Prologue (Reworked)
Interesting Times
By
Timothy48
Prologue
As the sun dipped below the Equestrian horizon, Princess Celestia let out a small sigh of relief. It had been more difficult than usual to put the Sun to bed, and the effort had taxed her greatly. Shaking her head slightly, she walked over to her favorite rug in her room, levitating a book towards her from a nearby shelf. She lay down to enjoy a light read before bed. Settling herself in a more comfortable position on her rug, she opened the book to read. However, before she could start, a strange feeling came over her. Like a cold wind blowing across her body, despite the warm summer’s night.
Looking around, she stood up with a sigh and walked out onto her balcony. She looked out into the gathering darkness. Seeing nothing amiss, she closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt her magic building around her horn, its glow increasing with each passing second, until it looked as if a miniature sun had blossomed at the tip of her horn. She held the spell for a few more moments and then, released her hold upon the it, allowing the light to quietly fade from her horn.
Shaking with exhaustion, a look of worry crossed her face. Gazing up into the night sky, she could see dark angry clouds covering Luna's beautiful stars. While below her balcony, white tendrils of mist could be seen covering the gardens. As she turned to walk back into her chambers, she thought. What is happening?
All across Equestria, from the busy streets of Manehattan, to the quiet homes of Ponyville, from the dry desert around Appleoosa, to the cold and snowy mountains of the north, a white mist settled over the land. The sky gradually became enveloped in dark angry looking clouds.
Princess Celestia sat quietly in her chambers, pondering the situation, the minutes slowly ticking by. Having come to a decision, she rose from her comfortable rug and walked to her bedroom doors. She opened one slightly and asked one of the white pegasus guards to fetch her sister Luna. The confused guard gave a salute with his wing and trotted off to find the princess of the night.
Celestia quietly closed the door. Taking a quill in her magical grasp, she began to write a short letter to her faithful pupil. A few minutes later, she heard a soft knock at the door. “Come in dear sister.” she called out.
Princess Luna stepped through the door, shutting it softly behind her. Her starry mane flowed gracefully behind her, forever caught in an eternal ethereal wind. Small stars twinkled and shone from her night colored mane. As she approached, a look of concern crossed her face.
“What troubleth thou dear sister?” Celestia hid a small smile at Luna's choice of words; whenever Luna became nervous of excited, she tended to slip into her old speaking habits. She would even, on occasion, fall back too using the Royal Canterlot Voice. Especially when she became very emotional or nervous. Even when a pony was sitting right next to her, much to the detriment of said ponies hearing abilities.
Sighing, Celestia replied. “Did you feel anything a short time ago?” When Luna nodded her head, Celestia continued. “Something is happening, though I'm not sure what; I have never felt magic this cold or powerful before.”
Luna looked towards the balcony doors and replied. “Nor have We dear sister. It felt so... alien. We do not believe it is of our world.”
Celestia nodded. “I believe you are correct and if that is indeed the case, then the question becomes. ‘Where did it come from and what is its purpose?”
Luna shook her head, unable to supply the answer both mares were seeking. Then, noticing the piece of paper and quill resting at Celestia's hoofs, she asked. “Who art thou writing to?”
Giving a weak smile, the Sun Princess replied. “My most faithful student. If I know her, she should still be awake, studying no doubt.” With a quick flourish of her quill, she finished the letter, and sealed it. Closing her eyes, she called upon an ancient spell that had been taught to her by a wise and friendly dragon. Her horn pulsed with magical energy for a short second and then with a pop! the scroll disappeared in a puff of green smoke and flames.
Luna wrinkled her nose at the stench of dragon fire. “What didst thou write?”
“I explained what was happening to the best of my knowledge and asked for her to come to Canterlot with her friends.”
“Doth thou really think that the Elements of Harmony can do anything?”
Celestia shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not, but we won't know for sure unless we try.”
Luna nodded. “How shall they travel here? The roads will be treacherous in this mist and the weather to be in the midst of a storm.”
“A mass teleportation spell. I explained to Twilight in my letter about how to set up the runes properly.” Luna nodded once more. She was about to say something more but was interrupted when a scroll appeared in a flash of green fire and smoke. Quickly unrolling the letter, Celestia read Twilight’s reply.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I have also noticed this phenomenon as well and was about to send you my own letter when yours arrived. I have already made the necessary preparations and am waiting for my friends arrival. I will send you another letter once we are ready to depart.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
“We will need a bigger room if we are to perform the teleportation spell correctly.”
Luna nodded in agreement. Without another word, the two sisters trotted out of the room and made their way towards the royal throne room.
After about an hour, another letter appeared in the air in front of Celestia. Quickly reading it, she nodded towards Luna. The two of them took station on the opposite sides of the room. Closing their eyes, they began to channel magical energy through their horns, a soft glow began to fill the room, growing in intensity until, with a large flash and loud pop six, pastel colored ponies stood in the middle of the room with looks ranging from confusion to calm determination. The six stood in a circle each wearing their own Element of Harmony.
Twilight quickly shook her head to clear away the post teleportation haze, and quickly walked over to where Celestia stood. “We came as quickly as we could Your Highness.” she announced bowing her head.
Celestia smiled, “Thank you for coming, Twilight and for bringing your friends; unfortunately we do not have much time. The magic is building rapidly and I am afraid of what will happen when it reaches its peak.”
Twilight glanced at her friends, then nodded to the princesses. “What do you need us to do?”
“I need you to use the Elements to help Luna and I dispel this magic before it can do any harm. By ourselves, Luna and I are not powerful enough to dispel the magic, but with the Elements, we should have no trouble.”
“Has something like this happened before Your Highness?” Asked Rarity.
Celestia shook her head, “No, not in Luna’s or my own life times. However, this magic is not benign; it is full of darkness, fear, sadness, and… hate. I have never felt anything so cold and powerful before. However we have no time. I can feel the magic reaching its climax. if we do not do something soon, it will be too late. Now everyone gather around Luna and I in a circle.”
The six ponies did as they were instructed, each taking up a position in a circle around Celestia and Luna. Celestia looked to Twilight and nodded her head. Twilight gave a quick nod and, closing her eyes, reached out with her magic. She could feel the warmth of her friend’s elements, and she could feel the power of both princesses. However, she could feel a cold chill at the edge of the magical warmth; it felt similar to that of standing next to a campfire in the dead of winter,warmed on only one side while the biting air attacked the other.
Screwing up her face in concentration, she reached out to grasp the magic of her Element. She felt the familiar warmth and power course through her body. At the same time, she sensed Princess Celestia’s and Luna’s magic aura envelop her and her friends as each of their respective Elements came alive. She could feel the magic flow towards Celestia and Luna. The amount of magical energy in the room was almost overwhelming. Twilight felt herself becoming exhausted very quickly, but she had to remain strong.
As the magic continued to flow into the two solar sisters, Twilight sensed the alien magic shift suddenly; it was no longer steadily building up around them. It had noticed the group’s efforts to try to dispel it and reacted.
A soft moan began to sound, quickly building into an unearthly wail, a deep cold settled on the room and an angry wind picked up, seemingly from nowhere, bowling over all but Celestia and Luna, breaking the magical focus of all. The warm magic quickly dissipated, consumed by the cold magic. Fed by the new magical influx, the wind intensified and the wail rose higher in volume till it sounded like the shrieks of the damned. The temperature in the room dropped even further.
As she fought the magic, Celestia could feel the demonic magic shift its focus to her. The wind around her intensified further still. Celestia feared the shrieking would consume her very sanity. She felt battered and bruised and she could feel blood flowing down her face, from numerous cuts sustained from objects that the wind had dislodged in the throne room, and seemed to be using as weapons to strike both her and her sister. She could feel consciousness fading from her, but she could still feel her sister as well as her student and her friends, fighting on, despite all the wind could do.
Almost as if it could sense her determination to stay awake, the magic shifted its focus ever so slightly. While still keeping pressure on the two royal sisters. It began to work its vile magic on the six friends, pounding on them and wearing at them like the sea would a rocky shore. Until one by one, they began to succumb to its powerful beatings.
Buffeted by the gale, Twilight felt herself losing consciousness as the shrieks beat upon her mind and the wind her body. Bleeding from numerous wounds and cuts, Twilight felt despair. She watched helplessly as her friends were beat upon before finally succumbing to the nefarious magic. Fluttershy went first, followed by Rarity and Pinkie Pie; Rainbow Dash and Applejack were the last to go.
The magic had focused the majority of its power on one target, and upon breaking it, it would move on to the next with redoubled fury. Now, it was just Twilight, Luna, and Celestia. The edges of Twilight vision began to blur as she slipped away into darkness. She saw both Celestia and Luna collapse, their bodies battered and bruised, blood running from both their noses and ears. Blood poured from the wounds to form a crimson lake on the floor. Twilights vision faded to merciful darkness.
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A bit dark... It's an OK story. Tracked.
331905 Thank you, first time I've ever done something like this. It will get better with time, already working on the 1st chapter.
Well, I'm officialy interested. Tracked
Does this have ANYTHING to do with my story "Just Progress, My Friend"? It seems sorta similar. I don't want this to be one of those moments where you got the idea from me, or I copied my latest chapter from you.
Otherwise, me gusta!
331966 I can honestly say I've never heard of that story. I came up with this story idea a few months ago, let it roll around in the old noggin for a while and then this popped out! Hope I'm not stepping on anyponies hooves here.
And thank you.
Some pretty good writing. The time period for the tank in the image is even correct. Tracked.
Not a bad beginning. I just have to point out that you have a lot of run on sentences. Other than that, pretty good.
332078
Ya I have that problem. Guess I will need to watch those. Thanks for letting me know. English was never my strong suite, odd that I love to read. One would think I would pick stuff like that up!
I'm intrigued and somewhat excited by the prospect of Mark I tanks showing up in Equestria's green pastures.
Definitely tracking this!
kpel965.com/files/2011/05/Amtrak-logo.png ing
A Pony on Earth fanfiction that's more than just a My Little Dashie spinoff?
And it's Dark?
You don't see that too often. Tracking, possibly favorite depending on how it develops. You have a great writing style, and while not the best build up ever for a prologue it gets the job done, and it does it well. Just don't rush things. If you can break a 3,000 word chapter into two separate chapters and go into more detail with them, possibly making each 4,000 words, then by all means do it. This has serious potential.
I Am Tank!
Bow before my treadliness and massive guns!
This is a very interesting story, and I can't wait to read about it. There are some sentences that need to be revised and towards the end it doesn't really flow as well as it could, but it is good nonetheless and has great potential.
Thumbs up and tracking
I saw just a couple errors:
even when a pony was sitting right next to her, much to the determinate of said ponies hear abilities.
Do you mean hearing?
“No, not in Luna’s or my own life times, however this magic is not benign, it is full of darkness, fear, sadness and… hate,
Hmm, My grammar nazi'ness maybe misleading me, but maybe that comma should be a period.
“No, not in Luna’s or my own life times, however this magic is not benign,
In my opinion, you shouldn't mention Luna's life time since Celestia would have encountered more as she is the older of the 2 and was also not banished to the moon for 1000 years. Just my thoughts though.
----------------------------
Now time for my review:
Hmm, this story seems interesting just the right amount of dark for my tastes thus far in the story. And the idea of Equestria entering the 20th century seems fairly original. And from the tank on the cover art I would say you are going with WWI era combat or sometime shortly after.
I will enjoy reading your story.
>See that tank
>Immediately think "What's a Leman Russ doing there?"
>Notice it's a WW1 Tank
>I play too much 40k
Looking good so far. I'm going to track this and see where she goes
love the concept
also great summery, tracked 
I'm going to track this and decide whether to like and favorite it once it continues.
Hmm that description is tempting, I will be looking forward to reading it tomorrow =P
Cool, this has already caught my attention. Tracking
First World War? And Ponies? Assuming that they're going to fight the humans, I don't think the ponies could win even if they managed to remember how to fight. Too many French and British Soldiers (I assume they're the allies/British because of the Mark 1), not to mention shells, 'splosions and, my favourite of all, GAS. Though you've probably already thought up the answer to these problems, haven't you?
Hmm, historically accurate, you say? I'll hold you to that. I am myself obsessed with history. This story looks like a good one, I'm tracking it.
As an unrelated question, who do you say killed the Red Baron: Roy Brown, or unnamed Australian gunner?
332094
I see what you did there
332353 Those are very good points, I can't believe I missed them. Thank you for pointing those out. I might have to go back later and edit it if I can. If I can't oh well. Just have to do better next time. Thank you for the constructive criticism. It's hard to believe I've got this many people already tracking/favoriting the story!
333038 Just have to wait and see.
332184 You like my writing style?
And don't anypony worry. I'm taking my time, I've seen what happens when a author rushes his/her story. Not pretty.
333084 Yes please, hold me to it, this goes ditto for everyone, you see something that might be non historical let me know. Also it was an Aussie machine gunner who killed him, they had a show about it on PBS a while ago. Sorry Roy.
I don't know if I'll actually follow this, maybe it will catch me when it hits the full plot, but I do have one big suggestion for your writing. You must break your paragraph whenever a new character begins to speak. For example:
Luna looked towards the balcony doors and replied, “Nor have We dear sister, it felt so... alien, We do not believe it is of our world.” Celestia nodded and replied, “I believe you are correct and if that is indeed the case then where did it come from and what is its purpose?”
Should turn into:
Luna looked towards the balcony doors and replied, “Nor have We dear sister, it felt so... alien, We do not believe it is of our world.”
Celestia nodded and replied, “I believe you are correct and if that is indeed the case then where did it come from and what is its purpose?”
The reason for this is that most people will glance over the part of the sentence "character said" because it just isn't that important a clause. So, if we skip over the "Celestia nodded and replied" clause, we will think Luna is still speaking (which looks very strange and pulls us out of the story to figure out what is going on.
333310 Thank you for your advice, I will make the necessary changes for the next chapter.
Great idea you had there.
)
I am currently working on a very similar story, about the Discord bringing himself and some ponies into 1918, into the North Russia Campaign.
(Storyception!
What you've written is very good, although a bit more macrocosmic than my thing.
I am looking for some cooperation with other interestees at the moment, too.
Good luck and good fortune.
337063 Thanks same to you. Although now that you mention it it is kind of a big project. I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit if people did spin offs of this like they did with Fallout-Equestria. Who knows this might be the start of something big!
WW1 pony cross over?
They better not kill Hitler by mistake. (He was in the German army.)
That would mess everything up.
337494 Hmmm, that is a thought, now how would I best be able to write that into the story?
337509
Oh you.
337525 I was kidding, *Spoiler alert!* I have no plans to 'off' Hitler. And that is all I will say on that subject.
337639
Meh, magical ponies, History is messed up as it is.
337308 My Little Great War.
I can see the headlines already.
338684 Ah, good old lawyers. Though out here between the fabric of space and time we really don't need them.
Well I managed to edit the prologue a little bit. Didn't change much, just a few words to make certain sentences flow easier. I also added extra paragraphs for each speaking character. So the prologue should be a little easier to read for people. On a side note, I plan to have the next chapter out sometime tomorrow. (Barring any disasters. *Knocks on wood.)
Ohoho, I forsee some major conflict on the way... Too bad it's WWI not II, would so much like to see Pzkpfw VI Tiger + VIB Tiger II in action over there! Aaanyways here's something random to underline how epic this is:
1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZFeKXxdDZpw/TxXm9nQdwDI/AAAAAAAABMs/qtFPhQUmiew/s1600/retard_dog.jpg
So here we are again eh. I'm up for a little dejavoue (however that is spelled) plus a little new stuff. I'dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Rainbow_Dash_lolface.png m still happy to help.
332209 This is the Captain of the H.M.S. King George V, I think I have you beat in the massive guns department my good sir.
img236.imageshack.us/img236/8042/kg5fb3.jpg
Lets see where this goes, British Mk IV tank on the front was enough to bring me here.
331983 *anyone's hands
Why did you cancel it? It sounds awesome and and got positive likes.
1681680
Its spelled deja vu