Chapter 1: The Storm Is Not the Only Challenge
Scrrrrplaaat! Books fell after three ponies came flying out of the mirror. Before long the three of them stood up brushing off the books. One was a red and black, what looks like a Pegasus pony, which was wearing ceremonial knight armor, sunglasses, and had a rapier strapped to his side. Another was blue with a light blue mane and tail, she wore a purple cape and wizard hat, who seemed to be an unicorn. The last one was yellow and had a green mane and tail, he wore scale mail and had a long-sword strapped to his side, he also seemed to be an unicorn.
Across from the area they landed in was a rocking chair with a familiar purple dragon rocking in it. He seems much older and larger now.
"Spike?" The yellow pony asked in a muttered tone.
"Hello fated ones. I am Spike. I have been waiting for those who where foretold to come to save all of Equestria." Spike says as he stands up from the chair. "Besides that stuff, does any pony have a gem they can give to me?"
The blue and yellow ponies shake their heads no, still with their confused looks on their faces. The red and black pony then steps forward and pulls out a blood ruby and tosses it to Spike.
"Their you go." The red and black pony spoke up. "I am Soundry Highbringer, a coffee and tea delivery pony."
"Thank you kind sir..." Spike began to say, but then the blue pony interjected.
"You spoke of us being the foretold ones, but then you asked for a treat. Are you going to explain anything to us? Do you not know who I am?" She said in a powerful and annoying voice. With no answer, she began to speak again. "I am the great and powerful Trix!"
"You do remind me of Trixie, but..." Spike try to state, but Trix interjected again.
"I may be similar to that pony, but I am different and better anyways."
"Well I am Mario Bashville of the United Celestial Protectors. Just in case anypony wanted to know." The yellow pony said.
"Nice to meet you." Soundry said with a wide grin on his muzzle, as he pulls a thermus and tankard from his bag. "Coffee?"
"Sounds great. Thanks." Mario answers.
Spike then coughs up a scroll and hands it over to Trix. "This is a letter from the King, Shining Armor. This will inform you of all you need to know."
Trix then turns her head and walks towards the door. Come you fools, let us leave. Staying in the same room as this dragon any longer will make me vomit."
Soundry and Mario turn towards spike and Soundry spoke up. "Well spike it was nice meeting you, but I kind of want to fly about and maybe I can mess with snobby over there." He smiles. "See
you later."
The three of them then leave the room to find themselves in the halls of the crystal empire. Trix then opens the letter and begins to read it out loud. "Dear fated ones, the lands of Equestria has fallen to evil and its magic. The mane six have turned to the dark arts and the princesses no where to be found. Please bring forth a new era of magic and friendship. Come and see me when you can
spread good news. Good luck foretold ones." Trix then throws the scroll down and yells. "What a load of crap. I'm leaving an exploring the surrounding area. You two are my underlings now. Follow me."
"For now." Mario says.
"Whatever." Soundry says as he gets airborne, flying upside down.
A black crow then flys from Trix's bag and circles Soundry. "This is my bird, he is above you on the food chain."
Soundry then smirks and licks his lips, then speaking under his breath. "We will see about that."
The four of them then leave the building finding themselves in the middle of the crystal empire. They travel to the southern edge of the city, then Trix turns into the tailor shop once seeing the blizzard outside of the city. A large barrier was erected around all of the city, no doubt Shining Armor's doing. Trix walks up and points at a cloak, but then the shop keep wrote 200 bits down and Trix stepped back astonished. He then points to a heavy potato sack cloak and writes down 70 bits. Trix's face becomes red with anger before she slams down the coinage and takes the cloak and leaves. Soundry then grabs a red scarf and places the written bits down, then leaving. Mario did the same with another of the potato sack cloaks and leaves. They then gather at the edge of the southern
exit. They all exit.
Soundry flys up into the sky. The blizzard isn't bad, but the two grounded ponies only have ten feet worth of vision because of it. Soundry on the other hand has a twenty feet worth of vision. Soundry flies ahead and as he does that, Trix starts a tantrum, complaining about Soundry. Before long, the crows wings began to freeze and he eventually went back to Trix's bag. Soundry begins circling Trix and drops a copper bit on her.
"What are you doing fool! Do you want me to hurt you!" Trix yells.
"Troll up ahead." Soundry says before flying ahead disappearing from the other two's sight.
"What? You infuriating Pegasus! Knight, What do you see ahead? The Pegasus said there was a troll." Trix asks.
"I don't see anything..." He began to say before he spotted something. He sees a large shadow like figure and the figure is waving through the storm, as if the figures body was a wave.
"There is a figure ahead." He then sees Soundry land in front of the figure and pull out a thermus and offer up a beverage.
"Is it a troll?" Trix asks.
"I don't think so. Soundry in offering it something." Mario answers.
"Fool, I need to know what is up there. Get closer and tell me!" She yells.
Mario moves up closer and as he got ten feet away from the shadow, he imeadiatly knew who it was. It was Princess Celestia. "It is princess Celestia, not a troll. Well then again she is..."
"That PEGASUS! It wasn't the type of troll we needed to worry about!" Trix yells.
Celestia's eyes dart to Trix and she smiles. Three purple darts bolt from their conjuration, forming from the princess's magic, to Trix hitting her. Soundry jumps back and takes flight, while Mario readies himself to charge at Celestia. Trix stands back up as Soundry stabs his rapier at Celestia, to only have it fully miss her. He then smiles and flys off in the direction he was facing. Mario then charges Celestia only to implant his muzzle into the ground.
Trix steps back and speaks up. "Alright guys attack."
Soundry continues to attack and stabs into Celestias flank to only have her empower her hove and slam it into his face. This sent him flying into the snow near Trix. As Trix looks at Soundry,
she notices that he isn't moving. He seems dead.
Mario gets his muzzle free and yells back to Trix. "You fight! I can't do this alone, especially against a magic user! I can't even use magic!"
"What!? No, I can't..." Began to say, but then Celestia moves up to strike down Mario.
At that moment, Trix notices the body is transforming into that of a changeling. Bolts of lightning and balls of light fall to the ground near celestia, three of the bolts of lightning hit her, frying her. Her body then lays smoking, burnt as a crisp. It then changes into that of a high level changeling.
Two more ponies come from the blizzard. One looked just like Trix and the other like Mario. Trix and Mario ready themselves to fight the two impostors, but then Soundry Highbringer comes from the sky skewering the Mario impersonator with his rapier. The Trix impostor runs at Trix, but then Soundry flings the body of the Mario impersonator into the Trix impersonator. After incapacitating the Trix impersonator, Soundry stabs her, killing the changeling. The group then loots the bodies of the changeling to only find a top hat, bow tie (which go to Mario), an orb (which goes to Soundry), and an amulet (which goes to Trix).
The group then leaves the area without muttering a word. Soundry has flown off from the sight of the group and only regrouped with them when they exited the blizzard. His pack seems to be a little more packed then the last time the group had seen his pack.
"Let us stop by the waterfall on our way to Manehatten..." Trix started to say.
"Why? Why Manehatten?" Soundry asked.
"I just want to go there."
"Canterlot is much closer."
"I said Manehatten!" Trix yells.
"Fine." Soundry says as he caves to her demand. He then whispers, "You are not safe from my acts."
The group then stop their travels at Neighagra Falls. Mario sets up a single tent and goes in as Soundry place wood in a area. He gazes at it and it sparks to life. Fire now sits in the spot the wood use to occupy. Trix walks over to where soundry is and sees that he is cooking something over the fire, having no clue to what it is, until she smells it. It is meat.
"What are you eating, you peon." She says.
"Our catch."
"Our catch?"
"What we killed."
Soundry is eating the changelings. Trix is thinking how much of a monster Soundry is. She runs for Mario to tell him. She then speaks. "He is eating the changelings. He's evil."
Mario then speaks up. "He doesn't seem evil to me. He has helped me more than you have and he is nicer than you."
"You are on first watch Almighty Trix!" Soundry says erupting in laughter. He goes to the tent to retire, but then turns his head to Trix. "Watch how you treat ponies, you may be the next one to suffer that fate."
Chapter 2: The Initial Fall of Soundry
As the night passed on, Soundry’s turn for guard duty came about. As morning was to break, a lone changeling was spotted by Soundry’s aerial post. Soundry flew down, tackling the changeling near the fire pit. Soundry then pressed his muzzle to the changeling’s and spoke. “You look delicious young fool. How would you like to be my next meal?”
The look on the changeling’s face was that of terror. The changeling struggled and let out a cry, but before it could be known, Soundry stomped the changeling’s throat nearly silencing the changeling. Soundry then threw the changeling up into the air as he himself began flight. In the silence of the morning, Soundry had fun bashing the beaten changeling before kicking him into the direction of the tent.
“Oops…” Soundry said as the changeling crashed through the flap of the tent.
Startled by the changeling landing in the tent, Trix and Mario jumped up preparing to react to the creature. The creature lay dead in the tent. Soundry flew in and landed near the corpse and looked at Trix. He then smirked before dragging the corpse out of the tent. Time went by before the hacking noises outside ended and Soundry walked back in.
“What’s going on? The great and powerful Trix demands to know!” Trix demanded.
“I got rid of the pest that found us.” Soundry scoffs. “It’s your turn to keep watch again.”
Trix was then pushed out of the tent before she could respond to him again.
Mario then cast a spell on Soundry to detect his moral compass. It was as he suspected, Soundry was evil, but he owed his life to Soundry for saving him. Even though his vows as a Paladin command him to take action against Soundry, he couldn’t kill the stallion that saved his life. Before they had come through the mirror, Soundry had been found by Mario. Mario tended to the Stallion’s wounds and had defended him from the rugged pursuer’s. Soundry had disclosed to Mario that he was unrightfully placed in an insane asylum and needed help escaping from the country he was in. Soundry’s words rung to Mario’s heart as if a spell was cast on him, persuading him of Soundry’s innocence and purity. Mario had then told Soundry of his order, The Dawn of the New Moon. He told Soundry that he would allow Soundry to join him on his quest if he could be of use. Soundry explained to him that he was great at flying being a pony with wings, he could scout for him. Mario agreed and allowed Soundry to join him. He didn’t cast his detection spell at the time, because he believed Soundry without any doubt.
Trix walks in and wakes the two stallions from their sleep. They all get ready for their travels and leave towards Manehatten. Along the way, they find themselves near train tracks with soft set of hoof steps coming from in front of them. In the distance they could see an Earth pony and two Pegasus ponies pulling carts of items. The closer they got the more they seemed to be traveling merchants. Soundry flies over to the ponies, upside down mind you, and stares at the earth pony. Soundry had this unsettling smirk on his face, but the pony was unfazed by it, at least at first.
“Hello fellow ponies, I am sorry for my peon there. Are you merchants?” Trix asks.
“He is a bit disturbing, but yes we are. What are you looking for? A wand of fireballs, a healing staff, or even food?” The earth pony says.
“The wand would be nice.” Trix says.
“Great choice. How would you like to do the transaction? Coin or trade?” The earth pony asks.
“Trade, I don’t have much coin on me.” Trix pulls a few things out of pocket, but the stallion just shakes his head.
“You don’t seem to have anything I want…” The earth pony began saying before Soundry pulled out the orb he found on the changeling back in the outskirts of the Crystal Empire. “My word, you have one of the brewing orbs? I would gladly accept the trade.” Soundry hoofs over the orb and grabs the wand. “Thank you my good fellow.”
“No big deal. I brew my on teas and coffee. I didn’t need that orb.” Soundry says before walking over to Trix. “This is so you are not useless when we run into combat.” Soundry is nearly muzzle to muzzle with Trix. If she could see through Soundry’s tented goggles, she would see a menacing stare directed towards her. “Don’t betray my trust in you, ok? I would hate to have to kill you over it.” Soundry walks back over to the Earth pony and shakes hoofs with him. “Nice meeting you. Bye.” The group then trots off along the railway.
Days have passed and the group arrives at a mountain with the railway carving into it. The cave that the railway leads to looks near collapsible. Soundry flies off towards the cave, while the other two walk far behind him. He explores the cave to find a massive crevice blocking any ground advancement. Before long, the other two arrived and Soundry said he would fly each one of them across, but then three dogs show up on the other side of the crevice. One slung something at Soundry, knocking Soundry into the fracture. The other two readied for battle and Trix pulled the wand out firing off a fireball from it, but as she did, Soundry had flown up. The fireball struck Soundry, sending him to the other side of the crevice. She fired off another knocking the three dogs into the crevice. After half a minute of silence, the group heard the splat of the dogs.
Mario threw a chain with a metal spike in it at the other side, landing it firmly into the ground near Soundry. Securing it with another spike on this side, Mario walked over to Soundry. “I wish I had magic I could use, I would heal you.”
Trix walked up to Soundry and kicked him. “We should throw him into the Crevice and be done with this fool.”
“How could you speak that way? This stallion has saved both of us. Me twice.” Mario stated.
“How? He’s a loony! He is better off dead!” Trix yelled, but Mario stared at her intensely. “Fine, but I don’t know how we are going to help him.”
At that time a small bunny peeked its head around the corner staring at the party. It as a pouch on it and in the pouch was a visible red potion. It pulled it out and rolled it over towards Soundry and hopped off.
“I guess that will work.” Trix says as Mario pours the vials contents into Soundry’s mouth.
Before long, Soundry was up and flying again. “Thank you, my friend.” Soundry said to the Paladin.
The group then continued on their way to Manehatten. They were stopped at massive gates to the City and two earth ponies, in fancy armor, standing guard.
“May I enter?” Soundry asked, but he received no response.
Before long, a pony on the tops of the gate looked down and spoke. “What is your business here Pegasus?”
“I am looking for work. You see I am a delivery pony and I have come to this prosperous city for work.” Soundry stated to the guard.
“We do not need any of your talents in this city.”
“I can also do other things. I can brew coffee, tea, and potions. I can do many things.”
“All we need are workers that would do cheap fabric related jobs for Queen Rarity. Do you have any experience with fabrics?” The Guard asks with a smirk on his face, as if he knew Soundry couldn’t work fabrics.
Soundry had no idea how to work with fabrics, but he decided to lie and say he knew how to. It was for the good of the cause that the paladin is working for. “Yes I do.”
Like magic, the guard believed Soundry’s words and opened the gate.
“I also need my assistant to help me.” Soundry said pointing to Mario. Soundry at that time noticed Trix was not with them.
As if he were still under a spell he agreed to allow Mario in as well.
With Soundry’s entrance into the city, who knows what will befall him or the group. He disappeared from Mario’s sight, but Trix was right next to Mario now.
“See he flew off and left us. We should have plunged him into the gorge.” Trix exclaimed.
Soundry was flying about for a little time and visited a very fancy looking area. An Ivory palace towered over this district. “Looks like a good place to find some information and some coin.” Soundry flew down to where a guard stood at the gate. “Hello my good fellow. I wish to enter this area to receive employment at this establishment. The guard remained quiet. “May I enter sir?” He did not speak. “Sir?” Silence still filled the air. “Fine I will go in from above.” Soundry flew up and attempted to fly in from the top, but as he tried, it seemed that he hit an invisible wall. Soundry flew right back to the guard. “Fine, you got your way, douche.”
Soundry flew off and continue scouting the city. Before long, Soundry had memorized the layout of the city. A short time after that, Soundry spotted Mario and Trix, he decided to go and follow them. The group then entered an inn somewhere in the moderate looking area in the city. The group found the keeper of the inn and requested rooms. They each got their own room and removed themselves from each other’s presence.
In the dead of night, Soundry was awoken from loud knocks at the door. He trotted over to the door and asked who it was, but no one answered. He pull his rapier out and cracked the door, upon seeing a guard, he placed his weapon down and fully opening the door. “May I help you?”
“We need to speak with you.” The guard furthest in the back said.
Soundry has a keen sense to magic and can tell when magic is near him. He can determine if a detection magic is being casted on him. All ponies have a sense of magic, but these guards don’t. Soundry is no ordinary winged pony; he is a moon pony with a few tricks up his sleeves. He doesn’t seem like a moon pony do to his feathered wings instead of the dragon kin wings, but this mishap helps him in his disguise. Soundry could only assume that these guards, besides the one that talked, are mechanical, but he retracts his assumption remembering that even mechanical things have magic auras, due to the fact that is how they work, by using magic.
“Ok, but I have a question.” Soundry said. “Why 90 percent of the guards in this town fake ponies?”
“Your question has no bases. Follow me. The guard says.
Time passes before Soundry arrives at the guard barracks in the regal district, pass the ivory palace gates. “So…” Soundry began saying.
“Listen here puny Pegasus. You stay away from the regal district and never come back. You got it?! We don’t want you anywhere near here.”
“Then why did you drag me here.”
“Get out and never come back!”
Something sparked in Soundry then, as he began to leave. A twitch began and a creepy smile formed. “Ok.”
The morning come to a flourishing start. Soundry awoke in his bed and looked out the window to see a large banner with Rarity’s face on it saying, ‘Be Fabulous or Else’. His mind raced as he was thinking on how he can screw over the lives of the people in this town, but then he wondered why he was wanting to do that. It then occurred to him. ‘Others betrayed me. They don’t give a damn about me. Those ponies out there mean to bring harm to me and I cannot take it. I can only trust my friends and those who seem trustworthy, but I wouldn’t know what to do if someone were to break that trust. I will probably kill them. Yeah that seems right. Maybe eat them too. Yes. This seems the best course. This is how I will react. I will threaten my way through what I don’t like. I kind of sort of already do, but I will do it in a more ferocious manner. I just need my friends by my side that is all I need. Wait, but what if my mischievous…. Never mind. I should start my day off by burning that banner. I should get Trix to turn me invisible while I do this. I have the perfect cloak to give her if she agrees. I bought it last night at the tailor shop I stumbled upon on my way back to the inn. The old one there was really nice to me. I should consider him in the trust circle….’
Soundry went to Trix’s room and knocked. “Who is it?” Her voice sounded from the room.
“Red Mage, I have a deal for you.”
“Ok, I’ll be out in a minute.” She said. Thirty minutes pass before she walked out of the room. “What?”
Soundry pulled out this blue, lavish coat. “Turn me invisible once. Follow me and when I say, VWOOSH, turn me invisible. This will be yours.”
Her eyes lit up. “Ok.”
She followed him to an alley across the street to where he was at an angle that he could see the banner. A woman kept watching them and Soundry just waited until she walked away. She walked over to a guard. From Soundry’s hoof, an orange spark flew at the banner and he said. “VWOOSH.” In an instant, he was gone.
