Why Did a Cat Steal Everypony's Magic?
I met an owl at my animal sanctuary at the Brighthouse. He was dressed in an old blue and yellow uniform, with many patches. He slept during the day, because he was an owl, but I occasionally met him when visiting the Brighthouse at night. His name was Owlowiscious. He wore a faded, patched, and scratched up bright blue and yellow costume with medallions. Owlowiscious had a scratch over one of his eyes, which he claimed was from a catfight a few hundred moons ago.
My special talent made me, Sheriff Hitch, the only pony who could understand his flights of fancy. The owl that I sheltered in the Brighthouse thought that it was his duty to guard the Unity Crystals. They’re totally safe! I mean, I appreciate him trying to help, but I kept getting into silly arguments with the owl and his delusions of grandeur.
“Who?” ’Who in the hay do you think I am?’
I laugh, and remind him, “Stop joking.”
The owl hooted energetically. 'No, really. I used to be Twilight’s number two assistant. I would have been her number one assistant, but I slept during the day, and her little brother Spike’s special talent was sending letters with magic. Everything that happened was worth it to keep Equestria safe, even the time the library got destroyed.'
Yet again, I gently remind him, “That was thousands of moons ago, Owlowiscious! Owls don’t live that long.”
“Hoo!” The owl covered his eyes with a wing, ‘And like I keep telling you, Sheriff Hitch, the magic of friendship made sure that Twilight’s friends were as mortal as she was.’
He is such a great storyteller. That was thousands of moons ago, and Sunny and Zipp said that nothing ever mentioned that Twilight had a pet owl! I wonder if he heard Sunny talking about Twilight and made something up.
I looked at his damaged outfit. “By the way, do you want a better costume? Izzy could uni-cycle one.”
“Hoo! Hoo-Hoo!” He hooted, ’This isn’t a costume! I’m a real Wonderbolt. After Twilight invented a spell to sort and retrieve books and write down everything she said, I got a new job as the Executive Assistant of the Wonderbolts. But I still passed all their admissions tests for the Wonderbolts reserves. And it took a few decades of practice, but I pulled off a Sonic Rainboom! I might be old, but I can still pull one off.’
I let out a snort at all those ridiculous claims, “Seriously? What’s a Sonic Rainboom supposed to be?”
“How did everypony forget that? It’s when you surpass the speed of sound and quickly shift direction. It creates an enormous burst of rainbow light, sound, and force. It can shatter magic barriers or knock out almost anycreature!”
I gave up on arguing, and give him an excuse to let him down easily, “Maretime Bay noise bylaw says you can’t be that bright and noisy without permission, buddy.”
The owl continued hooting, while glaring at me, ’Fine. I’ll only do that in town if it’s an emergency. He continued hooting, ’I’m the highest ranked Wonderbolt in the world right now! And somehow still the only one. Why hasn’t anypony started recruiting for the Wonderbolts?
He continued his rant, flew over me, and hooted. ’You’ve been able to fly for many moons, and ponies frankly need the Wonderbolts to rise from the ashes. They don’t just put on air shows like people think. They also inspire pegasi and everycreature else to be the best they can be. And more importantly, they also provide air support, scouting, distractions, and, if necessary, take an offensive role if somecreature like Opaline attacks again! I know you’re good at it, but seriously, you need the Wonderbolts! You can’t keep defending all of Equestria just with a group of six friends that keeps having other problems. You need other ponies and creatures who are prepared to do whatever it takes to keep Equestria safe, whether it be scouting, skirmishes, or putting their lives on the line to save Equestria.’
Huh. He’s clearly delusional, but he might actually have a good point. I could ask Pipp and Zipp if they were planning to re-establish the Wonderbolts.
He mentioned that Tank the Immovable Turtle was watching over Zephyr Heights in case of an emergency, and Angel the Infernal Rabbit was guarding Bridlewood. And his own title was supposed to be Owlowiscious the Harmonious Owl.
Ugh. Keep it together, and don't giggle.
One night, I saw him out of his blue and yellow costume for the first time, and he was absolutely covered in tattoos. I asked him, “What the hay’s up with the tattoos you have on your back? Who did that?”
The owl hooted. ’Oh, that. It’s a runic spell that Twilight invented! Theoretically, it should let the user temporarily absorb the power of the Unity Crystals. Twilight ended up scrapping them because they were ‘too risky and anycreature who tries to use it might undergo Harmonic breakdown’. I copied it down and convinced her student, ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’, to cast the spell. After all, a true Wonderbolt must be prepared to put their lives on the line for Equestria, even after thousands of moons!’
Well, at least he doesn’t look bothered by that huge mess of a tattoo. But seriously? Trixie again? Make up a more believable name like Starswirl or Rarity if you’re going to make things up; Sunny hasn't even heard of ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’!
Princess Zipp Storm flew around in a loop, and said while hovering over us, “Guess what, Hitch! My mom agreed to start the Wonderbolts. I’m going to be the captain!”
Princess Pipp Petals said, “Well, you are the responsible one.”
My sheriff, Sprout, responded, “Isn’t that, you know, nepotism?”
Zipp rebutted, “Like you’re one to talk, former Emperor Sprout. I have years more practice than everypony else of flying over giant metal fans, before pegasi regained their flight magic.”
Magic fizzled out and Pipp falls over, and lands on her back.
Sprout snorted. “Real good flying there, Flip Worm”
Oh, no. Something’s happening to magic again. Who could have done this?
We galloped over to the Brighthouse.
“Hoo!” I overheard Owlowiscious hoot. “Opal! Don’t do this!”
Horseapples. Did Opaline return?
I heard screeching, and hooting, yowling, and other noises just outside it. My drained dragon Sparky laid unenergetically on the ground, just outside the Brighthouse. And a large, white cat with a horn and enormous white wings was carrying the Unity Crystals, and hovered while blasting magic bolts at Owlowiscious, who repeatedly narrowly dodged the attacks. The blasts left holes in the ground and the walls of the Brighthouse. A few of the blasts landed dangerously close to us, and we had to duck or dodge.
I used an app on my phone to activate the emergency sirens, and ordered Sheriff Sprout to help evacuate everypony.
While he ran off, Sprout complained, “I know you said the anti-air harpoons would create an unhealthy power dynamic and that I should stop preparing for wars, but I was right this time!”
Zipp asked, “We need to get the Unity Crystals. But we can’t reach them without magic.”
The cat and the owl furiously argued. I summarized the hooting and screeching for everypony. “The cat-alicorn used Unity Crystals and stole Sparky’s dragon fire to become a Feline Alicorn, and she’s trying to cast a spell to go back in time. She wishes that Nyathan didn’t die.”
Sunny Starscout asked, “Wait. If Opalescence changes the past, then what happens to us? Do we all disappear?”
The owl tried to snatch the Unity Crystals from Opalescence, who dodged.
“Hoo! Who? Hoo!” ’Don’t you realize that you’re doing exactly the same thing that Starlight Glimmer did! Destroying everything in this timeline isn’t even the worst part; you could cause another apocalypse and cause ponies to go extinct! I know there were a lot of problems with Twilight’s Golden Plan, but I accepted what happened, and kept moving forward. Things can still get better!’
I answered, “It sounds like it. We need to stop them.”
Opalescence used the magic of the Unity Crystals to set up a magic spherical barrier, and snarled. ’Just give up. You have no hope of defeating a Feline Alicorn!’
“Meow!” Opalescence yelled, And go buck yourself, you Princess-worshipping owl! Almost everypony and everycreature I knew died, because Twilight didn’t care about them enough for them to be immortal! You don’t know what that’s like.
Pipp Petals said, “I know, I’ll get my Pippsqueaks to tell everyone to start singing again and they can get everypony they know to join. The Elements of Harmony are our best hope!”
I added, “And I’ll issue an emergency broadcast to tell everypony in town to join your stream.”
Pipp started singing a song about unity as Izzy filmed her.
“Hoo-h’hoo-hoo-hoo!”
Owlowiscious flew up in the air and glared at the cat with determination, and I translated his determined hooting. “He said, ‘No. I do know what it’s like to lose somepony. There once was a pegasus called Rainbow Dash. After I became the Executive Assistant of the Wonderbolts, she was practically my older sister. She’s no longer here.’”
Zipp, the newly appointed captain of the Wonderbolts, asked me, “Wait, what happened to Rainbow Dash?”
The owl hooted loudly, “Hoo-hoo! Hoo! h-Hoo!” ’But I am! With every day, creatures evolve, bit by bit. If there’s a barrier in my way, I’ll blast it away! And with every flap of our wings, we keep going faster and faster, until we break through. That’s how a Sonic Rainboom works!’
I translated the owl, “The owl’s trying to pull off a Sonic Rainboom.”
“A what?” Oh, right, I never told Zipp. Wait, he was serious about everything he said?
The owl swooped down, approaching the hovering, glowing Opalescence.
Owlowiscious flew towards Opalescence, then, suddenly changing direction right next to the barrier, caused a giant burst of rainbow lights and noise, and flew away rapidly, with a burst of rainbow lights behind him. This knocked Opalescence a bit closer to the Together Tree, but Opalescence continued firmly gripping the Unity Crystals in her paws.
The owl flew back, and flew in a circle around Opalescence, and hooted to remark, ’Well, it was worth a try.’
“Mrrrrr!” ’I’ll vaporize you, you stubborn owl!’
The Unity Crystals glowed brightly, and an enormous burst of rainbow light burst out of them, and shot her strongest attack at the owl, who confidently hovered in place, midair, grinning.
“Hoo! Who?” ’Hah! I was waiting for that! Who in the hay do you think the Wonderbolts are?’
I watched as the blast hit the owl, who absorbed the noisy, eye-blindingly bright blast. To my surprise, after the blast hit the owl and the light died down. Instead of being knocked away, burnt, or vaporized, or anything else that I would have expected to happen, the owl had transformed into a gigantic, glowing, magical drill with the face of an owl on one side. The owl settled down in front of Zipp Storm.
“Hoo!” The magic owl-drill hooted at Zipp Storm, and I could thankfully still understand him. ’Don’t grieve for me, my fellow Wonderbolt. I went through Harmonic disruption to absorb the power of the Elements of Harmony. I am the drill that will pierce her barrier! Now throw it, for the sake of everycreature!’
I turned to Zipp, “I don’t know how, but this owl-drill can pierce through Opal’s magic barrier! Throw it at the cat-alicorn to stop this catastrophe!”
Zipp picked up the drill, finding it surprisingly light due to its magic. She hurled it towards Opalescence. When it left her hooves, it expanded, sped up, started spinning, and crashed into the magic barrier. In a burst of light, the barrier cracked, and shattered.
Then, with many ponies already singing a song about togetherness and unity, a bundle of vines emerged from the tree, and wrapped around a screeching Opalescence. A gap opened up in the girthy trunk of Maretime Bay’s Together Tree, and the vines pulled her inside. After the immortal cat entered the tree, the gaps closed up, sealing the Feline Alicorn Opalescence inside the tree, in the same manner that they had contained the Fire Alicorn Opaline.
Author's Note
Contains references to Gurren Lagann, which is a show known for the main characters facing impossible odds, and rapid power escalation. Largely https://gurrenlagann.fandom.com/wiki/Lordgenome#Anti-Spiral_War_Arc
