Chapters Everfree outskirts
Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the elements of Harmony await further orders from the Princesses of Equestria, Applejack paces up and down the stretch of field separating them from entering the Everfree forest.
”Now, ah know when something’s up cause’ I can feel it in my gut... and this ain’t a good feeling” Applejack says, her head hung long and her Stetson hat nearly falling off the side of her mane.
“They’ve been gone for almost an hour... this doesn’t read well in my mind” Twilight confesses, she looks wearily around her remaining friends. She summons a scroll from her saddle bags hanging on her withers and starts to scribble a hastily done letter to send to the Princesses.
It read;
Dear Queen Celestia and Priestess Luna,
The elements of Harmony and I are worried sick for our friend Rainbow Dash and the well-known adventurer Daring Do as they haven’t returned from an expedition into the Everfree for over an hour now, we were wondering about any news from the guards on their whereabouts.
Sincerely Twilight Sparkle
Spike, Twilight’s faithful assistant and baby dragon stands beside the violet mare and readies himself to send the message to the princesses, he plucks the letter out of Twilight’s magical grasp and prepares to belch his green flame onto it which will send it to the former-Princesses in the Royal Canterlot Palace where it will reanimate and be able to be read.
But a bright white puff of smoke and a golden ray of light shines just in front of the five elements of Harmony and the small dragon, out of the light steps Queen Celestia, the sole ruler of Equestria and the manipulator of the sun.
Her brilliant array of striking white fur and rainbow mane and tail astonish even those who have seen her a million times before, she sheepishly blushes for her sudden arrival and quickly nods to two guards on each of her sides.
They step away and let the Queen through as she slowly trots over to Twilight and her friends. Celestia’s majestic stature revels in the sunlight as her horn begins to glow a cool white, she prepares a calming spell to put her subjects at ease.
After casting a glance behind her towards the Everfree, Celestia turns to advance into the dark depths of the forest. A quick plea from a guard turns the Ruler of the Sun around to fade his objection before continuing on her way.
Seeking deep into the retched forest, Celestia’s magic covers across a large ten metre radius collecting any and all Intel on where the two Pegasus had gone lost. A slight sliver of their disappearance picked up on Celestia’s “sonar” it was Daring Do’s helmet, crumpled and filled with a greasy substance... ‘Oh, please don’t be what I think you are’ Celestia’s thoughts run to the wild suggestions as she quickens her pace.
Before going too far, Celestia picks the helmet up with her magic and gives it a flick letting the layer of grease inside go splattering onto a few trees and bushes. Mentally gargling at what had come out of the helmet, Celestia shakes off the remaining lines of grease and pulls it towards her. The helmet lay rested, clipped to the side of a one-strap saddle bag on Celestia’s right side. A trail of little trinkets lead the Princess down an albeit passage through a set of rose bushes and into a small clearing easily scorned with scuff marks in the dirt and trails of slime spanning down into a two small holes.
‘They were here, I know now... but what happened?’ Celestia asked herself, before her answer could reveal itself. Several screams and... Moans emanated from under the ground, they came from the holes. Celestia quickly recognized the sound of the screams and matched them to the two Pegasus, she chose the closest hole to her and dived into it using her wings to navigate a long tunnel beneath the surface of the Everfree, it went on for a bit twisting and turning, it was a tight fit mostly and Celestia’s fear of claustrophobic areas really started to chime in the back of her mind but it ended abruptly as Celestia found herself plummeting deep into a ravine where watery spires hung from the rooves of carved out shelters in the walls of the underground abyss, she stopped mid-flight and took in all the fascinating colours and the projection of a rainbow through the quartz walls after Celestia had finished shining her horn into any and almost all the gemstones she shook out of her trance and tucked her wings into her sides and bullet fed herself straight down to a clearing under the ravine where pools of bright cyan liquid began to congregate to form something, she was staring face to face with a newly forming monster lying in the middle of the crystal cave system, Celestia could feel the heat of its breath and hear the sound of what seemed to be an ocean under the crust of Equestria.
Regaining her regal posture, Celestia spoke with a powerful tone ‘Where. Are. They?!’ she said, her eyes lighting like a distant fire. She stood with her front hooves in a defensive stance, the monster was none like any other. It had the head of a snake, the body of a wilder beast and mountains of curled up Tentacles and a long articulate tail much like a monkey’s but larger. Getting a closer look at the hideous beast, Celestia’s muzzle scrunched up at a moment’s notice.
The thing noticed and growled before slowly speaking in a low guttural growl ‘Where is what? Your highness, I hardly know what you are inclining...’ it stood up off of the ground and came around the height of Sugar Cube Corner’s main building in Ponyville, Celestia although seriously regretting laying her eyes on this behemoth stood straighter than ever. Her back arching down giving her head more of a reason to heighten and bring her overall size at around six foot, five inches.
She repeated what she had ordered ‘Where are my subjects, Donavan?’ the beast’s name was Donavan, Celestia should know that as much as she let the thing live after it was found by the royal guard stationed in the Crystal Empire, Celestia was told that Donavan was found loitering around the streets disguised as a wealthy noble and had preyed on the weak and helpless to appease his satiable appetite for the young mares of Equestria, he had dropped his disguise in a back alley and lured the mares with flowers and other miscellaneous items clamped in his Tentacles.
Celestia remembered the oh so frightened look on his face when she found out about him, she ordered for him to be publically executed or face heavy fines and a lifetime in the royal dungeons underneath Canterlot, but he managed to escape the convoy escorting him to the Crystal Castle, he fled into the Everfree while Celestia backed down and let him stay in the forest but now that he was refusing to give the location of Celestia’s subjects and hopefully not to Celestia’s dismay violated any of them.
She stood firmer than her body could handle as she spoke this to Donavan ‘If you so much as lay a slithery Tentacle on them, so help me I will personally teach you the meaning of Violation by scorching your hide with the heat of the sun then strip your flesh from the bone and use it as a throw rug... now tell me where they are?!’ Celestia’s fire was growing inside, her temperature was rising as little sparks of fire erupted from the crevices beneath her wings and hot smoke began to fume from her snout.
Donavan simply lowered down to her height and breathed a large puff of steam onto Celestia’s already parched face ‘Now, Now. No need to get feisty my highness-‘ He was cut off by a thundering hoof to the side of his maw, his tongue flicking out the front of his mouth and brushing the side of Celestia’s cheek leaving a slight glob of saliva. With a booming shout, Celestia used the Equestrian voice to power her speech one more time ‘WHERE. ARE. THEY?!’ Celestia’s mane was practically smoking at how angry her emotions where getting, a fiery hot red light glowed from her horn as she charged a mega-spell.
Donavan slouched to one side as the cave got hotter and his cold blood was overheating from absorbing the energy from Queen Celestia, he hissed and threw two limp forms at the Queen who caught them just barely in her magic, they were the Pegasus Daring Do and Rainbow Dash. Their hearts were beating but very slowly, afraid of what Donavan had done to her subjects she inspected their frail bodies and discovered them to be covered with the same grease as found in Daring’s helmet, and had marks and bruises covering their midsections along with cuts and scrapes and dirt covering their hinds and hooves.
Laying them down onto her back, Celestia was mortified at her inspection. She couldn’t resist charging a massive mega-spell to vanquish this vile, retched, torturous Bastard. The spell magnified in size and grew into a huge red and orange orb which was sucked into her horn then dispelled into a beam of light which impacted on Donavan’s thick hide evaporating his face then slowly burning the rest of his flesh off until it was just a skeleton with bits of burnt muscle hanging off the bones.
Celestia smirked at her little light show as her wings shot open and she took to the surface following the same route to get down there, once up on the surface she made sure that Donavan were never to be found, she stomped her hooves on the sides of the holes causing them to collapse and fill up. Eagerly to get back to the elements of Harmony to reunite their friend, Celestia checked them one more time to see if there were any permanent damaging.
Relaxing at the sight of them waking up and showing signs of life, they immediately began to take flight and question where they were, Celestia rested their thoughts with her calming spell and told them that Donavan will not be bothering them any longer. The two began to realise and calmed down to sit back on Celestia’s back and rest, she didn’t mind them there as Celestia smiled to herself knowing her subjects can trust her to keep them safe.
Upon her re-entry into the Ponyville border, the elements rushed to the Queen at the sight of their friend and adventurer, Twilight stops and gives a of thank-you to Celestia who in turn acknowledged them and smiled greatly at her, she then levitated the two ponies off her back and set them on the ground gently. After that she gave her goodbyes and left in another puff of smoke but not before returning Daring Do’s helmet and mending the slime covered rips and tears in her shirt along with giving Rainbow dash a quick once over with a grin and a slicked hoof to bring her mane down into a flat curled ripple rather than its rather Mane-iac state.
Author's Note
Any words of wisdom for the viewers Celestia. No. Okay.
Canterlot, Royal Palace Gardens
Celestia Solar Genesis, the true Queen of Equestria. Sat on her rump in the green luscious grass of the garden’s courtyard listening to the mulling speech of a noble tactician and former captain of the guard now General of the Equine Task Force, Shining Armour was spouting nonsense about her unnecessary cause of action to incinerate a valuable asset to the griffon civil war that had dragged Canterlot’s and the Crystal Empire’s forces unwillingly into because of a faulty trading route that was discovered to run right underneath the front lines and was one of the many passages Celestia had traversed in Donavan’s lair.
Nodding occasionally and frequently looking to her younger sister Luna Apollo Genesis, the high priestess of the Inquisition formally an exile after failing to comply to formal orders in the council and allegedly assaulting a government official, her temporary banishment to the Everfree forest served as punishment, now she guides a small line of scribes and war ponies to scrounge up ways to build weaponry and armoury for the JPOC (Joint-Pony-Operations-Corp) in turn sat and intently indulged her compliance to listen to the white stallion in front of her.
After quite some time of discussing a meagre means to deal with the resisting onslaught of innocent ponies and griffons, Celestia had an idea that may have bested many but also may not bring a total end to the war. A mutual agreement silenced the verdict. ‘Now, listen to me carefully because I am not really in the mood for a ripe discussion of politics and other measly inconveniences. With my known knowledge of the galaxy that surrounds us and everything in it. I have dipped a little deeper in some of the old testaments in the holy bible we had uncovered among the remains of that poor washed up fool from the Free verse beyond our solar system, in what lies a holy trove of galactic warriors who will willingly lay their lives down for the good of all-kind’.
Celestia raises her muzzle to the stars beginning to appear in the sky then locks them on Shining Armour as she further explains her endeavour to put an end to all pain and suffering, even if it meant by her cause of action to bring an inter-galactic force from another world to fight with her against the ever-growing civil now world-war 1 & 2 style conflict. Luna shuffles in snuggly just beside her sister and covers her mouth with a hoof and whispers into her ear ‘With all due respect Tia’ but I think such a drastic example of overthinking should be eliminated from your reverie, I do like the sound of the idea. But, is it practical... we do not have such technological advancements as the books you were reading, in order to achieve a way to travel to this “Free verse” as you call it then we would have to develop something quickly or risk perishing on the front lines or with your idea... in space and I don’t think you of all ponies could stand the coldness of space unlike me who unlikely was planted flank first onto the moon and sat there with an oddly bright flag on a golden metal pole’.
Breaking off from Celestia’s smoking ear and giving a slight smile to Shining Armour before quickly excusing herself, Luna stands upon her hooves and steps into a ready stance before disappearing in a puff of black smoke. Leaving the temperamental ruler to contend with an evasive mind and the general of the ETF with a more than intrusive behaviour as he was already to begin to ask questions as to what the two sisters were discussing, he was rewarded with a snarky grin and a face full of smoke as Celestia had already left him to attend to some much needed rest and some extended research into space flight travel, because where she were to embark next will change Equestria’s fate if not all of pony-kind’s fate.
Author's Note
I have no comment.
Canterlot, Queen Celestia’s quarters
Safe and sound inside her quarters, Celestia began her nightly rituals of a light exercise, some nightly reading into science-fiction fantasy then a few mind bending puzzles then finished off with her laying closely to the large open balcony of her quarters. She would then stare deeply into the ever-changing cosmos created and tended by her loving sister Luna. Although the two of them charted any and all official star charts in Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle. Celestia’s second highest achieving student in her university of gifted unicorns, now charts the star maps in the neighbouring settlement Ponyville. Through several long drawn out yawns and smacking of lips, Celestia drew a breath and calmly swept away into the dreamscape, thinking or maybe plotting a new strategy for the oncoming war to be sieged in the war-less country of Equestria.
Slowly the night crept away and Celestia awoke to raise the sun in her not-so-morning glory, dreary and bleak. Celestia began her next day by running a nice steam bath, in a wash room just next to the side of her bed in an on suite. Inside lay a brass tub fit for a six-foot magical entailment from a children’s fairytale, she started by removing her royal miscellaneous attire then filling the tub with the water found in a large wooden drum sitting underneath a window sill to the right of the room, the light shone in through the window and basked the white marble flooring and gold stainless steel towel racks and cleverly designed sink and water mains.
With the water in the tub and her attire properly situated on a specially designed marionette in the corner of the room, Celestia lowers to the bottom of the tub with her head and softly her horn lights up with a magnificent glow. A bright white light shines from the base of her horn then travels up the shaft and to the tip before spilling out onto the bottom of the tub, a patch of the tub begins to turn a fluorescent orange as heat begins to warm the tub, the water starts to bubble and steam and after a quick thirty seconds the tub had been fully covered with the spell and from its normal brass colour it is now a fluoro orange.
Now with one hoof, Celestia calmly dips it over the brim of the tub and into the water. Swirling it around before deeming it warm enough to get in, after gently sinking like a pebble in a stream into the bottom of the tub and tossing a long breath. Celestia closes her eyes and mulls over the past day conversation, did she really know what she was doing? Inter-galactic warriors? In what world would that even be deemed necessary, if any world even had a force strong enough? All these thoughts and outrageous accusations about life in the cosmos was actually begging to sound like something of an impossibility.
The hurried sound of hoof steps outside the washroom startled Celestia, her ears going from their cute droop to a full red alert pointing. She swivels her head and squints out the door as two, no three. Three royal guards crunch forward into the Queen’s quarters, their heavy armour scraping against each other. Weapons at a standstill, they emerge from the corner of Celestia’s bed and stand at attention upon seeing their Queen. They all began at once, in unison they said; ‘Your highness, we have found something that may be of use to you. But before you arrive to see it we have an immediate threat upon the Canterlot gates... it’s him, it’s the fool. He has come for assistance from yourself.’
Squinting at her guards, Celestia tells them to wait. As she gets ready, her attire disappearing from its position and enveloping over Celestia’s body finding their place. She returns to her guards and inquires that they go and warn her sister Luna of what’s to come.
Author's Note
Huzzah..
The Inquisition’s guildhall
Luna, Priestess Luna. Stands looking over her disciples from atop a balcony, with a long sweep of her hoof. Her hood drapes backwards off of her mane and down onto her withers, and with a flourish of magic. Bright blue orbs bathe the many cloaked ponies as they slowly raise their muzzles to the upper floor, Luna smiles and begins ‘My fellow ponies of the valiant realm, I have gathered thee here today in celebration of the upholding of our keep and once again pushing back the griffon army to their border,’ with a small hip-hip and a cheer, several ponies hoods wave off their heads to reveal the mane six. The hosts of the elements of harmony had arrived to receive special gifts for initiating the retrieval of plans to destroy a local salt mine that would. If taken by the griffon army would cause major disruption in the Equestrian economy and would have entirely crushed their regime. ‘Not only have we triumphed here, but out there on the front lines. We are also here to pay our respects to the fallen soldiers who gave their lives to keep Equestria safe.’ The mood suddenly changed, ponies immediately began to slowly stare blankly in different directions, and they felt sorry for cheering but were cooed softly by Luna herself.
‘Rejoice in the light, my little ponies. For we are to be busy at work...’ The voice, silky smooth flowed through the cathedral with ease, Celestia stood among the crowd. Her gilded hood draped over her luscious breeze-stricken mane, she approached the pedestal from whence Luna was happily seated. ‘Sister, prepare the armaments. The fool has requested quarters with the royals from all of Equestria.’ Celestia wove past several robed ponies and leant her fore-hooves on the head of the pedestal.
‘As you wish sister.’ Her subtle nod lead Celestia to rewind, backing away from the pedestal and expecting a row of bowing ponies. They had all returned to work in stations surrounding the lower levels, ‘You have done well, sister. I am impressed.’ Those words held a sense of satisfaction, Luna. Turning four shades of red and hiding her muzzle with a hoof, ‘Thank you...’.
Royal Embassy
‘Fourteen thousand lives... We are being torn apart, and you want to disappear at a time like this.’ The representative of the horses, Asunder Mane spoke sullenly, she rose a hoof to her chest plate. Readjusting the straps and smearing the dried blood off to the side, her makeup was poorly done and was faded. Revealing the bright indigo fur and tufts of gold lining the sides of her neck up to her ragged ears, one drooped to the side and the other had the tip missing.
‘We are trying our hardest to push the griffons back... I just wish it were as easy as it used to be.’ Celestia paused, blowing a bit of her mane out from her eyes and tilting her crown to the side to free her ear from underneath it.
‘All we are doing is trying, there is no try if there is a do.’ Asunder replied, stamping her hoof down. The other representatives began to converse but were stopped by the fool. He stood in-between the middle of two other representatives, he raised a hand and leaned into a standing position. His armour clinked as he stood, and he withdrew his broad sword from its scabbard. It hung from his hand as he pointed to the centre of the room, ‘There is a do, If we sit and bicker till the day has passed. We will not find a way in means to stop the griffons from encroaching on our land...’ He was shushed by a small Unicorn by his side, and he immediately fell silent.
Tears hit the silent room, they pattered the stone tiling. Asunder rose to her full height and spotted the disturbance, the mane of a brightly coloured Pegasus came into view as five ponies stood aside from the rest, ‘We must act quickly, Celestia. I want you and a team of four to be prepared for departure at O nine hundred tonight.’ Asunder grit her teeth and nudged the sombre Pegasus with her muzzle, they exited the room with haste.
‘I will not fail you, not yet. Not ever.’ Celestia mused to herself, watching Asunder depart. She turned to her sister and was greeted with a tight embrace, the fool approached with the Unicorn in tow. They nodded in agreement of Asunder and followed the horse and her Pegasus. Muttering ensued from the remaining representatives, they were shushed again. ‘I need volunteers, any. One from all of the representative’s respective countries, to band with me as we trek the stars in hope of seeking help.’ Peeling her sister from her own embrace, Celestia was greeted by the presence of three volunteers who stepped apart from their reigning representatives.
The fourth was being treated to outside of the embassy by Asunder Mane, the remaining volunteers made up that of the Crystal, Aqua and Forest colonies respectively. The volunteers consisted of the brightest and toughest out of the allies; Lemonova of the Crystal ponies, Ocean Swell of Aquastria, Prince Bramble of the Forest thicket. Rainbow Shine of the Vwunder horses, lay with Asunder just beyond the door to the embassy, she was comforted by the Unicorn guiding the fool and wrapped her hooves in the mane of Asunder.
‘You three... four have been summoned here to embark on an arduous journey across our star system to initiate first contact with our neighbouring set of allies... At least I believe we can make it clear that we need their help and request them to form an alliance in order to end this war.’ Celestia informed, she motioned towards a map of the solar system draped across one of the back walls. Levitating a piece of red chalk, she draws a line from Equus to the unknown fleet of irregular shapes painted across the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan.
‘We will be coming into contact with sentient beings that we have never had the chance to study or even exchange data with... we have no idea what they are capable of and will be treading on thin ice when we arrive, so everypony will need to remain in an alert state but still open to any and all help we can muster from them.’ Lecturing, Celestia began to pace the room. She crossed in between the volunteers and personally gave them a tap on the flank to stop them from slouching or to get their attention off of an interesting part of the blank walls.
‘Does everypony understand what I have just said?’ she paused as Lemonova raised a hoof. ‘Yes.’ Lemonova stood forward and took a small breath before beginning, ‘your highness, what happens if these... uh, sent-sen... Ah, forget it. What happens if the ponies are not nice and attack us?’ Lemonova stepped back, her back hooves accidently clipping the metal armoured plates on Cadence’s front hooves.
‘The answer to that is, make not enemy if they see us as friend.’.
Author's Note
Ask away, if somethings catches your eye.
Daring Do struggled against the Tentacles clamping around her soft plot, but was powerless as they explored her lower regions. “Help me Rainbow Dash!” she cried. Rainbow sets off a cloud and comes spearing through the sky at the speed of light, a rainbow trail being left behind in her wake.
Blazing a trail through Everfree forest, Rainbow narrowly misses thistles, branches and rose bushes as she hears the cry of her idol. ‘C’mon, C’mon, just a little bit further’ Rainbow’s thoughts are drowned out by an ear-piercing scream.
A Tentacle weaves its slimy appendage around Daring Do’s waist, smearing it with a clear-ish purple slime, it slithers over Daring’s body like a snake wrenching her neck sideways and slithering down the base of her throat.
Rainbow Dash now achieving Mach speed, the trees seeming like a watercolour painting being burned with a candle. Past the trees and lakes, animals and mythical creatures are in no position to stop the speeding bullet named Rainbow Dash. She tears through the underbrush coming to a stop a couple of metres off the spot where Daring Do is strung up underneath a dark oak tree sporting brightly coloured golden apples.
Rainbow Dash flips around and stands leaning forward with her flank high in the air, her eyes set on the only thing of interest. Daring Do. She puts one hoof forward and another behind, angling her wings and positioning her body so that her launch will give off the most speed and power.
Rainbow Dash leaps forward but something snags onto the end of her tail quickly grounding her, a tendril spits from under a patch of leaves and grass and begins to wrap around the bottom of Rainbow’s hooves and buttocks.
Rainbow tries to break free but instead fails and resorts to one last look toward the adventuring mare being violated just across from her, all her surroundings start to fade and go a dark murky maroon as if the forest were to be covered in blood.
A sea of Tentacles burst from the tree-line sprouting all around the two mares, all of them eager for a “bite” Rainbow’s vision begins to blacken as several tendrils slither over her eyes, blocking the light from the tree tops and blanking her sight of Daring Do.
It all comes to a stop as her mouth is muffled from the screaming and is force-fed a large Tentacle, grudgingly Rainbow takes a big gulp and mentally steels herself for the inevitable. But before everything can escalate to the extreme. It all goes dark, and a single flash of light skips past Rainbow’s eyes. ‘Please, help me, help us...’ Rainbow pleads as her breathing slows and her heart begins to stop...
Author's Note
Yes, this really did just happen..