//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: When things get real, they get real. // Story: Inner workings - Galsthan's stories // by HyperRandomness //------------------------------// Friday, April 17th. 4:13 A.M. All around Ponyville Goodness, a lot can happen between breaks. First thing’s first, we’ll talk about Galsthan. He’s had his hooves full for the past few hours, so let’s get that story out of the way and catch up with the present. Starting where we left off, Galsthan and the mysterious shaded Mare had gone separate ways after sharing that short moment, which still rang out in his mind as wrong. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt compelled to go apologize to Quick Fix. He thought long and hard about why it might be wrong, until he realized it may have been viewed by some as cheating. Only so long away from the wedding and he had already found himself being too friendly with other Mares. Attempting to hide out of shame, Galsthan retreated to his shop for a brief time, only to find that the Princess herself had been searching there for him. She wasn’t too happy about him evading his duties. The chase lasted for several hours, but what can you expect with one Alicorn pursuing another? You didn’t think it’d be easy, did you? Needless to say, Galsthan took a crash-course in flying lessons. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apparently on her way home, a befuddled Technicolor Pegasus Mare swerved out of the way just in time to see two Alicorns go roaring by, one seeming to have lost control and the other angrily giving chase. She puzzled at this for a moment, attributing it to the Princesses having disagreed on something and had gotten into a fight. It seemed about right. Then again, she thought, hovering a bit in midair and recalling the scene, I don’t think Princess Luna is colored brown. She thought it over for no more than a minute, then shrugged and sped away. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was apparent to Galsthan that the Princess didn’t want to hurt him, since he hadn’t been blasted out of the sky by magic yet. Speaking of magic, Galsthan tried his own hoof at it and attempted to summon a wall behind himself to impede the Princess’ progress on gaining on his position, but he inevitably failed. A miniscule magical explosion disoriented him for a brief second, which sent him into a steep nosedive. He pulled up at the last second, only just managing to avoid crashing headlong into the ground. He grazed a couple plants with his hooves, but avoided injury altogether by pulling up sharply and regaining his balance. Not bad for a first-timer, he thought smugly to himself, then hastening himself as he remembered he was still being pursued. It was about at this time that the Princess started to use her own magic to slow Galsthan. Firstly, she brought up a wall of solid magic in front of him, but he swerved around it deftly. Of course, by that, I mean he only just managed to flap around it, just skimming across it with his left wing. Next up, she tried offensive magic by shooting low-power lasers as Galsthan, trying to only hurt him enough to cause him to falter. The problem was he was faltering anyway! All his constant re-adjustments and failures to do so made him fishtail all around, becoming nearly impossible to target with such a spell. Next up on the list was telekinesis. She tried to take a hold of Galsthan completely by surrounding him with magic, but then something very strange occurred, which she had not expected to happen. His Alicorn self-defense system kicked in. In case you’re wondering, Alicorns have a natural defense against magical attacks, and only their breed can learn how to have the ability to use it. When coming in contact with most magical spells, an Alicorn will automatically latch onto it with their own magic and pull at it, draining the offender of their magic and exhausting them... or to a worse extent, causing injury or even death in severe cases. This is exactly what Galsthan did, albeit unintentionally. He lassoed the Princess’ magic with his own, then gave a fierce tug without intending to, which drained the strength right out of Princess Celestia. She lurched in midair, not expecting such a move to be used against her, but she quickly released her own spell as to not be drained entirely. Galsthan was suddenly filled with a rush of mad power like he had never experienced. He began flapping his wings so hard that he swore he’d tear them off, causing him to rocket forward and away from the Princess at phenomenal speeds. Had a certain chromatic Pegasus been around, he may have even gotten a compliment from her. There was just one problem. HOW DO YOU STEER THESE THINGS!? Galsthan exclaimed in his mind, gritting his teeth and trying to keep from plummeting to the ground. Just managing to avoid falling for the hundredth time, Galsthan did a quick 90-degree turn, throwing himself off-balance and causing him to lose control of his flight. He shot like a rocket to the ground and collided with a tree with a deafening CRACK!, stopping him dead in his tracks. Hopefully just figuratively. For the zillionth time, he lost consciousness. He really needs to stop doing that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quick Fix heard a loud noise, then looked up and gasped. Galsthan, for starters, was flying. She almost thought she should be proud for some reason, until she noticed how much trouble he was having... and that he was being chased by Princess Celestia herself! Many other ponies around her joined in the gawking, until they flew out of sight and a loud crash was heard. Quick Fix gasped and started galloping after them, hoping that Galsthan was already a steady enough flier to not have killed himself. As she hurried along, she noticed there were many blast marks along the way. Had the Princess been trying to shoot him down?? This only caused her to fret more, so she hastened her pace to the point of causing exhaustion. She didn’t get far before needing to stop for a rest. Panting heavily, Quick Fix leaned against a tree for support so she would not collapse. “Ah didn’t see THAT one comin,” a familiar voice spoke, not directed to her. Quick Fix looked up and saw Applejack, who was apparently watching everything as well. “Shoot, Ah wond’r if he landed in th’ field. Better go an’ tell Big Macintosh.” She turned to leave and took off in a quick gallop, her Stetson nearly falling off. Now regaining her breath, Quick Fix rushed out into a field of apple trees to find Galsthan. If what she could guess was correct, then he crashed out here somewhere, and it would likely be up to her to find him first. Unfortunately, her body argued against her. After having finished all of her rearrangements, she went to find Galsthan, and heard reports of the Princess still trying to find him, so she’d been up all night in the search. Her body told her she’d had enough, so she toppled over and fell asleep right then and there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Celestia was quite furious. For starters, Galsthan hadn’t gone with her as he said he would, but instead had been absent from his duties for quite some time. The Princess herself couldn’t say she was innocent of such things, but she justified her absence with the presence of Princess Luna, who was filling in for her while she was away. Galsthan had no such stand-in. There was a lot to do. Adding another Alicorn to the system would be difficult enough, but now she had to chase him, too? It was downright enraging. She’d even dispatched several squads of her finest guards to find him, but they all failed in catching him. When she did spot him, she didn’t exactly ask kindly for him to accompany her. She took immediate action against him, which is described earlier in this chapter. She’d attempted to down him through many means already, even resorting to magic, but now it would seem that she no longer needed to pursue him, as he’d managed to crash anyhow. With a victorious grin on her face, she landed next to the unconscious Galsthan and the felled tree that he crashed into. She picked him up with her magic carefully this time as to not trigger his defensive systems, then pointed her horn skyward. In a blink of yellow light, both Alicorns vanished.