Nighttide Star [Rewrite Draft]

I galloped through the Everfree as quick as I could, hooves pounding against the mud. Thickets of briars and vines fought to slow me down, but I refused to let whatever had taken Twilight get too far. While my suit protected me from most damage, I was having a hard time keeping my mane from tangling in the briars. The tragedy of looking awesome, of course.

After minutes of chasing the tracking signal, the forest began to thin. I switched on my sonar to bounce sound waves off the trees in hopes of getting a bearing on what lied ahead. Sure enough, it appeared there was a clearing just a few feet ahead.

The canopy overhead began to break, letting streams of dusty sunlight into the woods. I barreled past the beams and straight through a part in the brush. Soon, the trees gave way completely, and I found myself running through belly-high grass. Squinting through the bright daylight, I kept pushing forward – until I skidded to a halt before a far bigger clearing.

“What in the world is this?” I muttered with wide eyes. A crater, perhaps the same circumference as the castle I just left, stretched in front of me, completely surrounded by the Everfree. What shocked me most though was how strangely empty the space was. The crater was overgrown with grass and small shrubs, but no trees grew in its place. It appeared the area had been impacted by some large object in a distant past.

But something was wrong. The tracking signal had approached the center of the crater and then suddenly disappeared. I looked around the edge of the expanse to see if there was a safe way down. It was remarkable, the way the forest seemed to avoid encroaching on the crater. As such, there were no vines or ledges of any sort to make use of, so I figured I might have to fly once again.

But then I noticed something else strange. My sonar seemed to be rebounding from the space in front of me, as if there were a large mass filling the crater. I took a step forward and slowly reached a hoof out to the air in front of me—

“Whoa!” I wrenched my hoof back soon as the tip began to vanish. Stunned, I looked over my hoof and ran a diagnostics, but everything seemed to be fine.

So I tried again. The further I reached into the space, the more my hoof disappeared. It was almost like a cloaking device of some sort covered the air around the crater.

That didn’t make sense though. My sonar was picking up a solid object. So why could my hoof go through it?

Since my suit didn’t seem to be affected by whatever this way, I closed my eyes and slowly bent my head forward into the empty space. A strange kind of cold washed over my muzzle for a second. Then, when I opened my eyes—

“It is a cloak, after all.” Down in the center of the crater sat something that resembled an airship. Surrounding the ship stood a thicket of trees, growing from the ground below and through the cloak. My sensors also picked up the tracking signal once again, which emanated from the ship below.

Pulling my head back, I considered for a moment how to proceed next. I was in a foreign land – an even more foreign forest – and had managed to lose a princess of Equestria. I felt compelled to continue forward on my own, afraid of what might happen at any moment. But something told me this was not my place – that I first needed to inform the others of what was going on.

“You're getting too soft, Nighttide,” I mumbled to myself as I turned in the direction of Ponyville. “This would never have happened if you had stayed by her side.” For once, I decided to throw logic to the side and go on gut instinct:

Tell a friend.

__________

I managed to find my way back to the main trail after only a few minutes. Just before reaching the clearing toward Ponyville, I spotted Fluttershy tending to a group of animals just off the path. Panting, I cried out, “Fluttershy! We have an emergency!”

The animals around Fluttershy scurried away as I galloped up to her. “Nighttide!” Fluttershy said, clearly surprised. “What's wrong? What happened?”

I skidded to a halt in the dirt and took a moment to catch my breath. “Fluttershy… Twilight was kidnapped. Or stolen. Or something – I don't know. She was taken by some invisible floating thing from the old castle!”

Fluttershy's expression immediately turned to panic. “What? Twilight? Wh-what should we do?”

“That's why I'm here. I think I know where she is, but I wanted to let her friends know what happened.”

“Come on, we should tell the others.” Just as Fluttershy turned toward Ponyville, my sensors detected movement in the forest behind me. I spun around and squinted over the canopy of trees. A moment later, I heard Fluttershy call out. “Nighttide! What is it?”

Not a second passed before a cloud of dirt and debris spat into the air over a small portion of the forest in the distance. Using my retinal sensors, I zoomed in on the area and saw the airship-like craft rising in the air, banking away from Ponyville.

“We don't have time,” I shouted over my shoulder. “We have to go after her now.”

Fluttershy squinted into the distance, trying to figure out what the thing was, then looked at me with a horrified expression. “B-but the others—”

“Fluttershy, that thing is taking your princess – your friend – away from us, right now! We've gotta go!”

Galloping ahead, I deployed my wings and engines. Before I took off, I opened my back and shot a warning flare into the air, hoping that somepony else may notice it and see the object in the distance. Fluttershy watched dumbfounded for a few seconds as I took to the air and looped around her.

“Nighttide!” Fluttershy shouted from the ground, “I didn’t know you could fly!”

“Doesn't matter – get up here now!”

Fluttershy spread her wings and pushed herself off the ground, doing her best to catch up with me while I sped forward toward the craft in the distance. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for her to fall behind.

“Alright, too slow, not okay – you're coming with me.” Looping around, I flew over Fluttershy and grabbed her tight around the barrel. Once I had her weight hefted safely in my hooves, I locked all sensors on the airship and gunned the afterburners.

This was my first time pushing these engines to their max, and I had no idea just how loud the things could get. The air around us ripped with the deafening roar of the two turbines, sending me and Fluttershy screaming – literally – through the skies over the forest.

I doubt Fluttershy or I had ever flown this fast in all our lives. I glanced down at the mare who was doing her best to squint forward, eyes tearing up from the wind as her mane was blown back to near oblivion. I shuddered to think what this wind would do to my own mane, but there were more important things to consider at the moment – namely a kidnapped princess.

I looked forward just in time to see the the airship suddenly disappear, appearing to leave no trace of its existence, minus the crater below that was now clearly filled with trees. “Heh, like that's gonna work this time,” I shouted to the wind, keeping my course steady. Switching from sonar to radar, my sensors quickly picked up the location of the object, which was now veering off toward a mountain range in the distance.

“Fluttershy,” I shouted down, “do you know anything about aerial defense?”

“A-aerial—wha—“ Fluttershy stammered uselessly against the wind.

“Forget it, just hang on!”

My radar signaled that at any moment now, we would be entering the cloak field and into who knows what kind of danger. I held Fluttershy as tight to my sternum as I could while I brought our velocity down just enough to prepare for a potential landing.

In a few seconds, we were surrounded by the same cold sensation I experienced back at the crater, and then… well… that “airship” from a distance looked fairly normal earlier. But now that we were within the cloak and flying closer, I realized just how bizarre this thing actually was. The ship itself was shaped somewhat like a boat, with a dark blue painted hull made of wood. But most striking of all were the two giant pegasi wings protruding from each side, flapping slowly in the wind.

“That's the strangest thing I've seen here yet!” I looked over the strange craft curiously while Fluttershy stared at the thing with a lost look. Giving her a light squeeze, I shouted, “Alright lil' filly, when I say go, spread your wings as far as you can!”

I changed our approach angle toward a flat surface near the back of the airship – what appeared to be a deck of some sort. Fluttershy squirmed just a little in my grasp, so I glanced down and gave her a comforting smile in an attempt to reassure her. “You can do this, Fluttershy. I believe in you. Now, get ready!”

Jerking back the flaps along my wings, I reversed the engines and deployed my leg thrusters, then shouted, “Go!” and released Fluttershy to the air beneath her.

The pegasus spread her wings as instructed and filled her plumes with the whipping wind just enough to allow her to safely land on the deck. I then did a quick loop around the circumference of the craft, gauging its different sections before gliding back toward the deck. But just as I went to touch down, the craft swung a hard right.

“Oomph!” I rolled violently across the deck, crushing my left wing beneath my barrel before falling into a crumpled heap at the other end of the deck.

The impact left me lying on my side facing Fluttershy, who crawled toward me as fast as she could, keeping her wings tightly pressed against her sides so she wouldn't be blown off the deck by the wind. “Nighttide!” she called out with a look of panic – though she wasn’t looking straight at me. Glancing over my side, I noticed the only thing that kept me in place was a small railing which, if the ship turned just so, could allow me to fall right off.

“Ungh…” I did my best to roll over onto my stomach. My left wing hung limply out of my side, its engine spitting out smoke. I retracted her other wing and engine before squinting back at the damage that was done.

Fluttershy crawled up beside me. “Are you alright?” she shouted against the wind.

“Looks like I won't be flying for a while,” I slyly remarked, if only to keep Fluttershy calm. There was no way magic would be able to fix this damage, and I couldn’t fit the heap of junk back inside my suit. So, with a single command, I ejected the wing from its mount, sending sparks shooting out of my side. The wing fell with a loud clatter against the deck before sliding off the deck into the forest below. I retracted the damaged engine to examine later and attempted to stand against the wind.

From what I could tell, this was an observation deck of some sort. Across the deck against a short wall was a door with a single porthole-shaped window.

“Come on, Fluttershy. Let's find a way inside this thing.” I started to slink forward, but then I noticed Fluttershy locked in place behind me. “Fluttershy,” I called back, “let's go!”

The little pegasus shook in place, seemingly glued to the deck now and unable to move.

Ugh, why couldn't I have run into Rainbow Dash or something, I thought begrudgingly myself. Slinking back to her, I said, “Fluttershy, what’s wrong?”

“I just… I-I can't…” Fluttershy stared straight at me on shaky knees, tears welling in her eyes.

“Fluttershy, listen to me. Somewhere inside this thing is Twilight. I'm sorry it had to be you, but you are the one I brought along for this. We need to rescue her.” I paused for a moment and furrowed my brow. “I know this isn't the first time you've had to do something scary! I’ve heard some of the stories from Twilight. So what's wrong?”

Indeed, this was not Fluttershy's first time facing adversity for the sake of a friend. I could understand if she was a little shell-shocked from the sudden flight lesson, but to break under pressure now? Talk about bad timing.

Thankfully, Fluttershy slowly regained her composure and steadied her legs. “W-w… what should we do next?” she managed to stammer with a look of seriousness.

“That's my little pony,” I said in as reassuring a manner as I could against the wind. “Follow me.”

We crawled our way to the door at the other end. I reached up for the knob, but was pushed back when it suddenly swung open – and in the doorway stood a familiar blue unicorn stallion.

“S-Sterling Lazuli?!” I called over the rushing wind.

“I thought I heard something up here,” Sterling shouted back. “Either you can stay out here and try to survive the elements, or you can come inside.”

I peered across the side of the deck. The ship was steadily increasing altitude, and from what little I could tell beyond the front of the ship, it looked like we were headed for the top of a mountain.

With no other discernable choice, I nodded to Sterling and began to crawl inside, with Fluttershy right behind me.

__________

Fluttershy and I followed Sterling down a narrow hall, dimly lit by a set of hanging manalights that swayed with the ship. Now that we were clear of the whipping winds, I was able to free my weapons. Two plates along my sides unfastened with a soft click, and I readied my systems to take aim at a moment’s notice.

Stepping to the side to place Fluttershy behind me, I cleared my throat, causing Sterling’s ears to flick my way. “So, fancy airship. Where’d you learn to grow wings like that?”

Sterling exhaled audibly and tilted his head back. “I'm sorry ponies, but this was one adventure you were not supposed to partake in.”

Before either of us could respond, Sterling cast a magic around our sides, restricting our movement to directly forward. I could neither shift my weight side-to-side nor turn my heads, let alone deploy my weapons.

“Sterling!” I shouted. “What's the meaning of this?”

“I'm afraid it's not Sterling, actually.”

“No, it's not,” shouted a familiar voice defiantly from down the hall.

Before long, we walked into a large, hanger-like room that housed a bunch of small crates and a single cage affixed to one of the corners of the room. “You know,” the voice continued, “one cage in an alternate universe was enough for me. I'd really prefer not to have to go through this again.”

Sterling led us to a railing that ran along an overhang. Down below, Twilight stood in the cage, and she seemed far more disgruntled than worried. “Twilight!” Fluttershy called down to her.

“Hey, girls…” Twilight's ears folded back as she watched her would-be heroes being led down a flight of stairs in her direction.

“Well, Twilight,” our captor spoke, “why don't you introduce me to your friends here?”

Twilight groaned. “Girls, this here is Riptide – formerly of the Royal Guard.”

“... Riptide? Seriously?” I would have turned to glare at the stallion, but then the cage door opened, and the two of us were nudged inside.

“And you two might be?” Riptide asked as he closed the door behind the three ponies.

“M-my…” Fluttershy visibly gulped. “My name is Fluttershy.”

Grabbing hold of the bars, I introduced myself once more to the stallion. “Nighttide Star, of the Daedalus Institute of Research and Exploration. You are in direct violation of DIRE code 719—”

“Uhm, Nighttide?” Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder. “That won't be necessary…”

I glanced back at her and pouted before turning to watch Riptide pace outside of the cage. “Alright, there's a couple things I want to know,” he began with a calm tone. “First off, Nighttide, you're obviously no ordinary pony. I noticed you had been by the Princess' side here for the past couple of days, and after I saw you flying with Rainbow Dash over Ponyville, I grew curious. The patch was supposed to examine your magical abilities, but it proved useless in the end. Admittedly, it was a fluke that I ran into you last night, but it was an opportunity I couldn't pass—”

“Okay, look here Ripoff,” I barked back, “let me save you the pain of going through a stereotypical spiel. Just answer this one important question: What's going on here?”

Riptide cleared his throat and sat down in front of the cage. He took a moment to look between me and Twilight with a strangely serious expression. “As Twilight mentioned, I used to be a member of the Royal Guard – for several years, in fact. During my service, I studied many spells that could help me become a better member of the guard. As you can see…” Riptide suggested to his flank at a cutie mark of river rapids. “I'm not actually a medical specialist. My true talent lies in water-based magic.”

I glanced over at Twilight, who seemed to know what the dude was talking about. “Water magic?”

“Correct,” he continued, redirecting my attention. “My position in the Royal Guard was such that in the event of a crisis based within or around a large body of water, I would be able to provide both offensive and defensive services. I'm one of very few unicorns whose talent is with water-related magic.”

“You should tell them the important part, though,” Twilight remarked, her tone laced with venom.

“Of course.” Riptide cleared his throat and took a seat in front of me. “As I furthered my studies, I started to develop a theory. While not exactly related to water-based magic, I got many of the basic principles from how aquatics work.” Riptide paused for a moment. “Over the years, I have been developing something I call 'negative magic'.”

“Negative magic?” Fluttershy timidly asked from behind.

“It is neither dark magic nor the kind of magic us unicorns usually use. It stands alone. Where ours and dark magic 'create', negative magic 'eliminates.' Even infamous creatures like Discord use their magic to create or manipulate something out of a substance that already exists. Negative magic, on the other hand, does the opposite. It removes without the need to replace. It can isolate, encapsulate, and destroy.”

“Well, that sounds evil and junk,” I remarked with thick sarcasm.

“Magic is what you will it to be. Creative or negative magic can be used for either good or bad, but there is a specific difference worth mentioning with negative magic.”

“Go on,” Twilight implored.

“The use of pure negative magic will absolutely erase the existence of whatever it is used on. Space, an object… even a pony.”

Fluttershy cowered further behind us. My ears flicked at the tremor in her quickened breaths, which made me suddenly feel very defensive. But there was one point that had me curious.

Stepping closer to Twilight, I said, “I still don't get what's going on here. What's your motive?”

“I can help you there,” Twilight spoke up. “Riptide here explained that he’s also been observing the Princesses alicorn magic for the last couple of years – at least as much as he could from a distance. But when he heard that a pony living in Ponyville had become an alicorn, things changed. After my coronation, Riptide decided watching over me might be a more convenient solution. He then slacked off so much on his duties that the Royal Guard let him go. Since then, he's been living in the Everfree Forest by night, Ponyville by day.”

“Motive?” I whined. “What's the motive? Anypony?”

“To become the next most famous magician in history,” Twilight answered resolutely.

I… what?

I couldn't believe my ears. “Seriously? That’s it? Just how PG can you ponies get?! You guys are really able to become power-hungry?”

Riptide slumped his shoulders. “Princess Twilight, of all the ponies in Equestria, you should be the last one to so grossly simplify a point. It's not a hunger for power.”

“Then what is it?” Twilight asked with a cocked eyebrow.

Riptide sighed and looked away. I immediately wanted to scoff at the gesture, but I held my tongue. Or lungs. Whatever. “Equestria is a beautiful, peaceful land – that much, we can probably all agree on. And that is thanks in no small part to both the Princesses in Canterlot, the cooperation of billions of ponies over the centuries, and of course, the Elements of Harmony. But in the context of Equestria as a whole, there is a problem with our tactics when it comes to facing some of the more complex issues in life.”

I noticed Twilight's ears flicked forward out of my periphery.

“Thousands of years ago, long before the unity of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, ponies of all sorts fought wars with other ponies – and other creatures – in order to conquer the large majority of the land that now makes up Equestria. Through the unity of these ponies and the establishment of Equestria, peace was eventually established. But had it not been for those wars many years ago, this land may well have never existed.”

I looked over at Twilight. She seemed surprisingly curious about what this stallion now had to say. “I've read a lot about the history of Equestria, and I know a little about what you're describing. But we don't have a very detailed account of those times… do we?”

“Only if you know where to look.” Riptide looked away with a solemn expression. “You know how dark magic is forbidden?”

“Of course,” Twilight said with a nod.

“The same goes for Equestria's most ancient history. I discovered the works in a secret corridor within the Castle of the Two Sisters.”

Twilight blinked. “A secret passage? With works of history?”

“With detailed accounts by the ponies of those times.” Riptide stepped up to the bars between us and met Twilight’s gaze squarely. “They are very fragile collections of scrolls and tablets. Our Princesses locked up a small treasure trove of these hoof-written works by the stallions and mares of those days, works that detailed a most gruesome prelude to the eventual clash – and unity – of the three pony races. Those ponies used lethal tactics in order to conquer this land. Blood was shed, suffering was experienced on all sides. Through those means, Equestria eventually became what it is today.”

Twilight wilted a little at that. I looked between the two, very much confused, before Twilight eventually lifted her head. “I'm sorry, Riptide. That's a very well put-together story you have there, but it's pretty hard to believe. And how would you have run across this secret corridor anyway?”

“I read comics when I was a colt once,” he replied genially. “You pull on enough things hanging from the wall, something's bound to happen. Where do you think they got the inspiration for the stories?”

“Alright,” I finally spoke again, “now that the history lesson is finished… motive?!”

“To develop a form of magic that can be used in the event of a major crisis that jeopardizes the lives of those living in Equestria,” Riptide answered flatly.

Now all three of us looked at him with utter confusion.

“Y-you mean, you're trying to help Equestria?” Fluttershy asked as she stood a little closer to Twilight's side.

“Yes. The reason you are all locked up is because I'm afraid the Princesses in Canterlot would look down on my studies very critically.” Riptide stood up and gave us an empathetic look. “This is not a grab at collateral. I need to learn more about Twilight's alicorn magic in order to finish my work, but walking up to a Princess and asking for her help to develop what could potentially be the world's most dangerous form of magic wasn't exactly a viable option. Hence why I had to kidnap her – I won't even sugarcoat it.”

“And you really think I'd cooperate now?” Twilight shouted at the stallion.

“I presume not,” Riptide replied. “And it's unfortunate that you two showed up as well,” he added, suggesting to Fluttershy and I. “But there is something I want to know now that I've explained my story.”

Riptide walked up to the bars in front of me and met my gaze squarely. “What are you?”

I blinked. The question took me off guard for sure, but there was no mistaking what he meant.

Still, that didn't mean I had to reveal any information. “I don't come from a world where we believe in ‘if you tell, I'll tell.’ Just because you explained your story doesn't mean I'm going to open up.”

Riptide looked me over slowly. Most mares would probably take offense at the way this stallion covered every square inch of my body with his eyes, but it wasn’t exactly as if he was checking out my curves. “One thing is for sure: you're not a magical pony. You neither have a horn nor wings to speak of, and my patch didn't pick up any earth pony magic either.”

Well, thank goodness for predictable character revelations. “So you were trying to see if I had magic by using that patch?”

“Correct. It's a spell created by one of Star Swirl the Bearded's lesser-known students.” He frowned for a moment. “It's incredible that such a resource as the Castle of the Two Sisters has been so recklessly abandoned…”

“Much as I'd like to sympathize with you,” Twilight said beside me, “I'm afraid we're at an impasse. I don't believe any of us are going to cooperate with anything you have to suggest.”

“And I expected as much. Had it not been for your friends showing up, I wouldn't have had to lock you up the way I did.”

“So what?” Twilight shouted. “You were still using your magic to restrain me!”

Riptide scowled at Twilight. “I just kidnapped a princess of Equestria – an alicorn with incredible magical capabilities. Did you really think I'd let you just walk around my ship as you please?”

He shook his head, then relaxed his posture. “Here's how this will work, everypony. Until I am finished analyzing Twilight's magic, you are all going to have to stay locked in here. My ultimate intent is to complete the development of negative magic and stabilize it for regular use. Right now, it's still a bit tricky for a unicorn to wield – even the slightest error in its use could be cataclysmic. Once it’s complete, I will surrender to the Royal Guard, but only on the condition that the Princesses review the research I have completed and promise to store it in their files – even if it's locked away from everypony else.”

Twilight furrowed her brow and lifted a hoof, clearly dumbstruck. “Why are you so desperate to create this negative magic, Riptide?”

“Equestria is ruled with peace. But it may not always be able to be defended as peacefully. While we have the Royal Guard, it may not be sufficient to use in the event of an uprising by a collective group of ponies or other creatures.” He glanced over at the crates behind him. “It's been millennia since any formal war was fought on these grounds, and this magic could prove to be the ultimate solution in the event of an otherwise insolvable crisis.”

“How do you propose this magic be used in the event of such a crisis?” I asked.

“In whatever manner the Princesses deem fit. Unfortunately, there is only one truly effective means which I have hypothesized.” Riptide grimaced. “To use it as a weapon to erase the opposition.”

Both Fluttershy and Twilight wilted at that. But I was not as moved. Having grown up with war as the hot topic in my society, I confronted Riptide with one honest question.

“So you would have the peaceful ponies of Equestria protect their ground by killing?”

Riptide looked me straight in the eyes. With all the honesty in the world, he replied, “Yes.”

I understood exactly what the stallion meant. In my world, war was a necessary tool to use when other groups and nations threatened their well-being. But there was one thing which I had learned during my very short stay in Equestria.

“Riptide,” I began. “I believe I understand the concept of war better than either of these ponies standing here with me. And yet, I think you've missed one critical point in your venture… I'm afraid these ponies would never use such a tactic as mass murder for the sake of their own well-being.” I glanced at the two mares before continuing. “I don't know the history of Equestria like Twilight does, or all the various nuances of its government, but I do know the hearts of a hoofful of its ponies. And, heck, even the ponies I don't know all seem to radiate a sense of contentment unlike any I’ve ever seen. To think these ponies would ever stand against another with death in their hearts?” I shook my head. “I don't see that ever happening.”

Riptide snorted. “Better to be prepared than not.” And with that, he used his magic to lead Twilight out of the cage.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy and I both shouted, grabbing hold of her by the withers. It was useless though, as the magic Riptide cast prevented us from following her out of the cage.

Riptide led Twilight up the same flight of stairs from which we came, leaving Fluttershy and I to watch helplessly from our cage. Once the two made their way onto the overhang, I noticed something odd about Twilight’s expression. She didn't seem to be resisting anymore. If anything, she almost seemed to be accepting of what was taking place. Surely Twilight didn’t think was now a good idea?

Soon, the two rounded a bend into another hall. Fluttershy ambled up to my side and lifted a hoof to the bars. “Is there any way we can help her?”

“Give it a little time,” I whispered just as Twilight and Riptide walked out of sight. “I've got all sorts of ideas to bust this joint.”