"I heard what happened," Sunset said and moved to meet me as I walked inside, "Why didn't you tell me!?"
"You have enough on your mind right now," I said and hugged her briefly, "Besides, nothing you could have done anyway... and we have a plan."
"Plan? What kind of plan?" Sunset asked, giving me a wary look.
"You are now looking at the proud owner of the one piece of Equestria with the climate most comfortable for thestrals," I told her, "I’m thinking summer home. Or winter. Sure, Sunshine could just have handed some of it over, but this way we're being all legal like. And all it cost was a couple of titles… and earning me a new one."
Sunset looked at me before she facehooved before stepping up and giving me a small nuzzle, "Stupid noble stallion."
"Ah-ah!" I said with a grin, "You can't call me that anymore. I’m officially royalty now, not nobility.”
Sunset snorted and stepped back to curtsy elegantly, "Oh forgive me for my slipup, my Prince."
"You are so lucky you are hot," I told her flatly and then shook my head, "How's Sparks and Midnight doing?"
Sunset shrugged, "I don't know, they're arguing about something, but they managed to lose me about three hours ago so I can't give any details."
"Okay," I said and sighed, "Well, we can't leave Fluttershy down in that cell any longer, I don't think she's going to eat somepony, so we might as well let her out."
"Way ahead of you," Sunset said with a smile, "Midnight sent me down to get her this morning while you were away. She's currently sleeping in Spike's room. Apparently the entire nocturnal thing is even stronger now."
"Oh, That's good," I said and sighed, slipping my wing around her, giving her a small nuzzle before resting my horn against hers, "Where are the Spikes anyway? Still in Ponyville?"
"Yeah," Sunset said, "Twi and Midnight thought it was better to keep them out of this so they are staying with the Apples until things have calmed down a bit."
I nodded and then frowned, "Wait, does the other girls know about Fluttershy now?"
Sunset shrugged, "Don't know," she admitted, "Don't think so. Twi didn't want to tell them as it wasn't our secret to tell, so unless Fluttershy has, they likely don't know."
"Well, hope that doesn't backfire," I said and flicked my ear, "She can still illusion, right?"
Sunset nodded, "Did on the way here anyway."
"Good," I agreed.
Sunset looked at me and frowned, "So... what will you do with a monster infested jungle?”
"We’ll see," I admitted, "But... I may also have some selfish ideas."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, if I own the land and the jungle, then I own everything in it," I said before I smirked, "Including that fucking statue. Which means if I own it, I can legally smash it to little bitty pieces."
"Don't you dare!"
The voice drifted in from the other room and Sparks poked her head out, "That statue is of great historical value!"
"It's a statue of the pony that caused all the trouble we have now!" I argued, "I'd be damned if that fucking thing is put in a museum somewhere and glorified! It will be dust!"
"It needs to be studied!" Sparks argued and entered the room, Midnight following closely,
"She's right," Midnight agreed, "just because you don't like the pony it's off, doesn't mean it doesn't have historical value. I'm not saying 'put it up in the main square', put it in a museum where ponies can learn of history and it can be studied!"
"...Fine," I grumbled, "You can have it. If you can get it out of there, I don't want it hanging around in my jungle. In fact, if you want the entire temple, you can take that too. How are we coming with the 'not monsters' plan?"
Sparks shrugged her wings and moved in to give Sunset a small kiss. I got a nuzzle too on the way past, "Well," she started, "The one that invented it was a complete genius. It's amazingly complex, self reinforcing and built into the bloodline, being passed on to every foal."
"So it was the curse that was laid over it that caused thestrals to have less thestral foals?" I asked and sat down.
Midnight nodded in agreement, "As far as we can determine. The blood magic is a lot stronger now without the curse suppressing it.”
I nodded and sat down, “How long until you can break it?”
Sparks and Midnight shared a look before Midnight shrugged her wings, “It’s difficult, I see why they went with the curse instead of trying to break the blood magic. More data would help from more thestrals.”
“Okay,” I said, “With Fluttershy’s data to compare with, mine would be useful now, right? Hit me.”
“No!” Sunset said and stepped between me and Midnight, glaring at me, “Absolutely not!”
I frowned at her, “Sunny, I’m not going to ask more ponies to-”
Sunset stomped her hoof as she interrupted me, “No! Absolutely not! You have done enough, you’re not doing this! I won’t have it and neither will Luna!”
I frowned at her, “Sunny, I can’t ask ponies to do that if I won’t do-”
“No! Not until it’s done and they can break it fully. You’re not doing it and that’s it,” she said and then looked to Sparks and Midnight, “And you’re not casting it on him, is that clear?”
Sparks quickly nodded, “Wasn’t going to anyway. While the data would help, it’s only for comparison. We need more pure thestrals, not thestral alicorns.”
Fucking damn it.
I sighed and closed my eyes for a long moment before I nodded, “I… I’ll ask for volunteers. But we can’t do this in Canterlot, it’ll cause problems eventually. We have to find somewhere else to work from.”
Who else thinks that if this were a tv show, Sparks would be saying this to Page, but also be looking at the fourth wall?
Also, Page's helplessness is slowly starting to take a toll on him, I can tell. He's the "If you want someonthing done right, you have to do it yourself" type, but this is a situation where he literally can't do it himself. I really like this exploration of his character here.
Honestly, shipping Sparks with Page is just a matter of convenience at this point.
Happy 100th chapter.
I found an error.
I nodded and then frowned, "Wait, does the other girls know about Fluttershy now?"
It should be:
I nodded and then frowned, "Wait, do the other girls know about Fluttershy now?"
Or:
I nodded and then frowned, "Wait, does that mean the other girls know about Fluttershy now?"
I'm waiting to see Page pull a "get off my lawn!" One liner to a rexasuraus xD
Relieved to see that the finished tab wasn’t hit. Let’s keep this going!
10502473
Mmmhmmm.
Page: "That's it, I'm gettin me mallet!"
this is by far your longest story yet hiver... nearly twice as long as your other stories... let us keep the ball rolling!
10502503
Glad Im not the only expecting that. Hiver does like even numbers. With the royalty ascension, i was expecting a quick tie-in chapter before we take the next story down to the jungle.
I think its fun how none seem to remember that he was human a predator. So he can handle all that comes with the blood magic.
...you realize that your teachers have probably destroyed/hidden more history than the two of you have ever experienced right?
10502473
Can't wait till Sparks x Page x Kitten 'snuggle' fest
Are you sure Page is the alicorn of stories? I am starting to get an impression he is the alicorn of lets-find-some-problems-and-solve-them-the-least-boring-way...
Alright, I'm gonna take a crack at predicting the future.
The thestral alicorn statue isn't a statue at all, but the thestral alicorn under a petrification spell, the same or similar to the one Tempest used on Cadance and Chrysalis. Somehow, Page or the Twilight's are gonna undo the spell and release the Thestral Alicorn and he's gonna be pissed after being stoned for thousands of years. This will be the premise of the next story.
Or maybe it's just a statue after all
I wonder how they'd go about publishing their findings
So when does Page go to another Universe or something and get some other entity to help him break the curse on himself since the locals curse-b-gone blocking him?
10502590
Well, there has to be conflict for a story to exist.
I bet 5 bits Page just want to pull a Alucard on them Seriously, getting OP only for the price of some blood thirst? Party hard!
O crapbasket... Page cant get a Thestral harem if he dont offer himself for stud service. Imagen:
Every mare helping with the blood magic get 1-2 foals. Page become foal Thestral bloodsuger daddy. Salt for all the ladys ♡ Page-Salty goodness for Equestrias newest/eldest sub-race
In that moment I would gladly kick Page in the balls for that
It would probably be followed by Sunset,Twilight and Midnight kicks
10502609
It will turn out bo be Page that got time-traveled to the past XD
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/023/397/C-658VsXoAo3ovC.jpg
Wait....or maybe...
What if Page really is going to the past at some point?
He probably won't be able to use time-traveling spell to go back,even after some years leading bat ponies,so...
He would probably not want to wait thousands of years so he turned himself into the stone,as some cryogenic stasis
For all readers i have a question. Look a this situation:
Is that treason? High treason? Its obstruction of direct mission fullfillment of royal mission after all...
10502758
Doubtfull. Back than magic wasnt very developed plus a broken petrified equals death. ( MLP comic and other FIMFICTION storys logic following ).
Plus jumping so far back would probably cost redicules amounts of power for someone to send a individual back only to guess hes basicly stasis spell himself for over 10.000 years. Dont think any spell ( stasis or petrifiecation would survive that long.
...FEW HOURS LATER...
*Twilight opens the door in the middle of the night*
Stranger: Hello~! I heard from our great wise handsome Prince that you need thestrals to stud--
Twilight: *deadpan* What are you doing here Page? That mustache and top hat makes you look ridiculous.
Page: ...but I like this hat...a-a-and I don't know what you are talking about!
Twilight: Spike? Get ready to contact Luna in 3..2..
Page: EEP! *flies away*
Twilight: Why must the good ones be so frustrating...
Really hope this doesn't go the time-traveling route. It's been established that they don't have a spell for it and Starlight didn't make one in this AU (if I remember correctly anyway). It also just seems kind of... cliche? tropey? or whatever for it to be a statue of Page and he was the one that cursed the bat ponies in the first place. Not to mention that he's admitted to being bad at it and they were just talking about how complex the curse was.
10502860
It could be a self-renewing spell that can recharge. Or maybe the alicorn in the statue casts it again every time it runs out until he wakes up in a museum or something.
Here's an idea, Page bootstraps himself back in time.
The alicorn statue cracks open after being in storage for a bit, Page comes to check on it. Vampire Page hits him with the eye mind control long enough to have a conversation (or a psychic info dump, he could probably pull it off, being the alicorn of stories and all) about what he needs to do, how, and why, all the spells he needs to memorize, and how hard it will all be. And then he'll send him back in time to fulfill the paradox.
A few hundred years will get him the size, mana capacity, and experience he would need to fulfill the other half of the bootstrap.
Honestly though, I'm not sure if I want it to be page yet. It can be good, and if pulled off right, great, but I don't know if it would work in this kind of story.
10502933
Damn fine points your making. THAT i could see happen!
I don't think I'd be into a time-traveling, King Vampony Page plotline to be honest. That would leave a lot of other plotlines frozen (like Midnight going home or Page dealing w/ other Changeling hives) until Page goes back to the future, and I'd find the wait frustrating.
It would have to be really well written for me to be interested in Page interacting with a bunch of OCs from the Pre-Equestrian Era.
10502864
The good ones are difficult because otherwise they would not be worth it.
...really?...no
If I were you, Sunset, I'd let Sparks do it.
Because we both know that if there's no result for too long, he's gonna find a way to do it to himself.
Do I sense some time travel shenanigans?
10679261
mabey rencarnation shenanigens? we dont know how he got to equestria yet and said old alicorn apparently had acess to magic that followed blood so whos to say he didnt have anything for the soul
Here's to a very late Happy Hundred
... not exactly, no. I mean, you're a prince of Equestria so you probably can't be on the hook for doing it, but it would make you many enemies in circles related to finding, restoring and protecting historical artifacts and sites. I would even guess that something along those lines (destroy a priceless old village or something to build a mine or someshit) have been tried before (... nobles...), so I expect there are laws in place that say you can't do that, even if you even get slave ownership of inhabitants otherwise. ;]
So at least one Sparkle is confirmed to go with him to the past when the time travel kicks in. Bootstrap paradox. She was able to create the curse because she figured out how to cure it in the future.
To the scary sacrificial temple in the middle of a monster infested jungle!
I'd argue smashing the statue could yield historical importance. People love to hide things inside of statue's after all. Give them time to make there fancy replicas then it Page smash it. Bit by bit
11572001
My first thought would be maybe it's connected or the source of the curse.
The truth us revealed! Blank Page is a Hellsing Ultimate Abridged fan and wants to become Alucard!
It would be sooo epic...
10502864
Not as redicilous as Sombra with a mustach and sombreo... (I probably butchered the grammar...)
Plot twist:
Thestral envious of the Thestral Alicorn have tried to emulate the magic and enslaved unicorns to create the blood magic. The Alicorn Thestral and his following ponies died in a long war,while the by the Alicorn cursed ponies survived...
Epic irony that the fanatic group survived, while the heros died out.