Fifty-five years... that’s how long it has been when the Elements of Harmony died. I remember those days like it was the last week; nopony expected the war was coming.
Two fillies ran in to a large study filled with books about history and mythology long forgotten by most.
“Grampa-Jack! Tell us about the war!” the white Pegasus filly and yellow unicorn filly shouted in unison running towards a black furred and grey mane old stallion with a blackjack for a cutie mark.
“Now, now didn’t I tell you that I’ll tell that story when you’re ten years old?” said the old stallion, clearly more interested in reading an old book rather than comforting the two over enthusiastic fillies. A beautiful blue unicorn with a red cross for a cutie mark walked in the room “They turned ten today, consider it as an birthday present for them, dad...” she said with an irritated voice “Did you forget that already?”
“Hmm, I did apparently… Well, I guess I have to then… oh! And happy birthday to the two of you.” Black Jack grunted clearly not happy about his daughters’ tone of words.
My story begins fifty-nine years ago, when first of the Elements died.
I was just a small colt living in Canterlot under the reign of the twin alicorns princesses. Me and my friends went to the Canterlots school for gifted unicorns And to be fairly honest I have no idea how I got into the school, my magical talents were closer to an earth pony and my overall grades were decent at best. Must've taken a lot of work from my parents...
The only subject i ever enjoyed in school was history, especially the times of Nightmare Moon's short lived tyranny. I know she's an alicorn but how could anypony make a land flourish in an eternal night? Sure there were the theories about creating plants and crops that could grow with only moonlight but there was never really any evidence of it...
"Im getting sidetracked again aren't I?"
"Yes" all three listeners said together. "Dad, you seem to get worse with it every time we visit you. Are you taking the medicine I gave you?" Jacks daughter asked in a worried tone "You know they're for your own good, right?".
"Hmph" grunted the old stallion and looked at a study table with little jars of pills on it "No fancy medical mumbo-jumbo pills are going to keep me in this world, even if they came from you. Willpower is what it takes!"
The Blue unicorn sighed "Fine, but you'll take the pills before we leave. No reason to make a fuss about it during a story."
My life was simple for many years.
I grew in Canterlot my youth until it happened.
Harmony of Equestria died.
The Element of laughter held a party for princess Celestia for her birthday, foolish thing to do for such an old mare. Pinkamena Diane Pie died from a heart attack due to an extremely high blood pressure.
Honesty died during the grand opening of Applebuck season. She trotted up to an old, big apple tree, supposedly from a hundred years back, one strong kick and the whole tree fell on Applejack the Honest leaving nothing that reminded of a pony that used to walk Equestria.
A month from the loss of Honesty, Loyalty vanished. I personally witnessed her “death”. Some say that she wanted to perform one last sonic rainboom for old times sake, being an old mare, she couldn’t pull herself up and instead she dove into a lake.
I must admit that it was the most beautiful sonic rainboom I’ve ever seen, well also being the only sonic rainboom I’ve ever seen…
Kindness vanished into the Everfree forest around a week after the “Last Rainboom” incident. Many ponies went after to look for her, nopony found a trace of her. Some believe she retreated to a sanctum just to return when time was right. Most on the other hoof believe that she got lost and died in there. Even now every year thousands of ponies go to Everfree forest to look for her or her remains without any results. It’s a lost cause.
Generosity died a martyr. Somepony so devoted to her work that she worked for week’s non-stop just to get her latest models on display in Canterlots best shops and fashion shows. An old mare, 50 of the most beautiful dresser Equestria had seen and one month, don’t really add up too well. The dresses she finished before she withered away in her boutique became priceless artifacts amongst collectors and fashionistas.
“Dad, you’re making it too crude!”
hissed the blue unicorn “You’ll traumatize your grandchildren!”
“You brought them here for this story, didn’t you?” Black Jack sighed “Now let me tell the young the truth, they deserve to know. Especially when the Government has been lying to everypony for the last few decades”
The final Element of Harmony was that of Magic.
Twilight Sparkle was a unicorn with magic prowess second to alicorns, some said that she could’ve spoken Starswirl the Bearded to sleep by talking about time travel. Ironic in a way…
Twilight Sparkle was broken when she heard the news of her last friend dying, she devoted her last able years to study and eventually master time travel.
The Element of Magic held a seminar; she invited everypony across Equestria. Her goal was to stop or at least find out how the Elements died, and if anything, to spend her friends’ final days with them.
“If I’m not back in five minutes… then I’m lost. Don’t bother looking for me.” Twilight said with a creaky old voice before disappearing in a flash.
Famous last words, too famous actually.
For after five minutes, all hell broke loose.
Changelings who were disguised as our own morphed into their own forms and started attacking in even suicidal ways. Hidden bombs went off inside buildings and Canterlot was in panic. Hundreds died within hours before the Princesses could drive out every last changeling.
The war against change had officially started…
Everypony deserves a second chance
Explosions
Explosions everywhere
I didn’t know what had happened. Everything was blurry and unclear and the only sound I could hear was the screeches of suicidal changelings hitting the ground, exploding in a green splatter. It was horrible. Finally when my eyes started working again, I saw the most horrible thing in my life: Canterlot was burning before my eyes. The dark sky was lighted by the burning houses and the screams of ponies were silenced by changelings slaughtering them.
Where was I? So safe from all the horrors?
In a ditch I tell you, in a bloody ditch, literally.
So think about that; a young colt, a ditch filled with blood and a burning city.
It definitely wasn’t a beautiful sight, not at all. As I finally started getting up, I found a problem with my hind leg: it was broken. Luckily it wasn’t an open wound for it would’ve been, I probably wouldn’t be here telling this story.
A changeling noticed me and oh colt was he happy to see me, to kill me the moment he got to me. Then it happened, the moment that still haunts me; a spear piercing through its neck, splattering green blood all over me. Sure when you think about it now it wasn’t that bad since I fought in the war and all, but for a colt barely your age that was nightmare.
“Are you alright kid?” the royal guard clattered in golden armor asked me.
I stuttered, “Wha… what happened? What’s going on? Where’s my mom?!”
“Don’t know. Any case, I gotta get you out of here, to somewhere safe! Fast!” the blood soaked guard ordered.
Normally it would’ve not been a problem, but since my hind leg was broken. Oh Celestia the pain. Unbearable I tell you.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“My leg! It doesn’t move! It hurts so much!” I screamed
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“So that’s why you don’t move so much granpa,” the Pegasus filly said rather energetically
Black Jack responded, “Yes, that’s why, and all the things I would give to get my leg working again”
“Honey, don’t interrupt grandfathers story” hushed the mother to her daughter
Black Jack had dazed off, sitting on his chair looking out of the window, staring out to the distant mountains of the north. The mare was worried; this wasn’t unusual with his father but it was defiantly getting worse. On many occasions during conversations with him he dazed off, always staring to the north. The latest incident was when he was giving a speech to the Canterlot University’s history group about the war: during the speech Black Jack suddenly stopped and turned around and just stood there for a while before collapsing to the floor. He was in the hospital for a month before he was allowed to go home.
…
“Dad?”
“Grampa Jack?”
…
He fell from his chair almost like he was a statue, not changing his posture.
“DAD!”
---------55AHD-----------
Black Jack opened his eyes. Where was he? Why is the sky red?
Realization. He was being carried through the burning streets of Canterlot by the very same guard who had saved his life many years ago… wait. What?
How could this be happening? Black Jack lifted his hooves to his face. They were so small. His Cutie Mark had vanished.
…
He couldn’t speak, he was screaming in his head but no words came out from his mouth.
Black Jack was living his life again, from his perspective. In a way it reminded him of a movie theatre, just watching not being capable of changing what would happen next.
Blur. The vision fainted and Black Jack lost all consciousness.
“Kid, are you ok?” a familiar voice said, he couldn’t see anything just hear the muffled voice.
“mmmwha…”
“Doc, he’s coming back to us! Get over here!” the voice shouted
A new, exhausted voice said, “I’m here, I’m here. What is it?”
Black Jack opened his eyes wincing at the bright lights of the room he was in. The explosions hadn’t stopped, and the room looked like it had been blown up. He looked around, noticing dozens of medical bars with wounded ponies on them, all crying of either loss of their families and friends or from the agony their wounds inflicted. Mostly for both reasons.
“Where am I?” Black Jack said, rising to sit but the pain in his leg stopped him.
“You’re safe, no need to worry,” the mare wearing a surgeons mask assured him. She was most likely a doctor, seeing as her getup and a medical pack she carried on her back.
“Will you be able to fix him?” the guard asked in a worried and hasty tone
“I’m not an actual doctor, but I’ll see what I can do”
Well, that’s reassuring.
“Let’s see here,” the Not-So-Much-Of-A-Doctor said examining Black Jacks leg, “It looks like it’s sprained very badly or it’s broken. If it is broken we have to get him to a hospital fast, I can only fix minor wounds and ease the pain on more serious ones” the mare mumbled to the guard, “Lets see here. Does this hurt?” she said lifting Black Jacks hind leg just a few inches.
“AAARGH!!!” the colt yelled in agony
“Broken. Just give me a second… Aha! Painkillers, they should be helpful” the mare said dropping a few pills onto her hooves from a bottle and gave them to Black Jack, “you’re lucky your leg didn’t get mangled, who knows how fast it might heal and you would end up with a leg pointing in a wrong direction” she said jokingly
“That wasn’t funny,” the colt and guard said in unison in a blank tone
“Yeah, I’m not the best jokester” she said gathering supplies from a desk before moving to the other patients who needed fist-aid.
The guard was sitting next to Black Jacks bed without saying a word looking at a wall on the other side of the room. No, he wasn’t looking at the wall, he was looking past it, through it even. As they sat there in quiet (excluding all the moans of the patients and the explosions outside) Black Jack looked at the guard who had saved his life not too long ago, his mind raced with all the questions he could possibly muster: Why was this happening, what had happened, where am I, where’s my parents and so on.
The guard broke the silence, “You ok?”
Black Jack hesitated, “I guess, you?”
“Well, I’ve been better, but a few wounds here and there don’t kill… yet at least” the guard answered looking around his torso covered with cuts and bruises that had been cleaned a few moments ago by the mare.
“That’s good…”
They sat in the (almost) silence once again for a few minutes before the guard spoke again, “You probably want to know what’s going on.”
“Yeah”
“Well, first of all, the Element of magic disappeared from her seminar and a few minutes later we’re fighting a full invasion of suicidal changelings bombing our homes” the guard said matter-of-factly
“Oh, that would explain it…” Black Jack said
Both sitting kept sitting, not saying a word. The colt was getting frustrated by the un-talkative guard, but he didn’t get the chance to speak again before a young stallion rushed through the door exhausted.
“They… they finally killed them all! All the changelings are gone! We’re safe!”
Everypony in the room sat or stood up surprised by the news and the quick
de-escalation of the situation. They cheered and hugged each other for a while, excluding one pair.
The Royal Guard stood up and lowered his hoof on Black Jacks shoulder, “I gotta go. After you can walk again, find me at the palace, the name’s Second Chance” he said before galloping out of the room in haste.
As a final note:
Thank you for reading this chapter of 55AHD, please leave a comment,
like and favorite if you liked it!
(Oh, and if possible could you guys show this around, i'm rather desperate for readers...
umm, i mean if you dont mind that is)
Years gone by... (Chapter teaser)
Back Jacks grandfillies were waiting in the hospital waiting room, playing with others of their age, oblivious to their mothers conversation with her father.
"No! You are not moving from here to anywhere! Not until you get over your mortification shocks!" the fillies mother screamed in tears, "Not after what happened to mother..."
"I had good reasons, and she agreed! You know that well enough." Black Jack returned looking down on himself
"But you never told me why! Why, why didn't you take mother into a hospital after she fell sick!? Why did you leave just me taking care of her!?"
"It was too late to tell you; too late to tell anypony." Black Jack whimpered out.
It was a secret between him and his wife which he did not want to share. This secret had brought misery and sadness to his life on many occasions: first when his wife fell ill, and many times before now. All which could've been avoided if only he had told it sooner.
"What do you mean by too late?" his daughter spurted through tears of fear and anger
...
"Bring the ki-" Black Jack started before being cut short
"TELL ME!!!"
The old stallion recoiled from the outburst of his daughter but recovered quickly, "I never told you the whole story, and I lied about many things, but today I'll tell it to you and your daughters. No lies."
After a while of silence she finally said with empty eyes, "Fine."
She didn't have a clue of what was going on, her father and mother had both lied to her, so that it eventually caused her mothers death on her very hooves. She wanted to what it was, what her father was hiding that was so important that nopony should know.
"Kids, come here. Grampa wants to continue his story," she called out after wiping a tear from her eye, and before she knew it the two fillies ran to her in excitement rivaled only by foals on Hearths Warming Eve, ready to open their presents.
