Collision Code

by SSJRandomMaster

Act 2 Chapter 1

Act II: Collision Course
Chapter 1: Trouble Brewing
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It had been a pretty uneventful night in Ponyville. Ever the early bird, Twilight Sparkle was up and about, going over her notes that she’d compiled trying to come up with Corey’s lessons. While Corey hadn’t yet been able to produce an image of his cutie mark yet, Twilight had enough faith that he’d be able to it. However, once he was done with that, the real magic education would begin.

Corey wasn’t up just yet—one thing she’d learned about him was that he was a very heavy sleeper. And he tended to snore a lot, too. John, meanwhile, was the early bird by far. He’d already been up and left to do his volunteer work around the town, whatever that would be.

As far as sleeping was concerned, John seemed to prefer sleeping out on one of the library’s balconies. Corey, meanwhile, took up a spare bed opposite Twilight’s own in her room. She didn’t mind the extra pony in the room, but when he started singing the song of the sleepy…

Twilight’s ear twitched as she registered that Corey was starting to snore again.

It’s a really good thing I’ve learned utility spells… Twilight thought to herself, Number 39, “Earplugs”…

As far as Corey was concerned, she decided to let him sleep. He was obviously still adjusting to the way things worked.

“So, Twilight,” Spike said, walking by her desk, “Who’s worse?”

“Huh?” Twilight asked, looking up from the notes she had to see Spike.

“Who snores worse, Rainbow or Corey?” Spike asked.

“I don’t think it’s really fair to say which,” Twilight said, “He doesn’t always snore, but when he does…”

Both looked up, the sound of another snore echoing from upstairs.

“And then you have Rainbow, who always snores, but I don’t think it’s as disturbing,” Twilight continued her dissertation on snore volume, “But that could be just because we’ve known Rainbow for almost a year, while we’ve known Corey for less than a week…”

“I don’t know,” Spike looked up towards the room again, “But, hey, at least—“

Spike never got to finish his sentence, belching out a familiar green flame, barely having time to turn his head away before upchucking a letter. Spike held out one hand, catching the scroll. It was practically second nature after so many letters were exchanged.

Twilight blinked, both looking at the letter.

“A letter from Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked, reaching out for it. She unfurled the scroll, and began to read.
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To My Faithful Student:

Please gather your friends and meet me in the library. This is an urgent situation I must discuss with you all in person. Write me back once you’re all gathered.

--Princess Celestia

P.S. For their own safety, please exclude Corey and John from this group. I believe they have enough to worry about on their own without worrying about this…
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Twilight’s eyes widened as she read the letter and re-read it. What was the “urgent situation”, and why were Corey and John to be kept in the dark? In fact, now that she thought about it, it seemed like Celestia had drafted the letter in a hurry. It was definitely her usual style, sure, but it seemed less like her usual, “flowing” style, and more like a scribble—not illegible scribble, but there were small details Twilight couldn’t overlook.

“What happened?” she wondered aloud.
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John had seen a lot of Ponyville over the course of his time there. He was sure he had yet to see the whole of the village. However, as of this moment, he was seeing an entirely different side of Ponyville; rather, a different angle. Currently, though not by choice, John was staring at an upside-down Ponyville. Only thing was, the town wasn’t upside down. John himself was—hanging upside down by his feet thanks to a snare.

How did I fall for this again? John thought to himself.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Dragon Catchers, yay!” three voices shouted from below him.

Oh yeah…That’s how… John thought, Last time I let kids talk me into standing on an “X”…

John ran a hand across his face as he remembered how easily he was tricked, and by the Cutie Mark Crusaders of all ponies. Right now, the three fillies stood directly below him, looking around their bodies. Had he not heard Corey’s own account, he wouldn’t have known why they were doing it. However, since he had, he made an educated guess.

They’re looking for the projection of a cutie mark…

“Nothing!” said Sweetie Belle, looking down on herself along with her friends. She wore a white dress over a purple blouse.

“Well, what do we do now?” asked Scootaloo, wanting to quickly change the group’s new objective. She wore a dark yellow tanktop over an orange T-shirt and short gray pants.

“You know, that rope is holdin’ him pretty good,” Apple Bloom observed, looking up at him, “Suppose we try to get cutie marks in knot tyin’?” She wore a yellow T-shirt with blue overalls, and as always, the red bow in her hair.

“Sounds great!” Scootaloo said, pointing off in some random direction, “Let’s get more rope!”

“Thanks, Mister Dragon!” all three called out in succession, zipping off.

“Glad to—“ John only realized exactly what happened a few seconds later, “Wait, let me down first!”

By the time he realized it, though, it was too late. The little foals were already well out of earshot. John released a groan as he allowed his arm to droop towards the ground, the ends of his arms about a foot or two from the ground. This was then followed by a sigh.

Not many ponies come through here… John thought, How long am I gonna be here?

“Eep!”

John blinked, knowing that “eep” well enough. He looked around the area, trying to find its owner. Eventually, he noticed something not too far off: someone hiding around the corner of a house. He couldn’t see the whole body, but when he squinted, he saw a yellow hand that was squeezing the corner slightly.

“Fluttershy?” John asked. The hand squeezing the corner tensed. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, slowly, a pink mane became visible, and soon, the rest of the pegasus pony.

“O-oh…” Fluttershy stuttered, sounding like cornered prey rather than a concerned friend, “H-hello…”

Still afraid of me? John thought to himself, not surprised at all given what he was, It’s okay. It’ll probably take some time before she’ll stop being afraid of me. Well, it’d still be a challenge…but I like challenges.

“Say, could you maybe untie me?” John asked, breaking the shaky silence. Fluttershy shrunk a bit, taking a couple of small steps backwards.

“O-oh, I don’t know,” she said, looking away, “I-I have to be somewhere…a-and I’m kind of in a hurry…”

Sounds about right, John thought, but if I didn’t know better, I’d say she was trying to spare my feelings…oh well, best not push it.

“Fair enough,” John waved, “Go on ahead…”

Fluttershy paused, obviously not expecting that kind of response from him.

“A-are you sure?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, go on,” John assured her with a wave, “I’ll probably find a way down eventually.”

With that, John looked down towards his feet—towards the top of the tree, staring at the snare that bound him.

“Let’s see…” John started, winding up for some kind of lunge or curl-up, “Maybe I can…”

John lunged, trying to grab the rope. However, he missed, falling back to his starting position, the world around him starting to spin.

“Yep…there’s the head rush…” he observed, rubbing at his eyes a bit to try to clear his vision. John lowered his arms, the world around him still spinning, but less so. Despite the distortions, he could make out a figure beginning to move close by. Blinking his eyes repeatedly to clear up his line of sight, John managed to slow the spinning to see a surprising sight.

Fluttershy? John was a little surprised to see her of all ponies moving close to him, What’s she doing…

A few seconds later, John barely heard her musing about pulling something, and a few moments later, he learned exactly what it was: the rope holding the snare in place. The knot came undone, and John cleared the remaining distance to the ground…with his head.

“Oof!” John grunted, flipping over on his stomach a few moments later.

“Oh, d-dear!” Fluttershy realized what had happened, looking over to him from just behind the tree, “I-I’m sorry, I d-didn’t mean to!”

“No problems here,” John said, reaching out one hand, “I barely felt it…”

“A-are you sure?” Fluttershy asked, “You don’t look so good…”

“No need to worry, I’ll be fine when the blood rushes out of my head,” John responded, but Fluttershy didn’t look overly convinced of his self-assessment. To try to convince her he’d be fine, he got up, despite the pounding in his head, leaning on the tree with his elbow.

“See, feeling better already,” he said, “Like I said, no need to worry. Besides, didn’t you say you have somewhere to be?”

“O-oh! Right,” she took half a step away, “Um...n-nice meeting you again.”

A moment later, Fluttershy took off. To where, John didn’t know, nor did he really care. As soon as she took the next corner, John allowed himself to fall over on his back with a louder “thud” than he thought he’d make.

“Full conversation, she was close to me, and said it’s nice to see me again,” he said, lying on the ground. A moment later, one of his fists was raised in the air in triumph, “I’m making progress. Now, I just need a better way to show her that she doesn’t need to be afraid of me…”

John abruptly felt awkward. It wasn’t until he double-checked his surroundings that he understood why.

“And I’ve got to stop talking to myself…”
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Twilight paced back and forth through the lobby nervously. Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack were there already. Fluttershy, surprisingly, hadn’t arrived yet. She’d already written the note to Princess Celestia, but hadn’t sent it yet, waiting until after everypony was present to send it—as instructed.

“All that’s left is Fluttershy,” Twilight said to herself, moving around.

“I’m sure she’ll show up,” Rarity said, glancing towards the door, “But it isn’t like her to be running so late…”

The others couldn’t exactly take comfort at this, least of all Twilight, especially after this morning’s report. Or lack thereof. However, before anypony could voice their worry, there was a sudden knock at the door—soft, but there.

“I’ll get it!” Pinkie chirped, hopping over to the door quickly and opening it, revealing who was knocking, “Look, it’s Fluttershy! Don’t need to worry about her!”

“Um…g-good morning, everypony,” Fluttershy greeted, taking a few steps forward, “S-sorry for being so late…I had to h-help John out of a tree, and—“

The unholy sound of a demon assaulted her ears along with everypony else’s, causing Fluttershy to dive for cover behind the nearest creature—which just so happened to be Spike, who cast a slight glance over his shoulder.

“W-what was that…?” she said, peeking out from behind the baby dragon.

“It’s…” Twilight said, already walking to Spike with the note in her hand, “Corey. He’s still asleep.”

There was an uneasy pause as everypony took in that information. Rainbow Dash eventually snorted, amused.

“That’s no way to behave in the presence of a lady…” Rarity said, only to wince a moment later as Corey let out a louder snore.

Spike took the note to Celestia and sprayed it with his special fire, transporting the letter to the princess.

“Well, Princess Celestia said for Corey and John not to be involved in this meeting,” Twilight said, “I figured it’d just be easier to let him sleep. And John…you didn’t tell him where you were going, did you Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy shook her head, wordlessly saying “no”.

“Though…” Twilight turned to her room, her horn already lighting up in a magenta glow. A bubble of the same color briefly appeared over the wall and door, before fading out, “I’d better make sure he doesn’t hear anything…”

“Soundproofing charm?” Spike asked.

“Yes,” Twilight replied. “That should last through the meeting…”

A few moments later, a tremendous bang resonated through the room, followed by a flash. Everyone turned to where the noise came from to see Princess Celestia standing there.

“Princess…” said Twilight. This was the third time in a week she’d teleported in abruptly, but each of those times was due to an important reason.

“Greetings, everyone,” Celestia greeted, “Thank you all for coming.”

“So what’s the matter, Princess?” Rainbow cut in, trying to get to the point.

“In a moment,” Celestia cut her off, her horn lighting up. Applejack, who stood near the window, noticed an amber bubble surrounding the library, but once again, it only showed up for a few seconds.

“The soundproofing charm…?” Twilight asked, alarming everyone save for Celestia.

“That is correct,” Celestia said, turning around, “I’m sensing another one just upstairs…”

“Corey’s still asleep upstairs,” Twilight confessed, “I decided to let him sleep and made sure he couldn’t hear us…”

“And that we couldn’t hear him,” Rainbow said.

Celestia looked up for just a little longer, towards where she now knew Corey was. Apparently not detecting anything contrary to what Twilight said, she turned back to the group.

“I must apologize for the…extreme, precautions,” Celestia said, “But you will soon see why they are needed.”

Save for the greeting, Celestia spoke in a stern tone, not far removed from other times when she’d contacted the group to help solve a problem. This cast a shadow over the room, one that only seemed to deepen when she finally began to speak again.

“Before I begin, I must ask a simple question: what do you know of the gates of Tartarus?” Celestia asked.

“Tartarus?” Rarity asked, sounding like she knew the name from somewhere.

“It’s the place where the worst of the worst go for their crimes,” Twilight said, “The gates are guarded by not just a special unit, but by Cerberus, who was away from the vault for a time. I…uh, had to go make sure he went back to his post when he wandered here…”

“Tartarus was a prison for the most heinous of criminals across the land, not for just Equestria’s criminals, but the worst of the worst from all around the world,” the princess said, “It was constructed by my father, a long time ago, for that purpose, for creatures so far beyond redemption there is simply no alternative.”

A cold chill went up everyone’s spine as they considered why they were talking about such a place now, but it was Applejack who spoke up.

“And…” Applejack faltered, but pressed herself to speak what was on her mind, “You’re tellin’ us about this kinda place…It don’t sound good.”

Celestia distinctly frowned—quite a feat considered she was already scowling a bit at the news. In fact, now that Twilight really thought about it, it didn’t look like Celestia had gotten too good a rest last night.

“The gates to Tartarus were opened last night,” Celestia flatly announced, causing the entire group to gasp. She continued on, delivering the news as directly as possible. “We do not know the full details of what happened as of yet, or if any prisoners escaped. We managed to get the gates closed late last night. Princess Luna took over gate duty after the fact.”

“Tartarus…” Twilight said, “A breakout?!”

“What kind of monsters could have escaped from such a place?!” Rarity shrieked, “I shudder to imagine…”

“We all do,” Celestia said, “Unfortunately, we are still assessing the situation. We have no idea the extent of the breakout. The poor guard that managed to report to me on the situation…He was badly injured.”

An uneasy silence took over the room, the weight of the situation putting a complete damper on the mood. Even Pinkie’s hair, usually poofy and cheerful, had flattened a bit; that was how heavy the news was.

“C-C’mon,” Rainbow spoke up, “It’s not like we haven’t dealt with this kinda stuff before, right?” She looked around from pony to pony (to dragon).

“While I commend your optimism, Rainbow Dash, I fear that this could very well exceed the dangers you have all faced before,” Celestia said, “You faced Nightmare Moon, but beneath the terrifying mare in the moon was Princess Luna. You have faced Discord, but there are lines even his former self would not dare cross.

“They only being you’ve faced that would be on par with what we could be facing is King Sombra, but thanks to Cadence’s shield, you were spared any prolonged contact with him. But believe me when I say that if he had his way…” Princess Celestia paused, closing her eyes, an unmistakably sickly look on her face. This alone put even more of a damper on the group’s mood, wondering exactly how easy they had it before.

“It is just fortunate that he did not,” she finally said, ending the silence, “These prisoners will not hesitate to cross a line that you have not yet seen, and they will do so without any remorse. Some…may even enjoy it.”

If the situation had any physical weight to it, it would have crushed the group almost instantly. But, even without the physical aspect, it did crush Rainbow’s previous optimism, and Fluttershy stumbled, falling to her knees, her eyes small and shaking. Seeing the fear in her subjects, Celestia moved to try to give some comfort.

“Believe you me when I say that I will do everything in my power to protect you and everypony else,” Celestia made her attempt at assurance, but it was clear to her that the fear had already made itself a home in their hearts.

I cannot blame them. These are dire times… Celestia thought.

“R-Rainbow,” Fluttershy found it in her heart to stutter out a sentence, though her voice had mostly left her, “I-Is it okay if I s-stay with you for a-a while?”

Rainbow looked over to Fluttershy, putting one palm on her shoulder, “Sure thing, ‘Shy.”

“I understand your fears,” Celestia said, “But I will make sure that nothing happens to you or anypony else. This, I promise you…”
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Corey finally awoke, the morning having mostly gone. The sun was nearly at the top of the sky—it was nearly noon. He rose up, stretching. One hand went to his eyes as he threw the blanket off his body with the other. He looked around, sighing.

“If it wasn’t a dream the last four times…” Corey said to himself, shaking his head as he got out of bed, “What time is it?”

Corey glanced to his left, then to his right.

“How does she do it?” Corey wondered to himself, “Get up so early on a consistent basis…”

He reached over to the nightstand next to his bed, putting on his glasses before heading to the bedroom door, opening it slowly. He poked his head out of the room, looking around the lobby area, seeing if he could find any sign of the creatures he was now living with.

“Twilight?” Corey said, looking around, “I’m up…”

No response. Corey looked around, and decided to take a few steps out of the room.

“Twilight?” Corey asked, a bit louder and more firmly, “Are you here?”

Still nothing. Corey was starting to wonder where someone was. Even if Twilight wasn’t here for whatever reason, Spike would have at least said something. What was going on?

“Uh, anybody home?” Corey asked, looking around, walking through the library house. It wasn’t like he was exposed in any manner, so he wasn’t too worried if someone saw him fresh out of bed. He decided to make his way towards the kitchen—he needed to find something to eat, even if no one was around. Even if it was just toast.

However, as he crossed the threshold, he noticed something: a certain purple pony sitting at the table, a half-full mug of some liquid in front of her. However, before Corey could say anything, she looked up, gasping.

“C-Corey?!” she said, “Y-you’re awake?”

“I was…” Corey tilted his head, noticing something else off about the picture, “I was asking if you were here…”

“Sorry, I…I guess I must’ve been…” she looked away from him, one hand to her chin. Corey couldn’t help but notice the pensive look on her face.

“Are you…” Corey took a single step forward, hunching over, “Are you feeling okay?”

Twilight gasped, standing up.

“Of-of course!” she said, nearly knocking over the mug as she rushed to her feet, “N-never been better!”

Corey took a step back, not sure what was going on, “Are you sure?”

“Everything’s fine!” she said, perhaps a little too quickly.

Corey looked around, really wondering what had happened, mumbling to himself, “Did…did I miss something…”

“No, not at all!”

Corey grunted as he was abruptly spun around. A couple of moments later, he found himself being pushed out of the kitchen.

“I…” Corey could at least detect the urgency in the mare’s tone. She wanted that subject changed, but why?

“You’ve…you’ve still got a lot on your plate…” Twilight said, her tone less…sharp, for lack of a better term, “Don’t worry about it…”

The more you say that, Twilight… Corey thought, unwilling to prod further, afraid she’d launch him magically next. The more I worry…

Author's Note:

And here's where we start Act 2. Let's see if I can get through Act 2 this time around. This act will be roughly as long as the old Collision Code's Act 2 was planned to be (in terms of chapters).

Comments

[Manual Control]

I really like the story so far. I hope I can write like this one day. :)

[Base-Delta-Zero]

I don't always snore. But when I do, I rival a logging mill for sound made.