Preparation and Reflection
It was in the dead of night, but peace was nowhere to be found. Armageddon was unleashed upon the now ruined city. Horrifying beasts rampaged through the city's remains, looking among the rubble for any survivors to sate their voracious appetites.
In the darkness, behind a destroyed skyscraper, a lone sky blue earth pony mare left the safety of her hiding place to retreat. Her destination was unknown. She knew only one thing. She had to flee. The beasts...they were getting closer. If she stayed in hiding, they would find her for sure.
She slipped out from behind the broken building that was once her shelter and tried to stay out of view, looking for new places to hide behind while she quickly and stealthily made her way through. Close call after close call, she eventually made her way towards the city limits. If she could just make her way into the woods, there's a chance she could survive.
"Just a little more. I'm almost there..."
Just when she thought she was out of harm's way, a massive figure dropped from the air, right in front of her. The initial shock almost made her faint then and there, but she managed to just barely stay conscious. Still, her heart was pounding, lunging against her rib cage like a tiger as she gazed upon the figure that now towered over her.
It was unlike anything she had ever seen. It was a creature so fearsome and hideous, it could only be described as a monster. Its body consisted of a giant skull, far too large to be from a pony. It bore razor sharp teeth, and stood on a pair bony, raptor-like legs that had equally sharp claws. The teeth and claws were curved inward, designed to hook in place and lacerate flesh from bone. And to top it all off, it had a long tail, similar to a scorpion's, but much larger. Venom was already oozing from the tip, but with the sheer power it possessed, and how vulnerable its prey was in comparison, it likely wouldn't even need it.
She could barely breathe as she stayed motionless out of sheer terror. The creature let out a loud roar, similar to a banshee, and opened its gaping maw, revealing its many tongues. In an instant, it spread out its tongues which were used to entangle its prey, ready to pull in an easy meal.
"This is it...I'm going to die...I'm going to-"
It was at the last possible second when a bursting stream of light shot out as if from nowhere, and pierced the skull of the monster. The force in question went right through its body, making a sizable hole through it's skull as the bone disintegrated. It made a loud crash as it hit the ground. Of course, it was dead before it even hit the ground at all.
As relieved as the mare was, she wondered how it happened. It was like a laser, coming and going as fast as a bullet. She looked around for an answer, but it was only when she looked into the air that she saw the truth. She was saved.
A white earth pony stallion hovered in the air above her. His golden mane and tail were shaped like lightning. Strangely enough, although he was clearly in the air, he had no wings with which to fly. But there he was, an earth pony, defying gravity like it was the most natural thing in the world. Silently, he hovered down and looked at the mare he had rescued.
"Are you okay, Miss?" Said the stallion, breaking his silence, "You're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm fine, but-"
Before she could say another word, the ground around them began to shake. Suddenly, a great number of monsters began to rise all around them from under the surrounding rubble. They varied in appearance, but they all looked like something you could only see in a vivid nightmare. Some were like the last one, others were worm-like with giant mandibles, and others were large and bipedal, with long arms almost to the ground and claws as large as 50 ton boulders. They all focused their attention on the two ponies and prepared to attack. "Don't worry." The stallion reassured the mare as he assumed a protective stance around her, "I won't let them hurt you."
The stallion raised one his forehooves and pointed it at one of the monsters. In but an instant, a blast of gleaming white energy shot out of his hoof and pierced through the monster, sending it crashing to the ground just like the one before. He continued picking off the monsters one by one, his foreleg moving at incredible speed as he did. He must have fired 30 blasts in the blink of an eye. At that rate, the surrounding monsters were dropping like flies. After about six seconds, the two ponies were surrounded by nothing but the lifeless corpses of the once intimidating creatures.
"Child's play." The stallion remarked, "Now where's the-"
Suddenly, another roar could be heard in the distant forest, and a far away figure could be seen slowly growing larger. It took the form of a carnivorous dinosaur and kept increasing it's size until it was the size of a mountain. The stallion squinted his eyes and clenched his hoof, his target confirmed and his determination unbreakable.
"Wait right here, and don't move." He said with a serious tone, "Are we clear?"
"Y-yes?" Was all the mare could say.
"Good. I've got a score to settle with that monster! It's time to end this!"
With that, he flew off towards the massive beast, which quickly became aware of the stallion's presence and was ready to fight. The creature easily dwarfed the trees below as the stallion was heading towards it at eye level. While the stallion flew in close, he fired a blast in front of him. Unlike all the previous monsters, this mighty lizard easily deflected the blast with his right claw, sending it into the sky where it eventually exploded and created a large cloud of dust in the sky. Little did it know, that's exactly what he wanted it to do. Right before he flew straight into the back of the creature's claws, he suddenly changed his direction and flew into its forehead, sending it reeling from the impact as it was left trying to keep its footing.
'It fell for it! Now to get some cover!' The stallion thought as he flew upwards into dust cloud created by the explosion from before. Because the beast was distracted from the last hit, he was able to slip right in without being noticed. The dust wouldn't settle for a little while longer, hiding him just long enough to launch a powerful attack while it looked for him.
'Alright! I can unleash one of my special techniques now. Here goes!'
As the stallion prepares his attack, his lightning mane and tail begin to glow and he forms the proper pose. Both hind legs down, the left slightly bent upward, the left foreleg pointed to the sky, and the right one pointing towards the monster.
Daggers wrought from light
Bring down your great lustrous storm
And pierce through the shade
DIVINE DAGGERS!
And just like that, thousands of tiny daggers of light rained down from the sky onto the reptilian creature. Not relenting at all, the daggers came down in a violent barrage, hundreds per second.
Yet, the stallion soon noticed that something was off. That monster...it was guarding against his attack! It assumed a defensive position and the Divine Daggers were doing barely any damage at all! But how? How did it know what direction he was going to attack from?
That's when it hit him. The glow from his mane and tail must have shone through the dust cloud he was hiding in. He took too long to prepare his attack, giving away his position. Quite a costly mistake. Its attention was probably directed to the dust immediately. It may have looked big and dumb, but it was surprisingly intelligent. It found a suspicious potential hiding place, and then it saw the glow. Now, it was relatively unharmed from the attack, while the stallion was catching his breath from using so much energy at once. The beast could now seize his moment.
WHACK!
Before the stallion could even process what was happening, the beast swung its massive tail across his side, sending him plummeting to the ground at full speed. He was sent flying down like an oversized bullet, leaving pony-shaped holes in the trees he was launched through on the way down. After hitting the ground, he was ground into the rocky dirt as the force from the hit dragged him about for about four miles. He tore through a few more trees headfirst until his speed began to drop, and he stopped after having the back of his head hit a boulder.
The stallion was okay, but considerably injured. A large lump resting on the back of his head was left from where the boulder made contact. His midsection where the monster had hit him was burning, a red mark left at the point of impact. He was left with scrapes from the drag across the dirt and sharp rock, blood dripping down in various places. The force he was hit with had also caused a few discs in his back to fall out of place, and some of his lower rib bones had some pieces of them chipped off.
For most ponies, this injury would have been fatal, but not this pony. His years of rigorous combat training prepared him for this. He wasn't going to give up. The will to survive would drive him to fight until he no longer drew breath, although he might have not yet realized just how close this moment could be.
As much as he tried to ignore the pain and keep fighting as if it wasn't there, his movement was greatly reduced. Not enough to make him fall back down, but enough to make him wince. That was just the moment that giant monster was hoping for. It wasn't through with him yet.
The titanic lizard started to run on all fours toward him, its incredibly long limbs allowing it to take massive steps, making it that much easier to close the distance. He paid no mind as the trees he stomped were crushed and fell like oversized dominoes hit by a rolling metal ball. When he finally reached the pony he just sent flying, he lowered his front claw, which was balled up into a fist, to crush him without a moment's hesitation.
The stallion only had just enough time to levitate his body out of the way as the oversized fist smashed into the ground. He didn't have the time to give a powerful strike back to the beast, but he was able to fire a blast of energy onto its claw. He hoped this would make it flinch just long enough to get away, but that hope appeared to be in vain as the beast got its jaws around him.
Now inside its mouth, the stallion pulled apart its fangs to open up the gateway to his escape. It wasn't easy, but he was lifting its jaw open. His muscles began to cramp, but he didn't stop. When he found an opening between two teeth he could fit through, he zoomed out as fast as he could. It snapped its jaw shut, but by that point it was too late. He was already free.
That wasn't to say he was in good shape, though. The pain from the cramps were beginning to become unbearable as his leg muscles flared up. To his shame, he cried out, letting his foe realize that it could seize another moment.
Without warning, the beast fired a blast of plasma out of its mouth. Such an ability would usually take it a while to charge up, but it planned ahead. It was charging this attack while the pony was still in its mouth on the chance that it would escape. It really knew how to fight smart.
It's careful thinking proved to be a good move, at the poor stallion was caught directly in the blast. As plasma over six million degrees Fahrenheit enveloped his entire body, every part of his skin started to burn and little hair remained remained after just a few seconds. It was quite a challenge to find a single part of his skin that was without second degree burns.
When the plasma breath finally receded, the stallion was left motionless, unable to even float as he fell to the ground from the pain and exhaustion, his burns hurting even more as he hit the rough ground below.
The stallion lied there, refusing to lose consciousness, but still unable to move. He wouldn't give up his life, but it was barely his to decide anymore. The monster had rendered its victim virtually immobile, and could now go for the final blow.
With the stallion too weak to move out of the way again, it smashed him with its hind claw. Already unable to move before getting stomped on, he could no nothing but try to exhale in a burst of agony as his body was crushed. When globs of blood found it's way into his mouth, he tried hacking to make it fall outward and avoid choking on it. It was a losing battle, however, as the blood he lost was just too detrimental to keep his organs working. They began to cease function, leaving him to his fate.
END OF SIMULATION
After a failed training session, Fusion Light had his virtual equipment removed. The helmet, suspended by a metal rod, raised above his head, and the sensory braces on all of his limbs came undone. Quite disappointed at yet another failure, all he could do is sigh in discontent. He had been trying so hard, but it seems like his best still wasn't enough.
"Please, try to keep your spirits up, your highness." Said his training technician, a bright red earth pony mare named Crimson Spark. Over her thick, long, orange mane, She wore a helmet with a visor over one eye to configure the controls of the virtual simulator. "You must understand, my prince, this is the highest level of training our database can simulate. Nopony has ever been able to pass it, not even close. The fact that you even lasted that long is outstanding. Few can even protect the damsel until the necrosaur shows up. Only your esteemed parents were able to do better."
Light, his thoughts drifting to his mother and father, began to lower his head head as his ears drooped down. "Oh, I'm sorry, your highness. I shouldn't have said-"
"It's alright." Light interrupted. "I'm...used to it by now. In fact, it's kind of what strengthened my resolve to get this far already. I'll just try again. Start the machine."
"Um, are you sure that's a good idea, your highness?" Crimson began to show concern and speak nervously. "You've been at it like this almost non-stop for five days. You've barely even stopped to eat. That...isn't normal for you."
"What are you saying? That I should just give up?" Light asked with slight agitation.
"No, no, no, your highness. I just think you're overtaxing yourself a bit. If the last 40 times you were unable to even come close to besting the necrosaur, you need to take a break before you try again. You're already tiring yourself out. Anypony can see that."
The prince just gave her a dead stare. He had gone through this before. Ponies tell him all the time to take breaks in between his training sessions, but he was having none of that today. "Start the machine. Now."
"As you wish, your highness." Said Crimson. She may have been concerned for his health, but even she knew not to overstep her boundaries. He was the ruler of Nexio, after all. And although he was a kind, merciful, and generous ruler, his subjects knew better than to disobey him. Without another word, she started the machine.
But, before the virtual reality helmet began could lower back down, the machine began to glitch out. The screen went static, the helmet suspender became stuck, and the sensory braces wouldn't activate. It wasn't long before the two were looking in shock, and Crimson rushed to the motherboard to try and fix it. Her efforts didn't seem to work, though, as after pressing a few buttons, it began to steam. Fully panicking, she speeds up the repair process, only to have a slight *BOOM* erupt from the motherboard. The screen went blank, and the system went down.
"Great. Just great." Crimson grumpily remarked. "Well, your highness, it seems that you've overloaded the machine with your constant training. I guess you'll have to take a break now."
"Not happening." Said Light. "I'll just go into the physical training center. Won't be as much of a workout, but I need to do something productive with my time."
Crimson frowned. She knew that he was working too hard, but couldn't question her leader. If this kept going, he could become seriously hurt, or even worse, but it's not like she could actually intervene. Defeated, she lowered head down, and let him head out.
Well, that's what she was going to do, before the doors burst open.
"Your highness! Your highness!" A blue stallion with a silver mane shouted as he came running into the room.
"Is there a problem, Temper Blade?" Light asked.
"Well, there isn't really a 'problem', but I think you're going to want to hear this, your highness! It's big! Really big!" Temper explained, before getting a grip on his excitement. "The thing is...we found it."
Fusion Light and Crimson Spark both instantly reacted with shock and disbelief. Their jaws dropped and they simply froze for a moment. After a bit of stammering, Crimson spoke up. "Wait, are we talking...'it' it?"
"Indeed." Temper confirmed, "It'll take a week. Looks like we're just in time."
"Then we don't have a second to lose!" Light exclaimed, "Temper, prepare my ship!"
"Will do, your highness!" Temper Blade said as he saluted, "Everything should be ready in about an hour. Please, prepare yourself, your highness, as you won't be coming back for a while. Make sure you don't forget anything."
"Don't worry, I won't." Light assured as Temper went to prepare the ship, "Crimson, give me your virtual data card."
"You want to train on the way there?" Crimson asked, expressing her usual concern for his well-being.
"Yes. I refuse to waste a week's worth of training. It may not be as advanced as your machine here, but it will be something." Light said. Crimson sighed, but didn't disobey as she gave Light the card. She knew that arguing at this point was useless. "Good. Now that that's taken care of, I have some matters to attend to before I leave."
"So...you're going to train while you wait for your ship, your highness?" Crimson asked, begging that the answer was no. Fortunately, as if to answer her prayer, he shook his head to give a "no", making her breathe a sigh of relief.
"I have other plans, Crimson." Fusion said as he went to step outside, "Since I won't be going back home for quite some time, I'd prefer to get the chance to take a good, long look."
Crimson was delighted to hear that. He may have gone overboard with his training, but hidden by his stubborn resolve, he still has his passions. All of his efforts were a means to a pure end, after all. He tries so hard because of his love and devotion to his friends and family. Even after he developed this tendency to overwork, he never once forgot what he was doing it for. As much as he's shut himself off from the world in order to achieve his goals, the caring, passionate, and kindhearted prince she's always known wasn't lost. This brought a smile to her face, and a sparkle to her eye.
"I see" Crimson said, "Well, I have some business to attend to myself, so I'll head on out after you, your highness." She gave a humble bow.
"Very well." Light approved as he stepped out into the castle hallways. His eyes had to adjust for a bit, as the the lighting in the hallway was much brighter than the dimly lit virtual training room that he's spent the past five days in. After walking down the hall, he made it to the door that led to the outside walkway. The castle guards remained silent as they granted him passage.
Soon after, Light found a place to gaze outward. The tall buildings in the royal city seemed small from this height. Ponies happily went about their daily routines as they wandered the streets and flew through the air. Beyond the city, he saw the lush, green meadows that were illuminated by the sun's light. He could see the humble grain farm far off in the distance that was overlooked by the mountains in the horizon.
When he was younger, this sight would always make him feel a sense of wonder, but in his current state of mind, all he could do was frown and sigh. In his mind, he looked back and tried to piece together what could possibly have gone so wrong for things to have come to this. His subjects were at peace, sure, but how long could that last? If he failed in his mission, everything would be lost.
He turned around and brought his attention to the military district. The soldiers of the Nexion army were undergoing intense training, their breath short as they continued to fight through the pain. A vehicle landed nearby and hauled out a large group of injured soldiers. Many on the brink of death, a designated healer arrived to save as many ponies as he could. However, it was too late for some.
Morbid thoughts plagued Light's mind. Those poor souls. They probably had families. The great evil that has threatened (and ended) the peaceful existence of countless worlds was growing ever stronger, and expanding his list of claimed lives. These brave warriors were all fighting to preserve peace, to create a bright future for their loved ones, and disaster befell them. Why must the noble fall, while the wicked prosper? It was enough to break his heart, and he found himself at the verge of tears.
"No more." He said aloud to himself, "I refuse to let this go on any longer. All these ponies, my mother, my father, my brother, and every other creature, this is enough! Mark my words, Sin! I swear, in the name of every last creature you have brought death and suffering to, I will not rest until I've reduced you to dust!"
Meanwhile, Crimson Spark had found herself on a walkway along the other side of the castle to meet her sister, Violet Spark. She had the same mane and tail, but they were light blue, and her coat appropriately violet. "Something wrong, Sis?" Violet asked, though she already knew what was wrong.
Crimson paused for a moment. "Well..." That was all she could say before she had her head down. She anxiously began to rub her foreleg with her hoof.
"You're worried about the prince?" Violet deduced. She and her sister may not always see eye to eye, but Violet knew her well enough to know what was going on.
"Yeah" Crimson shyly muttered. She looked away from her sister and out into the horizon before finally opening up. "I just don't know what to do anymore. I know his heart is just as pure as it's always been, but it's just become so hard to...talk to him. I remember the good old days when we were younger and he was so happy, optimistic, and excited about everything. Now it just seems like ancient history. He doesn't even smile anymore. I know that he's hurting deep down, but how can I ever hope to comfort him during this kind of struggle?"
"You're doing all you can." Violet assured as she held her hoof on her sister's shoulder, "He may come around, but if he doesn't, that is not your fault. I can understand the feeling of wishing you could do more, but you have to realize that it's not your responsibility to make the prince's problems disappear. This is his trail, not yours. You can offer your support, but in the end, it's up to him to make it through this. You should be proud of yourself for all your efforts."
"Thanks, Sis." Crimson said.
"You know, sometimes I envy your strength." Violet admitted, "You've done more than I ever thought a pony was capable of. You've always been there for his highness. You made sure he always had someone to help him through tough times. When he lost his family, you stood by him, always lending your support, and throughout it all, you've never given up on him. I'm...quite proud of you, Sis."
Crimson turned back to face her sister and smiled, a single happy tear coming to her eye.
"I should go." Violet said. "I have to be at the training yard in a bit. If I'm late, the colonel won't be happy."
"Well, don't want that, now do we?" Crimson teased.
"Nope. Well, you take care of yourself. And hey, now that the prince is headed out to put an end to all of this, maybe when he's done, he'll finally have the closure he needs to move on."
And with that, Violet began to levitate herself off the ground flew off to the training yard.
"Don't worry, your highness." Crimson said, more to herself than the prince, "Until this nightmare is over, I'll help you any way I can. I just hope that one day, we can put all of this behind us. I long for the day I get to see you smile again."
Author's Note
Well, that's my first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, and want to see more. Don't worry about missing plot points. You probably have a lot of questions, but I intend to address everything in due time. I know, I watch too much anime.
