Dash of Gravityby NordenfeltChaptersYou can’t keep me groundedCambium Megablastoh, of present...The unaware are the most vunerableA lazy bookwormYou can’t keep me grounded“Come on, try” Said a familiar blue Pegasus If you haven’t guessed yet, this is the one, the only Rainbow dash. Fan of the wonder bolts, pupil of their academy; the loyal daredevil. “But Rainbow, I don’t have wings” Came a voice from a pony, looking confused, sounding it too “Please, for your sister, it will be hilarious” For a daredevil, Rainbow had an armoury of persuasion, puppy dog eyes, long held pleases, literal breath taking bear hugs, also, the will only siblings have for each other when they want to embarrass each other. “Are you being seriously?” a tone of ‘are you kidding me?’ swept over the pony’s voice, living with Rainbow, this was probably a regularly “Cross my heart, hope to fly,’ a slight pause was given as her sister was sniggering so much that if she laughed any more, she would on the floor, cackling, also a glare “What? It’s a truce” “Fine, finish please” In a 'I am princess of this land, obey me or face peril' accent, the pony beckoned for her to continue “Ahem, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” Rainbow said it like she was a Commander, addressing soldiers before a fire fight. “Fine, I will try” The grey pony said it like a depressed teen This was Rainbow Dash, in her parent’s house, with her little sister, Gravity, Which used to be a nickname but had become her full blown name. Unlike her family’s lucky streak with flight, she was an earth pony. A strange burden for the Dash family to take on. Though at first, seen as a mess,needing being pushed under the rug, they grew it love her. This was a Dash not know by us, before the friends in pony-Ville. This was a time of seeing what the lord had given Gravity. The yard was small, a little cloud, probably plucked randomly. “3” boomed Rainbow “Seriously?” This wasn’t serious, why is Rainbow being so serious? “2” Again, boomed Rainbow “My god!” she was being serious, she was. Why? “1” Slightly louder, boomed Rainbow “Do we have all day?” Teenager mode activated again “Go” roared Rainbow, it might have shook the metal walls a bit Gravity’s coat was a dusty grey, her mane, unlike Rainbow’s, was only one colour, a fading red. She was small for her age, not terribly, just slightly. Though loved, she was kept in walls, home schooled. Though very clever, she had no sighting of the outside. Rarely seen the sky, the only times when she did were, when, her parents accidently left the latch unlocked. To her, it was a beautiful thing like the first stuffed bear to a child. She drew many pictures of it, she would always ask her sister what the outside was like? Was it scary? Was it fun? Was it adventurous? Or was it boring? Rainbow, used to it, would only pay the slightest shred of attention. The only question she spent her whole attention span on was this: ‘How are the others?’ It probably scared her, that instead of saying ‘other ponies’ she said ‘others’ as if she was not from this world. That’s the day, rainbow convinced their parents to take down the metal roof, and it took a lot of cunning, a lot of puppy dog eyes and a lot of ‘please’. “Fine” Again, like a depressed teen “Wow” Rainbow was stunned “What? I’m just on the metal floor” Both of Gravity’s eyes were closed, either out of embarrassment or praying it worked. “Open your eyes, you silly” Rainbow was overjoyed to see what Gravity was doing Pop. Pop. “Wow!” Gravity’s voice was louder than Rainbow’s count down She was flying, literally. Flying, an earth pony...Was flying. “I know right” Rainbow could have broken the metal floor with her excitement fuelled jumping “How is this going on?” Like anyone, Gravity was given a great gift, but must question it first “Maybe it’s because you don’t have wings” Rainbow used the least scientific but most confusing thing to say “What do you mean?” Gravity completely didn’t get it “Because you don’t have wings, it gave your this wicked awesome power” She rephrased it so Gravity did get it “Awesome, can I stand on clouds?” The grey pony continued to question her supernatural gift. A long pause followed, until... “I don’t know, maybe” The loyal daredevil thought this over, this may be because if it was wrong, she could indirectly kill her only sister “Open the latch?” A devilish game it is to break a family rule “Yes” More devil than dare, Rainbow didn’t only agree, she insisted she opened it Against all of their parents’ rules and restrictions, they opened the door, not for food or water; it was to let out the pony that hadn’t been out of metal walls since it was born. “One hoof first?” Gravity stammered, she was shaking like an earthquake from nerves “Yeah” Rainbow snickered, she could tell Gravity was scared, she had seen that look The cloud made a sort of poof sound as a hoof stood on it, then another poof. Followed by two others. There it was the first earth pony physically able to stand on a cloud. A group of pegasi stopped in their tracks, jaws almost hitting their hooves. A white and red pegasus collided into each other. “That pony is possessed!” A voice from the crowd shouted, known to all but gravity, this was Vicar Bolt, once a great flyer for the secret six, the wonder bolts of the past. He lazily flew forward, his grey body withered and his dark mane greasy and scruffily combed. He wore his, once, white collar. He opened his dark brown leather saddle bag; he then took out the holy book. Though their family was religious, Gravity hadn’t heard of nor seen the book itself, all she knew that it held stories of a pony, forgotten, a great healer, teacher and friend, not pegasi nor unicorn, one of the earth. He began to mutter his holy words. “Father, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom com...” “Hey!” Rainbow Dash screamed, any louder and she could have cracked her lungs “My sister may be different, but she isn’t possessed!” Naked anger flooded her voice; you could almost see the smoke coming from her nose. “Now, Rainbow” Bolt lowered his voice to make his voice as soft as a kitten “I know what it feels like, but your sister,” his voice become more of a bull’s now than a kitten’s “She is possessed by the one casted into the flames” Gravity was welling up, the looks from the crowd, and the hurtful words from the Victor. She was no demon, nor monster. “Now, listen here, bub, I don’t know where you are getting this from, but it isn’t looking true” She just manages to not hit Bolt, and point at her sister. The crowd was backing off, bit by bit. It was as if Rainbow was going to blow “Stop!” this was the blubbering voice of Gravity, barely able to speak. She got up from the patch of cloud and went into the metal walls, and. Klink. Clank. It was locked. The metal she had escaped didn’t meet her kindly, still the same rusting walls. Gravity curled up and lied still, tears like a water fall. Words were swirling around her head, demon, monster, hatred, and, the last resource anyone asked for, help! Klink. Clank. “Hey, little sis,” A slither of positive dislike still stuck on her tongue “Don’t matter about them” “But, sis,” Tears still gliding down her face “I’m not a demon? Am I?” Another bombard of tears and wails exploded through the air. “No,no,no, it’s not true,” her voice’s drop of anger dripped and was replaced by the silent purr of family love ‘You’re my sister, nothing else’ ‘Thanks, sis” The tears slowed, still coming but slowed “No, turn off the water works” Hugging her sister, more of a bear hug than a loving hug but a hug is a hug. Bang! Bang! Crash! “WOW!” Gravity rocket out of the literal breath taking hug, and the water works were replaced with a loud stereo “What is that?” “They’re throwing stuff at our house” The slither in her voice was back “Why?” Gravity gave Rainbow the puppy dog eyes that convinced their parents to take off the roof “They still believe you’re possessed” Rainbow’s slither of anger was becoming a river pure rage “What do we do?” The cogs of the waterworks were beginning to turn again “We wait it out” Bang! Bang! Click! Clank! Click! Bang! Clank! This went on for about an hour, it finished a long time before their parents arrived. A lot of conversation went on, what had happened, what Bolt thought of Gravity, Rainbow’s outburst, and the stuff thrown at their house. It took an hour and a half of argument but the roof went back up. A few days passed before Gravity said another word. “Sister” No emotion, no sadness, no happiness, no anger, no guilt, just neutral. “You can still talk, jeez, another minute, it would have been perfect silence” Rainbow said, jokingly, half sarcastic as she knew what her sister was going to ask. “What is going to happen?” Emotion came back; it was a mixture of confusion and slight sadness. “I overheard them, they’re talking about moving” Now, she was neutral, just sounded bored. “Where?” She was as excited as a pony on cider day “Just over Pony Ville,” She had starting playing catch with a book “Burgh, I hate reading” She threw the book across the room, where it landed in a pile of others “Pony Ville!” Excited as a lover on Valentine’s Day “You have no idea where or what it is, do you?” Calling her bluff “No, but it sounds awesome” Still as excited as earlier “You really want to know about it, don’t you” Rainbow knew it was true, and knew it was going to be boring telling her sister about it. “Yes, yes, yes, yes” Though terribly energized, she kept it quiet as not to awake her parents “Fine” It was Rainbow’s turn to be teen She told Gravity about the Apple family. That when they came to Canterlot, Princess Celestia granted the Apple Family land near the Everfree forest, where Granny Smith and her family planted their first orchard. They soon ran out of food because "an orchard doesn’t grow overnight". One night, a pony by the name of ‘smith’ ventured into the Everfree Forest by herself to look for food. She discovered the most incredible apple trees that bore rainbow-coloured apples. When the filly returned home with a bag full of them, she and her father planted the first Zap apple seeds. Drawn in by the jam made from the unique fruit, other ponies started coming to the land, such as Stinkin’ Rich, Diamond Tiara's grandfather, who started a small market that sold Zap Apple Jam. And before they knew it, we had ourselves a nice little town, bustling with all kinds of ponies. Rainbow continues by talking about their tradition of Winter Wrap-up. Because the town was founded by earth ponies, they had to clean up winter by hoof instead of by magic. She then said this has been going on for hundred. Then saying That Pony-Ville still does the "Winter Wrap-up" as a town tradition. By the time Rainbow had gotten through only half of the town’s history, Gravity had fallen asleep. Rainbow silently tip toed over, and tucked in her little sister. She then smiled for her sister. Cambium MegablastThe Dashes had moved over Pony-Ville, into a white cloud mansion, with spiralling stairways, large rooms, even larger bedrooms and, best for Gravity, away from all the ponies in clouds-dale. Gravity ran into up the stairs, through a hallway, took a left than a right. Then, stood, stone still. She had found a staircase into the attic, now any explorer would run like hell was chasing them to get up in to that room. That is what Gravity did. Run as if hell itself was chasing her. Bang. Bang. Bang, the stairs went as a little pony ran up them. The attic was dusty, full of boxes, wooden and cardboard, old and new. Gravity has read daring do, every single one, the books taught that friends can conquer all...Also, to open every single container in any room to see what was in there. Dust flied as she opened the first box. Cough. Cough. Cough, went the pony as dust ran around her. Inside were a number of books, note books and pads, all titled. They read: The reins of destiny, saddleback of destiny, count pony-ula, Dr. Mad’s pony, Iron hooves’ Party cannon theory, Journal one, Journal two, Journal three, Journal... No number. The journals were all leather and decaying slightly too, to Gravity this meant ancient. The journal with no number puzzled her, all the others were numbered, either this is something important or the pony was too lazy to actually write the number. This journal was more crinkled and bent than the others. Gravity didn’t want to let her role model down, though, time and time again, Rainbow had said Gravity’s role model was her, when it was Daring Do. Though, the role model is only real with ink and paper, she still saw her as her role model. She had nicknamed it ‘Chameleon system’ (the cover peeled slightly to see a couple of scribbling and the words ‘Chameleon system’, therefore Chameleon system) she set it down near the stairs, making sure that she didn’t make a sound, not even a creek. She opened another, this time it was just random junk, a old bottle of nuka shake, she wasn’t going to drink that, a little screwdriver, a rusty wrench, than a piece of fabric. It was torn, not ripped to shreds, torn neatly. It was fully purple except for a picture of a blue Pegasus; the Pegasus looked extremely like her sister, rainbow hair and all. The only thing that wasn’t there was her mouth, and her eyes. Was it a war banner? Then strange markings lay across the top, the first looked like to circles on top of each other, the second was a line bent to the right, the third was a single circle, the fourth was a curved line downwards, and the fifth looked like a curved line upwards with a little tail. She couldn’t understand it. Was it an ancient language? None the less, she placed it down near to Chameleon system. As she turned her back on it, it shown greens slightly; it illuminated part of the room. The grey pony span around, the light stopped as soon as her eyes caught the material. She then trotted on, with the thought as if nothing happened and it was her little imagination. Another box: An old Super pony comic, a bat pony comic, a full set of castles and kings, and a book on the party cannon theory. ‘Nerd’ Gravity rolled her eyes as she thought this but she took the party cannon book anyway and placed it down next to the supposed war banner. “Gravity! Where are you?” A voice exploded through the house, bouncing across the walls and into the attic “Yes!” Here came the classic response of yelling back instead of walking to see what the matter was “I’m trotting into the biggest room” She wasn’t really, she just was doing it to get her little sis mad, like any good older sibling would do “Wait! What?” She came sprinting down from the room, but taking the three items with her. She turned a couple corners and a few more left lefts and rights; Just in time to see her sister half way through a door way. “No!” Launching her through the doorway and into the room itself “Mine!” As firm as a single soldier against a thousand soldiers “Dang nag it,” Rainbow faked being annoyed “You beat me too it, little sis” “Aha” Sticking her tongue out at her sister “Fine, it’s yours” Still pretending “Yes it is” And another stick of the tongue As night fell and the others were asleep, Gravity lay awake, reading. At this moment, she was reading the party cannon theory: If the confetti is aimed and the balloons are loading as instructed and fired precisely, it should, as estimated, create the perfect party scene. The mark one was issued to test subjects, it appears the experiment helium has a certain hypnotic side effect, the mark two’s confetti was made of a prototype paper, designed for the Statue D shuttle, and it pierced the dummies. We are fighting... Gravity threw the book at a makeshift pillow silencer, with its landing dead on. Chameleon System seemed to glow in the dark, so she picked it up. She flicked through; it was all science words, and nothing she understood as a filly, then red lettering, spelling out ‘True history’. She flipped back, and this she could understand and read: The apple family took our land, no permission, just snatched it like the common thief. Planted apple trees were our homes were. That filly that walking into the ever free forest, roach was about it run and slit it’s throat, we had to hold him back. We haves rules, one of them is ‘not the little ones’. The rule was almost discharged as she stole our last food source. We have hidden under ground, and stole cloths and diamonds as acts of revenges of this cursed town, Lamigo, the only pony around us, is going to let him free. We shall watch as this town falls. Gravity shot up like a bullet, the apples were thieves? Who is this Lamigo? Who is ‘him’? Gravity fell asleep before the questions got to her. And poof. No more questions. The sister’s parents called breakfast, and, as nature dictates, they ran down stairs like a bull after a red shirt. There mum announced they would be started school today, and there dad announced that they had about 5 minutes to get there. “What?! Quick, sis, fly!” Rainbow commanded, even before her little sibling could react, she had grabbed her and was started to fly out the door. Shot past three houses, scraped part of the roof of another, and through the centre of an apple cart, a green pony yelled something while she covered a small orange filly’s ears. “Rainbow!” Gravity yelled “What?” Still flying but looking at her sister, bad move. She chased into a pink filly. “Owww” The pink filly was holding her hooves “Oh, I’m sorry,” Rainbow dash was coming towards the pink filly “Are you okay?” “Yeah, nothing a teeny tiny party wouldn’t fix” The filly was making a shape with her hooves that was quite small “So,” She scratched the back of her head “Where are you off to?” “Pony-Ville school” Said the little filly “Cool, we are going there too, can you show us the way? We’re new” Rainbow gambled. “Yeah, sure” she said, bouncing up and down And the three fillies trotted to school together; the beginning of a friendship between pinkie pie and Rainbow dash. oh, of present...Chapter 3: back again Here we are, the present date, well a year off it. This is the Rainbow dash we are familiar with; the one that defeated Discord, the one that got into the academy and the one that defeated little bugs that had serious appetites, the older one, from a impatient, and immature filly to an immature and impatient mare. Though Gravity hadn't done anything that changed Equestria or Ponyville,she didn't defeat impostors nor fight dragons, her parents had passed on, and didn't have anything to say at their funeral, nothing she had done, the only thing she could say was 'I still love you'. Rainbow had everything: her friends, the hydra, sombra, nightmare moon and the plain white house they had left them, slowly floated above Ponyville. daring escapes from traps, magic curses, academy and social connections, all things Rainbow had, and Gravity was left to choke in the dust. It was a normal day; a year since Mother and Father Dash had passed on (or just six feet under), everything in Equestria was fine, Discord reformed, Luna wasn't nightmare moon any more, and no random diamond dogs stealing ponies, and no blue flowers turning ponies' tongues into swollen lumps. Only one thing that stood out like a sore hoof was a hooded figure walking through Canterlot, no one took mind of it after the Zecora incident, a zebra, that isn't really that bad. “Halt!” Two guards crossed spears, blocking the hooded pony’s path, the guards both were very broad, but they kept huffing, not of exhaustion, but of annoyance, it was a very slow day. The first guard was oil drum red, but his head was bald with patches. The other was cloud white, with sticking out hooves with his helmet stuck on, a dent lay in the side, might be a vet of the changelings. Both of their amour covered their emblems, as if it was national security not to know their talents; well, you could see a chunk, but there isn't much you can come off on with a black spike, and a steel tip. Unless one stabbed people as a talent and the other used a mace, then those little golden flaps didn't do much. “Yes?” The hooded figure had a strange accent, thick yet light, foreign yet familiar. The figure's hood covered every part of his body,except his eyes, they were red, his pupils were almost transparent. It was as if his eyes were in blood. “This is the castle gardens” One of the guards yelled, his gold amour gleamed into the stranger’s eye, but he took no notice, just shuck his head to pull the hood over his eyes. “And?” The stranger tilted its head at its own response, the hood took the wind, but didn't move of the figure's head just ruffled at the current, as if latched on by nails. “ 'And?' It’s off limits,” The guard was smirking“Unless; you are of royalty or a guard. You don’t have a gold amour under that robe do you?” The guard burst out laughing at his own joke, the other rolled his eyes, it must be of natural order now, he punched his chest. The wind pulled out of his lungs. Both glared daggers into one another, well if the imaginary daggers were as sharp as steel. “Is that so?” The stranger question the guards’ loyalty, but as guard, you took a loyalty test to see if you were fit, but even the loyalty of royals can have holes. “Yes!” Both stood as serious as possible, though the joking one still smirked slightly, the annoyed one still glaring but had changed his daggers' target, a hooded figure daring to question a Celestial guard's loyalty. “No even for one thousand bits?” The stranger rustled in the robe, and came back with a large bit pouch, clanking gold could be heard from inside; and poof! Loyalty gone. No more spears. Just for gold. Well, a thousand bits off it. “Though it isn't royalty, it will do” both guards trying to hide their natural greed, that every parasite to pony in Equestria possessed, but locked away. Locked away...In a very flimsy cage. “Here you go!” he threw the pouch across the ground, the hold of leather loosened, the string broke, and gold coins scattered across the cobbled road. The guards looked at one another for about half a second, with greed and the fires of fights in their eyes, and both began to sprint towards the coins, while the guards punched, kicked, and threatened each other over petty currency, the ‘guest’ slipped in. As soon as the guards, battered and bruised by punches and confused by the other's insults, touched the last bit of shimmering metal on the cobblestones , it ignited into green flame, no sign of the fire starting, no fuse nor a spell; just a poof. the thousand pieces disappeared, leaving behind a little note that said ‘Wise up, idiots’. While the guards tried to scurried to make them look professional again, around the hooded figure’s mouth, a ball of green fire appeared, similar to the first, and when the fire was gone, the pouch, string and all were there, but the leather was slightly darkened by the fire. “Ha” the stranger chuckled to himself, the garden was beautiful, but for him, it was too...Too...In order. “This place needs something, something chaotic” the hooded figure muttered to himself "Think, royal area, uproar needed, something funny" Then a little light flickered on in his head. He threw his mouth into the saddle bag, then his snout, the saddle bag was darkened, like the bit pouch, but the leather had peeled in places, leaving little holes, the straps were more wear and tear, after a long time, they had been replaced with chords, red chords. After almost sticking his entire head in his bag, he pulled out a picture of Celestia, and written, in lipstick red, was: ‘See you at midnight Luna’ and sat it on a little park bench, in the middle of the Celestial gardens. “That will cause some mischief, now to sneak away like a thief” Started to rhythm like Zecora, he trotted off, leaving his little patch of mischief behind, but a green light shone through the robe, but not around the head, it was from the neck. The unaware are the most vunerable“Celstia? We've...Ummm, found something” A unicorn guard walked through Celstia’s door, instead of the rest, he wore silver amour, rusted and battered, the straps had snapped, the survivors of the scissors and magic hung over the amour. Their job was replaced by two cogs, taken from an old war room, secret to all but a few, which was supposed to be secret to him as well. “What is it, blues?” Celestia lay on her velvet red bed, staring out the window, not looking at the guard at all, as if being royal made the guards disgusting and repulsive. “This” Blues tried not to smirk, it was funny to just about every guard, except lead, and he was the one who ordered Blues to send it to Celstia. Lead was the leader of the guards, but he was terribly serious, there were rumours that Lead stayed here overnight, while the rest of the guards were in the tavern.He levitated the paper covered object and moved it towards the bed, the paper was shaking as of Blues' sniggering. Celstia’s horn sparked her familiar transparent yellow and caught the mysterious object, the paper was a bit torn because the guards wanted it to remain a secret but sell it to Canterlot news. “What is it?” Celestia questioned, knowing the guards’ personalities, joking and immature to be a bit...Scattered. “We don’t know, one of the guards gave it to Track and he gave it to me and I came up here” He lied, if he was being truthful, he would have said ‘ it was on a park bench in the gardens, I found it and have showed every guard, they thought it was hilarious, but lead ordered me, douche’ but to keep his job, he lied. “Right,” She rolled her eyes, she could see right through the lies, like a scissor through paper; she unravelled the paper, and jumped, eyes wide, and jaw hitting the ground, her eyes were shaking, her teeth gritted, almost biting into one another “What is this?” She sounded like a psychopath, and looked a bit like one too. “No idea,” he was doing the worst job of finding his smirk, but it was too funny to not laugh “I think Lug found it” “Look,” Positive hatred ran through her voice and a bit of ice latched with it, almost about to explode in fire, he spoke “I can see through your little charade, I always can, now tell me what this is?” “In my thinking,” Again, Blues is lying as his usual ‘thinking’ is about the mares that walk past the castle and pick-up lines for them, but he got turned down almost every-time “Some is either pulling your leg a bit too tight or that little frame there,” Cautiously pointing at the photo “Is real...” Celestia stared daggers into Colt, and in a castle with an armoury, it wasn't the greatest idea to say that “Which I do not believe for one second” “I want a bounty” Celestia’s little maniac outburst had stopped, but was replaced by a murderer's. “A bounty?” Blues tilted his head, unsure if what he heard was true. “Yes, did I stutter?” Celestia gaze was turning to anger again. “No, just...” Blues kicked at the ground for a second, as if trying to tunnel his way out “I haven’t seen a bounty in the whole time I've worked here” “No, you have not,” Celestia’s voice was neutral “But you shall now” “Okay, you want the scribe?” Blues was uneasy about Celestia, he could see that she was mad but she didn't show anything about being mad, maybe she was going insane. “Yes, please send inky” Celestia’s voice was unchanged “INKY!” Blues shouted out the huge door “GET IN HERE!” A smaller, blue, colt came in through the door, he wore a apron, stained with ink, with pockets with ink bottles and quills, the bottles were either polished and could blind or where darkened by ink stains, the bottles' ink were stuck in by old wine corks, which were battered and bruised, the apron was blotted grey, looking like it had been through twenty owners, though he looked younger than any other in the castle, he spoke with the voice of an old man. "Yes-s, what is-s-s it-t?" Inky spoke with a stutter, it was slight but it would be terribly annoying if anyone was exposed to it too long. "We need a bounty on a person" The princess actually looked at the stallion, as if a scribe was more important than a guard. "Okay-y, then-n-n" Inky seem very casual about this, even though he had worked very little time as the princess scribe "Well," She seems unnerved about Inky's response, but continued "I need a price on a little prankster" "Is-s-s it-t, the-e-e picture-e?" Inky's stutter made Celestia's eyes flash open, pupils shrink, and teeth grit to the brink of breaking. "How do you know about that" The outburst went into overdrive, if the stuttering scribe pushed her any more, she would turn red and sunburn would be the new fashion across the land. "I'm-m-m The-e-e one-e who-o reported it-t" Inky's stutter wasn't his stutter, this stutter was made out of fear, as scared as you can get for annoying a pony that can control the sun. "What?!" She screamed out as if she were in pain, her eyes shrank even more, until it was like looking at an eight ball from a mile away, her teeth began to make a grating noise, it was like the scratching of a chalkboard, if it was being scratched by knifes. "Who did you report it to?" "Track-k-k" Inky said, he was still scared but he hoped the truth would sift the blame, but sifting the anger would be harder... "But Blues said..." Celestia thought on about Blues' excuse "you-u Believe-e-e Blues?" He was laughing inside but trying to be professional "Yes...No, well a bit" She was almost fuming at Inky but decided she didn't need to get a new scribe today "So-o, what's-s on this-s, then-n?" His apron pockets made the ink bottles dance around, but instead of waiting for them to stop moving, he just grab on with his teeth and put it down on the table, leaving behind a black smudge on his teeth, his eyes watered slightly but he held back the gagging of sick flavors. "To a little prankster, we have something for you" She hadn't calmed down, but she had turned her anger into near insanity. We have something sharp for you Celestia thought to herself, and gave a murderers grin. "What's the price?" Inky attempted to look away from the grinning horror, but the smile was taking up most of her face. It was like trying not to look at a golden crown in a silver cutlery shop. "Two thousand for dead, three and a half thousand bits for alive, three for half alive" The grin was still there, but was now accompanied by two blood thirsty eyes. The white of her eye was almost being stained by chaos and insanity "Okay-y," He scribbled down the price on a scroll, the quill was terribly old, most of it was replaced, either by elastic or by string and twine. "We-e-e need a photo-o, we don't want ponies-s kill-l-l each other for two thousand bits" I hope Celestia doesn't want that too Inky's thoughts were hopeful, but at this moment, hope was almost running low when you're looking dead straight at psychopathic ruler. "Take this 'prank' to the printing room," Celestia bagged the picture and stuffed it into the pocket of Inky's apron, the importance of scribes died down "Say to the others do there, if they laugh or what to see it, they get fired" "Aye, I will, better be off" As he trotted through the door, he hoped and prayed Celestia wouldn't try to kill anypony while he was gone. Let's be hopeful and with that, he trotted down the halls to the printing room. A lazy bookwormGravity never left the house; she may go to the market on times, but other than that odd time when Rainbow was being lazy enough to send her, she never left. The ‘incident’ in Clouds-dale, even though it was ten years ago, had made her believe that all ponies were like that. Throwing cloud pieces at house. Demon theories. She believed that the Pony-Ville citizens were going to be as ruthless and brutal as Clouds-dale. Though Clouds-dale didn’t gut ponies, they did scare them into hiding. Gravity was an example. Rainbow was getting annoyed that all her sister ever did has read or look out the window. “Alright,” Annoyance struck Gravity’s ears; it was about time “Gravity?” “Yeah Sis,” Gravity looked up from a book she was reading “What?” “What you reading?” As you could guess, she didn’t care, though a fan of books herself, this was another trap to try and drag her sister outside “This day will live forever by Orange Brave,” She look at the cover, placing one of her hooves in the book “It’s quite good, very forgiving story, it’s like Daring Do, except with lovers and an everlasting day” “Cool, cool,” Rainbow leant against one of the many white walls “Hey, I finished another Daring Do book” “You are seriously still reading those?” Gravity’s eyebrows shared her confusion “I’m younger than you and I can read better” Gravity’s smile shone bright and strong “Hey!” Rainbow shouted, not in a threatening way, the way you would shout at a friend “They’re good!” “And? This concerns me because...?” Gravity wasn’t even paying attention, she was now staring into her book again “I need you to take it back” Rainbow said, ‘this plan is working perfectly’ She thought “Why can’t you?” She questioned her sister’s command, like any annoying sibling would “I’m lazy, remember?” Rainbow said, putting on the sleepy voice, fake but effective “Fine,” Gravity then muttered under her breath “Annoying little...” The rest was lost in translation
You can’t keep me grounded“Come on, try” Said a familiar blue Pegasus If you haven’t guessed yet, this is the one, the only Rainbow dash. Fan of the wonder bolts, pupil of their academy; the loyal daredevil. “But Rainbow, I don’t have wings” Came a voice from a pony, looking confused, sounding it too “Please, for your sister, it will be hilarious” For a daredevil, Rainbow had an armoury of persuasion, puppy dog eyes, long held pleases, literal breath taking bear hugs, also, the will only siblings have for each other when they want to embarrass each other. “Are you being seriously?” a tone of ‘are you kidding me?’ swept over the pony’s voice, living with Rainbow, this was probably a regularly “Cross my heart, hope to fly,’ a slight pause was given as her sister was sniggering so much that if she laughed any more, she would on the floor, cackling, also a glare “What? It’s a truce” “Fine, finish please” In a 'I am princess of this land, obey me or face peril' accent, the pony beckoned for her to continue “Ahem, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” Rainbow said it like she was a Commander, addressing soldiers before a fire fight. “Fine, I will try” The grey pony said it like a depressed teen This was Rainbow Dash, in her parent’s house, with her little sister, Gravity, Which used to be a nickname but had become her full blown name. Unlike her family’s lucky streak with flight, she was an earth pony. A strange burden for the Dash family to take on. Though at first, seen as a mess,needing being pushed under the rug, they grew it love her. This was a Dash not know by us, before the friends in pony-Ville. This was a time of seeing what the lord had given Gravity. The yard was small, a little cloud, probably plucked randomly. “3” boomed Rainbow “Seriously?” This wasn’t serious, why is Rainbow being so serious? “2” Again, boomed Rainbow “My god!” she was being serious, she was. Why? “1” Slightly louder, boomed Rainbow “Do we have all day?” Teenager mode activated again “Go” roared Rainbow, it might have shook the metal walls a bit Gravity’s coat was a dusty grey, her mane, unlike Rainbow’s, was only one colour, a fading red. She was small for her age, not terribly, just slightly. Though loved, she was kept in walls, home schooled. Though very clever, she had no sighting of the outside. Rarely seen the sky, the only times when she did were, when, her parents accidently left the latch unlocked. To her, it was a beautiful thing like the first stuffed bear to a child. She drew many pictures of it, she would always ask her sister what the outside was like? Was it scary? Was it fun? Was it adventurous? Or was it boring? Rainbow, used to it, would only pay the slightest shred of attention. The only question she spent her whole attention span on was this: ‘How are the others?’ It probably scared her, that instead of saying ‘other ponies’ she said ‘others’ as if she was not from this world. That’s the day, rainbow convinced their parents to take down the metal roof, and it took a lot of cunning, a lot of puppy dog eyes and a lot of ‘please’. “Fine” Again, like a depressed teen “Wow” Rainbow was stunned “What? I’m just on the metal floor” Both of Gravity’s eyes were closed, either out of embarrassment or praying it worked. “Open your eyes, you silly” Rainbow was overjoyed to see what Gravity was doing Pop. Pop. “Wow!” Gravity’s voice was louder than Rainbow’s count down She was flying, literally. Flying, an earth pony...Was flying. “I know right” Rainbow could have broken the metal floor with her excitement fuelled jumping “How is this going on?” Like anyone, Gravity was given a great gift, but must question it first “Maybe it’s because you don’t have wings” Rainbow used the least scientific but most confusing thing to say “What do you mean?” Gravity completely didn’t get it “Because you don’t have wings, it gave your this wicked awesome power” She rephrased it so Gravity did get it “Awesome, can I stand on clouds?” The grey pony continued to question her supernatural gift. A long pause followed, until... “I don’t know, maybe” The loyal daredevil thought this over, this may be because if it was wrong, she could indirectly kill her only sister “Open the latch?” A devilish game it is to break a family rule “Yes” More devil than dare, Rainbow didn’t only agree, she insisted she opened it Against all of their parents’ rules and restrictions, they opened the door, not for food or water; it was to let out the pony that hadn’t been out of metal walls since it was born. “One hoof first?” Gravity stammered, she was shaking like an earthquake from nerves “Yeah” Rainbow snickered, she could tell Gravity was scared, she had seen that look The cloud made a sort of poof sound as a hoof stood on it, then another poof. Followed by two others. There it was the first earth pony physically able to stand on a cloud. A group of pegasi stopped in their tracks, jaws almost hitting their hooves. A white and red pegasus collided into each other. “That pony is possessed!” A voice from the crowd shouted, known to all but gravity, this was Vicar Bolt, once a great flyer for the secret six, the wonder bolts of the past. He lazily flew forward, his grey body withered and his dark mane greasy and scruffily combed. He wore his, once, white collar. He opened his dark brown leather saddle bag; he then took out the holy book. Though their family was religious, Gravity hadn’t heard of nor seen the book itself, all she knew that it held stories of a pony, forgotten, a great healer, teacher and friend, not pegasi nor unicorn, one of the earth. He began to mutter his holy words. “Father, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom com...” “Hey!” Rainbow Dash screamed, any louder and she could have cracked her lungs “My sister may be different, but she isn’t possessed!” Naked anger flooded her voice; you could almost see the smoke coming from her nose. “Now, Rainbow” Bolt lowered his voice to make his voice as soft as a kitten “I know what it feels like, but your sister,” his voice become more of a bull’s now than a kitten’s “She is possessed by the one casted into the flames” Gravity was welling up, the looks from the crowd, and the hurtful words from the Victor. She was no demon, nor monster. “Now, listen here, bub, I don’t know where you are getting this from, but it isn’t looking true” She just manages to not hit Bolt, and point at her sister. The crowd was backing off, bit by bit. It was as if Rainbow was going to blow “Stop!” this was the blubbering voice of Gravity, barely able to speak. She got up from the patch of cloud and went into the metal walls, and. Klink. Clank. It was locked. The metal she had escaped didn’t meet her kindly, still the same rusting walls. Gravity curled up and lied still, tears like a water fall. Words were swirling around her head, demon, monster, hatred, and, the last resource anyone asked for, help! Klink. Clank. “Hey, little sis,” A slither of positive dislike still stuck on her tongue “Don’t matter about them” “But, sis,” Tears still gliding down her face “I’m not a demon? Am I?” Another bombard of tears and wails exploded through the air. “No,no,no, it’s not true,” her voice’s drop of anger dripped and was replaced by the silent purr of family love ‘You’re my sister, nothing else’ ‘Thanks, sis” The tears slowed, still coming but slowed “No, turn off the water works” Hugging her sister, more of a bear hug than a loving hug but a hug is a hug. Bang! Bang! Crash! “WOW!” Gravity rocket out of the literal breath taking hug, and the water works were replaced with a loud stereo “What is that?” “They’re throwing stuff at our house” The slither in her voice was back “Why?” Gravity gave Rainbow the puppy dog eyes that convinced their parents to take off the roof “They still believe you’re possessed” Rainbow’s slither of anger was becoming a river pure rage “What do we do?” The cogs of the waterworks were beginning to turn again “We wait it out” Bang! Bang! Click! Clank! Click! Bang! Clank! This went on for about an hour, it finished a long time before their parents arrived. A lot of conversation went on, what had happened, what Bolt thought of Gravity, Rainbow’s outburst, and the stuff thrown at their house. It took an hour and a half of argument but the roof went back up. A few days passed before Gravity said another word. “Sister” No emotion, no sadness, no happiness, no anger, no guilt, just neutral. “You can still talk, jeez, another minute, it would have been perfect silence” Rainbow said, jokingly, half sarcastic as she knew what her sister was going to ask. “What is going to happen?” Emotion came back; it was a mixture of confusion and slight sadness. “I overheard them, they’re talking about moving” Now, she was neutral, just sounded bored. “Where?” She was as excited as a pony on cider day “Just over Pony Ville,” She had starting playing catch with a book “Burgh, I hate reading” She threw the book across the room, where it landed in a pile of others “Pony Ville!” Excited as a lover on Valentine’s Day “You have no idea where or what it is, do you?” Calling her bluff “No, but it sounds awesome” Still as excited as earlier “You really want to know about it, don’t you” Rainbow knew it was true, and knew it was going to be boring telling her sister about it. “Yes, yes, yes, yes” Though terribly energized, she kept it quiet as not to awake her parents “Fine” It was Rainbow’s turn to be teen She told Gravity about the Apple family. That when they came to Canterlot, Princess Celestia granted the Apple Family land near the Everfree forest, where Granny Smith and her family planted their first orchard. They soon ran out of food because "an orchard doesn’t grow overnight". One night, a pony by the name of ‘smith’ ventured into the Everfree Forest by herself to look for food. She discovered the most incredible apple trees that bore rainbow-coloured apples. When the filly returned home with a bag full of them, she and her father planted the first Zap apple seeds. Drawn in by the jam made from the unique fruit, other ponies started coming to the land, such as Stinkin’ Rich, Diamond Tiara's grandfather, who started a small market that sold Zap Apple Jam. And before they knew it, we had ourselves a nice little town, bustling with all kinds of ponies. Rainbow continues by talking about their tradition of Winter Wrap-up. Because the town was founded by earth ponies, they had to clean up winter by hoof instead of by magic. She then said this has been going on for hundred. Then saying That Pony-Ville still does the "Winter Wrap-up" as a town tradition. By the time Rainbow had gotten through only half of the town’s history, Gravity had fallen asleep. Rainbow silently tip toed over, and tucked in her little sister. She then smiled for her sister.
Cambium MegablastThe Dashes had moved over Pony-Ville, into a white cloud mansion, with spiralling stairways, large rooms, even larger bedrooms and, best for Gravity, away from all the ponies in clouds-dale. Gravity ran into up the stairs, through a hallway, took a left than a right. Then, stood, stone still. She had found a staircase into the attic, now any explorer would run like hell was chasing them to get up in to that room. That is what Gravity did. Run as if hell itself was chasing her. Bang. Bang. Bang, the stairs went as a little pony ran up them. The attic was dusty, full of boxes, wooden and cardboard, old and new. Gravity has read daring do, every single one, the books taught that friends can conquer all...Also, to open every single container in any room to see what was in there. Dust flied as she opened the first box. Cough. Cough. Cough, went the pony as dust ran around her. Inside were a number of books, note books and pads, all titled. They read: The reins of destiny, saddleback of destiny, count pony-ula, Dr. Mad’s pony, Iron hooves’ Party cannon theory, Journal one, Journal two, Journal three, Journal... No number. The journals were all leather and decaying slightly too, to Gravity this meant ancient. The journal with no number puzzled her, all the others were numbered, either this is something important or the pony was too lazy to actually write the number. This journal was more crinkled and bent than the others. Gravity didn’t want to let her role model down, though, time and time again, Rainbow had said Gravity’s role model was her, when it was Daring Do. Though, the role model is only real with ink and paper, she still saw her as her role model. She had nicknamed it ‘Chameleon system’ (the cover peeled slightly to see a couple of scribbling and the words ‘Chameleon system’, therefore Chameleon system) she set it down near the stairs, making sure that she didn’t make a sound, not even a creek. She opened another, this time it was just random junk, a old bottle of nuka shake, she wasn’t going to drink that, a little screwdriver, a rusty wrench, than a piece of fabric. It was torn, not ripped to shreds, torn neatly. It was fully purple except for a picture of a blue Pegasus; the Pegasus looked extremely like her sister, rainbow hair and all. The only thing that wasn’t there was her mouth, and her eyes. Was it a war banner? Then strange markings lay across the top, the first looked like to circles on top of each other, the second was a line bent to the right, the third was a single circle, the fourth was a curved line downwards, and the fifth looked like a curved line upwards with a little tail. She couldn’t understand it. Was it an ancient language? None the less, she placed it down near to Chameleon system. As she turned her back on it, it shown greens slightly; it illuminated part of the room. The grey pony span around, the light stopped as soon as her eyes caught the material. She then trotted on, with the thought as if nothing happened and it was her little imagination. Another box: An old Super pony comic, a bat pony comic, a full set of castles and kings, and a book on the party cannon theory. ‘Nerd’ Gravity rolled her eyes as she thought this but she took the party cannon book anyway and placed it down next to the supposed war banner. “Gravity! Where are you?” A voice exploded through the house, bouncing across the walls and into the attic “Yes!” Here came the classic response of yelling back instead of walking to see what the matter was “I’m trotting into the biggest room” She wasn’t really, she just was doing it to get her little sis mad, like any good older sibling would do “Wait! What?” She came sprinting down from the room, but taking the three items with her. She turned a couple corners and a few more left lefts and rights; Just in time to see her sister half way through a door way. “No!” Launching her through the doorway and into the room itself “Mine!” As firm as a single soldier against a thousand soldiers “Dang nag it,” Rainbow faked being annoyed “You beat me too it, little sis” “Aha” Sticking her tongue out at her sister “Fine, it’s yours” Still pretending “Yes it is” And another stick of the tongue As night fell and the others were asleep, Gravity lay awake, reading. At this moment, she was reading the party cannon theory: If the confetti is aimed and the balloons are loading as instructed and fired precisely, it should, as estimated, create the perfect party scene. The mark one was issued to test subjects, it appears the experiment helium has a certain hypnotic side effect, the mark two’s confetti was made of a prototype paper, designed for the Statue D shuttle, and it pierced the dummies. We are fighting... Gravity threw the book at a makeshift pillow silencer, with its landing dead on. Chameleon System seemed to glow in the dark, so she picked it up. She flicked through; it was all science words, and nothing she understood as a filly, then red lettering, spelling out ‘True history’. She flipped back, and this she could understand and read: The apple family took our land, no permission, just snatched it like the common thief. Planted apple trees were our homes were. That filly that walking into the ever free forest, roach was about it run and slit it’s throat, we had to hold him back. We haves rules, one of them is ‘not the little ones’. The rule was almost discharged as she stole our last food source. We have hidden under ground, and stole cloths and diamonds as acts of revenges of this cursed town, Lamigo, the only pony around us, is going to let him free. We shall watch as this town falls. Gravity shot up like a bullet, the apples were thieves? Who is this Lamigo? Who is ‘him’? Gravity fell asleep before the questions got to her. And poof. No more questions. The sister’s parents called breakfast, and, as nature dictates, they ran down stairs like a bull after a red shirt. There mum announced they would be started school today, and there dad announced that they had about 5 minutes to get there. “What?! Quick, sis, fly!” Rainbow commanded, even before her little sibling could react, she had grabbed her and was started to fly out the door. Shot past three houses, scraped part of the roof of another, and through the centre of an apple cart, a green pony yelled something while she covered a small orange filly’s ears. “Rainbow!” Gravity yelled “What?” Still flying but looking at her sister, bad move. She chased into a pink filly. “Owww” The pink filly was holding her hooves “Oh, I’m sorry,” Rainbow dash was coming towards the pink filly “Are you okay?” “Yeah, nothing a teeny tiny party wouldn’t fix” The filly was making a shape with her hooves that was quite small “So,” She scratched the back of her head “Where are you off to?” “Pony-Ville school” Said the little filly “Cool, we are going there too, can you show us the way? We’re new” Rainbow gambled. “Yeah, sure” she said, bouncing up and down And the three fillies trotted to school together; the beginning of a friendship between pinkie pie and Rainbow dash.
oh, of present...Chapter 3: back again Here we are, the present date, well a year off it. This is the Rainbow dash we are familiar with; the one that defeated Discord, the one that got into the academy and the one that defeated little bugs that had serious appetites, the older one, from a impatient, and immature filly to an immature and impatient mare. Though Gravity hadn't done anything that changed Equestria or Ponyville,she didn't defeat impostors nor fight dragons, her parents had passed on, and didn't have anything to say at their funeral, nothing she had done, the only thing she could say was 'I still love you'. Rainbow had everything: her friends, the hydra, sombra, nightmare moon and the plain white house they had left them, slowly floated above Ponyville. daring escapes from traps, magic curses, academy and social connections, all things Rainbow had, and Gravity was left to choke in the dust. It was a normal day; a year since Mother and Father Dash had passed on (or just six feet under), everything in Equestria was fine, Discord reformed, Luna wasn't nightmare moon any more, and no random diamond dogs stealing ponies, and no blue flowers turning ponies' tongues into swollen lumps. Only one thing that stood out like a sore hoof was a hooded figure walking through Canterlot, no one took mind of it after the Zecora incident, a zebra, that isn't really that bad. “Halt!” Two guards crossed spears, blocking the hooded pony’s path, the guards both were very broad, but they kept huffing, not of exhaustion, but of annoyance, it was a very slow day. The first guard was oil drum red, but his head was bald with patches. The other was cloud white, with sticking out hooves with his helmet stuck on, a dent lay in the side, might be a vet of the changelings. Both of their amour covered their emblems, as if it was national security not to know their talents; well, you could see a chunk, but there isn't much you can come off on with a black spike, and a steel tip. Unless one stabbed people as a talent and the other used a mace, then those little golden flaps didn't do much. “Yes?” The hooded figure had a strange accent, thick yet light, foreign yet familiar. The figure's hood covered every part of his body,except his eyes, they were red, his pupils were almost transparent. It was as if his eyes were in blood. “This is the castle gardens” One of the guards yelled, his gold amour gleamed into the stranger’s eye, but he took no notice, just shuck his head to pull the hood over his eyes. “And?” The stranger tilted its head at its own response, the hood took the wind, but didn't move of the figure's head just ruffled at the current, as if latched on by nails. “ 'And?' It’s off limits,” The guard was smirking“Unless; you are of royalty or a guard. You don’t have a gold amour under that robe do you?” The guard burst out laughing at his own joke, the other rolled his eyes, it must be of natural order now, he punched his chest. The wind pulled out of his lungs. Both glared daggers into one another, well if the imaginary daggers were as sharp as steel. “Is that so?” The stranger question the guards’ loyalty, but as guard, you took a loyalty test to see if you were fit, but even the loyalty of royals can have holes. “Yes!” Both stood as serious as possible, though the joking one still smirked slightly, the annoyed one still glaring but had changed his daggers' target, a hooded figure daring to question a Celestial guard's loyalty. “No even for one thousand bits?” The stranger rustled in the robe, and came back with a large bit pouch, clanking gold could be heard from inside; and poof! Loyalty gone. No more spears. Just for gold. Well, a thousand bits off it. “Though it isn't royalty, it will do” both guards trying to hide their natural greed, that every parasite to pony in Equestria possessed, but locked away. Locked away...In a very flimsy cage. “Here you go!” he threw the pouch across the ground, the hold of leather loosened, the string broke, and gold coins scattered across the cobbled road. The guards looked at one another for about half a second, with greed and the fires of fights in their eyes, and both began to sprint towards the coins, while the guards punched, kicked, and threatened each other over petty currency, the ‘guest’ slipped in. As soon as the guards, battered and bruised by punches and confused by the other's insults, touched the last bit of shimmering metal on the cobblestones , it ignited into green flame, no sign of the fire starting, no fuse nor a spell; just a poof. the thousand pieces disappeared, leaving behind a little note that said ‘Wise up, idiots’. While the guards tried to scurried to make them look professional again, around the hooded figure’s mouth, a ball of green fire appeared, similar to the first, and when the fire was gone, the pouch, string and all were there, but the leather was slightly darkened by the fire. “Ha” the stranger chuckled to himself, the garden was beautiful, but for him, it was too...Too...In order. “This place needs something, something chaotic” the hooded figure muttered to himself "Think, royal area, uproar needed, something funny" Then a little light flickered on in his head. He threw his mouth into the saddle bag, then his snout, the saddle bag was darkened, like the bit pouch, but the leather had peeled in places, leaving little holes, the straps were more wear and tear, after a long time, they had been replaced with chords, red chords. After almost sticking his entire head in his bag, he pulled out a picture of Celestia, and written, in lipstick red, was: ‘See you at midnight Luna’ and sat it on a little park bench, in the middle of the Celestial gardens. “That will cause some mischief, now to sneak away like a thief” Started to rhythm like Zecora, he trotted off, leaving his little patch of mischief behind, but a green light shone through the robe, but not around the head, it was from the neck.
The unaware are the most vunerable“Celstia? We've...Ummm, found something” A unicorn guard walked through Celstia’s door, instead of the rest, he wore silver amour, rusted and battered, the straps had snapped, the survivors of the scissors and magic hung over the amour. Their job was replaced by two cogs, taken from an old war room, secret to all but a few, which was supposed to be secret to him as well. “What is it, blues?” Celestia lay on her velvet red bed, staring out the window, not looking at the guard at all, as if being royal made the guards disgusting and repulsive. “This” Blues tried not to smirk, it was funny to just about every guard, except lead, and he was the one who ordered Blues to send it to Celstia. Lead was the leader of the guards, but he was terribly serious, there were rumours that Lead stayed here overnight, while the rest of the guards were in the tavern.He levitated the paper covered object and moved it towards the bed, the paper was shaking as of Blues' sniggering. Celstia’s horn sparked her familiar transparent yellow and caught the mysterious object, the paper was a bit torn because the guards wanted it to remain a secret but sell it to Canterlot news. “What is it?” Celestia questioned, knowing the guards’ personalities, joking and immature to be a bit...Scattered. “We don’t know, one of the guards gave it to Track and he gave it to me and I came up here” He lied, if he was being truthful, he would have said ‘ it was on a park bench in the gardens, I found it and have showed every guard, they thought it was hilarious, but lead ordered me, douche’ but to keep his job, he lied. “Right,” She rolled her eyes, she could see right through the lies, like a scissor through paper; she unravelled the paper, and jumped, eyes wide, and jaw hitting the ground, her eyes were shaking, her teeth gritted, almost biting into one another “What is this?” She sounded like a psychopath, and looked a bit like one too. “No idea,” he was doing the worst job of finding his smirk, but it was too funny to not laugh “I think Lug found it” “Look,” Positive hatred ran through her voice and a bit of ice latched with it, almost about to explode in fire, he spoke “I can see through your little charade, I always can, now tell me what this is?” “In my thinking,” Again, Blues is lying as his usual ‘thinking’ is about the mares that walk past the castle and pick-up lines for them, but he got turned down almost every-time “Some is either pulling your leg a bit too tight or that little frame there,” Cautiously pointing at the photo “Is real...” Celestia stared daggers into Colt, and in a castle with an armoury, it wasn't the greatest idea to say that “Which I do not believe for one second” “I want a bounty” Celestia’s little maniac outburst had stopped, but was replaced by a murderer's. “A bounty?” Blues tilted his head, unsure if what he heard was true. “Yes, did I stutter?” Celestia gaze was turning to anger again. “No, just...” Blues kicked at the ground for a second, as if trying to tunnel his way out “I haven’t seen a bounty in the whole time I've worked here” “No, you have not,” Celestia’s voice was neutral “But you shall now” “Okay, you want the scribe?” Blues was uneasy about Celestia, he could see that she was mad but she didn't show anything about being mad, maybe she was going insane. “Yes, please send inky” Celestia’s voice was unchanged “INKY!” Blues shouted out the huge door “GET IN HERE!” A smaller, blue, colt came in through the door, he wore a apron, stained with ink, with pockets with ink bottles and quills, the bottles were either polished and could blind or where darkened by ink stains, the bottles' ink were stuck in by old wine corks, which were battered and bruised, the apron was blotted grey, looking like it had been through twenty owners, though he looked younger than any other in the castle, he spoke with the voice of an old man. "Yes-s, what is-s-s it-t?" Inky spoke with a stutter, it was slight but it would be terribly annoying if anyone was exposed to it too long. "We need a bounty on a person" The princess actually looked at the stallion, as if a scribe was more important than a guard. "Okay-y, then-n-n" Inky seem very casual about this, even though he had worked very little time as the princess scribe "Well," She seems unnerved about Inky's response, but continued "I need a price on a little prankster" "Is-s-s it-t, the-e-e picture-e?" Inky's stutter made Celestia's eyes flash open, pupils shrink, and teeth grit to the brink of breaking. "How do you know about that" The outburst went into overdrive, if the stuttering scribe pushed her any more, she would turn red and sunburn would be the new fashion across the land. "I'm-m-m The-e-e one-e who-o reported it-t" Inky's stutter wasn't his stutter, this stutter was made out of fear, as scared as you can get for annoying a pony that can control the sun. "What?!" She screamed out as if she were in pain, her eyes shrank even more, until it was like looking at an eight ball from a mile away, her teeth began to make a grating noise, it was like the scratching of a chalkboard, if it was being scratched by knifes. "Who did you report it to?" "Track-k-k" Inky said, he was still scared but he hoped the truth would sift the blame, but sifting the anger would be harder... "But Blues said..." Celestia thought on about Blues' excuse "you-u Believe-e-e Blues?" He was laughing inside but trying to be professional "Yes...No, well a bit" She was almost fuming at Inky but decided she didn't need to get a new scribe today "So-o, what's-s on this-s, then-n?" His apron pockets made the ink bottles dance around, but instead of waiting for them to stop moving, he just grab on with his teeth and put it down on the table, leaving behind a black smudge on his teeth, his eyes watered slightly but he held back the gagging of sick flavors. "To a little prankster, we have something for you" She hadn't calmed down, but she had turned her anger into near insanity. We have something sharp for you Celestia thought to herself, and gave a murderers grin. "What's the price?" Inky attempted to look away from the grinning horror, but the smile was taking up most of her face. It was like trying not to look at a golden crown in a silver cutlery shop. "Two thousand for dead, three and a half thousand bits for alive, three for half alive" The grin was still there, but was now accompanied by two blood thirsty eyes. The white of her eye was almost being stained by chaos and insanity "Okay-y," He scribbled down the price on a scroll, the quill was terribly old, most of it was replaced, either by elastic or by string and twine. "We-e-e need a photo-o, we don't want ponies-s kill-l-l each other for two thousand bits" I hope Celestia doesn't want that too Inky's thoughts were hopeful, but at this moment, hope was almost running low when you're looking dead straight at psychopathic ruler. "Take this 'prank' to the printing room," Celestia bagged the picture and stuffed it into the pocket of Inky's apron, the importance of scribes died down "Say to the others do there, if they laugh or what to see it, they get fired" "Aye, I will, better be off" As he trotted through the door, he hoped and prayed Celestia wouldn't try to kill anypony while he was gone. Let's be hopeful and with that, he trotted down the halls to the printing room.
A lazy bookwormGravity never left the house; she may go to the market on times, but other than that odd time when Rainbow was being lazy enough to send her, she never left. The ‘incident’ in Clouds-dale, even though it was ten years ago, had made her believe that all ponies were like that. Throwing cloud pieces at house. Demon theories. She believed that the Pony-Ville citizens were going to be as ruthless and brutal as Clouds-dale. Though Clouds-dale didn’t gut ponies, they did scare them into hiding. Gravity was an example. Rainbow was getting annoyed that all her sister ever did has read or look out the window. “Alright,” Annoyance struck Gravity’s ears; it was about time “Gravity?” “Yeah Sis,” Gravity looked up from a book she was reading “What?” “What you reading?” As you could guess, she didn’t care, though a fan of books herself, this was another trap to try and drag her sister outside “This day will live forever by Orange Brave,” She look at the cover, placing one of her hooves in the book “It’s quite good, very forgiving story, it’s like Daring Do, except with lovers and an everlasting day” “Cool, cool,” Rainbow leant against one of the many white walls “Hey, I finished another Daring Do book” “You are seriously still reading those?” Gravity’s eyebrows shared her confusion “I’m younger than you and I can read better” Gravity’s smile shone bright and strong “Hey!” Rainbow shouted, not in a threatening way, the way you would shout at a friend “They’re good!” “And? This concerns me because...?” Gravity wasn’t even paying attention, she was now staring into her book again “I need you to take it back” Rainbow said, ‘this plan is working perfectly’ She thought “Why can’t you?” She questioned her sister’s command, like any annoying sibling would “I’m lazy, remember?” Rainbow said, putting on the sleepy voice, fake but effective “Fine,” Gravity then muttered under her breath “Annoying little...” The rest was lost in translation
