//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Last Stand of the Alicorns // by ihaveofficiallyretired //------------------------------// “Doctor, I’ve lost her. I’m sorry.” Ditzy continued to search across the market, constantly looking everywhere at once. “Me too. What the hay was she doing here? Certainly she isn’t the killer we are looking for…unless…” The Doctor had a thought. Ditzy was confused, yet it was hard to tell looking at her. “What? What are you thinking?” “What if we aren’t looking for a killer…but an accident? It would certainly fit the day...A mere accident caused by someone who couldn’t have caused it originally…” “Uh-huh. Gotcha.” Ditzy really didn’t have a clue what was going on. “Today’s events are a fixed point in time, so things HAVE to happen the way they were intended. Someone is trying to change it, and we can’t allow that. If things change...” The Doctor shuddered at the thought, but started to get an idea of who was behind it. Just as he was about to begin explaining to his walleyed assistant, there was a sudden commotion not too far away. The Doctor looked toward the sound. Ditzy tried too. In the center of the commotion was that very familiar pony that started a sequence of events that can only be described with one word: chaotic. The whole thing started with that drunken pony tripping and falling into a fruit stand. That fall knocked several large melons into the street causing an oncoming cart to break a wheel and lose control. The cart crashed into the side of a building. The crash of the cart into the side of the building knocked loose several roof tiles and sent them falling. “All right, all right. Keep moving. Just go around the crash,” said one of the guards that had come over to help keep things running in an orderly fashion. However, the falling tiles had other plans. They fell from above and slammed into the guard’s helmet. The guard collapsed, but not before unintentionally firing off a bolt of energy. The energy bolt flew and managed to go straight into the weapons warehouse between the town and the castle. The resulting explosion sent a boulder (intended as ammunition for the catapults) hurtling towards the castle. Specifically, the tower that housed the princesses’ bedrooms. “Doctor, what just happened?” asked Ditzy nervously. “I…I really don’t know. It’s not over yet though,” replied The Doctor, watching the boulder fly to the castle, on its way to meet Celestia and Luna. “Luna, come on already. That doctor said we have to hide, so hide we will. He seems trustworthy enough.” Celestia and her sister had been wandering around the castle, trying to find a good place to hide. One of the chefs had found them in the cellar, and kindly asked that they leave. Not to seem suspicious, they did as he had asked. Looking out the window, Luna was severely distracted with what was taking place just outside the castle. “But ‘Tia, look! There’s a giant rock flying toward your bedroom!” Luna sounded unnecessarily excited. “What?!” Celestia dashed toward the window to see, but the deafening sound and the castle shaking proved Luna was telling the truth. To think that if Luna hadn’t gotten her up this morning, Celestia would probably be dead now. The two princesses could only watch as the tower collapsed, hoping that all would be okay. Archaeus was awoken by a great noise. He slowly lifted his head to look out the window. The tower across from his room was falling. Archaeus began to get out of the bed. How long he had been unconscious, he knew not. If memory served correct, which his always did, the tower that was collapsing was also where the princesses spent the majority of their day. That was bad enough. However, the news he had to tell Galaxius was potentially worse. Archaeus stumbled out of bed. The alicorn could feel the changes. One of his wings had been ripped off. The thought of never flying again made his stomach churn. His leg was splinted, but at least he would be able to walk on it eventually. The break was severe, but Solara knew healing magic like Archaeus knew…a lot of things. Stumbling across the room, Archaeus’ body screamed in agony. He could feel the magic around him, but was finding it difficult to channel. His horn was broken. Eventually Archaeus would be able to channel magic again, but without his horn it would be much more tedious and taxing. Managing to get the door open, he proceeded down to where he knew that Galaxius would likely be at this time in the morning. “Sir, the Queen said should you go wandering that I am to escort you back to your room.” The voice sounded like a guard, but Archaeus was unable to locate the source for just a moment. It was then that he realized he had lost an eye. Unable to take much more, Archaeus collapsed on the floor. Archaeus…Your end is near. Sleep now, so that you can awake to your demise. I want you awake so that you can endure an even greater fear in the coming days... Archaeus’ eye widened with fear at the recognition of that dark, malevolent voice. Darkness once again enveloped the tormented alicorn.