stomach eventually stopped her tumbling, and knocked the breath from her lungs. The young mare could actually feel one of her ribs breaking as the strong hooves of the other mare impacted on her smaller frame once more.
Crying out in pain once more, Frosty tried to counter attack with a bolt of force but Luna just batted it away with another one of those pinpointed shield spells.
“So... this is it..” she thought, as the other mare reared up to finish the fight. It hadn't even been much of a fight in her opinion. Luna had given her the chance to trot away, but she could have never done that. Her Daddy had promised to take her out for lunch if she brought this mare back. Once, only once, Frosty wanted to eat with her Daddy. Tasty foods, like the ones the scientists sometimes gave her, or what the nice mare from earlier had given her.
A lone tear rolled down her face as new determination flooded her very being...
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“What the...?” Luna gasped as a wave of coldness hit her. Only a quick teleport saved her from being frozen completely solid, and even that had apparently not been enough. The rim of her shredded dress showed signs of being exposed to extreme cold.
“I... will... not... loose...” the younger mare panted, while blood trickled down her muzzle. Luna could see that she was straining to stand and, to her own surprise, wanted to rush over and help the other mare...
“Just what the hell is wrong with me?” she thought as she went through the motions of evading the next wave of magical ice heading her way. The first one had surprised her, but now that she knew what the other mare could do, she knew what to do. As long as this ice didn't catch her, she still had a chance.
Then, something unexpected happened... Luna had just teleported once more to get away from a wave of ice forming directly below her, when she noticed her mistake. All four of her hooves went from warm to ice cold, and she found herself trapped. She had to give the other mare that. This trap had been a clever trick. What worried her though, was that the ice seemed to weaken her magic. Teleporting was certainly out of the question for now.
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Candy Cane dragged himself towards the small hill near his home. He had suggested this route to Lulu and this other strange mare. Since that beige mare had looked like she was not from around here, he was sure she had taken his advice. Lucky for him, the hilltop was a dead end and if they came back down the hill he would see them. What he would do once he found them, he didn't know yet, but he sure was angry...
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Frosty panted and her vision was beginning to blur, but she had done it. Number ninety-five was trapped in her ice, and would stay there for as long as she wanted it. What the other mare couldn't have known was, that her ice had a very special quality. The more of it there was, the more it drained magic that did not belong to her from anypony it touched. Now, all she had to do was to knock the other mare out and call her Daddy so he could pick the both of them up.
Waiting until he arrived would be hard on her though. She had sustained some injuries that made her dizzy, and one of her lungs had been punctured by a rib. It became harder and harder for her to just breathe...
Charging up her horn with one final blast of magic, Frosty prepared for the finishing blow. The other mare was already down on her knees, struggling to free herself from the ice that was binding her to the ground. It would be no use. This ice didn't break so easily...
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Luna tried to summon up a shield to deflect the incoming blast of force, but the stinging pain in her hooves made it hard for her to focus on her magic. No shield came into being, and no teleportation vortex formed. Expecting a pretty strong impact this time, Luna turned her head away and clenched her eyes shut.
Something warm and wet splattered on her face, but no pain came. A horrified shriek from the other mare made the dark purple Alicorn open her eyes again. Instantly, her pupils contracted to mere pinpricks. In a pool of his own blood... lay Candy Cane...
From one second to the other, all compassion for the other mare, and hesitation was gone. All that was left was rage. Cold and calculating rage. This time her magic came to her readily, breaking the ice that was holding her hooves in place as easily as thin glass. Another blast of force came heading her way, but she was already gone, teleporting herself and the injured stallion the edge of the battlefield. A quick mending spell stopped the bleeding on his neck. There wasn't time for more.
“I... I... I'm sorry... I... I didn't mean to... He jumped in front of you and...” the other mare stammered, tears running down her face. Luna, on her part, flared out her wings and began to draw in more and more magic from her surroundings. One enormous blast shattered every little bit of ice that had formed on the ground, knocking over her target.
“You shouldn't have done that...” Luna said in a cold whisper, as she teleported herself on top of the fallen mare. Number fifty-one tried to charge her horn to defend herself, but Lunas hoof was faster this time, shattering the mares horn into a million pieces. She shrieked in pain, trying to bring up her hooves to her now bleeding forehead, but Luna would have none of it.
A telekinetic field appeared around both of the mares forelegs, and she began to pull while holding the younger mare down with her magic at the same time. First came the pop of dislocated joints as both legs were pulled out of their sockets, accompanied by another cry of pain from the younger mare.
“I'm sorry! Daddy! Please... Help me!” Number fifty-one cried, as first her skin and then her muscles began to tear. A spurt of blood washed Lunas face in red and hot liquid as her targets legs came off. She had done it slowly, and began to work her way down the mares body... Next up were her wings...
“I'm a good filly! Argh... Oh Faust, please stop! It hurtsss!” the mare in her grip cried as her wings came off. Still, she was struggling. That soon stopped as Luna reached her rear legs. These she did not pull out however. Instead she summoned a shield above them and began to move it towards the ground slowly.
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Frosty who was barely able to stay awake only a few minutes earlier, was now screaming at the top of her lungs. Her entire body was hurting. It was a sensation she had never felt before, and she was sure that she would never feel anything again. All she hoped for, was that this monster would end her life soon. Otherwise, or so she thought, she would go insane from the pain alone.
Then, as if a switch had been flipped, the pressure on her lower body stopped. Both legs had already been broken at this point, but not yet shattered. Fighting through the pain, the young mare opened one of her bloody eyes to see that Luna was looking down at her with tears in her eyes.
“I'm sorry...” the other mare whispered in an ashamed tone of voice, before igniting her horn for one final time. Everything around the young mare went dark as the pain went away...
