“Tell me again what happened, but this time, please try to speak one at a time,” Celestia said to the Earth Pony and Unicorn who stood before her with concerned looks on their faces.
“Well ya see yer highness, Apple Bloom and her friends were staying with us during this visit to Canterlot, but this morning they completely vanished from their room,” Applejack said, trying to remain calm.
“Are you sure that they simply didn't run off to try and explore the city?” Celestia asked.
Rarity replied, “Yes your highness, I can say with certainty that Sweetie Belle would never do something like that, those three may be adventurous, but they wouldn't take a risk that big.”
“Alright, but why did you come to me rather than speak to the police?”
“Yer highness, this situation seems... supernatural,” Applejack said, lowering her voice for that last part as if she didn't want to be overheard.
“We found evidence that they were taken by something, something with claws like a Griffon, only... longer,” Rarity clarified.
“Fascinating, I'd say that this could be an undiscovered species, but that would be strange in a city,” Twilight Sparkle chimed in, intrigued.
Suddenly, everypony grew deathly silent, as the doors to the throne room swung open and the a royal guard spoke, “Your highness, Lady Fluttershy is here to see you.”
“Very well, let her in,” the princess said.
“Your highness, it's Discord, he's missing!” Fluttershy yelled (by her standards) while running into the room.
“Let me guess, he just disappeared without a trace this morning,” Celestia said, hoping that her calm tone would help to put the Pegasus at ease.
“Yes your highness,” the element of kindness replied.
“This is strange...” Celestia said quietly.
“How so?” Twilight Sparkle inquired.
“Well, three Fillies getting stolen in the middle of the night isn't exactly unusual, but the spirit of chaos itself being kidnapped, considering all the effort it took to keep him contained, I don't imagine that would be an easy task, something's not right...” The door again swung open, and the same guard returned, but this time, he looked notably more nervous.
“I beg your pardon my princess, but there's somepony else demanding an audience with you, and he is most... unusual,” the guard said.
“Let him in,” Celestia said, a ring of curiosity audible in her voice. Suddenly, an orange streak slid in through the door before stopping suddenly.
The creature resembled some sort of cat, but it was orange and had a massive maw of sharp teeth. It was tall, about as tall as Discord, and it stood on two legs and wore some sort of black and blue suit which covered everything below it's neck save for it's blue boots.
“Heeeeeeey everybody!” the creature said with a voice so loud, it bounced around the throne room with extreme vigor.
“If you don't mind me asking who and what are you?” Celestia asked intrigued.
“My name is Brak!” the creature shouted.
“Okay Brak, what is your species called?”
Brak paused briefly, as if trying to think before responding, “my name is Brak!”
“A- alright Brak, where do you come from?”
“Yesterday, I was on the Ghost Planet!”
“Where is this Ghost Planet?”
“Up there, somewhere!” Brak shouted, pointing up to the ceiling.
Twilight Sparkle's eyes widened with excitement as she blurted out, “so that must mean that you're an alien!”
“I've been told that before!” Brak replied with his usual volume.
“So Brak, why did you come here?” Celestia asked, bringing things back to the matter at hand.
“Um, I um, I can't remember! I was sent here to do something or other, but I can't remember what!”
“Is it about Apple Bloom, did you take her you monster?!” Applejack shouted, unable to hold herself back any longer.
“Don't yell at me!” Brak said, holding his hands up in a defensive manner, revealing a large piece of parchment in one of them.
Celestia stood up, her royal presence immediately causing Applejack to stand down before she spoke, “That note, could it be that you're supposed to deliver that note to me?”
“Oh yes, here you go!” Brak said, stretching out his hand so that the princess could take the parchment with her magic.
“Thank you Brak,” Celestia said before beginning to read the letter out loud. “Dear horsey scumbags, I've taken three children from your city, send a representative to meet with me in the large cave outside the city, and don't try to screw me, or these little ones are bug food! Sincerely, Zorak.”
“We've got to save them!” Rarity chimed in.
“Agreed, Twilight, I want you to take Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy with you and head to the cave. If you think you can get the fillies out of there safely, do it, otherwise, meet with this Zorak and we'll see what we can do.” Celestia commanded.
“Understood,” Twilight responded, the other ponies nodding in acknowledgment.
“Excellent, I know I can count on you. As for you Brak, would you mind staying here with me? I hope you can understand that I don't want you interfering in all of this,”
“I get to stay here, with a real princess?! Oh, boy!” Brak answered excitedly.
“Alright, let's go!” Twilight said as she and the others left the room while Brak continued to speak excitedly with the princess, blissfully unaware of the fact that he had just effectively been taken prisoner.
The journey to the cave was surprisingly simple, after a single hot air balloon ride out of the city and a few turns through the surrounding forest, and they were at the cave. Twilight had half expected to see an army of aliens like Brak, or some sort of monster, but thankfully their path was devoid of such peril. When they entered the cave, their path was obvious, as there were torches set up along the wall going in one direction. After a minute or so of walking, they entered into a large room filled with torches.
A cage hung from the ceiling, with the Cutie Mark Crusaders trapped inside, a fearful expression plastered on their faces. Below the cage, they spotted Discord sitting at one side of a table, playing cards with a creature who must have been Zorak who sat at the other end. Zorak wasn't the same species as Brak, like the ponies had expected, but instead, he resembled a giant green bug standing on two legs with huge white eyes. He seemed to wear some sort of yellow glove over his claws which made them look somewhat like the claws of a griffon, but longer... just like what Applejack had described. He wore much less than Brak, simply being clad in what looked like a simple tunic that covered his chest.
As the four ponies approached him, he turned his attention to them before speaking in a throaty, buzzing voice, “It's about time you showed up, that's what I get for sending Brak to send a message.”
“Sis, help! He's gonna eat us!” Apple Bloom said, terrified.
“Shut up! I told you a million times, I'm not going to eat you! I tried one of you little horses when I got here, it was nasty,” Zorak shouted.
“Discord honey, why are you here?” Fluttershy asked.
“I'm so sorry Fluttershy dear, I meant to leave a note before I left, but I was so excited that I forgot. The moment I sensed these three guys coming to our planet, I had to get over here right away. The amount of chaos at play here is simply irresistible!” Discord replied, setting his cards down.
Zorak rose to his feet and turned to fully face the ponies, “Now, let's talk about me ruling over your crummy little kingdom,”
“Rule Equestria? You want to rule Equestria?” Twilight Sparkle said in disbelief.
“Yeah that's right, you got a problem with that?”
“So you kidnap three fillies, and you think that's enough for you to demand the crown!?” Rarity asked, bewildered.
Zorak replied, “No, I just took them to get your attention, I set up all the nukes under this whole continent to get the crown.” the mantis raised one of his hands to reveal a large device with a single red button on it.
“What's a nuke?” Applejack asked, confused.
“Think of it like a giant bomb, a giant bomb that makes the area unlivable from the radiation. Now make me your king or I'll blow you to kingdom come! And don't even think of trying to overthrow me right afterwords, I'm a bug, I can survive the radiation, you can't!”
Before anyone else could speak, Twilight Sparkle shot a beam of magic from her horn, blasting the detonator out of Zorak's claw.
“Yow! Nice shot there purple, but it's nothing I can't handle,” Zorak said before drawing a ray gun and blasting all four of the ponies in quick succession using the low power setting, sending them all flying before hitting the wall behind them, their heads spinning from the impact.
“What have you done to Fluttershy?!” Discord yelled alarmed, rising from his seat.
“Relax freak show, she's just winded, I didn't kill her,” Zorak said, lowering his gun. “Now, you're going to go back to that princess of yours, and you're going to have her abdicate and name me the heir!”
“Twilight, we have to do something...” Rarity struggled to say quietly, still recovering from the impact.
“I'm sure I can think of something, just give me a secon-” Twilight Sparkle said before being interrupted by a deep voice from the opposite side of the cave.
“There you are Zorak, I've been looking all over this crazy place trying to hunt you down!” the voice said.
“Oh you've got to be kidding me...” Zorak muttered under his breath.
At the entrance of the room, there stood a man even taller than Brak and Zorak who was clad head to toe in a white, black, and red costume that covered every inch of his body save for his hairless mouth. As he walked forward, his long yellow cape fluttered behind him, giving him a sense of authority.
“You thought you were real clever, breaking out and taking Brak with you, but you didn't expect me to be this determined, did you!” the man continued.
“Honestly, no, I thought you'd give up after an hour of looking,” Zorak replied dryly.
“Well I didn't, and now I'm here to send you back to the prison pod where you belong!” Zorak tried to reach for his ray gun, but before he could draw it, the man reached out with one of his arms and pressing a button on top of one of his bracelets, which sent out a massive wave of orange energy.
The energy quickly hit Zorak resulting in a huge explosion. When the dust cleared, the ponies could see Zorak covered in soot and coughing intensely, smoke trails rising from his carapace. In an instant, the man pressed another button on his bracelet, and the mantis was reduced to a silhouette before disappearing entirely. “There, now that I'm done with that mess, let me introduce myself, my name is Space Ghost.”
“My name is Twilight Sparkle, thank you so much for saving us,” Twilight responded, standing up again.
“Don't mention it, all I need to do is collect Brak and I'll be out of here,” Space Ghost said, picking up the detonator that Zorak had dropped earlier.
“That should be easy, Brak is being held up by our princess at the castle,” Rarity said while Space Ghost flew up to the ceiling and released the fillies from their cage.
“Thank you so much Mr. Space Ghost, I'll always remember this!” Scootaloo said happily.
“Don't mention it, just lead the way to where Brak is.”
With that the ponies, Discord, and Space Ghost all exited the cave. It was night by the time that they reached the city, so most of them went their separate ways to get back to the inns where they were staying, leaving Twilight to bring Space Ghost to Celestia alone. When they arrived at the throne room, they found that Brak was still speaking very excitedly with Celestia, the princess looking notably amused by their conversation.
“Princess Celestia, this guy is named Space Ghost and he stopped Zorak and saved the fillies!” the purple pony said, walking towards the princess.
“Oh hi Space Ghost! I see you're here to meet the princess too!” Brak said.
“Yes Brak, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to her alone,” Space Ghost responded before teleporting Brak away just as he had with Zorak earlier.
“Well Space Ghost, you have my thanks for fixing this situation, is there anything I can do to show my appreciation?” Celestia asked.
“Actually yes, you might not be able to tell just by looking at me, but I'm a part of the television business, superhero work is just something I do on the side. I'd like to know if I could have syndication for my shows in your kingdom?” Space Ghost asked.
“That's no problem, television is a new invention here in Equestria and it's really catching on, the ponies are really desperate for something to watch, come back tomorrow and we can discuss the details.”
“That sounds good, I look forward to a long and profitable relationship,” Space Ghost said before teleporting back to his home at Ghost Planet Studios, ready to return tomorrow to break a new, huge deal.
Author's Note
Alright reader, you've made it this far, so now you have a choice to make. If you'd like a happy, normal ending, this is it, just stop reading here and it will be all good.
If you want to read something... darker something more messed up, then feel free to move ahead to the next chapter, though I'll warn you, one you read it, there's no going back to this point.
Choose wisely.
Author's Note
"So put your glasses on
Nothing will be wrong..."
-PENPALS, "Tell Me Why" (the opening for the 1997 version of Berserk).
Wild Horses
It was Mail Bag Day on Cartoon Planet, and Space Ghost was getting started by reading the first of several fan letters.
“Dear Space Ghost, get lost! Brak is so much better, and he shouldn't just be restricted to one show, he should be host of Cartoon Planet and Coast to Coast too! Sincerely, Octavia Melody, Pawny Vile, Equasria,” Space ghost said, gradually switching to a more mocking tone of voice and purposely mispronouncing the place names out of spite.
“Yay, more ponies like me!” Brak said happily.
“This is the eightieth 'Space Ghost sucks, make Brak the host' letter this month! What's wrong with these ponies!?” Space Ghost asked angrily.
Zorak laughed before responding, “I've been telling you this all along, lots of people don't like you.”
Space Ghost reached to zap Zorak with his powerbands before a he lowered his hand and asked, “say Zorak, were all of those nukes you buried around Equestria just a bluff, or were you telling the truth?”
“Oh those nukes are real believe me, burying those things was a real pain in the thorax.”
“And that detonator you had, it can work from up here right?” Space Ghost continued, bringing up a space view of the Equestrian continent on the monitor in front of his desk.
“Yup, it can reach halfway across the galaxy, I never settle for the cheap stuff.”
“So, if I were to accidentally throw this detonator and it were to accidentally land on your prison pod and you were to villainously hit the button, all the nukes would go off?”
“Throw it over here and I'll show you,”
As Space Ghost threw the device to Zorak, Brak rose to his feet shouting, “No, not the ponies!”
“Too late!” Zorak shouted back as he slammed down on the button.
All across his screen, Space Ghost saw the continent of Equestria glow brightly, being consumed by a the unmistakable light of nuclear fire.
“Wow Zorak, you weren't kidding!” Space Ghost said, amazed.
“See, I told you,” Zorak replied. “You do know that you've just killed our only audience outside of Toonami Aftermath right?”
“Having nothing but Toonami Aftermath is for the best, they don't talk about how Brak should be the host endlessly. They may have a lot of pictures of Moltar over there, but they're too busy with their Daft Punks, You You Hockey Shows, and demanding that Slam Dunks be brought back to pick a favorite,” Space Ghost reasoned.
“Keep telling yourself that...” Zorak said quietly before being swiftly zapped by Space Ghost.
As Zorak tried to brush the soot off of himself, the room was filled with deafening cries.
“Those poor ponies!” Brak wailed, tears streaming down his face.
“Don't worry Brak, I'm sure that some of them probably survived and they'll be able to keep their species going in some sort of nuclear wasteland,” Space Ghost said reassuringly.
“You mean the ponies could come back someday?!” Brak asked excitedly, his tears stopping immediately.
“You betcha, the radiation may even mutate them, giving them even better traits, like shinier fur or tentacles!”
“Oh boy, I can't wait for that!”
“Either that or it'll just kill them all,” Zorak said quietly.
“Shh, don't let Brak hear that, he'll start crying again,” Space Ghost replied.
And with that, Space Ghost moved on to the next cartoon segment as planned, ignoring the nuclear devastation that had just been unleashed on pony home world.
