Chapters Something was going wrong. Luna and Celestia were sure of it. Sweat dripped from Luna's head as she concentrated on easing the moon, and assumed that Celestia was doing the same. They were raising the sun and moon for the summer eclipse, but something was interfering with Luna's and Celestia's power, feeling almost as if somepony else were taking control over the sun and moon. But that was impossible. Only Luna and Celestia had that power! But that didn't take away from what was happening.
"Sister!" Luna gasped. "What is happening?"
"I wish I knew!" Celestia said. "I don't know!" The sun and moon started slowing their ascent, reaching their peaks in the sky. Luna knew that she could not lose concentration. The moon shook slightly in the sky, and suddenly it all stopped. She was in complete control over the moon again. Luna frowned, and glanced at Celestia. Celestia was already looking at her.
"Has it stopped for you as well?" Luna asked. Celestia slowly nodded.
"This is strange," she said.
"Has this happened before?" Luna asked. Celestia nodded.
"Only once," she said. "It happened about 500 years after I banished....Nightmare Moon to the moon. I thought that it was because of either because of an imbalance, or because of something Nightmare Moon had done." Luna arched an eyebrow.
"An imbalance?" Luna asked. She looked at the mostly dark sky. "I have an idea."
"I was right," Luna said with a chill and glanced at Celestia. Both were on Luna's balcony, with Luna having just stopped looking through her telescope. "He's back."
"Who?" Celestia asked. Luna deadpaned.
"Really?" she asked. "Who? Who else?" Celestia frowned for a few seconds, before her face light up.
"Oh, him?" she asked. "How did I forget about him?"
"I suspect it has something to do with Nightmare Moon," Luna said. "Remember all the memory charms she used?" Celestia frowned.
"What memory charms?" she asked. Luna face palmed. "Right, those memory charms. Where is he?" Luna pointed to a spot near the moon.
"Next to the moon," she said. "Not close enough to get drawn in, but still there." Celestia looked at the night sky.
"I still don't see him," she said.
"That really bright star right next to the moon," Luna said, pointing to a spot near the moon. "That's it." Celestia let out a small gasp as she saw it.
"That's it?" she said. "Really? I thought it would be bigger." Luna sighed.
"That's because it's disguised," she said, rolling her eyes. "How much did Nightmare Moon cast that memory spell?" Celestia shrugged.
"I don't know, but that's not important," she said. "How do we contact him?"
"You don't contact him," a voice behind them said. Celestia and Luna gasped and spun around to see an alicorn. His fur was pure black with an occasional white spec, and he had and oddly glowing white mane, which was all over the place, like it was somewhere with no gravity. His eyes where completely black, with a swirling blacker vortex like thing in the middle. He had a slight smile on his face. "He contacts you."
"Orion!" Luna suddenly squeed as she flew at him and tackled him to the ground in a giant bear hug. Orion grunted as they fell to the ground. "You're back!"
"Yes, my back," he said. "Please get off before you injure it further." Luna rolled off his chest and stood up.
"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing back here?" Orion grinned and lifted an eyebrow.
"I could ask you the same thing," he said. "Last I knew, you were on the moon." Luna lowered her head.
"Yeah, that is a rather....complex situation," she said.
"The stars aided in your escape," Orion said. "That much I know. But what happened after that?"
"Well, you remember the Elements of Harmony?" Luna said. When Orion nodded, she continued. "They have new masters, and they were used on Nightmare Moon, to rid Equestria of her."
"And Equestria has accepted you back as one of its leaders?" Orion asked.
"Of course," Luna said. She opened her mouth to continue speaking, when galloping hoof clops were heard, and the door burst open.
"Luna! Celestia!" Twilight yelled as she came through. "Are you ok?" Luna and Celestia looked at each other, then at Orion, then at Twilight, who was staring in shock at Orion's wings and horn.
"You haven't told her yet, have you?" Luna asked. Celestia shook her head sadly.
"No," she said. "They've been gone for a thousand year, and none have resurfaced."
"None?" Luna asked. Celestia nodded.
"Of course some of them where imprisoned, but still, not one," Celestia said. She glanced at Twilight, who was staring at Celestia.
"Tell me what?" Twilight asked. She gestured at Orion. "And why is there another alicorn? I thought there were only 5?" Celestia sighed.
"Twilight, I should have told you this when you ascended," Celestia said. "You're not the first to ascend to alicorn-hood. Not by a long shot." Twilight looked at Orion.
"Wait, 5 alicorns?" Orion asked. "When I left, Cadence had just ascended."
"Was he the first?" Twilight asked.
"Ok, Orion was not the first to ascend, and yes, there are five puplicly know alicorns," Celestia said. "There is Twilight," she pointed at Twilight, "And Flurry Heart, who was born a few months ago."
"Orion?" Twilight said as Orion said "Twilight?"
"Let me guess, she controls the twilight?" Orion asked.
"No," Twilight said. "What do you rule over?"
"That's not important right know!" Luna said. "But what is important is that we have to find the others."
"There are others?" Twilight asked.
"A lot more," Celestia said. "Remember, I said you weren't the first to ascend by a long shot."
"Oh, yeah," Twilight said. "How many more ar-"
"About a dozen," Orion said.
"12 others?" Twilight gasped.
"That's what I just said," Orion said. Twilight frowned.
"Sorry to be blunt, but you're not very polite, are you?" she asked. Orion shrugged.
"Well, in the 1,000 years that I've been traveling through space alone, my sanity and social skills have probably declined," Orion said. "And I'll admit, I probably could've been nicer with all that, but this is important."
"It's ok, and I know this is important, but still, really?" Twilight said. "This is the first time I've heard that there are any other alicorns, much less 12!"
"Can we get back to the point?" Celestia said. "Twilight, Luna and I need to tell you about this, and then we need to go get the others."
"If they'll come," Luna said.
"They'll come," Celestia said. "Now, Twilight, this is what happened."
"Now, Twilight, this is what happened," Celestia said. "Luna and I needed other alicorns to help control other things, to rule over certain things, to help keep a certain amount of balence. Now, none of them wanted to be publicly known, and ponies would try and become an alicorn, because we ascended a lot of ponies. And then Nightmare Moon happened. The others tried to help and reign her in, and they were seen so many times, but Nightmare Moon was too strong. She was able to banish some of them, well, most of them, really, to prisons all around the world, and used some powerful memory charms on every pony, including myself. Of course, I eventually remembered about them, but it still took me a few years. Orion here controls the stars and galaxies. His observatory is quite impressive."
"Space?" Twilight asked, dumbfounded. "You basically control space?" Orion nodded.
"Yes, I was the first to learn how to navigate by the stars, and I discovered the constellation, Orion," Orion said. "What do you reign over?"
"I'm the princess of....friendship," Twilight said.
"Of friendship?" Orion said with a small frown. "That's a powerful kind of magic. You must be powerful." Twilight shrugged.
"I guess?" she said. "Anyway, Celestia, sorry. You can continue." Celestia nodded.
"I tried to find them, but some of them didn't want to be found. Some of them, I did find, but it is extremely difficult to get there, and others I just don't know how to free," Celestia said. "Like Shadow Bolt, for example. He just does not want to be found."
"Well, he is the prince of weather and sneaking," Luna said. "So of course he would be hard to find."
"Weather and sneaking?" Twilight asked. "What are these other alicorns rulers over?"
"Let's see, there's Orion and Shadow Bolt, you already know what they are princes of, and then there's Heatfront, prince of extreme tempatures, and controls lava so hot, it's freezing cold. There is also Geyser and Blizzard. Geyser is able to control pure heat, and prefers to use boiling hot water, and Blizzard can control freezing cold. There's Mirror. He created the mirror that Sunset Shimmer and you used to get through to the human world. He's able to freely travel to parallel universes, and into the void. Freak is a form of doctor, although I can't remember of what. Burrow is prince of the earth, and can control stones and dirt, and is even able to absorb and become stone. Steam is able to control water, and Roid is prince of strength." Celestia said. "The last two alicorns, unfortunately, I only remember their names. Nightmare Moon's memory spells effected me the most with them. Those two are Ghost Shell and Speed Freak."
"That's a lot of alicorns," Twilight said. "How do I explain all of this to my friends?"
"Oh, they've been listening to this explanation," Luna said. "I was able to send all of what Celestia just said to them, so they heard it all."
"Seriously?" Twilight said. "You can do that?" Luna nodded.
"Oh, yeah," she said. "Now, I'm going to teleport them here, and Orion, you need to teleport us to your observatory." There was a flash of bright light, and the rest of Twilight's friends were suddenly there. Pinkie zoomed up to Orion, only coming up to his pecs, and looked him up and down, with a strange hunger in her eyes. Orion stepped back a few feet in slight alarm.
"Ooohhhh, you're Orion?" she purred.
"Yeah, that's me," Orion said, slightly weirded out. "Why?"
"I'll need to throw you a party!" she exclaimed.
"You don't need to do that," Orion said. "Anyway, to the observatory!"
Twilight's eyes had been wide open when Orion had casted the spell, so it took a few seconds for her to fully see again. She heard gasps around her, and when she cleared the final spots from her eyes, she gasped. They were standing on the deck of an absolutely massive...ship. It wasn't designed like most ships were, but she could still tell that it was a kind of ship, just for designed for space and not water. In the center of it all stood a tall gleaming tower. At the base of the tower was a cube of multiple terrains. Part of it was a grassy field full of blooming flowers, while to the right of that was what appeared to be a beach, full of sand and water cascading over the side of the observatory. The the beaches right were sevral buildings of different sizes and colors. One was made of marble, while one right next to it was made of what looked like a giant pillow. There was another that was colored a sky blue, and other was a pitch black. And the. twilight noticed holes in the tower. She assumed that those were most likely engines, and decided to ask about it later. Suddenly, Orion's fingers were in front of her face, snapping consistently.
"Are you coming?" he asked. "A navigation computer is at the base of the tower, and it has the locations of the other alicorns." Twilight lightly blushed and nodded, noticing that her friends had started walking down a slope towards the base of the tower.
"I'm sorry, this place is amazing," she said.
"Thank you," Orion said. "But if you think this is amazing, you should check out my palace."
"You have a palace?" Twilight asked, very surprised.
"Yeah," Orion said. "This isn't it. This is just a scouting tower. A very small section of the city."
"It's a city?" Twilight said. "Of course it is."
"Oh, yeah," Orion said. "I've been traveling throughout deep space for the past one thousand years. I've had time to do a lot of things." As they reached the base of the tower, Orion called out "Pull up the location list!" As he finished saying that, a giant hologram appeared. A giant map or Equestria. There were 11 red dots on the screen, and one of them seemed to be moving.
"These are the locations of the other 11 alicorns," Orion said. "I'm not sure which dot is who, but this is how we find them." Pinkie raised her hand. "Yes, freaky pink one?"
"Are these other alicorns like you?" she asked. "Or are like, the runt of the group?" Orion frowned.
"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked. "Ah, never mind. We are all similar in body structure. Now, who do you want to find first, Celestia?"
"We need to find Freak first," Celestia said. "As creepy as he his, we should find him first."
"Ok, where is he?" Twilight asked. Orion pointed at a bone white circle.
"I'm pretty sure that this is his, and from what it looks like, somewhere near the border of the dragon lands," he said. "That crazy idiot. He must be underground." Celestia nodded.
"That's where he was last I checked," she said. Orion frowned and looked at Celestia.
"Last time you checked?" he asked.
"Yeah, I did try to find the others, and I was partially successful," Celestia said. "I was able to find most of them, but the ones I could find where trapped inside prisons that I could not get into."
"Well then, I suppose that we should figure out a way," Orion said. "It would be important, after all, to get these guys out."
"Well, lets start," Twilight said. "Where is Freak?"
"He's in an old abandoned village in Saddle Arabia," Celestia said.
"That far away?" Twilight asked. "Why was he imprisoned there?" Luna shrugged.
"I think it was because he hated sand," she said. "It gets everywhere and chafes. And with how he dresses, it gets into his clothes and won't come out for days."
"So, is there some kind of teleporter here?" Rainbow Dash asked. "That would make it really quick." Orion grinned.
"Of course it does," he said. "Got to have some way to travel fast through space. I'll go set the coordinates." Orion turned around and jumped towards one of the ledges on the spire. Twilight's mouth dropped.
"You can jump that high?" she yelled at Orion. Orion turned around at yelled back "Of course! The gravity is strong enough to keep us on this thing, but you can still jump a lot higher than you can on Equs." Orion turned back around and continued to climb the spire.
"So, do we jump after him?" Pinkie asked.
"We stay here," Luna said. "Just give him a few seconds." Orion climbed into a hole on the sphere on the top of the spire. Almost a minute later, Orion came running back out and jumped. Everyone but Celestia and Luna screamed as he landed. It took them a couple of seconds to realize that he was fine.
"Right, less gravity," Twilight said.
"That was awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "What else are you able to do with this kind of gravity?"
"I'll explain all of that later, but right now, the teleporter is charging, so be prepared for more gravity," Orion said. "And we'll be in a desert too, so it'll be hot. Don't worry, I've calibrated the teleporter to change appropriately."
"Change what appropriately?" Twilight asked as the tip of the spire started to glow white and emit a small whine.
"Clothes and bags," Orion said. "Bags will be added to hold a lot if water and food."
"How can it change clothes?" Twilight asked. Orion didn't have time to answer, as the tip of the spire blasted the white light at them.
Author's Note
I hope you like this chapter, and the start of a new arc, the Freaky Tiki! Of course, it'll make more sense later, but I'm not spoiling anything! Until later!