//-------------------------------------------------------// Thunderclap -by FireheartThePone- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Thunderclap's Odd Introduction //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Thunderclap's Odd Introduction The figure stood in the doorway, looking in at the three alicorns before it. Just moments before, it had thrown the giant double doors in with a push of it’s front hooves, having fallen back into a quadruped stance now. A horn was visible atop it’s head, crackling with an otherworldly white light. It spread it’s own pair of wings, still only visible as a silhouette in the inexplicable dramatic dust cloud. It took a step forward… And fell over with a cry of “Dramatic entrances, woo!” revealing itself to be a pale grey alicorn as well, with a jet-black, ragged mane. “What?” Twilight was first to speak up, the purple horse walking over to the prone shape on the ground. “What just happened?” “Could it be..?” Luna mused to herself, staring at the new arrival, as was everypony else in the room. “Thunderclap?” Celestia finished, getting up herself as ‘Thunderclap’ weakly pushed herself up again, shaking her head. “Yep. That’s me. Ow, my head… What kind of stuff is your floor made of!?” “Marble, if you really have to know. We have questions too, by the way. Like how you’re here after being missing for roughly one thousand five hundred years.” “It’s been that long? Wow, time really does fly when you’re having fun!” She spread her wings at fly, grinning manically. “Thunderclap, we don’t have time for your puns. Now that you’re conveniently here, can you answer why the weather isn’t obeying the pegasi anymore? Twilight, I’ll explain later.” This last statement was directed at her student, who had a hoof in the air and a dumbfounded expression on her muzzle. “Yep, that was me.” Thunderclap replied, finally having managed to sit up. “It was part of an elaborate plan to gradually get us back into society. Then I discovered you were all meeting here, and I couldn’t resist. So yeah. I ditched a plan we’ve been carefully working out for about ten years in favour of saying hi to you guys. Surprisingly, most of the dracorns accepted it!” “Thank you, that’s all I wanted to know.” Celestia turned to the other ponies in the room. “Well, since the weather problem isn’t a threat, I guess we can call this meeting of-“ “Wait!” Luna sighed as her sister turned to face Thunder again. “Yes, Thunderclap?” “I might have accidentally summoned a demon creature from the depths of Tartarus…” Luna choked on her tea, Twilight fell over, and Celestia sputtered, eventually managing to get out “HOW DO YOU ACCIDENTALLY SUMMON A DEMON??” Thunderclap shrugged. “I dunno. But I did.” “Oh for my sake, Thunderclap… What were you even doing?” “I was trying to make a lightning matrix! Not my fault it looks the same as a summoning circle!” “Oh for the love of- They look nothing alike!” “…Ya sure about that?” Celestia groaned. “Nevermind...” “Anyway, it’s probably en route to Ponyville right now.” This time, Twilight really did faint. Author's Note So. There ya go! I am incapable of getting personalities right though, so if a character acts like they're not supposed to, please excuse it. I don't actively watch the show, only popular or interesting-sounding episodes, so there are quite a few gaps in my knowledge. If something is really bugging you though, feel free to tell me! I know how infuriating it feels. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Flight to Ponyville //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Flight to Ponyville “Now, normally I would suggest that we all teleport to Ponyville, however, I do not think we should, for three reasons. One, Thunderclap may not remember what the town looks like, as well as the fact it has probably changed dramatically. Two, the flight from here in Canterlot to there will give us time to formulate a plan. And three, it will give me time to explain to Twilight. Are we agreed?” Luna made a small noise through the last of her tea in agreement, Twilight nodded, and Thunderclap replied with a “Sure.” A bit later… “So, Twilight. Allow me to explain. In old, old times, I was not ruler of most of Equestria like now. In fact, the only race I had any power over were unicorns. In those times, each tribe of ponies had a single ruler. I had unicorns, Luna batponies, Thunderclap dracorns, and so on.” “So who ruled the pegasi and earth ponies?” Her lavender student asked. “I’m getting to that. Now, a very, very long time ago, it was discovered that the earth pony leader had a crush on the pegasi one. I wish I could remember their names, but it was so long ago… Anyway, rather than try to hide it, he-“ “He?” Twilight butted in. “Yes, he. They are incredibly rare, but male alicorns do exist. Anyway, he publicly announced it, at the same time asking her if she wanted to go on an adventure together. She said yes, and he passed on rulership of earth ponies to me, in case something happened to him. She did the same with the pegasi and Thunderclap.” “How long ago was this?” Twilight asked her. In response, Thunderclap flew over, somehow staying aloft despite being upside down in midair. “Oooo, well, if I left a thousand five hundred years ago, and I had rulership of pegasi as long as I did… That would make it… Somewhere between two and three thousand years ago.” She looked over at Luna, who was watching with a slightly disapproving look. “What? I can do basic math!” “Then, why do you rule pegasi as well, Celestia?” The youngest of the four alicorns asked. “When I abdicated, I passed them on to her.” The grey horse explained. “It was that that first started my jealous descent into Nightmare Moon. My sister got to rule over three pony races, while I still only had one.” Luna muttered. “You do know it was a vote, right?” Thunderclap asked, to the surprise of the two sisters. “Guess not. I put it up to a vote. Every single pegasus, no matter their age, got their say. Celestia won… By a single point.” “Wha…” Was the only sound the other three could make. “Oh hey, we’re nearly there!” Thunderclap exclaimed, causing the others to look ahead, at a town shrouded in darkness. “That doesn’t look good.” Twilight remarked. “No, it doesn’t. Shall we see what’s up?” Thunderclap replied. “Yes, let’s.” Celestia said, flying down to the only visible gap in the cloud. “That’s odd.” She stated, staring through. “I can see ponies. But they don’t look like they should…” Author's Note Chaptah 2! Sorry there isn't as much comedy here. This is my actual headcanon btw. And hey, Luna's personal pronoun game! //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4: Confessions //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4: Confessions At once, the shadowy creatures surged forwards at the clustered ponies, who spread out, giving themselves space. The monsters seemed to have a specific plan of attack, each one homing in on an individual pony, who, once they figured out which one was after them, would call out a confession, causing the demon to fade away. This plan seemed to be going well, and the mockeries of ponies were thinning out… Until one went after Rainbow. She panicked, apparently having thought one just, wouldn’t come for her. She didn’t know what to do, yelling out random things such as “Uh, I didn’t feed Tank this morning!” “Rainbow, strong confessions! Things that would make you gasp!” Thunderclap called to her, before noticing she had a Veil of her own on her tail. Literally. “Ahh getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!” She blasted it off with a shock from her horn, before yelling at it “I’m an idiot!” It kept coming. “Thunderclap, I think everypony knows that.” Celestia told her. “Fair point.” As Thunderclap tried to think of something to say, Rainbow kept backing away from her own creature, before sighing, muttering “I have to do this, don’t I?” She flew up in the air, quickly reaching the shroud of darkness over the town. She struck a relatively dramatic pose, before yelling at the demon “I’m scared!” It stopped. “I’m scared, all right? I’m scared that my friends might leave me. I’m scared that my stupid antics are going to get somepony hurt! So why don’t I just stop, you ask? Because I’m scared of that too! I’m scared that that’s all anypony sees about me! The daredevil that takes enormous risks! I’m scared that if I stop being that, everypony will stop liking me! So there. That’s my confession.” She hovered in midair, waiting to see the beast’s reaction. It faded. Everypony else just stared at her, before Fluttershy spoke up. “Um, that was, um, really good Rainbow, but, uh, we still have to deal with the others? I think?” That snapped everypony out of it, as they noticed the rest of them, inches away from the ponies. Before anypony could react though, Pinkie jumped into the air, just as high as Rainbow, yelling “My favourite colour’s not pink, it’s yellow!” And all the monsters faded away. Author's Note Yes I rushed the ending. I didn't know what else to do and I was running out of time. Also, from now on, it's just going to be Thunderclap's random adventures with everypony else. Also hopefully longer chapters. But now idk whether to keep the 'Adventure' tag or change it to 'Slice of Life'. She's still having adventures, but it's lots of seperate ones, and for her it is essentially slice of life. Help in comments? //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5: Dracorns //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5: Dracorns “So, uh, what now?” It was the day after the attack of the Veils, the Princesses staying behind to help repair what damage to Ponyville there had been. The creatures themselves just phased through objects, but panicking ponies had managed to cause quite a lot of property damage. The Mane 6, Celestia (Now the one drinking tea instead of her sister), Luna, and Thunderclap were sitting under a large tree, not too far from Fluttershy’s cottage. The question had been asked by the grey alicorn, who was playing with a tiny cloud, which she’d occasionally bat towards one of the other ponies, who’d sigh and send it back or ask the closest pegasus or alicorn to do so. “Well, we still need to sort out the clouds.” Celestia said, in a tone that implied she had been waiting for this question. “Oh. Right. Well, I’ll go tell the dracorns-” “I’ve been meaning to ask about that.” Twilight butted in. “You keep mentioning dracorns, but you’ve never explained what they are!” “Oh. Well, I’ll tell you all, since I expect you girls want to know as well?” Thunderclap looked over at the other members of the Mane 6, who nodded, Pinkie shaking her head so furiously it literally flew off, and she had to grab it out of midair and stick it back on. At this, Thunderclap was speechless, before getting a whispered “It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it.” From Twilight. “O-kay then… Anyway, you know what batponies look like, right? Imagine batponies, but with even darker colour schemes, and with curving horns coming off their muzzle and going up over their forehead, kinda like a dragon’s. That’s the basic shape of a dracorn. Another important thing about them is the eyes. Dracorns often have entirely white eyes, with no pupils or anything. You with me so far?” The others nodded again. “Right. Every now and then, a ‘special’ dracorn is born. These ones have far more magic than others, so much so that they need an outlet. This is generally visible by a golden light glowing from somewhere on their body, most often one of their shoulders. Now, what you’ve probably been waiting for: Powers.” Thunderclap paused for dramatic effect, the other ponies listening to her every word, except Celestia and Luna, who were still eating, already knowing all this. “Dracorns are weather controllers. They have powers based around that, having abilities based on fire, sun, water, rain, air, clouds, earth, I have no idea why, electricity, lightning, and very rarely, ice, hail. Now, you’re probably thinking, overpowered pegasi, right?” “Uhh, no?” Was the general gist of the response she got. “Actually, they’re not. To be blunt, dracorns suck at flying. They’re beautiful gliders, but rely on piloting clouds about for long distance travels. So, now I’ve explained dracorns, should I go talk to them?” She got more nods. “Okay, see you soon!” And she flew off. She came back after about five or ten minutes later, a black pony matching her description, with frazzled-looking hair falling over her right eye, trailing after her. “Hi, I’m Shadow Star..” She said quietly once they were in earshot. She had that kind of voice that sounded super shy at first, but carried an undertone that implied that if she got angry, you did not want to be the subject of her focus. Kinda like Fluttershy, who at that point was looking oddly at the new arrival. “Um… I don’t want to be rude, but, um.. do you have a cutiemark? It’s just that, uh, it doesn’t look like it…” “Oh, that. It’s, well, uh…” She looked at Thunderclap, who, like all the others, were staring at the two with an expression of pure ‘D’awwwww.’ “…Is ‘complicated’ an option?” Asked Shadow, looking back at Fluttershy. “Oh! Um, sure, if that’s what you want…” “I’ll go with that then. So, uh…” Shadow Star looked up at the other ponies, who immediately tried, and failed, to hide their expressions. “Thunderclap introduced me, I think, but, uh, I’m really curious to know who you all are? If that’s okay?” “Oh, um, sure! I’m Fluttershy.” Said the butter-coloured pegasus in question. “Mah name’s Applejack, sugarcube.” “Rainbow Dash!” “I’m Twilight Sparkle.” “I’m Rarity, darling.” “And I’m Pinkie Pie! I don’t know if I should throw you a Welcome to Ponyville party, since I don’t know if you’ll be staying. I know! I’ll just throw a party anyway! Do you like bananas? I learned how to make banana cake recently! It’s literally just a bunch of bananas arranged in a cake shape!” Thunderclap quickly cut in before Pinkie could confuse the small dracorn any more than she already had. “And I’m sure you already know Celestia and Luna, Shadow.” At this, Shadow Star jumped, not having noticed the two royals before now, stuttering out the words “Oh, uh, do I, uh, bow? I mean, Thunderclap’s never, uh, wanted us to, but, um, I don’t, er, know about you…” “No, you don’t have to bow.” Celestia told her, to the winged pony’s relief, and some confusion, as Celestia was eating a small cupcake that hadn’t been there before. “So, uh… What do we do now?” Shadow asked, now that introductions had been made. Author's Note I SWEAR I'M TRYING TO PUT MORE COMEDY INTO THIS I can't for some reason though ;-; Also, Shadow's asking you guys! I have no idea what they should end up doing next. Ideas? //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: Explanations and Whatnot //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: Explanations and Whatnot “What are these things? They look like ponies, but they obviously aren’t.” Celestia mused as she looked down at the shadows. “Look! Over there!” Twilight suddenly shouted, pointing to a part of the fog where for a split second, a flash of pink had appeared. “There are still ponies down there. We have to help them!” “All right! Finally some act-“ Thunderclap’s spiel cut short as she tripped and fell into the Darkness, before calling up a weak “I’m okay!” Shaking her head, Luna flew down after her, quickly followed by the other two. “What’s happened here?” Twilight wondered, looking around at the thick black fog. “We need light spells.” Celestia and Luna had already done so, and Thunderclap muttered something under her breath that sounded oddly like ‘Loonos’, before her horn lit up as well. Lighting done, the four alicorns continued on their way, eventually coming to the town square. Here, there were multiple ponies, including Twilight’s friends. “Twilight!” Rarity called out, keeping a barrier dome around the group. “And Celestia and Luna! And… Wait, I don’t know you.” “Name’s Thunderclap! Also I accidentally caused this!” Before Rarity could react, Rainbow Dash flew up inside the dome, calling out to the Princesses “We don’t know how to stop them! Here, there were multiple ponies, including Twilight’s friends. “Twilight!” Rarity called out, keeping a barrier dome around the group. “And Celestia and Luna! And… Wait, I don’t know you.” “Name’s Thunderclap! Also I accidentally caused this!” Before Rarity could react, Rainbow Dash flew up inside the dome, calling out to the Princesses. “We don’t know how to stop them! Light spells push them away, but nothing else works! Not even Bon-Bon’s weird blaster thingies she says are for this kind of thing!” “All right. I think I know what these are.” Twilight called back. “They’re called a lot of things. One of my personal favourites is The Veil. Anyway, they’re confession beasts. The only way to get rid of them is to tell them a great secret I think. They’re used for interrogation in Tartarus.” She looked at the other Princesses, who had bemused expressions on their faces. “What? I read books.” “How big of a confession, darling?” Rarity not-quite-shouted-because-that-would-be-unladylike-but-coming-pretty-close. “Something big. Something you’ve never told anypony before!” “Well then! Let’s get started telling these things stuff and making them go away!” Pinkie Pie cried, having randomly appeared out of nowhere. “Well, if we have to.” And Rarity dropped the barrier. Author's Note Yeah. I suck at personalities. I am trying though.