Autumn's Storm

Chapters

Flight Training
discovery
Magic for dummies
To Find Another
The E.S.O.
Kaged in
bad news

Flight Training

"Autumn... hey Autumn, WAKE UP" shouted Rainbow Dash.

For some odd reason, she came for me early today. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. It was only 5:30

"Come on dash, why are you here so early, normally your not here 'till at least 7. Wait a minute, how did you even get in?"

I glared at her, hoping that she would give at least some explanation of why she broke into my house. She just stood there for a while, letting her mane get in her face as she tried to come up with an at-least somewhat legit reason. Judging by the blank expression on her face, I could tell she didn't have one.

" At least let me get out of bed first."

I tried to roll off my bed, but my forehooves somehow caught on the sheets, and they all came down with me, covering all but my head as I hit the floor. Dash started to laugh at me, and as quickly as possible, I got back up.

"Stop laughing at me Dashie, it's not funny".

She wouldn't stop laughing, and I didn't know what to do, and my quick temper got to me, so I tackled her. Immediately she stopped laughing at me and started to fight back. Feathers went flying from both of us as I tried to escape, and ended with her tackling ME from the air. we fell backwards. I hit the floor and yelped in pain. Shoving her off, I quickly got to my hooves. I could still feel the pain arcing through my left wing. I looked back and saw that I broke one of my primaries, and disheveled so many more of my them, on both my wings. light green feathers were scattered all over the floor

"Sorry Autumn, didn't mean to do that. If you want, I can help you preen your feathers" RD told me.

Dashes stomach growled.

"Thanks, but no thanks, I can do it myself. Plus, you sound like your quite hungry as is,and I have some food in the kitchen, why don't you go get some before we head off, and I'll fix this".

"Gotcha" was her response.

As Rainbow dash headed to the kitchen, I sat myself down and began to repair the damage done to my wings. I quickly yanked out the broken shaft, and let out a little squeak of pain as the feather came out. I quickly placed the rest of my feathers back into place and got back up. as I did, there was a loud CLANG that came from the kitchen. I rushed into the room, and found that RD had accidentally dropped the entire contents of my pots and pans cabinet onto herself. Quickly running over, I pulled the metal cookware off of her. She was obviously seeing stars from the blow to her head.

"You know what, I haven't eaten yet either. How about we just go grab a bite at the Cloudsdale cafe before we start with my flight training". My stomach growled in response.

"Sounds good to me" Dash responded

After we ate, we headed over to her house, were her private course was set up. As we walked in, the automatic sunroofs activated, and they opened. sunlight filled the room, filling every nook and cranny, except, well, the shaded areas. I was still impressed by the shear size of the training room, complete with weight training, obstacle course, and her very own Dizzy-tron. I always hated that thing, the feeling of dizziness never sits well with me.

Rainbow dash trotted up in front me and said " Today we are going to start off with a simple fly through of the obstacle course, followed with a couple times through the Dizzy-tron"

" YES MA'M" I said. With that, I spread my wings and took off. The wind rustled through my feathers and mane as I left a red trail in my wake through the course. the first ring was up ahead and I would have to make a sharp turn to the right to get to the one after that. As I came up on the first ring, I prepared myself for the sharp twist of the body required to make such a quick shift in direction. Fast as I could, I pulled off the maneuver and was immediately headed for the next ring. This time I shifted my orientation upwards, to the 3rd ring. I flew up to the ceiling, through the hoop, the plunged back down to the final part of the course. As I neared the last ring, a movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. Rainbow dash was in the air, tracking my progress, and had a stopwatch in hand. I stared at her for a moment, (Crap!! I forgot that shes timing me) quickly putting my attention back into the task at hoof I darted towards the finish line. I passed through the hoop, and heard a soft *click from Rainbow dash's stopwatch.

" Nice moves kid, you beat your past record" She told me " Only 30 seconds, you're really starting to catch up to my 20 seconds Autmun, I'm starting to get a little worried about that."

Hearing that, I felt very satisfied with myself and just laid there on the floor panting.

" Now, lets see if you can't beat your previous best on the Dizzy-tron"

After I got my breath back, I got myself back up and into the Dizzy-tron (I will beat the clock this time!). Rainbow dash pulled the lever and the machine turned on. I started turning slowly, but it got much faster the longer I was on there. I had to stop myself from gagging on numerous occasions. I quickly thought to myself when she would pull the release mechanism. I heard the click, and suddenly found myself being launched through the air. It took me a moment to find my bearings, but as soon as I did, I quickly caught myself mid-air and flew to the floor as fast as I could. I skidded up to Rainbow dash, eager to hear what my time was, only, I came in too fast and tripped, so I actually toppled over and ended up sliding up to her, on my face. She just stood there silently for what felt like forever.

"...Yo..u... you got 5 second. congrats Autumn, you beat my time". Dash said

"I can't believe it!" I said. But, just as I said it, I heard a soft whump. I turned to see Dash lying on her back, seemingly staring at nothing.

" I can't believe you beat me." she said. For once, I was speechless. I considered telling her to not count my time that run-through, since I had utterly botched up my landing (She looks so pitiful right now). I just sat there, after having gotten myself back up, not knowing whether to let her work it out on her own or to console her. After all, this was the first time I've actually beaten her. Then, almost out of nowhere, her attitude changed from one of grief, to one of challenge, and a huge grin made its way across her face.

"Okay Autumn, I think your finally ready. I CHALLENGE YOU TO A RACE!"

I was dumbstruck. To challenge me to a race meant that she actually saw me as her equal.(This is crazy! when did I get good enough for that?)

"YOUR ON" I yelled back.

I stood on a cloud right next to Rainbow dash. In front of us was another pegasus, holding a checkered flag. The race was to get to the mountain on the far side of Ponyville and back as fast a possible. I unfolded my wings, flapping them as fast as I could without taking off early.

The flag went down before I even noticed it.

FWOOSH!

Rainbow dash took off, clearly taking the lead. I followed in hot pursuit. I couldn't even see her anymore, all that was left was her rainbow colored trail. I flapped my wings harder than I ever thought I could, but it still wasn't enough to catch up to Dash. (now I can see why no one ever challenges her to a race, she's so fast!) Tears began to well up in my eyes at the speed I was going. I actually can't ever even remember flying this fast before. It makes me wish that I had brought my flying goggles.

It still wasn't enough. Even with all my strength put into it, I just can't keep up with Rainbow dash. Inside my head I was silently wishing for a gust of wind to come from behind me and push me forward even faster. Then all of a sudden, I saw a huge blue light coming from somewhere behind me. I craned my head back to see and was very startled to find a giant green circle trailing me. from what I could see, it was a near perfect circle but had 3 pointed arrows coming out the sides of it. on the inside was a grouping of symbols that I couldn't understand.

All of a sudden, I was thrust forward through the air, traveling at speeds I didn't even think were possible. I came up on Rainbow dash, realizing that I wasn't even flapping my wings anymore, I was just being thrown forward by the wind. Easily passing RD with barely any effort, I was coming up on the mountain now. A sudden chill went up my spine and threatened me to collapse. I had no idea how to stop at this speed.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeellp Meeeeeeeeee!!" I shouted,my normally deepish voice suddenly very high.

I was closing in on the mountain with tremendous speed. only at the last moment did I realize it. Flapping my wings as hard as I could, I tried to slow myself down, with only minor effectiveness.

My body hit the mountainside with tremendous force. As I hit, a huge chunk of rock broke off from the huge slab in front of me, and I could feel it rip across my leg. I couldn't tell which one it was, since I lost most of the feeling in my body (I'm lucky I can still feel anything). Then I fell off the mountainside, waiting for the next blow.

I hit the ground, nowhere near as hard as I hit the mountain, but it still hurt. Dash flew up right beside me and landed with a solid THUD

"Autumn, Autumn stay with me." I had no idea what she was talking about. I lifted my hoof to try to calm her, but then saw that it was caked with still sticky blood. I looked down and saw that one of my hindlegs was broken, and I had gotten a huge gash up the other. Rainbow dash picked me up, tears in her eyes, and flew with me back to Ponyville as fast as she could. I figured she was taking me to the Ponyville hospital.

We came up to the doors at an alarming speed. I was afraid that she was going to hurt herself too. Dash got to the counter and started howling for a doctor.

"Doctor!!... Autumn is hurt, he needs help now" She screamed.

Almost immediately a doctor came out, saw me, and ran back to get help. several doctors emerged. one of them was a unicorn and picked me up with his telekinesis and ran me over to the emergency room. the others followed, including Dash.

The last thing I remember hearing before passing out was Dash running Back yelling something about needing Twilight.

Author's Note

hey guys, if you get this, thanks for reading the first chapter of "Autumn's storm" I know that it may not be the best of stories, but hey, thanks for reading. comments appreciated, and hopefully I can get the next chapter out soon.

discovery

I awoke with a start. (were am I?) I tried to sit up to take a look at my surroundings, but found that my movement has been prohibited by the sling that my left hindhoof is in.

"Well, that isn't going to work". Instead, I just lifted my head. (Well, I can obviously tell that I'm in a bed, and the leg I broke is in the sling) Around me was a heart-rate monitor, a large curtain, probably for separating the roommates from each other, and a small little nightstand with a boring little clock on it. I laid my head back down on the surprisingly soft pillow.

I heard some ponies outside talking. Adjusting my ears, their conversation slowly came into focus.

"What do you mean he used magic. That's not possible Twi, pegasi only have their inner magic that lets them control the weather, nothing more". Dashie said.

"Rainbow Dash, I know that it's hard to believe, but somehow, his inner magic was released". Twilight argued.

" You know that I can hear you, right?" I said, making sure to speak loud enough for them to hear me.

Rainbow Dash trotted in, followed by Twilight, who had brought so many books, it looked like she was going to collapse under the shear weight of them. There was a loud CRASH as she dropped her saddlebags to the floor.

"Sorry about that Autumn, I didn't know you were awake" Twilight apologized, the pink highlights in her hair showing very bright, due to the light she was in.

"It's fine. I just woke up. What were you talking about out there. I thought I heard you say that I used magic, but that's not possible..." I was beginning to get so frantic, that I started rambling.

Rainbow Dash covered my mouth with her hoof, just to stop me from talking. (Okay, calm down Autumn, there has to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this)

Twilight was staring at me for the longest time trying to figure out what to tell me, and what to ask. Dash, on the other hoof, was just sitting there patiently, and by the expression on her face, she was just thinking over what had happened on that day...(Wait, how long have I been out?)

As if knowing what i was going to ask, Twilight looked at me and said "Don't worry, you were only out for a couple of hours" a grin crossing her face.

"Autumn... do you remember what happened?" Twilight questioned me.

"Me and Dashie were having a race. Dash was ahead, myself only just able to keep up with her trail. I really didn't want to lose. I began thinking in my head of a strong gust of wind pushing me onward to keep up with RD... then that giant circle appeared, and I was thrown forward by the strongest wind I ever encountered".

"I have a hunch... did the circle look anything like THIS" Twilight said, throwing back the blankets, and pointing at my flank.

I looked down, and there, emblazoned on my flank, was the same circle that had appeared behind me.(OH MY GOSH, MY CUTIE MARK!)

"...Yes...yes it did look like that...exactly like that" I said.

"I was afraid of that...Autumn, I don't know how you did it, but you somehow got the inert pegasi magic inside of you to come out, and put itself into a physical form. And, that huge circle that appeared behind you and is now your cutie mark, is known as an arcane infinium, or AI. Unicorns use an arcane infinium to increase the strength of the spell they are using. I don't know how it would work for you pegasi, but even I have a hard time controlling it". With that, she took the clock off of the nightstand and set it on the floor. In its place was a purple "arcane infinium" as she called it, the same color as her coat. This arcane infinium had 8 arrows coming from it, and the inner circle was ringed with what looked like similar glyphs to the one that I had seen in the one behind me.

"This is my arcane infinium. yes, it looks different than your, but that is simply because the arcane circle tunes itself for every individual pony that uses it".

"Nopony knows where it came from, let alone how to use it. from what I've seen, it works different for all those who use it. I for example, use it to increase the strength of a spell that I am using. Some ponies, however, use it as an extra energy reserve to draw from when casting very strenuous spells" Twilight said.

"Then how does mine work?" I asked.

A look of pure confusion crossed Twi's face.

"I don't know". She must have been so mad that she had no idea what was going on, because I could see tears starting to form in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash notice this and immediately walked over and put her hooves around her best friend. Twilight sat there for a moment, obviously contemplating what to do next. She thanked Dash for the comfort, then stood back up to speak again.

"Autumn, when you get better, will you please come over to my house? Hopefully I can get everything ready by then". As soon as the words left her mouth, she picked up her bags once again and hurried out the door.

"Have what ready?" I asked.

Rainbow Dash patted me on my still injured leg, probably harder than she meant to.

"I have no idea, but when Twilight gets that look on her face, that means she knows what to do". She smiled at me, then saw the look of pain in my face as I laid there in bed. She quickly pulled her hoof off my leg and apologized.

Three days went by with me just laying in bed. Lucky me though, I had plenty of books to read. Rainbow Dash even let me borrow some of her Daring Do books. I quickly finished those, and ever so often, a doctor came in to check up on me and bring me my food.

I took the first step outside the door. I had to stop myself from running back inside as the cold morning air overtook me. I had been inside so long that I forgot The place has a heater. (BRRRRRR, I'll have to get used to this again). I unfolded my wings, oh it felt so good to be able to do that again. while I was in the hospital, I couldn't even open my wing halfway, I just had to lie there on the bed. I flapped my wings and started off toward the house of Twilight Sparkle.

I lighted down on the doorstep of the library, the whole building was a tree. I figured that it was magically enhanced to grow that way (Why would anypony even want to live in a tree?). I knocked on the door. A door opened, but it was not the one in front of me. I took a few steps back to see that the door to the balcony opened up to admit it's resident. She looked over the edge and waved to me, which I promptly waved back.

"Hi Autumn, why don't you just come on up here" she said, with much enthusiasm.

Once again i spread my wings and made the short flight to her balcony. Twilight had left the door open, so let myself in. I looked around, marveling at the countless books that lined the walls. I walked down the stairs to greet her.

"Hi Twilight, long time no se..." I said, a smile widening on my face, then I tripped, and started tumbling head over hooves down the stairs. Reaching the bottom with a small crash, I quickly picked myself up. As Twilight started laughing, my cheeks started turning a rosy pink (Why am I falling so much all of a sudden? it's embarrassing!)

"Well, when your ready, come downstairs. I'll go get everything ready" said the purple mare.

I quickly regained my composure and followed her downstairs. What was waiting down there for me was a room full of beeping machines. I walked in, confused as to what this is all for.

"We're going to find out the purpose of your arcane infinium. If you could stand still for a moment, I'll get you hooked up". I stood there, confused at the mechanics put on my body. She slid a cover over the bend of my wings too. It just felt so... odd.

"okay, now I'm going to have to ask you to try to use your AI, so that i can get a reading.

I was afraid to. The last time I did, I nearly killed myself, and I hardly wanted to do it again, but I needed to understand. I called out to the wind, the very air itself, to move at my command.

A little green circle appeared on the table. A little jet of wind poured upwards from what I assume as my AI.

"This is like nothing I've ever seen... Autumn, can you see if you can make a cloud with this circle?" asked twilight.

I closed my eyes and let my thoughts create a cloud from the moisture in the air. Opening my eyes again, they came to rest on a neat little cloud floating above a now spinning green circle.

The little green circle disappeared when Twi turned off the machinery. I assumed that it was okay to take off the equipment now, so I did. I turned to Twilight, hoping now to get some answers. but in her eyes there was understanding, with a hint of fear.

Author's Note

Okay people. Lets get a show of thumbs for this story!

Hopefully more thumbs up.

Thank you all for reading. I'll try to get chapter 3 up very soon

Magic for dummies

I looked over at Twilight in confusion. Sure, my sudden being able to use magic might be a little dangerous, but that's no reason to be scared of me. I suddenly realized that I had a desperate need to open my wings. I could feel my feathers brushing up against my coat, building up an excess of heat. The energy amplifiers that Twilight had attached to me weren't helping either.

I yanked off the equipment and rushed over to her. Throwing my hooves around her, I embraced her in a great big bear hug. As I looked down, I saw tears forming in her eyes

"Thanks Autumn" Twilight said as she wiped the tears away. She got back up and launched herself over too the table, and began scribbling some notes. "Okay, I think I've figured it out".

"Well then please tell me, cause I'm still as confused as I was when I came here" I replied walking up to peek over her shoulder and see the notes she was taking. These notes are way too complicated for me, why does she have to be so smart, it's not fair. Granted, I wasn't the best student in school, but still, I wish I could understand this stuff.

"From what I can tell, your magic is entirely based on your will... so in other words, the more you want to you it, the stronger it will be". She took a step forward, then wrapped me in her magic and started carrying me upstairs with her.

"Letmedownletmedownletmedownletmedown!" I shouted, and immediately I felt my face hit the stairs, and I toppled back down to the bottom. Twi rushed back down the stairs after me, meeting me at the bottom.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" She said quickly searching me over for any sign of injury.

"Yes, I'm fine. Can we please just go, ummm, wherever it was you wanted to go?" I said as I shot her a questioning glance.

"Yes, I suppose so". She started walking up the stairs once again. I took a sprint forward, stopping at her side."I was planning on taking you outside...".

"Well why didn't you say so!" I shouted as I quickly flew up the stairs and out the balcony window. That small basement had started to make me feel claustrophobic, and let me tell you, this feels soooooo much better. I raced up to the nearest cloud and grabbed it just as Twilight yelled for me to come back down. I brought it with me... and lied down on it as she spoke again.

"Since your still experimenting with your magic, it's probably a good idea to go somewhere where you can't hurt the populace". Mean... I mean Sure, I couldn't control it yet, but, I'm sure that I wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Fine, were should we go?"

"I thought Rainbow Dash would enjoy seeing you again. After all, she hasn't seen you since you were in the hospital" She said.

"Sure, her house isn't close to anything. I'll meet you there". I flipped my wings out, then flew off to Rainbow's house fast as possible. Or so I thought I would. I felt a tug on my rear, and I just started to hang. I looked back between my legs and saw that Twilight had grabbed me with her magic, and that I was hanging from her magical grip by the length of my tail. " Heeeeeeeeey... what was that for ". I looked down and tried to give her the best scowl I could. " This isn't very comfortable you know" I said, feeling the pain in my rump disappear. I got a mouthful of dirt, and sat myself back up.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to do that if you weren't still so inexperienced with your magic that you might kill yourself again, but since you are, I did" said Twilight, staring me over as if I were still a foal wanting to run and play 'hide and seek'. I felt insulted. Just because I'm not an adult doesn't mean that I can't take care of myself. "Just stick with me until we get there, okay Autumn? I shouldn't have to remind you that patience is a virtue".

"Patience is not a virtue, it is but an elaborate form of torture" I found myself saying. Twilight stopped and shot me a glare, then continued walking. I followed her, but I had a hard time just walking so slowly. I would've been there by now, why doesn't she just..."Hey Twilight, why don't you just teleport us there?" I questioned.

'Well, I probably would have, but it seems that now I have to teach you patience along with magic" she replied. I let my body go limp as gave up the argument. I hovered next to her, silently pleading with myself for her to go faster.

We arrived ten minutes later. I had given up on flying the whole way and started walking halfway through, realizing that she wouldn't speed herself up just to keep up with me.

"Hey Autumn, would you mind flying up and getting Rainbow Dash for me?" said Twilight. I quickly nodded and went to fetch the rainbow mare. Knowing my friend very well, I figured that she would probably be on her back porch,'soaking up some rays' as she calls it. I lighted down on the roof, feeling the familiar softness of the cloud underfoot, and bent myself over the edge. Dashie was doing exactly what I thought she would be doing, I had to stifle a laugh so that she wouldn't find me.

A random idea floated into my head...Brilliant! I closed my eyes and pictured a soft, I repeat, soft wind blowing the mirror out of her grip. I opened my eyes and peered over the edge. A small green circle had appeared just behind her head.My AI of course. Then a quiet breeze began to softly tug the mirror from her grip.

"Where'd this breeze come from, it wasn't here a second ago" I heard the tomboy say. she set the mirror down beside her and got out of her chair. She turned and saw the magical entity, then looked up at me. A grin grew on her face and she threw herself off the edge.

Crap! I ran forward and jumped off the edge, trying to catch up with her. The wind tugged at my entire body as I sped toward the ground. The cyan mare was nowhere to be found. Then, in an instant, she pulled up beside me,and sped down just as fast as myself

"So, when do we pull up?" she asked, competing with the wind to be heard.

"We don't" I told her, which was quickly returned by a worried stare.

We neared the ground, and I could hear Twi yelling for us to pull up. But I don't want to, I thought. I focused all of my being to make a huge jet of wind blow straight up from the surface. I reopened my eyes, and the AI spun very rapidly on the ground, blowing a huge blast of wind at us. Rainbow Dash pulled up about a hundred feet from the ground.

"Autumn stop! Your going to kill yourself!" she yelled, hovering in place as I continued my downward descent.

Suddenly, I reached the wind tunnel. The pressure it put on me was colossal, so much so that it felt like my hide would come off my body. I straightened myself out, and let the wind stop my falling nearly entirely. Twilight was only a couple feet away, and galloped over as fast as she could as I hit the ground, and a resounding CRACK came from my legs.

"OW OW OW OW!!!" I yelped as I fell to the ground, clutching my right foreleg. Not being able to feel your leg is a bad thing, right? cause that's how I'm feeling right about now, and it doesn't give you any idea on how bad your injury is. I suddenly found myself in the air again, which is odd, because I can still feel my wings at my side. I looked down at my body and saw that it was covered in a rosy aura. Twilight's aura.

Twilight stared to probe me with her magic for any other injuries. It felt terrible, like I was being felt up by her. I could feel a heat in my face and new instantly that my cheeks had turned red. "Your lucky that you only dislocated your leg, which is surprising, considering how reckless you just were" she lectured.

"I'm sorry Autumn, but this is going to hurt... a lot."

"Well thank you soooo much for the warning" I said sarcastically.

"On the count of 3, I'll put your leg back into place. 1...2...3 " she said, doing what felt like snapping my leg clean off. I can see it now, the top of my leg covered in blood, and the bottom somewhere on the ground.

"AAAAAAHHHH" I screamed, the sudden shock knocking the air out of me. I lied on the ground for a while, then looked up to where Twi and Dash were sitting next to each other. "Thanks" I muttered. Twilight looked over at me, and started to giggle.

"Don't worry about it, besides, what are friends for?" She said. A smile enveloped my entire face. "And from the looks of it, I won't need to teach you how to use magic after all. You can just learn more on the way". she frowned " Besides, it's not like I could help you. I've never seen a pegasus use magic before".

I got back up off the ground and hopped into the air and started to fly over to them when Rainbow Dash called out to me. "Autumn, LOOK OUT!!!"

A rock came and smashed into my back, stunning me. I popped an evasive loop as the next one coming tried to take a bite out of my face, but missing by just a hair. I noticed a red spot on my foreleg. Blood. Great, fucking perfect, now I have a crazy pony hurling rocks at me. I looked back to where the hat came from, and saw a brown earth pony mare with a black desperado hat on her head. I got a quick glance at her flank. Her cutie mark was an AI, just like mine, but a different shape and color.

SHIT! I screamed in my head. The mare jumped high into the air. "Twilight, Rainbow Dash. Get back, AND HURRY!!". I expected the mare to land with a thud on the ground, but when she came back down, the very ground cracked beneath her. A column of sharp, pointed rocks with jagged edges rose from the ground, and headed towards me. I pumped my wings and did a barrel roll to the right. When I leveled myself out, I saw that there was a boulder headed straight for me. There was no time to think. I hoped with all my might for the boulder to split in half and fly past me. My AI appeared in front of me, and shot what appeared to be blades of wind at the huge rock.

The blades hit the rock, of that I'm sure, and cut a long groove through the center, but only made it halfway through before the wind blade dissolved. The boulder rammed into my face and the rest of my body, throwing my to the ground, and it landing on top of me. There was a small crater, and I was at the bottom. Not good. HOW THE HELL DID SHE DO THAT!?!?!

As rage took hold of me, my only thought became BEAT THIS PONY! I called upon the wind and the boulder that pinned me down was chopped into hundreds of tiny little pieces by the wind. Again, not smart. The rock pieces fell on me and gave me even more cuts. The blood from the first cut had dried while I had lied under the boulder, but now fresh blood started to pour down my sides. I don't care, I thought as I raised myself from the rubble and sprinted to the top of the crater. I looked at the mare standing only yards away from me. She looked so cocky under that hat of hers. With a quick flick of my hoof, I blew the hat off, and stared at the brightest green eyes I've ever seen.

"Who are you" I rasped, trying to be as loud as possible.

She stood there for the longest time, then said " I'm Kage, and I'm here to kill you"

To Find Another

I launched myself into the air, screaming in fury as I did so. What did I ever do to get somepony after my life? I never made any enemies. Hell, I don’t even know who this pony in front of me is.

When I got back into reality, I looked down on myself, in all my bleeding (and probably broken) glory. I heard Twilight scream, and I jerked back to look at her. Her horn flared, and I suddenly found myself being cleaned of the blood on my body, and my cuts and lacerations closing. Rainbow Dash sprang from Twilight's side and rushed up to be by mine.

“While Twi’s magic is awesome, healing isn’t her forte. She’ll provide support from the back, and I’ll help you up front”. I nodded, thankful for the help. “Auutumn, ROCK!” she screamed. I quickly turned around, and saw the next boulder flung at not just me, but Rainbow Dash too. Unacceptable. I concentrated, and willfully blew the rocks to smithereens, leaving a huge cloud of dirt still in the air. Seeing an opportunity, I rushed to the side, then blew the dust away, straight into Kage. A cough. That’s all I need, I thought as I rushed toward the sound.

I ran into something, I don’t know, squishy? No... it's hard. I looked in front of me, and jumped back into the air, staring at the great big tree that just sprouted out of nowhere. I gave a few great flaps of my wings and cleared all the dust from the air around me. Sure enough, there was a huge tree that sprouted right in front of me.

Kage's chaotic laughter ran up along the tree with her. She raced up to the branch that I ran into and pivoted, her hindlegs bashing into me with amazing force. I flew back, unable to gain purchase in the air with my wings, and fell into the same crater she chucked me in the first time. this time, though, I didn't have a giant boulder on me, so I launched my self into the air after her again and threw a couple more well placed wind blades after her. Two of the blades made contact, and Kage stumbled, tripping over her injuries. One blade had cut one of her forelegs, while the other made a slash on her torso.

I did a barrel role when a vine shot out from the side of the tree. another came, and I couldn't dodge it, so I sliced it off. I saw Kage run up the tree again, but the same trick won't work on me twice, so I folded my wings and dropped right below the branch she was on. I opened and pumped my wing once again heading up as I turned my head to look at the suprised look on Kage's face. Now in the clouds, I landed atop one and peered over the edge.

Rainbow Dash was flying circles around the mare. "Rainbow Dash. Come here!". She looked up at me and nodded. within second the she was right next to me on the cloud, staring over the edge at Kage too.

"You got a plan?" she asked. Kage hurled a boulder up at us, but I cut it up with the wind before it reached us, and the pieces fell back to earth.

"Yeah... I need you to go back down there and distract her, while I bring this cloud down-"

"Whats a cloud gonna do to her, she can hurl boulders, and earth ponies can't touch clouds" Dashie said.

"I know, but lightning can" I said, a grin crossing my face. as soon as Rainbow Dash got the Idea and rushed back down to distract Kage. She took the bait and I slowly made my way down with cloud in hoof.

I set said cloud right above Kage's head, spun, and kicked it. The cloud instantly darkened and shot a bolt of lightning right at the mares rump.

Kage jumped. "Enough!!!" she screamed, and vine shot up from the ground from every angle, and grabbed me and dash, so that we were hanging from them. " I was told to go easy on you, since we don't know how strong you are. But fuck that, your gonna pay. That hurt, and you will not get away with it."

More branches came and wrapped themselves around all of my limbs, making it impossible for me to move. I looked over at Rainbow Dash and saw the same had been done to her. The branches began to pull. We both screamed in pain, and I closed my eyes. so this is how I'm gonna go out... this sucks.

I opened my eyes again and saw another pegasus come out of a cloud cover, and proceded to beat the shit out of Kage until she agreed to stop. Then he got up and... sliced the vines into pieces around us with wind blades?!? Me and Dash fell to the ground , and I coughed up some dirt. The pegasus came over and offered me a hoof. I took it and he pulled me back up.

"Autumn, I am sorry for the pain that Kage here caused you, but I had to make sure that you were the real deal."

"What? Who are you, why didn't you help us before, why do you know kage, and how do I know I can trust you?

He looked at me then looked away, whispering to himself then turned back to me."Okay, first off, before I answer any of your questions, you need to come with me". He turned to Dash and Twilight, who were now sitting together again and said "Don't worry ms. Sparkle, no harm will come to your friend". He quickly trotted over and handed Twi a note. she opened it and gave him a look of understanding. He trotted back up to me, then shot Kage a glare. "You will get back to HQ and I will deal with you later".

He lept into the air, and signaled for me to follow, so I did. as soon as I was next to him, he looked over to me. " First question, the name's Alex. Second, I was testing your fighting ability. Third, me and Kage are working together, and last, you don't, but you should". A little mysterious, but fair enough.

"Why did you let Kage nearly kill me?" I asked, looking at him. he too had a cutie mark of an AI, different than mine and Kage's but an AI all the same. he halted mid air, and it wasn't till I passed him that I realized he stopped. I swooped back around and stared him straight in the eye.

"I needed to know if you were good enough". he said knocking me to the side with a gust of wind.

I quickly regained my flight, and caught back up with him. "Good enough for what?" I asked him, and was given a cocky grin in response from the blue pegasus flying beside me.

"You'll find out soon enough" he said.

I looked ahead and saw Canterlot in the distance. another few minutes and we'll be there.

Okay, maybe not. We flew under the city and through a hole in the rock face of which the city rested. We landed in what looked to be a lounge. There was a huge couch, a small coffee table, and even a pool table! Alex walked in front of me before I could venture further.

"Wait here" he said, and trotted off into the next room. I sat down on the couch and waited... .. ... AAHH, could he take any longer! Then I heard hoofsteps. At least I thought I heard hoofsteps. I twisted my ears in the direction of the noise. Yup definitely hoofsteps. I turned and saw Alex walk back into the room with a white unicorn.

I got off the couch and faced him.

"I'm shining Armor, and welcome to the E.S.O.".

Author's Note

Okay guys, Finally done with chapter 4. I'm really sorry for the delay, but I Kinda didn't have a storyboard set up, so I thought it would be a good Idea to to do that before I continued.
I have to say, YAY, more cliffhangers. BWAHAHA. but don't worry, now that I do have the storyboard, I should be able to Post a lot more often and not leave you all hangin.
Thank you all for The likes, It's what keeps me going :)
All comments are welcome, and thumbs are appreciated.
Expect the next chapter to be posted next weekend at latest.
As names are hard to come up with, message me your suggestions and you might get your name in the story.
Thanks for all the support.

The E.S.O.

"The E.S.O? What’s that?" I asked, staring at the unicorn in front of me. “I know I’ve heard that from somewhere before…” my mind trailed off trying to remember. Was it when… nah. Oh well, I guess that it doesn’t really matter. I looked back forward and Shining Armor just sighed and sat down on the couch, looking over to me as I did the same.

“E.S.O stands for Equestrian Special Operations. We are the group that takes care of all the little problems that princess Celestia doesn’t really want everypony to know about.” He turned around to look at Alex and told him to go get the others. Getting up, he told me to follow him. I got up and started walking behind him. We walked into out of the room into a large hallway. I looked at the walls, which were decorated with pictures ranging from personal pictures of ponies that I never met, to those that I could recognize Shining Armor, Alex, and… Kage. I frowned when I saw her in those pictures, she looked so happy and…carefree? It seemed so off, compared to the Kage that tried to kill me just a couple hours ago. We continued walking until we came upon a large metal door, at which shining wrapped them in his magic, opened, and walked inside.

We walked inside and I gawked at the sheer size of the room, if it could even be called that. In the middle rested a large black tower that stood well over a hundred feet tall. The ceiling was at least double that, and the rocky walls stretched at least 500 feet across! I only stopped when I ran into him and fell to the floor. “Would you please fly me to the top of the tower? Unlike my sister, I can’t teleport” he said turning to face me. I nodded my head and jumped off the floor just enough to hover. I looked down at him and wrapped my hooves about his body.

I lifted him off the floor and slowly started to make my way up to the top of the black tower. I pumped my wings to make up for the extra weight of another pony. We reached the top and I set my companion down, then set myself down beside him. He walked over to the edge, smiled, then told me to come over too. I made my way over and was surprised to see clouds floating around the sleek black monument we stood on, and above too. I peered over the edge and looked at one that just stay there, harmlessly floating around. I leaped off the edge and landed atop it, and quickly brought it back up to the top of the tower. Shining armor made a face, and I stuck out my tongue in return. I looked at him and asked “So… what are we waiting foOOOoooAAAAAAAA?” I yelped as I fell off the edge. I caught myself and flew back up to the top of the tower.

He looked straight forward and said “For the others to get here. I told Alex to get them, but he sure seems to be taking his time in getting them.” He frowned. Then, as if on cue, a group of ponies set foot on the roof across from us and started to walk over. We met them in the center, and I saw Alex and Kage, another earth pony, and a unicorn. Once again, they all had an AI for a cutie mark, but other than that, there were no similarities, except for their race.

“Autumn, I would like you to meet the members of the E.S.O. You already know Alex and Kage” they both raised their hooves and said hi. He pointed to the earth pony. “This is Glory” he said as he pointed to the yellow earth pony next to Kage.

“Nice to meet you Autumn” she said, with a bright smile on her face. “It’s always nice to see a new face”.

Shining Armor then pointed to the unicorn colt standing beside Alex. “This is Ratchet. Now, he may seem young, but he is the most gifted pony I’ve ever met when it comes to anything technology”.

The tiny little unicorn gave me a salute. “Ratchet, at your service” he said, a smirk on his face.

“You can all go back to whatever it was you were doing now”. He dismissed them and turned back to me. “I want you to spend a day with each of them so that so that you can get to know them better before you go on any missions with them.” He motioned and I hopped off my cloud and I once again picked him up and flew him back to the floor where I promptly set him down and hovered beside him as he walked back to the door. “The day is almost over, so I’ll take you to your room and you can start in the morning. I would start with Kage, she feels really bad for what she did to you”.

We came up to another door, which Shining Armor quickly magicked open and led me inside. It was bare, save for a bed and a dresser. The walls were plain blue like the sky. It wasn’t a very large room, probably only about 12 feet across, and there were a couple of mechanical devices on the walls that glowed far brighter than any candle ever could have. I threw a hoof in front of my eyes to shield them from the sudden brightness. “What are those?” I intoned, pleading for them to stop being so bright.

He walked over to a switch on the wall, flipped it, and the lights dimmed. “Sorry about that, we had the maids come in and clean up this room before you came.” He walked over to the bed and sat down, then fell through and hit the floor.

I burst into laughter and fell to the floor, at which point he started to laugh too. “Well, that’s obviously a cloud bed, since you can’t sit on it. He got up through the bed and I jumped into the air and fell onto it with a plop and rested my head against the very soft pillow. He looked at me with a look of that is so unfair. I grinned, sat back up and faced him.

“This is your room and you are free to decorate it however you like. There is also a neat little trick that you should see” he pulled a lever near the light switch, and a puff later, a cloud popped out of a hole in the ceiling. “Pull this lever if you ever want to remodel or something. I have the weather ponies around Canterlot bring some of the clouds here, so no worries about using too much. We resupply every day.” He pulled another smaller lever next to the first and I turned to see a huge hole open up in the wall and suck all the clouds from the room, including the one I was sitting on. I hit the floor with a THUMP and saw Shining grin as he shoved the lever back to its original position.

“I’ll have Kage come get you in the morning, so redecorate this room as you please, and try to get along with her tomorrow. She normally isn’t so… aggressive. Good night Autumn” he said as he started for the door.

My head hit the pillow… um, floor as I tried to flop back down on the bed that wasn’t there when it hit me. I yanked the door open and threw myself outside and I felt my face hit the wall across from the door. Shining armor turned around with a confused look on his face. I pointed my hoof at his face. “Wait, what makes you think that I want to join eso?”.

“E.S.O.” he corrected me.

“Whatever, what makes you think that I want to join the E.S.O anyways? I was just brought here randomly from my house in Ponyville! Kage just tried to kill me!” my voice faultered “I mean, she was stopped, but still, She tried to kill me. What would stop her from doing it again” I said.

“Yeah… I’m really sorry about that, she kinda has some anger issues. We wanted to sort that out before you came, but that didn’t happen. Look, I already told you how bad she feels about it. Just give her a chance. Oh, and as to why you would join the E.S.O.” he emphasized the E.S.O. part “Because of all the perks. Plus that you would be helping Equestria, All of equestria, from war. It’s a pretty important job. Just spend one day with each of them. If you’re not totally convinced to join after that, then I won’t make you stay.

“Fine… g’night Shining Armor.”

“Night Autumn” he said as he turned and continued walking down the hallway. I too turned and walked back into “My” room. I pulled the lever under the lights and a tuft of cloud came out of the ceiling. I flew up and grabbed it and brought it to the floor. I recreated the bed that was there when I first walked in, then noticed a door in the back of the room. I walked over and opened it, finding a bathroom. I walked over to the sink, brushed my teeth and closed the door behind me as I walked back out.

I pulled back the covers and crawled in for a good night’s sleep. I passed out before my head hit the pillow.

Kaged in

I felt a soft nudge on my shoulder. I leaned over and peered into Rainbow Dash’s face. I leapt out of my bed on the opposite side to her.

“Rainbow Dash, how many times do I have to tell you, STOP BREAKING INTO MY HOUSE” I screamed.

“Autumn, who is Rainbow Dash?” said a voice that did not match my friend’s at all. I let my eyes readjust to the darkness of the room, and the still form of RD started to change. I first noticed the desperado hat, and I had my hunch. I watched as the figure changed slowly until Kage took its place.

“Sorry about that” I said as I walked over and turned the lights on. Gaaahhh! I quickly dimmed the lights to avoid being blinded, but it was too late. “Sorry, but could you give me a second, I’m trying to remember how to see” I spoke, hoping that it was loud enough for Kage to here.

I heard a little giggle as my sight returned to me. “Don’t worry about it; I’m pretty sure I did the same for the first week I was here. Frankly I’m surprised that I can still see”.

I stood back up, and walked over to the door and held it open for Kage, who walked out the door with a polite thank you. I followed and let the door close behind me as we walked through the hallway. I looked over to the sides and saw the pictures that were there yesterday.

We walked out into the main room, where Glory and Alex were sitting at the kitchen counter staring at ratchet. We walked up and took a seat next to them.

“I call it… A COFFEE MACHINE” ratchet yelled as he pressed a button on the strange machine that sat on the counter in front of all of them. Black liquid started to pour out of a nozzle and into a cup, which ratchet promptly swiped up with his magic and took to another counter, and filled up the rest of the cup with another liquid, but this one was tan. He stirred it and handed it back to Alex and Grinned at him.

“I don’t know ratchet… is this gonna taste like that soda you made for me the other day?” said the Pegasus, with a look of disgust.

“No… I put in the second part so that it tastes good. It should actually taste like vanilla” said the colt

Alex grabbed the cup off the counter and took a small sip, then another one, but larger. He smiled, turned and shoved the cup into glory’s face.

“Glory, you HAVE to try this, it’s so delicious!” Alex said as glory took the cup from him and drank a little. She too smiled and gave the cup to Kage, who drank a little and gave it to me. I looked at the small amount of liquid left in the glass. Probably only enough for one drink. I shrugged, and drank down the last of the “coffee” and felt a warm glow in my stomach. I handed the cup back to Alex, who asked Ratchet for another cup. Ratchet, in turn, looked at the smile on all our faces and asked us if we wanted another cup.

Alex and Glory both responded with a quick “YES!”, but Kage looked at him and said “Sorry, but no. Me and Autumn are going out for the day”. The three in front of us looked astonished, and Glory had her mouth wide open. Kage got up and walked out of the room, and I quickly got out of the chair, said bye, and followed her. I found her at the edge of the cliff that I came in on.

“Meet you at the bottom” She said, jumping off. I dashed to the edge and stared down, where I saw here land in a large body of water. I jumped off to, and flapped my wings as I got close to the floor to ease in my landing. I closed my wings and landed with a soft thud on the ground beside the pool. Kage held up a hoof and I helped pull her out.

She shook her entire body, and most of the water that came off missed me, but I still got wet. “Dry me off?” she asked. I flew around in circles about her, making a very small tornado, and funneled the water back into the pool. Landing again, I looked at her and asked where she wanted to go.

“Well, I’ve always wanted to go to Sugarcube Corner.” She said.

“Sounds like fun, but how are we gonna get there? I mean, I can walk with you, but that would take forever”.

“Who said anything about walking?” She responded, and then sprinted forward. I launched myself into the air and caught up with her.

“Try to keep up Autumn” was the last thing I heard before she sprinted forward again, much faster than before. Surprised by the sudden increase in speed, I fell behind. I pumped my wings again and again, but I still couldn’t keep up. I imagined a gust of controlled wind and I rushed forward. I came up to her, and she stopped. Not slowed down and stopped, just stopped. Unable to do the same, I shot past her and ran into a tree, not just any tree though, no, this tree is Twilights house.

I crashed through the wall and smashed into a bookcase, the latter falling on top of me. I looked around, but all I could see were stars; Stars that danced in my vision, over and over again.

Somepony lifted the bookshelf off of me, along with all of the books at the same time. I stood back up and saw Twilight looking down at me from the stairs.

“Autumn, what are you doing here, I thought you went with Alex to the E.S.O.” she said. I looked up at her, trying to say that Kage wanted to come, but no sound escaped. Rainbow Dash peered in from the gaping hole in the wall and saw Kage as she walked coolly over to where I was standing. She threw herself from the new window and landed in front on top of me.

“I won’t let you kill autumn!” the cyan Pegasus yelled at Kage, who took one look at her… and fell to the ground, laughing.

“What makes you think that I want to kill him? We came here together to get some lunch at Sugarcube Corner. Do you have any idea how badly I want to make it up to him? I NEARLY KILLED HIM! I already hate myself for it” she said with a frown.

I stood up, throwing Rainbow Dash off of me, walked over to Kage, and consoled her. “It’s ok Kage, I forgive you. After all, I’m still here aren’t I?” She giggled. I looked over to Rainbow Dash, “Dash, I appreciate you trying to aid me, but I’m not a colt anymore, and I can handle myself.” I turned and flicked my tail at her in annoyance as I walked off. Kage showed up beside me.

“Was that really necessary?”

I sat down and crossed my front legs. “I’m tired of her treating me like a foal! She’s done it ever since I met her” I huffed. Kage lowered her head and picked me up, right in the middle of town, and walked us over to the restaurant. She stopped at the door and bucked me off. My face hit the door and I slid down and hit the floor just as a pink mare opened it. I stood back up and faced her.

“Hey Autumn, who’s your friend?” She said, bouncing around me. She took Kage’s hoof and shook it with enough force to shake Her too! “I’m Pinkie Pie, and I am so so so so sooo happy to meet you!” I smiled, looking at Kage’s expression of utter confusion.

“um… I’m… Kage?” She said. Pinkie pie stopped shaking her hoof, gasped, and looked at me, then at Kage, and back at me…again. She back flipped over me and rushed inside.

“Relax, she’s just being Pinkie” I said, laughing. We walked inside and the interior of the shop was full of decorations. Pinkie dropped down from the ceiling.

Seeing the confused looks on our faces, she explained. “I know everypony in town, and since I don’t know you that means you’re not from here. And if you’re not from here that means that you never had my cupcakes before, or my cake, or my pie, or cookies, or punch, or…” I shoved my hoof in her mouth to silence her.

“Pinkie Pie, were just here for lunch. That’s all we want, were not here for a party…” I started saying, but Pinkie Pie just disappeared from sight, for like, 10 second, then reappeared in a fancy waiter outfit, with a mustache.

“Please follow me” she said, bouncing to a table. She set down a couple of menus and disappeared again. We sat down and looked up to find water on the table, along with flowers, napkins, and silverware. I continued to stare at the flowers, and I could feel my cheeks burning. We ordered our food. I got a cupcake, and Kage got the apple pie. We sat there for ten or so minutes, talking about our pasts when Pinkie came back with our food.

She walked up with a very large serving plate balanced on her head. Setting it down on the table, she gave Kage her pie and me My cupcake-asaurus!

“Holy crap! This thing is a cupcake? It’s bigger than my head!” I lifted the cupcake to show them, and got the opposite response that I wanted. Pinkie Just smiled and bounced away, And Kage fell backwards roaring in fits of laughter. UUGGHH! I set the cupcake back on the table and looked at Kage. Her face really deserves a Pie right now. And with that thought, A jet of wind set her chair upright, and her face slammed into the pie. This time it was me that fell over in a hysterical laughing fit, and Kage that had a pillar of wood grow from the floor and send MY face towards the cupcake.

I really hate wind right now. I wanted to stop my face from hitting the cupcake, but accidentally blew myself into the cupcake harder. I heard a smoosh as my face collided with the frosting, then the chocolate pastry itself.
We Both laughed, cleaned off, then ate the remains of our food. After giving our thanks to Pinkie, we made our way back to the E.S.O. where we walked into the dark corridor that made the entrance so hard to find.
“Coffeecoffeecoffee!” we both heard come from the main room. We rushed in to find Alex and Ratchet Bouncing off the furniture, walls, and anything else possible. I looked over to the Kitchen and saw Too many cups to count stacking up to fill the entire sink.
“HOW MANY CUPS OF COFFEe HAVE YOU HAD!?” I screamed, hoping they would hear me.
“32 CUPS!” cried Alex.
“I HAVE NO IDEA!” shrieked Ratchet, who bounced wrong and smashed into the floor.
“Kage, would you kindly stop them?” I asked. She responded with a crazy grin and stood up on her back hooves.
“YOU HAVE TILL 3 TO SIT DOWN AND STOP BOUNCING! 1…” and she slammed her hooves to the floor, shaking the entire cliffside. Two cages wrapped around them and fell to the floor. I shot her a glare. “What?” she said innocently “I got bored”. Yeah right. She kept them in the cages while she “confiscated” the offending coffee machine. She came back from the hallway leading to the rooms just as Shining Armor walked in.
“What in equestrian is going on in here?” he asked as he saw the two bouncing wildly inside the cages.
“Ratchet invented something he called a Coffee Machine, and they drank WAAAAYY to much, and couldn’t stop bouncing, so we put them in these cages” Kage said.
“I see… well, you two go to sleep, and I’ll take care of these two hooligans” Shining armor stated with reluctance.
“G’night Shining” I yelled back to him as I walked through the hallway to my room. I hopped in bed and pulled up the covers.

Author's Note

Hey guys. WOOOO next chapter. hope yall enjoy it.
don't forget to leave your comments and thumbs.

bad news

Sorry guys, but due to some errors that i have made, such as just going at this story with no plan, has led me to needing to re create the story entirely. i know that i've been bad with updates to, but i plan to create a storyboard before writing this new version of the story, and as such, will be able post on a more regular basis. sorry for the bad news, but i hope to have the redone story (at least the first chapter) posted within a few weeks.

Thanks for your patience

~PegasusAI

Also, i am in need of an editor, so if any of you have any writing experience, and want to play a part with the story, then send a message my way and ill get back to you ASAP