Chapter 1: The End Of The World As We Know It?
"You know, it feels like it's been forever since we've just had a simple picnic out in the park," Twilight sighed in contentment, watching the clouds pass overhead. Sometimes on particularly slow days, the weather-ponies liked to sculpt them into various shapes so the ground-bound ponies could make a game of guessing what they were supposed to be, but for the moment everypony just let them float by in peace. After the stressful few days they'd had entertaining the Prince of Yak-Yakistan, even the studious Alicorn didn't feel like thinking for a while. "I think the last time we did something like this was right before my brother's wedding." That had been about a year ago now, she realized. In between her relatively recent ascension and the much more recent fight against Tirek, there had been so much insanity and change that she and her friends had barely any time to catch their breaths before some new crisis made itself known. Twilight's eyelids felt heavy, and she let them close; it was just so nice to sit back and relax without somepony crying for-
"HELP!"
Oh Celestia damn it.
Leaping to her hooves, (though not without some stumbling about on her still-lethargic limbs) Twilight scanned the area for the source of the call. The group had settled among a loose cluster of trees near the northwest corner of the park, right near where the Everfree Forest ended and the more benign Whitetail Woods began. She didn't see anything through the branches, but the shout seemed to have come from the west. "Rainbow, can you...?"
"Already on it!" A blue streak whizzed overhead as Twilight finally gained balance and set off running. She didn't even have to check that her friends were following; she could hear their hoof-falls chasing after her across the grass almost as fast as Twilight's mind was racing. Is it some kind of monster? I know we chased off the Bugbear, but maybe it's back for round two?
They crested a hill and stopped just briefly enough to take in the scene before them. On the path leading out of the Everfree, four unfamiliar ponies; one was collapsed on the ground, while another was waving a burning branch protectively before the group. In the treeline, several glowing green eyes and low growls, advancing wooden forms.
Rainbow Dash streaked down out of the sky, landing with a deep thump right between the leading Timberwolf and the pony with the branch. "Don't worry, we're here to help!"
The battle was furious but brief; Twilight only got vague impressions of Rarity in some sort of bipedal pose with her forelegs poised and ready to strike; Rainbow leaving a prismatic streak as she bowled through several enemies in a row, Applejack bucking another right in the face, Pinkie scattering some with a blast of the party cannon, and of course Twilight's own telekinesis forcibly wrenching a Timberwolf apart. By the end, the few that had avoided becoming a pile of sticks and branches on the ground were slinking back into the darkness of the Everfree, wooden tails between their legs. Twilight sat down a moment, letting her heartbeat come back down to normal levels and panting from the sudden exertion in the midst of what was otherwise a rather calm day. "Is everyone alright?"
"Purdy much, sugarcube."
"Yyyeperoni!"
"I'm always awesome. Did you see me just now?"
"Well, I'm afraid I've chipped a hoof... but otherwise I would say I'm in passable condition."
Twilight heaved a sigh of relief and finally stood back up, turning to examine the other pony present, who had only just dropped her branch in surprise. "Hello, ma'am. Are you alright?"
The mare was a pegasus, Twilight noticed, and very red. Her coat, ruffled and dirty as it may have been, was a very vivid shade that made Twilight think of Sunset Shimmer's hair, while her mussed mane was darker, almost like rust - or dried blood. The mare's eyes stood out, being instead a pale tangerine that was somewhat refreshing. "Um, I think so," She responded at length, eyes still wide at the spectacle she'd witnessed. "But my... er, friend, is not." Her voice was somewhat deep for a mare, but still had a certain femininity to it.
Fluttershy had joined with the other three unfamiliar mares, ministering to the one still lying prone in the dirt. "Oh, Rainbow Dash, thank goodness!" The pegasus gasped. "Could you please find Nurse Redheart?" Dash instantly shot back up into the clouds.
"Can you tell what's wrong with her?" One of the newcomers asked, concern etched in her frown and furrowed brows. She was a unicorn, with a bright yellow mane and a puke-brown coat; not only was she as scraggly and unkempt in appearance as the others, but on top of that her red eyes were bloodshot and there was a tinge of pinkness to her snout, which looked like it had been rubbed raw. Twilight took an unconscious step back.
"Well, she doesn't seem to have been hurt by those Timberwolves," Fluttershy explained, "But look at her ribs." Sure enough, the blue earth pony was unhealthily skinny, her ribcage prominent and her lower body all but caved in. She could have been mistaken for a corpse if not for the subtlest rise and fall of her chest. "It looks like severe malnutrition; it's a miracle she made it this far."
"Speakin' o which," Applejack said, turning to the yellow mare, "What all happened to you? Timberwolves aside, y'all look like you've been through Tartarus an' back!"
The three conscious ponies shared glances, and the last of their number spoke up. "Well, you see..." She began, then hesitated, trying to find the right words. She was a Thestral, with tufted ears and bat wings, her dark grey coat typical of her breed. Her mane was a pale platinum blonde, reminiscent of bleached bone. Her blood-red eyes darted about nervously, as though she still expected the Timberwolves to return any moment. "We... don't remember much. We woke up in those woods, and not long after, those monsters arrived and chased us. We managed to get out, but then she fell down." she gestured vaguely at the blue mare, "Really, I'm glad you all showed up when you did."
Twilight and Applejack couldn't help but raise their eyebrows at the first part of her story, but any further comments they might have made were nipped in the bud by Rarity. "Say, do you at least recall if you have names? Calling you 'you' may get very confusing very quickly."
The trio's expressions underwent several rapid shifts as they each racked their brains; it was like they were stumbling through a cluttered room filled to the brim with a thick fog; they could sense there were things there, memories, but they were still disconnected on some level. It took some time, but finally the yellow mare piped up. "Spread... Vector? I think?"
The thestral frowned; "I'm not sure, but Night Courier sounds right."
The red mare was the only one who seemed to have any confidence in her name. "Red October. And how about you all?"
“Well, she should be alright now; we’ve got her on IV. We’ll see what happens when she wakes up.” Redheart confirmed, and the nine mares waiting just outside Ponyville General sighed in relief. “However, I will also need you three to stay here overnight; given your… situation, we felt it'd be best to check you all over, make sure you haven’t brought in any viruses from the forest.” October and Vector shrugged and nodded.
“What about… after that?” Courier asked, shyly looking down at the ground. “If you don’t know us, then we probably aren’t from this town, so where did we come from? And where will we stay for now?”
Twilight stepped forward at this. “Well, if you want, you can all stay in my castle once you check out. I have a big library; maybe something in there will jog your memories!” She beamed wide at the prospect.
“Thank you!” said Vector; at the exact same moment as October asked “Wait, you have a castle?”
“Not a problem. And…” Twilight saw Nurse Redheart was starting to tap her hoof impatiently, though her expression remained polite. “It’s a long story. I’d better let you go.”
As the trio were led inside, Twilight let out a big breath. The past half-hour had been so abruptly frantic, between the battle with the Timberwolves and rushing the blue mare to the hospital, and now it was back to being just a regular day. Usually incidents like this required a fair amount of cleanup afterward, but this was different, just a random interruption that seemed disconnected from what had gone on before. It was… awkward.
“It’s still another hour before that scheduled drizzle. Do you think we should finish up our picnic?” Rarity asked anxiously, glancing up as some Pegasi began moving in a light blanket of grey clouds. “While I am certain the nurses have everything under control, it would just feel… odd.” Twilight understood what she meant; there was nothing they could do for the time being, but just relaxing while these ponies were struggling just didn’t quite sit right.
“Ah think we better jes’ get the blanket and try again another day. And Big Mac would prob'ly appreciate havin’ some extra help with the crops, anyway.” Applejack shrugged and readjusted her Stetson. “Anyway, ah hope things work out for ‘em.” With that, she trotted off.
“And I’d better help with the clouds, there. I’ve been taking too many days off lately as is.” Rainbow swooped off. “See you later!”
“Well, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twilight; perhaps you three would care to join me at the spa?” Rarity asked, looking uncertain if she even wanted to go.
“Well, I need to go foalsit the Cake Twins this afternoon, but I’d be happy to join you for a little bit at least!” Pinkie bounced in place, her attitude lifting everyone’s spirits somewhat.
“That would be lovely,” Fluttershy agreed, and Twilight nodded her assent as well.
After retrieving the picnic blanket, basket, and other related odds and ends, they never actually ended up going to the spa. Instead, Pinkie left to foalsit, and the remaining trio found themselves at Horte Cuisine’s, munching on daffodil sandwiches at a mushroom table. Fluttershy and Rarity chatted quietly; Twilight had several books out on her part of the table, but would occasionally interject with her own two bits. Some of the casual normality of earlier had been restored, but everypony was clearly having trouble keeping their minds off the strangers. “I must confess, I still don’t know what brought them out to the Everfree to begin with.” Rarity’s eyes widened as something occurred to her. “You don’t think they were cursed, do you?”
Twilight glanced up from her copy of A Saint’s Guide to Tartarus and frowned thoughtfully. “I didn’t think to check them for magical residue, but given their circumstances, I can easily see some sort of dark magic being at play here. That would beg the question of who or what brought it about, though… I definitely won’t discount that possibility, but it’s easy to jump to conclusions before we know more.”
She began gathering her other books, stuffing them back in her saddlebags as Horte began going from table to table, setting up wide canopy umbrellas in accordance with the schedule. The rain was set to start in about fifteen minutes, now. As she closed the Guide, though, the pages fell briefly open to a strange illustration before the back cover shut over it. Twilight gasped and immediately reopened the book, flipping through the pages with an intense expression.
“Twilight? Are you okay?” Fluttershy ventured.
“Yeah, I think so. Just… Aha!” Having found the page, she briefly pored over the accompanying text, then set it down on the table and pointed with a hoof. “I got this book from one of the restricted sections of the royal archives; after what happened with Tirek, I felt it might be smart to brush up on what else was locked in Tartarus, in case… in case anything else escaped.”
The image was clearly a recreation of an original, and flipped on its side so its wide form would fit on the page, but even so was a work of art in its own right. Depicted in carefully placed brushstrokes was a landscape of horror, with ponies, zebras, and gryphons clashing wildly, while fires spread on the hills beyond beneath a blood-red moon. Ghostly figures watched from the clouds above; on one side, columns and pillars collapsed, while on the other, a pony bit into the leg of another, both of them wild-eyed and desperate.
But the true centerpiece of the image was above all of that, where four lean mares raced across the sky. The one in the lead was a unicorn with a yellowed coat speckled with pox, holding a bow in her telekinetic field; the arrowhead was stained a terrible green. Close behind was a pegasus of deep red hue, wearing heavy armor and clenching a sword in her mouth. Her mane and tail were aflame, and in her orange eyes was a look of pure hatred as they reflected the fires below. Third in line was a dark blue, not-quite black mare with a broken and empty set of scales; she was gaunt and hollow, and looked at her surroundings with an unbridled hunger. And finally, last but not least, there was a pale horse, a thestral with dark grey coat stained with the soft blue-green of a copper patina. Her legs and neck were knobbly and skeletal, and over her face she wore an iron mask shaped like a pony’s skull. Her eyes shone dark with an inexplicable sorrow, but clenched in her mouth was a long scythe pole reaching down to the battlefield; the blade was cleaving neatly through the writing mass of bodies.
“Well, that’s not exactly cheerful.” Fluttershy commented, tone dry but eyes wide.
Twilight quickly gestured at the text on the opposing page. “It’s says that these are the ‘four horses of the apocalypse,’ who will supposedly come when the world ends, or something along those lines; until the time was right, they were stripped of their mortal forms and imprisoned in a scroll or book, which was placed in a special room in one of the lowest levels of Tartarus. The scroll had seven seals, and breaking the first four would unleash them on the world again.”
“That sounds scary. But what does it have to do with anything?” Fluttershy asked. Rarity, with her keen eye for detail, had already caught on, though, and affixed Twilight with a grave expression.
Twilight could only grimace in response. “Look at them closely. I mean, the details aren’t exact, but don’t they bear a suspicious resemblance?”
“Now, Twilight,” Rarity quickly interjected. “Even assuming you are right, why here and now? And more importantly, as you yourself said, it’s rather early to be jumping to any definitive conclusions, especially one so dire. This could all very well be a coincidence.”
Twilight sighed in relief, slumping down over the table. “I suppose you’re right. I mean, the odds of me reading this exact book right as they show up are pretty slim to begin with, and I could probably draw connections between them and several other completely different things alluded to in other books, just because of the timing.” Having thoroughly convinced herself, she put the book away and resumed eating her sandwich. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
“Oh, it’s no worry, dear.” Rarity gave a dismissive wave of the hoof. “Let us simply concern ourselves with getting to our homes before the storm starts.”
Behind her, just outside the range of the umbrella, water began pouring down and generating a steady hiss, as though the ocean itself were raining down on Ponyville.
Rarity’s jaw clenched. “Right then. A ‘small drizzle,’ this is not.”
Twilight glanced up at the clouds, which were a darker shade than they had been before. “I’ll have to check with the mayor and Rainbow, but I think they said something about heavier rainfall than was put on the official schedule for the next few weeks, something to do with the reservoir.”
“Twilight, my mane is going to be frizzy enough as it is when I return to Carousel Boutique, and I would prefer that that not be exacerbated by staying outside any longer than is strictly necessary. Let’s pay and leave.”
As she and Fluttershy dashed through the quickly-muddying streets of Ponyville, Twilight couldn’t help but think back to the horrifying illustration and the ghastly forms depicted within. Certainly, these newcomers had seemed perfectly harmless, but hadn’t she herself admitted there could likely be dark magic at work here? It seemed like a stretch to claim these fairly kind and soft-spoken mares were the harbringers of the end of days, yet something about them just struck her as odd, and if they really were, she couldn’t afford to take their presence too lightly. No, it was premature to assume they definitively were the Four Horses, she decided, but a little caution and some extra research certainly couldn’t hurt.
Could it?
Author's Note
Not sure if the comedy tag will be strictly warranted, but I do intend to keep this relatively light for the moment.
Author's Notes
Oh, and FYI; the illustration in the book was based off this one, with some obvious liberties taken:
