The Calm before the Storm
A/N: Hello readers! I can't believe I got off my lazy ass to work on this. 'This' being my first Fan-fic means that I need constructive criticism and...well, you should know reading other firsts by now. Rate fairly and if you like, Favorite it. If not, then Fuck off move on and don't cry to me. Your the one who read it (Or at least to here). Love you all and enjoy! Also, Names with a line of stars means a perspective change. Just a line of stars means time skip.
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The skies were darkened by dreary, gray clouds. The likes of which the inhabitants of Ponyville have not seen in a good, long while. There has not been much need for a storm of this magnitude until a dry-spell hit the land a few months prior. No, not a magical spell or incantation, those are easily reversible, but one of nature, that which not even the citizens' Matriarch, Princess Celestia, could change. It was on this particular day that a certain pink mare made a shocking discovery that blew most of what she and her friends thought of their existence clear out of the water. But, alas, this is not their story, it is his. Oops! Getting ahead of myself. Anyway, where was I...? Hmm...? *Someone hands him a piece of paper*.....Uh...I...but...sigh....looks like I've been fired. Oh well, Time to switch perspectives anyway.
"Who are you talking to, Marty?"
"Dammit, mom! I'm recording right now! And don't call me by my name, I have to stay anonymous!"
"What did you say?! Don't you dare talk back to your mother, young man! I swear, when I'm done with you, you'll wish you were never born! And just you wait till your Father gets home!"
"Dammit all!"
...ahem, sorry 'bout that. New guy....what'cha gonna do? *coughs twice* *Mumbles about something before continuing where Marty left off*
Today started like any normal day when it looks like it's going to rain. Ponies rushing whatever their supposed to do for the day, (whether it be teaching young colts and fillies, delivering mail, or pulling loads for the local apple orchard) only wanting to get them done so they could relax in their warm homes, snuggling with loved ones, nap, etcetera. As most of the inhabitants of the small town were in their homes, a pink mare by the name of Pinkie Pie was bouncing along without a care in the world from her friend Applejack’s Family orchard. Pinkie had been there to help Applejack with the apple harvest, but got a little sidetracked…ok, a lot sidetracked. Don’t ask, for the love of Celestia, don’t ask. She was about halfway home to Sugarcube corner when her tail starts twitching madly. Pinkie darts under the nearest bench, fearful of what might fall this time.
"Ooh, I don't like this one bit!" She lets out a slightly exasperated sigh, wondering when this’ll all blow over. She looks past sweet apple acres and something in the distance catches her attention. Little more than a dot in the sky was a lonely red star, twinkling brightly.
"Ooh! Pretty! I wander if Twilight knows what that one’s called. Wait a minute...how can I see that through the clouds?"
And that's when a noise pierces the heavens, sounding unholy in such a quiet location.
The clouds parted around the red dot in the sky, as if ripped in half by a raging dragon after it finds its hoard stolen. The whine growing ever louder all the while, Pinkie had to cover her ears from the painful noise, yet never took her eyes off the lone star. As she watched, she noticed it started to move. Or...was it already moving? Before she can ask herself this, the star came closer as if coming straight at her. A blinding red ball of fire streaked past Pinkie's hiding place towards the general direction of the local park. Temporarily blinded by the intense light, she shakes her head clear and looks to where the ball of fire went. After half a second of pure silence, an explosion rocks the small town, shaking it down to its very foundations. Without another word, she rushes towards the crash site to see if anypony was hurt in the falling star’s wake.
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Upon reaching the site, Pinkie is shocked at the carnage she saw before her. Trees uprooted, grass black and withered in large areas, patches of fire scattered across the park, and a 50 foot trail leading to a gaping hole that slowly filled with steaming rain water. She cautiously approached the hole, not knowing what was inside. She looks inside it, her eyes widening in horror, her lip quivering in fear, and screams.
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I look out my window, seeing the houses light up red slightly as something on the other side of town causes a huge explosion.
I let out a sigh “Curse my infernal habits to hell. Maybe if I didn’t need these books reorganized every other day, then I could have seen what made that huge noise.”
I let out another sigh, looking to my left to see spike, my number one assistant, curled up in his bed, oblivious to the noise and tremors.
Honestly, how he can sleep through this is beyond me. Well, might as well finish this before I go to bed…
I then spend the next ten minutes putting books on the shelves almost exactly where they were originally. I wonder how the others are doing... I go to walk down stairs, noting with growing boredom that there was nothing left to do. I decide I might as well try to get some sleep, and head to the kitchen.
Warm milk and honey might just do the trick.
I open my fridge, looking expectantly for the carton with the answer to my self-imposed insomnia. After shifting the contents of the fridge around for a bit, I notice the elusive jug, right in front of me.
Ugh, looks like I really DO need to work less.
Taking the carton out and setting it on the counter, I turn to my pantry for the little bottle of nectar. This time finding it with relative ease, I set the honey down next to the milk and went to get a mug when I hear a loud, rapid banging at my door. I let out another sigh before going to the late arrival. Noticing the rain coming down harder than ever, I decide I can’t turn them away. I turn the doorknob, open it wide, and feel my stomach drop. Standing, soaked, in my doorway, with tears in her eyes and with mud and blood all over her figure, was Pinkie Pie, with a body draped over her back. e
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Darkness…painfully quiet darkness hell bent on consuming me. I drift in that darkness; not knowing which way is up or down, floundering in what seems like eternity.
Am I dead…? This seems too depressing to be death…but…how would I know if I was truly de-OW!
My head throbs painfully, as if it itself is tired of my bitching.
Ugh…Ok, if I can feel pain, then I must not be dead. Maybe I…wait…I think I hear voices…
As I try to focus on the voices, I notice I’m lying on something soft.
Am I in a bed…? Ugh, what happened last night…?
Still focusing on the voices, I notice they sound concerned over something.
Hmm…this is strange. Well, let’s see if I can still move.
I try to move my left leg, Pain shooting up it.
Oh my GAH…! Fuck does that hurt! Well…ow…can’t move it but at least I can feel it.
I then try my other limbs, getting similar results. I sigh inwardly, not wanting to question why I keep putting myself through this pain.
All right, let's see if I can...well...see.
I try moving my eyelids, which seem to weigh as much as mountains.
This can’t be good. What happened to me? Why am I lying down? I should be up, doing someth-oh! I can finally move my eyelids.
Slowly opening my leaden lids, I’m temporarily become blinded by the sun. Blinking a bit, getting used to the light, I survey what’s to my left.
So…I’m in a house, huh? Wonder who brought me in here… I’ll have to thank them later. Maybe they know how I got hurt…
My head throbs in protest to my viewing, aching more than I can stand.
“Ugh…this sucks…” my voice sounds gravely and weak. I close my eyes as the pain throbs in my head. How close to death had I gotten?
“Ooh! Twilight! He’s awake! Looklooklooklooklook! See?!” a voice blares, causing my headache to increase tenfold.
Oh sweet Beatrice! What the hell is that infernal noise?! Make it stop! Make it stop!
A second voice speaks up, trying to calm down the source of my first tormentor “Thank you for telling me, Pinkie. I really appreciate all that you’ve done. Why don’t you go and get some sleep, but maybe you should take a bath first.”
“Oh yeah! I forgot I still had his blood on me! Whoopsie!”
Whoopsie?! What’s so “Whoopsie” about having blood all over you?! And are they talking about me? Oh no, how much blood spilt?! Hopefully it didn’t stain anything...
I slowly turn my head towards the source of the noise, wanting to see for myself what caused me so much pain. As my head is ¾ of the way turned, I almost collide with something pink and fluffy. Forgetting about the amount of pain I’m in, I jump backwards out of the bed, straight into a wall and unceremoniously landing on the floor.
“GAAAH!” Pain searing through all my senses at once, I barely take any notice of the clamoring of the two as they tried to help me back up to the bed. I squint through the pain to see who helped me, and notice I’m looking at two concerned equines, both mares apparently. The pink one tearing up heavily, apparently knowing what caused me to jump back.
The pain slowly reduces itself to a mild throbbing, to which I test my voice “Where…am I…?”
That…was frighteningly weak…
“OhmygoshohmygoshohmygoshIamsooosorry!” The pink one stammers at an extremely fast pace, tears falling down her face. (Ha. Rhyming.)
The other turns to her companion, trying to calm her down “It’s okay, Pinkie Pie. It was just an accident.”
So her name’s Pinkie Pie, huh? That…seems to fit really well.
She turns to me “you’re currently in my house, recovering from a horrible crash. That falling star last night must have collided with you mid-flight, which would explain why you were in the crater.”
Wait…I survived WHAT?! Mid-flight…? Hmm…
I look between the two of them, might as well ask a question or two “So…” I never got to ask a question, as Pinkie seemed to have a revelation or epiphany of some kind.
She breathes in sharply “I’ve never seen you around before and I know EVERYpony! Twilight, I gotta go plan!”
“Oh, Pinkie” she left before twilight could finish. “wait…” she sighs, then mumbles a little bit.
“Does…she always do that?”
“Yes, that’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. Oh, forgive me, I’m Twilight sparkle. Who are you?”
I say nothing, the pain seeming to come back.
She stares at me, smiling and waiting patiently for an answer. A feeling of dread creeping through me as my thoughts all turn up blank.
…Let me think…what IS my name? Why can’t I remember?
She seems to get irritated at the silence “Well? You going to tell me or not?”
“I…don’t know…” she cocks an eyebrow at me.
“What do you mean you don’t know? Surely you must know who you are. Do you at least know where you came from? You look to be a Pegasus who was on an errand of some sort.”
Searching through my muddled thoughts, more blanks are drawn up. A new pain starts to spread across my back, though “Ow…what the fu-AH!”
“Oh! Please, don’t move your wings. They seem to be at the very least dislocated, and one of them seems to be broken…”
I search through my mind for a clue to who I was, despite the pain coursing through my body. After about a minute of searching I find "...Nothing."
"What?" My statement seems to have caught her off guard.
"I don't remember anything. Who I am, where I'm from, hell, I didn't even know I was a pegasus till you said something."
Her expression dims hearing this bit of information "You must have amnesia, then..." And my feelings follow her expressions example. Before I could say something else, she brightens a bit, looks down to the lower floor, and calls to someone "Spike? You still here?"
A voice from below replies "Yes Twilight. Who wouldn't when Pinkie Pie Races past? What do you need?"
"Go get the others and tell them our guest is awake."
"Alright, need anything else?"
"No Spike. Just inform the others, ok?"
"Alright, be back in a jiff." A door closes downstairs.
I turn to Twilight, my face apparently asking my question for me.
"Oh, that was my assistant, Spike. He helped me and Pinkie clean and dress your wounds. We would have taken you to the hospital, but it was raining really hard last night and we didn't want to risk the chance of an infection."
Hmm...That makes sense...Huh...? She doesn't look like a pegasus, No wings but a horn. Sigh, curse my amnesia. "I see...um...out of curiosity, what are you?"
She visually appears ticked by this, as if I asked some extremely obvious question "Isn't it obvious?! I'm a Unicorn!" She then seems to remember what we already concluded minutes ago. "Oh...sorry...I forgot you can't remember anything. To save you from future embarrassment, listen to this brief explanation..."
That BREIF explanation turned out to be an hour long.
"So, any questions?"
"Um, yeah...what? Sorry, I didn't really catch any of that."
She closes her eyes and puts her hoof to her face, quite hard, from the sound of it "Haa...to put it in the simplest terms I can think of: Pegasi have wings and fly, Unicorns have horns and use magic, and earth ponies have neither but are more physically strong."
Why didn't you just say that in the beginning? "Ah, sorry about not understanding what you sa-AGH!" Pain rips through my abdomen, causing me to lean forward and clutch it with my arms.
"Oh! Don't move around so much! You'll tear open the wounds! They seem to have just recently begin to close up, too."
The sound of a door opening and closing causes Twilight to look away from me. Spike's voice then makes itself known "Twilight! I brought them!"
"Thanks, Spike. Can you bring them up here? Our guest can't move without causing himself pain."
I hear floorboards creak as Spike leads what sounds like small group to the second floor. I look to my right and see four differently colored mares standing with a...purple lizard? I examine the group a bit before turning to Twilight "Who are these ponies? Friends of yours?"
She smiles and tilts her head "Why, yes. How did you know?"
I shrug, wincing slightly from the pain my shoulders sent through me "Just a guess..."
"Ah, well, allow me to introduce my friends to you. On the left we have Rarity. She owns the clothing store, Carousel Boutique." Rarity does a quick curtsy.
"Next we have Applejack, Proud owner of Sweet apple acres."
Applejack nods her head “Howdy."
Twilight's horn glows with magic, causing a mouse to squeak, or...wait, did that come from behind Applejack? In what looked like a purple cocoon of magic, was a yellow pegasus trying to hide behind her pink mane "This is Fluttershy. She doesn't speak much to strangers, but she'll help anything if it’s hurt. She takes care of all the woodland creatures around here."
"Meep!"
She puts Fluttershy down, apologizing for the sudden movement while Fluttershy goes back to hide behind Applejack "Next we have Pinkie Pie. She helps Mr. and Mrs. Cake at Sugercube corner."
"Hiya!"
"Finally, we have Rainbow Dash. She’s the weather mare in charge of Ponyville's...well, weather."
"What’s up?"
The purple lizard seems to be irritated at not being mentioned "And what am I? Rotten apples?"
"He-he, sorry." She gestures to the lizard "This is Spike, my number one assistant. He may be a small dragon, but he has a big heart."
"Hey! I'm not that small!"
The six mares start to laugh whole heartedly, Spike joins after a bit. As their all calming down, Applejack turns to me with a smile on her face "So what we gonna call ya, sugercube?"
Uh...what? "Sugercube?"
"Ah call everypony that. So what we gonna call ya?"
I frown a little "Hmm...I haven't put much thought into that."
Pinkie's face then gains a smile that doesn't even look remotely possible "Ooh! I know! Why don't we look at his cutie mark to come up with a name for him?!"
And once again, the headache returns.
"Ugh, what's a...cutie mark?"
Her face deadpans, then grows into a huge frown "WHAT?! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU DON"T KNOW WHAT A CUTIE MARK IS?!"
I put my hooves to my ears in a feeble attempt to block out the painful noise.
Twilight gives Pinkie a stern look "Pinkie! He hit his head pretty hard and can't remember anything before today. And don't shout! He has a really bad headache."
Is it just me...or did Pinkie's hair deflate?
Pinkie turns to me "Oh...sorry. A cutie mark is something every colt and filly dreams of getting A.S.A.P. It represents either their special talent or their personality. But mostly it's what separates them from everypony else. The picture that appears on their tushes can be the same but still mean different things. Mine represents my love for throwing awesome parties and making everypony smile."
"But...how can I have a cutie mark? I don't remember anything about myself, let alone my special talent."
Twilight steps forward "I think I may have the answer to that. You most likely had your cutie mark before you got amnesia; therefore it’s only a matter of time before you remember what it is."
"That makes sense, I guess. So is the cutie mark location different for everyone or-"
"Everypony." Rainbow Dash quips in.
"What?"
"The term is everyPONY. And no, it's always on your flank."
Pinkie Pie stomps the floorboards in annoyance "Let's see it already!"
"Sigh...fine." I lift up the sheets, and sure enough, there on my dark gray flank, is a cutie mark.
"Ooh! What is it? Is it a ball going so fast it’s on fire? Or how about a torch? Or..."
"I think it's a bolt."
We all look at Twilight, except pinkie who is still spouting suggestions.
"What? That doesn't even look closely like one."
"No, Rainbow Dash. Not a lightning bolt. I'm talking about a crossbow bolt."
Why does that sound familiar...? "What's a crossbow?"
"Hmm...I remember reading about it in a book, but I can't remember what the book was."
At this time, Pinkie stops talking "Ooh! Be right back!" And with that, she runs downstairs and back in half a second. When she returns, she has a book in her mouth, which she tosses to Twilight "Page 372, paragraph 4." Pinkie announces, a huge smile on her face.
Ok, even by their standards, that can't be normal. What a weird pony...she doesn't seem to sit still for any amount of time. Wonder if she has an off switch...
"Aha! Here it is."
Wait, what’s happening? Oh, yeah. She’s looking for the things description...
"Bolt: A projectile fired from a contraption known as a crossbow. Used mainly for hunting wild game or for times of war. Invented by a Mr.-"
"Are they fast?"
What?
"Huh? Oh, yes they are Rainbow Dash. I don't see...Oh!" Twilight looks at me excitedly "That must be it! You must be a fast flyer!"
I shrug, once again wincing from the pain that my weary body shoots through me in protest. Why do I put myself through such pain? "Could be, but what about the ball of fire the bolt is piercing? That could mean a number of things."
Twilight flips a couple of pages through the book "Hmm...Well it can't symbolize speed, that would be repetitive..." She goes on mumbling to herself.
I turn to look at the other five mares, all of which occupied by other things but still close incase assistance is required. Rarity fretting over the color of the fabric in the room, Fluttershy peeking from behind a potted plant, Rainbow Dash and Applejack talking about some sort of competition, and Pinkie...how hard did I hit my head? Pinkie looks like she’s floating as if gravity doesn't apply to her. I lay there, looking at my battered, bloody-bandage wrapped body, trying to fit pieces together.
Well, might as well think up a name for myself. Don't want anyone calling me 'You' the entire time...wait...I got it...
"...BoltFire."
All heads in the room turn to me, confused by the seemingly random joining of words. Twilight looking annoyed from me breaking her concentration "Huh? What did you say?"
This time, I spoke a little clearer "For my name. BoltFire. Unless someone else has that name already..."
"Well...no. Nopony comes to mind with that name. BoltFire it is then." She then closes and puts the book on a table next to the bed.
Well, at least I have a name now. But...How bad do I look right now? What do I even look like?
I was about to ask them these questions when I closed my eyes for just a second, and promptly pass out.