//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: The Lost Crystal 
// by ChAoS pOnY 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4


Ponies had gathered in the town hall in anticipation of Princess Celestia raising the sun. Sweetie Bot had a hard time following the logic of a god like being controlling the local sun and ruling only a single nation. Her database told her there were beings who could juggle celestial bodies with relative ease, but they rarely remained satisfied with less than an entire star system and being worshipped by all. In her talks with Hondo Flanks Belle lead her to believe that this Celestia was most likely bored and lonely, but well aware of the pitfalls of her power and actively avoided them. Which probably explained the practice of taking on personal students. Thinking of which, she once more hid to avoid Twilight Sparkle yet again. Normally she would encourage scientific curiosity, but something about the look in her eyes suggested any interaction between them would eventually involve a blow torch and end with the liberal use of a taser.
Eventually she made her way over to where Sweetie Belle was talking with a orange pegasus with a purple mane and tail about ways to obtain a cutie mark. For a brief nanosecond her risk assessment sub routine threatened a full system shut down at the mention of cooking, but Sweetie Belle's new friend deemed it not awesome enough. How a scan of the 'peanut butter and jelly sandwich' showed trace amounts of radioactive isotopes usually found in nuclear waste was beyond her ability to even begin to comprehend, especially since she had scanned all the ingredients beforehand after the incident with the chocolate milk that had melted a metal spoon before imploding and winking out of existence. 
Sweetie Bot had been just about to make a safe suggestion when the birds began to sing and she began to detect an unknown energy source that seemed to be everywhere at once. She caught a brief flicker of something that wasn't a shadow, nor was it a gas as the mayor made her introductions. Something about it wasn't right and she started to mention it when the crowd let out a gasp. On the balcony the shapeless, shadowy energy source coalesced into a tall black pony with both a horn and wings. Her mane and tail whipped with that same energy as she sneered with a mouth full of razor sharp carnivore teeth. Sweetie Bot noted the flimsy looking armor and helmet she wore, but ignored it as she took up a defensive position in front of Sweetie Belle.
"Sweetie Belle, I would suggest preparing your disks too shield yourself with." She said as Twilight Sparkle called her Nightmare Moon. 
As soon as the name was said Sweetie Belle screamed, "Ahh!!! She's going to eat us all!" And launch one of her disks into Nightmare Moon, slamming her through the window behind her. 
"WHO DARES TO ATTACK ME!" Nightmare Moon roared as she reappeared in front of the crowd in a flash of dark light. A grey filly with glasses pointed to Sweetie Belle and Sweetie Bot. Sweetie Bot barely shoved Sweetie Belle away before being hit with a bolt of electricity that sent her through the crowd and into a wall.
"Leave her alone!" Sweetie Belle yelled as she slammed both disks into the sides of Nightmare Moon's head with a loud clang from the helmet. "She was only trying to protect me!" She then tried to sweep her legs out from under her with the disks, but Nightmare Moon's body collapsed into a shadow and flowed back up onto the balcony. As soon as she reappeared her horn lit up and she yelled, "ENOUGH!!!" Before launching  a beam at Sweetie Belle, who didn't even think as she screwed her eyes shut and brought her hooves up as her disks blocked the beam. Nightmare Moon poured more power into it as it started pushing Sweetie Belle backwards as ponies fled the town hall. She was driven halfway across the room when two pairs of hooves stopped her. Looking back she saw Scootaloo and Sweetie Bot had stopped her from sliding across the floor.
"Sweetie Belle, this enemy is too powerful for either of us at our current level of capabilities, but together I calculate a 56% of successfully driving off this Nightmare Moon. With this equine's..." Sweetie Bot explained only to be interrupted by both fillies, "Scootaloo!", "Scootaloo's help the chances of success increases to 73%."
"You mean we can beat Nightmare Moon?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Only if your ideal of victory involves driving her away or not being destroyed, then yes, we have a 73% chance at victory." Sweetie Bot noted before explaining her plan to them as her newly developed spike launchers extended from her back as she made the last calculations this plan would need for success. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle began hurling insults at Nightmare Moon. 
"Is that all you got! I've seen new born foals with more punch behind their magic!" Scootaloo yelled. 
"Scootaloo! My sister said it's not nice to make fun of Ponies have performance issues, which I think is like stage fright. I mean I never sing well when I'm in front of a bunch of ponies." Sweetie Belle said before asking in an innocent voice, "Do you have performance issues Ms. Nightmare Moon?"
"But I thought performance issues only happened to boys. Does that mean Nightmare Moon is actually a boy pretending to be a girl?" Scootaloo asked in confusion as she braced herself against Sweetie Belle to keep her from sliding backwards.
"I am most assuredly not male!" Yelled at them, "And what is that 'pfft pfft' sound?"
"See, Nightmare Moon isn't pretending, he's crazy and is now hearing things." Sweetie Belle explained.
"No wonder he thinks he's a girl." Scootaloo said with a grin before making koo koo noises before Nightmare Moon screamed out, "I'M NOT CRAZY!!!"
"Scootaloo, my mom said you're not suppose to make fun of crazy ponies, but get them a nurse's help." Sweetie Belle said.
"You mean he should get a shot from Nurse Red heart" Scootaloo asked with a grin, "That would work since she gives out candy if your good and every foal knows Nightmare Moon won't eat you if you give him candy."
By now Nightmare Moon's right eye was twitching as she screamed in frustration, "I don't eat foals and I don't want any candy!"
"I don't know, Miss Cheerilee says meat eaters have sharp pointy teeth like yours and if you're lying about that then you might be lying about being a boy and the not eating us if we give you candy, sir." Sweetie Belle said in an innocent voice from behind the disk.
"I have some candies from Bon Bon's, some cookies from Pinkie's party earlier, and a muffin Derpy gave me in my bag you can eat if you promise to not eat us, sir." Scootaloo offered as Sweetie Bot finished what she had been doing with a nod to the other two.
"Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, certain sweetened confections are not good for some carnivores and may actually harm them." Sweetie Bot chipped in as over 60 spikes began to beep around the room, "Besides, this room is about to get loud and suffer significant structural instability that may require a disk above us in 3..2..1." Sweetie Belle quickly created a second disk above them as the spikes exploded around the balcony and along the wall and ceiling around, above, and below it, causing the whole wall and roof there to collapse on Nightmare Moon as the balcony fell out from beneath her. Within seconds Nightmare Moon was buried under the rubble as a few stray pieces bounced off Sweetie Belle's disks. "Sweetie Belle, we should retreat and relocate to the library to gather more information on this enemy before the rest of the building collapses or she extricates herself out from benieth the rubble." 
"Does that mean leave before Mayor Mare sees what we did to her office?" Scootaloo asked as she dug her bag out of the junk near the door. 
"Affirmative Scootaloo, but you do not need to follow us. I would suggest returning home to you parents to avoid any further danger." Sweetie Bot suggested.
"Yeah, not going to happen. Sure Bon Bon gave me a room and feeds me, but she's just some mare who felt sorry for a runaway who was eating trash from the dumpster behind her shop and trust me, she has issues." Scootaloo explained as she followed them out and down the road to the library. "Besides, this is way more fun than listening to Lyra go on about some make believe race of super smart apes called 'Humans'."
"Correction, I was created using human technologies and derivatives there of in the city of Central Hub in the artificial universe of Haven Guard by the sentient artificial intelligence Alphia and Dr. Edith Harkin also known as the former Super Villain Dr. Nanoborg as part of her attempt to repent for the accident that drove her insane, permanently altered her body, and lead her to wiping out 11.5 billion humans on her version of Earth. Only her and her daughter survived." Sweetie Bot explained.
"So there aren't any humans left because of her?" Sweetie Belle asked as tears started to form in her eyes.
"Negative, it is estimated there are 142 octoquadragintillion humans in the multiverse. An octoquadragintillion is a 1 followed by 147 zeros. Not as many as Elves/Goblins at an estimated 372 octoquadragintillion each or Daemon/Orc/Draconian at an estimated 483 octoquadragintillion combined according to their census of their multiple universes spanning empire." Sweetie Bot told them as they walked. 
"How about Ponies? I bet we have a huge number." Scootaloo asked.
"Do you know how many ponies there are on your world?" Sweetie Bot asked.
"Miss Cheerilee says there are about 15.4 million ponies in the world." Sweetie Belle answered.
"Then there are about 15.4 million ponies known to exist in the multiverse at this time, making you a very rare sentient species." Sweetie Bot said as the library came into view. "The rarest of all are the Artifacts Builders, who created the artificial universes like Haven Guard, there are only 471 known members of that race of crystalline trees and are often found on peaceful worlds with multiple sentient lifeforms that they nurture from afar unless their intervention is needed through chosen intermediaries. All other information on them has been restricted in my database without an omega level clearance or the discovery of one upon this planet."

New Playable Character Unlocked...
Scootaloo Perks: Hard Knocks Life- Exactly where she came from and why she ran away is a mystery, but life has made Scootaloo one tough filly who can roll with the punches no matter what is thrown at her.
Table Scraps- Life on the streets has made Scootaloo an expert scavenger who can dumpster dive with the best of them. Even if you think there is nothing there she will find something useful.
Running Free- Scootaloo has developed excellent parkour skills and is nearly impossible to catch or hit making Bon Bon regret teaching her it as it is very difficult to make her clean her room or eat her Lima beans because of it.
Spare Key- Lyra has taught Scootaloo how to pick locks after they forgot their house key a few times and she has refined her skill over the past 3 years.
Bedtime Stories- Lyra might not know any traditional bedtime stories, but her crytozoology research works in a pinch. This gives Scootaloo a good grasp of crytozoology and the various creatures it covers with humans and bat ponies topping her list of favorites.
Not The Momma (1) Bon Bon might have issues about an ex-employer, but her kind heart convinced her to take in a scrappy little kid who she loves with all her heart and kind of reminds her of herself sometimes and even if Scootaloo won't say it, she has become her mother despite all the problems they have had.
Not The Momma (2) Lyra Heartstrings, musician, food thief, bane of the royal scientific community, a welcomed distraction for royal guards everywhere, a humorous pest in the royal court, cryptozoologist, seeker of the truth about humans, most likely a pony, and 2nd place for the worst parent in Ponyville 3 years running (her and Berry Punch tied for second last year after Slapper was arrested on 12 counts of child abuse, 2 counts of inappropriate conduct with a minor, and attempted murder, but Snail's has made a full recovery with only slight brain damage.) When not playing a gig or annoying Princess Celestia with endless requests for information on humans/accusing the royal scientific community and royal guards of covering up the truth about humans, she can be found in Ponyville 'helping' Bon Bon in her shop (and eating 55 bits in sweets every month), playing at Berry Punch's, and 'helping with and teaching' Scootaloo. Sure she may tell weird bed time stories (her crytozoology research), taught her how to pick locks (okay, she forgot her house key a few times and just happened to have a bobbie pin and screwdriver and figured the kid could use it and a Scootaloo might like to practice on the door of the library resulting in the old librarian quitting), giving Scootaloo hard cider (what? Sweet Apple Acres Sparkling Apple Juice and Orange Co. 'Sweet Apple Acres' Style Hard Cider come in similar bottles except Princess Cadence is on the hard cider instead of Princess Celestia on the sparkling apple juice), taught her how to belch her ABC's and the national anthem (it's perfectly acceptable for show and tell for a little girl), and both of them might be banned from the royal gardens unless accompanied by an approved adult (Shining Armor over reacted just because the Royal Guards couldn't catch Scootaloo for 4 hours while she ambushed Princess Cadence for information on humans). Say what you want, Lyra enjoys being the fun parent and is not above breaking the law when it involves Scootaloo.
Just 'Friends'- Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings are just 'friends' who happen to share a home, a daughter, and a bed. Honest, you can ask Princess Cadence who will tell you with a wink and a giggle that they are very good 'friends' who care very deeply for each other. 

Achievement: Didn't See That Coming- Nightmare Moon was thrown off her game, but don't expect it to work twice.
Sweetie Belle Perks: Hard Hitter- Sweetie Belle has unlocked the Disk Slam attack and Double Disk Slam attack and can now use the Disks as a weapon.
Sweetie Bot Perks: I Love It When A Plan Comes Together- Tactical Planning is Sweetie Bot's key to success and the reason A.I.s are banned from certain games and politics in Haven Guard (bureaucracy on the other hand is all theirs).
Scootaloo Perk: Under Your Skin- Scootaloo excels at annoying enemies to the point where they lose focus and waste time trying to deal with her. This is extra effective when teamed up with partners in crime.