//------------------------------// // The Horde // Story: Soren The Alicorn Part 4: The Rift // by KingNyroc15 //------------------------------// The bell tower of the church wasn't much for height, but it gave Soren a better view of outside. The storm clouds created an almost nighttime appearance, the zombies (very large in numbers) slowly pushed towards the church while the townsfolk defended themselves as best they could, all while Twilight flew overhead with her triumphant expression. New ponies had joined her though; Rainbow, Pinkamena, Fluttershy, AJ, and Rarity stood on the rooftops on either side of Twilight. "Pinkamena looks brighter," Soren commented out loud unintentionally. "What?" Sunny said. "The pink mare? Isn't she the murderer?" "She's not so bad." Soren put a hoof in his mouth. His four friends looked at him like he was insane. "Come again?" the Doctor asked. "NEVERMIND. Now, the zombies have to be controlled by some means. Let's see if this even works." Soren grabbed his sonic screwdriver, activated it, and pointed it everywhere around the horde. The buzzing increased in intensity when he pointed it around the six mares. Soren noticed that the buzzing remained constant, no matter who he pointed at. "All six of them have to be controlling the zombies telepathically!" the Doctor realized. "That means we can cancel that connection! But how?" "Doctor, can you use the sonic?" Derpy asked. He shook his head. "I couldn't hope to match Twilight's prowess. We will have to weaken the link first. Maybe if they aren't as determined the link would weaken. If only those mares could see that what they are doing is wrong!" Soren's eyes widened. He could get Pinkamena to stop and possibly Rainbow. He needs to show them that they can become better ponies. If only they could see what my friends have done, what I have seen them do. A memory spell might work. Twilight...remind me to go to more magic lessons when I get back. His Twilight tried to teach him a memory spell, but it was only in case you forgot something minor, like what you had to do today or when you had to meet someone. It was never meant to show entire events like Soren wanted it to do, but then again...the spell was meant for regular unicorns. Teleporting from the bell tower, Soren stood with the Appaloosans fighting the horde. He stood in front of the church doors and concentrated. He had to remember times when his friends did amazing things for the greater good. Not only that, he had to project those memories to the six evil mares. Technically, five evil mares. Soren knew that he couldn't directly send the memories to Twilight and her friends. Knowing this was the only other way, Soren sent the memories into random zombies inside the horde. Since Twilight and the girls were telepathically connected to the beasts, they can hear, see, and think everything the zombies do. Naturally, all of the zombies would be sensing the same things, so the link wouldn't bombard the mares' minds. However, since certain zombies were having peculiar thoughts, the mares focused on what was happening. All six of them were suddenly flooded with images of themselves, but it wasn't them. Those mares were different versions of them. Twilight carrying away an Ursa Major, Rainbow Dash fighting the Elementals, Applejack helping the Appaloosa from Soren's universe, Pinkie Pie comforting her many friends, Fluttershy defending her friends from a dragon, and Rarity feeling guilty for turning her back on Soren. All six mares opened their now pure white eyes and stared into the sky. Each of them shot out a beam of light that was sent into the zombie horde. The lights hit a zombie then ricocheted off of into another one then another one until every zombie was hit. Simultaneous, the six mares and every zombie fell forward onto the ground; Twilight crash landed since she was flying. The zombies began to dissipate, leaving only a tenth of the amount that was there a few seconds ago. Those must have been the bodies they resurrected, Soren thought. "We...weren't the ones...that revived them," a voice said with heavy breathing at Soren. He saw Twilight limping herself towards him. Why was she weakened from that and how did she read my thoughts? "These powers. Obviously...they are not...ours. They gave them...to us." "Who gave you powers?" "If...you're looking for...magic..." Twilight sat in front of Soren; she still looked menacing in his opinion. "...you'll find them eventually." "You're all finished, aren't you? I defeated you." "Yes...you technically did. My spell is...broken. My friends are...no longer willing to...continue. I can hear their...thoughts." "And mine apparently. But why are you weak?" "Because that spell...did more than...you think. You didn't just...stop the link. You changed our..." she stopped her sentence. Twilight grabbed her crown, she looked into the six-pointed star, and looked at Soren. She then swung the tip of the star at Soren neck. "See for yourself!" Twilight then passed out. Blood flowed from Soren's neck as he held it with both hooves. He was laying on the ground, evening his breathing, as his friends and other ponies gathered around him. Bastian pushed everyone out of the way and sat beside Soren. Holding Soren's head, Bastian removed Soren's hooves from his neck, took out a leaf, and placed it on the wound. Soren felt himself losing consciousness. The last thing he remembered was Bastian sprinkling some kind of dust on top of the leaf. That stings... -------------- Later that day, Soren finally came to. "Did I finally die?" he commented softly. "I wouldn't be saying things like that, Soren," the Doctor said. "It's not healthy." "When has my mind ever been healthy?" "How are you feeling?" Sunny asked. Soren looked around the room he was in. His friends, except Bastian, were with him, and the four of them were still in the church. "I'm fine but weak. Probably from blood loss. Also, does this town not have a stupid hospital?!" "I told Bastian it was best that you be left here," the Doctor answered. "Since you have woken up in a hospital so much, I figured doing that again wouldn't be very fun." "But I was trying to make a world record. I may as well at this point. Too bad I lost track a few months ago. Is the town safe? What happened to Twilight and her friends?" Soren propped his head up slightly to look at the Doctor. "After the ponies reburied the corpses, which wasn't a pleasant sight let me tell you, we came back and saw that they had vanished. They probably ran off." "Or~ we probably didn't want the town to kill us." Soren recognized the voice of Rainbow Dash. He slammed the back of his head down onto the pillow. Sudden appearance yet again. Only five of the mares were present; Twilight was not. "Why are you all here?!" Sunny demanded. "Haven't you done enough damage to this town?" "Yes we have," Rarity said, "which is why we have come here to tell Soren something." Pinkamena jumped onto the bench further down from the side Soren was laying on. "Pinkamena, don't you dare," he warned. "We already talked about this." Soren's friends were the only ones confused about that statement. The darkish-pink mare got off the bench but suddenly jumped onto Soren and hugged him. "You did it! You actually helped all of us." "What?" "Tell him girls." "We...we realized," Fluttershy started, "that we actually had a choice of what to do with our lives." Applejack stepped forward. "We thought that since those guys gave us powers to be used for evil, we had to be evil all the time." "But in truth," Rarity added, "we could have stopped at any point. Pinkamena was trying to convince us of that after she let you go. Now we see that she was right. Those five weren't going to come back here anytime soon. We should have stopped a long time ago." "Dear Princess Celestia," Soren said in his best Twilight impression. "Today I learned that you should trust your friends..." "I do not sound like that!" Twilight shouted from the entrance of the church. She teleported inside just in time to hear something that sounded like her voice. "I don't know who Celestia is, but you had my voice all wrong." Twilight was back to her normal alicorn state that Soren and Sunny saw when they first arrived in town. "You're funny when you're angry," Soren laughed. Seeing Twilight's irritated glare, Soren dimmed his laughter down into a snicker. "How are you feeling, you crazy alicorn?" she said while she smiled. "No complaints. I feel perfectly fine now. Hey, Doctor, where's Bastian?" "He said he had to deal with a town issue, so he left. He should be back soon. Unfortunately, Derpy and I will not be staying that long. We just wanted to say goodbye before we left." "Leaving already? We barely had tine to chat! I haven't seen you in forever." "Why is that?" Soren gave him a look that said everything. "Timey wimey stuff, got it. Speaking of that, I actually want to do one thing for you before we leave. Care you step inside the TARDIS?" Soren stood up and saw the Doctor's TARDIS onstage. He shrugged, told everyone to wait here, and walked into the TARDIS with the Doctor. -------------- Soren had no idea where the Doctor had just taken him. He was looking at a grassy plain with a sunny sky in the background. It was quite windy; perfect weather for pegasi. "Why are we here?" he asked. "Just watch that tree over there," the Doctor replied softly and with a smile. Soren saw a big tree that was casting a somewhat dark shadow under it. He saw a figure laying underneath the tree. It was a middle-aged mare with a rainbow mane, and she was with two fillies. "That's..." Soren gasped. The Doctor simply nodded. Soren saw a colt and a middle-aged stallion come into view and near the tree. He could hear their voices from the TARDIS. "Did he enjoy the wind?" Rainbow Dash asked the stallion. Soren saw that it was an older version of himself. "Of course he did. He's just like you; loves when the wind picks up," older-Soren replied. "So I guess the girls are like you?" she joked. "Why not? I can see them being leaders. With their determination and focus, they can do whatever they want." As Soren watched this normal scene, he felt himself crying. Him...and Rainbow...still together after all those years. The Doctor motioned that it was time to go. Once inside the TARDIS, the Time Lord's smile turned even as he looked at Soren. "I'm sorry, Soren, but you cannot know how your future will play out." He wasn't expecting Soren's reply. "I'm perfectly fine with that. Just knowing...just feeling that...is more than enough for me. I needed this, Doctor. Thank you." "You're welcome." The Doctor grabbed Soren's head and slammed his own head again, knocking Soren to the ground in a daze. Soren gets up as the TARDIS lands in Appaloosa. "Doctor, why am I crying? And why do I feel happy?" "I wish I could tell you, but I would have to headbutt you again. Haha." "I'll take your word for it. Did you take me somewhere outside of Sunny's universe?" He nodded. "You and Derpy were never stuck here were you?" "No. We just wanted an adventure. Meeting you here was a very nice surprise. You do realize you can leave whenever you want as well." "I don't want to, not yet. I have to figure out what or who created that rift that brought us here." "Are you going to close the rift?" "I'm not sure. I...A part of me doesn't want to, but I know that increases the chances for something to come through to our universe." "I think things have already gotten through." "Like?" "It doesn't matter. Let's see our friends outside." Opening the TARDIS doors, the Doctor and Soren were surprised to see town police waiting for them. Twilight, her friends, Sunny, and Derpy had their flanks against a wall as the townsfolk refused to let them pass. "Soren Melody, you are under arrest!" the sheriff said. "If I had a drink, I would spit it right now. What?! On what grounds?!" "You are to blame for: the chaos by the Evil Ones, creating havoc in town, and second-hoof murder of townsfolk that chose to follow your orders without anypony putting you in charge. Do you deny these charges?" "I guess I can't." "Then you are hereby placed under arrest. You will receive a trial tomorrow to determine your punishment." "He saved your bucking town, you mule!" Sunny shouted. Soren almost chuckled at that random outburst. The sheriff led Soren out of the church and towards the police station. Is there anything I haven't been through? I'm getting arrested, for Luna's sake!