//------------------------------// // The End? (THIS is the END of Part ONE) // Story: Reign of the shy-pony // by The_Swedish_Horror //------------------------------// Twilight looked into the cleaning closet, using the magic glow from her horn as a primitive form of flashlight. It was a dark and boring place filled with plastic buckets and brooms, but she decided to investigate it closely just to make sure that there was no library on the other side after all. Suddenly she noticed a strange, muffled sound coming from somewhere among the shadows! "What was that noise?" "AAhhH! Zombonies! Ghosts!" Pinkie screamed and fled in terror, stumbling over her own hoofs like a startled goat. But Twilight immediately realized that this couldn't be an ordinary ghost... The air carried with it a vague scent of skittles. It could only be Rainbow Dash! "Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked. A familiar face emerged from underneath a blanket. "Sniff... Go away! I'm busy!" "Are you... crying?" "No! Just leave me alone! I'm NOT crying!" "But please, tell me what it is... Maybe I can help you?" "You can help me by going away and... sniff... let me cr... I mean, do other stuff alone!" "Rainbow... Please, just let me help. I've read a book about feelings and now I'm eagerly looking for test subjects to examine!" "Twilight, you don't understand... I was supposed to return from Cloudsdale with an army for Fluttershy. But instead I'm here, hiding in shame! I tried to rally the troops, but they told me to go buck myself. I have failed her. And I HATE failing. I will stay here for the rest of my life!" "Please, come out of the closet, Rainbow Dash..." Twilight said and tried to give her an awkward hug. "W-what?!" Rainbow gasped, desperately retreating into a corner. "Come out of this cleaning closet. It's not like you to behave like this." "Well..." "Don't you know that Fluttershy have turned evil? She is a bank robbing, insane tyrant now." "That may be true, but I'm still loyal to her! Maybe I should turn evil as well?" Rainbow said and slowly got up on her hooves. She looked like a total wreck of a pony, with dust and cobwebs in her mane. Her eyes were weary and her tail ruffled. "Rainbow? What are you talking ab..." "What if I captured you and brought you to her? Then she would surely forgive me!" "Please, Rainbow! Don't do anything stupid... If you do that you would betray me, and Pinkie Pie and all of princess Celestia's loyal subjects! And princess Luna, too! And you would do a disservice to Fluttershy, because she can't rule and needs to be removed from power for her own safety. Her regime is crumbling." "Yeah, I know... And I think that you should be free, I really do... But I'm a part of that regime so I still have to capture you and bring you to her. I hope you don't mind." "No no no no!" Twilight screamed as she tried to run away. But it was to no use, for Rainbow Dash was way faster than her. She threw herself at her and wrestled the shocked unicorn down on the cold floor of the sewers. "Just let me hold you captive for a while, Twilight! This is all part of my plan! I will of course ask her to let you go after I have..." She was interrupted by being hit with a blast of confetti from Pinkie Pie's party cannon, throwing her off her hooves. However, the shockwave from the muzzle also knocked over an old skull from a long since departed unicorn, making it roll down and fall from its shelf and hit a heavy steel rod. The rod tipped over and slid into the hoofwheel of a big valve where its weight turned the wheel and opened the valve completely. They could hear the sound of water quickly flooding some unknown compartment somewhere in the big sewer system. "Uh... That's probably not a good thing." When she tried to shut the valve, Twilight realized that the hoofwheel had been bent! Oh no! Now it was impossible to stop the flow... "I have a bad feeling about this, Twilight..." Pikie said with a double tail twitch. "Me too..." * * * Princess Celestia found herself chained to the wall in the highest tower of her old castle. She was now a prisoner in her own home, at the mercy of the tyrant ruler of her former realm. Fluttershy looked menacing in her black crown, gorget and metal hoofshoes. She slowly trotted across the dark room, looking at Celestia with a gleeful smile. "I have you now, my dear princess... Oh, how I will enjoy getting rid of you once and for all," Fluttershy said, rubbing her hooves together. "And then I will rule this world forever as an immortal queen! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Once my army is gathered I will march to the Crystal empire and claim that throne too... And maybe even Saddle Arabia? You don't even know what I could do. Perhaps I should begin with turning you into a cute little bunny rabbit? Or a nice peacock?" "I have already seen enough, Fluttershy. And I am not amused by your foolish shenanigans anymore," Celestia said. "Is that so? Well, too bad you were stupid enough to think that you could just trot in here and topple me like I was some kind of meek pushover! You came here expecting to find a madpony but instead you found a goddess! What were you even thinking, coming here alone?" Celestia laughed at her with defiance in her eyes. "Why do you think I am alone?" "What?! What do you mean by that?" "Look out the window, Fluttershy..." Fluttershy ran to the window, and what she saw outside made her almost faint! A blue mass of ponies were swarming the walls of Canterlot like ants! They were so many that they didn't even need ladders; instead they just climbed over each others like insects or zombonies! "No! It cannot be..." Fluttershy gasped with sheer terror in her eyes. "It's impossible!" "Luna is coming, tens of thousands of her... She is evacuating your subjects as we speak. I was hoping to distract you, so that you wouldn't get enough time to slip away." "My army will stop her... um... them!" "And exactly where is your army now?" "Um..." "You don't know? They have already surrendered. Give up now, Fluttershy." "No! No, this is impossible! It's not fair! Wait! I still control the sun and the moon! I will teleport myself to a safe location, and from there I will take back my empire!" "Oh, grow up... Just let Twilight do her magic and everything will be back to normal." "Will it...?" "Yes. You will be severely punished, of course, but for me it will be back to normal." "No! I don't think so!" Fluttershy screamed and formed a magic glow around her horn. "You are still my hostage! Let's move! We got some teleportation to do... I will release you from your chains, but please don't try any funny business! I'm a not a happy pony right now..." * * * Twilight started to run as fast as she could, but it was impossible for her to escape the gushing sewage water that swept through the room like a filthy tide. The terrified unicorn tried to swim with all four legs frantically flailing around her in utter panic. The next moment she was sucked down under the surface, tumbling around in the raging currents. Suddenly she was flushed trough a water duct and into the royal moat! The whole sewer system was overflowing and the water swept trough the streets, taking with it a few surprised Lunas that didn't had enough time to get away from the flood. "Help!" she screamed, instantly getting some of the water in her mouth. "Gargle... Help! I'm drowning!" She saw a quick glimpse of Pinkie's head beside her in a brief moment before she disappeared. In the next second Twilight was hit in the head with a floating board, knocking her unconscious. * * * The sudden force of water had washed away some of the foundation underneath a small tower of the castle, making the building slowly crumble and collapse like a sandcastle. Several thousand tons o stone and mortar came crashing down, taking with it several other parts of the ancient edifice with a thundering sound in a horrifying chain reaction. From her tower Fluttershy could only watch in terror when most of Canterlot was destroyed under her. "I didn't do that!" she shouted to Celestia, who was standing right beside her. "You have to believe me!" But Celestia didn't even notice her. She was busy screaming from the top of her lungs at this horrifying sight. Then there was a bright flash of magic from Fluttershy's horn. * * * Twilight found herself, soaking wet and confused, lying on the mountainside. Beside her was Pinkie Pie. She was alive but passed out from the chock of being nearly drowned. From this place she could see the sad remains of the once beautiful castle; now half of it was completely washed away from the rock where it had stood in nearly twelve centuries. Canterlot would never be the same. It was now little more than a sewage drenched ruin. "Uhhh... what happened?" Twilight asked. Pinkie didn't answer. "Oh... right..." She then noticed a soaked Rainbow Dash entangled in some vines further away, desperately struggling to free herself from the remnants of a blackberry bush. It was she who had in the last minute swooped down and saved them from certain death. "Rainbow Dash? Are you hurt? Please, say something!" "Uuuoohhh... I think I'm going to vomit." "Excellent, that means your esophagus is fully responsive to the stimuli of the..." "UuuuhaarrrggghhhHHH!!!" Rainbow groaned and threw up her lunch along with some of the highly disgusting sewage water. Twilight smiled happily. By her heroic actions Rainbow Dash had fully redeemed herself, she thought. "Rainbow Dash, I think that you..." Twilight begun before her gaze caught something climbing on the mountaintop that made her stop mid sentence. A sight that made her jaw drop. * * * Fluttershy opened her eyes. She was, apparently, alive. Her body felt like it had been run over by a steamroller, but she wasn't dead yet. None of her bones seemed to be broken... Incredibly enough she had somehow managed to survive being crushed by stones, drowned by sewage water and a fall from a mountainside. Perhaps it was because of her alicorn powers... Eternal life somehow gave her the strength to survive absurd things like this. Who would have known? Slowly she crawled out from the pile of rubble where she had been buried. Her ruffled mane was full of dust and small grains of mortar. She felt really miserable. Now she just wanted to sneak away and hide forever... "HOW DARE YOU!" a thundering voice roared from above. She turned around and her gaze met a pair of furious, golden eyes staring at her. And they were enormous. "Oh... oh my..." They belonged to a giant, red dragon. And he looked both angry and newly awaken. His scales were covered in sewage water and dust. "YOU have a lot to explain, alicorn!" he said. "I... I didn't..." "It was YOU who took away the powers from poor Celestia and Luna! And you also woke me up! How could you?!" "She... didn't want to let me be an alicorn... And HOW could you possibly know that while you were asleep?" "I was actually informed a week ago about some crazy alicorn usurper threatening to blow up Canterlot. But I like to snooze... Anyway, you should be ashamed of yourself. I have had it with your destructive insanity! Now I will take away your powers and restore them to their rightful wielders, you... you BAD alicorn! Then I may finally get some sleep." And in a flash of the most powerful of dragon magic, Fluttershy could see all of her powers being stripped away. The crown and all of her royal regalia fell from her as her body reverted back to its former size and shape. A miserable, shaken and very, very unhappy Fluttershy lay soon cowering on the ground. Tears started to run down her cheeks. "What?! It was YOU all along?!" the dragon said with a truly baffled expression in his face. "The same pegasus who once told me to go and sleep somewhere else?" She nodded slightly. "There, there... I don't want you to be upset. I know that you're not a bad pony. You just made a bad decision. Please don't cry." "D-do you think so...?" "Have you deliberately killed anypony?" "N-no..." "Then you're not even half as bad as some of the rulers I have seen in my days... No names mentioned." "Celestia?! Did Celestia kill somepony?!" "NO! I'm talking about Insanicus the Bloodthirsty!" "I... I have never heard of him before..." "I maybe made him up to make you feel better. Now, I suggest you go and hire a competent lawyer..." * * * On the mountain slope beneath the desecrated ruins of her castle lay the ruins of a pony. It was princess Celestia, battered, bruised and covered in foul smelling sewage and waste. She wasn't dead, but she almost wished that she was. The princess had somehow managed to snatch the teleportation magic from Fluttershy's horn in the last minute before the building came crashing in, thus saving herself and at the same time leaving Fluttershy trapped in the results of her own machinations. She had however materialized in thin air and then dropped to the rocky ground below with a thud. It was not a very dignified landing for a princess. When she lay there in shambles, Celestia suddenly felt the warm flow of magic through her body. Her legs grew long, as they used to be and when she looked over her shoulder she could see wings sprouting from her back. "I... I'm..." she mumbled, almost speechless when she began to realize what was happening to her. With her hoof she touched her forehead. She could feel her horn growing back again. It meant that her powers were restored! She was now an alicorn again! She was once again the ruling princess of Equestria! "I AM BACK! I AM BACK!" she cried with tears of joy. "At last! Finally I'm back... Oh, just wait till I get my hooves on that terrible pony! Where is she now? Where is that BLASTED pegasus?!" She spread her wings and took off. Swiftly Celestia flew like a vengeful hawk in search of its prey. From above she would easily spot any little yellow dot trying to sneak away among the ruins. She was determined not to let that happen. * * * Fluttershy galloped as fast as she could, fleeing from the scene in panic. She carried a saddlebag filled with several millions worth of banknotes that she somehow had managed to salvage from the ruins. Confused thoughts rushed through her head. With all this money she could start a new life somewhere far away... Maybe Griffonia? Saddle Arabia? No, that wasn't far enough! Celestia could still find her. And Fluttershy really, really didn't want to be found right now. She just wanted to disappear into the earth like a flea or an ant. Maybe she should get a new manecut? Or dye her mane black? Yes, she should definitely dye it black. And then she would get a tattoo that hid her cutie mark. Maybe a black square? A black square that completely covered up the butterflies would be nice... It would hurt a little, of course, but that was a matter of minor importance to her right now... Fluttershy jumped over a fence and ran across a small field. Her heart was pounding with dread. What if her subjects would get her? What horrific punishment would they choose for her? She hoped to never would find out... The fleeing pony looked over her shoulder and took a quick glance on the sad ruins of the once proud Canterlot castle. It bore little resemblance to what she had seen a few weeks earlier. She didn't exactly know what had happened to it, but she somehow suspected that this disaster was her own fault like everything else that had gone completely off the rails during her disastrous reign. Suddenly a shadow swooped down from above and her way was cut off by none other than princess Celestia! And she didn't look happy at all. "GOING SOMEWHERE?!" the princess yelled with fury in her eyes. Fluttershy could only answer with a high pitched squeak of terror. She turned around and jumped over a small ditch, pushed herself through a hedge and stumbled on to a small country road somewhere in the farmland on the mountain slope near Canterlot. She was lost, but she didn't care. She just wanted to get away... "There she is!" a little colt shouted and pointed his hoof in her direction. "There she is! There is the bad pony!" Fluttershy desperately tried to run the other way, but before she could escape her road to freedom was cut off by a number of enraged townsponies! She was cornered. "No! No!" she screamed and spread her wings to fly. But it was already too late. Celestia herself appeared above her, pointing her horn directly towards the terrified Fluttershy. "Oh, no you don't!" Her heart almost stopped. Her legs felt like spaghetti and her mouth was dry. She looked around, hyperventilating. But there was no escape. Her fate had finally caught up with her. EPILOGUE Although princess Celestia powers were fully restored, her castle wasn't. She tried to rebuild what was left of Canterlot, but she couldn't afford a full restoration and the expenses of her effort made her bankrupt. Only the true princess Luna went back to being an alicorn, to her great relief. The other surviving Lunas marched away like a swarm of locusts, invading both Saddle Arabia and Eastern Griffonia. They were much appreciated. Twilight Sparkle went on to write a thesis on Rainbow Dash's feelings in hope of getting a bachelor's degree in behaviour studies. She presented a very thorough and detailed account of the subject, closely examining the matter from a scientific point of view. She failed her class. Mr Greenhooves were able to escape from his jail and later went on to become an exotic dancer, thus finally earning his cutie mark. Lightning Dust was sentenced to eleven years in prison for her crimes against ponykind. She was however released on a technicality after a week. Blossomforth thrown in jail briefly, but then made four star general by Celestia as a recognition of her immense strategic knowledge. Spike bought another ice cream cone. Fluttershy was taken to court for high treason, bank robbery, unlawful possession of explosives, conspiracy against the crown and littering. Despite the best efforts of her lawyer, Derpy Hooves, she was sentenced to imprisonment in the Canterlot jail. Until her release from prison the ever so loyal Rainbow Dash, and sometimes her other friends too, brought Fluttershy a basket with freshly baked cookies almost every day. However, most of the cookies tasted absolutely horrid since Rainbow Dash is a very dismal baker. THE END TO BE CONTINNUED