“So where did you leave off?” Curt asked Twilight as the now larger group met in the garden again for the continuation of the story.
“When we just touched down on Bob,” Twilight answered.
“Sweet, then we don't have to wait long,” Debby added.
“Wait for what?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“You'll see. It'll be easier with everyone else here to help,” Twilight lit up and started, “So the Puma was tearing toward the ruins...”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“Can you try not to hit every bump?” Curt complained.
“You wanna walk?” Seth countered.
“I know a spell to put a zipper on his mouth,” Twilight offered.
Debby laughed, fantasies of a silent Curt dancing in her mind. “As nice as that would be, he'll just unzip it.”
“Lock it up,” Seth ordered, “We're getting close.”
“Really?” Twilight asked, “No passing through a treacherous jungle? No avoiding a rival team and their evil plans? No ancient temple guardian?”
“The ancient temple guardian is inside the temple,” Curt explained, “He'll be in the room with the Heavenly Bow.”
“Curt... you're an idiot,” Twilight gave him a deadpanned look, “The Heavenly Bow is in the Sky Temple in the clouds. This would be the Earth Temple where the Obsidian Armor is kept.”
“Ah, my mistake.”
It came into view. The structure reminded Twilight of the ruins of the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters except without the towers. It was obviously a fortified structure at one time similar to fortresses from before the unification of the tribes. Most of the ancient buildings were reduced to piles of rubble by time. In fact, all the buildings were so far gone that there was no way one could get anything from them... all but one.
In the center of the ruin was a single intact structure. It was a simple, gray stone box. No windows, no defining features except one. It looked like it was just built yesterday. The five gave each other puzzled looks before cautiously making their way toward it.
“Amazing,” Twilight's eyes wandered over the entire thing, “Wards, hundreds of wards all meant to protect it from the ravages of time and nature. All the tomes in the Canterlot archives have the exact same enchantment.”
“Does that mean ponies build this?” Raak asked.
“There's only one way to find out,” Debby grinned and ran to the wooded double doors, swing them open before Seth could stop her.
“What the hell, Debby!” Seth scolded in a harsh whisper, “You didn't know what was behind this door. It could have been trapped.”
“But it's not, so who cares,” said the half-aviva, “Come on.”
“Don’t do anything unless I give you permission,” Seth commanded.
The warriors move cautiously through the doors, weapons and spells at the ready. Inside was simply one large room nearly as mundane as the outside, but with a throne at the far side. Though the most interesting feature wasn't the fancy seat, but the chaos lord that sat upon it.
“Welcome Griffons,” James greeted, “I thought you stopped for coffee or something. I'm really glad you're here, because boy do I have some truly wonderful things to tell you. First, tell me Twilight, what you can about the chaos lord Mayhem?”
“He almost destroyed Avol by taking us from our sun. He's probably the most evil creature my world has ever known,” Twilight lectured.
“And what if I told you that everything you just said is a lie made by Mayhem himself so ponies wouldn't seek out the truth?”
Twilight's eyes narrowed her eyes at him, “I take it you know him pretty well, being coworkers.”
James laughed, “Oh silly Twilight. Mayhem and I aren't coworkers.” He threw an arm around her withers, suddenly beside her, “I am Mayhem, and I created Avol.”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Every pony and dragon present was speechless. Twilight took a drag on her cigarette while their brains restart. Celestia was the first to regain her composure.
“Twilight, you didn't actually believe that monster did you?” Celestia asked.
“Not at the time, but I do now, and you will too. Just let me savor this moment for a bit.”
“What moment?” inquired the solar Princess.
“The moment that I get to teach The great and wise Princess Celestia something she didn't know about ponies...”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“I don't believe you.” Twilight glared at the chaos lord.
“Of course you don't, nor should you, but I'm going to convince you.” James sat down on the throne again and pulled out a story book, opening it to a seemingly random page. “ Once upon a time, on the magical world of Earth, there lived a race of masters of the magical arts; humans. Now humans have always been a fascinating race. Their drive is unmatched. The things they can accomplish are hindered only by the resources available to them. Unfortunately they have one weakness...ambition. Now that's usually a good thing, but too much of a good thing is still bad. With humans’ ambition, and unrivaled magical potential, they were growing too powerful, too fast. With this power, they became greedy for more. All that magic was like giving a five year old a shotgun; they misused it. Wars were fought for control of the world’s magic wells. That's where I stepped in.
“I needed to find a way to slow human advancement before they destroyed themselves. In order to slow human progress to a safe level I needed to remove one of the two causes. I couldn't remove their ambition because that would halt progress and that's bad. So I took all the magical potential from humanity. But magic is energy and can't be destroyed. So, I gathered up some asteroids from the asteroid belt and formed a new world. This world was going to hold the magic of humanity, but it couldn't just float around. It needed vessels. My solution came in the form of a small nation. This nation was ruled by a benevolent king and his kind queen. Their names were Arthur and Guinevere.”
The humans jaws dropped. Even Twilight had been drawn to the old fables of King Arthur and his knights of the round table. Books that all said he was a myth.
“That's right kiddies, the guy was real,” James continued, “And his kingdom was the answer to my trouble. I approached the king and told him of the world’s problems and what was needed to be done to fix it. After a few weeks of thinking, he agreed, but another problem arose. Giving all of humanity’s power to a select few would be devastating. The human body couldn't hold that much power, so my solution was to make them not human.”
He looked at Twilight with a grin. “You already know what I turned them into, don't you? That's right little pony... two thousand years ago your ancestors were human.”
Twilight already figured where this was going when he mentioned creating a new world, but still couldn't believe it. Unable to think of any kind of response, she let him continue.
“I relocated all the new ponies to their new world which they named Avol after their old kingdom Avalon. Yes, I know what you're thinking, but Avol sounds better than Aval and is still close. Anyway, I moved the planet far from any other world so it wouldn't be discovered by accident and created an artificial sun and moon to sustain the world and its balance.
“I swore everypony to secrecy and made up the story of my evil deed, and recommended they take on new names. King Arthur took the name King Solaris, Guinevere took the name Queen Terra, and Merlin, the court wizard, took the name Star Swirl. As you know, Twilight, Solaris and Terra eventually had two daughters, Celestia and Luna, who still rule to this day.”
“Wait,” Curt interrupted, “Are you saying that Twilight is the personal student of King Arthur's daughter?”
“That's not all,” James continued, “She's also happens to be a direct descendent of Star Swirl the Bearded.”
Twilight's eyes and jaw couldn't open any more than at that moment. It was hard to believe that she was descended from the greatest unicorn in history.
“Here's a fun fact; Merlin had two sons, but only one of them followed him to Avol. The other stayed on Earth where his descendent became a smart ass Special Forces sniper.” He grinned directly at curt.
“What?” asked the smart ass special forces sniper, “You mean..? I'm descended from Merlin? But, that means that Twilight and I are...”
“... Related...” Twilight finished.
“Only by eighty-seven generations,” James laughed.
“Damn, that some crazy shit,” Debby stated, “But, you didn't bring us all the way here just for story time did you? Cause that would be so lame.”
James smiled, “Of course not. If you'll follow me we can get this tour underway. Please no flash photography, only dispose of your waste in the designated receptacles and no urinating on the walls.” he gave three hard stomps and the throne slid back revealing a staircase. James gave an exaggerated bow and motioned toward the passage. “Right this way ladies and gentlemen.”
“What's down there?” Seth asked.
“Why, the key to your victory against the Dratali, of course.” answered the humanized draconequus.
That got everyone's undivided attention. They looked between the stairs and the immortal, trying to decide if he was serious or not. Seeing that he wasn't going to give any clues to that, they started down the stairs.
The stairs were not too long, or at least Twilight didn't notice. Her mind was a tempest of thought and emotion. So many questions swirled around in her mind that she could barely understand any of them. A few thoughts stood out from the rest, though. Shared language, similar culture, tool designs that made no sense for ponies to have, but fit humans perfectly. It led to one conclusion; ponies originated on Earth as humans. This realization did nothing to quell the storm; in fact it was the cause. What would this mean for Equestria? An artificial planet, an artificial sun, and...artificial ponies. That meant she wasn't naturally a unicorn. She was supposed to be human...a magic-less human. But is that something to be proud of? Wasn't she also a kind of guardian for that magic? Protecting it so humanity would survive? Twilight was so lost in thought that she didn't notice everyone had stopped until she face-planted into Curt's backside.
“Whoa! Damn, Twi, not in public.” He shot her a warm smile.
Twilight returned the gesture. He always did know how to brighten her mood, even if he was a royal pain in the flank.
“Uh...” Aden looked around in confusion, “How did I get here?”
Seth jumped at the sudden appearance, but soon just chuckled and said, “James is up stairs.”
Aden just nodded in understanding as Twilight moved around her friends to take a look at the room. It was a simple gray stone room with torches lighting the area. It was bare with the exception of a pedestal in its center with a strange orb on top. The sphere was covered in faintly glowing runes and hovered a few inches above.
“I'm guessing that thing is magical.” Seth looked at Twilight for confirmation and received a nod as an answer. “Well, Twilight, you're the expert with this kind of thing. Take a look at it and see if it's dangerous.”
Twilight nodded and approached the artifact. She felt along its surface with her magic sense. The spells woven into it were strange and she had difficulty making them out. It was like trying to look at something through stained glass. She reached out and took it in her forehooves. As soon as she sat on her haunches to examine it, she felt a surge of energy pass through her. She let out a pained scream.
“Twilight!” Everyone shouted in unison, moving toward her.
Twilight's eyes opened, glowing white with power as a lavender aura surrounded her. The energy was pulled into a small orb at the tip of her horn before exploding outward, throwing everyone else into the walls of the room and knocking them unconscious. The energy soon faded and Twilight fell to the floor, meeting her friends in the darkness.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“..iligh... wa... up. Come on, Twi.” A voice cut through the darkness, leading Twilight back to the land of the living.
“Ugh, my head,” she rubbed her head at the base of her horn, “What happened?”
“Are you alright?” Curt asked.
“Yeah. I’m alright.” Twilight looked around at everyone else. They were all looking at her with worry evident on their faces. “Where's the orb?”
Curt pointed to a pile of sand beside her. “I think it did something to you. Are you sure you're fine?”
Twilight closed her eyes and tried to feel if anything was different. “I don't feel any different. Are you sure it did something to me?”
“That's what it looked like,” Debby chimed in.
“Are you good to travel?” Seth asked.
Twilight gave herself a once over and stretched out a bit. “I think so.”
“Good, We're moving out.”
As the group started up the stairs Twilight noticed the distinct lack of Aden. When she asked about it Seth told her that James sent him back to the ship to get it ready.
They left the building and started for their Puma when an explosion reduced it to scrap, and left the soldiers disoriented. Flashes of light surrounded them as a legion of Dratali teleported onto the scene, weapons ready. Twilight was about to throw up a shield when a haunting voice stopped her.
“Well well. Fancy seeing you here.” The Dratali soldiers parted to let the speaker through. Twilight stared in shock at the impossible sight before her. “Hello, Twilight.” A malicious grin spread across Xander's face.
Hmmm....James is a bit of a Deus Ex Machina. Him having explain everything at once is a bit of cop out. I may have been a bit more engaging if the truth was discovered gradually.
Keep it Up! Still love this story!
PLOT TWISTS! SO MANY PLOT TWISTS! Loving the path this story is taking!
I'm sorry, but.... who's Aden?
That bastard!
Dun dun dun!
Well this should be exciting
HOLY.... Talk about Plot twists....
Ok, that one I wasn't really expecting. Not only the Human/Pony relation, but Xander? Ok, would not be the first villain who faked his death, IF this guy is really Xander that is, or another Chaos Lord who wants to wortk against James/Mayham......
But if it is Xander... Why do I have the Feeling we have the Culprit for the Dratali Homeworld destruction. To destroy their homeworld just to become kinda of a leader of fanatical zealots....
Or the Dratali may have found Xanders decapicitated head but found a way to revive him.
Funniest part I think was the part of Twilight and Curts relation. (So that means he and Shining are related too, muahaha. Let's see how Shining will react to that. And of course their parents. I mean Curth is somehow their GRANDGRANDGRAND etc. Nephew)
Ok, now we have them surrounded by Dratali Soldiers. Let's see how they escape this dire situation. Hell, You know what, Shiro? I want actually your entire story into a movie. Would make it easier to munch on popcorn^^
Now that's how you execute a plot dump. After this little chapter so many things started to make sense.
Some tense confusion in this one:
Also,
And dialogue tag issues—you use periods instead of commas and sometimes you treat regular narration as though it were a dialogue tag (i.e. not capitalizing the first word of it). Though, I think I've noticed that as something you always have an issue with. But I thought, "Hey, I'm making myself out to be enough of a random mistake-pointing-outing douche already, so why not?"
First, tell me Twilight, what you can about the chaos lord Mayhem?”
eh?
Hahahahaha they're related.
The way you weaved King Arthur into this story was just
So what about Excalibur? is it going to become part of this story too?
What a twist! But a good one, though it was certain that Mayhem, the one responsible for Avol was more or less a deity of unknown power, was still alive until this day, but I never thought James to be him.
And now Xander is back! (Dude, I love his name, reminds me of Xander from Friends, or Buffy) The Orb that (apparently) had fused with Twi is going to play a major role in the upcoming fight.
LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!
Headcanon accepted. It just explains so much.
2073337 Debby and Twi's wingman (and my cover artist ).
2073422
Ah, alright. For some reason I could remember every squadmate but him.
2073408
Ahem. Maybe that little Orb thing WAS actually Excalibur? You know, the Excalibur could just be an ordinary steel sword with an Enchantment. And that enchantment could be extracted into that orb. Meaning it can be put on nearly anything... or ANYONE for that part.
Ok, just a fast theory of mine
2073431 He's had a minor role so far.
In all honesty, I think some questions are better left unanswered.
you clever evil monster i don't know what i'm more mad at?
that you stop the whole curtxtwil OR that they had incest sex
2073452 It's not incest. If you go back that far, almost everyone with Anglo-Saxon ancestry is related. Same with any other old culture. Like James said, they're 87 generations separate.
INCOMING SHIT STORM!!!!!!!! BRACE FOR IMPACT
2073452 Not really, after three or four generations it is not something that will cause birth defects unless all of the generations before them were incestial relationships.
So ponies were once humans, that would explain why they have many humanesque cultural events. Can't call it Christmas anymore, as he wants to make the ponies not want to search out their bretheren again, so rename it. And etc.
I was pretty close in my guess in that the humans and ponies were becoming to much of threat so they seperated them, though I didn't expect the ponies to had been ponies.
2073445
You know, if you're in doubt, the answer is always 42 ^^
A quick question, Shirotora. Would it be possible for a complete group picture of Twi, Curt and the others?
That would be interesting. ^^
wait wait wait, the one reptillian guy who wasn't a megalomaniac is a TRAITOR? seriously are all reptile men evil? why?
How Xander alive???
2073525 Xander's a pony. He's the villain from the very beginning that sent Twi away. You're thinking about Has-Ka
2073434 Except that Excalibur could only be used by a Pendragon... Maybe Twilight is only carrying it till it can get to Celestia or Luna... or maybe it's not Excalibur at all
2073506 I can't draw, so I'm not the one to ask. A few people have expressed interest in making fan art, so maybe you'll get your wish.
2073538 my bad, sorry
2073579 It's cool. We all make that mistake at times
Oh my. So much in this one.
Well, my suspicion the term "Avol" had an origin was now confirmed.
Why do I suddenly feel the temperature raising?
2073525 Nope, Xander was the cause why Twilight disapeared from Avol in the first place (the villian at the beginning).
Hell. (Rummaging through a weapons chest).
Where did I put it. Master Sword... No, Buster Sword, no. Ragnarok? No, Revolver?`no....
AH Here it is. Now take this Xander.... LIONHEART.
AND STAY DOWN.
On a serious note: It would be funny if Curt, you know as another decendant of Starswirl/Merlin could somehow has something like a spark in him. You know the latent ability to still use magic, which just has to be ignited by someone.
Hey, being related to the most powerful wizard of all times should have some effect on you, right?
My Xander suspicions are confirmed.
My only complaint is the James seems to be used too much as Deus Ex Machina. I know he's True Neutral, but that's not my complaint. It's not what he does, it's how he does it. It's like a magic wand to advance the plot when there's no other means of doing it otherwise. Again, he feels like a Deus Ex Machina. Not the Puppetmaster, the Chessmaster, the Omnipotent Duchebag. There are a thousand ways to use his role.
"Here's some plot exposition. bye." He feels like his only purpose is to advance the plot, not to "keep the balance."
I feel some fridge brilliance on the horizon. If he truly is playing for balance, I understand he's only helping the forces of good right now. He needs to do some evil to balance it out. I don't know if you will be doing that, but it's a theory.
My biggest question is why did James reveal that to them so quickly and so easily. Was it too lure them into a trap for the Dratali because he is trying to keep the balance or something like that? Is there some thing that occurs later on that will make this so obvious? WHY?
Well, here is hoping humanity regains what is rightfully theirs.
Xander!? Alive!? But, his head…
This is getting more and more interesting
how the buck did he survive his own magical beheading?
2073322 The problem with that would be how they could possibly discover it. Would it be any less of a Deus ex machina for Celestia to suddenly find a note from dear old dad recounting everything he promised not to tell? Or if they took a vacation on Earth to some archaeological dig where they found out Arthur was real -- and that wouldn't even begin to cover the "humans had magic" and "transported to new world" parts.
Plus, Twilight would be in denial every step of the way.
Mind nuked, WTF?!
2073820
Oldest trick by villains. Fake your death. Or the Dratali head the means to revive him somehow.
But my guess would be possibility one.
3rd possibility would be time travel. But there are surely more.
2073388 Actually, metagenetics analysis has proven that all of humanity is descended from a single founder female line. There was a severe population bottleneck at some point in the distant past.
So we're all boinking our cousins (which explains many things...)
>>>The human body couldn't hold that much power, so my solution was to make them not human.”>>>
Pfft, shows how much you know about human power levels! If you're half-Sayajin you can reach SSJ2 when you're only, like, 10 years old!
Of course, then there's Krillin... and Yamacha... (Super Kami Guru: I don't know what this Yamacha is, but it sounds disappointing.)
Xander... alive?! talk about plot twisting the story
And final note: This is why I try very hard not to include gods in my fics, other than for comedic effect. You can just make up anything and have it explained by the fact that the thing is GOD and can do anything it wants.
Might as well have it blow up the universe repeatedly just for the hell of it. God-thing: "BECAUSE I'M GOD, BEEEYATCH!! I DO WHAT I WANT!!"
I'm seriously considering this a shark-jumping moment. The escalation now has reached God-moding levels of intergalactic interference, which usually means it's all downhill from here. It's the classic 'my world-building is bigger than yours' syndrome.
The scope has gotten too big for its britches, in other words.
Huge example: Humans can't handle power... but ponies can... Uhm.... WHY?! How in the hell does that even begin to make sense?!
2074157 There's a lot more to it then that. There's a motive behind his actions, and a few other secrets about him. let's just say, things with James may not be what they seem.
XANDER! *shakes fist*.
Y U NOT DEAD?!
One does not simply heal from decapitation
I can edit.
2074443 Then send 7h3b055 a PM with your offer.
2073333 Plot twist? Wouldn't that hurt?
Huh. Really should have seen Xander coming. I had it figured that Avol was in orbit around Sol in between Earth and Mars, but close enough to call it one-out-of-two.
James is really starting to get on my nerves, both as a character and an obvious writing contrivance. Is there any plot point he hasn't personally set in motion?