Lunar: Caught Somewhere in Time

Lunar: Caught Somewhere in Time

By: Darkened Powerslave

Chapter 1

'And with an arm raised, the slaughter was started, blood flew in one direction... While children and their mothers went the other. Most people would think, do you kill because you are protecting something, or is it that you kill which that they protect.'

The air was thin and the night was heavy in the Everfree forest. It was a humid night in July, but the fog on the ground seemed to creep by the trees and the whisper of the creeks in the willows seemed to echo alone. The forest was dead, and no sound was heard above the loneliness of the silence. The birds were asleep in their nests, and the bears in their dens, and nothing but the leaves against the air could be heard now… There was a distant thundering in the air, as a storm was approaching Ponyville. The air started to get cool, and the night blacker, as the winds would start to knock the leaves from their branches.

Twilight Sparkle awoke in her room to find drops of rain on her windowsill. She took a gasp of air and looked to the moon, remembering distant dreams and adventures. The thunder threw her off from her thoughts and she lay back in her bad staring at the ceiling, trying to get her rest. Spike was moving restlessly in his pallet on the floor, trying to readjust to get back to sleep. He stood up.

“Twilight,” He spoke, “Were you ever afraid when it rained?” She looked at him with a silly grin, but then understood because he was only a child. “Yes Spike, when I was small I was very scared of bad weather, but I would get my mother and father to tell me a lullaby for it to be alright.” Spike looked at her in a warm way, knowing she meant well, “Could you… Sing me a lullaby?” He asked. She looked at him for a little, “No Spike I, I don’t sing, go to bed.”

He laid his head down and shut his eyes; he felt the warm tears building up as he tried not to think about what a boring life would be like.

Outside in the cold distance, the storm grew to a devastating flood. The humid air swept into a freeze and the winds shattered on the houses.

Rarity awoke and stood as the windows on her house began to shake and tremor. She called in Sweetie Belle and hugged her tight, and they watched the rain pound their windowpane. The water started to build up on the dirt roads outside the houses as the floodwaters began to rise.

Near the edge of the forest, a mixture of downed trees and mud with water was rushing towards the town. Rainbow Dash, now awoken and looking outside, was made aware of this by looking towards the forest. She quickly rushed to the library to warn Twilight and Spike about the danger. As fast as she could fly she made it to the house in a minimum of twenty seconds. She barged into the house uninvited and proceeded to wake Twilight.

Spike woke on his own but woke to see that Twilight and Rainbow Dash were arguing. “I came to warn you not to bother your sleep! You need to be nicer about having to save the town!” Twilight answered back, “You need to see if you can do things on your own! I am not the messiah of this town, I can’t handle everything.” Rainbow Dash looked at her shocked. “We don’t have much time we have to go!” Twilight quickly ran out the door with her and Spike sat there left alone. He thought to himself, Well, I guess they didn’t need me this time, I’m glad actually, now I can see what it’s like to not be part of the danger. After a while of waiting, of what seemed to be an hour, Spike got worried.

They had been gone so long, and he waddled over to look out the window. Nothing much had changed, other than the color of the sky had gotten blacker; he saw that it was the same. Spike moved back to his pallet, and started to tear up at the thought of Twilight and Rainbow Dash failing. Suddenly, a crash startled spike, and a bright light illuminated the sky. Spike jumped up to rush to see what it was, only to be blinded by the light. He ran down to the door and tried to open it, and was sabotaged by water when he released the door.

Spike trotted through the knee high water, and he saw that other ponies had left their houses and shops to see what had hit the ground. Pinkie ran over to spike to pick him up on her back so he could get a better look of what was going on. “Spike, where is Twilight? Is she inside getting some spell ready?” Spike opened his mouth, but before his vocals could produce words, Rarity interrupted him and said, “Pinkie, do you know what is going on here? It was storming at first and then this huge meteor crashed around the Everfree Forest!” Spike thought, The Everfree Forest? But that is where Twilight and Rainbow Dash are… Rarity interrupted his thoughts by asking a similar question. “Spike have you seen Rainbow Dash? Applejack went over to see her but she wasn’t at her house.”

Spike answered with a worried sigh, “She was at Twilights house when they both left to go to the Everfree forest to stop a flood of Downed Trees. They have been gone for a few hours, and I haven’t seen them since.”

Spike was holding on tight as Applejack ran as fast as she could to reach the edge of the everfree forest. From the views of the four, there were fires, downed trees, and overall, it looked like it was daytime. The light from the explosion of the meteor flashed brighter than Twilight’s light spell. When they reached the sight at where the mudslide was supposed to be, it was clear with no debris; Rainbow Dash and Twilight where nowhere to be found amongst the forest when they searched. “Where do yall’ reckon they went to? I don’t think we could be able to find them tonight in all this forest, besides… Its Twilight and Rainbow, they are fine on their own.” Applejack said.

Rarity looked at her and nodded, and Pinkie answered back with a “I’m going home.”

Spike looked out to the forest at all the trees, it got quiet, and he suddenly forgot about the wind and rain on his face. He forgot about his missing friends and about what he has done in such a short life. He looked further and saw the clear night sky, and the moon, and he forgot what he was doing right now, and he wondered what it would be like to have a boring life.

Twilight woke in a field, she didn’t know where she was but she knew it wasn’t Ponyville. She looked around and quickly gasped in pain. She reached for her ribs and saw she was bleeding, and she fell over in agony. The grass below her was stained in blood and lots of it, from the look of it she had been bleeding for a while. She was quiet, so quiet that she could hear the heartbeat in her ears, and the wind whistle through the grass. She tried to roll to her left but it was too much pain to bear, so she stayed on her back, biting her lip so it would distract her from her lacerated kidney. She reached down to grasp the soil beneath her, just to feel at it with her hoofs. A thought came to mind, and she had to study that thought with ease. It was that the ground wasn’t like that of Equestria, and that the sky was different, something had changed, she noticed that it was daytime and the sun was shining.

But when she was last awake, it was raining and night, and she was by a forest. She grabbed a chunk of dirt and put it down. She then closed her eyes and thought about Spike and why she didn’t bring him.

Rainbow Dash was drowning as she awoke. She screamed and started to swim to the top but was quickly stopped by a pain below her thighs. Her legs had been broken, and she couldn’t swim with broken legs. She flapped her wings with all her might and started to lose breath, her vision got foggy and she got weak. The water seemed to get deeper and colder as she swam faster, and the pain in her legs grew as she tried to avoid using them. Finally after it seemed that she had been swimming for an hour, she reached the near top.

She was running out of breath and she grew to a deadly cold temperature. She blasted through the top of the water in her relief, and took a deep sigh as she reached down to nurse her leg. She looked up and to her horror; she was surrounded by nothing but water. She started to fly away but the pain in her legs stop her, and she has to stop beating her wings sometime soon, or else she will pass out. She lowers herself into the water to see if she can float, and she can, but the water is devastatingly cold. As she is staring up at the sky with the freezing water at her back, she is thinking about her broken legs…  And why she helped Twilight.

Spike and Applejack return to the library, and the floodwaters have receded. “Alright now Spike, you get you some sleep. I know your protective of Twilight but she is gonna’ be alright. Now I’ve gotta get on back ta’ Sweet Apple Acres and tell Granny Smith bout’ whats happened.” Spike frowned at the loss of the company, and that he would be alone this night. “Alright Applejack, tell Big Mac and Applebloom I said hi. And, well… Good Night.” He closed the door and he walked up to his pallet on the floor. The light from the meteor had died down a while ago, but the strange thing was there was no meteor to cause the light when they went to see it, just light.

Spike got tired of lying on his mat and made himself comfortable on Twilights bed, as he thought she wouldn’t mind. He looked up at the ceiling and started to think of all the fun things they had done together, dating back all the way to when they first came to Ponyville. And one particular thought came to mind, Princess Luna. He thought of why everypony treated her bad and neglected her love. Of course Spike himself was a little resentful at some times to Luna, but she was the nicest pony you could get to know, other than Fluttershy. (In this time of the story, Fluttershy is on a trip to Canterlot to rehearse for the Royal Equestrian Opera.) But other than that, he thought of Luna as a whole.

Spike sat there thinking of what could have possibly changed Luna, other than the fact her subjects rejected her. Spike wanted to do something on his own, to fix a problem without anyone else’s help. Of course he could just write a letter for the princess to come down to Ponyville, but that wouldn’t be fun, and he thought about meeting Luna personally there, because secretly his favorite Princess was Luna. Spike rose from Twilights bed and hopped onto the wood grain floor, trotting to grab books off shelves, and pack a few sapphires for the road.

He looked out the window to see if the storm had slowed down, and he grabbed the last of the rations he needed for his journey. He stepped outside and gently shut the door to make sure nobody could hear him leave. He waltzed over to Rarity’s house and looked in to make sure they were asleep, and he started on his way. Spike started to follow the train tracks that would lead him to Canterlot when something illuminating in the Everfree forest caught his eye. He motioned himself over towards the trees and the willows to get a better look. Suddenly he saw something staring back at him, and he started to turn and run.

He caught his foot on a branch snaring up from the ground, and he tripped, instantly breaking his nose and spewing blood into his vision. Spike started to scream but was out of range of Ponyville, so no one could hear his cries of terror, and he heard the Stranger drawing near. “Please stop screaming I don’t want to harm you, I just want to know where I am.” The stranger said. Spike couldn’t see him because of the darkness and the blood in his eyes, but he knew he was friendly, so Spike answered, “You’re in Ponyville Equestria, home to some of the friendliest ponies you’ve ever met!” The figure backed away and looked up at the sky, and at that moment Spike could tell he wasn’t a Pony.

The Figure looked at Spike and Spoke with ease, “Ponies… So I am where I am meant to be. Please creature, tell me your name.” Spike looked at him and told him his name, and Spike stood up to get a better look at the creature. Spike gazed upon his face for a long while and the creature allowed him for he knew Spike had never seen anything like him. He was a humanoid with long pitch black hair. His ears were of an Elvin race, and his eyes were shadows in the night. He seemed to adopt the Pegasus form of wings, but they were never really there, it was an illusion.

His facial structure was that of the most handsome mare you could find, but even better and he had a body that was of no feathers or fur. His skin was of the palest white, like the moonlight on a cold winter’s night, but colder than that, like the lands of the highest north of Equestria. He wore a black robe with symbols of ancient text over it, and a cape descending to the ground that might get snagged if he ran too fast. He then spoke, ruining Spikes study of him. “Where were you off to when I startled you little Dragon boy?” Spike answered back, “I was off to send a Message to the Princess of Equestria, Princess Celestia.” The man looked at Spike and said, “Then I shall accompany you.”

Twilight was crawling from her current spot and groaning in pain, she was looking in every direction to see if she could spot a tree line or a town. The only thing she saw that she wanted to crawl too that got her attention was an ocean, or at the least a really big lake. The sky was reddening and Twilight was starting to slow down. She started to remember what happened back in the forest, and how she and Rainbow Dash could have died. She stopped for a moment to think hard on why she was still alive.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight were arguing all the way to the floodwaters, and they were talking about If they should have woken any of the others or not. When Rainbow Dash reached the spot of the mudslide, she had to wait for Twilight to arrive as she had rushed ahead to avoid her arguing. As she was waiting she looked at the bright moonlit sky, and saw an asteroid heading for the forest. Rainbow Dash quickly moved towards the heart of the forest, where she could barely hear Twilight calling for her. The calls got louder as she stayed still, but she soon had to progress towards them, for she knew Twilight might be in danger. When she got to her, there was a branch protruding from Twilights side, and the tree that had fallen on her lay to the side of her.

“Are you alright Twilight?”

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash, and nodded.

Rainbow Dash started to pick her up when a tree fell on her, crushing her legs and spilling Twilights’ bag. As they were both gasping for air, they look up to see the meteor speeding towards them, and they knew they didn’t have much time. Rainbow Dash tried to flap her wings but she was in too much pain to move. She then looked to Twilight to cast a spell, but Twilight had faded into Unconsciousness. The meteor hit with a force that shattered the trees and the ground, and sending a shattering light all the way to Ponyville.

Twilight lay there thinking how she was still alive and where she was. She knew she wasn’t in Equestria, but she wanted to know how she got here. She didn’t want to use her return home spell until she found Rainbow Dash, because she knew if she had been brought here, then so had Rainbow Dash. She proceeded to crawl towards to water, ignoring the pain in her kidney as she left a exceedingly large trail of blood behind her.

Spike and the Stranger started off on the Tracks to get to Canterlot, and the stranger wasn’t one for small talk. Spike wanted to talk to him but it seemed like the man just stayed quiet, or at least Spike thought he or it was a man. Spike was bored about seven minutes into their journey, so he started pestering the stranger again. “So… where are you from?” The Stranger kept walking for a little bit, then started to speak as if he was annoyed, “I really don’t know, but I can tell you this. I am here because I was sent here for a good reason, to stop something from happening.

Because something was going to happen that wasn’t meant to, but it is now. I don’t remember who sent me here, but they had a good reason. All I know is that, I am ‘Special (Remember that) and that I was something that was of great importance. I can do things other people can’t.” Spike looked at him in awe, “Like what?” “For example, look at my wings, they aren’t like dragons’ wings, or a Pegasus, but more like a Shadow and that is where I get my name. My wings are see-through, like mist, and I can take them away if I want. Or my tail, I can change it to whatever I want… Basically I can shape shift into anyone I have touched or talked to.”

At this point, Spike is now amazed and Canterlot is coming into view. The two keep walking and talking about each other. “So you’re a Shadow? Can you disappear, or even fly with those?” He answers back, “Yes I can fly, and no I can’t disappear. But I would like to know more about this ‘Canterlot’ of yours.” Spike looks at him and knows this is going to be a long talk.

“Canterlot is over One-Thousand years old! It is home to the two Princesses, Luna and Celestia. Celestia has ruled there all the time, but Luna was banished for 1000 years because she betrayed the Princess. But now she is back because she has been forgiven and they are helping each other control night and day. It is also home to all the rich and uptight ponies who can afford lots of nice things.”

Spike had been talking for almost half an hour on the Subject of Canterlot, and Shadow had just stood Listening. After it was done, there weren’t any questions that Shadow wanted to ask. Not even a “What is…” or a “Who is?” He just nodded and said okay.

The two continued walking as the rest of Canterlot came into view. The sun started to rise and the birds could be heard all around them. The dew made its home on the leaves as the cool air settled on the morning winds. The two were nearing the gates of Canterlot, unaware of Twilight and Rainbow Dash. They were unaware of the danger growing near Canterlot itself, and what was to come of Equestria in the coming years.