All of Ponyville was, well one wouldn't say quiet, but it was another normal day, vendors were selling items and all the weather ponies were working on clearing the skies, except for one Pegasus who could clear it all in 'Ten seconds flat'. All was normal in ponyville, except there were times when a monster or two would attack the town, or something else like the parasprites, and once in a while it would be something else, something worse, yet it was standard for the ponies, they're even accustomed to an object or two being broken and maybe an entire building being damaged sometimes, because of a certain, near sighted, pony. Everypony couldn't exactly blame Derpy for her neurological disability, so that too was normal in ponyville, heck it was also well known to be the place where a certain pink, party planning, sugar crazed, strange, and theorized to break the forth wall pony was, and the newest princess in Equestria, as if the castle wasn't a dead give away.
As Rainbow Dash realized she was thinking about two of her friends she sighed, unlike her, all her friends were busy today and it was morning still, which means they're barely starting their work; Applejack had her chores, Rarity was busy with an order from a celebrity she didn't know, since she wasn't into all that fashion nonsense, Pinkie pie had her bake sales, delivering some of them, and she was watching over the cakes today, Twilight was doing egghead stuff, and lots of it too which means she will probably ignore her and focus on studying, researching, or whatever she's doing now, Starlight Glimmer, she would give her a try, but she doesn't know exactly where she hangs out whenever she's not at the castle and, Fluttershy she as usual was tending to her anima--'Wait what has fluttershy been up to lately, because she's been acting strange,' True to her word fluttershy has been acting strange, although non of her friends could tell, except maybe pinkie pie, who seemed suspicious about her. She knew it when she saw it, she knew it when she heard it, she knew it every time she sensed the dread coming off of her whenever she talked to her. Fluttershy was trying to hide something! A thing she thought she would never see or hear her friend do, because she knows fluttershy better than any of her friends, she was her first and closest child hood friend, yet here she was being cautious about what she says and acting paranoid, and she's been doing this for months!
''But not anymore fluttershy,'' rainbow thought out loud to herself. ''You've dragged this out long enough, today you will answer, today is your 'Judgement Day'!" rainbow's eyes widened at that last statement, her eyes darted around, back and forth, looking around in case if anypony heard her, she then laughed to herself. "Man I am so bored that I'm even making this dramatic to myself, heh next thing you know I'll become like rarity," she said to herself, and no one in particular. Unbeknownst to her Judgement Day was today but not for fluttershy, it was for her.
She soon started following fluttershy, and as she was following her she was trying to figure out what she could be hiding. 'Maybe she's still a vampony?...guess I'm gonna have to wait and find out.' she didn't have to wait long, because it looked like she was heading to twilight's castle. 'Their conspiring against me again!' rainbow's face turned into a glare, but changed back to a neutral one. 'Nah! They know I've learned my lesson, even though I'm still angry they conspired against me for the second time! And shown once again, that they don't trust me.' shaking her head to get rid of the bad memories, she entered through a window stealthily, as fluttershy entered through the door, and followed her to the library portion of the castle. Rainbow dash noticed that all the lights were out and everything was eerily quiet, it was getting a bit scarier as the time dragged on, and it suddenly started feeling like a there was a mad science experiment, that had gone horribly wrong, in some secret lab, had occurred. These thoughts were all irrelevant to her, as she was stubborn and prideful she soldiered on, determined to get to the bottom of all this.
After they both slowly entered the library fluttershy, unaware that rainbow was spying on her from the shadows, called out. "Um, twilight are you there?" No answer. "Twilight," No answer again. "Ohh, twilight where are you?" one minute, two minutes, three minutes, as time dragged on again, and no answer was still coming, rainbow dash was getting bored again, she let out a frustrated sigh, which was loud enough for fluttershy to hear. "Who's there!" fluttershy said, as loud as she could let her timid, soft, voice say. 'Well it's now or never, better get this over with.' she approached her from behind.
"Ahem!" she said, disturbing the ever lasting quietness that was taking up the area.
Fluttershy quickly turned around to find rainbow dash staring at her. "Rainbow! I, um, uh, what are you doing here?" she had to admit it was a smooth recovery, for fluttershy, but she didn't want to be cruel and torture her so she got to the point. "I know your hiding something and I want to know what, so don't try to make up a story, fluttershy," she said not bothering for her to make an excuse. As she heard her say that she gave up.
"Oh, rainbow dash I'm sorry for being secretive I--wait how did you know I was trying to hide something? I mean rarity and applejack never noticed, pinkie as far as I know has only been suspicious, and starlight glimmer barely knows me?" she asked, questioning on how she was the only one who found out.
"First of all: I knew you were doing that the moment you started, well more like felt it. Second of all: Fluttershy! I'm your closest friend, I've known you since we were both fillies, I know you better than anyone except maybe pinkie pie but still."
"Oh, I guess that makes since."
"Oh! Also pinkie pie was suspicious because I was suspicious, and she probably thought it was a game, so practically you fooled her too," rainbow dash explained.
"Um, is being secretive always bad, I mean if you don't mind answering," she asked her friend, worried if lying was a bad thing in any circumstance.
"Well if your trying to do something like a surprise party, or if it's something personal, it really isn't that bad," she said, trying to reassure her timid friend.
"Oh, well you see um, I'm not sure if it's surprise or not," fluttershy said, trying to explain the situation. Rainbow wanted to ask more, but before she could.
"Fluttershy? Oh! Sorry for keeping you waiting." Twilight said, as she turned on the lights. "Rainbow dash?! Where did you come from?!?!" she exclaimed, as she was only expecting fluttershy. Rainbow Dash, upon seeing her friend, responded in the only she knew how.
"What in the name of Celestia happened to you?!?!" most of twilight was covered in dust and dirt, her mane, was frazzled, to where if rarity saw it she would have a heart attack rather than just faint, and her eyes were red.
"Well it looks like you can see the results of working for months without end," she said, explaining how the monstrous looking thing of what used to be rainbow's friend, came to be. "Anyways," she continued. "What are you doing here?" She asked, still not knowing why she was here.
"I knew fluttershy was hiding something, so I followed her here to figure out what she was hiding, which appears to involve what you are working on," she said telling her her reason for being here.
"Well then let me explain to you what I have been doing," twilight said, with excitement evident in her voice. Rainbow, on the other hoof, responded with, "You know, sometimes I wonder why I don't just listen to the voices in my head that tell me to stay in bed."
The lecture had began, it was all about mathematics, equations, variables, magic, etc, etc. Rainbow Dash was actually listening, due to her natural monitoring whenever she's flying, but to her it all sounded like, "Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah" she realized that she stopped lecturing. 'Thank Celestia,' she also realized that they were in the throne room.
"Uh, twilight what are we doing here," she asked, not knowing the reason why they were here.
"This is one of the reasons why I was working for months day and night, Spike!"
In a few moments spike showed up. "Hey girls whats up?" he asked, wondering what the three of them were up to.
"Well, spike I'm showing them what I've been working on these past months,'' once he heard this he knew exactly what she was talking about. "Ohh that thing, alright then I suppose you want me, to you know?'' he asked, urging her on.
''Please, go right ahead,'' spike blew fire above the table, all of it coming together in a big fireball, after this it looked like the fireball was being absorbed by the table, which in turn started to have some sort of enchanted writing on it glow, soon the entire table started to simultaneously separate, creating a gigantic hole in place of where the table used to be. As if this wasn't wow enough, a platform rose out of the hole.
"A secret passage way?!" rainbow exclaimed, never knowing about what she's been sitting in front of for who knows how long.
"Yup!" Twilight replied to her friend's exclaim.
"That. Is. Awesome!" she shouted, because sure as heck she would want a secret passage in her house too.
"Well come on then," she said, urging her friends to step on to the platform with her.
The descent down wasn't slow, nor was it fast, but it was at fair pace, meanwhile on their descent, rainbow dash was playing a guessing game with spike. "She's developing weapons of mass destruction!" she said, hoping for it to be the right answer, unfortunately it was for naught.
"Nope!" He replied to her fifteenth answer.
"Is it some sort of genetically-modified-super-pony!" she guessed again.
"No," he replied to her sixteenth answer.
"Shoot! What could it be? What could it be?" their game, could've kept going, but it was interrupted.
"Ahem!" twilight said, getting both of their attentions. "We're here," they were walking down a hallway, that was lit with torches, before entering a gigantic cave, that was big enough to house an Ursa Major! Large crates big and small were scattered around, heavy machinery and vehicles were coordinated in a few places, and at the center of it all was a large gate looking, metal, behemoth.
"Whoa! What is that thing?!" she asked twilight, the obvious maker of the ginormous amount of metal in front of her, which was at least 25 ft tall.
"It is a teleportation device!" she replied, with joy and pride.
"Wait what?" rainbow asked, letting what twilight said sink in. "You mean to tell me that you spent months working on a teleportation device?!" she asked, hoping it wasn't the obvious.
"Yup! Except this teleportation device is very powerful, capable of sending somepony far away, even past luna's moon, and it leads to the outer reaches of space...in front of another planet!!" she shouted, letting out a high pitched scream, bursting with excitement, and having what one would call a serious Nerd-gasm. "Here take a look," she gave her pictures of the planet. Rainbow was taken aback by this, the planet looked a bit similar to their planet, which means not only did this thing lead them to another planet, but possibly a whole other species, then a realization hit her.
"Wait! How is fluttershy involved in all this?" She asked, remembering about fluttershy.
"Oh right! Well, the device was already operational even before it was finished so I just had to know where it lead to so I asked fluttershy if she could get some spiders, which in fact, were golden orb weavers to help," she explained to her.
"And what did you need these spiders for?" she asked, still in the dark with why she needed spiders.
"Well since fluttershy declined my first idea, and scientists say that one of the strongest materials in the world is spider silk, I used that instead by collecting a lot of it, making a rope so I could attach it to a camera, send it over, and take pictures," well that made sense, and it didn't take a genius to figure what was twilight's first idea. 'I'm not even gonna ask why she didn't used regular rope, or about spider silk,'
"Alright, spike start us up!" she called, to spike, who was at the controls of the device.
"Gotcha," he responded back to her.
"Your gonna turn this thing on?" rainbow asked, a hint of worry and excitement in her voice.
"Don't worry we've done this a hundred times, and remember I told you it worked even before it was finished?" rainbow nodded her head. The information was enough to reassure her.
"Okay coming online in 3, 2, 1!" just as spike finished counting down, a blue, swirling, vortex suddenly appeared in the middle of the giant metal behemoth.
"Alright, lets check for any potential problems," at that statement, twilight started to check over the system and the controls, meanwhile rainbow dash was staring at the swirling, blue, vortex completely mesmerized by it, she inched herself closer and closer to it, and knowing her mischievous self she just had to touch it. Fluttershy started to notice this, and tried to tell twilight.
"Wait, you don't mean?" spike asked, as he and twilight started a conversation about what twilight had in mind for a long time.
"Relax, spike one time I stuck my whole hoof through it, and I had a protective aura around it just in case!"
"Um, twilight"
"But that was just a hoof, your talking about a whole pony, and not just anypony your talking about yourself! What if something goes wrong?!"
"Twilight!"
"Oh come on spike besides, nothing ventured nothing gained!"
"TWILIGHT!!!"
"What!!"
"Um?!" was all fluttershy said, as she pointed to rainbow dash, who was about to come in contact with the vortex.
"Rainbow what are you--- " too late.
She touched it, and as she did a pulse traveled through out the vortex, suddenly an alarm started blaring, spike looked to see where it was coming from. "Uh Oh!" he said, to what he was looking at, electricity was crackling on the controls, which was starting to fry them. Rainbow started to feel a small breeze building in front of her, she looked back to the portal to find the vortex's swirling intensity increasing along with the breeze, which was starting to transform in to a full out gale of wind.
"Rainbow! Get away from the portal!" at hearing this she tried gain some footing and make her way to her friends, but to no avail as she lost her footing, and was sliding back towards the portal, so instead of trying to get her footing again, she leaped up in to the air and tried to fly her way out. Spike was hiding behind one of the heavy vehicles, while fluttershy was clinging on to it, like a suction cup on dry glass, and twilight made a spell to magnetize her hooves to the solid metal ground, she was preparing to do the same with rainbow dash, but when she looked at her she gasped, to her horrified eyes, she saw that rainbow's colors were fading, and it was all heading towards the portal. It was also draining the electricity from the machines, the controls, and some sort of energy was seeping out of her horn! 'Oh my celestia! It's absorbing every type of energy around it!'
Rainbow was feeling tired, fatigue was washing over her. Twilight can only watch in horror, as rainbow struggled to stay awake, her coat changed to white, and her mane turned into a black and white version of itself similar to Daring Do's. Rainbow was getting closer to twilight, while trying to reach her, little by little darkness was threatening to consume her vision.
"Come on rainbow! Your almost there!" twilight yelled, cheering on her friend. Her hoof was only a few inches away 'Come on almost there! Yes!' rainbow grabbed her hoof, only to let it go causing twilight to gasp again, as she saw that rainbow had lost consciousness, and was heading straight for the portal. Her unconscious body was about to go through the portal, until a purple aura surrounded it, twilight's horn was glowing the same color, she was breathing heavily with beads of sweat forming on her forehead. "Gotcha!" she exclaimed, trying to pull her friend away from the portal, she was suffering from the same affects as rainbow, causing rainbow's body to become heavier and heavier, making the strain on twilight's mind more painful. Twilight growled, forcing herself to back up even faster, as the aura around rainbow started to flicker slightly, and then start to flicker more often. "Come on! Come on!" twilight was fighting the urge to let go of her friend, as the strain on her mind increases, so does her headache, which is the only thing keeping her awake, and not have both of them get sucked into the portal. "I. Will. Not. Let. You. GO!" she yelled, with complete anger and defiance, despite the ever growing pain in her head, she tried to turn around in order to get better footing, but when she was midway her head jerked and was, suddenly, relieved of pain.
She realized what happened. She let go! "Rainbow dash! NO!" it was too late, rainbow went through the portal. Twilight did what only a fool would do, she ran towards it thinking that she could pull her back through, but as she was approaching it she was thrown back as the portal collapsed in on itself, creating a shock-wave, and caused twilight to hit a wall. She was knocked unconscious, her world was in total darkness.
Twilight didn't know how long she was out, but she knew she was waking up, because she could hear a voice off in the distance getting closer.
"Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!"
She opens her eyes, startled from being woken up so abruptly. In front her was starlight, who had a concerned look on her face.
"Oh thank goodness, I thought something bad happened to you!" she said, relieved that her friend/mentor was okay.
"Uh, sugarcube ah don't wanna be rude an all, but what in tarnation happened in here anyways! It looks as if The Mother of All Tornadoes was in here!" applejack exclaimed, looking at all the destruction around them. Metal shrapnel was everywhere, some of it was embedded on the walls, the machinery looked as if a Chimera had clawed at them, because most of them were in pieces, others where either fine or had fallen over on their sides, and there was one that had caught fire, the controls didn't fare any better, because all of them had exploded their tops off, and a few would crackle with sparks, and mostly the entire place was covered in dust, pebbles, and rocks. There were a few boulders, ranging from different sizes, that were scattered all over the place.
"My goodness! How can all of you tolerate this dreadful place?!" rarity waved a hoof in the air, gesturing to the entire cave.
"1. Our friends were in trouble, 2. Ah'm pretty sure that nopony actually cares about being clean right now, 3. Since when does somepony care about getting filthy over a friend who's in trouble?" applejack said, frowning at the fashion pony for caring about cleanliness rather than her friend's safety.
"Yes, well fluttershy and twilight are both okay, so what's the point in worrying if they're okay." she said, stating that the two ponies were unharmed. Unfortunately, that didn't have the effect she was hoping for.
"Rarity! They still could have gotten hurt! What would happen if they actually got hurt huh, rarity?" starlight said, also angered by her fellow unicorn friend.
With that rarity gave out an irritated sigh. "Fine! I'll try to tolerate this filthy cave!" She said, accepting defeat in this little argument, which caused both starlight and applejack to smirk. Starlight soon stopped smirking when she noticed something. "Hey have any of you girls-" she didn't get to finish, as she was interrupted by a pink, bouncing, pony with a fluffy mane.
"Whee! I don't know what you were talking about rarity, this place is fun!" Pinkie pie yelled with glee, hopping on one boulder to the next, she landed on the biggest one and looked around. "Hey where's dashie?" she asked, finally realizing that her easily-recognizable-rainbow-friend was nowhere to be seen.
"Um, well about that you see..." spike was about to continue, but was interrupted by the pink party pony, who was oblivious to the difficult situation the baby dragon was in.
"OOH! She's playing hide and seek!"
"No, pinkie she-"
"Ooh, we're supposed to guess where she is aren't we?"
"No pinkie."
"Ohh, now I know she's invisible!"
"PINKIE!!" he yelled, unable to take her shenanigans for being unaware of what happened, anymore.
"What?" she asked, still unaware of what happened.
"Rainbow dash is...she's um...well she's..." spike continued to try and break the news to her, but was interrupted by another voice.
"Dead," they all turned to look at twilight, who was quiet the entire time, a sad and guilty expression on her face. "I couldn't save her," silence filled the area, as twilight finished explaining what happened, to everyone's surprise no one started crying, not even fluttershy. They can feel the sadness, except it's almost like their bodies weren't able to feel the emotions of what happened, even pinkie's mane didn't deflate from the fact, that one of her best friends is dead. It was almost as if only their minds were able to feel the emotions.
After 20 minutes of silence the emotions finally caught up to them and they started crying for at least 10 minutes, until applejack spoke up, "Come on everypony let's get outta here," she said, sniffling at the end. All of them started to leave the cave except, for one pony who was lingering back so she could look back at the cave.
"I know your out there, and I'll be waiting."
They were all heading outside, planning to go to canterlot and personally tell celestia the horrible event that had just occurred, but to everpony's surprise celestia and luna were already outside waiting for them.
"C-celestia, Luna! What are you both doing here!?" twilight yelled, wondering why both, the solar princess and the lunar princess were here coincidentally after the event, in which one of there friends had died.
Luna was the first to answer for her, "Me and tia both felt something was wrong, as if the most terrible event in history happened and apparently that feeling lead us here," she said, explaining why they were both there.
"So, twilight do you want to explain what happened here?" celestia asked casually, since she was aware that whatever happened affected them the most.
"How about later, because if both you and luna felt what had happened here, cadence could have felt it too, maybe even discord," she said, explaining why they should wait until later to explain what happened.
"Unfortunately you are quite right about that, Twilight Sparkle." said a male voice, that was filled with complete and total sorrow and sadness. They were all surprised when they turned to see who it was that spoke.
"Discord?!" they all said, in unison at his sudden appearance.
"Yes, everypony it is I Discord," he said, not even trying to make it sound dramatic, like he usually does every time somepony got surprised by his appearance. Fluttershy, who was the closest and the very first pony to befriend discord, noticed his present mood like all the others, was quicker to ask about it.
"Discord, why are you so sad?" she asked, concerned for the draconequus, since he looked far sadder than she could ever imagine, not to mention that he also appeared depressed.
"Well, dear fluttershy today earlier this morning I was planning on having a big day full of fun," he seemed to cheer up, as he remembered that, but quickly turned back into that depressive mood again, "and as I was going through the possible activities that I could do, a sudden wave hit me and then I felt cold and empty, as if I was once whole and now I feel as if a piece of me is missing and that it was one of my most favorite pieces, which makes me feel sad and......incomplete," he said, finishing the portraying of his emotions, in a poetic manner that took everypony by surprise, since it wasn't normal for him to be into that kind of stuff.
"Um, can somepony please explain to us what is going on?"
Once again they were all surprised to find standing behind them was Cadence, Shining Armor, and "Sunset Shimmer?!?!" Twilight yelled, because the last time she saw her it was in that other dimension, through the mirror portal with all the humans and their human counterparts. 'By Starswirl The Bearded, who else is able to sense this event?!' she questioned this in her head, considering the fact that discord and sunset, who were both in other dimensions, could be able to sense this. "All of you sensed something bad happened, didn't you?" she asked, knowing enough that tells her that they were also in a similar predicament as celestia, luna, and discord.
"Yes, cadence said she felt that something was wrong, and then after sunset showed up and explained herself the three of us went here. So that's about the short version of it," shining armor said, explaining both of their stories.
"I guess I'll explain now, since there's no telling how many other individuals felt the event," twilight said, preparing herself so she could explain the entire event again.
A few minutes later
Celestia, luna, and sunset were all hanging their heads low, with a sad face staring at the ground, discord was hugging a crying fluttershy, cadence and shining armor were both doing the same with twilight, spike and pinkie pie were both comforting a crying rarity, and starlight and applejack were both trying to hold themselves together. This continued on for a while, strangely though the whole town was quiet with no other ponies in sight, except themselves, as if the whole town was abandoned, yet they didn't notice this at all, when they were mourning the loss of their friend. Eventually, they calmed down with discord speaking first."I guess a funeral should be in order," he stated, in an even more depressed tone than before.
"I guess so," Celestia replied, with grim look on her face, her colors appear to have become dull, as well as luna's and everbody else's.
"Well then let's ...hop to it then," as he said this he slowly started to walk with celestia and soon everyone else started walking. The colorful, beautiful, and fun world that they knew was now gray, grim, and dull.
Unbeknownst to them though, light years away on a planet similar to theirs, on a grassy area, inside a city, lays a crater.
Author's Note
I decided to make this a side chapter of sorts since the negativity in my life was getting to me. So, technically this chapter only has them arming themselves, a little background of fluttershy's during her recovery, them saying their goodbyes, and foreshadowing.
Chapter 4:Call to arms
"Prepare?!" mostly everyone yelled out. They already knew this was inevitable, all the evidence was there. Celestia looked at all of them, her brow furrowed.
"Yes, if they had come on peaceful terms, then I'm very certain they would have made contact with us a long time ago. We're going to have to mobilize our forces in case of them being of hostile intent, if not then all of this must be dealt with great care. We don't know anything about their culture or beliefs, the last thing we would want would be to go to war with an alien race over a simple misunderstanding," celestia looked at each and everyone of them. The Griffin King rose.
"The Griffin Kingdom would not be standing here today, were it not two of your subjects, your highness. The griffins will aid you!" Wise flyer smashed his claw outspread on the table, making it a declaration.
"Same here!" chrysalis spoke up. "You could have wiped us all out, but you didn't, you spared all of us instead. The Swarm, the Hive, and their future generations owe you their lives. The entire Changeling race will stand by you!" chrysalis declared. Ember got everyone's attention clanging the scepter on the ground.
"Even though I'm the Dragon Lord, it will be impossible to gain help from the adults, but I may be able to persuade the younger ones to help us," she said, with a confident smile. Now everyone was in agreement.
"Then it is settled, we will go to the frozen north!" she said. The other leaders nodded their heads at this.
"Well then I'm going to give you all a head start then, so you can mobilize your forces, ta ta." Discord snapped his fingers and everyone, except Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis, Twilight, her friends, Night fury, and Blueblood, who is still unconscious, was gone.
The doors to the room opened. The group passed Flash Sentry and Black Flame, who were both blushing.
"I see you two were quite busy, while I was at the meeting." Night fury smirked at the two, who were blushing even harder. "I'm gonna want a full report on the two of your little activities." She smirked one final time, before leaving. Flash and flame both breathed a sigh of relief, until they started laughing, when they saw blueblood, still unconscious and rainbow-fied, being dragged by fluttershy.
"Twilight I would advise you and your friends to get ready, since you will be coming with us, and you should make preparations at home since you will be gone for a while," celestia said.
"Alright then, discord." The purple alicorn looked towards the draconequus.
The God of Chaos simply replied, "Alrighty then." He snapped his fingers once more and they were at the castle.
"Okay Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie pie, you girls are the only ones that need to say their goodbyes. We'll wait here okay?"
"Alright partner I'ma say goodbye to Applebloom, Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Scootaloo." The orange earth trotted off to Sweet Apple Acres.
"Well, applejack darling, I'll see you their later, since I'm going to need somepony to look after Sweetie Belle." The fashionista trotted towards Carousel Boutique.
"Actually I don't need somepony to look after the animals, I just need to get something," fluttershy said.
"Oh how right she is!" Discord floated along side her, and they both went to her Cottage.
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Rarity
"Sweetie belle! Come here please come here!" sweetie belle came running down the stairs, from her room, at hearing her sister's voice.
"What's going on rarity? You seem a bit sad," she stated, upon seeing her older sister's face.
"Yes, well come have a seat with me." Rarity sat down on a couch, with sweetie belle sitting right next to her. "You see...their have been confirmations of...aliens." Rarity stopped talking to await her little sister's response.
"Really?!" rarity shook her head. "That's the most amazing thing I've ever heard!" sweetie belle exclaimed, upon hearing this come from her older sister.
"This isn't a joke sweetie belle. I will have to go on a diplomatic mission involving them. I'll have to meet them with the others and the princesses, and discuss peace negotiations." Rarity lowered her head and closed her eyes as she knew what was gonna happen next.
"Can I come?!" the over excited filly stated, not even thinking if her sister was just toying with her. Rarity's eyes opened, she slowly inhaled, and exhaled.
"No." Rarity got off the couch and started walking to the door, sweetie belle looked at her with disbelief. "Come on now, I'm going to drop you off with applebloom and scootaloo at sweet apple acres," sweetie belle ran in front of her before she opened the door.
"You're telling me that you're going to talk to a bunch real life aliens and you're not letting me join you?"
"Yes," the other white unicorn merely stated.
"Why not?!" the younger pony complained. The older sibling looked back at her sister.
"Because we're traveling to the Frozen North. There's many possibilities of death! We could lose our way, treading through uncharted territory, we could die of starvation, we could freeze to death, or we could find out if the aliens will react hostile to us." Sweetie belle started glaring at her.
"And how do I know that you're not just playing with me?" rarity went to the door and, with a neutral, calm expression, opened the door.
Pinkie pie flew in, squeezing sweetie belle, whilst crying in a cartoon like fashion.
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Applejack
"No, neither of you'all can come with me,"
"Well then how do we know your not lying to us?"
"I'ma terrible liar! Plus the trip is dangerous. You do realize that one itty bitty misunderstanding could escalate to total war between us and a bunch of aliens right?" the orange mare looked down at the two fillies. They were almost as tall as her now. Applejack had become more worried with scootaloo, after she found out about rainbow dash things took a turn for the worst.
Everyone found out that she was really an orphan and rainbow dash was about the closest thing to consider family. Applejack decided to take her in, during the beginning she was in a great amont of depression. Rainbow dash was the only beacon of hope she had in her world of darkness, and at some point it became very bad to to the point where she nearly committed suicide.
Applejack shook herself to forget about those memories. The two fillies looked down in disappointment.
"Oh sorry,"
"Oh sorry,"
"Oh come on!" all three of them turned their heads to look at where the noise had come from. Rarity was walking towards them with sweetie belle in tow.
"The answer is still no." The young unicorn started grumbling as she walked over to join the rest of her friends. "Ah, applejack darling wold you care to come back to the others with me?"
"Sure but first," the applejack turned around to look at the three fillies. "Ah want the three of ya to stay here and not cause any trouble capeesh?" the trio nodded their heads. "Alright then." She started walking away with rarity right beside her. "And don't try an' follow us," She called out to them before disappearing along the horizon.
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Fluttershy
Fluttershy entered her cottage with discord to see a pony that looked exactly like her.
"Hello discord, hello fluttershy," the look-alike said.
"Hello fluttershy number two! It's so nice to see you too! Especially so soon!" Discord started snickering at his own rhyming.
Fluttershy walked up to her look-alike. "F2 I need you to look after the animals while I'm away," fluttershy stated, sounding more like a command rather than a question. F2 was a clone created by discord to tend to the animals while she was away for things or out of the house.
''Okay," F2 responded. Fluttershy nodded. She headed upstairs to her room, discords was watching, while clapping the tips of his claw and paw together in anticipation. Fluttershy was moving her bed from it's place. Discord was having tea with F2, Angel bunny, and Mr. Bear, he looked up when he heard something coming from upstairs.
"What do you suppose she's doing up their," discord said, whilst smirking. Mr. Bear shrugged. Angel bunny nervously looked at his tea cup, he new as well as discord what happened after it happened.
Fluttershy had gone on a long trip trying to sort herself out. The trip led her to Jai-Pone, their culture revolved around being a warrior, yet still it also influenced harmony, inner peace, honor, and the emotion of calmness. Fluttershy's timing was poor, for as she arrived, much like everywhere else, a civil war had broken out. Fluttershy was intrigued at how during the conflict they were all able to remain calm, even the ones that had lost so much because of the conflict. She decided to study and learn their ways, even research the entire history of Jai-Pone. Normally it would take years to master the art of combats they practiced, yet fluttershy strangely was a quick learner in the kind of state she was in, some might call her a rare and exotic snake, others a pink and deadly rose, never the less fluttershy became a very respected figure after she had aided in the war, albeit fluttershy admitted that a piece of her had died back in Jai-Pone and she was not the same pony anymore.
"Discord we're leaving," fluttershy said said as she came downstairs.
"Alrighty then," discord answered before walking out the door with fluttershy.
"Gee it must be that bad," F2 stated. Angel bunny hid behind his tea cup.
"Alright everypony's here except for discord and fluttershy?"
"Evera'pony's present and accounted for," the farm mare replied.
"Tank and Owlicious are at fluttershy's cottage?"
"Been there ever since this morning!" her number one assistant called out.
"Okay," twilight gulped, "everypony head to the cave."
The entire place was beautiful, it was a garden with lots of animals and plants in it, there was artificial weather, today it was sunny. Rainbow's cloud house at the center of the entire area. Everyone frowned as they walked past it into an area that looked like it was from a castle. Corridor to corridor they traveled until they reached the armory. There mounted on the walls were six different armors with their color schemes. Twilight, Starlight, and Sunset's armors all were standard versions and had both of their colors on them, Rarity's armor also had both of her colors on the armor, but appeared more detailed and ceremonial, Applejack's armor was the color of a light tinted bronze, it looked slightly more bulkier than the others and warrior-like, and Pinkie's armor was a lighter version, wearing a body glove underneath and lots of armor pieces attached to her.
"Weapons," twilight said and soon enough everyone moved towards the chests that were lined up below where their armors were hung. Twilight picked up a shield with rotating blades on it and attached it to her left arm, she then picked up a sword with purple particles floating around it and a purple orb floating on the end of the handle. Twilight pressed a button on the handle and the handle grew longer, making it look like a similar, yet simple, weapon like ember's. She shrunk it back down and placed it on her back. Sunset had two twin swords with hieroglyphics and symbols representing the sun and were glowing, Starlight had two large daggers with electric knuckle dusters on the handles for non-lethal combat.
"Where'd you get those?" twilight questioned, because last she checked her apprentice was still looking for a weapon to use in combat.
"Pinkie gave them to me," her apprentice answered. Twilight's mouth fell. "Yeah, I don't know where she got'em either, so don't ask," twilight merely nodded.
While sunset and twilight put on their holster belts around their waists for two flechette pistols, starlight had two, one hung from both her shoulders for her daggers to be holstered on just above her waist, the second one hung from one shoulder across her chest and carried two flechette pistols. Rarity had an elegantly made rapier with a lightning bolt at the end of the rapier's hilt, holstered on her back was a strange variation of the flechette launcher, it was skinnier, had a long barrel with a curving blade underneath, extending past it, improved iron sights, and a handle on the side of the barrel angling downwards for better handling of the pump action. Applejack started putting on extra pieces to her hooves and a final piece to her chest. The pieces on her hooves made a locking sound, while piece on her chest suddenly started creating metal straps to lock itself to her. The results were incredible mobility, strength increase, and the magic she had, from being an earth pony, was amplified. Applejack turned to twilight as a helmet formed over her head and face.
"Hey, Twi' what ya' say about this fancy shmancy new and advanced tech?" she asked as she towered over her friend. The appearance of her height and bulk were increased by the pieces.
"I said that you'll be the only Next Generation Heavy Class Super soldier, with advanced weapons," she said, taking in the appearance of her friend.
"Riiiight," the so-called super soldier dragged the word on, as she attached an extra piece to her right arm. It expanded on her arm with pieces that had blue lights on them. Glowing blue tubes suddenly grew from the pieces and attached themselves to the chest piece.
"Yes, and there are some reasons why I didn't mass produce them, such as the magic amplifier piece on your chest being too dangerous, since it can overload a pony's magic capacity limit and cause either exponential release of energy from said pony and then cause them to explode. Which is why I built the arm cannon to filter amplified magic into pure magical energy for ammunition," the purple unicorn concluded her argument.
"Ya even added an upgrade to it just for safety," the orange mare smirked underneath her helmet. Twilight pressed a hoof to her face and let out a sigh. "Hey how'd you even come up with this repulse hammer?" she asked, as she pulled out the weapon she was talking about. It had three large axe-like blade on it's sides, with three miniature ones one the top. The large blades spun right while the smaller ones spun left, when activated the silver blades had a glowing blue trim on them, much like celestia's weapon, the handle was a shiny black, and when spinning the smaller blade would open up to allow powerful blasts of energy to be released.
"Hmm, I don't know. I was inspired to make it by a strange dream I had," the unicorn explained origins of the weapon. Applejack smiled.
"Heh, sooner or later your gonna be like rarity. Bein' able to be inspired by the slightest thing. No offense rarity," the armored pony turned her head to the fashionista when she said this.
"None taken dear," the white unicorn called out. Applejack finished putting on the rest of her equipment, another strange variation of the flechette, this one was larger with a drum-looking thing on the bottom gun and a handle underneath the barrel of the gun. Applejack put on a belt holster modified to carry a heavy flechette pistol behind her, two folded up tactical tomahawks next her waists, large flechette ammo. Applejack found a weapon and ammunition on a modified shoulder that she knows it wasn't there before.
"Oh yeah, that's a gift from fluttershy. She made it by basing it off a weapon she found during her time in Jai-pone,"
"Well Ah'll be," she silently exclaimed as she looked over the weapon. It was small, had clip on the side of it and a cylindrical revolver for ammunition, and a foregrip on the bottom the barrel. "Ya know, rainbow would say something, well, awesome......," applejack looked up as she began to think, "She'd say 'Let's kick some flank!'," she jerked the grenade launcher down and caused it to pump itself.
"YEAH!!!" pinkie yelled. She had pieces similar to applejack's, except there were only two on here front hooves and one on her chest. The magic amplifier, which she obtained somehow, fed magic into the pieces on her hooves, allowing them to be lightning fast. Pinkie modified the two pieces to make them have pink flames and electric sparks come out of them. She had a belt holster that was packed with flechette ammo, shoulder holsters modified to allow both of her hooves to easily draw her two pistols, a backpack full of explosives, and two holsters on her upper arms, below her shoulders, carrying two daggers shaped like lightning bolts. Pinkie modified the pistols to have extended mags, fast reload, hold two clips instead of one, a flashlight, and automatic/high rate of fire. She even has a miniature rocket launcher built in on her right hoof.
"Sorry I'm late," they all turned to see fluttershy with discord, "I was paying my respects," she said remembering the cloud house.
"Whoa," spike simply stated. Fluttershy wore a body glove underneath like pinkie and a hoodie on her upper body with a shiny, black, armored vest over that. Her armor consisted of black and red crystal and a bit of gold. Her legs were covered with black crystal armor pieces with two gold talon like blades at the front and one at the back of her lower hooves. Running up the back of her hind legs were two rows of retractable red blades angling downwards, on her front hooves were two golden bracelets over two built-in flechette launchers, underneath her arms were red elbow blades, and around her neck wasn't a scarf or a bandanna, it was a mask with gold and red pieces on it that formed a skull with a red flame on it's head and sharp fangs and teeth. During her time at Jai-pone fluttershy had become a member of two clans. The Dragon clan, they held the dragons as their gods, making their armor designs to have traits from different dragon species, they favored heavy fighting styles. The Death clan saw death as their god, they were feared because of their fast, complex, and stealthy fighting style and viewing themselves as the children and aspects of death.
A katana sword with Jai-ponese writing, translating to "Angel of Death", and a handle with a white-gold dragon spiraling around it, acting as a handle guard of sorts, was sheathed on her back on a one-shoulder holster with two flechette pistols on her front. A belt holstered around her waist carried knives and magazines, on her legs a pair of spring-loaded knives were holstered there, and sheathed behind her waist was a retractable sword. It's handle was black with a red crystal sharp point on the end, two seperate blades, each adorned with a single barb and were the length of a huge combat knife, formed a single blade on top of the handle, red crystals in the shape of wavy patterns, making it look like it had at the area where the handle and the two blades met with wavy streaks around the length of the handle. The reason that her sword was a retractable one was because there was a strange mechanism in the handle that caused the two blades to separate further by moving next to their respective sides of the handle, leaving a slit-like opening on the handle's top. There was a button the on the handle. When pressed a blade extended out of the slit. Fluttershy looked at each and every one of them, looking them over.
"Are we ready to go?" she simply asked.
"Yep!" spike said, as he holstered his two weapons on his back. Like his dragon compatriots his armor was similar to theirs in design. He carried a heavy long sword blade with a spear's long handle. His other weapon was a simple long sword, albeit more light and fluid in motion, despite it's appearance. Just like applejack and celestia's weapons the sword had a trim on it, except the color was greenish-yellow.
"LET'S KICK SOME FLANK!" pinkie hopped past fluttershy, soon all them followed in tow when suddenly they remembered something. Fluttershy was still dragging an unconscious blueblood behind her. They all looked towards twilight...she merely shrugged not knowing what to do.
Fluttershy looked at the Cloudominium one last time. Fluttershy felt there was more to it than just aliens being discovered. She felt like it was something familiar yet powerful? Like a form of energy. What was it? These thoughts were the only things that were on her mind as she pondered what was about to happen, other than meet hostile or friendly extraterrestrials. Fluttershy turned her head away from the cloudominium.
What could it be?
What could it be?
Chapter 5: The Great Journey
"You know I can instantly teleport us their right?" discord stated, his arms crossed and his face in a look of grumpiness and boredom.
"Discord, some ponies have never been in a war before, especially one with aliens from another planet, or at least taken the lives of others. This could cause their mentality to become unstable, being surrounded by so much violence,...death, and......gore. It could even cause them to have permanent psychological damage" this caused discord to slump down and grumble a little.
Catching a part of what she said, fluttershy looked at the gold on her forehooves. The Dragon Claws.
Taken the lives of others...Taken the lives of others...Taken the lives of others
Fluttershy had ran into Daring Do during her stay at Jai-pone. The end result wasn't good, in fact, 'wasn't good' wasn't at level with what had happened back there. It was so vivid yet hazy at the same time. She didn't even remember what had set her off, it just happened, a outburst of sudden rage and hatred. It was a sign that a part of her was replaced by......something else, something violent. Fluttershy shut her eyes as the sounds were starting again, the sounds of something else.
(Growling)
(Whimpering)
(Flesh being singed and torn)
(Screaming)
Before the it could escalate she was pulled from those thoughts by rarity.
"Huh?"
"Are you all right fluttershy, something seems to be troubling you," the white uunicorn said, concerned about her friend as she looked like she was in a trance.
"Just some bad memories," she answered.
"Oh," taking the hint, rarity didn't question any further.
"So your the one that took her place huh?" the orange juggernaut asked.
"Yeah, heh heh," lightning dust replied nervously. It wasn't the fact that she almost got them killed, but the fact that afterwards she hated rainbow with the utmost intensity, that is, until spitfire came to her to offering the position that rainbow was in after her apparent death. Knowing that her death was what got her back into the wonderbolts was very shocking to her. Through all the difficulties she had after the academy incident she only wanted her to feel the pain she endured and humiliate her. But this. She had never wanted her to die.
Spitfire, Soarin, Lightning Dust, and Fleetfoot were sent as a small security detail. Soarin was dozing off on one of the seats, spitfire was checking her weapon whilst scanning the train car, lightning dust, she was having a conversation with applejack, the only pony who knew rainbow dash's competitive side first hand, and fleetfoot sitting on a seat in a calm and collected manner with her eyes closed.
"Why're ya so nervous?" she looked at the orange mare again,
"Well...it's just that...I had ill intent against rainbow dash after she got me kicked out of the academy. Except now...I'm back in and this time I actually have a position among them but... at the cost of her life...I never wanted her to die." The turquoise pegasus looked down at the floor in shame.
"It's alright, you didn't cause her death or had anything to do about it,"
"Who said that?!" The turquoise mare looked around the train car. Mostly everyone was asleep.
"Me," Lightning dust slowly looked up. On the ceiling, there was something attached to it. It looked like a dark entity resembling death with sharp teeth and a pair of fangs. A scream was beginning to rise in lightning's throat, but before it could reach a level that would wake everybody up, the thing pounced on her and placed a hoof over her mouth to prevent her from screaming.
The muffled screaming prompting fleetfoot to pull out a handle, said handle suddenly started making a noise similar to ice freezing over something rapidly and a blade started forming with ice particles and an ice fog. Aiming the blade to impale the attacker. Three red, claw-like, fingers suddenly appeared on one of the thing's arm and grabbed the blade. The three stayed like that for a minute before the dark entity removed it's hoof from lightning dust and pulled away a mask, revealing itself to be fluttershy.
"Jeez, I thought you were planning on slitting her throat." Fleetfoot said sheathing her sword. Lightning dust started calming down.
"Anywaaays," applejack said, catching their attention, "What's up with you guys?" she asked hinting at their armor.
"After the Celestial and Lunar Guards were mobilized into a military force the New Army Project directors set their sites on us," the snow white mare said. The wonderbolts and the directors didn't get along well. The reason for that is they didn't like them showing up and expecting them to be instantly follow their orders the moment they showed up without questioning their authority. Not to mention that there were suspicions about them using the cadets and newbies for experiments. This, of course, was after twilight and shining armor left the project in the hooves of the directors. As some of the wonderbolts did some of investigating of their own, the directors grew worried and started locking down areas affiliated with the wonderbolts.
This, unfortunately, got the attention of twilight. Attempting to see the cause of the lock downs, she was denied access, with the directors simply stating "Everything is under control". Twilight, knowing well about cliche lines in books and stories, understand that what they said was actually "We're hiding something horrible and don't want you to find out about it". Provoking her to sneak into the main headquarters of the wonderbolts.
Learning about the atrocities twilight formed a coup to get rid of the directors. They were never heard or seen again. The N.A.P. was never dissolved, but given new directors. Twilight appointed Night Fury as an overseer for the directors, gave her higher authority than them, and gave her a special command in case history repeated itself. As for the wonderbolts, twilight gave spitfire the position to direct the reorganization. They were dubbed The Elementals.
Fluttershy instantly noticed the similarities in color schemes with their armors and the dragon armor she saw from spike and his fellow dragons.
"So...what can you guys do?" applejack asked, wanting to know their combat capabilities.
"Well, we can--,"
"--manipulate your respective elements." they turned to fluttershy. "Sorry your color schemes and your misnomer The Elementals, given to you by the ponies you saved, not to mention they saw your abilities too, kinda gave it away. That and you pulling out a weapon that matches your biological colors that you were born with and the snowflake your cutie mark has," the yellow mare explained her interruption.
"Wow, your friend has some good observational skills," she said to applejack. "Also where'd you get those," she pointed to the gold on her fore hooves, "they look like they belong in a museum, yet how the heck do they do that!" she pointed to the three digits on her hooves.
"I got it from a temple in Jai-pone," the samurai pony simply said.
"Hmm," fleetfoot pondered on that.
"Listen sugarcube, her life took a turn for the worst at one point after it happened, so let's just leave it at that ya hear?" the farm pony said.
Fleetfoot sighed, "Alright," she chuckled right after, "crazy how one pony can change the entire world we live in."
"Yeah, for better...or for worse," the farm pony agreed.
It was midnight with luna's moon in middle of the dark-blue sky filled with bright stars. It was a beautiful yet everypony was sleeping, everypony on the train, except for the ones who were running it of course. All the ponies on the train car were asleep, all except one.
Fluttershy was at the back of the train car, leaning on the railing and staring up, not at the moon, but at the stars. Stars, whose light shone all the way from space, millions of miles away. What was so intriguing about them? Why did she get that same feeling she got from staring at the cloudominium? What could it be? What could it be? What could it be?
"Hey, uh, you out here?"
"Yes Lightning Dust, I am," she answered back to the voice.
"H-How'd you know it was me?" she asked in surprise, as she leaned on the railing next to her.
"I could smell," the yellow mare replied with a smirk.
"Ookay. Anyyways what are you doing out here? Trouble sleeping?" lightning dust inquired.
"No, I fear if I go to sleep I will strange dreams, a nightmare of sorts," she answered her fellow pegasus' question.
"Oh,"
"......"
"......"
"How come you can't sleep?" the nocturnal pony asked a question of her own.
"It still bothers me that her death was how I got into the wonderbolts and sleeping right there with her friends, who I nearly killed!" lightning dust looked down over the railing at the tracks that seemed like they could go on forever. Fluttershy embraced the other pegasus and nuzzled her.
"At least you know when things are taken too far," the pink maned one said, consoling the other mare. They stayed like that for a while. "Hmm, you know you almost look like her or at least like her equal,"
"Yeah, I kinda got that message clearly when your pink friend thought I was a reincarnation of her or something like that,"
"Rainbow would've actually enjoyed your friendship," she said, using her first and oldest best friend's name for the first time ever since.
"What?" lightning dust was caught off guard by this. 'Could she have really?'
"Yeah she revealed to me only because I was least expected to hide something. She told me about you, although she couldn't get some of your colors right," fluttershy chuckled at that, "she liked your manestyle, more so that little piece that was seperated from the rest of your smoothly combed down mane," fluttershy started petting her mane, "all those times where nopony got hurt and you two having were just having an awesome time with each other. She said it felt like finding somepony who understood the world like her, like finding somepony who is the same as her,...like finding a sister,"
"Aren't you a bit jealous of that. I mean you two knew each other for so long,"
"I can't be jealous of that now and I couldn't have been jealous then because I didn't see life's perspective like her...or you,"
"......What were you like before all this," she asked, curious of how the mare consoling her was like.
"I was shy, easy to scare, loved animals, not very athletic, and I probably didn't know the word violence even existed," fluttershy described her old self. She smiled at the memories of what she used to be.
"Wow, I never knew you were like that," lightning paused for a moment. "When spitfire tore off that emblem from my cadet uniform it felt like she tore out my heart instead and my world was ending...but I never thought somepony like rainbow actually felt..alone,"
"Rainbow especially liked that trail you leave behind. She showed deep regret towards saying goodbye to you in a bad way," lightning's guilt returned.
"Oh gee I--,"
"I had an anger slowly building up inside of me. I really, secretly hated Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity. They would always make jokes about her intelligence and they would always take advantage of it sometimes. She sometimes got depressed and came to me for support, she didn't have a mother so she would subconsciously call me mommy sometimes. The point is her ego, her pride, her achievements. It was all she had. Her tough personality had become a shell, as the real her had withered away. I would always give her a potion to make her forget whatever had happened completely,"
"I...I had no idea,"
"She never knew anything, since I built her semi-perfect reality for her and tended to her. The reality she lived in was a lie, a mask I put on her to protect her from...those three. I was beacon the only of hope she had...but you," fluttershy hugged lightning dust tighter, "you were the only salvation she had. After the academy she said she told me she had nightmares that involved you turning away from her and leaving," lightning was crying now.
"I---I was worth that much to her?"
"After she fully forgot she would have dreams about an angel, a green one......Green, a color she could easily mix up with turquoise,"
"I--I--," she burst into tears. Fluttershy lead her back into the train car.
"Soon her shell hardened enough that she didn't need me anymore," she whispered to her, "and she had forgotten completely. Even I forgot, that is until her death," she laid lightning on her bed and continued to whisper to her, "I forgave them when I saw how much she meant to the three of them and so now it is up to time to show us what will happen next," lightning had finally lost consciousness, being overtaken by sleep. Fluttershy got into her bed before whispering four last words "Good night Dusty dearest."
Everything was weird. There were images flashing left and right. Creatures were bowing to some sort of angel. Planets were being scorched into nothing but glass. Gigantic metal objects in space were destroying each other. Dead and living were both being turned into highly grotesque monstrosities. Living things were being reduced to ash piles by metal creatures. A conflict escalating where both sides were using not only weapons of mass destruction, but weapons of planetary destruction as well. Soldiers and innocent alike were both being slaughtered without mercy. There was blood sprayed all over the place, dismembered limbs were on the floor, corpse strung up, some of them missing their spines and skulls. Suddenly a blue light started shining. It was starting to raise in temperature and soon it raised to a point where the feeling of being slowly burned alive started to become relevant.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!"
"Twilight wake up! Your having a nightmare!" Twilight opened her eyes to see starlight in front of her, holding her by the shoulders. She could see it was day via the sunlight pouring in from the windows.
"What--What happened?" she said while catching her breath.
"You were having a nightmare. You just kept tossing and turning and then it looked like you were struggling against something that was holding you down," she exhaled in relief, "you were starting to scare me when you started screaming."
"It was weird nightmare," twilight said, rubbing her forehead, "There were machines, monsters, annihilation, war, destruction, genocide, and some sort of benevolent force?"
"Well whatever it was about we'll figure out later, because we finally arrived," starlight pulled twilight to her hooves, "Come on!" They walked out of the train to be welcomed by the winter air of the Crystal Empire.
"CON' SARN IT fluttershy! That was not funny!" twilight turned to see fluttershy snickering and applejack staring down at her, obviously angry. "Twilight was having a nightmare and while that was happening, you were having a laughing fit. What's wrong with ya'll," Fluttershy looked up at her and smirked with one half-lidded eye. She quickly turned around and in a sing song-y voice said,
"Not-gonna-tell-you!" this infuriated her even more. Fluttershy walked up to discord.
"NOW can I teleport!" he said.
"Sure," she simply answered. He was about to snap his fingers, but before he did fluttershy stuck her tongue out and blew raspberry at her friends and smirked, this time with a devilish, tooth-y grin and both her eyes half-lidded. Rarity gasped at her friends un-characteristic like manner. Before anybody can say anything about it, fluttershy disappeared with discord.
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"What was that dear fluttershy? I have never seen you act that way before," he said, pointing his finger at her and grinning just like how she smirked at her friends, clearly loving this side of fluttershy. She merely looked up at him and simply uttered two words,
"Dashie Dearest."
"Oh. That. Oh well. I suppose I would be treating them like that too if was the only who knew how their little jokes would affect you in a similar manner," the two walked in the castles halls in silence for a moment or two.
"Discord can you sense it?"
"Yes. Yes I can," discord started laughing sinister-ly, "You are strong in the force young fluttershy. Something is rising. Something powerful," his voice had changed twice when he said that, "Ian Mcdiarmid, Revenge of the Sith. With a hint of Corey Burton from the Clone Wars," they both disappeared into another hallway.
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Applejack was seething, "What has gotten into that mare!" at the corner of her eye she could see pinkie pie and lightning dust standing next to each other. Pinkie pie was whistling in a suspicious manner. "Hey pinkie pie! Do ya know anythang," she asked. All of a sudden,
"Nopony breaks a pinkie promise!!" in the blink of an eye she zipped off towards the castle. The only other pony left was lightning dust. Applejack got up in her face,
"You! I know there's something going on here and you and fluttershy have gotten awfully close in the span of one day," applejack went nose-to-nose with her.
"So what?" she forced her back while still being nose-to-nose. Her elemental augmentation allowing such a feat, especially on a giant like her.
"So ya must know somethin'. What. Is. It?" they were locked in place for a few minutes before lightning dust looked down in defeat and sighed.
"Fine. I'll tell you," applejack smirked in satisfaction. "It's...None of your business," she took to the skies and flew off towards the castle. Applejack boiled over and exploded.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..."
"Oh dear," twilight exclaimed as her earth pony friend continued screaming.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Wait, why do I have to take care take care of Flurry Heart? Where are you guys going?" shining armor turned around as he was putting on his armor. It was reforged to look semi-similar to the new armor.
"Look Sunburst I need you to watch over her while we go on a mission okay?"
"What kind of mission?" shining armor sighed,
"A diplomatic mission to the Frozen North," he let these words sink in.
"Wha-What? What?!" shining armor grabbed his sword and sheathed it on his back. Shining armor would have sparring matches with his guards. The sword's blade had a thick dark blue aura around it with cyan electric bolts traveling towards the blade's point in random patterns and purple star-shaped particles floating around the blade. The handle was long, it had two wing guards, and on both sides where the blade met the handle was a purple star with black trim on top of the wings. The handle and wings were both gold with crystal black trim and a handle grip. The sword was known well for the reverberating, metallic pinging noise it makes when being swung, more so when blade-locking since it made a continuous ping. "Look you can't be serious there's a reason why nopony's even attempted to travel to the The Frozen North!"
"It's more than just a mission. If things go bad some of us might not make and I don't even know what will happen next so please, take care of her," he crossed horns with him and created a telepathic link between the two. "A hoof-full of guards and changelings will be here to guard the empire okay?" he nodded his head, "Alright then come on Thorax, mobilize your soldiers we're leaving in a little bit
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"So you're a general in the Chrysalis' army?" lightning dust questioned.
"General and Co-ruler of the changelings native to equetria," thorax corrected her.
"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You mean there are more than just you guys in equestria?''
"Yeah, because of our insectoid nature we are able to identify any changeling in disguise or not. We're able to identify changelings who are related to the queen regardless of them being born from another hive or having a completely different appearance.
"Like you? I mean during many of my tours I saw only black changelings and they all were the same height, but you, you're completely different. You're taller, you're gold, you a have blue wing-like tail, you have those three white things on your chest, your eyes are different, and you have those horn-like mandibles on your head,''
"Well I wouldn't go that far, besides, I was originally a black one too you know,"
"Well how'd you get like that?" she questioned his origins.
"Don't know, metamorphosis of some sort. Evolution? Mutation? I don't know it just happened I formed a cocoon, or chrysalis if you will, and climbed out looking like this, heck, it even happened in front spike when he was visiting and he freaked out. Everypony started freaking when this began to happen to the changelings around equestria,''
"Hmm, well it does explain a lot. Like when the moment see them again they look colorful and some of them have different traits similar to other bugs or arthropods," lightning looked behind her, "Although, I have to say your kids look pretty awesome." They heard the door to the meeting room open.
"Hey guys we're here!" starlight called out. Spike came through the doors first.
"Hey thorax!" spike waved to his changeling friend.
"Hey spike--um, whats with the block of crystal?" he asked when he saw starlight levitating a block a large block of crystal.
"Huu haa--It's--huu haa--a long--huu haa--story,'' twilight said. She was levitaing applejack's armor and weapons.
"Hey uncle spike!" a bunch of voices greeted spike.
"How're the kids thorax?"
"They're doing great, albeit they have yet to mature fully despite their size.
"But they're still old enough to give themselves names,"
Truth be told they he had a lot of kids. Phantom was black with blue flame-like aura, had blue bio-luminescent patterns on his body, and a scorpion tail. He can turn invisible, shoot paralyzing or hallucinogenic poison from his stinger, and somehow launch a fungal growth that will grow into and act like some sort of organic automated turret.
Inferno was similar to phantom except he was a bit bulkier, had a few thorns, and his color was red. He was able to spit out a highly concentrated stream of red glowing lava-acid from his stinger, secrete toxic red vapors from his body, and spit out lava-acid that, if it misses it's target will act like a gas bomb.
Rainbow was named after rainbow because her appearance always changed colors. She had a pair of large moth wings with beautiful patterns and colors on them. She was able to create solid clones, make illusions with her wings, and camouflage.
Kamikaze was much like his sister except he was hyper active and his colors would switch based on his emotions. He can secrete an unknown amount of chemicals and spit out organic bombs.
Web and silk were both twin brother and sister. Like their father they both had a yellow/gold carapace, red on their hooves, horns, and the tips of four extra appendages on their backs, and black eyes, moth wings, and extra appendages. They both can spit out highly sticky web and highly thin yet incredibly strong silk, jump great heights, albeit unnecessary due to them having wings, and were lightning fast.
Bonez named himself this because most of his carapace was white and the the thorns he had. On his thorns and hooves was a pinkish red hue. He had two mantis appendages on his back and an armored tail that can extend to an unbelievable length with a wasp stinger at the end, resembling a spine.
Crazy was also hyper active. She was full on yellow and blue. She had the ability to generate electricity and possessed extreme speeds.
Pinkie pie liked spending time with crazy and kamikaze, which was a no brainer.
"Fluttershy dear, we need to talk about how you've been acting lately," rarity said as she walked past everybody towards her. Fluttershy merely smirked. Before rarity could say more she was pulled away by spike.
"Uh, guys what's going on with fluttershy, she's been acting a bit like how discord," thorax whispered to them
"Can we take this down the hall, or maybe further, because I'm prettee sure we all of know she's got super hearing right?"
"Agreed,"
"I think after years of whatever she's experienced may have gotten to her head," starlight theorized.
"Oorr maybe it was rainbow dash's death and she's taking it out on us," rarity offered her own opinion.
"Guys I don't think it was any of it," spike cut in, "First: She would have taken it out on me and twilight. Second: We know next to nothing about rainbow and fluttershy, their past I mean. Did rainbow have any parents? What was her childhood like? What was fluttershy's like? Did she have any parents? What did those two do together during their time before they met us? What did they do when we weren't around,"
"Spike is right this thing may run deeper than we know," twilight agreed. 'Wow spike sure has learned a lot from me,'
"Then the only course of action we have is to give fluttershy some space, because if this is true then this really is something personal to her and beyond our comprehension,"
"Putting it simply this is a friendship problem that we can't solve..." she looked at all of them, "...huh this is incredible we've overcome so many obstacles solved so many friendship problems and here we are," rarity summed it all up.
"In an even more simpler way: Your friendship is practically dying," they all looked at thorax, "What? Changelings can sense emotions. Right know there is a tremendous amount of hatred and anger venting off of fluttershy. It is ancient, powerful, and...Malevolent, and it's directed towards you, rarity, and applejack,"
"Ancient? Malevolent? It is clear that we are way in over our heads--Wait, directed towards twilight, rarity, and applejack?"
"So this has been going on for a while and it involves the three of us," twilight tried to put it all together.
"That's it!" they turned towards starlight this time.
"What is?" twilight questioned her apprentice.
"The three of you were all critical of rainbow dash. Applejack: She thought rainbow was insensitive and took things too far. Rarity: You thought rainbow dash was un-lady-like and rude. Twilight: You thought rainbow had poor education because she didn't care about it and that she was lazy,"
"And with all of you not knowing anything personal of her or of her past, you thought they were her own decisions, but if something happened in her past then that's what's been influencing her choices all along, and she probably only shared her past with her first friend, who she could fully trust, Fluttershy!" spike concluded starlight's theory.
"And I can clearly remember the jokes we made about her and the things she was known to be terrible at, just about now... Um, whoops?" twilight added.
"Thorax, didn't you say something about her anger being Malevolent?" rarity asked, remembering thorax's description of fluttershy's emotion.
"........."
"........."
"........."
"........."
"........."
"Yeah let's give her some space,"
"Wait, has anypony seen sunset?"
====================================================================================================
Hmph, taking on you will be like taking on spitfire, a unicorn spitfire that is," lightning stated.
"Don't underestimate your opponent," sunset informed her. She struck first as she made a fiery sphere, the size of a boulder form, and herald it at lightning. It impacted right on target. "What the?" Sunset squinted her eyes trying to see past the steam. There was no body not even tracks indicating she had maneuvered out of the way.
"You're the one that's underestimating your opponent," sunset's eyes widened at that whisper. She immediately whirled around and swung her twin swords at an angle, creating two waves of fire that hit thin air. 'how did she get--
"Tsk, tsk you," she turned around to see her waving at her. --behind me,' She swung again and when the wave actually hit it's target, lightning merely smirked before she dissipated. 'An afterimage?' She noticed something in the air. A whistle. She turned her head towards the sound. She was in complete shock. Two electric bolts, one green and one blue, were coming at her, both in sync with each other.
Before she knew it she was hit by them. Electricity coursed through her entire body, making her movement lock up, stunning her her. She exhaled as the after affect died off.
(Whistling)
She was struck again, this time she felt multiple stings around her body. She exhaled again. She crossed her words together and made an X with them. The symbols started glowing yellow. A circle of fire soon formed around her. Sunset's horn glowed, she created a yellow bubble around her, her wounds were healing. 'Alright that should cause her to attack again,' She closed her eyes.
'Focus,'
(Whistling)
Sunset opened her eyes. 'Impossible!' What was attacking her wasn't bolts of electricity like she had expected. It was lightning herself! Lightning's image was phasing in and out of her sight, any faster and she wouldn't have been able to see her. Sunset's eyes widened when she looked at what was in lightning's other hoof. Along side her sword was a blue lightning bolt!
Sunset realized she was distracting herself and braced. Lightning blew past the wall of fire and impacted with sunset. Only her sword was pressed against both of sunset's. She pushed away from lightning. Soon the wall of fire became wider and taller.
"So, you finally caught on. Told you. You were the one who underestimated your opponent," she smiled, "Shall we?" Sunset raised her arm, positioning one of her swords in front of her face, vertically. She twirled the sword in her hoof while straightening her arm, completing the sword salute.
"Let's," With a smile of savage glee lightning phased towards sunset and jumped, spinning with both her weapons outstretched, in mid air. The first strike came from her sword. It knocked away her swords, sunset brought them up again. The second strike came from the lightning bolt, when it clashed with her swords sunset was stunned by an electric current that traveled through out her body. Taking this chance, lightning performed a double sweep. The first sweep knocked her off her hooves. The second sweep was a strong one, it hit her square in the face, right before she hit the ground.
She stood back up when she stopped rolling from the kick. She wiped away the blood that from her nose. "Alright, play time is officially over," sunsets horn glowed yellow. The same color enveloped lightning like a aura.
"Aw, crap," lightning was dragged across the snow, a trail of snow flying into the air as a result. Sunset slammed her against the snow, over and over again, each time more stronger than the last. Finally she drooped. She formed a fireball right above the crater, where she laid. What followed next was a column of orange and yellow energy beam rising, continuously, into the sky.
Sunset took a minute or two to catch her breath, smiling with satisfaction.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. (sigh) Heh," sunset turned towards the crater. Lightning was walking out of it! A green aura surrounded the turquoise mare. "Wow. You actually managed to scratch me," she said. Lightning spat out blood from her mouth, a small, thin trail of it running down the corner of her mouth. "Yeah, your probably wondering how I'm able to have this aura around myself when only unicorns and alicorns are able to do that," lightning chuckled, "Well there's something special about my elemental augmentation," lightning let sunset ponder about it for a moment or two, "Along side the ability to manipulate all forms of electricity, I. Have the ability to manipulate neuro electricity,"
At the mention of neuro sunset realized what she was truly in for. Lightning spread her arms and let out a deafening scream as a huge gust of wind blew away the barrier of fire they were in.
"Well, looks like I was the one who underestimated the opponent," sunset said to herself as he looked at lightning dust. She was glowing green like an angel with blue electricity coursing all over her body. Sunset pulled out a strange pendant. She opened it and upon it's opening large amounts of energy spewed out. Sunset suddenly sprouted two fiery wings and was surrounded by a yellow light.
"Bring it!" she called out to her adversary. Lightning smirked.
====================================================================================================
"Hey guys, sorry about being gone for a little while. Me and sunset were just having a few lessons?" lightning peaked her head through the door into the meeting room.
"What kind of lessons where you two having exactly?" twilight questioned her, not believing that lightning was one to be interested in sitting around and listen to someone explain something.
"Well," lightning entered the room, revealing sunset on her back, "I'm pretty sure they were called combat lessons."
Twilight let out an irritated sigh.
"Is everpony prepared?" Celestia called out to her subjects, fellow princesses, allies, and soldiers. They all gave their agreements.
"Well then. Let us begin our journey,"
The large force began it's trek through the snow. It seemed endless, like it was a giant Snow-Desert.
"Hey fleetfoot, didn't you tell stories about the Frozen North?" Soarin asked remembering her saying bizarre things about the place.
"Yep. I did. And they weren't stories. The reason I know so much about this place was because my ancestors used to live here," she explained, as if it was the simplest thing.
"Wow. Didn't see that coming," he stated, not expecting to find out about this from fleetfoot.
"Yeah. There's nothing dangerous out here......Except for Ice Dragons, Ice wolves, Snow Beasts, Yeti's, Savage dog tribes, Spirit Wendigos, Wendigos, Frost-Demons, and the Legend of the Ice Guardians. Giant beings who protect the treasures left behind by the Lords of Winter,"
"Wait you said spirit wendigos and wendigos. What does that mean?"
"It means that there was the wendigos that caused the unnatural winter in you land and the wendigos that were originally ponies," soarin's eyes widened at what she said. "It happens when ponies commit acts of cannibalism. There they start to deform into wendigos. When they mature they grow out claws, wings, canine teeth, spikes and horns. All of which are made of Ice and diamond,"
"Jeez life must be tough out here for anypony or thing that lives here,"
"Yeah and when they fully mature you get frost-demons," fleetfoot looked back at soarin.
"You know, maybe this trip isn't worth it. I mean there is a risk we could all run out of food and--," soarin's fearful rant was cut off by fleetfoot.
"It only applies to ponies native to the frozen north. You have nothing to fear," soarin sighed in relief. "Except we got a problem,"
"I don't wanna ask but what?" soarin said in an exaggerated tone.
"One thousand years ago there was a forest, it was once a place of great memories. Memories of family and friends...It soon turned into a nightmare as the frost-demons made an action so evil and sinful, that the name of forest became The Forest of Whispers,"
"What-what happened?" soarin questioned, fearful of what he would hear next.
"They...mated with the populace," fleetfoot said, barely above a whisper.
"What?" fleetfoot's face hardened. "You mean that your kind had-had--," soarin couldn't finish his sentence.
"It wasn't the end of it. Mares gave birth to ghostly children. The Snow-Ghosts. They were white, misty, and blue eyed. They didn't need sleep, didn't need to eat or drink. Heck wherever they go a cold chill follows them. They were soon exiled back to the forest and everything quieted down," fleetfoot paused for a moment.
"So that was it right?" fleetfoot looked over to night fury, who was next to luna.
"No, it wasn't. A strange mare came to the frozen north, an outsider. When the word had gotten out, it was revealed that she escaped while the crystal empire was being attacked," fleetfoot paused again.
"Hey you don't think..." he implied when he looked at the captain of the lunar soldiers.
"She was often looked at like she was an abomination, rumors spread that she was a child of darkness............Then one day she had conceived a child. The father was a frost-demon, so they say,"
"This is where it all hits the fan isn't it?"
"The child was a strange one. It caused a sickness to hit the village it resided in. Ponies couldn't sleep. Other ponies died off from a strange radiation poisoning. The child itself was rarely seen, just a blur of black and white. A few years after the birth of the child, the mother and the child had both disappeared--."
"Uh, fleetfoot," soarin pointed his hoof behind her. Fleetfoot turned around and went nose-to-nose with a insane-looking, purple alicorn.
====================================================================================================
"Hey! It isn't my fault!" thorax countered spikes claim.
"Hey, just saying: It is a little weird that all of your offspring have abilities that are for combat purposes," spike defended his claim.
"Well it isn't my fault, nor was it chrysalis'. I mean we can't just choose when to have a normal changeling or not, and unfortunately they were all born as warrior-drones and to top it all off, warrior-drones, when they have not reached adolescence, tend to have a certain, instinctual need to enter combat in service to their higher-ups or the royalty they serve," thorax finished his little history lesson on his race.
"Jeez, it must be tough huh? You know keeping them out of trouble and all that," spike said to his changeling friend.
"Yep it is," thorax chuckled, "I wouldn't even be able to prevent them from coming along by locking them up in a "all purpose cell", besides they weren't exactly born with their abilities, but when they started getting smarter their instincts kicked in and they started forming their own styles of combat." Thorax looked back at his brood. He was having trouble being at ease, especially since his children were following him and chrysalis into a, possible, suicide mission.
====================================================================================================
"Are we there yet?"
"No,"
"Are we there yet?"
"No,"
"Are we there yet?"
"No,"
"Are we there yet?"
"No,"
"Are we there yet?"
"No,"
"Are we there yet?"
"No!"
"Are we there yet?"
"Pinkie pie, ah' swear if you say that one more time ah'ma another fit!"
"............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................are weee there...yyyeet,"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...,"
"OH NO! Twilight! Starlight!--Hey! Have you ever noticed how your names rhyme, and how you two are almost have the same personalities?--Applejack is having another fit again! Ooh, and Starlight and Sunset's last names rhyme; Starlight Glimmer, Sunset Shimmer. (Gasp), have you guys ever noticed that all three of you are almost the same; all three of you have studied magic on an advanced level, all three of you have magic on an advanced level, all three of you have manes with more than one color on it, all three of you are--well technically were unicorns, all three of you have cutie marks that involve astral bodies, all three of you are very smart, all three of you know lots of spells, all three of you are very very smart, and all three have last names that involve something shining!"
"Ugh,"
"Ugh,"
"Ugh,"
"Wow, your a lot like surprise, pinkie pie. Isn't that right surprise?"
"Yay!"
"Hey, I almost didn't see your text and did you just reference Amaimon, also, Mr. Author, could change the text back to normal? It's gonna get confusing since some characters have the same colors,"
Eh, alright then I'm actually getting kinda tired of doing that and--Wait a minute! When did I type that part of your speech in?!
You didn't. I'm Pinkie Pie remember?
I knew I should've heeded the warnings about typing in your speech--Oh! Now look what made type in! (Groan)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are now returning to your regularly scheduled program.
"I did! Do you know about Blue Exorcist too!" surprise asked.
"I do! Oh, also lightning dust!"
"What?"
"Did I ever tell you how much you and rainbow dash are the same?"
"Yeah, you did. It was when you first saw me...and, of course, I do remember the bone crushing-hug you gave me,"
"Oh, whoopsies. (Gasp) Hey guys have you ever noticed...
====================================================================================================
"Sister?"
"Yes luna?"
"Don't you think your Elite Celestial guards are a bit too much?" she asked her solar, counter-part, sibling.
"Actually they're here of their own accord. I believe these fire spirits were family heirlooms from our grandparents and so on," celestia said, looking around at the spirits surrounding her. "Pinkie pie said they look like the ashen one from dark souls three. Whatever that is,"
The spirits bore armor that was very much the same as the celestial army's, shiny white armor with gold trimming. The only difference was extra armoring on their right shoulders with a strange glowing glyph. Flames would spew out from the eye holes and around certain areas of their bodies. They all had a cape of flames hanging behind them which, in fact, were their wings folded behind them. Their were eleven of them. The only one with a horn resembling a golden combat knife on their helmet was their leader. Other than that were all identical.
Their armament was an enchanted bow and a sword holstered on their backs as preserve or back up weapons. Their primary weapon was a golden halberd with the sun shape as the axe-blade and a giant, rectangular, white shield with gold trimming and the symbol of the sun at the center of the shield.
"Hmm, I wonder when they were made. It is pretty obvious that must they be very old," celestia questioned the origins of the fire spirits.
"Well this is something that we're going to have trouble figuring out since they don't look like they can talk," luna hinted at the spirits being quiet all the time.
The two sisters chuckled.
====================================================================================================
A girlish, high-pitched scream rang out. Soarin instantly covered his mouth as he realized he had screamed like that. Fleetfoot had finally concluded the story she was telling.
"So, can you tell me more about the Lords of Winter?" twilight pried for more information.
"Well not much is known about them. The only thing that is known is that they had come from the stars..."
"Huh, well most popular beliefs indicate benevolent beings descending from the heavens," twilight stated.
"...They were the ones who brought life to the Frozen North, filling the entire land with plenty of different creatures..."
"Another popular belief is that powerful beings created and formed the land you live in," twilight stated her second fact.
"...The last known thing was that they were trying to create a world or a species to fight some sort of plague," fleetfoot finished listing down what she knew.
"Well...That one's got me stumped," twilight admitted. Soarin, meanwhile, was trembling in fear since he could still remember what fleetfoot said.
"Hey uh, fleetfoot, couldn't we have taken another route besides this one?" soarin asked in complete fear.
"Actually this forest is the very reason why the inhabitants of the frozen north are isolated here in the first place," she stated. Soarin's eyes shrunk.
"So technically you mean that nopony has never made it out alive from this forest Ever!?" soarin was on the verge of hysteria.
"Hey guys? Can you not be telling ghost stories and get some rest?" Shining asked, agitated that it was keeping soarin, and any one else who could possibly be listening in.
"Alright then. But just so you know it take some time to calm soarin down and get him to fall asleep," fleetfoot informed him. He sighed,
"Fine, just make sure he doesn't make anymore noise," He demanded from the Wonderbolt/Elemental.
1 Hour Later
Shining Armor was doing rounds among the entire army. Night-time had already settled in. Those that were doing rounds were a few celestial soldiers, Scales and a few other dragons, Wise Flyer, Gilda, his high ranking general, and his loyal guards, some mutated changelings with characteristics of nocturnal insects and arthropods, a small group of original and evolved changelings, Spitfire and a few other elementals, the Fire Spirits who are, strangely enough aware of the place they are in, writing symbols and spells in the ground around the area for a protective barrier and acting like sentinels with their leader watch over celestia, and finally, of course, the Lunar soldiers with their captain.
Shining Armor was suspicious of Night Fury and was keeping an eye out for her. Meanwhile fluttershy was perched up on a tree thanks to the blades behind her legs. To further support her perched position, fluttershy added in a sharp metal piece on the joint of her wings, resembling the thumbs of bat wings.
Her eyes were closed and her arms were crossed against her chest. She was, bizarrely, in a meditative state, practicing astral projection, and sleeping, all at the same time. Her entire spirit was elsewhere. She was searching for something...someone...somepony. Her ear twitched,
"Nice try, but I can hear your heart beat," she called out to the individual, who was attempting to sneak up on her.
"Damn. Never knew your hearing was that good," lightning dust floated in front of her, without the use of her wings.
"Well most would speculate that you would now next to nothing on unicorn magic, least of all alicorn magic. But then again you could always just make them wet themselves by lifting up an entire city," she offered ightning dust. She snickered at this.
"Wha? Where am I? Ah! You, you monster release me this instance or else!" prince blueblood yelled as he awoke being upside down and tied to fluttershy.
"Yeah, I was going to ask you on the train why you were dragging him around but never got around to it," she stated, wondering how she didn't notice him hanging from the ceiling with fluttershy before.
"Don't ignore me! I am of royal blood! I am the nephew of celestia and I will have..."
"Well it's going take a while to explain," fluttershy nodded to a bonfire, indicating to sit.
"Hey, what are you two doing? Ah! AHH!" fluttershy and lightning dust both propelled themselves to land in front of the bonfire, landing swiftly and knocking blueblood unconscious as he landed with a heavy thud. Fluttershy assumed a criss-cross, sitting position.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" lightning dust asked when she saw blueblood with a bump on his head.
"He'll be fine," she stated.
====================================================================================================
Shining Armor finally spotted his target. Night Fury was heading past the protective spells and symbols towards the deeper section of the forest. Shining Armor was hesitant at first, but walked past the spiritual barrier non-the-less. He started hearing ominous whispering.
Night Fury smirked as she heard shining armor's heartbeat and headed deeper into the forest.
