Chapter 3: The hunt begins
"Why do I look like this?" I said, my voice no longer the same, only stern and calm yet somewhat soft and young, giving the impression that I had started some very harsh military career at a young age.
"Your appearance now was mostly influenced by your likes and dislikes. When I entered you, via you eating the remnants of my essence left at the old castle, I saw some fragments of your life, your personality, etc." she stated.
"Why though? Why change my appearance if it won't do anything?" I questioned her again. I looked at the stream in order to see my reflection. My mane became similar to that of Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil or Rainbow Dash when Sombra returned to power over the Crystal Empire. (I couldn't quite get why I liked that kind of hairstyle) My mane had grown large enough to allow a pony tail to be made with the rest of my mane.
"Did you influence that part?" I looked at the entity, "Nightmare?"
"No......Maybe," she avoided my gaze. (Seriously why do they do that when it makes it so obvious?)
Either way I decided I liked it. The pony tail wasn't tied at the end like applejack's, and it was spiky. It reached a little past my neck. The hairstyle obscured my right eye, much like it would Leon or Rainbow Dash.
I looked down towards my tail; it was fox/wolf-like, smooth, large and extremely long, heck long enough to make the tail reach my height and 'look' at me.
Something felt weird though.
I slowly started reaching forwards with my arm and touched it. The moment I made contact with my tail it grabbed my arm with lightning-fast reflexes.
"A prehensile tail?" I started petting my own tail, "Damn, this thing is soft as hell," as I stated that my tail suddenly changed and resembled a cactus with very thin and long splinters, "Fuck!" I pulled my arm away the instant I noticed that.
My tail changed back to it's normal form.
"Okay, I'm going to go out on limb here and say you influenced that part, Nightmare," I said, looking back at nightmare.
"What?! Why?!" she yelled in outrage.
"Uh, Nightmare aren't you forgetting that you used that same exact mane of yours to threaten Rarity with?"
"Oh," was all she said.
"Why does the rest of me look like that?!" I yelled. To be honest I wanted to look 'normal'.
I got on all fours and examined myself. My body looked similar to Big Mac except I had a slightly slimmer physique, I still had fur on my hooves, and I was a little bit taller than him--tall enough to be half a forehead taller than him.
"Probably because me and Nightmare are both evil or dark entities," My evil sub-conscience said. He took on the form of a pony made out of black liquid with a few swirls of shining red and looked as if he was evaporating into the atmosphere as black misty and slow smoke trails.
There was also red liquid dripping off him.
"Or it could be the fact that your part demon, you guys almost always take on a form that is attractive. Anything else you two changed?" I said. (That guy seriously knows how to get on my nerves--Oh wait, right he's an evil version of me which is also annoying.)
"Well we might have......" she started giggling.
"Wait, no, don't tell him! I want to see his reaction," I decided to ignore them......for now.
I stood back up on my two hind legs and stared at the reflection of my chest.
There was an image of a spider symbol colored in red on my chest going to my back in a similar manner to Venom or Symbiote Spider Man.
Before I could start yelling I noticed that the symbol looked tribal and like it was war paint or something.
"This might be another thing influenced by your sub-conscience,"
"Spiders are one of my favorite animals, even though I have a fear for creepy crawlies,"
"Or it could mean something on a spiritual level, spiders do symbolize many things don't they?"
"Yeah, they do,"
Next was my cutie marks. I had two cutie marks on each flank outlined in white oddly depicting Good and Evil.
The Good cutie mark was on my right flank; it showed a pony with large feathered wings, both fore-hooves up holding a shining sphere. Below that rays from the sphere shown down and created plant life with ponies basking in the rays. A few of the ponies on the image raised a hoof towards the figure, possibly depicting the figure as a savior.
The Evil cutie mark on my left flank was the complete opposite. It showed the ponies suffering, a few forming a circle and bowing down to the figure, the ground was made out of bones of all kinds, the sphere was now a misty flame making an image of a skull, the figure had skeletal bat-wings, and the rays shot at ponies and vaporized them.
I still didn't know what they meant. Could they mean I'm an embodiment of both Good and Evil? Or something in between the two?
Then it hit me.
"Um, do you happen to know how to make clothes?" they both looked at each other, "Ughhh, let's get started then."
"Might want to check what their doing first to see how much time we have before they're in the vacinity," my evil half suggested.
"Fine...um--"
"Lucifer,"
"One of the many names of the Devil? Are you fucking serious?"
"Lucifer. Mmm, quite a fitting name," Nightmare said.
"Oh god, you two better not project weird images in my head,"
Lucifer grew a pair of feathered wings and a horn similar to Sombra's. (Eh, guess the feathers do make sense, Lucifer or Satan was originally an angel, not a demon.
"Alright, can we get back to what you mentioned," as soon as they heard that they started fumbling with their words.
I found a hiding spot and began meditating. (Because sure as hell I wasn't going to try astro-projection and leave my soulless body unguarded.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Twilight, I'm pretty sure me and the royal guard can handle whatever is out here,"
"Shining Armor, as you are captain of the royal guard, I have no doubts about your abilities, but since my connection to the Elements of Harmony have been severed now that each one has found a bearer, it is better to come prepared in the case that what we'll be up against is beyond our, even me and Luna's, capabilities," Celestia explained the mane six's presence with them.
Shining Armor still had his doubts.
"She is more than a capable pony. After all she isn't my prized pupil for nothing," she reassured him.
He sighed.
"Your right, with or without me, she is more than capable of defending herself,"
Their attention was soon drawn towards celestia's sister.
"Sister, thy soldiers have found something," she pronounced in her archaic vocabulary.
The area they were entering was like a dead zone, everything was shriveled up, all that remained was husks from plants and animals, fossilized skeletons, ash, and solid stone-hard ground.
"Starswirl the Bearded, it appears something sapped the life out of everything," she tapped the ground with her hoof, "It even sucked up all the nutrients and minerals in the dirt, this ground feels rock solid!"
"What about the dirt twilight?" rainbow hovered next to her.
"Well, whatever did this must have drained everything in this area," twilight stated.
"Of what though?" she asked.
"Life it seems. There's no noise here. No birds chirping, no bugs. Just complete dead silence,"
"Can we go now please? This place gives me the creeps!" rarity complained.
"Yeah, this place is like blaugh!" pinkie pie chimed in.
"Ah'm not admittin' ah'm scared an all but this place feels unnatural even for the Everfree Forest," applejack said.
"Ugh, fine. But I'm coming back here to conduct more research," twilight declared.
Things quieted down and they were finally re-entering the local flora. Fluttershy was hoping to spot some of the local animals to help her forget about the Dead Zone.
"Pst twilight," rainbow whispered to her unicorn friend.
"What?" she whispered back.
"So what do you think caused that back there? You know, the Dead Zone?" she asked, eager to satisfy her curiosity.
"Well, I'm not sure. I can only come up with theories but I think whatever caused that was parasitic, on the account of the area looking drained and dead, and it needs a lot of energy,"
"A lot of energy for what though?"
"Probably uses huge amounts of it to travel around, like humming birds, or it's entire body needs that amount of nourishment. I can't be sure,"
"Well only one way to find out," she started making a bunch fighting moves in the air, pretending to fight a monster.
"Consarnit, rainbow, you're goin' ta--,"
Before she could finish her sentence there was a loud shriek of horror.
Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor and the rest of the guards rushed to the head of the group.
Some of the guards and rarity vomited. On the other hand, fluttershy was whimpering and tearing up at the site.
Dozens of manticores were slaughtered and dragged to the area.
They were all moving carefully past the dead corpses. The Mane 6 huddled close to fluttershy in an attempt to comfort her.
"Huh?" Shining Armor said as he felt a cold breeze pass by him. He drew his sword and started checking the surrounding area.
He kept turning abruptly.
Something was moving at the corner of his sight.
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ELSEWHERE
I lost my focus on the meditation and attempted to scream in surprise but I couldn't.
I was in some sort of cylinder tank full of weird glowing liquid. I looked around as much as I was able to and spotted Lucifer.
Reacting to this, I would have yelled out in surprise but the breathing apparatus attached to my snout caused only bubbles to come out.
He had gotten a lot of dramatic changes.
His most noticeable change was his height, obviously surpassing Celestia's own height.
I couldn't tell if his was melted or if he even had a mouth anymore, the black and red made it difficult to either one.
His face was black now and his eyes looked the same as the symbiote carnage; his hand too looked the same as his but the feet now resemble talons similar to General Grevious.
He gained an extra pair of wings and as for his wings they now look soft and fabric like.
His horn looked like a sword resembling a lightning bolt.
"So sorry to scare you," he said. His voice sounded demonic and a little bit like a robot.
'Where the hell am I and What's going on?' I questioned him mentally.
''Ah, that. Well you see we haven't much time before you're eventually found so I decided to take matters into my own hands," he stated ominously.
He pressed a button and I instantly blacked out. He turned to the other individuals occupying the room.
One was the exact opposite of him.
His entire body glowed brightly a light shade of green. The wings were wavy and constantly flowed freely in a relaxed and calm manor.
As for his eyes they were a bit darker but relatively the same shade.
He was currently following around a random butterfly intent on cupping it in his hooves carefully.
"Giver! Stop fooling around!" he yelled. Unfortunately, he persisted on trying to capture the butterfly.
"Let him be Lucifer, because much like what he enjoys, it is nature itself for opposites to have conflict,"
This other entity was in a knight stance. Hooves laid on top of the pommel of his ginormous sword and eyes closed with a calm demeanor.
He wore armor that appeared to be technologically advanced yet the design portrayed knights from the Medieval Eras. He also had wings appearing robotic with geometric feathers ranging from big to small while floating separately from their joints.
The armor he wore was all a shiny black hue with yellow glowing lines and a glowing cross symbol in the center of the chest piece.
Their glowing started to intensify as Lucifer surged towards him. He flinched as he got close to him.
"This doesn't involve you Tyrael,"
Tyrael opened his eyes to stare back at lucifer. His red mane and yellow coat started emanating an aura causing lucifer to intensify his glare.
"Hey! Can you guys knock it off! Don't you have more important things to do other than settle a grudge match?
Lucifer and Tyrael glared at each other. They glared a little longer before Tyrael closed his eyes and went back to his stance. Lucifer growled in frustration, in truth it took more strength to back out of a fight then fight at all.
It was like a drug. It gave you energy that begged to be used in a fight.
Tyrael opened his eyes again and looked towards the one who defused the stare down.
"Why did you interfere...Sonic?" he asked, 'It's never like him to act on something like this, he usually just minds his own business,'
"I don't know, maybe it was just out of whim or something like that," sonic turned his head to the side in order to focus his attention on something else, "Hmm, what are you up to?"
And then there was the odd one out. Unlike Lucifer who represented anger, hatred, and hostility, Tyrael who represented courage, strength, and confidence, Giver who represented love, compassion, and calmness, and Sonic who represented relaxation and enthusiasm.
He, however, merely represented insanity, blood lust, and pure, unadulterated, violence.
His overall appearance was a pony with a blue coat and red tail and mane, but the more disturbing thing was his eyes: black sclera, no irises, and glowing red pupils.
Nightmare, who was standing next to Lucifer, turned her head to look at him.
His attire was that of a suit, tie, and pants. His arms were more of human detail with gloved white hands floating away from the wrists and an omega symbol on the right hand. It is hard to tell but if you focus you can notice that he occasionally 'glitches'.
She stopped staring at him, focusing on him for to long caused a huge discomfort. She focused now on a pencil, paper, and a strange device he was fiddling with, he's been fiddling with it ever since he appeared.
He suddenly stopped fiddling.
She jolted her head back, he started turning his head. Nightmare felt his eyes fall on the back of her head, she could feel them bore into her skull.
Even though she was staring away, she could feel his mouth forming a toothy grin. He was reveling in this.
Nightmare clenched her teeth as she was captivated by fear and anger.
She clearly hated being in a position like this, in fear of another being.
"Leave," Lucifer's voice rang out.
The weight she felt lifted.
All eyes were on Lucifer now.
"I will need time for this little 'project' to take effect," he stated and once again said, "Leave," while lazily waving his clawed hand.
Sonic simply sighed, rolled his eyes, and went.
Tyrael narrowed his eyes and growled at him, showing his mistrust of him, before sheathing his wings and blade and started to walk away.
Giver was blindly following them for he found an Emperor Scorpion and was battling it with a stick. The butterfly acted as a witness to this titanic battle. The scorpion had clenched the wooden weapon in his pedipalps but he knew just what t--
"Dude! You've been playing with that fucking thing for an hour now!" sonic had to yell in order to get his attention.
"Oh...what were we doing out here again?"
"We are supposed distract the search party," Tyrael replied.
"Yeah, no shit but how? What? Does he expect us to come up with a plan instantly? This group is like the Reds and Blues," he stated, comparing the entire group to another team that is less than competent.
"As much as I hate to admit but your right, this group could possibly be dysfunctional," he said with a meek attitude.
"But it's what makes us awesome," Giver claimed. This appeared to have worked.
Tyrael made small chuckle.
"Yeah, we are pretty awesome. Come on, let's go and greet the locals,"
Giver gasped.
"Look! A Huntsman Spider,"
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"Hand me the lists," he said.
Nightmare levitated the two pieces of paper off the table where the one wearing the suit continued his fiddling.
"What is that?" he pointed at the paper he had.
He showed Lucifer a drawing.
"You're going to have him be a distraction?"
He crossed his arms and gave him a face, indicating to nightmare that him and Lucifer got along better than expected.
"Alright then, go,"
"Do you really trust him that much?" Nightmare questioned Lucifer's ties to him.
"Relax Nightmare, he may look and act like a fool, but when comes to being the one to bring forth the apocalypse or Armageddon, let's just say he'll enjoy every single moment until the end," he turned back to look at my unconscious body, "But you. There's no telling what you will do,"
Author's Note
Sorry for being gone for so long. Taking this long to at least finish a chapter makes feel terrible. Also I feel like my typing has degraded.
Shining armor couldn't shake the feeling that something was constantly staring at him. He started looking around in order to see if something was stalking the entire group.
"Shining armor," he turned to the voice of his little sister, "Is something wrong?"
"Yeah, it feels like something has been following us ever since...the manticores," he said the last part with a low voice, not wanting to remind fluttershy of that.
"Could it be that thing that fell from the sky?" she asked her older brother.
"I hope not, the last thing we'd want is to get into a fight," he explained to his sister.
"It seems like it's inevitable shining armor, this thing appears to thrive off the expense of others and the amount of violence it exhibits. I doubt anypony would want to be friends with somepony like that. Except there hasn't been any proof of this thing being responsible for any of it, we still don't know everything about the Everfree Forest and of it's many inhabitants,"
The group had continued walking for half an hour now, though it felt like they were walking for hours.
The direction they were walking in started shifting into a path. The trees aligned in perfect rows, the grass was even, green, and lively, a few flowers grew in the grassy path, followed by an occasional amount of visiting bees and butterflies.
"Applejack, darling, why do you keep looking at the trees for?"
"Well look at them, I've never seen any trees like these before," she said as she continued to look at them and every trait and features of them.
They were taller than average trees, they appeared glossy and shiny. Their leaves were a vibrant green, you couldn't help but stare at them, they seemed to be almost mesmerizing.
"Hey Twi, do them there apples look kinda...gold?"
Twilight in turn adjusted her position to mirror applejack's. One of the apples released a golden aura with a gold glimmering shell and a rainbow shine.
"Whoa," was all she said as a response.
"Well Twi? Yer more of an the expert when it comes ta knowing lots of things," Applejack was very well aware that Twilight was the brains of the group ever since meeting her.
"There has been no records or indication that these kinds of trees existed," she paused and put another thought into it, "But this is the Everfree Forest so the action is to avoid contact with anything weird."
(KRUNCH)
The two ponies turned their heads to look to their side.
"Hey guys, have you tried some of these apples? They taste awesome!"
"Rainbow!" they both yelled in unison.
"What?" the pegasus responded, her mouth full from the bite she took out of the apple. She continued eating the apple, irking her friend in the process.
"Stop eating the apples! They could have some sort of side effect or it could be some animal camouflaged as one these trees!" she said hoping her friend would listen, considering the fact that she is known for being stubborn and mischievous.
"Since when has eating something been bad or when have plants began eating things," she retorted.
"Since ponies developed food allergies and since the Venus Fly Trap had evolved from it's predecessors," rainbow had no way to argue back to those statements, especially since her friend is more intelligent.
Of course, there was still one last chance to win this argument. Or so she thought.
In truth she was never good at arguments, she may have her moments, but the sad truth was Rainbow hadn't been well educated. In fact many ponies believe that she had slacked off during school, others think she had dropped out or never even went and only knows basic vocabulary.
"How do you know if these trees and the apples are dangerous? I'm eating em and nothing bad is happening,"
"That's why I want you to stop eating the apples! Nopony knows anything about them or the trees!" by then Twilight had won the argument already or was ready to make more valid claims.
"Never!" surprisingly she flew off before anyone of them could catch her.
"Do they always argue like this?"
"Not every relationship is perfect, dear sister,"
"True," Luna responded. She was still feeling guilty of her actions so she didn't ask about anything else.
"Oh why hello Mr. Butterfly what are you doing today?"
Fluttershy attempted to have a conversation with the butterfly when it had landed on her snout.
Said butterfly was larger than most of it's kind, but what was truly captivating about it was that it literally glowed a light cyan or sky blue and it's top side was a patterned swirl of colors that was constantly in motion.
Twilight was about to scare it off as soon as she saw it near fluttershy but was stopped by Applejack.
"Let it be Twi, she sure could use the comfort after 'you know what'," with that Twilight left the butterfly alone.
"Honestly I think rainbow dash can be a little childish at times," rarity said. Twilight and Applejack had to agree, rainbow dash did tend to act immature.
Before they could continue talking Shining Armor alerted everyone.
"Hey, everypony something's up ahead," he started readying himself.
As was everbody else.
"Look it's rainbow dash!" pinkie started bouncing towards her, ignoring twilight's calls to be cautious.
"Rainbow?" she called her name but no response. She was being awfully quiet. When the rest of the group arrived they noticed a large thunder cloud hovering just above the ground.
"There's somepony sleeping up there," she said her voice low.
They all looked at her.
"So?" Applejack asked.
"I'm pretty sure that pony isn't a normal pony,"
They all looked up at the grey cloud in curiosity.
"Well let's wake em' up then, sugarcube," Applejack said. They all waited there, hoping someone was willing to wake up the one napping in the thundercloud.
Shining armor gave an irritated sigh and yelled, "Hey! If anypony's up there would you wake up!"
The rest of the ponies, except the princesses, cringed in fear of getting off on the wrong with the mysterious pony. Celestia and Luna were steeling themselves of the coming conflicts, if the possibility of beings living in other worlds landing here was true then, depending on their different views on life, there will be trouble.
Celestia was the one who prayed there wouldn't be such a thing. Her subjects were all like children to her and she couldn't bear the thought of their lives being extinguished.
Sadly though, she will be a witness to a very violent being.
"Ugh!" Sonic groaned in annoyance for being woken up. He went to the edge of the thundercloud and yelled in a berating tone, "What the hell do you want!?! Can't you see I'm napping!"
The Princesses, Element bearers, and guards awed at how strange he looked: blue vambraces, vest, and leg armor that had lights on them with strange symbols and emblems. Overall, the armor resembled a Sangheili combat harness and C.O.G armor.
Underneath that he wore a type of form-fitting black military jacket and pants. There was a sword sheathed on his back and a pair of automatic sub machine guns or pistols holstered on his thighs.
As for his bodily features, his wings were twice the size of a normal pony's with the feathers, mane and tail all glowing in a bio-luminescent light-blue. His coat was the common hue of blue and his eyes were colored Blue-Green.
Blue electricity arced out all over his body.
Since twilight was a pony who had years of knowledge in multiple studies, cultures, and all kinds of science and magic above all else. She had a strong perception.
Just by looking at him she could tell he was more of a wild one, craving action and adventure, preferring a good old fashion fight, being carefree, and obviously looking cool while doing it.
Applejack softly nudged rarity, "Try not to upset him by talkin' about his fashion sense, sugarcube," she said to her unicorn friend who is known for her high sense of fashion.
''I. Heard. That,'' he said with an angry look becoming more angrier by the second. Absurdly, it started raining a bit as an entire storm blocked out the sun and thunder and lightning started to appear. Twilight gently shoved rainbow, causing her to turn her head towards her and gesture a, 'What?'.
She motioned for her to talk to him. She responded with a wide-eyed serious face saying, 'What?! Are you nuts?!' In response to this twilight made an even more threatening face that said, 'Stop being a baby and go talk to him!' Rainbow snarled at her before flying up to face the odd pegasus.
She took a huge breather and spoke, "Hey look, um..." she fumbled with her words as she didn't know his name.
"My name is Sonic," he stated while his hooves were crossed with a plain yet vexed look on his face.
"Yeah look, we're sorry for waking you up, I can relate since I don't like being woken up either," his face went down a bit which said, 'Okay, I'll listen for a bit,' "We were just investigating something that had landed out here," he raised his left eyebrow, "It destroyed most of me and my friends town; nopony died or anything, but there's a lot of wounded, some buildings are damaged others were completely destroyed," sonic's facial expression turned neutral with the thunderstorm ahead calming as well, "We saw something crash somewhere in the Everfree and wanted to see what destroyed our home...and we ran into you and...well. I would like it if we got off on the right hoof rather than the wrong hoof," she extended her hoof in an offer of friendship.
He stared at it for a while, his face was know more thoughtful on the subject. He shook her hoof and greeted her, "Nice to meet you Rainbow Dash, future Wonderbolt," the use of her name surprised her. Rainbow knew she would have been well known by now but the way he reacted to their appearance was as if he never knew them, let alone heard of their involvement in saving equestria.
His staring at her was cut short as he felt the heat from the sun on the side of his face. Turning to see the celestial body in orbit around the planet, the calm face he had turned into that of complete and utter worry and shock.
"Damn it!" he yelled when he realized what position the sun was in, "We're wasting time."
"Wait! Wasting time for what?!" he didn't answer. He simply dissipated the thundercloud by stomping once. When he landed he got up quickly and started running, he stopped and turned around to the confused ponies and yelled an order that they obeyed,
"Well?! What are you waiting for let's go. Come on, hustle and bustle!" they started scrambling to keep up. Sonic slowed down when he realized that he can go faster than normal. Way faster.
Rainbow was the only one fast enough to keep up with him. She pulled up alongside him and asked, "What's so important for us to be moving quickly?"
"Trust me. Something is out here, and its a lot worse than anything you could possibly imagine," with this statement, Celestia's curiosity was peaked.
"How worse could this 'thing' be?" she asked, tensing at the endless answer that could be anyone he says.
"......Honestly I don't know how to describe it, but let's just say it'll exceed any horrific expectations you have in mind," he said nonchalantly.
Celestia, on the other hand, was left shocked and started to brood about what he had just said.
She started thinking about all the enemies that she knew about in the past. Her mind began to wonder about the unknown threat that Sonic talked about.
"Sister," Luna said to get her attention, "Look,"
Before them all was an odd trail of green glowing particles.
"Ooh, pretty and flashy," Pinkie Pie stated as it was expected of her and her personality.
Sonic sighed, "I know who's doing that," he stated catching everyone else's attention, "I wonder how many friends he made while I was gone?"
"So, who is making all this here fancy light show?" Applejack asked. He, in turn, just kept walking when he noticed the particles slowly change in hue and some of them started resembling flying insects.
"We should be coming up on him. Heh, he's probably staring at a colony of ants intensely and narrating their actions. Meanwhile, a scorpion, a spider, and a solpugid are having tea,"
"Ah, presume he's some sort of animal lover then," Applejack said.
Sonic decided to drop a hint at her and answered with, "Eeyup . . . ," causing Applejack to slow down and stop completely.
"Applejack, darling, what's the matter you seem as if you're nervous," she stated after she noticed her stop to a halt.
"To be honest: Ah think ah am a might bit nervous . . ." she pointed a hoof towards Sonic, making sure he wouldn't see her doing that, "He just said something my brother says almost all the time."
"Oh? Really? What is it then? Is it eeyup?" she commented, imitating Big Mac's answer of a yes. Before Applejack could make a retort of any kind Shining Armor called out,
"Hey twilight! You and your friends are falling behind!" the mane six started walking faster until they caught up again but were at a fair distance so Sonic couldn't hear their conversation.
"Rainbow you were talking to him, did he say anythang unusual, anythang at all?" Applejack decided to ask her since, besides herself and Princess Celestia, she was the one who talked to him first.
"Well the only thing weird he said was my name with emphasis and saying the words 'future wonderbolt'. That and the way he acts around us. Either he's some kind of spy or he just doesn't know about us,"
"Adding in theories doesn't help Rainbow," the unicorn looked towards her brash Pegasus friend. She just rolled her eyes in response to the egghead of the group, "We're trying to figure out his motives or intentions."
"Doesn't deter the possibility that he's dangerous," her brother butted in.
"Calm down everypony. We are treading in unknown territory. We should show some more patience before being sure of something," Celestia stated, calming down her subjects from the suspicion of the stranger in front of them.
Sonic heard their entire conversation, but decided to let them think that he wasn't on to them. He started thinking about what will happen in the 'extremely not too distant future'.
He sighed. It was obvious he didn't know or at the very least estimate what would happen later on, but he knew one thing: it will only be a matter of time before shit hits the fan.
Getting back to the topic, he eyed Shining Armor for a bit and whistled to the entire group, motioning them to keep up.
(sigh) "Calm, stay calm and relaxed. At least it'll be just outright hostility with a side of brutality and murder, a bit of sadism, very cruel criticism, and not a morphed sense of right and wrong but a fucked up dark one-Oh,
let's not forget gore and violence," he made sure nobody heard him as he continued to walk through the vegetation.
"Three, two, one," Sonic counted down and as soon as he cleared away a large bush he became present to what he had expected earlier.
Of course, their were a few differences.
- He wasn't narrating. 2. He wasn't paying the ants any attention. And 3. He was sitting up, his adorable pony front legs were folded up against his body, and he um . . . he uh . . . well– shit!
Sonic looked at Giver, more precisely the face he was making. His mouth was opening, except it seemed as if it was hanging open like his entire jaw went numb. His eyes were the same as Derpy's, they were wall-eyed and stared off in different directions.
"So,--uh--is this the friend you were talking about?" Applejack asked when she saw Sonic's friend.
"Yeah that's him alright," he declared and knelt down to inspect him.
"Oh my goodness gracious! What is that horrible smell?!" Rarity pushed past the large bush that sonic and applejack passed through.
She gasped when she saw Applejack and Sonic standing near an unknown pony who had flies beginning to gather around him.
Rarity came closer behind to try and apologize.
Raising his right hoof he said, "Ah, not another word," in a low and menacing tone.
Not long the rest of the group came to their location. Celestia, upon seeing this tried to show sympathy but . . . . . .
"Shut up,"
Everyone gasped at Sonic's words toward their ruler. Celestia was unfazed by this and knew that Sonic was in pain from losing a friend.
She was about to tell everyone to give him some space so he can come to terms with his friend's death, but before she could shining armor, the guards, the element bearers, and luna came to the defense of celestia's dignity.
"Hey! You can't talk that way to the Princess!" rainbow yelled, flying above him in order to appear intimidating towards him.
'A tactic that is complete shit! I mean how many idiots have fallen for this? And who would be stupid enough to fall for it? And did she really think it would work?'
"Mind telling me why?" he inquired.
"Because ya don't! Flat out and simple!" applejack answered. This did not sate Sonic's need for an answer. Because they were born from a corrupted mind that had been shattered and pieced back together with the corruption, sonic and his fellow emotions have gained the ability to exhibit far more sentience than they would have been able to.
Of course everything has their own drawbacks.
Although they have positive characteristics, traits, and the emotions they represent. The traces of corruption they carry with them can cause them to become negative towards things and if pushed too far they'll start to become similar to the individual they originated from.
'Hopefully that will never happen. Now we're was I? Oh right arguing,'
"I mean give me facts not an opinion!" him and the others knew their parental being was like this, he wanted facts and realistic answers not "just because" or "we obey without question".
'A psychological trait passed down to us from the big guy,'
Sonic decided to end things now since they did not have time.
"I'm going to go burry his body now if you don't mind, "
"You think you can just disrespect our ruler and hide behind your friend's corpse without consequence? Well you're wrong! "
Sonic turned around with a smile on his face and said, "Those sound like fighting words, "
He pulled out his small sword from the sheath strapped on his back.
Everyone tensed at this. The guards drew their weapons, Luna and most of the mane six had hostility written on their faces. Fluttershy was cowering behind her friends as she was the one of the group that didn't tolerate any kind of violence.
"Sonic please just calm down and we could discuss this instead of resorting to violence," Celestia tried to settle the matter before it got out of hand.
"Thou thinks thee can insult royalty and hide behind the dead body of thy friend?"
"Luna stop! You're merely escalating things!"
"You want an escalation? How's this for one?" holding his sword to the side, it started to lengthen similar to a T-1000's arm blade.
He spun the sword in his hoof before grabbing it in both his hooves in front of his face. The sound of a lightsaber activating followed as blue glowing lines streaked upwards on the flat sides and on the blade all way to the point of the sword.
Everyone got scared when the sword snapped open in a flash. No longer looking like a common sword, now appearing as a large sai. A flat circle had formed where the two extra blades emerged from, a few spikes showed a little below the point, and the point itself split to allow an opening shaped like that of a barrel of a gun, indicating that the sword is also a ranged weapon as well.
Sonic's bioluminescent patterns on his body glowed more intense. Lightning came down from the storm clouds and blue bio-electricity came towards the clouds connecting to each other.
Twilight felt as though the lightning was empowering him, granting greater strength than before. His wings became massive, appearing fully glowing and bigger than his own body.
"Please, the Elements of Harmony have-," Luna was boasting about the power of the elements, but. . . . . .,
"ConvenientPlotTwist!" at that very moment Sonic fired an electric bolt that grabbed all of the elements like a magnet while it flew past and impaled itself to a tree.
The owners of said necklaces ran for them, but Sonic put his left arm forwards.
"Look out!" Rainbow yelled. The rest of the mane six looked up and saw dozens of thunder bolts shooting straight down. They decided to retreat except for Rainbow, who was contemplating whether to risk flying through the falling bolts.
These thoughts were immediately shot down by Applejack, however, to which she growled in anger. She picked up Fluttershy and zoomed to safety. She looked back to see how her friends were doing. Despite lacking wings like a Pegasus, most of them fared well.
Being a fellow athlete, applejack maneuvered around the bolts with ease. Pinkie pie used her pinkie sense and bouncy-ness to avoid getting skewered.
Twilight and rarity were the only two, other than fluttershy, to have higher chances of dying. Twilight used her teleport spell to contemplate for both of them.
'Just like a timed test when you were still a student,' she thought to herself.
During a brief moment Twilight spotted a bolt about to land right on the spot rarity was running to. She ran ahead rammed into Rarity, throwing them both in the air, and teleported both of them to safety.
The two ponies rolled on the ground a bit. Rarity slowly stood up.
"Couldn't have you made the landing more smoother, darling?" Rarity cleaned herself off as much as she could.
'I knew should've packed a little in case of situations like these, ' she thought, brushing the dirt away from her coat.
"Ugh, I'm going to need to re-practice my teleportation spell," she grimaced when she felt a stinging pain on her side.
Celestia began healing her wound with her magic; being born a prodigy magic user allowed it to be faster than the medics they had.
"Thanks," she said to her mentor. She knew she didn't have to, though it was more out of force of habit.
Her and her friends looked at the field covered by the bolts.
"No biggie, I can fly through that!" as if the world wanted to mock her, the bolts sprouted two more bolts, imitating a cross, and electrifying the entire field. "Oh," the winged pony said as she slowly descended down in defeat.
"Just so you know, and to prevent you from hopelessly trying to get through, the bolts negate all magic," he laughed when he saw their stunned expressions, "What? You thought I was dumb enough not to consider who I just met? Two alicorns, the saviors of equestria, and the Captain of the Royal guard."
He stepped forward while they backed up.
"We need to figure a way to make him drop the electric field," Twilight suggested.
"I can hear you moron! "
"So much for that idea," Applejack said.
"Yeah, so much for that idea. You guys got any more ideas that you could ridiculously whisper out loud? " he smiled.
"Oh yer just full of it aren't cha!?" she retorted.
"Naaa! Admittedly it's fun pissing people off, "
"There's nothing fun about making ponies angry for your amusement!" pinkie yelled.
"Anyway. . . ." his faced turned serious when he stared at Celestia, " Celestia."
"Are you ignoring me?!!"
Sonic continued conversing with the alicorn.
"Did you really rely solely on a bunch of trinkets wielded by a group of civilians? " Celestia lowered her gaze, "A very flawed contingency plan."
"You dare question we, the Royal sisters, rule over our subjects!"
"I question your methods and dedication to protecting your entire nation!" he stared at both of the siblings before narrowing his eyes,
". . . .Or did being overpowered by Discord make you believe you needed to rely on toys rather than your own strength?
"
"We'd be happy to resort to our own strength," Luna rebuked.
"Will you stop!!!" Her elder sister chastised her.
"Do you now?" the world around them turned pitch black, save for the area of light they were in as a large column yellow, golden light shot up into the sky.
Sonic's appearance changed dramatically: his coat became shiny with a solid, yellow-gold coloring, his tail puffed up like a Fox's, it and the mane were no longer spiky but flowing, more free, and flame-like, his wings shrank down a little and developed metallic gold bone structures with the "feathers" now made of light, wavy and very similar to tentacles. Whatever blue coloring that was on his clothes was overtaken by their warmer counterpart and changed into different hues of yellow or gold.
His eyes became pure jewel orbs with their dark-blue coloration.
'Dragonball Logic says that some transformations can drain one's energy rapidly if not mastered or utilized correctly.
Luckily it doesn't apply to me because I lack an actual body of flesh and blood; just a solid imitation of it, organs and all. .
. .'
He looked at all of them, taking in and observing their response to his sudden power up and change of look. Luna was a bit nervous with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight.
Celestia, the rest of the mane six, Shining armor and his fellow guards were the only ones who stood firm against what had transpired.
'. . . .However, if I encounter an enemy stronger than me, my energy will be used up fast when attacked by said enemy and I will be left vulnerable unless I can tire them out'
"Changing thou appearance will not delay your impending fate!" even for Luna this was being abnormally arrogant and headstrong.
"Yeah! No matter what color you change to we're still going to kick your flank!" Rainbow joined in on Luna's claim.
"Heh. Heh heh heh heh. Aheh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!" everyone fell into confusion at Sonic's sudden burst of laughter, ".
. . eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh.
Aheh heh heh heh heh heh. Nice.
. . . . . You know . . . This literally is my first time transforming . . . I knew I would be capable of something like this but . . . ." he brought his left arm up so he could see it. There was an aura around his entire body: it was a solid yellow color with a soft spiked edge. Emanating from his body was darker yellow, heatwave-like streams of energy that flowed upwards. It was similar in effect to Super Sayain God's fire aura.". . . . I never knew it would change my appearance this much."
"Make a flashy light show all ya want it ain't gonna scare us!" Applejack yelled.
Sonic gave Applejack a genuine smile and started clapping. For the second time, everyone fell into confusion.
He pointed at Applejack and said,"Thank you Applejack!"
"Fer . . . What?" Applejack said, very puzzled by his positive change in mood.
"Well I thought at first to not do it but then I realized something . . ." still smiling, he closed eyes and patiently waited for Applejack to ask.
"What'd cha realize?" she asked, understanding the cue she was given.
He smiled a little bit more and opened his eyes to say,
"What kind of Dragonball fan would I be if I didn't do This!" Sonic got into a stance and started yelling continuously, increasing the volume of his voice as he built up energy or 'Powering Up' if you would.
"Oh yeah. Like screaming is going to do anythin-" Rainbow fell into silence as the ground cracked and broke underneath him.
The surrounding area they were in began to shake. Birds flew away, any with offspring ushered them to fly off as well or transported them as best as they could due to not being hatched yet. Insects, bugs, beetles and fellow arthropods all held still.
Predators like the manticore remained steadfast, being an adult they were full of pride or stubbornness, they refused to yield.
Their younger brethren, either being naive or hotheaded, looked on in curiosity.
The Timberwolves, however, stood there to wait out what was causing the whole forest to tremble.
==
Fluttershy cowered behind her friends and laid down as low as possible.
When she felt the butterfly from earlier she opened her eyes. He crawled out of her mane, wrestling himself free from any strands of hair he got tangled in, continued his way down the bridge of her nose, and onto it.
For the first time since meeting him she finally got a close up look at him.
Instead of a natural proboscis, he had mandibles, his legs had small spikes on them, hair-spikes projected from his back, and his wings flapped with far more mobility than a regular butterfly's.
Time slowed down as she stared at him flapping his wings. As he flew off he gave her a stare, a stare that fluttershy understood,
'You don goofed, Fluttershy. You don goofed.'
She stared as her newest and latest friend had abandoned her to her fate.
==
The energy that was produced from Sonic's body no longer came out as streams and formed into a sphere around him. The electricity that coursed around him were now thicker and made a deeper pitched sound.
With one final scream, the sphere of energy grew larger and covered the area. The group had gotten caught in it and felt the large energy pressure them. Celestia put a barrier to prevent them from being burned, but the pressure still leaked through.
In that instance Sonic relaxed, the sphere shrank and dissipated back to the streams they were before. Celestia now understood that the enemy they are facing is beyond any one of them in physical capacity.
'We've all been cattle ready to be slaughtered. For how long have we had peace through sheer luck alone?' she looked at her sister.
Luna fell down because of experiencing the intense energy that came close to incinerating her.
"Looks like your time on this world is over," he held his sword in an offensive stance, holding it next to his head and pointing it forward,
"Time to die." He zoomed towards them with speeds that rainbow couldn't reach in an instant.
They all felt a sharp sting on the side of their faces.
Blood trickled down all of their cheeks. Sonic started laughing.
"GOOOT YOUUU!!!" they were still wrapping their heads. The sky cleared up and the bolts disappeared, everything returned to its normal setting.
"Whaaaat?!" Pinkie yelled.
"Yeah! I pranked you guys!" he chuckled some more.
"That wasn't a prank, that was just being a meanie!" pinkie said, not being fond of people getting laughs at the expense of others.
"I don't care. A pranks a prank,"
"You tried to kill us!" Twilight remembered rarity, the lightning bolt, and her wound.
"So?" everyone was shocked by his inquiry, reveling to them that he possibly doesn't know when he's gone too far with something.
"It's taking things too far!" Rainbow commented . . . . ironically.
"Aaaannnd???" he slowly twirled his wrist along side his wording, stopping at the same time he finished saying it.
"Looks like somebody needs a taste of their own medicine," applejack remarked.
Nobody, not even sonic noticed his eye twitch.
==
Rapid beebs sounded as my state of unconsciousness was almost interrupted. Bubbles came out of my breathing apparatus and my body involuntarily moved.
The one wearing the suit started giggling and snickering - obviously, because he's a freaking lunatic.
"What is happening?
" nightmare responded to the sudden disturbance.
Lucifer chuckled to himself and said, "Somebody's getting him triggered."
==
An odd, disturbing, cold feeling washed over sonic, his brain felt "fuzzy". His eyes became distant or lifeless and he gently shot his head a little forward. Blinking his eyes he recomposed himself.
"APPLEJACK." he walked to group, slowly, carrying a feeling of murder that built up every step he took. "SHUT.
THE. Fuck. UP! By now he was standing in front of applejack.
She held back from cowering in front of everyone, but staring at his eyes was proving to be difficult as they felt like someone else's.
"Y-yes, s-sir," she stuttered. The pressuring force she felt was frighteningly worse than when sonic released his energy into the air; for the lack of better words it felt completely solid, and it carried with it something else . . . hate.
Sonic gasped for air like he had been holding his breath. He coughed up blood and fell to a kneeling position as more blood splattered the earth.
Twilight whispered to her brother, "You see that blood on the ground?"
"That he's spitting out? Yeah why?"
The blood turned black and developed tendrils that crashed themselves on the soil, pulling and expanding the area of the puddle.
"I'm going to take a sample,"
"Why? Something bad could happen? It might be hazardous: infection, toxicity, parasites, bugs!-You name it!" they both turned their heads to Sonic after he was done coughing up blood.
The puddle produced an odor that attracted many insectile creatures: praying mantis, a few flies, a spider, some wasps. Whatever Grass that the blood landed on was assimilated as well.
"Alright that's enough fooling around, we're burning daylight," he said when he finally recovered from his coughing fit. The puddle somehow felt his eyesight sweep over it and shaped itself to a regular splatter pattern of when it landed and changed to its coloration to red. Seeing the various bugs get covered in his own blood while they were lapping it up didn't make Sonic grimace, but it sure as hell made him voice his disgust, "That. . . just gives me the creeps." he shuddered along with that familiar tingling-crawling feeling on his face, "Okay, Giver it's time to stop playing dead---?" he looked around, Where'd he go? "
Everybody did the same thing and swerved their heads around like they were sentry turrets.
"AAAAHHHH!!!" they were startled as Giver caught them by surprise and released a loud scream. He laughed and walked past them all, "What? Sometimes it's good to release all that tension your body's built up,"
Twilight looked at the puddle again with her curiosity growing.
"Hey! Are y'all still gonna go with the rest of the group? Or are the two of ya just gonna stand there like a bunch of statues in a garden?"
"Oh no, I have to calm Shining Armor down since he's a guard member and this all is a security risk. Plus it's kind of a family matter too, "
Applejack complied with that and trotted off, but not before she yelled back, " Just don't stagger too far behind and give us a scare, ya hear? "
When the image of her became very small Shining Armor shifted his attention to his sister and urged her to make it quick.
She gasped at the sight of the hybrid bug (barely finishing sucking up the last of the black fluid). It looked up at her looking with its shiny black thorny, scary, intimidating, and unnerving body.
"Alright fine then, you're coming with me, " at this statement, the creature buzzed its wings to signal its take off. A violet aura enveloped it as it took off into the air. The aura flickered before dying and the bug flew off. A bubble trapped it but it swam through the barrier, straightened its wings and flew off.
It was trapped again. This time it was in a vault like structure made of shields.
"Let's see you get out of this," Shining armor said.
On cue the face of one of the shields cracked, crumbled, and chipped away before revealing the hybrid, having used its mandibles too chew through the thick enclosure of magical energy.
"You've got to be kidding."
Twilight immediately took action - modifying her energy into countless strings, an aura that had weight and sticky-ness, and an even thicker bubble.
Unwavering, the bug's thorns/spikes grew a few centimeters longer and gained more details to them. It gently thrashed around, cutting the energy strings in the process. It disregarded the weight and being stuck like it had unbelievable strength for an insect. Crawling on the surface of the bubble, instead of swimming through it again it used its stinger to pop the bubble.
Free again for fourth and final time it flew off... again.
"No no no no no no no no!!!" she chased after it. The bug noticed her and decided to turn invisible. Pieces of its image tore up as they changed into the background.
Twilight felt distraught as not only had she lost a clue to who or what Sonic and Giver were, but an unnaturally created organism was released into the Everfree.
"Shining what are we–,"
"We'll deal with it when the time comes. For now we have other matters to attend to, "
Twilight walked off silently to catch up with the rest of the group.
He felt goosebumps on the back of his neck. He turned around and scanned the treeline but saw nothing. He did a second sweep.
There.
In between the trees. He spotted a bipedal pony wearing a suit and tie and some clothing around his legs.
The world's colors changed into darker, more insidious shades of themselves. The only thing clear in view now was the red pin-prick pupils and that thin empty smile, silhouetted by an ominous red glow.
The smile grew longer yet longer still as both ends of it coiled themselves in to look like two swirls on the sides of his head.
His eyesight started to worsen and his eyeballs ached with irritation. Soon the world around him became unrecognizable forcing him to rub his eyes.
The colors changed back to their regular shades and the figure... was gone.
Shining Armor slowly turned around, keeping a view to look back just in case. He started to quicken his pace so he can catch up with the others.
He was not easy to scare – he was guard member after all and they were meant to protect the country, its citizens, and the princesses.
'Kinda hard to prove that since there hasn't been a war or any conflict of sorts in a long time,' he thought.
He started to make getting there quicker.
===
"(Heh heh heh heh he he he he he he, )" he muffled his laugh so as not to be heard by anyone.
The plan was going downhill because he had not been able to find what he was looking for in the forest.
But...
"(You'll do quite nicely hehehehehe,)" he laughed once more to the bug that was crawling directly in front of his eyeball.
Fluttershy whined like an adorable puppy as she gently touched her right hoof after it had been slapped by a teeny tiny twig.
"Keep your damn dirty hooves away from my precious ants! You filthy animal lover!" Giver yelled.
"Filthy animal lover? What's gotten into y'all? One moment yer as dandy as dog with a chew toy, the next year as angry as a dragon discoverin' a darn thief in yer nest," Applejack stated, especially since Giver's happy-go-lucky demeanor changed to an aggressive one.
"Aren't you and Fluttershy both animal lovers–I mean you are hoarding an entire colony of ants,"
"Ooup, now you've gone and done it, "
"I. Am. A nature lover. There's a difference! She! Treats wild animals like pets, she pampers them, feeds them!
Twilight, I want you to think carefully on this and I mean think! I. Am. A nature lover because..., "
Twilight didn't know how to answer particularly because this conversation was getting uncomfortable.
"I love nature itself! The animals, the plants, the bacteria, the viruses, the protozoan, the rain, the rock formation, the temperature, "
"Whatever variation of different animals from the same evolutionary family tree. That also include what made all this nature possible!"
"Alright, guys that's enough. Let's continue walking," Sonic urged them forward.
"Hey!" he heard a voice that grew louder, "Hey!" it was Shining Armor!
He slowed and stopped in front of Sonic with a light panting. He was about to ask a question when Sonic picked him up off the ground.
"Whoa, dude! You look pale as fuck!" he started laughing again and lifted him over his head, "Get it? Because the natural color of his coat is white, " they all stared, "Anyway. "
He dropped Shining Armor without so much as a warning. Everyone except Luna and Celestia glared at him.
He frowned and gently lifted his right arm. Blue electricity coursed around it. The ground was covered with giant bolts of lightning that writhed and squirmed like they were tentacles.
Very tiny arcs of voltiac energy coursed through the ground like roots from a plant.
Once they all stopped glaring he made the energy disappear. Turning back to Shining Armor, he began with happier tone in his voice before cutting off to a serious one.
"Alright-y then,–What happened? Because you, my friend, literally look like you came back from a visit to the Dead Space - verse, "
The captain stood and finally spoke.
"What–What did you say was out–No, I mean what exactly is out here?! "
"You saw him didn't you? " the shaken yet serious expression on his face wavered, "And you went and looked him right in the eyes. "
He sighed then gave Giver a signal with his hoof.
Complying to this he: Nodded, curled up into a fuzzy ball and rolled off with his ant colony in tow.
"I sent Giver to look for an area to set up a camp in, " his eyes darted to the elder princess, "You don't have much time before you have to lower the sun. We should hurry. "
———
"Ah don't think this will make for an ideal campsite, " Applejack reviewed her surroundings, the trees were too cluttered together and that was also a fire and safety hazard.
"Please don't tell me you're being bothered by how these trees are arranged, "
"Sugarcube, you know both of us take pride in being athletic, but I also take pride in how ma trees are arranged. Ya do remember that at home is where ma work is right? "
"I guess, but this is the Everfree Forest which is not normal, "
"Both of you shutthefuckup! Now behold! " the trees were outlined in a green glow and began moving and arranged themselves into a perfect circle with even spacing between each other.
He aimed his outstretched arms to the center of the area. The earth shifted and created a hole. At the edge of it four mechanical pointed objects emerged, appearing together as a large claw.
Giver and Sonic walked over to the pit that formed. Sonic pulled out his sword and held it downwards at the pommel.
He looked at Giver he placed his hoof over his and they both placed the weapon in the pit and the claw grabbed it. A large symbol appeared on the dirt floor and stretched past the trees, glowing green particles flowed out the sword, the trees were covered in arcs of electricity.
They both cut themselves from the blade and it ignited into blue fire. Runes and other symbols of sorts were drawn all over the trees with their blood.
'Perfect' he thought, looking at their handy work.
The group settled in front of the flame.
Sonic sat up against a nearby tree and crossed his legs.
He exhaled.
"Never thought I'd be the exposition guy. Alright where do I start? "
"How about who you are and where you came from... " Twilight levitated Rainbow down in order to keep her from blurring out anything rude.
Giver made a long gasp.
"Not right now..." he groaned in response, "You see we came into existence hours ago, "
"Huh?! "
"Details first, questions after, answers later... We simply "appeared" into existence. There was no feeling, nothing special. "
"There is no way to describe how we were born – made – created! "
"As for how many of us there are. There is exactly five of us, currently... Questions? "
"Who are the other three? " Twilight asked.
"One of them is Tyrael: tall dude, wearing a suit of armor, looks like a robot, (Sigh) "
"Somethin' bothering y'all, sugarcube? " she noticed Giver lightly shrink into himself.
"Lucifer. He is rage, anger, hostility... and hatred. We would have been mere mental constructs akin to sentinels or drones, but we're not. "
"We are able to display all emotions beyond our prime ones and those that branch off of it. "
Which enables us to be sentient and behave like an individual. Lucifer is calm and is ambitious for something. "
"The point is he's got super villain/evil mastermind vibes coming off of him. "
"Is he the one I saw? " Shining Armor asked.
"Oooh. Shit... We were too busy from the exposition that I forgot to talk about him, "
"Ah'm almost afraid of askin–, "
"If you're gonna cliche your words just ask, " he responded before she could finish.
"ENOUGH of your theatrics! Who is the fifth one and what does he represent?! "
"Luna! Stop with this aggressive attitude of yours. What has gotten into you? "
She relented.
"I don't know, " it was all she could say.
"We'll continue this off never. Don't leave the barriers and don't fall asleep. Me and Giver are gonna go blackout now, "
The glow faded from their bodies, leaving further questioning pointless.
("I wonder why those two didn't warn them about this next part")
1 hour and 30 minutes later
Some of the guards were still awake. This was understandable, their training as an armed force would obviously include camping out in hostile territory.
Even though they're meant to be defenders and not soldiers.
"Why are we all still awake? Don't tell me we're all going to fall for his "warning" to not fall asleep? "
"Says the one who's takes naps a lot. Besides, sugarcube, Sonic has shown a tendency to 'beat around the bush', "
"And his hints are suuuper ominous, "
"Pinkie, darling, what's so funny? " Rarity knew her friend loved laughter but...
"I'm... Not... Laughing? "
Everything was silenced. The only noise there was was the flickers and crackling of the fire and the pounding in their.
They continued listening.
Listening.
Listening.
Listening.
"..............................................................
..................................................................................................................... "
"Hehe hehe hehe hehe, "
They all perked up and started looking around like a startled herd of animals.
The guards drew their weapons and stared out into the darkness.
(Snap!)
They all looked around to find the source of the sound.
"Hahahahah! Hahahahaha!! "
The insane laughter was closer than ever.
Multiple twig snaps were heard at all sides of the circle, almost as if they were being taunted.
The snapping continued on until Luna was completely aggravated by the annoyance of their unseen foe.
"Unknown individual that toys with us! Reveal thyself and we may show you mercy or be gone! Retreat to whatever darkness you have come from! "
The twig snapping had stopped once it heard her royal voice.
Silence reigned once more; almost as if they were contemplating Luna's words.
"Will you ever learn, sister? " Celestia walked next to her younger sibling.
"You expect us to simply be disrespected like this? " Over the long period of time that has missed Celestia had dealt with politics for a long time.
Some with foreigners other times with her own kind.
All in all Luna was a mare out of time as the world changed without her and she stayed the same.
"I'm saying that if you get pushy with others they're bound to–, "
The assailant had been biding their time for the right moment to hurl a specific object at the royal alicorn.
Like it was all a game... Or a joke of some kind.
Said object was a dead squirrel that been mutilated to horrendous levels.
It 'SPLAT' against Luna's cheek, covering a large portion of her left side.
The animal had been dead for while as its decayed state made the splatter of blood even bigger.
Celestia closed her eye. A few droplets of the coagulated blood had sprayed onto her as well.
Twilight and her friends were sickened by the corpse. It had split in two thanks to the force of the impact.
Luna still felt a lingering sting from earlier but that wouldn't stop her from continuing her yelling.
"–––! "
"You. No Good. Cruel. Animal Abusing. MONSTER!!! "
Her outburst had shaken up her friends and scared the hell out of the guards.
The princesses were left wide eyed at the shy Pegasus' yell.
5 minutes have passed and Fluttershy was looking out into the darkness of the midnight forest.
7 minutes. Her friends and the armored ponies joined her staring.
13 minutes. Almost everyone had started complimenting her.
20 minutes. It has been 20 minutes with no sign of them.
However... Everyone noticed that Fluttershy staring once again in the distance.
Looking at the same direction they saw two tiny glowing red dots.
"What? You back for more? Because Fluttershy here has got plenty to say! "
"Um, Rainbow, could you please stop? "
The two dots disappeared.
A laughter grew and grew, becoming increasingly haunting with its hallow echoing and sounding ever more psychotic the longer it lasted.
"Ahh!" Rainbow screamed in pain.
A tiny bird skull had hit her shoulder, its beak was digging into her flesh and past her coat.
To follow up, an endless barrage of ripped pieces from countless corpses were being hurled at them.
Slipping in between the trees high and low.
Small sprinkles created a tiny rain above their heads.
At ground level they either flinched, cowered, or if they got unlucky endured getting hit.
Luna created a dome around them all.
Its laughter rang out, echoing around the circle before giggling some more.
It was midnight but the twisted game wasn't over.
There were still hours left until sun up.
Author's Note
For any of you who want an answer or have questions.
I don't want to sound like I'm making some excuse, complaining, or just trying to squeal my way out of this.
Turns out I had developed mild depression due to high levels of stress. A rash had formed a few years ago on my upper right arm.
Fortunately, I took two important steps: 1 stopped feeling sorry for myself. 2 got off my lazy butt and a small amount of scheduled exercise.
The rash had started disappearing ever since and I at least had a more active life.
I'll stop bothering you with this stuff now.
Here's something that'll get you thinking: Two crossover characters from 2 non- related games will appear later on.
Similarities: The first two letters of their first names.
How they got their powers.
What they attempted to do to the world.
What their powers are based on.
They are both scientists.
Working for an organization.
And them being linked to or responsible for a catastrophic event.
