Eight Hours Later
Vinyl awoke slowly due to the darkness blanketing her room. As she adjusted herself she could see the moon through the lone window, but there were no stars. She felt Octavia move behind her and the door opened letting light into the room. Luna entered quietly and walked up beside the bed. Vinyl shook her head. “Why the hell does this kind of thing always happen to us?”
“You hardly got the worst of it,” Luna said. “I got you out just in time.”
“Why did you do that? How did you even know where we were?”
“Never mind that, we managed to contain the ash so it will all settle near the site of the blast.”
“I need to know what we’re dealing with,” Vinyl demanded.
“That area was much more densely populated than we thought; thirty thousand are dead and the rest of us are soon to follow in their hoofsteps,” Luna didn’t seem to be herself. She was much more distant than she had been in the past. “I’ve been talking with Raincloud and we think—“
“Whoa, hold up a minute. Raincloud is here?” Vinyl was shocked. She hadn’t seen Raincloud in almost three months, and even then she had barely spoken to her at the time.
“Let me finish before you get all excited,” Luna was clearly very serious. “We think that the pony behind this has absorbed some sort of energy that grows in strength as she kills.”
“That sounds like something we’d get to deal with. That isn’t to imply I’m happy about it, but still, with what we’ve dealt with this should be easy,” Vinyl wasn’t kidding as far as Luna could tell.
“No,” Octavia’s voice came from behind Vinyl. “I had another vision and I think we are in much more trouble than you all realize.”
Luna motioned to them to follow and walked into the corridor outside. They followed her for a few minutes until they reached a small room where Raincloud was waiting. “This makes all of us,” Luna said, taking a seat.
“You mean Celestia isn’t going to join us?” Octavia asked.
“She’s busy trying to keep everypony throughout Equestria calm,” Luna explained. “We’re the ones that have to figure things out, since we’re all the only ponies who remember dealing with any sort of magic remotely similar to this.”
“You mean the nine?” Vinyl asked, already knowing the answer.
Raincloud nodded. “She said something about finding an orb of some sort. I think it may have been the orb that was in the chamber where Octavia did whatever it is she did.”
“You aren’t sure, though,” Vinyl stated blatantly. “Face it, we have no idea what we’re dealing with.”
“We do, actually,” Raincloud responded. “In Manehattan a pony was found murdered a couple of weeks ago, police kept it quiet so you haven’t heard about it. His body was burned almost to ash. The train that exploded killed a few hundred ponies from the resulting fire. Now a volcano that didn’t exist before kills over thirty thousand? The connection is fire and I doubt it’s a coincidence.”
Octavia nodded. “That makes sense. So whoever this is is either getting stronger or they’re getting more confident.”
“Wait a moment,” Vinyl interjected. “You quoted the pony that did this so you know who it is.”
Raincloud nodded. “I chased her to that volcano and when I made the connection to the orb I came here right away.”
“So who did it?” Vinyl asked.
“She said she doesn’t have a name,” Raincloud said. “She was either orphaned or her parents left her when she was very young and I think she may have grown up in Manehattan.”
“She’s like me,” Vinyl’s voice was distant.
“You can’t become attached, Vinyl,” Luna told her. “She has to pay for what she’s done.”
Rainclouds eyes shot wide open. “Sweet Celestia, I’m a genius!” She exclaimed loudly. “The orb, it did exactly what the nine used to do; it gave her power that was tapped into a longing for something. It’s different this time, though. She isn’t like the others, she’s still intact. So what if she finally gets what she wants, can we get her back?”
Luan shook her head. “Even if we do undo what was done to her she has still killed thousands of ponies; that isn’t something that can go unanswered for.”
“It wasn’t her, though,” Vinyl tried. “It was that orb or maybe it was the nine or maybe something else but it wasn’t her. She has had no choice.”
“We can’t imprison a sphere,” Luna said flatly.
“But we can destroy it. That is, unless you’d rather imprison a filly who hasn’t really had a fair chance,” Octavia joined in with Raincloud and Vinyl.
Luna closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “I suppose at the most we can try, but this is hardly a game.”
Octavia raised her hand for attention. “I should probably mention,” She started. “Last night I had another vision; at least, I think it was a vision.”
“What was it of?” Vinyl asked.
Octavia hesitated. “It was probably just a dream, but I saw a crater. Equestria was gone, like it had just disappeared.”
A silence settled in over everypony in the room. “Well then,” Raincloud was the first to speak up. “I suppose we should work fast.”
* * *
Vinyl, Octavia, and Raincloud
Raincloud’s Home, Near Manehattan, Present Day
Raincloud hadn’t changed Erik’s house much, although the paintings were swapped around. It was basically the same house that Vinyl remembered. They had stopped by to supposedly gather supplies, but it was in reality just taking time to relax and process things. Octavia was upstairs looking at the various musical instruments that still remained in the room they had set aside for her while Raincloud and Vinyl waited downstairs. Raincloud approached Vinyl. “So how have things been?” She asked.
Vinyl avoided eye contact, but smiled at the formality. “Things have been the usual,” Was her response.
“That’s unfortunate,” Raincloud stood next to Vinyl awkwardly. After about a minute she continued. “When I look at you two I see something perfect. That pisses me off to no end.”
Vinyl laughed. “You have not changed one bit.”
Raincloud turned to her. “Seriously, I have spent almost six months trying to find a way to get you to myself and I’m just now realizing that it’ll never happen.”
“So are we good?” Vinyl looked her in the eyes.
“No,” Raincloud shook her head and smiled. “I hate you just as much as I hate this damn house.”
“I’m glad you hate this place,” Vinyl said. “Because you’re coming to live with us in Ponyville.”
Raincloud’s mouth opened slightly and her eyes seemed to look straight through Vinyl. “I’ve seen your place, but it isn’t really my style.”
Vinyl rolled her eyes. “Don’t give me that, we’re building a tower specifically for you. I know you like being up high.”
Raincloud looked down and smiled. She reached forward and hugged Vinyl. “Thanks Vinyl.”
The two turned to see Octavia nearly jumping down the stairs. She held something up. “Come look at what I found,” she said excitedly. “It’s a newspaper article from twelve years ago, to the day.”
Vinyl and Raincloud ran closer to her and looked at the article, which read:
Accident Leaves Young Pegasi Flightless
Doctors in the Manehattan General ER were surprised by an unusual case last night. Shortly after eleven a pegasi barely six months old was brought in with a severe wing injury. The strange part of this medical mystery is the cause. Upon immediate examination the wings of the young filly appeared to have been struck by lightning, which all pegasi are immune to. The filly’s condition was listed as stable, but it is unsure if she will be able to regain the ability to fly. There has not yet been a statement released as to the cause of the accident.
“Where did you find this?” Raincloud asked solemnly.
“I just found it in on the dresser in my old room,” Octavia explained. “Something about it piqued my interest; does it mean something to you?”
Raincloud looked up. “I think this may be our filly. She said she was about twelve and that she just became able to fly again three months ago.”
“What?” Vinyl nearly shouted. “Three months ago, as in when Luna and Celestia wiped everypony’s memories?”
“What are you getting at?” Octavia, along with Raincloud, didn’t see how that was important.
“Three months ago Celestia and Luna wiped everypony’s memories of the nine, and what they did, away. That doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me,” Vinyl looked at the others hoping they would come up with something to add.
“Lightning!” Raincloud’s eyes dilated. “Lightning doesn’t affect pegasi but the lightning that the nine used against us certainly did a number on Rainbow and I. What if the same lightning hurt her, and somehow the princess’ spell healed the damage.”
“So how does any of this help us?” Octavia asked.
“I don’t know,” Vinyl admitted. “I doubt we found this out by accident though.”
Raincloud motioned toward the door. “Let’s get going.”
“Where are we going, exactly? Vinyl asked. They had yet to discuss where they should go to find their antagonist.
“If I was doing this I’d go somewhere in the center of Equestria and up high,” Raincloud suggested.
They all thought a moment. Vinyl and Octavia looked at each other, coming to the same conclusion. “Ponyville is central,” Octavia started. “The tallest place near there would be the tower at our house.” The three of them ran out of the house, Vinyl and Octavia continued toward Ponyville while Raincloud flew to Canterlot to get Luna.
* * *
Ponyville was dark as they made their approach. Nopony was on the streets, and there were no lights lit in anyone’s home. Furthermore and large storm cloud had settled over the city, the rain was held back but flashes of lightning from within the cloud were visible. Vinyl and Octavia could feel the air temperature drop dramatically as they drew closer and shivers traveled down Raincloud’s spine as she and Luna teleported to Vinyl and Octavia’s home.
The fact that they were in the right place was made apparent from the clouds spinning above the tower. Occasionally a bolt of lightning struck the top of the building, sending sparks flying into the courtyard below. Vinyl didn’t stop moving when she reached tower, she just continued walking up the staircase purposefully with the others following. Regardless of the fact that they had all been killed the last time they entered a tower like this, none of them felt any fear.
The top room of the tower had yet to be completed. It lacked any furnishings or other shows of character. The walls weren’t even entirely finished. The roof lacked its intended glass paneling, letting in a few droplets of rain. At the far end of the room, the filly lay curled up with a dark glow emanating from around her. Vinyl held out a hoof, indicating to the others to stay back. She approached slowly. “What’s your name?” She asked gently.
The filly moved slightly. “I don’t have a name,” She responded. It was obvious from her voice that she had been crying.
“Yes you do!” Vinyl told her. “You just need to remember it. Please, just give me some reason to believe you’re still in there.”
The filly stood and turned to face Vinyl in one smooth motion. “I know I remember my name,” She looked directly into Vinyl’s eyes. “That’s the problem, though. I want to forget; I want to forget everything.”
“That isn’t what you want; what you really want is to have somepony there to take your hoof and tell you that everything will be alright,” Vinyl said earnestly.
“What makes you think you could possibly understand?” The filly asked angrily as a bolt of lightning flashed behind her.
“Because I was there,” Vinyl moved a bit closer. “I know you’re feeling like you have no hope and that this world abandoned you. I thought that too but then I met Octavia and everything changed. Let me do that for you; just say the word and we can walk out of here together and fix all of this.”
The filly’s pupils went entirely black and she started to fly. “Help me, Vinyl.” She rasped as the aura around her grew in size and intensity. The winds picked up speed and the rain began to fall harder. The filly screamed loudly, apparently in pain, and lightning began flashing more rapidly, striking areas around the tower.
Vinyl turned to her companions. “Do any of you have any ideas because I think I just failed,” she said.
The three others looked at each other. Luna aimed her horn at the filly and fired off two shots of energy, which were interrupted by two subsequent strikes of lightning. Raincloud looked at Octavia. “Can’t you do something? Now would be a very good time to go all crazy powerful.”
Octavia shook her head. “I don’t feel anything. Like, I feel even less than normal as though I don’t have any energy at all. It sort of feels like right before I have a vision and black out but that isn’t happening.”
Vinyl was back to watching the filly who was now suspended at least twenty-five meters above them. “Come on, what can I do?” She asked herself under her breath. “There has to be something I can do.”
“Come on, Octavia!” Raincloud shouted. “Now isn’t the time to start being normal. Aren’t you getting anything, any strange feelings?”
Octavia closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them suddenly. “Vinyl, what is her name? We need to know her name!”
“I don’t know her name Octy,” Vinyl turned her focus from the filly back to the others behind her.
“What are you doing, Vinyl?” Octavia asked with a puzzled look on her face.
“Doing what?” Vinyl returned. “And why are you glowing?”
“Vinyl, your horn is glowing. What are you doing to Octavia?” Luna asked.
Both Vinyl and Octavia looked panicked. Vinyl’s horn began to glow brighter, along with the aura surrounding Octavia. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck in between the two. Octavia fell back into Luna. Vinyl was lying on the ground, shaking, with a blue aura surrounding her. The filly had descended to the floor of the room and stood in the center.
Vinyl stood slowly with the blue aura still surrounding her. Raincloud gasped when she saw Vinyl’s eyes, which had gone completely white in the same manner that Octavia’s did when she had a vision. She turned to face the filly. “Nice to meet you, Elian,” The voice that came out of Vinyl’s body wasn’t Vinyl’s. It spoke with authority, but with a certain curiosity to it. The pitch and tonality was the same as Vinyl’s but it was very clearly not her speaking. “Or would you rather that I call you Kali. I am speaking to the destroyer of time, right?”
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Author's Notes:
Please don't rage-quit this story because of the turn it's taken. Just ride it out for one more chapter and then you'll see I'm not insane. I don't even know it this actually seems to be a bad path to take in the story but if it does seem that way then just know that I have a plan.
Request: Comments. I don't know how good of a writer I am and I don't think I'm very good. Basically it'd be cool if you could either confirm or deny that suspicion. Please, feel free to give me advice or to point out any grammatical or spelling errors to me if you find them.
Thanks for reading!
Until Next Time,
<3 Shae