//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Paradox [NaPoWriMo] // by Yukito //------------------------------// Celestia rose from her bed and made her way towards the wide glass double doors leading out to the balcony. She opened them and stepped outside, feeling the cool morning air blowing against her coat and mane. She extended her wings, and her horn lit up with a bright golden aura, as her body lifted off the ground. Luna’s moon was barely visible over the horizon, and from the opposite side, Celestia’s sun began to rise up into the sky, shining its light across all of Equestria. Celestia landed back onto the ground, and smiled contentedly at her work. “Now then, I think I’ll say good morning to Luna, before she dozes off to sleep.” Celestia turned around and retreated back into her room, making her way to her dresser, where she levitated a brush and began to tidy up her bed mane. Once it was more presentable, she began to dress herself in her Royal attire: her tiara, necklace, and gold shoes. Celestia left her room once she was fully dressed, and made her way down the hallway towards her sister’s room. One the way, she passed may servants and guards going about their morning duty, all of which stopped to greet her with a polite bow as she passed by them. After reaching Luna’s room, Celestia knocked on the door and waited for a response. “Come in,” a voice called out from behind the door. Celestia opened the door and stepped inside. As always, it was like night-time inside her sister’s room. In fact, because of the lack of a moon, it was even darker than night-time. The only light came from the computer monitor next to Luna’s bed. Although anypony else, Celestia included, would have to wait for their eyes to adjust, and then take care when navigating the dark room, Luna was different. She was the Princess of the Moon, and her eyes were magically enhanced so that she could see in even the darkest room as if it was brightly lit. It was a necessity when guarding the night, especially on nights of a new moon. Luna turned around to face her sister, who had stopped upon entering the room to let her eyes adjust. “Good morning, sister. Hath thou come to wish us a peaceful sleep?” Celestia smiled and took a few steps into the room, using her horn to light her way as she approached her sister. “Playing games again? I do hope you haven’t been skipping your duties to play, Luna.” Luna paused her game and rose to her hooves quickly. “Of course we haven’t, sister! We would never abandon our Royal duties to play around!” Luna calmed down a little and grinned at Celestia. “We’re not you, after all.” Celestia narrowed her eyes at her younger sister, who glared back at the older sibling. After a few seconds, Luna broke the silence by breaking into laughter, soon followed by Celestia. “Well,” Celestia began, once her laughter had died down, “Good morning, sister. And pleasant dreams.” Luna’s laughter also died down, but instead of the cheerful look that Celestia was expecting, Luna’s face suddenly took on a serious expression. “Sister, we need to ask you something.” “Yes?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. “Who is Paradox?” Celestia’s eyes widened in shock, and she quickly reached out and placed both of her hooves on her sister’s shoulders. Luna was taken aback by the look on Celestia’s face. The stern look that she hadn’t seen her sister wear since she was Nightmare Moon. “Where did you hear that name, Luna?” Luna stared into Celestia’s eyes for a few seconds, her body shaking, until she managed to compose herself, and pointed a hoof to her bed, where a small box was seen by Celestia. On it was a letter. “That box was waiting for us in the throne room. We’ve examined the contents, and they don’t seem to be dangerous, but…” Celestia released her sister, and walked over to examine the box. She reached out for the letter with her magic, and brought it up to her face in order to read it. “Dear Princess Celesta, It has been a long time. I’m sure you thought I was dead. But I can assure you, I am very much alive. I wish I could see your smiling face at this revelation, but alas, I am far too busy right now. I have a date with destiny, you see. I’m sorry that I could not meet with you face-to-face. But perhaps this present will suffice. Don’t worry. We will meet each other very soon. Until then, do take care. Love, Paradox. P.S. I hear your sister has returned. Give her my best regards.” Celestia placed the letter to one side, and shifted her gaze over to the box next to it. It had already been opened, presumably by Luna, to make sure that it wasn’t a trap designed to take the elder sister’s life. She hesitated for a moment before taking off the lid, and gasped when she laid eyes upon the box’s contents. It was a bunch of rose flowers, all torn up and scatted throughout the box. Underneath the flower petals, there was something carved into the bottom of the box: “IV”. Twilight hummed a merry tune as she skipped through the town of Ponyville, dressed in very warm clothing to protect her from the winter coldness. She was wearing a purple and pink stripped scarf, and some yellow boots to keep her hooves nice and warm. She also proudly wore her special vest, designed just for her, the head organiser for Winter Wrap Up. It was half green and half blue, with a brown trim. Twilight held a clipboard in front of her with her magic, reading over the schedule she had prepared in advance for each of the teams, making sure that there were no errors, that everything fell correctly into place, and that adequate backup plans were ready, in case something were to go wrong. She was so absorbed in her reading that she didn’t notice the pony in front of her until she had bumped into him, causing her to fall back onto her haunches and drop her clipboard. Twilight rubbed her head as she looked up at the pony she had bumped into. She saw a tall stallion, about the size of Princess Luna, with a Unicorn horn, looking down at her with a worried look on his face. His coat was dark green, and his mane and tail light brown. He was wearing a black cape that covered most of his body, with the hood down. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going, and…” “No, no, it’s my fault,” the stallion insisted, “I was daydreaming, and didn’t notice you approaching.” The stallion extended a hoof towards Twilight to lift her up, which she accepted. Twilight was surprised that he wasn’t knocked down too, since his build was rather slim, and he didn’t look very strong. “Still, I’m sorry for bumping into you like that.” “It’s fine, Miss Sparkle,” the stallion said. “Well…Wait, how do you know my name?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow and moving one step back. The stallion let out a slight laugh. “You’re the reason I came to Ponyville, actually,” he answered, “I wanted to see Princess Celestia’s personal pupil at work during Winter Wrap Up. I heard that your organisational skills last year caused this town to finish much faster than ever before, and that you were commended greatly for it.” Twilight’s ears flattened and her eyes turned away from the stallion’s own emerald coloured eyes, as a tinge of red crossed her face. “Oh, no…It’s nothing special, really.” The stallion laughed again. “As modest as they say.” He reached down with his hooves and picked up Twilight’s clipboard, and then handed it back to her. “Oh, my name is Paradox, by the way.” Twilight nodded and took the clipboard into her magic. “Well it’s nice to meet you, Paradox,” she said as she straightened out the paper attached to the board. “I’m actually on my way to meet with Mayor Mare and the rest of Ponyville now, so that we can start Winter Wrap Up. You wanna come along?” Paradox shook his head. “I’d love to, but I’ve got something else to take care of first. I’ll be there soon, so don’t finish up too quickly.” Twilight nodded again, and walked past Paradox, waving goodbye to him as she made her way towards the meeting place for the three Winter Wrap Up teams. Once she was out of view, Paradox lifted the hood up to cover his head, and allowed a dark grin to appear on his face. “Well, that was easy enough. Now to pay a visit to this “Fluttershy”.” Fluttershy was finishing feeding her animals that morning, making sure that all animals received their morning feed and trying to distribute the meals evenly, so that none of the animals felt like they were getting less than any of the other animals. Once she was finished with the last of the animals, she made one last check to make sure that she hadn’t missed any of her friends, and when she was content with her work, she slipped on her Animal Team vest, and prepared to make her way to Ponyville, to join the rest of the group. She was stopped, however, by the appearance of a green stallion moving right towards her. She turned her head away and stepped to the side, allowing the stallion to pass by. The stallion, however, stopped right next to Fluttershy, who turned her head away more, her eyes, hidden behind her mane, shifting between the stallion and the ground. Paradox raised an eyebrow at the shy Pegasus, thinking to himself that she really lived up to her name. “Um…Miss Fluttershy, correct?” The shy Pegasus nodded meekly, and Paradox let out a relieved sigh. “Thank Luna! I need your help immediately!” Fluttershy didn’t turn her head to face him, but fixed her gaze on him when she heard that he needed help. “W-What with?” “There’s an injured animal in the Everfree forest!” he shouted frantically, and for a second, he smiled as he saw Fluttershy completely snap out of her shy state, and turn her full attention towards him, no longer hiding behind her mane. “I don’t know what to do, and I can’t move him! Please come and help him immediately!” Fluttershy jumped into the air and flapped her wings wildly as she hovered in midair. “Yes! Of course! Please lead the way!” Paradox turned around and began galloping towards the Everfree forest, a wicked grin crossing his face as the yellow Pegasus followed him closely. ‘Now let’s see how powerful she is.’ Three hours into Winter Wrap Up, and things were mostly proceeding smoothly. Fluttershy was absent, and the Animal Team was falling slightly behind, but luckily, Twilight had already planned ahead in case there were any absent ponies, and so it wasn’t going to affect the town’s time too badly. “Ok Rainbow Dash, just wait for my signal, and then have your group move all of the clouds out of the way,” Twilight called up to the rainbow maned Pegasus. “No problem!” Rainbow Dash called back, before falling back onto a cloud and resting whilst she waited for said signal. Twilight then proceeded to make her way towards where the Animal Team were preparing to wake up the animals, when her body suddenly stopped moving, and she found herself frozen on the spot. Her eyes widened, or they would have, but for some reason, all control over her body was completely lost. A flash of light surrounded Twilight, and before she could even begin to think about what was happening, she was blinded by a very bright flash of light. When Twilight’s vision returned to her, she was standing in a clearing in the Everfree forest, and it took her a moment to realise that she was able to move her body once again. She took in a deep breath of air, and looked around at her surroundings, trying to figure out in her head what had just happened. “Sorry about that,” a voice called out from behind Twilight. She quickly spun around to see the pony that she had run into earlier. “Teleportation magic isn’t my forte, you see, so I’m afraid a little nausea couldn’t really be helped. I’ll give you a moment to get used to it.” Twilight stared at Paradox with wide open eyes. “W-What? What’s going on here? Did you teleport me here? How did you even do that? And why?” Paradox silenced her by lifting a hoof. “So many questions…I teleported you using a spell that I placed on your clipboard earlier.” Twilight flipped her clipboard around, and noticed some kind of sticker on the back, with a symbol that seemed familiar to her, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember where from. “And as for why I did that…I want you to fight me.” Twilight raised her eyebrow at the strange request. “What? You…Want me to fight you?” Paradox nodded. “That’s right. Princess Celestia’s fourth personal student, the Spirit of Magic, Twilight Sparkle.” Paradox flashed a toothy grin at the confused mare, and continued. “I’ve heard the stories. But I want to know how powerful you really are.” Twilight’s ears drooped, and she shuffled a forehoof against the ground nervously. “I’m…Not really into fighting, you know?” “Oh yes, I’m well aware of that,” he said, before stepping aside to reveal an unconscious Fluttershy, chained to a tree. Twilight’s eyes widened, before her expression turned to one of rage, and she charged a little magic into her horn. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said, pointing a hoof at Fluttershy’s head, where a sticker with yet another familiar symbol was placed. “If you try to rescue her with magic or any other means, I’ll simply use my own magic to turn her brain to mush.” Twilight’s spell dropped, and she took a few steps back, staring in horror at the sadistic stallion in front of her, who was still grinning madly at the frightened mare. “W-Why are you doing this? I thought you wanted to fight me…So why is Fluttershy here!?” “She’s my insurance,” Paradox explained, “Here’s how it will work. You will fight me, without holding back, or she dies. Of course, even if you do fight me, I’ll still kill her if you lose.” Paradox cackled as he took a few steps closer towards Twilight, who stayed her ground, but lowered herself into a defensive stance. “In other words, the only way to save her, is by defeating me in a duel.” Twilight furrowed her brow and clenched her teeth, growling angrily at Paradox, who was charging up energy into his horn. “Why do you want to fight me so badly? Who are you!?” “There’ll be time for talking later, my little pony,” Paradox replied as he charged forward, his horn glowing a bright green as he lowered his head. Twilight quickly gathered some energy into her own horn, and waited for Paradox’s next move. When she saw Paradox cast a spell that shook the ground beneath her, she quickly cast a teleportation spell to move behind him, and followed it up with an offensive blast of magical energy. Paradox turned around and deflected the blast with his own magic, and his horn started glowing once again. Behind him, water from a nearby lake was starting to rise up and form some kind of shape. Twilight’s eyes widened as the water froze over, forming several dagger-like projectiles of ice. ‘That’s the spell devised by Frost Winters!’ Twilight exclaimed in her mind. ‘But Princess Celestia told me that it was too powerful for most Unicorns to handle! Even I can’t use that spell!’ Paradox threw the projectiles straight at Twilight, who quickly summoned up a barrier to deflect them. Paradox saw this coming though, and used a second spell to poke a few holes into Twilight’s barrier. “No way!” Twilight shouted, and tried to repair the holes quickly. But she was too late; three of the ice projectiles passed through the holes, and made direct hits on Twilight. Two of them pierced her forelegs, and the third one flew right past her face, cutting her cheek in the process. Twilight fell to the floor in pain, and her barrier, as well as the magic gathered in her horn, disappeared. “How disappointing,” Paradox said as he moved closer to her. “This is Princess Celestia’s current pupil? Man, she must have really dumbed down her lessons…Or maybe that’s why you now live in Ponyville. Maybe you were a failure, and she just doesn’t want to put up with you.” Twilight looked up at Paradox with growing anger, but was unable to get up with her forelegs pinned to the ground. “What are you saying?” “I’m saying that, compared to your predecessors, you’re a joke,” Paradox said bluntly, before manifesting a long, sharp blade with his magic. “Why did you try to repair the holes in your barrier? Any of the Princess’ previous pupils would have used a heating spell to melt the incoming ice. Yes, it would have weakened you, too, but at least you’d still have a shot.” Twilight looked at Paradox with a mixture of anger and confusion. “And I suppose you would know that for a fact?” Paradox grinned at the trapped Unicorn. “Well, there’s little doubt that her first pupil would have; he was a genius among stallions. Heck, he may have been able to come up with something better. Her second pupil would at least have realised there wasn’t enough time to repair the holes.” Paradox knelt down to look at Twilight at eyelevel. “And I know for a fact that I would have done that.” Twilight’s eyes widened as she realised what he was saying. “You’re…One of the Princess’ pupils?” “Bingo!” he shouted, rising up to his hooves quickly. “Well, it seems you’re at least somewhat smarter than the average pony. I’d wager the Princess never mentioned me once to you. Or her second pupil, for that matter.” Paradox let out a soft chuckle, before continuing. “She never did like talking about her “failures”.” “Failures?” Twilight asked. “Well, that’s what the Princess would call us. Tell me, what do you know about her past pupils?” The silence from Twilight answered his question for him. “I see. You never asked her about us? You were never once curious about the ponies you were succeeding? Well, if you ask her, I bet she’d just dodge the question, or come up with some kind of nice little tale to satisfy your curiosity.” There was another length of silence from Twilight. “The truth is,” Paradox started, his grin falling and his face becoming completely serious, “The Princess killed her second pupil, and attempted to kill me, too.” “That’s a lie!” Twilight shouted reflexively. “The Princess would never do something like that!” More laughter from Paradox silenced the shaking mare. “There’s a lot about the Princess that you don’t know! But, I suppose there’s no need to waste time going into all of that with you. Since I’ve reached my decision: you’re too weak to be of any use to me.” Paradox levitated the long blade above Twilight’s head, and pointed it directly downwards. “W-What do you mean? What are you going to do?” Twilight asked, trying to shake off the fear surrounding her and looking for a way out. “It’s my revenge against the Princess. If you were strong enough, I would’ve asked you to join up with me. But with this level of strength, I think I’ll just kill you, instead. And then, I’ll target her.” ““Her?”” Twilight asked, and then gasped when she realised that he was talking about the Princess. She grinded her teeth together, and tried to force herself to stand up, but Paradox’s magic kept her down on the ground. “Don’t you dare! I won’t let you lay a hoof on the Princess!” Paradox ignored her threats, and simply lowered the blade quickly into Twilight’s head. Or at least, that was his intention. But as he did so, he noticed a purple aura surrounding his blade, and before he could process what was going in, his own blade was thrown right back at him, aiming for his right foreleg. He quickly cancelled his magic, causing the blade to vanish before it could strike him, and then looked down at the only pony that could be responsible for this: Twilight Sparkle, who was staring back into Paradox’s eyes with fire in her eyes. Literally. The ice pinning Twilight down suddenly shattered, and she quickly rose up into the air. Paradox had to turn his head away as Twilight’s mane and tail burst into flames, and when he was able to turn back to face her, he saw that her coat had changed too; it was now a very bright white colour, and her eyes were a bright red. Her expression was one of complete rage. He could tell that she was being fuelled only by one thing at this point: anger. “Well, this is interesting,” Paradox commented, using his previous spell to summon a few more ice projectiles behind him. He threw them right at Twilight, who fired a beam of raw magic at them. “That won’t work. I’ve reinforce them with my own magic, so they won’t break so easily.” Paradox was shocked when his words betrayed him, and the projectiles shattered upon being hit by Twilight’s magic. “Impossible!” Twilight, who had now landed back on the ground, charged straight forward, her horn glowing as she approached Paradox. Paradox charged magic into his own horn, only for Twilight to disappear suddenly. He turned around 180 degrees, and fired a stream of electricity at the incoming mare, who disappeared once again, taking Paradox by surprise. ‘How is she able to conjure up teleportation spells so quickly?’ he asked himself in his mind. He quickly turned to his left, and threw a forehoof forward, connecting with Twilight’s face as the purple Unicorn tried to catch him off guard with a binding spell. “Fool,” he said as Twilight was thrown backwards. “I was wrong; you’ve got the skill, but you lack the will to harm others. Even if it’s your enemy, you hold back because you fear hurting them. Or worse.” Twilight rose to her hooves quickly, but a quick wave a dizziness rendered her vulnerable for a few seconds. A few seconds which Paradox took full advantage of, by hitting Twilight with a binding spell of his own. Twilight was suddenly shackled to the ground, her magic bound by a chain wrapped around her horn. “I think you may just be worth recruiting after all,” Paradox said, and then waited a few moments for Twilight to shake off the dizziness that had hit her earlier. Her mane and tail returned to the way they were before, albeit a little messed up, with stray hairs sticking out in various places, and her eyes and coat soon followed. “Twilight, I want you to join me in my quest to kill Princess Celestia.” Twilight groaned from the headache she had, and then scowled at Paradox. “You’re joking, right?” Paradox grinned at the bound mare, and then turned his head to face Fluttershy. Twilight did the same. “It’s not just her,” he said. “If you don’t want to help me, it would be no trouble wiping all of Ponyville off the map.” “You wouldn’t!” Twilight shouted. “You couldn’t!” “Oh? Would you care to take the risk?” “You…Why are you doing this? Why are you dragging innocent ponies who have nothing to do with me into this!? You coward!” Paradox lifted a forehoof, and thrust it towards Twilight’s chest, delivering a huge shockwave of pain throughout her entire body. “Not cowardice, Twilight. It’s called a strategic maneuver. This way, I can control your movements with my hostages. And if you refuse to join me, or step out of line, I can wipe the Spirits of Harmony out with a single spell.” “You’re bluffing! Nopony has that kind of power!” “Oh? And what about the Princesses?” Paradox reached into his clock, and pulled out a few stickers, similar to the ones earlier, with many different markings on them. “Alicorn magic, my little successor, is more powerful than anything we could imagine. Strong enough to move celestial bodies with just one pony.” “Alicorn magic?” Twilight asked, her eyes and mouth wide open in shock. “That’s…Alicorn magic?” She examined the stickers once more, and it suddenly hit her. ‘That’s right! Now I remember! I saw those symbols in a really old text book! Cadance told me that they were from the language used by the Alicorns!’ Paradox put away the stickers, and his maniacal grin returned to his face. “Now, this is your last chance, Twilight. Will you join me, or will you perish, along with your friends?” “She will do neither!” a voice called out from beyond the trees. Paradox and Twilight turned their heads to see the regal figure of Princess Celestia approaching them. “Because…I will protect her!”