Chapter 2, Within Doubts... Within Alienation...
I was never sure how long we walked in silence, but there is one thing I knew for sure: total silence is the perfect breeding ground for conversation starters. Of any kind. I learned that the hard way due to Rainbow continuously gushing over how awesome I was saving pretty much every girl's life during the cliff collapse. She began to talk about it non stop after walking for about... half an hour, maybe more? Whatever the case, I was really getting sick and tired of it, it literally made me want to hit my head against something, it was that god-damned annoying! I was saved from her obnoxious talking by a sound that caught the attention of every girl present.
The sound made every one of us stop dead in our tracks, I knew by judging as to how deep and loud such a sound that I instantly knew that sound came from an extremely large, not to mention ferocious, animal! I waited along with the girls next to me for only a few seconds before... whatever it was came out of hiding. I honest to god thought I was hallucinating for a few moments because I saw that it looked almost exactly like a lion in general looks, but that was the only part that looked normal, one of the abnormalities however, was that it had to have been the size of an elephant, or maybe something smaller, I didn't know.
I also noticed that instead of a normal lion tail, it had a tail that belonged to a scorpion, only turned to a size more fitting for a creature of such a size. The other thing was that two bat-like wings sprouted from the thing's back, naturally mind you, but it still looked like something from a hallucination or something!
"What... in the name of all things holy.... is that!?" I demanded upon seeing it, Twilight turned and looked at me.
"It's a Manticore, and we have to get past it!" She said with determination before the Manticore roared. I felt my senses tell me something and I decided to follow that feeling.
"Girls, keep it distracted for a while, I wish to try something." I asked, to which they all nodded and prepared themselves for the probable battle ahead. I on the other hand kneeled to the ground as I placed my hand on the earth beneath me, and I felt a pulse come out of my hand upon me doing so. 'The Viral Pulse...' I thought, recognizing it from Prototype 2, I also noticed that it provided far more than what the game gave the player, it's... hard to describe... It gave me the general health and overall image of the various things around me within a 100 meter radius; it showed me the general landscape, the plants an even wildlife everywhere in precise locations in a 3d image within my head. It was pretty weird, but there was one detail that the Viral Pulse showed me that made me raise an eyebrow; a pulsing dot on the image of the Manticores' right paw. I turned my attention to the real world where I focused on the Manticores' paw as indicated, I used my new enhanced vision to try and pick out little details and what I found was... odd. It looked like some kind of wooden weapon or something that looked as though it had impaled the paw itself! I'd bet my bottom dollar that it was just protecting itself with a ferocity that was only seen on injured animals, so I had to prevent the Manticore from potentially killing these girls out of self defense, due to the fact some animals were known for showing no mercy to those who threatened them.
I looked around for anyone else to tell them about my finding, and I saw Fluttershy, desperately trying to tell the other girls that they didn't have to assault the Manticore, but none of them heard her. I walked over to her and told her of what I had found. "W-well, I had seen it was in pain, but I couldn't see that thing." She said as she looked back over to her friends and gasped, I followed her gaze and saw the rest of the girls, sans Rarity, preparing to outright charge the Manticore! I may not know everything, but I knew one thing; there was bravery, and then there was stupidity, what the girls were doing; was pretty fucking stupid! I told Fluttershy that we had to stop them as we both ran as fast as we could in front of the girls and stopped them immediately!
"STOP!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, with Fluttershy yelling pretty much the same thing except I think it was: "WAIT!" Either way, every girl we got in front of stopped almost immediately, a couple even tripped over themselves in their rush to stop themselves.
"What are you two doing?!" Twilight demanded to us, but neither of us payed her any mind, we both instead turned to the Manticore, which stared at us rather confusedly, we then slowly walked towards it.
"Hey... take it easy, we're not going to hurt you." I said in a soft tone, which made the Manticore calm down, I managed to get very close and managed to placed my hand on the wound with the wooden object in it. Just as I had feared, it had indeed gone pretty deep, but not enough to leave anything permanent. I looked back at the Manticore and proceeded to tell it this: "I must warn you, I don't want to hurt you, but what happens next will hurt." I explained as it nodded, Fluttershy gently comforted it as I placed both my hands on the object, preparing myself to rip it straight out. I took a deep breath and used most of my strength to rip the whole thing out with extreme precision. The Manticore roared in agony for a second before it calmed down again, it turned its head and then proceeded to outright lick me! Thankfully, the tongue was dry and it just wanted to thank me, but I would have preferred it to have not done that. I still smiled regardless, finding the action cute, and let the winged feline fly off and leave us alone in peace.
Dumbfounded by our actions, Twilight walked over to us. "How did you two know about the thorn?" She asked with a surprised look on her face.
"I didn't, but Alex did, he saw something in the Manticores' paw. I suppose sometimes we all need to show a little kindness." Fluttershy responded as I nodded.
"Fighting is not always the best way to get past an obstacle you know, especially if you now what to look for." I stated as Twilight smiled at our words. Regardless, we still had a mission to complete, so we gathered ourselves and left to continue on to find the Elements of Harmony. We later were in a particularly dense part of the forest, not as dense as some of the forests on earth, but still very hard to move around easily, eventually it got so dense, there wasn't even any light showing through the branches, it was that dense!
"Oops, ah think ah stepped in somethin'." Applejack stated as I turned and tried to find where her voice came from, I also heard Fluttershy scream as some light returned, making it somewhat difficult to see, but that didn't really help matters at the moment. When the light became bright enough to see properly, I saw the trees had morphed and twisted into horrifying shapes, sharp teeth, gnarled faces, eyes that glowed a blood red among other things. These things made most of the girls scream while I stayed silent and observed them, noticing that despite how horrifying they looked, they didn't move nor did they have any sort of insides of any sort, when I peered into their mouths, I saw nothing; no throat, no organs, no bones, nothing! I eventually approached one of the trees, which prompted panic from a few of the girls.
"Alex! What are you doing?! Run!" Twilight demanded as I turned back to her and raised an eyebrow.
"What are you talking about? They're not gonna hurt you." I said, in absolute disbelief of their irrational fear. "In fact, watch this!" I stated as I proceeded to place my head inside the closest tree, I held it there for a full 60 seconds before I pulled my head back out and looked over to the girls, who's faces showed a mixed look of surprise, shock and disbelief. "Now, do you believe they're gonna hurt you?" I asked, which made most of the girls blush in embarrassment.
"W-well, now that one thinks about it..." Rarity said in embarrassment, her coat on her muzzle a bright red. The rest of us then noticed Pinkie was, of all things, laughing at the trees.
"Er... Pinkie, the danger has passed, there's no need to laugh it in their face." I said as Pinkie just continued to giggle. Without any sort of warning, music played out of absolutely nowhere and Pinkie eventually stopped laughing and looked like she was about to burst into song! "Tell me she's not..." I demanded as Pinkie took in a deep breath and sung the stupidest intro chorus to a song I had ever heard!
"The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown..."
"She is." Rarity sighed as Pinkie had begun singing the next part of the song.
"I'd hide under my pillow
From what I thought I saw
But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way
To deal with fears at all"
"Then what is?" Rainbow asked, probably not certain if she wanted to know.
"She said; 'Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall
Learn to face your fears
You'll see that they can't hurt you
Just laugh to make them disappear.'"
Pinkie then laughed at one of the transformed trees as it suddenly changed back into a normal looking tree, leaving me in one of the most dumbfounded moments I ever had in my life! Pinkie just kept on singing as the girls then most likely realized what they had to do to get rid of these shapes. Just laugh, as stupid as it sounded, it worked.
"So, giggle at the ghostly
Guffaw at the grossly
Crack up at the creepy
Whoop it up with the weepy
Chortle at the kooky
Snortle at the spooky
And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... hahahaha... heh...
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!"
When Pinkie stopped singing, all of the trees had been turned back to normal average everyday trees, which left me wondering what was their point. I'd say a scare tactic, but they could probably only scare a 5 year old at the oldest! Regardless, I let the girls have their moment, leaving them to feel as though the situation wasn't so hopeless after all. After picking themselves off of the ground, we continued on to the next challenge we would face. A little while later, we came across a river which was flowing a little too violently for something that looked like something that should be calmer than the ground itself. I then noticed something thrashing underneath the water, something which looked rather dangerous from my viewing of it from under the water. A few seconds later, in a column of water, emerged a pure purple serpent, with a light purple underside and orange hair as well as an orange mustache, one half of the right side was torn off from the main body of the mustache, and the serpent was absolutely bawling! "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Twilight asked it, the serpent managed to find us in its field of view and began to explain to us what happened.
"Well, I don't know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of purple smoke just whisked past me and tore half of my beloved mustache clean off, and now I look simply HORRID." It said, resuming its cry-fest while I was baffled.
'Just one cut of your facial hair and you cut loose and cry like a little girl!? That's it, I'm never taking this world seriously ever again!' I thought bitterly while I was slightly surprised that a wisp of a cloud managed to gut through something, while in reality, a cloud of any kind should never be able to cut through anything! The description of the cloud's color was a bit of a surprise to me as well; it was something close to Nightmare Moon's own mist color that she appeared in when she arrived. I had a feeling that she was only trying to distract us in order to buy herself time to get the Elements of Harmony for her own purposes. I was then taken out of my thoughts by a cry of pain from the serpent, I looked over and saw that Rarity had torn off one of the serpent's scales and just as I looked over at the scene, she cut off her own tail and used her magic to put the torn tail on the serpent's mustache. The serpent was immensely surprised at this action, as was everyone else, but I just shrugged, I also didn't have much of a response when the Serpent offered to use his own body as a bridge and let us cross the waters. Once we were across, he waved goodbye to us and swam off to parts unknown, while Twilight was just concerned over Rarity's cut tail. "It's fine my dear; short tails are in this season. Besides, it'll grow back." She explained as I laughed.
"I'd imagine." I stated as we then took off for the next leg of the journey.
It had only, most likely, only been half an hour at the most when we came upon a set of rather old looking ruins, moss was everywhere on its exterior and there were a lot of stones falling from the general structure. It had most likely been closed down for centuries. "There it is, the ruins that hold The Elements of Harmony. We made it!" Twilight said excitedly, then outright bolted straight for the ruins.
"Twilight! Wait for us!" Applejack demanded as we all bolted after the overly-excited unicorn, I then realized that there was yet another cliff that Twilight was heading straight for.
"Twilight! Watch out for that-" I cut myself off as Twilight fell off the cliff, I dived and managed to grab her wrist before I lost her for good! "What is it with you and falling off of cliffs tonight?!" I demanded as I pulled her up onto solid ground while Twilight chuckled nervously in embarrassment. "Looks like the bridge collapsed a long time ago..." I noted, staring at what was left below us, still dangling over the cliff. Rainbow just huffed.
"Yeah? Well, I know a thing or two about fixing a bridge like this, I'll be back in a sec." She stated as she flew off over the cavern and soon went down into it, then grabbed what was left of the bridge and flew it to the other side, as I and the girls watched her work, we noticed an extremely dense fog roll in, it was unnaturally thick, more so than any other fog I had ever seen.
"What the hell?" I muttered as the fog eventually became too thick to see anything on the other side. I heard a conversation start on the other side, one voice was Rainbow's, while the other's was one I didn't recognize, I heard the new voice tell Rainbow about what I assume was a group called the Shadowbolts and how they were an elite ariel team of stunt fliers that were far better than the Wonderbolts, the girls tried to speak to Rainbow through the fog to not listen to the Shadowbolts, but Rainbow didn't seem to hear them.
She told the Shadowbolts that she would sign up, but she had to finish the bridge first, however, the Shadowbolts dropped an ultimatum, stating that it was either the Shadowbolts, or her friends. I had had enough and decided to throw my own two cents in. "RAINBOW, I SWEAR TO ALL THAT IS HOLY, IF YOU ABANDON US, I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" I screamed at the top of my lungs in Rainbow's general direction, I then heard Rainbow decline the Shadowbolt's offer then seemingly get back to work, then I heard Rainbow yell out: "Whoa!" then a loud 'thump', I recognized that combination as the audio commonly associated with fighting.
Reacting instinctively, I ran several meters in the opposite direction of the cavern and spun on the ball of my foot 180 degrees back to the cavern and where Rainbow was fighting the Shadowbolts. I then took off at my maximum running speed and at the very edge of the cliff, I pushed with all my might with my leg and leaped over the cavern below! I sailed through the air and directly through the cloud of mist and landed on the other side, kneeling and with a hand on the ground. I rose slowly and dramatically and saw the Shadowbolt's looks of shock at my appearance. "Don't... touch... her!" I stated with malice, one of the Shadowbolts, a male, charged directly at me in response and I let him come right at me, I managed to sidestep, then jump into the air and kick him in the back of the head, it must have knocked the Shadowbolt unconscious, because it fell down the chasm and didn't come back up. "Who's next?" I asked, another Shadowbolt, one who had a more sleek and feminine build, decided to fly circles around me, the Shadowbolt then struck me in the back of the head, then continued to do so to other areas multiple times. None of them actually hurt me, just an annoyance, that's all they were.
I eventually had enough when the Shadowbolt charged at me directly from the front without any warning, so I grabbed the Shadowbolts' head before it could blink and with all my might, slammed it into the ground. I'm fairly certain that the action caused it to bust apart on impact, but at the moment, I didn't care. I looked back up at the now shaking, and final, Shadowbolt, its mouth moved up and down, trying to say a word or something, but for a while, it didn't say a single thing. "What are you!?" The Shadowbolt finally demanded, it then yelled, partially in anger over the deaths of it's teammates, partially in fear over its own life as it lunged at me, its arms outstretched in an obvious attempt to choke me. I just stood still as the Shadowbolt was soon right on top of me, I raised my own hand and a sickening splattering sound filled the air. The Shadowbolt froze in shock on the spot, it tilted its head downwards and saw precisely what happened; the dark pony had impaled her chest on my own hand! She looked up at me with wide eyes, a thick, chunky, blue liquid pouring out of her mouth and the wound itself. I just ripped my hand from her chest as she fell backwards with a garbled last breath.
(Something like from Mortal Kombat X) My eyes widened at the death of these Shadowbolts, but before I could really panic over the fact that I killed them, the corpse of the Shadowbolt began to glow, it eventually dissolved in a shower of sparks. I looked at my arm and saw the blue 'blood' dissolve as well, eventually fading into nothingness. I looked at where I had killed the second Shadowbolt and found no corpse to speak of. I admit I was somewhat relieved that they weren't real, but I was also frightened by how easy it was to tear them apart, Rainbow was staring at me in complete and total shock, most likely the whole time I had fought, her mouth hanging open, eyes wide. "I'm still the same person you first met, please, don't think any less of me." I pleaded as Rainbow nodded.
"Yeah, I understand, I know what you did was in my defense. I really think you're pretty cool for that." She stated as I smiled.
"Indeed. So, shall we finish patching up the bridge?" I asked while she shook her head.
"Nah, I'll do it alone, I was almost done anyway." She stated, a warm smile on her face.
I nodded as she walked over to the bridge and hammered the last bolt into place, safely securing the bridge once and for all. After that was finished, the fog was beginning to clear up, allowing us to see the others on the other side. I calmly walked over the bridge and revelled in the shocked faces seeing me alive while Rainbow flew over to them. "How? How did you make that?!" Twilight asked me, her left eye twitching as I shrugged.
"I always was a long jumper." I stated simply with a smirk as Twilight groaned in frustration.
"Let's just go, there shouldn't be any more surprises waiting for us, at least I hope not." She said as I nodded and followed her inside the old ruins. It wasn't much better on the inside, the inside was a bit better than the outside, but the overall look was dreary and old, moss covered quite a bit of the overall surface area of a lot of the walls and various statues. As I looked at them I couldn't help but wonder, how long had this place been here? Another thought came into my mind as I looked over at Rainbow hovering next to me.
"Hey, Rainbow." She turned and looked back at me.
"Yeah?" She asked.
"When those Shadowbolts asked you to be a part of their team, did you really want to?" I asked as she smiled at me.
"For a moment, I actually did, but I never would leave any of my friends hanging." She stated proudly while I raised an eyebrow.
"Is that what we are?" I asked her critically while Rainbow scoffed and waved her hand at me.
"Yeah, I saw what kind of person you were out there, I think I saw it from when you saved Pinkie and Rarity, you're the kind of guy who I can trust, one who I... can call a friend." She said as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders, leaving me slightly surprised.
"But, you basically just met me, I still wouldn't trust many even after they had done what I did." She still looked at me with that trademark smile of hers as she pulled me closer. I hope I wasn't blushing.
"Look dude, I don't care about what you would have thought if you were in my shoes, all I really care about is who you are, you have proved to be quite the guy." Her sincerity was something I wasn't quite expecting, but it was welcome for me. I sighed and wrapped my own arm around her shoulder as I smiled.
"Thanks Rainbow, you are a great friend, though you could tone down your ego a bit." I said while she gave me a playful smirk.
"Hey!" I just laughed as she did, later on, we found an antechamber with a set of round, near perfect spherical stones that had the sphere look nearly ruined by gemstones that were as dull a grey as the stones they were trapped in. They were all sitting on top of a pedestal that held them up above what a normal person could reach within the center of the room. The girls who could fly brought them all in front of Twilight, who urged them to be careful, after they were brought before Twilight, she ordered us all to stand back.
"I don't know what will happen." She stated as she lit up her horn and closed her eyes in concentration.
"Come on, y'all, she needs time to concentrate." Applejack said as she led all the other girls out of the antechamber while Pinkie stopped on her way out.
"Hey, Al, are you coming?" She asked as I shook my head.
"No, I'll stay here and make certain nothing goes wrong." I stated as Pinkie nodded cheerfully.
"Okay." She then hopped her way out the door, leaving me alone with Twilight, who was still concentrating. I wasn't certain if this was going to work, as this was putting a lot of faith in a bunch of stones that had been based upon a legend, and this is coming from a place where a single person could move the moon with her mind! I was certainly going to be here a while if these stones really were just a legend of some sort. Suddenly, I noticed a pick up in the wind itself, but this wasn't natural, it was as though some outside force was making it do this. When it really began to pick up, my eyes widened and I shook Twilight's shoulder.
"Hey! Is this supposed to happen?" I asked her as I shook her, Twilight's eyes snapped open and saw what I was seeing; a blue tornado had picked up the Elements and was basically holding them in its windy embrace, the blue of the tornado looking an awful lot like Nightmare Moon's own mist color. Twilight's eyes widened, filled to the brim with panic.
"The Elements! No!" She exclaimed. She immediately ran right for them, me doing so right after her. We both managed to touch the cloud of mist and I swear I didn't even realize we had even moved. One second we were in the antechamber, the next, we were in a different tower entirely, I was flung away from Twilight and I was sent directly into a wall. Once I regained my bearings, I ran over to Twilight, checking her over and making certain she was unharmed. I heard a female voice I recognized chuckle to itself and I looked over and found Nightmare Moon with the elements surrounding her while I heard a clap of thunder outside. Once she ceased her laughter, she saw me and frowned, a deeply seething anger within her eyes.
"It's you... the one who I was... surprised by." She said, obviously trying to cover up her own shock of me dodging her lightning bolt from earlier.
"Surprised you? That's not the first thing I thought you'd say to be honest." I said, with brutal honesty in my own words, while Nightmare moon seemed unmoved.
"It matters not, that incident was a mere fluke, you won't survive the next one I aim at your head!" She stated, looking ready to fight. I looked over to Twilight.
"Do you have a plan for this?" I asked her in a whisper as she nodded.
"Yeah, I'll teleport behind her while you distract her." She whispered to me as I nodded.
"Alright, let's try it." We prepared to head right for Nightmare Moon while she just gave us both a deadpan expression.
"You... you aren't serious are you? Trying a frontal assault?" She asked in disbelief, we ignored her and we charged directly at the fallen Goddess, who was genuinely surprised for a split second, then shook her head, made a long sword appear out of thin air and charged at us at her own pace, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Twilight's horn was glowing, likely charging her teleportation spell. As we were about to collide, Twilight vanished in a flash of light, seemingly catching Nightmare Moon completely off guard. I jumped at the chance and cocked my fist back and outright slugged her in the jaw, sending her off to the side.
I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to the woman I just punched, she managed to get back on her feet, with more anger in her eyes than I have ever seen a person ever had. She gave off an inhuman growl, which unnerved me for at least a few seconds. "HOW DARE THEE STRIKE A GOD! THOU SHALL NOT SURVIVE TO THE END OF THIS HOUR!" She screamed at me, louder than what I thought was physically possible, it was quite possibly enough to make a human's eardrums burst if they got too close, either way, it left me with a loud ringing in my whole head. I shook it all off and just stared back at her with a stone cold gaze.
"You are not a god, nor were you ever a god, you're just a child, trapped in an adult body. I heard the whole story from Twilight, your jealousy is something only a child would dare to think as something that is right." That only seemed to make her angrier.
"You do not know what truly happened that night, do you?!" She demanded while she gripped her long sword tighter, making her knuckles nearly go grey; that's just how hard of a grip she had on it.
"I'll find out later, right now though, your eternal night must come to an end, whether you want it to or not." I stated, which she responded with a snort.
"It will never end, you will suffer just for getting in my way, that is a promise!" The fallen goddess stated while I just stared her down, she ran right at me while I just stood still, as she raised her sword, I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do as she came closer. Once she was in range, she brought her sword down as I simply sidestepped with ease and I let the swing miss.
I saw my own reflection in the blade and once it made contact with the floor, I raised my foot and brought it down on the blade itself, I apparently slammed on it so hard, that I actually snapped the blade in two. Once she recovered from her imbalance, Nightmare Moon stared up at me in total shock, disbelief and anger that I had disarmed her. "W-what are you?" She demanded while I scoffed.
"I'm just a man who does not appreciate what you're doing; condemning this world into an Ice Age." I stated, looking over at Twilight, still focused on the Elements, who had managed to get them glowing somehow, the stones hummed with power, something I had never seen before. I stared in awe as the glow became brighter.
"No! No no no no no no!" Nightmare Moon was in a panic, it was obvious at that point that she had been bested by the Elements before, so there was most likely some merit to the story of how they bested her in the first place. However, it seemed as though it was for naught, as I watched them reach what seemed to be a crescendo, they stopped, ceasing their glow and as a result, falling to the ground, powerless.
"W-what?!" Twilight gaped as she stood still, paralyzed with such extreme confusion that I had never witnessed before on anyone or anything's face. "Bu... but where's... the sixth Element?!" She demanded, eyes widened in total non-understanding. Nightmare Moon began to chuckle, before she turned it into a full blown maniacal laugh, teleporting to the Elements, knocking Twilight to the ground, and made her watch helplessly as she began to crush the Elements of Harmony individually, the stone cracking and eventually revealing the gemstones underneath it, just as dull and lifeless as they appeared on the outside.
She increased the pressure and actually cracked, then shattered each and every one of the Elements with pure brute strength! I was actually impressed with how strong she truly was, but also somewhat frightened, if she learned how to properly fight with her hands, she could probably punch a hole in me in the blink of an eye! Nightmare moon was still laughing, louder than I had ever heard anyone laugh before, as though she had truly triumphed over something that was thought to be impossible. "You little fools! Thinking you could defeat me?! Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last FOREVER!" She resumed her loud laughter. As I was about to unleash the full extent of my Evolved prowess, I heard Twilight's companions coming up a stairwell, calling out both our names and saying that they'd be there soon. I heard Twilight gasp with a look on her face as though she had an epiphany and gained a bit of a smug look on her face.
"You think you can just destroy the elements just like that?" She asked, making Nightmare Moon raise an eyebrow in confusion. "Well, you're wrong! Because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right HERE!" Nightmare Moon remained silent as Twilight continued to go on with her monologue while the other girls stood around Twilight and listened to what she had to say. "Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of HONESTY!" She said proudly as Applejack just had a smile of her own. "Fluttershy, who helped tame the wild Manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of KINDNESS!" Fluttershy blushed a bit, but took it in with stride. "Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of LAUGHTER!" Pinkie giggled slightly at Twilight's words, obviously flattered. "Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of GENEROSITY!" Rarity just threw her head back in pride. "And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends, even for her heart's desire, represents the spirit of LOYALTY!" Rainbow grinned and struck a bit of a pose as she was mentioned. As their traits were mentioned by Twilight, I noticed the shards that once were the Elements of Harmony began to glow in various colors, all the kinds of colors most synonymous with the mare that they represented.
They all also began to float and encircle their representors, humming with power. "The spirits of these ponies have helped us through every challenge you threw at us!" Nightmare Moon still seemed defiant to the last.
"But you still don't have the last one, that spark did not work you fools!" I kept my focus on Twilight, wondering what she was going to retort with.
"Actually, it did! But it was another type of spark! One which I found out about when I realized you were all my friends." She stated to us all, as the girls blushed, she turned to look at me and said: "And how much you wanted to protect me..." I just gave her a smile at her sincerity. However, I was nearly blinded by a bright light and I raised my arm in front of my face, preventing it from blinding me. when I lowered my arm, I saw a final stone above Twilight's head; I realized it was the last Element, but what did Twilight represent? Knowledge? "You see Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the very same spark that resides in the hearts of us all, it creates the sixth Element, the Element of Magic!" Nightmare Moon actually, physically paled as she could only watch the elements form some kind of necklaces on the mares necks, while Twilight's transformed into some kind of Tiara. I personally didn't quite understand what happened next as it is honestly something that you'd have to see yourself to believe, as the jewelry was on their respective owners, a beam in every color of the rainbow burst out from absolutely nowhere, and it went up in the air in an honestly beautiful display of power. The beam then made a dive-bomb maneuver for Nightmare Moon who could only stare at it in shock, before I saw her horn light up, most likely as a last ditch effort to protect herself. I saw the rainbow strike her and engulf her in a flash of pure, bright light. When I could get the spots out of my eyes again, I saw each of the girls lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious, I immediately ran to them, concerned for their lives.
"Are you alright?" I asked in desperation as I shook Twilight, who groaned and nodded.
"Yeah, but... did we win?" She asked, rubbing her head with her hand. I looked over at where Nightmare Moon had once been and, even with my enhanced vision, I couldn't see through the cloud of white mist that had seemingly engulfed the fallen goddess.
I heard the other girls waking up, I noticed almost immediately that the gems on their holders had completely changed, they were now near perfect reflections of their owners. Applejack's was an orange apple with a pair of green leafs on top, Rainbow had a red lightning bolt, Fluttershy had a pink Butterfly, Rarity, who's tail had somehow grown back instantaneously, held a purple gemstone, Pinkie had a bright blue balloon for hers and lastly, Twilight had a pink 6-pointed star as her own jewel. "Ugh... did anypony get the number of that carriage that hit me?" Rainbow asked as she managed to stand up on her own.
"Silly Rainbow, a carriage didn't hit us!" Pinkie said as she giggled.
"Wait! Rarity! You're tail's grown back!" Fluttershy said in surprise as the mentioned fashionista took a look back at her own tail, having been restored when the Elements of Harmony were activated.
"Oh my... I wasn't expecting this." She said in some surprise while I noticed Twilight staring out one of the broken windows. I walked over beside her and watched as the sun rose up, finally bathing the lands with its life-giving rays. Twilight gave a wide smile as I wrapped my arm over her shoulder.
"It's finally gonna be alright, am I correct?" I asked as Twilight nodded.
"It is; with Nightmare Moon defeated, the sun is rising, everything's going to be okay! We won!" However, another voice just seemed to ruin the moment, a voice I didn't expect to hear ever again.
"We... are... not... finished!" The girls and I whipped around as we had heard it come from the dust cloud. When it cleared, I saw Nightmare Moon, still standing, a few scratches and bruises on her and looking very pissed off. "I cannot believe it myself... you actually managed to sever my connection to the moon..." She said in a low voice, venom lacing every word. She then hardened her glare further, clenching a fist in front of her, a dark blue aura pulsing from her own body. "I was lucky that the Elements had been weakened after all this time... but you..." She gritted her teeth so hard I was surprised that her teeth didn't crack. "None of you will LEAVE HERE ALIVE! YOU ALL WILL DIE HERE AND NOW!!! I WILL END YOUR LIVES... SLOWLY, AND IN PAIN!!!!" I honestly was not expecting her to scream that loudly, but this was on a whole other level of loud! Twilight and her friends were all right behind me, all terrified for their lives. I just scowled and sighed.
"I suppose I have no choice..." I said as I slowly walked towards Nightmare Moon while the girls behind me likely looked at me as though I were crazy.
"You're going to fight her!? Are you loco in the coco?!" Pinkie demanded.
"That one time you managed to avoid her attack was just luck, you can't take her on!" Twilight shouted at me as I turned around, a solemn look on my face.
"I think I can... it's mostly because of... something which I have a fear of..." I said slowly while the mares gained confused looks on their faces.
"What in the hay is that supposed to mean?" Applejack asked while I averted my eyes.
"Girls... I really hope you don't hate me for this, but I... am a living weapon, a bio-weapon." I stated, hanging my head in some shame and fear.
The girls' eyes widened at my statement. "W-what?! A bio-weapon?!" Twilight demanded as she backed away a few feet as I nodded.
"Yeah... my own body isn't comprised of flesh, blood and bone like you, but a substance called Biomass. I don't know what it's comprised of, but it is what makes up my entire being." I said while I walked towards her slowly. "The reason for this is because of a virus; called Blacklight. It was designed to be the most deadly virus ever created, however, there were unforeseen side effects to the corpses unlucky enough to have the virus within; most of them were transformed. Transformed into horrendous monsters, whose only purpose was to kill everyone in their path, they were mindless, brutal, without mercy, incapable of feeling a thing, emotional, physical or otherwise. I on the other hand, was different than what should have been possible." I then turned my right hand into its claw mode and raised it a bit, frightening the girls I had been with the whole time, their eyes wider than ever before. "I don't know if I am just a being who was lucky enough to escape the mindlessness or if I was just that stubborn to die from it, but one thing is clear to me..." I then turned back to Nightmare Moon, she had calmed down a bit, but apparently only because of my explanation of what I was. "This false goddess is going to perish!" I felt a hand grab my shoulder, I turned my head and saw Rainbow holding my shoulder, a look of concern on her face.
"I don't care if you're a monster or not, I don't even care about the virus part; you're my friend, I don't want to see you hurt, or worse." I just sighed as I clasped her hand with mine.
"Rainbow, please, the Elements didn't work, we have no other option; I have to fight!" I stated as Rainbow shook her head.
"No! I'll fight her with you, I'm not afraid!" She insisted while I placed a hand on her own shoulder.
"No Rainbow, you could be killed, I don't want that. I beg of you, please, let me be the one to finish this!" Rainbow's face had turned to one of conflict, she wanted to help me, but she must have known that I was the only one at the time to be able to fight Nightmare Moon at all! Rainbow sighed and grasped me tightly in a embrace.
"Please, come back safely." She said as I embraced her back.
"I will try." I stated flatly as I then broke the embrace and walked towards Nightmare Moon.
"If what you said is true, you abomination, then you have no place in this world!" Nightmare Moon stated as I transformed my arms into their claw states and got into a fighting stance.
"At least I try to use my abilities to help others, you on the other hand, don't!" I said while Nightmare Moon just snorted and summoned another sword, this one looking much sturdier than the last. She got into her own stance as we stared at each other for a long time.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the... FLOOR~
We both charged at each other, she swung her sword and I ducked underneath, she continued to swing however as she aimed to cut my head off, I raised my claws and stopped it a few centimeters short. I then proceeded to push it back and get a few cuts in with a few rapid swipes with my claws before Nightmare Moon drove me back with a magic wave.
Beaten why for? (why for?)
Can't take much more!
(Here we go, here we go, here we go, now)
I recovered quickly and I charged again, avoiding all of Nightmare Moon's blasts as I got in close. The claws cut into the flesh of the false goddess easily, like a hot knife through butter.
One, nothing wrong with me!
Two, nothing wrong with me!
Three, nothing wrong with me!
Four, nothing wrong with me!
Nightmare Moon roared in agony and rage as she then drove her sword into me and twisted it. God it hurt a lot, I plunged my claws into her arm and forced her to retreat.
One, something's got to give!
Two, something's got to give!
Three, something's got to give, NOW~
I then gained a bit of distance to let my biomass heal itself, however, when I looked over at Nightmare Moon, I saw her horn ablaze and her injuries rapidly healing and closing, meaning I had to injure her to the point where she wouldn't be able to heal.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the FLOOR~
I growled and lunged at her before she was done, in a panic, she blocked my strike with her sword and shoved me off, I planted my feet into the stone floor and pushed off with more power, cracking the floor. I then turned my left arm into a blade and slashed at her, our two blades clashed continuously over the course of several minutes.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the FLOOR~
Sparks flew, a few shots were taken, gleams were seen throughout the rising morning. She and I never gave the other a quarter, never backing down, we both wanted the other to stop and we would die for it.
Push me again... (again...)
This is the end!
(Here we go, here we go, here we go, now)
We pushed each other back after another clash and we stared at each other again. Nightmare Moon must have known she was at a disadvantage, as she must have noticed my healing abilities were passive rather than something that was activated like hers was.
One, nothing wrong with me!
Two, nothing wrong with me!
Three, nothing wrong with me!
Four, nothing wrong with me!
She then flew up and her horn was set aglow and I prepared myself, she fired off several bolts of electricity as I ducked, dodged and avoided every blast. Whenever I wouldn't be able to avoid the blasts, I used the Whip-fist to pull myself to safety.
One, something's got to give!
Two, something's got to give!
Three, something's got to give, NOW~
Eventually, I had had enough and used the Whip-fist to get over to Nightmare Moon via sinking it into her chest and tugging on it to the point where I was launched to her. I brought my claws right down onto her shoulder, digging deeply into her flesh, dark red blood pouring out of the wound as well as several others.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the FLOOR
I was genuinely surprised as to how she was able to keep going like this, but I didn't let my guard down for even a second. I was outright flung backwards by Nightmare Moon's magic and flung through a stone pillar.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the FLOOR~
My back seared with pain as I pulled myself out of the rubble. As I got up, I began to feel nothing more than anger and hate for Nightmare Moon, and I was going to be certain she would die! I roared in rage as I charged at Nightmare moon once more, with an animalistic growl, I just charged right through her defenses and stabbed all of my claws directly into her chest.
Skin to skin, blood and bone~
You're all by yourself but you're not alone~
You wanted in and now you're here~
Driven by hate, consumed by fear~
Blood spurted out of the wounds as Nightmare Moon howled in absolute agony before she got me off again. This time, she sent me flying and bouncing throughout the room like a god-damned pinball and then slammed me onto the ground.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the FLOOR~
My vision turned completely red as I yelled partially in pain and partially in rage, anger seeping from my very pores. I lunged at Nightmare Moon for the umpteenth time and just hacked and slashed at her with everything I had. Never stopping for a second.
One, nothing wrong with me!
Two, nothing wrong with me!
Three, nothing wrong with me!
Four, nothing wrong with me!
Nightmare Moon was losing ground by the second, she was getting more and more frantic as she moved backwards while I put on even more pressure, possibly pushing her to the breaking point with her swordplay.
One, something's got to give!
Two, something's got to give!
Three, something's got to give! NOW~
Something had to give, Nightmare Moon was sweating, her movements more frantic than ever, she couldn't keep this up at all! I just continued slashing and clawing away at her sword.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor~
Eventually, she basically fell apart, one strike at the right point and time, and she was sent stumbling. I took that advantage that was presented to me and outright grabbed her by the waist with one hand and hoisted her up, slamming her down on the floor just a second later, making cracks that spread to the walls in the process.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
I hacked away at Nightmare Moon's body for several minutes, her screams at the time were absolute music to my ears, I then turned my arms into the Whip-fist and swung her around in circles and threw her into a wall. I roared in rage as I then leaped into the air and slammed my fists into the floor, sending my biomass into it. A few microseconds later, the ground a few feet in front of Nightmare Moon basically exploded, my biomass had transformed into several yard long spikes which impaled Nightmare Moon and pinned her to the wall in several places at once.
Hey...go!
Hey...go!
Hey...go!
Hey...go!
Hey...go!
Once I calmed down, I detached myself from the biomass and stood up, extremely dizzy and very tired. I tried desperately to stay awake, but I couldn't help myself, I fell backwards and drifted into unconsciousness a few seconds later, not certain what was going to happen to me.
Author's Note
I tried as best I could with the battle scenes, please let me know what can be fixed. Other than that, I hope I did well enough. Please no outright hate comments on this, otherwise you could risk a block or worse. With all that out of the way, please enjoy this piece of writing.
Edit: More grammar, spelling and word edits. Hope the quality has been elevated a bit.
Chapter 1, Without Direction... Without Familiarity...
Why am I here? Why do I have to carry such an unsightly blight? Why do I exist? These are questions I asked myself over and over again a while back, it was something I could not get over even if I tried, but recent events made it so I could be a hero, a savior, a true person in another one’s life. While I didn’t have much in the first place, I gained something more when I came to this plane of existence, friends, true happiness and love itself… I didn’t always have it though. I was once a normal teenage boy, wanting to have a life that I could consider normal, one where I could raise a family, one where I wouldn’t have to fear anyone or anything! I was 18 years old, had short jet black hair and ocean blue eyes, I had been wearing a black, unzipped, zip up hoodie with a red shirt underneath it, as well as a black leather jacket on top of it, having a red tribal symbol on the jacket, it also had a red interior rather than a standard black one. I was also wearing black jeans and pure black running shoes, I was dressed an awful lot like Alex Mercer from Prototype, with a few differences in appearance, my own name was Alex, but it wasn’t Mercer that was my last name, it was actually Romero. Yeah I had the same name as the famous movie director, so what of it? Anyway, I had most likely blinked or I had fallen asleep for a few seconds or something? I didn’t know at the time, but one moment I was in my own bed, then without any kind of warning, I am in some kind of forest! I felt different in those moments, like I was changing… mutating… Eventually, it started to get painful, almost to the point of being unbearable! “W-what’s… happening!?” I demanded, I eventually clutched my chest and thrashed around, wanting an end to this, I felt my chest somehow expand and contract all on it’s own several times! I had tears running down my face as I was screaming at the top of my lungs in absolute agony at whatever was happening to me, I couldn’t take it much longer, I was about to die… then it all went black.
I woke up later looking up at the sky, I bolted upright, wondering precisely what just happened. “What was that?” I wondered, I didn’t look or feel any different, and I certainly didn’t remember taking any drugs or drinking anything alcoholic, so what happened? Before I could contemplate any further, a nasty smell waded into the clearing where I was, it smelled a lot like rotten eggs in a city dump, washed with Boston’s harbor water! I turned when I heard something snap and crack, what I saw… I could almost not believe my eyes; they were made entirely out of wood of various kinds, their eyes were glowing a sickly green, they were in the shape of wolves, I admit, I should have been afraid… but I didn’t feel a twinge of fear in their presence. I somehow couldn’t feel any kind of fear even if I tried to in that instance, instinct told me something, that I was actually able to take these things on with ease. I didn’t understand at that moment in time, but I thought about a sharp weapon of any kind, and I felt my right hand move all on it’s own!
When I looked down at it, I saw black tendrils all over my hand, converting it into something completely different, when the tendrils retracted, they revealed my hand, except it wasn’t much of a human hand anymore, it was completely black with glowing red parts in some areas, on the tips of each of my now blackened digits were single long and razor sharp claws, black with silver edges, almost like metal. My transformation only meant one thing; I was an Evolved, just like in the Prototype games! I didn’t have an immediate reaction to it though, my shock somehow remaining internal, I turned back to the wolves with a bit of a smirk on my face, their own faces filled with genuine shock. One surprisingly young looking one leaped at me in cockiness, I ducked underneath his bite and plunged my blades into his chest, I then twisted and slammed him into the ground, sending shards, chips and pieces of wood everywhere. The Wolves that arrived earlier were backing away slowly, trying to get away from me in the safest way possible. Unfortunately for them… slowly… was a poor choice in speed. I ran at them faster than I have ever ran and slashed one of the wolves into sawdust and morphed my other arm into a long, curved blade, I moved faster than one would expect and sliced another wolf into pieces.
Next, I stabbed another wolf in the stomach area and spun it around on one of my claws, using my blade, I slowly brought it in towards my claw, the wolf was sliced into bits because of a combination of it’s high speed spinning and my blade slicing clean through the mixed & matched wood. I then threw the last piece into a tree, I then turned to the last wolf, in an act of final desperation or something, it charged right at me, with a fury in it’s eyes I had only seen in a cornered animal, I scoffed and jumped right as it was about to skewer me, I spun in the air, readied my massive blade and brought it down on top of the last wolf, I saw the fear in it’s eyes as I sliced it clean in half. Once I was certain that those things wouldn’t be able to come back, whatever force possessing me left and my eyes widened in abject horror as I looked upon the carnage that ensued, never before had I been the cause of something so brutal. Tears once more went down my face as I couldn’t do anything more than run, run somewhere… someplace… I could not stop thinking about just what had happened to those poor wooden wolves, even if they intended to kill me, I don’t think even they deserved that!
I just continued to run as I saw nothing more than a blur of trees and boulders rush across my vision, I then noticed something off in the distance; a town. ‘Perhaps they would be kind enough to help me?’ I asked myself mentally, I slowed to a more reasonable jogging pace and continued to the town. I then slowed to a walk, slowly moving through the town itself. The inhabitants were not humans as I thought they were, they were human in general shape, but not much else, they walked on 2 legs, had opposable thumbs and had their arms and legs in the right places to pass as humanoid, but the little features were kind of off for me, they had their ears on the tops of their heads, just on the top corners of their skulls! Not just that, but the most abnormal lower body part they had was an equine tail growing out of their backs just above their posteriors. The final feature being their colors, of which they were like a mix and match bonanza, a slew of several shades and mixes of several kinds of colors. There were also a few similarities between a few of them, some had a single horn on their foreheads, some had large wings on their backs the last had neither of those.
I didn’t make myself too noticeable, I walked along my path until I came upon a rather strange sight; a tree, carved out and made into a surprisingly beautiful design, I hadn’t really thought of it much, so I walked around a bit more, taking in some sights. Eventually however, I was approached by a completely mint green girl who had a few white streaks running through her hair and tail, on the forehead was a horn that I could have sworn should have belonged to a unicorn. She was wearing a white shirt under a white hoodie with a golden harp on the chest of her hoodie, on her legs were blue jeans and she had no footwear. “Hello, are you lost?” She asked me, I shook my head.
“No, I’m just wandering… Taking a look around the place. I guess you could say I’m new around here.” I said with a chuckle.
“Well, that’s okay, I guess you don’t know about the Summer Sun Celebration then?” She asked, I raised an eyebrow and thought about it for a few seconds.
“Actually, you’re right, I’ve never heard of an event with that title.” I stated, to which, she smiled widely.
“Then you’re in for a treat, trust me!” She said, I shrugged, not certain as to take her words for merit or not.
“What exactly happens upon the event taking place?” I asked.
“Well, our princess, Celestia, raises the sun itself to bring day onto the very land on which we walk.” My eyes went wide.
“Er… are you sure the sun can’t do it on it’s own?” I asked, the female shook her head.
“No, as convenient as that would be, we don’t have that luxury.” I just shook my head, clearing my thoughts for a few seconds.
“Mind if I know your name?” I asked.
“Not at all, call me Lyra.” Said Lyra, smiling, to which, I smiled back.
“Call me Alex, mind showing me around a bit?” Lyra beamed at my question.
“Sure!” The next few hours were spent on me and Lyra having a tour around the town, I saw the town hall, a few places of interest, a few being Sweet Apple Acres, Sugarcube Corner, The Carousel Boutique, among others. I was also introduced to Lyra’s best friend and housemate Bon Bon, who had pink and purple hair, about half and half, which ended in a curl on both the hair and tail. Eventually, Lyra and Bon Bon had been invited to a party held in the Ponyville library, which I had learned was the tree building I had seen earlier.
“Why exactly is a party of all things being held inside a library!? Aren’t they supposed to be a place of peace and quiet?” I had asked, shocked that it was perfectly legal to do so, Lyra and Bon Bon just shrugged at my question.
“It’s Pinkie Pie, I’d rather not question her antics.” Bon Bon stated.
Later on, I had taken a bit of a stroll when I found Lyra and Bon Bon once more. “Hey! Alex, the Summer Sun Celebration is about to start! Wanna come?”
Lyra asked me, I shrugged. “Sure, why not?” I said lazily, I needed something to take my mind off the wooden wolf massacre, so I decided to take this in stride, hell, if I was lucky enough, I could most likely actually talk to the princess if it was at all possible. We gathered in the main Ponyville building where the celebration was about to take place and waited. Upon the supposed unveiling of the princess herself however, the podium was empty!
"Where is the Princess?! What's going on?!" That was one of the many things I heard the crowd demand upon there being no princess there at all! A few of the ponies got extremely worried as the mayor of the town tried to keep everyone present calm, but I knew this would eventually blow into a full scale panic if nothing would happen. What I didn’t count on however, was just if something would happen, a deep, navy mist, with what seemed like stars within, rose from the cracks in-between the floorboards of the stage and thickened restricting much view of the stage itself.
Eventually, some of the mist solidified while the rest cleared, revealing one of, if not, the tallest woman I had ever seen in my life! She had to have been taller than 6'7 at the most, a large contrast to my 5'9, her coat was completely black, her body wearing crystal blue armor that had an elegant design, it moved seamlessly with every movement she made, it didn’t make much noise and it looked quite pretty. Her eyes were like something I would have seen on a feline or a reptile, a single slit for the pupil, with the rest being bright cyan, upon her head was a helm that fit neatly over her horn, which was extremely long, but it made sense for her height. On her back however, were a pair of wings, different from the normal Pegasus wings I had seen form before with Lyra and Bon Bon’s friends. They had feathers, but were shaped more like a bat’s, with the design being more intimidating and most likely could perform more extreme maneuvers. Her hair and tail were the same navy blue as the mist she arrived in and seemed to have no physical mass, given how it flowed like it was in a gentle breeze, despite there being no breeze to begin with. On the chest of her armor was a Fleur-de-lis designed chest plate that held a peculiar symbol; a crescent moon with a purple background. “Oh… my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I saw your precious sun loving faces.” She said, while the last part was spat out rather than spoken normally, mostly out of anger I assumed.
Most of the pony’s eyes widened upon seeing her while one, a mare with rainbow hair, had a look of anger on hers. “What did you do with our princess?!” She demanded, she had as mentioned before, a literal rainbow as her hair and tail colors, she was wearing a single white undershirt with a cloud embroidered on its front, a rainbow colored lightning bolt striking from the cloud. She was also wearing blue jeans. She looked like she was going to straight up Football tackle the intruder (Which I had to give her props for, considering how most others were too shocked t do anything.), at least, until she was stopped by another pony holding onto her tail, keeping her from going anywhere near the intruder. The newcomer just laughed before she seemed insulted.
“Am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?” She demanded before she was answered by a completely pink girl, she guessed several names, of which included ‘princess meany pants’, ‘princess dark’ among other ridiculous titles.
Thankfully, before she could continue, the same female who stopped that rainbow haired character shoved an apple into the pink girl’s mouth, silencing her temporarily. “Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?” She asked once more, making me confused as I didn't believe anything could live for that long. "Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?" She demanded, I didn't hear any legends about anyone like her, and I wasn't from here so, I didn't know what she was talking about. When I thought this couldn't get any worse, I saw a single girl step forward.
"I did! And I know who you are!" She stated, making every single person in the building look directly at her. "You're the Mare in the Moon. Nightmare Moon!" The entire crowd gasped as I was, unfortunately, left in the dark about the whole thing.
"Very well, if you know all about me, then you know why I have freed myself, don't you?" She asked, the purple unicorn didn't seem to be comfortable saying her next words.
"You're going to... going to..." She obviously didn't want to say what she knew. It was almost as though she had to force herself to speak, she seemed that afraid of her own words.
"Remember this day little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last FOREVER!" The now identified Nightmare Moon laughed. The mayor, whom I assumed to want to know where their ACTUAL princess was, sent out her guards to seize Nightmare Moon. With no effort whatsoever, Nightmare Moon simply blasted the guards away with powerful lightning bolts straight from her horn, leaving the guards injured. I knew I had no choice, I slowly began to step forward.
"Alex, what are you doing!?" Lyra demanded as I sighed.
"Someone has to stop her." I stated simply.
"By throwing your own life away!?" I just shook my head at Lyra's honestly reasonable question.
"Just watch, that should be proof enough to say that I'm not normal." I said simply once again, heading directly for the podium, the entire place went completely silent as I calmly walked right up to Nightmare Moon, close enough so that she was just out of my arms reach and vise versa.
She just stared at me and I stared back, neither of us giving any ground. "Who are you, being so bold as to walk up to me like this?" She asked me.
"I am Alex, just...Alex, and you, are a threat to this world." I stated as Nightmare Moon's eyes narrowed.
"I have never wished any harm upon my subjects ever! How dare you accuse me of such a thing!" She said, her voice seething in some barely contained anger. I sighed.
"I dare? I dare because it is the truth, you would be killing us all. This side of the planet would become a frozen wasteland, do you not know that? Or are you too ignorant of your own mistakes!?" I demanded, Nightmare Moon looked at me with shock filled eyes before they were filled with rage.
"You speak lies! For trying to lie to me, you will be punished!" She shouted before she unleashed the same kind of electric spell that she used on the guards on me, literally just moments before the electricity struck me, I bent over backwards, the electricity just going past my nose by about a milometer, so close I could smell the very ozone from it.
Once the electricity flew past me, I slowly and deliberately bent back up into a proper standing position to see Nightmare Moon look at me with the most shocked expression I had ever seen on anyone's face. No one had probably been able to dodge it before, I just smirked at her creepily. "I have many surprises too." I stated, right as I was about to morph my arm into a weapon, Nightmare Moon transformed into that navy mist and left the area, I didn't bother to give chase. I turned around and saw the other people within the building just stare at me in abject shock. I just returned the stares for a few seconds before I noticed that girl who knew Nightmare Moon from earlier was running out of the building in quite the hurry, so I gently got off of the stage and made my way to the door. No one seemed obligated to stop me, all of them stepped out of my way, not a single bit of resistance. That was until that rainbow haired girl I had seen fly right in front of me, blocking the door.
"Hold it right there buster!" She demanded as I stopped and looked at her, directly into her rose colored eyes.
"I don't think so, cause right now, a far more conspicuous character is getting away right now." I stated, making the cyan girl turn around and spot the girl running off. The cyan girl looked back at me, then turned back to the purple girl, then back to me then back again to the girl, then me again before she groaned and relented.
"Fine, but you've got some explaining to do mister!" She stated, I shrugged.
"I understand, now we run!" I said as she nodded and followed me after the girl with 4 others tailing us, one literally being dragged the whole way. I wasn't sure if I should reveal my Evolved status just yet, perhaps at a later, more opportune time? I didn't know.
We followed the girl directly to the library, when we went inside, she was running around, tearing books off of shelves and flipping through them like mad, obviously searching for something within. "No! No! Not that! Definitely not that! Come on! Where is it?!" She was a slightly dark shade of lavender, with her hair/tail color having a mix of color, mainly a dark purple while a single bright pink stripe ran through both the hair and tail, she was also wearing a bright white blouse with a purple skirt. When the door was opened, the cyan girl immediately busted in and grabbed the purple one by the arms and held her closely, glaring at her with a serious intent.
"Who are you!? Are you a spy or something!?" She demanded before I yanked her back by pulling on her tail.
"Back off, let me ask the questions." I stated with my hardest glare, the cyan girl nodded as the rest of the people who followed us came in through the door. One was the pink girl I had seen earlier, she was completely pink with both her body and hair/tail colors a different shade of pink, her body was a brighter shade while her hair was slightly darker. she also had ocean blue eyes, she’s wearing a pink undershirt that’s probably many sizes too small, exposing her stomach, a pink zip up sweater and a pink skirt. Another was the same blond girl that I had seen pull the rainbow haired one back from tackling Nightmare Moon, she was mainly orange with freckles adorning her cheeks, her hair/mane was put into a ponytail (Kind of ironic considering how she was a pony in their own eyes) and was as mentioned before, blonde. Her eyes were emerald green and she also had a stetson atop her head, her clothes were that of a primarily orange with tan plaid shirt with blue jeans. The next was a feast for the eyes; she was a pure snow white, ocean blue eyes with long lashes, purple hair and tail that was just right in shade to compliment her overall physical appearance as well as her attire, it was of a silk make, a mix of a dress and normal clothing, a skirt securely around her waist and a female dress shirt on her torso, a golden belt around the aforementioned waist. on her head was a horn, indicating her classification as a unicorn. Another one was a bright buttery yellow, pink hair/tail and exceptional turquoise eyes, her attire was of a white shirt and a green skirt, on her back were two wings, indicating her Pegasus status.
Either way, I turned to the purple unicorn, who was shuffling nervously. "Look, you obviously know far more than anyone else, so care to explain?" I asked her, she nodded.
"Of course, this is indeed when Nightmare Moon was supposed to return." She stated, turning to a window. "The signs were clear and I know that she will bring eternal night if she isn't stopped." I was rather mad at this point, no, make that absolutely pissed.
"Then why the hell didn't you tell anyone!?" I demanded.
"No one would have believed me, even with the evidence clearly in front of them." I scowled.
"You could have at least warned them!" I said bluntly.
"Look, we have no time! We have to find the book that contains knowledge on the Elements of Harmony." I raised an eyebrow at the name.
"The elements of what?" I asked.
"From what I know, the Elements of Harmony are the most powerful force in all of Equestria, they went missing about the same time as Nightmare Moon's banishment, but I don't recall much else about them." Twilight's explanation wasn't exactly making me assured that these elements could defeat someone with enough power to move the moon.
"Any idea where the book is?" I asked, though Pinkie beat me to it.
"Here it is!" She said cheerfully from on top of a bookshelf... wait... how the hell did she get up there?! Never mind, I'll probably get a hemorrhoid or something just by thinking about it...
"Where was it?" Twilight asked.
"It was under 'E' of course!" Pinkie said as though it was the simplest thing in the world. Which it was.
"Whatever, just give it here!" Twilight said, frustrated.
"Okie dokie loki!" Pinkie said happily as she tossed the book at Twilight, who caught it in her magical grasp, then placed it on a reading table of sorts and opened it.
"Okay, according to this, there are six Elements of Harmony in total, however, only five are currently known by name; Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty." I raised an eyebrow at the names. Was I thrown into a world that was based off of a cartoon or something? "The sixth is, as of right now, a complete mystery, it is said that the last known location of the five Elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is now located in which is now...the Everfree Forest." The other girls in the room visibly tensed at the name and a couple even shivered, most notably the white and yellow ones.
"What is wrong with that place anyway?" I asked, the girls all looked at me like I was insane, the butter yellow girl stepped forwards and seemed to have trouble speaking.
"U-um.. It's...scary...there's dangerous creatures in there that aren't like other animals...these ones, they...hurt ponies. Everypony stays away from there..." She looked scared as she was probably just thinking about whatever horrors there were in that forest, I just shrugged.
"Like literal wooden wolves?" I asked, the girls' eyes widened upon hearing that.
"You've gone against Timber Wolves and lived!?" The orange one asked, a look of extreme shock on her face.
"Yes, why?" I asked her back, she shook her head incredulously.
"I ain't ever heard of no one who got away from those timber wolves and lived! How did you do that?!" She demanded as I sighed and shook my head.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, either way, we have far more important matters to take care of!" I stated as she just nodded. After packing up everything she thought she would need, Twilight went out the door with us in tow.
"Name's Alex by the way, just Alex, and you?" I asked the girls, tired of referring to them as their colors.
"...Applejack is my name." Said the blonde, hesitating at first, most likely due to some trust issues.
"Call me Rainbow Dash!" The rainbow haired one said boastfully, probably did that a lot.
"My name is Rarity." The fancy one stated, most likely thought of herself as a higher class.
"Hi! My name's Pinkie Pie and I absolutely love to throw parties! Do you like parties? Cause I sure do!" The fully pink one said with probably too much enthusiasm, most likely a party animal.
"I-I'm Flutter...shy..." The yellow one said quietly, if it wasn't for my evolved self's enhanced hearing I probably wouldn't have heard her as I knew her voice wasn't within the normal detectable decibel range of human hearing.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle." the purple one said at last after everyone else went, she was the smart one it seemed... this could be fun... We soon came upon what was the entrance to the Everfree Forest from Ponyville itself. Twilight sighed, a look of stress on her face.
"What's wrong, Twilight? Something on your mind, darling?" Rarity asked Twilight, I raised an eyebrow on the fact that Rarity just called Twilight darling, but just shook my head and decided to just ignore it. Twilight looked worried for a minute, looking as though she were afraid that the next thing she will say will offend someone she shouldn't.
"Look...I appreciate the offer...but I'd really rather do this on my own." The other girls responded just as I thought they were going to; they just strolled right past Twilight.
"No can do, Sugarcube. We sure ain't lettin' any friend of ours step into any creepy place alone. We're sticking to you like caramel on a candy apple." I chuckled at Applejack's analogy and started to walk through the entrance myself, deciding to put my own two cents in.
"If the world is in danger, it has already become my own business!" I stated, not taking no for an answer like the other girls as Twilight groaned and relented under my words. A few minutes into the walk through, twilight decided to speak up.
"So....none of you, excluding Alex, have been here before?" Everyone else shook their heads, Rarity looking particularly disturbed.
"H-Heavens no! J...Just look at it! It's dreadful!" I admit it was quite depressing in here by just the air alone, it wasn't enough to keep me from looking around in wonder at how things grew around here.
"And this place ain't natural....folks say it don't work the same as Equestria..." Applejack added, with a slight amount of fear, not as much as, say, Rarity, but enough to be heard if you knew what you were looking for.
"Hey, Alex?" I heard Rainbow speak up.
"Yeah?" I queried back.
"Why did you get so up close to Nightmare Moon like that? That takes some serious guts, I was about to do that, but Applejack held me back." She asked then stated to me, I shrugged.
"I guess I just wanted to take her on because everyone was in danger." All the girls looked at me curiously.
"You mean, it was to protect us?" Rarity asked as I nodded.
"Yeah, sure it was stupid and reckless, but I felt as though I had to do something, otherwise someone was going to get hurt... I hope you all understand..." I didn't expect what happened next at all! Fluttershy straight up hugged me!
"Thank you... for protecting us I mean..." She said in that quiet voice of hers, she was so cute... I wrapped an arm around her, holding her gently.
"Well, someone had to do it, I mean, who knows what would have happened if I wasn't around?" I asked as the other girls smiled at me.
"Well, I suppose when you put it that way..." Rarity bowed to me in a polite manner. "Thank you kind sir, for protecting us from that so called 'princess'." She stated as I chuckled.
"Just doing what I think is right." We then continued on our way, heading through more of the forest itself. "When you said this place wasn't like any other in Equestria, what did you mean?" I asked Applejack, but before she could respond, she was interrupted by Rainbow, a whimsical smirk on her face.
"Nooooopony knooooooows......" By the looks of it, just by saying it in that certain way was scaring Fluttershy, Rarity and even Pinkie. "You know why?" She continued creepily.
"Come on Rainbow, cut it out!" Applejack demanded as Rainbow didn't seem to be listening.
"Cause everypony that tried to go in, has never...come.....OUT!" I wasn't sure if she yelled it out because she wanted to scare us or if she yelled it out in surprise of what happened next; the entire cliff face that we were standing on collapsed with such a speed only I managed to react to it at first.
With almost unbelievable speed, I grabbed Pinkie and Rarity before I succumbed to gravity and began to fall. I planted my feet into the side of the steep cliff face and my shoes dug in relentlessly into the dirt. After a few moments of cutting into the cliff, we finally managed to stop. "That was close..." I said in relief before I noticed the more stable ground wasn't too far down, so I leaped off the cliff face and landed on the ground. Hard. Granted, I didn't feel too much of it, but I guess being an Evolved means that there is automatic impact compensation. After landing on the ground, I set down Pinkie and Rarity, who were both completely silent as I did so.
"T-thank you... Why did you do that anyway?" Rarity asked.
"I just followed instinct, as odd as that sounds, but it was all so that you could be safe, you know?" I said as Rarity smiled.
"You're right, I am rather glad that you came with us." We then heard Twilight, who was hanging over the edge of the higher cliff face, yell out in terror as she was suspended over the edge, hanging onto Applejack, preventing her from falling. "Uh oh." Me and Rarity said at the exact same time, I immediately ran close to where Twilight was and waved to Applejack, she winked back at me as I ran underneath Twilight's fall trajectory.
"Let go." I heard Applejack say, Twilight's reaction was about what I expected.
"Are you CRAZY?!" She demanded to the cowgirl.
"No I ain't! I promise that you'll be safe!" Twilight looked around in every direction except down in a complete panic, the purple girl obviously couldn't think straight.
"Look, I'm right underneath you Twilight, I can catch you without any problem okay?" I shouted up at her, she looked down at me and her panicking quieted down. She sighed and released her hands, almost instantly she dropped like a stone! I raised my hands and caught her in my arms, it wasn't too bad, but the sudden shift in weight made my knees buckle for a second before I managed to catch myself and stop myself from falling. "You okay?" I asked, Twilight nodded.
"Yeah, but that was probably one of the most terrifying things I've ever experienced." I just sighed.
"If you ever experience something like that, just say to yourself that it could always be worse." I said as I set her down.
"I suppose I could look at it like that..." Twilight mused as we gathered ourselves and moved further into the Everfree Forest, waiting for the next challenged to come right at us!
Author's Note
That's one heck of a start huh? Get thrown into a world you're unfamiliar with rather than one you are can be extremely disorienting, either way, I hope I described the Evolved powers good enough; this is my first Prototype fanfic after all, so don't judge me, anyway, please do not leave hateful comments or anything like that, buh-bye.
Edit: Many many grammatical and paragraph edits made. Hopefully, it's much better than before.
