Chapter 01: All The Warriors
“Hey, uh...you’re Twilight Sparkle, right? Sixth year student, specializing in Arcane History?”
Looking up from her thick, leather-bound book, a violet unicorn quickly turned her head from left to right, searching for whoever had just called her by name.
“Hi. I’m down here.” The voice continued, before the target of its beckoning finally met the eyes of its source: A small, pastel purple dragonet, looking up with earnesty in his bright, green eyes.
“Hmm? Oh. Yeah, that’s me. And you must be the Princess’ scribe. Spike the dragon, right?” Twilight replied calmly, almost relieved that she recognized the one who called for her, “If this is about my thesis, then please let her highness know that I’m researching a topic literally right now, so there’s no need for her to-“
“No no no. It’s not like that at all, Miss Sparkle.” Spike interrupted before Twilight could spiral any further into her apparent misunderstanding, his talons waving wildly before his snout as he cracked a nervous smile, “The princess just wants to talk to you. In private. It’s apparently about something super secret that she’s been working on, so...I don’t even know what it is yet, actually.”
Twilight sighed, and slammed her book shut.
“Well, okay then. I’m not one to question the Princess. Just, uh...keep an eye on my stuff, alright? Thanks for the heads-up, by the way.”
Before Spike could reply, Twilight vanished in a flash of violet light, her book dropping to the ground with a heavy thud.
10
Rainbow Dash realized what she was doing was a horrible idea almost immediately, but it was too late to stop.
9
Dodging out of the way was not an option. She couldn’t even tell where she was, let alone what was around her.
8
To be fair, there wouldn’t be any other pegasi at this altitude. Dash made sure of that before she started the clock. However, if there were some…
7
No, there’s no point in thinking about those things. Besides, at the speed Dash was going, the other pony would barely even feel anything before- well, it’d be a bit too graphic to describe.
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There’s no way out of this but forwards. It’s the only way she’ll make it on time. Yeah, all Dash needed to do was keep telling herself that.
5
That white blur in the distance should be the Canterhorn. It’d better be, because if that’s a mountain in the Frozen North, then that meant Dash’s mistakes were far worse than she’d ever imagined.
4
It’s all coming together now. Good, because it had to. The purple rooftops of Castle Canterlot were in sight, amidst the unfocused blob of white that filled Dash’s vision.
3
All that there’s left was to stick the perfect landing, and if her timing was right, then Dash wouldn’t even need to do anything to get it.
2
Although, if she was off by even one second, then the entire castle would be going down, but Dash didn’t have time to think about that anymore. Besides, situations like this always ended up fine in the past.
1
Because Dash knew exactly what would happen if they didn’t, and how much she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.
Time out!
A light blue pegasus stopped inches before the castle window, the blast of wind following her along rattling the glass. Her wings stiffened and pulsed with residual magic, before she glanced ahead and cracked an exhausted smile.
“Princess...I made it in time.” She announced between desperate gasps for air, and promptly fell limp onto the balcony below.
The Ponyville Railway Depot was probably the most densely populated part of town on a typical day, as much as Rarity hated to admit that. A smal, rustic village can have its charms, and its proximity to nature provided plenty of inspiration for an artist such as herself, but the lack of new faces was a bit...boring, at times. For the lack of a better word.
“Hey, you’re a pretty pony. Mind if I talk to ya?” A shrill yet melodic voice interrupted Rarity’s festering thoughts of complaint, practically forcing the pale unicorn to whip her head around towards its source.
“Hi. My name’s Pinkie Pie. From the Pie Family Rock Farm. What can I call you, beautiful stranger?” A cheery-looking mare coated in all shades of pink from head to toe grinned excitedly as she and Rarity locked eyes. The newcomer stuck out a hand at Rarity, wiggling her fingers expectantly as the rest of her body bounced up and down in a steady rhythm, the massive bags on her back clicking and clunking with whatever heavy cargo she kept within them.
“Oh. Uh...my name is Rarity. Thank you for the compliments, I suppose.” Rarity narrowed her eyes and tentatively grasped Pinkie’s hand within her own. The jittering earth pony mare shook it with such force that Rarity nearly fell over where she stood, but she caught herself in her own at the last second, and stumbled back to her hooves.
“You’re so welcome, Rarity! You’re waiting for the train to Canterlot, right? So am I! Isn’t that such a funny coincidence? Don’t tell anyone else, but I got invited by the Princess for this super secret project she’s working on! I can’t wait to find out what it is!” Letting go of Rarity’s hand, Pinkie began to ramble on in an uninterrupted stream, her eyes sparkling as her arms waved and flailed in an excitable dance. Rarity, however, grew ever more concerned with her by the second.
In truth, Rarity was also invited to participate in a “secret project” by Princess Celestia Herself. Not many details were revealed to her in the invitation letter, aside from the fact that she had to go alone and prepare for an extended stay, but if a mare like Pinkie was also invited, then the nature of this “project” would be almost impossible to guess. Before Rarity could go any further down that mental path, however, a train horn sounded in the distance, and the crowd began to move, separating her from that strange, pink pony and her own worried thoughts.
It’s been a good while since Applejack rode on a train, but it felt exactly like how she remembered it, from the soft yet cramped seats to the murky background chatter of the countless commuters all around her. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same, and that’s just how she liked it sometimes. Although, not everyone’s as comfortable as she was, and she could tell.
For example, there was a thin pegasus shriveled in a window seat on the furthest back row of Applejack’s car. She had the whole row to herself, but she only took up about two-thirds of a single seat, and AJ knew that something had to be done just from the sight of her.
“Yo, you need somethin’?” Sliding out of her old seat and plopping down next to the quiet winged mare, Applejack asked with the least threatening tone she could muster, and the subject of her question yelped as she turned to stare at the much bigger earth pony who, for all she knew, suddenly apparated beside her.
“Um...no, not really. Thank you.” The pegasus answered with a voice barely louder than a whisper, as she shrunk even further against the wall to her right, “Why, uh...why do you ask?”
“Well, you’re lookin’ real scared out here, so I wanted to make sure there ain’t somebody giving you trouble, is all.” Applejack replied, leaning back and glancing down at the nervous mare next to her, “What’s your name, girl? You’re not from Manehattan, are you?”
“I- My name is Fluttershy, and no. I’m not…” Fluttershy replied, looking away from AJ and staring down at her own legs, “I just had to change lines at this station, is all.”
“You know this train goes to Canterlot, right? They got much friendlier ponies there than here. All unicorn cities do, so I wouldn’t worry about that part if I were you.” Applejack continued, before she stood up and began to walk back to her own seat, “I’ll leave you alone for now, Fluttershy, but you let me know if you need anythin’. If you wanna make it big in Canterlot, you’ll need all the help you can get, no matter how friendly them ponies are. It’s still a city, after all.”
Princess Celestia looked over the darkening horizon, Her sun slowly setting beneath it as the moon arose in its place, its gentler light revealing a myriad of twinkling stars. The night was clear-weathered and serene, but the Princess knew deep within Herself that it wouldn’t last much longer. She’s been dreaming of her sister again, caught in a dark, twisting mass that struggled against her body in the most violently unmoving ways. Even though she pushed those memories aside with the finest potions magic could make, the sounds of Luna’s screams came back to haunt her night after night, growing more and more frequent, until at last the Princess realized what was going on. In those dreams, Luna was not crying out in fear or despair, but out of warning.
Next Chapter: Times of Arrival May Vary
Author's Note
This is planned be something very familiar but also very different, named after the "action-based" MLP toyline that infamously went absolutely nowhere. Stay tuned.
Times of Arrival May Vary
Chapter 02: Times of Arrival May Vary
When Twilight Sparkle’s molecules stabilized in a solid physical form within Princess Celestia’s study, the seven-foot tall alicorn mare paid her student’s magical entrance no attention whatsoever, seeing as she was too busy dragging a cyan pegasus into the room through an open window.
“Oh. Good afternoon, Twilight. Here, help me carry her.” the Princess requested, not even looking at the unicorn she addressed, before she continued to pull on Rainbow Dash’s limp arms, “Don’t worry, I didn’t do anything bad. She just showed up and fainted. I’d use my magic to pull her in but I need the exercise.”
“Does this have anything to do with your secret project, or is this a double crisis kinda day?” Twilight asked, stepping over to her superior before grabbing Dash by the waist and hoisting her lower body over the window frame, “Huh. For a pegasus, she’s pretty heavy.”
“I know, right? And for your first question...eh, kinda. Though, considering the fact that I scheduled for everyone to get here at around the same time, it’s probably gonna be a multi-crisis kinda day.” Celestia replied, pulling Dash’s body out of Twilight’s grasp with surprising strength, before she flung the pegasus mare onto a sofa, “There. And now, we wait.”
“I- I have several questions, but I know you won’t answer any of them.” Twilight remarked with a sigh. Leaning against a bookshelf, she waited.
“Man, this place is...all kinds of messed up.” Applejack whispered under her breath, taking a good, long look at Canterlot through the wide railway station windows. The entire city was built into the Canterhorn Mountain, advancing upwards like a huge layered cake and covered in endless rows of winding streets and cramped-looking buildings. Manehattan was a big city, and every part of it was big, but AJ knew that Canterlot was a different beast entirely: It’s undoubtedly huge, yet each individual section of it was filled with countless details that most ponies don’t have the time to notice. There were no towering skyscrapers or block-sized supermarkets, for in their places were deep, narrow alleyways and busy shops hidden far within them. As AJ contemplated how she could tackle this relatively exotic environment and, in her own words, make it her bitch, the yellow pegasus companion she met on the train slowly and carefully approached her from behind, pulling her hood tightly around her pink-maned head.
“Excuse me, miss, uh...Applejack, was it?” Fluttershy asked in a whisper, prompting AJ to slowly turn around and look in her direction, which made the pegasus mare shrink further into her own clothes.
“Yeah?” Applejack asked in return, tilting her head and squatting a little to better meet Fluttershy’s eyes, “What, you finally need help now?”
“Yes, actually. I was told to get to the, um...the royal palace?” Fluttershy replied, sounding as though she barely believed in her own words, “It’s a long walk, so I just want someone to keep me company, is all. If that’s fine with you, I mean. Just walk beside me, you don’t even have to do anything more.”
“Sure, why not? I’m heading for the royal palace myself, believe it or not. I’ll probably be the token urban kid they do a scripted interview with for a government commercial about taxes or something.” AJ theorized, standing up and grabbing Fluttershy by the hand, prompting a quiet yelp from the pegasus.
“Come on then, let’s go.”
Rarity was having the time of her life. A big, glamourous city full of rich history around every corner? Yes please. Although, there wasn’t a carriage assigned to give her a ride to the palace, which Rarity found quite odd, seeing as she’s a special guest invited by the Princess Herself, but the long walk meant more opportunities for absorbing all that culture. The pink mare she had met back in Ponyville had long since vanished into the crowd, rambling cryptically about lo mein and ranch dressing as she marched in a completely random direction nowhere close to Castle Canterlot. Rarity didn’t stop her, however. If the Princess also personally invited that mare, then she must be skilled enough to find her own way to the palace, and Rarity would rather not patronize someone by offering unneeded help. That was a lesson she had to learn the hard way quite a few times in the past.
Proceeding on her own, Rarity stepped into the busy street with a deep breath, and headed for what felt like her destiny.
Meanwhile, in the Bit-Biter Bazaar, the biggest shopping center in Canterlot, a lone, hooded figure wandered through the food court. Things have changed quite a bit since it was last walking amongst the living in the real world, but ponies were still as vulnerable to emotions as they always were and always will be. Things like pretty colors and a cheery pop song can easily bring them unrequited joy, whereas an agonized scream or a darkened sky can just as easily bring them to fear and sadness. Even the Princesses were no better in the end, and this time around, it’s going to make sure that it would get them both.
Walking past a tired-looking janitor, the hooded stranger gently taps her on the shoulder, and before she could turn around to ask what she was needed for, her eyes widened and went blank. The symbol of a lone black star appeared in the nape of her neck, and in that moment, Dusty Debris was no more. Instead, Fornax of the Discarded joined the Nightmare Force.
Next Chapter: Expositing While The World Burns
Author's Note
The chapters will vary a bit in length, but they'll mostly be pretty short. Sorry if that's a problem for you.
