Chapter Twenty-Three
Unity
Chapter Twenty-Three
Twilight Research Time: Day Sixteen
(Halloween/Nightmare Night)
Scootaloo paced impatiently back and forth in front of Carousel Boutique, waiting for Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom who were getting the final touches put on their costumes by Rarity's magic. "Come on, what's taking so long?" She groused. "We're losing time!"
"Relax, we've still got fifteen minutes before trick or treating is scheduled to start." Micheal said as he tugged on the uncomfortable arms of his pirate costume.
"Yeah! But we've gotta be in place! Don't tell me you just start wherever?"
"Um, yeah. What's the alternative?"
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Duh! You start at one corner of town and work your way systematically up and down each row of houses 'til you reach the far corner! That way you don't miss any place!"
"Are you trick or treating or strip-mining?" Paul asked. He was dressed as Iron Man.
"There's a difference?"
"Well of course there's a difference!" Diamond Tiara complained. "You're turning fun into work! And, what the hay is your costume supposed to be anyway?"
"I'm Mario!" Scootaloo grinned from underneath a battered red hat with an 'M' crudely stitched into it and a fake mustache.
"And me is Chocobo!" Flixbix cheered. Sure enough his usual goblin clothing was covered in yellow feathers with a fake beak over the muzzle of the gas mask.
"Hmmph. Looks more like you're dumpster divers."
"Well duh! They told us we were supposed to make our own costumes from scrap!"
"Yeah." Micheal said. "I seriously doubt you got that silk ball gown from a trash can. Don't you follow any rules?"
"Rules are for the little ponies." Tiara turned her nose up. "Come on Silver Spoon where are you? Don't leave me alone with them!"
"Yes. How horrible." Apple Bloom snarked as she trotted out the door dressed as, um...
"Okay, I give up." Paul said. "What are you?"
"Johnny Appleseed!"
"Of course. And Sweetie Belle?"
"Right here!" The unicorn emerged from her sister's shop covered head to tail in an illusion spell that made her look like a solid gold statue.
"Awesome!" A girl's voice exclaimed. Everyone looked to see Paul's younger sisters Sarah and Amanda running up along with Dinky. All three were covered in identical tattered white sheets with numerous holes cut in them. They would have been indistinguishable, save for Dinky's horn protruding through one of the holes in her sheet.
"We're Charlie Brown!" They all exclaimed together.
"Cute. So where's...?"
"I'm here! I'm here!" Silver Spoon yelled as she ran to join the group. She wore a costume nearly as extravagant as Diamond Tiara's which led the latter to give a loud 'I told you so.' "What?" Silver asked. "Oh no, this is reused. It's Miss Fluttershy's gown from last year's Grand Galloping Gala. We had to resize it, but it makes a fun outfit!"
"Sweet!" Scootaloo smiled. "We're all here! Now let's get started!"
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!! OPERATION CANDY-MINE!!! YAAAAY!!!!!!!!"
XXXX
Xix-xax moved happily through the busy crowds of costumed humans and ponies, smiling to herself. Nightmare Night had always held a great appeal for the drone, who loved being able to make herself look like anything at all and still fit in. Less than an hour into the festivities and she had already altered form half a dozen times, through shapes as varied as a gryphon, a small dragon, and a thestral. Presently, she was in the form of a seapony, using her disguised-as-fins wings to 'swim' through the air.
"Xixxy is that you?" a familiar voice called out. The changeling turned to see Pinkie Pie dressed as, of course, a pie. Or more accurately, a Pi pie, the digits of pi spiraling around the outer rim of the crust to at least several hundred decimal points. With her was Rarity, in a flamboyant butterfly costume.
Returning to her usual form, Xix trotted over. "Yes, it's me. How did you know?"
"Well only a changeling could make a disguise that good and actually be able to fly in it!" Pinkie said. "And since you're the only one so far who actually spends a lot of time in Unity... Well, anyway the seapony look is cool!"
"Thanks. I always have trouble deciding what to turn into for Nightmare Night." She told them about the various other disguises she had already used.
"Will you be changing back to it?" Rarity asked.
"Maybe. It's either that or this..." Green magic flared around Xix, fading to reveal...
"Oh wow! That's a good Princess Celestia!" Pinkie cheered. "I hope nopony sees it and thinks she's really here!"
"Oh I doubt that." Xix replied. "I'm too small, for one thing. And there's no aetherial wind blowing my mane around."
"Yes dear, it's a very good disguise but I doubt anypony would be fooled."
"So you just wandering around town?" Pinkie asked.
Xix nodded. "I'm so stuffed right now I couldn't absorb another drop of love if my life depended on it, but all the happy positive emotions still smell wonderful."
"Well stick with me, when Rainbow gets here we'll give you a crash course in Nightmare Night pranks!"
Xix smiled. "Now that sounds like fun..."
XXXX
"Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!"
Twilight Sparkle smiled as she passed out treats to yet another cluster of children. She hadn't intended to participate in the activities this year, what with how close she was to finishing the magicite work, but the Bakkers had both insisted on joining in the fun and there wasn't much she could do alone at this point. Plus, Spike had threatened to go on strike if he couldn't take Rarity to the dance being held in the school gym.
So here she was, decked out in her usual Nightmare Night Star Swirl costume, chafing at the lost time outwardly while admitting inside that she really did need the rest. "Admit it Twi, deep down you're happy we forced the break on you." Spike said. Twilight looked over her shoulder to find the dragon dressed up in a custom tailored tuxedo.
"Looking sharp Spike." She grinned. "Don't you two stay out too late now."
"No worries, it's just the dance and then maybe a scary movie at the theater."
"Scary movie huh?" Twilight laughed. "What, the usual hold the terrified mare close gambit?" She turned back to the door as another group of trick or treaters came.
As the children rushed away to their next stop, Spike answered "I wish... But this is Rarity, remember? Her idea of a scary movie is people in outdated fashions having bad-mane days."
"True enough... Oh look, here come the crusaders!"
Spike chuckled at the costumes as Twilight handed out more treats. When they were alone again, the unicorn favored him with a confused look. "Was that Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara with them? When did that happen?"
"Few days ago. Starting to wonder just how long you've been cooped up in here?"
"A little... I do tend to lose track of time when I'm in the zone."
A knock turned Twilight back to the door, where she found Rarity waiting. "Are you ready Spiky?" She asked.
"You know it!" Spike said. "See you later Twilight, have fun!"
Twilight smiled as the couple walked away together, then she looked up and down the street. Seeing no more trick or treaters coming for a bit, she closed the door against the cold night air and started towards the kitchen, planning to brew tea.
A knock sounded. "Odd, no one was close..." Twilight thought. She opened the door to find Rarity.
"Is Spike ready Twilight?"
"What? You just left with him!"
"I'm afraid you must be mistaken dear. I've not seen Spike yet."
"But... But..."
"Well nevermind. I'll find him."
As Rarity trotted away, Twilight closed the door back and stood facing it, confused. "What in the world was that? A prank? But it's not Rarity's style..." Shaking her head, Twilight turned. And ran right into Spike.
"Has Rarity came yet Twilight?"
"All right what's going on here!?" Twilight demanded.
"Jeez Twilight, ease off on the caffeine." Spike replied. "I'll be upstairs." Spike started up the stairs, just after he was out of view the door was knocked on again. Then the lights went out and the door burst open. Just outside, sillouetted in the lights of other buildings, stood a Mor-tax balancing on it's tentacles.
Twilight did her best impression of a b-movie scream queen. She stumbled backwards, tripped, broke a heel even though she wasn't even wearing heels, and screamed.
The blood-sucking alien loomed inside, standing over the unicorn. "B-but... You should all have died by now! What do you want with me!?"
"Twilight Sparkle..." The creature boomed in a deep baritone voice, "I AM your father!!!!!!!!!"
Twilight's entire body twitched. "...Wot?"
The lights came back up, accompanied by laughter as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stepped into view from behind the alien. "Oh man Twi, you shoulda seen your face!" Rainbow said between laughs. "That was awesome!"
"So, wait, what... This was all just a practical joke?" Twilight snorted. "But how did you...?" She motioned to the Mor-tax.
"I guess it's time to let our new pranking secret weapon out of the bag!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "Take a bow Xixxy!"
Green fire swirled around the alien, parting to reveal Spike, followed by Rarity, followed by Xix's true form.
"You meet a good changeling and your first thought is to teach her how to prank people!?" Twilight demanded.
Rainbow shrugged. "Hey it's what I do."
"And it's fun!" Xix smiled.
"Exactly." Pinkie agreed. "Now come on ladies, there's lots of people watching those scary movies at the theater and I think it's time to see how they feel about actually meeting Jason and Freddy!"
"I call Freddy!" Xix said.
"Then I get Jason!" Rainbow said.
"And I'll be the evil me from Cupcakes!" Pinkie said.
Everypony stared at her. "The evil what from what?"
"Erm, nevermind..."
XXXX
"I have to admit Scootaloo, I think you had the right idea." Paul said. "Even with only one piece from each house, my bag is almost too full to carry."
"Told you so." Scootaloo nodded. She wiped sweat from her brow. "Of course, Unity's a lot bigger than Ponyville. We're not even half-way done yet!"
"I am done." Diamond Tiara said. "My bag is far too heavy to continue! Why, just look at poor Jeeves!" She motioned to a servant who was following the Crusaders with her bags. The poor stallion was barely on his feet with all the weight piled into his saddlebags. "Come on Jeeves, we're going home!"
"Home? Don't you mean back to Fluttershy's?" Silver Spoon asked.
"No, I mean home." Tiara insisted. "Nothing's gonna happen! Daddy will be there you know, and all of the servants. And it's not me they're after anyways!" She trotted off towards the Rich mansion.
"But what if...?" Silver sighed.
Sarah put an arm around the filly's back. "She'll be okay."
"Yeah." Scootaloo said. "And if we keep going we'll get around to her place in half an hour or so anyway. You can check in on her while we're there."
"Clever Scoots." Paul said. "Now we have to keep going."
"Two birds one stone." the pegasus replied.
"But these bags have gotten so heavy!" Sweetie Belle complained.
Dinky said "Momma an' me's place is three houses down. She won't mind if we stash what we have so far there!"
"Perfect timing! Let's go!"
xx
Diamond Tiara grumbled to herself as she trotted towards home. Why was everything going so wrong for her lately? Silver Spoon leaves, then comes back not herself. Daddy makes her live in a filthy-animal filled hole because of Silver Spoon. She has to hang out with the loser blank-flanks and humans. It was just too much. But she was done. She was going home tonight to sleep in her own bed and that was final.
And who knew? Maybe, if she had Silver Spoon over for a slumber party, just the two of them, maybe if she were exposed to genuine oppullance again, the confused filly would remember who she really was. Then Diamond would have her friend back, the Crusader-losers would have their enemy back, and all would be right with the world. She just had to talk to Daddy and convince him that-
Diamond stopped mid-stride as she turned the corner and looked up at her home. The Rich mansion was dark. No lights burned anywhere, and the front doors were open. Had Daddy gone out to one of the parties? But no, he loved handing out candy and trying to guess who was under each costume. And aside from that, he wouldn't have left the place looking like it was abandoned. Something was wrong.
"Daddy!?!?" Diamond called out as she rushed into the house. Galloping full speed, fighting panic, she checked the foyer, the great hall, the kitchen and pantry and downstairs bath. Nothing. Diamond had just reached the stairs when she felt a sharp pain that coursed through her body causing her legs to buckle out from under her. Afflicted by a paralysis spell of some kind, she was just able to turn her eyes enough to see a unicorn standing in the shadows. "Who are you!?"
"I am a servant of our God-King Blueblood." The unicorn answered. We were sent to recover property this town has stolen from us; In lieu of Silver Spoon however, you will make a most excellent bargaining chip."
Several other ponies stepped into view from out of the shadows, and they all began to laugh...
xx
After leaving the bulk of their haul thus far in the care of Derpy Hooves, the Crusaders continued on their way. Amanda had expressed concern that Derpy might eat the candy, but Dinky quickly put this to rest. "Don't worry. As long as nopony gave you muffins Momma won't touch any of it."
The group passed by the town theater, Scootaloo taking note of Rainbow Dash outside the entrance, and trick or treated their way up the rest of one street and onto the next. This new street had fewer, larger houses on it, so they made quicker progress back towards the center of town. "The only bad part of this," Scootaloo said as they left the third house, "Is that back home the richy places like this would have had better quality candy to hand out."
"Yeah. Remember those fancy-smancy Ghir-neigh-delli drops Capitol Gains had last year?" Apple Bloom agreed.
Sweetie Belle jumped up and down. "Oh I do! I had a good aftertaste for a week!"
"Yeah, those were pretty sweet."
"Really? Candy? They were 'sweet?'" Paul asked looking down to the pegasus.
Realizing what she had said, Scootaloo sputtered "Wait what? No, I didn't actually say, that is, um..." She face-hooved. "Aw crud I did didn't I?"
"Eeyup."
"It's okay, we all do it sometimes." Apple Bloom said. "Anyways, here's the Rich place. I guess we really should check to be sure Diamond Tiara got here okay."
"Thanks." Silver Spoon smiled. "But why's it so dark?"
"Ponies maybe go sleep time already?" Flixbix suggested.
"Tiara go to bed this early? No way." Silver answered. "Besides-" She stopped short as a large shape moved out of the shadows and stumbled towards them.
"Is that...?"
"Jeeves!" Silver exclaimed.
The group rushed to the pony servant's side, seeing as they got closer that he had been attacked and roughly beaten. "What happened?" Micheal asked as he tried to help the pony stay steady on his feet.
"Blueblood's servants..." Jeeves breathed out, " They knocked me out, foalnapped Miss Tiara... I came to in time to see them running off to the west... Too disoriented to follow..."
"What about the others?"
"Mister Rich gave most of the staff the night off. I don't know where he is."
"What'r we gonna do!?" Silver Spoon exclaimed.
"Easy Silver. I'm sure she'll be okay." Sarah said.
"Yes yes, no profits in hurting pony! Not when take one pony to get another!" Unsurprisingly, this attempted reassuance only made Silver Spoon even more upset.
"We need the police though." Paul said. "You all stay here, I'll find a guard."
As Paul rushed away accompanied by the servant, Apple Bloom said "He's right about gettin' the law. But It might not be enough. After all, every moment we wait is another moment that the bad ponies that took Diamond Tiara have to get further ahead."
"Good point, but what can we do about it?" Micheal asked.
"You thinkin' what I think you're thinkin'?" Scootaloo asked.
"Eeyup..."
To Micheal's surprise, the three original crusaders, Flixbix, both of Paul's younger sisters, and (to Everyone's surprise, Silver Spoon), exclaimed "Cutie Mark Crusaders! Hostage Rescue Team! Yaaay!!!!!!!!!!" and bolted off together in the direction Jeeves had indicated.
Micheal and Dinky stood side by side. They looked at each other, towards their friends, and back to each other. "I see this ending in fire." The boy said.
"You have no idea." Dinky agreed.
With a shrug, they ran to catch up with the others...
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Epic hostage rescue montage!
Okay now seriously, fuck Blueblood. They need to go in and smash that shindig. Xix should be able to get in and out with Diamond, then they show Blueblood why Twilight gets wings in canon, and why he doesn't.
First of all Pinky please stop looking into other realities, they are not always good. Second Diamond Tiara what the heck are you thinking! I hope she finally gets some reality smacked into her. Yup the rescue party is going to just make things worse because we humans do not take kidnappers politely.
Blueblood is so going to be fucked in the arse.
Fifteen minutes later the police team arrives to rescue DT, only to see this over at Blueblood's base...
cbc.ca/daybreaksouth/images/OK%20mtn%20fire.jpg
As they gasp in alarm, all the kids stagger out of the woods, one of them saying, "Jeeze Scoots, did ya have to use so much gasoline?"
opulence
I cannot imagine a way this could go wrong.
God dammit Blueblood stop being a crazy wank!
Congratulations Blueblood you've gathered all the fuel necessary for you and your follower's funeral pyre and Unity will light that match whether its from the Crusaders or a true military force. Not to mention it should have at least some of the human only faction calm down on Unity...
6173878 Plan B: Twice as much gunpowder as Plan A. A classic.
Large bet on Tiara getting converted by the cult. She's a weak willed little fool and wouldn't hold up under a proper breaking. Also, then we get "Cutie Mark Crusaders Deprogramers!" and that's a 6.4 on the Rainbow (Adjusted) Awesome Meter. They haven't gotten up that high since the last time they tried to build a party cannon.
One of the Humans seriously just needs to go over and shoot Blueblood they don't even need to kill him just shoot him in the leg in front of his little cult so they can see there so called god bleeding and crying in pain like the little bitch that he is.
i bet Blueblood used mind magic on the lot of em can any one say de-horning
You know that Bluueblood is now delusional enough to start sacrificing his followers, and DT is next on the chopping block.
Blueblood should be terrified, the Cutiemark Crusaders have just targeted him and his folowers for one of their missions.
If all the Mor-tax are dead, why doesn't the town retrieve their technology?
6174659 Out of respect? Yeah, don't get me wrong, they were A-holes, but they were still sentient beings so it stands to reason to respect them and their belongings nonetheless.
Seems to me there are some cultists in dire need of killing.
6174659 One They probably would want to wait a bit longer in case theirs an outlier amongst their population that survived a bit longer. Two they would still have to figure out who to send to retrieve the tech. Three they could feel that the trouble of learning the tech outweighs any gains to be had currently. Four they'd probably need a large number of vehicles and gas to transport it all, something which Unity doesn't have a unlimited supply of.
6175533
This is exactly why they're waiting a bit longer. It will come up soon enough though.
I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH NOPE FOR THIS.
6174659
Because in real life, reverse engineering or even adapting technology from a different culture, documented in a different language, and based on unknown principles is the sort of thing that happens over years and years, if at all.
6132591
"Well... corn, and..."
"dogs?"
At minimum.
Wow, I caught up with this in one day! Faved and following!
6176709 here let me give you mine.
*hands over 200 pounds of 'nope'*
6174824
6175533
6176709
Respect for the dead, fear of the living, and the difficulty of reverse engineering aside, there's still a stockpile of soon to be (if not already) unguarded advanced technology. The main risk of the of not retrieving the technology is another power getting to it first, especially now that Blueblood's cult has shown a willingness to attack Unity directly. While I doubt that any (of the currently known) other communities would have as firm a grasp of the tech as Unity would, misusing technology can be even more dangerous. At the least there should be some throwaway line about periodically sending a pegasus guard or a drone to keep an eye on things.
Also magic voids many difficulties in the situation. Twilight could easily have an understanding of the Mor-tax written language thanks to her spell, and pony power would keep transportation cost down with pulled carts or telekinesis or straight up teleportation. Twilight could move everything on her own depending on how strong her magic is in this fic.
6177733
You're pretty close here. Stay tuned...
6177200 i literally lost most of the night engrossed in this story. So same.
RAINBOW SIX SIEGE! If you don't get what I said, then you obviously weren't going for this. Or you have no idea what this is at all. MEH.
Hostages now Bluey? HA!
You gon get yo ass kicked!
nice job!
Waiting for the day when blueblood starts singing:
ERROR.
You win my sides.
And the Internet.
And life in general.
And a cookie.
It's all fun and games until someone gets kidnaped by mad cultists.
6173838 That bloody poofter has already experienced that and liked it.
THAT'S IT! Astartes, we're going hunting!
Oh, God! This should SO BE IN AN EPISODE!!
Holy crap. It's like the Internet came to life and rode to the rescue...
And tree sap. Don't forget the tree sap.
And somehow, it'll be Equestrian tree sap.
Why? Why are the CMC so brain dead? ‘Psycho cultists beat up a old man and kidnapped a filly? Let’s go rescue her without telling any adults whatsoever! I’m sure they wouldn’t have any problem with us helping!’
8854866
It’s the cmc what do you think will happen
8278811
If they're lucky, it will be all over the cultists instead of the CMC...
And it'll be on fire.
I don’t get it...